《Cthulhu Gonfalon》 Chapter 1 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Sui Xiong groaned and opened his eyes. His head was killing him! ¡°I am only hungover. Why on Earth does my head ache so much?¡± he groaned, trying to turn over and sit up. Then, he saw that the blue sky and the emerald green water merged into one color; the vast sea extended into the distance with no end in sight. In the sky above him, white seabirds were flying overhead; the sea breeze had a slightly salty taste and blew gently, making the water ripple. What beautiful scenery. However¡­why would he be lying by the sea? Sui Xiong began to recall what had happened. Last night, he was playing games online with his friends, and he¡¯d even made it through the very difficult dungeon. Soon the special item he¡¯d been hoping for finally appeared, and everyone was fighting for it. But in the end, Sui Xiong lost the game, at the point when everyone was trying to get the highest score. He had been very annoyed by his, and had to refrain from throwing his mouse. Then, he no longer wanted to play the game, so he logged out, turned off the computer, went straight downstairs, and ordered some food and a bottle of beer. Then what happened? Then¡­he did not remember, which seemed quite normal. Who can remember what happens after getting drunk? But he lived in a inland city, and there wasn¡¯t even a pool nearby, let alone an ocean. He¡¯d only gotten drunk last night. Why was he near the sea, and why was there no land around? But wait! There was no land around¡­so what was he sitting on then? On the sea? Sui Xiong suddenly realized this, but somehow he didn¡¯t sink like he would¡¯ve if he were a character in a funny cartoon. Instead, he was still floating on the sea, and that helped him calm down a bit. So, it seemed that he didn¡¯t need to worry about drowning to death, but he also knew he couldn¡¯t swim. Then, he suddenly felt that there was something wrong. Where were his legs! Where was his body! It was common sense that he could still see his legs and body if he lowered his head, but Sui Xiong could see nothing whatsoever. Well, technically speaking, he could see something vague, a transparent contour, kind of similar to a human figure. Underneath the transparent contour was the clear sea water, and in the water, he could see fish and shrimp milling about. But, what did this have to do with him? Where had his legs and body gone? Was the transparent contour all he had left? Sui Xiong lifted his hand to his face. Unsurprisingly, he found that his hands had become part of this transparent contour too. Maybe, maybe, maybe¡­his whole body had become a transparent contour. Or maybe, the transparent contour was not his body at all but¡­his soul? ¡°Okay, at least two things are clear: first, I¡¯m on the sea; second, my body is gone, which means I¡¯m probably a soul.¡± He then realized that his awful headache from before was totally gone now, which also seemed normal. How could he have a headache without a body? However, what was strange was that he could still see with his eyes, listen with his ears, smell the seawater with his nose, and taste the seawater when he put his tongue to it. Then he thought that with his body gone, he no longer needed to worry about drowning to death. Yet his soul could still feel things, so there was no need to worry that he would become deaf or blind¡ªthus, it seemed that things weren¡¯t so bad after all¡­ ¡°Sure enough, bad news always comes with good news. Just like they say in the movies: ¡®What do you want first, the good news or the bad news?¡¯¡± Sui Xiong told himself. Despite undergoing such a big change in environment, he was incredibly calm, which was unexpected. He never thought he could contemplate such a strange situation so calmly, rather than freaking out under such circumstances. ¡°Maybe since I¡¯ve lost my body, I¡¯ve also stopped feeling things like pain and adrenaline, which can influence my thinking?¡± he said to himself, while trying to move around a bit. Then he stood up, looked around at the sea, and felt that his perspective had indeed changed. He lay back down, and again felt the height of his perspective change. ¡°Well, I am sure that a soul has a certain shape. It is neither a gas nor a ball, as I¡¯ve read in fairy tales¡­and I will definitely get the Nobel prize for discovering this,¡± he murmured. He tried to take a couple steps to see if his body, or maybe his soul, could actually move or not. What a disaster it would be if he couldn¡¯t. Luckily, he could still move, even walk, run, or jump. In fact, his top speed was even faster than when he was alive! At least he didn¡¯t need to worry about being imprisoned in this endless sea and becoming a wandering ghost or an Earthbound spirit for eternity. ¡°How merciful that I will not be imprisoned here!¡± Sui Xiong exclaimed. Then he stopped moving and began to think about what to do next. As for the question of why on Earth things had turned out like this, he¡¯d already given up on finding the answer. This was all beyond his imagination, and a common clerk like him could never figure it out. Spending time thinking this over would be as useless as those ancient scholars who spent their whole life trying to link the stars in the sky with the fortunes and misfortunes of the emperor. Studying the Confucian classics and ancient books until their hair turned white, they still stood by their duty, which was honorable but meaningless. Sui Xiong first considered going ashore. Since he was a human being, or more precisely, the soul of a human being, that meant he was terrestrial, not aquatic. So his first move was to go ashore in order to find people and figure out where on Earth he was. In fact, he wasn¡¯t sure if he was still on Earth or back at the turn of the century. Maybe he¡¯d been transported back in time, but he had no idea where he had been transported to. If it was the ancient era, it wouldn¡¯t be that bad, because a soul could neither die nor become ill. Maybe if he was patient enough to find a way, he could return to the contemporary world where he belonged; but if he if he¡¯d been transported to some bizarre planet or foreign world, it would be a disaster, and he could never get back. ¡°No, actually, it¡¯s not important where I¡¯ve been transported to,¡± he told himself. For a man who was now most likely a soul, things like when and where or what kind of world he was in had become unimportant. For now, the most important thing was how to survive! In fairy tales, souls are often described as something neither hard nor strong. In oriental fairy tales, a fragile soul can be destroyed by a beam of sunlight or a gust of wind. Although he was not afraid of the sunlight or the sea breeze now, Sui Xiong knew he¡¯d be in great danger if he left his soul unguarded. In particular, as he realized this, he became aware of how cold he felt. The cold wasn¡¯t unbearable but rather a damp cold, similar to the sticky, gloomy cold of rainy days in winter, a feeling that filled every fiber of a man with disgust. ¡°So, what should I do?¡± Sui Xiong contemplated. The simplest thing to do was to find a shell for his soul, or in other words, a human body. He looked around, but he failed to find anything suitable. Actually, taking the form of a human body wasn¡¯t a smart idea, seeing as Sui Xiong grew up in an inland city and was unable to swim. Even if he found a human body, he¡¯d most likely drown in this endless sea. If a human body wouldn¡¯t work, he should at least find shelter. He took a long look around him, left and right, then up and down. He cast his eyes around but didn¡¯t manage to find anything worth hiding in, so he plunged into the water to see what was below. As he dived down, suddenly an idea crossed his mind: he had a headache when he woke up, which meant at that time his body was still present. But after he woke up, and because he could not swim, his body must have sunk into the sea, leaving his soul floating. Did this mean he could get his body back if he went to the bottom? This thought encouraged him as he headed to the depths of the sea. However, after just a few seconds, he became disheartened; he couldn¡¯t swim any deeper than 2 meters below the surface. Fortunately, now that he was a soul, he didn¡¯t need to breathe, so he¡¯d be fine underwater all the time. Alas, even though his body was in the sea, it would be impossible to find it¡­ It was still a mystery whether his body was even in the water, so there was no need to fret. The most important thing was figuring out how to be safe. It may have been an illusion, but staying in the water felt much safer to Sui Xiong. He felt a surprising sense of security underwater, like a shirtless man who could wear a clothes at last, which were neither thick nor warm, but at least he didn¡¯t need to fight against the cold by burning his subcutaneous fat. ¡°There are so many fairy tales about mountain trolls and water spirits. Perhaps it¡¯s actually safer to stay in the water?¡± Sui Xiong murmured. From then on, he decided to live in the water and never surfaced, apart from looking for land. ¡°Among the four basic necessities of life, which are food, clothing, housing and transportation, ¡®clothing¡¯ is fine. As for transportation, the #11 bus will suffice, then from there it¡¯s food and housing,¡± Sui Xiong muttered, while watching the aquatic animals around him. In the distance, he saw some fish, while close to him, there were some white, semi-transparent jellyfish with thin tentacles. ¡°I remember that most jellyfish are edible, although there are nematocysts on their tentacles. I guess those won¡¯t harm a soul,¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°but it seems that a soul should not be able to eat food¡­¡± However, he did feel the need to eat something. This compulsion to ¡°eat¡± gradually began to get intense, so he quickly became very hungry. Without thinking, he stretched out his hand to catch the jellyfish that was closest to him. He easily caught it with his transparent contour of a hand. More accurately, his hand reached inside of the jellyfish and seized something. Got ya! He pulled back his hand, and there was the jellyfish (in other words, something he could eat), so he put it into his mouth. He examined it carefully and found that it was only a fleck of light, not the transparent contour of a jellyfish that he¡¯d thought it was. He observed it for a long time and was sure that it was only a tiny dot of light. He noticed that the jellyfish was still intact, without a tentacle missing, and the thing he¡¯d caught was in fact something intangible. Was it¡­the soul of the jellyfish? His hunger intensified, so he ate whatever he had caught. As he watched the jellyfish float away in the water, he realized that it had died. ¡°Indeed, I have eaten the jellyfish¡¯s soul.¡± He thought for a moment, and decided to catch some more jellyfish. After a while, Sui Xiong was still not full yet, despite the dead jellyfish floating in front of him. ¡°Now, I can take pride in myself and say that I¡¯m no longer an ordinary human being who would be at the bottom of the food chain if he lost his weapon. Instead, I am a dangerous predator, or in other words, a water spirit in the water.¡± Abandoning the dead jellyfish, Sui Xiong laughed aloud three times and made his way towards some fish in the distance. He was still hungry. Chapter 2 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio As a predator, what would dumbfound him the most? Sui Xiong believed that the answer to this question was that he could have defeated anyone in the world, but his legs were too short to catch up with his prey, which was exactly the problem he was now facing. He was trying his best to run in the water, hoping to catch up with the big fish in front of him, but no matter how hard he tried, the distance between him and the fish kept increasing, which soon made him desperate. Therefore, he had no choice but to give up. He stopped running with a sigh. Not too long before, while hunting for food, he¡¯d successfully caught and eaten the souls of over ten small fish, but hadn¡¯t managed to catch a single big fish. He couldn¡¯t name these fish, but it was clear that the bigger they were, the more agile they became. As for the small, dumb ones, they didn¡¯t even notice when he was right next to them, so he was able to catch them without much effort, extracting and then eating their soul. But the big ones were a different story; they could instantly sense his existence, as well as how dangerous he was, so every time he tried to approach one, it would quickly swim away, leaving him far behind. Of course, he tried to approach his target quietly, but it was no use. It seemed he was a firefly in the night, too obvious to hide himself sufficiently. He also tried to chase his prey, but he was too slow. ¡°It¡¯s such a waste of time!¡± he said to himself when he failed to catch his prey again. ¡°This doesn¡¯t work, it doesn¡¯t work at all!¡± Therefore, he had no choice but to redouble his efforts on the small, dumb fish. Although the soul of a single small fish wasn¡¯t much, eating enough of them would probably be fine¡­ He wasn¡¯t proud of being the big guy bullying the small guy, but he would need to if he was going to survive. In nature, didn¡¯t every creature, no matter what kind of carnivore it was, always attack the old, fragile, sick or disabled every time? Sui Xiong wanted to reassure himself with this idea, but it brought him little consolation. Carnivores in nature probably weren¡¯t as intelligent or sentimental as he was. They didn¡¯t have the same combat effectiveness (CE) to defeat everything else in their path; their life was a simple cycle of hunting and resting, and they had no time to feel sorry when they saw flowers falling from the trees in spring or the trees withering in autumn. Standing among the dead fish, which were floating around him in disarray, Sui Xiong let out a melancholy sigh. ¡°The balance of the ecosystem will be destroyed if I always hunt the small fish!¡± A few hours later, he realized he was wrong when he saw a school of fish so big that he couldn¡¯t see its end. Though he was a small body-type predator, when compared to the giant school, he could never destroy the balance of the whole ecosystem despite how many fish he ate. In the distance, there was a giant whale with an unicorn horn roaring. The amount of food it ate for a meal would be enough to last him at least half a year. If it had not destroyed the ecosystem yet, he certainly would not. Sui Xiong suddenly felt he was in awful danger, as if he¡¯d been stung by a thorn, or more specifically, as if the point of a needle was touching his eyeball, and one small move would render him blind. Where was this danger coming from? Sui Xiong looked around, trying to find the answer, until he saw that the danger was right in front of him. Despite all the delicious fish right under the whale¡¯s eyes, it somehow ignored this potential feast, pushed them aside with its huge body, and swam straight toward him. ¡°Sh*t!¡± he cursed, turning around and immediately fleeing. Just as the saying goes ¡°one could never escape the retribution for his misdeeds¡±. Earlier, he was the predator; now he¡¯d become the prey. Looking at the giant whale, he knew it was impossible for him to fight. There was only one option, and that was to run. However, he soon stopped running. With his short legs, how could he run away from this incredibly fast whale? Of course not! It was absolutely impossible! Then what should he do? Facing this life and death situation, Sui Xiong thought very hard. Question: if you were alone in the wilderness and you had no vehicles or weapons, and a ferocious beast was running toward you and planning to make you its dinner, what would you do? I was waiting for your answer online, kind of hurry, be quick. Well, this was bullsh*t anyways, because he obviously couldn¡¯t connect to the internet, so no matter how long he waited, he¡¯d never get the answer to that question. The whale, however, was the only thing he could possibly wait for, and it wouldn¡¯t take long for it to catch up. All sorts of practical and impractical ideas crossed his mind. Sui Xiong looked around as if he were crazy, trying to find a way to survive. But unfortunately, his mind drew a blank. If only he could go deeper, then he could try to hide in the crack of a stone at the bottom of the sea, where he would be safe. No matter how strong it was, the whale could never turn the whole seafloor upside down. But Sui Xiong could still only dive to two meters and no further. Or if he could fly high into the sky, then he could escape the onrushing whale. He could even make a funny face at it, laughing at its incompetence. But he couldn¡¯t fly either. In fact, earlier he had tried to fly but could only jump and temporarily float above the sea. Even if his soul was weightless, he could only reach a maximum height of two meters. If he were on Earth, a standing vertical jump of two meters would definitely set the world record. No one could defeat him in Olympic competitions, and he would become a legend. However, in his current predicament, the two meter height of his jump basically meant nothing. Frankly speaking, it wasn¡¯t even worth mentioning, because when the whale opened its mouth, the gap between its upper and lower jaws would be over five meters. ¡°Is this the end? If I am devoured by the whale, will I be transported back to my home?¡± As the whale got closer and closer, Sui Xiong became too nervous to stop talking nonsense. Right at this moment, he noticed a big jellyfish swimming slowly on the sea. Compared to the jellyfish he¡¯d eaten earlier, there was nothing special about this one except its massive size. But somehow, like a lightning bolt flashing across his mind, making things clear and bright. He immediately knew what to do. Maybe¡­it would work if¡­ Instantly, Sui Xiong tried as much as he could to shrink himself into a ball, running into the jellyfish. Everything around him began shaking, and after a short while, the shaking stopped, and everything became quiet again. The blue sky, the emerald green seawater, the small portion of food; it all seemed the same. He didn¡¯t have time to dwell on what had just happened, so he ate the soul of the jellyfish. Guided by the jellyfish¡¯s memory, he struggled to swim. He swam very ungracefully. If there was a clown competition in the jellyfish¡¯s world, he would have won a gold medal for the least graceful swimmer. After a while, not far from him, the water began to rumble. A huge body was circling around the water, as if looking for something. It seemed unable to find what it wanted, so it went back into the water. He¡¯d guessed right! The whale could not find him when he possessed the body of the jellyfish and was no longer a bodiless soul. When the whale went underwater and disappeared, Sui Xiong felt relieved, but not completely. He struggled to move his tentacles, heading in the opposite direction of the whale. He didn¡¯t swim too fast, but he didn¡¯t dare to stop either, even for a moment. He kept swimming without knowing how much time had passed. Seeing the sky gradually darken, he finally felt a bit reassured. It was dark, the seabirds had gone back to their nests, and the fish had gone to sleep too. Did this mean he was safe now? He wasn¡¯t sure; he¡¯d never studied marine biology before, so maybe this was just baseless conjecture. However, for him, the night was a good time, especially since in every fairy tale, ghosts liked the night. Floating on the sea, he rested for a while. Then he thought about leaving the jellyfish¡¯s body since it was too fragile to swim quickly. If he was going to possess something, that something should at least be a big fish. But he soon discovered that there was a problem, a very big problem¡ªhe could not leave the jellyfish¡¯s body! Actually, he couldn¡¯t leave it completely. Its thin and fragile body, which before seemed able to be broken to pieces by a single wave, now became extremely firm. No matter how hard he tried to pull himself out of it, he was still hopelessly stuck inside the jellyfish¡¯s body. Rather, he would be pulled back into it whenever he stopped trying to escape, and he would become even more jellyfish-like. He tried for a long time, but it was futile. Still, he kept trying until the moon reached the middle of the sky. ¡°I¡¯m doomed. I¡¯ve become a jellyfish,¡± he sighed while looking at the sky, accepting his cruel new reality. Before being transported here, he had read a story about Eight Fairies. Among these fairies, there was one called Li Tieguai. Li once possessed a beggar¡¯s body, and had remained a limp beggar ever since. While reading, he had laughed at Li for his stupidity. He thought that if he had the chance to possess something, if not the emperor, he would at least chose a big stone in Mt. Huaguo. However, now it turned out that he had possessed a jellyfish, thus becoming a creature stuck near the bottom of the food chain. This totally sucked! After feeling sorry for himself for awhile, Sui Xiong soon perked up again, because he was getting hungry. Sighing and moaning wasn¡¯t going to help him; now the most important thing to do was to find food. ¡°What does a jellyfish eat?¡± he asked himself. When he had absolutely no idea what the answer might be, he decided to forage. What does a jellyfish eat? I¡¯ve learned nothing about this! Could it be fish? Looking at his fragile body and thin tentacles, he shook his head. What fish!? He himself was the one to be eaten by fish. Plankton then? Looking around anxiously, he couldn¡¯t find a single plankton to feed on. As his hunger grew and grew, so did his anxiety. What if he couldn¡¯t find any food? He would starve to death. If that happened, would he be able to completely leave the jellyfish¡¯s body? Maybe¡­he was just daydreaming¡­ Sui Xiong dwelt on this and became very annoyed. Right at that moment, he suddenly felt startled, as if something was staring at him. Although it wasn¡¯t as intense as when he was targeted by the whale before, he still felt quite uncomfortable. It was like a tiny stone had slipped into his shoes and hurt his feet every time he took a step. Looking down, he saw a flock of fish tearing up and eating every jellyfish on the sea one by one, like a gust of autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves. These fish were not big¡ªthe biggest one was no bigger than a palm¡ªbut they were quite fiercely. Swimming into a patch of moonlight, they opened their mouth. Their white teeth reflected the moonlight, which left Sui Xiong feeling cold and concerned. Clearly, they were the jellyfish¡¯s natural enemy. Sui Xiong was shocked, but he soon calmed himself down. It was impossible for him to defeat a giant whale, but did it mean he would also be defeated by a flock of small fish? Who knew who would end up being eaten! Chapter 3 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio The moonlight was pouring down onto the surface of the sea, with a breeze blowing across the water, making countless silver ripples. Maybe it was just an illusion, but in this world the moon seemed to look much bigger and so much brighter than on Earth. Even if it was nighttime, Sui Xiong could clearly see the teeth of the fish approaching him from below. They were swimming and eating very fast. Before long, most of the jellyfish in the sea had been torn apart and eaten up. Now, they were gradually getting closer and closer to Sui Xiong. He didn¡¯t run away. Instead, he calmly floated on the sea and prepared to fight. In no time, the three fish that were closest to him had come near enough for him to initiate his attack. As the jellyfish¡¯s natural predator, the small fish were overwhelmingly superior to the jellyfish. But inside this jellyfish hid the soul of a human being. Most importantly, this jellyfish was very different from the weak ones who were basically defenseless when faced with their natural enemy. Looking at these small fish as they opened their frightening white teeth, anxious to tear apart their prey, Sui Xiong laughed. His soul reached out its hand, seized two of them, easily pulled out their souls, and put them in his mouth. Before long, the third one was eaten too. Nonetheless, a small price was paid. Sui Xiong (or, actually, the jellyfish he had possessed) had suffered a little bite, which was still big enough to alarm him. Although he was much stronger than the small fish and could kill two of them at once, his soul only had two hands, while there were hundreds of fish. Three of them could simply make him focus on one fish, losing sight of the others and becoming susceptible to their attacks. What if hundreds of them attacked him all together? Sui Xiong suddenly felt very frightened. When he calmed down and observed his surroundings, he found that he¡¯d already been surrounded. ¡°Sh*t! Hundreds of you versus me. Even if you win, you will never be considered a hero! If you consider yourselves strong, why not only one of you come up and fight me!¡± he shouted. Clearly, these small fish were no heroes, or they couldn¡¯t hear his curse. Even if they did hear, they had no idea what his words meant. Now, they were coming at him from all directions. Sui Xiong was too shocked to think about eating. He began to punch aimlessly in every direction, trying to kill each and every one of them. For a while, the light reflected off the scales and sharp teeth of the fish, creating a dazzling spectacle in the sea. All the while, the curses of this new water spirit never stopped. It took a long time until the sea finally settled back to its natural calm. Surrounded by the floating fish bodies and looking at his disfigured jellyfish¡¯s body, Sui Xiong wanted to cry. But no tears came to his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s only been one day, and I¡¯ve almost been dismembered. What a dangerous world!¡± he sighed. Soon he began to think about what to do next. Clearly, the jellyfish¡¯s body was too fragile. There was a common joke on the internet, which said that if the CE of an otaku was 0.5, then the CE of a jellyfish would probably be less than 0.1. The water spirit version of Sui Xiong had an extremely high CE, and so far he¡¯d killed his enemies with only one move (except for that whale). But he only had two hands, so it was impossible for him to counterattack when surrounded by enemies coming from all directions. Even if Sui Xiong had eaten that flock of fish all at once, he would still become too full. The fish had already put him in a very ugly situation; what would happen if a more powerful enemy appeared? If possible, he needed to exchange his useless jellyfish body for a stronger one. But now he couldn¡¯t leave this body, so he had to formulate a new plan. ¡°No matter what, I need to repair this body,¡± Sui Xiong muttered, holding up the shredded remnants of a tentacle. ¡°I know that the weaker a creature is, the stronger its ability to self-heal¡ªbut only with abundant energy.¡± But where could he find the nutrients to give him energy? Unless memory betrayed him, jellyfish ate plankton. But what if there wasn¡¯t any plankton? Did it mean he could do nothing but sit there and wait to die? Maybe he¡¯d died during the battle. This useless jellyfish¡¯s body may have already been injured too severely to recover. Once this body died, could it be possible that his soul would die too? Maybe¡­it could happen¡­ No, I absolutely will not allow it! I am a man! If a man wanted to die, he would not die in such a funny way! Helplessly, Sui Xiong turned to look at the dead fish. He¡¯d eaten their souls, but their bodies were still intact. Theoretically speaking, the fish meat was nutritious, which could provide sustenance for the jellyfish¡¯s body. But the question was how to eat? Question: how does a jellyfish eat? I¡¯m waiting online, please hurry. But there was no internet¡­ Sui Xiong thought for a while, then tried to poke the closest dead fish with one of his tentacles. A jellyfish¡¯s tentacles were also its weapon, and logically speaking, a creature¡¯s weapon was often connected to the organ that consumed food¡ªi.e. the teeth and mouth. However, he soon found out that the tentacles were useless for harming the fish. No matter how hard Sui Xiong tried, the tentacles couldn¡¯t penetrate the hard fish scales. ¡°There is a pile of food right in front of you, but you can¡¯t even take a bite. How pathetic!¡± Sui Xiong lamented. But he didn¡¯t give up. Using his tentacles to poke almost every part of the fish, he probed for a place that had no scales. Finally, he succeeded. His tentacle found the fish¡¯s mouth. The fish¡¯s whole body was covered with scales, but its inside wasn¡¯t. As long as he put one of his tentacles into its body through the mouth, then he could penetrate it from the inside out. So, what should he do next? Sui Xiong started to think again. Secreting the digestive juice? He tried to secrete the digestive juice several times, but he failed. Perhaps it was because this particular jellyfish naturally lacked this ability, or perhaps because of his own limited intelligence. Maybe he should try simply eating the fish instead? Again, he tried many times, but alas, the result was the same. Maybe it was because there were no teeth on the tentacles, or still his limited intelligence. This was exactly the situation in which a mouse was trying to pull a turtle, but had no idea where to start. Facing this situation, Sui Xiong became infuriated. ¡°I am going to find a way to eat this fish, no matter how hard it is! It¡¯s already dead, yet I still can¡¯t eat it? Could a piece of meat on a cutting board fly away?!¡± He contemplated this problem for a long time, and finally a solution presented itself. Suppose there was a cup of milk tea on the table, and the lid was fixed. How would you drink the tea? Well, naturally, a straw would do. Only¡­when he realized that he¡¯d have to suck food from the fish¡¯s stomach with a straw, he was disgusted. This was way too much. What happened next wasn¡¯t worth mentioning. Eventually, the dead fish around him turned into a indistinguishable pile of entrails, bones, and scales. Sui Xiong sank his tentacles as deep as he could inside the fish, while comforting himself with the thought that really he was just eating some sushi. Maybe the entrails were very nutritious, but as long as he was aware of eating something the fish had already digested, he felt sick. Actually, it was quite strange. The fish meat should have been very solid, so then why was it instantly dissolving into a fluid as soon as he sucked it up and digested it? Could a jellyfish do that? Would it be possible that any jellyfish in this world had this capability? Looking at the carnage around him, Sui Xiong reflected for a while and concluded that the reason for this bizarre phenomenon came down to the uniqueness of this world. Now that he¡¯d eaten and had some energy to sustain him, his next move was to make the best use of it. So, how? Sui Xiong began to think hard about this. First, he needed to improve his speed and mobility, because a jellyfish swam too slowly! But how could he achieve this goal? By adding a pair of fins? Even if he could, adding fins wasn¡¯t the best solution. Maybe by adding some tentacles then? Or flattening the tentacles until they became just like a sail? None of these seemed like good options¡­ So he decided to equip the jellyfish with two propellers. Back on Earth, propellers were quite a common object, and their main operating principle wasn¡¯t too complex. Simply put, a propeller was a set of slanted blades that could spin in the water. By making the blades swirl rapidly, the water would quickly flow in one direction, thereby creating thrust in the opposite direction. This operating principle had been widely used in day to day life, in everything from boat engines to electric fans. At least this was how Sui Xiong remembered. ¡°I need a firm axis, three hard blades, and a very solid bearing,¡± Sui Xiong muttered, converting the nutrients stored in the jellyfish¡¯s body into muscles. By repeatedly layering the muscles, one over the other, he could eventually get what he wanted. He¡¯d spent most of the night figuring out what to do, but once he found the right strategy, it only took a moment to make himself two propellers. The body of this creature was indeed amazing: once he had a clear plan to execute, the working process became extremely interesting. All that was required of him was two simple things: designing and waiting. Once he¡¯d finished, it wasn¡¯t difficult to make the propeller spin. All he had to do was simply rotate the gear. For a living creature, it may have been very painful to turn its own flesh and blood into gears that kept rotating and bumping against each other. But luckily, Sui Xiong himself was not the jellyfish. No matter how much damage he did to the body, he didn¡¯t feel a thing. So that was one problem solved. Now he had a fine power system, which could help him move quickly through the sea. If the jellyfish he was possessing could see this, it¡¯d probably die of embarrassment. Now that his speed had been improved, what should be done next? Increasing his CE or defensive power? Sui Xiong thought for a while, and decided to focus on improving his defense. He already had a very powerful attacking technique, and until this point, no fish had been able to escape his attack when extracting its soul. So naturally, he needed to enhance his defensive power. Of course, his first priority was to add scales. Just like soldiers on Earth used metal armor to protect themselves, Sui Xiong also wanted to wrap hard armor (the scales) around the jellyfish¡¯s body to protect himself. Though this seemed like a good idea, when he began to design the armor, he found a problem. He realized that when he made scales using the same technique of overlapping muscle fibers, they weren¡¯t strong enough. Actually, it was less a matter of lacking hardness and more a problem with lacking elasticity, a shortcoming shared by the scales and the propeller blades alike. Before Sui Xiong was transported to this realm, he¡¯d read some books on military affairs, so he knew that in the Cold Weapon Era, armor should both be hard and elastic. When armor had enough elasticity, one could counterattack by meeting toughness with equal toughness. The armored body would simply absorb the energy, thus weakening the effect of the attack into that of a bump. Therefore, the armor had to be elastic. But the truth was that he couldn¡¯t make the scales very elastic. Upon realizing this, he had no choice but to try a more practical way: making a firm skin. This approach was much easier. All he needed to do was overlap the muscle fibers multiple times, making a shell out of the sclerites. Then, he added a few layers of net-like structure, which could work as a buffer beneath the sclerites. Finally, he¡¯d transformed the shape of the jellyfish¡¯s body. When the sun began to set in the west, Sui Xiong had finished improving the jellyfish¡¯s body, his temporary home. Now it was streamlined, with a firm and thick outer skin, and on each side, a propeller protected by the sclerites and able to generate high speeds. He still had thin tentacles at the end of the body; he¡¯d meant to improve them too, but he was too low on energy, so he had to leave them for another time. But now, Sui Xiong looked like a monster, imposing from every angle. Chapter 4 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio The sun was shining and the seawater was warm. In the warm water, a gray monster moved quickly. It had a long oval body with two distinct ends: one sharp and angular, the other round. A thick gray outer skin covered its body, which culminated in a clump of many powerful tentacles. It was chasing fish of all sizes, small or big, and killing everything it could possibly catch. Its prey eventually became lifeless bodies, floating on the sea in a trail of death behind the monster. Only a select few enjoyed the privilege of being carefully chewed by this gray monster; if they tasted good, the monster might even have enjoyed it. Even those that didn¡¯t taste good were never spit out, seeing as this monster wouldn¡¯t dare to waste valuable resources. This powerful monster was the jellyfish¡¯s body possessed by Sui Xiong. Even turtles with their hard shells and seabirds flying overhead could not escape him. With each passing day, he grew bigger and bigger, and fiercer and fiercer as well. He seemed to have no natural enemy in this world: he could do anything he wanted and go anywhere he wanted. He was enjoying himself and thriving, like when a gamer¡¯s character levels up and becomes unstoppable by defeating monsters and running up a high score. ¡°How long has it been since I was transported?¡± Sui Xiong thought, after having a nice meal and bathing in the sun. He had no clue: he hadn¡¯t been recording the days, so he¡¯d totally forgotten. He had gradually gotten used to his current life, his new identity¡ªa fierce creature at the top of the food chain, a terrifying sea monster, an overlord moving through the shallows with nothing to fear. Still, although he hadn¡¯t found a way to leave this body yet, he didn¡¯t really mind. This body was much better than that of a human being. For example, the tentacles (which he¡¯d improved a few more times) were so much better than the hands and feet of a human being; the propeller brought him up to speeds that a human could never reach; and he had the firm, thick outer skin too, armor so strong that even the Golden Shield and the Iron Cloth from Chinese fairy tales couldn¡¯t compare to it. In the water at least, this body was perfect. Also, by hunting and devouring the souls of many weak creatures, his own soul had gotten much stronger. Now, he could swim deeper than before, and the area in which he could attack to extract his preys¡¯ souls had become much larger. He thought himself almost invincible. ¡°Now it is time to challenge the more difficult dungeon!¡± Sui Xiong told himself, looking into the deeper, creepy water in the distance. He had a gut feeling that there was an extremely powerful enemy down there. ¡°What could it be? A big fish? Maybe not, and to be honest, a big fish is just a heavier pile of meat. Could it be a sea monster then? Maybe. Perhaps it might think I¡¯m coming to occupy its territory. Or maybe¡­it could be a giant whale, the same breed as the one that almost killed me before?¡± Sui Xiong felt his heart tingle when he considered this last possible scenario. He had never been a generous person. He believed the quote from Game of Thrones that ¡°a Lannister always pays his debts¡±, and that was his guiding principle in life. As a powerful man himself now, he also wanted to fight a powerful rival. In the endless sea, he had no concept of time or even where he was. Only one thing could revive his heart, a heart which was gradually becoming emotionless, and that thing was fighting! Yes, fighting! He had a gut feeling that this powerful rival would appear from a certain direction, so Sui Xiong turned that way and prepared to fight. After a short while, from the deep sea, a big shadow gradually began to reveal itself. It had a huge body and a sharp horn: it was him, the same giant whale with a unicorn horn. Watching it approach, Sui Xiong started to sneer. ¡°You have come at the right moment! You and I will have a good fight and put this personal grudge behind us once for all! To be honest, I¡¯m quite curious about how a big guy like you tastes¡­¡± It was quite clear that this whale was the one which had almost killed him before. Just like the saying that ¡°a man who thinks too much gets old much easier¡±, Sui Xiong wanted to stop thinking and start fighting! Looking at this imposing sea monster ready to fight, the whale became very cautious. This time, it didn¡¯t swim straight toward Sui Xiong; instead, it slowly approached and then stopped. Sui Xiong carefully sized up the whale and found that it too had a streamlined body, with an upper half of pure black and a lower half of slight white. Its two big eyes kind of looked like a human¡¯s, and the horn on its forehead made it look very dangerous. Somehow, Sui Xiong¡¯s couldn¡¯t take his eyes off that horn, and every time he saw it, it made him more alarmed. It seems that horn is a powerful weapon! He silently thought about what tactics to use. ¡°A head-on confrontation won¡¯t work. I¡¯d better wait until it begins to swim towards me. Then I¡¯ll swim up to it, stop right beneath it, and attach myself to its stomach by winding my tentacles around it. At first it won¡¯t suffer much, but then I¡¯ll smash it so hard even its own mother won¡¯t recognize it!¡± Now that he¡¯d decided his tactical approach, he became less anxious and began to wait at ease. But it seemed that the whale didn¡¯t intend to initiate the attack either; it was just waiting. Two powerful creatures, both at the top of the food chain, had reached a quiet stalemate. After a while, Sui Xiong was starting to get bored, when all of a sudden, he had a strange gut feeling, leaving him cold and unsettled. He soon found that it was the whale that caused this feeling. ¡°What are you?¡± All of a sudden, he understood the meaning of this question, even though it wasn¡¯t spoken in any recognizable language. ¡°Holy sh*t! This whale¡¯s got its own translation system!¡± He couldn¡¯t help but laugh and give up on the idea of fighting. The ability to communicate was a damn good feeling. Since he¡¯d been transported to this world, all this time he¡¯d simply been floating along with the stream, unhappy and alone. Now he felt immensely happy that he had finally met a creature that he could talk with and ask questions about this world. He concentrated as best he could and tried to send a message to the whale through his mind. ¡°I am just a passerby, where is this place?¡± He managed to send the message, but was surprised to find that sending even such a short message cost so much of his energy. He felt very dizzy and nearly blacked out. Just at this moment, the giant whale initiated its attack. White ripples arose from its frightening white horn, while at the same time white lines appeared in the surrounding water, quickly creeping up on Sui Xiong. His huge, malformed jellyfish¡¯s body suddenly shook perilously, and the white lines became a layer of thick ice that wrapped him up tightly. ¡°Sh*t! How shifty is this!¡± Sui Xiong felt very dizzy and couldn¡¯t even fight back. Instead, he watched helplessly as the whale flashed a cunning smile. Suddenly, the whale gained speed, came straight at Sui Xiong, stopped right in front of him, and opened its big mouth, revealing its frightening and white teeth. In the blink of an eye, the whale bit off over a third of the front of his body, including the ice and frost covering him, and it began to swallow with all its strength. For the whale, this was a successful sneak attack. It¡¯d managed to trick Sui Xiong into depleting his energy by taking advantage of his inexperience. Then it¡¯d launched an onslaught, essentially killing Sui Xiong while he was dizzy from the overconsumption of his energy. If Sui Xiong had really been a huge and malformed jellyfish, he¡¯d now be dead. But¡­he was never actually a jellyfish. For him, this huge sea monster¡¯s body was just a shelter, a house of sorts where he was living temporarily. It wasn¡¯t that big a deal if he lost half his house. Very soon, Sui Xiong recovered, furiously watching the giant whale eating next to him. He began to sneer in a sinister way. ¡°You are¡­bringing about your own destruction!¡± His soul reached out two invisible hands and penetrated deep into the whale¡¯s body. The whale, proudly enjoying its delicious meal, shook severely. As Sui Xiong looked into its big eyes, he could easily see the whale¡¯s shock and fear. Meanwhile, its horn was glittering like frosty snow, emitting copious amounts of cold air which immediately turned the surrounding water into hard ice. This was the whale¡¯s best defensive maneuver, which had helped it escape danger or even turn the tables in a fight more than once in the past. However, this time, the extreme cold and hard ice didn¡¯t help. The whale had overexerted itself, so its soul temporarily blacked out and failed to counterattack. At this exact moment, Sui Xiong had managed to cut off the connection between the whale¡¯s body and soul. Now all he needed to do was pull the soul out, like pulling a radish out of the soil. He struggled to pull it out, but he was persistent; instead of giving up, he only worked harder. All the while, the whale was trembling, its sharp horn still emitting the extremely cold air, even though this made no difference now. With its soul, the whale could adapt itself to the changing environment, but Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t going to give it a chance to do so. After a while, Sui Xiong finally pulled the soul out. Although he couldn¡¯t see what the soul really looked like, he knew clearly that this time he had plenty of food to eat. This was a big reward. Actually, swallowing the soul proved quite difficult. After all, the whale was a powerful creature, stronger than the other souls he¡¯d eaten from the fish, shrimp and jellyfish. As Sui Xiong was struggling to swallow it, the whale kept trying to run away. In fact, several times it even managed to break free. But as a large predator unaccustomed to fighting back, it was simply struggling to be free by instinct. Sui Xiong seized it tightly and continued to swallow. After a long time, he managed to devour it and convert it to the energy that fueled his soul. The whale¡¯s soul was enormous, and Sui Xiong felt he may have eaten too much, like a snake that might not feel too good after eating an elephant. But since a soul couldn¡¯t die of overeating, he rested for awhile and regained his strength. This fight had been very dangerous. Why was that? Well, the whale was not only mysteriously powerful, but also highly intelligent and cunning. It was indeed the dominant predator in the sea. Were it not for Sui Xiong¡¯s built-in advantage¡ªthat he would survive even if his jellyfish¡¯s body was disfigured¡ªas well as the whale¡¯s lack of experience with fighting between souls, then Sui Xiong likely would¡¯ve been the one who was defeated. As the saying goes, ¡°he who risks nothing gains nothing¡±. Sui Xiong had learned a lot from this dangerous hunting experience. By devouring the giant whale¡¯s soul, his soul had grown exponentially stronger. If this world were an online game, the LEVEL_UP icon over his character¡¯s head would have popped up a few times. In fact, ¡°leveling up¡± was just a small part of the experience he¡¯d gained. The most important part was the information stored in the whale¡¯s soul, which was a bit disorganized. Mostly it was hunting experience that was useless to Sui Xiong, but there was still plenty of information that he could utilize. For example, now he knew how to use the ice magic that the whale summoned, and he was aware of his location in the surrounding area. Sui Xiong was already sure that the whale he¡¯d just killed was the same one that had almost eaten him when he first arrived in this world. He¡¯d had a stroke of good luck by killing it and getting some retribution. According to the whale¡¯s memory, he was actually quite close to the edge of the sea. If he swam in a certain direction for a day or two, he¡¯d even reach land, as long as he swam at the speed of a giant whale. Sui Xiong became very excited. He was anxious to swim to land, so he could go ashore and get to really know this world. Still, he withheld his excitement and decided to explore the deep sea instead of rushing towards land. He needed to become more powerful. Chapter 5 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Sui Xiong found that in this world, there was a force called ¡°magic energy¡±. The giant whale had been born with the ability to practice ice magic. But the reason why its ice magic was powerful enough to freeze so much water so quickly was because it had made great efforts to enhance its ice magic, rather than relying on its natural-born ability. To enhance its ice magic, the whale had absorbed rich magic energy from a special trench in the deep sea. In fact, Sui Xiong was quite eager to go ashore, so he could find some people and get to know what on Earth this world was. But he also knew that his safety was most important, no matter when or where he was. If he couldn¡¯t control his curiosity, it would probably cost him his life, even if so far it seemed he had nine lives like a cat. This world was not safe at all. If a whale in the sea had dirty tricks up his sleeve, then who could say what dirty tricks a human being might play. Therefore, he needed to make himself much stronger so that he could live safely in this world. Even if he couldn¡¯t be the most powerful being in this world, he should at least make sure that he could run away when he knew he couldn¡¯t win. He waited patiently until the ice melted, then turned the whale¡¯s body into nutrients and absorbed them as energy. Now he could repair and improve the jellyfish¡¯s body. He made his body bigger and more elastic by adding many tentacles and a few pairs of propellers; he also hollowed his body out, making strategic holes in his thick outer skin. The hollowed body and the holes created a balance between Sui Xiong and the sea by keeping the pressure both inside and outside of his body the same. This way, he wouldn¡¯t be crushed by the water pressure in the deep sea. If needed, the holes could also function as blowholes, helping him change direction and adjust his posture. This level of control would be necessary in a big fight. Sui Xiong recalled that before he was transported, he¡¯d watched a famous Japanese anime that had super robots which were always involved in some serious fight. They were all equipped with ¡°Vernier Thrusters¡±, something similar to the holes he had made. Allegedly, that anime was very technically proficient; some people had even made real robots (whether they were powerful or not was another thing entirely) by following the designs mentioned in the animation, which meant that these holes should actually work, right? Anyway, keeping them wouldn¡¯t do any harm, even if he never really used them. Additionally, his hollowed body could be used to store things. Sui Xiong had kept some valuable items from the dead whale: a sharp horn which contained powerful cold energy, a cold and frightening gemstone inside its head, an exceptionally hard skeleton, and a layer of skin that was still firm. Sui Xiong had already made good use of these resources to rebuild his body, but he hadn¡¯t used them entirely, so he wrapped up the leftovers and stored them inside his body. Others usually carried things on their back, but Sui Xiong stored his items in his stomach, which he thought was innovative in a way. Fully prepared for his deep dive, he quickly dove into the water and swam in the direction of the magic trench he¡¯d seen in the whale¡¯s memory. In the deep sea, it was dark and unsettling; he could sense it was not safe down here at the bottom of the sea. Sifting through the whale¡¯s memory, Sui Xiong found that the whale had been in danger here more than once. It had only been here a few times even though it knew that the trench was the perfect place to greatly enhance its magic energy. Although a whale (jing yu in Chinese) was called a fish (yu in Chinese), it could not be classified as a fish; unlike the fish, it needed to surface and breathe. While this whale shared nothing in common with whales on Earth in regards to their CE and intelligence, at least they had the need to surface in common. If the whale held its breath for long enough, it could stay underwater for a very long time. But it might still face great danger if it got into a fight with others at the bottom of the sea and was stuck down there, unable to flee. Nonetheless, Sui Xiong had nothing to worry about in this regard. A soul didn¡¯t need air, and neither did a jellyfish (a helpful fact since his body was a dead jellyfish). Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t understand why this dead body hadn¡¯t started to decay and could still move around as if it were still alive. Simply put, he could stay in the water as long as he wanted with no need to worry about suffering from a lack of oxygen. The jellyfish couldn¡¯t see in the dark, but since Sui Xiong had grown much more powerful, he could sense where he was through intuition. This left him much better off than the whale itself ever was. Apart from the time when he foraged above for food, Sui Xiong often swam in the deep sea, trying to find the trench from the whale¡¯s memory. During his journey, he met a few big deep sea monsters, but he didn¡¯t fight any of them. His transformed body was extremely powerful, which was enough to make those monsters think twice before they made any move on him. Also, because Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to encroach on their territory, every time he saw them, he would take a roundabout way so as not to provoke them. He had no idea how long he¡¯d been swimming when he finally arrived at the trench, which was a bizarre region shrouded by a bluish white light, located at the bottom of the sea in a wide crack. Although the light wasn¡¯t strong, it did make his soul feel icy cold. The rugged rocks at the bottom of the sea were covered in a layer of thick frost. Watching carefully, he found that this was where the bluish white light came from. ¡°What in God¡¯s name is this?¡± Sui Xiong muttered, tentatively extending a tentacle to touch the sparkling frost. The tentacle immediately turned into an icicle, and the ice began spreading rapidly to his whole body through the tentacle. Luckily, he had guessed this would happen and was already prepared. The tentacle wasn¡¯t much longer than the others, and it also had a few weak joints where it could be broken off by the ice to prevent it from spreading any further. This long ice tentacle slowly fell down onto the sparkling frost, but instead of bouncing back, it quietly turned into a fine powder, settling all over the ground. Watching this, Sui Xiong was startled, and left this damn place without even noticing. No wonder the whale seldom came here despite the opportunity to enhance its magic energy. This place was too terrifying! Anyone could die here if he wasn¡¯t careful. After hesitating for a long time, Sui Xiong finally decided to approach the bluish white icy trench again. Although this place was indeed very dangerous, as long as he was careful and kept his distance, the danger was within his control. This was just like in the world he once knew, where everyone knew that electricity was dangerous, yet still used it. ¡°Okay, it will be fine as long as I keep a certain distance from it.¡± Sui Xiong moved forward a little, then stopped and hovered in place by pointing a few pairs of propellers in all directions. Then, he tried to absorb some of the cold energy, which was far from easy. After all, he wasn¡¯t the giant whale which had been born with the ability to control the cold energy. However, just as the saying goes that ¡°good things come to those who wait¡±, without knowing how long he¡¯d been trying, Sui Xiong finally succeeded in absorbing the cold energy and storing it in his body. Although this process was slow, as he became more and more adept at it, he could absorb the cold energy more and more quickly. Eventually, he found that a gemstone similar to the one in the whale¡¯s head had formed in the jellyfish¡¯s body. ¡°Can this¡­be the legendary ¡®magic core¡¯ or ¡®magic crystal¡¯? If this is true, could I have evolved into a war-craft?¡± Sui Xiong felt a bit funny about this. Not only could a jellyfish body which had been dead for awhile move around as if it were still alive, but it could also evolve into a war-craft¡­what a bizarre world this was! Now that the gemstone had formed in his body, Sui Xiong clearly felt that he could absorb the cold energy much more quickly. Absorbing and storing a huge amount of cold energy in the gemstone, he started to think about how best to use it. Searching the whale¡¯s memory, he found that the whale had three ways to use it: first, it could turn the cold energy into an ice beam, spreading it via the water to freeze the enemy. This was how the whale had hit him with a sneak attack earlier. Second, the whale could spread the cold energy around itself to form frost armor. When it had first fought Sui Xiong, it didn¡¯t get the chance to use this tactic¡ªof course, even if it had managed to, this wouldn¡¯t have made a big difference. Last but not least, it could release all the cold energy stored in its gemstone at once, completely freezing a large area of surrounding water. This method was actually controllable, meaning that once it was out of danger, the whale could absorb the cold energy it had released before and easily unfreeze the water around it. So whether it was for the purpose of escaping or counterattacking, this last tactic was a useful one. However, the total release of cold energy also came with a big price. The whale would lose all of its cold energy in a very short time; therefore, this method was only used when the whale¡¯s life was threatened. As far as Sui Xiong was concerned, all three methods were good, but a bit monotonous. So, based on his life experience from his former world, and by repeatedly experimenting, he managed to create two more tactics. The first was the ability to create sharp knives with the cold energy. These knives could be used as a variety of ancient weapons, like swords, spears, two-edged swords and halberds, or even sharp claws and teeth. He practiced how to change the cold energy into these weapons often. In a word, the knife method was a very useful weapon. Second, he could concentrate the cold energy and release it before it became solid. Once a enemy was hit by this cold beam, the enemy would begin to freeze from the inside out. Practicing this tactic didn¡¯t consume that much energy, but it was so much more powerful than the ice beam method used by the whale. Whoever was hit by this tactic was sure to die. Since ¡°even a dog has a name¡±, Sui Xiong named the five practices¡ªor magics¡ªrespectively: ¡°Cryo Beam¡±, ¡°Frost Armor¡±, ¡°Ice Blocking¡±, ¡°Ice Knife¡± and ¡°Ice Bombardment¡±. To be honest, these names didn¡¯t sound all that cool to him. Some of them even seemed kinda dumb. But it was fine with him if they sounded stupid, as long as they were useful. All these tactics could only be made possible by using ice magic. With the gemstone, Sui Xiong could store the cold energy continually, but he couldn¡¯t store nearly as much through daily accumulation alone. Compared with absorbing it from the icy trench in the deep sea, the former was much slower. After some experiments, he discovered something interesting: in this world, the deeper he went, the more concentrated the magic energy was. In other words, the deeper he went, the quicker he could absorb and accumulate cold energy; the higher he went, the weaker the magic became. Above the sea, things would be the opposite. In this world, the magic energy close to the sea level was the weakest; no wonder the fish and shrimp in the shallows were so feeble. What a wonderful world! After enough time had passed, Sui Xiong felt he could absorb no more of the cold energy from the icy trench. No matter how hard he tried, the gemstone could no longer store any cold energy. Instead, if he kept absorbing it, the cold energy would just leak away like water, and all this would do was harm the jellyfish¡¯s body. He knew that the time for improving his abilities in seclusion was over. Now it was time to go ashore and find some people. Chapter 6 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio ¡°Alas, those who are bulky also have problems!¡± a huge monster near the coast was sobbing. After leaving the ice trench in the deep sea, Sui Xiong set out for the land he¡¯d seen in the memory of the giant whale and arrived at the coast very soon. The scenery here was less than ideal. The beach was a black tidal land, giving off a rotten smell that could be smelled from a great distance. It was almost a huge muddy pond. Sui Xiong detested this environment, but he had no other choice. According to the memory of the giant whale, all that was known about the vicinity was a black tidal land such as this, wherever one went. The giant whale wasn¡¯t very curious; it had just habitually cruised around in the sea. But even so, it¡¯d also been cruising along the coast for two or three days. The places it had passed weren¡¯t different at all. So Sui Xiong could only sigh, manipulating his huge deformed jellyfish¡¯s body and trying to swim towards the shore. He didn¡¯t worry about a lack of oxygen or drying out because this jellyfish was dead anyway, and what happened to its body wasn¡¯t important. Moreover, its skin was thick after repeated strengthening, and it was also covered by the tough skin from the giant whale, so it was sealed off enough to prevent water loss. However, Sui Xiong had overlooked a major point. Once he landed, his massive body weight as a huge monster became a major problem without the buoyancy of the sea. He soon found out that even when only the upper body was out of the water (when the body wasn¡¯t entirely out of the water), his massive weight had already caused the weight-bearing tentacles to sink deep into the mud on the beach. For him, taking each step was very complicated. It would be nearly impossible for him to move when he was entirely out of the water. Perhaps he could laboriously use great strength to hack a way forward step by step, even though every step would leave a big pit on the ground. However, this plan was not only a waste of power but also silly. He was left with two choices: walk, or dig¡­ Sui Xiong really didn¡¯t want to do something so stupid, so he tried to think of a way to solve the problem. Eventually, he came up with a solution that was not actually a solution. Since his body was large and heavy and very inconvenient for him to move, he needed to make the body smaller and lighter. He could decompose some of the muscles and bones, which formed the body, into nutrients and then condense the body to reduce its size and weight. This plan directly contradicted common sense from what he¡¯d learned about biology and the conservation of mass. It was absolutely impossible on Earth. But it was not impossible in this world. It was just complex, and the process of transformation meant using up many nutrients. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to be wasteful, but if he wanted to land, look for people, and learn more about the world, he had no other choice. The huge sea monster trembled and quickly shrunk. After a while, it had shrunk from the size of a hill to less than one percent of its former size. According to the whale¡¯s memory, Sui Xiong¡¯s new size was about the same as a small fishing boat used by ordinary fishermen. He wanted to shrink further, but at the moment his body had shrunk as much as possible. Except for the necessary skin and bone structure, the rest was almost entirely composed of highly concentrated nutrients, leaving no room for further compression. ¡°It¡¯s still a bit big, but it¡¯s the best I can do¡­¡± he sighed. And so this jellyfish, which would still be considered a behemoth in the sea, stepped forward and landed, supporting its body with a mass of tentacles and crossing the muddy beach. The muddy beach was now no obstacle for Sui Xiong. With the tentacles churning along, he soon passed the beach and entered the woods by the sea. The woods here were rather weird. The ground and vegetation were all grey-black, with the only difference being the shades of black. Walking in the woods, he could feel that the air was filled with an eerie power that made him feel somewhat uncomfortable, leaving his mind muddy and confused. ¡°Such weird magic. According to the memory of the whale, it has never seen such a place. It seems to be unique to land.¡± Moving forward, Sui Xiong sensed the oddness of his surroundings. ¡°Strange, how can there be so few creatures in the woods? Clearly, the woods are full of lush vegetation, but there are so few insects to be found. What¡¯s happened?¡± His soul was so strong that even the whale, whose age was unknown, bowed to his superiority. Even though he hadn¡¯t deliberately enhanced his sense of direction, he was very aware of slight changes within a few miles. Following his intuition, he could see that the woods lacked animals and insects even if they had luxuriant foliage, which he found somewhat astonishing. In the vast natural world, wherever there was a plant, there should be plant-eating herbivores, which in turn meant there should be carnivores that ate the herbivores. That was how the food chain worked. Even without animals, at least there should be highly adaptable insects around. However, these woods completely contradicted his knowledge of biology, so it was almost too weird to describe. It was worth noting that it had been a long time since he¡¯d arrived in this world. He had traveled many places in the boundless sea. He had also gained some of the memory of the whale by eating its soul. But neither in his travels nor in the memory of the giant whale had he encountered such a strange phenomenon. Coupled with the air imbued with the same weird magic that even the whale had never seen, Sui Xiong had a vague but ominous feeling. ¡°Isn¡¯t this ghostly place the so-called ¡®Forbidden Place¡¯ that was formed because of chaotic ancient magic?¡± There were ¡°forbidden places¡± in this world, where horrible, powerful and even perverted monsters lived, or the chaos of magic was unbearable, making it a forbidden zone of life that the overwhelming majority of creatures could only avoid and observe from afar. For example, the ice trench that Sui Xiong had visited not long before was a forbidden place. Judging by their odd appearance, the woods seemed somewhat ¡°forbidden¡±. However, it had not occurred to Sui Xiong that this world actually had such a weird ¡°forbidden place¡±¡ªwithout much impact on plants, but very unfriendly to animals. What was worse, the body he was currently possessing was an animal¡¯s. Aware of this, he immediately became alert, raising his awareness of his surroundings and not daring to relax for a moment. His natural state was, in fact, a soul, which meant perhaps he didn¡¯t need to be afraid of the dangers in this ¡°forbidden place¡±. But who could say it wouldn¡¯t be worse for a soul? As the saying goes, caution is the parent of safety! After walking carefully for awhile, he didn¡¯t encounter any danger, and more insects appeared around him. Sui Xiong realized that he might¡¯ve been too afraid and had made a mistake. Maybe the woods only had a few animals and insects because they didn¡¯t like the environment beside the sea, not due to any danger. Sui Xiong had made a fuss about this weird phenomenon but ended up laughing to himself about it. Fortunately, he was alone, so there wasn¡¯t anyone else to laugh at him for making something out of nothing. Smiling in a self-deprecating way, Sui Xiong finally calmed down and moved on. These dark black woods were so enormous that he failed to walk out of them even though he walked from the time he landed until it turned dark. As the sun set and the moon rose, Sui Xiong found a vacant space in the woods to rest for the time being, even though he could still move freely at night. Moving during the day and resting at night was a habit that made great pains to keep. He did this less out of a need for safety and more out of a desire to keep some trace of being ¡°human¡±. During this period of time, Sui Xiong found himself increasingly accustomed to the monster¡¯s lifestyle, becoming oblivious to his old way of life. This made him a bit nervous, so he deliberately retained some of the habits of a human being. It served only to remind him that he was not really a big monster but in fact still ¡°human¡±. No vegetation grew in the vacant space in the woods, and the soil was exceptionally black. The turbid magic in the air became thicker. Although Sui Xiong chose to rest here, he also wanted to test this place to some extent. If there really was anything weird in the woods, then it would be in a vacant space like this. He paused under a big tree on the edge of the vacant space, waiting patiently. Sure enough, it didn¡¯t take long before the last rays of the sunset disappeared in the sky, and bizarre changes began to happen in the woods. The ground began emitting streaks of black gas in a haze that gradually covered the forest floor. Sui Xiong clearly saw that the black gas emitted from the vacant space was thick. It didn¡¯t plume but instead was emitted in streams like small geysers. He became alert and prepared for a fight. As more and more black gas filled the air, the turbid chaos magic in the air gradually became thicker too, especially above the vacant space. The magic slowly condensed until it became visible to the naked eye, interweaving with the black fog and transforming into a flowing whirlpool. After a while, the ground slowly cracked, and black skulls popped out one by one. ¡°What is this? A natural disaster caused by dead souls?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised for a moment. He¡¯d never expected to actually see this fantasy stuff. He then carefully observed the skulls but found that they didn¡¯t cause him much concern. They didn¡¯t seem very strong. He waited for a moment and saw more and more skulls and skeletons pop out and gradually compress into a dense pile. But he simply stood still and seemed to be in a trance. ¡°These skeletons¡­ what¡¯s going on?¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t act rashly and continued to wait patiently. When the pile of skeletons reached a certain height, they stopped emerging from the ground. But the turbid chaos magic in the sky gradually gathered toward them. Sui Xiong keenly felt that although it happened slowly, the skeletons absorbed the magic bit by bit. This situation lasted all night until the moon was about to set and the dawn gradually appeared on the horizon. Suddenly, the ground cracked again and all the skulls disappeared underground. The thick magic with the black gas had also dispersed. When the sun shone again, the woods regained their original appearance. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t leave but stayed next to the vacant space and waited for the next night. The next night, the same bizarre magic ceremony occurred again. When the sun shone again, and the skulls once again returned underground, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. This was really weird but very interesting! Chapter 7 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Sui Xiong had great patience. Or, more likely, after traveling through space to this strange world, wandering in the vast sea, and absorbing magic in the ice trench, he had perfected the skill of patience. So he spent five days next to the weird vacant space, watching. During these five days, he rarely moved and always carefully observed his surroundings. Through observation, he was able to sum up the law of magic in the woods¡ªit was actually quite simple: the magic was weakest at noon and strongest at midnight, and this cycle went on endlessly. In addition, he finally understood why there was such verdant plant life in the woods and so few animals and insects. Every night, the thick magical power killed many of the animals and insects, and their carcasses slowly seeped into the earth. Perhaps those black skulls and skeletons were actually the accumulated debris. The thick magic late at night had no effect on Sui Xiong. His body had long gathered the ice magic with such a staggering concentration that it had reached its limit. It even got to the point that his body continued to lose magic as he produced more every day. Because it could no longer be condensed and stored, it had to be dispersed out of his body. Only this concentrated ice magic was comparable to the magic fog in the woods at night, and only the black fog (which became much thicker above the black vacant space) would be stronger than the magic dispersed by him. He also discovered something: the black skeletons seemed to be resentful of all creatures except plants. As soon as insects or animals came close to them at night, they would attack wildly, kick, scratch and bite, intending to kill them. But they turned a blind eye to Sui Xiong, who was quite close to them, as if he didn¡¯t exist. Maybe this was because the body that he was in was actually already ¡°dead¡±. After observing for a few days in succession, Sui Xiong felt that he had collected enough information and finally chose one day at noon to dig underneath the black vacant space as the sun shone splendidly. What he saw met his expectations: a bunch of dark black bones when he only dug a bit at the surface. They weren¡¯t complete skeletons, but a variety of bone fragments. ¡°It seems that the skeletons temporarily pile up at night.¡± Sui Xiong watched the bones as they faded slowly from dark black to light grey in the sun, and he nodded secretly. He didn¡¯t move the bones, nor did he fill the burrowed hole until the next night. As he had guessed, the faded bones didn¡¯t turn into skeletons that night, although the magical powers of the woods still clung to the vacant space. The bones simply rattled all night long. The next day was once again sunny. The bones faded even more in the sun, and they shook with an even weaker sound at night. So Sui Xiong almost fully understood now. He no longer observed and left. He walked alone in the black woods, moving by day and resting at night. Along the way he could, from time to time, see those black vacant spaces that he suspected had skeletons buried beneath them. He also tried attacking the black skeletons and found that they were very weak. He could destroy them by sweeping them away, without using magic. ¡°This is a good thing,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said to himself after destroying another group of black skeletons. ¡°It seems that this world is not very dangerous.¡± So after walking for another five or six days, he finally saw the long-awaited traces of people. It was a small village built on a vast open space. This space was clearly the result of man-made deforestation, as it was surrounded by many stumps. Many of the traces of deforestation on the stumps were still new, and some villagers were working hard to cut down the black woods and extend a cleared space for survival. This was a small village, with small cabins forming a circle around a significantly taller stone house that was surrounded by wells. A strange cross-shaped statue was erected on the roof of the stone house, which was formed by a horizontal dagger and a vertical eye. The strange statue made Sui feel somewhat uncomfortable. It wasn¡¯t a feeling of danger, but pure disgust. It was a feeling similar to Hindus seeing fried steaks, or Muslims seeing rice with pork, or foodies seeing microwave dinners, or animal activist seeing someone eat live shrimp¡­ This statue was really cursed, and he did not like it! The village looked quite normal except for the upsetting statue. The village was surrounded by wooden fences that were large and tall like massive walls. The stone house was somewhat crudely built, but it used ample materials so that people knew it was strong when they saw it. Also, the villagers who were walking around wore somewhat shabby clothes. Apparently, they weren¡¯t particularly wealthy. The entire village had only one exit, guarded by a tall and strong bald man. Although the man didn¡¯t wear armor, he carried a big ax that appeared to be heavy. He seemed quite powerful. He vigilantly kept watch and never left his post. He seemed to be a very responsible man. Pieces of farmland surrounded the village. The farmland was planted with a kind of vine that Sui Xiong didn¡¯t recognize. The vines had neither flowers nor fruits, only pieces of grey-green leaves.Looking closely, he found that the leaves had vague golden veins, which emitted a slightly golden color when reflecting the sunshine. There were also farmers working in the farmland. They were mainly women and children doing strange work: they didn¡¯t plough or fertilize the soil or weed or catch insects, but instead carefully sprinkled a spoonful of water on the leaves of the vines. From time to time, they would scoop out water from the wooden casks, large or small, that they carried on their back or arm and sprinkle it onto the vines. The spoons they used were quite small. Ten or more spoonfuls of water were roughly equal to an ordinary person¡¯s mouthful of water. It was clear that they cherished the water when taking it from the wooden cask, as they often paid careful attention to it for a while before watering the vines. The origin of the water was quite extraordinary, and the water needed to be obtained through special rituals. The rituals went like this: every ten days or so, a few young girls wearing black robes gathered in front of the main entrance of the stone house in the evening and chanted incantations while circling a huge pot. A live chick hung from a wooden shelf above the pot, and they chanted incantations until the moon rose. Then they cut the neck of the unlucky chick and let the blood flow into the pot, mixing with a pot of water. Then they continued their incantations. Not until midnight did they carry the pot into the stone house. More than once, Sui Xiong tried to see what they were going to do with the pot once it was inside. But something in his soul prevented him from entering the stone house, as if a tough beast hide was stopping him. He only knew that the next day, the villagers got a bucket of well water when the moon was rising and placed it in the moonlight for a night before delivering it to the stone house before sunrise. Some unknown process would occur, and on the third day, the water used for the vines was available in the stone house. Sui Xiong speculated that there must be some type of pharmacists or magicians living inside the stone house who instructed the little girls to cast magic on the well water so that it had special powers to promote the growth of the vines. Of course, maybe the man who never left the stone house was actually a secluded chef who had mastered the essence of a thousand-year-old cooking technique. Perhaps he could create fantastic flavors when stewing a pot of chicken blood, and even the vines could sense this and grow. Sui Xiong felt that in this magical world, anything was possible. Well, by any rate, he must taste this chicken blood soup! In addition to the special water used for the vines, villagers of course also drew water from the well for daily use. Sui Xiong noticed that although there was a small river not far from the village, no one went to the river to use its water. All people drank, cooked, and used well water. Perhaps this was related to the ubiquitous chaotic and turbid magic in the woods. According to his observations, the closer a place was to the village, the weaker the turbulent magic in the woods would be. But a somewhat uncomfortable atmosphere would linger over the village. Perhaps it was this atmosphere that annoyed him which allowed the villagers to resist the all-encompassing chaos of the magic in the black woods and avoid being harmed. But this defensive effect was apparently limited. Every late afternoon, both the lumberjacks and the farmers hurried back to the village and locked the door, and a group of young men with hammers or axes came to the cabins on the two sides of the main gate and took turns to keep watch. During this time, the uncanny atmosphere at the center of the village would become much stronger, shrouding the entire village. The vines in the fields would also emit a slight golden light. It was quite different from the atmosphere, rejecting the chaotic magic inherent in the black woods. The two complemented each other, guarding this little village. Sui Xiong, hiding in the depths of the woods dozens of miles away, sensed from afar the village¡¯s predicament weighing on his soul. He found that the main work of the villagers, besides logging and farming, was raising chickens . However, they never ate the chickens. The chickens were purely a sacrifice. He also studied the vines, and strangely, the vines echoed the uncomfortable atmosphere. But when he touched the vines with his soul, he didn¡¯t feel any repulsive force. They just seemed to be ordinary vines. Obviously, there was something mysterious going on. Unfortunately, he was unable to communicate with the villagers because of the language barrier. He had to hide his doubts in his mind and intended to ask for details only after they had established a friendship. Sui Xiong was in no hurry to come into contact with the villagers and instead had opted to observe their lives from afar. He¡¯d been observing for a long time and finally confirmed that the villagers¡¯ lives were rather tedious. Rarely had he seen anything in the way of entertainment or recreation. Every day that they weren¡¯t logging, they were farming, living a life devoid of fun. The strange people in this world seemed to lead a hard life! Day after day, they repeated simple laborious tasks and never rested. Like a group of industrious ants, they tried to run their own little territory without laziness or relaxation. Sui Xiong silently watched them, waiting for the right opportunity to approach them. He didn¡¯t want to rush into contact with these people. For one thing, he didn¡¯t know the language of these people, so they simply could not communicate; for another thing, his appearance was monstrous, and he was afraid that when he appeared he would scare these people to death. Maybe they would surround him and launch a desperate fight. He knew nothing about the customs and practices of this world. However, by putting himself in their shoes, he knew that a normal person, when faced with a big monster speaking a different language, would try to either escape or fight. If anyone were rash enough to be friendly to the monster, that person would either be a protagonist full of love and courage like in fairy tales, or a deity from a cartoon. Either way, none of the people in this village seemed like the type. After a while, the vines in the fields grew thicker and the golden veins on the leaves became more apparent. When the villagers saw them, their faces often flashed a smile, presumably with hopeful joy for a plentiful harvest. But it was strange that they often showed fear and unease too, which Sui Xiong found quite surprising. After a period of time, they stopped logging. Guided by the bald janitor, all young adults, men, and women started combat training, improving their skills with an ax and hammer. Many others were busy making shields with wood as if they were preparing for a fight. Sui Xiong curiously observed them and couldn¡¯t understand what was causing their concern or whom they were trying to go to war with. But he was a little happy¡ªjudging by the villagers¡¯ preparations, it was foreseeable that the upcoming battle would be very dangerous. As long as he appeared as a friendly party, he wouldn¡¯t be treated as an unwelcome enemy. This was exactly the chance he had been waiting for! Chapter 8 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Several days later, when the first morning light touched the ground, the vines that had become as thick as the length of a child¡¯s wrist suddenly trembled. Their leaves began rapidly changing color, yellowing, and falling. For a brief moment, the farmland circling the village was full of fallen leaves. As the leaves fell, the green vines began to change color. They began glittering as if they had been absorbing and condensing the sunlight for a long time. Just looking at these golden vines brought warmth to the heart of anyone who saw them. The villagers cheered and began their harvest. They cut the vines into pieces as long as half an arm, leaving only a root the size of a palm. Golden white powder fell from the cut section of the vine, and many villagers bit into them when harvesting. It seemed this was their staple food. However, Sui Xiong noticed that there were no children picking up and eating the cut vines. Because of this, he assumed the vines didn¡¯t taste very good¡ªsince children were the most innocent, normally they would happily eat wild fruits even if they were 80% sour and only 20% sweet. Since the children had no interest in these vines, they must taste extremely boring. Obviously reaping vines required a lot of labor: the lumberjacks doing the harvesting were exhausted and covered in sweat. The women and children were busy collecting the yellow leaves, grinding them with stones, turning them into a pale yellow starch, and moving them into the stone house with buckets. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know what this was for. There were many vines around the village, and the reaping lasted for three days. When only the last row of vines near the village remained, the villagers no longer reaped but began to prepare for other things. They brought together the elderly and children who lacked combat effectiveness, dressed them in clothes soaked in the grey-yellowish starch, and gathered them in a few relatively strong wooden houses. In front of them were statues resembling the unsettling statue on the roof of the stone house, and around them were a few barrels of pulp with an unknown purpose. However, the young adults, men, and women were busy eating and drinking. This time they didn¡¯t eat the batter made from the powder of ground vines, but the dried chicken that had been taken out of the stone house. It seemed that the chicken was not delicious, as all were scowling while eating, yet everyone was trying to eat more. Perhaps they did so in order to ensure their physical strength. ¡°It looks like the battle is close,¡± Sui Xiong told himself secretly. He thought it over long and hard: he would have to present himself as a huge friendly monster that wasn¡¯t unbelievably powerful. In order to do that, he needed to deliberately suppress his might, a more practical approach compared to scaring the villagers by appearing excessively powerful. Suppressing his might was simple as long as he subtly changed the structure of his muscles to decrease his maximum power. He wasn¡¯t afraid to run into danger: so far in the black woods, he hadn¡¯t encountered anything that could be considered dangerous. Not to mention that his most powerful resource wasn¡¯t a strong body, but the ice magic. With the ice magic as his last resort, it didn¡¯t matter if his body was a bit weaker. After everything was properly prepared, it began to get dark. The villagers closed the gate of the wooden fence, and some particularly strong villagers held weapons, waiting near the gate. Some eager villagers climbed up to the house and took charge of keeping watch there as well. Inside the village, at every step, there were bonfires burning around the fences. Next to every one of the bonfires, there was a villager guarding it. The blaze of the burning fires brightened the surroundings, giving the village ample warmth and, more importantly, a sense of security. At night the black woods were cold and dangerous, and for the villagers fire was indispensable. When the moon slowly rose, Sui Xiong, who was lurking deep in the woods, felt a hint of strangeness. Beneath the vacant space near the village, the chaotic and turbid magic was gathering. Although a dark fog formed by the magic would gather in the black woods every night, tonight was the first time that he had seen such powerful magic. In the black woods, the magic of cohesion would transform the underground bones into skeletons that could move. So, with such powerful magic at hand, what might happen? The answer soon revealed itself, as he sensed that countless skeletons were slowly forming underground. It wouldn¡¯t take long before they broke through the ground and emerged. ¡°Strange¡­ how could there be so many bones underground around the village? Where did these bones come from? I didn¡¯t find them before,¡± Sui Xiong said to himself suspiciously. He wasn¡¯t worried that the skeletons would pose a threat to him. He just didn¡¯t understand. Could it be that the bones of the dead could still move underground? This world really was weird! After a while, the skeletons had taken shape and floated slowly toward the ground. This was also completely contrary to physics: the earth was not water, and skeletons were not fish, so then how on Earth could they pass right through the soil as if they were swimming? Sui Xiong watched the situation develop and thought for awhile. As the skeletons approached the ground, the roots of the remaining vines in the farmland started to give off a faint golden light, forming a protective shield that stopped the skeletons in their tracks. This shield didn¡¯t last long, and strong magical forces quickly assembled from all directions and offset it. In no more than an hour, the golden shield had been completely eroded by the magic, and the roots of the vines had withered and turned into dark wood chips. ¡°No wonder they have to keep a circle of vines near the village, which seems to be for defensive purposes,¡± Sui Xiong muttered. ¡°These villagers are indeed the type of people who are well-prepared to live in the black woods.¡± With this thought, he couldn¡¯t help but worry a bit. If the villagers could easily defeat this strong magical enemy, then he wouldn¡¯t have the chance to present himself to them. If he couldn¡¯t wait for the right opportunity, his first contact with the villagers would be far less simple. However, Sui Xiong soon realized that his fears were unnecessary. The magic power gathered around the village was getting stronger and thicker, and more and more skeletons were rising from underground. Soon there were tens of thousands of them. Seeing this horrible number, it was clear that no matter how comprehensive a defense the village had prepared, it would inevitably face a bitter fight. His chance of presenting himself to the villagers would soon come. Tens of thousands was a wonderful word. When it appeared in storybooks, children wouldn¡¯t bat an eye. But when confronted with this number in person, even the mightiest soldier would be shocked. When followed by the word ¡°enemies¡±, it made people desperate. The thick magic power kept condensing and eroded the shield formed by the row of vines closest to the village. The unharvested vines formed a protective cover much better than the ones formed only by roots. Nonetheless, it was defeated soon after facing the endless magic backed by the black woods, and it too turned into black wooden chips. In fact, it lasted even less time than the shield formed by the roots. Perhaps this was the reason why the villagers only left a small circle of vines: the dark magic would cohere together faster and faster and overpower them no matter what. Even if all the vines were left intact to form shields, they wouldn¡¯t last long, so there was no point in preserving all the vines in the farmland (and wasting all of their food). For these villagers who were far from wealthy, this waste was obviously not allowed. Although a failed battle would mostly mean death for them, lack of food in the weird black woods apparently also resulted in death. If the only result was death, then it was far more enjoyable to die fighting in battle than die of hunger. If one could only choose between the two, surely most people would want to fight until death after eating and drinking like a hero, rather than being exhausted from hunger and coldness and finally dying in despair. As the ancient Chinese said, if the people do not fear death, then why scare them with death? When ordinary people could choose only between dying of starvation or of a fight, the threat of government suppression by military means was no longer an effective deterrent to them, and their next plan of action would be far more revolutionary. This token of wisdom, no matter which world it came from, was universal. Due to his blind and disorderly speculation, Sui Xiong found that he¡¯d been distracted for some time. When he recovered his senses, he found that the battle had already started. Countless skeletons, like a black tide, were flocking to and surrounding the entire village. They continuously attacked the wooden fences protecting the village. Although the strength of each hit was minor compared to the solid wooden fences, it would only be a matter of time before the fences collapsed with the accumulation of so many hits. The villagers were constantly attacking the skeletons with lit firewood. The wood itself caused negligible damage; the flame was what really hurt them. Whenever the flame hit the skeletons, they would retreat as if they were badly burned. If they couldn¡¯t escape, their body would tremble slightly, and the burnt part would fade a bit. It was like being burnt by the sun, albeit a lot worse. Over time, a thick layer of bones piled up on the ground around the fences. The bones were a light grey color. This meant that the magic motivating them to stand and act as skeletons had dissipated, and at least for a short period of time, they wouldn¡¯t turn into those frightening creatures. Judging by the quantity of bones, the villagers¡¯ fight was still very effective. However, when Sui Xiong looked at the entire battlefield, he couldn¡¯t help but feel pessimistic about their situation. The number of skeletons didn¡¯t seem to have decreased at all. He used his psychic perception to observe the underground areas and found that the skeletons were in fact still generating continuously, constantly surfacing one after the other. With the inexhaustible power of the dark magic behind them, the only thing that could limit their quantity was the space that accommodated them. What the villagers were fighting against was not ¡°thousands of enemies¡±, but ¡°thousands of enemies with countless reinforcements¡±. Simply put, their opponents were endless enemies. There was no chance of victory in this battle. Chapter 9 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio It was late at night, and it was gradually getting colder. During this cold night, a desperate battle was taking place. One side of the battle was an army of skeletons that seemed to be the embodiment of the endless evil of the black woods; the other side was a group of villagers who settled in the black woods, and made every effort to protect their homeland and their lives. The fighting process was somewhat dull and monotonous. The skeletons rushed forward continuously in an attempt to undermine the wooden fences surrounding the village, while the villagers slung burning sticks out through the gaps in the fences, beating and burning the approaching skeletons. They dispersed the magic on their bodies with flames, so that they temporarily became harmless bones. Seen from Sui Xiong¡¯s side, the black tide was constantly surging toward the village surrounded by wooden fences, and then it was stopped by the red flame. The tide constantly fluctuated. With every fluctuation, there would be one or several skeletons reduced to bones, then scattered on the ground to form small gaps. Other skeletons soon followed up to fill up the gaps and continued their assault. This was a simple and repetitive process. At first glance, the villagers¡¯ defenses seemed impeccable. No matter how many skeletons came, they could only be stopped outside the wooden fences and rolled all the way back underground after sunrise. However, Sui Xiong did know that the balance of victory had completely tilted, and the failure of the villagers was impending. The reason was simple; they were tired. They needed to push back the skeletons that had rushed in front of the fence with every round of assault, and this was the only way they could prevent the skeleton¡¯s attack on their defences. The strength of skeletons was, however, not to be underestimated. Each time they were pushed back, a lot of effort was exerted. Villagers had probably pushed their troops back hundreds of times since the skeleton army came to their fences. More than a hundred of times did not seem to be much, but in fact, pushing back so many times was more than enough to tire an ordinary muscular man and make his body sore. Before the space travel, Sui Xiong had done physical workouts, and he could do fourteen to fifteen barbell presses for every set. But he only did four sets per day and no more than sixty reps, and it was almost his limit. However, these villagers must have had a higher ¡°exercise intensity¡± than he did. Given the large numbers of repetitions and no rest, their stamina was quite admirable for Sui Xiong because, until now, no one had collapsed because of exhaustion. However, these villagers were not men of bizzare strength, and now they were sweating. They were now only dragging on. But looking at the sky, Sui found that although the moon was to the west, it was still long before the sunrise. ¡°It seems that it is almost time for me to present myself?¡± Sui Xiong announced to himself. As he planned to suddenly emerge and make an impressive debut, things changed again. The atmosphere that Sui Xiong hated and shrouded the village every night had become powerful. Without warning, it rushed to the skeleton army like a wave from the sea. The crackling sound came together, and all the skeletons close to the fences were instantly disintegrated, and turned to pale-colored bones that spilled over. At the same time, Sui Xiong heard prayers. Many prayers joined together in a strange rhythm to promote the atmosphere¡¯s growth. He was surprised, and only recovered after a long while; This world was not the earth, so it had supernatural forces such as those skeletons. In the face of the attack of these forces, of course, it should be the supernatural forces that should be used to defend. Perhaps this was the real defense of the village, right? Facts proved that Sui Xiong was wrong again. Just when he was shocked, four young girls wearing black robes walked out of the stone house, each carrying a wooden cage covered with black cloth. They each walked to one side of the village, leaving the wooden cage to the four bulky men who had been there for a while. They cautiously took the cage, and forcibly threw it out over the fences and into the army of skeletons. Moments later, a shrilling roar sounded in the skeleton army. Four monsters, whose origin was unknown, unexpectedly appeared in the skeleton army, crazily raging. These monsters had the heads and wings of chickens, but had human-like torsos. Their sturdy limbs showed that they had an extraordinary strength, and their chicken-like hands and feet were very sharp. When they touched the skeletons, the skeletons fell and were broken as though they were frail! The monsters were also very tall, with the shortest being the height of three strong men combined and the tallest one even being the height of five people combined. ¡°Strange! Where did these monsters come from?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned as he watched what was happening. He could swear to Marx. When he observed this village over the past times, he never found any traces of these four monsters. He would have to have been blind to miss something so big! So, where did these four big guys come from? No, this was not the point. The point of the problem was that with the four big guys guarding the gate, the skeleton army seemed to be incapable of doing anything to this village. Sui Xiong did not have much fighting experience, and could not accurately evaluate how strong the four monsters were. But as they seemed invincible among the skeletons, and the monsters seemed to have gained the upper hand in battle. Although the skeletons had sufficient support in that they were endless, the skeletons of infinite numbers could not win against the four powerful monsters that could defeat a large amount of skeletons by simply waving their arms. Sui Xiong could not help but sigh. After all, he had underestimated these villagers who could settle down in the black woods! But within a short time, he found that his previous estimation was correct; this village was not actually that strong. Within about half an hour, the four monsters suddenly screamed shrilly, and their bodies, mostly intact since the battle began, began to tremble violently. A moment later, they were reduced into four pools of blood with four explosions. Seeing this scene, the villagers seemed a bit disappointed, while Sui was feeling relieved. It was still early, so Sui would still have time to implement his original plan to make an impressive debut as a savior. No, in fact, the situation was even better now. Because of the struggle from the four monsters, the number of skeletons had been cut by a lot. They were no longer as dense a tide like they were before. Although reinforcements from underground were still emerging, it would take some time to restore them to their former number. In contrast, the villagers, after this period of rest, had recovered much of their physical strength. Even if they were unable to hold the skeletons back, at least the entire line of defense would not suddenly collapse, so Sui Xiong could be sure of saving all the people when he made his debut. It was good, and it was nothing more than scaring the villagers. But after all, there would be no danger. Sui Xiong was confident that as long as he jumped to the village and circled around the fence, he could destroy over eighty percent of the skeleton army. He could leave two or three to attack in the future. No problem, everything was going according to his plan. The destruction of the four monsters was apparently something the villagers had been expecting. They simply sighed in disappointment, and continued to devote themselves to defending their homeland. The situation was no different from before. The skeletons rushed to the fences, and the villagers beat them back with burning wooden sticks. They burned again and again until the skeletons collapsed. But soon, Sui Xiong saw the problem.The strength of the villagers was far worse now!After all, they had been exhausted and failed to recover much despite the over-thirty-minute rest. After all, they had been exhausted and failed to recover much despite the over-thirty-minute rest. However, this was a small matter at the moment. When facing the moment of life or death, even a pig would exert the last bit of strength and fight until the end, let alone a person. Even though these villagers were out of breath, Sui Xiong bet that they could at least insist on fighting for another hour or more! In contrast to their determination, another crisis was imminent. The wooden fences could not hold against the skeletons much longer! The wood fences around the village were indeed solid, but they were just wood. In this night, they were being constantly attacked by the skeletons, and they were burnt innumerable times by the burning wood sticks. They were almost beyond their limit. If this world was a strategy game, perhaps the durability bars of the wooden fences would have turned from yellow to red, and they would collapse completely if the attacks did not let up. Once the fences were destroyed, the village¡¯s line of defense would be gone. It was at this time that the gate of the village, which had been closed, was opened. As if someone in the dark was controlling it in the distance, the skeleton army, crazily attacking the fences, stopped and rushed toward the opened gate. Sui Xiong was stunned. He could not understand the way these skeletons thought. The skeletons had struggled most of the night, and were about to destroy the entire wooden fences and to occupy the village, how could they drop the wood fences and rush to the gate when it was opened? What logic was this!? Sui Xiong reckoned that only in those old games at enlightenment levels would there be such a level of artificial intelligence, and that it would be considered a mentally handicapped level. Oh? These skeletons had been dead since long ago. And they were not artificial, let alone intelligent. As he secretly complained, the skeletons, originally surrounding the entire village, gathered at the gate and rushed forward. Those who were responsible for fighting against them were some strong men who were recuperating before. They were wearing armor made of beast leather and wielding heavy weapons such as axes and hammers, and they crushed the skeletons that rushed forward. Their strong bodies, thanks to years of logging, had an unusual power unmatched by those black skeletons, many of which fell apart. However, such fierce fighting meant an amazing physical consumption for the strong men. After around ten minutes, those strong men, who had logged for years, began panting. The bald janitor waved his hand, directing them to retreat, while he himself continued to block the skeletons¡¯ entry by leading two or three strong men into the fray. He was obviously much stronger than the lumberjacks. As he waved his axe, a few skeletons crumbled, as if he was mowing tall grass. Sui Xiong could not help but secretly feel surprised; This bald man did not seem to be particularly stronger than those lumberjacks, but his combat effectiveness obviously exceeded theirs, as if they were not the same species. What exactly did he eat to become so strong? He thought that after he had a good relationship with the people in this village, he must communicate with him properly. If he could learn from the janitor¡¯s strength, he could become stunningly strong through improving his physical capabilities! However, the supposed overbearing endurance of the bald janitor seemed to be problematic. Just after fighting about twice as long as average men did, he began to gasp and retreat, replaced by other lumberjacks so that he could rest. Of course, during this short period of time, he knocked down at least two or three hundred skeletons. It was a brilliant record. This guy was really strong! Chapter 10 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio The fighting was again in a cycle of repetition; The lumberjacks, then the bald janitor leading a few elites, then the lumberjacks again. They fought in this cycle and killed the steady stream of skeletons as though they were a meat grinder. However, without the wooden fence as their defense, it was not a good choice to attempt to withstand the steady stream of skeletons by relying entirely on human power. As the fighting continued, some lumberjacks were injured. Because of the impact, their physical abilities dropped rapidly. Fewer and fewer lumberjacks were able to continue fighting, and the time the bald man could rest became more brief, having to keep on fighting on the front lines to prevent the front line from collapsing through his bravery. This bald man was indeed a tough guy; As the fighting continued, he had more and more wounds and gradually became stained with blood. However, clenching his teeth, not only did he not retreat, but he also refused to show even a small expression of weakness. He kept on fighting. But bravery alone was not enough. The growing wounds and his gradually slowing actions gave him away; he too could not hold on for much longer. It seemed that the bald man would not be able to hold up. Sui nodded secretly and jumped out from the depths of the woods. Perhaps this village had other ideas, but Sui Xiong could not stand by idly with his arms crossed while she watched a hero battling for the safety of others. The huge body set off a gust of wind and huge tentacles waved, breaking trees and overturning the ground, like a tornado drawing traces of terror on the earth. They pushed Sui Xiong to march quickly while crossing almost ten miles. He finally rushed to the vacant space in front of the village. ¡°Demacia!¡± The giant jellyfish, roaring the lines of the game in a language that nobody could comprehend in this world, struck and smashed the skeletons crowding towards the gate of the village with its swinging tentacles. Boom! At least a hundred skeletons were smashed by the hit. Even the ground was deeply caved in. The monster¡¯s strange tremendous power was on full display. For these guys who only had bones left, the giant jellyfish was outrageously powerful. ¡°Haha! See, you trash!? I am strong, super strong! I am irresistibly and absolutely powerful!¡± Sui Xiong, laughing, waved his tentacles and whipped the skeletons, which were demolished. Although he had actually only shown a small portion of his own strength, this level of strength had been enough to wipe out a mighty army. The villagers, who had been in a bitter fight, were stunned by this chain of events. There was no way that they could have seen this coming! Experienced gamers had seen a Gailun jumping out of the grass before, but who could have expected such an astonishing happening as a giant dragon dropping from the sky? Fortunately, Sui Xiong had made this body quite reserved. Despite being bulky, it was not particularly ferocious. It had thick skin and plain colors, with no patterns or deformities. It was nothing more than a big monster with thick skin and tentacles. In contrast, the skeletons were more horrible. It was like an elephant and a hyena; although an elephant is much bigger than a hyena and can kill one, judging by appearances, the elephant looks more friendly. It is especially the case when the elephant is protecting you so that you will not be hurt by a hyena. Seeing Sui Xiong sweeping off the thousands of troops by waving tentacles in all directions and leaving bone dregs flying in a disorderly way, many villagers cheered up. However, behind the crowd, in the stone house that the sense of Sui Xiong¡¯s soul could not sense, there was a pair of old eyes that did not show the slightest joy, but rather surprise and anger. ¡°What the hell is this legendary creature!?¡± This was the night watchman and chief priest of White Leaves Village. He stared fiercely at the behemoth that was killing the skeleton group. He was so angry that even his beard was trembling. Having spent a lot of time, energy, and resources, he had arranged several ways of maneuvering, and was ready to take advantage of this year¡¯s Ash Night when the skeleton army sieged in order to greatly enhance his power through faith, and gain more followers for his religion. He could also see the old bald man, who posed a barrier to his preaching by always encouraging the villagers to be self-reliant, die. Originally, everything was going well. Seeing that everything was happening step by step, and the bald guy was going to die soon, the night watchman gathered that when he showed his power as a last resort and acted as a savior, the villagers would surely bow down to him. They had already bowed to him, but not in a pious way; they should sincerely worship him in the way that he devoted everything to His Majesty, and they should give His Majesty their faith as well. Shortly after the end of life, the night watchman would be able to proudly go to the heavenly kingdom of His Majesty. He prepared everything properly. When things happened step by step, all was under his command. However, this damn monster had ruined everything! Damn! Judging by this huge body and powerful force, it should be a cruel legendary monster, a monster that would destroy creatures so that people would fear it. But why had it come to protect humanity!? The chief priest, who was wearing a black gown, was already very old. When he was young he had been an adventurer, traveling everywhere around the continent. He had spread the glory of the gods they believed in, all while gathering wealth and enhancing their strength. He had also seen those huge, arrogant, and unprincipled monsters with a despairing force that arbitrarily did things to avail their strengths. But now, he saw a monster that was beyond imagination. It was strong, but not fierce. On the contrary, it was very friendly. More than once, he had seen the monster deliberately avoid hurting the villagers during the battle. At points, it was even willing to be taken advantage of, which gave the skeletons chances to attack it. But it always tried to protect the villagers. There was no doubt that this was a good monster. Perhaps it was not from the human world, but from some glorious, peaceful, and warm world. Was it a heavenly creature? A heavenly jellyfish? That would be unheard of. Aside from a little doubt, he felt more anger. This old chief priest had experienced many storms and failures, so it was not a big deal if the plan failed. A narrow failure could be tolerated, but he was more disappointed with the future. Because that big guy was so friendly to humans, it was likely to stay in this area and became a patron saint or something like that. With its guardianship, the nearby villages would certainly no longer have to rely on divine power to weather the crisis. This might not be a big problem for the Good God¡¯s Churches that were good at treating diseases, but it was a disaster for them, an Evil God¡¯s Church, which was maintained with fear and threats! Not to mention, good and evil had been rivals since ancient times; if that good monster would fight and kill even those less evil necromantic beings, would it spare him, the chief priest of an Evil God¡¯s Church, who was completely evil? He was afraid that after it had swept the skeleton army, it would smash His Majesty¡¯s holy mansion!! The old chief priest¡¯s chest fluctuated violently like a blacksmith¡¯s bellows. His anger was like a burning blast furnace, nearly making him crazy. It was absolutely intolerable! Fear and anger made him impatiently walk around, and disturb the girls around him who acted as priest assistants. Fortunately, he came to himself soon and calmed down. Anger could not solve the problem, but could bring more problems. He needed to remain calm, as things were not yet completely desperate. At this time, mortal power was useless. He could only pray to the great altar and ask for God¡¯s wisdom. ¡°The loyal vigilante, the sleepless one who guards the divine door, your servant is praying here, whose insignificant wisdom is no longer sufficient for the immediate situation. I pray that with your great wisdom, you could tell me how to do it!¡± At first, his prayer was not answered, but it did not take long before the little shrine gave off a strange radiance. The radiance was dark, but was inexplicably dazzling. It was even stranger as warmth and coldness was also released. Accompanying this strange light was an inexplicable will, which simply contacted the old priest before it disappeared immediately, together with the fantastic radiance as though it never existed. ¡°Strange! Is it my illusion?¡± When the radiance appeared, Sui Xiong felt that the annoying atmosphere was suddenly enhanced. He subconsciously looked at the stone house, but saw nothing special. When he intended to carefully watch, the atmosphere disappeared, and all was usual, so he wondered whether he just experienced an illusion. However, this idea was fleeting. It was not an easy task to properly protect the villagers while dealing with the skeleton army. At the moment, as he was repressing most of his own power and was even more strained, he did not have much room for distraction. Anyway, there was a long time left for future communication, so he didn¡¯t worry about it. But even if he didn¡¯t worry about it, his enemies would. In the stone house, in front of the shrine, the old priest who was praying with closed eyes opened his eyes. There was no worry or anxiety in his eyes, but a color of ecstasy. ¡°Great! The time has come for me to go to the kingdom of my God! The glorious moment of my life has finally arrived!¡± He laughed, opened the treasure box, and took out a wooden stick. There were many stains on the black wooden stick, and it looked like traces left by dried blood. The bloody scent in the air also proved this. There was a very sharp section and two blood grooves on the wooden stick, which meant once it was pierced into the body of prey, its blood would pour out along the blood groove and tint the special pattern of the stick. Those ¡°patterns¡± would turn the blood into magic by quickly building a miniature sacrificial rite, and would turn victims into offerings to the evil god. Many years ago, when the old priest was a young priest, he spent a lot on asking a magician, evil like him, to make him the wooden stick. He named it ¡°offering¡±, finished many sacrifices by using this, and pleased the gods with these sacrifices more than once. Why he was able to become a chief priest who presided over one side of the holy home, from a mediocre one, was largely attributed to this stick. Today, he had to use this stick again. This time, he would offer the best sacrifice! Chapter 11 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio After making his decision, the old officiant took off his top as he talked with the deacons about things they should and should not do. Then he began to draw a charm on his old and shrivelled body with the specially-refined chicken blood. He had drawn the charm numerous times, but since it was his first time drawing a charm on his body, he was a little bit clumsy. He grew annoyed and sighed when he realized this, and felt very sorry for the lack of preparation, so he asked his deacons for help. These deacons knew what this charm was for, and how dangerous it was as well, so they were very shocked when they saw this was all happening. Since in the Evil God¡¯s Church, people in the lower level must follow the orders given by people in the higher level, they had no choice but to follow his order. Soon, on the officiant¡¯s chest and back, plenty of scarlet charms were drawn, and those charms formed a bizarre magic array. He tried to have a go at the charm by practicing magic on the magic array, and happily nodded when he found that it worked. ¡°Do you remember what I have said?¡± he asked. The deacons nodded. ¡°Good. Later, all of you should pray to our Lord and let him decide who should be my successor. Sadly, my limited knowledge blocks me from seeing the future. You should all remember that you can only survive your death and be immortal for eternity by dedicating both your body and mind to our Lord!¡± The thin and shrivelled man began to smile with satisfaction. ¡°See, I am the best example.¡± Then he turned to face the baldacchino, while holding tightly the wooden stick ¡°sacrifice¡±, and stabbed his own chest with it. The enchanted hard stick was even harder than iron or steel. Its sharp end, which was just like a spear, directly pierced through his skin and penetrated his heart. The blood spurted out and splashed the enchanted stick, then the red stains became crimson lines that were spreading into the air in a circle. The phrases and sentences written in magic words were actually the paean to the evil god. Although the old officiant was severely injured, he still did not fall, and instead his mood elevated as if he did not feel any pain at all. He opened his arms, and made a posture of hugging. He was laughing aloud, and his laughter was as bright as the sunlight. To the deacons who had got used to his gloomy face, this was an incredible miracle. Then, his body began to wither rather quickly, and became a deadwood almost in the blink of an eye. ¡°My dear Lord, I can finally go to the world where you reside¡­¡± Came the whispering which was too weak to be heard. Now his body was already too disfigured to be recognized. Starting from the head, his body began to crumble and turned into dust. In a short time, the old officiant had already become a pile of dust, as if he had never existed in this world before. The baldacchino that was in front of the pile of dust started to dazzle in a red light, which was as red as the blood and as unfathomable as the ocean. Among the deacons, the oldest one took a deep breath, pulled himself together, and walked to the front of the baldacchino. He then held up a holy emblem, closed his eyes, and began to whisper the spell, while the other deacons stood around the baldacchino in a circle and sang the paean all together. Then the statue on the roof began to sparkle in red, at the same time, a strong negative energy arose, which was extremely terrifying. Sui Xiong immediately sensed this, and frowned. Although he did not believe the so-called ¡°Good Camp¡± or the ¡°Evil Camp¡±, he, as a good guy, was indeed disgusted by such a strong and negative energy. There was a saying, ¡°Do not attempt to work with people whose way is not your way.¡± ¡°B*stards! Having such a powerful tactic, while all this time they had just been keeping it a secret¡­¡± He glared at the statue and secretly kept an eye on it, while having a big fight against the skeleton army. Very soon, he found that he had made a huge mistake. The statue sent out a dazzling red light, which targeted not the skeletons, but him! As soon as the red light appeared, Sui Xiong had already known which direction it was aiming at. He dodged it subconsciously, or thought he could manage to do so. Although he had great strength and was very agile, he forgot a very important thing¡ª His body was not a human being¡¯s, but an enormous jellyfish. If he ran at a human¡¯s speed, he could easily dodge the red light, but since the jellyfish¡¯s body was too big, even though he had already moved a few meters in the blink of an eye, he did not manage to escape from it in time and was hit. After he was hit, he felt a weird energy which had come out of nowhere, and it was quite magnificent and frighteningly dignified. Accompanied with the energy was a disorderly and fierce willpower, as if thousands of people were shouting at him and asking him to kneel down and surrender. Although he still did not know too much about this world, his instinct told him that he must never give in, otherwise he would be doomed for eternity! Sui Xiong¡¯s instinct was right. The spell he was under was called ¡°Thrall¡±, which was a powerful magic tactic could only be practiced by the Evil God. Practicing this magic was heavily restricted, which meant that one could only practice it around a Hallow that was given a particular attention by a god. However, this tactic also came with a big price: a faithful officiant must be sacrificed so as to build a connection with the God¡¯s Kingdom, and then the enemy could be brought to his knees with the God¡¯s power. This magic was indeed very powerful; once a person who was hit failed to stand up to the great pressure from the God¡¯s Kingdom, he would become a faithful servant of the God. But this tactic¡¯s effect was not that obvious on tough men, since every strong man had gone through countless adversities and shed blood or sweat on their way toward success. The God¡¯s Kingdom was indeed magnificent, but the tough mens¡¯ will were still quite something. So, trying to tame them in this tactic was very unlikely. But for huge, mentally feeble creatures that had used all of their energy to make themselves more powerful, this magic was not something they were capable of resisting. Inside many Churches of the Evil God, there were many huge creatures that were enslaved and fed to be their strong helpers. That old officiant in the White Leaves Village meant to practice the thrall to brainwash the huge jellyfish and make it a helper of the church. Once he managed to do so, his church could defeat other churches in the surrounding area, and then he could rule the whole area. To do this, he would not even mind sacrificing himself. He was indeed a tough guy! The old officiant¡¯s sacrifice had actually paid off. For Sui Xiong, this was the biggest crisis he ever faced since he had been transported. The great pressure from the Evil God¡¯s Kingdom made him dizzy, and he felt his soul shaking. The thought of giving in arose more than once, but every time it started, he managed to kill it. Even so, every time when the thought appeared again, it always became much more powerful than the last. In the world of his own mind, there were already frightful billows and terrible waves. He felt he had become a small boat floating in the waves of the sound that was forcing him to surrender, and he could be defeated and drown in the water at any time. ¡°I can not go on like this!¡± He was both frightened and angry, and subconsciously practiced a life-saving magic tactic. The gemstone inside his big jellyfish¡¯s body heavily trembled and began to dazzle in a bluish white light, instantly, his whole body started to dazzle and became as transparent as a gem. Meanwhile, an incredible magic energy erupted and became an actual solid shield, which firmly kept that assault outside. The magic energy of Sui Xiong¡¯s and the energy of the God collided with each other violently, continually creating a booming sound which was extremely terrifying. At the same time, a cold air kept spreading and immediately pervaded a few miles. As long as they had an actual form, no matter what they were¡ª the people, the skeletons, the grasses, the trees, the rocks, the irons or the steels¡ª as soon as they touched the cold air, they were all frozen inside the hard ice, changed from the cold air. In particular, more than half of them could not stand this extreme coldness that the human world never had known before, and became very weak and fragile. One could imagine that when the ice began to melt, they would all turn into powder. The raging sound in Sui Xiong¡¯s mind suddenly stopped, and the magnificent pressure weakened too. Before it finally disappeared, Sui Xiong howled and strove to crush that pressure into pieces. Now he finally got time to have a look at the surroundings to see what on earth had happened. What he saw was a dreary scene. The whole village, all the farmlands and open ground had already been frozen, even the forest far off in the distance. Everything covered within the bluish white ice was still, quiet and lifeless. Only the statue on the roof of the stone house was still sparkling red, while the red light was gradually weakening, and in a short while, it vanished as well. He was silent for a while and sighed deeply, then he started to absorb the cold air back into his body, and stored it in the gemstone. He found that the cold energy he had stored for such a long time had been consumed more than thirty percent in such a short period. It was only that one move that had turned the whole village into a dead land. The animals, humans, and even the skeletons were deeply buried underground, and had been completely destroyed. The moon was still shining in the sky, but there were no more skeletons coming out of the ground anymore. Not long ago, the villagers and the skeletons were still in a big fight. Now, they were all lying on the ground as lifeless remains. ¡°This is¡­completely unbelievable!¡± Sui Xiong lowered his head and forced a smile in silence. His big jellyfish body trembled and floated in the cold air that had not entirely drifted away. After a long time, when the sun rose, he suddenly woke up with a start, and strode toward that stone house. He had a gut feeling that the answer to all these strange events could be found inside. Because the village was not that big, it only took two to three steps for him to walk into the stone house, and since his jellyfish body was too big to enter, Sui Xiong decided to tear the house apart. He grasped the roof with his tentacles and struggled to pull. The firm roof shook a little bit before it separated from the house. He held it up and looked inside the house, and now everything was revealed in front of him. Sui Xiong shot a glance at the lifeless girls in black, sighed, and then focused on the baldacchino. Still, he had a gut feeling that this baldacchino was the key. He put the roof aside, and reach out one of his tentacles to touch the baldacchino. Before he even touched it, a cruel and cold willpower came out of nowhere, and prevented him from moving forward. It was the same as the willpower that tried to enslave him last night, majestic, cold and supercilious. Sui Xiong humphed and activated the cold energy before that willpower overcame him. This time, the bluish white cold air only enshrouded a small area¨C only himself and the baldacchino. The willpower was indeed kept out by the cold air. At the same time, Sui Xiong rolled his tentacles and entangled the baldacchino, trying to pull it out from the ground. Seeing that the baldacchino was going to be taken away, the willpower suddenly grew very angry. Meanwhile, thick clouds appeared in the clear sky, and the inexhaustible power of its killing-instinct shrouded the land like a thick fog. Sui Xiong had no idea where this willpower came from, but it was indeed powerful, and great changes had taken place both in the sky and on the land before it even initiated attack. But he was not afraid at all. The cold energy condensed quickly, and became a sharp knife. He felt as if there was a fire in his heart, and thought that since the willpower was asking for trouble, it should also have realized that it would be stabbed once or twice by him as a result! Both he and the willpower had prepared to fight, and the conflict was about to start at any time. But before they took any action, a golden lightning rod struck across the sky and tore the dark clouds apart. Meanwhile, a laughing sound of an old man came out, which was very delightful. The cruel and cold willpower was both frightened and angry, but since it would not want to be caught between two fires, it left resentfully. The warm and heroic willpower spread toward Sui Xiong, and became a golden light which fell on the barrier of the cold energy and started to permeate. The golden light was very vigorous, and it refreshed him, cheered him up, and even refilled the energy he had exhausted earlier. Soon, the golden light disappeared, with only the magnificent sound of an old man still echoing in the sky. Although he could not understand the sound, he could felt that the sound conveyed a clear message¡ªkindness and encouragement. Chapter 12 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio ¡°After all, there are still kind people in the world!¡± Sui Xiong cheered delightfully, while smiling and waving to the sky, then he focused on the baldacchino. He could actually feel that the baldacchino contained a powerful magic energy, or in other words, something connected with the magic energy. Or, to put it more precisely, there was the same willpower but much weaker, something like the cruel and cold willpower occupying on the baldacchino. It was now imprisoned in the cold energy, and draining away due to losing the supply from the outside. Sui Xiong absolutely would not allow his spoils of war to drain away like this, and he hesitated for a while, but then his soul reached out its hands, ready to seize the baldacchino. Suddenly, a purple-black light flashed, and his hand was stopped by that willpower. ¡°Oh? Seems there is a knack to it.¡± Instead of being angry about this, Sui Xiong was amazed. ¡°Let me see how far you can go then!¡± His soul clenched its fist, and smashed the baldacchino. Once, twice, thrice¡­ The defensive power of that willpower was getting weaker and weaker. The willpower was finally defeated by his punch, and could never fight back. ¡°Now I think it is time to finish this, right¡­?¡± Sui Xiong was laughing hard. He caught that willpower and swallowed it, which had fallen into chaos after being defeated. After all these years of travelling, he had already found that apart from ¡°eating¡±, there was more than one way to devour a soul. In fact, as long as his soul touched the others¡¯, he could directly devour it simply by touching it. Compared to devouring a soul by eating, it was less efficient to do so by touching, but it could help him to get purer energy by filtering out the impurities of the others¡¯ soul. More than half of these impurities were memories and experience, which were not totally useless, but still, most of them lacked value. To avoid being greatly influenced every time he devoured a soul, he would use his soul¡¯s energy to get rid of some useless impurities, which was quite troublesome. If it were not for his mastering the technique of absorbing the magic power and being able to use this power to supply his soul with energy, much more time would be wasted, simply on the process of eating and filtering the impurities. So in the recent years, he had no longer used the technique of devouring to absorb a soul¡¯s energy, but by touching. However, today¡¯s spoil of the war was rather different, which was worth swallowing and digesting slowly! Also, the magic energy on the baldacchino should be dealt with properly and not be wasted, although it was totally different from Sui Xiong¡¯s cold energy. If he could figure it out and master it, he would be able to get one more powerful magic tactic, which would be immensely helpful, either for self-protection or attacking enemies in the future. Not to mention, he had bred enmity with the owner of that cruel and cold willpower, and there was bound to be conflict between the two of them. If he could know more about his enemy, the chances of winning would be greater. Therefore, Sui Xiong took the baldacchino with him and left. To make sure he would be safe, he left the Black Forest and went into the endless sea. Since he had been relying on the huge jellyfish body, for him, the sea was the main battlefield where he could best demonstrate his power. When the huge jellyfish swam into the deep sea, in the remote void of space, a dark, cold and quiet world, a magnificent figure watching the human world shook his head. ¡°He is rather cautious.¡± He announced, ¡°The sea is not our territory, since he has hid into the deep sea, there is nothing we can do about it.¡± ¡°It will come out eventually,¡± an amazingly tall and heavy armor-wearing figure replied. ¡°Yes, but when that time comes, we would never be able to find him without the guiding of the willpower on your baldacchino, unless his path crosses with yours again.¡± ¡°We will meet again.¡± A short and old figure said, ¡°Since it has already started, there will be further development and a final result. Also, that jellyfish does not seem like a short-lived creature, so it will show itself sooner or later.¡± ¡°When that time comes, we must make him give in, and we can make good use of his powerful energy.¡± The magnificent figure said, ¡°Maybe it is worth us sacrificing the seat of a god.¡± ¡°It is not only us watching it, haven¡¯t you found it strange that something else is seeking it?¡± The old figure warned them. The magnificent figure was silent for a while, and then said, ¡°Go and check on that.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± came a sound in the darkness. ¡°Let¡¯s call it a day then. Our main job is fighting for the priesthood of Dark Night and Death. Since this has a lot to do with the vicissitude of us Night Gods, please take this seriously.¡± The gods replied one by one, then they left and went to do what each of them thought was right. Time passed slowly. For those figures who were called ¡°Great¡±, ¡°Immortal¡± by the mortal, time elapsing was not a big deal. In their view, time was often calculated on the length of one or two generations, or one or two centuries. While for the human, it was rather different. ¡°Ah¡­ My enhancing ability in seclusion is finally over!¡± Sui Xiong breathed a sigh of relief and could not help but laugh when he saw the blue sky and white clouds again, which he had not seen for a very long time. Staying in the deep sea alone, digesting the spoils of war and enhancing his ability all by himself were not easy things to do. They were all very different from his enhancing his ability in seclusion last time in the ice trench. At that time, he would often go back to the sea surface to relax. But this time, to avoid being seen by enemies, he just hid in the sea all the time, not even daring to go to the shallows. By digesting the willpower that had been defeated by him, he received much information that he had been longing for, which included several kinds of commonly-used languages and characters, some basic facts of this world¡¯s biology, geography, politics, the way to use energy, and so on. Most importantly, he had found out whom he had made an enemy of this time. As it turned out, it was the God of the Night Gods, or the Night Watcher, Wu Mian, who was a real god. The world he was in was a world where all those unscientific creatures, like gods and monsters, existed. A world where there were as many powerful creatures as trees in a forest. Among them, there were some powerful creatures which were worthy of the title of the ¡°Real God¡±. Not only were they extremely powerful, but they were also incredibly omnipotent. For example, they could absorb energy from their followers¡¯ beliefs, and achieve the integration of the source energy. No matter what, judging from all the information Sui Xiong had gotten, they were indeed incredibly powerful! The willpower Sui Xiong got came from the belief those villagers of the White Leaves Village had during the sacrifice activities all these years, and it was also mixed with the influence God Wu Mian had brought when he showed himself a few times. So it was a bit disordered. More than ninety percent of it was the paeans to the God Wu Mian. If these paeans were all real, it only proved that the God Wu Mian was so incredibly powerful that the God who ever said ¡°Let there be light¡±, the Buddha who ever said ¡°Escape from the human world of woes and find salvation¡±, and the Daoist who ever said ¡°The destiny of things that were born before the heaven and the earth had already been decided¡±, were all shadowed by him. Sui Xiong was so lucky that he could even escape and survive after provoking the God Wu Mian. He must have knocked and broken many wooden-fishes, or saved enough ghost money to fill a few warehouses, otherwise, he could not be so lucky. Of course, these were just things he was boasting about. Since Sui Xiong was not dumb, he knew that the God Wu Mian was indeed powerful, but was still frightened by that golden light and had ran away! Not to mention, Sui Xiong¡¯s own cold energy could just stand his willpower. So it was definitely all bragging that the God Wu Mian was that magnificent! However, the God Wu Mian was not someone who was easy to get along with either. He was a member of the ¡°Night Gods¡±, an evil God who loved the taste of blood and horror. The chief God of the ¡°Night Gods¡± was the ¡°King of Night¡±, a vampire in the Archeozoic Era. The gods he led were all nothing but dark war-crafts, and the ¡°Night Watcher¡±, who was insidious but calm and loyal, was his castle¡¯s gatekeeper before he was apotheosized. In the past six hundred years, starting from the time when the gatekeeper was under the King of Night¡¯s command, until the time when he became an immortal, he had always been dutiful, and never slacked at his work. He never rested when he was injured, he never slept when he was tired, even until he died. This incredible loyalty was praised by his Lord, and when his Lord, the King of Night, was apotheosized, he was also elevated to the rank of a God from an old subordinate who was too fragile to even hold a knife. His title was called ¡°Wu Mian¡± (sleepless), or the ¡°Night Watcher¡¤God Wu Mian¡±, which was what he often was called. Simply put, the God Wu Mian was just a gatekeeper of the King of Night. But one should never underestimate him, even many powerful heroes in the famous Chinese Wuxia novel ¡°The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils¡± were easily defeated by a old man whose duties were just guarding the entrance and sweeping the floor in the Shaolin Temple Scripture Library. The God Wu Mian was not just an ordinary gatekeeper. In his few hundreds of years working career, he had already hacked five to six ¡°legendary strong men¡±. Also, after he was apotheosized, he had successfully hacked some enemies in the wars with other gods. Thus, he was indeed worth the title of the best soldier of the Night Gods. Though God Wu Mian had been enough to make Sui Xiong feel that he was under pressure, Sui Xiong felt he was not just under ¡°great¡± pressure, rather he was under ¡°tremendous¡± pressure, when he thought that there was the whole Night Gods behind the God Wu Mian. Therefore, he worked harder to improve his ability. On one hand, by studying the magic energy on the baldacchino, he could have a deeper understanding of how the various energies in this world functioned and how to practice them. In this way, he would be able to acquire more tactics. On the other hand, he had extracted all the valuable information from that willpower and strove to memorize it. After this, not only did he have a better control over the cold energy, but he had also mastered the energy of shadow, death and guarding. In this world, it meant that he had already mastered the energies of four fields. To be precise, he had reached the acme of practicing the cold energy tactic, and once the right time came, he could further enhance it, and become an immortal God. As for how to realize this¡­he guessed that he would probably need another few hundred years or so¡­ However Sui Xiong could not be patient enough to spend a few hundred more years improving his ability. Actually, enhancing his ability in seclusion and in total darkness had almost driven him crazy. So as soon as he felt he had reached his limit and he could no longer calm down, he left the deep sea and headed for the land. Before that, he managed to find a volcano in the sea, and threw that useless baldacchino into it. If the information about the God Wu Mian that was contained in the baldacchino was true, then the God Wu Mian could only locate him through the baldacchino. Now¡­ The God Wu Mian could locate him in the magma! Using his big tentacles, Sui Xiong erected the biggest middle finger the world had ever saw, and stuck it at the baldacchino that was slowly sinking into the magma. Then he walked away without turning back. He had decided that he would never come back to this volcanic vent in his lifetime! ¡°Human world, I am coming!¡± Chapter 13 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio The White Leaves Village was very quiet, and it seemed that there was still some cold air lingering. The houses were already broken, there was a thick layer of ash covering the earth, and Sui Xiong could see some remains from the ashes. Looking from afar, he shook his head and sighed deeply. He had already known the causes and effects of that incident, as well as why that old officiant sneak attacked him¡ªbecause the good and the evil were always each others¡¯ natural enemy. The war between the good and the evil, the war between different ideas, and the war among people of different stances¡­ To put it simply, they were the wars between ideologies. On the earth, the war between different ideologies had developed into a war between two groups lead by two superpowers respectively, and to intimidate each other, they had laid out weapons of mass destruction that were enough to kill the entire human race several times. But in this world, among different Gods, countries, races, and religious sects, they would have had a big fight with each other simply because of the different ideologies. Compared with this, the old officiant¡¯s acts of returning his generous act with enmity and sneak attacking him were actually nothing. The few hundreds of people in the White Leaves Village died, and it was simply because of the old officiant¡¯s desire to have a fight between different ideologies. Sui Xiong did not regret what he had done, which was using his cold energy to defend himself, although he was sacrificing the lives of the innocent. Because at that moment, he did not know much about this world, he was facing big crisis and struggling to win, so what was wrong with that? Even so, he still felt very sympathetic for those innocent villagers who died, and was very angry with the world where the wars between different ideologies could be so serious that few could understand. ¡°This world is kind of sick¡­¡± While sighing, Sui Xiong walked around the village in a circle in his huge jellyfish body, dug a deep trench, and made it a simple magic circle with his tentacles, which were much stronger and more powerful than any hoe. This simple magic circle was the Guarding Circle, which could prevent the dead inside the circle from turning into creatures that came back to life. The so-called creature that came back to life referred to the creature whose body would be revived, and became moving war-crafts after being eroded by the Dark energy, or the Negative energy in this world. But they had no intelligence, and would only attack things, even the most common creatures in nature that contained the positive energy by instinct. This was based on the principle that two objects with opposite charges would attract. Before Sui Xiong was transported, he was addicted to the online game, and had played many computer games. In his view, the creature that came back to life and became war-crafts should be called the Undead. In fact, the so-called ¡°Undead¡± could be divided into two categories: the creatures that came back to life, and the creatures that never died. As for the former, they were just simple war-crafts without any intelligence, while for the latter, they had both intelligence and strength, and could become demons that would continue to grow stronger and stronger. The creatures that never die were from all sorts of different backgrounds, and they were also backed up by Gods and other war-crafts, so they were a force that could never be underestimated. While the creatures that came back to life were not quite the same, and had no intelligence, they could not provide the energy came from belief. They would neither be cherished or protected because they could not do a job that was even a bit complex, and they would even be despised by most other creatures of the same kind. They had the lowest status and could not go any lower. Although, in fact, many creatures that never die evolved from them. But it was them that had been a huge threat to the people who lived in the Dark Forest. The Dark Forest, which should be called in its formal name, is known as the the Ash Forest. It is said that in the ancient times, some Gods got into a big fight there, and the Gods who died turned into ashes and spoiled the forest. Since then, the forest had become the cradle of negative energy, continually sending out the energy which kept eroding the land around it, and integrating and turning the remains in the forest into creatures that came back to life. What was strange was that no matter how strong they became, they could not evolve, which made the Ash Forest not appealing to thugs who tried to recruit creatures that came back to life. Only poor farmers would be willing to work hard to plow the land here. After analyzing the energy on the baldacchino that belonged to the God Wu Mian, Sui Xiong had mastered the tactic of absorbing the negative energy. The magic circle he made was meant to extract all the negative energy inside the circle, and then disperse it. Without the negative energy, the remains of the dead would not become the Undead anymore. It was really convenient to do things with a big body. Although Sui Xiong did not have any tools, he still quickly made a magic circle only with his powerful tentacles. As a student who came from the department of fine arts of a third-rate school of art, Sui Xiong managed to draw a perfect magic circle with what he had learned. Before activating the magic circle, he walked into the White Leaves Village again, and had a closer look at it. This magic circle could greatly weaken the intensity of the negative energy inside the circle, and if there were some creatures that came back to life, they would also die. Although the creatures that came back to life were very rare, maybe he could even find one or two. As he had expected, he did find one in the remains. It was an Undead that had only its soul left. It was in a fighting stance, and ready to fight with an enemy that did not even exit. Sui Xiong instantly recognized it as the bald man, who was tall and agile. The strongest warrior in this village! According to the information he got from the baldacchino, this tough man was called Gerrard Cabannes, who was once a lansquenet. Because he had offended a big gun, he ran away and began to live in seclusion in the Ash Village. He had no faith or respect for the Gods, and only believed his own axe. Since he liked to teach people, and had a high reputation in this village, he became a sore in the officiant¡¯s eyes and a thorn in his flesh. All the powerful creatures in this world could be put into three ranks based on their ability, which was the Bronze Rank, the Silver Rank and the Gold Rank. When a creature got a higher rank, its life form would change, which was the symbol of getting a higher rank. On the Gold Rank, were the legendary creatures who had an extremely long lifespan and were amazingly powerful. and past the Gold Rank¡­ Was the Saviors. Gerrard and the old officiant were on the Bronze Rank, so normally, if twenty or thirty strong men attacked one of them all together, neither of them would lose. But since the officiant was old and feeble, while Gerrard was in his prime of life, the old officiant was always the one who lost during the few conflicts that had happened between them. As the officiant of the Evil God, he had received many tactics to use. But Gerrard was a very cunning man who had years of life experience, and never gave the old officiant any chance to sneak attack him, until the night of that big fight, when the old officiant sacrificed himself to activate the Thrall and sneak attacked Sui Xiong. However, the result was that both Gerrard and all the villagers became the funerary objects, which was something he never thought would happen. Sui Xiong was watching the Undead, and found that most parts of its body had dimmed, and almost became nothingness, apart from a light was still shimmering in the place of its heart. He was sure that soon the Undead was to disappear and turn into a part of the negative energy that was permeating in the Ash Forest. Now that Sui Xiong had come, things may turn out to be different. Sui Xiong thought for a while, then he released his magic energy and turned it into a gray ball which shrouded Gerrard. Inside the ball, was the pure negative energy. Controlled by Sui Xiong¡¯s magic energy, it continually sank into Gerrard¡¯s soul and made the fragile Undead quickly grow strong. In a short moment, this undead¡¯s face was just like a living person¡¯s, and the face was glowing intelligently. The undead stood still, while looking around in a puzzle. ¡°What¡­is going on?¡± ¡°You were dead.¡± Sui Xiong said. Gerrard turned around to see the huge jellyfish monster, and it was easy to tell from his eyes that he was still confused. ¡°Then why on earth am I here?¡± Sui Xiong sighed, then he explained what had transpired to Gerrard in detail. ¡°I see¡­¡± After Gerrard heard what had happened, he was silent for a long time, and then he heaved a long sigh. ¡°What are you going to do then?¡± Sui Xiong asked when he saw Gerrard was quite depressed. ¡°Will you go to Hell or the Holy Kingdom?¡± In this world, there were only two places to go when a soul did not want to vanish or become a creature that never died. One place was Hell. There, it could take its chances to see if it would degenerate into an evil monster, or walk into the River Styx to wash away all the marks of its preexistence and be reincarnated. The other place was the Holy Kingdom where the gods that it believed in lived. There, it could become a creature of the Holy Kingdom, and got to live many years, and at last, it would integrate itself into the Holy Kingdom and became a part of the building of the Holy Kingdom. Actually, Sui Xiong did not get too much information about this, so he was not clear about what on earth the life in Hell or the Holy Kingdom was really like, but in his view, neither of them was a good place to go. If a soul wanted to be reincarnated, let it be. And by the way, why on earth was there a chance that it could become a monster in Hell!? Also, it was not bad to live in the Holy Kingdom, but why it would have to be integrated into the Holy Kingdom and become the building material!? Gerrard was silent for a while, and he said, ¡°I once had faith in the Patron of Thieves, but later I gave up my faith and became a non-believer ever after, so I can not go to the Holy Kingdom. And about Hell¡­ I do not want to go there either¡­¡± ¡°Well, there were only two ways left then: to vanish or become a creature that will never die. Which would you choose?¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°I do not recommend you to choose the first one, and if you want to be a creature that never dies, I can help you with my power, which is kind of strong, if you do not mind me saying so. And I can help to prevent you from losing your senses completely.¡± ¡°I do not want to be a Wraith or a Death Knight¡­¡± ¡°You are indeed a bit fastidious.¡± Gerrard laughed and replied, ¡°Who would¡¯ve thought I could joke together with a legendary powerful creature when I am already dead, even after I was chased after by a few killers of the Bronze Rank, and being hunted like a dog¡­ Okay, never mind, I have moved on already. It is fine even if I am going to vanish.¡± There was a phrase from a Chinese poem, which was ¡°The most difficult thing on earth would probably be his willingness to die¡± Now that Gerrard was not even afraid of death, this made him look a bit more dignified. However, Sui Xiong did not want him to die just like this, since Gerrard was not a bad person, and had had a thing or two up his sleeve. Besides, the most important thing was that Gerrard had been many places all these years, and was very knowledgeable with abundant experience. Sui Xiong, on the other hand, was not familiar with this world. As for the information he got from the baldacchino, the more he referred to it, the more doubtful he became. If Sui Xiong could get Gerrard to his side and make him his guide, it would be really nice. Also, he could save himself a lot of trouble by making Gerrard agree to pretend to be a Archmage, and faking a legendary creature himself summoned by Gerrard. After all, he had such a huge body, if he did not give himself a decent identity, no matter where he went, there would be panic! Then Sui Xiong pondered a while, and finally made his decision. ¡°How about¡­ I make a new body for you¡­?¡± he said. ¡°What?¡± Gerrard stared at him as if he was in a trance, and had no idea what he meant. ¡°I can try to make a new body for you to see if you can possess it with your spirit, and be reincarnated.¡± Gerrard was overjoyed, but still a bit hesitant since Necromancy was notorious, and he could not be too wary of what repercussions he would face when he agreed. On a second thought, he believed that there was no need for such a powerful creature to lie to a small ordinary person like him. Among the many stories in folktales, there were always some devils managing to tricking people into signing a contract. Even so, those people were often some great people with a bright future. Who would willing to spend his precious time in tricking a soon-to-be vanished soul of an already dead pathetic adventurer like himself? If this creature intended to do so, it could cast a spell and be able to command the creature that never dies¡­ While thinking of this, Gerrard finally calmed down, but he could not help but ask, ¡°Will this really work?¡± Sui Xiong laughed and encouraged him, ¡°Just have a try, and maybe it will work. And since you have already been ready to die, you have nothing to lose, even if it does not work.¡± This was all very convincing, like when a person had decided not to play a certain game, but they could gain experience or currency by using an unauthorized third party plugin. In other words, it was extremely enticing. ¡°Okay, fine!¡± Gerrard thought about this for a while, then he did what he had been told by Sui Xiong. The process of making a new body began. Chapter 14 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio ¡°Is the human body made this way? Why do I feel it¡¯s a bit weird¡­?¡± Gerrard scratched his head and frowned while looking at the set of skeletons Sui Xiong had made. This immediately made Sui Xiong angry. Sui Xiong snapped back, ¡°How can it be weird!? Do you know what I specialize in? Let me tell you, I have drawn more human bodies than you have ever killed! So I can never be wrong!¡± ¡°But I still feel like it is not right¡­¡± Sui Xiong was speechless, then he used his tentacles to fetch a skeleton from the distance, put down, and used it as a reference. Then, he inquired, ¡°Look at the skeleton, and compare it to the one I¡¯m making. Don¡¯t you see that they are the same?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t the structure of a skeleton¡­ a bit too fragile?¡± Gerrard looked more worried, while watching an almost broken skeleton that was close to him. Sui Xiong casually shook his tentacles, laughed aloud and confidently boasted, ¡°Trust me, I will use as much material as making a new body needs, and I can assure you that this new body will be hard enough that even an axe could not break it!¡± Gerrard recalled the skeletons he saw just now, and grew bit concerned. Then he questioned, ¡°Will it lack elasticity? Because I feel like a skeleton moves very stiffly¡­¡± Sui Xiong was in a daze for a while, thinking carefully before replying, ¡°I can make the bones into more sections, and add more muscle, so it can be flexible. ¡°As long as it is powerful enough, it will not be a big deal if it looks strange, right?¡± Sui Xiong asked, and did not give a damn about whatever answer he would receive. Gerrard finally thought it through, and replied, ¡°You are right, I am already very lucky to be able to live again, so there is no need to be so particular¡­ By the way, please strengthen the muscles.¡± ¡°That is easy! You can count on me!¡± Sui Xiong promised while shaking his tentacles. Gerrard was very happy. Then he had another idea, and he continued, ¡°Is it easy? Then how about hardening the skin and making it into a natural armor? And also the Darkvision, antitoxic and so on¡­¡± ¡°Hardening the skin is easy, the Darkvision is not difficult either, but the antitoxic is not that easy.¡± Sui Xiong thought, before replying, ¡°Let me get you a magic antitoxic system.¡± ¡°But I can not practice magic,¡± Gerrard replied in a daze. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I can teach you.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°Will I be able to practice all the magic you know?¡± Sui Xiong thought a while and got an idea, then he confirmed, ¡°As long as I can also make a gemstone for you.¡± ¡°¡­Then what will I be, a human or a warcraft?¡± Gerrard was confused. ¡°Anyone who pays too much attention to that is a fool! As long as the new body is good, what is the point of worrying if you are a human or a warcraft then!?¡± Sui Xiong crowed, while swinging his tentacles in a very cool way. ¡°¡­How can I not care about this!? Be sensible, the body structure is clearly a body of warcraft!¡± Gerrard was totally stunned. ¡°Do not worry, you will look like a human, apart from your body being a bit bigger than normal.¡± Gerrard wormed his way into that body, and he controlled it with his mind. Then, the body began to stand up in a unsteady way. ¡°¡­This is way too big,¡± Gerrard complained when he found that he was so tall that he could even see above the roof. ¡°Don¡¯t you think it is just the right size? Now, your enemies can no longer recognize you.¡± ¡°¡­Why do I feel like I have been tricked¡­?¡± The newborn giant scratched its head nervously, feeling rather complicated. It was hard to tell if it was happy or depressed¡­ But either way, Gerrard Cabannes had indeed come back to life again. Sui Xiong had made a new body for Gerrard by consuming the nutrition he had stored in his body. This new body was extremely powerful. It could pull out a tree which had the same width of a human¡¯s waist; it could run faster than a flying bird; it could use its arm to stand against an axe; it could see things in the darkness; it could chew wood as if it was chewing a cookie; and it could even eat something poisonous and still be fine¡­ But there was only one problem: a conservative estimate of it¡¯s height was around four meters, which was way too big, and when it stood up, it would be taller than two men stacked together. Gerrard himself was not satisfied with this body at all, because no matter how he looked at this body, he still felt it was not the body of a normal human. While Sui Xiong thought the big head was okay, which was way smaller than his, he did not make any comment on the new body¡¯s height, since he knew that they would walk side by side in the coming days, and if the new body¡¯s height was much shorter than his own height, it would look too weird. Since Gerrard came back to life, he was a bit of reserved in front of Sui Xiong, and Sui Xiong thought he was kind of absent-minded. ¡°I used to live in the sea, so I am not that familiar with the land.¡± Sui Xiong picked a topic, ¡°I plan to live in a place where there are people. Do you have any recommendations?¡± ¡°Any village will be fine,¡± Gerrard answered, while watching the sky in the east. It was dawn, and soon the sun would come out. Judging from the sky, it seemed that today would be a sunny day. ¡°What are you watching?¡± Sui Xiong asked in curiosity. ¡°I am waiting for the sun to come out.¡± The sun? Sui Xiong was confused and looked at the sky. Was the sun in this world a very special one? Or was it because he believed in Helios, so he needed to pray to the sun when it came out? After a while, the sun came out, and the golden sunlight was shining upon the earth. Since Gerrard was too big to find any clothes to fit in, he was naked in the sunlight. He stood still like a statue, with the sunlight shining upon his angular, firm muscles, as well as his tough and terrifying face. Initially, he seemed a bit nervous, but with the sunlight getting stronger, he gradually calmed down, became happy, and finally relaxed. ¡°I¡­AM INDEED ALIVE¡­¡± ¡°You are alive, your heart is beating, your blood is flowing in circulation, and your organs are working fine. You are not only alive, but you are also very healthy!¡± Sui Xiong thought Gerrard was doubting his skill and got a bit annoyed. ¡°Do not underestimate me! Making a human body is just a piece of cake to me!¡± Before he even finished his words, Gerrard had already knelt down,kneeled before him, and started to kiss the tentacles that supported him. ¡°My dear Lord, you are my savior, my belief, and the home of my soul!¡± Gerrard was so sincere and faithful, and Sui Xiong was quite startled by this. ¡°Gerrard, what happened? Are you sick? What¡¯s wrong with you? It can¡¯t be! Your body is so strong, even if it can become ill, you can not just fall ill by bathing in the sunlight!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, I am perfectly well.¡± ¡°Then why are you behaving like this? And this is absolutely not fine at all!¡± Gerrard paid his obeisance to Sui Xiong again, then he stood up. He was very, very humble, and it seemed that he was going to make his admiration known at any time from now. ¡°Well, it seems that Your Majesty has not realized who you really are. Your Majesty, you are not a legendary creature, rather, you are a god in the human world who just woke up!¡± ¡°What?¡± Sui Xiong was in a daze, then he examined himself closely, and was sure that he was totally different from the Gods that were mentioned in the information he got from the baldacchino. He shook his head and explained, ¡°You are mistaken, I am just an ordinary wanderer. Well, a wanderer with a big body.¡± Gerrard did not continue to argue with Sui Xiong on this subject, and said calmly, ¡°Only the Gods have the ability to bring a dead back to life. Even the most brilliant spell can make a creature with a human-like body, as well as a monster. It could only be a creature that exists between life and death, and can only move by relying on magic energy instead of by burning calories as normal humans would do. Your Majesty, you have indeed brought me back to life and saved my life. This is definitely an ability only a god can have! ¡°Maybe you had not realized this in the past, but as the mortal saved by you, and your follower, my existence is the proof of your greatness!¡± Gerrard was so sincere that Sui Xiong almost believed him. On second thought, he found there was a big loophole in what he had said. ¡°Since you think I am a god, and you have faith in me, then why haven¡¯t I got the power of belief?¡± he asked. The power of belief was a very important thing in this world. As for how important it was, Sui Xiong had no idea for now, but from the information of the baldacchino, he knew that the power of belief was a essential source of energy. Earlier, there was a bit power of belief on the baldacchino, and most of it had been analyzed and absorbed by Sui Xiong, while the rest of it concentrated and pointed towards the God Wu Mian like a compass. At that time, Sui Xiong did not dare to absorb the remaining power of belief, and just threw it away with the baldacchino into the oceanic volcano. If Sui Xiong was really a God, and with Gerrard¡¯s belief in him, he would have felt the strength of faith, but he did not. Hearing this, Gerrard laughed and continued, ¡°Your Majesty, how can a mortal like me have an understanding of the world of the Gods? What I can do is just try my best to believe, respect, and render a service to you, and as for those complicated questions, only you can find the answers.¡± Sui Xiong had no more to say on this, and he watched Gerrard¡¯s face, feeling as if it was telling him, ¡°I do not care if you believe or not, but I believe it anyway.¡± Then he shook his head and dropped the topic. ¡°Well, whatever you say.¡± It definitely was one of the dumbest thing in the world to have a argument with a fanatic on the topic of ¡°The God you believe is not real.¡± On the earth, where God did not even exist, there were some fanatics who would bomb their enemies as well as themselves into pieces to protect their god¡¯s glory. It was only natural that in this world, where the God did exist, the power of faith was much stronger. Sui Xiong recalled that the old officiant of the White Leaves Village sacrificed himself simply for the glory of the God. Judging from this situation, Sui Xiong thought that Gerrard would definitely sacrifice himself if Sui Xiong was ever in need. Even if Sui Xiong was really a God, he was not a god like the God Wu Mian. In his view, the glory of a God came from the virtue and the talent of his followers, the praise of the beneficiaries, instead of the threat and terror. A god who made his follower devote everything he had¡ªeven his life¡ªshould never be called a god, but a devil! Now, the topic of whether Sui Xiong was really a god or not finally came to the last part. ¡°Your Majesty, please allow me to ask you a question. What designation should I call you when I am praying?¡± ¡°Name?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while. ¡°My name may not be a name you are used to¡­¡± ¡°No, I mean, how should I address you, like a designation.¡± Gerrard corrected him, ¡°One can never call a god by his name.¡± ¡°This is too complicated!¡± Sui Xiong thought about this carefully, and responded, ¡°Call me Oscar, Faceless Void Oscar.¡± Oscar meant performance, while the Faceless Void was a role he liked best in the computer game, which had a number of tentacles, and was very similar to a jellyfish. Gerrard nodded to show that he had remembered it, without showing any interest to ask questions like ¡®What did the name Oscar mean¡¯ or ¡®Why you emphasized the word faceless¡¯. However, Sui Xiong had intended to take some time to explain it to him, and when he heard what Gerrard had said, he felt as if he had ruined his chance to explain. Now that the topics that had nothing to do with the physical world had been finally discussed, and it was time to deal with the real issues. After getting the information from Gerrard, Sui Xiong decided to leave the White Leaves Village, and went to the marginal area of the Ash Forest. There was a small town which was located in the margin of a civilized society. No matter what Sui Xiong wanted to get, or just to enhance his own ability, the main task now was to return to the civilized world. Chapter 15 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio The Ash Forest was extremely large, so it took Sui Xiong and Gerrard several days to see the edge of the forest. On the margin of the forest were the barren mountains called ¡°Badlands¡±. It was located in the northwestern part of the main continent of this world. On one side, there was the Ash Forest, while on the other side, there was the Meteorite Desert. The Badlands were just like a tall and thick wall, which separated the two from each other. Also, on both ends of the badlands, was the Northern Snowfield and the West Sea. The topography in the badlands was very high and steep, and since it did not rain here very often, both the grass and the trees were quite sparse. Although the living environment here was less than ideal, there still lived various kinds of war-crafts. If there was anyone who could come and go freely, that someone could only be an adventurer who was much fiercer than the war-crafts. There was a saying that ¡°Every cloud has a silver lining¡±. Luckily, the Ash Forest and the Meteorite Desert were not completely separated, since there were a few gaps along the magnificent terrains. The road that connected the two places was rather bumpy, and to the west of these roads, there were a few villages that were just next to the Ash Villages, and this was the northwestern pole of the world of the continental civilization. Here, there were many varieties of rare productions, and though the quantity of each kind was not that much, they were all very precious. So there were always some audacious adventurers who thought highly of themselves and came here to see if they could find those precious productions. Most of them lost their lives, but there were also people who managed to leave this place alive and find those precious productions which so many people would envy. Some of them even become millionaires overnight. Now that there were some adventurers who had made money, then of course there were merchants who would want to put those adventurers¡¯ money into their pockets. Therefore, although these villages were not that big, they had everything a village was supposed to have, and many very expensive items could even be found here. Meanwhile, since these villages were too remote and desolated to be properly ruled, the rule of law had not been fully realized. Because of that, many wanted men would come and hide here, which made this area more chaotic and messy. Gradually, it became a place to shelter evil people and countenance evil practices. Here, the Good God¡¯s churches were hard to run, while the Evil God¡¯s ones thrived. Those Evil God¡¯s churches were even capable of recruiting wanderers from all over the place on the continent, and then these wanderers were sent to the Ash Forest to exploit and become a part of the strong support of the Evil God¡¯s churches. For example, the White Leaves Village was one of the strongholds built by the church that belonged to the Dark Night Gods. If this village was not a strongpoint of the Evil God¡¯s church, then why had those villagers not believed in the Goddess Gaia, who promised a good harvest, or the Goddess Hanna, who promised people the health? Why had they chosen the God Wu Mian, a gatekeeper of the Dark Night Gods¡¯ Kingdom, who had nothing to do with agriculture? ¡°I see¡­¡± Sui Xiong thought a while after hearing what Gerrard brought to his attention, ¡°Then I do not think it a good idea to go to the villages, right?¡± ¡°Your Majesty, you can not put things like that. These villages are just like wooden cages. No matter who he is, once he is in these cages, he has to be cautious. But Your Majesty, you are a huge dragon! You can crush these cages once and for all with your feet!¡± Gerrard exclaimed happily, ¡°Besides, judging from your personality and stance, you are bound to have conflicts with the Evil God¡¯s churches. Here, you cannot only increase your influence, but also get the help from the Good God¡¯s churches, or even the neutral ones, which is just as good as killing two birds with one stone!¡± Sui Xiong agreed with Gerrard and nodded, with his hill-like body shaking. A gust of wind blew with his every move. ¡°But, Your Majesty, since your body is too big and tough-looking, you would definitely cause yourself trouble if you directly walked into the village like this. Why don¡¯t you find a place outside of the villages and have a rest, and allow me to do some exploring?¡± As a faithful follower, Gerrard was very willing to do things for Sui Xiong, a God he chose to believe in. Seeing his willingness, Sui Xiong did not want to ask him not to. But he was very worried about Gerrard. Sui Xiong had a feeling that the bald man¡ª Oops, he was not a bald man anymore. He had been given very thick hair, was not that powerful, and would probably mysteriously die on the road the next day if he acted on himself. Thus, Sui Xiong felt he needed to do something to make Gerrard more secure. After contemplating for a while, Sui Xiong took out a piece of bone blade of the huge whale, which was about one foot long and a half foot wide, compressed it and made it as wide as a finger. Then he bent it into the shape of a bracelet, and engraved a few layer of magic circles on it. Finally he put a small part of his soul energy into it. Now a magic bracelet was made. ¡°Take it with you, as if I were with you. When you are in an emergency, I will take care of it.¡± Gerrard knelt down and received the bracelet very respectfully. When Gerrard put it on, he felt it was very cold, and his mind became very clear. Even his vision and hearing was much sharper than before. Also, he had a feeling that the powerful mind of Sui Xiong was with him, which made him feel very safe. ¡°Your Majesty, what is it called?¡± Gerrard asked. Sui Xiong thought for a while, and replied, ¡°¡®Void Gaze¡¯, since it is like the extension of my vision, which is it¡¯s basic function.¡± Gerrard nodded and knelt again. Then he tried to make his shabby self-made long robe look a bit more decent. He took a parcel with him and walked towards the villages far off in the distance. Sui Xiong saw him off, then dug a big hole with his tentacles on a flat floor he chose, and lied down in it when he finished. Now his whole body was already in the hole. He then reinforced the soil around him, and shoveled the soil he had dug out for the whole over the top of himself, in a barrier about two meters thick. The huge jellyfish body was indeed not a very good choice on land, so Sui Xiong decided to take this time to transform his body. Gerrard arrived at the ¡°Pyroxene¡± Town with the bracelet ¡°Void Gaze¡± on his wrist. After passing a commercial corporation which camped outside the town to pay less tax, he walked to the big gate of the busy town. There were a few soldiers with leather armor, and they not only needed to guard the door, but also collect the taxes for entering the village. They watched Gerrard, who was as tall as the wall, then just let him in and told him to behave himself without daring to tax him. ¡°I¡¯m being treated much better than the last time I was here.¡± Gerrard could not help but laugh, ¡°I recall that the time when I came here as a fugitive. I was injured and sick, and those soldiers made things difficult for me on purpose, and I did not get in until I paid extra money.¡± ¡°Oh? So do you want revenge then?¡± Sui Xiong laughed and asked him. Sui Xiong could sense the situation around Gerrard and communicate with him with his mind. Gerrard shook his head and mused, ¡°I used to think I should teach them a lesson when I become someone of importance, but now I think there is no need to do that. They are just a bunch of small people who have a dangerous job with low income. The reason why they behave so badly is that they have to support their families, so there is no need for me to be angry with them.¡± ¡°It seems that you are getting a bit closer to the moral high ground.¡± ¡°Now that I have received the power I never thought I could possibly have, and I am even blessed and protected by a great God, what is the point of being fussy about those people who struggle to make a living?¡± Gerrard scratched his head and laughed warmly. Both he and Sui Xiong did not notice that there was a middle-aged man walking past him, and that the man stared at his bracelet for a short while with his pupils shrinking a bit when he laid his eyes on it. The man walked past Gerrard as if nothing had happened. As soon as Gerrard turned a corner and disappeared, the man immediately turned around, hurried to an ordinary courtyard and started to knock the door. ¡°Who is this?¡± after taking away the lid from the peephole, the gatekeeper looked through it and asked. Then, he opened the door quickly, and asked, ¡°Vice-chairman? Aren¡¯t you supposed to be in the Gold-panning Town?¡± ¡°I have more important things to do.¡± The old man explained briefly, ¡°Go and inform the best thieves in the town, and the ¡®Quick Knife¡¯ brothers to come here¡­ Wait, not the brothers, only the thieves.¡± The large gatekeeper was in a daze and did not dare to ask further questions when he saw the middle-aged man¡¯s serious face. He said yes, and hurried to give the order. The middle-aged man closed the door, walked straight into the inner room, turned the corner twice, and came to a ordinary small room. This room looked quite simple, and there was nothing special about it. But he knew that at least twenty gears were set up and hidden in this room, a room that even a group of adventurers could not get out of safely. There was a very common old man, who looked like a vendor on the street, sitting on the bed and reading. The old man frowned when he saw the middle-aged man walk in a hurry, and asked, ¡°Grey Eyes, you are supposed to go to the Gold-panning Town to work together with our peers to make preparations for the auction to be held next month, why you are here?¡± The old man¡¯s tone was not that serious, but the middle-aged man immediately got startled, and there was sweat beading on his forehead. He quickly explained, ¡°Chairman, I saw a very treasured object when I was walking on the street earlier today! This is really a big deal!¡± ¡°Oh?¡± the old man¡¯s eyes lit up, and he put down his book. He knew clearly that what the middle-aged man, his assistant, was capable of. Although the assistant was not good at stealing or assassinating, and was very cowardly and cautious as well, which made him unworthy of the designation of ¡°Association of Thieves¡±, but he had really sharp eyes and never failed to authenticate all kinds of treasured objects. Rather, he could always find something valuable from the trash thrown away by the adventurers, and this made him worthy of his nickname which had the word ¡°eyes¡± in it. Since he was so excited about this object, it must really be something good! ¡°Sit down, and tell me. There is no need to hurry.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Grey Eyes sat down and breathed deeply. Then he told the old man what Gerrard like looked in detail, and especially how the bracelet looked. ¡°Chairman, I swear on my eyes, that bracelet is definitely something special!¡± He grew very excited again, and exclaimed, ¡°It is at least an advanced magical object¡­ It may be a legendary object!¡± ¡°A legendary object?!¡± Now even the chairman of the Association of Thieves could not help but become excited. He stood up and asked, ¡°Are you sure? What kind then?¡± ¡°I am 60-70 percent sure, but I am not sure about it¡¯s kind. While I have a vague feeling that there was a powerful mind in that bracelet, it was probably a holy article worshiped by the people in that giant¡¯s tribe for generations.¡± The chairman nodded. A giant was a very strong race in the first place. A holy article worshiped by them generation after generation might be a legendary treasured object. He instantly got very excited as soon as he thought of the phrase ¡°legendary treasured object¡±. This world was big, but legendary treasured objects were not that common, and there was always an impressive history behind every one of them. Most of them were in the hands of the powerful, for example, a noble aristocrat, or a famous wizard, or even a leader of a big association¡­ And his own superior, a person of great importance who governed the routine business of the whole Ash Village, also had one. That object was the Ace card for the superior, and it could save his life when he was in danger. More than once, it had turned peril into safety or turned the tables for him. The old man thought that if he could get one too¡­ Thinking of this, he could not help but sneer. Chapter 16 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio It would certainly not occur to Gerrard and Sui Xiong that they had been followed by the Association of Thieves in Pyroxene Town.They gathered 10 gold coins by selling some worthwhile items collected from the debris of the White Leaves Village. Even though the money was not much, they could get it only because the owner of the grocery store was scared by Gerrard¡¯s imposing appearance. ¡°That old man is really cheating. A big bag of items for such little money!¡± Sui Xiong said angrily, ¡°He couldn¡¯t seem more like a profiteer! Gerrard, on the other hand, was actually very open-minded, and replied, ¡°Your Majesty, 10 gold coins isn¡¯t a small amount of money. The villagers usually use copper coins.¡± ¡°10 copper coins for a silver coin, ten silver coins for a gold coin¡­ So we have a thousand copper coins, and indeed it seems to be a lot. So, let¡¯s buy some equipment for you, for your gown is no different from that of a beggar.¡± ¡°Forget it, the equipment that could be bought with ten gold coins is not as good as my own defense.¡± Gerrard scratched his head again, smiling in an honest way. Sui Xiong was speechless. He feared that when he made Gerrard¡¯s body, he did not make his head sophisticated enough, having added fewer circuits. Otherwise, why would such a big brain be so innocent and peaceful? This guy did not seem to be the same as when he was a ghost. But he remembered that a big brain had never been equivalent to high intelligence, and perhaps, Gerrard had been a stupid person, and was only clever for a brief time after becoming a ghost¡­ He thought, Forget it. I can look after him, and this guy, even stupid, would not be sold. So be it. Of course, it was impossible for Gerrard to know the thoughts of Sui Xiong. He carried his backpack and walked on the streets. Because he was too tall and strong, he alone occupied no more than half a street, and wherever he went, all the people glanced at him, with more than one person gossiping secretly. ¡°Look! That guy is really tall!¡± ¡°He¡¯s not only tall! You can see how strong he is, and his arms are thicker than our waists!¡± ¡°He¡¯s such a large person, how much does he eat for every meal¡­?¡± ¡°Although this man is tall and strong, his actions are very flexible, so he has great potential for practicing martial arts! If we can recruit him to our team, with a little training, he will be a top master! Afterwards, our task will certainly be a lot easier! The giant clan has very blunt character and superb talent. In this northwestern town, it¡¯s hard to find such a talent. I will try to lead him. Even if I can¡¯t bring him under my lord¡¯s command, at least I will not let him go down a road of evil!¡± ¡°Gee! Where are the giants from? Looks like he is not a normal giant. I¡¯m afraid he is a young shaman. Gee, maybe I could use this simple-minded guy to contribute to the cause of our Lord¡­¡± ¡°How strong is this giant! This is clearly a heaven-sent Druid! If we could convince him to accept our ideas, I would certainly teach him what I have learned, so that even if I die, the Organization of Druid of the four northwestern towns can have its successor!¡± ¡°Wow, this big man could be a very good resource. We might be able to make refined death knights that are powerful enough to sweep off the silver-level knights¡­ Perhaps, maybe the gold-level ones¡­¡± The voices of these people were not loud, and mingled together in a blanket of sound, so Gerrard could not perceive them despite his good hearing and sight. However, even though Gerrard could not detect them, Sui Xiong was aware of them. Though many of the people watching and remarking Gerrard were average in nature, there were several extraordinary men examining him, which Sui naturally sensed. Because of his strong senses, those who spoke far away or very lightly could be heard just as clearly as if they were yelling in front of him. ¡°Gerrard, there are a few people watching you,¡± he said to Gerrard through his mind. ¡°Your Majesty, it¡¯s normal to be noticed, since I am big.¡± ¡°Big? I think you are average, while they are too short¡­¡± Sui Xiong muttered, totally unaware of their distorted understanding of height. ¡°But those are not ordinary people. Let me introduce them to you one by one.¡± ¡°Hey, the first one is eating with a few people beside the table in front of the hotel. He wants you to join them.¡± Gerrard even did not look at them and casually replied, ¡°That should be a team of adventurers. Such adventurers are very common, as I also had a background in risk-taking.¡± ¡°Oh, so they are trying to absorb you so that you can play games all night. I understand. The second one is the old man in old armor in front of a little worn-out temple, who wants to guide you to be a good man.¡± Gerrard looked over and saw the old man who was smiling at him, and also saw the silver-white balance and shield sign at the threshold of the temple. He then said with a smile, ¡°That is the master of balance. That is the God of Justice; Chief guard of his temple. The god of justice is a well-known good God, who is a kind of rare good force in this northwest region.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good, at least you won¡¯t worry that they¡¯ll betray their teammates. The third is the fruit seller on the roadside, who wants to take advantage of you. It¡¯s weird because a fruit seller in this place has skill, which I¡¯m afraid, is even higher than the armored old man¡¯s!¡± Gerrard was surprised, looked carefully from the corner of his eye and replied, ¡°I do not know this person, but this area does not produce fruits. Selling fruit here could be a proof of strength. I guess this person is perhaps from the Association of Thieves or Association of Smugglers, most of whom believe in evil gods. So it¡¯s difficult to get along with them!¡± ¡°To put it bluntly, he¡¯s a pissant who is capable of using black equipment, so let¡¯s keep away from him! The fourth is the thin man sitting on the roadside, resting. That is, the one wearing a simple leather robe, with a wooden stick, on the top of which a leaf bud grows.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, that is Druid, who follows balance. They are neither good nor evil. But in this area, their behavior tends to be good,¡± Gerrard explained. ¡°That is to say, ¡®Although I am not a good person, I happen to hate the villains¡¯, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. He is kind to you and wants to give you all the skills you need to be his successor.¡± Gerrard was joyful. After second thought, however, he shook his head and continued, ¡°Although I also want to learn Druid¡¯s ability, I have begun serving Your Majesty, and it¡¯s inappropriate to go with them who believe in the natural god.¡± ¡°What a pity¡­¡± Sui Xiong sighed and continued, ¡°The last one to note is the one covered by a black gown standing in the shadows on the roadside. He¡¯s completely malicious to you and wants to use you as a resource, refine you and make you into a death knight.¡± Gerrard stopped, turned around and looked in the direction that Sui Xiong indicated, and really saw a man in black hiding in the corner, secretly peering at him. Seeing Gerrard, the man wearing a black gown pulled his gown and covered his face. ¡°Your Majesty, it is he, right?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Gerrard immediately rushed toward the man in the black gown, shouting, ¡°You necromancer who defies corpses, how dare you impute me?¡± The man in black didn¡¯t expect that he would be noticed, or be recognized when he saw Gerrard in the distance, so he was suddenly startled at the exclamation. Seeing Gerrard aggressively rushing towards him, he, without any hesitation, directly activated a magic item that enveloped him in a circle of white light, and he disappeared without a trace. ¡°Damn!¡± Gerrard narrowly caught up with him, but the guy escaped. He was very angry, and shouted, ¡°It¡¯s a spell to send people to other places, and the caster is really cunning like a fish!¡± ¡°I can track where he is going. Shall I chase him?¡± Gerrard hesitated and gave up the tempting suggestion, replying, ¡°The place where the mage is headed is most likely a magic trap, and might even be the headquarters of their organization. We¡¯d better not get into that much trouble¡­¡± This little conflict was inconspicuous, but it attracted a lot of people. The necromancer was definitely not weak, and in Pyroxene Town, he could be considered a notoriously tough guy. However, in front of Gerrard, he did not even have the ability to fight back, and even before he had time to chant the spell, he directly used his life-saving trump card. Gerrard was too fast. The two were separated by a whole street, but he managed to lunge over it in a few steps. And at such a distance, he could also find that the necromancer was plotting against him¡­ This seemingly simple, honest, and even somewhat stupid big man from the giants apparently had a keen sense of awareness and unusual agile reaction. Considering that his strong body was like a wall, his power certainly would not be weak, let alone his physical strength. Except for his intelligence, he was probably perfectly talented! So the chief guard wearing an old armor went straight out of the temple and walked up to Gerrard. But before he got to Gerrard, the fruit seller had already approached him. ¡°Sir, would you like to eat a fruit?¡± He smiled in an honest way, and offered, ¡°I can give you one for free.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Gerrard asked cautiously. ¡°The necromancer that traitors corpses is our enemy,¡± The seller laughed and said, ¡°You scared him off, so you deserve this fruit.¡± Gerrard shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t dare to eat your fruit.¡± Saying this, he left before the seller responded. The seller stood there awkwardly. His eyes were dark for a while, but then he returned to his stall, sneering. When he returned to the stall, he had already restored the previous appearance, smiling honestly. Gerrard did not go far before the elderly chief guard of the temple came up to him. ¡°May the just balance bless you with rewards for what you have done,¡± He said, ¡°Young man, since you are physically extraordinary, are you interested in learning some combat skills?¡± ¡°Combat? I can do that.¡± Gerrard responded. ¡°But I believe that what you have mastered is some crude and simple skills, such as aggressive attack or jumping or chopping,¡± The old man said with a smile. ¡°Admittedly, with your body, those skills are sufficient to make you famous, but why not learn something more advanced? I can teach you some more efficient fighting skills that would allow you to knock down enemies faster and avoid hurting yourself.¡± ¡°Getting hurt?¡± Gerrard laughed, picking up a short knife from the adventurer¡¯s grocery stall on the roadside, and cut off his own arm. The sharp blade cut the defenseless arm, making a dull noise like cutting into hardwood. When he lifted the knife and returned it to the adventurer, everyone noticed that his arm was intact, without even a single trace. Seeing this, more than one person exclaimed, ¡°Natural armor!¡± Chapter 17 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Natural armor, also known as armor skin, referred to a skin that was as tough as armor, and could also resist being sliced by a sword. This was a very rare ability; except for those demon monsters who had a strong body, only hard-trained ascetics, or senior soldiers who had experienced countless battles, could have it. When Sui Xiong made Gerrard¡¯s face, he made him look very young, like a fledgling young giant, so no one would mistake him as an ascetic or senior soldier. Since Gerrard was not either, there would only be the last possibility¡ª this seemingly young bulky man had power comparable to a devil monster! How could this not astound experienced people who knew of such talents?! The chief guard of the temple of the God of Justice also could tell who had talents. Seeing Gerrard blocking the knife with his arm, he froze for a moment, but could not help but laugh. ¡°I underestimated you!¡± he laughed, with his white eyebrows quivering slightly. ¡°So, are you interested in learning some advanced skills? For example, you could cut down several people by chopping once, or you would not need to recover after an attack before launching a second attack, and you could also use light weapons to produce the effects of heavy weapons, or use the heavy weapons to produce the effects of light weapons¡­ and so on.¡± Gerrard was very tempted by hearing this. He was a seasoned adventurer, but also knew a lot of fighting skills, which were honestly quite common. He had only heard of, but had never seen, let alone learned, skills mentioned by the chief guard, such as ¡°Tornado Attack¡±, ¡°Chain Attack¡±, and ¡°Will-controlled Weapon¡±. For a soldier, the more advanced the fighting skills he knew, the more powerful he was. Each of those top warriors could beat legendary monsters by using only one knife, and could keep themselves safe even when faced with a mighty force. Their impeccable fighting strength was simply stunning. If one could learn the skills that the chief guard had mentioned, perhaps he could become stronger, and would not need the special protection from a god whom he believed in, let alone being a burden of His Majesty¡­ Thinking of this, he became interested, and was about to agree to the advice of the old chief guard. But after a second thought, he swallowed what he was about to say. The God he was serving was not a god known to the general public in this world, but a newborn god. However, to be an apprentice to others in order to learn skills would certainly require staying in the temple of God of Justice for a period of time. If others noticed anything about his lack of devotion to that god, wouldn¡¯t it cause trouble to His Majesty? He was horrified and politely declined the request. The old chief guard, seeing him being originally interested, but giving up for whatever reason, could not help but feel sorry. However, as a believer in the God of Justice, he could not force others to learn from him. He told Gerrard to study at any time in the temple if he was interested, and he left disappointed. As the old man was prestigious in the town, his failure in soliciting talents made others who were interested in Gerrard abandon their idea. This, thankfully, left Gerrard in peace at last. He wandered freely on the street, carrying a small bag, and unconsciously came to the front of a large wooden sign. This wooden sign was erected on the square of the town center, so its location was extremely conspicuous. Large and small pieces of cloth with texts or illustrations were stuck on the sign. A very clever juvenile was guarding next to it. From time to time someone went to observe it carefully, and then went to ask that young person about the details. Some people also gave him one or two silver coins, so he had a good business. ¡°What are they doing?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Your Majesty, it is a column of wanted things. All kinds of big and small rewards, without being illicit, are released here. The guy is from the Association of Adventurers, and is responsible for early-stage contact. He also sells the news.¡± Gerrard was quite familiar with these things. After all, he himself had been a risk taker. Sui Xiong roughly understood, and was curious about this system of employment. So he tried to observe the task list on the wooden sign. In a moment, he saw Gerrard¡¯s head on a piece of cloth. There were two pictures on it about Gerrard¡¯s appearance from back before his death, one being the face, and the other being the portrait of his whole previous body. In general, the painter¡¯s skill was very good; He accurately grasped Gerrard¡¯s appearance by using a few strokes, so that people could easily identify him. Sui Xiong felt that the painter, if he were to travel to earth, could also survive by painting portraits in tourist spots, like one of his senior fellow classmates, who was also bald. However, his senior fellow classmate, with the pen name of Hua Siyuan, had a stall on Tiananmen Square, so his skills would be extraordinary considering he had a stall in the central place of a big nation¡ª he should be among the top painters on the street. In contrast, the portrait of this guy was at most at the level of luxurious platinum, and he could only have a stall in Badaling Great Walls, struggling to earn some money. He could not help laughing at this thought. ¡°Your Majesty, what is so funny?¡± Gerrard asked. Sui Xiong pointed out the piece of cloth to him; ¡°Look, there is a wanted notice for you.¡± Gerrard calmly said without the slightest surprise: ¡°Yes, there should still be a wanted notice of me. Let me see¡­ Haha! The reward has actually increased!¡± There were a few lines of words below the portrait on the piece of cloth, which roughly described¡ª¡±Loon, bald, guilty of assaulting the aristocracy, wanted by the Kingdom of the Blue Moon. Reward¡ª a thousand gold coins, receivable with his head or the verification of the Temple of the God of Commerce¡±. ¡°One thousand gold coins are equivalent to one hundred thousand copper coins, which is a large amount of money! What did you do to end up with such a massive price on your head?¡± ¡°When I was still an adventurer, I used a pseudonym; Loon. Most of us adventurers used pseudonyms to avoid trouble. At that time we had a team of six adventurers, and we were all good friends. After an adventure, a companion¡¯s leg was broken because a devil monster bit him, so we needed to make a sum of money for him to receive treatment for his leg in the temple of God. That was why we took on the illegal task of smuggling weapons. But when the task was completed, the employers not only refused pay us, but also wanted to kill us. My teammates all died, except me,¡± Gerrard summed up the past experience of conspiracy, betrayal, anger, and blood with words as simply as possible, ¡°A nobleman died in the battle¡­ This must be the reason they are still after me.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a short time and responded, ¡°You did well! Are any of your old rivalries still alive?¡± ¡°No, no enmity will remain any longer than a day among we adventurers.¡± ¡°Excellent!¡± Gerrard scratched his head and put on an honest smile. ¡°Your Majesty, I suggest that you look at these tasks, some of which might be suitable for us,¡± he advised. ¡°To establish a temple, to promote integrity and honesty, to train holy staff, these mean spending money.¡± ¡°I told you earlier that I was not God, and there is no need to spend this money¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯ll spend it sooner or later, and it¡¯s fine to be prepared.¡± Seeing that Gerrard was stubborn, Sui Xiong had no idea of any solution. As a powerful boss, what he feared most was a subordinate who was loyal but stubborn¡ª One couldn¡¯t hit him or convince him, especially when he said things like ¡°boss, I am here to benefit you!¡± as if he was ready to die to serve his country. Except for crazy people, such as the Yangdi emperor of the Sui dynasty, even those ¡°great emperors¡± could only shake their heads, sigh, and make concessions. As they were idle, finding something to pass the time was not bad. Since the decision to complete some tasks to make money was made, of course, Sui Xiong looked directly towards the highest paid task. He saw on the top of the reward column a seemingly old piece with no pattern, but only a few lines of words. ¡°Kill the Shadow Devil. Be proved by the magic nucleus, and have the notarization jointly issued by every temple of God. Reward¡ª one hundred thousand gold coins, plus two additional tailored high-level magic items. Once verified, the magic nucleus belongs to the killer.¡± ¡°This task is good; one hundred thousand gold coins!¡± Gerrard glanced at it and shook his head, ¡°Shadow Devil was the most famous monster in the eastern part of the Ashes Woods, and it is at the very least a legendary monster, who is likely to be a demigod. There are many ways to make money, why should we risk our lives fighting with a demigod for money?¡± ¡°Demigod ¡­ A very powerful being, right?¡± Sui Xiong could not help but be a little interested, because after his space-traveling, he had not encountered a truly evenly matched opponent yet. According to Gerrard¡¯s words, he estimated that he was probably also a strong man at the demigod level. Demigod vs demigod; it would certainly be an excellent fight. ¡°Your Majesty, we really do not need to provoke that guy!¡± Gerrard was anxious, ¡°It¡¯s not worth it! Even if you want to find and confront a rival, you might as well fight with ¡®Skeleton Devourer¡¯, because he is who you can confront. Shadow Devil, on the other hand, is a famous evil, and he will definitely plot something insidious!¡± Sui Xiong, sighing, stopped talking about this topic. He got it; if he had insisted on fighting with that shadow devil, perhaps Gerrard would have chosen suicide over trying to stop him. He thought¡ª¡±What to do with an excessively loyal subordinate? It¡¯s urgent, I am waiting for answers online.¡± Oh¡­ There was no Internet here! Sui Xiong simply omitted this task, and found that there were some other high-priced tasks on the column, one of which appeared to be good¡ª ¡°Expel the evil dragon, ¡®Arctic Tyrant¡¯, who lives in the mountain range near Dragon-roar Town. After you deport it, you should go to the dragon cave for confirmation by bringing with you three holy staffs from three different temples, including the God of Justice. The reward for the task is 5000 gold coins. In addition, if you do not need reinforcements, you could enjoy all the treasure of the dragon cave.¡± Gerrard did not object to this task. As far as he knew, the dragon was mostly bullying the weak, but afraid of the powerful. Since His Majesty, ¡°Void Mask¡±, was powerful, he could expel the evil dragon and force it to change its residence, as long as he did not grab the treasure in the cave. In general, it was not hard to earn these five thousand gold coins. Paying a silver coin, they acquired some information from a member of the Association of Adventurers, and became sure of the approximate location of the dragon¡¯s cave. Then, after Gerrard bought some necessities for living in the wild, they were ready to leave Pyroxene Town for Dragon-roar Town. However, he had not been far away from Pyroxene Town when he stopped. A carriage fallen on the ground, and a group of chaotic businessmen stopped them. Chapter 18 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Pyroxene Town was built near mountains. It was surrounded by them on three sides, and only one road provided access to the town. This road was not wide, and could only accommodate two wagons. At the moment, a fallen carriage blocked the road, and cut off the path of a group of dealers who were trying to lift the wagon in a hurry. Pedestrians were also blocked, unable to go forward or backward. The scene was chaotic, voices of shouting and quarreling people were mixing together. Some hot-tempered people were even prepared to fight. ¡°What seems to be the trouble?!¡± Gerrard approached them, frowning. Despite being noisy, the crowd separated to make way for Gerrard when they saw how large he was. But he did not know that in the crowd, a pair of malicious eyes was staring at him. This ¡°accident¡± on the road was actually arranged by the Vice President of the Association of Thieves of Pyroxene Town, in order to test the strength and character of the giant. He had always been so cautious in doing things, being sure he knew the details of his target before he acted. The fallen carriage had been loaded with iron ore. Although the cargo was scattered on the ground, the body was not broken, so its building material must have been quite solid. However, the horse, which pulled the carriage, had been hurt. Gerrard, frowning, turned over the half-loaded carriage by simply grasping the frame and exerting a bit of strength. This astounded the people around him. Some of them were staring, dumbfounded, and some even pinched their cheeks, thinking that this was a dream. This carriage used sufficient material, as the shaft of the load-bearing part was hardwood that was as thick as an arm. The cargo on this carriage was ore, which was known to be very heavy. Therefore, this carriage with the cargo might be 1500 to 2000 kilograms. However, for this giant, it seemed to be weightless, as though he could lift it with one hand. ¡°This guy has great strength!¡± someone exclaimed. ¡°He deserves the name of a giant!¡± someone else marveled. Some experienced adventurers were even more surprised; the tribe of giants had a tremendous natural strength, but even the most excellent giant, known as the ¡°Mountain Giant¡±, could only lift about 1000 to 1500 kilograms. It was impossible for any giant to turn over the half-loaded carriage as though it were made of straw! In other words, this big man was not only a giant, but also a high-level risk adventurer. Senior adventurers tended to be much more powerful than ordinary people, yet even among adventurers, only those who emphasized strength could have a strength of thousands of Newton more than the average person. When taking into account that this was compared with ordinary giants, it was even more horrible. Because¡­the more perfect the congenital conditions a race had, the slower the growth would be. Seeing Gerrard¡¯s performance, ¡°grey eyes¡± trembled a bit, feeling as though his legs had become soft. At the moment, he felt very fortunate to have taken a few thieves, instead of the thugs of the Association of Thieves. Otherwise, those b*stards, who even had muscles in their brain, would have planned to launch an attack as soon as Gerrard went in front of the carriage. In what way was that different from courting death!? This big guy was a giant, who was also a powerful adventurer. Even though he had an ordinary racial background, the power of thousands of Newtons was sufficient to prove his strength. Could the ¡°Fast Knife¡± defeat him? Even if all of the members from the Association of Thieves of Pyroxene Town, old and young, joined together, they still might not be able to defeat him¡­ Gerrard did not know that someone was plotting against him, or how much terror he had aroused in his enemies. At the moment, he was concentrating on the old horse on the ground. This horse was grey, with a lot of wounds both old and new that demonstrated the hardships it had experienced. It was trying hard to stand up, but its efforts were in vain. Observed closely, it seemed to have broken its spine. It could not move its two rear legs while its forelegs were still struggling. Its eyes were full of pain and sorrow. It was really pitiful. Gerrard sighed; neither humans nor horses could survive this injury. The only thing they could do was relieve its pain. Since his resurrection, he had been more sensitive to the pain of others, and his compassion had grown. Yet, no matter how sympathetic he was, he could not help the poor livestock. ¡°Do you want to save it?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Gerald was surprised and asked, ¡°Your Majesty, are you willing to help this poor guy?¡± Sui laughed, and said cheerfully, ¡°To be honest, I do not have much sympathy for animals, but I would love to help you if you wanted to save it.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, your benevolence is as warm as the sun!¡± ¡°Well, do not flatter me, put your hand on the wound of the horse, and I will mobilize your magic through the bone bracelet to heal it.¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile, ¡°To be honest, this guy has been gravely injured, and I¡¯m not very sure about its recovery. But I can try, which is better than leaving it to die.¡± Gerrard, as Sui commanded him, squatted and put the hand wearing the bone bracelet on the grey horse¡¯s back. Then the blood in Gerrard¡¯s body was agitated in order to transfer some of the magic in the magical nucleus into the grey horse¡¯s body. Under the control of Sui Xiong, these magical powers were like small, ingenious machines that undid the dislocated bones of this wounded horse, and rebuilt severed muscles, blood vessels, and nerves before finally transforming them into functional parts. Its body was revitalized, the growth of the body was promoted, and the injured part was repaired. In just half a minute, the grey horse that was originally dying, cheerfully neighed and stood up again. ¡°My God! What did I just see?!¡± someone exclaimed. ¡°This big man is a priest? Are there pastors in the giant¡¯s¡¯ clan?¡± A senior adventurer could not help but doubt his own eyes. ¡°And¡­the healing magic of the priest comes from the gods, but which god is so philanthropic as to use their magic on healing a horse¡¯s wounds? Is he the God of Centaur?¡± ¡°Bah! The God of Centaur is a demon! He would only ask believers to arrest people for blood sacrifice¡­¡± ¡°Is he a Druid?¡± ¡°I have not heard of Druids among giants¡­¡± ¡°But I have never heard of a pastor among giants, either.¡± ¡°Those Druids would not use their spells to save a horse at all, and they would only euthanize it. Have you ever gotten along with Druids?¡± In the crowd, the grey-eyed man, with his eyes wide open like dove¡¯s eggs, stared at the bone bracelet on Gerrard¡¯s wrist. Because of the need to assist Gerrard in casting spells, Sui Xiong¡¯s strength was shown through the bone bracelet. ¡°There¡¯s a very powerful will on the bracelet, and it¡¯s so strong that it can even cast healing spells! No, that¡¯s not a normal healing spell, but a magical spell of recovery that¡¯s even able to heal broken bones and severed muscles, and even recover severed hands and feet! The horse¡¯s spine must have been broken before, but it healed so quickly¡­ This giant is not a priest; he is blessed by the divine! It was the God that he believes in that took action! And the bone bracelet is the holy thing of their denomination! God, how I wanted to steal a holy thing, where the will of a real god lives! Fortunately, I didn¡¯t take action¡­ It must be the golden finger¡ªthe God of Thieves¡ªblessing me. And only because of that did I not make a fatal mistake¡­¡± He suddenly realized that, and quickly closed his eyes, afraid to look at that bone bracelet where the will of a real god lived. Rather, he turned and left. Before he left, he did not forget to send messages to subordinates to ask them to retreat. After a while, he returned to the Association of Thieves of Pyroxene Town and reported this to the president, pale-faced. ¡°What?! A holy thing where the will of a real god lives?!¡± The elderly, always calm, was also scared that even his heart skipped a beat, ¡°Are you sure that you were not wrong?¡± ¡°Absolutely!¡± The vice-president assured him. ¡°What do you think the spell was, as it healed a broken spine within such a short time?¡± Before the president spoke, the vice president continued, ¡°Recovery! It is a more advanced magic than a magic of treating and healing that ordinary priests would be able to cast. Even a powerful pastor must hold the holy emblem and pray for a while before it could be cast. And Druids? They only cast this spell longer, but that giant directly omitted this process¡­ It was completely unreasonable. The only explanation is that the magic was not cast by him, but the will inside the bone bracelet.¡± ¡°Perhaps¡­that bone bracelet was a powerful magic item that could produce the equivalent of the healing effect of recovery¡­¡± The president pondered. ¡°Although I have never heard of such a magic item, perhaps Druids can make something like this¡­¡± The grey-eyed man kept on shaking his head and insisted, ¡°President, no matter how powerful a magic item is, the number of daily casting is limited. As for recovery, it is estimated to be once or twice a day. If you have such a treasure, would you it waste it to treat a horse? ¡± ¡°Of course not!¡± ¡°Yes, not even the most philanthropic people, when they are about to leave a safe place for a dangerous one, would ever be so wasteful.¡± The vice president sighed. ¡°Only those with infinite magic could be so indifferent about wasting it.¡± For a time, the cabin was silent. The president and the vice president of the Association of Thieves of Pyroxene Town looked at each other in blank dismay. After a while, the president let out a hollow laugh and said, ¡°Fortunately, we have not had time to attack them.¡± ¡°Yes! Fortunately, we did not have time to attack him.¡± The vice president exclaimed happily, ¡°Thank God!¡± ¡°Wait, I have another idea.¡± The cunning president looked to the side, and came up with a bad idea. ¡°How would you like it¡­if we reveal some of this news to our old rivals. What would happen?¡± The grey-eyed man¡¯s eyes gradually turned bright, and a smile appeared on his face. He laughed. ¡°President, that idea is so clever! As those guys are greedy and vicious, they would absolutely attack this solitary giant¡­¡± ¡°That is why I am the president, while you are vice president!¡± The president also joked, ¡°I cannot wait to see those b*stards bump into rocks and crash their heads!¡± Inside the cabin, the two cunning foxes laughed together. On the road outside the town, Sui Xiong was telling Gerrard, ¡°Be careful, some people were just spying on you. Maybe they wanted to plot against you. They retreated after they found your strength to be extraordinary.¡± Sui had better sense than Gerrard, and he sensed the hostility of the members from the Association of Thieves almost at the very beginning. It was only because they did not attempt to kill Gerrard, and did not act, that he felt too lazy to get rid of them. But that didn¡¯t mean that necessary reminders were not indispensable. He found Gerrard, a bald guy (no, in fact, he was not bald yet) more and more pleasing to the eyes. And of course, he did not want this helpful subordinate to suffer any harm. In fact, he found that Gerrard seemed very powerful! Chapter 19 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio From Pyroxene Town to Dragon-roar Town, it was about ten days¡¯ travel by foot. Adventurers, if riding horses, also needed around this much time. This was because the distance between every village where one could stay was equal to almost a one-day travel on foot. Unless one was not afraid to die near this dangerous barren mountain range or were indifferent to the strength of one¡¯s horse and covered two days¡¯ distance in one day, no one would travel any faster. However, Sui Xiong and Gerrard were not in a hurry. Joining a group of dealers, they walked toward Dragon-roar Town as if they were roaming. The evil dragon, known as the Arctic Tyrant, had wreaked havoc in the mountains near Dragon-roar Town for more than 50 years and seemed to be in no rush to move. They had no need to worry; the key to fighting the evil dragon was the body of Sui Xiong, i.e., Oscar, His Majesty ¡°vanity mask¡±. Now, Sui Xiong secluded himself in an underground cave near the Pyroxene Town, adjusting his body structure to better adapt to land-based actions. It was a lot of work to change his entire huge body, and it could not be completed so quickly. So even if they arrived in Dragon-roar Town early, they could only stay temporarily in the town to gather some information. It was impossible for Gerrard alone to challenge the evil dragon. ¡°Brother White, did you live in the mountains before? Was life in the mountains hard?¡± In a caravan with them, a boy around 12 years old curiously asked Gerrard about everything, which annoyed Gerrard a lot. ¡°¡­ Life in the mountains was simple and boring. I have nothing more to say.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± In order to facilitate the operation, Gerrard chose to go with the group of dealers, which was composed of caravans, so when danger came they could guard and help each other; when the danger was tremendous, it was easy to find scapegoats. This large group was composed of seven or eight caravans, which all chose to follow the strongest caravan among them. This caravan was called ¡°Lucky Gold Coin¡±, with its president being a semi-pygmy called Soth. As a half-breed of pygmy and human, he was slightly shorter than average men. He had slightly reddish and rather tough skin, big eyes with night vision, a slender and agile body, and one or two heaven-sent spells made his experience as an adventurer run very smoothly. This was how he had saved a good fortune.Now that he was old, he no longer assumed the role of an adventurer, but formed a caravan and became a businessman. Uncle Soth¡¯s caravan was only comprised of his old acquaintances. What was interesting was that although this caravan was primarily doing business with humans, there was not even a single member in the caravan who was purely human; the boss was a semi-pygmy, the bodyguards were half-orcs, two business partners were a half-elf and a dwarf, and even employees were of different races or half-breeds. For example, the one who liked to talk with Gerrard, young mage Palin, who was an accountant, was a purebred dwarf. In this world, there were many races of intelligent life. There were many whose body types were similar to those of humans. Pygmies, dwarves, elves, and orcs were relatively common. Pygmies and dwarves were not tall; they were about 2/3 as tall as humans. However, no one would confuse the two because the pygmy was an agile and intellectual race, while the dwarf was a race of physical strength. The former was skinny and thin, with red skin, big eyes and long hands and feet. The latter was stout, with small eyes and bushy beards, and they spoke with a voice as loud as ordinary people¡¯s shouting. In general, pygmies and half-breed dwarves often chose to be mages or relied on innate abilities to become entertainers, or bards, or businessmen¡­ Of course, they were often part-time pickpockets. The dwarves? Aside from fighters, they rarely engaged themselves in other occupations. There might also have been some dwarves working as miners, blacksmiths, winemakers, or chefs, but they must first be good fighters, with almost no exceptions. The elves were a race that were about as tall as humans, but they were more slender. They were characterized by possessing a sophisticated spell, and natural affinity, so they were almost innately capable of casting magic. However, they couldn¡¯t adapt themselves to living in an unnatural environment. If they could not live in a natural environment, they would gradually become weak and ill, and eventually, die. For this reason, the elves, one of the most powerful races in this world, took the forests and wilderness as their own kingdom. In the course of mankind¡¯s several great expansions, two races with an equally brilliant history and strong armed forces fought several times; elves and humans. Elves had conquered several races including dwarves and pygmies, while humans had chased off races such as orcs and murlocs. They bitterly fought to an extent comparable to Mars hitting the earth. But in the end, neither side could deal with the other side, so they had to compromise and seek coexistence and common development. It had been almost five hundred years since the most recent major expansion. Except for those legendary long-lived strong men, those who participated in the war had long since been dead, and their hatred had gradually faded. Now the relationship between the elves and humans could be regarded as relatively good; the elves envied the versatile potential and vitality of the humans, while the humans envied the serene mind and genius of the elves. As things went on like this, there had been many children of mixed races, commonly known as half-elves. As for the orcs, they were an unlucky and poor group. They had many origins, but they were continuously expelled because mankind had defeated them during the war. They lived together and finally formed a somewhat messy race. The orcs¡¯ ancestors also had a good history of civilization, but the war with humans interrupted their civilizational process, drove them off from the land where their ancestors lived, and interrupted the passing of their civilization. They gradually became a symbol of barbarism and backwardness. Sadly, most orcs had forgotten the honor of their own civilization and chose to accept the civilization of the human beings or elves. In today¡¯s world, the traditional occupations of orcs, such as ¡°wild warrior¡±, ¡°fury warrior¡±, ¡°experienced swordsman¡±, and ¡°soul shaman¡±, had been fewer and fewer. Most qualified orcs chose to be soldiers, knight-errants, alchemists or priests. Perhaps it was because the occupations were developed by human beings and elves that they were more powerful than the ancient occupations that the orcs inherited. The half-orcs in the caravans came from a tribe called ¡°Barbarian Stone¡±. The leader, Arhan, was a holy warrior. He was the kind of clergyman who had been baptized in a holy temple, inherited the heritage of the temple, and tended to use force rather than magic. The god that he worshipped was somewhat special; worshiped as ¡°Steel Lion¡±, a god of desolation who had an orc origin that tended to be evil. But it achieved semi-independence from the orcs with a few subordinates and became a kind-hearted god. Both Arhan and his subordinates were worshipers of the god of desolation, and their armor and shield had the saintly deity¡¯s holy emblem; the golden lion¡¯s paw in a shield-shaped frame. Arhan¡¯s shield was divinely sparkling. It was a magic item blessed in the temple. Sui Xiong noticed that the golden light that the shield flashed from time to time was a bit familiar. Carefully recollecting for a while, he was sure that this ray of light seemed to be very similar to the god who had helped him when he was fighting with the God of Insomnia. In order to make sure of it, he specifically asked Gerrard to ask Arhan for some knowledge of the God of Desolation. The God of Desolation was a god who liked to travel around and speak up for the interests of the oppressed. He often changed into a lion-man (one of the orcs), carrying a shield and tomahawk, with a hammer at his waist. When he was faced with the raging caused by evil gods, he would turn into a golden lightning that tore the sky and engage in combat with the evil. Although in terms of rank he could only be regarded as a medium-leveled god, he had an extremely strong fighting power, as more than once he had made those well known evil gods flee. So he deserved being called a first-class powerhouse among the gods. As for the doctrine of this god and the detailed sectarian structure, Sui Xiong was too lazy to remember them. In short, he was somewhat certain that the God of Desolation was the one who once helped him and a god of kindness. Well, that was sufficient. This was a good team leader with good technique, strong sense, capable of leading a team and without evil equipment. It would be excellent if one had the opportunity to join in games with him. Of course, this god helped him during a fight, so it was also necessary to repay the god. ¡°Gerrard, if a fight happens, pay attention to protecting Arhan and his men.¡± He said. Gerrard wondered why he should protect Arhan, who was apparently good at fighting, rather than those non-combatants represented by old Soth who had retired for years and had a significantly lower combat effectiveness. But the god¡¯s command was absolute, and he said he was completely obedient to it. But Gerrard could be sure that there was no need to protect Arhan at all. This strong lion-man could confront wild bears, even without weapons. Fully armed, even a bipedal flying dragon could not hurt him. The bipedal flying dragon that wanted to attack them tonight had now become the barbecue in the camp, and old Soth¡¯s partner and chef, Wrought Iron, was applying secret spices and liquor that he felt proud of on his meat. Part of the meat was almost cooked, with its attractive scent lingering in the air. After a day of trekking, the caravan was stationed next to a small village at night. This was a vast, vacant area that was spacious enough to accommodate hundreds of people if they just stayed there temporarily. Because of the adjacent barren mountains, the Ashes Forest did not affect it. What a stunning view; trees shaded the ground in the distance, while the green grass grew prosperously in the vicinity. This made Sui Xiong, accustomed to seeing a grey-black tone, greatly satisfied. At this moment, everyone was busy, but almost everyone stopped for a moment when the scent of roasted dragon filled the air, and more than one person even wound up drooling. Another partner of Old Soth, a half-elf knight-errant who called himself ¡°Rhythm¡±, was handling the material removed from the bipedal dragon; the sharp jaws, the fangs connected to venomous glands, hard scales on the chest, and tough skin. The dragon was a rather fierce monster that ate a wide range of foods, but their favorite prey was a ¡°weak bipedal walking beast¡± ¨C abbreviated as humans. In fact, their favorite thing to do was to attack the herdsmen and caravans, and they even turned a blind eye to such prey as cattle and sheep when they could eat humans. They were a fierce enemy of humanity. If they had been on Earth, these opponents of humans would have been almost extinguished until only a few were preserved for analysis purposes in zoos. However, in this relatively backward and wild world, all the humanoids, including human beings, only occupied less than a third of the land of the entire world. Enemies like them filled the vast open country that was barbarian and wild, and all were used to it. Of course, the result would be fighting; losing meant you would be eaten, winning meant the other would be eaten! For example, this bipedal dragon that failed to confront the caravan and was defeated had become everyone¡¯s dinner. At the moment, with the overflowing aroma, ¡°Wrought Iron¡±, laughed loudly and sounded a small bell that meant the beginning of a meal. The bell sound saved Gerrard, who was being questioned by the curious baby, Palin. Gerrard promptly ended the tale of ¡°the ecology of the giants ¡± that almost came from hearsay, dragging the little Palin who was still lost in his tale and hurrying toward the bonfire. It was a good excuse to have dinner, which finally got him out of the interrogation-like conversation. Chapter 20 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio The bipedal dragon¡¯s meat was very tough and chewy, but it was not difficult to chew. It was a high quality, first-class meat. The taste was remarkable; it was complemented by Wrought Iron, the dwarf¡¯s spice and spirits that he was proud of, and it was roasted just to the right degree, so everyone ate with oil running beside the mouth. Even after eating, the strong taste still lingered in their mouths. Such a barbecue, if in a big and bustling city, might be sold at a price of dozens of gold coins. It not only had a good taste, but also had some tonic effect on the body. If you ate these foods regularly, your body could become exceptionally powerful without doing any special sort of exercise. Almost all of the offspring of important aristocracies were trained in this way. ¡°Delicious, delicious!¡± After swallowing a mouthful of barbecue, Gerrard could not help but praise aloud. ¡°Wrought Iron¡¯s cooking skills are getting better and better!¡± Old Soth nodded, praising, ¡°It¡¯s one¡¯s best quality for when he gets old in the future.¡± Wrought Iron was nearly fifty years old. He could be considered young and promising among his fellow dwarves, as he would probably live for another one hundred years or more. Hearing the praise from Soth, the dwarf, who had been taking adventures with him since thirty years ago, could not help but laugh, ¡°I remember when we first met, I was roasting a wolf I had just hunted. When you snuck over, I thought you were trying to steal things. But I didn¡¯t expect that you¡¯d say ¡°I will trade my liquor for your barbecue¡±¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s been 30 years since then, when I just ended my apprenticeship and always thought I¡¯d be doing big business, making a big fortune, and becoming famous.¡± Old Soth stroked his beard and said with a smile, ¡°Now my son has grown up, and not long ago he complained to me that little Puck refused to obediently learn the business at home, but wanted to explore the world like his grandfather¡­¡± ¡°Thirty years have passed, and we are all old.¡± ¡°¡®Do not use the word ¡®all¡¯, as only Soth and I are old. As for Wrought Iron, you are still young,¡± the bearded half-elf shook his head with a smile. ¡°Soth¡¯s energy had gone down, and within a few years, I will also have no energy to lead caravans. At the time young people will take over, you as an uncle might as well help them more.¡± Wrought Iron suddenly frowned, ¡°I cannot do business! It¡¯s not a big deal if you ask me to lead them to have adventures, but leading them to do business? Isn¡¯t that a definite loss of money!?¡± ¡°Do not worry, we do not mean to retire abruptly. Rather, at that time, we also intend to lead them for a while longer,¡± An amiable smile showed on Soth¡¯s wrinkled face. He said, ¡°And ¡­ I still want to visit the ancient temple of elves before I die and have a good chat with the immortal elder. ¡± ¡°I agree with this! That temple has good wines, and the elderly frog is also very kind.¡± Wrought Iron immediately turned energetic, ¡°Let¡¯s drink wine there then!¡± While talking, Sui suddenly felt a mass of malicious energy approaching from afar. He hurriedly alerted Gerrard, who stood up and found a group of orcs galloping towards them by riding wolves. ¡°It¡¯s the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves! Let¡¯s be on guard!¡± The Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves was a notorious bandit gang in the region of four northwestern towns. These numerous and vicious bandits came from the wastelands of the North. As they were extremely ferocious, they carried out ruthless mass slaughters wherever they went. The task of exterminating them had been hung on the reward column in the four towns, but no one had been able to finish it. More than once adventurers departed in hopes of defeating them, but they had never returned. For various reasons, the four northwestern towns had not set up an army. This might be because they hoped to prevent wars. But this also made them unable to disband such a large-scale and agile bandit gang such as the one at hand. Therefore, the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves grew and even dared to attack caravans settling on the vacant spaces, which were margins of the towns. They often succeeded. They had come to attack the caravans once again. Seeing dozens of green-skinned orcs galloping here by riding grey wolves, the businessmen all panicked. Those alert and decisive ones left the goods and ran toward the village to look for a safe place with shields without saying anything. They were hoping that the gangs would leave after plundering enough things and they could survive; those brave ones took out weapons and pushed down the carriage to form a fence, determined to fight desperately and rest in dignity even if they died; As for those who were the most clever, they ran straight towards the ¡°Lucky Gold Coin¡±, hoping to cooperate with them to seize the potential chance of survival. The leaders of ¡°Lucky Gold Coin¡± were veteran adventurers. Once they spotted a bandit, they were immediately ready to fight. Old Soth rushed far away with amazing agility, and began to make traps. His speed was incredible, as he could finish a trap while breathing twice or three times, fully demonstrating his superb skill as a veteran thief. Bodyguards, not hurried, put on a full set of equipment neatly and prepared for battle by taking advantage of the carriage. The dwarf, who was just busy dealing with the barbecue, got into the carriage. After a while, he had put on a heavy armor resembling a tortoiseshell, and become a powerful warrior with a heavy armor. The half-elf filled the ground around him with arrows in a short span of time, in order to quickly shoot. Even clerks were also taking leather armor and weapons out from the carriage, ready to fight. ¡°Whi¡­ brother White, where is your wea¡­weapons?¡± Palin seemed a bit frightened, perhaps because it was the first time he had been faced with such a scene. He was holding his crystal-inlaid wand, nervously doing the preparation of casting magic, but he failed to calm down. Perhaps in hopes of appearing confident, he approached the big man Gerrard and asked with a low voice. Since becoming a giant after being born again, Gerrard had never used any weapons. He buried the formerly used tomahawk and that memory in the ruins of the White Leaves village. He was barehanded at the moment, without even a piece of handy equipment. Seeing the enemy approaching, he frowned. Looking around, his eyes suddenly shone. He quickly walked toward a tree about a foot wide. ¡°What ¡­ are you¡­ doing?¡± There was a businessman by the tree putting on his leather armor, shivering. Seeing him suddenly approaching, he was astounded and stammered. Gerrard ignored him and looked this tree up and down. The trunk was straight, the wood was fine, and the leaves were lush; it was suitable. So he bent down, clung to the tree trunk with his hands, let out a shout, and pulled it up in front of the nearby merchants, who were petrified. Splashes of earth fell like raindrops, and some even fell right in the mouth of the guy beside the tree who had stupidly kept his mouth open. Weighing the weight of the tree with his hands and looking at the messy roots, Gerrard shook his head, somewhat dissatisfied. The roots were a little bit troublesome, and it was likely that other companions would be hurt during the fight. So he rested the root on the ground, fiercely trampled it underfoot, and slightly tidied it up with his thick palms. Then, the troublesome root was somewhat tidied-up. Seeing this, he waved it again and sighed. ¡°It is a little bit light, and the center of gravity is not very good, but I¡¯ll make do.¡± However, this scene had stunned everybody. These businessmen, as they had traveled widely, had seen many a man of unusual strength, but none had seen a man with a strength this phenomenal! Although there were rumors in folklores that ¡°the giant used a big tree as his stick¡±, when this scene really appeared in front of them, they could not help but feel suffocated and soft legged, even though they knew that the giant was their companion. However, seeing such a powerful companion, they were greatly encouraged that they could succeed. In that instant, those panicked businessmen all calmed down, and even those who wanted to hide all ran out, taking out their weapons to fight side by side. The Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves was indeed very powerful and very dangerous, but was it still more dangerous than a giant who could pull up a tree and use it as a club? Absolutely impossible! Gerrard, carrying his ¡°big stick¡±, returned to the formation of Lucky Gold Coin, standing in the front of the team and swaggering while confronting the galloping bandits. In his past adventure experiences, there had been more than one fight against the bandits. But he had never been as confident and fearless as he was today. He was even calm enough to turn his head and wave the tree that was taller than four or five people, smiling and grinning at Palin, ¡°Hey, you see, this is my weapon!¡± ¡°Truly an incredible weapon!¡± The dwarf, Wrought Iron, praised, ¡°It seems being tall is convenient!¡± ¡°Actually, I¡¯d rather use a normal one, like a hammer or an ax,¡± explained Gerrard, ¡°but I could not find one that suits my body!¡± ¡°The next town we are heading to is the Gold-panning Town, which is rich in ore, and I¡¯ll cast a weapon for you.¡± The dwarf said, ¡°Although my craftsmanship of casting weapons is only average, making a big ax won¡¯t be hard for me. ¡± ¡°Many thanks!¡± Gerrard laughed, ¡°The pay ¡­ uh, the pay is coming.¡± As they talked, the orcs riding wolves drew close to them. Apparently, they also noticed Gerrard, as they suddenly tightened the reins, hesitating to move forward. It¡¯s worth noting that not many people would be courageous enough to risk being smashed and killed when faced with a giant who was as tall as a city wall and was holding a whole tree as his weapon. This was true even for bandits. The bandit leader ¡°Bloody Hands¡± Ruhr, an orc, was caught in a conflict. He was wearing leather armor shining with a magic light, holding a scimitar that shone with a magic light as well. He knew how horrible this giant¡¯s power would be, and in normal conditions, he would surely lead his subordinates to take a detour that would not provoke this opponent; aside from the possible risks, they even couldn¡¯t afford the cost of killing this giant. To kill such an opponent, he should be mentally prepared to lose half a bandit gang. Without the regiment of thieves, who would he be in this wild barbarian place? However, the news from a reliable channel strengthened his confidence. He gazed at the bone bracelet on Gerrard¡¯s right wrist, which slightly shone with a magic light. This treasure was far more worthwhile than the entire regiment of thieves! A legendary treasure was enough to make him renowned in these four towns. Even if he returned to those prosperous areas, it was sufficient for him to settle down and enjoy a luxurious life. In this case, he could end the historical mission of ¡°Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves¡±! Thinking of this, he finally made up his mind, wielded his scimitar, and issued the order to attack. Chapter 21 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio As a very experienced criminal gang who had gotten into countless fights and never been wiped out, the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves could easily handle a fight on a village-scale. Although the leader had ordered them to initiate attack, they did not assault impertinently. Rather, they were yelling ¡°Banzai¡± and riding their wolves into battle. They dashed into a defensive position against the commercial corps, took the short bows from their back, aimed at Gerrard, and shot their arrows. As an experienced criminal gang, the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves excelled at both horsemanship and archery, and they also had abundant battle experience. They had calculated the striking distance very carefully, so they didn¡¯t have to set foot in the area where old Soth had laid traps. They had managed to initiate an attack in the region where the commercial corp¡¯s arrows could not reach. Tens of people shot their arrows at the same time, and these flying arrows were like a heavy rain of arrows, which was really terrifying. But Gerrard wasn¡¯t intimidated; he didn¡¯t even bother to block the arrows, apart from using his left hand to cover his eyes. The archery of the Orcs was very good: more than half of the arrows met their target, and Gerrard was in danger of being hit and becoming a large sieve full of holes. Seeing this, everyone in the commercial corps was nearly frightened to death. They heard a cracking sound, similar to that of a stone hitting against a tree. As soon as the arrows made contact with Gerrard, they just fell to the ground and he¡¯d suffered neither wound nor blood. Still, it was wrong to say that the arrows didn¡¯t work at all. Gerrard mumbled, ¡°kind of itchy¡­¡± Kind of itchy, that¡¯s all. Everyone was speechless. Sui Xiong felt as if he saw a pair of drooping wings rise up from the Orc¡¯s heads, and black water was dripping from the wings; there was also a pop-up notification saying ¡°the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves has been demoralized¡±. Of course, these were all illusions. ¡°Bloody Hands¡± Ruhr frowned a bit when he found that the arrows hadn¡¯t worked at all, but he didn¡¯t care about this too much. He had experienced numerous battles, and he had faced enemies clad in heavy armor more than once. So it was okay that arrows didn¡¯t work, since he had many ideas! ¡°Warlock, scorching curse!¡± he ordered in the Orc¡¯s language. Then, three Orcs who had yet to join the assault rode their wolves and approached. After walking a while, they stopped and held up their right hands all at the same time. All three of them were holding a one-foot-long magic wand. The wands were made of the war-craft¡¯s bones and engraved with magic alabaster, and red gemstones were mounted at the end of each wand. The magic wands were kind of strange and no one in the commercial corps recognized them at first. Once the red energy wave began hovering around the magic wand, a young wizard named Palin finally recognized it. ¡°Be careful! It is a magic wand that can increase their range!¡± The spell in this world was not as powerful as those in the magic novels he¡¯d read before. Here in this world, when one was practicing a magic spell, the biggest problem was the range. Since the wizards needed to use their Zen power to lock onto their target, most of the spells¡¯ range was twenty to thirty meters at most. A longer range could only be achieved when a Ray magic spell was practiced to lock onto a direction instead of locking onto a target via Zen power. A distance of twenty to thirty meters was not long enough to be safe, so a wizard needed to be protected by a soldier in a real war. Once a wizard lost this protection, even a few advanced wizards might have been killed by a middle-rank archer. Of course, if a wizard didn¡¯t withdraw when he knew he¡¯d already lost his protection, or even confronted the archer himself, he probably wouldn¡¯t live long due to his low intelligence; he might be the kind of wizard who would probably have killed himself already by botching a spell while practicing. To solve the problem of limited range, the technique of ¡°increasing the range via spell¡± came out. Also, in order to universalize this technique, which could make the range of a spell two to three times longer than before, the magic wand was invented. This expensive magic wand could only be used to enhance a wizard¡¯s ability of ¡°increasing the range via spell¡±. Although its price was fixed and high, it was still a treasured object that many wizards longed for. Combined with the ¡°Armor Robe¡± that materialized the spell of ¡°Mage Armor¡± and the ¡°life-saving amulet¡± that materialized the spell of ¡°Error Free Transmission¡±, these three objects were known as the ¡°three treasured objects of war¡±, a standard set that every wizard of actual combat type dreamed of collecting. Palin aimed to be a great and respectful adventurer, which meant that as a wizard, he needed to be a wizard who actually saw combat. So he had also been longing for the three treasured objects of war. Although the style of the range-increasing magic wand was very special and different from the one he saw in the magic shop, he still instantly recognized it when the three Orcs practiced the spell. However, he should have realized this earlier. Hearing Palin¡¯s warning, Gerrard was shocked and hurried to get prepared. But the three Orcs had already practiced the spell, and three rays of crimson light were flying toward him. The flight speed of the three lights wasn¡¯t too fast, and Gerrard was easily able to dodge them. But he knew that there were many innocent men behind him, and they would certainly die once hit by the spell if he only managed to dodge the three lights. So he gave up on the best choice for him and tried to absorb the force of the three spells with the big tree in his hand. However, the three Orcs¡¯ positioning was very peculiar. Even if Gerrard could move very fast and the tree was indeed very big, he was only able to withstand two of the spells and was hit by a ray of crimson light. The crimson light looked very normal, but it was cruelly powerful. The big tree in Gerrard¡¯s hands had been very healthy and strong with luxuriant foliage. But after the light made impact, the green leaves withered in the blink of an eye, and on the place that was hit by the light, tiny sparkles burst into two small flames. If even the big tree couldn¡¯t withstand the spell, what would happen if a human was hit by it? Ruhr was smiling and felt like he had seen that pure, kind and young giant burst into a fizzy mess, or explode due to the sudden vaporized blood. This scene was one of his favorites, a scene he could never get sick of. However, this time he was disappointed since he could only see a wisp of smoke rising up. The powerful scorching curse hit Gerrard and only burned a piece of outer skin off his left arm. ¡°This spell is really vicious! Once a person is hit, both the inside and the outside of his body should suffer from extreme temperatures and definitely die¡­ These are professional bandits who just practiced a spell that could kill a person the very first time!¡± Sui Xiong was a bit surprised, since he never thought that a group of bandits in the frontier areas could be so powerful. ¡°But you don¡¯t need to worry, the magic energy stored in your gemstone is very abundant. The spell that confronts toughness with equal toughness can be directly offset by the magic; it can¡¯t harm you but will cause some surface-level skin trauma, and that¡¯s all. You will recover soon since you have a strong body.¡± Hearing Sui Xiong¡¯s words and seeing the big tree that was soon to become a torch, Gerrard was completely stunned. He knew that his body which Oscar had made for him was very strong, but he never thought that it was strong enough to withstand the scorching curse! It was already amazing that his body could withstand a knife or a sword, but it never dawned on him that it could also defend against the powerful scotching curse! He thought that the toughness of his body must be outstanding among other war-crafts. Maybe¡­he could even fight against a huge dragon! He thought he was really very lucky to be protected by such a omnipotent real God! Thinking of this, Gerrard became very confident. He let out a howl, waved the soon-to-be-torch tree trunk, and ran towards the Orc bandits. He was running faster than a horse, and he quickly stopped in front of an Orc wizard and gave him a good smash with the tree. Right at this moment, a circle of white light appeared around the Orc wizard. The light was Mage Armor and its defensive power was as strong as chainmail. However, the spell did no good when facing Gerrard¡¯s powerful smash. It didn¡¯t last for a second, and crashed down in a big bang, along with the Orc wizard and the wolf he rode on, and they became the fertilizer that nourished the grass. Seeing this, Ruhr was so frightened that his eyeballs were about to pop out. Luckily, his body reacted much faster than his brain, and he immediately turned around and ran as fast as he could to put distance between them. The members of the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves instantly raised a big whistle in the group, moved the wolves all together, and began to scatter in all directions. This caught Gerrard by surprise, and he had no idea which way he should go. Gerrard was very experienced, but he wasn¡¯t a very smart guy. When he was on the adventure team, he¡¯d always followed his captain¡¯s orders. Later, when he ran away and hid in the White Leaves Village and became the captain of guarding the village, he always stood by his duty and had no idea how to fight for power and money. The reason why the old officiant thought of him as a ¡°cunning¡± guy was because of the great respect the villagers had for him for his willingness to teach his apprentices, and this was misinterpreted by the old officiant himself who always saw the bad in things. Seeing the Orcs run away in all directions as soon as they felt they had suffered a setback in battle, Gerrard felt he was watching a nest of rabbits run away in all directions like a pack of fools. ¡°Hunt the three wizards down!¡± Sui Xiong ordered. In his view, the strongest people in the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves were the three wizards, and the threat from this gang of bandits would be significantly diminished if they were killed. Hearing this, Gerrard instantly began to dash like a breeze and quickly caught up with an Orc wizard riding a wolf. He gave the wizard a good smash on the head with the big burning tree in his hand. Bang! The wizard became a pile of fertilizer. At that moment, the third Orc wizard fired off a spell, and the feet of the wolf he was riding were soon covered in green air. Then the wolf, which was running quickly to begin with, started running like the wind. Even Gerrard was shocked by its speed; he struggled to catch up with it, and gave up at last when the distance between him and the wizard was only increasing. ¡°Your Majesty, I am so sorry, I failed to fulfill the task¡­ Please punish me!¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, you have killed two wizards, you have done a good job.¡± Sui Xiong was totally fine with this. ¡°We will meet him again one day. Although he has managed to run away this time, he won¡¯t always be this lucky and will reap what he sows.¡± ¡°Before that, it¡¯s time for you to eat supper now.¡± Gerrard sighed and was very annoyed by his own incompetence. He threw the big tree that had already become a torch on the ground, put out the fire with his feet and went back to the encampment of the commercial corps in very low spirits. Seeing that their hero who had defeated the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves was in such low spirits, the corps members were very confused and wanted to know why. When they heard that one of the Orc wizards had run away, all sorts of feelings began to well up in their minds. The Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves was famous for its brutality and cruelty. Normally, anyone who came across them could only think about was how to run for their life, while for a powerful man, the concern was how to defeat it. What a big difference. This was just like a Bronze Rank novice watching the pros competing with each other in an online game, unable to do anything but keep praising them to express his excitement and respect to the pros. Pros, please accept my knees! (In the past, when one wanted to show his respect for someone, he would give the most precious thing he owned; for example, he could get on his knees.) Chapter 22 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio The defeated Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves had left two big piles of trash which might contaminate the environment, so the smart young wizard Palin managed to recycle a few very valuable objects from the trash. Two broken wizard¡¯s robes needed to be repaired; once mended, the robe would give its wearer an affinity to Fire Energy. Judging from this, the two Orc wizards were probably specialized in practicing Fire spells. There were also two broken magic wands that could increase range. There was no point in repairing them, but the two almost intact magic gemstones were quite valuable¡ªin fact, the most valuable object in a range-increasing magic wand was the magic gemstone. The wand itself was just a piece of carved wood, which was not difficult to make. He also found an unbroken Space Pocket which belonged to the second Orc wizard that was killed, which held a good stash of money. This guy had probably been the leader among the three Orc wizards and a Jefecito in the gang of bandits. He had hundreds of gold coins as well as a few extremely valuable gemstones, which were probably worth two thousand gold coins in total. The Space Pocket itself, which was an advanced object that could reduce the weight of the stuff it contained, may have been worth five to six hundred gold coins. Apart from these five objects, the rest was just a pile of crap. Palin tried his best to sort out the objects the two wizards used to practice the spell, but he only managed to get the objects that was worth two gold coins at most. ¡°Enough, it¡¯s dark already!¡± shouted Gerrard, watching Palin hold a torch and try to find something valuable from the pile of repulsive flesh. Gerrard felt a bit of sympathy for him and yelled at him, ¡°If you don¡¯t have an early night, you will feel listless tomorrow!¡± Palin thought very highly of Gerrard, so he said yes and trudged back unhappily. ¡°They are specialized in practicing Fire spells; they should¡¯ve at least had an amulet made of a red crystal with them¨Cbut I didn¡¯t found any,¡± Palin said guiltily. ¡°It must be due to my lack of knowledge about magic, otherwise I could definitely recognize it!¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, you are still very young. It is already very good of you to be able to find so many objects!¡± Gerrard smiled and comforted him, and he gave a magic gemstone and two robes to Palin. ¡°These are for you. The robe just needs a bit repair and it¡¯ll be just fine, and you can make a magic wand with the magic gemstone.¡± ¡°¡­But these are your spoils of war, I can¡¯t possibly take them!¡± Palin was in a daze and refused to accept. Gerrard shrugged and said happily, ¡°Then make them my investment in a soon-to-be great wizard, and when you become strong, you can return this favor to me.¡± Palin hesitated a while, and finally accepted the gift. In fact he knew clearly that even if he became an advanced wizard one day, he would never be of any help to ¡°Brother White¡±. He was incredibly powerful, and Palin would only be able to help him when he pushed past the limits of the human body and stepped into the legendary world of the immortal. ¡°Brother White, I am wondering if I may ask you a question¡­¡± Old Soth leaned over and hesitated. ¡°Just ask. If I have the answer, I will tell you.¡± After getting Gerrard¡¯s permission, Old Soth still hesitated a bit. He looked around and whispered, ¡°You have entered into the ¡®Legendary World¡¯, haven¡¯t you?¡± Gerrard was in a daze for a moment. He wanted to shake his head, but he wasn¡¯t sure if No was the right answer, so he began to contemplate. What did it mean to be legendary? As Gerrard himself recalled, the so-called legendary status meant the ability to push past the limits of the human body; to be free of birth, caducity, sickness and death; to be immortal and incredibly powerful; the ability to decide the fate of a certain country by himself; essentially, to become a super powerful man who stood above the checkerboard of the world, able to influence the state of affairs in every nation across the world. So, am I a man of that type of strength? Freedom from old age and death are realistic to me. In fact, I¡¯ve already died. My body was a creation of Oscar¡¯s: even if the body ages or becomes damaged, His Majesty can surely fix or rebuild it. Judging from this, I am indeed free of old age and death. As for being incredibly powerful, I think I¡¯m qualified in this regard too. It was true that I hadn¡¯t realized this earlier, but the more battles I¡¯ve experienced, the more I feel how strong this body is. I can run faster than a horse; I¡¯ve shown greater strength than a bear or a tiger; my body is as firm as armor; and even if I¡¯m hit by a strong spell, my body can withstand it and I don¡¯t get injured but only suffer a tiny scratch on my skin¡­if this doesn¡¯t mean I am powerful, then what is being powerful? So I am already a legendary man of great strength? He laid out his hands and looked at the rough, big and thick palms, feeling very surreal. A few days ago, he was still a wanted criminal, hiding in a desolated small village at the brink of civilized society and living a poor life. There, he was pushed aside by the ruler of the village, and his life was dull and measly. But now, a few days later, he¡¯d totally transformed. He had become incredibly powerful, and this was something he had never dared to dream of; he had also become the first follower of a great God who could foresee the future. Now he would be able to live an extremely rich life. All of this was the gift given by Oscar. The giant finally managed to think this through and felt relieved. Then he smiled calmly. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I really fit into the category of the so-called legendary¡± he replied in a very low voice, ¡°but I believe that I have found the right way. As long as I continue to walk this path, I will reach legendary status one day.¡± Old Soth and Palin had sensed a change in Gerrard. Now he was breathing very steadily, like the magnificent mountains that existed steadily in a certain place, resolute and unmoving. This was all very admirable, which was something they had never seen before in Gerrard. Maybe Gerrard wasn¡¯t legendary, but one thing was for sure: he had indeed grown mentally stronger and stepped into the world of the powerful. With his amazing talent and capabilities, once he had stepped into the world of the powerful, it was only a matter of time before he¡¯d become a real legendary man of strength. That night, the experienced Old Soth recalled the calm face of the giant and started to laugh. He had witnessed a key step in the ¡°birth¡± of a legendary man of strength, and this was a story he could show off to his offspring so it could become a part of family history. He believed that if he could make friends with such a kind and legendary man of strength, it would definitely do his family some good! Thinking of this, he sighed. How envious I am! If only I could also become a legendary man of strength.. Meanwhile, young Palin didn¡¯t think as much as Old Soth did. He just smiled, encouraged himself, and made his mind up to be a brilliant wizard one day, becoming as strong as Brother White. The fire of inspiration had been lit and would blaze in this young man¡¯s heart in the coming years. No doubt this would become his motivation to persist in the future. Whether or not he would end up as strong as Gerrard in the future, he would still feel proud and happy when he recalled this moment at the end of his life. While Old th and Palin were smiling, ¡°Bloody Hands¡± Ruhr paced anxiously, like a beast kept in a cage. He was no inexperienced fool. He had known how powerful Gerrard was, and it worried him to make an enemy of such a strong man. But when he thought of the legendary treasured object Gerrard had with him, he became greedy again. On the one hand, this was the biggest crisis he¡¯d ever faced; on the other hand, this was his opportunity to get a legendary treasured object. Ruhr now had no idea what he should do next. ¡°Old Burke, what do you think?¡± he asked his adviser Shaman, who was also the second in charge of the gang of bandits. Shaman was the oldest and most experienced man in this gang of bandits. After being asked, he kept as silent as he always was and didn¡¯t give any valuable suggestions. This was exactly how Ruhr expected him to react. Ruhr was walking around the temporary camp and was facing a dilemma. On the one hand, he wanted to withdraw for the safety of the gang; on the other hand, he wanted to risk everything he had. So he made a bet. ¡°Those bloody pickpockets! I knew they could never be so good as to bring me good news for free!¡± He was complaining, feeling resentful and annoyed at finding himself in this dilemma. He had lost two wizards, including the leader of the wizards under his command. This was a big loss for the gang of bandits. But he would feel great regret if he gave up now, since it would also damage the gang¡¯s morale (not to mention his reputation). He thought of waiting for a better opportunity to seize the treasured object the giant had with him¡­but he was terrified. He couldn¡¯t decide whether to take this last chance when it occurred to him that the giant was as powerful as a god of war. ¡°If I order them to enter into a life and death struggle with the giant now, they¡¯ll probably run for their lives right away¡­¡± He sighed deeply, then found a stump and sat down. He rubbed his forehead and began to contemplate. Giving up was far from a good idea, while fighting recklessly with no regard for the consequences was no good either. What should I do to get what I want? Ruhr spent the whole night thinking this. All these years, ¡°Bloody Hands¡± Ruhr had been proud of his ability to be heartless, cruel and smart. He¡¯d always despised those who travelled around the country by relying on their wisdom and intelligence, but now he resented himself for not being clever and failing to come up with the perfect solution. He kept thinking and thinking and didn¡¯t even realize he¡¯d been up all night until the sun came out. Since he had over-strained his nerves, he felt dizzy and stood up unsteadily, then decided to go to the creek nearby to wash his face and feel refreshed. At that moment, the scout who had been tracking the movements of the commercial corp returned. ¡°Boss, they have set out again. It seems that they are heading to Gold-Panning Town.¡± ¡°I see. Let¡¯s follow behind them. Remember, do not get close to them until the right moment arrives,¡± Ruhr ordered. This helped his subordinates relax and cheered up the members of the camp a bit. When the gang of bandits walked passed the village in the distance, where the commercial corp had camped the day before, Ruhr suddenly came up with an idea. It wasn¡¯t very practical, but there was no harm in trying. If he succeeded, he could probably make a fortune! He asked a subordinate to come over and whispered something secretly in his ear. The subordinate¡¯s green face immediately turned white, and he shook his head so hard that his head was about to fall off. ¡°I was only asking you to deliver a letter, what on earth are you afraid of!¡± However, the subordinate was still shaking his head and looked frightened to death. After being threatened by Ruhr and lured by the promise of great wealth, the subordinate unwillingly agreed to follow the order. Then with a fearless expression on his face, he rode off on his wolf to catch up with the commercial corps. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s stop here,¡± Ruhr said to his subordinates. ¡°We can stop now; if everything goes well, the giant will come to us.¡± The gang of bandits instantly became alarmed and bewildered, and Ruhr could see it on their faces. This made him so angry that he wanted to cut their heads off one by one! After a while, the subordinate who was sent to deliver the message came back, and right behind him was the intimidating giant, who was walking rather casually. ¡°Big guy!¡± Ruhr shouted. ¡°I want to do business with you!¡± Chapter 23 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio On Earth, there was a literary quotation that said, ¡°Children are flowers in the garden, and thrive in the sunshine and warmth of the motherland.¡± In this bizarre world where it was not warm enough, the buds would not grow healthily. Some would wither, some would perish, some would put forth blossom but bear no fruit. There were a few who would bear fruit; but they were wonderful flowers (pronounced ¡°Qi Pa¡± in Chinese, which means a total weirdo). The Orc with the nickname ¡°Bloody Hands,¡± for example, was a typical weirdo. ¡°He wants us to hand the legendary treasured object to him, otherwise he is going to kill the innocent villagers¡­ Gerrard, what was this guy thinking? Was there something wrong with his mind?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while, but still failed to understand how could his brain progressed in such a peculiar way. He had no option but to ask his follower Gerrard. However, Gerrard could not give a reasonable explanation either. He was also very puzzled. Being kind did not mean being silly. Trying to threaten them by randomly picking some villagers they did not even know and making them hostages? This was just treating Sui Xiong and Gerrard like fools! ¡°What on earth do you want to say?¡± Gerrard could not help asking. ¡°¡®Why do I need to exchange my treasured object for you not to kill these villagers when I could just kill you?¡¯ Am I right?¡± Ruhr had already known he would say this, and proudly sneered, ¡°You could just kill me, but I have already dispersed my subordinates. If you do not give me your bracelet, they will immediately kill every villager they can possibly see! Which will you choose, a treasured object or an innocent villager¡¯s life?¡± He was smiling like a b*tch, his short nose almost bent upward and the sticky saliva¡ªwhich was giving off a disgusting smell under the sun¡ªdripping down from his sharp teeth. Gerrard was so angry that he even began to laugh. He decided to give Ruhr a good punch right on his face and send him to back to him mother¡¯s womb, so in his next life¡ªif there was one¡ªhe would be a nice guy. Before he made his move, Sui Xiong stopped him. ¡°Interesting¡­ I have never seen such a shameless person!¡± Sui Xiong sneered. His intention to kill Ruhr greatly intensified. ¡°Since you cannot defeat me, you want to kill the green hand? Interesting. Very interesting. I can never regain my peace if I don¡¯t teach you a lesson and make you suffer, so that you can do nothing but to delete your game account and never dare to log in again!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, what do you plan to do?¡± ¡°Give him the bracelet,¡± Sui Xiong said coldly. ¡°I will inform you when things are done.¡± Gerrard was shocked. ¡°What?! Give the ¡°Void Gaze¡± to him? To the shameless thug?¡± ¡°Yes. After you hand it to him, turn around and walk away. Do not turn back.¡± From Sui Xiong¡¯s cold tone, Gerrard had guessed what Sui Xiong had intended to do, and shivered. Gerrard knew that what the extremely evil Orc bandit was going to face would be possibly the worst outcome, for he had successfully infuriated His Majesty of Void Faceless. After infuriating a real God, this foolish guy even dared to take the holy object inside where the real God existed. What a stupid person. I wonder what is waiting for him? Kind Gerrard did not want to think deeply on this subject anymore; he was afraid that doing so would only make him have nightmares. He took off the bone bracelet from his right wrist, threw it to Ruhr, turned around, and left. He had no interest in seeing Ruhr¡¯s ugly performance of deliriously and hurriedly catching the bracelet. He walked very fast. He did not want to see the tragically terrible consequences that were going to befall Ruhr; however, he was also disgusted by Ruhr. This Orc bandit¡¯s behavior was too bad to be fully described in words like ¡®evil¡¯ or ¡®ugly;¡¯ in fact, his behavior was as disgusting as decaying meat. Gerrard thought himself neither a fly nor a dung beetle, and so was not able to force himself to be near a person like Ruhr. Ruhr was too busy to care about a silly and extremely kind-hearted man as Gerrard. He was totally distracted by the bone bracelet he just received. This treasured object was exactly as he had been told it would be. There was a powerful magic energy inside it. Looking from the outside, its magic aura was not too bright; as if it was just something an adventurer with a few years¡¯ experience could afford to buy. But when Ruhr held it in his hand, he instantly felt the energy contained in it was rich, or even infinite! He wanted to put on the bracelet, but found that it was a bracelet for a giant, and too big for him to wear on his wrist. He thought for while, and finally decided to wear it on his neck as a collar. Even then, it was still a bit too big for a collar. Ruhr did not care if it was big or not anymore. As soon as he wore the ¡®collar,¡¯ he saw a white light flash, then felt an inexhaustible energy surging in him, as if he had become incredibly powerful or omnipotent. He became so bold and generous that he thought if heaven was against him, he would fight against heaven; if God was against him, he would also fight against God. Even the grass and trees around him seemed frightened by his boldness, and submitted themselves to his rule. ¡°What a treasured object!¡± he could not help laughing aloud. Then he turned around to his subordinates and asked proudly, ¡°What do you think of it?¡± Immediately, his smile froze. What he saw were not his subordinates who had been with him for many years, but some soft and sticky meat blocks that had numerous tentacles, and were making very strange sounds. Ruhr exclaimed and stepped back a few steps spontaneously. He did not stop until he bumped to a tree. But instantly he felt something was wrong. The tree he bumped into was not as hard as a tree was supposed to be. Instead it was quite gummy, and he felt as if he were sticking to it. He hurriedly struggled to get off, and managed to do so. But when he turned around, the trees he saw earlier had disappeared completely. What he saw were countless, crazily moving tentacles, big and small, and messy. Looking carefully, he found that there was a face on each tentacle. The faces looked familiar. As he looked harder, the faces became clearer. The face was furry and ferociously ugly, the nose on it was short, the tusks pointed out against the thick lips, there were scars¡­ Suddenly, he realized those were the faces of the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves! At that moment, the faces that were a bit vague suddenly became very clear. He found that he knew each of them very well! However, he could not see the toughness and obedience from these faces, as usual; instead he saw terrified, lifeless faces with the bluish white colors of dead bodies. Ruhr let out a big howl and pulled out his machete to defend himself. ¡°What¡­ what are you!¡± he roared, while brandishing his machete. ¡°How dare you play tricks on me. I will cut all of you to pieces!¡± A peculiar laughing sound echoed in his ears. He brandished his machete in the direction he thought the sound came from, but he missed. Turning back, he saw a monster that had no a physical shape, but the face of an Orc, with tentacles all over it. It was floating in the air and staring at him with its lifeless eyes. The piercing sound it made was like a cat scratching steel, and seemed to come from its neck. ¡°Come back. Come back to us.¡± Suddenly the sound was echoing in all directions. ¡°Come back, come back.¡± The sound was high-pitched and low-pitched, like an old man¡¯s and a child¡¯s, and all the sounds were lifeless. If one listened carefully, one could tell the sound was filled with infinite happiness. Ruhr cried out, brandished his machete and dashed toward the direction where there were not too many monsters. As a habitual bandit, he wasn¡¯t afraid of death; but if he was going to die, he thought he just couldn¡¯t be killed by these peculiar monsters! He had a gut feeling that if he was caught by these monsters, he would not even be able to die, but instead ruthlessly tortured! ¡°Orc Deity, please bless me!¡± he prayed, and ran as fast as he could, hoping he could leave those monsters far behind. Ruhr was running very fast, but he still felt he was not moving at all, since he saw everything around him did not change. When looking down, he found that he was not standing on hard soil, but something that was wriggling. There was even some icy sticky fluid flowing, and his instep was soaking in it. Ruhr cried out as if he were crazy, and brandished his machete in all directions. Although he did not cut anything, doing so had indeed made him become bold and courageous again, and he stood a bit firmer. ¡°Come! I am not afraid of death!¡± Those monsters that had his subordinates¡¯ faces were approaching very quickly, with their peculiar tentacles waving frighteningly. Although they did not have too much strength, they were rather sticky and tenacious. When Ruhr cut one of them with his sharp magic machete, there was not even a scar left on them. Ruhr thought he had been backed to a corner, but regardless he clenched his teeth and desperately cut the monsters. If one cut was not enough, he then cut two or three times; if that did not work, he punched and kicked them, or even bit them. Ruhr was in a difficult situation, if he had ever been in this kind of situation before, he had forgotten when that was. His mind gradually fell into a chaotic state, as if his brain had been filled with semi-solid and sticky fat. After a while, Ruhr realized that the machete was not in his hand. He had lost his strength and could not move his hands and feet anymore. Even the weapon he was born with¡ªhis teeth¡ªwere aching too hard to bite anything anymore. The monster that had tentacles all over itself finally defeated him. It wound itself around Ruhr, and was getting tighter and tighter, until at last Ruhr found that he could not breathe anymore. He was gradually losing his eyesight too. He was so tired that every time he breathed, his heart and lungs ached severely. But compared with pain in the back of his brain, this was basically nothing. That pain was too itchy to bear; he almost wanted to smash his own skull with the machete, dig out his brain and step on it. But now, he could do nothing but watch a huge tentacle, with a face he could not see clearly, approach slowly. He soon realized on the tentacle there was a big mouth with many tiny teeth inside. The teeth were rubbing against each other, making a piercing sound. There was a moment when Ruhr thought he should pray, but his mind had been in such a chaotic state he could not respond or give a clear answer. Pray to whom? How does one pray? He had no idea. The next moment, he had even forgotten he was supposed to pray at all. When he was wound up by the tentacle, when he was about to be engulfed by that big mouth, he finally saw that face clearly. It was his own face. His nerve finally broke. The last shred of sanity in his mind disappeared completely. What had was left was only the infinitive stickiness and chaos. The head of the bandit who had lost his essential spirit, leaving only the outer form, smiled peculiarly. ¡°Haha¡­ hehe¡­ hahahaha¡­¡± Chapter 24 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio ¡°Your Majesty, what have you done to frighten these thugs to death?! Especially the leader, who made such a horrifying cry when he died.¡± Gerrard cleaned the bracelet with leaves, and looked at the Orc¡¯s dead bodies lying in disorder, along with ¡°Bloody Hands¡± Ruhr. Ruhr¡¯s face was now twisted, and sh*t and urine were flowing down his pants all together. Even if he was already dead, he was still too repulsive to make others want to get close. Seeing this, Gerrard did not only feel a bit disgusted, but also quite curious. ¡°Actually, I do not know either. I just knocked gently on him, and that is it,¡± Sui Xiong said, while pointing at Ruhr¡¯s body. ¡°As for the others, I did not even touch them. God knows how they died.¡± ¡°Oh, I know; they were all frightened to death, and when they died, their souls also went mad, and became wraiths,¡± Gerrard said. He pointed at the black air wriggling in the shadow of a tree in the short distance. Inside the black air, they could vaguely saw many mad figures, crying and laughing. Gerrard curiously listened and heard a crazy laughing sound. His heart suddenly shrunk. He immediately stopped listening and picked a topic to distract himself. ¡°Your Majesty, I counted just now, and there were only 30 bodies. But there were 35 or 36 of them yesterday. How shall we deal with the rest of them? Do I need to chase and hunt them down?¡± ¡°There is no need to fuss,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°Cutting someone slack is a perfectly justified thing to do. If they manage to get away, then good for them. But it is not that easy to do; they should not think themselves safe if they have managed to escape. As for those who have fled, they cannot not get away and will soon come back to face their maker. We shall just wait here.¡± Gerrard was in a daze. After he handed the bracelet to Ruhr, he came back, chatted with Sui Xiong for a while, and ate two helpings of barbecued meat. But in such a short time, the twenty Orc bandits had been killed, and he did not even hear any fighting or see any traces of the battle or blood. Even those who fled could not survive. How incredible the magnificent power of this God was! Really, there was only one guy that had fled. In the forest, there was a figure running as fast as the wind, and panting like an ox. This figure was Shaman of the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves, who was called the ¡®accountant,¡¯ Burke. He was second only to Ruhr, and was the butler. He was the oldest among the members of the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves. He was also very silent, taciturn, indifferent, and easily neglected by others. Usually, he would stand beside Ruhr when there was the need to appraise some certain objects other than the cash, to calculate the cost of certain wars, as well as the profit. At last, Ruhr would decide how to divide up the spoils of war. Burke never asked for spoils of war, or talked with anyone but Ruhr, apart from when he served as an accountant and had to talk with others. But other than that, he never spoke to anyone, even when he was treating an injured bandit or fighting a war. But now, he was terrified, and his lips trembled. His teeth were chattering while he ran like crazy. Earlier, Burke was sitting in a safe place as he usually was, and looking at Ruhr. Ruhr was an Orc he took with him from a tribe, who had quickly grown to be a strong Orc, and his own leader. He had managed to blackmail a rare treasured object from an inexperienced, pure and kind giant with a tough and cunning ultimatum. For him, this was a glorious victory worth praising. The God that exorcised the beast (the God of Orc healing and schemes) would also feel happy about this, since he preferred to get the spoils of war by intimidating and tricking instead of simply using force. As the Shaman who believed in the God of Healing and Schemes among the Orcs, Burke was not very talkative, since he preferred thinking and praying quietly. He put all his efforts on plotting and praying. In his view, the way Ruhr usually got a spoil of war was too rough and direct, and lacked the beauty of pure violence. This time, he thought the way Ruhr got the bracelet was still a bit rough, but totally different from how he did before. However, his happiness only lasted for a few seconds. When Ruhr put the bracelet on his neck, he saw clearly that a ray of bluish white light appeared, and became a peculiar form he had never laid eyes on. He felt suffocated and pressured. This feeling was beyond description, and made him feel his heart had been crushed into pieces for a moment. Other Orcs were extremely frightened, and acted as if their souls had left their bodies. They began to cry and run about in all directions. But they soon pressed their chests and fell down one by one. Burke managed to keep calm with his strong mind after years of exercises. Actually, his being able to stay calm was not a good thing for him; he clearly saw a tentacle reaching out from that peculiar creature. It patted Ruhr gently, and the ruthless Ruhr was crushed by extreme terror. In the beginning, Ruhr was struggling to stay calm. Then he broke down mentally and was not able to counterattack anymore. He was forced to die by that incredible energy. This process only took a few seconds. My God! What on earth was living inside that bracelet! At that moment, the only thing he could do was kneel down, take out the holy emblem, and start to pray. ¡°God that exorcised the beast, please bless my soul, and make me think calmly, and be free of this terror and madness.¡± As usual, the extraordinary power quickly befell him, and became an air as cold as a winter breeze. It went into his body, and Burke¡¯s mind was clear again. He retained his calmness and escaped the terror. Then he ran away without hesitation. He did not ride his wolf, since all the wolves had already run away and disappeared. Before, they were running as if they were being chased by the scariest war craft, and Burke thought they would not stop running until they died. In fact, he thought what he was doing now was the same as what those wolves did earlier: running, running as fast as possible to the furthest place one could possibly go. He had no idea what that damn bracelet was, but there was one thing that he could be sure of. That bracelet was much more mysterious and powerful than he ever thought. The Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves was already doomed, as was Ruhr. What he could do now was save himself. But even in this, he was not sure if he could succeed. The spell he practiced earlier could not last for long. If he could not get himself out of the range of the spell of the peculiar bracelet, he would certainly die! Burke was trying his best to run without thinking what horrors he might face later. He was only thinking about one thing, and that was running faster and further! What on earth was that? What on earth was the creature that came out of the bracelet? It was incredible that he could still think when he was running so quickly. Powerful¡­ magnificent¡­ incredible¡­ Suddenly, his eyeballs shrank, a cry came out of his dry throat, and his muscles immediately got stiff. He had guessed what that creature was. His cheeks started to tremble and his teeth began to chatter, as if a big snake had surrounded him. He could not even stand steadily, since his feet had become limp. He leaned the tree next to him so that he would not fell on the ground. That¡­ that¡­ that was a God! Burke, a man who was always so calm, finally let out a frightened cry, and his body began to tremble as if he were suffering from chills and a fever. I have to run! I have to run quickly! The further I run the better! I have to run out of the four villages in the northwest and Badlands, and run into the inland. I shall never stop running! If I do not hurry, maybe he will find me soon! Maybe he is already on his way! Thinking this, the Orc Shaman¡¯s fur stood up. Although it was quite warm and he was wearing very comfortable clothes, he felt very cold. He could not resist the coldness, since it came from his heart. He felt as if he were standing naked on the ice field in winter, and would be frozen in the next very second. Run! Run! Run fast! But he could not stand up. his feet were shaking and out of control. He struggled to stand up many times, and finally managed to do so. This is not working! I cannot run like this. I have to use the energy of- He knelt down¡ªwhich was not a difficult thing to do¡ªand took out the holy emblem with his shaky hands and began to pray. However, this time he did not get the reply. The God that the Orc believed in was cruel and brutal. Thus, a coward¡¯s prayer would not get his reply. Luckily, Burke had stored other magic objects. When he found that he did not get the reply, he instantly took out a scroll with a golden border around it. He opened it without hesitation and pressed on it with his magic, and managed to activate the alabaster on it. The expensive scroll started to burn and became a golden halo. The halo then fell on him. Immediately Burke regained his strength. Before he was so terrified that his mind had turned into a mess, but now he became courageous again. Then the Shaman, the evil backstage manipulator, continued to run. He was running so fast that he stumbled over a stump or a stone along the road and fell on the ground heavily. Then he hurriedly got up and continued to run without even daring to turn back, as if there was really something chasing after him. No, he had indeed felt that there was something chasing after him. And that thing was huge, powerful and scary¡­ Soon, the spell ceased to be effective; the terror crawled up his mind again. He was going to be caught. Ha-ha; a mortal could never be able to run away from a God. The reason he had managed to run this far was because Sui Xiong wanted to chew his terror slowly, and watch his futile struggling, so he could have some fun. What would happen to him next? Was he going to become a rock and stay deep in a forest where no one ever stepped foot, and spend his long, long life alone, and see nothing but the darkness? Or maybe he would be thrown into purgatory, where the guilty were punished, and suffer. There, he would want to die so badly, not being able to stand the pain anymore, but he might not even be able to die. He would have to wait until the God showed his mercy. Maybe his body, and even his soul, would be crushed completely, and became the material of a magic object. Would his crying face be left on a knife or an axe? Burke was panting for breath, for he was extremely terrified. His body had reached its limit. He did not stop running, even when there was white foam coming out of his nose and mouth. Soon, he had almost lost his sight, and began to walk unsteadily. His facial expression became lifeless. Now he could not see his surroundings or hear any sounds. He was still running, but more and more slowly. At last, he could not run anymore, and fell on the ground. He still wanted to try. He struggled and managed to crawl a few steps, then burst out laughing. ¡°He has come! He has come to punish me!¡± This was the last sentence that the old thug said. He, who had done so many crimes in so many places; from the Northern Wasteland, to the four villages in the northwest. He had also helped establish the bandits¡¯ group that had committed all manners of crime, and left many terrifying records. At last, in his sheer terror, exhaustion, despair, and madness, the last breath left his body. When his soul rose up, it was caught by an invisible force, and thrown into the black air in the short distance. Inside the black air, there were already many mad souls crying and laughing. ¡°See? The last bandit has also been caught,¡± Sui Xiong said to Gerrard, who was totally stunned. The sun gradually rose up. Looking beneath, one could see that the place that the ¡®accountant; Burke had run formed a perfect circle. He started from the opening, and ended at the opening. A big circle. Chapter 25 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Gerrard was running faster than a horse, and it only took him half an hour to catch up with the marching commercial corp. When he threw the bodies of the leader Ruhr and the vice leader Burke on the truck, everyone yelled with great enjoyment. The businessmen were both shocked and happy, and they examined the two bodies carefully to make sure their identities were true. Some of them even took out the copied reward papers, and compared the two dead men with the portraits! Yes, these two dirty and ugly Orcs were exactly the cruel and cunning leaders of the criminal gang that led a huge number of bandits, and had plagued the four villages in the northwest all these years, attacking the villagers and businessmen. The Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves had been destroyed! The businessmen were as cheerful as a group of larks. They stood in a circle and conveyed their gratitude to Gerrard, who was standing in the middle of the circle. Later, they pooled together a great amount of money as a gift to Gerrard. Of course, Sui Xiong did not want to take this money, because he thought that it was only natural to wipe out the whole gang. Besides, it was the Orcs that formed a group to ambush him in the first place. He did not understand why these businessmen gave him money. To be honest, if Sui Xiong wanted to receive money, he would just go to the town and get the reward from the Association of Thieves. But this time he was persuaded by Gerrard. Gerrard told him that in the civilized world, it was a perfectly justified thing for the businessmen to give him a reward when he had wiped out the bandits. If he did not receive the money, they would be unhappy. Sui Xiong was not a stubborn fuddy-duddy, so he would not refuse to the money he earned legally. There was more than one benefit besides receiving money. Many valuable spoils of war were found with the two dead bodies. Since the two were frightened to death, they did not have the chance to use the objects they took with them. These objects were all intact. Take the magic leather armor and Bloody Hands¡¯ magic machete, for example; they were worth as much as a month¡¯s salary for a normal businessman. Not to mention the other objects. For example, in the Space Pocket owned by Ruhr, there was nothing but some money and potions. He had changed all his money for various outfits, so he could increase his combat effectiveness. But inside the space pocket of the old Shaman, there were more than one thousand gold coins, all kinds of gemstones, and many advanced potions and scrolls. Old Soth believed that the objects in the two space pockets, the outfits of the two Orcs, and the reward they were entitled to, were worth over 20,000 gold coins. 20,000 gold coins! When hearing the number, Gerrard was totally stunned. Think of it this way: the villagers in the White Leaves Village made their living by felling and burning bark, as well as planting the Golden Vine. The vine did not taste good, but it could be used to resist negative energy, and was the staple food of the residents in the Ashes Forest. An average family could only save three to five, or six to seven gold coins in a whole year. On top of that, they had to hand in at least seventy percent of their income to the Church of the God Wu Mian to pay tax. This left them with only one or two gold coins. ¡°Wait, seventy percent of their income is taxed? This is too cruel!¡± Sui Xiong exclaimed. ¡°Why haven¡¯t those villagers rebelled!?¡± ¡°Your Majesty, the tax is not heavy at all.¡± Gerrard looked surprised, and began to explain. ¡°The church collects their tax on the condition that the farmers have enough food to eat. In other words, they collect their tax from surplus. The Lords did not care if the farmers had money or not. Sui Xiong now realized he was wrong. Obviously, no one would want to live in a village where skeletons would appear at night if his basic needs were not met. As it was written in the story of the snake catcher (by the Chinese thinker Liu Zongyuan), although catching a serpent was dangerous business, it was much better than being heavily taxed, or becoming a serf! No matter where we go, the government order is sometimes more terrifying than a tiger! Sui Xiong thought, and sighed deeply. Gerrard had no idea what Sui Xiong was thinking, and said, ¡°The whole White Leaves Village could save up to 200 gold coins in taxation per year; the 20,000 gold coins were worth the taxation of 100 years. Or think of it this way: when I was still an adventurer, the team I was in could save, at most, 1,000 gold coins. And that was while everyone in that team was very strong and competent. We were a very good team. ¡°Your Majesty, we can receive 5,000 gold coins or less by killing the evil dragon; around 1,000 gold coins by killing a criminal who murdered an aristocracy; and about 2,000 gold coins by wiping out the famous gang of bandits, the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves. So you can really feel that the 20,000 gold coins is really a big sum of money!¡± Sui Xiong nodded, finally having a grasp on the value of the 20,000 gold coins. ¡°We can build a temple with the money. Your Majesty, I think we should find a village and make that village our follower. Although it is just one village, we do not need to take any risks, and it is quite safe. And two years later, when the village is under good control, we can begin to search for more villages and make the people there our followers. Then we can even build a town¡­¡± Gerrard¡¯s imagination was flying. ¡°After a century or two, we can own few towns, over ten villages, and thousands of faithful followers, at the very least.¡± Sui Xiong did not show his approval or disapproval of Gerrard¡¯s suggestion. He thought that Gerrard was thinking far too much. Even the Chinese, who always talked about China¡¯s ¡®Two Centenaries,¡¯ were just killing time by mentioning the project. No one could really made a plan for the next one or two centuries and try to execute it. But on second thought, Sui Xiong began to see the sense of Gerrard¡¯s wild imagination. Both Sui Xiong and Gerrard were immortal. For them, a century or two was not that long. They may only need to see a few more winters and summers to see the leaves sprouting in the spring and falling in the autumn, or to see a villager living his whole life. Being immortal was not fantasy in this world, but reality. ¡°Your Majesty, what do you think of the plan?¡± Gerrard asked. Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°There is no hurry. I¡¯ll wait until I know more about this world.¡± ¡°Okay; the intelligence of a God is far superior to that of a human. I firmly believe that you will think of a better plan soon, and build and improve the faith system that belongs only to you.¡± Gerrard nodded faithfully. ¡°Still, I think it is quite safe to turn some villages into our own¡­¡± Sui Xiong began communicating with Gerrard through telepathy. Seeing Gerrard standing still and thinking, Old Soth could not help saying, ¡°Brother White, we are not done yet. There is a big sum of money awaiting you!¡± Old Soth managed to distract Gerrard from the conversation, which was a great relief to Sui Xiong. The topic changed from the establishment of the village to receiving the money. ¡°Normally speaking, the leader of a certain gang of bandits would have a place where they hide their treasure, so they can bounce back after they have a setback, or live out their life in retirement with the money. The Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves have been plaguing the four towns in the northwest in the last five or six years, and their leader ¡°Bloody Hands¡± definitely has a place to hide the treasure,¡± Old Soth said. ¡°If we can find that place, we can absolutely get a big fortune!¡± Talking of a big fortune, Old Soth¡¯s face lit up, as did his eyes, which had become dim due to his age. Sui Xiong finally knew why the Old Soth would call his commercial corps his ¡®lucky gold coin.¡¯ He was totally a money-grubber! ¡°How much money are we talking about?¡± Palin asked in curiosity. ¡°At least 10,000 gold coins!¡± Old Soth gave an astute answer. This had made Sui Xiong feel curious about how he made this conclusion. Obviously, Palin was neither interested in or surprised by the money, since he had 20,000 gold coins. He nodded casually, went back to the campfire, and began to read his magic book. Gerrard nodded. ¡°That sounds good. I will try to find it.¡± ¡°If you do, please bring me a souvenir! An intact gold coin!¡± Old Soth said firmly, in a low voice. ¡°Think it as my compensation for giving you this information. We are good friends, but this is a rule, and we cannot break it!¡± A gold coin!? Sui Xiong found this both funny and annoying. He could tell that Old Soth was not joking, and could not understand why asked for just one gold coin. What a bizarre way of thinking the people in this world had! However, Gerrard seemed to be able to understand Old Soth¡¯s bizarre thinking. He earnestly promised him that he would choose a most special souvenir and bring it to his hands. Old Soth was quite satisfied. He smiled and left. ¡°Gerrard, what on Earth are you two talking about? Is it really that important, that souvenir?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Your Majesty, this is a tradition followed by us adventurers.¡± Gerrard knew that his God did not have a clear grasp of this world, so he explained patiently to him. ¡°We adventurers would often get clues about some treasures or other valuable things, but for several reasons, there are many clues that we cannot even prove useful. Therefore, when we meet a young adventurer who we like, we give them to him. If he manages to find the treasure with the help of the clue, no matter how much they got, he would have to bring some of the treasure to the elder adventurer. This is both about us showing respect to the tradition, and inheriting the culture that has been handed down from generation to generation.¡± I see! Hearing this, Sui Xiong suddenly felt Old Soth¡¯s stooped body looked much taller. An old adventurer who gave a young adventurer his experience, and a dream that he hoped the young would achieve, asked him to bring a souvenir to him when the young one succeed. That way he could also taste the happiness of being successful when the was already been too old to take an adventure. He could also prove the hard work he did in the past was not futile. The love and spirit for adventure were really touching! This was just like the former professionals of the electronic sports; even if they retired, even if they were defeated by the amateur, they still loved the game and stood by their duty of being commentators. They were trying to make the viewers to like the game in the form of cross talk, and share their happiness with others. They would never regret it if they became the laughing stock or were considered the comedian. Although the world Sui Xiong belonged was different from this world, this spirit was the same! ¡°Old Soth, I will help rebuild your body, and bring you back to life after you die. I will make a super strong body for you. It is okay that the old you has both short legs and feet; I will make sure that you will not be harmed by knife, sword, water, fire, electricity or ice. I will also grant you the ability to clear away any barriers. All you need to do is roll, with your face facing the ground. You can continue your adventurer career!¡± The huge jellyfish that was deeply moved stayed underground and scratched its jaw with its tentacles. It smiled, and felt nothing strange with its way of thinking¡­ Chapter 26 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Rye town, Pyroxene town, Gold-panning town and Dragon-roar town were the four northwestern towns, located from south to north. Rye town was the only place in the strip with a vast fertile land that was not polluted by negative energy. It had a developed agriculture and it was also where the mid to high-class agricultural products were from. There were many mid to low-end gem mines in the vicinity of the Pyroxene town. Some rare, precious gems were occasionally produced in the mineral veins, which made it the place among the four towns where it was the easiest to get extremely rich. But the number of adventurers and lawbreakers in this town also ranked at the top among the four towns.. In the vicinity of Gold-panning town, there were also mineral veins of gold. Although, the condition of the gold was very low and its yield wasn¡¯t good. It was difficult to resist the charm of gold. There were a lot of people who wanted to get rich. Even though most of them were actually poor, they had made the town prosperous. But in fact, the main production of the Gold-panning town was copper and iron ore. To the north of those three towns was Dragon-roar town, located in a narrow exit of a mountain pathway. By entering the mountains along the mountain pathway, one could arrive at a relatively less sterile area in the barren mountains. It was rich with all kinds of monsters ranging from elves to gigantic dragons and the main output of this town was the material from the various kinds of monsters. Who cared about how many people had died because they had been devoured by the monsters, which is a fact hidden under these materials? It was originally planned that Gerrard, or Sui Xiong, would travel to Dragon-roar town. Their aim was to go to the dragon cave in the mountains where the evil dragon ¡°Arctic Tyrant¡± lived and negotiate so that it would move its residence. This dragon had continually troubled the residents for more than five decades. If their negotiation succeeded, they could get the reward of five thousand gold coins. But now, they had more important things to do. Hunting for treasure. ¡°Both are interesting: expelling an evil dragon and hunting for treasure, as it is full of the feeling of a classic role-playing game with European-style,¡± Sui said happily. ¡°The only problem is, which one is the major task? Also¡­ is there any time limit for the mission system of this game?¡± He did not worry about ¡°mission failure¡±. After more than ten days of adjustment, he had finished adjusting the shell of the jellyfish. Now the body of the jellyfish was in the vicinity and ready to exert his maximum strength. When he did his best, he was fearless! Sui Xiong¡¯s new body form was like a big translucent balloon. Below the body that was large enough to build a village on its top, there were many powerful tentacles dangling. Dozens of groups of spiral blades were distributed throughout the body, which were capable of driving the body to all directions. The body was filled with magic runes that enabled the body to easily float in the air. It could also change its color change at any time, as if it was invisible. For example, at the moment, Gerrard was working in the Association of Adventure in Gold-panning Town. Sui Xiong¡¯s huge body, which would destroy the whole Gold-panning town once it fell off, was floating in the air and was two to three hundred meters above the ground. He narrowed his eyes, enjoying the agreeable breeze and warm sunshine while also absorbing infinite magic from the air and sunshine to enhance his strength. But in Gold-panning town, no resident could see the big monster in the sky. ¡°To be an advanced player, it is necessary to practice and reach a higher level every day, without being sluggish. At least we should continue logging in. Move forward or you¡¯ll fall behind. Even a former master could also be overtaken by others if he spent time without practicing or even be left far behind. Just like those who write online novels; after a year of rest, you will find your popularity appallingly miserable and your favorite rate and click rate are far lower than before. The overturned cart ahead is a warning to those behind! In an air current that was cold enough to freeze ordinary people to death, the huge jellyfish yawned silently and drowsily. He was not worried that Gerrard was at risk. Aside from Gerrard¡¯s seemingly good fighting skills, he could also resort to the cloned soul in the bone bracelet if he can¡¯t deal with any of the troubles. ¡°Dear Sir, this is the bonus of the task of ¡®Destroying the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves¡¯¡±. The waitress of the Association of Adventurers, also a half-elf, submitted a metal piece flashed with magical lights to him two-handedly, with her face full of respect. Such a powerful man was, of course, respectable since he was able to defeat the bandit gangs raging in the four towns and cities for many years by his own efforts. If not for the big physical difference between the two of them, she even wanted to seduce the powerful man who was young. Even if she could not scrounge meals by dating Gerrard, she also thought it advantageous to give birth to a descendant of the giant after they had a sexual relationship! In this world, inheritance based on blood relationship was very common. The descendants of the powerful were surely at a higher starting point than the descendants of ordinary people. As long as they worked hard enough and were blessed by some luck, they could become a familial force that one could look forward to as they passed on their genes. In these four northwestern towns, such a family was the most important family. They were usually hidden in the dark and did not want to easily show up, so as not to become a target of criticism. However, all organizations were full of respect for them. They not only discussed major issues with them but also first considered them when sometimes they must share benefits with others if the benefits were huge. Naturally, the young waitress did not expect to become a creator of such a big family, but this did not prevent her from daydreaming. Gerrard took the nameplate engraved with a magic rune. He briefly checked it and made sure that the intelligence was correct, which meant he could use this nameplate to receive two thousand gold coins from the temple of the God of Commerce. He could not help but smile. Even though he already had a huge sum of money, he could not but feel happy that he got such a big sum of money so easily. ¡°I¡¯m also going to release a mission to recruit two people.¡± He said, ¡°One is a thief. For him, expertise in traps and no belief in Gods of Dark Night are required. The other is a clergyman. For him, expertise in treatment and no belief in Gods of Dark Night are required.¡± The waitress turned her eyes and suddenly understood a bit. She smiled and asked, ¡°Are you looking for a companion to hunt for treasure? Why not look for an experienced mage?¡± ¡°We have a mage here,¡± Gerrard pointed to Palin, who was reading a book not far away, ¡°Young as he is, he is quite reliable.¡± The waitress carefully observed Palin but shook her head slightly. She had been working in the Association of Adventure for several years and had long developed an unusual perspective. This young pygmy mage might be very talented and strenuous but obviously didn¡¯t have much strength. Mages were divided into two categories, academic ones and practical ones. The former had the advantage of knowing a lot of spells and tricks, claiming to be capable of defeating all enemies when fully prepared. The latter was specialized in the practical use of spells, claiming to far excel academic mages. This claim was not a boast in that in some extreme and unexpected circumstances, more than ten academic mages might not be able to defeat a practical mage. Both were good at different areas and there were no absolute merits or demerits. There was no difference of ranking in terms of the type of mage, but there was a gap between different magic casters. At the first glance, she knew that the young pygmy mage lacked experience and had a limited knowledge reserve. Even if he was not a complete novice, at least he was far from the name of an ¡°experienced mage¡± or ¡°war mage¡±. It wouldn¡¯t be realistic to count on such a young man to help at a crucial time! ¡°To be honest, I think you should look for another magic caster.¡± She whispered, ¡°In that way, we can be prepared. And we won¡¯t be at a disadvantage even if you¡¯re prepared for it because we can allow that young mage to learn more about the useful experience of his predecessors.¡± Gerrard meditated for a moment and accepted this advice. ¡°Then please wait a moment, I would arrange for you the information and give you the list of qualified staff.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t have to be so complex,¡± Sounded a voice with a little forced smile. But there came an elderly person wearing a light leather armor, whose face was filled with traces of hardships, ¡°As for hunting for treasure, only the three of us will suffice. This big man, that little master, and me.¡± Surprised, Gerrard turned around and looked at him, thinking that this person was too old. He could not help but doubt this old man¡¯s strength. The waitress was shocked, so she hurriedly bowed her head for fear that her surprised look would be seen. But in fact, her look had long been clearly sensed by the soul of Sui Xiong. ¡°Gerrard, this old man is probably not a normal person. Be careful.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Majesty!¡± Seeing Gerrard¡¯s look of inspection, the old man seemed very calm without the slightest panic, ¡°My name is Ryan, ¡®Quick Hand¡¯ Ryan. I believe this nickname is sufficient to prove my strength. In these four towns, you absolutely cannot find thieves who are more powerful than me. ¡± Gerrard frowned, ¡°The nickname ¡®Quick Hand¡¯, though powerful, might not be related to traps and tricks. Are you a Golden Finger (pickpocket)? I want specialists with knowledge of traps and tricks.¡± This world was not a game, so of course, there were no levels therein. The strength and fame of adventurers often needed to be judged by their nicknames. The nickname was not created by them. It was the Association of Adventurers that selected some nicknames based on the adventurers¡¯ past experiences and then let them choose. These nicknames were divided into several levels so that experienced adventurers could tell each other¡¯s strength just by judging from the nickname. The adventurers at the lowest rank had no nicknames, just like Palin at the moment. These adventurers were fledglings without awesome power or convincing achievements. They were mere novices. After passing the period as a rookie, adventurers got a nickname of the lowest grade. Such nicknames were described in terms of their appearance or equipment, such as the ¡°Bald¡± Nyen during the past times. The nicknames meant that the adventurers had had a reputation and were regarded as somebody, which also meant they had no decent results but only could be recognized by others. The title at a higher level was marked by a convincing achievement. Previously, the leader of Gerrard¡¯s adventure team was nicknamed ¡°Shoot the Tiger¡±, because he once shot dead a fierce tiger alone with a bow and arrow, which proved his strength. There were similar ones like ¡°Chase the Wolf¡±, ¡°Chop the Bear¡± and so on, which were all evidence of battle achievements. Above the above-mentioned levels was a level summarizing the adventurers¡¯ expertise. The adventurers who owned a nickname of this level had been distinguished in some respects and were regarded as one of the best in his class. For example, one adventurer called ¡°Sharp Knife¡± must have a sharp knife, with which he would have cut off the head of an ordinary rookie when the latter only saw a flash of the knife. One who was called ¡°Fleet-footed¡± certainly ran fast and it was almost impossible that you could escape his chase. This was the case with the old man nicknamed ¡°Quick Hand¡±, whose nickname proved that he had a pair of very flexible, quick hands and was a first-class pickpocket. However, what Gerrard needed was a man who could help him to find out the pitfalls and crack down on the tricks. So no matter how powerful a pickpocket was, he would not be helpful. In the face of Gerrard¡¯s questioning, Ryan raised his eyebrows, looking proud. ¡°Young man, it seems you don¡¯t know the situation in our four towns that well! The reason why I am called ¡®Quick Hand¡¯ is not that I am only good at stealing things, but that there was no second person with a pair of faster and smarter hands than I do in the four towns, whether we talk about stealing, trapping, or ¡­ fighting. ¡± As he said it, with a chilling flash, six or seven daggers had been plugged on the ground around them in a messy way. Not to mention the waitress with an average strength, even Gerrard himself failed to see what exactly he did. Chapter 27 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio There was no doubt that this proud veteran thief, ¡°Quick Hand¡±, indeed had an excellent strength that matched his pride. But Gerrard did not simply accept his suggestion and chose to work with him. Experienced adventurers all knew that the first thing involved in the choice of teammates was not their strength, but their character. Adventurers¡¯ teammates often needed to help each other and sometimes should also entrust one¡¯s life to each other. If the teammates were a bit weak, then it would be okay if you carefully selected tasks with smaller profits and risks. But if your teammates had a terrible character, it was simply a tragedy! Similarly, when Sui Xiong played teamed games before his space travel, it didn¡¯t matter whether the teammates¡¯ level was a bit lower, but what he feared most was that they cheated him. The so-called saying of ¡°no fraternity after any plot against companion¡± had even become a famous allusion. Although Gerrard had never heard of such things as ¡°black equipment¡±, as an experienced adventurer, he would never make mistakes that only novices would make. He would rather not let in teammates whose characters had not been clarified! ¡°Please check the mission record of this Mr. Ryan, ¡®Quick Hand¡¯, for me.¡± He said to the waitress of the Association of Adventurers, ¡°Check how many missions he has taken, how many teams he has joined in, how he gets along with his teammates and has he completed the missions?¡± Ryan¡¯s eyes slightly narrowed and flashed a glimmer of coldness. At the first glance, the young giant seemed to be innocent, but he was not as honest as his appearance seemed to be. He was unexpectedly sophisticated, which made him feel that things were a bit complex. Although he had been prepared so that he would not let his flaws be spotted in terms of these things. However, when encountering a cautious opponent, he was a bit worried whether the original plans could be successfully implemented. The young waitress soon returned from the file room with a piece of worn document. The document clearly showed: Ryan, nicknamed ¡°Quick Hand¡±, is extremely smart. He is not only one of the top pickpockets, but also good at tricks, traps, moving stealthily and fighting. He has repeatedly participated in well-known adventure teams and assisted teammates to successfully complete their tasks. With an outstanding performance, considered among the most powerful thieves in the four towns. Retired about twenty years ago and came back six months ago for unknown reasons, with a declined fighting capacity but superb skills still.¡± Gerrard looked carefully at the document, which was a special service provided by the Association of Adventurers. A document was made for every adventurer when they registered and accepted tasks. This document was the most reliable proof when needed. According to this document, Ryan was very reliable but Gerrard was still a bit worried for no reason, except out of mere intuition. ¡°My predecessor Ryan, you had earned enough money twenty years ago and retired, so how come you have come back?¡± He asked. Ryan kept silent for a moment, bowed his head and sighed deeply, but said nothing. Not far away, a group of middle-aged adventurers were drinking, among whom was a gossipy man who told others the reason. ¡°He did that just for his son! That bastard is badly educated, as he provoked a powerful man and was cursed by a very powerful curse. In order to withdraw the curse, he not only owed his old acquaintances a big debt of favor but also owed a lot of money. He had no solution. As Gerrard¡¯s hands had not begun shivering, he began to try hard to earn some money.¡± Gerrard was surprised. He turned around and looked, but found that Ryan did not deny it. He only had a bitter look, showing a desolation that a hero had when he was old. He must be a mighty man previously as he was able to leave the description ¡°strongest¡± in the documents of the Association of Adventurers. Who dared to hurt his family when he was in his prime! Now, however, he had to use up all his money to save his son and because of that, he owed money to others. That was why he, at an old age, had to come back to lead an adventurer¡¯s life again which was full of danger. This was not only desolate but also extremely abject. Gerrard also noticed that Ryan¡¯s record of completing missions during the past six months was hardly worth mentioning. In other words, he had not been able to find some decent jobs despite his return to his hometown. During these days, he was under considerable pressure! Thinking of this, Gerrard, who had also been so desolate, could not help but also sighed deeply. He patted the shoulders of the old thief. ¡°Do not worry, everything will turn out alright!¡± Ryan nodded and forced a laugh, ¡°I usually wait here for some work. If you are ready, please come and call me, as I am ready to go.¡± ¡°I do not think you are like a rookie. So I won¡¯t explain what we need to prepare before we leave.¡± Saying this, he walked to an empty table next to him, sat there still and did not even order a glass of wine. Gerrard was silent for a moment and turned away. Now he already had teammates, so preparing for things that they needed for leaving was the last thing to do. ¡°Be careful!¡± Sounded Sui Xiong¡¯s voice in his heart, ¡°Although I could feel that these people are not lying, don¡¯t you think things are odd?¡± Gerrard was shocked, it was the first time that he had ever seen that Oscar, His Majesty, hesitated. It was like he went to a Korean net bar to watch a practice game participated by a professional player of electronic games, whom he worshiped, but saw his idol disastrously defeated by a game commentator from China. At the moment, the whole person was not good. ¡°Your Majesty¡­I will be more careful¡­¡± Sui Xiong nodded and yawned, not going further into this topic. The wind was too warm and the sun was too bright. He was sleepy and half awake. Gerrard went to prepare for things needed for adventures, which were primarily equipment for camping, the underground cave items, and a variety of consumables. The three space bags seized from Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves were very helpful, so he purchased foods that were sufficient for ten people to eat for two months at a stretch and filled out the three space bags. As for the commonly-used syrup for treatment and detoxification, as well as a low-level magic scroll, he didn¡¯t buy much of these things because of their high prices. Although he had made a fortune, he was still a poor man himself and did not to spend money like water. After buying consumables, he went to the smith again. The dwarf ¡°Wrought Iron¡± had been there for a short while. This dwarf who had promised to make a weapon for him was helping to cast some simple ironwork to restore his feeling as a blacksmith. When Gerrard visited him, he said he had not fully recovered and could not create a satisfactory weapon for the time being. He could only make one of inferior quality. Of course, Gerrard did not oppose it. An object of inferior quality made by a dwarf was, in fact, a good weapon. At least, it was enough for normal use. Dwarves were not inherently good at iron forging, but they generally had a strong body and were more adapted to high temperature, which was a good foundation for the craftsmanship of a blacksmith. In addition, the dwarves¡¯ average life expectancy was almost double that of humans, which meant that young dwarves had more time to hone their skills and older masters could teach more apprentices throughout their lives. Because of these reasons in all aspects, his golden reputation of ¡°objects forged by dwarves will be a boutique¡± was formed. Wrought Iron was not old because a dwarf at an age of not more than fifty years was still considered young. His iron forging skills could only be considered good. Compared with ordinary human blacksmiths, he had greater strength. He was able to forge more fine ironwork, close in texture, and create more solid weapons. He had not been able to grasp the brilliant skills that really required years to be developed. What he built for Gerrard was a huge tomahawk, with its axe handle being built with a whole log. Before it was finally finished, it had been peeled, burned and carefully polished and it had been wrapped in animal skins to ensure that it was held firmly in my hand. The core of the axe was made of wrought iron, while the blade was made of exceptionally sharp baotou steel. ¡°In fact, I should first have built the core of the axe with steel and then wrapped it with iron so that it could transmit force better,¡± Wrought Iron said with some regret, ¡°But it would take quite a lot of time to make that kind of tomahawk. As you seemed very anxious, make do with it please.¡± Gerrard paid 1,300 gold coins for this axe, 400 gold coins for the purchase of the wrought iron, 600 gold coins for the steel, 100 gold coins for the log, 100 gold coins for consumables such as charcoal, and the last 100 gold coins for paying the craftsmen¡¯s wage. However, Wrought Iron took nothing from that money. He only told Gerrard to use this axe to kill more evils. ¡°When you fight, also kill some on my behalf,¡± Wrought Iron said. When Gerrard left the smith, he had already put on a solid coat made of canvas. A special solid leather belt formed a hook on his back which enabled him to carry that ridiculously huge tomahawk easily on his back, not hindering his movement at all. The tomahawk weighed almost two thousands kilograms, which was terrifying. When it was being wielded, even giant dragons had to evade it. It was also rare to see any giants known to have such unique strength who could actually use such a heavy weapon. However, its weight appeared appropriate in the hands of Gerrard; neither too heavy to make him inflexible nor too light to make it difficult for him to exert force. It was just appropriate. When Gerrard returned to the Association of Adventurers with this giant tomahawk, everyone there was dumbfounded. Some young adventurers could not help but approach him and talk to him, just to take a closer look at this huge and unheard-of weapon. ¡°With this one, you can even launch a fight against a dragon!¡± ¡°Are you kidding me? What is it like to ¡®launch a fight against¡¯? Anything will be half-dead once cut by this axe, even a dragon!¡± ¡°A large portion of a city wall may also subside once hit by the blunt side of this axe¡­No wonder the giant is called ¡®a living city-sieging vehicle¡¯, it¡¯s that they are really too powerful!¡± ¡°If I had this power, how wonderful would it be!¡± ¡°Stop dreaming. If you were as powerful as him, then I¡¯m afraid you couldn¡¯t have had food sufficient for three days even when you had sold all your belongings¡­¡± Amid laughter and blessings, Gerrard handed the bar attendant several gold coins, saying loudly, ¡°Will you raise your glasses and wish me luck?¡± Amid laughter and blessings, he left the Association of Adventurers with Palin who was a bit dizzy because of reading, and Ryan who was unsociable and eccentric. Then they set off towards the secret place where Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves secretly hid their treasures by referring to the place that Sui Xiong sought from the memory of ¡°Bloody Hand¡± Ruhr. Chapter 28 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Ruhr, an orc robber, hoarded his treasures in an actually very secret place. His treasures were located in the depths of the Ashes Woods, next to a vacant space that bred skeletons. In the Ashes Woods, there were places where it was so particularly easy to concentrate negative energy that it was empty and flat. Beneath the ground, the flow of negative energy would slowly transfer a variety of bones here, forming a huge pile of bones. Every night, it would become a large group of skeletons silently absorbing negative energy into the open space and becoming powerful. This special terrain was called ¡°skeleton pile¡±. When Sui Xiong just embarked on land, he studied such a ¡°skeleton pile.¡± The place Ruhr used to hoard treasures was located near a medium-sized ¡°skeleton pile¡±. Whether looked at from the sky or on the ground, nothing special could be found. Only by using positioning magic could the coordinate be found. Positioning magic was a very special magic which made a huge coordinate system for the vast land by combining horoscope and detection. In the system, each coordinate was a place. It was said that there were always people, who were studying the positioning magic, that included ¡°height¡± in the calculation. That being said, so far they had not been successful. It was somewhat inauthentic and complicated, yet it still was very popular. For one thing, it was very helpful for taking an adventure in the wild and adventurers could determine the direction by referring to the map. For another thing, it was very helpful for people to hoard treasures because it was almost flawless. Before the locating magic was invented, treasure hoarders had to design some clear yet difficult-to-be noticed features for their hoarding places. This was indeed a technical job. It was unknown how many people had found the place for hoarding the treasures according to the map left by predecessors, but it was found that the treasures had been dug out by adventurers who passed by and found the traces. Some narrow-minded guys even left traps in those places, which turned out to be a huge trap for the adventurers. But since the invention of positioning magic, hoarding treasures was much easier. People could make the place so featureless that a group of people could not find anything special even after searching for ten to fifteen days. Only by knowing the exact coordinates of the place would it be possible to find the treasures. Compared with the predecessors who wanted to compete with future fellows, the treasure hoarders now would find it proper to make the treasure secret enough and then leave their children and grandchildren the coordinates and mining methods. It was also the same for ¡°Bloody Hand¡± Ruhr¡¯s place for hoarding treasures, whose position was not a bit special. Even with the exact coordinates, Gerrard and others were somewhat confused when arriving at the location shown in the coordinates. ¡°This place doesn¡¯t look special at all. Even if there were treasures, where could they be hidden?¡± Having carefully observed the surroundings, Palin could not find any trace of the treasures, so he could not help but be a bit skeptical, ¡°Could the coordinates left by that guy be wrong?¡± Of course, coordinates could not be wrong. Ruhr¡¯s soul, once falling on Sui Xion, could be considered a book that could be read at any time without any hidden information. In addition, Sui Xiong had also told Gerrard all the information therein. He was even crystal clear about the accurate composition of the treasures. Then, how could the coordinates be mistaken? ¡°The place is right here, so you need to dig into the earth. When you are about ten feet deep below the ground, you will see a magic gear. Unlocking the gear requires Ruhr¡¯s blood as a proof, so at that time we will have to bother Ryan.¡± Gerrard selectively mentioned the information, ¡°In short, let¡¯s start.¡± Of course, they had no objection to this, and the three started mining. Gerrard was infinitely powerful and he was the main workforce of mining. Ryan was experienced and could help with errands. As for Palin, he could only be responsible for the layout of the camp, so that everyone could rest well at night. In fact, in accordance with the original intention of Gerrard, it sufficed to search for treasures himself alone. He felt that even if he was not that capable of doing that, he could turn to His Majesty Oscar for assistance and did not seem to need any help from others. However, Sui Xiong did not think so. He thought that Gerrard¡¯s appearance now made him an outcast of the society and that if he did not work hard to develop some social relationships, sooner or later he must become a hermit master who was left behind and independent. Like creatures such as giant dragons, Gerrard would also live alone in the barren land, where not even a ghost could be seen, let alone friends. After all, humans were social creatures, so there was absolutely no fun in being around those creatures! So he asked Gerrard to take Palin, who wanted to expand his vision. He also asked Gerrard to find someone to dismantle the magic gears by using excuses like ¡°I¡¯m so busy¡±. After all, he just hoped Gerrard could communicate with people more and know some friends. In fact, he had been thinking about how to readjust Gerrard¡¯s appearance for this period of time. This bald buddy, though not bald now, had an extremely cool appearance. Even if the issue of having no friends was not considered, such a big body also made it difficult for him to find a girlfriend! There was a witty saying on the earth, ¡°age, income, characters, and even sex life and death, etc. cannot stop love, but only the physical size is the glaring disadvantage¡±. Gerrard¡¯s aesthetics certainly belonged to the human¡¯s, so it was impossible for him to like ogres or mountain giants and other large creatures. If he wanted to find a girlfriend, he needed to be turned small again or have the ability to freely get bigger or smaller. So after the good sleep, Sui Xiong had been working hard to study this topic. At this moment, if someone flew high above the ground and onto the huge floating jellyfish, you could see a muscle on the back of the jellyfish that was constantly changing its shape. That was Sui Xiong, experimenting and studying the method of changing shape freely. Sui Xiong himself could change shape. However, his speed of changing shape was not fast and changing shape in this way had a certain risk. So except for him, who was not afraid of death, others could not afford to use it. From the world¡¯s magic system that he had seen, there should be better, faster, and safer methods of transformation. There were definitely solutions to be found. These days, when Gerrard and others were hurrying, Sui Xiong was absorbed in studying, trying to find this solution. However, this immediate goal was not to be fruitful soon. He could only be patient and slowly explore and scrutinize it. When dusk fell, Gerrard finally excavated the magic gear. It was a metal plate at least five feet long with carved complex patterns that looked dazzling. In the center of the patterns, there was a drop-shaped groove that ran through the pattern of the numerous artery-like veins. The correct way to unlock this gear was to drop the blood with the same heritage that Ruhr¡¯s blood had into the drop-shaped groove. Then the blood would flow along the vein into the magic formation to first activate the blood identification formation. If the blood could be identified, it would further activate the remained magic formation, finally, unlocking the gear and open the way to the treasures. And if it could not be identified, then the formation would dim down, and couldn¡¯t recover for the next identification before absorbing free negative energy for an entire night. However, Gerrard certainly didn¡¯t have the blood of Ruhr¡¯s, because when Sui Xiong found the information in Ruhr¡¯s memory, the orc had died and his body had been hard. So the blood inside the body had lost its vitality and failed to pass the identification. Any blood identification formation only recognized blood from a living body, definitely not the blood from a dead body. So when they found the formation, the rest of the task was on Ryan. ¡°It looks quite complicated, not at a normal level,¡± Ryan was not in a hurry to start. He carefully observed for a while and praised tut-tutting, ¡°The one who made the layout of this magic gear must be a good master. He is not only skilled but also at an exceptional magic level!¡± ¡°In general, such a magic gear needs a co-operation between a thief who made a living through his hands and a mage who made a living through his brain. But this gear seems to be done by one person, which was hard to come by. To be honest, although the level of magic was not high, we thieves generally cannot learn magic and this person is amazing, as he was able to reach such a level!¡± ¡°Then you?¡± Gerrard asked. ¡°No problem twenty years ago, but now I am not able to do it,¡± Ryan shook his head and said sorrowfully, ¡°At that time I learned some spells and basically I knew the spells that are used in this industry. But I have been out of practice because I haven¡¯t used that for tens of years.¡± ¡°Out of practice?¡± ¡°Of course, there is no master in this world that will not be out of practice. Why a lot of powerful adventurers have become mere warriors or mages, but when they made an itinerant living they could also put his opponent to the sword and cast spells by using their wand? The point is, as their levels get higher and higher, there is more and more energy to be consumed in one area, and they become out of practice in other aspects,¡± Ryan said, ¡°But rest assured. Although I could not make these gears, it¡¯s still possible for me to unlock it. After all¡­destruction is always easier than constructing.¡± Saying this, the old thief looked down and dedicated himself to unlocking the gear. His movements were light and slow, and others could barely see what he was doing. Gerrard kept watching for a while without seeing the slightest clue, so he shook his head and went back to help Palin. The time needed to unlock the gear was longer than they had expected and even when it turned dark he still hadn¡¯t finished. So they stayed beside the treasures and then waited to continue the next day. At night, Palin made a magic formation around the camp that could shield the consciousness of the skeletons. Although it was close to the crowded army of skeletons, nothing happened and they slept in peace. On the next day, the sun was good, and Ryan was also good after a good sleep. After eating breakfast he began to work busily and at noon a piece of good news finally came. ¡°It¡¯s done!¡± He shouted in the deep pit, ¡°Come here, it¡¯s actually a small transmission formation.¡± The three gathered in the pit, standing according to his instructions. Then he activated the unlocked magic and a faint green light projected on their body. With a slight sense of dizziness, it was dark and bright before them. They had been sent from the pit to a cave. The cave was unusually dark, but you could vaguely see some golden things glittering in the distance because of gems. The golden things were far more than they had anticipated. These were the treasures of the orc thief, ¡°Blood Hand¡± Ruhr. These were the wealth accumulated by the group of thieves that had been raging the four northwestern towns for several years. Chapter 29 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio No one could expect that Ruhr had actually saved so much money. Although, in a long distance it could not be seen how much money was there, you could see that it was not a small pile of money judging from the light of gems. A pile formed by gold coins glistening. ¡°I have never thought¡­golden coins could also be classified by ¡®pile¡¯,¡± Muttered Palin, gazing at the money. ¡°This guy must have swallowed most of the money he has snatched,¡± Gerrard said. Ryan was relatively the calmest one of the three. Perhaps out of the professional habits as a thief, he immediately looked away from the pile of gold coins and looked at the ground nearby. Then he took out a magic wand used for lighting. This simple magic product could provide a stable long-term cold light source, which neither consumed air nor caused suffocation nor was subject to water. Except for its somewhat high price, it was almost regarded as a perfect lighting tool for adventurers. Under the slightly bluish cold light source, the old thief carefully examined the ground and quickly found several traps. Yes, a few traps, and there would be more ahead. ¡°Ruhr the ¡°Bloody Hand¡± is really cruel! Having locked the entrance to the treasures with a magic formation, he also made traps inside the place of treasures!¡± Gerrard angrily said, ¡°Evil! Too evil!¡± ¡°It was not strange that many treasure hoarders have this problem,¡± said Ryan, indifferently, ¡°When I was taking adventures, I found in total a hundred traps in a Necromancer¡¯s place for hoarding treasures.¡± This understatement made Gerrard and Palin astonished. There were actually a hundred traps in a place for hoarding treasures?! If so many traps were activated, not to mention one¡¯s life, even the body wouldn¡¯t remain! ¡°What happened then?¡± Palin asked. ¡°Only the two teammates died and the traps were dismantled,¡± said Ryan, still indifferently, ¡°We divided the money, and I retired.¡± The discussion went cold. Instead of hurrying to dismantle the traps in front of him, Ryan fixed the magic wand on the wall next to him and turned back to look for something where they were transferred from. ¡°What are you looking for?¡± Gerrard asked. ¡°The gear for leaving here,¡± Ryan said, not raising his head, ¡°Entering and exiting here should be achieved through the transmission magic. Let¡¯s first find the gear for leaving here and make sure that it can be activated at any time. We may still have time to escape in case of incidents.¡± The rich experience of the old adventurer made the two respectful to him. However, they were a bit embarrassed, with traps ahead and no exit behind, they could only stay in this small area. Palin was fine. He took out a book and read it with the help of the stable and mild cold light of the magic wand. Gerrard was uncomfortable, he had a huge body so the space was very narrow for him to stand. But he could not move, it was somewhat embarrassing. He wanted to pick up an axe and break some of the rocks around him, but he was afraid that the rocks would collapse and bury everyone alive. He finally had no choice but sit down, holding his knees. And then he quickly started to yawn. As time went by, Ryan was still working in an orderly fashion. Palin finished reading a book, put it back in his backpack, and took out another one on magic. While he was reading carefully, he used his fingers to sketch the lines of magic in the air and did some basic research. As for Gerrard, he was asleep because he was too bored. No one knew how much time had passed, but suddenly a green light flashed. Ryan exclaimed loudly, but his body was covered by green lights and disappeared in an instant without leaving a trace. Then the magic formation of transmission that had inflicted on him for so long flared fiercely before it burst. There was also a crimson-colored gas rising and it dispersed in a blink of an eye, enveloping Gerrard and Palin. Gerrard, while asleep, breathed in a lot of the noxious gas which made him suddenly cough violently, abruptly choked him and woke him up. He opened his eyes and saw that in the cold light of the magic wand Palin was curled up on the ground with his face in pain. He had scratched his throat with his hands, making his throat bleed which did not help his predicament. This young mage, a teenager who loved reading, died. Gerrard was stupefied for a moment. He turned around and looked for Ryan, but did not found the traces of the old thief. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Where is Ryan? The trap again¡­¡± The noxious gas filled in his trachea and lungs, so he could not help but cough fiercely. An uncomfortable feeling, not violent, interrupted his thoughts and spread from the nose and mouth to the throat, then to the trachea and alveoli. Surviving the highly noxious gas and being alive now without being fatally injured again demonstrated the superiority of the strong body made by Sui Xiong himself. However, Gerrard did not think of it at that moment. His mind was full of doubts and anger, he was even more dazed and ignorant of what went on. ¡°Your Majesty¡­¡± He tried to pray but did not know what to pray for. As he prayed, Sui Xiong, who had been concentrating on research, was awakened. The clue of the soul spread along the bone bracelets and he clearly saw the situation there. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Weren¡¯t they going to hunt for treasures? How come only one out of three is left? One dead and another dead without leaving a corpse?¡± As he spoke to himself, he pushed the magic into a breeze and dispersed the noxious gas. However, this gas was very strange. It did not dissipate when blown by wind but got thicker. The entire cave of treasures was filled with red gas, where almost nothing could be seen. ¡°Shit! I even encounter a haze in the space travel. The world¡¯s environmental protection is no doubt a holy shit!¡± Sui Xiong muttered and made a detailed analysis of the composition of the noxious fog. Then his magic suddenly shook and turned into a circle of soft green light that slowly spread. The power of the green light just offset the magic power of the noxious fog. Wherever the green light arrived, the red noxious gas disappeared. Like a magic performance, the green light circle swept the cave of treasures and the red noxious gas disappeared without a trace as if it never existed. ¡°Gerrard, what¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Your Majesty, I¡­I do not know, either¡­¡± Gerrard said nervously, ¡°I just slept and it was like this after I woke up.¡± ¡°¡­You fell asleep when you were on the treasure hunt. So indiscreet you have been!¡± Sui sighed, ¡°Then I have to ask someone else.¡± ¡°Anyone else that could be asked?¡± Gerrard was shocked. A mysterious black gas was emitted from the bone bracelets that slowly dispersed in the air. An atmosphere of gloomy obscurity dispersed, making people feel mentally heavy. A moment later, numerous tiny light points rose from the body of dead Palin, slowly gathering into a vague human form. ¡°Your Majesty, is this the spirit of Palin?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s just the thoughts left on the body,¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°His soul has traveled to the kingdom of the dead, but memory is not only in the soul but also in the body. Now I activate the rest of the thoughts of the body and then reinvigorate him. Thus¡­¡± ¡°Will he be resurrected?¡± Gerrard asked excitedly. Sui Hung hesitated, not knowing how to answer. If on earth, a man¡¯s body regained its vitality, his mind will be revived, and of course, he will be resurrected. Even in the face of a Nobel Prize laureate of medical science, he also dared to hold up his head to declare so. But in this world, life was not only a matter of mortal body but also the soul was more important. Palin¡¯s soul had gone to the netherworld. Unless he pulled the soul from the netherworld and re-plunged it into the resuscitated body, the body could not be considered ¡°resurrected¡±. Now Palin, strictly speaking, was actually a corpse without a soul. When the fuzzy figure was slowly condensed, Sui Xiong maneuvered a green light to envelop the dead juvenile¡¯s remains. The wounds on the whole body rapidly disappeared and he completely recovered his health. A more vigorous life burst from the body so that the pale cheeks restored a sanguine complexion. An invisible force grasped the human form that was formed by the remained thoughts and plunged into the body. In the next moment, the juvenile opened his eyes. At first, his eyes were a bit puzzled. After a while, his eyes gradually restored focus and his thoughts gradually became clearer. ¡°Haven¡¯t I been¡­dead?¡± He hesitated, ¡°I remember¡­I was killed by the death cloud¡­¡± ¡°You were dead, but also are resurrected,¡± Gerrard said with a smile. ¡°Things like life and death are not to be considered by us mortal people. Tell me first what happened.¡± So Palin gave up thinking about some philosophical problems and fell into memories. ¡°I had been reading when I suddenly heard Ryan exclaiming. I then looked up, just saw him being sent away, then saw the trap erupt, and the red clouds of death permeated. I had not had time to run away and was covered by the death cloud. I felt extremely painful from the throat to the chest and then I lost my consciousness ¨C until the resurrection.¡± ¡°So, did an accident happen to Ryan while he was unlocking the trap?¡± Gerrard muttered, ¡°You do not know what happened to him¡­I hope he¡¯s okay.¡± This time, Sui sneered. ¡°Do not worry, he¡¯s fine, he¡¯s very good now!¡± A blue light was projected from the bone bracelet and changed into a transparent screen in the air. The screen showed the landscape of the forest where the treasures were hidden. Ryan was busy shoveling soil into the pit that Gerrard dug. Sui Xiong gave a close-up of his face: smiling, triumphant. His expression displayed what had happened without any explanation or careful consideration. ¡°Damn!¡± Gerrard roared angrily, ¡°This mean old thief! I will not spare him!¡± ¡°It turned out that¡­he plotted against us¡­¡± Palin shook his head incredulously, ¡°Why did he do this? Was it for the sake of the entire treasures?¡± ¡°Why did he do this? Continue and we¡¯ll know,¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s voice echoed in the air, ¡°Let¡¯s just put aside our anger and see what this despicable old man wants to do.¡± ¡°I believe all antecedents and consequences will soon appear before us¡­¡± Chapter 30 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Sitting in a safe place and looking at the despicable villain who plotted against them running about for hideous things was indeed a very novel experience. However, neither Gerrard nor Palin was a good and qualified spectator. Gerrard became sleepy after having kept watching it for a moment. For this big man, it was indeed uncomfortable to bend over in the cave. Not long after he sat on the ground he again began to doze off. But Palin was intently watching it with great interest. However, his face quickly turned pale, the vitality of his body also dimmed, making him seem like he was dying. ¡°No soul is really troublesome!¡± Sui Xiong whispered secretly. He used some magic to add to his vitality. Time passed slowly and the screen reflected Ryan¡¯s every move. Things that he thought were secret were clearly seen by Palin. He turned out to be the president of the Association of Thieves of Pyroxene town. The reason why he disguised himself as a desolate old thief was to implicitly plot against Gerrard. This was not for seizing the sacred object where God¡¯s will resided, but simply for pleasing the gods of his faith. He did not believe in the God of Thieves, but the God of Conspiracy. This god was keen on making believers use plots and framing extensively. He despised pure violence and proper communication. Only by ghostly means, such as intrigues and deception, could he be pleased. Although the president only ruled the Association of Thieves in Pyroxene town, which was trivial for the entire world, obtaining such power and status had been the result of decades of hard work and use of power and wisdom through countless conspiracies and bloodshed. Throughout his life, he used conspiracies more than bloodshed, so he liked using conspiracies indeed. This made him a loyal follower of the God of Conspiracy, and he also defamed the God of Thieves¡¯ glory more than once because of his faith. All this had been rewarded, he had been commended more than once by the deity so that he had obtained strength and position above his talent, which firmly restricted his vice president who far exceeded him in terms of talent. But everything was of little significance to him. A few days ago, after using a trick once, he annihilated a gang of bandits who had been reluctant to sell cheap booty to the Association of Thieves. Afterwards, when Ryan drank to celebrate it, he saw a dying old man from the reflection of the glass. At that moment, he suddenly realized that his life was about to end. When he realized this, things like power, status, and money¡­all were overshadowed. All his thoughts had been occupied by one thing. He wanted to go to the Holy Kingdom of His Majesty God of Conspiracy and never to the netherworld! Considering his conducts, it was likely that he would fall directly to purgatory if he went to the netherworld, where he would experience all the numerous tortures once, twice or three times amid the devils who were waiting for villains to be punished. Anyway, the devils would certainly not let him feel good. If his soul could still survive after the end of his torture, then he would be crushed and slung to the bottom of the Stygian River, where he would be recombined with other particles of soul and formed into new souls with no chance of independent reincarnation¡­ This result was what he absolutely did not want! So he hurried to pray to the God of Conspiracy for the eligibility to go to the Holy Kingdom after death. But the God of Conspiracy did not give him permission directly but asked him to do something that could please himself for the privilege of going to the Holy Kingdom. After careful consideration, Ryan decided to use a plot to kill the ghost with the holy object which he felt was sure enough to please the God of Conspiracy. To this end he had others do him a favor. He had others falsify some information inside the Association of Adventurers and also found a large number of unknown people to pose as adventurers there. He prepared very carefully and in the process of getting trust by fraud, all the relevant staff did not even lie. He had indeed been an adventurer and quitted it about twenty years ago. He did have a son who loved to gamble, he even asked his son to lose a fortune in a casino which detained him and required a ransom to redeem him. And he really could not get that much money, because he had temporarily transferred his capital to others. Everything was done to fool the god who could detect lies. In the end, he succeeded. After getting trust by fraud, the rest of the things were simple. Playing some tricks in the treasure cave was easy because he had done this kind of thing more than once when he was an adventurer. Things went on even more smoothly than he expected. It turned out that ¡°Bloody Hand¡± Ruhr¡¯s treasure cave used the magic formation of transmission for people to enter and exit. He didn¡¯t know where the orc robber found this cave, perhaps it was the legacy of a great sorcerer. With the help of this cave and a scroll of the death cloud that couldn¡¯t be unlocked in a closed environment, he successfully completed a trap where anyone would definitely be killed. In order to ensure the effect, even after he was transferred and left, he also destroyed the magic formation of transmission for entering the treasure cave. Even if that giant could resist the scary noxious gas, he could not leave the cave and would have to stay there. He would starve to death because he had no magic formation of transmission. Ryan¡¯s plan was so perfect from design to implementation, it did not make the slightest mistake. So when he returned to the Pyroxene town at night, he was very happy. He even thought that the Holy Kingdom of the God of Conspiracy had an open door for him. A world that would make him a decent person would be just in front of him. A gloomy and quiet world with only night and no day, where only the moon and stars shone while believers schemed against each other all day and even put trivial things into various forms. So he did not have time to send someone to redeem his son seized in the casino, but impatiently came to his chamber of prayers and began praying to the God he believed in. His secret chamber was small and completely enclosed. All walls were black, while only its roof was inlaid with a few glittering fragments of magic stone lighting just like stars. But the stars were separated in two sides, with a crimson crescent moon in the middle, the holy symbol of the God of Conspiracy. Special made grey-green candles were erected in the four corners of the secret chamber. Ryan lit them one by one, making a grey-green smoke soon flow in the room accompanied by a fantastic smell with a strange fragrance. The smoke was slightly blown by a soft breeze coming from the vent that lied below and flew to the overhead crescent moon, forming a reverse whirlpool shape. Ryan knelt in the middle of the whirlpool, facing the small altar made from the skull of the former president of the Association of Thieves he had murdered, with a look of anticipation and joy on his face. He then began to pray. ¡°Master who dominates the shadows, a darkened moon that rises into the sky, the mentor of fraud and betrayal, the mastermind behind the rise and fall. Your humble servant prays to you here. The servant has completed the task you have delivered to him, for he deceived the enemies with a lie and put them to death. May this little sacrifice please you and honor the servant by taking him to your country after death and making him continue to serve you.¡± As he prayed, the pale-colored skull altar was suffused with a demon-black light. It was dark and thick, like some mucus slowly spread inside the chamber. After a while, the entire chamber seemed to be soaked in a black liquid. In this rippling black light, Ryan¡¯s prayers seemed low and vague. It was mixed with the echoes reflected by the walls, causing a disturbing rhythm. Through the eyes of the soul, Sui Xiong saw a black beam of light emerging from somewhere in the sky and slowly falling toward the secret chamber. Sui Xiong, waiting for a long time in the sky, sneered and fully expanded his huge and transparent body that could change its color. It changed into the night and stars so that even the acutest human on the ground could not see the slightest difference. His tentacles form a lot of magic formations covering the entire Pyroxene town, even a mosquito could not come in. However, he deliberately left a crack on the magic formation, so that the black light beam could continue to fall. That said, there were a few thick tentacles around the beam, ready to launch an attack. ¡°Are you God of Conspiracy? How dare your believer deceive me and plot against me? Let¡¯s settle all accounts with you!¡± The huge floating jellyfish, waving its tentacles, sneered toward the place where the black lights were cast. It waited in silence like a hunter ambushing his prey. Inside the secret chamber, Ryan had prayed piously for some time, but no one knew why the God of Conspiracy did not respond to his prayers. He kept praying, but his heart had been full of panic. God¡¯s response to the believers¡¯ prayer was the instinct of nature. If he did not respond, it must be that the link between him and the believers¡¯ faith was interrupted. The reason for this might be that either the belief link was blocked or the god was in weakness. The most common reason was that the believer was abandoned by him! Was he abandoned by His Majesty the God of Conspiracy? How could this be possible! He just deceived a god by using a conspiracy! Was this not a doctrinal act? Why did this not please the god, but instead made him be given up on by the god?! In the secret chamber, the president of the Association of Thieves of Pyroxene town was plunged into chaos. He was nervous and violent, with countless thoughts flowing like headless flies in his mind and countless horrible imaginations emerged one by one. He thought he was done for. Maybe he would fall into hell in a second, perhaps there was already a brutal judge waving a burning iron fork, considering which body part was more suitable to stab him with the fork. Had he really wronged the God of Conspiracy? In fact, his deeds greatly pleased the God of Conspiracy, so much so that the god wanted to send an angel to meet him in his Holy Kingdom. However, neither the link of faith of the God of Conspiracy nor the messenger he sent was successful. Two or three hundred meters above the ground of Pyroxene town, a huge floating jellyfish completely unfolded its body and built a huge magic formation, completely cutting off the connection between the God of Conspiracy and his loyal follower. Above it, a pair of mighty tentacles firmly hauled a strange creature with four faces and six arms that was enveloped with chaotic black winds. The holy envoy of the God of Conspiracy, a strange creature known as ¡°Four-faced Monster¡±. The ¡°Four-faced Monster¡± was a kind of very powerful creature, with its black wind as the embodiment of the power of illusion. As long as an ordinary person even saw it, he or she often would fall into an illusion. Such monsters were created by the God of Conspiracy exclusively for the purpose of passing on his orders. Whenever they appeared in the world of humanity, they would make kind people nervous and cheer up the villains who loved conspiracies. But this time, the ¡°Four-faced Monster¡± who went to the earth under the command of the God of Conspiracy was stopped en route. A jellyfish, completely ignoring its magic power and horrible illusions, wrapped it with tentacles. The jellyfish ignored the spells that it constantly cast and the anger of the god behind it, and tried to swallow it. ¡°Everything that has a beginning has an end. I¡¯ll first eat your envoy before I tackle you!¡± Chapter 31 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Sui Xiong was never a coward, and never gave in, even when he was defeated. When he was still a human, he believed in the principle of repaying kindness with kindness and enmity with enmity, and he always acted on it. After he had been transported, he elevated this principle to a higher level, which was to ¡°return the favor three times, and exact revenge ten times.¡± Now that the God of Conspiracy dared to cause his followers to plot against him, he would truly be ruthless in getting his revenge! To do this, he would devour his oracle. The God of Conspiracy was furious about Sui Xiong¡¯s arrogant provocation, and he had been in a situation before where his oracle was killed. But this time his oracle was stopped by a gigantic, stupid jellyfish, and was going to become it¡¯s dinner¡­ He couldn¡¯t stand the idea of it! He immediately activated his magic power, and a black crack appeared in the night sky; thousands of dwarves with gray-black skin and black robes flew out from it. They had wide wings on their back and pure black halos on each of their heads. They could also hide themselves from most detection tactics. Each of them had a pure black knife, which was called a ¡°knife of betrayal¡± that was extremely poisonous, and whoever was cut by it would surely die. These killers were from the army of the God of Conspiracy, as well as an Army Corp that consisted of ruthless killers who always hid in the shadows. If Ryan managed to go to the Holy Kingdom of the God of Conspiracy, he would likely become a killer of this kind. Despite seeing numerous killers flying through the sky, Sui Xiong was not afraid at all. The huge jellyfish opened its mouth, and a dazzling white light was released. Then, the light turned into thousands of light arrows and penetrated each killer¡¯s body. These light arrows were made from the strong positive energy, which was the exact opposite of the negative energy that the killers¡¯ bodies were made from. Bang, bang, bang. The killers had been wiped out! ¡°Come! Use every tactic you have!¡± Sui Xiong waved his tentacles and shouted at the God of Conspiracy, who was hiding behind the crack he had made in the sky. The God of the Conspiracy was so furious that his body was trembling. He had no time to think about the fact that he may have consumed too much energy, and brandished the magic objects in his hands. Then, black lightning flashed across the sky and fell right upon the huge jellyfish. Sui Xiong¡¯s huge tentacles were surrounded by dazzling blue light, and they collided with the black lightning, making a roaring sound come from the sky. The blast tore apart the clouds in the sky, and they drifted away. The uninjured jellyfish laughed proudly and waved it¡¯s tentacles towards the sky. On its back, there was a huge human face that also laughed at the God of Conspiracy. Seeing this, the God of Conspiracy calmed down. He knew clearly the situation he was in, and he did not consider himself a god who was brave or skillful in battle. If he initiated an attack, no matter how hard he tried, his power would only be as strong as the black lightning unless he took the risk of moving his Holy Kingdom to the human world. If the huge jellyfish could handle the lightning without being harmed, he thought he would not be able to find a way to defeat it. Of course, he could use one of his replications; the four-faced beast that was dragging itself toward the jellyfish¡¯s mouth was an ideal host. But he gave up the idea after thinking through it carefully. He hoped to save face, for losing an oracle was not worth his losing one of his replications. He had no idea what this huge jellyfish was, and thought there was a powerful kind of god behind it, like the big lion that liked travelling in the human world, or the guy who was obsessed with using weapons, and had fought with almost every god, or¡­ He was listing his enemies, but there were too many to count. His ¡°interpersonal relationships¡± with others were no better than that guy who was obsessed with taking arms against others. If he came to the human world, even a god who was not his enemy would probably fight with him, not to mention the gods he had made enemies with. Thinking this, the great God of Conspiracy sneered, and cut off his connection with the four-faced beast and paid no attention to the area. A voice echoed through the night sky, ¡°Be careful of the dagger behind you.¡± There was no shame in giving in, and he was indeed a shameless god. As for his anxious follower who was praying to him from time to time, he was too busy to care about him¡­ Ryan was desperate, and those who watched from the cave where treasured objects were stored were in a daze. Sui Xiong had projected the scene of his fight with the God of Conspiracy in the cave, and both Gerrard and Palin were completely stunned and unable to even think. My god! They could not even believe their eyes! A real god had been defeated, forced to abandon his oracle and had dejectedly withdrawn! ¡°I already knew His Majesty was extremely powerful, but not even he thought he could be this invincible¡­¡± Gerrard scratched his head and opened his mouth to try to say something but failed to find any words. Palin was extremely surprised, and fearfully asked, ¡°Is he¡­ a god?¡± ¡°Yes, he is the god I believe in, the Void Faceless.¡± ¡°What are his priesthood and doctrine?¡± Palin asked. ¡°If I want to believe in him, how should I pray?¡± Obviously, after seeing how powerful this unknown god was, the young wizard had already decided to follow him. In the past, Palin did not believe in any god; although, he used to pray to the god that the pygmies believed in, the Goddess of Fortune, he was just putting on a show. He never admitted a doctrine to a certain god, or was ever touched by the greatness of a certain god. In religious people¡¯s eyes, he was a non-religious, even if he would sometimes read the name of a god out or pray to a god, he did not really mean any of it, and it had nothing to do with belief. In this world, the religious sector divided the people¡¯s belief into six levels: non-religious, zero-religious, pan-religious, sincere-religious, frenzy-religious and holy-religious. The non-religious referred to atheists, not only did they not believe in a god, they also denied the existence of god. The zero-religious referred to those people who admitted the existence a god, but refused to believe in them. The pan-religious referred to those who considered belief as a sort of deal, so they would pray to a god when they were in need, and hope they could get the result as soon as they prayed. The sincere-religious referred to people who admitted the doctrine of the god, and they would pray faithfully, and were willing to go to the Holy Kingdom when they died. The frenzy-religious referred to those who believe in god and are wild about spreading their beliefs to make more people to follow them. And finally, the holy-religious, referred to people who acted on the doctrine and could fully show their god¡¯s will like a oracle. Among the people that Sui Xiong had met so far, the old Soth was a pan-religious of the Goddess of Fortune; Ryan was a sincere-religious of the God of Conspiracy; Palin was a zero-religious, and as for Gerrard¡­ His belief was difficult to put into a certain category. When it came to personal emotion, Gerrard would definitely be willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of the Void Faceless, and in this regard he could be called a frenzy-religious, but Gerrard knew nothing about the priesthood or the doctrine of the god he believed in, so in this regard, he was not even a pan-religious. However, it was Sui Xiong that had caused this¡ª he had no idea what his own priesthood was, and he was too lazy to write his own doctrine. Technically speaking, until now, Sui Xiong was not even sure whether he was a god or not. So, when Palin asked Gerrard about the priesthood and doctrine of the Void Faceless and showed that he would really want to follow this god, both Gerrard and Sui Xiong were confused and did not know what to say. After a while, it was Gerrard who thought about this, and answered, ¡°His Majesty is a god who elevated himself, and he got the energy from the root of the world. He has not yet developed a belief or a doctrine aimed at humans.¡± ¡°I see, he is a god similar to the Ancient Gods of Nature, right?¡± As a wizard, Palin excelled in the occultism, so he immediately understood what Gerrard had said. He concluded based on Gerrard¡¯s words, ¡°I know the Gods like the God of Four Elements, the God of Earth, the God of Sky¡­ These are all the Ancient Gods of Nature. The faith they had from the mortals can neither increase the magnificences, nor cause any damage to them, but I never thought that I would see an Ancient God of Nature as a newborn!¡± Then he said, ¡°Brother White, I think His Majesty should cultivate some followers in the human world. Because the growth of the power of the Ancient Gods of Nature is too slow. If we were in the Archaic times, His Majesty would have had enough time to grow, but we are in a very prosperous world where a god that only relies on himself could easily become the target of other evil gods and be attacked or plundered. It is true that His Majesty is indeed powerful enough to withstand the attack of the God of Conspiracy, but what if a few evil gods initiated their attacks all together?¡± Palin sounded very convincing, so both Gerrard and Sui Xiong agreed with him. But Sui Xiong really could not figure out how he could cultivate his own followers; did he really need to spend money to find a few villagers and force them to worship him? This was just too absurd¡­ Even if there were many people worshiping him everyday, he had no idea what doctrine he should make them follow or how he could protect them. Especially in this world, the reason why people had chosen to believe in a god was not so that they could be blessed when they were still alive, but so that they would be able to go to the Holy Kingdom to be born again instead of going to the underworld. However¡­ Sui Xiong did not have a Holy Kingdom. ¡°So brother Palin, where do you think His Majesty can start from?¡± Gerrard asked. He did not think too much about this subject, as he was used to asking others when he was confused, and leaving the problem to the wise; he preferred to focus on the execution. Palin gently touched the cover of the book in his hand and began to contemplate. As a young low-rank wizard himself, he did not know too much about the belief of a god, but since there were few people in the ¡°Church of the Void Faceless,¡± he was most certainly the only advanced intellect. He should be the one to think about these things. Chapter 32 Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Thinking was indeed a mentally tiring activity. Zhuge Liang, a Chinese politician in the Three Kingdoms Period, always thought too much, even about trivial things like a soldier being beaten due to the violation of his discipline. He died of thinking too much in the end. Suddenly, Palin¡¯s face became pale, and his physical abilities were degenerating rather quickly. He was becoming what a dead person was supposed to look like. Sui Xiong felt that there was something wrong with Palin, and he immediately instilled his magic energy into Palin¡¯s body to replenished him with vitality. ¡°Your Majesty, what is wrong with brother Palin?¡± Gerrard asked Sui Xiong through telepathy. Sui Xiong was silent for a while, then he honestly told Gerrard about Palin¡¯s situation. ¡°What!? His soul has left his body and he moves by relying on the vitality that supported his body and mind? But in my view, he looks perfectly normal!¡± ¡°I do not know the reason either,¡± Sui Xiong laid his tentacles on the ground, showing his helplessness. ¡°I only know that once he loses the supply from outside and runs out of his vitality, he will immediately die. So as you see, we have to constantly supply him with the vitality.¡± ¡°But this cannot go on for too long, can¡¯t we supply him with a great amount of vitality?¡± ¡°He is too weak to absorb a great amount of vitality¡­ You may not be able to understand this, but his body cannot absorb a great amount of vitality at one time and trying to do so will do him no good,¡± Sui Xiong said, and suddenly a bright idea occurred to him. There was a cold cure called ¡°Sustained Release Capsules.¡± It¡¯s mechanism sealed the drug into small packages that dissolve at varying speeds inside a human¡¯s body so one capsule could last for twelve hours. If this was real or not, Sui Xiong was not sure, but maybe it was. Based on this idea, Sui Xiong made something similar for Palin! He tried to concentrate a great amount of vitality into a ball, and made a thin shell with the dissolvable substance. The ball¡¯s diameter was about one centimeter. In each section of the structure, there was a one-time use of vitality, and the thickness of each section varied. Of course, it was just a trial product which needed further testing to make sure it was safe. So, Sui Xiong did not instantly give it to Palin, but instead he made a digestive system similar to the human¡¯s intestines and stomach inside his body. Sui Xiong performed the clinical experiment and saw the result. But this was not important now, what was more important was dealing with the spoils of war. Sui Xiong had defeated the God of Conspiracy, and the God¡¯s four-faced beast became Sui Xiong¡¯s reward. This peculiar creature had great power and was at the master level of sorcery. Sui Xiong swallowed, carefully digested and analyzed it, and felt that he had learned a lot in this process, which he hadn¡¯t expected. As the oracle of the God of Conspiracy, the soul of the four-faced beast contained some of his magic power. The main priesthood of the God of Conspiracy was scheming, deception and illusion, along with many other secondary priesthoods: wickedness, disorder, darkness, and impurity. Compared with Wu Mian, the gatekeeper of the Night Gods, who could do nothing apart from his priesthood¡ª shadow, guarding and death¡ª the God of Conspiracy was as versatile as a magician who performed in the street. Sui Xiong had already done this before, mastering all the power of a certain God and imitating it by analyzing its magic power. Compared with the magic power that was left inside the Baldacchino, the magic power contained in the four-faced beast was far superior both in its quality and quantity. It was pure and magnificent. Though there was not much of it, it was as strong as 80 percent of Sui Xiong¡¯s power. If the four-faced beast had exerted its strength fully, Sui Xiong would not have been able to catch it that easily. Analyzing the magic power of a certain God required both time and technique. Sui Xiong was not in a hurry and could just take his time. When he was enhancing his abilities in seclusion in the ice trench, he had no idea how long he had been there. Actually, he did mark the time, a year or two years, according to the changes of the four seasons, but later he got confused and became too lazy to bother anymore. Compared with those long and boring years, the time that was spent analyzing the magic power of the God of Conspiracy was basically nothing. Besides, his two subordinates did not have a strong sense of time either. Before Gerrard used to think carefully about how to cultivate many followers for his own God. Now he usually went to sleep when he was full. He had become too lazy to even think since he now had a smart peer: Palin. Palin was totally different; he did not need to sleep. Since a body without a soul could function with enough vitality, he spent all of his time reading and thinking, and anyone who saw his hard work would feel ashamed. Sometimes, Sui Xiong wished the two would build a balanced character instead of going to extremes. Day after day, the huge jellyfish floating in the sky did not need to eat, while the two in the cave could use magic to make food. This life was fine. But for Ryan, things were rather difficult. Since he had had a setback last time, the God of Conspiracy was not willing to have anything to do with the area Ryan was in anymore. Ryan was hoping the God of Conspiracy would reply to his prayer. For him, every day was a year long. He could feel that he was aging on a daily basis and dying, and he could not see any hope of going to the Holy Kingdom. This was driving him crazy. Now he could not sleep without taking drugs, and even though he took a dose of sleeping drugs that would make an ox fall asleep, he would still suddenly wake up at midnight, shouting and crying like a child abandoned by his parents. He was desperate. He was thinking hard on why he had not gotten a reply, and thought maybe it was because his plan did not succeed. The Cloudkill Scroll was not activated, and the bone bracelet that the giant had with him could not only practice Restoration, but also the Dismissal¡­ Then he found that there were too many holes in his plan, and thought it was not strange at all that he failed. ¡°It is definitely because my plan did not work, and I bragged to His Majesty that he is angry!¡± Thinking this, Ryan began to sweat heavily out of sheer fear, ¡°There is only one way, and that is trying again and getting it done this time!¡± But his legs instantly gave way when he thought that he would need to fight against the furious giant. After a month, Ryan could no longer stand this kind of life any longer, so he was determined to try it again. He took a few subordinates from the Association of Thieves that were loyal to him, found a powerful wizard, and went in the direction of the place where Ruhr¡¯s treasures were hidden in a formidable array. ¡°Are we going to fight against a giant?¡± the wizard asked. ¡°Yes, we are.¡± ¡°What specialties does it have?¡± the wizard continued. ¡°It has great strength and speed, and its body is very firm. It is not stupid, which is very rare for a giant,¡± Ryan replied. The wizard was silent for a while, and asked, ¡°Is there any other specialty of it that was worth mentioning? Or some special outfits?¡± ¡°It has a bone bracelet that is probably an advanced magic object and can practice Restoration,¡± Ryan said. ¡± I guess there is probably a God¡¯s will living inside of it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡± the wizard instantly denied his assumption. ¡°A giant does not have a God that it believes in, and I cannot even recall a single god who would allow his holy objects to be possessed by a giant and not ask his sacred warrior to fetch them. I think the thing in that bracelet could just be the soul of their ancestor. The giant race usually believes in their ancestors and magic objects that their ancestors¡¯ souls live in, and those are not rare at all.¡± When it came to the witchcraft, only the professionals had the authority. So Ryan did not stick with his own thoughts, and asked the wizard how to fight against the giant. ¡°The best way to fight against a giant is to use magic to lead it to the edge of a cliff and make it fall over the cliff by itself. But as you have put it, it is staying in an airtight cave, so we can only get in and out by practicing Transportation, and so we cannot lead it to a cliff¡­¡± The wizard contemplated and thought a while before asking, ¡°What is the height of that cave? Is it spacious?¡± ¡°It is not that high,¡± Ryan said honestly. ¡°And it is kind of narrow, so the giant needs to bend when he stands inside it.¡± Suddenly, a bright idea crossed the wizard¡¯s mind. ¡°Then it is easy,¡± he smiled. ¡°I have got plenty of ideas to kill a giant in a narrow space. When that moment arrives, I will practice a spell and make sure that its head and bones break, so it will probably die immediately.¡± Hearing this, Ryan was greatly delighted. On second thought, he became a bit worried and asked, ¡°What if it was not crushed to death?¡± ¡°Even so, I can still trap it inside and make it unable to move.¡± The wizard was very confident. ¡°Then I will practice another spell¡ª¡± He thought a while and said, ¡°If the bracelet is lost, you will not mind, will you?¡± ¡°Of course not!¡± Ryan said without any hesitation. ¡°There are still many other treasures in that cave!¡± ¡°Fine, just leave this to me. It is a piece of cake.¡± The wizard stood up, brushed the dust off his clothes and went straight back to the camp to sleep. As a wizard whose values lied in his brain instead of his muscle, there was no need for him to spend the night on watch. If he had enough sleep, he could practice the spell steadily, and that was why Ryan had brought a huge number of his subordinates with him. After all¡­ To fight against the scary giant, a knife, arrow or sword might not work. The key to the fight was magic. Ryan sat by the campfire while watching the wizard walking to the camp to sleep. He then turned his attention to the burning flame and began to think. If that giant did not die¡­ if it was really strong enough to withstand the Cloudkill¡­ if there was really a god¡¯s will in that bracelet¡­ He sighed deeply, and his face looked very tired. The vice chairman, who did not say anything when he made his departure, sat in the corner and watched Ryan quietly. His eyes were glistening. ¡°The chairman is really old now.¡± An idea that had never crossed his mind was forming in his head, ¡°Maybe¡­ I need to make some plans for myself now¡­¡± Chapter 33 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma A few days later, Ryan and his treasure-hunting team arrived at a common open space. Traces of their last dig were still there, so they could spot the right place without having to determine the position. There was no need for Ryan to dig by himself, and the subordinates began to dig before Ryan even gave the order. After a while, they had dug a deep hole. When the subordinates saw the magic array at the bottom of the deep hole, they were immensely happy. Ryan thought it was too early to be happy and ordered them to get out of the way. Then he asked the wizard to check the magic array to see how much it had been damaged. ¡°It is not that seriously damaged.¡± After examining it carefully, the wizard said firmly, ¡°I can repair it, but it may take some time.¡± They had plenty of time and the goods and materials they prepared could last for a month, up until now they had used less than a quarter of their supplies. They decided to live there, and this was exactly the same place where Gerrard, Palin and Ryan used to camp when they were hunting for treasure. With the hope of finding the treasure and having a bright future, these exhausted people fell asleep. They had no idea that there was a huge jellyfish floating right above their head watching them. Gerrard and Palin were sneering in the cave. ¡°It seems that they are determined,¡± Gerrard said. ¡°They are too stupid. How could they underestimate us? How interesting.¡± Gerrard began to laugh at the irony of his words; he intended to kill them all. The former ¡°Bald Man¡± Nyen was a ruthless man. When he got angry, he even dared to fight with the soldiers hired by the aristocracy or kill their leaders. He had been wanted for many years, but he managed to arrive at the four towns in the northwest. He hid in the White Leaves Village and had lived a peaceful life ever since. No one knew how many battles he had gone through before he settled in the White Leaves Village. One needed to realize that there was a big chance that he might be killed by Nyen before he managed to kill Nyen. Palin didn¡¯t say anything. He sneered while gently touching his beloved magic book. Due to some reasons which even he could not understand, his ability to practice the spell had changed a lot. Some of his spells could not be practiced anymore; some spells¡¯ effects had been greatly weakened, and some of his spells¡¯ effects had increased a lot. There were not many spells in his magic book. Among these spells, he found there were only two powerful spells. The first one was the Cold Ray, which was a spell of the primary level. One would practice this spell simply for the purpose of entertainment, besides, its effect was not that strong. Now, when Palin cast a cold ray spell, the effect was enormous. He even tried to practice the spell, and he found that once the Cold Ray was released, the ground would freeze at least five or six feet deep. If a human was hit by it, he would immediately die. The other spell was the Ice Dagger. Once someone was hit by it, he would instantly be frozen, but its power was not that strong. In fact, if Palin stabbed his enemy with greater strength with a normal dagger, he could probably achieve better results. Now after the spell¡¯s effect had been intensified, Palin could summon a one-handed sword made of ice. It¡¯s side edge was very sharp and its whole blade was extremely firm. One time, he held the hilt and cut the palisades harshly. The ice sword was still intact, but a small piece was cut off the palisades. The cut surface on the palisade was very smooth and covered with a layer of frost. When he touched the frost, his whole palm froze and stuck to it. It took quite a while for the frost on his palm to melt. Palin already knew that Gerrard could resist the effect of the magic spell. Even Gerrard would be frozen when he touched the frost, but an average person would probably die when they touched the frost. Palin had a new ability that was beyond his expectation. Because of this, he had a deeper understanding of the greatness and magnificence of Sui Xiong. He did not only have the amazing ability to bring someone back to life, but he could also revive a body that had lost its soul and make it move or talk like a human. Besides, he could even bestow onto me such a brilliant power. How absolutely incredible this was! ¡°Maybe¡­His Majesty should claim the priesthood of both ¡®life¡¯ and ¡®cold¡¯?¡± Sui Xiong knew that it was impossible for him to claim the priesthood of life. He never regarded the ¡°Restoration¡± as an orthodox spell, but he believed that he could definitely claim the priesthood of the cold ice. Maybe Palin¡¯s getting stronger had a lot to do with my cold energy. ¡°So if I want to be apotheosized, I should try to claim the priesthood of the cold ice¡­¡± However, it was not that easy to claim the priesthood of cold ice, and among the Gods in the Northern Wasteland, there was more than one God that had claimed this priesthood. For example, the powerful God of Water. Once one had claimed the priesthood of cold ice, he would have to deal with the Gods that had also claimed this priesthood. These Gods were born and grew up in the cold wasteland, and they were hard-hearted and ruthless by nature. If Sui Xiong could not shock them by showing his strength, he would be attacked by them all together. The Evil Gods would pounce on him like a wolf and tear him apart and devour him! In fact, Palin had mentioned this to Sui Xiong before and asked him to be careful. Since a new-born God was not that powerful, he would be crushed and devoured by the other Gods. Then his magic power would be carved up among them. This had happened more than once, even a young wizard who did not see or know much had heard about this. Although Sui Xiong was quite confident about his own abilities, he wouldn¡¯t do anything risky when he could find another way. ¡°My suggestion is that Your Majesty should join a group of Good Gods. It is true that there are many rules in a group of Good Gods, and one can not do whatever he wants. But the good Gods would look after each other. So, for a new God, joining them would do him good,¡± Palin said. It was a pity that Palin was still a young wizard of low rank, and he was not that experienced. Palin thought very hard, but he still failed to find a group of Good Gods that were suitable for Sui Xiong to join. Anyway, Palin¡¯s suggestions had greatly inspired Sui Xiong and made him have a clearer understanding of the future. He had decided that when this business was done, he would head to the south to a very prosperous area in the continent and make contact with the Good God¡¯s Churches to see which God he could make friends with. But before this, he would have to punish Ryan, a villain who betrayed him! As for those bandits who came with Ryan, Sui Xiong had decided that he would not kill them, but he would make them suffer a bit to teach them a lesson, so they would stop carrying out misdeeds and become kind people. For this purpose, he created a spell with which he was determined to make them remember all of their life! A few days later, the wizard that Ryan had placed great hope on finally managed to repair the magic array and successfully open it. Now anyone could walk through it freely. ¡°This magic array is a bit old-fashioned, it was quite popular around five hundred years ago but not anymore.¡± He was trying to show off his knowledge. ¡°Since this magic structure is outdated, it was very easy to break. I want to know who invented this magic array. Judging from the array, I can tell that they are quite powerful, or even more powerful than I am. Knowledge of the time is the most powerful weapon for a wizard who relies on their intelligence rather than their physical strength. One will really lag behind the times if their knowledge of the world has not been upgraded!¡± Meanwhile, he took out a gemstone that contained a great amount of energy, and activated the magic array. The pale green light was flowing out like water. The light covered the first group of vanguards who were chosen to enter the cave, and they were transported inside. What awaited them was the activated hypnotic array set up by Palin. Seeing the blue-green light dazzling, the bandits felt dizzy and fell asleep before they even saw their surroundings. Only one bandit managed to withstand the power of the hypnotic array, but he was knocked down by Palin with his wand. When he woke up, he was bound to suffer a severe headache. The vanguards disappearance disturbed the rest of the members. So the wizard practiced a Divination spell to see if they were still alive or not. ¡°They are still alive,¡± the wizard said when he practiced the spell, ¡°and they seem very healthy¡­ It seems that there is no danger over there, maybe there is something wrong with the trap.¡± Then, the second group of vanguards was transported. They had the same fate as the first group, or worse when they entered the cave. This time Palin had intended to use his wand to knock down more people, but he was very disappointed when he found that none of them managed to withstand the power of the hypnotic array. The disappearance of two groups of vanguards made the rest of the bandits worried. Seeing this, both Ryan and the wizard knew that they could not force these gutless bandits to take on the adventure. So the wizard practiced many protection spells and activated the transportation array to send the two of them into the cave. With the pale green light dispersing, the two entered the cave. Though the power of the hypnotic array was around them, they had practiced some protection spells, so Palin¡¯s weak spell did not have too much of an effect on them. Seeing both Gerrard and Palin standing there intact and ready to fight, Ryan was shocked. Then he began to smile, and secretly decided to confuse them with his words, so the wizard could have more time to practice the spell. Palin immediately jumped and brandished his wooden wand to smash Ryan¡¯s skull, not giving him a chance to speak. Bang! A light white magic shield appeared and withstood against this strike. Gerrard did not initiate attack or take off his ax, he just watched Ryan and sneered. Compared to Palin, Gerrard knew more about Sui Xiong¡¯s capability, and his sincere belief was something that the wizard Palin could never keep up with. As for how to deal with the two, in his view, it would be decided by Sui Xiong. What he needed to do was to wait patiently for His Majesty¡¯s orders and to execute them. ¡°When you sneak attacked us, did you ever think that you would be in this situation?¡± His laughing echoed in the cave. ¡°How should I call you? Ryan? Or.. the head of the Association of Thieves of the Pyroxene Town?¡± Chapter 34 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Ryan was a bit flustered when he found that he had been recognized. He never thought that the giant and the young wizard who were supposed to be captive in the cave were still alive. They were not even injured after being hit by the Cloudkill spell, and most importantly, they even guessed his identity. When he realized that his lie had been seen through, he felt like he was standing naked in a world of ice and snow, and it was so cold that his whole body was trembling. What was the scariest thing in the world? For Ryan who believed in secrecy and deception, it would be that his lies¡¯ were totally seen through. All these years, he had lied to many people and managed to get away with it. His lying skills made him feel secure and comfortable, as if he was wearing magic armour all over his body. But now that he had been seen through, and there were no secrets about him anymore¡­ ¡°It may not be that bad; they probably guessed a little bit¡­¡± Ryan was trying to comfort himself, then he heard that Gerrard was sneering and shouting. ¡°You think you could please the Evil God of Scheme and Deception by betraying your peers? Let me tell you, the God of Conspiracy has been defeated already!¡± Hearing this, he almost fainted. The God of Conspiracy had not abandoned him? He was defeated!? The d*mn huge giant, I knew there was a God behind him, a very powerful God! My God¡­ Ryan felt as if he had already died, and his soul had left his body and was falling down to the abyss, to the Underworld. He was on his way to purgatory. Right at this moment, a strong and chilling sound snapped him out of it. ¡°Giant Growth!¡± The wizard, who was silent until now, raised up his hand, and a light glistened from the tip of his magic wand that was designed to help him to practice spells. Instantly, Gerrard was hit by this light. The powerful magic energy began to work in the blink of an eye, and Gerrard grew much bigger. Then the back of his head hit the top of the cave. Bang! The tough stonewall was penetrated by Gerrard¡¯s head, then by his whole upper body. Gerrard was now stuck in the stonewall like a beast in a trap. ¡°You think I can be so easily defeated by you!¡± Gerrard shouted as loud as thunder, and the sound echoed in the cave. The furious giant had exerted all his terrifying power. The rock above was cracking, as if it would collapse any minute now. It did not collapse however. The wizard told Ryan to watch his back, and he immediately dashed forward and performed another spell. His magic wand began to emit black light; the light was dim, rather thin and smooth like black silk. While he was brandishing his magic wand, the black ¡°silk¡± quickly got bigger and bigger and turned into a large circle. The wizard touched Gerrard¡¯s leg with his hand, and before Gerrard realized, the black circle shut itself completely with him inside. Inside the circle, there was sheer darkness that would make people feel dizzy. Before Gerrard even realized, he exclaimed and fell deeper into it. He felt the sheer darkness beneath him was like an abyss, and he then vanished and was devoured by the darkness. Gerrard¡¯s shouting could still be heard from the darkness, and before he made any other moves, the wizard stopped the spell and the sheer darkness disappeared immediately along with Gerrard. If it weren¡¯t for the falling debris, no one would possibly have believed a giant named Gerrard ever existed. Earlier before, when the wizard was practicing the ¡°Giant Growth¡± spell, Palin had felt there was something wrong. He meant to stop the wizard, but he was stopped by Ryan. Facing a very experienced bandit, the young wizard of low rank only managed to escape from being killed, and still he had suffered a lot during the process. He was barely holding up now. At that moment, he could do nothing but watch the wizard practice the ¡°Shadow Conjuration¡± and open the portal to the shadow. The next moment, the portal was closed, and Gerrard who was still in the shadow could not come back anymore. Palin was both anxious and angry, but he could not do anything. Right at this moment, he heard a voice that came from his heart. ¡°I will lend you my power. Do not be merciful, give him a good punch!¡± Palin felt an incredibly powerful energy burst from his body. The young wizard brandished his wooden wand, and although it was just a common wand, it tore the air apart. Ryan subconsciously leaned to one side and was hit right on his shoulder by Palin¡¯s wand. He was pushed away by the extreme power and thrown back against the stonewall. Crack! Ryan¡¯s bones were broken. Due to the extreme pain, he could not even make a sound and fainted. With only one strike, Palin managed to knock Ryan unconscious. He did not show his happiness or amazement, but rather he hurriedly dashed toward the wizard. He knew that his spells could not possibly defeat the wizard, so he did not chant any spells but directly smashed the wizard with the wooden wand. The wooden wand hit the wizard heavily, and activated the Protection spell that he had fixed on himself. The gray white light instantly covered the wizard¡¯s whole body and became similar to a rock. At the same time, the wizard¡¯s body began to fade, as if the air surrounding him had been twisted. Thump. The wooden wand hit the stonewall and broke the rock, and bounced back and fell into the corner. Palin was not surprised by this, an experienced wizard would definitely practice as many protection spells as possible on himself. For example, a few advanced wizards he knew would even practiced a transportation spell on themselves, so they could be transported and run away if they were severely attacked. ¡°Safety first¡± was the life motto of many wizards, since managing to run away meant there was still a tomorrow for them. One can¡¯t do anything if one is dead. So there was a saying in this world: the creature that was most difficult to kill was neither the powerful huge dragon nor the immortal Davy Jones, but an advanced wizard with a well functioning brain. The wooden wand Palin threw had very powerful momentum, but he did not expect it to cause any harm to the wizard from the very beginning. What he had hoped was that the wooden wand would just cause some trouble for the wizard. Although the momentum was mostly offset by the protection spell, the tiny bit of momentum that was left made the wizard feel like he had been hit by an ox. Now he could not stand steadily and staggered a few steps. Right at this moment, Palin rushed and stopped in front of him like a tiger running downhill. Palin reached toward to the wizard, and cold air began to rise from his right hand. The wizard¡¯s figure, which was as vague as the water wave, was penetrated by Palin¡¯s hand covered with the cold air. There was the sound of breaking glass, and the wizard¡¯s vague figure became clear again. Palin adjusted the direction of his right hand and crushed the gray white stone skin and grasped the wizard¡¯s neck. The thick cold air spread to the wizard¡¯s body from Palin¡¯s hand. Since the wizard had lost the protection of his spells, he could not fight back anymore and fainted due to the extreme cold. Palin then lifted him as if he was carrying baggage. The short but intense fight had finally come to an end. From the time when the wizard practiced his spells with full strength to the time when the wizard and Ryan were defeated, only a few seconds had passed. Palin threw the fainted wizard onto the ground and dispersed the cold magic power in his hand. Just now, I did not chant any incantation or practice any spell, but I managed to practice a powerful magic that only a wizard of the middle rank could practice. My right hand even destroyed two protection spells, and the rest of the energy could still make the wizard faint due to the extreme cold. I could never practice such a powerful spell when I have only been learning to practice spells for less than two years. He thought for a while, and tried to talk with Sui Xiong via telepathy, ¡°Your Majesty, are you the one who gave me the power?¡± After a few seconds, a weak sound came from a long distance. ¡°Yes¡­ Palin, you won? Good¡­ I am looking for Gerrard. I will leave you take care of this¡­¡± Palin lowered his head and showed his respect to the Great God. He did not raise his head up to look around until the sound had faded away. His Majesty went to save Gerrard who is trapped in the plane of shadow, and he asked me to take care of things here. I have to try my best so I do not let him down! ¡°Okay¡­ Let me first deal with the wizard, my predecessor. Compared to a bandit who believes in the God of Conspiracy, I think he will be more willing to talk with me who is walking the path of knowledge as he is.¡± The cave was suddenly filled with the cold air. Then a swirling blue light appeared in the air accompanied by a cracking sound. There were many tiny electric lights moving in the air like agile swimming fish. A few seconds later, the blue light got bigger and turned into a halo. Then Gerrard, who was covered with dust, came out in quandary while brandishing his ax that was tainted with black blood. He was coughing severely, but after a long while, he finally pulled himself back together. ¡°It seems that your journey in the plane of shadow was not that pleasant.¡± Palin had been waiting for him for a long time. ¡°Eh-hem¡­yes, it sucked!¡± Gerrard smiled bitterly. ¡°I want to apologize for my behaviour in the battle. My ability has degenerated since these recent years have been so comfortable, and I should not have made those mistakes.¡± ¡°I am so happy you two are still fine,¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s laugh echoed through the air. ¡°As for how to deal with Ryan and the wizard, I will just leave that to you. I need to have a rest.¡± Then the sound faded away. In the sky, there was a huge floating jellyfish using its tentacles to grab the rock and fix itself to the peak of a mountain. The energetic magic power that was flowing inside his body gradually becoming milder. This time, Sui Xiong was really exhausted. Chapter 35 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma This world consisted of countless small worlds called planes, and the size of each plane varied greatly. The small ones could be used as a warehouse, while the big ones were large enough to contain a mountain, a river, the earth, the sun, the moon or the stars. The shadow plane was a big plane where there were mountains, water and various living creatures. It was similar to the main plane where most of the living creatures inhabited and multiplied, but the shadow plane was much more dangerous than the main plane since the energy of shadow, that was restricted by the Law of Nature in the core plane, fully permeated the shadow plane. The energy of shadow itself would not bring about any serious consequences, but it would pose a great danger to adventurers who crossed between different planes. The energy of shadow was very abundant and strong, so there were many dangerous, powerful, ruthless and cunning creatures in this world. There were also many precious and rare resources in the plane, and it was considered a forbidden area where few would dare to enter without advanced preparations. When Gerrard was thrown into the shadow plane, he coincidentally fell into a withered forest where a old treant lived. To sustain it¡¯s life, the old treant devoured the vitality of the whole forest. It was very hot-tempered, and as soon as it saw Gerrard, it initiated an attack. The treant was frighteningly powerful. Compared to it, the Granny Dryad in the movie A Chinese Ghost Story was basically nothing. Gerrard used all of his skills to fight against the treant, even so he couldn¡¯t defeat it. He ran like a wolf and dashed around madly like a pig, but he still could not find his way out. He could not find the real body of the old treant that was hiding in the countless withered trees. Thanks to the amazingly strong body Sui Xiong had made for him, he managed to withstand the attack of the old treant. The attack was becoming more and more fierce, but he managed to last until Sui Xiong came to his rescue. By relying on the telepathy with the doppelg?nger of his soul in the bracelet, Sui Xiong projected his will and power into the shadow plane. Since he had analyzed the magic energy of the ¡°gatekeeper of the Night Gods,¡± he had a great understanding of the energy of shadow. He made a doppelg?nger with the energy of shadow and dust and fought the old treant. This time, Sui Xiong was met with a well-matched adversary. The old treant was the most powerful creature in this area, it even repulsed the God which intended to kill it and made it into his treasured object a few times. Facing Sui Xiong, it became furious and exerted all its power. When the two extremely powerful opponents fought with each other, both the heaven and the earth shook and the wind and the clouds changed their colour. All the monsters around them, no matter if they were strong or weak, hurriedly ran away yelling. Some powerful creatures who had been wanting to kill the old treant stepped back to avoid being dragged into the fight. Sui Xiong finally managed to find an opening. With the help of the coordinates obtained by locating Palin, Sui Xiong successfully opened the portal to the main plane and sent Gerrard back. Then he stopped fighting with the old treant and absorbed all the power in the doppelg?nger. The doppelg?nger turned into a pile of ash and dust. Then Sui Xiong came back to his real body and left the old treant fighting with the pile of ash and dust. This big fight had made the already old and weak treant weaker and more angry. In the creature¡¯s view, the old treant was on its last legs, and it might not take long, fifty years to a century, for the old treant to die. When that time came, these creatures could finally stop waiting and kill the treant and make it into their treasured objects. Sui Xiong did not get any benefit from this fight. He had consumed a great amount of his energy by projecting his will and power into the shadow plane and having a big fight with an impressively, powerful legendary monster. After he had been transported into this world, he did not feel tired, but this time, he was so exhausted that he felt asleep. He slept for around five seconds. When he woke up and projected his will into the cave with the help of the bracelet, Gerrard and Palin were still in shock after knowing he also felt tired. ¡°I am fine now. Why are you two not moving at all? Have you met problems?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. Gerrard and Palin looked at each other, and neither of them knew what to say. Satan who was on his hands and knees began to pray to Sui Xiong. ¡°Your Majesty, I, Satan who studies the profound mystery of the spell, give my respect to you! Hereby, I would very much hope to be your faithful servant, and with my humble life, I want to devote myself to the great career of carrying forward your honors! Please allow me to do so!¡± Sui Xiong was in a daze. He projected the phantom of a jellyfish into the cave and stared at the wizard who called himself ¡°Satan.¡± Honestly speaking, he did not dislike the wizard. When facing a strong figure like Gerrard, Satan could not possibly pull his punches. He could defeat Gerrard who was so much more powerful than him with clever ideas and the right spells. This was already enough for Sui Xiong to accept his request. There is an ancient saying: ¡°A fine fowl perches only on a fine tree.¡± Likewise, brilliant talent would often get together and work for a wonderful boss. Being able to attract more talents proved that Sui Xiong was a wonderful boss! But there was only one thing he was not comfortable with. ¡°Satan¡­ this name sounds familiar,¡± he muttered. ¡°You do not have six pairs of wings, you are neither noble nor have pride in your blood. You also have no horns nor the character of six written in the Arabic Numerals¡­ You are neither the most powerful man nor have a hairstyle of a mushroom¡­¡± He thought for a while, sighed and asked, ¡°Satan, are you interested in practicing martial arts?¡± Satan was in a daze, and hesitated for a long time, and began to shake his head while smiling bitterly. As a wizard who was determined to pursue the most profound mystery of the spell, he would never abandon his dignity as a wizard even if he was going to die. ¡°Then I do not know what I should do with you¡­ What a pity,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You could have become a superstar, but since you have rejected my request, you are bound to become a man that is selling esoterica along the street.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Satan had no idea what Sui Xiong was talking about. ¡°In a word, you could have become a Golden Costar if you began to practice martial arts as I have suggested. Since you have refused, you can only show your face occasionally at the beginning of a story, which means your appearance rate has dropped significantly,¡± Sui Xiong explained. Satan finally understood a bit, ¡°Your Majesty, you want me to perform in an opera? To be honest, I do not know too much about the opera¡­¡± ¡°Your Majesty, Mr. Satan is a very talented wizard,¡± Palin could not help saying. ¡°He was born in the Commonwealth of Mifata in the south of the continent, which is called the Kingdom of Wizard. A common wizard is no match for a wizard from the Kingdom of Wizard in either aspect of great knowledge or power of a certain spell! It is such a waste to make a talent like him perform in an opera!¡± Seeing Palin¡¯s nervous face and Gerrard¡¯s concern, Sui Xiong could not help laughing. It seemed like the wizard called Satan was really something, in such a short time, he had managed to bring Palin into his submission, and even Gerrard who had almost been killed by him began to admire the wizard. A talent like him was really rare! Then Sui Xiong said, ¡°Did I mention the opera? You three are thinking too much. Satan, you are a wonderful wizard, but I wonder do you know how to deal with government affairs or governing a manor?¡± Satan thought for awhile and said, ¡°A little bit, but this is not my speciality. If Your Majesty needs a talent in this area, I can recommend one for you. When I was studying in the Commonwealth of Mifata, I knew an aristocrat who had lost his manor. He was living a rather poor life and made his living by transcribing books and teaching the children how to read. If you need to make your own manors, I think he would be the perfect assistant for you.¡± ¡°Then please bring him here. It will take a long time to walk from the south of the continent to the four towns in the northwest, and during this time, we can build the framework of the manor first,¡± Sui Xiong said rather calmly. Gerrard was so excited that his whole body was trembling and he exclaimed, ¡°Your Majesty, have you made your mind to build your own church now?¡± ¡°Yes, I have three subordinates now. I can see that there will be more in the coming future. If I do not have a manor, everyone can not settle down properly,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Let¡¯s call it a day then. We should leave here.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, what about the treasures¡­¡± Gerrard hurriedly warned. ¡°Do not worry, it won¡¯t be lost.¡± Sui Xiong smiled, ¡°When we get out, move away the metal plate on which a transportation array was engraved. When we settle down, I will adjust the space coordinates so we can be transported into this cave from anyplace.¡± ¡°Then we will have a secret warehouse!¡± Gerrard eyes lit up. ¡°It is also a secret laboratory where we can do anything we want without being found!¡± Satan¡¯s eyes lighted up too. Palin shrugged his shoulders, feeling rather apathetic about his two peers¡¯ behaviour. It took them some time to get the sleeping bandits out of the cave. When the rest of the bandits saw Gerrard in the forest, they were shocked. Luckily, the vice chairman of the Association of Thieves restrained them so they could not run away. If they had run away and abandoned all the goods and materials, they could not possibly get through the terrifying night in the Ashes Forest. He would be greatly regarded if he could manage to bring one out of ten back to the Pyroxene Town. The vice chairman whose nickname was ¡°Gray Eyes¡± knew this too well. He was already so nervous that his legs were trembling, but he still acted rather bravely. He warned the bandits that running away would not help at all, and it could even be worse than dying. If they chose to stay, they would probably survive. Hearing this, the bandits finally plucked up and stood in front of Gerrard, trembling with fear. Soon, all the bandits that had been transported into the cave had been brought out. Seeing this, the remaining bandits were a bit relieved. They thought that since the bandits who went inside the cave had not been killed, just hypnotized, they would probably still be alive. They guessed right. Sui Xiong and his followers didn¡¯t intend to kill them. Satan was quite ruthless but rather smart as well, when he realized that Sui Xiong was a Good God, he immediately stopped thinking about killing these bandits and supported His Majesty¡¯s decision. Besides, he really did not think a group of bandits living in a poor area would be able to cause them any trouble. While Sui Xiong, an advanced wizard of the middle rank and a incredibly powerful giant, would already be enough to wipe out a small town in the border area. Therefore, he had no choice but to give up the idea of killing these bandits. Sui Xiong was a good man, but he had his own principles. He could let these bandits who had just followed their head¡¯s orders off, but he could not let off the culprit. This culprit was the chairman of the Association of Thieves of the Pyroxene Town, the dirty dog, ¡°Quick Hands¡± Ryan! Chapter 36 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Although the hypnosis spell had been removed and Ryan was not bound, he did not intend to escape or resist at the moment. He slumped to the ground without saying a word. He knew the other¡¯s strengths. The giant Gerrard was in front of him. Even if Gerrard were not there, he might not have been able to defeat Master Satan alone¡ª provided that he was in a good condition. Now as the bones on his shoulders had mostly been broken, he was seriously wounded. Had he not just drunk healing potions, he might have died from the pains without any being able to resist at all. At this stage, he could only resign to his fate without any illusion. ¡°Ryan, why were you plotting against us?¡± Gerrard shouted with a loud voice. His roar resounded in the forest like a gust of wind. ¡°I was dying, so in order to please the Darkened Moon and be qualified to go to his Holy Kingdom, I designed such a hoax with which I could please His Majesty by deceiving you,¡± Ryan said frankly. ¡°But I failed. His Majesty abandoned me and now I am done. For me, life is meaningless. The gate of purgatory has been open to me. The only thing left to worry about is when I fall into it.¡± Hearing these words, thieves suddenly turned angry and glared at him. If not for the awe of Gerrard, perhaps they would all have arisen to attack him, cutting off the old man in a chaotic way. The God of Thieves and the God of Conspiracy had a bad relationship because both of them had the overlapping holy mission of ¡°hallucination,¡± so they could be described as deadly enemies. For thieves who believed in the God of Thieves, Ryan who believed in the God of Conspiracy was not only an enemy but also a despicable traitor. In the world of some martial novels, people like Ryan would certainly be attacked fiercely! Ryan did not care about these murderous eyes. Anyway, he had no way to go. What was it that he could be scared of if the only result was death? ¡°Ha-ha,¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s laughter sounded in the air. ¡°The God of Conspiracy did not abandon you. On the contrary, your actions greatly pleased Him.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Ryan¡¯s eyes turned bright, and he hurried to look towards the small transparent jellyfish that popped up in the air. ¡°But why did His Majesty not respond to my prayer?¡± ¡°Because his response was intercepted by me,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°His envoy was also stopped by me. By the way, the envoy called ¡°Four-faced Monster¡± under the command of the God of Conspiracy looked very strange, but tasted unexpectedly good. His flesh was fresh and delicious. It¡¯s memorable!¡± Ryan suddenly startled and realized the identity of Sui Xiong. With his face suddenly turning pale, he lamentingly fell silent and was unable to say anything. He had thought that he was exceptionally wise and arranged the whole thing properly because he succeeded in deceiving and maneuvering against a huge giant, a small mage, plus a rookie god. But it turned out that what went wrong was not his strategy, but who he was plotting against. The god behind the Giant Gerrard was by no means a rookie, but clearly a hidden superman! Even the envoy of His Majesty the God of Conspiracy was eaten by him, so it was impossible to imagine how powerful he was! Ryan thought, What terrible fortune I had! How dare I plot against this powerful god! Maybe I have done too many evils, so that the Goddess of Fate has bound me with her threads invisible to mortal people, with another end tied to purgatory¡­ After a complete desperation, he instead turned calm. With a pair of deadly eyes, he calmly looked into the eyes of Sui Xiong and said, ¡°Your Majesty, pardon me for not knowing your name. But it does not matter, please feel free to punish me in any way as you like.¡± Seeing this hopeless and sorrowful expression, Sui Xiong could not help but be a bit disappointed. Who he wanted to punish was the old thief master that was crafty like a fox, not this good-for-nothing that was different from a dead man only because he could breathe. The transparent jellyfish circled around Ryan for a few laps. After a while of careful analysis, an idea suddenly occurred to Sui Xiong. ¡°Since you volunteered to be punished, then do not blame me for giving you any excessive punishment!¡± He sneered. Using the power of his soul to transform his transparent body into a big rough palm with a glittering pattern of the Chinese character ¡°ten thousand,¡± he patted Ryan¡¯s forehead. ¡°Never too late to mend your ways!¡± Sui Xiong shouted loudly. He silently contemplated all kinds of sincerity, goodness, beauty, and scenes of prosperity and development, of unrelenting success, of joy and encouragement¡­ These countless ideas merged into a golden light and were seemingly transferred into Ryan¡¯s head through the strength of the pat, but in fact, suddenly broke into his soul and body. Ryan screamed and twitched. The pain of the soul being wounded was far more fatal than that of the flesh. Even if he already felt hopeless, he could not stand this pain. He suddenly wanted to die, even being tortured in purgatory after death was better than being tormented now. Thieves around him, looking at the miserable appearance of their leader, were startled. No sound was heard except a rustling sound. A few thieves who were not very courageous were so scared that they wet themselves, giving off an unbearable foul smell. Fortunately, they carried a lot of supplies for this treasure hunt, so they found several pairs of clean trousers for the cowards who threw the dirty trousers far away. Then Satan cast a magic that summoned a gust of strong wind that blew away the foul smell, relieving everyone¡¯s nose. It was strange; just for a while, the previously yelling Ryan calmed down. His eyes showed that he was at a loss. No one knew what he was thinking, but he just stared at the sky. ¡°Ryan, have you realized your mistake?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s avatar changed back into a floating jellyfish and asked loudly. Ryan was awakened by this loud cry and sat up again. After a long silence, he suddenly burst into tears. He was crying fiercely and sorrowfully. ¡°No, drop it. It¡¯s a wrong style,¡± Sui Xiong thought in silence. Ryan finally stopped after crying for a long time. He was unable to lift his hand to wipe his face because of his shoulder injury. The tears on his face were mixed with dirt and he looked very embarrassed. But now his eyes were clearer than his subordinates had ever seen in the past years. They were calm and mild, like two clear crystal clear lakes without the slightest shadow. Seeing his eyes, people would approach him without suspicion. ¡°Thank you, Your Majesty, for making me realize my mistake, and now I am afraid of nothing,¡± Ryan said quietly. ¡°I have done countless evils in my life, so I deserve to atone for my sin in purgatory. It would be nothing to be bitterly punished in purgatory compared to the pain I gave others throughout my life.¡± ¡°It is too late for you to realize your mistakes until you are about to die. But repenting at the end is after all better than never repenting.¡± He struggled to stand up and looked around at his subordinates with a face full of guilt. ¡°I¡¯ve done a lot of things that let you down over the years. I have used you to do bad things, embezzled most of your hard-earned fruits and stopped you from progressing again and again¡­ I apologize to you but do not dare to expect your forgiveness.¡± After finishing this, he let out a deep sigh and looked up at the sky. ¡°I remember when I was a child, I often lay on the roof of my house and looked at the sky. At that time I was always fantasizing. What was above the sky? Legend said that there was a heaven was above the sky and good people could go there to lead a peaceful life in the beautiful country created by the most benevolent gods¡­ What exactly was the paradise like? I really wanted to see it¡­¡± His voice gradually turned low, while he fell down softly and lost breath. He died. Sui Xiong saw it, as Ryan¡¯s breath stopped, a transparent and old figure flew out of Ryan. This figure looked gloomily at its body, shook its head and sighed. It then bowed toward Sui, and slowly sunk toward the ground. It seemed that it would fall into the netherworld and be punished in purgatory. Just then, a clear light in the sky fell on the soul of Ryan. In the white light appeared an elderly man wearing a plain cloak made of grey cloth and a silver-fringed halo on his head. Smiling and holding a pipe, he took hold of Ryan¡¯s shoulder. ¡°The God of Repentance says that ¡®no matter how many sins one has committed during his lifetime, so long as he repents faithfully, he deserves atonement¡¯,¡± the elderly man said to Ryan. ¡°You should not go to the hell, but turn your penitence into atonement to help people in need.¡± Ryan was shocked, and after a while, he recovered and asked incredulously, ¡°You ¡­ you are the envoy of the God of Redemption? I have not worshiped that god¡­¡± ¡°His Majesty never decides who should go to his kingdom by faith, and only those souls who redeem themselves and redeem others have the qualifications to go to the Valley of Relief. You redeemed yourself at the last moment of your life, so His Majesty asked me to welcome you,¡± said the elderly man kindly. ¡°Leave with me. Your path is still long.¡± Ryan was surprised and happy, and could not help but shed tears. He bowed deeply to Sui Xiong in worship, then he followed the elderly man and flew to the sky by riding the clear light beam. Sui Xiong watched him fly away and smiled. Before he wanted to express some thoughts such as ¡°All he did yesterday seems to make him die yesterday, all he does today seems to give him birth again today.¡± Floating in the air, the huge jellyfish turned his head and slightly bowed out of courtesy to the lady beside him who wore plain clothes. ¡°Hello, God of Redemption.¡± ¡°Hello, a good new god.¡± The woman looked about twenty-five or twenty-six. She wasn¡¯t beautiful but was gentle and friendly. Her eyes were even soft and calmed others¡¯ minds. She was the incarnation of the God of Redemption. She sensed that someone was using strange ways to make a sinful soul repent at the last moment of his life, which interested her a lot and made her take a special trip to the human world to meet Sui Xiong. The God of Redemption was also called the God of Repentance and the Last Word Listener, etc. She was not a mighty god and her teachings required believers to redeem themselves and others¡ª quite a hard thing to do. Therefore, her faith had not been widely spread, and even quite a few of her pastors found it difficult to practice the doctrine. And those who really could practice her teachings were often about to die and unlikely to spread her teachings and promote her glory. She had always been in an awkward position despite her seniority. She was convinced that she was right but felt distressed about how to carry forward her idea. Only when she met Sui Xiong did she realize that she saw the path of fate. The God of Redemption raised her hand, and a soft white light flew out and fell on Sui¡¯s body. It was quickly absorbed and stored for future analysis and research. ¡°This is my supernatural power and some useful information that you can study afterward. I look forward to seeing you soon in the joint meeting of the most benevolent people, and I believe we will certainly be able to cooperate in a beneficial way at that time.¡± ¡°Sorry, but I still haven¡¯t found the clue of apotheosizing for the moment,¡± said Sui Xiong. The gentle goddess waved her hands, while her figure faded, ¡°It does not matter. Time doesn¡¯t mean much to you and me. I have been waiting for a long time, and now I finally know my waiting is not wrong which makes me very satisfied.¡± Seeing the God of Redemption leave, Sui Xiong carefully felt the supernatural power he just received and engraved lots of information into his heart. Sui Xiong vaguely realized that a little light was shed on the road to the altar, although it was previously enveloped in a total chaos. Chapter 37 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma In a pub in Pyroxene Town, Palin, Satan and the new chairman of the Association of Thieves ¡°Grey Eyes¡± Rhode sat drinking. Rhode¡¯s attitude was very humble, and he had a flattering smile on his face. To quote Gu Long¡¯s words, he was very anxious to kneel down and lick Palin¡¯s and Satan¡¯s boots clean. After witnessing the incredible power of His Majesty the ¡°Void Mask¡±, he, a not very faithful thief, found himself persuaded to devote himself to His Majesty¡¯s command. The God of Thieves was not a very powerful god. Despite his seniority, he had not been living well. This was mainly determined by his style of conduct. His chief holy missions were theft, concealing, and hallucinations, which at the first glance seemed very high-end, but in fact, he had been teaching believers to be worldly-wise and play it safe by not being involved in high risk things. He asked them to restrict their own desire and told them that it sufficed to run a little risk in the world so as to live a stable life. Under his guidance, the major business of the Association of Thieves included not only traditional ones like theft, trafficking and information selling, but also others such as the manufacturing and sale of counterfeit goods, operation of grocery stores and taverns, hostels, serving as locksmiths, and doing appraisals. In addition to these, there were quite decent professions, such as house and cemetery construction and archeology, and some mid-to-low end ones like self-help disaster education. It was not hard to earn money by doing these things. However, it was obviously unrealistic if someone wanted to rely on these for peak life moments or becoming a proud swordsman. If you did not have a choice, then making money in silence and living calmly was, of course, not a bad thing. But after witnessing the mighty power of His Majesty the ¡°Void Mask¡±, Rhode could not help but think of converting to another faith. It was not to say that His Majesty the God of Thieves was not good, nor was it that he did not want to go to the Holy Kingdom of the God of Thieves after death. But as we all know, going to a holy kingdom after death was not so easy. The limited strength and the non-advanced divinity of the God of Thieves determined that he could not widely accept the souls of his believers. Even the chairman of the Association of Thieves in a town might not certainly be able to go to the Holy Kingdom. If he was unable to go to the Holy Kingdom, Rhode could not expect a good end. Although he had not done extremely terrible evils, the accumulation of crimes such as theft, counterfeiting and fraud would be enough to behead him a few times over, not to mention his illicit fights that had nothing to do with justice. Thinking of it, he could not help but envy the dead Ryan. Going to the Holy Kingdom of the God of Redemption could not be a very good choice because the idea of this god was to have believers redeem themselves and others. Although Ryan had redeemed himself, he could not get peace and joy until he had redeemed sufficient enough people to truly accomplish his own atonement. As the envoy of the God of Redemption said, his road ahead was still long. As Rhode saw it, it was nothing more than avoiding the brutal consequences of falling into hell and replacing torture and torment with long periods of labor. But this was sufficiently good! If it was possible to have a good relationship with His Majesty the ¡°Void Mask,¡± even if he could not usually receive his protection, he could get the chance of atonement and avoid falling into hell if he could invite the ¡°Void Mask¡± to bless him when he was about to die. This advantage was enough to make the cowardly Rhode excited. It was not even necessary to mention that His Majesty the ¡°Void Mask¡± could provide protection to his followers strong enough to make others jealous! There were so many gods in the world, but which god would turn angry and confront the God of Conspiracy because his followers were plotted against? The ¡°Void Mask¡± had! And won! In contrast, when the chairman of their association, whose status was equivalent to the high priest, defected, the God of Thieves didn¡¯t even notice it. He was somewhat¡­ alas¡­ Palin was young, inexperienced, and lacked the ability to see the subtleties in people. But Satan was a strong and experienced man who made a living by using his brain, he even once suppressed Gerrard through his intellect. Satan understood what Rhode was all about with one glance. He could not help but smile. ¡°Chairman Rhode, let¡¯s get straight to the point. Do you want to be a believer of our God?¡± He asked straightforwardly. This straightforward speech style apparently made Rhode feel uncomfortable, who was used to bargaining slowly. He paused for a moment in spite of having contemplated various responses and nodded with a forced smile. ¡°The Immortal Thief is not a mean god, but are you not afraid of being punished as the chairman of an Association of Thieves who has betrayed his faith?¡± Satan directly asked the most crucial question. To this question, Rhode certainly had carefully considered it and immediately answered, ¡°Strictly speaking, I am still only a vice chairman, and I have not formally held a ritual ceremony for the approval of His Majesty to serve as the chairman. His Majesty, of course, would not tolerate the conversion of a chairman, but he presumably could tolerate that of a vice chairman. Anyway, His Majesty the Void Mask is also hostile to his enemies, and I guess an enemy of his, if not an ally, at least could be counted as a friend.¡± ¡°It seems that you have a very clear idea and have weighed the pros and cons carefully. Then I have another question,¡± Satan said. ¡°His Majesty is one of the ancient gods of nature and not a god who is passionate about spreading the faith. If you want to join us, what do you think you can do for His Majesty? If you just believe in him, then forget it.¡± Rhode was dumbfounded for a moment, not expecting to actually encounter this question. Most of the world¡¯s gods were keen on spreading the faith because accepting the feedback of the power of faith was the most common means to enhance the godly level. However, for ancient gods who had gained strength from the source of the world, the existence of faith was not a major issue at all. Whether people had faith or not had no effect on them. Therefore, if one wanted to join the church under the command of an ancient god of nature, it became very difficult. After all, they did not mean to recruit people. After thinking for quite a while, Rhode said, ¡°I am well informed in the four northwestern towns, and I have great experience in appraising. I am a qualified expert in the industry if I go to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins in the southern part of this world. In addition, I am also very good at forging instruments, making and dismantling various gears and traps, and I also know a lot about geology, history, animals, and plants¡­¡± ¡°But are these useful to our God?¡± Satan asked. Rhode silently shook his head in frustration. The ancient god of nature existed outside of the civilized world, and while those skills were useful in the civilized world, they were of no use to him. A great god also didn¡¯t care about trivial things like geology and knowledge of plants or animals. Just when he was upset, Sui Xiong¡¯s voice suddenly sounded in the air, ¡°This tavern has been run by your Association of Thieves, right? So can you operate a shop?¡± Rhode shook his head. ¡°There are others who are in charge of the tavern. I know little about business and management.¡± In front of a god, he did not dare to lie. ¡°Then, Palin, how about you?¡± Sui Xiong asked again. ¡°Your Majesty, I can learn it,¡± Palin replied immediately. ¡°I am young and quick to learn, and I can get some experienced people from my uncle to help me before I complete my studies.¡± ¡°If you are looking for someone to help, I have more people who can help you!¡± Rhode hurriedly interrupted, ¡°Your Majesty, I know a lot of capable people, of whom at least ten are merchants with good records!¡± ¡°So your specialty is your connections.¡± Sui smiled and said, ¡°Gerrard has always suggested that I establish my own church and faith system. Although I am not determined yet, I have tried to establish a village of pioneers. If you are willing to work for me Rhode, I will ask you and Palin to set up the village. How would you like it?¡± ¡°No problem! I certainly can do a good job!¡± Rhode was overjoyed, and he promised while patting his chest. Palin bowed his head and promised, ¡°Your Majesty, I will do my best.¡± He knew he was young and had limited ability. The only thing he could promise was to do the best. ¡°Do not worry, it is not hard for us to build a village of pioneers.¡± It turned out to be Rhode who encouraged him. ¡°To establish such a village requires nothing more than three things: food, population and military forces. We can spend money to buy food, and it is not difficult to recruit pioneers so the population isn¡¯t a problem; military forces should not be a problem either because we have the huge man Gerrard. As long as we are not dumb enough to build the village beside the residence of the fiercest legendary monsters in the Ashes Woods, can trivial things like skeletons withstand Gerrard¡¯s ax?¡± Everyone suddenly realized, as Rhode said, with military safeguarding and no shortage of money, building a village of pioneers in the Ashes Wood was not a difficult task at all. It was like sowing seeds. Al that was needed was care and patience if the seeds were good; the soil and the climate were suitable; and the water and fertilizers were sufficient. Thinking of it, Palin and Satan could not help but smile. Perhaps for His Majesty ¡°Void Mask¡±, the establishment of a village of pioneers was merely a game not worth mentioning, but for them, this was an opportunity to dedicate their power to the god they believe in. The ancient God of Nature had always been unambitious, and their believers often had no sense of existence. However, this world ran with its own rules. If a believer could not follow the idea of his god or make enough contributions for the god, even if their soul was taken to the holy kingdom after death, it could not be reincarnated easily or become a holy creature with an almost immortal life. In the Holy Kingdom of the ancient God of Nature, there were so many souls that had not been able to successfully complete reincarnation but simply rested between life and death and sometimes woke up. Neither Palin nor Satan wanted that kind of end. So, of course, they must strive to make more contributions to their own god while they were still alive so as to be able to be reincarnated after death. As for the first formal task assigned by the god, they both wanted to do their best to establish a positive example for future followers. It was also a solid foundation for their way to the reincarnation in the Holy Kingdom. So they soon started a detailed discussion of the specific plan to establish the village of pioneers: Where should they buy supplies? Where should they recruit villagers from? Where should the village be situated? How would they tackle problems of transport? How would they build it? Questions were raised one by one and they discussed the solutions. At first, Sui Xiong listened with great interest but found it boring as he listened. He shifted his energy to the outside of the tavern to see Gerrard¡¯s situation. He saw that Gerrard was teaching martial arts to the thieves. This giant was more honest and straightforward, and his nature of enjoying teaching other people did not disappear. As soon as he saw this group of thieves with humble skills but good physical constitution, he could not help but teach them something. Sui Xiong¡¯s followers were busy, so he didn¡¯t find it good to disturb them. So he stopped and began to read the documents that the God of Redemption gave him¡­ Chapter 38 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The documents that the God of Redemption gave to Sui Xiong included the geography of the continent, some remarkable existence that deserved our attention, and, above all, the knowledge that gods should understand: What was God?; how to be a god; what were the principles of building a Holy Kingdom?; how to choose clergymen; what was the acquisition and use of divine power?; what was the relationship between godhood and combat effectiveness? A new god with their holy pedigree would definitely ask these questions to their predecessors or superiors. But for those gods who fought alone or started from scratch, these questions were secrets that were unattainable and unspoken. The God of Redemption obviously did not conceal this but rather passed on the life experience she accumulated in the long years in a detailed way to Sui Xiong. The experience turned out to be beneficial to Sui because it had rich content, detailed descriptions, and many informative examples. A few days later, when he fully understood the documents and memorized the relatively more important ones, he was no longer at the stage of being a stranger in a strange place, and he became a stranger who had a relatively accurate understanding of this world so as to travel around confidently. Then, he took Palin and began their journey to the four northwestern towns. The first destination was Dragon-roar Town¡ª completing the task of expelling the evil dragon meant a reward of five thousand gold coins. This money would help a lot in building the Village of Pioneers. The Dragon-roar Town was the north-most one among the four northwestern towns. Its name derived from the dragon ¡°Arctic Tyrant¡± living in the depth of the nearby mountains. Decades ago, before the dragon came there, the town was called ¡°Hunter¡¯s Town¡± because the main output was from hunting in the nearby mountains, and there were many professional hunters in the village. The ¡°Arctic Tyrant¡±, although powerful and horrible, didn¡¯t have a combative aggressiveness. Until now, the main source of income for Dragon-roar Town was still hunting demon beasts in the mountains. This had not been greatly affected by the dragon in the mountains. Of course, every few years, the bluish-white dragon with scales as smooth and cold as ice attacked the town. Its purpose was certainly not to eat people or to destroy but to extort gold coins. This dragon seemed to take Dragon-roar Town as a large ATM machine ¨C a machine that required face scanning without actual verification, and had an account with an unlimited balance. It was as arrogant as some mammonish ladies who went straight to a high-end restaurant, and bought a set of Chanel products after the meal. However, Dragon-roar Town was not an overbearing president who carried around a set of Centurion cards with no overdraft nor a second-generation rich woman that could spend tens of millions merely on entertainment, but it was just an ordinary town. For the people in this town, maybe that dragon which looted on a regular basis was an abominable tax collector? Aside from the dragon¡¯s looting, Dragon-roar Town was generally quite peaceful. The most interesting thing in the town was that sometimes there would be strong hunters pursuing powerful demon beasts and dissecting them outside the town. At that time, not only in the four northwestern towns but also on the whole continent there were famous scenes, so there were often curious people who did not hesitate to travel to Dragon-roar Town to see such scenes despite the difficult travel. When Sui Xiong and Palin came to town, the hunters¡¯ team just killed an Aron dragon. The dissection had entered its second day, and it was expected to be fully completed in one more. Even though the monster was dead and on its belly, its remains were still probably taller than Gerrard on the ground. Its remains were placed on the huge square outside the town. The square was prepared specifically for the dissection of prey, and it took the church of the God of Hunting almost ten years to complete. This square, almost half the size of the town, was completely covered by bluish black slabs of stone, and every slab was engraved with the sacred sign of the God of Hunting. There were also sacred rituals for sacrifice and enchantments. As long as the prey was carried here, it would no longer rot and people could rest assured and dissect it slowly. Even for prey that had slightly decayed, they could appeal to the priests of the God of Hunting who could cast magic to restore its body; the wonderful magic art was unique to the God of Hunting and an important part of the income of the churches under his command. The dead monster, which was bigger than a big house, was lying on the slab on its belly, and several senior hunters, along with a group of young people, were busy dissecting it bit by bit using sharp knives. There were also anxious businessmen waiting there with their vans. Seeing it from afar, Sui Xiong could not help but laugh. ¡°This place is thriving and full of vitality!¡± ¡°Indeed, people in Dragon-roar Town are more confident and energetic than the rest of the three towns, probably because people lacking in courage and self-confidence could not live in such a places as they have been fighting demon beasts for years.¡± What he said was right, but he missed an important reason: the town had been attacked by a dragon every few years, and the power of the dragon was terrifying. People who could withstand it and were not scared off often had a very strong heart and extremely resilient nerves. They thought, ¡°I have even seen the dragon attack us, so what can I be scared of?¡± So people in Dragon-roar Town people probably had a kind of optimism with a little self-abandonment. They were all optimistic and straightforward with a smile on their face all day long. Since Gerrard would maintain the order of the pioneers and train his staff, Palin became Sui Xiong¡¯s guide. The young mage liked those hunters who could hunt large demon beasts by virtue of their courage and wisdom, so he talked to them with much appreciation. Here you could see armed hunters everywhere on the streets. Hunting in the mountains which were haunted by demon beasts made reliable equipment indispensable, so there were the largest trading venues of weapons and armor in the four northwestern towns. As long as they had enough money, it couldn¡¯t be said that they couldn¡¯t buy weapons powerful enough to be used to fight against dragons and even the legendary Dragon Slayer Sword. As for those who thought that holding a dragon knife enabled them to slay the dragon, they¡¯d better die early and be more careful in their next life rather than harm society now. ¡°Is there a Dragon Slayer Sword being sold here?¡± Hearing Palin ask, Sui Xiong could not help but curiously respond, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t the Dragon Slayer Sword be given to us free of charge if we click its link?¡± ¡°What is ¡®click¡¯? And why should a Dragon Slayer Sword be given to us free of charge?¡± Sui Xiong let out a few giggles and urged Palin to quickly go to the arms shop. He would like to see the Dragon Slayer Sword in this world. Dragon-roar Town had several arms shop, and Palin went directly to the largest one, impressively named ¡°Dragon Slayer Sword.¡± As soon as he entered, he saw a giant chopper hung on a big pillar that supported the roof. The chopper was wider and taller than him. ¡°Hey, this is the Dragon Slayer Sword.¡± The black bone bracelet on his wrist glistened because Sui Xiong used the strength of his soul and tried to analyze the structure of this sword for copying it in the future. However, he soon regrettably found that this knife was not anything special. It was nothing more than a bigger, heavier knife made with finer materials and engraved with a few magic formations. That was all. ¡°Is this knife a sample or a genuine one?¡± He could not help but ask. Palin asked the attendants at the arms shop, and the man surely guaranteed that the knife was genuine and definitely a Dragon Slayer Sword. So Sui Xiong scrutinized it from the inside out again. Definitely an ordinary knife! It was true that it used very good materials¡ª the finest stainless steel, and it was well-designed. There was not even a bubble hidden inside the blade. Sui Xiong could even clearly figure out the technique of hammering and quenching it underwent. Indeed it involved a lot of consideration, but with only such attributes, it could be called a Dragon Slayer Sword? Was it just because of the enchantment on the blade? This knife had a total of four kinds of magic enchantment: sharpness, solidness and rapidity were constant; gravity change was activated by the user temporarily and nothing more. And these four magic enchantments made a large steel knife a Dragon Slayer Sword? Sui Xiong tut-tutted, ¡°Merchants are the same in terms of bragging no matter the world! They are the same in saying thing like ¡®Antarctic people are not afraid of coldness¡¯, and ¡®Dragon Slayer Sword¡¯¡­!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, do you think this knife is fake?¡± Palin asked curiously. ¡°How to put it¡­ If Gerrard took this knife¡ª let¡¯s assume he would use knives in addition to axes¡ª it would be possible for him to slay a dragon. But the crux of slaying the dragon is not about the knife, but about Gerrard. Cowards like Rhode might have scurried off like frightened rats when encountering a giant dragon, even if they were given ten such knives. He would also throw the knife in order to run faster!¡± ¡°In this case, the knife is actually not bad, but it is a little bit exaggerated¡­¡± Palin said. ¡°Perhaps the artisan that created the knife just hoped its reputation could attract the true legendary strong men who could repel and even kill the dragon?¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± Sui Xiong lost interest in this exaggerated knife and gazed on other weapons in the shop. Looking closely, this shop actually had a lot of good weapons. If the request was not for slaying a dragon, a lot of things could meet the standard. For example, he soon fixed his eye on a long dagger made of a special material called ¡°Ice Iron.¡± Several external enchantments made it sharper, more solid and faster when wielded. It could also produce phantoms when being wielded, so as to confuse the enemy¡¯s sight. If this was the case, it was not sufficient for it to enter Sui Xiong¡¯s sight. The dagger had a hidden mystery ¨C its interior was inlaid with a magic nucleus of the demon beast ¡°Red Flame Rhinoceros¡± with a fire attribute. The dagger, through its magic formation, could activate a strong power of fire when necessary, and this time the dagger became a buffer like a hilt. In other words, it was not only a sharp dagger containing the power of cold ice but also could turn into a flame sword when necessary. This change was absolutely beyond the enemy¡¯s expectation, and in actual combat, it was most likely for it to have surprising results, and winning with one action was also easy. Rhode, the new follower of Sui Xiong, didn¡¯t have a good career. As the vice chairman of the Association of Thieves, he carried a long dagger only made of stainless steel with the effect of ¡°sharpness.¡± It was nothing compared to the dagger named ¡°Soul of Ice¡± even combined with the effect of enchantment due to its ordinary material and non-brilliant skill that was employed to make it. It was quite possible that his dagger would be cut off after a frontal collision of two weapons. Their further changes and flames were also totally different and incommensurable. There were no supergiant tomahawks that Gerrard used in stock, so Sui Xiong intended to help the abject Rhode prepare a handy weapon so that the poorly skilled surveyor would not be killed by skeletons. In his view, in addition to the gods, creatures that deserved a description of ¡°poorly skilled¡± temporarily included only the giant unicorn whale he saw in the sea and the four-faced monster that he ate shortly before. According to his ideal, his early believers should at least reach that level before he could be comfortable. A poorly skilled man could not slay a dragon even with a dragon-slayer, but he could only be slain by the dragon. That said, it was not right hopping from the theory that weapons decided everything directly to spiritual atom bomb because after all the Buddha should rely on a gold exterior and people on clothes. ¡°Is it necessary to buy a weapon for Rhode? Clearly, that guy seeks Your Majesty¡¯s patronage for his benefit, and he is not pious at all!¡± Palin was immediately outraged when he learned about what Sui Xiong meant to do. In his opinion, only piety deserved the reward of God. However, Sui Xiong did not think so. He was a man from the earth, and to be more detailed, Chinese. The attitude of the Chinese towards belief was ¡°I believe in a god and the god will give me benefits as a fair exchange.¡± Rhode really believed in him and was still serving him. These days he was extremely busy. Even now, he was still busy working. Sui Xiong had seen his efforts. It was human nature to want some rewards. The gods in this world, however, required believers to put in a lot of work unconditionally and assessed the level of belief only according to piety. He did not agree with this approach! Chapter 39 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Palin had not been influenced by the Chinese culture, so of course, he had no such ideas as Sui Xiong did. However, he was a devout believer. His god¡¯s demand would be followed honestly by him even if it did not meet his own wishes. So after a poor persuasion, he went to ask the price, ready to buy that delicate long dagger with enchantment. However, after asking the price, even Sui Xiong who didn¡¯t care much about money could not help but feel his tentacles ache. ¡°This ¡®Soul of Ice¡¯ is worth 70,000 gold coins,¡± the attendant at the arms shop said casually. Palin was astonished. Even if he was somewhat mentally prepared, he was petrified by this appallingly high price. After a while, he could not help but ask, ¡°If it is just a long dagger with enchantment, why is it so expensive? I have seen advanced weapons sold at tens of thousands at most.¡± The attendant looked at him, sneering and didn¡¯t bother to explain. He only snorted with disdain and went to wipe a long knife which was bright and sharp. He thought, What a rustic bumpkin he is! He has never seen the outside world and there are infinite numbers of them as much as the skeletons in the Ashes Woods. The manager commanded that I not sell the ¡°Soul of Ice¡± to whoever could not see the real mystery of it! Palin was awkward. He intended to ask more questions but was embarrassed to be so shameless. He walked out of the arms shop unhappily and wanted to go to a hotel for rest. But after he walked a few steps away, a thin but neatly dressed child stopped him. ¡°Wise mage, do you want to buy something good? Be sure to go to the grocery store called ¡®Good Vision¡¯!¡± Judging from the child¡¯s grinning face and skilled marketing style, Palin thought that clearly, he was waiting outside of the arms shop to market to dejected adventurers who found their soul hurt. ¡°Mage, you don¡¯t come to Dragon-roar town frequently, do you?¡± asked the child like a natural socializer. ¡°People don¡¯t go to that ¡®Dragon Slayer Sword¡¯ shop if they are familiar with Dragon-roar Town because it rips people off!¡± Palin nodded immediately, feeling that this kid was right. Seventy thousand gold coins for a mere long dagger with enchantment! Why didn¡¯t they just rob him! No, robbing wasn¡¯t as profitable as ripping people off! That was seventy thousand gold coins compared to the fifty thousand gold coins that the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves got in five years! These days, for the preparation of the Village of Pioneers, they entered the treasure cave of Ruhr. Rhode¡¯s skills were no worse than Ryan¡¯s, and he tore the traps along the way effortlessly. In fact, the traps were very dangerous and powerful, but they were rather old and extremely obsolete types. Rhode even repackaged several of the ones in better condition and took them to the grocery store of the Association of Thieves to sell them. Their price was not too low, and they actually had sold one of them recently. A total of 50,000 gold coins were sorted out in the treasure cave of Ruhr, with some remaining antiques and magical items which were either strikingly marked or dangerous, making it difficult or unsuitable to sell them. The best strikingly marked one was a beautiful set of jewelry with the emblem of the angel of light wings that symbolized the royal family of the Kingdom of Holy Angels. That sign made Rhode sweat, and, especially, when he counted the angels¡¯ wings on the sign, his face turned white. The representative dangerous one was a piece of very hard phalange enveloped by black magic power. When Satan saw this he took a few steps back because he was scared, and he almost backed into a rock on the wall. The first treasure was a collection from the royal family that was the most radical and most aggressive in the world today and belonged to a Prince in the third generation. The latter was the soul box of an evil Lich, which could return to the world again after being killed and take this piece of phalange as its coordinate. If the former was made public, the Kingdom of Holy Angels would definitely send masters to the four northwestern towns to not only capture this piece of jewelry but also to kill the entire family of the base businessman who had tarnished the honor of the great royal family; the latter was not subject to being made public, but who knew when would the Lich suddenly resurrect? Although the set of jewelry and soul box were all above fifty thousand gold coins in terms of value, as long as one person was not crazy, they would not think of selling them. Of course, even if the seller was mad, they had to find a buyer who was also mad and was not afraid of death! Although Palin was born in a businessman¡¯s family, he was far from rich and powerful. In his opinion, 50,000 gold coins was a dazzlingly huge sum of money, but how did the d*mn ¡°Dragon Slayer Sword¡± arms shop price that long dagger with enchantment at 70,000 gold coins? The attendant even had an attitude of ¡°not buying it is your loss, and I don¡¯t care about it,¡± which really made him angry. At the moment, hearing the child fiercely accusing the shop, he suddenly felt that he had found someone with the same thought, so he expressed his approval incessantly. ¡°That black shop only attracts people with several weapons with enchantments, such as ¡®Soul of Ice¡¯ and ¡®Elder Tree¡¯¡­ but the prices are unreasonably high and are at least several times more expensive.¡± The child was obviously an expert or at least the person who taught him these words was an expert. ¡°As for the ¡®Dragon Slayer Sword¡¯ hung on the central pillar of the shop¡­ Ha-ha, that is a joke! For people who can use that sword well, can they not kill dragons with any weapon? Or for strong people able to slaughter dragons, would they fancy the humble knife?!¡± Palin, who had heard similar comments from Sui Xiong, widened his mouth and finally understood why His Majesty dismissed the Dragon Slayer Sword but was rather interested in the long dagger. A god¡¯s vision was really not comparable to that of an ordinary mage! ¡°By the way, do you know the story behind that knife?¡± asked the child grinning. ¡°Thirty years ago, the predecessor of the predecessor of the current governor of this town was fortunate enough to make a fortune. At that time, in the Orc Empire to the east of the Great Gobi desert, there was a famous beauty of the feline race who danced and sang with an incomparable beauty. He spent a lot to buy a very beautiful gem because he wanted to win the heart of the beauty. What do you think of this idea? Palin thought for a moment and shook his head, ¡°Not very reliable.¡± ¡°Yes, it wasn¡¯t at all! As a result, when he arrived in the Orc Empire had he been overtaken by the ¡°Arctic Tyrant¡± in the Great Gobi desert. At that time, he showed incredible courage by fighting against the dragon for the gem¡­¡± ¡°Did he die?¡± Palin asked. ¡°No, killing this rash idiot was detrimental to the dragon¡¯s majesty, so the dragon returned him to his village thousands of miles away, hung him on a tree, and hung a long piece of cloth on his body that said, ¡®This is the bravest lecher I¡¯ve ever seen and also the weakest¡¯.¡± Palin laughed aloud not just at the governor who overestimated his strength but also at the humor of the dragon. ¡°After being rescued, the governor found someone to create the ¡®Dragon Slayer Sword¡¯ and claimed that as long as someone was willing to go into the mountains and slay the dragon, he would give away the sword. As a result, just as you saw, thirty years have passed and there have been two more governors, but the sword is still hung there.¡± The two talked, and laughed, and soon came to the grocery store named ¡°Good Vision.¡± This grocery store was rather large. Judging from the walls and the facade, the old shop should also have a long history. The old Soth had taught Palin that only two choices were available when buying things in an unfamiliar place: either a well-known big shop or a time-honored shop. The former surely had a wide channel of goods sources, while the latter mostly focused on credibility, and it was worthwhile to cooperate with them. As they entered the gate, there were children shouting with a smile, ¡°Snow! Snow! I found clients for you! Don¡¯t put carrots in my soup!¡± ¡°You are a child, don¡¯t be a picky eater, or you will not grow tall!¡± A middle-aged woman said while coming out from the inner house. Her facial features were regular, so she was likely a beauty when she was young. She was just too heavy and too tall, and she walked in a masculine way, making the floor groan vaguely. The shop owner called ¡°Snow¡± hurried and walked in front of Palin, grasped the child, picked up him and put him aside. She then smiled and said to Palin, ¡°Sir, our ¡®Good Vision¡¯ grocery store has been running for almost 40 years, specializing in selling various types of groceries, as well as many things left by adventurers. You will not be disappointed if you buy things here!¡± Palin retreated slightly, a bit scared. Although the lady was ordinary, she really had an extraordinary manner. In particular, their physical difference was immense, making him very insecure. But he immediately realized ¨C he was a caster! A mage! Even among the adventurers, he could be considered high-rank, why should he be afraid of an ordinary person! So he again straightened his body, wanting to show an imposing manner as a mage. However, dwarves were always short, while the shop owner ¡°Snow¡± was actually tall among the human beings. ¡°Snow¡± was twice as tall as he was, making his efforts meaningless. The shop owner ¡°Snow¡± did not care about the attitude of the little mage. She smiled and said, ¡°Sir, what would you like to buy?¡± ¡°¡­ In fact, I just want to have a casual look. There is nothing special that I want to buy.¡± ¡°I know! Then you have really come to the right place¨C one good in this shop must interest you!¡± Snow laughed aloud and pulled out a big box from behind the counter. The box was almost as tall as Palin. A variety of equipment filled the box in a messy and disorderly way. ¡°These were acquired from the adventurers without undergoing any inspection and identification. They should be mostly rubbish, but certainly, there might be some good things that have not been found. Now, you can take any one of the items for ten gold coins,¡± Snow said smiling ¡°This is the specialty of this shop, ¡®Picking Something Others Ignored.¡¯ To win or to lose only depends on your eyesight. However, everyone can only choose one.¡± Palin was dumbfounded for a moment, looking at the messy equipment in the box. He asked frowning, ¡°Can I use the spell of identification?¡± ¡°Of course not! The so-called ¡®Picking Something Others Ignored¡¯ is meant to test your eyesight.¡± Snow¡¯s answer was not unexpected. ¡°If you use magic to identify them, it makes no sense!¡± ¡°By picking out the really valuable item from a pile of ordinary things, you will enjoy happiness and satisfaction, which is a real treasure!¡± The chubby lady laughed happily, and her eyes reflected a bright light that an ordinary businessmen could not have. Chapter 40 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡®Picking Something Others Ignored¡¯? Seeing Snow¡¯s ¡°no room for negotiation¡± attitude and looking at the big box full of equipment, Palin hesitated for a while, and finally, he couldn¡¯t resist the temptation to pick something and paid ten gold coins. Then, with the boss watching him, he began to choose from the items in the box. As a mage who had worked in caravans, Palin was quite experienced in the identification of equipment. He searched extensively and quickly found a valuable thing. It was a piece of armor that had mostly been ruined with only about one-third of the back complete. After examining it carefully, he felt that this leather armor seemed to be made of some kind of leather from a fire-resistant demon beast. Although it was only a small piece, it could be made into things like a fireproof chest shield, and, in the worst situation, a pair of fireproof gloves. A pair of fireproof gloves was not even a piece of equipment with enchantment, but at least it was worth more than a hundred gold coins. He would just have to pay for the labor to make them. This discovery made him energetic. He did not hurry to finish looking, but instead picked out this broken leather armor as his ultimate selection and continued to look for other items. However, his luck seemed to have run out, and after a while, he still had not found a second valuable thing. Finally, Palin could not help but whisper in his heart, ¡°Your Majesty, in your opinion¡­ What is the most valuable thing in this box?¡± Sui Xiong had long been confident and smiled, ¡°It depends on what kind of things you want.¡± ¡°Your Majesty¡­ What do you mean?¡± ¡°There are many valuable things in this box, but the most valuable ones are not necessarily what you really need,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You should first think clearly about what you want most before you ask me.¡± Palin was dumbfounded for a moment, and subconsciously said, ¡°I want to get, of course, a piece of powerful equipment.¡± ¡°¡®A piece of powerful equipment¡¯? What makes a piece of equipment powerful?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Palin was lost in thought. As Sui Xiong said, how should one define a piece of powerful equipment? It shouldn¡¯t solely be about the price, should it? For example, for gamers, a top-level set of mouse and keyboard was certainly a piece of powerful equipment, and it would be even more powerful if the set was a set self-designed by a computer expert and had custom hotkeys on the keyboard that could fulfill many difficult techniques by only tapping the keys once. When Sui Xiong was studying at college, a junior fellow student of his, who was with a very good computer technology but a very humble technique of playing games, raged after being defeated more than twenty times in a row by him in a brutal way. The fellow student then made a set of powerful equipment in less than one month, the keyboard of which had almost twenty keys, more than common keyboards that corresponded to a set of highly practical techniques. With this handy device, the fellow student, whose level of e-sports was far lower than Sui Xiong¡¯s, defeated him forty or fifty times in a row. In addition, he also defeated all his schoolmates and became known as a peerless master among non-professional players in non-electronic sports areas. If non-professional e-sports games didn¡¯t allow the use of such a piece of foul equipment, perhaps the junior student could really enter the professional circle relying on this handy equipment of e-sport. Of course, equipment that was powerful enough in practical combats didn¡¯t exist in this box. But inferior things really could be found here¡­ Palin thought for a long time and finally came up with an idea of what he really wanted. ¡°Your Majesty, are there any magic books left in this box?¡± He asked. ¡°Of course. Check the bottom of the box. There is a half of a magic book in a worn out coat made of thick cloth. The spells therein are not at a low level, and at present, it might be a bit hard for you, but it might be quite suitable for Satan.¡± ¡°But I want to remind you that the spell recorded in this magic book is¡­ very unusual, and it may be troublesome to you.¡± Palin thought for a while and eventually made up his mind. He soon found the half of a magic book that remained according to Sui¡¯s instructions. For a spell-caster, magic books of precedent masters were a crystallization of experience and wisdom, a symbol of heritage, and an irresistible temptation. Even if there would be trouble, he could not resist the temptation of this treasure. Its pages, made of the skin of demon beasts, were old, but the words were written in special ink and were still very clear. Many of these words were of an ancient elven language used by mages. It was complicated and long-winded but could clearly and accurately express the meaning, and ambiguous expressions were a rare occurrence. It was regarded as one of the languages that mages must learn. To become a mage, one needed to understand a variety of languages. In addition to the common language of the continent, mages must know the ancient elven language that could accurately record things, the Dragon language that contained magic, the dwarven runes that could be directly used and released as a spell, and special languages that were needed when communicating with creatures in heaven and hell, as well as the mysterious language that mages often used internally. If these commonly used languages that mages must understand were listed out, they would number at least ten languages. Even though Palin was just a little mage that had just entered the profession, the compulsory ancient elven language wasn¡¯t difficult for him, and he could understand the contents of this magic book by just glancing at it. Satan, who was born in a southern magic country and educated in the famous magic tower, understood a total of thirty-one different languages and was a versatile walking translator. Palin only glanced at the book, and his eyes were fixed on it as if they were welded to it. He was unable to move them away. ¡°This is¡­ unexpectedly¡­ the Dragon Slaying Spell?!¡± Dragon Slaying Spell?! Hearing this, Snow was dumbfounded for a moment, frowned and looked at the child who solicited customers. The child was also shocked. She carefully thought about something, but still looked confused. Of course, Palin, who was completely attracted by the contents of the magic book, could not see these things. He looked intently at the magic book and could not help but say to himself, ¡°Does the Dragon Slaying Spell really exist?¡± ¡°It depends on how you define it.¡± The child in charge of soliciting customers had resumed his calmness, smiled and said, ¡°If your request is ¡®a sleeping defenseless dragon lying in front of you, waiting for you to cast a spell on it for half a day and then cast a spell to kill it¡¯, then such a spell exists.¡± Saying this, he walked naturally behind Palin, and read the records in the magic book. Palin was entertained by him. He rubbed the pages of the scrawled magic book with his finger, looked at the complex spell model, and roughly understood its principles after a while. ¡°From the principle of this spell, it seems that the requirements are not so strict. As long as you can hit, you can do great harm to the dragon,¡± he said. ¡°But the so-called ¡®great harm¡¯ is actually very limited for the dragon.¡± The child slightly frowned, but smiled and said, ¡°The vitality of the dragon is not like that of an ordinary creature.¡± Then, a grey shadow appeared behind him with a whistling wind that struck Palin¡¯s head. This shadow was astonishingly fast, and if it hit its target all at once, Palin¡¯s head would definitely be smashed, and he would die. But before it hit the target, Palin¡¯s bracelet trembled slightly, and a ghost of a transparent jellyfish appeared in the air, waving its tentacles. A sharp blade made of coldness emerged and stopped the shadow before a cold light circled Palin¡¯s head. Boom! With a violent crash accompanied by a dull noise, the sharp blade collapsed, and the shadow was repelled. The child, surprised and suspicious, hurried back. Just as he walked one or two steps, his hands turned into terrible claws, and a stout long tail dragged behind him. It was the long tail that attacked Palin. The smiling face of the previous natural socializer had completely disappeared. This strange looking child showed not only fierce intention to kill Palin, but also alarming coercion. That was the strong person¡¯s intimidation of the weak. No. The intimidation naturally shown by predators at the top of the food chain in face of their prey. If Palin had been alone, he would also have felt scared in face of the intimidation even if he had been lucky enough to escape the child¡¯s attack, and he could only have escaped or begged for mercy. But now, not only Palin was nervous, but also his enemy. ¡°Where are you from!¡± The child, having already changed into a horrifying creature, shouted at him with surprise and anger. Sui Xiong did not answer his question. Instead, he talked about another thing. ¡°The magic book says that ¡®Dragon Slaying¡¯ magic is, frankly speaking, not powerful, and if the dragon is hit by it on the body, it is estimated that the dragon will only be slightly bruised. But if the dragon is silly enough to transform into a human form, it is not surprising that a spell cast could kill one¡¯s whole family.¡± ¡°And, how dare you make a surprise attack on my follower? Are you ready for my punishment?¡± He had hardly finished before the transparent body of the jellyfish suddenly burst into innumerable light points, and became several times larger than before by being integrated with the magic of ice that permeated the air. A large tentacle condensed into ice shot toward the child that had changed into a weird appearance and beat him fiercely. A light of coldness flashed in the eyes of the child, and he pressed his two claws against these tentacles without hesitation. He had always been very confident of his own power, even demon beasts that were known for their power should not think of having an upper hand against him. With a loud boom, the tentacles and claws fiercely hit against each other, and the giant jellyfish floating in the air trembled, while the child was knocked backward. He retreated four or five steps; his feet scratched two obvious tracks into the solid floor. ¡°How is it possible!¡± His eyes widened in surprise, and he could not believe he did not have the upper had in terms of strength. ¡°You will know whether it is possible or not when you are knocked on the ground!¡± This time, Sui Xiong waved a total of four tentacles. He had already estimated the strength of the weird child during the brief confrontation. At best, the child was able to resist the attack of two of his tentacles. Now his attack had been doubled, so he would definitely be knocked out with one hit! However, the four tentacles failed to hit the target and were blocked by circles of white cold light. Snow, who was smiling before, suddenly turned angry when she saw the child was attacked secretly, so she made a strong shield beside Palin by casting magic. She stared fiercely at this self-assertive naughty boy. She clenched her teeth and began to roll up her sleeves like an irritated parent about to take a feather duster to beat a naughty child who had caused a trouble. However, before she started to fight against Sui Xiong, he had begun to fight against the child, and the battle was completely one-sided. This made her very confused, not knowing what to say or do for the time being. But when she confirmed Sui Xiong¡¯s identity, she suddenly appeared to be raging. At the moment the child was about to be seriously injured by Sui Xiong, she hurried to rescue him. First, she stared fiercely at that child, and then she fought with all her energy to confront Sui Xiong. She chanted spells lightly which led to a force of coldness to rise from her body. ¡°A young god? You wanna play Frost in front of me? You found the wrong target!¡± Chapter 41 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma As soon as Boss Snow initiated the attack, Sui Xiong instantly felt an imposing manner that was totally different from the kid¡¯s. She exerted a pressure on people that was totally different from Sui Xiong¡¯s, separate from how one felt when facing the magnificent God. It was swift, fierce and terrifying, making one feel as if he¡¯d met his natural enemy at the top of the food chain who could impose a powerful manner. Her eyes also changed. Her eyes which had looked normal before began to turn golden-red, and bluish-white patterns started to crawl on her white and fatty face. Small scales appeared on her face, and at the same time, horns were growing from her sideburns and behind her ears, which was really terrifying. ¡°Shuang, close the door! Xian, activate the magic array!¡± she said coldly. ¡°Phil! Attack him!¡± Soon, a peculiar child called Shuang jumped out and bypassed Sui Xiong, who was at a stalemate with Boss Snow. He arrived at the doorway with only one step and waved his hand gently, and bang! The heavy door closed. Then a blue-white light appeared beneath their feet and soon spread to the grocery store. Obviously there was a powerful wizard who was secretly practicing a spell. Meanwhile, Sui Xiong could hear heavy steps, and the sound of a metal boot came from the inner room. Sui Xiong could not give them the chance to finish activating the magic array, or he would be trapped. He shouted and reached out ten of his tentacles and stabbed Boss Snow and Shuang. He also used one of his tentacles to block off the inner room, so the man inside could not get out. He had already known who these people in the grocery store were and had exerted all his power; even a God would not pull his punches when facing several dragons. If he did, it was because he thought the upper layers of skin on his face were too thick and he wanted his opponent to help him remove a couple. This was just like in the world of online gaming. A world-class pro might be able to compete with an amateur with one hand behind his back, but what if he was competing with an advanced amateur whose level was already close to a pro? He might as well be asking for a fight! Let¡¯s put this situation in the scenario of a soccer game. Even if they had conceded ten goals to the Chinese team, the Brazilian team could still win a game, but the same thing could happen against the Russian team! The tentacles made from cold energy targeted them. Two tentacles were holding the enemy in pincers, eight tentacles were attacking Boss Snow, one tentacle was blocking the gate of the inner room, and the rest of the four tentacles were protecting Palin. At the same time, Sui Xiong was making more tentacles by consuming cold energy, so he could enhance his attack damage. As soon as the door was closed, half of Shuang¡¯s body was still human and half had become a dragon¡¯s body. Shuang grew very tall and had a dragon head, two dragon claws, a dragon tail, and a human body which had turned maroon. Shuang was waving his claws extremely quickly, as if he was brandishing sharp swords, accompanied by a piercing sound as if the sky was cracking. Claws and tentacles collided, bang, bang, bang! It sounded as if a group of men with super strength were swinging their axes to make a hole in a hard patch of ice. But Shuang was not as powerful as Sui Xiong and repeatedly backed away. Were it not for his tail, he would already have been defeated. The battle between Sui Xiong and Boss Snow was rather different. Boss Snow had turned into a ball of bluish-white cold light, and her figure was hardly recognizable. Sui Xiong¡¯s eight ice-tentacles shrouded this cold light, but his tentacles became covered with frost. The two layers of ice were eroding each other silently, which made Palin nervous and terrified as he watched from the sidelines. As a wizard himself, Palin wasn¡¯t very powerful, but he was eagle-eyed. He could tell that the Void Faceless got the better of Shuang and could not possibly lose, while Sui Xiong was in a stalemate with Boss Snow. Their magic powers were nullifying each other and both of them were trying to gain control of the cold air. This sort of combat was the fiercest, since the intention to kill was unspoken but clear. This was similar to a fight between two advanced wizards who were using the same spell in a fight. The key was in who had better control of the spell and the accumulation of their mental powers. If one of them stuck his neck out, the other would avail himself of the opportunity and badly injure his counterpart! As for the man in the inner room, from the very beginning Sui Xiong did not intend to attack him. The tentacle immediately collapsed as soon as it reached the doorway of the inner room, becoming a big, firm ice door. It blocked the gate and prevented the man inside from getting out. Sui Xiong had already had his tactics ready from the beginning of the fight. His plan was to cut off the connection between the man in the inner room and the people outside so he could focus on fighting with them. Even a lion needs to be careful when facing a rabbit, so one should never give his enemy an opportunity that he can exploit to his advantage! Sui Xiong¡¯s tactics were correct in general. If everything went well he could defeat Shuang, then Boss Snow and finally their support in the inner room. However, things rarely went as planned. Bang! Not far away, the floor suddenly broke and a maroon figure jumped out, another guy with a body that was half human and half dragon. He was a bit shorter than Shuang but had equal strength. However, he didn¡¯t try to rescue Shuang or attack Palin; instead, he dashed towards the inner room. Sui Xiong was surprised and reached out two tentacles to stop him. The guy had no intention to confront him with toughness; instead he slid against the floor right beneath the two tentacles. Then he arrived at the doorway of the inner room that was blocked by the ice wall. He yelled, brandished his claws, and hit the ice wall harshly. At the same time, the man in the inner room began to hit the ice wall too. Bang! The ice wall collapsed and a tall, strong adventurer in heavy armor with a huge glaive on his back appeared. He strode out the room and did not initiate an attack, but instead said, ¡°Do you intend to destroy the Dragon-roar town?¡± Both Sui Xiong and Boss Snow, in the midst of their fight, were in a daze and they slowed down their fighting speed. ¡°Snow, I have told you that your way of doing things is no different from playing with fire and that you would make a rod for your own back one day,¡± the big guy said in a low, muffled voice while standing in a pile of broken ice. ¡°See? The day has come!¡± In fact, Palin happened to know this guy because he was a famous person in the four towns in the northwest. ¡°Are you Phil the Armored Demon? The famous ranger?¡± Palin could not help asking. ¡°How did you get involved with the dragon? Or are you yourself a dragon?¡± His assumption made sense in many ways. Judging from the current situation, the Good Eyesight grocery store was actually a store run by a group of dragons that had transformed into human bodies. A man who walked out from the inner room of this store was most likely a dragon too. ¡°He is neither dragon nor human,¡± Sui Xiong said. Having slowed his fighting speed, he could now spare some effort to see who this new guy really was, and he immediately saw a peculiar scene. ¡°To be honest, I am also very curious to find out who he really is. There is nothing inside the armor, and I don¡¯t feel his soul either. Actually, the most impressive thing about him is the sword on his back.¡± ¡°Baster is indeed a good sword,¡± the adventurer called Phil said in a mechanical voice. ¡°I mean, do you really want to destroy Dragon-roar town?¡± ¡°Yes, I agree with him! Stop fighting! Just stop fighting!¡± Palin said, trying to help the big guy mediate. ¡°If you continue to fight, I think Dragon-roar town will be totally destroyed before we can determine a winner!¡± The cold air was permeating the room, as both Sui Xiong and Boss Snow were very good at using cold magic energy. The cold air had made the temperature in the room drop significantly. Everything that was unprotected was now covered in thick frost. Looking around, one could see that almost everything was shrouded in ice. Palin also realized that there was some cold air spreading outside since the magic array that covered the grocery store had been broken during the fight. He could imagine that the air around the grocery store must have become very cold. If a villager or an adventurer passing by the store took a single breath of the cold air, he would have felt so cold that his body shivered. In fact, while they were talking, they could clearly hear someone sneeze outside. And this was under the assumption that the cold air had been restricted inside the house by the magic array. What if the magic array collapsed during the fight and a huge amount of cold air spread outside? Thinking this, Palin could not help shivering even though he was under the protection of Sui Xiong¡¯s magic power. Moreover, since both sides had their backups, the fight was probably going to escalate. Palin had heard the story of how Gerrard was rescued by the Void Faceless from Gerrard himself. The Void Faceless turned into a huge ash-beast floating in the sky, each of its tentacles as thick and strong as a mountain. His enemy was a scary monster that had turned the whole forest into his body. Almost every tree was his doppelg?nger and tentacle. The fight was so fierce that even the wind and the clouds had changed their color. The mountains were razed to the ground, the forest was burned to ashes and the ground was covered with deep ravines. Besides, when the Void Faceless and the monster fought, the aftermath lit up the shadow plane where there was only eternal night; even the shadow plane was as bright as day. If the Void Faceless had a really big fight with the three dragons as well as Phil the Armored Demon, who was famous in the four towns in the northwest, the scene might be even worse than the one in the shadow plane. It could be as impressive as a blockbuster and many innocent people would die and the cold air might leak everywhere. When the fight was over, maybe only ten percent of the population in Dragon-roar town would survive. This could only happen when both sides had tried very hard not to exert their full power and the survivors would be very lucky. Of course, the kind wizard did not want to see this happen, so he tried his best to persuade them not to fight. He said everything he possibly could and exhausted all of the negotiation tactics he had learned from his old uncle Soth. Thanks to his efforts and the persuasion of Phil, the three who were still fighting finally agreed to stop and sit down to the negotiating table. The three decided to solve this by talking instead of fighting. Soon, the cold air covering the grocery store was absorbed and the three who had been fighting were now sitting at a table. Apart from the ice left on the floor, it was hard to see any trace of the horrible fight that could have wiped out the whole village. The three stopped their battling behavior and returned to normal. Of course, the three dragons were no longer in the disguise of an ordinary person. They appeared how they were supposed to look when a dragon changed into human form. Since they had gotten over the idea of fighting, they thought it was basic manners to show their real appearance when facing a God. Chapter 42 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The three dragons¡¯ actual appearance was of two beautiful women and one handsome young man, apart from the guy without a face. Boss Snow looked about twenty five or twenty six years old. She was very tall and slim and had long, exotic silver hair and a pair of long legs. According to the theory of aesthetics, she had a nine-headed body (which meant that her body was as tall as nine heads piled together) which was really rare among women and was the perfect body for a model. She also had a tiny waist, big breasts and wide hips. When sitting down, she was already very attractive, and if she was walking around Dragon-roar Town like this, all the playboys would bump into walls, for they were too busy watching her to watch where they were going. Countless men¡¯s ears would be pinched by their wives and become red and swollen. Shuang, who was responsible for hosting the guests, was Snow¡¯s brother. He was a young man of seventeen to eighteen years old. He had golden short hair that was as bright as the shining sun, and when he smiled, even the sun would dim. He was indeed the perfect role model as a good friend of women and an enemy of men. But under this handsome appearance, there was a cold and ruthless heart. He was proof that judging someone by their appearance was a big mistake. Xian, who had activated the magic array, was the youngest among the three. She looked about twelve or thirteen years old, which was the same age as Palin. She had soft and curly golden hair, and looked as beautiful as a doll. Anyone could feel her purity and curiosity whenever he saw her face. For people without poor morals or abnormal interests, she might even be more attractive than her sister. As for Phil, a retainer and helper of the grocery store, since there was no body inside the armor, he didn¡¯t need to take it off. These four were the bosses as well as the employees of the Good Eyesight grocery store in Dragon-roar Town. They were also the Arctic Tyrant that was famous in the four towns in the northwest¡ªyes, the so-called Arctic Tyrant did not refer to one dragon, but a group of four that consisted of three dragons and a strange man in armor. Among the four, Snow was an ice dragon who had just become an adult. As part of a rare and advanced race of huge dragons, she was much more powerful than her peers, and she could still make a difference even in a prosperous and bustling place. If it were not for looking after her siblings, she would have already gone to a bigger world far away with a brighter future. Shuang and Xian were rock dragons, a more common race of huge dragons. They¡¯d had a tough early life since they had been abandoned by their irresponsible parents, who completely disappeared after leaving two eggs in a grotto on a precipice. It was Snow who happened to pass by and found the two eggs. She brought them home, hatched them, and brought them up. For a dragon, it made sense to have a much closer relationship with the dragon who raised it than the one who birthed it. So, for Shuang and Xian, Snow was their mother. But Snow was still not an adult yet, so she became their sister. At first, the three lived in a barren mountain far from the human world. Then one day Snow stumbled upon the remains of an ancient temple, so she transformed it into a safe dragon nest for them to live in. Ice dragons were not good at fighting, but they were natural masters of cold spells, while rock dragons were the opposite. Their natural disposition for spells was average, but they were strong warriors. The three dragons together had different but complementary skills. They also had the dragon nest at the temple, which was surrounded by a strong protection array. When they met Phil, a powerful adventurer, a perfect group was formed. For the past fifty years, they¡¯d called themselves the Arctic Tyrant. They made their living by charging the people a protection fee, seeing as they thought they owned the mountain and had protected the people. In their spare time, they lived in disguise as humans and opened a grocery store inside their domain. The grocery store wasn¡¯t built to collect information, but rather out of pure interest. Snow enjoyed finding something valuable from a pile of garbage and wanted others to follow her. As for Shuang and Xian, their sister was always right, and Phil never made any complaints. Snow was sharing her story in a rather special way. She concentrated her magic energy onto a floating plate, then used the silver frost to draw on the plate like using chalk on a blackboard, all the while telling her tale at the same time. This method of telling one¡¯s life experience was indeed very vivid, expressive and persuasive, and Sui Xiong nodded his head while watching. But when he saw the picture in which three dragons and a man made of armor became four people who handle their business, he couldn¡¯t help protesting. ¡°You said you do your business sincerely?¡± he interrupted Snow. ¡°Is there any businessman who would sneak attack his own customer?¡± ¡°A God and his follower paid a visit to three young dragons. Could it be possible that they came with good intentions?¡± claimed Snow, who used the plate to draw a huge, ruthless jellyfish holding knives and an insidious wizard attacking a few weak dragons. ¡°I think all you want is to collect some ¡®material¡¯¡­and if the owner of the material is dead or alive, what do you care?¡± ¡°If your brother hadn¡¯t decided to attack my follower, I wouldn¡¯t have appeared or tried to fight with you!¡± Sui Xiong was furious. ¡°I¡¯m not crazy! I may not get hurt if I fight three huge dragons and armor monster (who I still have no idea how on earth exists), but my follower may be injured! I don¡¯t have many followers. I would be mad to risk Palin¡¯s life for some measly materials!¡± Hearing this, Palin¡¯s eyes were watering, and the group of four stared at each other and nodded. ¡°¡­Well, it seems like this was just a mistake,¡± Phil said in a low, muffled voice. ¡°Mistake? Of course it was a mistake,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and looked at Shuang. The origin of this mistake was the overreaction of Shuang. ¡°You mean it is us who provoked you?¡± Shuang couldn¡¯t help but say upon realizing he had become the culprit. ¡°Would it not be normal for a dragon to be on guard when facing a dragon-killing magic spell?¡± ¡°We all know that the dragon-killing magic spell would not pose a serious threat to a huge dragon,¡± Sui Xiong sneered. ¡°I think that you believed your pride as an advanced creature had been insulted, so you wanted to get the magic book back.¡± ¡°You mean I shouldn¡¯t respond as I did?¡± Sui Xiong humphed, ¡°A dragon is an advanced creature; what about a God then? If the dignity of a dragon can be provoked, how about the dignity of a God? I hate to be garrulous, but if you aren¡¯t convinced, then let¡¯s have another fight!¡± Sui Xiong pointed at the group of four one by one with his tentacles and said, ¡°This time, let¡¯s have a good fight at a place outside where no one is around. I will teach you a lesson, since you have such an exaggerated opinion of your abilities and no idea of the immensity of heaven and earth. I am going to tell you that a young man should not behave like a hoodlum, and not every dragon can be as qualified as Dragon Proud Sky!¡± Seeing that both sides were getting quite intense and preparing for another fight, and feeling cold air gradually permeate throughout the store as tensions escalated, Palin became so terrified that he broke out in a cold sweat. So he hurriedly said, ¡°It¡¯s just a magic book with half of the page gone. Is there any need to fight over that? Actually I¡¯m not even that interested in the dragon-killing magic spell¡­¡± ¡°This has nothing to do with you!¡± Shuang waved his hand and interrupted him. ¡°It was a mistake to put the magic book in the box, and this mistake needs to be corrected!¡± ¡°Teaching an ignorant youth who considers himself at the top of the totem pole is my vocation,¡± Sui Xiong sneered. ¡°As your predecessor, I think it¡¯s perfectly fine to teach a youth some lessons, even if my methods aren¡¯t so mild.¡± ¡°How could you possibly consider yourself, a jellyfish, my predecessor? Do you think yourself a frog?¡± The atmosphere was getting intense again, so Xian, who had been silent the whole time, said, ¡°Brother, if I am not mistaken, it was you who put the stuff in that box, right?¡± Shuang was in a daze, and then nodded, ¡°Yes, I have been responsible for the box in recent years.¡± ¡°Then¡­brother, can I ask you, as a member of the dragon race who considers himself extremely brilliant and capable, to tell me, your ignorant and young sister, why on earth you are trying to sell the dragon-killing spell?¡± Xian said in a rather gentle and low voice. Hearing this, Shuang was extremely embarrassed and looked around without knowing what to say. Shuang was trying to change from this topic of conversation, but it had been brought up again by his sister, and now he was speechless. ¡°Yes! Shuang, you should have destroyed it. Why on earth were you trying to sell it?¡± Snow turned to Shuang and smiled at him, and on the ¡°blackboard¡± beside her, there was a small dragon working absentmindedly and carelessly tossing everything about. Seeing this, Shuang became more embarrassed, and his smiling face froze. ¡°I¡¯ve seen him sorting out the stuff in the box. He basically just takes a pile of objects that haven¡¯t been checked or sorted and throws them into the box, and that is it,¡± Phil said. ¡°If we examine the box more closely, ,maybe we¡¯ll find a treasured sword meant to harm a dragon or something¡­¡± ¡°Quite right. After all, most of the stuff in the box belongs to ¡®dragon-killers¡¯ who were too confident.¡± Snow was smiling more gently, while Shuang¡¯s forehead was full of cold sweat. ¡°I¡­I¡¯ll go and check the stuff in the box right away!¡± he said hurriedly. ¡°The box, and the basement,¡± Xian said. ¡°There¡¯s a pile of objects down there that are covered in dust in a disorderly pile. It¡¯s caused great damage to your sister¡¯s physical and mental development; as a responsible elder brother, don¡¯t you think you should clean it up and create a clean living environment for your sister?¡± ¡°You should move out of the basement, then¡­¡± Snow waved her hand, and a ray of cold light hit his forehead in the shape of a piece of chalk. ¡°Don¡¯t talk back! Go clean it up!¡± Shuang sighed, dragged the big box behind him, and walked into the inner room. This careless young dragon would have to spend quite some time with a pile of garbage that he really hated. After this overly proud young man had been asked to clean the garbage, communication among the group went more smoothly. In fact, none of them was too proud to approach the other, and now that the misunderstanding had been solved, they were communicating freely. Soon, their topic turned to how to cooperate and reach a win-win solution. Chapter 43 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°Void Faceless, you want to build a pioneer village and make it a base for your followers, am I right?¡± Snow asked when she knew Sui Xiong¡¯s situation. ¡°Correct. Although I have yet to build my own belief system, it will happen one day,¡± Sui Xiong said quite frankly. ¡°Then, I have a suggestion,¡± Snow said. She snapped her fingers and frost began to move quickly on the ¡°blackboard¡±. Soon a big map appeared. She pointed at the map and said, ¡°As you can see, the four towns in the northwest were distributed along the wasteland that extends from the south to the north. In the far north, another one or two villages could be set up. No one has ever explored there because it¡¯s too cold in the winter. But I think for Your Majesty and your followers, it may not be a problem. I believe a God who is good at practicing cold magic should easily manage to keep his followers safe from the cold.¡± Then, the map faded, and on the blackboard, another picture appeared. It was of a man, in an icy world, bare to his waist and showing off his muscles. One could see the sweat evaporating from his forehead. Seeing the jellyfish floating in the sky nod, Snow said, ¡°Since you can manage to keep your followers from the cold, then land cultivation and crop-planting shouldn¡¯t be a problem either. In this environment, the cold weather will not be a barrier to keep your followers from living and multiplying. Instead it will function as a type of natural protection for them. This protection may not work on warcrafts, but it would keep out of any people with bad intentions.¡± On the blackboard, another picture appeared, this one of a group of men in armor trying to attack the bare-chested man. But they froze on their way to him. Sui Xiong thought this for a while and nodded. Snow was right. As a god who was very good at practicing cold magic, he had some special tactics to resist the cold. Normally, one would resist the cold by making himself warm, but for Sui Xiong, he could absorb cold air. When it was absorbed, all that was left was warm air. So if he put a doppelg?nger in each of his pioneer village or created a magic array that could concentrate the cold air, he would be able to create a warm haven in this icy world, a warm southern town that actually existed in the cold north. Besides, according to what he¡¯d learned from the God of Redemption, a brilliant god should make his followers constantly aware of his existence and power, which increases their faithfulness. A warm town in the cold north would definitely remind his pioneers of his power and would help to enhance their belief. ¡°This is a really good suggestion, but executing it will cost too much,¡± Palin said after calculating the cost secretly, since his time in the commercial corps made him very sensitive to money. ¡°A pioneer can only be recruited from the Federation of Gold Coins, and sending them to a place at a higher latitude than Dragon-roar Town would be very costly. Moreover, building a village in an icy world would consume too much manpower and material resources, even if we had help from His Majesty¡¯s great power!¡± Palin shook his head and sighed, ¡°Madam Snow, your plan is indeed very appealing, but I think we can only turn it into a reality when our church has grown to a certain level with a solid foundation.¡± Palin¡¯s words made lots of sense, and Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but nod. Each of my four followers has their own advantages: Gerrard has a very strong combat effectiveness and he¡¯s good at teaching students, so he will easily earn his reputation among the pioneers; Palin is hardworking and likes thinking, and he also has some knowledge of business and can give valuable suggestions at key moments; Satan is very experienced and can practice very advanced spells, as well as having made many acquaintances with people in the upper-middle class; and Rhode is very cautious and careful, the perfect one to double-check things and effectively prevent the team from making mistakes. Just like the famous saying on Earth, talent really is the most valuable resource! If I want to build a church and cultivate my followers and became a real God, I need to recruit more talent. ¡°You are right, but you are a bit short-sighted,¡± Snow shook her head, smiled and said. ¡°After all, you are still young¡­you are just like my brother Shuang. He thinks he¡¯s capable of everything, and I believe you¡¯ve seen how capable he really is.¡± Meanwhile, on the blackboard, there was a picture of a proud little dragon facing the sky with fire coming out of its mouth, while next to the little dragon, there were a big and little dragon both sighing together. Instantly, this picture faded. Snow said, ¡°Naturally, a god doesn¡¯t need to hurriedly cultivate his followers. A century is not long, nor is a thousand years, since the god is immortal. When a myriad of years has passed, when even I have become a pile of bones with only a bit cold air left, the Void Faceless will be the same, and His Majesty will be even more mature and experienced.¡± ¡°However, for a new-born god, the first steps in developing a church have to be steady and firm. This is just like building a house; you need to lay a very firm foundation!¡± At the same time, a new picture appeared on the blackboard, in which a magnificent castle was being built on the ground. Under the castle, many big rocks had been driven into the soil, and the castle was standing firm in the pouring rain. ¡°Why?¡± Sui Xiong was not yet persuaded, so instead he asked for the dragon¡¯s reasoning. He hadn¡¯t read anything about this in the materials given to him by the God of Redemption. Seeing Sui Xiong was still confused, Snow said, ¡°As you put it, you want to set up one or two pioneer villages a bit farther south where anyone can explore. With this method, you can indeed set up an area where your followers are gathered, but it will take time for your followers¡¯ faith to grow. So how can you make sure that you get a great number of followers quickly and steadily? How could His Majesty better show his power to the people of this world?¡± Snow raised up a slim white finger and used her magic to draw a scene with the frost, in which there was a group of people faithfully worshiping a huge jellyfish floating in the air, and the rest were hidden in a mysterious mist full of many eyes, both friendly and cunning. She was really good at drawing, and her drawing style was more like Chibi style than a realistic style. Even if she just drew some eyes, one could still clearly see the attitude and emotion behind the eyes. ¡°For a god to announce himself to the world, his first step has to be beautiful and impressive! As you already know, there are many gods in this world. To be able to develop smoothly, a new-born god has to bring his allies to his side in order to fight against his enemies. The more you demonstrate your advantages, the more allies you¡¯ll find, and then neutral gods won¡¯t make enemies out of you so you¡¯ll have less potential conflicts.¡± ¡°The world of a god is a cruel one. Not every god is as nice as His Majesty¡ªbesides, most of the gods in this world are not mild: if you don¡¯t show them your power and strength, you¡¯ll be attacked by the ones whose priesthood is not in conflict with Your Majesty¡¯s, simply because they want to gain more allies of their own or just to take your magic power.¡± As Snow was explaining, the eyes in the mist were increasing, and most of them now seemed full of malicious intent. ¡°Let them come then! I hate to provoke others, but I am not afraid of fighting.¡± Sui Xiong stared at the picture, and he was a bit surprised. He wasn¡¯t afraid at all; rather he was full of ambition. Fight? Fine! I am not afraid of anyone! Snow sighed and said, ¡°But this means you will have to fight a group of gods when you are officially apotheosized. Even if you alone manage to defeat a group of gods, most of your followers may be consumed. Is this what you really want?¡± The picture suddenly changed. Now there was a huge jellyfish spreading all his tentacles and holding many weapons. It was battling against countless eyes in the mist, while on the ground, there was a big fire burning, people were fleeing, and most of them had already been burned to death. A terrifying scene indeed. Seeing that this picture was not an exaggeration, Sui Xiong was speechless. When he¡¯d fought an old treant which was a half-god, the damage they had caused was as serious as a natural disaster. If he had to fight in a place like his own pioneer village, his followers and even Gerrard might die. ¡°By comparison, you can make those speculators give up the idea of attacking by cultivating a huge group of followers and establishing a holy place that would seem like a miracle in the human world. They you¡¯d just need to fight a few gods whose priesthood conflicts with yours. This way, you¡¯ll have a better opportunity to win and avoid the deaths of your followers.¡± She was not talking very loudly but it was very convincing. In the picture, more and more eyes were becoming friendly. ¡°In fact, if you can show the gods that you have such brilliant vision and capabilities, the ones that are against you may not want to challenge you directly, and you¡¯ll be able to be apotheosized quite smoothly!¡± Sui Xiong was nodding and staring at the picture, in which the cunning eyes gradually decreased until there were only a few hiding in the distance. He was silent for a long time and let out a long sigh. ¡°You are right!¡± Strangely, Sui Xiong recalled what Liu Bei said after he had a conversation with Zhuge Liang in Long Zhong (in the modern city of Xiang Yang): ¡°Having found Zhuge Liang, I am as happy as a fish that has found water!¡± Snow¡¯s explanation and the vivid chalk pictures on the plate made Sui Xiong suddenly see things clearly. Before, Sui Xiong had always felt that he didn¡¯t know much about this world and he needed an adviser. After hearing Snow¡¯s logical and very persuasive analysis, the idea of having an adviser rose again, and he had never been so eager before. ¡°I need an adviser!¡± he said to himself, ¡°and the perfect adviser is right in front of me! An adviser who knows this world fully and has abundant experience and knowledge. Besides she is also a painter¡ªthis is very important! It¡¯s the first time I¡¯ve met a person here who likes drawing!¡± Thinking this, he stopped hesitating and said very earnestly, ¡°Madam Snow, you are absolutely right! I want you to help me and be my adviser and give me advice and suggestions. Will you?¡± Snow laughed and said, ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for you to say that for such a long time. If I didn¡¯t want to be your adviser, why would I have said all this to you?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised and could not help laughing. Chapter 44 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Liu Bei, the famous figure from Chinese history, had been a wanderer before his fifties, drifting from place to place. This was not because he was unable to fight or too wholesome to plot and scheme. Instead, it was because he lacked the requisite talent to help him govern the country, the kind of talent with a great vision who could show him how to proceed in the long term. Zhuge Liang was exactly the talent that had all of these qualities. So Liu Bei¡¯s career finally moved in the right direction after he met Zhuge Liang, and he seized the chance when Cao Cao (a Chinese warlord of the Eastern Han dynasty) had a set back while moving southward. Liu Bei managed to enter and host the Shu area (today¡¯s Sichuan Province), finally becoming an emperor far superior to the countless aristocracy that owned one third of China, who came from the lowly ¡°offspring of King Cuo of Zhongshan¡±. Sui Xiong could not compare himself with Liu Bei. Still, he thought that when it came to combat effectiveness, he was quite strong, and he was not stupid. However, since he had been transported to this world, he had been muddling along aimlessly with no idea what the future would be like and what he should do. That was at least until today, when he had met Snow, a dragon adviser with great vision. After hearing her vivid and detailed explanation, he finally felt that the mist that had been masking his vision disappeared, and his life path became much clearer. So he admired and respected Snow, especially since she also liked drawing, which made him feel as if he¡¯d met a good friend. If described with language used in online gaming, Snow had earned a reputation of ¡°respect¡±, and her favorability had soared to over seventy. Still, Sui Xiong was a bit curious: he was neither a born king who everyone would kneel down and worship once he¡¯d showed his magnificent imposing manner, nor was he very rich with a high rank that demanded others¡¯ loyalty. Perhaps it was due to his great potential¡­yes, he might have some potential, but this was no fantasy tale. In the real world, no one would be willing to be a poor man¡¯s subordinate unless he felt the poor man had great potential! Then why would Snow approve of Sui Xiong, and why was she willing to become his adviser? ¡°The answer is quite simple,¡± the ice dragon said smiling, having now changed back to the friendly fat auntie from the grocery store. ¡°As a member of the dragon race who is good at practicing cold magic, apart from the Dragon God in her own race, isn¡¯t a God of Ice the most suitable partner for me?¡± ¡°I may have some skills, but compared to His Majesty in my own race, my skills are almost close to nothing. The differences between my rank and his made it impossible for me to have an equal conversation with him, not to mention cooperate with him.¡± Snow was surrounded by cold air, which became a transparent icy blackboard on which white frost was drawing a little dragon that was keeping its head high wanting to make a difference. Then the little dragon began sweating heavily and knelt down in front of a few dragons that were surrounded by a halo and began to worship them, lying on its stomach like a dog. ¡°There are three gods whose magic energy is in the field of cold and snow: one is a lunatic, another is a lunatic, and the last one is still a lunatic. In other words, a strong lunatic, a weaker lunatic and a much weaker lunatic. Since I am not a lunatic, I could not communicate with them, let alone cooperate with them.¡± On the blackboard, there was a new picture, in which there were one big and two small human figures, and the lower part of their bodies were made of snow. They were fighting against each other brutally. The little dragon was watching them from a distance, and large beads of sweat gathered on his forehead. He rested his hand on his forehead and sighed, looking on helplessly. Sui Xiong knew who she was talking about, the Goddess of the North Snowland and the Storm, called the ¡°North Empress¡±; the God of the Snow Mountain, the Snowslide and the Snowbeast, called the ¡°Master of the Snow Mountain¡±; and the God of the Glacier and the Ice Golem, called the ¡°Governor of the Ice¡±. The three gods and the Goddess of the Winter and the North Wind, called the ¡°Piercing Cold Maid¡±, and the God of the Beast in the Snowland, called the ¡°Ice Tyrant¡±, consisted of a department of gods which made up the ¡°Union of Extreme Cold¡±. They were a bunch of evil, mentally-irregular wild cards, and there was no logic in anything they did. Whenever all these lunatics got together, they became far scarier, and everyone who lived in the Northland or had to go to the North Snowland were terrified whenever they heard the name ¡°Union of Extreme Cold¡±. Moreover, the gods were led by the patron saint of headhunters, called ¡°Bear Senior¡±, who brought trouble wherever he went. In fact, the deadliness of the gods in the Northland was quite serious. Every eight hundred to a thousand years, many gods were killed by the lunatics of the Union of Extreme Cold. Were it not for the assistance of the priesthood of Kindness and Order, the whole Northland would have been governed by these maniacs. Even so, other gods in the Northland needed to be very cautious all the time and guard themselves. As soon as the group of lunatics would appear, other gods would run away immediately, so they would not be killed. Before, when Sui Xiong was reading the materials from the God of Redemption, he had read a paragraph about this. At that time, he realized that he would become a target for the Union of Extreme Cold when he was apotheosized and would set up the priesthood of Ice. To avoid being attacked and defeated, he needed to have more allies to give these lunatics a good fight. ¡°His Majesty in my own race did not want to cooperate with me, as with the gods of snow and cold. So now that I¡¯ve met a good god with cold magic powers who doesn¡¯t belong to any chaotic faction, I most certainly want to cooperate with him,¡± Snow said, laying out all her reasons. ¡°Maybe when I am old and going to die, I might still choose to go to the Holy Kingdom of the Gods, Department of Dragons. But before that day, a huge dragon with cold magic power and a god who can control cold magic power¡­in my view, we were born to be good friends.¡± On the blackboard, the little dragon met a big smiling jellyfish that was surrounded with cold wind, and it instantly jumped up and held its hand and began to play. Sui Xiong laughed. The floating jellyfish reached out its palm made of ice and shook hands with the huge dragon that had returned to its human figure. ¡°You are right, I look forward to a smooth collaboration!¡± ¡°There is really no need to be so polite. We will definitely have a smooth partnership.¡± ¡­Still, their cooperation had yet to begin. Sui Xiong needed to wait for Rhode to finish recruiting the pioneers. Then Sui Xiong could count how many pioneers he had recruited in total and based on this, he could know how big his village should be. Besides, Rhode would also need to store up more food and materials, while Gerrard would need to escort these pioneers to the north across Dragon-roar Town. Then they would arrive at the cold region where normal people could not stay alive, and there they would build their home under the protection of Sui Xiong. Meanwhile, Snow had asked Shuang and Xian to go to the cold region north of the Ash Forest and find a perfect place where these pioneers could build in the wasteland. The topography of this spot would have to be fairly wide and flat, and there had to be a good source of water. Additionally, there had to be some mountains made of high quality rock with some mineral resources as well. In a word, Snow had very high standards for the place. If she couldn¡¯t find a better place, it would cost more time and manpower to build the village, and it would be more difficult to scale the village up after it had grown some. Sui Xiong could help the pioneers resist the cold, but he couldn¡¯t help them farm the land or find drinking water in the wasteland or give them products to make money from or provide them with the rock needed to build the village. They would have to get everything else from nature. Both Shuang and Xian were unwilling to go out and find a perfect place, seeing as Shuang didn¡¯t like Sui Xiong and therefore didn¡¯t want to help him, while for Xian, this search meant she could no longer sleep in late down in the basement. But they did not dare disobey their sister¡¯s orders, so the young siblings travelled unwillingly and split up to find a perfect place. ¡°Is it safe to let the two young kids go find the perfect spot?¡± Sui Xiong asked, a bit worried. Indeed, they were both dragons with a high combat effectiveness. But in this world where there were numerous powerful creatures, compared to them, two young dragons weren¡¯t very powerful. For example, Gerrard might find it less than easy to fight with Shuang and Xian together, but it would be very easy for him to fight with one of them at a time. Then the siblings would only have two choices, to run away or to die, and they would both likely end up in ruins thanks to Gerrard. Although the siblings weren¡¯t that powerful, a dragon itself was extremely valuable, and this posed a great threat to them. As the saying on Earth went, what would happen to a child who was walking in the bustling street alone and holding a precious gemstone in his hand? ¡°There is no need to worry,¡± Snow said, noticing Sui Xiong¡¯s anxiousness. Snow didn¡¯t worry at all. She just began drawing two powerful dragons that were fighting off scary wolves and kicking some skeletons and smiled, ¡°As a member of the dragon race, we have to defeat many adversaries and difficulties in order to grow up. There weren¡¯t many natural predators in the Ash Forest, and there weren¡¯t too many adventurers, so for them it was a very safe place where they could get good experience. As long as they didn¡¯t cross the wasteland, they never faced too much danger.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, haven¡¯t you forgot something?¡± ¡°What thing??¡± Sui Xiong asked confusedly. ¡°To build a manor, you¡¯ll need abundant money, materials and manpower. Currently, we have enough money, so we can buy the materials, and we can easily get enough manpower. However, you should probably have some officials that can help you to govern the town. Also, you¡¯ll need some clergymen to run your church. Do you plan to stay indoors and wait for them to come by themselves?¡± On the blackboard, a sleeping fat jellyfish had spread out its tentacles and formed a web. It was waiting for gold coins, materials and manpower to fall from the sky so it could catch them in its web. Sui Xiong found this lazy jellyfish both funny and annoying. He knew that Snow was simply being kind and warning him that he should go and find these people, but the way she warned him was a bit¡­ Seeing that the jellyfish on the blackboard was as fat as a pig, he didn¡¯t know if he should laugh or get angry. The character of this ice dragon was totally different from the legendary ice dragons that were usually depicted as proud, indifferent and hard to get close to! Could it be possible that people were just misinformed? Or was Snow herself simply different? Sui Xiong now felt that he would have to study some biology. At the least he had to become a master in the biology of a dragon. Of course, this was something he intended to do in the future. First, he would have to build his Holy Land, be apotheosized, and cultivate his followers. When all these tasks were completed, then he¡¯d have time to learn about something he had no use for now. And most importantly, he needed to recruit some talented people that could help him govern his manor. Luckily, Sui Xiong already had a person in mind, so he didn¡¯t need to search far and wide for the man he needed. A few days later, Sui Xiong made a jellyfish doppelg?nger, and it begin to move to south alone without telling any of his followers. The man he had selected was a acquaintance of Satan, called Paine, who lived in the Commonwealth of Mifata in the southernmost point of the continent. He was an aristocrat who was very knowledgeable about the nuances of how to govern a manor. Chapter 45 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma In the dark gray Gobi desert, there was gravel everywhere. From time to time, one could see some weeds and shrubs among the gravel. They looked like people lying prostrate, as if they had been burdened by their harsh life and could no longer stand up. Looking into the distance, Sui Xiong saw that the magnificent Wasteland had become a long black shadow along the northwestern horizon. Looking in the other direction, he saw nothing but blue sky and black earth. When he looked further, the blue of the sky and the black of the earth faded into each other until both had turned gray, and Sui Xiong found it hard to tell which was the sky and which was the earth. This was the Gobi Desert, one of the three big deserts in the Main Plane. In the continent called the Main Plane, there were many deserts of different size, and among these deserts, there were three that were extremely big: one in the northwest, one in the northeast and one in the southeast. The desert in the northwest was the Gobi Desert. What made this desert different was that there were many stones here. Apart from the central area in the desert, there was basically no sand in the majority of the desert, and these other areas were barren waste covered with black gray gravel. Moreover, sandstorms were constantly happening here, and there was a special one called the ¡°Black Storm.¡± When the Black Storm happened, even a legendary adventurer would be scared and flee. Because of this terrifying storm, no one dared to cross the desert, so the Wasteland in the west and the Wild Empire in the east were totally separate. Only the most courageous businessman would dare to cross this desert with the help of a weather observation spell, and if they made it across, they would make a fortune¡ª even though most of them completely vanished after departing. In the northeast, there was a desert called the Dead Meteorite, and it was very narrow as it extended along the coast. To its north were the Dragon Mountains, and to the south was the Kingdom of the Blue Moon, which perfectly bisected the Kingdom of Holy Angels and the Kingdom of the Sea. Long long ago, this desert did not even exist. At that time, the army of the Kingdom of Holy Angels and the army of the Sea Race were engaged in a fierce battle along the coastline, and the gods of both sides had joined the fight. By the time this terrible battle had ended, the few hundreds of miles close to the sea had become a grayish yellow desert. Even today, people can constantly see human remains and broken weapons, and there are many monsters lurking about. This was how the desert came to be named the Dead Meteorite. The desert in the southeast was called the Golden Desert and was probably the safest desert among the three. There were neither scary sandstorms nor monsters. The sky was pure blue and the sand was golden and tiny, shining constantly under the bright sun. Standing at the edge of the desert and watching the sun rise and set along the horizon where the sky and the sand met was indeed a great delight. To get to the Commonwealth of Mifata, Sui Xiong would have to cross the Wastelands first, then the Gobi Desert, and then he would need to walk south along the Graystone Mountains. He¡¯d then cross the Wild Marsh of Ancient Woods, the Broken Cloud Mountains, and finally the Tenku Forest. No one would dare to take this route unless he no longer wanted to live since there were too many dangers along the road. Even the most experienced adventurer would be terrified when facing this route. Normally, if one wanted to go to the Commonwealth of Mifata from the four towns in the northwest, the best way would be via ship. By sea, one could arrive north of the Commonwealth of the Gold Coin, cross the crack in the south of the Wasteland, and then they would arrive in Rye Town. But this safe route would take far more time and there were still many risks inherent in sailing. Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t afraid of the danger in the sea or on the land, since he flew rather than walked, so crossing the bumpy roads wasn¡¯t too difficult for him. After contemplating his route, he chose to go straight. After all, the shortest distance between two points is always a straight line. Taking the straight route was the privilege of a powerful man. Sui Xiong¡¯s jellyfish doppelg?nger was floating in the sky hundreds of meters above sea level and steadily flying southeast. From time to time, he would stop and practice a spell to locate his position, and then he¡¯d continue moving. The place he was heading to was a small town called Golden Pagoda, in the central west of the Commonwealth of Mifata. The reason it was called the Golden Pagoda was due to the magical golden pagoda standing in the center of the town. In fact, the Commonwealth of Mifata was a federation that consisted of many towns that had been built around the magic pagoda. The residents there were either servants or disciples of a wizard of some kind. Anyone who was an official here, if he was not a wizard, was probably the relative of a wizard. Thus, this place was known as the Kingdom of Wizards. But this was how things were when this place had just been built. After hundreds of years, the Kingdom of Wizards was no longer so pure; more and more people had become government officials and aristocrats. For example, the relative of an advanced wizard might get some type of power or title, or the disciple of a legendary wizard might need someplace to live. So it was only natural that the next generation would inherit the power and rank of the previous generation. Satan had been a very talented youth with a bright future in Golden Pagoda. But he had clashed with a youth who was not talented enough to become a wizard, yet had an advanced wizard for a grandfather, so his future quickly became dark. He lived a rather tough life and finally gave up his dream of living peacefully in Golden Pagoda. So he left his hometown and became an adventurer from then on. It had been ten years since his departure. During the past ten years, Satan had grown from a youth to a still young but very experienced adventurer, and he had managed to reach the level of a middle advanced wizard. Having been forced to leave his hometown, it took him only five years to reach this level of wizardry. As Satan recalled this, it seemed as if this fact no longer bothered him. But Sui Xiong could feel that he was still holding a grudge against the young wizard from his past. After all, at that time, he should not have helped that girl and displeased the youth with good connections. Satan didn¡¯t tell any of this to anyone, but since he had chosen to believe Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong could see directly into his soul. When Satan suddenly recalled this unforgettable incident, Sui Xiong could see the scene play out without prying into his heart. Then Sui Xiong secretly decided that he would help Satan finish this business while they were in his hometown. Even if Satan wasn¡¯t his follower, he would still have helped him. If the road was not even, one would step on it and make it even; if someone had been treated unfairly, justice should prevail, and if there was no one else to see this through, then the jellyfish god would step in. See? This time, the jellyfish would do its part. Thanks to the good weather, Sui Xiong managed to fly all day without feeling tired. Soon, he would arrive at the edge of the Gobi Desert. His intended route avoided actually crossing the Gobi Desert, so he only needed to skirt around the edges. Once the sun had gone down, the temperature dropped significantly. Night in the Gobi Desert was as cold as the Snowland in the north. But the night also had some bright sides. On a freezing cold night, most of the dangerous and poisonous creatures had gone to sleep, and the most dangerous sandstorms seldom happened at night. If Sui Xiong could keep a keen eye out for the monsters that usually moved around at night, it would be much safer for him to sleep during the day and move at night. Sui Xiong floated in the sky quietly. In fact, he didn¡¯t need to sleep, but he¡¯d become accustomed to sleeping when the night came and wanted to enjoy the kind of solid night¡¯s sleep that was essential for a human¡¯s health. The moon was bright and beautiful. The floating jellyfish spread its body and absorbed the moonlight as much as possible while resting. Around him, a huge vortex formed that absorbed all the magic energy within a few hundred meters. If any creatures around had witnessed this magical force field, they would certainly have been shocked by the bizarre scene in the sky. For Sui Xiong, this was his process for resting, eating or enhancing his ability. While he was resting quietly, he heard someone approach. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a group of people who were running in a panic, and a man in black riding a one-horned Nargacuga was chasing after them. Sui Xiong was in a daze, but when he realized they needed rescuing, he suddenly stopped. He noticed that among those people, more than one person was wearing a strange necklace made of bones. There was a man standing in the center of them who was obviously the leader. He also wore a necklace which was made of human fingers! Hunters! These followers of the God of Hunting and Holocaust were a bunch of evil guys who hunted humans. Most of them probably had a part-time job as a killer. As the most common evil group, Sui Xiong immediately recognized them. After all, the hunters¡¯ necklaces around their necks were obvious, and anyone with experience as an adventurer would recognize them. Sui Xiong had not been on an adventure before, but he had read something about this evil organization in the materials from the God of Redemption. They were the most ruthless group among the followers of the God of Hunting and Holocaust, and they believed the principle that they could only please their god by killing people. They were wild about killing people of the same race as them and holding blood sacrifice rituals. Their necklaces were trophies from the remains of the people they had killed. With the help of the necklace, they could trap and torture the souls of the dead, and they took pride in this, employing this ruthless practice to create a few very powerful magic spells. Undoubtedly, even among a group of thugs, the hunter was the most ruthless and terrifying. Now that Sui Xiong had seen them, he decided to kill them all! As for the man in black who was chasing after them, he wasn¡¯t the nicest guy either. Although the man was surrounded by wraiths with the help of a spell called Camp Identification Eyes, Sui Xiong could see his body was surrounded by bright red. Clearly, he was also a brutal man who liked fighting and had killed countless men. With the help of Camp Identification Eyes, Sui could also see that the hunters were totally black, covered in dirt and truly disgusting! Sui Xiong thought what he had seen was probably a dog eat dog scenario that often happened in the world of gangsters. Chapter 46 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The Nargacuga that the man in black was riding was a sub-dragon. Although there was a big difference real giant dragons and sub-dragons, they were still an astounding creature to ride. The hunters rode nothing but ordinary steeds, which weren¡¯t even worth mentioning compared to sub-dragons. Although the so-called sub-dragon was essentially only a beast, it was a beast transformed by giant dragons using their own blood as a catalyst. Thus it had nearly reached the peak capacity of a beast because its blood had been optimized from years of repeated experiments. As long as it had sufficient food and time, every one of them could eventually become a devil monster. Nargacuga were specifically transformed for riding. They were taller than usual warhorses, and its oval body was somewhat similar to a bird. It had a pair of strong and powerful feet that allowed it to run as if it were flying. It had a pair of claws that were sharp enough to tear apart tigers and leopards. Its long tail was covered with bone shell, and its mouth was covered with sharp, daunting teeth. The shell on its back, similar to a cushion, could minimize the bumpy ride that a knight may have otherwise suffered from. Riders would feel no pain even after riding for a few hours at a time, not to mention the so-called danger of ¡°pain in your testicles¡±. The man in black rode a Nargacuga much larger than usual. There was a single short horn on its forehead, and when it ran, an electric spark lingered around the horn. Obviously, the sub-dragon¡¯s body had already developed a magic circuit; it wasn¡¯t far from becoming a real devil monster. A man who was able to tame such a fierce beast must have extraordinary strength. This man¡¯s approach was also very sensible: he didn¡¯t chase the enemy too hard; instead he chased them by keeping a slight distance between them, so that the enemy could keep running away but was unable to take a rest. He himself was sitting comfortably on the back shell of the Nargacuga that had become his personal cushion. He also paused from time to time to eat and let his Nargacuga eat something, as well as to drink and give his Nargacuga some water. It seemed that he was as relaxed as if he were hiking ¡°It¡¯s funny! The hunters have been turned into the hunted. It¡¯s worth watching!¡± Sui Xiong suddenly became interested. He leisurely followed these people, wanting to see what would happen. The escape and chase lasted for a few days, and the two sides gradually went to the depths of the great Gobi desert. Perhaps the fugitives were too worried, and the chaser was capable and bold. The surrounding scenery gradually turned from grey-black to grey-yellow, which meant they had reached a very dangerous area. It was unclear whether the fugitives were exhausted or encouraged by their extreme situation, but they roared loudly under the rallying cry of their leader and turned their horses around, in order to launch a desperate fight against their pursuer. The fight was over quickly. The man in black was a skilled rider, swordsman, and shooter, and he used a long spear and a long sword at the same time to dispatch his enemies. He was also assisted by his unicorn Nargacuga, which helped to kill these hunters who hunted humans but were clearly vulnerable when facing him. Their attempt at a counterattack was like trying to use a weak stream of water to break down a solid dike: they collapsed instantly, leaving only blood on the ground. After mercilessly beheading his enemies, the man in black jumped off the Nargacuga and began looking for something from the fugitives. After looking for a period of time, he finally found the target. It was a golden crystal about half the length of his palm. It was shaped just like the column of a crystal, while inside the transparent crystal there was a constant flow of golden gas that moved and mutated ceaselesly. It was the light from the gas that made the colorless and transparent crystal appear golden. Upon finding the crystal, the silent man in black flashed a smile and laughed. He gripped the crystal column firmly in his hand, looked at it, smiled and laughed, and even kissed it several times while paying no mind to the stains of blood. He was very excited. Sui Xiong also couldn¡¯t help but be astonished: inside that column, the golden gas was churning and evolving into all kinds of shapes and objects. It was clearly a ray of supernatural power! This supernatural power was a wonderful power. It could only be bound by immense magic power, and making it required an understanding of the ¡°source of power¡± that was refined from magic, or transformed from a large amount of power derived from belief. Even Sui himself had only truly mastered the means of making and using supernatural power, and this had garnered him a status equivalent to that of divinity after devouring and resolving the envoy of the God of Conspiracy, a four-faced monster. What was the origin of this crystal column? How was it able to bind the power of divinity in it?! And that ray of golden supernatural power, what exactly was its origin? Indulging his profound curiosity, Sui Xiong suddenly descended straight from the sky onto the man in black at an alarming rate, taking the dominating form of the jellyfish. He was acting reckless, blinded by greed. Although the man in black was caught up in ecstasy, his reaction was still fast. Hearing an unsettling wind in the sky, he didn¡¯t hesitate to stash the crystal on a corpse on the ground and roll sideways, stabbing at Sui Xiong with his sword. Using the crystal column to attract the attention of the enemy while he launched a counterattack with his sword, the man in black showed excellent judgment. His advanced knowledge of martial arts and rich fighting experience were revealed by the fact that he stabbed at the target only once without looking! However, the gap in strength between the two combatants had reached a point where martial arts and experience could not make up the deficit. He felt as if he were stabbing only some tough skins: the sharp sword with enchantment could not pierce the enemy¡¯s body but simply glanced off him. The tip of the sword slipped to the ground, and his heart sank. Regardless of whether the enemy was sophisticated or had powerful equipment, it was the embodiment of true strength when an enemy could make his sword miss the target. At the least, if he were Sui Xiong, he would not have been confident enough to deploy this attack. However, the man in black was strong in character, and he did not betray a trace of despondence. Instead, he stood up and held a vigilant posture with his sword, prepared for the hard-fought battle to come. But he saw a weird jellyfish-like monster, which was holding up the golden crystal column with its tentacles. ¡°This¡­ what¡¯s this monster?¡± he muttered to himself. Then he heard the monster¡¯s words. ¡°My name is Oscar, or you can call me ¡®Void Mask¡¯. It is very interesting and fantastic: I can¡¯t even feel the supernatural power inside it even though we are very close to each other!¡± The man in black suddenly went cold. He was well-informed, so by listening to his tone, he knew at least that Sui Xiong was often in contact with supernatural power. He might even chat cheerfully with certain gods from time to time, which explained why Sui was so impolite to this supernatural power. Strong people at that level should almost be defined by their existence. He himself was only an adventurer who had not come close to the threshold of legendary power and was completely vulnerable to this massive jellyfish. Once the supernatural power fell into its hands, his only chance would be gone. To find this supernatural power, he¡¯d spent countless hours, more than half a year, on disguising himself and ambushing its prior owners. In order to deal with the church of the Brutal Hunter (the nickname of the God of Hunting and Holocaust), he had spent all of his family¡¯s fortune and cheated a large number of ruthless people who were desperate to make money by way of theft. To this end, for all the favors he had asked of others over the years, he now owed a lot of favors in return, which brought him a large number of enemies. In the end, he¡¯d penetrated deep into the dangerous Gobi desert to chase and kill the devout followers of Brutal Hunter, covering thousands of kilometers and deeply offending the cruel god. According to his plans, it was best to run to the southeast of the mainland after finishing this job, and he even considered moving to some faraway land to live¡­but in his opinion, it was all worth it. As long as his plan could be successfully implemented, or if he could only have that chance, it was worth it! However, all efforts had now turned into bubbles! If not for his tenacity and ultra-strong self-discipline, he may have desperately rushed forward, wanting to fight with that bizarre jellyfish and snatch back the supernatural power¡ªof course, in fact, just to die in vain. He did not want to die, so he had no choice but to endure. Sui Xiong carefully studied the column of crystal, but could not see exactly how to extract the supernatural power inside. He also could not see what the origin of the supernatural power was. He finally had to ask the only person that had survived. ¡°This is the supernatural power of the Goddess of Life,¡± answered the man in black. ¡°Goddess of Life? I thought she met her demise long ago¡­¡± Sui Xiong casually said. Suddenly his body trembled as he understood this man¡¯s plan. He wanted to use this supernatural power to understand and grasp the origin of ¡°life¡± and become a clergyman of ¡°life¡±, thus becoming a god! ¡°Wow! You aren¡¯t so powerful, but you really have great ambition!¡± Sui Xiong could not help but be amazed. ¡°How can you dare try to be a clergyman of ¡®life¡¯ with such a humble ability? Have you ever thought, when you are apotheosized, that all the gods of death will come to attack you? ¡°Maybe, but I could be assigned by some godly system to become a sub-god,¡± the man in black answered. ¡°Why would they want to shelter you? Is it not simpler to kill you and deprive the position as a clergy?¡± Sui also asked. ¡°Almost every system of gods has a clergy that can be linked to ¡®life¡¯. Why should we use you, an outsider, when we can make a loyal and powerful god by giving the position to someone else?¡± The man in black kept silent for a while, and whispered, ¡°I had to try.¡± ¡°I had to try¡±: this was his ambition and his dedication. Sui Xiong sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s drop this and talk about another problem. I have checked that this crystal column is exceptionally solid. Even I cannot ensure that I can break it without damaging one of the supernatural powers. Do you have a solution? ¡°No, but I want to try.¡± ¡°So everything is just an attempt to you¡¯?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Just for the chance to try, you dared to fight against the God of Hunting and Holocaust?¡± ¡°Why not?¡± The eyes of the man in black flashed like a flame in the night. ¡°I am a robber, and I never know which day I¡¯ll die on the roadside while my soul goes to hell to accept my punishment. In contrast, the Brutal Hunter isn¡¯t that terrible, is he? Could he be even more horrible than hell? ¡± This time, Sui Xiong was silent, and after a while, he sighed, ¡°I have seen many adventurers, but this is the first time I have seen one as persistent as you.¡± ¡°The world is so big, and there are always weird people and things,¡± the man in black said faintly. ¡°So what are you going to do now? Kill me?¡± ¡°Killing the enemy isn¡¯t my style. In fact, I¡¯m more curious about you,¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°Anyway, you probably need to escape now, and it will be better to go with me to the South. If I break the secret of this crystal column en route, then maybe you will also benefit; even after we arrive at our destination, I¡¯ll still have nothing to do with this crystal column, so at the least I can protect you so that you can successfully escape.¡± The man in black sighed and bowed deeply. ¡°This transaction is reasonable, and I have no objection.¡± ¡°Now, will you tell me your name?¡± ¡°Ray. This is my name. I also have a nickname, ¡®Family Exterminator¡¯.¡± Chapter 47 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°Did you hear?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°The solitary thief master, ¡®Family Exterminator¡¯, who has been rampant in our region for many years, has really caused some trouble and managed to escape.¡± ¡°What? That guy is a very ruthless man. He became enemies with the smugglers of the Iron Sand Chamber, and when that chamber hired assassins to kill him, he not only killed the assassins but also all the members on the Iron Sand Chamber¡­But since a person as ruthless as he is has fled, who is it that he provoked?¡± ¡°He provoked two enemies, one not very powerful, another very powerful. Which one do you want to hear about first?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s start with the one that is not so powerful.¡± ¡°Black Ax.¡± ¡°¡­Black Ax?! Are you talking about the professional criminals who believe in Poisonous Tomahawk (alias of the God of Gangsters)? They aren¡¯t very powerful? You must be kidding me!¡± ¡°Who is kidding you? This guy ¡®Family Exterminator¡¯ took thirty thousand gold coins and four pieces of magical equipment for a deposit and hired 150 elites from the Black Ax to help him attack the Brutal Hunter¡¯s temple. But after the Black Ax elites completed the task and looked for him for the rest of their pay, they couldn¡¯t find him.¡± ¡°Tut! That explains why he is ¡®Family Exterminator¡¯! He is so bold as to even cheat those from the Black Ax! Who is the other enemy? Don¡¯t tell me that he¡¯s some king.¡± ¡°Yes, the other enemy is His Majesty, Brutal Hunter.¡± ¡°¡­I thought he just attacked the temple, which is not rare in our western wilderness. But, provoking the god behind the temple? You must be kidding me again!¡± ¡°No one¡¯s kidding you! This guy killed the chief priest of the temple and also desecrated the idols. The Brutal Hunter has delivered his oracle: any believer who kills him will immediately earn a seat in the Holy Kingdom! Anybody who is not a believer and kills him will have a reward: a piece of legendary equipment!¡± ¡°¡­Do I still have enough time to convert right now?¡± ¡°Drop it. Even if you convert, could you really find this guy ¡®Family Exterminator¡¯? After all, even if you find him, it is unknown who will kill whom!¡± ¡°¡­Of course, I won¡¯t have enough of an advantage to beat him. But as long as I think of that big reward, chances are that I will tap into my potential and kill him with a hammer!¡± ¡°You are just bragging! If you really have the mind, clean your rusty hammer and tomorrow we¡¯ll go hunting for the black lizard. Do you dare?¡± ¡°Of course. If you are not afraid of death, what should I be afraid of?¡± Similar conversations took place in almost every pub in the western part of the Wild Empire, in the area adjacent to the Gobi desert. Adventurers everywhere really admired the ¡°Family Exterminator¡± whose whereabouts were unknown after he¡¯d caused such trouble. There were many troublemakers, but there were few who could make trouble in such a fantastic way! Just like wolves sharpening their gaze on a hunt, the street was filled with many people searching for him like wolves at peak vigilance. But no matter how they searched for him (they dug underground until reaching a sewer three feet below ground, they climbed mountains, and they even caught and beat all those who wore a faceless robe and forced them to reveal themselves), they could not find the former solitary master thief who had been here. They also appealed to powerful magic casters for help, hoping to detect his position with a prophecy spell. But the results were nothing but chaos, as if he was covered with clouds. Perhaps this guy was actually dead? People guessed so but could not sure. This courageous guy was also very clever. Could he have died quietly in a corner, preventing his enemies from finding his body for the reward? ¡°Ahhh!¡± A scream echoed in the wilderness. ¡°Clench your teeth if you are a man. What a disgrace that you weep so much!¡± Sui Xiong angrily rebuked this spineless guy. Saying this, he lifted a tentacle holding a big wooden stick and punched Ray right in the face. Blood flew in all directions from his face, and he could hear the crack of tendons and bone. Ray couldn¡¯t help screaming loudly again, but Sui Xiong was unmoved. He cast a treatment spell that restored Ray¡¯s vitality and then hit him again with the stick. So Sui treated his wounds and hit him with the stick in turn. After doing this several times in succession, at last Ray¡¯s facial muscles and bones had been completely adjusted. Now even his relatives and friends (assuming he had them) could not recognize him face to face. ¡°Look, what a good plastic surgeon I am!¡± When Ray finally recovered, Sui Xiong made an ice mirror in front of him that reflected his appearance. ¡°Now you can safely walk the streets and no one will recognize you.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, Void Mask, your cosmetic surgery is really outstanding. Next time I encounter one of my buddies, please be sure to give him some cosmetic surgery too!¡± Ray said gritting his teeth. ¡°I believe he will be very grateful to you¡­¡± ¡°No need to be grateful. To be honest, I do not like you, an evil guy who has committed many murders, and I don¡¯t want to waste time on your buddy either. The reason I gave you plastic surgery is simply to avoid any trouble we might encounter on the road.¡± Sui Xiong changed his appearance when saying this and turned into a small jellyfish that was only one foot wide. He settled onto the head of Ray like a hat, and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go, we have a long way to go.¡± Ray had no choice. He sighed and wore this dangerous thing that creeped him out on his head. They trekked over the mountains and walked toward the South. After walking for a while, Sui Xiong could not help but ask, ¡°Hey¡­since I have knocked you around a bit, have you found any inspiration to break the bottleneck that has existed in you for a long time? Have you seen a path to success?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°So, do you regret what you have done? Has it occurred to you that what you did yesterday could have killed you, and what you do today has given you new life? Have you said to yourself, ¡®I had no choice, but now I want to be a good person¡¯¡­and other ideas like this?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°¡­ A natural-born defeatist cannot be taught to succeed!¡± After walking for a while, Sui Xiong again could not help but ask, ¡°Ray, I have a very powerful trick that can help others abandon evil, become good, and mend their ways. Even if they cannot go to heaven after they die, at least they can have a chance at an atonement that helps them avoid going to hell. Are you interested?¡± ¡°I¡¯m doing well now, and it hasn¡¯t occurred to me to mend my ways.¡± ¡°If you keep doing this, you¡¯ll go to hell after you die!¡± ¡°That is what I deserve. If a bad guy like me doesn¡¯t go to hell, something must be wrong with this world!¡± Sui Xiong was dumbfounded, and could not help but ask astonishedly, ¡°I didn¡¯t realize that you are still an angry youth at heart! So you think this world is a bit wrong, don¡¯t you? It seems so! I did not expect us to have so much in common!¡± ¡°¡­Sorry, I do not want to have things in common with a jellyfish!¡± ¡°Hey, I¡¯m a god. Isn¡¯t it good to have things in common with a god?¡± ¡°Oh, then let me correct myself: I don¡¯t want to have anything in common with a god who looks like a jellyfish and disguises himself as a hat on my head,¡± said Ray, expressionless. ¡°Please find your followers if you want to chat about this. I presume they agree with you unconditionally. ¡± ¡°¡­ Ray, has anyone ever told you that you were boring?¡± ¡°There have been many.¡± ¡°Myself included!¡± A little further down the road, they had moved away from the Gobi desert and entered the depths of the Graystone Mountains. The Graystone Mountains were famous for their rich deposits of graystone. The graystone mine appeared to Sui Xiong as something similar to limestone. Its texture was not solid, but it was excellent for mining. After being burned by fire, it would turn into a powder that could be re-solidified when mixed with water and mud. Although it was not as solid as rock, it was still more solid than ordinary bricks. Considering the cost of production and transportation, it was a suitable material for buildings. Because of this, there were many quarries on both sides of the Graystone Mountains, with the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to the west, the Wilderness Empire to the east, and the Eagle Kingdom to the south. Many roads and houses had been built bending the stone of the mountains to the human world. Inside the Graystone Mountains was also very dangerous. A variety of dangerous devil monsters and particularly fierce creatures resided there. Adventurers generally did not go far into the mountains, because they were afraid of encountering them and bearing unnecessary risks. In this mountain range, the most common dangerous creature was a special species, the Fierce Gnome. They were roughly half the size of an average adult, but their muscles were unusually well developed and they had a variety of heaven-sent abilities to cast spells. For example, all of them had command of the Stone Skin spell that a mage at a certain level or above could use. This spell would become a rock-hard layer near the body of the caster, allowing them to withstand many attacks. Though they originally lacked a strong defense due to backward technologies, this ability made them as strong as armed soldiers. In addition, they had the abilities of Bloodthirsty and Fury. The former gave them more courage in battle, absorbing the lifeforce of those who had died so that their wounds could heal and their physical strength would recover quickly; the latter allowed them to get amazing power and speed within a short period of time. Some particularly fierce ones could even confront devil monsters after using this spell. Compared to their small bodies, it was if they were breaking the laws of nature due to their incredible strength! Ordinary Fierce Gnomes were quite powerful, and they also had their own system of civilization, a variety of powerful and special forces, and even protection from their deities. So when adventurers saw their tracks in the woods, most of them chose to avoid coming into contact with them. But these people certainly did not include Sui Xiong. ¡°You said, the Fierce Gnome is a very violent, cruel, aggressive, unreasonable creature?¡± he said suspiciously, floating in the air and waving his tentacles. ¡°Totally wrong! Can¡¯t you see they are very reasonable, very warm and very hospitable?¡± Looking at the Fierce Gnomes with their colorfully painted bodies, hopping around them and continuously saluting Sui Xiong, Ray could not help but feel his heart flood with a feeling of helplessness. He thought, Aren¡¯t you cruel, furious, rude, and unreasonable little creatures?! Why abandon your integrity as soon as you meet a god who is willing to be friendly and get along with you?! Where is your dignity and pride as a wild race! Aren¡¯t you afraid of the fury of the gods in heaven, as you please outsiders so blatantly! Apparently you haven¡¯t considered my feelings! Do you know that I was still singing your praises not long ago? Do you know I just told someone about how brave you are! Do you know that I was prepared for a fierce battle and I was even ready to die here! Buddies, we all have to make a living, but you make me so mentally tired by being so cooperative, Ray thought to himself. Chapter 48 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Surprisingly, Sui Xiong and the barbarian races in the Graystone Mountains got along very well, which could be described by the Chinese saying that ¡°guests and hosts are all happy¡±. The barbarian races were not so evil in nature, and the grudges between them and humans were mainly because of the battle for living space. Of course, if a human god and a human adventurer came, there would be a tough fight between them; but this time a jellyfish god and its ¡°horse¡± came, (when Ray heard this, he expressed a solemn protest. However, the protest was ineffective, and Sui Xiong still chose to live on his head) and the god was very friendly to them. Why wouldn¡¯t they show him goodwill? Of course, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t tell Ray that he was only being friendly to these barbarian races because he felt the supernatural power of their priest. He had a breath similar to that of the god who had helped him. According to the documents of the God of Redemption, the priest believed and dedicated himself to the God of Fertility, a subordinate of that God. Thanks to the God of Redemption¡¯s documents, Sui Xiong had a good understanding of the gods in this world. For example, he already knew that the god named Morani, the chief barbarian deity, had helped him when he¡¯d clashed with the God of Sleeplessness in White Leaves Village. He was also respectfully called Steel Lion. He was a good god who liked to travel around the world and called for justice everywhere. There were several other sub-gods under his command, including a God of Fertility named Zhuogeng, also known as the ¡°Wanderer of Fertility¡±. He was capable of turning all the barren lands into fertile farmlands, and he had always been wanted by many deities. According to the documents from the God of Redemption, the God of Fertility did not have a church, but he merely relied on the faith of the God of Desolation to share followers. However, looking at this priest, having no church meant having no church in the world of human or humanoid creatures. In the world of barbarian races, the God of Fertility seemed quite popular. Since the incident in White Leaves Village, Sui Xiong had not seen the God of Desolation again. But in his mind, he regarded him as a friend who helped him when they first met, and this friend¡¯s subordinates, of course, were friends as well. This was the reason why he showed goodwill toward these fierce questions whose position was roughly neutral and possibly evil. Sui Xiong understood that the barbarian race inevitably had to fight against the human race in order to hold onto their living space. The fight was for the survival of their race. Perhaps it was evil, but it should by no means be condemned. In any case, it was never a mistake to guard your family and resist aggression. He was not a liberal leftie, nor a heartless man of steel, nor a perverted man who never felt shame when he should. So he fully understood and supported this behavior. If one day he established a Holy Kingdom, he would never reject believers with such behavior because of such small variations between good and evil. Soldiers had shed blood when they were alive, so how could he let them cry after dying! It also made him doubt the effect of the spell ¡°Eye for Identifying Position¡±, and perhaps the spell itself also had a predetermined position¡­Considering that the spell came from the God of Redemption, whose believers were only human beings and some humanoid creatures excluding the barbarian races, there was nothing strange about this. He thought, A hero in the eyes of others is my enemy. Even a god can have the same ideas as a common person! Bidding farewell to the tribe of Fierce Gnomes, he told Ray these ideas when they were setting up camp. ¡°This idea is really strange. Of course, a god has its own race, which leads to a point of view. It is unreasonable when a god considers things from the position of a race that isn¡¯t his own,¡± Ray commented. ¡°Of course, this does not apply to you. After all, the jellyfish is a non-intelligent creature, so you don¡¯t have a problem with the perspective of your race. Perhaps for you, those barbarian races are more interesting and worth understanding than us humans.¡± Sui Xiong was silent: he was not actually a jellyfish, but a human¡ªjust not from this world. As a man who had travelled through space, he had an innate position not much different from that of a jellyfish. To him, no matter the type of intelligent creature¡ªas long as their shape wasn¡¯t totally contrary to his aesthetics¡ªdid not make a big difference. ¡°The world is so big, and the living space occupied by these barbarian races is actually not much. Why do some people still want to snatch their land from them?¡± He could not help but speak to himself, and he understood the ridiculousness of this idea¡ªpeople were never truly content! Even on Earth, where people were of the same race with the same yellow skin and black hair, it was common for friends to turn hostile to each other after some time. Of course this would happen on this different world full of various races. This kind of thing couldn¡¯t even be solved by gods¡­ Falling into a bad mood, Sui Xiong remained silent for the rest of the day. He focused his energy on research, using his research to pass the time and change mood. Soon after, when Ray finally came to the edge of the Graystone Mountains, his research had found some results. ¡°Your Majesty¡­what is this?¡± Palin wondered, seeing Sui suddenly appear and give himself a strange thing. It was a flat, round pancake-shaped object with colorful spirals on the surface going from the center to the edge. Below it there was an ordinary wooden stick that served as a support. It emanated the faint scent of some tempting sweetness from above, like candy. If there had been a man from Earth here, he would have been extremely surprised¡ªthis was nothing more than a lollipop! ¡°It¡¯s designed specifically for you, and it can effectively prevent you from the symptoms of a lack of energy,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°Let¡¯s see if you like this taste.¡± Is this really candy?! Palin gaped. Palin tried to put this strange candy into his mouth, and a warm and sweet taste diffused on his tongue and soon became a kind of warmth spreading throughout the body. Not only did it sweep away the fatigue from their recent journeys, but it also gave him a heartfelt and unspeakable satisfaction and happiness. He felt like he did as a child when he¡¯d done something good and was praised by his parents, so he smiled. The young mage with a special candy in his mouth kept silent for a while as he recovered. ¡°This candy¡­is amazing!¡± he said. ¡°The taste is good and the effect is also very good.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. He took out a bunch of colorful lollipops, thought for a while, and cast spells so that the lollipops were wrapped in a layer of colorful waterproof paper, below which there was a beautiful tie made of a red short ribbon. After doing this, he gave them all to Palin. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, eat them slowly. I still have more here!¡± Finishing this, he laughed, and his projection disappeared with the sound of a pop. Successful research! His products had been praised by customers! He really wanted to click ¡°like¡± many times for what he¡¯d done! Because of the success of this ¡°lollipop¡± research, Sui Xiong¡¯s mood was quite good again, and he chatted happily with Ray. However, Ray did not adapt to this, for he was actually very satisfied with this period of time when His Majesty Void Mask kept silent. The world had been quiet, calm, serene, and peaceful. Now the damn jellyfish began to chatter away endlessly and talk about nonsense. This made him think of the saying that ¡°a good time is always short¡±, but he could see no solution. It didn¡¯t matter for Sui Xiong whether Ray was satisfied or not. Since traveling to this world, this was the first time he had met someone who didn¡¯t look up to him, and he could communicate with Ray in a relatively equal way. Gerrard and Palin had become fanatics altogether, and even if Sui said the sun was square, they would only think that mortals were so short-sighted that they could not see the real shape of the sun which people saw every day. With such people, you could talk about specific issues, but there was no way to discuss topics such as world outlook, outlook on life, and core values. Satan and Rhode were not so fanatical, but they were both judicious and cautious, and they certainly would follow the crowd on these core ideas. There was no way to expect from them more special and valuable information. Among the three dragons, Frost¡¯s thought process was quite clear: ¡°low-level creatures are all dregs, while my dragon race is the only one that dominates this vast world¡±, which was not worth Sui Xiong¡¯s attention at present; Graupel¡¯s outlook was, ¡°It¡¯s all so annoying, do not talk to me because I want to sleep¡­¡± Yes, every time Sui tried to talk to her, this was her response. Snow was a complicated person (dragon) who had an independent personality and profound thoughts. However, she was very busy. After taking on the position of staff officer, she had been trying hard to analyze the actions of all the gods in each system from past years. She explored and grasped the ideas and plans of various gods, so as to prepare for the future exchange with other gods before Sui Xiong was apotheosized. If you dared to disturb her with some unrealistic topics, she would probably give you a cold look and simply say, ¡°I will kill you, god or not, if you keep on disturbing me¡±. As for Phil the Armored Demon, Sui Xiong tried to talk to him when he was busy in the flower field of a temple that had been changed into a dragon cave. His reaction was to think for a moment before saying, ¡°I have seen¡ªno, just heard¡ªthat there was a person of noble origin and distinguished character, regarded as favored by heaven, who finally went crazy because he kept thinking about these issues all day long. He then became a big devil that wanted to destroy the world and was killed by a man who never considered such weighty topics. The person that killed him also fell into a depressed, confused state for a long time because he started to think about such issues. So it is harmful to think about these things.¡± He said so and then ignored Sui Xiong. As for the gods, Sui could now contact them, but he absolutely did not want to discuss these topics with them. After all, these topics were really sensitive and he did not know which ones were taboo for the gods. Until they became familiar with each other and were strong enough, he did not want to be shallow. It seemed that the only appropriate person to discuss these issues with was Ray. ¡°Hey¡­ Let¡¯s consider one hundred people sail on the sea, and then the ship is broken and about to sink. However, the lifeboat can only accommodate sixty people and the remaining forty people have fought hard to rush to the boat, but if they go onto the lifeboat it will sink. In that case, a good warrior with good martial arts is guarding the lifeboat. Should he let everyone sink together, or should he force the remaining forty to die? ¡°¡­I hate these damn questions!¡± ¡°But don¡¯t you think they make sense? Don¡¯t you think that through these questions we can think deeply about goodness, morality, and humanity?¡± ¡°I have no interest!¡± ¡°Maybe my question is not realistic, so let me ask another one: there was a paladin who had a great dilemma: he needed to eat human beings to protect others¡­¡± ¡°Out! You evil god!¡± Chapter 49 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Ray was bothered by Sui Xiong¡¯s questions. He thought very seriously and only became more distressed while thinking, without coming up with an answer that could satisfy him. So that night, he suffered from insomnia. Of course, he didn¡¯t know that the questions raised by Sui Xiong were carefully crafted by some trouble-makers on the Internet on Earth who designed the questions so that readers could understand the so-called ¡°viciousness of the world¡±. Even the scholars on Earth couldn¡¯t think of a perfect answer when faced with such questions, not to mention Ray, a robber from a different world. The next day, when Sui Xiong also intended to discuss questions about the nature of the world and life, Ray plugged some rags into his ears to show his determination not to respond. Of course, Sui Xiong could easily snatch the rags away, but why be so awkward when others weren¡¯t willing to discuss such topics? It was never interesting to force others to do something, which was similar to the proverb saying, ¡°nothing forcibly done is going to be agreeable¡±. But it didn¡¯t apply to some things. For example, saving people. It was late in the day and they were close to the edge of the Graystone Mountains. When setting up camp, they heard the sound of fighting and calls for help. According to Ray¡¯s plan, they would keep moving forward. Even if it needed to happen at night, they must first make it out of the Graystone Mountains and then camp. However, unfortunately, they met an impasse at a cliff, so Sui Xiong cast a spell of detection, which determined that bypassing the cliff required them to walk for almost a day. But building a temporary bridge wouldn¡¯t take any less time, so Sui Xiong didn¡¯t bother with a bridge. Thus, Ray took a detour that greatly lengthened their distance traveled, which meant they also had to sleep in the mountains again. Ray was not afraid of sleeping outside because he was close to the edge of the Graystone Mountains and in theory, there should be no demon beasts there. Even if there were, most of them had deserted this area because they¡¯d been defeated in the depths of the mountains. As he¡¯d marched through the mountains, he had killed a lot of powerful demon beasts, let alone these weak ones! They simply chose to die in vain. But he was really tired of the environment in the mountains. The infinite number of poisonous insects had overwhelmed him, let alone the poisonous snakes and dangerous beasts. Even if he had pest control drugs that prevented him from being bitten, the buzzing noise at night alone had practically bored him to death! He was more annoyed because every day before going to bed, Sui Xiong would always talk to him about ideals and life. Sui Xiong no longer asked the awkward questions that made people uncomfortable, but instead talked with Ray very earnestly: ¡°The most precious thing in human life is life, and life belongs to a man only one time¡­¡± or ¡°Different men have different strength, but as long as you have the right spirit ¡­ ¡°and topics such as this. These topics made him feel heavy and made him far more uncomfortable than the annoying conditions in the mountains. But he couldn¡¯t avoid these topics because it made him feel that his mind was weak. However, discussing them before bed was obviously affecting his sleep quality. Coupled with the insects that buzzed incessantly, he rarely got a good night¡¯s sleep, and his state of mind was gradually deteriorating. So he was looking forward to getting out of the mountains as soon as possible and going into the territory of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. There the jellyfish god who liked to teach others about life would perhaps shift his target to someone else, leaving him to sleep peacefully. Even if this nasty jellyfish god continued to bother him by asking excessively profound questions, at least there¡¯d be no buzzing insects! However, not today. Consequently, Ray was in a very bad mood, so when he heard the sound of fighting and calls for help coming from afar, he had no interest in intervening. ¡°Someone is in danger,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Yeah,¡± Ray said as he took out a blanket, intending only to wrap himself up and sleep until he was fully rested. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to save them?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°I do not want to,¡± Ray replied. Right as he was about to lie down, Sui Xiong quickly jumped onto his head, pressing a tentacle against his temple. This tentacle was icy and exceptionally sharp, so Ray could not help but suspect that in a second a hole would be drilled into his own skull, and blood and brains would flow out together onto the ground. ¡°You¡­what are you trying to do!¡± He asked in a loud voice, startled and suddenly concerned. ¡°Correcting your thoughts,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°There¡¯s too much filth and evil in your mind. I¡¯ll help you to draw some of it out.¡± Ray was shocked, and he quickly rebutted, ¡°After my brain has been drawn out?!¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± said Sui Xiong. ¡°You¡¯ll get what you lose, and this is the principle of exchange of equivalence. It is a universal principle. Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s cost effective to exchange a bit of brains for goodness and tranquility?¡± ¡°I do not think so! I don¡¯t want the damn goodness and tranquility!¡± Ray protested loudly. ¡°You opposition is invalid! For evil people, the word of the strong counts, isn¡¯t that correct?¡± ¡°¡­I see, so I guess I will save those people!¡± Sui Xiong laughed and withdrew the tentacle, ¡°A wise choice. If you had done it earlier, there wouldn¡¯t have been any trouble.¡± Ray smiled, hung the long gun on the back hook on his back, inserted the long sword into the sheath on his waist, and inspected all of his equipment. Then he set off for the place where the fighting and cries for help came from. He was powerful, and after all the trekking he¡¯d been doing, he¡¯d become very accustomed to walking in the mountains. He walked quickly, like a vigorous monkey jumping between rocks and trees. It wasn¡¯t long before he came to the source of the distress calls. In the woods, four adventurers were fighting fiercely with a giant bear, which was as tall as two people combined. It was more an unsuccessful attempt at defense than a fierce battle. The giant bear was very powerful and highly defensive, and although its reaction speed was slightly slower, it protected itself well and gave the adventurers no chance to attack. The four adventurers were not old. Two of them, who were fully armored and responsible for the frontal attack, were about twenty-four or twenty-five. The one wandering around with bow and arrow trying to contain the bear was just above twenty, and the one lying in the tree and using magic to provide assistance was less than twenty. They could be called a group of young people. Being young often meant a lack of adequate exercise and growth and lack of strength. Young adventurers had the highest rates of death because their lack of experience made them unable to avoid dangerous situations that sophisticated adventurers could mostly avoid. For example, with the giant bear they were fighting, if experienced adventurers like Rhode and Ryan had encountered it, they would throw it a piece of fresh meat, throw more when it was busy eating, and then retreat slowly. They might even prepare some sweet treats, put them in the trunk, and leave when the giant bear struggled with the big tree. Most bears in this world were lazy and obsessed with sweets, and when it was easy to get food, they were generally reluctant to risk injury and fight against heavily-armed adventurers. If sweets were close at hand, even if you were unarmed and took on a clear posture that said ¡°I am prey¡±, they would still be too lazy to pay you any mind. However, these young people were apparently too inexperienced or lacked the appropriate preparation. They could only fight with the giant bear, relying on their underdeveloped bodies. This approach had little chance of success: the giant bear had grown to be nearly the size of a truly fierce beast. A team of well-equipped, well-funded senior adventurers¡ªprobably at the level of Gerrard and his companions¡ªcould kill the bear without risking serious injury. Out of the group of four young people, in Sui Xiong¡¯s opinion, he could see one or two of them being killed and the rest severely injured if they fought against Gerrard. He was invincible when fighting against skeletons with a tomahawk in hand at that night in White Leaves Village; he could do some real damage to these youngsters. Obviously, they could not beat the giant bear. The only reason there were no casualties until now was because they were a reasonable team with a certain capacity to withstand the bear¡¯s pressure. The two in charge of defending the front were a warrior and a priest. Both were wearing heavy armor and holding a shield. This solid armor had saved them more than once before in times of crisis. With the help of heavy armor, the priest could sometimes pray and cast a spell to restore physical strength to his companions or himself. In addition, the mage¡¯s spell played a significant role. Although he didn¡¯t use no advanced spells other than the simple ones like Shield Spell, Flying Bullet Spell, Creamy Spell and Blurring Spell, the young mage cast the spells in a timely manner so he was able to offer help every time. In other words, they were constantly depleting their magical ability to consume the physical strength of the giant bear. But only physical strength, because so far, the giant bear had not been injured at all. If this continued, the ending was obvious: when their magic was depleted, the four youngsters would not be able to withstand the giant bear¡¯s attack. Perhaps the gunner could run away, as well as one of the fighters or the priest, but at least one wouldn¡¯t make it. The mage, who wasn¡¯t particularly agile, was likely doomed. Ray lurked near the battlefield, quietly watching their battle, but didn¡¯t rush to help. ¡°Why don¡¯t you save them?¡± Sui Xiong transferred his words to Ray¡¯s brain using magic. Ray gently shook his head and replied with temporary telepathy, ¡°They can still keep fighting; it¡¯s not yet the time.¡± ¡°When they can¡¯t hold on any longer, they¡¯ll be seriously injured.¡± ¡°Not too seriously, because I¡¯ll step in. For these young people, the experience of fighting hard until the last minute is precious and can really help them grow up.¡± Sui Xiong did not urge him again. On the topic of adventure, Ray was an expert. Since he said that this plan was best for the young people, Sui Xiong chose to believe him. Not to mention¡­even if he really refused to rescue them, Sui Xiong could do it himself when the crucial moment came. Fighting at this level was completely under his control! Chapter 50 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The four young people had a solid base, with excellent coordination and trust among each other, which allowed them to fully exert their power for a long time even in the face of an enemy far more powerful than them. However, this did not change the balance of strength between the two sides. As time went by, the spellcaster¡¯s power was constantly consumed, and the situation became even more untenable. When the moon rose, they¡¯d finally reached their limit. ¡°My magic has almost run out,¡± said the priest suddenly, his face covered in sweat. ¡°I can only use one or two more recovery spells at most.¡± At this moment, the archer had run out of arrows. He could only continue fighting by using the arrows on the ground that he¡¯d already shot. As for the mage, the youngest and the weakest of the four, he had run out of strength, so he was lying on his belly in a tree, exhausted and out of breath. The dizziness and headache caused by his depleted magic made him unable to talk. He could only tell the others with a pitiful smile that he absolutely had no strength to escape. The warrior let out a wry laugh and said, ¡°Well then, I will shield your retreat. In the future, if we have the opportunity to kill the old bear, that¡¯ll be revenge for me.¡± They were obviously so familiar with each other that even without using names they knew who was being referred to. The priest immediately became angry, shouting, ¡°As the servant of the God of Glory (the chief god of human beings), how can I abandon my partner to escape? Are you trying to insult me?!¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a temporary retreat,¡± said the soldiers, forcing a smile. ¡°When fighting, there are always attacks and retreats, and I¡¯m asking you to retreat because you can help the others leave alive. If you don¡¯t retreat, I won¡¯t have the confidence to do so!¡± The priest was speechless, but he just stubbornly shook his head and never agreed. The two sides could not reach an agreement, but the bear wasn¡¯t going to quietly wait for them as they negotiated. Seeing that the enemy was distracted, the bear immediately intensified its attack and focused on the group¡¯s flaws. With only one attack, it tossed aside the priest with his hard shield, leaving a crack in the shield. The priest felt a sharp pain in his chest when breathing and coughed violently. ¡°Oops!¡± The soldier was shocked, waving his sword in a hurry and trying to draw the attention of the giant bear so he could buy time for the gunner to rescue the priest. But in that moment, the giant bear¡¯s violent intent spurred it on: its strength substantially increased in a short time, and it struck them with its claws and pounced on its opportunity. The warrior responded in kind, withholding the attack with his shield. But the last of his remaining strength wasn¡¯t enough for him to stand his ground, so he staggered back and finally fell to the ground. As he fell, his heart sank. Damn! The giant bear roared loudly and rushed toward him, but he felt sore all over with no strength left to save himself. He could only wait to be killed. Just then, a sneer came from a nearby place. A gray figure, which had been hidden in the underbrush before, rushed towards him in an instant and stopped in front of him. The giant bear roared, rushed towards him, and immediately arrived in front of him. What it found waiting for it was a brightly lit sword. The light of the sword flashed, and blood splashed everywhere. The giant bear, which had been sprinting, lost its balance and hit the tree beside it. Blood spewed from its jagged wounds like water from a spring. Only then did the warrior see his benefactor, the one who¡¯d beheaded the giant bear to save him and his companions. He was of medium build and handsome, but his eyebrows and eyes showed an excessive perfectness that was somewhat strange. It made others think he was more a portrait or statue than a living human being. This man was not tall, wore lightweight black leather armor, carried a long gun on his back, and held a sword still dripping blood. The leather armor, gun, and sword all glimmered amid the darkness. At first glance, it was easy to see they were powerful and expensive weapons with enchantments. Judging by the gun, sword, and assault, this benefactor was obviously a knight. However, unlike the knights who wore heavy armor, he was dressed in leather armor, so he could focus on maneuvers and attacking. Although he¡¯d dashed so far and killed the horrible giant bear, the powerful knight hadn¡¯t even broken a sweat, and he was still breathing regularly. After a long exhale, he completely regained his composure, as if the startling moment had nothing to do with him and he was just passing by. Paying no attention to the stares of the others, he walked over to the dying giant bear, wiped the bloodstains on its thick fur, and then put his sword back in its scabbard. Then, without looking at the group of four, he walked straight away. Saving people and killing a bear didn¡¯t seem worth mentioning to him. ¡°Great¡­great knight¡­please accept our¡­ our gratitude¡­¡± stammered the priest loudly. He was first to recover and called out to the knight with a tingle in his chest. The knight in black armor stopped without looking back but waved toward them. ¡°You guys did a good job, but you need to be more cautious and ask your seniors more questions to learn from their experience,¡± he said in a clear and powerful voice. ¡°Go on with your lives, and one day you can also wield a sword like me!¡± Without another word, he walked away, leaving only the four adventurers full of gratitude and the giant bear that was finally dead. After a long time, the excited soldier could not help but shout, ¡°I have decided! After going back, I will continue to study diligently and strive to wield a sword like him as soon as possible! I have to practice hard, but I will also help others, just as he selflessly helped us!¡± The priest, holding the holy emblem, was greatly moved by this celebration of what was true, good, and beautiful. ¡°I will also work harder! If not, then in the future I won¡¯t even be qualified to pay him back!¡± The gunner said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s not my style to pay back the favor of saving my life!¡± Finally, the fatigued mage, who could not even climb down from the tree, said aloud, ¡°I¡­I have to work harder too!¡± The four friends looked at each other. Although they were all awkward, they saw a light in each other¡¯s face and eyes. If these four little guys were immortal, they could achieve something really great in the future, Ray thought silently. After returning to the campsite, he did not have a rest, but said quietly, ¡°I can see that they are very talented!¡± ¡°How do you feel after you saved others and they were grateful to you?¡± Sui Xiong smiled and asked. Ray thought for a moment, and shook his head, ¡°It¡¯s a bit boring, but it¡¯s not a waste of time to help four nice young people.¡± Saying so, he wrapped his body in a blanket and lay down to sleep. Sui Xiong, floating in the air and watching him clearly fake being asleep safe and sound, could not help but laugh again. He once again cast the spell of Eye of Position Identification and saw that Ray¡¯s body was still red, but its color was a lot fainter than the first time he¡¯d seen him. It was no longer so fierce but took on a little gentleness. The next day, they easily walked out of the Graystone Mountains and entered the territory of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. The Commonwealth of Gold Coins was a great power located in the western Dominant Continent, which was based on business and was initially the merchant¡¯s country. They did business with orcs in the Wilderness Empire, with the race of scales in the Wild Marsh of Ancient Woods, with the murlocs in the vast seas, and even with the Duchy of Thunder, Commonwealth of Mifata and Dhaka Commercial Association ,which were thousands of kilometers away to the south. Since the four northwestern towns had developed, they also did business with the pioneers who resided and made a living in the Ash Woods and desolate mountains. The country consisted of dozens of aristocratic territories, large and small, but merchants had the same high status everywhere. In fact, a merchant in this country was considered a baron if he possessed the same wealth as a baron, a viscount if he had the same wealth as a viscount, an earl if he had the same wealth as an earl, and so on. If one¡¯s wealth was comparable to the Marquis, of course, he would be regarded as a Marquis. There was no Duke class because there was no dukes in this country. This country, from top to bottom, was full of desire for and the pursuit of wealth. This not only created numerous adventurers who were courageous enough to take risks and explore, but also made the civilians work hard in order to pay various high taxes. The group of pioneers who were gathered under Rhode¡¯s arrangement was mostly composed of both groups. But Rhode recruited pioneers in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, and Sui Xiong and Ray were now in the easternmost Commonwealth of Gold Coins. They were quite far away from each other. After entering the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, the living conditions were indeed much better than in the Graystone Mountains. That night, when he could finally sleep in a hotelbed, Ray laughed, and Sui Xiong also took the opportunity to give him some chicken soup for the soul and talk about the idea that ¡°happiness lies in contentment¡±. This time Ray didn¡¯t push back. He smiled and slept in peace. It was unclear whether this was because of his good mood or his opinion on the idea. But the next day, when he saw several emaciated people on the road, he frowned. ¡°The lord in this place is not competent,¡± he said. Sui Xiong also secretly shook his head. He knew that since this world was similar to medieval Europe, with low levels of productivity, death by starvation was inevitable. But when he witnessed the people starving to death, he still felt uncomfortable. The floating jellyfish slowly flew to the dead corpses, waved its tentacles, and a blue and white cold light fell on the corpses and made them into fine pieces of ice that were eventually integrated into the earth. Their souls were gone long before, and even great gods could only bury them. They continued to walk and found more people who had starved to death on the roadside. This time Ray frowned more intensely. He looked around at the still luxuriant farmland, and anger flashed in his eyes. ¡°Obviously the fields are good, and there are forests and mountains nearby. How can so many people starve to death?!¡± ¡°It seems something is wrong with the lord of this place¡­¡± Sui Xiong again buried the bodies and whispered, ¡°Better to investigate, right?¡± ¡°Is there something to investigate?¡± Ray asked with a sneer. ¡°If the result of the investigation proves there is a brutal lord here, do you want to personally punish him, Your Majesty Void Mask? I¡¯ll make it clear, I would oppose a lord for this reason, which is tantamount to provoking all the aristocracy. I am not crazy!¡± ¡°But you dare provoke a god, so what else wouldn¡¯t you dare to do?¡± ¡°Provoking all the aristocrats may be more troublesome than provoking a god¡­¡± As they walked and talked, they came close to a river flowing out of the forest. Just as Ray looked for a bridge to cross the river, he heard another cry for help¡­ Chapter 51 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°Do you hear that someone is asking for help?¡± Sui Xiong said suddenly. ¡°Around two or three miles from here, there is someone crying for help in the forest.¡± ¡°Again?¡± Ray muttered and listened carefully, then he shook his head and said, ¡°Void Faceless, please do not think I can be as strong as you. I am just a human. I can not possibly hear from the long distance.¡± Then Sui Xiong practiced a spell and increased the volume of the crying sound. Behind the sound of the wind, the water, the bird, the beast and the insect, there was a woman¡¯s crying sound. One could tell that the sound was full of terror and anxiety, obviously the woman was in danger. ¡°You¡¯re right. Someone is definitely crying for help,¡± Ray shrugged and continued to find a bridge. He was in low spirits, all he wanted to do was to find the bridge as soon as possible, so he could cross the river and leave the place he disliked so much. ¡°But she is in the opposite direction, just leave her alone, she will be fine.¡± ¡°Hello! A human life is of greater value than anything. We can not simply leave her alone just because she is in the opposite direction!¡± ¡°What does her life have anything to do with me?¡± Ray laughed and struggled to suppress his feeling of hunger and said, ¡°Look here. There are so many dead people along the road, except for you, who will give a shit about them? Their lives were as humble as that of the weed on the roadside!¡± Sui Xiong was in a daze; he recalled those people who were starved to death and lying on the road, and those indifferent pedestrians who just walked away as if they hadn¡¯t seen any of them. Thinking of this, he frowned. Ray was right, the life of the people here was really humble. He muttered to himself, and he made his decision to save that woman, ¡°I will never leave anyone in the lurch! Let¡¯s go and save her!¡± ¡°But we can not cross the river,¡± Ray warned him. ¡°The river is very deep, we can not cross it without a bridge.¡± Sui Xiong smiled, and then he turned into a floating jellyfish that was bigger than a bed, in the blink of an eye, and waved his tentacles and said hello to Ray. ¡°Get on, let¡¯s go and save her!¡± Ray shook his head, ¡°It¡¯s not on our route, we shouldn¡¯t waste our time.¡± Sui Xiong waved one of his tentacles, turned it into a sharp thorn and put it against Ray¡¯s temple. ¡°What did you say? I did not hear it, can you say it again?¡± Ray sighed and finally compromised, ¡°I said wait for a moment, let me put on my outfit.¡± This reply made Sui Xiong smile and he felt the phrase ¡°the key in education was being harsh¡± was really a golden saying. On the earth, in a class where there were over ten students that got very good grades in the college entrance examination, there would always be a few students who would never get such good grades but for the high pressure from their teachers! A truth always prevailed in the whole universe! While being threatened by Sui Xiong, Ray moved very fast. He had put on his outfit and made sure that he could fight in his best state. He then jumped onto the floating jellyfish and was ready to fight. The floating jellyfish was moving very fast, so it only took a short while for them to arrive at the place where the woman was. When they bypassed the woods, a brook came into their sight. Beside the brook, were lying many clothes in disorder, and there were a few strong men raping a white and chubby woman. ¡°This is not what I had expected it to be,¡± Ray laughed. ¡°Maybe this is just an erotic game¡­¡± ¡°Erotic?¡± Sui Xiong was confused. ¡°Look at the pile of clothes. On each of the clothes, there is the same emblem that was easily seen, obviously they are a family. It could not possibly be a scenario of ¡®a woman was sexually attacked by a bunch of scoundrels¡¯. Look at the face of that woman, she is not terrified at all, rather she is quite enjoying herself. They must be playing an erotic game!¡± Ray seemed to know quite a lot about this, and was telling Sui Xiong everything he felt suspicious about. ¡°Look at her posture, she must have done this many times and has slept with countless men before, otherwise, she could not be this experienced¡­ The Void Faceless, after all, you are still a jellyfish who does not know too much about this world!¡± ¡°Really?! A group of men and a woman?! In the wild?! She also needs to cry for help before they start? Are you sure they are just playing an erotic game?!¡± ¡°Of course, this is basically nothing. Among the aristocracy, there are more peculiar things! At least they are all humane, I have seen a human having sex with a horse, or a pig, or a monster¡­¡± Hearing this, Sui Xiong also felt that the woman was indeed enjoying herself, so he shook his head and sighed, ¡°These aristocrats are really crazy¡­¡± Suddenly, he asked, ¡°Ray, since you know so much about the aristocracy, are you a noble too?¡± Ray¡¯s body suddenly got stiff and he became silent, then he sighed and agreed without really saying yes. ¡°Shit! As a noble, you are supposed to do things like walking your dog, taking part in some cockfight competitions, bullying others and abducting women. Why on earth would you come to the brink of the desert and take on the business of killing people and firing their houses¡­ You just said these guys are bad, you are even worse!¡± ¡°I do not want all of this either! To abandon my comfortable life and become a bandit in the god-knows-where place? If I want have some real fun, I can easily find other ways! If it were not for¡ª¡± Ray suddenly realized he should not speak anymore and he stopped instantly. ¡°If it were not for? Tell me.¡± Sui Xiong was rather curious. Ray shook his head and changed to another topic. ¡°Nothing, it was a long time ago¡ª wait, something is wrong over there¡­¡± While they were talking, the strong man that was having sex with the woman suddenly squeezed her neck. ¡°Is this a part of the erotic game?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°No, he is going to kill her.¡± ¡°Holy sh*t!¡± Sui Xiong cursed, he was both confused by and very angry about these aristocrats who were wild about some peculiar ways of playing. He then caught Ray with his tentacles and threw him in the direction of the brook, ¡°Go save her!¡± Normally, one would almost be frightened to death if he was suddenly thrown into the air like this, but Ray was not an ordinary man. As a bandit who had been playing the bully in the western wilderness, he had seen and done quite a lot, in particular, during the time he was with the Void Faceless. His eyes had been opened, so things like this could never frighten him anymore. While he was still in the air, he had targeted the man that was squeezing the woman. He threw his long spear right into the man, then came a sound of screeching. The man was penetrated by the spear; the blood was spurting out from his body and his whole body was fixed beside the bank. Until now, there was one part of his body that was erect, and white sperm was ejaculating. This was really impressive. Everything just happened so quickly. Before the other men realized what had happened just now, Ray had already landed and began to yell, while brandishing his spear. During these years, the reason why he would be able to play the bully in the western wilderness, simply with the help of a spear, a sword and a horse, was that he was really strong and good at his martial arts. Even the huge bear that was itself a warcraft was killed by him in one shot, so even if these men were as strong as the gang of four, he could still kill all of them very easily. ¡°What are you doing!¡± Ray, who had made a mistake in front of Sui Xiong and felt very embarrassed by this, was furiously staring at these men, just like a vicious tiger, ¡°tell me!¡± ¡°Hel¡­ help!¡± The woman began to crawl toward Ray, without caring she was naked, she hugged one of Ray¡¯s leg, ¡°my courageous knight, please help me! I am the heiress of the Viscount Geerteng, Steele. I will definitely return your favour!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t believe her. She is just a b*tch who knows nothing but how to seduce men! The heir of the Viscount Geerteng is Romon!¡± a strong man that had not been seriously injured and was quite calm shouted, ¡°there was nothing valuable on her beside her dirty body!¡± ¡°And even that body is just a piece of garbage!¡± a man that was a bit thinner said. ¡°She has three holes in total, even the cleanest one had been f*cked by at least hundreds of men of different races. She is just a b*tch!¡± When Ray heard the phrase ¡°governing here¡±, he began to frown, and when he realized that he had been involved into a war of fighting for the right of inheritance of the title of the Viscount, he felt even more annoyed and had no idea what to do. Right at this moment, his heart had a tremble, and he realized there was someone trying to talk to him with telepathy. ¡°Ray, it¡¯s me,¡± Sui Xiong said. Hearing this, Ray was refreshed. Sui Xiong was really worth the title of a God, although he did not seem that reliable usually, but he responded much more quickly than others at critical moments! ¡°Your Majesty, what do you think I should do?¡± he asked. ¡°No wonder this place is in such a mess, there is a war of fighting for the title of the Viscount¡­ Bummer, how could I possibly get involved in this sort of thing! There is a big chance that I would become the scapegoat!¡± ¡°What you are going to do is not important. What is important is that¡ª did you hear ¡®different race¡¯? Ah! Shit! You were really telling the truth just now, there really are some aristocrats that would randomly f*ck with each other among different races! What a mess! But kind of cool!¡± Ray lowered his head and felt a bit pathetic and naive, for he was moved and begin to admire Sui Xiong when Sui Xiong talked with him in telepathy¡­ Then he decided to not to ask what he should do from Sui Xiong and began to act on his own will. He looked at these men coldly and shook off Steele who was hugging his leg, then he brandished his spear and killed the men one by one. ¡°Okay, they are all dead. You are safe now.¡± Then he pulled his long spear out of the dead man and started to clean his spear and sword with the men¡¯s clothes. He said to Steele who was frightened by the bloody scene and was trembling heavily, ¡°I have no interest in the title of the Viscount, and I am really busy and going to leave soon, so goodbye.¡± Steele was totally stunned when she saw Ray killing the courageous warriors so easily, as if he was killing a chick. Her whole body was shaking and she was afraid that he would kill her. She finally managed to pull herself together when she heard what Ray had said just now. She did not leave as Ray had told her to, instead, she hurriedly hugged Ray¡¯s feet and kissed his boots. ¡°My powerful knights! I would give all the treasures stored in the treasure-house that had been passed down generation by generation, please help me to kill Romon, the bastard that did not have the bloodline of the Geerteng Family, and protect the glory of my family!¡± Chapter 52 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma B*stard? Not having the bloodline of the Geerteng Family? The treasure? Hearing the three phrases, Ray sneered, turned around and left. The woman was scheming. She tried to tempt him with the treasure in the first place, then she told him the fatal shortcomings of his enemies, making a show of how she could definitely win. If he was a inexperienced adventurer, he would have probably been tricked by her. But who was he? He was the single bandit that was famous in the west wilderness, a vicious man that wiped out the whole commercial corp of smuggling ¡°Iron Sand¡± all by himself; the werewolf that even dared to provoke the God of hunting and holocaust! If there was anyone who wanted to trick him, that person needed to at least have some self-knowledge! Besides, he had seen too much of this sort of thing. A b*stard that did not have the bloodline of his family? The so-called bloodline, as long as one was rich and had got some connection with people in the higher rank, he could turn a fake one into a real one. Since all it took was just a ceremony of magic spell and a sample of the bloodline that one wanted to have. Judging from the current situation of the Geerteng Family, the whole ruling system was crumbling, and both sides were on the brink of a war. The bloodline, reputation¡­ were all meaningless. When the fight began, which ever side¡¯s military force was stronger was the only thing that counted. The side that had a bigger fist would win, while the side with a smaller fist would lose. The winner got everything and the loser lost everything, which was really common among the aristocracy, and Ray had seen once himself. Romon could even control Steele¡¯s lovers, which meant that he had a really strong control over his manors. While Steele was a slut with a really bad reputation, not a single honourable man would be willing to support her. As for what would happen when the two sides initiated a war, Ray could already make some predictions. Would he be willing to help Steele to fight for the right of inheritance under such a situation? Only a fool would help her! When he was sneering and decided to leave, he heard that Sui Xiong was talking with him via telepathy. ¡°You can go with her to see what is really going on. I think things are more complicated than this.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, I do not think you know too much about the human world¡ª I have made my decision. I will not help her.¡± Ray thought this was all because of Sui Xiong¡¯s sense of justice, and said, ¡°This woman can not possibly win. It is better for her to run away.¡± ¡°I am not interested in that woman. I am interested in the Viscount Geerteng.¡± ¡°¡­ as a non-human God, I think it is a bit risky to get involved in the fight for the right of inheritance among the aristocracy,¡± Ray said. ¡°Besides, what can you really get from this? The fortune and the title are meaningless to a non-human God like you. If you want to cultivate your followers here, do you think a man who can betray his faith to gain profit would be faithful to you?¡± ¡°You are thinking too much. I just want to be the one who upheld the justice,¡± Sui Xiong laughed, and did not tell Ray that he really wanted to see what a war between the aristocracy was really like, since he had never seen the fight for inheritance among the aristocracy. ¡°¡­ I do not know why, but I feel like you are not telling me the truth.¡± Sui Xiong never thought Ray could be this sharp. Hearing this, he was a bit embarrassed, but he kept a poker face and said, ¡°You are over-thinking, after all I am a good God. Is there anything wrong with that I want to uphold justice?¡± ¡°A jellyfish wants to uphold the justice for humans; this is already terribly wrong!¡± Sui Xiong was speechless and had no choice but to force Ray to go with Steele. Although Ray was not interested in this sort of crap among the aristocracy, he did not dare to disobey Sui Xiong¡¯s order. He sighed helplessly and followed Steele. ¡°I need to make one thing clear: I am not trying to help you or make you any promises,¡± he emphasized his point to Steele. ¡°I just feel there is something wrong and I want to see it for myself.¡± Steele nodded and acted in a very clever way, while also laughing secretly. Wanting to see it for himself? He must be lying! I know what adventurers are really like! The Geerteng Manor was a manor adjacent to the wilderness, and the Viscounts of generations and generations had worked very hard to exploit this land and make it their manor. During this process, they had made many negotiations or had many fights with the adventurers. As the official and the only heiress of the Geerteng Manor, Steele had been in contact with adventurers from a very young age, so she knew them very well, like their moral character and behaviour¡ª the so-called adventurers were just a group of strong men who were constantly chasing after treasure. There were both good and bad adventurers, but they all shared common features. Firstly, they respected the contract and once they had made a promise, they would never break it, otherwise they would choose not to make one that easily, after all, adventurer is a decent profession, so the credit is very important to them. Secondly, they were always pursuing the profit. If it were not for their own benefit, they would never take the risk to do business that might cost their life! The knight in black must have been interested in this business; the reason why he had not agreed was that he had not known the strength of the both sides. As long as he was sure that he would win, he would definitely agree to help me even if there was only around fifty to sixty percent chance that he would win¡ª and the fifty to sixty percent chance of succeeding was already enough for an adventurer. Therefore, she felt very happy and began to walk with springy steps. What a day! Because the situation was getting worse, Steele was rather unhappy about this. She had meant to f*ck her lovers outside, but she never thought that her lovers had already been bribed by Romon to betray her! Facing a group of strong men who suddenly wanted to kill her, she could not fight back at all but could only wait to die. Right at that moment, a man suddenly appeared from nowhere, an incredibly powerful adventurer who killed those traitors and rescued her. What was even better was the adventurer was tempted by her promise of granting him many treasures. Even if he had not totally agreed to help her, he had already agreed to go back with her. When he saw the piles of treasures in the warehouse of the Geerteng family, he would definitely choose to stand by her side. With the support of this strong man, Steele could finally fight back harshly. Besides, as long as she showed that she had enough strength, many officials and aristocrats who did not want to support Romon in the first place would change their attitude. Before, she did not have anyone on her side in fighting for the inheritance of the title of Viscount, and now the situation had changed. She would get the same number of people as Romon had on his side, or she would even be in the dominant position! As for how much treasure she would want to give Ray, she would be the one to decide once she won the inheritance and became the Viscount of Geerteng! Thinking of this, she became much happier and began to smile rather charmingly. ¡°She is trying to set you up.¡± Sui Xiong, who was floating in the sky right above Ray¡¯s head, was talking to Ray in telepathy, ¡°She is bearing malice toward you. Do believe anything she said?¡± The gap between the God and a mortal was indeed very large, which could be seen from many sides. Among which the most represented view was that the superior one could ¡°read the mind¡± of the inferior one . A mortal¡¯s mind was totally open to a God, and a God could know what he was thinking without even trying to read his mind on purpose. This was probably what the phrase ¡°a man could never lie to a God¡± meant. However, if a mortal got stronger and stronger, it would not be that easy for a God to read his mind, and when he managed to venture beyond the limits and stepped into the legendary world, a God could never read a mortal¡¯s mind at his own will. Of course, when a mortal managed to do so, could he still be considered as a mortal? After all, many legendary strong men were seen as the existence above humans. But things were not always absolute. For example, Ray had almost stepped into the legendary world¡ª one could see how strong he was from what he had gone through in the Gray Stone Mountains. Unless Sui Xiong pried into his mind on purpose, he could not know what Ray was thinking but only have a guess of his emotions. Moreover, the cunning Ray also had a way to deceive a God. If he himself did not know if he was telling the truth or not, the God could not know either. Earlier before, Ray had managed to trick Sui Xiong in this way; he was indeed an experienced liar! Compared with Ray, Steele was neither powerful nor had she set up some sophisticated deceptive trick, so there was no way that she could deceive Sui Xiong. Although Sui Xiong did not mean to read her mind, she was close to him, and he could hear absolutely everything she was secretly thinking. He could hear clearly as if a poor actor was reading their monologue to his ear. ¡°There is no need to worry about me. I would not be tricked that easily,¡± Ray sneered when he heard Sui Xiong¡¯s warning. He despised that woman very much and was confused by Sui Xiong¡¯s behaviour. ¡°See? The aristocracy¡¯s world is as ugly as this woman¡¯s heart. This sort of woman¡­ do you really want a follower like her, even if she is willing to believe you?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± Sui Xiong answered honestly. ¡°Quite right. If there is anyone who would accept her as a follower that someone would only probably be the Dim Moon¡­¡± ¡°Who?!¡± Sui Xiong was in a daze. He concentrated his power and looked carefully at Steele¡¯s soul and said, ¡°She is not a follower of the God of Conspiracy, if I am right, she is a follower of the God of Aristocracy.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ the noble lady, she is no different from the Dim Moon. The Dim Moon even helped her to kill the former God of Country and Diplomacy, and got her the three priesthoods: the aristocracy, the law and the governance. Thus she managed to become a real God from a semi-God. They have always been a close ally with each other, so what is the difference between her followers and the Dim Moon¡¯s?¡± ¡°What?!¡± What Ray had just said was not written in the materials given by the God of Redemption. Sui Xiong was totally stunned by this and it took a long time for him to pull himself together. ¡°Shit! No wonder the aristocracy¡¯s world is in such a mess. How can it not be when the God of Aristocracy herself is not good?¡± Sui Xiong then asked curiously, ¡°The God of Aristocracy is also a God for humans, so has the department of the human Gods done anything? I remember that the Lord God of the department of the human Gods is the God to keep the order of the world. He even allows a human God to do secret and dirty business with Gods from other departments?¡± Ray was confused. ¡°There are a group of evil Gods in the department of human Gods; why wouldn¡¯t they allow their peers to do business with the Dim Moon? Conspiracy is such a common thing in politics, so is it among the Gods!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned, then he shook his head and sighed. ¡°The aristocracy¡¯s world is in such a mess!¡± Chapter 53 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The centre of the Geerteng Manor was Geerteng Town. In this world, a civilian did not have a first name, only the aristocracy did, and the first name of a aristocrat was also his title. To emphasize this, he would usually name the center of his manor with his first name. For example, the Viscount Tsang Cheung. The prefecture would be called the Cheung city¡ª it should be the Tsang city, since ¡°Tsang¡± is the first name. Currently, in the Geerteng Manor, there were two candidates fighting for the inheritance of the title: Romon Geerteng, the b*stard of the Viscount Geerteng, and Geerteng¡¯s niece, Steele Geerteng. And Ray as well, who was wearing Sui Xiong¡¯s incarnation on his head, as if it were a hat. Ray had a first name too, which he did not like to talk about. Of course, except for the aristocracy, many clergy had also got their own first names. For example, a clergyman that had been blessed by a God could have a first name granted by the God. When Sui Xiong¡¯s Holy Place was built, those advanced clergies that had been involved in the construction and the governance of the Holy Place could use the name of the Holy Place as their first name. Besides, there were also some non-clergies that had been granted a first name¡­ but anyway, they were few. In a word, in Sui Xiong¡¯s view, the development of the civilization of this world was not that advanced, since the registration of the civilian¡¯s names in a large scale had not even started and not to mention that they had not even recieved their first names¡ª while on the earth, the registration of the civilian¡¯s names had already been finished in the Spring and Autumn period, but compared with that period and excluding the existence of the magic spell, the level of productivity in this world was so much higher than that of the Spring and Autumn period! Judging from this, the rulers, including the aristocrats and the Gods in this world, were just a bunch of crap that had been hindering the development of the civilization! While Sui Xiong was criticizing the rulers of this world, Ray and Steele were walking on the unsurfaced road toward the Geerteng Town. Ray did not take his Nargacuga with him, instead he had freed it when he had arrived at the margin of the Gray Stones Mountains. He felt that a Black Armored Knight riding a Nargacuga was too obvious, while just a black armor would be more common. To make the domesticated Nargacuga become a beast-like creature again, Ray, who was always very stubborn asked Sui Xiong to use his power to make it wild again, so the Nargacuga could adapt into the life in the forest. Then the Nargacuga that had been Ray¡¯s mount for a few years became fierce again and wanted to attack Ray, but left without any reluctance when realizing it could not possibly win. At that time, Sui Xiong realized that this great bandit was feeling rather sad. Maybe for a man like Ray, who had got used to being alone all these years, the mount was probably his only friend. Seeing his only friend leave and realizing that he might never see it again, how could he not be sad. Ray¡¯s horsemanship was really good, which greatly surprised Steele. Although she called him the ¡°knight,¡± she never really thought he was¡ª was there any knight who would be walking in the mountain alone with a spear on his back and a sword hanging around his waist, and not riding a mount? A real knight, no matter how bad a situation he was in, must be holding a sword and riding a horse all the time. Since without a sword and a mount, he would not be able to exert his full power. After seeing how marvelous Ray¡¯s horsemanship was, she began to question her judgement she made earlier. He managed to tame a very hot-tempered horse simply by touching it two times with his hands; the rhythm of his talking did not change at all when he was comfortably riding the horse as if he was walking; when he was riding the horse, his actions were in great harmony with the actions of the horse, and it seemed that he was ready to pull out his sword and fight at any moment¡­ if he was not a knight, then who was!? As far as she was concerned, the few most famous knights in the Geerteng Town were just like this. Could this mysterious black armored knight really be a powerful knight? Thinking this, she begin to feel nervous. A knight, especially a powerful knight was always of great birth. There two common kinds: an offspring of an aristocrat who was too young to inherit the title, or an elite strictly cultivated by a church. No matter which kind a knight was, he must have seen a lot and had a good knowledge of the ¡°Aristocratic Principle¡±. Steele was confident that she could twist an adventurer who did not have a thorough understanding of the aristocratic world around her little fingers, but she did not think so when facing a knight of noble birth or an elite-to-be who was cultivated by a church. As for scheming, could she be better at this than other aristocrats? Of course not. If she was, then how could she be usurped by a b*stard with complicated background and almost lose her life? How about compared to an elite-to-be cultivated by a church? She could be no better. After all, an elite-to-be was raised to fight against an aristocracy. Maybe this knight was better at using his mind than using his sword¡­ Thinking this, Steele became anxious and felt like she might have invited a wolf into her backyard when there had already been a tiger at her front door. What was even worse was that the tiger was still there¡­ Steele Geerteng, who always considered herself clever, beautiful and an elite of the younger generation in the Geerteng Manor, suddenly realized that her asking Ray to help her might not have been a wise choice. Since it was no use crying over spilled milk, she felt she had already been cornered and was sure to be defeated. She thought she now was just like a civilian in an aristocratic court, and everything was just a show since she had already been declared guilty and the punishment had been decided accordingly. She felt like as long as there was still a shred of a chance that she could survive, she should try her best to defend herself, hoping she could reprimand the shit out of them and silence the accuser and the judge. Then, even if the poet who was employed by the emperor singing ¡°no matter how persuasive the defense of the guilty was, she did not deserve any applause¡± in the very next day, she would not feel sad since she knew she had at least tried, and could still smile in the gallows while telling herself ¡°it was not my fault, it was the God that wanted me to die.¡± She knew she could at last die with dignity. Thinking this, Steele was relieved. Anyway, it was better to die this way than being f*cked and squeezed to death by her lovers¡­ The two were riding the horses rather casually and moving toward the Geerteng Town. When seeing that Steele was still intact and riding past him, the captain of the guard was so shocked that his eyes became as round as two balls, as if his eyeballs were going to drop out at any minute. ¡°M¡­ Miss Steele!?¡± he stood in front of the horse without knowing what to say. To say ¡°welcome back¡±? No it was not right, if the Childe Romon knew that he had welcomed Miss Steele back in public, he knew he would definitely be killed! Then ¡°why are you here¡±? Not good either, since Miss Steele was still the heiress of the Viscount and if not for the Childe Romon, she would be the one to inherit. I am just a gatekeeper, and I am not f*cking her on the bed now. I could not possibly disrespect her! Am I that naive to think that a sick tiger would not be able to kill a man? What should I say then? There were some tiny beads of sweat on the forehead of the tall and strong captain, and they soon gathered together and became bigger and bigger, and became two streams of sweat that flowed along his cheeks in less than thirty seconds. After all, he was quite experienced and had been in this situation before. Then he smiled and cleverly said, ¡°Miss Steele, earlier before, you took a group of men with you? Why is there only one left?¡± Steele sneered, changed her sl*tty expression she always had whenever she saw a man, kept that chin up and said with the very noble accent, ¡°You amaze me. I never knew a gatekeeper in the Geerteng Town would dare to question his lord who he is supposed to be loyal to. Do you really think I should report to you before I do something or about who I choose to accompany me when I am out?¡± Steele was being really sharp and cleverly elevated the conversation to a level of class struggle. The captain was startled, then he immediately stood at attention and shouted, ¡°Line up! Welcome Miss Steele back home!¡± The soldiers were confused, but were on alert when seeing their leader had been reprimanded. Then they instantly stood in two lines in a welcoming formation. Technically speaking, they should not stand in a welcoming formation, since this was a ceremony that only a lord could receive. The old Viscount had just died, and the new Viscount had not been named, so no one in the Geerteng Town should be entitled to this ceremony. But who would fuss about this superfluous rule at this moment? If things went as Romon had planned, there would be someone stopping this from happening. Since among the soldiers, there were two of Romon¡¯s subordinates, and these two were sent here to cope with some accidents. Seeing this, one had got on the horse and went to the mansion house of the Viscount to deliver the message. While the other, who seemed quite strong, did not come forward to stop this from happening after thinking carefully. As the two had been entrusted with an important post, this meant that they were not stupid. They immediately felt there was something wrong when they saw the soon-to-be-dead Steele suddenly become so mighty and the bribed lovers had become a unknown black armour knight. So they did act rashly. The one who stayed was really very strong. He was close to the level F, an advanced swordsman, and had a sharp eye. He looked Ray up and down and surprisingly found that even though the black armour knight was sitting on the horse, his body was in a position which could help him to counterattack an attack from any direction, which was indeed amazing¡ª or the word ¡°amazing¡± was too feeble to describe him. He was incredibly powerful! The one had seen the strongest knights in the Geerteng Town, but they could only be in this position when they were in a fight. While this black armour knight was not planning to fight with anyone now, he was in this position daily. He made a conclusion without thinking very hard. A conclusion that terrified him so bad that he got cold feet. This unknown black armour knight was probably an advanced adventurer, or maybe he was probably¡ª close to being legendary! Chapter 54 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Anyone who could be entrusted with an important post must be a brilliant figure, and since the one who stayed was very brilliant, he managed to know how strong Ray really was. Then he was completely stunned. The Geerteng Manor was a manor ruled by a Viscount; it was adjacent to the wilderness where there were many adventurers. While he transportation was not convenient and there weren¡¯t many prey with high economic value here, the adventurers who would travel here varied from the green hand to the experienced. As for Satan, who was a middle advanced wizard, only the super elite, the captain of a group or some well-known masters, could match up with him. The two men were Romon¡¯s close relatives as well as his capable warriors. Even though they were some powerful figures among the middle advanced adventurers, there was still a big gap between them and the advanced adventurers. In the whole Geerteng Town, there was one very powerful guy, Lyon Gervasi, the archbishop of the church of the God of Knight and Pioneer. He had been blessed by the God and it was said that he had touched the threshold of the Legendary World. Around two hundred years ago, he was persuaded by the first Viscount of Geerteng and thus came to this town and built the church. Now after two centuries, he had become the figure that steadied the whole Geerteng Manor and had more authority than the Viscount. If it were not for his making it clear that he would not get involved in this fight for the inheritance of the title, Romon would never dare to have the mere idea of taking control the Geerteng Town. Competing with a strong man who had lived for over two hundred years, had pushed past a human body¡¯s limits, and capturing his old friend¡¯s fortune were not things that someone who even only had a shred of sense would do. Now, Steele who was supposed to have been killed by her lovers had come back with a suspicious strong knight who had probably touched the threshold of the legendary world. This¡­ this¡­ was absolutely¡­ The one that stayed had been thinking very hard to find the proper word to describe his feelings, but he failed to do so. If Sui Xiong was there, Sui Xiong would definitely help him to finish the sentence¡ª¡±F*cking Jesus Christ!¡± ¡°Ray, it seems there is someone who has been frightened by you.¡± The one that stayed was so scared that his terror had been sensed by Sui Xiong who was very far away from him. Sui Xiong showed Ray where this guy was and said, ¡°What have you done? That man is so scared that he is going to pee himself.¡± ¡°What could I have possibly done? During these years, I have done things like kill people, burn their property and rob people, anyway, I have done nothing decent. Maybe he was a family member of someone I killed before, or he was the lucky one who managed to run away when I wiped out the whole Iron Sand Chamber.¡± ¡°Could you please stop telling me the bad deeds you have done before, like you have killed one¡¯s whole family or something. I am feeling rather uncomfortable.¡± ¡°¡­ who said I have killed one¡¯s whole family?! I have never killed any old people or women! I just went into the chamber and killed everyone I saw, both inside and outside¡ª there were only some businessmen and hired thugs. I did not see any old people or kids!¡± Ray could not help redressing injustice for himself while Sui Xiong had randomly declared him guilty for killing some old people and kids. ¡°There are only ruthless thugs in a smuggling chamber, no one would bring their own old parents or kids with them!¡± Sui Xiong was a bit embarrassed and laughed a bit. Then he looked into his memory and realized that Ray had never talked about killing one¡¯s whole family, and it was him that had created the scene of ¡°killing the whole family¡± in his mind. Then he had wronged Ray? ¡°Well, you are not actually that bad!¡± Sui Xiong exclaimed. ¡°Bullsh*t! Almost everyone in the bandit world hated me that was why I always acted alone. Is this not enough to prove that I am really bad?¡± Ray could not help complaining. ¡°Your Majesty, please do not judge a human on the basis of a jellyfish¡¯s morality! If you want to practice a spell, then at least practice a spell that would work!¡± ¡°The morality of which the spell of detecting which side one was on was based on¡­ was something I disagree with,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°The dividing line between the orderliness and disorder is reasonable, but I think the distinction between the good and the bad still needs to be negotiated.¡± ¡°This is really a sophisticated question. I should not get myself into it; you should better find another God to talk with.¡± ¡°I think you are someone with insight, ideas and are very sophisticated. You are someone who I can talk about this sort of question with¡­¡± ¡°No! I am not that sort of person at all! You are going to drive me crazy by asking me these bullsh*t questions during these days. Unless you want a lunatic to accompany you, stop talking about these questions with me!¡± Ray instantly denied Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion. ¡°As far as I am concerned, apart from these questions, you can talk with me about things like ¡®now close the city gate¡¯, ¡®starting from here, let¡¯s kill everyone we see,¡¯ and ¡®how many people do we need to kill before we can control this Viscount Manor?¡¯¡­ as long as you stop talking with me about that sort of question!¡± Sui Xiong sighed and felt very sorry for losing a partner he could talk with. Meanwhile, Steele and Ray had walked through the city gate and were casually heading toward the Viscount Mansion. ¡°The Mansion of the Geerteng Viscount was built around two hundred years ago. Since then it has been rebuilt and extended; now only the entrance door and the courtyard of inheritance where the big family conference is held are still the same, apart from these two, everything else was built later.¡± Steele was very familiar with this area and told Ray the history behind every place they passed. She was not that slutty now, instead Ray could tell she had a very deep love for this city and this Viscount Mansion. It was as if she was a bad kid who had been doing bad things away from her home and finally came back home after all these years wandering from one place to another. Although her personality had changed a lot, when she recalled all the memories of her childhood, she felt she was that pure and kind little girl again. ¡°This woman is not that bad and can still mend her ways¡­¡± as a God, Sui Xiong could easily feel that Steele¡¯s mind had changed, and he could not help but laugh. Ray sneered and chipped in, ¡°Miss Steele, the store we have just passed by seemed to have been rebuilt recently. It seems that everything is still fine in the Geerteng Manor.¡± Steele was in a daze and woke up from her memory. She turned around to see the store Ray referred to, thought a while and said, ¡°That store¡­¡± she thought again and then shook her head, ¡°I do not quite remember¡­¡± ¡°Why not ask someone else?¡± Without getting a reply from Steele, Ray immediately get off from the horse and stopped an adventurer who was just walking by and asked. ¡°About a month ago, the owner of this store went out to replenish his stock. While he was riding, there was someone riding in front of him very quickly. His horse was frightened and was out of control, then his carriage was turned upside down and all his goods in the carriage were confiscated.¡± The adventurer knew what had transpired and told Ray everything he knew, ¡°He did not come back home and hanged himself on a tree along the road, then his wife and children killed themselves. Later, this store was bought by a relative of an aristocrat. He rebuilt this store and reopened it recently.¡± Ray did not show any emotions and asked, ¡°How much did that man spend on this store? This is really a good area. It must have cost him a fortune!¡± ¡°No, not expensive at all. The original owner was actually in debt, and the new owner promised to return the debt and he got this store without spending a penny. If the original owner were not in debt, his wife and children would not have killed themselves,¡± the adventurer smiled and shook his head. ¡°So being an aristocrat is really good.¡± ¡°How about the debt?¡± Ray asked, hoping to get to the bottom of this matter. ¡°In fact, the debt was all because of the efficiency of the circulation, which means that when the goods were confiscated, the owner then became broke and was in debt. When the goods were returned to him, he would not be in debt anymore,¡± the adventurer sighed. ¡°My friend, do not joke with me! This sort of thing is too common here!¡± Then he shook his head, sighed and left. Ray laughed and casually said, ¡°¡®Once the goods of a merchant fall onto the ground, his goods shall be confiscated.¡¯ This law has already been abolished in many regions of the Gold Coin Federation; I never thought it still works here¡ª it seems that the officials here are having a hard time collecting the tax!¡± ¡°Quite true, this city is not that big. We do not have enough sources of various revenues. We can not make everything look good if we have not come up with more ways to collect more money!¡± Steele forced a smile and said, ¡°To make everything look good, we have indeed come up with many ways. Alas! We aristocrats should not be troubled by this sort of thing! I do hope we can abolish the laws that hinder the revenue collection as much as possible!¡± Ray sneered and asked Sui Xiong in telepathy, ¡°Your Majesty, do you still think this woman can mend her ways?¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while, then he said, ¡°I think the suggestion you made earlier was worth trying.¡± ¡°What suggestion?¡± ¡°Block the city gate, kill everyone and control the Manor.¡± Ray was stunned. ¡°What! Are you kidding me! Currently, my picture is on the wanted paper of the Church of the Brutal Hunter. Do you want my picture to be put on one more wanted paper¡­ ? No, several more wanted papers?! Besides, it is impossible for us to do as you told! If you do this yourself, it is possible that you could wipe out the whole population of this city at most, but you can not possibly control the manor! I am not even the Geerteng Family¡­¡± ¡°Have you forgotten that you told me that the bloodline can be easily changed with only a magic ceremony that costs about twenty to thirty thousand gold coins?¡± ¡°But why do I need to change my bloodline to the bloodline of a Viscount in the countryside! I am¡ª¡± Ray suddenly realized he was going to say something he was not supposed to say, so he immediately stopped talking, and this had made Sui Xiong feel unhappy. This guy was indeed smart, if he had said just one more word, I would have known his origin! He sighed and said, ¡°This woman is past help¡­ maybe we should find someone younger and purer, after all a white paper is a better choice for writing.¡± ¡°No matter how pure one is, they would finally be spoiled by the extravagant aristocratic life.¡± Ray had no confidence in the aristocracy. ¡°Then find someone who is pure in character and has less desire.¡± ¡°There is no one like this among the aristocrats!¡± ¡°Then find someone who is not an aristocrat, and later we just need to spend twenty or thirty thousand gold coins to hold a magic ceremony.¡± ¡°¡­ well, I have to admit that you are right this time¡­¡± Then things were settled between the two. When they got settled in the Viscount Mansion, Ray would show himself in front of everyone and help Steele to keep up her appearances. Ray began to take a walk casually around the Geerteng City. As for the reason why he agreed to do so, he did not bother to say, since there was no one who could stop him from doing anything, or technically speaking, no one would try to stop him. The Geerteng City was not big at all. It only took Sui Xiong and Ray less than a half day to see the whole city. Luckily, they had managed to find a person who was young, pure and a bit talented: the collateral branch of the Geerteng Family; Olian Geerteng who was the administrator of the Geerteng City Library. She was just fifteen years old. Chapter 55 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma It was really not that easy to find a talent like Olian. Sui Xiong and Ray basically knew nothing about the Geerteng Family, as well as the Geerteng City, and they had no idea where they could find the person they needed. They were wandering aimlessly as if they were trying to dredge up a needle in the sea, and felt like it was even more difficult than a scout who was waiting at the gate of a high school, watching every girl that came out of the school and trying to find a future super star in the film industry among these girls. Ray knew this very clearly, so when Sui Xiong said he wanted to find a suitable heir to the title of Viscount himself, he was rather doubtful and asked, ¡°You said you want to find a perfect heir, where shall we find him?¡± Ray had been an adventurer as well as a bandit for a long time, and he knew very well that finding someone was never an easy task. It would be better if they knew which person they needed to find. Now they were trying to find someone who they did not even know really existed. Should they go to a bar, buy the most expensive wine and ask the bartender? By doing this, they might find out who was best at fighting or who was the richest or who was the most beautiful in the city, but Ray did not think the bartender knew who was the perfect one to inherit the title of Viscount. If the bartender really had some ideas, he might say the perfect one was Romon or Steele¡­ ¡°We can not give up before we have even started! I am going to think of a way.¡± Sui Xiong also realized that his plan might not work. But since he had said he was going to think of a way, he would have to fulfill his promise. Then he began to think really hard and sift through the materials given by the God of Redemption, hoping to find some way. And surprisingly, he did manage to find one. It was a very advanced magic spell called ¡°foresee the future.¡± It was not a common magic spell, rather it was a ¡°legendary spell.¡± It¡¯s working principle was rather complicated, so was its result. Based on the preconditions, one needed to simulate what would happen under this condition and do some observations. The key to this spell was the gap between the one who was observing and the one who was being observed; the bigger the gap was, the more energy the one who was observing could consume and the smaller the gap, the less energy. If one wanted to observe someone whose Person was higher than them, they were just daydreaming. The person Sui Xiong wanted to find was a mortal, and Sui Xiong was a God, so he thought he would not consume too much energy¡­ They chose to leave the Geerteng City first, and came to a open and desolated place, then Sui Xiong practiced a spell to shield the scene around him in case he was seen by others. He began to read the paternoster and changed his magic power into invisible clew to connect with the infinite time. The air in front them began to tremble, wriggle and twist, as if there was something being bred in the air. The atmosphere was getting really terrifying, even the audacious Ray was frightened. After a while, Sui Xiong finished reading the paternoster, then he use his magic energy to activate the magic spell. Crack! As if there was a glass in front them that was broken suddenly, the trembled heavily and a vague scene appeared. It was the Geerteng City, but it was quite different from the one they saw. This Geerteng City was very prosperous and bustling. There were many people on the street and everyone looked very happy, which meant the ruler had been managing the city very well. In the center, was the Viscount Mansion. They were staring at the mansion, as if they had become two invisible pairs of eyes that were floating in the sky and observing. Sui Xiong was surprised to find that the magic energy stored in this doppelg?nger was drifting away very quickly, but he knew he could not stop at this critical moment, so he clenched his teeth and transported the magic energy from his real body and flew higher into the sky. Then he spread his body and absorbed the magic energy from around him, as much as possible to fill the energy deficit. Even so, he still felt he could not last too long. Luckily, he was a God after all, and the gap of the Person between him and his target was very big, so the consumption was relatively lower. If a legendary wizard wanted to practice this spell, not only would they need to hold a big ceremony, they would also have to consume a huge amount of magic energy¡ªeven so, he saw some vague scenes at most. Sui Xiong and Ray were watching the scene live, no matter how bad the image quality was. This was something only a God could do. Then Sui Xiong used his magic energy to further activate this spell; the invisible eyes then began to move quickly and flew toward the Viscount Mansion and right into the government service center. The Viscount Mansion was not that big, so it just took a short while for the two of them to get into the government service center. Inside the room, there was a calm girl who was wearing glasses. She was frowning and talking with an official next to her. ¡°That¡¯s her!¡± Sui Xiong exclaimed, and stopped the spell immediately. The bizarre scene in front of them immediately vanished like a broken water bubble. Ray was completely stunned and stood still. An exhausted jellyfish God was on his head, as if it was a hat. ¡°Seriously?!¡± Ray muttered. ¡°He managed to find the person simply by randomly choosing a target and then practicing a spell? How could this be so easy!¡± ¡°Is a God really this powerful? Why do I feel there is something wrong with this¡­ If it is so easy to find someone, I should have been found a long time ago, not to mention by the others. The Brutal Hunter had given their order to hunt me down, they must have practiced a spell to locate me¡­ Besides, through the ages, there were so many powerful men that had ever offended a God, I have never heard of one who had been found simply by a magic spell¡­¡± Sui Xiong did not bother to explain it to this inexperienced and ignorant knight. Easy? Couldn¡¯t Ray tell he was already too tired to get up now! The more Ray thought about this, the more upset he became. Then he could not help but ask Sui Xiong what on earth was happening, but Sui Xiong himself was not clear either, and the more he explained the more confused Ray became. He had to leave this unsolved problem alone for now. During this time, Sui Xiong finally managed to pull himself together, then he asked Ray to buy a pen and a few pieces of paper in the city. He then held the pen with his tentacles and began to draw on the paper. Soon he drew a vivid and unedited portrait of the girl with glasses. ¡°So this is the person we are going to find?¡± Staring at the picture, Ray secretly praised Sui Xiong. He never thought a jellyfish could be so good at drawing a picture! ¡°Of course! This is the ¡®most suitable and talented lord-to-be¡¯ that was found by me via the magic spell,¡± Sui Xiong said proudly. ¡°But I have a question,¡± Ray said, ¡°the scene we saw just now was a scene in the future, right?¡± ¡°Not the future, but a scene in the future which is made possible on the condition that the Geerteng Manor is led by the most suitable talent,¡± Sui Xiong corrected Ray. Ray nodded and asked, ¡°Then, the lord we saw, I mean, she is the future self of the person we are going to find?¡± Sui Xiong was in a daze, he never thought about this. ¡°Then, Your Majesty, how does ¡®the most suitable and talented lord-to-be¡¯ of the Geerteng Manor look like now?¡± Sui Xiong was annoyed by this. He contemplated for a long while and drew a few portraits on a few papers. Based on his painting knowledge, Sui Xiong predicted how the girl looked like at her different ages. He drew three more portraits in addition to the one of her thirty-year-old self he had drawn earlier: her ten-year-old self, fifteen-year-old self and twenty-year-old self. With these portraits, they went straight to the pub in the Geerteng City; they paid a few gold coins to an information broker who knew everyone in the Geerteng City and got the information on the girl. ¡°This is the little Olian. She is a distant relative of the late Viscount who lives in the library.¡± The old information broker was telling the truth; he immediately recognized the girl after just seeing the girl¡¯s ten-year-old portrait, ¡°But she is already fourteen or fifteen years old. This is a portrait of her younger self; you have preserved it well.¡± ¡°Living in the library? Is she the curator of the library?¡± Ray asked. ¡°No way! She is just an administrator who is responsible for people borrowing books and registration,¡± the information broker smiled. ¡°But she also sells books which she has transcribed herself, but those books are not that useful and are just some invaluable books.¡± After he found out where the library was, Ray immediately made his departure and it only took him a short while to locate the library. ¡°Are you sure this girl is the suitable heiress to the title of Viscount?¡± Watching the young girl in glasses who was sitting quietly behind the long desk in front of the library gate, Ray began to doubt. ¡°Is it possible that because she is wearing a furry shawl that looks like a jellyfish¡¯s tentacles, you thought she was the person we are looking for?¡± Sui Xiong was so angry that he knocked Ray¡¯s head with his tentacles and said, ¡°You can doubt my ability, but you can not doubt my personality! I would never choose a person for such a ridiculous reason!¡± ¡°Does a jellyfish have a personality¡­?¡± Ray gently touched his head. If this were an online game, Ray would have lost one point of his health point, but for him who had an HP of two hundred and fifty, this knock was basically nothing. Ray could complain as much as he wanted, but knew he had more important thing to do. Ray checked his appearance to make sure he was not that frightening, then he slowly walked over to her and began to talk with her. ¡°Hello, I am an adventurer who is interested in studying, so could you please tell me how can I borrow a book here?¡± he asked. The young girl put down her book and looked at him carefully, then she shook her head. ¡°You could not possibly be man who is interested in studying,¡± she said. Ray was a bit embarrassed when his lies were seen through. He forced a smile and looked around, trying to make himself look mysterious, then he said in a very low voice, ¡°Actually I found a treasure map by accident, and I need to find some clues in this library¡­¡± ¡°Please do not think I am stupid simply because I am still young.¡± The young girl helped her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose and said, ¡°This is the place where the predecessor¡¯s knowledge was preserved. If you want to perform a comedy, I suggest you go to the pub.¡± Ray was speechless for a few seconds, he sighed and said honestly, ¡°My boss thinks you are a girl of great potential, and he wants you to be the next Viscount of Geerteng. I am not lying.¡± The young girl who was calm all this time suddenly became worried and said, ¡°A Viscount? How can I be a Viscount? I am just someone who came from the collateral branch of the Geerteng Family¡­ I can never be a Viscount.¡± Hearing this, Ray¡¯s eyes lighted, and he said, ¡°But you have thought about this before, right?!¡± Before the young girl denied it, Ray said, ¡°Do not deny it, you are not a good liar. It is impossible for you to lie to someone like me, who is very experienced! And do not mention the so-called the collateral branch of the Geerteng Family, you know the former King of the Kingdom of Eagle, which is located in the center of the continent, came from the collateral branch of his family. Since you can see through my lies, which means you are indeed quite capable, and a capable person should be ambitious, there is nothing wrong with it!¡± Ray meant to continue to persuade the young girl, but suddenly Sui Xiong gave him a warning, and he instantly jumped ten steps away. Meanwhile, there was a poor old man with white hair wearing old clothes and holding an old broom, who stood right now right in the place where Ray previously stood, as if he had been there all the time. Ray looked at the old man from the distance, although he did not feel pressured or threatened by the old man, he indeed felt a oppressing sensation, as if his heart and lungs had been gripped by an invisible hand. He found it difficult to breath. ¡°A legendary strong man?¡± he said slowly while taking a deep breath to calm himself down. Chapter 56 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The old man did not answer but just stood there hunched over between him and Olian. ¡°Teacher, are you okay?¡± Olian hurried back from the manager¡¯s desk, holding the old man by the arm and asking worriedly. The old man smiled and with a husky, hoarse voice, he waved his hand, ¡°Do not worry, I am not as fragile as you think.¡± ¡°Sir, you do not have to worry.¡± A light flashed on Ray¡¯s head. Sui Xiong cast a spell to cover the area and came out. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to put Olian in a disadvantageous position, but I really want to make her the viscount of the next generation.¡± ¡°Oh, which god?¡± The old man raised his head. On the wrinkled face, there were a pair of bright eyes that had a completely different look from the rest of him. He looked at Sui Xiong without fear, while his sharp eyes made Ray feel like he had been scratched. After a long time, the old man lowered his head again and hid his sharp eyes. ¡°I know, let¡¯s go into the house to discuss it.¡± As a territory being developed, Geerteng City had few people who liked reading. Its library was quite desolate. If not for the believers of the God of Classics, the subordinate of the God of Wisdom and Magic, who took it as a sacred temple, it would not have any popularity and would have been a haunted house. Olian asked a clergyman to replace her temporarily, and then she returned to her room with her teacher and the unreliable god who wanted her to be a viscount as well as the god¡¯s ¡°horse¡±. Olian¡¯s room was small with simple decoration. It was not like a young girl¡¯s place of residence. If not for the small rabbit doll on the bedside table that showed a bit girlish flare, it was just like an old nerd¡¯s home. There were books everywhere. Although the quality of the paper was poor, it was bound in a fine way. It was clear that when Olian copied and bound it, she put in great effort. Noticing Ray¡¯s gaze, Olian did not feel shy but said frankly, ¡°Copying and binding low-grade books is my main source of income, but there are too few people who love to read, and the books of value that I can find are too few.¡± ¡°When you become viscount, you can do something to promote culture and education,¡± Sui said. ¡°I do not think you live an extravagant life, and by not spending money on some luxuries, you can do a lot of things.¡± ¡°But an aristocrat¡¯s decency is also very important, and you cannot be too negligent of it.¡± Ray remembered something and shook his head, ¡°Oh, it does not matter to you. With such a strong man as your teacher, it doesn¡¯t matter whether other aristocrats look up upon or despise you as long as you do not do anything that makes the gods and humans angry.¡± Olian was dumbfounded for a moment, and then she turned around and looked at her teacher. She was not stupid, but in the past, she was never exposed to the real aristocratic life, so she couldn¡¯t think of a lot of things. As a girl from a family that had gone down, an aristocratic status gave her nothing but a surname of Geerteng and a relatively good job. Things such as aristocratic parties or the aristocrat¡¯s education had nothing to do with her¡ª In fact, as early as when her father was born, their family had been ordinary citizens in relation to the aristocrats. Thanks to a sentiment of kinship, she received few benefits from the Viscount¡¯s mansion to maintain a lifestyle that wasn¡¯t rich but also not poor. Her parents died early, and she grew up in the library. Books were her companions and her only friends were the followers of the God of Classics. Those nerds had always wanted to assimilate her into the church, but she was stubborn in her faith despite her easy-going personality, and she was only willing to believe in a god whose ideas she identified with. She didn¡¯t disagree with them, but she didn¡¯t identify with the idea of the God of Classics: ?cherish books, collect books, and pass on civilization. The love of books could only be her hobby or self-cultivation. It was far less profound if referred to as a life philosophy! Originally, if there had been no accident, Olian would probably have taken reading as interest and copying books as work, so that she would have been a nerd all her life. Then she would have married an honest man and had children¡­ Then spent her life in this way. But when she was ten years old, her fate changed dramatically. When looking for a book in the library, she accidentally discovered that the elderly man sweeping the floor could unexpectedly jump onto the tall bookshelf! This ability would astound an experienced adventurer, let alone Olian who was still a kid. She suddenly became interested. She persuaded the elderly man for around six months and eventually convinced him to promise to accept her as a student and to teach her some skills¡­ Time flew, and she was already fifteen years old. Olian learned from the elderly man not only fantastic abilities such as how to leap onto roofs and vault over walls, but also many truths of doing things. Since she had also read a lot of books, she had unconsciously become a talent who was well-versed in both polite letters and martial arts. So when Sui Xiong cast a spell to look for the talent most suitable to lead the territory of Geerteng, he naturally found her. ¡°If it is ¡®the talent most suitable to lead the territory of Geerteng¡¯¡­ wouldn¡¯t the young master Romon be more suitable?¡± Olian asked. ¡°After all, he almost controls the territory of Geerteng, and he¡¯s indeed very talented.¡± ¡°But he is, after all, a fake,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°It¡¯s actually very easy to make a fake blood line.¡± Olian really knew a great deal about it. ¡°I¡¯ve seen that it was said that most senior mages are able to make fake blood, but the ritual materials are slightly expensive.¡± ¡°But the fake are after all is still a fake, and in the future, there is always the possibility of being exposed,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°The ceremony of blood succession could not be dismissed with ¡®Advanced Magic of Removal¡¯, but could be dismissed by ¡®Magic Disintegration¡¯,¡± the silent elderly man said. ¡°But the ¡®Magic Disintegration¡¯ is a legendary spell and few people can cast it. But since there is a god willing to help you, then please ask him to create such a scroll for you.¡± As her teacher also showed agreement, Olian¡¯s eyes lit up. Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°Then it is decided. You will be the viscount.¡± ¡°Wait!¡± The elderly man interrupted before Olian answered. He raised his head and looked attentively at his disciple, ¡°I want to remind you first, that being a lord is a very laborious and dangerous thing. From the very beginning, your peaceful and quiet life will be far away from you, and all day you will have to deal with schemes and fight against people that you do not like. In many cases, you will have to compromise, and you can not simply act according to your heart. For many times, even for a trivial matter, you will have to work hard on it, and you can only be successful after many swings and roundabouts.¡± ¡°You will be physically and mentally exhausted, and there will be no leisure at all; your hands would be stained by blood, and you will no longer be innocent at all; you will fight all day long, and have no peace at all¡­ Will you not regret it even if these all happen?¡± Olian was silent for a moment and whispered, ¡°I think a lot of things in the territory of Geerteng are not good and need to be changed. I want to use my talents in more places, and make people¡¯s lives peaceful and allow them to enjoy their work like those intelligent people recorded in books. I even would like my deeds to be recorded in future library books¡­ Although I am still uneasy, I will try my best to do it!¡± The elderly man smiled, lowered his head again, but did not say anything. ¡°Rest assured, you will be able to do a good job!¡± Sui patted the girl¡¯s head with his tentacles and silently read two verses of poems. For the purpose of the nation¡¯s benefit, everyone is obligated to sacrifice themself rather than escape from the misfortune for their own benefits. Young girl, I expect that you will win! Neither side that was interested in the Viscount¡¯s Palace knew that the outcome of the battle for territorial succession had just been decided in a plain hut in the desolate library of Geerteng City. Even for the few people in the hut, the most important thing was not this. ¡°Venerable sir, how can I call you?¡± Sui Xiong tried to talk with the mysterious elderly man after solving the succession of the Viscount of Geerteng¡¯s territory. The elderly man laughed. ¡°In the presence of gods, I am not venerable. I am Wall, but now Frye. People who know me call me old Frye¡­ Oh, and few people would call me by this name. After all, I¡¯ve been leading a hermit¡¯s life here for almost 50 years now. ¡± ¡°Wall¡­ Wall¡­¡± Ray said to himself, repeating the name several times, and finally remembered its origins. His eyes were wide open, ¡°You are Wall the ¡®Black Blade¡¯?! Are you the one whose whereabouts have been unknown since you assassinated the Duke of Holy Fire of the Kingdom of Holy Angels with one sword because your relatives were killed and then made a sortie out of the Holy Fire City despite the mighty siege? You are alive!¡± He was so excited that he encountered his idol. His heart, long being closed, became opened due to his excitement, so Sui Xiong could clearly see the scene reflected by his heart. Inside a gorgeous house, an adolescent about ten years old was learning to fence from a very serious old man wearing a wig. During the break, the adolescent asked, ¡°Teacher, you often say that ¡®a good aristocrat should master politics. No matter how powerful your skill of fencing is, you, after all, cannot defeat the hand that holds the political power.¡¯ So is there any exception in this world?¡± The old man pondered for a moment and said with a smile, ¡°Of course, yes. For example, thirty years ago, when the Duke of Holy Fire of the Kingdom of Holy Angels wanted to attack the legendary realm, he arrested civilians who originated from wicked creatures and purified them with fire by taking them as sacrifices to please the God of Glory, the Sun God. Many people died, and many people complained but had no solution. Later an adventurer named Wall assassinated the Duke of Holy Fire and several senior officials of the church with one sword because his relatives were killed. He did that by breaking into the Cathedral of Glory of the Holy Fire City and also by taking advantage of the night when the Duke was holding a ceremony of promotion. He was taking a shower and fasting. The adventurer also killed many guards. Then he made a sortie out of the Holy Fire City by breaking the mighty siege at night and went off with a swagger.¡± ¡°You see, when your fencing skill reaches a certain level, you are indeed superior to the power. But¡­ it¡¯s harder to reach that level than becoming the king!¡± The old man kindly smiled and stroked the adolescent¡¯s head. ¡°After all, for you, it is somewhat hopeful to be king¡­¡± ¡°Teacher, you are looking down on me!¡± The teased young boy suddenly became upset. ¡°I will also become such a master! By that time, I will be unstoppable with a sword in hand, and I will uphold justice by leading a chivalrous life!¡± ¡°Well, you will¡­¡± Chapter 57 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Sui Xiong could only see some scenes from Ray¡¯s memory, but the amount of information contained in them was sufficient. For example, he already knew that Ray was indeed from an aristocratic family, which was not a normal aristocracy but a big aristocracy with the right to inherit the throne. However, Ray¡¯s rank as a successor was a bit low, so it was hopeless for him to be the successor under normal circumstances. Perhaps he just had more advantages than Olian. For another example, he knew Wall was indeed the idol of Ray. Twenty years ago, when Ray was still a child, he was determined to become a great knight-errant that punished the evil and promoted the good. As for why 20 years later he became a robber, perhaps there was a very long story therein. Moreover, Wall was extremely powerful, and the wanted sign of him was also outrageous. If his real identity was exposed, it probably would not bring protection to Olian but would lead to the destruction of the territory of Geerteng. It was worth noting that this strongman not only killed the Duke of the Kingdom of Holy Angels but also killed several of the senior officials of the Church of the Sun God. The Kingdom of Holy Angels and the Church of the Sun God were not generous nor benevolent, and they would not forget all the animosities with a smile. On the contrary, they were famous because they sought revenge for petty grievances and because of their aggressive style. If not for the notorious Kingdom of Holy Angels, Rhodes also did not have to hide the set of jewelry from a prince of this Kingdom which was found in the depth of the treasure cave of Bloody Hand Ruhr. Rather, they would have sold it long before! Just as he imagined, Ray could not help but ask, ¡°Mr. Wall, aren¡¯t you only in your 80s this year? As a legendary strongman, why do you seem to be so aged?¡± His tone had a little anxiety and worry, and even the blind could see the care he had for the elderly man. Wall laughed, ¡°This aged appearance is only my makeup. Anyone, even a specialized mage, with a power at my level, can naturally master many special abilities. Changing looks for us is not too difficult.¡± As he stood up, his body made a slight noise and muscles and bones slowly changed their position. A moment later, who was standing in front of them was no longer the hunching elderly man, but a middle-aged man who had a dignified appearance. He was a very robust man of medium, powerful build. His black hair was somewhat straggly, which could not hide his bright and almost dazzling pair of eyes. On his right cheek, there was a clear bruise that seemed to be made by a sharp weapon. Normally it would be easy for legendary strongmen to treat this wound, but it was unknown why he always retained the wound. His hands and feet were quite slender with calluses between the thumb and index finger on both hands. It was unknown whether he was good at holding weapons with both hands, or he could use both hands alternately in quick succession. Although now he was defenseless and wearing an old outfit, he did not seem to be dejected. On the contrary, people felt him to be like a tough statue because he exuded power and prestige from inside out. If such a guy walked down the street, no one could ignore him. Even if he did not say anything, he would be a particularly dazzling star among the crowd. No wonder he needed to change his look and name. ¡°Ah! Teacher, you actually are so young!¡± Olian could not help but exclaim. ¡°I thought you were about to die because of your age¡­¡± Wall smiled and shook his head, ¡°What a girl fond of imagining! After I entered the legendary realm, my life expectancy greatly increased. It is easy for my life to be extended by at least five to six hundred years or as long as thousands of years. I am only eighty years old this year, so I can at least live for another four or five hundred years!¡± Olian was stunned. ¡°Which means that I cannot look after you in your old age and give you a proper burial after your death? Also, I will trouble you because I will die before you, which means the black-haired dies before the white-haired¡­ No, when I am old, you may still be so young, so at that time it would still be the white-haired dies before the black-haired¡­¡± She was somewhat scared. She seemed to be mentally affected, and for a moment she couldn¡¯t recover. ¡°Look at her blank look,¡± Sui Xiong could not help but think. What could I do if a white-haired teacher suddenly turned into a handsome middle-aged uncle? If this issue was posted on the Internet of the earth, it might be able to get a lot of different kinds of answers, depending on the media. In some serious forums, you would get answers such as ¡°Isn¡¯t it good for the teacher to get younger?¡± or ¡°You¡¯re kidding.¡± In some lively forums, you would get answers such as ¡°Tell me what health food products your teacher eats¡± or ¡°Quickly take your teacher to do blood tests. He might be about to win a Nobel Prize.¡± In some ridiculous forums that Sui Xiong liked to visit, answers might be ¡°I¡¯ll tell you after I screw you.¡± Oh, in a secluded search engine considered the biggest in the world, there would be many advertisements after the question; there would be someone calling to ensure that the answer would be on the top of the search results if you paid for the promotion. Its authenticity was a delusion in front of money. A businessman had even less integrity than some ridiculous netizens who were fans of some Japanese p*rn stars! Sui Xiong usually thought of unrelated topics unconsciously because his thoughts were not connected. But Ray was not like this. His thoughts had always been very rigorous, always focusing on the points and rarely being loose. So he looked at Wall carefully for a moment and asked curiously, ¡°Mr. Wall, where is your prestigious ¡®Black Blade¡¯?¡± The so-called ¡°Black Blade¡± was the weapon that made Wall famous. In Ray ¡®s impression, it should be a slender and slightly curved knife which was said to have a black blade that contained strange magic. It was a legendary weapon. In fact, it was said that the knife was very common and was nothing more than an elongated curved knife. It got the name ¡°Black Blade¡± only because Wall killed countless people overnight. Ray never knew which statement was right, so he was a bit curious. Today, since he actually met his idol, of course, he would like to know what really happened. ¡°I hid it in a humble place, so I did not bring it with me,¡± Wall said. ¡°That knife is a little conspicuous, and it can be recognized by experienced adventurers. Bringing it with me would cause trouble.¡± ¡°So¡­ what exactly is that knife like?¡± Ray finally asked what he wanted to ask. Wall smiled and gestured, ¡°It is this long and this wide, with a hand protector. In general, it¡¯s longer and narrower than the one used by a sailor with quite a long handle and no decoration and extra weight. The whole knife is pure black from the tip of the knife to the handle. Overall, the description ¡°Black Blade¡± is quite accurate.¡± Ray nodded as if he suddenly realized and finally solved his long-lasting doubts. But after he thought for a second, he could not help but ask, ¡°So why do some people say that your name of ¡®Black Blade¡¯ comes from the fact that you killed countless people overnight?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not strange that the fight is indeed famous,¡± said Wall indifferently. ¡°Although at our level, the nickname should be based on deeds, my thing¡­ ha-ha, is known to all and will irritate those hypocrites if ordinary adventurers mention it too often. Although they cannot deal with me, they can easily deal with ordinary adventurers. So everyone tries to avoid mentioning it in order to avoid irritating them.¡± ¡°Of course, I actually like the nickname ¡®Black Blade¡¯, and I am very satisfied with the black blade that can absorb and cut off the light,¡± Wall said smiling but his eyes gradually became murderous. ¡°My ideal is to break into the Cloud City holding the Black Blade. A knife that absorbs and cuts off the sunshine best suits me.¡± The implication of his words apparently meant that he would kill the Sun God one day. For this shocking goal, even Ray who worshiped him was shocked and speechless. Only Sui Xiong agreed. ¡°The Sun God is the supporter of the Kingdom of Holy Angels, so we must kill the leader of our enemies when I seek revenge. I support you!¡± The floating jellyfish patted Wall¡¯s shoulder with his tentacles and said with a smile, ¡°But let¡¯s talk sincerely, what do you think is your likelihood of being successful?¡± Wall was silent for a moment, then smiled and shook his head, ¡°Very unlikely.¡± ¡°Yes, it is difficult to kill the gods even for the most powerful and legendary strongman. Occasionally there is one or two who can do it thanks to all kinds of coincidences. If you want to turn against a god, the most reliable approach is to become a god yourself.¡± Sui began to encourage him by his eloquence, ¡°Have you ever considered this?¡± ¡°To be a god?¡± Wall had considered this issue before, but he was born poor. Although by virtue of his own efforts he entered the legendary realm, he could no longer get more information. How could a mortal person become a god? He had no clue how. But¡­ Looking at that floating jellyfish with smiling eyes, he had understood his meaning. ¡°Do you want to recruit me as a sub-god?¡± He asked bluntly. ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± The floating jellyfish shook his body hard as if it was nodding, ¡°Although I am still only a second-rate god who does not have a church, my followers are building a holy place. After the construction of my church is completed, my church will be established formally and this will be an improvement of my denomination. Then, I will need some assistants who can help me in the high-end fields. A true god needs to understand the origin of the world and be a clergyman, which is not where I can offer help. But I can undoubtedly make somebody a demigod.¡± It seemed that he was very sincere, so Wall directly asked the most important question without talking about abstract things, ¡°I am wanted by the God of Glory, and he will be furious if you make me a sub-god. How would you deal with it then?¡± ¡°Honestly, there is no good solution,¡± Sui Xiong answered frankly. ¡°So for the moment I can only make you a demigod. Anyway, demigods are also immortal, so at least you can continue to accumulate strength. When I am able to confront him, you are able to appear in a forthright way.¡± This answer was absolutely unsatisfactory, but Wall laughed. ¡°Well, your idea is very good and very realistic.¡± Then, he bowed his head and saluted Sui Xiong, ¡°Your Majesty, from today, Wall, the Black Blade, is your subordinate. I hope one day I can follow your banner to break into the Cloud City!¡± After he finished saying so, a slight noise sounded again, and he slowly turned back to the hunched over elderly man. ¡°Until then, I will wait patiently.¡± Chapter 58 lee Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma For those who were stress-free, time flew and a week passed unknowingly. And for those who were under tremendous pressure, time passed very slowly and every day dwindled. Because of the sudden arrival of Ray, Romon, who originally wanted to kill Steele before the inheritance right was decided on, hesitated and did not dare to start early. Steele, however, had been encouraging Ray to kill Romon to end all troubles, but she had no other way out since Ray did not follow her words. So for both sides, this week had been a tough one. There were various kinds of intrigue and cynicism in their everyday life, making them nervous as if they were two taut bows that could break at any time. Sui Xiong and Ray didn¡¯t care about it and just took it as a lively scene. They also found out about Romon¡¯s origins. He was a professional cheater who had been active in the eastern Kingdom of Blue Moon, but he had to flee with his accomplice because he offended some powerful people by closing a big deal. They suffered a lot along the way and eventually arrived at the Territory of Geerteng by crossing more than half of the continent. Here, Romon accidentally got a fat sheep by cheating, but found the owner of it was the b*stard of the lord of the territory. What was especially important was that the lord was dying of a serious illness, and this b*stard could inherit the title viscount as long as they could prove their identity. Anyone could become an heir, just be a cousin! This was the so-called ¡°wealth comes from danger¡± situation. Romon thought several times, clenched his teeth and finally agreed. In short, by means of some methods and a little luck, Romon eventually succeeded in not only pretending to be the b*stard but also in expelling Steele, the original successor of Geerteng, out of the core of power. He could have become the authentic viscount of Geerteng if he could have just passed the inspection of the Aristocratic Association. Although he was a cheater all his life, he had never done such big business. As success was in sight, he could not help being more nervous day by day. No matter how he reminded himself to calm down, he could not help but become increasingly anxious. Of course, the crux of the matter still lay in that b*tch who should have died but had always been in front of him! ¡°Ha, Romon is cursing in his mind ¡®Why is that b*tch still alive!¡¯¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said to Ray, ¡°At present, he curses in this way now and then, but he has to maintain an elegant smile on his face. It¡¯s really interesting!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, you¡¯re a bit gratified by his misfortunes¡­¡± ¡°Being gratified by others¡¯ misfortunes? Please see what kind of person you are first by looking in this mirror.¡± The mirror reflected Ray¡¯s smiling mouth. In fact, he really did not want to laugh. However, Sui Xiong, through the spiritual channel, gave him Romon¡¯s inner shouts and forced elegance onto his face. Comparing them made it difficult not to laugh. However, it was not the only Romon that was nervous. Steele had already been too nervous to smile. In order to relieve the pressure, this lascivious woman now had to have sex four or five times a day. Often, after hearing the terrible sound from her room, people would see her come out from her room with a blushing face and a suspicious odor. Sometimes the sound was particularly violent and chaotic, and when she came out she stumbled. Once, everyone even heard the roar of a demon beast, and when she came out, some liquid was clearly seen flowing down her legs to the floor. Seeing her disappointing appearance, even Ray and Sui Xiong shook their heads and sighed, ¡°A congenital defeatist cannot be taught to succeed.¡± Not to mention the people in the viscount¡¯s mansion. Naturally, Sui Xiong sighed heavily, ¡°You urban people are so naughty,¡± and Ray would refute seriously to tell him that even the urban nobles weren¡¯t so naughty. ¡°Really?¡± Sui Xiong was suspicious of it. ¡°Even if you do not believe me, you can see the reactions of other people. For example, that Romon, who is also considered well-informed, was also astonished just then and stopped being elegant!¡± Sui Xiong carefully recalled a bit and made sure that just now Romon was astonished seeing Steele pass by leaving a trace of water along the way. He also rubbed his eyes, as if he suspected that his vision was blurred. The master beside him who was his confidant pinched his thighs, so perhaps he suspected he was not awake. Then he believed. Steele, as a woman, was really¡­ naughty, sl*tty, and dissolute! ¡°Ray, I suddenly have an idea: If I later establish the Holy Kingdom, how about asking Steele to make a promotional film?¡± he said happily. ¡°This woman would absolutely be a bombshell! It is estimated that a promotional film would attract at least tens of thousands of believers!¡± Ray seriously thought about it for a while, and then he sighed and nodded. He had to admit that a beautiful and seductive woman was indeed more attractive than oral promises and good visions, at least more attractive to men excluding eunuchs. ¡°But¡­ in that case, aren¡¯t you an evil god who deceives others with beauty?¡± Ray could not help but persuade him although he knew that the jellyfish god had a different morality from that of the mankind. ¡°Only the evil gods and demons would do it!¡± ¡°As long as I do not give them promises of ¡®If you believe in me, you can have sex with this beauty after death¡¯, it is not cheating,¡± Sui Xiong said very indifferently. ¡°And I think that if Steele really becomes a resident of the Holy Kingdom and has an eternal life, I¡¯m afraid she would be even more sl*tty. Maybe at that time she really would be so ambitious as to be determined to have sex with all the residents of my Holy Kingdom¡­¡± Ray sighed deeply, feeling a little pain in his liver. He had been a bit tempted and wanted to believe in this jellyfish god with who he could get along well with, and it would also be nice to go to his Holy Kingdom after death. But now, he felt it necessary to think twice. Although this god¡¯s thought was mostly just a nasty thought that would never be implemented, what if this guy really did it? Could it be that he had to be reduced to the companion of a sl*tty woman that would be a sexual partner to anyone and even would have sex with demon beasts? ¡­Wouldn¡¯t he be harassed? He would surely be harassed then! Who would like to go to this Holy Kingdom?! It was not just Romon and Steele who felt nervous about the critical moment to come, but Olian was also nervous; although she knew she had a very good chance of winning, or she was even sure of winning. But when she thought about the aristocrats and representatives looking at her, overthrowing Romon¡¯s disguise in public, beating Steele with her wisdom and imposing manner, and winning the support of aristocrats and representatives, she felt unsure about the success. In order to make good preparations, she quit her job as a librarian, shut herself in, carefully considered the various situations she might encounter on that day, made a number of plans, did workouts each day, and tried to figure out how she could do them perfectly and get success with one action! ¡°I¡¯m afraid you will have to fight again, and you need to be more careful,¡± Sui reminded her. ¡°Although I will give you some spells of defense, magic is not a panacea. Even some unlucky gods may be killed by others, let alone mages.¡± ¡°I will be careful, and¡­¡± Olian turned her head and suddenly jumped when she saw Sui Xiong chattering in the air. She jumped and kicked him without any notice, but recovered her original position before she was about to hit him. In doing so, she turned around in the air and fell on the ground softly without even leading to much dust. ¡°¡­ I am not weak.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. He did not think that this seemingly quiet literary girl could also fight well! Ray laughed and clapped hard, ¡°Well done! You must scare the big jellyfish who looks down on anybody all day long.¡± Sui Xiong did not rage but also waved his tentacles to clap. ¡°Awesome! Awesome! Your level is sufficient for you to be an adventurer¡­¡± ¡°I am afraid she cannot be an adventurer because her strength is still a bit weak. She can only beat others, but her hit on a demon beast will not even cause pain or leave a scratch on it. Anyway, as long as you can beat others, it is enough,¡± Ray smiled and said. ¡°In my opinion, maybe we can even consider holding a duel of glory between her and Romon ¨C then we can make a scenario that is in line with the aristocrats¡¯ aesthetics: When the glory of Geerteng was about to be tarnished by a cheater and an unworthy girl, a girl of a collateral branch who had been silent for so long finally could not help but angrily beat those bad people and defend the family glory with her fists. ¡°That¡¯s it,¡± Sui nodded. ¡°But is her practical experience enough? She shouldn¡¯t have a problem at the crucial junctures.¡± ¡°I taught her,¡± Wall said slowly. ¡°In order to develop her courage, I took her to challenge the giant dragon.¡± Ray stared, not knowing what to say. This soft, weak in comparison, and quiet little girl actually challenged the giant dragon?! Impossible¡­ After a while, he asked innocently, ¡°Did you win?¡± This question was a bit stupid, so Wall looked at him as if looking at a silly person, ¡°How could that be possible? If she could win against the dragon then why would she need our help and support?¡± Ray forced a laughter and finally picked up a little confidence ¨C when he crossed the grey stone mountains along with Sui Xiong, they also met a dragon, he was excited to challenge it, but he was defeated. If it was not for Sui Xiong saving him, it was estimated that he would have become the poo of the dragon. ¡°How about that dragon?¡± He asked again. ¡°I just wanted the dragon to help train her and develop Olian¡¯s courage, and after she beat it, we left,¡± said Wall. ¡°But it may change its residence judging from the fact that it was beaten.¡± ¡°The whole body of the giant dragon is precious! How could you waste it as such?¡± Ray could not help but shout, ¡°That¡¯s too much waste!¡± ¡°I think your whole body is also precious, but you also waste it,¡± Sui Xiong snorted coldly. ¡°Do not forget, that thing on your neck is valued at a piece of legendary equipment! ¡°That¡¯s my head!¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you exchange money for a piece of legendary equipment, since your head that is on your neck is not worth much?¡± ¡°Then I would die! ¡°Nonsense, who told you that you would die without your head?¡± Sui Xiong laughed, while his dozens of tentacles crossed and made a cracking sound similar to cracking knuckles. ¡°Give your head to me, and I can give you a minor surgery to transform you into a headless knight or so¡­ I assure you the success, and it¡¯s free of charge.¡± Of course, Ray did not want to be turned a headless knight, and he was suddenly overwhelmed. So after several days, the much-anticipated day had finally arrived. At the plaza in front of the palace of the viscount mansion in Geerteng City, an elevated platform was set up. Aristocrats and representatives from all places took their seats in succession and were prepared to follow the ancient tradition of choosing the successor of the territory of Geerteng. Romon and Steele had also been seated in their respective seats. Traditionally, they should receive the interrogation from the aristocrats and citizens and show their nobility and talents, thus winning the throne of viscount. And below the platform, those prestigious people in the viscount territory also gathered. They had put on their gorgeous clothes and were prepared for welcoming the new viscount. Among the crowds, Olian, wearing an old sweater, looked up at the platform somewhat anxiously with her teacher. ¡°Are you nervous?¡± Wall asked. ¡°A little.¡± Olian kept time with her feet, silently hummed the ballads that her mother taught her, but couldn¡¯t calm herself down. ¡°I am more excited.¡± ¡°Being excited is a good thing,¡± Wall nodded. ¡°Wait, and by the way, you can enjoy the last period of quiet time in your life.¡± ¡°Soon, you will be the center of attention!¡± The girl nodded strongly and continued to look at the high platform. Noticing her gaze, the sunshine above Ray, who was sitting in the corner, trembled a little. It was like¡­ someone was smiling at her. Chapter 59 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma As the sun rose to the zenith at noon, the meeting was held as scheduled. A white-haired noble aristocrat spoke first; he was a baron nearby. Although the title was not high, he had a scarily old age and high seniority. Including the late Sir Geerteng, even the oldest aristocrat in this area must respectfully call him ¡°uncle.¡± In addition, he lived in the neighborhood, so he was most familiar with the situation of Geerteng. It was indeed quite appropriate for him to be the host. The old man stood up quivering, and slowly recounted the glorious history and prosperity of the current situation of Geerteng. His rhetoric was quite sonorous and powerful: Don¡¯t judge by appearance. However, he was completely talking about nonsense. The viscounts of Geerteng in history were mostly not good at management, so did a glorious history have anything to do with this territory at all?! Could this place be described as prosperous as now that the fields were strewn with corpses of the starved? ¡°The old man is lying through his teeth! How can a territory be described as prosperous if there are people starving to death?¡± Sui Xiong was angry. ¡°As he talks nonsense, isn¡¯t this old man afraid of being sent to the hell after death?¡± ¡°For the aristocrats, there is prosperity as long as the nobility maintains the decency,¡± said Ray sneering. ¡°Maybe he doesn¡¯t have to go to the hell thanks to his old age. He is dedicated to retaining the aristocratic glory at such an old age, so most likely he will be taken to the Holy Kingdom of Noble Maids.¡± ¡°Accepting such a person? The God of Aristocrats isn¡¯t picky at all!¡± ¡°Good gods accept good people, while evil gods accept evil people. Like attracts like,¡± Ray said lightly. ¡°Is the Noble Maid herself a good one?¡± Sui Xiong sighed wordlessly. Until now, he could not understand why people in this world would worship evil gods ¨C evil gods and demons, are they different? Anyway, they seemed to be the same to him¡­ On the high platform, the old baron slowly introduced the background of the story, and then finally changed the topic into important things. The former viscount of Geerteng died of an acute illness. The time between him falling ill and his death was very short, and there had been no time to soberly explain his will before the funeral. His succession was vacant because he did not have an heir or appoint an heir before his death. In theory, every descendant of the Geerteng family was eligible to compete for the right of succession. When the old viscount was alive, Steele was the only one of the younger generation among his close relatives, and people felt that Steele was rightly the heir to the throne. However, when he suddenly died, a b*stard of his appeared from an unknown place, and he also held a set of good evidence that was enough to prove his identity. Until then, people suddenly realized ¨C it was no wonder that the old viscount had refused to explicitly grant the right of succession to Steeler because he had also hidden a b*stard! Obviously, the old viscount wanted to pass the title to this b*stard. It was only that he had not yet found a suitable opportunity to let this b*stard appear in broad daylight. In accordance with the rules, recognized b*stards had the right of succession. The secret document left by the old viscount did acknowledge the identity of this child, and so he had the right of succession. Had it not been too late for him to appear, the title would have been passed directly to Steele in the absence of the recognition from the old viscount. So now the situation of the territory of Geerteng was awkward. On the one hand, it was a longstanding natural successor, and on the other hand, a more legitimate successor who had never been recognized, and the two sides couldn¡¯t compromise. If the problem couldn¡¯t be properly solved, a civil war was possible. Of course, if not for Ray, Steele would have died long ago, and no one would end up supporting a stupid woman who could not do anything but seduce men even she was alive. She was, in fact, was not stupid at all, but was quite scheming. Or the problem could be considered from another angle. If Steele didn¡¯t have such a bad style and notorious fame, there would have long been aristocrats to propose marriage to her and support her. Once winning the support of an aristocrat whose status was no lower than the viscount of Geerteng, she could surely have the right of succession. A b*stard who had not been publicly acknowledged wouldn¡¯t be qualified to compete with her for support. All in all, it was a coincidence! Although the old baron spoke slowly, he spoke clearly and explained the cause and effect of the matter in a long-winded way. He also specifically asked the aristocrats and representatives participating in the meeting, and finally ended his statement after making sure he had been understood by all. Next, it was the fight for the right of succession between the two. This contention of the right of succession came in two forms: one of violence and another of non-violence. Needless to say, the one of violence was a duel between the two sides, and the winner inherited the title. The loser should immediately get out of the place if they hadn¡¯t died, and they should be deprived of the surname and lose their aristocratic status. Sui Xiong was looking forward to a fight because the scene would look spectacular. However, the fight over the right of succession must be participated in by the people involved and they should not be replaced by others. Neither Romon nor Steele wanted to risk their lives fighting against each other, so a fight was unlikely. In view of this, Romon actually also lacked courage. A cheater was also a bard and was an authentic adventurer. He not only had eloquence but also good fighting skills. If he had a one to one fight with others, then a trained and fully armored warrior might not defeat him, let alone an ordinary strongman. In contrast, even if Steele had learned some aristocratic fencing skills, how could she be his opponent? However, Romon did not think so. In his view, as a person with a high IQ, he should use his wisdom instead of force to win the victory. Just as Liu Bang, a famous Chinese emperor, said, ¡°I would rather engage in a battle of wits than that of force¡± ¨C it would be a great loss if he died because of his rash choice of participating in a duel! As for Steele, she certainly did not want to fight. Actually, she practiced martial arts and had a gorgeous aristocratic fencing skill. She would absolutely amaze all the guests at a banquet by showing a sword dance, and hunting was also easy for her. But forget having a duel with Romon, a tough man who was gallant enough to scheme to seek nobility, because in that way she seemed to be courting death¡­ Since both sides refused to fight, then, of course, they could only launch a fight of non-violence. The fight of non-violence was similar to the debates on earth. First, both parties should make their own statements in turns and make sure to make clear their own advantages and the shortcomings of the other side. Then they should debate and expose each other¡¯s faults and then attack one another. They were expected to pour out a current of comments and rebuttals at full blast. It was best for them to be able to scold the opponents so that the opponents directly suffered myocarditis because of their scolding. If it was hard to tell which side was better in the debate, it should be the present aristocrats¡¯ and representatives¡¯ turn to make an appraisal and select the winner to inherit the noble title. The loser should still leave and be deprived of their aristocratic status. Since the participants dared to fight for the right of succession, they must be ready to lose all their things. Failure applied to all parts of their life after the game. The first one to make a statement was Romon. He deserved the title of a senior cheater: he talked with eloquence and vividness about his status as a b*stard who couldn¡¯t have been known publicly due to his bad origin. His explanation for his striving for the right of succession was that he did not want a sl*tty woman insulting the reputation of the Geerteng family. It was not out of selfishness. This reason really seemed marvelous, and he spoke out sternly from a sense of justice which especially enhanced his persuasion. He greatly moved many aristocrats who had a good relationship with the late Viscount through his handsome appearance after makeup and his temperament that was similar to the late Viscount. The fact that the late Viscount had a b*stard was not a secret. Although few people knew in the territory, some of his best friends probably knew it. Perhaps he was the last resort of the late Viscount because some old friend could still support his own son if he accidentally died. However, it had never occurred to him that Romon had blunderingly killed his son. Romon also posed as his b*stard in order to seize his territory. Those aristocrats had always been ready to support the old friend¡¯s son. Now seeing that this b*stard was not only imposing but also rather had the old friend¡¯s temperament, they could not help but be moved for unknown reasons. An old man with strong sentiments could not help but burst into tears and muttered to himself, ¡°They are too alike! Uh, it was for sure that they were alike, for Romon was professional. Even if the real b*stard of the late Viscount had been here, Romon would likely be more genuine! Of course, the more important reason was that the ¡°respectable¡± old aristocrat had already gained advantages from Romon and ensured him of the position of viscount. There were a lot of similar situations. Anyway, a total of at least 1/3 of the people present at the meeting were either bought off by Romon or had reached an agreement with Romon in secret. This is what had been discovered these days by Sui Xiong. The one wiping tears with his handkerchief was good at acting, and that one separated by a few seats from the former was especially strong. Those two marquises from the capital of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, who were also representatives of this meeting, perhaps provided a strong external assistance. Also, there were a few people who had many commercial exchanges with the territory of Geerteng¡­ Sui Xiong found after a careful calculation that it was no wonder that Romon was so confident. The highly respectable predecessors supported him; the masters with good fighting skills supported him; the marquises of the highest rank of the whole commonwealth supported him, and the business partners who had a close relationship with the territory of Geerteng supported him¡­ If not for the necessary process of the fight for the aristocratic succession and for the inviolable sacredness of the fight on the high platform, Sui Xiong thought there would be no need to hold a meeting, and it sufficed for him to directly declare who was the successor. Master! Romon was indeed a master! In contrast, Steele¡¯s performance was much worse. Although she also spoke well and emphasized that she was the only heir to the title for a long time, she said that the title being inherited by her not only accorded with aristocratic practices but would also maintain the peace and stability of the territory better than having an outside leader. But it could be seen that she did not have much confidence because when she was talking her eyes flashed a bit, and she looked to Ray¡¯s side from time to time as if only by seeing the strong figure of the knight wearing black armor could she maintain her courage. It was even worse that she had only won the support of few of these aristocrats and representatives. Almost no one showed their support to her in advance, except for a few Geerteng locals or someone who had an unknown relationship with her. And even those who supported her in advance felt themselves more or less wavering in their support of her when seeing her performance. But there was no solution because comparison hurt. There was a really big gap between the two sides in view of their comparison! Honestly, if there was no choice, Steele could also be a successor who was not bad, and a bad style of conduct was nothing for the nobility. When her Majesty the Noble Maid was still an ordinary person, she had a style of conduct no better than Steele¡¯s. At most, she hadn¡¯t had sex with demon beasts¨C Steele was really admirable since she even dared have sex with demon beasts¡­ However, given the fact that Romon was apparently a far better candidate, Steele, as an eccentric person, would be better to not have shame on record as a viscount. She should just be herself secretly and silently so that she wouldn¡¯t irritate others who had a fragile heart. As a result, even when the debate had not yet begun, most aristocrats and representatives had already secretly made a decision. Seeing two guests coming onto the stage, Sui Xiong felt like he was sitting in the audience of the Chinese show If You Are The One. Romon came onto the stage, and by saying a few words he made those female guests, who stared at him firmly like hungry wolves, focus their eyes and leap out of joy as if they wanted to tear and devour Romon. And Steele¡­ when she came onto the stage, male guests started to put their hands on the button that would turn off their light, looking around at each other and waiting for the first one to press the button to turn off his light. The gap was so obvious! Chapter 60 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma By the time the two sides started debating, the situation leaned to one side. Romon was so eloquent as to refer to bad things and good ones, smelly things and fragrant ones, black things and white ones, and dead things and alive ones. In contrast, Steele was clever and could articulate, but was far less comparable to him. From the very beginning of the debate, Steele was far inferior to Romon because every one of her reasons was objected to and she was awkward after being criticized. Occasionally, she seized the opportunity to refute a little bit, but she would definitely fall into the trap prepared by Romon and become more embarrassed. Not only that, when Romon performed very well, there were a few aristocrats and representatives, whom he had bought in advance, that clapped for him. Every time they clapped, those aristocrats and representatives who supported Steele seemed more upset, and at last they all had sullen faces. Sui Xiong suspected that if not for the rules, they would have left long ago. This scene could only be described as miserable because aristocrats and representatives were all shaking their heads. Even Steele knew that she would be defeated, but she kept holding on because she did not want to lose everything. ¡°Oh! A professional player indeed outperforms a child!¡± Sui Xiong could not help but sigh, ¡°One side can always pay attention to other situations under such a high intensity, and he is a master who can accurately know the cooling time of his skills with half a second as the unit. The other side is so weak that she can only bury herself in marching forward. Romon is too boring because he just shows off his skills when he outperforms a weak player. He just pretended to be outperformed by Steele¡­ ¡± ¡°Pretending to be outperformed by Steele?¡± Ray asked confusedly. ¡°I have not seen Steele fight back.¡± Sui Xiong laughed loudly. The debate was over, and even the aristocrats and representatives did not even have to consult with each other. It was known by seeing each other¡¯s eyes that everyone had made the same choice. The aristocrats, who had been bought beforehand by Romon, were even congratulating each other on the upcoming success and were ready to congratulate Romon. The old baron asked people¡¯s opinions to confirm the suspicions of everyone. Then he cleared his throat and announced the result. ¡°The result of this contention of succession is that Romon has won, and that he will inherit the title of viscount of Geerteng and become the new lord of the land. Steele will be deprived of her aristocracy and driven out of the territory of Geerteng.¡± He looked around the audience with a solemn look, ¡°Now, who will pose objection to this result?¡± Almost immediately, the voice of Olian sounded under the stage, ¡°I object to it!¡± After people heard her voice, the whole venue fell silent even though it had been a bit noisy. Many aristocrats on the high platform were suspicious, and they muttered amongst themselves. Aristocrats who supported Romon all seemed angry, but they didn¡¯t dare to act rashly. A person who dared to make trouble on this occasion would be a fool, but certainly they must be supported by somebody. But no one could understand where her confidence came from that made her disregard the universal opinion. The old baron, who was the host, was also surprised for a moment. He felt a kind of scare and thought a bit just before he got angry. So he hurriedly suppressed his anger, and allowed the questioner to go up to the stage to speak in accordance with the rules. Olian slowly went up onto the platform. At this most crucial moment, she, however, had completely calmed down without the slightest panic on her face. She was so calm that she seemed to be leisurely taking a stroll in the court. When she came to the center of the platform and was side by side with Romon and Steele, the old baron asked, ¡°Tell us your position before you speak, and why do you pose an objection?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Olian Geerteng, a member of the Geerteng family, and I am speaking here as a family member,¡± Olian replied calmly. ¡°I question Mr. Romon¡¯s descent. The territory of Geerteng shall not be inherited by an outsider.¡± ¡°Nonsense!¡± A big and tall aristocrat suddenly stood up and shouted loudly, ¡°We ourselves verified Romon¡¯s identity, and it is absolutely true!¡± He was one of the aristocrats that Romon had bought off in advance. Seeing that a questioner rose to pose an objection before the final decision, he rose to show that his deeds were absolutely worth the benefits he gained. His noble title was not high, but his personal strength was extremely powerful. As he spoke, his eyes were wide and round, with his body bursting into a violent momentum. He was like a tiger running down a hill. Although he was far away, he seemed to have forced himself to the center of the high platform and wanted to oppress Olian to force her to withdraw. Forced by this momentum, Steele felt her legs, weakened and paralyzed, and she fell to the wet ground. Romon¡¯s face was also slightly pale. He couldn¡¯t help but retreat a bit, barely maintaining his grace. But for Olian, who once battled the dragon, the momentum was nothing. Even if more than half of the momentum was directed at her, she would not be impacted at all. She looked into the eyes of the strong aristocrat and spoke calmly like a soft breeze, ¡°I certainly have evidence, as we shouldn¡¯t have a loose tongue when talking about things like this. ¡°Uh-huh!¡± hummed the strongman who looked more like a bear than a man. He looked around but found no helpers, so he could only hum and sit down again, ¡°I¡¯m waiting to see your evidence. If it cannot convince me, even though you are a woman, you cannot escape sanctions!¡± Saying this, he hit the desk in front of him with his fist heavily. His tremendous force not only smashed a crack on the solid wooden table but also made the entire platform tremble. Because of that, a lot of aristocrats with lower levels of power frowned. If this human-shaped ¡°bear¡± really got mad on the stage, everyone would be in danger! ¡°You said you had evidence, then show it,¡± the old baron tried to calm down his tone, but his knitted brows and dignified eyes showed his displeasure. He thought the debate would have already ended well, so why should a troublemaker come here? And the reason was that she questioned Romon¡¯s pedigree¡­ If she verified her accusation, aristocrats who inspected and recognized Romon¡¯s pedigree, including him, would become a joke, wouldn¡¯t they? Olian nodded slightly, and walked aside a little, keeping a distance from Romon. She put on a look of being afraid of Romon hitting her out of anger and embarrassment. Her action was too obvious, making people all frown again. Romon was dumbfounded. He was not crazy, so no matter what kind of questions he was faced with, he was not likely to hurt others! If he hit her, it would verify the question and would cause tremendous trouble for him afterwards even if he could live through today¡¯s affair. Not to mention that a man who dared to hurt others on this high platform that symbolized the nobility and tradition must be deprived of inheritance even if his pedigree was genuine! For example, the stupid woman next to him wouldn¡¯t inherit the title even if now he was deprived of the right of succession because of the fact that she had fallen to the ground due to being paralyzed with fear. After all, honor and decency were valued most by the aristocracy. A person who lost their decency at a crucial time was not eligible to become a successor. Moreover, he did not believe this girl could have any way to reveal his identity. For so many years, the ceremony of blood inheritance had been used by the aristocrats of all parties an unknown number of times, but no one had revealed his true identity. After Olian stood still, a beam of light flashed on her wrist, and a grey scroll that exuded a crystal blue light appeared on her hand. ¡°A spell of ¡®Magic Disintegration¡¯ is sealed in this scroll that can undo any magical effect, and nothing would be an exception whether it comes from the spell itself, from magic props, or from a ritual.¡± Romon was astonished and almost fell off the stage. He never dreamed that the Geerteng family actually still had such a foundation: a girl of the collateral branch whose origin was unknown was actually able to show the legendary magic scroll! Could it be that among the previous viscounts of the Geerteng family, there was one who had actually an excellent friendship with a great legendary mage, and the mage made this scroll especially for them? Maybe¡­ the legendary mage was now hiding in the darkness, and he instructed the little girl to come forward and safeguard the inheritance of the Geerteng family? But then he immediately expelled these ridiculous thoughts out of his mind because he didn¡¯t need to scare himself as the origin of the scroll was unknown. There were many such things in casinos. Obviously someone had good poker cards, but was scared by others who had bad ones. He couldn¡¯t make such a mistake! A scroll of legendary spells? How could one so easily appear! As a senior cheater, he had an excellent ability to control his facial expression. Even if he thought of an idea several times in his mind, his face was completely blank, so that the aristocrats, who were originally suspicious after hearing the questioning from Olian, felt suspicious again. The aristocrats bought off by Romon were also taking the opportunity to whisper, disrupting people¡¯s hearts. ¡°This girl is just speaking nonsense, isn¡¯t she?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ How can her ¡®scroll of legendary spells¡¯ possibly exist. Even though my family is also considered a big aristocracy, we have never seen one in our lives.¡± ¡°Legendary mages are beyond our imagination! You can boast about it for the rest of your life even if you can meet him and talk for awhile. The scroll of legendary spells? Not all legendary mages are able to make a scroll of legendary spells!¡± Of course, somebody was seriously discussing¡­ ¡°Is she faking the scroll by using ¡®Advanced Magic of Disintegration?¡¯ Theoretically it can also get rid of magical effects and temporarily suppress magic props¡­¡± ¡°But if you want to get rid of the effect of ceremony, I am afraid we must use legendary spells. Otherwise, how could the ceremony of blood inheritance be¡ª¡± ¡°Be discreet in saying things!¡± ¡°Yes, this is something that we shouldn¡¯t talk about¡­ I was confused¡­¡± In the face of the crowd ¡®s gaze and suspicious eyes, Olian seemed calm and raised the scroll over her head. ¡°I¡¯ll activate the scroll, and everyone will naturally understand whether what I said was true or not. Now I¡¯m going to activate this scroll.¡± ¡°No!¡± The bear-like man quickly shouted. ¡°Who knows what a scroll you are holding! If it is a powerful scroll of Attack Spell and it is activated, at least half of us will die since we are so close to it!¡± Olian sneered, ¡°If anyone worries that it is a scroll of Attack Spell, you can now leave.¡± In the face of Olian, who was holding the slightly shining scroll and might activate it at any time, even the man as strong as a bear could not help but become prudent, and he was afraid to act rashly. Knowing that he had limited intelligence and could not think of any good solutions, he turned his head and winked toward the ¡®respectable¡± aristocrat next to him. That old aristocrat was really smart because he came up with an idea after he turned his head. He said quietly, ¡°I think it¡¯s not appropriate because we all have life-saving magic props, and your ¡®Magic of Disintegration¡¯ can get rid of the effect of all of our magic props¡­ This loss is too big!¡± ¡°You guys can give the magic props to people who are trustworthy, and have them leave with the props.¡± Olian maintained her position of holding up her scroll, and her look remained unchanged. ¡°This is impossible!¡± There was a triangular-faced representative shouting, ¡°Without our protective magic props, what will we do in case there are assassins? Maybe you are simply on the assassin¡¯s side!¡± This person was also bought off in advance by Romon so that he would frame others when necessary. Originally he was just on standby, but now he really played his role. Since he had begun, the aristocrats and representatives, who had decided to support Romon¡¯s succession, followed one after another by claiming that they were of great honor and were in danger of being assassinated at any moment. Further, they claimed that Olian harbored sinister intentions by asking them to unload their magic props so as to collude with assassins in murdering them! For some time, the situation on the platform was somewhat disorderly, while Romon secretly smiled. He thought that was it. The more chaos the better! As long as the situation was complicated, they could get a chance to seize the girl before she activated the scroll, and all her questions would be in vain if the scroll couldn¡¯t be activated, regardless of whether the scroll was the legendary ¡®Magic of Disintegration¡¯ or not. But he was happy too early. At this moment, Ray, who had been silent, stood up, took a deep breath, and roared¡ª ¡°Keep quiet!¡± Chapter 61 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Ray¡¯s sudden shout was a great shock to everyone. The aristocrats and representatives on the stage were terrified. Among them, five or six people had immediately activated their magic to protect themselves, and they were shrouded by rays of colorful light. Meanwhile, more than one person had fallen over and the chairs they¡¯d been sitting on had collapsed. The viewers were also terrified. Those who were bold enough managed to stay upright, while the cowards among the crowd were so shocked that they immediately hit the deck. Almost a third of them were lying on their stomachs, too afraid to stand up, as if they had thrown themselves at Ray¡¯s feet in admiration. At this moment, many people saw a strong man famous for his power and laid their hopes at his feet. But this potential hero was not as tough as he usually was; in fact, his whole body was shaking, cold sweat sliding silently down his forehead and cheeks. His feet were shaking too, and he couldn¡¯t stop stuttering. Still, he managed to spit out a word with two syllables. ¡°Dragon¡­dragon¡­dragon¡­¡± He was not speaking loudly, but in the dead silence of the room, his voice was loud enough for everyone to hear. This only made everyone more nervous and terrified, and the sound of teeth chattering resounded throughout the room. Since Steele had been onstage, Ray had been very quiet, acting as if he didn¡¯t care about how things progressed and his presence here was a mere formality. Even when Steele was in a very tight corner during the debate and looked at him for help, he did nothing. This had made the representative seated next to Ray feel very relieved, believing that Ray had given up on Steele for her incompetence. But now everyone knew what was really happening. For such a peerless man with the power and influence of a dragon, things like rules and principles were all a meaningless formality. For Ray, his mind was the key to success. They looked at the knight in black armor with fear and trepidation, behaving like a poor man waiting to be sentenced, who had offended a lord and had been tied up. ¡°Your Majesty, you have gone too far,¡± Ray said to Sui Xiong. ¡°They are so afraid that they¡¯re about to pee themselves¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s just because they are too mentally fragile. Look at Olian, she still looks perfectly fine, although her face is a little pale.¡± ¡°She knows you won¡¯t hurt her, while everyone else does not! Please look at that big guy. He is so terrified that he looks as if he¡¯s about to lose his mind!¡± Sui Xiong looked closely at the big guy who was so afraid that he couldn¡¯t see straight, and Sui Xiong became curious about his state. This guy was very powerful: how could he be so frightened? Sui Xiong pried into the big guy¡¯s mind while his defenses were lowered and saw a scene full of chaos. There was fire everywhere lighting up the dark sky. Everyone was running, yelling, and whining; at the same time, a huge, terrifying gray-red shadow was flying high in the sky. Sparks were constantly coming from its nose and mouth, as well as the occasional stream of flames, which burned the trees, the houses and even all the animals and humans in sight. The shadow was a rampant and evil dragon. Sui Xiong could tell that this scene, which must have happened before, had severely traumatized the big guy. Even now, when faced with the power and influence of a dragon, he would be paralyzed. This big guy had revealed his mental weakness, which explained why he could be so easily bribed by Romon despite his physical strength. But Ray, who was nearly as strong as the big guy, would never be tricked by a cheater and would definitely cut a cheater in half! Ray didn¡¯t show the power and influence of a dragon by himself. It had been transported to him from Sui Xiong¡¯s real body, and it was based on Frost, the dragon most likely to get angry among the three dragons from the grocery store. Frankly, Snow, a woman of legendary strength, was far more powerful than Frost, but when it came to the power and influence of a dragon, Frost¡¯s was much more terrifying than Snow¡¯s when he¡¯d lost his temper. Perhaps this was because Snow was a gentle soul who did not get angry easily, while Frost was like a firecracker that would explode as soon as he became the slightest bit angry¡­ After he managed to silence everyone at present by using the real power and influence of a dragon, Ray proudly walked to the centre of the stage. He looked at Romon, who was trembling with fear, as well as the fearless Olian, and then said: ¡°It is just a scroll. There is no need to fuss! There is so much open space on this stage. You two go over there, I think it will be quite sufficient for you two to practice a spell!¡± ¡°But Your Excellency, without an objective baseline to measure against, everyone will doubt the effect of the spell,¡± Olian said calmly. Even when facing a possible dragon, Olian was still quite calm and did not fret at all, which impressed many of the neutral aristocrats and representatives. Many among them began to secretly harbor the idea that this young girl could be a suitable figure to inherit the title of Viscount. If Romon¡¯s bloodline was proven fake, then he would not inherit the title and would also be executed for trying to swindle the right of inheritance. Meanwhile, Steele had behaved very disgracefully in such a sacred situation, so she did not seem suitable to inherit the title. In their eyes, even if she had behaved very gracefully, this sl*t could not possibly be the best candidate to inherit the title. Compared to these two, Olian Geerteng was indeed a distant relative of the Geerteng Family, and she was very talented as well. Besides, a person like her, who could maintain their composure while facing great power, would be very qualified as the new Viscount, even if she lacked other qualifications. Besides, this young girl even possessed a legendary spell scroll, which probably meant that she was the ¡°guardian¡± of the Geerteng Family. Actually, many families with a long family history had guardians in their family. Each guardian came from a collateral branch of a family and did not show himself to the outside world. But whenever a family¡¯s safety was threatened, he would always be able to save the family from danger by using a treasured object or his great strength. Now, the Geerteng Family was indeed facing a critical moment, so allowing their guardian to inherit the title would be a very good choice. Ray was walking as proudly as if he was a real dragon; he was indeed a very good actor. He smiled and kicked Steele to the square from the stage, but Steele did not fall down onto the ground clumsily; rather she landed on the ground gently and was unharmed. How marvelously Ray used his strength! Of course, Ray could not do all this all by himself. It was Sui Xiong who was helping him put on such a show. If he could manage to do all this by himself one day, he might really put one foot in the world of the legendary. ¡°See, doesn¡¯t that work as a baseline?¡± Ray said rather casually. Olian nodded, jumped off the stage like an agile sparrow, turned over in the air, and managed to stand on the ground steadily. Ray looked at Romon and asked, ¡°Do you need my help, or do you prefer to get down by yourself?¡± Romon looked at Ray¡¯s flawless poker face and felt a shiver run down his spine. He said, ¡°I can manage myself! There is no need to bother Your Excellency!¡± However, when he landed on the ground, he did not walk toward Steele or Olian. Instead he turned around and hid beneath the stage, and then took out a scroll and activated it. ¡°I am not so stupid as to be attacked by a Magic Disintegration spell! I must run away!¡± The transportation spell stored in the scroll was immediately effective and before everyone noticed, a ray of white light shrouded Romon and flew into the sky, vanishing together with Romon in the blink of an eye. Only the sound of Romon¡¯s voice echoed around them. He¡¯d managed to run away. All of a sudden, everyone was shocked. ¡°Even I didn¡¯t expect this¡­this guy is really good. He even managed to trick a god!¡± Sui Xiong found this both funny and annoying and couldn¡¯t help letting out a long sigh. Romon was indeed a professional crook, who could not only put on a show but also take prompt action. Sui Xiong was sure that when Romon was standing in front of Ray, he had not intended to simply run away, but during the short period of time when he¡¯d come off the stage, he had weighed all the advantages and disadvantages and decided to run away. Besides, the way he had run away was indeed clever: first he¡¯d hidden beneath the stage, which was a blind spot for Ray and Sui Xiong. Then he managed to activate the transportation spell to run away before everyone realized leaving all his belongings behind as well as all his peers without any hesitation. Sui Xiong had seen many talented people since he had come to this world, but no one who could compete with Romon when it came to quick-wittedness and decisiveness! ¡°Romon really is an elite,¡± Wahl said that night, in the plain cottage of the library. ¡°As long as he is still alive, he is sure to be famous!¡± Both Sui Xiong and Ray agreed with him. A talented person like Romon, a professional cheater who could quickly find a way to escape when in danger, was really rare. This time, the reason Romon had failed was not because of a loophole in his plan, but because he¡¯d encountered some unforeseen obstacles. ¡°Teacher, do you plan to continue working in the library?¡± Olian asked with her eyes watering. ¡°You won¡¯t leave, right?¡± The next morning, after Romon ran away, the aristocrats and representatives had a discussion and made the decision that Olian should be the next Viscount of Geerteng. Since Olian had already expected this, she was not that happy about this decision; in fact, she was rather upset by other news entirely. Sui Xiong and Ray had decided to go south to Golden Pagoda in the Commonwealth of Mifata by crossing the Wild Marsh of Ancient Woods, Broken Cloud Mountains and the Ancient Forest. There they could recruit the poor aristocrats who were good at dealing with domestic affairs. Olian was surprised by this, and she tried to persuade Sui Xiong, ¡°Your Majesty, you said you want to establish your own Holy Land. Why not build it in the Geerteng? I am the lord here. I can arrange everything for you. It will only take eight or ten years at most¡­If everything goes well, maybe Geerteng City will become your Holy Land before the establishment of your Holy Land in the North is even finished!¡± ¡°You may be right, but I am still very curious about the knight whom Satan admired so very much,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°Besides, you have been the lord for such a short time. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s good for you to get involved in this business.¡± It¡¯s only natural for a follower to do things for the God they believe in. How could it be anything but good?¡± ¡°¡­Alas! You people are too naive!¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°Anyway, what you should do now is be a good lord and manage this place well. Once you have solid control over this place and I successfully build my own church up north, I will come and preach my religion. Then you can help me.¡± ¡°I want to do more!¡± ¡°What I¡¯ve said is enough, and that¡¯s an order from me,¡± Sui Xiong said, turning his tentacles into a big hat that covered her head. Olian was stunned and stopped talking, so Sui Xiong turned his tentacles into a palm and gently touched Olian¡¯s soft hair, and said while smiling, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, by the time you are old, my Holy Kingdom will have been built already. You can come and be the lord there if you want.¡± Things were settled then. Olian also worried that Wall might leave. ¡°I won¡¯t leave; where could I possibly go?¡± Wall was amazed by Olian¡¯s rather serious face. ¡°I have been cleaning the street here for almost fifty years. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t abandon you; I will still be here until the day when I can use a black knife to kill the people in the Cloud Castle.¡± Seeing Olian finally bursting into tears, Sui Xiong could not help but laughing. He hoped that she would always be as kind as she was now, and be a considerate ruler who treated the locals well. Chapter 62 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The next day, Sui Xiong and Ray said goodbye to Wall and Olian and departed for the south. Ray strongly suggested that they rest and recharge their batteries, so they went to the grandest hotel in Geerteng City and ate an expensive breakfast. Then they bought some items for camping and changed the low-quality and worn-down stuff in Ray¡¯s bags for something new. This took quite some time, and when they finally left the city, it was already 12 o¡¯clock. ¡°We¡¯d better eat lunch here too,¡± Ray suggested. Seeing that Ray had been procrastinating over such trivial things, Sui Xiong became so angry that he jumped up and down angrily and demanded, ¡°We should leave right now! Right now!¡± Ray sighed, put the bag on his back, and walked out the city gate gloomily. He felt he might not see a single trace of people for quite some time in the coming days! ¡°The Wild Marsh of Ancient Woods, Broken Cloud Mountains, and the Ancient Forest¡­ I won¡¯t see the civilized world again until I arrive at the Commonwealth of Mifata!¡± he sighed while walking. ¡°And before we arrive there, we¡¯ll have to go through the rigors of living in the wilderness, as well as encountering many dangers¡­ why does my life have to be so miserable!¡± ¡°I think I should do some surgery on your brain and get rid of all your ridiculous, boring ideas,¡± Sui Xiong said rather angrily. Ray sighed, shook his head, and silently trudged onward. But Sui Xiong could still hear Ray screaming ¡°Tyrant!¡± in his mind. Ray was exceptionally strong, even when carrying a backpack, so he moved very quickly. At around 12 o¡¯clock, they had already arrived at a wild and desolated wood. ¡°Remember the last time when we were in a wood, we heard someone asking for help and met that pathetic woman,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°I wonder who we¡¯ll meet this time¨C¡± Before he could even finish his thought, they heard a familiar female voice let out a scream. ¡°I think I¡¯ve heard that voice before,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Don¡¯t be silly, that¡¯s Steele¡¯s voice!¡± Ray wrapped up the food, put the backpack on his back, and sprinted in the direction of the scream. ¡°Why on Earth is this woman here again! Is she planning on having sex with her lovers in the wild again?!¡± Well, this time, both of them were wrong. When they saw Steele, she was running, wearing furs meant for an adventurer and holding an over-decorated sword. There was sweat all over her face, and based on her rough appearance, she must have been running for quite some time. Judging from the wounds on her body and the trail of blood behind her, it was only too obvious that she had escaped a tough battle. Right behind her, a few ferocious wolves were chasing her and waiting for the right time to attack. It seemed Steele had already managed to kill one or two of them, so these wolves realized that she wasn¡¯t that fragile; instead they chose to chase after her and kill her when she was finally exhausted. Seeing Ray, Steele was overjoyed and started to shout for help, before immediately falling to the ground. When she¡¯d been running for her life, the will to live had kept her moving. But now that she knew she would be saved, she was too tired to run anymore, so she just collapsed. Luckily, Ray came to her rescue before the wolves could reach her. Seeing the gallant knight in black armor holding a spear, the wolves immediately ran away and disappeared. Ray didn¡¯t intend to kill them, since he thought they were random beasts that posed no threat to experienced adventurers. As for an average person, they must have already decided to die if they ever came to this wild and desolate place. Even a god couldn¡¯t save someone who no longer wanted to live, and Ray himself was not even a god. Ray turned around to see how Steele was and then frowned. Her injuries were far more serious than he¡¯d thought. There were several wounds on her arms and legs where she¡¯d been bitten. These wounds were hard to sew up, and what was worse was the wolf¡¯s saliva had entered her body through the wounds. She would probably be infected with werewolf syndrome, and if she were indeed infected, her chances of survival would be slim. However, these wounds weren¡¯t even the most serious. She¡¯d been stabbed next to the left side of her ribcage. Ray looked carefully and was sure that this wound was fatal: someone must have stabbed her with a long dagger covered in poisonous liquid, since the blood coming from the wound was black! In fact, she should already have been dead, and Ray was surprised that she¡¯d managed to survive this long. ¡°Her heart is on the right side of her chest, and her lung is a bit malformed,¡± Sui Xiong said, realizing why she had lived until now. ¡°The dagger didn¡¯t pierce her lung, which is why she can still fight and run, but the poison has spread throughout her body. She is already beyond help.¡± Sui Xiong knew that for an average person, ¡°she¡¯s beyond help¡± meant no one could really save her. But he also knew he had the power to save her if he wanted. But it was quite obvious that there was no need to save an arrogant, cold woman like her. It seemed that Steele had realized that she would die soon, so she forced a smile and struggled to find a comfortable position to lie down in. ¡°Your Excellency, thank you for saving my life. Although I will die soon, it is much better for me to be able to die peacefully than being torn apart by wolves.¡± There was a Chinese saying which said ¡°when a man is near death, he speaks from his heart.¡± Steele was smiling peacefully, and her face looked extremely pale due to excessive loss of blood. She didn¡¯t look as slutty as usual, but rather looked a bit tranquil. ¡°Who stabbed you?¡± Ray asked in a low voice. ¡°That person will be heavily punished for stabbing an aristocrat!¡± ¡°An aristocrat? I am not one anymore.¡± Steele said, forcing a smile, ¡°It was my follower. I thought I was lucky to have a follower who was loyal to me since I was kicked out of the Geerteng Manor. But I never thought that he¡¯d chosen to stay with me only to take my money¡­¡± ¡°This guy couldn¡¯t have gone too far. We¡¯ll take a shortcut, and then we¡¯ll find him!¡± Ray said very coldly. Although he hated this woman, he hated a servant who betrayed his lord even more! ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already killed him. I have no idea how he learned to be a bandit, but he wasn¡¯t very tough anyways. All these years, judging from my behavior, many people have forgotten that I can also draw a bow, use a sword and ride a horse. In fact, every woman in the pioneer manor can fight!¡± She laughed heartily, and blood began to seep from the corners of her mouth. ¡°You¡¯d better stop talking. You¡¯ll only suffer more,¡± Ray said. Steele sighed, then stared at the sky and became silent. No one knew what she was thinking. After a while, when Ray thought she may have already died, Steele suddenly said, ¡°Your Majesty, I have one last wish.¡± ¡°What is it? As long as it is not against my principles, I will do that for you.¡± Seeing a dying woman, Ray grew a bit sympathetic. Previously, he would never have shown sympathy to anyone else, but since he had been travelling with Sui Xiong, his way of thinking had changed after all the things he¡¯d seen during the journey. Hearing Ray say yes, Steele¡¯s eyes brightened and she said, ¡°All these years, I have slept with people and warcrafts, but I have never slept with a dragon. Would you transform into a dragon and sleep with me?¡± Ray was stunned by her words. He couldn¡¯t possibly believe his ears. What a strange woman she was¡­ did she have any idea what she was saying? ¡°If I weren¡¯t in this situation, I wouldn¡¯t dare ask for this, since I know a dragon is much bigger than a human, and I would most certainly die if I ever slept with a dragon. But now I am almost dead, so it¡¯s fine.¡± Her face began to become red again, and her slutty appearance returned. ¡°Being f*cked to death by a dragon is probably the best outcome for me!¡± Out of sheer excitement, her face became so red and terrifying, and her body was even trembling. The excitement she felt from this crazy idea of having sex with a dragon, as well as her extremely strong sexual desire, was already driving her crazy. ¡°Your Majesty! Your Majesty! You must help me this time!¡± ¡°Help you?¡± Sui Xiong was confused. ¡°How should I help you? Should I change you into a huge dragon by practicing a transformation spell? Okay, wait a moment, I have to do some preparations¡­¡± ¡°I am talking about this!¡± Ray cried out. ¡°I mean you should help me get out of this situation!¡± ¡°I have no idea what I can do to help you!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You¡¯re the one who promised to help make her last wish come true, and her last wish was sleeping with a dragon. I think there is only one way to solve this, and that is by changing you into a dragon.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t want this!¡± ¡°Are you some kind of ascetic?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± Ray sighed and said. ¡°If it were a different moment, I would agree to have sex with her since I am most certainly going to enjoy myself. But right now she¡¯ll definitely die during the process! Then what am I?! A crazy man, I think!¡± ¡°To be honest, if you really become a dragon, I think if you start sleeping with her, she will die immediately.¡± Sui Xiong recalled the huge dragon he met in the Graystone Mountains and compared the size of that dragon with Steele¡¯s fragile body. ¡°And if you f*ck her until you finish, there¡¯ll be nothing left of her but a pile of meat¡­¡± Hearing Sui Xiong¡¯s words, Ray was terrified and became more anxious. He then said, ¡°You should find a way to help me! You are a God, I am your follower! Is this what you really want?! To see me suffer?!¡± ¡°Compared with all the crazy stuff this aristocrat has done, this isn¡¯t that bad at all¡­¡± Sui Xiong muttered. ¡°After all, she isn¡¯t dead yet¡­even if she is dead, you can still sleep with her while her body is still warm. By the way, once upon a time, there was a king who slept with his wife when she was soon to be buried¡­¡± Hearing this, Ray was so angry that his body began shaking. He put his right hand on the hilt of his sword, as if he intended to pull out his sword to fight Sui Xiong. Seeing how angry Ray was, Sui Xiong stopped joking with him and showed himself in front of her. ¡°Steele¡¤Geerteng, honestly speaking, I do not want to save a person like you at all. But if I don¡¯t, my follower will not be able to keep his promise. You should feel lucky that your crazy idea has changed my mind and made me decide to save your life.¡± Then he reached out his tentacles and penetrated Steele¡¯s body. ¡°Injured? Excessive loss of blood? Poisoned? What¡¯s the big deal! Even if you are dead, I can still bring you back to life!¡± Chapter 63 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Judging from Steele¡¯s wounds, Sui Xiong thought her condition wasn¡¯t that serious: only an excessive loss of blood and severe poisoning. Sui Xiong thought it would take nothing more than an advanced restoration spell to save her. But when Sui Xiong tried to save her, something weird happened. Steele¡¯s soul was going through some strange transformation. The wounds, blood loss, and poisoning weren¡¯t so difficult for him to deal with; all he needed to do was heal her wounds, restore some blood, and remove the poison from her body, which were quite easy tasks for a god. A magnificent stream of magic flew into Steele¡¯s body, full of abundant nutrition. Steele¡¯s body quickly began to heal as new blood was generated in her body and the toxins were cleansed. Soon her body was revived. However, Steele still didn¡¯t wake up. Instead, Sui Xiong could feel her soul quaking severely, and it was really unpleasant. Sui Xiong carefully considered this and realized that her soul might be making some sort of connection with a being far away. Sui Xiong had read about this in the materials from the God of Redemption. This phenomena was called the ¡°conversion to a holy spirit after making connection with a God¡±. In this world, one¡¯s belief could be either strong and weak, and there was a certain group of people who were widely admired. These were no frantic believers who were willing to sacrifice themselves for the god they believed in, but those who understood and upheld the doctrine of a specific god, living by his principles in their daily lives. They were like human embodiments of the god living among the masses, even if they themselves weren¡¯t certain of the god¡¯s existence. They were called Saints, and their unshakeable belief was referred to as Holy Belief. When a Saint died, his soul would then resonate with a certain god and became a holy spirit. A holy spirit was a creature with the stature of a half-god and had a power that was nearly as strong as a god. Saints were the most powerful followers of that god. Besides, when a god suddenly vanished, as long as he had a holy spirit, they would help manage his priesthood temporarily and keep his magic power working, so that his Holy Kingdom would not collapse. Then after a while, because the Holy Kingdom still existed, the god could be reborn, or he could be revived via the body of the holy spirit. All this meant that for a god, a holy spirit was as precious as an extra life or 1-up in a video game. But Sui Xiong would never have thought that a slutty woman like Steele, who even wanted to have sex with a huge dragon before she died, could be a holy spirit! Holy sh*t! Was there really such a tolerant god in this world? And the good gods wouldn¡¯t mind or object to this? Sui Xiong was complaining while looking through the materials, trying to find out which god would have a holy spirit like Steele. However, he could not find the answer. Seeing Steele¡¯s soul tremble more and more as it prepared to go through the transition, Sui Xiong became very curious and immediately sent a request for help to the God of Redemption, who was very experienced among all the gods. The God of Redemption quickly answered Sui Xiong¡¯s request. A magical power came from the sky and examined Steele. The God of Redemption recoiled a bit and was rather disgusted by this scene. ¡°This is really repulsive!¡± the God of Redemption said. ¡°This woman is just a lunatic who upheld the principles of the King of Sex and Lust! Technically, this woman is a holy spirit, but she is a holy spirit for an evil god.¡± The God of Redemption was indeed disgusted by Steele¡¯s soul and left immediately. He simply left a message for Sui Xiong explaining who this God of Sex and Lust really was. In a word, the God of Sex and Lust was the god version of Steele. ¡°Your Majesty, what is going on?¡± Ray was a smart guy, and when he saw Sui Xiong suddenly pull his tentacles back as another magical power quickly appeared and then disappeared, he instantly knew something had just happened! ¡°There¡¯s been an¡­unexpected development,¡± Sui Xiong explained to Ray. ¡°Steele is actually a holy spirit, and her soul began the transition when she almost died. I have managed to fix her body, but I can not stop her soul from transitioning. It seems like you really won¡¯t be able to keep your promise this time.¡± ¡°What?! An evil god?!¡± Ray was surprised and said hurriedly, ¡°Then why haven¡¯t you stopped her!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned by Ray¡¯s words and said, ¡°If she is going to become a holy spirit, then let her. Why on Earth should I stop her?¡± ¡°But she is a holy spirit for an evil God! Which means there is one more evil God in this world now!¡± Sui Xiong finally realized this and explained, ¡°The King of Sex and Lust is actually not an evil being. He simply encourages people to have sex and purports the idea that all happiness and art derives from sex. He also believes that sex should be something pure and holy, something that can live without the feeling of love, something everyone should pursue throughout life. This theory is a bit shocking, but not bad.¡± ¡°But¡­but¡­¡± Ray stammered a few times, failing to find a proper reason to contradict him. Either way, he felt something was not right: being the holy spirit of an evil God was not a good thing, yet he couldn¡¯t put his finger on what the problem really was. As more time passed, Steele¡¯s soul eventually stopped trembling, and it had changed completely. She still looked exactly like she had when she was alive, although the leather armor she¡¯d worn had turned into a black and half-transparent silk which, apart from her most private areas, vaguely revealed her naked body. Since the silk clothing was very tight, the contour of her privates could also be seen. She looked much more attractive than if she had been wearing nothing at all. On her back, there was a pair of delicate wings. The skeleton of the wings was black, while the wings were red, similar to those of a bat. The wings were half-folded and looked rather cute. Moreover, there was a long black tail coming from her butt, and on the end of the tail, was a heart-shaped awl. In fact, Steele did not look evil at all; instead she was more attractive and sexy than she was before in life. Steele¡¯s soul gradually stood up from her body, clearly confused about her current situation while looking at her own body. At this moment, a powerful energy came down from the sky along the path connecting Steele¡¯s soul with the King of Sex and Lust, targeting the new holy spirit. ¡°Alas!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised and immediately blocked the energy from harming her. He realized that the energy was indeed powerful, and if Steele¡¯s soul was hit, she would vanish in the blink of an eye. Moreover, Sui Xiong could clearly feel that this power came from the King of Sex and Lust! ¡°What are you doing? Why on earth do you want to kill your own holy spirit?¡± Sui Xiong said telepathically along the still-open path. Soon, a light flashed, and someone said in a very attractive voice, ¡°I do not need a holy spirit!¡± ¡°Why?¡± The King of Sex and Lust did not reply. Instead he initiated another attack on Steele¡¯s soul. This time, the strike was far more intense the the last one, and it took far more strength for Sui Xiong to withstand it. Sui Xiong became furious and began to curse, ¡°You don¡¯t need a holy spirit, so you want to kill it? Are you insane?! I will teach you a lesson!¡± Then Sui Xiong transformed his magical power into a icy blue lightning bolt aimed at the King of Sex and Lust. Since the distance between the two was quite far, Sui Xiong had no idea whether he¡¯d hit the target or not. But later, when he saw the King of Sex and Lust had stopped attacking, he knew he¡¯d hit the bullseye. After being hit by the icy blue lightning, the King of Sex and Lust stopped, sent a message via telepathy along the path, and then cut the connection all together. The message was about why he didn¡¯t need a holy spirit: in fact, the King of Sex and Lust had become a god in charge of the priesthood of sex, but he didn¡¯t want to follow the rule of a god¡ª¡±his individuality must come after the priesthood¡±¡ª so he gave up his priesthood and became an evil god. For a god, a holy spirit was like an extra life. But for an evil god like him, if he had a holy spirit, when he disappeared and wanted to be reborn, he would have to be reborn with the identity of a god rather than the way he wanted. The King of Sex and Lust would never allow this sort of thing to happen; he who was proud and stubborn, and he would rather die than sacrifice his freedom! So he made his choice, which was to kill his holy spirit. He also warned Sui Xiong, ¡°Since you are already involved in this business and have stopped me from killing my holy spirit, it is yours now. If she becomes a barrier for me in the future, I shall see it as a declaration of war from you, and if she does something terrible, you are the one who will be responsible! If you don¡¯t want this to come to fruition, just kill her!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned by his words, and had no idea what he should do next. He never thought things would end up like this. He saw that Steele¡¯s soul was gradually waking up and getting weaker and weaker, nearly ready to vanish and become a tiny sand in the river Styx. Sui Xiong felt very sorry and searched for some way to save her. What should I do? He had no time to ponder over this, so he immediately changed the energy of his soul into a tentacle and stuffed Steele¡¯s soul back into her body. ¡°You¡¯d better get back into your body! I can see you vanishing!¡± But Steele¡¯s soul had changed its form, and a human body could not hold a holy spirit. As soon as the soul entered the body, the body began to shake, and blood began coming out of her nose, eyes, ears, mouth and so on. A strong energy was working inside her body which seemed ready to explode at any minute. So Sui Xiong use his magic power to transform Steele¡¯s body. The body is different from the soul? Then I shall make them the same! Around half an hour later, Steele was alive again and finally opened her eyes. She stood up, moving her wings, shaking her tail, and becoming accustomed to her new body. She now looked exactly like a holy spirit, a holy spirit wearing leather armor. Chapter 64 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°What¡­what has happened to me?¡± Sui Xiong had done a good job transforming her body. Steele immediately stumbled a bit after trying to stand up, feeling very weak and confused. She looked around and cast her eyes on Ray, who was very nervous, and then the jellyfish floating in front of her. She then asked Ray, ¡°Am I delusional? Why do I see a sea jelly floating in the air in front of me? Your Majesty, is it your pet?¡± Hearing this, Ray began to laugh, while Sui Xiong was quite annoyed. This silly woman¡­a sea jelly?! That was a snack for me! I am a jellyfish damnit! Yes, it¡¯s true that a sea jelly is a jellyfish in a way, but a jellyfish is certainly not a sea jelly! They are different! Not to mention¡­a pet! Ray is my follower. How can she be so ridiculous that she sees me as a pet, and Ray as the master! Saving her was the biggest mistake I¡¯ve ever made in my whole life! When Steele finally knew what had transpired, she was so excited and cried out, ¡°Your Majesty, even the sun is shadowed by your righteousness and mercy! To return your favor, I can only¡ª¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to return my favor! I simply did the right thing, and that is all. And now we¡¯ll say goodbye!¡± Sui Xiong instantly interrupted her, since he thought what she was going to say would be ¡°I would do anything for you¡± or something along those lines. Although Steele was very sincere, Sui Xiong still felt she was plotting something. What if she said ¡°I can only return the favor by giving myself to you¡±, how embarrassing would that be! And then I¡¯d definitely get grief about it from Ray too. ¡°Even if you don¡¯t want me to return the favor, please allow me to follow you!¡± Steele¡¯s eyes were watering as she pleaded, as if she was ready to burst into tears at any moment. ¡°Since the King of Sex and Lust does not want me, with this appearance, I will never be able to live among normal people again. If I don¡¯t follow you, I don¡¯t know where I can go!¡± ¡°We are about to cross the Wild Marsh of Ancient Woods, the Broken Cloud Mountains, and the Ancient Forest, and then we¡¯ll arrive at the Commonwealth of Mifata. If you, a weak creature, come with us, you will be nothing but a burden,¡± Ray said, refusing her request instantly. Obviously, he underestimated Steele¡¯s intelligence and moral integrity. Hearing this, Steele quickly responded with an idea. ¡°Your Majesty, don¡¯t you think there are certain kinds of people that you do not have among your followers?¡± she said coyly. ¡°Certain kinds of people that you don¡¯t have¡­?¡± Sui Xiong then looked at Ray and looked at Steele. ¡°Who are they?¡± ¡°We have everyone we need,¡± Ray said. In case he hadn¡¯t been persuasive enough, he emphasized, ¡°WE HAVE EVERYONE WE NEED!¡± ¡°See? We have everyone we need,¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°as Ray says.¡± Steele smiled, and said, ¡°Men are all quite thoughtless, which is normal. But from my point of view, there should be a cook, a servant and other personnel who are in charge of reconnaissance.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you are versatile and can do all these things¡­¡± Ray spat out, mouth twitching. ¡°I am not that stupid!¡± ¡°Who would dare lie in front of a god? I am a good cook and know how to please a man, and it is my life that has forced me to learn all these things.¡± Sui Xiong was amazed by what she had said and responded, ¡°Forced by your life? How can an aristocrat like you be forced to learn all these things?¡± Steele sighed and slowly said, ¡°Some men with principles like neither money nor women; they are brave and strong-minded. In order to seduce them, I had to learn other skills¡­¡± Hearing this, Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°Besides, men always have some peculiar interests. There were some men who couldn¡¯t even be seduced with a naked woman standing right in front of him, but if you wore an apron or dress like a housemaid and called him ¡®master¡¯, all of a sudden he¡¯d be out of breath.¡± Sui Xiong kept nodding. Steele was laughing and said, ¡°Especially when I dress like a housemaid, and said to a man ¡®Welcome back, my darling. Do you want to take a shower first? Or eat dinner first? Or eat me first?¡¯ Almost every man would act like a beast, it was a marvelous feeling really. Over time, I learned how to be a cook as well as a housemaid.¡± Hearing Steele¡¯s words, Ray was speechless, and Sui could only continue nodding. They were totally persuaded by her. This woman was¡­really something! ¡°Wait a moment, I have a question!¡± Ray exclaimed. ¡°Since you have managed to seduce many successful men, why didn¡¯t any of them come to help you when you were fighting for the title of Viscount?¡± Steele sighed and said, ¡°They were all just a bunch of playboys; they could never be serious with a one night stand. Besides, I didn¡¯t dare get involved with crazy men; as for decent men, when they had sex with me, they usually thought they were responsible for me, asking me to change how I managed the Geerteng Manor. But changing in this manner was out of the question, so they had no choice but to leave me.¡± Ray sighed and shook his head, ¡°You are the one who is to blame for your own misery. If you had found a good man and gotten married, maybe you would have become the next Viscount.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so. If I can¡¯t live a happy life, what¡¯s the point of being Viscount?¡± Steele said. ¡°If I could only be Viscount on the condition that I must live a common and boring life, then I would choose not to be Viscount!¡± Hearing this, Sui Xiong and Ray finally understood why her relationships with others were so bad, even if she had been chosen as candidate for the next Viscount. ¡°Fine, let¡¯s drop this subject,¡± Ray said, changing the topic of conversation to a subject he was interested in. ¡°You said that there should be personnel in charge of conducting reconnaissance. Are you suggesting that you can do that?¡± ¡°I know how to hunt,¡± Steele said. ¡°As for scouting¡­if you can stand high enough, I think that¡¯s all you¡¯ll need to see what¡¯s ahead.¡± ¡°Stand high enough? Can you stand higher than me?¡± the floating jellyfish complained. Steele said rather confidently, ¡°If I can learn to be a good cook, then I can certainly learn how to fly! When I am flying in the air, I shall see as far ahead as necessary. Won¡¯t that make me qualified to be a scout?¡± Watching her confident face, both Sui Xiong and Ray were speechless and found themselves totally agreeing with her. Like she¡¯d said, she was a good cook, servant and scout. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to get rid of her in the first place, and even Ray, who had been determined to get rid of her, could no longer think of an excuse to do so. Thus, Steele, a ¡°night hag¡± who flew rather clumsily and carried a heavy bag on her back, became the third member of this unlikely group. This experience greatly affected Steele and made her become very tough. The journey to the Commonwealth of Mifata was really tiring, but she made it through and never gave up, without any complaints. Sui Xiong guessed that the transformation of her soul had changed her personality as well. Of course, he was quite happy with this, since a powerful and capable companion was so much better than a random slutty woman. The former was someone you could trust and rely on when times commanded, while the latter¡­well, he knew that meant only trouble. Still, they hadn¡¯t gotten used to her abrupt change in character. Before, Steele had been nothing more than a slutty woman, but now it seemed that she had become a powerful and capable partner. This metamorphosis was as striking as a primary school student leveling up from bronze to diamond status in an online game. If this were an online game, Sui Xiong would definitely ask, ¡± Hey buddy, are you cheating or is someone playing for you?¡± In fact, Steele was cheating, but it was Sui Xiong who¡¯d caused all this to happen. Did this mean Sui Xiong could also help someone cheat and turn him from a newbie into a powerful hacker online? If I can go back to modern society, I can even make a living from this! For professional gamers who are too old and have lost their edge, I just need to increase the amount of blood that flows to their brains and make their fingers more flexible. Then they¡¯ll perform as if they¡¯re young again, and they¡¯ll no longer need to make a living by selling baked goods or spare machine parts¡­wait a minute, I¡¯ve actually heard that selling baked goods can be much more profitable than being a professional online gamer¡­would they be willing to make the sacrifice?¡± ¡°Maybe I should consider helping athletes instead. For example, I can help a basketball player whose height is 170cm to play as well as one whose height is 210cm; I can also help a slim man become so strong that he can fight the biggest bodybuilder; I can help a man with poor stamina sustain four quarters on the court, and still have the strength to dance with the cheerleaders afterward; for those athletes who retire due to injury, I will heal their injuries so they can return to the pitch¡­¡± ¡°Or maybe I should improve the strength, stamina, and skill of some international soccer players! I don¡¯t care if they are willing or not¡­I will make them lift the World Cup!¡± The jellyfish that was covering Ray¡¯s head like a hat could no longer contain his laughter. Chapter 65 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Even for adventurers, the Wild Marsh of Ancient Woods was the most dangerous place on the whole continent. Here, there were many scary beasts and monsters, as well as countless snakes and poisonous insects. In addition, the natural environment here was truly terrible. Solid, dry ground was a rare sight. Small puddles covered with duckweed or algae were everywhere, and making your way through them was virtually impossible. Even an advanced adventurer like Ray was not sure what he would step into, a comparatively solid yet muddy patch of ground, or a deep mud pit. Moreover, the swampy air was very humid. Shrubs and vines grew everywhere, as well as numerous drooping tree branches that intertwined with each other. When Ray was walking, he had to cut down these branches with his ax to clear a path. Often times, the unpleasant surprise of snakes or beasts waited behind these branches. More than once, when Ray cut off a branch, a viper slithered out, ready to attack. Luckily, Ray was strong and clever, and he¡¯d received many warnings from other adventurers. From the moment he set foot in the marsh, he had been very careful and alert, so he managed to stay out of harm¡¯s way. The branches were a real nuisance and as a result, Ray¡¯s progress was slow, especially when he came close to the brink of the swamp where the soil was a bit harder. There it was more difficult for him to proceed. Ray easily overcame most of these obstacles, but he didn¡¯t know how to react to the dangers hidden under the mud. Ray was indeed powerful, but no matter how powerful he was, he had to stand on solid ground. One minute, taking a wary step, he¡¯d step on mud mixed with some flexible weeds, but then with his next step, the mud and weeds would break and he¡¯d be stuck in a mud pit. Since the trees here were very dense, the canopy overhead blocked the sunlight, so even at midday, it was rather dim. Otherwise, it was completely dark, and Ray couldn¡¯t see anything at all. After Ray had gotten stuck in a mud pit a few times, Sui Xiong used a spell to make an invisible floating plate one meter off the ground and asked Ray to stand on it. This floating plate spell was a simple, entry-level bit of magic, and it could bear things that weren¡¯t too heavy. For new and young wizards, this was an easy spell to practice. It allowed them to cross muddy, rough roads or perhaps easily transport their luggage. The spell could last quite some time; even a wizard like Palin could make it last for four to five hours, and as for Sui Xiong¡­ Normally, a spell could last at least a day, and when a wizard had slept enough, he could practice the same spell again. So basically, the duration of a spell should be one day. Most of the time, to make a spell last the whole day, a wizard had to practice the skill called ¡°prolonging the time of a spell¡±, which would keep the spell active the entire day. . But Sui Xiong could easily make the floating plate spell last for over a day. When Steele asked how long this spell could last, to find out its exact duration, Sui Xiong created another floating spell. Surprisingly, this floating plate didn¡¯t disappear until the third day¡¯s morning, and no one even realized it had disappeared. When they finally noticed it was gone, it was already night. ¡°That is really very impressive!¡± Steele praised him. ¡°Your Majesty, you are a real god! I have never heard of a wizard that can make a spell last for this long without the help of other spells!¡± Ray was counting how long the spell had lasted in his mind, and was also very impressed by its duration. I never thought the jellyfish that I wore as a hat was such a powerful wizard! Ray and Steele were not satisfied with their inexact measurement of the spell¡¯s length, so Sui Xiong practiced another spell and decided to count the exact time, even if it meant that he had to stay up all night. ¡°Yes, I am also very curious about how long this spell will last,¡± Ray said. ¡°Me too!¡± However, things never happen exactly according to plan. The next day, they ran into some unexpected issues. After lunch, they set off. Because of the King of Sex and Lust, Sui Xiong now had a different view on being apotheosized. So he focused on reading the materials from the God of Redemption, comparing the contents he read with what he¡¯d learned about the King of Sex and Lust, trying to figure something out. He was focused on reading, so he did not realize something was staring at Ray in a very hostile way. In fact, he was not to blame for his carelessness this time, since there was no need for him to be at full attention after Ray and Steele had gotten used to the environment in the dense forest. Steele, a holy spirit, was flying high above. She could even change between her virtual and physical forms at her will. From time to time, she would change into virtual form, and the dense branches, vines, snakes and ferocious beasts could no longer hurt her. She could easily glide through the forest in the marsh and see if there was any danger awaiting them up ahead. If there was, she would come back and report to Sui Xiong. Ray, who was riding the floating plate, no longer worried whether he would get stuck in a mud pit. Since he was also very good at riding a horse, he adapted quickly to riding the floating plate. While proceeding, he used his ax to cut down any vines or branches impeding his path. Occasionally, some snakes or poisonous insects would attack him, but he managed to get rid of them. Apart from the inherent dangers and the dimness, the severe environment of the marsh was already not a big deal for him anymore. Then, right at this moment, something happened! Steele was flying above the canopy to find a perfect spot to camp¡ªin a place like this, it was always wise to scout ahead for a campsite, even if it was only midday. Ray was still making his way on the floating plate, cutting down branches so he could continue, and everything looked perfectly normal. However, as he cut off a vine the size of his arm, from the muddy water nearby, a huge black figure rushed towards him and attacked. Ray wasn¡¯t prepared for this at all. He instantly retaliated with his ax and cut the black figure. But the sharp ax was useless, since this black figure was smooth, soft and pliable. Still, this strike had an effect: the black figure changed its direction and brushed past Ray. He immediately pulled out his sword. This sword was not only well-made but was also sharpened by enchantments from advanced wizards. Clearly, this sword was high-quality, even among all other magical weapons. With his sword in hand, Ray wasn¡¯t afraid of anything, not even a huge dragon. This black figure couldn¡¯t be stronger than a dragon, right? Ray shouted and jumped, but he immediately sensed that he was in great danger, so he jumped backwards instead. The black figure skimmed over him again, and at the same time, a strong wind with the stinking smell of rotten fish blew toward him. He felt as if a huge tree had fallen or a mountain had collapsed in front of him. In fact, Ray had only brushed the black figure, but the floating plate shattered into pieces. The pieces fell into the muddy water, which rose all around Ray as high as a wall on each side. Ray was falling and there was no solid ground for him to stand on, but he wasn¡¯t afraid. He was so angry that his eyes grew wide. Holding his long sword and seeing that he was about to be bumped into the muddy wall of water, he cut the water with his sword. Immediately he heard the sound of an ax cutting a tree. He¡¯d managed to make a crack in the water wall, and before he could even take a breath, a large, fierce mouth was approaching him. At this moment, Ray finally saw what this black figure really was: a huge, terrifying snake. Its body was flat and even wider than he was tall, and it looked to be at least ten meters long. Each of its gray scales was larger than his palm. It had a triangular head, with red, scary eyes and a mouth so big that it seemed like it could devour an ox in one bite. At the same time, the rotten fish smell was coming from its mouth, which made Ray feel dizzy. Ray couldn¡¯t see its teeth and tongue, which made him even more terrified. ¡°What in god¡¯s name is this!¡± he cursed, pulling out a long spear and stabbing the snake. Ray was good with both spear and a sword, so he landed a direct hit, right on the inside of the snake¡¯s mouth. Since there were no scales in its mouth, the spear did its job, and he successfully saved himself from being eaten. But for the snake, this hit wasn¡¯t fatal at all. In fact, the snake didn¡¯t even feel any pain. Instead it just backed away and began to coil up. As it coiled itself, its head began to shake, and it stuck out its tongue from time to time, just like a normal snake. The only difference was that this snake was as big as a small hill. Ray turned over and steadied himself on a thick branch, with a spear in his left hand and a sword in his right. If he were honest with himself, even Ray wasn¡¯t so sure he could defeat this snake. He was quite confident with his kung fu, but he had never fought a snake and he didn¡¯t know how to approach this battle. He¡¯d never had time before to learn this from someone else¡ªand besides, who in the world could teach him how to fight a snake anyways? All he could do now was try his best to defeat this awful creature. Luckily, he had a powerful backup, since he knew Steele would come back soon. If things get out of control, I can just throw the jellyfish into its mouth¡­and it¡¯ll definitely be stuffed to death then! With this plan in mind, Ray raised his sword and spear and prepared to fight. Chapter 66 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma In the thick woods, disorderly sounds could be constantly heard. One moment it was the sound of trees being broken, and the next, it was the the collision of gold and iron. Then it was a fierce crash, followed by the sound of flowing water. In the dim light, there were three figures, one big and two small, busy fighting. The big one was naturally the horrible serpent, while the small ones were Ray and Steele. Ray was in charge of the fight, while Steele only assisted him. Steele hurried back immediately after sensing there was a fight beneath her, but she struggled to help. She soon found out that with her lack of fighting skills, not only was she unable to offer help in the battle between Ray and the huge serpent, but she also was only getting in the way. So she stepped aside and kept a relatively safe distance, using her heaven-sent skill of casting spells to assist Ray. As a semi-holy spirit who had failed to complete the transformation, she was able to make use of many heaven-sent spellcasting skills. Although there were few that could be used for direct assaults, she was able to assist Ray with many of them. Coincidentally, what she needed right now was the Spell of Assistance. Assisted by Steele¡¯s spells, Ray became spirited and his fighting ability increased tremendously. He rejected the awakened Sui Xiong¡¯s proposal of help and wielded his spear and sword as if they¡¯d become two beams of white light, so the battle was quite even. Over time, Ray gradually gained the upper hand. He found that although this huge serpent had a huge body, amazing strength, and stunning defensive capacity, it wasn¡¯t particularly clever. This lack of fighting intelligence meant that the snake¡¯s combat skills were poor. With his rich experience accumulated from many battles, Ray gradually understood the fighting habits of this serpent. When the rhythm of the fight completely fell into his control, there was no longer any suspense as to the outcome of this battle. Even so, killing a giant snake was a very difficult thing. Ray struggled for a long time and finally killed the huge serpent as twilight approached. With a final cry, the huge serpent slumped to the ground and finally ceased moving. By this time, Ray was also exhausted and could barely stand. Even Steele, who had only assisted him by casting spells, was also quite fatigued. She flapped her wings feebly and could not fly anymore. ¡°Thank you,¡± Sui Xiong said as he cast a spell that froze the skeleton of the serpent together with its blood, preserving its precious materials as much as possible. This was the loot that Ray and Steele gained after fighting for an entire afternoon. It might not be priceless, but it was certainly very rare. ¡°How to deal with this stuff?¡± he asked, ¡°How about we save it in the storage space that I made and sell it after we reach the Commonwealth of Mifata?¡± ¡°Deal with it as you wish,¡± Ray said faintly. ¡°I have to find a place to camp because I feel as if every bone in my body is going to fall apart.¡± ¡°Me too,¡± said Steele, finally recovering a bit strength after resting for awhile. She flapped her wings and began to fly. ¡°There is a rocky hill up ahead. Although it isn¡¯t high, it is barren and not occupied by any beasts. It is the best place for us to camp. Hearing that they could finally sleep on solid ground, the already exhausted Ray again became spirited. He used his long spear as a cane and climbed up on another floating disk (the one that Sui Xiong originally used to test the duration of his spell). Because it had been kept far away from the battle, it was not destroyed in the fight, and now it came in handy once again. ¡°It¡¯s good to take a rest!¡± Steele sighed, flying slowly in the air and leading the way. Fortunately, the place was not far. It took them about ten minutes to arrive at the barren rocky hill. The rocks in this hill were quite hard, and the mountaintop was very smooth, making it a good campsite. However, everyone¡¯s current state made camping in the wild again very unattractive, so Sui Xiong searched in his documents, found a spell for shelter that was commonly used by travelers, and cast this spell. From nothing, this spell could create a room with beds, fireplaces, and simple toiletries. For travelers away from home, it was indeed a very convenient spell. But the disadvantage of this spell was also obvious. First of all, it was a made-up place, and it was difficult to get an adequate night¡¯s rest by sleeping in it. Also because this was an isolated place, people couldn¡¯t effectively pray here. This meant that neither mages nor priests could recover their abilities to cast spells by resting in the shelter. If this problem was only secondary, then the main problem was truly terrible. In the shelter, no one could keep watch of their surroundings outside. And although the house could keep out wind and rain, this seemingly solid house offered basically no defense at all. It could be damaged by even just a few wolves. What did this mean? It meant that resting in the shelter made you completely defenseless! Was there even a difference between resting in the wild without proper defenses and asking for death? So unless it was a last resort, adventurers would not use this spell for shelter. Even if they had to use it, they would make arrangements so that people kept watch outside in turns. This way they avoided being caught defenseless by monsters or enemies. Of course, there were also advanced spells that could solve these problems. For example, a man named Sacred Dwelling could build a stone room with considerable defenses and people could pray therein. However, that was something exclusively owned by gods whose positions were about traveling. Except for priests who were authorized by them, even Sui Xiong, also a god, couldn¡¯t cast that spell. There was a mage¡¯s spell called Mage¡¯s Villa, which not only provided a very high level of accommodation and food but also had a few magic statues responsible for guarding. There were even maids. However, that spell was so subtle that even the God of Redemption only knew of its existence and knew nothing of its principles. Perhaps among the deities, no one knew how to cast it¡­ ¡°I¡¯ll keep watch tonight, and you guys can sleep well,¡± Sui Xiong said to Ray and Steele, who were still unable to recover their spirit. ¡°Rest assured and sleep well because I will keep us safe.¡± With a god keeping vigil, of course, it was extremely safe. Ray and Steele, though somewhat embarrassed, ended up accepting his kindness and entered the room for rest, weary with fatigue. The two of them took a shower simply, ate and drank, and fell onto the bed and immediately went to sleep. They were really tired. Sui Xiong, while guarding them outside, changed into a huge floating jellyfish even larger than the shelter. He hovered in the sky over the room, watching carefully. He let out a sigh and then dispersed some of his floating weight in all directions. Then he only heard the sound of turmoil without knowing how many monsters, big or small, fled quickly and didn¡¯t dare to stay nearby. After dispersing anything that could threaten Ray and Steele, he could rest assured and immersed himself in his studies again. This time his research objective was that serpent. This serpent had a low IQ and no ability to cast spells. It seemed that it was just an ordinary low-level poisonous snake. It was unknown how it had grown to such a big size. If it had grown to such a size, how long had it lived? All things on earth had life, and snakes were no exception. This world did not seem to have legends about things like turning into elves or demons, but any creature that could be born and grow was either strong enough to combat the passage of time or had noble blood and exceptional talent. However, this serpent was neither strong enough nor had any noble blood, so what was the secret of its longevity? Sui Xiong was very curious about this. He was not a heartless absentee leader. He also wanted to contribute more to the construction of the church and the holy places ¡ªhe disagreed with the custom that required believers to work hard while gods sat idly and enjoyed the fruits of their labor. After some consideration, he felt he was a senior intellectual who deserved to contribute his wisdom and effort to his religion. It was just¡­how to contribute with his intelligence? He had not yet found a clue. The planned holy place would be built in the frigid northern part of the country. Even if it could depend on his strength to make farmlands, it would be self-sufficient at most. It was unrealistic to expect to sell surplus grains. It would be excessively cruel to ask the followers to make money by mining, logging, and quarrying in an extremely cold place. Manufacturing and the like were unlikely industries to get rich from in a place with such inconvenient transportation. As for the service industry¡­ He-he¡­Drop it¡­Why even mention this boring joke! If he wanted to arrange for the holy place to have an industry that could support his believers and provided extra money to run the church, he had to take into account the following points: First, the work involved in the industry had better not be outside, or people would freeze to death; second, it was better that the industry didn¡¯t use too many raw materials, or either collection or acquisition would be unreliable; third, it would be best if this industry was as exclusive as possible, so that even if someone was jealous they couldn¡¯t copy or mock it¡­These were what Sui Xiong thought of for now, and the rest would be supplemented later. But with these three ideas, he could only frown because he couldn¡¯t think of any other reliable ideas. Although he was powerful and had learned many things from both the gods and his original world of advanced science and technology, it was still too hard to find a suitable industry based on these requirements! After all, before coming to this world, he was just an art student good at painting, rather than an engineering student familiar with a variety of materials, various kinds of mechanical drawing, and a variety of mechanical processes! But now, he had inspiration. Health and longevity were clearly best welcomed by the rich in this world. Although in this world people could go to the Holy Kingdom after death, the threshold for entering the kingdom was extremely high. Most rich people believed that they would not find a kingdom willing to accept them. And they certainly didn¡¯t want to go obediently to the netherworld after death like poor people, without caring what happened next¡­ Therefore, under such circumstances, if he could launch a life-prolonging medicine with small side-effects and good results, he would definitely earn lots of money. There wouldn¡¯t be any problem supporting a church whose power was spread across the entire continent, not to mention his followers located in only one holy place! Creating this medicine relied on the giant serpent that had just met its demise¡­ Chapter 67 Conducting a scientific research required a lot of efforts. Once immersing himself in the research, the scientists would often not think about anything else, completely forget about the rest. Some would cook the pocket watch as a chicken egg. Some would write on the chariot like writing on the blackboard. Some would absolutely had no idea if others were stacking a pile of chairs beside, or there was a knife of a butcher with blood dripping in front, they were just trying to finish one last point of the research¡­. Sui Xiong obviously could not be compared to the senior sages. But once he put his mind into the research, he would also pay no attention to other things outside. Therefore while he was into his research, a funny scene had happened in the small protection cottage. Today, Lei was indeed paralyzingly exhausted. That d.a.m.ned giant serpent was not only fat but also venomous! During the fight, he had been infected with some venoms. Although Stelle had used her magic to detox the venom, it was also not simple to make up for the loss of the energy simply by one magic. Not to mention after a hair-raising fight¡ª-in fact, after the fight ended, he couldn¡¯t believe in his eyes when he looked at that giant serpent corpse, which was like frightening old tree covering the sky. Such a giant fellow like this is killed by me? ! This intense battle had worn his body out. He really needed a rest. Hence, when he was finally able to wrap himself in a soft bedding, he immediately fell into a deep sleep, started to enter the dreamland in vaguely few times of breaths. Light and shadow twinkled. In vagueness, he felt like he had gone back in time, gone back to those easy and peaceful times. ¡°Highness! Leon Highness!¡± An old voice woke him up from the dream. As soon as he opened his eyes, he found himself sitting in front of the desk and dozing off. The book¡±Society a.n.a.lysis¡ª-The Discussion about the power of a King, the obligation and right of n.o.blemen, and the obligation of commoners¡±, which was originally in his hand, had already fallen on the table. The head of the book almost hung down close to the table. ¡°Right¡­ I am sorry!¡± A black-haired youngster¡¯s face immediately blushed. He embarra.s.singly apologized, ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have been lazy in studying¡­¡± ¡°Ha ha, no need to be sorry. This old man can see that you have left your bed early in this morning to practice sword. Being tired from a hard practice is also very normal.¡± A gray-haired old man with a pair of gla.s.ses on his face shook his head as he smiled. His face was full of benevolent look, ¡°Highness, you are still young. Your physique is also weak. You have to pay attention to the limitation in your diligence!¡± Leo shyly smiled. There was a pa.s.sionate light flickering in his eyes, ¡°Teacher, you and father always teach me that I have to build my career quickly. To do that, I have to work hard at a young age. My ideal is to become a chivalrous knight, whose sword rules the world. To do this, I can¡¯t slack off. I have to try my best practicing every day!¡± The old man smiled as he nodded. His fingers tapped lightly on the blackboard, ¡°It is not certainly meddlesome when you have made such decision. Fighting over the throne is a bottomless pit, where countless lives and blood could not fill in. In comparison to that, being a sword-swinging solitary powerhouse is freer.¡± ¡°Moreover¡­ in several more hundred years, everyone might not remember who the King is. But they will definitely remember the King with an outstanding powerhouse background. If you can step into the legendary realm, maybe the King right now has pa.s.sed away, but you are still alive here!¡± ¡°Teacher must be kidding. How can I become a legendary powerhouse¡­¡± The youngster bashfully smiled as his face reddened. ¡°This thought is not right! If you are determined to do something, you have to aim high, so that you accomplish big thing in the future!¡± The old man somewhat looked serious, conscientiously said, ¡°Even if others don¡¯t believe in you, you at least have to trust yourself! Confidence is an essentially required qualification of a powerhouse! Leon Highness, you have to become more confident!¡± The youngster¡¯s face also got serious, he seriously replied. But the old man changed the subject from practicing to studying, ¡°Alright, enough chatting. We start studying from today. Today, we will learn about Elf race¡¯s music, the use of the secondary ba.s.s.¡± The youngster¡¯s firm and determined face immediately changed to a collapsing one, he helplessly lamented: ¡°Teacher, can we not learn these boring things? Elf race¡¯s music¡­. Where do I need it!¡± ¡°This is an essential self-cultivation for a royal family. Even if you don¡¯t want to become a King, I still have to use the standard for the future king to teach you!¡± The face of the old man looked like granite. His eyes gave off the light which could scare any student, ¡°Leon Highness, due to your habit of dozing off, which has wasted lots of time, today lesson will be a little bit more than usual.¡± ¡°Gosh!¡± When the dry and dull lesson, which made people want to cry, was about to begin; the big door of the study room was gently knocked. ¡°Excuse me, is Master in?¡± A mature and magnetic female voice came up. This kind of voice sounded like the one from an extremely s.e.xy girl which made everyone unable to refrain an urge of looking for it. But, there was an invisible familiar feeling surging inside Leon¡¯s heart as he heard this voice. That feeling was then replaced with a vaguely hating one. He and the old man both didn¡¯t open their mouths but the study room¡¯s door was rudely pushed open. A flirtatious and s.e.xy woman with a tail and wings on her back, who wore an offensive skintight outfit, came in. ¡°Oh? The style of this room is not right!¡± The woman spoke , ¡°At first, I thought it would be a pub or a casino, or some kind of wh.o.r.ehouse, or a G.o.d Shrine with a tentacle statue. That would have been more appropriate¡ª-how can it end up being a study room?¡± She wasn¡¯t interested in the old man. Her eyes were fixed on Leon¡¯s face. She gazed for a while then shook her head, ¡°This fresh and pure, delicious little pimp, who are you? Are you interested in doing something fun with Big Sister?¡± The old man¡¯s face turned purple in rage, ¡°Impudent! What kind of monster are you? Guard! Guard!¡± But the woman didn¡¯t take the old man¡¯s scold and shout into to her heart. Instead, she used her frivolous eyes to seduce Leon, then carefully looked at all kinds of ornaments inside the study room. ¡°Shield, crown and eagle¡­ Wow ¡ª I don¡¯t think I have a chance to meet a Prince!¡± The old man constantly called the guards. But no guard showed up, not even a single one. His face got extremely ugly. He pulled out the sword which looked more decorative than practical, blocking in front of Leon. ¡°Highness, you should jump out of the window to escape! There is a tree not far away from here. With your ability, you can easily jump down from here.¡± His tone was heavy and tragic, ¡°Quickly! This old man can¡¯t hold her up for too long!¡± But Leon didn¡¯t run away, his face showed an enlightened look. ¡°Turns out¡­ I am dreaming¡­¡± ¡°Dreaming? This is certainly a dreamland. However, your dream doesn¡¯t look the one of a powerful thief¡ª-ah! So you are him? ! Holy Moly! Not to mention about the personality, how can your appearance also change! It is really unbelievable!¡± That pretty and flirtatious woman was naturally Stelle. She invaded Lei¡¯s dreamland and saw something beyond expectation. At this moment, she laughed heartily, ¡°Well well well, I would have never believed this if I didn¡¯t see with my own eyes! That thief who usually brags about himself in the Westfall being brutal, cruel, and how he rampaged, killed the whole family of the pellet smuggling chamber of commerce every day, is actually a Prince!¡± The face of Leon¡ªor we could say Lei, gradually darkened. His fingers lightly tapped on the desk. The old man who was holding the sword had disappeared. All the ornaments in the study room vanished as well. The study room had turned into an empty room. His outfit also had some transformation in a blink, changed from the casual one to a fully armed one. With the sword in his left hand and the pike in his right hand, he put on a ready-to-fight posture. ¡°Stelle¡­ You have made an extremely big mistake!¡± He coldly said, ¡°In the dream world, there will be no death. Hence, I don¡¯t have to be merciful.¡± ¡°As you have pried into my secret, I want to nail you on the castle outside in the cold wind, to wake you up!¡± ¡°Is the nail poked through the bottom to the mouth?¡± Stelle didn¡¯t have the slightest fear, enthusiastically said, ¡°I have just heard this kind of playing method in the old tale from the minstrel. I have always wanted to try once!¡± Lei was too angry to say anything. As he swung up his pike, a cold light shot straight to the mouth of that s.l.u.t. He had made up his mind. He wanted to cover that disgusting mouth first! But for some unknown reason, Stelle¡¯s ability rose like wind. Her speed was unbelievably fast. She jumped up and down inside the shadow of the flying pike. Although there was a little bit of struggle, she still didn¡¯t get hit. At the same time, her mouth didn¡¯t stop, kept saying those words that made Lei more furious, ¡°Well well well, why are you staring at my face all along while attacking? Especially the mouth¡­ So do you prefer to join mouths? In fact, I like that too. Do you want to try once? I am sure you will be satisfied.¡± ¡°You s.l.u.t! Dare to sneak into my dream and say these senseless words!¡± Lei couldn¡¯t restrain his anger anymore. His attack was getting more and more intense. From the beginning till the end, he didn¡¯t know what to do to deal with Stelle. ¡°This is a long story¡­¡± Stelle gave a charming smile, cast a loving glance at him, ¡°At first, as I was tired to death. I just wanted to try to have a good sleep. Due to being too tired, after sleeping, I didn¡¯t know how but my soul slightly walked out. At that time, I was also bored. It has been many days since I did something with a man. Therefore, I think I need to satisfy my desire once¡­.¡± ¡°So you come and disturb me? !¡± ¡°Who say you are the only man here!¡± Stelle didn¡¯t have a bit of shame or embarra.s.sment. She giggled and licked her lips, ¡°To be honest, you are just a soon-to-be man!¡± ¡°Get lost!¡± ¡°Roll? I don¡¯t play with this kind of posture¡­ But it doesn¡¯t matter. As long as the Prince is willing to feed me, I am fine with any posture.¡± Stelle burst out laughing, ¡°Roll and make love¡­ This sounds very interesting, worth to try!¡± ¡°I said you¡ªget lost! Out! Go!¡± Lei angrily growled. The pike slipped out of his hand. Although it didn¡¯t hit Stelle, it then turned into an electric spark, going through the wall to some unknown place. After throwing out his pike, he changed his attention on using the sword. The sword was much shorter and lighter than the pike. Hence his speed of course got faster. In this way, Stelle finally couldn¡¯t not keep up with his speed. The sword glow flickered. Immediately, there were some wounded parts on Stelle¡¯s body. But this woman was worthy of being an elite exotic flower. The wounds that were dripping blood on her body couldn¡¯t scare her. On the contrary, she became more excited. She was more likely to find more joys from suffering. As a matter of a fact, she had already started to moan. Lei was driven insane by the disregard words from this lowly woman. His sword move was getting faster and faster, more and more intense. At this moment, he was too lazy to consider the so-called plan ¡°nail that s.l.u.t on the outside of the castle in the cold wind¡±. He just regretted not cutting Stelle in half, chasing her out of his dream. But from an idea to execution was obviously a long way. Although Stelle¡¯s situation was getting more and more struggling, she still managed to fight back in the war which was full of imminent dangers. Despite the increase of the wounds on her body, she didn¡¯t panic because of that. In contrast, her move was strangely getting faster and faster. What more exaggerating was that her moan was getting more high-pitch. Lei could even see some suspicious glittering fluid inside the splashing blood. ¡°You s.l.u.t! After this dream, I will hang you up to air-dry, for real!¡± He was angry to the point of losing his mind. His attacking power was also getting more severe. From the wall to the floor, everything was crushed under his sword. He was as if wanting to destroy this house. At this moment, a bang bang explosive sound suddenly came up. The sky outside the window abruptly shattered. A giant jellyfish which was enormous enough to carry the entire city appeared in their eyesights. ¡°In a middle of the night like this, do both of you have a little bit of civility or not!¡± Chapter 68 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Sui Xiong originally did not want to interfere with the battle between Ray and Steele. In fact, he hadn¡¯t noticed it at all. After Steele fell asleep, her heaven-sent ability was activated so that she snuck into Ray¡¯s dream like a Night Witch. This process was quiet and made no noise, so Sui Xiong didn¡¯t notice it because he was concentrated on his research. But then these two were fighting fiercely and noisily in Ray¡¯s dream. They were almost demolished the house. For Sui Xiong, who was good at soul perception, their fighting was almost like a fly¡ªno, a hundred flies¡ªbuzzing noisily beside his ears. He tried to be good-tempered and didn¡¯t want to do anything. He thought, Maybe I should just endure it and forget it. After all, fighting in a dream could not really hurt anyone, and this way his companions could work out some of their stress and interpersonal tension. He was also very curious about Ray¡¯s secretive past. But the two of them really went too far. In particular, when at last Ray was demolishing the house angrily, it was almost like he was playing drums right next to Sui Xiong¡¯s ears. He would have been deaf already if he still had ears. He finally couldn¡¯t stand it any longer, so he took action angrily to draw the two people out of Ray¡¯s dream. ¡°You two bastards! I work hard to keep watch and serve as a guardian for you because I want you to sleep in peace. But you fight fiercely even when dreaming¡­Why can¡¯t you sleep in peace?!¡± Inside the shelter, the floating jellyfish waved his tentacles in anger and roared at his companions. Even though she¡¯d behaved outrageously in the dream, Steele was now very well-behaved. Saying nothing, she bowed her head and stood there obediently, waiting for her punishment. This woman wasn¡¯t particularly wise, but after getting along with Sui Xiong for some time, she could already see his character. The jellyfish god preferred a soft approach but used force if necessary. If you replied defiantly after making a mistake, then you were definitely courting death. But if you honestly admitted your mistake and received the penalty obediently, Sui Xiong would only give you a small punishment as a warning: he¡¯d rather admonish you than seriously punish you. On the contrary, Ray was both ashamed and furious because Steele had just spied on his dream. If Sui Xiong had not stopped him and he hadn¡¯t been suspicious of Steele¡¯s suddenly improved fighting skills, he might have already drawn his sword in anger. In that case, any piece of cut flesh that weighed more than 250g meant that his ability as a swordsman was insufficient! Sui Xiong scolded them for a while, but soon found they had become enemies, as Steele regretfully kept her head down and Ray clenched his teeth with a murderous look. Sui couldn¡¯t help but sigh deeply. ¡°Once the members of a team lose morale, it becomes difficult to lead the team!¡± However, after this incident, he also felt strongly that this woman Steele should be properly punished! As a Chinese saying went, ¡°rabbits don¡¯t eat the grass by their burrows¡±. How could she offend a companion in her team? He thought, Ray must be thinking,¡±How dare you offend me while I regard you as my companion?¡± This kind of thing can be funny, but it¡¯s actually distressing when it¡¯s happening to my team! Brainstorm and think of a solution. Or¡­use your imagination, and think of a solution. Anyway, he had to come up with a reliable solution no matter what he did! He meditated for a moment, then suddenly inspiration struck. ¡°I¡¯ve got it!¡± He couldn¡¯t help but laugh, ¡°Ray, do not be so angry, because I have a way to help you vent your anger, and then you¡¯ll be satisfied!¡± ¡°As for you, Steele, you must behave yourself, or you will face the combined punishment of several offenses!¡± After saying these words, he concentrated on putting his own ingenious idea into action. Above the Ashes Woods in the remote northwest, the mountain-size floating jellyfish fumbled in his storage room and finally found what he was looking for. They were the remaining bones of the huge unicorn whale that Sui Xiong had killed. As it was a legendary creature, even a piece of its bone was soaked in highly concentrated magic. Also, Sui Xiong had infiltrated and enhanced them with magic, so these bones had become excellent magical material. They could contain and conduct magic very well. Above all, they were highly suited to Sui¡¯s magic and greatly raised his success rate when making complex magic formations. After he selected his materials, up next was the design. What Sui Xiong wanted to make seemed simple, but in fact, it was quite complicated. In particular, as Steele was partly a holy spirit, she had particularly good magic resistance, and she also had several extraordinary methods so that ordinary methods were of no use to her. To design this thing was really not easy! After changing the draft design several times, Sui Xiong finally decided on the design he wanted to use. Moreover, his materials had been scrapped twice. Finally, almost half a month after that dreadful night, he created what he had designed. By this time, they had almost crossed the entire Wild Marsh of Ancient Woods and were close to the Broken Cloud Mountains. These days the mood amongst the team was extremely dour. Ray¡¯s face was constantly grim, and he always had his sword in his hand, gesturing deliberately or unconsciously. He looked as if he was about to kill someone and cut up the corpse. The originally unscrupulous Steele, aware that she was to be punished by Sui Xiong and that he¡¯d spent an especially long time preparing her punishment, could not help but feel scared. So she had been behaving very well, without harassing Ray again. But she would often disappear for more than half a day, and when she returned she looked refreshed with a red flush on her face. It was unknown what she did. ¡­No, in fact, anyone could guess what she was doing without asking. Sui Xiong was simply too busy to notice such trivial things. Ray actually had time, but he had no interest in talking to that slut, let alone asking her about her whereabouts. Of course, more importantly, he did not want to pollute his ears with such filth. Some things, after hearing them even once, can permanently contaminate your ears! Whether she had sex with the wild races or demon beasts, or even a Green Dragon in this marsh, was only her business. If she became paralyzed after sleeping with a Green Dragon, she would suffer as a result of her own actions! In fact, during this time, they actually passed the territory of a Green Dragon. Ray was highly aware of this dangerous atmosphere, and he was poised to fight by pulling out his sword. But in the end, the Green Dragon didn¡¯t appear in front of them, perhaps because it was full or it was cautious by nature. It was just on alert and watched them as they passed. Among the races of dragons, Green Dragons were relatively common. Not only did they have a strong physical constitution and heaven-sent magic abilities, but they also had a cautious character and a cunning mindset. They were commonly considered very hard to deal with. Green Dragons rarely acted recklessly. They would observe the target carefully before they attacked or came into contact with it, in order to identify its power. Only when they could ensure their advantage in terms of force would they attack. Even if they didn¡¯t want to attack and only wanted to communicate with the target, they would choose someone they were certain they could defeat, so as not to put themselves in danger. Some dragons were passionate about raiding villages, towns, and cities of intelligent creatures in order to plunder wealth or satisfy their desire for destruction and murder. Most of these huge dragons did not live long. No matter how powerful they were, in the face of infinite numbers of attackers, they would eventually be exhausted. There were some dragons that did things more carefully, such as the de facto ruler of Dragon-roar Town, Ice Dragon Snow. Her reputation as the Arctic Tyrant frightened the four northwestern towns, and she continually called for demon beasts so people could attack and defeat them. On the one hand, she extorted money from time to time, but on the other hand, she provided people with rich financial resources as if she were their lord. She also had good command of when and how often to lean on the people in Dragon-roar Town, to the point that they became accustomed to and accepted this de facto tax. This also reduced the risk of being attacked by rogues who cherished a sense of justice. As for those evil adventurers chasing wealth, no one would be interested in a poor dragon that merely collected taxes in a town regularly, right? In fact, this practice didn¡¯t conform to the style of an Ice Dragon but was somewhat similar to that of Green Dragons. Among the evil dragons, Green Dragons sought the title of ruler most. However, compared with the soft and ingenious means of Snow, Green Dragons¡¯ greedy nature often meant they were actual tyrants, and there was no way for them to manage a stable territory like Snow. Ray did not know whether or not the Green Dragon that they passed had territory. It probably did, and it was likely that it ruled a few villages of wild races, and there might be many demon beasts under its command. So Steele might really have met it when she went to have sex with the wild races. But whether they¡¯d met or not, it was clear that the slut had not chosen to have sex with the dragon, seeing as she¡¯d returned safe and sound. What a pity! These days, Ray sighed over this more than once. He was so tired of this woman, not only because of her outrageous lifestyle but also because she reminded him of some things in his past that he hadn¡¯t thought about for a long time. They were very beautiful memories that caused him to suffer every time he recalled them. Maybe until we arrive at the Commonwealth of Mifata, I should bid farewell to His Majesty, he secretly thought. My character is still a little too old-fashioned, and I am unable to keep up with his fantastic ideas. Maybe only a person like Steele, an immoral madwoman, can get along well with His Majesty ¡­ After all, he is a jellyfish! This thought crossed his mind many times. Because of this, when they camped that day and Sui Xiong triumphantly made an announcement, he did not react immediately. ¡°Ray, what are you thinking?¡± Sui Xiong asked Ray, who was spacing out absent-mindedly. Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°Here I am about to punish Steele and vent your anger. If you don¡¯t seem to care, what¡¯s the point?¡± Ray cleared his mind and asked, ¡°Your Majesty, you are finally ready! What is it?¡± Sui Xiong laughed three times, waved his tentacles, and took out a golden headband. ¡°This is a precious thing that I made after doing painstaking research. It is specifically designed to curb the perverse thoughts and poor behavior of juveniles in order to help them repent and be rehabilitated!¡± ¡°What is it called?¡± ¡°Haha, its name is¡­¡± Sui proudly looked around, laughed three times again, and said word by word, ¡°Jin! Gu! Quan!¡± Chapter 69 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Of course, Ray and Steele did not know this name, but in Sui Xiong¡¯s world, it was practically a household name, at least in the cultural circle connected with his language. The original version of Jinguquan had only two effects: the first was that it could not be taken off one¡¯s head once he or she wore it; the second was that when someone silently chanted the spell ¡°Jinguzhou¡±, the headband would tighten. No matter if the talented Monkey King who wore it changed into a fish, into an earthworm, into a drop of water, fire, or even left his body as only his soul, the headband would cause an intense headache and he would admit defeat. The Jinguquan that Sui Xiong made was different from the original one. It could not only be activated like the original version, but also had a default way of starting. Of course, this inspiration was not from the Journey to the West, but from Stephen Chow¡¯s movie ¡°A Chinese Odyssey¡±. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s design, there was one thing that could start the Jinguzhou and tighten the Jinguquan. Of course, it was not so strict as whether the person wearing it was tempted by sexual desire. If it were, Steele would die after a few days because the band would be too tight on her head¡­It might not even take a full day. Sui Xiong set a guideline for Steee, which meant she could not force others to have sex with her. As long as she had such a thought, the Jinguquan would tighten before she could take action. If, after being warned, she still did not repent and would not give up, then the Jinguquan would continue to tighten¡­Strictly speaking, the headband didn¡¯t really tighten a person¡¯s head so much as to kill them, but if they weren¡¯t careful, that person might lose consciousness due to the pain. Sui Xiong explained the effect of this band and said with a smile, ¡°According to the legend, the Jinguquan was used on an extraordinary hero who wreaked havoc in heaven and frightened the trayo dh¨¡tava. To tell you the truth, I cannot match its power, but I think it¡¯ll have a positive result for us too.¡± He tossed the band to Ray. ¡°Let¡¯s just think of it as disciplining a naughty child who loves to burn others¡­Ray, put it on her head, and afterwards, chant the spell of Jinguzhou.¡± Without any thought, Steele flapped her wings and started to run away, trying to escape by using her ability to fly. However, in front of Sui Xiong, how could she escape? Sui Xiong laughed loudly, changed himself into a giant palm, plucked her out of the sky, and pressed her under his palm as if he had swatted a fly. Then the giant palm changed into an iceberg shaped like a five-fingered hand, firmly pressing her underneath. ¡°Hey! You naughty woman, how dare you intend to escape the Five Finger Mountain of me, a Buddha?!¡± Sui Xiong shouted in Chinese, full of a sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, no one in this world could understand his Chinese, so his sense of accomplishment inevitably felt a bit undermined. After pinning down Steele, Sui Xiong taught Ray the spell of Jinguzhou, asked him to put the Jinguquan on Steele¡¯s head, and then withdrew his magic and destroyed the iceberg. ¡°I believe that with your wisdom and knowledge, you can suppress this wild woman so that she won¡¯t make so much trouble.¡± Sui Xiong could not help but smile, because he saw that Steele couldn¡¯t remove the headband. She tried a few options out, such as magic and drawing her soul out of her body. Sui Xiong then said to Ray, ¡°You decide when to chant the magic words and how many times you chant them. And, if necessary, you can always chant the spell in reverse to temporarily pause the effect of the Jinguquan. Of course, then she can also get rid of it.¡± Ray was very pleased, nodding along as Sui Xiong spoke. He began to chant the spell in his mind silently, and suddenly Steele felt the headband began to tighten around her head. At first, it wasn¡¯t very tight, and she was able to endure the pain. But as Ray chanted the spell more and more, the band became tighter and tighter, and she felt like her head was about to crack open. Steele cried out and yelled loudly and even rolled into the muddy water, but she had no solution. So she could only beg for mercy from Ray so that he would spare her. Ray stopped chanting the spell. It was strange that as he stopped reciting it, Steele immediately felt no pain in her head. Terrified, she touched the Jinguquan on her head and could not help but burst into tears when imagining this new debacle she found herself in. This was the end of her happy life, a time when life was leisurely and carefree! During the rest of their trip, Steele behaved herself as the band restricted her. Not only did she stop harassing Ray, she even disappeared into the wild to have sex with less frequency. However, this had advantages and disadvantages. She often felt a sudden headache while flying, falling to the ground and screaming in pain. This greatly reduced her efficiency as a scout. It also allowed Sui Xiong and Ray to really see how powerful the band was. Basically, Steele¡¯s mind was full of lust anytime and anywhere, and within less than a day, the Jinguquan had been triggered more than twenty times. She made do with it for a day, but she really couldn¡¯t stand it at night. She cried and begged Sui Xiong to change the settings of the Jinguquan. ¡°I can¡¯t live this way at all!¡± she cried sorrowfully. ¡°If I can¡¯t even think about having sex, then what¡¯s the point of living? You¡¯d better just kill me!¡± Sui Xiong was speechless hearing this woman¡¯s belief that she¡¯d rather die than be forced not to have sex. After some bargaining, he finally changed the settings of the Jinguquan. First, he lifted the restraints on lust.Simply thinking about having sex was innocent enough. Although his original intention was to correct Steele¡¯s wayward thinking with harsh constraints, it seemed that this woman was beyond that, and there was no possibility to change her pattern of thoughts, so Sui had to give that up. Second, based on the principle that with every punishment should also come some kind of consolation, he added a secondary function to the Jinguquan: as long as Steele strove to constrain her lust, she could store the energy she used during sex until it was time for her to use it again. ¡°Does this mean that most of the time I can store my lust, and then when I need to have sex, I can cast a large-scale and indiscriminate spell to make everyone around aroused and hold intense naked congress?¡± Steele responded, eyes shining and mouth watering. Sui Xiong sighed and gave up the lengthy argument that he¡¯d originally prepared. This woman simply couldn¡¯t be cured! After finally having solved this problem, the team finally arrived at the Broken Cloud Mountains. The Broken Cloud Mountains were a series of mountains known as the roof of the mainland. The west end of this mountain range was on the shore of the vast sea, spanning diagonally from the southwest to the northeast. Near the center of the continent, it spanned from west to east, separating the Ancient Forest and the Eagle Kingdom. It spanned northward a bit, forming an arc, then spanned eastward and extended to the vast eastern plains, into the territory of the Kingdom of the Blue Moon. The defining feature of this mountain range was its incredible height. Except for the part that stretched to the vast eastern plains, most of the mountains were endless cliffs that connected with each other. From the foot of a mountain, one cliff after another could be seen extending above the clouds, as if the peak was cut off by the dense cloud cover¡ªthus the name Broken Cloud. This mountain range was not only a natural barrier that cut off the north-south traffic on the continent but also a famous sacred place for self-cultivation. According to Ray, at least half of the world¡¯s legendary heroes and over 70% of the strongest men lived in these steep, towering mountains. The reason was very simple: high concentration of magic. The magic concentration distribution was roughly as follows: with the sea level as the dividing line, the magic concentration would increase upward and downward. The magic concentration in places of high altitude and deep seas was very high, so powerful magical monsters either lived in the mountains or the deep sea. Regardless of the situation in the deep sea, the highest mountain on the continent was in the Broken Cloud Mountains, so most powerful magical monsters on land lived here. Also, because of the high concentration of magic, the men who had surpassed the limits of mortals all liked to live here, hoping to increase the possibility of further breakthroughs. In this world, there were many so-called ¡°forbidden places¡±. For example, the central area of the Gobi desert was a forbidden place. But the Broken Cloud Mountains were not a forbidden place, because for people that were not strong enough, even if they wanted to, they couldn¡¯t climb up the mountains. High concentration of magic was not only able to spawn powerful monsters but was also no different from a virulent poison for creatures that were used to environments with low concentrations of magic. If you could not break through the magical limit and step into the legendary realm, you were not even eligible to climb mountains. Want to commit suicide? It¡¯d be more realistic to look for a rope and hang yourself on a tree. ¡°I¡¯m sure I can¡¯t cross the Broken Cloud Mountains,¡± Ray panted. He shook his head as he saw the cliffs ahead were even higher and felt a heavier concentration of magic in the air, gasping after climbing up a steep peak. ¡°It really won¡¯t work, I cannot do it.¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t give him a hard time. Instead, he looked at Steele. ¡°I think¡­it does not matter¡­¡± Although Steele still sounded determined, she was betrayed by her breathlessness. Obviously, for their team of adventurers, crossing these mountains was a really difficult challenge, and neither Ray nor Steele seemed capable of pressing on. Even more complicated was that unlike the Mountains of Barrenness, which had notches and plateaus, the Broken Cloud Mountains were the roof of this continent, and they were long and unbroken without a reasonable place to rest. If you wanted to cross the mountains, you either had to be strong enough or compromise and take a detour. Looking at his teammates who were struggling to hold on, and seeing the unbroken mountains ahead, so tall and straight and unknowably high, Sui fell into meditation. After a while, he finally came up with a solution. ¡°Your Majesty, are you sure therre really won¡¯t be a problem?¡± Ray asked. For all the bravery he had, Ray couldn¡¯ help but be somewhat frightened when he saw the bloody mouth big enough for an adult to enter and exit. ¡°This approach¡­ does not seem very reliable¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s take a detour!¡± Steele had reached a consensus with Ray, which was rare, and she nodded her head like a chicken pecking. It was no wonder they were afraid, because they saw that Sui Xiong had transformed into a room-sized jellyfish and asked them to walk into his stomach. They were asked to take the ¡°Jellyfish Airship¡± to fly over the Broken Cloud Mountains. To be honest, it wasn¡¯t such a bad idea, because they could effectively solve a variety of problems that might be encountered. The magic concentration was too high? Sui Xiong could absorb and filter it. The air was too thin? Sui Xiong could suck in the nearby air and increase oxygen levels artificially. There were dangerous demon beasts flying at high altitude? Sui Xiong could drive them away. Unable to see the road clearly when flying? Sui Xiong could use magic positioning. In general, except for its frightening shape, the Jellyfish Airship was indeed very good. However, it was horrible. Yes, horrible! Horrible indeed! So horrible that it must be said three times! Normal people absolutely could not step into the stomach of a huge demon beast! Frankly, Ray and Steele weren¡¯t even considered normal people. But even these two, a solitary robber and an eccentric slut, could not convince themselves to go into the jellyfish¡¯s stomach in order to hurry on their journey! ¡°No way!¡± ¡°Yes! No way indeed!¡± They did their best to resist. But in the end, they still gave in. With a laugh of excitement, the huge floating jellyfish slowly rose and flew toward the clouds¡­ Chapter 70 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma What was the most amazing way to fly in the world? By plane? By hot air balloon? By using power umbrella? Or by bungee jumping? By using a flying horse? By using your own wings? By magical antigravity? By maneuvering air and traveling through the Void? Perhaps people had imagined all sorts of weird and incredible ways of flying, but probably none of them would think of flying by way of a god¡¯s stomach. ¡°It¡¯s incredible!¡± Looking out through the window specially created by Sui Xiong, they could see a clear sky beneath with a singular landscape of sea-like clouds. Ray couldn¡¯t help but keep his eyes wide open staring here and there like a greedy child. He wanted to remember the type of scenery that ordinary people would never see in their life. After a long while, when his eyes were somewhat sore, he left the window and returned to his ¡°seat¡± and asked Steele, who was yawning, ¡°Aren¡¯t you excited? Or are you used to seeing this view because you usually fly here and there?¡± Steele yawned and said absent-mindedly, ¡°I cannot fly to this height¡­We are flying above the clouds ¡­¡± ¡°Then why aren¡¯t you excited?¡± ¡°I had a headache yesterday and I didn¡¯t sleep well¡­Don¡¯t bother me!¡± Ray suddenly realized that from last night to the night before last to many nights before that, Steele had been restrained by the Jinguquan. She couldn¡¯t have any lust, but she also couldn¡¯t obediently restrain her mind that was full of messy ideas. Basically, for the whole day she was in a cycle of thinking of sex, suffering a headache, behaving herself, and then thinking of sex again. She wouldn¡¯t have a moment of peace until the Jinguquan was changed. She hadn¡¯t seemed tired before because they were climbing the mountain. Now that they were relaxing, she felt the accumulated fatigue, and she definitely felt sleepy! After figuring this out, Ray stopped disturbing Steele, and decided to read a book to pass the time. Due to his aristocratic background, Ray had the habit of carrying books, but in fact, he rarely read. Over the years, he was either killing people or busy on the move. Even if he found some time to relax, mostly he would also urge himself to work out in order to be ready for the next adventure or battle. However, these strange surroundings currently made him too nervous to work out, so he could only read a book. The book was made with beautiful workmanship: its tawny parchment was held tight by a silver frame so it would never get bent out of shape. The words were made of gold threads inlaid on the black cover, and the decorative gems gave it a luxurious feel. But for the real connoisseurs, the signature below the title, written by the man who¡¯d copied the book, was why this book was really worthwhile. This man was a legendary mage¡ªof course, when he copied it, he was still a young scholar who had not really stepped into the mysterious realm of magic. There was no papermaking technology on the continent, so books were mostly made using parchment. Every piece of paper meant that a piece of sheepskin of the same size was consumed, which also meant the human labor was perhaps more valuable than the sheepskin itself. This made books very expensive, and ordinary civilians rarely read more than once a year. In addition to sheepskin, cloth was also a decent writing material. But it was less suitable for making books. Generally, it was only used to make announcements, post rewards, and so on. Writing on a piece of paper was a technical job, which relied on scholars to copy the words down if they didn¡¯t use the spell specifically invented for that purpose. Spell-recorded texts were neat and clear but lacked artistic beauty, so they had no value other than as physical texts. Some strict collectors only acknowledged handwritten manuscripts as books and dismissed books written by magic. The book in Ray¡¯s hand, although only an ordinary epic with nothing special in terms of content, could be regarded as an embodiment of great art due to its graceful strokes. The identity of the author also greatly increased its value and classified it more as treasure. When Ray left home, he had almost nothing valuable other than the sword in his hand and this book. Over the years, he had wandered from place to place, enduring many hardships. Even during his most abject time, he would never have thought of selling this book. If the sword was his comrade, then the book was his mental comfort. Only when he saw this book would he think of his calm and peaceful life from the past, and he would remember that his boyhood was not just a dream. That said, he rarely read books. The sun shining through the window was clear and bright, and Ray sat quietly, reading the epic in his hand page by page, luxuriating in the thrilling history contained in the verses. Sometimes he was amazed by the poet¡¯s exquisitely written words. Even if you didn¡¯t know his origins as a prince, you would think Ray was clearly a scholar full of aristocratic elegance, just judging by his appearance at that moment. When Steele woke up, she saw this scene. Ray was actually very good-looking. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t rearrange his face arbitrarily but actually polished it up in accordance with the principle of fine art, so his face was almost perfect despite some deliberate incongruities. As the days passed, this sense of incongruity also slowly disappeared as he showed different emotions. At the moment, he could be considered a truly handsome man. If he walked on bustling streets wearing modern clothes, countless women would stare at him with shining eyes. At least, Steele¡¯s eyes were shining now¡ªshe was as envious as a hungry wolf. Perhaps it was because she exuded an air that was too obvious, Ray pulled back the book with haste and knocked on the wall beside him. ¡°Your Majesty,¡± he asked, ¡°is there any problem chanting Jinguzhou here?¡± Before Sui Xiong had time to answer, Steele already shouted, lying on the ground motionless. ¡°¡­ I haven¡¯t even started to chant the spell!¡± ¡°In fact, I think both of you are very good friends,¡± Sui said with a smile. ¡°There is a very good understanding between you two.¡± Ray suddenly turned upset. ¡± A very good understanding between us?! Your Majesty the Jellyfish God, your observation and understanding of humanity is far from complete! ¡°Maybe so,¡± Sui Xiong said, no longer entangling himself in this issue. In turn, he remixed some music with his magic, and the music echoed in the ¡°flight cabin¡±. ¡°Attention please, the flight of the jellyfish which is flying over the Broken Cloud Mountains is about to land. Please fasten your seatbelts and take good care of your children. Please check your belongings, turn off your cell phone and other electronic products, and thank you for your cooperation.¡± He articulated very clearly, as if he were a steward on a flight back in his world. However, in this different world where no one understood Chinese, the two passengers only complained. ¡°What spell is this?¡± Ray asked. ¡°Maybe something is wrong?¡± Steele¡¯s idea was a bit pessimistic. ¡°We are going down, are we crashing?¡± Sui Xiong let out a long sigh. He couldn¡¯t help but feel a frustration similar to giving a flirtatious look to a blind woman. The ¡°Jellyfish Airship¡± soon landed slowly. Because Sui Xiong had been maintaining the air pressure in the cabin at a normal level, the two passengers did not have the same tinnitus and dizziness as they would have on Earth, let alone pain in their nose or ears. Sui Xiong could not help but secretly fantasize, ¡°If this technology could only be used in the aircrafts on Earth¡­¡± However, this was impossible because the planes on Earth certainly would not have an exterior as strong as the jellyfish god¡¯s body, which could resist the enormous air pressure caused by the difference in the air density inside and outside the cabin at high altitudes. With a slight jot, the ¡°airship¡± landed smoothly on the ground. A gate opened on the airship, and the two passengers tidied up their belongings and carefully walked out. Outside there was a piece of flat rock, as well as some snow nearby that had not melted, which showed the terrain was quite high. There were lush woods stretching from the distant slopes as far as the eye could see. The horizon of blue and green looked clear and distinct. This was apparently the southern part of the mountain range, the woods which had existed since the birth of the world, known as the Ancient Forest. From ¡°boarding¡± to ¡°landing¡±, the trip only lasted a few hours. In fact, Sui Xiong could have further compressed the time to even a few moments of flight, but the highly concentrated magic at high altitude made him feel very comfortable. Therefore, he slowed down and flew slowly in the air at a walking pace. This explained why the trip took so long a time. Of course, Ray and Steele didn¡¯t know this, and they only knew that they easily flew over the Broken Cloud Mountains, a natural barrier to the strongest of men. They didn¡¯t have to struggle and trek, and there were no sinister battles en route, and it wasn¡¯t even a long journey. The whole process was nothing more than a nap for Steele and reading time for Ray. It was as relaxing as resting in a hotel. ¡°The power of a god is really vast and unpredictable!¡± Ray sighed. ¡°Your Majesty, you will have many believers if you a reliable deity!¡± ¡°In fact, I have many followers,¡± Sui said. ¡°In the north, I have recruited hundreds of people.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not talking about someone who praises you for money or asylum, but someone that sincerely respects and believes in you,¡± emphasized Ray. ¡°You can have as many followers of the former type as you want, as long as you are willing to pay them, but only the latter type of followers are true believers.¡± Sui Xiong laughed indifferently because he actually did not care about this. True faith didn¡¯t seem to be of any benefit to him. According to the rules of the gods, the belief of followers would give them strength. However, he never felt anything in regards to the ¡°power of faith¡±. For him, the belief of his followers was nothing more than empty praise that flattered his ego. If some people believed in him, of course, it would be very good. If no people believed in him, in fact, it was not a big deal. After all, it was about one¡¯s pride and respect. This was like a proverb on Earth: Even a Buddha will fight for an incense stick. It was also one¡¯s pride and respect that a Buddha fought for in this proverb. That was it. Although Sui Xiong had been living in this world for a long time and already possessed a power as great as that of the gods, as well as having followers full of belief as many gods did, Sui Xiong had not fully changed into a god of this world. In essence, his soul was still one from Earth, and he remained unchanged. Chapter 71 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The Ancient Forest was a boundless forest. It was said when this world was just created, the God of Light and the God of Darkness had a big fight, and their blood was mixed together and the most original form of life was born from this mixed blood. In fact, most of the blood became the God of Life, and the rest of blood soaked into the ground, and thus a boundless and dense forest appeared which was the southern forest that we saw in the center of the continent. This forest was the God of Life¡¯s favorite, and since then she had been living in this forest for a long time with all the creatures she had created. Until the Year of Ruin, the battle between the God of Light and the God of Darkness was over and both of them died. Because of their death, the core of the world began to shake severely, and the four elements; earth, water, wind, and fire all became various monsters that were quickly involved in a big war with the Gods. The war was a total disaster for the human race and many people and other creatures died. The God of Life was almost heartbroken when she saw this all happening, so she pulled out a sword and began to fight with the monsters. She divided the world into different Plates, removed the Gods from the forest and made the rule of the world. After this, the God of Life ran out of all her strength and died. Until now, the great priesthood of ¡°life¡± was still not claimed. Although there were many Gods that had the power that would make them only barely qualified for this priesthood, not a single God dared to manage this priesthood. It was said that the will of the God of Life was still in this forest, and her will was still guarding the world she loved so much. If there was a extremely powerful being that came into the Main Plate, her will would be exacerbated and change into the magnificent lightning and thunder and kill the intruder on the spot. In the past, the God of the Thunder of the first generation considered himself the strongest among all the other Gods. Besides being solely in charge of the priesthood of thunder, lightning, ruin and things alike, he thought he could withstand the lightning and thunder from the will of the God of Life. Then he boldly walked into the Main Plate and wanted to take control of this world. And the result? Every time after the sun went down, people could see a bright moon slowly move across the sky, and this moon was the remains of the God of Thunder. All these years, over ten extremely powerful beings have been killed by the lightning and thunder. The rule ¡°not a single extremely powerful being may ever step foot into the Main Plate¡± had finally become a rule that was obeyed by all the other powerful Gods, as well as those monsters. Now, even those powerful beings who were just half-Gods were making preparations to leave the Main Plate, since they had no idea who would be next to be hit by the lightning and thunder. For the Gods who lived in the human society, most of them were just the doppelg?ngers of themselves. They did not live in the Main Plate with their real bodies; they just copied their own mind and put it into a body that only had a small amount of magical energy, and this was the so-called ¡°God¡¯s living in the human world.¡± If there was a God who came to the Main Plate with his real body, they would have to temporarily make the place their own Holy Kingdom and separate this place from the Main Plate. Doing this would cost them a huge amount of magical energy, so even the most powerful Gods would not easily came to the Main Plate with their real bodies; not to mention there was a chance that they could get into a fight with others. What if their temporary Holy Kingdom was destroyed during the fight, and then their power began to permeate the area? The next minute they would be hit by the lightning and thunder¡­ Anyone who was sensible enough to think of this would control their temper no matter how angry they were at that time. As for one who lost their temper, well, they were sure to be hit by the lightning and thunder and die. ¡°¡­how marvelous that scene must be, just think about it! The Gods are hit by the lightning from the sky one by one! This God of Life is really mighty!¡± After finishing this story, Sui Xiong was really impressed by the God of Life and kept praising her, ¡°If she were still alive, I would definitely give her a thumbs up and say to her¡ª Madame, you are really tough!¡± Ray was staring at the dim sky. After a while, he shook his head and sighed. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Well, it seems that¡­ the God of Life is indeed dead,¡± Ray said in a very melancholy way. ¡°If not, you would have already been hit by the lightning and thunder and been dead by now!¡± Hearing his words, Sui Xiong became speechless, while Steele burst into laughter. She laughed so hard that she began to roll about on the ground. ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± Ray was confused. ¡°What? You don¡¯t see me rolling about on the ground?¡± Steele instantly stopped rolling. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you told me earlier, it is really tiring to roll on the ground.¡± Sui Xiong was amazed by this and began to laugh. There were so many flourishing trees in the Ancient Forest, and it was not a very dangerous place. This forest was the cradle of the fairies. It was said that the God of Life once created the earliest intelligent species¡ª the advanced fairies. As time went by, the advanced fairies could no longer be seen anymore, but their offspring, who were still called the fairies, lived in this forest until today. The fairies that were mostly seen were: tree fairies, suburb fairies and sun fairies. The tree fairies had green hair, and they could communicate with the plants and practice nature spells just like Druids did. They were a bit slim, even so, their spells helped them live peacefully. Normally, a tree fairy could live for around four to five centuries, and they were very good at practicing magic spells. They were one of the few races that was extremely powerful. If it were not for their reluctance to leave the Ancient Forest, they could have already built their own empire. As for the suburb fairies, they were the most commonly seen fairies on the continent. They looked almost human-like and were not slim at all, some of them even were very sturdy. There were also many suburb fairies who always wore armour and held axes. The characteristics of their body were that they had pointed and long ears as well as the smooth hair. Their life cycle was a bit strange. On the one hand, they were almost the same as humans when they were in their childhood, youth and middle age. On the other hand, when they were in their old age, normally around eighty years old, their hair would grow white and they could only do some easy jobs, but this stage could last for a long time which meant that one suburb could still look the same when he was one hundred and eighty years old. Over half of their life was old age. If there were also some suburb fairies on the earth, and they had made their own country, the problem of an aging population would be so severe that the leader of the country would be too worried about this problem to fall asleep at night. Each sun fairy had a beautiful, tall and strong body and looked just like a statue beautifully crafted by an artist. They were probably the perfect race, both in terms of the intelligence and physical strength, as most of them could practice spells. They also had a problem¡ª a sun fairy could only have a child with another sun fairy, but a female sun fairy could only give birth to five children at most in her whole life. In fact, most of the families only had no more than two children. The scholars believed that the sun fairies were the direct descendants of the advanced fairies. Once there were some evil wizards who tried to catch them and extract the blood of the advance fairies from them. Well, they never made it and all faced a serious consequence since each sun fairy was protected by the Gods of the fairy race. When a man tried to kill a sun fairy, the punisher sent by the Gods immediately arrived. Apart from these three kinds of fairies, there were also the mountain fairies, the sea fairies, the earth fairies and the moon fairies. Since the number of these fairies were as abundant, there was no need to give a further description about them. Sui Xiong, Ray and Steele crossed the Ancient Forest, and they soon arrived at a village of the tree fairies. This village was built on a tree and consisted of countless small tree houses. One would never realize that there was a village hidden in the tree if he did not raise his head to look. The three did not intend to proceed in a secretive way, and they had spotted the sentry of the village in the long distance. This sentry wore an armour made of the bark and held a magic wand in his hand, and there was a long bow on his back. Both the armour and the weapons were shining, obviously, these magic items were something special. The tree fairies¡¯ technique of instilling the magic into a certain weapon was very famous across the whole continent. Each year, there would be many people who would take their beloved weapons and visit the tree fairies, hoping they could instill the magic into their weapons. But there were some limitations of this technique¡ª Once a weapon was instilled with a magic power, it would choose its own master, and for one who was not its master, it was just a common weapon. Although the wizards¡¯ technique of instilling magic into a certain weapon costed more and its effect was not ideal, there was no limitation to it which meant anyone could use a weapon that had been instilled with the magic energy; therefore, more people would prefer to ask the wizards to instill magic to their weapons. Ray had always admired this technique of the tree fairies, so when he made all the arrangements to temporarily live in this village, Ray immediately asked the waiter of the hostel if was there anyone who mastered the technique of instilling magic into a weapon; he wanted to make that sort of weapon of his own. ¡°There is no such a master here; if we want to instill the magic to a certain weapon, we would ask Trian who lives nearby.¡± The waiter was called Warren. He was very agile and clearly liked a person whose Kong Fu was great, so he gave some important information to Ray. ¡°The Master Trian is very antisocial. No one has paid him a visit in the last fifty years. The last time, he made some communications with people and he only had a few words with them¡­¡± ¡°What does he look like?¡± Warren pondered a while, and then he said, ¡°Someone told me that Master Trian is very old. Both his beard and hair have grown gray, and he always wears a black robe. He smells like potions and often coughs¡­¡± ¡°The Master Trian is not only good at the technique of instilling the magic into a certain weapon, but also the spagirism, right?¡± Warren was stunned and surprisingly asked, ¡°Where do you know this from? Is he very famous in the outside world?¡± Ray couldn¡¯t help laughing and said, ¡°Of course, he is very famous! I never thought he lived here!¡± Now Ray was sure that this Master Trian was the person he has heard about quite often. How lucky I am to be able to come across this legendary figure! Chapter 72 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°Master Trian?¡± Steele thought for a while and then asked, ¡°Is he the one who invented Viagra?¡± Hearing this, Ray¡¯s face instantly got serious, and said, ¡°That is something he invented in his youth, his representative work should be the ¡®vitality potion¡¯!¡± ¡°Vitality potion? Isn¡¯t it better to practice an advanced restoration spell?¡± Steele scorned. ¡°I think it is a really stupid thing for him to spend so much time inventing the vitality potion. After all, he is old now, and he is not as talented as he was when he was young!¡± ¡°¡­Don¡¯t judge an average adventurer by the standards of the aristocracy!¡± Ray yelled, ¡°Master Trian saw how miserable people¡¯s lives were, and that¡¯s why he spent over a hundred years of time inventing the vitality potion! A woman like you, who only tends to obey their sexual impulses, could never understand his greatness!¡± ¡°There is nothing wrong with enjoying sex!¡± Steele was unhappy with his words, ¡°You are a prince yourself. How can you criticize the aristocracy by putting yourself into the shoes of the adventurers?!¡± ¡°¡­How dare you mention this! I will chant the Incantation of the Golden Hoop!¡± ¡°Fine, do it then! You can¡¯t persuade me so you want to use force?! In fact, don¡¯t bother to chant the Incantation of the Golden Hoop, just kill me then!¡± Steele was furious and tore her upper clothing, and most of her upper body was revealed, ¡°Cut me anywhere you want!¡± Seeing that the two were going to have a fight, Sui Xiong intended to mediate and said, ¡°Ray, you just said you want to pay a visit to the Master Trian and ask him to make a few magic weapons. You also mentioned that he was an expert on spagirism, right?¡± ¡°Right, Master Trian is the top expert on spagirism in this world,¡± Ray said. ¡°Besides, he is also very good at the technique of instilling magic into a weapon; moreover, he has acquired a lot of medical knowledge and is a good doctor too. Around two hundred years ago, he wrote a book on how to save a wounded soldier on a war field, now almost every big scale military camp has a copy of this book.¡± ¡°You mean the book On the Emergency Treatment of Catagma, Dislocation, Dilaceration and Incision was written by him?¡± Steele, with her upper body naked, was astonished by this, and she asked, ¡°Isn¡¯t ¡®Cold Wind¡¯ the author of this book?¡± ¡°Master Trian always uses a pen name, and the ¡®Cold Wind¡¯ is one of his pen names. He also published two collections of poems, so he is often seen as a poet.¡± When Ray was young, he was very hardworking and acquired more knowledge than Steele could ever master. Besides, he had a more noble upbringing than a Viscount of a desolated pioneering manor, so he was able to get more valuable information. ¡°I never thought you read medical books, how amazing!¡± ¡°Well, when I sneaked out, I would do something crazy, and then I would have to learn to do some first aid treatment¡­¡± Seeing Steele shamelessly talking about her sexual experience, Ray was speechless and sighed, ¡°I am still too naive!¡± While Sui Xiong was rather curious about this, and asked Steele, ¡°After doing something crazy, you would have to do some first aid treatment. What do you exactly mean by that?¡± A few minutes later, Ray, who was wearing a jellyfish on his head, crazily ran out of the hostel. ¡°That is really disgusting!¡± he complained to Sui Xiong. ¡°Your Majesty, although you are a jellyfish and have a different view on beauty from us, you should at least care about my feelings! What Steele said inside that hostel was really disgusting!¡± ¡°I never thought¡­¡± Sui Xiong was a bit overwhelmed, since he came from the information age and had seen too much and done too much. He was more shocked than Ray was, and it seemed that it was going to take while for Sui Xiong to recover. The two turned around and began to walk back to the hostel, but both of them did not want to go in when they realized that Steele was still in there. So they made the decision to ask Warren to take them to the place where Master Trian lived. Warren was a warm-hearted guy, and instantly asked for leave from the owner of the hostel and agreed to take them there. Starting from the village called the ¡°tatter leaf at the foot of the mountain,¡± and walking to the west for about ten miles, they arrived at the place where Master Trian lived. While they were walking, they smelled an amazingly sweet smell permeating the forest. They had no idea where this smell came from and felt very refreshed by it. Warren started to become cautious and warned Ray to walk slowly and asked Ray to walk behind him. The two were carefully walking forward along the path in the woodland. A short while later, the sweet smell got more intense, and Ray felt a bit dizzy. If it were not for Warren¡¯s warning, Ray would definitely go to find where the smell came from. This smell¡­ might come from the precious herbs that were carefully cultivated by Master Trian, and these herbs were probably used to make healing potions. Master Trian was really brilliant; he was not only the expert on spagirism, but he also knew how to plant herbs as well! While Ray was praising Master Trian secretly in his mind, Warren suddenly stopped walking and sighed, ¡°We should probably stop here. It seems that Master Trian doesn¡¯t want to see anyone today.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Ray was stunned. Warren pointed to the front, suggesting Ray to look. Ray carefully watched and found there were a bunch of small green trees in front of them. The trees just looked like a wall and blocked the road. ¡°If Master Trian wanted to see anyone, these trees would stand aside and a path would appear. Now they have blocked the way, which means that Master Trian doesn¡¯t want to see anyone today.¡± Sui Xiong and Ray were totally stunned, since they never thought Master Trian could be so eccentric. When Master Trian was in a low spirit, no one could see his house, not to mention the gate of his house. ¡°Can I call him?¡± Ray asked. ¡°You¡¯d better not, this place has been heavily secured. If he thinks you are asking for trouble¡­¡± Warren had a shiver, even his face got a bit pale, ¡°We¡¯d better just come another day.¡± Judging from his face, Ray realized that it was not wise to break in or call to him aloud, so he had no choice but to go back to the village. When he came back to the hostel, Ray instantly checked out from the old room that he shared with Steele and picked a room on the opposite side of hallway. Ray was determined to do so since he did not want to share a room with that creepy Steele any longer, even if the condition of the new room was not that ideal. At night, when Ray fell asleep, Steele asked a few strong tree fairies to come to her room and began to have sex with them. Seeing Steele was enjoying herself, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to disturb her, and he began to fly to the place where Master Trian lived. It only took him a short while to arrive at Master Trian¡¯s house, and he saw the tree wall was still there. Clearly, Master Trian didn¡¯t want to see anyone. But, Sui Xiong could not wait for tomorrow; he thought the materials and tasks he had with himself would definitely change Master Trian¡¯s mind. Sui Xiong remembered that when he was in college, no matter how arrogant or unsocial a professor was, as long as he heard news like ¡°good task¡±, or¡±abundant money¡±, he would immediately change his attitude. Even if this world was different from the earth, the personality and the way of thinking of the researchers was almost the same. So Sui Xiong believed that since a good task, abundant money or material would also change the scholars¡¯ attitude on the earth, it would make Master Trian want to see him. Then Sui Xiong turned his mind into a invisible wave by using his magic power, and sent it forth. The message he sent was about the research material on the huge viper in the Ancient Wood Waste Swamp. Soon, the trees began to shake and moved to the both sides, and a path was revealed. Walking on the path, one could see beautiful flowers flourishing on both sides which was really refreshing. In the distance, there was a beautiful three-floor western style building which was Master Trian¡¯s house. Sui Xiong smiled and began to fly along the path. Immediately, many green vines popped out from both sides and hit him all together; they were like countless vipers going to devour him on the spot or numerous cobwebs that were going to wrap him up. Sui Xiong was not surprised by this at all, instead he smiled. At the same time, his body gave out a blue light, then the vines were frozen instantly and became strange statues that were hanging in the air. ¡°Master Trian, you think I am a fool?¡± Sui Xiong sneered. ¡°Don¡¯t think of me as a mortal. I have already seen the bones hidden beneath the flowers!¡± No sound came from the house, but Sui Xiong could feel there was a magical power rising from the house. It seemed like Master Trian was creating a large scale magical array. ¡°Master Trian, I really want to have a chat with you. Are you interested in inventing the potion that can prolong one¡¯s lifespan?¡± ¡°What¡­ what if¡­ you are a liar?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised by this sound, since it was not a sound of an old man, but of a terrified woman. ¡°Who are you? Master Trian must be over a few hundred years old; he couldn¡¯t possibly be this young now!¡± ¡°I¡­ I am his disciple¡± ¡°Where is Master Trian then?¡± Sui Xiong frowned and flew right toward to the house. ¡°Fine, never mind. I will just leave the material for the task as well as the other materials here, and when he comes back, I shall come again and discuss it with him.¡± This time, he did not meet any obstacles and easily arrived at the front of the house. He moved one of his tentacles, and, in the blink of an eye, a huge frozen body of a snake appeared on the ground. He moved a tentacle again, and a floating shining memory crystal appeared in the air. ¡°Okay, take these things away.¡± ¡°Okay¡­ okay¡­¡± the disciple said timidily. Then the door opened. Two metal monster statues as high as two Ray¡¯s added together and as sturdy as a big stump walked out. They lifted the frozen snake body together and walked back to the house. Soon, a monster statue that was as tall as a child came out and held the memory crystal in its hand and went back into the house too. The door was closed again. Clearly this disciple was determined not to see anyone today. Sui Xiong turned around and flew straight home, laughing in his mind¡­ Chapter 73 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The jellyfish flew slowly in the night sky. As it got farther and farther away from the green tree wall, the trees began to shake and quickly gathered together and formed the wall again. At last, the disciple on the second floor of the house finally became relieved. ¡°Gosh¡ª he left at last!¡± She had been pretending to be calm, but now she collapsed and began to pant. ¡°That power, that feeling¡­ could it be the ¡®legendary monster¡¯ that is often mentioned by Teacher Trian? Teacher Trian said that every legendary monster grows by eating numerous creatures, besides, their favorite food is the creature that has mutated and suddenly became intelligent as well¡­¡± The disciple was talking to herself, and her body started to tremble. ¡°The outside world is really scary! The human would kill a monster, and a powerful monster would kill a weaker one, and even a weak monster would trick another¡­ For me, a extremely weak creature, I should never leave this magical tower!¡± ¡°Oh? What are you then?¡± a sound came out. The delicate female figure suddenly jumped and knocked into the table next to her. She was in extreme pain, but she did not even dare to make a sound when she saw the floating green jellyfish in front of her. ¡°How¡­ how¡­ how do you get in here?¡± She was trembling so hard that it took her a long time to finish that sentence. Sui Xiong smiled and waved his tentacles and said, ¡°You are still too young and too naive! As someone who is older than you, I am going to teach you some life experience.¡± ¡°First and foremost, when you are frightened, you need to be calm or at least act calmly. If you can¡¯t talk in a normal way, then just say nothing.¡± The delicate figure nodded. Suddenly her hat fell off and her hair that was as beautiful as a sapphire was revealed. ¡°Secondly, never get too close to your enemies, since the closer you are to your enemies, the more danger you are in. We know that if you are in a fight with someone who is far away from you, you may still have a chance to live. If you ever let them get closer to you, you are certain to die.¡± The delicate figure kept nodding. ¡°Thirdly, don¡¯t ever receive anything from your enemies, and throw it away as far as you can! You received it simply out of your curiosity? You would rather instantly die than not have it? Have you ever heard that once upon a time, there was a kingdom, and the soldiers had been protecting the kingdom for almost a decade. One day, they received a wooden horse that was left by their enemies and took it into the kingdom. They never thought that their enemies would be hiding inside that horse. As soon as the horse was carried into the city, the enemies came out and killed everyone in the town and destroyed the kingdom¡­¡± Hearing this, this delicate figure suddenly screamed. She hurriedly took out a notebook and began to write in it. Seeing her quickly writing in the notebook, Sui Xiong was amazed and could not help but laugh. Then he asked, ¡°Finished?¡± ¡°Yes, teacher!¡± the delicate figure said. The next minute, when she realized she had been tricked by Sui Xiong, she immediately threw away the notebook and took out a golden magical scroll, planning to have a big fight with Sui Xiong. Right at this moment, Sui Xiong had already tightly surrounded her with his tentacles. ¡°Finally, talk too much!¡± Sui Xiong began to laugh aloud, ¡°You need to remember, most of the bad guys are killed when they talk more than they should!¡± Meanwhile, the disciple¡¯s body began to shake heavily, and turned into liquid in the blink of an eye. The liquid flew to the ground and then became a young girl. A blue Slime with a human form. ¡°Slime?!¡± Sui Xiong was totally stunned by the blue slime standing in front of him. ¡°Are you really a Slime?¡± Although she had managed to get herself out of Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles, she had also lost the magical scroll that could probably save her life. Now she was staring at Sui Xiong, terrified. ¡°Fine, stop acting like this. I meant to cooperate well with you.¡± Sui Xiong had no way but to hold up all his tentacles in surrender, ¡°I was just joking with you earlier.¡± Sui Xiong then looked around and asked, ¡°Where is Master Trian? Is he really not here? No way¡­ why would he, an advanced wizard who is going to step into the legendary world, leave his own magical tower? Don¡¯t tell me this house is not a magical tower. I can even feel the magic power pond beneath the house.¡± This girl was silent for a while. Feeling that she could never defeat this jellyfish, she just sat down on the ground and said gently, ¡°Teacher Trian¡­ has passed away.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised. ¡°You must be kidding me! Judging from the magical tower as well as the huge magical array around this house, he is almost going to step into the legendary world! He died at such an important time? I may look a bit funny since I have a round head, but never think I am someone who can be easily tricked. I have already seen too much and done too much! You must have heard of the God of Redemption. I am good friends with him¡­¡± ¡°Teacher Trian died sixteen years ago.¡± Sui Xiong became silent for a long time, and he sighed, ¡°I am really sorry to hear this.¡± This girl nodded gently and became silent again. She began to sob. Sui Xiong shook his head and stopped in front of her. He shrunk his body, so he looked a bit shorter than she was. ¡°Have a good cry. You can lean on my shoulder if you don¡¯t mind.¡± This girl hesitated for a while, but still she leaned on his shoulder and began to cry very hard. ¡°¡­ You mean Master Trian had been in poor condition for a very long time?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°He meant to have a final attempt at getting into the legendary world, but he failed and died later?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°He created you in his lab; in fact, you did not have any intelligence in the first place, but you somehow became intelligent. Master Trian made you his assistant and officially admitted you are his disciple when he died. He also named you Wendy and left his intelligence, as well as this magical tower, to you, and you have been living here ever since, am I right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°You have already acquired the spagirism, the technique of instilling the magic into a certain weapon and the medical knowledge, but because you are a Slime, you can only do all these with the help of the magical pagoda?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°All these years, you have been maintaining the magical pagoda in good condition and making money by helping others to refine the gold and make magical weapons?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Did Master Trian ever tell you that ¡®the humans will kill any monster they see¡¯; ¡®the humans would boil up an intelligent slime and make it some sort of medicine¡¯; ¡®everyone outside this house is a liar, only I would never hurt you¡¯?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and said, ¡°It is really a bizarre thing that a simple-minded creature like you are still alive. It seems like the God of Fortune indeed prefers silly people!¡± ¡°You mean that Teacher Trian lied?¡± Wendy said rather unhappily. Sui Xiong could feel that she respected and admired the late Master Trian very much, but she had gone to the extreme in this regard. Since she even believed that ¡®the humans would boil up a slime with intelligence and make it some sort of medicine¡¯, which was just bullsh*t¡ª seriously. You were also an expert on making potions and refining the gold. You had no idea what medicines could be made from a slime? Sui Xiong had tried to change Wendy¡¯s mind, but she was too stubborn. Soon, Sui Xiong had no choice but to give up on trying. Luckily, apart from her extreme stubbornness in this regard, she was easy to be persuaded in other regards¡ª or she was actually quite feeble. Sui Xiong easily made her agree to cooperate with him. Sui Xiong left his doppelg?nger there to help Wendy manage the magic tower. Wendy had decided to stop all business in the coming months and agreed to focus on analyzing the body of the snake to find out how it could live for so long, so she could make some potion that could prolong one¡¯s lifespan. As a kind and merciful person, Sui Xiong would never to get rid of Wendy as soon as she had finished her work, so when he was making the contract, he made three plans on how to distribute the profits: Plan A: Wendy could determine how much this formula would cost, and Sui Xiong would pay it off. Plan B: In the future, Wendy would get ten percent of each potion whenever a potion was sold. Plan C: Sui Xiong would give her one-fourth of the net profit in each period of half a year since she was the one who managed the potion business. In a word, Sui Xiong was the one who owned the formula, and all the profit that was made via this formula should be his. He was the one to decide how to manage the potion business. Moreover, any other new formulas Wendy made in the future, as long as they had something to do with this formula, Sui Xiong should be the first one to buy it. Even if he did not want those new formulas, she would have to keep them secret for at least fifty years and could never sell it to anyone. If she did not want to do business with Sui Xiong anymore and decide to end the contract, the formula of the first potion she made belonged to Sui Xiong. There were other rules, such as ¡°one could never make any bad comments about the other¡±; ¡°both sides should work together to advertise and sell it¡± and so on. ¡°What right do I have then?¡± Wendy said unhappily. ¡°The publishing right. You can decide if you want to publicize your formula; the right of paternity, you are the one to decide the name of this potion; the right to revise, you have every right to change your formula; and finally the right of owning this formula, I can never change your formula,¡± Sui Xiong said smoothly. ¡°See, you are the boss in this business.¡± ¡°¡­ Why do I feel like I have been tricked by you.¡± ¡°Never,¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°In the past, I used to draw pictures for a certain company, all the contents I mentioned earlier were in that contract too.¡± ¡°You once drew pictures for a company?¡± Wendy was curious about this episode. ¡°I did, but that was a long time ago¡­¡± Sui Xiong smiled and stopped talking. He stared at the moon in a melancholy way and sighed deeply. My hometown¡­ Could I come back to your cradle in this life? Chapter 74 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma When Sui Xiong went back to the village, the villagers were still sleeping, even Ray and Steele were not awake. Steele¡¯s schedule was clearly very different from the average. Even when it was already noon and the village was bustling, she was still sleeping in her room. ¡°Should I wake her up?¡± Ray asked, seeing Sui Xong¡¯s facial expression. Sui Xiong immediately knew he meant to chant to the incantation of the golden hoop to wake her up. Sui Xiong could see what was going on in her room, so he shook his head and denied his request. In her room, Steele was sleeping with three other male tree fairies. If Ray chanted the incantation of golden hoop, Steele would instantly wake up and scream due to the sudden pain. The three men would be startled and might suffer the worst erectile dysfunction in their whole life. ¡°I don¡¯t intend to make these men suffer erectile dysfunction.¡± Ray said, ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s pay a visit to the Master Trian instead.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and told him that he had already paid Master Trian a visit last night. Master Trian had left his house to visit his friends and was making the preparation for a important experiment. He would not come back for a long while and had also stopped his business. ¡°What?!¡± Ray was totally stunned. He stood there still for a long time. Master Trian had left his house? He had stopped doing business? How am I going to instill the magic into my weapons?! He contemplated for a long while, then forced out a smile. It was no use to think if Ray could persuade Master Trian to change his mind, since Master Trian was not even at home! ¡°Then, what should we do?¡± Ray asked. ¡°We¡¯d better make our departure to the south, to the Mifata Federation, you should come with me, as for Steele¡­ I mean to find a place for her to stay. But I am afraid when we finish our business, we may see a bunch of medicine residues¡­¡± Sui Xiong smiled.¡±So we should all leave together.¡± Ray agreed with him, but he was very curious about what Sui Xiong had just put. He asked, ¡°What do you mean by saying ¡®medicine residues¡¯? Is it the name of a certain monster?¡± Sui Xiong laughed rather mysteriously but gave no further explanation. Instead he asked Ray to pack up and agreed to explain to him when everything was packed and tidy. To get the explanation, Ray quickly packed up. Then Sui Xiong said that eating breakfast was also part of the preparation before departure, and promised to tell him by the time he ate the breakfast. Ray didn¡¯t intend to argue with Sui Xiong, so he went to a restaurant next to the hostel and ordered a traditional breakfast that a fairy would normally eat. The wine was made from a rare fruit in the Ancient Forest that was very delicious, but the maize porridge and the flavourless dried beast meat didn¡¯t go well with the wine. This had annoyed Sui Xiong who came from the country of delicious cuisine and made him complain a lot. ¡°The wine has not been carefully chosen! There are no pickles! And the meat tastes like water! They don¡¯t even have noodles or snacks; moreover, the meat has not even been boiled¡ª Can you believe this?! Can this be called cuisine?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t taste that bad, besides, the fruit wine is really good.¡± ¡°No one should drink wine at this hour! Don¡¯t you know that we should eat healthy! A breakfast shouldn¡¯t be too oily or salty, and it should be nutritious and easy to digest. We should find a balance between the taste and our health! Haven¡¯t you ever seen the documentary ¡®A Bite of China¡¯?¡± ¡°Is that a book? I have never heard of it.¡± Sui Xiong meant to continue to argue with him on this, but suddenly he realized that he was not on the earth; this was not China. He was in another world in which the culture and the tradition were completely different. The things he considered pretty normal might be something bizarre here in this world. It was wrong to ask anyone to do anything by his own standards. Even if he forced his followers to accept the Chinese food culture, he could never change this world into his hometown. Maybe¡­ it is my nostalgia towards my hometown that has made me so grumpy these days. Sui Xiong had been arguing with Ray, but now he was just quietly floating in the air and sighing. Ray could see that Sui Xiong was feeling a bit emotional, so he dropped the topic and quietly finished his breakfast. Then he came back to the hostel and asked Sui Xiong about the ¡°medicine residues.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°As for the medicine residues, there was a story behind it: once upon a time, there was a kingdom where all the maids were drowsy all day long. The kind king sent for a doctor to see to them. The doctor wrote a few words on a paper ¡®some vigorous and strong men¡¯¡­¡± Ray nodded, and interrupted, ¡°I see.¡± ¡°What?! You already know what the medicine residues mean?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised, since it was the first time he met someone who instantly knew the meaning of the ¡°medicine residues¡± when the story had just begun. Ray pointed to Steele¡¯s room and said, ¡°That woman slept with a few men last night. They are the ¡®medicine residues¡¯, aren¡¯t they?¡± Meanwhile, the door opened, and Steele came out. She was wearing thin and rather transparent pajamas and was basically naked. She looked much more radiant than ever before. The three men were still lying on the bed. They had already woken up but still looked very tired, as if they had been doing some tiring work for a long time. ¡°See, isn¡¯t this clear enough?¡± Sui Xiong looked at the exhausted men as well as Steele who was radiant and energetic, and he also couldn¡¯t help laughing. ¡°Oh? Are we going to leave now?¡± Steele asked when he saw the luggage beside Ray¡¯s feet. Then she said nothing and went straight back to her room and began to pack. She was not a stupid woman and she knew clearly her role in this team. Sui Xiong was the one to give orders; Ray was the one to put them into practice, and she was just a plain decoration. Although Steele had become a strong holy spirit, if she were to fight Ray, she was sure to lose in less than a few seconds. After all, Ray was someone who dared to face a green dragon and could defeat it simply with his imposing manner! As for Sui Xiong, who was a God, his orders should never be disobeyed. In this regard, Steele did better than Ray. Whenever Sui Xiong gave some orders that were difficult to conduct, Ray would protest, contradict Sui Xiong, or simply refused to follow his orders. While Steele would only make some complaints and followed his orders. She had her own principle which was ¡°if I can¡¯t have sex anymore, I would rather die.¡± In fact, Steele was really a talented woman. If it were not for her sl*ttiness, Romon could not possibly usurp her place. But now she was very content with her present life. She was not an aristocrat anymore, but she had met a God who she could rely on. When she died, she could go to Sui Xiong¡¯s Holy Kingdom. Besides, she was very powerful and had a strong body. During this journey, she had many pleasant experiences¡ª well, not every experience was a happy one, but those good memories were enough to make her forget those unhappy memories. Steele didn¡¯t have many things to pack, so she quickly packed up. Then she checked her clothes and walked to the bed and kissed the three men. ¡°I really had a wonderful time last night! You are the best men I have ever seen!¡± she looked so beautiful and attractive that even an eighty year old man would be seduced. He would suffer a cerebral hemorrhage later, but that would be a totally different thing. When Steele kissed the three men they immediately become very energetic again as if they had eaten some magical pills, even their flaccid p*nises become as hard as iron once again. But Steele had no time to have another round with them, so she flirted with them and then left, leaving these three men on the bed. Maybe last night was the best night they would ever possibly have again in this life, and they would never forget it even when they died. ¡°What have you done?¡± Ray asked. As far as he was concerned, a night hag was not that powerful, but was very dangerous. It always seduced a man and absorbed the vitality from him by having sex with him. Some advanced hags could absorb every ounce of vitality from a man or turn him into a dried corpse simply by kissing him. For Steele, she did not even absorb the vitality from the three men, instead she instilled a lot vigor into their body and made them become energetic again. This was completely different from what a night hag would normally do. ¡°I have no idea about the so-called night hag,¡± Steele said. ¡°They made me have a wonderful time, isn¡¯t it right that I should give them something in return?¡± ¡°If a man and a woman can¡¯t enjoy sex, they would feel rather unhappy later, right?¡± Although Ray didn¡¯t want to admit he also thought so, Steele sounded very persuasive. As for her competence that was different from that of a night hag, he had learned to accept this fact without being surprised. ¡­I think it was Sui Xiong who had turned her into a creature who looked like a night hag but had a different competence. After all his experiences, he had learned to not be surprised. Chapter 75 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Travelling in the Ancient Forest was much easier than travelling in the Ancient Wood Waste Swamp. In fact, there were vipers, ferocious beasts, and scary monsters, but at least the soil under their feet was solid. They could even see some paths in the forest and didn¡¯t need to be so careful with every step they took. Steele was flying in the forest and trying to be a good scout while Ray was walking and chatting with Sui Xiong, who now just looked like a green hat on Ray¡¯s head. ¡°Since we are now in the Ancient Forest, we¡¯d better go to the Old Fairy Temple and pay a visit to the greatest oracle in this world.¡± Ray said. ¡°But we are too far away from the temple that is located on the eastern side of this forest, and it is close to the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. If we depart from here¡­¡± Ray was calculating how long it would take, ¡°it would take us more than half a month.¡± ¡°Never mind,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°We should focus on our business. We should go and find the Knight Parne and get a lord to manage my future Holy Kingdom. Then we would have enough time to go anywhere we want to go.¡± ¡°Is the Knight Parne really very powerful?¡± Ray was a bit doubtful. ¡°You almost crossed the whole Main Plate to find him.¡± ¡°In fact, I don¡¯t know either, but to develop my church, I need some talented people. I don¡¯t care if he is really good at building a manor or not. I think I have to ask him to join my team myself.¡± Ray was stunned by his words, and was silent for a long while. He said, ¡°I never thought you would have already known how politics or public relationships work among us!¡± ¡°Once upon a time, there was a kingdom. The king desperately wanted to have a good horse, so he sent a very capable officer to get him one. The officer had been searching for a good horse for almost three months when he finally heard news about a good horse, but when he arrived at that place, the horse had died already. The officer bought the horse¡¯s bones with half of the money he had taken with him. When he took the bones back to the kingdom, the king was furious and asked him why he had done this. The officer answered, ¡®Anyone who wants to sell their good horse would definitely come to see Your Majesty when they know that Your Majesty would be willing to spend so much money on just the bones of a good horse. I believe Your Majesty will soon get a good horse.¡¯ In less than a year, people came to see the king one by one to sell their horses.¡± After hearing this story, Ray was silent for a long while. Then he said, ¡°Recently, Your Majesty has frequently mentioned the ¡®kingdom that is far away from here¡¯ where there are so many oracles who left so many thought provoking stories, stories that I have never heard of before¡­ Your Majesty, where on earth is this kingdom? If I may, can I pay a visit there?¡± Sui Xiong forced a smile and said, ¡®If possible, I would want to know where it is, and if I can go there. I mean that when the time comes, if you really want to, you can come with me.¡± ¡°But¡­ once you come with me, you may never be able to come back here.¡± Ray shrugged his shoulders, showing that he didn¡¯t care if he could come back or not. For him, there was nothing that he cared about in this world. Sui Xiong instantly knew Ray¡¯s thought. He used to be a prince, how could he fall into this situation? When I establish my church, should I help him to reclaim his status? I might even help him to become a king¡­ ¡°Can I make this creature my pet?¡± Steele asked. Sui Xiong was startled and stopped thinking. He saw Steele was happily playing with a magical creature she had just caught. Sui Xiong felt this creature was familiar, and then he realized it was a slime. Master Trian also kept a slime as a pet, and the slime had its own intelligence that it would use to show itself in the form of a delicate young girl. Before Master Trian died, he named it ¡°Wendy¡± and gave all of his inheritance to it. Wendy was worthy of being the sole recipient of the inheritance from Master Trian. It was also an expert on the technique of instilling magic into a certain weapon, the spagirism and the medical stuff. It only had one disadvantage, and that was that it was not that powerful. After all¡­ a slime was just a slime. In this world, a slime had one of the lowest combat effectiveness, even an adult could fight with four to five slimes at one time. There were some mutated slimes that were more powerful, but since a slime itself is really weak, even if they were mutated, they could never be that powerful. For example, Wendy was a super strong figure among her peers, and there was no slime that could defeat her. But once she left the magic tower, didn¡¯t use a magic scroll or other magical instruments, she could only have a small fight with a green adventurer for a few rounds. The slime that Steele caught was also a mutated slime. It was much smaller than an average slime, about the size of her palm. It was as green as a leaf and was quite beautiful. Sui Xiong could feel that this slime was much stronger than an average slime. In the Ancient Forest, slimes were commonly seen magical creatures. They could see another one at the bottom of a nearby tree. It was eating a worm and was at least hundred times bigger than the one Steele caught, but its combat effectiveness was less than one-tenth it. ¡°This slime you caught is really rare.¡± Ray stared at the tiny green slime that was in Steele¡¯s palm, and said, ¡°It is really beautiful! It is just like a piece of artwork!¡± ¡°Yes, it is. I saw it by accident, and I tried very hard to catch it,¡± Steele happily said. ¡°When I caught it, it fought back, but once I fed it a candy, it instantly calmed down, as if it had become a pure young boy¡­¡± She happily gave another dirty example, then she gave one more. The two examples were so dirty that Ray could not help but angrily stare at her and fall speechless. Compared with Steele, who almost became a holy spirit of an evil God, a pure bad guy like Ray, who knew of nothing but killing people and burning their houses, was just a pure child! Thinking of this, Ray secretly backed away a bit in case he would be contaminated by her dirty mind. Sui Xiong was fine about all this. When he was surfing on the internet, he had seen countless ¡°kings¡± of dirty talk and people alike. Compared to that, what Steele had said was basically nothing. Still, he was surprised to see Steele¡¯s happy face. ¡°Steele, I thought you were only interested in having sex. I never thought you were also interested in keeping a pet. Haha. You finally did a thing that every other woman would do!¡± Steele smiled and said, ¡°This little thing is not only cute, but it can also change into different forms, as long as I teach it how!¡± She was so excited that she began to talk dirty again. Sui Xiong was silent, while Ray couldn¡¯t stand her dirty talk any longer, so he chanted the incantation of the golden hoop. But, at last, Steele was allowed to keep it, and Sui Xiong warned her not to do anything extreme. ¡°I won¡¯t be hurt by it. It is so tiny,¡± Steele said. ¡°But we may be traumatized by you!¡± Sui Xiong and Ray said at the same time. ¡°Ray, you can chant as you like as soon as she talks dirty again.¡± ¡°Good! I have been wanting to do this the whole time.¡± Steele chose not to listen to their conversation, but instead she was occupied with the little slime she had named ¡°Little Green.¡± Since then, Steele had become much more disciplined. When she was free, she no longer secretly went out to have sex with random guys, but instead she put all her time and energy in playing with Little Green. She was also teaching it to do something strange: she asked the little slime to change into a p*nis. She also taught it how to become larger or smaller, and how to vibrate. Since this slime was not intelligent at all, it had no idea what all these things meant; however, Sui Xiong and Ray knew what was on her mind¡­ ¡°Should I chant now?¡± Ray asked. ¡°In fact, I also want you to do so, but I feel like it is not right,¡± Sui Xiong sighed. ¡°What excuse have we got then? Abusing the pet?¡± Every time the little slime finished its ¡°training¡±, it would get a candy from Steele. Seeing this, Ray let out a long sigh. He was indeed frustrated by this. A week later, they came across another fairy village. It was also another village of the tree fairies, but it was larger than the last one. Besides, there were many powerful figures in this village, and Ray could simply count the number simply by his feeling. He also found that there was a very strong figure in a dingy house hidden at the corner of the village. This figure would reveal his power from time to time to frighten some audacious thieves. Moreover, the atmosphere in this village was very tense. All the fairies wore a weapon. There were also many other fairies living here: for example, the tall, strong suburb fairies who wore armour with the emblem of the God of Fairy. Obviously they were the outsiders. ¡°What is going on here?¡± Sui Xiong had also felt very strange, so he poked Steele, who was staring at one of the strong male suburb fairies, with his tentacle and asked her to get some information about this village. Steele happily agreed. She left her luggage in her room and went out while humming a tune. A while later, she came back happily and told them all the information she had collected. ¡°A few days ago, this village was attacked by an evil red dragon. It had destroyed two villages and caught many fairies. The fairies that were walking on the street were actually the tree fairies¡¯ friends and relatives. They planned to build a team to kill that dragon to avenge their dead peers and to rescue those that were caught by that dragon.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°How about we join them?¡± Chapter 76 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Ray and Steele strongly supported Sui Xiong¡¯s order. Ray had long been looking forward to becoming a dragon slayer. When he was a boy, he often dreamed of holding a shield with a carved pattern of a dragon head and wearing an armor of dragon scales, riding a famous horse that was bathed in the blood of a dragon while entering the city gate with numerous people looking at him. He would publicly show the head of the evil dragon, and win countless praise and worship. Although with the passage of time even if he became a dragon slayer, he would not return home with much wealth; however, at the thought of being able to contribute to the great task of slaying an evil dragon, he could not help but get excited and be determined to try. If Sui Xiong knew his thoughts, he would certainly match him with the classic Hua Xiong¡¯s words,¡±My big ax is already hungry!¡± Steele¡¯s idea was different. As a sexologist keen on studying the physiological structures of various male demon beasts, she had always regretted not studying the physiology of dragons. This time by participating in the dragon slaying, she at least had half of a chance of encountering a male dragon, so it could make up for her regret. Thinking of finally being able to study it well, she could not help having shining eyes and laughed in a low voice. Looking at the two subordinates who seemed inexplicably excited, Sui thought for a moment and said, ¡°Do you think there is any misunderstanding about this?¡± ¡°Misunderstanding?¡± Ray was stunned for a moment and asked in doubt, ¡°What misunderstanding?¡± ¡°What I mean is that we may have misunderstood about dragons attacking villages and eating elves. I know several dragons, but even for the one with the worst character, l may believe rumors that it kills people and burns things, but I really do not believe that it eats people.¡± ¡°There are good and evil dragons, and what Your Majesty knows are probably good dragons,¡± said Steele. ¡°Dragons from a good camp are very rare, and more common ones are from the evil camp and neutral camp,¡± Ray said. ¡°But even the dragons from the evil camp will behave themselves in front of Your Majesty. Perhaps this is why your impression of the dragons is good.¡± ¡°But!¡± His tone changed dramatically and became serious, ¡°Respecting the strong does not mean respecting the weak. It is very rare to see a strongman like you who communicates mildly with the weak. Even in the same race, fearing the strong and bullying the weak is certainly the case, not to mention when different races are involved. For most people, the giant dragon exists as a natural disaster. It is on the top of all the monsters, and it¡¯s the most terrible monster!¡± ¡°But that giant dragon might not be evil,¡± Sui said. ¡°We should go find it and communicate with it first.¡± ¡°But do you know where it is?¡± Ray asked unconsciously. He could not help laughing. Asking a god this question was just stupid. So Sui Xiong cast a prophecy spell, wanting to find where the red dragon was, but his spell seemed to be disturbed by something, and he couldn¡¯t get an accurate result. ¡°The giant dragons are generally rich, and they themselves are powerful casters. Using the prophecy magic to deal with them is very difficult to do even for you,¡± Ray advised. ¡°Let¡¯s wait and set off after the dragon slaying group is assembled.¡± Sui Xiong stubbornly shook his head, for he still wanted to go see the dragon and check it out. When Sui Xiong¡¯s stubbornness persisted, Ray and Steele could find no solution. Helplessly, the two could only separately help him inquire about the dragon¡¯s dwelling place. This time, the two went out and hadn¡¯t returned for a long time. Ray did not come back until dinnertime, and he regrettably told Sui Xiong that he had found nothing. The dragon¡¯s dwelling place was a mysterious secret. In order to prevent people from going there in secret and alerting the dragon, the information would only be announced when the team actually set off. Steele had returned at midnight. Clearly she had just taken a shower, but she still seemed very tired and no one knew what she really did during this time. ¡°I¡¯ve found out clearly,¡± Steele did not mention her own experience at all, but laughed tiredly and revealed what she had inquired, ¡°that the dragon lives in an underground volcano to the west. An ordinary caravan would find a canyon with a stream after walking westwards for half a month. If people follow the water downstream, they can find a volcano at the end of the stream and the evil dragon is living in a crater. The captured elves are confined in an underground forest at the source of the stream.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. Examining her look of exhaustion, he could not help but show anger in his eyes. ¡°They actually do such a thing?! Go! We must punish them!¡± Others might not be able to see it, but Sui Xiong had personally reshaped Steele¡¯s body and understood her situation at first glance. Over the past few hours she had used many healing spells on herself which led to magical overdrafts, so she was tired. Why did she need to use so many spells of healing? Only one could imagine! If she had not been a half Holy Spirit with a strong physique and magic of healing, she would already have died. ¡°No, no,¡± Steele shook her head, rejecting Sui¡¯s advice. ¡°It was just a fair trade, and we made an agreement in advance. They did what they wanted, and I found out what I wanted to know. So it was fair and reasonable.¡± ¡°How so?!¡± Sui was angry. Ray also realized it at this time. He sighed deeply and said, ¡°They finally told Steele the information, so this was fair.¡± ¡°Your understanding of ¡®fairness¡¯ is very problematic!¡± Sui Xiong could not help shaking his head, but he did not think it was a good idea to say anything when he saw Ray¡¯s and Steele¡¯s looks. However, he secretly decided that if possible he would talk to the god in charge of ¡°fairness¡± in this world about what real fairness was! ¡°I should not have asked you to inquire about the information!¡± Looking at Steele¡¯s haggard look, he could not help but blame himself, ¡°It was insanely stupid to send you, a weak and solitary woman, to go out at night to inquire about the information!¡± ¡°It was not your fault, Your Majesty,¡± said Steele smiling with a bit of disobedience in her eyes. ¡°Actually, if it had not been for the Jinguquan that bound me¡­ this would have been an easy task!¡± ¡°If you really think I did very hard work, just temporarily unlock the confinement and let me indulge myself for a moment, ok?¡± Looking at her eyes that were full of fatigue and anticipation, Sui Xiong waved his tentacles without hesitation, and then the Jinguquan flashed and disappeared without a trace. At the same time, a powerful divine force was infused into her body, leaving her in a superb state and with a magical defense that was sufficient to keep her safe. ¡°I will find the dragon and negotiate with it. Ray, you take care of her in case anything unexpected happens.¡± After making such a command, the floating jellyfish flew out the window and toward the western sky. Sui Xiong used his full strength to fly this time. Rather than flying in a leisurely, flowing way, he was in a different condition. His magical power changed into a strong driving force that made the green, floating jellyfish rush into the air. He traveled fast enough to shock the fastest flying birds. Perhaps only those flying demon beasts that competed for the title of ¡°Chief of the Sky¡± might fly at this speed. It took only a short time before a scar-like canyon appeared in front of him on the ground. Night had no effect on him, and the gurgling stream at the bottom of the canyon acted as a signpost, giving him a clear indication of direction. Sui Xiong reduced his speed and height and went down along the stream. Because his speed was greatly reduced, it took him almost half an hour to fly to the end of the canyon. At the end of the canyon, there was a large crack that extended toward the underground. The crack was very spacious and seemed like a gateway to the underground world. The stream flowed into the crack as if it was being swallowed by a horrific monster. Of course, Sui Xiong was not afraid of anything. He flew directly into the crack and went into the underground world. Before his space travel, Sui Xiong had read a lot of Western fantasy works that had designed a curious but magnificent underground world with all sorts of strange races and a perverted society full of intrigue that tried its best to maintain the superficial order. However, in this world, there was no such underground world, only some caves and cracks that were not so large. Of course, such an environment could not provide adequate living resources. Therefore, those who lived in these caves and cracks were the losers in the competition of survival in the earthly world. Some of them lived here because of their lack of power, but mostly because of their evil deeds. The latter were not tolerated by the order of the earthly world, and they could only run to hide underground embarrassedly. For example, the dragon. Sui Xiong had not flown for long a time before he saw its figure. At the deepest part of the cave, there was a ring-shaped crater that didn¡¯t spray out any smoke. Only the seething lava at the bottom showed that it was not dead silent. There was a huge figure floating in the lava. It was far bigger than the huge dragons that Sui Xiong had encountered before. It extended at least 50 meters from its head to its feet. Because its wings were not extended, its wingspan couldn¡¯t be judged. But you could imagine how horrible it was when it extended its wings, flew over a village, and breathed fire, burning whatever was on the ground. Amazingly, it seemed that Sui Xiong had seen this dragon before. Previously at the viscount¡¯s territory of Geerteng, he had spied in the memory of a noble with an outstanding life, a brawny man whose strength had reached an ¡°advanced¡± level and was slowly approaching the mortal people¡¯s limits. Deep in the memory of this strong man, there was a fear of a brutal red dragon, and the red dragon in his memory seemed to be the same dragon that was lying asleep in the pool of lava at the moment. If they were the same, then Sui knew its identity: the famous evil dragon, Uherskreider, known as the ¡°Brutal Burner.¡± Even among the evil dragons, this one was considered the most notorious of them all. Instead of collecting money, it was keen on attacking the villages where the humans, elves, dwarves and all the weaker creatures inhabited. The attack was not for the purpose of collecting money but for the sake of destruction and burning at its will. It was keen on seeing those weak creatures wail mournfully and be burnt alive in the flames. After the attack, it often lied in the place where it committed such crimes, and ate women and children as its snacks while enjoying the tragic scene of people struggling in the fire and dying. Because it had committed too much evil, this one had long been the target of a few strongmen. More than ten gods had given orders that it should be killed. The reward for killing it had also been accumulating exponentially. If a knight could behead it and change the reward into gold coins, you could bury the knight with his horse in the pile of gold coins leaving no trace. However, it was still alive, and up until now there had been many heroes who had died fighting against it. It was even said that the saint of a certain church used the Technique of Descending Gods so that the power of the gods would descend onto the earthly world, but the saint was also beaten back. This evil dragon was regarded as a banner of the evil forces among the villains in the main plane. Sui Xiong carefully observed the sleeping dragon, thinking about how to deal with it. Chapter 77 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Sui Xiong was not sure that the red dragon who was sleeping in the lava was the super-villain Uherskreider. But if so, as a decent man, or as a decent jellyfish, he felt he had a responsibility to do the job of God: crack the head of this villain, pull out the soul and put it in the blue icy fire of his own supernatural power, and give it a punishment for a century. But if not, it was a different story. ¡°We cannot let the bad guys go, but we must not wrong good people first, and ¡®innocent until proven guilty¡¯ is one of the hallmarks of the progress of the rule of law,¡± Sui Xiong murmured secretly and began searching around the crater. To convict someone, you needed witnesses and material evidence. He quickly found the goal: a small underground forest located at the end of the stream, beside an abyss that no one knew where it led to. Because of the lack of sunshine, the trees here were bizarre. They were neither tall nor lush and gave off a sickly weird feeling. In the woods, a group of ragged, wretched, embarrassed elves that looked like Somali refugees were lying one by one in a disorderly way. ¡°Well, I have witnesses and material evidence.¡± Watching these apparently captive elves, Sui Xiong noticed a lot of burns on them and nodded slightly. These burns could be considered fairly reliable material evidence, and the next thing to do was to find a witness to ask them in detail. Of course, these elves were not as careless as to be fast asleep beside the evil dragon, but they had been hypnotized by the power of magic. A huge magical formation shrouded the entire forest, and all the elves were covered inside. Sweeping his eyes over it, Sui Xiong found that this magic formation was not sophisticated, and nothing more than a hypnotic magic. But a series of special structures enhanced the magical effect of it, so that elves who under normal circumstances should not be affected by the hypnotic magic were actually beaten down by it, and not even a single elf managed to resist its effect. If the red dragon designed this magic formation, then it could be really versatile. Of course, the dragon community was full of versatile dragons. In fact, as long as dragons lived long enough, it was difficult for them not to be versatile. When the growth of strength relied on the passage of time to accumulate slowly, nothing else could be a pastime except learning a variety of skills to pass the time. Oh, the giant dragons had other ways too like sleeping a lot. They could sleep for three or five years on end, so that time naturally passed in this way. In order to be able to increase strength while sleeping, the giant dragons would choose areas that suited their own attributes. For example, the red dragon would choose to sleep in the lava; the white dragon would choose to sleep in the ice cave; the rock dragon would choose to sleep inside a heap of stones, the ice dragon would choose to sleep in the ice¡­ The red dragon that might be Uherskreider in front Sui¡¯s eyes was a good example. Sui Xiong observed for a while, raised a few tentacles, quickly drew a few magic symbols in the air, and then made the magic flow and create a tiny formation firmly embedded in the original magic formation. As if it just dug a hole in it, a blue smoke wound its way in. It, like a tentacle, wrapped an elf that obviously had relatively strong life energy and pulled him out. Sui Xiong wrapped his tentacle around that elf and fixed the elf on his own back. Then he withdrew his spell, carrying the elf quickly out of the underground cave and back to the ground. Then, he cast a magic spell to wake the elf. The communication between a jellyfish and an elf, honestly speaking, was not very happy because the elf was already frightened and unusually panicked. If not for Sui Xiong¡¯s strong suppression, maybe he would have already panicked and escaped to tell his tribe. However, in the face of the strange jellyfish which was abominably strong, he found his resistance ineffective and could only cooperate obediently. When he learned that Sui Xiong came to cause trouble for the evil red dragon and was verifying whether he had committed a real crime, he was extremely excited and even he gestured with his hands and feet to express the resentment in his heart. According to the elf, the red dragon came without warning. Until then, there had been no communication between the village and the dragon, let alone conflicts. As they lived in a village located in the depths of the Forest of Remote Antiquity, they had lived a peaceful life with little contact with the outside world except for caravans that passed by regularly. The elf emphasized the word ¡°little¡± several times, which showed that he was very concerned about the attack that was launched for no reason, and he also felt very indignant¡ª unexpected disasters were the most unacceptable. Then, the red dragon attacked them. It attacked in the same way as that of the legendary ¡°Brutal Burner¡± Uherskreider: it first indiscriminately breathed fire that burned the village into a sea of flames; then it lied beside the sea of fire, and caught a few young elves and ate them alive while enjoying the tragic scene in which villagers struggled in the sea of fire. At that time, this elf with good strength luckily escaped from the sea of fire. Seeing this scene, he desperately rushed toward the dragon, wanting at least to leave a wound on the cruel behemoth. Then, he was battered unconscious and he had been unconscious until just now. As the elf said these things, he became sadder and angrier. His fists were tightly held; his nails pierced his palm with excessive force, and blood dripped drop by drop. However, he did not notice it. His body trembled constantly not because of fear but because of grief and anger that was difficult to suppress. If at the moment he had been in front of the dragon, he would have certainly not hesitated in rushing toward it and fighting against the villain! Sui Xiong, while listening silently, suppressed the anger in his mind, and forced himself to be calm. He carefully watched the mind of the elf, vigilant against possible lies. But the elf¡¯s heart was full of anger and pain without any conspiracies or lies. The brutal scenes reflected in the elf¡¯s mind were also very similar to what Sui Xiong saw in the brawny aristocrat¡¯s mind in the territory of Geerteng. They were just clearer, crueler, and more evil. Sui Xiong repeatedly looked at them, and finally closed his eyes, throwing a ball of ice fog on his head. That brutal scene made him angry. He might have been frantic if he hadn¡¯t calmed himself down. This could not work. One must be calm and then one can fight! ¡°Great, now I am sure it would not be an unjust mistake,¡± the floating jellyfish sneered and raised his tentacles. A blue light blinked, and the elf immediately felt a deep fatigue in his heart. He could not have even resisted for a moment before he became fast asleep again. Sui Xiong rolled his tentacles and held the elf that almost fell to the ground. Thinking for a moment, Sui gave the elf a memory-weaving spell, then made a temporary small shelter in the tree next to him, and put him in the tree. ¡°Have a good sleep, and when you wake up, your nightmare will end.¡± He was very confident of his own spell. The elf definitely couldn¡¯t wake up within two or three hours, and even if it did wake up, it would also lose the memory from that period of time. In this way, the whole thing could be done quietly and would not be noticed by anyone. ¡°I am doing a good thing by not leaving my name, so I really deserve to be considered a good person that had grown up singing the song, ¡®Follow the good example of Lei Feng¡¯!¡± After coming to the cave for the second time, Sui Xiong no longer hesitated in flying straight towards the red dragon that was fast asleep in the lava. ¡°Uherskreider, you have done all kinds of evils, and today you will reap what you have sown!¡± The last time he did not really come close to the crater because obviously several magic formations were operating beside the huge dragon¡¯s body so as to provide plenty of early warning and defense. If he had rashly gone close to it, he would have triggered the magic formation and woken the giant dragon. Awakened from sleep, the giant dragon had a bad temper. Graupel could prove that. Unless Snow Flake was present, she would be furious when awakened even if it was her brother that awakened her. Before Sui Xiong was not sure whether this red dragon was a bad guy, so of course he did not want to accidentally provoke the dragon. But this time it was different, as he came to provoke it! No, he didn¡¯t come to provoke it, but he came to get rid of this villain and uphold justice on behalf of God! The floating jellyfish¡¯s hat-sized body trembled and suddenly expanded and now was hundreds of times bigger than before. It immediately turned into a monster that was more than ten meters wide. If its tentacles were fully extended, they would provide sufficient force for it to firmly wrap the dragon. Although a hand-to-hand battle might not be necessary, it was always better to be prepared in advance. Sure enough, when he was still some distance away from the crater, magic lights suddenly lit up the ground, and a fantastic magic formation appeared around him. Glancing at them briefly, Sui Xiong knew how they worked¡ª they had a triple effect: alert, bind, and curse. They were able to wake up the originally sleeping dragon and provide it with absolutely favorable conditions to launch an attack. The magic lights turned into black chains and stretched toward Sui Xiong, attempting to wrap him. These chains were dark black and revealed a dangerous and heart-throbbing feeling. From the first look, you would know they were not a good thing. However, Sui Xiong waved his tentacles without any fear. They turned into blade-like blue lights that hit against the chains made of magic. With clear sounds, the chains suddenly all fell apart along with the magic formation. They did not have the slightest effect. No, they had made an effect, for at least they accomplished the task of alarming the dragon. The sleeping dragon that was sitting and floating in the lava was awakened! The giant red dragon suddenly opened its eyes with magic lights shining on its body. Circle after circle of light continuously emerged, and several layers of magic armor immediately appeared on the dragon¡¯s body. Moreover, several glittering magic light balls circled it like satellites. ¡°These are magic spells of triggering, but there are so many of them¡­ This guy is not only a villain but also a powerful caster!¡± Sui Xiong secretly felt surprised and alert. As we all know, the casters were the most terrible enemy. They had a strong instantaneous explosiveness, excellent field control and support, and the ability to escape that was beyond anyone¡¯s imagination. Those who were advanced casters must have one or two pre-scheduled magic spells, mostly spells of transmission, which would be triggered as long as a certain condition was met. They would immediately take effect without anyone chanting spells. And in their magical tower, the number of spells that could be triggered would increase by a few times. At the moment, what Sui Xiong saw was an incredible scene. Chapter 78 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma In general, adventurers who chose to fight with a superior caster would never choose to fight inside the magic tower and would only choose encounters. This was because in the case of being caught off guard, the weak physique and slow reaction of the mages would become a huge weakness. Every once in a while, there would be a senior mage killed, and most of them were even killed by enemies whose strength was far inferior. However, when the caster was a dragon, weak strength was compensated by the powerful body of the dragon. The problem of insufficient magical power was also solved by the blood flowing from the dragon. It was simply perfect. It was almost impossible to kill such an opponent. It was not uncommon for warrior-type giant dragons to be killed, but it was rare for magic-type giant dragons to be killed. The only reason was that they were so powerful. Although Sui Xiong already knew that Uherskreider was a magic-type dragon, it¡¯s magic attainments were somewhat beyond the expectation of Sui Xiong. It was actually quite high. Fortunately, he had already made good preparation in advance. In accordance with the scheduled plan, Sui Xiong cast a series of three powerful spells. He waved his tentacle and cast the first spell. Gusts of cold air condensed into dozens of sharp ice thorns and flew whistling toward the dragon. Instead of just hitting the dragon, they formed a fan shape that enveloped the dragon and a large area around its body. This spell was enough to knock down dozens of well-equipped adventurers in one breath, but for Sui Xiong and the evil dragon, it was an opening address that could only be regarded as a greeting. They were used for defense methods such as sweep deflection, blurring, illusion, etc., and they could expel the evil dragons from places where they possibly hid. The second spell to follow was dozens of light balls of various colors, which would cause damage to various attributes and effectively destroy the dragon¡¯s protective spells. The third spell was the first to arrive. It was only a bleak ray, but it suddenly spread in the air, and turned into a huge magic formation, covering almost the entire crater. With the emergence of this magic formation, it seemed that countless chains emerged in the surrounding space and completely locked up the space. This was the most important spell, space locking. This was a must-do when fighting against senior casters. Otherwise, as they fought, opponents would directly use the spell of transmission to escape when they felt the situation was not good. Sui Xiong did not intend to let the dragon escape. Since he decided to eradicate this villain, he must first cut off its escape route! In the face of Sui Xiong¡¯s triple attack of magic spells, the evil dragon responded in turn. Most people would feel sleepy for a while after they were awakened, but the evil dragon Uherskreider did not! When it was awakened it started to prepare spells. Different from Sui, it needed a very powerful spell that required some time. The rainstorm-like ice thorns fell fiercely, and their vague illusion disappeared. Their real body emerged in a farther place. Then those light balls that should have missed the target circled around and whistled to offset their defensive spells. When all these light balls disappeared, there was only a handful of remaining defensive spells on the dragon. But it¡¯s spells had also completed their task. The giant dragon¡¯s lava red eyes dazzled and turned into two scarlet rays, and flew directly to the giant jellyfish floating in the air. ¡°You who are from the sea, see how powerful I am!¡± Accompanied by the announcement of the will of the evil dragon, the scarlet rays came head-on towards Sui¡¯s face. The spells traveled ridiculously fast, allowing no time for dodging or resistance. Sui Xiong only felt that with a slight tremble of his body, he was hit by the rays. The multicolored lights continued to emerge from him and turned into countless continuously cracking tiny lightning bolts. He originally used magic to float in the air, but he suddenly felt his body tremble, and the magic in his entire body even stagnated. The fixed magic of floating also lost its effect, and he fell straight toward the lava below him. This was one of the most common means used by casters in battles called ¡°Magic of Removal.¡± However, the spell cast by the evil dragon was far more powerful than ordinary magic. Sui Xiong was shocked. Just before he mobilized his magic to float in the air once again, he felt his whole body grow hot. He felt that all of his blood had become searing hot and seemed to boil in the next second. ¡°Is this the spell of withering? How could it be so powerful?! No, this is linked with the spell of removal¡ª spell chain? No, they are the same spell¡­¡± Sui Xiong immediately recognized the effect of this spell on himself, but in an instant, he denied his guess. The spell of withering that made the water in the enemy¡¯s body evaporate could be regarded as a very overbearing spell, and it was especially fatal to the jellyfish, whose body consisted mostly of water. This showed that the red dragon did not only know brutality but was also full of wisdom of fighting. However, the power of this spell was only for ¡°mages.¡± For the strongmen in the legendary realm, though it was still a powerful spell, it was absolutely not dangerous. Especially, for the powerful legendary creatures, this kind of magic was unlikely to cause too serious of damage as long as one¡¯s physical constitution was sound enough to endure it. Moreover, Sui Xiong¡¯s physique was far beyond that of legendary creatures. If it was the spell of withering, then it wouldn¡¯t have a serious effect on his body even accompanied with a super magic skill ¡°Ultimate Effect of Spell.¡± It would only make him feel a bit of pain for a moment. This spell could actually make his whole body hot and give him a premonition of blood boiling. If he did not immediately suppress it, this premonition would soon become a reality. The spell of withering was definitely not comparable to such a powerful spell. This was just like the comparison between Frost Rays and the Rays of Extreme Coldness that were totally different although they all brought about cold airs. If not for Sui Xiong¡¯s sufficiently powerful physique, perhaps now he would have been seriously injured if not dead. And the dragon was also quite cunning. Its enhanced version of the spell of withering was a fusion of two spells, with the Magic of Removal at the beginning effectively disrupting the magic of defense of the target and give full play to the spell of withering to kill the target with one hit. ¡°It¡¯s really vicious!¡± Sui Xiong secretly sighed. However, he still underestimated the legendary dragon that bullied the whole world. Its magic was much more than that. The next moment, Sui Xiong understood the real danger of this spell. When he repressed the blood boiling in his body, another deep evil force burst forth and distorted the space around him and turned it into a black whirlpool, dragging him in. What came from the black whirlpool was a deep and gloomy atmosphere of death. In fact, the spell was divided into three parts: the first was a greatly enhanced Magic of Removal that disrupted the enemy¡¯s possible protective spells; it was followed by an upgraded version of the Spell of Withering, with its power enough to seriously hurt or even kill legendary strong men; and even if the enemy could withstand the power of this spell, they would certainly be distracted, and when the enemy resisted the blood boiling, the follow-up spell would open up the gate of transmission that led to the Nether World which dragged the enemy in. Even if it could not kill the opponents it could contain them to ensure that afterwards it managed to banish them to the different world. Not only that, the other end of this whirlpool was a chief lord¡¯s field of the Nether World. Its strength was so powerful that even the ¡°Brutal Burner¡± would be frightened by it. Once the enemy was sent there, it was impossible for them to return alive! In the past years, the dragon cast this spell and killed powerful enemies more than once, among which there were many people stronger than it and even there were two divine entities. So when it assessed that Sui Xiong was a formidable opponent, it used the spell without hesitation. However, this time it failed, for Sui Xiong¡¯s strength was far beyond his expectations. The time from the spell of withering to the nether whirlpool lasted no more than one second. But in the time shorter than a second, Sui Xiong had mobilized to break the spell of withering and get rid of the impact of blood boiling, and he restored his freedom of action. So when the nether whirlpool appeared, he just waved his tentacles, and his body suddenly moved and was transferred to the other side of the crater. He managed to escape and avoided being wrapped by the air of death from the whirlpool. This powerful spell was also a big burden for the dragon so it took awhile for it to recover. It watched Sui escape but was unable to respond. Of course, Sui Xiong would not miss this opportunity. He paddled his tentacles, and then five or six magic formations appeared at the same time with more than ten light balls flying out of each. The balls flew in an arc and shot toward the dragon. These were magic bullets which were almost at the beginner level of all spells. Even a novice mage could cast it, consuming very little magic and energy. And that meant it could be released many times. Just a second or two later, countless light balls merged into a storm of flying bullets. The dragon was so angry that its gum turned itchy, and if it had been in good condition, there would have been several ways to completely block this low-level spell. It would have even been possible for it to fight off these spells. But now seventy to eighty percent of its defensive magic had been cracked, and it was still recovering after casting the powerful magic, so it was simply unable to fight back. The reason why the Sui Xiong used magic bullets was so that he could hit the slow dragon quickly. He seized this short moment to prevail over the dragon from the first encounter! More importantly, he wanted to use rainstorm-like magic bullets to suppress the evil dragon, so that the dragon could not properly cast magic. The dragon¡¯s spell was too powerful because just the magic spell made him soul-stirred. Watching the slowly disappearing nether whirlpool, Sui Xiong was still scared. If the dragon continued casting this spell, it would not only add many variables to the battle, but it would be very dangerous! Therefore, Sui Xiong would contain it first! Chapter 79 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma In the dark caves, only the crater area was bright. The searing hot lava emitted dark red light and infinite heat, reflecting the battle of two powerful creatures. The banging sounds were endless, and they even joined together. Pieces of magic bullets bombarded the body of the dragon, first dimming and dispersing the layer of the steel-colored protective spell, and then hitting the scales with a ping-pong like sound. The scales of the red dragon were as rough as red sandstone and were far tougher than steel. The spell of Magic Bullets wasn¡¯t regarded as a threat to the evil dragon Uherskreider because it¡¯s hard scales could resist it. But the overwhelming storm of bullets gave it no way to open its mouth to cast spells, and even it had to close its eyes so as not to injure its delicate eyeballs. Of course, as a mighty caster, it could cast spells without chanting, but the battle in which only one side gained the upper hand infuriated it so much that it raged. The spells of both sides must confront one another before it¡¯s allowed to judge the strength of an opponent. No doubt, that strange huge jellyfish was also a very powerful caster. In that case, it changed its mind. Judging by the appearance of this jellyfish, it should not be very good at fighting hand-to-hand, so it could simply kill the jellyfish like a warrior relying on its strong ability to fight hand-to-hand. The dragon swung its big tail fiercely causing a wave of lava similar to a lotus pod to cross a distance of ten or more meters. During this process, it crushed numerous magic bullets and swung in front of Sui Xiong. What greeted it? More than ten thin tentacles. For the possibility of fighting hand-to-hand with the evil dragon, Sui Xiong had already been prepared. The cumulative strength of more than ten tentacles was far stronger than that of the dragon tail. Violent shock wave bloomed in the air. Two powerful creatures whose power was beyond imagination launched into hand-to-hand combat with their bodies that contained infinite magic. The result was that the one with a smaller physique prevailed. The tail of the dragon that seemed to be able to break a mountain was severely hit back. The sound of the blow to the tail of the dragon was followed by the sound of a tail and tentacles colliding. It was an overwhelming mix of sounds. At this time, the red dragon began to fly up and rushed at Sui Xiong¡¯s front. Uherskreider did not like hand-to-hand combat. As a mighty caster, it was keen on using spells or wisdom to defeat enemies rather than using claws and teeth like a vulgar barbarian. But this by no means meant it was not good at fighting! On the contrary, fighting was far more powerful than spells for the vast majority of huge dragons. They had extremely fast speed and powerful strength, and within the time that an average mage could chant a spell, they could launch at least five or six attacks. Each attack was enough to kill an enemy. Moreover, with a mental power that mortals could not have, they were able to cast spells as they fiercely fought, multiplying the effect of fighting. But this time, the dragon met an opponent that could restrain it in all aspects. Sui Xiong outperformed it in terms of strength, speed, and mental power. Sui could also cast magic more smoothly than it during a fight. There were endless sounds of explosions and booms, and the light of magic also appeared one after another. It was difficult to tell which side gained the upper hand at the first glance because they seemed equal. But with the slow passage of time, the evil dragon gradually became concerned. The battle situation was still only a stalemate, and it was difficult to tell the winner, but Uherskreider knew that it was at a disadvantage. It was not that it had been at a disadvantage in a certain skill, but that it had been countered in all aspects. ¡°D*mn! Should this be a holy envoy of a certain god? He is more powerful than the holy envoys I have met before! Should he be¡­ He must be an avatar of a shameless god that descends to the earth, isn¡¯t he?¡± It cautiously pondered while fighting. Sui¡¯s strength was far beyond its expectations, and such a strong man must have an extraordinary background. Uherskreider itself was already on the top of the ¡°legendary creatures.¡± Even in the face of those demigods in seclusion, it was confident that it would have an advantage in a certain skill and would absolutely not be completely suppressed in this way. Well, the answer could be imagined. The evil dragon turned its lava-like eyes and quickly made a decision. No matter whether the opponent was a holy envoy or an avatar of a god, it was unlikely that he would stay in the earthly world for a long time. As long as it retreated temporarily, it would not take long before the jellyfish found it necessary return to its Holy Kingdom. At that time, it could be happy again! Thinking of it, it no longer hesitated and secretly chanted a long spell. It was one of the few legendary spells it held. Though not as powerful as the previous legendary spell ¡°Withering Netherworld¡± which was a three-fold spell, its effects were not weak. Fighting against a mighty enemy while preparing the legendary spell was an almost unimaginable thing, but it did it. After spending countless hours and energy practicing it, it was able to prepare the spell used to escape while fighting fiercely. That was its real last resort. A moment later, with a spell containing many complex phrases, a kind of red light suddenly rose to completely envelop the body of Uherskreider. At the same time, the space around it shook violently, not only completely destroying the space blockade made by Sui Xiong but also forcing Sui Xiong to retreat a lot. This was the crux of the reason why the Brutal Burner could often escape the strongman¡¯s pursuit and killing: the legendary spell, ¡°Transmission through the Sky.¡± This spell could create shocks in a space. It could not only force the enemy to retreat, but also break the space blockade of spells such as Dimension Anchor. Especially when it was transmitting something, it could eliminate various tracking spells and make it impossible for the enemy to trace its whereabouts through methods such as breath or space shocks. As for the prophecy spell¡­ Of course, it had other ways to defend against it. Seeing the space shocks become more intense and the transmission about to begin, the dragon could not help but have a ridiculing smile. ¡°What¡¯s the point of you being stronger than me? I still manage to escape!¡± However, this time, the development of things went far beyond its expectation. In the face of dangerous space shocks, the large jellyfish actually rushed over to it! Severe space shocks had an almost unstoppable destruction. In just a moment, at least one-third of the giant jellyfish¡¯s body had been destroyed. ¡°Stupid! Stupid! You are killing yourself!¡± The dragon screamed in its heart, but it felt more nameless panic. It knew that opponents would never do anything for nothing! The body of the huge jellyfish was almost completely destroyed in the space shock, but in the end, there was still a tentacle reaching toward the dragon. Surprised and suspicious, the evil dragon saw a phantom shaped like a man¡¯s hand stretch out from the tentacle and grab it! ¡°You want to escape? It isn¡¯t that easy!¡± Sui Xiong had already seen the crime of the dragon in the memory of the elves, so he had long been determined to kill the villain here. Even the God of Evil Dragons descended in person couldn¡¯t prevent him, let alone space shocks. Sui Xiong was a person who was rarely determined to do something, but if he made up his mind, he would certainly follow through to the end! It was true that he could not resist the power of the space shocks, but, for him, the physical damage was simply nothing. This powerful floating jellyfish that could cast spells and fly was actually the armor he used to protect his soul. Even a small part of the body was enough. As long as it could protect his soul in front of the evil dragon, everything would be over. It had been a long while since he had traveled through space to this world, and he had never seen an opponent who could stop his soul from attacking. This time, there would not be an exception! Sui Xiong¡¯s hand of the soul easily broke through the body of the evil dragon and seized its soul. Uherskreider, feeling the danger of dying, struggled with countless magic lights appearing on his body. At this moment, it had no time to care about any consequences or costs. But it was useless. Before it could even cast a spell, its soul had been pulled out of its body by Sui, so the magic lights were immediately extinguished, and its huge lava-like eyes lost their luster. The spell of transmission that had previously started also stopped, and the huge body of the dragon floating in the sky completely lost its power, slumping into the lava and splashing hot red waves. This evil dragon that had run amok across the world for many years finally died in such as way. In terms of its own combat effectiveness, Uherskreider could absolutely run amok across the main plane where the top combat effectiveness had been restrained. Even in the face of Sui Xiong, it was just at a disadvantage and was far from its failure and death. However, in front of Sui Xiong¡¯s soul attack, it was not much different from the fish in the sea, and it was instantly killed. It was wearing treasures that could provide strong soul defense, but in the face of Sui Xiong, that precious treasure did not work¡ª or it did work, but the effect was not enough to save the evil dragon¡¯s life. It also tried to detonate its own body at the last moment of its life, turning all the magical energy and vitality in its huge body into pure destructive power to destroy the enemy too. However, because death came too fast and too suddenly, it still did not have enough time. So, it was dead. It was unable to escape, and it could not resist, nor could it detonate itself. It must have hesitated to be frustrated, but finally, it died helplessly. As the space shock dissipated, an intangible magic power was released from the remains of the jellyfish with just half a tentacle and gathered with the other parts of the broken remains that flew from all directions. After a while of wriggling, they reintegrated into a green jellyfish again which floated quietly above the remains of the red huge dragon. It was smiling coldly and delightedly. In the middle of its tentacles, a flash of red light was struggling, but could not escape. This was the soul of the evil dragon Uherskreider. Originally, it also arranged some defensive measures against the soul. However, all these measures did not work in the face of Sui Xiong¡¯s soul attack and finally ended in a dodgy confusion. Sui Xiong did not follow his original habits and didn¡¯t devour the soul of the huge dragon. Instead, he created a cage with the power of the soul, imprisoning its soul in his own body. And then he put a flame condensed with ice magic into the cage so as to give it a big meal of ice and fire. Before Uherskreider had time to beg for mercy, Sui Xiong had completely sealed the cage and shut the roar and whining of the soul inside it.. As far as Sui Xiong knew, the villain started to do bad things at least two hundred years ago, so he did not intend to open the cage for at least two hundred years. As the saying goes, ¡°Good will be rewarded with good sooner or later, and the same is true of evil.¡± As it was time, the evil of the dragon had been rewarded now. Chapter 80 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°Comrade Lei Feng said that ¡®We should treat our comrade kindly like spring, treat work fervently like summer, treat errors as determinedly as how the autumn wind blows fallen leaves, and treat your enemy cruelly like winter. You who have done much evil, just enjoy your sentence!¡± His Majesty the jellyfish sneered, cast a spell to put aside the huge body of the red dragon and then searched the cave. Unfortunately, he did not find the treasure of the red dragon, and even after using the prophecy spell, it made no difference. Not that he didn¡¯t find anything, but that there was simply nothing. Uherskreider was really like how it was described by the rumors: very different from the ordinary dragons because it had no money making hobby. Love of money was the nature of dragons, and it applied to almost all dragons that were fierce, kind, wise, or cunning. They naturally liked shiny gemstones and golden coins. According to Snow Flake, even her heart could be warm when slept holding coins. However, Uherskreider was not like this. The warmth of gold coins could not warm its cold heart, but only the appearance of weak people screaming in fire could make it happy. It was too lazy to amass wealth. It was so poor that perhaps it was comparable to Graupel, the lazy girl who liked sleeping. Of course, it was not really in abject poverty because even the few pieces of magic items that it carried were very valuable. For example, a few special scales embedded in it were actually scale-shaped amulets that could provide more than ten different types of protection. They could also stimulate a number of life-saving spells and even could effectively resist spell detection. The problem was that they were all engraved with the soul of Uherskreider. If they were to be used on others, the signs would have to be wiped off first. And even if the signs had been erased, the amulets were too large for humans who could only use it as a giant shield¡ª a kind of shield that could protect the entire person when it was kept upright on the ground. Being large was not the crux of the problem. More importantly, those amulets used ample materials, and their weight was really ridiculous. Even the lightest of them weighed at least one hundred kilograms. A knight with heavy armor would have no more than 80 kilograms of a full set of equipment. This weight was the combined weight of their underwear, shirt, inner armor shirt made of chains, cotton armor, a full set of outer armor, metal helmet, metal gloves, metal boots, guns and swords, shield, dagger, etc¡­ Under normal circumstances, those who could wear this set of heavy equipment to combat were, at least, medium-level master adventurers. For many senior adventurers who were not good at strength, for example, Ray, if they were to wear such a heavy set of equipment, they would find it very difficult to walk normally, let alone be agile enough to fight. In other words, if an amulet of the dragon had been given to Ray, he would not have to wear his own equipment or carry his usual weapon. It would be hard enough for him to carry the amulet everywhere. So Sui Xiong intended to destroy these amulets, take out the useful things, and make some truly applicable equipment. After solving the problem of the evil dragon, Sui Xiong went back to the ground and sent the elf that had been hypnotized back to the magic formation in the forest. Then he waved his tentacles, and the magic formation that shrouded the whole forest collapsed instantly accompanied by a clear sound similar to a piece of glass breaking. ¡°Elves, wake up.¡± The voice of the jellyfish god echoed in the sky, and went into their heart while the elves still struggled in a nightmare. ¡°You are free!¡± Under the call of Sui Xiong, the elves woke up in succession. They looked at each other in shock. They could not see Sui Xiong who had made himself invisible but could see the surrounding landscape clearly. In particular, some elves that were caught there recognized the volcano at a glance where the evil dragon had been. After a while, finally, a brave elf cautiously sneaked toward the crater and confirmed that the evil dragon was not there. So the elders with higher prestige stood out and directed everyone to evacuate as soon as possible. ¡°Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Young adults, you are responsible for carrying children on your back; knight-errants, explore the way in front of us, and those who can cast magic, help them!¡± ¡°Hurry up! The evil dragon might come back anytime!¡± ¡°Elderlies, gather here, and if Uherskreider comes back, we must fight desperately against it! Even if we save one more member of our tribe, it is okay. We are so old now and nothing is horrible for us!¡± ¡°Pastors? Quickly pray, and try to see if we can connect with other tribes by means of the power of gods, so that other tribes might come and pick us up.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way to pray in this cave. We must go up to the ground¡­¡± ¡°D*mn! Then hurry because our time is tight!¡± Elves were busy retreating in an orderly way. They formed a long line of troops, going up the stream and running toward the ground as soon as possible. Many experienced elves ran while still being careful about their surroundings and guarding against possible dangers. But their fears were superfluous because Sui Xiong was invisibly following them on their guard. Along the way, they stopped and continued on. The elves spent almost a day getting out of the gorge and going back to the ground. By this time, those young adults were fine, but the children were exhausted, many of whom even fell asleep on the back of the adults. Seeing that everyone was extremely exhausted, the temporary chiefs of these elves ordered them to take a rest. Some elves with much experience with taking adventures were responsible for setting up temporary camps that were simple and crude so that the tired tribesmen could have a more comfortable place to take a rest. Others were responsible for searching for food, so that they could go to sleep without being hungry. Coincidentally, they had not gone far before they found two behemoths fighting for territory, one of which was a giant bear and the other a python. The two behemoths had deep wounds left on their bodies, and the scene of death was quite tragic. No one knew how mad they were before their deaths, but both of them died together. The ¡°Foraging Team¡± exerted a lot of effort bringing the two behemoths back to the camp. Seeing their fruitful results, their tired and hungry tribesmen cheered. ¡°Excellent!¡± ¡°Purely out of luck¡­¡± ¡°It must be that our bad luck has run out, and now there is such good luck!¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ No one knows where the evil red dragon has gone, and I hope it will never appear again!¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather hope to have the chance to meet it again when I become strong enough to kill it.¡± ¡°Oh, pastors? Have they prayed? We need to contact our tribesmen as soon as possible.¡± ¡°Praying requires a lot of energy, and they are all very tired. Let¡¯s take a rest and eat before asking them to pray again.¡± After some noise, the satiated fugitives fell into deep sleep in the temporary camp, and the finally recovered pastors prayed around the temporary holy place, intending to contact the tribesmen far away through sacred rituals. After a while, their prayer was answered. With the power of the gods, they soon got into contact with tribesmen far away from them. ¡°You have escaped? Great! We are organizing a Dragon Slaying Team, and we thought we would avenge you by the dragon¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hurry to slay the dragon, probably the evil dragon Uherskreider has gone to an unknown place¡­ Send someone to pick us up first.¡± ¡°Well, but it is also strange that we have lost contact with the assembly site, and we do not know the reason¡­¡± ¡°Is it that the evil dragon acted first and attacked the assembly site?¡± ¡°Impossible! There are more than a dozen senior adventurers and a legendary strongman at the spot, and if Uherskreider went there, it is courting death!¡± ¡°D*mn! What happened?¡± ¡°Do not panic! All you need to do now is to take a good rest and continue to move toward nearby villages, and we will send people to the assembly site to see what happened.¡± When the news was delivered to the temporary chiefs, they were a little uneasy. But as their tribesmen far away from them said, the most important thing now was to take a good rest. Panicking was useless, and they also could not help if the assembly site was really in trouble. The only thing they could do was to bring these surviving tribesmen to settle in the nearest village. During the night, no one saw a green jellyfish soar up and hurry toward the village which was the assembly site. Sui Xiong, who originally stopped at a big tree above them, went to sleep. According to his plan, it was his intention to escort these poor elves to a safe place, but he was restless when he heard they lost contact with the assembly site. This trip did not take much time, but how did an accident happen there? What the hell, indeed! Sui Xiong was galloping in the air by using the power of flying magic to the extreme, and his body almost became green lightning. At this moment, he could not help but regret that if he had known there might have been an accident at that moment, he would have left a space coordinate on Ray or Steele, so that he could come directly to their place by using the spell of transmission. Ugh! In fact, he should have left a small avatar beside them, so at least he could have always kept in touch with them! He complained about his ill thought while also being confused. Steele had her own protective spells on her body, Ray was a well-experienced adventurer, and the village was even full of masters and even had a legendary strongman. But how could something unexpected happen during the short period of time? This was ridiculous! The green lightning flew from the sky with a deep roar. The fight against Uherskreider consumed too much of his power, and especially at the end in order to avoid the dragon escaping, he was forced to break the space shocks, so his body had almost completely collapsed. In order to repair the body, he exhausted almost all of the energy reserves used for making an avatar, and now there was a big deficit of it. If he had swallowed the body of the dragon, of course, he could have made up for the deficit and he could have much more energy. But the legendary dragon Uherskreider¡¯s body could be called a treasure, and its scales, skin, blood, bones, teeth, tendons, marrow, and heart were all good things, and even the dragon meat and offal also had their own use and shouldn¡¯t be wasted. According to news from Wendy, the study on the body of the giant snake had made some initial progress. She used magic to separate and then activate the flesh and blood of the giant snake. By catalyzing various factors therein, she had roughly delineated the possible range of the ¡°Longevity Factor.¡± However, if she wanted to activate the Longevity Factor in the giant snake, she needed to use the flesh and blood of higher level creatures as a medium. Although she had some of the materials left by the teacher, using those precious materials refined by the late alchemist as cheap consumables seemed to be squandering the fortune of a community. In contrast, the evil dragon Uherskreider¡¯s body was so big, and cutting its flesh and blood simply made almost no difference to the body. The dragon was also known to be the most fertile creature and its flesh and blood were most suitable for a medium because they could greatly activate the Longevity Factor of the giant snake and speed up the experiment process. And if the experiment succeeded in the future, the use of material such as dragon blood and dragon flesh might be very probable when producing longevity medicines. At that time, it would be the more, the better. So Sui Xiong, of course, wouldn¡¯t make up for the energy deficit by devouring the body of the dragon. Now he somewhat regretted it, but it was too late¡ª devouring the dragon body took time, and time was what he lacked most! Chapter 81 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Due to the considerable damage he¡¯d sustained during the battle, Sui Xiong¡¯s condition was severely affected. He couldn¡¯t travel by floating as quickly as before. After traveling for some time, he arrived at the village that the dragon-slaughtering team of fairies had chosen as the gathering point. He felt somewhat anxious while rushing over, but the scene he saw upon arriving was not the expected crisis or accident, but a sight that he never could¡¯ve imagined. The entire village was surrounded by a light pink halo, and layer upon layer of a giant magic spell was constantly radiating a light pink smoke. All the males and females in the village were naked and gathered in a meadow in the middle of the village. Most of them were lying on the ground, and only a few horny, brawny men were surrounding the naked Steele and having sex with her. In the blink of an eye, Sui Xiong figured out the source of this magic array, which surprised him very much. The core of the magic array¡¯s structure turned out to be one of his God Power traces. It was the trace of God Power that he had left behind for Steele to defend herself! ¡°I must be mistaken, right?! What the hell has this slutty Steele done?! Using my God Power to do such a debauched thing!¡± He almost screeched loudly, but seeing the heated scene in the meadow, he was speechless. He used his spiritual sensing to browse through the entire village, and he was deeply aggrieved. Except for a few villagers who were too old or young, almost all the villagers and adventurers were affected by the magic array, participating in this large-scale naked party. There was one exception: Ray. He was sitting in a room playing chess with an old man. There was no need to introduce Ray, but the old man sitting opposite him somehow drew Sui Xiong¡¯s attention. This man seemed very old. Not only did he have white hair, but his brows and beard were both white as well. His distinctly long fairy ears were a little droopy, and the wrinkles on his face were multi-layered. Sui Xiong was sure that if a stupid blind mosquito tried to bite his cheek, it might be squished to death in between the wrinkles. Despite his old age, this fairy was clearly quite powerful, as there was an intense energy emanating from his body. Additionally, there were five or six magic halos around his body, which meant that he was carrying several solidification spells which had effects that could be maintained without any further attention. Including the magic tools on his body, Sui Xiong identified at least twenty magical instruments that this old man could use! Because there were certain requirements for users of magic tools, the more magic tools one was equipped with, the more powerful his abilities would be. Therefore in this world, a typical adventurer might be well-equipped, but being that equipped heavily meant this was no doubt a powerful man. In comparison to this old fairy, Ray¡¯s leather armor and excellent sword looked pretty inferior. The old man was definitely a former semi-secluded legendary man. But it was unknown why he was in Ray¡¯s room. Judging from the magic array inside the room, it was obvious that he had helped Ray resist Steele¡¯s magic spell. This was probably why they sat together in the same room playing chess. A light flashed. Sui Xiong¡¯s shadow appeared in Ray¡¯s room. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but ask in a loud voice, ¡°Ray! What on Earth has happened?!¡± Ray put down his chess piece, bowed respectfully to the old man sitting opposite him, then turned his head to Sui Xiong and smiled, ¡°Your Majesty, can¡¯t you see it yourself?¡± ¡°What do you mean by this, ¡®Can¡¯t you see it yourself?!¡¯¡± Sui Xiong waved all of his tentacles, making himself as imposing as possible. ¡°All the villagers have gone mad, surrounding Steele and having sex with her. What on Earth is going on! Tell me everything!¡± ¡°In fact, it¡¯s quite simple. Last time, Steele was not at a disadvantage. You know what she¡¯s like when she¡¯s angry. Being at a disadvantage on the battlefield is just a trivial thing, but being at a disadvantage in bed is a big thing for her. Therefore, when you left, she said things like ¡®For the dignity of sexology!¡¯ and spent half a day conducting a big ceremony, turning everything into the scene you see now. As a result, the villagers now look as if they¡¯ve all gone insane. All of them rushed out to have sex with her and then became so tired that they collapsed one by one¡­¡± Ray looked out of the window, tutting and sighing, ¡°Seems like it¡¯s about to end soon.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a long time, unable to utter a word. He felt that he himself should have said something, but¡­.at this moment, he really didn¡¯t know what to say¡­ He may not have opened his mouth, but it didn¡¯t mean that the others would keep theirs shut. The old man playing chess with Ray bowed to greet him, then asked, ¡°Your Majesty, regarding your follower¡¯s behavior¡­ Shouldn¡¯t you have some comments to make on this situation?¡± Sui Xiong was a little surprised, asking, ¡°What comments?¡± ¡°To be fair, we Tree Fairies are not among those tribes that take virginity that seriously. But with this woman making such a fuss¡­ Don¡¯t you feel that you should say something?¡± the old man said. Sui Xiong immediately understood and couldn¡¯t help but feel an internal pressure. This old man was asking for justice for the victims! At this moment, he would rather fight ten evil dragons like Yushes Clyde than face a situation like this one. If he could, he would even dig a cave, crawl into it, and bury himself inside and never come back. But avoiding things wouldn¡¯t solve the problem. Since Steele had created such a big mess, he had to take responsibility for this. After forcing out a laugh, Sui Xiong tried to mitigate things, saying, ¡°This is uhhh¡­.. Well if you think carefully about it, the matter isn¡¯t that serious¡­ I can see that no one has been hurt¡­¡± ¡°To be honest, you¡¯re right. It isn¡¯t a serious situation. But the main problem doesn¡¯t lie here,¡± the old man smiled and said. ¡°I¡¯ll be dying soon anyway. I don¡¯t really care about etiquette or cultural things. What I want to say is that if this woman were a male, I would honestly welcome this matter. If this many people had sex with him, some girls may have gotten pregnant, and having a few God descendants in the clan would of course be a good thing.¡± ¡°But, this is a woman. No matter how many time she does this, there is no way she can get these girls pregnant¡­It¡¯s impossible. Not to mention she screws each of the men until they collapse. They¡¯ll need at least ten to fifteen days of rest. She has stripped the dignity from each of us, not sparing a single soul. Don¡¯t you feel that it¡¯s a bit excessive?¡± This argument was really convincing. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t have anything to say in response. He thought for a while and then asked, ¡°Can I give her to you then to make up for all of this? Don¡¯t judge her by her slutty appearance; in fact, she¡¯s quite skilled at a number of things.¡± ¡°I have seen her ¡®skills¡¯ with my own eyes. As I¡¯ve said, if this were a man, then we would have welcomed him. But that woman¡­ Forget it, we don¡¯t need her.¡± The old man stressed the word ¡°skills¡± many times. It wasn¡¯t hard to understand his meaning as he declined Sui Xiong¡¯s offer. It was very obvious that this old man had zero interest in Steele who could only ¡®ask¡¯ but couldn¡¯t ¡®give¡¯. ¡°Your Majesty, I think that you should leave Steele here and let her give birth to some children for his clan¡­¡± Ray used the spirit channel to talk to Sui Xiong. ¡°She can¡¯t give birth¡­¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°Have you ever seen a Holy Spirit give birth? Impregnating others is alright, but getting pregnant itself is impossible.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s avered is eys as he tried to ask, ¡°How about¡­Ray, since you are also considered to have a powerful noble bloodline¡­¡± ¡°Impossible!¡± Ray immediately interrupted him. ¡°Don¡¯t ever dream of such things! I am not a stud horse!¡± Sui Xiong really couldn¡¯t think of a solution. He couldn¡¯t do anything else but shamelessly play a dirty trick. ¡°Or¡­ should I hang her upside down, so those who have had sex with her can beat her?¡± He stressed, ¡°There is no need to care about my feelings. Beating her to death or beating her until she is disabled are both fine for me. What do you think about this?¡± He felt that this suggestion seemed very sincere, and he most certainly would keep follow-up suggestions like ¡°I can cure her afterwards¡± to himself. The old man was slightly shocked. He didn¡¯t expect that this would be Sui Xiong¡¯s solution to this problem. He¡¯ll even allow fairies to hang up and beat up one of his followers, which shows he¡¯s quite sincere about rectifying this. But to be honest, this matter is not that serious. The Tree Fairies are all very open-minded. Sleeping together isn¡¯t anything outrageous. Especially, judging by the look of these youngsters, they clearly had a good time. How can they turn around and beat the girl they just had sex with?! For a moment, he was facing a dilemma. While he was deep in his thought, a high-pitched scream carried across the meadow. The last chap, an adventurer, whose ability had been close to legendary, let out a satisfactory scream. After that, his eyes turned white and closed. Finally, only Steele remained, smiling brightly and licking her lips in satisfaction. She scanned around to see the villagers and adventurers who had been lethargically put to sleep one by one. ¡°Ha! What a refreshing feeling!¡± She walked up to the fierce-faced robust men and used her toes to wantonly poke them, triumphantly asking, ¡°Why are you all lying on the ground? Stand up! Weren¡¯t all of you the ones who wanted to fuck me to death last time? I still haven¡¯t showed my full strength yet, while all of you have already fallen down¡­ Are you a man or not? If you are, then get up! Stand up and do me! Do me!¡± One could see her deep disdain for these robust men. She messed with them for a long time. But their energy had clearly been depleted; no matter how much she provoked them, they couldn¡¯t stand upright. They just helplessly accepted their defeat and let her completely crush their dignity and manhood. As Steele was able to get revenge, she looked up to the sky and laughed loudly with a cheerful and delighted look on her face. While she was thinking of what to say, she heard Sui Xiong¡¯s voice. ¡°Haha, Steele, do you feel very happy after doing that?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, Your Majesty.¡± Steele answered. ¡°Very happy!¡± Sui Xiong forced a smile and said forcefully, ¡°Get out the golden headband!¡± The golden hoop suddenly appeared on Steele¡¯s forehead. As she didn¡¯t have time to react, the golden hoop spread out to a halo, then quickly tightened, as if it was going to squeeze her head into a deformed wine gourd. ¡°Ahhh!¡± This time, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t show the slightest bit of mercy at all. He chanted the hoop-tightening spell dozens of times until Steele curled up and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Tears and saliva flowed from her face at the same time. Only when he saw that she could not take it anymore did he stop. He swung his tentacles skyward and changed the appearance of the magic spell covering the whole village. The light pink fog slowly turned into a green halo, which poured into the bodies of the villagers and adventurers. Then, a loop of green light descended, transforming into a blanket to cover their bodies. When he was finished, Sui Xiong slightly waved his hands. Steele, who was curled up in the fetal position, was caught by his dark power and thrown in front of the old man. ¡°Well, this slut is handed over to you. It¡¯s up to you to punish her!¡± Sui Xiong angrily said. ¡°She reaps what she sows!¡± The old man looked at the angry jellyfish god and then looked back at Steele, who was lying naked on the ground. A forced smile appeared on his wrinkled face. This situation had played out completely different from how he¡¯d expected! Chapter 82 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma According to this old Tree Fairy¡¯s plan, if Sui Xiong had such a peculiar and slutty follower, then his personality must also be strange and slutty. With just a few words of persuasion, this god might simply say, ¡°You want a child? I can sow some seeds!¡± After that, he would probably enter the battle himself. If this was the case, then there would be several kids with godly bloodlines in the future. With these holy children, it would be very convenient for him to associate with Sui Xiong later. This was basically killing two birds with one stone. But this old man would never have expected that although this god was just a jellyfish, his personality could be so righteous. This god didn¡¯t even think the slightest bit about gaining an advantage but was in fact outraged, letting him cruelly punish Steele. Judging from this, if he didn¡¯t make a move, this god might not even bother punishing her himself. This was not what he wanted! At that moment, he regretted his decision to play by the book, not thinking about the big picture and turning things to his advantage. Gosh! Your Majesty, why didn¡¯t you do as I had expected?! As Sui Xiong grew angrier, Steele began convulsing, and the old man was still thinking. In the meantime, Ray didn¡¯t have anything to do but watch from the side like a bystander. Therefore, he had seen the key part of the problem. In fact, for the Tree Fairy, this matter wasn¡¯t a big deal. Everyone had simply taken sky as canopy and Earth as a mattress to have sex with each other. It was not because of Steele that they had done this. They would have done it without Steele anyway. Hence, at most, their reputations had been tarnished, but nothing more. As for His Majesty, although at this moment he was in a rage, Sui Xiong in fact was a typical example of having a sharp tongue but a soft heart. As long as he didn¡¯t mercilessly kill her on the spot, there would always be an alternative method of punishment. The only problem right now was with Steele. At this moment, her actions might just put Sui Xiong over the top. Even if she could avoid a calamity right now, her future could still be quite bleak. Ray had always disliked Steele. This time, he thought she had indeed been extremely out of line! He also didn¡¯t truly care whether Steele was alive or dead. After carefully considering all the conditions, he finally thought of a solution. ¡°Your Majesty, what happened between you and the giant dragon?¡± he asked. In fact, he knew well that with His Majesty¡¯s personality, an evil dragon that had burned down the village and eaten the villagers would be either beaten to death or chopped into pieces. If it was lucky, it would have died in one piece. ¡°Well, Yushes Clyde has been killed by yours truly. All the fairies have also been saved and they are advancing to a nearby village,¡± Sui Xiong answered casually. Ray didn¡¯t say anything else. The body of the old man slightly shuddered, and he couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Yushes Clyde? It was definitely him?!¡± ¡°Yep, that¡¯s the one. That dragon was really bad!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I know some other giant dragons, but I¡¯ve never seen one so inherently evil!¡± ¡°You killed it to save our tribe?¡± the old man asked incredulously. Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. Didn¡¯t I mention that already?¡± The old man took a deep breath and lowered his head. This time it was completely sincere, not a courtesy. ¡°Please accept my apology! You¡¯ve put yourself into such a dangerous situation to save our tribe, killing the horrible dragon for our sake, while we are holding your follower accountable for such a trivial matter. Please forgive us for being so reckless! The Tree Fairies are not the kind of people who bite the hand that feeds them!¡± The Tree Fairy group was satisfied and didn¡¯t investigate any further. Sui Xiong could finally calm down a little. Ray sighed. His expression showed that everything had proceeded as he¡¯d expected. The Tree Fairy group simply wanted to use this good excuse to escape this embarrassing moment. Sui Xiong had helped them get revenge and also saved their clan¡¯s members. Was a favor as big as this not enough to make up for the trivial matter of Steele¡¯s sex party? How could His Majesty not have thought of this¡­in the end, maybe he is just a jellyfish. After resolving this matter, the old man immediately bid them farewell and left. Soon, after recovering, the villagers and adventurers also left. But then there was another problem that needed to be handled. ¡°Steele, what do you think about this?¡± Steele, dressed in adventurer¡¯s clothes, was kneeling on the ground, while Sui Xiong and Ray were sitting on either side of her with judgmental looks on their faces. Two lines were also written on the wall of the guest room with Sui Xiong¡¯s magic. One said ¡°Being honest will be forgiven, resisting will be strictly punished¡±. The other ¡°Punish first to prevent a later disaster, treat the disease to save the patient¡±. Steele was very embarrassed. What should a follower do? A strong one naturally had to take the initiative to charge and break through enemy lines, no matter if they were going through a river and treading on fire. He must fight for the boss. A weaker one should also drive or carry luggage, making the boss feel comfortable. Even if he didn¡¯t know anything, he should look at the big boss with sincere eyes, making him feel comfortable. But on the contrary, this follower had caused her boss real trouble, tons of trouble! ¡°Let me ask you this, Steele. Why didn¡¯t I see you as this capable before?¡± It was very rare that Sui Xiong didn¡¯t sit on top of Ray¡¯s head. Instead, this time he was sitting at a table and angrily looking at the restless Steele. She lowered her head, as he said in a peculiar tone, ¡°Being able to make the people in a whole village collapse¡­You are indeed very ¡°capable¡±! I am not kidding. I¡¯ve never heard of anyone who¡¯s done that before!¡± Steele forced a smile, but didn¡¯t dare say anything. She was also not stupid. She could even smell the dissatisfaction in her boss¡¯s voice. If she said anything right now, she would definitely be asking for trouble. ¡°I consumed my God Power to leave behind some of it in order to protect you, but instead you used it to have an orgy!¡± Steele¡¯s head dropped lower. ¡°Fortunately for you, this time the Tree Fairy group won¡¯t be prosecuting you. That is your blessing,¡± Sui Xiong said miserably. ¡°As a god, I use my power to bully others. Do you find that very glorious?! That old man has wrinkles that could trap mosquitoes between them. As soon as he opened his mouth, he often said things like ¡®I am already old and about to die¡¯¡­ Having to bully such an old man, do you think I should feel proud about that?!¡± Steele tried very hard to retract her head into her neck like a turtle, not daring to say a single word. ¡°Gosh! The more I think about it, the more embarrassed I feel! But is there any method for this? Who told you that I don¡¯t teach well?! Who told you that I am normally too merciful to others, thus giving you the opportunity to do such an awful thing!¡± Steele opened her mouth as if she wanted to explain a little bit. But then, she thought it over and didn¡¯t say anything, lowering her head to hear him lecture further. Sui Xiong continued to admonish her with thoughts from ¡°A thief knows a thief as a wolf knows a wolf¡± to ¡°universal love not war¡±, from ¡°the gift of human rights¡± to ¡°a socialism of honor and disgrace¡±. He then emphasized the phrase ¡°hard work is honorable, laziness is shameful, struggling arduously is glorious, and extravagance is shameful¡­.¡± After many harsh words, the sun had already creeped above the horizon in the east. He had been talking from the afternoon all the way through to the early morning. No one knew when Ray had fallen sound asleep on the table, but Steele didn¡¯t dare doze off. She was trying very hard to keep her eyes open, but she couldn¡¯t stop herself from falling into a daze. ¡°Look at your attitude!!¡± Sui Xiong shouted angrily as he slammed his heavy tentacles down on the table, exclaiming, ¡°You are in contempt of the court of law!¡± Steele was startled. As she was about to open her mouth to explain, Ray, who had been suddenly awakened, spoke up groggily. ¡°Against the court of law? Then just execute her.¡± ¡°What?! Execute me?!¡± This time, Steele was really scared. She forgot her attempts at sincerity and jumped up, saying ¡°How can this suddenly turn into an execution?!¡± Sui Xiong was also stunned and asked, ¡°Is this so serious that I would have to execute her?¡± At this moment, Ray was completely sober. He rubbed his nose, let out two dry coughs, took a little time to arrange the words in his head, then put on a serious face and made a show of being earnest. ¡°First of all, we need to be sure about one thing. Accusations and punishment need to be based on the law.¡± Sui Xiong and Steele nodded together. ¡°And according to the law, there¡¯s an important article that requires us to ¡®maintain the sacred nature of the law and the authority of the court of law¡¯, right?¡± Steele nodded as Sui Xiong carefully thought a little bit and nodded as well. ¡°If so, if she is objecting to the court of law or not cooperating with the judge, isn¡¯t that a crime that needs to be seriously punished?¡± Steele¡¯s face went pale, but she still nodded; Sui Xiong very attentively thought for a while, then hesitantly nodded. ¡°If so, show me the issue with execution.¡± Steele¡¯s face was mournful. She looked at Sui Xiong sadly. Sui Xiong thought for a long while, and at last said, ¡°Isn¡¯t this law system too simple and brutal?¡± As soon as his words were spoken, he also had a realization. ¡°In order to maintain the authority of the court of law, we don¡¯t need to use such a serious punishment. Even if we want to punish the behavior of objecting to the court, we don¡¯t need to hang the criminal. The law exists to keep order, and true order is leading people to be better, not yelling and killing!¡± Ray silently nodded as he heard this. Inside, he deeply respected and praised this opinion of Sui Xiong¡¯s, but on the outside, a smirk lingered on his face. ¡°A lord has the right to punish and grant a special reprieve. A God, of course has the right to do so as well. It is up to you to decide how to handle her.¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but furrow his brow, silently deciding that until his Holy Land was built, he would set up his own system of laws rather than follow the laws of this world. The law system of this world indeed had its problems! That¡¯s right¡­Justice and law seemed to be under the control of the Gods. As he thought about this, he silently remembered this idea as he looked at the trembling Steele, who was waiting for the verdict. Seeing her frightened appearance, his heart felt kind and warm like he had just eaten hot and spicy soup on a cold winter day. ¡°Steele, this time you should be scared!¡± He wanted to face the sky and let out three loud, imposing laughs. But with the body of a jellyfish, this posture was a little difficult to make, so he gave up on this dramatic flair. As for how he would punish Steele, he had already thought of a solution. ¡°Let¡¯s have breakfast first,¡± he said coldly. ¡°Even if you have to die, you don¡¯t have to be a starving ghost, right?¡± After hearing these words, Steele¡¯s face was a little less tense. But when she heard ¡°a starving ghost¡±, her face turned whiter than before, and her legs began shaking. She was indeed scared this time! Chapter 83 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma While having breakfast, Steele was constantly trembling. Her fear was at an all time high. Killed? According to her knowledge about the law, it could be her outcome. If she were the judge, putting a hanging sentence on the criminal who looked down on the court of law while being questioned, and then dozed off, was not too much. On the contrary, it was quite reasonable. It was just that she didn¡¯t want to die! She originally wasn¡¯t afraid of death. Especially these days, after having gone through many places and so many things, she felt deeply about Heaven and Earth. There were still so many places she wanted to see. She was not willing to part with this world right now! I had a blast yesterday and had fun creating this big mess. As a result, in the blink of an eye, I may be sentenced to death¡­ I¡¯m doomed! She didn¡¯t doubt Sui Xiong¡¯s words. His furious appearance was absolutely not an act. In fact, she considered it good luck that she had not been beat to death right on the spot. But this just simply delayed the death sentence a little bit longer¡­ Due to her fear, her meal tasted like mere wax. She even dropped her spoon several times on the table. After forcing herself to finish breakfast, she packed her luggage to leave the village. She felt even more tense now. Execution, of course, has to be done outside the village. It is not polite to hang someone up to die in someone else¡¯s village! After they had gone quite a distance and passed a crooked ancient tree, Sui Xiong commanded everyone to stop. ¡°Enough, let¡¯s use this place. This tree is very appropriate,¡± He brutally said. ¡°Steele, are you ready?¡± Upon hearing this, Steele assumed that the time of her death had finally come. Her legs buckled as she curled up on the ground. Ray was also startled, as he thought that Sui Xiong was kidding or just doing this to scare Steele a little bit. He didn¡¯t imagine Sui Xiong would really kill Steele. If he were able to see the top of his head, he would have known that his guess was not wrong¡ª although the tone of Sui Xiong was extremely ferocious, his eyes were clearly smiling. Sui Xiong gently swung his tentacles, flying up from the top of Ray¡¯s head. He shook his body to transform, turning into a giant jellyfish, which was bigger than an average-sized room. One by one, his tentacles emitted a dark power¡¯s blue light. Each one of them looked like a rope or a ferocious snake that could firmly lock and strangle the enemy to death. When a tentacle grabbed Steele, although normally she was very courageous and audacious, she couldn¡¯t help but shriek loudly. However, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t hang her up on the tree, but instead, opened his mouth widely like a sacrificial bowl and swallowed her down. Ray¡¯s eyes opened wide and his jaw almost dropped as he saw this. He recalled his memory to see again what he had missed. Hadn¡¯t he said he would kill her here? How could it turn into swallowing? Hadn¡¯t he said that he only needed to sunbathe and drink water? How could he immediately turn into a human-eating monster? This was not right! After a while, the jellyfish¡¯s mouth opened, and he spat out Steele, who was unharmed. But the tightening gold hoop was no longer on her forehead. Instead, there were two bracelets that looked like birthmarks on the back of her hands. The left bracelet was red, while the right one was blue. Looking closely, each bracelet had two layers inside and out. In the middle of the bracelet were many vertical strokes, separating the ring into twelve equal checks. The red bracelet had twelve checks inside. Above the first check was a group of rays which looked like a flame. The twelve checks on the blue bracelet were empty; there was nothing. ¡°I have carefully considered this. I feel that the tightening gold hoop is too simple and brutal. Moreover, it relies on Ray¡¯s supervision.¡± Sui Xiong cleared his throat with two dry coughs, and then talked to the two people who still had no idea what was happening. ¡°Therefore, I have decided to change the method.¡± ¡°The two bracelets on your hands, the red one represents desire, and the blue one represents virtue. Whenever the desire surges inside your heart, the flame inside the red bracelet will be ignited. If the entire twelve flames are ignited¡­¡± Speaking to this point, he stopped, and coughed dryly, indicating that the story had reached its climax. These days, Ray had got accustomed to his speaking style and he immediately understood Sui Xiong¡¯s intention as he smilingly asked, ¡°What will happen?¡± ¡°Hahaha¡ª she will turn into a pig!¡± Turn into a pig?! Steele shrieked in fear, as she never expected to passby the threat of death from Sui Xiong but have to face a terror that was not much better than death. To a beauty enthusiast, if they were made to choose between ¡°turning into an ugly pig¡± and ¡°being killed,¡± the number of people who would chose the second option would likely be more than the first one. ¡°Turn¡­ turn¡­ turn into a pig?!¡± She couldn¡¯t help but ask while trembling. ¡°Why become¡­ a pig?¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t expect she would ask this and used his tentacles to scratch his head and said, ¡°In some distant country, there was an old story. A brave, handsome, sturdy monk wanted to go to the remote Western country to acquire the legendary treasure which was said to be able to save the world. Under his command was a monkey with a nasty character, a pig which always was always in heat, a water monster whose head was full of sick thoughts, and a useless horse which had nothing except for its good looks.¡± ¡°If this is the case¡­. Last time when you advised me to shave my head, did you want me to actually do it?¡± Steele was still a little muddle-headed, but Ray had recovered his mind, remembering the matter that occurred not too long ago. That day, when they had been camping, Steele had angered Ray once again, which made him chant the hoop-tightening spell. Sui Xiong had thought about something and laughed out loud. After that, he had asked Ray if he wanted to shave his head and change his clothes; he also said that he could have helped him create two powerful magic weapons, which were called ¡°Nine Rings Pewter Staff¡± and ¡°Brocade Kasaya.¡± Ray of course really wanted a powerful magic weapon, but when he saw Sui Xiong drawing the design, he regretfully rejected this offer. How could he wear an outfit that made him look like a martial monk? After that, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t remind him of this story as Ray felt regret when he recalled it. In fact, as long as he didn¡¯t need to shave his head, changing his clothes was not a problem. His black leather armor was a little eye-catching. Changing it would not be a bad thing. But now, he was finally clear that Sui Xiong obviously wanted to act as the monk character! When thinking about this, he couldn¡¯t help but shake his head and bitterly smile. Sui Xiong¡¯s power was indeed mighty. His personality was also kind. What a pity that his thinking was so abnormal. He usually thought of crazy stories, which were inexplicable, and always came up with some funny and embarrassing ideas. Or it was the so-called ¡°perfect thing¡± that always had a regrettable point¡­ After smiling for a while, Ray turned to Sui Xiong to ask, ¡°You just said, the red bracelet represents desire and the blue bracelet represents virtue, so if desire is a punishment, then is virtue perhaps a reward?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Sui Xiong used his force to swing his tentacles like swinging his arms. ¡°Until now, I¡¯ve always focused on restraining her and not paying any attention to leading her. Therefore, I want to make a big change. From now on, whenever she does a good deed, it will accumulate virtue, people¡¯s gratitude will be accumulated inside the blue bracelet. When the accumulation reaches a certain level, the flame inside the blue bracelet will be ignited. After twelve flames are ignited, she can get one ¡®perfect wishing magic¡¯.¡± ¡°A perfect wishing magic?!¡± Ray thought for a long time but he couldn¡¯t remember there being such magic, and thus curiously asked, ¡°What¡¯s the difference between this magic and other wishing magic? Wishing magic is very unreasonable. If the word ¡®perfect¡¯ is added, it still sounds unreasonable¡­¡± Ray was not being sarcastic, but he was just telling the truth. The wishing magic group was always unreliable. Someone said that this magic group¡¯s principle was ¡°through the understanding and modification of the world to fulfill one¡¯s wish.¡± At first glance, it may appear very powerful, but in reality, it was a little bit deceitful¡ª the world itself didn¡¯t resist the changing tendency. When a person tried to use wishing magic to achieve a goal, the worst scenario was not that one¡¯s wish couldn¡¯t be fulfilled, but it was fulfilled in some bewildering ways. For example, the relatively low-level second class wishing magic, in theory, could stimulate any ¡°mid-level¡± quality magic. It didn¡¯t matter if one didn¡¯t have the necessary materials to display this magic or understand this magic. This magic could break any negative or positive magic¡¯s effects, including breaking a curse, or displaying any effects of a low-level adventurer. If one could get a reward, it was good, but getting a result was good as well. There was no problem. Well, theoretically, it was possible. But in fact, except for some experiences with pretty reliable wishes¡ª for example, stimulating other magic¡ª any other wishes were all distorted, and implemented by an unknown dumbfounded method. Many years ago, Ray had accidentally obtained a second-class wishing magic scroll. After having carefully thought about his wish, he wished ¡°to become the strongest warrior in the world.¡± The result was that he received an invitation to participate in a ¡°competition for the strongest warrior.¡± After that, he applied for it and was full of excitement. Only then did he realize the participants had been just a bunch of beginner level newbie adventurers. Later on, he found out that this had just been a self-organized competition from a small region. That was right. He had really won the competition, and had received the bronze medal of ¡°the strongest warrior,¡± but this medal didn¡¯t have any meaning. This was like a bunch of martial arts newbies rushing over the Hua mountain to compete, and then picking ¡°number one in the country¡± among those hypocrites. This was just a mockery. This had hit Ray hard. He even had several disputes because of it. In addition to some later matters, he didn¡¯t have a good impression of wishing magic. He even doubted many times that the great sage was drunk when inventing this magic or if he had some problems with his brain. That magic was not useful at all, just a pure trap! Although, Sui Xiong¡¯s track record was not bad and his personality was very trustworthy, that ¡°perfect wishing magic¡± seems more high-end than the ¡°second class wishing magic¡± or ¡°wishing magic¡±¡­ But this ¡°perfect wishing magic¡± thing itself was unreasonable! Chapter 84 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Even a child would able to pick up on Ray¡¯s discontent and suspicion toward the wishing magic. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°The wishing magic is also known as advanced magic. Even if they are legendary shamans, not all of them would be able to display this magic. This is a lower level wishing magic, normally an advanced shaman or even a legendary shaman is capable of displaying it. Why do you seem to look down on them?¡± Ray sighed, telling him what he had experienced before. When Sui Xiong heard about his ¡°the strongest warrior¡± medal, he could not help but laugh out loud. ¡°These people are very creative! Brilliant! Brilliant! Do you still have that medal?¡± Ray was silent for a while, and then took out an ancient bronze medal. Just from a glance, one was able to tell this medal had been held onto for a long time. Countless touches had made the sharp edges of it become smooth, and had turned it a light golden color. It seemingly gave off a time-condensed feeling. This medal was made very ordinarily or the smith making this medal had indeed put in a lot of effort, but his technique was not good enough, hence everything was in vain. In other words, due to the poor materials, it was not very water resistant. The writing on the medal had become extremely blurry, only a few words could be vaguely made out. As for the original patterns on the medal, more than half of them had rubbed off and could not be seen clearly. Steele took a swift look, then immediately lost her interest. Coming from nobility, she could also be considered a slight expert in jewel evaluation. With just a glance, she could tell that this medal was of poor quality goods, which was put on counters in all souvenir stores in the big cities. It could be bought with a few copper coins. But Sui Xiong stared attentively at this medal without blinking for a long time, then gently asked, ¡°Do you regret making that wish?¡± ¡°Regret? On the contrary, it is not that bad.¡± Ray shook his head, ¡°I¡¯ve done too many regretful things in my life, but that medal is not worth mentioning.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t really regret that, why do you have such a spiteful attitude toward the wishing magic? This doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± Ray hesitated for a while, sighed deeply, and then changed the subject. That was when he hadn¡¯t become a lonesome thief yet, and had explored the Westfall under the identity of an adventurer. At that time, he hid his true identity and ability, disguised in a mid-level adventurer¡¯s appearance, and joined a pretty-famous adventure team. The ability of this team was not very powerful, but the atmosphere in the team was very good. The captain was kind and righteous and everyone helped each other, which made him satisfied. Just like that, two years had passed by, until one day they had come across part of a treasure map. After having been through countless hardships, they had finally found treasure. That treasure was indeed very satisfactory. They distributed many good items amongst themselves¡ª the leather armor he was wearing was also from that treasure. And inside the treasure, the most precious things were two magic scrolls. Surrounding these two scrolls was the ability to make wishes come true, so everyone crazily fought for them, which was extremely messy. In fact, the majority of them were disturbed. In the end, after discussing it with everyone, the captain used one scroll. His wish was ¡°I want to live forever and be immortal.¡± ¡°This wish is very unreliable,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°A wishing magic can¡¯t do such a thing.¡± Ray painfully smiled, then nodded. ¡°You are right. After the captain made the wish, space and time suddenly solidified, imprisoning him. He then was sucked into a black hole to some unknown place.¡± ¡°If he was locked up, he might really become immortal¡­¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and sighed. ¡°Wrong wishes often lead to a similar result like that. After all, the mortal willpower is strong enough to resist the world. It is also not strange for one to be fooled and misrepresented.¡± Ray and other people were dumbstruck when they saw this scene. They all wanted to bring the captain back, but there was basically no way to do that. After tormenting themselves for a period of time, there was no way left to try. Having lost a highly prestigious captain, the adventure team collapsed very soon after. Ray continued being an adventurous soloist as other people parted ways. Not too long after that, Ray took a mission to escort a caravan past the Orc Empire. It took more than several months for him to get there. When he returned to the Westfall, he saw a scene like a bolt from the blue. The story about the wishing magic scroll had leaked out. The famous ¡°Pellets¡± Smuggling Chamber of Commerce had found their place. Each and every comrade in his team was either betrayed or killed. Finally, the entire family of the captain, young and old members, were murdered. Due to the group¡¯s earlier disbandment, the remaining scroll was left to the captain¡¯s son. ¡°Is the scroll snatched away in the end?¡± Sui Xiong coldly asked. ¡°Did the birth of your ¡°Family Extermination¡± title come from that war too?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right¡­ I took my savings out to hire thieves and spread false news, making the Iron Sand Chamber of Smugglers think that another organization wanted to have a bloody fight with them. All of them retreated to their headquarters. Then, I carried my sword and killed all of them from the big gate to the inside,¡± Ray coldly said, his face emotionless. That fight was extremely fierce. The widely famous Iron Sand Chamber of Smugglers disappeared. All the key members of the chamber of commerce were killed, except for some lucky escapees. He didn¡¯t let a single chick or dog slip away. The title of ¡°Family Extermination¡± also came from this. Also starting from that day, he was no longer an adventurer, but became a lonesome thief. Ironically, when Ray killed everyone on the way to the room of the President of the Pellet Smuggling Chamber of Commerce, he discovered that the President was in a secret room, which was completely isolated from the outside world. He then, very carefully activated the scroll and made a wish: ¡°I want bottomless wealth that can never be used up.¡± Therefore, Ray chopped down on him with one sword, conveniently stuck a gold coin on his body, and said, ¡°If you have an ability to use up, then feel free to use it.¡± After that, he raised the spear and put it into his heart. ¡°Well done!¡± Sui Xiong praised him. He thought carefully for a bit, then smiled and said, ¡°His wish indeed looks like it had come true. It seems like he really ¡®can¡¯t use up all the wealth¡¯¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, he can¡¯t use up all the wealth,¡± Ray beamed with a mocking smile. ¡°After going through that event, I have developed an intense vigilance and antipathy towards ¡®wishing magic.¡¯ I always feel that this magic is extremely unreasonable, but avoiding it might be too late.¡± ¡°This kind of wishing magic doesn¡¯t bring any good result. It is simply too bad or getting worse and worse.¡± This time, Sui Xiong had completely understood where his spiteful attitude toward the wishing magic came from. It was from all of his bloody lessons! It was probably like Sui Xiong and his friend that had unstable nerves in a game before. This friend used to beat down four in a team battle, and he, in one blow, also destroyed five people on the opponent¡¯s team. Under good circumstances, he suddenly burst out a muddle-headed move, and buried the victory in his hand¡­ In short, most of the time, he was muddle-headed, and the break out circumstance was very rare. Therefore, when they played games together for several months, pitifully, Sui Xiong was not only unable to promote his competitive level, but his Golden rank also fell to Silver. Since then, whenever the team made a conversation about ¡°unstable nerves,¡± he always found all kinds of reasons to decline¡­ ¡°But, the perfect wishing magic is different!¡± he said. ¡°The magic will not bring such an obnoxious result!¡± ¡°After all, it is still wishing magic, what is the difference between them?¡± Ray asked back. Sui Xiong was upset as he explained in a loud voice, ¡°The wishing magic is a mortal magic, while the perfect wishing magic is a God magic. These two are completely different! Not the same!¡± ¡°What is the difference?¡± ¡°The effect!¡± ¡°So what is the difference in terms of the effect?¡± ¡°The perfect wishing magic will not give a ¡®malicious result¡¯.¡± Sui Xiong raised one tentacle straight up, as if pointing a finger, to increase his persuasion, ¡°If the wishing does not get a good result, this magic will automatically roll back, and recover the state when the wish had not yet been made.¡± The perfect magic of course would not really ¡°make the dream come true.¡± It could be used as a God magic. It had a mechanism to fix mistakes perfectly. If the wish was not implemented in the way that was favorable for the one making the wish, it would automatically abolish this wish, and at the same time, give the individual another wish. For example, suppose that Ray agreed to the wish of ¡°I want to be the strongest warrior in the World.¡± If he made this wish, then he would be gifted with another wish; ¡°This wish could not be processed, please alter, or wish again.¡± As the result, he would not waste a precious wish. He could make a little bit of an adjustment like ¡°I want to become a warrior who is stronger than a giant dragon,¡± or ¡°I want to become a super fast warrior with a God power.¡± ¡°In other words, the perfect wishing magic could guarantee that the wish will be executed directly, even if the situation might not be completely perfect, it would not entrap you. Right?¡± Ray was silent for a while. Sui Xiong beamed, ¡°Uhm, it is probably like this.¡± Ray was silent again for a very long time, then patted Steele¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Although I feel that the possibility of you turning into a pig is relatively big, you will be like a prodigal son that changed entirely. A perfect wishing magic is worth trying your best!¡± Even though, it was unknown how many deeds she had to accumulate, or how much gratitude she had to earn to light up the flame inside the blue bracelet, it would definitely be a ridiculous number, at least this was clearly a ¡°wish!¡± In this world, countless powerhouses couldn¡¯t make their wishes come true and died with regret. No matter how much effort they had put into it, or how ever many dangers they had been through, more than half of them couldn¡¯t implement their wishes. The legendary shaman who had invented the wishing magic was a tragic example. She was originally a princess of a country. When she was cultivating magic, she knew that her country had been destroyed by the war and her family and friends all died. To save her country, she had spent thousands of months and years researching magic, then finally came up with the wishing magic. This magic didn¡¯t have the ability to achieve her goal, despite the fact that even a God had to glance at her mighty power. The result she got was just the alteration of written history, only obtaining a ¡°saved¡± part in the books. Later on, this great shaman died in endless regret. Her strength and willpower shook the world. In the end, she became a newborn god, the God of Regret. That was a God who was in pain because she couldn¡¯t make her wish come true. Her smile was cold as she looked at the mortal in grief, the God of Grief. A terrible Devil God. Neither Ray nor Sui Xiong knew that the appearance of the perfect wishing magic was related to the great Devil God. The one who invented this magic was the teacher of the Devil God, a great and formidable sage that no God could be compared to. In order to save the spirit of his disciple, he had spent the time of several hundred years to invent this magic. In the end, the perfect wishing magic could not make up for the regret of the Devil God, but it could reduce a little bit regret in a mortal. And now, the ill-fated Steele just wanted to try harder to accumulate as many good deeds as possible to implement a wish. Of course¡­ the first condition was that she had to accumulate enough good deeds. After hearing these things, Steele rolled her eyes and dropped her jaw. She looked at the blue bracelet on the back of her hand, and mumbled, ¡°A perfect wishing magic, wish¡­¡± After she said this for a while, her eyes looked mischievous. A flame lit up ceaselessly inside the red bracelet on the back of her left hand. Chapter 85 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma If it weren¡¯t for Ray waking her up and bringing her back from the illusion, Steele would have turned into a pig. When she saw the red bracelet on the back of her left hand was lit up with seven flames, her face looked like she was about to cry. ¡°It is just a little bit of imagination. How can it be this serious¡­¡± Along the way, she continued prattling in a low voice. Ray, of course, didn¡¯t hear as he was concentrating on running. Around the fifteenth time or the sixteenth time of hearing her babbling, Sui Xiong finally couldn¡¯t take it anymore, and he glared at Steele angrily. ¡°Do you still have a face to complain? The limitation I¡¯ve set for you is quite broad. With just an imagination, you can light up that bracelet with so many flames. You should look for the cause from within yourself!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve just done a little simple thinking!¡± Steele miserably spoke. ¡°I¡¯ve just thought a little bit about circumstances that I can¡¯t play on normal days¡­¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t say anything further, swung his tentacle and gave her a smack. ¡°Correct your thinking, dismiss evil thoughts!¡± He roared brutally. ¡°If you had already turned into a pig, I would have roasted you right away!¡± Steele retracted her head, and didn¡¯t dare to say anything else as she flew forward to investigate the road. But in the end, she still couldn¡¯t control her evil thinking. About two days later, once again they passed a Tree Fairy village. Due to being constrained for so long, when she saw a robust man with a bare upper body chopping wood, she couldn¡¯t hold back anymore. The flame on the back of her left hand was surging on crazily. In the blink of an eye, twelve flames were fully lit. While walking toward that rare muscular Tree Fairy with the intention of striking up a conversation, Steele surprisingly exclaimed as she was surrounded by raging flames that burst from the back of her hand. All the villagers who had seen this scene freaked out. The dark red flames came and went quickly. From the beginning to the end, no more than three seconds, they had vanished completely without a trace. After the flames disappeared, the thing that was left behind was not a person with severe burns, but it was a pig. There was a small, fat, round pig with a light pink bow on its head. This pig¡¯s was about half the size of a normal person¡¯s arm. From head to tail was around one meter, and its body was smooth and round. On its back was a pair of small bat wings. There was not the slightest trace of fierceness, but on the contrary, a silly feeling. It used its two hind legs to stand up straight like a human. In the middle of its chest and stomach there was a giant red hoop with twelve flames slowly burning inside. This little pig didn¡¯t have a stinky smell like other pigs. Its eyes were also abnormally large and very lively. It dumbfoundedly looked ahead¡ª that robust man picked up a water bucket and rushed over. He looked as if he wanted to rescue her, but he didn¡¯t know what to do. After being in a daze for a while, Steele, who had turned into a pig, finally understood what had happened. She looked at the opposite party for a bit, then immediately lowered her head to check her arms and feet. For a pudgy little pig, this movement was indeed really hard. She finally roared out loud. ¡°Zuo suo zuo mo huo!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, what is she saying?¡± Ray curiously asked. ¡°It is probably ¡®what is this¡­?¡¯¡± When he saw the collapsing face of the little pink pig drenched with tears, and leaning on the thigh of the robust man while crying out loud, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Very obviously, no matter how intense the desire flame inside Steele was, that Tree Fairy robust man would not be estranged by a pig, especially by a small pig like this. Even normal pets like cats and dogs were not considered heavily built. Therefore after crying bitterly for a while, she finally couldn¡¯t do anything else but follow Ray, and continue their journey. She bid farewell to the robust Tree Fairy man, who had mesmerizing eyes, the back of a tiger, the waist of a bear, and also a good heart. After traveling a little ways, Ray¡¯s emotions were a little unbalanced. ¡°Why can you fly after turning into a pig?¡± He asked. Steele flapped her wings, flying slowly behind Ray¡¯s back, and answered, ¡°Wo yo zuo duo.¡± ¡°In general she says ¡®I also don¡¯t know,¡¯,¡± This time, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t wait for Ray to ask and immediately translated. ¡°In fact, her words are also not very hard to understand. Every word of hers has some ao sound. If you listen carefully, you will understand.¡± Ray then carefully listened again after hearing Sui Xiong¡¯s instruction, but he still shook his head like before. Steele¡¯s ¡°pig dialect¡± was indeed too abstruse and unfathomable. Except for a God who had the assistance of spiritual sensing, it was indeed difficult to understand her words. It was also not convenient for him to ask Sui Xiong to translate. After discussing with Steele, he pulled out an ax, chopped a tree into many big and small logs, then gave them to Steele to use as paper. Whenever Steele wanted to say something she could use dark power to write on the wood log. Although her writing speed was not fast, it was faster than Sui Xiong¡¯s translation. As for these wood logs, Steele had tools to store her things, bringing a bunch of them was not a problem. After writing, using the wood to make fire was also not a bad idea¡­ By using this method, the communication between Steele and Ray became much easier. Questions about this pig were slowly solved as well. First of all, regarding the flying problem, don¡¯t mistake the small and short wings of this little pig as an ornament. Just like before, Steel¡¯s flying didn¡¯t really rely on the flapping of her wings. These wings themselves were like a magic tool which could provide flying ability. As for their look, it was just a secondary thing. After turning into a pig, Steele had lost her best ability which was seduction. Other magic was also sealed, only her treatment magic could be used normally. As compensation, her physical strength was greatly enhanced. In a short time, she could actually fight with Ray. If one saw her appearance, they wouldn¡¯t think this little, pink pet pig could possess abnormal power and extremely quick agility! Unfortunately, the little pig¡¯s fighting state didn¡¯t last too long. After a short while, she immediately felt hungry. After feeling hungry, the fighting strength decreased tremendously. It seemed like she belonged to the explosive athletic type, her endurance was very problematic. Ray¡¯s problem generally was answered, while the problem that Stelle worried about the most was saved for Sui Xiong to answer. After turning into a pig, can I ever change back into a human shape? ¡°Of course, yes,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°My goal was not to turn you into a pig. I just want to rely on the pig transformation to punish and restrain you. There are twelve flames on your chest. The fuel for these flames is the evil thoughts inside of you. After burning all the evil thoughts, when the twelve flames are put out, you can return to your human shape.¡± But the flames didn¡¯t burn long, or maybe it was because there weren¡¯t many evil thoughts contained inside Steele¡¯s mind, but not long after they left the Ancient Forest, the twelve flames were nearly exhausted. A gush of smoke rose with a puff of air, and Steele in adventurer¡¯s clothes appeared in front of them again. ¡°Gosh! I can finally change back!¡± Steele jumped out of joy. She held a mirror to look around, and couldn¡¯t help but cry of happiness. But at this moment, Ray brought up another problem. ¡°Steele, when you turned into a pig before, there was only a bow. How can you wear clothes after changing back to human form?¡± Speaking of which, he couldn¡¯t help but feel more annoyed when he recalled Steel¡¯s situation before she turned into a pig, ¡°When you turned into a pig, your outfit didn¡¯t fall here, where on earth did it go?¡± Steele, of course, had no way to answer this problem. With her underdeveloped knowledge about magic, she didn¡¯t even have any research on pig transformation situation, not to mention he lack of in-depth study about such an advanced issue like where her clothes had gone. Therefore, the one capable of answering this question was no doubt Sui Xiong. ¡°I didn¡¯t pay attention to this.¡± Sui Xiong was a little bit sorry as he said, ¡°Before, I didn¡¯t consider the problem that a pig also needs to wear clothes. Moreover, because I wanted to emphasize the twelve flames on your chest, I didn¡¯t design clothes for you¡­ Wait a minute. Let me carefully consider. I will help you design suitable pig clothes.¡± ¡°No need,¡± Steele shook. ¡°Don¡¯t you find a pig wearing clothes really strange?¡± Sui Xiong was a little surprised, turned to Ray to ask, ¡°Would you feel strange if you saw a small pig wearing clothes?¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think it was strange. Before jumping space here, he usually saw owners putting clothes on their dogs. Hence, a pig wearing clothes was also a very reasonable matter. However, he didn¡¯t quite understand the traditional customs of this world. After jumping space, he didn¡¯t stay in a bustling area. Therefore, he wasn¡¯t really sure whether or not pets in this world wore clothes. Ray recalled for a while then shook his head. ¡°First, I have never seen anyone raise a pig as a pet. Perhaps some shamans raise particular pigs to be devil pets¡­ I am not certain about that. Secondly, I have never seen anyone put clothes on their pets; except for a beautiful young girl or boy raising pets to do perverted things.¡± ¡°Damn it! How can this world also have that kind of pervert?¡± ¡°There are perverts everywhere. Especially among the wizards, there are all kinds of crazy things, too many to count¡­¡± Ray said pensively. ¡°There might be people who put clothes on their pets. For example, if one summons a Pique goblin to be a devil pet, then it will definitely wear clothes.¡± Sui Xiong nodded nonstop, then turned to Steele, asking, ¡°So is this your wish? Do you want to wear clothes when you are turned into a pig?¡± ¡°No need for that,¡± Steele immediately answered without thinking, ¡°Wearing clothes is good for keeping warm. Not wearing clothes is convenient. Both are alright. We are heading south right now, and the weather is getting warmer and warmer. There is no need to keep warm, so why would I need to wear clothes?¡± Her words were very reasonable. It still sounded strange in some parts but Sui Xiong was still convinced in the end. ¡°In fact, from my point of view, I do hope that you can maintain your human shape. Don¡¯t want you to turn into a pig.¡± He used his tentacle to pat Steele¡¯s shoulder, trying to cheer her up. ¡°You have to learn to control your desire, become an owner, not a slave to desire. If one wants to grow and achieve, one must learn to restrain their desire!¡± ¡°Just think about it, if last year you could have restrained your desire, maybe now you would have been a Lady of a dominion! If you could restrain your desire, you would not have turned into a pig¡­¡± While he was rambling nonstop about Chicken Soup for the Soul to Steele in the hope of clearing up the desires in her head, Ray couldn¡¯t help but sigh. ¡°How are things?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Ray pointed at Steele¡¯s left hand. On the back of her hand, the first flame slowly flared up in the originally empty bracelet. It seemed like this woman was incurable! ¡°Steele¡­¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but deeply sigh, giving up on advising. ¡°You¡¯d better learn to be a good pig!¡± Chapter 86 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The Forest of Remote Antiquity was very big. The closer the border was, the wider the trails in the forest were. Judging by the woodcutting remains on the roadside, the Druids were likely in pain, but Ray felt very comfortable because this meant he was about to leave this boundless vast forest and once again come back to the human society! Yet, there was a saying that went, ¡®Never mistake a clear view for short a distance.¡¯ In the morning, they clearly felt that they were close to the edge of the forest, but it was long past sunset when they really left the forest and saw a city which was built adjacent to it. This was not a big city, but very high walls surrounded it. In the center of the city there was an outstanding building which was like a landmark. It suddenly rose from the ground towering majestically over the landscape. It was twice as tall as the other architecture and was like a giant standing among a crowd, looking down on the commoners. It was a magic tower, accommodation for advanced casters, an important stronghold, their library, their scientific research center, their inheritance place, and the last burial place for them. ¡°Phew! Finally, I¡¯ve gotten out of the forest!¡± Seeing this tall magic tower, Ray couldn¡¯t help but exclaim and smilingly said, ¡°The characteristics of cities in the Commonwealth of Mifata are very clear. Each city revolves around the construction of a magic tower. Therefore, seeing the magic tower means one has arrived in the city. With a glance, one would see it clearly.¡± ¡°It is probably a good choice to build a city like this,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Many advanced casters live inside the magic tower who could protect the city residents. And the existence of the city residents also helps the city become prosperous which makes the living conditions of the casters better, so that they can have a better mental state to concentrate on researching.¡± ¡°Indeed. Therefore, although the Commonwealth of Mifata has been established for less than a thousand years, it has become the magic research center of the main plane. Even though there are many seniors still attached to the tradition that ¡°a caster should stay away from the mortal world¡± and look down upon the philistine lifestyles of these casters, many youngsters have long considered this place as the Holy Land of the casters. Every year, there are many people who come from different places with the hope of having a chance to step into this profound magic field and become a mighty mystic caster.¡± ¡°Did you come here that year?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Ray was silent for a while, then nodded. ¡°So, would anyone here recognize you?¡± Sui Xiong asked again. ¡°Probably not.¡± Ray lowered his voice to say, ¡°¡­ After that event, they would probably get involved, too. Being able to stay alive was already good for them, but not being able to recognize me is actually the best.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, no one will recognize you. Don¡¯t forget that your face has been completely changed.¡± Ray nodded and forced a smile, but his face looked kind of sad. Every time he recalled some old stories, he would be sad for a long time. When seeing Ray so sorrowful, Steele would praise him ceaselessly. ¡°Although I can¡¯t take him, I have to admit that he is indeed exceedingly handsome when he is sad! There isn¡¯t any kind of normal feeling of being dejected from you, but on the contrary, you exude a prestigious temperament which is really like a majestic prince in the knight legends. Ah, apparently he is really a prince, although his inheritance right might have been taken already¡­¡± As a result of her saying these words, Ray was outraged and beat her with firewood. Although he normally didn¡¯t hit women, these words had angered Ray, as they were taboos for him. If she dared to insult him, then he would not be merciful toward her. The little pink pig flapped its wings and flew around Ray to enjoy the rare scene of the ¡°melancholy prince¡¯ from different angles. Sui Xiong thought if Steele had been living on earth, right now, she would have taken out her mobile phone and snapped several pictures. There were naturally guards at the city gate. These guards were fully dressed in shiny armor and equipped with long swords and halberds. Each one of them was sturdy and tall, full of energy. At first glance, one would know they were elites. The assigned clerk who led them worked very responsibly. First, he welcomed them to the Green Tree city, then meticulously asked about Ray¡¯s identity, and at the same time registered him. ¡°Does everyone need to register?¡± Sui Xiong curiously asked. ¡°Doesn¡¯t it waste a lot of time?¡± This clerk was about forty years old. He slightly pushed his pair of round glasses up his nose and smilingly said, ¡°Of course, not everyone needs to register. In reality, I remember all the city residents in Green Tree city. Only those I don¡¯t know and are powerful need to register.¡± ¡°You have a good view!¡± Sui Xiong said enthusiastically. ¡°Many people judge others by appearance, but you are not like that. No wonder you are entrusted with such a heavy responsibility!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, a person must not be ordinary when he has two magic pets such as a floating jellyfish and a flying pig!¡± If it weren¡¯t for Ray grabbing Sui Xiong with his left hand and Steele with his right hand and pulling them back, this clerk with an excellent memory might have been beaten down, and his face might have been imprinted marks from pig feet. ¡°Who is a magic pet?!¡± Sui Xiong was still angry and discontented even when they settled down in a hotel. ¡°This man is completely blind! He dare rank a strong, mighty man like me as a low-level creature like a magic pet!¡± ¡®Suo ha! Suo ha! Luo muo niu dou bo lou sou!¡± (That¡¯s right! That¡¯s right! He couldn¡¯t even recognize a beautiful woman!). Steele also yelled angrily, took out a wood log, quickly wrote several pieces of criticisms, and labeled the clerk as worthless. On one hand, Ray tried to hold back his laughter because he was on the verge of laughing, and on the other hand, he had to comfort these two. It indeed was very hard for him. Luckily, these two didn¡¯t have good memories. Their anger came fast but also left fast. Judging from this aspect, in fact, Sui Xiong and Steele¡¯s personalities suited each other really well despite the huge difference in their values. After a while, Sui Xiong urged Ray to go out and try the culinary delicacies of the Country of Casters. At the same time, Steele also expressed her desire to see if this place had any amusing specialties as she wanted to buy some of them to play. They were not rich, but absolutely not poor either. As an adventurer who was just one step away from the legendary realm, as well as a solitary chief thief, Ray had extremely abundant assets. Before, he had already used up more than half of his assets to seize the crystal containing the supernatural power of life, but the remaining assets of his were enough for a normal person to live a well-off and stable life for several decades. During the time they were adventuring, the number of assets they had acquired was also significant. Only those mighty demon beasts that they had hunted along the way had a surprising amount of wealth. Needless to say, the evil dragon accounted for the majority of their wealth. Not to mention others. The venomous snake which was used as the research base for the alchemical grandmaster, Wendy, had lived for more than 450 years for sure, maybe close to 500. It had accumulated a stunning amount of wealth. At the first glance, it might not be anything, but the evil dragon ¡°Brutal Burner,¡± Uherskreider, which wreaked havoc ruthlessly in the human world had lived for more than a thousand years. Considering its race, this number was very scary. Wendy had carefully studied and found that the snake was in fact just a normal species. Under normal circumstances, a snake that lived for up to thirty years would be considered long-lived, and those that lived for fifty years were considered lucky snakes. But this snake had lived for more than 500 years. To humans, the existence of this snake was like a strange elderly person living for almost a thousand years compared to the human¡¯s average age of more than fifty years and the long-lived age of eighty to ninety years. The protection of human rights in this world was far inferior to that on earth. If a thousand-year-old man appeared, he might be likely chopped up for research just like that snake. Then how much did a part of this valuable research material cost? Everyone had different opinions about that. According to Wendy, maybe it was just a research topic that was not bad, suitable for killing time in the magic tower. According to Steele, it was a treasure that helped the nobility and the rich prolong their life expectancies and it was indeed priceless. According to Ray, this thing that could help those old b*stards who had been rotten to the bone live several years more should have been smashed into pieces because it was worthless¡­ But one thing that could not be denied was that it was a precious treasure. While hiking through thick and thin, they had acquired many similar things as well. Therefore, when they strolled down the street with a pocket full of money, they were very confident. They came to the most luxurious restaurant in the city first, but they were stopped at the door when they wanted to enter. The gate-keeping guard said that this restaurant only accepted guests wearing formal suits; it didn¡¯t allow pets inside either. ¡°What if the guest is an honorable cast?¡± Ray asked as he didn¡¯t believe that the casts wouldn¡¯t be allowed this privilege in this country of casters. ¡°It is the same for casters. The caster has to dress in formal attire for casters, keep the pets in a special space bag, or temporarily cancel the summoning. This is the rule.¡± The guard was sturdy, tall, and handsome. He looked more like a fashion model than a gate-keeping guard. He didn¡¯t hesitate in saying, ¡°This regulation has never been changed even after many years!¡± He sounded very confident. Ray frowned. His experience told him that the backing of this restaurant was first-rate and it must have a complex relation network. He thought that there was no need to make a fuss here, but instead, leaving was the correct choice. But Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to leave in this way and tried to negotiate a little more, ¡°Why do you think I am a pet? We don¡¯t have pets here. We are just adventurers of different races.¡± ¡°Low-level creatures are not allowed in.¡± The handsome guard didn¡¯t show any intention of compromising. On the contrary, his tone was more caustic and spiteful, ¡°All of you can come in, but it is just that¡­ a jellyfish that can talk and a pig that can fly can be made into a jellyfish salad and roasted pork. Those two are special dishes.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t want to make a fuss,¡± Ray sighed. He thought it was inevitable that they would have a fight. ¡°I am not making a fuss¡­ Give me a price. The jellyfish and the pig are not bad, and buying them to make delicious dishes is not a bad idea either.¡± The smile of the handsome guard looked harsh, but his eyes became colder and colder. It seemed that no matter what they chose, this guy appeared to want to fight. But Sui Xiong didn¡¯t make a move, he just coldly laughed, ¡°Formal attire? Pets prohibited? Really simple!¡± After saying this, he waved his tentacles and a blue light covered Ray and Steele. When the light dissolved, a poor adventurer and a pig now turned into a handsome man and a beautiful woman in luxurious attire. After that, Sui Xiong quickly transformed himself into a super burly chap standing at eight feet tall and eight feet wide. Although he was wearing gorgeous attire, he was ugly enough to make people have nightmares. ¡°Do we meet the requirements in this way?¡± The burly chap, who couldn¡¯t be verified as human or not, spoke in a low muffled voice. Although he was asking, his tone didn¡¯t have the slightest hint of inquiring, but on the contrary, was quarrelsome. He thought, ¡°My motto is ¡®use kindness to treat kindness and use evil intention to treat evil intention.¡¯ I, brother Xiong, have never been a coward who restrains his anger after being bullied!¡± Chapter 87 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Sui Xiong¡¯s action was close to provoking the guard and anger flashed in his guard¡¯s eyes, but the guard immediately suppressed it. If a ¡°pet¡± was able to display such a magic transformation, its owner would not be a character that was easy to deal with. As a man serving in the country of casters, this handsome guard, of course, had certain judgments. Therefore, he immediately gave up his original intention. He didn¡¯t show his rage and use power, but instead, he had a smiling face and hospitably invited them in. He even arranged an exclusive room for them and continuously, like flowing water, brought in wine and good food. This transformation was indeed a switch from arrogance to deference. Behind this was the face of a snob. But they must admit that there was a reason why the waiters in their hotel called the hotel ¡°the best restaurant in the Green Tree city.¡± Although the portions of the dishes and wine were not much, their tastes were not like any other normal cuisine. They were exquisite and special. There were all kinds of styles here of a luxurious class¡ª of course, the price was also luxuriously high. Luckily, Sui Xiong¡¯s group had a lot of money and didn¡¯t care about the price. ¡°Ha, indeed Buddha needs golden clothes and the human needs clothes. Only a set of clothes immediately changed the way people treat us!¡± Sui Xiong ate happily, laughed loudly and said, ¡°Still, having money is very good! Wearing glamorous clothes, eating delicate dishes, and we don¡¯t need to worry about the expensive price, just eat as much as we want. Especially when I think of the look on that b*astard¡¯s face at the time, the taste of this delicious food is enhanced somehow!¡± Ray wasn¡¯t as happy as Sui Xiong. He didn¡¯t eat very much and he looked out the window sometimes as if looking for something unknown. ¡°Ray, today you don¡¯t look so happy. Why aren¡¯t you eating that much?¡± Sui Xiong pointed to Steele who was eating elegantly, yet very quickly, ¡°You see, you even eat less than Steele¡­¡± Ray sighed. ¡°I am afraid that if I eat too much, it won¡¯t be conducive for fighting later on!¡± ¡°What? Fight?¡± While he hadn¡¯t finished his words yet, a magic light suddenly rose and covered the entire room. Following the magic light, the air inside the room seemed to condense as well. After that, the door of the gate opened and the handsome guard led four robust men with fierce-looking faces in. ¡°How dare you not ask what this place is for?! And you dare to come here to make trouble!¡± The guard snorted coldly, ¡°Beat them! Hit the couple gentler. But first, cut off the legs of this heavy man and then let¡¯s decide what to do with him!¡± As the brawny men approached, Sui Xiong, who should have been tied up and unable to move, suddenly spoke, ¡°The cost of this magic formation is high. One activation might be equivalent to casting an advanced magic spell, right?¡± Those men were astonished and stood there bewildered, not knowing what to do. For many years, they had met people who had come to make trouble more than once, but had never seen those who could talk while tied up. The handsome guard reacted very quickly. He didn¡¯t say anything further, but turned around and ran away. He only made it half a step before he was bound by a tentacle from behind and was pulled back. In the meantime, the brawny men were also tied up by tentacles. They looked like a bunch of pigs waiting to be butchered, piled up on the ground. Sui Xiong, who turned the five fingers on his left hand into five tentacles and tied up the guard and four brawny men, sneered and then snapped the fingers of his right. The magic formation covering the entire room suddenly let out a glass shattering sound and then disappeared without any trace. ¡°All right, let¡¯s have a sincere conversation.¡± He waved his hand randomly, extended a tentacle and closed the door. Then, very quickly, he changed back to his jellyfish shape. However, the one who appeared in front of the guard and bunch of hired thugs was not a small jellyfish used as a hat, but a huge jellyfish that could swallow a person alive! ¡°Your restaurant really meets my standards!¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°The wine and foods are delicious and I am very satisfied. The magic formation is not bad and I am very satisfied with it too. I am only not satisfied with the entertainment program after eating. People usually invite beautiful women to dance here. Why did you bring a bunch of brawny men?¡± ¡°In reality, it¡¯s not bad to have brawny men dance here,¡± Steele said. Sui Xiong rolled a big piece of meat with his tentacle and stuffed it into her mouth. ¡°So, let¡¯s talk then.¡± Sui Xiong turned his head and addressed the group of five embarrassed and scared men, ¡°Although we have had a little misunderstanding, using an advanced magic formation for just a little misunderstanding doesn¡¯t seem right, does it? I find this matter very strange and very unreasonable! Can you give me a reasonable explanation?¡± After speaking, he casually rolled a big beast bone as thick as one¡¯s wrist with his tentacle, and brought it to his mouth. Biting it off, he chewed it up like eating a bunch of salty biscuits. This scene was scary to the point of causing the hired thugs¡¯ legs to shake crazily. If it wasn¡¯t for their spine, they might have suffered urine incontinence. Luckily, the handsome guard was a bit braver than the rest. Though scared to death, he had the guts to answer, ¡°For those who dare to make trouble in our restaurant, we always fiercely hit them hard. We don¡¯t mind the cost but we have to crush their arrogance! One thing you have to know is that this big restaurant is prone to being attacked. If we hadn¡¯t used such a cruel scheme to scare others, our restaurant might have been replaced long ago!¡± ¡°It sounds reasonable¡­¡± Sui Xiong was silent and fell into his thoughts. ¡°Don¡¯t believe his bullshit!¡± Seeing Sui Xiong about to be deceived, Ray sneered and spoke, ¡°I¡¯ll bet that behind the owner of this restaurant is backed by at least one advanced caster who might be the current owner of the magic tower of Green Tree. As long as the backer doesn¡¯t collapse, no one would dare to do anything to them even if they are courageous. They use this excuse to deceive those who don¡¯t have enough knowledge about the Confederation of Mifata!¡± ¡°But he didn¡¯t lie,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I can confirm this point.¡± ¡°One doesn¡¯t necessarily lie to deceive others,¡± Ray said dismissively. ¡°All in all, deceiving others is too easy because they can say half of the truth or say nine true sentences and one false one. You should not be too dependent on your power, but should learn more about the ways of the world. The magic for sure is a good thing, but wisdom is way more important than magic!¡± ¡°Good! Wisdom is way more important than magic!¡± The door was opened again with applause. A twenty-something year old, handsome young man arrogantly came in, ¡°It is the famous quote of the great Sage who established the Confederation of Mifata and is also the most famous proverb in our Confederation. I didn¡¯t expect such words to come from an outsider. Judging from your outfit, I think you might be the kind of rude person who just knows how to use violence, but your words make you like an erudite noble gentleman. The contrast is like a surprising opera: beyond everyone¡¯s expectation! Being able to see such a scene isn¡¯t a waste of my time in coming here.¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± Sui Xiong unwelcomingly asked as he squinted his eyes. Because he had almost been deceived, he was in a bad mood. ¡°Me? All of you are standing in my estate,¡± The young man smilingly said. ¡°If you want to know my name, although you aren¡¯t qualified given your identities, your words really made me satisfied. Therefore, remember carefully, I am Kahn Green.¡± His laugh was very haughty. It was as if knowing his name was a very glorious thing for Sui Xiong and the others. ¡°What is the relationship between you and the Grandmaster Green who built the magic tower of Green Tree?¡± Ray asked in a low tone. ¡°This question is very hard to answer because I would have to add several ¡®grand¡¯ before the word ¡®grandfather¡¯ so as to call him.¡± Kahn laughed arrogantly like before and said, ¡°It is just that you are thinking too much. Having connected with me is already a lucky thing for people like you. As for how he is right now, it is not something all of you should care about.¡± Ray slowly squinted his eyes and pressed his hand against the hilt of his sword. This young man all along didn¡¯t show a clear enmity, nor did he show any intention of a fight, but somehow he gave Ray a deep, dangerous feeling. This guy could not be underestimated! Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think that much. He was in a bad mood and wanted to vent. Just then the most suitable target presented itself. Therefore, he rudely asked, ¡°You are the owner of this restaurant? This is good news! I want to complain! How do you do business? Because of such a trivial misunderstanding, you immediately want to beat us? Do you know any law?! Is there any justice in your mind?¡± ¡°Of course not.¡± Kahn didn¡¯t change his look and calmly answered, ¡°I am a mage who only respects wisdom. Law? Justice? Those are toys that normal people use to hypnotize themselves. Why do I need to waste time remembering or caring about them?¡± Sui Xiong was momentarily speechless. This guy behaved as if this were natural and what he was talking about was in line with the principles of heaven and earth. Sui Xiong indeed couldn¡¯t think of what to say to a guy like him. This was like how using words to make Steele completely repent and change her attitude was almost impossible. ¡°Seems like¡­ you are not here to reconcile but to quarrel?¡± He lowered his voice, saying, ¡°Seems like you really have confidence in your ability!¡± ¡°Confidence?¡± Kahn arrogantly smiled again, ¡°Only the weak need those things. To a genius like me, success and victory come naturally.¡± After saying this, he opened his left hand. In his hand, there was a pocket watch that no one knew when it appeared. The clock hands of the watch spun but didn¡¯t produce any sounds. ¡°Time Freezing?¡± When Ray saw the pocket watch, he immediately knew what kind of magic the opponent wanted to cast. For a moment, he was frightened and immediately pulled out his sword. But he knew that most likely he acted too late. If one compared the art of casting magic to a crown, then ¡°Time Freezing¡± would be the brightest gem on that crown. It could adjust the time flow of the casters, putting them in an unimaginably fast time flow. In what seemed to be the blink of an eye to other people, the caster could complete an action that should be done in about thirty seconds. Although, these actions had many limitations. For example, the casters couldn¡¯t directly touch the target with any enmity; couldn¡¯t use any method that could destroy the structure of the magic such as Magic Removal, and couldn¡¯t use any method related to time and space. Those thirty seconds when the time was paused was already an insurmountable advantage. As long as one could utilize those short thirty-seconds well, he would easily defeat his opponent even if his opponent was a giant dragon. If one was faced with an opponent that cast such magic, they would die usually when they came to their senses if they didn¡¯t have the appropriate method to fight back. Due to the protection of His Majesty Void Mask, Ray wasn¡¯t worried for his life. But he couldn¡¯t help but feel frustrated that he would be defeated. ¡°This young man named Kahn seems approximately ten years younger than me, but I am too far behind to catch up him in terms of strength. Having been through many ups and downs in the west wilderness for several years, I, who used to be complimented as a genius, am outdone by the genius of the new generation.¡± ¡°It was like a proverb that His Majesty Void Mask used to say, ¡®As the sea surges on wave upon wave, so the old generation dies on the beach.¡¯¡± Before, Ray was also the ¡°new wave¡± that surged the older waves which were made dead on the beach¡­ Chapter 88 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The characteristic of ¡°Time Freezing¡± magic was a gem watch. Many types of magic needed to use a certain kind of material as a catalyst, and the ¡°Time Freezing¡± was not an exception. Aside from a gem that many types of advanced magic needed, it also needed a watch with accurate time. The specific shape and size didn¡¯t matter, but it just needed to run accurately. To cast magic conveniently, casters usually used a special pocket watch with many gems inlaid. It ran very accurately so it fully met the requirements of this magic. Among the known magic, the material to cast this magic was unique. Therefore, whenever a caster took out a pocket watch during battle, they mostly wanted to cast this magic. In fact, as long as one could satisfied with two requirements of ¡°accurate time measurement¡± and ¡°many kinds of gems,¡± what was required to cast this magic was not necessarily a gem pocket watch. For example, some casters from some ancient schools preferred to use a gem hourglass as a material to cast this magic. Seen from another angle, a celestial sphere apparatus made of the gem was also fine. There were many similar things. However, a gem pocket watch was always the first choice. First, a pocket watch itself was a good accessory and could be conveniently used to measure time. Second, among the relatively convenient materials, it was the cheapest; although, the cost of making a gem pocket watch was higher than two thousand gold coins, which was enough to make a low-level caster go bankrupt. Ray reached for his sword and rushed forward. He didn¡¯t dare to delay even a moment; he only hoped that he could be quick enough to slash right at his opponent before the opponent completed casting this magic. But it turned out that he was slower. When his sword was just about to be unsheathed, there was a click that came from the pocket watch in Kahn¡¯s hand, and it then stopped. In the instant when the watch stopped, everything in the room lost its color, turning into a simple picture of black and white. Only Kahn, who was holding the pocket watch in his hand, maintained his usual color. This proved that right now he was independent of time. At this moment, the distance between Ray and Kahn was less than two meters. Kahn nodded appreciatively to Ray. He guessed that this swordsman might have met high-level casters or even a legendary grandmaster. There weren¡¯t many people that knew about such an advanced magic like Time Freezing even if they were casters. Extremely few people could immediately know what kind of magic he wanted to cast right at the moment of seeing him take out a pocket watch and not hesitating in taking action! Maybe this swordsman is a person with a noble background or even descendant from some legendary grandmaster. But did his fate end up as a cruel joke with him being unable to inherit the ability to cast magic? He is somewhat pathetic¡­ But Kahn would not be merciful towards him because of that. Sympathy between talents would be given for those weaklings who were abandoned by destiny. It would be better for this pathetic swordsman to be killed by me than slowly struggle and rot in an abyss of inability. Kahn raised his right hand. On his fingers, magic patterns weaved and formed quickly. The air in front of Ray slightly shook. Some spots became blurry and distorted which were not very conspicuous. If one didn¡¯t pay attention to them, one might miss it. This was the Forcefield Blade, which was an improved and upgraded version of the low-level magic, ¡°Magic Bullets.¡± Its level was not high but it was very useful. Not only did it not need materials, but it was also discreet. The key was that normal physical methods could not fight against it, even an armor with enchantment would lose its effect in front of it, unless the armor with enchantment was attached with a rare Forcefield Protection. To avoid affecting one¡¯s ¡°Super Speed¡± state, under the circumstance when the time stopped, it was not appropriate to come in contact with the enemy or cast magic to attack directly. Therefore, Kahn used a special method to keep the Forcefield Blade, which should have been shot out, in the air. It was very hard to resist the Forcefield Blade itself, not to mention the Forcefield Blade kept in the air and would be shot after the Time Freezing ended. It was likely that when the Time Freezing ended, these invisible and sharp blades would suddenly appear in front of Ray and quickly shoot toward their target. Maybe, before Ray could pay attention to them, he might be shot by them. The Forcefield Blade was far sharper and scarier than ordinary flying-knives. If one was hit by them, it would be very hard for the wounds to heal. Even if Ray could rely on his superb reaction to avoid getting fatally injured, many cuts on his body would create a group of wounds, which would make him completely lose his ability to move. He would only be able to lie on the ground and die after losing so much blood. The Time Freezing together with the Forcefield Blade should have been enough already, but Kahn didn¡¯t stop there. He cast magic for the second time. This time, the air around him started to vibrate quickly. The invisible power condensed into many sharp knives, centering and protecting him. That was the Blade Barrier, a very effective protective magic. His magic casting wasn¡¯t finished yet. Kahn knew very well how long his Time Freezing could last, so he cast two additional spells. Honestly, using this much energy to deal with a group of people coming to eat and making trouble was indeed making a big deal out of a trivial thing. But once he had taken action, he would not hesitate or temporarily save it to deal with later. Carelessness and negligence were two big enemies of a caster. Only sufficient preparation and adequate prudence would help a caster forever stand in an invincible position. But at this moment, he saw a scene beyond his expectation. The giant jellyfish suddenly recovered its original green color from the black-white state. This meant that it had already escaped from the confinement of time like Kahn, and had entered the marvelous Time Freezing state. How can he do that?! Why does just a jellyfish have this kind of ability? Is it perhaps a transformation of some caster? Kahn was astonished. He couldn¡¯t help but lose his concentration on his magic. On his right hand, a dark power that was about to condense into the magic pattern collapsed in a flash. Even he himself snorted and the blood began to flow out of his nose. Things like casting magic were a double-edged sword. If carried out successfully, it was enough to hurt the enemy, but it would hurt oneself if it failed. However, adverse effects due to a failure to cast magic had been something that he had not encountered for a very long time. Kahn immediately marshalled his thoughts, quickly recovered his composure, and cast another magic again. This time, he intended to cast a ¡°Water Element Extraction.¡± This magic would extract the water inside the enemy¡¯s body, and turn it into a water element controlled by the caster. Even though a resilient body could significantly reduce its damage, the more water a body had, the more powerful the effect of this magic would be. The jellyfish was a large aquatic animal. More than 95% of its body was made of water. This meant its resistance to ¡°Water Element Extraction¡± would be very low. Moreover, due to its serious demand of water, even if it could rely on its resilient body to block over 90% of the damage, the remaining was enough to break the fluid balance inside its body and make it lose the ability to fight. All of these thoughts happened in a flash. But with only this thought in mind, Kahn had already found the most suitable magic and quickly cast it. Due to the fact that until now he had never seen any material related in this aspect, or even considered this type of situation, he could not determine whether or not he could attack when both sides were in the state of Time Freezing. He didn¡¯t even think, but immediately chose the magic and shot it straight toward the giant jellyfish. His intuition told him that in the current situation, a direct attack was no problem as well! The Water Element Extraction magic turned into a dim grey light and shot right at Sui Xiong, who had just stepped out of the time flow and didn¡¯t have time to adapt himself to it. The big body of the jellyfish shook a bit. A huge amount of water was extracted from it and turned into a powerful water flow. It had a thick and solid trunk and arms that were similar to a human¡¯s. But it didn¡¯t have a head. On its chest, there was a face that looked like it was wailing. If it was seen at night, it could scare cowards to death without any attack. That was the water element, and it could barely be seen as a common type among all kinds of elements in the body of animals. The water element built by magic was roughly as tall as an ordinary person, belonging to a weak one among the mid-level water elements. As for the fighting power, it most likely couldn¡¯t beat Steele who had been turned into a pig. This kind of weak power, of course, could not break the confinement of time. Therefore, as soon as it was born, it was immediately motionless. Its blue trunk also lost its color in an instant and turned into a grey frozen object. But Kahn originally didn¡¯t count on its fighting power. He only hoped to extract the water from Sui Xiong. ¡°The strategy worked!¡± When he saw the water element taking shape, he could not help but reveal a smile. By calculating the time, the Time Freezing was about to end. When the Time Freezing ended, he would immediately launch the next attack on this jellyfish and not allow it to recover! But thirty seconds had passed, and the world was still black and white and everything was frozen as before. No change took place. ¡°What is wrong?!¡± Kahn was shocked because he had never seen such a bizarre thing as this. Time passed little by little. More than ten seconds passed, but the world was still in black and white as before. Kahn fully opened his eyes and looked around. He was somewhat at a loss, not knowing what to do. What should I do now? What should I do now? What should I do now? While he was restless, a green tentacle shot towards him and firmly entangled him. After that, the world recovered its color and he returned to the normal time flow. A green shadow flashed. Sui Xiong used one tentacle to stop Ray and another tentacle to block the invisible Forcefield Blades. The pieces of the Forcefield Blade cut the tentacle and left many atrocious wounds, which recovered immediately. There was not even a single drop of blood. A green light flashed again. The newly formed Water Element shattered all at once and all of the water was reabsorbed by Sui Xiong again. After doing all these things, he smilingly said to Kahn whose eyes still looked lifeless, ¡°How are you? How does the Time Freezing feel?¡± ¡°Are you the one who is doing this?¡± Kahn¡¯s eyes glistened with surprise. He was skeptical of this. ¡°After all, I am a god. Is being able to do such a thing so strange?¡± Kahn kept silent for a while and then shook his head. ¡°I failed. Beat me or kill me, you can do whatever you want.¡± ¡°There is no need to beat or kill you. But I can see that you have too strong a temper and too much pride. This isn¡¯t good,¡± Sui Xiong said smilingly. ¡°Well, young man, you can be a little arrogant when writing, but you should be a little more modest when it comes to your conduct and deeds.¡± ¡°Words of modesty are just a mask that the weak people use to conceal their inability.¡± ¡°Compared to me, are you a weak person?¡± Kahn smiled without showing fear. ¡°The key to deciding the strong and the weak lies in the mind. A king may be very weak. A beggar may be very strong. A strong mind is the fundamental basis of all!¡± ¡°Is a beggar with a powerful mind a strong person?¡± ¡°A beggar would not have a strong mind. I just said it casually.¡± Kahn shook his head. ¡°A person with a strong mind, of course, has to try hard to make progress. Therefore, they must forever pursue success and temporarily take a rest after gaining success. How can a self-indulgent beggar have a strong mind?¡± ¡°So do you think I am strong?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have a mind that makes you look down on all creatures. Even if you are a god, this has nothing to do with you being powerful,¡± Kahn resolutely said. On the matter of his principles, even if faced with a god, he would not concede. Chapter 89 Chapter 89: Chapter 89 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Kahn was a person with an extremely strong will. This was the first time Sui Xiong had ever met someone like him who was clearly at a dead end but was still consistently confident without showing the slightest hint of weakness or losing spirit. It was really obvious that this man had received an elite education from a young age, and he must have tried hard to get to his current state. He was not only a genius, but he was more industrious and persevering than normal people. If this guy had been on earth, he might have been the kind of hated ¡°child of another family.¡± The smarter, more industrious, better performing, more talented, and more handsome child one might be compared to¡­ It was very hard to convince people like him. ¡°Forget it, up to you¡­ We still have to come back to the main subject.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and said, ¡°As I¡¯ve examined myself, I don¡¯t think I have any particular conducts that showed enmity. Although my transformation into a giant made you feel nauseous, I behaved myself when I ate and I will not pay you less than what you deserve. Why on earth did you attack all of us?¡± Kahn didn¡¯t intend to keep this a secret, and answered in a straightforward way, ¡°Due to your provocative actions. We, of course, must ruthlessly beat to death those who have the guts to provoke me.¡± He said it very lightly as if it was natural. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t need to use spirit sensing but still could see that this was his real thought. Sui Xiong was silent for a while before asking, ¡°These years, how many people that have provoked you have been beaten to death?¡± ¡°I never count that because it¡¯s too boring,¡± Kahn said nonchalantly. ¡°I suppose you would count every single fly you hit in a day, but would you be persistent in counting them forever? That is the job of servants.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and cast a ¡°Detecting Camp¡± magic. A magic light flashed. After that, a colorful halo lit up the body of every single person present. A kind of extremely messy blue light was shed on Sui Xiong¡¯s body. This meant that he belonged to the ¡°Chaotic Good¡± camp which refused to follow social orders, and did good deeds according to their will like the knight-errants who robbed the rich to help the poor. But the light on Ray was still as red as before, which was the symbol of evil. But it had become much dimmer and there was a green light faintly flashing. This meant he was changing from evil to good. His halo was very clean, so he belonged to the type of people that followed the rules and obeyed orders. The green light on Steele was a little messy, which meant that she didn¡¯t take the good and evil problem seriously, but just valued her own free will. The will that she insisted on keeping and her understanding about public order clearly conflicted. The light on the four hired thugs had a clear green color with a little red hint. This meant they only knew how to loyally implement orders. Their behavior normally tended to be evil, so they were typical villains and lackeys. The light on Kahn was a clear and even, glaring red and had many disorderly lines. This showed that normally he was willing to follow the social orders, but when necessary, he would choose to break the order after carefully considering. No matter what happened, he just cared about whether he could protect his own benefit. And to gain benefits, it was obvious that he would primarily consider evil methods. However, among the people there, the one with reddest light was not the malicious young ruffian, Kahn, or Ray, who used to be a solitary thief master, but the handsome guard. The light on his body was no longer red, but rather black. When a person reached a certain level of evilness, and at the same time didn¡¯t think social orders were important and was completely selfish, he would have a color like this. This was called ¡°Neutral Evil,¡± the purest villain. If there was anyone more evil than him, then that one would only be the ¡°Chaotic Evil¡± compared to demons in the legends. Of course, Sui Xiong knew that the results of the Detecting Camp were only used as a reference because its standard seemed to be a bit problematic. At least for him, the standard of the Detecting Camp was not accurate enough, as there were times that its results would be skewed, which made it unsuitable to be used as evidence. But this didn¡¯t affect his amazement about the handsome guard. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t stop being shocked at seeing the guard¡¯s light as if he was seeing a rare animal. ¡°To be honest, I have never thought a gatekeeper could be this evil!¡± He lamented sincerely, ¡°Generally speaking, regardless of whether a person does good or evil, to do big good or evil always needs a little bit of strength as an assistance. I see that your strength is terrible, but you are ridiculously evil and could be considered a genius among the villain group. Can you share some experience?¡± Sui Xiong waved his tentacle to cast magic before the guard had time to answer. A blue light turned into a curtain of light, covering the handsome guard who was lying on the ground. ¡°Honesty Magic?¡± Kahn smiled. ¡°You should have used Truth-confessing Magic. The Honesty Magic could not make the target tell the truth because he could choose to be silent. Only the Truth-confessing Magic can make the target confess all that they know.¡± ¡°And when this magic expires, that person will also die,¡± Sui Xiong coldly said. ¡°I don¡¯t need a villain human to show me how I should cast magic. Before when I learned magic, your ancestors had not even been born yet!¡± ¡°I¡¯m twenty-seven years old now and I have already mastered the mystery of the magic. I am able to cast the most advanced magic in normal circumstances,¡± Kahn calmly said. ¡°I am qualified.¡± Sui Xiong frowned without answering him, but asked the handsome guard to whom he had cast magic on, ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± According to his knowledge gained from reading online novels before his space travel, interrogating should begin from subjects that one could not easily lie about. However, the handsome guard pursed his lips and didn¡¯t say a word. ¡°Hey, you should answer when I ask you a question!¡± Sui Xiong raised his voice. ¡°Don¡¯t force me to use violent methods. Making others open their mouths is not as hard as you¡¯d imagine. You¡¯d better know it.¡± But he still wouldn¡¯t open his mouth. Sui Xiong frowned. When he wanted to say more to threaten him, Kahn spoke first, ¡°Let me answer this question for him. His name is Roger, my younger brother.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised. By carefully examining these two, he discovered that the two indeed looked somewhat similar. ¡°Why are you an advanced caster but your younger brother a weak gatekeeper?¡± He couldn¡¯t stand but ask. ¡°The first reason is that he lacks the talents, and the second is that he couldn¡¯t seize enough resources,¡± Kahn answered. ¡°He is a b*stard whose identity is still not publicly acknowledged.¡± Sui Xiong slightly nodded as he could imagine the clashes and conflicts hidden inside that. Roger must have certain talents as well but he was far overshadowed by Kahn, an evil genius. The Grandmaster Green definitely had many descendants and each branch would get a limited amount of resources. Such a genius like Kahn might not only use up the resourcew in his own branch but also occupy many resources from other branches. Therefore, Roger could not seize any resources, and he also lost his identity of being a Green. After all, having one more child only brought about more troubles. ¡°So, Mr. Roger. Would you tell me why you have enmity towards us? You are just a gatekeeper whose strength is not that great. It seems that you don¡¯t need to be like Mr. Kahn who stubbornly beats down those who dare provoke him, right?¡± Roger was still silent as before and wouldn¡¯t answer. Sui Xiong finally lost his patience, sneered, and waved his tentacles. Steele, who originally wore a beautiful noble female outfit that made her look very high-class and elegant, had a burst of smoke emerge from her body, and she returned to her true appearance. Seeing her wings and tail, Kahn frowned and advised, ¡°You should answer honestly. Doing this is meaningless because ordinary people can¡¯t keep secrets in front of a judge from hell. You have done a really good job. This is enough.¡± Roger stared at Steele with his eyes shaking. He was clearly struggling inside. But Steele wouldn¡¯t wait for him to consider carefully. She had thrown herself at him and kissed him earnestly. This kiss lasted more than one minute. When their lips finally separated, she had an exceptionally coquettish smile while Roger seriously blushed. His breathing became heavier and his eyes lost their clearness. The seduction technique of Steele had a power that could not be underestimated. Moreover, when she used the intimate touch to seduce others, even a legendary strongman might not be able to resist her. Although Roger was evil enough, his strength was very average. Therefore, when she gave him a long deep kiss, he was completely trapped. Right now, if she asked him to open his mouth to speak or even to cut his own throat with a knife, he would follow her instruction. After successfully seducing him, Steele giggled twice, then started to ask questions under Sui Xiong¡¯s command, but his answers surprised her dramatically. When she asked ¡°Why did you go against us?¡±, Roger unexpectedly answered, ¡°At the first glance, all of you looked very strong, so I might take advantage of your strength to make Kahn suffer a great loss.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Kahn, who all along stayed cool and collected, finally turned pale in fear. ¡°What kind of nonsense are you talking about?!¡± ¡°He doesn¡¯t speak nonsense. That is the truth,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Don¡¯t forget that he is not only infected with Steele¡¯s Seduction Magic but also my Honesty Magic. Right now, it¡¯s impossible for him to lie.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe it!¡± Kahn screamed loudly. ¡°That is your evil magic!¡± ¡°So, you can cast Honesty Magic yourself. I believe that you know how to use this magic,¡± Sui Xiong said nonchalantly. ¡°Or just like what you said, you can also use the Truth-confessing Magic. In any case, since he has plotted against you, it¡¯s natural for you to kill him according to your habits.¡± Kahn immediately raised his hand, outlining mystic magic patterns in the air with his finger. He wanted to cast his magic. But he had only draw half of the magic patterns before he could not help but find his fingers tremble, which interrupted the magic casting. And his lips, which should be chanting the spell, were also shivering. He couldn¡¯t even speak clearly. One thing that could be seen was that the relationship between these two brothers was very good. Therefore, Roger plotting against him was a particularly huge blow to this young genius caster. This was why, for a moment, he could not even steady himself to cast magic. Although he was a villain, his heart had soft spots. Roger¡¯s words were like a sharp knife, stabbing straight into the soft spots of his heart and causing unbearable pain for him. ¡°Forget it, keep on asking.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and asked Steele to continue. ¡°Why do you want Kahn to suffer a great loss?¡± Steele curiously asked. ¡°Because he took the resources that should have belonged to me!¡± Roger said fiercely while clenching his teeth. ¡°I am an official heir of the Green family, not to mention that I also have the talent of being a caster. But because of him, all the resources have all been saved for him and his development. Even if he didn¡¯t momentarily need them, they were also kept for him! Because of him! In order to let him smoothly take over the property of the family, I have not been able to get the surname of the Green¡¯s because they don¡¯t want me to become a threat to him!¡± ¡°The most resentful thing is that he usually hypocritically leaks some benefits out of his fingers, pretending to care about me. Those things should have been mine!¡± The handsome face of Roger became fiercer as he screamed loudly, ¡°As long as he meets misfortune, I¡¯m pleased! It would be the best if he dies! If he dies, with my talents and scheme, the heir to this branch of the Green¡¯s would be me!¡± Sui Xiong sighed and waved his tentacles. Roger, who was grumbling constantly cursing and insulting Kahn, couldn¡¯t see clearly, and fell into a deep sleep. ¡°Young genius, it seems that you are not as smart as you think you are,¡± Ray, who had kept silent, spoke nonchalantly. ¡°A person who is weak and vulnerable to even one strike from you, has easily deceived you.¡± Chapter 90 Chapter 90: Chapter 90 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Things in this world were usually quite ironic like this. To the brutal and ruthless Kahn, his younger brother Roger was one of the few people that he really cared about. Therefore, when he learned that Roger had betrayed him, he was in grief. His emotions were so stirred up that he wasn¡¯t able to cast a simple magic trick. But to Roger, this big brother Kahn was like a towering sky-covering tree, blocking his way to develop, snatching away the sunshine and rainwater that should have belonged to him, and completely shadowing his growth, so that he could not succeed. Hence, he loathed Kahn and it didn¡¯t bother him to provoke Sui Xiong¡¯s group with the intention of getting Kahn into trouble. Sui Xiong could not understand the relationship between these two brothers. ¡°In fact, it is not hard to understand. It is nothing other than jealousy.¡± In this game of scheming, plotting and betraying, Ray was considered experienced and knowledgeable, so he explained. ¡°Kahn is very strong, but he is indeed very lonely. Roger is his family, at a similar age as him, and has a certain talent. To Kahn, Roger is very suitable to be a friend to talk to who satisfies his need for affection as well as doesn¡¯t threaten him. And what he has to pay for Roger is just some insignificant things that aren¡¯t worth mentioning to him.¡± ¡°And what about Roger? Although he receives Kahn¡¯s care and attention, these things are not what he wants. The thing he wants is to seize those resources of his own, to quickly make progress, and to get countless praise and worship. And in order to get those things, he must compete with Kahn. He obviously can¡¯t defeat Kahn. He didn¡¯t even dare to show his competitive intention. Thus, jealousy and resentment have accumulated more and more in his heart over time, and everything turned out like this in the end.¡± ¡°In reality, this kind of matter is very common. In a noble family, if two children, one talented and another excellent, appear simultaneously, then things will usually develop to this extent.¡± Sui Xiong suddenly realized. At first, he found it was hard to imagine, but after thinking about many TV series scenarios involving romantic affairs, spying and wars, it seemed somewhat reasonable. As a young man with an innate talent, capabilities, and ambition, of course, Roger thought his career and future were the most important. Superficially, the achievements he had had today were completely thanks to Kahn¡¯s guidance. But to think about it deeper, if Kahn died, wouldn¡¯t he have had more opportunities? This matter reminded him of an old saying, which he didn¡¯t remember where or when he had heard it: No matter how well a boss treats you, it is still worse than you being the boss! To be honest, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think highly of Roger, either. Being the gatekeeper for the most famous and luxurious restaurant in the Green Tree City didn¡¯t do justice to his mind and talent. But being an advanced caster was too unrealistic. One thing to keep in mind was that even though he was taken care of by Kahn, the one who was almost considered a top-notch caster, he was such a person, so his talent could be imagined. But to a person whose mind was burned by ambition, there was no principle that could be explained to him. ¡°What are you going to do? Kill him?¡± Sui Xiong sighed and asked Kahn. Kahn had already recovered his composure. He shook his head and nonchalantly smiled. ¡°I won¡¯t kill him. It is unnecessary,¡± He calmly said. ¡°Anyway, you will not let him off, right?¡± Sui Xiong nodded and then continued to ask, ¡°Then how about you? Do you have anything you want to say?¡± Kahn shook his head again. ¡°No need, it¡¯s up to you.¡± ¡°You seem very decadent. This is not good.¡± ¡°After all, all has been decided. I kill people and others, of course, can kill me. It is very fair.¡± Kahn seemed as if he had completely ignored his life and death. ¡°You don¡¯t need to care about this. In such a big world, life and death are very normal. Today you kill me, and tomorrow there will be another person who will kill you. It is just that simple, ¡± Kahn said very reasonably Sui Xiong frowned. Kahn¡¯s face impressively remained unchanged when his death was near. But Sui Xiong still found there was something wrong in this. This guy is a genius. He is just in his twenties but he has already become the top caster. As long as he doesn¡¯t die now, it is almost for sure that he will step into the legendary land. How can he be willing to die?! Not to mention¡­ Are those people who supported him able to sit still and watch him die? Thinking about this, he suddenly realized then sneered. Cold lights rose from one of his tentacles in all directions and then condensed into an ice knife as sharp as a steel knife. He ruthlessly stabbed the knife toward Kahn¡¯s chest. Before the knife hit Kahn, a green light had risen from Kahn¡¯s body, covering him completely. The mild and gentle light hid a tremendous power. Along with an ice knife, it could even block the attack launched by a bunch of fully armed knights. But what it did was useless because the ice knife had stopped halfway to Kahn. The ice knife hadn¡¯t really stabbed him. ¡°Show yourself.¡± Sui Xiong lowered his voice and said, ¡°After all, you are a big person in the legendary realm. You don¡¯t need to sneakily hide.¡± A green light flashed in the air. An illusion of an old man wearing a glamorous long black gown appeared in front of them. ¡°Hello, young god,¡± The old man slightly nodded to Sui Xiong in respect. ¡°I am the owner of the Green Tree Tower. I am very sorry that my offspring have caused you trouble.¡± ¡°In fact, they haven¡¯t caused me too much trouble. But I want to ask you one question. Do you ignore what they have done?¡± Sui Xiong was not being polite just because the elderly had acted politely toward him, and he asked coldly, ¡°Did you teach your children to hit others so cruelly?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t taught Kahn these things. Maybe he did it out of his own habits.¡± Although being courteous, the old man didn¡¯t show any trace of compromising, ¡°Acting mercifully is not a good habit. Young casters who didn¡¯t work nimbly enough have already died. The remaining ones are just like him.¡± ¡°The young casters I know are not like him!¡± ¡°It is just because they are weak,¡± The old man said nonchalantly. ¡°Forgiveness and mercy are the power of the strongmen. In order to be merciful to the enemy, the first thing to do is to become strong enough that even if the enemy fights back, you won¡¯t be hurt. Right now, Kahn is not strong enough, and especially when his enemy is a god he isn¡¯t qualified to be merciful. In fact, even if he had done his best, he would not have been able to threaten you. So if this is the case and he still had wanted to be merciful, then he would have had acted as stupidly as a clown.¡± This old man sounded very convincing because he started from the point that Sui Xiong was strong. Just like what he said, neither Roger nor Kahn were able to threaten Sui Xiong. Hence, whether or not they had treated him with mercy wasn¡¯t important. However, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t concede, but sneered and refuted, ¡°You think he doesn¡¯t have to treat the enemy mercifully just because the opponent is mighty, don¡¯t you? Then, if they face a weaker opponent, will they be merciful?¡± ¡°Different circumstance need different analyses. You can¡¯t lump different matters together,¡± The old man calmly said. ¡°Uh-huh, I understand!¡± Sui Xiong sneered and continued asking, ¡°It¡¯s the last question, so may I bother you with it?¡± ¡°Please do.¡± ¡°There is a proverb that goes like this: Raising without teaching is a fault of a father. As the children have gone on the wrong way, is the adult responsible for that?¡± The face of the old man finally changed, but before he could react, a blue light suddenly flashed on Sui Xiong¡¯s body. This blue light wasn¡¯t dazzling but it brought along an incredible and irresistible power. It dispersed in all directions like waves, instantly covering the entire restaurant. The old man growled. Then the magic tower in the center of the city instantly sent out a glaring light and shot toward the restaurant, but it was firmly blocked by the blue light. However, at this moment, Sui Xiong had already wrapped the illusion of the old man with his tentacles. He shouted loudly and pulled the old man out. ¡°You think you are safe when you hide inside that narrow stitched space? How ridiculous!¡± An indescribably intense magic battle suddenly broke out, but quickly subsided. After everything calmed down, one-third of the restaurant was a pile of ruins. Inside the ruins, the body of the floating jellyfish had gotten much bigger than before. He coldly stared at the old man who had been embarrassedly beaten black and blue in the face. The legendary caster¡¯s ability to cast magic had been temporarily locked by Sui Xiong with his supernatural power. At this moment, he was no different from a normal person. ¡°To be honest, I am not a judge of the court. I am also not interested in playing the role of a judge,¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s voice sounded like thunder, echoing in the sky above the ruins. ¡°But since I came across this thing, I need to intervene in it.¡± He didn¡¯t waited for others to answer before he wove his tentacles. Four beams of light fell on the four hired thugs, and a grimace of pain immediately appeared on their face. They looked very embarrassed. ¡°You are, in nature, not too bad. However, helping others to do evil things is a big mistake. Although you will be exempt from the death penatly, you can¡¯t avoid your punishments! I will engrave a curse mark on all of you. Whenever you do bad things, the curse mark will cause you pain. Only when you do good things will you be able to make the pain disappear. When you have done, cumulatively, one thousand good things, the curse mark will not only vanish but also improve your physical constitution. You will also be given the ability to cast magic.¡± The four hired thugs looked at each other for a while, then all kneeled down on the ground to obediently take the punishment. Although such a punishment was a little annoying, they had, after all, escaped death. Moreover, if the words of this god were true, they would have a chance to become stronger! ¡°Kahn, since you still haven¡¯t repented after doing evil things, you have already been marked unredeemable. Take my wake-up call!¡± On the jellyfish¡¯s tentacle, the golden pattern in the shape of the Chinese character ¡°ten thousand¡± sparkled, flew over, and slammed into Kahn¡¯s forehead. Kahn¡¯s eyes dimmed. He suddenly rolled on the ground with an intense headache. After a while, the headache slowly faded, but he didn¡¯t stand up. He laid on the ground, looking to the sky with a pair of eyes full of guilt, and sorrow and his face full of tears. His vitality quickly withered, and his face instantly became as pale as a dead person, but his eyes were very bright and clear, completely different from how they were before. They emitted a light which made people feel comfort that came from the bottom of their heart. ¡°Do you know why you were wrong?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°I had already known,¡± Kahn said while sobbing, ¡°but¡­it is too late!¡± ¡°It is never too late to repent. Just slowly atone for your crimes!¡± The supernatural power of Sui Xiong radiated, and the God of Redemption immediately received the message and sent an envoy to pick up Kahn¡¯s spirit. ¡°Roger, you always wanted Kahn to die and not hinder your way, right?¡± Sui Xiong coldly said, ¡°Right now, he is dead. What do you think of it?¡± ¡°His death came too late.¡± Roger had finally awakened from the Seduction Magic and he said gloomily, ¡°What is the point of his death now when I am already about to die?!¡± ¡°Now, do you think you could have succeeded if he had never existed in the first place?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Sui Xiong sneered and waved his tentacle. A strong magic light fell on Roger¡¯s head. ¡°So, let¡¯s try it¡­¡± Chapter 91 Chapter 91: Chapter 91 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°Master Roger, Master Roger, wake up! It¡¯s your turn!¡± Roger awoke and kneaded his face with his hands until his mind cleared again. Today was a big day: the young people who came from the different branches of the Green Family would finally compete with each other. This competition was held once every 20 years. Over four centuries ago, the great legendary wizard, the Green Sea Dweller, created the Green Family all by himself. Now, the Green Family had become a group of over 200 people, divided into six branches. This legendary wizard was indeed powerful. Still, it was impossible to discipline all his offspring at once. Among his offspring, there were people who were not talented enough. About 200 years ago, he made a rule: anyone who wanted to be rich and live a stable life, as well as take the path to become a legendary wizard, should take part in the competition and show their strength. Only the winner in this competition could be carefully trained by the Green Sea Dweller. The competition was held every 20 years. Unless someone had really achieved greatness in their life, they could only take part in this competition once. Most members of the Green Family had done just that. Suppose someone was only ten years old when he took part in the competition for the first time. When they took part in the competition for the second time, they might be 30. A man of thirty was not a young man! Roger was just 27 years old, although he was going to be 30 soon enough. He had already reached the highest level that one could in their youth. His opponents were much younger than him; the eldest just 25 years old. He was quite satisfied with this. Maybe someone would just consider him lucky, but still, one should remember that not everyone could be lucky. He looked at the court that was not very far from him. There were two young Greens competing with each other, but they were not fighting. Instead they were talking about their knowledge of magic spells with each other. This ¡°civilized¡± way of competing was not only safe, but left room to show off knowledge they had acquired. In fact, if one showed more knowledge about magic spells during this discussion, it meant he was stronger than the other. Clearly, there was a big gap between the two young men. Soon, one of the two could talk no more, and lost. ¡°Next round, Roger of branch two and Donald of branch three!¡± the old wizard who was in charge of the competition said in a booming voice. ¡°You two shall leave the court now!¡± Roger sorted himself out, calmed down, and walked into the court. He was walking very slowly and steadily, in case something unexpected happened His opponent, Donald, was unpredictable. Although he was just 19 years old, he could already practice an intermediate spell: ¡°portal¡±. Via this spell, he could move very quickly, and appear anywhere in the court. Earlier, while rehearsing for this competition, Donald suddenly appeared behind his opponent and defeated him on the spot. His opponent didn¡¯t even see what he looked like. Roger was talented in a way. When he was 12 years old, he came back to the Green Family. Since then, he had spent around 15 years studying spells. He hadn¡¯t mastered any intermediate spells, but he managed to acquire more than 20 of the primary level, including some he had really mastered. During his rehearsals, he defeated many with his magic. That was why he dared to take part in the competition. As long as he could defeat Donald, he would be able to get more resources. Since he had already made it to the quarter-final, he could show off his skills in front of the great legendary wizard. As for whether he won or in this competition, it was not that important to him anymore. For him, this was a good chance, and he was prepared to seize it. Roger was walking toward the court, with Donald standing opposite him. ¡°I am going to win this competition!¡± Donald said, not mincing his words. ¡°I¡¯,m sorry to say so, but I have to win.¡± ¡°So do I,¡± Roger said coldly. He raised up his hand and began to chant a spell before Donald even realized. According to the rule of the competition set by the Green Family, neither opponent could initiate an attack before the host gave the order. However, chanting and attacking were two different things. As long as Roger hadn¡¯t activated a spell, it would not be count as an attack. This was part of Roger¡¯s master plan. He was not as powerful as the real talents, and knew he¡¯d never defeat Donald without using a trick or two. The old wizard muttered to himself, but didn¡¯t stop Roger from chanting. Instead of interfering, the wizard instantly gave the order for the competition to start. At that moment, Roger had almost activated his spell. Immediately, Donald realized Roger had practiced a vicious Smelly Cloud spell, and frowned. The Smelly Cloud spell was not the most dangerous one, but the disgusting and excruciating smell could make one suffer. Someone even got cibophobia, a fear of food, and had to get treatment in the temple after being hit by the spell. Among all the spells that Roger had acquired, this spell could both hit the wizard himself as well as his enemies on a large scale. Once one was hit by it, it would be very difficult for them to recover. Roger had made some effort to enhance his resistance to the smell, so he could do a spell without being affected. Roger thought that although Donald could do some more advanced spells, the smell could at least make Donald dizzy enough to fail at casting any. That way, Donald was bound to lose. However, what Donald did next was completely unexpected. Donald took out a space bag, and a crossbow from it. This court was not big enough, and once the Smelly Cloud spell was activated, the air could cover a large area of the court. Likewise, within this small court, Roger couldn¡¯t get away from being shot by Donald. For a weak wizard like him, what would happen when he was shot by the arrow? He was bound to lose. Roger was so terrified that he failed to fully activate his Smelly Cloud spell. Then something occurred to him. He shouted, ¡°You have broken the rules!¡± Roger turned around and complained to the old wizard, ¡°Master, Donald had broken the rules! He used a crossbow!¡± Meanwhile, the old wizard had a long sigh and shook his head. Roger was confused. When he turned around, he found that the crossbow on Donald¡¯s hand had disappeared, and one could see some magical light sparkling. A few seconds later, a few magic bullets appeared in Donald¡¯s hand and began fly toward Roger. Crack! As if a piece of glass had broken, Roger was hit by Donald¡¯s spell. He lost. The old wizard said, ¡°It is fine for one to walk the line in a competition. You activated a spell first. But you were hit by Donald. It clearly shows that the gap between you two is too large. You only focus on yourself without paying any attention to others; you failed to see Donald practicing a Silent Phantom spell. It was a primary spell, and still you were tricked by it. ¡°Besides, when you were being targeted by the crossbow, you didn¡¯t choose to find a way to dodge it or stand it. Instead you complained to me. If Donald indeed had broken the rules, do you think I wouldn¡¯t stop him? Moreover, in the real world, when you are in a fight with another wizard, do you think you could stop to complain to me? ¡°Look at Donald. When he saw you activating a spell, he instantly chose to attack, and made sure he would win this competition. This is the quality that a proper wizard should have! ¡°Roger, not only have you lost in the regard of practicing the spell, you have also lost in the regard of your vision and psychological quality. You have lost completely!¡± Roger stood there in a daze, without knowing what to do. How could this be possible? How could I lose in the first ground?! ¡°It¡¯s impossible!¡± Roger screamed. Suddenly the scene in front of him disappeared. Roger returned to the real world and sat on the ground, completely stunned. Sui Xiong stood in front of him. ¡°Even without Kahn, the person preventing you from getting what you want, you are still be a loser,¡± Sui Xiong said coldly. ¡°You could not even defeat Donald, who is much weaker than Kahn.¡± ¡°Nonsense! The reason I lost this time is due to my lack of practice and education from those masters when I was young!¡± Roger screamed. ¡°I came back to the Green Family when I was 12, and I have already wasted too much time. I am just a b*stard. Even if my ability was recognized by others, I could never get more resources than if I was entitled. If I could have been cultivated by those powerful figures and got as much as resources as Kahn in the first place, I could definitely win!¡± Hearing this, Sui Xiong sneered. ¡°Really? Okay, let¡¯s see what would have happened if you got all the help you could have.¡± The magical light flashed again, and Roger was back in the illusion. This time, he became the legal son of the second branch of the Green Family. From a very young age, he had been educated by an excellent teacher and got many resources. He quickly grew into a strong wizard when he was 20 years old, and began to study magic at the intermediate level. While in his family, there were a few other brilliant young men, who were almost as competent as he was. Some were even stronger than him. To win the competition that was held every 20 years, Roger recruited some adventurers and went to explore in the Ancient Forest, hoping to find famous historical remains as well as some treasured objects that could enhance his ability. But he failed to do so. Since he had been so carefully nurtured from a young age, he wasn¡¯t capable of dealing with an emergency. He only managed to survive with the help of his subordinates; and even then he was severely traumatized. His ability to practice spells weakened. To heal him, his family spent a lot of money and energy. But when they were sure he could no longer recover, they gave him up. Later his family decided to cultivate another young man that was a bit younger than him. This young man was a b*stard and less talented than him, but he was a harder worker and had a stronger psyche than Roger. At last, Roger could only sit in the spectator¡¯s seat, watching that bastard who he always treated like a piece of garbage defeating his enemies one by one. That b*stard won the competition at last. Roger became more and more pessimistic and degenerated. He started to drink, call prostitutes, and do drugs, hoping to forget all the bad things that happened in his life. The magical light flashed, and Roger was back to the real world. This time, he didn¡¯t open his eyes. He died in his desperation. Maybe he realized that even if he got all the resources and cultivation that a legal son was entitled to, he still would have failed. All this time, the abilities he had been proud of was his own delusion. He was not, in fact, talented at all. When he realized this, he couldn¡¯t go on. Chapter 92 Chapter 92: Chapter 92 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Sui Xiong looked peacefully at Roger¡¯s body. After Roger died, his soul fell into the underworld was sent to hell to be punished. Seeing this, Sui Xiong shook his head. He turned around and looked at the legendary wizard Green. ¡°Now it¡¯s your turn!¡± Green¡¯s face was gaunt and full of gloom. He had been silent ever Sui Xiong captured and defeated him. When he saw Roger, his most brilliant disciple dying in front of him, he kept his composure. But now, under threat, he said, ¡°do you really want to fight against the Commonwealth of Mifata?¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Sui Xiong replied, without betraying his attitude. Bleakly, Green replied, ¡°As far as I am concerned, you are just a demi-God whose magical energy all comes from nature. Which means that it would take a long time for you to grow stronger. There is a chance that you may only gain a bit more power, even after a thousand years. The president of our federation is also a demi-God, and would become a real God in less time than that. The God of Mystery, or the God of Intelligence and Magic, has promised me that the president would be granted the Wizard priesthood as soon as he was apotheosized. Since you have already started a feud with the Commonwealth of Mifata, you are bound to be killed by the future God of Wizards!¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t reply. Instead, he began to draw a complicated magic design with his tentacles. ¡°We have many research materials about natural energy. Being the senator of this federation, I can get you these materials,¡± Green said. ¡°There are two paths you can choose. Being killed by the future God of Wizard, or cooperating with me. The decision should be clear.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°Do you have more to say?¡± ¡°Seriously?! You won¡¯t even think about what I just told you?¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t you realized that you¡¯ve neglected something?¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°In fact, I don¡¯t want to get myself into trouble. Think carefully. Have you neglected anything important?¡± Hearing this, Green became nervous and began to go over what Sui Xiong was referring to. He started repeating to Sui Xiong the benefits of him cooperating, trying harder and harder to persuade him. Sui Xiong¡¯s face fell as Green spoke. At last, he could take no more and shouted, ¡°Enough!¡± Sui Xiong wrapped Green in his tentacles, then flew them to the outside of town. ¡°I should never have believed you could possibly reform yourself!¡± Sui Xiong waved his tentacles, releasing the energy of the spell he just charged. The energy turned into a blue halo that covered Green Tree Town. Soon the halo disappeared. In the blink of an eye, it was as if it never existed. ¡°What on earth do you want? Just spit it out!¡± Green was getting more and more nervous and shouted, ¡°If you want a good deal with me, you should at least show me what you¡¯ve really got!¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± Sui Xiong yelled. He waved his tentacles and transformed many tree leaves into a ball, and stuffed that ball into Green¡¯s mouth. Soon, they came to an open space outside town. Sui Xiong looked around and nodded happily. This open space wasn¡¯t narrow. It wasn¡¯t an important intersection either, which was a perfect place for him to do what he had planned to do. ¡°Don¡¯t say I haven¡¯t given you any chances to change your ways!¡± Sui Xiong said to Green. ¡°I gave you one, but you failed to catch it.¡± Green had been tightly wrapped up in Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles. He tried to get out, but couldn¡¯t, and since his mouth was blocked, he could not speak. He was breathing heavily and his face turned red from the effort. Regardless, he could do nothing to get himself out of this situation, since his ability to practice magic had been sealed by Sui Xiong¡¯s power. ¡°You are a selfish person who thinks of nobody but yourself.¡± Sui Xiong sighed, continuing to criticize Green. ¡°You never cared about those innocent people who were hurt by your evil students and sons, and it is all because of your bad education that they have become thugs. I think you really never cared about those people, you never gave a sh*t about them. ¡°Just now, when Roger and Kahn were sneak attacking us, you must have known that already; or at least, you must have known that Kahn planned to sneak attack us. Meanwhile, you did nothing to stop them. Maybe you are right. They went looking for trouble themselves, so you think there is no need for you to help them. Besides, when I punished and killed them both, you didn¡¯t respond. ¡°I know you can¡¯t talk anymore, and I am not going to have you speak. Your selfishness and shabby tricks really disgust me!¡± Sui Xiong threw Green onto the ground, jumped into the sky, turned into a puddle of water that sank into the earth, and changed a great amount of ground nearby into a muddy swamp. Then, the swamp began to slowly rise. It gradually formed a small hill that was just like an upright palm. The hill then fell to the ground and covered Green. Seeing a small hill falling down to him, Green was so terrified that he immediately closed his eyes. He was not crushed into pieces. Instead, he saw he was kept in sheer darkness. Many small lights gradually appeared and many complicated magic arrays formed one by one. Then he found he was standing in the middle of the magic array. The space was big enough for him to stand up and walk around in a few steps. That was all. Obviously, he was underground. When the small hill fell to the ground, it blended with the earth before it really solidified, becoming a huge hard stone. Inside the small hill, there was a tiny room where numerous magic arrays existed. This hill blocked all the connections with the outside, so Green could not ask for help. The magic arrays inside the hill could also sustain Green¡¯s life. If he felt lonely, well, this magic array would project a scene of the Green Tree Town for him to see. Moreover, whenever there was a wizard doing a bad thing in the town, Green would feel the same pain and suffer with the victim. It was basically impossible for others to get him out of this small hill. The hill was especially enhanced by Sui Xiong, and was hard as steel or iron. If one ever wanted to use a weapon¡ªfor example, an ax¡ªto hit the hill, they would only see a spark. No mark would be left on the surface. If someone tried to save him by a spell or a powerful magic sword, the hill would only absorb the energy and enhance the magic array. Even so, since nothing in the world is absolute, there was a chance that there would eventually be a powerful man who could destroy the hill. But even if he managed to do so, he still could not save Green. When the hill collapsed, the magic array would explode, so both Green and the person who intended to save him would die on the spot. Besides, Sui Xiong left a message for Green explaining how this magic array worked, and warning him of the danger he might meet. ¡°You need to know that it is neither my power nor this hill, but your own evil thought that has imprisoned you. In fact, when you can thoroughly rectify your errors, realize the mistake you have made and abandon the depraved way of life and return to the path of virtue, the hill will collapse. ¡°Don¡¯t count on me to save you. I myself cannot control the magic array. The only one who can save you is yourself.¡± Green sat on the ground and began to ponder carefully while watching the scene projected by the magic array. Why on earth did he imprison me here? He wanted me to abandon the depraved way, but what is this so-called ¡®depraved way¡¯? What on earth have I done wrong? Meanwhile, Sui Xiong had already left the Green Tree Town and moved toward to the south. ¡°I never thought Your Majesty would let that legendary wizard go,¡± Ray said. ¡°I thought you would kill him.¡± ¡°Do I look like a vicious person?¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°It is not about whether you look like a vicious person or not¡­¡± Ray thought for a moment, then said, ¡°I think you are someone who would take up the cudgels for the injured party, and you would definitely kill a bad guy who has done a terrible thing.¡± ¡°You are right¡­¡± ¡°Could it be possible that you have been deceived by that old man?¡± Steele, who had become a red pig with a pair of wings, took out a wooden plate and wrote, He must be lying! on the plate. ¡°Yes, he must be lying!¡± Ray nodded. He almost drove Sui Xiong off his head. ¡°There is not a single God who would get involved in a fight with others for the sake of a mortal!¡± ¡°I am such a God!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Ha, ha¡­ you are indeed.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and then slowly explained to them. ¡°Haven¡¯t you noticed that the Green Tree Town has been developing well?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s true.¡± Ray thought for a while and nodded. ¡°But I don¡¯t think it has anything to do with Green. Rather, it has a lot to do with the chatelain and those government officials.¡± ¡°It has a lot to do with the chatelain and the government officials? How about the common people¡­ As for who has made this town as bustling as it is now, this is a rather complicated topic, I will further elaborate on it in the future when I have the chance.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°I mean, the protection that Green has been providing is a necessity for the development of this town, although he has made a huge mistake, his contribution is still great.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why you haven¡¯t killed him?¡± ¡°Yes. I hope he can correct his errors and become a decent legendary wizard,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°He is really talented, and if he can become decent and teach his students and sons to do something that is good for the whole society and the people, this town will be more prosperous and more people would benefit.¡± ¡°What if he continues to behave like he was before?¡± Ray asked. ¡°He will correct his errors.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°As a legendary wizard, he has enough time to repent his sins.¡± Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, was a figure featured in a body of legends, which could be traced back to the period of the Song dynasty. He always acted in collusion with other evil creatures. Whenever he was annoyed, he would go to heaven and cause turmoil. He had warred with God several times, and those wars had made many people suffer. But even he, an evil figure who would most probably be depicted as a devil in a knight¡¯s novel, could correct his errors after being imprisoned in the Wuzhi Mountain for almost five centuries. In this light, Green would definitely change too. A legendary wizard could live for a very long time. Green was just 600 years old; after being imprisoned in this hill for another 500 years, he would just be over a thousand. Even then, he could still live for a long time. If he still behaved as he did before, then he would die on that hill! The two were talking, laughing while walking casually toward to the south. Chapter 93 Chapter 93: Chapter 93 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The Commonwealth of Mifata was indeed a strange place. Although it was a country, it had no government. Instead, there was a big parliament, consisting of the wizards in charge of managing the whole country. The parliament could be divided into two parts. One was the House of Commons, which consisted of the advanced wizards who were responsible for government affairs; fiscal revenues and the like. The other was the House of Lords, which consisted of the legendary wizards who were in charge of the foreign and military affairs. However, the legendary wizards were usually too busy to deal with government affairs. ¡°What have the legendary wizards been busy doing?¡± Sui Xiong asked with curiosity. Ray thought for a while and said, ¡°They have probably been occupied with studying how to break through their biological limits to become demigods. At least, the few legendary wizards I happen to know have been working on this the entire time.¡± ¡°You know some legendary wizards?¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know them, I¡¯ve just met them. They probably didn¡¯t even notice me at the time.¡± Ray laughed. ¡°In my youth, I only ever came to the capital of the Commonwealth of Mifata, the Highest Pagoda, to study. I was very lucky that I got the chance to pay a visit to two legendary wizards as well as the Green we already know. Amongst the 14 legendary wizards in the Commonwealth of Mifata, I have met around five. I believe this would make many wizards of middle or low ranks feel jealous.¡± ¡°With your ability, not to mention your upbringing, you are already qualified to visit them,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Would it be possible for us to walk past a region controlled by one of these legendary wizards? I think we should at least pay one a visit.¡± Ray thought for a while, then shook his head and said, ¡°To be honest, I have no idea where they live. For example, I do know the Green Sea Dweller, but before we arrived at the Green Tree Town, I never knew he lived there.¡± ¡°Is the residential information of these legendary wizards supposed to be a secret?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so. When I was young, I wasn¡¯t interested in collecting this sort of information. When I got older, I began to show interest in it. I have¡­¡± Ray suddenly became gloomy and heaved a long sigh. Obviously, he had recalled something sad. Sui Xiong patted his shoulder and comforted him. ¡°Cheer up; one should never live in his own memory. You have a bright future. Why do you always trap yourself in the bad things that happened in the past?¡± ¡°You are right.¡± Ray nodded but still looked very gloomy. However, since he was an experienced adventurer and an expert at monitoring his emotions, he quickly became happy again and buried those sad memories deep in his heart. The Commonwealth of Mifata consisted of many small towns, and was the magical pagoda guarding the country. It was a safe place to live, but once one walked out of the city, they could meet many evil monsters; even out on the road. The southern part of the Main Plate was a highland, where magical power was very concentrated. That was why the wizards chose it as the location to build the magic pagoda. Because of the high concentration of magical power, many wizards gathered here, and a country of wizards formed. However, the place also invited many evil monsters to come. They were like weeds in the wilderness, and could never be totally cleared. Just when a patrol had killed some evil monsters in a certain area, more appeared out of nowhere. Ray brandished his long sword, and cut a yelling Minotaur into four pieces. Then, while running, he stabbed a screaming Harpy through its heart. He kicked away a mutated Slime, and while usually a Slime could stand many physical attacks, it exploded into pieces when it hit a big tree. In the blink of an eye, tens of monsters were killed by Ray, their blood visible everywhere. ¡°Why there are so many monsters?¡± Sui Xiong said, rather confused. ¡°I have never seen so many, neither in the Gray Stone Mountains nor the Ancient Wood Waste Swamp!¡± Steele flew back while holding a wooden plate on her hand, which read, I have no idea! Both Sui Xiong and Steel looked at Ray. Among the three, Ray was the only one who had ever been to the Commonwealth of Mifata. ¡°I don¡¯t know, either. I used to take a boat to come here and landed on the White Tower Bay, then arrived at the Highest Tower via transportation spell,¡± Ray said. ¡°Later, when I began my studies, I never left the Highest Pagoda. As for what on earth Mifata is really like, I only read about it in books.¡± ¡°One buries himself in the classics and ignores what is going on beyond one¡¯s immediate surroundings¡ªyou are just like a student who only experienced the test-oriented examination!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°What¡¯s the test-oriented examination?¡± ¡°Well, a test-oriented examination requires a student to concentrate on nothing but on his studies.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound bad,¡± Ray smiled. ¡°It is a peaceful and quiet life. Besides, my teacher always wanted me to be a scholar, not a knight who always gets himself into fights with others.¡± Hearing this, Steele laughed and took out a wood plate and wrote two lines on it, which read: A scholar who kills others and burns their homes as well? Or someone who majors in banditry? Ray forced a smile and shook his head. Then Sui Xiong asked, ¡°How about now? Do you want to be a scholar or a knight? Or have you made up your mind to be a successful bandit?¡± ¡°Ideally, I would want to be a knight,¡± Ray said, ¡°but I don¡¯t think that would be possible, since being a knight is really difficult.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so. You are already close to becoming a strong man of the legendary world. If you aren¡¯t qualified to be a knight, nobody is!¡± Ray sighed and said, ¡°It has nothing to do one¡¯s ability. Rather, it has to do with one¡¯s morality. To be a knight, one needs to be modest, honorable, dedicated, brave, sympathetic, pious, just, and honest¡­ I don¡¯t think there is any need to elaborate. Anyway, I don¡¯t have any of the qualities I mentioned before, so even if I am very powerful, I can never be a qualified knight.¡± ¡°It seems that being a knight is a very noble thing¡­¡± Sui Xiong murmured. ¡°I never thought one needs to be such a moral model before becoming a knight¡­¡± Steele laughed, and took out a wooden plate, which said: Liar! ¡°Liar! What do you mean by that?¡± Sui Xiong asked in curiosity. Seeing that Steele was going to take out another wooden plate, Sui Xiong waved his tentacles and practiced a spell so Steel could temporarily talk in a language that everyone understood. ¡°The so-called virtues of a knight is just a show when one is knighted: an overlord or a bishop was holding the ceremony, and the knighted knight put on a show and made a vow¨Cin fact, no one would really conform to his vows.¡± Steele smiled, ¡°I have seen many knights before. Not one of them have all eight virtues you have mentioned, let alone even four among the eight.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Steele took out a wood plate and wrote the eight words mentioned above on the plate and began to explain them one by one. ¡°Being modest means a knight should be modest to everyone, never be proud or domineering. In fact, most of the capable men are quite arrogant, only the weak ones would be modest. As for the knights I have met, they are only modest to people who are of higher rank than them.¡± ¡°Well, I think they are barely qualified to be modest.¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Fine, as you have put it, they are barely qualified for being modest,¡± Steele said. ¡°Being honorable means a knight should defend his honor and never do anything that would sabotage it. He would take any risk to protect his honor. This quality has often be talked about among the knights, and they usually say things like, ¡®My honor is my life¡¯; but when the time really comes, and they have to make some sacrifice to protect their honor, most of them hesitate. In fact, I am lucky I have met knights who would really do anything to protect their honor.¡± ¡°And this is another virtue.¡± ¡°There is no need to talk about being dedicated, since the knight are the warriors who are loyal to a certain overlord or a church. What is the point of being a knight if he is frightened and runs away in a fight? So of course, most knights are very dedicated.¡± ¡°Now two and a half virtues are confirmed.¡± ¡°As for being brave; many hotheads can be brave. But a hothead can never become a knight, and those who become knights are not brave anymore,¡± Steele said. ¡°As for the knights who are also in the aristocracy, basically none of them are brave. Still, there are some brave knights among the knights of the Church.¡± ¡°Does that count as a virtue?¡± ¡°At most, it counts as half a virtue,¡± Steele said. ¡°As for being sympathetic, I have never met anyone who was sympathetic. When you meet someone who is, please show me. Moreover, not a single knight who is also an aristocracy is pious. Well, the knights of a church have their own beliefs, but what they believe in is not justice, or an axiom, but their own God; even if their God is an evil one.¡± ¡°So they are also pious, you mean?¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Well, some may feel so, but I never count on those who fanatically believe their God. I don¡¯t really believe those willing to fight against anyone who disagrees with their God are pious.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°I agree with you.¡± ¡°Being honest and just? Well, I have never seen a knight who had both qualities, and plus being sympathetic, which is also very rare. In short, I have never seen anyone among the knight or the aristocracy who are honest, just, or sympathetic.¡± Steele laughed. Now, there were only three virtues that had not been talked about. Sui Xiong turned to Ray and saw he was gloomy. Obviously, he was very unhappy about the comments Steele made about the knights. ¡°Apart from his ability, one can be a real knight if he have got all the eight virtues.¡± Ray emphasized, ¡°besides, not only among the knight, but also in all walks of life, there would be someone who is not qualified¨Cand among the aristocracy, they have also got their own standards to decide whether a man is virtuous or not, but few can really be virtuous.¡± Steele laughed and said, ¡°The aristocracy sucks! Look at me: have I got any other shortcomings apart from being a bit promiscuous? And I have been deprived of the right of inheritance¡­¡± ¡°You are not a bit promiscuous, you are too promiscuous!¡± ¡°Never mind! It¡¯s my private business¡­¡± Ray and Steele began to argue with each other again. While they were arguing, Sui Xiong secretly thought he should probably hold the ceremony to confer titles of nobility to Ray when his church was finally built. Okay, I¡¯ll do that! Ray thought. Chapter 94 Chapter 94: Chapter 94 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°Hey!¡± Ray shouted and jumped up. He stood on a big tree that a giant with one eye used as a stick. Then Ray began to run, and didn¡¯t stop until he got close to the giant¡¯s head, and cut it off with his sword. The giant let out a terrifying shout, and then began to breathe heavily. The dark red blood flew and spread everywhere. The giant shook a bit before collapsing heavily onto the ground. Even before it fell, Ray had already landed back on the ground and looked around, holding his sword in his hand. Everything around him was a mess. There were the bodies of various monsters, businessmen, and bodyguards strewn everywhere. Since the giant, the leader of these monsters, had been killed, the monsters dispersed with an uproar. On this arena where an intense battle had just ended, only the crying, injured ones were left. Seeing the monsters had been killed or run away, the terrified leader of the commercial corp who had been hiding under the carriage crawled out and gave great thanks to Ray. He insisted on returning him the favor. Ray didn¡¯t refuse since it was only natural for an adventurer to receive a reward from one he had helped. The leader gave him a small bag of gemstones, to which he was very surprised. This is too much. It is against the rules, Ray thought. Ray had indeed done a great job in helping this commercial corp. The defense circle was destroyed by the Ogres, lead by the giant, and all the members of the commercial corp were to be brutally killed by them. However, Ray appeared and knocked down a great many ogres with a sword, all by himself. Ray even killed the leader of these ogres, the giant with only one eye, and managed to save the whole circle. A small bag of gemstones was still too much a reward to receive. However, the leader of the commercial corp was very persuasive, and at last, Ray accepted the gemstones rather worriedly. After, Ray decided to temporarily proceed with this commercial corp until they safely arrived at the next town. At night, Steele, who had been taking care of the injured all day, finally came back to the carriage and began to complain. ¡°I am exhausted!¡± she said. ¡°I have treated over 20 people. Among them, six are seriously injured. I even managed to bring one man back from the dead¡­ I feel like I have become the priestess in a temple!¡± ¡°An able man is always busy,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°How does it feel? I mean, saving someone? Do you feel the happiness at the bottom of your heart?¡± Steele thought for a while and smiled. She didn¡¯t say anything but went straight to sleep. Sui Xiong knew how she felt though, and smiled when he saw the blue fire dancing on the back of her hand. A while later, Ray, who had gone out to patrol, came back. He smelled like blood. Obviously, he had gotten into a big fight. ¡°What have you killed this time?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°A Chimera,¡± Ray said. ¡°Oh, which kind?¡± ¡°Chimera¡± was a general term, as well as a very famous creature. If a monster¡¯s body was made of more than one monster, then it was called a Chimera. There were both good Chimera and bad Chimera, most all of them very strong. Ray handed the space bag to Sui Xiong, and said, ¡°Its body is still inside the bag. I plan to sell it when we arrive at the town.¡± Sui Xiong used his spiritual sensing to scan the bag, and found that there were two bodies inside. Next to the body of the single-eyed giant, there was a huge monster as tall as two men stacked together. Most of its body was covered with a thick black carapace. It also had a dragon head, the body of a wolf, and two feet from a goat. Its body was very smooth. Sui Xiong could tell it was very agile, and that its teeth were sharp enough to bite off steel. It had a powerful weapon as well: three long tails, which acted like three terrifying chain-swords. The joint of the tail was very sharp and the skin very elastic. The smell left in its mouth proved that it could breathe fire. If it hadn¡¯t met Ray, who was almost stepping into the legendary world, it would not have been defeated as simply as this. As a terrifying monster, it could destroy a small-sized town all by itself. Meanwhile, the single-eyed monster could be easily defeated when a few brilliant adventurers worked together. Although it had great strength, the giant was not as agile. ¡°What does saving someone feel like?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°It feels really good. I feel like a real knight,¡± Ray smiled. Then he got very serious. He said, ¡°Just now, though, I felt like there was someone staring at me with bad intentions. It seems that man is extremely powerful and very terrifying.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised since a man that could scare Ray was never someone ordinary! ¡°I meant to catch a Chimera and mount it since I am very good at combat when I am riding a horse. A common battle horse is very weak and cannot survive heavy battle, so I have no choice but to fight without a mount. Besides, a Nargakurga is really rare, and one cannot buy it from the market either. When I saw a Chimera which could be my potential mount, I became very excited,¡± Ray said. ¡°But that man made me feel very uncomfortable, so I wanted to leave quickly and killed the Chimera instead.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and asked, ¡°Is he still staring at you now?¡± ¡°Not now, I no longer felt his existence as soon as I walked close to the commercial corp.¡± Ray thought for a while and said: ¡°I guess¡­he is afraid, Your Majesty.¡± Sui Xiong contemplated for a bit and spread out his soul so he could carefully sense the immediate surroundings. After a while, he finally found some clues. There was a very tiny mark carved on Ray¡¯s soul. It would do no harm to Ray. It was simply a mark which helped others locate Ray¡¯s whereabouts. When Ray was staying with Sui Xiong, the mark was not activated and didn¡¯t send out any signals. As soon as Ray left Sui Xiong and was not under his protection, the mark was activated and sent out a message showing Ray¡¯s location. Then the man who left this mark on Ray¡¯s soul would know where Ray was. That was why Ray had the feeling he was being spied upon. Since Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know what this was all about, he didn¡¯t try to activate the mark and instead confronted Ray about it. ¡°A mark?¡± Ray pondered for a while, then asked, ¡°Can you tell me when this mark was carved on my soul?¡± Sui Xiong examined it for a while with his spiritual sensing, and gave an approximate?time. It hadn¡¯t bee too long. It was a month at least, and a year at most. ¡°Well, I know what is going on now.¡± Obviously, Ray had some idea about this mark. He compared his guess with Sui Xiong¡¯s examination. ¡°It was left by the Brutal Hunter, or the God of Hunt and Holocaust,¡± he concluded. ¡°I attacked his temple, maybe it was at that time he left this mark on my soul.¡± Not long ago, Ray did business in the west wilderness. He spent almost all his money to bribe an evil organization called Black Axe to help him to fight against the followers of the God of Hunt and Holocaust. Then, he tried to sneak into the temple to steal a crystal hidden in the temple when the two sides were fighting with each other. Inside that crystal, there was a bit of magical energy left by the God of Life. If Ray managed to get this crystal and examine it carefully, he might be able to have a grasp on Life. It would also lay a solid foundation for him to become a demigod in the near future. If he was lucky enough, he might even be able to become a real God, who was in charge of the priesthood of Life. Unfortunately, Ray didn¡¯t manage to get the crystal right away, since the cunning managerial personnel were always on alert and ran in a secret tunnel. But Ray couldn¡¯t let them go so easily. He followed them all the way to the big Gobi, killed them all, and got the crystal at last. It was also at that time he met Sui Xiong. The crystal was confiscated by Sui Xiong, and Ray had become his mount since then. In fact, this all happened quite recently; but Ray felt like it was almost century ago. During this journey, Ray was having a really tough time. Still, he was also living each day to the fullest. When he gradually reclaimed his childhood dream and realized that he was back on the way to becoming a knight, he was deeply touched. Just like Sui Xiong had already put before: he felt all the things that happened in the past were already over, while the things happened at the present were ongoing. Now Ray was confident enough to confront anyone, and dared to fight in the battlefield or go to hell! If he had still been a sole bandit wandering in the west wildness, and knew that the Brutal Hunter had left a mark on his soul, he would be terrified and run away like a coward. Ray knew that he was sure to be slain by the killers lead by the Brutal Hunter, and there was only one way left for him: killing himself. Now, although he was still a bit worried, he never even thought of running away. He had reclaimed peace in his mind again, and was no longer afraid of death! Sui Xiong would never allow the followers of the God of Hunt and Holocaust to kill Ray. Sui Xiong believed that the God of Hunter and Holocaust himself was pure evil. The God of Hunter and Holocaust¡¯s doctrines claimed that the world was simply a huge hunting ground, and that all creatures were prey. He usually pleased himself by killing as many creatures as possible. Anyone who chose to believe his doctrine was never a good person. Compared with Ray, who had abandoned this depraved way of life and returned to the path of virtue, these followers should be killed! ¡°I see.¡± Sui Xiong sneered, and said, ¡°That God¡¯s real body can¡¯t step into the Main Plain, and he could, at most, send a few killers and a messenger. Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll back you up!¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to do this. I can just as well defend myself, and this is my business.¡± ¡°Nonsense. Don¡¯t forget I have got the crystal, so it¡¯s my business, too¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°And¡­ to be honest, I have always been curious about other God¡¯s priesthoods.¡± ¡°You mean?¡± ¡°I feel hungry, and want to eat another oracle,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°Last time I gained so much information and energy after eating the oracle of the God of Conspiracy. In fact, I am very much looking forward to tasting the Oracle of the God of Hunt and Holocaust. I hope it will taste good.¡± Ray was silent for a while. Then he got down on one knee, put his right hand on his left chest and lowered his head. ¡°Although I don¡¯t clearly know Your Majesty¡¯s doctrine, and can¡¯t give you my belief, please accept my oath,¡± Ray said slowly and firmly. ¡°I, Leon Igor, hereby swear to you that I devote Your Majesty my life and soul, I will praise you, fight for you, and never stop being loyal to you. Even if I die!¡± Chapter 95 Chapter 95: Chapter 95 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Sui Xiong only meant to taste an oracle of the God of Hunt and Holocaust. He never thought his words could make Ray cry and kneel. This surprised Sui Xiong. Things really were unpredictable¡­ Sui Xiong had already decided to put up a good fight with the oracle of the God of Hunt and Holocaust. But when the commercial corp arrived at the next town, and later at the Golden Tower City, they still had not gotten into a fight with anyone. Could it be possible that the Brutal Hunter had changed? Had he decided to make peace with Sui Xiong instead? Sui Xiong shook his head. A God could never change; their priesthoods decided their characteristics. Every God had humanity, that was for sure, but the humanity needed to give in to the divinity. The God of Hunt and Holocaust had received the priesthoods of cruelty, slaughter, and revenge; slaughter being one of the main priesthoods. This meant he could never make peace with anyone else. If one ever made an enemy with the God of Hunt and Holocaust, he would have to give in to him or defeat him. Sui Xiong was not afraid of having to fight with the God of Hunt and Holocaust, since that God was not too powerful. His supporters weren¡¯t too strong either. Theoretically, the God of Hunt and Holocaust fit into the category of Orc God. However, he was not an Orc, but a feeble figure amongst the Orc Gods; so it was very unlikely that Sui Xiong would get a rise out of the Orc Gods once he got into a fight with the God of Hunt and Holocaust. The God of Hunt and Holocaust was a weak God, only a bit superior to the doorkeeper who came from the Dark Night Gods¡¯ Department, who liked to make the girls his priests. In short, Sui Xiong was not afraid of him at all. Either way, it was always good that they didn¡¯t fight with anyone during their journey. ¡°Two balls of fire already!¡± Steele said happily, watching the two trembling balls of fire on the back of her right hand. During this journey, they helped many people who had come across monsters. Ray¡¯s skills in martial arts had been of great help in these rescues, along with Steele¡¯s healing magic. Every time Steele helped treat a patient, they would thank her. With the number of the people she had treated, she had lit two balls of blue fire. ¡°There are still ten more to go!¡± Steele said. Steele sighed when she saw the ten blanks on the back of her right hand. Over time Steele had treated hundreds of patients, and even practiced the resurrection spell twice. She was very anxious when she found that she had only gained two balls of fire. After thinking for a long time, she could not help but complain to Sui Xiong. ¡°Your Majesty, is there anything wrong with the calculation of the number of the blue fireballs? Last time, I got a ball of fire after healing just a few people from that commercial corp. In the past few days, I have treated so many people, but I only got one ball of fire.¡± ¡°The fire of morality is calculated not by the number of people you have treated, but by the number of people you have helped,¡± Sui Xiong explained. ¡°There are many people in that commercial corp, and you and Ray did a very good deed by removing the danger, and saving them from being killed by monsters. That¡¯s why you received a ball of fire then. In the last few days, you have indeed treated as many people as you saved from that commercial corp. So again you got one ball of fire, which I think it¡¯s very sensible.¡± Steele understood at last. She nodded, then sat aside and became lost in contemplation. Since the fire of morality was lit, her mind had begun to change. She still had sex with some random guys from time to time, but she had also begun to pay more attention to accumulating the fire of morality. Sui Xiong was very happy about this. He created the red and blue fire system to make Steele control her sexual desires, and lead her on the right path. He was pleased when he saw that Steele had begun to behave like a kind person. Compared with Steele, Ray had to make a more dramatic change. Ever since Ray made his oath and declared that he would always be loyal to Sui Xiong, his whole personality started to change. He became very active, positive, and energetic. He was like a tree that had finally rid itself of a heavy stone. When they walked across a town, Ray even went to the magic pagoda to ask an advanced wizard to transform his armor. When he came back, Sui Xiong found that he changed his black armor into white. Ray no longer looked scary, but very amicable. Moreover, he had started paying attention to his looks. Every day, he would comb his hair and carefully pick out all his clothes. He was no longer a guy who was neglectful of his appearance. In particular, he looked graceful during battle, even when he was fighting a monster. He was not a cruel and ferocious adventurer anymore; rather, he had become a decent knight, wandering the world. He did not have a proper mount yet but he soon would. He had already caught a Copper Crown Dragon, and had been taming it the past few days. ¡°A copper crown dragon is not the best choice for a mount,¡± Ray said to Sui Xiong one day as he was taming it. ¡°It doesn¡¯t fly very fast and isn¡¯t very strong. It does have very sharp teeth; but I don¡¯t need that, so its teeth are of no use to me.¡± ¡°Then what is the best choice for a mount?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°A horse, of course!¡± Ray laughed. ¡°My riding skills and spearplay work best when I am riding on a horse. It doesn¡¯t mean that other creatures are not suitable to be my mount, a horse is the best choice, after all. But it is not easy to find a horse that I can ride during a fight!¡± Since then, every time he arrived in a town, he would pay a visit to the businessmen there and ask if they had some good horses to sell. In fact, Ray had seen a few good horses, but most of them excelled only in intelligence or speed, not strength. What Ray needed was not an intelligent horse or a fast one; he needed a big and strong horse that could withstand impact during his fight with another equally strong knight riding a horse. Of course, a horse of this kind only came around by chance, not on demand. He had no choice but to begin to find a mount among the monsters. This copper crown dragon, which would definitely cause panic among the people, became his second choice. A copper crown dragon was not an easy creature to tame. It was still very ferocious when they arrived at the Golden Tower City. It didn¡¯t dislike Ray, but it would try to hurt people whenever it got the chance. If Ray had still been solo bandit like before, he wouldn¡¯t mind riding a scary monster. The Nargakurga he used to ride was also a scary beast, and even helped him in the battlefield. But now Ray was a knight who wanted to help others out, so it was impossible for him to ride a ferocious monster. There was also a good chance that it would eat a random pedestrian from time to time¡­ If that really happens, I would like His Majesty to make it wear a golden collar, Ray thought. As they walked through the city gate, Ray hit the dragon on its head to warn it not to hurt the soldiers standing beside the gate, who seemed very sturdy. The Golden Tower City was just a common city, located in the midwestern part of the Commonwealth. It was also very close to the borderland. If they started from the highland and walked west down the plain for about a week, they could arrive at the Country of Thunder and Lightning. This was a client state of the Commonwealth of Mifata, famous for its plantation industry as well as mineral resources. The Golden Tower City was a bit smaller than the Green Tree City. Before they entered this city, Sui Xiong used his spiritual sensing to explore this city. He found that there was a magic pagoda located in the center of the city. The owner of this tower was only an advanced wizard, and hadn¡¯t stepped into the legendary world. The public security in this city was not that ideal and the street was not bustling either. However, there were quite a few adventurers walking on the street. Apart from the golden pagoda located in the center of the city, the most obvious landmark was probably the row of gallows outside of the city. Multiple corpses were hanging in the gallows, swinging in the wind. ¡°I feel very uncomfortable,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°It seems that there are few good people here, while bad guys are plentiful¡­¡± ¡°People in different cities have their own ways of living. You shouldn¡¯t do to others what you don¡¯t want others to do to you,¡± Ray said. ¡°I came here to recruit Knight Parne, and we shall leave as soon as we get him. As for how people in this city live, that has nothing to do with us.¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we do anything?¡± Sui Xiong said, frowning when he saw a child trying to steal something from a drunk adventurer. ¡°Something is wrong here!¡± Before he finished talking, the drunk adventurer noticed the boy and grabbed him. He twisted the child¡¯s right arm with his big palm. The boy screamed in pain and fell over. Crack! The child¡¯s bone broke. The drunken adventurer walked away, cursing, and left that poor boy whose bone was broken lying on the ground, crying. There were many people walking past the boy, but no one laid eyes on him or showed him any sympathy. ¡°Even if he is a thief, this¡­this is too much!¡± Sui Xiong murmured. ¡°He could just give the child a slap. There is no need to break his bone!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, I think you failed to notice that among those who are hanging on the gallows, more than one person is guilty of stealing.¡± Ray shook his head and sighed. ¡°Maybe in this city, stealing is a felony.¡± ¡°One must die as long as he steals? That¡¯s cruel¡­¡± ¡°Who knows¡­ Maybe the overlord of this city has his own thoughts,¡± Ray said. ¡°The overlord has the right to make laws and put them into practice at his own will, as long as the law doesn¡¯t interfere with those made by the overlord who is in a higher rank than him. As far as I am concerned, there is no law stating a thief shall not be hanged in the Commonwealth of Mifata, so it is totally legal for the local overlord to make hanging thieves law. ¡°The law system here is crap!¡± Sui Xiong complained. He ordered Steele to treat the boy. Steele¡¯s healing spell was very effective, and she easily treated him. The boy was jittery, thanked the gracious and attractive young lady in front him, and hurriedly went away. ¡°That boy is very good. He knows one needs to express his gratitude when he gets help from others,¡± Steele said. ¡°He must have been educated, so how did he become a thief?¡± ¡°Do you want to help him?¡± Ray asked. Steele thought for a while and shook her head. ¡°Everyone has their own way of living. Even if I wanted to help, we could only help him this one time. He still has to rely on himself later. Besides, a mortal cannot manage to help every poor guy who is in trouble.¡± Sui Xiong was greatly troubled by these words. He waved his tentacles and ordered Ray and Steele to leave him. Then he asked someone where Knight Parne lived. He had made up his mind to find Knight Parne, and immediately leave that d*mn place once he managed to persuade Parne to join his church. Chapter 96 Chapter 96: Chapter 96 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma According to Satan¡¯s introduction, Knight Parne lived in the West District of the Golden Tower City. There were settlements of adventurers, subordinate aristocrats, and low-level mages, all of whom were generally capable, had extensive connections, or were well-to-do, but would not find it easy to climb up further on the social ladder. In the view of the earth, they were the so-called ¡®middle class.¡¯ The West District kept good social order with guards in the patrol. Pickpockets or tramps couldn¡¯t be seen. Compared with the East District, where they entered the city, the situation here was much better. Knight Parne¡¯s address was the Dendrobium Street in West District. This world had no concept of house numbers, so the exact address couldn¡¯t be made very clear. Of course, it was hard not to confuse veteran adventurers. Ray had always believed in the word-of-mouth approach, so he randomly looked for a seemingly kind guard and took out two silver coins. With a smile, he said, ¡°Industrious patrol, could I invite you to a drink?¡± The guard stopped and looked at the silver coins with a smile and replied, ¡°Those could buy a bottle of wine; what do you want to know? I¡¯m just an ordinary soldier, and I do not know any special information.¡± Ray handed the silver coins straight to him. ¡°I have a fortunate friend, who is working in the territory of ??a nobleman. That gentleman practices martial arts all day and doesn¡¯t care about his administration, so he is looking for someone to help him take care of miscellaneous things. My friend recommended a knight named Parne living here. Do you know where he lives?¡± The guard froze for a moment, sighed with regret, and said, ¡°You¡¯re late. Knight Parne passed away.¡± ¡°Ah, he was very healthy when my friend came by a few years ago!¡± Ray was startled and quickly asked, ¡°Why did it happen so suddenly?¡± The guard hesitated for a moment. He looked around and whispered, ¡°It¡¯s inconvenient for me to tell you. Go directly to his house and ask, as his family is easy to recognize. There are two rows of marigolds at front of the gate.¡± Finished, he turned away, not willing to stay even for a moment. Ray secretly frowned, but didn¡¯t show it on his face. He went to look for Knight Parne¡¯s house according to the guidance of the guard. In the meantime, Sui Xiong, who was far in the four northwestern towns, had found Satan who was busy. ¡°What?! Parne died?! That¡¯s impossible!¡± Satan exclaimed in a loud voice. ¡°He is in his prime and is a senior soldier. There is no reason for him to die suddenly!¡± ¡°I¡¯m tracing it, and I¡¯ll know the reason soon.¡± Satan lowered his head, his hood covering the anger on his face. ¡°Your Majesty, if he was killed, please allow me to take a day off to get revenge on his behalf!¡± ¡°Oh, did you have a good relationship with him?¡± ¡°When I was abject, it was he who helped me,¡± said Satan. ¡°Without his help, I might not have been able to leave Golden Tower City. At the time I was penniless and couldn¡¯t afford food, let alone the fare for travel. He took care of my life and helped me to contact a group of adventurers determined to leave the Confederation of Mifata, and helped me forge some of the necessary documents¡­ I was able to safely leave with his help. Later, I went to The Duchy of Ray to live for some time, travelled to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins by boat, and finally arrived at the four northwestern towns.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly. ¡°It seems that this person was very good, right?¡± ¡°Yes. He was a noble who believed in the God of Knights. He insisted on mercy and fairness, and was very keen on doing things according to rules and laws. He was eager to help those who really encountered difficulties, so he was prestigious in the Golden Tower City. Parne was a respected gentleman who usually mediated conflicts among various forces in the middle and lower levels.¡± Sui Xiong secretly sighed, and lamented such a man dying so young. As Sui Xiong was in contact with Satan, Ray had already found the home of the Knight Parne according to the instruction of the guard. It was a rather beautiful little western-styled house, showing that the owner had good financial resources. In front of the house, two rows of marigolds exuded a warm golden light in the sun, making people feel the warmth in their hearts. However, when one looked closely, they could see that the house was very old, and that many places needed repairs. Perhaps the owner¡¯s current financial condition was not satisfactory. Suddenly, Ray frowned, looking at a scratch in a corner. It was a small pothole with a slight bulge in the middle, which at first glance seemed harmless. But being an expert combatant, when he realized what it was, he found it somewhat shocking. This was the trace left behind by a crossbow arrow; a crossbow arrow that had been completely shot into the wall! Although the crossbow arrow vector was not long, if you wanted to shoot a crossbow arrow completely into the wood wall, you needed extraordinary power. To do this, what was needed was definitely not an ordinary crossbow, but a special heavy crossbow. This heavy crossbow could easily penetrate a knight¡¯s body armor; even a shield might not block it. As long as one was trained for a period, even a rookie just entering the area could use it to kill powerful fighters. And if the right enchantments were used on the crossbow or crossbow arrow, it could even penetrate the protective spell of a powerful mage and kill him. Not only was this expensive, but the production and transportation were also subject to strict controls. Ray remembered when he was a prince, he had only seen a few crossbows inside the strictly-guarded arsenal. Later, one of them left a life-lasting impression on him. ¡°Your Majesty, Knight Parne¡¯s death may really be a problem,¡± Ray quietly reported his findings to Sui Xiong through the soul contact. Sui thought for a moment and said, ¡°No matter what the problem is, we have to meet his family face to face. We have come here, so let¡¯s talk about other things after we speak with his family in detail.¡± Ray nodded, took Steele to the door, and knocked. The door opened after only one knock. ¡°Why are you here making trouble again? The agreed repayment time has not arrived yet!¡± A red-haired girl holding a sword emerged, accompanied by an angry roar. Clearly she was well prepared to fight an enemy, but it was not her enemy that came. ¡°Um¡­I¡¯m sorry, I made a mistake.¡± When she saw two totally unknown visitors, the girl suddenly realized her mistake, hurriedly returned the sword to the scabbard, and blushed. Ray slightly smiled and greeted her in an aristocratic way with impeccable elegance. ¡°Please pay no mind, as no knight would be angry with such a beautiful lady.¡± The girl¡¯s face suddenly turned redder. ¡°I¡¯m Ray. This is my friend, Steele. We were commissioned by mage Satan to invite Knight Parne to be an administrative official in the Explored Territory.¡± Ray smiled, and asked¡ªalthough he knew what she would answer¡ª¡±Is this Knight Parne¡¯s house?¡± The girl was stunned, and she stared blankly at the smiling Ray and Steele, confirming their identities from their aristocratic etiquette, which could only be possessed by special training. However, tears shone in her eyes. ¡°My father is dead now.¡± She strove to make herself look strong, to keep her voice from trembling. She worked hard to hold back tears and keep them from falling. ¡°You are so kind, but I am very sorry!¡± Ray pretended he just got the news, gasped lightly, and asked, ¡°Knight Parne passed away? But Mr. Satan said he was an outstanding knight. He said that although he usually made a living by copying and teaching, his martial arts were not inferior to mine; forgive me, I could hardly imagine a knight like me would die in his forties¡­ May I take the liberty of asking what led to his death? Disease or injury?¡± The girl kept silent for a long time. She lowered her head and whispered, ¡°It had nothing to do with you. In short, my father died, and it is impossible for him to go to your territory as an administrative official. Please go back.¡± Ray quietly tipped Steele off with a wink. Steele immediately said, ¡°Then there is one more thing we have to do. Mr. Satan owes Knight Parne a big favor, and he is doing very well now, but he is busy with his work and cannot come here. Knowing that we were going to visit Knight Parne, he especially prepared a gift and asked us to bring it to you on the way.¡± Her words successfully attracted the attention of the girl, who waved her hands. ¡°Gifts? That¡¯s so kind of you, but there¡¯s no need. My father never expected anything in return for helping others!¡± ¡°Please¡ªthis way we feel embarrassed.¡± Steele smiled gently, and behaved elegantly as a spring breeze. The girl couldn¡¯t help but come away with a good impression of her. ¡°Mr. Satan has a high status in the territory, and he usually takes care of us as well. We need to help him with whatever he commissions us to do, for reasons of either emotion or justice. It is just a gift, so please do not decline goodwill coming from thousands of miles away, okay?¡± Although it was in the form of a request, Steele¡¯s gentle temperament made it difficult for people to refuse her pleas. Men and women alike, as long as they were not hardhearted veterans, couldn¡¯t refuse Steele¡¯s kind face. Of course, the girl could not, either. She hesitated for a moment then invited Ray and Steele in. Then she hurriedly closed the door and dropped the latch. ¡°What? Are the law and order in this city poor? Why do you also have to lock the door in the daytime?¡± Ray said, showing an appropriate amount of surprise. The girl gave an awkward smile but did not answer. Obviously she did not want to mention some issues. The two followed the girl in through the door, but before they could sit down, they heard a sharp voice from upstairs. ¡°Sister, have those horrible people left?¡± The girl laughed, even more embarrassed, and hurriedly apologized to Ray and Steele. Of course, they did not mind such a thing, brushing off the embarrassment with a laugh. Then, they saw two people from upstairs: Mrs. Teague, Knight Parne¡¯s wife, and his second daughter, Nice. As for Knight Parne¡¯s eldest daughter, Liv, she must have been that somewhat rash girl. Mrs. Teague had a distinctly elven character. Presumably, she was a person of mixed race between an elf and a human; the so-called half-elf. The eldest daughter, Liv, was obviously predominantly human. No elven features could be seen on her. The second daughter, Nice, was more similar to her mother. She had slightly longer, pointy ears, and silver hair that seemed to glitter. It was evident that their bloodline was the relatively rare elf of moon. After they greeted everyone, Ray took out the space bag and took ¡°Mr. Satan¡¯s gift¡± out. It was a set of beautiful dazzling porcelain, as well as a bag of valuable gems. Chapter 97 Chapter 97: Chapter 97 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Of course, these two gifts were not really sent by Satan, but prepared by Ray with his own money. Satan had spent almost 10 years adventuring, but the money he obtained was not much. He followed the adventurer¡¯s principle: that money is useful only when used on yourself. He used most of his income to enhance his abilities. Even though he was absolutely not poor, it was impossible to say that he could make a decent gift. Of course, Satan did not even think about that. In his opinion, the most important thing among friends was mutual respect and mutual help. As for gifts and money¡­ Knight Parne absolutely didn¡¯t need them, because he was definitely not poor, although he was not a wealthy man. In his mind, what Knight Parne took to the heart was aristocracy. So when Sui wanted to find a secular lord for his holy place, Satan recommended Knight Parne. This was his gift to his benefactor. However, Satan and Ray did not share the same ideas. As Ray had an aristocratic background, he highly valued etiquette and wouldn¡¯t go empty-handed on a first visit! So when passing a bustling town, he prepared a gift: that set of porcelain. The level of the craftsmanship in this world was shoddy, and the price of porcelain was quite high; only grand aristocrats could afford especially fine porcelain. Aristocrats who had gone downhill, such as Knight Parne, could only afford some exquisite pottery. A gift of very exquisite porcelain not only showed respect and authority but was also helpful to Knight Parne. Imagine: in the future when guests visited Knight Parne¡¯s family, he would be highly respected for entertaining guests with a set of fine porcelain! But Ray did not realize that Knight Parne had passed away, so on the basis of that set of porcelain, he added a bag of gems. Knight Parne¡¯s family looked quite shocked. In particular, Liv¡¯s comment about payment almost let him guess the reason: nothing more than lack of money. Well, thanks to those magical creatures that came to him, he had very much money these days! This bag of gemstones was actually a sum of money he specially prepared. About half were aventurine, chalcedony, crystal and other low-grade gems priced around 50 gold coins. The other half were white pearl, agate, turquoise and other cheap gems priced around ten gold coins. The bag also contained a few gems priced around 100 gold coins, such as amber, coral, and spinel; although no higher grade gems. The total value of the bag was about 1,500 gold coins. This was of course for the convenience of cash back: after all, for precious stones worth thousands of gold coins such as beljuril jewels, diamonds, and Kings¡¯ tears, people couldn¡¯t find appropriate buyers in smaller towns. When in urgent need of money, they would often be sold for less than they were worth. In contrast, these mid to low-grade gems provided more convenience. So Ray prepared several bags of such gems, so as to quickly change them into cash when needed. In fact, for him who had a large space bag, even carrying tens of thousands of gold coins led to no inconvenience. It just didn¡¯t fit his lifestyle. Such a bag of gems was also relatively in line with etiquette. Covering a long distance to give a set of porcelain as the gift was sufficiently high-end; but it would have been too grand, and not fit the etiquette if matched with too high-end gems. The two gifts carefully selected by Ray were welcomed by Knight Parne¡¯s family, and little Nice happily picked out the glittering gems from the gem bag. She looked at this and that, and she smiled so that her face flushed. Mrs. Teague and Liv¡¯s eyes were completely mesmerized by the set of beautiful porcelain. ¡°These gifts¡­ are too expensive!¡± Mrs. Teague said, seeming overwhelmed. She was well aware of the value of this set of porcelain; this was the real treasure compared to the gemstones, which were colorful but not that valuable. Even if it was placed in the duke¡¯s drawing room, it wouldn¡¯t be out of place. Putting it in the knight¡¯s family who was in an abject state seemed to her almost degrading to the set of porcelain. Liv, who had been worried about money during this time was even more stunned. She could not help but mutter, ¡°How much money is this worth!¡± She often stopped in front of the upscale shops selling all kinds of gems and handicrafts and admired the finest items, so she was very familiar with these things. In particular, the lack of money during this period made her more sensitive to prices. For example, she easily estimated the price of the bag of gems. Still, she could not figure out the price of this set of porcelain. It was obviously high-end: not even generally known high-end goods, but truly exquisite! There were no goods of this level on store shelves. Only the private inner rooms of the store that weren¡¯t open to the public would sell goods at this level. So what was the value of it? 2000? 5000? More? Liv, who had been tortured for a long time by lack of money, often felt that her eyes would shine when she saw golden light of money. But this expensive porcelain was so dazzling that she even had a feeling similar to directly looking into the sun, and her eyes being burned. She only realized tears were flowing down her face when her mother pointed it out to her. Ray and Steele did not speak. Instead, they sat there smiling, waiting for the family¡¯s mood to recover. After a while, the mother and daughters were finally calmed down, and Mrs. Teague took the gift, leaving Liv to carefully collect the set of porcelain, taking extreme care not to break it. As for the gems, although they should have also been carefully collected, they were overshadowed by the porcelain and went hardly noticed. Although there was some uneasiness in her heart, one of the most important elements of aristocratic etiquette was that you could not refuse gifts. Especially now: these gifts were given by mage Satan as a symbol of the gratitude and grace of salvation, so it was impossible. If she had rejected them, it would have meant not taking the grace of salvation seriously, and with the subtext of the salvation of her own life. That would have been too rude! ¡°I am very sorry to let you see this rudeness.¡± Mrs. Teague did not hide her family¡¯s current predicament, and said with a wry smile, ¡°Thank you very much for your gifts. If you do not mind, would you have dinner with us together in this shabby house?¡± This was also etiquette which Ray and Steele were familiar with, so naturally, they would not refuse. However, when Sui Xiong smelled what was coming from the kitchen, even at a great distance, he could not help but frown. ¡°Steele, do me a favor,¡± he said quietly. His taste had been polished up by Steele, who had great cooking skills, since she joined the team. At the moment, he sensed some bad smell coming from the kitchen, and suddenly he felt a little worried about encountering dark dishes in the legends. Sui Xiong did not understand the aristocratic etiquette. To him, nothing was more important than his stomach. He thought that abusing oneself by eating foods that even dogs disdained while forcing a complimentary smile, all for vanity, was something he saved for chasing his girlfriend on earth. Unfortunately, he failed in this; not because of diet problems, but because the girls hated men who played games. Apart from abusing his taste buds and stomach, she could not tolerate small hobbies such as playing games. Just do what your highness has to do as a princess, while I, brother Xiong, can¡¯t serve you! Mrs. Teague was astonished when Steele said she was going to the kitchen ¨C it was different than what she was used to. But she quickly realized the reason and nodded and smiled bitterly. If she herself sat in the living room now, who would be busy in the kitchen? She, even as a mother, was very aware of Liv¡¯s awful cooking skills! She had no choice but to accept Steele¡¯s request: after all, she could not let her guests eat Liv¡¯s food. Your guests traveled a long distance to visit you, so it couldn¡¯t be justified to disgust your guests with your dark dishes! Mrs. Teague thought. When Steele came to the kitchen, Liv awkwardly smiled. Her face was full of restlessness while she struggled with all kinds of cookers, all the while making the food stranger. She knew she had done a bad job this time. ¡°Wash your face and hands, and I¡¯ll be ready soon,¡± Steele said. She did not laugh at Liv, but smiled, still as warm as a spring breeze. Then she occupied herself with the cooking. Her culinary skills were superb. Even her movements while cooking were full of rhythm. Her enchanting appearance always aroused men around her; she had especially perfected this, and it was obvious. Liv, who looked envious, was helping alongside her. She unconsciously mimicked Steele¡¯s actions. But when she realized the difference in their physiques, her envy turned to frustration. As a girl with a quarter elven blood, Liv was also considered somewhat beautiful. However, the elves of Moon had never been known for being sexy, and almost all of the female tribesmen had flat breasts, which was not obvious with her mother. However, Liv¡¯s body clearly reflected the style of the elves of moon maybe; because of their ancestors. Although she was taller than Steele, in terms of the charms of women¡­ Alas! Don¡¯t mention such a sad topic! She looked at Steele¡¯s hot body and looked at her own which could be a juvenile knight¡¯s body if she wore a helmet and another set of clothes. This made her sad, and she returned to the living room. Seeing the eldest daughter coming back from the kitchen, Mrs. Teague frowned, a little dissatisfied with the faux pas. But seeing her daughter¡¯s look of frustration, she quickly guessed the reason. Mothers know their daughters best, and she could not help but shake her head. Elves never cared about boring issues of stature, but the problem was a headache for mixed-race children living in the human society. Her daughter seemed to inherit her father¡¯s talent, so she performed well in fencing, riding, shooting, and academics. But in terms of women¡¯s special abilities, she understood almost nothing. ¡­Perhaps this time, it is not a bad thing for her to be upset. Mrs. Teague told Liv to entertain the guests and take care of Nice so that she wouldn¡¯t make trouble. Then she went to the kitchen. Perhaps Miss Steele can cook alone very well, but it¡¯s not hospitable to leave guests busy with cooking. When Mrs. Teague went to the kitchen, Ray asked, ¡°Miss Liv, I just noticed one thing. May I take the liberty of asking?¡± Of course Liv did not mind his ¡®presumptuous question,¡¯ but when she heard the exact content of the question, her face turned sullen. He had asked about the origin of the crossbow arrow on the corner of the door. Chapter 98 Chapter 98: Chapter 98 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°That piece of the crossbow arrow embedded in the wall was shot by an enhanced heavy crossbow, correct? This crossbow is extremely regulated; I am afraid that the entire Golden Tower City only has one or two. Why did someone use that to cause you trouble?¡± Liv was silent for a moment and sighed deeply. ¡°¡­It is a long story!¡± Because she already felt that they were reliable friends, she no longer hid. She told them the whole story. About five years ago, the Church of the God of Aristocracy sent a highly skilled senior priest to come and strengthen its power management in the Golden Tower City. The God of Aristocracy was an active member of the human deity system. Although her ranking with the deity was not high, the goddess who was apotheosized more than 200 years ago had been actively promoting the faith. On the one hand, her church strengthened its cooperation with adventurers; on the other hand, it took advantage of the aristocracy to crowd out the church organizations of other Gods. However, she also had opponents. Including those from afar, there was a God in the human deity system that had a very bad relationship with her: the God of Knights and Exploration. In terms of divine power and mighty power, the God of Knights was a veteran strongman in the human deity system. It has been tens of thousands of years since he had been apotheosized, and his qualifications were even higher than the holy king of the contemporary human deity system. He symbolized the pioneering and safeguarding of the human military organization. In ancient times, he was once even the holy king of human deities. The subsequent decline in power was due to the continuous development of human society, the emergence of new Gods, the differentiation of his clergy and fields, and the reduction of his faith. Even so, he was much stronger than the God of Aristocracy. The strength of Gods could not directly determine the outcome of the competitions between their churches in the human world. Knights, because of inherent disadvantage in status, were fatally suppressed by the aristocrats, so that the Church of the God of Knights was also at a disadvantage, and almost became the vassal of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. However, in some pioneering territories, homeless knights and church knights were the main force, so their church could not be suppressed. The missions of the Church of the God of Aristocracy often started by invading and annexing belief in the Church of the God of Knights. The city of Quinta was no exception. In the face of an overbearing Church of the God of Aristocracy, Knight Parne was the most prestigious knight in the Golden Tower City. He was not allegiant to any one of the lords, and had certainly become the mainstay of the Church of the God of Knights against aggression. As the leader of the secular forces of the Church of the God of Knights, he fouled the conspiracy of the Church of the God of Aristocracy again and again, and firmly held the position of faith. Despite the various tricks placed by the newcomer senior priest of the God of Aristocracy, he never gained the upper hand. This situation lasted for three years, until the accident. About two years ago, a well-off businessman who had been operating for many years in the local area decided to make a big sale. He prepared a lot of magic materials from demon beasts, and intended to travel by sea to the Kingdom of Blue Moon in the eastern part of the continent, and trade with the Gars City that was rich in fragrant leaves (an edible middle and low-class spice). The trading of spices and magic materials had always been the most profitable business, and of course, the most dangerous. Mostly, the business required people to travel a lot on the ocean where storms, horrible sea creatures, and an endless stream of pirates all could lead to tragic shipwrecks and casualties. In order to ensure the security of the trades, the businessman issued an invitation to almost all of the relatively reliable adventurers in the entire Golden Tower City. In the end, a dozen or so masters, including Knight Parne, decided to trade together. At the suggestion of the businessman, they also took out almost all their savings, purchased the magic materials, and set off together. Normally, there were so many masters, and the businessman had specially invited several experienced master captains, so the safety of the fleet would be relatively high. However, they did not understand why the fleet encountered so many terrible monsters. They passed Undercurrent Timsar while bypassing the Great Wild Horn, the Iron Cliff Mountains in the southeast. Undercurrent Timsar was the most horrible and most dangerous sea monster on the southeastern coast, and it was said to be a nightmare at sea. Fleets that encountered it almost never survived. It is said that in ancient times, there was once a powerful demigod named The Living Tsunami, or Sarament, who was the embodiment of the storm and the waves. It was one of the most horrifying hegemonists on the sea. But it failed when it tried to be apotheosized, and countless years of accumulated terror and resentment tore its body as a demigod, dividing it in two: Angry Tide Heimsarah and Undercurrent Timsar. Angry Tide Heimsarah was a cranky but rational demigod, who liked to wander in the offshore areas. Whenever people saw a sudden rainstorm accompanied by a huge wave sweeping the wasteland and islands, they knew it was coming. At this time, people often offered sacrifices to it and prayed for its blessing. Generally, a third of the prayers were replied to, but as long as it responded to people¡¯s prayers, it would temporarily stop drifting to protect the sea from dangerous monsters and storm attacks. About a year or two after that, it would drift away in a rainstorm, and people wouldn¡¯t know where it had gone. Undercurrent Timsar, on the other hand, was a monstrous beast that only knew about destruction and killing. There was absolutely no way to communicate with it. Whenever it appeared, a huge shadow was cast across the sea floor, and the sea would be overwhelmed by decaying fog and icy cold waves. Countless souls of innocent people and immortal creatures surrounded it in the water, crazily attacking all creatures in the sea and eventually dragging them all into the abyss of death. It came without a warning and left without a trace, and if there was a sudden darkening of the sky and darkening of the sea beneath it, it was usually too late to escape its clutches. Knight Parne¡¯s fleet encountered this terrible monster. They tried their best to fight it, but ultimately only one boat escaped. The remaining ships, including the flagship of the fleet (the businessman on the flagship) and the ship Knight Paine was on, failed to escape and sank to the seafloor. The senior priest of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, who was also in the fleet at that time, was said to have fought bravely but could not save his own life. Almost a year ago, the fortunate escaped ship was returned to the Commonwealth of Mifata, the maritime commerce route was established, and future sea merchants would be able to reap sumptuous profits. But those who died in the search for the commerce route could not come back. When bad news spread to the Golden Tower City, at least a quarter of the city¡¯s families were devastated. But before anyone could recover, the Church of the God of Aristocracy suddenly came forward with pre-signed contracts to collect debt from all of them. According to the contracts, adventurers, including Knight Parne, were participating in this voyage by way of buying shares. If they earned money, they could get dividends in accordance with their shares; and if they lost, of course, they would lose money in accordance with the shares. There was nothing inherently wrong with the contracts; but until then, people were surprised to find that the businessman actually borrowed a staggering amount of money from the Church of the God of Aristocracy. According to the original contracts, Knight Parne and others held a lot of shares, and so their families were deep in debt. The various families that lost dividends and capital because of the shipwreck could not find so much money, so they suddenly fell into trouble. The Church of the God of Aristocracy was not made up of good men and women. The members immediately pressed the families for the debt. The families of two of the adventurers were forced to commit suicide, and many of the rest were forced to sign contracts, betraying their faith and labor and becoming subordinates of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. The crossbow arrow on the corner of Knight Parne¡¯s House was left by the debtors, in order to threaten Liv during a conflict between them. Fortunately, some families, including the family of Knight Parne, still had some contacts. A senior mage intervened and convinced the Church of the God of Aristocracy to allow for a grace period. They hesitantly agreed but also asked for interest. In order to pay off the debt, Liv became an adventurer who set up an adventurers¡¯ group with children from families that also bore huge debts. They worked hard to hunt dangerous monsters and make money to pay the debts. However, the Church of the God of Aristocracy used commercial means to greatly suppress the city¡¯s magic material procurement prices. Often, the children risked their lives fighting, only to come up short on paying off their interest! Under such circumstances, the boys and girls were, of course, getting increasingly anxious. The Church of the God of Aristocracy pressed for the debts occasionally by reminding them that their debts were increasing, and their repayment dates approaching. They were like ghosts hammering nails in someone¡¯s coffin. ¡°So¡­ when we arrived, did you think that we were from the Church of the God of Aristocracy?¡± Ray asked. Liv nodded and angrily said, ¡°Damn those guys!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t anyone else visit you?¡± Ray asked again. Liv shook her head with some frustration. ¡°No, my father¡¯s friends either died in the voyage, or got cut off from us because they were forced away by the power of the Noble Maid (the God of Aristocracy), and now only we young people can help and encourage each other¡­ But I could not see any hope.¡± ¡°Sister, do not be sad! Now we have money!¡± Little Nice, seeing her sister again get depressed, hurriedly grabbed a few gems to show her. ¡°Look, so many gems! You could pay off the debt! ¡± Even a little girl is intuitive: although she could not estimate the price of these precious stones, her resourceful nature told her that the gems were worthwhile and sufficient for paying off their debts. Seeing Nice¡¯s look of care and happiness, Liv could not help but laugh. ¡°Yes, as we are blessed by Mr. Satan, we do not have to worry about the debts,¡± she said. ¡°But it is hard for me to be happy thinking about my partners¡¯ situations.¡± She did not want to borrow money because everyone¡¯s collective debt was so large. Even if Mr. Ray and Miss Steele were willing to lend them money, they could not carry such a huge sum of money with them from far away. Ray pondered and slightly frowned. ¡°I still feel there is something wrong with all this¡­¡± Chapter 99 Chapter 99: Chapter 99 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Ray frowned, thinking hard while talking to himself. ¡°There does not seem to be any problem at all, and it is not uncommon that failed investments have caused a number of families to suffer heavy losses and huge debts¡­ But to persuade people like Knight Parne to join the voyage, who have settled here for many years? Certainly, the travelers would have to be sure of a good outcome. After all, for them, if a good outcome was at least 70% certain¡ªno, if it were only 70%, they would not take the risk! They have families, careers, and definitely have no reason to risk their lives striving for wealth!¡± ¡°But¡­ where is the problem? It¡¯s quite clear that the Golden Tower City is not a coastal city, but why did that businessman choose to venture an ocean trade? It was not too hard to understand; maybe he quietly caught up with the city of Gars. Merchants are profit-driven: as long as they can make money, it doesn¡¯t matter to them even they are asked to travel across the ocean. And since he explored commerce routes that time, it would have been easier to cause trouble if they recruited partners when they had arrived at cities near a seaport. ¡°So, it was clear he that took on a lot of shareholders, but also privately borrowed a lot of money and had debts? I suppose that was normal since he was 100% sure about the voyage trade, which was also the first trade that was the most lucrative, of course, the capital should be as much as possible. No borrowing would have been abnormal! ¡°Was the problem with the chief priest who was in the Church of Noble Maids? No, he was behaving normally¡­ While watching his opponent and for profits, he bought a good deal of the same kinds of goods and got into the boat. Also, in the face of Timsar, he fought to his death. The whole process could not be seen as strange or suspicious. The suspicious detail was where the church found all that money. Sure, the church bought a large batch of goods, but could they also lend others a lot of money? Actually, it is not strange that the Church of Noble Maids had huge sums of money because they relied on many large aristocrats¡­ Perhaps it was because of the huge sums of money that had been lent. The chief priest followed them on board wanting to supervise the process of this business himself¡­ ¡°¡­All are wrong! But surely there was something else wrong!¡± Ray pondered for a long time, but after all, he could not find the key to the problem, and ultimately he appealed to Sui Xiong for help. After dinner, they came to the hotel for a rest after they bid farewell to Mrs. Teague, Liv, and Nice. Steele again secretly went to some unknown place, and Ray and Sui discussed. ¡°There must be something wrong with this!¡± Ray said, ¡°Although I still cannot find out where the problem is, I can smell a conspiracy!¡± ¡°Yes, this is something wrong with this!¡± Sui nodded repeatedly. ¡°Knight Parne and the others had no reason to cross the sea because they were not short of money!¡± ¡°Actually, they were short of money,¡± Ray said. ¡°It was definitely a matter of a large sum of money when the Church of Exploring Knights (the alias of the God of Knights and Exploration) was struggling to fight against the Church of Noble Maids. Those Knights were not rich, and a few years before I¡¯m afraid it was difficult for them to support their families. Since they saw a safe and lucrative opportunity, they certainly would not let it go.¡± ¡°Fair enough. Plus, through the voyage, it was possible to enhance their social relations, as long as the risk was not great. It was not more than a year or so.¡± ¡°Well, because the chief priest of the Church of Noble Maids was also on board, they did not have to worry about being caught, and the reason for the captain embarking was very good. There was nothing wrong.¡± Ray pondered for a long time but finally, he still found no solution. ¡°Your Majesty, why not simply use your magic?¡± Ray asked. ¡°Magic? There is no magic for detecting other gods inside the church.¡± Sui Xiong said. He thought for a moment, shook his head and said, ¡°Only some gods with holy missions, such as conspiracies, spies, and so on, have such special spells.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t there is a spell with which you could invite some unknown singular existence to answer questions? It seems that they could answer most questions correctly¡­¡± ¡°Oh, you are talking about that series of spells. Although I don¡¯t think they are necessarily useful, let¡¯s try it anyway.¡± Inspired, Sui began to prepare spells. A moment later, accompanied by black smoke and cold evil atmosphere, a terrible ghostly face appeared in front of them, watching them with the cold eyes that could freeze one¡¯s marrow. Ray was somewhat horrified to be seen by it and hurriedly spoke. ¡°Please answer my question. Was there a conspiracy behind the death of Knight Parne?¡± he asked. The look on the face became a little confused, which meant it was using its talent to spy on the long river of life to search for the answer to this question. But before it could find the answer, the face suddenly became frightened and disturbed. Then the face distorted, accompanied by a shrill yell. It blew into a cloud of smoke. Then, all the smoke and cold air started to spin, becoming a whirlpool and disappearing without a trace. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Ray asked doubtfully, startled. ¡°There was a strong presence that acted,¡± Sui Xiong said, easily spotting the problem. ¡°But I¡¯m not sure whether this person deliberately a magic lock so that all the spells related to the search were automatically triggered, or he set up an alert that enabled him to act himself when the alert is turned on.¡± Ray was silent for a moment and asked, ¡°How strong is he, roughly?¡± ¡°This is hard to say. In the former case, it is almost infinitely strong,¡± Sui said. ¡°Even in the latter case, it is still formidable.¡± ¡°Compared to you?¡± ¡°No matter how strong the opponent is, as long as I do not rashly intrude into the other world and do not fight against it with means such as fate, I am afraid of no enemies in the ordinary battle of mankind.¡± Ray thought for a long time, and finally shook his head and sighed deeply. ¡°Oh! Even if you want to continue to track down this conspiracy, there are no clues!¡± Ray helplessly said. ¡°Without clues, no one can solve it!¡± Sui Xiong also sighed, as a God was not omnipotent. After a while, Ray said, ¡°Your Majesty, Knight Parne has passed away. Are you still going to find a lord for the Holy Land that is about to be built?¡± ¡°Of course. I just haven¡¯t figured out who to look for,¡± Sui said. ¡°It is not that easy to find an administrative talent who is competent, has good character and has no conflicts with me in terms of faith.¡± ¡°I know a few people who may be qualified,¡± Ray said, pondering. ¡°Although it has been a long time since I contacted them, their abilities are definitely suitable. And in terms of faith¡­ Maybe there would not be huge problems. What I am not sure of is what their character are like now. After all, people change.¡± ¡°If they are a good fit, allow them to try. Where do they live?¡± ¡°Eagle Wing City, capital of Kingdom of Eagle,¡± Ray said. ¡°At least 15 years ago, were all in Eagle Wing City. I haven¡¯t heard anything about them these years, but they probably still live there.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± Sui Xiong nodded first, solidifying his intention. But the next morning, after a night of thinking, he changed his mind. ¡°Things can¡¯t go like this!¡± he said. ¡°The deaths of the group of good people headed by Knight Parne are not resolved, and their families are still under pressure. Since I have encountered such a thing, I have no reason to stay aside, idle!¡± ¡°Should we pay their debt?¡± Ray asked. ¡°I¡¯m not comfortable with that¡­¡± Sui said. ¡°Things need to be done step by step. We should help them solve their immediate trouble before we do other things,¡± Ray said. ¡°Not to mention that if there really is a conspiracy behind this thing, we would disrupt the follow-up plans of those who plotted this after we pay the debts. Then those evil people will come to cause trouble for us. At that time, the clues will come naturally to us, won¡¯t they?¡± Sui Xiong nodded, amazed. Ray¡¯s vision and tactics were indeed good. If he was not so disinterested in being a lord, perhaps it would be a good choice to make him the lord of his Holy Land. Encouraged by Sui, Ray was more proactive and made plans after some consideration. His plans needed to severely agitate those evil people who made the plot, and let them lose their cool to present themselves. A few hours later, they visited Knight Parne¡¯s home again. Liv had gone out that day, and only Mrs. Teague and little Nice were at home. When they learned that Mr. Ray had contacted the lord through magic, and that the Lord had said he could help those people in trouble pay the debt, they could not help but be surprised. ¡°But¡­ That is a staggering number!¡± Mrs. Teague was stunned, and stumbled. ¡°How much?¡± Ray asked. ¡°My sister has counted that, which is a total of¡­¡± Nice tilted her head, thought for a moment, and said a number enough to frighten families that were relatively wealthy. ¡°Ah! And how could I not count the interest? I do not know¡­¡± This number was not beyond Ray¡¯s expectation. He smiled softly and said, ¡°Rest assured, even with the interest it is not a big issue. I will go to raise the money, and after Miss Liv comes back, would you invite her and those friends here tomorrow so that we can talk about it in detail? How about it?¡± ¡°No problem!¡± Answered Mrs. Teague immediately. Then she worriedly said, ¡°But¡­ it is not a small sum of money! The tax that we Golden Tower City can dispose of is no more than 2000 gold coins a year¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s because most aristocrats do not pay tax on all kinds of businesses,¡± Ray said with a smile. ¡°Do not worry. Our Lord is new-rich. This is indeed not a small number, but to him, it¡¯s nothing more than a grimace.¡± He grimaced to prove his point, which was so funny that little Nice laughed. After the deal was finalized, Ray took his leave. He woke up Steele, who was still fast asleep. On the back of her hands, the number of red flames increased to seven; she was about to change into a pig. The two went together to several stores that mainly dealt with magical materials, spent all the cash and gems, and acquired as much as they could with as many magical materials as possible at low prices. Thanks to the fact that the Church of Noble Maid suppressed the market for magic materials during this period, the prices of such things in Golden Tower City were indeed low. They easily acquired a large number of materials. By simply going to other cities, they could have some profit even if they sold it at lower prices. But how could Sui Xiong be satisfied with selling them at lower prices? After leaving the city, Sui Xiong left Ray as the coordinate, cast the magic spell of transmission, and took Steele to cross almost half of the continent back to the Territory of Geerteng. They finally went to the Black Blade Wall. Since the last accident, Sui Xiong had made a lot of effort on the magic of transmission. During this time, he had successfully identified several devout followers as coordinates of transmission. It could only transmit another body that was smaller and weaker. It could not deliver their own bodies, which were overly powerful and too bulky, because of the limits of the magic of transmission. However, it was sufficient for delivering goods. They directly went to visit the lord and showed him the magic materials. Olian instantly brought together several big aristocrats and merchants in the territory to jointly discuss a scheme to make a fortune. After a few hours of discussion or argument, the batch of materials was sold at a very good price. The aristocrats and wealthy merchants involved in the trade also smiled, and everyone was satisfied. Carrying a space bag filled with gold coins and gems, Sui Xiong returned to the Golden Tower City with Steele and met Ray, who was still frivolously tossing about the copper dragon and trying to train it as his horse. The proceeds of this transaction alone was worth several times the debts! Chapter 100 Chapter 100: Chapter 100 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°Actually, it is business that brings money quickly!¡± Ray took the space bag and was completely dumbfounded with one glance. Before long he could not help but say, ¡°Better not to find anyone anywhere. Let¡¯s directly concentrate on doing business everywhere on the continent. I think as long as you keep doing this for three, maybe five years, the wealth you¡¯ll accumulate will be enough to buy a country!¡± ¡°Do not dream about that!¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°How often can we do this kind of thing! As a god, how can I abuse the advanced spell of transmission to do business¡­ Even if I didn¡¯t care about my self-respect, other gods are unlikely to agree with it because it violates rules. When you think about it, basically any god can do this, so why wouldn¡¯t other gods do it?¡± Ray thought, shook his head, and sighed. He did not know the world of gods, but what His Majesty said made sense. It would be like a royal knight contest, which turned out awkwardly because the prince himself participated it! And yet, this kind of thing maybe seems so familiar! Ray thought. He touched his nose and laughed awkwardly. Early the next morning, they came to Knight Parne¡¯s home. This time, not only Mrs. Teague and her two daughters welcomed them, but also a dozen young boys and girls. They were a bit worried, but they showed more hope than worry on their face. All of them had some anxiety in their eyes because they saw the chance of paying their debt. Ray did not waste any time and came straight to the point, saying, ¡°We¡¯ve gathered all the money needed.¡± These words were concise and to the point, but had a great effect. The eyes of the boys and girls all brightened; even their breathing increased. ¡°Excuse me¡­ what do you need us to do?¡± An older, seemingly prudent youth asked. ¡°Frankly speaking, if you really paid off such a big sum of money for us, we would be very uneasy. ¡± Ray nodded, smiled and said, ¡°Then the money will be my investment in you. If you are able to grow up and grow into good people, then you deserve this investment. If you are not¡­ that will mean I have a bad luck. ¡± This seemed at first glance quite justified. But, if people carefully thought about, it showed Ray¡¯s extreme disposition as a hero: nothing more than a variant of ¡°I make friends with all of you.¡± The approach of paying a sum of money heavier than a bounty to make friends with everyone was simply unbelievable! ¡°Sir, please do not kid us, okay?¡± The young man said with a knowing smile. ¡°Maybe for you this money is nothing, but to us, it is a terrifying amount that can almost crush us. We cannot bear such an investment, which will make us very uneasy!¡± Ray did not hurry to answer. His eyes slowly swept over the boys and girls, and he saw almost the same message in the face and eyes of everyone. He could not help but laugh again. ¡°I am very happy to meet such a group of upright young people like you, so let us use a way to reassure you¡­The money is an infinite interest-free loan, but if necessary I¡¯ll give you some more so that you can grow up well. When you are strong enough, then you can slowly save money to repay that. I believe that a mature adventurer can absolutely pay off this loan.¡± This time, boys and girls were relieved, and they clearly looked much more assured. ¡°This group of young lads and ladies are really interesting!¡± Sui Xiong said smilingly with the heart connection, ¡°Most people try every possible mean to take advantage of others. On the other hand, they didn¡¯t take advantage, but seemed to be relieved instead after bearing the debt.¡± ¡°They are upright people, so no doubt they are believers of the Knight of Exploration! And I can count on how good the parents who taught them are!¡± Ray said with admiration. Then with regret, he said, ¡°What a pity! That group of excellent knights died in the boundless sea.¡± Speaking of this, Sui was suddenly reminded of their plan. ¡°It¡¯s better to ask them,¡± he said. ¡°Maybe they have some clues.¡± So Ray asked these young people about their doubts. But all of them seemed very confused, and all said they knew nothing. Still, Ray clearly saw that that young man who spoke as the representative had a cold light in his eyes. It seemed that he was different from the others and knew something special. So when the boys and girls thanked them, took enough money to repay the debt and left, Ray also left to quietly keep up with that young man. Soon after, he came to that young man¡¯s home. This was a simple wooden hut that defined the phrase ¡®there are only four walls in the family¡¯s house.¡¯ Judging the place, Ray thought they had sold most of the furniture recently. It was clear that this young man was almost in a hopeless case. Although he was abject to this point, he could gain everyone¡¯s trust and speak in his capacity as representative. According to the attitude of the crowd, he appeared to have a status higher than Liv¡¯s in the small group of juvenile boys and girls. This was not easy! At least Ray felt that most likely, he wasn¡¯t that capable. The young man did not feel Ray¡¯s visit was an accident. He still had the decency to pour him a glass of water. ¡°Sorry; now I have no servant, no food, and no wine here,¡± the boy said. ¡°Actually, when a friend visits, we, by all means, must serve him with wine according to the rule made by my uncle; but I just sold the last bottle of wine a few days ago, and now there is only water in the house.¡± Although he was talking about frustrating things, he laughed brightly without any trace of gloom. ¡°My name is Zesheng. A few months ago I had a surname of ¡®Xiyu¡¯ but now it has gone because our manor and fiefs were sold. May I ask your name?¡± ¡°Ray. Just call me Ray.¡± Ray smiled and said, ¡°One¡¯s surname is in fact not that important. Inheriting the surname from your ancestors is good, but it¡¯s better to create your own surname and let others inherit it. I believe you are of the latter. ¡± ¡°Ha-ha! Mr. Ray, you think highly of me!¡± Zesheng laughed loudly and happily. After laughing, he started telling what he knew. Originally, he did not seem to know more than the others. But when he sold the manor and fief, he occasionally learned some unusual news. It was said that before the chief priest of Church of the God of Aristocracy started, he had arranged his successor, and he almost went on board empty-handedly because he left some of the most powerful magic props in the local shrine. Zesheng specifically asked those on the only surviving ship. Coincidentally, almost every one of them was impressed by the chief priest, and even those who had not seen him before clearly remembered how he died. When they met Timsar, the chief priest held high the holy emblem of the God of Aristocracy and prayed loudly. His body shone with a bright light which once even blocked the erosion of the decaying shadows. He only resisted for a short time and was soon swallowed by the darkness and erosion that swarmed to him before being killed by Timsar. But it was precisely because of his efforts that he attracted the attention of horrible creatures that allowed the ship with a survivor to escape. It was also the reason that no one ever doubted that the Church of the God of Aristocracy was playing tricks. Only the craziest person could doubt a warrior that sacrificed himself for others! However, Zesheng found something wrong with the description of those survivors. In the face of Undercurrent Timsar, a horrible monster, could a chief priest only use such a conspicuous and simple means to confront it? And, as a priest of an evil god, why should he actually sacrifice himself to save others? This didn¡¯t make sense! This didn¡¯t make sense at all! He secretly asked a pastor of the God of Knights, a mighty chief priest about what should be done when encountering a magical creature like Timsar. The pastor replied after meditating. In his case, he should pray that God would bestow grace upon him, allowing him to detonate all the sacred powers he accumulated over the years, and to try his best to give that monster a heavy blow. ¡°You are a good pastor. How about in the case of an evil priest?¡± Zesheng continued to ask. ¡°An evil priest is the same. Good priests protect others, and evil priests attack the enemy. Although the starting points are different, the final choices are not,¡± the pastor answered without hesitation. Zesheng was even more dubious. What exactly was the reason the chief priest of the God of Aristocracy chose such an honorable, but not so helpful, way to fight? Why not choose a direct detonation? He considered and could only come to one conclusion. The priest did so to save a few people and to let those people clearly see how he died, so they would not suspect him or the Church of the God of Aristocracy. As for why he would make everyone not suspect himself and the church, there could only be one conclusion, too. Everything was a pre-arranged conspiracy! His story ended here. Through the process, Ray didn¡¯t speak and instead listened quietly until he had heard all the narratives. Then he asked his question after some thought. ¡°That is to say, all this is actually your guess, and there is no reliable evidence?¡± ¡°Yes, I have no evidence,¡± Zesheng said with a smile. ¡°If this was a conspiracy, then there would not be many people involved, perhaps only the businessman uncle who organized the voyage. But he also died on the sea, along with his butler. And I couldn¡¯t investigate it even if I wanted to.¡± Ray frowned. As Zesheng said, if this was the conspiracy of the chief priest of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, then the conspiracy was too ruthless. In order to preach, the chief priest sacrificed not only his partners, but also himself. They might not have been able to find any clues¡ªat least not in the Golden Tower City¡ªif they wanted to investigate into such a conspiracy. ¡°What about discussing it with Aunt Teague?¡± Ray suggested. Seeing him frowning, Zesheng said, ¡°When my uncle was still alive, we often went to discuss with Uncle Parne and Aunt Teague whenever there were any problems. He said Aunt Teague was a very intelligent and talented person who, although lacking some long-term vision, could often draw up good plans when there were established goals. She could find problems and pitfalls in plans that others didn¡¯t.¡± Ray was slightly surprised. ¡°Then why don¡¯t you ask her?¡± ¡°It was not necessary before,¡± Zesheng said with a crooked smile. ¡°At that time, Aunt Teague could not even protect herself. Even if I told her the information, what use would it be, besides having her worry in vain?¡± Ray sighed and accepted his advice. Soon after, he again visited Knight Parne¡¯s house and told Aunt Teague Zesheng¡¯s information. Chapter 101 Chapter 101: Chapter 101 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°I never knew that Xiao Xiyu already knew about this.¡± Madame Teague said. What was even more surprising was that when Ray told Madame Teague about Zesheng, she was not surprised at all. Instead she sighed, ¡°This kid is too smart!¡± ¡°Ah? Madame Teague, you knew about this?¡± Ray was surprised. ¡°Of course, my husband¡¯s death in the sea is still a mystery to me; I am his wife and I need to carefully do some research about this,¡± Madame Teague said calmly. ¡°I didn¡¯t think this was just coincidence from the very beginning. It is a conspiracy, and I believe that whoever benefits most from an incident is the most suspicious. So I started my research in the Noble Maids Church, and I quickly got the clue.¡± She smiled, and said, ¡°Although I have been living in retirement for many years, I was once a very experienced adventurer. In fact, I was very famous for being an adventurer who travelled all over the place. Besides, I am much more efficient than that green hand, Xiao Xiyu.¡± Ray finally understood, and laughed. All this time, he had underestimated Madame Teague¡¯s ability, and it never occurred to him that how could it be possible for an ordinary woman to be so?lively?and talk so?jovially?with a bunch of powerful adventurers. Knight Parne himself was an advanced knight, and Madame Teague was at least an adventurer of the intermediate level; so there was a great chance that she could be as strong as her husband! ¡°If you knew everything, why have you kept silent all this time?¡± He was confused. ¡°Who do you think I could talk to, then?¡± Madame Teague sighed. ¡°My children are still very weak, and knowing this would do them no good. Besides, all my old friends have either died together with my husband, or defected to the Noble Maids Church. I had no choice but to bury this secret at the bottom of my heart, settle my children in other places, and then ask someone to research this.¡± ¡°Still, you should have told me this!¡± Ray said. ¡°Since I have already gotten involved in this business, I should do something about it! Besides, I am really powerful. If I cannot help you, I can get my companions to help you. If they can¡¯t help you either, I can even ask His Majesty to help you.¡± ¡°You are a real knight! I don¡¯t want to get others into danger for me.¡± Ray could not help but laugh, and said, ¡°Madame Teague, since you have already admitted that I am a knight, I am sure that you know that it is normally the knight who decides whether he should get himself into a certain business or not.¡± He stood up and became very serious. ¡°As a knight myself, I have to do something to destroy this vicious conspiracy! And I swear on my honor that I will try my best to destroy every conspiracy and punish the guilty!¡± Hearing these words, Madame Teague was totally persuaded by Ray. Once a knight had sworn on his honor to help someone, one could never refuse the offer. If one was still not willing to accept his offer, they would insult the knight¡¯s honour. Now that the two had reached a consensus on this key issue, things would go smoothly in the future. Madame Teague told Ray the information she had already collected. Compared with the information Zesheng had collected, hers was much more detailed, especially on some critical issues, which made Ray feel very excited. For example, she got the information about the man who had made some contact with the businessman who sailed away. That man was called Sean Riley, the son of the castellan of Garth Town. He was in charge of the business activity in Garth Town. To create a new business route, he sailed to the Mifata Federation and happened to meet with the businessman who was doing business in the White Pagoda Bay. Since then, they had become friends. If there was any conspiracy behind Madame Teague¡¯s husband¡¯s death, this Sean Riley must have had something to do with it; and there was a big chance that he was the co-partner of the officiant. Ray nodded and said, ¡°This piece of information is really crucial! I have thought this through! I will immediately make my departure with Steele to find this Sean Riley, and talk with him.¡± ¡°He is not here. He is either in Garth Town or Cloud Pagoda Bay.¡± ¡°Cloud Pagoda Bay? Hadn¡¯t they met each other at White Pagoda Bay?¡± ¡°White Pagoda Bay is the most important bay in our Federation, and the good and the bad are mixed here together. There are countless powerful figures and organizations here. To make sure of their own security, they would definitely choose White Pagoda Bay as their transit,¡± Madame Teague said. ¡°Cloud Pagoda Bay is not that big, but for a merchant fleet, it is big enough. More importantly, the ruler of the Cloud Pagoda Bay is an advanced wizard, and when Sean Riley got into a fight with him, it would have been much easier for Sean to deal with him than with a legendary wizard. Besides, he had got a small appetite.¡± Ray nodded, and asked her what he should mind. ¡°There is only one thing that you should be careful with,¡± Madame Teague said. ¡°My whole family and me, who will come with you two.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Ray was stunned. ¡°This is impossible! I know you are very powerful, and Miss Liv is also capable to have a fight, but how could you make Miss Nice to join us too?¡± ¡°You are doing all this for me, and you are willing to take the risk to find out the reason why my husband died. Of course I can¡¯t not allow you to take the risk while I stay at home and do nothing about this. Thus, I have to come with you two,¡± Madame said peacefully. ¡°If I go with you, Liv and Nice will not be strong enough to protect themselves. Leaving them behind means I am giving them away to the enemy. So I have to take them with me.¡± ¡°There is really no need for you to come, please have faith in yourself.¡± ¡°It has nothing to do with your ability. Like you said, you are a knight and have your own principles and honor. I, as the wife of Parne, also have my own principles and honor,¡± Madame Teague said gently but in a very determined way. ¡°If you think we three are a burden, we can follow you two behind. I promise I won¡¯t make any trouble for you. But to be honest, I think the best choice is for us to go together.¡± Ray frowned and looked at Steele, who was carefully listening, hoping to get some support from her. Steele said, ¡°I think Madame Teague is right. I think we should better go together.¡± Ray hadn¡¯t thought Steele would agree with Madame Teague, so he turned to Sui Xiong. ¡°I don¡¯t see any problems with her coming with us,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Is there anything wrong with a wife wanting to avenge her husband and finding the reason for his death? And it is also right for a daughter to do so for her father. As for young Nice, do you think we should leave her alone?¡± ¡°But¡­ it is too dangerous! There may be a big fight!¡± Ray was very mad. ¡°Haven¡¯t you thought about how dangerous this may be? And Nice is still too young!¡± Sui Xiong finally got what he meant and began to curse. ¡°Sh*t! What¡¯s wrong with you? Are you doubting my power? If you can¡¯t protect her, you still have me! No matter how big a fight we may face, I can definitely protect her!¡± Ray was heavily criticized by Sui Xiong, and he forced out a smile. Things were settled then. Madame Teague and her family would go together with them. Madame Teague was indeed a vigorous and resolute person. She immediately began to pack with Nice, and put all the valuable objects or anything that was memorable away. When Liv came back home after paying all the debt, she was stunned to see that her house had been emptied. ¡°What¡­ what is going on?¡± she asked. ¡°Are we moving away?¡± ¡°No, we are going to Cloud Pagoda Bay.¡± Madame Teague felt there was no need to hide anything anymore, so she explained it all to Liv. ¡°Your father¡¯s death, as well as other people¡¯s, is actually not that simple. There is some conspiracy behind it. Mr. Ray has promised us that he and Miss Steele will come with us together to Cloud Pagoda Bay, and help us to find the one who knows about this, and uncover the truth.¡± Liv was totally stunned while watching her mother, who was wearing leather armour, a longbow, a bag full of arrows, and a longsword. Her sister Nice was also wearing a small leather armour and holding a toy-like small shield in her hand, and ran happily around. She couldn¡¯t believe her eyes. What on earth was going on? She never knew her mother was an adventurer! And the armour her sister was wearing: her mother must had prepared in a long time ago! ¡°¡­You said that our father was sneak attacked by the ¡®Dark Tide¡¯ Thom Sal, hadn¡¯t you?¡± Liv asked. ¡°Things are a bit strange, and there is conspiracy behind it,¡± Madame Teague said. ¡°Since there is conspiracy behind it, I shall find the truth!¡± Liv frowned and nodded, ¡°Fine. We shall make our departures immediately!¡± Sui Xiong was very impressed by this girl, and said to Ray secretly, ¡°This girl is also very vigorous and resolute; she has received very good family education!¡± ¡°Yes; still, I am a bit worried.¡± Ray forced out a smile. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, I just have a really strange feeling.¡± ¡°My god! You are a knight; when did you become a seer? ¡®strange feeling¡¯¡­even I do have this sort of strange feeling, just be sensible!¡± Ray was speechless and felt self-mockery; then he stopped being worried. His Majesty is right. We will be safe with His Majesty around us. If there is still danger when we are accompanied by a God, then there will never be a safe place in this world. ¡°Maybe I am thinking too much¡­¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Sui Xiong sneered, and then practiced a divination spell. Unfortunately, because of the conspiracy behind this business, the divination spell failed to show the good or ill luck of their journey. ¡°The spell does not work. How inconvenient!¡± Sui Xiong murmured. ¡°Alas! In the past, I was just muddling along without aim. I couldn¡¯t do the divination spell either, but I never felt like this. Now I can do the divination spell, and whenever I can¡¯t predict the future while facing a big thing, I feel very unsettled¡­¡± He then thought of the spell he did before. At that time, he wanted to know whether his journey would be smooth or not. The result was that the journey would be smooth, and have some good surprises. Judging from now, Ray and Steele were the ¡®good surprises.¡¯ But if the original purpose of his journey was never realized¡­ then what did this ¡®smooth journey¡¯ really mean? Alas! Being a seer was a difficult job both for the immortal and the God! Chapter 102 Chapter 102: Chapter 102 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The experienced adventurers were always very rigorous and resolute. In less than half an hour, three horses came out from the east gate of Golden Pagoda City. Behind them were two horses pulling a carriage, and running toward the southeast along the road. Ray, Steele, and Liv were riding the horse, and Madame Teague and young Nice were in the carriage. There was a boy, Ranke, who was controlling the carriage; he was one of the young people who had paid off his debt. Among those young people, few were good at the martial arts, and among them, Zesheng was the strongest. But if he came with Ray, it would mean that these youngsters would lose their leader and could be cruelly killed by the people from the church of the God of Aristocracy. So Zesheng had to stay behind, as well as the few who were good at martial arts. Ranke was the younger son of that businessman. When he was young, the education he received was very different from that of his brother, who was taught to be a businessman. So he always admired the knight and learned horsemanship, swordsmanship, spear-play, and fast-shoot from Knight Parne from a very young age. However, he was not that talented, and after five or six years of studying, he was still a green hand who didn¡¯t excel in swordsmanship, spear-play, or fast-shoot at all. There was one thing he was capable of: horsemanship. Compared with the weak knight, Ranke had the talent to be a businessman. He was good at managing accounts, negotiating with others, and authentication. Moreover, he was good at riding the carriage. Even Liv, who was known for her horse riding skills, was not as good as him. His brother managed to pay off all the debt, but he still chose to go and take adventures with his peers, trying to do more for them. That day when he went to pay off the debt, he actively decided to be the one to negotiate with the people of the church of the God of Aristocracy. After the negotiation, he successfully decreased the interest he would have to pay, and saved his peers a lot of money. Since the group of young people had gone through hard times recently, they were very happy to see that Ranke had helped them save a lot of money. To celebrate this, they bought some dishes and alcohol and meant to hold a party at Liv¡¯s home. When they heard that Liv would have to leave, they began to discuss¡ªor quarrel¡ªabout her leaving. It was Ranke that managed to calm them down, and then decided to come with Liv. He was indeed good at horsemanship; the two horses he was controlling were proceeding steadily side by side and at the same speed, and Madame Teague and young Nice just felt a mild tremble or shake in the carriage from time to time. This also had something to do with the wizards there in the Mifata Federation. Since there were many wizards, and most of the roads that connected all the towns were built by magic spells, the roads were very smooth. This was how the roads were built: first and foremost, the soil was tamped, and then covered with a layer of a combination of gravel and clay; then this layer was tamped, thus the roadbed was created. Then the wizard made some hard rocks with a spell, and created an arc-shaped gravel road on the surface of the roadbed, which was very similar to the stone roads in some ancient cities on Earth. However, this was not the road inside the city; rather, it was the main road that connected all the towns in this country! In the Main Plate, only the Kingdom of Wizards could establish such a magnificent project, since this country had enough wizards of the intermediate level. They could turn all the huge rocks into certain shapes that fit best with magic spells. And this way, they didn¡¯t need much labor. In fact, according to the rule of the Mifata Federation, if a wizard wanted to make a magic pagoda of his own, he would have to make sure that there was a standard road that connected the pagoda with the whole road system of this country, and he would also need to maintain all the roads around his pagoda. With so much effort, the transportation system in this country was very smooth. There was no country in the world that could compete with it in this regard. Things could be much better, though, if there weren¡¯t so many monsters there. It was getting dark, so they found an open space and rested there. Ray said, ¡°I am going to check if the vicinity is safe or not.¡± Then he took a sword and a spear with him and went into the wood nearby. Eventually, the tent was set up, the campfire was lit, the flour and wheat were made into porridge, and the meat soup¡¯s flavor permeated the air. Ray came back at last with blood all over him, and a specially-made thick rope on his hand. There was a beast wrapped in the rope following behind him. This beast was a bit similar to an ape, but it looked far more ferocious, since its face was more hideous. It also had sharp teeth and claws, which clearly showed that it was never a kind creature. Its strong body, which could even dwarf a wild bear, showed that it had great strength. Moreover, when it breathed, sparks came out of its mouth and one could smell sulfur. Since Ranke and Liv were still not that experienced, they had no idea what it was. Madame Teague, however, immediately knew as soon as she smelled the sulfur. ¡°Purgatorized and ferocious ape? No, a huge purgatorized and ferocious ape! They are really difficult to defeat; I am very surprised to see that you managed to catch it alive,¡± she smiled. ¡°Mr. Ray, you are really a powerful knight!¡± Ray laughed and put down the rope, and the ape sat down on its own. Then Ray said, ¡°Thank you for your compliment; actually, this beast is not that powerful, but it is a bit difficult to catch without severely injuring it.¡± Seeing this ape, Liv and Ranke were completely stunned. Their own group, which consisted of some green hand adventurers, had only come across a purgatorized and ferocious wolf. Apart from that, there were four other common wolves at that time. They had a big fight with them, and if it were not for the help of some experienced adventurers who happened to come by, at least one person would had been killed. It was known that among all the animals, the ape was the strongest, and a purgatorized and ferocious ape was so powerful that it would take a group of experienced adventurers to defeat. A group of green hand adventurers were bound to be killed when facing one. As far as they were concerned, the ape, like the wolf, also liked to travel in herds. Ray must had killed the whole group of apes, which could be seen from the blood on him. He even managed to catch the leader of the group alive, which further proved his incredible power! ¡°Mr¡­. Mr. Ray, what is this ape for?¡± Ranke asked curiously. ¡°Does it have any special value?¡± ¡°Not really. I intend to make it the night watcher,¡± Ray said casually. ¡°An ape monster of this kind usually has a high intelligence, which makes it easier to tame. In fact, I have already tamed it, and from now on, it will be our night watcher.¡± It? A night watcher?! Hearing this, even Madame Teague was stunned. ¡°Are you sure this is alright? What if it attacks us when we are asleep?¡± Liv was very worried. ¡°That¡¯s impossible; it is not stupid,¡± Ray said, and walked up to the ape. He stopped in front it and patted its head. The huge ape became more mild and sat still on the ground, and didn¡¯t make a sound when Ray patted its head, as if it had become a tamed wolf dog. ¡°See? Isn¡¯t it very mild?¡± Everyone was silent and had no idea how Ray managed to ¡°tame¡± this ferocious beast. ¡°We have been taking turns to be the night watchers, haven¡¯t we?¡± Steele said, while coming out of the tent. When she saw the beast, she then asked curiously, ¡°Are you still going out tonight?¡± Ray nodded and said, ¡°Yes, when we arrive at Cloud Pagoda City, we may get into a big fight. I need to hurry and tame that damn dragon.¡± ¡°You are right; you have spent too much time taming that dragon,¡± Steele said. ¡°I think you¡¯d better find another one to tame; this ape is fine. At least, it is very smart, and knows to be mild when it knows it cannot defeat you.¡± ¡°You are joking. I have never seen a knight riding an ape!¡± Ray shook his head, and walked away smiling. Then he waved his hand, and freed the copper crown dragon from the space bag specially made to trap monsters. The copper crown dragon was indeed something. Even if it had been trapped and tortured for such a long time, it was still very ferocious and powerful. As soon as it came out of the space bag, it shook its head and tail and began to roar. Then it opened its huge mouth, trying to eat Ray alive. Ray punched it, and after it was hit, it fell over and rolled on the ground. It didn¡¯t stop until it hit on a tree. ¡°Haven¡¯t you learned anything?¡± Ray complained. Then he seized its tail, and pulled it along into the woods. He walked a few steps, stopped, and gave another punch to the dragon which was struggling to bite him. Then it passed, and Ray warned the ape, ¡°Be a good night watcher; don¡¯t make any trouble. If you do, I will eat your brain tomorrow!¡± The huge ape was terrified when it saw the dragon; in fact, ape monster was a food favored by dragons, even if this huge ape was much stronger than a normal ape. But that copper crown dragon was also much much stronger than a common dragon, so it would definitely be eaten if the two came across each other in the wild. However, even a powerful dragon, which could easily make it its meal, could not fight this man, who was not big at all. Seeing this, the ape recalled what had happened in this morning. It was leading its herd to attack Ray, but while all the apes were killed in the blink of an eye, it was also hit, and passed out. When it woke up, it found it had already become a prisoner. He had already been merciful on me. Maybe the reason why I am still alive is because he really needs a night watcher, instead of trying to tame me. Earlier, this ape was very unhappy about this, and wanted to find a way to run away or play a trick or two. Now it sighed, and one could see its disappointment from its furry face. It finally gave in, and decided to be a good night watcher. The glory of the leader of a herd? The nature of being a monster? Which was more important? Neither! Survival was the most important thing! Chapter 103 Chapter 103: Chapter 103 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The day was getting darker and darker. Ray had gone far with that dragon; but one could still hear the roaring of the dragon and the cursing of Ray from time to time when they listened carefully. Judging from the sounds, they could tell that Ray was determined to tame this damn dragon. Ranke and the others were still awake. For one thing, they believed that it was a common sense that one needed to rest for a while after dinner, and could only go to sleep when the food had almost been digested. For another, not far from the tent, there was a huge and terrifying ape. They were too afraid to sleep. ¡°Things can¡¯t go on like this,¡± Steele murmured. ¡°They are under too much pressure. I need to help them to release some pressure.¡± ¡°You are right, but how?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Telling a joke? Or shall we sing a song, or dance?¡± Steele smiled mysteriously and said, ¡°I have a better idea.¡± Sui Xiong was confused and felt something was not right. Then he instantly warned Steele, ¡°Don¡¯t do something indecent! Like holding a naked party¡­ I won¡¯t allow it!¡± ¡°You are underestimating me! I have more than one way to help someone release pressure!¡± Steele could not help but laugh. ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡± Then she walked toward the huge ape, who was carefully watching the immediate surroundings, and gently touched its breast. She said to the ape in a very soothing way, ¡°Hey, strong man; are you interested in doing something relaxing?¡± The huge ape was confused, and had no idea what she meant. An ape was a clever species among all the other beasts, although being purgatorial or ferocious didn¡¯t help increase its intelligence; rather, this process could make it dumb. But after all, this ape was the leader of a herd, so it was almost as clever as a kid and could understand some simple lingua franca. But it could never understand Steele¡¯s flirty words. So it stared at Steele and had no idea what she was going to do. Strangely, though Steele was much smaller than the ape and didn¡¯t look strong at all, the ape was very mild in front of her, even milder than when standing in front of Ray. Its instinct told it that this woman was much a superior being to it, and it needed to obey her. But when Steele began to touch its genital area, it started to react. After all, a monster had also got its pride¡­ Hearing the noises outside, Madame Teague, Liv and young Nice, who were resting in the tent, and Ranke, who was resting in the carriage, all woke up and came to see what was going on. Then they saw that Steele was covered in fire, and immediately became a small flying pink pig with a pair of wings on its back. Ah?! It was hard to describe how the four were feeling at this moment; well, at least young Nice¡¯s feelings could be described. She was amazed, and happily ran to the pig and gently poked it, and said, ¡°It¡¯s real!¡± The small pig made a pink bubble which hit Nice¡¯s face and burst. Madame Teague was worried and walked forward, trying to stop her. But she was relieved when she saw the small pig happily lying in Nice¡¯s arms. It seemed that this pig neither wanted to attack Nice, nor did it intend to run away. ¡°Where did this pig come from?¡± Liv asked curiously. ¡°I think I saw Miss Steele just now. Where is she?¡± Only the huge ape knew where Steele was; but though it understood Liv¡¯s words, it could not speak. A while later, Sui Xiong sighed and showed himself in front of them. ¡°The pig is Steele. She was having some dirty thoughts earlier, and became a pig.¡± While his explanation didn¡¯t convince everyone at present, Liv and Ranke were staring at him alertly, and had no idea where this green flying jellyfish came from. The innocent Nice didn¡¯t think too much. She reached out her hand and caught one of Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles, and pulled him over. ¡°Ah?! Hey, young lady, what are you doing?¡± Before he finished his sentence, he had already been hugged by Nice. Nice was very happy, holding a pink pig in one hand and a green jellyfish on the other. ¡°Steele, you did this on purpose?¡± Sui Xiong finally knew what was going on, and shouted at her telepathically. ¡°How dare you trick me!¡± ¡°Calm down. I just want to cheer up a young kid,¡± Steele laughed. ¡°You also agree that we should help them to release some pressure, right?¡± ¡°But I didn¡¯t mean we should help do so by pretending to be pets!¡± Sui Xiong was shouting aloud. ¡°I am a God! I am not a kid¡¯s pet!¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. I am a human, and I don¡¯t mind; but you are just a jellyfish! Why you are making such a fuss?¡± Sui Xiong was extremely angry, but he could not find any words to argue with her. One could be invincible as long as he became shameless. Even a God could be speechless when facing a extremely shameless person like Steele. He meant to run away, but he didn¡¯t want to do so when he saw young Nice¡¯s happy face. This poor girl. Her father died when she was so young. She used to live a rich life, but now she lives poorly. Now she has to drift from place to place and live the life of an adventurer¡­ At last, Sui Xiong sighed and decided to be a temporary pet. When the sky in the east began to lighten, Ray came back riding the copper crown dragon. He finally managed to tame this dragon, and turned it into his mount. Meanwhile, Nice walked out of the tent yawning. In one hand, there was a small pink pig, and in her other was a green jellyfish. Seeing this, Ray was stunned for a long while. Then he burst into laughter. Later, everyone all was packed and began to proceed. There were three horses moving in the front. behind them was a carriage pulled by two horses. This time, only Liv was riding on the horse. At first Liv was not used to controlling three horses all together and riding in a flurry, but soon she managed to find a way to control them. These war-horses had already received very good training and were easy to control. As long as she was riding a horse in the front, the other two would follow behind closely. She was proceeding in a casual way and looking around from time to time. In the distance, Ray was riding the copper crown dragon and showing off. Although this dragon was also called the two-footed flying dragon, it was not good at flying at all. It could only fly for a short time when it needed to hunt, or in battle. Usually it walked. The dragon Ray was riding was no exception, and since it was much stronger than a common two-footed flying dragon, its skills in flying were even worse. Actually, it was not flying at all, but jumping and gliding. Ray was not satisfied about this, so as he was proceeding, he was also training it to fly. He knew that he would get into a big fight when he arrived at Cloud Pagoda City, and he would also need to fight with the enemy in the air. So he believed that if his mount couldn¡¯t be as agile as an eagle in the sky, it should at least be able to fly steadily. So Ray greatly increased the training, which made the dragon feel very miserable. But after a period of tough training, its skill in flying greatly improved, and it was able to fly in the air continually. If a flying competition were to be held among the two-foot flying dragons, it would be a very promising candidate for the gold medal. The night watcher¡ªthe huge ape¡ªhad been behaving itself all the while. During the day, it followed closely behind the team. At night, he carefully watched the immediate surroundings, so everyone could have a sound sleep. As time went by, even Ranke began to trust it, and Madame Teague would prepare the same meal as everyone else for it during the day. When the ape held a wooden bowl and ate, it looked very much like a man! It took around nineteen days for them to reach to Cloud Pagoda City from Golden Pagoda City. It was a long and dangerous journey. They met many monsters, at least ten, that were as strong as the huge ape. They had even met an especially cruel monster: a huge gray dragon. Judging from its smooth skin, it was still very young, but its imposing manner already terrified everyone. Before it even landed, both the war-horses and the two horses pulling the carriage fell to the ground due to extreme terror. Madame Teague, Liv, and Ranke were very nervous, and pulled out their swords or opened their bows. The huge ape meant to run away, but it didn¡¯t. It broke a thick branch off a tree and held it in its hand. Its feet were shaking heavily; obviously it was not the one to count on when they really got into a fight with this gray dragon. Ray jumped off the copper crown dragon, which had already lied down on its stomach to show its admiration to the superior species. He didn¡¯t pull out his sword; instead he stood still, with an intense gaze, and stared at the dragon. The two were in a stalemate for a long time, and neither of them made any moves. At last, the gray huge dragon sneered, turned around, and flew away. Even after this incident, everyone was afraid whenever they recalled it. They had a new understanding of Ray¡¯s ability. He was a strong man who didn¡¯t even need to pull out his sword, and could scare away a huge dragon simply with his imposing manner! After the dragon left, Madame Teague asked Ray if he would be Liv¡¯s teacher. Ray accepted. Ranke also wanted to learn from him; thus, Ray gained two students. Chapter 104 Chapter 104: Chapter 104 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°Is this Cloud Pagoda City?¡± Steele asked when she walked past the foot of a mountain, and saw a prosperous city in the distance. She had changed back to human form a few days before. ¡°Where is the cloud pagoda then?¡± Most of the names of the cities in the Mifata Federation contained the word ¡®pagoda;¡¯ for example, Green Tree City was famous for the green tree magic pagoda; Golden Pagoda City was famous for the golden magic pagoda; and as for the capital city, it was named the ¡®Highest Pagoda.¡¯ Since this city was called Cloud Pagoda City, it must have also had a pagoda, which was probably named the cloud pagoda, or had the characteristics of a cloud. But Steele failed to see any magic pagoda after looking around. ¡°The pagoda in this city is not on the ground,¡± Ray said and pointed at the sky. ¡°It is in the air.¡± Steele looked at the sky. It was cloudy, and she couldn¡¯t see the sun or the magic pagoda. Ray then realized that it was impossible for one to see the pagoda that was floating in the sky on a cloudy day like this. He then smiled and began to explain to Steele. The so-called ¡®cloud pagoda¡¯ was actually a floating magic pagoda. The wizard who built it had always wanted to fly from a young age. Later, when he grew to be a wizard, he started to study flying spells, and managed to create a special and legendary magic spell. This spell could make a certain areas become anti-gravity for long periods of time. When he began to build this pagoda, he practiced this spell. But he made some mistakes in his calculation. When he activated the spell, the foundation bed of the magic pagoda flew to the sky, and when he finally corrected his mistake, the foundation bed was already high in the sky, and anyone who had a bad vision would not be able to see it. The wizard thought a while and then felt that this might not be that bad, and decided to build the magic pagoda high up in the sky. It was the ¡®tallest¡¯ man-made structure in this world, and it was estimated that it was even higher than the few temples and pagodas in the Broken Cloud Mountains. To withstand the wild wind in the sky and the flying beasts, this magic pagoda was shrouded by a protection spell array. Looking from the ground, this magic array was just like a cloud surrounding it; that was why this pagoda was called the cloud pagoda. Hearing this story, Steele was very surprised. Even Liv, Ranke and young Nice were shocked. Although they were the local people of the Mifata Federation, they only knew that fact that there was a magic pagoda in the cloud in Cloud Pagoda City. They never knew where this pagoda came from until then. ¡°Teacher Ray, you are really very knowledgeable!¡± Ranke exclaimed. ¡°It is true that if a warrior wants to be a strong figure, he will also have to master a lot of knowledge!¡± Ray was stunned, and realized that this was what he told his students not long ago. He coughed a bit and put on a serious expression. ¡°You really meant it when you told them that? One needs to learn a lot of knowledge to become an advanced warrior?¡± Sui Xiong asked Ray curiously, with telepathy. Ray didn¡¯t dare to lie to Sui Xiong, and he said, ¡°Actually, when I was studying here, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to pay a visit to the owner of this magical pagoda, Master Yibuwei. He told me, ¡®You said you aim to be a great knight, but one needs learn a lot of knowledge, no matter what he wants to become. So even if you are not a wizard, you still need to study hard!¡¯¡± Sui Xiong nodded, and asked him with interest, ¡°It seems that this Master is a erudite person. Can I pay a visit to him?¡± ¡°Not now, I think. Over a hundred years ago, he had already gone to the Highest Pagoda with a few other of the strongest masters, and has been living there ever since. They are protecting the Master Imia Lampros, who is analyzing the God¡¯s power and is going to be apotheosized. If you really want to see him, you¡¯d better go to the Highest Pagoda. Sui Xiong nodded and decided that once he finished building his holy manor, he would pay a visit to the Master Yibuwei, as well as the Master Imia Lampros, who was going to become the God of Wizard. They then said goodbye to the huge ape that had been freed, as they had promised they would let him go, and walked toward Cloud Pagoda City. When they were saying goodbye to the huge ape, Sui Xiong gave it a big wood stick that had been enhanced by magic as a present. During this journey, the ape always used a big branch as its weapon, and Sui Xiong felt that maybe every monkey or ape would like to use a stick, so he specially made this for it. As for that Copper Crown Dragon, it was locked into the specially-made magic space bag again, since it was too conspicuous. When they finally walked into the city gate and disappeared, the huge ape that had been watching them all the time exclaimed like a human, turned around, and left. Cloud Pagoda City was very prosperous; few cities in the Mifata Federation was as prosperous as it was. The city was also a good port in the Federation, since the city was low-lying, and the concentration of the magic power was rather low. So one would rarely see a monster there. There were many civilians living there as well. Maybe it was because this place was so low-lying that Master Yibuwei had made the decision to build the pagoda in the air. Ray spotted a kind and young soldier and asked him where were the shop that was worth going and the restaurant that served the best dishes, and who was well-informed about this city. Ray paid the soldier and the soldier told him where he should go. Ray didn¡¯t go to the ¡°shop that was worth going¡± or the ¡°restaurant that served the best dishes¡±, instead he went straight to a grocery store¨Cas that soldier had told him, the owner, Randolph, of this grocery, which was built in the port area, was seemingly managing a grocery store, in fact, his real job were the exploration and the research, he was a real adventurer. He knew quiet a lot about both the general knowledge and the secret messages. Ray quickly found this grocery store, which was a rather ordinary one and it seemed that there were not many guests here. He asked the other to stay outside and went into the store alone¨Cof course, Sui Xiong was still resting on his head like a hat. Randolph looked like around forty years old, he was wearing a glass, in a word, he was just an ordinary middle-aged man. But both Sui Xiong and Ray could tell he was really powerful although he looked very ordinary. Randolph was a marvellous warrior and was able to practice the spell, and he had got more than one magic tool with himself, his glass was one, for example. Maybe that was why he manage to stay alive after so many times of exploration. When he knew Ray¡¯s intention, he didn¡¯t respond immediately, instead he began to contemplate. ¡°I have my own principles.¡± after thinking for a while, he said in a very low voice, ¡°the business of selling the information is in fact very dangerous, those who casually sell the information to others always ends bad. So I have to abide by principles¨Cif the information is about some trivial things, I shall give you happily, but if the information is very important, I would sell it only to the person who has got some decent reasons or is proved to be a decent man either in a court or in front of a God.¡± ¡°If you want to get the information about that ship incident, please give me your decent reasons!¡± He stared at Ray and his glass began to shine in blue light. ¡°Be careful, his glass is a very powerful magic tool and is ¡®detecting if what you are going to say is a lie or not¡¯.¡± Sui Xiong warned. Ray thought for a while and said: ¡°I want to help a family, whose family member died in that ship incident, they are in a very difficult situation. I think there is a conspiracy behind this whole incident, so I come to find the truth.¡± Hearing this, Randolph adjusted his glass a little bit and smiled. ¡°You are telling the truth.¡± he said, ¡°I am so happy to be able to meet a warm-hearted person, I will tell you everything I know.¡± ¡°Before the ship made its sail, the son of the castellan of the Garth City of the Blue Moon Kingdom, Sean Riley came to the Cloud Pagoda City, he mentioned he wanted to create a sea route and do a business of selling some monsters¡¯ body parts and spices of the middle and low class. Soon, many people came to negotiate with him, among them, there was a rich businessman whose parents were the advanced wizards.¡± ¡°But Sean Riley didn¡¯t make a deal with any of them, instead he secretly kept in contact with a strange businessman who didn¡¯t have any social connections, and many people were angry about this and tried to make some trouble, but they gave up the idea when they had some talks with Sean Riley.¡± ¡°Soon, Sean¡¯s commercial corp made their departure, but strangely, Sean was not in the boat. Instead, he even began to make the preparation for the next sailing, and it seemed like he thought there was a big chance that this first sailing would be a failure, while he was still confident about creating a new sea route.¡± ¡°Then came the news that this boat was attacked by the ¡®dark tide¡¯ Thom Sal and suffered a great loss.¡± ¡°While Sean Riley was not much bothered by this incident, still, he was steadily preparing for the next sailing, and it seemed that the he had a very successful sailing in the recent and he benefited a lot.¡± ¡°Now, he is preparing for the next sailing, it is said that he want to take this opportunity to leave the Federation and go back to his hometown.¡± Hearing this, Ray nodded and asked: ¡°then¡­have you found any clue that can prove that this ship incident has something to do with the church of Noble Maids?¡± Randolph was stunned, he thought for a while and became a bit doubtful, then he said: ¡°I never thought about this really, a principle of the church of Noble Maids ever paid a visit to Sean and had a conversation with him¨CI thought that principle just came to preach his religion, so I didn¡¯t pay much attention, besides, that principle also died in that ship incident¡­do you think there is anything strange about this?¡± Ray didn¡¯t reply and shrugged, then he said: ¡°you will find it out later.¡± Then, he turned around and left this grocery store. Randolph indeed knew a lot about this incident, which was totally out of Ray¡¯s expectation. This information¡­were already enough! Chapter 105 Chapter 105: Chapter 105 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The information given by Randolph could be summarized with three points: First, Sean Riley could possibly foresee the future, and knew that ship incident would happen. Second, the ship incident was probably arranged by the officiant of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Third, Sean would leave here soon. ¡°I think Sean Riley is the most suspicious guy,¡± Ray said when they settled down in a hostel. He told them everything he had heard, and gave his analysis as well. ¡°I think Sean Riley and the officiant planned this ship incident together.¡± Everyone agreed with Ray¡¯s analysis. After having a discussion, they decided to pay a visit to the Garth Commercial Corp the next morning, the commercial corp that Sean Riley built there. If nothing unexpected happened, Sean should have still been there. The next morning, when they arrived at the Garth Commercial Corp, the guard told them that the chairman Sean was busy in dealing with business. Ray frowned and sent a signal to Steele by looking at her. Steele and him had already formed a tacit mutual understanding, so she immediately knew what he meant. Then she began to seduce the guard. The effect of Steele¡¯s seduction was so powerful, which clearly showed the ability she had as a holy spirit. in fact, most of the legendary strong men could not withstand her temptation. This guard was such a strong man, and was at most a professional adventurer who was not even less powerful than Steele; so it was impossible for him to stand this temptation. The guard looked at Steele¡¯s eyes for one or two seconds, then his eyesight became restrained. ¡°Is the chairman Sean here?¡± Steele gently asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I haven¡¯t seen him for a few days.¡± Ray frowned and asked, ¡°Is it possible for us to pay a visit to him?¡± ¡°He said he is not feeling well these days, and doesn¡¯t want to see anyone.¡± ¡°He is not feeling well? You didn¡¯t mention this earlier!¡± ¡°This is what he has asked to say. He said that if there is anyone who wants to see him, I should reply by saying ¡®the chairman is busy in arranging business.¡¯¡± Ray frowned again and asked, ¡°Where does he live?¡± ¡°He lives in the room that is close to the sea on the second floor.¡± Ray nodded, and asked Sui Xiong, ¡°Your Majesty, can you help me to check for that room?¡± Actually, there was no need to ask Sui Xiong to do such a trivial thing, but Ray was very worried, and could not wait to find out what was inside that room. Sui Xiong checked the room with his spiritual sensing, and found that Sean Riley was not in that room. But there was a old man, whose hair had turned white, lying on his stomach on the ground. He had died several days ago, and his body was maintained by magic so it wouldn¡¯t decay. Sean Riley was the son of the castellan of Garth City, so he could not possibly be this old. So who was this old man? And why was he dead in Sean¡¯s room? Sui Xiong practiced a spell and projected the old man¡¯s body in the air, so everyone could see it. Then he asked the guard who this old man was. The guard told him that he was the vice chairman of this commercial corp, who was in charge of managing the daily routine. He was also a relative of Sean¡¯s. ¡°Sean killed him since he believes this old man would provide some evidence that could go against him,¡± Ray said coldly. ¡°It seems that he has already run away!¡± After a while, the whole Garth commercial corp turned into chaos. The news that the chairman was missing and the vice chairman was killed made everyone worried and frightened. Sui Xiong got everyone together and questioned them one by one. After a while, they finally knew where Sean was headed; a guard who was patrolling at night about eight days ago said that he saw the vice chairman, who was wearing a hat, leave hurriedly. Sui Xiong then found this guard had been captivated by a spell, and thought about the time the vice chairman was killed. Then he made the conclusion that Sean killed the vice chairman first, then changed into the vice chairman¡¯s form by practicing magic, and ran away. But¡­ why did Sean leave in such a hurry? Why did he choose to kill the vice chairman? Was he hiding some secret? ¡°I don¡¯t care what secret he is hiding. What we can do now is go after him,¡± Ray thought for a while, and made his decision. ¡°There is a great chance that he is aiming towards Garth City. We should go after him!¡± ¡°Are we going to fly there?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°It¡¯s not a good idea for us to fly together,¡± Ray said. ¡°Since he left almost eight days ago, there is no need to hurry. We shall make our preparations and take the boat to Garth City!¡± Everyone began to make the preparations. Big objects like the carriage, the horses and the tent were sold while they looked for a boat. While they did not manage to find any boat, an experienced old captain suggested they take a boat to White Pagoda Bay, then the Dhaka Trade Organization, then to Blue Moon Kingdom. When they arrived at Blue Moon Kingdom, they would find a boat to the Garth City. ¡°It doesn¡¯t take too much time,¡± the captain said. ¡°If you take the boat, it will only take seven or eight days more at most to arrive, and compared with a long distance journey, this delay is basically nothing.¡± The captain was very right, and things were settled. That afternoon, Ray and others took the boat and headed to the White Pagoda Bay. Cloud Pagoda Bay was not that far away from White Pagoda Bay. This boat was sailing smoothly in the tranquil sea during the whole journey. Both the captain and the sailors had accumulated lots of experience, since they sailed between the two bays many times each year. They were familiar with the surrounding water areas, as if the region was the garden in the back of their house; they knew every rock and every undercurrent. For Ray and his team members, this journey was very easy and happy. It seemed like they were on vacation. After they transferred to another boat at the White Pagoda Bay, their journey continued smoothly. In the east of the Mifata Federation, there was a small country called Dhaka Trade Organization. The sea transportation in this region had began to develop, and got better and better; then this country formed, and seafaring people of this country had been developing very well since then. All this time, only the boats from the Dhaka Trade Organization could manage to cross the dangerous Iron Cliff Mountains and safely arrive at Blue Moon Kingdom. In this way, they monopolized the trade in this region. They had been sailing in the sea for almost twenty days and were in the tiny sailboat the whole time, so it was only natural for them to get tired. To kill time, Steele would shamelessly become a pig to happily play with young Nice. Ray was rather different from them. He was learning seamanship from the sailors with great curiosity, as well as teaching Liv and Ranke to practice the martial arts. When he was free, he would sit on the ship board and fish. In a word, he never feel bored. Liv was a bit lazy. Compared with her, Ranke was very diligent. Every day, he would practice very hard for about ten hours, and did not stop until he was feeling exhausted. Once he had a rest, he would start to practice again. As the saying goes, ¡®everything comes to him who waits.¡¯ After the twenty days, Ranke¡¯s swordsmanship had improved quite a lot. Ray said he finally looked like a man who knew how to use a sword. When he was practicing with Liv, he was able to make his attack or defend himself. Even if he was in a difficult situation, he would not get flustered. Now he finally looked like a real swordsman. But after they transferred to the boat that sailed to the Blue Moon Kingdom at the Dhaka Trade Organization, things were not as sunny as before. This boat was a standard passenger boat. Although the boat ticket was very expensive, the accommodation was top class. Apart from the small space, both the inner decoration and the utensils were as good as those in a ordinary hostel. While the captain was a very strict old man, he was very stubborn and always saying things like ¡°The sea is very dangerous, no passenger is allowed to loiter on the deck.¡± Even Ray could not stand being trapped in inertia for this long. As for Sui Xiong, he went into the sea and changed back to his original form, and happily swam in the sea. Under Sui Xiong¡¯s watchful eye, everything would be fine. But Ray was being too optimistic. When the boat was crossing the most notorious submerged reef, the ¡°Hell Bay¡± around the Iron Cliff Mountain, the clear sky suddenly changed. Black clouds were gathering overhead, and the tranquil sea began to tumble. One wave came after another. Almost in the blink of an eye, they were sailing in a storm. The captain was very surprised, and immediately ordered all the sailors to act while loosening the sails and carefully watching the situation on the sea. He managed to slow down their speed and was trying to dodge the submerged reef, or something more dangerous. Since Ray and Madame Teague were very strong, they were asked to help the captain. ¡°Are we coming across a sea monster?¡± Ray was very excited and curious. He had been a adventurer for so many years. He had killed a mountain spirit, fought with a huge dragon, and met a God, but he had never met a sea monster! The captain wore a very serious face and was extremely worried. He said, ¡°Yes; we have come across a sea monster, and it is not an ordinary sea monster. It may be the ¡®Furious Tide,¡¯ Heimsarah.¡± ¡®Heimsarah?¡¯ The creature as strong as the ¡®Dark Tide¡¯ Timsar?¡± Ray was stunned became more curious. The Furious Tide and the Dark Tide were the most notorious monsters in the Main Plate. Not only were they very powerful, but there were also many legendary stories concerning them. Until now, no one really knew what they looked like. Ray knew that he was not that strong enough to be able to see what it really looked like. But I have Sui Xiong! His Majesty would definitely have a closer look at it, and is sure to tell me later. ¡°I never thought I would have an encounter with a legendary sea monster during this journey!¡± He could not help but laugh. ¡°Maybe I will become the first human who knows what the ¡®Furious Tide¡¯ really looks like!¡± He told Sui Xiong what the captain had told him via telepathy. Sui Xiong was very curious about this, and went straight to the center of the storm to find out what was really going on there. In the center of the storm, he saw a tumbling magic power, and the water around it was tumbling as well. Beside it, there was a small tornado encircling this tumbling water. Looking carefully, Sui Xiong found that there was a God¡¯s force in the core of the magic power. This force was steady and tranquil, which was totally different from the tumbling water and the tornado. It was still, as if it was sleeping. ¡°Hello; are you Heimsarah?¡± Sui Xiong tried to send a signal via telepathy. When this signal touched that magic power, the God¡¯s force shook a bit, as if it had woken up. Then Sui Xiong received the reply. It was very ambiguous telepathic message, which probably meant Hello. Chapter 106 Chapter 106: Chapter 106 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Heimsarah¡¯s thoughts were very vague and ambiguous, not clear at all; it could not form a complete discourse. It spoke like a person with expression disorder: in a confusing way and stumbling. Sui Xiong had to expend some effort to understand every sentence to get what it meant. This legendary sea monster seemed to not have encountered a strong existence that could understand it for a long time, so it said a lot of things without a break. He spoke just like an elderly person with Alzheimer¡¯s that prattled along in a disorderly, long-winded way. Communicating with it was definitely not a pleasant thing, but Sui Xiong was still patient, and chatted slowly with it. At his suggestion, Heimsarah pulled back his own strength, so the sea surface that originally had violent storms and dark clouds suddenly turned calm, as if the storm had been an illusion. The captain was overjoyed, hurriedly directed the sailors to hoist the sail, and also used a scroll for wind-making to create a strong gust of sea wind that pushed the sailboat to travel fast, and leave the Hell Bay as if it were running for its life. Oh, not ¡°as if;¡± it was running for its life. Below the calm sea, Sui Xiong and Heimsarah were chatting. Mostly, Heimsarah was speaking while Sui Xiong was only responsible for listening and asking. Heimsarah was in a good mood to talk in an almost endless way because it hardly ever encountered an existence that it could communicate with in an equal way. As it did not have any secret consciousness, it answered all that Sui Xiong asked. It was like he talked about all that he knew. When Sui Xiong asked why it appeared here, it suddenly became agitated, shouted for a long time before it finally stabilized its emotions, and told Sui Xiong the reasons. Not long ago, Heimsarah felt the breath of Timsar, its long-time enemy, followed ir slowly through the breath, and passed by this place. According to its senses, Timsar was still in front. Sui Xiong immediately thought of the shipwreck that had taken place in the Great Wild Horn, and could not help but secretly guess: Is Timsar still at the Great Wild Horn? Or even if it has left, has it gone far? However, he was very curious about an incident. Both Heimsarah and Timsar were split from the wreckage of the ¡®The Living Tsunami,¡¯ Sarament, so they should be considered siblings. So why did Heimsarah call Timsar a ¡°long-time enemy?¡± He asked the question. Heimsarah replied that when they were split from the wreckage of Sarament, they evenly divided the remaining divinity and supernatural power of Sarament, who failed to be apotheosized. Nature told them that as long as they could kill each other and devour each other¡¯s divinity and supernatural power, they could fundamentally enhance their lives. Even if that was not enough to make them try again to be apotheosized, at least they would be able to become leaders among the demigods. More importantly, their strength was incomplete because the two sides split the forces of storm, tsunami, and so on. It was precisely for this reason that Heimsarah had a bit of dementia. If it wanted to heal itself and get a full sense of reasoning and clear thinking, it needed to kill Timsar and restore all its power. Of course, the most important reason was simple; it hated Timsar, and presumably, this also applied to Timsar. ¡°I feel that the most important thing is completely reversed,¡± Sui Xiong quietly complained. He accompanied his new friend to gallop in the sea, and rushed to follow its senses. Of course, he did not forget to send a message to Ray, so that his loyal knight didn¡¯t worry. Heimsarah¡¯s strength was stronger than Timsar¡¯s, but its movement was relatively slow. So even if it sensed the breath of Timsar, there was no way for it to catch up. It could only follow it behind it in vain. But with the help of Sui Xiong, the situation was completely different. It was just an avatar of Sui Xiong that was there, whose fighting power was far weaker than Sui Xiong himself, who was accumulating strength up in the sky above the northwestern part of this continent. But the avatar¡¯s strength was sufficient to help Heimsarah. With the help of Sui Xiong, Heimsarah pulled back his enormous strength and turned its whole body into a mass of whistling tornado on the sea. It swam towards the Great Wild Horn without haste. Its speed was still not fast¡ªit seemed to Sui Xiong not too different from the speed of a turtle crawling¡ª but Heimsarah was very satisfied with this speed. It was a high speed that he never had in his life, and it would make sure that Timsar was unlikely to be so fast! As long as he could keep the current pace and follow the natural sense of the other, it would not take long for Heimsarah to catch up with Timsar and completely eliminate the one he had battled with for countless years. The days of maritime navigation always went by quickly, and a blink of an eye more than a month had passed. They smoothly arrived in Kingdom of the Blue Moon by vessel, and they also found the ship to Gars City after taking a short rest. Although it was a cargo ship with bad accommodations, for those busy searching for clues it was not a big deal that the living conditions were a bit tough. After a period of travel that was absolutely not pleasing, they finally reached their destination and disembarked at Gars. The name of Gars City was from the local specialty, ¡®fragrant leaf.¡¯ It was an important food spice and was only extensively grown around Gars City. It was an excellent condiment. Although some of its variants were not suitable for being served as foods, they could be cosmetics. Geranium (the fragrant leaf) was the city¡¯s most important source of income, and also the origin of the name of the city; ¡®Gars¡¯ was the pronunciation of ¡®fragrant leaf¡¯ in the local dialect. It was said that local specialty, geranium, was grown out of the fallen leaves of the holy trees of the Goddess of Forest/Goddess of Harvest/Goddess of Sea/Goddess of Moon/Goddess of Marsh (many denominations claimed that the geranium was the masterpiece of their Goddess, and the holy classics of many denominations had similar contents). Although it was unknown why leaves fallen to the ground would turn into white lovely flowers and grasses, the wonderful thing was that geranium as a spice could indeed only flourish in Gars City and its surrounding areas. Even if you made do and planted it elsewhere, its output and quality would be greatly reduced. The earliest one here to do business with geranium was a viscount with the surname of Wright; later the family declined for unknown reasons, and its business was captured by the Riley family that rose after Viscount Wright¡¯s family. After seizing the major share of the geranium business, the Riley family placed their trade focus on sea transportation. They gradually built and expanded its originally shallow water port. With the efforts of almost ten generations, they finally built an important port city on the east coast of the continent. At the beginning of each spring, when the best edible geraniums that had been growing throughout the winter were about to be harvested, every denomination would jointly hold a grand ceremony for the commencement of geranium picking. Not only would there be wonderful performances at this ceremony, but clergymen would also pray for holy graces to descend a rain of grace that could cure all pain. So at the end of every winter, there would be many people coming to Gars from everywhere, some of whom came to enjoy the excitement, but mostly to share the benefits. Vanilla, shipbuilding, shipping, business, and tourism were components of the complex economy mix of this city, and every one of them was very lucrative. At least 30% of all the profit fell into the hands of the Riley family, so they became the real controllers of the city. Each generation of the Riley family believed in the Goddess of Harvest and was the city¡¯s greatest force. They not only had secular power, but also had a huge influence in the sacred realm. The position of chief priest of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest was historically taken by family members of the Riley family, so the Goddess¡¯s grace to them was very obvious. There were a total of three ports in Gars City. The Riley Port was of course owned by the Riley family. The other two were Vanilla Port and Richness Port, which were jointly controlled by various organizations. When Ray and others disembarked, they went onto the shores of the Richness Port. Although they hurried to find clues of the shipwreck, of course, they would not stupidly go straight to the city owner¡¯s mansion. Instead, they first found a hotel to settle down in and then separately asked for information. Ray habitually found a well-informed person, and this time he said he wanted to inquire about the situation of the major forces in the city, as well as those powerful figures that were worth noting and shouldn¡¯t be provoked. This kind of thing was very common. If an experienced adventurer intended to have a long-term development in one place, he would certainly check these situations out clearly. So people who sold the information did not care, asked a bit, and gave him a good piece of information. Of course, they also received a considerable amount of intelligence fees. Thunder spent some time carefully reading the information, and could not help but have a bad impression of the city. The city had a magnificent appearance, but also a variety of endless wickedness and conspiracies, which corresponded to the description ¡°shining on the outside but rotten on the inside.¡±.There were more than ten churches of an evil God that had relatively concrete evidence of activities. There were even plenty of crazy people who worshipped the demon Gods, were keen on making disaster and horror, and had the ultimate goal of destroying the world. Of course, his greatest concern was for the case of the city owner, the Riley family. According to the information, the contemporary city owner, Joseph Riley, a super-strong man who had entered the legendary realm, was nearly 60 years old and was in his prime both physically and mentally. He controlled the most amount of wealth of this city and the most powerful organizations. He was also undoubtedly the strongest person in the city with his status being solid as a rock. All the trivial people were afraid of doing anything against him. He had three children. The eldest daughter He Li was 32 years old. She was in her prime and was powerful, and had become the chief priest of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and had not gotten married. She was clever and conceited, with tough tactics, and she sought revenge for almost every petty grievance. The second son, Sean, was 26 years old, married and had two children. This Sean was a humble easy-going gentleman with good strength. He was a good swordsman. However, the information stressed that Mr. Sean was definitely not as simple as his appearance seemed. Anyone who wanted to provoke him must first prepare their own funeral. Joseph¡¯s youngest child was called Casari, who was only 14 years old that year, and born from his second wife after his first wife¡¯s death. The girl was beautiful, and she was good at singing and dancing. She was quite innocent in character. Perhaps because people loved the youngest child, the city owner sent a whole guard to protect her from any possible danger. Joseph had been married twice. His first wife was a powerful adventurer, who took adventures with him, did not want to retire after getting married, and finally died in an adventure. Later he married the daughter of the city-owner of another commercial city, who was an ordinary 33 year old lady. She pampered her daughter, loved drama and poetry, and was also a lesser-known dramatist. She was once the editor-in-chief of an opera. In addition, after many years of operation and development of so many generations of the Riley family, there had been many branches and outstanding figures were constantly emerging. At least a third of that information was occupied by the various branches and organizations of the Riley family, which frightened Ray. It seemed that in this city which belonged to the Riley family, it was really not easy to press for clues about the shipwreck by asking Sean Riley, who was likely to succeed as the city owner in the future! Chapter 107 Chapter 107: Chapter 107 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma In terms of prosperity, Gars City was ranked high in the entire Kingdom of the Blue Moon. The tremendous power of the various organizations under the Riley family was frightening. Ray, even with his previous status, couldn¡¯t suppress this local bully! And moreover, he was now alone! Unless¡­ He could change his position now, for example, to the position where he became hopeless in a muddle-headed way, and narrowly escaped being killed before he came to himself. No; even if he was in that position, it was useless, because Gars City was on the east coast and was not bordered by that place. Ray secretly sighed and returned to the hotel. Soon afterward Mrs. Teague, who had gone out to acquire the information, returned. She had been to the pub, but there was no difference between the information she and Ray acquired. At the most, she had one more thing. ¡°The young master Sean had been out to expand the commerce route for two years, and returned shortly after. It was said that the work was done well and the city owner is very satisfied.¡± ¡°It seems that¡­ it¡¯s very difficult!¡± said Ray, while the crowd looked at each other hopelessly. ¡°This place is almost his home base. To forcibly ask him for some things here is difficult! Difficult! Difficult!¡± He used several ¡°difficult¡¯s¡± in succession, which showed that he was extremely pessimistic about this matter. ¡°What if I try to negotiate with him?¡± Steele said. ¡°Strictly speaking, the key reason for the death of Knight Parne and others is in the Church of Noble Maids and the ¡°Undercurrent¡± Timsar. His Majesty has accompanied ¡°Angry Tide¡± Heimsarah to chase it, and I believe that sooner or later he will give it proper punishment, and we will have to deal with only the former. Sean may have reached certain agreements with the Church of Noble Maids, but for these agreements, is it worth fighting against a God who walks on earth?¡± Her words caused everyone to ponder. As she said, perhaps negotiation was also a good choice? In the end, after discussion, everyone decided to negotiate with Sean, hoping that Steele¡¯s estimation was correct. Sean Riley did not live in the mansion of the city owner. He had his own house. When everyone visited his house, they were not blocked and they successfully saw him. As was said in the rumors, Sean was a handsome and very elegant young man. He seemed very humble and polite, making it easy for people to feel good about him. ¡°Are you the families of those who died in the shipwreck?¡± When they explained their intentions, he smiled gloomily. ¡°I knew that you would come here sooner or later.¡± ¡°Is it really related to you?¡± Ray frowned and asked. ¡°I¡¯m sorry; no comment for the time being,¡± Sean smiled slightly and replied. ¡°I don¡¯t doubt your identity, but I¡¯m very skeptical of your intentions and abilities. You must have heard the phrase, ¡®Confidentiality is the power of the strong.¡¯ So if you want me to reveal my secret, please prove your ability first.¡± Ray¡¯s lips trembled, then he smiled ruefully and asked, ¡°What you mean is, we should show a bit of our strength?¡± Sean smiled again. As if he had not felt the momentum from Ray, he said calmly, ¡°A bit of our strength is like a clown juggling. There is a swamp about 50 miles west of Gars City, where some three-headed legless lizards with good strength live. If you want to prove your strength, please catch one of them and come back.¡± ¡°You¡¯re asking us to catch a three-headed legless lizard by traveling that far?¡± Ray was agitated so that he almost laughed. ¡°Why don¡¯t we just grab you?¡± Sean looked at him indifferently, without showing weakness. ¡°Don¡¯t say something that makes me doubt your intelligence. You¡¯re just a warrior who hasn¡¯t even reached the legendary level, and even if you have stepped into the legendary field, you aren¡¯t qualified to make trouble in Gars City. Get me? You can try it, anyway. It would not be me that would regret it.¡± Ray frowned and felt something was wrong. This guy is¡­ too calm! Power and status could indeed make people full of confidence. One had their limits in their powers or position. When the other person was easily accessible, even a great king did not dare to put on airs with a senior soldier. There had been more than one king in history who was killed by assassins that launched a revolt in a close distance. And those assassins were often at an intermediate level. As His Majesty Void Mask, once said, ¡°For a king, a warrior who is within his reach is more powerful than the entire country.¡± At this moment, the distance between Sean and him could already be regarded as ¡°within reach¡± for a senior soldier. So where did the confidence of this guy come from that he could escape his assault? He frowned and felt he was in a dilemma. To be fair, the best choice for him at the moment was to rise and assault Sean, to directly subdue him, and forcibly get the secrets from him. Then he should take Sean as a hostage, rush out of Gars City and escape. In a long-distance pursuit, even if Gars City had a strong military force, it would not be able to make full use of it. Eventually, it would become a battle between Ray himself and the city owner, Joseph. As he had his equipment and some last resorts, he wouldn¡¯t feel frightened even in face of Joseph, who was in the legendary realm. After all, the city owner could not risk dying with him by desperately fighting against him. But on the other hand, intuition also told him that assault was definitely not a good choice. Although the reasons were not clear, as long as they really fought, mostly it would be him that would suffer losses, and there would be great dangers. Moreover, he was no longer a solitary thief. There was a group of companions who needed his care. If they really had a fight, even if he could break through and escape, what would his companions do? Steele would most likely be able to escape, but what could others do: Mrs. Teague, Liv, Ranke, and little Nice? He hesitated again and again and eventually decided not to launch an assault. He sighed and said, ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to catch the three-headed legless lizard then. I hope you¡¯re not stupid enough to force me to turn against you!¡± After that, he left with all the grievant companions. Sean smiled, saw them off, and shook his head contemptuously. ¡°His intuition is good, but his vision is not. The horizons of all adventurers will eventually be the same!¡± He sat down again, took out a document to scan it, and quickly forgot the people who had come from far away. A few days later, Ray returned to Gars City with some embarrassment, bringing a three-headed legless lizard that was tightly tied up. When he took the giant beast that seemed to weigh a ton and stepped into Gars City it even felt as if the earth shook and mountains moved. The onlookers almost blocked the gate. The three-headed legless lizard was not very powerful, but it was definitely not weak. It was about four to eight meters long, and three to five meters tall. Some small ones weighed seven or eight hundred kilograms, and some bulky ones could weigh even over two tons. The huge body gave it amazing power, and its massive scales could provide a defensive force comparable to that of a man of unusual strength with a full set of steel armor, and a heavy shield held in his hand. Not only that, but these monsters still had terrifying vitality. Unless special weapons were used, ordinary weapons needed to cut off all three of their heads in a short time and burn them with flames before they would be able to truly kill these monsters. Some of the three-headed legless lizards could even use magical powers, such as Flames, Cold Ice, Lightning, and Toxins. It was said that someone had seen a long-lived and ridiculously strong three-headed legless lizard that not only had a great size, but also three heads that were able to spit flames, cold ice, and lightning, respectively! This legless lizard that Ray caught alive was certainly not a particularly powerful individual. It was just a monster that had become an adult. It was not very good in terms of combat effectiveness. A team of skilled adventurers could successfully kill it. However, hunting and catching one was completely different; the teamwork and fighting involved were even more different. This warrior who had not appeared here must have had an awesome strength, because he could single-handedly get this guy from the marsh and carry it all the way into the city! ¡°Only those legendary strongmen could do this kind of thing!¡± Inside the crowd, some people commented on him this way. This news quickly spread to the leaders of all the forces in Gars City, including the city owner Joseph. More than one person began to investigate Ray. Because there was no special meaning of confidentiality, they quickly investigated it clearly, and then the strong leaders received a second report. ¡°What did Sean want to do?¡± the chief priest Heli Riley said to herself. In the magnificent temple of the Goddess of Harvest, she took two pieces of information and was lost in thought. Unlike ordinary intelligence merchants, she had more powerful intelligence channels. She had always been wary of her brother who seemed to be easy-going and had nothing special, because she had a lot of information that was not known to ordinary people. At this moment, the time of the mining ceremony was coming. But Sean made a big move. What was the intention? At this time, Ray once again visited Sean¡¯s residence. ¡°I¡¯ve brought you what you wanted, and it¡¯s just outside your gate,¡± he said to Sean gruffly. ¡°So you should give me what I want. The information!¡± Sean put down his documents, smiled, and gently said, ¡°I think you may remember something wrong. What I said before was that if you could catch a three-headed legless lizard, you could prove your ability and that you would be qualified to get the secrets. But when did I say that a foolish beast could be traded for such secret intelligence?¡± Ray was grim, clenched his teeth and looked at him angrily. He had already reached the edge of his temper: these days he was fighting all sorts of messy vipers and beasts in the damn marsh to find a three-headed legless lizard, catch it alive, and drag it all the way back to town. At the moment, he was not only physically and mentally exhausted to the extreme; his mood couldn¡¯t be worse. If Sean dared play tricks, then he would just go, get a good rest, and send his companions away. Then he would come in here alone, grab the bastard, cut his ear off first, then torture him slowly! Sean seemed not to have seen his almost flame-lit eyes, and slowly said, ¡°I have always kept my word. It would be very costly for me to destroy my credit.¡± ¡°What do you want?¡± Ray interrupted his nonsense and asked coldly. ¡°At the mining ceremony, I¡¯ll need your strength,¡± said Sean lightly. ¡°Before that, you should have a good rest until all things are determined. If I haven¡¯t died yet, I¡¯ll not only tell you everything, but also will help you without sparing any effort.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Ray was dumbfounded, and didn¡¯t understand what he meant. ¡°Anyway, you will understand then.¡± Sean smiled and looked on, mysterious. Chapter 108 Chapter 108: Chapter 108 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The negotiation with Sean ended in a stalemate. They had no solution and could only wait patiently. Of course, this was mainly because the mining ceremony was not far away. They would only need to wait for half a month or so. They had spent nearly three months on the road, and did not care about waiting for more than two weeks. And there was nothing bad about this. His Majesty Void Mask was helping Heimsarah to chase Timsar. Perhaps half a month later, he would come to Gars City after having already killed the demon that had done so much evil. As long as he was there, even if they really wanted to turn against the Riley family, everyone was fully confident in themselves. Gars City might be able to deal with the legendary strongmen and even fight with demigods, but in the face of a true God, it only could bow its head. How could the mortals overcome God? It was, of course, useful for people to fight in a group, but there were limits to it after all. So they settled in comfortably, and in order to disgust Sean, also moved to the most exclusive hotel in Gars City, so that the most upscale restaurants would deliver three meals a day to their rooms. Ray told them to send the bill directly to Sean¡¯s mansion, which really did pay their expenses. It was undeniable that as a bustling city, Gars City indeed had a level of luxury that the Golden Tower City couldn¡¯t be compared with. At least in terms of living conditions, everyone was very satisfied. Liv took the pocket money that her teacher gave her and wandered on the street every day. Although she didn¡¯t spend money at will, she still had some unexpected gains from time to time and often brought surprises to others. This girl was an ingenious expert, and had an especially inspiring intuition. She had more than once bought something that she felt would be very useful, although she was unclear about the reason, and came back. Their values usually exceeded their prices after she inspected them. Mrs. Teague lived plainly with little Nice. In addition to recovering from her past condition when she took adventures through training, she took care of her youngest daughter. She knew very well that there would be a war when the mining ceremony began. It would be no surprise if corpses covered the wild and blood flowed like a river, unless His Majesty Void Mask came be back in time. Otherwise, their lives would be decided by their luck because of the strength of the three of them. So she seized these last leisurely moments and hoped she could spend more time with her little daughter. After all, if something bad really happened, little Nice was the most likely to be in danger. Whenever she thought of this, she felt such pain in her heart that she almost wanted to withdraw, but she didn¡¯t. ¡®Grace and revenge must be paid back¡¯ was the motto of her life. Even if it cost a great deal, she would never give up her revenge, even if it meant she would be filled with blood and tears. Ray took another student, Ranke, to work as an adventurer. He made good use of time and taught him as much as he knew: How to observe the situation, how to judge the war situation, how to get in a good lick and avoid evil, how to contact adventurers, how to scrutinize the details of the task, how to save yourself in battle, etc¡­ In the words of Steele, he simply wished he could open Ranke¡¯s head and pour all his knowledge into it, so that this boy could be reborn into an outstanding knight overnight. ¡°Why are you so considerate of Ranke?¡± she once asked privately. ¡°That kid has limited talent and can¡¯t learn so much.¡± ¡°He works very hard,¡± Ray said with a smile, showing remembrance for his past in his eyes. ¡°Every time I see him exhausted after training, but showing no intention of withdrawal or laziness, I remember myself.¡± ¡°Oh? Was your talent this bad then?¡± ¡°¡­No, I was called a genius.¡± Steele couldn¡¯t help but smile. She put together Ray¡¯s age, the scene she had seen in his dream, and compared the information she had deliberately collected during this time. She had found Ray¡¯s true identity. However, she did not point that out. Since Ray didn¡¯t want to say it, she wouldn¡¯t need to. This was a tacit understanding between peers. As for herself, she came and went like a ghost. Others didn¡¯t know where she had been. It was strange that she had always amazingly maintained her human form, considering that she should have begun eating a like a mouse who fell into a rice vat after she arrived at this place full of all kinds of resources. It would not have been strange if she had become a pig at night. In order to cover up the strange flames on the back of her hands, she put on a pair of thin black gloves. The texture was similar to silk, but they were actually a product of devil monster leather that had undergone special alchemy. They were not only very tough, but also covered the back of the hands to avoid attracting attention. However, it was unlikely for a beautiful woman wearing black silk gloves and long black stockings to look unattractive! As time went by, the time of the most important celebration of Gars City, the mining ceremony, was getting closer and closer. At this time on the vast sea, Sui Xiong and Heimsarah had also been getting closer to Timsar, and Heimsarah had been able to feel the breath of the long-time enemy. They were so close that they could sense each other. Strangely, Timsar did not move. In usual practice, because he couldn¡¯t defeat of Heimsarah, he would actively avoid fighting and confrontation with Heimsarah. But this time he did not mean to escape. He had been quietly sitting on the bottom of the sea as if waiting for the old rival to come so that they could finally settle things. It was coincidental that the two finally met on the day of the mining ceremony. Timsal was lying quietly on the bottom of the sea, and looked like a huge shadow. Its large body was embossed with countless crooked faces and transparent bones that were about to come out. They were souls, craving freedom because they had been killed and devoured by it in the past years. But none of them were freed. They were, without exception, pulled back by a decaying force to Timsar¡¯s body, and would never escape. Just glancing at it briefly, Sui Xiong judged that Timsar¡¯s strength might not be as good as that of Heimsarah. But the level of strength was actually higher than that of Heimsarah. Heimsarah could accept prayers and gather the power of some faith, which was turned into seawater and a whirlwind of supernatural power that was at the core of its soul. As time passed, it transformed little by little, blended into its soul, and allowed it to slowly advance. This approach was inefficient, because it did not really understand and use the power of faith. But Timsar was different in that he bound the souls of fear and resentment in his body, constantly absorbed the strong emotions that they emitted, and slowly devoured and absorbed the power of beliefs contained in this feeling. This meant that he had been able to initially understand the nature of the power of faith, and found a way to take the most crucial step toward divinity. Sui Xiong also noticed that there were many souls bound in Timsar¡¯s body, many of which issued violent resentment. This meant that they had been tied up for a long time, but had not been absorbed. This was somewhat unreasonable; according to Timshar¡¯s approach, those souls should have been absorbed by it in a short time. Maybe absorbing the feeling of resentment and fear and turning it into faith was a skill just recently acquired by it? The giant jellyfish narrowed his eyes, and a guess began to emerge. Between Heimsarah and Timsar, there was no need for greetings and talks. Their only method of communication was fighting. When the distance between the two sides was so short that they could attack each other, Heimsarah did not hesitate to mobilize his power. A golden torrent that resembled lightning cut through the darkness of the sea and directly struck the center of Timsar¡¯s shadow-like body. His instinct told him that he hit the vital organ on his old opponent¡¯s body! Timsar¡¯s body shuddered, and a thick ink-like smoke rose from it, and blocked the torrent. The colors of gold and black collided with each other, constantly canceled each other out, and eventually, they both disappeared together. At this time, Heimsarah had already approached and spurred his power to send out golden flows. For those whose strength had reached this level, all kinds of auxiliary means lost much significance. The confrontation between the two sides had been reduced to a mere elimination of power, and a fight for consumption that couldn¡¯t be any more monotonous. This was the most common way of fighting for strongmen with some of the characteristics of a God. For them, unless they were directly hit in their center of power, even being beheaded or having one¡¯s tail cut was nothing. It didn¡¯t even need treatment. There were only two ways of fighting at this level. Either they could dawdle slowly until the other side exhausted its energy, or they could take advantage of the opportunity to launch a blitz strike, and destroy the enemy¡¯s core with just one hit. Heimsarah had an advantage in power and as well as a reliable helper in Sui Xiong. Therefore, he chose the most reliable and secure means to have a fight of consumption with Timsar. Strangely enough, Timsar clearly did not have an advantage, but did not mean to flee at all. He was still quietly lying on the bottom of the sea, and continued to send out masses of black smoke that cancelled out the attacks of Heimsarah. It seemed that it was very willing to have a fight for the war of consumption, and it was unknown what was in the mind of this monster that had done so much evil. Perhaps it isn¡¯t thinking of anything? Sui Xiong secretly thought, watching the battle from the sidelines. The guys in the chaos camp are all a bit emotional, especially those who are extremely sinister and evil. They can be considered a bunch of creatures with mental disorders who are so stupid that people can¡¯t properly communicate with them. Timsar is absolutely a type of creature that is extremely sinister and evil, and it may not have a normal mind at all. Analyzing its actions with logic or wisdom is only hurting my head. He calmed himself down and waited patiently aside for the end of the battle between the old opponents. Or, he waited for an accident. However, an accident did not appear here, but on the other side of the remote continent. It appeared in the Ashes Woods that were covered with ice and snow in the early spring; right beside those followers of Sui Xiong who were busy training and preparing for the summer¡¯s exploration. One of the most famous monsters in the Ashes Woods, a horrible monster known as the Shadow Devil, suddenly attacked them! Chapter 109 Chapter 109: Chapter 109 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The Shadow Devil was a weird and powerful monster. According to people who had encountered it, it had a human-like appearance, a black-red figure. However, its form was not fixed and could be arbitrarily changed. It liked to hide in shadows normally, but not necessarily for ambush or sneak attacks. It was purely a hobby. It was said that it belonged to the monster of a dead ghost, so it resented living things. Although it possessed terrible power that could destroy a mountain, it was keen to kill its targets by devouring their vitality. Its most terrible ability was contaminating and binding the souls of those who had been killed by it, and turning them into shadow soldiers. This scary monster had been living in the Ashes Woods for more than two hundred years. It had launched more than one attack on various towns and villages, and even once went through the mountain pass to sabotage the Confederation of Gold Coins. When it destroyed several cities in a row, its deeds forced the guardian God of Confederation of Gold Coins, the God of Commerce and Wealth, to descend another body, which only repelled it. From then on, it (which was originally known as the ¡®black monster¡¯) had the title of Shadow Devil, and even some villains believed in it. They used living people as sacrifices to get poisonous daggers that had been soaked in the power of the shadow. As a typical representative of the evil forces of the Ashes Woods, it and several other good or evil monsters formed the high-end armed groups of the Ashes Woods. As for Ice Dragon, Snowflake was still far from this group. So when the Shadow Devil suddenly attacked, even if the two strongest people in the Church of Void Mask were present, they would not have been able to make an effective resistance. At that time it was a sunny morning, and Rhode was training with the pioneers who had been recruited. Even if he chose to start in the relatively warm summer, it still wasn¡¯t easy because he had to open up villages and towns in the bitter cold in the North, and to deal with the risks inherent in the woods. This required a lot of training so that people would understand what to do normally, and how to deal with special circumstances, in order to enhance the chance of success and avoid failure. After all; if it failed, it would be a matter of hundreds of lives! They set up a temporary village about one day¡¯s travel north to Rye Town. The villagers were busy and did a lot of work that they did not need to, to prepare for the future. Gerrard was training with a group of brawny men. Their fundamental goal was not to establish a pioneers¡¯ village, but to establish the Church of Void Mask. For this purpose, of course, a group of men capable of fighting was required to form a Knight Regiment to Uphold Religion. Snowflake was dealing with administrative affairs, roughly things related to finance, material, and personnel. She hated this tedious work, but only she or Rhode could do it before Sui Xiong got back Knight Parne, who was said to be very good at the administrative affairs. Rhode was also responsible for training civilians. Compared with the boring administrative affairs, those works were even more cumbersome and boring. It made people freaked out especially when dealing with those stupid mortals who lacked education. Snowflake had tried, and found that those guys couldn¡¯t even distinguish the concept of left and right. Just to popularize the concept, she used several days; she was so angry that she almost killed someone. After that, even if Rhode was willing to exchange their jobs, she would absolutely not agree. Graupel and Frost were still looking for suitable sites for exploration. They had already found several targets. However, they were not very satisfactory. They continued to search in the North and couldn¡¯t return for the time being. Because of this, Graupel had protested several times with numerous reasons, such as ¡°insufficient sleep is the enemy of beauty,¡± or ¡°children won¡¯t grow tall without enough sleep,¡± etc. Frost always put on a sullen look and wore a disappointed face. There were many more who were dissatisfied. Phil the Armored Demon was quite unhappy with the fact that he had to take care of the shop, and reduce his time spent taking care of the flower field in the temple. However, he was kind and accommodating. Originally, that day should have been spent as usual: unpretentious and boring as always, boring. But that calm morning, sudden changes occurred. From the shadow of a room, a red-black figure emerged. It had a strange smile. With a wave of its hand, countless shadows emerged from the shadows scattered throughout the village. Immediately they launched an attack on all the surrounding creatures. In moments, more than a half of the pioneer team that Rhode had recruited with hard work was dead or injured. Less than one-third of them were lucky to escaped the attack of the shadow soldiers. But the shadow soldiers were still emerging, and the number was increasing. Taking in this scene, Rhode was so angry that his eyes turned red. He immediately pulled out his dagger and fought desperately against the shadow soldiers. Gerrard rushed around the village, after he had defeated a row of shadow warriors around him by waving his tomahawk. He destroyed as many monsters as possible and protected the villagers. It was Satan who really improved this situation. As soon as he discovered the problem, he immediately activated the scroll he had prepared in advance and released more than ten light balls that glowed like shining suns. They floated over the village, intertwined with the light source that wiped out most of the outdoor shadows. As for indoors¡­ It was estimated that there were not many people left. His magic was used very accurately, and it suddenly stopped the shadow soldiers who haunted. The combat effectiveness of these shadow soldiers was not very strong. They could make a surprising attack merely by relying on shadows to break into the main plane from the shadow plane. Now, all shadows were erased at that moment, and many moving shadow soldiers were cut off, turned into a smoke, and disappeared without a trace. The red-black figures screamed in anger, because after that magic was used they lost about one-fifth of the shadow soldiers. It was a heavy loss. So they acted personally, turned into a profound shadow, and directly attacked Satan who was casting the spell. It came fast and without warning; Satan simply did not have time to react. Faced with this devil who had been ravaging the world for hundreds of years, even if he had put several layers of defensive spells on his body in advance, it would not have worked. After the hit, his body was broken up like a piece of paper that was randomly cut by scissors. The blood overflowed from countless wounds, but it was sucked up before it reached the ground. Satan instantly became as dry as a dead tree, fell heavily on the ground, and was broken into countless pieces of varying sizes. Until this time, Satan reacted. In the face of sudden death, he unexpectedly felt very calm. ¡°Ah¡­ Is this death? Ha-ha; it doesn¡¯t seem so terrible¡­¡± However, he was clearly calm too early, because a grim black gas emerged from the red-black figure and tightly wrapped around his soul. Then the negative energy, as profound as the deep sea, crazily rushed into his soul. After a moment, his soul was completely polluted by the negative energy and turned into a distorted evil spirit. Before he was contaminated and transformed, he only had time to make a final prayer. ¡°Oh my Lord! Please save my soul!¡± After killing Satan with a blow and even contaminating his soul, the red-black devil slightly vented some anger, and turned its eyes to more valuable targets. For example, the giant dragon that appeared with cold air, and was as transparent as ice crystals. Or that giant man with a tomahawk in his hand who was raging and rushing toward it. Snowflake and Gerrard felt the existence of the Shadow Devil at almost the same time and rushed to it invariably. One of them blew out an icy flame and the other completely activated the strong supernatural power of the tomahawk that Sui Xiong had specially made. Conical blue-white flames turned everything into ice as they passed and fully enveloped the red-black devil. The golden tomahawk hit its head like a bolt of lightning. Both of them were strongmen in the legendary realm. The momentum of their joint strike was daunting. But when they were faced with the Shadow Devil, this type of strike was completely ineffective. The red-black figure just waved its hand, and scattered the ice flames with a shock wave of negative energy. It changed them into countless pieces of ice. They fell like a heavy snowfall, and Gerrard couldn¡¯t even get close to it. He was thrown away with his tomahawk, crashed through several wooden huts in a row, and finally fell into a ruin. Shadow Devil was simply incredibly strong! With a blow, it broke the joint strike of Snowflake and Gerrard. It smiled proudly and its gloomy eyes fell on Snowflake. The soul of an ice dragon might be a good collection. But before it launched an attack again, a blue-white thunder descended from heaven, accompanied by a thunder-like bang. Before, Sui Xiong had been floating in the air, absorbing magic power and slowly transforming it into supernatural power to enhance his own strength. This was his cultivation, just like what he did in the ice trench. It was precisely because of his dedication to cultivation that when the Shadow Devil came to attack, he could not immediately react to it. When the believers suffered heavy losses, they awakened him from cultivation and he hurried to the ground. But just as he swiftly rushed to the ground, Satan was killed, and Snowflake and Gerrard were defeated. Sui Xiong was so angry that he almost freaked out, and while accelerating his speed, he fiercely struck the devil by using a thunderbolt of supernatural power without hesitation. Because of the high speed, he even broke through the sound barrier and made an immense noise. The thunder of supernatural power had its own tracking effect, and there was no possibility of evading it. Shadow Devil seemed to know something about Sui Xiong¡¯s situation, and didn¡¯t intend to dodge him. He waved his hand and a profound dark tide of negative energy rose and rushed directly against the supernatural power. The two forces collided with each other in a haphazard manner. They did not make a sound, but they distorted the space around them. People could even see the scene of the shadow plane from the distortion. The first strike between the two sides shattered the space barrier on the main plane and opened the way to the shadow plane. But this was only the beginning. A half second later, a tentacle that was like a towering ancient tree dropped and attacked the red-black figure. It was not until then that the roar of Sui Xiong was transmitted to the ground. ¡°You! Court! Death!¡± Chapter 110 Chapter 110: Chapter 110 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma In the Ashes Woods, a furious Sui Xiong and Shadow Devil fought fiercely, and the ice power and negative energy madly impacted each other, which changed the color of their surroundings. The sky was black, and the snow and ice were everywhere. The aftermath of the forces of the two sides turned the areas within tens of miles around the fighting place into a cold, dark and ghostly domain. Mortals would feel cold in their hearts even just by looking at that place; as if they were frozen in ice from the inside out. Rhode panted violently, and he felt that his heart and lungs seemed to have frozen, and the air he exhaled was full of ice flakes. This was, of course, an illusion. It was not him who could do this kind of thing; it was Snowflake. Snowflake¡¯s condition was very bad. The ice flame that she spared no efforts in blowing out was defeated by the Shadow Devil, and she had already suffered from internal injuries. She was further hurt and wounded because she used magic to protect those surviving explorers who escaped together. Now she had no strength to stand up. She could only rest on Gerrard¡¯s back and let him run away, carrying her. Gerrard had also been slammed heavily, but his skin and muscles were thick, and his recovery power was amazing. He really belonged to the kind of freak who would recover after using saliva if wounded. He was holding the tomahawk with a half-broken handle with one hand, grabbing Palin whose leg had been wounded in a fight with the shadow soldiers, and carrying Snowflake on his back, who was still paler than Rhode and had ice flakes and blood covering her mouth. Doing this, he was rushing with a large number of people who were full of fear and panic. He also had to stop and fend off the shadow soldiers who were constantly chasing after them, and fight for/ escape time. Only he could do this type of thing. ¡°Rhode, you lead others to continue escaping!¡± He took time to shout to Rhode. ¡°And I¡¯ll stay behind!¡± Rhode wanted to argue with him, for example, ¡°You are more important than us;¡± but Gerrard apparently did not belong to people who could be reasoned with, or weigh pros and cons. Judging from his honest look, he was a stubborn person. So he had to clench his teeth and lead everyone to escape. ¡°Don¡¯t stop!¡± He shouted, enduring the pain on his chest that seemed to break with every word he said. ¡°Run with me! We must stay away from the battlefield. Even the aftermath of the battle between the God and the Devil will be fatal!¡± Under his leadership, survivors ran wildly and away, as far as possible from the battlefield. Once the temporary village had completely been turned into a ruin, the irritated Sui Xiong was too bothered to think about the issue of why the Shadow Devil suddenly wanted to attack. He spared no efforts waving his tentacles and continuously casting spells. He was determined to beat his damn bastard to death, and he wanted it to absolutely die in desperation! In an extremely miserable, inhuman, miserable way! Because he concentrated almost all his energies on this side of the battle, he couldn¡¯t even care for the situation of his avatar. Either way, the fight between Hemsarah and Timsar was purely a war of consumption. It would not surprise him if they fought for ten days, or half a month. And since his friend was much stronger than the already half-dead guy, he didn¡¯t need to worry. But during the fierce battle between him and the Shadow Devil, there was a bizarre black light that suddenly appeared on the face of Timsar, who was pressed under Heimsarah. The black light spread in all directions and created a huge magic formation in a short time, which enveloped itself, Heimsarah, and Sui Xiong¡¯s avatar that was watching aside. Sui Xiong immediately sensed that something was wrong, but the magic formation had already started. He clearly felt that this was a large-scale magic formation of transmission, and would send them together to certain distant place; perhaps the holy kingdom of certain evil God, or a pre-made trap, or something else. Anyway, it would not be a good place! Because of the slightly slow reaction, once he realized that the situation was not good, it was too late to stop the transmission. But the transmission had not yet been completed so there was room for salvation. He took the opportunity to decisively and immediately communicate with Ray¡¯s heart, using Ray as a coordinate, and forcibly invade the transmission spell with his supernatural power. He shifted the transmission target as close as possible in Ray¡¯s direction. Shifting it to his own body might have been more practical, but it was too far. The distorted transmission formation made a harsh roar. A moment later, along with a turbulent flow, three giant creatures had been sent to a shallow seabed. Sui Xiong immediately used a positioning spell, and found that the current location was not far from Gars City; probably about 30 or 50 miles away. ¡°Fortunately, we did not fall into a trap!¡± He exhaled, and spared some energy so that his avatar could also make a full effort to push the supernatural power into a cold torrent, which launched an attack on Timsar. The situation was not right now. He could only rest assured as soon as the battle on this side ended. In the middle of the main square of Gars City, another terrible drama slowly began its prelude, when Sui Xiong¡¯s body and the avatar were in battle. The mining ceremony was divided into three parts. Each church and organization separately led the team to parade in the streets, or preached the doctrines, or sprinkled grace, or made performances. Of course, simply throwing money was not impossible: as long as you were silly and rich, it didn¡¯t matter how one played. Anyway, the most important thing was happiness. When all the teams were gathered in the central square, the city owner would preside over the start of the celebration, and then a prayer would be read out by the chief priest of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest. At this time, the Goddess of Harvest would descend grace, and cure pain for all the audience. After the prayers and blessings, the ten young girls preselected in advance would pick up the most high-end geraniums that had been specially nurtured, and send them to the mages so that they could be enchanted. A public auction would then be held to sell the ten geraniums, which were called the flowers of Gars, and all the proceeds would be given to the grand Goddess, the Goddess of Harvest, who had given the people such a treasure. As the only son of the city owner Joseph, and the most likely city owner of the next generation, Sean did not need to participate in the first stage of the parade. He sat directly on the seat near the center of the square. Behind him, there was a group of well-equipped subordinates with extraordinary dispositions, who had all kinds of tactics. Because of his great strength, Ray was placed behind Sean. He could almost reach his neck with his hands and strangle him. Mrs. Teague was placed in a back seat, because she insisted on staying with her daughters. Ranke wanted to follow his teacher, but he was asked to sit in a back seat by Ray. Next to him was Steele, wearing a helmet as a pastor. Steele originally wanted to be dressed in a seductive way in favor of the celebratory atmosphere. But considering the possibility of a big fight, it was not good to be too noticeable, so she could only wear armor. In this case, people wearing full armor were everywhere, and they were far less noticeable than an excessively pretty woman. ¡°If we fight, please take care of them,¡± Ray asked her. Steele smiled slightly, and knocked on the sturdy breastplate twice with her metal gloved right hand; her was of saying, You can rest assured; it¡¯s on me. Ray smiled, nodded and came to his place. Today¡¯s Steele was really reliable. Well, even if she was not reliable enough, there was no other choice now. As he saw that the scene became more and more lively, he worried, and couldn¡¯t resist asking, ¡°Mr. Sean, what do you really want to do?¡± ¡°Not something worth mentioning,¡± Sean said. He still grinned mildly and humbly, and whispered, ¡°You will soon know.¡± ¡°I think I should know in advance,¡± Ray said. ¡°This way, when things happen, I can react.¡± Sean shook his head. ¡°You don¡¯t need to react with anything special. It¡¯s nothing more than fighting. Isn¡¯t that what you do best?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like fighting at all! Especially this baffling battle!¡± Ray said angrily. ¡°I don¡¯t like fighting, either. The fight is too dangerous. But I didn¡¯t have a choice,¡± Sean said warmly. ¡°You didn¡¯t. We are two drowning people who are bound by fate on the same rope. If you don¡¯t want to be drowned, then you must work hard to pull me up.¡± ¡°This guy!¡± Ray cried furiously in a low voice, wishing he could pull his sword out then and there and stab him! Time flew; the parades of various organizations gathered, followed by a crowd of people, and soon they surrounded and clogged up the entire square. Looking at the dense dark mass of people¡¯s heads on the square, Ray could not help but shiver. Afterward, when they started to fight, maybe blood would flow like a river, and there would be corpses everywhere! ¡°Is it ok if we don¡¯t fight?¡± he sighed and tried to persuade Sean. ¡°Look, so many people are here. It will be really miserable if we fight!¡± ¡°What¡¯s the point of saying these things? I can¡¯t decide if we fight,¡± Sean replied with a smile. ¡°Maybe you think you¡¯re strong, but for me, you¡¯re just a pawn that I can use with convenience. I, for a higher level of great existence, am nothing more than a pawn as well. As pawns, you and I should only have to execute orders. If we think too much, we will not only get no help, but also have more pain.¡± ¡°Are you willing to be a pawn and be used? And you must risk your life!¡± ¡°I won¡¯t be a pawn all the time,¡± Sean said. The smile on Sean¡¯s face disappeared and his tone became very determined. ¡°Sooner or later, I will be a player!¡± ¡°You should survive today before you say that!¡± Ray said bluntly. ¡°Generally speaking, people who are as ambitious as you die halfway through the game.¡± ¡°A few knights who are fighting to help their friends can live, can¡¯t they?¡± Sean laughed again. ¡°We are equals. Let¡¯s work hard together to live. You for your lofty goals, I for my selfish goals. But no matter what, there is hope when we survive.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pity you aren¡¯t a prophet!¡± Sean smiled slightly and did not speak, but there was an exceedingly subtle and almost inaudible sound in Ray¡¯s ear. ¡°Who told you that I was not a prophet?¡± Ray was stunned. This was clearly a spell that wasn¡¯t low level! And there were no magical fluctuations in the casting process. Obviously, it was used with superb ultra-magic skills! Sean isn¡¯t a swordsman, is he? He¡¯s an extremely terrific caster! Chapter 111 Chapter 111: Chapter 111 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma When all the troops had gathered together in the planned areas, Joseph, the chatelain of Garth City who had been silently sitting in the center of the rostrum close to the square, finally stood up and began to give the opening speech. Joseph was a legendary strong man, who was tall and had a well proportioned body. His hair was gray and mixed with a bit of green due to his extremely powerful natural force; his skin was as white as a scholar who rarely went out but sat in their library year round. His eyes were also gray, and one could see a green light flashing in them from time to time, which showed that he was really indeed powerful. Ray was bored by Joseph¡¯s clich¨¦ opening speech and didn¡¯t listen to what he was saying at all. Still, he was very interested in Joseph and observed him secretly. According to what Ray had heard about Joseph from other adventurers, he knew that Joseph was a strong priest who was very good at martial arts and was even better at practicing magic spells. He had been learning from the priest of the church of the Goddess of Harvest from a very young age, and was very good at cudgeling and hand-to-hand combat. Besides, he could even practice intermediate level magic spells which further increased his combat effectiveness. In fact, although he had not pushed past the human limits of martial arts and practicing magic spells, and in terms of legendary strong men, he was not that powerful either, but because of the huge wealth the Riley Family had been accumulating for generations, Joseph could make an extremely good outfit for himself to greatly increase his combat effectiveness. In the past, he once got into a fight with a legendary strong man, who was a templar of the church of the God of Justice. He was someone who always stood by justice and denied the privilege that was enjoyed by the aristocracy and businessmen. One time, Joseph broke into court where a young aristocrat was on trial for riding his horse over a civilian for fun, and killed him. Later, Joseph killed the entirety of the court, and around two hundred people were hanged outside Garth City, and their bodies hung on the trees along the road. This incident happened almost ten years ago, and at least ten churches of the good Gods heavily criticized him. Even so, Joseph didn¡¯t care about whether he would still be accepted by these churches and said that anyone who dared to do the missionary work for these churches in Garth City shall be hanged. When this incident was over, a small scale war broke out, and at last, the Riley Family won. Thus, Joseph became a legendary strong man in the continent and was considered the representative of the aristocracy and businessmen. He had won great honour among his peers. To be honest, Ray didn¡¯t like Joseph that much, but he really admired Joseph¡¯s ability and his resoluteness in doing things. The opening speech didn¡¯t take much time, and Joseph sat down as soon as he finished his speech. Then his eldest daughter, the principle officiant of the church of the Goddess of Harvest, began to read the prayer and start the grand ceremony that was held to pay for the gift from the God. This was why so many people had come there. The gift from the God could heal the wounded and keep one healthy, which was the necessary and luxury enjoyment of the rich. Besides, even a ceremony of this kind could cost hundreds of gold coins, and it was impossible for the poor to pay for it, so the poor came here, hoping they could get the gift from the God to keep healthy and got some of their wounds healed. Most of the viewers were in rags and looked famished. It was still early spring and was a bit cold, so many weak people were heavily shaking due to the temperature. In fact, every year before the ceremony, many poor people who came for the ceremony would die on the street due to the lack of food and accommodation. In the past few days, Ray had seen this scene more than one time. Ray had been told by the adventurers, who had been staying there for a long time, that in this year, the number of people who had frozen to death was relatively low, far lower than that of the last year¡­ Thinking of this, Ray sighed deeply and felt very sympathetic for the miserable life of the poor. He really wanted to do something for them, but he had no idea what he should do. Even if he was powerful enough to scare away a huge dragon, under these circumstances, he felt he was so feeble to do anything to help them. ¡°Maybe, if I am as strong as His Majesty, I can follow my heart to do things and make things better¡­¡± While Ray had no idea that Sui Xiong was also in trouble now. The Dark Shadow Evil was very difficult to cope with. Although it was not that tall, it was indeed very powerful even for Sui Xiong, and if he was hit by it, Sui Xiong would be badly and painfully injured. Besides, thanks to its agile and small body, the Dark Shadow Evil always managed to dodge Sui Xiong¡¯s attacks. Of course, for Sui Xiong and the Dark Shadow Evil, who were both very powerful figure, a hand-to-hand battle was only one way of fighting, and if the close fighting proved to be unfavorable to both sides, the two could fight with each other via practicing magic spells. The magnificent cold energy functioned as the dimensional anchor, shrouding a region of tens of miles, and even froze space. Sui Xiong believed that as long as he could trap the d*mn Dark Shadow Evil so it could not move freely and quickly, he could definitely catch it and tear it into pieces! While the Dark Shadow Evil clearly knew its disadvantages, he didn¡¯t give Sui Xiong any chance to completely block the space and managed to break out by uniting negative energy into a sharp long spear that penetrated the block. When it got out, it didn¡¯t run too far but chose to loiter inside the region and fight with Sui Xiong. Thus, the fight turned into a war of attrition. Judging from the current situation, Sui Xiong knew that the Dark Shadow Evil could run away at any time and couldn¡¯t come up with a good way to trap it completely. When it came to combat effectiveness, Sui Xiong held all the trump cards since he was in a better place than the Dark Shadow Evil in terms of both the strength and the understanding of the energy. Every time their magic energy collided together, Sui Xiong was always in a better place, and as things went on like this, he would definitely win at last. But Sui Xiong still felt very worried. His anger had already faded and he had become sensible again. Then he was very confused. Since he had never done anything to provoke the Dark Shadow Evil, why on earth had it attacked Sui Xiong¡¯s followers? To be honest, most of the figures of the Evil Camp were a bit peculiar, especially those who were extremely evil, confused, and were basically a psycho. Since the Dark Shadow Evil could both accept the prayers of those thugs and manage to strike a deal with them, it was not a freak as Tim Saar was. There must be a clear reason why it attacked his followers, and Sui Xiong himself had no idea what it was. What could it be then¡­? In the center plaza of Garth City, stood Haley Riley, the principle officiant of the church of the Goddess of Harvest. She was forcefully articulating the anthem to the Goddess of Harvest, and a powerful magic energy rose up around her and turned into a green light rising into the air like a green vine. This woman looked quit ordinary, but she had a pair of fierce eyes which were full of confidence and pride like a shining treasured sword that had just been unsheathed. Undoubtedly, she was very powerful, which could be easily seen from that magnificent magic vine. After comparing her with her father Joseph and brother Sean, Sui Xiong realized that she was not as powerful as either of them. Both her father and brother could restrain their true power and no one could really see how strong they were in normal times. Ray had come into close contact with Sean several times, but he still didn¡¯t realize Sean was actually a spell-caster. This was indeed terrifying that one could be so strong that he could even hide his power. If Sui Xiong could choose between Haley and Sean who he was going to fight, he would prefer the former, not the latter. After a while, Haley finished her spell, and one could see that the green vine had already risen high up into the sky and disappeared into a piece of cloud that was floating above the plaza. Suddenly, the cloud began to shine green, and one could vaguely see, behind the light, that there was a beautiful and nice country where there were many ripe grains and fruits in the wild field and countless angels singing, while working and harvesting the field. ¡°This is the projection of the Holy Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest,¡± Sean said. ¡°No matter how many times I see this, I feel very uncomfortable.¡± Hearing this, Ray was shocked, and the hairs on his back prickled with fear. The reason why Sean said this was already very obvious and shocking. Even Ray, who was extremely brave and audacious, was terrified by Sean¡¯s words. There was going to be a war between a certain God and the Goddess of Harvest! Ray was shocked and felt very unlucky and really wanted to curse. Since he came here simply for some information, he never thought he would get involved in a fight between a certain God and the Goddess of Harvest! The Goddess of Harvest was a God that had the power of the intermediate level, and of all the Gods of the Main World, with its center in the Main Plane, she was a powerful figure. The God who wanted to fight her must be very, very terrifyingly powerful! Ray always thought highly of himself, but in this situation, he thought he was just like the cannon fodder! My god! His Majesty, would you please allow me to kill that d*mn Sean? What? You think I could not win against him? Screw him! I don¡¯t care if I can win against him or not! I have been severely implicated by him! However, it was too late for Ray to withdraw, he had no choice but to pull out his sword and ready himself to fight. He did this not to fight with Sean or to protect him, but instead he began to hurriedly draw back, hoping to meet his peers. He at least needed to protect the people. As for other things, he neither had the time nor the energy to care since a war between two Gods was about to begin! While Ray was panicking and pulling out his sword, Sean stood up and coldly stared at the slowly emerging Holy Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest, then he sneered and waved his right hand. ¡°Please come, God of the Quagmire and the poisonous fog!¡± Immediately, the wind began to blow and the cloud changed color, even the sky and the earth were shaking. Chapter 112 Chapter 112: Chapter 112 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Before today, no one really knew that Sean could practice spells. Everyone only considered him a good swordsman. But from today on, no one would only regard him as a swordsman. His ability to practice spells was stunning, and the first spell he practiced was the ¡°God Descending Spell,¡± which was the most advanced one among all the magic spells a priest could ever practice. The so-called God Descending Spell was a spell that could make a God come to the human world; to be more specific, via this spell, one could bypass the restrictions set by the God of Life to a certain degree and make it possible for a God to send his doppelg?nger to the human world. This doppelg?nger was as powerful as the God himself, and was powerful enough to defeat any legendary strong man or half-God. It could even change the direction of the development of a certain country or the whole world. However, it was not that easy to practice this spell. To do so, one needed to be able to continually provide magic energy and had to carefully calculate the energy of this spell, otherwise, not only would the doppelg?nger not appear, but the spell would also cause an explosion. Sean was obviously an advanced spell-caster; he managed to have good control of this magic spell to steadily and successfully perform it. The wind was blowing fiercely, accompanied by smoke and fog. At the same time, a huge ball of viscous liquid appeared in the air right next to Haley, who was trying hard to summon the augmented shadow of the Holy Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest, and completely shrouded her. Haley was glowing bright green and wanted to get out from the viscous liquid, but as she tried, the viscous liquid began to glow green and absorb all of Haley¡¯s green light and tightly trapped her. Seeing Haley was going to be devoured by the huge ball of viscous liquid, the chatelain of Garth City, Joseph, finally made his move. He held a green long stick and wanted to penetrate Sean¡¯s heart from behind. Clearly, he would not show any mercy to Sean, and if he managed to hit him, Sean would definitely die! As soon as the long stick touched Sean¡¯s clothes, it could no longer move forward, not even an inch. Of course, it was not because the stick hadn¡¯t reached its point, but it was stopped by Sean¡¯s magnificent magic power. Joseph frowned, then he snapped his fingers, and immediately, many seeds of various colors appeared in the air and turned into bizarre plants. These vines and roots reached out toward Sean. The plants were all the same; they could absorb others¡¯ magic energy. Of course, Sean didn¡¯t want to be twined by the plants. He had to stand still to keep the magic working, but this didn¡¯t mean that he couldn¡¯t find a way to fight back. Sean whistled loudly and suddenly six or seven people jumped out and blocked the bizarre plants with their bodies. Obviously, these dangerous plants instantly ripped into their bodies with their roots and vines. Even so, these men were not afraid at all, instead they opened their arms and hugged the plants. The next moment, their faces began to turn dark green and their bodies started to wither and became like dried branches. Soon, the dangerous and powerful plants became infected and also began to turn to dark green. After a short while, both the men and the plants turned into a pile of intertwined, dried, hard lumps. Seeing this, Joseph frowned. Since he had no idea when his own son had become so capable, he knew this was the magic spell of the God of Quagmire, which could turn everything into the dried wood. Normally, the Goddess of Harvest and the God of Quagmire didn¡¯t fight with each other while their priesthoods were in conflict. The Goddess of Harvest was patron of fertility and affluence, while the God of Quagmire was patron of infertility and decay. Their Holy Kingdoms were totally different opposites: one was the ¡°fertile land¡±, while the other was the barren ¡°withered woods and quagmire.¡± Both of them were Gods of Nature, which further showed that they were each others¡¯ natural enemies. As the high-ranking figure of the church of the Goddess of Harvest, Joseph knew all the tactics of the church of the God of Quagmire. He waved his hand, and immediately some more seeds flew out. This time, they were not flying to Sean, rather, they flew up and fell down onto Joseph himself. Instantly, these seeds began to grow and flourish, as if they received nutrients from Joseph¡¯s body. Some of them turned into armor, some turned into a magic weapon, and some intertwined on Joseph¡¯s long stick, turning the green stick into a branch full of green leaves, making it look more lively. Behind this lively scene was the terrifying intention of killing. Joseph waved his stick again. Bang! It hit Sean¡¯s head. Since the followers of the church of the God of Quagmire lacked the divine spell that could greatly enhance one¡¯s force, the best way to offset this disadvantage was to firstly enhance himself via the divine spell and then fight the enemy by using force. That was happening right at this moment, and Joseph could not save Haley in time but could only stand aside, watching her being devoured by the doppelg?nger of the God of Quagmire. The huge ball of viscous liquid was slowly wriggling and one could hear the sound of chewing from time to time. Countless blood streaks appeared on the surface of the viscous liquid, and whoever saw this would be frightened. Haley, the principle officiant of the church of the Goddess of Harvest, was eaten alive by the doppelg?nger of the God of Quagmire! However, after the God of Quagmire devoured Haley, its body suddenly trembled and began to float up to the sky while slowly contracting. ¡°Sh*t!¡± Ray was terrified and immediately sheathed his sword without explaining to others why he did so. Then he grabbed Rank with one hand and Liv with the other, and asked Steele to hold up young Nice. Then he quickly ran away with Madame Teague to the place that was close to the bay. The plaza was now in complete chaos, and while they ran, there were many people who tried to stop Ray from time to time. Ray just kicked them away without hesitation, and they rolled on the ground like gourds. Now was the time to run away. Ray had no time to explain to these men who were trying to stop him! Very soon, Ray could hear the wind rustling behind him. His eyes were wide open, and then he threw both Liv and Rank in the direction of the bay. In the blink of an eye, he turned around, pulled out his sword and was ready to fight. Right at this moment, countless sticky liquids spurted from the embodiment of the God of Quagmire, as if it was raining. The liquid moved as fast as an arrow from a bow, and the whistling sound was actually the sound of the air as it was penetrated by the sticky liquid. Most of the viewers in the plaza were just ordinary people and could not possibly fight back in this situation. At least thousands of people were hit by the sticky liquid, those who were lucky enough were hit on their head or chest and would die cleanly. While the unlucky, their hands and feet were penetrated and their wounds immediately began to rot. After a short while, their whole body became a puddle of sticky liquid. People were scared, and in great pain. Everyone was crying and whining, the scene was too horrible for anyone to look at. Seeing this, Ray¡¯s eyes and head felt as if they were going to explode. On the one hand, he was quickly brandishing his long sword, trying to stop the sticky liquid that was moving as fast an a arrow, but, on the other hand, he was asking the viewers to run. Anyway, he had made a difference. Under his protection, at least hundreds of people were hurriedly running toward to the bay. But he could do no more, since there were still more crying and whining people that had been hit by the sticky liquid and many had already turned into a puddle of sticky liquid. Only the strong men of the advanced level or the heavily armored warriors could stand the attack of the sticky liquid, but compared with the God of Quagmire¡¯s followers that were under the protection of the defense spell and thus would not be eroded by the sticky liquid, they were outnumbered. At the same time, Sean lost and could no longer stand the combination of the magic spell and the martial arts used by Joseph, and was hit in the chest. Crack! Sean¡¯s bone broke and he began to spit blood. He fell and slipped on the ground that covered in the sticky liquid and slipped into the long distance. What a coincidence, he was slipping toward Ray. Seeing this, Ray quickly brandished his sword and broke the surrounding ground and made him float above the ground for a while with some trick. Then Ray cut Sean with the vigour of his sword and Sean was wounded all over. At the same time, the sticky liquid was also gotten rid of. ¡°Steele, treat him!¡± Ray shouted. After putting young Nice aside Madame Teague, Steele hurriedly came back and began to cast the spell. Immediately, a flash of white light fell on Sean, and then his wound began to heal, and his pale face also became a bit red. ¡°Don¡¯t¡­ waste your time and energy¡­¡± Sean shook his head and forced a smile, asking Steele to stop helping him. ¡°I¡­ am going to die¡­¡± ¡°Something¡¯s wrong! There is an energy inside his body that has stopped his body from healing!¡± Steele exclaimed. ¡°I can¡¯t get rid of it!¡± While they were talking, blood flowed from both Sean¡¯s ears and nose, he looked really terrible. ¡°Stop talking nonsense! You made me do you a favor. You owe me this time!¡± Ray said angrily. ¡°You prefer to do nothing to save him, so when he dies, there will be no need to return the favor to me. This is how you are thinking, right?¡± Sean¡¯s smile waned, but he sounded a bit more energetic, then he said, ¡°In fact¡­ as for the answer¡­ you have already guessed¡­ haven¡¯t you¡­?¡± Ray frowned and asked, ¡°You mean this was all arranged by the church of the Noble Maids?¡± ¡°Who else would it be then?¡± Sean laughed and then he began to cough up more blood. He had a few big breath and said, ¡°And¡­ the Dim Moon¡­¡± ¡°What?!¡± Ray was shocked. ¡°He was also part of this?¡± ¡°They¡­ have¡­ always¡­ been an ally to each other¡­¡± Ray could not help cursing, and then hurriedly asked, ¡°What have you got to say? Spit it out! You want to bring these secrets to the grave?!¡± ¡°I have finished¡­ the rest¡­ has nothing to do with you¡­ and if you know, it won¡¯t do you any good.¡± Sean was heavily breathing and blood was still flowing from his mouth, ¡°I am just a pawn¡­ I am useless now¡­ Don¡¯t be naive¡­ and never be a pawn again¡­¡± Then, his eyes began to shine green and a scary energy bustled inside his body, which made both Ray and Steele beside him immobile. As if the two were being pressed by a huge rock, they found it difficult to breath or think. Suddenly, Sean managed to jump up and jumped to the center plaza by using up all his left energy. Instantly, the sticky liquid that had covered the whole plaza began to flow toward him from all directions and quickly wriggled into his body like an arrow from a bow. Sean floated in the air, and after a short while, his facial expression changed completely. One could no longer see any human emotion on his face, and his skin was dry as the withered vines, and smelly, dirty water constantly flowed from his eyes, nose and mouth. A terrifying ball of light was shining in his body, the light of divine power. At the same time, Joseph, who was fighting the huge sticky monster and was retreating one step after another, made a desperate cry. His body was also in flames. The flame was green and the light of the divine power also shone in his body. ¡°Go!¡± Ray shouted and took Steele with him and ran away. Chapter 113 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Ray didn¡¯t excel in practicing magic spells, as he could only cast a few. In fact he was just as capable of a bard in this regard. However, he was really good at recognizing certain spells, so he immediately saw what was really going on. Joseph had realized that he could not win, so he made his final move by burning himself and summoning the power of the God. This spell was just a different kind of God Descending Spell and would have a better result compared to the one cast by Sean. This spell may cost more, which meant that every time this spell was practiced, a powerful and faithful follower would be the sacrifice. As for the church that had a huge number of faithful followers, like the church of the God of Sun, sacrificing a powerful and faithful follower would not be a big deal. While the church of the Goddess of Harvest was just a church of a medium size, and there were just a few followers who were as strong as Joseph, and the Goddess of Harvest would feel sorry if any of them died. The Goddess of Harvest was furious, and showed her doppelg?nger which had infinite divine power, eagerly hoping to kill one of the God of Quagmire¡¯s doppelg?ngers who had tried various ways to provoke her, and teach it a good lesson! Ray didn¡¯t want to stay in the battlefield where the war between the two Gods was going to begin, even if it was in fact a war between two doppelg?ngers of the Goddess of Harvest and the God of Quagmire! Since a war between between the Gods could cause huge damage, sometimes a country could be totally destroyed, and Ray was just a ordinary person, so he thought it was best for him to run away. Ray and Steele were running as if on wings, and soon they managed to catch up with the people who were also running for their lives. Madame Teague, Liv, Rank and young Nice were anxiously waiting for them and were relieved upn seeing Ray and Steele come back. Although things were not as good as they thought they would be, luckily, Ray and others in the team were still alive. There were not many people now, and everyone felt frightened when realizing that earlier before there were a huge number of people gathering in the plaza. ¡°The God of Quagmire is crazy!¡± Ray was furious and didn¡¯t care about the etiquette of calling a God by his alias at all. Then he said angrily, ¡°After having killed so many people at one time, is he not afraid that the God of Justice would hold him to this?¡± The God of Justice was a very special existence among all the Gods, neither had he built a Holy Kingdom of his own, nor had he built a church. He had a strong sense of justice and usually sent out his doppelg?ngers from time to time and was ready to help the weak. Besides, more than once, he had gotten into a fight with other Gods simply because he didn¡¯t like the way they unfairly treated the people. And the God of Quagmire¡¯s doing so was sure to anger him, and he would definitely have a big fight with the God of Quagmire. When it came to combat effectiveness, few Gods were as strong as the God of Justice. For a God who was backed up by a group of powerful Gods that belong to a certain department, he may dare to care nothing about the God of Justice, but the God of Quagmire was just a unpopular figure among the Gods of Nature, and had angered the Goddess of Harvest. How did he dare to do so? Ray had been thinking about this for a long time, and couldn¡¯t think it through even if his head began to ache. At last, he had no choice but to believe that the reason why the God of Quagmire did this was due to the mental disorder that a God of this kind could have. The bard usually said that ¡°one who is mentally disordered usually did things in a peculiar way.¡± Madame Teague sighed and said, ¡°We should hurry, things are going to get worse, maybe there will be a bigger fight.¡± Ray nodded and thought a while, then he shouted to the people who were running for their lives and asked them to follow him, and leave from the east gate close to the bay. To do so, they would have to make a big circle of the city, since there were only two gates: one on the east side of the city and the other on the west side. If they meant to leave from the west gate, they would have to cross the plaza, so they could only leave from the east gate. These people who were in such chaos listened to him and quickly ran to the east gate. More and more citizens of Garth City realized that there would be bigger fight soon, so they also joined the people running toward the east gate. Right at this moment, a loud blast came from the plaza. ¡°What on earth has happened!¡± Ray angrily turned back and saw the sticky monster had countless bubbles all over its body, and there were even some holes on its body. Obviously, these holes were caused by the inner explosion, it seemed that it had eaten something that could explode, and it had exploded inside of its body. Ray was stunned and saw that inside its stomach, there was a transparent figure shining in green light, and it was doing some sort of magic spell. But since he was standing too far away from it, he could not clearly see what the transparent figure looked like. Judging from its behaviour and bearing, Ray found that it was Haley Riley who had been eaten alive by the sticky monster earlier before. ¡°What is going on? She died, didn¡¯t she?¡± Ray was confused and quickly swept his eyes over Steele and knew the reason why Haley became like this. Could Haley¡­ became the holy spirit of the Goddess of Harvest when she died? Maybe she hadn¡¯t become a holy spirit, but undoubtedly, she changed into a divine creature from a human¡¯s soul and grew much more powerful. In fact, only a follower in the high level of a certain God¡¯s church could receive the divine grace from a certain God based on how much contribution they had made, after they died and became a powerful divine creature. While for those ordinary followers, no matter how faithful they were or how much contribution they had made, they could never become a powerful divine creature when they died. Thinking of this, Ray sneered, turned around and left since he knew neither the Goddess of Harvest nor the God of Quagmire, and the fight between the two was just dog-eat-dog. Meanwhile, in the plaza, Joseph had completely turned into the incarnation of the Goddess of Harvest, a ball of green fire, and was having a fight with Sean, who had been possessed by the God of Quagmire. While the powerful men of all the churches and organizations who had survived were working with Haley, who had become a divine creature, to combat the huge sticky monster. The sticky monster was both the incarnation of the God of Quagmire and its oracle as well. Before it possessed Sean, it was the former, and after it possessed Sean, it became the latter. Without the guidance of the God of Quagmire, the sticky monster was very reckless and reacted very slowly. Under the attack of those strong men and Haley, it was soon in a very difficult situation. Haley was doing most of the work actually, her tactic was very simple. She released the green bubbles one by one from her hand, and as soon as the bubble appeared, it began to expand and exploded inside the body of the huge sticky monster; at the same time, she snapped her fingers constantly with her other hand, and seeds appeared from nowhere and dropped on the sticky monster. In the blink of an eye, the seeds started to quickly flourish by absorbing its vitality and turned into many big trees that later became many tall and strong tree men. The tree men then shook their bodies, slowly pulled out their roots, shook their branches and attacked the sticky monster. Those men who had survived the previous bombardment were indeed powerful. They might not be able to fight for a long time when confronted by the sticky monster, but when it was busy fighting with Haley, they could easily do their bit by hitting and punching the sticky monster. Soon, the sticky monster was injured all over and began to react more and more slowly, and it was obvious that it would be defeated very soon. The God of Quagmire, who had possessed Sean, was having a difficult time with the incarnation of the Goddess of Harvest and failed to take much advantage of her opponent; she had got some advantages, but not many. Judging by the current situation, the huge sticky monster would definitely be killed, although this would take some time, even then it was impossible for it to win against the Goddess of Harvest. Realizing this, the God of Quagmire made up its mind and sent out the signal as it had made an agreement with the Goddess of Sea that it would do so when it was in a difficult situation. A disturbing green light appeared and flew into the sky, and then it spread out in the air and turned into a strange symbol. When the symbol began to rise up, the sunny sky suddenly turned cloudy, and the wind started to blow fiercely. Meanwhile, the tranquil sea was raging. The guard in the observation station close to the sea surprisingly found that there were many ugly creatures with scale covered bodies in the sea. Seeing this, they were extremely terrified and hurriedly rang the bell. ¡°The Sea Race¡­ is coming!¡± The bell rang, and everyone was shocked, even those citizens of Garth City who hid in their homes finally came out and looked at the bay in surprise. They knew what the sound of the bell meant: the d*mn aquatic monsters once again came in groups! ¡°Go¡­ Go and tell the chatelain¡­ that the sea race is coming!¡± Since the chief commander had gone to the ceremony, the official who was temporarily working there was neither as strong as him, nor as popular as him, and was so terrified that his face became pale and he stammered badly. The officials in the lower rank looked at each other and soon hurried about in confusion. Tell the chatelain? How? The fight over the plaza was so intense now, it was impossible for them to inform Joseph! ¡°Moron! It is such a miracle that you are still alive! Since you are so stupid and haven¡¯t be killed yet!¡± An old officer who once was a adventurer cursed, ¡°You are even in a daze in this critical moment? You should be prepared to fight instead!¡± ¡°But¡­ but¡­¡± The officer temporarily working there put on a long face and said, ¡°Only the chief commander, the chatelain, Haley, the principle priest and Master Sean can activate the hub that controls the magic array¡­¡± Hearing this, the old officer almost passed out. None of them were there, which meant that the huge magic array that had costed a million to build, and could be used against the army of the sea race was no use at all now! Although there were many soldiers in Garth City, compared to the army of the sea race that had countless members, the amount of the soldiers was basically nothing. In the past, the sea race had made several intrusions, and they managed to defeat them with the help of the huge magic array, and even so, the fight had caused many casualties. This time, the sea race came again, and looked fiercer than ever before, and the magic array could not be activated. What was worse, they had to rely on the soldiers¡­ My God! How could it be possible! ¡°What should we do?¡± the officer asked while shivering. He now regarded the experienced old officer who was very calm under this situation as the life-saving straw, hoping the old officer could save them all. ¡°I have no f*cking idea!¡± the old officer angrily replied, then he turned to the people who were running for their lives and said, ¡°The sea race is coming now, you will most certainly die since you can¡¯t run as fast as them! Is there any man who is capable enough to fight them? Please come with me and fight against the sea race, so we can create more time for the people to run!¡± However, no one answered, even the adventurers who were normally audacious and proud. Clearly, they were well equipped, but they were still silent. They mixed themselves in with the crowd and ran to the east gate. These adventurers were the kind of people who lived for money, now that Garth City would be destroyed, why would they stay to defend the city when they would not get paid?! Why would they would risk their lives to create more time for the people to run for their lives while they would not be paid? Only the audacious knights would do such a thing! Still, there were some adventurers who bravely joined the old officer and were ready to work with the soldiers to fight the sea race. Among them, there were Ray and Rank. Chapter 114 Chapter 114: Chapter 114 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma For most of the people who lived in the coastal area, the invasion of the sea race was a disaster that was even more scary than a tsunami. The so-called sea race referred to the species that lived in the sea, that believed in the Goddess of Sea and adopted a hostile attitude toward the terrestrial creatures and aimed to kill every one of them. The sea race consisted of all kinds of different species, and the biggest branch of the sea race was the merman and the sea fairy. There were various kinds of creatures in the sea, and in fact they could roughly be divided into two camps. One was ruled by the powerful half-God creature that regarded the Goddess of Life, who had already died, as their Mother. They lived in the distant seas or the deep seas and called themselves the ¡°citizens of the sea.¡± The backbone of this camp was the merman race, among which there were many old mermen who had been living in the sea since the ancient time and had even witnessed the birth and the death of many Gods: the predecessor of the ¡°furious tide¡± Haimu Sarah, and the ¡°dark tide¡± Tim Saar, the half-God strong men or the ¡°living tsunami¡± Sarah Mentor, was one of the old mermen and was also honored as the ¡°king of the sea¡±. And the other camp was the so-called ¡°sea race.¡± The citizens of the sea remained neutral and even had a friendly relationship with the terrestrial creatures. Since the citizens of the sea were very powerful, they had enough confidence, and they had been living far away from the land, so they were not in conflict with the terrestrial creatures in terms of habitat. While things were rather different between the sea race and the terrestrial creatures. Most of the members of the sea race lived in the coastal waters or the shallow waters, thus they were in direct conflict with the terrestrial species in terms of the habitat. Since the individuals of the sea race were rather feeble and would often suffer losses in small conflicts with the terrestrial creatures, the hatred they held toward become more and more intense as time went by. At last, the sea race regarded all the terrestrial creatures as their enemy. In the beginning, the Goddess of Sea was a God of Nature and she remained neutral in the conflict between the sea race and the terrestrial creatures. Later, she adopted the faith of the sea race and her mind was gradually eroded by their hatred, and she became an evil God at last. After a period of time, the Goddess of Sea gave an oracle and asked the sea race to gather at a certain coastal line, then to land, and kill every terrestrial creature they could possible see. This was the so-called the invasion of the sea race. Among the sea race, the skirmisher was not that powerful; in fact, the most dangerous and powerful figure was the elite team led by the strong figures of the sea. These strong figures were not interested in attacking the ordinary citizens, instead they liked to attack the town and the village. Every time they destroyed a certain town or a village, they would gather all the captives together and dig a big hole in the ground. Then they would squeeze out the blood from these captives and pour the blood into the hole to fill it. Later, they would bathe in the blood one by one, and the one who had established the most splendid record would bathe first. The reason why they held this ruthless ceremony was to please the Goddess of Sea. Once Garth City was destroyed by them, the soldiers would be either killed during the fight, manage to run away, or their blood would be extracted to fill the hole. In the past, the sea race had invaded Garth City more than once, although they never managed to destroy Garth City that the Riley Family had painstakingly built. they had brought great misery to the citizens of Garth City. Thus most of the people felt extremely frightened whenever they heard of the sea race. Currently, there was a big war in Garth City. Joseph, the chatelain of Garth City, and his daughter who believed the Goddess of Harvest, were in a big fight against Master Sean who believed in the Goddess of Quagmire. The other camps were also involved in this fight: therefore, the soldiers could only rely on themselves to fight with the sea race. Could it really be possible for them to stand up against the invasion of the sea race? Since they neither had the backup of the defending force, nor did they have the magic array, the only thing they had were some ordinary soldiers and some brave adventurers. Ray didn¡¯t believe that they could definitely defeat the sea race, but he felt that he had to stay to fight and create more time for the people to run. Liv also wanted to stay and fight together with Ray, but she was persuaded by Ray to leave. ¡°You need to take care of young Nice,¡± he said. ¡°Your mother is very powerful, but it is impossible for her to spare the energy to take care of Nice if something happens. As for Steele, one can¡¯t fully rely on her¡­ so you should take up the responsibility to take care of Nice.¡± Hearing this, Liv meant to bargain with Ray, but Ray put on a poker face and angrily stared at her, so she said nothing. ¡°Liv, you are a knight, right? If you think you are, you should obey the order I gave you!¡± He pointed at the crowded refugees, ¡°As your teacher, I command you to maintain the order of the team and help them to successfully retreat.¡± ¡°But¡­ I¡­¡± ¡°There is no ¡®but¡¯ in the dictionary of a knight!¡± Ray shouted. ¡°Rank, Teague and Steele, you three have to cooperate with her, do you hear me?¡± Rank agreed and he pulled out his sword, ready to fight together with Liv. Madame Teague was a bit stunned, since Rank directly called her ¡°Teague,¡± but soon she lowered her head and obeyed Ray¡¯s command; while Steele was a bit reluctant and frowned, but at last, she didn¡¯t show her reluctance. Liv was almost going to cry, but she managed to pull herself together. Then she yelled at, punched, kicked or hit anyone who was making trouble, trying to maintain the order of the crowd. She even killed a bandit, who meant to loot with her sword. She then brandished the sword from which the blood dripped and warned the refugees to behave themselves and to run toward the direction she was pointing. She looked like a shepherd and the refugees were just like a herd of sheep. ¡°She is doing pretty well.¡± Ray crossed his arms on his chest and smiled while watching Liv doing so in the far distance, ¡°I never thought she was so leader-like!¡± ¡°But it all seems very reasonable. Since the king has always thought highly of the knight, Pahn, and regarded him as the perfect lord-to-be of the Holy Land, and Liv, as his daughter has been under his education from a very young age, so it is not surprising she is a warrior with a mind. Maybe her real talent is not in the field of swordsmanship, but in leadership¡­¡± Then, Ray turned around and pulled out his sword. ¡°Although I may not be able to win this fight at all¡­ still, it makes me feel very excited!¡± At the bay, the tide was turning; meanwhile, countless mermen landed, brandishing their shabby weapons. They were such a mess and acted in a disorderly manner, but they managed to frighten any brave man who dared to fight against them simply with their numbers. Moreover, among them, there were many powerful elites who were leading the army, like the merman priests, the merman warriors, the merman tribal chief and alike. The mermen team might look very messy, but when examined carefully, one could find that there were many disciplined proceeding groups among the messy team. ¡°It is a common practice for the merman to cover the elites with the messy crowds.¡± The old officer came close to Ray and said to him, ¡°Thank you for your help. It never occurred to me that an adventurer like you, who has just come to this city, would be willing to risk your life to help us.¡± ¡°Any decent man could not possibly ignore a massacre that is soon to happen,¡± Ray replied. ¡°Especially¡­ after my failing to stop another massacre that happened very recently.¡± The old officer was silent for a while and asked, ¡°What on earth is going on over the plaza?¡± ¡°I can only tell you what I have seen and the speculation I made based on what I have seen, and I can¡¯t promise you that everything I am going to say is one hundred percent right.¡± ¡°Please.¡± ¡°Firstly, Master Sean seems to be a follower of the God of Quagmire, and he is of very high rank in his church. I think he may be some sort of candidate,¡± Ray said. ¡°Although he seems like he doesn¡¯t want to join this fight, his identity and status make him unable to contradict the order of the God of Quagmire.¡± The old officer was shocked, and his eyes and mouth were wide open. He had already been shocked after hearing only the ¡°firstly.¡± The Riley Family had been following the Goddess of Harvest for generations, and most of the family members were all in some very important positions in the church of the Goddess of Harvest. He never thought that the future successor of the Riley Family could be a candidate of the God of Quagmire! This was just like the leader of a herd of cats suddenly becoming a dog, or the king of the ladies kingdom turning out to be a man! It was indeed ridiculous! ¡°Then, during the ceremony, he summoned the doppelg?nger of the God of Quagmire to come to the Main Plane,¡± Ray said. ¡°Maybe he summoned a doppelg?nger of a certain oracle, since that huge sticky monster was too shabby to be a doppelg?nger of a God.¡± The old officer nodded and took no notice of Ray¡¯s disrespect of the doppelg?nger. ¡°Then, Haley was eaten by the sticky monster; the sticky monster initiated a large scale attack, and turned all the viewers in the plaza into sticky liquid. The chatelain was furious and Sean was severely injured by him. Then Sean was possessed by the God of Quagmire, and the chatelain also summoned the incarnation of the Goddess of Harvest by burning his vitality. Later, Haley¡¯s soul turned into a divine creature and fought against the sticky monster with other survivors.¡± Ray was trying very hard to make a summary of what had transpired so far. ¡°Now, they are still fighting with each other.¡± Hearing this, the old officer became silent, and let out a long sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± he said. Ray shrugged and said, ¡°Even I didn¡¯t understand what was really going on; although, I was there at that time, so it is pretty normal for you to not be able to understand!¡± ¡°But I know what I should do now,¡± the old officer shook his head, and tried to clear his mind after hearing the story told by Ray. Then he said in a very low voice, ¡°I don¡¯t care what is going on over the plaza, since I am a member of the sea defense army, my obligation is to protect Garth City from the invasion of the sea race!¡± Ray patted his shoulder while smiling, ¡°You are right¡­ but have you got any better ideas? If you don¡¯t, it is very likely that we may lose!¡± ¡°Ideas? I haven¡¯t got any ideas! To be honest, I don¡¯t think we can win this fight!¡± The old officer, with one third of his hairs whitened, murmured, ¡°Even so, we should confront them! I have lived in this city all my life and I am an aristocrat. I can not possibly abandon my city to save my own neck, and leave it to the enemy¡­¡± Before he even finished his words, he suddenly shot an arrow and killed a young man who was well dressed. This young man was trying to sneak away while the old officer was talking with Ray, and thought no one had noticed him. ¡°The number one rule of the sea defense army of Garth City: anyone who runs away during a fight shall be killed!¡± Suddenly, the old officer¡¯s attitude became as cold as the freezing north wind. He then said coldly, ¡°I know many of you have been sent to join the sea defense army with the intent of polishing your experience, and I know you always bum around being gluttonous and lazy, and even deceive your superiors and delude your subordinates¡­ Well, I can forgive all this, but now the sea race is coming, and you want to ask me why you are so unlucky that you have to be in this situation, and I shall tell you that this is your fate!¡± ¡°So don¡¯t complain to me or try to run away! What you should do is to pick up your weapons and fight!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear any excuses, and I don¡¯t care. I am only in charge of two things. First, I will never allow the sea race to cross the bay and to kill the people, even if this would cost my life. Second, I shall kill anyone who attempts to run away!¡± He looked around in a rather serious way. Although he was just a low rank officer, now he was as magnificent as a huge dragon. ¡°Now, let¡¯s fight!¡± Chapter 115 ¡°Ha!¡± Ray shouted and brandished his long sword, managing to cut three to four mermen, as well as their weapons, into two halves. Then he quickly broke into another crowd of mermen and brandished his sword. Instantly, the ground was covered with the light blue blood of the merman, and the merman that were shouting and yelling were all dead. In fact, there were some soldiers that had been trapped by the merman and were at the brink of being killed by them, but thanks to Ray¡¯s help, they managed to survive. When they wanted to thank Ray, they found that Ray had already left. Ray¡¯s armour had turned blue due the blood of the merman, and behind him, a huge number of dead mermen were lying on the ground. Looking from the sky, one could have spotted a blood line among the merman army which divided the upcoming mermen and the mermen that were having fight with the sea defense army. Ray was running in the battlefield and brandishing his sword as quickly as the blowing wind, leaving a pile of dead mermen behind him. Ray then suddenly found that the space in front of him became very open, and he realized that he had already fought all the way across the battlefield. He finally had the chance to take a rest; then he turned around and found that the ruthless merman had been shocked by his strength. He could see the fear in their ugly faces. When he brandished his sword again, the merman could stand no more and ran away while whining. The battlefield was covered with the merman¡¯s bodies. ¡°Well done!¡± the old official who had also gotten blood all over himself touched his moustache and got blood all over his hand. He was disgusted by this and cleaned his hand on his clothes. Then he gave a thumbs up to Ray and said, ¡°I know you won¡¯t disappoint us, since you can catch the three-headed snake alive all by yourself!¡± Ray smiled and got rid of the blood that was left on the sword. Then he cleaned the sword and put it back into his sheath. ¡°This is just the beginning; more mermen will come soon!¡± The old officer nodded and sighed while watching the merman army that was organizing its team at the bay in the long distance. ¡°The damn mermen, why there are so many of them!¡± Both the soldiers and the adventurers standing next to Ray all agreed with him. If it were another battlefield, killing such a huge number of mermen would be equal to a massacre, but in the fight with the sea race, it was just killing a tiny part of the sea race. Even the one who was the most confident and brave could not think positively that he had won this battle when he saw the boundless mermen army in the long distance. The mermen team was always in chaos. Since most of the mermen were just ordinary creatures who didn¡¯t even know what order really meant, and being in disorder was their nature. Only those who were strong enough to suppress their natures could maintain the order to a certain degree, just like a child pretending to be a soldier. When it came to an individual merman, they were not that powerful. Even the ¡°strong merman¡± that was in the rank of tribal chief was only as powerful as a new and inexperienced adventurer; for the experienced adventurer, it was basically nothing. This disadvantage was offset by the large quantity of mermen. A grown female merman laid around a thousand eggs once a year, and if a certain priest hosted an incubation ceremony, then about thirty days later, almost sixty percent of the eggs would hatch. If there was enough food, around half of the larvae merman, that looked like malformed fish, could survive. They would change their form in three months. They would mature in a year and could breed in three years, which meant that if good conditions were provided, a female merman could breed three hundred children in a year. Three years later, among the first generation of three hundred mermen, half of them would began to breed¡­ The fertility of the mermen was indeed strong; and they must have been number one amongst all the intelligent creatures in this regard. The gap between them and the creature who was number two in this regard was as big as the gap between a landmark tall building and a short shabby shack! The reason why the sea race intruded the land from time to time was believed to be a way to decrease the oversized population, so they could avoid the waste of resources. The population was actually a very precious resource for most intelligent species, but for the mermen, it was a burden. The mermen knew that they had a huge population, so the tactic they liked most was to attack all together. They didn¡¯t care about the loss of their peers, since they knew that the number of the mermen that were killed was basically nothing compared with to the whole population of mermen. Once, when the sea race intruded the land, there was a legendary wizard who counted the number of the mermen. He was sure that there were around three million of them, but he didn¡¯t manage to finish counting, since he was forced back by the strong mermen of the sea race. Since the sea race had a huge population, it was never a problem if the individual merman was feeble, or that they were always in disorder. In particular, when the sea race intruded the land, and there were some strong men from the other races that would practice spells to help them, the mermen would become crazy and not retreat until they died. When facing an enemy that was a few times, or tens of times, or hundreds of times, or even thousands of times more in terms of the number, and that enemy was not afraid of being killed, who dare to say he was not afraid? Ray dared not to, anyway. Ray was much more powerful than any merman, and in theory could come and go freely even if he was facing thousands upon thousands of horses and soldiers, as long as he had a sword in his hand. But when facing millions in a merman army, he could not possibly kill them all, even if he had three heads and six arms! Just now, he managed to kill hundreds of mermen, but so what? If he wanted to defeat the whole merman army, he would have to repeat that at least tens of thousands of times! After all, he was just a human, and he would feel tired after fighting for a long time, and hungry when there was no food, and pain when getting hurt. Even though the weapons the mermen had were shabby, once one was hit by the weapon, it was fatal. If one was exhausted and trapped by many mermen at the same time, even a legendary strong man would die. As for the strong sea monsters, although they couldn¡¯t stay on land for too long, they were as powerful as huge rolling rocks. If one got into a fight with a certain sea monster, they would soon be encircled ring by ring by the mermen. Then the mermen would cooperate with the sea monster¡­ basically, when one was in this situation, they were bound to die. However, the sea monsters were not the most dangerous figures. The most dangerous ones were the strong mermen of the sea race disguised as the ordinary mermen, hiding. The strong mermen had nobody else on their level; they were not reserved at all, and always disguised as ordinary mermen. When the strong men in the land were busy in fighting with the enemies, they would suddenly sneak attack and kill them all. All those years, there were many strong men in the land had been killed by the sea race. A huge number of legendary strong men died in their hands, and many men died without knowing that they were killed by the strong mermen. What Ray worried about most was the strong mermen. He carefully watched the merman army that was climbing up to the wharf and reorganizing troops and trying to make a sort of formation at the same time, hoping to find the strong mermen that were hiding among the merman army. Ray hadn¡¯t met any strong mermen yet. He thought maybe the strong mermen didn¡¯t manage to come in time, or maybe the mermen he had killed were just the ordinary ones. But anyway, when the mermen intruded the land, there must have been some strong mermen hiding in the ordinary merman, since this had been proved by countless men with the price of their lives! ¡°Fire! Fire!¡± When the merman army got closer to a certain degree, the magic cannons that were put in the inner side of the wharf began to work, and made a sound that was as loud as thunder. The wizards of low rank were controlling the cannons and taking the risk of being killed by the explosions of the cannon barrels to increase the speed of the bombs. Since they had done many exercises, they could hit where there were many mermen every time. The bombs were actually a magic crystals wrapped up inside metal shells. They were not very steady and the magic array inside the metal shells managed to keep them from exploding. Once the bomb was sent out, the magic array would lose its effect in a short period of time, and the magic crystal would explode and became a shining ball of flame that was as powerful as the fireball spell, a spell of the intermediate level. The cannon used in the Garth City was a classic one; it was not that powerful, but the speed of the bombs as they were sent out was very fast. The wizards of low rank kept firing tens of magic cannons, and the bombing sound never stopped, not even for a second, as if there was a group of dragons roaring. The crowded merman army was being constantly bombarded. ¡°Bastard! Go to hell!¡± Sui Xiong was yelling, and making good use of every bit of his cold energy. He had managed to freeze most of the space, although the Dark Shadow Evil could still temporarily run away by penetrating the space. But the range where it could move freely was getting smaller and smaller. Soon, it could no longer run away. It had to confront Sui Xiong and have a big fight with him. Sui Xiong was very confident that he could kill it when that time came! But Sui Xiong was a bit worried; he felt this was all very strange. Clearly the Dark Shadow Evil knew it was in a very dangerous situation, but it didn¡¯t even try to retreat. Why? Could it be possible¡­ that there was someone giving it orders and commanding it not to? If that someone really existed, could he be a God? He must be powerful, if there was someone that could make the Dark Shadow Evil¡ªwhich had plagued the human world for hundreds of years¡ªfight for him, or make it continue fighting despite the danger. Who would be then? Who would attack his own church? Meanwhile, the fight between Haimu Sarah and Tim Saar was getting more and more intense. The two huge creatures were entangling each other, and the furious tide was colliding with the dark tide, creating raging currents at the bottom of the sea. The doppelg?nger of Sui Xiong was waving its tentacles and continued hitting at the part of Tim Saar¡¯s body where there was cold energy, hoping to kill it sooner. Sui Xiong had to hurry up to finish the battle here, so he could send his doppelg?nger to help either Ray or himself; this would be helpful to either of them. However, something unexpected happened to Ray. Ranke, who was supposed to leave for Liv, came back! Chapter 116 ¡°Rank, what are you coming back for?¡± When he saw the students returning, Ray was unhappy, and he frowned. ¡°I want to fight. I want to help my teacher. I want to protect the refugees!¡± Rank was afraid, but he answered seriously. ¡°If you help to maintain order, you are helping me and are protecting them.¡± ¡°As Liv is there doing these things, it¡¯s enough, because she can do it very well. When teacher Parne was young, a large number of monsters haunted the Golden Tower City, and he temporarily gathered a group of people. They swept that area for two months and almost extinguished the monsters that had attempted to form a beast army. Liv is the child of Pahn. She inherited his blood and talents, grew up under his guidance, and she can do a good job of maintaining order and leading a group of refugees to escape.¡± Rank had consider this and replied without hesitation, ¡°I can¡¯t help over there, so I¡¯d rather come here, at least I can kill a few more murlocs!¡± ¡°You can kill murlocs with such humble strength?¡± Ray sniffed at his words. Rank suddenly blushed, ¡°Teacher¡­ I¡¯m also very powerful! Not long ago I contested several adventurers, and I was successful in some sessions!¡± To be honest, his strength was indeed good and he could be considered a qualified adventurer. He could at least be a small captain in the Sea Defence Forces of Garth City. He would lead six or seven individuals and be independent when the situation was not very crucial. In contrast to the rookie he was a few months ago, he had been reborn. However, in Ray¡¯s view, his strength was far from enough! ¡°Where do you think you are? Is this a field of friendly games?¡± he said sulkily. ¡°This is a battlefield against the invasion of the maritime races! You are not faced with kind adventurers, but countless maritime armies that you can¡¯t kill them all! You have really made progress and now you can be considered a good adventurer, but what is the point of that!!¡± He reached out his hand and Rank saw the murlocs rushing from afar against the bombardment of magical cannons. ¡°See? See the number of them!¡± he said angrily. ¡°Do you know that at least ten people with an ability similar to yours died in the battle just now? And that was only a tentative attack!¡± ¡°Leave! Leave! If the fight starts, you can¡¯t leave even if you want to!¡± Rank bowed his head, and kept silent for a moment. He then raised his head again with a tenacious look in his eyes. ¡°Teacher, I haven¡¯t planned to leave yet since I came back!¡± Ray was dumbfounded and looked at him, not daring to believe him. ¡°You and Teacher Pahn both taught me the virtues of the knight: humility, honor, sacrifice, bravery, mercy, faith, honesty, and fairness. I¡¯m not strong enough; I¡¯m not smart enough; I can¡¯t practice the eight virtues one by one. But even I know that this time it is time for the knight to sacrifice!¡± ¡°You are by no means a knight!¡± Ray roared. ¡°You haven¡¯t graduated yet!¡± ¡°Then, let me be on your side for this last lesson.¡± Rank raised his sword, ¡°I swear by this oath. I will show mercy to the weak, bravely fight against all evil and injustice, fearlessly sacrifice, and firmly defend my honor¡­ Teacher, as I have managed to practice half of the eight virtues, am I qualified as a knight apprentice?¡± Speaking of this, he finally laughed, and he showed a look of joy and anticipation on his still childish face. It was the look of a child who did what he believed to be the right thing, and who longed for recognition from his parents and teachers, and for praise. Ray wanted to sternly refute him, to use his debating skills he learned from his his teacher who was a world-renowned scholar, and to scold this kid so that he couldn¡¯t lift his head and could only leave awkwardly. However, when he saw Rank¡¯s look and saw the childish look of anticipation, he felt that there was an inexplicable excitement that made him unable to speak. Once upon a time, he was like Rank: full of enthusiasm and anticipation, wanted to become an outstanding knight, wanted to get the approval of teachers and his father through his own actions, wanted to uphold justice as a knight, and wanted to be a world-renowned hero¡­ He turned to prevent Rank from seeing the tears in his eyes, and he said in the toughest tone, ¡°Since you have decided, then come with me! Grab your sword firmly and never fall off! You are my student and cannot die in this small place!¡± Rank was dumbfounded, then understood his teacher¡¯s meaning, and could not help but laugh. He knew that his teacher really recognized him. So he nodded heavily and replied, ¡°I¡¯ll work harder!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk big. A knight must use action to prove himself!¡± ¡°Yes!¡± As they talked, the murlocs army had rushed in front of them against the bombardment of the magical cannons. With Ray and the old officer taking the lead, the defenders shouted together, waved their weapons, and rushed towards the army. With the flash of knives and swords, blood splattered. ¡°You b*stard! Who sent you!¡± Sui Xiong shouted, and his tentacles fluttered wildly. Each blow left a deep crack in the ground like a scar. He said, ¡°Confess honestly!¡± Just now, he finally and completely blocked the space of this zone and blocked the retreat of the Shadow Devil. After losing the ability to freely shuttle between the main plane and the shadow plane, for all the flexibility the red-black ghost had, it became a bit awkward when faced with the dozens of Sui Xiong¡¯s mighty tentacles. So he couldn¡¯t help but snarl and ask again, trying to ask who was behind the scene. Because his heart was full of unease, he felt that something dangerous was happening, but he had no clue what. This made him anxious, annoyed and irritated. He was not a person who was good at reasoning and speculating. Faced with this extremely urgent situation, he could hardly be calmed down and think slowly, so he chose to use force to press for the answer. However, the Shadow Devil still said nothing. At the moment, it had no power to fight back. It could only hide in the turbulent attacks. Seeing the situation become more and more unfavorable, it didn¡¯t mean to admit defeat, let alone confess. ¡°You b*stard! You b*stard!¡± Sui Xiong scolded it angrily, fiercely slamming tentacles, and finally seizing the opportunity to hit the body of Shadow Devil. The red-black figure dodged lightly and turned into a transparent body. Normally it should be able to protect itself against ordinary physical attacks. However, under the swift attack of the hero, his hard work was completely useless. It heard only a tragic crack and a noticeably large cavity opened on its body. It was almost turned into a thin paper and broken in two pieces. This attack apparently hit the Shadow Devil fiercely. It had kept quiet since it began to fight against Sui, but he became unable to keep silent and cried tragically. The voice was extremely tragic. It was like many people, male, female, young and old, were being massacred, and all sorts of screams came together into a horrible voice. ¡°Speak! Who sent you here!¡± Sui Xiong waved his tentacles in all directions and turned them into a wall of iron and copper that surrounded Shadow Devil, ¡°If you don¡¯t speak, I will kill you!¡± The red-black figure trembled violently, likely afraid, but this trembling was quickly gone. Its body shivered, and a strange light glowed. Sui Xiong clearly felt that there was an astonishing amount of energy in its body. ¡°Shoot!¡± He instantly realized what was going on and hurried back, but it still was a step later. A crashing sound accompanied the shock of everything. The shock waves caused by the intense explosion even rushed above the clouds, shook the clouds in the sky and shattered them into pieces of misty smoke. This evil that had done countless evils in the human world actually chose to self-destruct! On the other side, the battle had now come to an end. Under the joint attack of Sui Xiong and Heimsarah, Timsar was in distressed circumstances. Perhaps according to its original plan, it would send the old opponent into the prepared trap to kill Heimsarah and gain success. However, because of Sui Xiong¡¯s intervention, mistakes took place in the transmission and the situation was completely reversed. It certainly tried to escape, but how could Heimsarah let it go! It immediately rushed towards it and wrapped it firmly. Their power came from the same source, so they were interdependent but also mutually restrained. When Heimsarah wrapped it, it was immediately locked where it was, and it couldn¡¯t walk away. Sui Xiong¡¯s attack made its situation even worse, and it was more embarrassed since before it could have endured for a long period of time. Unlike Heimsarah, who was somewhat dull, Sui Xiong was very flexible. He was able to move quickly in the sea, allowing him to quickly find the right position and launch a violent attack on it even if Timsar had changed the place of its core. If it was only a one-on-one fight, then Timsar could deal with Sui¡¯s attack. But now almost all of its power had been hampered by Heimsarah. All it could do was to shift its central core to cover areas and protect it as much as possible. But how could Sui Xiong give it that chance? The chilling torrents of the road were almost connected to one another. The sequel was like a sharp knife, constantly tearing its negative energy and huge body and taking it directly to hide it. It seemed that it wouldn¡¯t take long before Timsar, the devil who had plagued the area for many years, saw its end. So although it had always brought fear to others, it finally felt the taste of fear. In the body full of bones and turbid stream, the core of the supernatural power hidden in the deepest place trembled violently, sending its message towards a certain existence. In the next moment, the sea growled. The surface of the sea began to shake as if it was boiling. Even the distant maritime forces that were reorganizing their troops to attack the Garth Port were affected, and the bodies of men and horses littered the ground. With this vibration and roar, a wild laughter echoed in the sea. ¡°Sarament, you finally surrendered to me!¡± The laughter wasn¡¯t concrete. It was just an idea. The joyful emotions of the laughter were even more vivid. Along with this, there was chilling majesty coming in that overshadowed everything in the sea. ¡°Goddess of Ocean?!¡± Chapter 117 As Timsar was about to fail and die, the Goddess of Ocean suddenly appeared. Her power was extremely strong, and it was greatly strengthened on this vast sea. Neither Sui Xiong nor Heimsarah wanted to offend her, so they stopped the attack. The Goddess of Ocean could, of course, perceive their reaction and laughed a few times before turning into a flash of light, and then into a huge element of water before them. This was where the strength of the God of Nature lay. They did not need to rely on believers or altars, and they could freely descend their incarnations by relying on the source of their priesthood. For example, if the Goddess of Ocean was in the sea, she could lower her incarnation. Although the consumption would be greater than the average method, flexibility might be beyond a god of belief. However, Sui Xiong took a closer look and saw that this incarnation actually had a lot of flaws. Not only did it bear less power than the incarnation of lowering it by belief, but also it was much closer to the original body. In other words, although the power of this incarnation was not strong, the burden on the Goddess of Ocean was very large. It was simply a synonym for ¡°expensive but not many benefits¡± and ¡°more effort and fewer results.¡± It could be seen that the Goddess of Ocean seemed to have the dual advantages of a natural god and a god of belief at the same time, but in fact, it also had the disadvantages of both. Perhaps, the disadvantages were even greater than the advantages. The Goddess of Ocean did not know what Sui Xiong was thinking. She slightly swept her eyes across the situation in front of her. The huge water element sent out an unpleasant cold snort and asked, ¡°Sarament, what happened to you?¡± ¡°There! Is! No! Sarament! Here!¡± Heimsarah stirred up a spray. The Goddess of Ocean ignored it and continued to ask Timsar, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be concentrating on transforming your own strength? I remember I have taught you the means for transforming those souls that were bound by you into a force of faith. Why don¡¯t you concentrate on transforming them instead of fighting desperately with this idiot? And you are being beaten in such an awkward way¡­¡± Timsar¡¯s body shook slightly, sending out a message. It was on the vast sea, and a strange force suddenly provoked it. So it angrily launched an attack, and after a few easy battles, it defeated the source of that power. As a result, it leaked its whereabouts, and it was found by Heimsarah. The giant water element of the Goddess of Ocean was silent and seemed to be thinking. Then she asked, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you run away by using the magical formation that I have arranged for you? If you had used that magic formation, you could have escaped directly to the capital of the Kraken Empire!¡± The Kraken Empire was a large country established by the believers of this goddess. It was not on the main plane, but was completely occupied a small plane full of water elements. If the formation of transmission had been successfully operated and it had transferred Sui Xiong, Heimsarah, and Timsar there, they would have been faced with the power of the entire Kraken Empire. It would not have been an easy task to escape even if they wanted to. Timsar trembled and transmitted his ideas. This time he said that he didn¡¯t know anything and couldn¡¯t understand why the magic formation had not worked. ¡°Forget it.¡± The Goddess of Ocean was too lazy to study it. ¡°Anyway, according to the agreement, if you ask me for help, you must regard me as the Lord. What else do you have to say about this?¡± Timsar trembled and conveyed his surrender. The Goddess of Ocean laughed, waved her hand and changed a fast flow of water into a ring, which covered Heimsarah¡¯s head. ¡°It¡¯s rare that I descend, and I would be merciful and help you to eliminate this unstable factor. If you absorb this one, you can restore yourself better¡­¡± Her laughter came to an abrupt end and she turned her head in exasperation to stare at Sui Xiong who was standing in front of Heimsarah and had crushed the ring with an ice blue magic. ¡°I have a question.¡± Sui Xiong saw that she finally turned around and hurriedly asked, ¡°Heimsarah and Timsar were split from Sarament, and Heimsarah is even stronger in terms of power, but why do you think that Timsar is Sarament?¡± The incarnation of the Goddess of Ocean did not turn furious when provoked like she did in the legend. Instead, she looked at Sui Xiong with interest, as if she was seeing a rare animal. She looked at him up and down. She did not answer Sui Xiong¡¯s question, but she clicked her tongue and exclaimed for a moment. Then she answered without really answering the question, ¡°A mix of magic and supernatural power¡­ I didn¡¯t expect to meet a natural god ¨C come and be my subordinate, I will allow you to add a sentence to the end of my prayer.¡± Sui Xiong secretly disdained her in his mind. He laughed and dodged this topic. The Goddess of Ocean sounded arrogant, but she did things in a really stingy way. In order to enroll subordinate gods, the gods generally had to separate their beliefs and even separate the holy mission they controlled to show their support. The Goddess of Ocean was very ¡°generous¡± because she mentioned no conditions and just said that she would let believers mention Sui¡¯s name when they prayed to her and in this way, she wanted to make him a god of hers. Mentioning Sui Xiong when believers were praying seemed to show intimacy at first sight. In fact, he could not even share her faith. The Goddess of Ocean clearly did not have an impression of him and estimated that he was a rookie who just succeeded in being apotheosized. She wanted to take advantage of the information imbalance between then and get something for nothing. So he didn¡¯t respond to this topic at all. Instead, he used his mind and sent his information out. ¡°The God of Aristocracy? The God of Conspiracies?¡± The Goddess of Ocean was dumbfounded and turned to see Timsar, ¡°How does this matter again relate to them?¡± Timsar was confused and did not understand what was going on. But it was still somewhat impressed by the God of Aristocracy, as previously, the force that provoked it seemed to come from the God of Aristocracy. Sui Xiong frowned secretly and felt that there seemed to be a huge hidden conspiracy. The priest of the God of Aristocracy had made trouble and intimidated Timsar. As a result, he killed all the people on the boat. Sean had cooperated with him, so it was estimated that he was in a relationship of assistance and it was not known what benefits he had gained. Anyway, what role could the God of Conspiracy play here? ¡­Was it possible that the whereabouts of Timsar were revealed by the God of Conspiracy? He spoke his own guesses. Timsar shivered violently and seemed very shocked. The Goddess of Ocean only giggled and did not care much. For demigods or weaker gods, the sinister, deceitful and trouble-making God of Conspiracy was an extremely dangerous element with whom none wanted to be associated with. But for the mighty god like the Goddess of Ocean, the God of Conspiracy was nothing more than someone who could only hide in the corner and shoot arrows secretly, so he wasn¡¯t threatening. The strength was different, so the confidence was also very different. ¡°Well, this matter should be finished.¡± The Goddess of Ocean looked a little impatient and said coldly, ¡°It¡¯s time to go.¡± Saying this, she reached out her hand and grabbed something, and the surrounding waters within dozens of miles slowly froze and turned into an amazingly giant hand. Looking at this situation, perhaps Timsar, Heimsarah and Sui Xiong would be killed altogether. Sui Xiong secretly sighed and gathered the magic to confront the giant hand. The Goddess of Ocean was quite powerful amongst all the gods. He really did not want to be an enemy of this powerful and dismal goddess. However, there was no choice now! Even if he would be a subordinate god, he couldn¡¯t go to her kingdom. Not to mention, he didn¡¯t want to be the subordinate god of the Goddess of Ocean! In this main plane, the power that the Goddess of Ocean could descend was limited, but in her kingdom, the power that she could use was almost endless. At that time, whether Heimsarah, Timsar, or Sui Xiong would become meat on the chopping block would be handled by her at will. Should I put my own life into the hands of others, and place my safety on the goodwill of others¡ª who was a guy known for fierceness and chaos, who had the slightest bit of friendship with me, but at first sight appeared to have no goodwill. Hey, was brother Xiong foolish! A blue light flashed, and the strength of Sui Xiong, like a sharp blade, cut a huge wound on the giant hand made of seawater. Under the influence of this powerful force, the supernatural power that was made by frozen seawater was shaking and teetering and naturally had no ability to seize them. The Goddess of Ocean was truly angry. She had always willingly killed everything from the sea. She had never allowed anyone to say half of the word ¡°no,¡± but Sui Xiong dared to disobey her. Was this a trivial thing?! ¡°Rebellious!¡± The huge water element shouted, with one hand turning into a fist. A deep blue light flased, surrounded by endless torrents and roars, and attacked Sui Xiong at an astonishing speed that the sea shouldn¡¯t have. ¡°Keke¡­¡± In a ruined village that had been turned into a wasteland, Sui Xiong coughed violently, and only felt pain in his body. The self-explosion of the Shadow Devil just now greatly exceeded his expectations. Because of the close distance, almost all of the power of the explosion hit him. If not for his fast reaction and consumptive defense that was similar to that of the heat protection layer of rockets which alleviate the power of the explosion layer by layer, maybe the blow would have killed him seriously. It should be known that it was a self-explosion of a demigod! ¡°This guy is a lunatic!¡± he exclaimed irritably. ¡°Suddenly it came and attacked, and as we fought it self-destructed¡­ Is there something wrong with his head?!¡± However, he immediately felt something wrong and discovered that there was a trace of space fluctuations in the place where the Shadow Devil exploded. This trace was very weak, almost to the point that it seemed to not exist. If it was not for him using supernatural power to search, he would have not found it. He took a moment to think and suddenly guessed exactly what was happening. Actually, the Shadow Devil had divided its body into three parts. He exploded a part of it first, blasting his space blockade, and then he shifted the core to the shadow plane and exploded the rest to cover up the traces. This set of measures might have been practiced and was smoothly performed. If Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t thought something was wrong and carefully checked the traces of the explosion, he might have been cheated by them. ¡°Abhorrent! He thinks he is fine after going to the shadow plane?¡± Sui Xiong sneered. He wanted to chase and kill it, but he had another idea and looked towards the southeast. What the h*ll, how are bad things coming one after another! He didn¡¯t think about it closely and roared. He used his supernatural strength to crack a gap in space. His huge body instantly turned into a blue light, went into the gap, and he appeared next to his avatar. With a loud roar, his own body and avatar re-integrated, the momentum soared, and dozens of tentacles intertwined and turned into a huge fist. It hit back the Goddess of Ocean without any concession. ¡°You want to fight? I am here!¡± Chapter 118 Sui Xiong did not like to fight. Really, this must be emphasized. If he could, he actually preferred to live a stable life where he could sunbathe, tell jokes, and hang out with his believers like a person who had no worry of clothing, food, ideals or pursuits. By dragging on, days would pass; by muddling along without any aim, his life would pass¡­ Oh, his ¡°lifetime¡± might be longer, but it did not matter, and he would do any of these things. Although he was a person who traveled through space and had wonderful and powerful abilities, he never really thought about fighting against the mightiest existence. He had never thought of fighting against people in this world and being invincible. If it was not for the needs of his believers and friends, he would not even bother to establish the church, let alone a holy place. To be honest, he was actually a person who was not very suitable as a ¡°protagonist¡± because he lacked the idea of change and he could accommodate himself to extreme circumstances. It was only because he was not a hero with aspirations, but an unimportant citizen who always focused on his own acre of land. However, he did not make trouble, but things would provoke him. For example, this time, it could be described as ¡°when he sits in the house behind closed doors and a trouble comes from the heaven.¡± First, it was the attack of the silly Shadow Devil which destroyed the temporary village of his followers, killed a large number of believers, and even one of the few core personnel, Satan, who had first followed him and contributed a lot in the construction of the church. When he finally killed the crazy person and before he had time to rush to the shadow world and grab back the souls of Satan and other believers, the Goddess of Ocean was mad again and wanted to catch him in her Holy Kingdom. He didn¡¯t know in what way he would be killed. Un-huh! This crazy woman thought she was Empress Dowager! Even if she was willing to be the h*llish Empress Dowager, brother Xiong was not interested in being her chief eunuch! He roared angrily, and the fist of a giant jellyfish met the fist of the huge water element: infinitely powerful vs infinitely powerful. The bottom of the sea was in trouble. The furious torrents almost took away all the things that could be rolled away. The sediments of the seabed were swept everywhere, and the vast sea surface was completely turned into a black-yellow turbid stream. In the turbid stream, four large figures faced each other, wanting to kill each other. ¡°Brother Heimsarah, this time we¡¯re going to fight side by side!¡± ¡°I will kill Timsar, then I will support you.¡± ¡°Good!¡± On the other side, the Goddess of Ocean also had some tactical considerations. She ordered Timsar to squash Heimsarah and would help kill Heimsarah after killing the conceited big jellyfish. So in the fighting, two pairs of people fought against each other. Heimsarah fought desperately against Timsar, and Sui Xiong against the incarnation of the Goddess of Ocean. Nothing fancy or of temptation was meant for this fight. The two sides directly exerted their full efforts. The four monsters were entangled. Angry currents and winds collided with shadows and undercurrents, while the giant jellyfish and the huge water element struggled. In the dark and muddy waters, the battle between the two parties could not be clearly seen. The only thing that could be seen was that on the turbid sea surface that seemed to be boiling, the black-yellow turbid stream was continuously spreading. From time to time, a fierce roar erupted from the bottom of the sea and stirred up the sea water and made hill-like waves. At the same time, the sky that was originally merely gloomy had been completely enveloped in dark clouds. It was black as if it was night. The turbulent winds, mingling with the tide, swept the land and sea and shook grasses and woods, which made people and animals stand unsteadily and made even intelligent animals anxious. On the other side, the battle also gradually reached its climax. The Goddess of Marsh was attached to Sean. By virtue of this body on which she had done countless amendments and could fully exert her strength, she fought smoothly. She used various kinds of devil vines made of poisonous fog and various horrible monsters, all made of supernatural power. She almost gave full play to her own ability. On the other hand, the Goddess of Harvest, despite her anger and a lot of supernatural power that she descended, couldn¡¯t gain the upper hand against the Goddess of Marsh because, after all, the city owner Joseph¡¯s body was not very suitable for the God Descending Magic. In a short time, the Goddess of Marsh could use the channels formed by faith to continuously deliver supernatural power to fight neck and neck with the Goddess of Harvest, but she couldn¡¯t even partly gain the upper hand. Accompanied by Heli who was forcibly converted to a supernatural creature, and the survivors of various organizations, she launched a fierce attack. The Goddess of Harvest forced the Goddess of Marsh to retreat, and she also even killed her envoy, the giant monster of mucus. Behind this brilliant record was the overdraft of the power that her church could use. After this wave of violent assault, Heli¡¯s soul gradually dissipated, and Joseph¡¯s body gradually collapsed. Instead, the Goddess of Marsh, after surviving a difficult time, had improved her strength a lot for unknown reasons. As the strengths of the two sides declined and improved, the Goddess of Harvest¡¯s side gradually became unable to withstand. The people in the fierce battle did not know that just now, in the house of Sean, a brutal blood sacrifice had been held by the Church of the Goddess of Marsh who had had full control over this place. Sean¡¯s wife and two children were all sacrificed. With a group of carefully selected branches of Riley family, the blood flowed on the floor like a river, and voices of crying and screaming echoed in the house, making it almost like a h*ll. As an evil god, the Goddess of Marsh fully exerted her own advantages of sacrificing. As for what was ¡°offensive to God and reason,¡± she didn¡¯t care because as an evil god she was the God and reason! Wasn¡¯t it natural for believers to sacrifice themselves for her and mortals to contribute to her?! On the other hand, the Goddess of Harvest¡¯s advantage of ¡°influence¡± as a good God had not been fully realized. According to this situation, she should have assembled a large number of believers to pray and provide emergency assistance to the gods. But the Goddess of Marsh committed horrible genocide as she started to attack. She killed almost all the devoted believers. Even so, she was not satisfied, and she reached an agreement with the Goddess of Ocean to urgently assemble the maritime races nearby to launch an invasion on Garth City, forcing residents to abandon and flee the city. Did the fleeing people have time to gather and pray together? Of course not. So the Goddess of Harvest could only rely on the constant supply of strength from her own side of the holy kingdom to support this side of the battle. However, although her power was strong, the passage for the transmission of power was not strong enough, and it was gradually failing. Under such circumstances, a discerning person would know at first glance that the Goddess of Harvest was almost doomed to fail. However, apart from the group of people in the square, there was no one who was concerned about the battle between the two gods. Everyone¡¯s attention had been drawn to the brutal war that erupted in the port. Unlike the previous tentative attack, this time the maritime race really used its strength. Numerous murlocs came on and rushed forward by stepping on the bodies of their own race. By killing a large number of murlocs as sacrifices at the rear, the priests of murloc displayed a collective fury magic. Each murloc on the front had a red glow in the eyes. Even if they faced the sword, they were fearless and often rushed forward and desperately, hugged the weapons while their bodies had been stabbed through, fighting for an opportunity to attack for companions. Faced with this kind of attack, the Garth Maritime Defence Forces and adventurers suddenly felt a great deal of pressure and suffered heavy casualties. If it had not been for the brave Ray who wielded his sword alone, rolled up a bloody storm, and forcibly withstood the murlocs¡¯ violent offense with his personal bravery, perhaps the entire front woukd have already collapsed. But even so, their situation was at stake. From time to time, some people were thrown down by the murlocs, and then a group of murlocs in all directions rushed and devoured them using weapons, claws and even teeth. They left only a bloody body following a short scream. The temporary commander of the Garth Maritime Defence Forces was an old sergeant with half a head of white hair. He was thrown by a group of murlocs and could no longer stand up. ¡°Get out of the way!¡± Ray roared, and the longsword seemed to blaze a white light as if it was burning. This was a concrete embodiment of his fighting spirit which only the strongmen who entered the legendary realm could display it. In the midst of the fierce battle, unconsciously, he had gone a little further and could almost completely cross the threshold and step into the realm he had always dreamed of. However, he did not notice at all. His spirit had been completely fixed on the fierce battle at the moment, and all his thoughts were about killing. He considered nothing else. Murlocs? Kill them! Murlocs Warriors? Kill them! Murlocs priests? Kill them! Chiefs of the murlocs¡¯ tribe? Kill them! A murloc¡­ Hey, this was not a murloc, but a Kraken who used magic to change itself into a murlocs¡¯ look. Kill it, too! The sword flashed, and he was burning with the spirit of fighting. He was like Mars who galloped on the battlefield, with no enemy in front of him. Even those strongmen of the maritime race who disguised themselves as murlocs were equally vulnerable in front of him, not to mention all kinds of murlocs. Gradually, his entire body seemed to be burning up. The light continued to condense on him, and even more, a strange breeze blew on the bloody battlefield in all directions. Bong! A bell rang and echoed in the ancient shrine. This temple, at the center of the continent, was worshiped in by the royal family of the oldest ancient country. Since the bloody night fifteen years ago, the originally bustling temple had become deserted. As it had been deserted these years, the old chief priest was even older. In recent years, he had shown senility, and it seemed that there was not much time left for him. Originally, he sat quietly in the hall, silently reciting the mantras and praying to the god he believed. Hearing the bell at the moment, suddenly a glimmer of light flashed in his eyes, and he stood up. Turning around, he saw an old bell hung on the side wall that was ringing without the wind blowing it, and a strange pattern gradually emerged on it. This was actually not a pattern. It was a word that only the priests knew. It was the words of the ancient civilization that had long since passed away. It was left by their gods to symbolize the past glory of the great kingdom. ¡°Le¡­ on¡­¡± the old priest read out the word hesitantly and tried to remember which strongman of the current royal family this person was. After a moment, he shook his head, a little sad. Because of the holocaust, the offspring of Eagle had been declining in recent years and there were not many presentable strongmen of them. After many thoughts, he couldn¡¯t think of anyone named Leon who could touch the line and was about to cross the limit of mortals. Maybe this person was not among the active ones in recent years, but one of the older generations that were living in seclusion? He thought again. Suddenly, he shivered, and his eyes widened in surprise and disbelief. He began to run at an amazing pace, showing absolutely no senility. A moment later, he came to the room that stored classics, started a magic formation, and entered a secret room. This place was the real top secret of this shrine and only the chief priests of the past generations could know of it from the gods in prayer. Chief priests of every generation must keep the secret until death, and couldn¡¯t tell anyone else. Inside the secret room was a dark void, and tiny lamps floating like little stars were encircling him. There used to be a lot of sparks that made this place look like a starry sky. At the moment, there were only a few rays of light. Even one who was dim-sighted due to old age could count the numbers clearly at a glance. But he did not pay attention to the lights in front of him but looked to the corner. In a dark corner, a small light was peacefully shining. The old man reached out his hand nervously and touched the lamp with magic. The lights became bigger and showed a proud and upright face full of vigor. ¡°It¡¯s really you!¡± The old man smiled silently with his face full of gratification. Chapter 119 Ray did not notice what had actually happened. He was now completely trapped in the fighting frenzy. At first glance, he would wield his sword to stab at whoever had scales, whether they were green, blue or red. He did not wield his sword amazingly or particularly fast. Even the force of the sword was not so great, but the intimidation emanating from him made everyone who faced him fall in turmoil. They did not want to spare any effort to fight, but their actions would always be a bit slower. Often when they reacted, they had been lethally hit and killed by Ray¡¯s sword. They waved weapons in vain; they could not catch up to Ray who had left. For a moment, the battlefield seemed to have fallen into stagnation. A long time passed, suddenly a loud noise was heard: a magic cannon that was continuously shooting finally exploded because it overheated. From the dark clouds that were low to the ground, rain poured down as if it was following the order given by this loud noise. Suddenly the world became dark. The torrential rain accompanied the raging winds, and rolling waves impacted the port and struck the maritime race¡¯s army. In front of this force of the world, the maritime race finally retreated, returning to the sea to reorganize the troops, which gave the defenders a chance to breathe. ¡°How many people are still alive?¡± Ray had regained calmness, looking around and shouting, ¡°Respond if you are alive!¡± ¡°Respond.¡± Ray was amused and looked toward the voice, but it was an adventurer. He was wearing a leather armor, holding a thin sword in his hand, and some small decorations on his clothes. Obviously, he was a bard. It was no wonder that he was so humorous, and only those people who engraved humor into their soul would be able to make jokes at this time. There were also many people who were making noise. Although most of them were exhausted and many people were seriously injured, there were still some people left. The luckiest one was a savage who fell down due to exhaustion. He showed resourcefulness in an emergency and grabbed the bodies of two murlocs to cover himself, and he deceived the murlocs. Although he was suffocated by the bloody smells, he was wonderfully unscathed. Oh, excluding the wounds that he had suffered in the previous battles. Ray smiled, greeted them one by one, encouraged them and comforted them. For those who were really unlikely to be saved, he would also take on the role of pastor and pray for them so that they could die smiling. In his body, the brilliance worn away by years of suffering was reviving. At the moment, he did not look like a knight at all, but a king who was visiting the barracks after a great war. This was the education he received before, and it was an instinct almost inscribed in the veins. Although these days, it had not been used because he had deliberately forgotten it. This time it had emerged again as natural as breathing. But when he walked in front of the dying Rank, he no longer had the noble magnanimity of a king. Sadness filled his heart and tears overflowed from his eyes. ¡°Rank¡­ why did you come back!¡± He saw at a glance that the student¡¯s injury was irreversible. His fate was unimaginable unless His Majesty Void Mask could come back or Steele could appear immediately. But that was impossible. The message that came from His Majesty Void Mask was that he was fighting against the Goddess of Ocean, who was the patron of the maritime race, and the battles on the other side were far more important than theirs. And in the face of that woman tyrant who was also particularly powerful among the gods, even His Majesty couldn¡¯t spare any more efforts. This could be inferred from the particularly urgent and short words he used when he contacted Ray. Steele was even less likely to return. She was helping Liv to protect the refugees so that they could escape. What was the goal that these men and women were fighting for? It was none other than shielding the slow-moving refugees so that they could escape! It was simply putting the cart before the horse to ask Steele to come back! But at this moment, he was really shaken, and he wanted to pray to His Majesty or desperately seek help from Steele. This was a student who he painstakingly cultivated! He wanted this successor to inherit his abilities! Indeed, Rank¡¯s talent was not good, and could not be compared with the ingenious Ray, but this child had a very good attitude, practiced very hard, and made fast progress, so he could improve himself step by step. No matter how demanding a teacher was, he could not be dissatisfied with Rank. Seeing Rank exhausted after hard training, but his eyes full of confidence and hope, Ray remembered himself many years ago and the calmness and beauty that had long since passed away. Although he hadn¡¯t realized it yet, in his mind, Rank was not only a student but he had become like a child to Ray! But now, Rank was dying. Rank was dying¡­ Rank was dying! Ray kneeled beside Rank who was lying in a pool of blood. He held his fists tightly, clenched his teeth and forced himself to speak in a hard and cold voice. Because if he did not do this, he feared that he could not help crying. He was a strong man. He was once severely poisoned and seriously wounded, and also had lain in a pile of corpses watching his parents and brothers rot slowly. After that, he thought that his tears had already dried up. At the moment, he could not help but shed tears. ¡°Silly kid! Why did you come back!¡± His tears fell on Rank¡¯s face and he woke the dying Rank. The pale-faced juvenile smiled and looked at his teacher with tears on his face. ¡°Teacher¡­ Am I¡­ like a¡­ knight¡­?¡± he asked intermittently. Ray nodded forcefully, ¡°Yes! You are the best knight!¡± ¡°I¡­ lived¡­ not like ¡­ a knight,¡± Rank could hardly breathe and his voice was so low that Ray had to concentrate to hear what Rank said, ¡°at least¡­ I will die¡­ like a¡­ knight¡­¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± Ray pressed his lips tightly and nodded heavily. Because of his grief, he couldn¡¯t speak again. He could only use one syllable to express his approval of his disciple. Rank gasped a few times and his voice got lower and lower, ¡°Teacher¡­ Thanks¡­¡± His last words stopped there, and he had not been able to finish his words of thank for his teacher. Ray quietly kneeled beside him, choked with sobs. The strongman, who was awe-inspiring and frightened the maritime race, now was crying like a child. In the world that mortals could not see, a brawny man wearing ragged clothes and carrying a giant battle ax stood beside him. This brawny man¡¯s hair stood on end, as if it was furious, and his face was full of a heroic spirit intertwined with fierceness, anger, and bravery. Rank, who had just died, was now kneeling to the brawny man and worshipping him admiringly. ¡°Great Knight of Anger, may your glory shine upon all the worlds!¡± The heroic brawny was the incarnation of the God of Justice. He felt that there was evil raging here. He happened to not be far away, so he rushed over, but he just encountered Rank¡¯s death. ¡°Boy. You did a good job,¡± he smiled and raised Rank up with a huge palm. ¡°I wanted to recruit you as my follower, but maybe you want to go to the Lonely Guardian, right?¡± Rank laughed, ¡°If His Majesty is willing to receive me, I am certainly happy to go to his kingdom.¡± ¡°He will come to fetch you. You are a good knight!¡± As they spoke, a light that only the gods and the soul could see fell and turned into a beautiful woman who combined charm and virginity. She wore an exquisite silver-white skirt and a feathered helmet. This was the envoy of the God of Knights, a Holy Spirit condensed by the soft ideas of those people who began to fight to protect the humanity since the age of ignorance and finally died without regret. She was called ¡°Valkyrie.¡± The Valkyrie first bowed to the God of Justice and reached out to Rank with her hand. ¡°In order to guard the warriors who died innocently in battles, your behavior deserves the name of knight. Please come with me. His Majesty and the souls of your predecessors are waiting for you.¡± Rank was overjoyed, saluted the God of Justice, and was about to hurriedly leave. But he immediately thought of something and looked to his teacher who was ignorantly crying in the wind and rain. ¡°My teacher¡­¡± he hesitated and looked at the Valkyrie who was responsible for fetching and leading heroic spirits. There was a look of inquiry in his eyes. The envoy of the God of Knights looked at Ray and with regret in his eyes that could judge people¡¯s lifetime merits and demerits. ¡°He has committed serious sins and even if he makes atonement, he cannot be able to enter His Majesty¡¯s temple,¡± she said. ¡°This is the rule made by the God of Light, and His Majesty must also obey it.¡± ¡°Oh! So many rules you have!¡± The God of Justice shook his head in disdain, ¡°Just don¡¯t worry, kid, if the god of your church doesn¡¯t accept him, I will accept him! He is a great man who went into darkness, came out of the darkness, and fights for justice till the end, so he suits my church!¡± Rank laughed with relief and disappeared without a trace with the Valkyrie by stepping into the beam of light. The God of Justice laughed a few times, took the huge battle ax off from his shoulders, and rubbed the ax blade with his palms, which ejected countless golden-red sparks. He looked at the sky, stared through a cloud of darkness and looked into the eyes of a large figure. ¡°Taklawur, you really can¡¯t learn from past lessons! You¡¯re helping Vorpocus to make trouble. Do I need to prune and trim your claws?¡± A sound of thunder came from the clouds, and a pair of eyes flashing with infinite electricity looked back into his. ¡°Yorgaardman, you are really too nosy!¡± The two powerful gods confronted each other without concession, and a battle was imminent. At this time, the battle between the other two groups of gods was becoming more and more intense. The result of the battle between the Goddess of Marsh and the Goddess of Harvest was already quite clear. The momentum-lacking Goddess of Harvest, after the complete collapse of the soul of Heli, could no longer sustain the situation of the battle and was constantly losing ground. For all the anger she had and the roars she uttered, she couldn¡¯t change the situation. The Goddess of Marsh had even been able to free her hands and shoot poisonous arrows that killed those mortals who were bold enough to be involved in the battle between goddesses. She waved her hand, and a mass of dark-green poisonous fog was condensed into ten light arrows whistling away. After a few waves of attacks, there were only two gods in the square. ¡°Admit that your misfortune is predetermined by God!¡± said the Goddess of Marsh as Sean laughed hideously. ¡°Let me devour your supernatural power, and take possession of your most important place of faith. You, as an incompetent guy, have been at this high position for a long time. It¡¯s time for you to leave!¡± ¡°¡­You really think of yourself as a great man?!¡± Sui Xiong shouted. His mountain-like body stirred up waves and his tentacles, which were thick enough for horses to gallop on, fluttered. He was fighting fiercely against the super-heavy water element that was slightly more massive than him. Although he was slightly disadvantaged in strength, his fierce fighting spirit and strong body effectively compensated for the lack of strength. More importantly, this jellyfish¡¯s body was only a set of armor for him. He didn¡¯t care about it being destroyed. He was not very scared of dying there either. People were mortal. Brother Xiong had traveled through space, so he didn¡¯t fear death. With the determination of not fearing death, he fought in a crazy way, making him frightening and awesome. In contrast, the incarnation of the Goddess of Ocean was powerful but inferior to him in terms of fighting spirit. Therefore, not only was she not able to have an advantage, but it seemed that she was a bit passive. This made the goddess, known as the ¡°woman tyrant on the sea,¡± very angry. She fought even more fiercely, but she was never able to overpower Sui Xiong who was most awesome and didn¡¯t fear death. After all, this battle was nothing more than a saying: ¡°He who is brave wins the battle.¡± Chapter 120 The storm was getting stronger and stronger. The maritime forces tried to reorganize the formation. Thanks to a large number of casters in their group, the priests of the Goddess of Ocean who had a lot of experience in stabilizing the waves, gradually stabilized the formation, reorganized the troops, and launched attacks again. This time, the attack on the Port of Garth defense base was not launched by the weak murlocs, but all kinds of Krakens. For example, Medusa with snake-shaped hair; Siren with a human¡¯s head and a bird¡¯s body; a water demon covered with seaweed and barnacles, and sea elements like small whirlpools¡­ All kinds of Krakens that normally appeared only in legends swarmed towards them, changed into the horrible nightmares of sailors, and rushed toward the exhausted defenders. These were not ordinary monsters. All of them needed to be carefully handled by senior adventurers. Even if the senior adventurers were in good condition, they couldn¡¯t be sure that they would win. At this moment, they rushed towards the adventurers in groups as if to kill them! ¡°Ah, this time I will really be killed,¡± The bard said with a smile. ¡°I don¡¯t know if the Boy of Celebration will approve this way to die.¡± He cleared his throat and sang to the air, ¡°Although I am a fool, I die for protecting mankind. Boy of Celebration, do not reject me.¡± The Boy of Ceremony was the God of Joy and Ceremony, a god who devoted himself to chasing joy regardless of time, place, and reason. He usually liked to become a bard and sing at ceremonies. As the bard was so happy and was still singing and smiling when he was about to die, he surely deserved the title of the believer of the careless god! With his blessings, all the nervous people were relaxed, and even the sad Ray recovered and turned calm with a smile on his face. Inspired by him, many people imitated him and prayed to the gods they believed in. Some people who had not been sure about their beliefs were sullen and did not know what to do. They never thought about whom to believe in on normal days. They just lived carelessly. At the moment, when they were about to die, they would go to hell if they didn¡¯t attach themselves to big gods. They might have to go to hell, and so they suddenly panicked. ¡°It is still not too late for us to believe in a god?¡± asked the savage, who was a top performer. Ray walked over and patted his thick and broad shoulders, ¡°Rest assured, a warrior who dies guarding innocent people will always be taken in by kind-hearted gods.¡± ¡°Ha! I will rest assured if you say so.¡± The savage nodded, suddenly realized and shouted, ¡°I¡¯m not ready to die yet!¡± The loud laughter joined together and became even more intense than the sound of the rain and sea and the roar of the maritime race. After a moment, a great war was again stirred up. This time, the battle was more tragic than before. In the face of the powerful elite of the maritime race, the defenders who had been exhausted in the previous battle could not resist them. Most of them fell off almost after they began to fight. There were only a few masters who could barely hold on. Ray was still playing the role of a mainstay. Even though his opponents were stronger than the previous murloc army, he was still invincible, killing every one of the enemies with his sword. And the strength he demonstrated this time was more exaggerated than it had been. Medusa¡¯s petrifying stare was ineffective; the seductive song of Siren was ineffective; the seaweed that water demons used to wrap people was still ineffective. Only the sea elements that held on by using no tricks and relying on their great momentum and huge strength caused a little bit of an obstacle to him and made his swift pace stagnate. The commander of the maritime race quickly noticed this, and he gathered a large number of elite sea elements and encircled him. These sea elements were obviously among the elites of the maritime race, which could be judged from the appearance. The ordinary sea elements were blue, about the height of two people combined, with a whirlpool-like trunk in which there was a vicious face. The sea elements that were sent to encircle Ray were dark blue and the shortest one was as tall as three people combined. The torrents swirled around them and roared so that even people trembled. A person hit by ordinary sea elements might spit out blood and collapse, but when hit by the elite sea elements, one would be fragmented and die, leaving behind an incomplete corpse. Ray noticed this situation and tried to break through. However, the number of enemies was too large. No matter what direction he rushed out in, he saw more enemies encircling him¡­ After a while, he killed a number of particularly powerful sea elements, and broke through a heavy siege, but saw that the fighting was almost over. On the entire battlefield, he was the only one left and was completely encircled by the army of the maritime race. Laughing came from afar from the commanders of the maritime race. They used an ambiguous language to clamor and yell and did their best to mock the warrior who had fought to the end. ¡°Now, only you are left!¡± Ray shook his head without fear or despair. Instead, he was somewhat relieved. ¡°It seems¡­ that my last moment has finally come¡­¡± He sighed with some regret. His comrades had all collapsed. The broad road at this moment was completely defenseless and he could not defend it alone. Dying while fighting was not terrible, but it was really regrettable that the original goal could not be achieved. How wonderful would it have been if I could defend this place for a while! At this moment, he heard a series of hoarse roars of rage from the top of his head. ¡°Long live Garth City!¡± Along with the roars, towers on both sides of the road collapsed one after another, and gravel flew all over the sky. At the beginning of the construction of these towers, ambushes had been laid. At crucial moments, the detonation of the magic formation could destroy all of them and form a huge pile of gravel to cut off the road. According to the design, there should still be follow-ups. Even if the enemy removed the gravel pile, one could further detonate the deeper level of the magic formation and bombard most of the Garth Port so as to seriously hit the enemy. However, because of the absence of the city owner, Joseph, who was able to control the magic formation, Chief Priest Heli, Mr. Sean, and the commander of sea defence Silarui, a strongman of the collateral branch of the Riley family with legendary strength, the ultimate arrangement couldn¡¯t be started, which was a pity. But now it was enough. Seeing that the counter-attack had failed and the invading maritime forces were about to drive straight in, the mages who were stationed in the tower negotiated before they used the trick of Destroying Indiscriminately to destroy the tower, so as to die with the enemy. They were either members of the Riley family or orphans adopted by the Riley family at a young age, so they were loyal to the Riley family and Garth City. They were also willing to abandon their lives. Along with an earth-shattering explosion, the expensive towers collapsed one after another, not only killing a large number of the elite maritime race but also completely blocking the road from the port area to the inner and outer cities. Looking at the mountains of gravel, the commanding officers of the maritime race were mad. The maritime race was neither good at climbing mountains, nor were they good at working on land. It was unknown how much time and effort it would take to clear the barriers on the road. By that time, it would also be unknown how far the terrible land creatures would have escaped! However, they soon discovered that they had expected things to be too smooth. In fact, they simply could not start working now because Ray had launched an attack. When towers collapsed and countless gravel fell from the sky, Ray thought that his life would end there. But for unknown reasons, even after all the dust landed on the ground, not a single piece of gravel had fallen on him. ¡°I really have good luck!¡± He was dumbfounded for a moment and couldn¡¯t help laughing, ¡°In this case, I can continue fighting!¡± Saying that, he raised his long sword like a tiger about to go down a mountain and rushed to the soldiers of the marine race who were astonished by explosions and collapses. Now he didn¡¯t need to consider the question of whether he could defend the road alone. It was just a matter of concentrating on fighting! His sword flashed, and he was full of fighting spirit. The elite soldiers of the marine race fell under his sword, but more came up. ¡°He¡¯s just alone! We must form a pile to kill him!¡± There was a strange voice yelling, but Ray ignored it. As the high-intensity battle continued, he clearly felt his physical strength was declining. Recalling carefully, he found it seemed that the fighting had been going on for a long time¡­ But he smiled a bit and put aside all those ideas and continued to focus on fighting. Or, he concentrated on killing the enemies. It didn¡¯t matter who came up, whether they were Medusa, Siren, water demons, sea elements, or something else. He just needed to kill them. His comrades had all collapsed. All those active at the moment were all enemies! ¡°This kind of battle is really good!¡± he couldn¡¯t help but smile, ¡°I don¡¯t need to care about how much strength I should use to hit them or about the safety of my companions. I have no worries or scruples. I can just concentrate on killing¡­¡± ¡°Maybe¡­ this is the battle I¡¯ve been waiting for¡­¡± A sea elf that was much taller than the elves on the land appeared and used a variant elven language to shout ¡°Fight to the death!¡± and the like. It wielded a sharp machete as if it wanted to have duel him. Ray sneered and gently turned to change the direction of his momentum of assault. He passed by the sea elf, and, as if he was juggling, he stroked the sword over its eyebrows and cut half of its head together with what it was about to say. A tall and mighty dragon man rushed in. With a snake-like lower body, a human-like upper body and a dragon¡¯s head, he was a strange creature of a famous and powerful race in the sea. His eight arms proved that he was a first-class strongman of his race, at least a prince. At this moment, his eight sturdy arms were each holding a big knife, and the flashing light was like a whirlwind. Ray looked at it faintly, and he passed through a multitude of swords like a ghost. His longsword simply found a gap in the blade that appeared to have no gap and cut off the throat of the maritime warrior. A snake monster that was far more glamorous and charming than the usual Medusa intended to use her bow and arrows to kill Ray at a short distance. The snake hair on top of her head fluttered around, and even the sea race cautiously evaded it because they dared not come close enough to be bitten by the snakes. Ray did not give her a chance to shoot. He kicked a weapon on the ground and kicked it away; it shot her like an arrow. The poisonous snake lied down weakly; the whereabouts of her poisonous arrows remained unknown. A sea elf, as huge as a hill, roared and rushed towards him, trying to crush him with its huge body. Wherever it passed, there was utter confusion. If the sea race evaded it even a little later, they would have been mercilessly crushed and killed. Ray snorted, pointed the long sword straight ahead, rushed forward, and passed through the elf with his sword, leaving a huge hole on its body. The giant monster that had been rushing at a high-speed suddenly stumbled and fell into a pile of maritime race soldiers. An unknown number of soldiers were killed by it. It collapsed and never rose again. He laughed, held his sword, looked at his enemies with disdain, and asked coldly, ¡°Who else wants to court death?¡± There was a silence and no one dared respond. Chapter 121 When Ray suddenly became powerful, the soldiers of the sea race were too shocked to speak. The commanders of the race were stunned as well, and couldn¡¯t believe their eyes. The strong mermen were all famous fighters in the surrounding sea. They could frighten people in an area simply by stomping their feet. They had already killed countless strong men. These mermen meant to flaunt their prowess in battle; but before they managed to make a move, Ray, who was only a human, killed them in one shot. Some commanders who had better powers of observation were very surprised. They didn¡¯t understand how, even after a long battle, Ray didn¡¯t tire, and instead become stronger. He was not as powerful before; how was this possible? Ray was sweeping the battlefield, killing every merman that was in his way, as if he were the only one there. The dragon man in charge of leading the fight was desperate, and felt a chill as if he had drunk a bottle of icy water on a cold winter day. At that moment, lightning stuck the sky and the sound of thunder echoed. The dragon man came up with an idea. ¡°Throw the spears! Throw the spears! Shoot him to death!¡± At this command, hundreds of dragon men gathered, every one of them with a few spears in their hands. The sea race never cared about accidentally injuring their own. Without warning their peers on the front line, they began launching the spears towards the bustling battlefield. The sound of the spears flying across the sky was as loud as a fiercely blowing wind. Ray was alerted by this sound, and turned to see countless spears hurtling toward him. He didn¡¯t have time to think. He immediately put his sword back into his sheath, and caught two members of the sea race with both of his hands. Then, throwing them towards the sky, he made them his shields. The spears fell to the ground like pouring rain. Then, the heavy dead bodies of the two mermen fell on Ray and blocked his line of sight. He knew this would happen, but still, the weight of them knocked him back on the ground. Soon the bustling battlefield became silent. All the brave mermen on the front lines¡ªno matter their age or identity¡ªwere killed. ¡°Wait a minute! Why did you suddenly order the soldiers to throw spears!¡± The merman commander of high rank shouted. ¡°My sons are among them!¡± ¡°You have more than four hundred sons. So what if you lose one or two of them?¡± The principle priest said coldly. ¡°Then why don¡¯t you shoot your sons to death!¡± ¡°My sons have all died,¡± the dragon man said. ¡°Even my grandsons are gone.¡± Seeing the priest¡¯s face, whose scales had begun to rot, the merman commander was furious. He desperately wanted to eat the priest alive with the sharp teeth he had long been proud of. A commander who was a member of the Medusa race came to mediate. ¡°Stop quarreling,¡± he said. ¡°We have managed to kill that human, which is good. To protect our king¡¯s honor, some sacrifices are necessary.¡± Suddenly, another commander shouted, ¡°My gosh! That man is still alive!¡± All the commanders turned to find Ray pushing away the two dead bodies on top of him. He stood up. He was intact! ¡°My gosh¡­¡± a commander said. ¡°This guy really is a monster!¡± ¡°What should we do?¡± the merman commander said, grabbing the principle priest. ¡°Can¡¯t you do something about this?!¡± The principle priest was stunned, and made his decision. He ordered the dragon men to continue to throwing spears at Ray. ¡°Throw more spears!¡± he shouted. ¡°I don¡¯t think he can survive this time!¡± Hearing this order, the dragon men continued throwing spears, and once again, the spears flew toward Ray like rain. This time Ray just piled up a few big bodies of the sea race and crawled under them. Countless spears fell on the ground next to Ray. The bodies covered in spears became like a hedgehog, and the area around him like a forest of spears. ¡°Isn¡¯t he dead yet?¡± the merman commander murmured. ¡°He isn¡¯t,¡± the sea element commander said in a very low voice, after he observed the battlefield with his spiritual sensing. ¡°Damn!¡± ¡°Then what should we do?¡± said a member of the sea race. Everyone looked at the dragon man principle. The whole sea race could not even defeat a human. This was disconcerting. The principle priest was a bit bewildered and could not come up with any ideas, since the enemy couldn¡¯t be killed by siege or spear. It was still thundering, and at last he came up with something. ¡°Use magic spells then!¡± he said. ¡°Get all the spellcasters together and bombard that human with magic spells! I know these spellcasters like to throw fireballs at things. Let them throw, then. No matter if it¡¯s a fire ball, an ice ball, a thunder ball or a poison ball! Just blow him up, as well as the land he stands on!¡± ¡°This sounds good!¡± said a member of the sea race. ¡°Let¡¯s do it then!¡± said another. All the spellcasters of different races gathered together and marched forward in disorder, under the protection of the elite army that was equipped with the long spears. When they got closer to Ray, these spellcasters that all came from peculiar family backgrounds began brandishing their wands and casting the most devastating spells they could. The light balls were flying toward Ray one after another. The red ones were the burning fire balls, the white ones the ice explosion spells, the dark green ones the poison erosion spells, the light green ones the sound explosion spells, the blue ones the thunder explosion bombs¡­ It was as if they were holding a presentation of all the energy spells. Meanwhile, this was all futile! Although Ray was hiding beneath the bodies, he had been carefully watching his surroundings. When he knew where the spellcasters were, he immediately jumped out from the pile of dead bodies and rushed into the crowd of the spellcasters. Many were killed. Although these spellcasters could cause severe destruction, when it came to the ability to fight with the enemy in close range, they were not that powerful. Ray could kill anyone in his way while facing a group of warriors of the sea race, so he could just as easily beat the spellcasters. When the warriors of the sea race found that the spellcasters were going to lose, they tried to rush to save them. The spellcasters that had a noble bloodline were almost killed by Ray. The warriors managed to save less than ten spellcasters. ¡°I am so happy!¡± Ray laughed. He had already put off all his psychological burdens, and only wanted to have a good fight. He had already killed many enemies. It¡¯s said one can¡¯t make any profit simply by killing one enemy, but he could make some profit by killing two enemies. If killing was profit, Ray had already earned enough to make others jealous. But he was still not satisfied. Everyone only had one life; no matter how much profit one got, he could never be satisfied. Life was the most precious thing. Ray only wanted to do one thing: kill! Kill until he could no longer move! He heavily brandished his sword, and the light reflected by the sword shone on the blood that was everywhere. It seemed that the situation on the battlefield never changed. Ray held his sword and confronted thousands of members of the sea race, whose blood converged together and became a river. Dead bodies of the sea race were everywhere. He was fighting alone against a huge number of enemies just holding a long sword, while his enemies were all holding long spears. Even so, he was the one winning, and it almost scared the warriors of the sea race to death. The commanders of the sea race couldn¡¯t bear to see this continue. They had a discussion and came out with another idea. This time, they sent out the wizards that were very rare among the sea race. Every one of them was holding a magic wand in his hand, but didn¡¯t dare to get close to Ray. They just moved a little bit, and did a magic spell that targeted Ray, who was fighting. The magic flying bomb spell was a very simple but classic magic spell. Although it was not that powerful, it was very reliable. One of its biggest advantages was that as long as the wizard locked the target with his mind, the bomb would not stop flying until it hit the target. Ray had almost exhausted his energy since he had been encircled by the enemy and tried to dodge their weapons. He couldn¡¯t spare the energy to stop the wizard from targeting him. Soon light purple light balls were flying towards Ray, one after another, crossing the crowd like fish. They hit Ray directly. Ray was busy fighting as well as being bombarded by the tens of magic flying bombs. Suddenly, his body trembled. Before he pulled himself together, the warriors of the sea race seized their opportunity. Ray was penetrated by at least four or five long spears, almost lifted up by them. Still, Ray brandished his sword and managed to kill every enemy that was getting close to him. At the same time, more magic flying bomb came towards him and hit. Ray now couldn¡¯t stand still, and his whole body was shaking. Blood spurted from his wounds, and Ray¡¯s body was no longer agile. He began to react rather slowly. Seeing Ray was going to be defeated, the warriors began to cheer and rush toward Ray, each wanting to kill him with their own spear and share the honor of killing a extremely powerful enemy. Meanwhile, they were just being naive. Ray¡¯s sharp sword awaited them. Although Ray was in great pain and felt his internal organs had already ruptured, he managed to force a smile. In the sea race¡¯s eyes, Ray was even more frightening than an evil ghost. He, a human, could still fight when he was so badly injured! They were afraid and didn¡¯t dare to get close, but circled him from a distance. More magic flying bombs flew towards Ray and managed to cross the crowd. One hit Ray at last. Ray could no longer stand, and he collapsed. He lied in a pool of his own blood.His vision was fading, and scenes from his past began flashing in front of him. A five or six year old kid was happily running in the palace, and happened to see his grandfather reviewing a group of knights who had just won a war. His grandfather¡¯s hair had already turned white and his face was rather serious, the silver armour and the long sword shining in the sunlight. The hair of the proud war horse was combed and tidy. I have wanted to become a knight since I was five or six years old, Ray thought. Then the kid grew to seven or eight years old. He began to work very hard to exercise his swordsmanship by brandishing a wood sword and hitting a target under the guidance his grandfather had already abdicated. His grandfather could no longer stand as long he could just a few years ago, so he was smiling and sitting in a soft chair, watching his young grandson practicing his swordsmanship, giving him some instructions from time to time. I wonder if it was at that time the rumor that I was probably the real inheritor of the eagle-wing sword began to spread. A few years later, the kid grew to become a youth of 12 or 13 years old. He was riding a horse while brandishing his long spear, and penetrated a ferocious orc. He was fighting in a battlefield with other brave knights, and managed to destroy the formation of the orc army. That was the first time that I was ever in a battlefield. My father didn¡¯t worry about me at all, since he allowed a youth of 12 years to fight with the orc; even if it was my first time joining a real fight. The knights¡ªwho were wearing armor all over themselves and holding the long spears decorated with silk banners¡ªwere riding white horses and proudly proceeding the area. Under the helmet, the youth was laughing as bright as the sun. I was a prince but I dressed up and joined the knight¡¯s tournament. How audacious I was! Then a scene of fire, blood and battle appeared. The familiar faces all suddenly were no longer familiar. The sweet drinks were mixed with poison; many sharp arrows hit the royalties from behind; the relatives and the friends collapsed one by one, and sounds echoed in the room. My teacher always said that many people died during the fights to become the next king. I finally understood its meaning that day. The bodies of the most noble people of the kingdom were randomly thrown into a deep hole, since there was still poison inside their bodies. Even the flies and bugs didn¡¯t dare to get close to them. The youth was breathing slowly and lying among his relatives and friends who faces were gradually rotting. He gradually pulled himself together. I had already experienced the most frightening thing possible. I never cried again. Next a staggering figure was brandishing a branch in a valley. He didn¡¯t care if his body had recovered or not. As time went by, he became stronger and stronger. His face was gloomy and one could see the intention to kill in his eyes. Back then I swore that I would revenge my family. But I failed to do that in the end. An unsocial youth was asked to drink together with his adventurer peers. Everyone was laughing, only he was wearing a poker face; but in his eyes, one could tell there was a shred of warm light. Those people. They could have been friends with anyone else! Then the gate of a commercial corp was locked by a heavy chain, and the building was tightly surrounded by killers who wore black and held bows in their hands. A youth in black was wearing a sad face and walked through one room after another. The rooms were soaked with blood. He mercilessly killed anything that moved, even the people who he used to laugh and drink with. From that day, I changed my nickname from ¡®cold face¡¯ to ¡®killer.¡¯ The solitary black armored knight was riding a ferocious Nargakurga and ran after a group of people. He killed the notorious thugs one by one, then sifted through some treasured objects on the dead bodies that were soaked with blood, while smiling coldly. It seems that it is true that people make good remarks about themselves when they are going to die. I killed other thugs apart from the bandit! The black armored knight was about to get the crystal of divine power. Suddenly a huge green jellyfish appeared from nowhere, staying on his head and threatening him while laughing. All his spoils of war were taken away. This was how I met His Majesty for the first time. Though maybe my first time meeting His Majesty was a bit different from my memory. It seemed that the green jellyfish above his head like head meant to become a priest, since it kept telling him many things about justice and kindness, never stopping. The black armored knight was really bothered and wanted to kill it with his sword, but he always failed to do so. That was so hard for me! Under the damn jellyfish¡¯s ¡°teaching¡±, the black armored knight was forced to do good, and received many thanks and applause from the people. Gradually, he began to smile more, and his face became softer. I think that¡¯s when I began to change. Another member joined the team that was of a human and jellyfish. She was a concupiscent woman that was past help. She even dared to try to have s*x with him, which made the black armour knight very angry. Due to this he had chased after the woman countless times, and during this process, gradually began to laugh more often. Steele¡­ although she was sort of a clown, clowns can be beneficial to a team. The black armored knight knelt before the huge green jellyfish, and made his vows. He looked very determined and his eyes were very clear. Thank you for giving me a new life! I am sorry that I can¡¯t return this favor! Then a teenager was working very hard on his training. Next to him stood a knight in white armour. The youth was so absorbed in his training he didn¡¯t notice his teacher¡¯s happy and nostalgic face. I never thought I could become a teacher. I always felt I had become very old; maybe I just grew up. Then the teenager was lying in a pool of blood, his face extremely pale. He was using his last ounce of strength to smile. Then eventually he stopped. Ranke, my student, you were still a kid! Why should an innocent kid like die before an old man like me, who has done numerous bad things!¡± The scene of the past was still flashing in front of his eyes; then every scene began to dim. Eventually his last breath left his body. Maybe it was just an illusion, but next Ray saw refugees that were running for their lives, and Liv riding back and forth on a horse beside the refugees. She was yelling and waving her long sword like an experienced shepherd maintaining the order of the group of refugees, so that they would not flee in panic and step on each other. Steele was flying around Liv and helping her maintain order. She also practiced her healing spell to treat the injured from time to time. Suddenly, Steele stopped and turned around, looking in the direction of the bay of Garth City. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Liv asked curiously. Steele didn¡¯t reply and stared at the city in silence. Hey, you hussy. Goodbye. ¡°Goodbye,¡± Steele said. He then vaguely saw dirty currents, the raging sea, and four figures that fighting each other. Among them, there was one figure that looked a bit different from his memory, but it had the same style. Your Majesty, I am sorry that I failed to meet your expectations. The transparent knight could not get close to the battlefield, but knelt down on one knee. Please forgive my incompetence. Sui Xiong, who was in the middle of battle, suddenly shook all over. He turned around and found that transparent figure fading. Seeing this, he immediately knew what had transpired, and howled as if he were mad. The sky broke, as did the earth, and the dirty current raged Chapter 122 This time, Sui Xiong really went mad. He was roaring, though even he had no idea what this roaring meant. Each time he roared, he hit the Goddess of Ocean with all the strength he had, or even more. Sui Xiong¡¯s firm and strong body couldn¡¯t withstand such power, and he soon got many tiny cracks. The Goddess of Ocean never thought Sui Xiong could suddenly become so crazy. This madness was totally different from the mania Sui Xiong showed earlier. Now he showed a sort of neuroticism. Sui Xiong had lost every bit of reason he had. He was purely enraged and releasing his anger. She could tell that the huge jellyfish God was on the brink of going mad, and that maybe soon, there would be one more crazy demogorgon who was just like all its predecessors. One who made destroying the whole world and killing every living creature their ultimate goal. They were disliked by both the kind Gods and the evil Gods. The Goddess of Ocean didn¡¯t care about what Sui Xiong might turn into, but she would never be willing to become an enemy that was hated by a demogorgon. The demogorgon didn¡¯t need a reason to kill, but once it held a grudge against you, it would risk everything to track you down and make trouble. A demogorgon¡¯s existence relied on destruction, but the being itself could never be destroyed. Even if a demogorgon was sealed tightly away, it would somehow manage to escape. Through the ages, there was a rule that with every birth of a demogorgon, came the death of the one that ever infuriated it or even drove it to madness. The Goddess of Ocean felt that she would also fit into this rule. Therefore, she would not allow the huge jellyfish God to go crazy! She did not want to admit that she was feeling frightened at this moment, but she was frightened by Sui Xiong¡¯s resoluteness. Watching Sui Xiong yelling crazily and hitting his enemy with rage and in disorder, she was indeed afraid. The Goddess of Ocean could even imagine what would happen next: the body of the huge jellyfish would suddenly collapse, and then the power that could lead the world to destruction would make a hole in the center of the jellyfish¡¯s body. As soon as the hole was made, the energy of destruction would continually flow out, and turn the jellyfish into an existence that was impossible to imagine. This energy would contaminate the world around them. Now, the jellyfish had not completely changed into a demogorgon yet. But it would certainly become more crazy due to the misery and anger in its heart. Still, it would keep a last shred of reason in its mind, and with the help of that last shred of reason, it would go to find its enemy. Because of the energy of the destruction, the millions of worlds were all transparent to it, and defenseless before it. Thus, it could go freely and directly into its enemies¡¯ Holy Kingdoms, and then¡­ Then what?! There was no then! When that time came, the Goddess of Ocean would die, and her holy Kingdom would be destroyed too, and it would be impossible for her to be reborn. So as for what would happen next, it had nothing to do with her! ¡°Sh*t! Who on earth has infuriated him?¡± she murmured while struggling to withstand Sui Xiong¡¯s more and more intensified attacks. At this moment, she got a message from her ally, the God of Storm, who planned to build a divine department of natural disaster. ¡°You have really come up with a fantastic idea!¡± she said in response. ¡°Yes, I think so too. Still, your followers have done a good job. Currently we only need to get rid of these barriers. Then we can go directly after those people,¡± the God of Storm said happily. ¡°As for the damn God of Justice, as long as we don¡¯t kill the people ourselves, he cannot possibly protect them from being killed. And it is he that has made such a rule.¡± Meanwhile, Sui Xiong began to brandish all his tentacles and heavily attack the huge water element. On the physical side, this strike only hit off a part of the body of the water element. Since there was water everywhere, the water element could restore its body simply by absorbing water from around it. However on the mental side, this strike was instilled with divine power. It pained the Goddess of Ocean, especially when the connection between this incarnation and her real body was so close. Thus, her real body also felt the extreme pain. She almost passed out. However, a God could never pass out. After making such a heavy strike, Sui Xiong himself was also heavily injured; even the tentacle that first hit the enemy was broken. But Sui Xiong was in a fit and couldn¡¯t feel pain or other feelings; or rather, he could actually feel the pain, but the pain would only make him more crazy. For him, the pain could even make him feel better. Ray was dead. He died while performing Sui Xiong¡¯s order. Actually, at that time, Sui Xiong only casually gave the order that Ray should help to stop the sea race from intruding the land, and make the refugees leave safely. He really said it casually, without thinking. Ray took it seriously. He kept fighting with the sea race, and didn¡¯t retreat even if there was only one of him left on the battlefield. And he didn¡¯t get proud after killing a huge number of enemies; he fought hard until the last minute. He even came to say goodbye to me, and felt guilty since he failed to perform my order. Thinking this, Sui Xiong once again began to crazily attack the Goddess of Ocean, his tentacles breaking one by one. Due to the huge amount of energy each tentacle had inside, the broken tentacles fell into pieces and vanished instead of being washed away by the water. Could he feel the pain? Of course he could. But Sui Xiong was manic, and the pain soothed him. Even though Ray was severely injured, and there were many holes and spears in his body, he still worried about the safety of the refugees and the order I gave him until the last minute¡­ ¡°Ow!!!¡± The huge jellyfish gave another crazy howl, and an extremely powerful energy began to spread into the immediate surrounding area. Tens of miles of seawater was froze, and before it froze completely it suddenly exploded due to the energy, and fell into pieces. It became falling snow. The seawater collided with itself and created a sound that was as loud as a landslide or tsunami. With the sound echoing, not only was the incarnation of the Goddess of Ocean, the water element, heavily shattered, but the shivering Haimu Sarah and Tim Saar were severely injured. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care if he hurt his own peers, and every strike caused a huge explosion on a large scale. It was as if he meant to make a hole out of the Main Plate, a hole that led to the underworld, so he could try to get Ray¡¯s soul back. ¡°Hello, I think something is going wrong over your side,¡± the God of Storm said. He didn¡¯t get any reply from his ally, so he made some observation and was surprised to see Sui Xiong¡¯s behaviour. He immediately sent a message to the Goddess of Ocean, saying, ¡°What is going on? You said your enemy is an easy guy to deal with. Why are you being hit by him instead? Is what I am seeing an illusion?¡± ¡°F*ck an illusion!¡± the Goddess of Ocean finally managed to pull herself together and cursed. ¡°That bastard has gone crazy! He is going to become a demogorgon!¡± ¡°What?!¡± the God of Storm was also someone who had seen a lot and done a lot, but as soon as he heard the word, he was so terrified that even his real body that was in his own Holy Kingdom shivered. ¡°Demogorgon?! Who drove him so crazy?¡± The God of Storm knew clearly how dangerous a demogorgon was, so he immediately asked a key question. Everyone knew that when a demogorgon was born, it would definitely kill at least one of its enemies. ¡°Who drove it crazy?¡± was a key question. ¡°Who do think his enemy is?¡± the Goddess of Ocean said. ¡°It¡¯s either you or me.¡± Hearing this, the God of Storm started shivering all over and asked: ¡°You or me?! Which one of us then?!¡± ¡°If you really want to know, ask him! He is right here!¡± The God of Storm was not stupid; he knew he would be killed on the spot if he went to ask Sui Xiong! Although he was not sure who his enemy really was, he thought that there was a bigger chance that the Goddess of Ocean was Sui Xiong¡¯s enemy. But if he went to ask Sui Xiong, he might become Sui Xiong¡¯s enemy! Ally? Cooperation? Who would care about these sort of things now! Everyone knows that one should always put his own interest first, and a God must know this as well! If they two were kind Gods, they might have helped each other; or if they were disciplined Gods, they would abide by the agreement they made together. Though the two were evil Gods, under this critical moment, they were being nice to each other; and though they didn¡¯t try to hurt each other, it was impossible for them to help each other! Meanwhile, Sui Xiong was getting crazier and crazier, and his attack was getting stronger and stronger, so the Goddess of Ocean found it more difficult to withstand Sui Xiong¡¯s attack. Then she thought for a while, and directly cut off the connection between her real body and her incarnation, even she knew that doing so would cause damage to herself. The result was like a man who had cut off one of his arms. The pain was so intense that the Goddess of Ocean was rolling on the ground. Still, as the saying goes: better a little loss than a long sorrow. It was better to cut off an arm than to be cut apart one piece of meat at a time by someone else. Besides, no matter which way she chose, she was bound to lose her incarnation. The Goddess of Ocean cut off the connection and then fled back to her Holy Kingdom, leaving the water element behind to be hit by Sui Xiong. The incarnation had already become too feeble to withstand Sui Xiong¡¯s attack, and without the energy that was continuously being transported from the real body, it immediately collapsed. Sui Xiong hit it one last time, and it immediately became water. Sui Xiong was stunned, and had no idea why his opponent, who was very powerful a few minutes ago, suddenly became a piece of crap that had no combat effectiveness at all. Then he suddenly realized what had happened, and got into the water. He absorbed the shattered body of the water element into his stomach, gaining great strength. Then his huge body became even larger. He looked like an enormous water ball that with countless tentacles; it was almost comical. But the face of the water ball was extremely terrifying; no one dared joke about it. Sui Xiong managed to defeat the incarnation of the female tyrant of the sea! He even make the Goddess of Ocean abandon her incarnation and run away! ¡°It actually tasted pretty good,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. Then he turned to the Haimu Sarah and Tim Saar, who were still fighting with each other. He waved one of his tentacles which was as wide a hill, and hit the divine core of Tim Saar. The core was shattered. ¡°Haimu Sarah, don¡¯t waste your time. Eat him and you will recover soon!¡± he said coldly. ¡°I have something else to do and don¡¯t have time to take care of you. Be careful!¡± ¡°You¡­ too,¡± Haimu Saar said. He was a bit clumsy, but could feel Sui Xiong¡¯s extremely intense intention of killing. Sui Xiong nodded and scanned around, finding the astonished God of Storm who was standing above the cloud. ¡°Good, there is still one that has not fled! Ray¡­don¡¯t worry, I will kill them all!¡± He brandished his tentacles. Chapter 123 The ¡°wind¡± was something that would never leave any trace, either when it came or left. Maybe it was because the God of Storm had gotten so used to being arrogant, he didn¡¯t even realize that he should immediately run away until Sui Xiong targeted him. However, it was too late to run away now! Sui Xiong brandished one of his extremely huge tentacles and flung it into the cloud, and made a sound that was as loud as thunder. The sea race either on the bay or in the sea all felt dizzy when hearing the sound, and the feeble ones instantly collapsed or sat on the ground. Some even sank into the water. The God of Storm didn¡¯t have the time to think of what to do. He immediately showed his incarnation that had been hiding inside the cloud all this time; it was an amazingly huge wind element. When the wind element was in a state of rest, it had no form. But once it began to move, it would become a tornado that rotated at high speeds. Besides, countless black clouds were swirling inside it, as did the roaring thunder and terrifying lightning. This all made the winter element look very frightening and magnificent. Normally, Sui Xiong would not probe the enemy if he looked magnificent, but now he was so angry that he could not think at all. He flung his tentacles right at the winter element without thinking. The unlucky God of Storm was hit. He never thought there would be a God that would do things without following the rules! How could he hit me without finishing his curse? Why did he initiate the attack while he was still cursing? The huge tentacle hit the God of Storm who hadn¡¯t reacted in time. He almost passed out, and half of the thunder and lightning inside his body had gone. Even the rotating tornado became a bit slower. ¡°Seriously!¡± the God of Storm shouted and was hit again by Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles. ¡°You!¡± he was hit again. ¡°Are!¡± again. ¡°Being!¡± once again. ¡°Ridiculous!¡± he was hit heavily by Sui Xiong again. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t give any chance for the God of Storm to counterattack. The God of Storm was not able to make any defensive moves. He was only congregating his power enough to stand Sui Xiong¡¯s harsh attack. One time, two times¡­ 10 times, 20 times¡­ 100 times, 200 times¡­ the sound of thunder never stopped, not even for a second. At last, the God of Storm realized that he could no longer keep his incarnation; he also understood why the God of Sea, who was much stronger than him, would leave her incarnation behind to be shattered by Sui Xiong, and run away. Who said the damn jellyfish God was going to become crazy? It was already crazy! Luckily, the connection between his real body and his incarnation was not as strong as that of the Goddess of Ocean. If he abandoned his incarnation, it would not do any harm to his soul. So his real body could still sit calmly on the throne that was made of storm, thunder, and lighting, and contemplate. ¡°Why the jellyfish is behaving like this? It just lost one follower. Does it really need to make such a fuss!¡± the God of Storm looked at his empty Holy Kingdom and shook his head. ¡°I almost have no followers, and I still managed to make it on my own until today¡­¡± As an evil God that could bring on natural disasters, the God of Storm had almost no followers. Only some people who were extremely crazy or were frenzied about the violence and destruction would believe and follow him. Thus, although he was a powerful God, there weren¡¯t many followers in his Holy Kingdom, which made it look very desolate and bleak. Those violent men could not possibly understand the depression their God was feeling after he was heavily hit by Sui Xiong, and began to fight against each other after seeing the God of Storm calmly sitting in his throne. Compared with him, the Goddess of Ocean received a better treatment from her followers. This female tyrant was also the guardian of the marine creatures, so apart from the evil marine creatures, there were also many neutral, or even kind creatures. When seeing their severely injured Goddess come back, they immediately gathered around her and asked how she was. Although they couldn¡¯t help relieve her pain, she was much more calm. ¡°I am so happy that I have these followers!¡± she exclaimed with a bit of satisfaction. In the human world, Sui Xiong was feeling rather gloomy. After killing the incarnation of the God of Storm, Sui Xiong ate his remains, and then his body made a sound of roaring thunder, and was surrounded by countless strokes of lightning. A short while later, both the sound and the lightning faded, and his huge body began to shrink. At last, his body was around five meters in diameter. Still he looked very huge; but before, he was as big as a black cloud. Compared with that, he looked much smaller. Sui Xiong flew back to the ground and stopped beside Ray. Ray was lying still in a pool of blood. The storm failed to wash away the blood on him and his wound became white, since he had been soaking in the rain for a long time. He was penetrated by at least ten long spears, and his whole body caved in due to the hit of the magic flying bomb. His tall and straight body no longer existed any more. One could even see his bones among his wounds; the bones were all broken. Seeing this, Sui Xiong almost burst into tears. This poor thing had sacrificed himself to perform Sui Xiong¡¯s order, and to protect the refugees. Seeing Ray¡¯s wounds, Sui Xiong could imagine what Ray had gone through. He was fighting with countless enemies all by himself and finally was killed! Sui Xiong was trembling and trying very hard to restrain his urge to kill all the sea race. Then he spread his soul¡¯s tentacles and began to search for Ray¡¯s soul. ¡°It is still not too late, I may still find some trace of his soul, maybe he is still¡­¡± He was talking to himself, trying to comfort himself in this way. But he was disappointed by the reality. He had been trying very hard to search for Ray¡¯s soul, he managed to find some trace; but still he failed to find Ray¡¯s soul. ¡°Could it be possible that he has gone to the underworld? Or to hell?¡± Sui Xiong was contemplating. He drew some very complicated trajectories in the air with his tentacles, trying to summon back Ray¡¯s soul from the underworld by using Ray¡¯s body as the medium. ¡°No matter if you have gone to the underworld or to hell, come back, please!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s powerful energy was shining as brightly as a moon. The energy slowly spread out and even froze the seawater in the distance. Seeing this extremely powerful energy, the sea race were so terrified that they began to tremble and hurriedly ran away, hoping their fins could be a bit stronger, tails longer, claws more powerful, so they could get away faster. Sui Xiong was not bothered by the terrified sea race at all. He was focusing on his magic spell, and searching for Ray¡¯s soul in the underworld, hell, and every possible place a certain soul might go to with the help of his magnificent will and powerful magic. All the powerful existences in this world were surprised by Sui Xiong¡¯s behaviour and had no idea what Sui Xiong¡ªa God they had never seen before¡ªreally wanted. But Sui Xiong was just searching for Ray¡¯s soul. After a long while, the light of his magic faded. At the gloomy bay, there was a huge jellyfish feeling rather frustrated. He failed to find Ray¡¯s soul, he didn¡¯t find any clue at all! He thought Ray had gone to the underworld, but he didn¡¯t find him there; he thought Ray had gone to the hell, and didn¡¯t find him there either; he then searched for Ray¡¯s soul in the Shadow World; Ray was not there. He then searched again in the Star World Soul World; he even searched for Ray¡¯s soul in the heaven where the kind were, and the Element World that was at the outside of the Main Plate where a soul would sometimes go by accident. Still he couldn¡¯t find Ray¡¯s soul. At last, he was desperate! Maybe¡­ Ray¡¯s soul had already disappeared. The transparent figure I saw just now might be Ray¡¯s last trace in this world¡­ Thinking of this, his body began to tremble. Suddenly, he came up with an idea, and he was so excited that he even jumped up. It doesn¡¯t matter that his soul has disappeared, as long as I have got his body! It is not the soul, but the body that is the most important thing! I can definitely bring Ray back to life with his body, and the memory left in his brain! Even if his brain is dead, I can rebuild his character by using the thoughts left in his body! He quickly got rid of all the long spears on Ray¡¯s body, and shrouded Ray with his tentacles. Then he activated his magic and began to heal Ray¡¯s heavily damaged body. Treating a dead body would cost dozens of times of more magic energy than usual. Soon, Sui Xiong finally managed to heal Ray¡¯s body. Then he began to heal Ray¡¯s brain. Unsurprisingly, Ray¡¯s brain was already dead, and it was impossible for Sui Xiong to bring it back to life. Even if Sui Xiong struggled to input some electric current that a healthy human brain had into Ray¡¯s brain, nothing happened. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t give up and continued to do the magic spell, trying to gather all the thoughts left in Ray¡¯s body and build a new character. The new character was in fact a substitute for a soul, but it could not provide vitality. But he only needed to make some lollipops to provide the vitality to his body¡­ ¡°I am really good at making lollipops, I even learned how to draw a lollipop from my teacher! When you wake up, I will make thirty different kinds of lollipops for you, so you can taste a new flavor everyday!¡± Sui Xiong was murmuring. Then he activated his magic energy, trying to extract the thoughts left in Ray¡¯s body. Countless light spots appeared around him, and Sui Xiong was shocked by this scene. ¡°How¡­ how come there are so many light spots?!¡± He should have remembered that in this battlefield, countless lives had been consumed, and they all left their thoughts here. Due to Sui Xiong¡¯s magic spell, all the thoughts had been activated, and then became a river of light spots. Sui Xiong knew that it was impossible for him to spot the thoughts that belonged to Ray among all the messy light spots. He was stunned. What should I do? Chapter 124 Seeing the countless light spots, Sui Xiong could not possibly find the light spot that belonged to Ray. He thought for a long time, then had no choice but to accept the reality that he really could not find Ray¡¯s soul. Thinking of this, he became furious again. His eyes were full of anger that any audacious warrior would be frightened to death of if he ever saw them. Sui Xiong then had a suspicious smile. ¡°Ray, you have a good rest here. I will come back soon.¡± He gently put down Ray¡¯s body, then he raised up his head and stared at the sky. ¡°Goddess of Ocean and God of Storm, you think you two can really run away after abandoning your incarnations? This business hasn¡¯t finished yet!¡± He jumped high up to the sky and took a long breath. In the air that was at least a hundred miles above the ground, the magic power became disordered, and turned into a few huge power streams that were flowing toward him from all directions. Sui Xiong was waving his tentacles and yelling while absorbing as much magic energy as possible. ¡°Bigger! Bigger! Bigger¡­¡± Every time he said bigger, his body would be much bigger and at last, he became a beast that was huge enough to cover the sky and the sun. Most parts of the sky above the Kingdom of Blue Moon were blocked, as was the sunlight. People in the countries or regions in the long distance could also see the huge beast. A terrifying enormous beast that would only appear in the legendary strong man¡¯s dreams! Its body was just like a huge black cloud that could block a certain part of the sky, and most of the Kingdom of Blue Moon was in its shadow, as if it was already night. Its moving tentacles made people feel extremely frightened. If one looked carefully, he would find this beast looked exactly like an ordinary jellyfish. But could it really be called a jellyfish when it was in this size? No one would regard it as a jellyfish, or compare this huge beast that could block the sky with the ordinary marine creatures. The huge beast was crazily absorbing magic power, and at the same time, many colorful lights appeared in the sky and were moving toward Sui Xiong. Soon, the huge beast¡¯s body began to shine in peculiar colorful light, which was indeed scary. The light was actually warm and bright, but everyone felt cold and got goosebumps all over themselves. In the peak of the Broken Cloud Mountain, more than one strong man were looking at the east in surprise. They could clearly feel the evil and the strong intentions of killing from the colorful light, and thought the huge beast was almost on the brink of going crazy. In the Golden Desert, the sand was moving around. The old half-God that had been living since ancient times opened his eyes and looked it that direction and felt the huge beast had shared something in common with him. But the huge beast was full of sadness and anger, and was like a volcano that was going to erupt at any time. In the deep of the Iron Cliff Mountain, a pair of scary greedy eyes was looking towards the north, but instantly the fear controlling it, and it closed again. In the few biggest temples in the Kingdom of A Thousand Springs, both the Holy Lady and the principle priests frowned and worried that the huge beast might be threat to them. The governor-general of the Male Eagle Country stopped checking the files and walked to the window, and stared at the bizarre scene in the sky. Then he had a long sigh. In the shining temples of the Kingdoms of Holy Angel, many great existences suddenly gathered together and had a discussion. Then they all made their own oracles one by one. In the dead silent Dead Meteorite Desert, someone made a sound of surprise in the deep of the sand sea. In the vast east sea, countless creatures were trembling in fear, especially the followers of the Goddess of Ocean. Among them there were very faithful or powerful followers who realized that this magnificent and ferocious power was very similar to the power that injured their Goddess, and began to feel that something dangerous and scary was going to happen. In the deep sea, some half-Gods who regarded the Goddess of Ocean as their enemy were feeling very happy and celebrating together. The more ferocious Sui Xiong became, the happier they were. Someone radical even even suggested that they should seize this opportunity to attack the followers of the Goddess of the Sea in the coastal waters and totally destroy her churches. The whole Kingdom of Blue Moon turned into chaos. Everyone was freaking out and had no idea what they should do. All the cities, the temples and the magic pagodas had activated the most advanced protection magic arrays. All the armies and strong men were ready to fight. Everyone was feeling very anxious, apart from those refugees who were too tired to care about any bizarre scene in the sky. For them, nothing could be more terrifying than the intrusion of the sea race! In the wildness that was not too far away from Garth City, Liv was settling the refugees who had been running for a long time and asking them to rest here, while reading the message her mother¡ªwho had taken the risk to go to Garth City to find out what was going on¡ªsent back. The fight is still going on, and the Goddess of Harvest is going to lose. The bay is blocked by the gravel and rock, so I cannot not see what is going on on the other side. Just a while ago, the sound of fighting could still be heard, but strangely, it is now dead silent. After reading this message, Liv frowned and was about to say something, but she bit back the words after seeing the worrying eyes of the refugees. At this moment, she felt that the burden on her shoulders was getting really heavy. Thousands of people¡¯s safeties all counted on her; she felt like there was a mountain on her shoulders, and it made it difficult to breathe. Steele noticed Liv was feeling a bit uneasy, so she smiled and came to Liv¡¯s side and comforted her. Then she turned her head around and stared at the sky above Garth City. The huge jellyfish was slowly rising up and getting larger and larger. In a short while, it blocked the whole sky and the world became completely dark. By sensing what was going on with her magic power, she found that Sui Xiong was absorbing the magic power in the air, and the magic power gathered around him and turned into magic streams. ¡°What¡¯s His Majesty going to do?¡± she was confused and said to herself. Soon she guessed the answer and smiled with a bit of melancholy. I really envy you, Ray. Even if you are dead already, His Majesty still thinks about you and is willing to make such a fuss to revenge you! Meanwhile, Sui Xiong¡¯s followers all realized that their God was boiling with rage. This time Sui Xiong was rather different from the time the Dark Shadow Evil made trouble for him. He was neither agitated not depressed; rather, he was full of anger and rage. The rage was so intense and powerful it was like a ball of burning fire. Sui Xiong was determined kill the Goddess of Ocean and the God of Storm, even if it would cost him his own life! Gerrard and the other followers all knelt down and began to pray. However, they had no idea what they should be praying for. Gerrard, the chief priest, was not a sophisticated man. He was very good at fighting with others, but he knew nothing about how to make prayers. Satan, the chief wizard, had been very busy recently, and hadn¡¯t had time to write a prayer before he died just a few days ago. Palin, the librarian administrator, was still too young to make a prayer. Snow, the political officer, was already busy enough, and no one dared to bother her with such a trivial thing, unless he was not afraid of being changed into a frozen statue by her. Bang! The sound was so loud that one could hear it clearly, even he was thousands of miles away. There was a big hole in the sky in the east, and the storm, the thunder, and lightning were all coming in from the hole. At the same time, Sui Xiong managed to rush into the Storm World via the hole, full of fierce wind. In the blink of an eye, the hole was filled up again, and everything was normal. All the strong men and even the Gods in the Main Plate were shocked by this scene. What on earth did the jellyfish really want to do? Sui Xiong was gritting his teeth and rushing straight to the Holy Kingdom of the God of Thunder: the country of furious flame. The God of Storm realized that Sui Xiong was coming for him and was stunned. He couldn¡¯t believe what was happening in front of his eyes. How unreasonable this jellyfish was! Coming to the Storm World by making a hole in the sky of the Main Plate? What was it even thinking?! Obviously, Sui Xiong came for revenge. Seeing this, the bad-tempered and proud God of Storm, who had never been treated like this by anyone else, finally got furious. He yelled and his enormous Holy Kingdom slowly changed its form, and became the infinitive thunder and lightning and flame tornado that was surrounding a floating land. The Holy Kingdom was slowly flying toward Sui Xiong. This was actually how his Holy Kingdom really looked, and how the name ¡®furious flame¡¯ came about. ¡°Come! Show me what you¡¯ve got!¡± Although the God of Storm was a bit worried that the jellyfish God might become a demogorgon, he would never abandon his Holy Kingdom and run away. He was determined to use all the strength he had to wage a life-or-death struggle with this jellyfish! The Storm World was not that big; so the God of Storm quickly met Sui Xiong. Seeing the God of Storm, Sui Xiong yelled. His body, which was already big enough to block the sky, got as big as the Holy Kingdom of the God of Storm. Sui Xiong brandished one of his tentacles that was huge enough to destroy a whole city and flung it toward the country of furious flames that was surrounded by the thunder, lightning and flames. Bang! The surface of Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacle was scorched. Even so, Sui Xiong managed to hit right at the outer layer of the country of furious flame, and the thunder, lightning and flames around the spot Sui Xiong hit weakened a bit. The God of Storm who was standing in his throne trembled. When the Holy Kingdom was damaged, he was also affected. However, he was not bewildered or terrified at all. Instead he began to sneer. ¡°How dare you hit my Holy Kingdom? Aren¡¯t you tired of living?!¡± The burning fire spurted out from the other side of the huge Holy Kingdom, and meanwhile, hundreds of layers of magic arrays appeared. In the blink of an eye, the Holy Kingdom was moving toward Sui Xiong¡¯s huge body with the fastest speed one had ever seen. The God of Storm was very confident that the damn jellyfish God would be shattered to pieces by the hit! But he was wrong. Sui Xiong spread all his tentacles to withstand this hit with his body. Countless cracks appeared in his body, as if he would fall into pieces in the very next minute. Infinitive thunder, lightning and flames were surrounding and burning his body. Still, he made it through. Moreover, he completely shrouded the country of furious flame with his huge iron chain-like tentacles. Sui Xiong¡¯s whole body was almost scorched. Still, he was proudly smiling. ¡°I have caught you!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s voice was loud as the thunder, his sound was echoing inside the country of furious flame. All the followers who admired the violence and followed the God of Storm were shocked, and the God of Storm frowned. He never thought that the jellyfish God was so powerful and so crazy, and everything now was out of his expectation and his control. He shouted and slowly rose up from his throne, and showed himself. It was an unimaginably enormous storm,with countless thunder and lightning bolts mixed in his body. A mountain, or an entire country, could be destroyed by it. The God of Storm was rushing toward the core of the jellyfish, while yelling and shouting. At the same time, the huge jellyfish was also yelling and opened its mouth to bite the country of furious flame. Chapter 125 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The Palace of Tens of Thousands of Gods was a big meeting place where the Gods of the whole world would gather together. Whenever a new God was born, a new seat would be set in this palace. Normally, many Gods would leave their doppelg?ngers here, so they could communicate with each other. Up until now, countless agreements and conspiracies were made here, and friendship and hatred were evenly shared among these Gods. The relationship among these Gods had a very big influence of the whole world. There were innumerable seats in this palace, and these seats were arranged according to the rank of the God. In the first rank, there were four seats, which were the seats of the God of Order, the God of Disorder, the God of Kindness, and the God of Evil. While the seat of the God of Order was still shining and looking very smooth, the other three seats were dim and full of cracks; this meant that the three Gods were sleeping their long sleep and might never be able to wake up, if they were not dead yet. In the second rank were the seats of the principle Gods of all the departments, and the Gods who were stronger than a group of Gods added together. For example, the God of Justice. There weren¡¯t many seats in this rank. There was a strong man in rags sitting in a wide chair and yawning. A bald man in the third rank suddenly jumped up and yelled: ¡°Yore Gartman! You have set me up!¡± The strong man didn¡¯t even bother to reply and was still yawning, then said, ¡°You must be kidding me! If I really want to set someone up, I would set up that guy shining in silver light, who was in my front up! Who do you think who you are? I can kill you with one shot!¡± ¡°If it were not for you, why would that crazy jellyfish come to me first, instead of the Goddess of Ocean? Since it is she who was confronting him, not me!¡± ¡°You are being ridiculous! You always are upset by trifles, and then kill the people involved, or burn their houses down!¡± The strong man lazily picked his ear with the end of finger and said, ¡°As for why he comes to you first, I have no idea, maybe it is because your Holy Kingdom was very close to the Main Plate.¡± Hearing this, the bald man got extremely angry, while the figure who was shining in silver light and sitting in the shining chair in the first rank finally opened his eyes. ¡°God of Justice, please mind your language. I accept your challenge, but I hope you shall challenge me in a decent way.¡± He was speaking in a very low voice, but his words were so powerful and magnificent that no one dared to disobey. ¡°Humph!¡± the strong man snorted. ¡°Stop putting on a show! One day, I will break your wheel of order and completely overturn the world that has become so dull!¡± ¡°If that day comes, I will happily accept it, since it is how the world should proceed,¡± the figure that was shining in silver light said calmly. ¡°I am sincerely looking forward to that day!¡± ¡°Pah! I don¡¯t want to sit in your chair. I think I will definitely go blind if I sit there, since it is too bright!¡± ¡°If you can defeat me, you should naturally sit in my chair. It is an honor and your obligation also.¡± ¡°I am done talking with you, you are so boring!¡± the strong man shook his head and turned to the seat behind him that was hiding in the black mist. ¡°Hey! God of Conspiracy, what are you plotting now?¡± A gloomy voice came out from the black mist, ¡°I am not plotting anything; at least not now.¡± ¡°You mean you plotted before?¡± ¡°I guess; but not now.¡± ¡°Really?¡± many Gods who were sitting in their chairs looked at the God of Conspiracy curiously, their eyes were full of surprise. The God of Conspiracy was someone who never stopped plotting, not even for a single minute. Why had he stopped now? Was he lying again? The strong man frowned. Then he immediately got the answer and began to laugh! ¡°You are afraid! You coward!¡± The figure in the black mist sneered, and didn¡¯t reply. Every God at present all understood what the God of Conspiracy meant, and also started to laugh. In fact, the God of Conspiracy was not that powerful. In the past, he agitated someone who was very strong. Later this strong figure came to his Holy Kingdom for revenge, but he could not defeat him; so the God of Conspiracy abandoned his Holy Kingdom and fled. This happened more than once. A few times later, the God of Conspiracy learned his lesson and knew who he could mess with and who he couldn¡¯t. For example, the strong man in rags¡ªwho was sitting in front of him and was stronger than a bunch of beggars added together¡ªwas someone the God of Conspiracy never dared to mess with. This time, the God of Conspiracy meant to frame a certain God. Later, he realized that this God was more powerful than he expected, so he changed his mind and began to behave himself, and simply became a bystander. While the Gods were laughing, the angry bald man suddenly made a strange sound and vanished. At the same time, smoke rose up from his chair and quickly dissipated. Then countless cracks began to show on the chair; at last it collapsed. Apart from the Gods who had been watching all the time, all the other Gods were astonished. The bad man was the formidable God of Storm who was recruiting other Gods to work with him to build the department of natural disasters. Why on earth he suddenly vanished? Countless Gods began to cast their eyes at the Storm World, where the Holy Kingdom of the God of Storm, the ¡®furious flame,¡¯ was located. Then they saw a scene that they would never forget in their whole lives. A huge scorched jellyfish was flinging his tentacles at the broken Holy Kingdom again and again. His skin was cut open and his flesh was ripped. At the same time, his mouth was severely torn and green smoke was coming out from it. Even so, he was gripping a weakening tornado with his teeth, while thunder and the lightning were flying out. ¡°What is this monster?!¡± a God exclaimed. ¡°Could it be an ancient evil monster?¡± ¡°Nonsense!¡± a God who had been watching all the time said with dissatisfaction. ¡°It is just a jellyfish God, the God of Storm agitated it before, so it got crazy and came to his Kingdom for revenge.¡± ¡°But I have never seen it in this palace¡­¡± ¡°Maybe it is because that it hasn¡¯t joined an apotheosizing ceremony, which is not that rare.¡± ¡°It has already become so powerful before even joining an apotheosizing ceremony?! Could it be possible that it will become another poor crazy God?!¡± ¡°Excuse me! You should not speak ill of him behind his back! Be careful!¡± the poor and shabby God of Justice angrily shouted. The God who just spoke realized that he had said something he shouldn¡¯t have said, then screamed and vanished. Clearly, he wouldn¡¯t dare to show himself in this palace for at least a few decades. Around eight Gods secretly made some plans and each made an incarnation; then the incarnation quietly went to the Storm World. No matter how huge the jellyfish God was, it would be impossible for it to eat everything the God of Storm had. For the eight weak Gods, the ¡°leftovers¡± left by Sui Xiong were already something valuable. Among the eight Gods, a few Gods also had the priesthood of the storm, thunder, lightning, and violence. By inheriting them, they could probably have a better understanding of their own source power, or even upgrade to a higher rank! When the incarnations of the eight Gods arrived, the huge scorched jellyfish was floating in the Storm World that was full of thunder and lightning. It was not moving at all; maybe it was exhausted or dying. Even if it looked like it was dying, still, not a single God dared to fight with it. That would be ridiculous. How could they dare fight the jellyfish? This jellyfish managed to destroy both the God of Storm and his Holy Kingdom, and it even devoured the God of Storm! Even though it was too weak to breathe in the air, and most of his tentacles were broken and so burnt they could be displayed in a dish, it could just simply kill these weak Gods with only one shot! The eight incarnations bypassed Sui Xiong and began to collect the heritage of the God of Storm. Soon, everything that was left by the God of Storm had been taken away by them; then they quickly and secretly left. After a long while, Sui Xiong finally regained some of his strength. First he absorbed around one tenth of the amount of the magic energy of the Main Plate; then he successfully destroyed the Holy Kingdom of the God of Storm, and even killed the God of Storm. But he was also badly injured. Not only had his body been severely damaged, his soul had also been heavily shaken, and he felt a bit dizzy. That was why he had some rest, so he could regain his strength. Now he was feeling much better and felt ready to fight again! The huge jellyfish roared, and penetrated space again. He rushed toward the Sea World. ¡°My gosh! It wants to have another fight?!¡± ¡°Of course. He has another enemy; and if you can get revenge now, why leave it until later?¡± ¡°Revenge? There is only one God living in the Sea World. You mean the Goddess of Ocean was also his enemy? The Goddess of Ocean is much powerful than the God of Storm was, it could never beat her in its current condition!¡± ¡°When he was heading to the country of furious flame, I also thought e would definitely be killed, but he won at last.¡± Then all the Gods turned to the Goddess of Ocean. Her seat was next to the God of Storm¡¯s seat. One was shining in blue light, the other had collapsed, which was a bit ironic. The Goddess of Ocean was watching the God of Justice in surprise, and said coldly, ¡°Why did you stop me from killing it?¡± ¡°Because I stand for justice!¡± The shabby and beggar-like God of Justice took a deep breath and wore a solemn face. His eyes looked rather determined; even the Goddess of Ocean didn¡¯t dare to look him in the eyes. The Goddess of Ocean was a bit afraid. Then she immediately regained her courage, and contradicted the God of Justice. ¡°So I shall be killed by it, to help you to stand for justice?¡± ¡°You can either fight it or run away,¡± the God of Justice replied coldly. ¡°I just can¡¯t allow you and the God of Storm to siege. Besides, I didn¡¯t really stop you just now; but if you helped the God of Storm, I would have definitely fought with you. I think I am playing fair and square.¡± Hearing this, the Goddess of Ocean was furious, but since she could not defeat the God of Justice, she sneered and vanished. In the blink of an eye, she returned to her Holy Kingdom, the ¡®wave garden.¡¯ Seeing the beautiful garden floating in the middle of the waves, and her followers who were either wandering in the wave or resting in the garden, she felt a little bit blue and nostalgic. Then she clenched her teeth and made the decision: she would fight with Sui Xiong outside of her Holy Kingdom! Before Sui Xiong arrived, she waved her hand and a golden trident appeared. Then she stood up and her clothes instantly turned into blue armor. When she was in full combat dress, she jumped out of her Holy Kingdom, and grew into a giant that was as large as the Holy Kingdom. The angry, huge jellyfish was coming. ¡°I need to tell you that your follower¡¯s death was just an accident; and I have lost more followers than you,¡± She said in a high voice. ¡°I know you don¡¯t want to hear all this, so let¡¯s finish this business by force!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s fight then!¡± Hearing the declaration of the Goddess of Ocean, which sounded very powerful but was very feeble, Sui Xiong roared. He curled up to a huge ball and began to rush towards the Goddess of Ocean. Chapter 126 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The trident of the Goddess of Ocean was named The Wrath of the Waves. It was a famous great weapon. It was the object created when God created the world, and had been deeply buried in the sea, condensing the strength of the holy mission of ¡°Ocean¡±. It was said that when the Goddess of Ocean was still a demigod, she once held this great weapon and separated the sea, and repelled the other six demigods of the deep sea. That was how he won the supreme throne. After her official apotheosizing, she spent a great deal of time condensing the armor on her with divine power. She had not completed it until today, so it had not yet been given a name. But the power of this armor was unquestionable. She had tried in private to use the Wrath of the Waves to stab this armor; it left only a small wound. Although she did not use too much force at the time, if it was able to endure to the power of the Wrath of the Waves, its solidity could be sufficiently proved. At this moment, the Goddess of Ocean was wearing her holy armor, so she had a little more confidence. In the face of the menacing and aggressive Sui Xiong, she didn¡¯t withdraw or concede, but waved the Wrath of the Waves, and confronted him head on. With a thud, the tough tentacles and sturdy shells of Sui Xiong did not work in defense, and they were immediately pierced by her powerful gun. The massive force immediately destroyed his body. Centering on the pierced wound, numerous cracks spread rapidly toward other body parts, and infinite beams of blue light overflowed from the crack and turned into torrents. At first glance, he seemed to have become a pierced water ball, and it seemed that the next second he would be broken by the high water pressure, and torn apart. The Goddess of Ocean could not help but smile. But the smile quickly froze on her face: Sui Xiong did not care about the injury. He didn¡¯t retreat but went forward, and took advantage of this opportunity to pull her closer to him. Tentacles, still full of scars, fluttered and wrapped around her tightly. ¡°Oh, huh, huh¡­ ah, ha-ha-ha!¡± The face of the giant jellyfish, which was burnt and scorched and full of horrible cracks, showed a crazy grin. ¡°I have grabbed you! I have grabbed you. I have grabbed you!¡± The Goddess of Ocean only felt cold air rush from her feet to the top of her head, and could not help but tremble. Although she did not know, just a few days ago, Sui Xiong had said the same thing to the God of Storm. She could feel the murderous arrogance in his voice. After all, she was a God with much fighting experience. Especially when she defeated the demigods; she had many bloody battles in that process. The God of Storm could not even compare to her, because he focused on bullying the weak. Seeing that the situation was wrong, she immediately shouted, and her huge body suddenly shrank. In the blink of an eye, she became as small as an ordinary human. However, as if Sui Xiong guessed that she would do this, he shrank his tentacles without hesitation at the same speed as her, even though his body was still so big. As a result, although the Goddess of Ocean became smaller, she was still entangled with many tentacles, and the situation did not change. No, there were still changes: those tentacles seized the opportunity, and wrapped her tighter. ¡°Ahahahahaha! Ahahahahaha!¡± Sui Xiong crazily laughed, with pleasure and madness. His voice seemed to suggest that a blazing fire was turning his enemies into ashes. Although the holy armor on her body was very strong and reliable, the Goddess of Ocean became more and more uneasy. she shouted and turned into a giant again, fully mobilized the power of the Wrath of the Waves, and set off a turbulent torrent into the body of Sui Xiong. She wanted to rip him apart before this damn jellyfish cast spells! But just when she had only mobilized a little power, she heard the words of Sui Xiong, transmitted by his mind. ¡°Noble Goddess of Ocean, do you know how the jellyfish hunts?¡± The Goddess of Ocean suddenly felt terrified and struggled to break away from those tentacles. However, it was too late. ¡°It¡¯s a poisonous thorn! Ah hahaha!¡± With the savage laughter, countless poisonous thorns darted from the tentacles that encircled the Goddess of Ocean. Although most of them were blocked by the armor, in the end, many of them still found a lot cracks in the armor, and stabbed in. This was a weapon he had never used before. It was also the last resort of this jellyfish body. Almost all jellyfish were poisonous, regardless of their size or type, except for some variations in special environments. Their tentacles contained stinging cells that secreted a variety of different poisons. Weak poison would make people feel a pain and numbness in the hands, which explained the Chinese name of jellyfish, meaning ¡®a stinger in the sea.¡¯ Strong ones secreted by jellyfish as big as a ship¡¯s bow could kill dozens of people. This was their most powerful weapon, and it was also the true means of survival of this seemingly delicate creature. The jellyfish that Sui Xiong was attached to was certainly poisonous, and as he continued to strengthen this body, the poison also continued to strengthen. Whenever he had realized and made breakthroughs, the poison would generate new changes and add new features and powers. Until today, even he himself did not know how great this poison would be. Because of his good character, he never tried this cruel trick. However, at this moment, he had extreme anger and hatred. He didn¡¯t care whether or not the trick was cruel! Besides, he really had no other option. In the battle with the God of Storm, he almost used up all his energy. Now the jellyfish was just an empty framework. It was absolutely impossible for him to fight against the Goddess of Ocean for long, or to break into her kingdom and kill her. So on the way there, he already made up his mind. Go up, entangle her, and use poisonous thorn. If this doesn¡¯t work, then use soul attack. He knew that there must be many gods watching at this moment. He did not know what the consequences would be if he exposed his true body. But he didn¡¯t care! The big events in the world were nothing more than a death. People paid each other back in death, so why couldn¡¯t he do that? Even Brother Bao, who was once a trivial worker in a brothel, also said that loyalty is important for brothers. He dared to risk his head to save his old friend Mao XVIII. I, brother Xiong, am also a senior intellectual who is educated, and work in the artistic industry. To put it in a way that sounds good, I am a painter and a talented man, so how can I not dare to die! I will have no wounds other than a bowl-size scar, and after eighteen years, I will be a hero again! With such determination, and faced with the powerful holy gun of the Goddess of Ocean, he did not panic, but became happy. He rushed directly against the trident and let his body be pierced, seizing the opportunity to approach the Goddess of Ocean. Then he waved his tentacles and tied her up firmly. The Goddess of Ocean¡¯s reactions were so rapid that it almost scared him. However, once his tentacles tied his opponent, they would be shortened and become smaller and smaller even without him wanting to cast his own spell. It was all instinct; but the result was that the Goddess of Ocean became smaller and bigger in vain. Sui Xiong seized this chance, maybe his last one, to strengthen all the poisonous thorns. Then, he stabbed her with all of the thorns! Although fewer than one percent of these thorns were lucky enough to cross the gap in the armor and pierce the body of the Goddess of Ocean, it would be enough for Sui Xiong if even one thorn hit the target. Without hesitation, he injected all the poison he had accumulated for a long time into the body of the Goddess of Ocean, leaving nothing at all. Then he was finally exhausted, and couldn¡¯t keep hold of his opponent. He collapsed. If he had not been stabbed by the powerful gun, the Wrath of Waves, and could barely hold back by relying on the pain, perhaps he would flow anywhere like a pool of mud. Or perhaps he would be drowsy and sleepy due to relaxation. Instead he was lying in the water, stretched his few tentacles that remained, and allowed the body to be skewered by a golden trident, as if he was on a barbecue stall. He was too tired to move. On the other side, the Goddess of Ocean was plunged into endless fear and suffering. Sui Xiong¡¯s poison was no joke! Coincidentally, Sui Xiong only attacked enemies that were closer to him. He first attacked the God of Storm and then the Goddess of Ocean. His poison was really ineffective on the God of Storm, but miraculously effective on the Goddess of Ocean. The real body of the God of Storm was just a gust of wind wrapped in thunder, and was not afraid of poison at all. The body of the Goddess of Ocean was an aquatic animal: a mermaid. In the face of Sui Xiong¡¯s poison, she was defeated. The body of a god that was supposedly invulnerable to all poisons couldn¡¯t resist Sui Xiong¡¯s miraculous poison. Various kind of poisons wildly raged in the body of the Goddess of Ocean, destroying everything that could be destroyed. Muscles, blood, bones, nerves, internal organs. Even her supernatural powers, divinity, her soul. all were eroded by this poison. There was no exception. The resulting pain made the Goddess of Ocean almost crazy. Unknown kinds of poison were showing effects together. In an instant, it was like she experienced all the tortures on earth. There was pain from the soul to the body. It was not only pain, but all sorts of unpleasant feelings like numbness, burning, itching, cold, heat, stickiness, stiffness¡­ For a while, it was impossible to describe it, and all the feelings were combined into one scream. ¡°Ah!!!!!!!!!¡± She screamed frantically, threw out her weapons, and fell into the stream of water, twitching, tumbling, and dying. She only hated the vitality that prevented her from dying in this circumstance. Sui Xiong looked at the miserable appearance of the Goddess of Ocean and could not help but smile happily. But the Gods watching the battle were all scared at the moment. This big jellyfish was too powerful and vicious! It seemed that the Goddess of Ocean had better die! Seeing two strongmen fighting, with neither intact, some Gods became greedy and wanted to take advantage of this chance to defeat them both. But the God of Justice coughed coldly, and dispelled these kinds of thoughts. Obviously, the God of Justice is standing on the side of the big jellyfish this time. Let¡¯s not enrage the madman who was able to attack the supreme place to hit the wheel of order, and challenge the great God! After a while, Sui Xiong recovered first. Although the long golden trident was still in him, without the control of the Goddess of Ocean, the power of the Wrath of the Waves did not show effect. They only caused ordinary injuries. He stroked the few remaining tentacles and allowed himself to float slowly. He clenched his teeth to pull out the Wrath of the Waves, and directed it towards the Goddess of Ocean. In order to make sure he¡¯d kill her with only one blow, he also attached many tricks on it. The tip of the golden trident became dark green, which was a bad sign. He was still laughing wildly with a strange tone, and felt like a bow that had been pulled too tight, that could break at any time. ¡°Cry! Yell! Then you will die!¡± Chapter 127 Sui Xiong crazily laughed and raised the specially-modified trident without any compassion in his heart in the face of the Goddess of Ocean, who felt as if she was not living due to the poison. She could only roll and twitch there, without the strength to escape, let alone fight back. Just as he was preparing to approach the Goddess of Ocean and completely end the life of the female tyrant, there were many Gods and believers rushing out from the Holy Kingdom surrounded by turbulent flows. They knew that they were absolutely not opponents of the huge jellyfish that knocked down the Goddess of Ocean. Many were scared but bravely rushed towards him. The holy envoys stopped in front of Sui Xiong and tried to protect the Goddess. The believers tried to move the seriously injured Goddess to the Holy Kingdom for healing. Obviously, Sui Xiong wouldn¡¯t let them hinder him. He yelled and threw away the trident which directly stabbed the Goddess of Ocean. The believers of the Goddess of Ocean panicked. They couldn¡¯t think. They lunged in front of the trident and used their bodies to block this powerful weapon. There were only screams and the sounds of collapse, and many of them died. In the end, it was a huge sea element that caught the opportunity that many companions sacrificed, and heavily hit the trident, making it deflect and fly far. But Sui Xiong immediately went where it went, stretched his tentacles, and raised the trident again. ¡°Go away!¡± he yelled, ¡°A good dog doesn¡¯t block the way!¡± The surviving holy envoys did not move at all but remained in front of the Goddess. In a furious manner, he once again raised the trident. Holy envoys, put plainly, were the tools the Holy Kingdom used to battle. Except for in rare and unexpected circumstances such as being devoured by a jellyfish, it would not be long before they would be resurrected in the Holy Kingdom of God, even if they were destroyed. They were totally different from the ordinary believers. So, of course, Sui Xiong would not have the slightest mercy towards them. He picked up the trident and rushed to kill those holy envoys. They were thrown into a disorderly formation. The Wrath of the Waves deserved to be one of the best weapons. Not only was it amazing, but also when people held it in their hand, they could feel that endless power was slowly flowing into the body. Although it was not very fast, it was as mild as the water, and as profound as the sea. For Sui Xiong who had almost been exhausted of energy, it was a timely rescue! With the power complimenting him, he felt that his strength was rapidly recovering and that he could use more power to launch attacks. What was even more amazing was that this weapon made the holy envoys of the Goddess of Ocean seem completely vulnerable to his attack. Obviously, they were even more powerful than he was at the moment, but he killed him in an instant, as if he were chopping vegetables with a knife. Although they could still be resurrected, everything would have to be determined then. After killing all the holy envoys in the road, Sui Xiong finally took the gun and came to the Goddess of Ocean. The Goddess of Ocean had now been tormented by the poison, and was completely exhausted. She was faintly lying in the water flows, looking desperately at Sui Xiong with her horror-struck eyes. Her body kept twitching occasionally due to the stimulus of the terrible poison. Her believers had been trying to pull her away to the Holy Kingdom. However, because the Goddess of Ocean had made her body too large, their power had simply not been sufficient to move this truly huge giant. They had worked hard until now, with little success. But the man who came to kill her had already come in front of her. Sui Xiong grimly smiled, and was too lazy to talk nonsense to her. He slowly raised the trident. The armor on the Goddess of Ocean was quite strong. He had to work hard to seriously hit her and kill her! Then, it was so. The giant jellyfish grit its teeth, and a pale white color shone in its giant mouth, which was so big that it seemed to have been torn up. Just as he was ready to stab his gun at her, the believers suddenly roared and rushed towards him, one after another. Their body and strength were simply not worth worrying about for Sui Xiong. As long as he waved the Wrath of the Waves, they would be killed without leaving a single piece of armor! Moreover, they were not holy envoys who were already integrated with the Holy Kingdom. Even if they were partially transformed into divine creatures, they still had only one life. When they died, they died. There was no chance for resurrection. Sui Xiong frowned and was about to pick up the gun and kill these guys who were making trouble. But when he was ready to wield his gun, he happened to see the eyes of several believers. They were clearly full of fear, but also a forced calmness. It was obvious that they were not afraid of death, and rushed forward without hesitation. He was dumbfounded slightly and heard just a few believers around the Goddess of Ocean whispering prayers. ¡°Farewell, my Goddess. I¡¯m sorry we don¡¯t have the power to protect you!¡± The giant jellyfish trembled. He held the trident high in the air and stayed there for a long time. When death is close, they do not think of their own lives, but instead apologize to the Goddess¡­ He could not help but become lost in thought. He recalled the scene in which Ray insisted on bidding a farewell to him, when only a strip of the soul was left. In the torrents of wrath, the pale transparent figures slowly kneeled down to him on one knee and whispered, ¡°Your Majesty, I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t live up to your trust. Please forgive my incompetence.¡± ¡°Ah! Ah! Ah!¡± Sui Xiong yelled wildly. The remaining tentacles waved wildly, but the tentacle holding up the Wrath of the Waves could not stab at her. It was as if it had been petrified and solidified in the air. ¡°Why! Why! Why!¡± He growled furiously, and the entire sea swayed with his roaring. ¡°She is an evil God who has descended countless storms and tsunamis to sabotage the common people! She is a madman who constantly drives you to fight and die in vain!¡± ¡°Why! Why are you so loyal to her, and even want to protect her, even when you are about to die!¡± The believers of the Goddess of Ocean looked at each other and did not understand what the giant jellyfish was doing. After a while, there was a mermaid who was extremely old who whispered, ¡°Although Her Majesty has changed, in my mind, she is always the queen of the sea, who guards us against all dangers!¡± This believer was the most senior one under the command of the Goddess of Ocean. She followed the Goddess of Ocean even before the Goddess of Ocean was apotheosized. Over the years, she had witnessed the constant transformation of the Goddess of Ocean from the patron saint of marine creatures, to the Queen of the Seas, and eventually to the tyrant of the sea. She was sad, she was in pain, but her loyalty had not changed! Sui Xiong looked at her, kept silent for a moment, mobilized the power of the soul, and read her memories as if he was turning book pages. This mermaid had a low level of strength. In front of Sui Xiong, her thoughts and memories were almost transparent, and not even the slightest piece could be hidden. As a result, Sui Xiong clearly saw countless scenes, as if he himself had become an old mermaid who had past experiences with the Goddess of Ocean. He clearly saw that the princess Verbocus, who was dressed in a long dress, was playing with mermaids and dolphins, and grew up every day in this way. When danger came, she stepped forward to protect them, and never retreated, even if she was badly injured. In the face of everyone¡¯s gratitude and praise, she just smiled. He clearly saw that one day, Verbocus, who was only a demigod, discovered the Wrath of the Waves in a deep trench. When she pulled up this gun, the entire sea seemed to cheer. He saw that the Goddess of Ocean, with her gun, traveled through the vast sea. She persuaded the good ones and deterred the cruel ones. She defeated the unmovable powerful demigods more than once, and finally unified all the oceans on the entire main plane. She also established an unshakable and absolute authority. Under the praise and admiration of almost the entire sea race, she had broken through the final limits and entered the temple of the true Gods. He clearly saw that the Goddess of Ocean became fierce and brutal as she absorbed beliefs of various fierce creatures that she did not like, and had no contact with. The mermaid girl who liked to sing and play the harps in the corals gradually disappeared. What was left was only a moody female tyrant holding a gun, wearing armor, and sitting coldly on her throne. He clearly saw that with the transformation of the Goddess of Ocean, the races in the deep sea who had been faithful to her were despaired after persuading her in vain, and abandoned their faith in her. Weeping, they tore down the shrine that they had built and turned to honor the declined Goddess of Life. He clearly saw how many times this loyal mermaid had cried, how many tears she had shed, how many times she was hurt. What stuck out especially was when the Goddess of Ocean completely demolished the Garden of Quiet-Flow that had been built by the people¡¯s hard work, and eventually turned it into a military fortress surrounded by waves that only had a name of a garden. At that time, these old believers were very heartbroken. However, after all that, they stayed here and accompanied the Goddess, whom they had once deeply admired and, loved but who had hurt them deeply. After watching these scenes, Sui Xiong was full of emotion, shocked by the times when this crazy female tyrant was gentle and quiet, and also shocked by her transformation after being apotheosized. The mermaid princess who naturally gave people a good impression like a spring breeze; the heroic, upright, and great queen who was worshipped by all good and evil sea creatures; how could she turn into a vicious tyrant? How could she become a madman who took joy by carrying out war, killing, calling on believers to launch great struggles, and laughing amidst the corpses¡¯ blood? Was this¡­ the power of faith? Could it be the reason the King of Sex and Lust resolutely refused to become a true God, was that he feared one day he would also change, due to faith? If I am apotheosized in the future, will I also eventually become a villain with the increase of believers and the accumulation of belief? His mind was heavy. He felt as if like his chest was pressed down by a rock, and his breathing became irregular. The believers of the Goddess of Ocean still guarded the Goddess. ¡°Aren¡¯t you sad? Don¡¯t you regret it?¡± Sui Xiong could not help but ask heartlessly, after a long time. The old mermaid stumbled, then received his thoughts, and suddenly thought of those sad things. Tears fell from her eyes. But in the end, she replied firmly, ¡°I feel sad, but I don¡¯t regret it!¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but roar to the sky, full of depression and anger. But he finally had lost the madness that he had when he was desperate to be destroyed together with his enemies. ¡°Look at them, Verbocus!¡± he yelled at the exhausted Goddess of Ocean. ¡°As a God, it¡¯s shameful enough for you to let the believers sacrifice themselves to protect you. But you break even the lower limits. See what you¡¯ve done! I would also feel ashamed if I were you!¡± The Goddess panted violently, turned her head in powerlessness, and saw those believers who were still surrounding her now. Most of them were familiar to her, many of whom were the followers who struggled with her to create their undertakings. However, they were no longer young. Even the sea elements whose ages couldn¡¯t have been told were already old. One could clearly see the traces of countless sighs and tears on their faces and bodies. As for the murlocs and sea monsters, who always commemorated her merits and deeds, they upheld a chaotic, evil, and fierce style of bullying the weak while fearing the strong. So at the moment, they were waiting for him to fall in their Holy Kingdom. It was unknown whether they were looking forward to a resurrection in prayer, or directly wanted to replace her¡­ She, who had been pleased due to the smooth process of what she experienced, finally came back to reflect on her own path through the years. ¡°Why¡­ why¡­ why¡­¡± she trembled violently, the pain in her heart overwhelming even her physical pain. Before she only shed blood, but never tears¡ªnot even when she was intoxicated. But now she finally desperately roared, ¡°Why have I become what I am now!¡± She whimpered and cried in a miserable way, and the blue armor that once guarded her body suddenly collapsed, and turned into innumerable blades that crazily tore and cut at her body. That was similar to famous ancient tortures which were daunting. But the Goddess of Ocean seemed to feel no pain at all. She just cried desperately, sometimes apologized, sometimes spit, and sometimes lamented, leaving her huge body to the blades. They created hundreds of holes, and left no complete flesh on her. The face that once looked fine had been severely wounded; the once fierce and dignified eyes completely lost their light at that moment. Sui Xiong could even feel that there was a breath, called desperation, spreading out from her body. After a while, her body was fragmented, and the breath of life became increasingly dim. At the very last moment of her life, she turned her head and stared at Sui Xiong with her blank eyes. ¡°Strong man from the ocean, remember my destruction! Do not embark on the same path as me!¡± These were the last words of the powerful God. As the believers cried, her large body slowly collapsed, and the entire Holy Kingdom collapsed too, slowly and firmly. Numerous fragments broke through the sky and fell from the sea domain to the main plane, like meteors crashing into the vast sea. The Gods silently watched the Goddess of Ocean collapse with her Holy Kingdom and with the blue seat that was originally located in the middle of the third row of the Pantheon temple. A God was strong because of her beliefs, and she was bound by faith, and even changed by faith. This was really a very heavy topic. Even the most powerful or most heartless Gods were not willing to talk about this topic. For a time, the huge Pantheon temple was caught in a dead silence. On the main plane, almost all the creatures on the continent witnessed the scene of the meteors falling like rain. All the creatures in the sea could not help but shed tears, especially the mermaids in the deep sea who sobbed and couldn¡¯t say a complete word. They did have a lot of dissatisfaction with the Goddess of Ocean, and they even abandoned their faith in her. But they would always remember the beautiful mermaid princess, the heroic and upright sea queen. Countless mermaids were secretly hoping that their queen would one day repent, and change back to the queen they once knew. But now, all hope turned into bubbles, and their queen had fallen! Sui Xiong also returned to the main plane with those fragments. He had now returned to his usual size, hidden in the clouds. He stared at the fragments falling into the sea and changing into countless bubbles. This was the death of a powerful God, proclaiming the victory of his revenge battle. However, he did not feel happy. He was somewhat embarrassed, somewhat empty, and somewhat confused. ¡°This is not the end I wanted!¡± He could not help but sigh, but his sigh was blown away by the wind and disappeared without a trace. In accordance with his idea, after a hard-fought battle, he would have finally defeated the enemy, and stabbed the Goddess of Ocean, who would have been half-dead. Then he would have opened his bloody mouth, devoured the wicked female tyrant like he had done to the bald guy before, chewed it, and swallowed it. Then he would have shaken his fork and laughed, declaring his successful revenge. He never thought that the outcome of revenge would turn out like this! ¡°What is this?¡± When all the fragments finally fell into the sea, Sui Xiong also fell to the surface of the sea, and sighed amid the countless bubbles. The scenes seen from the past memory of the mermaid resurfaced again in his mind. He recalled carefully, admired at times, regretted at times, and finally uttered a long sigh. ¡°It¡¯s over! It¡¯s over! There is nothing other than what happened!¡± Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly had an idea in his heart, and felt that many powerful wills were spying around, and were about to take action. He immediately understood: these guys all wanted the heritage of the Goddess of Ocean, and wanted to be the next Gods of Ocean. However, from these wills, he could not feel even the slightest good intention. He could not feel the slightest idea of guarding the ocean, and protecting the infinite number of creatures in the sea. Instead, he felt only greedy, fierce, brutal, sinister intentions. In a furious rage, he shouted, ¡°You want to take advantage of this chance to get her heritage? Get away!¡± Those wills dispersed like frightened birds, but they did not go far, and still watched. As a result, Sui Xiong was so angry that he couldn¡¯t help thinking they were worse than the last generation. Looking at the slowly diffusing bubbles around him, he suddenly had an idea when he remembered the tough Goddess who decided to commit suicide in desperation when she found out that she had betrayed her ideals. ¡°Since those bastards don¡¯t behave, why don¡¯t I cultivate a person who will? He must be strong and kind!¡± With a little thought, he threw the mighty weapon, The Wrath of the Waves, into the bubbles. At the same time he transmitted all the thoughts of goodness and kindness in his heart outwards. It was strange that this obviously sturdy weapon fell into the bubbles and quickly dissolved like a spoonful of sugar falling into water, leaving no trace. Then, all the bubbles concentrated at the place where it fell. They collided and surrounded it, and eventually turned into a white spray. All people clearly felt that the deity and holy mission of the Goddess of Ocean, which should have been scattered after her death, were rapidly condensing towards the waves now. A moment later, among the sprays, a large white shell rose, which seemed to be cut and polished by a beautiful jade stone. Sui Xiong laughed and ridiculed the ghosts, ¡°Sneaky beings! Now you can get away!¡± Those wills finally left in disappointment, leaving only the laughing jellyfish to accompany the newborn deity. After a while, the shell opened on its own. On its mattress-like pink flesh, a beautiful mermaid opened her eyes. She seemed to have just woken up, and stretched her body. She was graceful and infinitely beautiful. ¡°What is your name?¡± Sui asked with a smile. The mermaid turned and looked at him. The green eyes were full of peace. ¡°I don¡¯t know who I am,¡± she said. ¡°I was born from the wreckage of the Goddess of Ocean, Verbocus and inherit her power, her past goodness, and sincerity. I also abandoned her greed and evil with your help. So who am I? ¡°You awoke her from a confusing dream to facilitate my birth. As my guide, could you tell me who I am¡± Sui Xiong frowned and was lost in thought. After a while, he no longer frowned, and his mouth gradually curled up, revealing a smile. ¡°The Goddess of Ocean, Verbocus, is dead. Her past has vanished. You are you and you have nothing to do with her!¡± he said. ¡°I think the name Ariel suits you, because you were born out of the bubbles, and it reminds me of a very famous story: The Little Mermaid.¡± The mermaid smiled, and bowed her head to show gratitude. The shell gradually disappeared, and she changed into a human figure. She was standing on the surface of the sea, her slender legs seeming weightless. In the Pantheon temple, a new chair rose, and the avatar of the mermaid was sitting on it. Compared to the previous Goddess of Ocean, the daughter of the sea was obviously a weaker. But the smile on her face reminded many old Gods of Verbocus when she had just been apotheosized. With the Gods looking at her, out of curiosity or gratification, she stood up to pay tribute to everyone. ¡°Nice to meet you. I¡¯m Ariel, the patron saint of good sea creatures, a mermaid princess, and the daughter of the sea.¡± Chapter 128 Sui Xiong became invisible, galloped in the sky, and flew towards Gars City. Most of his injuries were healed, and he also carried a huge amount of wealth with him. He did not know whether this would be a war remedy or a trophy, nor would he be bothered to ponder this boring question. At this moment, in his mind, he thought about issues such as Gods, beliefs, holy missions, and so on. Watching the tragic death of Goddess of Ocean and personally guiding the birth of the daughter of the sea, Ariel, he was filled with emotion. There were countless thoughts coming one after another, but in chaos; as if he were faced with the legendary ball of yarn in the legend that made you the king of Asia Minor if you could disentangle it. But he couldn¡¯t cut it by using a sword, like Alexander the Great. Numerous thoughts lingered in his heart, confusing his thinking. But as he gradually moved closer to Gars City, and could see the port still filled with traces of fierce battles and blood on the corpses that had not yet dried up, these thoughts were quickly calmed down. The left only sadness in his mind. A moment later, he landed next to Ray¡¯s body. ¡°I have taken revenge for you.¡± He sat on the ground without dignity, speaking in a muffled voice. ¡°I killed the God of Storm who proposed a bad idea, and I destroyed his Holy Kingdom and devoured his body. The Goddess of Ocean, who launched the invasion carried out by the maritime race, also died. Although she committed a suicide, I put forth a lot of effort to kill her. As for the ordinary people of the maritime race, I think you probably won¡¯t care about them. And I¡¯m too weak to chase and kill them one by one.¡± He thought for a moment, and he turned his eyes to the square where the battle had gradually come to an end. ¡°To be honest, the God of Marsh and the Goddess of Harvest are also your enemies. As well as the Shadow Devil, who previously made trouble. Also the God of Aristocracy and the God of Conspiracies. I will never let them go. In the future, there must be a chance to kill all of them! ¡°But it¡¯s okay for now. I¡¯m really tired. I need to take a rest for a while. Anyway, those guilty ones and I are all long-living. A little rest for ten or eight years, or even a little longer, presumably doesn¡¯t matter. There won¡¯t be such a big coincidence that they just die when I take a rest, right?¡± He smiled and continued. ¡°I just had a big fight. Now, when I think about it, it¡¯s actually a little regrettable. Maybe I have gone too far? This war made two Gods fall, and I¡¯m afraid it will affect a lot of innocent people! ¡°Well, if you were still alive, you would probably say, ¡®Your Majesty, don¡¯t think about that; you should think about your safety first. If there is anyone that is wrongly killed, it¡¯s the fault of the one who started the war.¡¯ Well, you would definitely say so. Although you are not very long-winded, you are very knowledgeable and you are a prince! ¡°When it comes to your origin, I hadn¡¯t even had time to ask you. What is the origin of the name Leon Igor? What country are you from? I¡¯m not familiar with the things in human society! ¡°Oh! I wanted to wait for you to tell me that when you were in a good mood. I have a long life, and it wouldn¡¯t take long before you entered the legendary realm, because you are so strong. Then, you would also have an eternal life, and we would have enough time to talk. And perhaps one day, you would be confused and old, and be bragging about how brave you when you were young, all day long¡­ ¡°Then, even your children and future generations would probably find you to be long-winded, wouldn¡¯t they? But I would not, because I am a God! I did not feel bored when I repaired the submarine at the bottom of the sea for so long. How could I be bored when you told me stories? ¡°Oh my dear, among my believers, Gerrard can¡¯t say anything, even if there is something in his. His eloquence was terrible. Palin is a nerd, and he certainly has a common language with Olian, but perhaps not with me. Satan was busy researching spells all day long. Oh, he was killed too¡­ even his soul was snatched away. After I take a rest, I¡¯ll snatch it back. Maybe I will also cure him slowly, so that he won¡¯t suffer any residual injury. Rhode¡­I have always felt that guy is very timid, and I¡¯m afraid that he will not dare to chat with me. Wall is an industrious person, and I don¡¯t know if he has the habit of chatting with people. Olian may have no time to chat, because she is a city-owner. Steele¡­well, I¡¯m afraid if I chat too much with her, she will think about having sex with me¡­ ¡°Yes, I also know a few dragons, but unfortunately they do not believe in me. Also, I should exclude the strange boy and the girl who like to get up late. Snowflake is really a good girl with an artistic feeling. I think we must have a common language, and if I have the opportunity, I will introduce her to you. ¡°Didn¡¯t you always dream of becoming a knight? I remember you once said that the most powerful knights rode dragons and carried powerful weapons. When they went out, they glittered. Whenever they went, people cheered. In fact, I have giant dragons here; as for powerful weapons, although I do not have them now, it would not be difficult to grab some. Getting a gold-glittering effect is a matter of minutes; and with your qualities, you could have attracted a lot of cheers. You lack nothing! ¡°Well, you lack one thing.¡± Sui Xiong deeply sighed and was so frustrated that even his tentacles strained down. ¡°You have passed away¡­ ¡°Ray, I am very useless as a boss, right? Other priests cast a spell of resurrection, it as easily as they eat and drink. Not to mention doing that personally; even a medium-level priest can do that. But what about me? It took a lot of time and effort, but I still can¡¯t resurrect you¡­ ¡°What is the use of being able to fight and being cruel! What kind of God am I? I can only destroy? I can¡¯t make things? I¡¯m simply a devil!¡± ¡°Oh! It¡¯s a real misfortune for you to have followed me! I lost the treasure that was most difficult to get. You were a solitary thief, but you finally guarded the camps, and babysat, and finally you were killed by a group of people. If you were alive, you would also sigh that you have had the misfortune of following the wrong person. ¡°It¡¯s a mistake that you followed me, because I am a deplorable boss! ¡°I also know that I am deplorable. I¡¯m not decisive, I¡¯m not visionary, I like to talk nonsense all day long. I¡¯m really bad compared to other, decisive people! ¡°Oh, when it comes to decisiveness, I remember things from the novels that I read in the past. According to them, people with a good background, profound hatred, and self-exertion would start to make a history after following a talented sage. But how come you died before you had time to make a history? ¡°Shoot! If we were written in a story, it would definitely be about deplorable people, who started to write stories, but failed to be popular even after decades, and were useless in their forties. And your death would certainly be a ridiculous scenario, because you would have much left to do!¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but smile. After a while, he sighed, ¡°Unfortunately, life is not a story after all.¡± ¡°It would have been good if we were in a story. In that case, I would go to the author of the story and, by bribing him, force him to change this to a scenario in which you are revived.¡± Speaking of this, he finally had nothing more to say, but sighed deeply. He became more and more frustrated and finally could not help but cry again. Suddenly he heard a hearty laugh. Alerted, he immediately leapt up, kept Ray¡¯s body behind him, and became defensive. A light shimmered like a curtain, and a raggedly-dressed bulky man, like a beggar, appeared in front of him. The man was carrying an aggressive axe, making him seem by no means like a good man. Although he smiled innocently at the moment, Sui Xiong was still distressed. He had carefully examined this area, but could not previously find this man. And it was scary that he didn¡¯t notice the him, who was close, until he appeared on his own initiative. This person¡¯s strength was simply incredible! The man said with a chuckle, ¡°You are a good man, because you cherish love and righteousness. You cry for your brother, so you are a hero!¡± ¡°Who are you?!¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but accuse. ¡°Did we know each other before?¡± ¡°We know each other, of course!¡± said the bulky man, laughing. ¡°Before, when your brother was fighting here, I looked aside. The tower collapsed and the rocks flew. If it were not for my protecting him, he would have been hit by the stones.¡± ¡°Then how could you not rescue him!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised, then he roared. The man scratched his head, and said, ¡°Who says I did not save him?¡± He opened his wide left hand, where there was a ball of light in his palm. It faintly reflected the figure of a sleeping knight. Looking closely, countless tiny spots of light could be seen seeping into his body, making his image gradually clearer. ¡°Ray?!¡± Sui Xiong was dumbfounded. ¡°It goes against the rule for us Gods to directly intervene in mortal life,¡± said the bulky man. ¡°But after death, there is no problem. He is a good brother, because he even struggled to bid a farewell to you even though his soul would collapse. He deserves the bloody battle that you did for him!¡± At the moment, Sui Xiong was too impatient to listen to his nonsense. He rushed to the man and shouted, ¡°Return him to me!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so worried! He should rest for a while!¡± The big guy smiled. Even though he was doing nothing, Sui couldn¡¯t get close to him. ¡°You. I want to talk to you.¡± ¡°Give him back to me, and we can talk!¡± ¡°How can you be so anxious!¡± the man said, feeling frustrated. ¡°His soul would collapse if you took him away now. Can you heal him?¡± Sui Xiong shook his head hard. ¡°Then please wait obediently!¡± Sui Xiong sat down to show that he would wait. The man smiled and came to him, placing the Ray¡¯s light-wrapped soul on top of the body, and letting it float quietly. Then he joined him on the floor. ¡°Ha; let me introduce myself first. My name is Joel Cartman, God of Justice and Courage. In this world, I am also considered to be one of the strongest Gods.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and looked at him carefully, but he couldn¡¯t see the slightest sense of a God in him. He seemed to be just a mortal person. But he still remembered his manners, and introduced himself. ¡°Oscar¡­ your name seems to be decieving to others¡­¡± The God of Justice complained a bit and smiled. ¡°Oscar, I think although you¡¯re not powerful enough, you are decent, honest, visionary, talented, and righteous. It is worthwhile to make friends with you. ¡°So, like they do in diplomacy, would you be willing to form an alliance with me?¡± he said. ¡°But I should warn you; actually, I have no talent other than chopping people¡­¡± As he was speaking, Ray¡¯s soul had been repaired, and slowly sank into his body. The body that had been fully restored to health was nourished by the soul, and it immediately regained its vitality. Ray moaned and slowly opened his eyes. With great joy, Sui Xiong hugged Joel Cartman and laughed. ¡°Talk is cheap. Let¡¯s do it!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°About allying with you; I completely agree!¡± Sui Xiong laughed and hugged the God of Justice with a dozen of tentacles that could suffocate. ¡°Brother! You¡¯re really like my big brother!¡± Chapter 129 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The God of Justice, Joel Cartman, had speculated Sui¡¯s response, but he never imagined that this mighty jellyfish God with imposing power would actually feel so moved. Sui even worshipped him, and directly recognized himself as the senior. This gave him quite a sense of absurdity; I hadn¡¯t even tried to force you before you fell down, he thought. He got no chance to use the several sets of preparatory statements, so he felt a bit frustrated. The saddest thing was that he was obviously frustrated, but he had no chance to show his anger. When he started to speak, Sui worshipped him. In this case, could he still yell and say, Hey! How can you be so completely paranoid? At this moment, Ray woke up. Sui Xiong immediately left for Ray¡¯s side, and started to talk to him. ¡°I¡¯m okay, really!¡± he repeatedly emphasized. ¡°You see, I¡¯m so strong now. Even if there¡¯s a fight with the maritime race again, there¡¯s no problem!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t! Don¡¯t do it!¡± Sui Xiong advised him. ¡°The maritime race has already gone. Don¡¯t go to find trouble with them, because they will have trouble in the future.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Ray was dumbfounded. Before he asked, the God of Justice spoke. ¡°Yes. This God you believe in was angry after you were killed. He killed the God of Storm who stealthily commanded the maritime race¡¯s troops at the time, and also killed the Goddess of Ocean, who was the maritime race¡¯s backing. They are now headless because the newly born Goddess of Ocean only protects the good races. Until the birth of the patron of the evil race of the ocean, they will live a wretched life.¡± Ray was stunned. He couldn¡¯t imagine what it meant to kill two Gods. In particular, these two Gods were not ordinary weak Gods, but famous ones, being the God of Storm and the Goddess of Ocean. ¡°What did your majesty do when I was dead?!¡± Sui Xiong smiled and scratched his head with his tentacles that were not yet healed. ¡°Just trivial things; they don¡¯t matter.¡± ¡°If those are trivial things, then what counts as a big deal!?¡± Ray shouted. He noticed the broken tentacles of Sui Xiong. Then he took a closer look, and found that the patterns on him were wounds not yet fully healed. He suddenly became dumbfounded. He was not an inexperienced child, and he knew exactly what these wounds meant. They were so grave that they must have been left by tragic battle, and made the great God suffer. He had not been able to recover! He thought of the fall of the two famous Gods, and could imagine how severe the fights were, even though he did not see the scenes of battle. Well, due to his lack of knowledge, Ray imagined the fierce battle by thinking of the fiercest battle he himself had. He was inexplicably grateful, moved to tears, and deeply felt that he had followed the right person. Due to Ray¡¯s death, His Majesty killed the two Gods as revenge, and he suffered serious injuries. It was like a general, caught up alone in the siege, being rescued by his marshal, who broke past enemy lines. After returning to the hospital for treatment, he would have discovered that the marshal was deadly and seriously wounded. In this situation, what could he say? He could only remain speechless; he thought later he should pay it back by sacrificing himself! However, Sui Xiong did not mean to discuss the details, because he felt that these things were not worth talking about. Is there anything to talk about? Brag about how brave I was? Or recall how angry and sad I was? Funny! It was not a soap opera! Even if it were a soap opera, it would be about a couple affectionately talking about romance. If the soap opera was about two men doing that, the soap opera would be censored! So he just smiled and changed the topic. ¡°By the way, let me introduce him to you.¡± He pointed to the God of Justice who was smiling beside him. ¡°This is the brother I just recognized. He is very righteous and good at helping others¡­¡± The God of Justice was dumbfounded by Sui Xiong, but he didn¡¯t dare to frustrate him and could only vaguely agree with his words by putting on a smile. But that look of frustration had completely betrayed him. Ray was so clever that he knew that His Majesty was talking about nonsense. He smiled and did not take it seriously, but he still solemnly greeted the God of Justice. The God of Justice is known as the strongest of the Gods, second only to the world¡¯s highest sovereign order. Although in the legend, this powerful God is very unreliable in terms of conduct, which is also proved by his look; but could he be more unreliable than His Majesty? He could not help but feel it was ridiculous. Like attracts like! This saying also applies to Gods! Good Gods attract good ones, evil Gods attract evil ones, and unreliable Gods attract unreliable ones¡­ He didn¡¯t know that what he was thinking at the moment was seen by the God of Justice, who could not help but be more embarrassed. He, at the same time, sighed. How could he be perceived as unreliable when he was so upright and honest? Even for a God like him, he could do nothing to aid the misunderstanding of the worldly people! After a few greetings, Sui Xiong suddenly thought of a major event and said, ¡°Big brother, I have a difficult task and I would like to ask you for help¡­¡± The God of Justice was stunned. This guy wants help just after he recognized me as his brother? He lacks courtesy. However, since Sui Xiong discarded his proud to recognize him as his brother, Sui certainly wanted a good price. He couldn¡¯t let this powerful God go before he asked him for help! He pretended not to see the fake smile of the God of Justice, saying straightforwardly, ¡°I know should not have troubled you, but I have limited abilities.¡± The God of Justice was straightforward and did not decline. He turned to look at the square. ¡°Is it necessary for me to kill the two over there, to make it a good revenge?¡± ¡°No, no, no, I know how to kill people, and I¡¯m not anxious because I will finally kill them!¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°I have some believers who were killed by the Shadow Devil, and even their soul was taken away by the devil. ¡°Originally, it was on me to rescue them. But I don¡¯t know the route. Although I defeated the bastard once before, I do not know where his house is. I can¡¯t even find a way to save them if I want to rescue them in his house! ¡°Brother, you know a lot, you must know where the bastard hides. I don¡¯t bother you to rescue them for me, I just want you to show me the way.¡± ¡°Okay! It¡¯s on me!¡± The God of Justice nodded slightly, reached out and drew a line in the air, then a black crack appeared beside them. The Shadow World was over there, which was dark. Not far below, there was a huge black palace, which was the Shadowy Devil¡¯s house that had been under construction for many years. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s here.¡± God of Justice pointed to that, ¡°Shall I help you solve the situation? It¡¯s no trouble.¡± ¡°No! I won¡¯t bother you. I am very good at fighting,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°But I would like you to see to it that that bastard won¡¯t escape again!¡± ¡°Rest assured, it can¡¯t escape.¡± With the promise of the God of Justice, Sui Xiong felt confident. He greeted Ray again and jumped into the Shadow World through the cracks. As soon as he entered the Shadow World, he yelled and turned into a giant jellyfish again. Every tentacle was like a mountain, and his big eyes were like two bright moons, making the dark world a little brighter. Stimulated by this light, various creatures in the Shadow World have been alerted. When they saw the source of the light, they fled. All the creatures, small and large, were terrified in front of this horrible monster. They just wanted to have more legs. For a time, the sounds of roaring, screaming, running, and flying became a strange music, and all kinds of grotesque creatures rushed like an army of fugitives away from Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong ignored these little creatures. He slowly extended a huge tentacle and hung it over the entire palace. He said coldly, ¡°Shadow Devil! Won¡¯t you come out and meet me?¡± Before, the Shadow Devil had been hit by him, and blew himself up. His vitality was sapped, and he was resting in the palace. He thought that his house was secretive enough to not be found by anyone. However, he did not expect that he would only rest for a while before the enemy found it; moreover, in such an aggressive manner. ¡°You¡­what you want to do to me?!¡± It yelled angrily, with a trembling voice. ¡°I¡­ I blew myself up due to you! You still¡­ what do you want?!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles shook slightly and turned into a giant hand. He unfolded his hand. ¡°I¡¯m a reasonable person. Now I¡¯ll give you two options. You choose yourself.¡± ¡°What¡­ what options?¡± ¡°First, you stubbornly resist until the end, and I kill you and find them myself,¡± said Sui fiercely. ¡°This place is so small, I don¡¯t believe they can¡¯t be found!¡± The Shadow Devil trembled, and shouted, ¡°How about the second?¡± ¡°The second is you hand over the souls you robbed,¡± Sui Xiong said loudly. ¡°You should hand over what you robbed from me, and from others before!¡± ¡°Those are not yours!¡± The Shadow Devil shouted. ¡°Not yours, either!¡± said Sui Xiong. ¡°I didn¡¯t come to reason with you! I came to hit you! If you are bold, you can fight to the end! Believe it or not, I can paralyze you!¡± The Shadow Devil wondered what being paralyzed would be like when he was about to be beaten to death, but he never dared to ask. He trembled violently. Obviously, he was extremely angry. In the end, he did not dare to fight and he could only hand over the souls he had collected over the years, leaving nothing. Without these souls, the shadow army that it took as a token of pride ran out of sight, and the greatest means of deterrence was lost. In addition, he blew himself up a short time ago, so he was simply frustrated and extremely weak. Collecting these souls, Sui Xiong laughed and slapped the Shadow Devil. ¡°You don¡¯t keep your words!¡± The Shadow Devil screamed and struggled to resist. But it couldn¡¯t resist and was slapped to the ground. Its whole body changed color. But it did not die, only heard Sui¡¯s laughter. ¡°Rest assured, I did not kill you, I only hit you half dead!¡± The Shadow Devil was angry and fainted. The loud and arrogant laughter of the giant jellyfish echoed over the palace, most of which collapsed due to the shake of the giant palm. Chapter 130 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Sui Xiong came back victorious, so he raised his head and looked very proud. Looking from the other side of the crack created by the God of Justice, Ray praised him. ¡°Your Majesty, you are so excellent! So powerful!¡± The God of Justice also smiled and nodded, ¡°Yes, this play is beautiful!¡± ¡°Play?¡± Ray was stunned. ¡°What kind of play?¡± ¡°Ha-ha; well, his state was not good at all. He just frightened the Shadow Devil, gathered all of his power, and only hit him once,¡± The God of Justice laughed. ¡°The demigod was purely frightened by him, and only stupidly stood there to be beaten, but as a result, was not killed.¡± ¡°I really didn¡¯t plan to kill him,¡± Sui Xiong explained, ¡°First, I can¡¯t eat my words. Second, I did not kill him because I want to leave it to Satan to take revenge!¡± Here he couldn¡¯t help but smirk. ¡°But, my hit was heavy!¡± The God of Justice suddenly realized something. ¡°No wonder you had to work hard, turn your strength into the power of life, and forcibly pour it into its body. To put it bluntly, it means that the two forces of life and death in the body are made in a conflict with one another, so that severe wounds couldn¡¯t heal, and Ray would soon exceed it, right?¡± ¡°Yes. I said I had to beat it half-dead. It was originally a dead necromancer. To make it half-dead, I needed to give it half of the vitality.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and was trying to boast again. After a few words, he suddenly looked aside, to the square, surprisingly. The God of Justice responded faster than he did. He waved his hand, and the light and shadow flickered to take him and Ray dozens of miles away to the desert, where the refugees of Gars City gathered. Along with them were many people who still stayed in Gars City. Among them, there was Mrs. Teague, who went to search for news. She was in an adventurer¡¯s costume, and she also carried a beautiful girl with a dazed gaze. Before everyone could understand what was happening, there was a terrible groan from Gars City. ¡°See you next time; I will beat you!¡± Accompanied by this roar, the square was completely suppressed by the Goddess of Marsh. The Goddess of Harvest, who was about to be swallowed, became dazzling green light and then exploded. A huge mushroom cloud rose, and the raging wind swept countless fragments towards their place, which was kept off by the God of Justice. When the wind ceased, the mushroom cloud slowly dispersed, and the scene that appeared left them stunned. There was no Gars City in the distance! Only the ruins of broken walls. The most prosperous port city on the east coast of the continent, the result of several organizations headed by the Riley family for hundreds of years, was ruined in this explosion. All of them were dumbfounded for a long time, But when one person cried out, soon all started to cry. No one thought that this chaos would end up like this. ¡°Oh, the spring drought is coming. How can such a large group of people survive!¡± The God of Justice sighed, full of compassion, but knew nothing to do. In terms of fighting, he was absolutely the strongest of all the gods. But in terms of helping this group of refugees rebuild their homes and live through the difficult time? He could do nothing. ¡°There will always be a way,¡± Sui Xiong said quietly. ¡°Ray, what do you think?¡± ¡°Ah? Me?¡± Ray was stunned, not knowing how this matter would rely on him. ¡°Yeah! Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve forgotten everything you learned when you were younger about governing a country. Although I don¡¯t want to ask you about your origin, if you don¡¯t shoulder the responsibility, who else can tidy up this mess?!¡± Ray frowned. After a while, he said, ¡°You are right. This time, I cannot leave them here!¡± He looked around with a sharp and confident gaze. ¡°The most important thing now is to re-establish order. I plan to rearrange this group of refugees with the adventurers and aristocrats as the center. Then I will lead them to the ruins of Gars to pick up some clothes, food, and money, because we need to find businessmen to buy supplies. ¡°Furthermore, it is necessary to contact the churches of the gods as soon as possible. The church of the Golden Crown (the God of Commerce and Wealth) has money and business opportunities. If we cooperate with them, they should be able to exchange some of their sovereignty in return for strong support.¡± ¡°Maritime transportation needs to be restored as soon as possible. Fortunately, the foundation of the port is still there. I will personally go into the water to clean up the reefs, and I should be able to restore the operation of the port. Even if we can only supply business for passing ships, that business can feed many people.¡± ¡°Yeah! A legendary strong man is helpful in terms of labor or force,¡± Sui Xiong said and nodded. ¡°Actually, I think that the strength of the legendary strongman should be used in construction. There isn¡¯t any point in thinking about fighting all day long.¡± The God of Justice listened thoughtfully, but instead, Ray was dumbfounded. ¡°The legendary strong man? Are you talking about me?¡± ¡°Who else? There isn¡¯t a second legendary strong man like you here!¡± Sui Xiong said, with a smile. ¡°When I just treated you, I found that you had broken through your limits, and gone into the legendary realm that you had sought after for a long time!¡± Ray was stunned, then closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and realized his current state. He immediately discovered that he already undergone a fundamental change. This was not only a matter of being strong, but also a great improvement in his entire level of life. For example, the pain caused by the poisoning and injuries had disappeared. His other problems that plagued him, such as having relatively weak, or lack of, physical strength, had all been solved. And perhaps because he broke the limits during the fierce battle, he broke through and realized the gained he two legendary abilities of enhanced attack and injury relief. Now if he encountered the maritime race once again, could withstand the magic bullets. As long as he was protecting certain parts, like the eyes, he wouldn¡¯t be hurt! He clenched his fists with excitement, screaming loudly. His voice became a wind, and shook the dry grass around him as if it feared his power. ¡°Finally¡­ finally¡­ I finally took this step!¡± He shouted loudly, smiled as he roared, and tears flew out of his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s been so many years¡­ It¡¯s been so many years¡­ I finally succeeded!¡± No one could understand the pain in his heart. Fifteen years ago, he was just one step away from the legendary realm, but after that accident, although he was lucky enough to escape, he lost much strength. For all the time and sweat, he couldn¡¯t retrieve it. After his strength was restored, he always wanted to break through the limits and go further. However, the shadow of the past had always surrounded him, so that he had never been able to take this step. Even though his accumulation of strength had been so profoundly inconceivable, it was difficult to make a progress; it was as if he were locked. Until the last war: where he completely forgot the shadow of the past due to the fierce battle, and naturally completed the breakthrough. If it had not been for the fact he was so hurt that he couldn¡¯t save his life by breaking through the limits, he could have used the strength to kill the group of maritime race! And if he had not broken the limit and became better than the mortals, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to bid a farewell to Steele and Sui Xiong, considering that his magic was only at the level of bards and knights. But he didn¡¯t realize it¡­ When the God of Justice finally saw the things were decided, he left. Sui Xiong stayed, and secretly helped Ray dominate the overall situation. With this legendary strong man, the work of recovering the order of the refugees was proceeding smoothly. After Ray showed off the strength by splitting the clouds in the sky, even the most rebellious and selfish adventurers chose to obey him, and did not dare to make trouble. Rebel? Make trouble? Are you kidding me!? Don¡¯t you see the knight¡¯s cold eyes? He¡¯s just waiting to punish a foolish man, to establish his prestige! We take an adventure for money rather than for rebellion. When we do something, suffering is, after all, better than being killed by him! At this time, Mrs. Teague brought unexpected surprises. The dull and foolish pretty girl, who seemed to have been stupid, turned out to be Joseph¡¯s youngest daughter, Kasalie Riley, who was the legitimate heir to the Riley family. With Sui¡¯s help, Kasalie quickly regained her consciousness. When the little girl understood what had happened, she simply fainted. After waking up, she delegated everything to the handsome, strong, and able Ray, who was just like a Prince Charming. Oh¡­ he is really a prince, although he does not ride a white horse, but a dragon. With Kasalie as a support, Ray was doing more justifiably. Especially after he killed the crooks who claimed to be the sons of Joseph, no one would jump out and attempt to take advantage of them. Kasalie was indeed an inexperienced, beautiful girl without capability, but the dragon knight that was entrusted with full responsibility by her was powerful! In order to help Ray, Sui Xiong¡¯s original body remained in Gars City. But he also sent an avatar back to the Ashes Woods, telling the believers that he was in good condition. He allowed them to build an altar to prepare for Satan¡¯s resurrection in the future. ¡°Resurrection?¡± The believers who received this news were surprised. They never dreamed that their God had such power. They were immediately overjoyed and became busy building the altar. The altar that was used to for resurrections caused many difficulties, because they needed to work on the specification, material, orientation, and even surrounding terrain. They had limited workers, and had to work hard for more than half a year until it was completed in the autumn harvest. In front of the simple and solemn altar, the first prayer was told since the establishment of the Void Mask Church finally begun. It was headed by Leon Igor, the high priest who had returned that night by using the transmission formation. Chapter 131 Since building a sacrificial altar required a lot of space, the altar of the Church of Void Faceless was built in a rather desolate open field. There was nothing at all in the surrounding area of one kilometer, and the building closest to the altar was a small watch-house. In the observatory of the watch-house, three huge dragons that had changed into human form were watching carefully at the altar where the followers were praying. ¡°How amazing. Our church was just a small church, with less than 100 people, but among the followers, there are three legendary strong men already!¡± Shuang was a bit annoyed. ¡°Is it very easy to be a legendary strong man now?¡± ¡°Actually, as long as one stays close to a powerful figure, he will also quickly grow strong.¡± Snow was smiling and made a small blackboard with frost. Then she drew a light ball on it. Around the light ball sat many people. The light ball was shining and radiating its energy, and the people that sat closest to it also had a halo above their heads. ¡°Since you put it that way, why are Xian and I still not very strong?¡± Hearing someone mention her name, Xian, who had been feeling sleepy, struggled to open her eyes and look around. When she saw nothing special, she leaned on Snow and fell asleep. Snow sighed and said, ¡°Xian is a bit lazy, and spends most of her time sleeping.¡± ¡°But I have always been hardworking! I don¡¯t sleep as much as she does!¡± Shuang said. Snow sighed. ¡°You, however, spend most of your time arguing with others.¡± Hearing this, Shuang was speechless, and so angry that his chins turned red and swelled up. Then he turned away from Snow, and stopped talking to her. Seeing this, Snow smiled, turned around, and continued to watch the altar. The followers of the church of the Void Faceless were very disciplined. The principle priest was standing in the front. He called himself Ray, but the people in the church called him Leon Igor. He was a knight who wearing white armor and a dark blue cloak. In Snow¡¯s magic vision, both the armor and the cloak were shining. Obviously, the two objects were very rare. In fact, Sui Xiong made this armor all by himself. The armor on Ray¡¯s head, shoulders, chest and back was greatly strengthened, and the armor on his waist, hips, ribs, and stomach was decorated with metal plates. The metal plates were all of different patterns. They divided into different groups, which consisted either of one plate or a few plates, and each group was a magic array. When Ray was wearing the armor, he could easily practice forty magic spells or so, simply by activating the magic arrays on his armor with the intention to fight. Before, he was just a professional knight. With the help of this armor, he become a versatile knight who could not only perform martial arts, but also practice magic spells. The first time he wore the armor, Sui Xiong jokingly suggested he should wear a hammer on his back and take a book with him. Then he would become a real ¡®versatile knight.¡¯ However, this joke could only be understood by someone from Earth, which made Sui Xiong feel a bit sad at the time. As for the cloak, it was a treasured object from the secretive treasure-house of the Riley Family. Kashali Riley was very naive, but very grateful to anyone who had ever helped her. Ray had been working very hard to help her rebuild Garth City, and to get rid of those greedy people who coveted the money the Riley Family had. So she really wanted to return this favor to Ray. For a naive girl who was in this situation, the first thing that Kashali came up with was marrying Ray. Ray emphasized that he was sort of a clergy, and the reason he helped her was simply to stand for justice, not because of her beauty. Besides, when Ray heard that Kashali wanted him to marry her so she could return his favor, Ray refused and criticized her. He told her that beauty was not everything, she should spend less time dressing up. Instead she should spend more time studying politics and culture. He told her to stop wasting her time thinking about the boring stuff, and that she¡¯d better begin learning how to deal with government affairs. After hearing this, Kashali immediately threw away her naive and romantic ideas. Ray rejecting Kashali¡¯s offer showed that he was indeed a decent man. This made Kashali think very highly of him and even like him better, but she didn¡¯t ask him to marry her again. Instead she spent a long time in the secretive treasure-house, and managed to find an appropriate present for Ray. This present was the dark blue cloak. It looked very smooth, and on the inner side of the cloak, there was a starry sky made of magic treasure stones, instilled with magic power. This cloak was full of powerful energy and could help its owner greatly offset the damage of certain magic spells. In addition, anyone wearing this cloak could walk on water, and its defensive powers were as strong as a set of well made armor. Ray liked this cloak very much, so he timidly accepted it. He had no idea that after seeing his embarrassed face, Kashali thought of nothing but Ray when she came back home. The whole set of armor was called the ¡®void protection,¡¯ and the cloak was called the ¡®the starry sky above the sky.¡¯ Since Ray helped to write the prayers, he got promoted and became the principle priest. Even, so he continued behaving like a knight. Gerrard and Wor were standing side by side behind Ray. The three people were the most powerful figures in the church of Void Faceless. The group of three was so shockingly strong that everyone was surprised to see them, no matter which country the three went. Behind them were Palin, Rode, Olian and Steele. They were in the higher levels of the church. Palin was in charge of the collection and management of books, Rode was in charge of foreign commercial trade, Olian was in charge of missionary work in the Geerteng area, and Steele was in charge of managing the medical team of the church. Since Madame Teague was a follower of the Goddess of Forest, she didn¡¯t join the church of Void Faceless. Neither did Liv, since she was a follower of the God of Knights. The two, along with young Nice, were standing in the distance, curiously watching this rare prayer ceremony. The ordinary followers were standing behind the four. Most of the followers were the pioneers that built the church. There were also two adventurers among the followers who were persuaded by Phil to become followers of Sui Xiong. Even though Phil always said that he only believed in the ¡®ancient Goddess,¡¯ he was really good at the missionary work. In Garth City, there were also some followers of the church of Void Faceless, but not many. Currently, they were praying together with the two adventurers who just chose to follow Sui Xiong, in an open field. The solemn sound of prayer was echoing in the air. At the same time, countless tiny spots of light appeared in the air and gradually gathered above the altar. This was the power of belief, the power that both attracted and frightened the Gods. Among the light spots, the shadow of a floating jellyfish appeared. It waved its tentacles and immediately, many light blue light balls appeared and floated above the altar. The blue light balls were the souls of the followers that had been killed by the Dark Shadow Evil. When Sui Xiong managed to get them back from the Dark Shadow Evil, he found that these souls had been contaminated by the Dark Shadow Evil¡¯s negative energy. He made a huge effort to get most of the negative energy out of their souls, but still, some remained. To solve this problem, Sui Xiong decided to ¡®contaminate¡¯ their souls with his energy, hoping his energy could suppress the negative energy. That was why these souls turned light blue. Would this cause any bad effects to them? Maybe not¡­ Anyway, it is better than being contaminated by negative energy! Sui Xiong thought. With the power of belief still gathering, Sui Xiong began to do a spell. This was the first time that he officially did a divine magic spell. He did the classic spell of resurgence, a spell that was worthy of the title of a God. The magnificent magic energy was flowing out from the jellyfish¡¯s shadow and connected Sui Xiong with the light blue spots, the souls of his followers, via the power of belief. The magnificent energy was flowing in the air, and a huge amount of energy and nourishment was pouring into the light blue spots. Then, one could see each light spot gradually growing into a human body. About half an hour later, ten naked people were lying in disorder on the huge altar. Sadly, most of the followers didn¡¯t come back to life; these followers could roughly be divided to two categories. A great number of them were not that faithful, or their belief to Sui Xiong was too weak. So their souls couldn¡¯t become the bridge that connected them with Sui Xiong, with the help of the power of belief. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t do anything to help these people. Recently, he had learned quite a lot from the God of Justice, and knew that there were many rules that needed to be followed. Although some of the rules really annoyed him, they were still very reasonable. For example, there should be some limitations with the spell of resurgence. Bringing a dead person back to life was a precious gift given by a God. If there was no rule to restrict a God¡¯s behaviour, then a God could simply bring anyone he liked back to life at will. Then the balance between different churches would be destroyed. Besides, for the dead, being alive again was not that ideal; many dead didn¡¯t want to be alive again, and pursued calmness in the afterlife. Among the followers that hadn¡¯t come back to life, there were a small number of followers that wanted to enjoy the calmness of the afterlife and refused to be alive again. As for those whose faith was not that strong, Sui Xiong thought it was fine that they couldn¡¯t come back to life at that moment. When the Holy Kingdom was built, he would see whether their faith had strengthened, and allow them to be admitted into his Holy Kingdom. If they failed to enhance their faith, Sui Xiong would have no choice but to send them to the underworld. The whole praying ceremony didn¡¯t last for too long. When Sui Xiong managed to bring ten people back to life, there was still much power of belief left in the air. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to hastily absorb it, so instead he stored it in the altar. He had already witnessed how dangerous the power of belief was before. And before he found a way to properly deal with it, he didn¡¯t want to have anything to do with it! Then he returned a bit of the power of belief to the followers, via the path of belief. Immediately, all the followers trembled and felt a magnificent power. Although it was only a tiny amount of the power of belief that had flown into their bodies, they felt very comfortable, and their bodies were in the best condition ever. For a long time to come, they would not be ill. At the same time, the two adventurers who hosted the praying ceremony in the Garth City felt that there was a strong power surging from the bottom of their hearts, as if they had also grown much stronger. This made Sui Xiong¡¯s followers become even more faithful. Of course, not everyone could receive the God¡¯s grace. The more faithful a follower was, the wider his path of belief was, and the more power of belief he would get in return. Sui Xiong felt it was perfectly fine that the amount of the power of belief one could get should be determined by how faithful he was. Just like the people on Earth; the more faithful one was to the Buddha, the more sincere he was, the more grace he would receive. Everyone showed his gratitude to Sui Xiong, and then the ceremony was over. The jellyfish¡¯s shadow slowly disappeared. Still, the followers in the altar remained in solemn silence. At this moment, a cold breeze brushed the ten naked people, and they all woke up and began to sneeze. The one who made the loudest noise was Satan. Chapter 132 Satan¡¯s coming back to life was really a good thing for the church of the Void Faceless. It was not because this church was in shortage of a spell-caster; it had more to do with the fact Satan was one of the founding member of this church. Besides, Sui Xiong had already officially appointed him as the chief wizard of this church. Moreover, he was the only one that capable of cultivating new wizards. Since Sui Xiong defeated the legendary wizard Green, ¡®the green sea dweller,¡¯ the relationship between the church of Void Faceless and the Mifata Federation had become very bad. No wizards of the medium high level would be willing to come to teach, no matter how much money Rode offered. Now that Satan had come back to life, the wizard business was settled. But While this problem was dealt with, another problem showed up. Recently, the whole church had been busy in building the altar, so they hadn¡¯t had the time to open up the wasteland up in the north. It was already autumn, and since the church was in a very high altitude, winter would some soon. It would be impossible for them to proceed to the north when winter came. In addition, it was not that easy to buy food in the winter. Rode said that their food supply could last for the whole winter with the money he church had collected. Still there was another problem: how to cheer up the followers. The ordinary people could only feel secure when they could plant their crops and harvest them all by themselves. They would feel worried even if they could get food from the church, or saw that the warehouse was full of food. The time of harvest was approaching, and the followers had nothing to harvest at all. More and more people were becoming unsettle,d and soon everyone in the church was becoming rather depressed. Since most of the followers were farmers, they had gotten used to the farming and were used to getting food by working for a certain period of time. Even if farming was more tiring than other work, they still preferred farming. Once they couldn¡¯t farm on the land, they would feel unsettled. Sui Xiong could do nothing about this. Back on earth, even in the 21st century, the politicians also found it very hard to change the farmers¡¯ view that their lives were determined by the farming and the farmland. Usually, to tackle this issue, the politicians would use force, but Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to do so. If Sui Xiong was as powerful as he had been before, he could easily solve all these problems. but he had almost used up all his energy in the last fight with the Goddess of Ocean and the God of Storm. Recently, he was not feeling very well, and was not as energetic as he was before. His body was very feeble, too. To practice a spell of resurgence, he would need to have a good rest in advance, and rely on the power of belief of his followers. Sui Xiong continually asked the God of Justice when he would recover. The God of Justice said he just needed to rest for a while, but when Sui Xiong asked how long that would take, the God of Justice faltered, and only gave a vague time. It would at least take 30 to 50 decades, and most eight centuries for Sui Xiong to recover. ¡°Could I have a more precise time?¡± Sui Xiong was complaining, but still he could do nothing to change the situation. The two fights with both the Goddess of Ocean and the God of Storm had almost cost him all the magic energy he had. If it were not for his special soul, he could have been tired to death, even if he won. In fact, not only the God of Justice, but also the other powerful Gods, all found it very strange that this jellyfish had such high combat effectiveness and could stand for so long in the fight. If Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t gotten exhausted or injured, or used up almost all the magic energy he had, he would have already been caught by some curious and evil Gods to be carefully examined. When Sui Xiong heard that some Gods wanted to catch and examine him, he was very worried, and imagined many scenes of himself being cut apart and studied. At last, nothing really happened, since the reason Sui Xiong was so powerful was he had been been over-consuming his ¡®future¡¯ energy. This was all very rare, but in the past, there had also been Gods that had the ability Sui Xiong did. For example, among the mythical creatures that had been living since ancient times, more than one had a similar ability. Moreover, there was even a mythical creature that had once cooperated with a certain God to find out why they possessed such a brilliant ability, but they failed to get any result. Actually, this ability to consume ¡®future¡¯ energy was something endowed by nature. Sui Xiong himself was not sure if he had gotten the ability to consume ¡®future¡¯ energy, but he didn¡¯t intend to challenge this definition, and accepted the fact that he had this ability. Either way, he was very feeble and it would take a very long time for him to fully recover. Compared with a mortal, Sui Xiong was still very powerful, but it was impossible for him to do things like he used to. Thus, Ray and the others had to rely on themselves to cheer these followers up. ¡°How about holding a banquet?¡± Gerrard suggested. ¡°I think they would immediately feel happy after they eat delicious food and drink delicious wine.¡± Hearing this, Sui Xiong sneered and denied this proposal. These followers were here to exploit the north and to do labour. They didn¡¯t come here to live an extravagant life! Eating delicious food and drinking delicious wine¡­ and how about going looting later? How ridiculous! You think these followers are vikings?! Did you intend to give each one of them a horn helmet? ¡°How about teaching lessons? Teaching them how to read,¡± Ray said. ¡°Since we have a lot of spare time now, we should make use of the time to cultivate some elites.¡± Sui Xiong thought this was a good idea, and ordered Satan to teach the followers. In less than a week, Satan began to complain to Sui Xiong. ¡°Your Majesty¡­ I am fed up!¡± Satan¡¯s hair was very messy, and he had bags under his eyes. He looked very haggard, as if he had been had sex with more than one Steele. He said in a very weak voice, ¡°They are even more stupid than the pig!¡± Sui Xiong asked him what had happened, and Satan could no longer suppress his feelings and began to complain while crying: these followers had never been to school before, some couldn¡¯t even count from one to 20, worse still, they didn¡¯t show any interest in studies. Satan and other educated followers had been working very hard to teach them for a week, and were very upset by them, and could no longer continue the teaching anymore. ¡°If this has to continue, I will definitely burn them to death by throwing a fire ball at them; or myself.¡± Seeing the haggard and desperate Satan, Sui Xiong had no choice but to abandon this plan. As a result, Ray¡¯s seemingly good plan failed to cheer up the followers made them even more depressed. Satan also felt a bit depressed by the failure of this plan. Thus, Sui Xiong tried to ask for help from Steele, who was always feeling very happy. ¡°It is really easy to make them happy!¡± Steele began to laugh in a slutty way. In the blink of an eye, Steele became a pig. ¡°Enough! I know what you mean.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and pushed away Steele, who was writing something on a wood board. He shouldn¡¯t have asked Steele, since she was probably the least reliable person in this world, and could never give any decent suggestions. So he turned to others. Palin couldn¡¯t understand why the followers were feeling low. He believed they shouldn¡¯t be like this since they had good accommodation as well as enough food and water. After hearing Sui Xiong¡¯s explanation, Palin said, ¡°Your Majesty, a shallow person like me can never understand what you are thinking, and I fail to understand what you mean. Please forgive me.¡± Rode said, ¡°They are feeling low simply because that they haven¡¯t got the land to farm? I think they are just feeling bored! Order them to practice the martial arts together with Master Gerrard! They shouldn¡¯t stop practicing until they exhaust themselves. This way, they will neither have the time nor the energy to feel bored!¡± ¡°This sounds nice¡­ but how about the exploitation to the north?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°The winter is coming, and after they have been practicing with Gerrard for the whole winter, they will be as strong as the formal soldiers. Would they still be willing to do the exploitation? Would they feel they hadn¡¯t been appreciated enough?¡± Hearing this, Rode sighed. ¡°Your Majesty, you are being too merciful with them! In my view, there is no need to care about if they are feeling low or not! Picking out the faithful follower from the ordinary followers is just like sifting sand for gold. It takes time. The followers who are in low spirits don¡¯t deserve your attention, since they just don¡¯t strive to make progress!¡± Sui Xiong agreed with Rode, but even so, it was not helping. Since it was Sui Xiong himself who had gathered this people together to push up to the north, Sui Xiong felt he was responsible for these people¡¯s happiness. He might seem too merciful on these followers in Rode¡¯s view, but he thought that since he had the ability to cheer them up, why not try to work harder to do so? Later, Sui Xiong went to ask the experienced Snow. ¡°The morale of the followers is a rather complicated issue, but you are right!¡± Snow said. ¡°Boosting their morale can not only help to cultivate more faithful followers, but also helps to foster the collectivism among the whole church. Actually, if you don¡¯t mind, you can send them to the dragon roaring town, where there are many employers hiring employees all year around. Even if they are not able to work as farmers there, everyone in the dragon roaring town is very positive, and this will do them good.¡± Sui Xiong though about this for a while, and agreed that this might be a way worth trying out. So he decided to send the followers to the dragon roaring town. As Snow had said, people in the dragon roaring town were overly positive. If the followers came to this town to work, not only could they learn a skill, they could also be more high spirited. Emotions are contagious. One could feel more and more depressed if he spent time with the depressed; while one could become happier and happier when he spent time with someone who was feeling happy. Even if those followers were feeling rather low due to the lack of farmland, they could soon become happy and positive if they got the chance to live among the happy villagers and adventurers in the dragon roaring town. This wouldn¡¯t do them any harm; laughing is better than crying and being happy is better than being sad. Later, hundreds of followers were sent to the dragon roaring town. Snow arranged some followers to work as butchers who helped to dismember the evil monsters, and most of the followers to work as backmen. Just as Snow had said, soon the followers gradually become more happy and positive, although they were not working as farmers. Seeing them finally laughing and smiling, Sui Xiong was relieved. Meanwhile, something else happened. ¡°Your Majesty, I have met a very interesting person.¡± When the first snow of the year came, Wendy woke up the doppelg?nger that had been sleeping in the magic pagoda. ¡°I think he would be of great help to you.¡± ¡°Ah? Who is he?¡± ¡°Akane Pasteur,¡± Wendy said. ¡°He is the son of my teacher¡¯s late good friend, a Druid who excels in the spagirism.¡± Chapter 133 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma Arcaian Pasteur, male, half elf, nineteen years old, was a fourth generation descendant in Pasteur alchemy school. What was passed on was the first cheese that was made in human history. His great grandfather, Clarhott Pasteur, could easily research the origins of Pasteur school. Clarhott Pasteur thought that there was a great spiritual energy that manipulated each microorganism¡¯s decomposition activity, and maintained the resolve of the world. He called it the ¡°ash of eternal decay.¡± By thinking through the ¡°ash of eternal decay,¡± he developed a unique alchemy technique, and used it in fermentation and medicine. He then became an honorable alchemist. The Pasteur family was an important branch of Ancient Forest Druid, and consistently passed down the Druid¡¯s profession. Druids upheld the motto ¡°respect nature, revere nature, comply with nature.¡± So alchemists that got aid from the power of magic to twist nature were simply committing heresy, and should have been killed. Parts of the Pasteur family who betrayed Druid¡¯s noble beliefs were heavily criticized by Buddy Buress, Arch-Druid¡¯s ¡°Orc Judge.¡± So, they had to constantly be on the move to avoid his chase. Not long ago, Arcaian¡¯s father, Teula Pasteur, had an accident during an experiment. Not only was he severely injured, but his spore forest, ¡°Sea of Rot,¡± was damaged and exposed their tracks. Unless his descendants contributed greatly to the forest, or the forest encountered a huge danger that required his power, he would be ice-bound within, and never freed. Tuela knew that as a tracked down target of an Arch-Druid, he wouldn¡¯t be able to run loose. So, before he was arrested, he arranged for his son Arcaian to flee and seek shelter from a good friend that he had known when he was young, Master Tyrian. Who would have guessed that Master Tyrian had passed away long ago? If he didn¡¯t bring up the Pasteur family while he was still alive and exhort Wendy to help when she had a chance to, Teula might have died miserably in the piece of flower sea; outside the magic tower that looked beautiful, but in reality, was danger ridden. ¡°This person is very capable,¡± Wendy emphasized to Sui Xiong. ¡°Very capable indeed! The alchemy technique that was passed down in his family has its profundity. It is entirely different from the standard alchemy techniques that I know of. I think, he could definitely be your right hand man!¡± Sui Xiong received Arcaian with curiosity. Although the half elf was almost twenty years old, he looked like a teen that was only twelve. He looked very delicate and young; pretty short too. Standing together with a young girl, Slime, he wasn¡¯t any taller than her. He couldn¡¯t do much about it. As a person with mixed blood, it was common to find those that were delayed in maturity among half elves. Even though his intelligence was similar to adults, his appearance was like a young child¡¯s. According to Wendy¡¯s calculation, it would require at least fifty years for him to develop adult features. Although his father was arrested and sentenced, Arcaian did not hate the Orc judge. He was young and innocent, and only wanted to established a great achievement soon, in order to convince the Arch-Druid to recognize the Pasteur school and release his father. ¡°Your Majesty Void Mask, I earnestly request you take me in. I will be at your service with my alchemy techniques and I believe I would definitely be beneficial to you,¡± Arcaian said politely. ¡°Of course, if you need me to, I could also fight your battle as a Druid. But battle is not my specialty. Compared to those professional battle masters, my ability is weak.¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. His church lacked human resources; how could he be choosy? Don¡¯t forget the fact that Arcaian was an alchemist that Wendy praised highly. Such talent; he wished he could welcome him sooner! ¡°Then¡­ Master Arcaian, I would like to ask. What you are best at; which kind of alchemy techniques?¡± He smiled. ¡°Medicine making? Enchantment? Substance transformation?¡± ¡°I can do all that,¡± Arcaian said. He displayed confidence on his immature face. ¡°Through research and application, the Pasteur school developed alchemy techniques that uses microorganisms¡ªalso known as bacterium or fungi¡ª as main tool. The method that I use is different than other alchemists; but other than that, I can do everything that others can do. Sui Xiong was thrilled and asked, ¡°Can you develop medicine?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Arcaian answered confidently, but added, ¡°But the skill of Pasteur school is not compatible with the classic school of Master Tyrian¡¯s. If I were to assist Miss Wendy, I¡¯m afraid I would cause more trouble than help. Sui Xiong was stunned and felt regretful. He originally thought Arcaian¡¯s help would increase the speed of Wendy¡¯s medicinal research, and allow her to develop it much faster. He didn¡¯t expect the situation to be as such. He pondered. What can I ask from an alchemist who is good in using bacterium and fungus, to fully utilize him? After a while, he suddenly had an idea and asked, ¡°You said that you are good in researching and using bacterium?¡± ¡°¡­You can say so.¡± ¡°Then, do you know of mushrooms?¡± Yao Xun asked enthusiastically. ¡°Mushrooms are considered a kind of fungus, right?¡± Arcaian nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right, mushrooms are one of the most common fungi. There are six branches in total, and nine types of commonly found subspecies. More than half of them are highly poisonous and only fourteen of them are poison free and could be eaten safely. They are-¡± ¡°Chop chop!¡± Sui Xiong quickly stopped him from explaining and asked straightaway, ¡°Do you know any mushroom that can grow in the northwest Ashes Woods?¡± Arcaian was stunned and thought carefully for a long time. He then answered with hesitation, ¡°Such a mushroom¡­ Technically speaking, there should be.¡± ¡°What do you mean by ¡®technically¡¯?¡± Sui Xiong asked doubtfully. ¡°Mushrooms are good at adjusting themselves according to change. Its ability to adapt to a living environment is very strong. From what I understood, even Shadow Kingdom and Dead Soul Kingdom have mushrooms growing. Although I don¡¯t have any impression of mushroom types in Ashes Woods, I¡¯m sure those mushrooms that could grow in Shadow Kingdom and Dead Soul Kingdom could grow even better in the Ashes Woods.¡± Sui Xiong smiled. This is good news! ¡°Then, this kind of mushroom; do you keep it?¡± ¡°Of course. In the independent space that is passed down in Pasteur School, there are almost all the kinds of mushrooms in the known world. Though the ¡®sea of rot¡¯ that was used to culture new species is no longer there, and the cultivation of new species was hindered; finding a suitable one in the known species took up a lot of time.¡± So, Sui Xiong delegated the task to Arcaian; to have him find mushrooms that could grow in Shadow Kingdom and Dead Soul Kingdom, and transfer them to the Ashes Woods as soon as possible. Such a task, of course, couldn¡¯t be done in Tyrian¡¯s magic tower. So Sui Xiong had no choice but to expend his energy and build another transportation portal that could transfer long distances, so that Arcaian could be transferred to the Ashes Woods. Who would have guessed that due to the fact that Arcaian had been living in Ancient Forest that was warm all year round, he wouldn¡¯t be able to adapt to the cold weather in the north? Once he got to the Ashes Woods, he was frozen. He sneezed constantly and fell ill. Luckily, even thought Sui Xiong was weak, he could heal sickness too. So, the high-level intellectual avoided the life-threatening result of generating light and heat. In order to let Arcaian live a better life, he was provided with a stable research environment. Sui Xiong discussed the details with him and built him a simple ¡°magic tower.¡± The ¡°magic tower¡± was actually a basement with total of five floors. The building structure above the ground was to store miscellaneous items while the floor underground was to store useful consumable items. The second floor was a meeting room, the third floor was a living room, and fourth and fifth floor were alchemy workrooms for research and cultivation. Compared to the cold on the ground, underground it was comparatively warmer. Three floors underground, even Arcaian who was afraid of the cold could live comfortably. He didn¡¯t require any extra measures to keep warm. The fourth and fifth floors underground used a strong purification array to separate them. The inner purification array blocked off the negative energy completely to cultivate normal mushrooms. At the same time, it was also used to ensure his safety. The fifth floor, which was located out of the purification array, was used to cultivate mushrooms that could grow in environments with strong negative energy, to complete the task given by Sui Xiong. Arcaian¡¯s research progress was decent. After a week¡¯s time, he found a mushroom that was able to grow under strong negative energy in the Ashes Woods. Regrettably, that type of mushroom was similar to most of the mushrooms in the world, which was favored the warm and feared the cold. To let them grow normally, they required a warm environment. ¡°Temperature is not a problem. It just requires digging an underground basement, or manual heating; very simple,¡± Sui Xiong said, receiving the report. Sui Xiong immediately rushed over to Arcaian in the alchemy workroom. Looking at the black mushrooms that were growing healthy and strong under negative environment on the fifth floors underground, he showed his satisfied smile. After he smiled, he asked, ¡°How¡¯s the taste of the mushrooms?¡± Arcaian stunned; he asked in shock, after a while, ¡°You want to eat it?!¡± ¡°Of course I want to eat it,¡± Sui Xiong said naturally, in return. ¡°If it isn¡¯t for eating, what am I planting it for?¡± ¡°Arcaian was shocked. ¡°Is it not for poison making?¡± ¡°How fresh! Making poison with so much effort?! How boring would I be to do such things!¡± Dealing with Sui Xiong¡¯s wanting to eat mushrooms as something in line with the principles of heaven and earth¡ªbut seeing making poison with them ridiculous¡ª Arcaian felt upset. He thought the brain that he had been bragging about was inadequate. He spent a long time organizing his thoughts and finally cleared his mind. ¡°Your Majesty, why would you think that things that are grown in such negative environment could be used practically?¡± His voice got louder and clearer. ¡°They are poisonous! And highly poisonous!¡± Sui Xiong suddenly lost interest and waved its tentacles. ¡°It can¡¯t be eaten. What use do I have of it? I want mushroom that can be eaten.¡± ¡°How could edible mushrooms grow in such a negative environment!¡± Arcaian suddenly blushed as though he were humiliated. ¡°Are you playing me for a fool?!¡± When he saw that Arcaian was angry, Sui Xiong felt embarrassed and smiled. Then he did some explaining. ¡°You are looking for mushrooms that can be eaten, that could also propagate themselves in the Ashes Woods to let your believers work the land?¡± Arcaian blinked and pondered for a long while. He couldn¡¯t understand Sui Xiong¡¯s bizarre thought. ¡°A mushroom farm?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right; a mushroom farm,¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°Who says one can only farm paddies and vegetables? Mushrooms could do, too!¡± Filled with confusion and doubt, Arcaian got back to work according Sui Xiong¡¯s arrangement¡­ Chapter 134 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma On the north of Federation of Gold Coins, there was a town called ¡°Double Headed Stork.¡± The town name derived from a famous silver coin from the Eagle Kingdom. On the back of the silver coin, there was a relief of double-headed stork. The Eagle Kingdom¡¯s coins were well known for their beauty. Not only were they famous across mainland, but they had great rebut across the world. Back then, when the pioneers from Federation of Gold Coins named the cities, they liked to use various kinds of coins as names; ¡°Double Headed Stork¡± was one of them. The city was similar to the trading center of the Federation of Gold Coins and the four towns of northwest. Food, daily commodities, and luxury goods were constantly sent to the north while from the gorge came ore, metal ingot, various types of gemstones, and magic beast materials. Although the Federation of Gold Coins established a nation through business, most of the areas were under strict management. Business scale and types in each city were rigidly restricted. Regardless of the scale of businessmen, without ratification, no one could operate presumptuously. Through such methods, they realized the order of arrangement and distribution of all resources so the nation was in order. The Double Headed Stork mainly operated on logistics, especially freight delivery for staple commodities. Naturally, thieves appeared one after another. According to the calculation of Association of Thieves, the thief organization that moved around and treated the city as their main stronghold had almost 46 members. At its peak, it hit 75 members. As for the exact number of the thieves, they conservatively estimated there were about 2,000 or more. 2,000 was not a small figure. If it were a united front, the federation would have sent out army to wipe them out. But the thieves were formed into organizations of various sizes, and spread out, using the city as their center. They came and went like shadows, always confusing the army with their irregular activity patterns. They emerged like the weeds in the backyard after rain, that would suddenly appear if it were not cleaned for a few days. Including Double Headed Stork, the entire Federation of Gold Coins attached great importance to hunting and offering rewards for the capture of thieves. Hence the birth of a famous profession called bounty hunter. Such capable adventurers that hunted thieves as their prey claimed bounty as their income source, like hunting magic beasts. They were the guests that were most welcomed by the travelling salesmen groups on the border of Federation of Gold Coins. They were also Knight errants that were most respected. But of late, the income for bounty hunters in Double Headed Stork dropped sharply. It was not because the reward lessened, but because of the appearance of strong competitors. ¡°Quick! There are people who came across a gang of thieves on the trade route on the west side, led by ¡®Iron Claw,¡¯ who seemed to be very strong. His head was worth five hundred gold coins!¡± When the sky grew dark, the door of the pub was pushed open. An adventurer that was fully armed dashed in and shouted at his comrades that were sitting in the corner, ¡°We have had almost no income for half a month; we have to grab this one!¡± The few comrades that were drinking sadly were suddenly in high spirits and jumped one after another, grabbed their weapons and ran out the door. Someone that seemed like a captain led them and shouted at the boss, ¡°Old rules! Bill the alcohol on credit, wait till we claim our bounty, and we will talk again!¡± They were capable and their actions were experienced. As they spoke, they got onto the horses that were tied outside the door and left with the clatter of hooves. The boss waved at them behind the smiling cashier and talked to a brawny man sitting next to the counter. ¡°Stud, why don¡¯t you try?¡± The man from north who was referred to as ¡°Stud¡± was tall and strong; he was also commonly known as ¡°barbarian.¡± But unlike a barbarian, he had handsome features. White hair and red eyes didn¡¯t look creepy on him, but lessened the feeling of danger that was brought upon people by his body size. The strong build was unlike the normal tribe that brought out their power conspicuously like granite statues, but appeared to be unusually balanced. He was tall and big; even when he sat down, he was taller than the nearby customers. But his gentle smile and the handsome moustache on his face made him look friendly and approachable, without the crude qualities of a barbarian. Even the cuts and bruises on his body did not make him look ferocious, but seemed unusually appropriate. The only thing that made him look like a barbarian was the tattoo on his right arm. From his shoulders to his upper arm, he had tattooed a vicious winter bear. The bear¡¯s eyes gave out ferocious green light, and everyone who was an expert could tell that it wasn¡¯t just any tattoo. In it was sealed the soul of a strong magic beast. Besides that, he did not show one bit of barbaric quality. Maybe the fish fork on the floor and the short axe on his waist could be considered barbaric. But he hardly used them. Under normal situations, he actually preferred the bundle of rope on his shoulders. The man named Jose was an amazing adventurer, and especially good at lasso. He could ride on a bolting horse and take an apple from a roadside balcony by lasso. When there were four or five enemies dashing towards him, yelling, he could use lasso to tie all their necks to the edge of strangling them to death, in order to claim the highest reward. But he was even more famous for his amorous character and his seasoned hands in the arena of love. He had been in Double Headed Stork for almost two years, and within those two years, all the ¡®looser¡¯ women had slept with him. There was even one instance where two female adventurers had a duel over him. He stopped the battle by pulling the two of them onto the bed. That¡¯s how he got the name ¡°Stud.¡± Of course, Jose had his biggest advantage: his sensibility. He never got involved with any respectable women, and never bid farewell reluctantly after he lost interest. This made him an even more welcome bed partner by those dissolute women. Honestly speaking, a man with his talent could totally live his life by s*x, getting financial support from women. It was not like there were no adventurers that did so; but Jose persisted in pursuing his identity as an adventurer, and remained enthused over maintaining good terms with everyone, constantly heading over to the pub to socialize. At the pub, he was the most popular customer; not one of them, but the only one. When the boss asked, Jose put down his beer mug and smiled, ¡°After this mug, I¡¯ll go.¡± ¡°Huh? Shouldn¡¯t this kind of thing be earlier rather than later?¡± A young adventurer asked curiously. Jose shook his head. ¡°It would make sense if the robbers were nearby. But this is a trade route in the west. By the time anyone got there, they would only be able to watch on the sidelines. A bunch of experts already rushed over a while back.¡± The other adventurer suddenly understood and asked, ¡°Is it the bunch that is not picky?¡± ¡°Who else? Of course it¡¯s them.¡± Jose touched his moustache, that was called sexy by countless women, while he nodded with a smile. ¡°When I returned to town earlier, I saw them going west in a hurry. The one who led the group was the bald guy. If he is already there, no one else could killed off anything. It is nothing; a scene only.¡± Everyone was suddenly disheartened, and grumbled at that. Ever since the bald guy brought a gang of brawny men into Double Headed Stork, they had been grabbing everyone¡¯s business. The gang of men was like their nickname: not picky at all. If there was something to be done, even if the profit was low, they would take action happily like a swarm of locusts: wiping out thieves and bringing back a pile of winnings, dead or alive, to claim their bounty. Relying on them, the city was in good public order and the number of thieves around the trade routes had obviously diminished. The businessmen and the residents were satisfied. The only complaints were from the bounty hunters who got all their deals taken away. Dealing with the bald man who was extremely strong, they couldn¡¯t complain much. Fighting for business was a proper right among the strong. The world of adventurers had always been so. Luckily the things that the bald guy did were not considered excessive. The adventurers ate while they chatted and the time flew by. Jose ate the portion of food before him. He did not ride his horse but walked very fast. He left quickly and walked along the road towards the west. About two hundred miles to the west of Double Headed Stork was Iron City. Its name was derived from a famous gold coin among the collectors. Iron City mainly ran projects like the smelting of ore and rough machining of metal. The refined metal ingot and unfinished weaponry was famous across the mainland, and their supply always fell short of demand. The trade route that connected the two cities became the slab of fat meat in the eyes of the thieves. Not only were there often thieves¡¯ groups that came and went, but they fought against each other internally more than once for that route. ¡°But I never understood; everyone is living their life. They eat, sleep, have s*x, have a bunch of children; such great lives. Why is no one willing to live like that?¡± He kicked two thieves who jumped out from the bushes suddenly to mug them. Jose didn¡¯t even slow down, but sighed with emotion while he continued to run along the traces left on the route. The speed of his walking was faster than a bolting horse. By the time sun went down, he had already caught up to the people that left earlier. He saw the shadows from afar, long under the setting sun. When he caught up to them, the sky was flushed with faint fires. ¡°Do you think that we will harvest anything?¡± The leader of the bounty hunter team smiled and asked. He was close to him. Jose shrugged and pointed to the front. ¡°Isn¡¯t the result right before your eyes?¡± The bounty hunter did not possess eagle-eyesight like him; he only saw the situation clearly after a while. They saw a bald giant that was Godlike, holding a giant axe that looked like a door plank, and leading a bunch of brawny men a few sizes smaller than him. He tied the gang of disheartened thieves and threw them onto the cart on his side. As for the thieves¡¯ leader, ¡°Iron Claw,¡± there was a huge pit on the ground that was an awful mess of fresh red. It was the final trace in the world left by the famous man whose head was worth 500 gold coins. Chapter 135 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The bald giant was of course Gerald. He led the team out for training on that trip. Every territory would require a well trained army. The progress of territory-building had been slowed down due to various accidents that had happened before. However, army building progress couldn¡¯t be delayed. So, with Sui Xiong¡¯s arrangement, Gerald brought a batch of young adults who performed well during training to the Federation of Gold Coins to participate in the real war. Their training opponents were naturally those thieves. The Federation of Gold Coins was a suitable place, as there were groups of thieves everywhere and they could be found easily beyond the city gate. If one were to follow a business group, they would basically come across gangs of thieves every night, big or small. Under such circumstances, the young people would be able to accumulate experience faster and would have constant improvements. Of course, if Gerald wasn¡¯t the one that led the troop, these people might have lost a fortune. But with Gerald, the legendary leader, the risk of war had been well under control. There might have been a number of wounded people during the winter, but the number of disabled or even dead were still zero as of then. Just like the recent war, the man with the nickname ¡°Iron Claw¡± had extraordinary strength. Even a highly trained adventurer might be killed by ¡°Iron claw¡± if they were careless. But, in the end, the outcome of the war was that only one soldier was severely injured. Then, the giant axe that was thrown from the top of his head became a pile of suspicious rubble. The severely injured soldier received treatment in time and almost recovered, but there would be a terrifying scar on his body. Gerald left the scar on purpose, so the young people could be alert at all times. It was impossible for him to watch over them forever, they would have to take care of themselves one day. He wished that the young people could get a practical and reliable training through such training methods in order to avoid any unnecessary danger in the future. The adventurers from far away were upset when they knew they lost their business. They bid farewell to Gerald and left one after another. Only Jose stayed. ¡°Big guy, what you told me before; you weren¡¯t joking, right?¡± He took a seat next to Gerald while he asked. Gerald was shocked, and then he recalled that there was once he brought up building territory with him. He nodded and replied, ¡°Of course not. Can this kind of matter be joked about?¡± Jose¡¯ eyes suddenly brightened up, and then he asked softly, ¡°Is there really a God that look upon the people in your territory?¡± ¡°Can this kind of matter be joked about?¡± Jose nodded slightly. Indeed, in this world, if we were to take God as a joke, it wouldn¡¯t be funny. The God might remember you for that, and cause you some small trouble. ¡°How about the part when you said that I am welcome to the team? Was that serious too?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Gerald answered with no hesitation. Jose obviously deliberated carefully and he nodded again and said solemnly, ¡°Deal! When you are going into action, let me know. I¡¯ll come over and help!¡± Gerald laughed and patted his back. Then, he passed his flask over. ¡°Great! You will not regret it! Come, let¡¯s drink!¡± Jose held the huge flask that was almost bigger than his head with both his hands and took a huge sip. His eyes got even brighter. Sui Xiong, who was watching the scene through spirit connection, couldn¡¯t help but smile. Ever since he met Jose, he was very curious. He was interested in the handsome barbarian. Jose was capable, and his way of dealing with people and matters was tactful. If it was only this, it wouldn¡¯t be weird. What Sui Xiong found weird was the line of belief on his body. In this world, whoever had clear belief would have line of belief. It could be seen on Gods and high levels clergymen so belief couldn¡¯t be forged. Those fake believers that cheated could only cheat the lower middle class people at most. For clergymen close to God, it wouldn¡¯t work. The line of belief on Jose¡¯s body pointed towards the snowfield and snowstorm Goddess in the north, also known as ¡°Queen of North.¡± She was the King of Gods in the ¡°Arctic Federation¡± God system. She was stronger than the Goddess of Ocean and parallel to God of Storms. Under her command, there were Gods of Snow Capped Mountain, Avalanche, and Snow Monster, that used the the alias of ¡°Master of Snow-Capped Mountain;¡± and Gods of Glacier and Ice Giant that used the alias ¡°Ruler of Ice.¡± Besides that, although he had another two that were not affiliated directly, they called him leader of their alliance. They were Goddess of winter and north wind, ¡°Chill Maiden¡± and God of snow beasts, ¡°Snow Lord.¡± Of systems of Gods that was formed by Gods, there weren¡¯t many. But the few Gods¡¯ strengths were concentrated north, and their influences were much stronger. So, even though barbarian tribe had their own patron saint, the few that were addressed as ¡°Bear Herding Elder,¡± their influence couldn¡¯t be compared to the Gods from Arctic Federation. For instance, Jose, as a barbarian, did not believe in his own patron saint, but the Goddess of Snowstorm. If it was just so, that would be alright. But Jose¡¯s line of belief shimmered in a weird light. It gave out believer¡¯s radiance, but was filled with bright red anger. The combination of two became a heavy curse. In a more straightforward explanation: he was once the believer of the Goddess of Snowstorm, and he still believed in the Goddess, but was fuelled with rage and anger towards Her too. Such resentment combined with his faithful belief turned into a curse to the Goddess. A commoner blaming and cursing the God that he believed in? Sui Xiong felt that there must be a heavy-hearted story behind this. He was very curious about it so he instructed Gerald to attract Jose to his side. Of course, if Jose¡¯s encounter was worth sympathy, he wouldn¡¯t mind lending him a helping hand at his convenience. Anyway, according to Snowflake¡¯s prediction, when he became God officially, Goddess of Snowstorm would probably come to cause trouble. Instead of waiting for Her to bring along a bunch of wicked Gods to cause trouble, he might as well find ways to weaken Her influence and power. It¡¯d be best if he could cause Her some trouble so that She would be unable to fend for herself. When he saw that Gerald lodged a representation with Jose successfully, Sui Xiong smiled faintly and redirected his attention to the other side. It was a deep and gloomy underground world, within a natural limestone cave. In the current world, there wasn¡¯t any huge and complicated underground world like those in the fantastical production before Sui Xiong crossed. But they could find a limestone cave that was bigger. Most of them were located at the border of the mountain range, deep underground. Naturally, there would be a unique life form system that was interesting there. Palin brought a few adventurers into the limestone cave underground to explore with great care. His mission was to look into ecology underneath and collect specimens of animals, plants and especially mushrooms, in order to aid Arcaian with his research. To cultivate mushrooms that could grow normally under negative environments and were not poisonous but edible, was not an easy task. Arcaian spent almost the entire winter trying, but only managed to cultivate two kinds of mushroom that barely fit the requirements. The first type of mushroom could resist negative energy. Not only it could be eaten, it could provide resistance towards negative energy for a short period of time. But its output was problematic. Even within Arcaian¡¯s cultivation room that provided it with a better growing environment, its output was not enough to reach the level of ¡°food.¡± After all¡­ it originally existed as medicinal material. The second type of mushroom would push the negativity onto the tip of its cap. So, once the tip of the mushroom cap was cut off, the rest of the mushroom could be eaten. But it was impossible for it to smooth away all negativity onto the tip of its cap, so there would still be part of it left on the other parts of the mushroom. According to the experiment results with the animals, any common wild beast would not be able to resolve the remaining negativity. Their activity level would drop and they would be in listless spirits after consumption. Arcaian didn¡¯t want to do human experiments and Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to either. They could both imagine how would a human be like after eating the mushroom. Obviously, any common frontiersmen would never take it as food. The experiment didn¡¯t go well and Arcaian felt sorry but he emphasised that research was a task that required time and luck. It wouldn¡¯t be easy to get a satisfying success in a short period of time. ¡°Then what should we do?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Is there any way for you to speed up your research?¡± Arcaian pondered in silence and indicated that if he could go to the limestone caves underground to collect more specimens of mushrooms that grow in underground environments as a reference, it might be helpful. Mushroom was a huge system of organism. Even the Pasteur family that had been researching mushrooms for many years couldn¡¯t possibly collect all kinds of mushrooms from all over the world. Those they collected were species that were representative because those were sufficient for their research in the past. If they were to switch their research to a rare situation according to Sui Xiong¡¯s requirements, what the Pasteur family collected was not enough. He would need to scout for more material. Sui Xiong accepted Arcaian¡¯s suggestion to send people to limestone caves nearby to pick some mushrooms. He sent out two troops. The first troop was Frost and Graupel. The brother and sister were in charge of an isolated limestone cave. It was said to be less dangerous for magic beasts. It would be risky for commoners to visit. The second troop was Palin. The limestone cave that he was sent to was a famous tourist attraction. Many travellers often visited to explore. To a complete troop with mages, warriors, priests, archers, and thieves, such a place was considered safe. The development of the task was as expected by Sui Xiong; Palin and his troop had been exploring underground for two days, and they didn¡¯t come across any significant danger. No doubt they slowed down their schedule in order to ensure safety, but the limestone cave itself was pretty safe. Even though¡­ It was safe, but their working efficiency dropped. These two days they found a few types of mushroom, but judging from the images that were transmitted, they were all types that weren¡¯t worth much attention. Arcaian vetoed the mushrooms¡¯ values with one glance. To find mushrooms that he needed, they needed to go deeper underground¡­ Chapter 136 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma ¡°We have arrived at the safety line.¡± The scout of the team, Reid, used his spear to pry open some of the stones on the roadside, looked at some inconspicuous markings on the corners, and said quietly, ¡°If we go further, there is no telling what we will see.¡± The so-called safety line referred to the boundary that was explored and cleared by the soldiers. For this cave, it was the dividing line between ¡®safe¡¯ and ¡®dangerous¡¯ areas. The cave they explored was located on the western side of the Barren Mountains, adjacent to Rye Town. In order to guard against potentially dangerous things in the cave, soldiers in Rye Town would come here to explore and clean up once every three months, avoiding the proliferation of monsters such as gnomes, and avoiding dangerous creatures. The safety line was the sign that they left behind before they left, after each exploration and cleanup. Adventurers with cave exploration experience knew that the main enemy was getting lost before reaching the safety line. After arriving at the safety line, the most important enemy became a variety of monsters that might appear at any time underground. After all, the adventurers acted in teams. One team was comprised of between three and five people, or as many as 10 people. Compared with armies of 50, the combat effectiveness was much worse. When confronted with monsters that only the army could cope with, they often could only flee, or sometimes couldn¡¯t even escape. In the four northwestern towns, Rye Town was the only town with an ¡®elite force.¡¯ Because this area was rich in food, it was also the most important trading port for the four northwestern towns and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins; so business was also very developed. Therefore, the various organizations that jointly ruled the town could have enough income to support the elite army of 50 people. Every soldier in this army had armed forces comparable to regular adventurers. He could skillfully use at least two of the most commonly used weapons, including spears, swords, shields, bows, and axes, and could ride horses if necessary. They usually concentrated on training or patrolling the town. When a dangerous monster appeared near the town. When they needed an expedition to clean up the surroundings, they would be fully armed, and they would all wear strong armor. They would be helped by pastors and mages to eliminate all the things that threatened Rye Town. They often came to explore and clean this cave, named The Great Black Hole. More than once they wiped out the monsters who lived there. Among them, on the fiercest journey, they brought back close to 300 left ears from gnomes, and more than 20 body organs from other monsters, as well as the bodies of two companions. Their deaths were caused by a horrible monster. It had a cow¡¯s head and a human body. It sat taller than a normal person. The hard body was like dried old wood. Arrows shot at it only penetrated it a little. It had four arms, each of which was thicker than an average person¡¯s thighs. It was a horrific storm that waved four Tomahawks when fighting! If it weren¡¯t for the caster, who dealt with it properly, that battle would have been deadly. And even with the help of the casters, the soldiers had lost a scout and a warrior. Not only that, but after that battle, at least 10 soldiers chose to quit. Some of them used the money they saved in those years to do a little business, and some went to safer areas of the confederation to buy land as peasant farmers. The shadow the scary monster left on them made most of the soldiers put down their weapons forever, and never dare to enter the battlefield again. Some of them later broke through the shadow on their hearts, such as the captain of the expedition team that Palin was in, ¡®Ground Bear¡¯ Divor. Divor was a very sturdy warrior, and over 6 feet tall. He made great efforts in battle by using an axe to cut off the horrible monster¡¯s left ankle and letting it fall to the ground, which could be described as the key to their victory. However, he himself was seriously injured during the monster¡¯s counterattack. He broke four ribs, which nearly killed him. After he retired, he went underground for some time. But eventually, he stood up again and took his winning trophy, one of the monster¡¯s four battle axes, back into the battlefield. He did not serve as a soldier, but as an adventurer. At the time, his nickname was ¡®Bull-Head Axe.¡¯ Later, as he ventured on and accumulated his talent, his nickname was replaced by ¡®Ground Bear.¡¯ This nickname was proof of his qualifications. He particularly liked to venture into underground caverns, and was also like a symbol among the adventurers in Rye Town. So when Palin recruited people, the attendant of the Association of Adventurers recommended him. Among the other companions, the ranger and the priest were recommended by him, and both of them were frequent participants of cave exploration. Reid, an experienced ranger, was nicknamed ¡®Three Arrows¡¯ because while the average ranger could only shoot two arrows in a row, he could shoot three. ¡®Fire Hammer¡¯ Morton was a believer of the human¡¯s chief, the God of Glory. He was a pastor with good fighting skills and excellent magic. He was only second to Divor on this team. The thief on this team was called Laver, and was recommended by Rhode. He was a very powerful thief, and especially good at fighting. Compared to those peers who liked to pickpocket or sneak into homes, he was good at sneaking behind monsters and poking them with his long-beloved dagger. This gave him a title of ¡®Backstabber.¡¯ For thieves good at combat, he who could turn the thieves¡¯ best skill into his own nickname was powerful. However, relatively speaking, Laver was not as proficient in the theft, reconnaissance, and trap dismantling that thieves were usually good at. So he didn¡¯t have a good status with the thieves, and most of the time he worked part-time as a soldier. He believed in the God of Thieves and insisted that thieves were not killers, so he was unwilling to sell his skills for money. But a backstabbing expert who refused to be a killer apparently wouldn¡¯t have much money. Rhode recommended him to Palin because he was very reliable, and also because Rhode hoped to do him a favor. If he could have a good relationship with the Void Mask Church due to this thing, then in the future, as desolate as he might be, at least he could live. Of course, Laver knew what to do, and could see Rhode¡¯s concern. He had been very active in these two days by firmly and loyally standing by Palin¡¯s side. So at that moment, he spoke before Palin spoke. ¡°I received the deposit. If you want to keep moving forward, I¡¯ll definitely be with you!¡± Reid reluctantly rolled his eyes, and there was some resentment in his heart. To be honest, although the mage Palin was very straightforward when he paid money, if there were any other choice, he really did not want to move into the depths of the cave. This cave was very deep. Until now, nobody had completely verified its situation. It was better that way. If one went deeper into it, what would happen? He remembered that adventurers who had escaped the caves claimed that they had seen dragons in their depths! Of course, he absolutely did not believe that there would be a dragon in this cave; the establishment of Rye Town happened hundreds of years ago, but no one had seen the trail of a dragon. Could the dragon have started sleeping deep in the cave hundreds of years ago, and never woken up? However, the body of a terrifying four-armed bull-headed man was seen by many in the town. He told himself that if they encountered such a monster again, their squad certainly could not defeat it. In a hurry, nobody could guarantee that they would not suffer accidents and stay alive. Divor was much more straightforward than him. The veteran adventurer did not take going deeper into the ground seriously. He looked at Palin and gave his advice. ¡°It¡¯s not dangerous to go forward. According to our speed, it would take at least two more days to exceed the maximum distance I have ever explored.¡± Palin turned to Morton again to seek the opinion of the priest. The silent Morton did not speak, but looked at Divor and smiled. Obviously, he chose to believe the captain¡¯s vision. ¡°If so, then go ahead.¡± Palin also made up his mind. Although His Majesty also said that the most important thing in this trip was to look at the situation on the side of Frost and Graupel, he was only an aid. But even as an aid, if I don¡¯t do my best, I am not worthy of his care! He took out a lollipop and put it into his mouth. He gave Reid, who had been spotting in the front of the team, a spell that could protect him from a long-distance attack. Then the team moved on again. ¡°Why do you always like to eat sugar?¡± Divor asked curiously. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you eating two or three lollipops every day for two days. Is this sugar delicious?¡± Palin smiled and took one out, and handed it to him. Then he thought for a moment, and gave everyone one lollipop. Few people hated sweets. Although the adventurers having a strange candy in their mouths were less majestic, no other people was here, and Palin took the lead. Therefore, nobody refused to eat the lollipops. ¡°Hey!¡± Morton first discovered the intrinsic connotation of the lollipop and couldn¡¯t help but exclaimed. He took out the candy and looked at it carefully. ¡°Is there any problem with this candy?¡± Divor was a bit puzzled, ¡°It tastes good, sweet, and it feels like my body has become warm all of a sudden.¡± ¡°Vitality!¡± Morton said. ¡°It can add vitality.¡± Reid, who was still savoring it, quickly took the lollipop out of his mouth, wrapped it in oil paper again, and put it into his parcel. What was the concept of ¡®supplement vitality?¡¯ This meant that it could treat injuries, weaknesses, and tiredness. It could even save lives in critical moments! He couldn¡¯t help but regret that he had eaten a bit of the candy. Laver looked at Palin. ¡°Boss, isn¡¯t it a waste?¡± Palin smiled. ¡°I¡¯m in bad health. I must eat this regularly, otherwise, I become very tired and dizzy.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not as simple as having ¡®bad health¡¯!¡± Divor looked at him worriedly. ¡°You need to eat this regularly to supplement your vitality. Do you instead need to recover for some time?¡± ¡°No, no need.¡± Palin smiled a few times and stepped forward again. He had no soul, and this matter had not been concealed from him by Sui Xiong, but he would never tell anyone else. His teammates were all experienced. Seeing that he didn¡¯t want to say anything, they no longer asked. They just silently put back their own candies, and protected him in the middle. This poor young man, who was weak enough to rely on this medicine to maintain his strength, was still working hard¡­ Chapter 137 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The exploration after crossing the safety line was much more difficult and dangerous than before, and of course, the efficiency of the exploration was worse. This was guaranteed because, after all, safety was the most important thing. Even Divor, who explored underground caves all the time, did not dare say that he knew these deep underground areas well. In his adventurous past, accidents and dangers were abound; not to mention the terrifying four-armed bull-headed man. There was no day or night in places where people did not see the sun. They could only judge the time through the pocket watch carried by Divor. In order to avoid the risk of fatigue, they took a break every three hours, half an hour each time. They camped on the third break, adjusted the schedule, and greatly increased the time for rest and sleep. Strangely, at first glance, it seemed that the method that should have been useless had produced unexpectedly good results. It was not until one week later that everyone began to feel weary. ¡°Generally speaking, ordinary people would be uncomfortable living for three to five days without seeing the sun.¡± At the camp, Palin sighed in his sleeping bag as he read his adventurer guide to prepare in advance. Normally, his book was correct, but the fact was that many of the records were completely different from his experience this time. This made the young mage, who was accustomed to drawing knowledge from books, feel uneasy, and wonder if what they normally learned was useful or useless. He worried for a while, put back the book, and silently prayed to Sui Xiong. With the link of faith, he easily contacted him and raised his questions. Sui Xiong looked at the book a little and found the problem. ¡°This ¡®Guide for Young Adventurers¡¯ is for novices,¡± he said. ¡°It was used to give young inexperienced people universal risk-taking experience and common sense so that they would not be ignorant, and get killed as soon as they embarked on an adventure journey. That¡¯s all. ¡°What you are undertaking now is a very high-level adventure. Even senior adventurers rarely perform this level of adventure. Only Divor, a true professional master, could safely lead the team along the way. His experience and judgment of the situation are far from novice, so he can adjust the schedule according to the actual situation, so that everyone maintains a good state. But if any newcomer takes an adventure in accordance with his practice, I am afraid he not only wouldn¡¯t get benefits, but it would be unlucky!¡± Palin nodded and pondered for a moment. He could not help but secretly sigh: learning really must be combined with practice! At this moment, Reid, who was responsible for the investigation, rushed back to the camp and brought a piece of bad news. In a cave not far ahead of them, fresh corpses were found. Because he was not good at investigating traps and identifying magic, he did not go to investigate rashly. Instead, he chose to return, to report and discuss, and let others decide what to do. ¡°If I¡¯m to judge, I¡¯m inclined to head back now,¡± Divor said. ¡°Everyone is almost exhausted. Although it¡¯s won¡¯t be serious if there are only one or two fights, nobody is guaranteed safe underground. Going back when we are tired is the safest method.¡± ¡°But what we¡¯re looking for hasn¡¯t been found yet,¡± Palin said, sighing. Laver once again expressed his loyalty. ¡°If you want to continue looking for it, I will go with you!¡± ¡°But you don¡¯t have a clear target for yourself,¡± Reid said. ¡°Going underground to find the right mushroom; what mushroom is right?¡± Palin sighed, and was convinced. So this adventure came to an end. They returned above ground, recovered for a few days, and then set off again. With the experience of the first exploration under their belts, this time they had a smoother journey, and without spending too much time and energy, they arrived at the camp where they had been before. But at the camp, they saw signs of fighting and killing. ¡°Although the bodies have been removed, it is obvious that there was a team of adventurers attacked here.¡± After carefully studying these traces, Reid made some judgements. ¡°There should have been a team of four: one heavily armored warrior, a bard, a ranger, and a priest. They were supposed to be eating, but first, maybe a fire element jumped out of the bonfire; and some monsters may have come from underground. Later someone used spells¡­¡± He took a few steps and came to a dark corner. ¡°The man should have been standing here. His spells were of negative energy. His blow hit the priest severely. ¡°Then from that corner, a very powerful monster rushed out.¡± He pointed to a corner in the distance, and used special spears to circle the ground with a few conspicuous depressions. ¡°Not very big, but very heavy. It might have worn heavy armor.¡± ¡°With the participation of that guy, the team collapsed. The next thing was a slaughter,¡± Reid sighed. ¡°In theory, a sophisticated bard should carry a fixed transmission scroll with him with Rye Town as the target. But we hadn¡¯t heard the news before. I¡¯m afraid they must have been completely destroyed; not even one could escape.¡± Everyone¡¯s face was downcast. They could not help but admire Divor. The monster that could destroy an adventurer¡¯s team was definitely not easy to deal with. If they had stayed in place or even moved on, perhaps they would be facing the monsters. With their state at that time, could they have dealt with a group of monsters? The conclusion was: of course not! ¡°Now we have two choices,¡± said Divor. ¡°We can move on; only senior adventurers can go, here. Even though they are completely extinguished, those monsters must have suffered tremendous damage. If we follow them, we might have time to catch up with them and destroy them.¡± Reid laughed twice and looked around, seeming to say, ¡°I don¡¯t know anything.¡± Palin was gloomy, and frowned. He could not easily decide. ¡°It seems that you all think this choice is not very reliable,¡± Divor sighed. ¡°We could also return now. At least we could bring this news back.¡± Palin frowned and said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it too negative?¡± ¡°I think so, too,¡± said Divor. ¡°So I lean towards choosing the former. Adventurers must fight. Our reputation, wealth, and strength must be obtained through the fight against those dangerous monsters. Anyway, at least we only have to deal with a group of monsters that were damaged in strength.¡± He swept everyone¡¯s faces, and the burning in his eyes made everyone¡¯s heart feel excited. As he said, adventurers were supposed to kill monsters. There was obviously a good opportunity in front of them, so why should they withdraw? ¡°A toast!¡± The priest who seldom spoke waved the light warhammer in his hand, and the enchanted weapon issued a faint white light, leaving a clear track in the dim air. Reid hesitated, but when he saw Divor¡¯s firm gaze, he took a closer look at the attitude of his companions, and he finally sighed deeply. ¡°If I had known, I wouldn¡¯t have come!¡± he mumbled, his face sullen. ¡°I¡¯d rather kill the monsters on the ground!¡± Palin smiled and gave him a golden scroll. ¡°I remember you also know how to use scrolls, right?¡± ¡°Yes, I learned magic. Although I couldn¡¯t spellcast, using scrolls is okay.¡± Reid took the scroll and checked it with a bit of mental power. Suddenly his eyes widened. This was a scroll for ¡®Transmission of a Group!¡¯ The technique of Transmission was one of the signatures of the mages, and not selling scrolls of transmission was their unspoken rule; not to mention a scroll of transmission that allowed the entire team to return to safety at once. Such a scroll should be more expensive than the sum of the employment fee of the four! With this treasure, he suddenly felt a little more confident. Can¡¯t I beat it? I can run, at least! But when thinking of the price of this treasure, he could not help but feel some irritability. A poor man like me cannot understand the world of you rich people! After the security issue was resolved, the team converted into combat formation under the command of Divor. Laver surveyed the land in front, as he was always aware of possible traps; Divor and Morton followed, ready to fight; Palin was behind them, but ensured that Laver was in his range of casting spells in order to support the use of magic at any time; Reid was at rear, because he needed enough distance to shoot arrows, and if there was any danger, he could activate the scroll to take everyone to safety. Because there was no need to search for mushrooms in every dark corner, the team marched significantly faster. It took less than two hours for them to find a trace of the monster. To be accurate, Morton found the trace of the monster. ¡°Negative energy,¡± he said. Suddenly, he stopped and raised his hammer to indicate it to everyone. The warhammer engraved with the sacred emblem of the God of Glory was emitting a burning light. It was the divine power that emitted when the holy power encountered an adversary. With his reminder, everyone stopped and approached him. ¡°I don¡¯t feel the cold¡­¡± Laver murmured. ¡°Doesn¡¯t the negative energy make people cold?¡± ¡°When you feel cold, you¡¯re not far from death,¡± Reid said. ¡°The negative energy is not cold, but deadly. The reason you feel cold is that your vitality is being extracted. Believe me, you don¡¯t want to really meet that situation!¡± Laver was petrified by his words, and carefully looked around, as if the monsters would rush out in the next moment. At this time, Morton had given everyone the use of resistance to negative energy. Whether for psychological reasons or not, everyone really felt that their bodies were warmer. ¡°It seems that the enemy is ahead of us!¡± Divor smiled and clenched his axe. ¡°I just don¡¯t know what to expect¡­¡± This question was quickly answered. Morton could feel negative energy, and of course, their enemies could feel Morton¡¯s holy power. Just as Divor spoke, with an angry roar, a medium-sized, heavily-armored figure rushed out from the darkness ahead of them. Its footsteps were unusually heavy, and the metal boots on its feet clanged on the stones, giving off a sound like hammering rock. ¡°Ready to fight!¡± Chapter 138 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma The heavily-armored guy did not move very fast, but his momentum was extremely fierce. Each step was accompanied by violent crashing. The sound echoed in a cave that was not spacious; it got louder and louder, and gradually resembled thunder. ¡°Now I know why the previous adventurers were completely extinguished.¡± Divor swallowed his saliva and clenched his battle axe with both hands, taking a deep breath and posing in a fighting position. Laver, out in the front, had disappeared. Apparently, he had exerted the sneaking skills that he was proud of, and hid in the ubiquitous shadow of this underground cave. When it was appropriate, he jumped out and gave the enemy a fatal blow from behind. ¡°I am on guard!¡± Reid said loudly, prepared to shoot an arrow. He looked around vigilantly to guard against any possible sneak attacks. In the face of a team of neatly equipped adventurers, it was almost impossible for their enemy to defeat or even kill them by fighting. For them, the most dangerous thing was not the enemy¡¯s possible attack. Like the previous group of adventurers, what was a danger to them was not the charge of this heavy armored monster, but the joint attack of fire elements, monsters, and casters. If they had not been beaten and frustrated, considering their usual configuration, the outcome was unpredictable! So although Divor and Morton were to face the seemingly fierce and powerful monster, a task that seemed very dangerous and very important, in fact, the most important task in the team was not on them, but on Reid. He was to be vigilant against the enemy¡¯s sneak attacks; he had to protect his boss, Palin, and prevent the frail young mage from being hurt; he also had to be ready to use the scroll to take everyone to escape. It was indeed a great responsibility for him! But they all ignored one thing. Palin, who was protected by them, was young; but he was definitely not weak! Looking at the heavily armored guy rushing over, Palin took his time in taking the spellcasting material out of the space bag. He quickly drew a circle in the air with his wand. The power of the wand was used instead of the magic casting. Then he read the spell. A dark yellow light flew out of his hand, hitting the ground in front of the enemy. It instantly spread out and turned into a layer of oil that was visible under low light. ¡°Greasy Magic!¡± This spell could create an area covered with oil. If the enemy was not strong enough and did not have the appropriate spell aids, then they would become clumsy. They could stagger and stumble, and would even continuously fall on the ground. The enemy wearing heavy armor was obviously not agile. He stepped on the oil layer and fell heavily on the ground and broke his head open, immediately accompanied by a bang. ¡°Nicely done!¡± Divor yelled happily. Greasy Magic was not an advanced spell, and even a novice wizard could cast it. But to use it in a timely and accurate manner in battle was not something a novice mage could do. Because he had been under their protection before, Palin never had the opportunity to show his strength. He was also very young, making the adventurers mistakenly think him weak; just a rich rookie. However, his performance demonstrated that he definitely did not act like a rookie. It seems that the dwarf boy who was not yet an adult was a good spellcaster. This was really good news! The adventurers were animated, and Morton also completed his spells. He shouted in the name of the God of Glory and lifted the warhammer. The sacred emblem on the warhammer shined with a dazzling light, and a huge holy emblem emerged in the air immediately, enveloping a large area around it. The light of the emblem had come and gone quickly, but everyone could feel that a force was pouring into their bodies, making them stronger and more determined and full of confidence in victory. This was the power of the magic of war. The key to the God of Glory being able to become the main god of the human divine system lied in his important holy mission, and the special spells that accompanied the mission. The range of this magic was extremely large. It not only enveloped all the companions, but it also enveloped enemies that were hidden in the surroundings. But for the enemy, the effect of this magic was not inspiration and reinforcement, but weakening and suppression. A noise came from the shadows in the distance. Reid looked to that side and noticed that there was a figure, shaking slightly. The next moment, with a flash of coldness, Laver¡ªwho had long been quietly sneaking behind the enemy¡ªlifted the dagger and stabbed his back! This act really showed what it meant to be stable, accurate and cruel. He stabbed the knife straight into the enemy¡¯s body, as well as stirring the knife. If the enemy had a mortal body, this act would be absolutely fatal. Even an emergency rescue might not be timely enough to salvage it. However, as he stabbed it, Laver changed his face, and he immediately let go of the dagger. He quickly retreated, shocked as a rabbit. At the same time, he shouted, ¡°Litch!¡± His voice was very loud, and his voice echoed in the cave, shaking everyone¡¯s ears with a buzzing sound. But everyone¡¯s faces changed before they had time to complain. Litch? The kind of horrible monster that casters turned into in order to avoid death? Reid responded quickest, and shot at the black shadow. He even did not bother to look at the effect of this arrow before taking out another with a milky white head from the quiver and shooting again. He shot with accuracy, and both arrows hit their target. It interrupted the spell that was originally intended to be cast, and the second arrow, which contained sacred power, hit the head with accuracy. The head was the key to most Litches! Nonetheless, Reid continued to shoot arrows. Every one of these powerful arrows would cost a gold coin. They had silver arrowheads that could cause additional damage to many dark creatures, and all the arrowheads were enshrined in the shrine of the God of Glory for at least one month. Special prayers were given to the arrows by the priests, and they were given extra powers of evil-breaking. Those more fragile arrowheads rarely survived in combat, so each arrow could only be used once, and they were expensive. But when it came to fighting evil monsters, especially deadly monsters, they were undoubtedly the most reliable weapon for archers! The Litches, of course, were deadly monsters. Not only could the holy arrows inflict great harm on them, but it could also make it impossible for them to focus, and make them unable to cast spells. Because Reid managed to contain it, everyone became a lot more agile. Divor showed his extraordinary power under Morton¡¯s blessing, and cut the heavily armored guy in half with an axe. Inside the armor was a zombie, and after being cut in half, it smelled terrible; almost as nasty as the Stinking Cloud. Palin used a spell to blow a breeze, which managed to drive away this terrible smell and relieved everyone¡¯s nose. Morton hastened to add a spell to make the zombie completely lose its vitality and quickly turn into ashes, so it could no longer pose a threat to anyone. After destroying the zombie, they began to siege the Litch. The unlucky Litch apparently spent a lot of magic in the battle with the adventurers before. Even the protective spells on its body could not be supplemented in time. Faced with Reid who shot arrows accurately, it was frustrated and angry, and roared in vain. Of course, it had tried to escape, but Laver, who had just leapt into the shadows, jumped out of carrying a short axe. He swung down on its neck. The Litch¡¯s body was only a skeleton protected by magic. Although it was far firmer than usual skeletons, it suffered heavy damage. The head was not cut down directly, but it seemed like the head was swaying, and it was obviously unconscious. Of course, Laver didn¡¯t let go of an opportunity. He picked up the short axe and hit it many times, a motion like chopping down a tree. After he was slapped by the Litch, Divor rushed in too. His bull-head tomahawk was unparalleled compared to Laver¡¯s small axe used for camping. He took an axe with both hands and yelled, heavily cutting into the Litch. The Litch, who had long been made unconscious by Reid and Lafer, was cut in two halves by the axes before it had time to react. Numerous bones were broken. The lower body was falling apart. The upper body still retained some strength, and was struggling on the ground. At this time, Palin¡¯s spells arrived again. He used ice-blocking. A blue-white light shone on the half body of the Litch, which immediately turned into ice and froze it. ¡°Morton!¡± Palin shouted, ¡°Bind it!¡± Originally preparing for a sacred prayer, Morton nodded and changed his plan. Through a lengthy prayer, he exerted sacred power, got out a glittering silver chain, and then used that chain to bind the ice and the Litch inside. This time, it couldn¡¯t escape! ¡°Well, wait until you go back, and send it to the temple for purification.¡± Morton was relieved. Because of his joy, he could say a few more words. ¡°Even if it has the case of life, it can¡¯t escape!¡± The Litch caused much trouble. If it was simply killed, it would be able to resurrect itself after a period of time by using the prepared case of life. To truly kill it, it was often necessary to use sacred power, such as a sacred weapon that could destroy evil; not a common commodity such as a holy arrow, but a true sacred weapon which was famous in the world. The sacred weapon was of course very rare, so in most cases, the adventurer¡¯s choice was to seal it and send it to the temple for purification. As for the mages, they tended to use magic to find the Litch¡¯s life case, and use it to control the Litch. Kill them? How wasteful¡­ With Laver¡¯s moan of ¡°Someone help me! There is a pain on my loin!¡± everyone laughed. They won! Soon after, they found five dead bodies not far away. Four of them were dead adventurers. One was a monster who had been killed by them. Another was ashes in a bottle: the remains of that fire element. Only then did they really feel relaxed, and put an end to this brief and fierce battle in their hearts. Chapter 139 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma# Being able to win this victory more easily was a bit of a fluke, but it was inevitable. The previous four adventurers were extraordinary in strength. Even if they used the means of sneak attack, the Litch also spent a lot to kill them all, and for this reason, they also lost their own two powerful subordinates. Much of its magic was consumed, and it failed to restore its body protection spells. In this case, it only failed when it met four adventurers who were more powerful. ¡°I just don¡¯t understand; why didn¡¯t it run?¡± said Raver was with some doubt, ¡°If it fled directly at the beginning, even if that zombie couldn¡¯t run off, should it always run away?¡± ¡°Because it wanted to kill us,¡± Palin explained, ¡°Almost all Litches are full of hatred for the living. When it found us, this hatred greatly hampered its judgement of the situation. Especially Mr. Morton¡¯s divine power; that was what it hated most, so even if it knew it was in danger, it decided to attack us.¡± ¡°Is it just like a bull that immediately goes mad when seeing a quivering piece of cloth?¡± Raver mumbled. ¡°So dumb.¡± ¡°How much wisdom do you expect a skeleton to have?¡± Reid sneered. ¡°A truly powerful mage would never choose to become a Litch. They have ways to prolong their lives and do not need to use this method. Even if they want to change into an undead creature, they would not choose to change into bones. In short, this guy is a second-rate creature.¡± If the Litch could hear him, it must have been angry at this moment. Any Litch was converted from at least a devently high-level mage. If a high-level mage was considered second-rate, what could be considered first-class! After clearing the battlefield, the bodies of the adventurers were taken into the space bag with their equipment. When Palin returned to the town, they searched for the relatives and friends of these adventurers to perform funerals for them. If they were lucky, they might be able to revive them. The rest naturally, were trophies. The wreckage of the element of fire, the body of the monster, and the parts of the Litch were all good trophies. The heavy armor worn by the zombie was also a valuable commodity. But all needed to be cleaned up and purified. It was necessary for them to be evaluated after the purification. In addition, the Litch also carried some valuable equipment, but unfortunately, it was also completely impregnated with negative energy and could not be used immediately. ¡°This is a good harvest. How about going back now?¡± Reid suggested. But this time, it was Morton who was silently opposed it. He strongly stated that he would continue to move forward and search for the Litch¡¯s lair, and destroy it. If a clergyman was stubborn, there was no way anyone could deal with it. Moreover, Divor also favored Morton¡¯s opinion. After Palin and Laver considered it, they also voted in favor of it. ¡°Four to one,¡± Reid muttered and complained, and followed everyone along the way. They walked again for about a day and finally found the Litch¡¯s lair. Passing through the magical secret door that Palin discovered, everyone saw a huge underground space. Around a huge altar, a large number of corpses were piled up. Numerous bizarre plants grew in the pile of corpses, and many strange monsters appeared in them. It seemed to be occupied as a monster paradise. Palin almost vomited after seeing this scene. The other people¡¯s faces did not look good either. Morton was filled with indignation, and felt that he was almost burning. ¡°Evil,¡± he whispered, ¡°Must be purified!¡± No one would stop him then, so everyone joined hands and used large amounts of kerosene to help set up a huge burning field. A fire ignited the entire altar with the corpses, plants, and monsters around it. The blazing flames illuminated the dark underground space. The monsters screamed and died in the flames, the altar was destroyed, and the bodies of the dead were finally purified. This fire burned day and night. After it finally went out, the Litch¡¯s lair had become a ruin. Palin rummaged in the ruins for two days and found a lot of useful things. Perhaps there were many that hadn¡¯t been noticed; after they went back to the report, the soldiers of Rye Town would come here with the cooperation of the temple priests, purify it thoroughly, and clean up. Or maybe they would not clean it up, and there would be other adventurers who tried their luck afterwards, but all of this had nothing to do with Palin. In the cold winds in the sky, the giant jellyfish opened its eyes and showed a funny smile. The evil practice of the Litch was, of course, abhorrent, but its altars and its surrounding arrangements had inspired Palin. A large number of dead bodies should have produced a large amount of negative energy. In fact, except for the altar, the negative energy in the rest of its nest was not very strong. Because those enchanted plants absorbed the negative energy, the monsters then used them as food, to further purify the negative energy. In the incinerated ashes, Palin found many magic nuclei that condensed a lot of negative energy. Regardless of whether the Litch¡¯s actions were intentional or unintentional, through this method, it successfully achieved the collection and condensation of negative energy. Sui Xiong had no interest in collecting and condensing negative energy to obtain such magic nuclei. But this method inspired him. So he found Acaine, who was studying hard, and they talked a lot about it. Acaine was also a person who knew everything at a glance. He immediately understood Sui¡¯s intention. They scrutinized it carefully and thought that this method could indeed be used for reference, and set about setting up a testing ground. The testing ground was a subterranean cave. Acaine cultivated thriving mushrooms here that could absorb negative energy. Sui Xiong summoned some necrophagous herbivores and let them use these mushrooms as food. The monsters that got ample food grew very fast. When they had grown a certain degree, Sui Xiong released a carnivore among them. At this time, the concentration of negative energy in the cave became very low, even affecting the growth of mushrooms. So the monsters lacking food began to die in large numbers, and the corpses piled up like mountains. Acaine had to invest in mushrooms that could decompose the bodies and avoid contamination. This type of mushroom, in turn, turned into a food for herbivorous monsters. In short, the cave became a small biosphere. The negative energy outside this biosphere was the basic energy source, and the output were magic nuclei that condensed a large amount of negative energy. Their greatest advantage was that they could effectively consume negative energy and achieve purification. Above the cave, the black soil gradually turned dark brown, and the plants that had been negatively polluted gradually returned to their normal appearance. About three months later, the land was really purified, and there was no feeling of death on it. Of course, this was the result of the use of magic. If it was allowed to develop naturally, it might take several years, ten or more, before the goal could be achieved. ¡°It¡¯s amazing!¡± Acaine stood on the ground where he couldn¡¯t feel any negative energy. He was feeling a lot of emotion. ¡°I actually realized purification in this way! I never thought I could do it!¡± Now, he was already been very convinced about Sui Xiong. If reality was a game, the prestige value of Sui Xiong on his side must have been raised to ¡®worship.¡¯ Of course, this method could not be regarded as perfect. For example, underground monsters needed to be regularly cleaned up; the particularly strong ones would be rid of to avoid the birth of a powerful monster of terror. If that happened, the city would be in danger. But this danger was controllable, and those monsters that Sui had chosen were not powerful combat types. As long as they were cleaned up regularly, there was no need to worry about raising enemies. ¡°I¡¯m suddenly thinking of a game.¡± Sui looked at the transparent model that was suspended in the air; that was what they expected the appearance of the city to be. Sui began sighing. ¡°The town is on the ground, but through the underground enchantment and tunnel is a huge evil maze¡­¡± Acaine couldn¡¯t help laughing. ¡°It sounds familiar, and it seems that this would be where an evil devil¡¯s dwelling place is.¡± Whether the evil devil lived in such a place or not, Sui was not sure. But he needed to think of a way to dispel the negative effects of the maze beneath his holy place. Otherwise, one day, if the rumors came around, like ¡®under the holy ground of the Void Mask Church, is actually a horrible cave, where they¡¯re cultivating evil monsters,¡¯ wouldn¡¯t Sui become a real evil god? It was not difficult to get to him, because when he remembered the game, he already thought of a solution to the problem. ¡°I plan to launch a service in the Holy Land,¡± Sui said. ¡°I¡¯m going to build the underground into a maze and welcome people to explore. Before the exploration, magic that returns them to the city will be bound to them. If they are in great danger while exploring, spells will be automatically triggered and they will be sent back.¡± ¡°It seems a bit fun.¡± ¡°Not only that, but I would put some treasure chests full of magic potions, coins, scrolls, and equipment in the maze. In short, I will make the people who explore the maze think that their hard work is worth it.¡± ¡°Uh-huh¡­¡± ¡°I can then publicize it and launch a tourism project called ¡®Adventure in an Underground City.¡¯ Let those who want to take risks and fear the danger come here to play, and experience the feeling of adventure and treasure-hunting!¡± Sui Xiong became more and more proud, and his inspiration was like a volcano. ¡°And it could be used as a training base for young adventurers, and it could train a large number of talents for my church. At that time, I could also carry out regular activities, for example: ¡®Go Down to the 100th floor if you are a man,¡¯ ¡®Hunt Golden Monsters,¡¯ ¡®Summer Special Equipment Collection¡­¡¯ I would set special prizes for each activity to ensure that they won¡¯t stop! ¡°I also want to open up recharge activities, allowing them to recharge with 100 gold coins to be able to communicate underground; 1,000 coins to use remote storage; 10,000 coins¡­¡± Waving the tentacles, he spoke excitedly, with his eyes full of golden sparkle. He even he began to speak incoherently. ¡°¡­I would build a company, recruit customer service, and have a whole array of pretty little girls who should speak softly. All in all: If you don¡¯t have enough money, how could you become stronger!¡± Chapter 140 Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma# Because he was too excited, Sui Xiong spent most of an hour talking, and then calmed down. Acaine responded at the beginning. Later, he just listened earnestly, and could no longer interpose; because he couldn¡¯t understand Chinese. Yes, when it came to the end, Sui had already lost control of excitement in his heart and spoke Chinese. This kind of excitement naturally had its reason ¨C how many years had he been away from his home, alone in this foreign place, making a living? He ate raw fish and drank cold water. He only saw strange men, and could not see the traces of his hometown. He could not find the slightest hope to return home, or even have a little thing that could carry his emotion! But today, he finally found something that could carry his emotions and comfort his homesickness! And it was something he liked very much. Games! For him, a former game enthusiast, what could be better than the game that could comfort his homesickness? Food? Don¡¯t tease.Take a look at his current shape; what could he eat to get full? Not to mention that he was only a jellyfish now. He was thankful that he wouldn¡¯t be used as a food for others. Languages? Creating and promoting a language would cause much trouble for others! Let¡¯s be honest! When he was a student, the most hated subject was mathematics, the second was physics, and the third was a foreign language! He hated most subjects, including Chinese, chemistry, biology, geography, history, politics, sports, etc¡­. Besides music and fine art, he hated everything else! He couldn¡¯t bear to recall his past, and was separated from that period. Sui Xiong once thought carefully; what methods should be used to place his own homesickness? Now he had finally found it! So he was excited. He was so excited he was dancing, he was incoherent. When he gradually calmed down, he began to seriously discuss the feasibility of this plan. After some discussion, they finally determined that this plan was completely feasible! ¡°A playground with the theme of adventure and hunting? This is a very appropriate statement!¡± Acaine praised, admiringly, ¡°Your adjectives have been used very well; and the name is too relevant! The place where people play is a ¡®playground!''¡± It was only then he realized that in this world, there seemed to be no such thing as a playground. The civilians in this world lived hard lives. They worked all day and they couldn¡¯t save much money. A family farmer worked hard for a year, and after paying taxes, and the necessary daily expenses were deducted, perhaps only one gold coin would be left. This also required him to encounter a relatively generous lord; otherwise, the rest could only be calculated by using silver coins. Why were the pioneers still coming to the turbulent forest? It was because there was no lord here, and no tax was required. It was the church that controlled the development of the village, and most of the church¡¯s priests had little interest in worldly wealth. Good priests were keen to help others. Evil priests were keen to demonstrate majesty. All in all, it was to let the world understand that they believed in the greatness of the Gods. Then as long as they all came to believe, it was good. As for money? What purpose did it serve? Even if you could eat it, it was not worth paying attention to for these devotees, who voluntarily came to the outbacks of the poor areas to publicize the glory of Gods. Like the White-leaf Village that Sui had seen before, it seemed to him a terrible place. However, virtually every family could get one or two, or even three gold coins each year. This income level was similar to a middle-class family, compared with the average farmer household on the continent. Sui Xiong only saw the general landscape when playing games. It was no wonder that even after the war with the Shadow Devil, when Rhode was recruiting pioneers, many people still signed up. The civilians of this world were really suffering too much! The civilians had a hard lives and the nobles weren¡¯t much better off. They were rich, but their lives were still quite boring. Listening to the poets who occasionally passed by sing songs, holding parties at home, or hunting with servants were all the enjoyment of most nobles. Under such circumstances, there was an endless stream of desolation in the aristocratic circles. Sui Xiong had asked Steele, ¡°You are beautiful and talented, and you are the inheritor of a lord. Why are you putting all your energy into having sex? Why don¡¯t you use the energy you put into seducing men on learning governmental affairs?¡± ¡°Why?¡± asked Steele. ¡°This way, you can smoothly inherit the title!¡± ¡°After that?¡± ¡°You can take over as a female lord.¡± ¡°Then?¡± ¡°Make good governance and strive to make your own territory prosperous!¡± ¡°What about then?¡± ¡°And then, of course, you can enjoy life!¡± ¡°Finally; that¡¯s what it is!¡± Steele laughed, ¡°Geerteng City is shabby. If I want to enjoy life, I only need to have sex. Like what you said, the final thing for me is to be a good lord, but even then, I can only have enjoyment by having sex.¡± Sui was shocked, and could not help but sigh. ¡°You are so convincing that even I¡¯m speechless¡­¡± This was the life of nobles; and the entertainment of small traders and artisans was not as good as the nobles¡¯. Often, they only spent what they earned in pubs, casinos, and brothels, gaining some insignificant pleasure. Only places like Gars City would have entertainment venues such as theaters and circuses, allowing those with more spiritual needs to find satisfaction. For example, the wife of the late owner of Gars City was a female artist who was passionate about opera. However, nothing more. All in all, people in this world had a very poor spiritual life and lacked proper entertainment. If they could build a safer playground, it was believed that there would be a large number of people with money and spiritual emptiness rushing in and spending here. Sui Xiong even conceived a lot of facilities for playgrounds, from relaxing spas and massages to music halls and libraries, and pubs that let people boast. He put forward the various entertainment facilities in his own impression, one by one, and he and Acaine carefully discussed their feasibility. Eventually, they finalized a huge plan. ¡°It¡¯s a great design!¡± Acaine couldn¡¯t help but praise. A few days later, when passionate discussions came to an end and they looked at the huge model made by Sui¡¯s tactics, Acaine was impressed. ¡°This city is bound to become the world center of entertainment! And you will certainly become the God of Entertainment in this world!¡± Sui Xiong laughed three times, proudly. ¡°God of Entertainment? Oh! This title is for me. I am very satisfied!¡± After completing the design, Acaine continued to research and improve the mushrooms. As the foundation of the future city of entertainment, his mushrooms were of great importance, and needed further improvement. However, Sui Xiong mobilized his body and flew to the largest of the locations Frost and Graupel found to be suitable for the construction of the town, and slowly landed. ¡°Do it by myself, and I will have a lot of harvests.¡± He smiled to himself and started to dig. Idleness led to nothing, so he decided to dig out the planned underground city. It was surprisingly cold here, and the deeper he went, the more intense negative the energy was. Therefore, it was not easy to build a large underground city on his own. Sui Xiong was not a person who cared about superficial prestige. If he thought it was necessary, he would sweep the streets. What was more, this was building his ideal city of entertainment. Doing it on his own not only did no harm to his prestige, but instead gave him a sense of achievement in his construction. Seeing that the earth was being dug away little by little, and the deep underground was excavated into a huge maze, he was feeling full with satisfaction, and his mood was getting better and better. He had never understood before why people would spend months building virtual castles in games. Now he understood! The feeling of building a city was really amazing! He worked in the dark underground, digging the earth and creating a huge space. Then he used spells to reinforce the walls and columns to ensure they did not collapse. After completing the basic structure, he added various things to this space. For example, at the center of the maze, the walls would make every explorer dizzy, and give a sense of infinite exploration in a limited space. As for water and fire, the former could enhance liveliness and provide drinking water for the monsters living here, while the latter could provide lighting and enhance the atmosphere of adventure. Besides, he would also create a large variety of rocks and sculptures, through which he formed a truly cultural atmosphere that allowed every adventurer to actually feel that this maze was not a crude basement, but the foundation of a large cultural system. His ideas were more and more complex, and more and more places needed to be designed and modified. Almost every day, he had new ideas. After he reviewed, many of them were put into practice by him and became part of this huge underground city. He would have be building this way until the entire city was completely built. But during the autumn harvest, his work was interrupted. Ray invited him to go to Gars City, to participate in the revival celebration. Chapter 141 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Time flew by quickly; the huge explosion that destroyed half of Garth city was one and a half year ago. Initially, the survivors lived a very tough life. Even though Ray wrecked his brain and took measures that were both legal and illegal, he only wanted to provide the utmost basic material security for victims that had lost their homeland. During winter that year, many of them froze to death, which saddened him. After the winter, Garth City finally went through a time of repair. Although they were still in a depression and it was still quite a distance from the true ¡°revival,¡± the entire city was on track to develop stably. The harvest of the year was not too shabby and made Ray, who was ruler, beam with joy. He reckoned that no one would suffer cold and hunger that winter, or die due to poverty. To celebrate their bumper harvest, when they had completed their work of reaping autumn grain, he who was called ¡°Garth Iron Rooster¡± decided to splurge. He held a celebration for his people who had been working for one and a half years to relax and have some fun. ¡°That¡¯s great! I totally support the idea!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Are you lacking money? If you are, I have a batch of magic nuclei that are quite good in quality. Although they are all negative energy, they should be worth quite a bit of money¡­..¡± ¡°Money is not a problem,¡± Ray replied with a smile on his face. ¡°A simple celebration wouldn¡¯t cost much. A normal barbecue, normal wheat wine, normal water, white bread, normal porridge¡­ If we don¡¯t prepare really luxurious items, three thousand gold coins will be sufficient for such celebration. Although it ain¡¯t a small figure, for Garth city now, it is affordable.¡± ¡°Huh? You¡¯re not preparing any noble items?¡± Ray smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, ¡°I have no choice. I can¡¯t afford it. A noble celebration would cost three to five gold coins per head, while a commoner¡¯s celebration would be able to feed three heads happily with one gold coin. If it was Garth city back then, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem to hold a celebration that was of an even bigger scale. But now, we really can¡¯t afford it!¡± ¡°That¡¯s really tough¡­¡± Sui Xiong sighed. ¡°Then, is there anything that I can help you with?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Ray smiled, ¡°I want to invite Your Majesty to join our celebration. I know that you are taking a rest, so sending over your clone would do.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and said in confusion, ¡°Why do you want to invite me? I¡¯d really like to join the crowd, but during a celebration for human, if suddenly there was a green jelly fish that flew around¡­ That wouldn¡¯t be a good idea.¡± ¡°What¡¯s not good about that? You are the God that I believe in, you are the final settling place of my soul. At such a celebration, if you are not there, that¡¯s really not good!¡± Seeing Ray being so persistent, Sui Xiong hesitated but accepted his invitation. It¡¯s just another clone after all; it wouldn¡¯t expend much of my energy. So, after half a day, an invisible green jellyfish was flying around happily on Garth Plaza, which was preparing for a celebration. It flew in circles and up and down, just like a naughty kid. Ray could clearly see Sui Xiong¡¯s delighted look from his office window. He couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°Even if he is God, he needs entertainment just like human!¡± He sighed. ¡°All this time; His Majesty must be exhausted from training and building the church. I¡¯m glad he will seize the chance to relax. Looking at people¡¯s smiling face would made one feel happy too.¡± Then, he lowered his head to continue managing government affairs. Along with Garth City¡¯s gradual revival, the government affairs that he had to take care of increased. There were urgent cases every day. Even those that were not urgent, would become so over time. Plus, there would be more unexpected trouble that could happen. Ever since he took up the post, for the past a year and a half, he didn¡¯t even have time for martial arts training during his busiest times. Fortunately, it had gotten much better¡­ Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know Ray was having a tough live. At that very moment, he was enjoying his time flying around the plaza and savoring the leisure that was hard to come by. All this time, he had been busy working underground and couldn¡¯t see broad daylight. Even though his body didn¡¯t feel exhaustion, spiritually it was tiring. He was delighted to be able to relax at the moment. He flew past the busy crowd happily and saw smiling faces that were filled with anticipation and hope. He was feeling even happier then. ¡°Ray deserved his origins of a prince. He was capable, just as expected! Within the short timespan of two years, he turned Garth city, which almost fell into ruins, into quite something. Such efficiency; he could be considered as a capable person even on Earth!¡± He flew while he sighed with emotion. Suddenly, his body shook and he stopped immediately to look at a corner of the plaza. It was a stage set up for bard to perform. That very moment, there was a good looking young man that was playing his flute gently on the chair. He was not the kind that had broad chest and enough breath. He didn¡¯t look like he was using much effort, but the deep melodious flute seemed to have penetration power to spread all over the plaza, leisurely. It was like a warm wind in summer, warming up everyone¡¯s heart. From what Sui Xiong saw, the young man was engulfed in a layer of intriguing divine light, something any commoner wouldn¡¯t possess. Looking at his appearance and aura, and then his actions, his identity was vividly portrayed. ¡°Who would have guess that the Boy of Ceremony would visit such small celebration.¡± When the flute was done, he flew over. He cast magic to have people overlook the situation there, and greeted the young man with a smile. ¡°Hello, I am Void Mask, a God that gained a few believers in this city.¡± The one who was called ¡®Boy of Ceremony¡¯ was God of happiness and celebration. He was originally a human named Janvier. After he became God officially, he built a kingdom of god named ¡°Joy of the Wild.¡± He placed it at the border of the Country of Light, God¡¯s Kingdom of God for humans turned God. His teachings were to chase after happiness, and enjoy celebration regardless of purpose and standpoint, and to compliment everything about celebration. He himself always appeared as a handsome young man to participate in the celebrations in person, and cast blessed divine spells in large scale at the celebrations. He was a kind popular God. When he saw Sui Xiong was introducing himself, the young man kept his flute and smiled. ¡°To me, if it¡¯s celebration, it deserves compliments. Not to mention that the celebration is filled with countless people¡¯s hope and wishes. It¡¯s the fruits of their labor. To me, if such celebration doesn¡¯t deserve a visit, it¡¯s a shame.¡± Sui Xiong clapped his tentacles and smiled. ¡°You are right! Celebration doesn¡¯t need to be luxurious, doesn¡¯t need scale. The most important part is sincerity in celebration, and the beauty of hope!¡± In just a few words, the two Gods that had never met came to a mutual agreement. After a few minutes, they were seated at a table in the corner, chatting while drinking. They hit it off well right from the beginning; it was like they were old friends. ¡°The world is big and there are countless worlds in various sizes. Almost every day there is celebrations. As a god post, I am supposed to sing the praises for every celebration. But actually¡­¡± Janvier let out a heavy sigh while he shook the big wooden mug and looked at the wheat wine that was bubbling. He smiled bitterly and said, ¡°There were many celebration that I didn¡¯t like!¡± ¡°Oh? Why so?¡± ¡°Invaders celebrate their victory. They slaughter innocent lives collectively. Shout and jump with joy amongst the bloody and moaning. This is the most common celebration.¡± Janvier hung his head low, and he didn¡¯t look happy at all. ¡°Such things; what¡¯s the point of such celebration! This kind of celebration is worth praising!¡± ¡°Huh? You don¡¯t like that kind of celebration?¡± ¡°Of course I don¡¯t! I am a bard. What I like is for everyone to sing, dance, eat and drink, when everyone is having fun. Invaders cheer among the bloodbath. Such things don¡¯t correspond with my concept of aesthetic and moral!¡± Janvier sighed and looked up to the sky, ¡°If I knew there would be such things, I wouldn¡¯t have asked to be a God officially back then!¡± He took a big gulp from the wine glass and finished it. He carried the big wooden pail next to him with his fine arms and poured himself another glass. ¡°Oscar, you have yet to become an official God. As your senior, I¡¯d like to give you an advice. When you are selecting a clergy, you have to be very very careful!¡± Sui Xiong nodded lightly to show that he understood what he meant. ¡°I didn¡¯t understand why those strong giant dragons from dragon tribes picked some weak post during officiation; like ¡°birth of golden dragon,¡±¡±celebration of black dragon;¡± Totally ridiculous! Then, I understood later on. What¡¯s it called? Old fox? They are the old foxes!¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Those dragon tribe Gods were cunning! ¡°And,¡± Janvier continued, ¡°After officiation, you must consider which God system you¡¯d like to join. Let me tell you¡­¡± He suddenly stopped and kept quiet. Then, he let out a heavy sigh. When Sui Xiong looked at his maturity and haggardness which was entirely different from his face, he let out a sigh too. Gods, clergy; such heavy topics. Almost every clergy that talked to him about this topic became gloomy and depressed. He couldn¡¯t help but recall the pitiful sight before Goddess of Ocean died. Forget about the physical pain; the hopelessness that surged from the bottom of her heart was even more startling. ¡°Forget about it.¡± He switched the topic and asked with a smile, ¡°When do you plan to stay here until?¡± ¡°Got to wait till the celebration ends,¡± Janvier said. ¡°You know, according to my rules, I have to cast a divinity spell in large scale. What do you think is better? Healing spell? Blessing spell? How about a Luck spell?¡± ¡°¡­Up to you. All good things, anyway,¡± Sui Xiong replied but he suddenly laughed. ¡°I have another friend that just came. Would you like to meet him?¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Janvier took his wine glass in one hand and wine barrel in another hand. He laughed lightly as he stood up. As a clergy, His range of senses was wide. He could immediately tell who the friend was that Sui Xiong was referring to. With a flash of light, the two of them were before the sea, facing a breezy cloud that was spinning lightly. ¡°It seems that you have already combined all the energy that you have gotten from Timsar,¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°Then, how should I address you now? ¡®Raging Tide¡¯ Timsar or ¡®The Living Tsunami¡¯ Sarament? Chapter 142 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong¡¯s question was of course an innuendo. ¡°Name¡± was the emblem of approval. If it were to approve the name ¡°Heimsarah,¡± it meant that the powerful semi God still maintained his thought and feelings back then, and He was still Sui Xiong¡¯s friend; But, if it approved the name ¡°Sarament¡± instead, they were just acquaintances. Among the gentle wind, the waves billowed. A steady and deep voice was heard from the sea. ¡°I am still Heimsarah, it¡¯s just that I have gotten brand new strength and wisdom. As for Sarament; I am his successor, just that. If so, everyone¡¯s happy. Then, Heimsarah explained his situation to Sui Xiong in detail. Back then, after it defeated Timsar, it took in the legacy that he had inherited and snuck into bedrock underwater. It then slowly absorbed and fused the legacy. To a giant like it, time was really not something that he had any concept about. A year plus passed before it realised. If it didn¡¯t feel Sui Xiong¡¯s scent and want to thank the friend that helped him a lot in person, it would still be fusing slowly in the bedrock underwater. ¡°You have yet to complete fusing?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°I thought it had been done.¡± ¡°The most crucial part is done, but the rest still in its early stages,¡± Heimsarah replied. ¡°The others left were slow workmanship. I reckon, mm, about 100 years will do. It wouldn¡¯t be more than 200, 300 years at most.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while. He sighed, ¡°My friend, your concept towards time¡­. There¡¯s really a problem with it!¡± From 100 years to 200 or 300 years. The timespan was vastly different! Heimsarah¡¯s original body was still in the bedrock underwater, slowly absorbing power from Timsar. That moment, it was just a clone that appeared before Sui Xiong and Janvier. But, it was nothing big, as Sui Xiong and Javier were using their clones too. To experts at their level, a clone would be strong enough. If it was just for chatting and fun, it¡¯s more than enough. The three of them discussed and turned into three adventurers along a cloud of smoke. They then returned to Garth City happily. They went to a restaurant that was of the highest class and ordered a sumptuous banquet. Most importantly, they bought a barrel of wine to drink while chatting. Actually Sui Xiong and Heimsarah weren¡¯t alcoholics. The only one that couldn¡¯t leave drinks behind was Janvier. Different from his two friends from the sea, Janvier was a real Day Touring God that strolled every day from dusk till dawn, and made appearances in countless celebrations. Hence, he had extensive knowledge and was well-informed. His knowledge could be as insignificant as that one of the King¡¯s newborn babies was actually a production of his concubine and guard; to something as important as two clergies¡¯ accumulated resentment over the years, which would explode soon, leading to an inevitable God war. Those were all his topics of conversation. And he didn¡¯t care about the ¡°propriety¡± of the problem. From what he saw, all the news was only categorized as ¡°interesting¡± and ¡°not so interesting.¡± As for importance¡­ Was it interesting? If it¡¯s wasn¡¯t, then no! During their conversation, Sui Xiong brought up the things that he was busy about at that time. ¡°I have a bunch of believers in Ashes Woods in the northwest region,¡± He said. ¡°In order to settle them, I will need to build a church.¡± ¡°This is very common,¡± Janvier said. ¡°Not worth bringing up.¡± ¡°This is very common indeed, what interesting is at the back,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°As you all know, Ashes Woods has strong negativity, and if the soil is not purified, commoners can¡¯t live there, let alone plant crops or raise domestic animals.¡± ¡°Mm, that¡¯s not a good place,¡± Heimsarah said. ¡°I don¡¯t like the scent there!¡± ¡°Yes; that¡¯s why to build the seat of a church, I am planning to get a piece of purified land.¡± ¡°Purifying using magic? Have you mastered the death realm?¡± Janvier asked. ¡°If you have yet to master death realm, you can only rely on force; that¡¯s such a waste. I have a friend who has profound attainments in death realm. Although his concept of aesthetic is problematic, it¡¯s overall worth a discussion.¡± ¡°In death realm and all, I only know a bit. But what I thought of wasn¡¯t to purify the soil with magic, but to use the widespread negativity and make a set of interesting things¡­¡± Sui Xiong spent a long period of time explaining his plan: to build a city that combined adventure and entertainment as a whole, and the underground city acting at its core. He even used magic to make a model. As of then, the finished part of underground city was a clear sight while part of his plan, especially on the ground, was just shadow. Looking at the mass model, forget about Heimsarah, that was a bumpkin; Janvier was really shocked. ¡°Oh god! Such great design! Such ornate concept! Such spectacular ¨C this is simply miracle!¡± He looked at the model carefully and imagined what the city would look like in the future. He couldn¡¯t help but give it compliments. After compliments, he immediately raised his request. He hoped that his believers could have a footing in the city; it would be best if they could run a hotel or something the sort. It would be perfect! ¡°Of course it wouldn¡¯t be a problem to run a hotel, but my plan was to build a combination theme park that combined food, entertainment and leisure. Could you find me some decent chefs and massage masters?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Money is not an issue. I don¡¯t even need them to stay, as long as they taught a few apprentices.¡± Janvier patted his chest immediately and said, ¡°Let me take care of this! Forget about the others. Eating, drinking and having fun is something I¡¯m expert in!¡± The three of them laughed and continued feasting. After they had enough food and drink, they walked around Garth city. Sometimes, they turned into three clouds of green smoke went into the people¡¯s home to look at their lives and to drop a few gold coins in the corner; sometimes, they turned into three long breezes and soared up in the sky to compete about their understanding toward God¡¯s power. More often than not, they appeared as three adventurers, and had meals in one restaurant after another. Not only did they tried a number of restaurants in Garth city, they even flew into the nearby cities and enjoyed delicacies from the east coast. Then, Janvier put his talent in eating, drinking and having fun to full use. That guy really didn¡¯t bullshit. Every city they got to, he could tell where the good food and fun was at. Not one missed hit. Not only was he familiar with famous attractions and restaurants, he was familiar with unnoticeable and unique attractions and restaurants that were small and exquisite. ¡°Not only are you God of happiness and celebration, you are simply the God of eat, drink and fun!¡± After a few days of fun, Sui Xiong complimented satisfyingly, ¡°I think if there was anything related to eat, drink and fun, there wouldn¡¯t be anything that you don¡¯t know!¡± ¡°Yes. I am preparing in silence, planning to switch my God role,¡± Janvier smiled and said. ¡°I am planning to give up my role in celebration, as I suit eating, drinking and fun more. My plan is to switch me clergy post to ¡°enjoy¡± clergy plus ¡°happiness¡± clergy. In short, I will appeal to my believers, to enjoy life. Regardless of the hardship and suffering, they have to find things that make them happy. They have to encourage themselves to face their lives with a smile on their faces. What do you think about this clergy and teaching?¡± ¡°Not too shabby,¡± Heimsarah replied. ¡°Very interesting.¡± ¡°Although it felt too idealistic, it is much more reliable than before.¡± Sui Xiong nodded in agreement. ¡°But, it is not that easy to change your clergy post, right?¡± Janvier sighed softly and took another gulp of wine, ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s difficult. Maybe it will require another hundred or thousand years. But, no matter how difficult it is, I have to figure out a way! We Gods are as such. You either adapt to the clergy post or change your clergy post. If you want to force yourself to hold strongly at the clergy post that is against your school of thought, there will be trouble over time. When he said so, Sui Xiong suddenly recalled Goddess of Ocean¡¯s encounter, and he nodded continuously. ¡°Oh yeah; you are not officially promoted to God yet. What kind of clergy post are you looking for?¡± Janvier suddenly switched the topic and talked about Sui Xiong again. ¡°Although there¡¯s nothing bad about being a nature god, the speed of growth as a nature god is a problem. Plus, when you get stronger, you might not be able to stay back at a main dimension in another few hundred years. When you leave the main dimension without an exact clergy post, you will be at a disadvantage. ¡°I haven¡¯t thought about it yet,¡± Sui Xiong said in distress. ¡°The territory power that I possess is not little. Technically, I could seek out many clergy posts. But taking in consideration my outlook on the life, world and values, there are not many choices left. Maybe, I will spend my time and effort on ¡®ice,¡¯ seeking for such nature clergy post that would suit my needs more.¡± ¡°The competition among nature clergy post is too vigorous. I do not suggest you to seek for that,¡± Janvier said and shook his head. ¡°For instance, for ice. You would have to to fight against the crazy bunch from Arctic Federation, and the few that are not crazy, but mean Gods. Even if you won against them, you would still have to pass through the barrier of King of Four Elements. Unless you are willing to bow to them and swear not to chase after promotion of strong godly power, they wouldn¡¯t let you pass through that stage. Sui Xiong let out a breath of relief. He didn¡¯t think much back then. He thought by selecting natural phenomenon as clergy he would be able to avoid the heavy burden of power of belief. Evidently, everyone was not stupid. Everyone wanted to fight for such free and unrestrained clergy. If he were to be promoted as God from that particular direction, it would be even more difficult than it already was! ¡°I have a suggestion,¡± Janvier said. ¡°The theme park design is very good. I believe it will definitely receive great admiration; there might even be people that follow as an example. Why don¡¯t you just be a ¡®God of Theme Park.''¡± ¡°God of Theme Park? This can work?¡± ¡°Of course; actually, ¡®God of Underground City¡¯ or ¡®God of Entertainment¡¯ are all good choices. But if you pick the ones before, be ready to battle with a few wicked Gods; if you pick the latter one¡­ Ha-ha, as for those who seek for such clergy, there isn¡¯t just me alone!¡± Listening to his introduction and analysis, Sui Xiong nodded lightly and was deep in thought. Unless¡­ He really wanted to suddenly change his identity, from a giant jelly fish, to God of Theme Park, in a flash? He imagined the entrance of each theme park in the future would have a portrait of his, and he was thrilled. That was totally a strange world version of Disney¡­ Chapter 143 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Speaking of theme park, he thought of Disney. Speaking of Disney, what would one think of? Mickey Mouse? Donald Duck? Sui Xiong imagined his image after he was promoted as God with the clergy post of ¡°God of Theme Park¡± and he felt that his balls were in pain. Would there really come a day where a middle aged uncle that was balding would wear the costume of a green jellyfish in the theme park? Would he be acting cute by saying ¡°Ee yah! Ee yah!¡± while he distributed candy and balloons to kids that were there? Okay¡­ It didn¡¯t seem that bad¡­ He thought, and he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Janvier saw his look of stolen happiness and gave an understanding smile. He could tell that Sui Xiong had already accepted his suggestion. The clergy post of ¡°God of Theme Park¡± did not conflict with any other clergy, and the clergy itself was not bounded by belief in extreme measures. Even if there were any changes in the mainland and all theme parks were gone, in tens of thousand of worlds, there needed to be the existence of some other theme park. There was no need to worry about the breakdown of the clergy. The only downfall was probably that people who were serious would never be able to accept such ¡°lowbrow¡± clergy. But the world was so huge, there were all kinds of people. If the God himself could pass through the stage, he never had to worry about lacking of believers. To complain about lowbrow, was he, the ¡°God of Happiness and Celebration,¡± any more serious? Don¡¯t forget about the bunch of devils that aimed to destroy the world. There were even evil Gods that insisted on not accepting any clergy post, not building Holy Kingdoms. Instead they built pathways of belief by themselves and closed their door to have fun on their own. Compared to those crazy people and psychopaths, what was wrong with ¡°God of Theme Park¡±? It was awesome! Just then, there was the sound of singing from outside that messed up their thoughts. It was a bard that was preparing for a celebration performance, rehearsing for the very last time. Time passed by very quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was the eve of the celebration. Garth City then looked way more crowded compared with before. Not only were there adventurers and bards that came over from the nearby towns, there were also small to medium businessmen that popped by as their saw business opportunities. There were even people that had savings that came by to join the crowd. ¡°Ray did well!¡± Looking at the busy scene outside the window, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but smile when he said, ¡°Within two years¡¯ time, he managed to rectify a ruin to presentable city. If he were to be King, he would definitely be a smart King for the generation!¡± ¡°He is really a capable person!¡± Janvier nodded as he complimented. ¡°Until he is dead, you could appoint him as general in your Holy Kingdom and have him command and control the entire Holy Kingdom. I believe that he could definitely be up to the job!¡± Heimsarah bit off a chicken leg with one bite and he chewed the meat and bones together while he spoke. ¡°Maybe he could be promoted as a God, too.¡± Sui Xiong was suddenly stunned. He looked to the direction of the resident city owner. Even though the wall blocked his view, he could clearly feel that Ray, who was amending documents felt his gaze upon him, and lifted his head to smile in return. Such terrifying sensitivity; his unusual capability to put revival of Garth city on track in a short time span of one and a half years; the valour of fighting a battle against an army of thousands of soldiers alone back then. Thinking about it carefully, Ray was really an extremely outstanding figure. If he really did go towards a path to be promoted as God, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising. But, it was still a bit of a shock¡­ He smiled towards Ray¡¯s direction and turned around to look at Janvier, to ask the senior God¡¯s opinion. Janvier was obviously in shock. He looked to the side as he thought about something. After a while, he smiled and nodded. ¡°Such possibility exists, and it is not small. At least, when I was still a commoner back then, I was far weaker compared to him. Even I managed to be promoted as God. He has hope to be promoted, as well¡± ¡°But¡­¡± He hesitated. Finally he let out the second half of what he intended to say. ¡°Honestly speaking, from what I see, maybe it would be better not to promote him as God.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and asked, ¡°Why?¡± ¡°If I¡¯m not mistaken, he is the direct descendant of Eagle Kingdom royalty, the Igor family. His bloodline should be quite pure. Considering his age, he probably was the young prince from the rumoured ¡°Blood Dyed Eagle Comb¡± fifteen years ago, who was shot to death with poisonous arrow in the chaos. The young prince was the genius swordsman, Leon Igor.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and said, ¡°That¡¯s right. He said his name once; that was it.¡± ¡°If he is Prince Leon, as the son of Eagle, he inherited the bloodline of God of Eagle. In the future, if he were to be promoted as God, I¡¯m afraid it is very possible that the God of Eagle will be resurrected with the help of his descending bloodline, using him as a medium.¡± Janvier let out a breath of regret and continued, saying, ¡°God of Eagle fought against His Majesty, God of Light, for the position of Main God of Human Gods. The two parties had a few fights. In the end, defeated by His Majesty¡¯s Buddha Divinity Spell and passed away under his God Hammer. But, he once made an oath that he would definitely return to fight for the supreme honor. Back then I was only a newly joined God. When I looked at the battle from afar, it was soul stirring.¡± ¡°What you mean is, if Ray were to be promoted as God, the God of Eagle might possess his body?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes displayed a dangerous light. ¡°He should dare! If the God of Eagle really dares to make any funny moves, I will bash him to the point that he couldn¡¯t even be a ghost!¡± ¡°The crucial problem is not about whether if the God of Eagle would resurrect, but if His Majesty would tolerate the idea of giving the God of Eagle an opportunity to resurrect.¡± What Janvier said made Sui Xiong crease his eyebrows. The intention of what these new friends of his said was clear: the King of Human Gods, who was high above, would never allow the previous challenger to make a comeback. In other words, if Ray wanted to be promoted as a God, even if the God of Eagle had no way to possess his body to resurrect, the God of Light would show no mercy and kill him. ¡°Is there no space for negotiation? He will be okay if the God of Eagle doesn¡¯t resurrect, right?¡± Janvier smiled bitterly and shook his head. ¡°His Majesty¡­ is not really someone who is open to discussion!¡± ¡°Do you know the God of Knights? That one who once created us; Human Gods, our patron saints at the very beginning, the King of Kings that protected his during our tough times. He is senior that we all Clergies respect. I adore him regardless of experience or power. But even He has no rights to speak before His Majesty. Back then when He realised that human society was getting along with the other tribes, but were striving away from Road of Kindness, He once gave suggestion; in the end¡­¡± Janvier was not willing to share such embarrassment in detail but constantly shook his head and sighed heavily. Although Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know how the story went, he knew the consequence was that the God of Knight¡¯s camp was sidetracked, from a kind order to a wicked one. It was well-known among all Gods, to the point where it was once brought up in the information given by God of Redemption. But Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know before that there was such a behind-the-scenes story. Even if God of Knight had such an encounter, it seemed that it was obviously impossible to consult with God of Light. Then¡­ how about resistance? Sui Xiong smiled bitterly while he shook his head, to cast aside such unrealistic thoughts. There was an entire God system under the command of the God of Light. Even if he was extraordinarily brave and fierce and he defeated a few of them alone, any of the rest of the Gods could easily squish Ray to death like an ant. ¡°It seems like this could only be left alone¡­¡± He smiled in embarrassment and diverted away from the topic. In his heart, he was deliberating in secret. The Human Gods system is strong in power, but the range of power is pretty concentrated. Almost ninety percent of the power is concentrated in the main dimension and a few big worlds nearby. If I were to bring Ray to the border of the world, some human power would be extremely weak and even controlled by devils who are extremely hostile towards human world. If Ray were to be promoted as God there, even if God of Light was powerful, He wouldn¡¯t be able to stop him. The only problem is, how do I control or communicate with the devil or demon in those worlds? Those bastards¡­. Might not be any easier to talk to compared to God of Light¡­ He buried all his thought deep in his heart and saved them for when he had the chance to take action. Anyway, Ray just gotten to the legend realm not too long ago. He still had to slowly level up to semi god, and understand and master the power of the root. Then, finally look for a clergy that was aligned to his belief. Completing that set of tasks would require at least a few centuries at the fastest, and it was normal to take a few thousand years even, if one was slow. He himself had plenty of time to prepare! Janvier saw that he didn¡¯t continue to talk about that topic; he smiled and left it behind too. Although He was a human, strictly speaking, He was not a core member of Human Gods system, but fell under the pantheistic Gods that lived in territory of the Human God system. It casually reminded Sui Xiong of the emphasis on the God of Light¡¯s dignity, who considered himself having given his all. To betray his friend for loyalty? He was not the downline for the stubborn God of Gods! The topic stopped there. Then, everyone continued to chat like nothing happened; chit-chatting casually and happily, just like few days back. Gods were all firm and persistent. Which God had not gone through years of trials and tribulations? Which God had not pushed through countless dangers! Since it was left aside at the time being, they wouldn¡¯t let that affect their emotions. Oh, Heimsarah might not have such qualities, but he probably didn¡¯t think so far ahead¡­ But, Sui Xiong knew very soon that he would belittle the man. In the morning on the second day,the strolling troop which surrounded the simply festooned vehicle entered Garth city through the rebuilt gate. Heimsarah¡ªwho was invisible alongside Sui Xiong and Javier by the side of the road¡ªsuddenly spoke. ¡°It¡¯s about time to send the news, to let His Majesty to dispatch the envoys up shore to send the presents.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes suddenly opened wide. He looked at Heimsarah, who suddenly turned into a fat man. ¡°What Majesty? What envoys? What present? Why didn¡¯t you say anything earlier!¡± Heimsarah¡¯s honest chubby face showed a round smile. ¡°Your believer is throwing a celebration; how could His Majesty not dispatch an envoy to congratulate him? My friend, did you forget about your identity?¡± Sui Xiong thought carefully and recalled that he might be looked upon by the new God of Ocean¡­ ¡°Even since the birth of His Majesty, He had been in touch with eight of the Sea Kings one by one. We approve of his will and attitude and will acknowledge allegiance to him after he is promoted as God. We will then become his God followers and built an Oceanic Gods system,¡± Heimsarah smiled as he spoke. ¡°The reason why I stayed underwater near Garth city was because I am entrusted to guard this city on his behalf.¡± ¡°I thought you just looked for a nearby place to randomly stay.¡± ¡°How would that be possible! Please don¡¯t treat me like a dumbass, okay!¡± Heimsarah didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry, but shook his head and sighed, ¡°Save the nonsense. I need to send out the news. The envoys that are here to congratulate are arriving at the plaza behind the festooned vehicle in a bit.¡± Then, there was a light breeze that blew past them, towards the sea surface. Sui Xiong could clearly feel there was some gentle and friendly aura slowly emerging from under the nearby water. Chapter 144 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Those auras emerging from underwater were from the envoys that were in the sea. They prepared presents and planned to visit Garth city during the celebration, to get along with the neighbors and start a diplomatic friendship. Sui Xiong of course wouldn¡¯t object to the idea. Just when he wanted to thank them, Janvier suddenly smiled and said, ¡°Why not let them wait for a bit. Wait for a little while more; the effect will be even greater.¡± Sui Xiong and Heimsarah were stunned. Have to ¡°wait for a bit¡± to send a present? ¡°Greater effects¡±? ¡°What so mysterious? What¡¯s going on?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Janvier smiled cunningly and said, ¡°Don¡¯t forget that I¡¯m God of Celebration. I could clearly predict that there would be some accident during today¡¯s celebration. If you were to let the envoys that came to congratulate hold on for a bit and make an appearance during a crucial moment, the effect would be very good; unexpectedly great!¡± Heimsarah looked at Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong nodded. Then, he sent out a message again, to have the envoys who were prepared to depart to wait a little while more and wait for his news. The time passed by and the festooned vehicle slowly came to the plaza. Along with people cheering, it drove past the arch that was built last minute and stopped before the stage that was not luxurious but still crowded. Ray changed into formal wear, which was a rare sight, a plain black knight wear that brimmed with mysterious and elegant character. In harmony with his good looking face, his healthy and graceful body and his soldierly aura, it drew everyone¡¯s attention. When he stood up to give a speech, there were tons of women gawking at him under the stage. Ever since he had entered legendary realm, Ray¡¯s appearance had been changing gradually. All in all, he looked younger and even more handsome. Compared to the broken down thief that Sui Xiong forcefully took in, he was now daring and energetic, in high spirits; totally deserving of his identity of a prince. He avoid verbosity but simple reminisced about when Garth City was a ruin. He thanked everyone for working hard and looked ahead to their future, which he firmly believed would be even better. Honestly, the speech wasn¡¯t sensational but it tugged the heartstrings of people staying in Garth city. Everyone had lived a tough life for the last year or so. From building with every brick and tile in a hopeless situation back then, to finally rebuilding a township from a ruin. Even though he didn¡¯t say it, he felt a sense of achievement. When Ray gave his speech, there was surge of emotion in everyone¡¯s heart. There were times of work, abandonment, depression; changing bit by bit, developing bit by bit. Looking back, every drop of sweat left a deep trace. Looking ahead, scenes of booming prosperity were just around the corner! Not knowing who started first, the people in the plaza started cheering. There were tearful voices among the cheers, as they were hot with emotion. The sudden hail was thundering; a spirited fervor soared up the sky and made all the Gods that were paying attention looked to the side. It seemed as though they could see Garth city as a traveller that was once severely injured, but had fully recovered, and was preparing his luggage by the bed to depart again. He was once injured all over and took staggered steps but he had almost recovered now. He was once depressed and disheartened but at the moment he was high spirited and had high morale. ¡°Garth city will be revived,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Yes, I can see that.¡± The corner of Janvier¡¯s mouth raised faintly, showing a hint of reflection. ¡°Only¡­ maybe there were too many people that could tell; it wouldn¡¯t be a good thing!¡± After cheering, it was the real city owner¡¯s turn to give a speech: Casari Riley. The east coast maiden that was famous for her beauty was gawking at Ray, especially when his speech stirred high emotions among the crowds. She felt moved. She then walked onto the stage with tears welled up in her eyes and that made people adore her even more. She was not someone like Ray who could give a short, to-the-point speech. She was also not someone like Ray who had high prestige. But her beauty held a power of persuasiveness, especially when she thanked everyone with her watery eyes, thanked everyone for willing to believe in the Riley family after drastic changes, to have and to hold on, to unite, and to battle for the revival of Garth city. That stirred countless men¡¯s hearts and got their blood boiling. To work for such a cute and innocent girl? Don¡¯t even mention about putting in sweat and effort, it wouldn¡¯t have been a problem to take their own lives! After the speeches by archon and city owner, they didn¡¯t invite the local head of religion to deliver a speech, according to convention. The church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest that originally seized ruling position in Garth city suffered severe damage in the war; even the Goddess of Bumper Harvest herself passed away in her incarnation. All the while, they had been low profile, and weren¡¯t fond of the limelight. Of course, even if they tried to court publicity, Ray wouldn¡¯t agree with them! Even the church of God of Wealth who put in a lot of effort and provided a huge sum of loan during rebuilt of Garth city did not go on stage. The God of Wealth was a God that wasn¡¯t good at fighting. Even though the Goddess of Bumper Harvest suffered heavy losses, He did not have guts to fight against the old God. Using the method of spreading money to buy in two wall corner would do. If they were to go on stage to deliver a speech, that signified their intention to fight for the position of core belief in Garth city. That meant He fell out with Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Don¡¯t forget that Garth city was once fully controlled by the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest. To Her, the city¡¯s belief had a very unique meaning She wouldn¡¯t allow anyone to meddle in. As for the other churches, they never thought of fighting for the leading role for religion in Garth city. Of course they wouldn¡¯t go up to the point where the going was the toughest. Instead, the church of Goddess of Marsh was interested. The Goddess had been keeping Her eyes on Garth city constantly. She even fought with Goddess of Bumper Harvest previously and, in the end, neither sides gained ground. But it was obvious how firm Her intention was. Even since the last war, the Goddess of Marsh went to the dark side and no one knew where she hid or what she did. The Goddess of Marsh was lost; even the God of Justice asked around, but there was no news. So, the speech by church was skipped. Ray waved his hands and announced that entertainment time started then! What was the entertainment? Singing songs, dancing, eating, drinking, having fun; something along those lines. The most important among all, was eating! Ray made sufficient preparations. Dozens of chefs were busy by the side of the plaza, the breads that were freshly baked were hot, wheat wine that wasn¡¯t mixed with water was fragrant and delicious, and the aroma of barbecued meat and steamed fish made people salivate. Not only that, there were fresh fruits and vegetables. And, there were even a few strong men that were at the juicery to help people who were interested to juice the fruits and drink on the spot. There was also an unlimited supply of seafood; it didn¡¯t matter how much one was to eat. The most unique among all were the few round pots. They were on low fires, just nice enough to keep the soup in the pot at a simmer. Next to the pots were various ingredients that were cut into slices, and there were some attendants to look after the booth and to prepare seasonings for people who wanted to try them. Under their guidance, the people pairs of tongs made with fine wooden pieces to hold the food and soak them in the boiling soup, take them out when they were just cooked, dip into the seasoning, and eat it while it was hot. Such a dining method had not been tried before and attracted a large crowd. Steele, who was in charge of food and beverages, had to transfer more helpers and added a another few pots of soup, wooden tongs, and large amount of ingredients with another attendant that taught them how to eat. ¡°The eating method is very interesting; I have never seen it before,¡± Janvier said as he turned into a normal adventurer and moved over to take a few portion of food. He was very cunning; he picked all the higher quality meat that was most fresh and delicious then he boiled them just so. He took a bite and he beamed with joy. He was full of praises. ¡°That¡¯s awesome! I wonder which chef invented it¡­ He is a genius!¡± Sui Xiong smiled faintly and raised his head proudly. ¡°It¡¯s you?¡± Janvier suddenly understood his hint and he was so shocked that the food in his mouth nearly fell out. He left his mouth hanging open while he looked at Sui Xiong who was smug. He didn¡¯t believe his eyes. ¡°You are a jellyfish, how would you know anything about cooking?!¡± ¡°Who stipulated that jellyfish cannot know how to cook? Let me tell you, there are many things that I know of!¡± Sui Xiong laughed with his head held high. ¡°I know about space and shadow, sketching, symbols of art, expression of colour and feelings, appraisal of art, various views of ancient paintings, visual language, shapes, human body sketching, cartography and design, sculpture and decoration. Let me tell you, actually the clergy that suits me the most is God of Art!¡± Janvier nodded blankly. Those things that Sui Xiong said; he could understood them if they were separated, but he couldn¡¯t understand them in combination. It couldn¡¯t be said that he didn¡¯t know, the rough concept could be understood by a few guesses here and there. But he had never expected Sui Xiong, a jellyfish, would understand so many things about art! Although the mermaid tribe under the deep sea was abound with artists, they were rich with musicians and singers, a sculptor at most, but never a painter! ¡°You want to be the God of Art?¡± After a while, he responded and asked softly. ¡°This clergy has been taken away. You will either share with Him or be ready to fight a battle¡­ are you sure you want to do that?¡± ¡°I just said it casually. Don¡¯t take it seriously,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°Come on, eat more!¡± ¡°Mm! Eat more!¡± Heimsarah stuffed the bunch of vegetables that looked red and were drenched in god knows how much seasoning into his mouth. His saliva was splashing all over with the sauce, disgusting many. Janvier rolled his eyes and wiped away the sauce that splashed onto his face. He then quickly moved two steps further to stay away from the bastard that had bad table manners. Looking around, most of the people didn¡¯t look quite well-mannered. All these condiments and sauces that were fragrant, spicy and sweet, that consisted of Sui Xiong¡¯s memory, were like heat that was soaring up in their mouths. There were many people that had their eyes and noses running; their foreheads were also dripping with sweat. But they didn¡¯t have any intention to give up. They were laughing at each other¡¯s ugliness in eating while continuing to feast. Not far away, the bards were performing some happy program while a few clowns were cracking jokes and fooling around. The atmosphere at the plaza was extremely busy. Almost there, Janvier thought in his heart. He lowered his head and smiled cunningly. The bastard who has a death wish should be here soon. Just as he expected, just as everyone was busy having fun, a voice that didn¡¯t go well with the atmosphere rang. ¡°Miss Riley; up to this moment of bumper harvest, aren¡¯t you supposed to lead everyone to pray to Madam Richness (Goddess of Bumper Harvest) and thank Her for the bestowed flavour upon them?¡± Chapter 145 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Once the question dropped, Ray and Casari who were originally all smiles turned gloomy. The one who spoke was the priest from the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Ever since the previous priest Heli Riley passed away, the old man that was originally far away from the control of church got a chance to turn around and become the leader of the church. This past year, he had been keeping a low profile, out of sight. From day to night, he had been praying in the rebuilt temple, so still that he made people think that he was almost a decoration. But now, the truth proved that he was not a decoration, but waiting for an opportunity. The very moment when he brought up ¡°praying¡± in public during the celebration, it gave Ray and Casari a difficult problem. Praying was nothing big nor small. For instance, visiting the temple for prayers in private was almost nothing. As long as one did not run to temple that was against their own God, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem. For example, Ray believed in ¡°Void Mask¡± but he always visited church of God of Wealth. Every time he went, he had to pray in silence before the statue of God of Wealth. It was only etiquette, also due etiquette. But during celebration, leading everyone to pray was entirely different in nature! Ever since the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest suffered heavy losses, most of the core experts were killed, even the Goddess herself took great losses and had already lost influence in Garth city. Especially during the process of city rebuilding, as the one who put in effort was mainly the church of God of Wealth. It eroded the roots of the people¡¯s belief and elbowed Her out. The people in this world had a low education level; most of them didn¡¯t even know how to read, but they were not dumb. They could tell clearly that who was nice to them and who helped them. Belief was something from heart; one was not able to fake it. The position of the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest in Garth city was gradually replaced by the church God of Wealth, that was the reality. To take back their belief, the most practical way was of course to help people with money, to help people to revive their city. The church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest of course had human and financial resources, but the church was burdened with internal conflicts too. Each local temple saw the chance and sought to replace Garth temple as the main temple for the church. The very moment, why would they take out funds to help people? It was good enough that they were not dragging anyone back! If the new priest had enough capability or prestige, he might be able to suppress each local temple. But he had none. Besides praying, he had no other ways. But a while back, a friend from another church visited him and gave him an idea. ¡°Seize the chance during celebration; why don¡¯t you invite Casari to lead everyone to pray to Goddess?¡± The priest was blank back then; he didn¡¯t understand what his friend, who was known for his wittiness, meant. That friend smiled mysteriously. Even though they were in the private study room, he lowered his voice and explained it to him. He then suddenly saw the light. Human and material resources were things that he couldn¡¯t afford then. But as the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest forcibly occupied Garth city for so many years, there was far reaching and profound influence. With one opportunity, he could give full play to the influence and reshape his image to retrieve the bad influence from back then. If it was well manipulated, he could even embezzle the result of hard work that was done by the church of God of Wealth, like the turtledove that occupies the magpie¡¯s nest. The crucial point of the plan was to seize a chance to force the city owner, Casari, to lead everyone to pray to Goddess of Bumper Harvest and to thank Her for granting good harvest. At first glance, it seemed to be something reasonable. But on such occasion, having the city owner to lead everyone to pray together to thank God equalled to re-establishing the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s position as the ruler in Garth religion. It was actually a tradition of Garth city after all. Almost everyone participated in such prayers. If they were to be reminded of the past and linked up with the current situation, it would naturally recover the belief of Goddess of Bumper Harvest. The ruling position of the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest was a profound foundation for centuries, deeply tied to the operations of the Riley family. With only one move, they could put the profound foundation to use and immediately have the function of bringing the dead back to life! Looking at Ray and Casari who were silent, there was a smug look on the priest¡¯s old, ashen face. He waved his hands and had the people from the church to prepare for praying ceremony. He of course could tell the unwillingness of the two, but what could they do even if they were not willing to? Don¡¯t forget, the city owner, Casari believed in Goddess of Bumper Harvest since she was little; she was a member of the church herself. Unless she had the courage to turn around, announce the change of her religion and leave the church, she wouldn¡¯t be able to reject such reasonable request. The vase that had no talent but beauty; would she have such courage? The priest smiled coldly in his heart and was overjoyed. That period of time, including Casari, many Garths had drifted away from the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest. What ruined Garth city back then was the Goddess¡¯s self destruction due to exasperation. Fighting against an enemy that destroyed their homeland; it was nice enough that they didn¡¯t withdraw weapon and fight against them. Why would he expect them to respect and believe in the Goddess of Bumper Harvest like they did before! From what the priest saw, these people forgot about Her kindness and turned their back on Her; they didn¡¯t know the good and the bad. So what if She ruined Garth city? Everything that they had belonged to the Goddess! As a believer, it was only right and proper to dedicate their lives to that God, not just a few houses! So, he had been boiling with anger all the time, but he suppressed it like a volcano that was accumulating power in silence. The moment he saw the leader of Garth in a difficult position, he was pleased with the feeling of revenge and held back his laughter. Of course, he couldn¡¯t laugh yet. Wait till everything was done and dusted, when he could lay back and enjoy the fruit of victory. He could then laugh with no worries. Casari was hesitating. Although she didn¡¯t have much ability and experience, she could differentiate between good and the bad. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest had not contributed anything during the revival of the city, but they stood out at the very moment to accept the reputation of revival naturally. It just didn¡¯t make sense at all! As for belief¡­ she hadn¡¯t been a devout believer since the very beginning. After going through the terrifying riot and battle, she even felt a sense of fear and distance towards all Gods. For the past year, she had been avoiding each and every temple carefully because every time she looked at a temple, it would remind her of the terrifying memory. From the angle of a God, it could be tell that there was no line of belief on Casari anymore. She, at the very moment, was one of the so called ¡°faithless.¡± Whether out of emotion or disbelief, she was not willing to pray to the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. She was even more unwilling to lead everyone to pray and to give credit and blessing to Goddess of Bumper Harvest for the fruition of everyone¡¯s effort. But she was not courageous enough to reject the request of the priest. As the priest¡¯s friend had predicted, Casari was only a vase after all. She had received literature and art education since she was young, but kept completely ignorant towards politics, military, martial arts, and magic. The city owner Joseph¡¯s original intention was to let his youngest daughter be an artist that was not involved in politics; to marry her into another city with friendly terms, to be a city owner lady, and to live a smooth and steady life. Her father was a middle aged legendary expert that could at least live another few centuries; her sister was the priestess of Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Even if she didn¡¯t step foot in the legendary realm, she would at least be a high level pastor. Her brother was a genius in sword craft. He also had a bright future ahead of him. She relied on the powerful and influential Riley Family that terrorised the whole of East Coast, and she relied on the commercial city that was in the top few in mainland, Garth. With such backers, she had no need to work hard to enjoy life. Who knew a storm would arise from a clear sky, with all of Casari¡¯s backers wiped out in a night! She was only a weak woman left alone, and she was pushed towards the toughest point by fate. She was like a piece of fat meat that was just grilled and left in the wild, attracting countless hungry beasts to keep their eye on her. If she wasn¡¯t lucky that she met a knight that with too much sense of justice who happened to be a legendary expert, she would have been eaten up without leaving any scraps behind! However even though Ray could block off those spies that had bad intentions for her on normal days, he couldn¡¯t back her up then. After all, the priest¡¯s request was completely reasonable. That was the advantage of ¡°fit and proper.¡± Casari was hesitating and subconsciously looked towards Ray. All this time, she had already gotten used to relying on the upright, strong, handsome knight. Regardless of the size of the matter, if she asked him for help, he would definitely solve it. It was like Monk Tang who ran when in danger, who always called, ¡°Save me, Wukong.¡± Nobita would always cry and look for Doraemon when he had difficulties. Although it was a different world, the emotion was the same. Ray sighed and took one step forward. He stood between Casari and the priest. ¡°The city owner is not feeling too well recently. She needs to rest,¡± he said. How could the priest let Casari escape so easily! He smiled an affable smile and said, ¡°Not feeling well? Then there¡¯s more reason to pray! Pray for a blessing to help the city owner recover.¡± The way he smiled seemed harmless to all living things on earth, but triggered the anger in Ray. It was such a pity that at that very moment and venue, it was not suitable for a fight. The chaos in the previous celebrations had left a deep scar in people¡¯s hearts. If there was any accident in the celebration, it would break apart people¡¯s hearts that had just been brought together! He was pissed and he couldn¡¯t help but pray to Sui Xiong. He pleaded for him to punish those bastards. Not much; just a ¡°Cannot Hold One¡¯s Liquor¡± spell that would make their head spin and their eyes blur would do! Sui Xiong immediately received his prayers. He looked toward Janvier and Heimsarah and smiled. ¡°It¡¯s time!¡± He said. Heimsarah immediately sent out the news. Along with the light breeze, the sea water near Garth city suddenly rippled and surged. A huge wave didn¡¯t splash around but soared up into the sky slowly. Within the waves, there was melodious singing. The singing was not loud but free, natural and distant. Those who heard it would be attracted and drowned within. The originally crowded plaza was suddenly quiet. Only singing lingered and reverberated in the air. It was the most famous singing, the mermaid song, the real sound of nature. Chapter 146 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The creatures consisted of all sorts of strange beings. There were several kinds of them that could charm people with songs. As it happened, both mermaids and sirens had this, ability and they all lived in the sea. Therefore, people who had little knowledge of the facts compared the two, or even confused the two. In this matter, the sirens certainly had no objection. What they cared about was eating people. As for what people thought; well, when you ate bread, did you care about what bread thought? But mermaids had objections; big ones! ¡°Eat meat?! This is filthy to us!¡± Well, what they really cared about was of whether or not they ate people, but the dignity of being a vegetarian. In marine creatures, the mermaid was one of the few vegetarian species. Perhaps there were one or two exceptions that ate meat, but most of them were vegetarian. They were keen to study the flavors of various seaweeds, which led to the famous dining genre, ¡®sea combo.¡¯ Because of the difference in living conditions, this catering school had only been circulated among aquatic species, and human beings rarely tried it. Sui Xiong learned about the existence of the dining genre from Vieille, who was specializing in food and drink. He was also surprised because he thought that the mermaid would eat fish and shrimp at the very least. Besides the question of diet, there were still some differences between the song of the mermaids and the song of sirens. The siren¡¯s song was lingering, full of teasing, and people felt tempted. Young men especially, except for a handful of determined ones, could hardly resist this temptation. Every ocean-going sailors heard their songs, few people could turn them down. Often the entire ship would, panting, rush into the water, and try to swim in the direction of the song. As a result, they were eaten. Singing was a predatory mean for Sirens, and all that were tempted by their songs would be eaten by them. The mermaid¡¯s singing voice was far-away and lingering, so that people would feel their heart flying, and fall into a kind of sleeplessness. When they woke up, they often felt physically fatigued, but mentally very refreshed. This was because the singing of mermaids was essentially a spell unique to their group. This spell could regulate the spirit. Although the cost was the consumption of a lot of physical strength that made the body tired, there were no other side effects. Tiredness was easily restored. Therefore, there were often powerful mages who flew to the deep sea to record mermaid songs with magical props, as a means of rejuvenation and recovery. This kind of thing rarely emanated, and the price was quite expensive. As it was today, only tens of thousands of people listened to the voices of mermaids together. In its long history, it was rare. Many people in the square would be particularly resilient, or wear props that could resist charm. The mermaid¡¯s song could not make them intoxicated; this puzzled them. These people were well-informed, and naturally able to distinguish between the voices of mermaids and sirens. But even the most educated one had never heard of a mermaid who ran to the shore to sing¡­ The family of a mermaid was not only temperamental, but full of masters. Even the king of a country or a legendary strongman found it impossible to secretly catch a mermaid to sing to him. In history, there was even someone who was so obsessed with the ethereal voice he moved to live in the deep sea. A mermaid sang ashore; this kind of thing seemed to have happened only in legends. But all involved in this kind of thing were none other than those heroes who left colorful pictures in the history books. For a moment, many pairs of eyes stared at Ray. Even those with malicious intentions could not help but correct their attitudes, or respect, or want to kill him. Everyone understood that if there was someone in Gars City qualified enough to become a big hero in history, it must be this handsome knight! The chief priest of the Church of Goddess of Harvest was certainly not charmed by the voice of mermaids, but his face suddenly became gloomy. Everything was going smoothly. How could the mermaids jump out right before the city owner was about to surrender?! What was even more troublesome was that everybody was tired after listening to the voice, which gave the celebration a natural end, and left no room for prayer. He had no doubt that Ray would seize this opportunity. The city owner had no strength, but the governor did. The governor would not have been a Watchdog of Gars City if he did not seize this chance. ¡®Watchdog of Gars City¡¯ was Ray¡¯s nickname, which someone who hated Ray had come up with. It meant that he was as loyal as a dog, guarding the gates. No one could take advantage of the city. Originally, everyone thought that the city would be full of adventurers, taking advantage of their own wrongdoings. Many dynamic social organizations sent personnel to seize advantages. As a result, they either fled or died under Ray¡¯s sword. The chief priest also originally thought so. Fortunately, he had good luck. When he arrived, he saw Ray pursuing a group of believers of the God of Fear: a group of thugs. At that time, Ray traveled nearly a hundred miles to kill them, and the bodies were brought back to the public. The chief priest was scared. When they entered the city, they found out that they were accused of forcing residents to borrow money and then plundering their wealth with terror. After confirming the news, he was silent for a long time. He eventually gave up all the plans he had originally drafted, and became a priest who was reclusive. Ray must be a tough guy, because he made a big fuss about this trivial thing! I shouldn¡¯t confront him! After that blow, he was already discouraged, and once again used his friends¡¯ persuasion to raise his courage¡­ But the result was this. ¡°People defeat this God this time¡­ Perhaps this it is fate.¡± The chief priest sighed deeply, apologized to Ray, and angrily retreated. Ray was relieved and knew that he had tackled a major crisis. After today, Kasalie and the Church of the Goddess of Harvest were officially halted. The Church of the Goddess of Harvest was to behave itself for a long time. However, time was in their favor: The longer the delay, the less attractive the Church of the Goddess of Harvest would be in Gars City. Maybe next time, they would no longer have to rely on the help of His Majesty the Void Mask. ¡°Your Majesty, your power is really unfathomable!¡± Ray heartily praised. ¡°Even the nobles of the deep sea followed your assignment!¡± Sui Xiong smiled and silently agreed. Well, it seemed correct: this matter was to his credit, and the mermaids would come to congratulate him. After a short pause, the song stopped and a mermaid girl dressed formally went to the square to send gifts to the revitalized Gars City, guarded by several men with obvious aquatic characteristics. ¡°Governor, you, who live in this world, speak for His Majesty who is our guide. Knowing that you are working hard to promote the revival of the city, I hereby wish you success on behalf of the people of the Sea of Storm.¡± Ray nodded with a smile and accepted the gift with his own hands. The gifts were not precious, but the meaning they represented was not trivial. The distant sea was governed by the sea kings. Each sea king had his own name. The Sea of Storms was the distant sea of the east, stretching roughly from the dead desert to the Kingdom of the Blue Moon. The Mermaid congratulated him in the name of the official representative of the Sea of Storm, which undoubtedly meant the goodwill and support of the king of that sea. With the support of this strong demi-god who had survived from ancient times to the present, the revival of Gars City was really just around the corner! Simply being able to safely conduct maritime trade was a huge point of economic growth. But after Ray accepted the gift, she said, ¡°We are merging all the people of the sea, and will soon develop our power onto the seashore. In order to strengthen mutual cooperation, I hope that we can build an embassy in Gars City, to facilitate the exchange of information. Of course, if you don¡¯t mind, I also hope that we could establish a business center again, so that we can trade goods.¡± Ray smiled and nodded. He casually agreed to this matter. However, the businessmen who were knowledgeable next to him were already excited. If they had not considered the occasion, they would have already cheered. Formal diplomacy! Business center! Oh God! The former meant that Gars City had been qualified for an equal exchange with the Sea of Storm, while the latter meant an enormous and incredibly amazing profit! To synthesize the two factors¡­ ¡°Maybe Gars City would not only revive; but expand even further,¡± a loyal official from a branch of the Riley family excitedly told Kasalie after the celebration. ¡°What the late city owner had not been able to accomplish will be realized in your hands!¡± Kasalie was confused, and couldn¡¯t understand what he was really excited about. ¡°The status would be high and the money would be more. This is certainly a good thing. But isn¡¯t that what we were like before?¡± The official explained to her with excitement, ¡°For all its prosperity, the Gars City was after all a subordinate of the Kingdom of Blue Moon. But now, as long as we can get support from the Sea of Storm, we could break away from the Kingdom of Blue Moon and become an autonomous territory!¡± ¡°What good does that do?¡± Kasalie asked. The official was silent for a long time and sighed. She is really dumb. Maybe I can only count on the next generation of city owner. That knight is perfect. The next generation of city owner could only survive even if he has half of his talents. So, he immediately felt relieved, and had much hope for the future and his absolute confidence in the city owner. Then he enthusiastically returned to work¡­ Chapter 147 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who¡¯s the fairest of them all?¡± The mirror did not respond. Of course, it was really just an ordinary silver plate. Even if it was relatively expensive, it was not a magical prop, so how could it answer? If it really said, ¡°Beautiful lady, you are the loveliest woman in the world!¡± then Kasalie might be scared. She stared at the mirror, finding that the young girl in the mirror was beautiful, with appropriate clothes, and perfect makeup which made her even more stunning. The pearl pendant that hung on her chest, which complimented her ivory white skin, had an especially intoxicating charm. Even the maid beside her, when looking at her smile, felt shy. But at that moment, the girl in the mirror was very depressed. Women were trying to dress up, most of the time because they wanted to make lovers happy. When her mother was still alive, she compared the women to flowers that should not casually bloom in front of outsiders. At that time, she did not understand this, and could not fathom why her mother was so happy when her father came back. Now she understood. However¡­ She sighed deeply and the girl in the mirror sighed with her. The beautiful face was so sad so that even the maid beside her felt distressed. ¡°Mother, what can I do to make him happy?¡± The girl in the mirror couldn¡¯t answer. The maids couldn¡¯t answer. Kasalie returned to the dressing table in a gloomy mood. Her eyes were full of confusion. ¡°Father, you once said that the best man was one who was not fascinated by my beauty, but simply liked me. Now I have met a man who is completely unfazed by my beauty; but how can he like me?¡± She was depressed for a long time, and finally put herself together, completed her makeup, and went out with her maid. ¡°Good morning, Miss Kasalie.¡± ¡°Miss Kasalie, are you going out?¡± Along the way, servants and bureaucrats greeted her, and she responded to each one. Whenever she responded, that person suddenly felt excited and rejuvenated; especially the young men. It was like they had drank a potion. When she walked past the door of the Hall of the Governor, she stopped and looked inwards. The tall, handsome man, who was steady as a mountain, was sitting in front of the desk. A lot of documents were piled on his, desk and people needed him to handle them. The man was always busy. Before, when Gars City was in ruins, he rushed around the construction sites and took the lead in work. He also personally sneaked into the sea floor of the port of Gars to get rid of the large pieces of gravel that prevented the boats from parking. Afterwards, Gars City was slowly revived, and he dealt with the business that would never be finished all day. He also had to take the time to examine major cases, and deal with various forces. Sometimes needed to lead teams personally to annihilate the powerful monsters that fled from the wilderness and into Gars City. It was because of his leadership that in the short span of two years, Gars City would be transformed from ruins into a prosperous business port. If there was no such man, then the refugees who had lost their homes would not be able to rebuild the city, because they couldn¡¯t even survive. If not for him, perhaps she would have already been forcibly taken away by a bully as a plaything, or been competed for by powerful people as a rare collector¡¯s item. She watched the man¡¯s figure for a long time, obsessed. He was always so powerful, so stable, so reliable! When faced with ruin, everyone else was full of desperation. He was like a fire, not only lighting up people¡¯s hearts, but letting people who shivered in the cold have someone to rely on. When monsters came one after another trying to take advantage of their tragedy, he was like a thunder who smashed them. The monsters either stumbled or fled, or became ghosts under the sword. In more than two months, he had battled more than a dozen times before he finally shocked all the bad guys, and protected the Gars City. At a time when others forced her to abdicate at the ceremony and she was in a dilemma, he stepped forward, relieving her of pressure. Later he even convinced the great gods who even dispatched messengers to solve problems for her. Unconsciously, Kasalie¡¯s eyes had been completely attracted by the man. She stood fully in the doorway, staring at the man working at the desk, and naturally smiled. ¡°Oh! You are as beautiful today, as always!¡± an indecent voice awakened her. She turned and found that it was Steele, who did not take the cold seriously, and was dressed like summer. She did not like this woman. Not because of this woman¡¯s amazing beauty, or because of this woman¡¯s indecent manners, but because the woman was familiar with him, and was one of his few friends. She let her enter the hall. Steele walked in with a swagger and sat on his desk, completely ignoring the majesty of the governor, uncaring of whether or not Ray would be able to see her private areas. She even showed the white skin of her thigh by slightly lifting her skirt. The little purple lace of her underwear showed, tempting people to commit a crime. ¡°What are you here for?¡± said Ray, unmoved, continuing to look at the documents and not even lifting his head. ¡°Every time you visit here you bring bad news.¡± Steele appeared to be hurt and sadly said, ¡°Do you really think of me like this? Am I such a bad woman?¡± ¡°If you can be a little more decent, you may be able to restore my impression of you.¡± ¡°Would you fall in love with me?¡± ¡°¡­I would hate you less.¡± Steele laughed and shook her breasts¡ªintentionally or unintentionally¡ªto tempt Ray. Ray sighed deeply and put down the paper in his hands, ¡°If you aren¡¯t busy, why not go to work in the hospital? I believe the patients would be happy to see you.¡± ¡°I just came for the things in the hospital,¡± Steele finally put on a serious look. ¡°Recently, there have been a lot more injuries than before!¡± A cold look flashed in Ray¡¯s eyes. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°The number of monsters on the other side of the Great Swamp has not increased significantly, but they have become stronger and more violent.¡± Ray said, ¡°Is it that their Majesty finally couldn¡¯t hold back any longer, and wants to make trouble?¡± ¡°Perhaps, but for the time being, there are no obvious traces. There is only this possibility.¡± Ray nodded his head and took out the pamphlet he used to record important matters and wrote it down. No matter how good a person¡¯s memory was, it was not better than the words written in books. As the Void Mask once said, ¡°Good memory is worse than writing.¡± Ray strongly agreed with this, and felt greatly enlightened, so he prepared such a booklet. Sui Xiong also helped him to blacken the cover of the booklet, and drew a line of white runes on it. There were nine strange symbols, five on the left and four on the right. The second symbol was the same as the last symbol. The fourth symbol was the same as the penultimate symbol. ¡°The black cover and these strange symbols do they have any special significance?¡± he asked. Sui laughed and said nothing, but he looked very happy. A lot of things had been recorded in this booklet, and each of them was very important. It was not known whether it was for fate or not, but almost everything had finally developed into a bloody conflict. For example, the first thing recorded in the booklet was that the believers of the God of Fear flooded into Gars City. They seemed to want to do something bad, and it was required that everyone be careful. The final result of the incident was that Ray chased them for hundreds of miles on a copper-crown dragon, and killed all of them. The notebook, which now said, ¡°Monsters in the Great Swamp Have Unusual Trends, It Is Needed to Organize People To Eliminate Them as Quickly As Possible,¡±would clearly have a similar development. After finishing that, Steele left. Ray then turned his eyes to Kasalie, who had been at the door, and he looked puzzled. ¡°City Owner, do you have anything to command?¡± Because he finally noticed her, she was happy, but she also sighed because he called her in an estranged way. Kasalie just smiled and shook her head, and said, ¡°I have nothing to do. I just came to see you. You are so busy, you work so hard!¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± Ray said with a smile. ¡°It¡¯s not a lot of work, just few little public affairs.¡± But he immediately changed his tone and advised her. ¡°City Owner; after all, I¡¯m just an outsider. You¡¯re the real owner of Gars City. I think you should learn more about government affairs, because it will be good for you in the future.¡± Kasalie felt even more depressed. ¡°Aren¡¯t you a good governor? Even if I don¡¯t study government affairs, it would be okay to keep you in power.¡± Ray shook his head and said gently, ¡°Although I am a knight, I am essentially a priest, and I am a chief priest of a church. After we have developed our church, I will be sure to govern that church and I cannot stay there in Gars City as a governor forever.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we build the church here?¡± Kasalie asked. ¡°We have a large population and convenient transportation. Isn¡¯t it the best place to build a church?¡± Ray was slightly convinced, and had to admit that she made a good point. ¡°I would propose this to His Majesty, but you have to know that a God¡¯s ideas are different from normal people¡¯s,¡± He said. ¡°Perhaps it seems to you and me that the bustling Gars City is far more suitable for the establishment of a church than the bitter cold Ashes Wood, but the willingness of His Majesty is the key to everything.¡± Kasalie secretly sighed, and they chatted a bit before leaving. Looking at the pearl pendant on her chest that she had just bought the day before from the Business Center of the Sea of Storm, she sighed deeply. From the beginning to the end of their conversation, Ray never noticed it¡­ Chapter 148 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Little Nice, pay attention to safety.¡± ¡°Little Nice, play in other places. I¡¯m very busy.¡± ¡°Little Nice, I, your sister, bring you new toys.¡± Whenever she heard these things, Nice was very sad. Why did people all call her ¡°Little Nice¡±! She was obviously not little! In just a few days, she would be thirteen years old. A 13-year-old girl seemed to be nearly an adult. In some relatively backward areas, many young girls of this age could even marry and have children. Even on earth, China, the country with the longest history of civilization, had always followed the rule that a 14-year-old woman is able to raise children. Ancient Chinese people used the nominal age, which was exactly 13 years old. However, because Nice inherited more fairy blood than usual from her mother¡¯s side, her growth rate was a bit slow. She was already 13 years old, but it seemed that she was still only about 10 years old, or even younger. In short, she looked juvenile. Because she looked so young, everyone liked to add a ¡°little¡± when calling her name. Thus ¡°Nice¡± became ¡°Little Nice.¡± This made Nice very upset, and she often complained to her mother and sister about it. ¡°Why does this matter? You are really little,¡± said Mrs. Teague. ¡°But my sister is only five years older than me!¡± Nice protested. ¡°People call her ¡®Miss Liv,¡¯ and some even ¡®Mrs. Liv¡¯!¡± Liv couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°Because I¡¯m more mature. Just a few years down the line, people will start calling you Miss Nice,¡± she said. Nice stared at her sister¡¯s eyes steadfastly. After a few seconds, Liv couldn¡¯t help but turn her face away. Nice shouted, ¡°Sister, you¡¯re lying!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t lie to you. You will grow up in a few years.¡± ¡°When you were thirteen, you were much taller than I am now!¡± Nice gestured. ¡°At that time you were almost as tall as your mother!¡± Liv grinned. Because she had a more human bloodline, her physical development was basically unaffected. When she was thirteen, she was a small adult. ¡°We are sisters! Why are we so different?¡± Nice said sadly. ¡°You must have taken away my height!¡± ¡°Can this kind of thing be taken away?¡± Liv grimaced, turning to look at her mother and get some support. However, Mrs. Teague just laughed and said nothing; she knew the two daughters were calmly arguing about unfounded issues. Because she learned a lot of government affairs from her husband, she was also known as an expert in this area. Currently, in Gars City, she was in a position with a not-so-low status, and good income. A good job, of course, also inevitably made her busy. Every day back from work, watching Nice disputing with her sister about height and other issues became light entertainment. Liv was made speechless, and ended up blurting out nonsense. ¡°You have inherited more elves¡¯ heritage. Although you grow up slower, you¡¯re aging slower too! When your sister is old and dead, you will be young!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want my sister to die!¡± Nice cried. After some trouble, Liv, was exhausted and went to take a rest. Nice was tired too, and fell asleep. She slept soundly and had a funny dream. In the dream, she returned to the original road from Golden Tower City to Cloud Tower City. She held a pink pig in her left hand and a green jellyfish in her right hand, and smiled sweetly. Just then, the jellyfish opened its mouth. ¡°Nice, do you want to grow up?¡± Nice nodded, naturally. ¡°Yeah! I want to grow up!¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°When I grow up, I can help my mother and my sister.¡± The green jellyfish could not help but laugh. ¡°You¡¯re a good kid,¡± it said. ¡°I¡¯m not a kid!¡± Nice protested angrily. ¡°Okay, okay, you¡¯re not a kid,¡± The green jellyfish whispered. ¡°The period has arrived when you¡¯ve become rebellious.¡± It ignored Nice when she asked what rebellious meant, and pondered a bit. Eventually it said, with interest, ¡°Do you want to grow up now?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Nice nodded. ¡°You should know, growing up may not be a good thing,¡± the jellyfish said, laughing. ¡°When you grow up, it means that you have to live according to the rules of the adults. It may be very hard.¡± ¡°I want to grow up!¡± Seeing her determination, the jellyfish laughed again. ¡°Well, you can find me in your dreams, and it¡¯s because we are friends. I¡¯ll help you!¡± After that, it waved its tentacles and made a strange green bracelet. It put the bracelet on Nice¡¯s left wrist. ¡°If you want to get bigger, turn the bracelet and read the spell.¡± The next morning, when the sun fell on the bed through the window, Nice opened her eyes. ¡°Ah¡­ where is the jellyfish?¡± she asked, confused. Then she realized that she was just dreaming, and could not help but sigh deeply. ¡°I just dreamt¡­¡± Suddenly, she felt as though she had touched something on her left wrist. When she looked down, she found a strange green bracelet, which was the same as what she saw in her dreams. She looked at the bracelet in astonishment. She was a bit embarrassed, and did not know whether she was dreaming or in reality. After a while, she jumped out of bed, turned the bracelet, and read the spell. ¡°Magic Girl, Transform!¡± A green glow rose from the bracelet and enveloped her. Within a few moments, when the light was dispersed, there was no longer a silver-haired half-elven girl standing by the bed, but a beautiful, vigorous and cheerful woman with green hair. She still retained some of the characteristics of an elf: sharp ears, slim slender limbs. But in terms of the appearance and body, she was at least equivalent to 17 years old, and full of youthful vitality. In terms of figure, Nice was now even more feminine than her sister Liv. Before she transformed, she was wearing a child¡¯s dressing gown. Now, amazingly, she was wearing a green robe. The main body of this set of robe was a splendid dress with many flashy runes, full of mysterious and noble impressions. There were small bits of armor attached to her arms and legs, which not only provided strong defense, but also could cast some spells when necessary. According to the instructions of the green jellyfish, Nice drew a strange symbol on her chest with both hands and whispered, ¡°Swords of Wind!¡± With her call, the armor on her small arms flew up, twisted in the air, and turned into two curved daggers. A breeze wrapped around them, filling them with wonderful power. She let her hands go, and the Swords of Wind remained still in the air. She tried to direct them with thoughts and they were very obedient to her wills. Nice smiled happily, and put away the Swords of Wind. She went on to test the other two weapons: Gun of Thunder, and Wings of Fire Phoenix. The former was made up of the armor on the calves, where the two armors on the legs combined, distorted, and became a spear. It could be used as a weapon in close combat, and it could also be thrown where it would automatically track the target. The latter were crimson wings that stretched out from her back, allowing her to fly freely and gain unparalleled mobility. After she tested these wonderful abilities, Nice smiled happily. Although the transformation only took five minutes, in these five minutes she not only grew up but also had a magical powers! ¡°It wasn¡¯t a dream! It¡¯s a good jellyfish!¡± The green jellyfish floating high in the air snorted and wondered, ¡°Who is saying bad things about me? Is it Little Nice complaining about me, that the props I gave her could only take effect for five minutes at a time? ¡°There¡¯s no other way. Transformation puts a burden on the body. In order for her not to leave screaming, she can only have almost five minutes of transformation at a time,¡± Sui Xiong said to himself. ¡°Anyway, she¡¯s just playing with it. Even if she was trying to save the world, it would not be her turn because she is a fake magic girl.¡± He convinced himself with this, and he smiled. He turned to lie down in the clouds and slept. The night before, Little Nice intruded his dream and shocked him. Then he was busy making her transforming props all night. It was really exhausting. In Gars City, Nice had returned to her normal appearance and had finished washing. She ate breakfast, put on her favorite dress, and happily went out. Because her mom and sister were very busy, she always took care of the house to stay in and avoid danger. But today was different. She was already an adult and was fully capable of protecting herself! A little girl walking alone in the street attracted people¡¯s attention. More than one pair of eyes looked at her with malicious intention, but nobody hurried to harm her. There were many adventurers on the streets of Gars City, and there were quite a few people with a strong sense of justice. If someone tried to abduct a young girl, an adventurer would definitely notice. Criminals would find it difficult to escape the official hunt of Gars City even if they could get rid of the adventurers. So after waiting for a long time, there was a good-looking fat person who came over to talk with her, and the two became very familiar, as if they were friends. It solved the issue of anyone being suspicious of abduction. The fat man eagerly took Nice everywhere in the city, and finally arrived in front of an unattractive house on a slightly deserted alley. This was their base. In the past, the traffickers headed by him had already abducted four ignorant girls, and gained a lot of money. And this stupid little girl was the fifth! ¡°Sister, I am very capable, no?¡± Nice said twenty minutes later, running up to her sister, who was a patrol guard. Behind her she was dragging the criminals, who were tied up. Liv was shocked. Her eyes and mouth went wide. She was dazed. What was wrong with this world? Could even little girls catch human traffickers?! Chapter 149 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio@ ¡°So, you didn¡¯t catch these traffickers?¡± Liv asked ¡°No,¡± Nice said. Little Nice originally wanted to brag about it, but when she remembered that the magical jellyfish asked her to keep the power of being a magical girl a secret, she changed her mind. ¡°Originally, I was going to be caught by these bad guys. At that time, a big-sister-type girl with green clothes and green hair fell from the sky, and knocked them down with a fist! She was really, really awesome!¡± Liv looked at the few traffickers and found that they were actually beaten by fists. The marks were still on their faces. ¡°So, did the sister with green clothes and green hair say who she was?¡± Little Nice immediately shook her head. ¡°The sister said nothing except ¡®this was what I had to do,¡¯ and flew away.¡± Liv ignored the strange words, lost in thought. Falling from the sky? Flying away? Was she a powerful mage? But why did the mage hit people with fists? Wasn¡¯t it simpler to freeze the traffickers? Or¡­ was she a powerful and kind creature¡ªa heavenly creature? Liv thought for a long time, and thought that this conjecture was more reliable, so she took it down. She asked the subordinates to interrogate the traffickers, then asked a clever trainee soldier escort Little Nice back home. ¡°I won¡¯t go back!¡± Little Nice shook her head. ¡°I can take care of myself!¡± ¡°You were almost caught by the traffickers!¡± ¡°The green sister will protect me!¡± ¡°Nonsense!¡± Liv said, holding her sister up. She explained the situation to her companions, and took her sister home. ¡°Take care of our house!¡± she said. ¡°If you are bored, read the books and learn something. Or you could go to the yard to practice with the sword; I made a wooden sword for you, so practicing is good. Do not touch the bow and arrow, you are too young to learn that¡­¡± She asked Nice to do many things. Little Nice listened, angry, and quarrelled with her sister, but in vain. Liv wanted one thing: don¡¯t go outside! When she left, she locked the door. In the past, when the door was locked, Little Nice could only read books at home. But now the situation was different. Seeing her sister was walking away, she immediately twisted the bracelet lightly. Change! ¡°You won¡¯t let me out, but I¡¯m going out!¡± She rested her hand on her hips and angrily pointed at Liv a few times, just to vent her grievances. After she finished, she stamped her feet and flew directly from the yard over Gars City. In order to ensure safety, the magical girl¡¯s war-dress was usually invisible, and almost no one in Gars City could see this invisible body. Nice happily made circles in the sky, looking for someone who needed help. She remembered in her dream that the magical jellyfish told her a magical girl should help others. In the port area, in the embassy and business center of the Sea of Storm that had just been built last winter, the ambassador who was reading a book put down the book with some doubt, and came to the window. ¡°A little green girl flying in the sky? Where did she come from?¡± Some people also saw her, including Ray. At that moment he looked puzzled at the sky, not understanding what was going on. However, these masters did not like to meddle in these affairs. There was no air traffic control in Gars City, and there wasn¡¯t a no-fly zone. As long as it was not a cause for trouble, she would not be interfered with. A few days later, Ray read a report submitted by the guards and looked surprised. ¡°A beautiful girl with green hair and green clothes is helping people in Gars City.¡± ¡°Where does she come from? Is she a ranger?¡± he thought, remembering the girl flying around, then shook his head. ¡°That doesn¡¯t fit. She¡¯s not like a ranger, but instead like a layman who benefits from magic.¡± With his rich fighting background, he found that Little Nice did not have fighting experience, at a glance. But he also saw that Little Nice was growing rapidly. Perhaps it would not take long before she could truly grow into an independent expert. Anyway, since she did good things, then there is no problem, Ray thought. After he finished, he put away this document and put it in the folder labelled ¡®Needs Follow-up Attention¡±. As a governor, he was very busy, and had no time to waste on a matter that had no bad influence. However, all the ghosts and monsters of the Gars city had troubles. Little Nice did not know anything about wisdom like ¡®there is no fish in water that is extremely clear,¡¯ or ¡®the most important thing is to learn to compromise.¡¯ She only knew that a magical girl should do good things, and her father and mother and sister always taught her to be a good person. Be a good person, and do good things. So, in just half a month, there were at least thirty thieves, seven or eight robbers, and several gangs of fraudsters who encountered this beautiful young girl with green clothes and green hair. They were all knocked down by her punch, and then tied up and sent to the guards. Thanks to her, the security of Gars City was greatly improved, and there was a sense that there was no need to lock doors at night. Underground, in the wide sewers, several figures were whispering and discussing countermeasures in anger. ¡°It can¡¯t go on like this!¡± said a round-headed figure. ¡°That Green Girl is too annoying, and we must kill her!¡± ¡°Well, what can we do?¡± asked a figure that looked like a mouse. ¡°We can set a trap,¡± said a figure in a black robe. ¡°She looks a little silly. Maybe we can catch her in a trap!¡± ¡°Okay! If I grab her, I¡¯ll eat her, cut her head off and hang it in the house as a souvenir!¡± said a muffled voice. ¡°Let me have intercourse with her before you eat her,¡± A thin figure said with an obscene smile. Then others also laughed in an obscene way. The matter was decided. These people¡ªor creatures (after all, there were several non-human beings among them)¡ªwere the big bosses of the underworld forces of Gars City. They had been hiding so deep, that even Ray could not catch them. All along, they had targeted each other, and the statuses of alliance, hostility, cooperation and betrayal had been constantly changing. But this time, they united to eradicate the unreasonable, uncompromising green woman who was up against them. After careful discussion, they prepared a plan; a fairly complete, detailed, and feasible one. However, it turned out that it was not a good plan. ¡°What? There was an outbreak of war in Ximen District?¡± Ray asked. After a busy morning, he jumped and hurriedly ate something. He had been preparing to take a short break. ¡°How much is the loss? And casualties?¡± The guards who reported the news seemed to be a bit off, and embarrassed. ¡°A lot of money has been lost, but the casualties¡­ according to our preliminary statistics, they are all members of various illegal organizations.¡± Ray was relieved, sat down again, and asked, ¡°Is it infighting? These guys are getting more and more naughty!¡± ¡°According to the witnesses, it is not infighting among the various organizations,¡± the guard said with some amusement. ¡°According to them, they laid ambush against someone. They wanted to destroy or grab the ¡®Green Girl.¡¯ But the ability of the Green Girl far exceeded their imaginations. After a fierce war, they suffered heavy losses. The chiefs are all dead, and the Green Girl has escaped. Ray couldn¡¯t but laugh. ¡°They deserve it! These guys see no law! Pass my orders, that the defence forces should gather and clean up, and see if I can take advantage of this opportunity to catch the guys that I have been wanting to catch!¡± The guard gave Ray a salute and hurriedly left. Ray sat there thinking for a while, went to the front of the documents cabinet, took out a folder marked ¡®Important Documents,¡¯ and found several documents in it. That was the report and analysis of Green Girl all along. ¡°Strange girl¡­ where exactly are you from?¡± Looking at the documents, he fell into meditation. ¡°What the hell is your origin?¡± Bena, ambassador of the Sea of Storm to Gars, looked puzzled at the little girl who was sleeping in bed, and she was surprised. Just now, she noticed that a war broke out over Ximen district and was planning to go and see what was going on. However, she noticed that there was a green light flying here. She found that she was the famous Green Girl that was legendary during this period of time. The girl¡¯s armor was damaged in several places, and it was contaminated with a lot of blood. She found several bleeding wounds. So she flew up and stopped the girl, and brought her to the ground. Perhaps because she was out of danger, the Green Girl fell into a coma after coming down. With a green light, she became the mixed-blooded girl with obvious moon elf characteristics, looking about ten years old. Bena took her back to the embassy in doubt and treated her. Because she was still unconscious, there was no way to ask her anything. But soon, her subordinates returned to report what went on in the Ximen District. When Little Nice woke up, she saw a smiling mermaid looking at her, with her blue eyes filled with curiosity. ¡°You¡¯re finally awake,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯ve been so reckless this time!¡± Little Nice hurried to sit straight and reached, subconsciously touching the bracelet on her left wrist. ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous. I¡¯m not your enemy,¡± Bena said with a laugh. ¡°You haven¡¯t been completely cured. You can recover here for some time. We are absolutely safe here.¡± ¡°But¡­I¡¯ll need go home again,¡± Little Nice said quickly. ¡°If I don¡¯t go home, my mother and sister will worry!¡± Bena blinked and became more and more curious. ¡°Then I¡¯ll send you back,¡± she said. Little Nice was not willing to run the risk of being identified and being escorted by her, but because of the injuries, she was now unable to stand, let alone walk. She eventually returned to her home in a carriage with a fish badge, with Bena¡¯s escort. When she arrived home, she saw her mother and sister who were extremely anxious. That night, the famous hero of the Gar City, Green Girl, was scolded to tears by her mother. She was like a poor, hungry puppy. Chapter 150 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio@ In the dark depths, a giant jellyfish was waving his tentacles, trying to dig a maze. The flexible tentacles combined the powers of multiple tools, so nothing was difficult for it. Around it, a maze was being gradually formed. Looking from a distance, if you had acute eyes that could see through the darkness, you would see a huge maze, which was just like the ruins of an ancient time. It was buried deep, far away from the ground¡¯s surface. There was only a bit of light somewhere to prove that it was still connected to the ground. Sui Xiong was digging hard, while singing a song. ¡°There is a monster, there are two monsters. The monster¡¯s friend is the third monster. The monster¡¯s brother is the fourth monster¡­¡± To be honest, the rhythm of the song was fine, but the lyrics were strange. Fortunately, he sang it in Chinese. No one in the world could understand what he was singing. Even if someone heard it, the feeling was nothing more than¡­ ¡°Your Majesty, it looks like you are in a good mood today?¡± After he came out of the deep well, Acaine heard the singing echoing in the darkness. He smiled and flew over and to praise him. ¡°This song is very interesting, and the rhythm of the lyrics is pleasing. Unfortunately, I don¡¯t understand the lyrics; is it a folk tune?¡± Sui Xiong nodded with a smile, and silently praised the artistic cultivation of this mushroom alchemist. Although this song was actually made by him, the style was indeed true of folk songs. It was plain that even if the world, people, cultures, and even forms of life were all different, everyone¡¯s love of art and understanding of music were similar in the end. ¡°Why did you come here suddenly? Do you have new results in the research?¡± Acaine nodded and said happily, ¡°The two dragons have found several valuable mushrooms. I combined them with the existing varieties and succeeded in finding a species with the ability to absorb negative energy with high efficiency, and transform it into finely-grained crystals. Now the cultivating room can plant them extensively. Formal seeding could be started at any time!¡± Sui Xiong gladly clapped his tentacles. ¡°Great! Then I will start preparing for the cultivating pool.¡± ¡°However, the ability of this mushroom to decompose flesh is very weak,¡± said Acaine. ¡°The mushroom that can be used as a staple food, plus decompose flesh and blood, faces difficulties in cultivating. Existing species are either poisonous or can mutate, and they can not meet the requirements.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hurry,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°We have some time. Take it easy.¡± The special mushroom that utilized the flesh of monsters was intended to serve as a reserve staple food. Therefore, there were three requirements for it. The first was for it to be able to quickly and efficiently decompose useless the flesh of monsters, to avoid contamination; the second was for it to be non-toxic and edible; and the third was for it not to produce malignant mutations, lest it become a mushroom monster. Acaine had developed several kinds of mushrooms that could efficiently decompose the flesh and blood of monsters, but most likely because they derived from mushroom monsters, these mushrooms were either very toxic or they could condense their power from the blood of monsters. They quickly turned into monsters quite dangerous to ordinary people. This, of course, did not meet the requirements. Therefore, Acaine continued to study, hoping to develop mushrooms that were in full compliance with the requirements. He felt that if he could perfectly cultivate the two kinds of mushrooms proposed by the Void Mask His Majesty, then it would be enough to change the prejudices of the Druids on Pasteurian alchemy. Their family¡¯s long-standing bad reputation would be eradicated, and his father could be released! Because of this he was very motivated, and worked hard every day. He was either in the research room, training room, or bedroom all day. The first two places were used for scientific research, and the last place was where he slept and ate. If there weren¡¯t so many dangerous things are in the lab and training room, he probably wouldn¡¯t even leave them to eat! With such enthusiasm, his research progressed smoothly. In less than two years, he had already obtained results that ordinary mages had not obtained in decades. Today was a good day to announce the end of one of the two major projects. So after, he prepared to have a vacation and have a good sleep after informing His Majesty. But after learning of his plans, Sui Xiong advised him not to go to bed for a vacation, but to go for a walk. ¡°You can¡¯t find a girlfriend when you¡¯re the house all day long,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Even if you were to become a great sage, you would have to have a family!¡± ¡°I¡¯m still young. It¡¯s too early to think about it,¡± Acaine said. ¡°Young? One teacher of mine always felt that he was young, devoted his energy to research. Several decades passed and when he finally made a successful study, he discovered that his classmates already had grandsons that became his own students.¡± ¡°Ha-ha. That is too bad.¡± ¡°Exactly! So you can¡¯t learn from his example! People¡¯s youth is precious!¡± ¡°But I¡¯m really young¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk nonsense. Climb out of your hole and communicate with people!¡± Smiling, Sui Xiong used tentacles to wrap him up, and sent him back to the Dragon-roar Town by transmission magic. Most of the members of the Void Mask Church currently lived there. Some of them were learning various techniques, some were hunting with Gerrard, others were providing logistical support for their companions. They were always busy. Acaine¡¯s arrival was welcomed by Gerrard and others. They even held a small welcome meeting, and welcomed the most senior scholar of the church. During the welcome meeting, many people cheered with joy when they learned that the mushroom used to remove negative energy had been cultivated, and they could start clearing out an area without worrying about the attacks launched by skeletons in the night. Now the land and drinking water would not be contaminated, and they could live and cultivate normally. It was known that under the guidance of infinite power of the Void Mask, these things would happen sooner or later. However, when the expectation finally became a reality, and was coming at a predictable speed, nobody could be unhappy. Starting with Gerrard, everyone toasted to Acaine. They drank numerous cups of wine and in the end, the alchemist master who could eat poisonous mushrooms without changing facial expressions couldn¡¯t resist the power of wine, and slept on the ground. Even in his sleep, he still muttered, ¡°Well said! Yes! Drink another cup!¡± The next morning, dizzy with a hangover, he was awakened by the armored wizard Phil. He followed Phil and headed for the depths of Mountains of Barrenness. They went to the lair of the Arctic Tyrant, which was once the dragon hole of an ancient shrine. ¡°There were a large number of monster corpses in the mountains,¡± Phil said. ¡°To be honest, these corpses are really troublesome, and often attract some disgusting things. I used to tidy them up myself. Now that you have developed the mushroom that could decompose the corpses, why not spread them to the mountains?¡± Acaine told him that the mushroom he cultivated would either be poisonous or could mutate into a monster, which wasn¡¯t good. ¡°Then spread the second one,¡± Phil said indifferently. ¡°There are enough monsters in the mountains; I do not care if there is one more strange mushroom. But I have to ask: what capabilities does this kind of magical mushroom have?¡± Acaine remembered and said, ¡°The first is movement. Although they are not fast, they can rely on magic to fly slowly in the air, and they can creep slowly on the ground.¡± ¡°That¡¯s nothing.¡± ¡°The second is that they could use collision and self-detonation. Although the power of self-detonation is not great, it could emit an aroma that would seduce other monsters.¡± ¡°Well, hopefully not too much.¡± ¡°If they grow to a certain degree, they would also grow sharp zigzag-shaped arms, like two short knives. Although the power is not great, it could lead to cuts that would be very troublesome to deal with.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we change it to an ordinary knife arm?¡± Phil asked. ¡°No, because this kind of arm is used to divide large corpses of monsters.¡± Phil shrugged indifferently, ¡°That¡¯s all right. Any other problems?¡± ¡°If it continues to grow, it could use spells. The first spell is nausea, which could make you nauseous.¡± Phil laughed. ¡°What an interesting spell! What else?¡± Acaine counted on his fingers. ¡°The next thing is Stink Cloud, then Sleep, Body Freezing, Epidemic, Poisonous Fog¡­ and finally Dead Cloud.¡± Phil stopped laughing. He stopped and turned to look at Acaine. ¡°Dead Cloud?¡± ¡°Yes, Dead Cloud.¡± ¡°That is a high level spell!¡± said Phil. ¡°It¡¯s a typical mid-level spell. The lower-level mages can¡¯t cast it!¡± Acaine nodded. ¡°Only the magic mushrooms that have grown to old age have this ability. In my laboratory, after using the spell, mushrooms about the equivalent of about 25 years in terms of maturity would have this grade of ability.¡± ¡°25 years¡­ it¡¯s really not a long time, to tell you the truth.¡± Phil was hesitant, and asked the ages of other spells. ¡°From the third year onwards, they begin to grow the knife arm. They can use spells from the fifth year onwards, and then they have one more spell for about three to four years. After about 25 years, they will have mastered all the spells.¡± Acaine told everything about his research because he had researched this magical thing in detail. ¡°Even if we continue to cultivate it, there would be no growth. It is estimated that this is the limit of its race. It needs to break through the limit to go further.¡± Phil thought for a long time, but they could not make up their minds even when they arrived at the dragon¡¯s lair. In the end, he gave Acaine several kinds of mushrooms that were unique to the flower fields in the temple. However, they postponed the affair of the cultivation of mushrooms in the mountains. But Sui Xiong wasted no time. The first mushroom cultivated by Acaine was quickly cultivated in the underground maze. They quickly absorbed the negative energy that filled the maze. They grew unusually strong, and the clusters of mushrooms glowed with deep black light under the light of luminescent ores, and even had a little metallic texture. These glowing ores were not the minerals of the Ashes Woods, but minerals in the remote Dead Desert. Sui Xiong purchased a large amount of this mineral through the commercial channel of Gars City, and then went there in person and brought back much once. They were scattered throughout the maze to provide light. Under the meticulous design of Sui Xiong, most of the entire maze was shrouded in the perfect light which was dim, and only a few places dedicated to the rest of explorers had sufficient lighting. With the bright light, several guarding formations were seen. They both protected these resting spots and allowed people to relax their nerves, tightened up from the maze. Of course, resting at the spots cost money. After all, to maintain itself the formation needed to consume magic. If it weren¡¯t for the regular supply of magic in Sui Xiong, he would only consume backup energy, in an expensive magic crystal. There were also several transmission formations in the maze that allowed the explorers to safely leave. It didn¡¯t take money to use them, because leaving meant that the expedition was over. If you went in again, you would have to buy tickets again. When all the luminescent ore settled, this large magnificent underground maze would be preliminarily completed. Chapter 151 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°This is¡­ beyond my imagination!¡± The church of Void Mask had a few core members that formed an adventurer¡¯s troop. They walked in the huge underground maze and marvelled at the sight. Those magic beasts that had low fighting power of course couldn¡¯t threaten them. When they felt the power that was given off by the three giant dragons, they tore off like wild beasts. The entire way, everyone barely came across any other magic beasts. This gave them the opportunity to focus on the building itself, to look carefully into the design of the maze, and to experience the cultural ins and outs of it. ¡°This is unbelievable! I feel that various buildings in the maze have interlinked qualities.¡± Ray, who was the most accomplished artist, was deeply moved. ¡°To be able to feel a complete cultural system, the big and small, noble and humble, kind and evil, elegant and barbaric, holy and filthy¡­ The varieties are vast! It doesn¡¯t look like a sheer fabrication but a representation of a huge culture, that was specially built into such historical remain!¡± ¡°Yeah, such a magnificent sight!¡± Snow raised her head and looked at the ¡®starry sky¡¯ above her head. It was a constellation map made of luminous ore in various sizes, and it looked exactly like a real night sky. ¡°I feel that the constellation map is special too; it contains a pattern that is connected to horoscopes.¡± Sui Xiong laughed but did not explain the origins of the set of culture and constellation map to them. He flew next to Gerald, who was like Granny Liu visiting the Grand View Gardens (one that is overwhelmed by new experiences and luxurious surroundings), and asked, ¡°How do you feel? Interesting, right?¡± ¡°Mm, very beautiful scenery, but just a little too dark,¡± Gerald said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be bothered, but would the visitors be unable to see clearly?¡± ¡°The theme here is adventure. If it is too bright, it would lose its atmosphere of adventure.¡± Gerald nodded and said, ¡°Your Majesty is right!¡± Sui Xiong looked at his face and he couldn¡¯t help but murmur, ¡°Does this bastard really know what atmosphere is? Would he reply to me with ¡®Your Majesty is right¡¯ for everything I say? Isn¡¯t this like Sha Monk (one of the three disciples of the Buddhist pilgrim Tang Sanzang)?¡± ¡°Palin, what do you think?¡± He asked again. Palin, who was dragged out from the library, seemed to be in low spirits. He took out a lollipop and put it in his mouth, and finally regained some strength. He looked at the scenery around and said, ¡°It feels a bit stressful. If you were to let me come here alone, I would definitely not be keen on it!¡± ¡°Yeah, maybe only those that are looking for excitement would be interested.¡± Olian said, who left his work of city owner aside and came for a vacation. ¡°To commoners, this is a little too stressful.¡± ¡°I feel it¡¯s okay,¡± Wor said. He was a legendary expert who lived in seclusion that Sui Xiong secretly gave the nickname ¡®Sweeper Monk.''¡±It is just the atmosphere. The magic beasts here are weak. As long as one do not ask for it, there won¡¯t be any danger.¡± ¡°I of course cannot let them be in any danger,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°It is a theme park after all. It is supposed to let people enjoy the thrill and excitement. Minor injuries at most, would be sufficient. The life and death situations¡­ that kind of danger would be hard to control.¡± ¡°Yeah, if there were to be any deadly incidents, it would be troublesome!¡± Rhode nodded continuously. As a member that was in charge of finance and diplomacy, he had been living by the principles of ¡®nothing is good thing,¡¯ not getting into any trouble and living in stability. The group leader of mage group, Satan, took a different starting point from the others when he was thinking. He closed his eyes and carefully understood the magic intensity through the air. Then he said with interest, ¡°Actually, it would be a nice place for practicing. The magic intensity is very high, and the negativity was basically eliminated. Your Majesty, may I apply for magic apprentices to come over for practice, to experience the atmosphere of adventure along the way?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Sui Xiong waved and agreed straightforwardly. He even added, ¡°Inclusive of food and accommodation!¡± Alright, it sounded a little improper, but Void Mask was known to speak improperly, and they were all used to it. ¡°Really can¡¯t tell it¡¯s the ground¡­¡± Frost, who had always been at odds with everyone, was walking around and he couldn¡¯t hold back his exclamation. ¡°It¡¯s just like an open air historical remain during the night!¡± ¡°It¡¯s still too bright,¡± The lazy bug Graupel yawned. ¡°It¡¯d be nicer if it was a little dimmer¡­ ¡°But this place is really spacious, and there are so many magic beasts in front. It would be unlikely to be disturbed. I will only need to find an unnoticeable corner to hide myself.¡± Her voice went deeper, but her eyes got brighter and the corners of her lips tugged upwards and showed a suspicious smile. After a while, she came next to Sui Xiong and asked intimately, ¡°Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Void Mask Majesty! Don¡¯t you think, there¡¯s something lacking in the maze?¡± Sui Xiong looked around suspiciously and searched through the entire maze with his soul sensor, but he couldn¡¯t tell what was missing. ¡°Lacking what?¡± He asked. Graupel smiled mysteriously and said softly, ¡°In the historical remains, isn¡¯t there supposed to be a strong monster?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and nodded subconsciously. Like she said, whether if its a maze or a historical remains, there should a leader for the monsters. But¡­ to make a leading kind of monster here? It would make the magic beasts too powerful and increase unnecessary risks for the adventurers. After all, magic beasts were not things that one could negotiate with. Even if they used carrots and clubs to force them to listen, it would be difficult to guarantee that there wouldn¡¯t be any accidents. Once there was an accident, the adventurers would encounter life threats! ¡°It¡¯s inconvenient!¡± He sighed. ¡°This place doesn¡¯t suit a beast that is overly powerful!¡± ¡°It¡¯s convenient!¡± Graupel smiled. ¡°There could be a dragon!¡± Dragon?! Sui Xiong looked at her while she pointed at herself and laughed happily. ¡°You?!¡± ¡°Yes! I can always stay here, and pretend to be the head of the monsters in the maze!¡± Graupel smiled and said. ¡°Although I am not that old, I am a giant dragon. If I live here and pretend to be the head of the monsters, wouldn¡¯t it be suitable?¡± ¡°To let a lady stay underground all year round? That¡¯s not very nice.¡± Frost, who was listening quietly, couldn¡¯t hold back his laughter anymore. ¡°What¡¯s not nice about that? We rock dragons are supposed to stay in underground caves!¡± Sui Xiong then responded. Although Graupel held the appearance of a little girl, she was a rock dragon. Rock dragon was a type of giant dragon that liked to stay in underground caves. An environment like the maze would suit her. ¡°But you are a kid after all. You should eat more, do more exercise, learn more, and walk around outside more.¡± ¡°Stop treating me like a child!¡± Graupel said angrily. ¡°I am almost 100 years old!¡± ¡°You¡¯re only 100 years old. You giant dragons are only considered adults when you are 200 years old.¡± ¡°You are not a dragon! Why do you care so much!¡± Looking at Graupel being angry, Sui Xiong was upset. Why did she suddenly get angry? He looked towards Frost. Frost had smile plastered on his face and looked like he was only going to watch. He sighed and looked towards Snow. ¡°Snow, what is going on?¡± Snow waved her hand and there was a blackboard made of ice that appeared in the air. There was a little dragon that looking around that snuck into the basement under the house. It used a cup to cover itself and slept. ¡°Graupel is a lazy bug. What she likes the most is finding a place to sleep. It wouldn¡¯t be a problem for her to sleep for a few days and nights straight.¡± Sui Xiong nodded faintly. He understood this perfectly. On the blackboard, the little dragon was dragged out. It was dozing off with tears in its eyes while it work at the counter. ¡°Needless for me to explain, right?¡± Sui Xiong laughed. The painting is too vivid! In front of the little dragon, there was a deep underground cave, and a huge house in the depths of the cave. It jumped happily into the house and finally came to a corner. There was suddenly a huge blanket that covered it and it started sleeping again. ¡°Look: it¡¯s underground, spacious and no one would bother her. Isn¡¯t this the best spot to sleep?¡± Snow laughed and said. ¡°There weren¡¯t many adventurers that could come before her. Even if they were here, would those commoners really dare to challenge a giant dragon?¡± Sui Xiong constantly nodded and finally understood what she meant. On the blackboard, the little dragon slept soundly while the adventurers snuck past her and got into the pub. Every adventurer was drinking while chatting. No one knew when the piece of signboard appeared next to the little dragon. The signboard had a row of words printed: Working Hard; In Progress. Sui Xiong laughed and touched Graupel¡¯s hair with his tentacles. ¡°You are such a lazy bug! To be able to sleep under broad daylight, you racked your brain!¡± Graupel¡¯s stratagem was exposed before her and she blushed. She stuttered but she couldn¡¯t say anything. After a while, she became angry out of embarrassment and shouted while she made threatening gestures. It was noisy in the maze as everyone was laughing happily. But no doubt, her concept was good. If they were to add a giant dragon in the maze, it would definitely give the adventurers an entirely different and thrilling experience. And for the lazy bug, maybe only such a job would be suitable for her. After discussion, it was set. Sui Xiong took action on the spot, and made her a remarkably lifelike dragon cave. The dragon cave looked like a cave on the surface, but the wall and the ground were full of traces of fights. There were swords and guns, arrows and crossbows, and also magic traces. It seemed like a scene right after a vigorous fight. Inside the spacious dragon cave, there were many battle marks near the entrance, while the inner section had a pile of gold coins. Behind the pile of gold coins, there was a small hidden door and that would lead them into a house that was not luxurious, but comfortable. There wasn¡¯t anything else in the house but a set of warm blankets. The gold coins were donation from Sui Xiong, while the blanket was Graupel¡¯s treasure that wouldn¡¯t leave her side. When the dragon cave was done, Graupel cheered and turned into her original form, and jumped onto the pile of gold coins. ¡°I will live here then!¡± She announced. ¡°I won¡¯t go anywhere else!¡± Chapter 152 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Making a trip to the huge underground and looking at landscapes full of a foreign country¡¯s style, the visitor group left with sense of fulfilment. Oh; leaving one behind, who was sleeping soundly on the pile of gold coins. She was sleep talking. Sui Xiong got closer curiously, but he heard dragon language that was echoed from the back of the throat. After he used his ability of command of language, he then understood that she was murmuring, ¡°Gold coin, gold coin, blanket, blanket¡­ Sleep¡­.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t save this little girl!¡± He shook his head and quickly cast a ward to disperse Graupel¡¯s dragon power to its widest range, in order to prevent the nearby magic beasts to get closer and affect her sleep. It would let the adventurers realise her existence earlier so that they wouldn¡¯t get close to her mouth carelessly. Although Graupel had never eaten any human, under a situation where she was sleepy, who could be certain about it? And, even if she didn¡¯t eat anyone, what if she was woken up one day and she got angry, and released Stonifying Dragon Breath? What then? With Graupel¡¯s age and capability, the intensity of her Stonifying Dragon Breath wouldn¡¯t be high. Basically any qualified adventurer should be able to withstand it. However, those that would come into the maze for an adventure were just commoners! After setting up the ward, Sui Xiong thought and put a signboard at the border that said: Authorised personnel only. Beware of beast. Then he left, feeling content. As for the problem of if the adventurers could understand simplified Chinese, it was totally forgotten. The maze underground was almost done. Next would be the pathway that connected to the ground and the theme park facilities on ground. Rhode wanted to ask for help from the trailblazer, but Sui Xiong rejected his suggestion. ¡°This is interesting,¡± he said. ¡°I tell you, facilities are very interesting!¡± Rhodes couldn¡¯t understand what the fun of being a laborer was, but he thought that if His Void Mask Majesty could build such a huge maze underground happily, maybe His Majesty liked to play with soil and bricks. Then, he understood. From the theme park on the ground to the maze underground, Sui Xiong set up three different pathways. One was the main pathway, wide and big. The ground and underground was connected with an extremely long and high set of stairs. The steps spiralled upwards, up to 100 meters. Every ten meters there would be a hall. He was preparing to arrange other auxiliary facilities in the future, such as hotels, restaurants, training grounds, restrooms, libraries, and so on. Although there were similar facilities on the ground, the style on the ground and underground would be entirely different. They could construct a ¡®foreign culture¡¯ atmosphere. The second pathway was a huge and deep well that was sufficient enough to contain three people walking alongside each other from the top to the bottom of spiral stairs. In the middle, there was a pillar that allowed people to slide down. It was prepared for the people that wanted to take up a challenge. To enter the region where Graupel was, they¡¯d have to go down from there. The last pathway was an extremely long slope that extend to somewhere far far away. It wouldn¡¯t be used normally, but only as a backup for the crucial times. Of course, besides these normal pathways, there were another two transmission rooms. A huge fixed transportation portal could send users into the transportation point in the rest area in the maze, and vice versa. Besides that, when users encountered huge danger, the magic that was set up in advance on their bodies would take effect and immediately send them back to the transmission room, in prevention of accidents. In order to ensure safety, there was another small temple next to the transmission room, for provision of emergency services. If there were any unlucky bastards that got a myocardial infarction or a cerebral hemorrhage and died in the maze, the temple could provide resurrection services. ¡­Of course, that would come at a price. The set up of three pathways and transmission rooms used up a lot of Sui Xiong¡¯s time. Until the peak of summer he was free to build the theme park. At that time, the believers in the church of Void Mask were already arriving to this place that was scheduled to be a holy city, one after another, under the guidance of Gerald. As the negativity that derived from underground had been cut off and the surface of the ground had been purified by Sui Xiong with magic, the woods did not have one bit of gloominess at that time. The dark brown soil was covered with thick weeds. But regardless of the tall trees or the short weeds, it showed a scene of greenery that was not supposed to appear in Ash Woods. There was even a clear river that flowed through the forest. The river was not like the ones that were polluted and gave out unpleasant rust smells. Instead it brought about a fragrant green grass scent. Not knowing when it was, many birds started coming as well. They found the piece of clean soil and built their nests to reproduce and live there. Every morning, everyone would wake up with the chirping of the birds and would fall asleep with the deer at night. Even though Sui Xiong did not give out any orders that prohibited hunting, trailblazers were not willing to harm these cute living creatures. They referred these birds as their ¡°neighbors,¡± and even raised a petition to the manager of trailblazers, Madame Liv, to request if they could adjust the distribution of the city in order to keep sufficient living space for the birds. Since she arrived at Ash Woods from Garth City using transportation portal, Madame Liv, who was promoted from patrol team leader to manager of trailblazers, approved of the idea happily. She originally thought that she would come to a place with barren hills and untamed rivers, join the rude adventurers and dirty labourers, and be busy fighting with various kinds of dangerous magic beasts. She never expected it would be a forest with picturesque mountain scenery. Oh, there was nothing wrong with clear water, but green mountain seemed to be incorrect. The nearest mountain was about hundred miles away. Over there, the sky was gray and the ground was black. Even the leaves on the trees were covered with a layer of black soot. The bad reputation of Ash Woods: even she at the other end of mainland heard about it. But she couldn¡¯t imagine what kind of measures Void Mask Majesty took to be able to open up such a human world in a terrifyingly dark forest. However, she did not go to the theme park construction to ask Sui Xiong, who was busy playing the foreign world real life version of ¡°My World¡± all the time. She kept the question to herself and concentrated on her work. His Void Mask Majesty sent out messengers to lend them a helping hand at their hardest time. Madame Liv¡¯s teacher was also a believer of His Majesty. I heard that teacher is a deacon. That¡¯s weird; why isn¡¯t he a knight group leader, but a main deacon? Teacher didn¡¯t look like a clergy at all¡­ With the combination of multiple factors, she felt that this God was reliable, and she should complete the tasks that He gave out. It was to repay His Void Mask Majesty and her teacher. It was also a great opportunity to realise her own life¡¯s value without wasting anything that was thought by her father! She remembered that her father would occasionally be depressed. He sighed in private that he learned a lot of skills on how to manage the nation and people, but never got a chance to put the skills into practice. Every time he taught his daughter one on one, he would sigh with emotion. At the moment, it was time to put the things that her dad taught into practice, to see if it was correct, and to certify if her dad had the ability to be a good leader. Of course, she definitely believed in her father! The fact was that the set of knowledge that Knight Brian taught his daughter was very useful. Even though the staff that she needed to manage was much more than Garth¡¯s patrolling team and their quality was different, she managed to get situated very quickly and maintained the order of the entire region. Every morning, she would bring along a few soldiers to patrol the region and listen to the trailblazer¡¯s opinions, and gather all the problems that they found. After lunch, she would put her hands onto the problems and solve them one by one. In the evening, she would look for Frost, who was in charge of cleaning up, to do a stock count in order to ensure the entire region had stable provisions. To have Frost to look after the storehouse was her idea. Back then, Frost seemed to be unhappy, and he even threatened her in his giant dragon form. But Liv erupted with a startling courage, and she didn¡¯t concede, even when she was dealing with the sharp teeth of the giant dragon. In the end, Frost didn¡¯t dare to really bite her to death and finally gave in, unwillingly becoming a store keeper. The job did suit him. He became a young man that always looked unhappy and treated everyone with a ¡°you owe me money and you better pay me back¡± kind of expression. Plus, he gave off a faint hint of dragon power, and the trailblazers didn¡¯t dare pull any tricks with him. Even the most cunning old foxes didn¡¯t try to take advantage of the giant dragon. They didn¡¯t have such strong nerves like Madame Liv, who dared to fight against the angry giant dragon. They¡¯d rather not get into trouble! Madame Liv was in charge of agriculture management. She worked along with a Druid ¡®South¡¯ that claimed to work for short term, assisted the farmers to cultivate the land, and sowed the seeds of crops using Elf Spells and Nature Spells. As the soil was purified properly, they did not grow Golden Vine that took too long to grow and tasted bad. Instead they grew stem tubers and cereal crops, and vegetables. The soil in Ash Woods was rich and fertile and the crops grew really well. It was the midsummer then, and even the temperature in the north of the city was considered warm. When the seeds were sown into the soil and matched up with the effects of magic, they sprouted in a few days. After only half a month, it was the picture of prosperity. ¡°But the winter here will be very cold,¡± South, the Druid with a weird name, said. ¡°I am afraid that these plants can¡¯t pass through the cold winter.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. The God that rules here can manipulate cold air as He wishes. By then, He will have absorbed the surrounding cold air so that it can maintain its warmth around here.¡± Madame Teague, who had communicated with Gerald earlier, and knew the information, replied. ¡°If you are interested, stay back longer to watch it with your own eyes.¡± South shook his head. ¡°Although it is out of kindness, such actions that go against nature are opposite to what we Druids practice. It¡¯s better if I don¡¯t stay.¡± He was a stubborn person and he meant every word. The autumn in the previous years, after the bumper harvest, he helped the farmers to complete the harvest and insisted that ¡°the contract had ended;¡± then he left. The autumn in winterland passed by very quickly. It felt like a blink of an eye, and the first snow would gradually fall. The winter of Ash Woods, arrived earlier, as always¡­ Chapter 153 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In a world of ice and snow, a thin curtain of white rays that were almost unnoticeable turned into a huge semicircular cover. The world outside the ray cover was coated with ice and snow. The mountains were white, the trees were white, the ground was white, the water streams were white; the usual gloominess of the Ashes Woods seemed to fade away and turned into a pure white world. Within the ray cover¡ªalthough there was a cold breeze and snow¡ªit was much better compared to the outside world. In a calm and still container, it formed a layer of thin ice; on the treetops far away from the village was piled up pure white snow. That only. Walking towards the inner of the ray cover, the temperature rose slowly. When one arrived before a weird statue right in the middle of the ray cover, it was already warm enough to the point where one did not need to wear thick clothing, as though it was ending of Spring or beginning of Autumn. A bunch of kids were playing at the plaza around the statue where it was built, and the one taking the lead was Little Nice. She was the King of the kids in the newly built city. She always brought the kids to play and learn, living a full life. Of course, there were times when she complained, about how some kids were not smart enough and she would need to teach them a simple thing multiple times; or that for her casting spells was very easy. It would be done just with a piu- but they couldn¡¯t learn how. Liv had no comments about all those but only she exhorted again and again. She urged her sister not to reveal to the other kids her ability to transform. At the same time, she was complaining in her heart, His Void Mask Majesty was no doubt powerful, but how could he be so unreasonable! Little Nice had to be sensible. Forget about teaching her magic; how could he teach her the amazing ability to transform! Sui Xiong was wrongfully accused. He taught her transforming, but he didn¡¯t teach her magic. That was a tribe gift inherited from Madame Teague. The coldness on the outside did not affect life in the residency. Although everyone would run to the border of the ray cover to see snow scenery at the beginning and find it astonishing, everyone got used to it very quickly. The snow that was so immutable; they got tired of watching it eventually. Hence, life went back to normal. Even the crops in the field weren¡¯t affected much. The construction site at the theme park was still bustling with great enthusiasm. Sui Xiong was dancing with his tentacles, enjoying his work. When spring came and flowers blossomed, he would have built up the initial framework of the theme park and could invite everyone to visit. But this time, besides Gerald the mad believer, no one else supported his design. ¡°What is that Ferris Wheel? A huge wheel spinning; that¡¯s too terrifying!¡± Snow shook her head continuously. Even a giant dragon couldn¡¯t withstand such fun. ¡°How is this scary! The roller coaster is the true scare! From falling down from such a high mountain, any timid person would be scared to death.¡± Rhodes¡¯s face grew pale and his legs were shaking. ¡°All your scary things are barely scary. I think ¡®Ghost House¡¯ is the scariest. You never know when there will be something that pops out. My soul nearly left my body when I was frightened!¡± Palin panted while he held onto the wall to stable himself. ¡°The water slide is very scary too.¡± Although Frost tried to pretend to be calm, his twitching face betrayed him. ¡°Why, when the little boat was going forward slowly in the water, there would suddenly be a huge wave!¡± ¡°Those magic beast statues that move are scary too!¡± Steele patted her chest. ¡°I was still looking at them closely with interest, and they suddenly moved and spurted flames. Wow! I am going to have nightmares at night!¡± Satan kept quiet by the side while his fingers were still quivering. Arcaian was smiling bitterly by the side, not knowing where he found a medicine that could calm himself. He poured some into his mouth while he poured another extra cup for Liv who had yet to recover from shock. ¡°Luckily, mother is busy today and she had no time to drop by.¡± She drank a cup of medicine and finally felt better. She said softly, ¡°If she were to come, she would definitely bring Little Nice along. Then¡­ I dare not imagine!¡± Their comments made Sui Xiong looked crestfallen. In the end, Ray patted him and comforted him. ¡°Actually these things are great. At least they are all very creative. Your Majesty, look, the three of us are fine.¡± Sui Xiong turned around. Gerald, Wor, and Ray, the three legendary experts were standing there calmly. ¡°Very interesting! Really!¡± Gerald smiled honestly. ¡°I think it¡¯s great! Very interesting indeed!¡± ¡°I would take up the challenge occasionally,¡± Wor said. ¡°It is beneficial for my self control ability as well as my mastery of strength.¡± Sui Xiong sighed a heavy breath and was at a loss for words. The people in this world are a bunch of country bumpkins! Helplessly, he had to knock down the theme park that he had built, and restart. He cast magic to reverse the material into raw material and built it bit by bit from the beginning. He worked while comforting himself. ¡°I am contributing to GDP! The property industry is at such depressing state, right at the edge of exploding the properties. I will explode them in advance in case of stocking up the commercial buildings.¡± Then, he started sighing again. ¡°Damn! I suddenly remembered that I have only paid my down payment for my house. Now that I cross worlds, will my house be taken back by the bank? Will I have nowhere to stay when I return, and even be in debt? Oh god¡­¡± He, who had been thinking of returning home, was really hesitating then. Rebuilding the theme park, he decided to opt for a milder, less exciting entertainment method; such as a merry-go-round, happy teacups, jumping bed, train trail, seesaw, slides, etc. ¡°I feel that these are things parents bring their kids to play with, but I don¡¯t even have a girlfriend yet.¡± Just when he was busy, the residency that had yet to be named had an unexpected visitor, and he did not have a choice but to put down the job on hand to play host. ¡°This is considered a guest?¡± Looking at the white mountain that was slowly moving outside of the ray cover, he said in distress, ¡°A mountain is also considered a guest? I did not prepare any projects that it could have fun with.¡± ¡°That is not a mountain; it is one of the few most amazing legendary creatures in Ashes Woods,¡± Rhodes said. ¡°The Snow Elephant King.¡± The Snow Elephant King originally lived on the iceland in the north. It was heard that it lost in a fight against another demigod when they were fighting for a clergy post. It got angry and left its homeland to stay in the west of the Mountains of Barrenness on the far north border. Normally, it didn¡¯t really move. It was just like a little mountain that squatted on the seaside, not knowing what it was thinking about. This time, not knowing why, it suddenly moved its home and came here instead. Sui Xiong heard Rhodes¡¯s introduction, and turned into the size of the Snow Elephant King. Then, he flew before it slowly. ¡°Elephant, what do you plan to do?¡± He asked with his consciousness. ¡°This place of mine is for the normal human being; I did not prepare any project that is suitable for you.¡± The Snow Elephant King looked around with its big eyes, and towards the huge jellyfish that was floating in the air. Its consciousness spread over. Unlike Sui Xiong¡¯s complicated sentences, its seemed a little monotonous. It was just curious. But it was a coincidence that the residency that Sui Xiong selected was close to the border of the Snow Elephant King¡¯s territory. The legendary giant beast didn¡¯t mind sharing its territory, but it was curious as to what the strong spirit was up to. He first dug down underground for a long time, then built something on the ground, and even made a huge ray cover to maintain an area¡¯s warmth in the world of ice and snow. Then, it saw that Sui Xiong knocked down things that looked ready and rebuilt them. It couldn¡¯t hold back its curiosity but came forward to visit. When it asked Sui Xiong about the incident that made him upset, he sighed and started complaining to it. ¡°Those designs of mine were very interesting! Fun, it¡¯s all about thrill and excitement, a pumping heartbeat, right? But they don¡¯t like them!¡± The giant beast was quiet for very long and asked him curiously, Why do you care about other people¡¯s opinions? The concept of ¡°other people¡¯s opinions¡± was not something that it quite understood. Sui Xiong was stunned and patted the huge elephant¡¯s head with his tentacle after a while. ¡°Poor child; only a body without an equally sized brain.¡± All in all, communication between Sui Xiong and the Snow Elephant King was considered friendly and happy. Even though the two huge beasts were having a forthright and sincere communication in the nearby forest, that shook the earth and moved the mountain, that bloody nose and swollen face, that did not affect their friendship at all. ¡°What?! You said friendship?!¡± Liv gaped. She looked at the huge jellyfish with patches of green and purple and the huge white elephant that was hobbling, and she felt as though there was something wrong with her ears. The two of you made the huge piece of forest into flatland; that was a demonstration of friendship? ¡°Of course it¡¯s friendship!¡± Jose, who came forth to watch with Gerald and wanted to help but became a spectator, said. ¡°North people¡¯s style is just like that. There are only two ways of making friends: either with fists, or alcohol. They are communicating with their fists now; that¡¯s considered half a friendship. When they drink together again soon, they will be friends for life.¡± ¡°The living style of the people from north; I really don¡¯t understand it,¡± Liv shook her head and said helplessly. She couldn¡¯t understand which parts of the two huge beasts looked like they were from the north. An elephant and a jelly fish; how could they use those kinds of methods to become friends? What kind of sorcery was that! The visit of Snow Elephant King gave Sui Xiong the idea to visit the neighbors around. He thought about it carefully, and realised that he had been in the Ashes Woods for a very long time, but he didn¡¯t visit any of his nearby neighbors. So, he decided to leave the theme park work aside and looked for his neighbors to have a chat. Of course, it was a great event. But he couldn¡¯t just leave as he said so. Hence, he spent some time to re-solidify the entire border, and urged everyone not to let their kids play and roam around the construction area. He then went on his journey happily. He had seen the Snow Elephant King and according to the order from north to south, the next one with fixed home lived in the depths of the Ashes Woods, a legendary beast that was named ¡°Skeleton Devourer¡± Junior. That one was a weird spirit, a huge and strong one. A Mud monster. Chapter 154 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°I¡¯ve never thought that I would ever visit a Mud Monster.¡± Looking at the grey swamp that came into his view, Sui Xiong only found it funny. Junior was a mutated soft slime that lived in a gray swamp. As a famous legendary monster in the Ashes Woods, it had a unique appearance and was an independent creature in minds and actions. Sui Xiong flew slightly closer and he saw its shadow. There was a huge puddle of mud that lied prostrate in the middle of the swap. Its body was dark and shone black, displaying a metallic shine that a mud shouldn¡¯t have. The swamp underneath its body gave out a weird aura that wasn¡¯t stinky, ferocious, poisonous gas. It was more like¡­ hunger. Sui Xiong had heard about Junior. The legendary monster was strong and greedy, but its diet was quite bizarre. It did not eat any known living creature, and had no interest in grain, vegetables, or meat. The only thing it was interested in was bone. More interestingly, under the ground of Ashes Woods was inexhaustible amount of bones. Every night, there would be a large sum of skeletons that attacked the living things around them in a wild manner. During the daytime, Junior was slept lazily on the ground. When the sky grew dark and it became hungry, it would send out a few mud monsters in each direction to wipe out all skeletons that they could find and feast on them. Relying on him, in the depths of Ashes Woods, there was a safe zone where no skeleton moved. There were many spirits that lived around there. Among the spirits, those who were wise would refer the to huge mud monster as their patron saint. They built an altar in the swamp where it normally rested and bought magic beasts¡¯ bones as sacrificial offerings. The main source of these sacrificial items was Dragon-roar Town. Dragon-roar Town, which held magic beast hunting as its main financial income, wouldn¡¯t lack magic beasts¡¯ bones. Wise creatures that believed in Junior purchased many different kinds of bones to honor it. They finally realized that the mud monster patron saint had very robust but simple requirement for its sacrificial items. The bigger the bones, the better. The bigger the bones, the more it liked them. So, they shifted their focus onto larger scale magic beasts, to the point where the hunters in Dragon-roar Town formed a habit. If they hunted a large-scale magic beast, even it was tougher and more troublesome, they needed to bring back the bones or drag the entire thing back. Honestly speaking, these living creatures were poor to the point where they had to rely on Junior to live. They couldn¡¯t take out any proper wealth. But hunters in Dragon-roar Town were a bunch of passionate and hospitable people. As long as it didn¡¯t cause them much trouble, they were willing to lend a helping hand. Not only that, but there was power that planned to help Junior, that gave money to the hunters occasionally to let them continue to help the people. Among them, there was Snow, who went by the alias ¡°Arctic Tyrant.¡± Junior¡¯s believers were poor and could only trade the bones with timber and ore that was rarely seen; with help, they could still exchange quite a number of things, sufficient to maintain their lives. Just when he got closer to Junior, Sui Xiong gradually descended to avoid the other party¡¯s hostility. But he obviously thought too much. The mud monster was lying on the swamp that had almost fully solidified into ice. It was sunbathing without moving an inch and ignoring his arrival entirely. A few wise creatures on the ground were holding on to their weapons, on high alert. Sui Xiong looked at Junior¡¯s creatures carefully. They looked very human-like, but their bodies were covered in black dust. This layer of dust had special magic powers, and could maintain their body temperature so that they could live normally in the world of ice and snow. Their lower limbs were a little shorter while their upper limbs were longer. They looked strange. Although they had similar features like eyes and a mouth, there were no eyeballs. Only two pools of mud that were billowing, looking extremely weird. It was not, of course, a situation that any living creature was supposed to have. In actual fact, only when they get close to Junior would they assume that look. When they left Junior¡¯s side, they would turn into another look. The most common one was a barbarian cover with a thick layer of fur coat. There were some mages that were amazing who once caught this barbarian for research, but found out that there was not much difference between their bodies and bloodlines of humans. But the formation of such weird phenomena would appear because they were too near to Junior, and were affected. Near the legendary giant beast, the world itself was mutated and turned into the way it used to be. Those wise creatures that stayed that near it were mutated by its power which made an amazing difference. These wise creatures were not strong enough to resist such mutation. So they did not realize their changes. From what they saw, not matter if they were closer or farther from Junior, they were still the same. Even though they were communicating with the residents in Dragon-roar Town, and realized that they turned into barbarians that had long hair, they wouldn¡¯t feel insecure or worried, but think that it was right and proper, not a big deal at all. A mage once spent money to buy a few slaves and sent them to stay near Junior for a period of time. Until they experienced changes, he would figure a way to get rid of the alterations. The experiment was quite a success; but those slaves recorded the images of themselves when they were weird looking back then, and didn¡¯t find anything inappropriate. According to what they said, there was nothing weird about it. The mage didn¡¯t manage to suppress his fire of curiosity, and moved near Junior. He casted a bunch of defense magic on himself but it didn¡¯t seem to work. After a few months, he turned into one of the monsters when he stayed around Junior, and a long-haired barbarian when he was elsewhere. Luckily he still had friends, and his friends managed to pull him back in time and treat him. His sacrifice was worthwhile. After the research, the magician finally confirmed that the area around Junior brought about changes like ¡°Holy Kingdom¡±. The magnificent mud monster actually already possessed a god-like power. However, its intelligence level was too low for it to be transformed by its nature. Either that, or the transformation speed was very slow, to the point that it was not noticeable. Hence the formation of such weird phenomena. Sui Xiong was of course curious towards his enemy. But firstly, he had to communicate with Junior¡¯s believers properly to let them know that he was not an enemy. In fact, it was very easy. The huge jellyfish waved his tentacles while he took out a terribly huge thighbone. The bone was not from any magic beast, but made by Sui Xiong himself. It was built of various kinds of minerals and nutrients; no different than building a house. However, to Junior¡¯s believers, it was a generous gift. They suddenly put down their weapons and touched the humongous thighbone that was almost their height when laid vertically on the ground. ¡°Master would like this gift very much!¡± A creature that seemed to be the leader said. ¡°Guest from afar, Peace Swamp welcomes you!¡± Peace Swamp was the name they gave the region. It was very safe here if you didn¡¯t mind turning into a monster and having your physical and mental state mutated. Sui Xiong of course couldn¡¯t be affected by Junior¡¯s power. He landed on the ground and shrunk in size, and started chatting with the residents of Peace Swamp who now thought nothing was fishy. He also took out food to share with them. These resident diet was not as weird as Junior¡¯s, and they would still eat and drink like any normal living creature. In order to avoid the food and drinking water that was polluted by the negativity that was everywhere, they dug an underground storeroom and purchased magic material to build a warehouse that could shield off negativity for storage purposes. Such building costs were not low, but to them, clean food and drinking water was a precious source. It would be okay if it was winter and the snow on the treetops was polluted lightly. It could turn into a reliable water source. However, there was no access to food but through purchase. The batch of food that Sui Xiong took out was hunted from the sea when he made a detour, and the amount of food was sizeable. To these people who were living a poor life, it was considered an enormous wealth. They lit up a bonfire happily and started singing and dancing. Although the actions were weird and creepy, the happiness was not fabricated. Sui Xiong lied down on a tree branch nearby and couldn¡¯t help but smile when he saw them so happy. As the daylight slowly passed, the night sky grew dark, and the believers of Junior used all kinds of tools to drag the extremely huge thigh bone onto the simple altar in the swamp. As the altar was not big enough, they could only put a side of the bone on it. After that, they prayed and worshiped Junior. Then, they got into the underground cave. The winter night in the north was bone-piercingly cold. Even with Junior¡¯s favor on his followers, it was unbearable. Only hiding underground, which was warmer, could help them through the boundless winter night. When the moon rose, the huge mud monster that was lying throughout the day without moving an inch slightly shook to shatter the ice that had formed on it, and wiggled until it changed shape. On the middle of its body, there was a mud-like substance that was slowly moving and gathering into a human figure. But its head looked like a huge octopus, and the hands became four tentacles each. It looked quite weird. The weird creature and Sui Xiong, who turned back into a huge floating jellyfish, looked at each other for a while, and sent out an inquiry. The consciousness was unclear, slimy and soft, like a combination of glue and mud. But at least he could understand what it meant. Sui Xiong smiled and gave out a friendly message, and indicated for him to notice the huge bone above the altar. After Junior noticed the huge bone, it let out a happy growl. Just when it was puffing and blowing, trying to eat the bone, Sui Xiong took out another to show that he had more. So, the world¡¯s most powerful mud monster, completely unaware of its identity as Peace Swamp¡¯s patron saint, was easily bought over by a bunch of big bones. When Sui Xiong bid farewell, the b*stard learned the first word in its life out of its nature: Friend. Chapter 155 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There were about five legendary creatures that lived around the Ashes Wood and surrounding area. Snow Elephant King in the far north of Mountains of Barrenness; the Arctic Tyrant of Dragon-roar Town; the Skeleton Devourer in Peace Swamp; Shadow Devil; and Greg the Death Knight. The first three had a fixed territory, but the latter two didn¡¯t. The Shadow Devil at least had a rough activity area, but the Death Knight had nothing; it went around the Ashes Wood without aim. There was not only one adventurer that once got in touch with him, up close. Although the Death Knight was a death soul, it didn¡¯t possess the violent and ferocious qualities of a normal death soul. He only held his head, rode on his skeleton horse that only had bones, and murmured, ¡°Who am I?¡± He asked these sort of philosophical questions all day. However, meeting him was definitely an unhappy experience because he would pester every person that he met. He asked confusing questions. Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going? What is life? What is true success? What is the value of a human? And so on¡­ His questions didn¡¯t cause pain in one¡¯s body, but they were questions that no one could answer. In addition, his whole body was bandaged with strong, death-divine light. If a commoner was touched by divine light, they would be terrified. Even those courageous adventurers would be frightened if they were to stay long enough in the death-divine light. Under such circumstances, who would have enough strength to think about such questions? Hence, the outcome in the end was mostly these unlucky people who finally broke down under the double attack, mentally and physically. Every one of them fainted on the ground, foaming at the mouth. Many of them even lost part of their memories, and some even faced after effects: when they heard people asking similar questions later they would have epileptic fits. Of course, some of those who had guts and weren¡¯t afraid of death would be angry out of embarrassment due to those questions, and draw their swords at each other. In the end, needless to say, the death knight didn¡¯t like to resolve problems with violence; but that didn¡¯t mean that he couldn¡¯t. Plus, there were not many stronger than him, at least in the main realm. Sui Xiong was reminiscing on the information and couldn¡¯t help but find it funny. The Death Knight is such an interesting character! He flew around in the air above the Ashes Woods to find the shadow that was wandering around alone. Not knowing if it was because that he was unlucky, he only found the Death Knight after almost half a month. It was already a dark night with no moon and no stars, and the snow was falling. Sui Xiong noticed a pile of snow that shook and shattered. Out from it came a skeleton warhorse, and above on horseback, a knight wearing old armor. It was empty above the knight¡¯s neck but his left hand was carrying something round. Looking it carefully, Sui Xiong saw it was a helmet; a closer look revealed there was a skull inside. ¡°Could it be the large-sized skeleton soldier?¡± Sui Xiong whispered curiously, and slowly shrunk its body into average human size. He then slowly descended onto the ground. Death Knight, of course, noticed him and raised his head to look up at the sky. It was weird to bring it out; he didn¡¯t have a skull, but when he turned around with his chest out, Sui Xiong could clearly feel that he raised his head to look at him. It was a very weird feeling. ¡°Hello; I am Void Mask, who lives nearby.¡± Sui Xiong flew before him and introduced himself while he smiled. ¡°I was busy earlier, so I didn¡¯t manage to greet the neighbors. Now that I am finally free, of course I¡¯d like to visit. Speaking of which, Brother Death Knight, you stay in quite a remote area! I have been looking for you for a very long time!¡± Death Knight was silent for a while and then asked, ¡°Who am I?¡± ¡°I am here to greet you, not to discuss philosophical questions.¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°I am your neighbor.¡± ¡°Who am I?¡± ¡°Bro, do you have problem with your brain? Why do you keep going back and forth between these two questions?¡± ¡°Why do humans need to think?¡± ¡°¡­I am only passing by. I haven¡¯t even washed up and brushed my teeth. Why not wait for me to wash up, and then we can go get some drinks and have some barbecue together? When we have enough drinks and food, we can discuss these questions again,¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°With a full stomach, lying next to a warm bonfire, discussing philosophy is like a lullaby. Ain¡¯t that a good idea?¡± ¡°Why do we eat? Why do we have to discuss these questions after we have enough food and drink? Why do we sleep?¡± Sui Xiong dared not answer. He didn¡¯t want to be pestered by the crazy guy! ¡°¡­It¡¯s late. I have another business appointment,¡± He said. ¡°Then, I shall make a move first. When I¡¯m done with the meeting, I will come and chat with you again.¡± Then, he leapt and meant to soar up into the sky. But the Death Knight suddenly extended his right hand and held his fist towards him. A ray of black light trailed from his hand that was only bone, tying Sui Xiong down firmly before he could flee. It connected them closely. ¡°Why are you running away? You are not busy at all.¡± When his lie was exposed straightforwardly, even Jellyfish God¡¯s thick skin, which could withstand a huge crossbow used for city attacks, couldn¡¯t help but blush with embarrassment. He laughed and sat in the air helplessly to chat with the Death Knight. Chatting with Death Knight was not an interesting experience. The Death Knight¡¯s way of thinking was quite dull, and held almost nothing valuable. And he quibbled over all those meaningless questions. From what Sui Xiong could see, questions such as ¡°Who am I,¡±¡±Where am I from,¡± and ¡°Where should I go,¡± were only asked by people who wanted trouble. Why would any commoner ponder such questions? But the Death Knight seemed to take these questions to heart. He was bothered by those few questions at all times. Even when Sui Xiong intentionally distracted him to other topics, he would return to these questions. Sui Xiong answered vaguely with answers like ¡°I come from where I came, I go to where I am going.¡± But because he wasn¡¯t a monk, he couldn¡¯t fully explain what ¡°where I came from¡± and ¡°where I am going¡± meant. The philosophical knowledge that he had learned in college he had returned to his teacher, with no traces left behind. Er, maybe there weren¡¯t any traces to leave anyway. In the subject of philosophy, he didn¡¯t seem to pass. But the teacher had a kind heart, as he saw the average mark for the class was almost twenty. He then had no choice but to pass every student that came to class consistently, and that was how he passed the subject. The conversation with Death Knight gave him a headache. Especially with his terrifying, tin-like, stubborn character. He would pester him if he didn¡¯t get an answer; it wouldn¡¯t even work if Sui Xiong pretended that he died. Sui Xiong was bothered by him for three to four days, and finally couldn¡¯t take it anymore. He swung his tentacles and pulled out a big tree next to him, and slammed him down using the tree as a club. Then he buried him under the tree that was covered in snow. He seized the chance to get out and flew away in a hurry. These attacks were nothing to Death Knight. But the legendary death soul wasn¡¯t known for his strength. By the time he climbed out from the pile of things, Sui Xiong had been long gone. The huge jellyfish was speeding off in the air. He flew while he grumbled, ¡°Mental patients have wide trains of thought, and children with learning disabilities have more happiness. What the heck was the guy thinking about! I got to stay far away from him in the future!¡± He quickly returned to his residency and made a big wooden signboard at the entrance. There was a row of words: Psychopaths, vandals, Death Knight, keep out! After that, Sui Xiong let out a long sigh of relief and returned to the theme park. He originally planned to resume work then, so that he would be able to launch the theme park at the beginning of spring. But he felt that he had forgotten something important. ¡°What is it?¡± The huge jellyfish touched his supposed brain body part with a tentacle and went deep in thought. After a long while, he finally thought of what he left out. Among the neighbors in the Ashes Woods, there was one more that he hadn¡¯t visited. Although the neighbor would most likely not welcome him, he had visited all other others but not him. It would seem like he had no manners and didn¡¯t treat everyone fairly! Sui Xiong was one that carried out what he said. He immediately prepared a generous gift. He made one of his clones cast magic to form a space barrier to pass through the main dimension. He brought the present to the destination. It was a hidden valley in shadow realm. In the valley, there was a messy palace runin. In the ruins, there was a black, white and green striped human figure that was wriggling vigorously. It was struggling to eliminate that energy in conflict with ¡°death¡± and ¡°shadow.¡± But looking at the complexity of its colors, its hard work seemed to have very little result. ¡°Hello! Shadow Devil! How have you been?¡± Sui Xiong flew over and took out his gift. He put it down near it carefully. ¡°Bro, I have been well. Have some savings. Look at you being so down and out; I feel for you! So I brought a present for you. I believe you will like it!¡± Then, he waved his tentacles and opened the present that was tightly wrapped while he vanished into thin air and ran away to the main dimension. The gift was in a tightly wrapped box. The box opened and there was a solid voice recorder rock. The binding array suddenly dissolved and its power started to break out. The sound that was pre-recorded was then released. It could only hear a happy voice singing, ¡°¡­Dance and sing with grandpa and you will not turn old¡­¡± Shadow Devil roared and kicked the voice recorder rock aside. It didn¡¯t expect that it would trigger the mechanism within, and a portal was quickly opened. Then, Death Knight, riding on a skeleton horse, walked through the portal calmly. ¡°Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going?¡± He looked at Shadow Devil and asked. The Shadow Devil was stunned and immediately recognized the person from the appearance and even the familiar lines. Wasn¡¯t this the superbly long-winded person that forced him to move his home from Green Fog Forest to Shadow Plane?! So, it finally wailed hopelessly. ¡°Why would I even meet you here!¡± Chapter 156 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio What was the happiest thing in the world? Of course, it was to bully your enemy! Sui Xiong did not have many enemies because he pursued the principle of ¡®don¡¯t let your hatred remain overnight;¡¯ all his contradictions were resolved at that time. Of his enemies, only the Shadow Devil was still alive, who suffered from his ¡®Buddha¡¯s palm,¡¯ and was slowly recovering in the ruins of his own palace. He had now recovered some strength, and it was not impossible to run and completely kill this half-necromancer, but he had already decided to let this guy be killed by Satan, so he would tolerate him living for now. It was just¡­ although he didn¡¯t kill him, he could cause him trouble. With Gratt¡¯s company, the life of the Shadow Devil would surely be fulfilling, and perhaps it would be enriched enough to make it even forget to recover its injuries. Ah, that kind of life suited it! ¡°Gratt, Gratt, I¡¯m a good friend, and I¡¯ve found a good audience for you¡­¡± Sui Xiong sang a small tune and happily worked on the construction site. Because of his good mood, his work efficiency had improved significantly. When the spring came back to earth, thick ice and snow began to melt away. The first phase of the new playground had been basically completed. Because the last lesson was too painful, this time he took a method of completing the construction in different phases. The entire project was divided into three phases, and the scale was greatly increased, but the total workload in the first phase was reduced. This first phase of the project was relatively mild and gentle. The starting point was to allow visitors to relax and have fun. The underground maze adventure was already exciting enough. It really did not require more exciting items. Everyone gave praise to the new playground. Snowflake and Steele were in love with the hot springs. Snowflake felt that being soaked in the sulphurous warm water gave her the feeling of returning to her mother¡¯s side. Steele thought this was good for the skin, and that it could enhance her charm. Wall was interested in the library that had a lot of fantastic stories. He spent days on end in it. Finally, he came out in dismay and asked, ¡°Why there are so many good stories inside that only have half a story?¡± Obviously, Sui couldn¡¯t say that this was intentional. He came up with an idea and explained, ¡°In a distant country, there was a bard who used a famous tale as his pen name. He was a famous debauched monarch who teased people. He once said, ¡®The best work is one with no ending, so that readers will always remember it.¡¯ I think he made a good point.¡± Wall was silent for a moment and asked, ¡°Was that guy later killed?¡± ¡°As far as I know, no.¡± ¡°That country must be really peaceful,¡± Wall sighed deeply. ¡°If I meet him, I must tie him up, and force him to complete all his works before I kill him!¡± ¡°This is unlikely,¡± Sui Xiong said with a laugh. ¡°I think before he had completed them he would have died. He was not like you, and could not live for many, many years.¡± ¡°How helpless our lives are!¡± sighed Wall. ¡°I believe when he was dead, he would be blocked by the readers in the underworld. If he could not finish the novels, he couldn¡¯t go to heaven or hell!¡± Olian and Palin also liked to read books, but Olian was very busy, and this time she did not come to visit. Palin was completely fascinated by those novels, and he didn¡¯t go out the many times that others called him. The big guy Gerrard¡¯s hobby was different. He actually liked the children¡¯s entertainment projects, like bumper cars, bumper boats, carousels, slides, seesaws¡­ In order to be able to play, he even found Sui to cast spells on him to make him a child. Now he was playing happily with little Nice, who was a real child. ¡°Does this mean that he is actually a child, in essence?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help asking when he watched the bald young boy who yelled in various children¡¯s play structures. ¡°Perhaps. Human beings are weird,¡± Frost said. ¡°You don¡¯t play? You are very young.¡± Frost grinned solemnly and expressed his disdain. ¡°I¡¯m a proud dragon! Don¡¯t treat me like that kind of fool!¡± ¡°But your sister is talks in her sleep while lying on a pile of gold coins. I haven¡¯t seen her being ¡®proud.''¡± ¡°She¡¯s stupid!¡± But the proud young dragon also failed to maintain his pride for a long time. When the specially-made avatar of Sui Xiong, the fat chef in white, began to roast meat, he smelled the scent and couldn¡¯t stand it any longer, and approached. After eating a stick of meat, he immediately occupied the place closest to the barbecue, staring intently at the meat sticks that were sizzling on the flames and continuing to give off a wonderful aroma, and he refused to leave. ¡°I want two hundred sticks!¡± he declared. ¡°I will bite to death whoever dares to come to cause me trouble before I finish eating. And bake him!¡± Liv also wanted to eat two sticks of meat. Seeing his evil look with red eyes, she left with regret. But shortly afterwards, she settled in the dessert shop and happily devoured various high-calorie desserts. ¡°Eating too many of these things will make you fat,¡± Sui Xiong warned her seriously. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to become a super fat pig who can only roll like a ball, you shouldn¡¯t eat like this!¡± Liv was frightened, but soon found a solution to the problem. ¡°It¡¯s okay; then I¡¯ll cut off the fat from my body,¡± she said. ¡°I will look for a treatment for my wounds that won¡¯t leave scars, from Steele.¡± Was this a magic version of liposuction? Sui Xiong was speechless. He couldn¡¯t even imagine how Liv came up with a solution this quickly! Liv¡¯s mother was more reserved than she was. She only tasted some desserts. She smiled and said, ¡°They are very interesting.¡± Then she went to the children¡¯s play area. Little Nice was enough to be worried about, and when she played with Gerrard, who thought in a straightforward way, her mother could eat in peace. ¡°Haha! Fun! Fun! It¡¯s so funny!¡± Satan took a spring gun with both hands and shot at groups of penguin dolls. He made them in a mess while laughing, full of stress relief. Sui Xiong looked at him with some doubts. He did not understand why this ¡®Shoot the Penguin with a Spring Gun¡¯ game was exciting. Then he silently wrote down: Satan seems to be mad when he has the gun. If firearms are developed later, they must not be delivered to him. He looked around and found that he did not see the figure of Rhode and Ray. After searching, he discovered that they were sitting in the planetarium and drinking in the vast man-made sky. ¡°It feels wonderful!¡± said Rhode. ¡°I feel that my entire life is sublimated!¡± ¡°Yeah! Only a God could make such amazing things!¡± Ray praised. ¡°I never thought that mortals would have the opportunity to witness such beautiful scenery, not to mention drink in this environment.¡± ¡°With such a wonderful view, the wine feels even more mellowing,¡± Rhode said. ¡°Good wine! ¡°Well, it feels better than the wine I used to drink in the palace.¡± Sui Xiong secretly left with a smile; that wine was his, specially-made with juice based on distilled wine. Compared with the liquor of this world, the taste was more mellow and more delicious. The only drawback was that it was slightly easier to get people drunk. Soon afterwards, the church¡¯s chief priest and foreign minister fell asleep, and were carried out by Josh, who was a temporary employee. ¡°Josh, what do you think of the scenery here?¡± Sui Xiong grinned at the bulky barbarian man, who was the only one who didn¡¯t enjoy the entertainment, instead waiting for tasks. ¡°It¡¯s funny,¡± Josh said. ¡°I expect that there will be a lot of people playing here.¡± ¡°Yeah. There must be many, many tourists!¡± Sui Xiong waved a tentacle and announced loudly. ¡°My goal is 100,000 tourists!¡± Josh was shocked. He carefully pondered this number, and could not help but praise. ¡°This is not possible¡­ it¡¯s too many!¡± he said. ¡°This is ideal!¡± said Sui Xiong, seriously and solemnly. ¡°If a person has no ideal, what difference does he have from a salted fish!¡± Josh was shocked again. He carefully pondered this sentence, and his eyes gradually lit up. ¡°You are right! Life must have an ideal!¡± Sui Xiong nodded, ¡°Yes! We must have ideals!¡± ¡°Then my dream is to find a group of good women as soon as possible. I will father three hundred children and rebuild my tribe!¡± ¡°Three hundred children?¡± Sui Xiong was dumbfounded. ¡°Isn¡¯t that too many?¡± ¡°Not at all!¡± Josh said loudly. ¡°I asked a special scholar, who said that if a tribe were to be continued and developed steadily, the minimum number of the newly born should be 300! Considering that there may be various accidental deaths, maybe I will need 400 to 500 children!¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Sui Xiong looked at his high-spirited appearance and couldn¡¯t help be in awe of him. This ideal was simply too grand! It was just as magnificent as Everest! ¡°What about your current ideal?¡± he asked. ¡°For the time being, I haven¡¯t found a woman who would like to have so many children with me,¡± Josh sighed. ¡°But I will continue to work hard!¡± ¡°To tell the truth, I feel it may be a bit difficult.¡± ¡°Yeah, so I have to work harder!¡± said Josh. ¡°For example, I should enter the legendary world as soon as possible. As long as I become a legendary strongman, I can have a longer lifespan and of course, I will be able to breed more offspring.¡± ¡°This is the first time I have seen someone wanting to enter the legendary realm with the goal of having more offspring.¡± ¡°This is my dream!¡± Josh said with a smile. ¡°As you said, if a person has no ideal, what difference does he have from a salted fish!¡± He was speechless; Sui did not expect that Josh would use this remark to refute himself. He pondered for a long time, and finally, he patted Josh¡¯s shoulder with his tentacles. ¡°We have to work harder!¡± A month later, the playground officially started operating. Chapter 157 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The first customer of the amusement park was not a mortal, but a God. ¡°It looks pretty good,¡± Ville said. Ville went to the dessert shop and took a sweet as if he was a tourist here, and then went to the drink shop and took a fruit wine. He drank the wine while eating the dessert, and praised. ¡°Very original! It¡¯s something I haven¡¯t seen!¡± Sui Xiong floated beside and toured with him. When he listened to his praise, he could not help but smile. ¡°Just call me ¡®Oscar with originality!''¡± He said this, and also raised his head high, seeming mighty. However, he forgot one thing: the jellyfish¡¯s body was almost a semicircle. Regardless of how he straightened his body, there was no difference. ¡°This barbecue is also good.¡± After a while, they came to a barbecue stall. Ville ate two sticks of meat with interest and was amazed. ¡°Although the craft is even worse than the chef¡¯s, this novelty is unparalleled!¡± As a member of the country of gastronomy, Sui Xiong felt proud, and knew about culinary skills. With the help of holy power, the sauces that were secretly inherited by various chefs on the earth were reproduced here, and various kinds of flavored foods naturally came into being. All the food in this playground were all in the style of the Earth. From the glasses of water on the roadside stalls to the signature dishes in the restaurants; this didn¡¯t exist as a style of this world. Not only that, but the various facilities of the amusement park were also entirely in the style of the Earth; every little piece carefully crafted by Sui. Although the power system was very different, both the appearance and the experience here were not different from those on the Earth. If there was any difference, it was the workers in the playground. There might be giants, half-orcs, elves, and dwarves in a playground on Earth; but they couldn¡¯t be real. However, in this amusement park, the giant gatekeepers, the half-orc patrollers, the elven and half-elven servants, the dwarf porters, and the dwarf chefs in several stores, were all real. Even the dragon that was lazily lying in the corner, spewing fire to the sky from time to time was real. Oh, no¡ªthis was fake. ¡°Isn¡¯t there a problem with putting a big dragon in the playground?¡± said Ville, pointing to the dragon, which was lying next to the rocky mountain, pretending to sleep. ¡°There should be no problem, it¡¯s not a real dragon.¡± Sui Xiong rushed over and shouted at the red dragon which was half asleep, ¡°Fafnir, are you okay?¡± The red dragon, like a small hill, looked up at him with a pair of peachy eyes full of charm. It shook its head. ¡°Not very good. This dress is a bit uncomfortable; I feel a little sorry to have signed a contract valid for a decade with you now.¡± ¡°Anyway, if you¡¯re idle, you¡¯re still idle. You can earn money by lying here and doing nothing. What¡¯s wrong with you?¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°And it¡¯s not like you¡¯re wearing it all day. Take it off when you don¡¯t work.¡± The dragon lowered its head drowsily and buried its head in its paws. ¡°If I had known it was boring, I wouldn¡¯t have come¡­¡± His muffled voice came out from the paws. ¡°The damn bard said that Your Majesty said it would be the world¡¯s most interesting playground, and attract the world¡¯s most wealthy people; accompanied by, of course, the best hotels, casinos, and brothels in the world. And I, finally, was deceived to work here! As a believer in the God of Happiness, he is happy; but he cheated me!¡± After a glimpse, Ville responded and diligently investigated by using holy power, and found it interesting. It turned out that this man wearing a dragon-skin coat, posing as a dragon, was a legendary creature named Fafnir. It had a nickname called ¡®The Big Free Strange Bird.¡¯ Although it was a huge strange bird, it was ardent to appear as a human being, and go to all the busy cities to gamble and visit prostitutes. Every time it did that, it dropped a box of gold coins, and then went to eat, drink and play for a few days. The most famous story was that it ran to a famous brothel to ¡®solely have fun¡¯ more than once. It ate and drank and had sex for days and nights; the prostitutes could not get out of bed. After that, it laughed and changed into its original appearance, and left flying. As a famous ¡®big player¡¯ in the world, it had suffered a great loss this time. The bard was a high priest of Ville, who had learned from Ville that His Majesty the Void Mask was building the world¡¯s premier playground in the Ashes Woods. So once he had chatted with Fafnir in the pub, he spoke of this. At that time, this person and this bird were drunk. Whatever they said was bragging. In short, Fafnir was interested in this amusement park. It had always boasted himself as the person¡ªor rather, bird¡ªthat could play the most joyfully in the entire continent. Hearing that there was such a good place, how could he not try it? So regardless of the hardships, he flew to the Ashes Woods for thousands of miles, wanting to see if the playground was really so interesting. Unfortunately, when it came here, the playground was not completed. The so-called ¡®best hotel, best casino, best brothel,¡¯ certainly did not exist. Fafnir, who felt cheated, was full of anger turned from enthusiasm, and wanted to make trouble. However, it was suppressed by the iron fist of Sui Xiong, and after a warm and friendly negotiation, he eventually became an employee of the playground. The usual job was to put on a red dragon coat that was specially made by Sui to disguise the wearer as a fierce red dragon. It could be touched and looked at by tourists, and from time to time, it was also responsible for roaring or spitting fire to create an atmosphere. ¡°You fake it too well!¡± Ville could not help but admire. ¡°You let a legendary creature pretend to be a red dragon, and that dragon skin is so realistic! I was fooled from the beginning!¡± Sui Xiong laughed and was very proud. The ability that could fool the gods was supernatural. He wondered, if he could go back to Earth, maybe he could make a living through this ability of falsification; for example, he could sell knock-off phones and pirated CDs. No; as a literary person, he could learn from Mr. Zhang Daqian, who at his young age was a master of falsification, specifically forging various kinds of ancient paintings. He also liked to put his name in the paintings to prove it. But no one had thought that the value of these paintings that he falsified were inferior to the authentic works. Even the counterfeit goods were better than genuine ones. Sui Xiong believed that his ability to make fakes could be estimated to reach this level. ¡°To tell the truth, you can build such a magnificent playground and it¡¯s all right. You can find so many weird recipes and it¡¯s not very strange. What really surprises me is that you can actually gather so many wonderful people.¡± After some more excursion, Ville sat on the viewing platform of the amusement park¡¯s tallest restaurant, looking around at the surrounding scenery. He smiled and said, ¡°The most amazing thing is that these people with different personalities, and even unruly legendary creatures, are willing to listen to you and work honestly here.¡± At the gate of the amusement park, Gerrard held a giant axe as a guard and showed a simple smile to the children passing by. In the office of the management office, Snowflake was yelling at a stupid half-orc. He might have done something that made her angry. In the library, Wall was holding a broom and was slowly sweeping the floor. He looked as calm as an ancient well. Beside the rocky mountain of fire, Fafnir, who was wearing a dragon-skin coat, was still murmuring and complaining about his unluckiness. Continuing with his holy mind, he soon saw Steele at the entrance to the underground maze, who advised curious visitors to leave; then he saw Acaine, who was sitting in a medical room and compiling a mushroom guide. ¡°It¡¯s nothing; just an ordinary playground,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°This playground is not ordinary at all!¡± Ville smiled meaningfully. When he left, he promised Sui that he would ask his faithful bards to spread stories about the playground, and help attract tourists. However, after more than a month, there were still few tourists at the amusement park. ¡°Why would that be?¡± Sui looked at the deficit report that Snowflake handed over to him and was full of wonder. ¡°Isn¡¯t this playground fun?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fun,¡± Snowflake said. ¡°But it¡¯s too far away.¡± ¡°Far? Is there a problem? As a Chinese saying goes, being far away isn¡¯t an obstacle to selling good wine! The Confederation of Mifata was also far, but there were many people going there to learn magic!¡± ¡°Learning magic is necessary; but playing in a playground is not.¡± Sui Xiong was speechless, sighed, and looked at the dazzling loss, muttering, ¡°All the supplies are self-produced; why should we lose money? Even if only one person came, there would be a net profit.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you think that you¡¯re looking for such a large group of people, and you don¡¯t need to pay people?¡± Snowflake said coldly. ¡°Even your devout believers are not obliged to work for you for free!¡± Sui Xiong was speechless again. He stared at the wooden board that stated all kinds of expenses. He stared at the word ¡®loss,¡¯ specially marked by Snowflake. The fierce eyes were like two sharp swords, which carved two deep grooves on the wooden board. However, this did not change the problem; the loss was still a loss. ¡°We need to find a way to attract more tourists!¡± he said. But what should I do? After some thought, he decided to build a gate of transmission in the capitals of all the major countries that headed to the amusement park. ¡°Hey! That¡¯s too costly!¡± Even as a calm giant dragon, Snowflake was startled by his crazy idea. ¡°Do you know how much precious stuff would be needed to build a fixed gate of transmission?¡± ¡°No matter. I¡¯ll pay it!¡± ¡°But it also costs money to transmit them here!¡± He laughed three times and said, ¡°You don¡¯t understand! My playground has always been targeted at high-end customers. If they can afford to explore the maze in the underground city, how could they care about the transmission fee? ¡°I would like to add even more high-end projects, such as arranging a group of moon elf waiters for those wealthy bigwigs. The girls will wear high-split cheongsams, and wear rabbit ears on their heads. They should bow to anyone they meet; the ground should also be covered with a red carpet, from the gate of transmission to the entrance to the underground city; there should be renovation along the way to improve its leveling¡­ guess now, how much money do I have to charge them?¡± ¡°One hundred gold coins per team?¡± ¡°Three hundred gold coins, per person!¡± ¡°Three hundred gold coins per person¡­ that¡¯s too much!¡± ¡°That¡¯s what you don¡¯t understand! Those who are willing to spend a lot of money on the transmission, of course, are willing to spend a lot of money on playing! Look at the one who¡¯s lying on the floor and pretends to be a dragon; he came with a box of gold coins.¡± For how dubious Snowflake was about it, the angry and irrational Sui Xiong completely ignored her. He waved his tentacles and made this crazy decision. Chapter 158 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The creation of fixed gates of transmission was a strange magic technique that contained many aspects such as magic, craftsmanship, alchemy, and spells. In general, each gate was made with the leadership of a high-ranking mage, with the assistance of a group of middle and low-level mages, and a lot of time and energy. To build such a group of gates, people first needed to find a suitable place on the earth, and then build a magical beacon based on the coordinates of the location. This step was very complicated and involved geography and astronomy. For a common scholar who did not spend more than two decades in these areas, it was almost impossible to do. After the establishment of the magical beacon, two gates of transmission needed to be built separately; two gates of transmission that had not yet been able to transmit. This required a lot of precious material: an expensive metal with excellent magic conductivity was used to make the core of the magic formation, and another extremely hard expensive metal was used to create the shell of the magic formation. Precious stones and all kinds of materials could only serve as auxiliary materials, or consumables, in the process. Gold coins were quickly used like flowing water. Because of the limited time of the existence of magical beacons, people needed to try their best to catch up with the time. To work overtime was unavoidable. Mostly sleep was cancelled. Therefore, the sobering medicament naturally became a necessity. This method of overdrawing the body must be criticized by the labor security department and the labor unions on the Earth. But this was an inevitable thing now. If the speed was fast enough to build the two gates before the two magic beacons dissipated, then they could be joined together through a complicated ceremony. These two doors crossed many mountains and rivers, and ignored the barriers of space, turning the natural obstacle into a thoroughfare. Going in from one side, people could come out from the other side; as long as you could pay for the transfer. Yes, although the gate could continue to exist through the acquisition of magic in the natural world after its completion, if you wanted to use it, it was generally necessary to add magic. The powerful mages could, of course, pay this magical power themselves, and if they did not have this ability, they could only find help from other spellcasters. But the help would not be free. This money was not a small amount. So, as Snowflake feared, establishing the gates was already a huge expense. The expense of using the gate was not to be underestimated. It was to the point that the cost was so high, that using the gate to solve the problem of being remote might not even reverse the loss. But Sui wouldn¡¯t listen to her. He thought this idea was good. Imagine: in every big city, whenever people want to travel, what would they choose? Would they choose to go to the nearby forest and be close to dangerous monsters? Or would they choose to go to the playground and have an exciting, but by no means dangerous, adventure? Money? What is money for the rich?! See that the bird can carry a box of gold coins¡­ His method of building gates of transmission was very different from that of ordinary mages. He first directly used materials to construct the original slabs of the gates. Then he began to make his avatars¡ªeach carrying the gate slab to various countries¡ªbuild small gates of transmission in their capitals that interconnected with the giant gate located in amusement park. However, his plan was met with setbacks at the very beginning. The rulers of various countries refused to establish such a gate in their own countries. Not a single country agreed to it. He was angry, but he felt that he must be reasonable. So he requested that the gate should be built relatively close to the capital city. This time, most countries gave their consent, but there was still a small country that did not agree. This was Duchy of Thunder, located to the west of the Confederation of Mifata. The country¡¯s rulers seemed to have a perverse delusion, and they always felt that an enemy would rush through the gates and attack the capital easily. No matter how Sui negotiated with them, they would never let go. As a result, Sui Xiong left angry. Two months later, the giant jellyfish came flying, lifted his tentacles, and removed the city walls from the capital of the Duchy of Thunder. Naturally, something else happened during this process. For instance, the Duchy of Thunder sent troops to fight against this horrible beast. They issued a huge reward for suppressing this weird jellyfish. The Grand Duke of the Duchy of Thunder was so angry he died of cerebral haemorrhage. In short, small things that didn¡¯t have anything to do with Sui Xiong. He just did some civil work honestly. He was an engineering jellyfish who couldn¡¯t compete with the world, so who could make trouble with him? ¡°How do you like it?¡± He said to the suppressors who were hung in the air swaying, like a pendulum. ¡°I¡¯m such a good and affable person that I don¡¯t compete with the world, so who can be so hard-hearted as to hurt me?¡± Those risk-takers who tried to eliminate the horrible big jellyfish for high reward without regard for danger faced each other and were in trepidation. They did not know how to answer. Sui didn¡¯t mean for them to answer. He devoted himself to constructing the gates, and finally successfully completed them. As for why the base of the gate looked so strange, like the gate to a palace? This was the uncanny workmanship of nature¡­ The final result of this incident was that the ¡®unreasonable and eccentric jellyfish¡¯ became famous throughout the mortal people¡¯s countries on this continent. Everyone knew of the existence of this strange jellyfish and the many legendary stories about him. In these stories, Sui Xiong was either a villainous demon king, or a funny and amusing clown, or a ridiculous person¡­ ¡°Oh, these friends have opinions!¡± Sui Xiong looked at the information that Ray asked people to send him, and looked at the bard that was sent here along with the information. He was very interested, and nodded, ¡°Your idea is very personal! Creative! Extraordinary!¡± In that piece of information, it was clearly recorded that bard Thewgue, personally called ¡®Thewariet von Storlovsky Franz,¡¯ sang and told a story on the street. He declared that the ¡°unreasonable giant jellyfish¡± was actually a special species called the ¡°Jade Jellyfish,¡± and anyone who ate it could enjoy everlasting youth, an endless lifespan, good erections, and be more masculine than any man. According to Ray¡¯s intention, this blasphemous guy should just be tied up and thrown into the fire. However, the city owner Kasalie felt that the bard was singing well, that his stories were interesting, and that his talent was rare. Therefore, under her proposal, Ray temporarily pardoned this guy¡¯s fire penalty, and instead sent him to the amusement park so that His Majesty Void Mask could punish him himself. As for whether he would be devoured or peeled? Or steamed or fried? He deserved it! Sui Xiong did not think so. His idea was very similar to that of Kasalie. There were many smart people in the world and many could sing. However, there were few who were creative, dared to create their own stories, and were not afraid of dying even after compiling such stories! It was similar to how there were many people on the earth who liked to compile jokes on the Internet. However, there were extremely few who dared to tirelessly and professionally compile rebellious stories. The talent was rare! In particular, these kinds of talented people, who were a bit stupid to some extent, were even rarer than giant pandas! So, in the end, this Thewariet von Storlovsky Franz¡ªhis name was too long, so in spite of his protests, Sui wrote Thewgue instead on the verdict¡ªwas sentenced to long-term corv¨¦e labour. The content of his corv¨¦e labour was that he lived in the playground and was responsible for singing, telling stories, and making people happy. ¡°I protest! Only when I¡¯m happy myself can I make people happy!¡± Thewgue was tied up by a string, and was held by two fighters with an axe on his neck. Still, he struggled and shouted, ¡°I cannot tell a happy story in the case of doing corv¨¦e labour!¡± Sui Xiong praised this guy for his spirit of not fearing death. He asked, ¡°What do you need to be happy?¡± Thewgue suddenly came to the spirit and said, ¡°I need cute girls! Only with lovely girls around me can I be happy! The more lovely girls I have, the happier I can be!¡± Sui raised his eyebrows with a seeming smile, and ordered, ¡°Hand him over to Josh, and remember to tell him about the dialogue between us.¡± The two strong soldiers took Thewgue out and faithfully executed the orders of Sui Xiong. ¡°Your idea is good!¡± Josh smiled and said to Thewgue, after listening to their narrative. ¡°I think your ideals are completely correct, but there is a minor issue that is not worth mentioning.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡± Thewgue looked at Josh¡¯s calm smile and felt somewhat nervous. ¡°First come, first serve. But you are too late!¡± Josh took Thewgue¡¯s belt and put the bard who was tied up on his back as if he were carrying a bag. Then he went to the red dragon that slept beside the rocky mountain. ¡°Fafnir, wake up! I have an individual to introduce to you!¡± The half-asleep red dragon opened its eyes and looked at the sky. Then he said unhappily, ¡°Why don¡¯t you wait for a few hours? When the sun goes down and I finish my work, and we can go to the pub and talk about it slowly. Now it¡¯s my time for conserving strength and building up my energy¡­¡± Josh slightly smiled and introduced Thewgue to Fafnir. ¡°Oh?!¡± Fafnir listened to his introduction, and the hot air of horror slowly rose from him. It stared at Thewgue with its huge eyes, and Thewgue was frightened and sweat on his back. After a while, Fafnir slowly said, ¡°Medium well-¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Thewgue yelled before Josh had time to speak, . Fafnir ignored him and said to Josh, ¡°-tastes best.¡± After thinking about it, Josh said, ¡°I can give you a piece of liver, which is suitable for medium rare.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t! Why does it sound like you want to eat me!¡± Josh also ignored Thewgue¡¯s yelling and screaming. He thought for a while and said, ¡°This guy is a bit dirty. I¡¯ll wash him, how about it?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bother. The big jellyfish taught me a trick called ¡®beggar¡¯s chicken;¡¯ you wrap the guy with moist mud, and then burn it until it¡¯s all red. When it cools down naturally, we can get rid of the dirt together, and the rest is cooked meat.¡± Thewgue was extremely scared. He was not very afraid of death, but he was chilled by the thought of being made a live ¡®beggar¡¯s bard.¡¯ So this guy gave in, wore a fancy robe, painted his face like a clown, painted a note with oil paint on his left face, and honestly played sanxian and flute. He soon became a popular role in the playground. Chapter 159 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The playground was quite lively. In the main square facing the gate, a group of adults and children listened to Thewgue¡¯s performance. He was wearing colorful robes. This guy performed a song by smilingly using flute first, and letting the melodious sound echo in the square, making people refreshed; then he cleared his throat, played the sanxian, and sang cheerful songs. The flute and sanxian songs were unheard of; even the most knowledgeable people hadn¡¯t heard them elsewhere. Therefore, not only ordinary civilians, but also a few scholar-like people came to listen to them. Some of them also held a wooden board and wrote the musical score with charcoal. There was no concept of copyright in this world, but there was protection for the rights of signing the author¡¯s name of the original author. If someone transcribed other people¡¯s books or collected other people¡¯s songs but erased, or even changed the name of the original writer into his own, then the original writer didn¡¯t even have to press charges against him. The God of Literature and Art and the God of Classics would naturally cause him trouble. Even the God of Magic, who had divine power, would punish him, for the simple reason that the priesthood of the God of Magic also contained knowledge. The respect and protection of knowledge was also part of his doctrine. As far as the issue of profiting through piracy was concerned, one was unlikely to profit through piracy in this world, where the papermaking and printing industry was underdeveloped! Even so, Sui Xiong often received applications from scholars and poets that the authors of those songs allow them to perform these works elsewhere. Of course, he did not object to this, but he required them to help publicize the playground no matter where they played. This requirement was reasonable and everyone was willing to accept it. Therefore, often there were art lovers from afar who, after listening to the pirated songs, rushed to the capital of their country and then arrived at the playground through the formation transmission, just to listen to the original version of Thewgue. Shortly afterwards, Thewgue was drunk, drinking with Josh and Fafnir on a certain day, and when he was sleeping on the bed of a prostitute, he was called by the God of Literature and Art. The next morning, he refreshingly and valiantly stated that Mr. Thewariet von Storlovsky Franz received the reward for a melodious song for his outstanding contribution to artistic communication. He was now a high-level adventurer! When he said this, it irked Josh, who despised this savage who couldn¡¯t even write his name well. Josh did not argue with him, but that day after they finished work, he pestered Thewgue for treating others to a meal which consumed his whole month¡¯s salary, and made Thewgue scream. However, he was totally suppressed by the clamp-like big hand of the big barbarian and couldn¡¯t even hit back. Although the high-level bards were powerful, Josh was a high-level savage. When a bard was caught by the barbarians, could he have a good end? Fafnir, who transformed itself into a human¡¯s form, was enjoying the service of the two young girls. He smiled and watched Josh punishing Thewgue. He could not help but sigh, ¡°Thewgue, this guy is really funny!¡± Sui Xiong also saw the God of Literature and Art. The two sides had a friendly exchange on their opinions on the forms, development, cultivation and protection, etc. of art, and gained a lot of consensus. Although in terms of fundamental positions, they still only appreciated rather than supported it. In the end, they had reached an agreement. According to the agreement, for some time to come, the God of Literature and Art would arrange for her artists to come here for further studies. Her followers would come to build a high-level theater and perform a variety of cultural programs there. In exchange, Sui Xiong would provide artists with asylum when necessary. As long as they committed no crimes that caused atrocities, no one could capture or kill any artist in the playground. This agreement was very satisfying to the God of Literature and Art. As a God with weak holy power, she had always hated her lack of force and inability to protect the believers at crucial moments. And her church was so weak that it had no decent military force. In comparison, the other subordinate God of the God of Magic, the God of Classics, also with weak holy power, had a stable group of church knights. Although there were not many of them, there were still some! In contrast, although every theater, in theory, was a temple of the God of Literature and Art, she did not even have a stable church, let alone a group of church knights. ¡°You are quite superior as a God. How can you not even have a stable church?¡± asked Sui Xiong, stunned. The delicate girl that the God of Literature and Art changed into sighed and told of her difficulties. Most of the believers of hers were artists. Among them, most were nobles and adventurers. But adventurers had no determined residence, and often wandered around. Pampered nobles might be willing to pay, but they were unlikely to fight for the God. In theory, she could recruit people with money; but since the rise of the God of Aristocracy, he had strictly disciplined the conduct of the nobles in supporting other churches. Under the constraints of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, many churches that were originally dependent on the support of nobles to maintain their operations were gradually disintegrating, especially the God of Literature and Art. Her church originally relied on theaters, but most of these theaters were actually the industry of the aristocrats, and only a small number belonged to the Church of the God of Literature and Art. Under the pressure of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, those theatres whose property rights belonged to the aristocrats were rapidly transformed. Then the theaters of the Church of God of Literature and Art were also excluded and difficult to maintain. They had to be shut down one by one. Not long ago, the last theater belonging to the Church of the God of Literature and Art finally shut down. Although it was not a heavy blow to the faith that sustained the love of art, it was like a disaster to the church. Therefore, when Sui Xiong expressed his willingness to provide shelter for the believers of the God of Literature and Art and let them establish a theater here to maintain a stable church, she was really touched and embarrassed. ¡°I helped him when he was glorified¡­ But I didn¡¯t expect the final result to be like this¡­¡± Sui Xiong dismissed her sigh. Speaking of embarrassment, the God of Knights was embarrassed. Could she be even more embarrassed than the human¡¯s original patron? But as for the entry of the Church of the God of Literature and Art into the playground, he was fully supportive. One person couldn¡¯t gain all the money. It should be about the way one conducted oneself in society to expand the industry, which let everyone enjoy art together. Most of the believers of the God of Literature and Art were not difficult to get along with. The arrival of those who were talented and versatile would greatly help improve the cultural atmosphere of the entire playground, and would also play a significant role in improving the image of the playground in the civilized world. So the two Gods finally reached an agreement happily. Sui Xiong also invited the God of Literature and Art to stay and have a meal. Unfortunately, she seemed to be in a hurry and left. But it was not so pleasant to talk with a different God. Koladma, the God of Underground Caves and Underground Relics, was also known as the dark master of the underground, and had medium-level holy power. This God was not a human being, but a Black Dragon from an ancient era. It lived in a dark unknown cavern, continued to grow, and eventually stepped into the realm of the Gods to kill the former God of Caves. It captured the priesthood of the underground caves and claimed that it was the master of all underground relics. It established the priesthood of underground relics during a long period of time. During the establishment of the two priesthoods, he killed many people and indirectly set off an unknown numbers of killings. Now, he was the only known God who possessed these two priesthoods, and his prestige had long surpassed the priesthood, and was among the Gods recognized as the top power. He had a position close to the Gods of various holy systems. This was a very amazing thing to know. There were a lot of intelligent creatures that liked to live underground. But even among the most powerful dwarven races, there were only shallow caves, underground exploration, and the God of Mining in the holy system that had some bearing with the aforementioned creatures. And they did not dare to reach into the domain of control of Koladma. The God was straightforward did not even greet Sui. He made his intentions clear. ¡°Those deep dark underground caves and relics inside the caves are mine,¡± the dark skinned, tall man said, in a tone that suggested he took them for granted. He was the incarnation of the black dragon God. ¡°I don¡¯t mind if you, a latecomer, use them to profit, but you must hang my holy emblems in the caves and relics, and my followers will manage them. Of course, an offering to me is also indispensable.¡± After a moment of silence, Sui Xiong asked, ¡°Since you are the God of Caves, you must know that this underground maze and the underground city were built by me. Every piece of them was the result of my labor. If you had comments, why did you not mention them to me in the past few years?¡± ¡°How could I have an opinion?¡± Koladma raised his eyebrows and questioned. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see your actions!¡± ¡°Since you have no objection to my construction of underground maze and the underground city, why do you fight for it now?¡± Sui Xiong frowned and said quietly, ¡°It¡¯s mine!¡± ¡°The underground caves and remains belong to me,¡± said Koladma, still careless. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter where they come from. All the underground caves and relics are mine.¡± Sui Xiong took a deep breath and resisted the anger in his chest. He asked, ¡°Even if they were built by another God?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Koladma laughed. ¡°I¡¯m very satisfied with your act of showing my glory. I want to commend you¡­¡± With a sneer, Sui didn¡¯t bother to allow him to finish, and with a wave of tentacles, he made the surrounding space ripple like a wave of water. Koladma¡¯s incarnation was like a cannonball that had been shot by a cannon, and nobody knew where he flew to. ¡°Where did this pervert come from?¡± After expelling the disgusting guy, Sui Xiong rubbed his temples with his tentacles, secretly groaning, ¡°Famous people have many troubles! Digging a cave can even invite a rustic dog here, barking for sovereignty¡­¡± Chapter 160 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After getting rid of the incarnation of Koladma, the God of Caves, Sui Xiong still felt somewhat unsafe in his heart. He contacted the God of Justice and talked about this. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± replied the God of Justice. ¡°Koladma is eccentric. Don¡¯t mind him.¡± ¡°But if he wants to fight again for the sovereignty of the underground maze?¡± ¡°Then kill him,¡± The God of Justice said indifferently. ¡°I¡¯m worried that fighting will cause much disturbance, that may kill a lot of people on my side, because I now have many people with me.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and couldn¡¯t help but regret that he had acted too quickly. ¡°You are worried about your own believers. Doesn¡¯t he worry about his incarnation?¡± The God of Justice laughed. ¡°Brother, you can¡¯t just look at problems from your own point of view. Learn to change perspectives. You just killed the God of Storm and the Goddess of Ocean a while ago. The black dragon is eccentric but not stupid. Is it fun to be killed by you by running to your place for it?¡± Sui Xiong still had some worries. ¡°But what if it really does come?¡± The God of Justice sighed, then made an avatar in front of him with a flashing light. ¡°I told you that people couldn¡¯t think so much. The more we think, the more we worry, and the more we worry, the less fierce we are. If we¡¯re not fierce enough, others will bully us. For people or gods, fighting power speaks.¡± Sui kept silent for a long time and deeply sighed. After all, he still had to worry about it. ¡°You can¡¯t go on like this!¡± The God of Justice saw his worried look, frowned, and said, ¡°You care so much about this playground and the mortals. You care so much that it is easy for you to be schemed against.¡± ¡°What should I do then? I can¡¯t just stop caring about them.¡± ¡°Go out, wander, and relieve yourself from worry,¡± said the God of Justice. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of this for you now. If Koldama dares to come, I will cut its hand or foot when it reaches out its hand or foot. I guarantee no trouble will happen!¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment, sighed and asked, ¡°Where should I go to relieve myself from worry?¡± ¡°The entire main plane. According to your ability, as long as you don¡¯t leave the main plane, no one can hurt you. But remember, there will be too many people wanting to kill you, and I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t protect you.¡± ¡°When I left the main plane last time, I had no trouble, did I?¡± ¡°It was at that time that you got into trouble! Now, as far as I know, at least 20 mid-level or above gods are paying attention to you, mostly with malicious intentions. Some want to seize your strength, some to block you or make you a slave. In short, remember, do not leave the main surface!¡± The God of Justice thought for a moment, and added, ¡°You could go to the shadow plane and similar places, but don¡¯t go to places such as the astral area or outer plane!¡± ¡°What if I accidentally trigger the formation of transmission?¡± ¡°Then go to the underworld¡­ no, go straight to hell, or to the abyss!¡± said the God of Justice. ¡°The devils of hell are powerful and severe, but they strictly follow rules, and no one dares to provoke trouble there. If you conduct yourself, there is no danger for you in hell. There was a mess in the abyss, and a variety of devil kings hit each other, and they may totally sabotage others. But in the face of Gods, they all unanimously fight against them. So just disguise yourself as a devil king and lead a large number of demons to beat whoever wants to cause trouble to you, until they cannot take care of themselves!¡± ¡°Disguise me to look like a devil king? How?¡± The God of Justice smirked twice and passed an idea to Sui Xiong, which was a wonderful spell. ¡°This is a spell made by me. When I was chased by several Gods, I used this trick to live in the abyss to survive the most difficult period,¡± he said. ¡°Only I know this spell. It is absolutely confidential, and even the God of Magic doesn¡¯t know it!¡± Sui Xiong was completely relieved. After thanking him, he left an avatar for positioning, then quietly left the playground. This time he certainly did not dare to run around with the appearance of a big jellyfish. After pondering a little, he transformed himself into a rich, fat man with a round face full and a pair of small eyes. He was wearing a more or less adequate suit, and carrying a large backpack, looking like a businessman. It¡¯s just¡­ a businessman without a horse was really a miserable one. Instead of thinking so much, Sui Xiong walked happily eastwards. Although he had taken on a human appearance, he had not really become a human. One step from him covered more than 100 meters. His figure kept flitting in and out, and after a short while, he had covered tens of miles. Fortunately, it was quite remote here. If someone saw this scene, they either would doubt their own eyes or be extremely scared. Sui took one morning to walk to the Mountains of Barrenness. He looked up at the mountain range known to be desolate, barren and steep, and for the first time in his life, he observed the scenery from a human perspective. ¡°What desolation!¡± After observing for a long time, he muttered to himself, ¡°There isn¡¯t even a tree¡­¡± The Mountains of Barrenness were certainly desolate, and Sui Xiong walked in the mountains seeing only ice, snow and gravel. Occasionally, he saw some grass, which was rare green life. As for animals¡­ well, are monsters animals? ¡°Is it that my change is so intense that I¡¯m treated like a fat sheep?¡± He looked at the giant worm that suddenly came out from the stone wall beside him, its whole head opening and turning into a three-lobed mouth. Sui couldn¡¯t help but laugh and said, ¡°It¡¯s about lunchtime, are you planning to take me for lunch?¡± Although the monster was big, its intelligence was not high, so how could it understand his words? It only had the idea of, this thing in front of me is good food. It let out a whistling sound and rushed toward Sui to bite his head. By its stout body and open mouth, Sui¡¯s upper body should have been bitten off once it lunged, including his head. A whole person could probably be swallowed directly! However, when it was about to bite Sui, Sui¡¯s body dispersed and turned into an unparalleled huge mouth, which swallowed the entire monster. When he chewed it, the worm was splashed around, and it looked like sweet-and-sour sliced meat as the white teeth¡ªbigger than a person¡¯s body¡ªbegan to chew. Then this giant mouth slightly changed, and it turned into Sui¡¯s appearance again. His face was unpleasant and he spat a mouthful of worm on the ground around him. ¡°It tastes bad! It¡¯s like eating mud¡­¡± After casting a spell to create a lot of clean water to gargle his mouth with, he turned into a better mood, and he continued expediting into the Mountains of Barrenness. When it was sunset, he stepped out of this steep and desolate mountain and into the snowfields of the east. The beginning of autumn had arrived, and the weather had not yet begun to turn cold, so there was no snow on the snowfield. Above the frozen soil, there were patches of moss and low weeds. Some shrubs that were particularly cold-resistant were sparsely distributed between these mosses and weeds, adding a little vitality to the snowfield. Sui Xiong stood on the hillside and watched this wasteland of frozen earth. He saw a number of creatures multiplying in it. The strong ones hunted to feed themselves and their families, while the weaker ones ran away and worked hard to give birth to as many as babies as possible; to make good use of the quantity, to make up for quality. He also saw traces of human activity, of the northlanders living here: commonly known as barbarians. His figure flashed, and the big fat man, which Sui Xiong changed into, set foot on the wasteland at a speed that the mankind should never have. He walked along the human¡¯s trail. After a while, his eyes were brightened, and he returned to the pace of normal people. After a while, there was a small pond in front of him. Several tents stood beside the pond. Two or three elderly northlanders were taking care of things to prepare for dinner and rest. They saw Sui Xiong from far away and said a few words toward the tent. A young man ran out and walked with a spear toward Sui Xiong, stopping him. ¡°Who are you?¡± the young man said loudly. ¡°The tribe of grey bears doesn¡¯t welcome visitors of unknown origin!¡± Sui Xiong saw his nervous look and couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Young man, don¡¯t be so angry,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re still sick. Take a good rest.¡± The young man was dumbfounded and could not help but ask, ¡°How did you know?¡± Sui Xiong laughed. In his eyes, the psychic activity of mortal people could still be seen by him, not to mention physical illness. ¡°I can not only see that you are sick, but I can see what kind of illness you have,¡± He said. ¡°You should not have picked up a dead deer and eaten it. The deer died after eating poisonous mushrooms, and you are poisoned by mushrooms.¡± ¡°Oh?!¡± The young man was even more surprised. ¡°I threw away its internal organs, and the meat was washed clean again and again, and it was baked thoroughly!¡± ¡°That kind of poison isn¡¯t that easy to clean,¡± Sui Xiong said and shook his head. ¡°But you are very strong and the poison is not deep, so the most dangerous stage has passed. Now you will just feel dizziness and fatigue from time to time. A good rest will make you recover from the illness.¡± The young man finally gave in, put away his spear and bowed his head to salute Sui. Doctor was an extremely respected profession in this deserted, frozen Earth. Although this fat uncle did not look like a northlander, nor did he seem brave, he deserved respect since his medical skill was so brilliant. Sui grinned and made up an identity for himself and came to this tribe of grey bear. He did not want to eat their food for free, so he diagnosed and treated the tribal people. He detoxified that voracious eater who had been poisoned, cured the rheumatism on the shoulders of the old chief of the tribe, cured the cough of a herder who had been hurt in a battle with monsters, and also recovered the tendon of the left leg of the previous first warrior of the tribe, whose leg was torn by monsters. That warrior was no longer disabled, and restored to his former strength. These things made him widely welcomed in the tribe of grey bear. If this was a game, then according to the reputation system, he had already succeeded in having the reputation of ¡°worship.¡± However, Sui Xiong walked around to relieve his stress, and did not intend to live in this northern land tribe for a long time. After a few days, when the warrior who received the tendon surgery recovered, he left. ¡°Where do you want to go?¡± the voracious eater asked curiously, not wanting Sui to leave. Sui Xiong smiled and pointed to the southeast side. ¡°I will go all the way to the east and the south, through the empire of the Orcs, through the Kingdom of the Divine Angels, and finally to the desert of dead aerolite, to go sightseeing.¡± ¡°That¡¯s far!¡± the voracious eater gasped with some concern. ¡°The route will be very dangerous!¡± He laughed, ¡°What¡¯s the danger? As long as I walk on the main road, there is no danger.¡± Chapter 161 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Along the Tundra Wasteland towards the southeast, the scenery was getting more prosperous and luxurious. There were fewer algae, and more bushes and weeds; the number of living creatures among the bushes was increasing in variety and strangeness; the number of times one came across northern people was increasing; the scale of herdsmen¡¯s domestic animals, too, was expanding. When the soil underneath his feet was no longer frozen soil, Sui Xiong saw a clear line: the border between grassland and tundra. It was a magical sight. It was as though there was an invisible hand between the sky and land that separated the wasteland into two. The north was Tundra Wasteland that was infertile; the south was vast grassland. The distance between wasteland to grassland was merely a few steps. Sui Xiong flew into the sky and gazed upon the magnificent spectacle. He felt so much better. He randomly grabbed a handful of weeds and turned them into paper with magic. Then, he turned shrubs into wooden charcoal and started drawing on the paper. He drew for half an hour, and a scenery portrait was already vivid on the paper. The scenery that Sui Xiong drew was, of course, the sight before his eyes. Due to his increased power and sensitivity of perception, his drawing skills improved tremendously without him realizing it. He didn¡¯t feel so when he was concentrating on drawing, but when he looked at it when he was done, he shocked himself. ¡°I think this drawing could be printed in the model textbook in school¡­¡± Looking at his own work, he couldn¡¯t help but mumble to himself, ¡°If I could return to Earth, maybe I could really become an artist straightaway. ¡°By then, I will have specialized in various scenes, and each drawing will be sold at the price of 2,000,000 dollars!¡± He thought and shook his head. ¡°It would be impossible to be $2,000,000. I don¡¯t know anyone who is wandering in the league. They wouldn¡¯t hire me to launder their money, so why would they throw such a huge amount of cash at my drawings? But if it couldn¡¯t be sold at $2,000,000, it should be able to sell at $200,000, right? No matter how bad it is, it should at least be $20,000¡­¡± Then, he suddenly recalled a joke. Back then when he was in university, there was a classmate that wrote novels online. He was an author, and also a reader. One day, this classmate told him indignantly that there was an author that he liked that stopped updating the novel for a few months. ¡°I wrote 400,000 words. No matter how much he wanted to refine it, he should have written 140,000 words, right? If there weren¡¯t 140,000 words, he could at least have 40,000 words; if he didn¡¯t produce 40,000 words, he might have 4,000 words, and could at least update one or two chapters. When I checked, he didn¡¯t even update one! I couldn¡¯t help but inquire him. Only then did I find out that the b*stard was busy playing games, eating and drinking. So, he only wrote four words in total!¡± Recalling such funny incident, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but shake his head and smile. He then missed his hometown a little bit more. Keeping his drawing papers, he stepped on the soft herbage and walked towards the depth of grassland. The grassland was called the ¡°Desolation Grassland¡± by the bards and scholars, but the commoners and adventurers referred to it as ¡°huge wilderness.¡± It was where the Orcs and half-Orcs lived, and also the one and only empire that existed in the main dimension. Orc Empire. Someone holding sway over a region could be called a King; one seizing control of a tribe could be called a God. The main dimension was very huge, and there were many tribes, but there were only two who qualified to be called ¡°God.¡± One was the King of Dragon tribe. All giant dragons would at least submit to him in name, a semi-God expert, Emperor Golden Dragon. The other one was the King of Orcs, the one that ruled the entire wasteland, legendary expert, Emperor Wilderness. There were at least 70% of Orcs in the entire main dimension, and more than half of them were half-Orcs that stayed in the wilderness. It was the only place where they had their own country. The one who ruled the huge wilderness was the Orc Empire. Every so often, these barbaric bastards would face a lack of resources, or merely feel a desire for brutality and fresh blood, and launch an attack towards the east or south. The Holy Angels Kingdom was on the east of Orc Empire. It was quite a strong country and their national religion was the Sun God. The number of pastors in the country itself was terrifying, and they possessed unusual tenacity in battles. No matter how the Orc Empire attacked them, they could guard against the line of defence strongly, never once being taken advantage of by the Orcs. On the south of Orc Empire was the Eagle Kingdom, the oldest country of humankind in the history of the main dimension. Martial arts skills were popular and prosperous in the country, so there were experts all over. It was one of the very few countries that believed in the God of Knights. The Mainland Knight Championship that was held every three years attracted knights from all over the place in the Mainland. Regardless of performing noble knights or actual battling adventure knights, they could obtain the honor relying on their talent. Many people gained fame overnight there, from an unknown potato to an expert whose name was well known all over Mainland. Different from the Holy Angels Kingdom that would only be on the defensive, the Eagle Kingdom was not willing to be outdone by Orc Empire. They would take turns launching attacks. Basically, every three to five years, they would wage a war against the Orc Empire. It was to eliminate hidden dangers and also to make a conspicuous show of their power. But ever since the ¡°Bloodstained Eagle Head¡± prince rebellion incident happened 18 years ago, Eagle Kingdom had many high-level knights that died and were injured. Even after a generation, the loss had yet to be made up entirely. In recent years, their wars against the Orc Empire had always been at a disadvantage, and very passive. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s plan, he would only pass by the Eagle Kingdom on the way back; he was only passing by Orc Empire then while he advanced towards the Holy Angels Kingdom. It was interesting to walk along the grassland, especially when the night fell. The starry night was like huge cover embellished with stars, locked onto the vast land. The border of the night sky and earth could be clearly seen, like a horizon of a sea¡¯s surface. The night belonged to various ferocious nocturnal creatures. Between wild beasts, magic beasts or Orcs, there wasn¡¯t much of a difference. Anyway, no matter what they were, slaughtering was their main occupation. Sui Xiong lied down on the grassland and looked upon the starry night. He compared the starry night before his eyes to the one on earth that he could remember, trying to look for a similarity. However, he couldn¡¯t find anything significant. So, he could only let out a sigh disappointedly. He grabbed a grass blanket by his side that had already started to turn yellow and wrapped it around his body. He wasn¡¯t afraid of cold, but it was nice to sleep with a blanket. He didn¡¯t sleep for long until he suddenly felt a very strong creature getting closer to him in the middle of the night, and woke up with a start. He could feel a pang of strong insecurity feeling coming from a lightly armed warrior: an Orc. Accurately speaking, he was a human-lion. His golden mane was shimmering underneath the night sky and reflected the light around him. He was carrying a huge sword on his shoulders. His sword wasn¡¯t decorated with any complicated embellishments but the sword itself gave out magical light that proved that it a non-commoner item. It was just that the creator didn¡¯t like luxury. Sui Xiong was feeling the aura of the human-lion doubtfully. He felt that he might have seen the person elsewhere. When the person got closer, he suddenly realized what he was and shouted with a smile, ¡°Steel Lion, good evening!¡± ¡°Steel Lion¡± was Morani¡¯s nickname, the main Gods of the Desolation God system. The God was originally an Orc and a well-known knight-errant. His favorite thing to do was wander around and perform justices for the weak. He was similar to the God of Justice; it was just that the way he did things was more reliable than the God of Justice, so he was more popular. Back when Sui Xiong had stepped foot on the land, he once received His favor. If He didn¡¯t bring him under His wing, dealing with the patron saint of Night God system with no sleep, Sui Xiong would most likely be the one at a disadvantage. Sui Xiong was someone that paid debts of gratitude and took revenge against enemies. Ever since he received a favor from Morani, he had been wanting to repay Him, but Steel Lion didn¡¯t stay at any one place permanently and liked to wander around just like the God of Justice. As Sui Xiong had yet to be promoted to God, he couldn¡¯t contact Him through the Patheon Temple, so he could only wait for an opportunity. His luck was not too shabby; it was a great chance then! But what made Sui Xiong a little disappointed was that Morani had already forgotten about what happened back then. All those years, He roamed from place to place, and did many things to uphold justice, and helped many people who suffered injustices that needed assistance. He fought against many various wicked things. A little favor that he did in a small village in Ashes Woods really wasn¡¯t worth putting in his heart. But, in fact, it would be impossible to forget it entirely. Even a commoner could remember everything that they had seen in their entire life subconsciously; Gods could remember even more things. Sui Xiong reminded him anyway, and He remembered what happened back then. He smiled and greeted Sui Xiong. After they chatted for a while, the God became Sui Xiong¡¯s friend. He was a free spirit and he was very straightforward and forthright. Although there was a lack of manners, there was an innocent charm that made the things he said easily believable. He never asked for repayment when he bestowed favors on the people; he didn¡¯t even remember. Such virtuous qualities amazed Sui Xiong. Morani didn¡¯t mention the unlucky jellyfish that He saved back then and the nature God that attacked two strong Gods in one breath. Although the two were jellyfish, their distance was too vast. It was simply like a wooden sword and a metal sword: they were different intrinsically. When they talked about the experience Sui Xiong had been through all these years, He couldn¡¯t help but get a shock. When Sui Xiong said that he was running a theme park, He was even more shocked and had an interesting idea. ¡°The underground maze in your theme park equals to the training base of an adventurer, doesn¡¯t it?¡± He asked enthusiastically. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you use the training base to nurture the knight group of your church?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and realized that there really was a blind spot in his thinking. He laughed dryly. ¡°I¡¯ll do it when I return¡­ Luckily, the matter is not rushed.¡± Morani nodded faintly; Sui Xiong was right. To Gods, there wasn¡¯t ever a need to hurry. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, could I send my believers down to the maze to accept training?¡± He said. ¡°My believers always get into trouble with the b*stards that hang around underground. Some professional training would be helpful.¡± ¡°No problem! Let me take care of this!¡± Sui Xiong patted his chest confidently, ¡°I¡¯ll include training, food, and accommodation, and ensure definite understanding!¡± Chapter 162 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Every God had their clergy job and territory. The former was the production of the power of the world¡¯s origin, and the latter derived from the mastering of power by the Gods themselves. To get their clergy post, they needed to first understand and master the corresponding power and enhance their mastering of power to the level that was sufficient to reach the origins of the world. On that basis, they would accept the rights and the obligation to produce, then receive the world¡¯s recognition. Mastering such power from the level of the origins produced clergy posts from there onwards. From the angle of the individual, enhancing power to a territorial level was sufficient. For instance, Sui Xiong mastered a variety of powers that reached territorial level. During the battle with many Gods, these powers could be put to play easily and he was not worried that he would be restrained. From the angel of a God¡¯s powers and functions, only by enhancing one¡¯s power to the level of clergy post would he be able to produce powers and functions that derive from it. Then, through the channel of religion, they could grant their believers special powers. Sui Xiong, for example, once granted his believer the power of ice. He did it personally then, transferred the power bit by bit. If he were to enhance his ¡°ice¡± level from territorial level to clearly post level, every one of his believers could get the power of ice through prayer. If they were pious enough, they would be able to form a strong channel of religion. Once the clergy post of God was confirmed, the believers could get the power through prayers on a wide scale. As they got the power, they naturally had to put it to use. In the process, trouble always came. Morani¡¯s clergy post involved mining, and He was the only God that possessed such a clergy post in the entire orc God system. So many orcs and half-orcs worshiped him. Mining required deep underground mining of mineral veins. In the process, conflict with the magic beast underground was inevitable. Although an orc¡¯s night vision was outstanding, working and discovering underground while depending on their night vision was insufficient. So, they were disadvantaged most of the time. These mining workers were mostly commoners. Within future that they could foresee, it would be impossible for them to possess power like adventurers. So, it had always been Morani¡¯s headache about how to give them proper training so that they could escape easily when they were in danger underground. He once brought up his concern with the other Gods within the orc God system, but the other orc Gods did not share the same concern. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with people dying? Those bastard could give birth well.¡± ¡°Yeah, what mining doesn¡¯t cost lives?¡± ¡°Morani you think too much, we are not babysitters!¡± The common standpoint of the orc God system was evil. They looked down on life while emphasising power. They viewed barbary and ferocity as symbols of bravery, and didn¡¯t bother about the death or injury of their believers. On the other hand, Morani, and the desolation God system under his command, were a bunch of Gods from neutral and kind camps. They practiced an opposite attitude of respecting lives. The contradiction of two concepts made Morani¡¯s concern seem stupid and weak to the various orc Gods. If the ¡°Steel Lion¡± weren¡¯t really good at fighting, almost no one from the various orc Gods could win against him. They were even afraid that they would be laughed at! Morani was utterly disappointed in his comrades. He was thinking about how to solve the problems and he finally figured out a way. He could gather the believers to go for an adventure at the underground maze in Void Mask¡¯s theme park, to get experience fighting against underground magic beasts under safe conditions. Although the experience was incomplete, it would be better than remaining completely ignorant! But, there was another problem to be solved. ¡°My believers are normally not wealthy. Their training fees¡­ I will figure out a way.¡± Thinking about their financials, the powerful main God of desolation God system blushed a little too. ¡°In a few days, I will go to the outer dimension to look and see if I can find any gold.¡± ¡°It¡¯s stupid to talk about money!¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and laughed, ¡°When you helped me back then, did we talk about money?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have to talk about money, but the believers don¡¯t have that option,¡± Morani said. ¡°You have to maintain your theme park at the very least, right? The maintenance fees, salary, transportation fees that ensure safety of usage, all of these need money too.¡± Sui Xiong was at loss for words. He thought about it carefully and it seemed to be this way. No wonder when business was bad, Snow was always so grumpy¡­ Hence, it was almost decided then. Morani used the original body of various desolation Gods and departed to the outer dimension to look for wealth, while their clones departed in with their believers to Void Mask¡¯s theme park in batches, to accept their underground training adventures. Luckily Sui Xiong spared no expense in building a huge transportation array. Various Gods could just get transportation portal passwords from him and let him open up a corresponding jurisdiction, so they could activate the transportation from any place in the main dimension to send their believers to the theme park. As for after the training, they could also borrow the transportation portal to arrive at each kingdom and return to their mining areas. The process naturally required huge expenses; mainly expending a massive amount of magic power. But to Gods, magic power wasn¡¯t a problem at all. After laying down all the terms, Sui Xiong and Morani travelled together and asked the enthusiastic knight-errant about the management of believers. Believer management was a compulsory course for various Gods; it was also a problem that Sui Xiong had a headache about all the while. He thought that if the believers believed in him and prayed to him devoutly for protection, he should bless them within the range of his strength. But that meant that he would be bonded by the believers. When he had conflict with his enemies in the future, he would be restrained. For example, the black dragon that had something wrong with its head; if it weren¡¯t for the God of Justice, he wouldn¡¯t have known how to deal with possible attacks by that bastard. The God of Justice wasn¡¯t bothered much about that problem, as He didn¡¯t need believers. He thought justice was temporary, but not eternal. Under situations where people had to make a choice, they would burst out with justice. But most of the time, people didn¡¯t need justice. So His teaching was, ¡°when people need justice and are willing to sacrifice for justice, I will support them and give them the power to uphold it.¡± If it wasn¡¯t such a situation, what would happen? His clone would be nearby, and he would appear and meddle. If he couldn¡¯t, then he would forget it. ¡°Although I am the God of Justice, I would never be constrained by moral practice,¡± he said when Sui Xiong came to him to ask for advice. ¡°The Commoner¡¯s benefits should be protected, and my benefits should be protected too. This is justice! If to I have to sacrifice my benefit to protect a commoner¡¯s, what sort of justice is that?¡± In simple terms, his attitude was explained as ¡°merrily meet and merrily part ways,¡± but he did not go after long term belief, or maintain believers and a church organisation. That¡¯s why He could run wild in the world. No one could do anything to Him. ¡°How about your Holy Kingdom? How do you settle the holy spirit?¡± Sui Xiong asked. The God of Justice smiled and kept quiet, and Sui Xiong quickly realized that he asked a question that he should not have, and apologised. That was the God of Justice¡¯s biggest secret; also something his opposing Gods couldn¡¯t understand. How could he expose it? In short, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t learn anything about believer management from the God of Justice. The other few Gods that he was close with weren¡¯t teachers either. Although the God of Redemption was experienced, he was a cunning fox. Through the long years, He had never have a large amount of believers, and He had never had any conflict with other Gods, so he had never considered such questions. The Goddess of Ocean¡­ was a negative example. Even Her descendant, Mermaid Princess, didn¡¯t know how to manage their believers. She passed down everything on hand to various semi Gods, and the few holy spirits that survived in the Holy Kingdom under her command. As for how they did¡­ He-he, it was nothing but the chant. You settle, and I am carefree. Sui Xiong intentionally imitated Him, but there were not many great figures among his underlings. Only one who was fully rounded, and he was deacon of the church but working as a ruler at someone else¡¯s. It wasn¡¯t the first time Leon displayed his will to work at the theme park, but Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t accept. Miss Carisa Riley had prayed many times to various Gods, to pray for whichever God to protect her love. As a God that Riley believe in, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t receive her prayers once only. Although he thought that Leon didn¡¯t seem to be interested in pretty girls, thinking carefully, Leon was already over thirty years old. If he were to be put on earth, he would be categorised under golden bachelor, and he would be at an age to consider marriage and careers. A girl with good requirements that went after him would be hard to come by. As Sui Xiong was his brother, how could he break his blessing? So not only he did he not agree for Leon to come to the theme park, he once gave a bottle of magical medicine to to help Carisa maintain her permanent youthfulness so she could continue to romance Leon in the long run. ¡°If one year can¡¯t cut it, then make it ten, ten years can¡¯t, then make it 100¡­ All in all, don¡¯t worry. I won¡¯t let you die of old age before that silly boy.¡± In the dream of the beautiful city owner, the huge green jellyfish patted his chest and guaranteed it. ¡°I can¡¯t help much with love, but I can guarantee the logistics!¡± Unconsciously, he got a believer who was quite loyal and reliable. Morani herd him nagging and strayed away from the point; his face was filled with smile. The new friend that he made was normally quite lonely. Him being able to find someone to chat with so occasionally made him so happy. He must have sat at the altar alone most of the time, and had a thick distance between Him and his believers. The huge difference between God and commoners gave every God that wanted to be close with their believers a headache. Why would various Gods form a God system? Among various reasons, there was of course the intention to form an allegiance to help each other. But actually, it was a bunch of loners that came together to find warmth. ¡°Oscar, are you interested in joining the desolation God system?¡± During lunch break, He asked curiously, ¡°I unintentionally discipline and control whoever. Our God system mainly makes it convenient for people to chat and communicate only. ¡°Look at yourself; I think you need some friends that you can always chat and communicate with.¡± Chapter 163 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Dealing with Morani¡¯s invitation, Sui Xiong was hesitant and didn¡¯t agree immediately. Although according to Morani¡¯s idea, instead of saying Desolation God system was a strictly structured organization, it was an organization to chat and communicate. Who knew? The channel of communication might have turned into a QQ chat group. But he couldn¡¯t be at ease. He felt that it was a little dodgy. Morani didn¡¯t urge on but he introduced his friends. The main God from Desolation God system, or the ¡°owner¡± of the ¡°Desolation Chat Group,¡± was Morani himself. He was an extremely strong warrior, as well as an expert in mining and forgery. During the casual chat, He was talkative and always told everyone interesting things. This was also because He always wandered around the entire day and had many experiences and much knowledge. He always came across interesting things that were worthy to share with everyone. There were then four members in Desolation God system. Besides the main God Morani, the other three Gods were the God of Fertility; the huge earthworm Jogan; God of Soil, huge catfish; and bearman¡¯s God of Warrior, Ink. The three Gods had different characters. Jogan¡¯s intelligence wasn¡¯t high but he was talkative, always speaking non-stop. He always spoke of trifling matters that were meaningless. The huge catfish didn¡¯t like to talk much about things that happened but loved to comment on things that other people told Him. Although His opinion was merely a simple message, Ink was the second smartest person after Morani, and also one that liked to wander around. But He didn¡¯t like to talk about His experience of roaming around. Even if He came across anything that worth talking about, it something like places that have good drinks. Normally, he was only a listener. ¡°I feel the QQ chat group is not crowded enough¡­ there are only four of us,¡± Sui Xiong mumbled to himself, and then he asked about the legendary Pantheon Temple. ¡°Pantheon is located in the furthest corner of the world, near where the root is,¡± Morani said. ¡°Every God can convert a clone there without paying any price. Plus, they don¡¯t support the idea of spending a lot of strength, so they belong around the non-battling area. Every God has seats that belong to them there, everyone frequently discusses and argues. It¡¯s very lively.¡± Then, he sighed. ¡°Unfortunately, there is a hodgepodge of good and bad people in the Pantheon Temple. All kinds of treacherous stratagem are hard to guard against. It¡¯s okay if one were to be there for battle, but it isn¡¯t suitable for anyone who wants to chat casually¡­¡± ¡°Then, if I want to have a seat in Pantheon Temple, what do I do?¡± ¡°Simple. Complete the God promotion ceremony and accept clergy. Then it¡¯s done,¡± Morani smiled. ¡°But clergy is a big thing, it can¡¯t be done recklessly! I suggest for you to pick a clergy that covers a very small area, such as being the patron saint of a small tribe. It would be more reliable.¡± He saw that Sui Xiong didn¡¯t seem to understand, so He explained to Sui Xiong in detail. After God promotion, if He were to select the direction of the belief, He would require a stable and reliable source of belief. For that, it would be best to completely monopolize a group¡¯s belief, in order to ensure a belief that would at least not break. How does one ensure monopolization? The most reliable way is to control a tribe entirely. ¡°How do I control a tribe entirely?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°It¡¯s a little difficult¡­¡± ¡°Actually it¡¯s not that difficult,¡± Morani smiled and replied. ¡°You create your own tribe!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and asked curiously, ¡°Tribes can be created?¡± ¡°Of course they can. Gods making their own tribes are very common.¡± Morani pointed, and a bearman appeared magically in the air. The only thing that was different from a bearman was that the body was monochrome striped; a white body and head, with black ears and limbs. The most interesting part was the face, short white hair with two round black dark eye circles, just like two black eyes. ¡°This is the tribe Ink created. He made some minor amendments based on bearman, called ¡®monochrome bearman¡¯.¡± Sui Xiong was quiet for very long and asked, ¡°The friend named ¡®Ink¡¯¡­ was His original body like that?¡± ¡°No, His original body was just a white bear¡¯s; at least he was only a white bear back then,¡± Morani said. ¡°Later on, He was promoted into God and wanted to create a tribe of His own. However, there was already a white bear tribe among bearmen. Hence, He made a small amendment on the basic white bear and created monochrome bears. Later on, He changed His appearance too, and became so.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and remembered something in his head. He planned to chat with the God of monochrome Bear when he had a chance. After all¡­ no matter how I look at it, the so-called ¡°monochrome bearman¡± is about the same as a panda. Unless the God was also from the traversed group? Or maybe He received a message from Earth? Morani was a talkative man and kept the conversation going. But suddenly, His face changed. He apologized to Sui Xiong and left a way to contact him, then leapt and turned into a ray of gold light to soar up into the sky. There must have been something urgent that he had to rush to take care of. Sui Xiong watched Him leave and smiled. He then took up the pot of soup that was still boiling; the two of them had yet to take a mouthful of it. Without seeing if it was cooked, he drank the pot clean in one gulp. He then cleaned up and kept the cooking stove, then continued to advance on his journey. The further he went forward, the more luxurious the foliage on the grassland, and the more cows and goats belonged to the herdsmen. After walking for about a day, he arrived at the border of the grassland and stepped foot in the area of grazing domestic animals and farming. It was still the territory of Orc Empire. The Orcs that lived there were more gentle and liked farming. For example, the village that Sui Xiong was temporarily staying in belonged to a bunch of white pigmen. Pigman was the tribe that was most misunderstood and discriminated against among all Orcs. They looked short and fat, and their long noses made them look a little stupid. But, in actual fact, not only were they not stupid; on the contrary, they were quite smart. They were some of the top farmers in the main dimension. Er, that was referring to the white pigmen. There were two branches of pigmen. One was the farming white pigmen that looked a little stupid, while the other ones were the nomadic black pigmen that looked ferocious and were actually ferocious. Compared to the friendly white pigmen, black pigmen were generally chunkier and taller. They were physically strong and courageous. They had long greyish black manes that were hard. The two long tusks growing from inside of their mouths looked just like two knives, making them terrifying and ferocious looking. The tribe loved to battle. Their favorite thing was to graze the pigs to invade everywhere. Although their wild boar cavalry wasn¡¯t good at making long treks, their short-distance charge was quite terrifying and very few could withstand it. Due to the overlapping living areas, the white pigman was the black pigman¡¯s target of plunder most of the time. Those barbaric b*stards couldn¡¯t be bothered much by the same tribe but always rushed their wild boars to dash through the white pigmen¡¯s farms, and swept the white pigmen¡¯s village greedily. They made a clean sweep of their stored grain and left the farmers looking at each other with grief. The white pigmen of course wanted to put up resistance. Almost every village of white pigmen had a thick wall, and there were many layers of fences in and out of the wall. It was built as though it was to hold horses. But their individual battle power didn¡¯t have much effect on their resistance. Most of the time, they only triggered the robbers and asked for another bashing. It was the season when the grain was ripping and the white pigman was bustling with the harvest. They dug out balls of corn from the soil and stored them in the underground cellar. At the same time, they were arranging youth training and improving defense work. Without a doubt, the black pigman robbers could be there anytime, and they could not prevent it. Sui Xiong was only passing by, but when he saw the situation he stayed back out of curiosity. He wanted to see the war between the pigmen and how it would develop. He didn¡¯t wait for long. In a few days, when the crops in the farm were almost fully harvested, a herd of wild boar dashed out from the border of the grassland towards the farm. Only black pigmen would graze like wild boar, so when a young white pigman at the watchtower saw them, he immediately rang the warning bell. The village that was already busy became even busier immediately. The strong teens wore their wooden armor and took out various kinds of weapons. There were mainly wooden clubs, wooden hammers, etc. Then, they stood in formation behind the fence at the front of the village and prepared to fight for the outcome of their hard work. On the other side, behind the wild boar, there was the bunch of tall and brawny black pigmen. They were wearing leather armor, carrying wooden clubs and wooden hammers that were obviously a size bigger than their close relatives¡¯. They rode on huge wild boars, looking energetic and extremely confident in winning the battle. The swarm of wild boars was very fast and they got to the front of the village quickly. The leader of the black pigmen stood out and clamored. In short, he told the white pigmen to surrender and hand out their grain, so that they could avoid a round of bashing. The white pigman village chief of course didn¡¯t agree. He roared in anger as he waved his wooden hammer, signifying his determination to have a life or death battle. Hence, the battle started. The battle between pigmen was actually very vigorous, but it wasn¡¯t meant to be tragic. Both parties had thick skin and muscle, and the weapons were all made of wood. The clubs and hammers were knocked onto the bodies, and though the sound was solid, to them it was nothing. Sui Xiong watched the clubs and hammers dancing around, crackling with the clashing of their weapons. Roars and groans filled the air. After a while, there weren¡¯t many casualties. Sui Xiong carried the bench and sat at the entrance of the village. He watched the low standard battle at a village level with enthusiasm. He occasionally cheered and clapped, just like those annoying bards. A black pigman swung his wooden club and pushed his opponent over to the ground. He then stomped on his opponent and slammed a few times on his head. He finally knocked his opponent down after entanglement. He roared at the sky with success to flaunt his courage. He saw Sui Xiong¡¯s annoying look, and he was suddenly triggered and dashed towards him with his wooden club. ¡°Fat*ss! Be careful of what you are saying!¡± Sui Xiong heard him and he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Honestly, the way he transformed himself was very fat, but how much skinnier was the black pigman? Look at him: with every step he took, his fat wobbled. He could go for a weight loss advertisement! Of course, he could only be a model for ¡°before weight loss.¡± As for after weight loss, he could only use the almighty Photoshop. Although the black pigman was fat, he wasn¡¯t slow. He came before Sui Xiong in the blink of an eye. He picked up the wooden club and landed a heavy swing on his head. With a crack, Sui Xiong¡¯s head suddenly shriveled and became a concave. ¡°Huh?!¡± The black pigman was stunned and looked at his club. He looked very confused. He was considered a seasoned veteran, but he had never seen such strange situation. Then, a tentacle extended from below and wrapped around his leg. He was thrown out in the blink of an eye. He landed right next to the white pigman that he knocked down earlier. Sui Xiong patted his head and turned it back to normal. Then, he stood up. ¡°This is an interesting fight,¡± he smiled. ¡°Count me in. How about that?¡± Chapter 164 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong stood up very gently, no different than a commoner. But the way he ¡°stood up¡± was very creepy. His entire body was not only getting taller the more he stood, but his body size was also experiencing tremendous changes. When he stood up straight, he had already become a pig headed human that was taller than a house. Compared to the other pig humans that were busy fighting, Sui Xiong became a pig human who really had a pig head while his body remained the same as normal human being¡¯s. Just like a big fat dude that had a pig head; it looked extremely creepy. The pig humans were stunned and stopped fighting. They were all looking at him blindly. ¡°Let me think, what weapon should I use¡­¡± Sui Xiong mumbled to himself. He raised his eyebrows, stomped his feet, and the soil by his side wriggled up and turned into a huge spiked rake with nine sharp teeth that twinkled with a chilly gleam and made people afraid at the sight of it. He carried the spiked rake and walked towards the pig humans that were fiercely engaged in the battle. He chuckled and said while he walked, ¡°Looking at all of you fighting with such enthusiasm, I felt my hand itching. Let me join in the fun, alright?¡± Looking at the huge spiked rake that sent out chilly gleams, the leader of the black pig humans shouted, ¡°It¡¯s against the rules to use sharp weapons! We pig humans never use sharp weapons!¡± Sui Xiong lowered his head and flipped the spiked rake the other way round. He opened his mouth and his head became two times bigger when he swallowed the sharp nine-toothed-rake into his mouth. After noises of metal crackling, he took it out of his mouth again, and it had become a huge, round-headed wooden club. Looking at the wooden club that was even thicker than his waist, the village head of white pig humans quivered his fats and swallowed his saliva. He said, ¡°This is too brutal¡­ we do not bet our lives in fights¡­¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do this and I can¡¯t do that. You guys are such naggers. Do you still want to fight?!¡± Sui Xiong pretended to be angry and took a deep breath. He grew a size bigger and raised up the wooden club that was growing bigger with him. Then he slammed the club on the ground and made a big pit. The pig humans were panicking even more; the village head of the white pig humans and the leader of the black pig humans exchanged a glance, and their intelligence was suddenly heightened to two hundred points. They self taught and mastered the skill of communicating via eye contact, and quickly came to a mutual agreement. ¡°We¡¯re not fighting anymore!¡± ¡°Yeah! We¡¯re not fighting anymore! All of us love peace and tranquility.¡± Under their lead, the two bunch of people that were fighting noisily threw away all kinds of weapons in their hands and walked together shoulder to shoulder and arm in arm. They didn¡¯t care if the other person next to them was the chief culprit that led them to the bruises on their faces, and cracked smiles like monkeys that grabbed cameras from tourists¡¯ hands. Sui Xiong laughed and cast the big wooden club to the side of the road casually. It then turned into a pile of soil while he stretched and turned around to return in the hotel¡¯s direction. With every step he took, his body would shrink by an inch. When he arrived at the entrance of the hotel, he became the fat unthreatening uncle that he was when he first entered the village. ¡°I¡¯m going to sleep,¡± he said. When he walked into the hotel, he wasn¡¯t in a rush to return to his room, but stopped at the entrance for a while. He turned around and said, ¡°To celebrate peace and the bumper harvest, don¡¯t you think you should organise a dinner for everyone to sing, dance, eat and drink? To have some fun?¡± Then, he really went to sleep and the celebration dinner was carried out as expected. When Sui Xiong was awoken by the noise, he looked out the window and saw black and white pig humans fighting against each other in a group again. The bonfire of the celebration was still burning brightly and brilliantly, and the barbecued meat on the rack was almost burnt. He could also see the soup and drinks that spilled all over the floor. The situation was a mess. ¡°What is going on?¡± He creased his eyebrows. ¡°These bastards have guts! They didn¡¯t take what I said into heart!¡± Just when he wanted to exit to scold the bunch of bastards, he suddenly changed his mind and he didn¡¯t leave. He beckoned and a white pig human that was flipped on the ground and couldn¡¯t get up, to ask why. ¡°It¡¯s really not our fault!¡± The white pig human was already beaten up into a blue-black pig human, but his mouth was still tough. He emphasised that it was the black pig humans¡¯ fault and their villagers were only innocent victims. According to what he said, the black and white tribes were in a long-standing feud. Although under Sui Xiong¡¯s violent restraint they didn¡¯t fight, the hatred in their hearts built up. During the celebration, one black pig human might have had too much to drink and laughed at the white pig humans, that they were good at working the land but they didn¡¯t know how to fight. If it continued, they would really be like pigs, getting fat and being killed by humans. How could the white pig humans stand that? They immediately fought back that the black pig humans only had body size but knew nothing about production. They were either only eating roots and grass all year long or extorting money from their tribe under false pretenses. If they were said to be ferocious and good in fighting, they were actually dabblers. During spring famine, they would always be served as cannon fodder in the orcs¡¯ holy war. That is so saddening, no one even helped to collect their dead bodies after they died. They might have to be cut by the humans and grilled to be eaten¡­ ¡°The hell, who was that! Such sharp mouth!¡± Sui Xiong was at loss of words too. He asked, ¡°So, that¡¯s why they fought?¡± ¡°Yeah, so we fought,¡± The white pig human said. ¡°Those bastards were originally rude and uncivilized. They only know to fight. They tried to find trouble. Once they seized a chance to, how could they not start a fight!¡± Sui Xiong nodded and waved his hands. The white pig human was suddenly sleeping soundly. Then, he cast magic to capture another black pig human into his room to ask why. The black pig human said something completely different from the white pig human. He said the black pig humans originally had a tradition of fighting after meals as an exercise to digest food. Such fights were only for recreational purposes but not serious. The despicable white pig humans seized the chance to launch a fight before everyone had enough food and strength; they were treacherous and cunning to an extreme. They were good for nothing forever, and they could only deal with the soil all day! Sui Xiong waved again and knocked the other one out too. He could tell that both pig humans did not lie. It was just that they took a different standpoint. Regardless of living habits or moral values, the two tribes had vast differences. Even though they ate and drank together, it couldn¡¯t ease the friction between them. ¡°That¡¯s bad!¡± He couldn¡¯t help but sigh. ¡°They share the same root, why do they torment each other! They are all pigs, why do the wild pigs want to make it hard for the domestic pigs?¡± Looking at the chaos where punches and kicks were sent all over the plaza, he couldn¡¯t help but feel distressed. Need to figure out a way to let these b*stards settle down and not fight when they seize any opportunity to. He could of course take action and force these b*stards to stay put and behave. But he couldn¡¯t just live there forever. He would have to leave sooner or later. After he left, these b*stards would try to start a fight again. Sitting at the balcony, Sui Xiong was deep in thought. On the plaza, the black and white pig humans were fighting even more vigorously while they showered abuse on the other party. The white pig humans said things like, ¡°you epidemic pig that had both of your parents die and never taught you anything,¡±¡±you stupid head that has a d*ck that was so small that no one can see,¡± and something along those lines. It really made one¡¯s blood boil. The black pig humans would only scold with that few sentences like, ¡°f*ck you,¡±¡±f*ck your entire family,¡± or those sort of solid and simple phrases, with the implication of a heavy blunt sword or heavy skill. Listening to their argument, Sui Xiong was suddenly enlightened and had an idea. He waved his hands and a complicated magic array floated in the air; he casted a summoning magic. A light blue ray twinkled and suddenly, Steele¡¯s figure turned from transparent to solid and appeared in the magic array. Her face blushed, and she was not even covered in a piece of cloth, but there was some suspicious white turbid fluid that gave out a really terrible smell. ¡°Your Majesty, why did you summon me now?¡± She was a little unhappy. ¡°Another ten minutes¡­ no, maybe just another five minutes would be great!¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t bother to ask her what she was doing and he was not in a mood to think about the profound meanings of ¡°ten minutes¡± and ¡°five minutes.¡± He pointed at the chaos below and said, ¡°I remember you knew an ¡°in heat magic¡± spell, right?¡± ¡°You?! You are really¡­¡± Steele suddenly brightened up and flew out of the window, flapping her wings. But she quickly turned uninterested and sighed, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s pig humans. Boring! These bastards were big in size, but their stamina is a problem. One after another, not knowing after one whole round, would be sufficient for me to feel awesome¡­¡± Sui Xiong took a deep breath and suppressed his impulsiveness to roar angrily or mock her, but said, ¡°I am not asking you to do them! I¡¯m asking you to cast magic for them to do each other!¡± Steele¡¯s eyes brightened up as though she opened a gate to enter a brand new world, and suddenly radiated twinkles of color. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea! Why hadn¡¯t I thought of that!¡± Then, she flew to the middle of the sky and raised her left hand. She drew magical runes while she sang a weird ballad. Her voice was soft and sweet, like an invisible hand that was extending to one¡¯s heart through their ears, and held tightly onto the listener¡¯s heart. Along with the singing, the magic array that quickly took shape spread a pink fragrance. The pig humans were already charmed by her singing voice and fell into an indescribable excitement. Then, they breathed in the fragrance that induced estrus strongly. How could they hold back anymore! That moment, they couldn¡¯t be bothered if the one next to them were black or white. As long as they were a male and female, they quickly got in pairs and started their job in reproduction with full force. ¡°How long can the magic be effective for?¡± Until the battle on the plaza was taking a different form, Sui Xiong nodded with satisfaction and flew next to Steele to ask. Steele calculated and said, ¡°About two, three days.¡± ¡°Two or three days?! That¡¯s too long, it would cost lives!¡± ¡°Let me shorten it by a little then¡­ or how about this, I¡¯ll diminish the power of magic array and increase the speed of its expense. Then, they will recover half of their consciousness by tomorrow morning. But they will still be in heat and they will only be fully recovered by the day after.¡± Steele asked, ¡°How about that?¡± ¡°Alright, that¡¯s it!¡± As the night sky grew darker, the bonfire on the plaza was still raging while the black and white pig humans were still ¡°exercising¡± happily. Maybe after this, their relationship could really settle down¡­¡± ¡°Your Majesty.¡± ¡°What is it? Do you have anything you want to say? Do you want me to send you back?¡± ¡°I¡¯m in no hurry. The big bird is very strong, let him wait, it¡¯s okay. I have time to linger.¡± Steele smiled and said, ¡°I suddenly realize that you really have a lot of ideas¡­¡± Chapter 165 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After resolving the conflict between the white and black pigmen, Sui Xiong did not advance towards the southeast but along the border of nomads and farmers. He was wandering in the area of Orc Empire. He found out that situations like the pigmens¡¯ were very common. Among the Orcs, there were two branches of nomads and farmers in a tribe. Every time during autumn harvest, the two branches would have a war. Many battles among the tribe were very tragic, even to the point where they would be strewn with corpses. Comparatively, the pigmen¡¯s wars that couldn¡¯t kill, with wooden weapons, were considered mild! Sui Xiong was too lazy to delve deep into the rights and wrongs. As long as it wasn¡¯t one-sided pressuring and slaughter, he could cast a grand heat spell to have those Orcs go into chaos. As for those pure invasions and slaughters, he also had a big scale spell to cast, a collective weakening spell. That would make the invaders suddenly turn into soft-legged prawns, and Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Aiya aiya, This is really¡­ really tragic¡­¡± Sui Xiong lied down in the boiling water that had sulphuric steam while he groaned in pain. To be seated up by the entire orc God system was definitely not a happy experience. Even though he was quick to respond and well prepared, he had to take a few punches before he managed to flee. The direction that he fled was a bottomless Abyss. The Abyss was located in the ¡°negative¡± ring of the world, which was a very dangerous and messy region. There were countless creepy spirits that gestated and various inexplicable things that could happen. The experts here were crowded but there was no order, not even a demi-god or even God-like level experts who might die obscurely by the road side in a remote corner of nowhere. Sui Xiong noticed the pond after he came through to this dimension. At the bottom of the pond, there was something jumping slowly. It was a huge heart, he realized, when he took a closer look. Looking around carefully, he realised that the mountain where the pond was located was actually a huge human corpse. The vital wound of the corpse was on the chest. Although the heart had yet to be torn apart, the weird power had sunken in and wiped out its vigor. The coordinates were given to him by the God of Justice and claimed them to be ¡°definitely safe.¡± From what he saw then, the corpse might have belonged to the king of the Abyss; and the one who killed it was the God of Justice himself. When Sui Xiong came through to this world his actual form was difficult to describe verbally. If he had to, it could probably be explained by the concept of ¡°parallel world.¡± Countless worlds in various sizes paralleled with one another and formed a huge system, collectively known as Thousand Worlds. In this realm there were four huge worlds that formed a magical ring. The ring of the world was categorised into four dimensions: material, spiritual, positive and negative. There were multiple layers on material dimensions. For instance, the most commonly seen main dimension was star realm, where a sea of stars twinkled; element realm, heaven, and hell. The holy kingdoms of various gods were built on the material dimension, but the locations were different. The spiritual dimension was crucial for the communication of each layer and world. For example, the heart realm was known as one of the main connections that linked up the Thousand Worlds. Taking in consideration that the other main connection in River Styx had higher risks, it could said to be the only practical main connection. The positive dimension referred to order and life of worlds; it was different than heaven, and not anywhere beautiful. On the contrary, it was full of danger and disaster. It was akin to the saying, ¡°Things always reverse themselves after reaching an extreme.¡± The Gods Alliance Meeting¡¯s Pantheon temple was the only reliable safe zone in the positive realm in the ring of the world. Besides that, various gods didn¡¯t quite like stepping foot there. The negative realm was the world of chaos and extermination. There wasn¡¯t anything like ¡°things always reverse themselves after reaching an extreme¡±; it was actually really ferocious and dangerous. The power of the origins of the world flowed out from the positive realm, passed through the material realm and flowed into the negative realm. Then it flowed out from negative realm, passed through the spiritual realm, and flowed back into the positive realm, forming a huge cycle. The Abyss was the most important world in the negative realm; or maybe it should be said, of many worlds. It was messily piled up by countless worlds in different sizes. Regardless of material or space, they were in a mess. There were many strong magic monsters that lived within, and they would attack and kill one another. They had the desire to rush to other worlds to cause damage. The Abyss also had some areas that were comparatively more stable. Every area as such normally went through vigorous competition: the strong one that got to rule it would be known as the King of the Abyss. It was similar to other Gods and commanders in heaven and hell; just that these Kings were mostly the kind that were mentally abnormal, and the way they did things was not reliable. Besides some other crazy ones that were also mentally abnormal, there was no one else willing to mix with them. Sui Xiong lied down in the pond that was transformed from a King¡¯s corpse and absorbed the heat, that could even melt rocks, to slowly recover his injuries. He was really severely injured and had to take a good rest. But the world was not always as one wished. His injuries were only 20 to 30% recovered. He could feel the space in the border of the world shaking, and a bunch of spirits from other worlds dashed in to fight with the locals in the world. The spirits in Abyss were normally known as devils, magic tribes, or demons; something along those lines. How many tribes were there? No one knew. But there was something that everyone knew: it was that these bastards didn¡¯t practice any ¡°fellowship of the same clan,¡± let alone ¡°the wicked help the wicked.¡± When they met each other, most of them only wanted to kill the other party and eat them, to grow stronger by eating up the other¡¯s power. Stronger, stronger until they were strongest. Most of the devils thought only of this all day. What is a monster? Monster meant chaos, from the beginning ¡¯till the very end. Illogical and irrational. There was no way of communication. In the front row of Pantheon temple, among the four gods from the origins of the world, there was The God of Chaos. It disappeared long ago; for tens of thousand years, no Gods had ever seen Him. Some thought that He had passed, but the invincible might ensure His throne to not shatter; some thought he was in deep sleep and uncertain of when He was going to wake up; even more thought that He had become the King of Devils in the deepest place of the Abyss, the existence of chaos, in essence. Most of the devils were not entirely a chaotic existence, but the clarity of their brains was quite limited. Only when they were onto something very important would they maintain basic consciousness, and not to the point where they went crazy. For example, when they invaded the other worlds within the Abyss. Sui Xiong noticed that those devils that invaded had many light blue patterns on the surface of their bodies, and many had frost hoops around their bodies. That showed that they belonged to the snow series. The power of ice was relatively more calm. The devils that possessed such power would be a little more rational. In contrast, the devils that had many bright red patterns on the surface of their bodies were mostly experts in fire; one could tell their types in one glance. The power of flame was especially ferocious and chaotic. In combination with the inborn chaotic character of a devil, the effect was not as simple as one plus one equals two. From the local devils, one could tell that they were way more violent and messed up compared to those invaders. They had no order when they fought and they were just a bunch of mad men. For instance, it was not only once that Sui Xiong saw the local devils rub their hands together to form a huge fireball and raise it up; and instead of throwing towards the invader devils, hurling it at someone around him that he found an eye sore. Hey! Do you have something wrong with you?! Take some medicine if you are crazy! The first time when he saw such a scene, Sui Xiong nearly screamed. But in the end, he got used to it. Even the other party, who was relatively more rational, picked up devils that were of smaller size around them and ate them like snacks. So, those who threw fireballs at their allies were nothing. These b*stards, do they have no idea of what comrade-in-arms means? The battle efficiency of these devils was so low it pissed people off. Sui Xiong was soaked in the blood of the Devil King¡¯s heart to slowly recover while he looked at these bastards fighting against each other. At first, he thought that they wouldn¡¯t need to fight for long to call for victory or defeat. But in the end, although both parties had severe injuries and dead, there were endless follow-ups. So after long battle, there was still no results. Sui Xiong noticed that the world was giving birth to new devils, endlessly. Although they had various looks, the bright red patterns on their body was similar. Plus, they were all playing with fire, not one was an exception. On the other hand, the party with blue pattern had endless new fighters as well; the situation was probably about the same as the one here. The speed at which devils from both parties died was very fast, but the speed that they were born were fast too. They continued to fight and kill, and it didn¡¯t look anywhere near time to call for victory or defeat. Sui Xiong waited for god knows how long, until his injuries were almost recovered. The two gang of devils were still fighting against each other. He was not in a rush to go back but lied in the pond. He absorbed the endless fire power while he looked into the ecology of the devils. The theme park had the God of Justice watching over, so he didn¡¯t need to worry about it. It was a rare opportunity to visit the Abyss and he would feel sorry for himself if he didn¡¯t take another looks. After a while, he finally got bored and flew out of the blood pond. The huge jellyfish waved its tentacles. However, it did not tear open the space to return to the main dimension but flew towards the two gang of devils that were in a vigorous fight. ¡°You guys have been fighting for so long, it¡¯s so annoying to even watch!¡± He shouted. ¡°Let me lend you a helping hand to end the battle quickly!¡± Then, the few tentacles drew strange runes simultaneously and casted magic at the same time. Huge fireballs were shot one after another towards the middle of where the blue patterned devils stood formation were. Taken by surprise, the blue patterned invaders were beaten up in an embarrassing predicament. At least 100 or more devils vanished under the attack, and that caused the speed of their replacement to be slightly slower. Sui Xiong did not show mercy but continued to fly towards the battlefield while throwing fireballs continuously. He followed the same pattern that was simply brutal and bombed savagely. His magic powers were way stronger compared to the local devils. Maybe only the king that the God of Justice killed was on par with him. While he spared no effort in attack, the normal devils couldn¡¯t withstand him. The originally crowded blue army that couldn¡¯t see an end were suddenly scattered around. But as those blue devils dared to invade, they of course wouldn¡¯t only have some weak chickens that were like cannon fodder. Suddenly, there was an earth-shaking roar. A strange devil with tiger body, crocodile head, and a pair of claws on its shoulders, jumped through the crack at the border of the two worlds. It came out, then waved its claw around and flooded in endless ice spikes, like a rain shower of sharp blades. It covered the entire region where Sui Xiong was at and his surroundings. Sui Xiong laughed coldly and rolled his tentacles to root out a big tree, which could burn itself without fire, that was next to him. He used it as a weapon to swing it left and right to block off all the ice blades. ¡°Honestly speaking, I have curiosity towards the ability of the Abyss Kings,¡± He said. ¡°Coincidentally, I was beaten up previously and I am in a very bad mood. Come on and fight with me; let me find a sense of satisfaction from bullying the weak!¡± Chapter 166 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Aiya aiya, This is really¡­ really tragic¡­¡± Sui Xiong lied down in the boiling water that had sulphuric steam while he groaned in pain. To be seated up by the entire orc God system was definitely not a happy experience. Even though he was quick to respond and well prepared, he had to take a few punches before he managed to flee. The direction that he fled was a bottomless Abyss. The Abyss was located in the ¡°negative¡± ring of the world, which was a very dangerous and messy region. There were countless creepy spirits that gestated and various inexplicable things that could happen. The experts here were crowded but there was no order, not even a demi-god or even God-like level experts who might die obscurely by the road side in a remote corner of nowhere. Sui Xiong noticed the pond after he came through to this dimension. At the bottom of the pond, there was something jumping slowly. It was a huge heart, he realized, when he took a closer look. Looking around carefully, he realised that the mountain where the pond was located was actually a huge human corpse. The vital wound of the corpse was on the chest. Although the heart had yet to be torn apart, the weird power had sunken in and wiped out its vigor. The coordinates were given to him by the God of Justice and claimed them to be ¡°definitely safe.¡± From what he saw then, the corpse might have belonged to the king of the Abyss; and the one who killed it was the God of Justice himself. When Sui Xiong came through to this world his actual form was difficult to describe verbally. If he had to, it could probably be explained by the concept of ¡°parallel world.¡± Countless worlds in various sizes paralleled with one another and formed a huge system, collectively known as Thousand Worlds. In this realm there were four huge worlds that formed a magical ring. The ring of the world was categorised into four dimensions: material, spiritual, positive and negative. There were multiple layers on material dimensions. For instance, the most commonly seen main dimension was star realm, where a sea of stars twinkled; element realm, heaven, and hell. The holy kingdoms of various gods were built on the material dimension, but the locations were different. The spiritual dimension was crucial for the communication of each layer and world. For example, the heart realm was known as one of the main connections that linked up the Thousand Worlds. Taking in consideration that the other main connection in River Styx had higher risks, it could said to be the only practical main connection. The positive dimension referred to order and life of worlds; it was different than heaven, and not anywhere beautiful. On the contrary, it was full of danger and disaster. It was akin to the saying, ¡°Things always reverse themselves after reaching an extreme.¡± The Gods Alliance Meeting¡¯s Pantheon temple was the only reliable safe zone in the positive realm in the ring of the world. Besides that, various gods didn¡¯t quite like stepping foot there. The negative realm was the world of chaos and extermination. There wasn¡¯t anything like ¡°things always reverse themselves after reaching an extreme¡±; it was actually really ferocious and dangerous. The power of the origins of the world flowed out from the positive realm, passed through the material realm and flowed into the negative realm. Then it flowed out from negative realm, passed through the spiritual realm, and flowed back into the positive realm, forming a huge cycle. The Abyss was the most important world in the negative realm; or maybe it should be said, of many worlds. It was messily piled up by countless worlds in different sizes. Regardless of material or space, they were in a mess. There were many strong magic monsters that lived within, and they would attack and kill one another. They had the desire to rush to other worlds to cause damage. The Abyss also had some areas that were comparatively more stable. Every area as such normally went through vigorous competition: the strong one that got to rule it would be known as the King of the Abyss. It was similar to other Gods and commanders in heaven and hell; just that these Kings were mostly the kind that were mentally abnormal, and the way they did things was not reliable. Besides some other crazy ones that were also mentally abnormal, there was no one else willing to mix with them. Sui Xiong lied down in the pond that was transformed from a King¡¯s corpse and absorbed the heat, that could even melt rocks, to slowly recover his injuries. He was really severely injured and had to take a good rest. But the world was not always as one wished. His injuries were only 20 to 30% recovered. He could feel the space in the border of the world shaking, and a bunch of spirits from other worlds dashed in to fight with the locals in the world. The spirits in Abyss were normally known as devils, magic tribes, or demons; something along those lines. How many tribes were there? No one knew. But there was something that everyone knew: it was that these bastards didn¡¯t practice any ¡°fellowship of the same clan,¡± let alone ¡°the wicked help the wicked.¡± When they met each other, most of them only wanted to kill the other party and eat them, to grow stronger by eating up the other¡¯s power. Stronger, stronger until they were strongest. Most of the devils thought only of this all day. What is a monster? Monster meant chaos, from the beginning ¡¯till the very end. Illogical and irrational. There was no way of communication. In the front row of Pantheon temple, among the four gods from the origins of the world, there was The God of Chaos. It disappeared long ago; for tens of thousand years, no Gods had ever seen Him. Some thought that He had passed, but the invincible might ensure His throne to not shatter; some thought he was in deep sleep and uncertain of when He was going to wake up; even more thought that He had become the King of Devils in the deepest place of the Abyss, the existence of chaos, in essence. Most of the devils were not entirely a chaotic existence, but the clarity of their brains was quite limited. Only when they were onto something very important would they maintain basic consciousness, and not to the point where they went crazy. For example, when they invaded the other worlds within the Abyss. Sui Xiong noticed that those devils that invaded had many light blue patterns on the surface of their bodies, and many had frost hoops around their bodies. That showed that they belonged to the snow series. The power of ice was relatively more calm. The devils that possessed such power would be a little more rational. In contrast, the devils that had many bright red patterns on the surface of their bodies were mostly experts in fire; one could tell their types in one glance. The power of flame was especially ferocious and chaotic. In combination with the inborn chaotic character of a devil, the effect was not as simple as one plus one equals two. From the local devils, one could tell that they were way more violent and messed up compared to those invaders. They had no order when they fought and they were just a bunch of mad men. For instance, it was not only once that Sui Xiong saw the local devils rub their hands together to form a huge fireball and raise it up; and instead of throwing towards the invader devils, hurling it at someone around him that he found an eye sore. Hey! Do you have something wrong with you?! Take some medicine if you are crazy! The first time when he saw such a scene, Sui Xiong nearly screamed. But in the end, he got used to it. Even the other party, who was relatively more rational, picked up devils that were of smaller size around them and ate them like snacks. So, those who threw fireballs at their allies were nothing. These b*stards, do they have no idea of what comrade-in-arms means? The battle efficiency of these devils was so low it pissed people off. Sui Xiong was soaked in the blood of the Devil King¡¯s heart to slowly recover while he looked at these bastards fighting against each other. At first, he thought that they wouldn¡¯t need to fight for long to call for victory or defeat. But in the end, although both parties had severe injuries and dead, there were endless follow-ups. So after long battle, there was still no results. Sui Xiong noticed that the world was giving birth to new devils, endlessly. Although they had various looks, the bright red patterns on their body was similar. Plus, they were all playing with fire, not one was an exception. On the other hand, the party with blue pattern had endless new fighters as well; the situation was probably about the same as the one here. The speed at which devils from both parties died was very fast, but the speed that they were born were fast too. They continued to fight and kill, and it didn¡¯t look anywhere near time to call for victory or defeat. Sui Xiong waited for god knows how long, until his injuries were almost recovered. The two gang of devils were still fighting against each other. He was not in a rush to go back but lied in the pond. He absorbed the endless fire power while he looked into the ecology of the devils. The theme park had the God of Justice watching over, so he didn¡¯t need to worry about it. It was a rare opportunity to visit the Abyss and he would feel sorry for himself if he didn¡¯t take another looks. After a while, he finally got bored and flew out of the blood pond. The huge jellyfish waved its tentacles. However, it did not tear open the space to return to the main dimension but flew towards the two gang of devils that were in a vigorous fight. ¡°You guys have been fighting for so long, it¡¯s so annoying to even watch!¡± He shouted. ¡°Let me lend you a helping hand to end the battle quickly!¡± Then, the few tentacles drew strange runes simultaneously and casted magic at the same time. Huge fireballs were shot one after another towards the middle of where the blue patterned devils stood formation were. Taken by surprise, the blue patterned invaders were beaten up in an embarrassing predicament. At least 100 or more devils vanished under the attack, and that caused the speed of their replacement to be slightly slower. Sui Xiong did not show mercy but continued to fly towards the battlefield while throwing fireballs continuously. He followed the same pattern that was simply brutal and bombed savagely. His magic powers were way stronger compared to the local devils. Maybe only the king that the God of Justice killed was on par with him. While he spared no effort in attack, the normal devils couldn¡¯t withstand him. The originally crowded blue army that couldn¡¯t see an end were suddenly scattered around. But as those blue devils dared to invade, they of course wouldn¡¯t only have some weak chickens that were like cannon fodder. Suddenly, there was an earth-shaking roar. A strange devil with tiger body, crocodile head, and a pair of claws on its shoulders, jumped through the crack at the border of the two worlds. It came out, then waved its claw around and flooded in endless ice spikes, like a rain shower of sharp blades. It covered the entire region where Sui Xiong was at and his surroundings. Sui Xiong laughed coldly and rolled his tentacles to root out a big tree, which could burn itself without fire, that was next to him. He used it as a weapon to swing it left and right to block off all the ice blades. ¡°Honestly speaking, I have curiosity towards the ability of the Abyss Kings,¡± He said. ¡°Coincidentally, I was beaten up previously and I am in a very bad mood. Come on and fight with me; let me find a sense of satisfaction from bullying the weak!¡± Chapter 167 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Together with the words, the will of Sui Xiong was accurately passed to the weird demon. That demon was the leader of the blue demons, who was also the monarch of that world. It thought that the king of the world had taken action a nd wanted to fight with its old rival. But it was unexpected that the one he saw wasn¡¯t the rival that it had fought against for unknown years, but a monster with unknown origins. The most annoying thing was that it seemed to look down on it. The character of the demons had always been impulsive and irritable; even the ice system was no exception. Provoked by Sui Xiong in such a way, it suddenly burst into fury and yelled in madness, and the cold air around it froze into a giant icicle like a mountain. The demon slung it at him. The icicle rushed to Sui whistling, and the coldness around it provoked many snowflakes in most of the sky. Dozens of demons who were a little closer to it did not even have time to respond, and they were frozen into ice sculptures. The wind blew and the ice sculptures cracked and turned into countless ice flakes on the ground. The icicle was not close to Sui Xiong yet, bur Sui Xiong felt the biting chill. Different from his own ice power, this chill was full of malice and cruelty, and shuddering fury. The coolness that the ¡°ice¡± should have had was completely replaced by fury. It was like a smirking and calm man crazily destroying things with his hands. ¡°It¡¯s really a guy in the chaos camp¡­¡± Sui Xiong sighed and waved his tentacles, greeting it with ice power. With a crashing sound, two ice powers, although equally confusing, collided violently. One of them was calm, the other violent. Beyond everyone¡¯s imagination, the two powers did not explode or cancel out after meeting each other. Instead, they were accompanied by countless fierce crackles and stuck together. Even the icicle and Sui¡¯s tentacles were stuck together, and they were inseparable. ¡°Huh?!¡± Sui Xiong was shocked and subconsciously wanted to withdraw his strength. But he changed his mind. He shouted, redoubling his efforts to continuously exert the ice power on his opponent. The demon king didn¡¯t think so much. My attack is blocked? Then double the effort! The two ice powers had became stronger and stronger, and they stuck together more firmly, and gradually became one. The icicles in the air had gradually changed the color and became a mixture of dark blue and light blue. The two blues were intertwined with each other but clearly divided. They were like two snakes entwined together which wanted to use their powerful bodies to suffocate their opponent to death. The tentacle of Sui Xiong had become dark blue, like pure sapphire, and the cold air emitted had turned the surrounding area into a world of ice and snow. In this snow-covered area, not to mention the monsters of the flame system in this world, even the demons from the ice system of the ice world couldn¡¯t stand it. They retreated stumbling and had retreated continually, but they still frantically killed the enemy. No one knew what kind of vengeance they had. Seeing that the strength of both sides was almost at its limit, Sui Xiong laughed loudly and waved his tentacles to cut off the tentacle stuck with the icicle. His body regained freedom and suddenly accelerated and rushed toward the demon monarch. The demon monarch did not expect him to do so, and the reaction suddenly slowed. The two masters confronted each other and the outcome could be decided in an instant, not to mention that its strength was far weaker than Sui¡¯s. The reason why they could hold on for so long was nothing more than that Sui deliberately making a trap for it. At this moment, Sui swiftly and violently raided it, and it could not withstand the attack. It was wrapped by Sui¡¯s waving tentacles that hit it in the face, which was like being wrapped by a giant python. It roared and struggled hard. However, this struggle did not have an effect. It was wrapped tighter and tighter. Gradually, there was the sound of bones breaking inside the body, and it was about to die. Then the mighty demon shouted once more, and a fierce squeaking sound was heard in the body. The already weak body was suddenly filled with astonishing power, and it even broke loose from the tentacles. ¡°Self-destruct?!¡± Sui Xiong immediately guessed what it was going to do, and turned the edge of a dozen tentacles into sharp cones, and pierced them into the body of the demon monarch. The powerful force that was expected to burst out was absorbed by more than a dozen tentacles, and suddenly it weakened. At that time, the demon monarch could no longer recover its power. It could only watch its power be absorbed, and eventually its body completely collapsed into a pool of pale ice pieces and piled on the ground. Laughing loudly, Sui shook his tentacles and took back the icicles and tentacles that were firmly stuck together, and collected the ice pieces that the demon monarch turned into. This harvest was really good! If these forces were fully digested and absorbed, it would not only help him fully recover but would also improve his strength; not only an increase of strength, but more importantly, an expansion of the area of strength. The power of this demon was unique and the ultimate power in chaos. In contrast, even the Gods in the ¡°chaos camp¡± were much more orderly than they were. Sui had never gotten into contact with this extremely turbulent power before, and he could not even imagine it. Getting into contact with this power at the moment, carefully analyzing and understanding it, and eventually grasping it, was like opening a door leading to a new heaven, perfecting his entire strength system. For some time afterward, Sui Xiong still lied down in the blood pool formed by the hot demon monarch, slowly analyzing and understanding the power of the ice demon monarch. After a long time, he finally completed the entire decomposition process and had a deeper understanding and grasp of this power. ¡°It¡¯s wonderful!¡± Inside the hot blood pool, Sui Xiong lifted a tentacle, where a raging flame burned while emitting no heat. Instead, it was extremely cold. He raised another tentacle with a cold piece of ice, that was boiling. It looked very strange. This was the power of the demons. They did not follow any rules; it was complete chaos. Although he grasped the power of the demon monarch, together with the power of the demon monarch who had already died, he still had only a little understanding of the unruly and chaotic power of the demons. He felt that this power was very wonderful and so simply incredible that it could do a variety of things beyond imagination, and could be of great help in many cases. ¡°It¡¯s weird¡­ why don¡¯t those powerful Gods go to study this kind of power?¡± Sui said to himself with uncertainty, lying in the lava pool of blood. This was because of the lack of knowledge. There were actually many Gods who were curious about demonic forces, but the power of the Gods was ultimately a manifestation of order. Even the chaotic Gods needed order; even when they were disorderly. Once they stepped into the Abyss where their powers were in this completely chaotic environment, their powers would be greatly suppressed. It was easy to be in danger, and not surprising if they fell. There were also Gods who tried to send incarnations or avatars to take risks for them. However, they found that even if only the incarnations or avatars were wounded, their original bodies were also damaged. Once the incarnations or avatars fell, the original bodies could be seriously injured if not killed, which was still extremely dangerous. Not only that; even if they took the risk of depriving the power of demonic monarchs and studying it slowly, they could not benefit from it. Differences in the nature of power made all such efforts in vain. On the contrary, some Gods became so obsessed with analyzing chaotic power that their own orderly powers began to clutter and collapse. Some fell, they heads muddled, and some had been transformed into demons¡­ Afterward, the Gods understood that ¡°Demon Power¡± was untouchable, and they were afraid of the Abyss. No one would dare take advantage of this power. The key to Sui Xiong studying and mastering the power of demons with the body of a God was that he had a different nature, and was not from this world. The ¡°order¡± and ¡°chaos¡± of this world had no fundamental influence on his soul. Although maneuvering two kinds of power was extremely dangerous, all the dangers were ultimately limited to his large jellyfish body, which was entirely within his control. Even so, he took a lot of risks in the research process and suffered a lot of injuries. Thanks to this safe place, he could rest assured that he could recover from injury. Otherwise he didn¡¯t know how long he would have studied before he could get the results that he now had! After the study was initially finished, Sui Xiong looked at the places where the two worlds bordered. He saw the space-cracks connecting the two worlds still existed, and the blue-patterned ice demons were still rushing out and launching attacks toward this side. However, after losing the monarch, these demons had no leader and no advantage. This long-delayed war was now in a state of complete deadlock. The two kinds of demons, of ice and flame, seemed to step into the legendary ¡°meat grinder¡± and continued to fight and die. The corpses were already piling up in the space crack in a nasty hill. As the demons fought, they continued to pick up the corpses under their feet and send them into their mouths. Some weak demons swiftly deformed as they ate, and they evolved into powerful species, but most of them died on the battlefield, turning into part of the hill of corpses. Sui Xiong shook his head and wanted to turn away from this disgusting scene. Suddenly he changed his mind and turned, curious about the situation in the space crack. Will there be a cold world over there? Without the monarch, that world was actually safe for him. Was it better to go there and have a look? Anyway, as long as you are prepared, even if there is any danger, you can escape in time. And now that he was in a very good state, he could try to take risks¡­ He carefully made a perfect space coordinate on this side to make sure that even if there was any danger there, he could retreat in time. Then he leaped and rushed into the space crack like he was being shot from a cannon, and broke into the opposite world. Whistling, he tore through the heated air and shook the demons on the road together, regardless of their race¡­ Chapter 168 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°F*ck! D*mn it¡¯s cold!¡± That was the first sentence that Sui Xiong said after barging into that world. There wasn¡¯t a second sentence as of then, because in the next moment, he was frozen in a blue piece of ice. It was a boundless ocean that had countless icebergs. Many devils were giving birth and reproducing on the floes. They were jumping on the ice ocean lightly with actions that were hard to imagine. Every time they touched the ocean, the spot where their legs landed would form a big piece of ice. Flowing in the ice ocean was of course not water, but some kind of light blue fluid. Its coldness was beyond imagination, and it had a weird characteristic: once it got in contact with something, no matter what is was, it would immediately freeze. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to know what was underneath the water. His gut feeling told him that if he were to sink in the deep water of ice ocean, it definitely wouldn¡¯t be a good outcome. So the moment he arrived at Ice Block, he felt the drifting ice sinking and he immediately cast magic to carry him with the huge piece of drifting ice, and flew into the air. Then, he realised that space crack that linked him to The World of Scorching Heat was above a piece of decently sized drifting ice that was almost against the ice¡¯s surface. He got out from there suddenly and flew off the area of the drifting ice, straightaway falling into the ice ocean that was right next to it. There were many devils in this world, that were rushing over to the space crack from all over the place. He frequently saw a big gang of devils that used drifting ice as boats, and found something else as sail. They cast magic to set off wind as power and sailed in mighty contingents. There were also many powerful devils that didn¡¯t use any tricks, but flew over in the air, and dashed towards the space crack. There were even some weak devils that couldn¡¯t set off wind but used some ice as cushions to run along the ice ocean, towards the space crack. Most of their efforts exhausted their energy halfway; it froze them into ice and sank under the sea. Sui Xiong flew in the air and saw such this enthusiastic scene. ¡°F*ck! Such strong hatred! What made the front fall, and those behind take up their position?¡± Sui Xiong mumbled to himself and he shook his body vigorously to shatter the ice that frozen him. Then, he casted magic to become invisible and watch the situation from the air. After leaving the surface of the water, the world was actually not that cold, and it felt quite bearable. But the ice ocean in the world was really strange; it was ridiculously cold. He didn¡¯t know what kind of fluid made the ice ocean. ¡°Anyway, it is definitely not water,¡± He mumbled to himself. ¡°Although I have returned all my physics knowledge to my teacher, I at least remember that ice freezes below zero degrees, and at zero degrees, it would definitely not make me feel cold.¡± He used magic to collect some ocean water samples curiously, but he realised that although he could ¡°hold¡± the ocean water, he couldn¡¯t absorb it in, only take back a few drops. The water in the ice ocean didn¡¯t look any different compared to normal water. But once it was absorbed and left the calm sea surface, it immediately turned stringy, just like glue sticking onto the sea surface with its surrounding. As it got further from the sea surface, it gots stickier. Even when he used his strength to its fullest, he could only pull out a two meter long stringy fiber, but was unable to cut it off entirely. He tried to cut it off with magic but there was no magic took effect. Chopping it with a sharp blade felt like hitting a hot object, burning it with fire had no effect at all, corroding it with poison and vibrating it with sound wave didn¡¯t help at all. Nothing did. ¡°That¡¯s strange! What is this ice ocean exactly?!¡± Sui Xiong flew higher. When a few devils noticed something was weird they flew over to check. They couldn¡¯t find anything, but flew around the air and pondered. Stringy, cold, freezes things and sinks them in¡­ The more he thought about it, the more he found it weird. In the end, he was even terrified. The ice ocean¡­ wouldn¡¯t be gastric juices of a huge monster, right? Thinking that he might possibly be flying around in the stomach of an enormous primeval beast, he felt uncomfortable all over. He immediately decided to cast away all his curiosity and flew towards the crack to return to the World of Scorching Heat. Just when he was about to leave Ice World, he could clearly feel that there was an obscure but profound consciousness that twinkled deep down below the ice ocean¡¯s surface, and he nearly shouted. ¡°Damn! It really deserves the title of Abyss! They have all kinds of strange things!¡± Thinking the huge Ice World might really be the stomach of an huge monster sent shivers down his spine. He soaked in the scorching hot blood pond for a long time and finally relaxed. Then, he flew quickly into the space crack and killed all the invading blue-patterned ice devils. He then cast magic to start blocking off the space crack. He spent a long time blocking the space crack completely. He just got to relax when another nearby space burst into pieces, and endless lightning currents flowed out like a lightning waterfall. Flowing out along the lightning waterfall were countless amount of small sized devils. They were small, but their fighting power wasn¡¯t. Almost every one of them could fight against the selected devils in this world. Especially when they united into one, their fighting power would advance by leaps and bounds, turning into another kind of existence. ¡°Hey! It can even unite into one!¡± Sui Xiong was interested and he stretched his arms to catch one of the united devil to take a closer look. After fiddling with it for a while, he finally found the problem. Most of the devils that flowed out along the lightning waterfall had no organs; the entire body was made of clouds of surging lightning. The combination of lightning with lightning would become a stronger lightning, what was wrong with that? Sui Xiong caught another few lightning devils and researched them. Until he mastered the basis of the power of the lightning devils, he could apply the same tactic again. After ensuring his back-up plan and safety, he could barge into the world of lightning devils again. That world wasn¡¯t as terrifying as ice world. It was only a broad boundless desert that was completely covered by gloomy clouds. The thunder echoed continuously and the lightning filled the sky; it was even difficult for one to open their eyes. Among the lightning, countless devils were born. Most of them became incredibly weak after the lighting struck and died off eventually, but others became extremely strong. They were on a totally different level than the b*stards before. Within a very short period of time, it was like great waves washing away the sand, where many strong selected devils were born. ¡°The f*ck! This speed of increasing army force is incredible! If this was a game, it would definitely be an add-on feature!¡± Sui Xiong was hidden under the desert as he saw the countless selected devils born among the lightning, whistling into the space crack that was connected to the World of Scorching Heat. He was feeling a little uneasy. Looking at such a situation, the devils in the worlds might not be able to withstand¡­ Their death shouldn¡¯t be regretted. If there was any trouble, it would ruin the sanctuary that the God of Justice had prepared. It would be a pity! Then, he didn¡¯t hesitate anymore. He got out from below the soil and opened its mouth at the sky to take a deep breath. Countless lighting was mutated and deformed, and swarmed towards him from all over the place; but he swallowed them in a mouthful. The next moment, there was large amount of smoke spurting out from the huge jellyfish¡¯s body, and there was even a muffled scream that came out among the mist. ¡°So! Hot! Ah!¡± Those lightning strikes were not strong, but with countless of them gathering together, it combined into a boiling hot lightning waterfall. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t expect that at all, and he was suddenly burnt to the verge of passing out. He screamed and groaned for quite some time and finally relaxed as he released a few mouthfuls of smoke. Looking at the space crack, the amount of newborn devils had gone down by a lot. The pressure from the other side of the world should had begun to lighten, too. He continued to guard at the space crack and eat all the devils that wanted to go over to cause trouble. Occasionally he would absorb large amounts of lightning and store the power in his body as a preparation for future battle. After a while, the dark clouds in this world diminished, by a lot and lightnings was not as plentiful as before. It was as though the end of the world had passed, and it resumed to the stage where it was suitable for living. Then, on the originally barren plain, appeared branches that grew. It turned into a dense grassland very quickly. There were many devils that were reproducing among the grassland, looking full of life. Sui Xiong continued to absorb the lightning in the dark clouds and as he was getting more and more familiar with the lighting devil power, the speed of his absorption got faster. After a week or two, he finally absorbed almost all of the lightning power in the dark clouds and converted them into a flowing lightning river. When everything had completed, he wanted to leave. But just when he wanted to go through the transportation portal, he felt that the world had something that worried him, and he wasn¡¯t willing to leave yet. ¡°What is it exactly?¡± He mumbled to himself suspiciously while he searched within the lighting world. He searched all over. He saw conflicts between strong big devils multiple times, and felt that the faintly discernible power was getting clearer and nearer. In the end, he finally found his aim. It was located on the lofty mountain: a blue crystal ball. There was no trace of human carving on the crystal ball; maybe it was a divine force creation. It contained powerful lightning that made Sui Xiong nervous. If the crystal ball were to suddenly explode, no matter how strong his defense power was, he might be severely injured too! He intended to throw the crystal ball away and leave, but he faintly felt that it had a strange connection with this world. ¡°If I could eat the crystal ball, maybe I could obtain power and could control this world¡­¡± Looking at crystal ball floating in the air, with lightning sparkling within, Sui Xiong hesitated. Chapter 169 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Swallowing the world¡¯s hub? This was definitely not a joke. By devouring the world¡¯s hub, it was possible to control the entire world, which of course would encounter the backlash of the entire world¡¯s power. If one was talented enough to suppress the backlash, the benefits of controlling a world were simply too large to be imagined; but if not, the result would naturally be worse than imagined. Huge interests were accompanied by great risks, and gave people such dilemmas. Sui Xiong did not want to take such a risk, but he could not resist such a big temptation. Standing in front of the crystal ball, he repeatedly weighed the risks and benefits, but he was always unable to make up his mind. After controlling a world, at the very least, it could be used as a safe place to hide. It could further serve as a base for training soldiers. It could also be used to create a variety of rare resources. Other benefits were numerous; why did the Gods want to create their own holy kingdoms? Just for these benefits! Sui Xiong had not been able to build his own holy kingdom, and many of his believers¡¯ souls were still sealed in the altar and were not properly placed. If he could control this world, he could try to transform it into a holy kingdom, so that the dead believers had a place to go and achieve the ultimate salvation of his denomination. For him, this was almost an urgent issue. It had been almost four years since the beginning of the construction of his church. Four years was not long, but time passed quickly. Especially for the Gods who were in a stable state, decades passed in the blink of an eye. For example, he unknowingly spent almost a year on recovering his wounds from the two worlds in the Abyss he explored before. However, for mortals, life spans were only 50 or 60 years. Even those powerful adventurers who didn¡¯t enter the legendary realm and didn¡¯t use various means to renew their lives would only live up to 70 or 80 years, which was their limit. There were already many people in the common believers of Sui Xiong who had gone white-haired. If it was not possible to build the holy kingdom before they died, it was unacceptable to let them take a rest in the virtual world of the altar. When others are honest with me, I should also treat them with honesty. Believers offer me faith, and I, as a God, should naturally return my blessing to them. The redemption of the soul is an indispensable part of the blessing. However, even now, Sui Xiong had not been able to build the holy kingdom. The creation of the holy kingdom needed to start from the direction of the world¡¯s origins; he needed to create a small world out of nothing, and then gradually improve and expand it. This required the mediation of the priesthood, so only the real God could do it. However, Sui Xiong had not yet completed the ceremony of apotheosization to prepare for the priesthood. On the one hand, although he possessed enough strengths, they rarely matched his ideals; correctly speaking, there were none. On the other hand, a future of being affected by beliefs and confined by the priesthood made him very worried. So he had been hesitant and refused to make a decision. He had more time and he could wait for a decade, 100 years, 1,000 years, or 10,000 years. Anyway, he was not mortal. It did not matter how long he waited. When he practiced in deep trenches, the transition between cold and heat he saw occasionally when he breathed on the surface of the sea occurred hundreds of times. Time did not affect him. But time could have an impact on his followers; and it had a great impact. He didn¡¯t even think of the ages of ordinary believers whom he rarely met with. Just in a few of the core believers whom he often met, Palin had grown a little taller and had a few soft beards on his chin; although Rhode was still strong, he had already started having white hair on his head; Satan had already gotten glasses; Olian had grown to be a charming big girl, and there were even many people talking about her wedding¡­ If it was true that several hundred years had passed, then even the legendary strongmen would all grow old¡­ He could wait, but they couldn¡¯t wait. But now, he saw an opportunity. If he could control such a world and transform it into a holy kingdom, the problem would be solved. Not only that, he could also get countless benefits; the simplest one being that once he controlled the world, those unstoppable demons of the thunder system would become an inexhaustible source of soldiers. If he fought with other Gods, he would not need to worry about being besieged by a sea of people. On the contrary, in the face of solitary Gods, he could, in turn, use the tactics of multitude, killing the other¡¯s power at the expense of massive casualty. And¡­ the process of controlling and transforming a world could also greatly deepen his understanding of the nature of power and the roots of the world, and would be even more beneficial for further improvement! So he was hesitant. Even if he knew that the risk was huge, he was reluctant to give up. He was stealthily beside the crystal ball and contemplating silently. Not knowing how much time had passed, the world had begun to fill with the power of lightning. Clouds re-shaded the sky. The sounds of thunder had joined together. Countless flashes of lightning had turned the ground into a sandstone, and countless demons appeared in the lightning and killed all of the demons rushing from the space crack, and then rushed and launched aggression against other worlds. Sui Xiong looked at the demon¡¯s imposing appearance and couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Why do I think so much! How can life be so precious! ¡°I enjoyed peace and quietness for the first half of my life. I can also make a second space travel in the second half of my life. I have experienced incredible wonderful things and I don¡¯t know how long I have lived¡­ what else do I need to worry about? ¡°If thousands of years are like this, I have already lived for thousands of years; why should I be so afraid of death! ¡°What is life? It¡¯s a regretless journey that blooms! ¡°Done! Saying so, he waved his tentacles and rolled up the crystal ball, twinkling with lightning, and swallowed it. The fierce thunder and lightning suddenly broke out in his stomach. The endless lightning force cooked about half of the body of the giant jellyfish almost instantaneously. The inner part of him was directly turned into coke. Fortunately, Sui Xiong had already cut off the feeling of the soul and body. Even if the entire body was burned into coke, it had no real effect on him. Now for him, the jellyfish body was a set of tools for resolving and absorbing the crystal ball. Even if there was a loss, it did not matter, as long as it could achieve the goal. A steady flow of magic and nutrition was mobilized and sent to the part that was in contact with the crystal ball. It was constantly consumed by it, and it continued to replenish, initiating a long war of attrition. From the outside world, there was fierce and unimaginable thunder. It completely covered a large circle of the area around it, and lightning dazzled. It was not clearly visible what was inside. A long time passed, and Sui Xiong suddenly felt a little bit of change. In the area where the crystal ball was constantly consumed, a few parts of his body changed and became somewhat similar to the ball. These parts were only very minute pieces, but in lightning, these small pieces were not damaged at all, but were slowly increasing. Rejoicing, Sui Xiong knew that the most dangerous and critical step had passed. At this time, the whole world, which was still calm, shook violently. The endless power rose from every corner of the world and gathered in majestic thunder strikes that fiercely hit Sui Xiong who was amidst the thunder. With that blow, the huge body of the jellyfish disappeared with the crystal ball in the body and was almost completely destroyed. But amidst the thunder, there were many tiny particles still floating, unaffected. Sui Xiong, hiding in a fine grain, watched the thunder which was more and more terrifying, and he smiled. ¡°It turns out that¡­ this world is like this!¡± There was only a tiny difference between before and after. If the counterattack of the entire world power came even earlier and even if Sui Xiong had not transformed even one bit, the result would be that the body would be completely destroyed. Whether a soul without a body could survive in the thunder and lightning was unknown. But now, this world was no threat to him! Although the crystal ball had been destroyed, the fragments were still there. Even though they were small, they were actually concrete and microscopic crystal ball structures. Once they were reconstructed, they could become the hub of the world, and this world would be under the control of Sui Xiong. In the endless thunder, those fragments slowly converged and eventually turned into a thumb-sized mini jellyfish. Sui Xiong fiercely motivated his power and had an amazing attraction in his body of a mini jellyfish which sucked all the endless thunder around it. Obviously, the body was a little small; it was like a black hole with endless attraction. After a moment, the sky was clear, and even the clouds that covered the sky disappeared without a trace. Sui Xiong, who had enough strength, slightly yelled, and his body was suddenly enlarged, and he turned into a beast that covered the entire sky. He hung countless tentacles like tall trees, and stuck them in the ground to penetrate every corner of the world with the tentacles of power. This world was like a building block that had been taken apart. There was no mystery. As long as he was willing to, at any time he was able to change the world. Whether he wanted to make it full of lightning or sunny, he could do so by changing his mind. Sui Xiong slowly and gradually contracted his body to become an ordinary flying jellyfish, floating in the clear sky. ¡°I don¡¯t like this world of thunder and lightning. Let me turn it into a form that I am used to.¡± After that, he closed his eyes and began to change the world in the way he had just understood. Not knowing how long had passed, the earth below slowly turned green, and countless weeds grew from the gravel. Gradually there were many shrubs growing. There were some large and small gullies in the earth. A gurgling river unknowingly appeared. When Sui Xiong opened his eyes again, the world had become a vast open country. However, many demons had emerged there. They squabbled indiscriminately and completely ignored Sui Xiong¡¯s command. This was determined by the chaotic nature of this world. Even if Sui controlled the world¡¯s hub, he could not reverse its chaotic nature. Looking at this chaotic world, Sui Xiong was once again stuck in thoughts. Of course, such a world cannot be a holy kingdom. How can I transform it? Chapter 170 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Abyss was the base camp of primeval energy that formed each and every world. Those were completely chaotic lands. Even though they were brought under control by Sui Xiong, even if Sui Xiong bestowed order upon the land, he wouldn¡¯t be able to change its nature. If he couldn¡¯t resolve the issue, even if he forced the place to become a holy kingdom, after the believers¡¯ souls entered they would only turn into devils. Sui Xiong believed that among his believers, maybe there were some psychopaths, but this ¡®maybe¡¯ would probably be superfluous. Maybe there were crazy people but his ¡®maybe¡¯ seemed to be superfluous. Maybe there were utilitarians but his ¡®maybe¡¯ might still be superfluous. But, regardless of psychopaths, crazy people or utilitarians, they still wouldn¡¯t want to become devils. What did devils look like? Every one of them looked repulsive and neurotic. Their limbs would always be twitching. The worst was that quite a number of devils suffered from mouth impairments. Most of the time they would only wear contorted smiles as their saliva drooled all over. To let his believers turn into such things? What would be the difference between this and the pay to play fraud that conned for retirees¡¯ pension! Sui Xiong would definitely not do anything embarrassing like that. Try to imagine, when a bunch of people who were crossing borders sat down to chat together and talked about their achievements. If one said, ¡°I have made great contributions and accomplished great tasks in ancient times and opened up the biggest empire in human history,¡± another said, ¡°I have become a muggle mage in Strange World, punched the God of Light and kicked the Supreme Devil,¡± another said, ¡°I researched magic, I wrote theses that exploded people¡¯s brains,¡± and then another one said, ¡°I cultivated myself into an immortal and created everything on earth.¡± Then, when it was his turn, he would say, ¡°I did something small, I am a cheater that conned souls and sent them to become devils.¡± Hey! This is so embarrassing! Even if I became a cosplayer, pretended to be Vegeta today and pretended to be Saint Seiya tomorrow, I would only be considered as infringing on someone else¡¯s rights at most; but not losing my dignity! Sui Xiong shook his head and dismissed all those ideas, then pondered seriously on what he should do. But he had no solutions. The chaos in the Abyss had its fixed attributes. With Sui Xiong¡¯s talent, to correct the fixed attributes, it would require at least 1,000, or tens of thousands of years. In such a long time, the souls of his believers would be so full that even the altar wouldn¡¯t be able to fit them. With so much free time, he might as well build his own holy kingdom. Plus, the problems were more than that. The world was located in the Abyss. The chaotic power was everywhere, corroding it. The speed of Sui Xiong¡¯s purification might not be as fast as its corrosion. ¡°First, I have to figure out a way to drag it out of the Abyss.¡± Sui Xiong mumbled to himself and took a different standpoint. Among the various worlds that were piling up messily like building blocks, he saw that there was one that was giving off an entirely different light from the other worlds. The light had a sense of magical harmoniousness that didn¡¯t go well with the surrounding worlds. ¡°Alright, first, let me cut off its connections with all the other worlds.¡± Sui Xiong activated his controlling power towards the world and tried to cut off its connections with the surrounding worlds, but he realized that the connections were unusually tight-knit and difficult to cut off. After pondering for a while, he opted for simple but crude way, which was to cut off its connection with all the other worlds internally; give it up and abandon it. The method was effective. In a short time span, he cut off almost all the connections of the world with the surrounding worlds, but left the one connected to the World of Scorching Heat. ¡°Then¡­ what should I do next?¡± He was lost. Not knowing how long he spent thinking, he finally certified that he really couldn¡¯t figure out any next step. Hence, he contacted the God of Justice. ¡°Huh? You are not resting over there, but ran to other Abyss worlds?¡± The God of Justice was lying on the bench in the theme park plaza to take a nap, even pretending to be a homeless man to con a kind-hearted staff member for a meal. He jumped up and suddenly shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t you want to live anymore?!¡± ¡°Huh? Is it dangerous? I don¡¯t find it dangerous¡­¡± Sui Xiong said in distress. The so-called ¡°King of Abyss¡± ain¡¯t that strong either, I knocked it down with a few blows.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not talking about the King of Abyss! I am talking about corrosion of the Abyss¡¯s attributes!¡± The God of Justice regretted that Sui Xiong did not live up to his expectations and spat, ¡°Can¡¯t you feel it? I have polished the World of Scorching Heat, especially the blood pool. It basically lost its chaotic attributes. But once you leave the blood pool, you should be able to feel the corrosion of the Abyss¡¯s attributes. Especially if you ran to other worlds! What is the difference between this and jumping into a dye tub naked! Do you intend to dye yourself sh*t color?¡± ¡°How is it as severe as that¡­¡± ¡°To us Gods, there is no difference between Abyss attributes and sh*t! You don¡¯t want to stay human but want to turn yourself into a fly. For what?!¡± ¡°¡­But I am a jellyfish.¡± ¡°A jellyfish that was dyed in sh*t color!¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know whether to cry or to laugh but he could feel the concern of his brother from the scolding. Sui Xiong could only explain to Him. Of course, there were many times that he was responded to by the God of Justice with ¡°idiot,¡±¡±psychopath,¡± and ¡°pig-like idea.¡± When He heard that Sui Xiong was fine and successfully conquered an Abyss world, and even pondered changing its attributes and sending it back to the main dimension to become a holy kingdom, the God of Justice was dumbstruck. ¡°¡­Are you sure that you are perfectly normal and not corroded by the power of the Abyss, and turned crazy?¡± ¡°I am very well.¡± ¡°You should take a look at your limbs first, to check if there are any scales or claws.¡± ¡°I am a jellyfish, where do I find my limbs?¡± ¡°No way. I am still worried!¡± The God of Justice mumbled. He made a bad clone temporarily for communication, and jumped into the heart blood pool in a hurry. He had only just arrived when He felt something was wrong. Among the Abyss¡¯s attributes that flooded the world, why were there things that were inharmonious? But it couldn¡¯t be called inharmonious. It was actually something that He was familiar with. It was divine power, and a kind divine power. But, in the Abyss that was filled with chaotic power, any divine power would be eliminated very quickly. How could there be any left over? He searched along the direction of the kind divine power and he found the world that Sui Xiong seized control of. In the space crack at the border of the two worlds, there were a constant steady flow of kind divine power, like a gush of freshwater that gushed into the sea. Although it blended into the surrounding chaos very quickly, it left a clear trace behind. ¡°Unless¡­ my silly brother didn¡¯t bullshit? He really did it?¡± The God of Justice stood next to the space and day dreamt. He finally jumped over as He couldn¡¯t suppress His curiosity. He saw a vast open country that was full of bumps and hollows. A flatland seemed to be chewed on by some sort of huge monsters, leaving chips on the ground. The big ones seemed to cut off the entire world while the small ones were a light layer. Countless devils were fighting randomly on the piece of barren land. They were so busy fighting that they didn¡¯t even notice His arrival. It definitely wasn¡¯t normal. Devils were very sensitive towards divine power. Once there was God that came near, all the devils would immediately put down the task on hand and launch an attack at the God all together. Even if the strong God were to kill them all, the world would quickly produce more devils like crazy, and even the surrounding worlds would produce large amount of devils to partake in the ferocious siege. It was not known how many strong Gods made an occasional mistake under such siege, or slip-ups, or focused on battle but forgot about the corrosion of the Abyss energy and passed on. Some were even drowned in battle and transformed into the King of Devils straightaway. Back then, the God of Justice took countless measures against this and spent a lot of time. But, in the end, He depended on the King of Devils who was in a state not dead nor alive that he held captive, and he finally made a sanctuary. Relying on the sanctuary, He had escaped danger more than once. But, He didn¡¯t expect that within a year, Sui Xiong would manage to conquer such a large territory in the Abyss! Although it was only a clone that was used for communication, His eyesight was still functional. He could clearly feel that the world was fully corroded with chaotic kind divine power; it had almost broken off its connection with the entire Abyss. Besides it being gradually corroded by the Abyss energy, it was just like an independent paradise. Or course, this was based on the premise that the devils that appeared one after another were to be ignored. The nature of the world was still a part of the Abyss after all. It was only transformed a little. Strictly speaking, it was only a paradise that was built of a crater. The heat from below could be felt and it could possibly explode at any time. He became invisible and quickly found Sui Xiong. ¡°I did well, right?¡± Sui Xiong said happily. ¡°I think I can continue to transform here, to make it my holy kingdom!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a bad idea, looking at it closely, it is quite possible. But, how did you do it?¡± The God of Justice asked curiously. Sui Xiong explained to him in detail, but He was puzzled as he couldn¡¯t grasp the main point. ¡°Anyway, that was it. I don¡¯t understand what happened either.¡± In the end, Sui Xiong spread his tentacles and said helplessly, ¡°I felt it was quite easy. Although it was certainly a little dangerous, there was nothing difficult to understand.¡± The God of Justice remained silent for very long time and took a deep breath. ¡°I still do not know the subtleties of the world well enough.¡± After that, He helped Sui Xiong figure out a way. ¡°Firstly, you have to reverse the circulation direction along the Ring of the World. Try to keep close to the material realm. Then, I will extract some small worlds from the positive realm of the Ring of the World, and send them over to blend with this world. Bit by bit, after a few rounds, it should eliminate the chaotic attributes of this world.¡± ¡°Just like red and green, blue and orange, purple and yellow; as long as they complement each other under suitable proportions, the lights of the two colours will be combined into white light, right?¡± The God of Justice laughed faintly but He tacitly acknowledged Sui Xiong¡¯s example, as it¡¯s not nice to say that He had never researched about colours before. ¡°Without further ado, let¡¯s start now!¡± Sui Xiong clapped his hands excitedly. Just when he was going to start, he stopped and asked, ¡°What should I do exactly?¡± The God of Justice smiled. ¡°Hold on a minute. Continue to enhance your control of this world. I will find a way to help you confirm the location in on the entire Ring of the World. Only then can you take action.¡± To confirm the location of a small world that was within a few thousand miles in the huge Ring of the World that was huge beyond imagination was definitely not an easy task. The God of Justice spent half a year¡¯s time completing that one task. He specifically drew up a route for Sui Xiong to go along the route, to avoid the few huge and powerful worlds in the Abyss in order to avoid unnecessary risk. After obtaining the map, Sui Xiong, who was already impatient from waiting, departed immediately. He cut off the last connection between the world and the Abyss, the pathway that connected it to the World of Scorching Heat, and turned into a huge jellyfish that filled the entire world. He dragged the entire world¡ªwith great force beyond imagination¡ªalong the route and travelled slowly. Although the speed wasn¡¯t fast and the future was filled with various challenges, he was full of confidence. ¡°Even computerized Chinese chess can win against a human, and I am only relocating my home; what is so difficult about it!¡± Chapter 171 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Things were easier said than done. The Abyss was definitely no smooth thoroughfare. On the contrary, it was the definition of barren hills and untamed rivers. Sui Xiong hurried on his way with his entire family, and he had to stop constantly to move away the blocking world. If it were a smaller world, he would push it to the side. Although it required a lot of effort, it didn¡¯t bring any aftermath. If it was a slightly bigger world, it would be impossible for him to push it away, but he had to fight through it. Earlier, he had shattered the hell-like world that had lava flowing all over. Not only did he kill the monarch of devils in that world, but the world itself was also broken into three pieces. The world in the Abyss wasn¡¯t solid. Even if it weren¡¯t attacked, it would always collapse and rebuild. So, it wasn¡¯t difficult to break a world. The difficult part was giving the devils in the world a good throttling, so he could then shatter the world that was blocking his path. It wasn¡¯t easy at all! Sui Xiong lied on the grassland in his world and panted. ¡°D*mn it! That lava monster was simply cockroach-like! Couldn¡¯t be killed nor smashed¡­ what does it feed on to be so solid! How was that lava! Isn¡¯t lava supposed to be liquid?!¡± After complaining for a while, he finally recovered some energy and he took out the map to see. After that long route, he only went a short distance. ¡°Oh my god! How long will this take!¡± Looking at the boundless path of migration, he suddenly felt helpless and simply wanted to give up. But¡­ I can¡¯t give up! ¡°Back then, leveling up to legend was so difficult, and I managed to get to level 45! It¡¯s such a small matter; would it be more difficult than leveling up to level 45 in legend?¡± he gritted through his teeth and told himself. ¡°I¡¯ll just treat this as leveling up!¡± He comforted himself as such, and forgot about the fact that he leveled up relying on extension. Every day, 24 hours non stop, every year, 365 days, no break, with a few years¡¯ time; then he leveled up to level 45¡­ ¡°Go for it! Sweep all the monsters along the away. I will definitely max out!¡± Of course, he knew that it would be impossible. To a commoner, maybe fighting against a monster could really accumulate experience and level up. But to an expert at his level, if he couldn¡¯t enhance the intrinsic power itself and get closer to the root of the world, it would be useless even if he fought more monsters. Those who could fight were inexperienced, those who were experienced couldn¡¯t fight. Such an awkward situation. Sui Xiong was only considered fully recovered after he rested for a very long time. He exerted his strength and dragged the small world that was slightly damaged in the battle earlier as he trudged along the route that his brother had planned for him. ¡°A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step; Da Vinci drew an egg before¡­¡± In Pantheon Temple, the God of Justice went next to the King of Order and mumbled something that even the most sensitive God wouldn¡¯t be able to eavesdrop. The King of Order¡¯s peaceful face was shrouded among silver light and showed a hint of shock. After He pondered for a while, He nodded faintly. ¡°You have always been unreliable, but this time you did something reliable!¡± The God of Justice was suddenly upset and asked rudely, ¡°How am I unreliable? I¡¯ve always been reliable, okay?¡± The King of Order smiled, but he quickly hid it and resumed his usual solemnity and coolness. He didn¡¯t entangle with the God of Justice on that but went straight to business. ¡°Regarding the negative realm on the Ring of World, I could only affect it slightly; I wouldn¡¯t be able to help much. But the positive realm on the Ring of World is different. I could pick a few suitable miniature worlds later, and seal them up for you. Then, you could pass Him the sealed worlds directly and you could unseal them when you got into the world.¡± ¡°That easy?¡± The God of Justice was a little suspicious. ¡°He has already overcome the most difficult part; the ones left are only some side issues,¡± the King of Order said solemnly. ¡°To Gods, the Abyss is a forbidden area. Even one who observes it will be affected by its chaotic power. ¡®When you focus on the Abyss, the Abyss is also focusing on you;¡¯ the idiom came from here. A God, no matter how powerful He is, wouldn¡¯t be able to stay for long in the Abyss. Not to mention trying to control one of the worlds in the Abyss¡­ Even if it was me and I dared to do such things, I would only be invaded by the boundless chaos in the negative realm in the Ring of World, and finally pass away.¡± ¡°If it was ¡®Him?''¡± The God of Justice leaned his head sideways and pouted to beckon to the chair, which was covered with complicated patterns and in inexplicable shapes, that made people feel uncomfortable. ¡°I have no idea where He went to.¡± The King of Order looked solemn as usual but there was a hint of distress in His eyes. ¡°I know that all of you are guessing; whether He has sunk to the level of the monarch of devils, or blended into Abyss to turn into part of the negative realm. But I can assure you that, these speculations are false!¡± ¡°Huh? Then where could He go?¡± ¡°If I knew, I would have told you,¡± the King or Order replied calmly. ¡°There is only me at the highest position, and actually it isn¡¯t beneficial to the order of the entire world. I am looking forward to someone who could take some responsibilities over, regardless of who it is.¡± ¡°But, He was your ultimate enemy, right?¡± ¡°Conspiracy thinking is too insignificant to our level. Don¡¯t be affected by these things.¡± The King of Order creased his eyebrows. ¡°Among various Gods, you are the one that was the closest to our level. But you are affected by the nonsense too much, which is why you didn¡¯t improve much after your entered this realm. You need to leave all of this behind!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve improved!¡± the God of Justice said jokingly. ¡°Me now, is at least one time stronger than when I challenged you back then!¡± The King of Order didn¡¯t even bother replying. The God of Justice, who asked for a snub, smiled and returned to his seat. Regardless, I heard some insights from the old man¡­ he thought to himself. Order, chaos, kindness, wickedness¡­ in their realm, what is going on exactly? That really gives me a headache, my head is going to explode! Unless I really lack talent? Maybe¡­ Oscar was the one with real talent! Maybe when He grows up later, he can answer my question¡­¡± He thought and suddenly jumped. He raised his axe and slammed it towards one of the seats behind him. He nearly chopped off the God of Conspiracy¡¯s head, but somehow He managed to dodge it. ¡°It is really you that is trying to pull a trick on me!¡± The God of Justice was clamoring arrogantly. ¡°If you weren¡¯t paying attention on me, how could you dodge such a sudden chop of my axe!¡± Not only was the God of Conspiracy silent, the rest of the various Gods were shocked too, and they were at a loss for words. ¡°Such strong reason!¡± the God of Fear that had a clergy of ¡°tyranny¡± widened His eyes and complemented. ¡°He deserves to be one who practices violence! Although He has yet to swing off the shadow of hypocrite, He could walk along the correct pathway with this capability!¡± ¡°How is this pathway correct?!¡± The Goddess of Woods asked angrily, who had always been against Him. ¡°If He weren¡¯t looking at Him, wouldn¡¯t He be chopped?¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with being chopped?¡± The God of Justice in dug his ears rudely with his left pinky and then pointed at the God of Conspiracy with his filthy fingers. He paid no heed and said, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with killing that b*stard?¡± The Goddess of Woods looked, and the God of Conspiracy and was still speechless. Just like the God of Justice said, what was wrong with killing the God of Conspiracy? Nothing! The God of Conspiracy had been trying to pull all kind of tricks and strategies behind Gods¡¯ backs. Gods that were more experienced had never been treated fairly by Him. Even His allies in name were fooled, including the Goddess of Woods who belonged under the Nature God system. Their God system belonged to the worst-hit area of the God of Conspiracy. Which one of them was not holding grudges? Which one of them wasn¡¯t full of grievances! Wouldn¡¯t it be great to kill the God of Conspiracy? Great! Too awesome! To deal with him severely, with speed, was best; it¡¯d be better to kill Him completely. ¡°But the method is not right,¡± the Goddess Gaia said. ¡°It must be reasonable.¡± ¡°Be reasonable? By killing this b*stard, which part is unreasonable?¡± The God of Warriors raised his sword and shouted, ¡°Yorgaardman Majesty is right! It is only right to kill that despicable snob!¡± Obtaining the support of the God of Warriors, the God of Justice got even more arrogant. ¡°Everyone please evaluate this. Which part about killing that bloody b*stard doesn¡¯t make sense?¡± The God of War touched His beard and said slowly, ¡°There must be a good reason for waging a war. You killing Him out of nowhere is against the rules.¡± ¡°How could I kill Him with no reason! There¡¯s great enmity between the two of us!¡± The God of Justice suddenly had eyes as big as a wild bull¡¯s and said angrily, ¡°If I were to tell you every single incident that caused resentment, I couldn¡¯t even finish the list in a few days!¡± Then, the God of Righteousness and Law spoke. ¡°It is inappropriate to kill in the solemn Pantheon Temple.¡± ¡°No matter where is it, killing the b*stard is aligned with good principles!¡± Suddenly, the solemn Pantheon Temple was in chaos. Various Gods were arguing, as though it were a market. The King of Order who sat at the far front was looking at it quietly, and revealed a pondering smile. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know what happened in the Pantheon Temple. Even if he knew, he wouldn¡¯t be interested to look into depths to find out why his brother got crazy out of a sudden. Because he was really busy, really really busy! He wondered if his luck was bad; just when he was moving with the world, there were a few worlds that leaned towards him from his surroundings, and joined with his world. Then, the devils from the few worlds flowed out like surging tides and launched the biggest invasion war he had ever seen in the Abyss towards his world. Even those few monarchs of devils in the few worlds dashed out without previous consultation. They were simply like sharks that smelled a bloody, fishy smell! ¡°The h*ck! You think I am a target to be bullied, right?¡± Sui Xiong was so p*ssed, he raised his tentacle to launch punches and kicks. He fought the b*stards into a corner. ¡°Even a sick tiger has its claws! I will kill all of you b*stards today!¡± Chapter 172 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the bottomless Abyss, there was a rumour that circulated. It was said that there was a God with unusual power that snuck into the Abyss, carried out special measures to seize control of a small world, and was getting ready to drag the world out from the Abyss. If He were to drag the world out successfully, He would continue to do the same with each and every world in the Abyss, just like locusts consuming plants. If it continued, sooner or later, the entire Abyss would be emptied by Him. Listening to such rumours, most of the Kings of Devils laughed in disdain. Maybe they thought the story-maker had something wrong in his head, that he couldn¡¯t even make up a lie appropriately; or maybe they thought there was no way there could there be such an idiotic God in the world that thought He wouldn¡¯t die fast enough; or maybe they thought it was an entertaining story and a humorous joke. Of course, there were some that lacked a sense of humour and spat, ¡°Fuck that b*tch, how dare fool your master,¡± and swung his axe and chopped the messenger into pieces. The Abyss was so huge, such situations may have happened. There were also some Kings of Devils that thought weakness lends wing to rumours, so there must have been a reason that there derived such rumours. Hence, they sent out a clone to certify if the incidents in the rumors were true. Although the Abyss was huge, and most of the Kings of Devils worked to no avail, some were able to find Sui Xiong. Most of them immediately raged with anger and launched ferocious attacks, but some were more careful or treacherous and retreated to discuss in private about what to do. ¡°There is something wrong.¡± From a ball of wriggling flesh and blood, came a voice that sounded like bones grinding. It was the famous ¡°King of the 666th Floor of the Abyss,¡± also known as ¡°The Mountain of Flesh and Blood.¡± Most of the Kings of Abyss had no names, or should say that they had hidden their name carefully, to not let anyone know. Unlike Gods, to the Kings of Devil that appeared to be ¡°chaotic,¡± their names had unusual meanings. Once an expert knew their names, they could take various measures to restrain them. In the Abyss that was chaotic and dangerous; there was no difference between that and taking a vital blow. Hence, the Kings of Abyss mostly only had titles. They were normally addressed as King of whichever floor in the Abyss, plus a title that could reflect its characteristics. Many people looked into the meaning of the floors. If a mage was willing to study intensively for Abyss studies, he could find at least ten books that collected theses about research on the meaning of Kings of the Abyss¡¯s floors. But in actual fact, they were meaningless. Even the Kings of Abyss themselves didn¡¯t look into the meanings of floors. To them, the one and only value of floors was to mark the difference between each other. The ruler of first floor in the Abyss, a skeleton monster that was referred as ¡°Dungeon Guardian,¡± was not necessarily stronger than the Mountain of Flesh and Blood from the 666th floor; The ruler on the 304th floor, a huge cannibal plant also known as ¡°Flower of The Century,¡± was not necessarily stronger or weaker than anyone; even the rest like ¡°King of Slime,¡±¡±Frost Giant,¡±¡±Goddess of Fresh Blood,¡±¡±World Devourer,¡±¡­ Amongst the Kings of Abyss that were powerful enough to use the level in their title, their strength and power were never that clear-cut. But these were not related to Sui Xiong. Oh wait; then it was related. The noise of bones knocking into each other, along with a strong will, transmitted the words, ¡°Take down that bastard. We can¡¯t stand such provocation!¡± The leaves rustled as a sharp laugh was hidden within, saying, ¡°Be careful, it might be a trap.¡± With the squishy sound of something soft and slimy, mixed with the mumble of the King of Slime, was heard, ¡°Whose trap is it? Who would be interested in our Abyss?¡± ¡°The one on the Wheel of Order?¡± There was a deep voice from below the ground that was covered with snow and frost. ¡°Doesn¡¯t look like His doings,¡± The huge skeleton said, abd vetoed the inference. ¡°Would it be¡­ That person?¡± The Giant hidden below the snow continued to guess. All the powerful Kings of Abyss kept quiet. After a long while, the Goddess of Fresh Blood, who shared a similar figure to a human, the ruler of the 15th floor of the Abyss, departed towards the world that was in vigorous war. Over there, the fight between a huge earthworm called ¡°Earthly Mad Dragon¡± and Sui Xiong plunged the world into complete chaos. The immortal monster who was ruling a huge world was also known also the Master of the 110th floor of the Abyss. Its body was so humongous that it surrounded the world that belonged to Sui Xiong. At the same time, Sui Xiong too turned into a huge jellyfish that engulfed the entire world while he waved his tentacles to engage in a fierce battle. The battle was earth-shattering. At least another five or six Abyss worlds that were involved were wiped out. There were countless devils that were killed in the repercussions of the battle. Neither party carried out any damaging trick that was extremely powerful, but the body that looked soft and squishy contained power that was beyond imagination. Every time they collided, a loud thundering noise surged ferociously in the Abyss. Any devil that was slightly weaker wouldn¡¯t be able to stand against the repercussions of the surging power, and there was only one in a million that could charge against it. Even though there were one or two that dashed all the way to the front, among the ferocious battle, they couldn¡¯t intervene at all. The Goddess of Fresh Blood gazed at the battle and carefully evaluated both parties¡¯ strengths and weaknesses. For combat power, the huge jellyfish that wasn¡¯t compatible with the Abyss was obviously much stronger. If the offending power from both parties was segregated into ten portions, there were at least seven that belonged to him while the huge earthworm only took up three. But the huge earthworm was widely known for its immortality. It hardly forgot injuries, and possessed an unimaginable recovery power. Even when it was chopped into two, it would heal the moment the blade was withdrawn from its body, leaving an extremely light scar. Even the scar would stay for a very short period of time before it vanished. So, even if the huge jellyfish was at advantage, he couldn¡¯t do much to it. Both parties were locked in a stalemate. As everyone knew, stalemate was a situation most beneficial to the huge earthworm. Many strong and powerful Kings of Devil used up all their strength in such situation. They looked as though they were on winning streaks, and ended up as the huge earthworm¡¯s food. ¡°Maybe today, there will be another one!¡± Looking at the huge earthworm that was constantly injured but not giving up, a smile crept across the face of the King of Abyss; it which changed into human form multiple times to travel around the world, that strolled along reeking blood and disaster. But, it got happy too early! Sui Xiong naturally noticed the ridiculous healing power of the huge earthworm, but he didn¡¯t have any solution in that instance. He tried to turn his tentacles into sharp blades and cut open countless wounds. But the very moment the blade was withdrawn from its body, it would heal and leave no scar. He tried flame, lighting and ice; every one of those could cause huge damage to his enemy, but even the lighting that hit through its body was healed in little time. Not only would its flesh and blood grow back; the burn mark would disappear quickly. He also tried poison, but it was totally useless. He wondered if the huge earthworm was made of flesh and blood, as it was totally immune to poison. What should I do? He rolled up his tentacles and beat up the strange monster that couldn¡¯t be killed brutally when he was vexed. After a while, he had an idea. He finally figured out a way. ¡°Bloody bastard, take my order spear!¡± He spat in a jellyfish style Cantonese version to extend his power. Sui Xiong tried his best to extract the power of order and transform it into a shiny long spear. The long spear was a crystallization of the power of order. Originally was colorless. But once it appeared in the space filled with chaotic energy in the Abyss, it collided vigorously and exploded with infinite light and heat. In that instance, it became a weapon that seemed to be crystallized by endless rays of light. Sui Xiong of course couldn¡¯t just watch the painstaking weapon that he made melt in the Abyss so quickly. He quickly carried it and dashed towards the huge earthworm¡¯s head, then he thrust it in brutally. Pfft. The long spear of order that was at least a mountain wide struck deep into the body of Earthly Mad Dragon. Almost the entire spear sank into its body. The huge earthworm that wasn¡¯t bothered by any sort of attack was suddenly stunned and stopped moving as though it was stonified. ¡°Hoo¡­ hoo¡­ you should die now!¡± That one attack made Sui Xiong extremely exhausted. That very moment, he could only pant and curse the other opponent verbally. In the twinkle of an eye, the huge earthworm that could surround the world gave out a terrifying shriek that would frighten the dead. Then, it turned around and fled towards the the depths of the chaos, and never turned back. Sui Xiong was surprised. He didn¡¯t expect such an attack wouldn¡¯t knock it down. But he thought carefully. To be able to chase it away was a satisfactory outcome. After all, he didn¡¯t intend to start a slaughter party in the Abyss, but to run away with his spoils of war! So, he took a short break and continued to drag the world that got bigger unexpectedly one battle after another. It swallowed the flesh and blood of countless devils and shattered pieces of many miniature worlds. He continued along the route that was drawn and went forward. Until he left entirely with the world, the Goddess of Fresh Blood walked out and stood at the battlefield where the huge jellyfish and the huge earthworm were fighting earlier. She looked carefully and pondered. After a long while, the King of Abyss which looked no different than a human woman who dressed revealingly turned around and walked into the depth of the Abyss. She vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye. ¡°What does it mean?¡± Amongst a bunch of Kings of Abyss that were observing the battlefield from afar, a huge bee with human face was asking. ¡°I have no idea, but its attitude was clear.¡± Giant Frost who was hidden underground was deep in thought. ¡°Maybe we shouldn¡¯t intervene¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s your own business if you do not want to intervene, but I have to go for war and kill him,¡± The Mountain of Flesh and Blood said emotionlessly. ¡°No matter the chaos, as a King, I can¡¯t just let this bastard run free.¡± ¡°Are you sure you can fight against it?¡± The huge cannibal plant asked. ¡°Count me in then,¡± The skeleton who was bigger than a few worlds said. ¡°We will find more assistance,¡± the strange slime said. ¡°The bastard is still far away from the top of the Abyss anyway. Ee have more than enough time.¡± Light shadows flickered and disappeared one after another, like bubbles in water. Sui Xiong resumed his journey while dragging the world. At that very moment, he had a bad feeling¡­ Chapter 173 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the boundless dark chaos, there were indescribably huge shadows that gathered together. They didn¡¯t intend to pull back their imposing manner and their terrifying power was overflowing. These energies were agitating and clashing against each other. They set off sweeping and surging tides. In the tides, forget about the usual devils; even a world that wasn¡¯t as tough as this would crack and shatter into countless microscopic pieces. In the middle of the surging tide, there was a region that was unusually calm. A huge earthworm was lying there quietly without moving an inch. That was the stumbling block that was fighting against Sui Xiong a while back. The Abyss King, referred as ¡°Earthly Mad Dragon.¡± But it had completely lost its flame that looked honest but violent. It was lying down sickly, as though it were dying and could pass away at any time. ¡°That¡¯s strange!¡± ¡°Yeah, the thing would become like that.¡± ¡°¡­I meant that you could damage it to this stage. It is simply unbelievable!¡± ¡°In our Abyss, does such a thing as ¡®unbelievable¡¯ truly exist?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Look, no.¡± A ferocious roar along with agitated raging tides rang out. It shook the few nearby worlds like boats in the billows, tumbling up and down. ¡°Don¡¯t waste your energy on reasoning with this thing. Are you silly?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s talk business! I chased after it earlier and realized that its situation had worsened, and it became like this in the end. All of you know that I am not good at examining and analyzing, so I brought it here for all of you to see what is going on.¡± ¡°Almost dead, I am sure!¡± ¡°Why not eat it when it is still breathing? It woun¡¯t be nice to eat when it¡¯s dead.¡± ¡°I agree with the idea! I rushed over from afar, I am hungry!¡± ¡°Yeah, might as well eat it.¡± ¡°I want to eat its head, I like head the most!¡± ¡°¡­Shut! Up!¡± Another ferocious roar. The nearest world finally couldn¡¯t withstand the aftermath and collapsed. The roar went on for a very long time, the few huge shadows temporarily stopping in the end. ¡°Just you wait! I will destroy your shrubbery!¡± ¡°I support bro cannibal plant! If you dare to come over, we will bite you all together!¡± ¡°As though the two of you never take action together¡­ Didn¡¯t the two of you bite together just now? And I was the one who was bitten!¡± ¡°Huh? Bitten wrongly?¡± ¡°Yeah! Look at my arm!¡± ¡°Yo, it¡¯s injured¡­ Hoo hoo¡­¡± ¡°What are you doing!¡± ¡°We can¡¯t waste it¡­¡± ¡°F*ck off!¡± ¡°¡­I suddenly feel that wasting all our effort to gather all of us seems to be a huge mistake.¡± ¡°You just realized?¡± ¡°Forget it. Even if there are only few of us that are reliable, it¡¯s good enough. Let¡¯s get to business. Regarding the huge earthworm¡¯s injury, everyone look¡­ Huh? The huge earthworm?¡± ¡°Was eaten by Sticky just now.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me?¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you busy fighting with those guys earlier?¡± ¡°Sticky, spit the huge earthworm out! There will be trouble!¡± ¡°Gru gru, gru gru.¡± ¡°Spit it out!¡± ¡°Gru gru.¡± ¡°It says, ¡®Anything I eaten, I never spitted out before.''¡± ¡°This is poisonous!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be funny. Since when was Sticky afraid of being poisoned?¡± ¡°Even the huge earthworm was poisoned to death and you are saying you are not afraid?!¡± There was a tragic groan, and a brawny shadow suddenly wriggled ferociously, constantly changing its shape while letting out tragic roar. ¡°Wow! That¡¯s effective!¡± ¡°Stop sighing! Help me cut open Sticky¡¯s stomach and drag the huge earthworm out!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t waste your effort; Sticky is poisoned. The huge earthworm must have been digested long ago.¡± ¡°¡­What is all this in Sticky¡¯s stomach! It¡¯s disgusting!¡± ¡°Huh? You cut it open so quickly? Let me look at it¡­¡± ¡°Cannibal plant, come and see. Isn¡¯t this your brother tree? Why is it in Sticky¡¯s stomach?¡± Rumbling noises were heard continuously. ¡°Stop fighting! I am busy here! Wait till I find the huge earthworm, then you can do whatever you want with it!¡± ¡°Are you sure you can find the huge earthworm? I don¡¯t quite think so.¡± ¡°If you have to time to give sarcastic remarks, why not help me to look for it! I¡¯m telling you, the huge earthworm is in a very special situation! It is worth our attention!¡± ¡°¡­Can I try two mouthfuls? There is so much of it. Eating a little doesn¡¯t matter much, right?¡± ¡°You could still eat this?! Alright, forget what I just said¡­¡± Gulp gulp, gulp gulp¡­ The sucking and chewing noises didn¡¯t stop. With the flash of blade¡¯s reflection, a brawny shadow flew out, making weird noises. ¡°Whoever that is fooling around, don¡¯t blame me for being merciless with my blade! Now! Help me to find the huge earthworm from Sticky¡¯s stomach! Immediately!¡± ¡°Can¡¯t find it. What should we do?¡± The flash of a blade¡¯s reflection. ¡°Your blade is fast, so what!¡± The flash of a blade¡¯s reflection. ¡°Against violence!¡± The flash of a blade¡¯s reflection. ¡°I found it!¡± The flash of a blade¡¯s reflection. ¡°I found the huge earthworm, why did you cut me?!¡± ¡°¡­Got used to it.¡± Ping ping pong pong. There were fighting noises, accompanied by the glinting and flashing of blade and sword; it was a mess. ¡°Bro cannibal plant, look: could brother tree be saved?¡± ¡°Wow! Why did you plant it on your head? Can you really save it like this?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t say. It seems to be working¡­ Brother tree¡¯s leaves are expanding¡­¡± ¡°Huge earthworm! Huge earthworm, are you still alive? If you are alive, squeak.¡± ¡°It died long ago. Why not eat it while it¡¯s hot¡­¡± ¡°I want to eat the head! I like eating head the most!¡± Suddenly, there was a loud thud. A shadow was beaten and fell head over heels and flew off. Along with the loud thud and flowing of chaos, another huge shadow stood up slowly. ¡°Huh?! Huge earthworm, you are alive!¡± ¡°Ya! Why are you alive! Didn¡¯t we agree that you are dead?¡± ¡°Hula hula! Hula hula!¡± The loud thundering thuds rang out one after another, as the huge shadow slowly shrank. ¡°Stop fighting! Look, Sticky doesn¡¯t look right!¡± ¡°Nonsense. There are three of you beating it; it would be strange if it looked alright!¡± ¡°What I meant was, it seems like it is not moving¡­¡± ¡°Huh? Yeah¡­ Stop beating it! Sticky is not moving already!¡± ¡°Those¡­ Not¡­ Moving¡­ Deserve¡­ To¡­ Be¡­ Beaten¡­ Even¡­ More!¡± Brother tree, hold on a second. There seems to be something a little different here¡­¡± ¡°This is the reason I came to look for all of you before! Do you remember? It was the huge earthworm that suddenly stopped moving. Now, it is Sticky¡¯s turn¡­¡± ¡°Sticky ate the huge earthworm earlier. After digesting half of it, it happened to digest the part where it was poisoned.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t make sense. Not moving after being poisoned? The poison should be spread all over the body, not concentrated at one spot.¡± ¡°All in all, it¡¯s strange. Let¡¯s dissect it.¡± The huge shadows stopped the battle temporarily and surrounded the huge slime that was not moving an inch anymore. They were cutting and searching all over it using their own methods. They looked for a long time but they didn¡¯t find what they were looking for. On the contrary, the clump of slime was slowly moving, wriggling faintly, and gradually grew round and full, showing signs of vigor. After a while, it was fully recovered, and it pushed away the guys that were still cutting and looking within its body. It let out an angry roar. ¡°What is going on? Is Sticky¡¯s poison resistance ability that strong?¡± ¡°Impossible! It couldn¡¯t move at all earlier!¡± ¡°Did we destroy the part where it was poisoned?¡± ¡°If we really did cut that part, it would be impossible that we couldn¡¯t feel it, right?¡± ¡°Sticky, what is going on with you? Tell us.¡± ¡°Gru gru, gru gru.¡± ¡°It says that, the thing it ate earlier is very strange. It wants to eat again.¡± ¡°¡­Anything else?¡± ¡°Gru gru, gru gru.¡± ¡°It says that it still wants to eat that thing earlier.¡± ¡°Anything! Else!¡± ¡°Gru gru, gru gru.¡± ¡°It says¡­¡± ¡°Forget it! I understand! Beat him up! Until he is willing to tell us!¡± Hence, there was another fight in the depth of the chaotic realm. God knows who started it first; it was a mess again. Among the mess, unconsciously, there was a shadow that was comparably smaller than the huge ones left in silence. It was holding on to something that was heavily restrained by a ball of chaos. It fixed its gaze at the ball of chaos and drowned in its thought. ¡°What is it exactly? Why would such a small piece make a King of the Abyss lose his vigor and drown in dispirit?¡± It was fast. It got back to its world very quickly. It dragged a devil randomly and stuffed the thing into its mouth. The devil first digested the chaos that was wrapping around the ball of possible poison. Its ability then rose suddenly, and the body filled with a powerful imposing manner, clamoring and sending out messages challenging the King of the World. Before it managed to put the conception to practice, its body stiffened and suddenly tumbled down. It lied down on the ground without moving an inch. The Abyss King that had the similar body size to a human looked at it coldly, and waited for it to change patiently. After a long while, the devil was still lying on the ground, not moving an inch, as though it had turned to rock. ¡°Could it be¡­ The effect of the thing is to solidify the devil?¡± It shook its head, and didn¡¯t believe in such speculation. After a long while, its eyes suddenly brightened and it fixed its gaze upon the devil. There was a faint white light that shot out from the devil¡¯s eyes. After a while, there were rays of white light flowing out from every pore of its body, and slowly gathering up. The light was exactly the thing that every living creature in Abyss hated the most. Order. After a while, the devil¡¯s body was fully engulfed by the light of order. The originally stiff body was wriggling faintly, and slowly resumed the ability to move. Its eyes were still full of ferociousness and brutality, but it wasn¡¯t violent anymore. There was a sense of calm. It was looking at the King, something that devils should have inherently feared. ¡°How do you feel?¡± the King that didn¡¯t look threatening at all asked. The devil that was full of the light of order didn¡¯t answer, but smiled. Before the King took action, the devil¡¯s body suddenly exploded into countless pieces. The King scoffed, and raised his hand to grab the air. A shapeless energy wrapped up all the pieces along with the light of order and compressed them together again to become a ball of light. The outside of the ball of light was wrapped up with a thick layer of chaos again. ¡°What exactly is this thing?¡± He pondered and lifted his head to look up. Somewhere far away, the huge jellyfish that created the thing couldn¡¯t help but sneeze. ¡°¡­Who is bad mouthing me behind my back!¡± Chapter 174 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong had expected that the path for migration would be difficult but he didn¡¯t know that it would be this difficult. Using a line from a TV drama that was popular before he crossed through to the current world: it was simply startling by each step! Not long ago, he came across a huge earthworm that could surround the entire world with its body. After fighting a long battle, he finally took measures that would harm himself but damage his enemy by threefold and force it to retreat. After that, he only rested for a few days and was far from full recovery. Then some amazing Kings of Abyss came after him. This time, it was a huge mucus monster. It was few sizes bigger than the world that he was dragging. ¡°The h*ll! How do we fight?¡± Looking at the squishy sticky bastard that wasn¡¯t slow at all, who clamoured as it chased after him, he felt perplexed. Fighting against a clump of mucus; how do I fight? I reckon physical attack would be useless. Let¡¯s try magic? He shot a humungous ice spike that could be a mountain peak in the main dimension. After it hit the mucus monster, it shattered and transformed into freezing divine power, freezing one third of its body in ice. The mucus monster was suddenly frozen on the spot. Even though it roared with anger, it couldn¡¯t move an inch. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s only a silver-like spearhead that is made of soldiering tin!¡± Sui Xiong laughed and couldn¡¯t be bothered by the mucus monster. He continued to fly forward while he dragged the world behind him. After a long while, the mucus monster finally melted all the ice and caught up to him. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t hesitate to shoot another ice spike at it and freeze it on the spot again. ¡°This stupid fella is not reliable!¡± In the thin air faraway, the sound of bone-clashing could be heard, and the so-called Skeleton King, the Master of the First Floor in the Abyss, sighed heavily. ¡°Although I didn¡¯t expect it to be of any help¡­ seeing how easy it was to find its weakness made me furious!¡± The silhouette of a huge ferocious dog appeared indistinctly. ¡°It is totally useless!¡± ¡°Why¡­ not¡­ I¡¯ll¡­ go¡­¡± the resurrected cannibal ancient tree asked slowly, although it had yet to recover to its original strength. After discussion among the Kings, they gave up the idea in the end. Amongst the Kings of Abyss who had the strongest survival methods, Earthly Mad Dragon, King of Slime, and Primeval Ancient Wood could be considered top three, their rankings listed in no particular order. Even compared with the Flower of the Century or the Prison Guardian, they were slightly inferior. But under circumstances whereby Earthly Mad Dragon and King of Slime worked to no avail, expecting Primeval Ancient Wood to win was not realistic. ¡°Actually, it¡¯s not a bad idea to let it go,¡± the huge skeleton told the petite human-figured king in private communication. ¡°Let it go; the big flower and the strange vine would definitely go too. Combining all three of their powers, they could definitely defeat the jellyfish!¡± ¡°Unless it¡¯s out of absolute necessity, it¡¯s better that we Kings of Abyss not join forces to launch a siege,¡± The one who was addressed as Goddess of Fresh Blood sighed. ¡°Was the lesson back then not profound enough?¡± The huge skeleton was quiet for a very long time and finally let out a sigh. Long ago, there was once a God that barged into the Abyss and encountered a siege teamed up by a few Kings of Abyss, who finally passed away. His body was thrown into the blood pool in the first floor of the Abyss, which was the general term of the Abyss world ruled by the Skeleton King. Later on, there was a huge fresh-blood slime born in the blood pool. After the slime passed away, there was another mucus monster that was almost immortal born from the remains, which became King of Slime, the Master of the 502nd Floor in the Abyss. That made the King of Order rage with anger and throw a few spears from the positive realm to the Ring of the World. Every spear shot right onto the Kings of Abyss which partook in the siege. Every King of Abyss shot by the spear was suddenly stagnant and stood in their respective worlds until that very moment. Not only couldn¡¯t they move an inch, they couldn¡¯t even attack. That was the energy of the utmost powerful God that was above the entire world, and was addressed as Master of Gods. Its power was beyond imagination and unreasonably strong. It was so strong that none of the Kings of Abyss dared to fight against it. Then, there was this incident where a God barged into the Abyss. However, the Kings of Abyss dared not joined forces to launch a siege, but attacked one after another instead. The King of Order never took action ever again. Maybe, from what He understood, if it was a one to one battle, no matter who won a victory or was defeated, it would be according to the rules. Hence, there was no need to keep watch. Actually, the few of them like the Prison Guardian were all senior experts that were way stronger than other Kings of Abyss, but they were not willing to get involved because they were afraid the King of Order would intervene. The huge jellyfish-like God was not exactly very strong; if they were to take action, their possibility of winning was very high. But, the God could manage an Abyss world, and that unreasonable power made them very suspicious. They were also worried that the jellyfish might be directly under the King of Order, or a clone of the King of Order. Provoking the King of Order was no joke! In such situations where the top experts were not willing to take action and secondary experts dared not launch a siege, although Sui Xiong had been fighting tough fights along the way, he managed to go forward through the Abyss that had dangerous ambushes all over. He finally got closer to the surface of the Abyss. But, there was a huge stumbling block before him. The Master of the First Floor in the Abyss, one of the few most senior Kings of Abyss currently, was the Prison Guardian. It had the widest power coverage. It combined thousands of worlds together and made an humungous world that spanned before Sui Xiong to block his way. ¡°That¡¯s not right! According to the map, there should be a few worlds¡¯ worth of empty space!¡± Looking at the enormous world before him, Sui Xiong was puzzled as he was greeted with Chaotic Wind that blew into his face from inside the world. ¡°I only heard about Rice Kingdom¡¯s bombers using the outdated map, only heard that Data Kingdom¡¯s artillery used the wrong map, but I have never heard of anyone¡¯s own brother giving them an outdated map!¡± He bellowed and then calmed down. He looked carefully at the huge world before his eyes and intended to look for a path that could pass through it. As I have already got here, it would cost too much to detour. I¡¯d better figure a way to break through. Looking at it carefully, he suddenly realized a problem. Although the world was huge, many places still seemed a little messy. Unlike a complete world, it looked more like many pieces of unrelated worlds that were scraped together by force. Not only that, he could see that in many places, each life form and devil with entirely different attributes were killing each other. It was identical to the convention when the two worlds came into contact. ¡°Could it be¡­ Someone who calculated my route while I¡¯m on my journey, and combined all the worlds together to block off me beforehand?¡± He creased his eyebrows and felt worried. Although the journey was long, it hadn¡¯t been too long. It was most likely only two to three years of human life. To be able to drag more than a hundred worlds together in such a short period of time and combine them into one big world; the power was simply beyond imagination! He cancelled his plan to break through the world forcefully. To fight against an expert was simply complaining that one¡¯s life was too long! But¡­ as the expert had purposefully made such a big world in a short time to block off the route, its intention to stop me was abundantly clear. Even if I detoured, I might not be able to escape, right? He stopped and pondered. At the border of the huge world, there was a huge skeleton waving both of his hands to drag together one world after another, like plasticine, regardless of its suitability of their attributes. It forcefully put them together into the huge world. It suppressed the collision between each world with powerful strength and avoided the explosion if the worlds were of incompatible attributes. It finally combined all the worlds into a huge whole. As for the devils that were living in the worlds, it would be none of his business as to how they would fight and how vigorous the fight would be. Devils fight from day to night anyway. Getting closer doesn¡¯t it make it easier to fight. Next to it, there was a huge eyeball that was bigger than its head, floating. There was constant creepy laugh heard from inside the eyeball. Every devil that heard the laughter would suddenly go crazy and attack the non-existent target around them until they finally died of exhaustion. ¡°Don¡¯t laugh so creepily, it¡¯s disgusting.¡± ¡°What you are doing is strange; it doesn¡¯t make sense,¡± The eyeball said. ¡°It¡¯s only an experiment,¡± The huge skeleton spoke calmly. ¡°It was only a small experiment that is not worth bringing up.¡± ¡°What are you trying to probe?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t tell you.¡± The Skeleton King was quiet for a while and then said, ¡°If it was like what I have guessed, once you find out about the news, you will be in danger too.¡± ¡°Are you exaggerating?¡± The Skeleton King remained silent and continued to work. He put worlds that commoners would think huge together, like clay, and made a tremendously huge world. Not knowing how long had passed, it suddenly stopped and turned around to look at a direction. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°My experiment; we will see the outcome very soon!¡± After a while, it hung its head low and sighed heavily. ¡°What happened again?¡± an old acquaintance that was hard to come by in the Abyss asked. ¡°An outcome that was predicted.¡± The Skeleton King stopped mixing worlds together but returned to the huge world that he put together and sat down. Its humongous body squashed countless devils under. The dispersed strength made many devils stronger in that instance. Whizzing past, surrounding devils started killing each other. ¡°What is it?¡± The huge eyeballs dashed over and asked. The Master of First Floor in Abyss shook its head and didn¡¯t answer but slowly lied down. Very quickly, it was lying flat. The chaotic energy that was flowing in its bones gradually solidified and finally stopped completely. It was one of the most ancient Kings of Abyss. It was lying down calmly and fell into an utter stagnate without any sense of vigor. It died. On the positive realm in the Ring of the World, there was a giant surrounded by silver rays that sat on the huge loop where the power or order was presented. He let loose of his sudden tight grip on his right hand calmly. His expression still looked serious and cold; there was not one bit of difference. Chapter 175 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Kings of Abyss gathered together once again, surrounding the huge corpse as they discussed amongst themselves. The King of the first floor in the Abyss, who was also known as ¡°Guardian of Dungeon,¡± was dead. The corpse lay before everyone. Some Kings tried to take a bite of it, but in the end, it was only a waste of time. It was extremely tough. Whether they tried to tear or chew, grind or cut, burn or corrode¡­ all efforts were in vain. After a while, even the greediest King lost interest. ¡°Why did he die?¡± the Goddess of Fresh Blood asked. ¡°This is a very important question.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know. He only said that he was doing an experiment and that there would be a result very soon. Then, he said that there was indeed an outcome within expectations¡­ Then he died.¡± The huge eyeball described everything that it saw. ¡°Was it due to old age?¡± ¡°Did he die of exhaustion?¡± ¡°Did someone attack?¡± Questions were suggested one after the other. Of course those questions such as ¡°did he die of starvation¡± were totally ignored. After discussion, everyone¡¯s consensus was that he was killed. The one who killed the King must have done it silently and been old and experienced. Even though the King next to the corpse didn¡¯t realize it, everyone knew it was him. Countless pairs of eyes were looking high. In an indescribably high place, far away on the top of the positive realm in the Ring of World, there was the Wheel of Order which never changed. There was the existence of the unbelievable great, who stayed there since the birth of the Thousand Worlds. If there were anyone who could have killed him, it would most probably be Him. The monarchs of devils were silent. Even the most ferocious and competitive ones were at a loss for words. They weren¡¯t those low-level devils that couldn¡¯t control their emotions at all. Even though they were embodiments of chaos, they had the strength to restrain themselves. They could show a certain level of order and display clearer thoughts. But that¡¯s why they were getting more upset. After a while, a huge eyeball whizzed past and dashed towards the bottom of the Abyss, towards the deepest ends of the negative realm in the Ring of World. The huge earthworm who was also considered Skeleton King¡¯s old acquaintance hesitated. In the end, it followed behind. ¡°Will they return?¡± the huge canine who tried to take a chunk from the corpse of Skeleton King but broke its teeth asked. ¡°They will when they¡¯re confident or brave enough to challenge the Wheel of Order.¡± In the body of the Mountain of Flesh and Blood, there was a squelching noise, but the body was just a projection, and its shadow was growing faint. ¡°I will take a trip too, but I can¡¯t be as extreme as them. It¡¯d be bad if I couldn¡¯t return.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go too then!¡± ¡°Same¡­ Go¡­¡± ¡°Alright! Let¡¯s go!¡± Various monarchs moved one after another as huge shadows departing to the deepest corner in the root of the chaotic realm. Even those who didn¡¯t intend to go left gradually. It was over; there wouldn¡¯t be any benefit, even if they stayed back. After a while, the only monarch left on the huge world, who was newly put together and still slowly blending in, was the Goddess of Fresh Blood. The only monarch that looked no different than a human looked up to the sky. The monarch didn¡¯t see the Wheel of Order in the positive realm in the Ring of World. Instead, there was the huge jellyfish dragging a smaller world, bypassing the huge world carefully. ¡°You b*stard¡­ Where are you from exactly?¡± She looked at the world that was slowly moving and looked back where various monarchs¡¯ shadows were growing faint. Then, she let out a heavy sigh. Sui Xiong was sighing then too. After a thought, he didn¡¯t opt for a forced breakthrough in the end, but a bypass. Even though the huge world before him suddenly cracked open, revealing a gap that was sufficient for him and his world to pass through, he didn¡¯t take the chance. That gap was really suspicious. It was like a preplanned trap. It only lacked a handful of paddy. Although Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think he was smart, he wasn¡¯t a stupid bird. It was such a suspicious place that only a stupid bird would go through there. He dragged the world that grew larger due to the broken pieces from many other worlds, and slowly bypassed the bigger world. Looking at the huge world, it was impossible to he say he wasn¡¯t green with envy. If he could drag that world along and transform it successfully, then not only his own believers but also all the people in the entire main dimension could move in. He¡¯d give them sufficient living space and resource supplies. And even after that, there would be space left! But he also knew that it was impossible. He already felt so strained dragging a small world. He felt as though he was an ant that was carrying a rice grain, trudging back to the nest. If he were to carry that other world¡­ There was an idiom: a Camponotus Lignipardus trying to shake a big tree. Attempting to do what is far beyond one¡¯s power. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know what a Camponotus Lignipardus was, but he guessed that it must be an insect. But the difference between the insect and the big tree would be way smaller compared to him and the huge world! ¡°Such insatiable greed! I already have a surprise harvest, and I think about getting more benefits¡­¡± he mocked himself. ¡°I am too much a layman!¡± After laughing at himself, he continued to clench his teeth and drag the world that belonged to him. He slowly moved towards the top of the Abyss. After half a year¡¯s time, he finally bypassed the ridiculously huge world. Looking at his map, he let out another heavy sigh. ¡°Still got more to bypass? I¡¯ll die of exhaustion!¡± But it wouldn¡¯t work if he didn¡¯t go around it. He was a stranger in a strange land, and he was utterly unfamiliar with his surroundings. He didn¡¯t even know what kind of world was before him. If he dashed forward recklessly, it would be okay if there were some small worlds. But if there were huge worlds guarded by strong monarchs, he might need to flee. By then, his efforts would have been in vain. Dragging a world from the middle of Abyss all the way to the top was just like a bald logistic captain. But he still didn¡¯t give up the idea. He made a clone and flew forward to probe the situation. He was lucky. He wasn¡¯t blocked by any world for a distance. It was simply a smooth journey. But going forward for another period of time, he saw it was filled with worlds of various sizes, like the uncountable stars thickly dotted in the galaxy. Obviously, it was no thoroughfare. He shook his head in distress. He dragged the entire world, slowly bypassing the original route. Then, it was another half a year. Luckily, he wasn¡¯t merely going around in circles. He at least advanced partially. All in all, it was about four or five times the route. Regardless, he finally returned to a reliable route. ¡°Go for it!¡± He encouraged himself. Sui Xiong then continued to advance, following the map. Looking at the map, he had come a long way. He was near the finishing point. The trek that had once felt unimaginably long was almost over. But¡­ at the very front, there was another stumbling block! The surface of the Abyss was covered with huge worlds. The monarchs of these worlds might not have been especially strong, but they were no doubt bellicose. They were the advanced troop of the Abyss, the invasion troop of the negative realm. No matter if the intruder was external or internal, they were always full of the desire to attack. It wasn¡¯t easy to pass through the territory that they controlled! But Sui Xiong had no choice. He had to pass. On the map Bro God of Justice passed to him, he specially pinpointed a slightly weaker world. Although the monarch of that world was very strong, he didn¡¯t possess any creepy unpreventable special power. The most crucial part was that the world was closer to the surface of the Abyss. That was very important because it meant that the God of Justice could launch an attack on the world from afar, to attract some firepower. Sui Xiong went along the map and slowly got closer to the world. Before he really got close, there were dark clouds surging out. Taking a closer look, there were countless devils, big and small. It was a mess that looked like a cloud. ¡°The heck¡­ how many devils are there!¡± Sui Xiong scoffed and waved his tentacles. He cast some strong spells. He was naturally stronger than the devils. Every spell cast would knock down a large crowd, but the devils were at the advantage due to their sheer numbers. They could care less if they had thousands of casualties. They wouldn¡¯t be bothered; they didn¡¯t seem to have any concept of alliance or loyalty. Sui Xiong threw spells in rapid succession and the devil troop fell off like a paddy field reaped by a machine. But no one showed a hint of fear or retreat. In fact, they got more violent and ferocious. They clamored and bellowed. They made strange movements that no one understood. Then, they slowly got closer to Sui Xiong. Finally, after sacrificing enough numbers for a commander on Earth to spit blood and for most troops to collapse, they arrived before Sui Xiong. But it wouldn¡¯t change anything. It was still one-sided. It just transformed from magic suppression into physical suppression. Sui Xiong expanded his body to be huge. His tentacles were like towering pillars rolling to the left and right. Then, from all sides, the devils perished¡­ but there were more and more. ¡°They are like the legendary man-eating ants¡­¡± Sui Xiong complained and continued to attack ferociously. He was hoping to wear the devil troop out eventually. Regardless of the number of soldiers, and no matter how fast they were supplied, they could die continuously and not care! He slowly realized that he thought wrong. He couldn¡¯t wear them down; the devils really didn¡¯t seem to care at all. After killing for God knows how long, not only did the devil troops not show any hint of decline, but the numbers continued to increase. They had already hemmed him in. Even the small world was invaded. Countless incoming devils and locals in the small world were tied up. ¡°What the hell!¡± Sui Xiong spat and put every one of his tricks to play, plunging the world into complete chaos. But there didn¡¯t seem to be hope for victory. Just when he felt weary, there was a dazzling light that shot from outside the Abyss through the world, tearing the devil troops apart. It finally stopped before him. It was an axe stained with blood that had a few chips. The God of Justice who was waiting outside the Abyss finally couldn¡¯t hold back and had sent out assistance. Chapter 176 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Justice sent over the weapon that he normally used, a holy battle-axe of higher order, called ¡°Courage.¡± The axe was only a normal lumber axe back then, and Yorgaardman was only a common lumberjack in the north countryside back then too. Lumberjacks did tough work and the income was very low. They would also be exploited by the owner of lumber mill. So many lumberjacks would fell trees illegally in the forest. It was of course dangerous, as the nobles declared that the entire forest belonged to the feudal lord, chopping any tree and any blade of grass would be a great offense. Plus, the extreme Druids viewed anyone who chopped trees as an enemy of nature and swore to punish such criminals. Not taking those mentioned earlier into consideration, the beasts, snakes and insects in the forest itself were dangerous enough. Yorgaardman was a brawny man. He had great physical strength and courage, and he was quiet in response. He brought along a few friends with him to fall trees illegally. Regardless of snakes, insect or beasts, nothing could stop them. Every time they chopped a tree, they planted some saplings. That way they gained forgiveness from the Druids. But for feudal lord¡¯s tax officer and patrolling soldiers; they wouldn¡¯t tolerate with that! Even so, their income weren¡¯t high. The logs wouldn¡¯t be able to sell for much. The bunch of lumberjacks couldn¡¯t pick up any carpenter craftsmanship and the illegal timber could only be sold to smuggler. Although they omitted the exploitation of lumber mill, they were then exploited by the businessmen. Then, he still managed to earn some money. After a while, he had a friend that fell sick. He and a few friends spent all their savings on a priest from God of Businessmen but didn¡¯t manage to save the friend¡¯s life. Not long after, he saved two adventurers that were nearly killed by a black bear. He heard from the adventurers that the expenses of the magic ¡°illness removal¡± only cost half the money that they spent. He found it unbelievable. But, with the assistance of the adventurers that thanked him for saving their lives, he kidnapped the secretary of a temple and found out that after the priest took their money, the priest didn¡¯t provide any sort of treatment to their friend, but fed their friend with an expired medication to fool them. Yorgaardman who bristled with anger caused chaos at the temple and killed the temple; then became a wanted man. Since then, he wandered all over the world and became a lonely adventurer. The only thing that kept him company was the old lumber axe that never left his side. Time flew past like a shuttle. It had been a few centuries, and Yorgaardman took action to uphold justice wherever he went and left many touching legends behind. Later on when he successfully became a God, he became the God of Justice. The lumber axe was then his designated holy weapon and He named it ¡°Courage.¡± Courage derived from one¡¯s heart, simple but pure, needless of any modification and assistance. Because it itself was the source of power. When Sui Xiong picked up the axe, admonition rang in his heart. With a faint smile, Sui Xiong waxed the awe-inspiring lumber axe. With one light swing, almost all the devils within a few hundred miles were chopped into two pieces. Although the axe looked crude and ugly, its power was shocking. The blood stain on it was from the God of Businessmen. Ever since Yorgaardman became a God, the first thing He did was find the God of Businessmen¡¯s holy kingdom, barge in, and kill the bastard that encouraged such unscrupulous merchants. There were a few openings from a few strong Gods like the God of War. Those were traces that were left behind from the war between the God of Justice and Them. His most recent war was that he dashed on the Wheel of Order to challenge the great Master of Gods. No one knew the exact situation of the war but Yorgaardman was upset after the war and admitted his defeat. On the other hand, the Master of Order who was grim and ruthless didn¡¯t kill the betrayer but complimented His courage and looked forward to his next challenge. One day, I will go to the Wheel of Order again, to make that stubborn old man recognize my logic and make amendments of the world¡¯s order! The God of Justice roared through the holy weapon and it reverberated in Sui Xiong¡¯s head. Then, it was followed by a powerful strength and gave him an illusion. He felt that as long as he had the axe in his hands, no matter how many devils there were, how many Kings of Devils there were, he could kill them all! Sui Xiong quickly eliminated the blind confidence that was utterly groundless. He waved the lumber axe all over and put into play some self-taught axe skills twice and the world was in peace again. There were any devil armies but in his world, there was a thunderstorm of devil¡¯s dead bodies that covered the entire sky. There was a devil¡¯s dead body that was extremely huge, almost the size of half a world. It was the King of Devil from the world before. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know when he killed it. Maybe the guy kept his strength in secret and hid among the bunch of devils, planned to launch a surprise attack but was swung dead by the axe. After dealing with these stumbling blocks, Sui Xiong laughed and continued to drag the worlds that got even heavier to fly forward. Then, he noticed that the lumber axe¡¯s shine was dull, especially the back of the axe. It even appeared to be rusty. ¡°The hell! A holy weapon of higher order can rust too?¡± He cried out in shock and quickly rubbed it with his tentacles. But after he rubbed it, not only did the rust not disappear, it worsened. Sui Xiong was stunned and pondered. He then finally guessed the reason. A holy weapon is an item of order. Although the attributes are relatively opposed to each other and could bring about huge damage to the devils, against the Abyss that was filled with Chaotic Power, it was like metal left open in moist air without protection. Hence, it was easily corroded. After understanding that, he was suddenly unwilling to hold the precious holy weapon in his hands but cast magic to make an outer shell of power of order, to wrap up the axe named Courage. As expected, after the power of order was wrapped up and isolated from the Abyss, the holy weapon that was dull earlier regained its brilliance and the rust vanished. It had resumed its good condition. Sui Xiong was fidgeting with the holy weapon but he didn¡¯t delay his work. He dragged the world that was extremely heavy while he trekked forward with difficulty. Then, he suddenly recalled a joke. There was a couple that bought a miniature red pig from the pet market that was said couldn¡¯t grow in size. The merchant called it the fragrant pig. After bringing the fragrant pig home, it only slept and ate. Within a year, it turned even heavier than the couple combined. They found a vet to check and the vet told them that it wasn¡¯t any fragrant pig, but the famous Duroc pig, that was well known for its ability to grow quickly. Sui Xiong¡¯s emotion that moment was just like the couple¡¯s. He couldn¡¯t understand how a small lightweight world turned so heavy then! He was almost there, only one step away, why would he give up! He only needed to clench his teeth and put in some more effort. His face was contorted in agony while he dragged the world that was getting heavier and heavier as he went forward to the surface of the Abyss. At the final part of the journey, it took him about two months and he finally dragged the world to the surface of the Abyss. By then, he was already broken down and panting for air, as though he was a wild bull that had just run across the African grassland. ¡°Well done!¡± The God of Justice who was already waiting for him and greeted him. He waved and threw dozens of light balls towards him. ¡°What are these? Supplements?¡± Sui Xiong asked in distress. ¡°I just need to take a break, I don¡¯t need any supplement.¡± ¡°This is the World of Order that was found on the positive realm in the Ring of World. It is only sealed.¡± The God of Justice didn¡¯t expect his thoughts to be so unreasonable and he nearly fell down. He roared in anger, ¡°Not for you to eat, but for you to neutralize the chaotic attributes of the world!¡± Sui Xiong laughed in embarrassment and took up one of the medium-sized light balls. He then threw it into the small world that he dragged to the surface of the Abyss with difficulty. After that, he followed the guidance of the God of Justice to get rid of the seal. That very moment, the light ball exploded vigorously and turned into a small world with a radius of 100 miles. There was no flowers, plants or trees, but vast water that was faintly glistening with white light. It was a water-world that had no life at all. Being corroded by the chaotic power, the water world broke down very quickly. The water that filled the world wasn¡¯t dispersed and collapsed with the world that very moment and turned into a part of the world. Order and chaos conflicted with each other vigorously, the entire world was full of explosions and clashing noises. Not only sound, but everywhere in the world seemed to face explosions. Everything seemed to turn to powder. The entire world was a mess, as though the sky broke and the earth cracked. After a while, the chaos gradually subsided. The chaotic attributes of the world were obviously lesser and the entire world got bigger. What was strange was, it got bigger, but Sui Xiong who was dragging it felt the burden get lighter, which didn¡¯t make sense. ¡°It is most likely because the chaotic attributes have lessened. Its attraction to the Abyss has lessened too.¡± Just when he told the God of Justice that, the God who was knowledgeable and experienced provided him with a more reliable answer. Sui Xiong thought so too and nodded in agreement. He then threw all the small sealed worlds altogether and removed the seals. His bones all over would have been nearly broken by the heavy weight, if a jellyfish had bones. He of course wanted to lighten his burden as soon as possible! This damn burdensome thing, whoever likes to carry can go ahead! Dozens of small world of order took shape in the world of chaotic and suddenly triggered an earth-shattering explosion. That very moment, the entire world was shaking vigorously as though it was going to explode into pieces anytime. Sui Xiong was shocked and he quickly stretched his body into a huge jellyfish that was much bigger than the world. He used one of his tentacles to be a binding rope and tied the world tightly. He could clearly feel that countless explosion and cracks, countless collisions and eruptions, were happening in the world that he wrapped tightly. Suddenly, he couldn¡¯t help but recalled a line: ¡°at the dawn of civilisation, there were 125,000 different powers that clashed against each other, cultivating a giant that split heaven and earth apart, a most heroic event in human history¡­¡± ¡°Where have I seen this line? From some online novel? Or some trade association¡¯s announcement board in some game?¡± The huge jellyfish who was shaken mumbled, as he felt befuddled. Chapter 177 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The small world shook continuously for a few days. When it stopped, Sui Xiong looked towards the small world and saw that there was no sky or land, no air or water, but a chaotic situation. He couldn¡¯t make out left, right, south, east, north, west. He couldn¡¯t find anything besides chaos. ¡°What the heck! I went overboard!¡± He sighed and thought he was living a tough life. After spending a few years¡¯ time, going through so much trouble, fighting countless battles, expending sweat and blood, killing uncountable brain cells, he finally dragged the small world from the middle to the surface of the Abyss. In the end, he accidentally ruined the spoils of war that he fought for with his hard work¡­ ¡°Such itchy hands! Itchy hands!¡± He then slapped his tentacles angrily as though he were crazy. ¡°What are you doing?¡± The God of Justice couldn¡¯t bear to see him acting like that. He stopped him. ¡°Why are you hitting yourself out of nowhere?¡± Sui Xiong showed Him a face of distress, and showed Him the situation of the small world. The God of Justice was first stunned, then surprised. He creased his eyebrows and looked into it carefully. His eyebrows slowly eased. ¡°No wonder that old man didn¡¯t even give me any opportunity to explain. I was wondering if he gave you too much¡­ It seems that He even put your character into consideration!¡± ¡°What?¡± The God of Justice smiled. ¡°The sealed small worlds that I have given to you were actually not gathered by me, but by the old man on the Wheel of Order. From how it looks now, He might have thought that you¡¯d want to save some trouble and blend all the small worlds together.¡± Sui Xiong looked lost. He didn¡¯t understand how it related to the fact that his small worlds had turned into a chaotic mess. ¡°From the look of it, your world seems to be ruined. But in fact, it is the total opposite. It is the most perfect state of a small world,¡± the God of Justice said. ¡°Did you notice that it doesn¡¯t weigh anything now, and the attraction of the Abyss towards it has vanished completely?¡± Sui Xiong tugged it for a bit, and sure enough, the small world didn¡¯t weigh anything. He could drag it around without any effort. Taking a closer look, he had already left the Abyss with his small world. ¡°Hey. Why would it be like this?¡± He asked curiously. ¡°Not only that!¡± the God of Justice smiled, ¡°but you made a great profit! Everything in the small world reversed to its original chaos, which means that it possesses boundless possibility. You relied on your power to reopen it, and experienced opening a world personally. It is definitely beneficial to grasp the subtlety of nature¡¯s power. And as they say, a piece of white paper is better for writing. Whatever you want the world to be, you can build. Is there any other world that is more suitable to make into a holy kingdom?¡± Sui Xiong then finally realized what he was saying, and nodded continuously. ¡°I¡¯ll drag this world back first. Where would be a good place to hide it?¡± ¡°You plan to hide this in the main dimension? That¡¯s not right. That¡¯s not right! What if there¡¯s a problem?¡± the God of Justice asked. ¡°Such matters like opening up a new world, I have never heard of. Maybe the old man knew, but He never brought it up with anyone. No one knows what will happen when a small world is opened up. So, I suggest you hide it in one of the unnoticeable spots in the material realm. Or just put it haughtily next to the emptiness in the main dimension, and I¡¯ll look after it for you. All in all don¡¯t leave it in the main dimension to avoid accidents.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to trouble you again. How can I have the cheek to¡­¡± Sui Xiong smiled bitterly. ¡°Previously, I asked you to help look after my place for a while, and it turned out to be a few years¡­¡± ¡°Things like time; are they meaningful for us?¡± the God of Justice asked in return. Sui Xiong was stunned, and suddenly lost his smile. Exactly; things like time, towards commoners who had limited age, were precious. But to immortals, time was considered nothing. Back when he was in university, during ancient culture connoisseurship class, there was a lecturer who was indulged in Tao culture. He always wore a Taoist robe and his hair in a bun, and called himself ¡°Dao Quan Zi.¡± He always sat alone in the corner while reading, and he wouldn¡¯t respond to much. He only shook his head and recited Chuang Tzu, something about a 500 year old God Turtle that was legendary, an 8,000 year old tree that was legendary¡­ Back then, he thought the lecturer pretended to be artistic and must have been a flirting expert. He probably had unknown numbers of sisters in his WeChat. Every girl wanted to ask him about ways to get a boyfriend. Then, he thought about him now and realized that the lecturer obviously wanted to be a celestial being¡­ Who would have expected it? He never thought promoting into a Celestial being would¡­ oh wait; it¡¯s promoting to God. Anyway, it¡¯s immortality. It¡¯s about the same. It¡¯s just that he did not know what happened to the lecturer later on. He didn¡¯t know if he really found a chance to turn into celestial being. Most likely no, he guessed. Earth was so huge, but he never heard of anyone turning into celestial beings or Gods. Even among traversers, he seemed to be alone¡­ He couldn¡¯t bear to look back to the past! The huge jellyfish laughed. Then, he dragged the world that looked huge but was light, as though it were treading in the air, and whizzed past in the emptiness. Countless Gods, and existences whose powers could be on par with Gods, noticed the sight. But they also noticed that beside the jellyfish, there was a bulky beggar-like man that was flashing along on a wooden axe. Hence, those who originally wanted to block his way and rob him changed their minds. The beggar couldn¡¯t bother those few that thought they were strong, but they couldn¡¯t ignore the faint silver light that was behind Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t realize it himself, but the God of Justice saw and didn¡¯t tell him. That very moment, behind him, the faint silver light was like a full moon, spinning slowly. No matter how fast he was flying, it followed him casually. It wasn¡¯t affected. Among the huge system that was formed by the Thousand Worlds, besides that barbarian who everyone thought was occasionally crazy, only guys that were really bored of life would try to tick off the moon of silver light that signified the existence of greatness. Any man that did so would have a tragic outcome. Part of them would die and the other part that wasn¡¯t dead would rather be. Only a few lucky ones that ran into one that was in good mood would be beaten up till they couldn¡¯t take care of themselves, but stay alive. The only one who was beaten up and still could run around actively, was the psychopath flying on the wooden axe. God knows why the psychopath could be so shameless; maybe He was the illegitimate son of the one who transformed into a commoner. Under the countless eyes, Sui Xiong and the God of Justice trekked for almost a month. They went against the current from the negative realm in the Ring of World and trudged against great unimaginable torrents. He finally returned to the material realm in the Ring of World. Then, they flew through the material realm and arrived at the emptiness near the main dimension. They stopped at a place close to the Ashes Woods. ¡°Here it is,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°It¡¯s near enough.¡± The God of Justice nodded and raised the axe that was underneath his feet all the while. He looked around with His God-like bull¡¯s eyes that looked more like a butcher¡¯s. He seemed to be looking for a target to swing His axe at. That made the guys, who began to stir when they saw the silver light behind Sui Xiong, disappear. They originally planned to kill Sui Xiong; but with the distance he was at, even if they launched an attack, Sui Xiong would be able to flee to main dimension in time. If they couldn¡¯t kill Sui Xiong, there was no point in attacking. As for the small world that looked mysterious, that was it. The powerful experts wouldn¡¯t be bothered by it. Just when Sui Xiong was ready to take a break in the main dimension, the nearby emptiness shook, and a smallish piece of floating land flew over. It was a huge piece of green grassland, with cows and sheep wandering around casually. There was a huge earthworm wriggling around happily. It was singing and digging at the same time. In the mud puddle by the side, there was a huge catfish sleeping soundly. It looked ugly when it slept, and was grinding its teeth. At the door of a house that was built crudely, there were two Gods. A lion head with human body and a bear head with human body were playing chess while drinking. The sunshine that was frozen by the border of the land pulled their shadows long, as though it were a scene from a relaxing countryside. ¡°Hey?! Isn¡¯t that Steel Lion? Aren¡¯t you living around the Boundless Open Country? Why did you come here? You even moved your God system¡¯s holy kingdom¡­ Are you dividing your property?¡± the God of Justice got close and asked curiously. The main God of the Desolation God system smiled bitterly as he stood up, and passed Him a jar of drinks. He sighed. ¡°We didn¡¯t share the same philosophy. It is just matter of time until we fell out. I might as well leave now while there is still some affection.¡± Sui Xiong nodded lightly. He¡¯d heard Morani¡¯s introduction once. He knew that the divergence of the Desolation God system and Orc God system where they stayed temporarily was actually huge. To be able to go their separate ways in peace was considered good. ¡°Are you interested in staying with me?¡± He smiled, waved his tentacles and beckoned. ¡°I have a huge place that could be transformed as you wish!¡± Morani flew over suspiciously and looked at the chaotic world. At first, he looked lost. But after some thinking, His face grew solemn. ¡°No wonder I didn¡¯t see you for a few years. You were busy preparing this,¡± He couldn¡¯t help but complement. ¡°That¡¯s great! How did you get this? I need to get one too!¡± Sui Xiong chuckled and shared his experiences with Him. He let out cries of surprise, and his facial expressions were like a person from Sichuan opera. But in the end, he froze in a flabbergasted expression like the Chinese character ¡°Jiong.¡± ¡°¡­Actually, was quite easy.¡± Sui Xiong concluded as such. Steel Lion Morani shook His head and let out a heavy sigh. Then, he forgot about that idea. However, He brought His God followers together and temporarily stayed. According to His saying, an interesting thing was hard to come by, so He had to stand back and watch. But no matter if it was Sui Xiong or the God of Justice, they understood what he really meant. If no one came to mess around, He would really just be there to watch. But if there was anyone that came to cause trouble, it would ruin his mood to watch. The four of them from the Desolation God system would immediately come to blows, and mince the man to feed the earthworm! ¡°You are good at making friends!¡± the God of Justice told Sui Xiong quietly. Sui Xiong raised his eyebrows and felt smug with success. Chapter 178 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The return of Sui Xiong made the higher ups of the church of Void Mask delighted. Although they had lived a good life the past few years, they were worried about the situation of Sui Xiong nursing his wound. Then they saw their Majesty unscathed appear before everyone energetically, and finally let out a breath of relief. During the meeting of the higher-ups in church, Sui Xiong explained the situation of his trip. He had everyone work with collective wisdom and concerted effort to think about what they should build the small world into. ¡°I have to emphasise something; this can¡¯t be built freely to your temperament!¡± he said solemnly. ¡°This world will become our holy kingdom in the future. All of you have to stay here after you die. Frost, don¡¯t you dare look as though ¡®it¡¯s doesn¡¯t matter to me, as after I die I¡¯ll be in the kingdom of Gods of Dragon.¡¯ How would the kingdom of Gods of Dragon be any better than a holy kingdom than you designed yourself!¡± However, everyone did not ponder seriously according to his advice but gave irrelevant answers and redirected to a different topic. ¡°The Gods in Orc god system launched a siege at Your Majesty?!¡± When they heard that Sui Xiong got injured in the siege by Orc god system, Gerald suddenly shot his eyes wide open and swung a fist to smash the table before him. He was raging with anger like a burning flame. He waved his fist and his eyes shot red when he roared, ¡°This is declaring war! This is declaring war against us! Fight! We have to fight! We have to make them feel the pain, we have to make them fear the pain! We have to beat them until they dare not look for trouble ever again!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. He didn¡¯t understand why he as a victim had yet to react that emotionally, but Gerald was so affected. ¡°How dare¡­ how dare¡­ how dare he do such a thing!¡± Palin¡¯s body was quivering in anger. He was so angry that his face grew distorted. He clenched his teeth and gritted in shivery voice, ¡°Damn! Damn! Damn!¡± ¡°We have to kill them! Have to kill them for sure!¡± In the image in magic projection, Olian was slightly quivering too, seemed to have difficulty suppressing herself. ¡°Hey hey! All of you are too emotional¡­¡± But, Sui Xiong¡¯s objection was totally ignored. ¡°That¡¯s true! We can¡¯t just let this slip!¡± Wor¡¯s eyes were giving out rays of coolness, they didn¡¯t know he had withdrawn his famous weapon, ¡°Black Blade.¡± On his shiny black blade, there was a hint of coolness flowing. ¡°Why don¡¯t I make a trip to the Orc Empire and kill eight to ten High Priest first!¡± ¡°It¡¯s inappropriate for you to go. If you are found, you¡¯ll be in big trouble.¡± Snowflake looked calm but she turned around and switched the conversation to another topic. ¡°Let Jose go. He¡¯s a barbarian at the end of the day. His relationship with the Orcs has been good since the beginning. A barbarian expert wanting to barge into the legendary realm and going Orc¡¯s territory to kill an expert¡­ looking for a turning point among blood and fire, isn¡¯t that something very normal?¡± Then, she even made a small blackboard with ice and drew a barbarian that was killing Orcs with axe. Then, suddenly his body glistened and he levelled up. Everyone was entertained by the image and nodded in agreement. Sui Xiong pouted, as he didn¡¯t find it funny at all. Everyone is living in their hometown, passing days in peace, isn¡¯t that great? Why do they have to sneak into people¡¯s places to kill them? There must be something wrong in their heads! He looked at Jose with hope. In his impression, this tall and good looking man, with moustache, and unrestrained like the knight errant Lu Xiaofeng in Wuxia, was a stable man. He would definitely not support such illogical suggestion. But, he was wrong. Jose didn¡¯t have any intention to reject. On the contrary, he was delighted. As a northern person, also commonly known as a barbarian, Jose had fought countless wars with the Orcs. The number of Orcs killed with his long spear and the number of comrades being killed by the Orcs before his eyes, was uncountable. To incidents like killing Orcs, although he was not elated, he was definitely more than happy to. ¡°No problem,¡± he said, ¡°but I need to put on some makeup. Back then, I had a great fight with the Orcs at Snow Dragon Mountain pass, so I have something of a reputation there. If I don¡¯t make up, within the first few days in the Orc Empire, I will most likely be recognized.¡± ¡°No problem, I¡¯ll take care of that.¡± Rhodes, who finally found a chance to show off, quickly said, ¡°I¡¯ll help you to look for a few makeup experts. I¡¯m sure that they can give you a paradoxical appearance, and it would be waterproof!¡± He thought and added, ¡°Besides that, I have quite a bit of information regarding the geographical and political situation in the Orc Empire. Also, the information of the experts. Taking action with all the information on hand, it would be even more effective!¡± ¡°Hey! Aren¡¯t you living by the principle of prospering in peace? Aren¡¯t you the one who always says ¡®thieves are not killers?¡¯ Why are you so excited and sound so familiar when talking about assassination! Are you sure you didn¡¯t operate a killer organization behind my back?¡± Rhodes was shocked at Sui Xiong¡¯s teasing and immediately explained himself. But his explanation was drowned in Frost¡¯s scream. ¡°I want to go too!¡± the voice of a young rock dragon screamed, as loud as a car honk. ¡°Although my fighting skill might not be on par with Jose, I run fast! If necessary, I can also drill underground and fly. If I cooperate with him, regardless of assassination or escape, it will be much safer!¡± Snowflake creased her eyebrows and hesitated before she nodded faintly. ¡°Be careful!¡± she said. ¡°Safety first; you have to return alive to have a future!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll prepare some poisonous mushroom bombs. At a crucial time, you can throw them out,¡± Acraian said. ¡°But you must remember, you can only use it in desperate times. This thing is very dangerous, the killing radius is extremely huge. It would easily affect the innocent citizens.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t head to the north. The Orcs on that side are more alert,¡± Satan said as he took out a map and pointed. ¡°Head over to the middle region of Orc Empire, it is more peaceful there and the Orcs are less on guard. It would be easier to flee after causing some chaos. I have mastered the high transmission skill recently and I can give the both of you scrolls. After the fight, immediately return to the theme park via transmission skill. No matter how great they are, they won¡¯t be able to catch you!¡± ¡°Hold on!¡± Sui Xiong looked at them in heated discussion, who seemed to have confirm the plan of sending a person and a dragon to the Orc Empire to kill the priest of the Orc God system church. He couldn¡¯t help but shout, ¡°All of you got it all wrong! I am talking about designing a holy kingdom! Why did it turn into war with Orc God system? And I, as a God, have yet to agree, when all of you seem to have decided on how to fight the war!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, coming across such matter, you must declare war!¡± Gerald shouted. ¡°This is not only your problem, it is also our problem! As devout believers, how could we withstand other people¡¯s¡¯ intention to kill Your Majesty!¡± ¡°Not ¡®intended;¡¯ they already did!¡± Snowflake corrected him, ¡°although I am not a believer, such a matter is so difficult to put up with! If I could swallow my pride for such matter, I do not deserve to consider myself a proud giant dragon!¡± Sui Xiong looked lost; he couldn¡¯t understand why would a normal fight developed into such a situation. He sought for help by looking at Ray and Carisa, who were also attending the meeting through magic projection. For the past few years, the lady city owner¡ªwho still looked the same since she stopped aging at seventeen¡ªnodded in agreement. ¡°If it was me, I would think there is a need to take revenge. The situation in Garth city for the past few years has improved. If you need money, we could transfer some out¡­ about 10,000 gold coins? Is that sufficient?¡± Then, she turned and looked at Ray who was sitting next to her in real life. All these years of dealing with government affairs in Garth city, Ray¡¯s temperament was getting more and more stable; he even developed an invisible dignity. That moment, he looked as though he was wearing a crown, just like a king who was reliable and dependable, who would make all his officials devote themselves to him. In Garth city and the nearby area, people addressed him as ¡°The King of Seaside,¡± and the title was approved by everyone else. Hence, it was quite widely spread. It was said that the King in Moon Kingdom heard the news and got angry. But even the King had no confidence to warn or lecture Ray for that. There was even rumor that there was a bard who saw both of them and talked to them once, praising them, ¡°The one sitting on the throne was dignified, but his dignity came from his crown and his knights; the other one, his dignity is his crown and his knights. If must be an evaluation between the two, the King that opened up a kingdom is of course more powerful than the King guarding the city. Looking at Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes, he nodded and said calmly, ¡°Your Majesty, you rejected such a war due to being the embodiment of kindness. But, just like a King couldn¡¯t start or end a war according to his liking, the same applies to Gods. You are our ruler, you have the rights to decide everything. The reason why we are angry, why we want to start a war, is because of that too. ¡°Please take a different viewpoint and think. How could a God self-sustain among various Gods? You, of course, could enhance your power through forming alliances with other Gods. But, I think, compared to allies, deterrents are even more important!¡± ¡°I think I am quite a deterrent¡­¡± Sui Xiong mumbled. Ray smiled and said, ¡°I do not deny that. Back then, that battle where you killed two Gods at a time already sent out a sufficient deterrent. But the deterrent belonged to you, not your church. As a God that built a church, your church requires the same level of deterrents. Otherwise, when your holy kingdom rises up to the sky, the believers in the human world will be hemmed in by various Gods¡¯ churches that were fighting against you.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go and beat up those Gods!¡± Sui Xiong gave a death glare, and said ferociously. ¡°If the other party were to dominate by sheer force of numbers?¡± Ray smiled as he spoke. ¡°Honestly speaking, this is a provocation, but also an opportunity. It¡¯s an opportunity to show our flag of Void Mask church and gain fame! If we could use this opportunity appropriately and built our church¡¯s prestige with the Orcs¡¯ fresh blood, regardless of preaching or war, it would be more convenient.¡± Sui Xiong was at loss for words and kept quiet for very long. He looked over to every higher-up of the church and looked at these friends that were most loyal to him, and contributed the greatest. In the end, he let out a heavy sigh. ¡°If these are the so-called ¡®game rules,¡¯ then do according to your ideas.¡± He slowly disappeared in dejection. He got back to the deep and serene underground, and hid himself in the darkest corner to rest. The rules in this world are so annoying! Chapter 179 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°What are they thinking? I don¡¯t understand!¡± In pitch darkness, Sui Xiong lied down on the ground feeling helpless, mumbling to himself. He really couldn¡¯t understand his believers¡¯ trains of thought. Why would they be so angry? It didn¡¯t make sense to him at all. He didn¡¯t agree with Ray¡¯s viewpoint either. Why was preaching required to build fame? He remembered before he traversed, those pastors in the church were all calm and peaceful. The religion that spread across almost the entire civilized world, and at the very least had several billion believers, wouldn¡¯t be more reasonable than the religion in this world. It only had a couple million believers. Although Christianity was spread using the knife back then, it was improved now. If there were still people preaching that way on Earth, they would be seen as a sign of the backwards and barbarian¡­ Not to mention that his church only had¡­ He took a look at the channel of belief. 3,599. There was still a distance to reach 4,000 people! Was it necessary to think so far in the future, and plan to form threats then? That¡¯s wasn¡¯t right! Even if the church got bigger, there was no need to form threats, right? Everyone could live together in harmony, play around in the theme park, and enjoy the food and entertainment. Wouldn¡¯t that be great? Even if he wanted to form a threat, he had to select a reliable target to fight against the Orc God system. Would he be able to beat them? That was asking for death¡­ Turning into a jellyfish that was almost the size of a human, he sighed. He let out a breath of smoke like white frost. ¡°I remember, back on Earth, people in church would boast that their God was almighty. With my power now, it is strong enough for a commoner; but why didn¡¯t I feel almighty? On the contrary, I felt like more and more unable to understand the world, more and more helpless.¡± Sui Xiong was definitely not a lazy person. Although he wasn¡¯t an academic achiever, he didn¡¯t like wasting time. Sitting down and daydreaming was one of the things that he hated most. When there was a goal, he could focus on the goal and persist. He would never give up regardless of how long it took. When there was no goal, he would work hard according to the direction that other hoped for. Even if he felt uncomfortable, he would never give up. When he was on Earth, he wasn¡¯t considered a successful person, but he was definitely not a ¡°loser.¡± Not too shabby of an academic background, a stable job, considered quite a famous and talented man. He knew bits and pieces about piano, chess, books, and drawing; he had a good reputation in the unit and a prestigious state among his online friends. He was also the so-called ¡°sensei,¡± a freelance artist that drew human portraits for games or novels. Honestly speaking, he had a happy life. Besides the fact that he couldn¡¯t find a girlfriend, and he was always cheated by his teammates in games. But in the current world, he received unimaginable strength, experienced unimaginable magic, and encountered and completed an unbelievably great career. But he wasn¡¯t happy at all. He felt that he didn¡¯t belong to this world. He couldn¡¯t understand the thinking of the people in this world. He couldn¡¯t agree with the order of how the world worked. He couldn¡¯t accept the inexplicable rules of the world. There were such magical powers in the world, and there were amazing Gods; so why were people living such tough lives? Those amazing figures could give out benefits with the wave of a hand, and the people wouldn¡¯t need to worry about their lives! Why did they only care about themselves? Why was exploitation and oppression in the world so brutal? Sucking the lifeblood wouldn¡¯t be sufficient to describe the situation. Why would the people in this world not start a revolution and go against them? Didn¡¯t they know the easy concept of death only being death anyway, and sacrificing for the country? Why would those kind Gods turn a blind eye to such things? Maybe they only considered taking the believers¡¯ souls, but not saving and helping them when they were alive. Why would a God that upheld Justice not have any allies, but on the contrary, live a miserable life? Even he had to play dumb! He didn¡¯t understand, he didn¡¯t understand at all¡­ ¡°After all¡­ I am not from this world¡­¡± He let out a long sigh, closed his eyes, and wanted to sleep for a while. His messy thoughts were surging like turbulent waves in his head, and he couldn¡¯t relax. There was a sudden flash of shadow, and Morani, who transformed into a fully armed warrior, appeared next to him. ¡°You look tired. What¡¯s wrong?¡± he asked out of concern. Morani could tell something was wrong with a glance. Sui Xiong forced a smile and shook his head. ¡°Nothing, I am just tired.¡± ¡°To drag a world from Abyss; you worked hard!¡± Morani sighed with emotion. ¡°You are amazing! I have never imagined that any God could do such a thing!¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°It¡¯s just so. Mere strength only; no difference from moving bricks.¡± ¡°There was a big difference. The other people couldn¡¯t do it.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t mean anything if anyone did it. It is mere labor work, after all.¡± Morani was quiet for a while. Finally, He asked, ¡°Did you come across anything that upset you?¡± ¡°Nothing. It¡¯s just that my believers wanted to launch a war against the church of Orc God system. They were discussing sending experts to kill their high priest of a higher order.¡± Morani replied with an ¡°oh¡± and nodded faintly. ¡°I understand! You are worried that they may come across any danger? ¡°I can¡¯t help you with this.¡± He expressed that he felt sorry. ¡°Although I was considered one of the guardian Gods of warriors, I am quite close with the Orc God system, and I had taken quite some advantage from them. At most, I would just not get involved in either party.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and hesitated. He couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°What do you think about their plan to assassinate the high priest of the Orc God system because I was attacked by the Orc Gods?¡± Morani stunned and asked suspiciously, ¡°What do you mean by ¡®what do I think¡¯?¡± ¡°Its as it sounds. What do you think about their thoughts and actions?¡± ¡°It¡¯s very normal; nothing special,¡± Morani thought and said. ¡°In any other church, the action would be similar. Unless they didn¡¯t possess the fighter power, they really had no choice. Any church that possessed slight fighting power would launch a massacre if they came across such a matter. To resist a God means going against the entire church. The reason why churches exist is to display the glory of God. What is the use of a church that can¡¯t display the glory of a God? Even they lose the last person and shed the last drop of blood, they need to wash away the shame.¡± He said it lightly and looked as though it was only right and proper. Sui Xiong was quiet for a long time. Then, he smiled bitterly and redirected the topic. Morani saw that he didn¡¯t feel any better. He didn¡¯t continue to comfort him, but left a few bottles of good wine that He collected from his God follower, ¡°Silent Knight,¡± and bid him farewell. After a while, the God of Justice came along. ¡°Steel Lion said that you are not in a good mood, so I came to visit,¡± he said straightforwardly. ¡°Why exactly are you in a bad mood? I am good at putting things in the right perspective for people. Try me!¡± Sui Xiong roughly told Him about his believers who were planning to assassinate the high priest of the church from the Orc God system, and he asked for His opinion. ¡°Opinion? Well done!¡± the God of Justice laughed. ¡°The good cannot coexist with the bad. The Orc God system is made up of a bunch of b*stards. Their church is also a bunch of b*stards. Counted as they go on, it would be good for everyone if they were killed!¡± Sui Xiong was at loss for words. He thought and asked, ¡°I meant, to attack the members of the other party¡¯s church member because their God was attacked. This¡­ What do you think about this?¡± ¡°Great!¡± The God of Justice gave him a thumbs-up, and his snow-white teeth were dazzling in the dark underground. ¡°A great man must do so. Brother, you have really good instinct. Although the number of your bunch of believers ain¡¯t many, they are reliable!¡± Sui Xiong let out a heavy sigh. He was shameful for his mistaken thought that his brother would be reliable. He knew from the beginning that that man was never close to the world ¡°reliable!¡± ¡°Unless you are worried that they won¡¯t gain a victory? That won¡¯t be a problem! Whether or not they win, it¡¯d be better to fight first! Do you want me to protect them? Let me tell you, brother, I am good at hiding my aura and causing damage!¡± The God of Justice was obviously interested; maybe killing was something he liked. He gave a few suggestions and theoretically, he could have helped, but Sui Xiong was not in the mood to chat with him. He refused with a bitter smile on his face. ¡°Don¡¯t be sad! If you are not capable enough, train yourself well, and work hard to increase your believers!¡± The God of Justice was not someone that didn¡¯t take hints. He saw Sui Xiong¡¯s look of ¡°I am sad, leave me alone,¡± he said that, and left. The underground resumed its silence. The jellyfish God sat in the corner and let out a heavy sigh. ¡°As expected, everyone shares the same idea, and I am the only one that is different.¡± He thought and laughed at himself. ¡°Am I like Copernicus or Marx?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no difference, they are only some b*stards¡­¡± In the depth of the dark underground, his sigh reverberated quietly. At the front row in Pantheon Temple, the God of Justice looked for the King of Order again. ¡°Sparkly, don¡¯t you ever think that there is something wrong with the order of this world?¡± he said. ¡°There are some things that aren¡¯t quite right¡­¡± The King of Order looked at him coolly and said monotonously, ¡°If you are dissatisfied with the order I am maintaining, then continue working hard to become stronger, and come and fight at the Wheel of Order. Kill me and take over the Wheel of Order, and you could alter the order of the world according to your liking. ¡°Of course, I actually hope for you to take the seat of the King of Kindness, Wickedness, or Chaos. If there was only one God, that wouldn¡¯t be too good.¡± ¡°I knew you were going to say that!¡± The God of Justice returned to His seat angrily, with his eyebrows tightly knitted. He thought about the topic that Sui Xiong was talking to Him about, and He pondered about the meaning behind what Sui Xiong said. He could faintly feel that something was not right. ¡°What¡¯s not right exactly?¡± This expert that was number one on the list of fighters among various Gods was lost in his thoughts. He thought for a very long time but still couldn¡¯t understand. He finally got annoyed and drew his big axe out. He leapt and slashed toward the main God of Orc God system. ¡°Dog-headed creature, take my axe!¡± The main Orc God never expected Him to suddenly go insane, and He was caught off-guard. Luckily He was an expert that went through battles himself and rolled over subconsciously. He dodged it and avoided being smashed by the axe and dying a tragic death. ¡°Yorgaardman, what is wrong with you!¡± He roared with anger and drew his short spear out to fight against the God of Justice. Both were top experts among various Gods. They fought, and the first three rows were suddenly a mess. Some Gods wanted to stop them, some Gods wanted to stir up more trouble. Some even wanted to seize the chance to ask for trouble from their enemies. It was a complete mess. The King of Order didn¡¯t seem like He was going to stop them. He didn¡¯t even turn around, but looked far across boundless space, and fixed His gaze upon the jellyfish that was sighing by the corner of the wall. ¡°Are you dissatisfied with the order of the world? Then, get stronger and you can qualify to alter the order to your liking.¡± He sighed lightly but there was no God near enough to hear what He said. No one noticed His actions. ¡°Let me see a new order soon. I have been waiting forever¡­¡± Chapter 180 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio As the only meaningful empire in the entire main dimension, the Orc Empire of course deserved to be the number one powerful nation that took up a huge land. Even so, it was constantly invading and attacking its surroundings. To the north, was the ice land that was covered in snow and ice. The intrepid barbarians had constantly retreated. To the south, they seized the Graystone Mountains and Giant Beast Mountain, and constantly invaded the territory of Eagle Kingdom; to the east, they were in to-and-fro tussle with Kingdom of Holy Angels, encroaching on the soil that was showering in the brilliance of the Sun God; But, to the west, they were facing the vast desert with nothing they could do about it. Er, even though it wasn¡¯t really like they had nothing to do with it, it was the secret of Orc God system¡­ From the place where the south of Gobi Desert connected with Graystone Mountains, all the way towards the east, it was almost a month¡¯s time of walking to enter Orc Empire, or as it was also called, Wild Empire¡¯s hinterland. It was a great grassland, a scenery of vast sky and boundless wild. The Orcs were reproducing and living on the piece of grassland. They were fighting against the natural environment that looked friendly but was actually not. They grew strong bodies, packed with muscles and ferocious spirits. Of course, in the Orc Empire, it was not only Orcs, but also half-Orcs, dwarves, midgets, humans¡­ a variety of tribes. But on the vast soil, the position of Orcs was higher compared to every other tribe. If it was on Earth, such open race discrimination would be condemned by word of mouth and in writing. But in this world, race discrimination was something natural. Regardless of ¡°upper class¡± or ¡°lower class,¡± no one had any objection about it, just like in India that was said to have a billion human and ten billion livestock; the panda neighbour that was wearing a bunny hat didn¡¯t understand why the ten billion livestock didn¡¯t fight against their mothers, but they themselves were contented¡­ The grassland was sparse but sparsely populated. Every tribe was far apart. In there, no matter if there were more or less travelling businessmen, it wasn¡¯t noticeable. For instance, the Tyrannical Tribe had another two travelling businessmen recently. They were uncle and nephew. The uncle was a tall brawny man, wearing thick heavy leather armor and carrying a big axe. He seemed to have great physical strength and courage. The nephew was a skinny but intelligent young boy, quick to respond and fast in calculation, just like an amazing accountant. They had a carriage that was pulled by two horses, and there were various household supplies in the carriage. Like most of the travelling businessmen, they stayed back temporarily and used the household supplies in exchange of anything valuable. Among the Orcs, there were some sly ones. More than once, they intended to palm off shoddy goods as quality goods, or to deceive people with specious items. Although the nephew wasn¡¯t very old, his judgement was very sharp. No matter if it was shoddy or counterfeit goods, it couldn¡¯t escape his eyes. He was also very skillful in business and he quibbled on every single detail. Even those older who were experienced in haggling couldn¡¯t take advantage of him. Of course, there were people that became angry out of embarrassment and wanted to settle with ¡°trading¡± tricks that Orcs respected; even violent manual labor wouldn¡¯t enable them to exchange it with wealth. Along with the owner of wealth, they¡¯d be sent to holy kingdom of their beliefs to rest in peace. By then, it would be the uncle¡¯s turn to take over, and his brawny body and strong muscles were definitely not for decoration. His big axe wasn¡¯t any gray import either. Every slash of the axe was sturdy and the strength was not discounted. The outcome for multiple conflicts was that the witch doctor in the tribe had quite an increase of customers. The old-aged witch doctor was happy with the surprise income and hoped that the pair of uncle and nephew could stay back in the Tyrannical Tribe for a few days more. The head of Tyrannical tribe, Aolike, who also known as ¡°Mad Runner,¡± was not happy. His gut feeling was that the pair of uncle and nephew were not ordinary people; in fact¡­ they were very dangerous men! The Tyrannical Tribe was a tribe of centaurs. They were creation of the Orc God King of Tyranny, and the whole tribe worshipped and believed in the ferocious and terrifying God wholeheartedly. The Tyrannical Tribe was the earliest bunch of descendants created by His Majesty. There were many experts that sprang up before and even broke through the last barrier to step foot into the God realm. But, those were all in the past. The Tyrannical Tribe then had weakened, and there weren¡¯t many experts that could come to blows. There was about three thousand people in the tribe, but there might not even be one legendary realm expert! The current strongest people in Tyrannical tribe were the head of the tribe, Aolike, and the high priest, Oveila. They were both on the top of the higher order that were looking for an opportunity to step foot into the legendary realm. Aolike¡¯s nickname was Mad Runner, and as his nickname had suggested, he ran very fast, even faster than a flying bird. His stamina was very good too, he could run for half a month continuously without taking a break. He was used to long spears, and his skill in casting long spears while running was superb. He could shoot down a flying bird in the sky, he also could shoot a mosquito on land, he could even shoot a hole through a century-old tree with a spear. Once during the war against the Eagle Kingdom, he gained fame from an incident where he shot a fully armed knight with a spear and it shot through the person with his shield altogether. Oveila was a direct bloodline descendant for Tyranny. The centaur tribe was the proprietor of the most honorable and strongest bloodline. Although she was a female, Oveila was not weak at all; she had a body with combination of strength and beauty, an aura of health and grace, yet wildness. She was aggressive and ferocious, she didn¡¯t allow anyone of a lower bloodline to appear around her. Besides praying, the other thing she liked to do the most was massacre. Although she was a master archer and a priest of higher order, she like to swing the huge halberd across the battlefield even more. Especially when the Tyrannical stepped on the remains of their enemies, she would even roar with laughter; hence her nickname of ¡°Fresh Blood Trampler.¡± Aolike had always wanted to find favour with the priest of higher order but it was all to no avail after he tried many different ways. The Fresh Blood Trampler had no interest in a man that was weaker than her, and she disdained to Aolike¡¯s lower grade bloodline. She didn¡¯t even give him the most basic respect to the head of the tribe when they spoke. For that, Aolike was full of anger but there was nothing he can do. To Orcs that believed in the theory of the bloodline, a noble bloodline was something extremely important as it signified the distance between them and the God. Most of the Orcs were creation of Orc Gods. Orc Gods were segregated into two categories; one was strong Orcs that were made into Gods, such as the main God of Orc God system ¡°Giant Dog that Swallowed the Sky¡± Lefon. He was originally a human-canine. The other one was a strong beast that was made into a God, and broke away from their identity as they opted to join the Orc God system and create tribes that possessed their characteristics. For instance, the main God from the previous generation, ¡°Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit¡± Snakenell, was originally a poisonous snake. He made the tribe that was famous for its cunning and brutality among the Orcs, human-snake. The centaur was the creation of King of Tyranny, Kredak. This God was originally a wild steed. After it became a God, it took the form of centaur and created a centaur tribe in order to promote belief. To a centaur, the concentration of Tyrannical blood was its level of nobility. Aolike was born a collateral bloodline but not a direct descendant. Before the direct descendant of His Majesty, he was born a level lower. Dealing with the natural difference of identity, Aolike held no grievance. What he was unsatisfied with was that Oveila rejected his love. It was like a businessman that started from scratch, who had already gotten used to the belittlement by the officials. But if they were to reject his proposal of a marriage alliance, he would still be angry. ¡°The anger of this person is our chance.¡± After the sun set, in the tent of the travelling businessmen, Jose lost his innocent smile that made him look honest in the day. His face was dense with murderous intentions. Frost lost the cunning smile that she put on during the day but replaced it with ferocity and said, ¡°I think you are being too careful! It is only two higher orders. If we find a chance, surprise attack and take one down, the one left could be taken care of in whichever way we want to!¡± Jose smiled faintly but there was no warmth in his eyes; instead he was ghastly and bloodcurdling. ¡°Our target is to not only kill a priest of higher order and the head of the tribe. If we were to act rashly, we would be exposed and soon be sieged by the experts of various Orc tribes. Then, we will have to retreat earlier. What do you think about that?¡± ¡°No way!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want that either,¡± Jose nodded, ¡°so, we have to create an illusion. Make everyone think that the death of the priest was not related to us. Although it couldn¡¯t be kept secret for long, it could buy some time. Maybe we could kill one or two more priests!¡± Frost¡¯s eyes brightened up and she had a hint of ruthlessness in the corner of her smile. ¡°I like the idea!¡± she said. Jose smiled and took out a few more bottles of medicine. ¡°These are specially prepared by Master Acraian and Master Wendy.¡± ¡°When are we taking action?¡± Frost asked impatiently. ¡°It¡¯s almost done; within two days,¡± Jose said with confidence. ¡°Regarding the situation of the tribe, I am completely clear. Next, is to make an opportunity to give full play to the creation of the two masters¡¯ power!¡± The second day, something big happened in the Tyrannical Tribe. That night, the head of tribe Aolike who had been always after the high priest, Oveila, was drunk. He seized his tipsiness and barged into the temple of Tyrannical King to propose to the Fresh Blood Trampler openly. Even after he was rejected, he was not willing to leave but insisted to stay overnight in the temple shamelessly. Oveila was pissed off and decided to attack with her halberd. At first, with Aolike¡¯s capability, he should have been able to dodge her attack easily. But uncertain if it was due to intoxication of alcohol that led to weak limbs, Aolike missed and got heavily injured by her halberd. As the halberd had taken countless fresh bloods and possessed terrifying magic, not only was Aolike injured, but he was also poisoned. After the examination by the witch doctor, he concluded that the poison derived from so-called ¡°corpse bacterium.¡± To resolve the poison, they had to look for a corpse that cultivated corpse bacterium. Only then could he cast witch magic to absorb the poison from his body. Oveila was of course duty-bound. So, the Fresh Blood Trampler brought along her halberd and long spear, then departed to the south to go into the region where battle never stopped, to look for the corpse that they needed. In the early morning on the third day, the travelling businessmen that felt the atmosphere in the tribe was too overwhelming eventually left. The uncle looked a little unsatisfied but he was convinced with the reasoning, ¡°a smart businessman will not stay in danger,¡± by his nephew. They bid farewell to those centaurs that were depressed due to the mishap and continued to travel to the east. In actual fact, not long after they left, they kept all their goods along with the carriage and horses into semi dimension storage box. Frost took her original form, spread her wings and carried Jose to the south, and whizzed past. Their overall arrangement had been completed and it was time to kill! Chapter 181 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The huge dragon¡¯s speed was faster than a horse. Although they had departed much later than Oveila, by the time the sun rose, they had already caught up to Oveila. As they caught up to Oveila, they saw her shadow, dashing across the grassland, carrying a halberd and long bow on her back. Letting out a dragon groan, Frost sped up, stopping before Oveila and blocking her way. Jose changed his weapon into a fish fork, and carried the rope on his shoulders. He also switched his armor to the magic blessed leather armor, which Sui Xiong had made for his core believers. Everything was well-prepared. At that moment, the traveling businessman that now jumped off from the dragon¡¯s back, though he physically looked the same, his aura had completely changed. Oveila, who was weary from running, shrunk her eyes slightly, stopping in her tracks. She didn¡¯t intend to talk, but wore the halberd behind her, as she took down the long bow behind her back. Poising the long bow, she then shot an arrow directly at Jose¡¯s face. Ding! Jose waved his fish fork to block the feather arrow. Oveila showed no expression, but gradually put the sharp arrows on her bow, continuing to shoot them, one after another. Mostly she was shooting towards Jose. However, she shot one or two arrows at Frost¡¯s eyeball. Of course, these arrows wouldn¡¯t be able to pose any threat to Frost. Hence, he just closed his eyes, relying on the toughness of his eyelids to block the arrows. On the contrary, Jose was a little strained, while attempting to deal with the string of arrows. The centaurs¡¯ horsemanship and archery skills were well-known. Every time they drew back their bows, sharp arrows whizzed past, showering down like a storm. Any troops with weaker defenses would certainly be defeated. Oveila was the heir of the most honorable bloodline among the centaurs. Hence, her archery skills were comparatively higher than most, especially when she was running while shooting the arrows. In fact, when she was wielding herbow, not only was the speed of the arrow fast, but she was also skilled at varying the direction of the arrow, which Jose found very difficult to fight against. ¡°No weak ones among the famous ones¡­¡± He waved his fish fork, knocking the arrows away, while he slowly got closer to Oveila. He was trying to find an opportunity to launch an attack. He mumbled to himself, ¡°I thought it would be enough to come alone. I was so full of myself.¡± He could already tell that, if it came down to a one-on-one battle, he wouldn¡¯t be able to fight against Oveila. Moreover, it would even be difficult to escape! Luckily, it didn¡¯t come to that. Frost¡¯s reason for being there wasn¡¯t only to replace saddle horse, after all. He was also preparing magic. As he was harassed by Oveila¡¯s arrows, it took a much longer time to prepare the magic. Suddenly, he opened his eyes to see a green light, which was emitting from his pupils! ¡°Poison pond spell!¡± Oveila was terrifyingly quick in her response, expertly dodging the green light. After passing her, and hitting the ground, the green light didn¡¯t disperse. Instead, it turned into a pond, which was emitting a dark green poisonous gas. After dodging the magic, Oveila realized suddenly that she couldn¡¯t turn around. She now stood frozen in the pond, stuck to the spot by the poisonous gas. She suddenly felt her body and legs grow heavy and weak. Eventually, she couldn¡¯t even stand on her feet. Even her strength and balance were being affected. Finally, she managed to leap away from the poisonous pond. She then started running as far away as she could, while trying to detoxify herself via a magic spell. As a high priest of a higher order, her skill at casting spells was outstanding. If she had enough time, no matter how strong the poison was, even if she couldn¡¯t detox herself completely, she would still be able to suppress its effects temporarily. However, Jose and Frost wouldn¡¯t give her the time¡­ Jose smiled cooly, as he stuffed his hands in the storage pouch at his waist. He then took out a few short fish forks that were used for throwing. He didn¡¯t even need to get a running start, before he swung his right arm, accompanied with a sad and shrill whistle, to send a short fish fork flying across the sky. The fish fork flew in an imposing manner, with a speed that was too fast to be caught. Hence, it caught up with Oveila in the blink of an eye. Luckily, Oveila had been watching Jose and Frost¡¯s situation out of the corner of her eyes, so she saw Jose¡¯s attack. But, due to the fact that she had been poisoned, her response was slightly slower than normal. Under normal circumstances, she would have been able to dodge the attack easily. However, at that very moment, she was only able to dodge it clumsily, nearly destroying the anti-poison magic that she was slowly preparing. Alas, Jose¡¯s attack didn¡¯t stop there! After the initial assault, there was a total of four short fish forks that he brought out! Immediately thereafter, the sad and shrill cry of the barrage of fish forks could be heard whistling through the sky. Every fish fork was like a warning letter from the King of Hell, and also like a sickle of Death, pressing down hard on Oveila. After barely dodging another two fish forks, Oveila finally could no longer maintain her pace of escape. Jose projected the pattern of her habitual actions and speed, then shot her. The sharp fish fork stabbed deeply into the body of the centaur. The sharp blade, which had been cast with a magic spell, slit open the tough skin that could normally withstand a regular sword. The strong muscles were cut and torn, as blood flowed out along the blood drain on the fish fork, which had been intentionally made for this exact battle feature during production. Then, yet another fish fork made its assault¡­ Oveila let out a tragic groan. As her body began to shake, the wound expanded. She threw away both fish forks, then took out a silver pearl, smashing it directly. It was a precious ¡°Magic Pearl¡±. Not only could it save magic within it, it could also be used again and again. Also, at a crucial moment, such as right then, it could be smashed, thus activating the magic that was saved within it. Of course, its cost was extremely high. Oveila tried to force herself not to think about how many gold coins she had spent on the Advanced Recovery Spell, but her heart was still aching faintly. ¡°This is no simple woman!¡± Frost¡¯s magic achievements weren¡¯t high, but he was much stronger than Jose. When he saw that Oveila could activate the Advanced Recovery Spell in just a split moment, he was shocked. He quickly reminded, ¡°Be careful of her magic!¡± This was a mistake made from his lack of experience. Because Oveila had her back facing them, when she used her magic pearl, they hadn¡¯t seen her smash the pearl. Thus, he had subconsciously assumed that Oveila hadn¡¯t use any magic tools, but rather cast a high level spell that was not common among mages. He hadn¡¯t thought of the possibility of Oveila¡¯s really having the power to cast the Advanced Recovery Spell! Also, Jose¡¯s knowledge about magic was not as good as Frost¡¯s. So, Jose determined that he must keep his guard up, resulting in his attacks becoming even more brutal. He took out another few fish fork and shot it over. To Oveila, who had now removed the poison that had been within her, the attack was nothing. She took down the halberd on her back, then waved it to hit the few fish forks away. She then chanted prayers and started casting magic. Frost completed his magic first, then bellowed with anger. As he did so, a blue light formed into a huge net that was at least ten meters tall, before completely covering her. ¡°Magic of removal!¡± It was a habitual measure that was often taken by a spellcaster during battle. No matter what spell the enemy cast, they would throw a removal magic spell first. Not only could it destroy the magic structure that was building, it could also counter the enemy¡¯s magic, even to the point of injuring them badly, if one was lucky. Oveila ran, dashing out of the range of the magic removal. She then quickly completed her own magic. A cloud of burgundy light was emitted from her body, before turning into a pungent blood smell. This was a peculiar divinity spell of the Orc God system, known as the Blood Massacre. Not only could the magic enhance the physical condition of the spell receiver, but it could also provide the terrifying power of absorbing life strength by killing one¡¯s opponent. The expert that benefited from the magic could then slaughter over a thousand people alone. As long as the magic wasn¡¯t destroyed, the ability to continue the battle was simply unbelievable! Not only that, Oveila continued to pray and prepare for her next magic undertaking. Frost, of course, recognized this magic. He creased his eyebrows, then took out a small crystal. It was a magic tool that Snowflake had specially made for him. As it was a dispensable item, it couldn¡¯t be saved and used repeatedly. And, as far as its convenience and speed, it was no weaker than the Magic Pearl. The crystal shattered, sending a ray of white light soaring up. The light then turned into a huge eye, looking at Oveila. Oveila¡¯s body was immediately covered with a thin layer of frost. The cold air surrounded her body, then turned into ice and snowflakes. She could feel that her four hooves were soon going to be frozen to the ground, causing her to lose her ability to move. This magic was called Arctic Gaze. It was considered as being quite isolated in the realm of magic. Its power was weaker than the Rays of Extremely Coldness, but its benefit was that it was quite hard to dodge. So, it could be said that each had their perks. At that very moment, Oveila completed her own magic as well. It was the Stone Armor Suit, which could greatly enhance her defense power. The specific magic was the advanced state of stone skin, which granted a much higher defense power. But, it also was very heavy. Hence, only incredibly strong people would be able to utilize it. According to Oveila¡¯s plan, she would next cast another floating spell, which could help her to avoid being framed and getting hurt. She would then cast a freedom of movement spell to avoid being slowed down or entangled. This would be followed by the holy shield, which strengthened defense power, the holy weapon, which could enhance attack power, the raging bull spell, the eagle eye spell and so on. In the end, she figured that she could even summon a few strong creatures from the Strange World. This set of magic spells was indeed powerful. With the full set, one person alone could dash through any powerful army, even like the ones in that famous video game on earth, Dynasty Warriors! However, this enemy wasn¡¯t just any ordinary army, nor were they mere idiotic prey. At that moment, she was dealing with a young giant dragon and an experienced adventurer, who had gone through hundreds of battles! Jose still couldn¡¯t tell earlier, but he was now completely certain about the habitual practice when Oveila was fighting a battle. He couldn¡¯t help but smile. He wouldn¡¯t fight in close combat with the centaur. Instead, he took out a scroll, then used his pathetically weak magic power to slowly activate it. Because his magic power was inferior at best, the process was taking quite a long time. When he was finally done activating the scroll, Frost and Oveila had already fought a few rounds with their magic. They both had wins and losses. But, it ended then¡­ After the scroll, which was made of magic beast skin, was activated completely, it self-ignited, completely without flame or fire, then turned into ashes! Countless light spots floated in the sky, then turned into black runes that were giving out a loathsome, rotting smell. It then whizzed through the sky, ignoring Oveila¡¯s attempts to dodge it, and landing on her body. ¡°Idiot that eats grass! Get a taste of the power of the Blaspheme Rune!¡± Chapter 182 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The black rune was giving out an uninviting smell. Once one smelled it, one could at least skip the next meal. Those who had lower tolerance and ability to adapt would not be able to eat for the next few days. After being hit by this thing, the original magic protection for the whole body, Oveila¡¯s body state enhanced to a ridiculous level and stiffened. Then, she let out a crazy roar. The roar was heart wrenching, as though someone was sawing in half, alive. However, it was not sufficient to describe her pain because the pain didn¡¯t come from the body itself but from her spirit, from her soul. The connection between her and her God was cut off forcibly. Orc was a magical tribe, and regardless of gender and age in the tribe, they were all devoted believers, no exception. This even applied to a new born baby. That was because they had already played a trick on their soul at the moment they created them. No matter how the bloodline was passed down, how the descendants were reproduced, their souls already had an owner, just like a commodity that had a label pasted on. There was once someone who did an experiment, which was to isolate the newborn Orc babies from the entire Orc society, to let them grow up under situations where they couldn¡¯t get in touch with any mysterious knowledge. But as their intelligence increased, they naturally woke up to the belief of various Orc Gods. Of course, such situations weren¡¯t definite. During the growth of Orcs, there were times due to various reasons that they broke away from the ¡°labels¡± on their souls. Their appearances remained, as well as their beliefs, but the exhibited qualities would be entirely different and people could tell with one glance. A lot of mixed Orc races were like that too. Their appearances looked almost the same as pure blooded Orcs, and many of them believed in various Gods in Orc God system. But anyone who was slightly more experienced could easily tell the difference between them and Orcs. It was a magical feeling. It felt just like you walked into a supermarket and saw various items labeled with prices, place of production, manufacturer, and much other information. Same went for the Orcs¡¯ souls. Those ¡°label-less products¡± without ¡°labels¡± were normally referred toas ¡°half-Orcs.¡± The difference between Orc and half-Orc was not bloodline nor appearance but the ¡°label¡± on their soul. In the Orc¡¯s society, half-Orcs were discriminated against. They had to contribute more greatly in order to achieve a better result, to possess stronger strength, to make more fortune, then they could obtain the same treatment as an Orc. Those important posts, such as priest of a higher order, could forever only be taken by Orcs, but not half-Orcs. Oveila who was a high priest of a higher order was no doubt an Orc. But when she was hit by a special magic cast with devil soul extract as base material, the strength derived from the devil¡¯s chaotic nature seemed to turn into a wall and blocked the channel of religion between her and the God that they worshipped, ¡°Tyrannical King,¡± temporarily cutting off the pathway that was supposedly clear. To any common pastor and high priest, that didn¡¯t mean anything but the temporary inability to cast magic. But to an Orc, once the belief pathway was blocked, it meant that the ¡°label¡± on their soul would temporarily disappear. That moment, she felt her soul drifting about and had no one to turn to. She felt like a dried leaf that had yet to reach the ground but was crushed by a tornado; like one that was standing in lava naked and burnt black into ashes in an instant; like one that dropped into deep sea that was extremely cold, and froze into countless shattered ice pieces. No! It was way scarier than those! It was indescribable! If it was any commoner, maybe they could still resist such terrifying feelings with their will. But Oveila was a high priest with higher order, her connection with God was far more tight knitted compared to any other Orcs. After connection was cut off by blasphemous rune, her pain got even more serious. Oveila groaned tragically, losing all her will. Her pain didn¡¯t last for long. Jose leaped forward, raised his fish fork and stabbed it into her chest, right at her heart. That moment, the high priest of higher order died. But the soul that originally intended to depart to the holy kingdom of the God of half-centaur was still affected by the blaspheme rune and floating while wailing tragically in the air. Although such a situation wouldn¡¯t last for very long, after a few seconds the blaspheme rune would lose its effect. But Jose¡¯s eyes brightened and quickly seized the chance. ¡°Hold her soul in custody!¡± Frost was puzzled, he didn¡¯t know why Jose said this but then remembered his sister¡¯s order before he left. ¡°Jose is very cunning, also very experienced in adventure. When you don¡¯t know what to do, follow his instructions.¡± So, he immediately took out a blue gemstone, and cast magic to catch Oveila¡¯s soul that was still wailing in misery, and imprisoned it. ¡°What do you want this for?¡± Frost asked. ¡°This gemstone ain¡¯t cheap. After putting a soul in it, it will be useless and can¡¯t be sold anymore.¡± Jose nearly choked at what he said. He smiled bitterly and replied, ¡°Don¡¯t ask me for money, I can¡¯t afford this gemstone!¡± ¡°Forget it; submit for reimbursement from the public fund then.¡± Frost quickly found a solution to make up his loss. ¡°This is a war expense, it should be publicly funded!¡± After resolving the important question, he was suddenly relaxed and asked Jose why he wanted to hold Oveila¡¯s soul captive. Jose then took the opportunity to talk about serious business and explained to him. All in all, Void Mask Church currently was at a lack for talent; there were almost no experts among them. Experts like Oveila. Even if there was only soul left, the soul itself carried a huge value. Void Mask Majesty possessed the inconceivable power to create a physical body. Using such power, he could totally make an entire body for Oveila. Compared to her body before, it would only be stronger. ¡°But regarding the problem of her belief, it can¡¯t be solved right?¡± ¡°Regarding her belief, I believe His Majesty has his way about it,¡± Jose smiled. ¡°Although there isn¡¯t any evidence, I think our Majesty is actually quite amazing, as though nothing is impossible for him. He can¡¯t do many things merely because He hasn¡¯t tried wholeheartedly yet. Frost was deep in thought and nodded solemnly. ¡°At the end of the day, the gemstone used will be reimbursed. Why not.¡± Under circumstances where public funds could be used, the two of them who were focused on different concerns reached a mutual agreement very quickly. They kept Oveila¡¯s dead body, cleaned up the traces of battlefield, and returned again. ¡°The Blaspheme rune is really a good thing!¡± Just when they resumed to their ¡°travelling business uncle and nephew¡± identities, Jose couldn¡¯t help but sigh, ¡°A high priest of the higher order which is capable, just finished her life like that! It was as easy as killing a chicken!¡± ¡°Every scroll costs 400 gold coins, and the cost of every cast is 2,000 gold coins; that has yet to include the value of the essence of devil¡¯s soul, which can¡¯t be bought at all.¡± Frost raised her eyebrows. ¡°If we calculate the essence of a devil¡¯s soul at 5,000 gold coins, it would be a total of 7,400 gold coins¡­ and that¡¯s just the estimated cost.¡± ¡°Ha-ha¡­¡± Jose couldn¡¯t help but smile bitterly, ¡°with this amount of money, it would be even more convenient just to hire an assassin¡­.¡± Regardless, their assassination plan kicked off to a good start. Even though there was a hint of splurging money. At the west of the Wild Empire, close to the desert¡¯s ¡°West Barren¡± region, Steele was using her ways to achieve the goal. The tall and strong bear-man gave out a desperate roar. It had its eyes wide opened while it made breathing sounds as if it was close to its last breath. The muscles all over its body tensed up as sweat beads rolled down his granite-like muscles and soaked up the entire mattress under its body. After about a few seconds, its body suddenly relaxed and it was panting in exhaustion as though it just had a vigorous fight. ¡°Not bad, not bad!¡± Steele smiled lovingly and lied on its body. ¡°But, you are satisfied just like that?¡± ¡°I¡­ I still can¡­¡± ¡°Mm, of course you can¡­¡± After a while, the sound of two bodies pounding together and moist water-splashing noises were echoing again, the deep roar of bear-man and the faint laughter of Steele were mixed among all. The second morning, the servant was surprised when he saw the number one expert among west barren Orc, the main God of Orc ¡°Sky Devourer Canine.¡± There was not scar on his body at all, there wasn¡¯t any trace of poison or curse. The pastor and high priests from the church checked his dead body carefully, and finally came up with an awkward conclusion. What caused the expert¡¯s death was excessive indulgence in sexual activity. No evil spirit absorbed his strength of life, no night demon took away his spirit, his body was still in perfect condition and his muscles were still solid, the powerful strength was still all over his body. He really engaged in excessive amount of s*x that led to serious exhaustion and finally finished all his strength and died. The way of death was shameful, and it became a laughing stock of the entire west barren. The master of Orcs, considered one of the few highest positions, who could even kill the top expert of giant dragons with his bare hands, died because he couldn¡¯t control his lower body and tired himself out! There were many that were curious too¡­ To be able to make an unrivalled expert that was almost 500 years old, that was experienced and knowledgeable, to be that excited, even to the point where he forgot about his body condition; and made him ¡°hard working¡± until the very end? How great is this woman? ¡°If I could stay for a night with that woman, how great would that be!¡± In a small pub, a young adventurer sighed. The elderly comrade next to him teased, ¡°Nonsense! Master Shiraz died of exhaustion. You are so scrawny and you think you can last for one whole night? In the middle of the night, you¡¯d be dead, okay!¡± ¡°Sigh! To be able to die on that woman¡¯s stomach. My life would be considered not wasted!¡± ¡°You are good-for-nothing!¡± ¡°Do you not want it?¡± ¡°I have a wife and children, why would I look for other women?¡± ¡°Hey¡­ last time, who was the one who brought me to Void Mask¡¯s Theme Park and told me that the church of the God of Happiness built a high-standard brothel, with some ¡°Great sword¡± project that shouldn¡¯t be missed¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t don¡¯t don¡¯t! Don¡¯t bring this up! If your sister-in-law hears this, I¡¯ll be in big trouble!¡± ¡°Then, your treat next time?¡± ¡°¡­I have no money.¡± ¡°On the previous mission, didn¡¯t you make a fortune?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bring that up¡­.¡± Listening to the conversation, a half-asleep pink piglet that used magic to hide herself was faintly smiling at the corner of the wall. Chapter 183 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There was a saying in the world: ¡°The sloth needs to be stabbed three times.¡± It was a saying that basically meant that the sloth was an animal that was so slow in reacting, you would have to stab it with needles three times before it would groan in pain. Quite the opposite of this hypothetical sloth, the higher ups in the church of Orc Gods system of course wouldn¡¯t be so slow in reacting. Instead, they had already responded after a few days. ¡°The fourth one.¡± The main priest in the church of Sky Devourer Canine didn¡¯t get angry, but spoke calmly. He was the most honorable figure among the churches of the entire Orc God System. He was also an elder that was addressed as the ¡°Crown of Brilliance.¡± His spooky eyes sent coolness down the spine of the legendary experts. ¡°Florame, you tell the story,¡± he said lightly. ¡°You are in charge of the information regarding the continuous deaths of the four high priests of the higher order, among whom there was one that was in the legendary realm. I think you should have some insights on this, right?¡± There was another legendary expert that he called upon named Florame Roger, who was a rabbitman. He didn¡¯t possess a very strong fighting power, but he did have the unusual attainments of concealment. In fact, he had been hosting an information task of the church union for over a hundred years. Honestly speaking, he had done a good job. And, up until this point, he had not made many mistakes. However, what happened was very surprising, as he had spent a lot of effort to arrange manpower and to search, but had yet to find reliable information. ¡°As of now, we only have some uncertified information.¡± Florame was covered in a nervous sweat, as he gave his report with a sad face. ¡°Tell us first, then.¡± The elder that was so honorable that no one dared to call his name stole a glance at him. Then, the cold sweat on Florame¡¯s face flowed out again, almost soaking his entire face and head full of fine hair. ¡°The first piece of news is that the high priest of centaur, Oveila, left the Tyrannical Tribe alone. She did this because the chief, Aolike, was drunk and wanted to stay at the temple. Then, she was injured. In the end, they realized that her weapon might be contaminated by a corpse bacteria poison, so she went out to look for a corpse with corpse bacteria, which could provide an antidote, in order to detox Aolike.¡± Florame continued anxiously, ¡°She was moving towards the east, and the people that I sent used magic to trace her whereabouts, realizing that she must have suddenly lost contact. After investigating further, we found that there were people that had intentionally erased the traces of the battle. As the magic had by then been severely damaged, it was unable to confirm the exact situation of battle.¡± ¡°Unable to confirm?¡± The elder spoke in a calm tone, but still sent his cold glare. ¡°Do you need me to transfer more elders to assist you?¡± Florame suddenly shivered, even his inner shirt was soaked through. ¡°After the meeting, I will go personally! I will definitely find out about the situation!¡± Who were the people in the church? What were the identities of those retired higher ups in the church and those senior experts that were hidden? They had already reached the extreme level of legendary realm. As such, the power and position in mortal life were meaningless to them, which was the reason why they lived as recluses and tried so hard to figure out how to understand and master the ¡°source¡± of power, to be able to step foot into the real immortal realm. Even a small matter needed the elders in the church to be involved, so God knows how the elders would take care of him after they found out the reason! He might as well commit suicide, at least he would die quickly! ¡°Don¡¯t be in a rush to reveal your stand. Continue with the other news.¡± The elder refused to comment further, but said this lightly. ¡°The second piece of news was that, on the night that the main priest of the west wilderness, Belem Syrah, died, there was a woman named Lilim that tried to take to him to the street.¡± Florame took out a crystal as he spoke, projecting the image in the air. ¡°This is the memory that was retrieved from the guard.¡± The image showed a busy west wilderness street. The brawny bearman could be seen, wearing a baggy robe and walking haughtily on the street. Everyone avoided him wherever he walked, displaying faces filled with fear. He was known as Raging Iron Arm, and he wasn¡¯t a kind person. In fact, if he were to be held on trial in hell after he died, in order to explain his crimes, one by one, it would take an entire day! Suddenly, the bearman priest stopped and told the guard that had provided the image, ¡°Look, the woman¡¯s not bad.¡± As the image showed, there was a woman that was selling fruits at the corner of the street. The weather in west wilderness was dry, so the fruits, which were delicious and good for hydration, were very popular. Hence, there were many vendors selling fruits. They would wholesale fruits from bigger retailers, then sell at retail prices that were slightly higher than the wholesalers¡¯. They relied heavily on this price difference in order to make a decent living. The woman was beautiful and her skin was extremely fair and bright, just like the lovely fruits. West wilderness was windy and dusty, and the weather was dry. Whoever stayed for any length of time there, regardless of whether they be men or women, their skin would become rough. Only the pampered concubines of the rich men could soak themselves in the water from day till night, in order to maintain the hydration of their skin. But those women were normally lacking in vigor, and possessed a kind of weak mentality that was not aligned with the orcs¡¯ aesthetic. In stark contrast, not only did the fruit seller woman have bright skin, but she looked energetic, too. She seemed to have no flaws. The image suddenly became extremely clear, and she could even hear heavy breathing! Obviously, either the bodyguard or Belem had developed a strong interest in the woman. What happened later on was sadly nothing that one should ever write about. It was merely the all-too-common kidnapping of a village girl. After they arrested the woman, Belem exhorted the bodyguard that, unless there was an emergency summons form the superior temple, he shouldn¡¯t bother him! However, the very next morning, the bodyguard heard that it had been quiet for a very long while in the room. So, he finally couldn¡¯t help but move closer to take a peek. He saw that Belem was lying on the bed, without moving an inch, but the woman was nowhere to be seen. ¡°That was the story.¡± The image ended then, followed by Florame¡¯s explaining, ¡°I went to inspect the scene, and I can certify that there was no trace of charm magic. However, there were some remains of transformation magic, but very faint amounts. So, it shouldn¡¯t be capable of causing any strong magical effect. Besides, I also found that there was a trace of divine power, but I couldn¡¯t confirm which Majesty it was from.¡± It wasn¡¯t rare that high priest would use divine power to liven things up, when they were doing that sort of thing. So, everyone wasn¡¯t surprised. They were, however, whispering into each other¡¯s ears to discuss what the situation it might be exactly. Although there was the continuous deaths of the four high priests, in actual fact, only the death of Belem Syrah was considered as a great affair. The rest of the high priests weren¡¯t really even worth bringing up. If it wasn¡¯t due to the fact that their deaths were linked to the death of the legendary expert, no matter how many high priests of higher levels died, it wouldn¡¯t worth the attention of these higher ups. ¡°The background of the woman, what was the result of that investigation?¡± the elder asked. ¡°It could be certified that she was an assassin.¡± Florame had already investigated this, so he immediately answered. ¡°No one in the city had ever seen her before. The two main fruit wholesalers in the city also said that they have never sold their fruits to such a beautiful woman, either. Even the guards at the city gate didn¡¯t see her entering or exiting the city.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°I have checked the dead body thoroughly. Although I don¡¯t really believe it, Belem appears to not have been injured, poisoned, or cursed. He merely died of exhaustion, which was caused by excessive indulgence.¡± Florame looked like he was at loss. ¡°I checked multiple times, and confirmed that it was really so.¡± ¡°This is ridiculous!¡± the other bearman expert shouted. ¡°They only did it for a night! With Belem¡¯s stamina, fighting for ten days to half a month wouldn¡¯t even exhaust him!¡± ¡°Yeah, no matter how great the woman was, I can¡¯t believe that she could have exhausted Belem to death!¡± the other pastor of legendary realm said. Florame sighed and looked at the elder. The elder creased his eyebrows. He wasn¡¯t doubtful of Florame¡¯s capability, especially when it involved the cause of death of a legendary expert. However, to think that such a way of dying, doing it for a night and then succumbing to excessive indulgence, could have happened to a legendary expert, it was simply ridiculous! He closed his eyes, and there was a strange ripple on his body. As one of the very few semi-god experts in the main dimension, he could contact various Orc Gods at anytime. He could even visit their respective holy kingdoms by using his soul directly. Although it would be rude if he did so, in order to find out the truth, he had to be impolite just once, in order to talk to the person who was directly involved. In the world, the concept of ¡°the dead cannot bear witness¡± did not exist. Even if a person died, his soul would remain. If one really wanted to investigate, he could question the soul directly. It¡¯s the same concept, but just a little bit more troublesome. After a while, the ripples on the elder¡¯s body settled down. He then slowly opened his eyes. Every legendary experts fixed their curious gazes at him, waiting for his updates. ¡°Hehe¡­ It¡¯s magical¡­¡± The elder squinted his eyes and smiled. ¡°Florame, your examination results are correct!¡± ¡°What?!¡± A few people exclaimed at the same time. Did this legendary pastor with the title Raging Iron Arm really have too much fun in the bed and die of exhaustion, due to excessive indulgence?! ¡°Oh my God¡­¡± A pigman mage was so surprised, he forgot about the standard common language that he had been practicing for years. He instead spoke with his tribal accent, which utterly disdained! ¡°Then¡­ That woman¡­¡± Florame responded first, asking politely. The elder snorted. ¡°Florame, leave the rest of the things aside and trace this woman. It is rare to find such a woman that could solely rely on flirtatious measures that could make someone like Belem lose his rationality and indulge in sensual pleasures, even unto death! It might likely be even a high level assassin that some Cthulhu churches nurtured in secret!¡± Every legendary expert was suddenly solemn, and their faces grew grave. The way the matter had developed, its severity had shot up increasingly fast. In comparison, the deaths of merely a few high priests that had yet to enter the legendary realm, they had already practically forgotten about them. Hence, a few days later, there were more high priests that passed away, yet the woman never appeared again. In the underground maze, the pink piglet was dancing with joy. She was boasting about her accomplishments with the huge green jellyfish that was lying on the ground. She was feeling utterly proud¡­ Chapter 184 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the gloomy underground maze, there was a group of plumy ¡°adventurers¡± that were running wild breathlessly. Suddenly, the leader noticed pink gleams. The brilliance wasn¡¯t strong but gave him a sense of security. He faintly felt the place where the light was must be safe. Hence, he immediately clamoured, elevated the soul and ran towards that direction. That moment, everyone had already lost the ability to differentiate direction, like a herd of mountain goats running behind the ¡°bellwether.¡± Not knowing after how long, they took another turn and there was a sudden brightness. There was a bonfire with raging flames on an empty land nearby. Next to the bonfire, there was two small tents and a brawny man that was boiling a pot of hot soup that gave out a delicious smell that filled the air. ¡°Safe zone!¡± ¡°It¡¯s safe zone!¡± ¡°We are saved!¡± ¡°God¡­ We finally escaped!¡± They ran and stumbled forward, dashing to the bonfire immediately, and they felt their minds at peace then. They felt relaxed and weariness suddenly surfaced. Most of the people didn¡¯t even bother eating but barged into the tent straightway and wrapped themselves under the blankets to sleep. The fat man was finally strong willed. He held back his urge to rest and have a good sleep but approached the brawny man who was boiling soup. ¡°Hey bro¡­ Are you the attendant nt the maze?¡± The man lifted his head and looked at him suspiciously. Then, he shook his head. ¡°What do you do then?¡± ¡°Lifeguard.¡± The brawny man answered. ¡°To drag and throw those tourists who are lost and have no strength but use their last breath to shout ¡°I am dying¡± into the tent. That is my job.¡± The fat man recalled the buffoonery of himself and his troop earlier, and couldn¡¯t help but laugh in embarrassment as he continued to ask, ¡°So, bro, you are an adventurer then?¡± ¡°Yeah, but I have retired.¡± The brawny man seemed a little upset. ¡°During an adventure, I got shot on my knee.¡± ¡°Got shot on your knee? Then, aren¡¯t you crippled?¡± ¡°Yeah, for quite some time,¡± The man answered, ¡°until I believed in Void Mask Majesty, and Master Steele helped me to heal my knee. I pledged to devote my heart and soul to the master¡­.¡± ¡°Then how did you come to be a lifeguard?¡± The fat man asked out of curiosity. ¡°Master said that she¡¯d prefer to go solo, with no burden,¡± The brawny man sighed. ¡°I, a man who is seven feet tall, responsible for my own bow and horse, skilled in guns and spears, good at swords too, who could even use stone rope; at the end of the day, I am only a burden!¡± The fat man was shocked and he couldn¡¯t believe that an expert who was highly skilled at all kinds of martial arts became a brawny lifeguard in the underground maze. He couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°If you are so amazing, why did you become a lifeguard?¡± He shook his head and replied with a bitter smile, ¡°I¡¯m amazing? How am I amazing? Look at the theme park, even a legendary expert could only guard the main entrance. I, as a mid-range adventurer; what could I do?¡± The fat man stunned and asked, ¡°The giant at the main entrance of the theme park, it wasn¡¯t a projection driven with magic?¡± ¡°Of course not. Have you ever seen any magic projection that responsive?¡± The fat man laughed and turned around. He wiped cold sweat off his head. Not long ago, when the entire family came for travel, his son wiped his mucus onto the ¡°magic projection¡± before¡­ Luckily, the giant had good temperament. Otherwise, with one slap, their entire family would have been turned into a meatloaf. He made decision in secret; before the trip ended, he must buy some drinks for the giant to apologize. As a businessman that was unworthily associated with people from all over for many years, he knew the concept of being a decent man. He originally wanted to chat but the brawny man gave him a bowl of soup. The chicken and vegetables that were stewed thoroughly mixed together nicely, and the mashed oats were specially sifted from the chaff. It was fragrant and warm and it suddenly reminded him of his weariness. He excused himself from the brawny lifeguard and got into the tent. He lied under the blanket and slept soundly in the next moment. ¡°This bastard is so free!¡± W hen all of them slept soundly, the brawny man shook his head and turned into a pink piglet with wings with a bright shine. In the underground maze, there was no light at all. Where would the lifeguard be! If it wasn¡¯t because it was inappropriate to travel around after turning into a pig, she wouldn¡¯t stay in. She covered the pot and left it near the bonfire, to ensure it wouldn¡¯t be boiled dry nor cool down. She added firewood that was processed with magic into the bonfire and flew away. At the same time, there was another bunch of tourists who started their adventure that required some watching over. At the entrance of underground city, a young businessman, Cliff, was gawking in terror at a half-Orc that had a smile plastered on its face. Although it looked friendly, instinct told him that it was very dangerous. ¡°Four adventurers, right?¡± That leopard tribe knight errant who used to hunt magic beasts as a living was currently working as an underground city registrar. It looked at the four of them before saying suspiciously, ¡°Honestly, there are few of you.¡± ¡°Normally, adventurers go in groups of four to five, right?¡± Cliff¡¯s friend, Reggaeton asked suspiciously. ¡°Those are true adventurers. Even the weakest among them, could at least run for two hours and above straight, with a full body armor on, and be skilled in at least three weapons. All of you can¡¯t be compared to them.¡± ¡°But we don¡¯t need to deal with those magic beasts that are really dangerous, right?¡± Cliff¡¯s other friend, Weisz, said. ¡°I saw the brochure of the maze, didn¡¯t it say ¡®safety guaranteed¡¯?¡± ¡°It¡¯s said so, but if the capability of the adventurer team were to be too weak, the adventure wouldn¡¯t last long,¡± The gatekeeper explained. ¡°Once they encounter danger, the adventure would be ended forcibly. If that happens it means that you wasted your money!¡± Speaking of money, the young lads laughed. Reggaeton patted heavily the shoulder of his comrade who was a man of few words. ¡°It¡¯s rare that stingy John is willing to treat us a taste for feeling of adventure. Even if we were knocked out by a giant dragon right after we entered, it wouldn¡¯t be considered wasted!¡± Looking at their strong will, the gatekeeper stopping persuading them but took out a thick booklet for them to register. ¡°On the top of the page, write down the name of your team¡­ What? You haven¡¯t thought of a team name yet? Then how about using a name that God conferred? There would be additional benefit! ¡­ Alright, use the name that God conferred then, let me read the incantation¡­ Mm¡­ The name ¡®Sees a White Scientist and Kills Him Immediately¡¯ is quite weird, but the search range of the entire team would increase by one, that is very useful¡­ Alright, confirm taking this name, alright? Write down all four of your names. You don¡¯t have to write it yourself, even if you can¡¯t read and write, it¡¯s okay. I can fill in for all four of you¡­ Lastly, the date. Done.¡± He closed the booklet, and smiled at the four as he bowed. ¡°Registration has been completed. Rest assured! Please enjoy the magical adventure!¡± Before he finished the sentence, the ground below the four¡¯s feet suddenly had a big hole, and the four young lads screamed in terror while they fell into the hole out of sight. With four thumps, they landed on a thick pile of grass. ¡°Is this perfectly safe? Cliff climbed up, clenching his teeth. He smiled bitterly as he looked at the surrounding buildings in the dark, and he looked up to see the starry ¡°sky¡± above his head. He couldn¡¯t help but compliment, ¡°This is so magical!¡± After a while, everyone gradually relaxed and got up. Then, they realized that they had changed into the outfits of adventurers. Full leather armor, and everyone was equipped with weapons. ¡°Hey?! These swords look good!¡± Reggaeton, who was in the weapons business, drew the sword and flicked it with his finger. It gave out a delicate ring in his ear. ¡°The steel material is quite good.¡± ¡°According to the brochure, after the adventure has ended, the equipment that we found can be taken,¡± Cliff said. ¡°Before that, I thought even if the equipment could be taken, it would probably be some metal scraps¡­ From what I see now, this seems quite sincere!¡± ¡°Yeah, taking in consideration the equipment¡¯s value, the entrance fee is not that hard to accept.¡± Just as they were chit chatting, John withdrew the long gun from the holster behind his back and aimed at a corner in the dark with his guard up. His action reminded everyone else and they took out their weapons to prepare for battle. Then, the shadow in the dark shook and a few huge mushrooms that were almost the height at a commoner¡¯s chest walked out, wobbly. Although these adventurers¡¯ postures were messed up and in the eyes of professional adventurers, they were only a disorderly mob, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem for them to deal with the bunch of huge mushrooms that had short limbs. After a battle that had no standards at all, the huge mushrooms slowly fell on the ground and turned into remains that had no vigour. ¡°Phew! Phew!¡± Reggaeton who put in the most effort in the battle earlier was panting and had yet to recover. He still maintained a nervous situation. ¡°It is¡­ too thrilling!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be ¡®thrilled,¡¯ let¡¯s get going.¡± Cliff, who had memorized the brochure and manual, patted his shoulders. ¡°We need to get to the safe zone as fast as possible.¡± Just then, John, who had always been quiet, hung his head low. He took out a short knife from a pocket in his leather boot and cut a piece of the huge mushroom. ¡°What do you want this for?¡± Weisz asked. ¡°This can be eaten,¡± John said. ¡°We. Need. Food.¡± Reggaeton was shocked and said, ¡°These are magic creatures! How can they be eaten!¡± ¡°Earthworm flesh, magic creature, 200 gold coins for one order.¡± ¡°That¡¯s different!¡± ¡°Think carefully about what John said; it does make sense¡­¡± Cliff couldn¡¯t help but nod, and cut a small piece with a short knife. He put it under his nose and smelled carefully. ¡°It really does seem edible.¡± ¡°All of you are crazy! These are magic creatures!¡± In the end, due to Reggaeton¡¯s strong objection, they didn¡¯t bring the remains of the huge mushrooms that could probably be food. The ¡°Sees a White Scientist and Kills Him Immediately¡± adventurer team advanced with care in the dark underground. They had no map and they had no idea where they were. Astronavigation that was also considered a highly technical skill among adventurers; they obviously had no idea about it. Hence, they could only walk around like a headless fly. If one were to look down from the sky, one could tell that they went through buildings or ruins, unconsciously drifting away from the direction they travelled at the very beginning, and started going in circles. If they were only just walking, maybe they would have realized this. But they were actually not that free. Within ten minutes, they ran into the second bunch of enemies. These were a bunch of dwarfs that looked red all over, and didn¡¯t look like any kind of man. Every one of them was carrying a suspicious bone club. When they saw them, they suddenly roared with laughter and dashed towards them. ¡°What should we do? Do we beat them?¡± Reggaeton suddenly held his sword and asked nervously. Everyone looked at each other but had no idea what to do. They made a decision really quickly. Looking at the enormous number of enemies getting close, the timid Weisz finally couldn¡¯t hold his fear but shouted ¡°Run!¡± and turned around to flee. The scream was like a signal gun. All four of them turned around together with their backs toward the enemy, and ran like mad. Chapter 185 Cliff and his troops were lucky. After about an hour, they were able to evade the emerging magic beasts by stumbling into a safe zone. When they saw that the magic beasts, who had just been in hot pursuit of them, were leaving due to the bonfire, they all let out heavy sighs and laughed. ¡°It is really an escape by the skin of one¡¯s teeth!¡± Reggaeton opened the box next to the bonfire that was marked as ¡°food,¡± taking a few pieces of biscuits that were still warm. He distributed them to everyone, chuckling as he spoke. ¡°I really thought we were going to be eaten!¡± ¡°Actually, we wouldn¡¯t be. When we encounter any life danger, we would be transported out directly,¡± Cliff smiled and said. ¡°We were scared stiff earlier, so we never thought about that fact!¡± Weisz was chewing on his biscuit when he brought up the sealed bamboo in the box. He twisted open the cap and took a few gulps. He then left everything and staggered towards the tent, mumbling, ¡°I¡¯m soooo tired¡­¡± Everyone felt their weariness suddenly surge at that moment, so they also went to rest in the tent, following his lead. After taking a nap for a few hours, they awoke, then packed up to continue their adventure. With their previous experience, it went much smoother this time around. At the very least, they weren¡¯t lost! The man with few words, Johnses, kicked at the disgusting magic beast that looked like a goat. Its face was distorted, as though it had been splashed with sulfur. He asked, ¡°Are you, okay?¡± ¡°Should be okay¡­¡± Cliff rubbed his waist, then let out a sigh of relief once he felt that the spot where he was knocked earlier didn¡¯t seem to be sprained or fractured. ¡°I¡¯m okay!¡± Raggaeton waved his sword, which still had some blood stains on it. ¡°I can still fight another ten of ¡¯em!¡± Weisz, who was lying on the ground, raised his hands and bellowed in listless spirits, ¡°Can anyone lend me a hand? I feel like my bones have completely been shattered!¡± In actual fact, Weisz¡¯s bones didn¡¯t shatter. They weren¡¯t even fractured! The poor wimp had only sprained himself during the battle. Regardless, the journey had to be continued. Even if they wanted to give up, they had to reach a safe zone in order for them to be transported back. Maybe¡­ Being beaten up by the magic beasts, to the point where our lives were endangered, could trigger the rescue mechanism and transport them back?! Why not give it a try? Of course no one wanted to be the one to try! So, in the end, everyone supported the man that had no integrity, slowly advancing in search of the next safe zone. However, this safe zone was definitely not one that was easily found. This was due to the fact that there was only a total of thirteen safe zones within the underground maze. There was one in the middle, which was surrounded by the twelve, which were configured in a circle just like a dial. In between every two safe zones, even via a straight line, it would at least take an hour to walk the distance. And that timing was provided that there was not any interruption on the way, such as an encounter with any magic beasts or traps. So basically, this was obviously impossible¡­ After a while, they were hemmed in by another swarm of magic creatures. They were short, fat, and round, with eight short legs and a pair of delicate teeth. It was a special spider-like magic beast named the round-headed spider. Its level of danger among the spider-like magic beasts was registered as being the very last. Back then, when Sui Xiong had picked them, he once threw a stray wolf, which had attempted to eat Steel¡¯s pet named Greenie, into a swarm of round-headed spiders. If it had been any other magic beasts, that unlucky wolf would have been lucky to have a few pieces of its bones left. However, the stray wolf managed to escape alive, even though it was bitten and left with patches of blue and black bruises on its body. Miraculously, it had managed to survive under the siege of a swarm of beasts! ¡°This is the power of life!¡± Sui Xiong sighed with emotions, deciding to let the stray wolf live. It was at that moment that the rounded-head spider became one of the tenants in the underground maze. The form of attack of the magical magic beast was very strong, but its power of attack wasn¡¯t. In any case, there was never an instance when anyone was killed by it. However, there were a few unluckily ones that were bitten by its small teeth, which actually weren¡¯t sharp at all, thus leaving them with patches of blue and black bruises. The four youngsters finally got rid of the spider magic beast, but they were now walking with difficulty. They did at least appear to be more strong-willed now, though. Even Weisz had stopped groaning in pain and complaining. When dealing with pain, humans had two options: either to be conquered by it or to conquer it. People who were conquered by the pain would become weak, while people who conquered the pain would become strong. In the dark, Steel, who was looking after them, nodded in satisfaction. She found the few young men to be very charming. Throughout the following journey, they came across a few different kinds of magic beasts, as well as a few troublesome traps. They also suffered a lot. Even though they worked really hard, they only managed to persevere for about three days. In the end, they had no choice but to end their adventure, because they were all simply worn out. Among them, the biggest problem was their lack of adventure experience. Since the very beginning, they didn¡¯t even realize that they were actually going around in circles within the maze. They were literally meandering around the same small region throughout the whole journey! ¡°Adventure time, seventy-three hours, round-up; Total points for attack, hundred and three points; Number of time seeking for help, zero; Spoils of War Value, five hundred and sixteen points.¡± The one in charge of the exit strategy was called Phil Ohis Savoy. A blonde woman, who was beautiful but gave out a metallic vibe, was reading monotonously. ¡°The final total is eight hundred and ninety-two points. You can opt to bring along your spoils of war, or you can leave them behind and exchange prizes for your accumulated points.¡± The four young businessmen looked at the long list of exchange options. They discussed carefully, before finally deciding to leave their spoils of war in exchange for something special. The first thing that caught their eyes was a wolf tooth, which could bring good luck. They also liked the bundle of ear wheat, which could be made into a light therapeutic medicine, after soaking it in alcohol. There was even an extremely tough axle that caught their fancies! These items weren¡¯t easily obtained by commoners, especially at such a low cost. So, when they left, they were all satisfied and beamed with joy. Sui Xiong was resting in a corner underneath the maze. He was observing the situation of the maze with his unique ability, while also watching the situation at the theme park. There, he saw most of the people laughing. They were relaxed and happy. The theme park had been designed according to his beliefs, and it really did seem to bring about happiness to the people. My beliefs were correct, right? he told himself. It can be seen, just by looking at the situation of the theme park. I felt that my beliefs correspond to reality, and they are also closely related to the people¡¯s own benefit and morals. However, his idea was always out of step with what the people in the world had in mind. What is the problem exactly? After some thinking, Sui Xiong worked out an answer in his mind. Maybe¡­ It is because I was already too powerful when I first entered into the human society. I was so powerful, I couldn¡¯t communicate normally with the people. So, to understand the people, I must first really get to know them. I must be with them and live like a commoner, laugh and cry with them, and experience joy and sorrow in life with them. These things are something that a strong jellyfish God just can¡¯t do! Actually, it was not exactly impossible¡­ For example, he had already thought of a way to solve the problem! If the problem lay within the fact that he was too strong, he could create a clone that was less powerful. That way, he would not have any special power or memory, but blend in among the people in the world as a regular commoner. So, he would be able to experience all the normal emotions in the world! Sui Xiong believed that, if he did this, he would be able to find out what¡¯s wrong with him, and also be able to really understand the moral values of the world, so that he could then conform to the local practices. Would all these be things difficult? Not at all! To create a human body and insert part of his memory on earth was actually pretty simple! After making the decision, he started to make moves. As he had predicted, he only spent a day¡¯s time to create a clone that looked almost identical to him. The clone was a young man wearing a T-shirt and shorts, who couldn¡¯t be bothered by his appearance. He looked slightly skinny, and was short-sighted, and had no discernible difference from any normal person from earth! Mm, in actual fact, there was no difference, as the clone even possessed the knowledge of a normal youngster on earth. Also, it was planted by Sui Xiong, so there wasn¡¯t much difference from himself. The clone was then sent to the Gold Coin Federation, where he was left by the busy seaside. ¡°Clone that inherited my body and talent on earth, help me to get to know the world and understand it better!¡± When everything was ready, he soared up into the sky. He then made himself invisible in order to watch the show. Sui Xiong forecasted the future, just like how the prophets in the legends would. But, his prophecy came to nothing¡­ The clone woke up. At first, he was at a loss for what to do, but he adjusted himself very quickly, then looked for any sign of human habitation. He found a fishing village by the seaside, after searching for a while. However, due to his lack of understanding of the language in the world, plus his strange clothing and hair, he got into a conflict with the fishermen. He was knocked down onto the ground, and a wicked fisherman stabbed a fish fork at him, killing him instantly. Then, they cast his dead body into the sea! Sui Xiong was dumbfounded, having witnessed the entire process while floating in the air. According to his plot, the well-mannered young man would be approved of by the people, especially with his gentle attitude and willingness! He just assumed that those attributes would help him to easily blend in among the people. Why would he be beaten to death, before he could even receive recognition?! Why would it turn out like this?! He roared from the bottom of his heart. This is totally not aligned with the plot that I constructed! Chapter 186 ¡°Unexpected¡­ It died so quickly¡­¡± High in the sky by the beach, the big green jellyfish rolled its tentacles and dredged up the dead body with a vacant looking face. Looking at the face that he had seen countless times in the mirror, he also looked lost himself. How could it be? This was entirely different from his plan! He thought for awhile and finally figured out why. ¡°Naked is not reliable! It can¡¯t even communicate, how could it blend in the human community! Even if there isn¡¯t the super Golden Finger, I have to at least ensure they share the same language!¡± Hence, he was at it again. He made amendments with that corpse, gave it life and solidified in its body a good command of language. Then, as long as it wasn¡¯t any magic rune, any common language could be read and written as usual. Then, he cast magic to erase all the cloned human¡¯s related memory in order to prevent any sort of accident. He flew another hundred over miles and found another fishing village where people were even more simple, honest and unspoiled. Then, he left ¡°Sui Xiong MK2¡± nearby. It was off to a much smoother opening. ¡°Sui Xiong MK2¡± who could communicate with the fishermen normally was treated as an unlucky businessman that came from an island nation far away. The hospitable fishermen treated him cordially and let him stay for a few days. Then, they found out about his cooking talent. Hence, he was introduced to a restaurant near the town and became a distinguish chef. ¡°This expansion of plot is confusing¡­¡± Sui Xiong mumbled to himself while he observed in the dark sky. ¡°My dream is to become an artist! How did I become a chef? And am I good at cooking? Why didn¡¯t I remember?¡± He recalled carefully and realized that he did seem to be good at cooking. Although he didn¡¯t possess any techniques, any daily home cooking wouldn¡¯t be a problem to him. Such standards on Earth, especially China, wouldn¡¯t even be considered as anything. Cooking is one of the most common talents. Among the older generations, at least one third, or even half of them knew how to cook; among the younger generation, there were quite a number of them that could cook too. Sui Xiong was one that only knew the common home cooking techniques. At most he could be considered an ¡°eating expert,¡± but far from a cooking expert! However, in the world where food culture was limited and had yet to expand, he was a talented cook. With his skills, it was sufficient for him to settle down and get on with his life. Looking at ¡°Sui Xiong MK2¡± settle down, Sui Xiong was at ease. He left a divine clone to continue to keep watch while his original body returned to the theme park. Being able to find a solution made him much happier. He didn¡¯t hide underground and cosplayed himself as a youth but came out to discuss and take charge of church tasks. To his recovery, everyone was very happy. They felt that the church finally gained its backbone again. ¡°What? Such a short time and you have killed seven high priests of the Orc God¡¯s church. And one of them is a legendary expert?!¡± Sui Xiong looked at the report that Steele handed in and he was shock; he couldn¡¯t believe his own eyes. ¡°I am the one who killed the legendary expert!¡± Steele who just returned to her human form from the pig¡¯s that morning said with pride. ¡°In the next few days, I will kill another one!¡± ¡°No¡­ Please don¡¯t!¡± Sui Xiong quickly stopped them. ¡°This is getting out of hand¡­ Hurry up and ask the two of them come back!¡± Even without any magic probing, or any God¡¯s fortune telling skill, he could imagine how the churches of various Orc Gods would be angry out of embarrassment, and he was worried that the higher ups in the church were going to rampage¡­ They have killed people anyway, anger should be vented. Quickly get Jose and Frost back first! With the aid of the Channel of Religion, he quickly connected to Jose and found out that the two of them were in a bad situation. After they assassinated a few priests of higher order in the churches of various Orc Gods, either they let down their guards as things were going on too smoothly, or the other party had already expected and spotted the trick during the assassination of wolf man¡¯s high priest of higher order ¡°Dark Night Prayer¡± Yoplait Moonhowl. As the higher up of the church of ¡°Moon Howling Wolf,¡± he was the God of tracing and assassination among various Orc Gods, and at the same time the head of the tribe. Yoplait Moonhowl was not only capable, but also lead a large amount of underlinings that were not too shabby. After Jose and Frost were revealed, they were hemmed in by ten experts that were close to the standard of expert who were led by him. At the crucial moment, Frost used the lifesaving rune that her sister gave her, ¡°Years Orb.¡± She suddenly passed though a thousand years and transformed into an ancient giant dragon temporarily. She puffed a stonifying breath and frightened the experts to retreat awkwardly. Then, she carried Jose who was severely injured after one hit and fled using the unique talent of Rock Dragons, an underground crawling skill. Regrettably, Years Orb¡¯s lasting time was only for three minutes. The moment it struck three minutes, the treasure lost its power temporarily and could only be used again in another hundred years. Within the three minutes¡¯ time, they only managed to run a hundred over miles. But, Frost became a youth dragon again. Her combat strength and crawling skill dropped like stock market cliff which China stock investors were familiar with. Plus, along with Jose who was severely injured, her movement was slowed down. Not long after, Yoplait and the rest cast magic with the blood samples they retrieved during the batter earlier to trace them, and finally tracked them down. Fleeing while chasing after someone else was a long and tough journey. Luckily, there is always a way out. At the crucial moment, they finally ran into their life-saver. There was a wolfman scout named Miramon. He had gotten into higher orders recently and he wasn¡¯t considered as the stronger one among the chasing troops, but he was the number one scouting expert among the troop. The Mister Miramon was born cheerful and flexible, and especially loved delicacies. He once exploited public office for personal gains. He used the name of ¡°scouting¡± and ran to Void Mask theme park to enjoy the food for a couple of days, where the total expense was almost 2,000 gold coins. This life made him fall for the theme park and he would go for food whenever he had a chance. Even when there were no public funds to be used, he would pay his own expense to be there to eat, just like a die hard customer. When he saw Jose, who was severely injured that led to the inefficiency of the make up but returned to his original appearance, he was in a difficult position. Jose normally worked in the theme park and he had seen Miramon a few times; they even chatted. Although he couldn¡¯t remember, Miramon who was a scout could remember clearly! The enemy are people from Void Mask theme park? Miramon did not hesitate long until he decided to opt for the delicacies, and abandoned his belief towards God. He then became a half-Orc betrayer. With his assistance, Jose and Frost then escaped the chase of almost ten experts of the higher orders, and rested in a valley off the beaten track. When Sui Xiong rushed there, Miramon was helping Jose with the redressing of a wound. Due to the wound being cursed, any common medication wouldn¡¯t be effective. Hence, Miramon used a local method passed down by Orcs. The caught beasts were bloodthirsty to let them lick Jose¡¯s wound in order to share the burden of the curse, and achieved the outcome of weakening of curse. The method did work. Within a day or two, the curse of Jose¡¯s body had diminished by half. Actually, the method was very painful as the tongues of the beasts had barbs. Being licked by such tongues on the wound, that feeling, was really¡­ Tsk tsk¡­ ¡°It seems the two of you are doing okay.¡± Sui Xiong crossed through the space directly and got there. He saw Frost who was lying down on the floor sleeping soundly, Jose were biting on a short wooden stick, clenching his teeth as an unlucky leopard licked the blackening wound on his left shoulder. He was drenched in sweat with pain. Regardless, there wasn¡¯t any major issue, so he relaxed. ¡°How do I address you, bro jellyfish? Could you be the legendary, powerful, elegant, handsome, cheerful, and playful Void Mask Majesty?¡± Sui Xiong looked over to the voice. He first saw a fluffy blonde, then a pair of curious eyes, and finally saw the loyal customer of the theme park. He was short, round headed, his hair was long and fluffy, and the short tail was raised and shook. It went along with the expression of ¡°hurry up and praise me;¡± it reminded Sui Xiong a type of dog breed, Pomeranian. ¡­Hold on. Isn¡¯t this a wolf man? Why does it look like a Pomeranian? This is such a vast difference! He asked curiously and Miramon suddenly hung his ears low. ¡°It isn¡¯t my fault that I don¡¯t look majestic. My parents gave birth to me¡­¡± The wolf man, or rather wolf tribe scout soldier, was obviously opinionated towards his appearance. He nagged for a while, complaining about his dad not passing down his aggressive and powerful look to him, but giving birth to a few handsome and fierce brothers with the mistress. Then, he suspected he was the baby of his mother¡¯s affair with a canine-human. Otherwise, why would he look like his neighbour Wong? In the end, he made the conclusion, ¡°I am sure they picked me up from the rubbish pile¡­¡± Sui Xiong was frustrated and he wanted to tease; who would say such things about their parents? Then, he recalled that there was Steele, who was weird. There was certainly quite a number of people who didn¡¯t practice moral integrity, so he held back. But¡­ his neighbour Wong, that was a trick pulled that could be easily understood. But as for ¡°picked me up from the rubbish pile;¡± that was definitely Miramon¡¯s original thinking! Orcs had the tradition to pick up kids from rubbish piles? This classic joke even passed through to this world? But, Miramon didn¡¯t bother much about the question, but quickly got back to business and introduced himself. Name: Miramon Gender: Male. Tribe: Wolf man. Oh, wolf, segregation of half-Orc and Orc were different. Age: Unknown, but quite young. Occupation: Scout. Talent: Reconnaissance, tracing, shooting, not good in close combat. Hobby: There were many, so he wouldn¡¯t bring them up one by one. The last one was definitely bullshit, because Miramon used at least a thousand words to introduce a variety of things that he liked. He constantly reported a dish name and gave feedback, but every dish was ended with the description of ¡°delicious.¡± Thanks to his good memory, he memorized almost all of the menu items in the theme park¡­ ¡°Alright, these dishes can wait. You can slowly enjoy them when you return, let¡¯s go now.¡± Looking at him talking as he salivated, Sui Xiong quickly stopped him from continuing and helped Jose resolve the curse, and healed him. Sui Xiong cast magic and brought everyone back to the theme back. As for the bunch that were still slowly searching nearby, he let them continue to dig down for another three feet. Who knows, they might be able to find petroleum¡­ Chapter 187 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°These¡­ What is going on?¡± Looking at six gemstones in different colors, Sui Xiong fixed his gaze on the gas-like item that was spiraling slowly within the gemstones. With his power, he could see the true form of every cloud ¡°gas.¡± These were strong spirits that were sealed within. They were in a deep sleep, as though they were anesthetized. ¡°These are the six high priests of that higher order, whom they killed.¡± Snowflake said. ¡°Frost felt that they couldn¡¯t just let their souls go, so he imprisoned them in these gemstones. He urged me to inform you that, since these gemstones are his personal belongings, and because he expended them for official duty, you must reimburse him.¡± ¡°Why did he imprison their souls?¡± Sui Xiong felt perplexed. ¡°He thought that he couldn¡¯t just let their souls go off into the ether. So, I think he did a great job.¡± Snowflake took out the little black board and drew a person lying dead on the ground. Then, Snowflake drew its soul, hovering over to the holy kingdom to lodge a complaint, while shedding tears.¡±If their souls were to head to their holy kingdom, the news would leak out!¡± ¡°Huh? The news is still a secret?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised. ¡°After so many people died, they still don¡¯t know who killed them?¡± ¡°Of course not. The souls of those people didn¡¯t go to the holy kingdom, so how would they know?¡± ¡°If it was well-prepared and operations were carried out smoothly, it would be possible for the culprits to never be revealed, forever.¡± ¡°But wouldn¡¯t Orc Gods know how to trace them, using divine power?¡± ¡°Which church would waste their divine power for that only a few high priests? They¡¯re not worth it. Anyway, I haven¡¯t heard of it before.¡± Sui Xiong was confused. He could not understand how those high priests, who had shed blood, sweat, and tears, and who even sacrificed their lives, were considered not worth being saved. He never thought he would hear such comments! He thought for awhile, then asked, ¡°Could it be that there is some sort of error in your understanding towards human society?¡± Snowflake was offended now. She lifted her head arrogantly, while looking down her nose at him. She then spoke proudly, ¡°I am the Arctic Tyrant, who created Dragon-roar Town. You think that I don¡¯t understand the human society?¡± Sui Xiong thought and nodded. It was very convincing. He thought again, then decided to contact Morani. Steel Lion was at least on somewhat decent terms with the Orc Gods. So, he might know some news. Morani replied very quickly, explaining that, ¡°In recent times, the Orc Gods really did send out quite a number of oracles, and they were working hard on the investigation of them. But, they were not investigating the assassination of the few high priests, but a very dangerous organization instead.¡± ¡°A very dangerous organization?¡± Sui Xiong asked in distress. ¡°The Orc God system is considered to be the second most powerful among the God system, making it a very a dangerous organization¡­. Unless, it¡¯s a human God system?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s an assassination organization,¡± Morani said. ¡°That organization nurtured a scary female killer. Without poison, a curse, or any other supernatural measure, and merely depending on her skill in bed, she exhausted a legendary expert to death in a single night. And, she even has a divine power that allows her to block off tracking¡­ Just imagining it, I found it surprising, too!¡± Sui Xiong was quiet for a while. He thanked him and turned the connection off. Then, he couldn¡¯t hold back his laughter. Steele sure scored a lucky hit this time! She, as a holy spirit, even though she was a counterfeit, possessed divinity, after all. So, the tracing of divine power would naturally be ineffective for her. But, Belem Syrah¡¯s death, which she had been the killer within, had attracted the Orc Gods¡¯ attentions. The chain assassination by Jose and Frost then became a small matter in comparison. This is a surprise harvest! After taking care of that, he looked at the souls that were imprisoned in the gemstones. He was worried. In order to prevent the leaking of information, these people couldn¡¯t be released. But, these souls¡­ What should I do with them? He took up a blue gemstone randomly, focusing his attention on the enshrouding aura within it. In his eyes, that neatly arranged cloud of aura gathered, then took up the form of a centaur woman that was in deep sleep. All of this happened within the gemstone! The woman was beautiful and charming, and had a head of golden hair that shimmered. Her bone structure was slightly bigger, and her muscle looked a little too sturdy for a typical, ordinary female. All in all, she carried a typical image of a beauty soldier. Oh, beauty knight, her bottom half is a horse. How should I take care of the person¡¯s soul? In short¡­ Should I brainwash her first? How do I brainwash a soul? That¡¯s not right! Bro Xiong knows how to wash clothes, wash vegetables, reset gaming attributes points, but not brainwash! After thinking it through thoroughly, he created a protective screen using divine power in order to ensure that the soul within wouldn¡¯t disperse or escape. Then, he would release the soul later on. Oveila opened her eyes slowly. As she awakened, she let out a terrified groan. I was killed, and even my soul was imprisoned! Why am I awake now? A green jellyfish appeared before her. On its round body, there was a chubby face that looked comical. ¡°Hello,¡± the jellyfish said. ¡°I am Void Mask, the God that the two persons believed in. Are you interested in joining me?¡± Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t any good at debating, so he figured that he might as well be straightforward. Oveila was stunned. She looked around, but could only see white fog and didn¡¯t know where she was. Feeling it carefully, she realized that there was a faintly warm aura that slipped out among the white fog, which moisturized her soul. It helped to maintain the vigor of her soul that had lost its body, so that it wouldn¡¯t become withered and die out. But, the white fog also had a strange stickiness that caused her to have difficulty walking. Hence, even if the huge jellyfish wasn¡¯t blocking her way, it would likely be impossible for her to dash past. But, she would not submit to all of this! ¡°I am the high priest of the King of Tyrannical. I would never shift to anyone else!¡± She replied decisively. ¡°Maybe you could transform me into some kind of magic beast that has no intellect. But, as long as I have my senses, I will never betray my beliefs!¡± ¡°You are really!¡± Sui Xiong let out a sigh. ¡°What you¡¯re doing now is trying to persuade me to commit a crime!¡± Oveila did not reply, but kept quiet. She was working hard to save her energy. She was not sure if her resistance would be meaningful, but as a loyal high priest of the King of Tyrannical, she had to battle till her very last breath! Sui Xiong didn¡¯t intend to make a move but, remained silent. Then, he asked, ¡°What benefit did the God of Centaur give to you, in order for you to remain loyal to Him, even after you die?¡± ¡°I am the creation of His Majesty. It is only right and proper to devote my heart and soul to Him.¡± ¡°No!¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°He created the centaur tribe, and that definitely deserves your respect. But, that doesn¡¯t mean that he deserves to be served unconditionally. I won¡¯t accept that answer, so you have to think of another one.¡± Oveila was a little confused. She thought for a while, then expressed that she couldn¡¯t think of another answer. ¡°A creation is loyal to its creator, which is something that is in line with the principles of heaven and earth,¡± she said. ¡°If you want to punish me, go ahead and do it. But, if you want to try to shake my belief via words, there is no need to.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°I only wanted to explore the topic of beliefs with you. In fact, I heard of a saying: ¡®Belief is not a deal, so there shouldn¡¯t be a condition.¡¯¡± ¡°But, belief is a deal,¡± Sui Xiong continued. ¡°God provides protection and the savior human provides to God his worship and allegiance. Thus, their positions might not be equal, but intrinsically, they are still making a deal.¡± Oveila creased her eyebrows and looked at Sui Xiong vigilantly. ¡°Forgive me for being straightforward. You do not think like a God, but like a Devil in hell.¡± ¡°Devil? Well, I have never been to hell. I do not know them. Do they think like I do?¡± ¡°I heard that devil thinks that all relationships and associations in the world, including those between humans and God, follow the principle of the deal. So, they would punish those that destroy the principle of the deal. They even call themselves the true just rulers.¡± Oveila subconsciously explained all of this, before suddenly questioning, ¡°As a God, how could you not know about this?¡± ¡°I really have no idea.¡± Sui Xiong spread his tentacles in a semi-shrug. ¡°If you want to talk to me about the devils in the Abyss, I could talk a lot about them. I fought quite a number of battles with them, so I have some basic understanding regarding that. But, regarding hell, I haven¡¯t even been there. Hence, I have never seen any devils, so I have zero understanding about them!¡± He saw that Oveila still looked wary and doubtful, which made him laugh. ¡°How about this? My church is in its initial stage, so I really need a true clergy of the higher order to host the subject of popular science. Are you interested in taking a part-time job for a short period of time?¡± ¡°I will not change my beliefs!¡± Oveila was raging with anger now. ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to change your beliefs.¡± Sui Xiong smiled as he explained, ¡°You are only in charge as an instructor, so you can give the half-brained clergymen under my control some basic knowledge. After all, they aren¡¯t very bright. For example, did you know that a few idiots went to assassinate the high priests of the Orc Gods churches, just because the Orc Gods attacked me in the past? This is simply stupid!¡± ¡°Are you against My Majesty?¡± Oveila was shocked. ¡°I definitely wouldn¡¯t work for My Majesty¡¯s enemy!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that we are enemies, but that we merely had a fight.¡± Sui Xiong waved his hands. ¡°To us at this level, as long as it is not a conflict of clergy or territory, so what if there was a fight? My territory is located at the west of Mountains of Barrenness, and your Orcs¡¯ territory is located on the east. We do not share borders at all. As for the clergy, it is needless to say, I have yet to even confirm my clergy. So, the possibility of conflict is non-existent. You think too much!¡± ¡°As a God, were you to cheat a commoner, wouldn¡¯t you feel shameful?¡± Oveila didn¡¯t believe him at all. Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°Anyway, just think about it carefully. Then, call my name when you are done thinking. It is merely a part-time job. I wouldn¡¯t send you to train the warriors, and I wouldn¡¯t need you to provide news about the Orc Gods either.¡± Oveila didn¡¯t think about it for very long. After a half a month, she finally agreed with Sui Xiong¡¯s invitation. Sui Xiong was thrilled, and decided to help her reform her body. Of course, it couldn¡¯t be a centaur, but must be another creature. But, before that, he still had to reform another body¡­ Now, his attention must shift to the clone, Traverser Sui Xiong MK2, who was sent to experience life, but had died again! Chapter 188 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On a public cemetery plot in town, on top of a simple tomb, Sui Xiong who was invisible was looking at the slab of tombstone with a carving that said, Mr. Sui is buried here. He was a good man. He let out a heavy sigh. Traverser Sui Xiong MK2¡¯s reason of death was very ordinary¡­ When he was buying something at the roadside one day, there was a cow that was frightened and driven crazy. It almost knocked into the old man that was selling vegetables, so he quickly dashed over to push the old man away while he got knocked by the mad cow that was running wild. He was dead on the spot. It wasn¡¯t an unacceptable death. They asked themselves; to die for rescuing people ain¡¯t a bad way to die. Just¡­ Just a little regrettable. Experiencing life, the mission to understand in depth the moral values of the people in the world, had yet to be completed! He thought for a while and made another clone. He still carried the memory of earth, but slightly amended: from a weak scholar into a brawny man that was quick in response. The other details, like origins or that sort, had been altered too, in order to avoid the situation similar to ¡°Mr Sui.¡± Of course, having a good command of language was a definite requirement. ¡°To have such talent, he wouldn¡¯t die by doing such small deeds.¡± Looking at ¡°Traverser Sui Xiong MK3,¡± he gave him the identity of a ¡°lost traveller¡± who would stay in a small village and become a lumberjack. He nodded in secret and left with no worries. Returning to the theme park, they started to ponder on the question of creating Oveila¡¯s body. Firstly, a centaur body wouldn¡¯t work for sure! Not only there was need to keep secret, it was also a need to keep safety. There were of course Orcs and half-Orcs in the theme park, mainly half-Orcs. The Orcs were human-lion and human-bear, believers of Steel Lion and Silent Knight. But he was certain that there weren¡¯t any centaurs at all in the theme park! Centaur was a more close-minded tribe. Besides the holy war of the Orcs, they hardly left the grassland. Even if there was some centaur that became half-Orc then changed their belief and left, most of them would quickly turn into believers of the devil ¡°God of Centaur,¡± due to their bloodline. They¡¯d then fall into the Abyss and become a demon. Hence, it was not that there weren¡¯t any centaurs that wandered around the main dimension mainland, but that there were very few, extremely few. If there was suddenly a centaur in the theme park, it would definitely draw attention, which would not be good! Besides, Oveila was so strong that Jose and Frost had to join forces and run a dark scheme in order to kill her. If she were to recover her ability and cause trouble, that would be chaotic! Try to imagine, someone who wasn¡¯t far away from legendary realm that could be compared to Leon before Garth Port War and good at magic¡­ If such troublemaker were to slam on the east and hammer on the west in the theme park, and cast damaging and harmful magic in large range, what would the ending be? Sui Xiong shook his head and pushed the terrifying scene away from his mind. ¡°Alright, make a body that doesn¡¯t have such damaging power!¡± He pondered and decided to make a human body. After about two hours, in the world that soul power was concealed, Oveila saw the new body that Sui Xiong was preparing for her. ¡°¡­That¡¯s not quite right,¡± she said. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with it?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°I am a centaur, why is this a human?¡± ¡°There isn¡¯t any centaur in my theme park. If there was a centaur out of nowhere, it would be too eye-catching.¡± Oveila thought and asked, ¡°The woman is a little short, and she doesn¡¯t look strong.¡± She emphasised, ¡°Even if it is human, it should at least be stronger. The woman is so skinny, she is barely a hundred jin. Even wind could blow her away¡­ She should at least be 200 jin, or above!¡± ¡°Please take into consideration her height. If she was 200 jin, wouldn¡¯t her head be round then!¡± ¡°Then, make her taller!¡± Oveila played with the hair that was standing up against Earth¡¯s gravity on top of the head of the body. ¡°Even with the bunch of hair, she could barely reach my chest. This is too pathetic!¡± ¡°You are only a lecturer, you are not going to fight or kill anyone, what would you be so tall for?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°It¡¯s inconvenient to be so small sized!¡± Oveila emphasised. ¡°I have to share my knowledge to pastors and high priests. So, I have to tell them about standard production of statues, platform and altars¡­ or that sort, right? Look at this woman, standing behind the platform, no one would be able to see her if she were to bend down slightly¡­¡± ¡°It won¡¯t be; they could at least see that bunch of hair on the top of her head.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the use of that bunch of hair!¡± Sui Xiong laughed drily and quickly switched the topic. ¡°Look, she¡¯s beautiful. She doesn¡¯t look as gentle and weak as a human female, her muscles are actually quite solid¡­¡± ¡°This human isn¡¯t even as tall as my javelin, what¡¯s the point of having solid muscles!¡± Oveila said in disdain, ¡°This woman; even my front line can bash up a bunch of them!¡± ¡°You are going to be an office staff, why do you bother about battle power for?¡± ¡°But, it can¡¯t be like that! Short and small. I don¡¯t even have a tail, this is so pathetic¡­¡± ¡°Humans don¡¯t have tails.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t even have a tail, that¡¯s too ugly looking.¡± Oveila looked depressed. ¡°My handsome golden tail¡­¡± Sui Xiong had an idea that popped in his head. He waved his tentacles and loosened the golden hair that was tied up into a complicated English plaited bun on the back of the head, into a natural ponytail. ¡°Look, a golden tail,¡± he said. Oveila let out a heavy sigh and decided not to debate against the wicked jellyfish God. She could tell that no matter how much she went against it, the bastard would not amend the body anymore. On the second day, Void Mask Church had another female lecturer called ¡°Pan Jogan¡±. Although the surname seemed unfamiliar, the female lecturer that was brimming with man¡¯s mettle quickly caught everyone¡¯s attention. She was knowledgeable and experienced, she was sharp with her words, and she had good skills. Especially interesting was that the bunch of golden hair on top of her head would change according to her mood. When she was happy, it would be standing straight; When she was in a bad mood, it would be limp. It worked just like a weather forecast. In the church, those half-assed clergies quickly took a liking to the female teacher that looked sixteen, max. It was said that there were people who hired the bard, Shoggard, who normally sang in the theme park plaza, who insisted on calling himself ¡°Saint-Vallier Von Stovski Francis,¡± to help them write love letters for her. Unfortunately, even though Teacher Pan Jogan accepted the love letter, she didn¡¯t even open to read them, but used them as materials to demonstrate the survival skill of ¡°making friction fire¡±. When the curls of smoke soared up from the shredded wood that was broken apart from a thin piece of wood, it shattered countless innocent teenage boys¡¯ glass hearts. ¡°It looks like she is adapting to the new environment.¡± Hiding outside the lecture hall, Sui Xiong was looking at Oveila swinging her teaching stick to cane the idiot that couldn¡¯t learn how to draw a praying plate according to astronomy and season. The idiot was wailing in pain and Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. He could tell that Oveila looked as though she was in a burst of uncontrollable anger, but in actual fact, she already showed mercy. Although her body didn¡¯t allow her to put her ability to play fully, with the ability that she could show, she could still break someone¡¯s bones if she were serious. The question was which bone, and whether one needed to see a doctor or a pastor. Regrettably, these high priests of higher orders were really unteachable; there were two that wanted to self explode their souls. So, in the end, Sui Xiong could only seal them back into the gemstones; let them sleep first, and deal with them later. After getting in contact with six high priests, it was almost autumn. The invigorating autumn climate was clear and fresh, they reaped a bumper harvest, which was also the time when many churches held grand festival celebrations. Void Mask Church would also have a celebration ceremony then. They would pray at the grand holy altar, so that his believers that died in the past one year who still carried a deep affection towards human life could resurrect. Although there weren¡¯t many believers that could resurrect yearly, it was definitely incomparable to the situation where many other churches that would cast resurrection spells whenever there was sufficient money. Void Mask Church¡¯s resurrection ceremony was more pure and closer to believers¡¯ lives. ¡­Or maybe in simpler terms, besides this church, it would be impossible for any commoner to have a chance for resurrection. ¡°Void Mask Majesty, this is so unwise.¡± As a believer of God of Tyrannical, Oveila that was then called Pan Jogan of course wouldn¡¯t partake the Void Mask Church¡¯s ceremony. She was watching the ceremony from afar like Snowflake. When she saw the people resurrected one after another, and walk down slowly after they reshaped their bodies in the altar where they burnt the dead bodies of cow and goats to reunite with their families, the extremely professional clergy couldn¡¯t help but comment. ¡°How is it unwise?¡± Sui Xiong , who left a clone there, asked curiously. ¡°As a God, dignity is more important than favor. You should first pressure your believers, then give them favors; that would be sufficient to maintain the devoted believers,¡± Oveila said. ¡°Humans are like cows and horses; if they eat too much, they fall sick.¡± ¡°In total, there were less than one tenth of deceased that could be resurrected; how is this considered too much?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Such favors, like resurrection spells, should only be given when they contribute greatly. Look at them: who has contributed greatly?¡± Oveila shook her head. ¡°These people are only the foundation of your church, there isn¡¯t many with one extra, nor any lesser with one lesser. You should use your great divine power on believers that are stronger or extremely devoted, not waste it on these people.¡± ¡°But they really needed the mercy,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°If I didn¡¯t have sufficient power, then forget it. But as I have enough power, then I¡¯ll just help along the way.¡± Oveila turned around and looked at the floating jellyfish that was jade green, just like her eyes. She kept quiet but looked at Sui Xiong solemnly. After a while he felt a little uncomfortable. Then she spoke again. ¡°From the standpoint of a clergy, I have to criticize you, because a naive method is not sustainable,¡± she said, ¡°but from a commoner¡¯s standpoint, I hope your naive method will last forever. ¡°From my personal experience, such naive methods are only sweet dreams that fade away that instance. Before I depart to the kingdom of my master, I will provide assistance to people who are as naive as you in order to prolong that sweet dream.¡± ¡°Alright!¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°It¡¯s a deal then. Good luck!¡± ¡°No problem.¡± Chapter 189 The autumn wind was blowing, causing the leaves to rustle. Sui Xiong fixed his gaze upon the dead body that was lying among the withered leaves. He let out a heavy sigh. It was another clone of his. Traverser Sui Xiong MK3 had died. The cause of death was merely sickness. It wasn¡¯t even a severe sickness! According to Sui Xiong¡¯s judgement, he reckoned that it had been merely a cold. If he had been in the world before he had traversed, he might not even have needed an infusion, but only scheduled medication, proper rest and sufficient fluids in order to recover in a few days. However, the poor woodman didn¡¯t even have extra money to look for a pastor to buy medication. So, he dragged things out, allowing it to become more severe. In the end, he even coughed up blood! Plus, he was short of food and clothing at that time, not to mention that his nutrition was very lacking. So, his body grew weak gradually, until he was so worn down and eventually died. After he died, he didn¡¯t even have a grave. Instead, his body was simply abandoned in the wild. This may have been because he was so poor, even though he worked very hard all of his life. Even so, his income was barely enough to keep himself fed. For half a year¡¯s time, he didn¡¯t even manage to earn enough to buy a decent outfit. The level of poverty that he lived at would simply make one shed tears of sympathy. Sui Xiong reminisced about the clone¡¯s short life, feeling a righteous indignation on the clone¡¯s behalf. ¡°No wonder bro resorted to killing and escaping back then. I thought it was just his character, but it seems that I was wrong. No one could withstand such a job!¡± After taking care of the dead body of his poor clone, Sui Xiong was thinking about how to design the next clone. In such a world, it¡¯s better to have professional skills. The income of a job that depended on strength alone was too low, so the clone wouldn¡¯t survive for long with that. However, with a skill, the clone would then be able to settle down and get on with his life! He thought carefully and decided in the end¡­ Actually, it¡¯s not bad being a chef. Let him be a chef on the next round then. At least I have never heard of any chef that starved to death! Then, traverser Sui Xiong MK4 was officially created. He was a mediocre looking young man, who had some strength and was quick in response. There was also some knowledge about the food business that Sui Xiong intentionally planted in his brain. Then, Sui Xiong left the clone with a hint for him to develop himself in town. A few days later, on a night when the breeze was whizzing in a nearby town, a young visitor went to a bar where adventurers always gathered to chat. He did not ask for alcohol nor order any food, but went to look for the boss directly. He then said straightforwardly, ¡°I am quite a good chef and am looking for a job.¡± The boss, who was once an adventurer, shook his head. ¡°We are only a small bar, so we can¡¯t afford a chef.¡± The young man wasn¡¯t upset, but sniffed a few times. Then, he took a few deep breaths and said, ¡°On your grilled meat, you put too many bay leaves and too little salt. You might need to add more oil, too.¡± The boss was stunned, as he looked towards the piece of meat that was grilling on the rack nearby curiously. The meat was slowing grizzling on the flame, its oil flowing out. ¡°Still need more oil?¡± he asked. The young man nodded with confidence. ¡°If you don¡¯t believe, you could at least let me try.¡± The boss hesitated, but decided to let the young man try. Then, the grilled meat sold extremely well that day! Those adventurers, who were normally not interested in anything else other than alcohol, all complimented the grilled meat. After trying the grilled meat personally, the boss instantly changed his mind¡­ It would nice to have a chef! Although I run a bar, I could do some restaurant business on the side. So, why not? Looking at the clone settling down, Sui Xiong nodded in satisfaction and left. As the descendant of the nation of delicacies, being a chef was a more reliable, smart choice, just as he had expected. After returning to the theme park, he felt that he had enough rest and was ready to make his holy kingdom. Regarding the design of the holy kingdom, he had received a few proposals. The higher ups in the church definitely devoted their energy and wisdom into researching seriously. In the end, they provided three vastly different proposals. The first proposal was a holy kingdom that was militarized, complete with a fortress. It was constructed like an onion. The outer layer was a tough shell, then there were triple defenses as a buffer, followed by the training area and the residences of the military troop. Next, it was civilians area, followed by the functional area. Sui Xiong¡¯s throne was located right in the middle of the entire holy kingdom, in order for it to be held in veneration. The second proposal was the total opposite of the first. It was a purely peaceful holy kingdom. Thin, floating clouds engulfed the entire holy kingdom, which would connect to the outside world via a rainbow-shaped bridge. A piece of floating mainland was located among the floating clouds. The mainland had all kinds of weather and living environments for people to reside within and propagate. As for those that preferred to live underground, they could also live in a built-in cave that was underground. Also, in the middle of the mainland, there was a big inland lake that water creatures could live in. In this proposal, Sui Xiong¡¯s throne was like the sun, seated above the mainland to be worshipped by all living things. The third proposal was tastefully adorned. The entire holy kingdom was a huge city, and the buildings in the city were extremely luxuriant, where every brick and stone was crafted exquisitely. Various kinds of artistic venues could be seen around the city, and there was a magnificent sports complex that could hold grand sports events. Sui Xiong¡¯s throne was located somewhere behind the rostrum in the middle of the city, just like a judge¡¯s bench! Besides the three proposals, there were also a few classic holy kingdom design proposals offered among the various Gods, such as a militarized grand colosseum, a magic and research-focused big college, and a sphere world. Sui Xiong looked into those proposals carefully and finally, before deciding that the idea of city of arts suited him the most. Although he was well-aware that the design proposal of the city of art was luxurious yet impractical, he reckoned that it wouldn¡¯t fit most of his believers ideals. However, as an artist, he really liked the proposal too much! Olian deserved to be called a genius. She and her teacher, Wor, collaborated and designed the proposal, which was not only luxurious and delicate, but also totally fit the requirements of an art lover! But, Sui Xiong still remembered the purpose of the holy kingdom. Taking into consideration the believers¡¯ needs, and also the necessity of practicality, he finally decided to design the holy kingdom into a few floating islands among a sea of clouds. The original body of the holy kingdom was a vast sea of clouds. Among the clouds, there were be large pieces of floating mainland, just like islands. On every island, there would be different people residing, with different styles. Regardless of the type of believer, regardless of the lifestyle they liked, they would be able to find a living environment that was suitable for them. It was also fairly easy to build such a holy kingdom in a way to where it would be convenient to expand in the future. Even if there was a God war in the future, and he wanted to switch the holy kingdom into battle mode, he would only be required to move those peaceful floating islands to the middle of the holy kingdom, while moving the floating islands, where warriors and mages were gathered, to the outer region of the holy kingdom. Then, he could quickly transform the entire kingdom from peaceful mode to battle mode! Perhaps the best part of the design regarded the throne of Sui Xiong. It was located on a floating island, which was an exact mini version of the city of art itself! After making a decision, he informed his allies, then began making moves. He was prepared to open up a brand new world! Under the attentions of the God of Justice and the other people, the huge jellyfish slowly flew into chaos. He was deep in thought, then suddenly transformed into a giant that was holding a huge axe! The giant roared in anger and waved his axe. He slammed brutally at the chaotic scene around him. The chaos calmed then. The giant was a little awkward. He saved some energy, then let out another thundering roar, as he waved his huge axe to break the chaos again. After a few minutes, Sui Xiong turned back into his image of a jellyfish. He came out disheartened. ¡°Everyone, how do we open up a new world?¡± Dealing with the question, various Gods were dumbfounded. Opening up a new world is easier said than done. What should we do? The God of Justice quickly got in touch with the King of Order to ask about a concrete method. ¡°Opening up a new world means bestowing order upon the entire world. It is a process for everything in the world to go towards order from disorder,¡± the King of Order said. ¡°It¡¯s that simple?¡± the God of Justice asked in doubt. ¡°It¡¯s not simple at all.¡± The King of Order shook his head. ¡°The order that I was talking about isn¡¯t my order, but rather the most fundamental order in the entire world. Segregating light and darkness, kindness and wickedness, order and mess, life and death, success and failure, more and less, existence or vanishing¡­ And so on¡­To segregate all of this is the order that is required by opening up a new world.¡± The God of Justice was stunned and asked, ¡°So, what should we do exactly?¡± The King of Order shook his head. ¡°There is not an exact right way. Try to find out for yourself. If you know, you¡¯ll know. If you don¡¯t, then you don¡¯t. Let the jellyfish think about it slowly.¡± The God of Justice told Sui Xiong what he said. Sui Xiong thought about it carefully, then laughed. ¡°I understand now!¡± ¡°What?! You understood?!¡± The God of Justice was shocked. ¡°You are too smart!¡± ¡°So, what should we do?¡± Morani asked curiously. ¡°How would I know?¡± Sui Xiong shook his head,. ¡°I only knew that, from what I see now, I can¡¯t do it.¡± ¡°Then, how could you say you understood?¡± ¡°I understood.¡± Sui Xiong chuckled. ¡°As I couldn¡¯t do it as of now, I¡¯ll just leave it here then. We¡¯ll talk about it when I can. I said, ¡®I understood¡¯, which didn¡¯t mean that I knew how to open up a new world, but that I understood that ¡®I shouldn¡¯t force it, if I couldn¡¯t do it¡¯. Don¡¯t be in a hurry!¡± ¡°But¡­ Just to keep dragging it out won¡¯t work, either¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t panic. We will figure out a way sooner or later,¡± Sui Xiong said casually. ¡°Before that, I¡¯d better do things that I already know how to do!¡± ¡°What do you plan to do now?¡± Morani asked curiously. Sui Xiong smiled faintly, then said three words unyieldingly¡­ ¡°Paper! Making! Technology!¡± Chapter 190 Bringing paper-making technology to this world was an idea Sui Xiong had long ago. The spreading of culture was very slow. One of the crucial reasons was that there was a lack of cultural carrier: paper. Here, the books were compiled into booklets with papers made with various beast skins, hence the incredibly high cost. A blank booklet for about 30 pages would at least cost six gold coins in the wholesale store, while the retail price normally cost eight to ten gold coins. Why aren¡¯t there many mages in this world? Some of the people laid the blame on the commoners¡¯ brain power, emphasised that only people who were highly intelligent could become a mage. Actually the problem wasn¡¯t that, but the money. A mage would at least need to learn the common language, ancient elven language, dragon language, dwarven runes, heavenly language, Abyss language, hell language, mystery language and the other ¡°common languages.¡± A true mage that was proficient in languages, normally knew even more different languages. For example Void Mask Church¡¯s mage group leader, Satan, was a mage that had just gotten into the higher order in the recent two years. He knew 33 languages in total, and was learning more languages then. For instance, that year, taught himself the language of a mutated species, Heart Eater Soul Monster. The species was basically non-existent in the main dimension but it was distributed across countless worlds that were floating in Void. They were good at using attacks on their prey that caused heartache, hence the name ¡°heart eater.¡± According to his way of saying things, his plan was to master above a hundred languages. A mage not only had to learn languages but also know the more headache-inducing study, culture. Astrology, geography, customs and practices, biology, history¡­ forget it. Listing them out one by one seems as though I am trying to fulfil the word count. All in all, the reason why mages had high expenditures was mainly because of ¡°learning.¡± And principal part of the learning expenditure was the purchase of books. Books wouldn¡¯t fall from the sky but required to be bought using one¡¯s own money. Or maybe one could buy an empty booklet and copy by hand. An experienced mage normally had a few racks of books, or even a library. What were these? These were all money! Why did Mifata Fedaration have more mages? Because they had a systematic nurturing standard, and youngsters that intended to go down the path of magic could spend less money to borrow books which helped to cut down the expenses by a lot. Not only that, but in the process of learning magic, ¡°copying scrolls¡± and ¡°copying magic books¡± were inevitable. Defeat was a common sight too. With a failure, one would lose at least a beast paper, or one might lose the entire book straightaway. Encountering 80 to 100 counts of failure wasn¡¯t a huge number. The poor Palin wanted to learn an intermediate magic ¡°ice storm,¡± and wasted almost 200 scrolls, plus booklets, ink, and therapeutic medicine¡­ These few years, he basically spent all his salary in the stationary shop. Even if they didn¡¯t take the expense of a mage into consideration, merely language learning and calculation, which was pretty much a basic requirement to shake off the nickname of illiterate, would need at least 30 to 50 books. If he were to learn law or performing arts, there should be an extra zero behind the existing figure. Plus history¡­ Sigh, it would be best not to calculate so much. In this world where a poor commoner¡¯s family might not even make a gold coin, the education expenses were enormous and hard to afford. If there were paper making technology, with a large amount of cheap papers and books, the culture in this world might be able to spread more widely. Like the saying went, ¡°knowledge will change one¡¯s fate.¡± If cultural knowledge were to be common among the poor, maybe their fates would be improved. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know if his speculations were accurate but he felt he could give it a try. So he built himself a laboratory by the river near the sea in the Ashes Woods, and tried to research and develop paper making technology. ¡°Let me recall how does paper making works¡­¡± Sui Xiong said at the pile of wood that had just been chopped. He hung his head low as he thought, ¡°I learned it in history class. It said that Cai Lum produced broken fishnet and chopped wood into paper paste, then spread it flat on a cloth to dry, and it became paper. It seems quite easy¡­¡± He waved his tentacles and the big tree next to him flew up and was crushed by an invisible force. After some squeaking noises, it quickly shattered into a ball of shredded wood. Then, Sui Xiong got some river water to mix with the shredded wood. He then boiled it with magic. Because the river water and wood that were polluted by negativity, they gave off thick clouds of black smoke during the boiling process. The black smoke wasn¡¯t the chemical gas commonly seen in the paper making factories on Earth, but the negativity that was dispersed. Any commoner would die if they were to get in contact with it. Looking at the danger aspect, this was more terrifying. After boiling for a long time, that ball of unknown mixture had turned into thick murky fluid and the negativity in it had fully dispersed. Sui Xiong tried to take some and used magic to spread it on the linen that he prepared earlier. Then, he oven-dried it using magic. After a while, it was fully dried. Sui Xiong took it down from the linen and gotten a piece of thick paper in a blackish green colour. It was hard and coarse, and didn¡¯t look like it could be used for writing. ¡°This doesn¡¯t look quite right,¡± he mumbled to himself. ¡°If Cai Lun made this back then, the emperor was kind enough to not beat him to death. How could he even leave a good name in history?¡± He pondered and took out some again from the mixture that would likely be paper waste, and spread it on the linen. But, he purposely spread it thinner. then he realised that there were many small pieces, and he couldn¡¯t spread it nicely. ¡°It¡¯s not fine enough!¡± He suddenly understood, so he used magic to shred the ball of paper waste again. This time, he strengthened the pounding power. Even steel could turn into powder, not to speak of wood. Hence, the paper waste was spread thinly and evenly. After it oven-dried, he had gotten a flat piece of paper. Greyish blue in colour, a little crumpled; it looked like soft paper that could be used to wipe one¡¯s ass. ¡°This is toilet paper¡­ I want to make writing paper!¡± He pondered again, wondering it went wrong. Firstly, he had to remove the color because he needed white paper. How to remove the colour? Filtration? He tried to filter it, and there was murky water that was greyish green. But the color on the paper paste obviously didn¡¯t change. Well, filtration didn¡¯t work; how about washing? He made some purifying water with magic, used a ball of paper paste for experimentation and washed it a couple of times. The color of the paper waste was slightly lighter. If he were to lower his standards, he might be able to use it for writing. But, the prerequisite of it was that, it needed to written on with a writing brush. This world was popular for the feather brush, which was to used with beast feathers and dipped into ink to write. The type of brush obviously couldn¡¯t be used to write on soft but coarse surfaces; at least not on this kind of paper that Sui Xiong had invented. ¡°If so¡­ Do I have to invent ink and writing brush?¡± He pondered and decided to improvise the paper-making technology once again. It was like the saying, ¡°It is when you are using what you have learned from books that you wish you had read more books.¡± By that time, his reserved knowledge had been used up, he didn¡¯t know how to further purify the paper paste to whiten it more. After thinking for half a day, he decided to develop a magic spell that was used to purify the paper paste. The character of the magic was to absorb the coloring in the paper paste; it was not very high tech. Sui Xiong only used a few hours to design it and spent another few hours to experiment and improvise. He finally invented the very first magic spell in this world that he could spread and leave him a good reputation in the history. Sui Xiong¡¯s paper-paste purifying spell, beginner magic. The spell was made of an incantation and runes and the material required to cast the magic spell was only a small block of charcoal. Using the magic could help to extract the coloring in the paper paste and turn into stringy colour colloid, while the originally variegation paper paste turned white. After completing the magic, Sui Xiong had finally gotten the white paper paste that he wanted. Using this paper paste as raw material, he had gotten white paper. But, it was still the soft crumpled paper, not like anything that could be written on with a feather brush. The more troublesome part was that the paper was not beneficial for packaging and preserving. He could be tell by the looks, it was definitely not anything sturdy and durable. Sui Xiong thought carefully and wanted to press the paper flat. It was smoother, but not smooth enough. He thought again, tried to put more paper paste onto the linen, pressed it flat, and oven-dried it. He finally got a piece of smooth white paper. Of course, compared to the white paper on earth, it was vastly different. But Sui Xiong had already tried his best and couldn¡¯t figure any other way to improve it. He tried it with feather brush and ink. As expected, he realized ink would smudge on the piece of paper and it couldn¡¯t be used for delicate small writings. ¡°Alright, the next is the writing brush.¡± Theoretically, it should be quite easy. He just needed to pick beast hairs that had suitable length and tied it together. Then, stuff them into the bamboo tube and tie it tightly. ¡°Not difficult at all!¡± Within a short period of time, Sui Xiong made possibly the very first writing brush in the world. But, its efficiency in absorbing ink was bad. After absorbing ink, it was inconsistent when it was used for writing. The performance of the writing brush pissed people off. The brush was obviously a failure. Sui Xiong thought and pondered, Was it because of the oil content on the hair? To remove the oil content, it required washing with soap. This wouldn¡¯t be difficult as someone had already invented a soap bar in the world long ago, although its quality was not as good as the ones on Earth and the pricing was on a higher side. After washing, the beast hair was better. Although it wasn¡¯t as smooth and natural when used, it could at least be used for writing. Then, it¡¯s done. The rest of the problem, the users can overcome themselves! Sui Xiong then focused his attention on the ink again. In the world, the price of ink was very expensive; a small bottle that was about fifty grams would cost over 20 gold coins. For feather brushes that required lesser ink, it was alright. But a writing brush was an ink sucker. If it was used as such, he reckoned the poor would not be able to afford it. Hence, Sui Xiong started to research and make ink. He failed miserably but found an alternative. Mixing water with a small amount of glue, blended with ashes, could be used for writing. Although the writing effect wasn¡¯t as good, it could at least be used. The biggest problem about this solution was that every time when someone wanted to use it, they have to make mix the ink on the go, which was inconvenient. But inconvenience would still be better than nothing, wouldn¡¯t it? Sui Xiong had the intention to make an ink block like the one that was used by his ancestors for many years. He tried to combine glue and ashes into blocks but in the end, he realised that the ink block could only be cut and crushed for usage. Mm, this will do too¡­ After a few days, during the meeting of higher ups in Void Mask Church, Sui Xiong showed off his invention proudly. ¡°Look!¡± He told everyone. ¡°This thing is going to change the world!¡± Chapter 191 Sui Xiong spent some time demonstrating his creation in detail to the higher ups in his church. ¡°This can reduce the cost of obtaining knowledge significantly, and it also could promote the communization of knowledge,¡± he said. ¡°And we all know that knowledge transforms life, knowledge transforms fate, and knowledge transforms the world. Hence, these few inventions of mine would promote the advancement of the entire world!¡± But, his impassioned speech still failed to get him the support of his believers. ¡°Your Majesty, I think that these things¡­ The cost didn¡¯t seem to be low, either.¡± Rhode, who was in charge of finance, said. He then listed his calculations, and continued. ¡°Shatter wood, boil them, remove the color using magic, spread them across a piece of cloth, then flatten and oven-dry¡­ The entire process, I feel, isn¡¯t any simpler than using parchment.¡± ¡°Yeah. Although beast skin is very expensive, it isn¡¯t troublesome to process simple parchment.¡± Satan, who once made parchment during his childhood as a side job, agreed with Rhode¡¯s opinion. ¡°First, soak the beast skin, and then remove the oil with alkaline water. Next, cut away the hair and oil, then polish it carefully. When I was young, I worked in a workshop that produced parchment. Although it was hard work, it was really uncomplicated. Comparatively, these things that you are talking about, they are too troublesome, when it comes to production.¡± ¡°Is it very troublesome?¡± Sui Xiong was a little confused. ¡°I find that it¡¯s very easy.¡± ¡°Forget about the rest, then. Just the step requiring the smashing of the wood is troublesome enough,¡± Satan said. ¡°We could let the carpenter shatter the wood, then soak them in water and grind them. Under such a situation, where no magic is involved, that is probably the only way. That would mean soaking the wood until it could be mashed. But, God knows how much time and effort that would require! Otherwise, it would be a big problem, having to remove wood pieces from the wood pulp.¡± He continued his line of thinking. ¡°Not only that, but it would require the help of a mage during the production. I looked at the magic that you have designed, then made an estimation of effect. To purify the wood pulp in a normal big pot, transforming it into a completely white color, it would require at least an intermediate mage to cast the magic. Did you consider about the cost of inviting a mage to cast the magic?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned, then mumbled quietly, ¡°Doesn¡¯t our church have mages?¡± ¡°Yes, but when it comes to cost calculations, you have to include the cost of hiring a mage.¡± Satan didn¡¯t give Sui Xiong any chance to further debate, but continued. ¡°After purification, when the white wood pulp has been achieved, lay the gunny flat on the wooden plank, then spread the wood pump the cloth. Then, flatten and oven-dry it¡­ This is very troublesome, because it is difficult for hot air to go through the layers of wooden plank. This is exactly why a mage may need to be involved.¡± ¡°If by completing this process, we could obtain soft, smooth paper that feather brush could write on, it is actually quite worth it. But, I fear that the paper we will get is either going to be too soft or too hard. Hence, what¡¯s the use of it?¡± ¡°I also invented brush¡­¡± Sui Xiong attempted to interject. ¡°It would be too slow to write with that pen,¡± Palin said, ¡°It is much much slower than writing with a feather pen! Plus, after writing one or two words, it would need to be dipped in the ink again. The expenditure of ink alone would be too much. Besides, it is inconvenient, too.¡± ¡°I improvised on the ink too!¡± Siu Xiong again chimes in. ¡°You made an ink block that is convenient to bring around. I think that is the only reliable invention.¡± Satan finally showed a smile. ¡°With slight improvisation, it could become a good commercial item. At the very least, it is much cheaper than normal ink, and also much more convenient to conserve and transport.¡± Sui Xiong was upset to hear their feedback, as he was planning to continue with his experiment to improve his version of four treasures of the study. At that moment, Wor, who was quiet the entire time, suddenly spoke up. ¡°These inventions are not too shabby!¡± He spoke in a low voice. ¡°They do possess the power to change the world and push it towards advancement!¡± Everyone looked at him suspiciously, as they didn¡¯t understand what had made him say such things. Wor didn¡¯t explain in detail, but stood up and saluted Sui Xiong. ¡°Your Majesty, please pass these things to me. I will work hard to improvise the production techniques and process, so that I can make writing tools that everyone is satisfied with as soon as possible!¡± Sui Xiong looked into his eyes, seeing a passion and motivated desire that he had never seen before. Ever since he had known Wor, this expert that was once well-known across the world looked like he completely lacked vigor. Even when they had talked about his hatred towards the church of the Sun God, he would only display deep resentment, but no action. He had simply looked gloomy and dull, like a really old man. Because of this, Sui Xiong had given Wor the nickname of ¡°sweeping monk¡± secretly in his mind. Although the nickname signified his unusual power and excellence in martial arts, it also symbolized how he was overly calm and lacked the sharp imposing manner of most experts. He was just like an old monk, who stood aloof from worldly strife. But, at that moment, the look in Wor¡¯s eyes had changed. In fact, his complete manner had changed, too. Although he was still dressed up like an old man, the vigorous manner that he gave out was like a flame of burning passion in his eyes. It testified to his renewed and refreshed identity! ¡°Very well!¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°Looking at the look in your eyes now, I will entrust this to you fully!¡± Wor smiled and lowered his head. ¡°I will not disappoint you!¡± After the meeting, Wor brought along the samples and technical information that Sui Xiong had provided him, then returned to Geerteng via transportation portal. He built a workshop in a remote mountain area, hiring some experienced carpenters and workers. He also asked for two experienced low-level mages from Satan, then started with his research work. He decided to start with improvising the ink block first. From its initial start, the job had been carried out smoothly. In fact, it only took two or three days time until he had made an ink block in strips with a grass smell. Due to the fact that it was mixed with sufficient glue and oil, the ink block was much better than Sui Xiong¡¯s invention. When needed, it only required one to file the ink block lightly to obtain some scraps, then mix them with water. Sui Xiong, who was paying attention to his experiment, saw that he had completed the new ink block and was surprised. He asked, ¡°Is this going to produce ink by grinding it on the ink stone?¡± ¡°Ink stone? What is that?¡± Wor was confused by the question. Sui Xiong roughly explained about the concept of ink stick, ink stone, ink and so on. Wor was suddenly enlightened. Once he understood, it only took him a day¡¯s time to make an ink stone. As expected, it was made just like how Sui Xiong¡¯s ancestors had made it. With the combination of ink stick and ink stone, it could replace ink entirely. Although it possessed the disadvantage of having a slow speed, its benefit of being able to stored and transported easily made it worth it. Not only could this type of ink be used for brushes, it also could be used by feather brushes, too. Plus, its price was much cheaper than ink. If it was calculated according to the same volume of writing, its total costs were only about one-fifth of ink¡¯s. Upon his completion of the research of ink and ink stone, Wor started to simplify the process and enhance the quality. The most crucial task was to eliminate the usage of a mage, so that the entire production process could be completed solely by a commoner. After about half a month, at the personal estate of Olian, the feudal lord of Geerteng, there was a workshop that was built for producing ink stick and ink stone. In the workshop, the wood was put in a specially built kiln, then slowly burnt to obtain ashes. There was a specially made magic tool that gathered large amounts of the pure ashes, then the workers mixed them with a glue oil that was cooked with great care. They then twisted and beat the mixture to make it into a soft ink block. Next, they used a mould that would make the ink block into strips, then put the strips into the magic oven-dry room that was built with quite a large amount of money. After about ten days, they retrieved the now solidified ink block, then polished it neatly. They carved the Geerteng¡¯s family badge on each, giving a clear indication of its production place and the amount within. After adding a slight bit of brass powder for color, it was then wrapped with cloth, thus finishing the production process completely. From the beginning stages of burning the wood to the finished product that could be sold, the entire process required about thirty days time. Calculating the costs, it would still only be one-tenth of the cost of ink! Right when it launched into the market, this new and interesting product was immediately widely popular. Geerteng, which was previously unknown, suddenly gained great fame and attention. However, after its sudden profit, Olian had no choice but to spend some time and effort in battling with people that intended to take a share of the business. She was able to successfully defeat the few greedy ones severely, thus defending her benefits. ¡°I calculated roughly. Depending on the business of ink stick and ink stone, Geerteng would receive a surplus of almost twenty thousand gold coins.¡± In the year-end meeting, Olian announced happily. ¡°This is the result that I calculated according to the strict control of production volume that was requested by His Majesty. If we were to produce more, I reckon the amount could be doubled!¡± The large amount of money surprised everyone. No one had expected that an ink stick and ink stone would bring about such a huge amount of profits. ¡°It¡¯s a pity that the cost of the magic oven-dry room was so high,¡± Olian sighed and said. ¡°It cost us ten thousand gold coins! We will need to wait till next spring to cover our capital. Although the profit is high, the capital required wasn¡¯t small!¡± Sui Xiong chuckled. ¡°There¡¯s no need to be so calculative about money, as long as we can earn something in the end. It¡¯s a pity that your teacher has yet to complete the improvisation of paper making technology. Otherwise, the combination of sales for paper and ink would definitely promote the spread of knowledge!¡± After using the ink stick that was produced in Geerteng, everyone looked at Sui Xiong with a new admiration and now believed in his judgment beyond the shadow of a doubt. Upon seeing this, Satan couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Paper making technology and ink, with the two inventions! Your Majesty has already contributed greatly in culture! Maybe, you should just seek for clergy in culture, how about that?¡± ¡°Clergy in culture was occupied by the God of Art and Culture.¡± Sui Xiong smiled as he spoke. ¡°I am not planning to fight with Him for that.¡± ¡°Yeah, a few days back, a book collector (the God of Ceremony) sent his people from the church to get in touch with us. He expressed his intention of buying a few large orders of ink block and ink stone, and hoped that he could get a cheaper price.¡± Olian recalled and said, ¡°Your Majesty, do you think we should receive the orders?¡± No one was surprised at this request, as the invention of ink stick would greatly benefit the church of the God of Ceremony. Thus, it would be strange if the God of Ceremony didn¡¯t bestow honor on Olian and Wor for having created them! ¡°They mean well, I am sure,¡± said Sui Xiong with a smile. A few days later, the church of the God of Ceremony threw a grand ceremony in Geerteng. In the ceremony, the God that was called the Book Collector by commoners, shed divine light and gave a blessing to the feudal lord, Miss Olian, and her teacher, Mister Frye (Wor¡¯s alias). They were suddenly catapulted to a higher level in society, talked about with approval by everyone all of the sudden. Chapter 192 The research for ink and ink stone was carried out smoothly, but paper making technology wasn¡¯t. Wor accidentally made papers that couldn¡¯t go well with a feather brush. If there was a type of paper that could only be used with a writing brush, and that required many other combinations and writing speeds, and was comparably slower, one shouldn¡¯t hope that it would be popular and common. Because writing was a tool, not an art. Thus, efficiency was more important, as compared to mere appearance. But, to invent a paper that a feather brush could write smoothly on, and ink would smudge on, well, that¡¯s easier said than done! He first pondered if the difference of wood would lead to different paper material. He tried a dozen kinds of wood, and finally decided on bamboo as the raw material. He soaked the tender bamboos into water that was combined with a beginner magic ¡°acidic splash¡±, and then cast magic spells twice a day, in order to soften the bamboo quickly and to remove the bamboo node, skin, and film. Then, he minced the rest of the parts and boiled them in the acid liquid, before grinding them. Finally, what resulted was his bamboo paste. Acidic splash was considered the lowest level magic. Even a beginner mage apprentice would be able to cast it. Although the number of casting magic increased, the total expense was more economical, when compared to Sui Xiong¡¯s wood paste purifying spell. Later on, he purposely found another alchemist to make a humongous acidic cauldron. It could enhance the effect of acidic splash tremendously, save more money, and increase efficiency. Every time after the bamboo paste was boiled, it had to be transferred into clear water. It could only be ground after the magic power dispersed. It takes about three times of boiling and grinding altogether, before one can finally achieve a pure bamboo paste. The quality of the bamboo paste was magnificent, and it didn¡¯t require any color removal, and the processing time was quite fast. It basically fulfilled the needs of a paper mill. In order to increase the paper making efficiency, he purposely custom made a really fine knit net, and strengthened it with magic to use as a moulding cloth. They set up the sturdy material on the rack, and spread a layer of paper paste that was sufficiently mixed, then it turned into a piece of paper. Using one layer for each rack, then stacking dozens of rack together, they would then allow it to lay by the side for a while. Then, it would become paper. The workers took down the paper from the moulding cloth carefully, and stacked them together to remove excessive water. They then hung them up to dry them. They straightened it slightly, and that was the paper that Wor gets at the very end. That kind of paper was white and soft, and the quality was quite good. Tied up with a writing brush and ink, it could totally pass as a suitable writing paper. But, it still had the problem of ink absorbency, and that it didn¡¯t quite suit finer brush strokes, not like the feather brush, at least. Wor¡¯s research had reached a bottle neck. He thought of many ways to make paper whiter and sturdier, but the problem of ink absorbency wasn¡¯t resolved in the end. To solve the problem, higher ups in the church visited paper mills in batches, in order to conduct research. Among these, Satan proposed a solution, as he used his past working experience in a goat skin workshop to re-apply onto paper-making. During the process of drying the paper, he would grind it again, and finally, they got a smoother piece of paper. That kind of paper matched with oil based ink, and didn¡¯t smudge anymore. ¡°To mix the ink with oil was too extravagant!¡± Wor was unsatisfied with that result, saying, ¡°What I am trying to make is writing tools for those people who are not rich.¡± So, Satan¡¯s proposal was on hold, while the research continued. They researched for a long time, and the one who finally came up with a reliable solution was Fafnir, the weird bird that was loose and perverted. Back then, Sui Xiong gave the experimental paper products to workers in churches and the theme park, to have everyone work with collected wisdom and concerted efforts, to see if they could figure out a way to solve the ink smudging problem. Farfnir held the paper and pondered. He tried it with water, oil, and blood, then, he found the vital factor of the problem. ¡°The reason why the ink smudged was because it absorbs too much water,¡± he said, as he tore the other half of the paper and processed it with magic, to make it a little water repellent. When it wrote on the paper, it really didn¡¯t smudged at all. ¡°Then¡­ Try to make paper that doesn¡¯t really absorb water.¡± Wor, who got inspiration, continued his research and spent a lot of time and money. Finally, he had gotten the paper that he wanted. He mixed some of the glue-type material into the paper paste, and added some alchemy medication that was specially designed for it, which then produced paper that didn¡¯t smudge the ink anymore. The feeling of writing on the paper and writing on the goat skin was very similar, only the toughness was slightly weaker. By then, his research had succeeded entirely, and he was satisfied. ¡°Then, how is the pricing of the paper?¡± Sui Xiong asked, when he was reporting his results. ¡°Because I had to add some colloid and alchemy medication, it got slightly higher, but it is way cheaper compared to goat skin,¡± Wor said. ¡°It costs less than one tenth of the goat skin.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and asked, ¡°Then, how much, if you don¡¯t add in any colloid or alchemy medication?¡± ¡°It could be as low as one percent,¡± Wor answered. Sui Xiong nodded again and said casually, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you consider changing the writing tools?¡± Wor was stunned, and looked at him in confusion. ¡°For example, to write with charcoal sticks is quite a good idea.¡± Sui Xiong recalled when he was practicing sketching, and he couldn¡¯t help but laugh, ¡°Who set the rules that are saying one has to use ink, and paper absorbs water? Then, we write without water.¡± Wor was stunned. All this time, he had been stubborn to deal against the absorbency of paper, but he never thought of ways that go around the problem entirely. ¡°Ma¡­ Majesty¡­ Why didn¡¯t you tell me earlier!¡± He shouted. Sui Xiong scratched his head in embarrassment, ¡°I have been occupied with how to open up a place, and forgot about what is going on on your side¡­¡± The poor legendary swordsman ¡°Black Blade¡± nearly spit out a mouthful of blood. Finally, he still didn¡¯t give up the formulation that he had designed through his hard work, so he produced two different types of paper. One was slightly thicker and the smudging was serious, but if one were to write with a charcoal stick, there wouldn¡¯t be a problem. The other one was thin and sturdy, and didn¡¯t smudge at all. The feeling of writing on it with a feather brush was almost identical with goat skin. The former was a low end item, the latter was a high end item. Wor promoted writing with a charcoal stick that was very cheap, along with a graphite pencil that was invented under the instructions of Sui Xiong . However, he couldn¡¯t produce it according to Sui Xiong¡¯s instructions, which were to glue together the extremely fine graphite powder, press them into thin round sticks, wrap them with wooden sticks, and finally, form a hexagon ¡°pencil¡±. Still, from his viewpoint, his research already left nothing to be desired. Maybe in the future, there would still be people who improvise upon his research, but the keynote wouldn¡¯t be out of the range that he had set. As a person who likes to read, and one who was always hiding in the library to be with the book, even when he was on a run, the achievement made him proud, and he had a feeling of ¡°no regrets in this lifetime¡±. Looking at packets of papers, charcoal sticks, ink blocks and various stationery being packed and sent to different branches of ¡°Geerteng Stationery Store¡± in various places, the legendary swordsman, who had buried himself in hard work for two years, couldn¡¯t help but let out a heavy sigh of relief. ¡°To have such an achievement is so satisfying!¡± He looked at Sui Xiong and Oveila when he spoke, but his voice was deep, as though he was mumbling to himself, ¡°My life, is finally complete today!¡± His voice grew deep and his vigour went weak, then his eyelids slowly closed. Oveila got a shock, as she thought her teacher was closing to an end, and she wanted to figure out a way to save him, but was stopped by Sui Xiong . ¡°Silly, don¡¯t mess around!¡± Sui Xiong said and smiled. ¡°Your teacher is going to breakthrough!¡± ¡°Breakthrough? Breakthrough what?¡± The female viscount that was normally calm, asked in confusion. ¡°Legendary expert breakthrough again, what else could it be?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Wor, is entering semi-god realm!¡± When Wor¡¯s breathing was at its weakest point, just like the candlelight in the wind, it looked as though it would be blown off at anytime. Then, a strange energy ignited from the deepest part of his soul like a bridge, and connected him to the root of the world. Endless power was flowing out from the root of the world, into his soul. His soul that was originally full of impurities, that was not strong nor pure enough, suddenly strengthened very quickly. The strengthening quickly reflected on his physical body. The old disguise was quickly stripped away and revealed his true appearance. The originally powerful build didn¡¯t become stronger, but it gave up an aura like a mountain faintly. His face that looked as though he went through a hard life, was suddenly youthful, like he was a few years younger. If it wasn¡¯t because of the scar, he could totally be a martial arts celebrity in Hengdian (film studio). However, after his physical body and soul was fully enhanced, the connection of Wor and the root of the world was not broken off. On the contrary, along with low hum that commoners couldn¡¯t hear, there was a strange wave that surged within his soul, an indescribable singing voice that reverberated in the surrounding air, and also colourful rays of light that shone from the sky, above which made it look like heaven. Various gods from other kingdoms in Thousand Worlds noticed the situation here, and looked over with suspicious eyes. With a flash of light, the clones of the God of Art and Culture and the God of Celebration appeared simultaneously, gawking at Wor, who was slowly floating in the air among the strange light, as though he was losing his weight. On his chest, was a halo that slowly took shape, and within the halo, there were paper, books, ink and a charcoal pencil. ¡°What clergy is this?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Not art nor culture.¡± ¡°Not books either.¡± ¡°Then, what is it?¡± Sui Xiong asked. The two gods couldn¡¯t answer, but they could feel that it was a clergy that was closely related to them. But they couldn¡¯t tell exactly what it was. After a while, Wor¡¯s body shook vigorously and shattered into countless twinkles. But the lights gradually gathered and became him again. However, at that very moment, he had already changed his outfit. He was wearing a scholar¡¯s long robe, as a variety of transparent stationery floated around him. There were even images of countless people reading and writing surrounding him. In Pantheon temple, there was a chair that was not eye catching, but the light was extremely striking. It was just that it was still blurry, like a shadow, not certain yet. The God of Art and Culture and the God of Celebration shook at the same time, then spoke, ¡°Knowledge!¡± ¡°Knowledge? The god of knowledge?!¡± Sui Xiong got a shock. ¡°It sounds great!¡± Another ray of lights fell, and a cloud of colourful light balls floated by their sides. It was the god of mysteries, the god of wisdom and magic, the recognised experts among all gods. ¡°From today onwards, culture would be widely spread in the human world. Wisdom would be segregated into ¡®knowledge¡¯ and ¡®mystery¡¯. The god of mystery looked at Wor quietly, and turned around to look at Sui Xiong . ¡°Knowledge and mystery are a part of wisdom, inseparable,¡± he said. Sui Xiong understood His meaning. ¡°At first, I thought the god of magic that would appear first would be the God of knowledge,¡± he said, ¡°But, I warmly welcomed his arrival.¡± Just then, Wor opened his eyes. He looked to the left and right, and understood the situation. Without hesitation, he knelt down on one knee before Sui Xiong. ¡°The great Void Mask, I, the god of knowledge, Wor, am your follower and your loyal servant!¡± Chapter 193 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Master of Mystery brought along two God followers. Before He left He let out a long, heavy sigh. This breath contained a world full of complicated emotions, including pity, regret, and the intent to kill. ¡°What is this dude trying to do?!¡± Sui Xiong asked, upset. ¡°He came out of nowhere to pull the rug out from someone¡¯s feet! When He failed to do so, He put on a face, as though he had suffered bitterly. Clearly he harbors deep hatred. Who is He trying to scare?!¡± He looked in the direction the Master of Mystery had walked away in disdain. He was puffing out air from his nose, clearly frustrated with the situation. But he was mostly a little nervous. The Master of Mystery, also known as the God of Wisdom and Magic, was generally acknowledged as being the expert among all Gods. His capability even compared with that of the God of Justice! He controlled all wisdom and all magic, the two core powers. He could bestow or remove everyone¡¯s sparks of wisdom as He wished, and He could make any strong existence lose their ability to cast magic. He could cast any kind of magic, in whichever way He willed it. He was almost totally unrestrained! Only the King of Order was stronger than him, who was at the apex of the realm that even Gods couldn¡¯t possibly understand. As for the rest of the Gods, no one dared to pat their chests and guarantee that they could defeat Him for sure. On the contrary: there were many who were sure that they couldn¡¯t fight against him. A long time ago, the fairies used to be very strong. They used to have almost 50 real Gods, more than 200 demigods, and thousands of legendary experts in their kingdom. They created a resplendent civilization of magic, the standard of which was too high for even the mages to catch up to. At that time, there were hundreds of floating islands in the air. This was where the noble fairies lived, overlooking the land. Then, the Kings of the fairies floated above the center of the main dimension, giving out a glorious radiance and aura, like a sun that never set. Star boats would arrive from every world, having taken a long voyage to reach the ports. The boats would then anchor, their hulls buoyed in the water, rising and falling at the ports of each huge floating island. Countless adventurers and expeditionary forces were sent outward from these ports as well, to extend their tentacles towards countless worlds. This was a great era, beyond all imagination. It was an advanced civilization with strong appeal. Then, after the birth of the Master of Mystery, He destroyed the civilization completely. After destroying it, He announced His coming to power throughout all of the Thousand Worlds. The battle was already a mystery, so none of the Gods uttered a word about it. In fact, most of the Gods didn¡¯t know the exact situation of the battle themselves. It had been such a long time ago. Most of the members in the Pantheon Temple were born long after it. The Gods were immortals, but the Gods could also pass away. Even out of the supreme Four Gods, three had been lost, not to mention numerous other Gods. For instance, the fairy Gods that were once part of the huge God system which was great and powerful, had all but vanished. Luckily, the current fairy Gods had begun to spring up all over again following that battle. If Sui Xiong had to pick an opponent among the various Gods (besides the King of Order who no one had the guts to fight against), Sui Xiong was the least confident in fighting against the Master of Mystery. This didn¡¯t mean that he was afraid of Him however. The strength and fortitude of Sui Xiong¡¯s nerves grew with each passing day. In fact, it would have been too conservative to describe him as audacious. He would even have the courage to fight his bro if it was necessary, who was strange and had a very different thought pattern. However, even thinking about fighting with his own bro, and especially out of nowhere, caused him to feel very depressed. Plus, it would be really dangerous! ¡°Maybe I¡¯m wrong.¡± Wor fixed his gaze towards the direction where the three Gods had disappeared. After a while He said in a low voice, ¡°I got you into some big trouble.¡± ¡°Trouble?¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°You are willing to follow me, and that¡¯s my honor. How could you be trouble?¡± ¡°My clergical knowledge intrinsically means that I know and understand the world, which allows me to explain the world with rationality, but not sensibility. As was said by the Master of Mystery, this is actually an aspect of wisdom,¡± Wor said. ¡°All this time, He has been the only one that possessed such wisdom. Regardless of what tribe or God it may be, whoever was courageous enough to make a move on the clergy, He would launch an attack against them mercilessly. ¡°But, this time, I broke through a critical point via lowering the threshold of learning, and precipitated the emergence of the clergy of knowledge. The emergence of the clergy signified that wisdom would be separated into a few clergies,¡± Wor sighed. ¡°Even if He still had the clergy of wisdom on hand, the value of the clergy would diminish gradually, causing His deity to degrade.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t He the God of Magic, too?¡± Sui Xiong creased his eyebrows and said. ¡°Even if the value of the wisdom clergy were to be diminished, as long as He has a magic clergy on hand, He is worthy of the title of strong divine power. So, does he have to be so calculating, like a miser?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe He isn¡¯t after a strong divine power, but things above even that,¡± Wor said. Sui Xiong laughed coldly. ¡°Above strong divine power? That would mean the supreme Four Gods! Does He want to fight for the position to rule the world? I never thought He would be so domineering.¡± ¡°Who knows? But I could clearly feel earlier that He intended to take me in as a God follower, and collaborate with the God of Mage, who was going to be promoted as a God in the future. We would then work together to segregate the two core clergies, wisdom and magic. ¡°Then, he would control them via the method of the God follower,¡± Wor reminisced as he spoke. ¡°He only sent me one message to explain his plan. If He were to succeed, He would possess strong divine power without taking on any clergy¡­ I don¡¯t know what effect it would have, but He most likely intends to pound against the realm above strong divine power.¡± He thought and shook his head with a bitter smile. ¡°It is meaningless to talk about these things. I wouldn¡¯t change my standpoint for His benefit, so His plan wouldn¡¯t work. Hence, there is only one choice he has left¡­¡± ¡°War, right?¡± Sui Xiong smiled coldly. ¡°To knock you, the God of Knowledge, down and to promote a new God of Knowledge as His God follower. Such methods aren¡¯t rare among various Gods.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ It isn¡¯t rare.¡± Wor let out a heavy sigh. ¡°Come on. Bring it on!¡± Sui Xiong spat. He ended the conversation with a full stop by saying that tough line. You want war? Let¡¯s go to war then! I am not one that likes to fight, nor am I a coward! Then, the Void Mask church began preparation for war. The theme park was still operating as usual but the loyal believers of the church were gathered to partake in military training. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t ponder about how to open up his holy kingdom. He built a huge workshop and made sharp weapons and tough defense tools day and night in order to fully arm his believers. The higher ups of the church were like gears that were wound up, spinning on high speed, preparing for the upcoming war. ¡°Half a year,¡± Leon Igor said, who was the main high priest in the church and Garth city archon. ¡°Give me half a year¡¯s time and I will be able to train a 300 strong elite soldier troop. Every one of them will have the capability of an official adventurer.¡± ¡°I will bring the troop of hundred soldiers for dangerous hunt and battle, to train them as well,¡± Gerald, the leader of the knight group from church said. ¡°They have a sturdy enough foundation and it¡¯s time for them to shine!¡± Although Snowflake wasn¡¯t Sui Xiong¡¯s believer, she put in a huge effort too. She went to the Dragon Mountain located at the northeast of the main dimension mainland alone, to visit the giant dragon elderlies. She passed through an application to meet the Majesty of Dragon Emperor. Through the general of the dragon tribe, she was the go-between Sui Xiong and the dragon Gods. She helped form a temporary alliance. The dragon tribe wasn¡¯t on good terms with the Master of Mystery all this time. If there¡¯s a chance to cause some trouble for the Master of Mystery, various dragon Gods wouldn¡¯t mind lending a hand. Those who were willing to lend a hand included various orc Gods and human Gods. The two God systems were already originally unsatisfied with the method of the Master of Mystery hoarding on the two main clergies of wisdom and magic. With the lobby of Morani and Javier, the two God systems agreed with Sui Xiong. As long as Sui Xiong could withstand the first initial attack of the Master of Mystery, they would launch an attack from both sides and seize the chance to knock the top expert among all Gods! As for the Mermaid Princess who was gradually taking control of all ocean in the main dimension, She clearly expressed that She would assist in battle with Her God followers any time if Sui Xiong needed. They would not just be assisting nor holding His opponent back, but fight alongside Sui Xiong and head-on! On the contrary, the God of Justice was feeling distressed and sighing. ¡°Bro¡­ I really can¡¯t help you with this!¡± He said sadly. ¡°Dragon, orc, human: these three God systems are either neutral or leaning towards wicked. On the contrary, the Master of Mystery is neutral but leaning towards kindness. My clergy restrains me, I can¡¯t help the wicked fight against the kind¡­¡± Sui Xiong could totally understand and accept this. Like the saying went, ¡°One has to compromise in this world.¡± If the God of Justice helped the wicked Gods fight against the kind Gods, where would ¡°justice¡± derive from? However, although He couldn¡¯t make a move directly, the God of Justice put in some effort. He went to visit the Master of Mystery, and intended to persuade the expert that shared the same level to not make it difficult for his bro. The Master of Mystery warmly received Him but didn¡¯t give any promises at the end. It was clear to see that the strong God had decided, no matter how many obstacles, or how troublesome, He wouldn¡¯t change His mind. The arrival of war was merely a matter of time¡­ Chapter 194 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Compared to Void Mask¡¯s preparation for war, the god of mystery and His believers didn¡¯t show their intention to battle at all, they looked pretty calm. They ate when they needed to, slept when they needed to, and held a ¡°regardless of wind and rain, stay lofty and firm¡± kind of boldness. They didn¡¯t seem to be bothered by Void Mask Church, nor other gods that formed an alliance with Sui Xiong in secret. That made Sui Xiong feel complicated. He felt angry, as he was belittled, but he felt more of a relaxation.If he could go without war, he¡¯d rather not go into war! Although everyone knew that it would be inevitable to have conflict between two churches, and it would only be a matter of time for a major war between the gods, it¡¯d be dragged on a day later, which meant another day was a good day, still. Just like how everyone knew humans would die eventually, but who knew if one would commit suicide at such a young age? Oh, there was then the telltale sign of a psychopath. Sui Xiong was not a psychopath, so he didn¡¯t object to the temporary peacefulness. On the contrary, he hoped the peacefulness before his eyes could last longer. It wasn¡¯t for him to prepare better. Even if they started the war then, he wouldn¡¯t think that he was not fully prepared, it was just that he didn¡¯t want war. One side took no action, since one side didn¡¯t want war. Hence, the war that originally was thought to be vigorous, got delayed. After half a year, there was still no action. But something else drew many people¡¯s attention. The churches of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest and the God of Wealth got into a fight. Strictly speaking, that was slightly related to Sui Xiong. To be exact, it was related to the high priest in his church. During the revival of Garth city, Leon Igor, who was a consul, carefully maintained the distance with the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest, and took a lot of low profile action to disrupt the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest to recover their influence in Garth City. Simultaneously, he strengthened the connection with the church of God of Wealth and used his official power to expand the influence of the God of Wealth¡¯s church in Garth City. The most crucial factor was still money. When Garth City turned into ruin after a war, to revive a city from a piece of ruin, it naturally required an enormous amount of money. The amount of money was terrifyingly huge, and even if Void Mask Church poured in all their money, it would be inadequate. Under such circumstances, Leon contacted the church of God of Wealth, and used the position of official church to exchange the support of church of God of Wealth in reviving Garth City. The church of the God of Wealth was one of the most well-to-do organizations on the main dimension on the mainland. Forget about those further away, in the two nations only, Dhaka Commercial Association and Gold Coin Federation, it carried a huge influence, or even occupied the mainstream of the upper class society. But, in the Blue Moon Kingdom, the church of God of Wealth had always not able to develop properly. From the God of Wealth personally to high priests of various levels in the church, they all wanted to be able to do something at the east of the mainland. Thus, Garth City revival was a great opportunity that was hard to come by for them! Hence, not only did the church of the God of Wealth take out a large sum of money, but they sent many selected warriors and clergies, and formed a pretty luxurious troop to garrison Garth City. All in all, both parties were happy with their collaboration. Leon grasped the sense of propriety well. He allowed the church of God of Wealth to expand their influence smoothly, by not letting them take away the leading power. After the church of God of Wealth probed a couple of times, they realized that they wouldn¡¯t be able to take advantage of the legendary knight that was smart. So, they forgot their plan to win against political power with clericalism, but focused on their influence among the people instead. The collaboration took another step forward in development after the Diplomatic Business Hall in Storm Sea was built. The three parties took what they needed and got a lot of benefits. But, there was someone who was happy and someone who was sad. As the church of God of Wealth laughed, it was the church the Goddess of Bumper Harvest that cried. Garth City played a vital role to the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest. In the past, it was like the nerve center of the churches, even though the earth-shattering war led to the wipe out of the entire higher ups of the nerve center of churches. Churches from each places gradually built their center of thought, one after another. Regardless, its position in name wouldn¡¯t change. Because of the church of God of Wealth, the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had their influence weaken in Garth City, as well as the surroundings. Their believers diminished, and during the most serious times, there remained only a few. Compared to the prosperity before, it was torturing for the higher ups in the church. They were of course upset, of course angry, and of course held grudges. The target of their grudges was firstly the dirty consul. However, the consul was alone, and he believed in a huge jellyfish that didn¡¯t have much influence like himself, so they couldn¡¯t take revenge on any target. Hence, they moved on to set their grudges on the second target, which was the church of God of Wealth. The two parties first argued, then fought. They then constantly had conflict, and finally exploded into a bloody vigorous collision. The fight of the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest, was suddenly lost. Don¡¯t forget that their higher ups of the nerve center of the churches had already been wiped out. Although there were still many experts, it wasn¡¯t that they didn¡¯t want to help the church in Garth, but their abilities favored one over another. Comparably, the church of God of Wealth in Garth was a bunch of selected elite troops, and there were already two legendary experts. After exchanging blows a couple of times, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was at a loss, and even the church¡¯s main festival in Garth City lost its life accidentally. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest was suddenly angry, and gave orders and instructed each church to select an elite, and to depart to Garth City to fight against the church of the God of Wealth. Even if they couldn¡¯t retrieve their clerical position, they had to at least win back their dignity. But, she could give orders to select elite, so couldn¡¯t the God of Wealth do the same? In order for the elites to get to Garth City as fast as possible, the God of Wealth even visited Sui Xiong, to provide him with benefits to borrow the transmission portal by the church of Void Mask that were distributed all over the mainland. Not only that, but the God of Wealth even went to the God of Conspiracy to ask Him act against His interests, to ask the expert that stabbed knives behind people¡¯s backs to help Him cover the reconnaissance of godly power. Hence, until the both parties took action, dealing with overbearing elites from the church of Goddess of Bumper Harvest, not only was the number of elites from the church of God of Wealth way more than them, they were all much stronger than them, and their equipment was so luxurious, it was to the point where they were a crazy troop that was even wearing a delicate gold mouth guard! A fierce battle ensued, and the elites from the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest were wiped out. Even their souls were taken by the God of Conspiracy. That was a deal He agreed upon with the God of Wealth, so the souls of the believers of Goddess of Bumper Harvest that died in the battle belonged to him. After the attack, the churches of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest in the entire main dimension had their vitality sapped. It probably wouldn¡¯t recover until fifty years later. Then, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest finally couldn¡¯t suppress herself anymore. Then, regarding Dhaka Commercial Association and Gold Coin Federation, their crop harvest was simply tragic. On the other hand, the surrounding nations had favorable weather, and every acre of land was at least thirty percent better, so it was a bumper harvest beyond imagination! Despite the God of Wealth scolding the Goddess of Bumper Harvest at Pantheon temple, the Goddess of Bumper was good at playing at the edge. She didn¡¯t intentionally let Dhaka Commercial Association and Gold Coin Federation have a poor harvest, but only streamed in godly power at the surrounding area, and even poured in the share of the two nations into the surrounding nations. Hence, famine happened. The head chef in the ¡°old axe¡± pub, or maybe it¡¯s called the Traverser Sui Xiong MK4, was lying against the sturdy wooden door and looked at the starving people with worry. These starving people were mostly farmers. Their harvest was bad, but the taxation of the nobles wasn¡¯t exempted nor reduced. After paying taxes, they couldn¡¯t even guarantee a mouthful of food for themselves. Under such circumstances, they could only take loans from businessmen, but most of the loan was rejected. The businessmen were brutal and smart. They could tell that there¡¯s weren¡¯t much benefits that they could get from the farmers, so they wouldn¡¯t even waste a single penny on them. The farmers that lacked of food sold everything that could be sold in their houses, but they still couldn¡¯t get a sufficient food supply. Under such a situation, many of the farmers brought their families to gather at the town, as there were number of kind god churches that would give out food for charity. The kind god churches could not give much food to the large crowd of starving people, but it was better than nothing. To the poor that were already as poor as a church mouse, that was their only hope to live. Sui Xiong looked at the sight and was sorry. He could simply imagine the terrifying scene that would happen in the ending of winter and the beginning of spring. Although he learned art but not history, the two paintings of Flow Chart and Fluent Map (picture of the migrant figure intended to depict the displaced person) by Northern Song Dynasty official Zheng Xia and Republic of China Jiang Zhaohe were significant incidents that happened in painting history. If an artist that went through professional training didn¡¯t know about this, he must be a counterfeit, of the worst quality kind! Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t considered as an elite in drawing, but he at least completed his entire degree during university. The sight of Flow Chart and corresponding history and story was appearing in his hear that very moment. ¡°Boss, can¡¯t we figure out some ways to do something for them?¡± He returned to the pub in distress and told his boss, ¡°If this continues, at most for two more months, the place would be strewn with corpses of the starved!¡± The boss, who had sideburns and a beard that covered all over his face, sighed and shook his head. He was not hard-hearted, and he wanted to do something for these poor people, but what can a small pub do for them? During that time, he reduced the price of the food to its cost price, with no profits,and the bread was sold out everyday the moment it got out from the oven. That¡¯s all he could do. ¡°Hey, boss. Weren¡¯t you an adventurer? I remember you have a nice crossbow, right?¡± Sui Xiong suddenly recalled something and asked. The boss nodded, but he didn¡¯t understand what he meant. ¡°Lend me your crossbow, and I¡¯ll bring a few strong men to hunt.¡± ¡°Are you crazy?!¡± The boss got a shock and scolded, ¡°Everything in the woods belongs to the feudal lord, those hunting in secret will be hanged!¡± ¡°Hanging means death, but starvation means death too. What is the difference?¡± Sui Xiong laughed sarcastically, ¡°Regardless, we can¡¯t just let them die of starvation¡­¡± Chapter 195 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When they spoke of poaching, they meant that they were hunting in the woods that belonged to the nobles. According to the traditions in the world, the feudal lord noble possessed the ownership of the entire manor, including the land and the things that grew on the land. As for man-made items, or other things, like crops, that required manpower during growth, the labor would be able to shared, with parts of the profit being given back to the workers. However, the majority of all profits still belonged to the feudal lord. In the woods, regardless of whether it be a plant or animal, since these things were not man-made, nor was anyone contributing manpower to their growth, they belonged to the feudal lord entirely. Thus, no one could attempt to invade such areas. In other words, besides a hunter, who must first have received permission from the feudal lord and have paid a hunting tax, any other hunting activities would be considered as robbing the feudal lord¡¯s wealth. This sort of hunting was a crime, accompanied by severe punishment. In fact, the very lightest punishment would be the chopping off of one¡¯s hand or the digging out an eyeball! The most commonly seen punishment was death by hanging. It was heard that there were some powerful feudal lords, who would even hire mages to cast magic on the farmers that hunted illegally in their lands. All in all, hunting was considered as being something very dangerous, something that courts death. Hence, people that didn¡¯t have a death wish better not get involved! Sui Xiong, of course, didn¡¯t want to die, but he still just couldn¡¯t watch the others starve to death before him. The famine victims were severely lacking food, and he knew that there was a wealth of food sources in the mountain. Moreover, he just so happened to be able to borrow a crossbow that was not too shabby¡­ What else should I do? Isn¡¯t the answer quite clear? Having grown up in a democratic society since his birth, he never thought that it was right and proper for the noble to possess everything on his manor. On the contrary, the ideal of ¡°serving the people above all¡± was infused into his blood. You could say that it basically had become that patch of redness in his inner marrow. So, he convinced the pub boss to join him, bringing along the crossbow, as well as a few other men, each of whom would give their lives to feed their families. This small ragtag group then entered the mountain together. The poor harvest didn¡¯t seem to have affected the numerous wild animals in the mountain.Thus, they were able to shoot several deer dead. ¡°Look, even the deer has fat on its body, while the humans here are skin and bones from starvation¡­¡± Sui Xiong complained, while he carried the deer back with the others, who were all quietly sneaking away from the woods. It was quite a strong buck (male deer), which was most likely seven to eight hundred catties (one catty equals to 0.5 kilograms). From its body, they got about four hundred and fifty to sixty catties of edible resources, including skin, flesh, bones and some inlets. These things go well, when added with some edible wild herbs! As such, this haul should be able to feed the few families of the men for about half a month¡¯s time! Although antlers and some other items might be able to be sold for a high price, Sui Xiong was very careful with everything, choosing to bury such things deep underground, not daring to yet bring them out in the light. He knew that, if the news spread and the feudal lord found out about their recent hunting expedition, they might die! But, there isn¡¯t a wall in the world which hasn¡¯t a crack in it. Two to three days later, the other famine victims found out about their little adventure, and the spoils it profited them. As these people were suffering from extreme cold and hunger, they couldn¡¯t be bothered by the feudal lord¡¯s law. Hence, they came to look for Sui Xiong for help. Sui Xiong helped them all to hunt for deer in the mountain woods. The news of this, of course, travelled very quickly. During noon, after about ten days of this, the feudal lord¡¯s head of guards brought ten soldiers to the pub. Sui Xiong, of course, tried to escape. Relying on his quick response and decent stamina, he dashed out from the pub, then ran towards the entrance of the town. As he ran, a feather arrow flew across the sky, hitting him in the back. He staggered, but continued to flee. Then, he took a second arrow, and a third arrow¡­ After a while, Sui Xiong was caught, and his body was hung on a tree at the entrance of the town. He had six arrows shot into his body, and his blood soaked straight through his clothes. After a while, before the sky grew dark, the other few people that were involved in the poaching, were captured and hung alongside him. Some died after being hung up alive, while some were killed and hung up later, making an example to the public of what punishment awaited any who disobeyed the laws of the land. The sky grew dark, and the winter night was cold. During the night, lightning struck the tree that was being used as the gallows. The entire tree was burnt to ashes, along with the dead bodies that were hung on it. The commoners couldn¡¯t see that there was a huge jellyfish floating in the air, while all this was happening. The jellyfish was deep in thought, sighing with emotions. ¡°As a God, I really don¡¯t pay enough attention to the commoners¡¯ world!¡± The jellyfish mumbled to himself. ¡°Back then, when I heard about the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest having conflict with the church of the God of Wealth, and of its suffering a loss, I found it interesting. I didn¡¯t know that, behind the interesting bits, there was such a heavy-hearted tragedy!¡± Then, he returned to the theme park and commanded the Void Mask church to help the famine victims, utilizing all of their efforts and resources. ¡°Food will be a big issue.¡± Rhodes immediately raised up the problem. ¡°We are not able to take out an adequate amount of food that would be sufficient to aid the victims of a whole country!¡± ¡°I will figure out a way,¡± Sui Xiong replied in a low voice. ¡°Also to consider, are the logistics,¡± Rhodes said. ¡°To transport food to each corner of the Gold Coin Federation, is far beyond our capability. As for aiding the victims of the Dhaka Commercial Association, it is totally impossible!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do our best,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡± If there is any actual difficulty that can¡¯t be solved, then come and look for me. I will figure out a way.¡± Everyone exchanged glances, as they didn¡¯t understand why he suddenly would send out such a ridiculous order. However, regardless if it was out of kindness or loyalty, they couldn¡¯t refuse. Thus, the order was carried out very quickly. The food that the entire church stored was sent towards the south continuously. It was going straight to the Gold Coin Federation for the victims. At the same time, Sui Xiong opened the transportation portal of the Gold Coins Federation and the Dhaka Commercial Association, so that more food could be sent quicker. ¡°Going at this rate, our stored food will most likely be sufficient for a few more days,¡± Morani said. ¡°Where are you going to look for more food?¡± ¡°The Beast Realm,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I guessed as much.¡± Morani smiled. ¡°Let me help you with that.¡± In actual fact, there were many others, besides Morani, who were willing to help him. This number went even beyond those within the Void Mask church as well. In the chaotic world, with countless magic beasts reproducing, Sui Xiong saw many Gods that were there to hunt. These Gods were mainly guardian deities from various places. Their clergies had decided that they needed to prevent their areas from suffering a large scale calamity and famine. So, even though they knew that what they were doing was basically daylight robbery, they couldn¡¯t be bothered too much about it. Of course, he also saw the dominator of the world, the strong God that was known as the Beast King¡­ The Beast Realm was a barren world. It was about a third of the size of the main dimension. There were countless varieties of beasts living there, ranging from wild beasts to magic beasts. The world itself was ruled by a powerful God, who was the invincible ruler of the world. To obtain his approval to hunt for sufficient food, various Gods had to pay a hefty price. But, they had no other really viable alternatives. They could, of course, borrow food from the nature God system. In the holy kingdom of the nature God system, there were numerous pieces of golden wheat land, as well as trees that were covered with fruits, all of which would totally be sufficient to feed the victims. But, the nature God system never liked humans. Most of them felt that including humans, due to the excessive expansion of the wise tribe, would ruin the balance of nature. Thus, if there could be a few large scale natural or man-made calamities, which would cause a loss of half of the human population, they would be cheering for it. So, basically, if you¡¯re asking to borrow food to throw a party, that wouldn¡¯t be a problem. But, borrowing food to aid a human victim? Forget about it! As for the other worlds that produced food, they were either too small, and thus unable to provide such a large amount of food, or they required too much time in order to raise up an adequate supply. The final scenario was that some worlds were already forcibly occupied by ferocious and powerful magic beasts, so even various Gods dared not set foot within them recklessly, much less to request aid! After all, the guardian deities of these places were mostly among the lowest level of the Gods. Hence, they only had weak divine power. Such inferior power was insufficient for them to hunt in such dangerous worlds. Also, since it was the Beast Realm, Sui Xiong had to get the Beast King¡¯s permission to hunt there safely. In order to obtain the right to hunt there, Sui Xiong paid the Beast King a huge price. He bartered his divinity, which was as important as fresh blood to many other Gods. But, when all was said and done, he successfully hunted, securing sufficient food and finding quite a number of valuable breeds in the process. Winter then passed, followed by spring. Then came summer, followed by autumn. After the long famine passed, the entire Void Mask church was exhausted, including their God. But their contribution had received a generous payback. The influence of their church increased tremendously, and the number of believers also increased significantly. There was even an emergence of smaller scale churches of its same branch, which spread throughout the Gold Coin Federation and the Dhaka Commercial Association. There were only a few dozen of these churches, but their belief was extremely pious though. Towards the God that lent them a helping hand unconditionally during their toughest time, even if it was a huge jellyfish, they repaid Him with great appreciation and devotion. Sui Xiong¡¯s reward didn¡¯t stop there, as during the aid, he had gotten to know many Gods. Hence, he had received recognition from many of these kind and benevolent Gods. The title of Void Mask became not only synonymous with a ¡°huge jellyfish that was good at fighting, but bad at thinking,¡± but became a ¡°huge jellyfish that was good at fighting, bad at thinking, and yet kind!¡± Actually, there was more than one powerful and kind God that looked for the Master of Mystery in secret, and who wished to play the role of neutralizer to mediate their dispute. These Gods, when visited personally, might not be much to look at, but after they turned up in a multitude, there was a sway in the Master of Mystery¡¯s attitude. ¡°There seems to be a favorable turn happening!¡± Morani told Sui Xiong happily. ¡°I think we might not need to fight this war!¡± Sui Xiong was very happy, too. So, when he created Traverser Sui Xiong MK5, he added some extra ability in for the clone. ¡°Living is his first mission,¡± he said. ¡°No matter if he makes a mistake or upholds justice, he must be able to live on. So, a traverser must possess the power to escape, even if there is danger.¡± ¡°He doesn¡¯t need to be very strong, but he has to be very sensitive. He also must be able to feel danger and be able to respond accordingly to such danger in a timely manner. And, if there is a need to escape, he must be able to run very fast.¡± Hence, the traverser became an athlete that was good at running short and long distances. Siu Xiong felt that such a person would be able to live in this world well enough, and would have a very long life! Chapter 196 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The great Void Mask Majesty, thank you for the food that you have provided us today, Amen.¡± Under the lead of an elder, the orphans put their palms together for a prayer and bowed at the image of a jellyfish on the wall, as they drew a cross before their chest. If this was on earth, such action that combined heresy and paganism would definitely be condemned in speech and writing by the theologist. There might even be someone who named ¡± XXX Barack¡± that bomb the stronghold of the heresy. But, in the world that was a forest of religion, it was perfectly natural, as it was an orphanage built and funded by the church of Void Mask. Actually, Sui Xiong personally was against the idea of tying up belief for the orphanage, as he felt that people should have freedom of religion. As there was freedom of religion, there should be freedom of non-religion, and freedom of choosing their religion, and of course, freedom to change their religion. From his standpoint, all of these were natural, but he couldn¡¯t insist the wrongs were the rights, just because he became God. An orphanage was a charity organization, so there shouldn¡¯t be any expectations in return, when one did good deeds. Even if one wanted repayment, that shouldn¡¯t be involved with any religion commitment. Looking at those kids who spoke on a daily basis with ¡°the great Void Mask Majesty¡±, he felt uneasy. He felt that if he were to continue running the orphanage, it would eventually develop to the point where they brainwash and plant extreme consciousness into the kids, and finally sent them for terror attacks as suicide bombers. With thoughts of such a possibility, he could feel his molar aching. But his way of thought triggered his believers¡¯ refutation, even the old man in the orphanage didn¡¯t agree with him. To them, the orphanage was part of the church. As these orphans accepted assistance, they of course had to contribute their belief. It was only right and proper to do so, nothing wrong about it. What do the churches ask for? Of course, belief! Does any other thing carry more value than the existence of greatness in mortal life? They are completely useless! ¡°You, Majesty, didn¡¯t you tell me something about ¡®equivalent exchange¡¯? These kids received assistance from the orphanage and got their lives. What else could be comparable with life in this world? It will most likely be belief.¡± Leon advised, ¡°It is of course great that you contribute without looking for return, but if you were to receive assistance and not repay it, isn¡¯t that worse? To these kids, receiving your assistance means to repay with their belief. I feel that is quite reasonable.¡± Sui Xiong remained silent for a long time. He thought the way Leon thought was problematic, but he couldn¡¯t tell what¡¯s wrong with it. In the end, he left a statement of ¡°Until the kids grow up, they must have their freedom to choose their belief¡±, then he didn¡¯t bother with the matters in orphanage anymore. To be able to secure the kids grow up healthily was more important. The rest of the matters should be talked about in the future. He is god, but not the Almighty Lord, after all. ¡°Speaking of which¡­ maybe we should try the way of the Almighty Lord?¡± His thought ended, he then came into the Chaotic World again. He cleared his throat and Sui Xiong shouted, ¡°Firstly, there must be light!¡± It was an earthly silence among chaos, and there was no response at all. ¡°Huh? Did I remember the lines wrongly?¡± He thought and mumbled, ¡°Could it be that I must speak in English?¡± Luckily Sui Xiong¡¯s English wasn¡¯t bad, thanks to his teacher. Plus, he had to use English when he was drawing gaming illustrations during his spare time, so he could really memorize a few lines from the English Holy Bible. ¡°In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth¡­¡± He mumbled to himself and he straightaway ignored the part and jumped to the last part, ¡°Let there be light!¡± he shouted. There was still silence among chaos, with no response. Sui Xiong was quiet for a while and then finally burst out with laughter. ¡°Silly me!¡± He rowed his tentacles, and the jellyfish god left chaotically, and returned to the main dimension. He came and left in silence, without telling anyone. So, luckily, his silly action wasn¡¯t known by anyone, at least he thought so. As for the few bastards that were looking in a hidden spot, he wielded ¡°Turn a blind eye power¡± and ignored them entirely. He was so busy after all, he couldn¡¯t be bothered by such small matters. This was really not an excuse, Sui Xiong was really busy then! Ever since the aiding of victims for disaster, the church of Void Mask had increased their influence vigorously, and became a kind god church that gained a little fame. Not only did they accept many believers from Dhaka Commercial Association and Gold Coin Federation that directly benefited, even the other nations that did not benefit directly back then, had many of his believers as well. There were more believers, and the most direct outcome was that there were more people that prayed to Sui Xiong . These prayers were sent to him via the channel of religion. Although he could shield off most meaningless prayers through godly power and also those prayers that simply wanted benefits, there were some prayers that contained strong will that no god could ignore. These prayers were normally people who were asking for help in their difficult position or the passion from the deepest of their heart. If god did not respond to these, the unanswered prayers would turn into a heavy burden. Once or twice would be alright. But if the burden were to be accumulated, god would have difficulty to move forward, as though they were tied down with a huge rock. But, it was no easy task to answer prayers as well. Sui Xiong always encountered wishes that he had no idea how to deal with, even god had no idea, sometimes. He had to ask for help from his brothers, and the answer he got was, it is really impossible, to make this person lose his memory then. The fuck! That works too?! Sui Xiong was embarrassed. He couldn¡¯t imagine that this is the way various gods dealt with unfulfillable wishes. He sighed with emotions, thinking that he was really too young and innocent, and immature at times¡­. If you can¡¯t solve the problem, eliminate the problem. Isn¡¯t that a famous cyber line?! Huh?! You say that cyber lines are not trustworthy? Cheh¡­ The head of country could use cyber lines to rule a nation. He, who was a jellyfish, used cyber lines to solve problems, so what was wrong with that! But, Sui Xiong was a honest and generous man after all, even though he learned the ultimate profound skill of ¡°eliminating problem¡±, he leaned more towards ¡°solving problem¡±. Even though it was more troublesome and more difficult, it wasn¡¯t much of a problem. Then, he was dealing with a problem that was slightly more troublesome and more difficult. It was a noble that wasn¡¯t any devoted believer. He prayed to any god, for god to bestowed a child upon him, regardless of a son or daughter, as long as there was a child! As long as his child could inherit his manor and title, inherit his family name, he need not to worry about the extinction of his family line! But this noble was cursed by the human god system¡¯s Goddess of Family once, due to something. So, he didn¡¯t have the ability to reproduce. How to deal with this? At least any normal gods had no ideas. If the matter continued to develop, most likely the noble would gradually grow hopeless, and finally, either die or strike a deal with the devil, which was harmful to himself and the others. But, he was lucky, as the Void Mask church was newly built in his manor. After he did some research and realized the ¡°Void Mask¡± god was a kind god that operated theme parks and aided victims of disaster, he visited the leader of Void Mask Church, a businessman. And he prayed before the other person¡¯s shrine, at the statue of a green jellyfish. His prayers were sincere and the emotions were strong, just like a mosquito buzzing at Sui Xiong¡¯s ear. ¡°You are cursed.¡± There was a ray of lights shone onto the noble from the jellyfish statue. After a few seconds, the light dispersed and Sui Xiong¡¯s voice was heard from the statue, ¡°You can¡¯t give birth to any children.¡± The noble knew about it long ago, and he wasn¡¯t surprised, but he prayed with sincerity anyway. That was what his theologist friend taught him, as long as the church didn¡¯t chase him out, continue to pray sincerely. As long as he tried one after another, there must be a god that couldn¡¯t stand his annoyance, and that finally stood out to resolve his problem and fulfil his wish. He persisted in prayers for about then minutes, and Sui Xiong was annoyed. He had no choice but to help him to solve the problem. The noble was cursed that he couldn¡¯t reproduce. If so, detour from the ¡°curse¡± then. ¡°Do you know? Actually, a drop of blood, and a strand of hair would contain the complete genes.¡± Sui Xiong floated out from the shrine and looked upon the alms giver, who was surprised. ¡°You are cursed by the Goddess of Family. Even I wouldn¡¯t be able to resolve the curse for you, but I could shift the curse away.¡± ¡°Shift?¡± ¡°Correct.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°The curse does not direct to your soul, but your body. Reproduction is a body¡¯s matter, which was not related to your soul, but the one that was carrying a curse wasn¡¯t your genes, but you as a person. The noble was confused, as he didn¡¯t understand. Actually, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t understand himself, so he was just simply bullshitting. Seizing the time where he was bullshitting, he had already checked the noble¡¯s body thoroughly, and had made a body that looked exactly the same in secret. He checked carefully at the body, and made sure there wasn¡¯t any curse or any bad content or hidden illness. He seemed pretty healthy. Then, he used magic to make the noble fall asleep and concealed the surroundings to move the noble¡¯s soul to a new body. As expected, after changing into a new body, the curse didn¡¯t follow over. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± The noble didn¡¯t know that he already changed a body when he woke up. He realized that he was still the same, with no changes. He couldn¡¯t help but felt a little doubtful. ¡°Out-and-out, genuine!¡± Sui Xiong said proudly, ¡°You can go ahead and try. If you can¡¯t give birth to any children, go ahead and cause me trouble!¡± He thought and added, ¡°But I do not guarantee that you will give birth to a boy¡­¡± The noble left quite dubiously, and left the body that was cursed by the Goddess of Family. Sui Xiong pondered and brought the body along to analyze it. Regarding the ability of the Goddess of Family, he was quite curious. Like the saying ¡°there was no day nor night in the mountains¡±, once Sui Xiong started researching, he would forget about time, until he was finally awoke with a start. When he woke up, the eldest son of the noble was already born, and they were throwing a ceremony to pray to him piously to thank him. Chapter 197 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The festive atmosphere filled the entire estate. Everyone was radiant with joy. The merriment was resulting from the feudal lord¡¯s having finally welcomed his son that day. He had been having trouble having a descendant to the throne, so now the previous worry regarding the inheritance of the manor, which had been troubling him so much, was finally resolved! It was a great, joyous occasion, especially since having a noble without an heir meant that the manor would be revoked after the noble died. Not only would that mean the end of his family line, but it would also mean that his underings would lose their protection as well. This included even the people that worked and resided in the manor. Should such a thing occur, a new noble owner would spend an enormous amount of money to acquire the manor. Most often, these new nobles were greedy and brutal, as they would want to show their power at the beginning, their targets naturally being the people that resided within the manor. Thinking about that kind of situation, of which they were now able to joyuosly be saved from, gave people goosebumps. Comparatively, the manor that they had now, although he wasn¡¯t that reliable, at least their current noble wasn¡¯t a bad person. The people knew him well enough to believe that the continued rule by this family would be the best thing. When Sui Xiong came to the estate secretly, he saw this atmosphere of cheer and laughter. With his divine power, he could tell that the commoners were simple and transparent. After looking at them for a while, he nodded and was also happy. ¡°The manor owner seems like a good person. I am glad that I didn¡¯t save the wrong person.¡± After a while, he saw that the feudal lord was leading a bunch of people towards the newly built Void Mask statue for prayers. The baron was glowing with health, smiling widely. In fact, he appeared to be a totally different person from the one who was previously so forlorn looking. He could see the light of belief and hope beaming strongly within the new father¡¯s bright eyes. It seemed like he had already become Sui Xiong¡¯s devoted believer. Sui Xiong shook his head lightly. Once the ceremony ended, he took form before him secretly, saying, ¡°You have a son now, and it is joyful news. Why bother with such a grand ceremony?!¡± He then said, ¡°The scale of your estate doesn¡¯t seem that big, and it doesn¡¯t look like it has much money. So, what¡¯s the point of keeping up such appearances?¡± The baron smiled but did not debate him. He only thanked him continuously. Sui Xiong made a casual remark back, but in the end, he didn¡¯t mind too much. He chatted a while, and couldn¡¯t help but ask the man how he had provoked the Goddess of Family. After all, a commoner that provoked a God wasn¡¯t a common sight. Normally, only experts at the level of Leon could piss a God off, at least to the point of their being punished! But when he asked about this, he was caught in a ridiculously awkward position. Back then, the reason why the man pissed off the Goddess of Family, was due to an incident that had occured. In this incident, he had acted as a matchmaker, in order to bring a pair of youngsters together. The girl among the couple happened to be a Holy Daughter from the church of the Goddess of Family. Most of the church practiced the system of the Holy Son. This meant that he was a talent who was specially nurtured, and was designated for God to possess when God descended. This kind of talent would be called the Holy Daughter, should it have been a girl. Regardless of whether it be a Holy Son or Holy Daughter, they generally had strict requirements. The most important requirement of a Holy Daughter to the Goddess of Family was to be ascetic¡­ ¡°You are extremely audacious! How dare you assist someone else to seduce the Holy Daughter of another¡¯s church?! You weren¡¯t beaten to death, and for that, you should consider yourself extremely lucky!¡± After he found out what had happened, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but tease him. ¡°Such injustice, Your Majesty! I didn¡¯t know at all then!¡± The baron bemoaned against the said injustice. ¡°Until I sent them off to the boat, so that they could flee to a faraway place, and then opened the present that they had left for me, I didn¡¯t realize that I would be in such big trouble!¡± After he found out the truth, the man was so afraid, he didn¡¯t even return to his hotel, but left his luggage and started to run away immediately. Luckily, he ran fast enough, so that the knights from the church of the Goddess of Family couldn¡¯t catch up with him. Thus, he managed to escape. However, although he managed to escape the chase of a commoner, he didn¡¯t manage to escape the punishment of a God. The Goddess of Family cursed him, decreeing that he would die without an heir. That had been fifteen or sixteen years ago. He was only seventeen to eighteen years old at the time. Now, he was already a middle-aged man in his thirties! Sui Xiong heard this story, then nodded lightly. He asked, ¡°Now that you have a child, what do you plan to do? I¡¯m telling you, although I am able to resolve the curse for you, the rage of the Goddess of Family has yet to vanish. You need to mollify her still.¡± ¡°If I had a way to, don¡¯t you think I would have by now?¡± Sui Xiong thought about what the noble said, agreeing that it was indeed a difficult fix. As the saying appropriately puts it, ¡°One can be a thief for 1,000 days, but how is it possible to defend against thieves for a 1,000 days?¡± Hence, even if Sui Xiong could defend him right now at the moment, how could he defend him for life?! In the world, if one wanted the strength to protect oneself from a God¡¯s anger, he would at least have to be a legendary expert like Leon. This unlucky man wasn¡¯t even on par with a beginner adventurer of the lowest standard. He was merely a rookie. He pondered the situation, then tried to send a message to the Goddess of Family, asking how he could calm the Goddess down, wondering how he could let the commoner, who was punished for a dozen years already, off the hook. The Goddess of Family replied very quickly. She expressed that, as long as the noble contributes a child to Her, becoming the Holy Son of Her church, she would let the whole incident go. The baron¡¯s face suddenly grew grave. He had finally gotten a son, who he had to keep in order to inherit the family property. So, how could he send his child to the church of the Goddess of Family to be a Holy Son? However, Sui Xiong had an idea. ¡°What are you afraid of? The Goddess of Family didn¡¯t give you a deadline for that!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°You are only thirty plus years old. Work harder and give birth to a few children from now on. What is so difficult about that?¡± The baron then realized the truth of this, then finally relaxed. In the temple, where light shines at every corner, the Goddess of Family, who was elegant and poised, sighed and shook Her head. ¡°How was it?¡± the tall and dignified shadow asked. ¡°Although he is willing to reason, he is cunning.¡± the Goddess of Family said. ¡°It won¡¯t be easy to bring him under control!¡± ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be easy. After all, he is an expert that can nurture the God of Knowledge!¡± The dignified shadow smiled as he spoke, ¡°No matter how difficult it is, you got to give it a try. Maybe He isn¡¯t worth much Himself, but His God follower was greatly significant. If we could recruit Him into the human God system, it would be extremely beneficial to our development and growth!¡± ¡°It¡¯s actually quite interesting, just to think about this. Since the very beginning, there were many people that took the path of wisdom and culture, but there¡¯s only one person that took the crucial leap to realize the segregation of wisdom. Although it was just a matter of time, it happened to take place right now, and it happened at the hands of His believer! It does give one a very strange feeling.¡± The shadow that was beaming touched His chubby chin, thinking as he mumbled to himself, ¡°Unless¡­ We are back to the era, where winds and clouds agitate the realm, and the huge jellyfish is the crucial person that will bear the fate!¡± ¡°Haha¡­ It can¡¯t be! How could the fate of the world be borne by a jellyfish?!¡± He laughed hysterically, seeming to find himself very humorous. The Goddess of Family hesitated, then asked, ¡°Your Majesty¡­ If we take in the God of Knowledge, it means that we are going against the Master of Mystery¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with going against Him?¡± The tall shadow laughed. ¡°The others are afraid of Him, but I am not! My Buddha Hammer has been lonely for so many years. It¡¯d be great to have an opponent to practice on!¡± Sui Xiong, of course, wouldn¡¯t know the things that happened in this other holy kingdom. He solved the baron¡¯s problem, then he stayed temporarily in his manor in order to demonstrate the building of his temple. The baron¡¯s surname was Henry. Under Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion, he named his eldest son Ou. ¡°What so special about that name?¡± Baron Henry asked. ¡°Of course, it¡¯s meaningful. It means that he will become a cultural person.¡± Sui Xiong spoke assertively, seeming to reply with great seriousness. Baron Henry was satisfied with the answer. He was also satisfied with the plan for his child¡¯s future, which had been suggested by Void Mask Majesty. Of course, he didn¡¯t know that Sui Xiong was thinking that¡­ This name suits a comedian, and he would have a bright future if he performed comedic dialogues! Baron Henry wasn¡¯t wealthy, and the temple wasn¡¯t exactly big. Even so, it was bearable by Baron Henry alone. The reason why it could be built so smoothly was mainly because he received the support of the Void Mask church. It was also because it relied on the use of the transportation portal to transport sufficient wealth and manpower to complete it. It wasn¡¯t like any normal temple that used high arches and stone pillars. It didn¡¯t have any majestic statues and luxuries, except for a few paintings on the walls. Instead, it was a simple house that was built with bricks and wood. By the way, among those paintings, there were a few signed by the artist ¡°Harrod,¡± which was actually a pseudonym that Sui Xiong gave himself. A few days before the first snow, the temple was finally completed, so they organized the very first regular offering. The one that hosted the entire offering ceremony was the wolfman reconnoiter, who shifted his membership to the Void Mask church, due to his passion for delicious food. His name was Miramon. The food lover, who had turned into a half orc from once being a full orc, had learned to cook at the Void Mask¡¯s theme park, before finally becoming a proud high priest in the end. Why would someone, who was learning to cook as his livelihood, then become a high priest? This trivial matter didn¡¯t seem worth digging it to at the moment ¡­ All in all, after transferring as a high priest, Miramon did quite well. He was qualified and met every standard. Even aside from the ceremonies of the church, he always brought the believers feasts. Even though there were mostly home-cooked foods readily available, his exquisite cooking skills and sensitive taste buds seized control of everyone¡¯s stomachs, which contributed greatly to the expansion of the belief within the Void Mask church. Mm, very well, very well¡­ Chapter 198 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°This is the medicine that could prolong life?¡± Sui Xiong looked at the bottle of pink medicine curiously, ¡°It looks very normal.¡± On the desk before him, there was a small bottle that was made of crystal. It was almost the length of a normal adult¡¯s index finger. The bottle mouth was about the thickness of a thumb, the hexagram body of the bottle was gradually expanded, and formed a container with not much of a volume. Estimating by the looks of it, the bottle probably wouldn¡¯t be more than fifty ml. In the small bottle, it was almost filled with pink medicine. The medicine was clear, without impurities in it. Smelling it carefully, one could smell a hint of blood among the smell of green grass. This was the medicine that was developed by Miss Wendy, Slime Alchemy Master, after almost ten years of research. The life-prolonging medicine. It could delay the body aging speed of the user. One would be in a situation whereby aging wouldn¡¯t happen for almost ten years time. But, once the potency of the medicine expired, the body would develop strong resistance to the medicine. If one were to consume it, the effect would drop tremendously. Until the third time one drinks it, it would basically have zero effect. In order to complete this type of medicine, Wendy rejected almost all jobs to fully concentrate on the research. The alchemy master, Tyrian¡¯s only disciples, the Slime young girl that inherited all Tyrian¡¯s skills, spent countless time and effort, and went through countless times of failure, until she finally completed it. ¡°The main content was the blood of a huge snake that was cultivated with flesh and blood as a culture medium. Hence, the bloody smell is inevitable.¡± Wendy was a little tired when she spoke, ¡°But I added the flavoring essence extracted from green grass, and diluted the bloody smell, which shouldn¡¯t affect the taste.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and asked curiously, ¡°What is the supplementary?¡± ¡°Too many of them, if I were to introduce, one by one, I need at least half a day¡¯s time. Are you interested?¡± ¡°Er¡­ Not interested.¡± ¡°Then, forget it.¡± Wendy¡¯s body wriggled and became a ball of slime. She then lied on the soft cushion next to the table, ¡°I need to rest for a few days. This is a sample. The first batch of product can only be produced after ten days.¡± ¡°Huh? Need to wait for another ten days?¡± Sui Xiong was confused, ¡°Why do we need to wait for so long?¡± ¡°Because in the production, there is a step that takes a longer time.¡± Wendy¡¯s speaking tone carried weariness, ¡°About¡­ twenty days¡­ can¡­ produce¡­. one batch¡­.¡± As she spoke, she started snoring. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t disturb the alchemy master that continued to work for countless hours, but looked at the bottle of medicine with interest on his own. But, honestly speaking, the medicine was very common, regardless of the appearance, smell or even taste¡­ A medicine that could only prolong twelve to thirteen years of life for a commoner, and wouldn¡¯t be much of use to Gods. The medicine was actually the third improvised version. Reminiscing on the previous four versions, made people deeply feel the difficulty of the research. The first version was completed during the opening of the theme park, but it had severe side effects. Although it could prolong life tremendously, it would cause a tendency to beastify among the users. The few rabbits used for experiment, not only did their hair fall out after drinking the medicine, they even grew snake scales. That kind of medicine of course couldn¡¯t be commercialised, it didn¡¯t even have any practicality. Hence, they were destroyed entirely, and only research data remained. The second version of medicine was completed during the time where Sui Xiong was dragging the world into the Abyss. It didn¡¯t have much of a side effect, but its disadvantage was also that it ¡°didn¡¯t have much of a side effect¡±. The medication could delay aging for about five years and could be overlapped. At least from the experiment on animals, there seemed to be unlimited overlapping numbers. The few rabbits that were used for experiment were almost tortured with ¡°Aging spell¡±. According to calculation, they had at least lost a hundred years or above of their lives, but they were not affected at all, and were still jumping around actively by then. In other words, as long as there was enough supply of the medicine, it could allow the users enjoy eternal youth and never to worry about dying of old age. Sui Xiong got the news and told Wendy to produce a batch of the medicine and store them using a magic method, along with the related information. He also warned Wendy to not reveal any news about it to the others. The medicine was quite useful then. For instance, the diplomat of finance for Void Mask church, Rhode took the medicine. Relying on the medicine, he who was originally turning into old age from middle age and whose body was going downhill, avoided aging and was then working energetically. Then, it was the third version of the medicine, which was completed sometime before Wor turned into god. It was basically similar to the first version. Every time one takes the medicine, it could delay age for two to three years, and it could be ten for about three times in total. Honestly speaking, the third version almost fulfilled all the requirements. Yet Sui Xiong felt that, if it was only two to three years, there wasn¡¯t much of an impact and so it wouldn¡¯t kick start on the market quickly. So, he told Wendy to continue to develop the next version. Hence the fourth version¡­ Sui Xiong looked at it carefully and read through the information provided by Wendy thoroughly. He wanted to depend on his knowledge of traverser to operate on a strategically advantageous position, to make better improvisation. But, before he came here, he wasn¡¯t a biology nor chemistry student. So, after looking at the research information for a few days, besides ¡°the hell, these look very impressive¡±, he didn¡¯t have much harvest. But, he memorized the formula. If he were to follow suit, he should also be able to make some medicine that prolongs life. But, if he had learned alchemist and he could develop some medicine¡­ Hehe, let¡¯s talk about something else instead¡­ After a few days, Wendy who had now had enough sleep, finally woke up. She ate a pile of bread that was almost the size of her body and drank an amount of drinks that was almost twice her body size. Then, she burped and turned back into her human figure energetically. Sui Xiong looked her up and down confusedly. ¡°Why? Do I look weird?¡± Wendy asked. ¡°No, nothing¡¯s wrong, that¡¯s why I¡¯m confused.¡± Sui Xiong answered, ¡°You ate so much earlier, why didn¡¯t your body shape change?¡± He scratched his head with his tentacles, and looked pensive, ¡°Maybe¡­ you can consider yourself as a research material and invent some sort of losing weight program¡­¡± ¡°Can I earn?¡± Wendy asked. Sui Xiong thought carefully and shook his head. The people in this world were not rich in general, so there was hardly any fatties. Generally speaking, fat represented wealth, and if the rich wanted to lose weight, it was fairly easy. Just look for a reliable spellcaster and cast a ¡°weight loss spell¡±. The magic was invented by the Goddess of Love and Beauty, when she was still a commoner. It could efficiently amend a human¡¯s body shape¡­ Maybe there wasn¡¯t any need to talk about it greatly, in actual fact, it was a only a magic used specifically for losing weight. The intermediate magic wasn¡¯t cheap, but it was very efficient. A person that really needed to lose weight, probably wouldn¡¯t accept a losing weight spell with no money. But a person that couldn¡¯t even enjoy a losing weight spell, probably wouldn¡¯t even have the spare time to think about the problem of losing weight. Plus, in this world, there were many places that treat fat as beauty. It wasn¡¯t like these people valued beauty differently, as though fat men and women were more attractive, but they thought fat was a symbol of wealth and wealth is a symbol of status. That¡¯s why when a fat person was walking down the street, one would naturally receive everyone¡¯s envious and respectful eyeing. Just like the idiom said, ¡°Temperament, dress, conversation could be faked but only fats needed to be achieved by eating.¡± To sell medicine for losing weight in this world, he reckoned there was not much ¡°money future¡±. Wendy was a miser. If medicine for losing weight couldn¡¯t make money, she would threw away the thought far, far away. In the dining hall where it could contain more than thousand people, there were creepy looking pipes and water tanks that formed a complicated shape. Walking inside, Sui Xiong felt that he seemed to transverse into the world of Frankenstein and he felt like he was visiting the laboratory where ¡°Frankenstein¡± was made. In front of the sealed crystal tank at the ending in the hall, he saw that the liquid above was gradually clarified. The impurities within were slowly dissolved. It was just that the speed of dissolving was saddening¡­ ¡°Until they were fully dissolved and add in stabiliser, the batch of medicine will be done.¡± Wendy gazed steadily at the medicine that was changing in a steadily slow speed with rapt attention. Sui Xiong looked at her and suddenly felt a little guilty. To let a little lady work overtime, am I guilty of running a blood and sweat factory? Although Wendy was originally a slime, who belonged to magic creature, even on earth, he reckoned she wouldn¡¯t even have human rights. Er, maybe in Belgium. But Sui Xiong had been judgemental according to wisdom instead of bloodline. Wendy had the same wisdom as a human, she was even wiser than most of the humans, her moral values ain¡¯t bad either. So, he naturally treated slime that was good at alchemy skill as a human teenage girl. If it was on earth, and Wendy were to post a status on Weibo, ¡°My boss made me work overtime continuously for half a month. I couldn¡¯t take it anymore so I closed my eyes and slept for a few days¡±. There must be a big bunch of people filled with righteous indignation who would condemn Sui Xiong in both speech and writing. If she posted along with a selfie, the comment that criticized Sui Xiong and shared would number probably more than ten thousand, even the police authority might be involved with a lodged police report to investigate who the brutal Sui Xiong was, to see if he should be arrested and sentenced for punishment. He thought and he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Why?¡± Wendy heard his laughter and shook her head suspiciously, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with my face again? Or is there anything funny in the room?¡± ¡°No, I just recalled an interesting thing.¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°Do you need me to cast a magic spell to complete the medicine earlier?¡± Wendy thought and nodded vigorously, as she couldn¡¯t wait to see the situation after the medicine entered the market! Chapter 199 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°This is what you found valuable? A present that was worthy enough to disturb me?¡± The question was posed by one of the two marquis of the Gold Coin Federation. It was the current Darc Marquis, Rayson Darc. He looked at the little crystal bottle, his eyes glistening with unhappiness. ¡°A bottle of gold meta-allergy medicine¡­ Could this make a godly weapon sharp? Or could it give me an indestructible body? Or, is it tasteless and colorless, so that it couldn¡¯t be discovered via poison testing magic?¡± The fat man, who was now bowing before him, was covered in sweat, partially because he had been running the entire way there, and partially because he was just nervous. He knew that this master that he served was short-tempered and would easily get angry if he was disturbed while enjoying his leisure time. However, he also knew that, if he didn¡¯t send the precious medicine to him at this very first moment, he would be in bigger trouble later. So, the fat man stood there nervously, waiting for Marquis Darc to finish raging. Then, he replied politely with a soft voice, ¡°Marquis, this is a life-prolonging medicine.¡± ¡°A life-prolonging medicine?¡± Marquis Darc looked at the bottle suspiciously. The faint red clear liquid medicine in the bottle looked normal, appearing nothing like it could prolong one¡¯s life! ¡°Yes! It can prolong one¡¯s life. Accurately speaking, it can allow the user¡¯s body to temporarily stop aging. Its effect will last for about ten years!¡± Listening to the fat man¡¯s introduction, Marquis Darc was curious. In actual fact, as one of the rulers of the Gold Coin Federation, he possessed a terrifying amount of power and wealth. So, he naturally could obtain large amounts of treasure. Even so, things that could prolong one¡¯s life wouldn¡¯t be easy to come by, no matter how wealthy one was! Theoretically, it wouldn¡¯t be difficult to prolong his life. Regardless if it was the fruit from the tree of life in the Ancient Forest, the youth spring at the Dragon Cliff, or a bunch of amazing mages, who could organize a life lengthening ceremony, all of these things could prolong his life effectively. But, there was a difficulty that always arose, when it came to practicing such ways. The tree of life was gone, having left along with the passing of the Fairy Gods. Also, it was hard to find the Dragon Cliff. And, as for looking for a bunch of mages to lengthen his life, the cost of that would be very high. In fact, the price he would have to pay would be huge, enough to cause most of the Kings heartache, and far exceeding the capability of most any country¡¯s means. After all, although the King was noble, he now had an heir. In order to let the old man live a few years longer, would they really spend such an enormous amount of money? The country was not a personal possession of the King! Hence, even if he was willing to do so, those people, who shared the rights and wealth of the country, wouldn¡¯t allow such unnecessary expenditures! Likewise, in this world, it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult for an expert to lengthen his life, but for a commoner to prolong his life, it would be extremely difficult. The King was no exception to this rule. Then, is this medicine as magical as how my underlings have reported it to be? ¡°Tiger, to be frank, I don¡¯t believe it,¡± he said. ¡°If there was such a magical item, it¡¯d be more appropriate if a great mage sent it over to me. But, it¡¯s coming from you¡­. Tsk tsk.¡± He shook his head, obviously disdainful. The fat man smiled bitterly and explained, ¡°This only appeared in the auction earlier today. The people from the Void Mask church brought it for auction. I heard that His Majesty was in a good mood, and that made such a medicine. I also was told that he would occasionally auction two bottles.¡± Marquis Darc was suddenly awakened, gaining more confidence in the man before him. Such a matter as prolonging life was, of course, difficult for a commoner, but to a God that could do everything, it was nothing. Don¡¯t forget that the Void Mask Majesty possesses unusual powers. Even among the Gods, He is one of the extremely amazing ones. So, if it was truly His product, that wouldn¡¯t be so strange¡­ But¡­ ¡°Why did the Void Mask Majesty make this?¡± He fondled the crystal bottle, asking in distress. ¡°That Majesty has always adopted a unique trail of thought. He probably just found it interesting¡­¡± Marquis Darc couldn¡¯t help but laugh. He thought about it carefully, deciding that it actually made sense. After all, what Majesty behaved normally? And, how many of them were easily understood? Would any normal person build a theme park in the world of ice and snow? Of course not! ¡°Yeah, after all¡­ He is a jellyfish!¡± He smiled, then said, ¡°For a human to guess a jellyfish¡¯s thoughts, it wouldn¡¯t be a good idea.¡± Then, he put the crystal bottle onto the platter that his servant had placed next to him. He then stood up. ¡°Follow me. We shall visit the Void Mask church.¡± ¡°This is really the medicine that our church put up for auction, and it is bestowed to us by our God Himself.¡± A pastor from the Void Mask church used magic to check the bottle carefully, before concluding confidently that, ¡°That¡¯s right, it¡¯s the life-prolonging medicine!¡± Marquis Darc smiled, then took up the crystal bottle, removing the cork. He then took in all of the liquid medicine in one gulp. ¡°Fragrance of green grass, with a slight hint of blood.¡± He pouted, then said thoughtfully, ¡°Would the raw material in this be a giant dragon¡¯s blood? I have never heard of dragon blood that could be drunk directly.¡± ¡°The divine power of our master is not something our generation could ever guess about.¡± The pastor smiled faintly. The ruler of the Gold Coin Federation nodded, then closed his eyes. He used his magic power to sense his body¡¯s present condition. After a while, he looked pleasantly surprised, unable to hold back a smile of joy. Although it wasn¡¯t clear, he could really feel that there was some sort of change that had just happened in his body. Some youthful vigor felt keenly revived within him. It was not that he had fully recovered his youthful vigor, but more that he could really feel that he had stopped aging, as though the power of time had lost its power over him. ¡°This is so magical!¡± he exclaimed happily. ¡°How much of this do you have left? I will buy all of it!¡± ¡°Mister Marquis, birth, old age, sickness and death are unbreakable standards for all living things. Even if it was used on our master, he could only delay the process of aging and death until slightly later in his life.¡± The pastor, who had received instruction from Sui Xiong earlier, replied, ¡°To any one person, one bottle of this medicine is sufficient. Ten years later, if one takes the medicament again, it would only then yield one-third of its original effect. Then, likewise along this same pattern, thirteen years later, it would have nearly no effect.¡± Marquis Darc creased his eyebrows, but didn¡¯t look disappointed. To be able to live ten years longer was already a wonderful reward! After all, humans can¡¯t be greedy! However, he did reconsider, after having another idea. If he were to take the magical medicine in order to make a deal with big figures that were in the same position as him, he would definitely achieve an extraordinary benefit! But¡­ He asked, ¡°Such a medicine, did the Void Mask Majesty send out a lot of it?¡± ¡°Not many bottles,¡± the pastor replied. ¡°His Majesty said that there wouldn¡¯t be many people that could afford it, so He only sent a few bottles to the capital of every country.¡± Marquis Darc sighed. ¡°As expected! Anything that I could think of, there was no reason a God couldn¡¯t do the same, or more.¡± He wasn¡¯t especially regretful, but he still urged them to promise him that, if there was any more medicine to become available again, they must save one bottle for him. He assured them that money wouldn¡¯t be an issue. Although the second bottle could only prolong his life for three years, three years was still very impressive! A similar situation took place at night in the capital of every country that the bottles traveled to. Those big figures that were high up were all shaken by these bottles of faint red medicine. It caused them all to cast out their fortunes happily. Not only that, but due to the effect of medicine, the higher ups of the various countries now had good impressions of the Void Mask Church. Even the Holy Angel Kingdom that normally discriminated against foreigners, now displayed goodwill towards the Void Mask Church. ¡°Commoners are so weak!¡± Looking at the pile of gold coins, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but sigh. ¡°We are talking about a mere ten years of life, and it makes them all go crazy!¡± ¡°Luckily, it is only ten years!¡± The God of Justice shook His head and also sighed. ¡°If it were any longer, you might be in big trouble!¡± ¡°What trouble would I have?¡± The God of Justice looked at Sui Xiong, looking very solemn. He then replied, ¡°People with money and power could live another dozen years, so the theory itself is flawed! If they were to live longer, or even to live forever, I would have to stop you!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. This caused him to go into a deep thought bubble. He then nodded quietly. The God of Justice was right. For people that had money and power, death was almost the only thing that made them equal with the poor. If they had money and power, which then meant that they could afford a sufficient amount of the life-prolonging medicine. This would mean that they could live forever. Then, it would really eliminate the very last semblance of equality. Such a situation would not only dissatisfy the God of Justice, but even Sui Xiong himself couldn¡¯t accept it. Luckily, the situation at the present moment wasn¡¯t that terrible. The medicine now was merely prolonging life for a dozen years. As such, it was yet considered as being a serious issue. After all, people who had money and power, already lived better and longer than the poor. Thus, it was something very normal, and there was nothing wrong with that. Also, it was bad to constantly look at money, as there was no need to hold grudges against the wealthy. ¡°What should we do with the money?¡± He looked at the pile of gold coins and asked. ¡°You can do what you want with it.¡± The God of Justice couldn¡¯t be bothered. ¡°Use the coins as you can. If you can¡¯t, then forget it. If you can¡¯t think of anything right now, just pile them up and use them as a bed.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. He couldn¡¯t help but think of the famous legend. Then, he thought of the purpose of money¡­ A few days later¡­ ¡°No! No! Let me go! Let me go!¡± Graupel hugged a beloved blanket tight and exclaimed, ¡°I am staying here! I¡¯m not going anywhere else! Let me go! Let me go!¡± Gerald couldn¡¯t even drag her along, but was exhausted and panting for air. Sui Xiong saw this and had no choice but to do it himself. He rolled her along with her blanket. ¡°Woo! You don¡¯t mean what you say! You said you¡¯d let me watch over the maze¡­¡± Graupel thought she was going to lose her affluent job, so she was crying her eyes out. Her tears dropped on the ground, splashed a lot of dust up as they came. A few minutes later, they came to a newly built cave, which was about the same size as the one before, but deeper. Behind the cave, there was a transportation portal that linked to the ground, so that it would be convenient for staying within. ¡°This is your new house.¡± Sui Xiong put Graupel down. ¡°I am only changing your bed.¡± Graupel¡¯s eyes grew big, as she looked at the pile of gold coins that were almost bigger than the size of her entire body. Although her tears weren¡¯t dry yet, she started laughing hysterically. She jumped over so quickly, she even frightened Sui Xiong. She lied down on the pile of gold coins, ¡°swimming¡± with her claws among the pile of gold coins, laughing happily. Chapter 200 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°This is the new bed you are giving me?¡± Snowflake looked at the big pile of gold coins on the ground, she creased her eyebrows and leaned her head sideways. She seemed a little distressed, ¡°But, I actually don¡¯t like to sleep on gold coins.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. In his impression, no matter the story on earth or legend in the world, giant dragons loved to sleep on piles of gold coins. Even if there were enough gold coins, mixing along with some silver coins and bronze coins would do too. If requirement permits, a pile of gold coins added with some jewellery, magic devices and that sort, would be even better. And from Graupel¡¯s reaction, he was definitely right. So, why didn¡¯t Snowflake like it? She could tell that he was shocked, as Snowflake sighed and explained, ¡°I don¡¯t like to reveal my true body, unless I have no choice. Otherwise, even during resting time, I would sleep in human form. Didn¡¯t you realize that Frost and Graupel¡¯s rooms are terrifyingly huge, but mine is just a size of a normal human being?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and asked, ¡°Why don¡¯t you like gold coins? Giant dragons like things that shine, right?¡± ¡°¡­ you are talking about crows!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t giant dragons love them, too?¡± Snowflake sighed, ¡°Stereotyping is such a scary thing!¡± ¡°We, giant dragons, culturally, have a lot of respect for hiding wealth. To be able to hide more wealth implied that one is more capable and would be highly praised and admired by the the same tribe. Over time, many giant dragons turned this culture into their hobby. For instance, Graupel is like that,¡± She explained. ¡°But I do not agree with this kind of culture! On the contrary, I hate this kind of meaningless hiding, I even hate those that run amok in order to gain wealth! Sui Xiong nodded continuously, as he agreed with that too. ¡°You gained a fortune, and wanted to improvise our living environment, I appreciate your good intention, but it¡¯s okay.¡± Snowflake smiled and turned away, ¡°And, help me clean the room. With gold coins all over the floor, it¡¯s inconvenient.¡± Sui Xiong pouted and cast magic to clean up the gold coins. He cleaned the room altogether too. ¡°I, as a god, cleaning up the room for you, you are pretty honoured¡­¡± The next day, he found Frost. This time, he was more careful that he asked first, ¡°You want to give me gold coins to make into a bed?¡± Frost leaned her head to one side and looked at the jellyfish floating before him stupidly. She shook her head and sighed. ¡°Hey, what kind of attitude is that!¡± ¡°Nothing. You are still so random!¡± Frost shrugged and looked innocent, ¡°Do I look like I like to reveal my true body to sleep on a pile of gold coins?¡± ¡°¡­ Isn¡¯t it because you are extremely clear, that you had no gold coins to make into a bed?¡± Frost was offended and she said angrily, ¡°I am rich!¡± ¡°I know, stuffed steam bun is considered as a dry provision, one dollar is money, too.¡± Frost was quivering in anger and felt that chatting with the bastard jellyfish was the biggest mistake she made that day. Then, she turned around and left. ¡°Hey, you haven¡¯t tell me if you want the gold coin bed!¡± Sui Xiong shouted. ¡°I¡¯m saving them for you to make into coffin!¡± Frost replied, without turning her head. Sui Xiong looked at him running away like he was flying, and he sighed heavily. ¡°Nowadays, there were people who didn¡¯t want free money¡­¡± He thought, and he looked for Rhodes instead. ¡°You mean you planned to pour in the money for life prolonging medicine into the building of church?¡± Rhodes groaned and asked, ¡°Although I have calculated in private, how much money exactly?¡± Sui Xiong told him a number. Rhodes didn¡¯t seem to be excited or surprised. He thought seriously and said regrettably, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, our church has reached its maximum capacity at the moment. Although there is such a huge amount of wealth, I have no idea how to spend it all in a short period of time¡­.¡± Sui Xiong walked away helplessly. He walked while he mumbled to himself, ¡°What is happening?! There¡¯s money, but nowhere to spend¡­.. if on earth, there¡¯s so much money¡­.. I¡¯ll head over to Beijing third ring road to buy houses. Buy a few houses, I have one, my parents have one, my wife has one, the rest are used for storing miscellaneous items!¡± ¡°¡­ that¡¯s not right. I don¡¯t even have a girlfriend, where would I get a wife?!¡± He sighed heavily and he felt the so-called ¡°world¡¯s evil intention¡±. When the poor gain wealth, it was inevitable to have the urge to show off, especially he was then extremely huge! When a Chinese described a wealthy person, they always use the phrase of ¡°as rich as a nation¡±. Those top local tyrants on earth are mostly ruler in those backwards countries, and most of them turned the assets of the nations into their own. For instance, the wealthy man that sells stones. But a person that really was ¡°as rich as a nation¡±, from what Sui Xiong knew, there wasn¡¯t anyone. But then, there he was. How rich was he then? That was difficult to estimate, even if it was a conservative projection. That few countries in main dimension, anyone of them, from the central to local, put together a level of state coffers, most of the them didn¡¯t have as much as he did. Then, his question was, how to spend this amount of money? The huge jellyfish was sitting on crown of the big tree and pondered. ¡°How about building a bank? I remember starting a bank requires a lot of money¡­ I could operate a savings business, also also loan and mintage¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so, this is considered as fighting business with God of Wealth. Although the bastard is rich and cruel, we are in quite good terms. Crushing his league out of nowhere doesn¡¯t seem like a good thing!¡± ¡°Start another scientific research? Isn¡¯t scientific research burning the most money!¡± ¡°¡­ I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll work too. Running a scientific research requires Human Resources too. Where do I find people to do this? The God of Mystery is in bad terms with me now, and many that originally had collaborations cut off the church. Human resource was already at a disadvantage.¡± ¡°Invest in buildings in Garth town?¡± ¡°Garth town is on track as of now, doesn¡¯t seem like they need a big amount of money¡­¡± He thought again, until his tentacles hurt. Then, suddenly an idea popped in his head. ¡°I want to call for the very first martial arts contest! Mm, this name it is! Then, I will call everyone that wants to gain fortune and confidence in themselves to partake in the competition. Winning will get a bonus, losing will get compensation, too. And the final champion will get a big amount of money! And also a piece of medal that says ¡°The how many very first martial arts contest champion¡¯!¡± He thought and was certain that the way was reliable. Although it didn¡¯t go along the original intention of ¡®spending money¡¯, at least it was interesting. Interesting, that will do! Hence, that was the deal. Sui Xiong launched the strength of entire Void Mask Church, and with the aid of transmission portal in the each capital of all nations, he advertised widely. ¡°Want to let everyone in this world to know your name?¡± ¡°Want to prove that you are powerful?¡± ¡°Want to get rich overnight?¡± ¡°Come to Void Mask Theme Park to join the very first martial arts contests!¡± Such a publicity stunt very quickly spread to each of the cities in the main dimensions. Then, more people in the villages slowly found out. Many adventurers from all over came forward to the Void Mask Theme Park. They all had their talent and wanted to gain fame overnight, to spread their name all over the world. Some were ambitious and wanted to have a contest with experts from all over the world, in order to enter the higher legendary pathway. Some simply wanted that champion award, because they needed money. There were even some that were more down-to-earth, that only wanted to earn a payment for entering the contest. The most exaggerated ones were those youngsters that were playful and adventurous. They only wanted to use the transmission portal for free, and to visit the Void Mask Theme Park. Near the theme park, Sui Xiong had already prepared a combat field: dozens of independent rings, in coordination with a large amount of audience space, and temporary residences that were packed liked bird cages. All of this was not only to provide the basic living for the contestants, but also to show them the Void Mask Church¡¯s capability and confidence. According to the rules, there were a total of three months to register themselves. Until the time that they stop accepting sign ups, according to the statistics, there were more than ten thousand of them that came to participate in the contest, while people who came to watch were a few folds. Thank goodness Sui Xiong prepared ahead of them. Not only did he build a large amount of bird cage liked residency, he even prepared large amounts of food. Ten thousand people¡¯s food and accommodation itself, was more than what they can attend to. Even though he prepared ahead of item, suddenly loading the terrifying capacity of tenants, it pushed the hosting ability of Void Mask Theme Park to its maximum. Luckily, Sui Xiong was rich then, very rich. He could pour large amount of money out and hire a big batch of temporary workers. Plus, the commodities reserve earlier managed to support such an occasion. After being able to support the occasion, the next was about return. These people that come over to join the lively occasion of course wouldn¡¯t only just came to watch the martial arts contest. As they had already got to the theme park, it was inevitable for them to want to eat, drink, or play something. All of the sudden, every theme park rides were overcrowded. Even the desolated underground city that originally had very few visitors was getting busy. Many adventurer teams formed by rookies were going around the underground city like headless flies, encountering magic creatures and traps occasionally, then letting out tragic screams. The staffs in the maze were very busy. They were constantly going about in the maze and providing assistance to those adventurers that ran into trouble. They had to reassure the rookies that knew nothing at all that it was only threatening feeling, but not dangerous, and they also needed to comfort their emotions at necessary times and bring them to take a break in safe zone. There wasn¡¯t day or night in the maze. So, after a wave of hustling, those rookies that were lack of training, even those experienced adventurer guides, were exhausted. But also, in the situation that it was noisy, busy and weary, Void Mask Theme Park finally gained fame. No matter if it was a place to splurge money for food and entertainment, a tourist mecca for relaxation and entertainment, or a place to experience an adventurer¡¯s life, all in all, people experienced how fun the theme park was, and that increased the theme park¡¯s profit steadily. Liv. who was complaining at the very beginning, didn¡¯t complain anymore. On the contrary, she enjoyed the feeling of hustling. Among the hustle, the curtain of the very first martial arts contest finally opened¡­. Chapter 201 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was overwhelming, to look out over the more than ten thousand people, who were all standing in the plaza! However, Sui Xiong only yawned. It was extremely crowded and noisy, but nothing that he considered as being spectacular. On the other hand, the bunch of country bumpkins, who had come from the Void Mask Church, were stunned! Every one of them had their eyes wide open. Even Snowflake was impressed. ¡°This is really magnificent!¡± she whispered to herself. ¡°This is just a gathering of a bunch of jobless people,¡± Sui Xiong mumbled to himself. He then waved his tentacle, signaling Deacon Igor to begin the first round of eliminations. The competition would take too long, if they did not run this round of elimination soon. After all, there were more than ten thousand people taking part in this. Leon Igor nodded,as he stood up and walked towards the front of the main stage. ¡°Now, the first round begins.¡± He stated this straightforwardly, then drew his sword out from its sheath, before swinging it across the air. A coerced force of a legendary expert purged through the crowd. Upon seeing this, more than one-third of the contestants could not stand still. They fell down, one after another. Some even had suspicious wet spots that appeared on the crotch area of their pants! ¡°Those who cannot stand still, you are out!¡± The eliminated contestants did not dare to protest against the imposing manner of the legendary expert. They could only mumble their grudges to themselves, while the staff ushered them out. Sui Xiong scanned the crowd, then counted the number of remaining participants. He could not help but secretly pout at the outcome. There were still over six thousand of them left! It was still way too many! When the contestant list had been first presented to him, there was more than ten thousand names on it. He even once suspected that Gerald and the team were trying to please him, so that he would allow everyone to enroll, without examining them all carefully. But then, it seemed that Gerald had not let them through as easily as he had first imagined. This was because the standard of the participants actually had seemed pretty high overall thus far. One would have to have the capability of at least a qualified adventurer, to be able to withstand Leon¡¯s strength. So, in order to have made it this far, to break into this competition, no one could be just an ordinary adventurer! And, there were six thousand plus adventurers, still! Could it be that all of the adventurers across the world had come here?! After the first round of elimination, the preliminary round officially commenced. Sui Xiong had prepared an insane preliminary test, just for the sake of convenience. ¡°There will be a massive battle in this huge arena, with one thousand contestants per battle. Each battle will last for half an hour, and there will be only ten people that will pass through to the end.¡± Deacon Leon could not help but shiver at the rules of the game. ¡°There will be many deaths¡­¡± ¡°No, there won¡¯t. There will be four Gods overlooking the battles. The contestants will most likely have bruises, or they might break a bone or two, but they will not die,¡± Sui Xiong said indifferently. ¡°Look, there are six thousand contestants. It will only take six rounds of battle to reduce that number to sixty. Alright, let¡¯s just make this easier. We will have sixty four of them, and then we will let them draw lots, in order to form pairs. They will then run through a single elimination tournament, twice. Then, the remaining sixteen contestants will draw lots in order to be grouped up again. Then, a double-elimination tournament will be carried out, until we have a winner. It¡¯s as simple as that.¡± ¡°What do single elimination and double elimination even mean?!¡± A few murmurs from the crowd could be heard. Sui Xiong was stunned for a while. He then recalled that his believers had never come across any battles on earth. So, of course they would not understand any of those rules or terms that he was talking about. So, he decided to try to explain it again. After the second, more simple explanation was given, the crowd understood. Then, since the insane preliminary match would not get anyone killed, no one had any further comments about it. ¡°It¡¯s a pity that legendary experts cannot partake in this competition,¡± Leon sighed. ¡°Or else, I would have joined the fight!¡± ¡°The power of a legendary expert cannot be simply defined by his strength alone,¡± Wor, who already had become the God of Knowledge, replied with a smile. ¡°Every legendary expert has a different path. Those who can fight are not necessarily smarter, whereas those who cannot fight, might be journeymen, focused on traveling further than the others. As a matter of fact, their combat skills are irrelevant at this point.¡± He saw that the crowd still did not understand completely, so he explained further. ¡°What is the key to moving from the advanced to legendary status? The key is to find your own path. And what is the purpose of this path? It is not to get physically stronger, but to exceed being just an ordinary human, thus becoming an immortal God at the end of the day. That is why the most important thing for a legendary expert is not his combat skill, but whether or not his path will lead him to becoming immortal. Everything else is just incidental.¡± Everyone nodded, while they were listening to him, especially those who had already reached the advanced level and were looking for a way to move onto legendary status. Their faces grew grave, their minds drowning in deep thoughts. ¡°Well, you do not have to think too much about that right now. The path to advancement in the legendary realm cannot be accomplished within a day or two. Let¡¯s just complete our task at hand!¡± Sui Xiong broke everyone¡¯s trains of thought, while proclaiming, ¡°Also, if there is anyone else, who wants to join the competition, you can still enroll now!¡± Everyone looked at each other, smiling over the idea. Of course they were interested! On the very next day, the preliminary rounds began. Bam! A loud noise came from a wide and long blade, as it slammed onto the floor, which then caused the magically fortified floor to crack. At the same time, it caused a huge impact, which made the contestants nearby fall. The impact even threw some of them out of the battle ring entirely! The person who dealt that blow was none other than the armored creature, Phil! He was one of the four members of the Arctic Tyrant, and was also the only member, who was not a giant dragon himself. He was a brawny guy, wearing heavy armor, who did not even bother to show his eyes. In fact, there was no flesh nor body underneath that piece of armor. He was actually that armor, in his very essence! Years ago, he was pretty famous in the northwest region, going by the name of Armour Maken. He did not achieve much as an adventurer, but he did make his mark as a wanderer. He used to do a lot of good deeds. Although, these deeds did not render any profit for himself, which was completely different from the other common adventurers. Later on, he met Snowflake and the other two giant dragons, so they formed the Arctic Tyrant. They decided to run a town of freedom and happiness, which they named the Dragon-Roar Town. Since then, he had retired into the background, ceasing from going on any more adventures. On a usual day, he would either be taking care of his grocery shopping in town, or gardening in the fields of flowers in the temple (dragon¡¯s nest) that was hidden deep inside the wastelands. Sometimes, he would wander in the mountains, helping out any hunters who were in trouble. He was a respectable elder in Dragon-Roar Town. Actually, Sui Xiong had already discovered his true identity, so he knew that his armor was just another decoy. His real self was actually that sword, which looked merely like a piece of common weaponry. That wide, long blade, called Baster, was his real body. Sui Xiong had not asked around about his past, but he was certain that this person, or rather this sword, must have a thrilling story. After all, how many pieces of weaponry in the world would have the capability of self-consciousness? And, amongst those, how many blades would be more interested in gardening than combat?! That image was just wrong! Phil¡¯s, or rather Baster¡¯s, power was really strong. Its long blade could draw gushes of strong wind, just by swinging it about. Its strong impact made all of the other contestants in the same round tremble. In fact, almost no one was able to go near him. And yet, when he found that he was not clearing out his opponents effectively enough, he cast an even stronger impact in order to cover a wider area. ¡°I thought his best move was his punch. Why did he use sword instead?¡± Sui Xiong asked, as he was confused. ¡°I think it is probably because his opponents are not that strong, so there is no need for him to use his true powers,¡± Leon explained. ¡°I believe that, when he proceeds to the next phase, he will come across an opponent that will then require him to use his punches.¡± As a matter of fact, they did not have to wait till the next phase. Phil was forced to throw his punches shortly after this very conversation! The opponent was a golden lion man. His body was engulfed in an electric current, and he looked powerful and extraordinary. His speed was terrifyingly fast, and his strength was powerful. His moves were also extremely brutal. In fact, if Wor had not been overlooking the battlefields, who knew how many people would be killed at his hands! ¡°That is thunder lion, so his tribe has resurfaced¡­¡± mumbled Morani. ¡°His people were a famous warrior tribe amongst the orcs. They have produced more than one Orc King in the past. I wonder what this little fellow¡¯s abilities are, as compared to his ancestors, who had once made their names known by all.¡± Th?e ?golden lion man was obviously a crazed warrior. He would dash forward to challenge anyone who he deemed as being a strong opponent. Soon, he had his target locked at Phil. He laughed hysterically, while he charged towards him. His fist turned into a bolt of lightning, as he swung it towards Phil¡¯s face. His steps were strong and steady. He did not even flinch or pause, when Phil swung his sword to cast an impact towards his body. The impact merely blew his golden hair about in the breeze. Seeing his nearing opponent, Phil finally resorted to use his true powers! He planted the huge weapon, which was either a blade or a sword, in the ground, as his right fist burst into red flames, welcoming the golden lion by striking a punch with it. His punch was stunningly fast and full of fire power. It struck the golden haired lion man, before he could even make his move. His strong punch sent the lion man flying across the field. The lion man¡¯s body was burning in flames, as he knocked down some other opponents along the way. He ended up laying still on the ground. ¡°Is he dead?¡± Rhode jumped up in disbelief. ¡°Of course not.¡± Just as Sui Xiong said this, the golden haired lion man grunted. Then, he stood up after a short while. His body had been burnt to charcoal by Phil¡¯s fiery punch. He even had black smoke puffing out of his mouth. Yet, he was still able to knock out a fully armored guy, who attempted to seize the chance to take him out. That poor guy was sent flying off the battlefield! After throwing that punch, he looked towards Phil, who seemed to be utterly untouched. No one dared challenge Phil anymore. ¡°You are very strong!¡± He bellowed, without showing any sign of grief, pain, or failure. Instead, he looked rather happy and excited, even eager for another fight. ¡°I will fight you again, and I will defeat you!¡± Phil laughed under his thick armor, ¡°I look forward to that.¡± After this round of battle ended, Sui Xiong sought Phil out secretly, as he was really curious. ¡°Just now, when you planted your sword on the ground, then used your fist instead¡­ I found that really odd!¡± ¡°What was so odd about it?¡± ¡°I reckon that sword is your real self, and yet you planted yourself on the side. You only used your armor, which was your decoy to battle him¡­ How did you do that?¡± Sui Xiong had to ask the man himself, as he could not figure it out. Phil fell silent for a beat, before replying. ¡°This is my unique skill. As to the technicalities, I actually do not understand it all either. It just always happens naturally.¡± Sui Xiong curiously extended his tentacles to touch Phil¡¯s right hand, which had been burning just a while ago. To his surprise, he found that the tough armor had some traces of having melted. ¡°Your armor has melted a little. Will this affect you?¡± ¡°My instinct tells me no, it won¡¯t affect me much.¡± Phil shrugged. ¡°Well, at least in the matter of melting, it does not affect me much.¡± ¡°Do you mean¡­ You have even higher level skills?¡± ¡°Of course I do. But, I will not use them during a fighting competition.¡± Phil smiled, then turned to leave. Chapter 202 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Besides Phil, there were many people that were closed to the idea of Sui Xiong participating in ¡°The Very First Martial Arts Contest¡±. Such as Jose, who set his mind to look for a bunch of wives to give birth to three hundred children. He was then a father of twenty children, and his family pressure was high, so he really needed money. The winner award of the very first martial arts contest would be very helpful for him. As someone from a higher order, or even close to the standard of an expert in legendary realm, he already swept off everyone in the qualifying round. Even before he used his fish fork, and only used the rope that he normally used for tying wild beasts, he already eliminated over a hundred contestants. His method was simple, he used the rope like a whip. The rope was whooshing as he danced with it, so the people couldn¡¯t get close to him. But whoever was distracted by the whooshing long whip would suddenly be tied up on the feet, like a quiet poisonous snake, and thrown out from the ring. That was his customary tactic, his delicate cunning intentions were covered up by his rugged outlook. The tongue is not steel, but yet it cuts. ¡ª- Sui Xiong felt that there was something wrong, but he got distracted by the exciting matches very quickly, so he didn¡¯t think further about it. The bout of a thousand people¡¯s fierce fight was extremely thrilling, especially because there was protection by god. Everyone wasn¡¯t afraid that it would cost anyone¡¯s life, so when they fought, they had no worries. They fought as brutally and as amazing as they could. Various movements fought into a corner, various magic flying around in the air, all of it was a dazzling sight. Sui Xiong beamed with joy and was dying to fight for one round with him. But as god, he couldn¡¯t join the contest, while his clone, ¡°Traverser Sui Xiong MK5¡± was quick in response and good at running. Although he came to join the contest and passed through the preliminary round, he was alone after all, so he could only join one contest! Only participating in one contest, how could it satisfy Sui Xiong? He thought and finally figured out a way. Hence, in the last round of the preliminary contest, there was a man wearing sunglasses in a suit. His blonde hair was combed back ,but there was a big chunk that popped out like a airplane head in the middle, looking very eye-catching. He was holding a microphone, and was in the ring where fights were at, as though it was a barren land. He ran around and explained everyone¡¯s match. ¡°Who is this?¡± someone asked curiously. ¡°Commentator.¡± The staff from Void Mask Church was briefed earlier, so he answered, ¡°Also the judge in the ring.¡± ¡°Then, the victory and defeat would be decided by him?¡± someone asked with worries. ¡°No, he is mainly in charge of commentating and adjudicating fouls. As for victory and defeat, that would be judged by various gods.¡± The staff pointed to the cloud of glory light in the sky, saying, ¡°Steel Lion Majesty is very fair, and also Knight of Anger Majesty is one of the panel judges too. Everyone doesn¡¯t have to worry.¡± Then, everyone relaxed then they realized that the commentator was quite interesting. His ability wasn¡¯t strong and he was always jumping, due the repercussion of their attack, but he had never injured himself. He also always explained to everyone about the scene that commoners didn¡¯t understand, or didn¡¯t manage to notice. ¡°Everyone, look. This is the most popular contestant in the last preliminary round, Frost!¡± He shouted at the microphone and jumped to dodge the flying knife that nearly hit his butt. But he didn¡¯t bother with the contestant that almost shot him with the flying knife, saying, ¡°Frost¡¯s martial arts skill is strong, and she is also a member of the great giant dragon family. In the preliminary round, would he encounter any contestant that could force him to compete in his original form?¡± A twenty five year old adventurer that looked gloomy dragged his sword that gleamed with death and walked towards Frost. It could be told by one look that this man was no kind man. ¡°Wow! It seems like this contestant wants to challenge the young giant dragon!¡± The commentator suddenly popped next to him and put the microphone before him, then asked, ¡°How do I address you?¡± ¡°Night Rain,¡± the adventurer with gloomy face creased his eyebrows and answered. ¡°Night Rain¡­¡± The commentator paused and seemed to be communicating with someone. Then, he quickly read Night Rain¡¯s information out loud, ¡°Oh! It is the famous assassin Mr. Night Rain! All this time, he had been moving around in Holy Angel Kingdom, specializing in assassination work. It was said that his sword was fast like lighting and was extremely sharp, and that it also contained the scary power of a curse. Even if it was only a cut, the wound wouldn¡¯t be able to heal, and one would die because of constant blood loss!¡± Night Rain stopped and looked at the talkative guy suspiciously. He was very certain that he didn¡¯t leave behind any survivor, but why would the guy know about his sword¡¯s mysterious power? ¡°Contestant Night Rain, do you think the giant dragon¡¯s scale can withstand your sword?¡± Night Rain¡¯s reply was swinging the sword, and it nearly stabbed into the commentator. ¡°Ah! It seems like contestant Night Rain isn¡¯t in a very good mood now, as he refused to reply. But, it¡¯s okay, let¡¯s talk to contestant Frost then.¡± The commentator ran next to Frost, who stood ready like a breeze of wind, and extended his microphone. Before he could even speak, Frost already puffed out a breath of stonifying dragon breath, and turned his microphone into a stone. Frost thought he could destroy the magic device that made his voice loud, and stop the man from messing around, so he was disappointed the moment he saw the commentator took out another microphone. ¡°Contestant Frost, what do you think?¡± ¡°Why did you address him with an honorific title, and when you address me, you became so impolite?!¡± Frost¡¯s focus was definitely against the commentator¡¯s question. The huge jellyfish that was watching invisibly wiped away his sweat and quickly changed the way he spoke. ¡°Contestant Frost, how do you feel about this?¡± Frost then was satisfied and answered, ¡°There are too many people who want to fight against me, but I am still living comfortably.¡± He thought and added, ¡°Opponent of this standard, I only need three minutes to defeat him!¡± Three minutes later, the result was out. ¡°Contestant Frost, you are eliminated in the preliminary round, do you feel that you have ruined the great reputation of the giant dragon family?¡± ¡°F*ck off!¡± Although he was severely injured, the young giant dragon waved his tail and slammed it over. In the fighting ring, Night Rain, who had one of his arms turned into stone, looked cool and kept his sword, that carried a strong curse, in the scabbard. Then, he drew out a spare short knife to chop off the left arm that got into contact with the stonifying dragon breath along, with a small part of his shoulders. The creepy part was, although he was severely injured and the wound was terrifying huge, there was not one single drop of blood that flowed out. That was the power of his sword, it was a blessing and also a curse. Magic sword ¡°Night Rain¡± was a sword that could control fresh blood. It could absorb the enemy¡¯s fresh blood crazily, and also could control its master¡¯s wound in order to avoid excessive loss of blood. It¡¯s extremely sharp. After killing, it would devour the soul of the victim to strengthen itself. During the process of devouring, the body of the sword would have water beads that washed off the blood stain. Hence, the name of ¡°Night Rain¡±. It¡¯s only downfall was its bloodthirsty character. The sword desired for fresh blood and death all the time, and it would reflect its desire into the sword bearer¡¯s heart, so its master would always be tortured by its thirst for blood. Under such a situation, its past owners either lost to its thirst for blood and became an irrational killing machine, or won against the desire for blood and left it. The new assassin named ¡°Night Rain¡± was its new master. But, he was almost fully controlled by the sword. Besides the last bit of his right mind, he didn¡¯t even know who he was, or even what was his name, as he couldn¡¯t remember at all. Sui Xiong naturally could tell the exact situation of the sword and the sword bearer, but he didn¡¯t help the other party to resolve the curse, because he could feel that he didn¡¯t want freedom. Night Rain corroded his spirit and slowly was eating up his will, but he didn¡¯t refuse. As he himself didn¡¯t refuse, no one could help him. After defeating Frost, ¡°Night Rain¡± was silent. He didn¡¯t bother with the commentator¡¯s interview, but looked around cooly. He came to the very first martial arts contest just to assassinate someone. It was an accident that he became a contestant. But as he was already there, he didn¡¯t want to lose. That was the magic sword¡¯s pride, and also the sword bearer¡¯s hope. Victory, keep winning, until the final supreme honour! Looking at his injury, the few adventurers that knew him earlier and always go on action together smiled maliciously and hemmed in, wanting to take advantage. Before they even got close, along with the whiff of wind, a short spear landed on the ground in between them and ¡°Night Rain¡±. The slab stone that was strengthened by magic couldn¡¯t withstand the common short spear, but half of it was dug into the ground. ¡°The man that defeated the proud little dragon can¡¯t be eliminated by you despicable people!¡± A woman who was still in her teaching costume, with a golden pony tail that was swaying left and right when she walked over, was carrying a long gun in her left hand and had short spears on the belt behind her back. It was obvious that the one thrown out earlier was one of them. Dealing with the person that upset their plan, the bunch of people that wanted to take advantage got angry out of embarrassment. They dashed towards her while cursing. What greeted them was a long spear that was swift and fierce like lightning, fast yet light like wind. After a while, the few people that were eliminated got their lives back with god¡¯s protection and stood outside the ring, still in shock. Although the woman¡¯s footwork seemed a little clumsy, her shooting skill was extremely superior! Their teamwork that they were so proud of, was useless before her! After eliminating the few adventurers, the woman that had hair like a golden horse tail stood before Night Rain, looking at him with her jade green eyes. ¡°Your situation is bad,¡± she said. ¡°Did you want to be the champion of the very first martial arts contest, to earn the money for you to look for a person to cure your curse?¡± Night Rain didn¡¯t reply, but looked at her coolly. The woman shook her head and turned around to leave. Her time was limited, as she had to seized the time to adapt the situation to fight with a pair of legs. Although she practiced a lot during her spare time, during the actually battle, there were still many issues. For example, she would always forget that she only had a pair of legs left. She subconsciously used the moving method of ¡°hind hooves stomp and front hooves turn¡±. If it wasn¡¯t because of her swift body reflexes, she probably would have already fell down a number of times. ¡°She still needs to adapt!¡± The once centaur tribe main priest sighed. He carried the long spear downward and fought against another contestant that was quite capable. Chapter 203 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Chilly gleams were twinkling as a strong wind howled. Traverser Sui Xiong, who used the nickname ¡°Halo,¡± was dodging to the left and right, jumping up and down. He looked just like a monkey that was running on treetops. He was trying hard to dodge among the reflections of the sword slashes. It was not that he hadn¡¯t thought of a counter attack, because he obviously knew that attacking was the best defense, but it was that he had no way of countering or attacking his opponent at the moment. This was because his opponent was way too strong! His opponent was a swordsman, who was around the age of forty. He was slightly plump, which you could tell by looking at his rather tight outfit. He deduced that the swordsman was probably one of those adventurers who had retired abruptly, once they had earned enough money. This type of a person usually had great skills and had fought hundreds of battles in their heydays. In fact, this made them one of the most difficult enemies to deal with. Even though he might be a little rusty at fighting, due to years spent in retirement, he still could not deal with him. As a traverser, he came from a peaceful world. He did not possess any special powers. It seemed that he had gotten some sharp intuitions, allowing him to foresee danger. He also had far better reflexes, due to his unique background of traversing. But his skills and speed were still far inferior, as compared to the majority of the adventurers in this world. During the mixed battles, he could still fudge his way out, using his sharp intuition and quick reflexes. However, in one-on-one battles, there was no way that he could go around for a quick victory. In those situations, he was at a total loss for what to do. Moving sideways, he avoided a cut by only a few inches. He couldn¡¯t be bothered to imagine the horrific image, if his nose had been cut off! So, he ducked immediately, letting the sword sweep above his head. He then lunged forward at top speed, aiming at the left-hand side of the swordsman, which resulted in his opponent¡¯s being unable to turn his blade immediately. In the meantime, he drew a dagger with his left hand, then swiped it across his opponent¡¯s body. He didn¡¯t count on the cut hurting his opponent. Instead, he was only hoping that it could make it troublesome for his opponent, enough at least for him to have a slight chance of winning. Meanwhile, on the viewing stand, Frost, who was eliminated during the preliminary round, was very unhappy. She grudgingly complained, ¡°How could a person without basic training skills pass the preliminary test, whereas I was eliminated? All he had was his quick reflexes! Fate is really unfair!¡± ¡°If fate could be fair to all, then it would not be fate.¡± Snowflake gave a warm smile. ¡°Why don¡¯t you think of it from another point of view? Fifty or sixty years down the road, this person will just be a pile of bones in his grave, while you are still enjoying the marvelous years of youth. Isn¡¯t that just as unfair?¡± ¡°I am a Giant Dragon, so it¡¯s natural that I should have longer!¡± ¡°When it benefits you, you say that it is meant to be. And, when it does not benefit you, it then becomes unfair! The Goddess of Fate would criticize you for such logic!¡± Frost was quiet for a while, before she nodded, taking her sister¡¯s advice. Snowflake smiled, then looked towards the battle ring again. But she was no longer looking at the two contestants fighting, but the golden hair commentator, who wore magic glasses! The commentator¡¯s style was slightly different today, as compared to the past few days. He was not as noisy or chatty as he usually was. He spoke politely, without provoking the contestants, at least not like he had in the past. He was just being an honest commentator. But this is really abnormal! She knew who that commentator really was. As the unreliable clone of the jellyfish God, she would not be surprised at all, if he talked nonsense, told vulgar jokes, or even ran naked across the stage! And yet, he was just commentating the events, exactly as they were?! This must be a joke! Or, the sun must have risen from the west today! She stared at the commentator curiously, hoping to see through his inner thoughts, right through his sunglasses. She was hoping to find out what this clone of the jellyfish God was actually thinking. That obviously did not work. Even at the end of the battle, and even when the next battle was beginning, she still could not find any inkling. During the next battle, the commentator returned to his normal self again. He was jabbering on, conversing with unsuitable or unrelated comments, making the spectators laugh hilariously. She started to wonder if he was there to commentate the martial arts competition, or to conduct a comedy show! ____ Sui Xiong lied down on the long bench at the theme park, feeling an overwhelming wave of melancholy wash over him. The injuries that he had gotten from the battle had been treated, but the lethargic feeling in his body could not be cured so easily. He was so tired. In fact, he wished very much that he could find a place to sleep. However, his distress kept him awake. He laid down on the bench for almost half a day, but could not rest. Although he persisted at the attempt for a very long while, until his opponent was even tired out in the end, he still lost the battle anyway. Alas, he had lost the battle, bringing his journey into the Very First Martial Arts Competition to an end. At first, he was hoping to ask around for some insights from the Void Mask Theme Park, but he decided against the idea eventually. As he was thinking to himself, sleepiness crept upon him. Then he fell asleep. The invisible jellyfish, which was floating in the air, was frowning at him. Having two traversers in the same world, of course that would have given him ideas! Although¡­ Complicating matters, these two traversers were actually himself! He thought about this for a while, then finally figured out a solution. He gave his clone a hint! The instructions of the hint allowed the traverser to ignore all of the global cultural effects that he had brought into this world, in order to avoid him causing any more amusing incidents. That was not a good idea in theory, but given such a short time frame, he could not think of any better ones! On the next day, Traverser Sui Xiong MK5 left the Void Mask Theme Park, returning to the Gold Coin Federation with the cash prize. Then, he went back to the place that he called home. Despite being eliminated during the first round, he still had received quite a large bonus sum for passing the preliminary match. On top of that, he was pretty lucky, as he also won a small fortune, while gambling in one of the gambling houses in the theme park. As such, his wallet was pretty thick! Sui Xiong believed that this would improve his conditions of living and that it would also be beneficial for him to be able to delve deeper into the lives of the commoners in this world. He desired to do this, in hopes that it could help him further understand the thoughts of the people. Sui Xiong deeply wished to find out why he just didn¡¯t seem to fit in this world¡­ Maybe this clone could not accomplish this mission, but it didn¡¯t matter, as he could make more clones. He had the time and energy to do so, so he could wait. Eventually, he believed that he, and one of his clones, would succeed! The fierce martial arts competition was still going on relentlessly inside the Void Mask Theme Park. Among the sixty-four contestants, who had made it past the preliminary round, there were many more inferior mage contestants than there were warrior contestants. They seemed to take up about one-third of the group. These mage adventurers, who had survived the mixed battle, were generally strong. After the first round of battle, only a few of them had been eliminated. During the second round of battle, among the thirty-two contestants, the numbers representing both parties had finally evened out. If those, who were good at fighting and casting spells, like the bards and magic assassins, weren¡¯t taken into consideration, the mage and warrior contestants numbered exactly fifteen each. So, it happened to be a one-to-one ratio. ¡°Ha!¡± A female mage with superb long pink hair exhaled. She was holding a futuristic magic staff that was beaming with blinding rays. A huge burning flame spurted, almost covering the entire battle ring. The mage was from the Commonwealth of Mifata. Her name was Felix. She was a very unique type of mage. Her performance was clearly different than any usual mage, and besides that, she was pretty eye-catching! While dealing with the spurted flame, which covered a large range and was inevitable to dodge, Felix¡¯s opponent, who was a martial art monk named M?ahan, smiled coldly, while he charged directly towards her. He was brazing through the burning flame spray, without dodging the flame at all! As a mysterious martial art practitioner, who had gone through tough training to master ¡°qi,¡± the martial art monk had a terrifyingly high resistance towards magic. To defeat them via magic attack directly, was simply a mission that was impossible! Besides, these martial art monks were good at moving fast, the speed of their steps being the fastest of all. Any martial art monks that entered higher orders, like Mahan, their speed wouldn¡¯t be any slower than the speed of an arrow! A normal spell caster would not even have time to blink before him, let alone cast a spell! However, his opponent was no common spellcaster. This uniquely dressed woman¡¯s boots beamed with pink rays, as they grew wings on each side! The winged boots then sped off, slightly above the ground. She moved swiftly in her boots, as fast as the wind, and as quick as lightning. In order for the contestants to battle heartily, the battle ring was built rather big. Relying on the magical boots that could either be considered as flying or gliding, the female mage with superbly long pink hair maintained her distance steadily, flying at a speed that was not much slower than her opponent¡¯s terrifyingly rapid pace. At the same time, she displayed a remarkable response speed that a normal mage would not have. Her magic staff twinkled, casting rays of magical light across the air, while it landed hits on Mahan continuously. Even though each of her magic spells was not very effective, after being hit continuously more than ten times, Mahan was beginning to feel dizzy. His dizziness then caused him to begin to wobble. Even though Mahan was a martial arts monk with a profound cultivation, he could not help but feel furious, having to fight against such a strange spellcaster. He roared, and there was an aura that even a commoner could see, which soared up and wrapped around his body, just like a giant snake! In the blink of an eye, his speed increased again. He lurched in front of Felix with a speed as fast as a pulled arrow leaving its bow. He then swung a punch, exerting all his effort, striking out as hard as possible. Yet, he landed an empty punch. The wings on Felix¡¯s boots grew bigger all of the sudden, and a pair of pink halo wings suddenly grew from behind her top. She soared up, then flew into the sky. The audience burst into an uproar. Some were shouting, ¡°She¡¯s out,¡± while some were shouting, ¡°She¡¯s exposed!¡± Why would they say such things? To explain the situation, we would have to illustrate Felix¡¯s outlook first¡­ On the contestant entry information, the female mage claimed to be twenty-four years old, but she only looked sixteen or seventeen. Her superbly long pink hair hung low, near her knees. Her black top was so short, it barely reached her belly button. Her plaid mini skirt made everyone wonder if her underwear would be exposed, whenever she ran. Her boots were also so very peculiar! She also had a weirdly shaped pendant that was hanging from her neck. If she were on Earth, she would be very suitably dressed for a comic-con event! Not to mention that wearing such an outfit, she would definitely expose herself as she flew up into the sky! Looking at the scene, even Sui Xiong was curious. He looked out, seeing that there was a special magic spell that was attached to Felix¡¯s skirt. Looking up her skirt, they wouldn¡¯t be able to see the supposed ¡°view,¡± but only countless rays that were quite like the Milky Way! Yes, indeed, such dazzling rays were bright enough to blind most of the perverts¡¯ eyes! In that instance, the stadium was swarmed with wailing victims. In fact, there were many of them that cried, ¡°My eyes!¡± Chapter 204 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The unlucky monk Ma Han was also one of the many that got their krypton gold eyes flashed. He was not any pervert, but as the opponent soared up to the sky, he of course had to look up into the sky to trace the location of the opponent. Hence, he was conned. ¡°Cheap bastard!¡± The monk that was flashed got angry and roared, but he couldn¡¯t change the fact that he lost his eyesight temporarily. Felix who flew into the sky, took a position of a ¡°bomb¡±, and there were halos of fire that appeared from his body, like a huge fire snake that was entwined on the magic staff. The magic staff made a mechanical sound that felt very high-tech, then the head of the staff slowly expanded, and the red gemstone that was originally in the middle slowly spun forward and became a pair of metal supports that felt like conduits. Both sides spread out with golden ring, looking just like a¡­. ¡°Mezashi, continuous bomb!¡± Along with Felix¡¯s roar, the red flame turned into a huge power of burning rays and continuously connected six rays and struck Ma Han. The temperature of the rays was extremely high. Not only did it burn the robe into ashes, even the battle ring by his side shattered. Among the burning, there were signs of melting! Ma Han was a top monk that had been practicing for many years, after all. Dealing with a situation where he was at an extreme disadvantage, he could raise his ¡°Qi¡± and turn the invisible force into a white shield to block against the direction where the bomb was coming. Although he couldn¡¯t see temporarily, to people who went through tough training like him, the burning magic power coming out from Felix¡¯s body could even be felt with his eyes closed. He need not to worry about blocking the wrong direction. His counterattack was accurate and he did block Felix attack successfully. But he forgot a very important thing, the battle that day was held on a battle ring. The mutated burning ray that Felix called ¡°bomb¡±, not only contained a terrifyingly high heat, it also had powerful strength. If it was shot towards a tree or a stone, it might shoot through it directly, but the attack was blocked off by Ma Han with a shield. However, the aftermath of the attack was pushed towards his body. He hadn¡¯t recover his eyesight, but pushed off the battle right by the impact. Although he did not fall, but stood steadily, his feet did land out of the field. The commentator with golden hair and magic shades shouted, ¡°The brave monk Mr. Ma Han, although successfully having blocked Ms. Felix¡¯s attack, was pushed out of the battle ring due to a mistake¡­. Aiya! This is such a huge mistake! One must know, when one leaves the battle ring, it would be considered as being defeated!¡± As Ma Han was stomping and sighed in anger, he announced loud and clear, ¡°The winner for this match is the combination of beauty and capability, the one who could feed herself by her looks, but insists to depend on her own brain, Ms. Felix!¡± ¡°Let us put our hands together, to cheer for the emergence of the occupation ¡®magic bomber¡¯!¡± Among the cheer, Felix gradually landed. She panted vigorously and slowly dispersed the heat of the magic that almost burned her body. She raised the magic staff to resume it to its original form and thanked the audience. ¡°This woman¡¯s magic is quite interesting!¡± The mage group leader in Void Mask Church, who was from Mifata Federation, said. Satan was looking at the scene from afar and pondered. ¡°Teacher, what is the ¡®magic bomber¡¯ exactly?¡± Nice, who had become his student and studied a few years in his mage group, asked. ¡°A very unpopular mage revolution,¡± Satan introduced. ¡°To give up most of the other magic, but to focus on shooting rays and spurting kinds of magic, and to develop a special kind of mutated magic. The power is worth seeing.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t I hear of that before?¡± ¡°The requirement for this revolution is very high. Firstly, it requires sharp observation and quick response, and it requires one to be good at shooting arrows on a horse, and also adapting in vigorous sky battle. Lastly, it has high requirements for natural endowment, too.¡± Satan sighed and said, ¡°Honestly speaking, for one to have such talent to do so, is simply taking a gemstone to build a wall! Such waste!¡± ¡°For example, take Felix. Her flame magic skill¡¯s affinity was extremely high, so it could shoot out such strong burning rays. With such talent, no matter if she becomes a strength version of purely attack mage, or a combat mage that uses flame magic as a main, she would be very outstanding. But to become a ¡®magic bomber¡¯, not only would she spent a huge amount of time and effort to practice talents that are useless to a mage, in the end, she might not be any stronger compared to a combat mage¡­¡± He thought and suddenly laughed, ¡°Think about it carefully, ¡®magic bomber¡¯ is quite suitable for you!¡± Nice was stunned and pointed at herself, ¡°Me? Suits me?¡± ¡°Yeah. You know magic teenage girl transformation, right? After transformation, those battle formations, which are high attack and high flexibility, are suitable for magic bomber.¡± Nice¡¯s face, which was delicate like porcelain, was suddenly blushed, even her silver hair almost turned red. Heat soared up from the top of her head, so she quickly covered her teacher¡¯s mouth and shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t bring this out! It¡¯s so embarrassing!¡± To Nice, who was already twenty four years old, the once very interesting yet glamorous magic teenage girl transformation was then something that she felt embarrassed about, and many times she¡¯d love to go back in time to bash up herself. Whose mage would dance to transform?! Whose mage would wear a weird costume?! Whose mage would be like a dancer when one battles?! Simply embarrassing! ¡°Forget it! Quickly forget everything!¡± She was angry out of embarrassment, as she seized her teacher¡¯s throat and shook him. If it wasn¡¯t because Satan was strong enough to not breathe for long, he would¡¯ve rolled his eyes. After a few minutes, he finally seized control of his disciples that almost lost control. He touched his neck, which had blood marks from the hold, not knowing to laugh or cry. ¡°Held your teacher¡¯s neck for this kind of matter¡­ Where is Nice that was cute and sensible? Where is that little girl that would perform transformation to me in secret, and boast and smug about her own talent?¡± ¡°Woo¡­ Don¡¯t tell me all these¡­ I wanted to die¡­¡± Then it was time to apply Blackie Ko¡¯s lyrics: ¡°Time cannot go backwards, life couldn¡¯t have regrets.¡± Not long after, Jose was deeply understanding of the sentence. Long spear and fish fork were clashing against each other vigorously, just like two poisonous snakes were killing one another. They protected their vitals carefully and at the same time seized the chance to kill their opponent with one attack. Georgio and Pan, or maybe Oveila¡¯s gun shooting skill, was actually very similar. During the battle, he felt that he was fighting against himself once or twice. But, it wasn¡¯t so. As time passed, he could feel that the opponent¡¯s skill was getting more and more consummate, the changing factors in the shooting skill got lesser and lesser, but the power of the shooting skill got stronger and stronger. Unconsciously, he had an illusion. He felt that he wasn¡¯t fighting against Pan that was in human form, but the tyrannical ¡°Fresh Blood Trampler¡± that was running wild and whistling past the vast field, and dashed through the powerful army like there was no one. Oveila¡¯s shooting skill was originally more skilful than him. Previously, her performance wasn¡¯t outstanding, because she was restrained in her human form and couldn¡¯t fully display her habitually practice. More than once, she accidentally took centaur form measure, when she was in vigorous battle and was at a disadvantage. But then, with the increased number of battles, she was more and more familiar with human form battle. She even amended her shooting skill from the originally swagger and fierce war to a combination with gentle changes. That made it hard to resist for Jose, who retreated. Not that he hadn¡¯t try to pull away in the distance, and pull the trick of throwing fish fork, but Oveila¡¯s javelin knowledge and her technique was stronger than his. He also tried to assist using roles, but Oveila dodged easily and seized chance to throw multiple short spears continuously, and nearly shot him. After a few different moves, still he didn¡¯t manage to take advantage, so Jose couldn¡¯t hold back, but instead used his master stroke. ¡°Power of bear!¡± With a roar, the polar bear image on his shoulders suddenly became bright, and there was a surge of strength that flowed out, and it made his body full of energy. It was the strength of polar bear¡¯s soul that was sealed in the tattoo. Seeing that scene, Oveila¡¯s eyes brighten up and smiled. ¡°Thanks for the reminder!¡± she said, ¡°Magic¡­ I know it well!¡± Yes, although the once centaur high priest turned into a human, its characteristic of the soul didn¡¯t change, and she was still an outstanding magic caster. Maybe it didn¡¯t rate being considered as a high priest, but at least it could be a very amazing pastor. Jose tried using a measure of gun skills, but in the end it triggered her inspiration and recalled that she had skills outside those of gun skills. After she strengthened herself with magic, the originally weak body that could cast many battle skills was then available to be cast smoothly. All the while, her ability was immediately resumed to the level of entering legendary realm. The long spear was dancing, and the shadow of the gun was like poisonous snakes that almost hemmed Jose in. ¡°Do you know?¡± The once centaur high priest Oveila, then Void Mash Church clergy lecturer Pan Jonan, although she was in a fierce battle, showed a smile, ¡°I was already looking for a chance earlier, to repay you.¡± ¡°Repay? It¡¯s alright, there¡¯s no need¡­¡± Jose replied, stunned, wondering what did he do that needed her to repay him? It didn¡¯t seem to have any reason! ¡°Hehe¡­ I need to repay!¡± The golden hair on the top of lecturer¡¯s head was swaying in the wind, like a flame, as though it was going to burn. ¡°Aren¡¯t you the one that stabbed me to death with a fish fork back then?¡± Jose then realized this, and wanted to smash himself with a brick. Repay? What bloody repay?! She¡¯s taking revenge! But¡­.. Back when they were killing each other, he wouldn¡¯t know that there would be a day that they would work together in the future! Let alone be fighting against each other! He intended to plead, but looking at Pan¡¯s smile that pretended to be gentle, yet the hatred in her eyes that were boiling, he couldn¡¯t. There¡¯s no use to plead, I guess¡­ Looking at his opponent¡¯s gun that was getting more and more brutal, it was getting more and more difficult to resist, and so he gradually lost support. In the end, he couldn¡¯t help but say softly, ¡°Let¡¯s discuss about something. No hitting on my face, deal?¡± Oveila smiled faintly and nodded, the gun was suddenly smashed down during the gap where Jose sighed a breath of relief and fainted with that one hit. She didn¡¯t hit his face, but he fell on the ground, landing on his face¡­ Chapter 205 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The wind was howling and the shield was as big as a mountain. The middle-aged man with graying hair moved with clear precision. With years of intensive training and trials, his every skill and every move were so refined and accurate that they could be deemed textbook perfection. He could have been a role model for younger adventurers. He was like an ancient dragon. Despite his age, had not grown weaker. The years of experience had made him wiser and stronger. He was not moving fast, but every step he took was steady and solid, like a giant tree rooted deeply in the ground. He would not be swayed by strong winds or heavy rain. Anyone who was at the bottom of the tree would only see the giant tree trunk that soared up into the sky. When they looked above, they would see its crown of jade green leaves, shaped like a cloud that could support the weight of the sky. ¡°Nicholas¡¯s martial arts skills can be described in one word: steady!¡± Leon praised profusely. ¡°He is definitely a senior expert that deserves the title of ¡°the Reliable Nicholas.¡± I heard that he has been an adventurer for over twenty years. Even though he has been through lots of failure and setbacks, his adventure team has never lost any member during battle. Whenever a member passed away, it was due to some other reason.¡± Sui Xiong was surprised. He looked at the middle-aged man carefully and saw that he was full of spirit and energy. It was like his vigor was constrained with a giant lock, and there was no leakage at all, even when he was engaged in fierce battle. With such a battle bearing, he could keep fighting for an entire day and night without feeling tired. ¡°He must be good in endurance battles,¡± he could not help but say. ¡°Yes. It is said that the longest battle Nicholas ever fought lasted for a week, with only minimal rest time,¡± Leon said. ¡°That happened when the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was resisting the intrusion from Kingdom of the Blue Moon. He joined the side of Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and helped them defend a small city. He was able to withhold attacks from the Kingdom of Blue Moon for almost three months. Especially during the final battles, the Kingdom of Blue Moon grew stronger and attacked more fiercely. The Kingdom almost completely depended on Nicholas to run around the city walls, support the battles, and to boost the royal army. It held out against the attack.¡± ¡°Wow! That must have been really great!¡± Sui Xiong marveled. He asked again, ¡°So, did he get any rewards for what he did?¡± ¡°After the war, the Earl of that land summoned him and asked if he was interested in becoming one of his underlings. The Earl expressed that he would grant him the Baron title straightaway, skipping the two titles of ¡®Quasi-knight¡¯ and ¡®Knight.¡¯ He would even grant him a parcel of land.¡± ¡°¡­ Any adventurers who chose to serve a lord would need to start from the ¡°Quasi-knight¡± or ¡°Knight¡± titles, right?¡± Leon shook his head. ¡°Only famous adventurers can get this type of treatment. Common adventurers would never get this. A ¡°Quasi-knight¡± is still a noble ranking after all!¡± Sui Xiong nodded faintly. He was looking forward to hearing more about Nicholas¡¯ ability. In comparison to Nicholas, his opponent was a little pitiful. He was a mage who was good at defense and control. He continuously cast different spells to strengthen himself and weaken his enemies. He also turned the entire battlefield into a huge trap. Under such circumstances, even a giant dragon would have difficulty moving forward if it had not dismissed the spells. And yet, Nicholas was slowly inching towards the mage in a very calm manner. The renowned adventure leader was not immune to magical spells, but he was always quick to break free from disadvantaged situations. He was like a slow but tough behemoth. No spell could really tie him down. On the other side of the battle ring, the situation was the complete opposite. Both of the contestants moved with great speed, like two clouds of a whirlwind that tangled together. Audiences who were slightly weaker could not even see all their movements clearly. They had to rely on the lines that the commentator, which was Sui Xiong¡¯s clone, said. Then they could understand slightly better how great these two contestants were. ¡°Oh God! Contestant Night Rain just continuously stabbed six times in a beat! Anyone who can continuously stab twice in a beat is good, and those who can do thrice are experts; he did six continuous stabs! This is a sword skill with Godly speed! If his opponent in front of him were to be weaker or have slower reflexes, they would have suffered from multiple wounds and been carried off the ring for resuscitation! ¡°Contestant Blake has not even drawn his blade! This is unimaginable! How can he not draw his blade when he is facing a top-notch assassin such as Contestant Night Rain? He has only been dodging to defend¡­ Oh, God! He dodged another one! That strike by Contestant Night Rain did not have any warning, and that angle was the trickiest, yet he still dodged it! ¡°Everybody, look! Contestant Night Rain has actually attacked his opponent while facing away from him! He stretched his body and stabbed him from there ¨C it was impossible for Contestant Blake to see that sword coming for him because his body blocked it! Can he dodge this time? Can he? I cannot believe my own eyes: he really can dodge such a sneak attack! ¡°There is a saying amongst the fighting experts that goes like this: ¡®Pure defense will never last long. Attacking your opponents is the best way of defense.¡¯ Yet today, Contestant Blake is clearly challenging this saying! It has been over ten minutes! He has completely dodged all the attacks for over ten minutes! His right hand is still holding firmly onto the handle on his sheathed long blade! We can only imagine what will happen when he finally decides to pull his blade out. His powers will be sure to shock us all! ¡°Contestant Night Rain has started to attack fiercely again. His sword was really too fast! His footsteps are even faster than his sword! If they were to fight against him, most people¡¯s swords might not even be as fast as his feet! ¡°This time, can Contestant Blake still dodge his attacks? Can he? ¡°Oh God! Contestant Blake is unsheathing his blade! He has unsheathed his blade!¡± Just as the commentator was roaring with a strained voice, a blinding ray from a blade shined through the battle ring. It was as if lightning had cut through the empty sky. After only a moment¡ªa moment that only superior experts could feel¡ªan explosion followed. That was the sound of the long blade ripping through the air. Because the blade was too fast, it caused an explosion-like sound. Night Rain suddenly stopped his continuous attacks and slowly raised his head to look at his opponent¡¯s face. That face had numerous scars that proved his superior battle experiences. Even though he looked a little worn out, he was still calm and reserved. He chuckled bitterly, realizing that his body had been cut from his left waist to right shoulder and that the wound was spewing lots of fresh blood. If it were not for the golden halo shining down from the sky and covering his body, he might have been cut in two in the next moment. ¡°That was a deadly cut! Contestant Blake has won this round! And he only struck once!¡± The commentator excitedly reported as he jumped up and down like a madman. The audiences on the viewing stage were all stunned before they absorbed the news, and they let out a deafening cheer. ¡°The Drawing Sword Skill of Thousands of Springs: it really is as great as its name!¡± Jose said to Pan on the viewing stand. ¡°According to the flow of the battles, you will be facing this Contestant Blake during the second round. Are you confident?¡± Pan shook her head, her golden ponytail swinging along. ¡°How can I be confident? He is one of the best experts I have ever faced in my entire life. Even if I maintain my state, I only have a fifty-fifty chance of winning against him.¡± ¡°Does that mean you¡¯re sure to lose?¡± Jose was a little worried. Pan laughed. ¡°When you are in a realm like we are, the moment that defines winning or losing really depends on how we react on the spot. Unless there is a given plot, it is very difficult to tell who is sure to win in a martial arts battle between two people of our levels.¡± ¡°Ugh¡­ this is a little too deep for me to understand¡­¡± Jose raised his brow. His handsome face looked like he could not believe it. ¡°Wait ¡¯till you join us in this realm, and you will understand,¡± Pan said. She did not argue and merely smiled while replying, ¡°From the top of the high level to the legendary realm, there is only one step. You have to work harder, and take this step quickly!¡± Despite the fact that she was only a little taller than his chest, her height not even reaching his neck, her abilities and strength were way superior to his. Jose could not disagree with her. He took a deep breath and groaned, ¡°And how can I take this step?¡± ¡°Just battle. Dangerous battles. When you are on the line between life and death, it is much easier to take this step.¡± Pan lightly shared her experience from the past when she was still Oveila. ¡°Back then I was in a battle when our empire was conquering the South. We were fighting the Eagle Knights to death. That¡¯s when I took my step.¡± She frowned and her pretty face looked roused and nostalgic at the same time. ¡°After that war, I was bed-bound for about two months. I spent another six months slowly recovering. That is how I avoided being handicapped. But it was because of the inspiration from that war that I finally took the vital step. ¡°I originally thought that by training in an orderly and progressive manner that when my abilities faced another bottleneck I could immerse myself into the South expeditionary force again. I wanted to seize the opportunity to enter Legendary Realm by losing myself in blood and fire. In the end¡­ Haha, life is wonderful!¡± She extended her hand and pressed it over her left chest unconsciously. That was where the Fish Fork had stabbed and killed her last time. Her body was not the same body as when she was killed. And there was no scar on her left chest. But she could still feel pain in the same spot whenever she reminisced about that battle. ¡°Maybe¡­ When I can finally overcome the phobia of being killed, that is the day I can step into the Legendary Realm!¡± The young lady who changed her job from priest to teacher kept these words to herself, but in her heart, she had finally realized something important. Jose was solemn for a while, then he patted her shoulder. ¡°Well, don¡¯t need to overthink things now, you have already beaten me. You should have vented your anger. If you are still unsatisfied, maybe I could let you beat me up for one more round? Or I can lend you my fish fork, and you can stab me until you feel better?¡± Pan smiled and refused his suggestion as she shook her head. At the same time, it was comparably glum on the other battle ring. ¡°The Reliable Nicholas¡± had forced his opponent to the edge of the battle ring and there was no place to run. Given that his opponent was a high-level mage, he could use his flying skills to escape into the air. But when facing an opponent such as Nicholas, he was not confident in taking to the air, as he was not good at flying after all. So what if he could fly? Nicholas had six little axes hanging around his waist. It was obvious that they were designed for throwing. When faced with a high-level warrior who was armed with throwing axes during battle, flying off hurriedly would mean welcoming your opponent to use you as a live target! In the end, the mage sighed and chose to surrender before Nicholas gave him a deadly blow. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Jose gently patted Pan¡¯s shoulder. ¡°The most anticipated match this morning has ended. I¡¯ll buy you a drink!¡± Chapter 206 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio For the competition for the very first martial arts contest, the rules were as such: During the top sixty four, there would be two matches daily, during the morning and noon, each to be held at two battlefields next to each other simultaneously. Then, there would be four matches daily, which would require a total of eight days to complete all the matches. After the first stage ended, it would be followed by the competition for the top thirty two. Maintaining the same, which was two matches daily during the morning and noon, but two hours after the first match, the second match would then begin. According to the normal situation, the two hours should be sufficient for the first to end. So the two matches should be able to be held separately, so that the audience wouldn¡¯t have to miss any one, but could watch the complete four matches. The top thirty two would require four days. After the four days, everyone will draw lots and decide the grouping for the top sixteen and then rest for a day. The competition for top sixteen would be one match each in the morning and afternoon. Due to the fact that it would be eliminated after two losses, it would require six days and elimination of four contestants. The victory eight and the defeated four would enter the next round, or it could be called the top twelve. During the top twelve, it would still maintain at one match each in the morning and afternoon. Within the two days time, a select four from the top eight would enter the victory group, then the defeated group would have to fight for the four slots, which was another two days. During the top eight, it would still remain at one match each in the morning and noon. Victory group one day and defeated group two days. Actually, during the third day, it would only be a half day. The next stage was defeated group, three people, and victory group, two people. But, anyway, the one who lost in the victory group would join the defeated group, so the number would be even again. At this stage, it would be one match each day. The first day, victory group, the second and third day, defeated group. The defeated group match would decide the ownership of second runner up. The winning contestant would then get the chance to compete with the last man standing in victory group, to fight for the championship. Of course, as he was from the defeated group and the other contestant was in the victory group, if he won, he would still have to fight for another match to call for the final victory or defeat. The competition rules were complicated, but all in all, it was fair. To the top sixteen contestants, they had to lose twice to miss their chance, so everyone had equal opportunity. As for stamina, under the protection of gods, there wouldn¡¯t be situations of exhaustion due to continuous matches. But regarding expense of spirit, that was not within the bandwidth of gods. ¡­. Factors of luck still couldn¡¯t be eliminated. The fierce battles were still going on, and there were many experts that won, but there were many experts that lost too. The two huge battle rings not only attracted the focus of experts over all countries on the main dimension, even many greats that transcended the mortal world noticed. ¡°You could feel that the two clergy posts of ¡®martial art contest¡¯ and ¡®competition¡¯ were nurturing.¡± In the ¡°Holy Temple of Martyrs¡± that was filled with noises of killing and fighting, the god of battle¡¯s face grew gloomy and looked at the figure that was talking with ease and fluency. ¡°Of course I could feel it, but how does it relate to you?¡± he said coldly, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me, not only are you interested in ¡°murder¡± and ¡°assassination¡±, but you still intend to expand your clergy and to seek more clergies towards battle?¡± The god of conspiracy that only had eyes and mouth showed a weird smile, just like a white mask that had three crescent moons drawn vertically, and said, ¡°Everyone existed immortally. What¡¯s the point of your cover up?¡± The god of battle¡¯s face grew gloomy, ¡°What do you want to say exactly?¡± ¡°All this while, as the follower of the god of battle, ¡®battle¡¯, or ¡®small scale battle¡¯, such clergies were monopolized by you. Look, that earth shattering martial art contest excluded you completely, but was hosted by the guy that held ¡®warrior¡¯ guardian clergy¡­ don¡¯t you think, it¡¯s a little tricky behind this?¡± The god of battle kept quiet, as he was already dissatisfied at the beginning, even with his guards up. Regarding ¡°battle¡±, ¡°martial arts¡± was considered an important part, although the portion of ¡°competition¡± was lower, to him that only had intermediate holy power, he had to avoid as much loss as possible. The loss of clergy was similar to losing holy power or divinity, the latter of the two could be recovered gradually relying on time, only this first couldn¡¯t be recovered. When you lose it, you will lose it always. Losing your clergy was an extremely powerful hit towards god. From the past, many gods were weakened due to that reason, even to the point they would pass away. So, once its related to the clergy problem, there would be fierce battle in between gods. Many times it was even nonstop. To gods that possess weak or even faint godly strength, losing their crucial clergy meant their passing. As the result was passing, they might as well go for a life and death battle. No matter how they died in a vigorous battle, it¡¯s still better than dying for nothing. As a member of the gods in war system, the god of battle was of course not a coward. If there was necessity, He didn¡¯t mind to fight the war and clamour for a life and death battle! But¡­ He was actually a little hesitant. Intermediate godly power like Him, not exactly great nor weak, was at an awkward position. Getting clergy slightly wouldn¡¯t help Him to breakthrough or level up. Once they lose clergy slightly, it would cause Him to weaken or lower in ranking. If it was only ¡°competition¡± clergy, He wouldn¡¯t hesitate and He might as well hold it back. But¡­ ¡°martial arts contest¡± clergy¡­ The great god that was wearing full body armour and ready to fight a war anytime, was sitting on his throne that was built with his spoils of war, weapon. He was deep in thought. The god of conspiracy smiled, as his shadow slowly faded and vanished. He knew His advice had taken effect. Maybe the god of warrior would hold back originally. Because if He had to fight, He had to deal with not only Steel Lion, but also the entire god system of desolation, and even go against the one with unset clergy yet powerful Void Mask. Under such a situation, even if he could fight, even if the war god system and other few gods that were good at fighting helped, it was hard to say that they would win. Of course, They could invite the King of God of War, but on Steel Lion¡¯s side, He had the God of Justice as well. In fighting against the crazy fellow that once fought to the Wheel of Order, against the Great God, even the God of War, who was said to be the most intrepid among the gods, dared not confirm their victory. Such war, even if they won, the war god system would have a sprain or a fracture. If they lost, they might be killed. So, the god of war hesitated and they decided to give up. But after the god of conspiracy¡¯s advice, the situation was different. If the reality was a game, when the god of conspiracy advised earlier, there would be such a system reminder that popped out, [The god of conspiracy was persuading the god of battle. This persuasion is called bluff negotiation.] [The god of battle didn¡¯t pass the will test and the bluff succeeded.] [The god of conspiracy completed persuasion, the god of warrior would accept the mission of ¡°fight for clergy¡±.] After a while, the god of battle finally decided, went towards the middle of ¡°Halberd Snapping Wasteland¡± in war god system holy kingdom, to have an audience with the King of god of war, the great god of war. Among the emptiness near the sky of Ashes Wood in the main dimension, in the holy kingdom that shared the border with chaotic world, Morani¡¯s main body suddenly felt slight discomfort, but it had gone by in a flash. His gut feeling told him that there seemed to be something bad that¡¯s going to happen, but not that severe. ¡°Is it because one of my high priests encountered danger? Or is it because a bunch of my believers encountered an unfortunate event?¡± He directed his focus to the human world to stroll around. As expected, He quickly found out that a high priest of his was assassinated and the murderer was running away. To god that had many believers, a high priest¡¯s life and death was nothing to speak of. But Morani didn¡¯t have many believers and high priests below him, especially above intermediate level, as those could be counted with two fingers. He lost one high priest just like that, which was not a small damage to him! Morani¡¯s face grew gloomy and sent down a God¡¯s order. The clergyman who was closest to the high priest quickly rushed over and tried to use ¡°resurrection spell¡± to revive the high priest that died. Although Morani could send a clone down to use resurrection spell, it would consume more divine power. To Him that had yet to reach intermediate divine power, He could only produce so many clones, and each one of them had their respective duty. He couldn¡¯t send any of his clones. To send a clone to resurrect, He had to make a clone last minute that was sufficient to carry such level of divine power that was out of His ability, and it would require a few fold of the expense. That clergyman that received the order quickly departed. As there was a god order that gave accurate direction, he used transportation spell and got there in a short while. Then, it was resurrection. In the world, theoretically, every god could use resurrection spell. But, in actual fact, besides gods that possess divine power in healing or life league, most of the gods were not willing to use resurrection spell. Because ¡°life¡± clergy was still vacant, not one God had gotten it. That signified that to let the deceased to radiate the vigor of life, it wouldn¡¯t be done through the negotiations with the god of life, to simply exchange with divine power. But rather, it depended on the god itself to transform divine power into life divine power. For gods with life league, it was naturally just a piece of cake, as divine power in healing league could also transform life divine power with lesser expense. But any divine power besides the two, if one wanted to transform into life divine power, ten to one was already considered a good trade off. For example, like the god of conspiracy, god of death, god of damage, and that sort of clergy and league that was almost the direction of wicked and damaging, their divine power would normally require a hundred to one ratio in order to transform into life divine power. Morani of course had no divine power in the league of life or healing, but He had the divine power of protection. To transform it into life divinity should be a ratio of twenty to one, which He didn¡¯t consider to be extremely unfair. After expensing not a little divine power, the resurrection was completed. Although the high priest that was resurrected was weak and required to rest for a period of time, at least he managed to escape the unfortunate situation.Morani sighed, slightly exhausted, turned around, and looked towards the venue of the very first martial arts competition. Then, only that spectacular competition could make Him feel slightly better. ¡°Luckily, ever since I threw the very first martial arts contest with Auscar, my divine power has increased tremendously. Otherwise, the expense would make me feel hurt!¡± He mumbled to himself, as he didn¡¯t feel a conspiracy targeted at Him had been completed¡­ Chapter 207 Chapter 207: Chapter 77 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On the battle ring, where everyone was focusing their attentions, a glorious competition was unfolding. The first round of the top sixteen was being carried out between two pure warriors. One of the warriors was a noble and vice captain of the knight group from the church of the God of Knights in Duchy of Thunder. His name was Spencer Smith. The other warrior was from a village in the Holy Angel Kingdom. He was a lord and a forest ranger. His name was Herman Armster. Spencer Smith was young and handsome. He wore a luxurious and full body armor. The armor was shimmering, with a twinkle of blue lights. This was the characteristic of iron and steel, mixed with mithril. His armor and weapons would glow with extraordinary splendor as he fought. This is how it could be told that it was a strong magic weapon, with just a glance! Herman Armster was a bit older. His beard was unshaven, and his flax colored hair was always messy. Besides the old chest armor that he wore, he didn¡¯t even have a second defensive tool on him. The sword in his hand was twinkling with magic a light, but looking at the jellyfish on his sword, it could be seen that it was actually a standard magic weapon that the Void Mask Church had provided for any of the contestants that didn¡¯t have weapons. For him to be at such a level of poverty, it was simply pathetic! Spencer¡¯s footsteps and actions were light and swift, revealing the wittiness and vigor of a young man. His swordcraft might not follow the regular pattern, and he often made unreasonable maneuvers, but he had his own skills that more than compensated for all of his so-called flaws. Regarding his natural and smooth sword skills, there wasn¡¯t any room left for him to be taken advantage of. His rarest attribute was that he maintained his elegance, even during fierce battle, as though he was a prince that had just walked in from a fairytale knight story. Indeed, he was graceful, handsome, and carefree, as though he could kill an evil dragon, with just a swing of his hand. There were always enthusiastic cheers and screams among the audience, whenever he fought. And, one had to wonder, just how many young maidens¡¯ hearts he had won already! Herman was the total opposite. His swordcraft wasn¡¯t that smooth. On the contrary, it was rough and unpolished. It could be seen that his every move was hard-trained, and that he had practiced them countless times. However, the flow of battle preparation and finesse between his moves was obviously problematic. It could be easily said that he never had any guidance or instruction from a master, nor was he a veteran of many battles. To put it simply, his swordsmanship was totally flawed. However, Herman did have the instinct of a wild beast, and he possessed a terrifying sensitivity. Every time Spencer wanted to take advantage of all of his many flaws via an attack, Herman would issue a counter attack with a terrifyingly high speed of response. Not only would Herman make up for his flaws, he could also turn around and attack him rapidly. As they battled, Spencer was not in a hurry to seize an opportunity to attack. This was because he was confident in his stamina and endurance. Moreover, he believed that it would be impossible to be weaker than someone who was even older than his teacher! So, he decided to fight a battle of endurance with Herman. No matter if it lasted a few hours or a few days, he was determined to drag his opponent to his death, relying on the stamina of his youth, as well as his perfect swordcraft! ¡°This young man is very outstanding!¡± In the sky, Morani complimented him. ¡°He has gained fame at such a young age, but he is neither conceited nor rash. His swordcraft is so elegant, yet he has such a stable character. His is a talent that is hard to come by!¡± Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t highly skilled in martial arts himself, so he couldn¡¯t tell what was so amazing about Spencer¡¯s swordcraft. However, he could tell the entirely different approach that Spencer and Herman were taking. The battle had been going on for more than an hour now, and Spencer was still maintaining his calmness, while his confident smile stayed plastered on his face. On the other hand, Herman¡¯s face grew grave, his eyebrows tightly knitting together, while his looks grew more ferocious. He was also getting short of breath, seen when he would grunt from his throat occasionally, like a wild beast that was in a fix, bellowing before death! ¡°That¡¯s weird! Why would he do that?¡± He said in distress. ¡°The current situation is still considered as a fifty-fifty chance to win for both, right? Why does he look like he is at an extreme disadvantage? He looks so impatient and moody.¡± Morani took a closer look, then shook His head, ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with that person¡¯s brain.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with that person¡¯s brain,¡± Morani repeated. ¡°His brain was either injured when he was young, or he was born with it that way. In short, there is something wrong inside of his head. Strictly speaking, he was a born fool, just slightly better than an idiot!¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. ¡°How could he be an idiot, yet still be able to train for such an amazing martial art skill competition?¡± ¡°I have never seen this before. But, many of the legendary living things basically have no intelligence, so theoretically, an idiotic person could still be an expert at some things.¡± Sui Xiong stared in open-mouthed wonder at the man, who was now bellowing like a trapped beast. He swung the standard two-handed sword quite clumsily, and every step he took seemed laborious. He indeed seemed to be in a fix! His hair and beard were messy and unkempt, the look on his face, ugly. Taking a closer look, there was a hint of dullness there that made him look simple-minded. But¡­ Sui Xiong suddenly noticed that there was a strike of light that flashed through Herman¡¯s eyes. It was the light of wisdom and intelligence! This person¡­ Is not just some idiot! ¡°Maybe we should help him,¡± he said. ¡°Such a person, who could practice his swordcraft at such a level, shouldn¡¯t be living in a cloud of muddle-headedness!¡± Morani creased His eyebrows. ¡°This kind of help would require divine power of wisdom and a treatment league. We do not have such capabilities. To depend on an exchange of divine power to realize this goal, the cost would be too high.¡± ¡°Let me figure out a way.¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°Such a matter as dealing with a simple-minded person, it may not necessarily require magic at all.¡± He used his soul induction strength to slowly infiltrate Herman¡¯s brain quietly, to check out the situation of his brain. Regardless of whether Herman had been born idiotic or was a postnatal idiotic, most of the idiots had problems with their brains. Very quickly, he found the problem. In Herman¡¯s brain, there was a large area that obviously had a lesser blood supply flowing to it, and the electric current of the nerve net was also unusually thin. He deduced by these observations that he seemed to even be lacking a chunk of his brain! Maybe this was the exact reason that Herman was so idiotic and clumsy. It also could explain why he was at a total loss in the areas of flexibility and adeptness. If I could treat his brain for a bit, to repair the damaged parts, maybe he could recover his clear thinking and stop being an idiot! Sui Xiong thoughts swirled in his head. He was determined to help him. After the match ended, he came to Herman, who was eating a pork knuckle in the corner of the contestants¡¯ restaurant. He could clearly see that Herman was depressed that he had lost the match. ¡°Hello, I think you need a treatment.¡± Herman lifted his head to look at the green jellyfish that was floating before him. ¡°I don¡¯t eat seafood,¡± Herman said. Sui Xiong choked and sighed. He said, ¡°I am Void Mask. I am trying to treat your idiocy. Are you willing to let me help you?¡± Herman¡¯s eyes were wide open. He looked at him for a few seconds, then lowered his head to search the table for something. ¡°What are you looking for?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°My dad told me not to drink. He said I could be cheated when I¡¯m drunk¡­ Did I drink? Why don¡¯t I remember?¡± Herman mumbled to himself, somewhat incoherently. Sui Xiong was angry now. He rolled his tentacle and slapped Herman on his head, thundering, ¡°Who the hell are you? Why would I have the time or care to cheat you?¡± Herman heard this, and since he understood the words, he confirmed to himself that he wasn¡¯t drunk. He then hesitated for a very long time, before he finally accepted Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion. So, Sui Xiong treated him. It was a simple treatment. Sui Xiong turned one of his tentacles into a probing pin, which he then used to pierce into his skull. Then, he repaired the part of brain that was damaged. This was easier said than done. The nerves and blood of a human brain were extremely complicated. Even a medical expert wouldn¡¯t dare say that they understood it entirely, let alone Sui Xiong! But, Sui Xiong had the advantage, as he was able to look clearly at the structure of Herman¡¯s brain. Plus, his mental strength was extremely strong, enabling him to analyze such a large amount of data. Even when he was dealing with countless complicated structures, he wouldn¡¯t be phased or overwhelmed. Even so, he still took two to three days to fully repair Herman¡¯s brain. After all, the process of restoring a brain was quite different than creating one. If he was just creating a brain, he would only have needed half a day to get it done. But, when restoring a brain, one had to do it slowly, in order to ensure that there would be no problems. This was because the restoring process was much more complicated. Just when the brain restoration job had come to its end, Sui Xiong cast a spell to wake Herman up, as he had put him into a deep stupor for the treatment. The then asked Herman how he felt. Herman looked sleepy, and he was looking at him, as if he were very confused. In fact, he seemed to be at quite a loss! After a while, however, his eyes grew bright, and the sluggish look on his face gradually dispersed. Then, he slowly began to display a firm and resolute expression on his face. ¡°I remember now!¡± he said. ¡°Many things that I had forgotten, and many things that I didn¡¯t take to heart before, I remember all of them now!¡± ¡°Yes, but I¡¯m asking you, how do you feel about your brain? Do you feel dizzy?¡± Herman got off of the surgery table, then knelt on one knee before Sui Xiong. ¡°Great Void Mask Majesty, you have bestowed a new life upon me! Please forgive me for not being able to string together any ornate phrases to praise you adequately! From now on, I am your loyal servant! Please allow me to be at your service!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. ¡°I only did a single surgery for you! How did I recruit an underling?¡± Looking at Herman, who was being so persistent, he didn¡¯t have the heart to reject him. So, it was decided! By the way, Herman needed to rest after his surgery, so he wouldn¡¯t be able to partake in the match of the defeated team. Hence, he defaulted in that round. His opponent, Felix, had actually waited for half an hour on the battle ring, before realizing the snafu in the end! Chapter 208 ¡°You want to take revenge?¡± Next to the transportation portal, Sui Xiong asked curiously. Herman nodded, ¡°Back then, my brain ain¡¯t good. I was cheated and I lost my nobility. Now, I want to go back to punish the cheater, as he deserves!¡± ¡°Do you want to take back your nobility? Don¡¯t think you going alone would be enough. I¡¯ll send a few more people to help you out.¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°The most important thing in a drifter¡¯s life is having three high quantities of brothers, weapons, and money. You going there alone with no money and power, it would be difficult to take revenge. Now that you belong to my church, why not hold on a little longer, until the very first martial art contest ends. By then, bring along a big bunch of brothers, pick some useful weapons from the warehouse and bring a large sum of money¡­ that will do.¡± Herman smiled and shook his head, ¡°Thank you for your kind gesture, but my enemy is not anyone that is big enough to be on a tabletop. It isn¡¯t worth Void Mask Church to have so many experts to deal with him. Plus, I wasn¡¯t planning to take back my nobility. I only planned to take revenge. It¡¯s quite simple, not that difficult.¡± ¡°When I was healing you, I saw your memory. Your surname is Armster, the heir to Armster Viscount in Holy Angels Kingdom. Armster Viscount was also considered a number one figure in Holy Angels Kingdom. If you were to head over to take revenge alone, it wouldn¡¯t be easy!¡± ¡°The one that inherited the nobility is my younger brother that shares the same father but different mother. Our relationship isn¡¯t that bad, I wouldn¡¯t cause him much trouble.¡± Herman said, ¡°But the elder brother of my stepmother, my uncle, he ¡®took good care¡¯ of me. Under his arrangement, I lost my nobility in a very humiliating way. If I don¡¯t ¡®repay¡¯ him properly, I really can¡¯t even sleep!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Sui Xiong thought and recalled the incident where Herman lost his nobility. He couldn¡¯t help but sigh. Under his ¡°friendly¡± uncle¡¯s care, the silly Herman, who was just a Armster Viscount back then, was abducted by a few friends to the brothel and casino, then signed a number of debt notes. He ¡°lent¡± a huge amount of money that was enough to purchase the entire Holy Angel Kingdom and ¡°lost it¡±. Herman of course couldn¡¯t return the amount of money that was non-existent. Even with the entire wealth of Armster Viscount, it was only a drop in the ocean before the huge amount. His uncle seized the opportunity to step in and indicate that he was willing to help to solve the debt. But the price was that Herman had to spend the rest of his life in seclusion and never return to Armster City, and of course the nobility had to be transferred to his younger brother. Herman was a silly man back then. Although he could feel something wasn¡¯t right, he couldn¡¯t tell what was going on. So, he conveyed his nobility and went to a village to be a forest ranger feeling crestfallen. He cut himself off from the world alone, having the mountains and forests as companions, and became a troop with the wild beasts. Besides practicing sword craft, he had no other hobby. He practiced each posture of Armster family sword craft that his father taught him when he was young and reached the acme of perfection. He even trained up his terrifyingly sharp intuition like a wild beast. When the very first martial art contest started, under the suggestion of a relative that came to visit him once in a while, he left the suburb forest that he had stayed in for ten years to participate in the contest in Void Mask Theme Park¡­.. Back then, because Herman had something wrong in his head, he was cheated. Then, now that he was smart, he suddenly understood why he got cheated. Which casino in the world would be able to lend out such a huge amount of money! Plus, he was naive back then, he had no idea how to gamble! Hence, when he returned, he first planned to take care of the casino boss that cheated him, then kill the few servants that ganged up with his uncle that schemed against him, and finally to kill his uncle. Then, it would be considered done. Especially that very last task had to be firmly grasped. Because his uncle recently fell critically ill, it was uncertain how long he could live. If he didn¡¯t hurry, he could only bellow at the tombstone. Sui Xiong thought and nodded, but he had Herman wait for a while. After a while, a redhead man who looked weary yawned as he ran over helplessly, ¡°Jellyfish master, didn¡¯t we agree that I would be considered as working as long as I lie down and pretend to be a red dragon during the day time? Why did you ask me to go on field work¡­.¡± ¡°Red dragon could be taken over by Frost temporarily. I cast a long-lasting gigantic spell, so his size should be around the same.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°Herman is going to find his enemy to settle their resentment. We don¡¯t have many old foxes in our church. There is only you that is clever and free. If you don¡¯t follow to survey the scene, I can¡¯t feel at ease.¡± The redhead man was naturally transformed by the legendary creature ¡°free weird bird¡± Fafnir. At first, he was lying by the side of ¡°Dragon Cliff¡± to pretend to be a red dragon with his leather armor. The visitors could pat him and be amazed, and he enjoyed the job where he could sleep in peace while making money. That very momen,t he was woken up by Sui Xiong to head out for a mission, so he was of course upset.. But, at the end of the day, the boss was the biggest, no matter how upset Fafnir was, looking upon his salary, he could only take over the field work. He agreed unwillingly and was going through the transportation portal with Herman, but he suddenly stopped. ¡°Why?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Fafnir looked Herman up and down. After a while, he turned around and said, ¡°This is so pathetic! He simply looks the same as a beggar! Boss, you are too mean! At least change him into something decent!¡± ¡°And¡­ Look at his hair, his moustache¡­ Is he trying to act as a wanderer in one of those theaters? Or that kind that was bitten by a bear?¡± Fafnir sighed and said, ¡°Boss, although these recent years, one has to sell pity to obtain the admiration of the artist, decency is still necessary for one that lives a drifter¡¯s life! Look at his pathetic look, walking next to him would drag down my style!¡± Sui Xiong laughed hysterically. He allowed Fafnir to bring Herman, who was in a hurry, for a quick visit to his favorite ¡°Ceremony Ball¡±, the entertainment and leisure center that was operated by the church of the god of joy. They took care of his hair and moustache, and had a lady that was good at beauty to wash him up and do a full body massage. Then, they went to the store house and found a set of glamorous equipment, which was extremely dazzling, that might not be powerful, but was sturdy enough. Finally, they brought along a flying carpet that was used for image purposes, and considered themselves then fully prepared to depart. Going through the transportation door, the two of them got to the capital of Holy Angel Kingdom. Fafnir, who was in a hurry to get the things done and head back to nap, so that he saved enough energy to visit the brothel for ¡°war¡± that night, directly revealed his original form. He grabbed Herman and threw him on his back. He told him ¡°Sit still¡± and he soared up into the sky with his signature ¡°malicious¡± creepy smile, whiffed past just like a jet fighter plane, and left continuous pops in the sky. There were many people who were frightened that peed in their pants, and many animals which were so scared, that they pooped all over the place! His flying speed, where he gave all his strength, was terrifying, as it flew across the sky like a wind. Within two hours, he flew across half of the Holy Angel Kingdom and arrived at Armster City. In the sky, Fafnir stretched out his winds and stopped on a piece of cloud. He turned around and asked Herman, who was dizzy from the strong wind, ¡°What are you preparing to do?¡± Herman had yet to recover from ¡°plane sick¡±, and he asked confusedly, ¡°What, ¡®how¡¯?¡± ¡°We are here. How do you plan to take revenge?¡± Fafnir asked, ¡°Who to kill? How to kill? Braise in soy sauce or grill? How would you like it to be cooked? Let me make this clear, I¡¯d rather eat grass than human meat. Human meat is disgusting!¡± Herman then regained conscious. He thought and told him his plan. ¡°We first go to the casino, then to the viscount residency, lastly to the estate to kill your uncle that is taking remedial rest¡­ Mm, this is a simple but robust plan, I like it!¡± Fafnir laughed and turned into a human form. He grabbed Herman and the two of them landed straight on the ground from the cloud in the sky. After a while, they had arrived before the casino where Herman was framed. Fafnir looked around and snapped his fingers. Herman¡¯s hair that was originally messy due to the wind, suddenly became neat, and he looked just like a theater celebrity that was participating in some award ceremony. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go to crush the place!¡± Sui Xiong really knew how to get the right person for the right job. Fafnir was a professional expert in ¡°crushing place¡±. He only used a few minutes to turn the entire casino into a ruin, but no one was hurt. Seeing such professional yet glamorous skill to destroy buildings, Herman was impressed and thought to himself that his comrade was from a building background. ¡°The boss back then died?¡± After not being able to find the boss, Herman got unexpected news from the person in charge of the casino. ¡°How did he die?¡± ¡°Indulgence in sensual pleasures, died on a woman¡¯s stomach.¡± The steward answered nervously, while his legs shook and the crotch on his pants got wet and gave out a suspicious stink. ¡°Total rubbish!¡± Fafnir said in disdain, ¡°A man that died on a woman¡¯s stomach, such humiliation!¡± Herman had no intention to comment if the boss of the casino was a humiliation, but sighed and enquired about the situation of the few servants. The few servants were put in important positions after they assisted in framing Herman. Besides that one that died due to illness, the rest were considered the higher ups in the territory. They were stationed in a few places and put in charge of particular tasks. After a while, they departed again after clarifying the situation. They didn¡¯t spend much time to finally find those few people. In the territory of a viscount, they did have quite a number of experts. When there was an incident, these experts would naturally protect the viscount. But the ¡°enemy¡± had no intention to cause any trouble to the viscount, so their tension was unnecessary. The sky grew dark, and Fafnir brought Herman, who took revenge and felt lost, back to Void Mask Theme Park. ¡°How do you feel?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Herman was silent for a while, then he smiled in satisfaction. Along with the smile, the sword man that had half his legs stepped into the legendary realm, then suddenly gave out a magical aura. He finally broke through the last obstacle. Chapter 209 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On the day of finals for the defeated teams, the sun was shining brightly and there was a boundless stretch of blue sky. There seemed to be fine gold particles dancing in the air that put people in a good mood. There also seemed to be an unknown fragrance floating that made people feel carefree and happy. In the air above the battle ring a few Gods hid and conversed in doubt. ¡°Don¡¯t you think the atmosphere today was a little magical?¡± Sui Xiong looked up to the sky and down to the ground, then looked around. He said in distress, ¡°I feel like the source of power of the world is surging faintly, as though it is going to cheer. Can all of you feel it?¡± The other few Gods nodded. They felt the same thing. ¡°Who is going to be promoted to God? Or who is leveling up?¡± The God of Justice was the most experienced one. He thought for a while and made a few guesses. He first looked at Wor, then at Morani, and smiled. ¡°It looks like I have to congratulate the two of you!¡± As He had said, recently Wor and Morani¡¯s divine power was improving by leaps and bounds. It was really like they were going to level up. ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± Wor said. ¡°It¡¯s true that ever since I was promoted to God, my divine power has been advancing tremendously. I feel that the clergy of ¡®knowledge¡¯ seems to carry a heavy weight in the Root of the World. But to advance from faint divine power to weak divine power¡­ I am not too confident.¡± Everyone then looked at Morani. Morani thought and shook his head. ¡°Not me either. Although my divine power has increased tremendously and I could also faintly feel the nurturing of a new clergy, it isn¡¯t time yet¡­ I reckon I will have to wait till the Very First Martial Arts Contest ends first. My clergy will be ready then. Maybe by then I could break through weak divine power and enter intermediate divine power.¡± The God of Justice muttered to Himself, ¡°The importance of the knowledge clergy was to not practice reticence. According to my estimation, the clergy and its derivation should be able to support intermediate divine power. Along with the Very First Martial Arts Contest, maybe a ¡®martial arts contest¡¯ clergy will be formed under such attention. By then, if Morani were to achieve this clergy, moving from weak divine power to intermediate divine power¡­ No, maybe a little further. Maybe you have to set up some restriction yourself, to concentrate divine power, to be able to enter intermediate divine power. As the expert who was generally acknowledged among various Gods, and was everyone¡¯s senior, his prediction was no doubt convincing. Hence, the question redirected to the ¡°martial arts contest¡± clergy. ¡°This clergy should be given to Oscar,¡± Morani said. ¡°He didn¡¯t even have a clergy until now. And the Very First Martial Arts Contest was actually His idea. So, really, the clergy should belong to Him.¡± ¡°But I do not feel any sympathy or compatibility with the clergy,¡± Sui Xiong waved his tentacles and said. ¡°Would a God be able to accept a clergy that He has no sympathy for?¡± Obviously not. In order for a God to gain the clergy of a certain belief, he himself must accept it from the bottom of his heart. His belief must be compatible with it, and he must respond sympathetically from the source of His power. It was the only downfall of these clergies. If you didn¡¯t agree with it, you wouldn¡¯t be able to get it. Comparatively, the nature clergy didn¡¯t mind one way or another, but it required one to understand and master the nature element at an extremely high level. Then one would obtain the clergy. Comparatively, belief clergies would be easier to obtain. That¡¯s why among all Gods in the world, most of the Gods were promoted via belief clergies. Various Gods made speculations but in the end, they still couldn¡¯t be certain of the reason that caused the agitation of the Source of the World. But regardless, there was a strong divine power, a weak divine power, and two faint divine powers gathered together at the moment. When necessary, they could drag along a faint divine power to assist them. There were also three real God experts that had not achieved clergy. In regards to fighting power, needless to say, the God of Justice was known to be the top of the experts. This meant that only the unfathomable King of Order was above Him. Sui Xiong and Morani, who both had a record of defeating intermediate divine powers, fell under the typical fighting power over divinity. Silent Knight, under Morani, was only a faint divine power. But his battle power was not inferior to a normal weak divine power. The other two God followers under Him were ¡°giant catfish¡± and ¡°giant earthworm.¡± Although they were not intelligent, they were both qualified godly flesh shields. Even Wor who had just become a God not long ago was an incredible assassin, so He wasn¡¯t afraid of battle. Among all the Gods, the only one that couldn¡¯t fight would be the God of Happiness, Javier¡­ that¡¯s not right. He only couldn¡¯t fight head on. But as an auxiliary, He would be up to standard. With such battle power, even if there was any conflict or danger, who would they be afraid of? Not to mention the ocean that was not far away. During necessary times, the new born Goddess of Ocean who was close to Sui Xiong could bring along Her few God followers anytime to assist with the war! Even sending an entire God system wouldn¡¯t be sufficient to defeat them! Then, everyone became fearless and continued to focus on the contest that day. This round was one of the last in the Very First Martial Arts Contest. The last two contestants from the defeated team would have to fight against each other. The winner would continue to fight against the champion of the winning team, who had a completely unbroken record, and fight for the throne of number one in the world; while the loser would at least be third in the world, which was not too shabby. But if there was a chance to fight for number one in the world, who would be willing to be third? Hence, the two contestants entered the ring and had a ferocious fight, as though they were thunder against fire. The two contestants were well-known experts across the world. One was the top expert from the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, who was known as the superb sharpshooter. It was said that ¡°not one wouldn¡¯t fall before the God of Bow.¡± The figure that possessed the simple yet gloriously radiant title ¡°God of Bow¡± was Lewre Spoolin. He was a branch royal member of Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, as well as the leader of a knight group from the church of the Goddess of Spring Water. He wasn¡¯t great at battle but excelled in horsemanship and archery. Lewre had a baby face, but it suited him. He was in his mid-thirties and he was known to be a genius archer since he was young. During the war when the Kingdom of a Thousand Springs defended against the invasion of Kingdom of the Blue Moon, he once rode alone. Then he killed 29 famous knights along with countless normal soldiers in battle. He drove back the army of Kingdom of the Blue Moon alone. Later on, he even marked a terrifying record by killing a legendary expert with his identity of higher order. The one that he killed was an important figure of the Kingdom of the Blue Moon: Prince Merlin, a great legendary mage. As an archer, the weapon that Lewre was used to was a bow named ¡°Wyndham.¡± The origins of the bow couldn¡¯t be verified. The Goddess of Spring Water once gave out an order personally to appraise it, but in the end, She could only determine that it was from ancient times and once a powerful godly item. However, it was damaged during a huge war and it lost its power as time passed. It was far from recovering to its height of power and splendor. Maybe it would never recover. Regardless, the power of the bow wasn¡¯t to be trifled with. It wouldn¡¯t be mislead. As long as it was accurately aimed, it would accurately hit the target. The arrows that were shot via the bow would be hard to withstand; the commonly seen defense magic and heavy armor would be nominal before it. If Lewre was willing to, he could even expend his power of life to bestow curses upon the arrows. Back then, Master Merlin had at least five to six defense magic spells, but not one took effect after being shot. He died on the battlefield. Lewre¡¯s character was bashful and gentle. He normally stayed in remote area and trained in his estate alone. The fact that he would participate in the Very First Martial Arts Contest was already out of many people¡¯s expectations. During the battle in the past, he had eliminated quite a number of experts such as ¡°the reliable Nicholas,¡±¡±Bomber Hand¡± Felix, Magic sword Baster¡¯s clone, ¡°Armor Magic Sword¡± Phil; they were all defeated by his bow. On the other side, Soocher lived a tough life. She was born in a noble family. Because she was born a Psionicist, it brought a lot of trouble to his family and she was abused and almost abandoned. Later on, she was unearthed by the church of the God of the Thunder. She received training in the church and finally became a member of ¡°Hammer of Sanction.¡± Then she regained the acknowledgement of her family and society. The female holy knight was used to halberd. She could incorporate her lightning power and inborn psionic energy, instinctually turning lightning into a solid physical weapon. In countless battles, regardless if she was fighting against a human or a magic beast, she could fight bravely and consistently without any hesitation. She did not flinch but swept away all obstacles. She was wearing full covered armor. Even during her everyday life, she hardly took it off. It was said that underneath the airtight armor, there was a beautiful golden-haired girl. However, it was only a legend. She once took off the armor but no one could see how she looked. She even turned into boundless lightning, just like a thunder element. Under such situations, she could use an extremely powerful thunderclap to attack. There was once when she used a powerful Lightning Axe to kill a legendary magic beast, and hence gained the name ¡°Axe of Lightning God.¡± In fact, the holy knight wasn¡¯t hard to get along with normally. She always brought her underlining from Hammer of Sanction to cut off wicked and magic beasts, and her fame was spread extensively. When she participated in the Very First Martial Arts Contest, her battle achievements were extraordinary. Oveila, who used the pseudonym ¡°Pan,¡± was also knocked out because of her. There were another few famous experts knocked out by her, and their capabilities were all extremely strong without a doubt. Compared to Mister Alan from the winning team who was not very famous before joining the Very First Martial Arts Contest, the two from the defeated team were generally acknowledged as the most impressive experts in main dimension below legendary realm. Chapter 210 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The battle between Lewre and Soocher was very vigorous. Their speed was terrifyingly fast. Not to mention about the commoner among the audience, where even the experienced adventurers couldn¡¯t see their movements clearly. Their attacks possessed powerful strength, and every time their axe and arrow clashed, it would give out thundering sounds and sparks of lighting. If it wasn¡¯t because of the strong divine power protection around the battle ring, the aftermath of their battle might cause injuries among the audience. Dealing with such a fierce battle, the golden haired commentator that was wearing sunglasses didn¡¯t know what to do. He could see the fight clearly, but he wasn¡¯t the lightning speaker like Wang Yuyan from Jin Yong¡¯s novel. The speed of him speaking would be impossible to follow the speed of them fighting. Even if he managed to, it would be useless, as the audience wouldn¡¯t be able to hear such high speed language. Among the battle earlier, he encountered such a situation before. Then, he would choose to comment on the parts which were breathtaking and interesting. It could be dealt with then. But in the battle between the two, there was not one instance that wasn¡¯t interesting, and not one move that wasn¡¯t breathtaking. He couldn¡¯t select any exact part to explain about. After some thinking, Sui Xiong¡¯s troublemaking habit broke up. He might as well ignore the battle and started to recite a piece from Chu Shi Biao (included the reasons for the Northern Expeditions, as well as Zhuge Liang¡¯s personal advice to Liu Shan on how to govern and rule the state.) ¡°Late emperor had yet to make a history but collapsed and died halfway, today the country splits into three, Yizhou was weary and at disadvantage, this is at the edge of danger¡­¡± ¡°Huh? What is he talking about?¡± The audience was in discussion. They didn¡¯t understand why the commentator that liked to bullshit but was sometimes reliable, suddenly spoke in an unknown language. There were some mage that cast ¡°good at knowledge¡± to try to understand what Sui Xiong said. But that magic could only make them understand what Sui Xiong meant, but every story and background of the article in Chu Shi Biao wouldn¡¯t be able to be obtained from the magic. So, they were confused and lost. People tried to ask the mages next to them, but they could only answer ¡°I have no idea too¡±. ¡°Language that good at language skill, but still one couldn¡¯t understand? Would it be some magic language that was profound?¡± ¡°No¡­ It couldn¡¯t be understood, but the meaning is hard to comprehend.¡± A young mage explained to his friends next to him, ¡°He said an old king in a country died, a young new king was not reliable. The country was currently at a terrible state. The consul wanted to lead the army for expedition and fight against the powerful enemy. It seemed that there was some sort of background story to it, but I didn¡¯t understand¡­ Then, the consul was reminiscing about the past, when he knew the old king. He said that ¡°back then I was only a commoner and the king promoted me, so I worked very hard¡±. Not sure what happened exactly, I couldn¡¯t understand. ¡®From then till now, it has already been twenty one years¡¯.¡± ¡°¡­ How does it relate to martial arts competition?¡± his friend complained. ¡°Maybe because of my limited magic, I interpreted it wrongly,¡± the young mage said, as he wasn¡¯t confident. Similar conversations happened in each corner of the audience seats. Many were upset that they didn¡¯t understand what the commentator was doing. Chu Shi Biao wasn¡¯t long. Even Sui Xiong that transformed into a commentator tried to recite it slowly in rhythmic tone, and managed to finish it in a short while. Then, Lewre and Soocher¡¯s battle was still going on vigorously. Their speed didn¡¯t slow down by one bit, and the level of interesting and breathtaking moves didn¡¯t change by one bit. The commentator thought and sighed. He then started to recite The Former Ode on the Red Cliffs (describing a trip that Su Shi took with his friends on the Yangtze River, which took them past the purported site of the Battle of Red Cliffs.) ¡°In the autumn of the fifty ninth year of the sixty years cycle, in July, Su and his friends went boating to the red wall. The breeze blew and the ripple spread across¡­¡± ¡°What is he talking about this time?¡± ¡°He is describing a scenery, a beautiful scenery.¡± ¡°Is he a bard?¡± ¡°¡­ Thinking about it, he should be.¡± ¡°But how does scenery relate to martial arts?¡± ¡°¡­ The consul wants to go for an expedition, would that be related to martial arts?¡± In the sky, ¡°Boy of Ceremony¡±, Javier that knew the commentator¡¯s true identity, couldn¡¯t help but ask curiously, ¡°What are you talking about? The previous one had a heroic epic style, the latter one was classic in the way he described scenery¡­ but such language, I have never heard of it before.¡± Sui Xiong laughed drily and explained himself. When everyone knew that he simply couldn¡¯t comment on the battle, and so he figured he might as well recite a few articles, they couldn¡¯t help but laugh. After laughing, Javier asked about the origins of the article and wanted to obtain more of such articles. Although He wasn¡¯t the god of art and culture, His divine power league includes art and culture. He was passionate towards art and culture, so when he came across such interesting articles and classical produce, there was no way he would let them go. Sui Xiong thought and told him, ¡°These articles are from another civilization in a different world. It is very complicated to explain in specifics¡­ I really have no way to explain in detail.¡± ¡°Then¡­ can you teach me those languages?¡± Javier took a step back, ¡°It sounded like a beautiful rhythmical image, I think it¡¯s worth learning.¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t mind, so he taught Javier all his knowledge about pinyin. As god, Javier possessed a strong strength and wisdom. He only spent two hours to fully understand and master pinyin. But He still couldn¡¯t understand the article that Sui Xiong was reciting. Oh, after The Former Ode on the Red Cliffs, Sui Xiong was then reciting The Snake Catcher Said. There was a very unusual kind of snake in the outskirts of Yongzhou. It was black with white stripes. Grass and shrubs would die if they got in contact with the snake. If a man was bitten by it, he would surely die, as there was no cure¡­¡± ¡°Auscar, my friend, things that you taught me, are not helping me to understand the article that you are reciting,¡± Javier complained, ¡°I still don¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°How could it be? My mandarin is quite accurate¡­¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I could hear every word, but I can¡¯t understand the meaning of every word!¡± Javier smiled bitterly, and I know I am able to recite the article like you. But to me, they were still words that implied ambiguous meaning. My recitation was just like wiping ink in the slab stone and chopping it onto a piece of white paper. Although the content was the same, in actual fact, it didn¡¯t help me to understand.¡± Sui Xiong looked around and hesitated. In the end, he told Him embarrassedly, regarding the detailed explanation and concrete context of those articles, it involved too much knowledge and many personal privacies, so it was inconvenient to share with him as a whole. Javier wasn¡¯t stubborn, but still sighed heavily. ¡°Then, can I ask you the stories behind these articles?¡± He asked, ¡°You can tell me whatever that you find okay to, and those that are not okay, of course you don¡¯t have to tell me.¡± Sui Xiong immediately patted his chest and agreed. Then, he explained to Him about The Snake Catcher Said. ¡°This article was actually used to criticize tyranny.¡± He said, ¡°The most crucial sentence was ¡®Alas, to think that taxation can prove more dire than a poisonous snake¡¯¡­¡± ¡°Friend, I can understand the article was criticizing despotic regime.¡± Javier said, ¡°I can understand.¡± ¡°¡­ What do you want to ask then?¡± Javier sighed, he slowly inquired about the allusion and background stories that he couldn¡¯t understand. On the battle ring¡­ The commentator that finished reciting The Snake Catcher Said, hesitated and started reciting The Old Charcoal Seller¡­ Sui Xiong was definitely not a good student back then. Although he learned many classical poems and prose, the moment he wanted to recite, there were barely a few that he could recite completely. He was then a little bothered. If Lewre and Soocher were to fight for too long, and he finished reciting all that he could remember, what should he do? Unless he really wanted to learn from a chapter from the film Love On Delivery (A mild-mannered food-delivery boy takes fighting lessons to overcome an enemy and impress a pretty judo student) he needed to pick a few books randomly to read. Then, it would be very embarrassing! Even if he was thick-skinned, he would feel awkward! Luckily, it didn¡¯t develop to that stage, as an accident cut him off from his commentating. About the part where he was reciting ¡°Two riders canter up. Alas! Who can they be? Two palace heralds in the yellow jackets dressed¡­¡±, a strong aura suddenly surged from the south of main dimension and turned into gorgeous five-coloured rays before it soared into the high sky. Then, it was followed by the jumping and shouting with joy of the root power of the world, and it was agitated unbridledly. ¡°Someone is promoting to god!¡± That instance, various gods from Thousand Worlds could sense it, many Gods were screaming out all of the sudden. Commoners promoting to God was not something common. On average, only one in a few hundred years would this occur. With two succeeded to promote to God in a hundred years, this was considered a lot. But¡­ from the previous time, when commoners promoted into God and the birth of the god of knowledge, it wasn¡¯t even ten years yet! ¡°Unless¡­ Has it come to the age where fate whirled and rapidly changed?¡± Some experienced Gods couldn¡¯t help but feel afraid. Although it was uncertain where the person originated from, from the level of the power source vibrating, it could be told that the person was unique! Even if that person had yet to promote to God, he would be an extremely terrifying expert! Such a vibration and strange sight naturally affected the commoners, including the two that were in fierce battle on the ring. Every commoner couldn¡¯t help but stop and look to the south suspiciously. Then, a mage of the higher order from Mifata Federation suddenly woke up and cheered loudly. ¡°It¡¯s master Ymirjar le-Peyroux! He finally promoted to be God!¡± ¡°Corresponding with the cheer, an old but deep voice was heard. Along the agitated power of source, it reverberated in the Thousand Worlds. ¡°I am Ymirjar le-Peyroux, the creator and guardian of Mifata Federation, the follower of mysterious spell, the highest and strongest spellcaster. I am all spellcasters¡¯ protector and guidance. I protect the Essenes of mysterious spell, protect the inheritance of magic, and protect the great wisdom.¡± Hearing that, Wor¡¯s facial expression suddenly changed. Chapter 211 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Ymirjar le-Peyroux was a great magician, possibly the greatest of them all. He was born about 3,000 years ago, when the magic arts were still not widespread among humans. Back then, magic¡¯s inheritance relied on bloodlines, as well as some insane, brutal experiments, which were extremely resource-intensive. This resulted in the commoners lacking even the most basic understanding of magicians, which caused the commoners to be very fearful and hostile. In that era, the guardian deity of humans was the God of Knights. In the eyes of the human world, magic was still a dangerous art that was best avoided. Ymirjar le-Peyroux was originally a mage apprentice. Actually, they weren¡¯t even called mages back then, but sorcerers. He began his journey by learning the dangerous and cruel black magics, which focused on destruction and plundering. Later on, he learned to become less extreme, tempering his discipline with white magic, which emphasized cooperation and togetherness. In the midst of repeated adventures and battles, he grew swiftly, finally becoming a powerful and great sorcerer, the strongest of his era. He then began traveling the world, researching different magical knowledge, and absorbing many new ideas about magic. Approximately 200 years later, he returned to human society, slaughtering all of the Sun and Moon ranked sorcerers, but leaving behind the mid-ranked Star sorcerers, as well as the apprentices ranked below that. After a thorough extermination of the highest echelons of the human magic society, he began to promote his ideas and theories, constructing a new magic system. This new system was open and moderate, and even children could give it a try. Moreover, anyone was welcomed to give their feedback on the new system. More importantly, this new system wasn¡¯t walking the path of plunder and consumption. Instead, it placed great emphasis on being systematic, coordinating harmony between man and nature. In order to fight the old magic, which developed from the elf spells, this new system was much closer to being a variant of elf spells and dragon magic. As time went by, Ymirjar le-Peyroux¡¯s new magic system was always being questioned. Many people were ridiculing him behind his back, but at last, he succeeded. The new magic system was established and developed vigorously. In the blink of an eye, around 1,000 years had passed, and Ymirjar le-Peyroux began to reflect once more. He reckoned that his own magic system still had many shortcomings, especially regarding the progression from the High Order level onwards. He felt that the path ahead was murky, with no suitable direction for future generations to learn from and follow. As such, he brought a group of students to the Southern Plateaus, then constructed a magic tower to embark on brand new research. This magic tower would later be hailed as The Supreme Tower. This time, there were two topics that he wanted to focus his research on. The first was regarding the path to a higher plane of magic cultivation. The second was regarding the construction of a mage society. The results of the latter were well known, as it was the creation of the Mifata Federation, otherwise hailed as the Country of Mages. As for the former, those results were finally revealed before the eyes of the masses. The greatest mage, who was the founder of modern magic and hailed as The Supreme Mage, Ymirjar le-Peyroux, had finally reached the end of the path of magic! He was now ready to step into the realm of gods! In a single moment, spellcasters across tens of thousands of worlds all felt the blood in their bodies running rampant, as though the magic power in their bodies was boiling, to the point where they could hear the cheers emanating from the Source of the World. For the mages trapped on the peak, who were unable to find the way forward on the path of magic, each suddenly felt as though they had seen the light. It was as though a great pathway had opened in front of them. As long as they walked down this road, their futures would be limitless and bright! As for the youths who were working hard to advance along the path of magic, they felt as though their minds were enlivened as well. The magic power that resisted their commands previously, was now docile and obedient. The magic structures that used to take painstakingly long hours, now came easily, as though they had undergone divine possession! From that moment on, the world¡¯s spellcasters had obtained a lamp that could shine throughout the ages, illuminating the path towards the heavens. The wizened pioneers, who had carved the path forwards, finally cut through the thorny brambles on their path, opening this brilliant road and giving direction to all sorcerers. Even for the mages, whose path led them down a different direction, they could still gain some enlightenment by looking at Ymirjar le-Peyroux¡¯s path. If they had to rely purely on luck for their accomplishments previously, they now had access to vital reference material to aid them in their development. Thus, everything was good! But for Wor, it was a disastrous turn of events¡­ He did not object to Ymirjar le-Peyroux¡¯s being elevated to godhood. However, the ideas that this God of Spellcasters proclaimed were the exact opposite of what he believed. In fact, it could be said that they were completely incompatible. The creed that commanded one to ¡°protect the great wisdom¡± had two meanings. The first meaning indicated that he was the Master of Mystery, born from the God of Wisdom and Magic. The second meaning meant that he wanted to protect the priestly duties of wisdom to the very end, stopping all that would divide and threaten this priestly act. So, who was dividing and undermining the priestly duties of those in service to the God of Wisdom and Magic? It could only be Wor¡­ Wor¡¯s priesthood was that of knowledge, and knowledge came from the splitting of wisdom. When he became a god, the originally perfect wisdom god was split into two halves. The logical and rational half formed the basis for knowledge, and the aspects that were associated with sensitivity and realization formed the basis for Mystery. When the Master of Mystery previously came to visit, he had asked Wor if he was interested in becoming one of his subordinates. But, he refused. He had long ago firmly decided to be unchanging in his loyalty to His Majesty Void Mask. From that moment on, the position of the god of wisdom began to slowly split and collapse. If it had not been for the Master of Mystery¡¯s using his divine power to forcibly chain them together, it would have long disintegrated into the two separate positions of knowledge and mystery. Everyone knew that the Master of Mystery would never remain silent, but would dumbly endure to the point where he could not even sustain himself. The entire Church of the Void Mask had already sharpened their weapons and fed their horses, making ample preparations for a massive war against the Church of the Master of Mystery. Even Wor himself had made two different preparations. If things went smoothly, he would fight. If not, he would destroy himself. Regardless, he would not betray the lord god he had sworn allegiance to, nor would he let himself become a burden to his lord. It was just that, no matter how much he had thought, he had never imagined that the Master of Mystery would not make a move. Instead, it was the newly ascended God of Spellcasters that had targeted him. No matter how you said it, his words had already left his mouth, so they could not be easily changed. The two gods had such irreconcilable differences in their fundamental beliefs, a large battle seemed unavoidable. The only thing that was keeping everyone in suspense was wondering when exactly this battle was going to happen. Wor pondered to himself, but said nothing. It was at this moment that the one who had previously announced his clergy and ideals, Ymirjar le-Peyroux, opened his mouth. ¡°The God of Knowledge Wor, fragmented from Wisdom, I am hereby making a declaration of war on you! Please make your preparations. I will be there shortly.¡± This time, it wasn¡¯t just Wor that jumped in fright. Sui Xiong, Morani, Javier and even Yorgaardman all received a huge shock, too. ¡°The way this god of spellcasters does things is too clean and neat,¡± he couldn¡¯t resist murmuring to himself. ¡°He just barely ascended to godhood, and he already wants to start a fight! Is he trying to set a record to be the fastest god to fall?¡± ¡°He¡¯s definitely left a doppelganger, who he can use to revive the Master of Mystery. Even if he loses, it¡¯s just a body that dies. With the endless amount of divine power that the Master of Mystery possesses, he can also make a full recovery quickly.¡± Morani sighed as she spoke. Javier thought differently from the rest, as he said with some worry in his voice, ¡°Master Ymirjar was the strongest back in his day, even before he ascended to godhood. I don¡¯t dare say that I could have defeated him, but now that he has successfully ascended, with his increase in power¡­ Will the God of Knowledge be able to defeat him?¡± ¡°Even if he can¡¯t win, there¡¯s still me!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°If he dares come, I¡¯ll beat him to the point where he can¡¯t even care for himself!¡± ¡°He said he¡¯s coming for a duel¡­¡± ¡°His words don¡¯t count for onions!¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t take javier¡¯s reminder seriously, laughing as he said, ¡°He wants to fight one-on-one, so we have to fight one-on-one? I¡¯m not his dad, so I don¡¯t give a damn!¡± ¡°If that¡¯s the case, the Master of Mystery will have a reason to intervene,¡± Morani said anxiously. ¡°Not only that, but Ymirjar le-Peyroux had many friends in his time. Even in the realm of the gods, there are many who are on good terms with him. If he has a one-on-one duel with Wor, regardless of the results, none of those friends will intervene. But if you intervene¡­¡± ¡°How many will come to help?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s heart thumped wildly. Morani counted in her head for a while, before saying, ¡°A conservative estimate would be ten.¡± ¡°What ranks are they?¡± ¡°There are at least two or three of them that I am not confident in defeating.¡± Sui Xiong took a deep breath, he was finally beginning to get worried. However, worrying wouldn¡¯t help matters. The important thing was to solve the issue. But¡­how exactly should they solve it? ¡°If the Master of Mystery takes action, leave it to me,¡± the God of Justice said. ¡°There are many mortal spectators here. As long as Wor insists on fighting here, I can intervene to protect the mortals. Of course, in order to protect the mortals, I can¡¯t allow gods that are too powerful to intervene in this fight.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go and persuade them. Maybe I can talk a few of them into going away.¡± As Javier said that, his body gradually faded from view. He had already moved his body to talk to those gods, who were on good terms with the god of spellcasters, hoping to convince them not to interfere. His strength was mediocre, so if they really got into a fight, he wouldn¡¯t be able to help at all. As such, he could only be of use through diplomacy. Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t even been able to express his thanks yet, when he felt the surrounding space violently shudder. Then, a brilliant golden portal appeared in the nearby sky, and a white-haired old man, who was wearing mage robes, stepped out. ¡°Hello, Your Majesty the God of Knowledge.¡± He cut to the point and said, ¡°I¡¯ve made you wait too long, so let us begin.¡± Saying that, he raised the staff in his hand. Chapter 212 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On earth, there was a well-known saying on the internet, Don¡¯t be terrified, just do it. The god of the spellcaster that just got promoted, was the great mage Mage Ymirjar le-Peyroux. Although He was no traverser, He practiced the essence of the well-known saying. Attack when he says so, without one bit of sloppiness. He didn¡¯t even greet the three Gods next to Him, but launched an attack at Wor directly. He raised his magic staff, and a golden light blade took shape and chopped it down at Wor¡¯s head. After entering the God¡¯s world, many of the commoners¡¯ regular magic skill would lose its effect, especially those magic spells that were direct attacks. But due to the difference in ranking, it was almost impossible to be effective towards God. To fully give play to one¡¯s power in a battle between gods, one must apply a magic spell that was above regular magic, in other words, called ¡°legendary spell¡±. As the greatest mage in human history, Ymirjar le-Peyroux of course knew legendary spell, and he knew quite a lot. Not only that, as the god of spellcaster, He was at an excessively natural advantage in magic spell, He could even bestow legendary characteristics on those regular magic spells easily. So, it would be effective as usual, even against gods. For example, He was then casting an intermediate magic spell ¡°Blade of Light¡±. The magic spell would make a light blade and automatically chase after and attack the enemy. If the enemy was a creature from the chaotic or wicked direction, they would receive extra damage. Of course, this magic spell was definitely useless towards God. But in Ymirjar¡¯s hands, it was bestowed with legendary characteristic. The golden light blade not only contained power that even Sui Xiong was afraid of, it also faintly locked the space around Wor to imply that he couldn¡¯t even escape if he wanted to. Sui Xiong¡¯s eyebrows were tightly knit, and he raised his tentacles to cast a magic spell. He was shocked to discover that he had completed the structure of magic and the magic power was realized, but he didn¡¯t complete the magic spell. A dispersed magic power current flew out from his tentacles and clashed with the light blade. It was crushed without suspicion, and he didn¡¯t even manage to block it for one second. ¡°What is going on?!¡± He screamed. A light shadow appeared before him, the habitual image that the God of mystery used, ¡°Don¡¯t be shocked, I locked your ability to cast a spell.¡± ¡°How could you?!¡± Sui Xiong screamed, ¡°This is against the rules!¡± ¡°I am the God of Magic. As long as I am willing to, I could lock any person¡¯s or any God¡¯s spellcasting power.¡± The Master of Mystery said calmly,¡± All of you wanted to go against me. I only temporarily locked your spellcasting power, so I am kind enough.¡± ¡°This doesn¡¯t accord to your clergy.¡± The God of Justice creased his eyebrows as he spoke, ¡°Your clergy was to promote magic, but not prohibit the usage of magic.¡± ¡°My clergy was to promote and manage magic.¡± The Master of Mystery replied, ¡°Manage, of course includes prohibiting the person or god that I found inappropriate to use magic.¡± ¡°¡­. No wonder the elf god system was defeated under your hands. You applied the same method, right?¡± Morani asked coldly, ¡°Then, you are after us now?¡± ¡°You think too much.¡± The Master of Mystery didn¡¯t explain but his shadow slowly faded. In the end, reverberating in the air, was only His message, ¡°Do not interfere with the battle. This is the biggest justice that I can provide to all of you.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes grew ghastly, the method and measure took by the Master of Mystery made him very UN-HAP-PY! ¡°Maybe I should find a way to cause this bastard some obstacles.¡± He mumbled to himself, then looked towards Morani and Yorgaardman, ¡°Do you know where is the holy kingdom of that bastard?¡± ¡°Are you planning to go over?¡± Morani got a shock and quickly stopped him, ¡°Don¡¯t be silly, you can¡¯t fight against him!¡± ¡°Exactly. If you really go over for a fight, even if it was me, I am not certain if I could win.¡± Yorgaardman spoke in a deep voice, ¡°A mage in his home base, would not be easy to deal with!¡± Sui Xiong smiled coldly and turned his tentacles into a pair of hands. He then cracked his knuckle joints. ¡°I am not that stupid to send myself to his doorstep! If you can give me the exact location of that bastard¡¯s holy kingdom, I can cause him trouble with me right here!¡± Yorgaardman and Morani exchanged a glance and hesitated whether to believe in what he said or not. ¡°His holy kingdom was in ¡®The Rainbow Kingdom¡¯ located at the positive realm in the ring of the world. That is a kingdom full of fountain and sunlight, countless beautiful and colorful spirits live there.¡± Yorgaardman introduced, while he pointed out the exact location of the holy kingdom of the master of mystery ¡®Rainbow Fountain¡¯ to Sui Xiong . Sui Xiong nodded, and turned around to watch the one in a battle with the God of Spellcaster, or being suppressed by the God of Spellcaster, Wor. Then, Sui Xiong sighed, feeling worried. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. If he had the danger of passing, I will interfere.¡± Yorgaardman said, ¡°The God of Knowledge is an important god in this world. He is a kind strength to bring about improvement to the world, to let people be blessed. I will definitely not allow Him to just pass away like that!¡± Sui Xiong looked at Him for a while and took a deep breath. He thanked him and went underground. The Master of Mystery, bastard! I have to show Him a little color. Otherwise, I will write my name, ¡°Sui Xiong ¡± upside down! All these years, he worked out many special measures. Although there were many that were not reliable, if only going after power of one attack, he still had a way to¡­.. Sui Xiong was slowly getting ready. In the air right above the battle ring, Wor and Ymirjar le-Peyroux that couldn¡¯t stay hidden anymore were in a ferocious battle. As the greatest mage in human history, Ymirjar¡¯s magic level was high and simply unbelievable. If he were to apply the gaming levels, even when he had yet to promote into god, conservatively estimating it was at about level ninety nine max level character. After promoting into god, he at least increased by an extra thirty to fifty level, his battle power could said to be in defiance of nature. Wor naturally wasn¡¯t weak either. Him before promoting into God was at least level sixty to seventy. After promotion, it was an after thirty to fifty level. He was at least an expert at level hundred or hundred twenty. Just that¡­ On one hand, the limit was one hundred and twenty, on the other hand, the lowest would be at least above one hundred and thirty. The battle was definitely¡­ One-sided. Ymirjar cast an unknown amount of gain magic to himself in one goal, and was giving out colourful rays of light, just like a huge neon lamp. He was already of an old age, but at the very moment, he was displaying speed that Wor was too far behind to catch up. With the terrifying speed, He was constantly maintaining a distance from Wor, while he threw magic spells, one after another, continuously. He didn¡¯t cast any really powerful magic, but all intermediate magic that was legendarified. Although such magic was considered weaker to the level of Gods, its winning point was at its lighting speed. He waved and there was one, he waved again and there¡¯s another one, and Wor was in a fix. Wor gave full play to his speed. He chased after Ymirjar¡¯s shadow with all his strength, as he swung his blade to break apart the magic spell. He, as the top swordsman, had skills that were naturally accurate and sharp, no doubt. No matter what kind of magic spells Ymirjar cast, with a swing of his black blade, he could disperse them into countless shattered light spots that were totally harmless to him. But, the situation was that He was still being oppressed, because he couldn¡¯t catch up to Ymirjar¡¯s speed. The impressive black blade was waved countless times, however, it could only be used for defending purposes, but not hurting the enemy at all. The worst part was that, he himself knew that Ymirjar had yet to use his true power! The greatest mage in human history, was the pioneer that created the modern magic system. A senior expert that was already well-known in the world three thousand years ago, how could he only play such simple tactic! Dragging on speed to slowly drill, Sui Xiong might call that the ¡°kite flying¡± method. How could it be His true power! Wor was feeling uneasy. Although He wasn¡¯t afraid of battle, He also wasn¡¯t afraid of death. But dealing with the upcoming defeat, He couldn¡¯t help but feel worried. Ymirjar looked very calm, ever since the very beginning. There was even a smile plastered on his aging face. It was almost as though He wasn¡¯t fighting a life-and-death battle, but giving his junior some pointers. Of course, by age, not to mention about Wor, even Morani and Yorgaardman were His juniors. During the years when He was studying in silence, all his juniors had overtook Him and step foot into the path of immortality before Him, and became great gods. But he was trapped in the top level of the tower. Although he was highly respected by many, he couldn¡¯t fully complete the trail that belonged to him, to take the most crucial step. From the time when he meditated in seclusion to breakthrough as god until then, it was almost three hundred years. Three hundred years of thoughts and loneliness, three hundred years of patience and waiting, all had already trained his will to be sturdier than steel. To Him, it wasn¡¯t considered a ferocious fight. Even if it was a Gods¡¯ War, destroying one god system after another wouldn¡¯t move him. ¡°Damn it!¡± Wor couldn¡¯t hold back, but bellowed in anger, ¡°Bring out your true talent! Don¡¯t belittle me!¡± Ymirjar didn¡¯t answer, but maintained his smile, and maintained his previous battle method. Maybe He planned to defeat Wor with such a method, to let his junior that was born much later than him, but in the end got onto the pathway of promotion into god before him, to be defeated in such a humiliating way. Wor was getting more and more anxious, and he suddenly recalled the battle back then, when he fought against his hometown. That night, he was like today, feeling weak, as though he was trapped in a huge prison cage. He also felt like a worm on a spiderweb, that couldn¡¯t break away from those shackles. But, in the end, he drew his blade, swung it, and tore the trap. He split the cage, killed the enemy, and left. Then, He slowly calmed down, his breath was gradually more stable, too. ¡°What¡¯s there to worry about?¡± He told himself, ¡°Fighting against Master Ymirjar le-Peyroux, even if I was defeated by him and died, it would be totally natural. As I have already had such mental preparation, what else could I be anxious for? What else could I be disturbed by?¡± ¡°What I want to do today is to fight with all I have, to give full play of my strength. So that, even if I pass away, I will not regret anything!¡± Then, he was suddenly fully enlightened. The long black blade was put back into the sheath, then drawn out fiercely and slashed down. The black blade was like a crescent moon. It tore all kinds of magic spells on the way, and got to Ymirjar! Chapter 213 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The blade of divine power was one of the powers that the gods had. Generally speaking, it was a very common ability. However, in the hands of the gods that were specializing in fighting or war, it could unleash its true potential for destruction. What Wor was doing at this moment was a prime example of this. The black crescent energy blades were silent, as though they were made up of shadows or the deepest night, destroying each of the legendary spells, one by one, without being affected in the least. Ymirjar le-Peyroux¡¯s speed was quick, and he immediately dodged the energy blades easily. But then the black blades changed direction unexpectedly, hitting him! The amplification and defensive magic that he had on his body were useless in the face of these black blades. They were destroyed as easily as thin paper, as the blades proceeded to hack away at his body. The old man¡¯s figure split apart violently, disappearing into countless bubbles. ¡°He won? Just like that?!¡± The mortals that were watching the fight were in a state of disbelief. The greatest magician, the god of spell casters, the one who shook the world for 3,000 years, had fallen so easily! Wor¡¯s face belied no traces of happiness. He regulated his breathing, sheathing his black blade, preparing to draw it again. He knew clearly that it was still too early to say who the victor was! He had made a breakthrough in this battle, grasping a powerful attacking technique. The most it had done was to shorten the distance between him and Master Ymirjar le-Peyroux. If he wanted to win, the odds were still uncertain. The dispute between him and the other party was due to a fundamental difference in beliefs, so there was no room for reconciliation. This disagreement could only end when one of them was dead and fallen. Of course, there were some gods that had adjusted their ideological thinking, after having acquired their abilities, but that was a very troublesome and painful process. It was akin to self-denial, as though they were dancing on the tip of a knife, where one mistake would kill them. Compared to this, it was much preferred to settle things with a fight, regardless of who won or lost. At least, that was Wor¡¯s take on it¡­ Actually, he also knew that, as long as he was willing to change his stance and surrender to the Master of Mystery, he not only didn¡¯t have to die, he could also avoid this entire battle. But as long as one lived, there would always be some things that were more important than life, which were worthy of using one¡¯s life to defend! One such thing was loyalty, another was friendship. Auscar, His Majesty Void Faceless, was the one who Wor had chosen to pledge his loyalty to. He was also a friend of Black Blade Wor. No matter what, Wor would not hesitate to pledge his life to follow his king for all eternity, without fear of death! He took a deep breath. It could not be seen where the knowledge in the God of Knowledge had gone. He looked as though he were a wild beast ready to charge at any time. The distant sky flashed, and Ymirjar le-Peyroux¡¯s figure appeared. He still looked the same, his countenance calm. The only difference was that magic no longer surrounded him like a set of neon lights. Instead, all that remained around him was a ring of rainbow light. Yet, to the eyes of the strong, this rainbow circle, which looked mild to most, was actually far more dazzling than the neon lights had ever been! ¡°Divine ability: divine spellcasting¡­¡± Morani wrinkled her eyebrows, saying with worry, ¡°As expected of the master of the supreme tower, he¡¯s just ascended to godhood, and yet, he¡¯s actually comprehended divine ability to such a state!¡± Divine ability, simply put, was the ability of a god. Normally speaking, of all of the skills cast by a god, most of them were human skills that were channeled with divine power in order to boost deadliness. But if a god¡¯s understanding and control of his own strength reached a certain stage, he would be able to truly manifest power that was purely divine in nature. Such an ability was referred to as Divine ability. Divine ability was where a god¡¯s true power resided. It was also something that mere mortals would never be able to comprehend. As the saying went, ¡°Mortals have no way of challenging god.¡± The crux lay within this point. However, even within divine abilities, there were strong and weak ones. Some divine abilities were common, known by pretty much every god. An example would be the divine blade, creating objects from thin air, or teleportation¡­etc. Their combat potential would be rather weak, as everyone understood the simple concepts behind them. As for the more complex abilities, they required either a corresponding duty or area of expertise, coupled with sufficient understanding and enlightenment, regarding divine power, before they could be manifested. A good example of these were the black blade lights that were manifested by Wor. Even though they were similar to the divine blade, in actuality, they were an ability unique to gods with the duty or expertise of combat. If the ability had to be given a name, it would be called ¡°War god¡¯s energy blade.¡± Its destructive power was greater than the divine blade by a significant amount. Most gods, when faced with such an attack, would suffer a huge loss, especially if they did not make ample preparations beforehand or panicked. As for the magic shrouding Ymirjar le-Peyroux, it was an ability unique to the gods¡¯ governing magic. It was referred to as ¡°Transcending power: Divine Spellcasting.¡± Gods could imbue anything with their divine power to amplify its effects. Even the lowest ranking light beam skill could have its effects elevated to a legendary rank. Complete understanding of a spell could allow for a god to further increase the power of a spell by channeling divine power through it to turn an ordinary spell into a divine spell. This ability was known as ¡°Divine spells.¡± In the hands of magic gods, divine spells were extremely strong weapons. They were not to be looked down upon, especially when they unleashed all of their magical energy. When that occurred, even someone like the Steel Lion would choose to retreat instead of facing it. However, the most terrifying spell was always kept in the hands of the Master of Mystery. It was even more powerful and mysterious than divine spells. This was because, by nature, it exceeded the power of legendary spells. It was the true Divine Spell. This kind of magic was referred to as Divine Spellcasting. Throughout the years, the Master of Mystery had taken action a few times. Every time he had used Divine Spellcasting to crush any god that attempted to challenge him, no one was able to even survive a few spells. Yet, on this day, this spell, which was the sole property of the Master of Mystery, had appeared in the hands of Ymirjar le-Peyroux. This caused many people to become alarmed and extremely worried! ¡°I¡¯m afraid the God of Knowledge will lose.¡± He used divine power to whisper to the doppelganger of the God of Justice. ¡°Let us make our move soon, as we absolutely can¡¯t let him die here!¡± The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, nodded his head, his eyes fixated on Ymirjar le-Peyroux, with divine power secretly locking onto him. This wasn¡¯t meant for any offensive ploy. With his personality and duty, he could not take offensive measures against a god that was leaning towards neutrality in the good camp. His actions only involved investigating the opponent¡¯s magic, trying to find a flaw in the Divine Spellcasting. He knew clearly that he and the Master of Mystery would one day do battle, and that he would be facing the Divine Spellcasting of the Master of Mystery. If he could grasp this opportunity to find some flaw, the chances of his victory in that battle would greatly increase. Although the God of Spellcasters¡¯ Divine Spellcasting was sure to have large differences from that of the Master of Mystery, after spectating the few times that the Master of Mystery took action, without being able to glean any results, he wondered about lowering the standards. This led him to think that, maybe through researching the methods of the God of Spellcasting, he would be able to understand where the crux of Divine Spellcasting lay. After all, even though he was a warrior back when he was a mortal, with only a tiny bit of knowledge with regards to magic, he had been a god for so many years already. The God of Justice had already become an expert in magic! Of course, once the God of Knowledge met with danger, he would definitely make his move as soon as possible. He was still clear with regards to his priorities. ¡°I would never have thought that I would actually be forced by a junior into being serious.¡± Ymirjar le-Peyroux¡¯s voice held within it a trace of anger and anxiousness. He no longer maintained his distance like before. Instead, he chose to fly straight towards Wor. ¡°You are excellent and most deserving of praise!¡± Wor did not answer. His gaze remained fixed on Ymirjar le-Peyroux, while his entire being, as though a tightly coiled spring, was ready to explode forth at a moment¡¯s notice. After a while, Ymirjar le-Peyroux le-Peyroux le-Peyroux flew before him, the distance between them now being about twenty to thirty meters. At this type of a distance, even a high ranking adventurer could cross this distance in a split second with their own techniques. For gods, this insignificant distance could be considered as though they were touching. This was a distance that strongly favored gods of war and was disadvantageous to gods of magic. Ymirjar le-Peyroux, however, cared not. He gazed kindly upon Wor, as though he was an elder looking upon a talent from a younger generation. ¡°It¡¯s not too late to turn back now,¡± he said. ¡°Before leaving, my lord has repeatedly stressed that no matter when, our doors are always open to you.¡± Wor kept his silence, giving no reaction. Ymirjar le-Peyroux sighed, then tried to persuade Wor once more. ¡°Do consider it, since you cannot defeat me. I trust you are aware of this fact.¡± Wor¡¯s reply was to charge and draw his blade. ¡°Divine ability: War God¡¯s Energy Blade!¡± Crescent blades cut forward silently, targeting the exposed Ymirjar le-Peyroux, who had no cover. At the same time, Wor also rushed up to him, brandishing his long, black blade, hacking onto Ymirjar le-Peyroux¡¯s body viciously. The rainbow lights moved, but nothing happened. Ymirjar le-Peyroux withstood two onslaughts from Wor, without moving, and not a single change in his expression. ¡°Youth should be like this! Hot blooded, brave, and even reckless!¡± He laughed and said, ¡°If you want to harm me, you should at least change your blade.¡± At that moment, Wor had already swung his blade multiple times, hacking towards Ymirjar le-Peyroux. Even though every slash connected solidly, it had no effect at all. Actually, there was some effect¡­ The rainbow light that was shrouding Ymirjar le-Peyroux shook as though it were a wave of water. That was all. This God of Spellcaster¡¯s strength was truly beyond imagining! Chapter 214 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Wor made about ten slashes in one goal. Every slash hit the god of Spellcaster, Ymirjar le-Peyroux, and it included one of the extraordinary divine powers, God of War light blade. But, in the end, there wasn¡¯t a result. Dealing with such a situation, even he who was as strong-willed was feeling a little worried and stepped back. It was a creepy incident, a warrior fighting with a mage. Not only did they not try to get close to kill each other; they retreated in a hurry to pull apart their distance. Spectators that were looking at the sight were all shocked. There was a believer from Void Mask Church that lacked fighting experience, yet was passionate, who couldn¡¯t help but shout, ¡°Don¡¯t retreat! Continue to fight!¡± Wor naturally heard that, but he didn¡¯t dash forward. Instead, he smiled bitterly. He understood his own situation; his attack on the earlier round was to no avail. Not only did it expend most of his stamina, His reserved divine power was drained too. Ymirjar le-Peyroux deserved to be called a senior expert that gained fame for 3,000 years. He could tell with a glance that He lacked loyal belief, hence the weakness of His limited reserved divine power. With the round of fighting at close quarters, they met force by force to expand His divine power. The colorful halo that engulfed Ymirjar not only had terrifying defense power, it also contained an enormous amount of divine power. Every slash on it would counteract a large amount of divine power from both parties. After a dozen slashes, it had consumed more than half of His divine power. Even if Ymirjar didn¡¯t take action, but solely depended on the expense of divine power, he would be able to drain Wor out, and pass away in the end. Wor creased his eyebrows and thought about what he should do. He was not afraid of death. Or maybe He was already mentally prepared for that. But He needed to work hard to gain success. Dying willingly wasn¡¯t his style. The true courage not only was the courage to face and endure death. It included working hard even if He was in a hopeless situation in order to fight for a string of life. Those amazing miracles mostly happened as such. After thinking for a while, he held the black long blade with both of his hands, raised it above his head slant-wise, and showed a posture of him getting ready to slash sideways. This posture was the most powerful, the most strong among all moves. A skilled warrior using such a method would be able to defeat an enemy that was fully armored. Wor looked at Ymirjar without moving an inch, but he was slowly calming down, like a pool of dead water that had no ripples. He was like a mirror that reflected the surroundings of its heart. Ymirjar didn¡¯t speak but showed a smile of admiration. Facing such overwhelming distance in capability, a warrior that still had the courage to fight and even regain peace during the fight to give play to even more brutal measure, of course, deserved admiration. But He felt a little pitiful too. Why would such person become the God of Knowledge? The God of Knowledge, no matter how one looked at it, should be a spellcaster! Then, He couldn¡¯t help but sigh. He sighed for a good person falling in with bad company, and also for his disciples and followers who didn¡¯t thrive. A bunch of legendary mages allowed a warrior to grab the clergy of knowledge. This was simply embarrassing! It seems that I have been focusing on understanding and mastering the power of the root of the world all these years; I intended to include every spellcaster into my clergy in one goal, but I forgot to teach them! He thought in silence and wasn¡¯t bothered by the battle before His eyes at all. From what He saw, only magic could fight against magic. As the God of Knowledge had been restrained in his ability to cast spells by His Majesty the Master of Mystery, how would He possibly win against Him, relying on martial arts skills alone? If he lost like that, the 3,000 years was a waste of time! The flash of a blade¡¯s light. Wor stepped back again. His footstep seemed to be a little superficial and tottering. In the slash earlier, He had already concentrated all his vigor and gave full play to his martial art skills. But, the result was similar to the one before. On the contrary, His divine power that was severely damaged fell off a cliff again, already in a state of imminent danger. If the battle continued, maybe after the next slash, He would fall into long sleep due to the exhaustion of His divine power. To a new God who didn¡¯t even manage to build the structure of Holy Kingdom forming a church, this pretty much meant passing away. ¡°Maybe the next slash will be the last hit of my entire life¡­¡± With such concept in His mind, He slowly steadied his breath and regained calmness. If there was only strength for one last slash, he had to give the best play and swing the most beautiful slash of his life! Ymirjar¡¯s mind was disturbed by Wor¡¯s previous slash. Only then did the great mage realize that he was still in the life or death battle. He smiled apologetically and redirected his focus onto Wor. ¡°Aiya, your situation looks quite bad.¡± With His eyesight, He could naturally tell Wor¡¯s situation. He couldn¡¯t help but crease His eyebrows and advise, ¡°Just admit defeat. If the fight continues, you will lose your life!¡± Wor replied with a calm smile; one given when one was ready to accept death. Ymirjar¡¯s eyebrows were tightly knit and he couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Why? There must be a reason!¡± ¡°Reason?¡± Wor finally answered. ¡°Why do I need a reason?¡± ¡°You are going to die!¡± Ymirjar said. ¡°Humans can live without a reason, but they can¡¯t die without one!¡± ¡°Betrayal needs a reason, persistence doesn¡¯t.¡± Wor smiled a very calm smile. ¡°Loyalty shouldn¡¯t come before ideal or faith!¡± Ymirjar creased His eyebrows and said. ¡°You are not the God of Knight, your clergy is knowledge, the developing and expanding of knowledge, the spreading of civilization¡­ Loyalty shouldn¡¯t be more important than your ideal!¡± ¡°Everyone thinks differently. I don¡¯t force you to understand me,¡± Wor replied. ¡°To you that have lived for 3,000 years, and have watched the rise and fall of the dynasties, loyalty was something that was meaningless. Maybe even to the great Master of Mystery, you might only be following Him as a student, but not as a feudal official. But to me, Void Mask Majesty is my King. As His feudal official, I am grateful for His guide and support. If wasn¡¯t for His assistance, I might still be hiding in the library, sheltered by Book Collection Majesty, hiding away from chasing troops while getting older each day in silence until time obliterated all my courage and strength, and I became a member of the cemetery. ¡°Void Mask Majesty guided me to move forward, helped me find my purpose in life and realize it. He lifted me to a higher level and saved me from an escapee¡¯s life. A fearful and vengeful life full of hatred. He helped me become a great figure that praises were sung of. Finally, I even surpassed the limit of a survivor and stepped foot into immortality.¡± He was silent and then continued. ¡°The most touching was that He treated me as equal, and kindly! Such an attitude was even more precious than all the benefits that he may have bestowed upon me. Compared to it, being promoted to God actually didn¡¯t mean much. ¡°Life of that caliber was simply nothing worth mentioning!¡± He had hardly ever spoken so much in one go. After He finished His speech, he smiled. ¡°Alright, Master Ymirjar le-Peyroux, I¡¯m done with my bullsh*t. Let us end the battle.¡± Then, he took one step forward with his left foot and turned aside. He held the blade vertically before his chest, pointed at Ymirjar le-Peyroux¡¯s chest. ¡°I will slash this with all my effort; I hope you wouldn¡¯t be hurt by this.¡± The God of Spellcasters kept quiet and sighed a heavy breath. He took out a very common looking wooden staff and slowly raised it. A golden ray suddenly concentrated on the top of the wooden staff. It then turned into a fireball and whirled. ¡°This is the magic that I was best at when I was making a living wandering from one place to another,¡± he said. ¡°People like you shouldn¡¯t die by exhaustion of divine power. Let me send you on your way with the magic I¡¯m most proud of!¡± Watching both parties going for the final round, Morani¡¯s face grew grave, and even his body and knees were slightly bent, preparing to dash forward. ¡°I block the magic, you rescue Him,¡± Yorgaardman said as his right hand had a flash of light, and the axe that he normally used appeared in his hands. But, their actions didn¡¯t go as planned. Just as Wor was launching his last attack while Ymirjar le-Peyroux was launching the magic that he was most proud of, an angry voice, explosive like a volcano, was heard from under the ground. ¡°Old man! Have you ever heard?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s bellow could even scare a dead person. ¡°Don¡¯t pretend! Pretenders will be struck by lightning!¡± A blast spurted from underground and appeared before the God of Spellcasters. It clashed with the colorful halo and exploded in a dazzling white light. This lightning made almost everyone at the scene lose their eyesight temporarily. Only the God of Justice managed to withstand such strong light and maintained clear vision. Then, before the light dispersed, everyone heard His laughter. ¡°Hahahaha! This is interesting! This is too interesting!¡± Interesting? What so interesting? With suspicion, everyone regained their vision and saw Wor who stood in the air looking lost but still maintained an attack posture. Huh? Where¡¯s the God of Spellcasters, Master Ymirjar le-Peyroux? Where did He go? He wasn¡¯t the only one that was looking around suspiciously, gazing into the distance. But they couldn¡¯t find Master Ymirjar le-Peyroux anywhere. Morani was looking around with divine power, he searched at least within a hundred-mile radius, but he still couldn¡¯t find Master Ymirjar. So, he looked suspiciously towards Yorgaardman next to him. He thought the God of Justice Majesty who laughed maliciously earlier knew something. Before the God of Justice could speak, Sui Xiong¡¯s voice was heard from underground again. His voice sounded very emotional and dissatisfied. ¡°The hell! This old man is as hard as a turtle! I struck it with an electromagnetic wave; it only made him fly away, but didn¡¯t break through its shell!¡± Chapter 215 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio As to what happened inside the burst of bright light, the ones who were most clear as to what happened were the two parties involved in it. However, the only one who appeared to fully aware of everything was Sui Xiong, as the God of Spellcasters seemed to still be in a daze! He only knew that, after he had heard the curses being uttered from underground, he was sent flying by an unimaginably violent strike, to the point that he was blasted out of the main plane, into the far reaches of the outer void. Although he had relied on the effects of the Divine Spellcasting and his shield hadn¡¯t been broken, the tremendous impact still made his head dizzy and his vision spin, sending his divine power flowing, as though it were a stream. ¡°How is this happening?¡± The rainbow lights that were covering him emerged. It was the incarnation of the Master of Mystery! This incarnation kept itself concealed, as most mortals who saw it thought that it was just a cluster of lights. But, any god who saw it was sure to receive a huge shock, causing them to be on their guard, because this incarnation was filled to the brim with divine power. In fact, it was actually designed for use in combat! There were many different types of incarnations that gods could have, each with different strength levels. The incarnation that Sui Xiong left on Wendy at the Tyrian magic tower had basically no combat ability. It could only be used for communication, or as coordinates for teleportation in crucial moments. As for the most impressive incarnations, such as the one that the Master of Mystery had sent, they had enormous divine power, enough to clash head on with other gods in a serious fight. As per the rule of ¡°Avatar inferiority,¡± a high-grade incarnation would only be able to output the mid-grade divine power at most, and the incarnations of mid-grade gods would, at best, be able to use the divine power of the lower tier ranks, and so on. Those gods, who were at the very bottom, with extremely weak divine power, were simply unable to create avatars with the abilities to fight with other gods. They would be destroyed in less than a second. The avatar that was sent by the Master of Mystery contained enough divine power to be ranked at the peak of the mid-rank gods. Coupled with his extensive knowledge of battles and his incredible might, he wouldn¡¯t have many problems, even if he were to go up against an incredibly strong divine power. Seeing as his avatar was already this strong, the divine might of the Master of Mystery was simply terrifying! He had originally only intended to watch from afar, not intervening unless the God of Justice Yorgaardman took action. As per his calculations, the God of Knowledge¡¯s fighting ability was far below that of the God of Spellcasters¡¯. Even with that weird octopus thrown in, Ymirgar le-Peyroux¡¯s could still do as he pleased. At worst, it could simply choose to attack leisurely, from a distance. Yet, he never would have imagined that, although the God of Knowledge¡¯s strength was average, Void Mask actually had quite the keen ability! He actually sent the God of Spellcasters flying with his first attack. If he had not rushed over to help resolve the aftermath, he might even have been severely injured physically! This was truly shocking! The divine spell shield on the God of Spellcasters was something that he had painstakingly designed. Forget about weak gods, it could hold out against the attacks of even a mid-ranked god, and for a long time! Yet, it was beaten to the point of collapse, just from a single attack. Plus, the aftermath managed to penetrate it, causing severe injury to the God of Spellcasters, who was supposed to have been well protected. In contrast, an attack, which flung the opponent off of the main plane, did not seem as shocking anymore¡­ Having received the aid of the Master of Mystery, the God of Spellcasters could have been said to have recovered. He looked left and right in somewhat of a daze. Only then did he fully regain his mental clarity, leaking out a horrified expression on his face immediately thereafter. ¡°How is this possible?¡± He exclaimed weakly. ¡°I was actually blown off of the main plane by this attack!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t think that jellyfish really had any abilities,¡± the Master of Mystery calmly said. ¡°I am curious, though, exactly what move did he use against you?¡± ¡°My brother, what exactly did you do just now?¡± the God of Justice asked curiously, from above the platform. Sui Xiong laughed, but did not explain. This was not because he was trying to be mysterious on purpose, but rather because there were limits to his ability, and he was simply unable to explain clearly. The railguns that were on the Earth that he had come from, before transmigrating, were mostly just highly sophisticated toys. Even a high school laboratory could only produce a simple toy railgun. But, to talk about principles¡­.Well, he could only laugh awkwardly. What he was doing now, was based of when he had made a propaganda poster for a knockoff game called ¡°three hundred idiots.¡± The other painter had given him a design diagram that was based off of popular science. It was a design for the construction of a railgun in one¡¯s own body. As to the logic behind such a toy, there were four groups of students, arranged in a descending order, based off of technology and operational requirements. These included: engineering students, science students, humanities students and arts students. This brother was coincidentally from the last group. He could talk about the development of world art, and he could also discuss the difference between classical and modern music, as well as the association between architecture and Feng Shui. Honestly, he could talk about pretty much anything that was related to the arts. So, isn¡¯t it silly that one would have him, an arts student, talk about the the scientific theory of electromagnetic railguns?! ¡°This is the signature move of a game character, which is known as Biribiri [1]. There are three different levels of strength: Railgun, Real railgun, and Super railgun. Every five seconds of time that are spent charging, allows another coin to be fired, and up to a maximum of eight are allowed. Upon release, it discharges electromagnetic waves forwards, to a distance of five yards, dealing spell damage to the enemies it pierced through. Killing heroes acquired a player eight coins. After six seconds of charging, it would then become a real railgun, with a distance range of seven yards, and have an increase in killing potential. With a further charging time of six seconds, it would become a super railgun, with a distance of nine yards, and an even further increase in killing potential¡­¡± Something like this? This must be a joke¡­ Or, perhaps he could take out that design diagram, pointing at it to introduce it to big brother. ¡°This is the orbital formula of electromagnetic waves, and this is a electromagnetic coilgun. By the way, who is this young girl in a short skirt? That was the character concept art, which was sent to me back then¡­¡± Wouldn¡¯t this be such a joke?! As such, he could only smile and laugh dumbly, attempting to cover up his awkwardness. The God of Justice misunderstood the reason behind his smile, thinking that he was trying to keep it a secret, and just simply could not resist laughing. ¡°Right, I should not be trying to uncover your secrets.¡± He laughed as he approached, patting Sui Xiong, who had become a giant jellyfish that was the size of a few houses! ¡°Everyone has their own secrets, especially regarding this move, which should be the ace up your sleeve. I was only just being curious earlier. I had no intention of making you divulge your secrets!¡± He stressed this point. Sui Xiong conversely did not feel that this knockoff railgun counted as a unique skill. In fact, his true hidden move was still slowly gathering power. With the electromagnetic gun, it was just a test, to see if it could be used as a delivery method for a warhead. He laughed, letting the matter go, then lightly asked, ¡°What do you think we should do next?¡± ¡°What to do? Weren¡¯t you the one who said to give the Master of Mystery a fierce beating?¡± the God of Justice curiously asked. Sui Xiong used a tentacle to rub his head, then said with some worry, ¡°I¡¯m still honing it. If that move is used again, it might start a feud¡­¡± He originally was unable to hold back his anger. He wanted to give the Master of Mystery an unforgettable lesson, but his blasting the God of Spellcasters with the railgun earlier had caused his anger to dissipate greatly. Now, he could not help but have some hesitation. After all, he was just a peace loving artist. These past few days had been so comfortable, so he truly did not want to take part in conflicts with others. When he had used his special move earlier, his mind was filled with fury. Now that he had calmed down partially, he was thinking again about the possibilities of everyone sitting down for an amiable discussion, instead of having a cataclysmic fight. ¡°A conflict of duties, paired with a conflict of ideals¡­ This was destined to become an irreconcilable enmity from the start.¡± Morani heard this as she flew over. She couldn¡¯t resist laughing, as she said, ¡°Regardless, your relations cannot possibly get any worse. So, why worry about forming grudges? There¡¯s no need to bother.¡± ¡°There won¡¯t be any more grudges?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°There¡¯s no possible way to have any more grudges,¡± Morani said. ¡°Your and Wor¡¯s magic have not been sealed yet, right? This is just his attitude.¡± Sui Xiong looked towards the God of Justice again. The God of Justice chuckled and nodded. ¡°It¡¯s definite that we have to fight anyway. So, instead of waiting to fight in the future, let¡¯s just take advantage of the current situation, fighting now and getting it over with!¡± Now it was Sui Xiong¡¯s turn to laugh too. He then turned around to drill into the ground. ¡°I¡¯ll continue to plan some big moves. You guys go ahead and continue hosting the competition.¡± Yorgaardman and Morani froze in the air, staring at each other, before laughing bitterly. The situation had already come to such a point, so why was he still thinking of having a competition?! But, Sui Xiong had already pushed for this decision, so they had no reason to object. As such, under their management, the competition actually continued to take place. As to those experts at the peak, watching the battle between the God of Knowledge and the God of Spellcasters had made a great impact on them. In comparison, the subsequent battles between experts that were approaching legendary status felt dull and dry. One by one, they began to leave the scene, going back to reflect on the battle that they had just witnessed, in order to extract as much experience as possible from it. After all, they were on a search for a path towards greater planes! To the mortals in the grandstand, the battle between the two gods had no meaning. Instead, it was the battle between Lewre and Soocher that was the most spectacular to them, exciting them to the point that their blood boiled and they cheered wildly! But Lewre and Soocher had already felt the effects of that battle earlier, and so they did not fight too vigorously. Although they still fought flashily, using countless tricks, it could still be seen that neither party had given their 100 percent effort to acquire victory, unlike they had in the previous one. Thus, this type of battle,was just a charade to fool others mainly. Both of them fought for about an hour, before the battle ended with Lewre proving himself superior. Lewre achieved the victory by shooting deftly with the divine bow, forcing Soocher out of the arena. Actually, Soocher could have displayed her skill of elementalization to carry on the fight, but her will to fight was low, and she was in no mood to continue fighting. So, she admitted defeat. In the finals the following day, both Alan, who was from the winners bracket, and Lewre, who was from the losers bracket, had already adjusted their mental states, allowing them to display their abilities to the fullest. Both of these peak level experts had already used all of their abilities, and were determined to not have any regrets. Hence, they happily fought. Thus, the final battle of the first ever martial competition convention proved worthy of its name! It was truly spectacular, an unparalleled sight to behold! [1] This is a reference to Misaka Mikoto from the ¡°A Certain Magical Index¡± and ¡°A Certain Scientific Railgun¡± anime series. Chapter 216 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Alan. Full name Alan Apollo Kasadier, from Storm Sea. His first name was ¡°Alan¡±; ¡°Apollo¡± was his nickname in his tribe; ¡°Kasadier¡± was the name of the tribe he was born in. Mm, he wasn¡¯t a human, nor an elf or Orc; he wasn¡¯t even any kind of a land creature. More accurately, he was a giant dragon. ¡°Alan¡± in dragon language meant ¡°strong.¡±¡±Apollo¡± meant ¡°mixed race.¡±¡±Kasadier¡± was a famous sea dragon tribe. The swordsman¡ªwho was nameless to the point that he didn¡¯t even have a nickname¡ªwas a young giant dragon from Storm Sea. He should have been slightly younger than Snowflake; he had just become an adult a while back. As for why he took the form of a human to join the martial arts contest on land? It was of course for the cash prize! ¡°To earn a cash prize through martial arts contest; what is wrong with that?¡± When Snowflake asked him in private, he gotten such a reply. ¡°Although I am very young and have yet to consider about getting married and starting a career, if I earn more now, I will be able to build a glamorous dragon den in the future to attract good ladies that are willing to marry me!¡± Er, it wasn¡¯t exactly wrong. To a giant dragon, especially a young male dragon, the glamorous level of a dragon den, hidden with wealth and treasure, signified his capability and charm. A giant dragon that could own a golden mountain (as long as he wasn¡¯t too ugly looking like wearing a jellyfish head), was then handsome, strong and attractive. Just like on earth, if a normal looking young man drove a limited edition Rolls Royce, it would definitely add extra hundred points of charm. If he were to stay alone in a luxurious house that had a garden, swimming pool or even a stadium, with an enterprise that was the top five hundred in the country under his name, his charm bar would be full. Unless it was really a girl that was impervious to the temptation of wealth and high position, there would be hardly any girl that could resist such a man. Especially when the man was obviously looking for a good wife for marriage. It was simply irresistible. Or, when a girl wasn¡¯t swayed by such a man, it meant that the girl already found someone she liked, or her taste was extremely bizarre and unusual. The culture between giant dragon and human was actually not too far apart. Alan was a kind giant dragon. He decided that he couldn¡¯t achieve wealth through robbery and cheating. He was young and his capability wasn¡¯t too strong. He wouldn¡¯t be able to earn much through taking up a hiring offer. Comparably, to come to Void Mask Theme Park and fight for the fat cash prize with all his effort seemed like a great plan! In actual fact, there were quite a number of young dragons that participated in the very first martial arts contest. There were even senior giant dragons that had no moral integrity, which hid their strength and wanted to sneak in to get a championship. There was no age limitation when it came to chasing after wealth. There were many old seniors that were working hard to earn money even when they already had a big batch of children and grandchildren. Many old seniors that had enough wealth to build themselves a golden house, but they didn¡¯t intend to retire. A few Gods spotted these old seniors that had no moral integrity. For that, Morani purposely went over to Dragon Cliff at Dragon Mountain to visit the great Dragon King Majesty. Dragon King knew the behavior of senior dragons and got very angry. He summoned all of them back by force. Regarding if they were summoned to be lectured or beaten up; that would be up to their family rule. Morani was not interested, and Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t be bothered either. The competition rules for the very first martial arts contest were clear: only those who were below the level of legendary realm were qualified. After a few rounds of battles and eliminations, the only last giant dragon that persisted was Alan, thanks to his capability. Although his sword craft wasn¡¯t glamorous enough, he was skillful. Compared to the ¡°reliable Nicholas,¡± he wasn¡¯t that bad, and he had a few amazing masterstrokes. Almost every one of them could trigger strong power. He won against his enemy and achieved victory at the end. Plus, his equipment was quite amazing. His armour was a scaly one made with precious metals, and each scale had magic instilled in it. Hence, the combination of all magic instillation formed a few magic arrays, which was the highest grade of magic-instilled armor. His sword was the famous legendary soldier ¡°Chopper Gerald,¡± which was known for its characteristic of chopping everything. It was already famous across the world, from back during the decline of the elves. Also, Gerald had gotten his name from the holy sword. It was like on earth, where people would name their children ¡°Dragon Fountain,¡±¡±Tai E¡± (name of an ancient sword), or ¡°Caliburn.¡± It wasn¡¯t anything rare. Wearing precious armor while holding a holy sword, his capability was ridiculously strong too. Alan could advance brutally in the very first martial arts contest by winning against one opponent after another, and finally entering finals as the winner in victory group. It would be right and proper. On the other hand, although Lewre was defeated once but not by him, he wasn¡¯t stressed facing him at that moment. Holy arrow against the holy sword; archer against swordsman; the match was extremely interesting. Fighting against holy sword Gerald that chopped everything, Lewre took off his armor that wouldn¡¯t help much. He was left with a common cotton outfit and a few pieces of equipment that could enhance his speed in order to put his advantage of quick response into full play. His shadow was simply like the wind, blowing lighting in the battle ring. However, every sharp arrow that was shot out in the light breeze was like lightning, unable to withstand. Alan was wearing heavy armor. Even though he had the godly power of a giant dragon, he wouldn¡¯t be able to catch up with Lewre¡¯s speed under such circumstances. Hence, he could only stand still and block Lewre¡¯s arrows with his exquisite sword¡¯s craft. He also occasionally attacked with his sword¡¯s aura to faintly check with the enemy force, so that Lewre couldn¡¯t fully unleash his advantage smoothly. It was clear that if they wanted to fight against each other in speed, unless he revealed his original form, he wouldn¡¯t be able to win. However, regardless of attack, defense, or stamina, he was much stronger compared to his opponent. As long as he didn¡¯t make any mistakes, no matter how long the battle would go on, the final winner would be him! Plus, the terrifying speed that his opponent was showing would definitely cost him a terrifying amount of strength. Comparably, his strength expense was much longer, so he should have been the one at advantage. So, he wasn¡¯t in a hurry. But, Lewre wasn¡¯t in a hurry either. He knew that his battle method would expend large amount of his strength and he wouldn¡¯t be able to sustain it for long. But, the way Alan was fighting, although it wouldn¡¯t expend much stamina, the mental power spent was far more than his. To block off arrows with sword required an unusual amount of attention and quick response in order to concentrate in such a terrifying stage. He didn¡¯t believe that his opponent would be able to persist long under such circumstances. Both parties were confident in themselves. The battle gradually turned into an endurance battle. Unexpectedly, Lewre¡¯s stamina was ridiculously strong. On the other hand Alan¡¯s mind power was also tough. Even Snowflake who was also from the dragon tribe was extremely amazed. The daytime battle continued through the night under the magic lights. Until the next morning, the battle was still going on. Only at sunset did the match end. Lewre¡¯s stamina finally got to its limit first. When Alan finally found an opportunity, he immediately mounted a charge in full speed which had not happened for the past two days. He stabbed through Lewre¡¯s chest, and the very first martial arts contest had finally completed all the matches. But, it didn¡¯t just end there. Lewre who was severely injured received immediate treatment. With Morani¡¯s treatment, he recovered very soon. Looking at Alan who was laughing happily but looked exhausted on the battle ring, Lewre was quiet for a while before he laughed too. ¡°It was a good match!¡± he said. ¡°Yeah, all of you fought well!¡± Morani nodded as He complimented. Lewre let out a breath and a heavy sigh, but his eyes grew brighter. A mysterious aura gathered around his body. Although he was already so exhausted that he couldn¡¯t even stand still, that very moment, he felt stronger than when he was giving his all during the fight earlier. Alan who was laughing on the stage saw the scene and was suddenly stunned. He could of course tell what was going on. The human archer that he just defeated finally broke through the limit of a commoner, and stepped foot onto the pathway of immortality! From that moment onwards, Lewre was a legendary expert as he walked before him. The bard, Shoggard, who was in charge of recording the competition situation, noticed the dramatic scene. Not long after, he even put together an opera and used it as an important scene in the opera, ¡°Gathering of Experts.¡± Of course, to the descendants, the most important thing that happened that day was definitely not ¡°the champion of the very first martial arts contest,¡± nor that ¡°Archer of Fresh Spring, Lewre Spoolin, stepped foot into legendary realm.¡± The most important incident that happened that day happened during the award ceremony. Four Gods were gathered there and were prepared to give out prizes to Alan, Lewre and Soocher. But They were waiting for the last person, the organizer of the martial arts contest. However, they waited for quite a while, and Sui Xiong had yet to come out from underground. ¡°What is it?¡± the God of Justice, who was impatient, shouted at the ground. ¡°Bro! Hurry up! It¡¯s time to give out prizes!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s voice was heard from underground. As they were separated by soil, there was a slight echo. ¡°Hold on, let me shoot this first!¡± His voice was full of exhaustion, but there was an excitement that couldn¡¯t be explained. ¡°Huh?¡± Yorgaardman, Moroni, Lewre and Wor exchanged glances, not knowing what he was planning to do. Then, the earth shook and gradually cracked. A huge pipe that looked like flesh and blood but gave out a metallic shine extended out from underground. It was like a mountain that was standing tall and erect, pointing at the sky. Accurately, he meant it towards the direction of ¡°Rainbow Fountain,¡± the holy kingdom of the Master of Mystery. In the next instance, along with Sui Xiong¡¯s laughter, the earth shook. A white light shot out from the pipe and headed directly at the Rainbow Fountain! Bro Xiong had always kept up his promises. If he said he was going to beat Him up, he was going to beat Him up! Chapter 217 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio If someone were to drill into that huge tube, one would see the inner walls densely wound with metal coils. There was not a single gap. Close to the top of the tube, there was even a metal coil that had already been burnt up, slowly falling. Of course, there were many more structures, complicated beyond the realm of human understanding, which was another matter. According to the artist friend (who was artistically talented but lived a little poorly due to his enthusiasm for DIY projects), this was called a coil-type electromagnetic gun. The initial speed of the projectile was slow. It relied on a long barrel to provide acceleration. But if the barrel was long enough, the power supply sufficient, and the design perfect, it could launch extremely heavy things at frighteningly high speeds. It would be theoretically possible to shoot a one-ton mass of iron at the speed of the Third Cosmic Velocity without difficulty. Sui Xiong did not quite understand the standards they referred to. Although he was provided with formulas, he could not even bear to look at calculus, let alone attempt to calculate it. He could only exhaust his ability and do his utmost best. Because his ability to cast spells was sealed off, he had to turn his own body into the gun barrel. He conducted several small tests underground, more or less estimating the limits of his transformation, on the basis that it remained ¡°controllable.¡± The final product was this outrageously huge super electromagnetic gun. Its height had not been measured. The part sticking above ground was as large as Mount Everest, if a conservative estimate were to be used. The underground portions were three times larger than that. Its power supply could not be measured. Sui Xiong¡¯s one attack used up 70 or 80 percent of his energy reserves. As for the power of the gun? The bullet already exceeded the speed of sound when exiting the barrel. If Sui Xiong didn¡¯t place a small avatar on the shell, using his divine power to maintain a vacuum around it, its lead exterior would turn into molten metal. Once the avatar was gone, the coil responsible for the acceleration of the shell burnt out almost instantaneously. As the shell flew out, divine power continued to stir with the surrounding air, making a trail of dazzling white light. Even if it flew far away, the white trail remained undispersed for a long time. ¡°The temperature is really high!¡± The God of Justice exclaimed. He examined it curiously before looking at the direction the shell flew. It flew so fast he could not even see it with his divine ability. He could only dispatch an avatar and hurry towards the direction of the Rainbow Spring to see what would happen. These past few days, Sui Xiong had been quietly preparing underground. So exactly what move had he come up with this time? After having his spellcasting abilities sealed by the Master of Mystery, he was still able to use divine power. But compared to the already long-matured system of magic, it was very inconvenient to do so. Under such circumstances, if he made this move, exactly what kind of power would it have? ¡°This cannon shell is fast enough,¡± Morani sighed. ¡°How fast is it exactly?¡± No one knew, not even Sui Xiong himself. He only knew that the sight his doppelganger saw was mysterious. Everything behind him turned dark red, while everything in front turned bluish-violet. Intriguing¡­ ah, intriguing¡­ Sui Xiong had studied physics in high school, but high school physics could not touch this. He didn¡¯t remember learning it anyway. Once he was in college, all his efforts were used in learning to paint. Anything physics-related relied on the mercy of his teachers in order to pass. So, although trans-migrators with a greater understanding of physics would be shocked speechless upon seeing such a scene, Sui Xiong only felt that it was intriguing and nice to look at. Fortunately, there was no one in this world that would jump out and sarcastically say ¡°Uncultured, how terrifying!¡± so he had no need to worry. The shell was so fast it pierced the sky in an instant, flying out of the main plane. It then went rampaging through the void, penetrating countless worlds both big and small without losing speed. It steadfastly moved towards the front of the Ring of the World. ¡°What is that?¡± In the Rainbow Spring, the Master of Mystery felt some uncertainty as he observed the blazing white train rushing towards them. He wondered, ¡°What does this jellyfish want to do? Is he trying to attack me?¡± He was really puzzled. This thing was truly fast. But even if it was as fast as lightning and quick as a meteor, could it actually penetrate the divine barriers around the Rainbow Spring? No; how could that be possible? He thought about it over and over again, and could not resist laughing. ¡°This guy is still too young after all, ah!¡± He smiled and said to some of his subordinate Gods beside him. ¡°It¡¯s just a scorching hot energy beam strengthened by divine power. Perhaps only young people would find such a thing powerful.¡± ¡°Disperse; it¡¯s simply a mess!¡± The God of Art and Culture, the God of Classics, and the others all left. But the God of Spellcasters stayed behind. He asked with some worry, ¡°Your Majesty, regarding the issue of the God of Knowledge¡­¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing to worry about,¡± the Master of Mystery smiled as he said. ¡°You made an appearance and fought with the God of Knowledge. We¡¯ll take it, as we¡¯ve made do with the situation.¡± The God of Spellcasters felt puzzled. He had some doubts that were not answered. ¡°We are not the only ones who want to find trouble with them.¡± The body of the Master of Mystery in the Holy Kingdom was that of a tall elemental creature. Its body was made of flowing rainbow lights. There was a cunning expression in its six eyes. ¡°Someone wants us to fight in the vanguard while they hide behind us to pick up the loot. How can there be such a thing!¡± He sneered. ¡°All in all, we have already made our move. We have gone from front stage to backstage. We just need to observe quietly and wait for both parties to fight until they¡¯re exhausted. Then we can come out and clean up the mess.¡± The God of Spellcasters nodded his head as though he had some insight, although he did not know what His Majesty knew or what he had planned. But he believed everything had long been within his calculations. After all, he was a great God with the duty of Wisdom! Compared to wisdom, the duties of plotting and strategy were both too one-sided and weak to even be mentioned! ¡°Your Majesty, are we going to keep interfering with the spell-casting abilities of Void Mask and the God of Knowledge?¡± He suddenly asked. ¡°Now that I am beginning to feel the pressure from the world continuing to increase¡­ If this goes on, will there be any problems?¡± ¡°Of course it won¡¯t always be sealed,¡± the Master of Mystery coolly said. ¡°When this battle is over we will release the seal. If they have not fallen by then.¡± The God of Spellcasting nodded his head, no longer speaking but quietly standing beside the Master of Mystery. He accompanied him to observe that scorching hot energy beam strengthened by divine power, which was rushing towards the Rainbow Spring. But for some reason, he felt a sense of unease. After a while, he could not resist turning to look at his king. He only saw the rainbow lights moving calmly on his face, as though there were nothing of importance that could cause this great God to move. He was a little relieved but still had some uneasiness. If His Majesty had so much faith, why would he remain there, observing that beam of energy? He was not willing to ask. He erased the thought immediately. This was too disrespectful! In front of the Pantheon temple, the incarnation of the God of Justice gathered near the King of Order and asked something in a low voice that only they could hear. ¡°Hey, old man, what exactly is that?¡± The King of Order turned to look at him, his silver face calm as usual. Then he turned back without answering the question. The God of Justice ignored the cold shoulder treatment he received, thickened his skin, and continued asking. He was really curious. Void Mask used all his power to prepare over such a long period of time, turning himself into some weird cannon as a move? Exactly what was going on!? He kept pestering the King of Order. Eventually, the King couldn¡¯t take it anymore and replied, ¡°Just wait and see for yourself.¡± ¡°Hey! Old fogey! This answer is the same as not answering! You¡¯re a God, a great and supreme existence, and you don¡¯t even know what this is!¡± The King of Order replied taciturnly. ¡°I know what it is, but I also don¡¯t know what it is.¡± ¡°Huh?!¡± The God of Justice was stunned. He didn¡¯t understand what this sentence meant. ¡°I know its appearance, but I do not understand the principle it is based on.¡± ¡°There is a principle in this world that you do not understand?¡± the God of Justice asked in disbelief. ¡°Order, chaos, goodness, evil¡­ I am only one of four Master Gods. Why do you think I know everything?¡± the King of Order sighed softly. ¡°Yorgaardman, if you¡¯re really so bored, why not research how to break through the limits of great divine power? When you reach my position, there will be many questions answered.¡± The God of Justice pouted, sitting back down discontentedly. Telling me such things every time something big happens; this d*mned old fogey! At this point, many Gods in the Pantheon temple were whispering amongst themselves, discussing that blazing white beam of light shooting from the main plane to the Rainbow Spring. Everyone was wondering the purpose behind such a move. The King of Fire, who wielded the power of flame, became a favorite. At least six or seven Gods asked him if he knew anything about it. However, the King of Fire knew nothing about that blazing white trail. This news surprised the Gods and made them even more curious. Theoretically, the King of Fire was able to understand and control all flames in the world, and magical flames were no exception. The scorching beams of energy, even if they were strengthened by divine power, still belonged to the category of ¡°flame.¡± But he could not explain or control that blazing white light. This news contained a very large amount of information. As per everyone¡¯s anticipation, that blazing white trail of light finally completed its long journey, arriving at its destination. It hit the Rainbow Spring. Chapter 218 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When that white light struck ¡°Rainbow Fountain,¡± or when Sui Xiong bombed the outer wall of the holy kingdom, there wasn¡¯t much noise at the very beginning. But the wall that was surrounded with holy power of Rainbow Fountain was broken through layer-by-layer, just like butter against a hot metal drill. There didn¡¯t seem to be any withstanding power. ¡°How¡­ How is this possible?!¡± The God of Spellcasters who saw that scene was suddenly stunned. His mind almost stopped working. Oh; His mind stopped because the white light that was almost blue broke through the wall of the holy kingdom and hit Him. The God¡¯s strong body was shot through like a piece of tofu. Even though He could resurrect within the holy kingdom itself, the God of Spellcasters was actually in a state of stagnation. When His thoughts resumed, the entire Rainbow Fountain had changed. A huge opening had broken through the entire outer wall that was protecting the holy kingdom, and even almost penetrated the opposite side of the holy kingdom¡¯s wall. There were thousands of layers of defense magic destroyed by it along the way. Besides that, maybe due to its decrease in speed, its penetration power dropped, but the spreading of power was constantly increasing. The diameter of the pathway that went through the entire holy kingdom was constantly expanding. When it first got in contact with the Holy Kingdom, it was almost the width of a mountain; then it slowly increased until it went through the holy kingdom. It had already become a huge pond, the kind that was big enough for giant dragons to rest and propagate. If it were to go through the entire holy kingdom, maybe the damage would stop there. Although everything along the way was destroyed, although a legendary amount of believers and oracles died, although the entire holy kingdom was damaged quite seriously¡­ All in all, it was still acceptable. However, just as it almost went through the entire holy kingdom, it suddenly exploded without warning. The explosion contained a terrifying power. It first released strong light and heat and melted everything that couldn¡¯t endure. Then, it was followed by a strong shockwave. It almost ravaged half of the holy kingdom, and the shockwave dispersed to the upper and surrounding directions. It carried countless broken and melted pieces, soared up and knocked onto the outer wall of holy kingdom. Then, it started to disperse again. The power of the explosion, along with the heat and shockwave, made all living things feel in danger. The power was shapeless and massless but contained extremely strong power. Even various Gods were stepping back unconsciously and tried to stay away. Gods, such as the God of Arts and Culture who was originally timid even ran from the holy kingdom, at least two to three small worlds¡¯ distance at a time. No doubt, He was the wisest. Because a few moments after, many oracles were swept off by the shapeless power. They were then shivering and giving out terrifying bellows as their bodies changed. The changes were irregular. Some sped up in aging, some enlarged quickly, some had countless ugly fibroids that grew on them, some were ulcerated all over and full of pus. They screamed and tried to heal themselves using magic. Much powerful healing magic was cast, mainly by those legendary or semi-God experts. Every one of them contained enormous vigor that could recover hundreds or thousands of people. However, it didn¡¯t help with their situation, but on the contrary, increased the speed of their mutation. Under such circumstances, the Master of Mysteries finally took action. He reallocated holy power and transformed it into rain, showering the entire holy kingdom. The holy power wasn¡¯t the power of life but an extremely strong power of order. With a glance, it could be said that the rain was large-scale magic, a ¡°curse removal.¡± But its scale was to an extent that it was so terrifyingly powerful, it could simply be called ¡°The Rain of Order.¡± With such powerful magic, only the great Master of Mysteries Himself could resolve such scary mutations, right? Almost everyone guessed so. But they were disappointed. Under the shower of the rain of order, the mutations that happened on the body of many believers and oracles were suppressed, but it didn¡¯t seem to make them better. The Master of Mysteries took action and that was the only effect He achieved. That made everyone worried. In that instance, the entire holy kingdom was engulfed in the dark clouds of uneasiness. The God of Arts and Culture that originally ran out couldn¡¯t help but run even further. What kind of power was this?! If it was damage, supplementing the power of life should have been able to heal it. If it was a curse, the power of order should have been able to wash it off. The God of Spellcasters extended His hands and seized hold of a human form that had turned into a lump of fibroids. He grabbed the oracle before him and looked at it carefully. After a while, He shook His head in regret. He said, ¡°It looked like a curse, but it is vastly different.¡± ¡°Their body structures have been changed,¡± the God of Order said. ¡°The treatment was useless because the ¡®change¡¯ was not a kind of damage. Curse removal could help those who were further, with only part of their body mutated, to stop reacting. But it wouldn¡¯t make the changes disappear. It wasn¡¯t any negative power as there weren¡¯t any wicked factors; it wasn¡¯t even completely chaotic, there was a certain kind of order within¡­¡± ¡°Your Majesty, what should we do?¡± the God of Spellcasters asked. ¡°Do we counterattack?¡± The Master of Mysteries remained silent for a while and shook His head. ¡°Another attack like the previous one; would you be able to withstand it?¡± The God of Spellcasters shook his head. The holy power-instilled wall surrounding the Rainbow Fountain almost covered all kinds of protection measure He knew about; its toughness was beyond his reach. Even the holy power-instilled wall made by Master of Mysteries couldn¡¯t be effective; even the defense system within the holy kingdom couldn¡¯t succeed in protection. He really didn¡¯t know what other methods could resist such a hit. Maybe¡­ The God of Order, who was above all Gods, would have a way, right? Or maybe¡­. even the God of Order had no way¡­ The Master of Mysteries said, ¡°I have no way to resist either. So, until I figure out a way to resist it, until I can eliminate the effect of the weird power, I will not launch an attack again.¡± On its colorful face, it showed a hint of exhaustion. ¡°This time, my holy kingdom has received an enormous damage. To mend the damage, it will require a lot of my time and effort. Before completion of the project, no one launch attacks.¡± He turned around and looked far away, looked through a vast distance, at the main dimension. ¡°Maybe¡­ We should consider changing our trail of thought¡­¡± The Rainbow Fountain was attacked, and the holy kingdom was severely damaged. Many believers and oracles were mutated¡­ such news travelled and spread very quickly among the Gods. Many Gods were shocked yet curious. They wondered what measure Void Mask had taken but they failed to figure out in the end. It was uncertain which God it was, but He was strong enough to obtain the scene where the Rainbow Fountain was attacked. That scene was quickly spread among Gods. Simultaneously, there were more than a hundred Gods that activated their minds in order to retrieve any possible information in the deepest part of their memories. They tried to correspond the information with that scene to discover the mystery behind the earth-shattering hit by Void Mask. If they were to master such a powerful skill, they would immediately possess the qualification to be on an equal footing as any other powerful God. Meanwhile, Sui Xiong heard the news from the Steel Lion Morani. ¡°Such terrifying power!¡± Morani complemented, looking at the scene where the sky changed magically. Although He was a kind God, He was also a warrior. Witnessing such powerful strength, He naturally let out an admiration. ¡°That¡¯s scary!¡± Lewre pouted and asked anxiously, ¡°This causes a huge burden to you too, right?¡± Sui Xiong fixed his gaze upon the unclear image and replayed it again and again. In the end, he laughed and shook his head. ¡°Your Majesty, what¡¯s wrong?¡± Wor asked. ¡°I don¡¯t see any mushroom cloud; it seemed a little incomplete,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Mushroom cloud? What is that?¡± Morani asked curiously. ¡°Nothing, I thought I would be able to plant a big mushroom this time¡­¡± Sui Xiong laughed and purposely pretended to be calm. But watching the way he raised his eyebrows and the excitement that he was showing while clapping his tentacles together, one could tell that he was very excited at the moment. He was simply carried away by his success. ¡°Actually, I didn¡¯t pull this off properly.¡± After he wa smug with success, he started to self-criticize. ¡°The control of timing to eliminate the outer layer wasn¡¯t done well. Otherwise, the explosion would have happened right in the middle of Rainbow Fountain. That¡¯s weird! I calculated a suitable time according to the speed, why would it be wrong? It was slightly late¡­ Could it be I got basic division wrong?¡± He shook his head in distress. He pondered and still couldn¡¯t figure out what happened exactly. ¡°If I were to say the time was insufficient, it was actually quite sufficient. When breaking through the holy power-instilled wall and calculating of the size of Rainbow Fountain and core position, I used very little time. Then, I set for the attack to slow down some time after it eliminated the outer layer and before it got to the core location. So that the explosion would have happened right in the middle of the holy kingdom¡­ I remember I kept enough lead! ¡°But¡­ Why would it only explode when it almost dashed out the holy kingdom? ¡°Was it like Bro Sha said, that my math teacher died too early? ¡°That¡¯s not right!¡± Actually, it wasn¡¯t about math. It was a simple speed calculation; of course, Sui Xiong wouldn¡¯t be wrong. But¡­ his physics were quite bad. He ignored very common knowledge that was used even in science fiction novels¡­ Regrettably, there wasn¡¯t any physician in this world that could reveal such magical sight. His suspicion had to sustain for a very long time. A few days later, the award ceremony that had been delayed was carried out before everyone¡¯s eyes again. Chapter 219 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The five colored lights formed a rainbow, which hung in the sky. Countless spots of light fell from the sky as though they were rain, yet disappeared without a trace upon hitting the ground. Only those who had been stained by it could feel youthfulness and vitality gushing out from the bottom of their hearts, as though they had become younger by quite a few years. Deep singing echoed between heaven and earth. It sounded like praising, yet at the same time chanting. If one were to listen out for it especially, they would be unable to hear anything but the wind. Those who heard the song would feel warm all over, as though they had taken a hot bath in the middle of winter. There was a certain kind of warmth which penetrated their bones. The gentle breeze blew slowly, yet had an unimaginable penetrating power. It blew through clothes, through skin and flesh, even through the body, through the soul. It let people feel like their entire being had been cleansed, whether it was from physical injury or spiritual defilement. All had been purified as though they had returned to the innocence of childhood: physically healthy, spiritually pure and carefree. Experienced magic casters all clicked their tongues in amazement. These were commonly seen as divine favors. But spreading so many different types of them, while keeping their potency so high? Exactly how much divine energy would that have used? The most famous Divine Ritual was the yearly Sun Fiesta held in the Kingdom of Holy Angels. On the noon of the summer solstice, high-ranking members of the Church of the God of Light would initiate grand prayers nationwide, and the great Sun God would rain down his divine favor, bestowing blessings upon the believers. In the central square of the capital city of the Kingdom of Holy Angels, the City of Light, the divine favor was so thick that it was seen in the naked eye as a golden drizzle. It was so misty it appeared to block out the sky. Many people in the audience participated in the Sun Fiesta, personally having experienced the golden rain-like divine favor. They thought that the divine grace in the world had already hit its limit, but did not expect that in the award presentation ceremony of this Peerless Martial Meet, they would actually experience an even more intense blessing. ¡°How wonderful¡­¡± A white-haired old man closed his eyes and felt the blessing permeate his body, murmuring to himself, ¡°I feel like I¡¯m ten again¡­¡± This old man was seated at the VIP table. He was actually an esteemed guest invited by the church of Void Mask. Indeed, all who knew him were extremely respectful, as he was the previous king of the Kingdom of Holy Angels. His Majesty Nilo Sang had only recently abdicated his position. His Majesty Nilo was already 67 years old that year. He had experienced many Sun Fiestas and received countless divine blessings. However, even he had never felt such a wonderful blessing. Of the blessings that the God of Light had bestowed, there were many that had been stronger. But their effects were mostly singular, and not as abundant and comprehensive as this. For this old man, who already had one foot in the grave, it was a truly worthwhile trip to return to his childhood and experience his youth once more, even if it was only for a while! ¡°Our Majesty is a very kind God. These blessings were actually spread by a few Gods together.¡± Light surged around his body, transforming into the image of the God of Knowledge, Wor. Curiously, the guards by his side remained unaware of what was happening. Nilo turned his head, looking at the man who was the most wanted in the Holy Kingdom of Angels ever since he had been a child, and could not resist laughing. ¡°Disseminator of knowledge, I am very glad to see you in such a situation,¡± he said neither humbly nor haughtily. ¡°For you to be calm enough to talk to me, it is both my honor as well as the joy of the entire country.¡± Wor also smiled. Ever since he lost his Godhood, he had let go of any grudge he had with the Kingdom of Holy Angels. The only thing he could not let go of was the chance to take revenge on the sun God. It was just revenge; he had no intention of killing the sun God. He finally realized those he needed to hate, those who were his true enemies, had already died under his blade long ago or perished over the course of time. To him, ¡°revenge¡± was just a human remnant. He would not immediately quell such an idea, but he also would not be heavily influenced by such a small thought. For example, Nilo Sang was the nephew of the then Duke of Holy Fire, so strictly speaking he was Wor¡¯s enemy. However, back when Wor cleaved the Duke of Holy Fire and smashed his way out of the capital, Nilo was still only a young child. ¡°Time flies.¡± He looked at the old king before his eyes that had gradually succumbed to old age and sighed. ¡°Even you have become old.¡± ¡°Yes. For the great immortal, us mortals are akin to the dead leaves on treetops. Even if we appear to be an eyesore, after taking a nap or having a meal, we have already fallen from the tree, having been crushed into the soil,¡± Nilo Sang sighed. ¡°Disseminator of Knowledge, if you have an interest in returning to your hometown, the descendants of the sun would gladly give you a grand welcome.¡± Wor¡¯s eyes flashed for a moment, remembering the hometown buried deep in his memories, remembering his childhood and adolescence. ¡°Perhaps¡­¡± He did not give a direct answer, but just lightly sighed. Maybe once the last grudge was resolved, he really would go back to his hometown to have a look around, to see how many traces of the scenery in his memory still remained. Just when this man and God were talking, upon the huge platform, the prize presentation ceremony had officially begun. The man in charge of the award was a lionman in armor. His head of golden blonde hair was as bright as the sun, and his heroic face did not show a hint of ferocity, but rather a majesty that one could not help but admire. It was as though he was a born king, destined to live above everyone else. On the other hand, the director of the awards ceremony was a handsome young man in a loose robe and long black hair so soft that women envied him beyond belief. He did not carry any weapons or armor, and only had a flute made of bamboo on his waist. Although it was plain and unorthodox, there was a natural sense of dignity, which prevented him from looking as though he was poorly dressed. The prizes that had not yet been awarded were all placed upon a suspended turquoise platform, which was round and had many thin silk ribbons hanging off it: a rather strange appearance. Yet everyone who looked at it did not find it queer but instead felt it affable and warm. ¡°Are you not going on stage?¡± Nilo Sang watched the few who were on stage, unable to hold in his laughter. ¡°It¡¯s fine. As long as Your Majesty is happy, I will not be joining in the fun.¡± Wor smiled as he shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll be content just watching from below the stage.¡± There were others who were satisfied with not going up on stage. One of them was a tall and bulky man dressed like a beggar, who was made to wear a presentable gown by a bearman reeking of alcohol dressed in neat robes. He muttered, ¡°You¡¯re so old already and yet still so formal with me. I won¡¯t bother about this with you.¡± Beside them were two guys, one bald man who was tall and skinny yet somehow had short arms and legs, the other a fat man with a big grin and a long, drooping mustache. Both of them were guffawing dumbly, the cause of what was making them laugh unknown. Farther away, there were several figures observing everything that was happening. ¡°Do you feel it? The movement of the origin force¡­¡± ¡°I felt it. The position for a God of ¡°Martial Competition¡± is about to be formed!¡± ¡°Are you sure you still want to make a move? That huge jellyfish has some formidable strength!¡± ¡°There are some matters which absolutely have to be fought for!¡± In the more distant gloom, a figure wrapped in black robes was whispering to a group of fellows of strange shapes and sizes. Their language was strange and gave off a sense of unease. A mortal would be poisoned to death upon hearing just one or two words. Even a powerful angel would be polluted and tainted, falling to become an evil and twisted monster upon hearing just a few sentences. They were quietly, patiently waiting for the scheduled opportunity. The first prize to be given out was to the third runner-up, and Soocher Magnus stepped on to the stage following the cues of the emcee. With a wave of his hand, the emcee broadcasted highlights of her fight to the entire audience before introducing to everyone this female knight who hailed from the country of Thunder and Lightning, praising her integrity and valor. Amidst the applause of the audience, Soocher received her award from the hands of the Lion man. A golden card with a number on it: this was a special exchange card for Void Mask¡¯s amusement park. It could be exchanged for the corresponding amount of money. There was a pendant so exquisite the magical light twinkling off it was almost blinding, and a bronze medal shining with the same magical light. There was not much to be said about the money, but the medal was magically reinforced. It had the property of never wearing out and even had the ability to heal medium injuries once a day. It was said to be a very practical magical item. Of the prizes, the most valuable was still the pendant. It not only had the ability to increase the wearer¡¯s constitution but kept the wearer¡¯s power calm. Still, it would not remove the hot-bloodedness necessary for heroic feats. For Soocher who was always troubled by her power surges and sometimes unable to suppress the elemental explosions that occurred as a result, it was the treasure she had been bitterly searching for. As the three items were imbued with magic that explained how to use them. Soocher was overjoyed to fully understand their uses the moment she received them. She hurriedly put on the pendant and felt that the spiritual energy that was always suppressed by her armor had calmed down for the first time. She was almost sobbing with joy. After putting on the pendant, she eagerly took off her helmet, revealing her clear face, which had always been hidden, to the public. Due to the lack of sunlight, she looked a little pale, but the excited smile on her face added a lot of beauty to her otherwise normal looks. Chapter 220 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The prize for first runner-up was also three items: a converter card with more cash, a silver medal, and a long black arrows. ¡°You gave us a difficult question!¡± the human-lion laughed at Lewre Spoolin who had entered the legendary realm. ¡°You just broke through like that, in the order. The prize that we prepared earlier was not suitable, so we could only make a new one last minute.¡± He chuckled and said, ¡°Luckily, it was delayed for a few days. Otherwise, we wouldn¡¯t have had enough time to make it!¡± Lewre smiled and bowed deeply. At such a close distance, he could clearly feel that the few ¡°staff¡± on the stage possessed great power, and naturally guessed their identities. To him, a few Gods worked through the night to make him a treasure. The sincerity itself was the best gift, even more precious compared to the holy arrows that had effects of tracing and long distance, and were able to break through magic fields. When he took the prizes, he waved to the audience and walked to the side of the stage. It was finally time for the champion. ¡°The very first martial arts contest champion is-¡± Lewre, the boy of celebration that transformed into emcee paused and glanced through the entire stadium, at every audience and staff member. He finally fell to the one who was waiting with his chin up and chest out and had ¡°I am in a hurry¡± written in his face: Alan. ¡°From Storm Sea, Alan Apollo Kasadier!¡± Alan laughed hysterically and ran onto the stage. He looked vastly different from the two award winners earlier that were steady. His age was ridiculously old to a commoner, but to a giant dragon, he was only a young lad. It was perfectly normal for him to be a little unstable. Luckily, at least when he was in battle, he was quite steady. He first looked carefully at the young emcee and his eyes widened; then, he looked carefully at the one who was giving him the award and his eyes widened again. Finally, he laid his eyes on the ¡°platter¡± that was floating next to him. His eyes were as big as duck eggs. ¡°This¡­ This is¡­¡± ¡°Shh¡­¡± the emcee smiled and winked at him. Alan immediately understood and stood straight. His body was even a little stiff. ¡°No need to be so tense; relax, just relax.¡± Sui Xiong, who was pretending to be a platter, laughed. ¡°You are the spotlight today. Show some spotlight spirit! Unless you plan to tell this story to your children after few hundred or a thousand years like ¡®back then, me, your dad, came across a few Gods and I was scared stiff.¡¯ I think it¡¯s better to boast, ¡®all of you are too young, so inexperienced. Back then, I used to talk and laugh cheerfully with Gods!¡¯ Ain¡¯t it better¡­¡± Alan couldn¡¯t help but laugh. His original tension had eased. His prize was a three-item set too. A cash converter card that contained an amount that shocked him so much he smiled to himself; a gold medal that would never wear and tear but could be used for casting spells daily; and a soft black innerwear. The black inner wear had two functions. The first was that it changed its form freely. Even if he turned into a giant dragon, it would become a cloud of black gas that lined his body, so definitely no concern about tearing. The second was to nullify any magic or ceremony that could ¡°slaughter a dragon,¡± including those famous ¡°dragon slaughtering swords,¡±¡±dragon slaughtering guns,¡± and that sort. To a giant dragon, there was nothing better than this defense equipment! Alan carried his prizes and couldn¡¯t stop laughing. If he didn¡¯t remember that it was a solemn holy ceremony, he would¡¯ve taken off his clothes to put on the innerwear, and never ever take it off in his life! After the award ceremony ended, the blonde human-lion wanted to give a few words, but he suddenly stopped and looked at the sky. In the sky, there was a magical light that was slowly condensing and turning into a colorful crystal. At the same time, the root of the world was surging. Every God that possessed battle-like league felt the magical change. ¡°This is¡­¡± ¡°A new clergy! There is a new clergy in the battle league!¡± ¡°The battle clergy was dissected?¡± ¡°Not really¡­ but quite a big piece broke off!¡± ¡°What clergy?¡± ¡°Martial arts¡­ It¡¯s the martial arts contest!¡± In that instance, many Gods directed their gaze at the crystal that was slowly descending. In a flash of light, thick furry arms extended from the sky and tried to grab the crystal. It was the God that was in charge of war in the Orc God system, the creator and guardian of bearmen, the violence of an Orc and the God of war, ¡°Violent War Bear¡± Faber. As a god with weak power, He desired to receive more clergy and more power, so that He could fight for the level of intermediate godly power. The moment when He saw a new clergy, although He knew rationally that it wouldn¡¯t work, His violent and brutal character couldn¡¯t suppress his greed and excitement. He couldn¡¯t help but come forward to grab it. However, the thick bear claw scratched at the location of crystal a couple of times, but couldn¡¯t get anything. Clergy was a form of display where a power source surged; it itself wasn¡¯t any solid substance. So, how could He reach for it? Faber roared and urged his godly power to lock that space up forcibly. He felt that maybe He would be able to hold the newborn clergy of ¡°martial arts contest¡± captive and take it away. It was uncertain if whatever he was doing would work, but He already triggered Morani. Morani had been waiting for the clergy to form. Once He obtained the clergy, He would quickly break through the weak godly power level and level up to intermediate power. The entire God system could be strengthened much more, and the most crucial part was that it could then possess a complete system and not a small, poorly-equipped group anymore. The minimum requirement to construct a God system was to have intermediate godly power. All the while, instead of saying it was a system, it should have been called an association where weak Gods stuck together to warm each other. They didn¡¯t even realize the supply of godly power coming from each other. If it wasn¡¯t so, why would ¡°rich and fertile roamer¡± and ¡°swamp roamer¡± still remain at the doorstep of entering God realm? Even if Morani helped to support them financially with his own pocket, He would¡¯ve dragged the two old friends along! Once He had gotten the martial arts contest clergy, once He leveled up into intermediate godly power, He would not be made fun as a ¡°Pretend God.¡± He would be able to truly carry the name of God! Not to mention He could use the martial arts contest clergy as His core clergy, and make some minor adjustments with his clergy and league in order to enhance His strength, to provide space for development so that his future was vaster! So, He was determined to win it! Watching Faber trying to lock up the space, Morani couldn¡¯t hold back anymore. He bellowed, and the warriors that had been waiting nearby stood up and leapt. They became shadows, like mountains that soared up the sky and grabbed Faber¡¯s shoulders. ¡°Old bear! Do you really want to fight with me?¡± He roared in anger. Faber hesitated. As a member of the Orc God system, He and Morani were considered on friendly terms, so he knew how patient the ¡°Steel Lion¡± was. Even though the two of them were of weak godly power, if they really started a fight¡ªand even if His two close weak godly power friends were to join forces and fight against Morani¡ªthey might not win against Him. He hesitated. Fear of Morani suppressed His greed and He finally let out a heavy sigh. ¡°Steel Lion, you owe me drinks!¡± The thick bear claw was retrieved and he left. Morani smiled and nodded, ¡°Good ones, as many as you want!¡± In the Thousands Temple, ¡°Steel Lion¡± who hardly spoke stood up. He looked around and said loudly, ¡°Everyone! The ¡®martial arts contest¡¯ clergy is bestowed upon me by the world. Whoever wants to fight for it, can also organize a martial arts contest! Whoever wants to grab for it now is trying to go against me!¡± He said so, but his attention fell upon few seats. The God of War, the God of Battle, the God of Conspiracy, and every God that was in charge of war in every God system. Clergy was not something that could be taken randomly; only when one¡¯s ideal and capability was compatible with it would He be able to receive it. Although there were many Gods in the Thousands Temple, there were only a few that could possibly fight for this clergy with Him. Among them, the ones that He worried about the most were the God of Battle and the God of War. The former was the direct victim of the formation of the ¡°martial arts contest¡± clergy, the power and function of the clergy derived from ¡°battle.¡± In other words, it was forcibly taking part of the clergy away from the God of Battle. With such a daring action, it would be impossible not to trigger anyone. The latter was the main God of War God system. Theoretically, He could seize control of all action for war and battle, but He didn¡¯t possess any reliable excuse to interfere. However, His strong godly power caused Morani to be worried too. The more troublesome part was that He was the main God of the God of Battle. Dealing with Morani¡¯s declaration, the temple fell instantly silent. But after a while, the God of Battle stood up. ¡°You wanted to take someone¡¯s thing; have you asked the owner?¡± He asked coldly. ¡°You and I serve the world. I did well and I received a grant from the world. That¡¯s it,¡± Morani creased His eyebrows and said. The God of Battle didn¡¯t say anything else but smiled coldly. Outside of the main dimension, a place near the Barbarous God system¡¯s holy kingdom, a cloud of murky aura dispersed as it advanced. There was a huge dragon-headed warship that was floating along. On the top of the battle whip, there was someone in full armor holding onto a long spear. It was the God of War. He waved the long spear and pointed at the holy kingdom of Barbarous God system. He quietly gave out the order to launch an attack. A huge battleship, that was much bigger compared to a huge mountain in the main dimension, immediately started advancing. The giant at the bow was hitting the war drum and dashing towards the holy kingdom of the Barbarous God system in full speed. The God of Battle disliked verbal arguments; He only knew how to speak with weapons! Chapter 221 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The giant dragon warship looked like the signature of the Viking pirates on earth. It had a raised bow and a fierce black dragon carved on it. The hull was not very stylish, but its length was shocking. It was like a huge poisonous snake with its head raised, poised in a threatening and offensive position. There were no sails on the ship, but numerous long oars protruded from beneath the sides of the ship, moving swiftly as though they were centipede feet. Nobody knew if it was this rowing power that allowed them to fly through the magical turbulence present in the void. This was the God of Battle¡¯s proudest artifact. It was both a huge fortress as well as a peerless weapon. In the years that passed, it had ferried the God of battle to war countless times, killing countless enemies, clinching many achievements in battles for the war Gods, and winning prestige for them! Today, its dragon head was pointed towards the Gods of desolation. The warship was very fast. In the blink of an eye, it reached the Holy Kingdom of the Gods of desolation. Only after seeing it was about to make an impact did the Gods of desolation respond, roaring angrily and rushing back towards the Holy Kingdom. The Holy Kingdom was everything to a God. It was where they stored up divine power, settled down believers, and cultivated oracles. Once a Holy Kingdom was destroyed, not only would the long-stored divine power of the Gods be destroyed; the entire cohesion and morale of the church would receive a lethal blow. Without the Holy Kingdom, there would be no oracles or Holy Spirit. That God would be reduced to having to rely upon the divine power stored up within his own avatars to fight, without the support of any subordinates or the ability to revive after death. If one reached this point it meant they were at the end of their rope. Whether it was out of sentiment or benefit, there was no way that the Gods of desolation would allow the God of Battle to destroy their Holy Kingdom! The fastest reactions were from subordinates of the Gods of desolation, the Orc-like Gods of Warrior and Drinking, and the Silent Knights, created by the Monochrome Bearman as guards. They were the closest. He who always squinted his eyes as though drunk, the stench of alcohol reeking off his body, suddenly snapped open his eyes wide. There was not a sign of drunkenness to be seen! He let out a roar, and his body became taller than the highest mountain in an instant. Knife-like claws popped out of his thick black arms, furiously slapping towards the warship. Although he was used to fighting with the knife at his waist, his semi-divine blade was useless against a weapon as enormous as the warship. It was far more reliable to use his body, which had been tempered through hardships! The giant bear man¡¯s iron palm slapped down against the tall dragon figure of the warship. It looked as though the dragon would be slapped aside, or even broken. But just as his bear paw was about to hit it, that black dragon head, which seemed to be a decoration, suddenly came alive. The dragon head was a little smaller than the bear¡¯s paw, but the instant it came alive it suddenly grew in size. It stretched out its neck and opened its bloody maw wide to bite down on the extended right palm of the bear man. The Silent Knight¡¯s tempered body was incomparably sturdy. He was still a battle God after all, with experience as a warrior. After he was raised to the rank of God, his body became stronger than steel. Yet under the teeth of this black dragon head, his iron palm felt as though it had become flesh once more. He was injured with a single bite and even had a large chunk of flesh ripped off, fresh blood gushing. ¡°Ouch!¡± The giant bearman let out a tragic cry, but before he could react a battle God who had been standing on the front deck of the ship jumped out, piercing forwards with his spear. His body was not intentionally enlarged. Compared to the silent warrior who had become a giant bear, he was like a knee-high dwarf. At first glance, the spear in his hands looked like a toy as large as a chopstick. But after he thrust it forth, the front end of the spear grew thicker and longer. By the time it reached the Silent Knight, it had become thicker than his arm, and so monstrously long that it could skewer the giant bear for a barbeque. If this spear hit him, the Silent Knight would definitely become a silent barbeque! At this moment, a giant shield came in from the side, deflecting the spear far away. An armor-clad Morani had arrived, his left hand holding the shield, his right hand holding a war axe, looking powerful and mighty. He did not become very huge. But with a wave of his war axe, razor-sharp blades of light burst forth, slicing apart everything in front of him. They revealed the edge of this weapon. After using his shield to deflect the God of War¡¯s spear, he did not waste time with small talk. He immediately started hacking away at the warship with his war axe. Once again, the black dragon head came alive, trying to go around the axe to bite Morani¡¯s arm. However, Morani displayed exquisite martial finesse, twisting the axe to chop the dragon head. With a muffled sound, the black dragon head that bit off a huge chunk of the Silent Knight was smashed to smithereens. But it was the divine power attached to it that was broken. It once more became a block of wood; this time it was a wooden block that cleaved into two halves. The God of War did not move just because his ship had been damaged. His face was concealed under his helmet, so no one would have been able to see if his expression changed. But he brandished his spear towards Morani. Neither of them was loud-mouthed. What needed to be said had already been said earlier at the Pantheon Temple. As the saying goes, the end of the world lies at the end of the road; at the end of words is the sword. After saying all that had to be said, they let their weapons do the talking. The God of War¡¯s body was slightly thinner than the Steel Lion¡¯s, but he was still robust. His spear was not the type designed to collide head-on in large-scale battles. It was a flexible and tough weapon suited for adventurers. This corresponded with his domain, where he was responsible for many small skirmishes, battles in which tens of people fought. In such battles, a spear with flexibility could display more tricks and be more suited to fully displaying the martial arts of the warrior. One could only see his shadow in the void, his spear dancing non-stop, flying up and down. He was like a viper constantly circling around Morani and attacking. His spear was as fast as lightning. His footsteps left behind afterimages. It was clearly a fierce battle, yet one where onlookers could only sigh deeply at the beauty of the fight. Morani¡¯s martial arts were much simpler in comparison. He was an Orc soldier of ordinary origin who became a God through various circumstances and gained great strength. But his martial arts were the same old set. The shield on his left hand moved unhurriedly, blocking 70 to 80 percent of the spear¡¯s attacks while he looked for opportunities to strike with the axe in his right hand. Occasionally he struck towards the long spear. Other times he would suddenly charge forward, hacking towards the God of War. Of their martial arts, one was agile and had many forms; the other was steady and rigid. It was impossible to determine the winner in a short amount of time, and thus, a huge battle began on the outskirts of the Holy Kingdom of the Gods of desolation. At this moment, the dragon head warship had once more begun to charge the Holy Kingdom of the Gods of desolation. The right arm of the silent knight had become swollen. It was clear that the black dragon head harbored some fearful venom, injuring him heavily in an instant. Yet he had no intention of retreating and only shrank his body slightly. He actually drew his sabre, intending on continuing the fight left-handed. The Silent Knight was originally a wandering half-Orc, his blade quick and swift. He belonged to the adventurer group just like the God of War, and attacking head-on was not his forte. The God of War had tied down Morani, who was in charge of being the vanguard. Now he could only brace himself and summon up his courage. As for the bear swordsman who had experienced countless battles with his body, wielding a blade with his left hand was not particularly inconvenient. It was just that his sabre was less powerful than the dragon head warship of the God of War. If it weren¡¯t for Morani cleaving it with his axe and weakening it, his semi-divine weapon would have been unable to put up a fight. It was fortunate that the master of the warship had left and there was no one currently in charge. As a result, the fighting ability of the warship had dropped. Still, the Silent Knight was only barely able to stand up to it. But anyone looking at his right arm swollen with fluid would have known that he was not fit for battle, and urgently required rest and treatment. ¡°Roar!¡± There was another loud roar, and a clay-yellow figure shot out from the Holy Kingdom of the Gods of desolation, heading straight towards the dragon head warship. The figure looked like a frighteningly gigantic snake, but on closer inspection, it was actually a really huge earthworm. This was one of the subordinate Gods of the Gods of desolation, named Jogan, ¡°The Abundant Wanderer.¡± This earthworm was not very intelligent and did not have many believers. Coupled with the fact that it had no desire to improve, its abilities remained the same as when it had just set foot in the realm of the Gods. One couldn¡¯t even call it a weak divine power. As for its combat prowess, how much ability could an earthworm have? All it could rely on was its large body and brute strength. Just like an uncultured brute, it could only charge and trample wildly. Nothing was absolute. This style of fighting actually restrained the dragon head warship. The earthworm naturally had unparalleled vitality. The ¡°earth dragon¡± from the abyss was pretty much immortal, being able to revive itself after being cut up into pieces. Jogan was no worse; it used its huge body to ram against the warship. Although it would be wounded heavily each time, its wounds would heal fully after each injury, so it could care less. With support from his partner, the Silent Knight could finally retreat to the rear lines temporarily to focus on healing. He tried to use divine power to dispel the venom and found that the efficacy was low. It required a long amount of time before it could fully purge all the venom. Seeing the situation of the battle, the Monochrome Bearman thought briefly and made a decision. He bit down on his scabbard. He raised his sabre with his left hand before cutting down, chopping off his entire right arm in one go! Chapter 222 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The scene where the Silent Knight waved his sword and chopped off his arm was seen by every God that was paying attention to the battlefield. Many Gods were terrified and noted to themselves that they would never fight against the bunch of insane people from the Desolation God system! Although Gods possessed the ability to restore broken limbs, the pain was substantial. Even Gods from the battle league wouldn¡¯t be willing to endure such pain. Many Gods from non-battle leagues grew pale looking at the wretched sight. The Silent Knight Himself couldn¡¯t help but let out tragic roars from His throat. But His job had yet to end. He destroyed the broken arm using godly power in order to prevent it getting into His enemies¡¯ hands and becoming a tool to curse Him. The pain was far worse than when it was broken. He was as pale as a piece of paper; even his dark eye circles grew grey. To a God, even if His body broke apart, He wouldn¡¯t die immediately. That right arm that was chopped off actually maintained clear consciousness. Hence, He felt the damage towards it. Although wouldn¡¯t damage the Silent Knight¡¯s original body, the pain would still be transmitted to Him. In simpler terms, it equalled to Him destroying a part of his body. And, it wasn¡¯t destroyed in an instance, or flattened, or something of that sort, but was gradually demolished from inside out. Such pain was unbearable, even to the bearman who was brave and tough! There were countless beads of cold sweat forming on the face and body of the huge bearman. It almost converged into small rivers and wet His smooth hair completely, as though he were dredged up from the water. Looking at the sight, a God sitting on the third row in the Pantheon Temple couldn¡¯t help but complement. ¡°Such extraordinary courage and endurance! If the Desolation God system lost the battle, I would step in to protect Him!¡± Then, He looked over to the God of War seated in the second row. The God of War creased his eyebrows. With His character, He preferred to eradicate the source of trouble, especially the few Gods that were on friendly terms with the Desolation God system. If He didn¡¯t fully root for them, they would definitely turn into hidden dangers. But¡­ The will of God of Pain was something he couldn¡¯t disrespect. The God of Pain was a strange God. He was the display of all pain in the world. From the viewpoint of His clergy, He should have been considered wicked. However, His religious teachings encouraged people to face pain, endure pain, and grow with the experience of pain. Hence, He influenced His clergy using such beliefs and pushed Himself into the kind camp. Under His command, there was God of Punishment that carried the religious teaching of applying appropriate punishment to lead people back to kindness;¡± the Maiden of Pain that practiced the religious teaching of embracing pain; and the God of Healing that believed in helping people to receive less pain. The three Gods and their eldest were simply carved out from the same mold. They didn¡¯t treat pain as anything. They could always exercise their terrifying power during battle. Even the God of War wouldn¡¯t be willing to have head-on collisions with them. But¡­ He was not willing to just let the bear go! Just when He was deep in his thoughts, the God of Justice smiled coldly. ¡°Hey! Victory and defeat have yet to be called. Are you in hurry to carve up the spoils of war?¡± All the Gods looked towards Him, not understanding what He meant. The situation then was clear. The War God system was really the most fightable one among all God systems. They sent out the God of Battle, and He had checked the battle power of almost half of the Desolation God system. With another few Gods, the Desolation God system would almost be expelled. ¡­That¡¯s not right. That ¡°Desolation God system¡± was a small, poorly equipped group in name only. To describe it on Earth, one would say it was like a shelf company that rented an apartment as an office and prepared to run away any time. What sort of expelling would it be! ¡°You going to interfere?¡± the God of War looked at the God of Justice, unwilling to be outdone. ¡°You could try to see if you can break through my obstruction before the Desolation God system is destroyed.¡± The God of Justice smiled coldly. ¡°I? If you don¡¯t take action, I won¡¯t. Battling at such level? Strong Gods like us shouldn¡¯t get involved.¡± ¡°Oh? Won¡¯t you interfere? Do you think that the Orc Gods will?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t drag me in!¡± the main God of Orc God system Lefron said in distress. ¡°If Steel Lion were to seek refuge from me, I would take Him in and protect Him. But if He can¡¯t barge out from the encirclement, I won¡¯t take any action.¡± The God of War laughed happily. Then, somewhere not far away from the main dimension, the battle at the door of Desolation God system¡¯s holy kingdom was getting more and more ferocious. Morani used all His skills and wanted to defeat that God of Battle as soon as possible so that He could support his allies. But the God of Battle was too skillful. His long spear appeared from nowhere and vanished into nowhere, and every stab contained strong godly power. He had to resist it with all he had. Although he was at the advantage, nobody knew how long it would take to transform this bit of advantage to victory! On the other side, the last God follower, the huge catfish in Desolation God system, finally caught up. The huge catfish shook its head and waved its tail, then whipped the dragon-headed warship with its thick strong tail. Along with Jogan, it blocked the warship off from outside of the holy kingdom. As everyone knew, the scariest power of the warship that belonged to the God of Battle wasn¡¯t charging or clashing; it was connected to His holy kingdom. Once it knocked into the holy kingdom, the oracles and holy spirit of the God of Battle would barge in and flow over like surging tides, through the pathway transformed from the dragon-headed warship. There were some believers and oracles in the holy kingdom of the Desolation God system. Deducting the non-battle members, those who could fight made up roughly three figures. Compared to Sui Xiong¡¯s Void Mask church, it was of course much stronger, but compared to the God of Battle, the henchmen under their control were calculated by tens of thousands; and that was only a conservative estimation¡­ Once the dragon-headed warship barged into the holy kingdom of Desolation God system, what awaited their believers was a one-sided slaughter! Luckily, no matter how amazing the dragon-headed warship it was, it was merely a holy piece of equipment that had no one to control it temporarily. The huge earthworm joined forces with the huge catfish, which could easily block it off. It was unable to take a single step closer. This allowed the Silent Knight that was nursing His injury to relax. He urged His godly power to have his right arm quickly restored while he held onto His sword, and prepared to take on anyone, anytime. Everyone knew that God of Battle was not the only God-follower in War God system. The God of Justice could stop even the strong main God, the God of War. If any other God-followers dashed over it would be very troublesome. There is a great saying: What you are afraid of will come along. After a while, along with sighs, a knight riding on steed in a full silver armor carrying a heavy long sword, appeared in the air not far away. ¡°I really don¡¯t want to fight in a war,¡± He mumbled to himself, but rushed his warhorse to dash over. He even shouted on his way over, ¡°I am the commander of the God of War Strategy, who wants to fight with me!¡± The Silent Knight looked at his right arm that had yet to recover, sighed, and greeted Him holding on to the sword with His left hand. The commander of the God of War Strategy was well known for His ¡°lack of drive.¡± Although He had outstanding ability, He didn¡¯t like war. Even when he participated in war, he would rather hide at the back to give commands than go to the front line personally. But, no one ever felt that He was weak or incapable. Whoever thought so was given lessons brutally. Although the driverless knight was not as brave and experienced as the God of Battle, it was the third expert in the War God system, even more courageous and better at war than the ¡°crazy warrior and the God of Rage!¡± But¡­ The fact that He could come forward personally meant that the launched attack by the God of Battle wasn¡¯t an individual action, but the decision of the entire War God system! The Silent Knight was worried. He waved his sword in the air and fought with Augmentin who leapt off from his warhorse, unwilling to take advantage on His ride. Due to his injury, he was obviously at the disadvantage. Regardless, he could still manage. The main factor would probably be that Augmentin really had no willpower. He was simply there to muddle through His work. Hence, it allowed the Silent Knight who was weaker to withstand His attack. But, other God-followers in the War God system continuously appeared. For example, the Goddess of War and Death appeared riding on a poisonous dragon that spurted fire. The Goddess was passionate in causing tragic deaths and injuries for both parties because She believed that only tragic deaths displayed the greatness and brutality of war. The God of Crazy Warriors and Rage, who was naked, would definitely have been arrested by the police if he was put on Earth. That man carried an axe that was bigger than his body. He wore a contorted smile. To Him who enjoyed battle and slaughter, He was happiest when fighting! God of Hunt and Slaughter carried a long arrow and short spear and wore leather armor. The old man was actually not a regular member of the War God system but an outsider that built His holy kingdom on the border of War God system¡¯s holy kingdom. Their relationship was similar to Desolation God system and Orc God system¡¯s previously. Goddess of Pirates and Plunder steered a huge sailboat in a convenient yet glamorous short skirt. She carried a bayonet at the bow and gave out a hysterical laugh, like the classic three syllabi Queen. She was also an outsider of the War God system and was on bad terms with the God of Sea War. Hence, when She saw a chance to win, She came back shamelessly. As for the regular members of War God system, God of Sea War in sailor costume carried two short aces and sat on a great three-tiered warship to hurry over. There were countless sailors that were bustling back and forth, cannons were slowly spun and aimed. They prepared to launch thousands of bombs simultaneously so that it would turn various Gods in the Desolation God system into fireworks. ¡°It seems like I am going to die today¡­¡± On the ground in the battle ring, Morani left his message and sighed. He fixed his gaze upon the clergy crystal that was gradually descending and let out a heavy breath. Chapter 223 The war Gods were not a particularly big group, and compared to human or Orc Gods, their numbers could be said to be rather low. However, their quality was high. In this series of Gods, even if it was just the archetype of ¡°cruel hunter¡± or ¡°pirate queen,¡± they were brave and battle-hardened. Almost every God there had the ability to go toe to toe with another God one level higher in strength. They were truly a combat-ready group. In comparison, among the Gods of desolation, the ¡°Steel Lion¡± and the ¡°Silent Knight¡± both had the ability to fight enemies one rank higher. However, the giant earthworm and catfish were not able to do that. They were two savages who didn¡¯t know how to fight at all. Honestly speaking, the Gods of desolation were not weak in battle. The lead God Morani was capable of a confrontation with anyone, as long as they were not of powerful divine rank. The subordinate God, Ink, was able to defeat weaker Gods; and if the giant earthworm and catfish joined hands, defeating a single weaker God was not a problem. All in all, this system had the ability to defeat at least two weaker Gods and one mid-ranked God. This calculated amount was based on the assumption that they could absolutely win. If they just wanted to severely wound the enemy, or make it so they would have to pay a heavy cost to defeat them, the number of Gods they could fight would be doubled at the bare minimum. Two mid-ranked powers, and four weaker powers: most divine systems had similar familial structures. Even if the family was bigger by a bit, there was no way to guarantee that they would not lose a few of their own to the Gods of desolation in the coming battle. If Morani were to ignore his pride and take action against the faint divinities that existed in most systems, none of them would be able to survive more three moves. Most Gods generally had the God of Justice acting on their behalf, to prevent divine kings with strong power from taking action. The remaining Gods, who were mid-ranked and below, naturally were not willing to use their lives to fight with the Gods of desolation. Even if there were great rewards, what use would it be if they died? However, the Gods of war were true blue fighters. Challenging themselves to fight opponents stronger than themselves was not uncommon. The advantage the Gods of desolation had was lost. When quality was not the decisive factor, quantity would be. In terms of quantity, the Gods of war definitely had the numerical advantage¡­ ¡°I knew from the very beginning¡­¡± Morani gazed at the divine crystal that was slowly falling, laughing bitterly. ¡°The moment the God of Battle showed up, I knew it would result in such an ending.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not shameful to admit defeat,¡± Javier advised. ¡°If we can¡¯t win, then let¡¯s just surrender. It¡¯s just a divine position, and we haven¡¯t even gotten our hands on it. Even if it is ours, if we¡¯re forced to give it up we can only do so!¡± Morani turned to look at him. The handsome young man¡¯s face was filled with seriousness. He was truly asking him to surrender. He shook his head, smiled bitterly, and let out a deep sigh. ¡°Yes, people without strength are unworthy of having treasures,¡± He grinned bitterly. ¡°Whether it¡¯s yours or not depends not on how you obtain it, but whether or not you have the strength to defend it.¡± ¡°But¡­ I always thought I had the power¡­ ¡± He hung his head. His golden mane seemed to have become a bit dull. Morani was not a weakling. With his strength, he would be warmly welcomed no matter which divine system he went to. The reason the Gods of desolation could maintain autonomy with the Orc Gods was mainly due to his enormous strength. One to one, none of the Gods of war could defeat him except the God of Battle. However, it was not enough to rely solely on his strength to defend the Holy Kingdom of the Gods of Desolation. Of course, he could abandon his country and companions, running away with the new divinity. With his ability, even if the Gods of war turned out in full force, they might not be able to catch him. Or he could find another group of Gods to back him up, making enemies with the Gods of war. For example, the relationship between the Orc Gods and the Gods of war was not very harmonious. He only needed to go over, and the ¡°Giant Sky Devouring Dog¡± Lefon would very likely lead the Orc Gods in a head-on clash against the Gods of war. Perhaps that was what the leader of the Orc Gods was thinking. He was actually waiting for Morani to retreat under pressure, before extending a helping hand to the Steel Lion who would run away in a hurry. Which was why all the Orc Gods bided their time, not coming to the aid of the Gods of desolation with whom they had a good relationship with. However, Morani did not intend to do so. After sighing, he made his decision. ¡°I am a warrior.¡± He once more lifted his head up, looking towards the sky, his countenance calm and determined. ¡°I think that I won¡¯t let what should belong to me be snatched away by others!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be silly,¡± Javier said. ¡°I¡¯ve been doing this all along. This is my belief, I will not waver! Even if it¡¯s a single needle or a grain of rice, if it¡¯s mine, other people are not allowed to take it!¡± Morani¡¯s eyes gradually lit up with a fierce burning light. ¡°Who dares to covet my things? I will cut off his hand!¡± ¡°Hey, are you confused?¡± Morani turned towards Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman. ¡°I have a few favors to ask. Is that ok?¡± ¡°Speak,¡± The God of Justice frowned, speaking gravely. ¡°This giant earthworm, Goddess Gaia, and the Goddess of Bumper Harvest have always considered bringing him over to their side. Honestly, I feel that sending him over to Goddess Gaia would be rather suitable; let¡¯s not talk about the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, she¡¯s too petty,¡± Morani said. ¡°As for the big catfish, he can go along as well. Anyway, they always act together. It¡¯s good to have a companion.¡± They did not answer, quietly waiting for him to finish. ¡°This kid Ah Mo is a bit lazy, but he actually has some potential. I originally wanted to recommend him to the Orc Gods but felt that he would not mix well with the atmosphere over there. Leaving him there would only be his loss. Oscar, how do you feel about having him follow you in the future?¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while. Then he asked, ¡°Can I take this as you entrusting him to me?¡± ¡°Entrust?¡± ¡°Before an old king dies, he will entrust a trusted minister to take care of the young child, to protect him before he grows enough to be able to support the country. It is a very honorable but also dangerous job.¡± ¡°¡­This is not a bad phrase, I like it.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t like it!¡± Sui Xiong coldly said. ¡°You¡¯re not dead yet!¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a preparation in case anything happens,¡± Morani calmly said. ¡°I¡¯ve decided more than once to defend my beliefs with my life. Although I¡¯ve always won in the past, there¡¯s a greater probability of losing this time. I definitely hope to win but it¡¯s always good to make preparations in the event that I lose.¡± ¡°As if it¡¯s so easy to die!¡± the God of Justice harrumphed, waving his hands towards the sky. A light so bright the sun paled in comparison shot out of his hands, leaving the main plane in the blink of an eye. It turned into a ferocious tiger, heading towards the nearest Goddess of War and Death, about to bite her. A golden light suddenly appeared, and an old man in shabby armor stood in front of the tiger, stopping it. ¡°Yorgaardman, you shouldn¡¯t interfere.¡± The old man was the incarnation of the God of War. He originally only intended on watching nearby but appeared to intervene upon seeing the God of Justice take action. ¡°Falt Hai Wen, you can¡¯t stop me!¡± The tiger rolled fiercely on the spot, turning into the God of Justice wielding a big axe, coldly looking at the old man. ¡°You should be wary that I¡¯d destroy this incarnation of yours!¡± ¡°I really am not a match for you,¡± The old man smiled confidently, ¡°but what if we add in others?¡± Light and shadow flashed and a cloud of darkness emerged around him, shielding him in a whole body of black armor as though he were a tall figure cast in iron. This was the ¡°Black Tyrant,¡± also called the God of Fear. He was also a powerful force, but unlike the God of War, he had no followers. He was an independent dangerous person. Despite some differences, he was similar to the God of War. Yorgaardman¡¯s eyes slowly narrowed. In a one-on-two fight, he was confident that he would not lose, but it was impossible to break through the two mighty divine powers to rescue the Gods of desolation. ¡°Maybe you can defeat the two of us, but how long would that take?¡± the God of war laughed. ¡°One month? A year? By then, it would have been long over!¡± As they spoke, the Gods of war encircled the Gods of desolation and began to approach without haste or delay. They were prepared to win the victory in the most secure way. A complete and thorough victory! Faced with such a situation, Morani shouted angrily, throwing off the Gods of war who were trying to encircle him, and rushed to his companions. With a wave of his shield, the commander and strategist Augmentin was sent flying. Although he saw the Steel Lion approaching and had made preparations, it was no use in the face of Morani¡¯s overwhelming power. As soon as Morani struck Augmentin flying, he rushed with Mo to the side of the giant earthworm and catfish duo. At this time the God of war had already taken back his warship, leaping onto the bow. Restored with his divine power, he watched them coldly. ¡°It¡¯s not too late for you to surrender,¡± He said. ¡°Steel Lion, I respect you as a brave man. If you are willing to join us Gods of war, I will personally offer you an apology!¡± ¡°What about my companions?¡± Morani asked. ¡°For a group of Gods, naturally the more the merrier.¡± ¡°Is this your intention, or the intention of your entire group?¡± The God of War smiled, turning to look at a few other Gods. ¡°I have no objection,¡± the one commonly dubbed the God of Strategy, Augmentin, said. ¡°As long as it increases our strength, anything goes,¡± the God of Navy said. The Goddess of War and Death frowned, clearly unwilling to accept, but still nodded begrudgingly. The God of Berserkers had a blank look on his face. He looked around before asking, ¡°So do we still cut them down?¡± ¡°If they don¡¯t surrender,¡± the God of Hunting and Slaughter said with glee, licking the tip of his spear which glistened with poison. ¡°We won¡¯t just cut them down; we¡¯ll loot it all!¡± the Pirate Queen once more laughed, in a mocking royal tone. Clearly, they had discussed this beforehand, playing good cop and bad cop. Faced with this, Morani and Mo looked at each other, breaking into laughter. ¡°Then come!¡± He took up a fighting posture. ¡°We may not be heroes, but at the very least we have backbone!¡± Chapter 224 In the Pantheon Temple, many kind Gods breathed out a heavy sigh. As kind camp Gods were hardly seen in the Orc and half Orc system, the Gods in Desolation God system were favored by the kind Gods. But, if they were to deal with the entire War God system, they wouldn¡¯t be able to help. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest creased her eyebrows and stood up. The ¡°Wanderer of Fertility¡± Jogan was a talent that She wanted to keep for herself. If she didn¡¯t interfere, the huge earthworm would be killed. But the Goddess of Earth was much faster than Her; She already proposed her interference to the God of War. ¡°Keep the earthworm for me, how about that?¡± she asked straightforwardly. ¡°I think he shouldn¡¯t die here.¡± The God of War smiled. ¡°If we can catch him alive, what are you willing to offer in exchange?¡± ¡°Three stone puppets at a God-like level. How about that?¡± The Goddess Gaia deserved to be an old senior. Money carried weight. She straightforwardly offered a huge payment. The God of War raised His eyebrows, didn¡¯t intend to negotiate for more, and agreed. ¡°Then, can I buy over the catfish?¡± the Goddess of Marsh seized the chance to ask. ¡°Although I couldn¡¯t offer such high payment, I could pay in installments.¡± The God of War looked sideways and looked at the God of Justice who looked gloomy. He laughed, ¡°No problem!¡± The God of Pain sighed and said, ¡°Can I redeem the Silent Knight? I don¡¯t wish to see such talent die here.¡± ¡°Haha! Of course!¡± The God of Orc hesitated and used a voice that only they could hear to tell the God of War something in secret. The God of War laughed hysterically, and His entire body was quivering with laughter. The seat below Him almost shook off. Phew- A huge axe was slammed down at him. The God of War laughed, and the axe vanished into thin air before it could touch Him. The God of Justice was stomping His feet in anger and showering vulgarity at Him like a gangster on the street. That made many Gods that cared about manners crease their eyebrows, but also made many Gods that were bullied before smug. Get a taste of your own medicine! The Gods in the Pantheon Temple were only communication clones that had ability limitations at the end of the day. No matter how they fought, there couldn¡¯t be much of a scene. The real victories and defeats would only be called outside of the main dimension, at the battle happening in the holy kingdom of the Desolation God system. And the battle looked like it already had the victory and defeat called. On the ground, Javier too let out a heavy sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t have many friends, today I will have one less!¡± he said in distress. Sui Xiong who already had his eyebrows creased earlier suddenly said, ¡°That is hard to say!¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Javier said, stunned. ¡°Would you be able to launch another hit like the explosion in Rainbow Fountain?¡± ¡°¡­ At the moment, no. But I have other methods!¡± Sui Xiong said. He leapt, transformed into light, and soared up into the sky. He suddenly flew into his world that was still covered with a primeval state of chaos. There wasn¡¯t any up, down, left, right. There wasn¡¯t any direction or surface. There wasn¡¯t any ground, water, wind, or fire. Even time and space were in a silent primeval state of chaos. Besides him who mastered the world, even a common God wouldn¡¯t be able to step foot in there. ¡°All the while, I have never thought of how to create a world, such as the City of Art or that sort. Although it¡¯s not bad, I know that I don¡¯t actually want to create such a world. ¡°But now, I have!¡± He looked at the primeval state of chaos that was constantly changing but seemed to never move, and smiled. ¡°I want to create a shelter, a tough fortress that protects these kind people!¡± Then, he extended all his tentacles and stabbed into primeval state of chaos around him. ¡°Firstly, I have to turn the primeval state of chaos into a strong line of defense, into an impenetrable bastion of iron that any wickedness won¡¯t be able to penetrate!¡± Along with his will and declaration, the primeval state of chaos started shaking. There wasn¡¯t anything like the clear rise and the murky sink. Light wasn¡¯t needed. There weren¡¯t mountains or water that appeared like special effects. But boundless chaos was dashing towards the border of the world at lightning speed, and constantly condensed and turned into white light. Warm, firm and indestructible. The border of Sui Xiong¡¯s world was on the holy kingdom of the Desolation God system. His world was having such vigorous change, the Gods from the Desolation God system naturally felt it immediately. They didn¡¯t understand what happened yet but Sui Xiong already told his plan to Morani through a communication clone. Morani¡¯s eyes grew bright and immediately brought the Gods from the Desolation God system back into their holy kingdom. ¡°This is useless!¡± the Silent Knight sighed and said. ¡°The wall of holy kingdom won¡¯t be able to withstand for long.¡± ¡°It will be able to resist for a while, and that is sufficient!¡± Morani laughed. He urged His godly power to slowly move the holy kingdom in the air toward Sui Xiong¡¯s world. Or, it should be said, clashed over directly. The Gods in War God system were shocked by the scene. They were stunned and took action one after another. But this time, their methods were different. For example, the brutal hunter and the pirate queen wanted to barge into the holy kingdom of the Desolation God system to burn, kill and steal. On the other hand, the God of Battle and God of Conspiracy wanted to stop the holy kingdom of the Desolation God system from moving in order to prevent accidents, to allow the cooked duck to flee. But, whatever they did was useless. A holy kingdom, a holy kingdom of a God system¡ªeven though it was smaller, even though it was weaker¡ªhad an almost unbreakable defense wall. As for stopping it, depending on a few intermediate and weak godly powers, it wouldn¡¯t happen. If more time were given, then regardless of the defense wall or stopping the holy kingdom from moving, it wouldn¡¯t be a difficult task. But, did they have enough time? Of course not! The holy kingdom of the Desolation God system and Sui Xiong¡¯s world were almost together. Morani spared no extra time but used all His godly power to push the holy kingdom towards Sui Xiong¡¯s world with the fastest speed possible. The Gods in the War God system had a few dozen seconds to respond. A dozen seconds was really too short! Hence, when the holy kingdom of the Desolation God system embedded into Sui Xiong¡¯s world and vanished into the white light that just appeared, no matter who wanted to barge through the wall to cause damage, or who wanted to stop the holy kingdom from moving, none of them could. Not only that, but the God of Battle, who still wanted to stop it forcibly using the dragon-headed warship, stood in between the holy kingdom of the Desolation God system and Sui Xiong¡¯s world. But He was pushed towards Sui Xiong¡¯s holy kingdom and knocked onto the white screen. It was like an egg smashed on a rock. Regardless of the tough holy weapon or strong Gods, they were all shattered into pieces on the layer of white screen that was unnoticeable. In the Pantheon Temple, the God of Battle let out a tragic groan and His body was twitching vigorously. His original body and His most important holy weapon were destroyed. It was definitely a huge damage for him to bear. The world was gradually turning clear and bright but was still empty. Sui Xiong looked at the unlucky bastard that was shattered along with His ship when the two worlds collided, and he whistled. Tons of damage! He thought. Then he waved his tentacles and made a huge net to collect all broken pieces. He wrapped them up and dragged them back to his own world. ¡°This is a high standard spoil of war. It can¡¯t be wasted.¡± After a while, there was another terrifying groan from the Pantheon Temple. With the assistance of the God of War, the God of Battle resurrected relying on His clone was in the holy kingdom. He could clearly feel His original body¡¯s godly power and divinity be completely destroyed. It was not just pulverized or collapsed; it was as though it was melted or rotten, with no turning back. He let out a tragic howl. His body and His seat turned into shadow and fell back quite a few rows. In that instance, He was degraded from intermediate to weak godly power. If the God of War didn¡¯t now lend a hand in time to transmit Him an enormous amount of godly power, He might not have been able to keep his weak godly power either, declining even more. ¡°What is going on?¡± The Gods were discussing among themselves. They didn¡¯t know how the entire situation had flipped. Outside the main dimension, the Gods from War Gods system launched attacks towards Sui Xiong¡¯s world with anger. Various kinds of energy hit the layer of white screen that looked ordinary, but there wasn¡¯t even a ripple. Inside the world, Sui Xiong looked up and gazed upon the pieces of chaos that were produced from the inner white screen. ¡°This idea is quite reliable¡­¡± he mumbled to himself and laughed. ¡°It seems like I am quite smart!¡± ¡°What did you do exactly?¡± Morani came out from the holy kingdom and saw that scene. He asked this in distress. ¡°This is the holy kingdom I just built. Isn¡¯t it interesting?¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have any other effect but toughness, against all wickedness. ¡°Look at the light screen; it was condensed from the chaos that was all over this world. It possesses strong defense power. This isn¡¯t the most important part. It also turns all kinds of incoming power that I deny into chaos that becomes nutrients to enhance this world.¡± Morani was stunned and looked carefully at the light screen that didn¡¯t look at all attention catching. He looked closely at the attack launched by the Gods from War God system turning into newborn chaos constantly, and couldn¡¯t help but find it magical. Sui Xiong smiled and continued to urge the power to turn the newborn chaos into a part of the light screen. This world is a shelter; of course the stronger the defense power the better! In Pantheon Temple, the God of Justice was laughing hysterically. He wasn¡¯t Morani who didn¡¯t like to boast, who was quiet; Yorgaardman had very few hobbies. Among them all, the most important one was boasting about his victories! He pointed from the God of War, to the God of Battle, to the God of Fear, to the God of Conspiracy, to the Goddess of Marsh, to the Godess Gaia, to the main God of Orc¡­ Those Gods that were discussing sharing their spoils and those who were proud. Then said the line that he learned from Oscar a while back when they were drinking. ¡°You, you, you, and you¡­ I¡¯m not talking about you, I am saying all of you b*stards are all rubbish!¡± Chapter 225 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On the ground, Morani¡¯s messenger incarnation surged with divine power and shook, turning into a strong combat incarnation in the blink of an eye. He no longer had to worry about his enemies, and could safely wait for the divine crystal to fall. Then, he¡¯d claim what was supposed to be his own. After a while, the luminous divine crystal finally fell to the ground. He, who had been waiting for a long time, caught it. The divine crystal quickly absorbed into his body, like water into a sponge. Warm light emanated from his body in a reddish aura. Everyone touched by this aura would feel their body fill with strength. The young felt themselves become stronger. The old felt as though they had been rejuvenated by years. But it wasn¡¯t over yet. After a while, another dim divine crystal formed in the air. ¡°Huh?! This is¡­ the position of Competition?!¡± Sui Xiong looked at the divine crystal which was falling slowly. He immediately felt the power of the law contained within, and asked with surprise, ¡°Has no one obtained this divine duty before?¡± ¡°That seems to be the case¡­¡± Javier pondered for a moment and nodded. ¡°It seems that there has never been such a completely harmless battle before. People have always been injured or killed in battle. Therefore, the concept of fighting for victory without threat to life has never been thought of before.¡± ¡°I have no need for more divine positions,¡± Morani said, taking a few steps back. ¡°This position is wasted on me. Let¡¯s discuss.¡± All the Gods¡¯ eyes fell onto Sui Xiong. Everyone knew that he had contributed the most to the idea of Competition. Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°I have no affiliation with, nor do I identify with, this divine duty. I cannot accept it.¡± Yorgaardman immediately followed suit and shook his head. ¡°Me neither. Martial Competitions, contests: I have no interest in these!¡± ¡°I¡¯m the God of Knowledge!¡± Wor emphasized. ¡°The God of Knowledge! Even if I¡¯m a combatant, I¡¯m the God of Knowledge! Can you imagine me with the duty of Competition?¡± Everyone laughed loudly. Finally, their eyes fell onto Javier. Javier paused for a moment, looking at everyone. After a few seconds of silence, he could not help but let out a sigh, laughing. ¡°Anyone else would fight brutally for an extra divine duty, yet here you guys are¡­¡± He was not unreasonable, expressing his gratitude towards everyone. He made his way to where the divine crystal would land. He stared at it, silently waiting. After a while, it fell into his hands and was absorbed into his body. Again, a ray of light rose from his body, filling the hearts of those around him with a happy and relaxed feeling, as though the tension had eased from their bodies. Even those who were originally in a bad mood became much more comfortable. Then, several Gods who could no longer conceal their identities emerged. They greeted the contestants and the audience and announced the end of the World¡¯s First Martial Championship. ¡°If all goes smoothly, in ten years we will hold the second World Martial Championship,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°I look forward to seeing everyone then, and eagerly await more spectacular competitions! Thank you, everyone! See you in ten years!¡± Hence, the curtains fell on the gathering, though conversations continued to revolve around it. Perhaps it would remain that way for the entire ten years when the second World Martial Championship would supersede conversation. In the light curtain closest to the main plane, the true bodies of Sui Xiong and the Gods with whom he had good relations gathered. ¡°Oscar, it¡¯s such a pity you didn¡¯t become a God!¡± the God of Justice proudly said. ¡°That time, inside the Pantheon temple, it was really¡­ hahaha!¡± He acted out the expression then: lifting his head, looking upon the other disdainfully, pointing in the air: ¡°You, you, you, and you¡­ I¡¯m not talking about you, I¡¯m saying that you guys are all rubbish! This sentence was truly suited to that situation then! Satisfying! Really satisfying!¡± He guffawed, laughing until his entire person was shaking. He was happy to the point where you could stick wings on him, and he would take flight immediately. The ¡°Silent Knight¡± Mo smiled too, taking out a gourd filled with wine and passing it around everyone. It was strange: he clearly only had one gourd, yet no matter how many he passed around, that green gourd still remained in his hands. ¡°Good wine!¡± Javier exclaimed loudly after taking only a mouthful. ¡°Truly good wine!¡± the God of Justice laughed, tilting back his head as though he were drinking water. ¡°At such a time, we should drink to our hearts¡¯ content and sing!¡± He was absolutely right! After a few drinks, Javier sighed softly and said, ¡°Actually, you didn¡¯t have to scold Goddess Gaia just now. Despite the circumstances, they had good intentions to save people.¡± ¡°If they truly wanted to save people, they could have come to lend me a hand!¡± the God of Justice laughed coldly. ¡°That¡¯s not called saving people, that¡¯s called looting the spoils.¡± Javier frowned. Just when he thought of something to say, Morani spoke. ¡°If they wanted to save people, they should have at least come to tell us. They talked about the distribution of profits, totally not caring about our opinions. It¡¯s as though everyone was nothing but a spoil of war!¡± ¡°Yes! Attitude is the most important!¡± Yorgaardman smiled coldly. ¡°Attitude comes first injustice. Then comes action. People cannot guarantee that their actions will bring about a good result. But they should at least work hard in a good direction!¡± Javier was silent for a long time and sighed deeply. ¡°You guys are right.¡± He looked somewhat unhappy, not knowing what he was thinking about. After drinking, everyone went their separate ways. Morani and Javier needed to sleep for a while to familiarize and control their new divine duties, as well as adjust their divine structures. Their divine powers increased considerably, especially Morani, who had stepped into the ranks of a mid-tier God. He needed time to properly fine-tune himself. The God of Justice continued to wander about. He had always believed that justice meant fighting injustice. To fight injustice, one naturally had to discover it first. As such, he travelled the world so that he could perform divine duties as much as possible. The Gods of desolation were working hard to adjust the structure of their holy kingdom in the new world, to get along with Sui Xiong¡¯s vacant world. They had no intention of leaving, and Sui Xiong welcomed this group of friendly guests. Other than a solid outer defense, this world of his had nothing. When the Gods of desolation brought their holy kingdom over they brought life. It was not as quiet; in his previous world, he saw houses so abandoned and dilapidated it was like a ghost town. However, he did not realize the Gods of desolation were discussing a big matter secretly. This matter was important and concerned everyone. As such, the Gods of desolation hesitated. They talked, unable to come to a decision. Wor naturally continued to take charge of the improvement and popularization of stationary. Under Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion, he began construction of a school near Void Mask¡¯s Carnival. It was neither a theological school nor a school for magical knowledge. It most definitely was not a school for aristocrats. It was targeted towards the common people, to teach basic literacy, arithmetic, and knowledge. In this world, the vast majority of civilians were illiterate. He who could recognize his own name was already counted as a man of culture, while you wouldn¡¯t be able to find someone who could read the royal announcements within a 100-mile radius. Forget common folk; even adventurers were illiterate. Why was it that they always needed at least one spellcaster in a party? Because spellcasters knew how to read! Sui Xiong felt that this situation was not beneficial towards societal progress, so he recommended that Wor build and promote schools in order to eradicate illiteracy. Wor felt that this method was a good way of transferring knowledge and happily took up the task. Building a school was not troublesome; getting the people to come to school was the hard part. In this world, people did not have a high income. Many civilians were lucky to be able to save up a single gold coin after an entire year of labor. Spending time and effort to go to school was a luxury for them. With this time and energy, they could earn a bit more money or rest. What was the point of learning how to read? Luckily Void Mask¡¯s Carnival was prosperous. The employee incomes were higher, giving the commoners a higher standard of living. With the addition of Sui Xiong¡¯s prestige, this half-*ssed order somehow managed to be carried out. With this came the new problem of not having enough teachers. Wor¡¯s initial plan was to wipe out illiteracy across Void Mask¡¯s Carnival. However, when he set up his stall, he discovered that he was unable to find that many teachers. He was forced to scale down the size of his operations. Sui Xiong comforted him. ¡°Education is a long-term plan. It could take over 100 years. Do not be petty over a single day. We can spend three to five years nurturing civilians with a baseline level of education before letting them become teachers, taking charge of the introductory level. Then we can select a few elite from those to teach at a higher level. By expanding slowly this way, after tens or hundreds of years, there will be many literate people.¡± Wor thought deeply, restraining the anxiety and impatience in his heart. He slowly built the foundation for basic education. For Gods who were immortal, time was never an issue. Many Gods often waited hundreds or thousands of years for their plans to come to fruition. Compared to this, just a few tens of hundreds of years was nothing After two years, Void Mask¡¯s church opened schools in Geertung and Garth City in order to remove illiteracy, promoting basic education. This would likely be long and arduous work, but Sui Xiong believed that basic education would definitely promote progress in this world, and let the lives of the people become better! Chapter 226 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Dogs barking, people calling out. The noises were intertwined. ¡°Traverser Sui Xiong MK 5¡± was panting while he lay against a tree. He couldn¡¯t be bothered if the ground was covered with snow and sat down. He took out a leather pouch that was carrying hard liquor. He washed the wound on his left arm. His face was contorted in agony due to the acute pain. Until the wound was clean and he guaranteed that it wouldn¡¯t be infected, he took out a piece of clean cloth to carefully bandage his wound. That took up quite a bit of time, but in order to maintain the best status, he had to. If he wanted to flee in the world of ice and snow for a long period, or even until he got out of Gold Coin Federation to Ashes Woods, he had to ensure that he was in a good condition. Otherwise, he might die on his way. ¡°I just traversed, how could I die here!¡± Even when he was on the brink of hopelessness, he didn¡¯t give up, but smiled and encouraged himself on. ¡°Sui Xiong, ah Sui Xiong, you got to be a hero, you got to be a man. If you die in the woods being chased after by a bunch of b*stards, you didn¡¯t live up to your name!¡± He rubbed his face with some snow to refresh himself and had some dried pancake along with some snow. He felt that his body had recovered slightly and he didn¡¯t delay any more. He hurried in his journey and travelled to the north. He had to pass through the woods to get to the north of the Gold Coin Federation. As for after getting to the north of the Gold Coin Federation, how could he pass through? Maybe there were already people there to stop him from advancing towards the heaven for adventurers, the Ashes Woods. But, these were all matters that he needed to deal with later on. He was going forward alone in the woods. He was injured and he was lacking the necessary equipment. It was a very tough time but he had to persist. ¡°This b*stard was simply a monster!¡± A few days after, there were a bunch of adventurers somewhere 20 to 30 miles away. They were looking at the footprints in the snow and exchanging looks. They were bounty hunters that specialized in chasing after criminals. They had caught the b*stards posted on the bounty billboards countless times. Dead or alive, they brought them forward in exchange for their bounty. They were known as experts in the league. The criminal they were after that time wasn¡¯t any professional habitual offender; theoretically, it shouldn¡¯t have been difficult to deal with him. But after going after him for so many days, they still couldn¡¯t seize hold of him! ¡°Those soldiers of the nobles couldn¡¯t take it anymore,¡± a skinny adventurer said. ¡°The knight that lead the troops said that they were ready to retreat and leave the rest of the mission to us.¡± ¡°Huh? Their feudal lord¡¯s son was killed. He wants to return before he arrests the murderer?¡± The adventurer who led the troop was shocked. ¡°Isn¡¯t he afraid of getting beheaded when he returns?¡± ¡°The troop is important to the viscount too; he couldn¡¯t afford to lose them,¡± the eldest adventure said. ¡°If he were to lose the troop, the viscount would make a great loss. He has three sons but he has only one elite troop.¡± ¡°No, no, no, you¡¯re wrong. The troop is definitely his, but the sons might not be his.¡± The bounty hunters started smiling wickedly. After a while, the leader pointed to the front and commanded to continue the chase. Whether if the sons belonged to the viscount or not, it was his business. To them, the most important thing was to chase after the criminal that killed a noble and get his head in exchange for a bounty. Meanwhile, on the east side of the woods, the feudal lord viscountess Geerteng was reading a letter that she had just received. The letter was sent by another viscount from the west. In the letter, it said that his second son was killed but a brutal robber a while back, and currently the murderer might have fled to the woods. If the murderer were to enter Geerteng¡¯s land, he hoped that she could help to chase after the man. ¡°The b*stard¡¯s second son¡­ Is that the one that liked to rear wolves?¡± The feudal lord Olian wondered and asked. ¡°Auntie, you have a good memory!¡± Her secretary was also a member of the Geerteng family. According to the family tree, the secretary was one generation younger than her. He complimented, ¡°You can even remember the b*stard¡¯s hobby. You live up to your position as a voter of the ¡®great educator!¡¯¡± ¡°Great educator¡± was the name that the God of Knowledge received within the two years. Compared to the names before, the name was obviously more easily understandable and very quickly communized and promoted. Now it had become the most common nickname. Olian smiled, looked at the paper, and creased her eyebrows. It was a simple letter but her gut feeling said that it was not so simple. Why would an adventurer kill a feudal lord¡¯s son? Even though it was only a second son, he was considered a noble too! A commoner killing noble was an unforgivable death sentence. If the adventurer didn¡¯t have a definite reason, he definitely wouldn¡¯t do such things! ¡°Go and check about this,¡± she told the nephew. ¡°I think there is something fishy here.¡± The nephew replied and rushed back during dinner to report his investigation result. Turned out, the viscount¡¯s second son had gotten a wolf of a very rare breed. It was not that big, was white, looked as though it were carved from snow, and was very beautiful. He liked the wolf very much and often brought it to walk around the feudal land. A while back, for some reason, the wolf fought with a stray dog. Due to its size, it was at disadvantage and got bit multiple times. Although the soldiers got there quickly to kill the stray, the little white wolf was bitten at its vital parts. Its life was not endangered but if he wished to breed him it would have been impossible. The feudal lord¡¯s second son was very angry and he killed the owner¡¯s entire family of five in the name of ¡°damaging the property of feudal lord.¡± In the end, on the next day, when he brought his wolf for a walk, as usual, an adventurer popped out from the side of the road and placed a knife at his neck. He dragged him before the family who still hung at the gallows and made him kneel. Then, he stabbed a clean knife in and took a bloodstained knife out. The bodyguards of course immediately launched an attack at the murderer, but the murderer lived up to his name that he was once one of those contestants that fought into the final rounds in the very first martial arts contest. His quick response was beyond imagination. Although he was injured, he escaped the encirclement and fleed. The viscount, of course, wouldn¡¯t let the murderer that killed his son be free. Not only did he send his elite troop to chase after him, but he also hired a bunch of famous bounty hunters. By then, they should have both been chasing after the man in the woods. Olian viscountess heard and kept quiet. Then, she let out a sigh. ¡°Look,¡± she told her relatives that were dining together, ¡°even if one is a noble when things are done ridiculously, he will come across courageous assassin. In this world, there will never be a lack of good men willing to sacrifice for justice!¡± ¡°But his action is wrong,¡± the secretary said. ¡°Regardless of the reason, killing a noble is a no go!¡± Olian viscountess nodded and sighed. ¡°This man; it is such a pity!¡± After a few days, ¡°Sui Xiong,¡± who was weary and hungry, finally exited the woods. He arrived at a small village, stayed in an inn and slept for the rest of the day. After he woke up, he ordered some food, packed and he left straight away. He continued to advance towards the north. But, he didn¡¯t manage to go very far. When he got to the fork, a knight that seemed to have been waiting for him since the beginning stood up and blocked his way. ¡°I¡¯ve waited for you for a very long time,¡± the knight said. ¡°Did you have a good rest?¡± Looking at the person¡¯s symbol of a white balance and shield on his chest, Sui Xiong sighed. It was a paladin that believed in the God of Justice and Law. Fighting against a lawbreaker, their ability would increase tremendously while their opponents¡¯ specialized divinity would decrease. The most important thing was that he remembered the person. He had seen this person before in the martial arts contest in the Void Mask Theme Park. ¡°I have seen you before, in the martial arts contest,¡± he said. ¡°You won a round, right?¡± ¡°Good memory!¡± the paladin nodded. ¡°Now that you mentioned it, I remember you too. You participated in the martial arts contest.¡± Although it was said so, his posture didn¡¯t change. He was obviously not relaxed at all. Sui Xiong sighed and asked, ¡°I have a few mates who I went on adventures with. Will this involve them?¡± The paladin under the God of Justice creased his eyebrows. After a while, he said, ¡°Your mates will be in great trouble. Strictly speaking, even the hotel boss will be in trouble.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not right,¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°I killed the person. Beforehand, I had already fallen out with my mates during drinking. As for the boss, I cheated him. He is also a victim.¡± The paladin looked at him in the eyes. After a while, he let out a heavy sigh. ¡°I understand,¡± he said. ¡°Your testimony has been recorded. Don¡¯t worry.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and extended his hands. ¡°Then do what you have to.¡± The paladin saluted and tied him up with the magic rope that was prepared beforehand. Later on, Sui Xiong underwent a trial in the territory. The criminal shook the feudal lord, especially when he received his sentence. He was composed and calm as he chuckled. That left the feudal lord¡¯s mouth hanging. In his impression, after a criminal was caught, most of the time they looked terrified and anxious. How could he be so calm? And, those criminals would try very hard to drag others down in order to minimize their own sentences and bring everyone to death together. Why would this man take up all the crime on his own shoulders? ¡°What is going on?¡± he asked suspiciously. The leader of the guards that grew up with him, which was the paladin, too let out a heavy sigh. ¡°A good person. Such a pity that he broke the law.¡± The feudal lord thought and understood. He also sighed heavily. ¡°Death sentence!¡± he announced. ¡°Don¡¯t need to send it to the victim, just carry it out here!¡± Sui Xiong looked calm until the very moment he died. When the executioner tied the rope around his neck, his hands and legs were slightly shivering, but he still had the mood to joke with the executioner. ¡°Bro, make it tight,¡± he said. ¡°Don¡¯t make me fall.¡± He thought ¡°make it tight¡± was a funny phrase, and he laughed. In the end, the smile that was set on his face didn¡¯t even disappear after he died. Chapter 227 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the empty world encircled by white light, Sui Xiong took some of the chaos formed naturally over the years and used it to strengthen the protective walls while ruminating. The fifth avatar used to ¡°Experience Life¡± had died. After its death, all it experienced in its short life was sent back to Sui Xiong, becoming the reference material he would use to understand this world and its society. In this sense, the death of every ¡°Sui Xiong the Traverser¡± was worth it. However, he was not happy. The death of the fifth traverser had displeased him greatly. Not just the fifth, in fact. The way the third and fourth avatars died also made him very unhappy. The fifth traverser was a conscientious working man who had a large workload each day. But the pittance he earned did not let him live out his days in peace. Overworked, he succumbed to poverty and starvation. Another was a warm and generous chef. For the sake of keeping the poverty-stricken refugees from starvation, he poached and cooked a few deer secretly. In the end, he lost his life, and the refugees were all killed as well. The next was an adventurer filled with righteous zeal. He killed a scoundrel who had committed countless crimes for the sake of avenging the innocent common folk who were murdered. In the end, even the aristocrats that appreciated and sympathized with him could only sentence him to death. Sui Xiong was not happy. He was very unhappy! ¡°The laws in this world are so problematic!¡± he muttered to himself. ¡°I should really find the God of Righteousness and Law and have a good talk about this!¡± Thus he went, dispatching a doppelganger to the God of Righteousness and Law¡¯s Holy Kingdom, the ¡°Temple of Balance.¡± He wanted to consult with this God, who was in charge of law and its enforcement for the whole world. ¡°I discovered what you¡¯re telling me a long time ago.¡± The God of Righteousness and Law was a serious looking old man, dressed in broad black robes. There was not an ounce of gentleness in his face though there were traces of fatigue. ¡°There are many areas in the laws of this world which are inhumane and heartless.¡± He paused for a moment, thinking. ¡°However, this type of law is best suited for this world.¡± Sui Xiong raised his eyebrows, asking, ¡°Why would you say this? Why would a law which helps the aristocracy commit evil acts to oppress the commoners be suited for this world?¡± ¡°This world is moved by those with ability and strength. Those who lack talent or strength are deemed less important to the world,¡± the God of Righteousness and Law said. ¡°Between humans, there will always be differing levels of inborn talent. A good law should aim to maintain the rule of those with better abilities. They have the strength to control subjects.¡± ¡°Your way of thinking is too weird! How are people unequal at birth? Everyone is born to their parents. Everyone has to experience old age, sickness, and death. They all have to eat, drink, pee and poop, experience happiness, anger, sadness, and joy. Why can¡¯t there be equality!¡± ¡°This is decided by their worth. Those that are worth more must have a higher position.¡± ¡°Having a powerful position does not mean one can casually oppress other people!¡± ¡°As a shepherd, one naturally has the right to decide how to manage one¡¯s livestock,¡± the God of Righteousness and Law shook his head and said. ¡°There are many things I cannot stand to see. But these issues are in accordance with the theory of law, and in accordance with the laws of this world, I am powerless to take action.¡± ¡°Shepherds and livestock? Is this the way you look at the relationship between the aristocrats and common folk?¡± Sui Xiong asked furiously. ¡°How I see it does not matter. The laws of this world are like this. The people believe it to be this way,¡± the God of Righteousness and Law calmly said. ¡°As an enforcer of the law, I cannot use my own views to warp the law. Else it would be unfair.¡± Sui Xiong stared at him coldly for a long time before turning around to leave. ¡°I will change the laws! When that time comes, you¡¯d better not get in my way!¡± Watching the emerald green jellyfish disappear before him, the God of Righteousness and Law was silent for a long time. He sighed wearily. He reminisced about the past when that shabbily dressed hulk of a man who carried an ax on his shoulder came to quarrel with him. ¡°No wonder you two became friends. Although your races differ, your natures are exactly the same!¡± He sighed inwardly to himself, but there was a glimmer of expectation in his eyes. If the strength of one powerful person was insufficient to change this world, then what about adding one more? Perhaps that would be enough? Furthermore¡­ Since there was a second, perhaps there would be a third, and a fourth¡­ perhaps he would really be able to see the day where the laws and regulations he was dissatisfied with could change. Of course, until that day arrived, due to the nature of his divine duty, he would have no choice but to support the strong. When the time came, he would choose to fall to an ax or a tentacle. He would use his own death to deliver an elegy for the laws which had caused him so much displeasure for such a long time. Recovering the doppelganger he had used for communication, Sui Xiong contemplated his next course of action. He had a rather good grasp on this world. The previous five avatars, especially the last three, had covered the perspectives of an underprivileged menial worker, an artisan, and that of an adventurer. They let him experience society through the lenses of the most common social classes and provided him with a lot of valuable information. Yet¡­ if one gave it more thought, there was still some information missing. Some very important information¡­ The nobles! Indeed, he still had not experienced this world through the position of an aristocrat. Perhaps this made his current understanding of the world too one-sided. As the saying went, ¡°To listen to both sides is wise; to blindly believe one side is foolish.¡± All this time he had used the perspective of a commoner to experience and understand this world. Perhaps if he used the perspective of a noble he would be able to obtain a different viewpoint. He had actually already completed half of the puzzle that was this world. With this in mind, he set out to search for an aristocratic identity. Nobles were different from common folk. It was not possible to do a ¡°Body Transmigration¡± and have them believe that the avatar was a noble. He could only use possession. As such, he had to find a suitable noble, one that would not arouse suspicion even if his actions and personality changed after being possessed. He very quickly found a suitable target. He was a baron in the Duchy of Thunder named Crick Keane. The Keanes were a family that wasn¡¯t old or new nobility. Crick¡¯s grandfather¡¯s grandfather was a mage and moved to the Duchy of Thunder from the Mifata Federation. After going through some adventures and reclamations, he finally became a member of the nobility. He did not have a very high level of magic power, only living to his seventies before passing away. Furthermore, he only finally used his magic when he was in his forties, to obtain a son who would inherit the family fortune. Crick¡¯s great-grandfather did not inherit his father¡¯s magic power and thus chose to engage in business. His ability was average, neither making the family prosperous nor causing it to decline. He peacefully and steadily governed his estate for his entire life, leaving behind two sons. Crick¡¯s grandfather was the second son. His brother died at the hands of a red dragon before he had the chance to leave behind an heir. Coincidentally, this was the giant evil dragon ¡°Brutal Burner¡± Uherskreider, who Sui Xiong had killed before. Crick¡¯s grandfather was burned by a dragon in his youth, and was in poor physical condition his whole life, passing away in his forties. He left behind two sons and a daughter which could be said to have been his greatest contribution to the family. Crick¡¯s father was the eldest son and ran the family business steadily. His uncle was so enthusiastic about studying magic that he ran off to the Mifata Federation in his youth. In the end, due to some accident that happened during his research, he died without leaving behind a single heir. His aunt married another noble and lived a stable life. It was just that they did not inherit the noble titles or territory, and became a branch family. Later on, their children simply became businessmen who were nobles. Crick had two brothers and a younger sister. He was not originally in line to become the next family head. But due to friction between the Church of the God of Aristocrats and the Church of the Master of Mystery a few years back, both of his brothers died an untimely death. The position of heir was passed to him. As a young man who didn¡¯t believe in the God of Aristocrats or the Master of Mystery, Crick enjoyed reading and painting. This gave him a reputation as a talented man, but no one saw much in his ability to govern. He indeed proved that he had no governing ability whatsoever. In his two years as lord, not only did he not manage his territory well, but he exhausted himself and fell ill. Then, he died. Sui Xiong was in the bedroom, gazing upon this recently departed young man. His face had an unnaturally ashy hue to it, which was the effect of some poison. Crick¡¯s soul still floated around in the air, not understanding the situation. ¡°You¡¯re dead,¡± Sui Xiong told him frankly. ¡°You were most likely poisoned by someone.¡± Only then did Crick return to his senses. He dumbly stared at his own corpse before turning around to look at Sui Xiong. After a while, reality finally hit him and his eyes were filled with resentment and worry. ¡°You must be His Majesty Void Mask?¡± he said. ¡°I have nothing right now, other than my soul¡­ It might be brazen, but I implore you to help me. My clan has been plunged into a great crisis, and I¡¯m sure my family is in danger too¡­¡± Sui Xiong nodded his head. ¡°I came for this exact reason.¡± Then, he raised the plan that he had. Crick thought for a long while before agreeing. Honestly speaking, he felt that this plan was not very reliable. But now that he had no other alternative, he could only hope for the success of His Majesty Void Mask¡¯s plan. Fortunately, His Majesty Void Mask was infinitely resourceful, and also well known for being kind-hearted. With his attention, even if problems cropped up with the plan, even if the Keane family territory and title were not able to be protected, at least his family would be safe. For he, who had already died, this was his only wish. ¡°Then¡­ I¡¯ll leave it all to you!¡± The recently deceased young lord who had no talent worshipped the verdant green jellyfish, praying for the protection of his family. His soul slowly left, along with the path of his beliefs, towards the country of the God of Art and Culture. As a believer of the God of Art and Culture, and a lord who had used his power and identity more than once to help the church, this was his well-deserved benefit. Seeing off Crick¡¯s soul which had passed on, Sui Xiong stood before the corpse which had already begun to cool and smiled. ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s get this started!¡± Chapter 228 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Sui Xiong¡± opened his eyes. He felt that he had a headache, like he was being bombed in waves with a thousand mushrooms by Team Lead Timo. Many messy things were spinning around in his mind. There were tidbits of his life on Earth; there were also many inexplicable things that were not related to him. Nobles, territory, Gods, magic¡­ What the hell is this! He wanted to sit up straight, but he felt worn out all over. He raised his head up but fell back onto the pillow which made his headache worse. He startled the maidservant who was watching over him. The maidservant named Esther was good looking. She watched him in surprise. She then dashed out and shouted, ¡°The baron is awake! The baron is awake!¡± A hubbub of noises was heard and many people rushed over. Among them, many were as surprised as the maidservant. More than one of them who he was awake knelt down with tears over their faces as they prayed to some God. But¡­ he also noticed that although some people were smiling, their eyes had a faint hint of surprise and gloominess. The hell! Am I traversing? The situation seems to be quite terrible! As a youngster that always read online novels, he quickly understood his situation. Hence, he used his feeble voice to speak so everyone could get quieter and stop the noise, to tell them that he needed to rest. The people who should have been his subordinates immediately followed his orders and returned in silence. Only the maidservant stayed to take care of him. Sui Xiong closed his eyes and started organizing his thoughts slowly. A few days later, Baron Keane, who had been sick for almost two months and whom a pastor said would be dead, magically recovered. A pastor who diagnosed him before checked thoroughly and expressed in surprise that although Little Crick was still weak, he was alright and that he would only need to rest for a month or two until he was fully recovered. ¡°It must be bestowed upon by the song of remote past!¡± the pastor said with confidence. ¡°Little Crick¡¯s situation is definitely impossible for a commoner. Only a gift from a great majesty could heal him.¡± It quickly became a topic of conversation among the upper class. Many nobles were shocked and interested. The God of Art and Culture has such talent? Many were suspicious. One must know that the God of Art and Culture was excluded by the church of the God of Nobles to the point that He had no place to set foot. Hence, He moved to the Void Mask Theme Park. If it weren¡¯t for the great jellyfish God Majesty, the follower of the Master of Mystery couldn¡¯t have maintained a large-scale temple! If the God of Art and Culture really had such capabilities, why didn¡¯t He show it when the church of the God of Nobles excluded His church? Sometime before, the nobles that believed in the God of Art and Culture died one after another¡­ Or maybe¡­ That was what the Master of Mystery meant? The Majesty that was exceptionally great, even among various Gods, finally decided to lend a helping hand to His useless follower? Or maybe He intended to counterattack the overbearing yet beautiful and elegant traditional Chinese woman (the God of Nobles)? Various speculations were spread. There was a rapid subterranean flow on the upper of Duchy of Thunder all of a sudden. Faintly, there was also a strong storm in the making. But all of this had nothing to do with ¡°Crick Keane,¡± temporarily. Sui Xiong who had become ¡°Crick Keane¡± was slowly understanding and mastering the memory that was left in the body from the previous owner. Firstly, he had to thank the original owner of the body, Crick Keane. Compared to those that merely had a body, or those whose souls traversed but had no information for reference, his starting point was way better. Crick Keane basically kept all his memory, from as little as a piece of paper, to a book, to the culture in the world; regardless of big or small matters, they were left to him like a huge encyclopedia. It was a precious inheritance that was indescribable. By fully taking in and utilizing the inheritance, he could smoothly take over the identity of Crick Keane without being spotted by anyone. Secondly, he was a little vexed, because he realized that his situation was not too good. Baron Keane was one of the very few believers in the God of Art and Culture in Duchy of Thunder. He was also one of the main sponsors of the church of the God of Art and Culture. In his territory, there was even a small-scale temple for the God of Art and Culture. For Duchy of Thunder, even to the world, the church of the God of Nobles was squeezing out the church of the God of Art and Culture. As for the nobles that believed in the God of Art and Culture, many of them died an unknown death. Crick who was ¡°dying of an illness¡± was already considered normal; there were even those that died by choking on water or having a stroke in a brothel¡­ The God of Nobles was too straightforward and too shameless! In the end, he had to thank the person that let him traverse because he had a great golden finger, something similar to the game system. Not only could he appraise various items quickly; most importantly, he could see the attributes of the people around him. For instance, himself, Crick Keane: strength eight, constitution nine, action ten, sensitivity 12, intelligence 14, charm 12, reputation 400, working as a level two feudal lord, level four scholar. Current status: ¡°noxious residue.¡± Mm, noxious residue. The poor Crick Keane didn¡¯t die of sickness, but poison! He had to thank the person that allowed him to traverse, as he helped him with the poison. Otherwise, he might have died of the poison right after traversing. Another example: his servant, Amyveile, strength eight, constitution 12, action 12, sensitivity ten, intelligence ten, charm 12, reputation 50, working as a level six servant, loyalty 100. Er, the most important attribute of all would be loyalty! His golden finger system wasn¡¯t like those in the novels that could send him missions and increase his experiences, but it could display his underlings¡¯ loyalties. He had to sing the praises of the person that allowed him to traverse again. To his current self, ¡°loyalty¡± was too important! Relying on the assistance of the system, he could quickly run through his underlings. Among most of them, loyalties were on the high end, averagely above, and rightly so. It could be seen that Crick Keane was quite a good feudal lord. He was especially at ease about Baron Keane¡¯s butler, Layton, and his captain of guards and chief of knights, James. Their loyalties were also 100! His personal servant, butler, and captain of guards were loyal, top notch! He got the likes of them 32 times! In his troops, the lowest loyalty would be the chef. Zero. Hey! Loyalty zero¡­ This is quite bad! Could it be you that poisoned Crick Keane to death? It must be you! There were a few workers that had very terrible loyalty: two, three, five¡­ Besides Amyveile, the rest of the workers¡¯ loyalties were quite bad, no one was up to ten. When ¡°Crick¡± saw these peoples¡¯ loyalties, he nearly scolded. D*mn! The house is heavily infiltrated! This is exactly like the video that was spread across the Internet, ¡°Bureau of Investigation and Statistics Secret Meeting: There¡¯s a Kuomintang Among Us!¡± As for the other underlings, the situation wasn¡¯t much better. After going through all the underlings carefully, ¡°Crick¡± made a decision. This territory needs a spring cleaning! Chapter 229 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Something surprising had happened at Gale Prefecture in the Duchy of Thunder recently. Baron Keane, who had been dying, suddenly recovered from his illness and then carried out a large-scale verification and adjustment process among his subordinates. A large number of subordinates who had originally occupied key positions were transferred to idle positions that lacked power. Many more people had been found guilty of various crimes and punished. The most surprising one was the chef of Keane¡¯s family, a well-known man throughout Gale Prefecture. He had been found poisoning the Baron Keane¡¯s food! Such a crime was, of course, unforgivable. In accordance with the law, the chef¡¯s family members had to be punished as well. But Baron Keane said that the chef had been working for the Keane family for many years. He should be given credit for his hard work, if not for merit. Even if he had made a mistake, his own life would be enough to justify the crime. His family had nothing to do with the matter, so Baron Keane specially remitted their punishment. How did Baron Kean recover so quickly? How could he find the wrongdoer within his family? Why was he so kind? These were the most puzzling things for people. Inside the secret chamber of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, the Archbishop of Gale Prefecture said with a sneer, ¡°Crick Keane is a scholar after all. He can¡¯t do great things with mercy and a kind heart! ¡°He is a believer in the Distant Song, a weak doctrine. Its church organization is small as well. All in all, it is because they lack resoluteness and decisiveness in action.¡± The Bishop who had been responsible for dealing with under-the-table affairs was full of disdain and ridicule. ¡°Whether they are gods or men, they are weak. Even if they were reaching the end of their lives, all they could do is kick their legs and refuse to die. How can they have the courage to kill?¡± The Archbishop nodded slightly and made some arrangements for other work. Such a Baron was not worth so much effort. Since this Baron was popular among the people right now, there was nothing the Archbishop could do. He needed to wait until the Baron was not popular, then it would be the right time for the Archbishop to deal with him. Anyway¡­ Even if he could play more tricks, he could not change the fact that he was just a Baron. How much manpower and money could a Baron have? How much impact could he have on the upper class? Behind the Church of the Aristocracy, there were the great aristocratic groups. Crick, or Sui Xiong, didn¡¯t know that. His ¡°system¡± was not so strong that once someone set him up, a reminder would pop up saying, ¡°Task: Fighting Against Assassination¡± or something like that. All his energy was now in internal purging. The results of the purging were astonishing! After gauging his subordinates¡¯ loyalty, he was shocked. All kinds of problems made Knight James, who had been truly loyal to Sui Xiong, jump into a rage. If Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t stopped him, James would have pulled out his sword on the spot to cut those people down. Crick himself was shocked too. Although he had made some preparations in his mind, he had never thought the problem could be so serious! In fact, much of Baron Keane¡¯s power had been overridden. Lower and middle-ranking officials who had been loyal to him had either been excluded from useful positions or directly killed¡ªthere had been around five murders! ¡°These guys must be crazy! They don¡¯t take human life seriously!¡± After looking at the crime files for a while, he angrily threw them on the desk and sighed. Then he picked up the wheat tea and poured half a cup the cold liquid into his mouth, but it was still unable to suppress his anger. He had been drinking wheat tea after he recovered, and he was not used to the kind of tea that nobles often drank. Nobles drank tea that was made by grinding and boiling spices. Then they added some spice powder into the filtered tea, which was beyond the acceptable range of a Chinese man. He would rather drink fried wheat tea from the Northwest Void Mask Land because at least it had a clean flavor. Since the ¡°Traverser Sui Xiong MK5¡± had suspected some things of the Void Mask Land before, Sui Xiong specifically modified the memory of Crick Keane, or ¡°Traverser Sui Xiong MK6,¡± to make him ignore earthen style things and avoid further trouble. But he did not modify Crick¡¯s aesthetic standard. Thus, Crick¡¯s eating habits and lifestyle had been undergoing subtle changes. In general, he had been gradually less sociable among nobles and more close to the lower-middle class. After all, Sui Xiong was originally a poor person! He couldn¡¯t really understand the ideas of the upper class. Those nobles who had a good relationship with Crick Keane, after knowing about the current situation of the Keane family, had given suggestions that were simply baffling! One friend¡¯s suggestion was, ¡°Sell your property, live in the Void Mask Land, and settle down there for the rest of your life. Having money in hand and knowing art so well that you can go there and compile operas or something. Besides, the temple of your church is there too. They will take care of you more or less.¡± That was too cowardly. Crick really hated that. But anyway, it was still something could be taken as a suggestion. At least it could be implemented. By contrast, the suggestions of several other friends made him wonder whether or not they were on drugs! Their suggestions could be summed up in one word, killing. Killing all the disloyal people, hanging their bodies on the roadside to deter those who had been unfaithful¡ªthis is what they said. Come on¡­ There were hundreds of people! To kill so many people at one time¡ªwouldn¡¯t he become a great devil? What¡¯s more¡­Where would he find an executioner to kill so many people? He would be regarded as a lunatic! But those nobles did not think so. They said that nobles were sacred and inviolable. Anything or anyone that dared to harm nobles should be severely punished. There would be absolutely no tolerance. Crick laughed and said that he would consider their suggestions carefully, and then he told the steward, Layton, to be on guard against these guys. ¡°Aren¡¯t those of His Excellency¡¯s opinions reasonable?¡± Asked Layton. ¡°But they are idiots.¡± Crick sighed. ¡°You know, teammates who are as silly as pigs are more terrible than opponents who are as smart as gods! If the force that has infiltrated our family like is a smart opponent, then they are silly teammates. Layton, silliness is contagious, too!¡± Layton nodded repeatedly, though he didn¡¯t completely understand that. At dinner of the next day, he asked curiously, ¡°Sir, is silliness really contagious?¡± Crick pondered for a long time trying to find an explanation, but when he saw Layton¡¯s character attributes, he sighed deeply and gave up. [Layton, 10 in Strength, 12 in Physique, 10 in Agility, 12 in Perception, 9 in Intelligence, 10 in Charm, 120 in Reputation. Occupation: Steward at Level 5, Priest at Level 1, 100 in Loyalty] Without any help, the steward had already been a silly man! ¡°That was just a joke.¡± He ended the conversation with a simple sentence and then looked at James, the head of the Regiment of Knights. James had insisted on standing next to Crick but refused to eat together with him. [James, 14 in Strength, 14 in Physique, 12 in Agility, 10 in Perception, 9 in Intelligence, 10 in Charm, 200 in Reputation. Occupation: Warrior at Level 3, Knight at Level 4, Hill Lord at Level 1, 100 in Loyalty.] Both of his two generals, in fact, were a bit silly¡­ Sighing deeply, Crick said, ¡°Let¡¯s talk about Spencer¡¯s suggestion.¡± Spencer Smith, the deputy head of the Regiment of Knights in the Church of the God of Knights at Duchy of Thunder, was in charge of the official affairs of Gale Prefecture. This young knight was a brilliant rising star. He had even entered the final stage of the World¡¯s No.1 Martial Arts Competition in the Void Mask Land and had been one of the top 16. It had been only in the winners¡¯ group that he had met the ¡°Bow Master¡± Lewre Spoolin and in the losers¡¯ group that he had met the ¡°Thunder Battleaxe¡± Soocher Magnus. Soocher Magnus stopped in the top 8 and failed to go any further. Compared with his subordinates, Crick felt that this young expert¡¯s suggestion would be more reliable. No matter what, his intelligence was higher than those subordinates! [Spencer Smith, 20 in Strength, 18 in Physique, 16 in Agility, 14 in Perception, 14 in Intelligence, 18 in Charm, 650 in Reputation. Occupation: Warrior at Level 3, Knight at Level 8, Paladin at Level 8, 80 in Friendliness.] Look at those gorgeous attributes! Look at that high reputation! Look at his great level in total! What was a winner of life? This was it! Crick believed that if a fight broke out, it would be possible for Spencer alone to destroy the entire Regiment of Knights led by his Baron without any difficulties. So he felt that Spencer¡¯s suggestion could still be reserved. If it wouldn¡¯t work, the whole family could just gather their money and run away. Thinking of that, he could not help but sigh deeply. The situation before him was too grim! Maybe they thought Crick was unable to turn the tides, or they had no fear because of their strong power. Those guys who had set Sui Xiong up didn¡¯t cover up the news very carefully. After a little searching, he found out who was behind the group of traitors. It was the Church of the God of Aristocracy. The answer did not surprise him, but it made him somewhat depressed. The opponents were too strong, which made the revenge too hard! The Church of the God of Aristocracy had been developing faster and faster these years, and its influence had become larger and larger. They had received support from the great nobles represented by the king. For the nobles of the rank of Viscount and Baron, they mainly tried to get their cooperation. But if they refused to cooperate, the church would eliminate them. In recent years, many nobles who had been determined not to cooperate with them were killed. Crick Keane had been a firm believer in the God of Art and Culture. The church of the God of Art and Culture had been a major target for the exclusion and attack of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, so this young Baron reasonably appeared on the list and lost his life. After dinner, Crick took the files and sat in his study to think. After a while, he sighed deeply. ¡°Crick Keane, whether you get revenge for yourself or solve the problems facing the Keene family, it¡¯s going to be very difficult¡­¡± Chapter 230 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Although he knew it was difficult, Crick had to solve the obstacle before him. Regardless of morality or his own safety. From what he saw, the safest solution was probably what his friend Spencer had said: flee to avoid Void Mask Theme Park with the entire family. But then it would mean the foundation that had been laid by generations in Keane¡¯s family would be surrendered and offered as a gift. He believed that if Crick Keane found out from seven feet under, he would definitely resurrect from anger. That made him very annoyed. The solution could only be used when he reached his limit. At least for now, he wouldn¡¯t consider it! The other safer solution was to change his belief and join the church of the God of Nobles. Although they had some conflict in the past, as long as he was willing to admit defeat sincerely and surrender honestly, the church of the God of Nobles wouldn¡¯t fuss too much with a Viscount. However, the solution wasn¡¯t about being annoying, but about pissing people off! Crick asked himself, and he was sure that he was not an idiotic person from Northern Europe. One who loved everything and would still encourage living without borders, even after a terrorist attack. He couldn¡¯t practice the concept of turning the other cheek. People tried to kill him but he didn¡¯t try to kill them; that idea was already hard enough to understand. Now he had to surrender himself and plead for forgiveness? D*mn! I have already traversed once. I am not here to test my limits of being treated like a dog! Solution, denied! Refusing the two safest solutions, the options left had huge hidden dangers. The biggest problem that Baron Keane faced was the lack of high-end military might. The most powerful expert in the territory, James, was only level eight. His attributes were not too good. Compared to the knight troop from the church of the God of Knights, he was only slightly stronger than Spencer¡¯s attendant. Anyway, glancing through the knight troop, there weren¡¯t any knights weaker than James¡­ A great leader once said, political power derives from military force. Baron Keane¡¯s military forces were a little weak. It would be impossible to fight against the church of the God of Noble! ¡°Maybe¡­ I should hire one or two experts?¡± He put down the scroll in his hands and drank a mouthful of wheat tea. Then he was lost in thought. A few days later, Baron Keane posted a recruitment notice. [Due to the lack of talent in the territory, we are recruiting experts who are highly skilled in martial arts to hold a position. After probation, those who performed well will be granted with a feudal estate and noble ranking.] After the notice was posted, it quickly caught many adventurers¡¯ eyes. These adventurers were mostly older and already weary of slaughter and adventure. They wanted to settle down. Although they knew that Baron Keane¡¯s situation wasn¡¯t great, they thought they would just flee when it came to the worst¡­ Loyalty 20, loyalty 25, loyalty 18, loyalty 33¡­ Crick looked through the bunch of adventurers that responded to the call for recruitments. Although they were smiling, they already sighed in their hearts. Putting their capability aside, these people have such low loyalty! Who would dare to hire b*stards that didn¡¯t even have a loyalty of 50! He didn¡¯t want to promote a bunch of ingrates! Looking at them carefully, he let out a heavy sigh. He told his butler, Layton, to record everyone¡¯s name. They would discuss them when the entire recruitment ended. ¡°Your Excellency, these people seem okay!¡± The knight James said happily during the internal meeting of Baron Keane territory. ¡°Among them, there were a few that are even stronger than me. They would come in handy!¡± Crick rolled his eyes. He was dying to tell him, ¡°Bro, it¡¯s very hard for me to communicate with you.¡± The butler, Layton was much steadier. He hesitated and said, ¡°Your Excellency, I think these people don¡¯t look very loyal¡­¡± Crick nodded. He thought his butler had good insight. ¡°The adventurers are used to cheating each other after all. It is impractical to count on their loyalty.¡± The butler Layton saw that the Baron supported his opinion, so he continued. ¡°Aren¡¯t you close to Captain Smith of the knight troop from the church of the Groundbreaking Knights? Why not discuss with him if you could recruit two people from his knight troop?¡± Crick was stunned and suddenly enlightened. ¡°D*mn! Why didn¡¯t I think of that!¡± That afternoon, he departed in a hurry to make a trip to the church of the God of Knights. Spencer Smith didn¡¯t mind sending a helping hand to his friend, but if it were to be a long-term recruitment, he would be a little hesitant. Although the troop from the church of the God of Knights wasn¡¯t weak, the enemy they were fighting against was strong. One must remember that the church of the God of Nobles had a main target already. They wanted to jostle and elbow out the church of the God of Knights all this time! However, dealing with the pressing danger, Crick exerted himself to the utmost, performing all kinds of tragic acting he had seen on TV, movies and manga back then. Even though his acting skills would only be six points at maximum, he moved Spencer in the end. ¡°Alright, I can choose two people for you,¡± Spencer sighed and said. ¡°Let me make this clear: they can only protect you. They can¡¯t help you with your government affairs.¡± ¡°Protecting me is sufficient!¡± Half an hour later, Crick looked at the two knights, who were about 40 years old, and remained silent. Honestly speaking, the two knights were not weak. One was level 12, another one was level 13n. Compared to James, they were at much higher levels. But, the intelligence of the two knights was extremely low. One was seven and the other one was eight. These are two silly dudes! Most likely because the sadness across his face was obvious, Spencer was a little embarrassed. He laughed drily and said, ¡°I think you should focus on hiring people. If you can¡¯t find any suitable help in Gale Prefecture, why not try to look around in the Void Mask Theme Park? The transportation there is most convenient. There are transportation portals that connect to many capitals of countries and cities. Many adventurers like to spend their leisure time there. If you were to recruit there, you would be able to find some amazing experts¡­¡± Crick nodded repeatedly. Without further ado, he returned home to hand over some necessary duties. Then he rushed to the capital of the Duchy of Thunder with the two bodyguards and got to Void Mask Theme Park through the transportation portal. ¡°He has been through a lot¡­¡± The jade green jellyfish was invisible and floating in the air as he gazed upon his clone, who was working very hard. He couldn¡¯t help but pity him. ¡°If this continues, he can¡¯t settle down and experience the life of a noble¡­¡± After pondering, he finally decided to give Crick a little assistance. That night, after rushing about, Crick still couldn¡¯t manage to find a suitable underling. He sat down wearily in the leisure center that was operated by the church of the God of Happiness. He did like a corpse; letting the warm and clean water flush out his body, not wanting to do anything. ¡°Recruiting is too tough!¡± he covered his face with a slightly moist towel and mumbled to himself. ¡°The key is that there¡¯s no money, right?¡± a frivolous voice said next to him. ¡°If there¡¯s money, it is quite easy to recruit.¡± Crick was too lazy to lift up his towel but replied with a bitter smile. ¡°Yeah, no money! I am only a Baron, my territory isn¡¯t big. and my income isn¡¯t high either. Although in the long term, maybe it would be profitable. I need the money now!¡± ¡°Why not go ahead and try your luck?¡± the person said. ¡°There is a roulette in the casino. Only one gold coin is required for one round. If it has three sevens, you would win a large sum of money!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have such good luck!¡± ¡°Nothing to lose if you try. To a Baron, what is one gold coin?¡± That person smiled as he stood up and walked away. Crick thought and accepted his suggestion. An hour later, he was brought to the service counter. He was shocked as he saw the terrifying amount on the cash converter card! The heck! With one gold coin, I won such a big amount of money?! This is like a dream! ¡°Could it be that I am possessed by the God of Wealth?¡± Saint-Vallier Von Stovski Francis, also known as Shoggoth, was standing in the shadows nearby. He had given the suggestion earlier. When he saw that scene, he smiled and shrugged his shoulders. ¡°What God of Wealth? This is the bestowed by Void Mask Majesty.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and patted his shoulder. ¡°Well done. The magic that fogs the minds of the people was used well!¡± Then, he smiled and looked at Crick. Money I have given you. Keep up your hard work! Chapter 231 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Food in hand, no worries in mind; this was the same as having money. This evening, Crick had the most peaceful sleep since the time travel. Early in the next morning, accompanied by the bodyguards, he went to the Association of Adventurers of the Void Mask Land to recruit some suitable adventurers. As soon as he arrived at the Association of Adventurers, he heard people quarreling from outside. After he went in, he saw a slim girl with silver hair and long ears arguing with a fat, middle-aged man. Crick listened to them curiously. In conclusion, the girl meant that she had grown up, and she had learned many skills. She should be allowed to go out and adventure. However, the middle-aged man said that her teacher had told him that she was good at magic, but her practical fighting experience was still seriously inadequate. If she wanted to strengthen herself, she¡¯d better go to the Knights as a military mage. It was dangerous to go on an adventure without preparing in advance. This little girl has a story! After listening for a moment, Crick was a little curious. An adventurer was sitting in the corner of the conference hall to rest; Crick asked him about the man and girl arguing inside. As expected, he learned that the little girl was called Miss Nice. Madame Teague, the agricultural officer in Void Mask Land, was her mother. And Ms. Liv, the political official, was her elder sister. More than that, Miss Nice was also the favorite student of Mage Satan, the head of the mages of the Church of Void Mask. She had been learning from Mage Satan for several years. In the Church of Void Mask, she was the rising star of the new generation and a young talent of the first class. Crick nodded as he listened. He also bought a bottle of premium wine for the adventurer to help him loosen up. About half an hour later, Miss Nice left angrily because she couldn¡¯t convince the man. Then Crick went into the office to propose his needs after saying goodbye the adventurer he was just talking to. ¡°You need to recruit a few adventurers who are at mid-level or even higher. For the job, they will be bodyguards, and they may fight dangerous battles. You want a long-term contract with reliable people. In addition to money, the payment will also include knighthood¡­ Is that right?¡± asked Peter, the chairman of the Association of Adventurers. He was also the middle-aged man who had been arguing with Miss Nice earlier. Peter hesitated for a moment and then spoke again, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, would you like to talk about your situation in detail?¡± Of course Crick didn¡¯t mind, so he explained his situation, only leaving out some personal things. Chairman Peter thought for a long time; then he took out a piece of paper and wrote a few names on it. Thinking about it again, he crossed them out and wrote down new names. ¡°Depending on your situation, I suggest you recruit a stable adventurer team, and the Underground Warriors team is a good fit,¡± Peter said. ¡°This is a well-known adventurer team. Their captain, D¡¯vor, is a high-level fighter. Although he is the best at underground cave exploration, he can deal with various other tasks as well due to his strong martial arts skills and rich leadership experience. When he was young, he was a soldier, but he also knew how to train other soldiers. That¡¯s enough for him to work as an instructor.¡± Crick nodded slightly, acknowledging that this was a good candidate. ¡°The other three members of the Underground Warriors are the priest, ¡®Fire Hammer¡¯ Morton, the ranger, ¡®Three Arrows¡¯ Ryder, and the rogue, ¡®Back Stab¡¯ Raffle. They are a high-level adventurer team who have completed difficult tasks more than once and have a very good reputation.¡± ¡°So, what is the price?¡± Chairman Peter said, smiling, ¡°Now they are a bit older, especially Mr. D¡¯vor, who has almost reached the age of retirement. Therefore, as long as there is a long-term stable job with a reliable employer for them to settle down, their demand for treatment is not so high. What they want at present is that the employer must be honest and reliable, and not ruthless.¡± Crick said, laughing, ¡°Be at ease. My character is quite good. I am a follower of His Majesty, the Distant Song!¡± Although he was actually a fake, the identity of a follower of the God of Art and Culture was quite convincing. As was known, because of the exclusion from the Church of the God of Aristocracy, any aristocrat who still believed in the God of Art and Culture was generally good in character. Chairman Peter also had a good understanding of this. He thought about it and then advised Crick to go to the temple of the God of Art and Culture, the ¡°Great Theatre of Distant Song¡± of the Void Mask Land. More than 60% of the elites in the Church of the God of Art and Culture gathered there. With Crick¡¯s identity, he should be able to successfully recruit one or two reliable priests. ¡°Can I recruit a mage?¡± Crick asked. Although priests were also spellcasters and they were usually better at dealing with curses and evil, the ability of priests came mainly from the inspiration of gods. Compared to mages who relied on wisdom and knowledge to master magical power, priests tended to cast spells simply. Therefore, their ability in the academics was obviously inferior. Talking about the professions in the system, the professional composition of a priest was usually a warrior/priest, or a warrior/saint knight/priest, or a flamen/priest. Few people had academic levels, but mages were different. Almost every mage had an academic level, and the academic level of many mages was even higher than their mage level. For Crick, the Time Traveler, a powerful academic who worked as an advisor would certainly help him a lot! ¡°We can¡¯t offer you mages. Our Church of the Void Mask has a bad relationship with the Church of the Master of Mystery, so very few mages take temporary positions here,¡± Chairman Peter said helplessly, shrugging his shoulders. ¡°If you want to recruit a mage, you can only go to the Commonwealth of Mifata. Anyway, you live in Duchy of Thunder, next to the Commonwealth of Mifata¡­¡± ¡°This ¡®next to¡¯ you speak of is more than two thousand miles,¡± Crick responded. ¡°It¡¯s nothing more than just a few transfers. You are very rich,¡± replied the chairman. Crick was convinced. After making a deal to meet with the Underground Warriors adventurer team tomorrow, he used the transmission array to go to the capital of Commonwealth of Mifata, the Highest Tower. As arriving at the Highest Tower, he found that the Association of Adventurers here was far worse than that of the Void Mask Land. First, the management of the adventurers was not thorough, and second, the internal atmosphere was not as harmonious. Crick always felt that many people wanted to steal his wallet. Fortunately, he still recruited a good mage. His name was Damwade, and he was a transformation mage. Transformation mages were rare, as they were good at changing things. They could change external objects, and they also could change their own bodies. Generally speaking, they were similar to alchemists. In fact, Mage Damwade had part-time jobs as an alchemist. [Damwade, Strength 10, Physique 10, Agility 12, Perception 14, Intelligence 18, Charm 8, Reputation 260. Profession: Academic Level 5, Alchemist Level 2, Mage Level 6, Loyalty Level 60. When seeing the attributes of Mage Damwade, Crick was worried that the ¡°Mage Level 6¡± part was fake, but then the mage skillfully cast a mid-level spell that dispelled his doubts. Perhaps the levels of academic and alchemist could be counted as a part of the mage¡¯s level. Crick guessed this. Mage Damwade was conducting magic research, which required a lot of money and a relatively stable environment. Therefore, he was willing to accept Crick¡¯s employment, regardless of the danger. However, Damwade also had his own requirement. He asked for a laboratory which only he could use. He should not be disturbed except for special circumstances. He also needed guards to stand by the entrance. These requirements were generally reasonable, so the two sides quickly agreed. Crick transferred back to the Void Mask Land with Mage Damwade, and he found a place for Damwade to live. Then he went to the Great Theatre of Distant Song. A high-level priest of the Church of the God of Art and Culture received Crick as an aristocratic church member. After learning that Crick was currently in great trouble and needed reliable manpower, the priest arranged two helpers for him. One was a priest named Thomas, and the other was a bard named Nikola. Interestingly enough, both of them were good at using electric spells, but their relationship was very bad. They quarreled almost every time they met, and many times they even fought with each other. The Church of the God of Art and Culture arranged both of them for Crick because they wanted them out of sight and out of mind. They had a bad relationship, but they were great. These two followers of the God of Art and Culture had powerful strength, and they were very reliable and loyal as well. Thomas¡¯s total level reached 14, while Nikola¡¯s was 13, and their loyalty both reached 80, so Crick was relieved. It was late in the evening, so Crick invited Mr. Damwade and the others to have dinner together. Of course, two of Crick¡¯s own bodyguards joined them as well. The six people ate and drank in the grand hotel that was owned by the Church of the God of Joy. In the end, except for Mage Damwade who didn¡¯t drink, all the rest got hammered. The next morning, Crick drank the hangover medicine offered by the hotel to get rid of his headache. After showering, he met with the Underground Warriors adventurer team. These four adventurers were old. The head leader, D¡¯vor, even had some white hair on his temples. But their temperament was quite stable, and their eyes were still sharp. Crick asked his bodyguards to fight with them in order to test their strength. The four adventurers were indeed true masters because they firmly suppressed the two bodyguards. Everyone knew that they didn¡¯t even use their full strength to defeat the guards. This made Crick satisfied. Of course, compared to their performance, their character attributes given by the system were even more reassuring for Crick. In terms of level, D¡¯vor was 15, Morton and Ryder were 14, and Raffle was 13. In terms of attributes, they all had good stats. The two bodyguards had low intelligence, but the four adventures didn¡¯t. They didn¡¯t have any obvious shortages. In terms of loyalty, D¡¯vor was 70, and the other three were 65, which was satisfactory. Crick said that when everything ended, as long as he lived through the crisis, he would arrange a title for D¡¯vor. He would even give him a village as his manor. Hearing that, the loyalty of D¡¯vor soared to 90, and the remaining three also increased by 10. After that, they could definitely be used as a reliable team. With such a group of experts to help out, Crick was finally confident. He might even be able to go through the crisis that he was going to face. Chapter 232 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio That afternoon, a group of ten returned to Duchy of Thunder in mighty contingents and went back to the territory of Baron Keane via horse-drawn carriage. Crick Keane gained a fortune at the casino of Void Mask Theme Park and recruited a bunch of amazing experts. Pastor Machee, from the church of the God of Nobles, heard this and was very upset. She was in charge of such matters. Even though she was Spencer Smith¡¯s sister, she was different from her brother who believed in the God of Knights. This pastor of the God of Nobles was a treacherous and brutal woman. She was full of greed and ambition. The reason might have been because the siblings had different realizations when they encountered danger back when they were young. Hence, the two of them formed entirely opposite life outlooks. Or maybe it was simply because one was be influenced by close association; or even a difference in natural disposition. In short, Spencer Smith was a little arrogant but considered upright and honorable. Machee Smith was always hiding a treacherous stratagem underneath her smile. But besides sharing similarities in their facial features, they were two entirely contrary individuals. Pastor Machee was a rising star in the church of the God of Nobles, and mainly in charge of the penetration and seizing of territory. The God of Nobles did not acquire the faith of all nobles naturally; just as there were many mages in the world that didn¡¯t believe in the God of Mages, and knights that didn¡¯t believe in the God of Knights. They believed in a variety of Gods, some kind and some wicked. There were even some that believed in Cthulhu and Demons¡­ The average morality of the bunch of nobles wasn¡¯t great. On the contrary, there were many that were so low in their morals that it would require some time and effort to find them. The same went for Machee Smith. She was a typical character that would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Threats, temptation, bribing, assassination¡­ She¡¯d do anything that would help her achieve her goal. She would commit any crime without giving a d*mn. She wouldn¡¯t feel one bit of guilt. The chef that poisoned Crick Keane was cursed by a female spy who was nurtured in secret by the church of the God of Nobles. She was sent by Machee to seduce him with beauty. Applying the carrot and stick judiciously, she made the chef, who worked for the Keane family for over a decade, betray his master. When she found out Crick Keane woke up magically after being poisoned, she thought she could find another chance to poison him again. But she quickly realized that Baron Keane, who only knew about reading and drawing, had suddenly become smart. He even started to run internal checks. Hence, she decided to kill the chef. Due to the sudden death of the chef, Crick felt insecure and tried to get help immediately. Machee originally planned to send people to ambush Baron Keane as he returned to his territory. But her spy told her that the lucky bastard had gained a fortune in Void Mask Theme Park, and hired a troop of experts. So, she gave up the plan. But¡­ it was not over yet! The female pastor always smiled gently and made people feel like they were bathing in the spring wind. Now, she shattered the magic crystal used for communication. Due to an excess exertion of strength, her nails cracked and started bleeding. She put her finger to her mouth and sucked the fresh blood as she smiled coolly. ¡°Among my brother¡¯s silly friends, there is a lucky person!¡± Her smile was enough to paralyze a coward where they stood. ¡°Alright, let me see. How do I ¡®have fun¡¯ with them¡­¡± With the danger and potential enemy that Crick was dealing with, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t check carefully. He was occupied by another important task. School. The literacy school in Void Mask Theme Park had been running for some time then, and they had nurtured talents that could read and write. But these talents were giving the administrative officer, Liv, a headache. She didn¡¯t know how to allocate them. There weren¡¯t many people that were literate. It would be a waste to send them back to farming or hard labor, and it would damage their enthusiasm. But how would they arrange a suitable post for them? It wasn¡¯t that easy. Normally, a literate person could easily obtain a decent job regardless of where they were. They could easily bring up a family and obtain a certain level of standing in society. Of course, that was what commoners thought. Although Void Mask Theme Park wasn¡¯t small, arranging a decent job for such a huge group of people was definitely out of his coverage. The administrative officer pondered, but she couldn¡¯t figure out any suitable way to do it. In the end, she could only bring up the question to Void Mask Majesty. It was His idea to promote education, so he should solve the aftermath problem too. Receiving Liv¡¯s report, Sui Xiong was shocked. He never expected that there unemployment in his territory. ¡°Isn¡¯t reading and writing natural? Why is it those who know how to read and write can¡¯t do farming, can¡¯t do simple work?¡± He asked in distress. Liv wasted a long time to explain the problem to him. When Sui Xiong understood that he was facing a problem, he became lost in his thoughts. Did he think the answers were too simple? Maybe the scale of Void Mask Theme Park wasn¡¯t big enough and needed expansion. It would definitely be impossible for Void Mask Theme Park at the current scale to provide suitable positions for all unemployed literate people. If so, expansion was a definite necessity. However, the literacy school could continuously be operated; but the scale of the theme park couldn¡¯t be expanded continuously! Unless¡­ maybe he could send some of them to Garth city and Geerteng to work? He contacted Ray and Olian. ¡°A literate person could take charge of many tasks. But if there are too many of them, I won¡¯t be able to place them all,¡± Ray said. ¡°If it¡¯s only the batch before our eyes, there¡¯s no problem. But what are you going to do with the ones later on? I think Your Majesty should consider this carefully.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t your territory running a literacy school as well? Why didn¡¯t you have similar problems?¡± ¡°Because we only teach them 100 simple words, and simple mathematics within 100,¡± Olian said. ¡°At such levels, it wouldn¡¯t even be considered literacy. It is merely slightly moving people out of the barbaric. It¡¯s different from Your Majesty.¡± ¡°¡­ Do you mean, I taught them too well?¡± ¡°I think so,¡± Ryan advised. ¡°I think Your Majesty should lower the standard of education. There is no need to educate such a big batch of cultural talent. Although these people are useful, there can¡¯t be too many of them¡­¡± After that communication, Sui Xiong was vexed. The problem before his eyes was solved¡­ unless what he thought was not right? The things that were taught in literacy school in the Void Mask Theme Park, were only at a primary school level from before he traversed. They had did not even teach multiplication and division. How could they be concluded as intellectuals? The standard of the ¡°intellectual¡± is too low! Well, he complained but the problem would still need to be solved. He called for a few God friends of his that were knowledgeable and experienced to gather to discuss the problem seriously¡­ Chapter 233 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the meeting room and only building of the Holy Kingdom of the Gods of Desolation, Sui Xiong sat with his God friends to discuss the issue of education. ¡°It took only three years to educate a group of intellectuals. Buddy, your church has trained its talents very fast indeed!¡± the God of Justice praised. ¡°It deserves to have the ¡°Great Educator¡± God take charge!¡± The God of Knowledge, Wall, suddenly blushed. He was ashamed to say that he had done nothing: the textbooks, school system, teachers, and even buildings had been made by His Majesty. ¡°Then what have you done, God of Knowledge?¡± the God of Justice asked curiously. Wall was a bit upset and turned his head down. ¡°Actually, I am principal of the school and take charge of the daily work¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s why he is called an educator,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°I was only responsible for making suggestions and preparations in the early stages. He did all the work later. Don¡¯t listen to the bullsh*t, because he makes it sound like he has done nothing. In fact, he is the reason why the school has such good results and trains such a large number of students!¡± All the other Gods couldn¡¯t help but smile after hearing that. It was normal to see two Gods shirking their responsibilities to each other, or the main God receiving all the compliments. But was rare to see two Gods attributing achievements to each other and emphasizing that they contributed less than the other party. ¡°Your church¡¯s atmosphere is wonderful!¡± Javier said. ¡°In such an atmosphere, everyone must be enthusiastic and confident. That¡¯s why you have made such achievements.¡± Sui Xiong was quiet at first and then smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s get down to business. In your opinion, how should I arrange the graduates in the future?¡± he asked. ¡°It¡¯s certainly impossible for them to go back to farm or work at a factory. That will seriously damage their enthusiasm and frustrate their long-standing expectations. But if I send them to do paperwork, there won¡¯t be enough positions.¡± ¡°That is indeed a problem!¡± Morani nodded and murmured. ¡°Well, how about recruiting a group of students among our followers? To tell you the truth, our church is quite short of such intellectuals. If you could help us cultivate some of them, it would be a great favor!¡± Sui Xiong willingly patted his chest and agreed, but the problem remained unsolved. The God of Desolation and the God of Joy¡¯s, their churches were not large enough to accept all the students. If they didn¡¯t reduce the education level of the main school of the Church of Void Mask, there would soon be a surplus of talent among the graduating students. Sui Xiong felt that since he had provided education to those people and allowed them to spend three years studying, it was time for them to get a job that deserved the three years¡¯ effort. ¡°To be honest, I¡¯m not very optimistic about this kind of education,¡± Yorgaardman thought for a moment and said. ¡°Your education is too high-end. The average civilian needs to have a complete command of reading and writing the common language, as well as the usual addition and subtraction calculations¡­ it¡¯s a bit redundant. By contrast, your two subordinates have done a good job. It¡¯s enough for a civilian to know a hundred words, write his own name, read notices, and do some simple arithmetic.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it good to be more literate than that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that bad, but it¡¯s unnecessary,¡± Yorgaardman said. ¡°Take me, for example. When I was a normal person, I couldn¡¯t write my name until I became an adventurer later and learned from a priest.¡± ¡°My story is pretty much the same,¡± Morani said. ¡°When I joined the army, I just put my thumb print with ink. I remember that in our team the captain was the only one who knew how to write his own name.¡± ¡°Damn it. Your educational experiences are tragic!¡± Sui Xiong muttered and looked at Javier. ¡°I remember you were born a prince. Your education must be better than theirs, right?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t take me as a reference. My acquaintances and I are all nobles,¡± Javier said with a smile. ¡°Even my bodyguards are from aristocratic families. They are just too young and less likely to inherit the family. But they received good educations from childhood, and many of them even write poetry.¡± Yorgaardman rolled his eyes, picked up the wine bottle provided by Ink beside him, and poured Morani a glass of wine. ¡°Cheers to the illiterate rude man!¡± Javier burst into laughter and poured himself a drink. ¡°Drinking has nothing to do with whether you are literate or not.¡± Sui Xiong frowned for a moment and asked, ¡°So is my education level too high after all?¡± ¡°Yes, only noble people need to learn so much.¡± Javier laid down his empty glass and said, ¡°Do you intend to cultivate them into aristocrats? If it¡¯s like that, you¡¯ll have to prepare lots of territories.¡± Sui Xiong sighed. Where could he find territory? Wall immediately supported his own boss and said, ¡°Your Majesty, I think you have done the right thing. What¡¯s wrong with reading more? There aren¡¯t suitable jobs for them currently. But at least when there are opportunities in the future, it will be easier for them to grasp than other people! ¡°I remember that your Majesty once said, ¡®Every drop of sweat will not be wasted¡¯. The time and effort they have devoted to learning will not be wasted!¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly, but he was still worried. That was true, but if they couldn¡¯t provide intellectuals with suitable jobs, it would be meaningless to promote education. The fundamental reason he wanted to promote education was that he hoped to enhance the wisdom and insight of people in this world, to change lives and destinies with the power of knowledge. Only by enriching people¡¯s minds could they pursue social progress more actively and promote the development of the world in a better direction. He had never talked about these ideas with others because he preferred to make achievements first. But now it seemed that would not be so easy. At that time the Silent Knight Ink, who had been drinking silently, suddenly opened his mouth and proposed an idea. ¡°Why not change it to a combat school? Teach people some fighting skills, basic words, and arithmetic, so that they can grow up to be good adventurers.¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that and thought about it carefully. As Ink said, the reason school graduates couldn¡¯t find suitable jobs was that they were just scholars. People always said that scholars and literacy were useless. But if they combined knowledge with martial arts, they could become high-quality adventurers who perhaps were more able to promote progress in the world. ¡°It does make sense-¡± ¡°No!¡± Yorgaardman interrupted. ¡°The cost of training adventurers is too high. Firstly, soldiers need more and better food than ordinary people. Secondly, they need a lot of weapons and resources. That will lead to a sharp increase in school costs.¡± ¡°Money is not a problem. I have money,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°Money is a big problem!¡± Yorgaardman said. ¡°If a school can only be sustained by the support of the church or even a God, it should only cultivate its followers and its soldiers. You are not cultivating a regiment of knights that are loyal to you. When you make the enrollment, you never asked about their faith. And I remember there were no theological courses in your school. As the God of Justice. I can¡¯t agree to pay for others. This is indeed kind, but it is unjust!¡± Sui Xiong was speechless, went silent for a while, and sighed. ¡°For the time being, let me pay for them. We can at least make it happen.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not right!¡± Yorgaardman advised. ¡°After being at your school for three years or more, a man acquires skills and then just leaves. I admit, he will be thankful to you in his heart, and may even become your follower, but as long as he doesn¡¯t confirm his faith, you will be the only party that is offering money and support. Bro, even the God of Mercy and the God of Relief only rescue people who are in danger. It¡¯s wrong for you to do something that hurts your own interest and benefits others.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the strong ones making a contribution to society?¡± Sui Xiong asked back. ¡°Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. But people should not take others¡¯ contributions for granted,¡± Yorgaardman emphasized. Watching them argue, Morani advised, ¡°It¡¯s better to educate the Regiment of Knights of the church, since the Church of Void Mask needs a strong military force anyway.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°It has nothing to do with the Knights. I set up schools for people to learn, not to let them pay me with their lives. Of course, I need my loyal Knights, but that should be based on ideas and faith. It should not be built to threaten and brainwash!¡± For a while, the atmosphere of discussion was somewhat stiff. Javier made a compromise. ¡°How about training chefs? They can learn how to cook while learning how to read. After graduation, they can work at restaurants or become the home chefs of aristocratic families in different cities.¡± Sui Xiong was quite impressed by that. It struck like lightning in his mind. Memories of previous generations came to his mind, such as the advertisement ¡°The best school to learn how to drive an excavator: Shandong Lanxiang Senior Technical School¡± or ¡°Want to be a chef? Come to the New East Cuisine School.¡± These ideas flashed through his head like a lantern. ¡°Come on! Why didn¡¯t I think of that earlier!¡± he could not help but laugh. ¡°I have an idea!¡± ¡°What is it?¡± Everyone asked curiously. ¡°I¡¯m going to set up a technical school,¡± Sui Xiong laughed proudly. ¡°After learning technology, I will assign them to different positions. I¡¯m going to build the world¡¯s largest training center for technical talents!¡± Chapter 234 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Many times, as long as you understand the key point of something, the rest falls into place. Sui Xiong was feeling so then. He completely understood what the problem of his school was, and had also found a solution. His mistake was that he brought over all his experience from Earth, building a school that was based purely on cultural education. Such a school would of course efficiently produce ¡°intellectuals.¡± But it could only produce ¡°intellectuals.¡± One needed to know that on Earth, it was not enough to learn only cultural knowledge. In order to make a mark in society, a person needed to receive follow-up education. Regardless of learning specialized skills, or professional knowledge. In short, one needed to possess professional skills in order to settle down and become someone who could support themselves. But in his school, there were no subjects teaching professional skills. So of course, all the students were a bunch of scholars. This was just like times in ancient China when there was a long period of time where they had selected talents through article writing. It even became as bad as people being abled-bodied but not being able to differentiate between the five grains. As a result, most of the selected officers were not reliable. Lots of peculiar things happened. Even he, as a person who was not interested in history, knew that much. And the key to that problem? The lack of professional knowledge! Try to imagine if ancient Chinese imperial examinations had the requirement for professional skills and knowledge on top of cultural knowledge. Every selected talent would have to have additional skills in agricultural, industrial, mathematics etc, besides reading and writing articles. What would happen then? Sui Xiong was not sure, but he had seen those historical traversing novels. Many great authors were also doing that. There must be a reason to it. Yup. If there was only one person who wrote it, that could be nonsense; but everyone wrote the same, so it must be reasonable! Furthermore, as long as a person had professional knowledge, it would be much easier for him to find a job in society. Just like the few clones he made before. Even if he was only good at cooking, he was enough to be a good enough chef. It was enough to let him be a skilled person who had a place in the world. Yeah! Let¡¯s do this! He was fully motivated, thinking which skill school to begin first. Excavator? Impossible! Computer? Nonsense! Chef? This is not bad, but a little troublesome to teach. Anyway, I¡¯ll just keep it as an alternative. Accounting? This is great! This is it! The businesses in this world are quite well developed. There must be a substantial demand for accountants, especially high-level accountants. Whether it is a store or a noble family, or even a slightly larger group of traveling businessmen, they will need an accountant! In fact, any organization that has a money operation would need an accountant! Accountants are irreplaceable and an important career in modern society. Not only that, but education in accounting was relatively easy. A teacher could teach many students, and they would not need specialized teaching materials. They were almost completely dealing with numbers. The school right now could meet the needs; there was no need to alter anything. Once he thought about it, he could not help but laugh out loud. ¡°What exactly is that ¡®skilled school¡¯?¡± Yorgaardman felt very curious as he watched him laughing proudly. Then he quietly thought hard for half a day, and suddenly laughed out loud again. ¡°The details are pretty complicated. To put it simply, it is a place to teach humans crafts,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°My initial plan is to build an accounting school.¡± ¡°Accounting? Counting ledgers?¡± Yorgaardman was stunned for a while. ¡°Is there such a need to train them? Back then I did not even know a word, and I could still do well in society¡­¡± ¡°No, it is necessary!¡± Javier¡¯s eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly. ¡°This is a great idea! If you train accountants in large batches, there will surely be a demand amongst the nobles and businessmen! By that time, I am afraid that there will be nobles and lordlings contacting and recruiting outstanding students even before they graduate!¡± ¡°Is this completely exaggerated?¡± Morani spoke doubtfully. ¡°I remember back when I was still in the Orc army, I had not seen any accountants¡­¡± ¡°That was because you had none! Orcs are just a bunch of cultureless barbarians!¡± Javier said impolitely. ¡°If the requirement allows, there should be an accountant in every department, every independently stationed army; even down to every 100-person team, every village. All should have an accountant!¡± He was excited for a while. Slowly he calmed down, but then suddenly remembered something. ¡°Oh yeah. I guess the accounting job is related to God of Wealth, so you¡¯d better speak to Her first.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and immediately sent a clone to the God of Wealth¡¯s Holy Kingdom. The God of Wealth¡¯s Holy Kingdom was named ¡°The River of Gold.¡± It was built in the emptiness of the Material Realm, far away within the Ring of the World. It was at the border between Material Realm and Spiritual Realm. There were steep mountains everywhere and a golden river that ran through it. The mountains represented the difficulties in obtaining wealth, and the golden river represented wealth itself. The holy temple for the God of Wealth was suspended in the air high above the golden river, overlooking the believers who were trekking through the fields of mountains, or laughing in the golden river. Due the reviving of Garth City and relief work from before, the relationship between the Void Mask Church and the Golden Royal Crown (or God of Wealth) Church was quite good. Hence, when Sui Xiong visited, he was well received by the God of Wealth. She even brought her oracles along and welcomed Sui Xiong¡¯s arrival from outside of the Holy Kingdom. Speaking of the God of Wealth, Sui Xiong could not help but talk about Her appearance. He really could not understand this God¡¯s aesthetic values, as this Goddess had turned Herself into a fat woman who was more like a lump of meat. When She walked, not only Her chest and stomach but also the fat on Her arms and thighs all trembled. He could not help but think of a news piece about the ¡°golden beauty¡± (a 1100 pound American woman) on Earth. Her image was so ugly. It was no wonder that although She was a Goddess, no one called Her ¡°Goddess of Wealth;¡± they only called Her ¡°God of Wealth.¡± With such a terrifying appearance, it really was not suitable to go by the name of ¡°Goddess¡±. ¡°Your Majesty of the Golden Royal Crown; don¡¯t you feel troublesome and inconvenient having a body so fat?¡± He could not refrain himself from asking. ¡°Why does it matter what we as Gods look like?¡± the God of Wealth replied with a smile. ¡°My believers all think that fat is the symbol of being rich. Only when they have money can they eat until they become fat. As the receiver of their beliefs, it is only natural for me to be a fatty. And I must be super duper fat, so I can represent the classiness of wealth.¡± ¡°¡­The classiness of wealth can be presented by dressing up; there is no need to get this fat.¡± ¡°Dress up? I already have a very suitable outfit.¡± The God of Wealth smiled as Her body shone brightly. She had put on a golden dress that was blinding. It was not clear how many golden threads and jewels were used on this dress, but it was not classy at all. It was purely gilded with wealth, filled with the style of local tyrants, and it left people feeling amazing. ¡°¡­If you don¡¯t mind, would you let me design an image for you?¡± Sui Xiong said. He tried to keep this to himself several times, but he could not stop himself from speaking. As a visual artist who sought perfection, an aesthetic worker whose life work was focused on designing and drawing, he could not accept this type of low-grade style! The God of Wealth was taken aback, but She did not refuse. She really wanted to find out what kinds of things this rising star amongst all Gods could design for her. After all, he was famous for his fighting skills and weird ideas. After a while, Sui Xiong¡¯s design draft was completed. Looking at the draft, the God of Wealth¡¯s eyes lit up. The woman in the picture was slightly chubby, but it did not feel like she was fat at all. Instead, there was a feeling of friendliness and warmth, an aura that let people feel She was trustworthy. She wore a set of clothes that were decorative but not so extravagant. The design reflected generosity and steadiness, and an exquisite texture. There were a few accessories on the shoulder and chest areas that were gorgeously dazzling. All these created a temperament that was rich and classy, making people feel that this lady was a big shot with money and social status. With a wave of Her hand, the God of Wealth used Her Divine Powers to bring the image on the sketch out into the air and turned it into a three-dimensional image. Her Oracles and superior believers all looked intensely on the image. They praised it generously. ¡°Very good! Very good! This is really good!¡± The God of Wealth was impressed and praised continuously as well. She could not contain her happiness. Although a God could be changed by their believers¡¯ faith, thinking and character remained from before they were turned into Gods. Maybe the God of Wealth could actually accept Herself being as fat as a lump of meat that weighed tons, but since there was a prettier image as an option, She would choose the prettier image! There could be women who never paid attention to beauty, but there would seldom be a woman who fought against being beautiful! The God of Wealth changed into the image that Sui Xiong designed as she was talking. She summoned a mirror, turning left and right. She carefully looked at herself. She smiled and laughed. Then She eagerly announced a God¡¯s order: that She had modified Her image and changed Her title to ¡°Goddess of Wealth.¡± She could not even wait for her believers to hold ceremonies. She turned all Her statues into Her current image using divine power. If Sui Xiong had brought a gaming system with him right now, he would be able to see other people¡¯s properties. He would definitely see that the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s friendliness level towards him had risen from 60 to 80. They became best friends almost immediately. ¡°My friend, thank you for very much for this precious gift!¡± The graceful Goddess of Wealth smiled as prettily as a blooming peony. ¡°This is the best gift I have received since becoming a God!¡± Sui Xiong laughed before he finally remembered the official matter. He quickly explained his original intention, emphasizing the ¡°accountant¡± job, explaining it as detailed and as objectively as possible. Then he asked the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s opinion on this matter. The Goddess of Wealth¡¯s eyes lit up again, this time even brighter than before. ¡°My friend! You just gave me a precious gift, and now you are giving me another, even more precious one!¡± She almost jumped for joy. ¡°This idea is really great! I will send believers who are best at accounting from my Holy Kingdom. Let them be teachers and they will surely train the best students!¡± Sui Xiong smiled and nodded. Suddenly he remembered something. ¡°Then, it is better if we add some more blessings and restrictions to the post. If an accountant is loyal to his duties, then he will receive your blessings, and his signature will be shiny whenever he signs. In turn, if he betrays his duties, his signature should lose its shine.¡± The Goddess of Wealth laughed out loud. She was very happy. ¡°My friend! I can already foresee that there will be an increase in accountants who are loyal to their duties, and the problem that had long bothered my believers¡¯ camp will start to improve¡­ you have given me the best gift of all!¡± Then, She turned to the sky and spoke loudly. At the same time, the clone of Goddess of Wealth in the Pantheon Temple changed her face and stood up to pronounce Her oath in front of all the Gods. ¡°I, Maneez, the Goddess of Wealth, hereby swear that from this moment on I will form a formidable alliance with Oscar, His Highness of Void Mask. I will help Him with all my might no matter what difficulty and danger there is, as long as He has not betrayed me and I have not passed on!¡± Chapter 235 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The alliance between the God of Wealth (now the Goddess of Wealth) and Void Mask was totally beyond the expectations of the Gods. Except for the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, who said, ¡°I knew those two had a relationship.¡± The other Gods were surprised, including those who were good at tricks and strategies. The direct consequence of the incident was that the Goddess of Bumper Harvest began to work hard on finding helpers, or allies. She always felt that Void Mask and the Royal Crown had a problem with her. Their alliance must have aimed to make some trouble for her. ¡°If a person is sick, they should take medicine. What if a God is sick?¡± Sui Xiong sneered after he got the information. Then he said grumpily, ¡°Should I give Her some brain damage pills? If he takes them three times a day three tons at a time, the pills may take effect and she may be saved.¡± ¡°What are brain damage pills?¡± asked Javier, who provided the information. ¡°Pills used to treat the damaged brains of people who always have foolish thoughts.¡± ¡°Oh? Is it equivalent to relieving frenzy?¡± ¡°Almost.¡± ¡°Is the cost high? If not, we¡¯d better produce the pills in large quantities for sale. I remember the potion for relieving frenzy is very expensive.¡± ¡°It is troublesome to produce them.¡± Javier sighed. ¡°Forget it. To tell the truth, I still feel that it¡¯s fun to make money now. Especially if I help my followers make money themselves. Their religious faith will go up in a straight climb.¡± ¡°I remember you told me before that faith is not a deal,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°The time I discussed whether or not it was fair that people believe in a God for protection, right?¡± Javier smiled, squinting. ¡°Now I see that you were right! You are a real nettlefish sage!¡± ¡°Nettlefish sage¡­ Who made that nickname? Too bad!¡± ¡°Compared to frog elder, nettlefish sage is not that bad,¡± Javier said. ¡°I think it¡¯s appropriate, and so do the Gods.¡± ¡°Firstly, I am not a sage. I think I am very ordinary,¡± Sui Xiong said seriously. ¡°Secondly, and most importantly, I am a jellyfish, not a nettlefish. Jellyfish that have been fished up and dried on the counter of a seafood store are nettlefish!¡± Javier laughed, raising a glass. ¡°Cheers to the dried nettlefish!¡± Looking at his drunk face, Sui Xiong sighed deeply and couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°How much have you drank?¡± ¡°Who remembers! I¡¯m so happy today! His Majesty, the God of Light, invited us to drink. How honorable it is!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. ¡°The God of Light? Isn¡¯t he serious and cold? How could he invite you to drink?¡± ¡°Yes! It¡¯s very rare! So honorable!¡± ¡°During the banquet, did he say anything?¡± ¡°Not yet. We are still drinking,¡± Javier said happily. ¡°We still need more drinks.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly, a little worried in his mind. As the saying goes, ¡°Courting others for no reason means bad deeds are hidden.¡± Now a serious and cold person who was also a high-status emperor suddenly made a banquet for no reason. Even Javier, a God who was off-staff in the Human God System, had been invited. Something was off. However, seeing that Javier was so elated, he didn¡¯t want to throw cold water on him. So he only secretly worried. Fortunately, this place was not only the God¡¯s Kingdom of Desolation God System. It was also his world. With both internal and external barriers, it could effectively intercept many bad influences. Even if something was wrong with Javier¡¯s noumenon in the ¡°Country of Light,¡± he could try to save his friend to some degree instead of letting him fall. After a while, Javier got so drunk that he was even a little stupid. No one knew how much his real body drank at the banquet in the Country of Light. How could he get drunk like this? Suddenly, Javier opened his eyes wide. He screamed and showed a look of extreme fear. His whole person was frozen. Sui Xiong was really shocked. He thought that he might have had an accident, but his breath was still steady, as well as his divine power, without any sign of weakness. This made him feel a bit relieved, so he did not immediately launch the interception according to the original plan, which he could use to completely cut off the connection between Javier and his noumenon. ¡°What is going on?¡± he asked. Javier was silent for a while and then burst into tears. ¡°Hey! What are you crying about?¡± After some light and shadow flickered, the figure of Yorgaardman appeared next to him, with his face gloomy and terrible. ¡°Something terrible,¡± he said. ¡°God of Light, the Master God of the Human System, killed the Mother of Sea who created human beings.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and finally reacted after few seconds. ¡°What?! He killed the Mother of Sea?!¡± ¡°He suddenly invited all the human Gods to his banquet, originally including me. But I didn¡¯t accept the invitation,¡± Yorgaardman said with a gloomy face. ¡°He brought out a magical wine at the banquet, which even can get Gods drunk after drinking it. It¡¯s incredible.¡± ¡°When everyone was drunk enough, He said, ¡®Are you very curious? How on earth does this wine, which can get the noumenons of Gods drunk, come from? Do you want to know? Of course you do.¡¯ Then he ordered the oracles to push out a huge wine trough with the remains of the Mother of Sea cut into pieces inside.¡± Sui Xiong suddenly felt a chill from his back to his forehead. Although a jellyfish did not have these parts, nothing else was enough to describe his mood at the moment. The Mother of Sea was an ancient God. She had had a good relationship with the Goddess of Life, so she helped a lot when the Goddess of Life created the high-level elves. Later, with the help of her experience and the understanding of life at that time, she had created a race with a short life, but rich emotions and strong learning abilities as well as good fertility, which were human beings. The Mother of Sea hadn¡¯t tried to direct the human beings as the creator. In fact, she was rarely interested in human beings¡¯ lives, which was almost a laissez-faire attitude. Only in the early days of human birth had she given protection to human beings. Later, ¡°Guardian Knight¡± Astoril, who was the present God of Knights, became a God. Therefore, she handed over the task of protecting human beings to the God of Knights and stepped behind the scenes, remaining retired. Although it was a long time ago, for the human race, the mother God who had created them was still one of the most respectable great existences. They even gave her the honorable title of ¡°Great Mother.¡± The God of Light killed the Mother of Sea, used the remains to make wine, and then even used this wine to hold a banquet for all Gods with human origin. Holy shi*t! He was simply insane! ¡°Why did he do this?¡± Sui Xiong asked the most important question. ¡°I am enough for human beings to worship,¡± Yorgaardman sighed deeply, ¡°This was his reason.¡± The word ¡°simply¡± was needless, because this guy was completely insane! ¡°Then you are not going to kill him?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Of course I will kill him! However, I need to find a chance,¡± Yorgaardman said with a sullen face. ¡°This motherf*cker killed the Great Mother and devoured her power. To some extent, he must have mastered the power of creation. After all, I originate from human beings. If I don¡¯t find a suitable opportunity, I will be suppressed badly in a rash battle.¡± Sui Xiong nodded, glad that his elder brother didn¡¯t lose his mind in anger. There was a very mysterious connection between the Gods and their creations. Generally speaking, the creations of Gods could never resist Gods. The relationship between creator and creation was the firmest and most unshakable control connection in the world. Take Orcs for example: although some of them could break from the shackles of blood and become half-Orcs with relatively independent souls and hearts, it didn¡¯t mean that they were not controlled by the Orc Gods who created their race. For example, Morani, a lionman who was one of Sui Xiong¡¯s friends, was originally an Orc. Later, he became a half-orc. But when he was about to become God, Singh, the ¡°Golden Lion King¡± who had already fallen, took the opportunity to resurrect. He thinned his due divine power, leaving him trapped in the level of weak divine powers who should have got middle-level divine power. It was not until recently that he had won the Clergy Competition and been able to break through the restrictions and step into the middle-level divine power. That was to say, until that time, Morani had really broken away from Singh and gained complete freedom. However, although he had been free, if he fought with Singh, he would still be greatly restrained. He could use 40% or 50% of his power in the best of conditions. If he were careless, he might even be defeated by Singh, who was still weak in divine power at present. Yorgaardman was also a human being. He had to be cautious in the face of the God of Light, the murderer who killed the human creator and devoured her power. It was also strange to say that the God of Light was a human being. How could he kill his own creator and devour her? It was totally unreasonable! Sui Xiong was very confused, but couldn¡¯t find anyone to answer him. This incident shocked all the Gods in the thousands of worlds. For a time, everyone focused on the Country of Light. They speculated on what the master God of human beings wanted to do on earth. Many Gods were secretly worried that this mad guy would launch a large-scale divine war, forcibly conquering or even killing some Gods who had human origins but had not joined the Human God System and did not obey him. As a result, many of those Gods spontaneously gathered around Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, hoping to counter the pressure of the God of Light with the help of this top strongman, recognized by all the Gods. Now that the King of Order was indifferent, only the God of Justice could give them a little confidence and a sense of security. As the Gods were in shock and panic, things in the human world were ignored by everyone. During the ignorance, the Void Mask School of Education had been rectified and renamed the New Comprehensive Technical School. Chapter 236 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Even though a crazy incident was occurring¡ª the God of Light devouring the Mother of Sea¡ªit did not cause Goddess of Wealth¡¯s mood to turn sour and change Her original plans. She still sent out the promised teachers. This batch of teachers consisted of eight people. They were experts who were good with ledgers and counting when they were still living. Amongst them, there was more than one officer whose name was remembered by later generations. Sui Xiong gave them each a body to avoid scaring people. They had been turned into Godly creatures and had not possessed physical bodies for some time. They were all quite happy, expressing that this was an experience that was hard to come by, and that it was very interesting. With this batch of high-level teachers (probably the highest level in the history of mankind), the ¡°Federation of Accounting College¡± was successfully formed as the first campus of the New Asian Comprehensive Technical School. Those who were willing to learn first needed basic knowledge from the main campus, including the official language and common mathematics. After completing their basic knowledge lessons, they would go to the accounting school campus to learn accounting skills. That would take one year of schooling. Within this year, they would need to learn about products from all places on the mainland along with their prices, some simple and yet important local customs, writing and checking ledgers, calculating profits and taxes, and last but not least the most advanced knowledge: financial budgeting. Of course, all these things were to happen progressively. Only when they learned the simple topics well would teachers move to advanced topics. And only when they had learned all other topics with great results would teachers instruct in financial budgeting. The current graduates who were supposed to be sent out to become local clerks were being gathered to learn accounting. They were all very glad to be learning an extra set of skills and showed tremendous passion for learning. Just how hardworking were they? It was not as if their heads were hanging off the beams or that they were sitting on thorns in agony. But it was not unusual that they¡¯d purposely sleep uncomfortably, to sleep lightly. In fact, most of the students did not even average four hours of sleep per day. They used all their might to learn desperately. Thankfully the school was close to church and pastors could arrive as problems arose. Otherwise, they were afraid that someone might overwork themselves and die of exhaustion. Sui Xiong had asked the pastors to talk to them many times, and these students had promised to rest well. But once they turned around they were working hard and learning again. They were all like dried sponges, absorbing all the water they could get to quickly make themselves be more fulfilled and saturated with information. Even then there were not many who actually had outstanding results. After one year, only four students out of the batch of 400 could learn financial budgeting. Surrounding these four students were Leon the archon of Garth City, Olian the lord of Geerteng City, and Rhode, the financial supervisor of Void Mask Theme Park. The three of them had to fight over the graduates, and no one was willing to back down. At the moment, they could not even think of their friendship. They all wanted the last top graduate to join them in addition to taking in one top student each. A talented person proficient in finances and accounts, and could even make qualified financial budgeting, was more valuable than gold wherever he went. The three of them even kept the news to themselves with implicit understanding. Even though they were arguing badly inside the conference room, they¡¯d laugh and joke with each other in public without mentioning anything at all. In the end, the three argued until they reached Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong considered carefully before giving the last top graduate to Leon because his work was really busy. Garth City was developing well these years and the financial jobs were getting more plentiful. He really needed more talented people. And yet, Rhode and Olian both complained quite a while privately. They had already planned to take action as soon as possible during the next batch of accounting graduates and recruit the best talents for themselves! As for the average graduates, they had also been widely welcomed. The nobles and chambers of commerce who received the news were all skeptical initially, but they soon found out that these young people who were proficient with accounting were really excellent. They were especially loyal to their duties. This made employers extremely happy and satisfied. As a result, the first batch of 200 graduates was taken in. There were even a number of nobles who contacted the school directly, hoping that they could reserve a few students in advance. ¡°You will need to wait another four years,¡± Principal Wor said. Of course, He used a clone whom common people couldn¡¯t recognize, as well as an alias. Medium and small-sized nobles thought, only four years; we can afford to wait! They had already suffered long due to the lack of suitable financial supervisors and could afford to be patient. On the other hand, wealthy and powerful nobles and bigger Chambers of Commerce expressed their interests to invest in the school, to expand the school. They hoped that there would be a batch of graduates per year, so they could get enough financial staff as soon as possible. Sui Xiong did not blindly agree to their requests because he felt that it should be waited out to see if this batch of graduates could actually help society improve or not. Then, only he would decide if the school should expand. These graduates were mostly working for big nobles and big businessmen, and this worried him a little. He was not sure if training the talents was helping a bad cause. It was better to be more cautious. Even though the accounting school produced a batch of students every four years, he could still use a different time schedule to make other technical schools. The name ¡°New Asian¡± did not have to only cover accounting. Computing and others were not possible. But I should at least make a culinary school! A culinary school would have fewer requirements in comparison with an accounting school because the focus was different. Being a chef would not require a high level of cultural knowledge. But the craft was even more important than accounting. So Sui Xiong adjusted the course duration to three years for a batch: one year of basic knowledge and the remaining two years learning culinary skills. There was much more content in culinary school. It not only included the recognition and preparation of cooking materials, but also seasoning of various flavors and cooking techniques. Leon and Olian gathered the past school graduates from both Garth City and Geerteng City to ask if they were interested in learning culinary arts. Most of the graduates were willing to spend another two years learning a reliable craft. They already saved one year¡¯s time by learning basic knowledge. The principal for the culinary school campus was Javier¡¯s clone. The God of Joy was not joyful as of late. Even though he appeared in various celebrations, he showed little interest. When He was around His close friends, He took off His mask of joy to reveal a heavy heart of depression and worry. The death of the Mother of Sea was only one of the reasons He was depressed. He worried about the progressive future of the entire Human God system. The God of Light was an extremely strong-willed God. While He was only a normal member amongst the Human God system, He could not accept any opposing commentary. Now that He had devoured the Mother of Sea, He gained the power to control mankind. Even if nobody understood how powerful this could be, it must have promoted His power. So¡­ what was He going to do? Among the Human God system, His position was the highest point. Amongst the Gods, He was already recognized as one of the strongest. Considering His newly obtained powers, perhaps He was now only second to the Number One Expert of Strong Divine Power, the master of the Order, also known as ¡°The Great Holy Power.¡± What would he do with this power now that He had gotten it? ¡°Maybe He will conquer,¡± Morani guessed, ¡°or maybe He is planning to start a war with the God of Orcs. Does He want to completely defeat this major opponent in the long history of Human God system?¡± This guess was very reasonable and logical. In fact, most of Gods also predicted this. And yet, things were often unpredictable. While the God of Light was still silent, the Orc God system had already taken action. They announced a God¡¯s order to have the empire launch a full-scale attack on the Eagle Kingdom. Thus, the war began! Chapter 237 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The atmosphere in the Pantheon temple was tense. In the second row, next to the King of Order, the God of Light exerted unimaginable power and moved his seat to the side of Sky Devourer Canine. Without saying anything he sat there, waiting silently. But Sky Devourer Canine did not appear. Other Gods in the Orc God System didn¡¯t show up during this period of time either. The God of Light did not make any comment on this. He just waited patiently with a sneer. The Orc God System wanted to expand their forces through the war in the human world. This was a common practice for God wars. The Human Gods and the Orc Gods were all Gods of Belief. If the number of people who believed in them decreased, their powers would be weakened, downgraded, and even killed. However, the war between Orcs and human had lasted for so many years. There was never a winner. The general mobilization of the Orc Empire was seen in history as well. The fight had been extremely fierce every time, but the Orcs had never really broken the defenses of human countries. Would there be an exception this time? The Gods at the Pantheon temple had been waiting for several days. Finally, the God of Fire Elements, the King of Fire, who had a good relationship with the God of Light, could not help but ask him questions about the war in the human world. The God of Light did not play the ¡®silence is gold¡¯ trick. He sneered and said, ¡°All along, the dirty beasts have occupied a vast fertile field, on which they have grown like mosquitoes at their will, performing various forms of ugliness. Not only that, but they have always kept their eyes on areas where human beings thrived, planning to spread their ugly ecosystem like a plague to that area. There is been an invasion like this every once in a while. It¡¯s no big deal.¡± ¡°Is that all?¡± asked the King of Fire. ¡°Basically, that¡¯s all,¡± the God of Light replied confidently. ¡°We humans never reject any friends, nor fear any enemies. We welcome friends with wine and delicious food, singing and dancing, and defeat enemies with swords and magic. They want to fight? Then go ahead. A human is not afraid of a war!¡± Obviously, such an answer could not satisfy the King of Fire. He then asked the God of Light if he had any specific tactics to defend against a human¡¯s attack. But the God of Light refused to answer. He said that it was a military secret and not suitable for public discussion. If interested, he could ask in private. After a while, the King of Fire found the God of War again and asked him about his views on the war. ¡°Views? You know I love wars!¡± the old-looking God of War smiled. But there was not even a little kindness in his smile. Instead, it was full of viciousness and bloodthirsty feeling. ¡°Whether it is an attack or a retreat, an invasion or a defense, a sweep or a raid. As long as it¡¯s a war, I like it! ¡°I like to see countless people fighting for their interests or ideas or beliefs. No matter what. As long as they fight, I like it. ¡°I like to see them bleeding on the ground and their dead bodies full on the field. I like to see, in the pool of blood, the winners cheer while the losers cry, the dying soldiers struggling while the brutal slaughterers attack, and the fast winners chasing after their enemies. Iron and blood: the smell of the war is so charming! No matter who starts the attack, who they fight for, who is laughing or weeping¡­ It doesn¡¯t matter. I just like the war itself, and all kinds of scenes in war. ¡°When innumerable people shout, roar, weep and whine, when they use all their strength to fight for less than half of their survival opportunities, I will always gaze at them in the sky with ecstasy and enjoy such rare and beautiful scenery. My view is: Good! Very good! It¡¯s gorgeous! I love this war!¡± The King of Fire was silent for a moment and asked, ¡°I mean, in your view, which party is more advantageous to win in this war? Or what result will it have? Do you have any opinions?¡± ¡°What will happen to mortals who can only live for decades? I have no interest in that at all,¡± the God of War smiled indifferently. ¡°My strength comes from the war itself. What I care about is whether there is a war in the world, whether there are enough wars to break out, and whether it is violent enough. I¡¯m not interested in anything else except that!¡± ¡°Well, would you make some comment on the fighting power of both sides?¡± the King of Fire sighed. ¡°Just humor me. Talk about the issues of winning and losing.¡± The God of War laughed, touched his beard which was harder than steel, and said, ¡°The Orcs have multiplied a lot in recent years, and there are more young Orcs. So it will definitely consume part of the population through the war. On the one hand, it is through this method to screening and eliminating those who are weak or unlucky. On the other hand, it is also to reduce food consumption and population pressure. So from this perspective, the Orcs should not care much about victory.¡± All the Gods nodded slightly, thinking that he had said something reasonable. ¡°But it doesn¡¯t mean that they can¡¯t win. As I said before, the Orcs have multiplied so much in recent years that they have a surprisingly high number of soldiers, and their purpose in war is essential to reducing the population. Their way of fighting must be very fierce. It will be very difficult for mankind to defend themselves.¡± The Gods were silent for a moment. The God of Knights could not help asking, ¡°So what do you think the humans should do to increase their chances of victory?¡± The God of War roared with laughter. ¡°What will be different if they win? Humans are already abandoning their faith in you. Look at the human world. How many temples of you are left there? How many believers do you have? How many people are still following your belief? No matter who wins, it won¡¯t matter to you!¡± ¡°It matters,¡± the Lord of Knights said calmly. ¡°Even if I died tomorrow, I would continue to pay attention to human beings and protect them today. Even if I died in the next moment, at least for this moment I am still alive. As long as I¡¯m alive, I will fulfill the oath I have made to myself.¡± Inside the Pantheon temple, there was another moment of silence. The God of War shook his head and sighed. ¡°The humans will surely suffer a lot. The difference lies in the scale of their loss. If the nations of mankind could unite together and attack simultaneously from the East and the South, it would probably not be so easy for the Orcs to fight on both sides. But as both of us know, that is impossible.¡± As he said, to the east of the Orc Empire was the Kingdom of Holy Angels, and to the south was the Eagle Kingdom. There had been long-time hatred between these two countries. They had been fighting endlessly for the fertile land in the Great Plains of the eastern part of the continent. No one could believe that these two countries would put hatred aside and unite together to fight. Not to mention that the Kingdom of Holy Angels had taken the God of Sun as their national religion and did not follow other Gods¡¯ lead at all. While the Eagle Kingdom was the major area of Human Gods, there were many Gods¡¯ descendants in its kingdom. Even in terms of belief, it would be impossible for the Kingdom of Holy Angels to help the Eagle Kingdom. ¡°Why did the Orcs attack the Eagle Kingdom rather than the Kingdom of Holy Angels?¡± Sui Xiong said. At the high-level meeting of the Church of Void Mast, Sui Xiong looked at the map and said, ¡°Don¡¯t they have powerful soldiers and strong horses based on a large population now? Won¡¯t it be an advantage if they go directly to the East and expand their army on the vast terrain?¡± As he said, the boarding area between the Orc Empire and the Kingdom of Holy Angels was a vast hilly area, where a huge battle could be fully deployed to maximize the strength of the Orcs. The boarding area between the Orc Empire and the Eagle Kingdom was a narrow valley between the Graystone Mountains and the Giant Beast Mountain, where there were fortifications built by the Eagle Kingdom as well as layers of defense. If they wanted to fight there, what they needed most was not the number of soldiers but the quality of the army. Even if the Orcs had more troops, the number of soldiers that could enter the battlefield was limited. How could they benefit from that? ¡°They probably had some political and religious considerations,¡± Leon said. When it came to a war, there weren¡¯t many people who really had a great vision among the high officials of the Church of Void Mask. Then Leon Igor, once the prince of the Eagle Kingdom, became the only holding the talk. ¡°It¡¯s true that as your Majesty said, from a military point of view, the Orcs should fight eastward. But if they fight eastward, the Eagle Kingdom is likely to attack them under the oracles of the Human Gods, cooperating with the Kingdom of Holy Angels to fight on both sides. After all, the Kingdom of Holy Angels is also a human country. Even if they do not believe in Human Gods very much, they should be protected by Human Gods out of their divine duty.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t there be problems in attacking the Eagle Kingdom?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Well, the Kingdom of Holy Angels mainly believes in the God of Brightness (the God of Sun), who is one of the leaders of the Natural God System. He has a bad relationship with the God of Light, so he has been trying to weaken the beliefs of Human Gods for a long time. In this case, if he does not order the Kingdom of Holy Angels to cooperate with the Orc Empire, then they should thank their God. If you¡¯re expecting him to descend the oracle to let the Kingdom of Holy Angels help the Eagle Kingdom, that is impossible.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while, shook his head, and sighed. ¡°They know nothing about seriousness!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not about the seriousness, it¡¯s about the difference between what they care about.¡± In Sui Xiong¡¯s world, which had been named the Shelter of Divine Light, all Gods who had good relations with him gathered together to discuss the issue of this war. When Sui Xiong complained the God of Sun couldn¡¯t figure out serious matters, Javier explained. ¡°For the God of Brightness, the death and life of human beings who do not believe in him deserves no care. The Orcs, after the war, will reduce a large population. They should be stable for a long time, and the Kingdom of Holy Angels does not have to worry about anything. It is reasonable that they would not send troops to help the Eagle Kingdom.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t they know the saying, ¡®If the lips are gone, the teeth will feel cold?''¡± ¡°If the lips are gone, the teeth will feel cold¡­ That is a wonderful description!¡± Morani praised. ¡°But the Kingdom of Holy Angels and the Eagle Kingdom are deadly enemies. They are not of lip-and-teeth relations.¡± Sui Xiong frowned several times and finally sighed angrily. This was really unpleasant. Chapter 238 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was more than this that made people unhappy. A few days later, Morani found Sui Xiong to tell him some shocking news. ¡°I have been to the Orc¡¯s Holy Kingdom, the ¡®Boundless Open Field,¡¯ and had a meeting with His Highness of Sky Devourer Canine,¡± He said. ¡°I know you care about this war so I went to ask him. I sense that you did not like wars, so I tried to talk him out of it.¡± ¡°So how was it?¡± Sui Xiong said, looking forward to His answer. ¡°What did He say?¡± Morani sighed. ¡°He said He had to thank you, for they have enough people to start a war now.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes grew, and his mouth gaped so wide a giant dragon could do a samba dance in it. He was stunned for quite a while before he stammered his question. ¡°Me?! Wha¡­. what does it have to do with me!¡± ¡°Hadn¡¯t you been active in the Orc Empire back then? During that period, you cast a ¡®Massive Estrus Spell¡¯ whenever you saw an internal war happening amongst the Orcs. Your spells had great effects. Many of the villages who were killing each other eliminated their hatred for one another and started living peacefully. Because of that, the Orcs had fewer casualties from internal wars, and their population grew very quickly.¡± Morani shook His head, not knowing to laugh or cry. ¡°According to the Orcs¡¯ normal speed of reproduction, they would have needed approximately another 100 years before they had enough troops to launch an attack, but in the end¡­¡± He did not have to finish the sentence, as the meaning was very clear. Sui Xiong was silent for a long time, but he could not help but swear. ¡°What the actual f*ck! What is this thing!¡± ¡°Oh right. High Highness of Sky Devouring Canine wanted to ask you if you are willing to serve as the Orcs¡¯ God of Reproduction? If you are willing, He can arrange ceremonies with a sacrifice for you in every Orc tribe. He knows that you do not like to be constrained, so you only need to put the name. You are not required to live in the Boundless Open Field and do not even need to follow His orders. As long as you do not oppose Him.¡± Sui Xiong frowned. Honestly speaking, this suggestion by ¡°Sky Devouring Canine¡± Lefon was very sincere, but he really did not like being grouped alongside a bunch of invaders. ¡°Did He ask me to reply as soon as possible?¡± He asked. ¡°No, He only said to tell you to consider carefully. He even expressed that Orcs will never care where you came from. With your abilities and growth speed, perhaps one day you could even be the Main God of the Orc God system.¡± Sui Xiong could not help but mumbled another ¡°f*ck.¡± He could not help but ask, ¡°If I were to be the Main God of the Orc God system, then what would He be?¡± ¡°There are two possibilities. The first is you taking over when He passes on,¡± Morani explained. ¡°Or, you can issue a challenge with Him, and beat Him in a match that everyone acknowledges. If He has not passed on by then, he will retire from the main Godly duties. Only the title ¡®God of Dogmen¡¯ and some other minor clergies will remain, passing the major clergy to you. Originally, ¡®Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit¡¯ Snakenell, as the ex-Main God of Orc Gods system, lost to His Highness Lefon in a challenge. He had to surrender his place as Main God and its related clergy. Now He is the God of Snakes and Snakemen, and has been serving His Highness of Lefon ever since.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a while. He asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t Snakenell think of revenge? Wouldn¡¯t He want to regain power? Wouldn¡¯t Lefon be scared of His betrayal? Was He not scared that He would be stabbed in the back?¡± ¡°One can grab the position as Main God as long as they receive everyone¡¯s acknowledgement on the challenge,¡± Morani smiled. ¡°Betrayal and assassination would surely bring to the downfall of His Highness Lefon, but it would not get everyone¡¯s acknowledgement. Everyone would be hostile instead, and might even gang up and attack. The Orcs are a fierce and bold race. They encourage good men to fight hard with each other. Playing in a conspiracy, of course, is a skill too. But it is impossible to get the title by playing with conspiracy and assassination!¡± Sui Xiong thought hard for a long time, and he could not help but pout. ¡°Why do I feel the style of Orc God system is more suitable for me than the Human God system? This must be a d*mn illusion¡­¡± ¡°You are not human after all; you are a jellyfish,¡± Morani said, laughing. Sui Xiong sighed deeply. He set the matter aside. He had not told anyone that he was actually not a jellyfish, but a human turned jellyfish. However, as a human, he seemed unfit to be in this world. As a jellyfish, he was doing really well. What is wrong! The gathering of the big army in the Orc Empire still needed some time, even though the air for battle was getting thick. But the war could not start at this time. He had temporarily moved his focus away from the war and onto his clone, Crick Keane. Baron Keane was currently very busy. After his hired experts finished cleaning and tidying up the internal parts of his territory, he promoted the revolution of farming in his territory. The quality of farming in this world was quite bad. Using about 30 pounds of seeds on one acre of land had produced roughly 200 pounds of crops, and it seemed as if it was not bad at all. But in fact, once the piece of land had been farmed, it had to be fallow for two years before it was ready for replanting. As a result, the yield for that acre of farm was reduced to only one third, which was only 70 pounds. Before traversing, Crick was an artistic worker. He was not familiar with agriculture. But even so, he remembered that the yield per acre was never this bad back on Earth, and he was sure he had never seen this insane a situation. Land that could be farmed for a year and fallow for two years was harsh. Considering that food was most important to the people, he decided to run a five-year plan in order to enhance their farming techniques. First of all, he investigated the reason for fallow land. He found that the soil had to recover the nutrients lost during that year of farming. If this problem could not be solved then fallow land was unavoidable. ¡°Nutrients¡­ that is fertilizer, right? I remember we used chemical fertilizer on Earth¡­ but where can we find chemical fertilizers here?¡± He pondered for a few days. In the end, he remembered from his deep memory that farmers in China during ancient times used human and animal waste as fertilizers, so he proposed this idea. ¡°Poop? Such dirty things can increase the nutrients in our soil? You must be joking!¡± an old guy said. He was a subordinate familiar with agriculture who was temporarily appointed as the agricultural officer. ¡°It should not be a problem¡­ soil is not human. It has no reason to feel dirty, I guess,¡± he said. Thus, with the help of magic, a very small experiment began. They found a small piece of land that had just been harvested. According to their customs, this piece of land needed two years to stay fallow before they could replant any food. Crick sent people to collect quite a lot of poop and buried it evenly under the ground. Then he used magic to speed up the growth of vegetation on the land. After about a week, there were all types of weeds growing. They waited until all the weeds had withered, and then cut and burned them, only to bury the ashes back into the soil again. They tried planting crops after that; this time the crops were growing really well. The result was even better than fallowing for two years. This experiment had gotten everyone excited and happy because whatever it was, had meant that the two years of lying fallow could be reduced to one year. But Crick was not satisfied. He ran another experiment to simulate the environment of fall and winter, to check if the poop that was buried in the soil could be turned into fertilizers after fall and winter. The results of this experiment were similarly satisfying. As long as they buried the poop immediately after harvesting their crops, they could sow again in spring and the results were similar to if they had left the ground fallow. The only problem was the weeds. They needed a lot of manpower to remove them. But compared to the previous method of farming once every three years, the production of the land was greatly increased. When Crick and the group were dancing happily to celebrate the success of the experiment, the jellyfish was nodding with a smile from afar. This was the best news he had gotten in a while. Chapter 239 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Crick did not promote the manure policy in the territory because of the success of the experiment but launched a large-scale experiment. In addition to a small town, his baron territory included four large and small villages, one of which was the manor of James, the head of the Regiment of Knight. The other three were directly under that administration. In order to prevent the trouble caused by the large-scale use of manure, he first selected the smallest one in the three directly-administered villages as a test site. He collected the manure in the late autumn, mixed it with the soil, and buried it in the field to prepare for the next year¡¯s cultivation. The villagers were very upset about this because they were worried that these dirty things would pollute the land. Therefore Crick announced that if something went wrong, the baron would provide food for the village next year, and even in the later years, which made them feel at ease. However, it was no longer a matter of making them relieved. According to the return of the bards who had been sent out by Crick to collect the opinions of the people, many villagers even secretly said words like, ¡°If the field is polluted, it will be better, right?¡± When he heard the news, Crick felt a little amused and annoyed at the same time. Who had said that the folks were stupid? They were really smart! A lot of things, which were not found in the small experimental field, were discovered in the large-scale cultivation. For example, the official responsible for the operation rushed back in no time to ask him for instructions. The manure in the village was not enough. What should he do? ¡°What? Manure is not enough?¡± ¡°Yes, sir, not enough manure.¡± The official who was very responsible for the work took out a piece of material. ¡°According to the estimation, it may take ten times more manure.¡± ¡°Ten times?!¡± Crick thought for a long time, but he couldn¡¯t think of any place to find so much manure. Finally, he just said, ¡°Take a two-pronged approach. Collect manure from the town while reducing the amount of use.¡± A few days later, the official ran over again and reported. Many people had diarrhea. What should he do? ¡°How do they have diarrhea when everything is all right?¡± Crick stared blankly for a while and then he had a thought. He asked, ¡°They didn¡¯t wash their hands or take a shower after working in the field, right?¡± ¡°They wash their hands, just casually in a river or in a pool. But taking a shower? Is that necessary?¡± the official asked. Crick sighed because he was speechless to those who lacked the knowledge of health and hygiene. ¡°Preach my order,¡± he said. ¡°From today on, all those who work in the fields must bathe after work every day! Also, they must wash their hands before eating, with clean water!¡± ¡°What is clean water?¡± the official with Loyalty up to 95 was very responsible, so he seriously asked. ¡°Water that cools after boiling,¡± Crick said. ¡°Sir, this is probably very difficult,¡± the official replied. ¡°It takes firewood to boil water. This is so expensive that the farmers can¡¯t afford it.¡± Crick sighed deeply and felt that he might be overreacting. He thought about it and said, ¡°Then build a filter pool. They can use unboiled water for bathing, but they must use the water in the filter pool to wash hands. By the way, drinking water must also be filtered!¡± ¡°Sorry, sir. But what is a filter pool?¡± Crick did not remember how many times he had sighed today. He reluctantly found a pen and paper and drew the design of a filter pool for the official. He had learned the design of this filter pool when he had designed a villa decoration plan for an upstarting rich family. At that time, they had insisted on bringing a river into the yard to form a round river. However, the water in the yard had to be clear, without duckweed. At first, he had proposed several filter designs, but he could not ensure that the river was clear. Finally, he had had no choice but to find his high school classmate who had studied architecture. Under the guidance of the classmate, he designed a complete set of plans including waterwheels, filter tanks, and reservoirs. Later, he used this design to win a small award for combining the ¡°intelligence¡± of science with the ¡°beauty¡± of farms, uniting technology with culture. He was so impressed with this design that he naturally drew it. However, looking at the drawings, the official pointed to the waterwheel and asked, ¡°Sir, what is this?¡± Crick recalled at this time that the world seemed to have no waterwheels. What was even more troublesome was that he didn¡¯t know how to build a waterwheel in detail. After his design at that time, the waterwheel was built by the decoration team. The foreman of the team had built the waterwheel easily without inquiring him. ¡°Let me think about how this stuff should be built¡­¡± He closed his eyes, thinking for a long time, and finally sighed. Damn! He didn¡¯t know¡­ ¡°Forget it. Dig a pool by the river. The bottom of the pool should be covered with sand, and the wall of the pool should be made of bricks and stones. On the side close to the river, build a filter layer there.¡± He thought for a long time and finally came up with an alternative plan. After a long time of explaining and drawing more pictures, the official with Intelligence 11 at last fully understood what he meant. He nodded and left. ¡°Damn! Fortunately, this guy is still smart. If his intelligence was 8 or 9¡­¡± Crick sighed deeply, imagining the situation, and couldn¡¯t help but shiver. ¡°Shit time travel! I¡¯m a damn aristocratic lord, but I still have all kinds of hard things to worry about. If I¡¯m still alive and travel back, if anyone talks to me about the medieval or ancient pastoral scenery, I will collect a bottle of urine from the toilet and pour it to his f**king face. This damn place doesn¡¯t even have a waterwheel!¡± After the complaints, the problem of getting his villagers well still needed to be solved. He thought about it and then went to see the two guys from the headquarters of the Church of the Distant Song, who fought all day. Thomas and Nikola lived in a separate yard. They were quiet only when they were praying to the great gods. Besides that, they quarreled even in their sleep. Crick sometimes felt that perhaps the Archbishop was bothered by these two guys, so he directly arranged the two real masters for him. When he told them why he came, Thomas immediately said that he knew the field of treatment. He could cast spells to help the villagers dispel disease. Nikola sneered and asked, how much magic power had he stored? How many times could he dispel disease? When Crick heard Nikola¡¯s words, he was a little curious and then asked, ¡°Do you have a better way?¡± ¡°Of course. Although I am just a bard, I can do the same as a priest. We can hold a small-scale sacrifice ceremony and pray for His Majesty to give us a group spell to dispel the disease.¡± ¡°I can do that, too!¡± ¡°But you can¡¯t think of it,¡± Nikola said, sneering. ¡°Although you have a high level of spell casing, you are stupid!¡± Thomas was so angry that they began to quarrel again. Crick sighed and shook his head silently while looking at the attributes of the two guys. Thomas was not stupid. His intelligence was 12. However, Nikola¡¯s intelligence was as high as 16. He actually had the qualification to despise Thomas from IQ. But in the field of force, the situation was reversed. After a few moments, Crick started off with Nikola, whose face was black and blue but still full of pride, as if he had won. They went to the village to hold a sacrifice ceremony. Although Thomas had won, he looked depressed and sat in the house muttering, repeating words like ¡°damn idiots,¡± and ¡°do you really think you¡¯re something because you are smart? Huh?¡± Crick admitted that a magical world was convenient. If the villagers all had diarrhea on the Earth, the town¡¯s clinic would be unavoidable and overwhelmingly busy. But in this world, after a sacrifice ceremony for about half an hour, along with the sounds of Nikola¡¯s harp, powerful magic swept through the square where the ceremony was held. And the villagers, who had pale faces and soft legs because of diarrhea, quickly recovered. Crick almost could not help but shout, ¡°This is not scientific!¡± The group diarrhea accident of the villagers had come to an end. It might have been a blessing in disguise. Crick soon ordered them to build several filter pools in his territory to provide clean water for the people. In addition, he also strictly required the villagers not to drink unboiled water. He even appointed a special official in every village to supervise it. Hygiene was a top priority! Sui Xiong paid attention to Crick¡¯s administration from afar. When he saw that, he couldn¡¯t help but be stunned for a while, because he found that he never seemed to notice that. ¡°Sterilization, the prevention of infectious diseases¡­¡± He talked to himself for a while, suddenly remembered one thing, and then went to Arcaian¡¯s. Arcaian was still studying mushrooms. He studied his mushrooms in addition to maintaining the adventure maze. Over the years, he worked hard on mushrooms and had developed a number of very practical varieties. The mushrooms in the maze had been changing for generations. Even in the deep mountains of Dragon-roar Town, he bred a large number of new varieties of mushrooms he called the Beast. Those mushrooms were low-risk, but they could quickly resolve the flesh of demon beasts¡¯ remains, which made the stink in the mountains disappear gradually. ¡°Bacteria? Infection? Infectious diseases?¡± Sui Xiong had thought that Arcaian had no idea about that, but he didn¡¯t expect that after his unintentional words, Arcaian nodded again and again. Then, he said a lot of things about health and epidemic prevention knowledge the same as Sui Xiong had learned before he had time traveled here. This was really a surprise, so Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°You already know this?¡± ¡°Our Pasteur School is for studying bacteria and fungi,¡± Arcaian said, smiling. ¡°My great-grandfather, Clarhott, divided all the tiny creatures in the world into two categories through the study of the ¡®Ash of Eternal Decay.¡¯ The ones with the characteristics of animals were called bacteria, and the ones with the characteristics of plants were called fungi. He also invented the famous Pasteur sweet wine and Pasteur cheese through his research on bacteria and fungi. Your Majesty, have you never tasted those before?¡± ¡°What? Pasteur cheese was invented by your great-grandfather?!¡± Sui Xiong was shocked and suddenly filled with esteem. He had never thought that the original ancestral research of his own mushroom expert turned out to be so high-end. Pasteur cheese was a famous luxury food, and really expensive! At the request of Sui Xiong, Arcaian put away his research on mushrooms and began to focus on the study of bacteria. The command that Sui Xiong gave him was researching several common infectious diseases. What exactly were they? How would they infect people? How would one prevent and treat them? He needed to take out a set of solutions with as few spells as possible. ¡°Why don¡¯t you use spells to get rid of the diseases?¡± Arcaian asked. ¡°Because, I hope that ordinary civilians can afford it, too,¡± Sui Xiong replied. At the same time, in a gloomy and rotten world, the God of Plague god suddenly had a chill. Chapter 240 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Baron Keane¡¯s territory was expanding to a larger scale of agricultural experiments and water purification work. Arcaian fully immersed himself in the study that would make him the archenemy of God of Plague in the future. As they were working and improving, both the Orc Empire and Eagle Kingdom had finished gathering their armies in the valley between the Graystone Mountains and Giant Beast Mountain. They had started the ferocious war between them. According to most people¡¯s opinions, this war would lack interesting points and be similar to the many previous Orc invasions. Humans relied on their stronghold fortresses, whereas Orcs relied on the attacks of their huge army troops to break through each of the fortresses. It had been like that for a long time. For example, the war usually started in the City of Iron¡¯s fortress, located near the north side of the valley. This was the biggest of all fortresses. It could hold the most troops, and the defense equipment and military food in storage could last for more than a year. During the many Orc invasions in the past, the Orc army had this fortress surrounded but could never take it down. But this time, the situation was slightly different. Up against the sturdy fortress, the Orcs sent out an enormous number of Air Force troops. Orcs who could fly and control flying demon beasts carried huge rocks, made light by magic spells. They threw them over the tops of fortresses just before the spells expired. With just one attack hundreds of big rocks were dropped from the sky into the fortress. Those that hit the city walls broke the strong magic shield and left a significant indentation in it. The rocks that hit the ground became embedded deep in the mud. With such horrible results, what would happen if rocks fell on houses and human bodies? Approximately 1/30th of buildings inside the City of Iron were completely destroyed, and even more houses were partially destroyed, with different magnitudes of destruction. The number of people who were hurt or dead could not be accurately tallied yet. Following the wave of attack, the entire City of Iron fell into chaos. The Orcs took this opportunity to immediately launch ferocious attacks. The steep walls could not stop the agile pace of the catmen. They climbed all the way up along the almost-straight wall, without the help of any tools. Once they sprinted to the top of the wall they let down a thick rope to let the troops behind them follow. Initially, there was a complete defense system in the City of Iron that could have blocked such a scale of attack. But due to the falling rocks, the armies of the City of Iron were feeling quite panicked. The command system had fallen into chaos. Brave soldiers who were originally defending the city walls had been smashed horribly, made mincemeat by the huge rocks that had fallen from the sky. While the morale of the remaining soldiers was almost deflated, it was impossible to organize any effective defense at all. Marquis Roland Igor, the city leader of the City of Iron, grouped an elite troop immediately as backup. But they still could not get there in time, as they were getting ready on one side and hurriedly taking action on the other side. The Orcs had successfully bombarded the city walls in a few different places. They quickly set up simple slopes to allow the troops behind them to charge. The Orc armies kept marching up to the city walls like tides that never relented. They engaged in battle with the soldiers of the Eagle Kingdom, biting down like canine teeth that never let go. They fought to kill each other madly. The outcome of this war had almost been decided. At the moment when it was the most dangerous, Marquis Roland had led his most loyal personal guards charging to the front line. He tried to save the battle through valiant effort. But they did not gain any advantages. Marquis Roland himself had already stepped into the Legendary Realm over 400 years ago. Amongst his personal guards, even the lowest of them was already at a high level, along with two more legendary experts. Usually, these three experts could easily tear the Orc armies apart if they were on the frontline. They rushed Orc troops that charged into the city and were almost at the city gates. They fought the Orcs back up the city walls. But that was it. When Marquis Roland took the lead and rushed onto the city walls, all he saw were eight opponents standing in a row, waiting for him. These were legendary experts who came from several Orc villages. Even Orc priests from big temples had joined the battlefield. For example, Marquis Roland recognized his old rival ¡°Iron Teeth¡± Yiloh Lion, a famous expert of the lionman tribe. Iron Teeth Yiloh was already a renowned expert in the lionman tribe. When he was still an adventurer back in the day, he was best friends with the infamous ¡°Heavy Armored Mad Lion¡± Leonard. In the end, both of them drifted apart because of their differences in belief and philosophy. Leonard disappeared from sight. According to hearsay, he stepped into a realm that was unimaginable by mortals. Yiloh became the general of the entire South army of Orc Empire; he led more than one Orc invasion, and his fierce name was well known. In the north side of the Eagle Kingdom, the name ¡°Iron Teeth Yiloh¡± could even scare the babies¡¯ midnight cries to a stop. He had battled many times with Marquis Roland. Each had their wins and losses. Even when facing him one-on-one, Marquis Roland had no confidence he would win for sure. If it were only him and only him, Marquis Roland would gladly lead his personal guards to charge towards his old rival, and have him surrounded and killed on the city wall. And yet, Yiloh was not alone. He had seven other helpers. Marquis Roland scanned through the seven helpers and recognized them very quickly. Every time he recognized one of them, his heart sank one notch. These eight legendary experts spread out to the left and right, as if they were guards who welcomed an old werewolf who walked up to the city wall. Marquis Roland¡¯s heart sunk even deeper, like a rock that had fallen into the water. He did not recognize this old man, but he recognized the wooden staff in his hand. This wooden staff was not refined. It was ugly and rough. It looked like a big tree branch picked up from the side of the road and carved by hand, using a knife. But the wooden staff contained strong magical light in it. In his magic eyesight, it was as if a sun had come to rest in front of him. More horribly, there was a string attached to the top of the staff. The string had six fist-sized skeletons tied to it. These skeletons had the same strong magic light shining from them and even dispersed a vicious aura. ¡°The Staff of Imprisonment?¡± He asked aloud. The ¡°Staff of Imprisonment¡± was rumored to belong to Lefon, Orcs¡¯ Main God, back when He had not yet become a God. It contained strong and impossible power. When He became God, He left it amongst the Orcs. Every time the Orcs killed a demigod expert, the wooden staff morphed the expert into a skull and imprisoned them in the staff to increase its power. In other words, the wooden staff had six skeletons, meaning there were already six dead demigod experts inside! The old werewolf did not reply. He acted as if he could not see him, and was only interested in the events beneath the city walls, under his feet. Then he looked at the fortress in front of him that had almost no defense left. ¡°This time, we will take hold of it,¡± He said to Iron Teeth Yiloh. ¡°You will be stationed here, then.¡± The tall lionman whose fierce name was so famous bowed deeply and accepted this order with an extremely humble attitude. The old werewolf nodded and was satisfied. He turned to leave. Marquis Roland could not hold back anymore and growled. He led his loyal and brave personal guards and charge towards the old werewolf. The eight legendary Orc experts welcomed them. The Orc army had only needed one day in total to break the fortress of the City of Iron. Chapter 241 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When the war flag of the Orc Empire was planted on the main fortress of the City of Iron, which was also the palace of the city Lord, the whole Pantheon temple went into silence again. ¡°It seems that the Orc gods really mean it this time,¡± Yorgaardman said. The God of Justice touched his messy beard, shook his head, and sighed. ¡°Even the Staff of Imprisonment and the Presbyter of the Divine Temple have been invited. I¡¯m afraid the Eagle Kingdom is not going to make it!¡± ¡°Hey, Wuther, what are you going to do?¡± He asked the God of Light, who was not far away from him. ¡°Nothing.¡± Wuther, the God of Light, sat there with a sneer. ¡°No worries. Let¡¯s wait a moment.¡± ¡°Hey! If I go on waiting, I¡¯m afraid the Eagle Kingdom will be destroyed!¡± ¡°Let it be.¡± The Lord of Light said carelessly. The God of Justice opened his eyes wide and could not believe it. After a while, he shouted angrily, ¡°What a joke! You are the Master God of humans! How can you say that?¡± ¡°I am the Master God of the whole human race, not the patron saint of the Eagle Kingdom.¡± Yorgaardman opened his eyes wide once again and stared at him without moving. After a while, he suddenly asked thoughtfully, ¡°You can¡¯t do anything at all, can you? You must be scared!¡± The more he thought about it, the more he felt his guess was reasonable, so he asked again and again, ¡°Hey, is there anything you can do? Or are you scared? If there is no way, or if you are scared, then get out of the way. Don¡¯t be a dog in the manger! Wuther, if you can¡¯t help, don¡¯t be the Master God anymore. Even I could do better than you! ¡°You haven¡¯t ever been a soldier, even for a day. You are not even qualified to talk about fighting a war!¡± the God of Light answered scornfully. ¡°I have been a soldier, a knight, a general, a marshal and a king. What have you done? You¡¯re just a wanted fugitive murder. ¡°It¡¯s true that I know nothing about fighting in a war, but I know how to fight at least,¡± he continued. Yorgaardman did not hold back. ¡°At the very least, I still have the courage to fight. Wuther, have you ever drawn your sword even once since you defeated Igor?¡± The Lord of Light sneered. ¡°Idiot! I use a hammer!¡± ¡°You are only good at talking!¡± Yorgaardman stood up and took out his battle ax. ¡°Wuther, I¡¯m going to battle with you for the seat of the Master God of the Human God System! I can¡¯t stand a useless man like taking that seat! You will only lead humans to their deaths!¡± ¡°The human race obeys the order. What we value is the ability of leaders, not the mere strength,¡± The God of Light said slightly. ¡°Do you want to grab my seat? You can put on bearskin to challenge Lefon, who has been respected for his strength. As long as you win, you will be the King of Animals. Then you can completely cancel the tradition of the Orcs¡¯ invasion to the South.¡± The God of Justice gritted his teeth, turned his head to the God of Knights and shouted, ¡°Astoril! You have been guarding the human race for thousands of years. Why did you give the glorious seat to this bastard?¡± ¡°Because he has done a better job.¡± The God of Knights, who had seldom opened his mouth to talk in recent years, spoke with a rusty voice under his heavy armor. ¡°Over these years, both his achievements and the development of mankind have proven that.¡± ¡°But he is evil. He is a coward!¡± ¡°I¡¯m the guardian of mankind, and my fundamental belief is to seek the strength and prosperity of mankind,¡± the God of Knights answered. ¡°Anything else can be compromised or given up for that.¡± The God of Justice growled angrily, and his roar reverberated in the Pantheon temple, stirring up gusts of wind. However, he could do nothing. On the Dominant Continent, the Orcs army that occupied the fortress of the City of Iron did not rush to the South as usual. They reorganized their troops calmly and comfortably. They even sent a large number of laborers to restore the city walls and buildings damaged in the war. All the inhabitants of the City of Iron and the soldiers who were lucky enough not to die on the battlefield became captives. The Orcs divided them into different groups. The elders, women, and children were together, while those young and strong men were locked up in another place. In the past, the Orcs slaughtered wherever they went in their invasion, leaving bloody scenes behind. People did their best to fight against them since there was no mercy for them. But this time they had completely changed their ways. Not only didn¡¯t they kill those elders, women, and children, but they even gave them some food. Although there wasn¡¯t much and it was bland, the food was enough for these people to survive rather than die of starvation and cold. Others were anxious to inquire about the men, but the Orc soldiers and officers who kept guard over them were apparently under a strict order. They shut their mouths up tightly all day. Forget giving an answer, they did not even say a word, which really proves the phrase ¡°silence is gold¡± to its fullest. In fact, most of the Orc troops guarding over the elders, women, and children were all Tall Deermen, a branch of the Deermen. They were tall and strong. Although they were slightly thinner than the strong races like the Lionmen, they were much stronger than the human race. They were accustomed to using spears. In their hands, the super spears used to hold down the ground against cavalry attacks were as light as ordinary spears. When dozens of Tall Deermen came into a formation, even the strong Land Walking Dinosaurs would give way to them. Another famous feature of Tall Deermen was that their entire race was almost mute. Faced with the mutes who refused to communicate, even the most eloquent person could do nothing but worry secretly. No one had expected that in the prison camp where those young men were held, there happened something stunning. All the men were forced to take an aphrodisiac and have a crazy ¡®mating meeting¡¯ with countless Bunny girls (female Rabbitmen). The Rabbitmen were small in stature, pretty in appearance and soft in temperament, which was always popular among humans. There were few men in this race. The common way this race maintained their existence was by relying on the strong ones. So they were used to being honest and sitting down under the control of others. In many cases, when the prairie was short of food, the Rabbitmen would even be hunting target for other Orcs. These Rabbitmen had no strength to fight, and only provided logistical support during all previous Orc invasions. Actually, the Orc Empire had not even allowed them to be in the transportation corps, because they were so timid that a little bit of danger would make them run away. However, this time, the Orc Empire issued a military order, ordering the Rabbitmen to select women of reproductive age, and as many as possible. These women had to follow the troops and army provisions were attributed to them. These Rabbitmen, of course, dared not to refuse the military order from the Empire¡¯s center. Thus, behind the strong Orc troops, there followed a group of frightened rabbit-eared girls. They didn¡¯t realize the Empire officers¡¯ intentions until they received that ridiculous military order. ¡°What?!¡± At that time, Judy, the clan leader of the Rabbitmen, who served as the commander-in-chief of the Rabbitman Corps, was so stunned that she could not believe her ears. ¡°Are you asking us to mate with those human captives?!¡± ¡°Yes.¡± It was Iron Teeth Yiloh who passed the order. The strong Lionman frowned and said unhappily, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Can¡¯t you do such a simple thing? Aren¡¯t you rabbits are best at seducing men?¡± ¡°But¡­ There are women¡­¡± ¡°I have already divided them up for you. All of them are strong men.¡± ¡°But¡­ But¡­¡± ¡°But what? This is an order!¡± Yiloh roughly stuffed the military order into the hands of the clan leader, who couldn¡¯t reach his chin even with her ears. ¡°We don¡¯t need all of you. But you have to make sure that there are enough rabbits for each captive to mate with. Is there any problem?¡± The clan leader Judy was silent for a moment and then nodded with a bitter smile. The young and strong human captives resisted it. However, their food and water had been mixed with aphrodisiacs. They were also under the suppression of the Lionmen and Tigermen who were strong enough to tear cattle and horses apart with their bare hands. Thus, their resistance soon failed. At last, some of the warriors in the Imperial Guards of Earl Roland lost their strength and were tied up with ropes. They lay on the ground, naked, letting the Bunny girls do whatever they want. ¡°It seems that they are very happy¡± Junero Tiger murmured. The commander-in-chief of the Orc Army, the current emperor of the Orc Empire, touched the freshly trimmed beard on his chin, watching the scene in the prison camp. ¡°They may not be for a while, but sooner or later they will be happy,¡± a woman in a green robe answered. ¡°Will this really work? Can we effectively eliminate the barrier between humans and Orcs?¡± His Majesty Junero asked with doubt. ¡°I admit that men are creatures that enjoy having sex, but not every man is like that.¡± ¡°Kill the men who hesitated,¡± the woman said. ¡°Your Majesty, please trust my research. Very few men can resist this.¡± The emperor nodded his head. He had never been knowledgeable in this research, but he was good at killing people. ¡°Tragic Wind Big Druid, I didn¡¯t expect you to help us,¡± he said with a smile. ¡°Even if the Southern Expedition does not succeed, we still feel honored to have you here!¡± From under the green robe came a woman¡¯s laughter. ¡°We should thank His Majesty Void Mask. I got inspiration to carry out this research from him.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. And this time our empire was able to gather enough military power ahead of time, precisely because of His Majesty as well. Although I couldn¡¯t agree with his practice till now, it¡¯s undeniable that it¡¯s a perfect method!¡± The two masters went away, laughing and talking, and the misery or happiness of the young captives of mankind lasted for a long time¡­ Chapter 242 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Tragic Wind Big Druid was a legendary person. She used to be a noble, but she became a magician by researching magic. She even became the disciple of Master Ymirjar le-Peyroux, the ¡°Master of the Highest Tower.¡± She contributed a lot during the war led by Master Ymirjar when she was sweeping up old magical forces that led to the end of the wizarding era. However, due to differences in the ideas between herself and Master le-Peyroux, the teacher-disciple couple always had big fights. In the end, Tragic Wind left the Highest Tower to begin her own research after they had an especially heated fight. She was already a legendary magician at that time. She built herself a magic tower and focused on studying the harmony between humans and nature. But the content of her research was pretty ridiculous. She regarded the desire for a human body a ¡°natural¡± phenomenon and believed that this primate desire was the most basic need for a living being. She wrote that it connected the body and soul of all things. Magic developed based on this concept could even extend horizontally into fields such as reproduction, hybridization, and so on. If these weren¡¯t enough, there were more intuitive examples that could be told. Among the first batch of disciples of Master Tragic Wind¡ªshe was still a magician back then, and not a Druid¡ªthere was one who became an evil God in the end. The evil God used sex and desire as a fundamental idea. Another disciple turned himself into a huge mucus monster in order to pursue the complete communication between the soul and body. Yet another transformed himself into a tentacle monster in order to communicate even better. Yup; there is no need for any more narration. In short, Master Tragic Wind abandoned her research and achievements as a magician and turned into a Druid who followed the natural path. She had confrontations several times with Buddy Buress, the infamous Big Druid ¡°Orc Judge.¡± But neither could agree with each other after all. They could only sit down to communicate. Through communication, both the Big Druids could understand each other¡¯s ideas and chose to live harmoniously. That happened about 600 years ago. Within these 600 years, Tragic Wind Big Druid was still quietly researching. She stayed hidden from the rest of the world. Very few people knew what she researched exactly. Some people even suspected that she had fallen ill. This time she appeared among the army of Orc Empire made a ridiculous suggestion to the Orcs, giving the whole world another shock once again. ¡°What are the Orcs playing at this time!¡± Looking at the report, Sui Xiong could not laugh nor cry. ¡°How can they say that I gave them inspiration?! What the hell! I have never ever given this kind of inspiration!¡± ¡°Your Highness, you have,¡± Steele reminded him. She was rarely seen in human form during meetings. ¡°Remember when you were throwing the Massive Estrus Spells all around the Orc Empire?¡± ¡°That was just to resolve the contradictions between the Orc tribes¡­ the end results were pretty good,¡± Sui Xiong debated. ¡°Yes, the end results were good. That is why the Orcs learned from you.¡± Sui Xiong was suddenly speechless. He thought for a while and said again, ¡°But the Orc Gods may not agree. I think they were attacking me back then¡­¡± ¡°And it was proven that the Orc Gods were wrong, and you were right indeed.¡± Steele smiled and her eyes were full of admiration. ¡°Your Highness, you are the greatest existence indeed, with daring and far-sighted vision! Even though the Orc Gods could not understand your ideas and ways back then, in the end they still had to bow to the reality, which is the iron-hard truth. This is a great victory!¡± ¡°This is indeed a great victory.¡± Morani laughed in the gathering of all Gods. ¡°The Orcs are openly admitting they were wrong and are even praising another God for His vision. This has not happened in many years!¡± ¡°What do you mean ¡®many years?¡± It has never happened before!¡± The Goddess of Wealth smiled and said. She had just joined in. ¡°Too bad Your Highness Void Mask has not officially become a God and entered the temple of Gods. If you were there when it happened, the scene would have been really wonderful!¡± Wor, Sui Xiong¡¯s follower God, nodded repeatedly. He used magic to vividly present the picture of that scene: Inside the temple of Gods that was noisy as usual, there was suddenly a bright light that shone across it. The Orc Gods who had not appeared since the Orcs¡¯ invasion all neatly appeared on their seats. They did not bother talking to any others, and all turned together in the direction of Wor, the God of Knowledge. ¡°Sky Devourer Canine¡± Lefon, the Main God of the Orc Gods, apologized to Sui Xiong through Wor. ¡°Your Highness Void Mask¡¯s vision is incomparably far. We used shallow wisdom to judge His actions and made the wrong judgment. Because of that, we attacked Him. This was a very serious mistake!¡± Lefon sincerely said. ¡°Because Your Highness Void Mask is not here, we can only ask You to convey our apologies. If Your Highness Void Mask is free and He accepts my visit, I would like to go over His place to apologize after this war has ended!¡± The entire scene was not long, because the Orc Gods left after the apology and never even said a word to any other Gods. Wor happily replayed the scene repeatedly, and could not stop smiling. As a subordinate of Sui Xiong, He felt proud that His lord had faced and received acceptance and apology from such a big character as the Main God of Orcs. He felt even prouder than if He Himself had been praised. Sui Xiong smiled bitterly, not knowing what to say. Even he felt his own actions back then were quite ridiculous. And yet, he had never expected this ridiculous act to be acknowledged by the God of Orcs, or widely promoted. Junero Tiger, the Orc Emperor, had publicly announced his methods of handling the war prisoners. He claimed that he would use this method to eliminate the long-standing barrier between mankind and Orcs, and dissolve the hatred between the Orc Empire and Eagle Kingdom, to finally achieve peaceful ruling. In his declaration, he also praised His Highness Void Mask for his deep wisdom and his vision that was so far and so wide not even Gods had it. He then praised Tragic Wind Big Druid, who was the first in the world to understand the hidden meaning behind His Highness Void Mask¡¯s words. He and praised her as the ¡°the sage who walked in front of the Gods.¡± Looking at this declaration, Sui Xiong felt that the number of his believers had greatly increased. He wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. What is this? Had he actually promoted peace? Or promoted war? He thought hard until his head hurt, but he could not get a feasible conclusion. He simply chose to ignore this sh*t and turned to Arcaian¡¯s experimental lab instead. He started to discuss bacteria and vaccination research with Arcaian. As the inheritor of Pasteur¡¯s school, Arcaian was an expert on bacteria research. But all these time, Pasteur¡¯s school only focused on the usage of bacterial growth; mainly the with fermentation. He had not deeply investigated sickness and vaccination issues. When Sui Xiong gave him the idea, Arcaian finally found a new direction and key research point. He had gotten quite a few results very quickly. When Sui Xiong arrived, he was carefully observing two groups of rats. ¡°Your Highness, Your wisdom is really deep and unpredictable!¡± He sincerely admired him, his face full of joy. ¡°I think I have found the key to prevention of plague!¡± In a world filled with contamination and decay, the God of Plagues shivered, and felt more and more uneasy¡­ Chapter 243 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Arcaian had not thought about the relationship between bacteria, fungi, and diseases. The world had a rather backwards medical development because of the existence of spells. After all, it was unknown whether medicine could cure diseases, but spells certainly could cure them. Since spells were so effective, talented people and powerful organizations naturally studied spells more. Who would take the time to learn medicine? Arcaian was perhaps the first person in the history of the whole civilization to use spells to assist medical research. With an accumulation of rich knowledge and an excellent spell-casting ability among high-level casters, Arcaian quickly identified the causes of several common diseases in the lab. He discovered three kinds of bacteria, which he named, ¡°Plague No. 1,¡±¡±Plague No. 2,¡± and ¡°Plague No. 3.¡± He also discovered four common bacteria that caused diarrhea, and five bacteria that caused fever. These 12 kinds of bacteria, together with nine other bacteria that also caused common infectious symptoms, were collectively named by him as ¡°pathogenic bacteria.¡± He was currently working on these pathogenic bacteria to find out the drugs that could suppress them. He was not a traditional scholar who didn¡¯t care about outside information. He had a clear and profound understanding of the value of his own research. His own research would certainly rock the world, and even the gods would be shocked. Perhaps with these research results, he would also have the opportunity to impact the realm of gods. The Pasteur family were descendants of the advanced fairies. This magical race created by the Goddess of Life retained a lot of precious materials, including an introduction on how to become a god. When mortals wanted to become gods, they had to first enter the Legendary Realm and comprehended their own path so that they could be sacred. Then there were two paths. One was to keep straight on their own roads and touch the original power of the world. From the original power, they could find out the content of their own roads and master the corresponding powers. That was when they took the initial step into the immortal realm, which could be called the demigod realm. When demigods wanted to become a true god, they had to master some of the world¡¯s origins and then became a god of nature. Or, they had to absorb a large number of beliefs and became a god of faith. Either way was an extremely long process, so the vast majority of the world¡¯s demigods were silently accumulating. The other path after stepping into the Legendary Realm to become a god was to discover something that the predecessors had not discovered, or to make some achievements of the previous work that predecessors hadn¡¯t reached before. Regardless, as long as the accumulated results reached a certain critical point, it was possible to touch the feedback mechanism of the world¡¯s origin and make it produce a certain Priesthood. This Priesthood was specially prepared for this contributing person as the reward of the world¡¯s origin. With this Priesthood, they could skip the long demigod stage and go directly to becoming a true god. Many people in history had walked through the two paths of becoming gods. The number of gods who had gone through the experience of transcending from demigods to true gods was very high; they were everywhere. The God of Knowledge, Wall, had made great achievements and won the specially prepared Priesthood. He was a good example of a person who had become a god in that path. Of course, some people had combined the two paths, and they gained strengths from both of them. For example, the God of Spellcaster, Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, had made tremendous contributions to the research and promotion of spells. He had definitely received the feedback from the world which was to produce a specific Priesthood with uncertain content for him. After that, relying on his own research and cultivation, he fully grasped the power of the origin, ¡°spells.¡± Eventually, he became the great God of Spellcaster. This practice of taking two paths together was naturally much harder than focusing on one path, but the final achievement was much better as well. For example, Wall and Le-Peyroux were both newly ascended gods, but the gap between their forces was enormous. Arcaian was only a high-level mage at present, and it would take him a lot of time and effort to enter the Legendary Realm. But he could garner enough achievements before the final level. As long as he had enough, the world¡¯s origin would preserve this Priesthood for him. If he did not die, then once he entered the Legendary Realm, he could use this Priesthood. As for the force power after becoming a god, he was not Master Le-Peyroux, who was really ambitious. He had never expected to reach a level of being comparable to the elder gods when he just ascended to godhood. It was good enough for him just to become a god. Such an ambitious man, like Master Le-Peyroux, was either mad or a crazy nut! Therefore, Arcaian was now very enthusiastic about his research. He could already foresee that as long as he could fully improve the research of various common diseases, especially epidemics, make appropriate treatments and prevention programs, and then promote its worldwide operation, he could at least gain the position of a ¡°God of Epidemic Prevention.¡± As far as he knew, among the gods, there was no ¡°God of Healing¡± who integrated the entire medical field. There were only some gods who were good at the field of treatment, and they took parts of the Priesthood of ¡°treatment.¡± For example, in the Human God System, ¡°The Comforter of Wounded Soldiers and Patients,¡± the god with weak divine power, had ¡°treatment¡± in their specific Priesthood. And among Orc gods, the ¡°Bloodthirsty Shaman¡± also had this Priesthood¡­ It was common for such a Priesthood to be owned by a number of gods. If this Priesthood was of little value, or if the owners couldn¡¯t defeat each other, the situation would last for a long time. However, if Arcaian could become a ¡°God of Healing,¡± then the Priesthood of ¡°treatment¡± would be integrated under ¡°healing.¡± That meant that he would be able to directly take most of the ¡°treatment¡± origin that had been divided amongst the gods, and even make a greater influence on it. In this case, he would definitely become a very powerful god! In fact, Wall was facing the same situation. The newborn God of Knowledge had a surprising speed of increasing divine power. Over a decade, he had been promoted from an extremely, weak-level divine power when he had just became a god, to just a weak-level divine power not too long ago, when the first batch of graduates of the New Oriental Comprehensive Technical School got jobs. Moreover, his divine power was still growing rapidly. According to the estimation of Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, he might even keep growing to at least a mid-level, or even a strong level. ¡°Knowledge is one of the most important things in the field of humanities. Throughout the ages, countless gods were interested in this Priesthood because everyone knew its importance,¡± Yorgaardman had once encouraged Wall. ¡°The most important thing for you now is to work hard, dig into the content of your Priesthood, strengthen the expansion of the field, and continue to promote the dissemination of knowledge among the people. As long as you do this, you can at least be guaranteed to gain mid-level divine power.¡± Arcaian estimated that if he became the God of Epidemic Prevention, he would own weak-level divine power. If he became the God of Healing, then he at least would gain mid-level divine power, like Wall. As soon as he thought of gaining weak or mid-level divine power, his heart started to burn like a flame. The feeling greatly energized him. He was very anxious to continue studying all the time without any sleep or rest, until he achieved a complete success! If no one visited him regularly and reminded him to take breaks, he might even stay in the lab forever. If so, he would tire himself to death before becoming a god. Fortunately, this situation did not happen. When Sui Xiong came, he saw that several people were dragging and persuading Arcaian into his bedroom to rest. When he saw Sui Xiong arrive, Arcaian was invigorated with energy. Leaving behind the loyal guards, he took Sui Xiong to the laboratory to show him his achievements. His most remarkable achievement was the two groups of mice. These two groups of mice were used to experiment with ¡°the method of healing¡± and ¡°the method of preventing diseases.¡± One group had been infected with various infectious diseases, and they were treated with the drugs he had studied. The other group lived in the environment filled with bacteria that could cause those diseases, and they were using the drugs he had developed to defend against the infection. Regardless of the groups the mice were in, some appeared to be in high spirits and had no obvious symptoms. ¡°Look, Your Majesty. This is the result of my research!¡± Arcaian said excitedly. ¡°The most critical point has been found. Then, if I study these almost healthy mice carefully, I will be able to find the most effective drugs and find a way to completely fight off the infectious diseases!¡± Sui Xiong nodded again and again, admiring the high efficiency of Arcaian¡¯s research. However, Sui Xiong still put forward some reference opinions based on his own impressions. For example, finding and eliminating the sources of the diseases, killing the animals which carried bad bacteria, washing your hands and ventilating the rooms regularly, drinking boiled water, creating a better living environment and many other things. He said it in no particular order; basically, he said whatever popped into his mind. Arcaian listened to him carefully with his eyes glowing, as if he had taken some illegal, unspoken drug. This conversation lasted for several days. In the end, Sui Xiong almost told him everything about disease prevention and treatment that he could remember. He didn¡¯t care whether Arcaian could understand it or not, he just spoke to him directly. After he left, Arcaian was in a state of contemplation. He used magical means to record all the things Sui Xiong had told him. Now he needed a little time to sort them out and form sequence of ideas to finally adapt them into his own research. But there was no doubt that Sui Xiong¡¯s speech gave him a lot of inspiration. If he thought that he had a good chance of ¡°becoming a god with achievements¡± before, he was sure that he would be able to walk this path now. The only question for him currently was how long it would take him to go through this path. Maybe¡­ I will be the first mortal in the world¡¯s history to obtain a Priesthood before the Legendary Realm¡­ As a Druid of the scholar school and an alchemist master, he was usually calm. However, thinking of that, he smirked. ¡­ In the country of decay and diseases, the God of Plague sneezed again and again, feeling a rush of cold enter his heart. ¡°What the hell is this!¡± he screamed angrily. ¡°Somebody actually wants to plot against me?!¡± Regrettably, as an evil god who was not popular, he had no friends to talk to about this¡­ Chapter 244 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio As Sui Xiong and Arcaian were running the long discussion that would leave a colorful mark on the history of medicine in this world, the war between the Orc Empire and Eagle Kingdom began progressing intensively. Due to the oddly slow action of the Orc army, there was enough time for the Eagle Kingdom to react. King Woods Igor heard the report from soldiers who lost in the City of Iron war. After some deep thinking and discussion, he finally decided to send out the Air Force that was originally meant to stay in the final battle at the last fortress. Even though he did not think they could win the air battle with these forces, he could not let these Orcs bomb unscrupulously. No matter how strong the fortress was, it could not withstand being attacked single sidedly by big rocks falling from the sky. Even if the fortress could withstand some, the morale of the people would decrease. They would end up losing the battle without a fight. That was why he sent out the most elite troops of the entire Eagle Kingdom even though he was reluctant. Moreover, he not just send out some troops; it was all the Air Force the entire Eagle Kingdom had. All of it! The royal family of the Eagle Kingdom were descendants of the Eagle God. They had passed on the skill of training giant eagles and griffons and developed four types of air forces. Namely, the giant eagle sentinel and griffon sentinel who were in charge of scouting, and the giant eagle knight and griffon knight who were in charge of fighting. Female riders rode giant eagles that were smaller, while the male riders rode the griffons that were larger. In addition to the division of army types, those were the four types of troops. The biggest difference between these two army types was the ¡°knight¡± aspect. The sentinel riders were not from the bloodline of the Eagle God. They could only ride giant eagles or griffons, but could not command multiple ones. It made them only able to fight alone in a battle, so they were more commonly used as sentinels only. Knight riders were from the bloodline. They could not only tame their own mounts, but command more giant eagles and griffons, and form battle squads. This allowed them to each form troops of different sizes. Together they became the main Air Force of the Eagle Kingdom. Many years ago the Eagle Kingdom had a large Air Force. They always fought heroically during the battles of Orc invasion. However, in the coup of the ¡°blood-stained eagle crown¡± that happened more than 30 years ago, there were tens of thousands of people who died in the capital, Eagle Wing City. Most of them were the descendants of the Eagle God. After that they were subsequently cleaned up and repressed. Even though the Eagle Kingdom had a huge squad of eagles and griffons, they did not have enough Air Force riders. They could only sigh with despair. 30 years¡¯ time was not short, but it wasn¡¯t long either. It was long enough to produce few generations of giant eagles and griffons. But it was not that easy to fill in the gaps left from the bloody slaughter of humans from that year. For example, even now when King Woods sent out all the Air Forces that could be mobilized, there were only about one third the total giant eagles and griffons in the air. Most of the giant eagles and griffons were still resting comfortably in their nests. He had the intention to send out more troops, but it could not be helped. It was not that the Eagle Kingdom had no strategy to mobilize giant eagles and griffons under emergency situations. Nor was he so overconfident that he thought he did not have to use such strategies. It was because he was not able to use this strategy. To make the giant eagles and griffons listen to commands, one needed to use the three artifacts left by the Eagle God: the crown of Eagle, the clothes of Eagle, and the sword of Eagle. To obtain these three artifacts, one needed to master the legendary swordsmanship with the ¡°Eagle Wing Sword¡± that was passed down from generation to generation in the Eagle Kingdom. Only by extending the wings of light and swinging the Eagle Wing Sword, slashing the sky open, and carving the wings of the Eagle on the vault of heaven, could the three Eagle Artifacts could be woken up from their deep slumber. Then the artifacts would naturally come to the person who swung the sword, and automatically put themselves on his body. At that time, the person who wore the three Eagle Artifacts would become the spokesperson for the Eagle God, and possess the ability to command all giant eagles and griffons. The old king from the last generation knew about the Eagle Wing Sword. He had called the three Eagle Artifacts before and used the sword more than once in battle. With a wave of the sword, thousands of horses and soldiers buckled. Many experts from the Orc Empire drowned themselves with hatred under such power. However, although the old king had more than three hundred grandchildren, only one of them actually inherited the Eagle Wing Sword. The successor had already died in the coup of the blood-stained eagle crown. And the one who killed him was none other than Woods himself. His nephew, who was a genius in sword skills, was only 15 or 16 years old at the time. He was a young expert who could already touch the Legendary doors. He remembered clearly, how he shot him from his back with a crossbow arrow that had deadly poison on it, and how he commanded his crossbow shooters to shoot ten thousand arrows at him until his body could not be recognized. Now the huge pile of bodies that consisted of him and the numerous men who were loyal to the previous king had completely dried up. All that was left were white bones and a thick corpse smell. Numerous wisps floated around every night, silently accusing the bloody and despicable rebellion. Woods took a deep breath and drove the memory away. He was only a high order knight. Now he was already over 60 years old. People at this age were already showing obvious signs of weakened physical and mental ability. Especially he who had heavy injuries back then. If he had not drunk the life-prolonging medicament that he had bought from Void Mask Church, he might have already been old and withered with sickness on every part of his body. Bedridden and waiting for death. ¡°No! That cannot be it!¡± His eyes sharpened again. ¡°I am the great Eagle King! Even if I am going to die, I can only die on the battlefield!¡± Thinking this, he decided to gather his ministers again to discuss the problem of distributing troops. He was deeply worried about the Orcs¡¯ invasion this time. Especially because their strategy was very different from past times, with the usage of Air Force on a large scale, and not murdering anyone after taking over the city. Plus, they even promoted harmony between Orcs and humans, even though the method was quite ridiculous. It made him feel he was in deep crisis. Woods was a veteran of war, but throughout his life, he had never seen such a weird situation as this. Although he could not understand what exactly Orcs wanted, he definitely did not dare to look down on the Orc emperor. Junero Tiger was a rare scholar amongst the past Orc emperors, who were usually known for their bravery and fighting skills. What could such a character do after all? He had no confidence at all. Hence, he decided to use all the forces he could move regardless of anything, and face the war vigorously. He was old anyway. Dying on the battlefield seemed like a good ending for him¡­ Chapter 245 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the Administration Hall of Garth City, a low-ranking official took an uneasy breath and encouraged himself to walk into the office with a pile of papers in his hand. After a while, he came out with a pale face and slightly trembling legs. ¡°Jack, what¡¯s wrong with you today? Your face is terribly pale! Did the Consul blame you for your bad behavior?¡± a maid close to him asked curiously. He shook his head and whispered, ¡°No. But the Consul seems to be in a bad mood today. He frowns all the time, unconsciously sending out a killing intent killing. Standing in front of him, I always worry about whether he will pull out his sword in the next second¡­¡± ¡°Why would he draw his sword? To make sashimi?¡± the maid asked with a smile. ¡°I am not as brave as you¡­¡± Jack grinned bitterly and shook his head. ¡°Although I know he won¡¯t cut me, I still can¡¯t help but be afraid.¡± Seeing his face full of fear, the maid named Rose looked around to make sure there was nobody else around. Then she gently hugged him, put her lips close to his ear and began to sing in a low voice. Her voice was so light that no one except Jack could hear it. It was soft and quiet like the moonlight, and it helped Jack calm down. His pale face finally relaxed and returned to its normal color again. After a while, Jack smiled and patted her arms, then pushed her away. ¡°That¡¯s enough,¡± he said. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m fine now.¡± ¡°No more singing for you?¡± Rose asked with a smile. She seemed reluctant to part from him. ¡°If you go on singing, I will do nothing today but sleep,¡± Jack smiled and said. ¡°I¡¯m fine now. When I get off duty tonight, I¡¯ll accompany you to the beach for a walk. You can sing as much as you like then.¡± Rose laughed and stepped back a couple steps. She picked up the broom she had just put down next to her and waved to him. Then she winked at him, turned around, and walked into the courtyard. Jack had fully cheered himself up. He clapped his hands on his cheeks, and his eyes were full of fighting spirit again. ¡°Jack! Come on!¡± he said to himself. ¡°You have to be successful as soon as possible! Lord Bena is only giving you twenty years! Hurry up!¡± Looking at where Rose left, he firmly clenched his fist. He encouraged himself a bit, turned away and left. ¡­ Inside the Administration Hall, Leon¡ªhere, more people called him Ray¡ªcouldn¡¯t help but laugh softly. ¡°The love story of the little mermaid and the young sailor¡­¡± he smiled and said to himself. ¡°They are all good people! In pursuit of love, one leaves the sea, turns into a human and reluctantly gets accustomed to human work and life; the other goes to learn accounting. As a student in the entry-level class, he¡¯s done a better job than those in the higher-level classes¡­¡± ¡°Love is really a wonderful power!¡± He was still young and not much older than Jack in looks. He picked up the cup and drank the tea like an old man, then laughed happily. After that, he took out a document, gazed at it and frowned. It was the new recruiting order issued by the Eagle Kingdom with the king¡¯s seal. There was a little bit of magic floating on the seal, showing its undoubted authenticity. The order roughly said that the current situation of the war had been urgent, and the kingdom was at a critical moment of life or death. The recruitment order was issued to all the races on the continent except Orcs and Semi-Orcs. All powerful adventurers were welcomed to join the army of the Eagle Kingdom and was promised a favorable pay in return. If they were able to repel the Orc troops, their military reputation would increase threefold. The royal family would not be stingy with property and fiefdoms. That was roughly the content of the recruitment order. Some of the persuading words were ignored by him. ¡°Has the war been so fierce that it even needs to recruit adventurers?¡± murmured Leon with a frown. He was very anxious. After thinking for a long time, he went to the bookcase where he kept his secret files and took out a document. The document was made of soft animal skin. He slowly unfolded it, but there was no text on it except for a magic array. It was a semi-magical prop used to communicate with someone far away. Compared to other simple communication magic, it could provide both sound and image, similar to video communication on earth. Of course, it was of extraordinarily high value. A legendary magic ceremony was required just to make one set of this array. The animal skin was also extraordinary; it must have come from legendary creatures. Even if it had cost so much to make, it could only support a brief conversation. Afterwards, it would stop working and would need to have its magic replenished. This was the same for semi-magical props. Of course, there were props that didn¡¯t need to be replenished. For example, inside the Highest Tower of the Commonwealth of Mifata, there was a crystal ball used for communication called the Enlightened; it not only worked much better than the animal skin document, but it also had many different kinds of magic. However, that was a demigod prop. It had cost Master Le-Peyroux a large sum of money and was even polished with divine light by the Master of Mystery himself. There was only one prop like it in the world. Leon put his right hand on the magic array, hesitated for a moment, and infused magic into it. The lines that made up the magic array were lit up one after another, and finally, the whole array was shimmering. Then the animal skin gradually became transparent and turned into the form of a mirror. In the mirror, an old, frail man was reflected instead of Leon¡¯s face. ¡°Leon, you are finally willing to contact me,¡± the old man smiled and said softly. ¡°When I sent you this communication prop, I was afraid that I would not live long enough for you to use it. So I am glad to be able to receive your message while I¡¯m still alive.¡± Leon sighed and asked, ¡°Is the situation of the war really that bad?¡± ¡°Have you seen the recruiting order? Haha, it is actually worse than that.¡± The old man laughed, but there were no worries in his words. On the contrary, he showed some pleasure in the misfortune. ¡°Woods, the bastard, shouldn¡¯t have killed so many descendants of the Eagle race. Human beings were not giant eagles or griffons, and they can¡¯t lay several eggs at a time. Even though he has been encouraging childbearing all these years, it takes a lot of time for people to grow up and reproduce.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, the present situation of the war is indeed very dangerous!¡± Just then, an ordinary-looking, seemingly honest but dull teenager appeared in the mirror. ¡°If nothing happens,¡± the teen said with a frown, ¡°the air force of both sides will fight a decisive battle in the near future, and our army will surely lose it! Without the air force, the Orcs can throw stones all the way down, and no fortress can withstand it. Perhaps the end of the kingdom is coming.¡± ¡°Who are you¡­?¡± Leon asked. ¡°I¡¯m Rhine, a secret successor to the Archbishop,¡± the teenager answered. ¡°The Archbishop told me to collect some important magic props and go through the transmission array to find you when the news of the complete defeat of the kingdom¡¯s army came back.¡± Leon was shocked and opened his eyes wide. ¡°Has it been so terrible?!¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s almost impossible to win.¡± The old man¡¯s face appeared again in the mirror. He smiled kindly and sighed softly. ¡°There are no flowers that will never wither, no dramas that will never end, and no kingdoms that will never die. even gods will fall down eventually. What is eternity? The Eagle Kingdom has existed for too long, just like an unwelcomed character that refuses to get off the stage, it¡¯s time to leave.¡± Leon frowned deeply and he listened to him quietly. Then he asked, ¡°What¡¯s the difference in high-end fighting power between us?¡± The old man was a bit surprised and asked a question instead of answering. ¡°What do you want to do? Don¡¯t be stupid! The Orcs have brought the Staff of Imprisonment this time. No matter how powerful you are, can you win against that?¡± ¡°If it¡¯s just the Staff of Imprisonment¡­¡± Before Leon finished his words, the old man interrupted him and said sternly, ¡°It¡¯s the Presbyter of the Divine Temple of the Orc Empire that holds the Staff of Imprisonment. He is a master who has reached the highest level of the Legendary Realm and may enter the Field of Immortality at any time!¡± ¡°So am I.¡± Leon smiled with confidence. ¡°The highest level of the Legendary Realm is not a big deal! I¡¯ve been combating with a friend who recently became a god.¡± In the mirror, the old man was startled. He opened his eyes wide and couldn¡¯t believe that. ¡°What?! Didn¡¯t you just get healed before entering the Legendary Realm? How can you be so fast to¡­?¡± ¡°I am a genius.¡± Leon laughed. ¡°Don¡¯t forget that I touched the legendary door when I was only fifteen years old. Now¡­I¡¯m almost fifty years old. Is it weird for me to reach the highest level?¡± ¡°Then you can¡¯t take risks!¡± The old man was surprised at first and then became more and more serious. ¡°You are the last hope of the kingdom¡¯s revival, and you can¡¯t die a meaningless death on the battlefield!¡± ¡°Hey, my old sir, don¡¯t you trust my power? The Presbyters of the Divine Temple of the Orc Empire are almost as old as you. They seem to stop breathing when the wind blows. I am much younger than them¡­ I think there is a great chance for me to win. As for the Staff of Imprisonment, I have powerful equipment too. Recently, His Majesty sent me a magic prop.¡± ¡°They also invited the King of Animals to help. How about that?¡± The old man ignored Leon¡¯s slander and interrupted him. ¡°My uncle will do something to help.¡± ¡°What can he do?¡± the old man sneered and asked. ¡°Send himself to be killed on the battlefield so as to cheer the Orcs up?¡± ¡°My old sir, that¡¯s too ironic¡­¡± ¡°I never believed in him. He never worked hard in practicing his swordsmanship. Instead he spent his time doing unspeakable things!¡± The old man brutally scolded His Majesty, the King of the Eagle Kingdom. ¡°If I raised a dog, it would still help me watch my door. As for that bastard, you can count the number of times he¡¯s come here on one hand!¡± ¡°Sir, six times altogether.¡± There came the teenager¡¯s voice next to him. ¡°What¡¯s so strange about a hand with six fingers? His Majesty has dozens of fingers.¡± ¡°Those are tentacles, not fingers.¡± During the conversation, the magic array exhausted all its power, and the light gradually dimmed. Before the light disappeared, Leon heard the old man¡¯s exhortation. ¡°Remember! Don¡¯t come!¡± Chapter 246 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Leon put down the communication prop that had lost all its brightness and temporarily turned back into a blank animal skin. He thought for a long time and finally sighed deeply. ¡°I really did not think that I would have such a day¡­¡± He took out this precious communication prop and some other things and put them into the space pendant that was meant to store items. This was a gift from Ambassador Bena Tide of the Storm Sea Embassy. It was shaped like a conch smaller than a section of a little finger, but it could store many things in it. Not only that, but it was more sturdy than one could imagine, so strong that it could not be broken even in a legendary expert fight. This was a special local product from the deep sea. It was one of the finest storage props on Earth. Even the top quality space pouch was not worth mentioning when compared with this. After all, the space pouch could be broken by a dagger with just a bit of magic power, even if it was the highest grade one. And once the storage prop broke, the things inside would disappear to the endless void inside, almost impossible retrieve. He carefully checked the things inside the conch again and nodded once he confirmed there was no mistake. Then he put it on, walked out of the governmental affairs office, and came to the city owner¡¯s office. Carissa Riley, the city owner, was sitting behind the office table with a stern look, seemingly quite busy with a very thick document. Once she saw him enter, she was caught surprised and appeared to be a little flustered. She hurriedly put the document on the table face down and blushed suspiciously. Leon¡¯s eyesight was really powerful. He had already seen clearly what ¡°document¡± it was in that moment. On the outside, it looked like a document, but in fact it was a knight novel. He could not help but sigh and shook his head. He advised her, ¡°Carissa, can you please stop reading knight novels all the time? These are all stories made up by bards!¡± Caught in the act, Carissa, the city owner flushed red and stammered as she answered, ¡°I think they are very well written, very realistic¡­ especially when that knight leads a group of people to trek across steep mountains, and starts developing in an inaccessible place. Every scene is very vivid, just like the real world¡­¡± Leon was stunned for a while as if he recalled something. Then he asked, ¡°Is the author¡¯s name Saint-Vallier Von Stovski Francis?¡± Carissa quickly turned the novel to the front page, and she nodded again and again. ¡°Eh? Have you seen this novel too?¡± ¡°No, I know the author.¡± Leon could not help but smile bitterly. ¡°The part you have just described was written after he interviewed me. The content greatly exaggerates my narrative. There is no truth to it at all!¡± ¡°Huh?!¡± Carissa, who held the title of ¡°most beautiful lady on the east coast¡± for over 20 years, opened her mouth wide and unladylike as possible. Her face was just stoned. ¡°The author was that Shoggoth, do you remember? It was that guy who sang in the theme park and wrote adventure stories for rich men who wanted some excitement during their free time,¡± Leon introduced further. ¡°Ever since that fellow found this road of fortune, he got very busy in making up stories based on those rookies¡¯ adventures in the underground mazes. He wrote their ¡®adventure¡¯ experiences as exciting and heart-stringing as possible. According to hearsay, his business was getting better along with his earnings, and of course, he was getting more and more skilled at writing. The last time I was talking to Fafnir, he told me that the fellow had pasted a note in his study room that says ¡®Have you written five thousand lines today? No? Quickly go and write some words!¡¯ to motivate himself.¡± Carissa was stunned, and felt like her young girl¡¯s heart had been smashed into pieces. She was so mad she jumped up and yelled, ¡°D*mn Shoggoth! He even boasted that the contents of this book all came from true and reliable firsthand information, without any fabrication or exaggeration¡­ I am going to get him into trouble!¡± ¡°You can find a group of lady readers to ask him to write faster. I think the effect will be very good.¡± Leon told her about the idea that Fafnir had when they were drinking last time. Then his face turned grave and he spoke in a serious manner. ¡°I want to go out for a while.¡± ¡°Oh, good.¡± Carissa simply replied and sat down again. Then she asked, ¡°Where to? The theme park?¡± ¡°The Eagle Kingdom.¡± Carissa jumped up again. She stared at him wide-eyed in disbelief. ¡°You¡­ you¡­ you¡¯ve finally decided to go back to be king? You still feel Garth City is too small and not worthy for you?¡± Tears started to well in Carissa¡¯s eyes. She looked really pitiful. She was so enchanting at this moment, and so lovely. If these two people were on the street, there would surely be a group of angry young men picking up swords and sticks, hammers, axes, benches, bolts, brooms, mops, sausages, carrots¡­ every kind of weapon, growling and attacking Leon for hurting her. Leon choked as she said that. He was speechless. At this moment his heart was broken. If he were to use a description from Earth, it was as if there were 1000 roaring emperors named Ma in his heart, screaming, ¡°What the hell is this!¡± A few seconds later, he finally settled down his mood. ¡°Why would you think so?¡± ¡°I have actually¡­ found out your true identity. You were so great, that year you had usurped the throne¡­ the usurped had put on¡­ the crown of Eagle¡­¡± Carissa said as she sobbed. If she was a common woman, the makeup would have turned into a mess. ¡°I have been afraid, afraid that this day would come¡­ it finally has.¡± Leon sighed deeply. ¡°I am already a deacon, why would I be a king?¡± ¡°Who said a deacon cannot be king?¡± Leon was suddenly speechless. It was true what Carissa said. A king who was also a deacon was in fact not so rare at all. ¡°I really have no intention to go back and be king!¡± he insisted. ¡°Then why are you going back?¡± Carissa asked. Leon hesitated and then sighed deeply again. ¡°Eagle Kingdom is on the verge of extinction. I want to go and see if I can do anything.¡± This time Carissa jumped out from behind the desk and hugged him tightly. ¡°You cannot go!¡± ¡°Ah?!¡± Leon was stunned once again, not understanding the situation. ¡°I have heard the news. The Eagle Kingdom has been invaded by the Orc Empire army. There are already eight legendary experts!¡± Carissa¡¯s intelligence went online immediately. She yelled, ¡°If you go over now, you are as good as dead!¡± ¡°I am not going over to fight the eight legendary experts in a group¡­¡± Leon blabbed against his will. ¡°I will be careful.¡± ¡°You are lying! Just now when you said that, your heart beat a little faster!¡± Leon looked at the city owner who had buried her head in his chest and could not help but sigh deeply. This position was comparable to a lie detector! ¡°I really will be careful, I am not on a suicide mission,¡± he persuaded quietly. ¡°I am just going back to have a look and see if I can do anything. That is all.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe it!¡± ¡°When I go back this round, the deacon of the Eagle temple will be welcoming me. The old man is an expert at the top of the legendary realm and can enter the undead realm. With his help, do you think there is any possibility that I will meet with danger?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe it!¡± ¡°I still have a life-saving treasure, I even have an artifact! Do you remember? With that artifact I can kill my way out of an army of 10000 men and horses!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe it!¡± ¡°Even if you don¡¯t believe in me, at least you have to believe in His Highness. He is so great, He must be able to bless me¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe it!¡± At the end of the day, no matter what Leon said, Carissa still hugged him with all her might, repeating the only three words: I don¡¯t believe. The absolute expert genius swordsman who could kill through and through when facing a 10000-strong army could not do anything at this moment. Chapter 247 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Leon was so powerful that he had shocked the east coast. As a result, he had been honored as the ¡°King of the Seaside.¡± Over the years, many people had tried to challenge the King of the Seaside, including people like Herman Amstel and Lewre Spoolin who had purely challenged him for the sake of learning. There had also been ones like Alan Apollo Kasadier, who had challenged him for the reward of ¡°beating the governor of the Garth Town¡± offered by the Kingdom of the Blue Moon. Unfortunately, they had all lost, and they learned their lesson. Finally, these uncontested victories had even increased Leon¡¯s prestige. However, no matter how strong he was, he couldn¡¯t use force against Kalisa who was holding him. After several explanations, all in vain, he finally had to ask Sui Xiong for help. Hearing Leon¡¯s words from the Channel of Religion, Sui Xiong was so shocked that he immediately moved them through space in order to see them. At that time, Sui Xiong was discussing things with Morani and some others in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Desolation God System. So the two people who were holding each other tight had just appeared in front of several gods. After all, Kalisa was a shy girl. When she saw the group of gods around them with strange shapes, sending out strong waves of power and pressure, she panicked. She quickly yanked her hands away from Leon¡¯s grasp. She didn¡¯t know what to say. Her face was red, and she was burning up. One could almost see steam coming out from under her shirt. Leon was much calmer. He gently pulled Kalisa¡¯s hand, saluted to the gods with her, and then told them his plan. His plan was very simple¡ªhe just went to the Kingdom of Eagle to see if he could do something. If the situation was so desperate that he couldn¡¯t do anything to save it, he would not insist on saving the country. If so, he would rush to the temple of the God of Eagle before the Orc army broke into the Eagle Wing City. He¡¯d try to save the ancient books and records in the secret library, as well as the Archbishop and several young bishops. They were the only people he wanted to save in the entire Eagle Wing City. ¡°It sounds reasonable and feasible,¡± Morani said after listening to his plan. ¡°I don¡¯t think that this is dangerous, so you can try it.¡± ¡°Feasible? Hell no. You should listen to his inner thoughts!¡± Sui Xiong sneered. ¡°What he was thinking was that he would go find Woods and talk about it, and ask him why he had started a rebellion at that time. Then he would kill that guy and grab the Three Eagle Artifacts back. After that, he would run to save the Archbishop and some others in the temple of the God of Eagle, along with the ancient books and records by the way!¡± Yorgaardman was stunned and looked at Leon with a smirk. ¡°Good boy! You dare to play tricks in front of us! You have guts!¡± Leon¡¯s power had reached the peak of the Legendary Realm, so even gods could not see whether he was lying or not unless they interrogated him deliberately. Moreover, he did not actually lie, because he just kept a part of the plan unsaid. Therefore, except for Sui Xiong who knew him, the rest of the gods were really deceived by him, even including Yorgaardman, the powerful God of Justice. However, what are lying people afraid of the most? Being busted! Being ousted by Sui Xiong , Leon couldn¡¯t help but smile. Feeling embarrassed, he said, ¡°That¡­ was just a temporary concept¡­¡± ¡°When you really do it, it will not just be a concept anymore!¡± Sui Xiong said angrily. ¡°You are going to the Eagle Wing City to save people. I have no problem with that. But you are going to take revenge on Woods, and that is not a good idea!¡± ¡°Right!¡± Morani, who had been paying attention to the battle situations, said. ¡°Woods Igor has now led the army of the Kingdom of Eagle to the last one of the seven fortresses in the northern part of the kingdom, which is also the sturdiest one, the ¡®Pure Gold City.¡¯ Now he has four legendary masters around him, and two more are talking about remunerations with him. What¡¯s more, he is wearing the Eagle Clothing, the Eagle Crown, and the Eagle Sword. Although the three artifacts have not been awakened by the descendants of the Eagle Wing Sword, their collective power can still raise him to a point comparable to a legendary, high-level warrior. With your strength, one-on-one, it may not be difficult to kill him. But, you can¡¯t fight him directly.¡± Leon frowned because he didn¡¯t expect there to be so many masters around King Woods. ¡°Moreover, if you appear in the military camp on the human side, I am afraid that your legendary strength will affect the top-strength comparison between the two sides. At that time, the Orcs are likely to send a master to kill you, even if you tell them that you are not here to get involved. Because after all, you are human.¡± Leon was silent, and then he sighed softly. His Majesty, the Steel Lion, is right. I am a human. Although I don¡¯t mean to help the humans fight, I won¡¯t really stand a chance if I get involved in the fight between humans and Orcs. If that happens, I¡¯ll have to fight against the strong Orcs in a life-or-death battle. ¡°There are eight legendary Orcs in the Orc army in total. I don¡¯t want to introduce their names one by one. In fact, I didn¡¯t care much about the names.¡± Morani continued, ¡°But, you need to pay attention to these three. The first, ¡®129,¡¯ is a presbyter of the Divine Temple. The presbyters of the Divine Temple have abandoned their names and only call themselves the number in order of them having entered the temple. This presbyter probably entered the Divine Temple 900 years ago. He is a shaman and good at using all kinds of curses and strong spells. When you fight against him, you should pay attention to his curses as well as the melee battle after he is strengthening himself.¡± Leon nodded slightly and kept this information in his mind. ¡°He is taking the ¡®Staff of Imprisonment,¡¯ one of the most important artifacts of the Orc race, but he can¡¯t fully display the power of this artifact with his strength. What¡¯s more, this artifact is so important that he would rather die than put it at risk. So you only need to beware of the two forces of this artifact, ¡®blocking¡¯ and ¡®destroying.¡¯ You don¡¯t have to fear that he will use all the power of the artifact. He will not turn the six demigods imprisoned on the staff into puppets to attack you.¡± Leon¡¯s eyes lit up. He couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°This is really good news!¡± ¡°Yes. But you can¡¯t just relax your vigilance because of that. The power of the Staff of Imprisonment is very strong. If you are hit by it, you will definitely die unless Void Mask rushes there in person to save you,¡± Morani warned him. He then smiled with satisfaction upon seeing Leon nod seriously. Morani continued, ¡°Second, watch out for Atel, the strongman of the Leopard race. In every generation, only the most powerful assassin of the Leopards can have this name. So you can imagine how dangerous he is. If you are marked by him, you will never have a moment of peace. Even relaxing for a second will result in your death.¡± Leon frowned, but there was no fear on his face. The meaning of His Majesty, the Steel Lion, is very clear. In a face-to-face battle, I would never lose to this Atel. I just need to beware of his sneak attacks. ¡°The last one¡­ To be honest, I don¡¯t want to talk about him, but I must.¡± Morani sighed. ¡°The present Orc emperor, Junero Tiger, who is also known as the ¡®Scholar.''¡± ¡°I have heard a lot of stories about him,¡± Kalisa couldn¡¯t help but say. ¡°There are a lot of books about him. They all say that he is such a weak scholar that even a dog can beat him. Among the Orc emperors of the past, his force is the weakest, and even the weakest in the entire palace. Even his maid is better than him.¡± ¡°In terms of the folk legends, this is true,¡± Morani said after a brief silence. ¡°But, at least in my impression, he was very strong that year!¡± ¡°That year?¡± Leon asked curiously. ¡°I have never heard of the past of this Orc emperor. In my impression, he seemed to be a scholar all the time. Later, he participated in the big fight contest held by Hogg Bale, the former Orc emperor. In the contest, he defeated his opponents one by one relying on his charm and wisdom. Finally, he talked with Emperor Hogg through the night and convinced the fierce man. After that, as a scholar, he sat on the throne of the Orcs, who advocated the forces¡­¡± ¡°This is just a story. How can the Orc race accept a scholar who has no power to be their emperor!¡± Morani laughed. ¡°There are some real parts to this story. For example, it was true that he became the emperor of the Orc race without a fight. But as far as I know, he showed an amazing power of pressure on the fighting field. He overwhelmed a legendary strongman only with his influence, and then he avoided the following battle.¡± Leon was so shocked that he couldn¡¯t help but clench his fists. Just relying on the power of pressure to overwhelm a legendary strongman?! How powerful he must be to be able to do this! Can I do this now? I¡¯m afraid¡­ I can¡¯t¡­ ¡°And this is just common knowledge. What I wanted to say is something from a long, long time ago, of the real ¡®that year.''¡± Morani thought about it, maybe organizing his discourse, and then slowly said, ¡°At that time, I was still an Orc, a famous strongman among the Lions. At that time, the emperor was old, so he held a huge fighting contest according to the rules. He would choose the strongest one to inherit the emperor¡¯s throne through this fair and just contest. Of course, as we also know, it is not as simple as ¡®the strongest one in the fight¡¯ can qualify as an emperor. The winner must show a power that can convince all the Orc strongmen. Only then can he sit on the throne. Otherwise, the elders would rather let the royal seat be empty and then hold a big contest every 50 years to select an emperor.¡± ¡°At that time, I also wanted to be emperor. So I went to participate in the contest. During the contest, the opponent I was most concerned about at the time was Junero.¡± ¡°What?!¡± This time, even Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but shout. ¡°That guy is so old!¡± Although Morani was a younger one among the gods, he was not that young. He became a god about 3,000 years ago, which was equivalent to¡­ In terms of the time on the earth where Sui Xiong came from before the time travel, he became a god almost in the middle of the Chinese Shang Dynasty, or the Trojan War in Europe during the ¡°Greek Mythology Era.¡± Don¡¯t forget that this was just around the time that Morani became a god! ¡°So¡­ Brother Morani, you saw him in the contest. How many years ago was this?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but ask. Morani laughed. ¡°It is difficult to estimate the exact time. I guess¡­ It was almost 5,000 years ago. In that fight, I had really bad luck. I met Lefon just in the second match. He was always fond of hiding his strength, so I was beaten fiercely, and I laid in bed for half a month. Later, Lefon became the emperor, and I was a general in his army. Then I suddenly woke up in a war. I felt that life should not be so meaningless. After resigning from the army, I wandered¡­¡± Morani suddenly snapped out it and smiled. ¡°Those are irrelevant things. Let¡¯s talk about Junero. At that time, I was knocked unconscious because of Lefon. After I woke up, I was healing my injuries. Of course, I was very curious about the final result of the contest at that time. The main reason was that I wanted to know whether Junero, the talented and so-called favorite champion, was beaten by Lefon. He was the same level as me, and so I wanted to know if he was beaten black and blue, or had broken several bones and could only lie in bed like me or not.¡± ¡°The result?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°He was not. Junero and Lefon fought against each other, and Junero soon admitted his defeat. He was annoyed and said that he was born in the wrong time because he encountered a hero who was destined to ascend to heaven. Then he left, and no one ever saw him again. Some said that he shamefully committed suicide. Others said that he lived in seclusion and never came out again.¡± Morani sighed deeply. ¡°Then, more than 100 years ago, he appeared as a scholar in the fighting contest held by Orc Emperor Hogg and won the throne of the emperor.¡± ¡°Bloody hell!¡± Sui Xiong could not help but swear. ¡°So he is at least 5,000 years old? A legendary strongman can¡¯t live for so long!¡± ¡°In general, a legendary strongman can live for 1,000 years, and ones with good longevity can live 2,000 at most,¡± Yorgaardman said with a low voice. ¡°If they want to reach 5,000 years old, then they must be of the longevity type.¡± ¡°He is a tiger, without a doubt,¡± Morani said. ¡°Although the creator of the tiger race has fallen, I had asked Lefon about this specifically. He also personally confirmed the identity of Junero. It is certain that this guy is a pure Orc and definitely not of the longevity kind. And¡­ This Junero is indeed the same man that lost to Lefon.¡± ¡°Then it is certain that since he can live to 5,000 years old, he must have surpassed the Legendary Realm,¡± Sui Xiong chirped in. He looked at Leon and shook his head. ¡°Hey, Leon, you shouldn¡¯t go. He may be a demigod at least. Or like me, your boss, he may just not have become a god officially yet¡­ If you really fight against him, I may not have the chance to save you.¡± Leon looked pale, too. No matter how confident he was, he didn¡¯t think that he had the skill to compete with a strongman who had been famous 5,000 years ago Let¡¯s see, who were the opponents of the Emperor Junero? His Majesty, the Steel Lion Morani, the God of Fight Contest, the Half-Orc Warrior, the Patron of Blacksmith, His Majesty, the Sky Devourer Canine Lefon, the God of Courage and Conquest, the Master God of the contemporary Orc God System¡­ To fight with the emperor, my own Majesty, the Void Mask may have the skill. But, me? Junero would be considered merciful to leave me dead with just a slap. Leon couldn¡¯t help but sigh deeply and began to ponder whether his plan was reliable or not. In the past, if he had tried to do something in such a war with his legendary strength and powerful outfit, it would have been considered very courageous. However, at present, such behavior was not courageous but rather seeking for death. However, he suddenly thought of a point and then could not help but ask, ¡°Your Majesty, if Emperor Junero is so powerful, why didn¡¯t he fight at the time of the last Orc invasion?¡± Since Junero Tiger became the Orc Emperor, there had been two Orc invasions including this one. At the time of the last Orc invasion, the emperor, who had once brought the guards to the front line, hadn¡¯t fought in the battle. If he was really a demigod or even a real god, why didn¡¯t he fight at that time? With his strength, the Kingdom of Eagle couldn¡¯t stop him at all! ¡°No one knows, and Lefon didn¡¯t ask.¡± Morani sighed. ¡°In fact, I am also very curious¡­ Perhaps it¡¯s really the same as the folktale; he¡¯s really a scholar just retaining his power through his influence¡­¡± This statement was simply untrustworthy and not persuasive. Even Morani himself shook his head and felt that his guess was absurd. The Orc race advocated the strong. No matter how powerful the power of influence was, it was impossible to make everyone convinced, so he finally had to fight. However, for whatever reason, this strongman who was at least a demigod, or might even be a real god, had not done anything at the time of the last Orc invasion. He had just allowed the rushing Orc army to be defeated by the Eagle Wing Sword held by the former king of the Kingdom of Eagle at the time. Finally, they had retreated like a drowned mouse, even failing to conquer the fortress of the City of Iron. Even if he hadn¡¯t cared about his face, he couldn¡¯t ignore the tradition of advocating the strength of the Orc race! Morani sighed deeply. ¡°I don¡¯t understand this man, really!¡± Sui Xiong patted his shoulder comfortingly and tried to convince him, ¡°It is normal that you don¡¯t understand because many people just have strange ideas. We normal people can¡¯t understand. Can you believe that he actually ordered a large group of bunny girls to take turns in raping those male prisoners? Normal people¡¯s brains can¡¯t imagine such things!¡± ¡°This idea comes from your inspiration, doesn¡¯t it?¡± Yorgaardman asked. ¡°It¡¯s not my inspiration. I got the inspiration from my follower, Steele. That guy is definitely not a normal person either!¡± Sui Xiong immediately made Steele the scapegoat. ¡°Really! Without the inspiration of Steele, I absolutely couldn¡¯t think of such an idea on my own!¡± But in any case, no matter who offered the inspiration, the person who thought that you could ¡°eliminate hatred with sex¡± must absolutely be abnormal. Steele is a weirdo, and the Void Mask is a jellyfish. As for this Emperor Junero Tiger¡­ Well, he is definitely not a normal person! With deep fears and uneasiness, Leon fell into deep thought. He pondered for a long time and finally made up his mind. ¡°In any case, I want to see Uncle Woods and ask him something,¡± he said, ¡°I have to do this! Chapter 248 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Why did Woods start the coup? Why was he so heartless? It remained a huge mystery in Leon¡¯s heart all this time. In his impression, this uncle of his was a knight whose martial art skills were not too shabby. He was brave in wars. His personality was not highly noble, but it was of normal standard. His desire for the throne was not even worth mentioning¡­ whether it was the hierarchy of inheritance or his martial powers, it would be impossible for him to inherit the throne. It was not even under consideration. So why would he desire it? The weirdest part was, Woods¡¯ coup came without any signs. But when it started there were so many followers, it was simply incredible! This manpower did not just fall from the sky. Woods¡¯ forces were actually pretty elite at the time. Where did these men come from? After the Woods coup was enthroned, a lot of ministers and nobles expressed surrender to him. That was highly unreasonable; the governing body of the Eagle Kingdom was comparably loose as a whole. Even though the king had the highest power, he could not exactly command the world with nobody defying him. As an insurgent of the coup d¡¯¨¦tat, Woods did not have the given legitimacy and holiness. Why did the nobles with army forces surrender to him? There was no reason for it! These questions had bothered Leon for a long time, even though he had been searching for information all the while. He had been using his power and position to gather related news, especially after reviving Garth City. The amount and diversity of news he gathered could almost fill up a bookshelf. He felt he could almost guess the answer; but until he found Woods to ask him clearly, he could not remove the thorn stuck in his heart. Sui Xiong called this situation ¡°an idea not fulfilled.¡± Leon thought the phrase was very appropriate. If he did not find out the answers himself and kill Woods with his own sword as revenge, his idea would probably not be fulfilled anyway. That was why, even though it was very dangerous, he decided to make a trip to the Eagle Kingdom. When he mentioned his decision, Carissa was of course very unwilling. She cried until she was almost soaked in tears. She had clearly heard the words of His Highness Steel Lion and knew how dangerous it was for Leon to go. It meant he might have to fight the immeasurably strong Orc emperor, Junero Tiger. It also meant that¡­ things would most likely end badly. And yet, Leon still went. When a man made the decision to do something, no woman could stop it. All she could do for Leon was prepare the best equipment possible and give him a sufficient food supply. When it was time for Leon to depart, he brought along a full set of extravagant equipment: a magic full body armor named ¡°Void Guardian,¡± a magic cape ¡°Starry Night Over the Sea,¡± a magic pendant ¡°Fountain of Life,¡± a magic ring ¡°Lucky Star,¡± and a ¡°Space Anchor.¡± The most important of all was the two-handed sword called ¡°The Holy Avenger.¡± Sui Xiong had spent almost a year¡¯s time collecting precious materials from many worlds to create it. All of these items were kept in his personal realm. That personal realm did not need any prop to open it up. It opened with a magical sign engraved on his soul. As long as he was still awake, he could take out or put in any items at any time. Within that personal realm, there were also many types of food prepared by Carissa. That amount of food could last a group of high-level adventurers fighting above the sky and underground and everywhere around the world for one and a half years. If it were not for the limited space, Carissa might have stuffed the entire army storage of Garth City into it. Some of Leon¡¯s equipment came from the secret vault guarded by the Riley family; some of it was a gift from Storm Sea; some were things that he exchanged with other legendary experts. But the two most important things came from His Highness Void Mask, the God that he believed in. Sui Xiong decently made the full body of armor, using the painful thoughts he conjured after he died battling hard with the Sea Marine armies. Later on, when Sui Xiong¡¯s experience and abilities increased, he added even more precious materials to greatly reinforce it. When he put it on Leon could barely feel its weight. It was so strong it could withstand the attack of a siege. Any magical weapon that was not at a high enough level could not even break its attached protective field. It came with a myriad of magic to neutralize any positive or negative effects from any spells that Sui Xiong could think of. This included controlling, cursing, enchanting, weakening, etc. It also had great reduction effects when faced with all types of injuries. It even provided multiple assistant abilities that could be activated or canceled. The person who wore the armor could be dubbed a Star Wars fighter; one could really even fight in outer space while wearing it if they needed to. There would be absolutely no problem in surviving or moving around. Yet, when compared with the two-handed sword, the full body of armor was rather insignificant. The two-handed sword did not have many functions. There were basically three. Firstly, it was super strong and sharp. Armed with a strong magical enchantment, even a young child could use it to cut iron blocks easily; he just needed to shove the iron block onto the blades. Even Leon used it during his free time to practice slicing mithril and carving gold flowers. It was very convenient, except for its slightly big size. Secondly, it could break any magical effect that Sui Xiong could think of when the sword hit the target. Even physical immunity spells were not exempt. Thirdly, it could sense danger in its owner¡¯s luck and could give an early warning of it. If necessary, it could even fly on its own to fight in the battle. To create the entire set of full body armor, Sui Xiong had sent out clones to numerous worlds to collect materials. To create that sword, he mainly collected supplementary materials. The main substance was part of the body of the God of Storm, which he devoured once but could not completely digest. Regarding these two pieces of equipment, Morani (who was an expert in the same field and whose clergy included metal-smithing) commented, ¡°It was just a show off of materials.¡± Yorgaardman who was a poor man commented instead, ¡°Why had I not met such a generous big brother back then?¡± The Goddess of Wealth had estimated the cost to a shocking number, exclaiming that the deacon of Void Mask Church was wearing the worth of two countries on his body¡­ Of course, Leon could not wear this glamorous armor into the city. It would be equal to putting three hundred spotlights on his head. It was not suitable for his plans of moving in and taking action secretly. So he chose to hide in the end. He changed into undistinguishable grey leather armor, and let the people from the Association of Thieves disguise him into a young thief who was smart and brave. He put on a pair of short swords commonly used by thieves, inserted a dagger into his boots, hung a foldable short bow around his waist, and tied a round of arrows to both his legs. He did not look anything like the ¡°King of the Seaside¡± from Garth City. He looked like a young elite man from the Association of Thieves. He walked towards the portal, getting ready to go to Eagle Wing City, the capital of the Eagle Kingdom. Carissa, who came to see him off, ran over to him suddenly and hugged him from behind. ¡°Come back alive!¡± she said in a tearful voice. Leon smiled. ¡°Sure thing. I am only going to tie up some unfinished business. The future is more important to me.¡± ¡°If you die, I will die as well.¡± Carissa¡¯s voice was alarmingly calm and determined. ¡°I had already prepared my will.¡± After she said that, she loosened her arms and didn¡¯t block his path anymore. Leon¡¯s body was stunned for a while. He was quiet before he said, ¡°I will not let it be used!¡± At the same time, he stepped into the illuminating portal. A few seconds later, a young elite thief appeared beside the portal outside of Eagle Wing City. The portals going to Void Mask¡¯s Theme Park were valued by every country. There was usually a small troop guarding almost every portal. It was obvious that this thief was a smart and worthy one, so an old soldier who came over to him immediately to ask what he was doing there. Once he heard that the thief was there to try his luck upon seeing the conscription order, the old soldier laughed. He patted the young thief¡¯s shoulder in a friendly manner and encouraged him to work hard. The thief smiled and nodded, and walked ahead. Once he walked far enough, the old soldier sighed and said to his partner, ¡°Another one came to look for death!¡± ¡°Actually, it is difficult to say. Who knows who will succeed?¡± the partner guessed. ¡°There are many good men who came this time. Who knows if someone might make a great contribution?¡± ¡°It also depends if the Eagle Kingdom still exists. Only then can they be rewarded,¡± the old soldier said pessimistically. ¡°Do you think our kingdom can hold off the Orcs this time?¡± The soldiers all sighed deeply. The mood was a bit low suddenly. After a while, the captain thought of something to cheer them up again. He said to everyone, ¡°Actually, it¡¯s okay if we lose. As long as we don¡¯t die on the battlefield, we might just get violated by a group of bunny girls¡­ come to think of it, that does not seem so bad.¡± The soldiers all laughed suddenly. The pessimistic and sad mood disappeared within a short while. Similar conversations happened between many of the Eagle Kingdom soldiers. But little did they know, Emperor Junero Tiger was looking at a document in his Emperor¡¯s tent in the Orc army, smiling with satisfaction. ¡°The Eagle Kingdom¡¯s soldiers are losing their morale,¡± he said, ¡°because we changed our ways this time. Many soldiers were talking along the lines of ¡®we could always surrender, and would only get raped by bunnies; men would not be disadvantaged¡¯.¡± ¡°This is a good thing!¡± the elder of the holy church said with a cold smile. His face was so old with wrinkles it could press mosquitoes to death. ¡°If that continues for several generations, the Eagle Kingdom will have no more humans. Only half-Orcs with rabbit bloodlines.¡± ¡°Yes. By then they will be loyal people to our empire, purely producers. We will not have to worry about their rebellion forever,¡± the emperor laughed while saying. ¡°Tragic Wind Big Druid¡¯s idea was actually very useful!¡± ¡°Speaking of being at peace with oneself, that woman was really great! Before, she was one of le-Peyroux¡¯s military advisors. But because she kept thinking humans should use love and understanding to communicate with each other, she ended up splitting up with le-Peyroux.¡± The elder¡¯s words were full of sarcasm. ¡°Even though she is old, even though her powers are strong, she is still a na?ve woman at the end of the day!¡± ¡°There is nothing bad about being na?ve. Her naivety has helped us a lot!¡± ¡°Oh yes. The more na?ve people there are, the better!¡± The two highest level persons in the Orc Empire army looked at each other and laughed within their own thoughts. From their points of view, this war could be announced as over already. Chapter 249 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Name?¡± ¡°Rien.¡± ¡°Native place?¡± ¡°Grey Tree Village, Rye Town in the Northwest.¡± ¡°Are you a member of the Association of Thieves?¡± ¡°Yes, I belong to the Association of Thieves in Rye Town.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your level of strength?¡± ¡°If I¡¯m in direct combat with somebody, I can probably fight with mid-ranked warriors. After all, I¡¯m just a thief, and I¡¯m good at things like sneaking around, hiding, stealing and identifying¡­¡± ¡°I see, then I assign you to the Scout Team, and you need to take this document to the big barracks in the north of the city to find Demmons. Lord Rel, you can ask the assistants of the Scout Camp for details.¡± Leon who was under the pseudonym of ¡°Rien,¡± nodded and took the filled out paper and headed for the north of Eagle Wing City. Although he hadn¡¯t come back for more than thirty years, he still remembered every inch of the city. He was walking around and felt that everything was familiar to him. However, when he looked carefully, he found that things were not the way they had been before. There were, in fact, quite different from what he remembered. For example, for one of his favorite restaurants in his youth, the owner was a middle sorcerer. He was good at cooking, and he introduced dozens of delicate and delicious cold drinks with different tastes every summer. Now the restaurant was still there while the owner was no longer there. Looking at the present shopkeeper who resembled the old owner, Leon thought he must be the previous owner¡¯s child. Another example was his favorite weapon store; there were two bosses in this store. One was an old dwarf with rich experiences in forging, and the other was a retired adventurer, tall and strong, whose muscles were sturdy enough to be used as armor. But this store had disappeared, and instead, a hotel had been built on the site. With close observation, it could be inferred that the walls had been built later. Maybe the two bosses were killed in Woods¡¯ Cleansing. There was a tavern where the palace guards often gathered, and the owner of which was also a retired palace guard. It was in this tavern that Leon had drunk alcohol for the very first time. When he passed by, he saw the tavern was still there with the old signboard. He thought back and realized that among those who had followed Woods to rebel were many palace guards. Leon walked and looked at the roadside, his face full of curiosity and his heart filled with reminiscences and mixed feelings. For a legendary master, thirty years was not a long time, while for a god, it was just a blink of an eye. But for a country, a city, and even for the civilians living in the cities, it was more than a lifetime of one generation. The Eagle Wing City where he had been born and grew up had changed a lot. He walked slowly, stopping his from time to time. Sometimes he would stop at a unique landscape or building and take a look at them before moving on. It seemed that he was not in a hurry to finish his task but rather came to visit. As he was walking along the street in the north of the city, he suddenly felt the ground shaking slightly. Then he heard the sound of horses¡¯ hooves coming from behind. So he went to the side of the road, looked back, and saw a group of armed knights riding horses towards the city gates. Their armor was so shiny that they could be used as mirrors, and their horse-riding postures looked proficient. It was evident that they had been trained for a long time. They could certainly fight bravely on the battlefields because their faces were full of exuberance and high morale. But¡­ Leon sighed inwardly. These knights¡¯ faces looked too immature. They were not veterans who had experienced many battles but a group of children. On their armor, he saw the Holy Emblem of the God of Knights. There was no doubt that they were members of the God of Knights¡¯ Regiment of Knights. ¡°It¡¯s so strange that these knights from the Church of the God of Knights also join in the battle. Why is that?¡± He pretended to be a curious passerby and asked a soldier who was patrolling. However, the soldier was also confused and said that he didn¡¯t know why. But then he said with a big smile, ¡°The Groundbreaking Knight was the earliest patron saint for us humans, and the knights in his Regiment of Knights were both powerful and honest guardians. With their help, we will be able to defeat the brutal Orcs and protect our homeland!¡± Leon nodded with a smile; then he quickened his pace towards the barracks outside of the north city gate. He was really curious. The Church of the God of Knights still had a great influence on the Eagle Kingdom because the kingdom was the only country that still believed in the God of Knights in the Dominant Continent. For a long time, this country had undergone despicable rebellions and bloody cleansings, and even the grand ¡°Knights¡¯ Tournament¡± had been held intermittently. But the God of Knights still kept the very strong Regiment of Knights in this country due to their long-term accumulation. However, the Regiment of Knights had never launched an attack in the past years. It was said that the God of Knights had made this promise not to fight for the heirs of rebels, and this rebel had been the ancestor of Eagle Kingdom¡ªthe God of Eagle who had competed with the God of Light for the seat of the God of Human Beings. But¡­ why did the Regiment of Knights of the God of Knights start off this time? Did this god who had been silent in recent years finally decide to rise up and show his great power? Leon couldn¡¯t help but feel excited when he thought about it. Among the gods of mankind, the God of Knights enjoyed the best reputation and was most respected by the people. In the barbaric ages, it was he who had accepted the Priesthood of ¡°mankind¡± from Cybele who had created human beings but seldom protected them. The God of Knights faithfully guarded human beings. For quite a long time, he had been the main god of the human holy pedigree. Later, with the rise of Buddhist Knights, he had eventually given up the seat of the main god and decided to assist the powerful man renamed the God of Light. But he and his knights had still been the most resolute and courageous force to protect human beings. Especially in this era where human beings had been addicted to internal fights, only he still had adhered to the concept of pioneering and progression. Now he had two aliases, the ¡°Groundbreaking Knight¡± and the ¡°Lonely Guardian.¡± The two were actually two sides of one the same coin; together they meant the same thing. He was the only person who had still established more living space for human beings and who had insisted on defending mankind against enemies. Now, did he finally decide to step on the front line of the battle between human beings and Orcs again, and return to the time when the God of Eagle hadn¡¯t launched a mutiny? Did he decide to come back to the age in which knights fought with him side by side to resist the Orcs? Leon was very puzzled. He couldn¡¯t help but pray secretly and report this news to Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong was so curious about this that he contacted Morani who had been involved in the dealings of this war. Morani was also very intrigued, so he found the God of Knights in the Pantheon temple and asked him directly. Facing Morani¡¯s inquiries, the God of Knights nodded and said, ¡°Yes, I have issued the oracle and called on all knights who believe in me to wear their armor, take up their weapons and go to the Eagle Kingdom to support the human armies against the invasion of the Orcs.¡± ¡°Why are you fighting? That¡¯s not your style.¡± ¡°Why would I join in this war?¡± The God of Knights was silent for a moment before answering, ¡°I can¡¯t just watch the whole Eagle Kingdom, the oldest ancient country in human history, be reduced to the kingdom of Half-Orcs.¡± ¡°The kingdom of Half-Orcs?¡± Morani asked doubtfully. ¡°Yes, didn¡¯t you notice that? Now the Orcs are forcing men to have offspring with female Orcs. Women may lose the opportunity to marry someone or have children. This is just the beginning, but if the Orcs really occupy the whole Eagle Kingdom, they will popularize and persist in this practice so that the Eagle Kingdom will no longer have human beings but only hybrid Half-Orcs after a few generations.¡± Morani thought for a while, shook his head and then asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with Half-Orcs?¡± Morani, also known as the ¡®Steel Lion,¡¯ was a Half-Orc. What¡¯s more, he was not just a hybrid Half-Orc but a purebred Lion-man. ¡°I just want to insist on my practice,¡± The God of Knights answered calmly. ¡°That¡¯s all.¡± Morani nodded and thought for a while. He secretly contacted Yorgaardman, the God of Justice and told him to find the God of Light and search for details. ¡°I hate that guy,¡± Yorgaardman said sullenly. ¡°Don¡¯t expect me to do this favor for you.¡± Fortunately, one of their friends was just qualified to be able to talk with the God of Light. The Goddess of Wealth tried to ask the God of Light about his opinions in regard to this matter. The God of Light, with a circle of nimbus behind his head, lit up with a cruel smile and said coolly, ¡°Everyone makes their own choices, and as long as he is willing to accept the consequences, I respect his choice.¡± ¡°Consequences?¡± The Goddess of Wealth was shocked and hurried to ask for an explanation, but the God of Light refused to answer. But the meaning behind his words was scary enough to worry about. ¡°Is it possible that the God of Knights will bring great trouble to himself for doing so?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°There are not many of his followers left. If he brings the elite Regiment of Knights to the hands of death, his status of a deity will probably be downgraded.¡± ¡°This is his own choice,¡± Morani sighed and said. ¡°He has been pressed hard by the God of Aristocracy all these years. Perhaps he is tired of such a life and is determined to fight for a change.¡± ¡°So what are the opinions of the Gods of Mankind on this matter?¡± Morani looked at Javier sitting next to him. Javier sighed and shrugged. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me. I¡¯m just temporary staff. How could I possibly know that?¡± ¡°It seems that you are quite unsatisfied?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Dark clouds rose over Javier¡¯s face immediately. He said, ¡°The Orcs¡¯ invasion is clearly a premeditated attempt to exterminate the entire human race, but the king still didn¡¯t take any actions to stop it. What the f*ck!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not surprised at what the king did,¡± Yorgaardman sneered and said. ¡°But I will be very surprised if he does any good deeds. He even killed Cybele, so it¡¯s not surprising that he might think the predecessor who has guarded us well was an eyesore.¡± Those gods looked at each other and sighed. If Yorgaardman¡¯s guess was right, then the God of Knights might face a tough road this time. Chapter 250 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There was no kind-hearted God willing to see a God of Knights suffer, including Sui Xiong. Even the Orc Gods who were His enemy felt the same. No, the Gods of Orcs did not wish to see Him weakened, demoted, or even fallen. After all¡­ as an enemy, the God of Knights had integrity, followed the rules, had moral values and was very tolerant. In contrast, the God of Light was fierce and cold. He did things unscrupulously and had no limit to how low He could stoop. Being an enemy of His was way more dangerous and way more difficult than being an enemy of the God of Knights. And yet, what was ideal and what was reality were always two different things. Leon hid deep sighs in his heart after he received the news from Sui Xiong. He pretended to be a young thief who ventured out for adventure and came to the big camp in the north of Eagle Wing City. The scout camp was located in the furthest north side of the big camp. It was also the frontmost line of the whole army. They had the best logistics supply and treatment because they were responsible for the most dangerous and difficult jobs. Before the big war happened, the first scout war erupted. Those brave men chosen from one in 100 would fight in small team units, even going so far as an individual counting as a unit. They would try hard to suppress each others¡¯ scouts in order to gather any valuable intelligence. After a big war, even the victorious party would suffer a loss of over 30% from their scouts camp. The scouts camp of the defeated party might even be annihilated. Even though one could use magic spells or the air force to look for jobs, the intelligence acquired was relatively unclear. There was no way for it to be detailed and accurate. Most generals deeply hated the scout wars that made them send their precious elite men off to crazy killer battles. But they had no other choice if they wanted to win. When Leon arrived, the previous batch of scouts had just departed and the scout camp was rather empty. Besides the officers who were responsible for reorganization, there were only the logistics officers, busy arranging wills and other documents. Due to the high risk involved in serving in a scout camp, almost every scout left behind a will before they left for the battlefield. Some people would bid farewell to their friends and family, some people would arrange their funerals, some would tell the secrets they had hidden for many years. All these wills would not be opened. They would be kept in cases and sealed with magic spells. Each of these cases would be specially treated with a magic lock, the spell only losing its effectiveness when the owner of the will passed away. When the time came, the logistics officers would take out the wills of those who died on the battlefield and complete their death wishes. In general, this was a privilege that only nobles were entitled to. As for normal soldiers, only those who served in scout camps would have the same treatment. ¡°How many cases were opened today?¡± said the old soldier who was responsible for arranging this data. He was an old man whose hair was almost completely white. He only had one arm, and there was a scary scar on his face. He also walked with a limp. There was no doubt he was a strong man who had crawled his way back to life after facing the God of Death. Coincidentally, Leon knew him. The man was named Star Erif. He was a family member of Count Erif. That year during the last Orc invasion, he was one of the scout camp members who fought ¡¯till death on the battlefield. He was hurt badly in the war. After that, even though he had been retrieved from a pile of dead people and saved by a strong healing spell, his was never completely healed. That was because the thing that had cut his arm off was a horribly cursed weapon. Unless the weapon was found and cleansed, not even a high-level recovery spell could make his cut-off arm grow again. Star was a typical soldier. As long as there were wars to be fought, Orcs to be killed, he didn¡¯t care who was leading. Leon remembered back when his grandfather had evaluated his man. He said that this man was born in the year of the dog and that as a result, he was good at guarding the door. But he was not guarding the door of the Igor family. He was not guarding the door of the Eagle Kingdom. He only guarded the door of mankind. Time flew by quickly. The fierce one-armed warrior was now old and fragile. He was too old to join the battlefield anymore and could only manage logistic work now. Leon sighed secretly in his heart as he walked up to greet him. He asked where he should report to. Old Star took a look at his papers and nodded. Then he used his one arm to point to the far-away practice grounds. ¡°Go over there and find young Erik. He will be in charge of assessing your abilities, and will use a magic spell to identify your reliability.¡± ¡°And after the assessment?¡± Leon asked. ¡°Until then he will tell you what to do. I am very busy here,¡± old Star said begrudgingly. But his face looked a little dazed. ¡°I still had to calculate how many great young men died today¡­¡± Leon was quiet for a moment before he saluted him. Then he went to the practice grounds. Looking at the retreating figure, old Star frowned a little as he mumbled to himself, ¡°This man¡­ he looks a little familiar. Where have I seen him before?¡± Old Star was old and his moves had degraded; there was no way he could kill anybody now. But as an elite scout, his vision was still there, and his memory was good. He did not dare boast that he had a photographic memory. But as long as he had seen and spoken with someone, he could vaguely remember the person. That look when the newcomer scout turned to leave: where had he seen that look before? The old, aging scout was deep in thought for a while. But he could not find the right answer even after digging deep into his memory. In the end, he could only sigh deeply. ¡°I must be really old! So useless¡­¡± This was actually not entirely his fault. With Leon¡¯s current disguise, it was really hard to tell that he was related to some distinguished person. He looked very similar to his father from behind; to the ex-King who was murdered by his younger brother not long after he was enthroned. But who would have thought these two people were related? Leon did not know that his cover had almost almost been blown. He quickly stepped into the practice grounds. Inside, there were quite a few newly recruited scouts who were training. There were also many older soldiers teaching them the necessary skills of being on a battlefield, trying hard to increase their chances of survival. ¡°You are Rien, and you came from around Rye Town of the four towns in the Northwest. And you are a thief?¡± asked Count Erik. He was the main officer of the Scout Camp. Erik looked at his papers carefully. He hesitated for a while before asking, ¡°How has old Rhode been?¡± ¡°Mr. Rhode is almost retired now. I have not been to Void Mask Theme Park for some time, so I really have no idea about his situation,¡± Leon answered. ¡°But¡­ at least he was still in good spirits last fall during the harvest festival.¡± Count Erik nodded and spoke again. ¡°I remember the church of the God of Light in Rye Town was working hard to cleanse a lich. Has the cleansing finished?¡± ¡°They had not finished cleansing on the day I departed, but they said it would be done in a few days,¡± Leon answered. ¡°I have spent some time on the road, I guess the cleansing is done. Or maybe they needed more time.¡± Count Erik nodded again and inquired about the situation of the four towns in the Northwest, especially Rye Town. In the end, he took out a blue crystal and looked at the color of the crystal. Then he smiled with satisfaction. ¡°Very good, you did not lie,¡± he said. ¡°Well then. Let¡¯s do a simple physical test.¡± He pointed at a human-shaped target far away and said, ¡°Now, run over there as fast as you can and attack that target¡ªjust as you would attack a person. Then run back over here again.¡± Leon looked at the target and asked, ¡°I just have to attack it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Count Erik said. ¡°You¡¯d better hurry up. The sooner you complete it, the better your evaluation will be.¡± Leon turned his hand around to remove the foldable short bow that hung on his waist and combined the three parts of metal into a bow arm with a turn and a twist. Then he took out the bowstring and hung it up, took out an arrow from the rounds tied to his leg, and put it on. He did not even take aim intentionally. Drawing the bow and taking aim, he only took one arrow to shoot the target. It landed a shot in the throat position. ¡°Is this speed alright?¡± he asked. Count Erik was stunned. He could only react after a few seconds and could not help but laugh while clapping his hands. ¡°Bravo! Bravo! Your skills do not look like a thief¡¯s skills at all!¡± As he said that, he was suddenly frozen. He could only see the shadow of ¡°Rien¡± who was nearby, gradually turning gray all of a sudden. He blended into the shadows of the tent next to him, completely losing his tracks. ¡°Sir, I¡¯m also good at sneaking.¡± It only took a moment, but his voice now came from behind him. ¡°Besides, that arrow shooting took quite a lot of luck. If I had to do it again I cannot guarantee I would shoot the throat again with one arrow.¡± Count Erik was stunned again. This time he was stunned for a longer time. His back even had a few goosebumps. If the previous God-like precision shot was enough to make him marvel, the sneaking to get behind him in the blink of an eye scared him. ¡°You¡­ are you really a thief and not an assassin?¡± he could not help but ask. ¡°Sneaking, sniping¡­ these skills all make you look like an assassin!¡± ¡°Ever since Mr. Rhode took charge of the Association of Thieves in the four towns in the Northwest, the thieves in the four towns can no longer take assassin jobs,¡± Leon answered. ¡°I respect Mr. Rhode very much and will adhere to the rules he set. But if I was on the battlefield, I would be more than happy to take on an assassination mission.¡± Count Erik suddenly realized something. He thought he understood Rien¡¯s background. ¡°This old Rhode¡­ he has great skills, good vision, but he is too courteous. He is always harmonious, and will not fight if he does not have to. I will admit that he is doing great in with money. He has his way of managing people too. He did make the Association of Thieves in the four towns in Northwest bigger and stronger these past few years. But talented people like you are stuck with minor jobs like identifying, theft, tracking, etc. What a waste!¡± Leon smiled but did not answer. His powers had made the lie detector crystal dysfunctional, because the more you said to it, the more you would make a mistake. It was better to speak less when it came to lying. ¡°Combat ability good, sneaking ability good. The only thing left is scouting ability¡­¡± Count Erik thought for a bit and said, ¡°When you were walking here, did you notice how many tents were in this scout camp? Was there anything significant or worth mentioning when you were on the way here?¡± Leon scanned through his memory and recited the number of tents. It was totally accurate. As for any significant intelligence that was worth mentioning¡­ he thought for a bit longer and said the number of people that died today on the battlefield, just as he heard it when he was leaving Old Star¡¯s place. Count Erik nodded repeatedly. In the end, he picked up his pen to sign on his papers and wrote some comments on it as well. Without a doubt, all three skills that a scout needed, he had. Chapter 251 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After the assessment, Viscount Erik added some routine questions about life dream, attitude to life and views on the Eagle Kingdom and orcs alike. Leon answered each of them in a standard way. Hearing all of Leon¡¯s answers, Viscount Erik gave him a token of centurion and appointed him leader of the next scout troop. Viscount Erik told Leon to set off once the troop was complete and ready and that Leon would be a direct subordinate to Earl Burton, the Chief Commander of the scout camp at the front. Dene Burton, the Earl, was one of the legendary powers in the Eagle Kingdom. Years ago, Earl Burton had been a student of the old king¡¯s and got along well with Leon¡¯s father and uncles and Leon himself. When he had been caught in a dilemma in Wood¡¯s rebellion, he asked for a duel with the Orc Empire¡¯s legendary powers to shelter. Since then Earl Burton had been living in seclusion. Nobody had met him, including King Woods who didn¡¯t have a chance to see him either until the orc troops flooded over, let alone reappointing him. Being a direct subordinate to Earl Burton was the best offer Viscount Erik could give. And this was no doubt sincere for a top robber who desired success. Gracefully Leon expressed his gratitude and accepted the token. After leaving a magic mark as required, he left the camp to visit the Eagle Wing City as this was, according to him, his first time here. Leon¡¯s plan sounded reasonable for Viscount Erik because it would take at least 3 to 5 more days to recruit a complete scout troop and before that Leon would still be free. After Leon had left, Viscount Erik started to praise him again. He spoke so highly of Leon that a bashful person might probably feel embarrassed upon his words. His clerk wondered, ¡°High-ranked robbers are not scarce. Though this person is an incredible archer, is he that good to deserve your compliment?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t understand!¡± smiled Viscount Erik cheerfully, ¡°I have been working on intelligence, for sure I have all information of the well-known masters in the Four Towns in the Northwest. But look, there has never been any young good robber called Rien from my source so far and even the several high-ranked robbers we know appear to have no connection with him.¡± ¡°What?!¡± the clerk was shocked and concerned, ¡°Do you think he is a spy?¡± ¡°Impossible. Anyone in the Legendary Realm would find it difficult to cheat my legendary-ranked crystal lie detector, not to mention a high-ranked robber. If he was really a spy, he must be someone of advanced legendary or peak legendary or above¡­would you believe such a master is a spy here? Plus, the best robber in the Orc Empire is Atel, the ¡®assassinator¡¯ of medium legendary, who would also fail to cheat my crystal!¡± ¡°So¡­he is not a spy. But why wasn¡¯t he heard of before?¡± Viscount Erik smiled, ¡°You¡¯ve got the point! I believe that he was secretly trained by the Association of Thieves of the Rye Town. As it¡¯s known to all, Void Mask Land has the most masters in the Four Town area ¨C nearly ten legendary-ranked are there along with two Real Gods ¨C probably nowhere but the Dragon Cliff of dragon race could parallel on the main plane. Then comes Dragon-roar Town ¨C there were quite some advanced adventurers arose from there these years though there was no legendary ones. Compared with these two areas, the other three towns are far behind with almost no big names to offer. While Rye Town which used to lead in the Four Town area with its good geographic location of connecting the northwest and the west is also seeking to regain its past glory.¡± ¡°You mean¡­this Rien is among the talents they¡¯ve trained so hard. But why is he now here to join the anti-orc troop? He has all the resources to succeed to the chairman of the Association of Thieves in Rye Town¡­¡± ¡°Chairman of the Association of Thieves in Rye Town?¡± laughed Viscount Erik, ¡°Who would bother taking this ¡®position¡¯? This lad has an eye and is talented. He has a future! He will probably soar later to be a legendary-ranked!¡± ¡°What?!¡± the clerk was surprised ¨C there were loads of young advanced individuals out there but a majority of them reached their limits at this level and found no way to proceed further into the legendary realm. However, this young man Rien was expected so highly by Viscount Erik! ¡°Moreover, people like him do not merely work on his own. His coming here means that we are backed by all major powers in Rye Town at least. They may even send their troops over to help us at critical moments.¡± Viscount Erik smiled and added, ¡°Despite the small size of their troops, the quality is incredibly high. Soldiers there are no weaker than medium-level adventurers, some are even as strong as advanced ones. They would be a real benefit to us in the fight!¡± Their conversation went on for a while until the next candidate came. And Leon was then already at an isolated mansion in the city. This was the Viscount Tariq¡¯s mansion. Reding, the senior Viscount Tariq, had been a famous sage who had used to serve the Eagle Kingdom and one of Leon¡¯s mentors back then. After Reding¡¯s death, Raisin Tariq, the successor, had estranged himself with the then king for their bad relation since the young age. Viscount Raisin had probably not been involved in the Wood¡¯s Rebellion although his bad temper would have hardly made him any good subordinate to the usurper. This might be the reason he had been living in seclusion. Leon had wished to recommend this viscount to Sui Xiong early in that year, or at least to recommend a descendant of the Tariqs. Considering the renowned academic background of this family, there must be someone good at state affairs and qualified to take on a crucial position. But Leon¡¯s plan was set aside because of the later incidents and Sui Xiong didn¡¯t try to recruit a Tariq since then. Time flew, and it had been nearly twenty years¡­or some thirty years already together with that fifteen years back then. How was the Tariqs? The mansion didn¡¯t look good anyway¡­ Slightly tidied himself, Leon then moved to the small window aside of the main entrance and gently knocked on the metal windowsill with a small hammer hung by the window, giving a visit request as etiquette required. The gatekeeper was a senior in his late forties but still energetic. He quickly asked Leon about his visit and went off to deliver the request. Soon after, Leon was meeting with senior Nick, the butler of the Tariqs. Mr. Nick was in his eighties. The Nicks started to take on the job of butler at the Tariqs since Mr. Nick¡¯s grandfather¡¯s generation, thus had become a trusted name at the Tariqs. And the Nicks was a hereditary wizard family. Leon remembered that Mr. Nick¡¯s father had been an advanced wizard and that Mr. Nick himself was also reputable by fighting a few battles with the old king in the old days. ¡°What brings you here, Mr. Rien?¡± despite the age, Mr. Nick looked pretty well. He had bright eyes under his white eyebrows and subtle airflow was around his body ¨C Leon knew that was caused by his strong magic power. Unlike other nobles, he was straightforward. Plus, with his magic power, one would feel threatened and convinced in front of him. Leon smiled and mobilized the airflow around; a projection of human figure came out from him ¨C a fifteen-year-old Leon. ¡°Hello, Mr. Nick.¡± the projected Leon Igor smiled and greeted Mr. Nick, ¡°You look so well, as if ¡®nothing has happened¡¯.¡± Mr. Nick frowned and hesitated and smiled at last. ¡°Using the Dou Qi airflow to make a projection charm is a medium legendary practice. Your Highness Leon, you¡¯ve improved so much over these years!¡± ¡°Not really, I should be capable of this for my great talent.¡± the young Leon smiled and replied, showing the confidence of his young age. Suddenly he switched and asked, ¡°Mr. Nick, I have been confused these years ¨C and still are ¨C why did uncle decide to rebel? Do you know the reason?¡± Senior Nick became silent and shook his head, ¡°Nobody knew Wood¡¯s reason. But I have my guess, do you want to hear?¡± ¡°Certainly, you are my senior fellow. Unlike me who didn¡¯t receive much coaching from Mr. Reding, you have always been Mr. Reding¡¯s favorite student.¡± Senior Nick smiled and said, ¡°I just doubted that he was being supported by the Noble Maids Church and even ¡­¡± He stopped to point at the sky. Leon frowned and didn¡¯t say anything. For sure Leon knew who he was talking about, but was it likely for such a figure high above to be involved in a trivial throne in the mortal world? ¡°Have you heard of anything?¡± he asked later. ¡°Indeed¡­I guess you already know the Noble Maids Church¡¯s annexation of Groundbreaking Knight Church? Actually, they had their conflicts first intensified on a large scale in our Eagle Kingdom.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s not in uncle¡¯s territory.¡± ¡°True. But evidence showed that a few of his trusted subordinates happened to show up in that area during the conflict.¡± After a long silence, Leon asked again, ¡°Is there more evidence?¡± ¡°No. In fact there could not be much evidence on such issues.¡± senior Nick smiled, ¡°But isn¡¯t it better to ask him face-to-face since you are so strong now? You are well-prepared to do so directly without any concern.¡± Leon nodded and smiled. ¡°You are right. I will find a chance a ¡®ask him properly¡¯!¡± Chapter 252 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio That evening, Leon had dinner in the house of Viscount Tariq. He also met Rickard Tariq, the current Viscount Tariq, who was only 14 years old. The family of Viscount Tariq had actually been quite small in numbers these years. Viscount Rayson had two sons and two daughters. In theory, that was no small amount. But his eldest son had not left behind any children before he died during a hunt. His ride got a shock, and both he and his ride had fallen down a cliff. His body was never retrieved. Neither daughter gave birth to any sons after they were married. So, the youngest son Rickard became the only heir. He was working hard to learn about politics, striving to become a qualified lord of aristocrats. But looking at him, Leon was actually quite worried. Rickard was a little weak and his build was thin. He looked like he did not have much courage. The worst part was, Leon could see in an instant that this child¡¯s martial art power was almost equal to zero. ¡°Uncle Nick, your magic skills are so great. Why don¡¯t you teach him a little?¡± Leon asked. ¡°The world is so unjust. It is better to have a few skills so he can save himself.¡± ¡°His talents are not great. It would be better for him to work hard on learning politics for now,¡± Old Nick said, smiling. ¡°Besides, I could still live for another twenty or thirty years. Even if my life does end I can still transform into an undead or constructive creature. It will not be difficult with my abilities. With me to guard him, he does not need to increase his martial arts skills in a hurry.¡± ¡°It does not take long to learn a bit of swordsmanship or magic skill¡­¡± ¡°You think everyone is as genius as you are?¡± Old Nick laughed. ¡°Do not use your standard to measure others, you enviable fella!¡± Leon thought a bit and laughed too. Then, he told Old Nick and Rickard about the intelligence that he had gathered. But he found neither of them was surprised at all. ¡°It seems like we need to get prepared to leave, then,¡± Old Nick sighed. ¡°Sir, I am afraid we must leave now.¡± ¡°Ok, let¡¯s go then.¡± Rickard did not feel nostalgic. ¡°We will go and live in Void Mask¡¯s Theme Park for the time being, and decide again after the storm has settled.¡± Leon relaxed a little. He was really worried these two would go berserk and insist on the romanticized idea of nobles needing to die in their own territory. That would be very terrible indeed! ¡°¡­ It is one thing when a noble dies in his own territory, but now I have to go to another country to fight in a bloody battle! What kind of matter is this?!¡± Baron Crick Keane shot up and slammed the enlistment papers that came from Grand Duke of Thunder onto the table angrily. He shouted abusively, ¡°Is he f**king stupid?!¡± ¡°Well maybe. Even though it is a ridiculous order, you have no reason to reject it,¡± Knight D¡¯vor Russ sighed and said. He was currently his adjutant. ¡°As a vassal who is directly under the grand duke, You have to obey his enlistment.¡± ¡°D*mn his whole family! This old man is asking me to go to die!¡± ¡°In regards to your judgment, I strongly agree. But the problem we face now is how to handle this enlistment.¡± Crick sighed deep and long before he sat down once more and picked up the enlistment papers to read them again. [These papers are hereby ordering Baron Keane to lead his troops to aid the Eagle Kingdom in the war, to be enlisted under Prince Haierwen, and to arrive before the first of December, without any mistakes!] ¡°Speaking of which, Prince Haierwen is purely unlucky this time¡­¡± ¡°Who told him to believe in the Groundbreaking Knight? If he believed in the Master of Mystery instead, the Grand Duke might have been reluctant to involve him.¡± D¡¯vor shook his head. ¡°The situation now is very clear. Groundbreaking Knight is just fighting for a final chance. If he can succeed, then he will be able to regain some belief based on his prestige in the people. If he fails¡­ then it is probably time for Him to fall.¡± ¡°What does the falling of a God have to do with us?!¡± ¡°If the castle crumbles, will the people living in it be unaffected?¡± Nikola laughed coldly. ¡°Baron, Sir, you should stop complaining and start thinking about what should we do.¡± ¡°What do you think we should do?¡± Crick asked in frustration. He kept thinking but he could only feel his head spin. He really could not think of a way out. ¡°Give up your title and land, then,¡± Nikola said. ¡°Come back to the grand theater with us. You still have quite a lot of money, and you are not a bad scholar either. In the future, you can put all your heart into writing operas and live the rest of your life comfortably.¡± ¡°This idea is almost the most practical one,¡± D¡¯vor said. ¡°Although as your retainer, it is a very shameful and immoral thing to encourage a vassal to betray his feudal lord. But people like you really should not die under other peoples¡¯ schemes and conspiracies.¡± Crick frowned as he admitted that his subordinates were right in theory, but¡­ ¡°If I were to run away, how would we set the route?¡± he asked. ¡°We cannot just run all the way to the Void Mask Theme Park. We would still need to use a portal. But the portals in the capital will surely be guarded tightly. Do we have to go to the Federation of Mifata?¡± ¡°It¡¯s our only choice,¡± D¡¯vor said. ¡°And we have to be quick. It is best we leave tonight and grasp whatever time difference we can get.¡± ¡°But what about my people and the bureaucrats under me? I cannot possibly bring everyone along with me to run away.¡± ¡°We cannot think too much right now,¡± old housekeeper sighed. ¡°Hope for the Keane family is all on you now. If you die, then Keane family is really finished! Surely you do not think that Miss Anna is able to support the family?!¡± ¡°I am asking. If I run away, what will happen to my people and the bureaucrats under me?¡± Crick said in a deep voice. The old housekeeper was silent for a moment and then answered, ¡°We will probably be stripped of the territory and denounced for committing treason. By that time the bureaucrats may face a cleansing process. The territory may be imposed with increased taxation. Maybe after a few years, the territory will be granted to someone else.¡± Cricked frowned deeply. ¡°What will happen to you and Anna?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about us. And don¡¯t worry about Miss Anna,¡± the old housekeeper smiled. ¡°There is nothing to be afraid of. You are the important one!¡± ¡°Sir, now is not the time to hesitate!¡± D¡¯vor persuaded. ¡°You must leave now!¡± ¡°Yes, the sooner you leave the better!¡± the old housekeeper echoed their sentiments. At this moment, Rafael, the thief in charge of intelligence, hurriedly ran into the room. He reported that there were high-level adventurers appearing near Keane city. There was also a group of knights, led by pastors and magicians from the Church of the God of Aristocracy, coming into the city. Their leader, pastor Machee, requested to pay a visit to the city owner. ¡°F**k!¡± D¡¯vor, who was usually steady as a mountain, could not help but curse out loud. ¡°They are obviously here to stop us!¡± ¡°Machee Smith is not just anybody. She is really strong, and not easy to deal with,¡± Nikola said with a frown. ¡°Dealing with her alone is difficult enough, not to mention her big group of helpers. If we want to run away by breaking through her barricade, it will be difficult!¡± ¡°What about using magic spells? Isn¡¯t there a teleportation spell?¡± D¡¯vor asked. ¡°There is either plane teleportation under the plane realm or general teleportation under the traveling realm. But Thomas and I do not have access to these two realms,¡± Nikola sighed. ¡°We can only use portals. But that won¡¯t cover enough distance.¡± ¡°Call in magician Damwade. Maybe he¡¯ll have an idea.¡± Magician Damwade, who was in the research lab, was quickly sent to them. Once he found out that his feudal lord was facing a crisis, the magician took out a silver scroll. ¡°I do not know teleportation spells very well. But I do have this ¡°return spell¡± scroll. It can bring three people back to the Highest Tower,¡± he said. ¡°Me, the feudal lord, and room for one more.¡± Crick¡¯s subordinates sighed with relief. Old housekeeper laughed, ¡°What a coincidence; just enough to bring Miss Anna along.¡± Nikola shook his head. ¡°We should let Thomas follow. Even though he is a bastard, his hands are quite strong.¡± ¡°He should bring housekeeper Wade,¡± D¡¯vor suggested. ¡°If the Keane family wants to be revived in the future, we will need housekeeper Wade¡¯s experience and wisdom.¡± ¡°What will you all do if I ran away?¡± Crick asked worriedly. He stopped their arguing. ¡°Machee and her gang are coming with ill intentions!¡± ¡°Ha-ha! Once you leave, we will have many ways to survive!¡± Nikola said smugly. ¡°With our abilities, no one will be able to stop us from running away!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, this is the only way!¡± D¡¯vor nodded repeatedly. ¡°Quickly, go now!¡± Crick was silent for some time before summoning all the high-positioned officers in his territory. His orders were executed very quickly. The group of officers who were allocated and promoted by him, whose fidelity levels all had an average of 80 and above, were gathered in the government affairs office. He told them briefly about the enlistment order from the grand duke and the problem of elite forces from the Church of the God of Aristocrats arriving in town. Then he let everyone express their comments. Just like D¡¯vor and the others, these highly loyal officers all advised him to run away, and disobey this ridiculous order to go and kill in the war between the Eagle Kingdom and Orc Empire. That was as good as sending him to die! ¡°I can run, but what about you guys?¡± Crick asked. The officers were suddenly solemn. Everyone looked at each other. More than one of them expressed that, ¡°Somehow there will be a way,¡±¡±We don¡¯t think these big characters will vent their anger on insignificant little pawns like us,¡±¡±The territory will need someone to be in charge of it,¡± etc. Crick sighed and secretly shook his head. A change of sovereigns would bring about a change of ministers. Even he was not exempt from cleaning up the cabinet ministers before. He had a few dead bodies on his conscience from the process. If he ran away and the territory was granted to some other nobles, the officers loyal to him would most likely have their heads chopped off. Moreover¡­ the commoners of the territory were already living poorly. If an increased tax was imposed, how could they cope? He was afraid that many people would not survive the coming winter! The young traverser raised his head and looked at the grains in the wooden ceiling. He could not help but laugh bitterly. ¡°I cannot run away,¡± he said. ¡°Go and contact Aunt Lily. I remember their house is in a nearby town. They still have magical equipment that can be used for communication¡­¡± But after the magical equipment was activated, there was only a red shining light and no reply. ¡°The target contacted had been destroyed,¡± magician Damwade said with a frown. ¡°As expected, I am afraid your Aunt Lily had met an ill fate, considering that her house is on the way from Gale Prefecture to Keane City. We can assume it was probably done by Machee and her gang.¡± Crick gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists. He took a few deep breaths to suppress his anger. Now was not the time to be furious. Being furious would not solve the problem. ¡°Bring Anna here!¡± Anna was Crick Keane¡¯s sister. She was also one of only two direct heirs to the Keane family. She was only nine years old this year; still a child who did not know anything. But even if she was a child, she could sense the heavy atmosphere and felt uncontrollably afraid. ¡°Brother Crick¡­ what is going on?¡± she asked timidly. Crick looked at her and his heart was filled with worry. Handing the family over to this little girl; would that really work? But¡­ there was no other choice. He thought for a bit and said, ¡°Anna, would you be willing to believe in His Highness Void Mask?¡± ¡°Void Mask? The big green jellyfish? Brother, I thought you wanted me to try and believe in the God of Light?¡± The corner of Crick¡¯s rose as he smirked bitterly. ¡°The God of Light¡­ suddenly, I¡¯m afraid only the big green jellyfish is reliable now. After all, He is a fierce character who killed two Gods for the death of his believers!¡± ¡°Sir, actually, you can also¡­¡± D¡¯vor started. Crick shook his head. ¡°No, I cannot. Military orders are like mountains. The enlistment order has been given, so I will need to be accounted for anyway. Even His Highness of Void Mask cannot protect a betrayer who refuses his duties. ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s rearrange our troops.¡± After making the most important decision, he felt his whole body relax. ¡°I need to use all the time I have left to write some plans and programs for ruling the territory. When I am gone, I will need all of you to please assist Anna.¡± All the officers were quiet. There was more than one who started sobbing. ¡°Do not cry. I am only going to war. That does not mean that I will die for sure.¡± Crick managed to squeeze out a smile. ¡°Who knows, I might become famous during the war! When I win I will come back to get married and have a bunch of sons¡­ Amyveile, are you interested in changing jobs to become a baroness?¡± With the surprised and shy approval from the servant, he laughed as he waved his hand to ask everyone to leave, and concluded the meeting this time. After he had also ushered Amyveile out of the study room, saying, ¡°I need to write a secret report,¡± he did not immediately start writing. Instead, he circled around his government affairs office and sighed deep and long. ¡°F**k it! How did I get so f**ked up!¡± Tears were streaming down his cheeks as he smiled bitterly. Chapter 253 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Madam, there is no response from the Plated Orb.¡± As the night grew darker and darker, the hotel lobby which was requisitioned by the church of the God of Aristocracy, was ablaze with lights. A knight in black plated armor came down the stairs and reported to a woman sitting in a chair near the door. She had been leisurely reading a book. The woman put down her book. Her beautiful face showed a little astonishment and doubt. ¡°That¡¯s so strange! Crick should have fled. Could it be that he doesn¡¯t have a scroll which records transmission magic or a Return Skill?¡± ¡°Maybe he wants to get out of the town through a tunnel,¡± a female wizard named Maggie said casually. She was sitting at a table next to the woman with her legs crossed. ¡°The Keane Family has been running for several generations. Maybe there is a tunnel that leads outside of town.¡± She stretched lazily and switched her legs. While switching her position, her slender legs were exposed under her high-forked robe. Some knights nearby obviously looked at those legs with brightened eyes, but they all turned their heads with privity and dared not to look anymore. This woman had great power. You¡¯d better not provoke her! The woman who was reading was Machee Smith, the principal of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. She meditated, shook her head and said, ¡°I am very familiar with the Keane Family, but I¡¯ve never heard of any tunnel before. Although Crick did a good job of keeping my people from high-ranking, decision-making positions, there aren¡¯t any tunnels. That¡¯s impossible!¡± ¡°Is he stupid enough not to take any actions?¡± the female wizard asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think a person who has gotten so famous in just a few months can be so silly.¡± Machee nodded slightly and thought for a moment. Suddenly, she turned to a curly-bearded man with heavy armor who was standing beside her and asked, ¡°Paul, what would you do if you were him?¡± The curly-bearded man was very tall and strong. More importantly, his face showed the righteousness of a decent warrior. After hearing Machee¡¯s inquiry, he thought for a while and said, ¡°As a vassal of our Majesty the Highness, I can¡¯t escape from my due responsibility. Therefore, I would get my affairs in order and prepare to take my subordinates out on the expedition. But due to the unknown dangers of an expedition, it would be necessary for me to delay the expedition as long as possible so that I could live longer.¡± Machee and the female wizard looked at each other and suddenly understood everything. For them, ¡°self-sacrifice¡± was an absolutely impossible choice because they were the kind of people who put themselves in front of everything, so neither of them thought in that way. But Baron Keane could be considered a moral model among the nobility. Even if his lord asked him to die, he would die without any hesitation. He would not try to escape from his responsibility. He had never thought of escaping. They had distinct values and outlooks on life, and that¡¯s why they didn¡¯t understand Crick in the beginning. ¡°Well done,¡± Machee nodded and praised him. She smiled faintly. She was satisfied to see the uncontrollable joy on the man¡¯s face, but actually, she felt very disgruntled. She had taken a lot of measures, made many arrangements and convened quite a few hands to deal with Crick only to find that everything was useless because the opponent had died. She was very frustrated because she felt that she had wasted a lot of time and energy. She even convinced a decent adventurer to pretend as Paul, a man who had saved Crick and his sister when they were children. Then she used this adventurer to trick Crick who had always adored Paul. But originally, she planned to find an opportunity to trick this gifted but stubborn Crick into a trap. If he was determined not to change his faith, then she would stab him to death as a sacrifice to her Majesty. However, Crick went directly to the Eagle Kingdom for death because of the God of Knight¡¯s Oracle. That was too abominable! He is such a bastard! He can only be killed by me! She closed her eyes, took several deep breaths, and suppressed the restlessness in her heart. Then she regained her calm and ordered, ¡°Now that¡¯s the case, everyone will have a good rest these days. When the news of Crick¡¯s death comes, we shall kill his sister. Anyway, since we are here, we must grab the Keane family¡¯s territory and industry. Her men obeyed her order with pleasure because the tough battle in their original plan merely turned out to be killing a little girl. Most importantly, they would still get their original benefits. How easy this task was! Maggie picked up the book, The Art of Performing, written by the famous poet Shevariel von Stolovsky Franz and read it carefully. She was not a genius, so she had to strive to improve in order to find the right path in life. It was about this time that the clerk of Viscount Erik was writing something down in a room of Eagle Wing City. He used a brush bought from the Void Mask Chamber of Commerce. It was dipped in pungent green ink, and he wrote on a red animal skin that smelled like blood. What he wrote was the basic information of those scouts who were recruited during the day, in which he emphasized Rien particularly. He recorded as much detail as possible about this young elite who came from the Association of Thieves: his appearance, attire, habits of speech and manners, major abilities, personality assessment, etc. The piece of animal skin was soon full of words. The clerk examined it carefully and made sure that it was correct. Then he picked it up and threw it into the burning brazier on the ground beside him. It was strange to say that this animal skin looked solid, but it burned quickly when it encountered fire. The flames were very small, but its burning speed was very fast. The whole animal skin had burned into white ashes without a trace in just a few seconds. The clerk examined the brazier carefully, then covered and wrapped the rest of the ink and put it into an inconspicuous box. This box was made of a special wood that could absorb odor, and there were lots of ink and animal skins in it. After finishing this, the clerk cleaned up everything on the table and took out two magic scrolls to clean his body and absorb the odor of the house. Then he burned the magic scrolls that had lost their magic and turned them into blank parchment. Finally, he opened the doors and windows to ventilate the room so all traces of his actions would disappear. After all this work had been done, he put out the brazier and went to bed. ¡­ Among the Orcs¡¯ barracks thousands of miles away, there was a camp that was guarded by a large number of troops. Several Orcs with great power were sitting there solemnly. They were watching the animal skins that were pinned to the magic array in the sky. These magic arrays were made of precious materials with each corresponding to a focal point. As soon as there was news from a focal point, it would be received immediately. At that moment, words appeared on one of the animal skins and quickly covered the whole skin. The words appeared exactly as how the clerk had written them. An Orc took down that animal skin, replaced it with a blank one and then scrutinized the information on it carefully. ¡°Ah,¡± he said with a little worry, ¡°there comes another powerful figure among the humans.¡± Another Orc nearby looked at it and frowned. ¡°Where does this type of person come from? He almost possesses the stealth ability of a high-level thief, and the shooting ability and sharp observational skills of a high-level paladin¡­ Such a scout is just like a trump card.¡± ¡°This news must be reported quickly, and a specialist should be arranged to kill this guy and remove this unstable factor as soon as possible,¡± the leader of the Orcs said grimly. ¡°Our emperor¡¯s grand goals shouldn¡¯t be hindered by any enemy.¡± All the Orcs answered seriously, and one of them took this document to report it immediately. After a while, this document was sent to a figure wearing a hood in his own barrack. His appearance could not be seen clearly. ¡°Lord Atel, this is what Lord Elo asked me to send to you,¡± the herald said. ¡°Lord Elo asked you to remove this hidden danger as soon as possible.¡± The man in hood didn¡¯t answer, but he nodded in order to show that he had understood. After the herald left, he unfolded this rolled animal skin, scanned it carefully and laughed coldly under his hood. ¡°A little guy possesses the ability of both a high-level thief and a high-level paladin¡­ No wonder they worry so much! If this guy appears in the Scout War, we don¡¯t know how much trouble he will bring us!¡± ¡°All right. Since I have nothing to do now, I shall find him in person and make sure that this hidden danger is no more.¡± Atel went to the entrance of the camp, gave the animal skin to the guard and said a few words to him. Suddenly, the hooded Orc disappeared into the shadow without any warning. After only a few minutes, Atel appeared in the air force camp again. He asked the quartermaster for a mount with low combat abilities, but that could fly very fast when needed. ¡°Lord Atel, I wish you a good journey!¡± The dangerous person who inherited the name of ¡°assassin¡± was of the most powerful stalkers and killers in the Orcs army. Among the soldiers¡¯ farewells, Atel waved to the ground and rode the flying mount which had been resting and saving its strength all this time. He rose to the sky slowly, headed south and soon disappeared into the night. ¡­ Suddenly, Leon, who was sleeping in the guest room of the house of Viscount Tariq, was shocked and opened his eyes. With a flash of light in his hand, the sword ¡°Holy Avenger¡± appeared. Strange ripples appeared on the silver-white sword through the moonlight reflected from the window. Leon closed his eyes and concentrated his mind on the sword. The mysterious power linked his heart to the divine sword, making him feel as if he had become a fresh breeze rising up into the sky. A dark red breath was approaching slowly in the northern sky. With strange ripples gradually subsiding, Leon opened his eyes and sneered. ¡°It seems that some of the Orcs are coming for me¡­¡± he snorted and said unhappily. ¡°There are so many ears and eyes in the Eagle Kingdom¡­ I just arrived today, and the Orcs already know of my arrival.¡± ¡°Forget it. Finding the traitor is not what I should do. I shall be ready to welcome that friend from far away!¡± He looked at the chilling and shining sword and showed a dangerous smile on his face. ¡°I must give him a very important lesson¡­¡± Chapter 254 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the following few days, Leon actually had a good time. He secretly visited a few close acquaintances who were not affected during the coup back then. Even though the environment was the same and the people were different, everyone still welcomed his visit. Of course, there were inevitably some who welcomed him initially but wanted to report him to the king behind his back. And yet, how could that thought fool an expert from the top of the legendary realm? Leon did not kill them but instead cast a forgetting spell, making them forget everything about seeing him. Of course, he was not a professional legendary magician. His spell was not perfect and was likely to cause some side effects such as headaches, lowered memory skills, and so on. Maybe they would forget too much. But those side effects were short-term, and forgetting some things did not seem to be a bad thing either. These were small matters compared to the action of betraying him. If these people had known the cause and effect of it, they would choose to forget over being slashed. A few days later, the new batch of soldiers had finally gathered in the scout camp. After they were properly equipped, they departed under the leadership of Leon. Coincidentally, the day they left the city was exactly the day Baron Keane finally finished arranging his troops and left for the capital city. Before they left, Crick directed his (possibly final) matter for the Keane family. Both the flags of Duchy of Thunder and Baron Keane were lowered on the castle¡¯s flagpole. Then, the jellyfish flag of the church of Void Mask was hoisted up, followed by the former two flags. But they were both underneath the jellyfish flag. Machee, who was snooping from the balcony of the hotel, suddenly became angry. She broke a big chunk of the balcony railing with her palm. But however furious she was, she didn¡¯t dare do anything more. The name of Void Mask was well-known. This was a God who had super strong battle skills and was not bound by clerical duties. Although the way he did things was unconventional, his wisdom and martial arts skills were effective among the many Gods. As a high-level priest of the Church of God of Aristocracy, Machee was well aware that her own Highness definitely didn¡¯t dare to get involved with this fierce God. If she were to take the risk of agitating Void Mask and kill Anna Keane, who had obviously turned to this God, she might not even have to wait for Void Mask to kill her. Her own Highness would probably beat her ¡¯till she was half dead, wrap her with wrapping paper, and send her off as a peace offering. Without a doubt, the God of Aristocracy was one of the more important members of the Human God System. He was backed by a big tree. But Void Mask even dared to bombard Master of Mystery, and even caused the Master of Mystery to be at a disadvantage. Although the Human God System was strong, they could not deter Him at all. To say nothing of the others; what if he bombarded the ¡°Country of Light¡± where Human Gods lived? Then what? The God of Aristocracy would never take that risk! Thinking this, her heart could not help but fill with powerlessness and defeat. Endless rage rose within her. If it were not for the training and upbringing that helped her suppress her anger, she might have growled. ¡°Seems like it is a no-go.¡± The female magician who was quite close to her looked at the jellyfish flag waving in the air and sighed deeply. ¡°Let¡¯s wrap up. We cannot afford to offend that one.¡± Machee gritted her teeth as her body trembled. And yet, she could not tell them to ¡°Just do it.¡± After quite some time, she finally calmed down and waved her hand powerlessly. ¡°Wrap up the team and let¡¯s go. There is no point staying here anymore¡­¡± The whole gang came aggressively but left depressed. They did not even see Crick. Soon Crick, who was leading his troops on the road, got the news. He could not help but smile. This was the only good news for today. He hoped that Anna would learn well and be a good territory leader. That was the only thing he could do for her. After, he remembered his own trip. Without a doubt, this trip would have a 90% chance of ending in death. If exaggerating, it would be a 100% suicide mission. From the outside, there were Orc armies who were insanely strong, from the inside there was His Highness Grand Duke who secretly wanted to stab him. His teammates were a bunch of stubborn old-fashioned knights. There was a saying that said one should not be afraid of opponents as strong as Gods, but of teammates useless as pigs. And if his opponents were like Gods, his teammates useless like pigs, and the boss supporting him was plotting his death without any conscience? If he still didn¡¯t f**king die, then he was not a normal traverser. He must be a traverser of novella protagonist. ¡°Come to think of it, that¡¯s not impossible. First of all, Crick is more handsome than I was. That means it was self-attached plastic surgery. Then there is self-attached language, self-attached system, several self-attached loyal subordinates. When I lacked money, I could earn enough with a spin in the casino¡­ it seems like I do have some qualities from a novella protagonist¡­¡± He was talking to himself. As he raised his hand to touch the goatee that he had kept for some time, he could not help but feel much better. ¡°If I really am a novella protagonist, then surely I will not die at such a place. Instead, I might even get the chance to earn credits and reputation. Maybe after this war, my experience level will be high enough to become a legendary expert¡­ ¡°No; maybe I will be heavily injured and run away during the war. Then I may discover a secret book and elixir left by some senior expert in a secret cave. And then I will be successfully trained after ten years of penance, and become invincible after exiting the cave and be able to suppress all sorts of enemies. In the end, I might even wed a fair, rich and pretty woman, become a CEO, and be at the top in my life¡­ ¡°Maybe this body of mine actually hides the bloodline of a noble of light and a lord of the darkness, which will only be exposed at the brink of death. Then I will either transform into a destructive devil or twilight angel, with a scythe or a holy sword in my hand. I¡¯ll kill kill kill all the way, not caring whether it is red bean paste or green bean paste, just killing them all until there is no more brightness and only darkness remains. In the end, there is only time left¡­ ¡°Hmm¡­ or maybe there is some hidden mystery in my system. I might suddenly get a system upgrade at the crucial moment I save up enough experience. Then, I could have task assistance and upgraded abilities. Hence with the help of the system, my abilities can advance rapidly. My name will stun the world and I¡¯ll become invincible. Then I can rush all the way to the higher realm until I become a God¡­ ¡°Or maybe I will just die in the war, and find that I have not completely vanished after dying. Instead, I might go back to the time when Crick was young, and get to refresh the system. This school of thought seems likely too. But it would seem like using my gold fingers as cheating. This storyline seems difficult to hold on to.¡± He had constructed several possibilities in a go, each of them linked with some famous work of literature. Suddenly he felt that his future had opened and brightened up. He felt that the sky, water, wind, and his heart were clearer. The only problem was¡­ this was all fantastical thinking. If he really was a novella protagonist, then why would the only one interested in him all these months be Amyveile, a servant? Even with Amyveile, they had not reached the final step. Would the life of a novella protagonist be like this? Obviously not! Moreover, novella protagonists either led bitter and vengeful lives before traversing or were incompetent fat nerds. Else they were some sort of soldier king or martial arts master. After traversing, they could either use their knowledge from earth to advance technology, start a plantation and build firearms; or they could promote themselves and make their martial arts skills into divine powers famous in the other world. They could even accumulate enough magic to defy the sky by just eating sweet potatoes. But he was only an office worker before he traversed. He was not rich but definitely not poor. In his spare time, he made art online. He had earned quite a bit of fame from that, and his social status was not bad either. He was an art student and had basically no knowledge about the field of technology. He had only heard about martial arts. Even if he wanted to use his ¡°gold fingers¡± to cheat, there was nothing he could work on. Could people like this be a novella protagonist? If that was true, ghosts were probably real as well! He shook his head, he could not help but laugh. ¡°Forget it. I will play this by ear, then. Nevertheless, even crickets and ants cherish their lives very much. I guess I can say that I am standing in hell looking towards heaven. I am not even sure if I am using the right phrase¡­¡± Crick mumbled to himself as he rode his tamed warhorse. He was moving forward slowly along the pathway, clustered amongst knights and soldiers. Whether it was heaven or hell in front of them, he had no idea. All he could do was work hard for himself. They went about forty miles that day; it was good marching speed. Just when the sun was about to set, they successfully found a camping place and got ready to rest as they waited for the second day of marching. There still had about fifteen days until the first of December, and there was usually no rain or snow during this season in the Duchy of Thunder. Supposedly, they could make it there in time. Meanwhile, on the other side, Leon was leading the new soldiers of the scout camp. They traveled almost a 100 miles a day, as their steeds were a mixed breed of horses and demon beasts. At this speed, they only needed roughly ten days to reach the front lines. At night when they camped, they were not as selective as Crick and his team. All scouts were experts in surviving the wild. Things like camping tents were not necessary for them. They merely found an open space, cleaned the ground up a little, and made a bonfire to cook some hot food. Then they took out blankets to wrap their bodies and went to sleep. According to army rules, the captain did not need to hold night shifts. But since Leon knew someone was coming to look for him, how could he sleep well anyway? As an expert at the top of the legendary realm, it was not a problem for him to stop sleeping for a month or two. Given the current situation, of course, he wouldn¡¯t sleep. To respect army rules he did not insist on doing night shifts. But although he was wrapped in his blanket lying down next to the bonfire, he never slept. Instead, he was ready to fight at any time. The sky was getting darker and the soldiers who held night shifts also changed duties. According to tradition, there were two night shifts each summer and three shifts in the winter. Yet no enemy came. Based on his sense of the enemy¡¯s speed, Leon was sure the opponent was near Eagle Wing City. He just did not know exactly when the opponent would make his move. Usually, the Orcs had more advantage during the night, so it was possible that they would attack them. And yet, on his side was a group of thieves and rangers, who were good at night battles as well. So¡­ would the opponent would work against the norm and come at them during the day? He was secretly pondering, though in appearance he seemed to be in a deep sleep. Even his breathing was steady and long just like any other sleeping expert. Not long after the soldiers did their final swap for the night shift, Leon, who was in deep sleep suddenly had an intuition. He felt a hint of concealed breathing. The breathing was gradually closing in from the far-away bushes. It was fast but slight and did not make a bit of noise. Whether there was wind, or broken grass being stepped on, or even clothes rubbing together; all was silent. Even the sound of a heartbeat and breathing hardly be heard at all. If Leon weren¡¯t strong, he might have lost his life before he even sensed a thing. The owner of that breathing had obviously known the situation of this scout team. He ran directly towards Leon without any doubt. Before he reached him, Leon felt his fierce murderous intention like poking needles. If he was really asleep, he would most likely have been awakened by the murderous intention. But at the same time, he would have been stabbed. But, not only did he not fall asleep: he was ready. With a shine of his sword, Leon jumped up and swung to block the poisonous needle that was coming for him. His figure shot out like an arrow leaving its bow, pouncing towards the empty space that seemed to have nothing in it at all. ¡°Take that, Orc assassin!¡± Chapter 255 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Unlike his slow-talking, Leon was fast with his sword. He focused most of the Dou Qi air onto his sword, brightening this low-class magic weapon given by Viscount Erik. The sword flew like lightning into that ¡°void.¡± With a scream, a grey-colored figure of a human arose from nothing. A machete with strong, glimmering magic came out in a flash in ¡°its¡± hand to stop Leon¡¯s attack. The two weapons impacted each other and generated light as bright as the sun. The impact created a sound that immediately woke up all the scouts. They were such experienced scouts that they all picked up their weapons right away and stayed alert, yet nobody went over to help. Both Leader Rien and the assassin were powerful, so none of the scouts would be of any help. Still, they were not about to just stand aside. Instead, they all took out their bows and arrows and took aim. Although none of them expected to shoot the enemy, the enemy would probably feel threatened when faced with nearly a hundred bows and arrows. Something as small as this might make a major difference in a battle between parallel powers. But they were totally wrong. Such a tiny influence wouldn¡¯t make a difference to Leon. His concern was how to hide his power as much as possible when he managed to defeat or catch his opponent. He already recognized this opponent¡ªmid-legendary level, skilled at hiding and prowling, and a leopard man. These three features clearly pointed to the no.1 assassin within the Orcs¡¯ army¡ªAtel, the successor of leopard man¡¯s ¡°assassin.¡± Although Leon was already good enough to defeat a Staff of Imprisonment-holding, peak legendary Presbyter of the Divine Temple, he was only known as an advanced robber and ranger who was not yet in the legendary realm. Could such a person kill a legendary assassin as Atel? Wouldn¡¯t it expose the real me, announcing to all that ¡°my identity was fake and I gave false information¡±? No way! He was distressed and had no idea of what to do. All he was doing was dodging as best as he could as if he were fighting at his limit. On the other hand, Atel was also shocked. He never ever expected this target, an advanced robber with some ranger¡¯s skills, to suddenly turn into a stunning, legendary swordsman! Despite Leon¡¯s efforts to hide his power, it was impossible to trick a master of Orcs like Atel who could see Leon¡¯s true strength. From each collision of their weapons alone, Atel could clearly feel the incredible strength from the other¡¯s sword. Such power could only be released from a powerful person, not from luck or magic. How could such a powerful person only be a fresh young robber known to none! Though an assassin like Atel was usually better at hiding, prowling, using poison and assassinating, that didn¡¯t mean he lacked force. In fact, being the successor of the best assassin of the Orcs, the ¡°Atel¡± of all generations had a long tradition of face-to-face combat. Today¡¯s ¡°Atel¡± did not prefer this way, though he was still capable of doing so. Simply with a machete, he was unstoppable among floods of troops and could defeat all enemies easily. During the last battle for Orcs in the South, he had rushed into the human troops alone to kill three of their senior generals. He had even chopped down the state flag of the Eagle Kingdom. If the king hadn¡¯t given up his hundreds of years of life in exchange for the great power of the Eagle Sword which swept over the Orc troops, the Eagle Kingdom would have probably been destroyed. However, this century-famous Atel was feeling difficult now in front of a minor young robber! The feeling was rather hard to describe, though it¡¯s been there with him all this time and didn¡¯t disappear. It looked as if Atel was dominating the fight, and the opponent was defending so hard with his superb martial arts and quick reaction speed. In this case, the fight should not last long as simply defending would only make one tired and distracted. As time went by, Atel would be able to find a chance to kill him. In the worst case, if anything happened unexpectedly, Atel would always have a chance to escape for the time being. There would be no reason to lose. Yet, Atel noticed that this fight was not like that because the opponent didn¡¯t look or behave tired at all. It was him dominating the fight! What¡¯s more, the young robber was rather confident and calm when making each move! Why? What was the problem? Atel was very confused and made a decision swiftly. Go away! He was an assassin. He would have plenty of time to find another chance. He didn¡¯t have to go head-to-head against this opponent. It would be advantageous for him as long as he hid in the dark. Even this guy, Rien, could escape from him this time; but he would not get a chance to next time! Therefore, he quickly pushed his machete forward, trying to force Rien to move backward so that he could run away. But at the same time, Rien also pushed against his sword. The machete and the sword collided with each other a few times, forcing the two people to shake fiercely and slow themselves down a bit. ¡°Shoot!¡± cried several senior rangers in the scout troop. When spotting this moment, they all shot their arrows towards Atel. Usually, these arrows were beyond Atel¡¯s concern. He didn¡¯t care about such minor things at all. However, since he was just fighting against Leon head on and his body had been shocked by the reverse power of Leon¡¯s sword strength, Atel was a bit slow this time. Just a bit. Because of this slight delay, he couldn¡¯t hide from all the arrows. Instead, he just barely mobilized the Dou Qi air around him to stop them. But at this moment, Leon was rushing into him again with his sword. Impossible! He regained his breath faster than me?! Atel was really surprised, but he had no other option but to lift his machete in defense. Leon¡¯s sword attacks were not as haphazard as before. They were so quick and powerful that Atel could hardly catch up with him. Atel couldn¡¯t maintain his previous balance and finally fell short. Moreover, the senior scouts were making things worse for Atel; without them, Atel would still be able to fight back. Once they saw the opportunity, these scouts immediately took all measures to attack Atel. In addition to the countless arrows, some of them even took out their wands and scrolls, trying to use tracking magic to defeat Atel. While confronted with Leon¡¯s deadly sword attacks, Atel also had to escape from the scouts¡¯ attack. He kept moving backward. One step, two steps, three steps¡­at the fourth step, he missed a magic bomb flying from an invisible corner behind him. This purple magic bomb was much larger and brighter than usual. It was called ¡°Chasing Bomb,¡± a unique spell for battle mages. It was stronger, had a faster speed and was more flexible in chasing its target. It had a higher cost as a result. While common magic bombs were just basic level spells, this chasing bomb was mid-level. Take the price of a scroll as an example; a chasing bomb was worth more than a dozens of these scrolls. Atel was shrouded by the Dou Qi air. He wasn¡¯t hurt by that chasing bomb, but he nearly fell down. Right at this moment, Leon saw Atel¡¯s mistake and lifted his sword straight away to hack away at the assassin. There was nothing Atel could do but stop it with his machete. Leon¡¯s sword¡ªthough not as good as Atel¡¯s machete¡ªfinally couldn¡¯t sustain the enormous power of the two legendary fighters and broke apart. His sword broke?! Without much time to think again, Atel seized the opportunity to use his machete to beat down his resistant opponent. But when he wielded his machete, unexpectedly, he saw an insidious smile on the other¡¯s face. In the next second, an extremely small, long and narrow dagger flew out from Leon¡¯s sleeve directly into Atel¡¯s forehead. Strong magic shone brightly on the dagger, much greater than the previous common sword. Atel didn¡¯t have a chance to defend himself and was pierced by it. He couldn¡¯t even think of mobilizing the Dou Qi air around him to defend this time. The dagger stabbed through the thin Dou Qi air around his body, his skin and bones and deep into his brain. Immediately he fell into darkness. He couldn¡¯t even stand anymore, as if he were dropped into water. Ah, I am dying¡­ This was the last thought of the century-famous, legendary assassin. He deeply released his last breath. At the same time, in the capital holy temple of the Orc Empire far away on the grassland, while sitting quietly under a tree, an old man opened his eye, grimly and ferociously. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± asked another old man who was lying on a stone beside him. He was watching the stars. ¡°My student, today¡¯s Atel, just died,¡± said the first old man in a low voice. ¡°It¡¯s no news to have people die during wartime now.¡± The first old man thought for a long time and nodded at last. Then he closed his eyes. ¡°Perhaps after the war, if the person who just killed him would survive until then¡­¡± Chapter 256 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After ¡°Captain Rien¡± shot the opponent by tossing his dagger, he seemed to be out of energy too. He sat back onto the ground and breathed heavily. Meanwhile, all the scouts quickly and crazily hit the mysterious assassin with all types of weapons in their hands. In the blink of an eye, that guy was shot until he looked like a hedgehog. He was not moving at all, so he must have been dead. ¡°Who exactly is this?¡± A curious scout walked towards him and checked his dead body, and found that he was a leopard from the Orcs. ¡°Leopard assassin. He is good¡­¡± an older, more experienced scout frowned as he mumbled. Then he could not help but open his eyes wide. ¡°Quickly, look at his sword! There should be a line of Orc text on his sword!¡± he shouted. The scout who was examining the dead body picked up the scimitar that fell onto the ground. He found that it was shockingly heavy. He could not help but grunt, ¡°How can this be so heavy!¡± Then, he saw the line of words on the body of the blade. Coincidentally, he knew the Orc language. ¡®¡±Comes from darkness, killing the brightness.¡¯ This is really arrogant!¡± he laughed as he said. The face of the older scout turned white. ¡°Does it really say that?¡± ¡°You might be able to use another way to translate it, but the meaning is definitely correct. Orc language is very simple, and so is this sentence. I am not reading it wrong.¡± The older scout¡¯s face was trembling as he shook his head repeatedly. His face was in disbelief. After quite some time he calmed down and whispered, ¡°If I am not mistaken, this fellow is Atel.¡± ¡°Atel? Which Atel?¡± someone asked. ¡°Stupid! What do you mean ¡®Which Atel?¡¯!¡± someone replied. Everyone¡¯s face fell. More than one of them showed fear. Some of them were ecstatic after the initial shock and yelled, ¡°Atel?! We killed the assassin Atel?! This is a huge accomplishment!¡± Whether they were in shock or ecstatic, the person who could make the final decision here was still Captain Rien. Even if they disregarded his ranking, nobody dared to challenge his authority based on bravery as he came face-to-face with the legendary assassin, killing him with a tossed dagger. Rien was obviously exhausted. He rested for a long time before he recovered. He picked up his dagger and kept it. Looking at Atel¡¯s body, he grunted and then ordered everyone to pick up the body to send it back to Eagle Wing City. As for the items on Atel¡¯s body, they were obviously trophies for everyone. He was quite generous. He did not want anything except for the high-order magical weapon, the scimitar. He gave the remaining items to everyone. Atel was a legendary expert. Although he was simple in nature and did not make much money, the things he brought with him were worth a lot. Just the belt that he was wearing was a high-order storage prop with quite a few different potions inside it. Many were unrecognizable, so they did not dare to simply open them. But the worth of this belt was enough to give everyone a small fortune. All the other relics that were found on him, divided equally by the 100 people on the scout team, gave everyone almost 1,000 gold coins each! ¡°I never thought that this guy could be so rich. He did not even have much money on him¡­¡± the old scout who was in charge of arranging things exclaimed. ¡°What a legendary expert!¡± ¡°No matter how legendary this expert was, he is dead now,¡± a young scout spoke with disdain. ¡°He did not seem to be that great anyway!¡± The old scout laughed coldly. ¡°He did not seem that great? I¡¯ll tell you, we¡¯re lucky for the quick response of our captain who found him in time, and used secret powers to increase his physical abilities in order to stop him. With just a little bit of effort from Atel, all 100 of us would have been dead under his blade by now! Have you seen that sword? That sword was granted to Atel by the Orc emperor from past generations, years ago. It was after he assassinated one of the holy sons in the Kingdom of Holy Angels. It weighs 28 pounds, and though it seems like a normal scimitar, it could even break heavy armor. If it was you, he would not have had to slash twice. One slash would cut you into many pieces, along with your army equipment¡­¡± The young scout could not raise his head after getting scolded. He rubbed his nose and chuckled a little, then went back to do his work and did not dare to say anything back. They spent a day going back to get Atel¡¯s body to where it needed to go, and then got back to Eagle Wing City again. After Viscount Erik checked Atel¡¯s body and relics, he was sure that the person who suddenly appeared and was killed by a group of scouts was actually the infamous legendary assassin. He was overjoyed and smiled like an open flower. He immediately told His Highness of Woods who was sitting in the front line, via magic spell communication. King Woods was elated as well. He granted the scout team heavy rewards and gave Rien a baron¡¯s title. ¡°This is such a wonderful grant!¡± Viscount Erik said to Rien. ¡°In general, adventurers who have made even greater contributions must begin from Knight status, slowly rising to Quasi-knight through promotion. You have become a Baron in just a short while. That is an unprecedented glory!¡± Leon acted as if he were excited and asked, ¡°Then where is my territory? All nobles have territory.¡± Viscount Erik was suddenly speechless. King Woods had only mentioned a title, but not a word about territory. He was probably thinking he would fool this country bumpkin by giving him a title without power. Or maybe he planned to observe him until the war ended. But he could not say that out loud; so he hesitated and simply thought of an excuse. He said, ¡°Granting territory is a large matter. We must wait for His Highness to come back and discuss it with all the ministers before deciding where to let you go. But since you have been granted a title, you will get territory for sure. Rather than thinking about this, why not give yourself a family name for now?¡± ¡°Family name?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, all nobles have family names. ¡®Rien¡¯ is your own name. Since you have become a noble, everyone will need to call you by your family name during formal occasions and on formal paperwork in the future.¡± Leon felt very funny deep down but also felt sarcastic. He gave it some thought and said, ¡°Then I will use ¡®Rye¡¯ as my family name. Rien Rye doesn¡¯t sound bad.¡± Viscount Erik was suddenly stunned, with a face as if he had eaten a housefly. His nose and eyes and mouth were all crumpled together. He hesitated for a while before advising him, ¡°The name Rye is a bit too coarse. It does not sound like a human¡¯s name. It sounds more dwarfish¡­¡± ¡°What is so bad about dwarf names?¡± ¡°¡­ I did not say it is bad, it is¡­¡± Viscount Erik thought for a while before coming up with a reason. ¡°In the future, you will surely want to build a town on your territory. Most people use their family names as their town name. But Rye town has already been taken. So it is better to just choose another one!¡± Rien thought again and asked, ¡°What do you think about ¡®Leopard-Killer¡¯? I was only given a title because I killed that leopard man. I will just use this as remembrance then.¡± Viscount Erik was really speechless with this country bumpkin. Dejectedly, he let the clerk noted that down. ¡°Why has the clerk changed to another person today?¡± Leon asked curiously. ¡°The previous clerk had died of an acute illness just this morning,¡± Viscount Erik said. ¡°It was really a d*mnation!¡± Nobody knew the clerk did not really die of an illness. Really, he was killed by the activated curse that was hidden within him, to shut his mouth. After receiving the news of the death of Atel, the Orc intelligence officer deduced that the clerk must have been the problem. He must have either been discovered, or changed his position. They felt that if it were not for the misinformation that had caused him to fall into a trap, the great legendary assassin couldn¡¯t die at the hands of scouts. They could not do anything to the scouts who killed Atel at the moment, but they could do something to the clerk who had given the wrong information. Thus, the clerk had died of an ¡°acute illness.¡± Luckily, his real identity had not been exposed. At least, not until now. That evening after the celebration party for Rien Leopard-Killer, Viscount Erik had gotten the news. He heard on his way home that they had found the Shaman-magic item used to transmit intelligence to the Orcs in the house of the previous clerk. Viscount Erik, tortured by the words and actions of the country bumpkin Baron Rien until he was feeling lethargic, sighed deeply. He felt very, very tired¡­ Chapter 257 The universe was made up of numerous worlds of different sizes. Between two worlds, there was endless Void Space. These worlds and the Void Space formed a large circle, in which the power of the world came from the Positive Plane, moved through the Matter Plane into the Negative Plane. It then left the Negative Plane, moved through the Spirit Plane and back to the Positive Plane. This cycle was called the Ring of the World. The holy kingdom of each god was also an independent world which had been built according to different preferences and sources. These worlds were located everywhere in the Ring of the World with no recurring pattern. Of course, there were some basic rules. For example, in the Matter Plane, the Main Plane of the strongest world could not have any large holy kingdoms because the Main Plane itself boasted great power. It was difficult for gods to build a large world there. A small world might be possible. Another example was that it was impossible to build a holy kingdom in the central area of the four planes of the Ring of the World. If a holy kingdom was built there, it would have to withstand the super pure and strong source power, which was impossible for gods. The only exception had been the Wheel of Order in the center of the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World. Thus it could be seen that the God of Order had been really powerful and generous. In fact, it had been impossible for most gods to enter the central area of the four planes, let alone build their holy kingdoms there. Among the current gods, there were very few of them who had been to the central area of the four planes. One such deity was the God of Justice. He had been to the Wheel of Order in the central area of the Positive Plane where he had challenged the God of Order. Although he had been quickly defeated by the God of Order, his entering into this area had been enough to prove his power. The holy kingdom of the Orc gods was called the Endless Field. In it sat the Matter Plane of the Ring of the World, close to the Negative Plane. Starting from here, passing a relatively short distance in the Void Space and going through a few worlds, one could skip through the huge cycle and enter into the Negative Plane of the Ring of the World. It was a long way from the Main Plane to getting there. Generally speaking, one had to rely on famous landmarks and make a few space jumps to arrive there quickly. Instead of going that far, the avatar of Sui Xiong had made a giant space jump, directly arriving at the Endless Field. His vision had been shaken fiercely for a long time. When the shaking stopped, he didn¡¯t see the holy kingdom of the Desolation God System anymore, but rather, a larger world that even a god could not find its borders. The holy kingdom of the Desolation God System had been a part of the Endless Field. Morani and others surely knew the exact coordinates of it since they had been living in the Endless Field for so long. Knowing that these two worlds had been in the same plane and had the exact same coordinates, Sui Xiong made this extraordinarily long-distance space jump possible. Different from the holy kingdom of the Desolation God System, which Sui Xiong jokingly called the ¡°circle of friends,¡± the Endless Field was amazingly vast. Floating in the sky, Sui Xiong gazed into the distance only to see the desolated Endless Field stretching out of his sight. The field had been no different from that of the Main Plane, save for the higher mountains, the lusher grass, the abundant resources, and of course the fiercer devil monsters. For example, Sui Xiong had been flying for a while in the direction given by Morani when a great wave surged in the miles-wide river on the ground. A monster looking like a fish with strong arms appeared from the wave, walked on the clouds, and fiercely rushed towards him. This monster had been really powerful. If it went to the Main Plane, it would be a disastrous danger. But it was not powerful enough to Sui Xiong¡¯s avatar. Considering that he was not here to make trouble, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t kill this monster. He just knocked it down back to the river with his tentacles. But as Sui Xiong continued, he kept meeting all kinds of monsters. They were all strange and evil looking, and none of them were willing to sit down and talk to him. Instead, they just attacked Sui Xiong with loud roars. Although Sui Xiong had been extraordinarily strong and repelled them one by one, he couldn¡¯t help but be annoyed. ¡°Is this the holy kingdom of the Orc God System or the home of the monster troops!¡± he complained. ¡°Morani is unreliable! How could he tell me nothing about the terrible situation here?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not his fault,¡± came a calm voice beside him. Sui Xiong was scared by that and prepared all his tentacles to fight; then he looked over. He froze at what he saw. He didn¡¯t know when a god, who looked like a man with a canine head, appeared next to him. This god was of great height and had a strong build. He was much more handsome than those short and weak Dogmen and looked elegant even with his canine head. Compared to average Orcs, it was only his linen robes and the hoe on his shoulder that had exposed who he was. ¡°Your Excellency is¡­ the God of Agriculture from the Orc gods?¡± Sui Xiong made a guess. In his impression, there had been no such god in the divine position of agriculture among the Orc gods. However, the Orc God System was so large that there had been many followers that had advanced to the level of a real god. But they only took trivial divine positions. Maybe this was one of those. The Dogman god laughed and said, ¡°I¡¯m learning agriculture, but I haven¡¯t taken the divine position yet. Your Majesty, Void Mask comes from afar, I was in such a hurry to welcome you that I forgot to change my clothes. I¡¯m sorry.¡± With the glorious light floating around him, the god put on a brutal-looking leather armor and wore a bone crown on his head. Sui Xiong immediately recognized him. Isn¡¯t he the Master God of the Orc God System, the ¡°Sky Devourer Canine¡± Lefon!? However, why did such a master god look like a farmer? With a smile on his face, Lefon tapped the air with the hoe in his hand, and the scenery around them changed suddenly. They went to the middle of the Endless Field where there were mountains and rivers. However, the land between the mountains and the rivers had been cultivated. Countless Orcs, Semi-Orcs and even some powerful gods were farming there. ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± Sui Xiong opened his eyes wide. ¡°Morani told me that there were many nomads and soldiers and very few farmers in your holy kingdom. But why does it look like that there are all farmers here?¡± ¡°This is a test,¡± Lefon said. ¡°I¡¯m wondering if the Orcs can change their long-standing lifestyle into one where agriculture is the main focus, and animal breeding is subsidiary.¡± ¡°You turned the entire Orc God System into this just because you were curious?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that. ¡°Did the other gods agree with you?¡± ¡°Of course not!¡± It was not Lefon that gave this answer, but a strong man with an elephant head in the distance. This man, as tall as a three-storied building, bent his hoe in two and threw it on the ground. He stretched his hand behind him and took out a large battle axe. ¡°I want to challenge you!¡± he shouted to Lefon. While saying that, the god with an elephant head rushed towards them with a roar. He was surely ranked high among the gods. Surrounded by his Divine Power, he grew taller and stronger with every step. When he rushed in front of Lefon and Sui Xiong , he had turned into a giant whose every step shook the mountains and the earth. Even Sui Xiong was secretly astonished. Compared with this giant, Lefon was much smaller in size. However, he had never been frightened by the giant¡¯s power. He just waved his hand, and a huge hand even larger than the giant in the air appeared. The large hand held the giant up in the sky and then dropped him to the ground heavily. The powerful god was unable to stand up, and his body had changed back to how he looked before. It was weird that with such a heavy drop, there were no sounds or vibrations. Even the plants in the field were not damaged. That made Sui Xiong quite impressed, and he couldn¡¯t help but praise Lefon. He had a more intuitive understanding of this master god¡¯s power. ¡°Minster has always been reckless and can¡¯t keep calm.¡± After throwing that powerful god on the ground and making him unable to get backup, Lefon turned to Sui Xiong with a smile and said, ¡°As you can see, there are a lot of Orcs that disagree with me. However, they can¡¯t beat me in a fight, so they have to till the land obediently.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a while and suddenly remembered something, so he asked, ¡°So¡­ did all the Orc Gods in the Pantheon temple disappear just for that?¡± ¡°Yes. They are forced to till the land here by me.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a tyrant!¡± the god with the elephant head shouted. Sui Xiong had known who he was; he was the God of Strength who had once overturned the chariot of a master god for having a different opinion than him. He was the Irritable Giant Elephant Minster. ¡°You have stained the great and glorious tradition of the Orcs!¡± Minster shouted again. Lefon smiled unconcernedly; then he lifted his foot and kicked Minster. ¡°Idiot, do not try to use your brain that has been rusting away for thousands of years to try and guess my thoughts! You just have to do what I say,¡± Lefon said with a smile. ¡°Go ahead and do your work!¡± Minster could do nothing but curse and go back to farm. Lefon shrugged his shoulders and said to Sui Xiong , ¡°Well, it¡¯s almost like that.¡± Sui Xiong was puzzled and did not know what to say. Before this trip, he had imagined what he would encounter. Sui Xiong thought that maybe the Orc gods would speak ill of him, or his avatar would be blown up in the Endless Field; maybe the Sky Devourer Canine would suppress him in the Endless Field and force him to join the Orc God system. If he remained faithful and refused to join them, he would be boiled into cold, jellyfish stew. All in all, he had expected only terrible things. But he had never expected that he would see a group of farmers who were oppressed by their master god to plow fields. This was definitely not the style of the Orcs! Chapter 258 Not long after that, Sui Xiong and Lefon arrived at the palace of the Gods of Orcs. The Gods of Orcs did not like luxury. Their palace did not have any special items or splendorous decorations either. It was just a big palace with houses connected together. Some houses had huge tables and chairs, and so much cookware they looked like restaurants. Some houses were so filled with weapons, armor, and treasures they looked like warehouses. One house especially huge. There was a big round table in it, and many chairs surrounding it, messy and without order. ¡°Our chamber of affairs is simple, please pay no mind.¡± Lefon simply found a chair and sat down. He greeted Sui Xiong. ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there, have a seat.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a while and asked, ¡°Don¡¯t these seats have corresponding owners?¡± ¡°Just find a seat and sit down,¡± Lefon smiled and said. ¡°How troublesome is that, to have to remember your chair when you have to sit!¡± Sui Xiong could not help but laugh. He simply pulled up a chair and sat opposite of Lefon. ¡°I have many questions for you,¡± He said. ¡°I know,¡± Lefon replied. ¡°But let¡¯s just discuss the reason for your current trip. Could it be that you wanted me to promote a God¡¯s order to end the expedition to the South in the main plane?¡± Sui Xiong nodded and said seriously, ¡°War benefits no one. I cannot see the necessity of it.¡± ¡°But in fact, there is no harm in it, either,¡± Lefon said without a care. ¡°Regardless of whether they¡¯re Orcs or humans, their reproduction skills are quite strong. Even if a large batch is killed, they will give birth to many more after a few decades or centuries. And if I remember correctly, there is no massacre happening at this time.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and tied to persuade him. ¡°Regarding Orcs and humans, isn¡¯t it good that they each live on their own land? I have strolled around the Orc Empire before. The land there is not barren. In theory, there should be enough land to feed the population.¡± ¡°It is not a matter of food,¡± Lefon said. ¡°At least, it is not just about food. The Orcs will always pursue war when the population increases. They want to fight for the survival of the fittest through war, to choose stronger fighters, to increase the overall quality of the entire race. This is an instinct that had been ingrained in their souls. It is their purpose since creation.¡± He paused for a while before saying, ¡°Oscar, do you know the origin of the Orcs?¡± ¡°As far as I know, the first Orcs were created by an ancient God named ¡®ancestor,''¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°Is that right?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, but it¡¯s not comprehensive,¡± Lefon said. ¡°A long, long time ago, there were all types of strong monsters on earth. They were always killing each other, and always evolving. There was not one stable race in existence. In this situation, the Goddess of Life created the fairy race; known today as the advanced fairies. This race, which had a fixed culture, developed very quickly. They effectively became Her assistants. The other ancient Gods saw this and used the fairy race as a model. They created all the different races we have today. Among them, the Mother of Sea created humans and the Ancestor God created us, the Orcs. ¡°The ancient Gods were not friendly towards each other. On the contrary, they always warred. The Mother of Sea and Ancestor God were arch-enemies. The Mother of Sea had a lot of friends, but the Ancestor God was very strong. Both of them were hard to beat. After that, the Mother of Sea created humans and planned to train them to become a race of strong warriors, to oppose the Ancestor God¡¯s forces. After receiving the news, the Ancestor God created Orcs in order to fight humans,¡± Lefon said. ¡°That is why, regardless of whether we¡¯re humans or Orcs, it is our natural calling to see each other as enemies and fight. Our races were born to do so.¡± ¡°Mankind should not live for others,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Just because the Gods created us with a purpose in mind does not condemn humans and Orcs to live in a certain way. Just as children do not necessarily need to follow their parents¡¯ wishes on how they live.¡± ¡°Of course you could say that between children and parents. But could you say that between tools and masters?¡± Lefon smiled and said. ¡°Anyway, later on, there was an accident. The Ancestor God accidentally glimpsed the wonderful secret of ¡®the Great Divine Powers¡¯ and wanted to rush into that realm. But in the end, he failed and died. So the Mother of Sea lost her opponent. She sank into a depression very quickly, and couldn¡¯t be bothered to care about humans anymore. As a result, after a long time, humans evolved until they overtook Her abilities and unexpectedly killed Her. This happened not too long ago, as I¡¯m sure you know.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°Although I do not agree with God of Light¡¯s way, as you can see the tool does not necessarily have to follow the master¡¯s requested way of life.¡± ¡°That is true. Thus, I am making a change,¡± Lefon said. ¡°I think I should do it from two directions: changing the Orcs¡¯ nature from a ¡®warrior race,¡¯ and changing the Orcs¡¯ hostile attitudes towards humans. The former has a lot of implications. I can only run experiments here in the Holy Kingdom for now. As for the latter, I have already let my voter try to practice it. It seems it¡¯s pretty effective.¡± ¡°Effective?¡± ¡°Yes. Just look at the expedition to the South this time. After the Orcs took over a human city there was no massacre,¡± Lefon said. ¡°That is an improvement.¡± ¡°But the war itself is not necessary!¡± Sui Xiong emphasized. ¡°In my territory, there are also Orcs, half-Orcs and humans. Everyone gets along! There is no hostility at all!¡± ¡°That is because the Orcs willing to leave the grasslands to find a living elsewhere were already open-minded. They were not restricted by tradition.¡± Lefon smiled as he drew a line in the air with his hand. Many scenes appeared in front of them, divided into two halves. The first showed the Orcs who chose to go outside to find a living. Although they did not get along with humans very well, they could mostly control their natures and be law-abiding. Still, there was a high percentage who became bandits. On the other side were the Orcs who stayed in tribes on the grasslands. They lived their nomadic lives day after day. They passed on their ancestors¡¯ bravery by oral history, telling every generation about it. The greatest ideal in their lives was to become strongmen and make their marks and careers in the expedition to the South. ¡°I think there is probably no race in this world weirder than us Orcs. You cannot find any common similarity, besides in appearance, between the Orcs who left the tribes and the Orcs who stayed,¡± Lefon said. ¡°My guess is that maybe Orcs are a race that easily changed in nature. Perhaps we only need a few generations before changing the long-standing traditions.¡± ¡°Then why can¡¯t we change now?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°It is too painful for Orcs to do in one step,¡± Lefon opened his hands and said straightforwardly. ¡°It is better to solve the problem through war. This is a way that Orcs can accept. ¡°Speaking of which, I still have to thank you,¡± He smiled again and said. ¡°When you were in the demarcation zone between nomads and farms, you used your own way to solve the long-standing problems. It looked very stupid and perverted at first glance, but in reality, the effects were pretty good. My voter applied the same idea between Orcs and humans, I think the effects should be not bad.¡± Sui Xiong frowned as his tentacle drew a line and the scene in the Orc captive camp appeared. ¡°This situation cannot be considered ¡®not bad¡¯!¡± Lefon looked at it, and asked with a little doubt, ¡°Isn¡¯t it pretty good? I can see those men and rabbits are having quite some fun.¡± ¡°Your voter¡¯s way is stripping away human reproductive rights and forcing them to produce hybrids,¡± Sui Xiong said, sighing deeply. ¡°This is not resolving conflict, it¡¯s making humans extinct!¡± ¡°I cannot agree with this; there was no massacre.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only a matter of short or long-term massacre.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s voice slowly turned cold. ¡°This separates human men and women of reproductive age and only lets the men and rabbit race convene to give birth of half-Orcs. Once this generation of humans dies of old age, isn¡¯t that extinction?¡± Lefon touched his chin and thought deeply. After a while, He nodded his head slightly. ¡°How could I not think of that?! Turning humans into half-Orcs would solve all our problems!¡± He said. ¡°Hey! That thought in itself is problematic!¡± Sui Xiong yelled. ¡°There is no problem, no problem at all!¡± Lefon smiled and was about to say something, but He suddenly frowned and looked coldly towards the sky. ¡°I take that back,¡± He said. ¡°The problem is coming now.¡± Chapter 259 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Since it had been close to the Negative Plane of the Ring of the World, it could be seen that, out of the Endless Field, the stream of the source power was moving. That power of order had come from the Positive Plane. After passing through the whole Matter Plane, it had lost its looking of a white array and turned into a colorful one. Order, chaos, kindness, evilness, light, darkness, earth, water, wind, fire, life and death¡­The colorful and abundant Matter Plane had provided it with different characteristics, which gathered into a colorful stream, running towards the border of the Matter Plane and finally to the Negative Plane like rivers running into the sea. At this moment, among the stream, there stood a bony old horse carrying a knight in an old armor out of the Endless Field. He looked down and out. The horse was thin enough to see its ribs and swayed when it walked. It seemed that it could fall down and die at any time. The patterns and decorations on the armor had been almost flattened, and many parts of the armor had been rusted. Pieces of armor that should had been connected by leather were cracked, through which his as thin as a warhorse body could be seen faintly. The sword without any decoration was inserted into the leather sheath which had been worn down a lot, and the tip of the sword was exposed. The silk thread used to absorb sweat was supposed to be wrapped around the handle of the sword, but now it had been replaced by rags. Generally speaking, he gave others a feeling of impoverishment at the first sight. He was just like a character out of a comedy, or a role to describe the background of a defeat in an exaggerated tragedy. He was as tragic as that. However, the smiling and confident Lefon changed his facial expression on seeing him. ¡°Astoril, what are you doing here?¡± Lefon asked coldly. Sui Xiong clearly heard nervousness in his voice and saw fear on his face. Among all the gods, there had been quite few gods that were powerful enough to make Lefon such anxious and scared: the God of Order, the God of Justice Yorgaardman, the Master of Mystery who had scared others with his brilliant military exploits, and¡­The God of Light? Sui Xiong doubted it. But he had never expected that the God of Knights would make Lefon so nervous. In his impression, the God of Knights Astoril had always been ignored by others. He had seldom issued an oracle nor shown up in all kinds of affairs. His church had been oppressed and merged by the God of Aristocracy, but he never gave any response. He was like a slow sloth¨CIf you slapped him in his face, it would take three minutes for him to feel hurt. Even the God of Art and Culture had tried his best to save his church. He came to Sui Xiong to negotiate about moving headquarter of his church to the theatre in the Void Mask Land. Sui Xiong used to think that the God of Knights was very weak. When his church was oppressed by others, he did nothing. He must be a completely weak coward. If it had been Sui Xiong to see his church being oppressed by others, he, if not burst into a rage and draw his sword to fight, would negotiate with the God of Aristocracy seriously to stop anything like that. But the God of Knights had done nothing. So Sui Xiong looked down upon him. However¡­Seeing Lefon¡¯s reaction at him, Sui Xiong felt that there seemed something extraordinary about the God of Knights¡­ Sui Xiong floated aside while thinking, keeping his eyes on the situation. Not knowing when, all the gods of the Orc God System had flown out from the Endless Field to support their boss. On purpose or not, they were all standing close to Sui Xiong rather than keeping a distance. On his left was the Elephantman that had been scolded by Lefon, the God of Strength of orcs; on his right was a Wild Boar Man with its tusk out of its mouth, the God of Tillage of orcs; behind him standing a coward Rabbitman, the God of Reproduction of orcs; in front him was a Snakeman with his head looking aside, who had been the former Master God of orcs, the ¡®Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit¡¯ Snakenell¡­ ¡°Hey, you¡¯re too crowded!¡± Sui Xiong said with a frown. The fat-faced Wild Boar Man hummed and laughed and said with a snore, ¡°Line up first. Make a good preparation for the fight later.¡± ¡°Dude, I seem to have seen you¡­¡± ¡°Well, I talked to you last time when they beat you up.¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you a pig at that time? How did you become a wild boar?¡± ¡°I have several avatars. Last time we were on the Main Plane, so the strength of my avatar was limited. This time I come to fight myself.¡± The Wild Boar Man waved his big stick and said confidently, ¡°Wait and see. I¡¯ll smash that old can with a sitck then!¡± ¡°Stop that bullshit. Be vigilant later. Don¡¯t let him kill you with a sword.¡± A Tigerman next to him with two machetes said coldly, ¡°It¡¯s no joke this time. Don¡¯t be careless!¡± Sui Xiong was full of doubts when he heard that¨CAll the Orc gods had come, even including the God of Rabbitman who could not fight. How could they be so nervous when facing the God of Knights? Was he so powerful? Then he asked that question. ¡°What?¡± It was the Wild Boar Man who answered him. He turned his head foolishly and looked at Sui Xiong as if looking at a fool. ¡°At last there is someone more stupid than me¡­¡± Sui Xiong looked at that fat and foolish face, feeling that his intelligence had been insulted. How could one be more stupid than that guy? Fortunately, this Wild Boar Man¨Cthe God of Tillage of the orcs, the creator of his race, Biggar Pister¨Cdid not get entangled in the issue of IQ and got back to the business quickly, ¡°That guy Astoril is very powerful! We suffered severe losses from him last time. He killed a lot of us¡­¡± He raised up his left hand without a weapon and pointed to the God of Snakeman, Snakenell, ¡°His father, the Giant Viper, died in that fight.¡± Holding a long spear made of backbones, Snakenell apparently had heard him. He turned around with his gloomy eyes staring at him, but said nothing and turned back. Sui Xiong was confused. He thought about it carefully but recalled nothing. So he directly used the Consciousness Communication to ask about the details. It was much faster than conversation. After a short while, Biggar Pister had told him every detail about the whole thing. It was far back to the ancient time, just after the creator of the orcs¨CZu¡¯s death. The original Orc God System, or the Six Giant Orc Gods, were born in his dead body. Losing her enemy, the Mother of Sea lost interest in cultivating a fighting race. So she passed the human race to the hands of the Guardian Knight, Astoril, who had just become a god and then retired herself. The war between orcs and human continued. One side had the advantage of single fighting power, while the other side enjoyed well discipline and faster growth. The war was tragic and fierce. Then Astoril attacked the Orc gods. That battle had made the world in darkness. Even the sun and moon had lost their light. However, few people knew who had won as last. Even the battle itself had been seldom talked by people. However, the Orc gods never forgot it. In that fight, Astoril had killed four of the Six Giant Orc Gods, including the Giant Viper. The Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit, Snakenell, had been born in the dead body of the Giant Viper. The other two Giant Orc Gods had been badly hurt as well, and they had been in a state between sleep and wake for a long time. However, as long as they were awake, they kept warning their descendants against that iron can and reminding them to make the revenge! Because of that, the Orc gods not only hated Astoril, the God of Knights, but also had been very viligant, even afraid of him. Since Astoril came to their area now, they all rushed out, either out of resentment or fear. They were ready to fight again. ¡°Under the leadership of our boss Lefon, we will be able to kill him!¡± Biggar Pister emphasized that, repeatedly. That just proved his lack of confidence. If he had been confident, why did he repeatedly emphasize that they could win? Sui Xiong sighed secretly and looked at the God of Knights with a different impression. It was true that never judge a person by his appearance. This poor and sorehead knight had been a super master of his generation, who had almost destroyed the whole Orc God System by himself! After thinking about it carefully, he was relieved¨CHis eldest brother was also a super master of his generation. Walking on the street, if he deliberately hid his posture as a super power, he just looked like a strong beggar in shabby clothes. Although his muscle made him look strong, there had been nothing better than the God of Knights who was left with an old armor and an old horse. A rotten boat still had three kilo of nails. An old knight, no matter how sorehead he was, could get a lot of money by selling his armor. In the front, the God of Knights and the Sky Devourer Canine were still negotiating. They didn¡¯t fight as soon as they met, nor spoke their ideas out. They just made Consciousness Communication in private. However, judging from Lefon¡¯s face, this communication must be very unpleasant. He looked displeased and his brows were knitted more and more tightly. Finally, he gave up the secret Consciousness Communication and cried out, ¡°Astoril, stop talking nonsense! Anyway, we orcs will not stop our step in progress. You are old enough to go to the garbage dump of history! Don¡¯t ask us to follow your old ideas.¡± The God of Knights remained silent for a while and replied, ¡°I just hope¡­ We can live in peace¡­¡± His voice was old and dry, even a little hoarse. There was sickness rather than strength in it. ¡°Peace? If you¡¯re really in pursuit of peace, why don¡¯t Wuther rather than you come here?¡± Lefon grinned coldly. With a flash of light, a short spear appeared in his hand. ¡°Today, I leave my words here. If you want to stop us, talk with your sword! Otherwise, shut up!¡± He held up his short spear. The Orc gods followed him and roared together, holing up all kinds of weapons in their hands. Chapter 260 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Knights left. Surprisingly, He left without taking any action. Sui Xiong got a headache just thinking about it. He could not understand what His intentions were. He came to the outside of the Orc God System base camp, alone, rambling about a whole bunch of nonsense. In the end, he didn¡¯t come to an agreement and left without fighting. ¡°What was He here for exactly?¡± He could not help but ask. ¡°How would I know!¡± Lefon snorted coldly. Unhappily he said, ¡°This old iron-skin who cannot die came here all the way, talked some nonsense about ¡®making peace a priority¡¯, ¡®humans and orcs should understand each other better,¡±strongmen should make more concessions so that the society can be stable¡­¡¯ He must be old and confused!¡± Sui Xiong was frozen for a moment. Then he said, ¡°Actually, what He said was not unreasonable.¡± ¡°How can one extract reason from the words that came out of His mouth!¡± Lefon said fiercely. ¡°Even if He¡¯d said the sun is round, I would need to personally get over there to crosscheck it for three days and three nights before I could confirm it wasn¡¯t square!¡± ¡°You are f**king prejudiced!¡± ¡°This is not prejudiced, it¡¯s a precaution!¡± Lefon sighed deeply. His tight face gradually eased, but then his brows started to frown again. ¡°Oscar, can you help me guess with your far-sighted vision why exactly was that bastard Wuther is letting this old thing mumble over here?¡± ¡°I do not even know the God of Light¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s a good thing not to know that bastard!¡± Lefon scowled. ¡°If they say old iron-skin is a good man, then Wuther is 100% bastard! He likes to set up conspiracies and traps, to play with power, to kill off whole families¡­ Did you know back then when He was still mortal, he was a general who was stationed in the frontier? When the army from the other country attacked, he fled and the country was destroyed. Over 20 years later, he came back. He made a trap that killed at least 4,000 nobles and adventurers from that country. Then, with a hammer in one hand and a long blade in the other, he barricaded all four doors of the royal town, together with his four bastard subordinates. They killed everyone inside and out. They did not even miss the newborn babies or the old men who were almost out of breath¡­¡± ¡°F**k! How can this still be considered Light?¡± ¡°It means the Light of victory,¡± Lefon said. ¡°If you want to speak of character, that fellow really cannot be saved. If you think us Orcs are violent, we are far behind. Compared to Him, we are neither fierce or violent!¡± Sui Xiong could sense deep fear in His words. The Gods of Orcs were definitely not good people. So anyone who could make them feel fear was likely even worse than Them. After he left the Boundless Open Field and came back to the Circle of Friends, he floated in the air as he frowned thoughtfully. He pondered what kind of character the God of Light was, exactly. At this time inside the Holy Kingdom of the Human God System, the ¡°Country of Light,¡± the God of Light was sitting on His shiny golden throne. He was looking down on the God of Knights, who was half-kneeling on the ground. ¡°Astoril, you failed,¡± He said coldly. ¡°Sorry, Your Highness. I am very sorry!¡± ¡°I do not need apologies.¡± The God of Light¡¯s tone was calm as if He were greeting a colleague who had a bad relationship with Him. ¡°Dereliction of duty means you will be penalized.¡± He turned to look at the Human Gods on both sides of the palace. Then he looked at the oracles standing outside of the palace and considered for a while. ¡°You have to hand over the ¡®development¡¯ clergy,¡± He said. ¡°You do not deserve it now.¡± The Human Gods were surprised. Everyone looked at each other but did not dare to interrupt. The God of Light was a man who paid attention to order. A man who emphasized regulations. He never allowed anyone to object to His orders. The God of Knights was quiet for a while as He bowed His head. His body trembled severely. He was obviously in deep pain, but He did not say a word. After a while, a Clergy Crystal that had strains of blood wrapped around it floated out of His body and into the air. His already-old armor became even older. It looked as if it would completely crumble with just a few jumps. The God of Light stared at the piece of crystal, and then looked at the God of Knights. There was a trace of some complex and incomprehensible feeling that flashed over His face. He shut His eyes. ¡°To everyone here, who do You think will be most suitable to inherit this clergy?¡± He asked calmly. The God of Aristocracy immediately stood up. ¡°Your Highness, I think I am very suitable!¡± ¡°Oh?¡± God of Light did not even open His eyes. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°In this world, development usually happens with newly named nobles at its core. Nobles are under my duties of clergy!¡± The tone of the God of Aristocracy reflected joy and desperation that were difficult to hide. All this time, He had been hoping to seize the clergy of the God of Knights. ¡°Development¡± was the clergy He wanted most. The God of Light did not comment. Again He asked, ¡°Who else has a suggestion?¡± The palace was silent for a moment before the God of Bards stood up. ¡°Your Highness, I think there is no harm in reserving the clergy and temporarily allowing the God of Knights to continue executing His work. After all, He did well in the field of development. It would be good to let him keep charge of those affairs for now.¡± Upon hearing His words, there were quite a few Gods who secretly smiled. This idea was like saving the country in a long and different way. Even though the God of Knights had been stripped of this clergy, as long as He was still responsible for the development jobs He could still receive powers of belief and divine power continuously from the job. It was a comparably better outcome for a God like Him, who was stripped of His clergy. The corner of the God of Light¡¯s mouth rose. He showed a cold smile. ¡°Dixon, You are really getting smarter. How dare You play games with me?!¡± The God of Bards immediately acted stupidly. ¡°Your Highness, I am only a fool, I always think of stupid ideas. If You feel this idea is not funny then disregard it¡­¡± The God of Light coldly smiled. ¡°Stop faking! I know what you meant. But how could I stand here if there were no rules? How could I accomplish anything? The trip that Astoril made betrayed my major policies. If He brought back results, then I would let it go and consider His old qualifications. And yet, there was no result at all¡­ I cannot easily forgive this type of incident!¡± As he finished talking, He waved His arms outward and the Clergy Crystal that was floating in the air flew out. It landed on the body of an oracle standing outside of the palace. Bright light flowed through the body of that oracle. His imposing manner completely changed. ¡°Oracle Roderick Geerteng, as a person who came from developing nobles, you have tirelessly worked all your life on the development business for mankind. You are the noble who has developed the largest territory inside our Desolation system within these five hundred years. Now I acknowledge your achievements and grant you the clergy of development. From today onwards, you are the God of Development for our Human Gods System!¡± With the majestic voice of the God of Light, the oracle¨Cor rather, the newly appointed God of Development¨Cstrode towards the palace, and gave Him a half-kneeled salute. ¡°I give my salutations to You, My Highness!¡± ¡°Very well, stand up.¡± The God of Light raised His hands to allow the God of Development to stand up; then He said, ¡°Do not think that your clergy does not have much meaning, just because the main plane has fewer places to develop. There are still unlimited worlds out there. I look forward to watching you lead human beings who have the wisdom, courage, and ambition to explore, conquer, and spread the light of humanity to the furthest frontiers of all different worlds. And finally, you will convert them into Our inherent territory, which we¡¯ve held since ancient times.¡± He suddenly stood up and released bright rays of light from His eyes. His entire body emitted a powerful aura and unshakable confidence. ¡°Remember! We are destined to be the masters between the sky and earth! We will become the masters of these tens of thousands of worlds!¡± The Human Gods and the oracles outside of the palace all cheered together. Spirits were high. Among all the joy, the God of Knights who had not been allowed to stand up was silently kneeling on the floor. He looked like an old insect under the bright light, appearing to be even tinier, more fragile, and more out of context than ever. After some time, the God of Light dismissed the meeting. He had not mentioned God of Knights at all. It was unclear if it was intentional or unintentional. Hence, when the Gods were leaving, quite a few of them looked at the God of Knights worriedly, concerned that the old senior would be in more trouble. But, the meeting had ended, and They had to leave. After all the Gods left, the God of Light walked down from his throne and sat on the floor in front of God of Knights. ¡°Teacher, is this what You want?¡± He asked. The God of Knights raised His head, but the old armor covered His face. His expression could not be seen. ¡°You have¡­ done very well¡­ even better¡­ than I have imagined¡­¡± ¡°Is this what a ¡®king¡¯ must do?¡± the God of Light continued asking. ¡°Last time¡­ you asked¡­ this question.¡± The God of Knights seemed like He was laughing, but His laughter was coarse and intermittent as if He could not catch His breath. ¡°You are a¡­ very good¡­ king.¡± ¡°I only wanted to be a knight who protected my country. Even after I finally took revenge, I only wanted to become an average king. I never thought of becoming King of the Gods.¡± ¡°Someone¡­ must do¡­ the job,¡± the God of Knights said. ¡°You¡­ are doing¡­ very well¡­¡± The God of Light was silent for a long time, then sighed deeply. ¡°Maybe You are right. Someone must do this.¡± He laid His hand on the shoulder of God of Knights. Endless divine power flowed into that old body that was almost rotting. ¡°Please hang in there for a bit more¡­ it won¡¯t be long.¡± Chapter 261 The next few days were calm. Neither the holy gods nor the confrontational armies of the two countries in the human world had any intention of making a move. But everyone knew that a fierce fight would be inevitable. It was like the short period of calm before the storm. On this day, a special guest came to the divine temple of the God of Knights at Thunder Light City, which was the capital city of Duchy of Thunder. The invisible jellyfish swayed into the hall where the statue of the God of Knights was worshipped. Since almost all the forces of the church had gone to support the Eagle Kingdom, and now was not a time of prayer, there were very few people here. Only two probationary priests swept the floor in the yard outside. There was no one in the hall. Sui Xiong stopped in front of the statue, laughed and said in a voice that only God could hear, ¡°God of Knights, Brother Astoril, are you at home?¡± The statue did not respond. He was not in a hurry. He said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t play dead. I know you must be home! If you don¡¯t want to send an avatar here, send a wisp of thought to talk with me. Is that ok?¡± The statue still gave no response. ¡°You see, I¡¯ve been very sincere in coming all this way here to see you. You are at least a knight who greatly values virtue. How can you shut out a guest who came from afar?¡± On the statue, there was a divine light that the mortals could not see. A wisp of thought appeared out of nowhere and sighed deeply, ¡°Void Mask, I don¡¯t think there is anything I¡¯d like to talk to you about.¡± Since it was his thoughts that were here, he spoke very fluently this time without any sense of dullness. Seeing that the God of Knights finally appeared, Sui Xiong laughed even more happily. ¡°How can you say that? There¡¯s no harm in talking, right? When I visited the Orc gods last time, I saw that you were greeting them. I was curious at that time, so I came here today. What were you talking about with Lefon?¡± The God of Knights was silent for a moment then replied, ¡°It has nothing to do with you.¡± ¡°Why? I went there for peace, too.¡± The God of Knights was astonished at that. ¡°Peace? You went there for peace?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Sui Xiong raised his eyebrows when he finally found a common topic between them. ¡°I also went there to persuade Lefon not to fight. The world is large enough for both human beings and Orcs to live in. There is no need to fight to the death.¡± The God of Knights was silent for a moment then said, ¡°Actually, there is nothing wrong with the war itself. But we have to control the scale of the war and avoid the massacre afterwards.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Although there is no slaughter in their current practice, they are essentially trying to exterminate the human race in the occupied areas!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not just about genocide, but variants. They want to turn humans into the weakest mixed-race of Half-Orcs.¡± The voice of the God of Knights was full of anger. ¡°They¡¯re planning to keep humans as their slaves forever!¡± Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t thought about that before. Suddenly he was surprised and nodded repeatedly. ¡°You are right! That is too terrible! Even if they want to have mixed-race Half-Orcs, they should find tigers and lions. Why did they get a bunch of rabbits? Can rabbits fight? Or are they good at magic? They are not even good at farming!¡± With this common understanding, they had more and more to talk about. Under Sui Xiong¡¯s deliberate guidance, the topic changed several times. It involved many things that he had been interested in before but had not been clear on. As a genuine senior among the gods, the God of Knights was born in the barbarous age just after the birth of human beings and Orcs. At that time, the barbarous beasts were still raging on the earth. The Goddess of Life was living with her Gold Clan (the advanced fairies) in the Ancient Forest. Of course, it was not called that then. The ancient gods always fought in the Void Space. The great divine powers of order, chaos, kindness, and evil were still alive then. Most of the gods that Sui Xiong knew about now had not even born. From then on to now, the God of knights had gone through countless major events. It was no exaggeration to say that he was a walking textbook of the gods, a living epic. Sui Xiong asked him about those ancient things curiously. Although he had to think for a while before giving an answer to many things, he answered them all in detail every time. This made Sui Xiong very satisfied. Strictly speaking, this was all gossip, and it was meaningless in today¡¯s world. But Sui Xiong liked to hear these stories very much, and judging from the appearance of God of Knights, he also enjoyed talking about such topics. ¡°It¡¯s weird. Why don¡¯t you talk to people more often since you know so much?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°The frog in the Old Fairy Temple of the Ancient Forest has been respected as a sage, but you must know more than him. Why don¡¯t you have the title of an ancient god sage as well?¡± ¡°A sage¡­ Haha¡­¡± The God of Knights smiled. ¡°For a time, I was very keen on being a sage. I liked to pretend I was a human wandering around in the Main Plane, looking for young people with outstanding talent and strong will. I would teach them and watch them grow up¡­¡± ¡°What! You pretended to be a great sage! But it¡¯s reasonable when you think about it. With your age and qualification, that¡¯s enough for you to be a great sage. There¡¯s no problem at all¡­¡± The God of Knights liked Sui Xiong saying this. He smiled again and said, ¡°Of my students, probably the best one is¡­¡± He stopped abruptly, remained silent for a moment, and then sighed deeply. ¡°Come on! My old sir, how come you¡¯ve suddenly gone quiet? It¡¯s annoying to hear only half of a story.¡± ¡°Nothing, it¡¯s something not worth mentioning at all,¡± The God of Knights sighed and said. ¡°It¡¯s boring to talk about things that happened so long ago.¡± ¡°How can it be boring? Whom are you most proud of? Let¡¯s talk about it!¡± Sui Xiong anxiously said. ¡°Don¡¯t tell a half story!¡± ¡°Both of them have vast magic powers. If their names are mentioned by others, they can feel it. They don¡¯t like people talking about them behind their backs, so there is no need to make them unhappy.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s mouth twitched, and he opened the Soul Force Field, covering them in. ¡°It¡¯s ok now. Here we are completely sealed. No one knows what you¡¯re saying.¡± The God of Knights was silent for a moment and said, ¡°The connection between my noumenon and here is also cut off. It¡¯s amazing¡­¡± Sui Xiong shouted, ¡°Come on! I shielded this area for you to tell me your old stories, not your feelings!¡± The God of Knights smiled and said, ¡°Since you are so curious and powerful, I¡¯ll talk to you. I have changed my identity many times and taught many students. Among them, the most talented is Yorgaardman and the most skilled is Wuther.¡± ¡°Yorgaardman¡­Wuther¡­¡± Sui Xiong said to himself. He thought for a bit, and then suddenly cried out, ¡°What! Aren¡¯t they my brothers, the God of Justice and the Master God of Humans the God of Light? Were they your students?¡± ¡°Yes, when I taught Yorgaardman, I was an old adventurer named Knight, and when I taught Wuther, I was an old knight named Tirion. Finally, Wuther recognized me. As for the careless Yorgaardman, he probably still doesn¡¯t know who I really am.¡± ¡°What!¡± Sui Xiong felt that he had made enough exclamations today. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you told him?¡± ¡°There is no need to do that. He grew up pretty well. Though different from the direction I have taught him, he has done a good job. Why should I add pressure to him? I¡¯m an old man who has been against his ideas.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t say that! He probably really wants to see you again¡­¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need,¡± The God of Knights smiled and said. ¡°Why should he find out that his old teacher is actually an old boss that he often criticizes? Is it really good to break his beautiful memory?¡± ¡°Your idea is quite fashionable.¡± ¡°Fashionable? That word is interesting. I didn¡¯t expect anyone to describe it like that. I¡¯m famous for being old-fashioned and inflexible. Even among the gods, I¡¯ve been like this.¡± ¡°You can be old on the outside, but not on the inside. I think you still have a young heart; you can make it right.¡± The God of Knights burst into laughter for a while before sighing faintly and saying, ¡°I am really old, inside and outside, completely old¡­ If you weren¡¯t here to chat with me today, I would forget how to even laugh.¡± ¡°That¡¯s too miserable! You were once the Master God of Humans. How can you be in such a poor situation?¡± Sui Xiong frowned and asked. ¡°I¡¯ve also seen the former master god of the orcs. Although that fellow always looks strange with his head turning aside, he is much better than you!¡± ¡°He¡¯s much younger than me. It¡¯s almost been 10,000 years since I killed his father and he was conceived from his father¡¯s dead body,¡± the God of Knights said with disdain. ¡°Comparing us in age? He¡¯s far from it.¡± ¡°Stop it. I know you are old enough. You¡¯ve lived longer than the time it takes for the sea to go dry and the rocks to melt in the sun. By the way, you said before that besides my brother, the God of Light was also your student. How would you describe them?¡± The God of Knights pondered for a moment and said slowly, ¡°Yorgaardman is an impulsive man who does whatever he wants. He is very stubborn, which is similar to me. But he hates to stick to the rules. This is quite different from me. He was born of a lower rank, and I couldn¡¯t teach him for a long time, so his knowledge was poor. He was not satisfied with a lot of things, and he often said that ¡®the world has rotted,¡¯ ¡®the world is totally broken¡¯, and even after becoming a god, he often said, ¡®I want to correct this wrong world.¡¯ So he went to the Master of Order and wanted him to modify the order of the world¡­¡± ¡°Well, well, I know all of this, and then he was beaten so hard he had to rest for a long time.¡± ¡°It¡¯s more than enough. When I got to the Wheel of Order, he had been beaten out of shape. He was like a pool of mud. Fortunately, the Master of Order didn¡¯t intend to kill him, so he chatted with me and let me take him away instead. At that time, I wrapped him up in an old cloak and took him back. I had to be careful not to leave a piece of meat or bone on the way¡­¡± ¡°What! Was he beaten that badly?¡± ¡°He probably has forgotten it himself. Even if he remembers, he doesn¡¯t take it to heart. That is the way he is. As long as he feels he is doing the right thing, even if he pays a great price or is beaten badly, he won¡¯t shrink back or regret it,¡± the God of Knights smiled and said. ¡°Among all the things I taught him, he is the best at that.¡± Chapter 262 Sui Xiong thought that the comments the God of Knights made in regards to the God of Justice were very logical. He could not help but nod his head repeatedly. He thought for a while and asked about the God of Light again. ¡°What about Wuther? What do You think of this student of Yours?¡± The God of Knights smiled. ¡°Oh, Wuther was exactly the opposite of Yorgaardman. He kept everything in His heart and never wanted to talk to anyone. He was famous when he was still young, inherited the family business when He was only fifteen years old and became a general stationed at the frontier. In the end, He was betrayed, and His troops and country were dead. When I saw an unyielding will turn into a flash of light, I dug him out of a pile of dead bodies. He was badly injured all over for a very long time. He could not even do exercises that were a little bit vigorous. He laid down on rocks and looked at the sky and was dazed all the time.¡± ¡°¡­Sounds a lot like one of my little brothers!¡± ¡°You¡¯re talking about Leon Igor, right?¡± the God of Knights actually knew about Leon. ¡°Back when I dug him out from the pile of dead bodies, I did feel that he looked a lot like Wuther.¡± ¡°Oh, f**k! That¡¯s why back then, even when he was severely poisoned, shot until he looked like a hedgehog, and buried within the dead bodies¡­ he was still alive! All because You saved him!¡± Sui Xiong was completely shocked. He saluted Him respectfully. ¡°I have to thank You on his behalf. Thank you very much!¡± ¡°You are welcome. At that time he was still my believer. As a God, I was only protecting my talented believer, so there is no need to thank me,¡± the God of Knights sighed. ¡°I should say, there were many of his family and friends who died too, and many of them were my believers. I did not save them. I hope he does not hold a grudge¡­¡± ¡°He should not. Do not worry about it,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°But now he believes in me. Will you blame me for taking believers from You?¡± ¡°One is free to choose to believe in me, and one is also free to believe in others,¡± the God of Knights said. ¡°I do not mind if my believers turn to another God. But I will not accept them back into my religion either.¡± ¡°Then all is well,¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°Let us talk about Wuther again. After He finished learning crafts from you, did He bring four little brothers back for revenge? The God of Orcs told me that He made a trap and killed 3 ¨C 4,000 nobles and adventurers from his enemy country. Then, with a hammer in one hand and a longsword in the other, He barricaded the four doors of the royal town along with His four brothers. They killed everyone inside and out the town, even newborn babies and old men who were almost out of breath¡­ is that true?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a bit exaggerated, but in short, it is correct.¡± The God of Knights was silent for a moment and said, ¡°This is Wuther. His character is a little extreme because He has suffered. His motto is to have a clear calculation before taking action, to be completely ready, to wait for opportunities patiently. That way he is able to accept any type of terrible outcome and hold Himself true when faced with profits. He is clear on what He should give and what He should take, clean and neat when it is time for action. He cannot even have one misstep. As long as He believed that what He was doing was right, then He could not care about anything at all, not even the methods that He used, or the consequences.¡± ¡°Oh, f**k! These words are terrifying to hear¡­¡± ¡°Yes, a lot of people are afraid of Him, even more than the people who respect Him,¡± the God of Knights sighed and said. ¡°I have given him advice too, but He said since He has sat on the place that leads the entire human race, He wants to become someone who people look up to and comply with. He has no desire to be like me and have people respecting Him. So he chooses to have people fear Him. Making people feel fear is also not bad.¡± ¡°He did not just make people fear Him, He made people hate His guts,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°My big brother included. He scolded me, saying that He was even worse than an animal. He even killed Mother God.¡± The God of Knights sighed deeply. ¡°I never thought He could do such thing! Ever since He started slowly expanding the Human God System, He rarely spoke with me before He did things. He talked to me even less after I did things that made Him mad¡­ as a teacher, I have neglected my duties.¡± ¡°Did you not know the incident of Him killing the Mother of Sea?¡± ¡°I only found out when Mother God died, but it was already too late,¡± the God of Knights laughed bitterly. ¡°He was really fast and fierce. It didn¡¯t take Him long to complete the job. If I had His skills all those years ago, then I would not have been heavily injured from fighting a few mere animals¡­¡± Sui Xiong nodded his head lightly. He did not have much respect for the Mother of Sea. Or rather, because of what he had heard from the Orc God System, it made him feel less affectionate towards ¡°creators.¡± From his point of view, the Mother of Sea was dead anyway. The anger and hurt that his big brother had was probably a form of mental imprisonment, bound by the ¡°creator.¡± ¡°Now then, this Wuther¡­ what does He think of this?¡± Sui Xiong finally asked the key question, what he wanted answered most. ¡°The Eagle Kingdom is just waiting to be destroyed if the situation continues, and the Orcs are mutating human beings with a plan. As the main God of humans, He cannot turn a blind eye on this, right?!¡± The God of Knights was silent for quite a while. He replied, ¡°I have no idea what He is thinking either. It is getting more difficult for me to understand His way of thinking¡­¡± ¡°But He should do something about it!¡± Sui Xiong yelled. ¡°He cannot possibly gift the entire Eagle Kingdom to them? What will be next, the Kingdom of Holy Angels? And then the Kingdom of the Blue Moon, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs¡­ will he give them all away? ¡°He must have a plan of His own. His plan will be successful for sure,¡± the God of Knights said seriously. ¡°All these years, He¡¯s planned many other things and never failed. Every time He has gotten the best results. This time will not be any different.¡± ¡°Hey! That is just blind faith!¡± ¡°If a person always won, always succeeded, always thought of the things that you never expected, then you would blindly believe Him too,¡± the God of Knights said. ¡°But you are right. This is exactly like blind faith¡­ so I will also do what I can.¡± ¡°Do what you can? Do you mean calling on Your believers to support the Eagle Kingdom?¡± Sui Xiong pouted. ¡°I am telling you, this is not a good idea. You have been shrinking more and more these past few years. Your believers are despised by the Church of God of Aristocracy. How many of them are left now? You¡¯d have those few people help defy the large army of the Orc Empire? You are just sending them off to die!¡± The God of Knights was silent for a moment. Finally, He said, ¡°This is the only thing I could do.¡± ¡°What do You mean, huh? You can fight! You should go beat up God of Aristocracy! Once, You could fight six Giant Orc Gods all by Yourself, killing four and injuring two. You were so powerful and dominating. How difficult would it be to slash the God of Aristocracy now?!¡± Sui Xiong was furious. He was yelling, his whole body gesticulating until his saliva flew everywhere. ¡°Is Your sword just a decoration? Is Your armor just for show? You are the old senior! A man with experience! Who is that God of Aristocracy fellow, anyway?! You could kill Her with one finger! If I were You, I would have grabbed a knife long ago, and sliced Her from Her front door to the back door, and then back again! Then stick the knife into a rock in front of Her house, leaving a message behind: ¡®If You still dare play tricks, I will slash Your entire family¡¯¡­¡± The God of Knights was laughing because of his funny expression. After laughing for some time, He said, ¡°You are over-simplifying things. First of all, I really am old, my body is not up for such things anymore. Secondly, it is really inconvenient in to deal with Her in my position¡­¡± ¡°You keep saying You are old¡­ Gods do not age! Stop deceiving Yourself and others!¡± ¡°No; Gods just don¡¯t age like others,¡± the God of Knights sighed. ¡°I really am old now. So old that I have no more spirits or energy to fight anymore. I admit what you¡¯re saying is reasonable. I also admit your ideas are very interesting. But I really cannot do it anymore.¡± ¡°Then You could let Your students do it!¡± Sui Xiong frowned and tried to persuade him. ¡°Between those two students of Yours, either of them could beat up the God of Aristocracy so bloody Her Mother wouldn¡¯t recognize Her. You would not even have to do it Yourself!¡± ¡°My students?¡± the God of Knights suddenly laughed. ¡°Yorgaardman is not even a member of the Human God System. How can He take part in matters of internal affairs? As for Wuther¡­ if He was willing, He would have done it without my asking. If He wasn¡¯t willing, He would not be bothered to do it if I did ask. He has His own ideas, His own principles.¡± ¡°His principles lie in killing the Mother God of Humans, but he¡¯d let the bad guy who wants to kill his teacher go free?¡± Sui Xiong said disdainfully. ¡°If that¡¯s true, his principles are terrible!¡± The God of Knights laughed bitterly again. His voice was gradually becoming silent. The aura that shrouded the statue gradually dissipated as well. ¡°Hey! Are You leaving just like that? I still have lots of things that I wanted to discuss with You!¡± But no matter how much Sui Xiong yelled, the God of Knights didn¡¯t reply. Inside the holy temple of the God of Knights, which was in the Glory Hall of the Country of Light, there was a sigh that sounded very old coming from the worn armor. ¡°¡­it is¡­¡­going to end¡­¡­ anyway¡­¡± Chapter 263 Sui Xiong sat in the holy temple of the Void Mask Church with a gloomy face, sighing deeply. ¡°It failed¡­¡± Wall¡¯s figure appeared in front of him, asking doubtfully, ¡°What has failed, Your Majesty?¡± ¡°I tried to persuade the orcs to stop fighting and failed.¡± Wall thought about it for a whole, and said, ¡°It¡¯s weird if you¡¯ve succeed. The orcs are in the upper hand now.¡± ¡°So I went to talk with the God of Knights again, wondering if I could persuade the Human God System to do something to put pressure on the Orc gods so as to prevent the orcs from organizing a systematic Replacement Program in the occupied areas.¡± Wall nodded, ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. The Human gods must have agreed with that.¡± Sui Xiong sighed deeply, ¡°They didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°¡­ What are the Human gods thinking? Why do they disagree with that?¡± Asked Wall. ¡°How am I supposed to know!¡± Sui Xiong heaved a deep sigh and felt that there was a huge generation gap between his thought and that of the Human gods, especially the God of Light. ¡°But Your Majesty has done your best. There is no other way.¡± Wall comforted him, ¡°Let¡¯s manage our own area well. If it really doesn¡¯t work, ask Leon to evacuate the people from the Eagle Kingdom to our area.¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that. He thought carefully and agreed that it seemed to be quite reliable. God helps those who help themselves. It would be better to protect people in Eagle Kingdom by their own hands than to expect the orcs to stop their aggression, or to depend on the God of Light and the Human Gods to negotiate with the Orc gods. However¡­He thought about it carefully and was worried again. The Void Mask Land certainly couldn¡¯t hold so many people¨CThere were not enough houses and shelters, but a larger shortage of food. Even the transport capacity of the Portal was much less than enough. It was impossible to protect the people from Eagle Kingdom here. He talked about the problems he had thought about. Wall pondered for a while and sighed as if the plan was unlikely to be realized. ¡°Your Majesty, I think we¡¯d better save some people properly.¡± He said, ¡°After careful thinking, I realize that perhaps many people will never leave their homeland¨CAfter all, they will not die even if they are caught by the orcs.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while and said, ¡°Can¡¯t they see the orcs¡¯ plot?¡± ¡°Maybe they can, but what will be different? They do not have the power to resist it. It¡¯s good enough for them to keep away from slaughter.¡± Sui Xiong frowned and remained silent. At this moment, a faint light fell outside the temple, and a figure that couldn¡¯t be seen by mortals appeared at the door of the holy temple, greeting this side politely. ¡°Is Your Majesty Void Mask at home? I¡¯m Toplia, God of Diplomacy from the Human God System. I¡¯m here to make a big deal today.¡± Sui Xiong hesitated for a moment and asked Wall to invite him in. The God of Diplomacy was a very handsome young man with a brilliant smile. Especially his two front teeth seemed shining. He came in with a smile, saluted with a smile, and then presented two small gifts, with a smile. These gifts, though not very valuable, were quite exquisite. And the God of Diplomacy himself was more like a movie star or a sunshine man than a god. ¡°Well¡­¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while, remembered the nickname of the Diplomatic God, and said with a smile, ¡°Your Majesty the Smiling Diplomat, I have received your kindness. But¡­ What¡¯s the big deal you¡¯ve mentioned?¡± The God of Diplomacy sat in the air with a smile. He first took out a light ring and moved it from left to right. It sent out an invisible barrier, which was not strong but powerful, to cut off all the peeping around them. Then he said, ¡°Please allow me to ask you first, Your Majesty the Great Educator. When you were a mortal before, were you in the name of Wall, a nickname ¡®Black Blade¡¯, and did you live close to the Holy Fire City of Kingdom of Holy Angels? Wall was surprised first and nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. Please allow me to ask you again¡­ I have to apologize first, because the following topic is somewhat offensive.¡± The God of Diplomacy said, ¡°Do you still hate the Sun God who called on believers to seize all dark creatures and burn them to death?¡± Wall opened his eyes wide and sent out an intention of killing immediately. ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± He was somewhat angry and asked with great dissatisfaction. ¡°It seems that you still hate him. Then it will be easier.¡± The God of Diplomacy laughed, ¡°Our Majesty, the great and far-sighted and invincible God of Light, has decided to launch an attack on the Sun God and his servile followers recently. Would you like to join us in this battle?¡± Wall couldn¡¯t help standing up and cried out, ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± The God of Diplomacy said, ¡°The Sun God and his servile followers have suppressed the people of the Kingdom of Holy Angels and controlled the development of almost all the other beliefs beside his own church. His Majesty God of Light has always resented things like that¨CHe believes that human beings are free and have the right to freely choose which God to believe in on the premise of respecting His Majesty. As long as it is not an evil and dangerous existence that will bring disaster to the world, people can believe in whatever they want.¡± He turned to Sui Xiong and said, ¡°Your Majesty Void Mask, I think if it were you, you would understand that, right?¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly to show his agreement. Although the Lord of Light and the God of Knights had different style in many ways, he deserved to be a student of the God of Knights, and his attitude towards belief was still desirable. ¡°In fact, most countries and regions in the world are the same. For example, the Commonwealth of Mifata does not require its people to believe in the Master of Mystery, nor does Federation of Gold Coins require people to believe in the Goddess of Wealth. They only take advantage of their dominant position to expand the influence of their beliefs. I think it is reasonable, natural and correct. Do you agree with me?¡± Sui Xiong nodded repeatedly. He always supported freedom of belief. Although his understanding of freedom of belief was more thoroughly than what the God of Diplomacy said, but the latter¡¯s view was obviously more in line with the reality of this world. ¡°But in the Kingdom of Holy Angels, things are quite different.¡± The God of Diplomacy, who was so handsome that he could go to Hollywood to be an idol star, had an angry look on his face. ¡°All beliefs, except the belief in the Sun God, were suppressed. The Sun God even transformed those gods who were forced to submit to him into fighting creatures called Angels, deprived them of their priesthood, robbed them of their beliefs that they should have received, and damaged almost everything in order to benefit himself. Such selfish behavior is wrong. It¡¯s evil!¡± After hearing his righteous accusation, Sui Xiong and Wall both nodded. ¡°There is even more! The Sun God also encouraged his followers to replace the national law with the church¡¯s law, and to replace the civil code with the church¡¯s code, requiring people to live under his church¡¯s doctrine¨CIt¡¯s insane! What does he think of the people? The preys that allow him to do whatever he wants? Or vegetables in the field?¡± The God of Diplomacy spoke with great intensity. If the Sun God was in front of him now, he would probably have pulled out his machete and chopped him several times from top to bottom, or hit him with a wolf tooth stick to almost death. His fierce and angry mood also influenced Sui Xiong and Wall. There was no need to explain Wall¡¯s deep hatred with the Sun God. He had been always eager to hit the Cloud City and cut the Lord of Light into pieces with his proud Black Blade. As for Sui Xiong , he had used to have no special feeling of the Sun God before. However, for the sake of Wall, he began to dislike him. Then, hearing what the God of Diplomacy had said, his feeling towards the Sun God immediately dropped from indifference to hatred, which was similar to that¨CIn online games, as long as one party saw the other party¡¯s name written in red color words, there would be a PK at any time. The God of Diplomacy then attacked the Sun God¡¯s various means of governance. He obviously had made lot of preparation before coming, because he only talked about things with real evidence, and chose the matter that Sui Xiong hated so much that he kept frowning with increasing anger. As he said, the Sun God was quite abominable. He was originally a Nature God, a legendary creature born in the sun. Later, he beat the demigods and other legendary creatures in the sun that might affect and hinder him, and transformed them all into ¡°Angels¡±. He then spread his beliefs on the earth by various means of threats and temptations, taking advantage of the disappearance of the Ancestor God and the seclusion of the Mother of Sea. The most hateful thing was that he took advantage of the disappearance of the Goddess of Life to make lies that ¡°the sun is the source of life¡± and deceived people in the human world to believe in him. Although the Goddess of Life had disappeared, there were still some semi-divine masters who follow her in the human world. However, these masters had fallen into the trap of the Sun God and been captured by Him. They had also been transformed into ¡°Angels¡±, which in turn promoted the spread of the Sun God¡¯s faith. At the time when the God of Knights fought against the Six Giant Orc Gods, the Sun God also made trouble by plotting between both sides. The God of Knights was badly wounded and lost his qualification to enjoy an immortal life in that war. Two more corpses of the Six Giant Orc Gods were robbed by him and transformed into two worlds¨C ¡°Heaven¡± and ¡°Purgatory¡±¨Cto intercept souls and deceive human¡¯s beliefs. There were many other evils committed by the God Sun, such as he had been keen on eliminating all the dark creatures for no reason, no matter they were good or evil; on purging within his kingdom to wipe out the secular forces in large numbers; and he divided his church into three major schools and some small groups, and encouraged them to fight with each other all day long, to make an atmosphere of mystery¡­ In a word, he was a super villain who had committed countless crimes and should be sentenced to the Heavenly Punishment in the name of justice. ¡°¡­ Why don¡¯t you seek help from the God of Justice?¡± Sui Xiong asked casually. ¡°There have been some slight misunderstandings between His Majesty Yolggardman and Our Majesty. Although Our Majesty would like to reconcile with him, he would not even meet us.¡± The God of Diplomacy sighed deeply, with a face of regret. But he had nothing to regret. At last, he left with a new covenant and the farewell from Sui Xiong and Wall, who had promised to help in the battle against the Cloud City. His diplomatic work had once again been a great success. Chapter 264 According to the God of Light¡¯s plan, the war attacking the Sun God would take place at the same time as the final battle between the Orc Empire and the Eagle Kingdom. At that time, all the Gods would have their focus distracted by this large battle in the human world, thus creating the best chance for them. Sui Xiong had some thoughts about this. He felt that they had many allies and therefore a huge advantage. They could attack all at once until they reached higher ground; the Sun God might even give up before team fighting was necessary. But the God of Diplomacy told him that although everyone was fighting for justice and truth and they were not afraid of sacrifice, it was still better not to have anybody die unnecessarily. ¡°So then mortals should be sacrificed?¡± Sui Xiong asked Wor after the God of Diplomacy left. ¡°It still feels wrong somehow.¡± ¡°I felt that using the big war in the human world would increase the probability of winning the Gods¡¯ war. I think the strategy is workable,¡± Wor said. ¡°The Orcs and humans would fight after a period of time anyway; 50 or 60 years if it was short, and 100 years in the long run. We don¡¯t even know how many times they¡¯ve fought each other. It doesn¡¯t seem to be a big thing anyway if there is one more fight. In comparison, attacking Cloud City is actually more dangerous. The scale is much bigger, and this is more important.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a long time and nodded his head unwillingly. ¡°What about our original plan? The plan to gather and protect refugees,¡± he asked. ¡°These matters can be passed to the church to deal with,¡± Wor said matter-of-factly. ¡°The battle attacking Cloud City needed both Your Highness and me. Just the two of us. But the job of gathering and protecting refugees in the human world is indeed work for the church. These two matters can be done at the same time, they do not interfere with each other.¡± Sui Xiong pondered for a while. This was reasonable. Moreover, it seemed that they could use the job of gathering and protecting refugees to cover their attack on Cloud City. Nobody would think that the two Gods of Void Mask, Sui Xiong and Wor, would attack the Sun God when the Void Mask Church was busy transferring and settling down refugees. What a perfect diversion! However, jobs Sui Xiong and Wor could have done to help would then depend on the church members. That meant that the workload would increase immensely, and everyone would be working very hard. Sui Xiong hurriedly took time before the war started to hold meetings and arrange work. He temporarily became a construction worker and built houses for the refugees to stay in. In the pursuit of efficiency, this time he built apartments that were in Earth¡¯s style. They had four floors each, with eight units on each floor. Each unit had three rooms and one hall, with a total area of about ninety square meters. This type of apartment really had no aesthetic feeling whatsoever but was effectively livable. Sui Xiong even made basic furniture for the apartments. They were all rough and of solid wood. They would most likely be a selling point if they were placed on Earth, but here they could only be used for everyday needs. In half a month¡¯s time, he had finished building about 1,000 apartment buildings. It was enough to accommodate a few thousand families. Housing accommodation was the most difficult thing to ensure for the refugees. Once this was settled, the rest was easy. Clothes? The refugees had their own clothes. The weather in the Void Mask Theme Park was temperate within the magical array. The winter clothing from the Eagle Kingdom was enough. Food? In addition to the fact that they could search for food from the Eagle Kingdom, the Void Mask Theme Park had enough food stored as well. More importantly, Arcaian had already researched large sized mushrooms that were edible. As long as everyone ate in moderation, the mushroom production would be able to keep up. Of course, it was definitely not pleasurable to eat only mushrooms. But they would have to make do, and the remaining problems would have to wait. Moreover, they actually had more than mushrooms to eat. During this time Wor had been busy moving cargo between the ocean and land. He had been collecting large amounts of seafood and freezing it as a reserve. Although Sui Xiong did not allow him to collect too much as he considered the balance with the ecosystem, it would at least be enough for a non-staple food. With mushroom as staple food and seafood as a supplementary food, Sui Xiong felt this dietary standard was pretty high. It was definitely healthier than having instant noodles for every meal. And travel was not a problem at all! The total area of Void Mask Theme Park was small, so there were not many places the refugees could move around to anyway. Besides, the refugees would most likely need to use all their time to farm and ensure food production. Ensuring clothing, food, accommodation, and travel was settled, then. All that was left was the matter of transporting the refugees over. If Sui Xiong was around, this problem would not be difficult to solve. They could borrow his divine powers to temporarily widen the portals. But at that time, Sui Xiong would be convincing the Human Gods to group up on the Sun God. So He could only ask all his church members to work overtime for a while. ¡°How nice would it be if we could start transporting people now!¡± Looking at all the busy people, he imagined how hectic it would be when there was a huge influx of refugees flowing into town. Sui Xiong felt a little guilty. But the believers of Church of Void Mask did not feel that way. When they found out that His Highness would only help them in managing the overall situation without taking part, they felt their spirits rise. The fight in them had increased by at least 10%. All this time, Sui Xiong liked to be hands-on. Sure, he did a good job; in efficiency and quality, he was superior to mortals. But when a God was so great and so hardworking, it left his believers a little frustrated. The other Gods only sat on their thrones to receive offerings and worship from their believers. But their own God was always busy working all day, and his believers only reaped the benefits. The switch of character made them feel upside down; they and even doubted the value of their existences. Especially those who had planned to sacrifice themselves for religion, who were ready to explore the wilderness in extremely cold weather. Instead, they ended up in a place where the mountains and land were beautiful, the birds and flowers were lively, and there was no shortage of food and water. Plus, the work was easy while the pay was great. It was just like heaven¡­ They thought, Hey, this is great, but dear God, have you ever considered everyone¡¯s feelings?! If you¡¯re so good at everything, what do you need believers for?! It was different this time though. His Highness of Void Mask finally did something that Gods should do: sit on the throne, overlooking at everyone as they did their jobs. And so, the long-accumulated passion and fighting spirit were released in all the believers. This allowed them to immerse themselves into their work with 120% efficiency. It was like a sun bear who saw a colony of bees, who was so exhilarated he could take part in a comedy action film. They went deep into villages and spoke with farmers who were most vulnerable; they visited those open-minded territory leaders to discuss and arrange matters of taking refuge; they even went to speak to His Highness of King Woods and the Eagle Kingdom, to talk about ¡°saving some kin for the Eagle Kingdom.¡± The one who volunteered to do the last job was Jose, who already had over 50 children. However, his negotiation skills were obviously not on par with his child-bearing skills. Hugh, who had quick reflexes, used a bright light to temporarily blind all the Eagle Kingdom experts¡¯ eyes. Fafnir got there quickly to pick them up. If it were not for his best buddies, he would have been chopped to pieces, leaving his goal of giving birth to an entire village unaccomplished. But things were always wonderful. He had been at the top of the expert realm but could not step into the legendary realm for the longest time. Finally, he realized his path when he was almost killed under King Woods¡¯ sword. He stepped into the legendary realm the second day after he came back to the church and became a legendary expert who had strong powers and long lifespan. In this way, he was finally confident in completing his goal. One of his two best friends was already a legendary creature who had lived for 1,000 years. It was conservatively estimated that he could last 1,000 years more. Another one of them was a mortal, but he had been chosen as a voter by the God of Art and Culture. His estimated lifespan could potentially hit four digits. Among the three of them, Jose was still probably the one who would die soonest. Just like that, the final battle between the human and Orc army finally began in the midst of the mess. On the other side, the war between the Gods was also beginning to follow¡­ Chapter 265 Chapter 265: Chapter 135 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Good weather today, and good sunshine.¡± Crick looked up at the sky, reached out and covered the glare of the sun. ¡°I thought the North would be very cold. In fact, it is just fine.¡± Spencer sighed and turned his eyes to the Orcs in the distance. He only saw the boundless, daunting army and the majestic atmosphere of the military. Looking back on his own side, there were quite a lot of people, but the battle formation was obviously scattered with decentralized momentum and no feeling of integration. Just like a piece of steel and a stone, they looked almost the same size and seemed to be quite strong, but in fact, they were different. When they bumped against each other directly, nothing would happen for the first couple of times, but the broken one would be the stone after a few more collisions. ¡°You are able to smile at this time? Amazing!¡± Spencer said to his friend next to him after a sigh. ¡°A while later, when the battle starts, I will find a chance to charge towards the flag of the Orc emperor. Don¡¯t keep up with me like an idiot!¡± ¡°Uh? I think we are friends, aren¡¯t we?¡± Crick was stunned. ¡°As one of my only best friends, when you see an opportunity, do you shamelessly throw away the Knight Rules and gain it without sharing?¡± Spencer laughed because of the look of astonishment and anger on Crick¡¯s face. Then he slammed his Crick¡¯s shoulders jokingly. ¡°Look at the time! You are still telling jokes. So you are not a scholar, but a bard?¡± ¡°I am a believer of the Distant Song. It¡¯s normal to have the ability of a bard, isn¡¯t it?¡± Crick smiled and pushed his shoulder into Spencer. ¡°My dear friend, this is probably the first, and the last time we¡¯ll fight side by side in this life. Let me share in your honor a bit.¡± ¡°Is there anything to be shared in courting death?¡± ¡°If I don¡¯t you charge with you, I won¡¯t die?¡± Crick sneered. ¡°I¡¯ll die anyway, so it¡¯s better to charge with you. I heard a passage from a bard before: ¡®Escape ends with death, and a fight also ends with death. Since they both end with death, it¡¯s better to do something great, ending with a spectacular death.¡¯ What do you think of this?¡± ¡°Very good, but it is too long as an epitaph.¡± Spencer nodded, and then said with a smile, ¡°I have already told them that my epitaph will be ¡®From birth to death, he was always like a knight.''¡± Crick raised his eyebrows. ¡°Then my epitaph will be ¡®He lived like a poet, but died like a knight.¡¯ How¡¯s that?¡± Spencer was silent and then sighed. ¡°Unfortunately! I will go to the god¡¯s kingdom of the Lonely Guardian, but you will go to the god¡¯s kingdom of the Distant Song. Otherwise, we could have the opportunity to have a drink over such wonderful epitaphs.¡± ¡°Why are you talking about such a bad topic?¡± a knight beside them yelled. ¡°I don¡¯t plan to die here! I intend to take off the head of the Orc emperor and hang it in my living room. When I¡¯m too old to hold a sword, I¡¯ll rely on it to brag to my children and grandchildren!¡± Crick and Spencer laughed together, as well as the surrounding knights. Under the army flag of the Orc army, Emperor Junero could not help but smile while looking at the battle formation of the humans. ¡°Your Majesty, are you thinking about happy things?¡± a guard asked curiously. ¡°Victory is close at hand, of course, I¡¯m happy,¡± the emperor said, smiling. ¡°Look at the enemy army. Although they have many people, their formation is very scattered. The front and the center are obviously out of touch. Although the two wings are elites, the number of soldiers is not enough. The rear army is so messy; obviously, it consists of common folks. Look at our side. We not only have more people, but we also have a neater battle formation. The outcome of the battle is clear before the fight even starts.¡± The guard looked at both sides and found that it was true, so he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Your Majesty, you are really wise! You have seen the outcome before the fight starts!¡± However, at this time, the Tragic Wind under the grass robe started to talk, ¡°There is no absolute outcome in a battle. If you are able to judge the outcome with a bare look of the military strengths and formations of both sides, then humans will still be in the era of wizards.¡± She was talking about the decisive battle between the New Magic Army and the Wizard Army led by Le-Peyroux. In the Wizard Army, there had been more than ten legendary strongmen, nearly 100 high-level wizards, and thousands of mid-level wizards and secret warriors trained by wizards. Moreover, they had been supported by a fully-trained and well-equipped army. On the other side of the New Magic Army, they had had only one legendary strongman, Le-Peyroux. The famous masters afterwards, such as the Tragic Wind and Ibray, had only been high-level mages at that time. The number of troops had been much less, and their equipment was poor. Although the morale had been high, the degree of training had been indeed far less than the other side. According to what Emperor Junero had said, the outcome of that battle should have been a victory for the Wizard Army. But in fact, after a desperate fight, the New Magic Army led by Le-Peyroux won. Although the Tragic Wind and her teacher went separate ways because of their disagreement of ideas, she always took pride in following her teacher to smash the wizards at that time. At this moment, hearing the emperor¡¯s remarks, she couldn¡¯t help but think of the past and make a sarcastic comment. The emperor frowned with a severe face, but he did not refute her words. The majesty of the Orc emperor was totally ineffective against people like the Tragic Wind Big Druid. She said whatever she thought of, and he could only endure unless he intended to turn against her. What¡¯s more, what would happen if he ever turned against her? He could feel that the Tragic Wind Big Druid was already a master who had crossed the Immortal Door. Unless he violated the command of Sky Devourer Canine¡¯s Majesty and uncovered the hidden seal of power, he was unable to leave her behind even if he used Staff of Imprisonment. This big druid was not only the top master of natural spells but also the top figure in the field of magic. Moreover, she was also a powerful ranger with no weaknesses in the fields of melee combat or spells. More importantly, even he couldn¡¯t define whether the Tragic Wind Big Druid standing here was her real body or an avatar. Many of the strongmen who had crossed the Immortal Door liked to hide their noumenon in a safe place, concentrating on the pursuit of becoming gods. Usually, they only sent out their avatars to take part in the activities of the world. Perhaps, the Tragic Wind did so as well. On the other side, Woods Igor frowned deeply when looking at the stable and mountain-like formation of the Orc army. He knew that they would most likely lose this battle. However, he must fight! As the king of the Kingdom of Eagle, others could admit failure, but he couldn¡¯t surrender. After all, it was just death. He had no fears. Thinking of that majesty¡¯s promise to him, he couldn¡¯t help but smile. The knights next to the king could not help but rejoice when they saw the smile of their king underneath such a disadvantage. Although they had seen the disadvantages of the situation without thinking of any way to win, at least their morale had been improved. In the sky, the air forces from both sides who took off in advance were facing each other. On the human side, there were giant eagles, griffons and air force knights, and on the Orc¡¯s side, there were flying demon beasts and more air force knights. In terms of quantity, the number of Orc¡¯s air force knights was not particularly high. However, flying demon beasts had an absolute advantage over the giant eagles and the griffons. According to the general law, human beings could withstand such a battle at first, but when they lost more knights, they wouldn¡¯t be able to withstand it anymore. Leon, riding a griffon, did not care about the dense mass of the flying demon beasts or the air force knights on the opposite side. His eyes were falling on the ground, focusing on the person under the Golden Crown Eagle Flag. He hadn¡¯t seen that person for decades, and that person had become old now. At first, that person had only been nearly ten years older than him. Now he was still young as he had been, but he already had gray temples. Time left a deep trace on his body, washing away the sharpness of the past years and leaving only the twilight. Just looking at his back, he¡¯s really a bit like Grandfather¡­ Leon clenched the scimitar with a temporary magical gemstone and a ¡°weight reduction¡± effect in his hand, sighing secretly in his heart. This scimitar was the relic of Atel, the strongest assassin of the Orc Empire. It was also his war trophy. In the previous scout battle, he had used this scimitar to cut the heads off of more than 30 Orc warriors, which made Rien the Leopard-killer win his illustrious name. Therefore, he was now a member of the noblest air force knights in the Kingdom of Eagle. He rode a royal griffon that was comparable to a high-level demon beast. This griffon was not the same as the common griffons which had grayish, yellow bodies and white heads. Its whole body was covered with white feathers, and the feathers on the top of its head were golden just like a crown. That was where the name ¡°the Royal Griffon¡± came from. Obviously, this griffon had not been the type that had been trained for a long time. It had been very unwilling to accept this knight at first. But when it had felt the true intentions of Leon, it immediately had become tame and obedient. No one had known why except for Leon and this griffon. Leon gently touched the feathers on the back of the griffon and whispered to it, ¡°When the battle starts, just rush forward. Don¡¯t entangle with those who are not worth mentioning, understand?¡± The griffon nodded with a cheerful call. As a powerful creature known for its bravery, its favorite act was to attack again and again. In particular, it liked to attack powerful enemies, knocking them down and tearing them apart with its powerful claws. Its own knight not only owned the special warm and comforting breath of eagle descendants, but also had outstanding strength and fearless courage. This really suited the griffon¡¯s taste! Leon couldn¡¯t help but laugh when he heard the joyful shout of his mount. ¡°You boy,¡± he said, ¡°you are just a griffon, but you have the heart of a giant dragon!¡± The clever griffon understood his praise and responded with a proud call. At this moment, the military flag of the Orc Empire moved and slowly advanced toward the front. That was the command to commence the fight. The next moment, the military flag of the Kingdom of Eagle also moved in a similar manner, pushing forward without showing any weakness. The soldiers on both sides issued a deafening roar and charged forward toward either victory or death. The murderous atmosphere reached up to the sky, even blocking out the bright sunshine. Chapter 266 Chapter 266: Chapter 136 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Just when the major war in the human world began, at least forty Gods and countless oracles¡¯ bodies, including Sui Xiong and Wor¡¯s, appeared next to the huge fireball that was so bright people could not stare directly at it. It was located on the ¡°positive plane¡± of the Ring of the World. The God of Light was a character who would not go to war unprepared. He had actually prepared teleportation coordinates almost next to ¡°Cloud City,¡± the Holy Kingdom of Sun God. By using these coordinates, the ¡°Sun God Crusade¡± arrived next to Cloud City in an instant could launch attacks immediately. As a matter of fact, that¡¯s exactly what they did. Without any warning or useless speeches, Hermet ¡°the flaming hammer¡± Hercules God of Human God System took the lead. He let out an angry growl and His body suddenly grew bigger than a mountain range in the mortal realm. The iron hammer burning in His hand slammed relentlessly on the Divine Shield that was on the outer rim of Cloud City. It was as if a meteor crashed on it from outer space. This hit consumed all of Hercules¡¯ strength. When the hammer rebounded he became lethargic. Not only did He shrink into His usual appearance, But He also lost His combat power temporarily. He could only wait to recover as He panted heavily under the protection of a few oracles. He was indeed the strongest one in the Human God System. With a hit of the hammer, the entirety of Cloud City trembled. The sturdy Divine Shield immediately cracked and there was a medium-sized hole. The God of Light did not say things like ¡°follow me¡± or ¡°attack.¡± He merely waved His hand silently and all His God followers charged with the four great knights as their leaders. They did not hesitate or retreat. Following close by, He did not even greet the other Gods, including Sui Xiong who was invited to help. He charged towards the Holy Kingdom of Sun God, leaped forward, and jumped into the hole. ¡°He really just went for it!¡± Sui Xiong mumbled. But he saw Wor who could not wait any longer. Wor pulled out his Black Blade and charged towards the only pathway that led to the inside of Sun God¡¯s Holy Kingdom. He smiled, and then quickly followed suit. Beside them were over ten Gods who were invited to help out. They all looked at each other and then took out each of their weapons as they charged in. ¡°I like battles like this!¡± Once the Pirate Queen charged in there, She released Her beloved big-sailed ship. She stood on the bow with a scimitar in Her hand, as usual. ¡°Little fellows! Kill them for me! Go and grab it! Grab everything that you can and everything that is worth grabbing! ¡°God of Light said whatever we grab belongs to us, so do not be soft!¡± The pirates who were already fierce when alive cheered frantically, then charged over to where the common believers of the Sun God lived. There were few other Gods who did things like this. In fact, besides the few Gods like Wor who had a deep hatred of the Sun God, most of the Gods invited to help charged towards these areas. The God of Light did not intend for them to fight till the death. They had an agreement earlier that as long as They caused chaos and destruction it would be enough to distract the Sun God and His ¡°angels.¡± Even those who were slightly weaker in the Human God System were sent to different places to attack and siege the city. They were not really seeking to occupy any areas, but they were hoping to cause the biggest possible destruction and hurt the morale of Sun God¡¯s side. They wanted to throw them into chaos. There were less than ten Gods and over 200 oracles who really stood by the God of Light. They were the strongest core team in the Human God System. They had gathered above 80% of the combat power of the entire ¡°Sun God Crusade,¡± even though there were not many. Sui Xiong and Wor were naturally amongst them. If they listened to the God of Diplomacy¡¯s original suggestion, only Sui Xiong would join the elite force in action, but Wor could only join the ¡°robbing¡± activities. But Sui Xiong rejected the plan with one sentence. He said, ¡°Why would we join your coalition if we are not going to give the Sun God trouble?¡± The God of Light had accepted their suggestions as they were so active, and even let Wor join the elite force that was to face the Sun God directly. Although¡­ He was obviously not very optimistic about Wor. It was hard to blame Him. Since Wor had become a God he had only fought once with other Gods. In the end, he was badly beaten by Ymirjar le-Peyroux, the God of Spellcasters who became God later than he did, and whose deity level was lower than his own. If it was not for Sui Xiong who helped and saved him, he might have died on the spot. Although le-Peyroux was already a super strong fighter whose abilities were comparable to Gods even before She became God, Wor¡¯s fighting results were quite shameful. Other¡¯s couldn¡¯t help but look down on Him. But the God of Light really looked highly on Sui Xiong. Because of this, He accepted the suggestion of letting the battle slag Wor follow them in battling the Sun God, just so that Sui Xiong would join them in the crusade. From Sui Xiong¡¯s point of view, this was like a group of people about to enter a dungeon. Although Wor¡¯s level and equipment were unqualified, he was accompanied by Sui Xiong himself, an expert who was obviously more than qualified for this dungeon. It was still worth it to have two vacant spaces for them in the team. Should they not be afraid that Wor might grab their equipment anyway? Thinking this, he could not help but secretly laugh in his heart. The elite of the Human Gods were all fully armed. Even the God of Light who usually did not wear armor had also changed into a golden shiny suit of full armor. He brought along two of the most famous artifacts. The warhammer ¡°Revenge Oath¡± that became a small hammer hung on His belt, and the two-handed sword ¡°Twilight Warrior¡± was carried on His back in the silver white sheath. The other Human Gods behind Him were also dressed similarly. Everyone had full heavy armor on; even those of magic series were no exception. The armor would not affect spellcasting anyway, as they were Gods. The elite oracles that they had brought along were divided into three teams. One team used two-handed big swords, one team used warhammers, and one more team used single-handed swords and shields. They were all teams assigned under the God of Light, and they were the three famous army troops back in those years. The team that used two-handed big swords was called ¡°true-silver holy sword.¡± It was first team created. He had created this troop when He had just become a God, so this team had the most people and was the most experienced one. The team that used warhammers was called ¡°hammer of revenge.¡± It consisted of warriors who had completed their revenge by obtaining powers from believing in Him. Although this team had the fewest people, they were the fiercest. Every single one of them had almost the same combat powers as Gods. The team that used single-handed swords and shields was called ¡°sword of justice.¡± It was the last of the three troops that were built. Back when He had just taken over the position of Humans¡¯ Main God from the God of Knights, He and the God of Knights arranged to choose upright experts from the nobles to form this army troop. Strictly speaking, this team was actually the God of Knights¡¯ team, but it was completely loyal to Him now. Thinking of this, Sui Xiong was suddenly stunned. Where was the God of Knights? He reminisced carefully. He was sure he had not actually seen the God of Knights when they were gathering just now. Could it be¡­ that the old man finally could not stand it anymore and died of old age? He mumbled to himself quietly, and could not help but ask the God of Cities who was not far from him. The God of Cities was stunned for a moment and turned to look at him, but he did not answer. ¡°F**k! Don¡¯t give me that face!¡± Sui Xiong scolded quietly. But he had no other ideas. Among the Human Gods, the God of Diplomacy was close to him. But His powers were so-so, and He on the outer periphery. Although there were many people in there, there was no one else who he could chat with. That was really depressing¡­ Chapter 267 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The structure of the Cloud City was quite complicated with almost no symmetry. From top to bottom, from inside to outside, it was like a huge onion with layers and rings. Numerous messy roads were scattered all over the layers of ¡°onion skin,¡± which made people confused. A joke on earth said that if a group of aliens came to invade and they arrived at the Xizhimen overpass, the aliens would spend a whole day before leaving. And they¡¯d need some luck before even doing that. If the alien race didn¡¯t have a good sense of spatial direction, maybe they would stay on the overpass forever. However, compared with Cloud City, even the legendary Stone Sentinel Maze invented by Zhuge Liang or the ancient Greek Minoan maze in the myth was not worth mentioning. People didn¡¯t need to worry about choosing the wrong way in the city because they couldn¡¯t find a ¡°way¡± at all. What could be seen was only one crossroad after another and one turn after another. People would turn around and around and around, and then they wouldn¡¯t know where they were. If the shining Sun Throne in the center of the god¡¯s kingdom was not there as a road sign, probably no one in the world would be able to escape this maze. Not to mention that in this maze, there were countless believers and oracles of the Sun God, as well as ¡°Angels¡± comparable to the followers of other god systems. According to the design of an RPG game, Cloud City was definitely a highly difficult maze. In addition, the monster respawn rates, and the average levels were crazy. It was estimated that countless players would throw away their mouse and smash their keyboards. Maybe there would be tutorials on the web titled, ¡°Go Through the Cloud City Maze,¡± or people would rely on auxiliary plug-ins designed by programming experts. However, this maze couldn¡¯t be figured out. The maze was definitely very complicated, but the God of Light walking at the forefront did not mean to go walk through the maze. He casually took off the hammer hanging from around his waist, and then the hammer became a huge warhammer after a wave of his hand. He pointed it in the direction of the Sun Throne; then he picked up the warhammer and smashed it all the way through. Yes, he directly smashed the things in his way¡ªwalls, floors, and ceilings, as well as buildings, roadblocks, and enemies¡ªtotally into pieces. With the notorious method of kicking through the maze used by the running groups in DND, they moved straight toward the Sun Throne without following the paths. When he first saw the huge maze, Sui Xiong had been amazed. As a maze architect, he had also expressed his respect for the complexity of the maze. He had secretly pondered how long it would take to break through the maze. But in fact, the God of Light spent only about three or five minutes drilling a hole from the outer layer of Cloud City to the center, directly to the core area of the entire city. This guy¡­ is definitely the natural enemy of all mazes! Sui Xiong secretly thought. Following the elite squad with Wall, Sui Xiong neither rushed to the front in a hurry nor shrunk behind deliberately. This meant that although they did not have to face the strong enemies who blocked the road directly, they had to help the god followers and the strongest oracles fight against the oracles and the Angels of the Sun God who were coming from all directions. Honestly, those guys were not easy to deal with. They were not only large in number but also powerful in strength. The most terrifying thing was that these guys were not afraid of death, so they all behaved like willing sacrifices. If their opponents were a little weaker or their cooperation was not good enough, the Angels and oracles would surround them. Their opponents would be like beasts that fell into the trap, dying with injuries. However, Sui Xiong and the rest were not like that. They formed a cone array, and the tip of the cone was naturally the powerful God of Light. He was invincible, waving his warhammer no matter what kind of enemies were in front of his face. The difference was between being beaten or being crushed. The God of City and the God of Protection protected the flanks of the God of Light on the left and right like two giant shields. This allowed the God of Light to concentrate on advancing without fear of being pinched or attacked. The Goddess of Vow and Revenge followed a little bit behind with a giant bow in her hand. Black arrows of divine power were shot from her bow, intercepting the fast enemies and even killing them directly in the air. The God of Ranger wandered in the middle of the team with a short bow. The power of his arrows was not as strong as that of his companion, but they were incredibly fast. Almost every enemy would get shot by his arrows before getting close to him, which greatly decreased their chance of swarming them. The God of Heroes and the God of Aristocracy stood separately in the two wings of the third row, holding large swords and hand-held sword shields. They were constantly killing those enemies whose spirits had been lost after being blocked. This formation was obviously practiced in advance, so their coordination was perfect. The tacit understanding between the gods was also very good. They easily dashed in the tides of the Sun God¡¯s army from all directions like a red-hot blade cutting into butter, triumphing all the way. Sui Xiong waved his tentacles and whipped up a flame giant wielding a burning sword up into the air. It was taller than the house next to him. He also took time to help Wall block a fire arrow from a distance. Then he waved another one of his tentacles to knock back the remaining enemies one by one. He did not deliberately show mercy, but there were few enemies who died because of him in his way. ¡°Wall,¡± he finally couldn¡¯t help but say after turning an enemy into a rolling gourd on the ground, ¡°do you think that the enemies here are too thick? They were all like meat shields!¡± Wall did not answer because his strength was still slightly weaker than this elite team. Even if Sui Xiong was helping him, he was fighting with difficulty and had no energy to chat. Sui Xiong sighed and then studied the fighting methods of the gods of the Human God System. After looking at them for a while, he reached a conclusion. Weapons were very important! With a powerful weapon, the killing ability could increase at least several times. Among the human gods, apart from the God of Light who was indeed incredibly powerful, the rest of them were not particularly strong in his opinion. However, relying on those powerful artifacts, they could defeat the oracles and Angels one by one like cutting melons and vegetables. Therefore, their combat efficiency was incredibly higher than his. Well, I need a good weapon¡­ Sui Xiong was pondering in his heart while looking around to see whether he could pick up or grab a suitable weapon. It didn¡¯t matter if it was suitable, as long as the power was strong enough. So he waved his tentacles, collecting as many weapons as he could grab or pick up. But to tell the truth, the weapons were not strong enough. The entire squad rushed into the core area of Cloud City, and they were stopped by a group of Angels. The Angels were slapping their light wings which were burning like fire behind their bodies. All now, Sui Xiong still hadn¡¯t found a suitable weapon. ¡°Looking for weapons?¡± asked the God of Aristocracy, a beauty with sunshine-like blonde hair and a bright smile. Despite this, she had a dark, despicable heart. She handed him a two-handed sword. ¡°Use this.¡± Sui Xiong took the weapon but felt a little uncomfortable in doing so. In order to cover up his slight embarrassment, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s its name?¡± ¡°Snake Killer, the precious of the old satyr,¡± the God of Aristocracy said, smiling. ¡°I had been his mistress for more than 100 years, but he still saw this as his precious, not even allowing me to touch it. As a result, the sword is just so-so; it¡¯s not good at all.¡± The hidden information in this conversation was a bit heavy. Sui Xiong wanted to ask more about it. For example, he wanted to ask her who the ¡°old satyr¡± was, or her role as ¡°his mistress,¡± but he chose to stay silent. It was a wise choice Damn! The circle was really messy! However, this Snake Killer was indeed a good sword. It wasn¡¯t at the same level as what he had picked up and grabbed from the oracles and Angels of the Sun God before. However,Sui Xiong could feel the powerful force surrounding the sword just with a slight wave. He could imagine that, with a slash of this sword, the former enemies who had been hurt would definitely become so mangled that their forms would need to be covered in children¡¯s programs. He just didn¡¯t have a chance to do so yet, because the team temporarily stopped. In the face of dozens of Angels gathering together, even the God of Light did not rush rashly. He ignored the curses and roars of the Angels but carefully studied the opposite formation instead. Then he looked at the Sun Throne not too far away and nodded lightly. ¡°I¡¯ll rush over,¡± he said. ¡°You drag them.¡± He said that indifferently as a matter of fact. Sui Xiong could not help but suggest, ¡°What is the use of you rushing alone? We should rush over as a group.¡± However, the God of Light did not pay any attention to him, or rather, he was not accepting opinions from others. After releasing the order, the God of Light shrunk the warhammer and hung it around his waist again; then he stretched over his shoulder with his right hand and pulled out the thick Silver Giant Sword. In the next moment, his whole person flashed and went straight to the Sun Throne. He tore through the Angels, slashing at least seven or eight of them into two pieces as he whizzed past. At this time, Sui Xiong just finished his sentence. ¡°Bloody hell! This guy does not listen at all!¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but complain. He had to continue rushing with the team and fought with the Angels and oracles coming in all directions. This time, his combat record was much better than before. Except for some particularly powerful Angels who might have had mid-level divine power according to the levels of gods, average Angels would be halved by Sui Xiong . Some of the oracles tried to block his sword, the Snake Killer, with their weapons, but both bodies and weapons eventually turned into pieces. With such a good weapon, the killing ability of Sui Xiong was rising sharply, and he already deserved the name of the first output of the entire team. ¡°In this way, I¡¯m afraid I will attract their attention¡­¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but whisper. ¡°What if a group of them comes to fight against me?¡± He obviously thought too much because at this moment he was being protected by a dozen elite oracles. The oracles who originated from the ¡°Sword of Justice¡± simply put their swords away and held their shields one by one to protect him firmly. No one could hurt Sui Xiong before breaking through this defense first. As an offensive attacker, Sui Xiong was feeling good under the protection of the main tanks. Sui Xiong slashed from left to right and from top to bottom. He was really awe-inspiring. Therefore, he was finally garnering the attention of the strongest Angels. Chapter 268 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The ¡°angels¡± of the Sun God System were actually Gods. Every time He conquered another God, He would strip that God of their clergy. But He would allow them to continue hosting related matters. He would turn them into His believers in the faith transfer station and named them beautifully, ¡°angels.¡± The powers of these angels were naturally lower compared to when they were still Gods, but their basic powers were still there. There was not much loss in combat power either. As long as the Sun God did not directly take over the faith that they were responsible for, they could still battle. Among these angels, the few who were strongest had medium-divine powers before turning. So even though their powers were indeed lessened, they were still at a similar level. There were a total of four angels like this, and they were called the Four Main Angels under the God of Glory. In comparison, only the God of Protection and the God of Heroes had medium divine powers in Sui Xiong¡¯s little team. The others only had weak divine powers. And looking at their deity levels, they were completely situated downwind. Luckily, there was no absolute correlation between deity and combat power. Although the Gods of the Human God System differed greatly from good to bad, at least those in the elite team were all over-qualified in combat power. They could at least still hold their ground when facing this large batch of uncountable oracles led by angels. Until the Four Main Angels joined the battle. With a strike of thunder, the first of the Four Main Angels to move was ¡°Sanction Angel.¡± This angel was initially the God of Punishment, whose clergy was punishing those who were guilty. He had a big build. He was wearing an electro-shining armor, and in his hand was a long blade that had lightning flowing through it. He took one step and covered at least a hundred meters in distance, appearing near Sui Xiong. Moving the long blade, he took advantage of the empty space beside Snake Killer and went straight for Sui Xiong¡¯s round body. A few oracles from the Sword of Justice were yelling angrily as they used their big shields to block the attack, but each one was hit until they fell back along with their shields. That long blade did not seem too wide or thick at first, but its power was shockingly strong. Even though these oracles had used all their energy, it was as if a praying mantis was trying to block a car. They were completely useless. With a spark of lightning, the long blade drew across Sui Xiong¡¯s body and cut open a long gash on him. There was unlimited lightning jumping around his wound, preventing it from healing at that instance. Sui Xiong roared angrily, and he swung the Snake Killer back. At the same time, he used five or six tentacles to wrap around the angel as he planned to take down this sneaky villain. But before his action was completed, there was a ray of blue. The then-God of River who was now ¡°Flowing Angel¡± was already in front of him, waving the long spear and stabbing him with it. Almost at the same time, the ¡°Flaming Angel¡± who was once the God of Volcanoes and the ¡°Love Angel¡± who was once the God of Healing were already there as well. One of them was swinging a burning tomahawk and the other was raising an ambilight staff. Both attacked Sui Xiong at the same time. Four Main Angels grouping up on a God was indeed rare. Even Gods with strong divine power would be very disadvantaged when being grouped up by four experts with medium divine powers. But Sui Xiong¡¯s situation was slightly better because he had many hands. Or rather, tentacles. It was very difficult to describe the situation at that moment. In short, Sui Xiong waved his tentacles around very quickly as he blocked the attacks that came from four directions. Although he had quite a few injuries, he was not beaten by the group assault by the Four Main Angels. Not only that, but he even took the opportunity to entangle the Sanction Angel¡¯s leg as he was blocking Snake Killer, and then dragged him down hard. He fell onto the ground. ¡°Wor!¡± He yelled out to through telepathy, ¡°This fellow is Sanction Angel. He was the one who was in charge of the work of the Sun God Church burning female witches and killing dark creatures!¡± Wor¡¯s eyes suddenly turned red. The murderous intention in Him immediately surged, and that had caused all of the oracles around Him to go stumbling backward. He put His Black Blade back into its sheath as He made a weird pose, and rushed toward Sanction Angel at the speed of an arrow. At this moment, the offensive and defensive parties were reversed. The Sanction Angel¡¯s powers were very strong, but since he had stumbled onto the floor, he could not react immediately. The other three Main Angels could react instead, and they quickly helped out. But they were already stopped by other Human Gods who also reacted in time. Everyone on this elite team was good in battle. They understood the importance of this moment. Everyone immediately dropped their own skirmishes, and even with injuries, they came to stop the three remaining Main Angels with no mercy. The Four Main Angels were the most elite team of the Sun God System, and they were also the most effective helpers of the Sun God. If they could kill or at least heavily injure one of them here, that would not only immensely help the war situation; it could also decrease the possibility of them returning to support the Sun God. As for the fierce roar and violent vibrations that came from the direction of Sun Throne, They were confident that Their Highness would definitely not lose. As long as there was no help from these Four Main Angels, there was only the Sun God, and He would be killed under the sword of God of Light eventually. The Three Main Angels were blocked at the same time. Even though they had spent all their energy they could not break through. At the same time, Wor had already reached the front of Sanction Angel as He removed His blade from its sheath. Sui Xiong had already expected that the Sanction Angel was about to get up to block the attack. He raised his tentacle and made him lose his balance and stumble again; he almost held him up upside down. As the black blade flashed, all of Wor¡¯s murderous intention suddenly disappeared. His breath was also rapidly declining. Without a word, Sui Xiong wrapped him with his tentacle and twisted Him tightly, as he sealed Him inside a bead and swallowed it in a go. This cut of Wor was the ultimate skill He had trained hard for over many years. He gathered all His refined spirit on this blade, and all the anger and hatred all those years, all the obsession and persistence that He had accumulated for decades. All His divine powers and willpower gathered on this blade. After swinging this blade, His body was emptied. He was even worse than the tired Hercules God who smashed the Divine Shield on the outer rim of Cloud City with a hammer. He was so weak that even a strong oracle could easily kill Him, let alone not angels who used to be Gods. That was why Sui Xiong had to protect Him first and wait until He recovered before they could talk again. As for the Sanction Angel who received this cut, he was frozen. He was hung upside down without movement, like a piece of salted fish. After a moment, a deep black blade mark appeared, traversing his entire body. With the blade mark as a demarcation, his body slowly separated between the top and bottom. For Gods, it was not considered serious if they were cut into two as long as they could stick back together after the cut. As a matter of fact, their bodies would naturally heal under the functions of Divine Power without any special treatment and would recover very quickly as well. But the Sanction Angel¡¯s body did not recover. Just the opposite: the two halves of his body separated further and further, his Divine Powers rapidly decreasing. He quickly turned completely silent. There were statues of the Four Main Angels that were worshipped in every medium in large-sized holy temples within the Kingdom of Holy Angels. Every day there were people praying to them. But right now, all of Sanction Angel¡¯s statues had made a clear cracking sound at the same time. There was a huge crack line that slowly appeared, running from the left waist until the right rib cage. Then the top half of the statue slowly glided down and hit the ground heavily as it smashed into pieces. All the priests and pastors of the holy temples were looking at the statues in panic. All they could see was the opening on the waist that was smooth as a mirror. It was as if it had been cut by a sharp blade. After all of the statues were destroyed, Sanction Angel¡¯s body finally lost all of its light. Sui Xiong let go of his tentacle. This strong angel, who was the first to assault him; this strong God who was always passionate about sanctioning and punishing all that he thought guilty, fell onto the ground, just like that. He did not even struggle. There was no movement at all. Dead. Chapter 269 The Four Main Angels had not taken part in the battle at first because they were observing the war and looking for an opportunity. They all had experienced hundreds of wars and so soon determined that Sui Xiong had played the key role in this battle. Therefore, they had made a deliberation that they must attack Sui Xiong together and kill him. However, beyond their expectations, their sneak attack had not killed Sui Xiong , but instead, they had lost their Sanction Angel. ¡°How¡­ how is that possible?!¡± ¡°This guy has hidden his true strength!¡± ¡°Damn it!¡± For the time being, the three remaining Main Angels all changed their faces. They hurried back, afraid that they would get entangled in Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles and then die by his blade. In fact, they had thought too much. After the slash, Wall had exhausted his resentment and anger that had accumulated over the years and the murderous, fighting spirit accumulated over the decades. At this moment, he was extremely weak. He wouldn¡¯t be able to fight with anyone for at least a few years. However, without Wall¡¯s resentful slash, it was totally impossible for anyone present to kill a strongman equivalent to having mid-level divine power. This also blamed the Sun God System for their arrogance. They had always regarded themselves as the sun up high and had never given the beings in the mortal world any importance. After Wall had become a god, the Sun God System only briefly studied the priesthood of Wall, and they did so without any inquiries about the experience of the new god before. Therefore, they hadn¡¯t known how much he had hated the Sun God System, the Sun God, and the Sanction Angels. Sui Xiong had read a network novel before he time traveled. In it, there was such a sentence: ¡°Pain-killing refers to how painful his heart is and what kills his sword makes.¡± For many years, Wall¡¯s heart had been in pain. Whether he had been silent, laughing, awake, or sleeping, Wall had not lived in peace. Anger and resentment had been haunting him like two poisonous snakes, biting his heart and pressing heavily on him like a huge stone. This entanglement had made his body and his sword dull. As a result, the dull man with the dull sword seemed to be a bit clumsy in the battle. However, when he had finally faced the source of his hatred at this moment, his blade had been unstoppable! He could finally bid farewell to the long-standing obsession and let go of the burden to move forward. After he recovered, his strength would certainly grow a lot. Well, after he recovered¡ªnot now. Everyone saw the tensions and panic of the Three Main Angels, so the God of Aristocracy immediately came up with a plan. She used her mind to convey her plan to her comrades and got everyone¡¯s approval. Then in the next moment, the human gods, along with the oracles, rushed toward the Flaming Angels who were the closest to them. The Four Main Angels were conquered and transformed by the Sun God at different times. The Sanction Angel was the latest one to be conquered, and the Flaming Angel was the first. This former God of Volcanoes had originally been a huge elemental creature, but it had been unsure of whether it was a fire element or an earth element. It thought that it was lava or perhaps something else. Probably before the birth of humans, it had once been one of the monsters that had ravaged the ground. The Sun God had defeated it, subdued it, and then sealed it into his own god¡¯s kingdom. Many years later, when the Sun God began to create Angels, he had transformed this once powerful enemy into the strongest Angel of his majesty and called it the Archangel. After that, as the power of the Sun God had grown stronger, more and more powerful Angels were popping up under his command, including the four with mid-level divine power. Therefore, the name of the Archangel had not been mentioned. However, in any case, as the strongest Angel in the Angel Army with comprehensive qualifications, the Flaming Angel had undoubtedly played a decisive role in the entire army. So when the Angels saw that the human gods rushed towards the Flaming Angel, they suddenly panicked and went to defend him. In fact, the Flaming Angel was not very close to the battle circle at this moment. If he wanted to escape, the human gods might not be able to catch up with him. However, as the oldest senior official of the entire Angel Army and the former head of the Angel Army, the Flaming Angel could not turn around and run away when facing the enemies. If he was willing to run away, he would not have been captured by the Sun God that year. Although the current Flaming Angel and the original God of Volcanoes could not be compared, they were at least consistent in character¡ªviolent, barbaric, stubborn, brave, and easily angered. In the face of the rushing human gods, he did not run away but raised the tomahawk in his hand instead. ¡°Come on!¡± He laughed wildly. With a roar, the Flaming Angel, who was originally a husky man, suddenly burst into infinite flames. In the flames stood a giant with a height of at least ten floors. The giant¡¯s body consisted of countless flaming stones, a tomahawk in each hand. The wild fighting spirit rose from his body, eventually turning into a fiery flame igniting everything around him and burning them to a crisp. This was the strongest form of the Flaming Angel, as well as his true appearance. Before he faced the Angel, Sui Xiong had felt the incredibly high temperatures of the flame. The Flaming Angel almost ignited all his divine power, so the heat of the flame came not only from the flame itself but also from the divine power blended in the flame. It could even be said that the divine power which had become a part of the flame was the real killing method. Divine power was fantastic, and it was able to do all kinds of fantastic things, making the impossible the possible. Of course, it could also greatly enhance the power of the flames. An enemy would be burned to death with only a slight touch of it. In the past years, the Flaming Angel had used such power several times, and every time he would kill his powerful enemies. Once, he had led a group of oracles to attack a world of abyss where the oracles there had all been polluted by the power of the abyss. Facing the countless demons and the chaotic wills from the whole world, he had used this killing skill, igniting endless flames of divine power. Eventually, he turned the whole world into a huge torch with nothing left. With such power, he had become one of the few gods who had stepped into the abyss, fought in it, and finally returned safely. However, he had also been polluted by the power of the abyss, becoming more and more violent and fierce. If the Sun God were not still suppressing him, he might have become an evil monster who only knew destruction. In the face of his flames, the human gods continued rushing towards the Flowing Angel. They had done a lot of investigation and preparations, so they had a good understanding of the methods of the Sun God and his powerful followers. Naturally, the human gods also knew the unique skill of the Flaming Angel. In fact, they intended to use this seemingly imposing charge to force the Flaming Angel to use this skill. Although this skill was powerful, it had two fatal shortcomings. The first one was that before the flames were extinguished, the Flaming Angel would not be able to step out of the flaming sea. So at most, he could only use long-range attacks. The second one was that this flaming sea would burn everything in its reach, even including the kingdom of the Sun God. In other words, when this skill was used, the Flaming Angel would become a standing turret who could only throw fireballs, completely losing his mobility. Not only that, he was now constantly burning the kingdom of the Sun God which made him a seam like a useless teammate. What was worse, as he couldn¡¯t move anymore, only the Love Angel in the Four Main Angels could support the Flowing Angel when the human gods changed their assault target and rushed towards the Flowing Angel. Among the Four Main Angels, the Love Angel was the weakest. As the god who had invented the Healing Divinity Spell that year, she used to have a lot of powerful spells. After being conquered and transformed, her main ability had been converted into attacking spells because the Sun God had wanted an attacking mage, not a healing mage. Although the attacking spells of mid-level divine power were also very powerful, she was still a jack of all trades because she was not a master of healing spells or fighting spells, even if she had been converted into an Angel. When she had used spells to attack, it was obvious that the force of the spells had been backed with a lot of divine power, but the spells had no spirituality. Real spell masters would use the right method at just the right time. They would have a fantastic sense of knowing when their spells would precisely block the attacks of enemies. However, her attacking spells were simple and crude, so no matter how powerful the strength was, they could be blocked by a shield. The God of Protection, whose strength was close to the peak of mid-level divine power, was the best at wielding a shield directly to block something! He held the artifact shield, ¡°Fearless Guardian,¡± in one hand, blocking all the spells cast by the Love Angel with ease. Under his cover, the squad of human gods and elite oracles suddenly rushed to the front of the Flowing Angel like shooting arrows. The Flowing Angel was also a brave one. Seeing them coming, he knew that he had lost the first chance to escape. Therefore, he simply waved his long gun and fought back with an angry roar. But this was also a part of the plan of the human gods. Honestly, the God of Aristocracy was not particularly capable of fighting. Although she had recently risen to mid-level divine power, if they had a battle, she would definitely not be able to defeat Morani who had recently risen to mid-level divine power as well. Even among the ones with weak-level divine power, many might be able to defeat her. The reason why she had been chosen to enter this elite squad was that she was very clever; she could always come up with good ideas. Of course, there were many masters as well as sages in the Human God System, but most of the sages basically couldn¡¯t fight. Some of which who were good at fighting didn¡¯t become gods at all, and others who were good at fighting had become gods, but they had not joined the Human God System. Considering both force and wisdom, or force and craftiness¡ªshe was already the best choice. There was a joke that described a famous martial arts movie star. He was the best at martial arts among actors and the best at acting in movies among martial artists. Even if there were several martial artists and actors, he was still the most handsome or the most famous out of them. The God of Aristocracy was just like that. Her craftiness was used in the right direction at the right time and the right place, and finally, they got the right results. When the elite team of human gods fell into the encirclement once again and were surrounded by countless enemies both inside and outside, the Flowing Angel was dead. He had become a pile of meat at the foot of the God of Heroes. Chapter 270 ¡°Hey, are you still alive?¡± Crick kicked the Orc in front of him who was at least one-third taller than himself as he pulled out his sword from his body. He was panting heavily as he shouted to his side. ¡°Still alive for now,¡± Spencer answered, panting as well. ¡°But I am not sure about later.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve killed four, isn¡¯t that great!?¡± Crick boasted merrily. ¡°I am actually great at fighting!¡± ¡°Great at fighting my ass! I injured them. You only gave them the final hits¡­¡± Spencer did not know whether to laugh or cry, but he secretly admired his friend¡¯s tenacious life force and outstanding luck. Their team originally planned to directly attack the Orc emperor in an attempt to chop off his head. But how could the Orc emperor not see their intentions? As a result, they were had only begun to charge when the Orcs moved a team of centaurs over to them. Each of them had shockingly long tridents in their hands, and they had forcefully stopped the charging calvary team. Although they had finally broken through the centaurs¡¯ barricade with Spencer¡¯s martial arts skills and the knights¡¯ willingness to die, the Orcs¡¯ following troops had already arrived. They were trapped and fell to the predicament, surrounded by layers of enemies. The worst part was, they could not charge at all. In this fierce battlefield, a calvary who had lost its speed was as good as a live target. Luckily Crick was good on his toes. He immediately commanded everyone to hop off their horses and turn themselves into infantry. They even used the tridents taken from the centaurs and quickly set up a simple but unsightly defensive position. Luckily they moved quickly. They took advantage of the short time frame before they were surrounded by enemies. In less than half a minute their positions were set. They became a reef in the middle of the Orc armies, which were like tides. They met the stormy waves again and again but they were never beaten or drowned by them. The biggest hero among them was, of course, Spencer. This young expert who already had a foot in the legendary door was really very extraordinary. He could always swing his precious sword to stop the enemy¡¯s attacks no matter how many enemies there were. And he did not linger in one battle. Every time he caused a certain amount of damage in one enemy, he would change target. From the beginning of the battle, there were not many who died under his sword. But those who helped give the fatal blows and the crowd who followed behind him gained a lot. If this happened to commoners, they would live their lives steadily without hunger, based on the total number of Orc heads that they chopped off during this battle. But Spencer was already tired, and his battle mates were tired as well. Perhaps they could still block one wave, two waves, five waves, or even more from the Orcs. But without a doubt, they were situated in a death trap. It was just a matter of when they were going to die, and how¡­ that was it. ¡°Spencer, your little sister¡¯s character is not cute at all!¡± Crick suddenly started a topic that was totally irrelevant as he sat on the floor and panted heavily after stopping yet another wave of Orc attacks. ¡°She is so pretty; but how can her character be so terrible?!¡± Spencer sighed deeply. ¡°I have no idea¡­ maybe that is just her luck.¡± ¡°Your martial arts are so good, how can your brain be so stupid?¡± ¡°Yeah? You think you¡¯re so smart, but in a while, you are going to be chopped into mincemeat along with me, the stupid man!¡± ¡°¡­I do not like this ending. If novels end like that they should be banned!¡± ¡°Life is not a novel. Just let it go¡­ here they come again!¡± The knights who couldn¡¯t catch their breath stood up one after another to welcome the group of lionman elite who were fully armed, with big axes in their hands. Meanwhile, in the sky, Leon gently patted the griffon¡¯s back and ordered it to turn around and charge into the enemy again. The air force battles were the fiercest and fastest. Two sides fought face-to-face, and the chance to battle often only happened in a moment of lightning. If one¡¯s ability was not good enough, he might not even be able to attack the enemy at all. The air force instructors usually mocked the soldiers who performed poorly in training. ¡°With skills like yours, it is more reliable to just charge into the enemy rather than considering how to hit them when you are on the battlefield!¡± As a matter of fact, in the air force battles, especially in big-scale ones, charging was the most dangerous thing. It would end with the most number of people dead and injured too. Imagine how deadly the force would be when two high-speed flying creatures charged each other! Perhaps strong griffons and flying demon beasts could withstand this type of attack, but more than half of the knights could not. Maybe the knights would be dizzy after just one attack and lose control of their rides. Their rides would return to their natural characters once their masters lost control. They would then fight in the way that they were originally good at, or maybe they would flee the battlefield until the knights regained consciousness. That was why during air force battles there were usually two parties charging at other at once. Then a large batch of rides would tangle up and fight in the air while a large batch of rides would disperse in all directions. Only a handful of them could remain in their original battle arrays to launch the second wave of attacks. Those who could perform second-wave attacks were all elites in the air force. There was a glorious title among the Eagle Kingdom Air Force, called ¡°three rounds.¡± The so-called three rounds meant that this knight could carry out three charged attacks continuously. The strength of the body and the tenacity of their will were simply incredible! Since the beginning of the battle, Leon had already charged more than ten times the ¡°three rounds.¡± He was swinging the scimitar that he obtained from the legendary assassin as he slew all enemies along his way during every charged attack. As long as the enemy was within the attack range of his scimitar, no enemy could escape. Of course, he did not give every enemy a fatal hit. There were many who were only lightly injured, and they merely fell down. But Leon was an expert who was highly experienced in air battle. He had mastered the essence of them. Every time he swung his sword, he made sure it could cut the leather strap used to secure the knight¡¯s body to his ride. When they in the sky riding on the backs of flying demon beasts at high speeds, what would happen when they did not have the leather strap that secured their bodies to the beasts? They would become fallen dumplings, of course¡­ Hence he could proudly announce, ¡°Under a knife, there is no one.¡± Because even if they were not slain, they would fall to their deaths. Compared to the fierce and chaotic killing on the ground, there were fewer air force members. There were even fewer elites. Leon, who completed more than thirty charged attacks continuously and killed more than a few enemies every time, attracted the attention of experts in the Orc army. Especially in his final few charges. He was faced with air battle experts who had exceptional strength, who could quickly adjust positions and resume battle. There were more than a few who were pretty famous in the Orc army. They could have been considered members of the experts¡¯ team. But there was no difference to him when they were under his blade. ¡°Who is that person?¡± the legendary expert Napoleon Juma asked the registrar beside him. He was a deerman mage who was in charge of commanding the air force. The registrar looked along where he pointed and saw a person riding a royal griffon, whizzing vertically and horizontally in the air. He dropped the experts of the Orc air force onto the dusty ground as if he were dropping dumplings. That person was wearing a thief¡¯s leather armor and looked quite shabby. But the scimitar in his hand was shining with a cold light. The shape and light of the scimitar were a little familiar¡­ ¡°Isn¡¯t that Sir Atel¡¯s scimitar?!¡± he exclaimed. ¡°Could this person be Rien Leopard-Killer who killed Sir Atel?¡± ¡°Rien Leopard-Killer¡­ how dare he openly use this incident as his surname?!¡± Napoleon hummed, as his eyes became icy and biting. ¡°Order them to circle him,¡± he said. ¡°Find the archery expert and bring me the mages who are good at air attacks.¡± ¡°Sir¡­ isn¡¯t this an overreaction?¡± ¡°Execute the order!¡± ¡°¡­Yes, sir!¡± Commander Napoleon¡¯s order was passed on quickly. The Orc air forces quickly closed in on Leon and started attacking him in a circle. While on the ground, the archery experts holding magically enhanced bows, and battlemages who were good at long- range magical sniping, gathered around and launched sneak attacks on him. But this type of trick was not effective at all. Leon¡¯s abilities exceeded these calculating tricks. He had been hiding his true abilities until now; but as an expert at the top of the legendary realm, his sense of danger and opportunity were at an unbelievable level. Right now he was high in the sky, and the attacks from the ground could not get to him as quickly. So there was enough time for him to evade. As for the circling attacks from the Orc air force¡­ he was actually glad the Orcs had circled in on him so he did not need to waste time in killing them one by one. As the number of Orcs in the air force increased, Leon¡¯s killing speed heightened. Gradually, the battle in the sky started to tilt in the direction of the Eagle Kingdom. At this moment, Sir Napoleon, chief commander of Orc air force, turned to a violent mood. If it were not for the registrar who grabbed his leg with a death grip, he would have hopped on a flying demon beast despite the congenital defects of a deerman and charged towards the ¡°Leopard-Killer¡± bastard for a death match! At this moment, the battle on the ground had turned in a favorable direction for the Orcs. Although the two wings formed by the believers of the God of Knights could hold on, the human troops in the center were gradually losing hold. This was definitely not because human soldiers were not brave or strong enough. But the fact was, their abilities were limited. In terms of inborn physique, the Orcs had some advantages over humans. When the battles were so tangled it looked like ground meat, that advantage would start to become evident. For example, when they were both stabbed by spears, most humans would die on the spot. Quite a few Orcs could keep fighting. In the past, humans relied on better weapons and stronger discipline to gain an advantage on the battlefield. The Orcs usually lacked the determination to fight till the end. They would flee the battle whenever they felt tired or sleepy in the middle of a fight. Usually, they would be fighting very hard one minute, and in the next, they could be rushing off like wolves. Most past battles were like this. This time, although the Orcs¡¯ equipment was still terrible and their discipline unruly, their fighting spirit remained high. The reason for that was the emperor¡¯s flag inching slowly towards the center of the battlefield. As long as the emperor was on the battlefield the Orcs¡¯ spirits would remain high until they won or died. Looking at the main field that was gradually emptying, King Woods of the Eagle Kingdom was silent for a moment. Then he issued a command to fight head-on. The Golden Crown Eagle Flag also slowly marched towards the middle of the battlefield¡­ Chapter 271 The Sun Throne was the hub of the whole god¡¯s kingdom in the Sun God System. From the outside, it shined like a red sun in the center of the whole god¡¯s kingdom. However, it was actually dark inside, not pitch black, but with nothing related to ¡°glory.¡± ¡°When I was quarreling with my junior brother, he said that behind the glory must be deep darkness. At that time, I said that he was ignorant. The real heroes would put glory and darkness directly in places where people could see them. They would clearly show others their standpoints, principles, and styles of doing things,¡± the God of Light said with a smile, wielding his warhammer. ¡°Now it seems that the ignorant one is me!¡± It was strange to say that he was hitting nothing while clearly swinging the warhammer like wind was blowing. To put it frankly, in the darkness, he was the only one who was talking while wielding the warhammer for no reason, like he was performing a one-man show. However, he didn¡¯t feel surprised at all. He still wielded the warhammer with all his strength, and every move was properly arranged, as if he was really fighting against an enemy in front of him. ¡°The Sun God, I never thought that you were such a loser! It¡¯s the shame of my life to be equally as famous as you are!¡± ¡°Do you think you can escape my attack with such small tricks? Come on! My strength is more powerful than yours. Although you have melted yourself in this darkness, you can¡¯t escape my attacks. Instead, your shortcomings appear everywhere. I can always hit you, even with random attacks! ¡°I thought when I rushed over here, a devastating war must be waiting for me. But I didn¡¯t expect that I would win so easily. Hello, are you really the Sun God? Not a bard who sings erotic songs and does shabby magic tricks in a countryside bistro?¡± he said with a smile while swiftly wielding the hammer. As no one knew how long he had been holding it, suddenly, the interior of the whole Sun Throne trembled as if something invisible had broken, with a circle of shock waves rising and sweeping out in all directions. The God of Light didn¡¯t take it seriously, still wielding the warhammer. This time, his hammer really hit the enemy. All the darkness congealed all of a sudden, turning into a big man made up of blackness with a bright flame armor. The big man was a little thin, and his expression was withered and nervous. After he showed up, it seemed that he had wanted to say something, but he hadn¡¯t expected that the God of Light would be chasing and swinging at him without a word, although he had been chattering interminably. Therefore, he suffered a big loss immediately, being beaten into retreat and getting smashed several times in a row. This black figure wearing a flame armor was the Sun God, known as the ¡°God of Glory.¡± ¡°Damn!¡± he shouted in anger being getting beaten continuously. ¡°You dirty dog!¡± The God of Light didn¡¯t care for Him, and his face was cold and firm like a piece of frozen ice. However, the warhammer he wielded was hot like fire. Every strike contained earth-shattering power, which made it difficult for the Sun God to resist. Once, twice, three times¡­ After countless strikes, the Sun God finally couldn¡¯t help but yell wildly, and the flame armor exploded suddenly, turning the entire Sun Throne into a sea of fire. This was the unique skill he had used to save his life. He had expected that the God of Light would have to resist it for a while, or it would at least block his attacks a little bit. However, the God of Light didn¡¯t avoid the attack, even forgoing any defense, and instead turned the warhammer into a giant hammer that was larger than a person. He grasped the opportunity of his opponent without the protection of armor to slam a heavy strike on him, hard. This strike was not only the strongest one the Sun God had suffered since the beginning of the war, but also the severest of the few injuries he had suffered in his long life. After this strike, he couldn¡¯t stand up right away, and the whole person flew up in the path of a parabola, falling out of the hub. It was also a coincidence that the direction in which he had fallen was the direction in which the elite team of human gods were fighting. Usually, when the Sun God went to the front line in person, the morale of the angels and the oracles under his majesty would rise greatly. Moreover, if he attacked in person, he would be able to capture all kind of strong enemies at one go, which would win him one more glorious victory. This time, although he went to the front lines again, he was beaten there¡­ At almost the same time, on the battlefield of the human world, the Golden Crown Eagle Flag had stopped. This wasn¡¯t because King Woods didn¡¯t want to move on, but because he couldn¡¯t. With Bull Armored Warriors, who had sturdy bodies and powerful strength, as the core, the orc emperor sent out his strongest Armored Infantry, blocking the path of the Guards of the Kingdom of Eagle. ¡°The road is blocked,¡± yelled Norem Bull, the head of the Bull Race, a famous veteran among the orcs who was white-haired but still vigorous. Wielding his long-handed axe, he hit an armored knight into the air along with his horse, and the knight was already dead while flying away. Woods looked to the left and right, frowning and sighing secretly. He had legendary strongmen in his army, but they had been sent to every part of the military to serve as the core of the various units to maintain the battle. Currently in the Guards besides him who had equipped the sealed Three Artifacts, only the captain of the Guards was a legendary strongman. However, the captain of the Guards was a priest named Wookie, a believer of the God of Faith. It was good to choose a priest to be the captain of the Guards. They were good at defending, healing, and casting buff spells, so they would be able to protect the king in an emergency, holding until the escort troops came. However, in this situation when it was impossible to expect other troops for reinforcement, he was a little embarrassed. ¡­Could it be that a priest with main ability of defense and assistance would be the main force? Not to mention that it was stupid, he wouldn¡¯t be able to defeat the other side when he really became the main force! Norem was a really famous strongman. In that day¡¯s world, in the field of Armored Warriors, if he declared that he was second, then no one would dare to call himself the first. In ordinary fights, his too heavy armor and too sturdy muscles would obviously affect his flexibility, which bound his moves and made him fail to keep pace when facing same-level enemies. However, on the battlefield, there wasn¡¯t much room for fighters to move. Then he became a moving war fortress, a horrible and unrivalled war machine. Although Wookie also belonged to the same type of Armored Warriors, if he was confronted by him, he would be smashed onto the ground by his axe after eight or ten moves at most, or even after less than eight or ten moves, he would be smashed into the air along with his shield when this white-haired and old, but vigorous, bull man rushed directly towards him. Woods sighed, pulling out his sword. The sword was an artifact, whose name was the Eagle Sword. The ¡°Eagle Sword,¡± the ¡°Eagle Clothing,¡± which was the armor inside his robe, and the ¡°Eagle Crown,¡± which was the crown on his head, had a joint name¡ªthe Three Eagle Artifacts. If a legendary strongman with the blood of the God of Eagle was wearing them, he could even compete with the gods for a short time while he used the legendary martial skill, the ¡°Eagle Wing Sword,¡± to activate their power. However, he had no way to activate it, because he didn¡¯t know how to use the skill ¡°Eagle Wing Sword.¡± He wasn¡¯t the heir to the Eagle Wing Sword, and he hadn¡¯t even learned that. The last time the Eagle Wing Sword had appeared on the battlefield had been the time when his father, the king of the generation before the last generation, had used it. Later, his father had passed the Eagle Wing Sword to his brother, and his nephew, as was told, but he hadn¡¯t passed it to him. At that time, no one had felt that there was anything wrong with his behavior. His brother had been a dignified and firm guy, with good enough martial skills to inherit the Eagle Wing Sword. His nephew had become a famous master at only 14 or 15 and had even touched the legendary realm, with an almost limitless future. He already had those two people to inherit the Eagle Wing Sword, so he hadn¡¯t needed him. As a result¡­ Both of the people who had inherited the Eagle Wing Sword had passed on, leaving him to become the king. This was so ironic that he laughed more than once when he thought about it. He laughed at his father¡¯s narrow vision. He laughed at the so-called ¡°world¡¯s unparalleled¡± Eagle Wing Sword that was totally exaggerated. His elder brother had mastered the Eagle Wing Sword, and his nephew might have mastered the Eagle Wing Sword, but who of them had used the Eagle Wing Sword? They hadn¡¯t even had the chance to fight with the sword! The most powerful thing in the world was never a sharp weapon or a powerful artifact, nor an unparalleled divinity skill, not even a genius master. It was strategy and wisdom! But now, his strategy and wisdom couldn¡¯t help him. What he needed now was force, and powerful enough to save the war. Woods¡¯ eyes became gloomy, but he pulled out his sword, rushing forward without any hesitation. ¡°Wookie, support me!¡± he shouted loudly. Wookie immediately cast spells, and the buff spells turned into colorful circles of light one by one on his body, which greatly improved his strength. The power of the legendary priest¡¯s buff spells were extraordinary. Therefore, at this moment, his physical qualities were not any weaker than a legendary strongman. But this was not enough! He wiped the blade of the Eagle Sword slightly with his left pinky finger, and the sharp blade immediately cut his finger, blood flowing out. Being stained by the blood of the Eagle, the Eagle Sword immediately gave off a faint glow. Responding to it, the Eagle Clothing and the Eagle Crown were also glowing together. Although it was not a real awakening, the resonance of the Three Artifacts had once again improved his power greatly. Feeling the inexhaustible power flowing through his body, Woods finally showed a confident smile. With this power, he would definitely win! Chapter 272 Between reality and ideality, there is always a distance. For example, a young author was determined to quit his job and immerse himself in writing internet novels. His goal was to write 30,000 words per day, to get a monthly income of 200,000. But he could not even write 10,000 words a day and did not earn 200,000 bucks in the entire year. Instead, he got himself into the hospital¡­ Another example: Sui Xiong was pretty confident in his drawing skills. If he had traversed to the Tang and Song dynasty, he could have become a famous artist. He might have left behind a legend that would intertwine with stories such as ¡°the man who drew the finishing touch on the dragon.¡± But he had traversed to this world instead, and was f**king turned into a large jellyfish¡­ Back on the battlefield, the difference between ideality and reality was evident. Although Woods Igor was wearing the three Eagle Artifacts and a full set of enhanced magic buffs from a legendary pastor, it was not enough to fill the gap between his ability and Norham¡¯s. There was still a little that made up for it. At least he could fight Norham for nine rounds before being hit away by his ax. ¡°What trash!¡± Norham did not chase after him. As a soldier with heavy armor, he was really not good at chasing games as a lightweight cavalry could. So after he hit Woods away with his ax, he just held the long ax handle as he stood there and laughed loudly. ¡°Compared with your old man, you have really insulted the three Eagle Artifacts!¡± He was, in fact, qualified to say that. In the past years, he had fought Woods¡¯ father more than once; or rather, it should be said that every time the three Eagle Artifacts were activated, it was mostly him who fought them. More than half of the scars on his body were created by the Sword of Eagle. As the old rival of His Highness the King of Eagle Kingdom, and as the old rival of Sword of Eagle, his comment was strong and powerful. Woods had no reply for it. Yep; he was vomiting blood, so he could not reply to anything. ¡°Quick! Protect His Highness the King!¡± ¡°Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!¡± The king was hit until he flew away and vomited more blood. His army guards panicked and everyone went into chaos. Some of them hurried to Woods¡¯ side and tried to protect him by shielding him with their bodies. Some of them who quickly adjusted the battle array and wanted to retreat with the troops to send His Highness to a safe place to rest. Looking at the shaky flags of the Golden Crown Eagle, it seemed it was about to turn around to retreat in a moment. When that time came, they would be defeated like a fallen mountain. At this moment, a figure appeared on the outside of the main plane near the battlefield. It was a knight riding a skinny old horse who wore a set of broken armor. Both the rider and the horse were listless. He looked extremely shabby. But nobody dared to look down on him. At least ten figures appeared after he did who wanted to block his path. But they were one step too late. They could only watch this shabby old knight ride his old horse, that seemed as if it would collapse any moment, as they entered the main plane. ¡°How can that be possible?!¡± Bigpister lost his voice screaming. ¡°Doesn¡¯t He have strong divine power?! How can He enter the main plane?!¡± As everyone knew, the Goddess of Life had left a wonderful enchantment on the main plane. As soon as any God with higher than weak divine power entered the main plane, He would be killed thunderously by a supernatural power falling from the sky. There was no exception at all. This standard was not only effective for Gods; it was also effective to all sorts of powerful creatures and even inanimate objects. If one wanted to enter the main plane, they would have to set up a seal to suppress his own powers to comply with this standard. Or they would have to create a small world to cover themselves temporarily, to avoid being in direct connection with the main plane. Or else, wait for the thunder to kill them until all their soul dispersed! Yet, the God of Knights had broken this limit. He obviously had strong divine power, but he had entered the main plane. And yet, He was not killed by the thunders of the Goddess of Life! This¡­ How was this possible?! The Pantheon Temple was stunned. Many of the Gods stood up and looked towards the God of Knights, who was sitting with His back against the chair. He seemed as if He might die at any moment. ¡°Your Highness King of Order! This is against the order!¡± Lefon finally could not maintain grace any longer as He jumped up and shouted. The King of Order, who rarely got up, was standing. He turned around to look at the God of Knights. Then He seemed to understand something. He sighed lightly. ¡°He has not gone against the order,¡± He said. ¡°Astoril now has weak divine power.¡± All the other Gods were stunned. Only then did they realize the God of Knight¡¯s seat was moved far back in the Pantheon Temple. That meant that His deity had fallen into the weak divine power levels. But¡­ how was this possible?! An absolute expert who used to have strong divine power, who single-handedly beat the entire Orc God System into a sorry state? How could He fall to this point now? Lefon was stunned for quite a long time before He recovered. He yelled out loud, ¡°You did it on purpose! You stripped the clergy from Yourself on purpose, so that Your deity would fall, so that You could avoid limitations and enter the main plane!¡± The God of Knights did not reply. He just sat there quietly. Outside the main plane, the Orc Gods looked at each other but had no idea what to do. The God of Knights must have been rushing towards the battlefield if He was entering the human world. Although He only had weak divine power, His believers were all on the battlefield right now. How scary would the force be when a God fought side by side with His believers! In theory, Orc Gods could also strip their clergies to lower their deities to the level of weak divine power, so they could rush over to fight the God of Knights. And yet, regardless of whether they had enough time to do it in an emergency, it was an extremely painful thing for a God to be stripped of His clergy. Even a healthy and strong-willed God would have to rest for three to five days after doing it. And now, they wanted to rush over to have a big fight with the God of Knights right after they stripped the clergies from themselves? Even if they were looking to die, it would not be this way! As they were thinking, the God of Knights charged forward with His horse. Many of His believers were on the battlefield. With the connection of belief, He only took a moment to leap across the entire sky along with His horse and arrive in the center of the battlefield. Coincidentally, He appeared right where Spencer and Crick were. When He appeared there was a gust of strong wind that blew away all of the Orcs about to break their defensive array. After He landed, He turned His head around and looked. All He saw was the battlefield covered in red. The loyal and brave soldiers of the church of God of Knight were lying on the ground. Most of them were almost dead and there were only a few of them who could barely stand up. He swung His sword, and a warm ray of light came down upon them. Those who could still stand and were injured immediately recovered health and physical strength. Even the knights who had just died were resuscitated. Every one of them looked around without a clue, not sure what exactly had happened. The belief connection between God and His believers immediately let them understand what was happening. The God that they believed in, the home of their souls, the almighty knight who they had been worshipping and caroling since they were young, had come down to the human world Himself! Spencer¡¯s eyes were filled with hot tears. He was so excited that he threw away his sword and hugged Crick. He lost his voice as he screamed, ¡°It is His Highness! His Highness has come! He has come to help us!¡± ¡°Let¡­ let go¡­ I¡­ I am going to¡­ be strangled¡­ to death¡­¡± Until Spencer let go of him, Crick was suffocated until his face turned white. He almost lost his breath. He was also pitiful. Though he didn¡¯t die in the continuous battles just now, he almost died being strangled by his friend who was over excited by the arrival of the light. ¡°Today I finally understand, air is so wonderful, being able to breathe is such a happy thing¡­¡± Except for Crick who was sitting on the floor panting heavily, God of Knight¡¯s vision swept across all of His believers. He smiled gently and drew out His sword. His sword was unpretentious; there was no decoration at all. It was like a normal weapon that one could find in a common town from a second-grade weaponsmith shop who simply made it to complete the number of weapons made for rookies. He raised His sword towards the sky, and there were bright white rays shining down from the sky, onto the bodies of every believer of the God of Knight. It healed the living and revived the dead, and gave them endless courage. They understood that the God that they believed was there and going to fight alongside them. At that moment, the believers of the God of Knight cheered. Their sound of cheering mixed together, suppressing the sound of killing on the battlefield. At the next moment, God of Knight swung His sword and pointed at the Orcs¡¯ position. All of the believers of God of Knight cheered and growled together. Those who were still alive held tightly onto their weapons; those just revived simply picked up a weapon and charged towards the Orcs¡¯ position. Almost all of the believers of the God of Knight on the main plane were gathered here. Originally they were seen as disposables who were going to die, but now they were the main characters of this war! ¡°Advance! Advance!¡± ¡°Charge! Attack! Victory!¡± ¡°Kill the Orcs!¡± ¡°Fight for the glory of His Highness!¡± ¡°There is no more regret in my life now!¡± There were even knights singing the songs of the church of the God of Knight together. That was the song composed for the human¡¯s God since the beginning of time, a song to praise the old knight who guarded humans. For a long time, the knights would sing carols like this as they fought every difficult bloody battle; yet they fell down one after another. Though they had no regrets, they had not tasted life without dejection. But today, the God who they praised was here! And here to fight alongside them! The notes song joined together and turned into battle clouds that charged to the sky. Under the flag of the Orc emperor, emperor Junero frowned deeply as he held his fist tightly. He didn¡¯t know what he should do. ¡°How can it be like this?!¡± He growled deeply. He was restless as if he was a tiger inside a cage, but he could not do anything. ¡°What should I do?!¡± Outside the main plane, the Orc Gods were also thinking hard for a solution. They had to seize time because if they did not hurry they would surely lose the war. ¡°Oh right! We also have someone with weak divine power!¡± Lefon¡¯s eyes suddenly turned bright. He turned to look at the few Gods who always felt a lack of presence amongst the Orc Gods System. Those few Gods were suddenly panicking. Each of them begged for forgiveness. Although they could go in and out of the main plane freely, going against the God of Knight with their abilities? It was laughable. Lefon immediately realized this as well and understood that this idea was not practical at all. He sighed deeply. ¡°Let us put our clones down then,¡± He said helplessly. ¡°It seemed like that old man was almost out of breath anyway. There are so many of us, and all of us are young and strong. Even if we use our clones to fight him one by one, He will die of exhaustion!¡± This was the only idea, as there were no other ways. The God clone seemed like it could fight as well, though in reality there was a huge difference from the actual body. Perhaps when facing rookie Gods such as Sui Xiong, the difference between a clone and real body would not be huge. But when facing the God of Knights, an experienced old man who was older than 90% of the Gods, sending a clone was exactly like sending one to die, wasting precious divine powers to exhaust the old man¡¯s physical strength. This trade was a complete loss! Seeing that His Highness of Main Gods was going to send His clone down to fight, the few Gods with weak divine power could not sit aside any longer. Each of them asked for work. But since Lefon decided to exhaust the God of Knights, how could He take the risk of having His subordinates fall by letting them participate in the war? Each of the Orc Gods clones arrived in the human world one after another, accompanied by a bright light surrounding them. They rushed forward towards the battlefield. The war that was initially between Orcs and humans had finally turned into a major war between the Gods. One God, versus one entire God System. Just like a long, long time ago, when humans had just been born. Chapter 273 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The knights from the Church of God of Knight had once again run into a fight. Although most of their mounts had died in battle, there was a ¡°Mounts Summoning¡± in the divinity of the Church of God of Knight, which could summon a Celestial Steed filled with power and light. Originally, most of them had already used up their magic power and couldn¡¯t cast a spell, but with the help of the Church of God of Knight, all of them recovered their physical and magic power immediately. Not only could they summon mounts, but also use the extra magic power to enhance their spells. Therefore, thousands of Celestial Steeds emitting white light appeared on the battlefield, each carrying a knight who was flustered but still had high spirits. These knights sang the fight song loudly and rushed to the enemy under the shadow of magic light. The orcs, who had fought hard, were not strong enough to fight with them. Although the orcs still had an absolute advantage in number, no matter how superior their numbers were, they couldn¡¯t resist such an enemy with the highest morale who couldn¡¯t feel tired or die. Yes, the knights of the Church of the God of Knight were neither tired nor dead. No matter how serious their injuries were, they would recover immediately after white light fell and then stand up to fight bravely. Certainly, there would be some pain in this process, but for knights who had fallen into fanaticism due to their incomparable honor, this pain didn¡¯t make them retreat, but stimulated them and made them more bold and powerful. None of them had another thought in their minds at this very moment. Their minds only echoed one sentence, ¡°Fight! Fight! Fight again! ¡± In just two or three minutes, the orcs¡¯ army was unable to maintain its position. Even though Emperor Youniro Tiger had removed all the elite troops that he could mobilize to the front line to resist, he couldn¡¯t resist the crazy attack of these fanatical immortal soldiers. The heavy infantry position collapsed. The spear position collapsed. The barricade position collapsed. Their heavy cavalry attacks were useless. The Mage Corps¡¯ coverage bombardment was useless. If wars were like playing cards, he had played almost all the cards in his hand, but he still couldn¡¯t recover at all. Maybe¡­ it was time to use his trump card? The emperor clenched his fist but hesitated. He had been confident about his trump card all this time, but¡­ was it powerful and effective enough to resist the attack of a god? Especially not a small and insignificant god, but a hero who had once commanded all human beings, overtaken the Pantheon temple as the strongest among all the powerful divines, and defeated the whole orcs¡¯ holy pedigree. Could his trump card really work? If it didn¡¯t work, what would he do? And what would the orcs face in the future? The orc emperor, who had always acted decisively, was now in a dilemma under great pressure. Crick didn¡¯t think too much. Although he wasn¡¯t a follower of the God of Knight, he was also in high spirits, shouting and screaming to fight harder. He hadn¡¯t received the treatment of direct divine power, but was simply fighting near the God of Knight and accepting his power had already boosted his strength. In addition, the nearby knights casting their group spells not only revitalized him, but also helped him in ways that he himself didn¡¯t recognize. In this case, even if he wasn¡¯t good at fighting, he could still shout loudly, join in the fierce battle, and even perform better than other knights. Of course, if he took time to look at his character attributes, he would find that his skill had leveled up from Hill Lord Level Two and Scholar Level Four to Hill Lord Level Three, Scholar Level Four, and Knight Level Four. What was more, a suffix had been added to the Knight Level Four. ¡°Thanks to the halo gain of the God of Knight, the knight level has temporarily upgraded ten levels.¡± Among the newly upgraded levels, Hill Lord Level One had been accumulated through administrative process and upgraded before the expedition, but Knight Level Four was upgraded during this war, which was especially great. However, without the halo gain of the God of Knight, he was not a master even with a total level of 11. Scholar levels could only add gains to the spell-caster¡¯s profession, while Hill Lord Level Three was equal to Knight Level Two. That meant his actual combat effectiveness only amounted to Knight Level Six, which couldn¡¯t even reach a middle-ranked knight. But with the temporarily upgraded ten levels from the halo of the God of Knight, not only had his combat effectiveness upgraded 16 levels, matching an advanced knight, but his total level had also reached level 21, stepping into the so-called ¡°Legendary¡± level. Of course, a legendary master with a total level of 21 whose composition was Hill Lord Level Three, Scholar Level Four, and Knight Level 14, was just a ¡°super Shuihuo¡± at the bottom in the legendary realm. Even the lord of Garth City, Joseph Riley, was stronger than him. Maybe highly-ranked warriors could have beaten him, but after all, he was a legend! Besides¡­ although he was a legend of ¡°Shuihuo,¡± the knights around him were not. Spencer and his partners were the most elite knights in the whole Thunderbolt Principality. For an effective assault, Commander Spencer had even made other arrangements for those who hadn¡¯t reached the middle or the advanced-level knights. At this moment, under the halo gains of the God of Knight, not only had all of them become legendary masters, but Leader Spencer had also reached a total level of 29, and every level contained great power, which could be called the real middle legend. A middle legend and a group of primary legends, even if there was one who didn¡¯t possess such great power, were enough to sweep millions of enemy troops. Not to mention there was a God beside them. Although the God of Knight drew his sword, he didn¡¯t use it to fight his enemies. Instead, he was releasing his divine power to heal and help all of his followers. It seemed like he wasn¡¯t fighting with the enemy to reserve strength, but in fact, he was just wondering. In the orcs¡¯ camp, the Tigerman wearing a golden armor, who was standing on the chariot under a flag, had caught his attention. Although his power was covered by special seals¡­ there was clearly the power of the divine in his seemingly weak body. Was this orc emperor an actual God? Or had he long been a god but never tried to upgrade his deity or obtain his priesthood? Did he stay in man¡¯s world all this time? No matter what the possibilities were, this orc emperor was a great variable that needed to be excluded. Therefore, the God of Knight figured out everything after a short period of thought and waved his sword toward the orc emperor. That plain and simple sword looked somewhat shabby. As the sword fell, lights rose in all directions. A white sword light surged out of the ground from the God of Knight, stretching straight towards the orc emperor and piercing through various obstacles. When it passed through the knights¡¯ bodies, it was harmless, and knights who were in a fierce battle would not even feel its existence. But when it passed through the orcs¡¯ bodies, it became the desperate messenger of the hell, and no orcs survived after it penetrated their bodies. All fell to the ground softly. There were no scars on their bodies, but all of them had died. Even the resurgence spell could not bring their souls back to their bodies. There were at least thousands of people on the way, but the sword light broke through all the obstacles without any difficulties and came to the orc emperor. ¡°How terrible!¡± Junero Tiger was shocked and pulled his trump card to resist without any thought, yet a white hand reached out from behind him, blocking the sword¡¯s light. Bang! The explosion made all the people on the battlefield look at it. The orc emperor¡¯s sturdy chariot collapsed immediately, splashing around in numerous pieces of woods and metals, and the surrounding guards were blown up by the blast of the explosion, falling in all directions. Junero had planned to fight to the death, but he stopped and turned around with doubt. The grass-covered robe on Tragic Wind Big Druid had already been blown away, leaving nothing on his body. Now there was a blonde woman standing beside him, who looked about twenty six, with white skin and a frail appearance. To be honest, just looking at her appearance, she seemed like a weak princess who stayed in her study all year round. She would not leave the confines of her room, so even sunbathing in the courtyard could be called strenuous exercise for her. If Hans Christian Anderson could have passed through time, he would have shouted, ¡°Who said that the Princess and the Pea was bullsh*t! Don¡¯t you see! Such a weak woman could surely feel a pea under twenty mattresses and blankets.¡± However, this was an illusion. It was this weak woman, who seemed to be blown over by the wind and faint in the fierce sunlight, who had held the attack of the God of Knight for Youniero Tiger. Everyone who saw this scene, including Youniero Tiger himself, was stunned. The Tragic Wind Big Druid¡­ should have been so strong! Had something gone wrong? But the Tragic Wind didn¡¯t want to explain, instead, he turned to Youniero and his white face without any blood in it showed livid doubts. ¡°Mr. Tiger, I promised you that I would try my best to help you.¡± She said, ¡°I kept my promise and did my best.¡± The orcs¡¯ emperor nodded. He could clearly sense the power of that blow. No matter what means Tragic Wind had used, stopping this blow could definitely have used up his power. Tragic Wind smiled and sighed deeply. ¡°The next time I go outside, I hope I can meet a king who understands my ideas and puts them into practice. Then my journey will be worth it.¡± The furiosity on her face faded quickly and even the vitality of her body faded, ¡°Hope that next time I wake up, I¡¯ll still have such a fortune.¡± Her body burst out after saying this and turned into countless colorful light spots that sprinkled all over the place and disappeared without any trace. At the same time, a magic tower hidden in a secluded and narrow world shined with obscure light. That meant the owner of this tower had fallen asleep again, waiting for the next awakening. Or¡­ he would never wake up again. Chapter 274 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Knights¡¯ hit was blocked. He could not help but frown. He was not in a good state. He could not casually cast like that anymore and would need to take some time between attacks. Part of it was to save up energy, and another part was to take time to adjust His status. I am growing old after all! The God of Knights secretly sighed under the armor. If He was still young and strong, such attacks would be on hand, and He¡¯d be able to cast however many times He wanted. How long ago was it that I could fight with all my strength? 10,000 years? 20,000 years? I cannot really remember. Seems I am so old that I cannot even remember time clearly¡­ The sighing in His heart did not slow His movements. He raised His sword once again. Just then, the sky changed color as more than ten Orc figures came down from the sky accompanied by a bright light. They rushed towards Him. The Orc Gods made it, even though they were slightly delayed. They did not run over without any backup. They were followed closely by a crack that opened up in the sky, where hundreds and thousands of oracles came rushing out, yelling. They formed a huge array and exuded a horribly evil aura as they charged towards the God of Knights. Since they had to fight, they decided they might as well go all out. The Orc Gods did not care about paying a price. They only knew one thing: if they could not kill the God of Knights right then and there, the entire Orc God System would be put to shame. For the Orc race who revered the strong, this would be a disaster! They did not care about anything anymore. Whether it was a clone or an oracle, they sent everything they could send to fight this old thing! That day, either the old immortal tin can would be finished, or the Orc Gods would be done. Either you were going to die or I was going to be dead. There was no third option! Watching the Orc oracle army charge over like a grand tide, even the bravest knights were stunned. ¡°Can we win this?¡± Crick asked as his face paled. Spencer¡¯s mouth twitched as he replied in a low voice, ¡°Do not daydream in broad daylight! If it were only one or two then it would not matter. But look at them¡­¡± Oracles were fighting tools made with divine power by the Gods. Some of them were built using high-order believers as ingredients, and some were built from nothing. Whichever method, there was one point they had in common. Every oracle had reached a legendary combat level. There were thousands in the endless oracle army; and that was a conservative estimate. Spencer and Crick were exceptionally brave and headstrong. It was brave just to talk about them. Watching the Orc Gods and their armies continually come down from the sky, both air forces hurriedly forced landings. In reality, they fell from the sky. There was not much difference. Whether they were flying demons or giant eagles and griffons, they were all scared by the Orc Gods and oracle army, and could no longer fly. When they were about to reach the ground, the God of Knights laughed. ¡°You think you have a big army?¡± He said to Himself. ¡°You want to fight? Be my guest!¡± In the next moment, His entire body exuded a blinding white light. The white light was like starlight, falling on the ground in uncountable raindrops. When every single drop of the white light fell down, a blurry figure stood up in it. It all became clear very quickly. Among these figures, there were oracles who had accompanied Him since ancient times. They had fought countless battles without fear of death to guard mankind. There were also dead people who were loyal and strong, who fought bravely until their last breath to fulfill the Knights¡¯ beliefs. There were even Holy Spirit Valkyrie who had been through uncountable battles, picking up brave dead soldiers¡¯ souls and bringing them to the Holy Kingdom. They had once led them, sweeping in ghosts and demons too. If someone were to arrive at the Country of Light, they would be shocked to see that the Holy Kingdom was completely deserted. Not one oracle or believer was left behind. The entire Holy Kingdom was collapsing, turning into bright white light. The light penetrated far away, and fell into the ground to become the power that supplied the brave battles of the God of Knights and his Holy Spirits, oracles, and believers. There was not one person in the Holy Kingdom of the God of Knights who did not know how to fight. So when the Orc Gods¡¯ army charged them, they had already formed their battle positions. There was basically no difference in number between the two armies. But the difference in quality was huge. The Orc Gods¡¯ army was completely made up of oracles, while the God of Knights¡¯ army was mainly made up of believers. Even though most of His believers had a certain standard of combat power, there was a big difference when compared to the Orcs¡¯ oracle army, whose lowest standard was legendary. However, the God of Knights and His subordinates were not afraid at all. They even sang loud war songs as they counter-attacked, charging the Orc armies. Surprisingly, the one who took the lead was the God of Knights Himself. He rode His skinny old horse and wore His old broken armor, with the simple sword in His hand. In the next moment, the sound of killing rose into the sky. The killing was not exclusive to the oracles and believers from both sides. Even mortals were involved in this battle. Regardless of who was Orc or human, all were deep in fanaticism. Safety and difference in ability were ignored. There was only one thought in their minds: the fight! Defeatng the enemy, obtaining victory! Of course there were some who were not fanatic, such as the humans who did not believe in the God of Knights, or Orc emperor Junero Tiger. The latter, who was a loner, was not woth mentioning. But the the former made up quite a large number. King Woods Igor of the Eagle Kingdom and his army guards were exactly the same. Beleif in the God of Knights was originally quite common in the Eagle Kingdom. There were many believers in the God of Knights among those who guarded the capital city and those who protected the king. But believers in the God of Knights and the God of Eagles were eliminated during the coup of the blood stained eagle crown, three decades prior. In the cleansing that followed, some were killed. Most were sent to other troops. In the current army guarding Eagle Wing City, the capital city of Eagle Kingdom, there were no soldiers who believed in either God. Although there were quite a few affected by the arrival of the God of Knights and the grand battle between humans and Orcs, they charged the front line of the battle without any worry or care. But King Woods and most of the army guards were not like that. As the soldiers remained busy rearranging their battle array, Woods considered what he should do next. Since the beginning, it was clear this would be the final battle between the God of Knights and the Orc God System. As a mortal, even though he was also king, he was not at all important in this battle. Perhaps a few oracles charging would end him, along with the army guards who lost much during the battles before this. It would be like when the God of Knights arrived and His believers were revived, along with their fighting spirits and abilities, giving them the strength to attack the Orc army. At that time the old soldier Norham¡ªwho commanded the heavy armor infantry and almost killed King Woods on the spot¡ªwas trampled by a group of revived believers as they screamed and charged over him. Although he had braced himself for battle, he still could not block the attacks. He fell and could not stand up anymore. It was not clear if he was killed by slashing or if he was trampled to death by the Heavenly Warhorse. This scene happened close to where King Woods was. He saw it all. Even though he felt some vengeful joy at the moment, he was more afraid than anything. His fear was like a dough that had been fermenting overnight grown several times its size. What should I do? He looked at the battlefield. His brain was filled with worry, fear, and even thoughts of turning around to flee far and away. At that moment a once familiar voice that rang in his nightmares reached him. ¡°Uncle, as a king, shouldn¡¯t you be leading everyone to charge into battle?¡± Woods Igor suddenly turned around. He saw a young man who wore black leather armor, smiling as he stood behind him. Although he was slightly older now, and no longer had the naivety from his youth, it was definitely his nephew Leon Igor! Chapter 275 Leon had once imagined what it would be like¡ªhow would he feel when he saw Uncle Woods again? Perhaps it would be in the magnificent palace hall, as he went all the way in with royal and brave knights, declared his rebellion in public, then cut off his head with a sword? Perhaps it would be in the luxurious king¡¯s dormitory, as he appeared like a ghost in front of his sleepy eyes, blocked his voice with magic, and slowly cut him into pieces, repaying the hatred of innocent victims, his relatives, friends and himself? Perhaps it would be during a royal hunt that he would lurk in the wild thickets. When Uncle Woods passed by, he would rush out, kill him with a sword, and then drive away in the middle of the guards and soldiers¡¯ panic? Perhaps it would be at a celebration that he would come roaring with his fighting wing and swing his eagle-wing sword directly toward the ground. The eagle-wing would sweep the earth and explode uncle Woods and his running dogs into ashes. But he would not stop, would just wipe off a little dust on the sword with his hands. All kinds of images appeared in his mind, among which he remembered the one time that he had seen the emperor flee in panic on a battlefield because he had been totally defeated. He sneered and scolded the emperor¡¯s cowardice, then killed him. But everything was just his imagination. ¡°I thought that I would go mad with anger when I saw you again, or laugh loudly or burst into tears¡­¡± He said calmly, ¡°But it¡¯s not that exaggerated. Descriptions in novels are deceptive.¡± Although he looked so calm, his momentum of Peak Legendary had been demonstrated to all the people. Even in this battlefield, where legends all gathered together and gods were present, he was still quite conspicuous. This showed that his heart was not as calm as it seemed on the outside. Now, he was like an active volcano that had not erupted yet. At first glance, it seemed to be just an ordinary hilltop, when in fact, there was a violent force surging in his body that could erupt at any time. Whether the God of Knight or orcs, they all noticed his sudden momentum, but they were too busy to take care of things there. Maybe this man would do harm to the king of the Eagle Kingdom, but a battle among gods was the key to the victory of this war. Therefore, whether the king of mortals was alive or dead was no longer important, not worth too much attention. Leon certainly felt the eyes of gods on him and the departure of their eyes. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh calmly as if he were watching a new opera in the theatre. But the smile in Woods¡¯s eyes was as horrible as the judges of hell. ¡°Aren¡¯t you dead?¡± He said stringently, ¡°I confirmed your body in person.¡± ¡°The answer was quite what I expected.¡± Leon laughed and said, ¡°I don¡¯t have to explain what happened to you¡ªit¡¯d be hard for you to understand even if I did, in terms of your strength and state. Anyway, I¡¯m standing right in front of you now. I¡¯m not dead.¡± He paused and laughed again, ¡°But you are dying.¡± Woods¡¯s legs trembled uncontrollably. He did not feel that he was a coward afraid of death, but in front of his nephew, Leon Igor, who had been dead but was still alive and had become powerful beyond his imagination, he could not help but be afraid. His fear stemmed not only from his fear of death, but also from his fear of heinous crimes. Although he had deliberately ignored, even forgotten, his crimes over the years, when Leon appeared in front of him, he couldn¡¯t help but think of the bloody night and the crimes he had committed that were enough for him to.be hanged several times. Fear made him tremble violently, even making it difficult to stand. If the guards around him hadn¡¯t rushed to help him, he would have been frozen to the ground. ¡°Who are you!¡± The guards shouted, ¡°Back down, rude man!¡± Leon looked at the guard with a smile and nodded satisfactorily, ¡°You are a brave man who dares to shout at me.¡± ¡°See, my highness, Leon!¡± The leader of the King¡¯s guards, the legendary priest and the God of Faith and Protection Wookie, came and vowed to Leon, ¡°It¡¯s a great surprise that you are still alive!¡± He said to the guards as though confronted by formidable enemies, ¡°Don¡¯t act like that. Leon was the first man of legend more than thirty years ago. Now his state is so high and his power is so strong that I can¡¯t even see it clearly. I¡¯m afraid that comment of ¡®the World¡¯s First Knight in the future¡¯ has become fact. If he really wants to do something, even thousands of armies could not help it, let alone our remaining beaten soldiers.¡± The guards had just now come to their senses and understood Leon¡¯s status. After all these years, although Woods had deliberately erased the deeds of the former king of the Eagle Kingdom and his children, Leon¡¯s stories were so conspicuous that many people knew of his deeds. For example, when he had been fourteen years old, he had concealed his true identity and taken part in the knight competition. He had become the champion of the competition, and his predecessors had praised him as the World¡¯s First Knight, surpassing his predecessors. Over the years, the knight competition had been held twice. Although the scale and influence had not been as wide as before, the legend had always spread among the participants, even to the ears of the guards. No matter how high Woods¡¯ status was or how powerful his strength was, there was no way that he could deal with those knights from afar. He could control other people¡¯s mouths, but not the knights. Most of the guards had known about Leon¡¯s stories and the resentment between Leon and Woods. Now that they understood his identity, the guard who stood up to protect the king was stunned, not to mention the weak-minded guards who didn¡¯t know what to say or do. Must I protect the king? With Emperor Leon¡¯s high status, he was the king as long as he made a public appeal, and Woods naturally became a rebel. Even hanging him on the gallows was a light penalty. Leon smiled and looked at Woods¡¯ trembling face, ¡°Uncle, I want to talk to you. Are you interested?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ sure¡­.¡± After hearing the positive answer, Leon nodded satisfactorily and asked, ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering all this time. Why did you want to start a rebellion? What on earth qualifies you to be king concerning your intelligence, power, talent, and qualifications? And what on earth gives you such absurd confidence that you dare to sit on that shining seat? ¡± Woods blushed immediately, not in shame but anger. ¡°Why!¡± He roared, ¡°Just because I¡¯m not smart enough, not strong enough, not excellent enough, and not old enough, I can¡¯t be king? What reasons are those! I¡¯m also the son of the eagle, and the eagle blood runs through my body! I used to fight with my father on the battlefield and I have been the governor of one side! Whether a general or a lord, I did a very good job. Why can¡¯t I be king? ¡± Leon recalled and nodded with surprise. He thought over it carefully and realized that Woods was right. Although when he had been a general and lord, he had been far from excellent. After all, he had been competent in the position and hadn¡¯t made any significant mistakes. To put it bluntly, few kings were better than him in terms of his performance. ¡°But from grandpa¡¯s perspective, it is clear that there are better heirs than you, so why would he choose you?¡± Leon thought for a moment and said, ¡°For example, now you have a lot of children. When you¡¯re old enough to pass your throne to your children, won¡¯t you pass it to your best child?¡± Woods blushed, ¡°Of course I will pass it to my best child, but even if the other children are not excellent enough, can¡¯t they want to be king? ¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay to just think, but it¡¯s not okay to start a rebellion for that. ¡± Woods clenched his fist and was not afraid at all because of his great anger, ¡°I want to be the king, but my father didn¡¯t pass his throne to me. What else can I do besides rebel? ¡± ¡°Forget it. ¡± Leon said lightly, ¡°I wanted to a hero flying across the sky on a giant dragoning when I was young, but that was not the case¡­¡± ¡°Forget it?! ¡± Woods widened his eyes and could not help but jump up, ¡°How can I just forget it! It¡¯s my lifelong dream! ¡± ¡°Leon, you were born so excellent, like a god walking the world. There is nothing you can¡¯t learn and nothing you can¡¯t do. Even¡­ even the throne is insignificant to you, but that doesn¡¯t mean you are qualified to deny my dream!¡± ¡°I am qualified! ¡± Leon¡¯s face turned cold. He murmured, ¡°If anybody in the world has the qualification, then it¡¯s me! ¡± He pointed to his chest and said, ¡°Remember? You shot me with an arrow from behind. Half of the specially made poisoned crossbow penetrated my body, and the tip of the arrow even penetrated my chest. ¡°For this arrow alone, I am entitled to deny your despicable dream!¡± He had a loud voice and stern expression. A powerful majesty emanated from his body, like an angry god coming to the world. For many years, Leon had been the archbishop of Sui Xiong and had clearly sensed his power and momentum, which had affected him imperceptibly and even gave his soul some characteristics of gods. When he was angry at this moment, his power and momentum had shown to the outside, and his power certainly had a divine feeling, which made all the warring gods look at it again. ¡°That momentum, that feeling¡­¡± ¡°The Void Mask? It¡¯s his smell.¡± ¡°I remember this human was the Archbishop of his church! ¡± ¡°I see. This guy really had foresight!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. Just do what¡¯s in front of you before you say anything!¡± All the gods removed their attention, and this time, Leon even didn¡¯t notice them. He just looked at Woods with dignity, like he was standing in the clouds and overlooking the dust beneath his feet. ¡°Woods Igor.¡± He said, ¡°Let¡¯s start your trial now!¡± Chapter 276 ¡°Judgment?¡± Woods stared with wide eyes. ¡°I am the king! Kings do not need to be judged!¡± he shouted. ¡°Not anymore,¡± Leon said coldly. He waved his hand and the crown on Woods¡¯ head flew up and towards him. The royal robe on his body was also torn to pieces. The plated armor inside tore away from his body and dropped beside Leon. Even the Sword of Eagle that he was holding so tightly jolted out of Woods¡¯ hands and landed in Leon¡¯s. Woods went berserk. ¡°Give them back to me! Those are mine!¡± he shouted. He had been forced by Leon¡¯s imposing manner, and could only scream and shout. Leon was not bothered by his screaming. Calmly and coldly he said, ¡°Sinner Woods Igor. Your charges are rebellion and killing the king¡¯s entire family, as well as a large number of righteous people who were loyal to the king. Do you have anything you want to explain?¡± Woods stared with wide eyes but did not reply. Leon¡¯s mouth twitched a little as he gently moved his finger. An invisible force entered Woods¡¯ body and wreaked havoc, burning his organs and breaking all his bones and muscles apart. Woods screamed in pain. It did not take five seconds before he completely gave up his position. His face was covered in tears and his nose ran as he screamed and went limp on the ground. ¡°I plead guilty! I admit everything! Just give me a quick death!¡± He thought he would be strong when faced with death. But he was not. He did not even have to die; a small trick that could hardly be called torture made him crumble. Leon smiled mockingly and took back the force, but Woods did not calm down. He was almost completely compromised. The defense around his heart had broken down, and he laid on the ground and cried loudly. Leon sighed and addressed the quiet audience next to him. ¡°Mister priest, can you please heal him? If he keeps doing this, the judgment will be very difficult to continue.¡± Priest Wookie frowned and said, ¡°Royal Highness Leon, why do you still need to torture him? Won¡¯t it be better to give him a quick death by the sword?¡± ¡°How can this be called torture?¡± Leon said with a smile. ¡°I have waited for over 30 years for this day. I have to get the answers to all my questions, am I right?¡± Priest Wookie sighed and waved his hand. A ray of magic fell onto Woods¡¯ body. It not only recovered the wounds inside his body and removed all pain, but it also calmed his emotions down. ¡°Your Highness Woods, I think you¡¯d better just answer whatever questions he has.¡± He changed his tone as he advised him. ¡°Since it has gone down this path, everyone knows how it will end. So why would you choose to make yourself more guilty?¡± Woods did not reply. But all saw the fear and weakness in his eyes and knew that he had already surrendered. ¡°And so, the trial continues,¡± Leon said, asking him more questions. ¡°Woods, why did you start the rebellion?¡± ¡°I wanted to be king,¡± Woods replied honestly. ¡°There was no special reason or cause. I simply wanted to be king, that was why I started the rebellion.¡± Leon nodded his head and asked, ¡°Then where did the army come from? The soldiers who supported you when you rebelled?¡± This was a difficult topic that had been bugging him. As a prince, although Woods had a high position, in reality he did not have much money or many soldiers. With his capital, there was not even enough to launch the large-scale rebellion at that time. ¡°It was the Noble Maids Church who supported me,¡± Woods replied. ¡°At the time I had privately expressed my interest in wanting to become a king. So the people of the church found me and said they were willing to support me. They were the ones who gave me money and supplied me with manpower.¡± ¡°But all these years, the Noble Maids Church did not expand especially well in the Eagle Kingdom,¡± Leon said. ¡°Did you not agree on any conditions as an exchange?¡± ¡°Initially it was agreed that after I became the king I would use the Noble Maids as the national religion. After the big cleansing, we made a lot of preparation for this to happen, too,¡± Woods replied. ¡°But I do not know what happened. The people from the Noble Maids Church suddenly told me that they wanted to cancel the initial agreement. After that, they left. It caused a huge gap in the middle and upper levels in the Kingdom, and I spent a lot of energy to find sufficient replacements.¡± ¡°They left? Didn¡¯t they say why were they leaving?¡± ¡°No, and I did not ask,¡± Woods said. ¡°To me, since they were willing to leave on their own terms, I could not have asked for more. A king who controlled all the power by himself would have been better than a king with the Noble Maids Church directing him.¡± Leon nodded slightly and was deep in thought for a while. He asked again, ¡°Well then, who was the personnel from Noble Maids Church who contacted you back then?¡± ¡°Hayde, his name was Hayde. I only know everyone calls him that,¡± Woods replied. ¡°His ability was definitely within the legendary realm. But exactly which level I am not sure.¡± ¡°Is that his real name?¡± ¡°I am not sure.¡± ¡°Was he a pastor, priest, knight, or something else?¡± ¡°I have not seen him fight, so I cannot be sure.¡± Leon shook his head and sighed. ¡°Look at you; starting a rebellion and cleansing under someone¡¯s encouragement. And in the end, you did not even know what his name was? What job he had? All this basic information? Aye! You are such a pitiful slob!¡± Woods was dejected and did not say anything. ¡°I actually had a lot of things that I wanted to ask you, but now I can see that there is nothing much more to ask¡­¡± Leon sighed. As he was about to announce his verdict he suddenly frowned and looked up towards the sky. At the same time, all the Gods, holy spirits, oracles, experts from different paths on the battlefield, experts in millions of worlds, and even the Gods in the Pantheon Temple, all turned their attention to the main plane: towards the eternally burning fireball placed high up in the sky. The sun. The brightness of the sun had dimmed under everyone¡¯s attention. At that moment the Sun God was hit by the God of Light¡¯s hammer until he flew out of Sun Throne, falling heavily onto the dusty ground. Such a heavy hit was almost nonexistent in the entire life of Sun God. The God of Light had even taken the risk of being heavily injured to hit Him. He took on all His attacks. All the energy contained in this hit was the maximum capacity that the God of Light, who was also top of those with very strong divine powers, could achieve. If He weren¡¯t in His own Holy Kingdom with an unlimited amount of divine power to charge Himself up, perhaps this one hit would have instantly felled the Sun God. His body launched through the sky in a curved line and fell onto the battlefield heavily, right next to Flaming Angel who had incarnated into a sea of fire. ¡°Your Highness?!¡± Flaming Angel shouted, shocked as he hurried over to pick Him up. ¡°Are you alright?¡± The Sun God did not reply but held onto Flaming Angel¡¯s arm fiercely. An endless flame flew from the body of Flaming Angel, and the dimmed flames on the Sun God¡¯s body began burning again. In comparison, Flaming Angel had become stunned and sluggish, as if turned into a machine. He stood there without any movement as he allowed Him to plunder the flame and life-force from him. In just a short time, Flaming Angel had completely disappeared along with the sea of fire that he had created. He had been completely absorbed by the Sun God. ¡°What the f**k!¡± Sui Xiong said, shocked. ¡°How can this fellow consume His own man?¡± ¡°God knows?!¡± the God of Protection said in a lowered voice. ¡°Careful!¡± This was bullsh*t. Of course everyone knew they needed to be careful. But knowing was one thing; the ability to do so was another. The Sun God had incarnated into a firelight and surged towards them. Even if they were prepared, there were only a few who could really dodge it. Sui Xiong was one of them. Just then, he was eternally grateful for his tentacles. These tentacles had given him unparalleled mobility. There was no dead angle at all. So when Sun God charged over, he moved himself to the side the first chance he got and dodged the hit. But even though he dodged it, most members of the Human God and elite team could not make it. There weren¡¯t even screams. In a moment¡¯s time, the elite team whose rampage was unstoppable instantly disappeared into grey smoke. Even a few Gods were killed. Luckily, they kept clones in the Country of Light to revive themselves. Otherwise, with this one hit, the middle level of the Human God System would have suffered a heavy loss. But the Sun God was not targeting them in this attack. He was aiming for the large group of angels who were fighting. Numerous flaming tendrils extended from His body, each of them like tentacles as they entangled the many angels. All the angels in these tentacles suddenly became sluggish. They turned into divine power and flew into His body, disappearing without a trace. In that short moment, over 90% of the angels disappeared. In correspondence, the flame on the Sun God¡¯s body burned hotly. His entire body almost incarnated into a fireball of endless heat and light. It was as if the sun had appeared right in front of everyone. Sui Xiong was speechless now. He really wanted to ask one thing: Hey big brother, are You the Sun God or the demon king? How come this trick looks specially made for a villain boss?¡± But he thought the Sun God would not understand him¡­ And he was really busy. He did not have free time to talk nonsense like that. Just as the angels were being devoured one after another, he suddenly had a bout of inspiration and found that there was something very important that he could do. He increased his speed and charged towards the Love Angel who was casting buffing spells faraway. A flaming tendril extended from the Sun God¡¯s body, flying alongside him. Both were not more than half a second¡¯s distance from the angel. And yet, this half second was almost enough. Because the Sun God had suddenly gone crazy, all the angels and oracles were in a sluggish state; this was probably one of the tricks left by the Sun God so that He could devour them easily when in need. So when Sui Xiong got there, it was as if the Love Angel had turned into a puppet. He stood there dumbfounded. There was no reaction from him at all. Sui Xiong was very fast. He waved his tentacles and became a huge net, covering the body of the angel who was previously God of Healing. He rolled him into a ball in a short moment, and swallowed him into his belly, This had used a little of his time, and for that, he endured a hit from the Sun God that caused him to fly out and fall far away. Half of his body was even burned to a crisp. But he was smiling; he was smiling very happily. ¡°This time, I finally have someone with healing properties!¡± Chapter 277 What was an unexpected gain? This was! Sui Xiong followed the gods of mankind to attack the Cloud City just to help Wall vent his anger and rid his heart of resentment. Besides, he had never thought that he would gain anything. From the bottom of his heart, he had always been an honest and generous man, not a philistine and greedy guy. However, when he found that the God of Sun had used special means to turn all the angels under his command into dull, puppet-like images, he was suddenly inspired. He rushed subconsciously to the love angel¡¯s side and sealed her up before the God of Sun began to swallow and absorb her. He didn¡¯t even have time to think about why he would do that, because it was subconscious. It wasn¡¯t until he was beaten by the God of Sun that he came to realize why he would do it. This was a living Department of Therapy! An excellent nurse! As was known to them all, when one downloaded a dungeon in the game, one didn¡¯t need a front-row shield with a strong defense and mocking skills that could also attract the attention of monsters, nor did one need a powerful output with strong aggression like a meat grinder. But one couldn¡¯t lose with a healing nurse! Sui Xiong¡¯s church of Void Mask had always lacked a god of Department of Therapy. They didn¡¯t intend to suffer losses in the battle of gods, but it would be a disadvantage for ordinary people and even for the clergymen and priests of the church. In this world, the magic of clergyman and priests was divided into two parts. One was the universal magic which could be learned by any caster, such as illumination magic and mind magic, but this kind of magic was very rare with weak power. The other was the divine magic that came from their own gods. Divinity itself was divided into three parts. The first part was called domain divinity. Each god possessed the spells of many fields. Although a clergyman or priest was an ordinary person, they could also choose some of the domain spells that only belonged to gods as his own field under the guidance of divine power once he obtained the corresponding spells. However, ordinary people could only master one or two domains, and few divine spells could be derived from one domain, so domain divinity could only be used as a supplement by a spell-caster. The second part was called exclusive divinity, which referred to the spells derived from the clergy of gods, and this kind of divinity could be mastered by any priest or clergyman and was the foundation of the whole church. The more clergy a god mastered, the deeper understanding he would have, and the stronger exclusive divinity he could provide. That was why many gods tried to pursue more clergy. The third part was called extensive divinity, which was the welfare of the gods who joined the holy pedigree. As welfare for joining in the holy pedigree, his priest and clergyman could share the spells derived from other core clergy of gods in the holy pedigree. Although a god could only provide a small amount of extensive divinity, if the holy pedigree was large enough, they could provide much extensive divinity. Sui Xiong himself didn¡¯t even have a clergy, and his follower Wall¡¯s clergy was education, knowledge, and culture. At present, this pure soldier was turning into an intellectual and perhaps would turn into a knowledgeable scholar after thousands of years. However, neither exclusive divinity or extensive divinity included therapy methods. With regard to the domain divinity, Sui Xiong had the therapy domain, but an ordinary person could only choose a few domains total. Few priests or clergymen would choose the therapy domain specially. On the contrary, his strengthening domain was particularly popular, and there were also many people who chose the death domain. The domains of ice, sea, lightning, wind, darkness, cunning, illusion, wisdom, knowledge, anger, seal, redemption, creation, and joy were not hot spots, but they all had their own advantages. When his followers became priests or clergymen, less than a fifth of the people would choose the therapy domain, thus getting the healing spells. Wall¡¯s followers didn¡¯t master the therapy at all, and none of his priests or clergymen catered in therapy spells. If a God follower with the therapy clergy at his core could be recruited, all the priests and clergymen of the church of the Void Mask could receive therapy spells through extensive divinity. Therefore, all the casters in this church would get the nurse¡¯s ability and become strong supporters of the team. Sui Xiong¡¯s subordinate Arcadian had the great opportunity to become the God of Medicine, but even if he became the God of Medicine, his clergy ¡°medicine¡± was not to use spells to cure people, but to improve the effects of drugs or to create medicine quickly, or to analyze diseases in order to choose appropriate medicine. It was very useful in aiding the world and saving people, but it was useless when used as an emergency cure on the battlefield. Therefore, Sui Xiong had been thinking of recruiting such a God follower. However, there were few gods whose core mission was healing! And those whose clergy was therapy were protected carefully for any holy pedigree. For the human holy pedigree, this time, the whole group had gone out to fight their enemies. They hadn¡¯t sent out the God with healing clergy at his core. It was the same with the arcs holy pedigree. Even if they used Divide Attention Magic to divide themselves into many parts to fight with the God of Knight, they would not ask the God with therapy clergy to participate in the war. As far as Sui Xiong knew, none of the gods whose core mission was healing had joined in the holy pedigree. He could try to poach gods with therapy clergy from human or orcs¡¯ holy pedigree, or from the war holy pedigree. Of course, poaching from the God of Pain was more practical, for the God of Pain was relatively weak in fighting and had fewer hands. As long as he wielded his home well, he could certainly poach gods with therapy clergy successfully. But to be honest, these things were too far away to be predicted. At least in the foreseeable future, they couldn¡¯t be realized. Therefore, when Sui Xiong found the love angel whose predecessor was the God of Therapy, he had already had his eyes on her subconsciously. After the God of Sun was beaten, his angels were either killed or captured and transformed by human gods, so why not catch one of them? This was called war profit¡­ Human thinking was very fast. When Sui Xiong was beaten by the God of Sun and fell to the ground with his upper body burning black, he had pondered over many things. After careful consideration, he had finally decided to keep this trophy, even if he would have to fight with gods of mankind for it. In other words, his relationships were not that good, and the God of Justice and him were brothers, but the God of Justice and the Lord of Light were rivals. From this perspective, his practice had been totally right. It was reasonable to strengthen himself and weaken enemies, including hidden enemies. As he was thinking, the God of Sun had absorbed all the angels that could be absorbed, and his flame burned so violently and fiercely that even far away, Sui Xiong could still feel it burning hot. But this was not the end! The God of Sun continued roaring and his body grew bigger, turning into a huge fireball that fired lots of red light arrows out in all directions. The light arrows with powerful penetrating force raged through the Cloud City, penetrating everything that wasn¡¯t strong enough in defense. Whether it was a building or a believer, or even an oracle, all collapsed and turned into a fire light that flowed back to his body and became parts of the fireball. ¡°What the f*ck!¡± Sui Xiong shouted with great surprise and became very small, rushing to the back of the God of Protection. The shield of the God of Protection was big enough to protect several gods, including the God of Aristocracy and the God of City. It should have been no problem to protect a fist-sized green jellyfish. The God of Protection deserved to be the strongest in human holy pedigree, only inferior to the Lord of Light. Facing such an attack, although he was bombarded by the light arrows, he withstood them. ¡°This situation is good!¡± Sui Xiong suggested, ¡°Shall we withdraw?¡± The resolute face of the God of Protection showed a little worry, but then became as strong as iron. ¡°I will not retreat without the emperor¡¯s order.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and gave up persuading. This big man seemed to be a die-hard and he would not waste time on him. Fortunately, the order from the Lord of Light came soon. When the God of Sun, who was incarnated as a fireball, sprayed out a large wave of light arrows, the sun throne located in the center of the cloud city collapsed suddenly, a huge figure coming out. This figure wore a set of knight¡¯s heavy armor with a huge hammer in his hand, and came roaring over while the earth trembled and the mountains swayed. He was so tall that he naturally suffered hits from lots of light arrows, but when they struck him, they could only clank his armor, not hinder him. ¡°So that¡¯s why you deprived the gods of their clergy. You wanted to gather all the clergy and then impact the great divine power.¡± This huge giant was the Lord of Light. He didn¡¯t rush to kill the God of Sun after being hit by him with a hammer. Instead, he searched the sun throne for a while. And he found something interesting¡­ He did not mean to talk with the God of Sun in detail. He signed, turned his head to the God of Protection who was still struggling to support him, and said, ¡°Now you can retreat and wait for me in the Country of Light.¡± The God of Protection obeyed his orders and led all the people to retreat immediately. All the way along, he took the gods in human holy pedigree and other oracles who were still lucky to be alive with them and quickly retreated along the road they had entered before, soon leaving the Cloud City. Although this battle of gods wasn¡¯t over yet, at least it had been a victory for them. Chapter 278 Looking outside the Holy Kingdom of the Sun God System, Cloud City had dimmed a lot. It was obvious that the Sun God was heavily injured. You could still vaguely hear the violent roars coming from Cloud City as the God of Light and Sun God fought violently. ¡°Are you guys leaving?¡± Sui Xiong saw that the Human Gods looked like they were retreating with the victory. He could not stop himself from asking, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to stay and watch the end result? Maybe your big brother still needs help.¡± ¡°His Highness does not need our help!¡± the God of City laughed, who was tall and fat and looked exactly like an American professional star wrestler. ¡°Little jellyfish, you have no idea exactly how strong His Highness is!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right! This idea is too funny.¡± The God of Aristocracy shook His head as well. ¡°We have quite a few people here, but if He really fought us, His Highness could beat us through and through with little effort. He is just a Sun God, He definitely has no chance of beating Him!¡± ¡°¡­Then why didn¡¯t He just come alone?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Have you ever seen any kings run over to fight other people all by himself?¡± the God of Aristocracy looked at him as if he were a dumb fool. ¡°How shabby would that be?!¡± Sui Xiong was speechless. He felt deeply that he was too young and too naive, that his thoughts were really not following these uncles and aunties. ¡°In this case, are we disbanding then? Can I leave now?¡± ¡°If you are interested you can stay to watch, but we are following our orders.¡± The God of Protection smiled sincerely and patted the part that was supposed to be his shoulder. ¡°For us, His Highness¡¯s order must be executed. You can stay here and watch these two divine powers fight to the death; although it is probably more of a unilateral assault. But do watch more, and learn more. Learning is always better.¡± Shortly, the Human Gods and oracles activated the teleport coordinates they kept in the Holy Kingdom in advance. Their bodies became shadows one after another, and after an instant, they disappeared without a trace. In the void outside Cloud City that was filled with brightness and the energy of order, one green jellyfish floated around dumbfoundedly. Sui Xiong thought for a while, then decided to stay and see what would happen. Honestly speaking, he was really curious. He really wanted to know what kind of scene it would be when two strong divine powers fought to the death. Thus, he retreated to a safe distance. Then he gave himself numerous layers of protective spells and got ready to watch the scene with peace of mind. The roaring inside Cloud City got more and more fierce until the entirety of Cloud City suddenly collapsed. It blew up into countless fragments. Then all the fragments burned up together and turned into a sea of raging fire. In this sea of fire, an unimaginably huge fireball was waving its countless flame tentacles, fighting a similarly huge armored giant. That big monster-like fireball was obviously the Sun God. The one waving the hammer and fighting this fireball in fierce battle was the God of Light. ¡°Seems like they are evenly matched¡­¡± Sui Xiong carefully observed both of them fighting. He could not help but mumble quietly, ¡°I really cannot see any obvious gap between them!¡± ¡°The power disparity is still huge; that Wuther fellow will most likely win.¡± The God of Justice¡¯s voice had suddenly come from somewhere close behind him. He was shocked and turned around to look, but found the God of Justice had brought along Morani and Ink. They were all standing behind him. ¡°Eh? Why did you guys come?¡± ¡°It is not only us who came. In fact, most of the Gods who could make it have come,¡± Morani said, still smiling. ¡°This is the final battle between two strong divine powers. Compared with the human world, this is the real show!¡± ¡°What happened to the humans¡¯ world?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°The old knight went down to mortal dust and is locked in a fierce battle with the clones of the Orc Gods. That old man is really playing with His life this time. He destroyed His own Holy Kingdom to bring out all His divine power. He moved all the Holy Spirits, oracles, and believers down to the mortal world. He even spread His divine power between them, increasing their abilities forcefully. He is intent on fighting the Orc Gods to the death!¡± the God of Justice said as he shook His head. ¡°The Orc Gods are also fierce. They have used all the tricks they can on the main plane; they already brought thousands of oracles from the legendary realm. I even saw them hurriedly transferring some strong, demigod-level creatures towards the main plane¡­ tsk tsk tsk. The scene is really grand!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. He immediately thought of Leon, who was probably fighting on the battlefield now. He hurriedly contacted him through the channel of religion. ¡°Your Highness?¡± Leon had just recovered from the shock of the dimmed sun and had chopped off Woods¡¯ head with one cut to avoid further complications. With surprise, he asked, ¡°Have you returned victorious? Could it be that the sun lost its brightness because you killed the God of Glory?¡± ¡°Please do not look up to me that much, or I will be very stressed,¡± Sui Xiong laughed bitterly as he broke out in a cold sweat. ¡°They are still fighting over there. But according to my big brother, the God of Light still has a good chance of winning. It seems the Sun God is actually going to be killed.¡± Leon nodded slightly. Then he asked worriedly, ¡°If the God of Glory falls, then what will happen to the human world? I assume having no sun will be terrible¡­¡± Sui Xiong finally realized this problem, and immediately asked the God of Justice. ¡°There should not be any big problem¡­¡± the God of Justice scratched His head and initially seemed unbothered. But after thinking carefully, He felt a little uneasy. ¡°Hang in there, let me go ask the manager.¡± Inside the Pantheon Temple, His clone went up next to the King of Order. He asked in a lowered voice, ¡°Hey manager, if there is no more sun in the humans¡¯ world, what will happen?¡± The King of Order¡¯s face was calm as an ancient well without ripples. ¡°There is no need to worry.¡± ¡°You have to at least tell us something. This is not a small matter!¡± King of Order shook His head. ¡°The sun in the human world and the God of Sun are not directly connected. Moreover, regardless of who it is, someone will inherit the Sun God clergy.¡± His voice was soft, but many Gods heard it. Some of the Gods could not help but stand up immediately and look over at the news. Everyone knew that in this world, the one who could decide who this ¡°sun¡± clergy belonged to was none other than the King of Order! ¡°Your Highness King of Order. Brightness and flame are of the same body. I decide that I am very suitable to inherit the Sun God¡¯s throne!¡± the impulsive God of Fire said loudly. ¡°Moreover, although I have churches in the human world, I was not enthusiastic in spreading religion and I do not play religious countries either. I have no contradictions with other religious Gods and can fully concentrate on maintaining the world¡¯s operations!¡± He was really selling Himself now. But He was reasonable. No matter what angle he preached from, He was indeed very suitable to inherit the Sun God¡¯s position. ¡°I can too!¡± the Goddess of Twilight, who had been quiet for many years, spoke. ¡°I have been responsible for part of the clergy of sunlight anyway. If I become Sun God I can do the job well immediately, and will not make a mess due to lack of experience!¡± She was also very reasonable, emphasizing Her advantages. When considering the matter from the angle of being conducive to living beings, the advantages she and the God of Fire offered were very different. ¡°Well, I can too!¡± the God of Eclipse yelled, ¡°I am already¡ª¡± An ax flew out and chopped His odd-shaped head, which looked like a mix between a dog and a turtle. It chopped Him until He became a puddle of bubbles on the spot. This would have heavily injured Him if the Gods in the Pantheon temple could be injured. ¡°You bastard! Didn¡¯t you used to mumble about extinguishing the sun and destroying the world all the time? Now you only came to because you saw some benefits!¡± the God of Justice said and laughed coldly. ¡°How dare you put your dog head out. Believe it or not, I will chop your head off!¡± All the Gods remained quiet¡­ he had already chopped him down anyway. Chapter 279 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Eclipse was a notoriously evil god. It was not because his divine power was strong or his deity was at the highest level, but because his doctrine and slogan were very powerful. He called on his followers to gather their strength silently and then overthrew the society, the governance, and the world at the critical moment. He devoted himself to the great affairs of destroying the sun and the world. There were many good gods and evil gods in the pantheon temple, but as a non-powerful god, the God of Eclipse¡¯s slogan was so well-known that he was considered an anomaly. It was not surprising that the God of Justice would pick up his axe and attack him. In fact, when he was chopped to pieces by the axe, there were at least two or three good gods with a hot temper that also picked up their weapons. If the God of Justice did not attack the God of Eclipse first, there were many other gods ready to do it. Although that clown, the God of Eclipse, had been beaten away, the clergy of the God of Sun had been left vacant. The Master of Order did not say anything nor did the God of Fire Element and the Goddess of Twilight dare to ask. Therefore, this matter was put aside for a while. But everyone knew that when the God of Sun died, it was time for these two gods to compete for the sun clergy. Perhaps it would be another great war! The God of Fire Element dominated more than half of the planes of fire elements and the biological troops of fire elements. The various kinds of flame elements under his command were so abundant that a huge troop could be formed from them at any time. The Goddess of Twilight was not strong enough and her subordinates were not sufficient enough. However, she had good relations with all gods, which was quite different from the lonely God of Fire Element. As long as she had enough chips to exchange, she could also pull out a powerful army and many gods would help her. Generally speaking, each side had their own advantages. Unless they fought with each other, no one was sure which side would win in the end. In order to win, the God of Fire Element had begun to assemble his army, and the Goddess of Twilight was busy contacting the gods she had connections with, calling on them to gather forces. Both sides were preparing for a big fight. Seeing this scene, the God of Protection sitting in the fourth row of the Pantheon could not help but laugh coldly. Where did these two guys¡¯ get their confidence from? The powerful God of Fire Element may not win. Does the Goddess of Twilight have more allies than the human holy pedigree? It was really inexplicable! If Sui Xiong was here, he would probably say, ¡°I have no words too.¡± Of course, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know about the incident in the Pantheon. Now he was concentrating on that battle and studying the means of combat that these two powerful divine gods had used. Powerfulness did not simply mean an increase in strength. Of course the strong had great power, which was beyond a doubt. Whether it be the God of Sun or the God of Light, the strength of both sides was astonishing. Even if Sui Xiong swallowed nearly one tenth of the flow magic in the main plane, he couldn¡¯t reach either side. But as he watched slowly, he gradually realized that powerfulness could not only depend on strength but also on the control of that strength. For example, the God of Sun had concentrated the power of the entire holy pedigree and the whole kingdom into himself. Although that big fireball looked silly, every tentacle of it contained terrible power. Sui Xiong dared to bet that if anyone was nudged by any of the tentacles, a god of this level, such as Wall, would immediately die directly without anytime to rescue them. Even he himself was not very confident that he could hold off the attacks of the God of Sun. His attack was not only violent but also very fast. Hundreds of flame tentacles created a shadow like a burning see, covering the God of Light in this shadow. Sui Xiong thought that if he were the God of Light and confronted the mad God of Sun, the most practical way for him to win was to retreat quickly before being covered by that shadowy attack. That way Sui Xiong could widen the distance between them as much as he could. Even he did so, his chance of winning was still very small. However, even if his odds were very low, Sui Xiong still had a slight chance to win. But if the opponent was the God of Light¡­ Sui Xiong could not help but laugh bitterly and shake his head silently. He really could not win. The God of Light was totally different from the God of Sun. The God of Light was still a human at this moment, and his moves were very clear. The God of Light didn¡¯t conjure up numerous tentacles nor was he fast enough to turn himself into a shadow. But the powerful tentacles of the God of Sun could only clank against the armor of the God of Light, not even causing him to shake. It was like all the onlookers were frightened to death by the attack, but for the God of Light, it was just like scratching an itch. The God of Light¡¯s attack was not fast at all, and his moves were not complicated; but the God of Sun could not hold out. Whether the God of Sun used his tentacles to block or tried to evade, either way didn¡¯t work. The God of Light¡¯s huge hammer would always break through all the obstacles, ignore any attempts at evading, and hit the God of Sun accurately with the same precision each time. Sui Xiong watched for some while and was shocked to find that the intervals between each attack of the God of Light was almost the same. It seemed that he was attacking at a leisurely pace. No matter what the God of Sun did, the God of Light could not change the fact that he was being beaten slowly. ¡°What the hell! He is so strong!¡± ¡°You see that too?¡± the God of Justice whispered. ¡°This guy is too strong to be beaten!¡± ¡°How can he be so strong?¡± Morani asked. ¡°If you were him, could you attack like that?¡± ¡°Although I am confident that I can kill that big fireball, I am afraid that I can¡¯t be as stable as he is.¡± The God of Justice sighed. ¡°That¡¯s not my fighting style.¡± ¡°So compared to you, who is stronger?¡± the Goddess of Wealth appeared suddenly and asked curiously. The God of Justice concentrated on the battlefield for a long time and sighed lightly. ¡°If we fight now, we may have a sixty percent chance of perishing together and the rest, we may have a ten percent chance of winning.¡± A sixty percent chance of perishing together and a ten percent chance of winning¡ªthat was to say that the remaining thirty percent would be a loss. This had already admitted that the God of Justice¡¯s power was inferior to the other side. For the God of Justice who had always been regarded as the most powerful divine and was qualified to compete for the glorious title of ¡°The First Man Under Great Divinity,¡± it was a great shame. But the God of Justice didn¡¯t care about disgrace; he cared about the unprecedented growth of the evil power. He knew and everyone knew that the God of Light was an evil god. This God of Mankind was cruel, fierce and severe. He rarely had warmth for his subordinates, much less his enemies. For example, there was a death rule in his church that said that any act of abandoning a comrade-in-arms would result in execution without any warning. The God of Light once said that his light came from victory, and that required firm will and resolute execution. Therefore, he would never allow any prevarication, hesitation or retreating. As long as it was his command, it must be carried out in all the way. As his follower, one must strive to maintain the social order. Civilians should obey officials and officials should obey nobles. Nobles should also obey kings and kings should obey the overall situation of human beings. Whenever society needed them, they must obey the order unconditionally whether they were beggars or kings. The severe and scary order caused the God of Light to lack followers among the nobles and made his church more powerful and frightening. Those priests and knights who believed in him all had iron will. Although some of them were newbies with weak strength, they never lacked the determination to fight to the end nor the courage to sacrifice themselves. Perhaps, for them, death was terrible, but going against the doctrine was even more terrible. The God of Justice had always opposed this practice. He thought that all people were born equal and everyone¡¯s interests should be respected, especially those that were harmless to others. The weak shouldn¡¯t have to sacrifice, the strong should not oppress and plunder, and they all should respect each other. Part of this idea came from the old adventurer who had taught the God of Justice, and the other part came from the thoughts the god had been pondering over the years. In general, the God of Justice was quite unsatisfied with the world in which civilians were oppressed and plundered, and he had always thought of changing the world order. Among the enemies he had identified, the God of Light was in the top three. He knew that there would be a decisive battle between him and the God of Light. Only by winning the decisive battle could he have the qualifications to challenge and change the world order, changing it for prosperity and justice. But, it seemed hard to win. ¡°Then I will disappear for a while,¡± the God of Justice said suddenly. ¡°You can hide in that shelter. It¡¯s quite safe, and I believe you won¡¯t need my protection any more.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and asked, ¡°Where are you going?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a secret.¡± The God of Justice turned around and his figure gradually faded. ¡°When I show again, I will be much stronger.¡± After that, he disappeared without any trace. ¡°Hmm! I know that you¡¯re going to fight monsters to raise your level¡­¡± Sui Xiong muttered. ¡°Why do you pretend to be so mysterious?¡± But Sui Xiong was really curious. Where on earth could the God of Justice find so many high-ranking monsters that would upgrade the level of such a powerful God? Hmm, that¡¯s really hard to imagine¡­ It was also hard for the God of Sun to imagine. He had intended to use his bottom card to concentrate the power of the whole holy pedigree and whole kingdom on himself. Ordinarily, he was too strong to be imagined. Even if he confronted the great Master of Order, the God of Sun still had the confidence to win. But why was he still beaten by the God of Light without even getting in a counterattack? ¡°That¡¯s not right!¡± the huge fireball roared violently. ¡°It should not be like this!¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± the God of Light finally asked. ¡°The strong win and the weak lose. What¡¯s the matter?¡± Chapter 280 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The strong win, the weak lose; the strong live, the weak die. This is a natural thing,¡± the God of Light said calmly. ¡°I am stronger than you, so you must lose. You must die. What is wrong with that?¡± He said it as if they were two friends who met up with each other to chat about the weather. But such a calm tone intrigued the Sun God even more. It actually made Him more violent. ¡°No! No! No!¡± the flames on His body burned more and more violently, but also more messily. ¡°I am the strongest! I have compiled all of the clergies, and mastered all of the powers! It is impossible for someone to be stronger than I am!¡± The God of Light shook His head gently. He seemed to regret that this piece of iron could not become steel. He sighed. He was too lazy to say any more. He just kept waving His warhammer, hitting the Sun God¡¯s body with one blow after the other. ¡°This is really way past imagination!¡± Morani exclaimed. ¡°The God of Glory¡¯s power is strong and at an unimaginable level. I can actually sense the complete set of clergies in His body; it really is all-inclusive, not sparing anything. The power of the God of Light is much simpler, yet more refined. There is nothing else in it except for ¡®humans¡¯¡­¡± ¡°These are two completely different paths,¡± the Goddess of Wealth said. ¡°Although the Sun God System has many angels, and the clergies include many different fields, at the end of the day there is only one God. But with the Human God System, there are always newly appointed Gods and diversified clergies. It allows all Gods to concentrate on researching and mastering The few clergies close to their core. All this time, people have asked, Which one of these two paths is better? Which path can lead to something higher than ¡®strong¡¯ divine power? Now it seems like there is finally a conclusion.¡± ¡°One clergy is stronger than one full set of clergies?¡± Morani asked doubtfully. ¡°Why would it be like that?¡± ¡°Beats me. After all, I still haven¡¯t achieved strong divine power,¡± the Goddess of Wealth said, smiling. ¡°It¡¯s actually not that far away for us though. For those of us who are at this level, it is definitely beneficial to obtain more clergies.¡± Morani thought for a while and then nodded heavily. ¡°You are right. More clergies mean that we can understand our powers more comprehensively. It will only benefit us. As for digging deep into the inner core of a clergy, that will have to wait until we are strong enough.¡± ¡°My divine powers have increased rapidly as of late,¡± the Goddess of Wealth said. ¡°The promotion in the accounting system was greatly beneficial in increasing my religion. Too bad I hadn¡¯t accumulated enough power before this, or else I could perhaps try and rush towards strong divine power.¡± Sui Xiong heard the conversation and his heart twitched. He asked, ¡°If you obtain a new clergy, will you be able to try then?¡± ¡°New clergy?¡± the Goddess of Wealth was a little stunned. ¡°I am not the fighting type. Focusing on defense is fine, but grabbing another clergy is easier said than done¡­¡± ¡°What if there is a new one?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Goddess of Wealth frowned, and looked to the left and right carefully. Then She used telepathy to speak to him. Do not talk about this right here, we will talk in detail when we get back to the shelter. Sui Xiong was still young after all. He still did not understand the Gods¡¯ desperation for clergies. A new clergy was like a big piece of fat meat. In the presence of one, most Gods would turn into ravenous wolves. When the ¡°knowledge¡± clergy first appeared, a group of Gods would have surely come to fight for it if it were not for the Master of Mystery. Later when the ¡°competition¡± clergy appeared, the War Gods System almost emptied the nest to come out and fight for it. If it were not for Sui Xiong who constructed this indestructible and alternative Holy Kingdom shelter, this clergy would have been long taken by them. From these two incidents, it could be seen that a clergy, especially a brand new clergy, had always been what Gods cared about. It was also the focal point for fighting. With the reminder from Goddess of Wealth, Sui Xiong also noticed that it was not appropriate to talk about this topic at a place where many Gods gathered. So he immediately shut his mouth and focused on studying the battle. And yet, there was nothing much to study in this fight. The failure of the Sun God was set in stone. It was only a matter of how He would lose, and whether He was going to die or not. Sui Xiong felt that if they kept fighting, the Sun God should run away when He could not take it anymore. He seemed like His hair had bristled, that he was not normal. But even a psychotic patient knows how to get advantages and avoid disadvantages. Sui Xiong had always seen mentioned in the news back home that some criminals could work and drive like normal people but were immediately discovered to have psychological disorders after they committed crimes. Regardless of how mad the Sun God was, He could understand the adage ¡°As long as you keep the green mountain alive, you won¡¯t be deprived of logs to burn.¡± Yes; He was indeed the green mountain. In comparison, Sui Xiong was very curious about the God of Light¡¯s way of fighting. Through his own observations, he could vaguely sense that each hammer from the God of Light seemed to have a certain rhythm, and complied to a certain trajectory. But even though every hit of the hammer began in a slightly different way, the endpoint was always the same. It was indeed very peculiar. What kind of trick was this exactly? Sui Xiong tried to wave his tentacle as He mimicked Him. He waved again and again. It was very simple; there was nothing special. But he was sure that there must have been something special factoring in to the way that the God of Light attacked! He told Morani and Ink about his observation, hoping that these two Gods who were combat-types could help him study together. Thus, a weird phenomenon occurred in which three differently-shaped Gods moved their arms or tentacles, imitating the God of Light. They looked as silly as could be. There were many Gods who had gathered around and concerned themselves with the battle, so naturally, some Gods who noticed their behavior. Quite a few of them snorted, and there was even someone who mocked aloud that ¡°Void Mask and His stupid friends are going crazy again.¡± But there were also some Gods who saw what was going on, and after deep thought, they also joined in imitating the action of the God of Light swinging His hammer. After some time, there were quite a few Gods stupidly waving. A number of them vaguely felt something, but then had no way of grasping the idea clearly. Sui Xiong was the same, but he could already vaguely comprehend parts of the God of Light¡¯s trick. But he only knew what it was, not know how or why. If he were given a huge hammer, he could probably pretend to swing a few times. But if he wanted to blend this wonderful hammer skill into himself and show it further, it would be completely impossible. The God of Light had noticed the surrounding Gods who were learning from Him. He could not help but laugh. ¡°I thought I wanted to continue playing with you for some time, so I could completely defeat you. But now I cannot. I have no interest in becoming a teacher!¡± As He was saying that, He kept His hammer and pulled out a big broadsword. ¡°Coming next will be the final hit. If you have any skills left that you have yet to use, seize the time now.¡± As He was saying that, His body projected an even more violent aura than the Sun God had before, but there was no burning feeling at all. It was still full of a strict order, like an army that had a strong military, full of mechanical sense. It made others shiver without any cold. The Sun God naturally felt the death crisis that was imminent. He was furious and yet felt terrified. He yelled loudly, ¡°Impossible! It is impossible You are stronger than I am! ¡°I am the strongest God! There is nothing that I do not know! Nothing that I cannot do! Nowhere I cannot be! I am the highest and the biggest! I am King of the Kings! God of the Gods!¡± His yelling was becoming crazier, and the aura which had already increased to the maximum level increased once again until it was unimaginable. At that moment, even the silver shadow inside the Wheel of Order made a doubtful sound and turned its attention over. All the strong divine powers were shocked. The Sun God had exceeded the maximum limits of strong divine power. He presented as very ambiguous but was indeed undergoing a kind of change. Great divine power?! Was the way this fellow gathered a full set of clergies really the pathway that could lead to great divine power?! The entire Pantheon Temple became silent at that instant. All of the Gods turned their attention to the fight. They put all their focus on the Sun God who was furiously screaming, whose powers were still constantly increasing. The God of Light was not affected by Him and slowly struck a pose, ready to swing the sword. His powers at the time were weaker than the Sun God¡¯s. If Sun God was really allowed to break through to great divine power, then the entire Human God System, or the entire human race, might face complete destruction! In the Country of Light, people like Javier were filled with uneasiness and the Human Gods were frightened. ¡°Are we hunting the tiger to end up being eaten by the tiger?¡± the God of Bards mumbled to Himself. ¡°I think this situation is not right!¡± ¡°Bullsh*t! You must have confidence in His Highness!¡± the God of Protection scolded angrily. ¡°Confidence alone cannot solve problems¡­¡± ¡°Not being confident is the biggest problem!¡± Although the other Gods did not join their heated argument, they all showed worry on their faces. And there were a few, like God of Aristocracy, whose eyes shone with deep thought. Nobody was sure what they were thinking about. ¡°You are all demons with the names of Gods! I am the only one and true God!¡± The powers of the Sun God were still increasing. It seemed endless and unlimited. At the same time, the God of Light swung His sword. Similar to the hammer before, it was a very plain and simple sword move. A slanted slash, a cut that even a young man who had just started learning could perform. But it was just the same as the hammer skills before: this sword contained a wonderful charm. It was filled with an indescribable energy. No, it was even stronger than the previous continuous waving of the war hammer. This type of energy was vividly presented in this sword, and people could not help but be captured by it. Even their thoughts were stopped temporarily. Thoughts were not the only thing paused at that moment. The main plane of the Ring of the World had immediately halted. The unchanging torrent that connected the entire Ring of the World froze. Only the silver shadow within the Wheel of Order was not affected. The corner of His mouth was slightly tilted up, and He gave an approving smile. The next moment, the liveliness of the Sun God halted. The power that was increasing at an insane rate had stopped suddenly. After that, without any precursor, His huge body exploded. ¡°Im-possi-ble!¡± This was the last word left behind by the God of Glory, who had accumulated a full set of clergies through different tricks, who was strong enough to shock all the other Gods, who once even broke through to the level of great divine power. Chapter 281 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Light beheaded the Sun God and firmly stood there like the master of the universe high above, making one want to give up any idea of confronting him. It had already proven its mighty strength and that no one should dare to stand against it ever since. Otherwise, whoever it was would only be cutting his own throat. The Sun God¡¯s great power had been known to all, particularly when it had even been about to reach the level of the Great Divine Powers before its death. Still, it had been killed by the God of Light so easily, so it was clear that the God of Light¡¯s power had already surpassed this level. Or did it mean¡­ it had not only reached the level of the Great Divine Powers but also gained an initial understanding? Thinking of this possibility, gods who¡¯d had issues with the God of Light or the human god system before instantly felt nervous. In a cold sweat, they felt gloomy, with no hope for the future. What bothered them was merely how to apologize or escape. Yet none of them noticed that under the helmet and mask, the God of Light¡¯s face had turned pale, and it could barely stand. Its killing method was actually at the price of its health. When it had been killing the Sun God, it had also been injuring itself at the same time. But with its armor¡ªan amazing holy weapon that guided its body through its mind when it was injured to mobilize equal power¡ªits weakness had been concealed. Recovering was usually quite fast for a god, as long as it hadn¡¯t actually fallen on site. The God of Light stood there still and mobilized its divine power to try to heal itself. Then it started to regain energy quickly, nearly recovered before long. But right at this moment, the giant fireball which had been cut out and was going out suddenly shot out a dozen lights. These lights flew out at an incredible speed in all directions. They were so fast that most gods present couldn¡¯t even identify them, let alone stop any. The God of Light frowned. It had seen those lights but hadn¡¯t managed to stop any as it was still recovering¡ªin fact, it hadn¡¯t even tried to. It had no idea of what had caused those lights and felt somewhat concerned. This must have been arranged by the Sun God, the God of Glory at its last moment. But what exactly was it? When and how did it come out? It¡¯s completely unknown. It sighed silently. Finally, it hadn¡¯t had the best outcome it had wished for. Those lights ran away in the blink of an eye in several directions. The Master of Mystery was thinking about the God of Light¡¯s uncommon way of fighting when it saw a light coming through the barrier of its holy kingdom, and its own defense straightened its body. The orc gods were busy casting divine powers on the main plane to dispatch their doppelgangers when a light came and hit Lefon. And in the dim and gloomy underworld, a light ripped up the darkness and crashed onto the giant shadow lying on the gray soil bank of the underworld¡¯s river. The Master of War was swinging its sword, imitating the last attack of the God of Light when a light suddenly came from behind and hit its back. Goddess Gaia was deep in thought of the future with all human gods with its eyes closed silently when a light rushed onto its head. The God of Justice was trudging through a torrent when it was suddenly enlightened and turned its head. A light arrived to hit its face right at this moment. ¡­ As such, loads of powerful gods, including those with a bad relationship with the human god system, had been hit by the lights. All of them were stunned and confused. Even more of a surprise, Sui Xiong was among the ones who had been hit by the light. He was surprised at first, as well, for hadn¡¯t ever expected this from the Sun God at its last moment. But then he was astonished to discover that this light hadn¡¯t caused any injury to him, only unimaginable benefits¡ªthis common-looking light contained a full understanding of all priesthood and realms mastered by the Sun God through its long-term exploration, accumulation, and study. This was not a guarantee to take charge of the priesthood or even grasp a full understanding of the origin of the world by combining all priesthood to break through the Great Divine Powers, but with all the knowledge brought by this light, it meant taking a prominent step towards any priesthood position or any study of powers, as it was with a strong support of all this reliable knowledge and material. This was the last gift of the Sun God to those it had believed might challenge the God of Light or those in irreconcilable ideological conflicts with human gods or against the God of Light. With a full study of this gift and adequate growth, each of them would be able to reach or even exceed the highest level that the Sun God had ever achieved. In its last hours, the Sun God had finally come to its senses and cast its last, but most powerful, trick ever. It was not a plot, but a fair plan. For all the gods who had received its gifts¡ªwillingly or not¡ªhad already been on the road towards the Great Divine Powers. Besides, even if some might not have been willing to receive, they had in fact already become the successors of the Sun God¡¯s heritage and therefore, the potential enemies of the God of Light. Its potential enemies. Maybe the word ¡°potential¡± would have been removed by the God of Light, for they were undoubted enemies already. Even if some of these gods might have offered to share this gift with it, still, it could not rule out the possibility of confronting this god as having such knowledge being a chance to inherit the Sun God¡¯s capability towards the Great Divine Powers, which would probably hamper the rise of the God of Light. Although it was not destined to happen, it was concerning enough. The powerful gods would never give up their pursuit of the Great Divine Powers, while the less powerful ones would not disclose their secrets of powers to the God of Light. As time went by, all of them would become enemies of the God of Light, neck and neck enemies. Though the God of Light was truly powerful, would it strong enough to fight against such a large group? This would be hard to say, but the dominant answer was ¡°no.¡± This was why the Sun God had planned its last fight back in the hope that these gods would be against the God of Light someday in the future, like say, the Void Mask, who had clearly shown its hatred for aristocracy and even theocracy. Since Sui Xiong was not good with plots and deception, he could not come up with more, though he was very clear on how valuable the knowledge he had received was, as well as the old saying ¡°simply carrying jade will turn innocent into guilty.¡± Thus, soon after he noticed what had been sent to him, he immediately cast the charm of ¡°over-distance transport¡± to return to his shelter. Such behavior, though abrupt, was his only option, because he had found it difficult to stay there any longer. He felt that the surrounding gods had already noticed he was in possession of the Sun God¡¯s heritage, and he had even feared that they would start to punch him in the next second, and he would end up in jellyfish salad. He was not completely relieved until he arrived at the peaceful shelter. When he was about to think twice about the Sun God¡¯s intention, he suddenly realized the fact that the world-shaking battle was still on, and this was not the time to think about this issue! Instantly, he dispatched a doppelganger for battle and rushed to the battlefield of the orc gods and the God of Knights. Yet when he arrived there, the battle was already over. The God of Knights had lost the battle and died. Chapter 282 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio While the Sun God and the God of Light engaged in a fierce battle where Cloud City used to be, the God of Knights led an army of holy spirits, oracles, and believers. They fought ferociously with the army of the Orc Gods. There was not much of a difference between the two parties. The Orc Gods¡¯ army was large, but in battles with legendary experts, numbers were not the biggest problem. Legendary experts were not suitable to fight in big armies. Legendary experts were overpowering and needed a big area they could fight in to fully unleash their abilities. They were not able to fight in battle arrays like army soldiers. But they were suitable for one-on-one fighting, or against entire enemy army troops, sweeping over them like tornadoes. A single one of them could act as the core of an army, leading them into battle. Now, with their rankings lowered to an ordinary soldier¡¯s and their battle areas minimized, they couldn¡¯t unleash their powers. Even when they could, their powers overlapped and caused conflict. At least 50% of their time and energy was spent on resolving conflicts between comrades. The issue was very obvious in the Orc Gods¡¯ army. The Orc Gods¡¯ oracles had very different jobs and powers. Even though they wanted to coordinate and cooperate with each other it was very difficult to do so. No matter how careful they were to avoid each other, the conflict of power kept getting in the way. Explosions happened everywhere within the battle arrays. It annoyed the higher-order oracles in charge. On God of Knights¡¯ side, the situation was much better. The army under Him was almost totally made up of knights. Although they also had overlapping powers, they were consistent. Because they were mostly knights, their battle styles were not too different from each other. They coordinated well and formed complete battle arrays. So, though the Orc Gods¡¯ oracle army was larger and stronger on average than the God of Knights¡¯, the knights definitely had some advantage. They excelled in terms of skill, power, and cooperation. Both parties had their advantages, which resulted in a balance of power. The Orc oracles made for a messy army, sweeping over their enemies like tidal waves. The knights who were covered in white light were whisked away and formed small teams in cone shapes. They were like sharp blades tearing through the tide. Soon, both sides of the battle clashed together with no technique at all. Hundreds of legendary experts were torn to pieces, turning into uncountable dots of light. After a short moment, they reappeared in each of their camps again. Oracles were inextinguishable. As long as there was enough divine power, they could revive themselves as many times as they liked. While the oracles killed each other, the God of Knights and the clones of the Orc Gods engaged in fierce battle as well. The God of Knights didn¡¯t seem old at all. His movements were slow, but every trick was practiced. There was no burden, no redundancy in his actions. Although he was fighting alone against many, he was not losing. The old horse under him also seemed rejuvenated to its youth. It neighed as it flew and ran fast as the wind. Although there were many Orc Gods, they could not chase the horse. Instead, it broke through them, and the God of Knights seized the opportunity to swing his sword and kill a few of the clones. When the clones were killed, the bodies felt the pain and suffered trauma as well. Orc Gods whose clones were killed whispered in their pain. Those with weaker divine power became pale and could not fight for some time. But the Orc Gods had power in numbers, especially with Lefon and the others. They were experts with high standards. Even if they used clones to go against his real body, the God of Knights still had a difficult time killing them. After a few rounds of attacking and killing, he could only fight back those Orc Gods with medium or low standards. With Lefon as their leader, the main Gods were barely hurt. ¡°You really are old now!¡± Lefon said. He finally smiled. ¡°Today you are going to die here!¡± He made a command and all the Orc Gods¡¯ oracles immediately gave up plans of rearranging battle arrays. Instead, they gathered and charged. The remaining Orc God experts divided their figures into multiples and spread out. This was not an illusion. Every figure was a battling clone. Even though it consumed large amounts of divine power and energy to maintain so many clones at the same time, they were sure the God of Knights was so old and weak he wouldn¡¯t put up much of a fight. The Orc Gods who held a grudge over him did not care what the cost was. They needed to kill this 10,000-year-long arch nemesis, right then and there! The God of Knights smiled with no fear at all. He pulled the reins with his left hand, and the old horse neighed excitedly. They charged towards the Orc Gods. This neigh was like an order. The oracles and believers yelled angrily as they launched their fiercest charged attack yet. And then¡ªthere was no more. When the battle was at its most intense and cruel, the divine power that the God of Knights had left could not hold out. It took a couple minutes for his holy kingdom to completely crumble. The kingdom became countless light spots. Although the oracles that died could still revive themselves inside these light spots, watching them was like watching the speed of a flowing river. This situation could not be maintained any much longer. The God of Knights Himself was also in very bad shape. Even though his sword skills were brilliant and his martial arts skills were superb, He was facing Orc God experts and clones that did not care about anything except landing blows on him. None cared if they were hurt or killed as long as they could attack relentlessly. He took hits one after another and finally was quite heavily injured. Thee God of Knights saw the situation had reached a breaking point and smiled. ¡°It is time,¡± He said. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Lefon asked cautiously. The God of Knights did not answer. He raised his sword. The last clergy in his body fell away and became eight rays of light. They whistled off and were put into the bodies of the eight highest-order believers. They embodied the eight virtues of a knight: humility, honor, sacrifice, heroism, compassion, faith, honesty, and justice. The God of Knights dismantled his final clergy, made it into eight clergies of virtue, and granted them to eight of his most outstanding believers. He helped them break through the separation between human and God. They immediately stepped into the higher realm, becoming Gods corresponding to the eight virtues. Under the leadership of the eight Gods of Virtue, the battle powers of the oracles and believers of the God of Knights increased. Suddenly they counter-attacked and broke through the camp of Orc God oracles. All of a sudden, the Orc army spirits dropped immensely. They started trembling. Quite a few of Orcs even started running away. Then, the God of Knights stopped the Orc God clones. He was having a hard time maintaining the lowest form of deity. But somehow his power increased and he changed wonderfully. One of Lefon¡¯s clones swung around a short spear. He bumped into the Knight¡¯s Sword and flew out. He went off like a gourd, rolling on the floor. Although he was not very injured, his strength surprised the Orc Gods. Lefon was not that big, but he was shockingly strong. The fact that he could hit the clone at all¡ªjust how strong was the God of Knights now?! ¡°I couldn¡¯t have anticipated this¡­ What is this trick of yours?¡± Lefon said. He sighed deeply as he led the clones of the Orc Gods and rearranged them into a combative battle array. The battle array they had arranged was not circling in on him, but instead bumping into each other face-to-face. Based on his experience, if they did not figure themselves out, the God of Knights could fight his way out of the circle again and again with his strength. The God of Knights laughed, but his laughter was gradually changing. It became like a young man¡¯s laughter, filled with vitality. ¡°I have only just unleashed the final bind,¡± he said. ¡°This is a theory that I have researched, but have not tested yet. I am just doing an experiment.¡± Lefon watched him carefully, not understanding what exactly this ¡°experiment¡± was about. It was very clear that the God of Knights was only getting stronger and stronger. This could not go on! Although the God of Knights lost all clergies and his deity had almost disappeared, He was getting stronger and stronger. This phenomenon was very peculiar indeed, but the will to win overtook any curiosity. So Lefon led the clones of the Orc Gods and charged over bravely. All types of weapons were swung out, but they were all repelled in a moment. More than ten battling clones were flown out, and a few even disintegrated midair. If it were not because the Sun God presented signs of great divine power, all would have turned their focuses there. The God of Knights hit more than ten clones. He laughed loudly, pulled the reins, and commanded the warhorse to charge. He felt himself fill with energy. No matter who the opponent was he knew he could fight ferociously for 300 rounds. But the reins pulled nothing. He looked down and was shocked to see that the warhorse that had accompanied him for so many years was turning into a shadow. Even though he still rode on its back, it was as if he were floating in the air. The reins that were still in his hands had also become untouchable. ¡°This¡­ what is going on?¡± he mumbled to himself. His voice was full of confusion. Lefon had already turned to stand up. He knew deep in his heart that this was the most crucial moment. He did not care about confidence. A few of the clones charged over from different directions without hesitation and swung the short spears out fiercely. But they stabbed at nothing. The figure of the God of Knights was also becoming a shadow. Although he was still standing there, the short spears only stabbed the air. They almost stabbed each other. Lefon watched the God of Knights with amazement as he locked on to the pair of green eyes through the helmet. In those eyes, He could see confusion, shock, and finally, calm. ¡°¡­I see!¡± the God of Knights sighed deeply and smiled. Then, he disappeared without a trace. At that moment, the last gift from the Sun God, a ray of light that almost nobody noticed, fell onto Lefon¡¯s body. Chapter 283 The God of Knights¡¯ divine power vanished as it died. Its followers who had been promoted to the legendary realm were taken back to their original level in less than half a minute, and the deceased oracles would never resurge again. Comparatively, the orc oracles were less influenced and saw the deceased resurge again. The two sides were therefore seeing a huge difference between each other, and without the help of the eight newborn knights of gods of virtue, the human side would probably be stressed and losing the fight. Lefon had thought of organizing an onslaught straight away to defeat the opponent without waiting longer, yet before he had taken any action, the light with the full set of knowledge of priesthood and realms released by the Sun God had fallen on him and changed his mind. Why would I bother with a human war, since I already have all this knowledge? Thinking of this, he rushed back to the Endless Field of orc holy kingdom without delay. Once he arrived at the Endless Field, still catching his breath, a silver light flashed and the Master of Order was right in front of him. Lefon turned white with fear at seeing the Master of Order at this time, as he was carrying the secret of the Sun God. He doubted there was anything wrong with the material from the Sun God. He saluted the Master while thinking quickly at the same time to come up with a possible excuse of explanation. Unexpectedly, the Master of Order started without hearing any of his words. ¡°Don¡¯t dispatch the oracle troops to slaughter earthly humans,¡± said the Master, ¡°The gods¡¯ war is over.¡± Then it disappeared, leaving Lefon standing there with his head still down in a salute, confused. He was surprised, for hadn¡¯t expected the Master of Order to come for such a minor issue, but he had to obey and thus sent out the order immediately. Knowing this order, the orc gods, though reluctant, dared not go against it¡ªLefon had stressed in the order that this had been required by His Majesty Master of Order and whoever violated would be expelled from the orc god system and end all relationships with the orc god system, and even the orc race. All orc gods and oracles withdrew in a flash as lights in the sky, and soon, they were all back in the Endless Field. At the same time, the Country of Light spread lights to take back the eight knights of Gods of Virtue and the surviving holy spirits, oracles, and followers of the God of Knights. Such a world-shaking battle had been left so messy and scattered. All the gods had left. All troops of oracles and followers had left. Nobody but earthly humans stood in the battlefield that had just been a living hell, confused and not knowing what to do. The sky was still dusky. The sunshine had faded away, since the Sun God had been struck by the God of Light down to earth. When it had been killed by the God of Light, the Sun was nearly out of light. A few dim white lights were left so that the mortal world was not in complete darkness. Near the old Cloud City were a crowd of gods, and the God of Fire Element stepped out from them. ¡°Congratulations to the God of Light on a full success!¡± it said politely, then asked cautiously, ¡°Since your opponent is dead, are you appointing anyone to the position of Sun God?¡± Considering that this might sound hurried, it added, ¡°the mortal world gains most of its lights and heat from the sun. It will probably suffer without the sun for too long!¡± The God of Light was not yet completely recovered. It frowned and didn¡¯t say a word. The Goddess of Twilight also came out from the crowd and said, ¡°Your Highness God of Light, I would like to serve you as the Sun God for ten thousand years if you agree. I promise not to go against you in my time or be engaged in any plot or group that is against you.¡± The God of Fire Element opened its eyes wide, not knowing what was better that it could offer. After all it was a Great Divine Power¡ªthough a weak one compared to others¡ªand it was well aware that the position of Sun God would help significantly promote its power so that it might even have a chance to proceed to the first class in the Pantheon temple. However, serving the God of Light for over ten thousand years and never going against it were high prices to pay. The Goddess of Twilight didn¡¯t have such concern, for it was just a god with low capacity. Being the new Sun God would help promote it as far as an advantaged one of the medium level or a disadvantaged one of the Great Divine Powers, but nothing more than that. In that case, it would still find it difficult to defeat the God of Protection or the God of Heroes of the human god system. That was why it had nothing to worry about or hesitate for. The God of Light showed a faint smile. It thought for a while and was about to mobilize its energy to reply when the God of Eclipse was suddenly heard from the white mist, ¡°Your Highness! I would join your holy pedigree and be your follower as long as you grant me this position!¡± Upon hearing this, the Goddess of Twilight was shocked, frowning upon the indecent God of Eclipse. The point was not to join the human god system, but to become a follower of the God of Light, because this was equivalent to selling out and being a slave to the God of Light! Neither the God of Fire Element nor the Goddess of Twilight could make such a sacrifice. The two of them looked at each other and noticed similar misery in the other. Yet the God of Light burst into laughter. ¡°Interesting!¡± it said, ¡°But I am not sure if you¡¯ve heard of the saying that genuine treasure should be held by people who have comparable powers and prestige, and those who do not deserve it cannot secure a treasure for long.¡± It turned to the God of Eclipse in the white mist and said, ¡°No offense, but considering your capacity, being the new Sun God would do you harm rather than good.¡± The God of Eclipse was speechless. Of course, it knew it was merely with minor capacity and might not be able to absorb the power of the Sun God, but it was more likely to risk its current position. If its current position collapsed, and it died out consequently, its body would probably generate a new god that would be able to take on both positions of Sun God and God of Eclipse. However, why would it bother anyway? It had been thinking about being part of the human god system, and even the God of Light¡¯s follower, in the hope that the God of Light would help it with the position of Sun God. Since the God of Light had clearly rejected its suggestion and it had nothing but itself to offer, it didn¡¯t reply anymore. The God of Light¡¯s words ignited hope in the God of Fire Element and the Goddess of Twilight again, both of them excited. However, before either of them said anything, the God of Light said, ¡°As for the two of you, though you are indeed able to master the deity of the Sun God, I still wish to remind you that such critical power and position should not be assigned through private agreement, but with public acknowledgement.¡± The God of Fire Element and the Goddess of Twilight were silent. Public acknowledgement? How could it be acknowledged by all? And how should others show their acknowledgement? Right at this moment, the Master of Order waved its hand, bringing a red ball of light and a white one to all the gods in the Pantheon temple. In the red light ball was the figure of the God of Fire Element, while the figure of the Goddess of Twilight was in the white one. ¡°This sounds funny,¡± it said, ¡°But let¡¯s try. You can elect your preference for the position of the Sun God. Please inject your divine power into the light ball you choose.¡± Looking at the two light balls in front of them, all the gods were deep in thought. The God of Conspiracy murmured, ¡°If the God of Fire Element took on the position of Sun God, would it disrupt balance among the four major elements?¡± Though it had been speaking in a low voice, everyone heard what it had said, and loads of nature gods turned red instantly. Without further thinking, they all injected their divine powers into the white light ball. As they were doing so, lights rushed out one by one and gathered in the air above the Pantheon temple to become a giant mass of white light. ¡°Hey! Are you trying to make me lose?¡± The God of Fire Element was furious. It yelled, but it didn¡¯t help at all, since the God of Conspiracy had gone already. But the God of Conspiracy¡¯s words had made sense. The four major elements had remained balance and a bit more strength for one of them would not break the balance. However, if the God of Fire Element became the new Sun God, things would be totally different. It would be the strongest among the four element gods, much higher than the other three. It that case, the balance would be broken among the four major elements and a serious crisis would occur. The crisis might not have caused much influence on the main plane, while it could have been deadly for some element-biased nature gods. This was why they had decided to vote for the Goddess of Twilight after hearing the God of Conspiracy¡¯s words¡ªto avoid the risk! Moreover, many good gods also nodded at the God of Conspiracy¡¯s assumption. Though it hadn¡¯t said that the God of Fire Element¡¯s assumption about the Sun God would certainly lead to a big crisis, it would still be better to avoid such potential risk. Therefore, although feeling sorry for the God of Fire Element, they had no option. The giant mass of white light was growing bigger and bigger above the Pantheon temple and gradually took up the majority of the space. The Goddess of Twilight smiled cheerfully, and the God of Fire Element looked more and more upset. Suddenly, Augmentin, the God of Strategy, stood up and asked the Goddess of Twilight, ¡°May I confirm with you that will you still keep the promise you made to His Highness God of Light just now?¡± The Goddess of Twilight didn¡¯t expect this question. It hesitated a bit and then nodded, ¡°Certainly, I will.¡± ¡°Then I cannot vote for you,¡± said Augmentin seriously, ¡°The human god system is already strong, and it¡¯s very likely for them to expand at a large scale after obtaining the power of the Sun God. Then our war god system must be the first one to take on the impact, so other god systems¡­Once the balance between elements is broken, crisis may come. Even though crisis mostly happens on the element plane, and its influence on other planes can be managed, the danger of an attack by the human god system would be impossible to resolve.¡± Afterwards, it injected its divine powers into the red light ball, and a red light rushed through. It shocked all the gods. All the master gods of all god systems were astonished. Someone cried suddenly, ¡°Your Highness Master of Order! I want to vote again! May I?¡± The Master of Order waved its hand and loads of lights flew back from the giant white mass. The white mass immediately shrank and lost most of its light. At the next moment, many red lights raised instead to form a big red mass. Chapter 284 The commoners of the mortal world did not know of the arguments and debates that happened inside the Pantheon Temple. The only thing on the minds of the two large armies fighting was victory. The Gods did not bother them. The first to recover was the Orc Emperor, Junero Tiger. A flash of chilling light went through his eyes, and he raised his arms to let the guards beside him blow the giant signaling horn. This issued the command for a grand attack. The bleak and heroic horn sound echoed in the cold air of winter. It woke the Orcs that were stunned. What reason was there to hesitate? What was there to be stunned about? Even if the Gods and their oracles were not around anymore, the enemy side was just the same! If this was so, then they still had the same huge advantage! If this was so, what were they waiting for?! It was time to attack! The battle arrays on both sides were already quite messy. Orcs, humans, and other races that supported each of the two parties mixed together in a mess. Once the Orcs decided to take action, they immediately damaged the human side. The humans quickly reacted and began counter-attacking by rearranging their array. But compared to the Orcs, the humans were disadvantaged in terms of small-scale fighting. Because their arrays were still a mess, they immediately suffered losses. They survived thanks to the mortal believers of the God of Knights who had enjoyed large-scale resurrection. They recovered lots of battle power. Otherwise, the war situation might have immediately collapsed. Fortunately, the human side maintained momentum. They gained a bit of advantage in the overall setting and had the knights who still had some divine power invested in them as a backbone. After some hard battles, they finally stabilized the battle array and began to fight back hard. This meant that the Orcs mixed amongst the human battle array were finally killed. It also meant that the battle of these two parties had once again entered the cruelest stage of killing. ¡°Your Highness! Please give your order quickly!¡± messengers cried. One by one, they ran towards the Golden Eagle Crown flag, hoping that His Highness the King could immediately give orders. Attack or defend? If they were attacking, how should they attack? If they were defending, how should they defend? In short, they needed a plan. But what they saw was His Highness lying on the floor, his head and body separated. A young man who looked quite similar to His Highness was wearing the Eagle Crown and holding the Eagle Sword, standing beside his dead body. Some of the more impulsive people were immediately furious. They yelled angrily as they charged over to kill this abominable assassin, in order to avenge His Highness. Leon frowned a little. He almost took action, but priest Wookie moved first. He cast a spell to temporarily imprison these impulsive messengers. ¡°Everybody wait!¡± he said loudly. ¡°This is the youngest son of the belated king. He is His Highness of Prince Leon, who survived the coup. He is the true heir to the kingdom!¡± The messengers were stunned. Of course, they knew how King Woods was enthroned; they also knew that if Prince Leon came back, he absolutely had the right to kill the thief and calm the rebellion. There were even quite a number of them who secretly supported Prince Leon setting things back on the right path. It was just that¡­ the timing was f**king wrong! War was in full swing. The dangerous situation needed His Highness the King to give orders. But Prince Leon had killed His Highness of the King with a sword¡­ All right, they would admit that he was killed rightfully, and well, but what about the war?! For a moment, the messengers felt sick to their stomachs. All cast eyes of helplessness and resentment at Leon, who came at a wrong time. Leon could not help but laugh as they stared on. ¡°I know what you are all worried about,¡± he said. ¡°Since I killed Woods, I will, of course, take up the responsibility he was to bear.¡± He waved his hand and the ¡°Eagle Clothing¡± armor on the floor flew up and attached to his body. The three artifacts had once again converged. They immediately called out to each other and gave out a dim white light. Now that the armor was on Leon¡¯s body, the light of the three artifacts was more concentrated. It looked as if it had turned into a suit of armor completely made of white light. Leon gently smiled and jumped up. The white light of the three artifacts gathered on his back and became a pair of white-light wings, supporting him as he floated in the air. ¡°Your Highness Orc Emperor,¡± he began. Though his voice was not loud, it broadcast through the entire battlefield. No matter how violent the voices of killing were they could not cover his message. ¡°I am Leon Igor, the descendant of the Eagle, the true heir of the Kingdom, and the current heir of the three artifacts. The killing going on isn¡¯t in our best interest. Even if we fight until there is victory, we will lose a huge number of young and strong men. So many it will be enough to make us incapable of recovering for a few decades. ¡°Is Your Highness the Emperor interested in following the traditions of experts, and drawing a duel between us to decide the outcome of this war?¡± Junero Tiger frowned. Although he usually pretended to be a weak scholar to hide his shocking strength, he could naturally see what Leon¡¯s level was. Facing an opponent who was an expert, from the top of the legendary realm, who also held the three artifacts? This made even Junero Tiger feel a bit intimidated. But before he replied someone in the Orc army yelled angrily, ¡°Everybody knows that Our Highness is a person who leads all our different races of Orcs with his wisdom and brain. You want him to fight you to death? That¡¯s like asking a scholar to fight a sailor! That is absolutely ridiculous!¡± It was the general commander of the Southern army of Orcs, Iron Teeth Yiloh. He was surrounded by a group of knights and fought violently with them, but he was flustered. He hung on bitterly for a long time before his subordinates finally came to support him. With the help of his subordinates, he finally broke through this group of knights and slew the young knight, who was the leader. He almost went to chop off the opponent¡¯s head, but an average-level knight protected the young one. His body glowed with a bright light before they both disappeared without a trace. Iron Teeth Yiloh raged with madness at that moment. Seeing that the enemy had escaped, he felt really furious; and then suddenly there came a Leon Igor. It was a wonder he spoke so immediately and without any manners. Leon was not angry. Instead, he smiled gently and asked, ¡°According to the duel rules, if one party cannot participate in the duel, he can find other people to substitute. Could it be that this brother who is full of rage planned to come out on behalf of Your weak scholar Highness, and duel with me?¡± Yiloh was stunned. When he went to answer, he suddenly heard the voice of the elderly of the church. ¡°Shut up!¡± The voice of the elder was accompanied by anger. ¡°You are not his opponent!¡± If it someone else had spoken, Yiloh would not have been convinced. But this was the elder who was once his teacher. Facing his teacher¡¯s rebuke, he could only lower his head in accordance and shut his mouth, even as a general in control of heavy armies. ¡°What that boy Yiloh said was reasonable,¡± the elder of the church, who was holding the staff of imprisonment, sighed softly. He slowly floated up into the air and faced Leon. ¡°Our Highness does not lead my race with military skill. He is not suitable to duel with you.¡± ¡°Maybe this old man wants to duel with me?¡± Leon smiled and said. ¡°Although respecting the old and loving the young is a virtue, if you really want to duel then I will not spare any mercy.¡± The ancient elder gently tapped his staff of imprisonment and a strong magic power dispersed from his body. It formed a huge shaman formation mid-air. ¡°Young boy, do not think for one second you are invincible just because you stepped into the top legendary realm and hold some artifacts!¡± he said furiously. ¡°I stepped into the top of the legendary realm a long time ago, and I am also holding an artifact. If we really fight, you are not necessarily my opponent!¡± ¡°If His Highness the Emperor is willing to use this duel to decide the war, then I will do my best to fight even if you are not my opponent,¡± Leon said in a serious manner. ¡°I can presume you feel the same way.¡± The elder of the church did not reply. He turned around and looked at Junero under the huge battle flag. Junero Tiger sighed a little and let his subordinate use an amplifying magic spell on him. Then he said, ¡°Although you are suggesting a duel to decide the results of this war, on what basis exactly are you giving orders to the entire Eagle Kingdom?¡± Leon smiled and raised his sword. The bright light on the Eagle Sword shone brightly. Its white light spread out on either side as if a huge eagle had spread its wings. It almost covered the entire sky. ¡°With just this!¡± he said. ¡°The Eagle Sword!¡± Chapter 285 As all had known, the Eagle Wing Sword was the emperor¡¯s sword passed on from generation to generation within the Eagle Kingdom. It was also the key to activate the Three Eagle Artifacts. Any human who mastered the power of god could be regarded as the true ¡°Eagle Descendant¡± and believed to take on the whole state. In other words, the Eagle Wing Sword symbolized the king of Eagle Kingdom. The one who used the sword was not necessarily the king, but a qualified king must know how to use the sword. Leon Igor was the only living descendant of the former king; thus he had the legal and constitutional, undoubted right of inheritance. Moreover, he was capable and had a good command of the Eagle Wing Sword. This made him well-equipped to succeed as the king and nothing would step in his way of doing so. Therefore, he was certainly in the position to issue orders to the Eagle Kingdom. In fact, when the eagle was flying across the sky, many old followers of the former king who had never witnessed the Eagle Wing Sword by themselves had all been astonished and cried with joy. And the young had also been excited at seeing that, knowing what it had implied, though most of them had never seen the Eagle Wing Sword before. ¡°I guess you would allow me to take on the battle on behalf of the Eagle Kingdom.¡± Leon swung his sword, intensifying the lights around him as well as the cheerful crowd. ¡°Your Highness, Emperor of Orcs, now the question is, will you or someone else take on the battle?¡± The battlefield became silent, and all humans and Orcs looked at the golden flag of the Emperor of Orcs. How would the man under the flag decide? Would this battle end with a dreadful slaughter or a relatively mild fight? If it were a fight, who would win? Junero Tiger frowned anxiously, for he had not expected such a situation and was thus rather hesitant. He was confident in defeating the other, even though this capable young lad was at the legendary peak and held a holy weapon to enhance his strength. Yet, Junero Tiger didn¡¯t want the fight. Being a top master, Junero had always been promoting his leadership of mass line with wisdom and personal charm. In his opinion, a king should always be with his people rather than enthusiastically fighting alone. That was why when he was in the Orcs''¡±golden tent martial competition¡± to fight for the crown of the emperor, he had chosen to spend his time convincing the contesters one by one rather than defeating them in the ring. This was his principle. Masters of his level usually stuck to their own principles because only in that way could they find the meeting point in the origins of the world and obtain their deity to finish the key step towards becoming a god. This process marked the integrity of human dignity and deity so as to proceed to the level of a god. Junero had been working hard for so long, and he was not willing to sacrifice his past efforts just for one battle. However, the Orcs had long been honoring force and brave fighters and would probably be disappointed if he rejected Leon Igor¡¯s challenge. ¡°Your Highness, let me fight against him!¡± the Presbyter of the Divine Temple said. ¡°I will not lose to him!¡± Junero forced a smile and shook his head secretly. Indeed, the presbyter was equally capable as the opponent. But at such an old age, the possibilities of him either making another breakthrough in the radical fight or staying powerful were both worrying. Besides, the real problem was not about capability. Junero Tiger didn¡¯t wish to fight in this way! He lowered his head and thought for a long time. At last, he raised his head again and said decisively, ¡°I reject your challenge. But if you still wish to fight with force, please come to me by yourself!¡± His words shocked all. It was widely accepted for people to fight one on one for something. It was a tradition of romanticism and a solution which could avoid unnecessary loss. Normally, one would not reject another¡¯s invitation for a fight as long as they were at a similar level. Before the results were settled, the most suitable way to tackle problems was through a fight. But the Emperor of Orcs rejected Prince Leon¡¯s invitation, and not even willing to send someone to fight on his behalf. This was completely different from the common practice. Leon was the most surprised. He had never expected the Orcs¡ªthe force-honored race¡ªto have an emperor against using force. Now Leon was still flying in the air, feeling a bit embarrassed at being rejected. Luckily, Junero Tiger didn¡¯t keep him embarrassed for long. He waved his hand again and ordered all his forces to attack. ¡°Forward! Defeat all these humans! Throw each of them into failure and despair and give them no excuse to feel safe! I want an outright victory to lay the foundation for long-term peace and security in the empire¡¯s new southern border!¡± With his order, all his troops¡ªthough they had just been depressed by his rejection of Leon¡¯s fight¡ªburst into a roar and rushed to attack. As humans were on the edge of being defeated, Leon frowned and made a decision. ¡°Not daring to fight against me? Fine, let me come to you!¡± Leon was glowing as he picked up his Eagle Sword and rushed towards the flag of the Emperor of Orcs. White light shone, and the eagle spread its wings. The sword brought along with it a gust of air as fast as the eagle flying towards that strikingly tall, golden battle flag. Before the strong gust hit the flag, the Presbyter of the Divine Temple appeared there right in front of it. He waved his Staff of Imprisonment and called a giant human skeleton into the air to stop the sword¡¯s eagle-like airflow. With a horrendous sound, a strong wind swept over the whole battlefield and stopped the Eagle Sword. The Orc troops cheered while humans froze with fear. The Eagle Sword had long been reputed as unrivaled. Countless times when the Eagle Kingdom troops had been in danger, the king would wield the Eagle Sword to turn the tables and defeat all their enemies. In the hearts of the people on the Eagle Kingdom, the Eagle Sword had been their symbol of unbeatable strength and their faith! But now, it was stopped! For many of them, it was just like the end of the world, and they immediately lost all will to fight. If not for the remaining anger towards the Orcs and their pride as soldiers, they would have given in to the enemies. Leon was also shocked. He was very clear about how powerful the sword was and had never expected this Orc, who looked too old to fight, to defend against it so easily. This made him worried. At this time, the Eagle Sword, the Eagle Crown, and the Eagle Clothing shone brightly along with strange sounds in the sky. The Three Eagle Artifacts were chirping together. In the next moment, Leon had changed his appearance in the midst of the lights. He was in a fabulous feather coat armor which covered golden chainmail. He was wearing a feather crown on which diamonds were beautifully shining on his god-like face. He was holding a giant, feather-like sword which was surrounded by electric lights. The lights flew around him in the shape of a lightning eagle, hovering and chirping. What was more impressive was a strong power that was felt. Before, Leon was seen as no more than a powerful human. But now, he looked like someone beyond the mortal world, exactly the same as the God of Knights who descended to the world previously. With the Eagle Sword being the key and the peak of legendary strength being the basis, the Three Eagle Artifacts had awakened! The Eagle Descendants would receive strong power from the three activated artifacts¡ªstrong enough to rival the gods! And now, such power belonged to Prince Leon, the most legitimate heir of the Eagle Kingdom! Leon slowly raised the completely different Eagle Sword, looking at it surprisingly. It had been so long since the last time the three artifacts were awakened. Though the previous kings of the Eagle Kingdom had used the Eagle Sword to wake up the three artifacts and obtain strong power, it hadn¡¯t caused such a huge difference as today. At the same time, in the chamber of the temple of Eagle Kingdom, the fire started to burn in the middle of the tiny lights. From the fire came a looming figure which was wearing an eagle crown, a feather robe and was holding a long sword. The senior presbyter was kneeling in the chamber with two of his followers and bowing in worship to the fire. ¡°Our God! Are you coming back?¡± But the figure was not getting any clearer. The senior presbyter raised his head slowly. He thought for a while and nodded slightly. ¡°I see! Your Highness can¡¯t return because your belief has become too thin to corporealize itself, even if you have a vessel.¡± ¡°Then what shall we do with it?¡± one follower, the current high priest, asked with concern. ¡°There is no simple method. We can only take time to preach,¡± said the senior presbyter. ¡°But don¡¯t worry. Since we already have the descendant to support His Highness¡¯s return and the deity of His Highness has also been awakened, His Highness¡¯s return is only a matter of time.¡± ¡°I am too old to wait until that day, but you are still young. The most important thing is that the prince, who can help with His Highness¡¯s return, can live a long life.¡± He smiled. ¡°Take your time. Someday you, or at least your followers, or your followers¡¯ followers, will reunite in the kingdom of His Highness!¡± His two followers nodded seriously, feeling excited. The senior presbyter smiled again. ¡°To help His Highness¡¯s belief spread widely again, let me use my dying body to contribute the last bit of my strength!¡± His body started to burn from his feet to his head. His body soon became a mass of golden flame and flowed into another burning fire in the corner of the chamber. At the next moment, Leon suddenly felt a strong power flowing into his body from the three artifacts, largely increasing his power again. His eyes shone like the stars in the sky, the airflow around him was nearly burning, and the electric lights on his sword could light up the vast land beneath him. He smiled and looked at that Presbyter of the Divine Temple. ¡°The real Eagle Sword has come,¡± Leon said. ¡°How about trying again!¡± Chapter 286 Leon did what he said he would. He swung his Eagle Sword again. It seemed like there was no difference from the last time. Its aura was still that of the eagle wings spread across the sky. But if one looked carefully it was evident that compared to a minute before, the sword seemed alive. It was like a real eagle instead of a sword. It was a unique eagle, neither fierce nor handsome. It was only huge and lively. It could almost cover the sky when it spread both its wings. But when it flew it was an ordinary eagle without even one bit of greatness. The sword¡¯s aura suddenly broke through the long sky and pushed towards the Orc Emperor¡¯s flag. The elder of the church straightened up and raised the staff of imprisonment up high. He gave a shout as blood flew out of his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. A circle of red light shot out from the staff of imprisonment like a flame. It acted as a shield, blocking the direction of the sword¡¯s aura. This time, the collision between the sword¡¯s aura and the red light was not as shocking. Both sides appeared stubborn. They did not disappear, even on collision. The eagle from sword¡¯s aura chirped as it flapped its wings and moved forward. The red light made a boiling sound and its color seemed to fade and evaporate, its volume constantly reducing. After a few seconds, the red light finally disappeared. The aura of the Eagle Sword did not change much. It continued moving forward, dashing straight toward the elder of the church. Red light emanated fiercely from the staff of imprisonment, but the elder of the church vomited blood in a violent way. His entire body was crooked. In a moment he had shrunk into a wrinkly pile of garbage. It seemed that the staff of imprisonment was absorbing his entire life force as well as his flesh and blood. After completely absorbing everything from the life of this expert, the red light on the staff of imprisonment shone so brightly it could almost be seen throughout the world. Within the red light, the six skulls tied on the staff head floated, each of them growing bigger than the size of a human. They opened their bony white mouths and bit towards the sword¡¯s aura. The sword¡¯s aura moved immediately, and the eagle turned around to bypass an oncoming skull as its other wing flapped away another one. The battle array that the six skulls arranged had a void, so it flew through it. Although the skulls immediately gave chase they were one step too slow. It had almost bombarded the golden flag of the Orc Emperor. Leon finally smiled. The powers of the true Eagle Sword were really different! Especially when he suddenly received that gush of strength. The Eagle Sword was brilliant, and with its powers, he could probably fight those weaker Gods. He might even win. Regardless of how strong the Orc Emperor was, he could not escape death or injury. The Orc spirits would deflate greatly after losing their leader, and they would have to retreat. Then this violent war could finally come to an end. But in the very next moment, Leon knew that he was very wrong. As the Eagle Sword came at him, Junero Tiger sighed deeply. ¡°In the end, I still need to use my martial powers!¡± His body made a cracking noise. Then he welcomed the sword¡¯s aura with a swing of his fist. His palm was white and long; no one thought of this tall tiger man¡¯s fists as weapons. But it was his fist that knocked out the aura of the Eagle Sword. The sword¡¯s aura crumbled and disappeared in front of his fist with a sad wail. The fist was completely unharmed. Leon almost could not believe his own eyes. He stared at Emperor Junero and asked, ¡°Who exactly are you?!¡± ¡°Junero Tiger,¡± the Orc Emperor calmly replied as his body floated into the air. His face was full of regret. But there was also the sense that he had let go of a heavy burden. He had finished a long mission, and even though the ending was not as he wished, he had indeed lightened his load. ¡°Impossible! Everyone knows the Orc Emperor is not an extreme expert!¡± Leon frowned and said. ¡°Just because everyone knows something does not make it true,¡± Junero said, smiling. ¡°But it does not matter what is happening. Everything is coming to an end.¡± He looked down on both sides of the people who were completely stunned by the turn of events, and towards the battlefield covered with dead bodies. He sighed deeply and said to Leon, ¡°It seems like the war is not going to progress anymore.¡± Leon watched him cautiously; he didn¡¯t dare lower his guard. He did not know what exactly was happening with this Orc Emperor, but his expert instinct told him that his opponent was strong. Unimaginably strong! It scared him and made his shoulders and legs tremble uncontrollably. He had heard about Junero Tiger from His own Highness and His Highness of Steel Lion. He knew that this fellow was conservatively estimated to be a demigod expert. It was possible he was even at the level of a real God. But Leon felt that with the help of the three awakened artifacts, his ability would be no less than some weaker Gods. He who could make him tremble, even slightly, was too strong! Leon wondered how such a strong fellow could stay and fight on the main plane., Leon was an expert from the top of the legendary realm and had the help of the three artifacts. Even if he could not win against an opponent, he could at least run away. So he tested out Junero¡¯s abilities. Junero refused to take action no matter what, which further confirmed Leon¡¯s suspicions that he was more than he seemed. There were two options. It was possible that Junero¡¯s abilities were so strong he had already exceeded the allowed power limit on the main plane and could be bombed by the thunder of Godly punishment once he fought back. The other option was that Junero was the clone of an Orc God. They had no combat power at all until there were special circumstances. Leon thought he had the absolute advantage. With his current abilities, he was close to the allowed limit on the main plane. As long as he stayed inside the main plane he thought he didn¡¯t need to fear anyone but a higher being. But Junero shattered this confidence. But where exactly did this Junero fellow come from? Leon thought. Could he be¡­ the direct clone of the Main God in the Orc God System, ¡°Sky Devourer Canine¡± Lefon?! The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible. But he was also smart enough not to mention it. If his guess were true, then the fact could make the Orcs in the battlefield ecstatic. The human army was already tired and could not defeat an Orc army lead by a God. Not unless he called for backup. No! He could not! He shook his head hard and threw the shameful thought aside, stomping it out of existence. As the deacon of His Highness Void Mask, it was already wrong that he left Garth City alone to come and fight for the Eagle Kingdom. He could not ask His Highness to save the Eagle Kingdom and start a war with the Orc God System, whom he had just patched up diplomatic relations with not long ago. It would be a shameless act. Even thoughts of it made him feel shameful and furious! Since he could not ask His Highness for help, there was a possibility he would not beat the clone of Sky Devourer Canine. Perhaps it was time to end this war indeed¡­ He breathed in deeply, trying hard to make his voice sound full of confidence. ¡°Do you want to end this war? I think it would be a good idea. As a matter of fact I have something that I need to do elsewhere, and it is not convenient for me to stay here for too long. How do you want to finish this?¡± Junero smiled. There was a calm that could be sensed through the entire world within his smile. He saw through the inner heart of his opponent with ease. ¡°Both sides will retreat,¡± he said. ¡°We will draw the boundary line between our countries based on the control lines we had before the beginning of the war. We must agree not to engage in any wars for at least 20 years. What do you think?¡± ¡°So you want me to give up the contributed fortress of Iron City?¡± Leon said with a frown. ¡°I can give up the land, but I will never give up my people!¡± Junero smiled again. ¡°Why would I want those people? I will give them back to you.¡± He sighed gently and said, ¡°Initially I wanted to experiment and fuse the races together. But the results have been disastrous instead. Perhaps in this life, the more you chase after something, the harder it is to accomplish.¡± It seemed Junero¡¯s enthusiasm dulled, then gradually descended. He returned to the Orc war flag and gave a command to retreat. Leon finally breathed easy. He gave retreat orders as well. This had been the largest-scale war in a few hundred years. It had involved and killed many, and the curtains finally closed on it. Meanwhile, inside the Pantheon Temple, the King of Order finally had the results from the voting he organized. The voting process had a few twists and turns. For example, there was an instance when they had already voted for the Goddess of Twilight to reign over the position, but then regretted it and wanted to vote for the God of Fire Elements. There were quite a number of Gods who did this, but the great King of Order allowed this behavior and gave the impulsive ones who voted wrongly a chance to change their votes. This caused delays for some time. Now the results were finally out. In the sky above the Pantheon Temple, two groups of bright light confronted each other, one red and one white. The red represented votes cast to the God of Fire Elements, and white represented the votes cast to the Goddess of Twilight. Although every God could vote, not all Gods¡¯ votes were equal. The deity of that voter decided the value of each vote. The higher the deity was, the higher the value the vote was. For example, the votes of those with strong divine powers like the God of War and the God of Justice had ten times the value of those with weak divine powers, like the God of Eclipse. But there were very few with strong divine power. The Gods who occupied the majority of the Pantheon Temple were those with weak and slight divine power. Their votes were the ones that could decide the final results of the election. In the end, the God of Fire Elements gained a rather large victory. Naturally, the result made some happy and some sad, but it was not unexpected. At first, most of Gods didn¡¯t see that the God of Light had just killed the Sun God as the God of Conspiracy had warned. After that, everyone leaned toward choosing God of Fire Elements to be the Sun God¡¯s successor. When all the Gods cast their votes, the King of Order sternly looked at the entire Pantheon Temple to make sure that nobody wanted to switch anymore. Then He announced the final results. ¡°According to the voting results, I will divide the Sun God¡¯s clergy. The two parts of dawn and dusk will be given to the Goddess of Twilight, and the other times will be handed to God of Fire Elements,¡± he said. ¡°However, I will keep one-third of the clergy, and I am not giving it to anyone. If there is anyone else who can achieve enough understanding in the field of Sun, then look for me to inherit this part.¡± After the majestic King of Order made this somewhat unique judgment, the corner of his mouth rose up in a smirk. Chapter 287 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio According to the voting results from all the gods, the King of Order split the position of the Sun God into three parts¡ªthe main part went to the God of Fire Element, dawn and dusk went to the Goddess of Twilight, and the remaining one-third was waiting for anyone suitable to take it. The Goddess of Twilight was excited as she had expected to gain nothing; the God of Fire Element was more or less satisfied. For those who had reached the realm of the sun, the pending one-third of the position was like the carrot hanging in front of a donkey, inducing the latter to be determined to strive for it. After the distribution had been announced, the Sun God¡¯s body shook fiercely, and a golden light slowly floated upwards¡ªthe physical form of the position of the ¡°sun¡± with which one could be the new Sun God. Seeing this, the crowd of gods couldn¡¯t help but expose their thirst, though none of them really thought of grabbing it. Unlike jewelry or diamonds which were owned by possessing, obtaining priesthood not only required the profound understanding of the corresponding fields but also ideologically agreeing on the position. Besides, if the priesthood was that easy to take on, the God of Light might have grabbed it though making no use of it by himself. After all, it would do no harm to add a Sun God to the human god system! Nobody else was capable of taking on this position apart from the God of Fire Element and the Goddess of Twilight so far. In theory, the position could also be split into several minor positions so that more gods could be able to take on a part of them. However, this was a difficult decision to make for the God of Light to split such a position; the Sun God role had combined a wide range of minor positions through a long period of time and great efforts by the Sun God. In fact, it had been surprising to hear the King of Order propose to split the position of the Sun God. Was the Great Divine Power so powerful that it could finish such a difficult task with such little effort? It was interesting to see how the King of Order would split such an agglomerate position as the Sun God. With a silver flash, the King of Order came to the position of the Sun God. He slowly raised his hand into that golden light. Almost instantly, the King of Order took back his hand along with a soft golden light inside. In the meantime, the golden light was split into two parts, with the proportion of one to three in size for the two parts. The two parts of lights flew out separately. The bigger part went to the God of Fire Element who opened his lizard-like mouth to swallow the light. The smaller part went to the Goddess of Twilight who took it with her hand; it melted into her body. Then the two lights rose up from these two gods, raising their breath substantially and their seats in the pantheon temple also changed accordingly. The God of Fire Element was now the God of Fire Element and the Sun God while the Goddess of Twilight had become the God of the Rising and Setting Sun. It was all simple and easy. Of course, there would be other subsequent changes. For example, the two gods would send over oracles, and their churches and followers would hold grand celebrations and even¡­ In theory, as a god was promoted, the origin of the world would change somehow, as well as the surrounding environment. But actually, nothing happened. It was all quiet. The young gods didn¡¯t come to realize this, while the senior ones already paid attention to the King of Order. Things were not going as expected, and the only reason was that the position split and replacement had been carried out by the King of Order. Did it suggest¡­ that the origin of the world was also charged by ¡°order¡±? The God of Light was still standing there, but his face under the helmet had become dismal. His previous pride for beating the Sun God had disappeared. The King of Order was far more powerful than he had expected or even imagined! The God of Light was silent until all the gods had left. He then started to collect the body of the Sun God and was about to leave. He looked cold and hard as ice, and determination and confidence returned to his eyes. There was a long way to go¡­ for himself and the human god system! After the new Sun Gods had assumed their post, the sun shone brightly again, less formidable and more violent than before. The God of Fire Element was different from the former Sun God in terms of his philosophy and characteristics; that reflected in many aspects including the sunshine. In the Kingdom of Holy Angels, clergies were upset as they had completely lost connection with their gods. They noticed the shifting of their beliefs and at last, all their beliefs had been cut out brutally. The followers of the former Sun God had been taking charge of the state churches, but the new God of Fire Element and the Sun God did not want any of them! It was a nature god, not a god of belief. It had no problem with its own followers, but it would not accept the followers and organizations of the former Sun God. Before cutting out the old followers¡¯ belief in the former Sun God, it left them the last Oracle, asking them to think about and understand the essence of ¡°fire¡± and ¡°the sun.¡± It didn¡¯t know how many of them could learn to switch their beliefs to its own through thinking and exploring. In fact, it didn¡¯t even bother. Such attitudes of the new Sun God had made the followers of the former Sun God panic, and many of them had even brought an end to their lives in depression. But fairly speaking, the former God of Fire Element, today¡¯s God of Fire Element and Sun God, was open-minded compared to the other nature gods. Some nature gods had a hatred for belief and even refused to respond to their followers¡¯ prayer or receive the power of beliefs as if they had no followers. The extreme ones would ban belief and even beat their followers if they prayed to them. But that happened a long time ago. Today, most of the nature gods still dismissed their followers, but they did not beat them anymore. The reason was that those that had beat their followers had been deprived of their positions by the King of Order. The lucky ones had made use of their saved energy to turn into devils while the unlucky ones died. At this time, the sun came out again and shone in the sky when the fiercely battling humans and Orcs both recalled their last troops from the battlefield. This was seen as an auspicious sign, and many even cried with joy. It may have just been a coincidence though. Years later, it might become a story told by bards from generation to generation. And this legend might even help to prevent wars and bring peace between the Empire of Orcs and the Eagle Kingdom. But this was something the future generations had to do. For the Orcs, the problem they were facing now was to return these captives, whether they be soldiers or civilians. For the humans, all they wanted was to have their new king ascend the throne as soon as possible. The Orcs¡¯ concern would be easier; it was only a matter of time and labor. The goal of the humans would be more difficult to achieve because Leon refused to ascend the throne and become the king of the Eagle Kingdom. The ministers were all confused. The only thing they were worried about before was pleasing the new king and fighting each other for power and their own interests. But nobody had ever imagined that Leon wouldn¡¯t want the throne! ¡°I had agreed with someone to go back after the Wood issue was settled,¡± Leon said calmly. ¡°Since my business is done now, I should go back.¡± ¡°Where are you going to! This is your home!¡± a white-haired minister said in tears. His sad and angry face would make one surprised to know that he had also been the first one to announce his support to Woods ascending the throne. Leon smiled and dismissed him¡ªan old minister putting on different faces, unfortunately, didn¡¯t work on Leon. Leon took off the Eagle Clothing which had changed into its original form and put it on the throne next to him. He also took off the Eagle Crown from his head and put it on the armor. At last, he put the Eagle Sword down next to the crown. He was now in black armor, feeling as relaxed as he had been when he first met Sui Xiong. ¡°I¡¯ve got to go. It¡¯s up to you to select someone to take the throne. It¡¯s no problem with me,¡± he said. ¡°If someone wishes to learn the Eagle Sword, just come to me in Garth Town.¡± ¡°Garth Town?¡± A young minister frowned and thought for a while before he screamed, ¡°You mean¡­ you are ¡®the King of Seaside¡¯ of the Garth Town?¡± Leon laughed. ¡°My friends were just flattering me by calling me ¡®the King of Seaside.¡¯ In fact, I am the Archbishop of the Church of Void Mask. You see, isn¡¯t it ridiculous for a clergyman to be a king?¡± The ministers couldn¡¯t believe their ears. The Archbishop of the Church of Void Mask? That was the chief of the Void Mask Land¡ªmuch greater than the master of the Garth Town and probably nobler than the king of the Eagle Kingdom! The Void Mask Land was the top entertainment venue on the main plane, the most secure refuge and the most advanced cultural center. Owning such top-status land and having two real gods at the back, it was not hard to imagine how lucky this Prince Leon had been and how many miracles had happened to him during these past thirty years! Not to mention, he was also a peak, legendary master who might be reaching the demigod level soon after to have immortal life. He might still remain young and handsome till the last day of the Eagle Kingdom! Indeed, such a person would not limit himself to a throne. They gave up and saw Leon off though unhappily. But they didn¡¯t forget to keep reminding the prince that this was his homeland and asked him to come back whenever possible. Leon smiled and agreed. He launched his long-distance transportation scroll and soon returned to the portal of the Void Mask Land. Casari was sitting nearby on the bench designed for tourists to rest and was staring at the portal. Upon seeing Leon appear, she stood up quickly with surprise. However, she was not stable due to sitting for so long and fell down on the spot. She fell into the arms of Leon who rushed over right away. ¡°My lord, I didn¡¯t expect such welcome for me.¡± Leon smiled. Casari didn¡¯t reply. She raised her head and looked up at Leon with concerned. ¡°You are back? Are you leaving? To be the king of the Eagle Kingdom¡ª?¡± She talked so quickly that she choked and finally had to stop talking to a cough. Leon laughed and patted her on the back to calm her down. ¡°Relax, I promised you, didn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°You are not leaving again?¡± ¡°No! I am back here already.¡± ¡°Promise?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry!¡± Chapter 288 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Leon¡¯s smooth return was indeed good news. It allowed Sui Xiong and others who had been worried all the while to finally relax, as there was no need to be worried anymore. Hence, it was time for a scolding. ¡°How can you be so brave?!¡± Sui Xiong scolded profusely, his tentacles waving around like a deep sea monster seen in a horror movie. He said furiously, ¡°Last time, we had already told you how strong Junero was, how dare you still challenge him?! Are you out of your mind? You really don¡¯t understand the word ¡®die!''¡± ¡°I just thought that, with the help of the three artifacts, I could at least run away, even if I couldn¡¯t fight him¡­¡± Leon argued. ¡°Run?! Run your head!¡± Sui Xiong was furious, so mad that even his tentacles had turned red. ¡°Did you think that the three Eagle artifacts were that terrific? A character of level sixty who gathered three epic equipments could show off in a level eighty dungeon. You could be half killed by just one hit from a small monster on the side of the road!¡± Leon was quiet. Although he didn¡¯t really understand what Sui Xiong was saying, at least he could still understand the numbers. ¡°Who is this Junero? He¡¯s an expert who was eligible to fight for the throne of Orc Emperor even five thousand years ago. He¡¯s an old senior who is at the same level as sky devourer canine and steel lion. At this time, those who are great might not necessarily live long, but those who can live that long must be really great! You really thought your three Eagle artifacts were that great? Back then, the God of Eagle Himself was a b*stard who was hammered into a pile of slag by God of Light! The sky devourer canine is the same level as God of Light, and Junero had fought with sky devourer canine before, which means he is at the same level as God of Eagle, and he might even be stronger than it¡­ exactly who the f*ck gave you this unfounded confidence, and allowed you to think that you could fight an expert who is the same level as God of Eagle with only the help of His three passed down artifacts?¡± While Leon was scolded until he was dizzy, he hadn¡¯t noticed that Sui Xiong was gradually changing topic. Carissa was standing next to him not saying anything, just nodding her head again and again and again. She used this silence to increase the persuading power for His Highness¡¯ criticism and also to keep increasing the psychological stress inside of him. The both of them pressured him different ways, and Leon couldn¡¯t stand it anymore. He honestly bowed his head and admitted that he was wrong, then promised that he wouldn¡¯t get into trouble with Junero anymore. ¡°A promise is useless, I need you to swear an oath!¡± Sui Xiong said coldly, ¡°If you dare to go and get into trouble with that dangerous guy again, then Steele will climb into your bed in the middle of the night!¡± Leon¡¯s face suddenly paled to the color of snow. He screamed, ¡°This oath is way too evil!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care how evil the oath is, as long as you never think about betraying it, then there will be no problems!¡± Carissa¡¯s face had also paled as she advised, ¡°Why must it be Steele?! That¡¯s not very nice!¡± ¡°It is because it¡¯s Steele that it¡¯s a deterrent!¡± Sui Xiong was smugly forcing Leon onward when suddenly one of his tentacles was pulled twice. He looked down at it, and he could see a little pink pig giving him a big smile as it gently tugged his tentacle. ¡°Ah?!¡± When someone spoke badly behind another person¡¯s back but was heard, it was a very embarrassing thing. Even someone as thick skinned as the Jellyfish God was stunned right now, not knowing what should be said. But Steele did not give him a chance to think of an excuse. She smiled, and there were two firelights of different colors, red and blue, that circled around her body, turning into a huge pink pig in a blink of an eye. She raised her huge fist, which was like a City Rushing Hammer. ¡°S-Steele¡­ Let us speak nicely¡­ We are all civilized people¡­ Do not use your hand¡ª¡± Boom! ¡°¡ªor leg.¡± She used one punch to knock out the Jellyfish God with no verbal manners. Steele¡¯s body had a circle of firelight around her before she changed back into a cute little pink pig again. She leaped away and flew out of the temple. After a few seconds, Carissa exclaimed, ¡°Miss Steele is really getting greater and greater! When did she master this ability?¡± ¡°Got the ability by using the Perfect Wishing Magic¡­¡± Sui Xiong said with a slur. Both Carissa and Leon looked at his bare face that had been hit until he was dizzy, still unrecovered, and then they thought about the place that the perfect wishing magic originated. They couldn¡¯t help but look at each other and secretly laugh at him. What did it mean to bring something on to oneself? This was it! After being disrupted by Steele, Sui Xiong had no more interest in criticizing Leon anymore. He switched to another topic. ¡°What¡¯s actually the matter with the three Eagle artifacts?¡± He asked, ¡°I haven¡¯t really heard before that a mortal can become an expert on par with God with just three pieces of equipment¡­ Such equipment is unheard of!¡± ¡°These artifacts, aren¡¯t they all very great?¡± Carissa asked, ¡°The sword and armor that you made for Leon were also very great, so why are you so interested in these three Eagle artifacts?¡± ¡°They¡¯re two different things.¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°No matter how great the artifact is, it can¡¯t create a large amount of energy out of nothing. After all, the person who was using it was just a mortal, but the three Eagle artifacts were different. They gave Leon a large amount of energy that was enough to defy God in a short moment. This is completely against common sense, it¡¯s just not right!¡± But Leon and Carissa were not suitable people to discuss this with, thus Sui Xiong could only look for Morani to discuss it. ¡°Based on your earlier statements, do you think God of Eagle had grasped some kind of skills beyond common sense, and that was why He had the confidence to challenge God of Light?¡± Morani set down his large wine glass, and while laughing, said, ¡°How could that be?! I can¡¯t speak for the others, but in the field of blacksmithing, I¡¯m much greater than He is! It is not because I look down on Him, it is just that even I cannot do that, so on what basis could He?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it, but he was feeling more and more puzzled. As the God of Forging for the half-orcs, Morani was naturally the most professional among the professionals. If He said it was impossible, then it was definitely impossible. If the God of Eagle¡¯s skills were really higher than Morani had imagined, then back during that time, He would not been killed by God of Light¡ªGod of Light would have been killed by Him instead. If this was so, then what kind of secret was hidden within the three Eagle artifacts? ¡°What do you say I bring the three Eagle artifacts back here and we secretly study them?¡± The more he thought about it, the more he felt as if a hundred claws were clawing his heart, his heart feeling so itchy that he couldn¡¯t take it anymore, and he couldn¡¯t help but suggest, ¡°We could just return them after we¡¯re done studying them¡­¡± ¡°Do you think you still need to steal them?¡± Morani laughed, ¡°That year, I already stole them and studied them, and I even studied them for quite a few years!¡± ¡°F*ck! Then what did you find out about them?¡± ¡°Nothing,¡± Morani said helplessly, ¡°It was just an item that can absorb the belief of mankind towards God of Eagle, then turn it into divine powers. Based on this, it was an item that shouldn¡¯t be very complicated or high class. I could even make three to five sets of them in a day with my eyes closed. But for some reason, the ones I made did not have the same effect as the original version¡­¡± As He saw that Sui Xiong was as curious as a baby, He simply took out a set of three imitation Eagle artifacts and handed them over to Sui Xiong. It could be seen that this set of ¡°Eagle artifacts¡± was not any different from the activated set that Leon had been wearing earlier, though there was also an energy surrounding it that could be felt clearly. Yet as he carefully sensed it, he found that the energy force was much weaker than the one on Leon¡¯s body before. It was as absolute as the difference between sky and land. ¡°This was forged strictly according to the original version. From its materials to the structure, there should not be any difference.¡± He said, ¡°Of course, from the aspect of forging skills, every blacksmith has their own set of techniques. But I can guarantee with my name, that my techniques are definitely more refined than God of Eagle¡¯s!¡± Sui Xiong took the set of imitations and thought about it, then he made a clone and wore the set. He used the teleportation door and went to Eagle City, then went all the way to the battlefield once again. Although Leon had already came back, the war had only ended a few hours ago. The armies from both parties were still stationed near the battlefield. They were still cleaning up the bodies from each of their sides, and they still needed to exchange refugees before everyone could retreat. When Sui Xiong reached it, he saw the auxiliary armies from both sides cleaning up the battlefield. Under the dusky sky, the battlefield was covered in darkness. As every space was filled with dead bodies who had been killed violently, the scene was chilling. It was now the middle of winter, the weather cold and chilly. The hot blood that had flown relentlessly a few hours earlier had already frozen along with the flesh and blood, the armor, weapons, and soil. Even though it wasn¡¯t that hard, it did give the soldiers a huge problem. Usually, it took a few soldiers roughly seven to eight minutes to completely retrieve a dead body, to carry it up to the wheel cart stopped beside them and await to be transported back to the main camp. Looking down from the sky at the sea of dead bodies on the battlefield, Sui Xiong could not accurately count how many were dead, even with his extraordinary eyesight. Looking at the scene, his original excitement of stealing the three Eagle artifacts for research purposes was drowned by a bucket of cold water. The passion immediately and completely cooled off. ¡°So this is¡­ war¡­¡± Stopping on the battlefield that still held the after effects of violent killings, it was as if he could hear the loud and violent voices from both sides, as if he could still hear the neighing of warhorses, the clashing of weapons, as if he could still see the scenes of weapons tearing up bodies, fresh blood and life forces spewing everywhere, as if he could still feel the emotions of anger, unwillingness, helplessness and despair of those who were facing death. Yes, these were all still there. Even though mortals could not see them, to a God, this piece of land had already been soaked through by war. It was not defined how many months and years it would take before it could become normal again. ¡°Such an extravagant scene, isn¡¯t it?¡± A shadow that was covered in black robe appeared beside him. He retreated two steps under his cautious sight. He was holding a long scythe, looking down upon the scene that was like a frozen hell under their feet, ¡°Although I¡¯ve seen it many times before, every time I see it I have new insights.¡± ¡°Why would the Grim Reaper come to the human¡¯s world?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be guarding the underworld all year long?¡± ¡°Just a clone.¡± The man in the black robe who was holding the long scythe was one of those with strong divine powers, Theo Narus, the Grim Reaper. He had built His Holy Kingdom in the underworld and had all sorts of dead souls become His believers. He pronounced that all living would die, only the dead having eternal peace. Among all of the Gods, He was one who was heavily avoided by everyone, the one no one not wanted to be enemies with. It was just that even though His powers were great, He had rarely caused any contradiction with others, except for the time when He had fought the Goddess of Life. And as He had been badly defeated, for a thousand years, there were no other battle records for Him. As for the only battle record¡­ being able to engage in a fierce battle with the Goddess of Life itself was enough proof to show how strong He was. One had to know that up until now, even those with strong divine powers did not dare to fight the Thunder of Punishment that was left behind by the Goddess of Life! The appearance of Grim Reaper was quite a surprise to Sui Xiong, but then he immediately understood what Grim Reaper was there for. He could see the gloomy God wave His hand, and His long scythe had turned into a stroke of black air as it drew a few rounds, circling the entire battlefield. It was as if there was an uncountable number of hooks that hooked many dead souls up, until they were lined up and tied to the blade. ¡°Since they¡¯re dead, if their souls had no place to go, they would turn into evil spirits sooner or later.¡± God of Death sighed gently, ¡°All I can do is give them peace, so they will never have to suffer the pain that they had suffered while they were alive.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± The Grim Reaper smiled. It appeared that there were a pair of eyes underneath the black robe looking at Sui Xiong. ¡°This is my clergy and my belief, there is no need to thank me. In fact, you have beautified my actions. You need to know that almost all of these souls each had an obsession. There is not even one who is willing to go to the underworld. I am bringing them away forcefully, and I will probably be cursed one way or another.¡± Speaking of this, the Grim Reaper disappeared without a trace along with the countless dead souls that were locked on the long scythe. And at this time, the final bit of remaining light at the edge of the sky had finally disappeared as well, leaving the night to cover the entire land. Chapter 289 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After witnessing what had happened on the battlefield, Sui Xiong gave up the idea of stealing the Three Eagle Artifacts for study. For the whole night, he had been floating in the air above the battlefield and thinking alone. Having been born in a time of peace and growing up in a stable and harmonious society, his most brutal and horrible memory was probably that a psychopath who had just lost his lover. He was holding a knife on the street, attacking anyone in sight until he was shot to death at last. Sui Xiong had been sitting in a restaurant on that street eating spicy noodles at that time. He was so shocked and impressed that he had even put the noodles to his nose instead of his mouth. He had certainly watched dreadful news like terrorist attacks, the chaos caused by war, famine, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc., but as he heard such news through TV, computer and newspaper, they had sounded distant. Living in a peaceful world, he had become gentle and mild. He was always willing to talk and negotiate, share and benefit others, and even compromise in certain cases. However, he would also react rather drastically when confronting extremely evil incidents to which he could no longer compromise; he would be greatly afflicted when facing brutalities beyond his acceptance. And the most brutal scene he had ever witnessed in his life was exactly the one in front of him now. He had fought and killed before. He had killed countless devils in the abyss. He had even joined the battle against Cloud City, and before long, fought and killed lots of angels and Oracles. But their deaths¡ªwhether they be devils or angels¡ªhadn¡¯t come with blood. Instead, they came with flames; an explosion had taken place to mark their death, similar to the special effects of a video game. For an experienced player like him, it hadn¡¯t felt like a real battle but a fierce and rather difficult virtual game instead. In fact, until now, Sui Xiong had been convincing himself that he had been in a long and ridiculous dream and that after he had woken up, he would be back to reality in his dormitory, guarding the warehouse, painting and playing games. Maybe he was escaping the fact, but he couldn¡¯t really manage to face all the messes of the real world. But at this very moment, standing in front of the numerous dead bodies of humans and humanoids, he finally had no way to escape again. He had to face this bloody battlefield as well as this brutal world. As an artist, Sui Xiong was emotional. Compared with in-depth analysis and thinking, he was better at understanding others and feeling the way they feel. And now he could truly feel the pain and despair of the deceased, the sorrow of the living. He realized the horrible destruction caused by the war and the crisis which would last long afterward. He was floating above the battlefield; he didn¡¯t move at all as he watched the people down there busy clearing away the bodies and processing in different ways day by day. Nobles and knights would be frozen before being sent to their graveyards; junior officers and adventurers would be incinerated, and their remains would be returned to their family in small jars along with their relics. Ordinary soldiers would be incinerated, and their remains would be buried collectively with nothing but their names left on the ¡°deceased list¡± recorded by the military clerk. Unlike the more civilized Eagle Kingdom, the Orc Empire was rather rough and ruthless. Bodies of the famous masters would be identified and sent back to their hometowns along with other relics as a clue of the specific clan for their descendants and other clansmen. The ordinary orcs would be burnt directly without any funeral, leaving the remains to be blown away by the wind. And the clerk would just record the death toll of each tribe while not bothering with specific names. Sui Xiong had been staying above the battlefield for a month to watch both sides clearing up silently and sending their messengers to negotiate and exchange captives. By the end of January, when the temperature had dropped to extreme cold, the last troops of both sides left, leaving all the traces of their battle covered by endless snow. The number of casualties on both sides was finally released. On the human side, nearly 200,000 out of the 400,000 soldiers in the direct subordinate units of the Eagle Kingdom had died in battle or of illness and serious injuries; around 20,000 suffered minor injuries and 50,000 had escaped. Out of the more than 4,000 adventurers, over 2,000 of them had died, and the rest had suffered injuries at different levels with very few of them being uninjured. Among the nearly 50,000 volunteers and knights from other countries, almost 45,000 had died in battle, and the other 5,000 were injured severely. Records of the Orc side were not as detailed. Around 650,000 had been in the battle altogether, and nearly 350,000 of them had died; nearly 100,000 had died of injuries and illnesses with ineffective treatment from shamans, or they had escaped. An additional record of the Orcs was the loss of 150,000 in the elite units and around 300,000 in others. In total, the battle had involved over a million forces and Oracles led by real gods. It had resulted in the passing of the first human patron saint, the highly reputed God of Knights. Countless casualties of Oracles and followers and more than 750,000 humans had died in the war! Such dreadful battles had rarely happened in the past. Even the legendary battle between the humans and Orcs had much fewer casualties than this one, though more forces had been involved. More than one million, five hundred thousand forces were in that battle with casualties of around 300,000¡ªless than half of that at this time. An important reason for a large number of casualties in this battle had been the use of Oracle forces on both sides and the complicated warfare. The Oracle forces of legendary level had been a daunting power for humans but the latter¡ªwith the help of strong spells¡ªhad been unprecedentedly courageous to fight back though they had usually fled when confronting slaughter. The humans¡¯ fearless fight regardless of physical conditions and casualties had dramatically increased the number of dead and injured. Moreover, an additional mass of people had died of the consequent injuries and illnesses after the battle. Especially when the human forces broke through the Orcs front and slaughtered the less powerful auxiliary Orc soldiers at the back of the Orc troops, they were killing like wheat-harvesting farmers. There was enough blood flowing to form a small lake. But they also paid the price¡ªthe humans hardly survived, and most of them died in the Orcs¡¯ field. But things were opposite during the difficult fight. Though all the Orcs elite units had been defeated, they had also killed humans several times over than the humans had killed them. And it would take time for one to discover the subsequent grave results. The Eagle Kingdom had a population of around five million. The Duke of Griffin led a semi-independent region in the east. It was not a large land, but it was rather fertile, feeding nearly a million people. The Duke of Griffin sent merely three thousand people to support this battle, and this troop had been quite sly. They had mostly stayed in the more secure corner of the battlefield and avoided as much harm to themselves as possible. Among the remaining four million people, four hundred thousand were involved in the battle¡ªa show of strength from the Eagle Kingdom. At last, it suffered a direct loss of two hundred thousand and seventy thousand injured or escaped¡ªnearly seventy percent of the force had been lost. Essentially, more than one-fifteenth of the five million people had been sacrificed. For regions which had sent off fewer forces¡ªmaybe just five had been sent in a village¡ªonly three survived and returned; but for regions that had sent off more, they had to face a more heartbreaking fact. All the families there would no longer be complete; there would be more orphans and widows, and several funerals were taking place at the same time. The Orc Empire hadn¡¯t recorded its real population, assumedly around twelve million to fifteen million. Yet most of the tribes there hadn¡¯t really obeyed the emperor though they had claimed to do so. No more than sixty to seventy percent of the population were true supporters of the emperor¡ªseven million to ten million of the population. To take the median number optimistically, assuming that the emperor could mobilize his forces among nine million apart from the auxiliary ones, then he would have no more than three hundred thousand in the elite units. While one hundred thousand of them died, the emperor¡¯s power had already been weakened significantly. Not to mention, the loss of the three hundred thousand auxiliary soldiers could bring about negative impacts to the grass root communities even if not directly to the emperor¡¯s rule. For the Orc Empire, it had been a sign of the fall of many strong tribes and the less strong ones would be annexed. The subsequent internal chaos and slaughter would be unimaginable. In addition, they should not forget those knights, troops, and adventurers who had come from other states to support the Eagle Kingdom in the name of interests, faith or the king¡¯s order. They had suffered a great loss. The elite followers of the God of Knights had all been killed on the main plane, and only one in five volunteers survived and made their way back home. The adventurers, though suffering less loss, still lost half of their numbers. This was war, an unimaginably dreadful war. Many people had presumed the result of the war before it even started. Some had bet on a win-win result, and some had bet on a draw. Even the craziest or the most pessimistic people hadn¡¯t ever expected the war to be so bloody! Even the Goddess of War and Death in the War God System had been touched by this furious war. She had long been encouraging furious battles and even planned massacres with the God of Hunting and Holocaust. But this brutal and evil god couldn¡¯t help but flinch upon witnessing such a big battle resulting in seventy percent of the fighters dying; her followers who should have applauded the battle stayed silent. In terms of both scale and number of casualties, this battle, named by later generations as ¡°the Battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day,¡± was impressive for humans and gods. In terms of its influence to later generations, it might be a more profound battle than the war of gods, in which the Human God System had defeated the Sun God System. Chapter 290 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong floated invisibly in the sky as he observed the events happening on the ground. There were certain things that he could take care of, and certain things that he could not, like, for example, the thing that was happening in front of his eyes. Crick Keane was still looking confoundedly at the siblings who were killing each other violently, not understanding why things had turned out this way. Not so long ago, he had joined the volunteer army to support Eagle Kingdom in defying the orcs along with his best friend Spencer. They had gone through a tough battle, killing until the the sky was dim and there was no light from the sun and moon¡ªall right, it was not their efforts that made the sky dim and stopped the light shining from the sun and moon. It was said that the Gods in the sky were engaged in a group killing, and they had killed off the entire Sun God team, which was the type that could not be revived. What happened in the sky was not related to him, but what was important was the huge war in the human world. In that huge war, he really had his eyes opened. Not only had he seen all types of different armies and races, even when he had almost died, he could still see a God coming down to the mortal earth with an army of angels, though since the army of angels had no wings, it was slightly incomplete. In that war, that God was the main character, and the angels were the pawns. The mortals were really insignificant, as if they were below ants. He saw with his own eyes a few hundred good men who were believers of God of Knight were dead and whose bodies had already hardened, jump up and live again as they continued fighting, with just a ray of white light shining down upon them. He had also seen with his own eyes a soft silver haired girl who was dressed like a cosplayer from an anime expo, waving his long sword, and the sword aura was super strong, at least a hundred yards. And when he swung the sword, the headcount that he had reaped was conservatively assumed to be close to four digits. Blood sprayed like a line of fountains. Motherf*cker! This was not the war that I heard of before! Earth is really scary, could I please go back to Mars? After that, they charged together behind the soft silver haired girl, killing a huge group of different types of orcs who were insanely strong. The orcs were also killing with all their might and all their breath. The computer graphic effects were comparable to a Hollywood major Sci-Fi film. The level of destruction was insane. For example, there was a guy who had a snake head and a human body who had sprayed out a mouthful of poisonous gas that was conservatively presumed to cover the size of a football field. It was blown away after that, but with just the initial hit, it had already made all types of mortals, regardless of their race, pale and faint. It was not even certain that they could be saved¡­ And of course, it was still the soft silver haired girl who had brought them to charge together who was stronger and could take on few of the super strong fellows alone. With just the short period of ten seconds, she had hit until the ground became indented as if there was an asteroid hitting it. And those fellows who were involved in it, for instance, the snake head man who had sprayed poison, were immediately gone, not to mention their lives. Even their dead bodies were nowhere to be found, as they had entirely became ash. Although the soft silver haired girl was very strong, and she and her friends had used all their might to battle, there were really way too many, too many, too many enemies¡ªyes, this was very important, so it was necessary to say it three times. In the end, they could not hold them off, and gradually, they were being defeated. The believers of God of Knight were still good, after all, and their boss had came down from the sky and had brought along an aura that could revive them to complete health, even if they died. But the other mortals were different, they died like grass being mowed, which was really terrible! But there was a saying that ¡°the tide will always turn,¡± and not long after that, the boss of Spencer and the other fellows suddenly exploded on His final act. He turned eight experts who were similar to this soft silver haired girl into Gods of War in just a moment, and all of them had golden light shining on them as their fighting spirits increased exponentially, the aura underneath their feet reaching out at least over a thousand yards, and their battle powers were so strong that it did not even need to be mentioned. Under the leadership of the God of War affected soft silver haired girl and His seven similar Golden Light Gods of War, they staged a grand comeback. Not only did they break through the attacks of their enemies, they even counter attacked. With one breath, they broke through the defense line of their enemies and charged through to the enemy¡¯s base camp, even breaking through to the entire enemy¡¯s army in the end. At this time, he had finally found out that orcs were not that great after all. Except for those who charged and killed on the frontlines, the others at the back were nothing much, not even at his level. The eight Golden Light Gods of War charged over as They brought along a big group of large men who were killing with fierce passion. What would the results be? Ugh, it was a nightmare to recall, it was better to let it go¡­ And then what happened after that? Oh, they had been doing fine, then the big boss of Spencer and fellows had suddenly died, and after that, the Golden Light Gods of War and the angels from their big boss were recalled, and after that¡­ they were being ganged up on. Ganged up on, sudden deaths, it went basically like this. At that time, they were initially grouping up on an orc general with great momentum. According to them, he was a charging officer of the orc invasion, a great man who usually guarded the South side. That fellow even seemed to know Spencer, and they were even discussing a man named Paul as they were fighting each other¡ªbut this definitely did not stop Spencer from hitting him violently along with his brothers. They slashed him until blood kept flowing out of him like a river, it was a wonder where he stored that much blood to lose. As they were fighting, it seemed that the big guy with the golden mane was about to die, and all of a sudden, they had lost their big boss on their side, lost their Golden Light Gods of War, lost their enhanced soldiers; their enhanced abilities were even fading quickly. Thus, the subordinates of the big golden haired man had taken a counterattack and closed in on them. And they had killed the entire group. Spencer was even heavily injured by the slash of big golden hair¡¯s sword. Luckily, he was quick to act, as he grabbed Spencer with one hand and activated the return scroll that he had gotten from Thomas and Nikola earlier. They flew back to the Void Mask Theme Park with a zoom. Uncle Marx had witnessed it as they were flying away, the distance between that big golden hair¡¯s sword and his neck not exceeding an inch! After they flew back to Void Mask Theme Park, they rested for quite some time in this peaceful area. Thanks to the help of the leader of the healer team, Madam Geerteng, whose outfit was very avant-garde and whose sexiness was enough to cause a ruckus of an entire anime exposition, Spencer had regained his life. But because the big boss that he had believed in had died, his sacred warrior levels had been temporarily sealed. He was a great expert who had almost stepped into the legendary realm, yet in just a moment, he had fallen to medium level. The loss of ability was actually not too worrying. The main point of his God of his belief being dead had made a huge impact on Spencer. It had made this fellow muddle headed. He only ate when he was given rice and drank when he was given water, but other than that, he was just stupidly sitting there like a robot. Crick had even tried bringing him down to the entrance of the underground adventure centre, comparing him to the robot Phileo Isavoy, or Phil Ohis Savoy, who worked there, and in the end, the real robot was even more lively than he was! Mr. Isavoy¡ªor maybe Miss, Crick could not really tell the gender of robots¡ªwas initially very mad, but after he found out the reason that Spencer had become like this, he became very friendly again. He suggested that Crick bring Spencer back to his hometown and that perhaps living in a familiar environment could help his recovery. Thus, Crick brought Spencer along and they left, going back to Duchy of Thunder through the teleportation door, and then they hired a car and slowly moved towards the territory of Baron Keane. They were obviously not moving fast, and just when they were about a day¡¯s distance away from the territory of Baron Keane, they were chased by someone from behind. It was a male and a female who got to them. The man was a big guy with full armor, his hair and beard messy, and he seemed to be very strong. The woman was not pretty or sexy. Instead, it was just that she looked rather tired, and she even had a little hint of craziness in her eyes. After the two of them got to them, the woman started talking to Spencer. It was Spencer¡¯s little sister, Machee. She was different from Spencer, who had joined the knight team, since she had inherited the Smith family name, and she was still a noble lady. Machee was obviously depressed, and she said that she had been punished by God because she could not complete her work. Not only had her abilities decreased greatly, her position in the church was also greatly reduced. If she did not do anything to please her God, she probably could not do anything more in this life, so she made this trip over here, just to offer the God something that she had promised much earlier¡ªher brother, who had integrity and was stubborn and glorious. The f*ck! She wanted to sacrifice her own brother?! Upon hearing this, Crick could feel his whole being become furious! Of course, he could not let his friend become a sacrifice. Hence, these two people got into a fight. And yet his ability was really too far away from these two people¡¯s. He was defeated and tied on the ground with just a small effort. Machee said she would slowly give him a lesson after she had sacrificed her stupid brother. Right up to this moment, Spencer was still looking very sick and pale and seemed like he had not taken his friend¡¯s life and death situation seriously. He had not even taken his own life and death situation seriously either. He still looked like a bear with no urge to live. Machee was very unsatisfied with this sacrifice, so she told him a secret. The Paul who was beside her was actually a fake one. The real one, who was chivalrous, had already been set up by her and already killed by a female assassin who pretended to be a victim! That messy haired hero who had saved them when they encountered a group of gangsters when they were young, was her very first sacrifice offered to her God! When Crick heard a loud ¡°f*ck you¡± from Spencer, who was originally a person who had just one breath more than a dead person, was immediately furious and slammed into them, fighting violently with his own little sister and the fake guy. These three people were fighting so fiercely in a battle that it was as if they were exchanging injuries for injuries, and a life for a life. It did not take long before they had a result. Spencer was hit by Machee¡¯s magic flying knife through the chest, but he had also stabbed the heart of his own little sister with his sword. Crick was speechless. The person whom he had saved with so much effort, was dead in that short time. It was also weird that when Machee was dying, she was not as furious and as unwilling as Spencer. Instead, she had a face that seemed as if she had released something from her heart, as she sighed deep and long. And then, the fake Paul released Crick¡¯s ropes and said that his job here was done, now he was free. He even asked if Crick wanted to hire any actors. F*ck you! Could you have even lesser integrity?! Seeing that Crick was so furious, Paul put in a good word for Machee, too. It was roughly that ¡°this girl was actually upset that the real Paul had been killed, so she made up a story to trick her brother, because her brother only wanted an ideal, but he did not want himself anymore, so he was giving himself up. She wanted to get revenge and in her heart, all she actually wanted was to live happily ever after with her brother,¡± or something like that. Because he was not clear of it all, Crick could not understand what was happening, but anyway, he still had to bury the two siblings, and there were still many things that needed to be done in his territory. He was really busy, so he had no time to be upset. The carriage was carrying two people and two dead bodies as they continued their journey. Sui Xiong, who was in the sky, had finally finished watching everything, and he turned to leave. The tragedy of the Smith siblings was just one of the countless tragedies in the whole world. It was just a small splash in the ocean of countless tragedies that had been caused by the war. Sui Xiong felt that he should be doing something, something that could help this world, to help those people who were living in pain. A few days later, he announced his decision in the high-level meeting in the Void Mask Church. ¡°I want to become the God who protects world peace and promotes social progress.¡± He said in a clear manner, ¡°From today onwards, I will work in this direction!¡± Chapter 291 Maintain world peace and promote social progress. It was easy to say these seven words, but hard to achieve them. The former was simple. It just meant to stop wars. Before a war broke out, people had to support the party that would be invaded and try to melt the hatred between the two parties of the war. Although it was not so easy, there were still ways to do it¡­ However, the latter was too vague and general. Even though most of the higher rank members of the Void Mask Church were smart, they couldn¡¯t figure it out. ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about maintaining world peace for the moment. Since the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day was so terribly tragic, major powers in the world, at least those in the Main Plane, will be unwilling to start a war for a long time.¡± The pontifex Leon Igor thought about it for a while and said, ¡°That is to say, currently, we should focus on promoting social progress. Your Majesty, what do you think progress is?¡± Sui Xiong nodded, pondered for a while, and said, ¡°So-called social progress should first be reflected in the improvement of people¡¯s living standards, that is, to let the people eat and drink well, to live well, to protect their legitimate rights, and allow them to live in a rich and safe environment with dignity. Further, it means to promote democracy and protect personal freedom¡­¡± He was speaking while thinking, and suddenly, an idea came to him, ¡°Oh, I remember! It is¡­ to build a prosperous, democratic, civilized, and harmonious country, to build a society of freedom, equality, justice, and the rule of law, and to advocate a culture of patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendliness. Oh my gosh! I¡¯m thankful for my experience drawing posters for the community, or else I definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to recite it so fluently!¡± Leon and the others were confused. They looked at each other without saying a word. After a while, Giant Gerald, who had been simple and honest as well as straightforward, asked, ¡°Your Majesty, what you¡¯ve said¡­ I don¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I can explain it to you one by one. It¡¯s easy to understand.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, do you really need to set such a high target to promote social progress?¡± Leon asked, ¡°I understand what you¡¯ve said, but¡­ won¡¯t that be too optimistic?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that, ¡°Optimistic?¡± He looked around the meeting room and found that almost everyone wore the same expression as Leon. They were surprised, helpless, and hopeless¡­ ¡°Well¡­ It seems optimistic¡­¡± Sui Xiong wiped his sweat and said with a bitter smile, ¡°We can lower the standards¡­¡± ¡°Your Majesty, in my opinion, to promote social progress, we just need to provide people with food, clothes, and homes to live in, as well as stable income, letting them save some money after a year of hard work. That¡¯s to say, we¡¯ll ensure that they¡¯re living with dignity and don¡¯t need to worry about going to hell after dying¡­ Am I right?¡± One of the two leaders of the church, Olian Geerteng said, ¡°If that¡¯s the target, I think we have a chance.¡± ¡°That¡¯s too low a target,¡± Sui Xiong murmured. ¡°It¡¯s not low at all!¡± Olian sighed, ¡°Your Majesty, do you know that? Before the establishment of the Stationary Workshop, more than ten people died from hyperthermia and starvation in the Geerteng Hill every year. The point is that the Geerteng Hill has been under exploration, so people there have more land, higher incomes, and more property than others. If it was in another Hill that had existed for a long time and been exploited by several royal families, it wouldn¡¯t be strange to assume over a thousand people died every year¡­¡± Sui Xiong frowned and asked, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you relieve people in the poverty stricken area?¡± ¡°It¡¯s easy to rescue people in an emergency, but not from poverty!¡± Olian said with a sigh, ¡°Those people who died from hyperthermia and starvation were poor. They usually had no land to plant on or no young and strong labor in their family to earn money. How much could they earn with elders, women, and children? The Geerteng Hill had been poor for a long time. In the winter, everything there is more expensive than ever, but we still managed to send some food and clothes to weaker families. However, it was too cold this winter¡­ ¡°But the situation is better now. Since the establishment of the Stationery Workshop, the financial resources of the Geerteng Hill have been much more generous. I simply moved the families without land to the vicinity of the workshop and asked them to work for the workshop. On one hand, they have a relatively stable income, and on the other hand, it¡¯s easier for them to get help in the winter.¡± Olian smiled and said, ¡°These days, excluding those who were ill or slept on the road after getting drunk, there has been no one who died from the cold or starvation.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly and looked at Leon. Although Kalisa Riley was the Hill Lord of the Garth City, everyone knew that it was Leon who was actually responsible for the civil affairs of the Garth City. Leon immediately understood what he meant and replied, ¡°The situation of Garth City is better than that of Geerteng Hill. After all, it¡¯s a commercial city with more working opportunities. Even if a family has no farmland or labors, they can still find jobs to make a living. It¡¯s just that there are too many people in the Garth City and its surrounding area, so there are a lot of things to handle correspondingly. In terms of relieving poverty, I have only done some general work. I¡¯m afraid that the work is not as good as that done in Geerteng Hill.¡± Sui Xiong frowned slightly, then looked at Mrs. Teague. Over the years, the Void Mask Land had been developing consistently, and its governor was also changing. Recently, Liv, who had been originally in charge of political affairs, finally couldn¡¯t stand doing paperwork in the office all day long. She had resigned, formed an adventure team, and had been in Northern Iceland during this time. The current main governor was Mrs. Teague, who had been in charge of civil affairs before and had a high reputation among people. Thus, it was just one more job for her to do, and she could do it well. ¡°The situation of our land is much better.¡± Mrs. Teague said, ¡°However, it can¡¯t be taken as an example for other areas.¡± She said, ¡°Our income is so high that only the disposable floating capital is enough to provide everyone with abundant food and clothing. Under such circumstances, I can certainly ensure people will enjoy a comfortable life. But if you want to make our experience universal, that is impossible.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Your Majesty, do you know that our Void Mask Land is the largest entertainment venue of the highest level in the Main Plane? There are a large number of rich people there. It isn¡¯t rare to see customers spend money like water here. What¡¯s more, we also have another financial source, the once-in-a-decade auction of Longevity Potions, which is a great chance to make money for the whole Main Plane¡­¡± Mrs. Teague said with a smile, ¡°Just these two financial sources have been enough to support the living of a small country, but how can other countries have the same financial sources as us? Your Majesty, you¡¯re planning to promote social progress, not the progress of our area alone.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. His dream was different from those millionaires living in the desert on the earth who relied on the abundant oil to make money and never helped poor people. He wished to promote the progress of the whole world, at least to achieve social progress in the whole Main Plane. As Mrs. Teague had said, the two financial sources for Void Mask Land were beyond the available range of other areas. Even if they wanted to follow this pattern, they couldn¡¯t. It would be meaningless to take the Void Mask Land as an example. Suddenly, an idea came to Sui Xiong. He remembered Baron Keane in Duchy of Thunder. Compared to stationary base Geerteng Hill and major commercial city Garth City, Keane Hill had a more average situation. It had neither special financial sources nor convenient transportation. It was just a small Hill. If he could promote the development there and let the people live and work in peace, then his experience would be worth spreading. Actually, there was no need for Sui Xiong to wait for the development results of the Keane Hill. He could find another place and do construction there first to see whether it worked! He made a decision. ¡°Call some adventurers that have traveled well together,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯m going to find a place as average as possible to build a new hill.¡± ¡°If I¡¯m able to promote the development of an average hill, then I¡¯ll find the right direction to promote social progress!¡± Several hours later, more than ten adventurers who weren¡¯t young anymore were called together. Sui Xiong changed his appearance to a noble and received them with Mrs. Teague. ¡°You want to find an average hill close to Void Mask Land?¡± asked an old adventurer whose hair had almost turned gray. He had retired from his adventure career and worked as a doorkeeper at a library in the Void Mask Land. ¡°How about the Pyroxene Town or the Gold-panning Town?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that answer. Honestly speaking, although the Mask Void Land was in the Northwest, he knew very little about the Four Towns in the Northwest. In his impression, the Rye Town was the largest transportation hub in the Northwest area. It boasted an advanced agriculture and less contamination. The Pyroxene Town had a vein of precious stones. Although it wasn¡¯t rich, it still could produce high quality precious stones sometimes. The Gold-panning Town boasted mines of gold, copper, and iron. Its gold mine attracted a large number of wealth-hunters, and its copper and iron mines remained as major sources of income. The Dragon-roar Town¡¯s development mainly relied on the mountain. Its financial income mainly came from hunting demon beasts in the mountain. To be honest, he thought that the Four Towns in the Northwest had different characteristics, and none of them were average. Then why had this old adventurer mentioned the Pyroxene Town and the Gold-panning Town? He asked that question. The old adventurer answered with a laugh, ¡°Your Lordship, you focus too much on ¡®average.¡¯ What does average mean? It means average income, average resources, and average transportation. The Rye Town has very convenient transportation, while the Dragon-roar Town has the Void Mask Land to the north and a mountain full of demon beasts to the east. These are all unique resources, but are there any unique resources in the Pyroxene Town and the Gold-panning Town?¡± ¡°Yes, the former has the vein of precious stones while the latter has gold mines.¡± ¡°The vein of precious stones in the Pyroxene Town isn¡¯t rich at all. The gold mine in the Gold-panning Town is even worse. There are at least eighty, if not a hundred, veins like that on the earth,¡± the old adventurer said with a smile, ¡°You only see that they have veins, but ignore the fact that they make very little money from them¡­These two towns are so poor that they even can¡¯t afford to build an army. What else can they do?¡± Sui Xiong pondered for a while then understood. Unlike him, the old adventurer saw the problem in the aspect of geographical position and income level. It was true that there were veins of precious stones and gold mines in these two towns, but it didn¡¯t bring them a high income because of low production. Compared to that, the agriculture and commerce in the Rye Town and hunting of demon beasts in the Dragon-roar Town were incredibly reliable financial sources, which made these two towns privileged in development. ¡°What are the income levels of these four towns?¡± ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be a question for us.¡± The old adventurer said, ¡°We¡¯re just average adventurers. You should ask the Association of Thieves about that.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. He gave them some money as a consultation fee, even more for the old adventurer, and asked them to leave. Then he went to Rhode. Rhode was turning 70 that year. Thanks to the Longevity Potions, he looked like a man in his fifties. Due to his original strong power, although his hair had almost turned gray, he was still in good spirits, old but vigorous. When Sui Xiong came to him, he was instructing a group of young people from the Association of Thieves on authenticating antiques. He was an expertise in that. He had even earned the title ¡°Gray Eyes¡± for his excellent skill. For thieves, eyes, hand, and dagger were very special titles. Eyes was used to describe a thief that was very good at authentication; hand was used when a thief was good at assembly and disassembly of gears or stealing; dagger meant that the thief was a good fighter. Quick Hand Ryan, the former chairman of the Association of Thieves of the Pyroxene Town, who had tried to plot against Gerald and Palin, was an expert in gears and traps. Rhode, who had succeeded him as the chairman of the Association of Thieves of the Pyroxene Town and later became the chairman of the Northwest Association of Thieves, was a master at authentication. Once, after getting drunk, he had admitted that he had been a well-skilled expert in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins before. He had even competed with several other experts for the highest honor, ¡°Golden Eyes,¡± in the field of ¡°eyes¡± in the Association of Thieves. He had lost for being less skilled than the others. Later, unfortunately, he had offended an influential person, so he¡¯d had to run away. He had come a long way to the Northwest to seek shelter. Of course, Rhode himself was a great man now, and he wasn¡¯t even bothered to seek revenge on the man who had forced him to escape, because in his view, although he had been forced to run away and suffered a lot during the journey, he had also won a great opportunity. How could he possibly have met His Majesty Void Mask, and what would have happened to him if he hadn¡¯t been able to run to the Pyroxene Town from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins? Although he wouldn¡¯t thank the man for persecuting him, he would never seek revenge on him on purpose, either. In his opinion, it was the arrangement of fate. His experiences that year were nothing more than the God of Fate¡¯s trick. Now, Rhode had retired from the chairmanship of the Northwest Association of Thieves. He served as a consultant and taught young people how to authenticate antiques every day. Besides that, he still dealt with financial affairs of the Void Mask Land, which was enough to live out the rest of his life happily. ¡°Your Majesty, are you asking about the specific income of the Four Towns in the Northwest?¡± Hearing Sui Xiong¡¯s request, he was a little surprised and tried to remember for a while, then he told him detailed information on income and prices in the Four Towns in recent years like he was counting his own treasure. The information was, to be honest, a secret, but one of the main businesses of the Association of Thieves was to inquire and sell information, so it was not a big deal for members of Association of Thieves to know. Even if Rhode had almost retired, he still knew the details. In fact, Rhode had been focused on this information all the time, because he had been in charge of finance. After listening to Rhode¡¯s report, Sui Xiong finally understood why the old adventurer had recommended the Pyroxene Town and the Gold-panning Town. Although both towns had mineral veins, in fact, they didn¡¯t get much income from them. The condition of the Gold-panning Town was a little better. No matter what, they could manage to maintain a stable income based on the copper mine and iron mine there. The Pyroxene Town, which mainly relied on entertainment consumption, didn¡¯t have enough income. What¡¯s more, the opening of the Void Mast Land had made it harder to earn money, so their income had declined steadily. It had dropped from the original core position of the Four Towns to the lowest ranking. Actually¡­ The Pyroxene Town was now somewhat abandoned. The so-called vein of precious stones had a very low output, so not many workers were needed there. Sometimes, there were high-grade precious stones, and they would be sent to the Void Mask Land to be sold. At present, there were not many people living in the Pyroxene Town except workers and vendors who provided services to the workers. Even the churches of the God of Aristocracy and the God of Law had moved out. There was only a small divine temple of the God of Wealth left. Sui Xiong pondered for a long time and finally made up his mind. He drew a circle around the Pyroxene Town on the map. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, let¡¯s start from here to make a change!¡± Chapter 292 It was freezing cold in the winter in the Four Northwest Towns. Although it was nothing serious for the barbarians from Iceland, it was tough for average people there. Every winter, it was common to see weak people die from the cold. In fact, if it wasn¡¯t for the cold winter here, perhaps there would have been more people coming from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to settle there. It was the cold winter here that provided newcomers who had fled famine a living space. ¡°Although it sounds reasonable, I don¡¯t like the cold winter at all.¡± Haman pushed a trolley, walking on the empty street. In the trolley were corpses of people who had died from hyperthermia. ¡°I should have been a small retailer, owning a booth or selling something on the street. Now I have to clear up the corpses¡­¡± he murmured unhappily, but he was not so unsatisfied with his job. After all, thanks to this job, he was able to earn money to make a living at least. In this cold winter, he had food to eat every day, though it was usually not enough. That could still be taken as happiness. Well¡­ It would be better if he could get some warmer clothes! The road in town was uneven. It was hard to walk with his roughly made trolley. The corpses in the trolley were bumped and jostled by the uneven road, making dull sounds when the frozen bodies collided. ¡°Come on, Haman. You don¡¯t want to be one of these corpses!¡± Haman said to himself, ¡°The coldest days of winter have gone. After this month, you can head to the north, to the legendary Void Mask Land! It¡¯s said that if one manages to get there alive, even if he or she wasn¡¯t good at anything before, he or she still can learn some skills and live a peaceful life there¡­¡± Encouraged by such comforting words, and working to generate some heat, he survived the day smoothly. More importantly, he earned money to buy some food. Night was much better than day. There was no Hill Lord in the Four Towns in the Northwest, nor laws prohibiting deforestation. He had already stocked a lot of firewood in his home. With a traditional heatable brick bed, the cold at night was nothing to be feared. But the next day, a great difficulty lay ahead of him. ¡°There¡¯s no need to clear up the corpses today.¡± The mighty guard captain waved his hand and said carelessly, ¡°It¡¯s no big deal that there are one or two dead people on the roadside. Let¡¯s only clear them up every few days.¡± Haman wisely gave up the intention of pleading, knowing that it would be useless. Which of the people who had frozen and starved to death by the roadside hadn¡¯t pleaded bitterly? But had that worked? Forget it. Go and pick up some firewood and come back home. It¡¯s no big deal to be hungry for a day or something, just bear it. It proved that hunger was unbearable in winter. Before noon, he was already dizzy with hunger, sitting in the middle of the firewood that he had collected with great effort. He had no energy to stand up again. ¡°It is said that all creatures that die in the Ash Forest will turn into skeletons, becoming skeleton soldiers that only come out at night.¡± In his exhausted dizziness, he grinned bitterly and said to himself, ¡°What will I look like if I become a skeleton soldier?¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t skeleton soldiers all the same?¡± a little girl¡¯s voice said. Haman reluctantly moved his head and looked in the direction of the voice. He saw a little girl in a thick robe looking at him curiously. Not far behind her were several young boys and girls wrapped up in warm clothes like dumplings, and a woman in a waistcoat that was definitely not enough for the cold winter. The little girl came over and asked with a smile, ¡°What are you doing on the ground, uncle?¡± Haman laughed bitterly and answered, ¡°Nothing. I¡¯m dying of starvation or cold. No difference.¡± The woman in the blouse waved her hand and a red light fell on him, warming up his body, which had almost been unable to move from the cold. Then she asked a teenager carrying a large backpack to take out some bread. Haman suddenly ran over at a speed he had never seen in his life and grabbed the bread, wolfing it down. How delicious the bread was! It was soft and sweet with a lot of oil in it. It tasted delicious and could be swallowed easily. Haman finished the whole loaf at a fast speed, like the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves, but when he was ready to have a second one, the woman in the blouse grabbed it back. ¡°If you eat anymore, you¡¯ll be too full to die.¡± Her voice was full of vitality, like the feeling of burning fire. ¡°I¡¯m Felix, the Magic Bomber. I¡¯m going to build a magic school here to promote urban development. Would you like to work for me?¡± Without hesitation, Haman lowered his head profoundly, ¡°There is nothing I can do to pay back the graciousness of you saving my life. I¡¯ll do whatever you say!¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I won¡¯t force you to work for me.¡± Miss Felix said carelessly, ¡°Forcing others to pay back my favors is not my style. No matter who saw you just now, they would have done the same thing I did.¡± Would they have done the same thing? Haman bowed his head and recalled that he had hurried past people who were dying of hunger with food in his arms more than once. He felt as small as an ant. Half an hour later, they came to the Pyroxene Town. Miss Felix directly went to the meeting place of the big men who ruled the town. She talked with them secretly for a while. By the time she came out, she had already won the title mayor of the Pyroxene Town. Why did a great magician who wasn¡¯t afraid of the cold want to be the mayor of a declining town? Haman was a little perplexed, especially when he noticed that Miss Felix¡¯s right hand was slightly stained with blood¡­ This female magician seemed strange, not only in her dress, but also in her style of working. Miss Felix saw his expression, smiled, grabbed a handful of snow by the roadside, and wiped off the blood on her hand. ¡°These past few years, I¡¯ve been dealing with super tough guys, so I carelessly forgot to control my power in the negotiation just now, but don¡¯t worry, there was no one who died.¡± Did magicians use their fists to negotiate? Haman felt like something was wrong. ¡°Haha, it doesn¡¯t matter. Let¡¯s go and find a place to build a house.¡± Miss Felix and her students¡ªthose boys and girls wrapped themselves up in warm clothes like dumplings¡ªcame to Haman¡¯s home. It was a place with a open terrain, close to the town wall. It was very convenient. The strange magician finally showed her ability as a magician. She took out a gray wooden staff and waved it to draw something out on the open ground. Then the ground began to shake. The frozen mud that was as hard as stone moved like it was alive, forming the shape of a house. It solidified again and turned the color of the stone. It seemed exhausting for her to do that. The energetic Felix looked a little tired when the house was finished. She complained to Haman about something regarding how Transformation magic was really troublesome. Then she took out some bedding from a small bag and asked her students to decorate their rooms. She stood at the gate herself with fire on her fingers, burning a line of words on the wall beside the gate of the wired box-looking house. ¡°Isn¡¯t my handwriting good?¡± she said proudly. ¡°Sorry, I can¡¯t read.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. You¡¯ll learn to read in the future.¡± Miss Felix was not affected by his words at all. She smiled and said, ¡°It says ¡®Isuka School of Magic,¡¯ so you must remember it well. From today on, you work for this school!¡± After building the house, of course, they needed to buy the necessary furniture. Miss Felix sent Haman to buy furniture and other things that might be useful with her students, while she stayed at the school by herself. After everyone had left, she looked up into the air, where there seemed to be nothing. ¡°Your Majesty Void Mask, do you really think there is hope in the development of this declining town?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s voice came from the nothing. ¡°Hope originally comes from despair, and the town has not yet reached its time of despair. As long as I spend some time and energy on it, I think we should be able to revive it.¡± ¡°But what is special about this town? It¡¯s necessary to find some goals.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s so easy to find a method for rejuvenation, why would I invite you, a great magician who was a successful business woman before, to help?¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°It¡¯s not difficult to find powerful magicians, but there are few magicians who know how to build a city. You see, the Commonwealth of Mifata is so big that there are a large number of legendary mages, but how many of them can make their territory prosperous? Just le-Peyroux and a few others.¡± Felix laughed for Sui Xiong¡¯s praise. ¡°Well, if anyone can do it, then I didn¡¯t have to come here specially!¡± With a leap, she easily jumped onto the roof, which was significantly higher than the house next to her, looking around at the low, shabby houses around her. ¡°Maybe I should find a painter to draw this scene.¡± She made a frame with her hands and circled the scene in it. She said with interest, ¡°After my magic school is fully developed in the future, this picture can be used as a souvenir to open the eyes of the freshmen and encourage them to work hard.¡± Invisible in the air, Sui Xiong laughed and waved his tentacles. A scroll made of special waterproof and fireproof material appeared in the air and floated in front of her. Pictured in the scroll was the Pyroxene Town at that moment. This declining town had a depressing and decadent atmosphere, even the guards seeming powerless. Only the strange-looking square house on the edge of the town showed a different vitality. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea.¡± He said, ¡°Just leave this task to me. I¡¯ll draw a picture of the town every once in a while. I¡¯ll give you enough pictures to use as souvenirs.¡± Chapter 293 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After careful consideration, Sui Xiong decided to let Felix preside over the construction of the development zone. At present, the Church of Void Mask had plenty of talents, but the professions of these talents were extremely unbalanced. Military talents and low-ranking officials were everywhere, but few people were capable of being a chief officer. Honestly speaking, the most suitable one to be a chief officer was Miss Pan Jogan, a teacher in the school of clergymen. However, she was a believer of the God of Centaur, and she was very loyal to her god. Thus, expecting her to help Sui Xiong build the development zone was tantamount to seeking out fish from the woods. The second choice was Jose, since he once had been a tribe leader. But for some reason, he was more suitable to be an assistant officer than a chief officer. So Sui Xiong lowered his standard and finally found Felix, who was a teacher, hoping to pass on the fantastic profession of battle mages¡ªMagic Bomber. Felix did well in the Fighter Championship, and since then she had become famous and had received many invitations. Instead of accepting invitations from those nameless teams and various organizations, she stayed in the Void Mask Land and joined the Mage Corps of the Church of Void Mask. In exchange, she could use the strength of the church to find several children with the talent of both mages and paladins and teach them professional skills of the Magic Bomber. This would complete her promise that she had made when she was a teenager to pass on the profession. Time flew fast. Several years later, these children grew up to be teenagers, and Felix also grew up a lot. Just like the others, such as Jose, Felix began to get close to the Legendary Realm. There was actually a long distance from getting close to the Legendary Realm and then entering it. As the heir of the blood of the legendary creature, Phoenix, Felix was not in a hurry. She could live a long life after the power of her blood woke up, so she was determined to achieve her goal gradually and slowly enter the Legendary Realm through years of accumulation. In that case, she was quite free now. Moreover, she was a businesswoman with a broad horizon and a flexible mind, and she had also been outstanding in the Mage Corps during this period of time. Thus, Sui Xiong made up his mind to let her be the mayor of Pyroxene Town and preside over the construction of the development zone. Felix didn¡¯t hate this job. On the contrary, she was curious to know how His Majesty, the Void Mask intended to revive a desolate town into a model of what he called ¡°social progress.¡± It would be even more interesting if she could make a contribution to this career. So after being invited, she enquired about the whole thing in detail and accepted the job happily. With simple preparations, she left the Void Mask Land with her students and came to Pyroxene Town in the cold winter. Of course, Sui Xiong would not just let her fight alone. It wouldn¡¯t be long before others came to help, and it was her own request that she came first. ¡°Since I am going to be the mayor and preside over the construction of this town, I should start my work first,¡± Felix said then. ¡°It¡¯s like fighting. A commander who rushes to the front is undoubtedly more convincing to her subordinates than shrinking back at home. That¡¯s the same thing.¡± That was why she came here in a hurry and seized power as soon as she arrived. She grabbed the position of the mayor through persuasion rather than by force as ordinary mages did, and she built a magic school to make preparations for the follow-up work. Hours later, in the evening, students from the Isuka School of Magic returned home under the guidance of Haman. It could be seen that they were a little sad and in a low mood, and the red eyes of some sensitive little girls apparently showed that they had cried. As soon as they saw their teacher, Felix, they told her about what they had seen and heard during the trip. Generally speaking, it could be summed up in one sentence¡ªthe people here were very poor, and they needed help. When Felix checked their expenses, she found a huge amount of food expenditure unexpectedly. After careful calculation, she found that these little guys had bought food that was enough for hundreds of people to eat for at least a month, and the price was quite high. These little guys probably had been cheated by others. After she saw the bill, Felix frowned and looked at Haman. As a legendary master who was getting close to the Legendary Realm, of course, she would not take money seriously. But when her students were cheated by others, she was still very unhappy. Those teenagers might lack social experience, but Haman was a native and was not a fool. How could he allow this to happen? Haman saw that she looked unhappy after she saw the bill, and then he suddenly felt nervous in his heart. ¡°Mage, this is just a one-time expenditure on food. Those poor people will save the food for eating, and they also have jobs¡­ It is estimated that they will be able to survive this winter,¡± he said in a low voice. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. But why are the grains so expensive?¡± Felix said with a frown. Haman was confused at that. ¡°Expensive? It¡¯s on sale for a bulk purchase¡­¡± Now it was Felix¡¯s turn to be confused. She looked at the bill and recalled it carefully, confirming that even the food price of the Void Mask Land would not be so high. And the food in the Void Mask Land was much better than that here. Rough milled Gold Vines flour, for example, was seldom used in meals; even dogs didn¡¯t like to eat it. The price of food here was so high! How could it be so high in such a dilapidated place? That was not reasonable! The common sense of a businessman was challenged, so Felix was curious. The next day, she asked the students to continue building dormitories with their wands, preparing accommodations for the late coming personnel. Then she visited the market with Haman. Honestly speaking, compared to that of Void Mask Land, the market of Pyroxene Town was really poor and small. It took Felix less than ten minutes to walk around it¡ªthere were three stores in all, and the goods in the stores were so plain that there was actually nothing worth seeing. Her main concern was the price, and she found that the price here was a little strange. Metals and sundries were really cheap, but daily consumables such as grain were quite expensive; especially the grain, it was incredibly expensive. She also talked to the owner of the food store for a while. Probably because of the big deal that Haman had brought yesterday, the owner was in a good mood and answered almost all her questions. When she asked about the price of food, the owner said that the grain in Ashes Woods had been expensive all along. Especially in recent years, there were fewer villages under exploration. Thus, food was mainly transported from Rye Town and even from the Void Mask Land, so it was more naturally expensive. ¡°We have to stabilize the food price.¡± After getting back, she said to Sui Xiong, ¡°The people¡¯s income here is not high. If the food is so expensive, it will be difficult to get enough people to stay here, and it will be impossible to complete the construction of the village.¡± Sui Xiong naturally had no objection to this. He just grasped the main direction of the construction, and the details of it were completely handed over to Felix. Since Felix felt it was necessary to stabilize the food price, she could just do it. Felix was very efficient in action. Since she had made the decision, she immediately began to build the transmission formation. In the original plan, it was not necessary to build it in such a hurry, but now the plan could not keep up with the change. It took only two days to build a simple transmission array. As soon as it was completed, Felix examined it carefully and rushed back to the Void Mask Land. She bought a lot of food there at one time and then came back to Pyroxene Town. Then she went to the food store to discuss with the owner about the purchase of the store. The owner of the food store had no deep feelings about this dilapidated town, but he stressed that if the store was sold in the winter, his family would have nowhere to go. Thus, Felix had to buy the store and all the goods at a price about 20% higher than the market price. Then she rented a good house for the boss¡¯s family so that they could spend the winter safely. They could think about doing something else when the spring came. After that, she asked Haman to recruit some staff and clean up the store. She was ready to adjust the food price. ¡°Mage, won¡¯t you lose money by selling grain at such a low price?¡± Of course, Haman was willing to change his job to a grain store owner. However, when he learned of Felix¡¯s price of food, he was shocked and worried. Felix frowned. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Just do what I say. I can afford this loss. Even if I keep doing this for a hundred years, I don¡¯t care.¡± Since his employer said so, Haman certainly had no objections. He recruited several honest people, cleaned up the grain store, and opened it again. But at this time, the name of the grain store had been changed to Grain Store of Pyroxene Town. Yes, at Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion, Felix transformed the grain store into the town¡¯s public property. The public ownership of another world had been brought here. ¡°Food is such a business that the country should not make money on,¡± Sui Xiong said to her. ¡°Food is the key to people¡¯s livelihood. Food and agriculture are the foundation of a country¡¯s stability. Even if we are losing money, as long as we can afford it and can make up for it in other ways, it won¡¯t be a problem.¡± Felix had never heard such a view, so it took her quite a while to understand Sui Xiong¡¯s meaning. Then she greatly appreciated that His Majesty¡¯s vision was high and full of wisdom, and she immediately grasped the key of the construction here! If a territory could maintain the stability of food, then the whole territory could also be relatively stable. In that case, food certainly should be monopolized by the territory, not by private businesses!! Not only that, but she had also developed Sui Xiong¡¯s point of view, and she believed that all industries closely related to the livelihood of the people should be monopolized by the territory. Only those that had little impact on people¡¯s lives could be opened to private businesses. ¡°Are you really a businesswoman?¡± Sui Xiong asked in surprise. ¡°Of course!¡± ¡°But how can you do things against the benefit of a businesswoman?¡± ¡°I am the Hill Lord now!¡± Felix laughed and said. ¡°The principle of a business person is to give priority to their own interests. Since my interest is to revive Pyroxene Town, why should I take care of the benefits of other businessmen?¡± Chapter 294 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Felix was quick to act. Since she had been determined to take control of key industries of the Pyroxene Town, she made immediate adjustments. She had planned to buy out these industries, but it was impossible to solve the problem with only money. For example, there were two merchants in charge of the three veins of precious stones. One was a subordinate of a Baron in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, and the other was the student of a magician. Personally, they were willing to sell these veins, but they didn¡¯t have the qualification to make the decision because they were not the bosses, just high-rank employees. One more example was the guard captain of the town. He was a Sacred Warrior of the Goddess of Wealth, and he was rich and generous, so it was impossible to win him over with money¡ªbut it was still easy. Sui Xiong had a talk with the Goddess of Wealth, who had been interested in his experiment on social progress, then she sent an oracle to the Sacred Warrior, who had already grown tired of the cold of the Northwest. He happily passed over his title and packed up his things, starting his journey to the south in the cold weather. It was said that he was in a rush to see the peaches blossom in his hometown¡­ There was one more guy, the owner of a grocery store. He was in a position similar to the chairman of the League of Merchants and fanatical about authority. It would be to kill him to ask him to give up his authority. However, when Felix came to talk to him, he even agreed to devote his own property to urban construction on the premise of letting him be the deputy mayor of the town¡­ There were all kinds of problem. Some of them were easy to solve, while some were not. Fortunately, Felix was both rich and powerful. Besides that, she had a lot of negotiation skills. Finally, with all kinds of methods, she solved all the problems in front of her and took control of these industries as she had planned. It was inevitable to see blood and fights in this process. For example, the Baron from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins had sent an envoy there for a fight, the winner of which would win the ownership of the veins, or that evil magician who was unwilling to share his real name and had been good at explosion magic, Mr Fei. He had been attacked by a super bomb from a distance of over five miles that had bombed both his magic tower and himself into ashes, and so on. It could be written into a novel of at least 200,000 words if they were to record all these examples in detail. But it wasn¡¯t worth mentioning. The Church of the Goddess of Wealth had been influential in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, while Sui Xiong and the Goddess of Wealth were allies, so under the mediation of the Church of the Goddess of Wealth, that fight was more like a show¡­ Actually, it had no influence on Felix. She was a transformed mage, a Magic Bomber who had put great effort into fighting, so a fight would be the last thing she was scared of. Besides, such a Baron, who had no legendary masters in his subordinates, would be unable to send any masters more powerful than her. As for the evil magician, he was an expert in explosion magic, which took precious stones and a human¡¯s soul as a catalyzer, but he was not skilled at all. The range of his magic tower was just three miles, which was even smaller than that of the Gold Metallurgy Magic Tower of Wendy. At that time, Felix was inspired to try the power of her Full Magic Bomb, so she tried it on his magic tower. It was a pity that the defense of his magic tower was too weak, or perhaps the super bomb had led to explosion of other bombs, but finally, with a small mushroom cloud, the magic tower that was hiding in the deep mountain and scaring the surrounding villages was gone. People always said that forces didn¡¯t help clear up trouble, but were the troublemakers. To punish someone as a warning to others was a method that never went out of date. After the evil magician and his magic tower were annihilated together, many people who had held an ambiguous attitude towards Felix, or were even against her, changed their ideas and accepted Felix¡¯s suggestion immediately. They all rushed to sell their property and ran away with the money. They ran away as quickly as if they were being chased by dinosaurs. Sui Xiong thought that if they could keep their speed, they might arrive in the south earlier than the Sacred Warrior whose power had reached the advanced level. Then they could usher in the warm spring and see the flowers together. Finally, Felix achieved her goal. She took complete control of the core industries that related to people¡¯s livelihoods. Although she hadn¡¯t been given the title, she had become the real Hill Lord here. Though there were less than five hundred people in her Hill. With the coming of spring, it was expected some of them might leave. After taking complete control of the Pyroxene Town, Felix started to make adjustments in various industries. Starting from the polar industry, she visited the veins and strengthened the areas prone to collapse and seepage with magic, then she adjusted the salaries of the miners. Under the premise of maintaining the system of payment by working hours, she increased their basic salary to ensure that they had enough money to support their families and make a living. In this way, the income of the veins would decrease. However, since she didn¡¯t need to hand over most of the income or the high quality precious stones to the emperor, the total profit would increase a lot. The miners were happy with that, too. Felix merged several major shops into one. It was enough to put the grain shop, grocery store, and other commodities into one. Haman was busy managing the shop during the daytime and learning knowledge at the Magic School at night. He was very tired, but he made no complaints about it. On the contrary, he smiled happily everyday with the black shadows under his eyes, like a donkey running in a carrot field. Of course, not all people were miners in the Pyroxene Town, so Felix offered some other jobs, such as street cleaners and house constructors. The salaries for these jobs was lower than that of miners, but they could still make a living on it now that the commodity price had been stabilized. In fact, the most dangerous thing in the winter was suffering from the cold and starvation. Since their houses had been repaired to resist the cold weather, and they were provided with food and clothes, the winter was not as rough as before. On the other hand, people who were not strong enough had died in the harsh days before. Those who could survive to the present had no reason to fall down again after their living conditions had improved. Even so, many people died that winter. Sui Xiong was very sad about that, but he forced himself not to do anything, because the social progress he pursued was not an absolute utopia built with the help of a god. One couldn¡¯t rely on help from others forever. Even the gods would fall one day. The prosperity built with the help of gods wasn¡¯t real. To achieve real social progress, people had to rely on their own abilities. He could help people with his knowledge and wisdom and guide them out some major difficulties, but he definitely would not build a society where people put all their hopes on the help of a god! Fortunately, the winter was almost over, the weather beginning to turn warmer. There was good news this winter, as well, since they found a high quality precious stone in the vein. Although it was far from enough to make up the deficit of purchasing grain, it at least helped reduce the financial deficit greatly. The coming spring represented the start of a new round of work. ¡°The biggest problem facing the Pyroxene Town remains agriculture,¡± Felix said with worries, looking at the survey report, ¡°The land here is badly contaminated by negative power, and many of the divine temples that could help to purify the land have moved away. Now, relying on the power of the Church of the Royal Crown, the Goddess of Wealth, has been not enough to protect the out of town farmland from contamination.¡± This problem was outside of the ability of humans to solve. Only the gods could help. When it was time for him to do something, Sui Xiong would never hesitate. He went to a place that had once been used as farmland outside town, exerting his divine power and laying down a wide range of purification boundaries. This boundary was summarized by the exchanges of various churches in the exploration of the Northwest area. It had the highest cost-effective ratio in terms of continuous purification and only needed a small covering to protect the land within a certain range from the contamination of negative energy. However, the land couldn¡¯t be fertile, it could only grow Golden Vine. Golden Vine was a special kind of plant. It had been found first by the Goddess Gaia in the small world, which had been the battlefield of the Sun God and the Death God. It was a strange world in which positive energy and negative energy were mixed together without interfering with each other. The Golden Vine absorbed all kinds of energy and transformed it into positive energy to drive out negative energy so as to maintain the environment for living beings. Then the Golden Vine was brought to the Main Plane. They had tried to plant it on the edge of the Ash Forest, where it had not been badly contaminated, but just absorbing the energy from the sun was not enough for the Golden Vine to grow. After several trials, it was confirmed that the Golden Vine could grow well with magic power and = provide relatively safe food to the residents of the Ash Forest. The most common magic power was the power of belief. That was why the villages in the Ash Forest had to rely on the church and the divine temple. There was the divine temple of the Goddess of Wealth in the Pyroxene Town, but it couldn¡¯t provide enough magic power. That was another reason for Felix to set up the Magic School¡ªthey could connect to the Element Plane through a magic array and get a continuous magic power supply to power the growth of Golden Vine. With the support of the Magic School, they were able to plant Golden Vine again. Looking at the residents of the Pyroxene Town who were planting in the repurified farmland, Sui Xiong was lost in his thoughts. The contamination of negative energy had been the largest problem for the residents in the Ash Forest. Many gods had tried to solve it, but all of them had failed. The negative energy came from an ancient god who had fallen down there in the War of Gods. It was estimated that the power of that ancient god had advanced to the level of strong power, or even perhaps close to the level of great power. On the contrary, because of the existence of the Thunder of Godly punishment, there had been a lack of high-end power in the Main Plane, so even if they had wanted to help, there was nothing they could do. If it was possible to shield this area from the Thunder of Godly punishment temporarily, only the power of Sui Xiong, Morani, and the Goddess of Wealth would be enough to purify all the contamination in the Ash Forest¡­ ¡°Perhaps¡­ Should I consider digging underground the Ash Forest and planting mushrooms that can absorb the negative energy there?¡± Chapter 295 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was still cold in the early spring. The snow and ice on the ground had just started to thaw, and the cold wind dug into people¡¯s marrows like needles piercing, making them tremble. But it was the seeding season of Golden Vine. Farmers, wearing as many clothes as they could, waved their hoes and tilled the frozen land to put the seeds of Golden Vine one by one into the hole. The seeds had been previously soaked in clean water containing magic power. There was no need to cover the seeds with soil because the most important thing for its growth was sunshine over anything else. It would be a simple job even for children to do if it had been in warmer places. But things had been different in the Northwest area. In early spring, the ground started to thaw; though it was not as hard as stone as it had been in the winter, it was still difficult to till. For those weaker farmers, they had to dig several times for a shallow hole to put the seed in. They couldn¡¯t do much work in one hour even they had been busy and sweating. Fortunately, in the entire process of growing Golden Vine, there was nothing more difficult than seeding; it was a kind of plant with a strong vitality and extreme adaptability. After its buds appeared, the only thing to do was to supply magic power to it every day. Then it could grow up smoothly without any concerns. When planting Golden Vine, the normal procedures, such as turning the soil, fertilizing, watering, weeding and killing pests, were all unnecessary. It was because that its powerful root system was able to go deep into the frozen soil for abundant nutrition and water; it could also absorb nutrition from sunshine, and no pests or weeds could survive in the Ash Forest. If not for it needing a continuous supply of magic power, farmers could leave it alone after seeding and wait for the harvest in autumn as many farmers did in other places. But the Golden Vine had big shortcomings as well. First, it was low in production with a poor output of sixty jin per mu; second, it was impossible for normal people to plant it independently because it needed a supply of magic power during its growth. Lastly, it had a terrible flavor even worse than that of rye. It was slightly sour and was hard to chew. Except for some special dishes, Gold Vine was used as food only by the poor. In fact, merchants purchased Golden Vine in large scale only to refine it through a magic array to get magic essence containing the power of sunshine. After refinement, its residue was good enough to be animals¡¯ food. After all, pigs and cattle were not picky eaters. Looking at these busy farmers, Sui Xiong shook his head slightly. The Golden Vine was not a good choice. Even planting rye would be better than that. Rye was common in cold areas. Although it needed more manpower to plant rye than Golden Vine, it had a better flavor and higher production than Golden Vine. If a farmer could work hard, the land was fertile, and the climate was not bad, it was common to get an output of one hundred jin per mu. You could mill rye into flour to make rye cake, or make bread if you mixed it with some wheat flour. It was not only a favorite food for poor people, but it also could be a staple food for middle-class families. However, planting rye required a much higher quality of soil than what was needed for Golden Vine. It didn¡¯t mean that the land needed to be more fertile or less influenced by cold weather. It was mainly to say that rye was weaker than Golden Vine in facing the contamination of negative power. It was also impossible to mix them together because they had different growing seasons. Within the whole Northwest area, only the southern Rye Town and its surrounding area were able to plant rye because there was a lower degree of negative power contamination. That was the reason why the Rye Town had become the grain house of the Northwest area. It had advanced agriculture, as well as commerce and trade. It had also been prosperous enough to supply a strong army. Sui Xiong wanted to promote the development of Pyroxene Town, and naturally, everything started from agriculture. He had to at least ensure that the residents in this town were self-sufficient enough in producing grain. But that meant opening up more land and needing to enlarge the scale of the purification array. A Purification Array was a magic array that worked by relying on the System of God¡¯s Belief. The population of Pyroxene Town determined the level of belief, which further determined the scale and number of divine temple this town could have. Without enough divine temples, the baldacchinos in the center of the purification array would be useless. This was similar to the question of ¡°which came first, the chicken or the egg?¡± As for those pioneer villages (villages under exploration), the church which was in charge of the village, could promote belief by coercive measures. That meant that they could force people to believe in their church to increase the rate of their followers. But that was not what Sui Xiong had pursued. He saw no progress in a society where people didn¡¯t even have the freedom of thought. So he had to find another plan. The primary plan was to dig underground and cultivate special mushrooms that could help absorb negative power there. This had been put into practice in the Void Mask Land and had proven to be efficient and reliable. But there was another problem in this plan¡ªit was out of the human¡¯s power to dig underground and plant special mushrooms there on a large scale. It was even too much for the experienced adventures because the concentration of negative energy in the underground was totally different from that of topsoil! There was no such a thing as a free lunch or a free pass to progress given by a god. If social progress was not achieved through the effort of the people, it wouldn¡¯t be worthy of making it universal and also couldn¡¯t prove Sui Xiong¡¯s idea was right. So he began to consider another plan¡ªthe strong negative energy of the Ash Forest was coming from the Ancient God buried deep in the ground. If Sui Xiong could manage to move the god¡¯s corpse out of there, and with the help of large scale of purification, it might be possible to clear out all the negative energy in the Ash Forest and turn it into a normal, frigid forest zone. That could be an earth-shaking project with great difficulty. More importantly, Sui Xiong knew nothing about the background of this ancient god, so he didn¡¯t dare to take immediate action. A god who had died such a long time ago and could still consistently generate strong negative energy so much that it contaminated the vast forest¡ªthat god must be unimaginably powerful. How dangerous would his corpse be? How many powerful gods would be envious if Sui Xiong moved his corpse? How would Sui Xiong deal with his corpse then? These were all big problems. Sui Xiong had asked Javier, a resourceful and strategic man, to find the background of this ancient god. Javier was an expert in wine, food and enjoying himself. He had been a regular guest at various celebrations and maintained a good relationship with all the gods¡ªexcept for the God of Plague and others like him. He had gotten along well with conservative gods from order keeping systems, brutal and violent gods from the evil system, and even fancy and wired gods from the chaos system. At least three-quarters of the gods in the Pantheon temple had dined or chatted with him before. Although no news came from him until now, Sui Xiong believed that Javier would figure out everything of that ancient god sooner or later. At that time, Sui Xiong would call all his friends together and do something astonishing! But that day was still far away; it would be perhaps fifty or one hundred years from now, maybe even longer. He could wait slowly with endless life, but those ordinary people couldn¡¯t wait that long. So, he had to make another plan. For over half a month, Sui Xiong wandered around in Pyroxene Town. By observing the lives of ordinary people, he tried to figure out their needs and thought of how to improve their living standards. If he had hair, he would have lost most of it in just the past half month, making himself almost bald. Sui Xiong¡¯s meditation was rewarded at last. One day, when he was hiding out in the mine and watching the miners work hard, he finally found inspiration. A few hours later, he found Felix and took out a design to show him. ¡°What a big project!¡± Felix studied the design carefully and admired it. It was indeed a big project, as Sui Xiong was planning to dig four inclined tunnels out of Pyroxene Town and plant special mushrooms there. The underground temperature was high to maintain the growth of special mushrooms. With the growing and reproduction of special mushrooms, the concentration of negative energy in the surrounding area would decrease. Then it would be time to dig a deeper tunnel nearby to plant special mushrooms there and harvest the mushrooms had planted before to refine the magic essence of negative energy. Repeated in this way, it was equal to building an artificial vein of negative energy essence out of Pyroxene Town. Over time, when these underground veins develop into a deep position, there would be more eastward construction. Then the crisscross planting zone of special mushrooms would form the huge Underground Vine Zone. At the technical level, there was nothing difficult in this idea; it just needed a lot of manpower. Since the cultivation of Golden Vine did not take up much manpower, and Pyroxene Town still had many skilled miners, it would be easy. But the investment of this ¡°artificial vein¡± was relatively high, and it would take a long time from start to harvest. Without sufficient financial resources, there would be no way to support the plan. And even if it succeeded in providing special mushrooms, there were still risks in harvesting these special mushrooms for they contained a lot of negative energy. Furthermore, after the harvest, the special mushrooms couldn¡¯t be refined by ordinary people. They would require magicians of a high level and adequate magical manpower. Fortunately, these were not problems for Pyroxene Town because it was building a magic school. ¡°It¡¯s a good plan. With enough magical manpower, the whole Ash Forest will be transformed into a huge vein of negative energy,¡± Felix commented. ¡°I think¡­ Your Majesty, you really have found a way to revitalize this dark forest of death!¡± Sui Xiong scratched his head with his tentacles and smiled happily. Although it had not solved the grain problem, with reliable financial resources, the revival of Pyroxene Town would be able to happen faster! Chapter 296 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was not so easy to build an artificial vein. First, one needed to dig a well and estimate the concentration of negative power underground to figure out how deep the first tunnel should be. At the theoretical level, the deeper the tunnel was dug, the better the effects it would have. One of the reasons was that the deeper into the ground it went, the higher the temperature and concentration of negative energy there would be. That would bring better growth and a higher output of the special mushrooms. However, it would be more dangerous as well because of the high concentration of negative power. Average spellcasters were also able to protect themselves from the negative energy, but they couldn¡¯t work as tunnel diggers. As for those diggers, they were mortals without magic power, and even under the protection of Felix, it was still too dangerous for them to work in an environment containing high concentrations of negative energy. Neither Sui Xiong nor Felix was an evil businessman that saw nothing except money. This couldn¡¯t be taken carelessly as it was a matter of life and death. They had to cautiously estimate and find a balance between less investment and lower risks. That was too careful a job for both of them to do. What they could do was dig the wells and provide necessary information and material. As for calculations, Sui Xiong invited an Oracle from the holy kingdom of the Goddess of Wealth to help. This Oracle used to be a chancellor. After several days¡¯ careful calculation, the Oracle worked out a reliable plan. That former chancellor promised that there would be no actual dangers as long as the workers followed his safety plan. Furthermore, he had also given some important suggestions¡ªat the very beginning, the tunnel could be artificially heated, and there was no need to dig four tunnels. One would be enough. Sui Xiong¡¯s symmetrical aesthetics in painting were not working here. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t hide the whole thing from his allies. The gods of the Desolation God System didn¡¯t show much interest in his social experiment except for Morani. Morani reminded Sui Xiong to be careful because building the underground vein might attract the greedy black dragon Cladema here. That Dragon God, the Master of the Dark Underground, possessed two divine positions in the Underground Caves and the Underground Sites. In the recent one to two thousand years, he began to stretch his hands into the divine position in the Underground Vein. There was a contradiction between him and the Dwarf God System. He had also tried to extort money from Sui Xiong last time when Sui Xiong had been building the Underground Maze. At that time, the Dragon God had been chased away by Yorgaardman. Later, he had been busy dealing with the disputes between the Dwarf God System and him and that dragon never came back again. But it didn¡¯t mean that he could stand aside quietly upon seeing such an opportunity! ¡°If that guy comes, I¡¯ll find someone to deal with him,¡± Morani said. ¡°I have a good relationship with several gods in the Dwarf God System. If he comes, I¡¯ll get them to help. We¡¯ll attack this greedy old dragon together, even if we are unable to kill him, at least we¡¯ll hurt him badly!¡± As the God of Forging of the Half-Orcs, Morani got along well with the God of Forging of all god systems. In Sui Xiong¡¯s opinion, it was a natural friendship between technical nerds. Since almost every god of the Dwarf God System more or less knew about forging, it was easy for Morani to get along well with them. In fact, when Morani got the title of god, Bergen Stone, the Master God of the Dwarf God System had invited him to join them as a visiting god. However, at that time, Lefon had come to visit Morani. In the Orc Empire before, Lefon had been the king while Morani had been his subordinate as a general. They had been in a good relationship, so finally Morani agreed to be a visiting god for the Orc God System. But it had no influence on his relations with the Dwarf God System. Sui Xiong did admire Morani a lot that as a Half-Orc, Morani had managed to build his own force in the place of the Orc God System. What¡¯s more, he was still able to butter his bread on both sides and make friends everywhere. Almost all of his god followers were masters. Even the seemingly foolish guys, the Giant Catfish, and the Giant Earthworm, were useful in their own ways: one could purify poisonous ponds, and the other could fertilize soil. Compared to that, Sui Xiong thought that he was not that successful. Over so many years, he had only made a few friends, including Yorgaardman, Morani, Manissy, and Javier. That was it. As for others, such as the God of Redemption, they were just acquaintances; Wall and Ariel could be his best friends, but that was because he had helped them a lot. But he had ignored that Morani had spent thousands of years developing his interpersonal relationships. Compared to that, Sui Xiong had made his debut less than thirty years before. In other gods¡¯ eyes, he had already become an excellent example of being full of stratagems, as he had been able to make so many friends in such a short period of time. However, Morani didn¡¯t have many real enemies over thousands of years, while Sui Xiong did. Not to mention those who had small disputes with him, there were many of his enemies that wanted to kill Sui Xiong. His enemies were in different places and areas, from legendary monsters to super Divine Powers. In addition, some of the evil monarchs with the most chaotic characters in the chasm had remembered him, making trouble with Sui Xiong constantly. He was really good at getting himself into trouble. For example, his experiment on social progress right now. Although he didn¡¯t feel anything wrong about it, it had offended the interest of many gods and the traditional forces. They hadn¡¯t noticed it yet only because Sui Xiong didn¡¯t take any action. Not to mention, in a few years, the God of Caves, Cladema, definitely would come to make trouble with him. Of course, Sui Xiong was not afraid of Cladema right now. He clearly remembered that when he had been injured after the big war, this damn black lizard dared to profit from his injury. Sui Xiong had always had a clear sense of gratitude and resentment. For those who had helped or hurt him, he would surely pay them back! ¡°I wish that black dragon could come!¡± At Morani¡¯s words, Sui Xiong sneered and said, ¡°I¡¯ll make and have dragon soup then!¡± Several months later, instead of the material to make dragon soup, there came the God of Diplomacy of the Human God System. He came here to send invitation cards. The God of Light was going to hold a banquet, so he invited all of his friends. Sui Xiong and Wall were on the guest list for they had helped him in the fight against the Sun God System. To be honest, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t like the God of Light. However, facing such a polite invitation, he was unable to refuse with a straight face, so he accepted the invitation and prepared a small present. Instead of holding the banquet in the Country of Light of the Human God System, the God of Light had chosen a vast place in the Main Plane where one was unable to set any traps. Although not luxurious, the Human God System had given the venue a magnificent feeling that deserved admiration. It fully reflected the God of Light¡¯s profound heritage as the world¡¯s first god system. It was a buffet with various foods around the venue prepared for the guests. Sui Xiong was surprised at seeing all the Chinese cuisines. He asked Javier about that and was told that many people of the Human God System were interested in the cuisines offered in the Void Mask Land, so they learned about it and made some adjustments according to their own flavors. Although that flavor was not suitable for Sui Xiong, he still felt the great momentum of all the rivers running into the sea. He also felt the God of Light¡¯s confidence in learning from others to make progress. That made Sui Xiong admire the God of Light a lot. After a while, the God of Light who had left after the opening speech appeared again. This time that majestic god changed into a chef¡¯s uniform and pushed a large dining car into the venue. ¡°Not long ago, I got a very rare ingredient. It took me a long time to deal with it. Today, it¡¯s finally ready.¡± A smile appeared on the face of the God of Light, who was usually serious and cold. ¡°It¡¯s a rare chance for friends to gather together. We¡¯re having a good time now, so I¡¯d like to share this precious dish with you!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment. He remembered the despondent and insane thing that the God of Light had done before, so he couldn¡¯t help but make a terrible guess. Looking around, he found that many gods looked uncomfortable. Perhaps they were thinking about the same thing. However, it was like the bad news never failed you. In the worried eyes of everyone, the God of Light laughed and lifted the lid of the dining car. Inside it was a big pot. In the center of the pot, a group of sunny things was sinking and floating in the soup, boiling the milk-white soup slightly. A gentle breeze blew, the soup rippled, and the fragrance overflowed. Smelling that fragrance, the gods felt energetic. With faint strength infiltrating their bodies, their Divine Power had seemingly enhanced. But the gods who knew about what was in the pot were all shocked and gave different reflections: some were stunned, and some were at a loss whether to cry or to laugh; some were scared, and some were about to vomit. Even still, there were some that couldn¡¯t wait to try it. What the hell! This guy is doing this again! Sui Xiong had figured it out at a simple glance. This was soup none other than the Sun God who had been killed by the God of Light before! ¡°Last time, many of you were unsatisfied with my Ancient God Wine,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°I made countless efforts and took great risks to collect raw materials to make it, but I had never expected that so many of you didn¡¯t like to drink.¡± He shook his head with a look of regret. Come on! It was not a problem of drinking or not! You killed your own master and put him into the wine. Who the hell would drink that? Sui Xiong made complained in his heart, so the God of Light naturally knew nothing about that. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about it carefully after that, and I think it must be because many of you don¡¯t like drinking. So this time, I made a pot of soup.¡± He pointed to the pot of milky white hot soup, which was boiling slightly, and said with a smile, ¡°Actually, this soup was inspired by His Majesty¡¯s Void Mask Land.¡± Sui Xiong almost jumped up at that and could not help crying out, ¡°How could my land stew this kind of soup?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it one of the winter specialties in your land?¡± the God of Light laughed and said. ¡°It¡¯s called hot pot.¡± ¡°I had it last time. It was really interesting. Then I¡¯ve been thinking about the materials to make the most distinctive and tasty hot pot.¡± He was a little proud. ¡°After several ideas, I found the best ingredient in the world.¡± ¡°It can be made into both food and soup. It boils itself without any heating and keeps its original flavor. No seasonings are needed. It fully embodies the beauty of nature and the purity of food. Is there anything that could be more suitable for stewing hot pot than this?¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a long time and asked, ¡°Is it true that¡­ Is that why you attacked the Cloud City and destroyed the Sun God System?¡± ¡°How could that be!¡± The God of Light laughed. ¡°I had made that plan before all this. I just moved the plan earlier since the winter was the best season to have a hot pot.¡± Sui Xiong finally could not help but sigh deeply, and even his tentacles fell down to the ground softly. Now he was sure that the God of Light was the senior of Yorgaardman. The two brothers were really similar to each other. Chapter 297 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The temporary banquet hall of the Human God System was very lively. In it, the gods and the Holy Spirits came and went, and some outstanding humans who had been appreciated by the gods had been invited to this place far away from the mortal world. However, if you looked carefully, you would find that the gods were deliberately keeping away from a corner, as if poisonous snakes and beasts were there. Of course, no poisonous snakes and beasts were there. Instead, there were a few gods sitting together eating hot pot. Although the God of Light admired the ¡°Sun God Hot Pot¡± and claimed it to be his masterpiece, the gods still had no appetite. They dared not to taste those strange ingredients, and so finally, few had the courage to share that delicacy with him. Sui Xiong was one of the few. To be honest, the taste of the Sun God Hot Pot was really good. The God of Light seemed to be a foodie, because the taste was just right. Even in the human world, at least as far as the taste of the soup, it was as good as those made by famous chefs. Not only that, because the soup also contained strong divine power, every spoon made him feel that his strength had increased a little. It seemed that there was not much soup in the pot, but in fact, there was a lot. They ate it for a long time but did not see the amount in the pot lessen. Sui Xiong asked out of curiosity and got to know that the pot was actually a projection of a small world. What everyone saw was the Sun God¡¯s corpse soaking in the pot. In fact, it was soaking in a small world with one half of water and the other half of air. Therefore, the soup that everyone had eaten was taken directly from the small world. Thus, the strong power of the God of Light showed up. If he hadn¡¯t explained that, no one would be aware of it. While he was amazed, Sui Xiong became more curious about another thing. The Sun God¡¯s noumenon was a burning flame. If it was thrown into water, there would be only two results: either the water would evaporate, or it would be extinguished. What on earth was the method that the God of Light used to prevent the water from being extinguished? Instead, the water boiled slightly with the just right temperature, stewing itself. The God of Light said, smiling mysteriously, ¡°I can¡¯t answer this question. When you reach a certain realm in the future, you will naturally understand.¡± Sui Xiong was so confused. He made a note to remember this and planned to ask Brother Yorgaardman when he saw him next. After eating the soup, it was natural to eat the dishes prepared. The God of Light cut pieces off of the Sun God¡¯s huge body, put them in some slightly boiling soup and handed them over to everyone. ¡°You should swallow the meat with the soup directly. It¡¯ll taste better,¡± he said. ¡°Don¡¯t chew because it doesn¡¯t feel nice in your mouth.¡± Looking at the small flame sinking and rising in the soup in front of him, Sui Xiong wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. After swallowing a gulp or two, Sui Xiong then took the bowl with gritted teeth and swallowed it all up with a grunt. After swallowing, his stomach suddenly seemed to burn up inside. But instead of a burning feeling, Sui Xiong just felt that the heat was constantly rising up, as well as countless inspirations about the light, the flame, and the sun rushing into his mind. This stunned him a little. After the daze, Sui Xiong found that the surrounding area was empty¡ªthe banquet had already ended, and the guests had already left. Only the God of Light was sitting next to him, with an expression of slight admiration. ¡°You are awake?¡± he said after a nod. ¡°You can understand so many things from just a small piece of the flesh and blood of the Sun God. You are so talented! It¡¯s a pity that you are not a human,¡± he continued. ¡°Otherwise, perhaps just in order to teach you, my teacher would not have made that decision¡­¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and then curiously asked, ¡°What on earth happened to His Majesty, the God of Knights in the past?¡± The God of Light shook his head. ¡°Those things are too far away for you. When you at least have strong divine power¡­ Well, mid-level divine power, then come back and ask me. I may tell you.¡± After that, he stood up, and his figure gradually faded away. ¡°Auscar, the things in your territory are very interesting, but I want to remind you that the world is ultimately determined by the upper layers, so don¡¯t reverse the primary and the secondary. For we gods, the entire church, the entire god system, and the entire ethnic groups can become strong only by improving ourselves. It is too naive to put our hopes on the progress of mortals.¡± ¡°The weak can, of course, be naive, but as leaders, we don¡¯t have that right.¡± After that, the God of Light disappeared without a trace, leaving Sui Xiong alone in the silent void. When Sui Xiong returned to the human world, it was already the season of ice rivers defrosting and plants germinating. The first man-made vein in the town of Pyroxene had been excavated for a long period of time. It almost reached the predetermined depth and was ready to cultivate special mushrooms. In Pyroxene Town, a group of new residents had also arrived. It was a group of top-ranking and mighty North Barbarians, including one man, many women, and many more children. The man was very tall, at least two heads taller than an average person. He was naked on his top half and had a fierce snow bear tattoo from his right shoulder to his upper right arm. He looked really scary with his fierce gaze, fiery red hair, red eyebrows, and red beard. The most terrifying thing was that he often spouted some tiny sparks out of his nostrils while breathing that smelled slightly of sulfur. He was more like an evil dragon that had transformed into a human rather than a real person. After meeting that evening and after carefully looking him up and down, Sui Xiong smiled and nodded. Then he said, ¡°It seems that you have basically adapted to the dragon¡¯s blood. How do you feel?¡± ¡°Awesome!¡± the red-haired barbarian said, smiling. ¡°I have never felt so good!¡± ¡°But I want to remind you that the dragon blood offered by the Dragon Blood Potion did not originate from you. It is a long process to integrate it, absorb it and truly transform it into your own blood. Before you fully integrate it, you can¡¯t show off as you used to do,¡± Sui Xiong said seriously. ¡°You may die!¡± ¡°I, Jose, am not that irresponsible!¡± The red-haired barbarian laughed. ¡°I showed off because I had a limited life. I had to hurry up. Now I have stepped into the Legendary Realm. After fully integrating the dragon¡¯s blood, I can at least live for thousands of years. Of course, I don¡¯t have to rush anymore.¡± In his eyes, fire-like light was burning, and his pupils had turned into the same golden color as a giant dragon. ¡°At ease, My Majesty. I will take good care of myself!¡± The dragon-like barbarian was Jose. Last fall, Wendy, the alchemist of Slime, had produced a bottle of Dragon Blood Potion through the study of the flesh and blood of Uherskreider, the evil giant dragon, the ¡°Brutal Burner.¡± Theoretically, it had been able to transform the blood of mortals into the blood of red dragons. But the potency of this potion had been so strong that average animals couldn¡¯t bear it. Perhaps, the strongmen of high-level could absorb its power smoothly. Wendy had sent the potion to the Land. After a consultation, they had decided to recruit a volunteer to try it out. Jose, who was worried that his youth had been too short for him to bear 300 children and grandchildren, had been recruited as a volunteer. After taking the potion, he laid down in the magical array which had been used to maintain his physical conditions for half a fall and a whole winter. Recently, he had finally succeeded in integrating the dragon blood into his own blood and became a man-made, Dragon-Blood Warrior. However, although the integration had been initially completed, the remaining integration process would require a lot of accumulated effort through the coming days and months. Jose was not willing to be idle, but he was too eye-catching to stay in the Land. Finally, he had decided to take his wife and children to Pyroxene Town to participate in the experiment of reviving Pyroxene Town. Sooner or later, he was going to rebuild his own tribe. Now, with offering favors, he could both accumulate some connections and learn some experience. It was a win-win The arrival of Jose made Felix overjoyed. The former adventurer had been a top master himself, and he was reliable in his work. Therefore, Jose was totally qualified to hold an important position. More importantly, he did not plan to settle permanently in Pyroxene Town, so Felix didn¡¯t need to worry that he might seize her power. There was no better helper than Jose! With his help, the revival process of Pyroxene Town would be greatly accelerated for sure! Chapter 298 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Reif walked up the sloping tunnel tiredly while carrying a crossbow, feeling exhausted. As a skilled miner, four hours of excavation work¡ªand just the excavation of soil¡ªwas not heavy physical exercise for him. The trouble came from the labor clothes on his body. The weird suit was thick and heavy, wrapping him from head to toe, even including his eyes, nose, and mouth. Water crystals were inlaid in the eye position, and a special ventilation mask was put in front of the nose and mouth like a pig¡¯s snout. Anyway, it was very cumbersome and very stuffy. Stuffy! He had never thought that he could feel stuffy in a place located in the shade, where ice and snow were present all day long! ¡°It¡¯s still good that it¡¯s winter though!¡± He couldn¡¯t help but sigh. ¡°At that time, although the mud was frozen and it was very difficult to dig, at least it was not necessary to wear these strange clothes!¡± Of course, this was not a real complaint because Town Mayor Felix, who presided over the excavation work, had repeatedly stressed that there were dangerous negative energies under the ground. Only by wearing this suit could the workers avoid being hurt by them. ¡°Negative energies are not swords or vipers. They won¡¯t hurt you immediately. Instead, they will only hurt your body slowly.¡± He still remembered what the beautiful female town mayor had said at the time. ¡°If you don¡¯t wear this protective suit, you will feel your spirits become sluggish bit by bit. It will be easy to get tired, and you won¡¯t eat as much. Then you will get sick easily, and it will be difficult to recover afterwards¡­ Basically, as this stage, people are almost dying. But if you are particularly lucky to get through it, then what is waiting for you will be deep erosion caused by the negative energies that will turn you into something like a walking skeleton or a zombies¡­¡± Felix had told them similar words repeatedly for at least 20 times. She had even asked every excavator to be able to retell such a passage¡ªnot necessarily precise, but the general meaning couldn¡¯t be wrong. She had even found a group of mice to demonstrate the results of negative energy erosion to the excavators. The originally healthy mice had quickly succumbed to weakness in the light gray negative energy and finally fell down. A lucky one had survived but had become dull and stiff, its eyes glowing like wildfire. Seeing that, the excavators had all been scared. Therefore, even if it was very uncomfortable to work and exhausting to wear this suit, they were absolutely afraid of taking it off. ¡°Your Majesty, the equipment you have offered them is really luxurious!¡± Felix could not help but shake her head after looking at the excavators far away. They were walking out of the tunnel slowly, staying in the purification array for three minutes, and then taking off the protective suit eagerly. Then she said, ¡°Those guys probably can¡¯t even imagine how expensive the suits on their bodies are, not even in their dreams¡­¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°People-oriented. To revitalize Pyroxene Town, we require a large number of people, especially skilled workers. And when the town is revived, it is still necessary to serve the people. In my opinion, these excavators are much more precious than those protective suits made of magic rubber.¡± ¡°Five hundred gold coins for each protective suit¡­ If the money is used to recruit mercenaries, it is at least enough to find us ten strong men who know how to use swords and bows. They would fight bravely.¡± ¡°With you and Jose in Pyroxene Town, that amount of force is enough. We can just save money and invest it in more valuable places,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°Not to mention that these protective suits will not go to waste; they are very durable and can be used for a long time. With their help, when we harvest special mushrooms in the future, ordinary people can also do it. It is much safer and more efficient.¡± Felix twitched her lips, disagreed by Sui Xiong¡¯s words. But she did not object to Sui Xiong¡¯s practice. On the contrary, she liked this kind of life-cherishing behavior¡ªexcept for a few, almost everyone liked a generous and benevolent leader. What was more, Sui Xiong was not as simple as ¡°generous and benevolent.¡± When he had returned from this trip, he had found that as the tunnel was being dug deeper and deeper, the concentration of negative energy in the tunnel was increasing as well. Although negative energy of such a level would not present any immediate harm and the purification array after the work could eliminate most of the impact, over time, it would still become severe enough to cause serious illness or even death. So Sui Xiong had immediately informed Felix to set out more appropriate protective measures for the excavators. Felix had had no opinion on this. She had intended to buy protective suits made of ¡°Mageweave Cloth¡± which compiled into the magical plant fiber. Its protective effects had come from adding the entry-level spell with the effect of ¡°Energy Resistance¡± on the Mageweave Cloth. However, Sui Xiong had vetoed her opinion and asked her to purchase Magic Rubber Cloth in which the primary-level spell with the effect of Energy Protection¡± could be built. This was to be used to make full-coverage heavy protective suits. This had led to a significant increase in investment. With the current 30 excavators, the cost of 30 sets of Mageweave Cloth labor suits with the additional ¡°Energy Resistance¡± spells added up to about 1,500 gold coins. The price could be reduced to 1,200 gold coins through some internal channels; but as for 30 sets of Magic Rubber Cloth heavy protective suits with additional ¡°Energy Protection¡± spells, each cost 500 gold coins, adding up to 15,000 gold coins in total! This price had scared Felix. As a high-level mage who had been accumulating knowledge and strength after entering the Legendary Realm, more than 1,000 gold coins had not been a big number to her. It was nothing more than a little heartache. However, 15,000 gold coins¡­ This price was enough to recruit a group of top killers to assassinate a king. But instead, it had been used to make protective suits for a group of laborers? Really, this had been too extravagant! However, since Sui Xiong had made a decision, she could only perform it. Fortunately, Sui Xiong had not made her spend too much; he only made her buy raw materials. His Majesty, the God of Jellyfish, had produced protective suits and added enchantments all by himself. He finally had reduced the cost to 200 gold coins per one, with a total price of 6,000 gold coins. Felix had previously worried that if someone else learned their technology, what would they do? Looking at this protective suit, there had been no need to mention it. She had believed that no businessmen in the world would be crazy enough to invest such a huge sum of money just to make anti-negative energy suits. The energy essence was only low-end magic material, so it was not worth spending so much money! ¡°In fact, after a careful calculation, this investment was still cost-effective,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°These protective suits can be used for at least 20 years, but the Mageweave Cloth Labor Suits can only be used for up to three years. From the point of long-term investment, the price difference in protective suits is actually about half of the price. Is it cost-effective to use this price difference for a group of skilled and reliable workers? ¡°And think of this. With such strict protection, workers can stay healthy all the time. They will become the strong support for the rejuvenation of the town and even the construction of a new type of society. This can¡¯t be exchanged for any amount of money!¡± Felix produced a forced laugh and defaulted Sui Xiong¡¯s words. Outside the tunnel, Reif had accepted the purification and taken off the heavy protective clothing. He rinsed the protective suit under the pipe that was spouting clear water and hung it in the designated position. After doing this, he went to the rest stop and made a cup of tea. The tea was made of scorched rye from a large wooden barrel that should have been filled with ale. He took a long sip. The lukewarm tea flowed along his throat and into his stomach. This made him feel a lot less irritated and eliminated much of his exhaustion. In fact, he was not very tired. It was nothing but the stuffiness that gave him the illusion that he was tried. Now, after returning to a more comfortable environment, he, of course, recovered as the illusion disappeared. In this case, he could have been working for more time, but the morning work was over, and the protective suit needed time to dry. Therefore, he could go home safely, have lunch, rest a little and prepare for the afternoon work. An excavator only needed to work eight hours a day, which was also the rule set by Sui Xiong. Of course, he could find a lot of reasons to explain that, but in fact, the original reason was just out of ¡°habit.¡± For Sui Xiong, the proper protection of workers, as well as the eight-hour work system was a natural thing with nothing to discuss. Both the excavator Reif, who only knew how to work himself to the bone, and Felix, who presided over the revival project of the whole town had, no way to understand Sui Xiong¡¯s habits. Things like ¡°endowment security,¡±¡±disease and work injury protection,¡±¡±holidays,¡±¡±work meals,¡± and ¡°overtime pay,¡±¡ªthis world had not had these concepts before. Owing all this to Sui Xiong, these things were popularized in the Void Mask Land. However, so far, it had only been popularized inside the Void Mask Land. Even though many kind gods had greatly appreciated these systems, some even wanting to emulate them, in the end, the Land was still the only one who had stuck to them. If other places wanted to follow that, first of all, it would be impossible to pour so much capital investment into the system like the Void Mask Land. There were a few places where you could get so much money every day. Secondly, even if there was enough money, you would lack a social basis that could accept these practices. You should know that every penny invested in welfare was the profit of the investor itself. Merchants would not be willing to give up such large profits, and the aristocrats would not be willing to give their people so many benefits. Even if the churches of kind-hearted gods did this internally, it would still be impossible to popularize it. Only the city that had been built by Sui Xiong alone out of foundation could use such a set of rules directly. Other than there, nowhere else could! Even in Pyroxene Town, Sui Xiong did not directly apply for the various guarantees and benefits in the Land but decided to adopt a step-by-step approach to promote social progress little by little instead. He remembered a famous saying, ¡°Communism cannot fall from the sky.¡± From another perspective, the system directly driven by the power of the gods would definitely not be the progress he wanted. Progress should be made little by little. For the current Pyroxene Town, this condition was almost good enough. Of course, this situation would not last forever. By the time the man-made veins began to produce, or the conditions of agriculture improved, he would definitely further promote social progress. This would cause the living conditions of the people in Pyroxene Town to continue to improve, and the town would move in the direction of his ideals. As the saying went, high buildings rose from the ground. Now, the Pyroxene Town was only at the foundation stage. Chapter 299 Reif did not go home to rest. He was the only member of his family, so there was no need to go back home. There was a table, some chairs, and a heated brick bed in the duty room next to the construction site. The most important thing was that there was also a hot stove. The old man on duty was very easy-going. As long as you brought your own food, he didn¡¯t mind helping you to make some while preparing lunch for himself. With hot soup, Rief could eat a warm meal. He then went for a walk under the sunshine or chatted with a few co-workers; that was how he spent his afternoon. The food that Reif had brought with him was Golden Vine Powder, almost the same as the other co-workers. The old man on duty had originally helped them make to bake some cakes. Later when the mayor had come to check up on them, she had said that the lunch should at least contain some oil and had ordered people to send them some. With oil, they could make pancakes, and those tasted much better. In terms of soup, the old man on duty paid much attention to it. He used rye flakes and small green vegetables to stew it, occasionally adding in some minced meat into the soup. The rye flakes were his own, the minced meat was a gift from Lord Jose, and the small green vegetables were given to him by a student of the magic school. The young mage was doing experiments on plants being grown in the winter time. Unlike the big men that Reif had met in the past, the newcomers in Pyroxene Town were very amiable. The key point was that they were willing to actually help the poor, not just be polite in words. The young mage who sent the vegetables every one or two days had once said that the great god, the Void Mask had taught him that if he really cared about others, he should use actual actions to express it. Cheap words were the same as cheating. The young man was very convinced of the teachings of that great god, so he had planted two test fields of vegetables even though he only needed to plant one. ¡°Of course two fields have their own benefits.¡± Steve, who had just learned primary-level spells, had written these words in a report. ¡°The two fields are in contrast to each other, which can improve the efficiency of the experiment.¡± As for the hard work of planting two fields, the farmer-born youth did not take this hardship to heart. Felix was also quite satisfied with this student. Although compared to other students, Steve was a bit stupid¡ªhe was a slow learner and didn¡¯t understand spells quickly¡ªhe was still calm and diligent. He had a rigorous style and worked hard, and that was enough to make up for his lack of intelligence. If he followed the path of the traditional mages, then Steve wasn¡¯t destined to go too far. However, the ¡°Magic Bomber¡± was a special mage who was extremely biased towards battles. What that mage paid more attention to were agile actions and careful thoughts, so the requirements for intelligence were not that high. Even if Steve couldn¡¯t become a good Magic Bomber, he could at least become a good battle mage. In fact, if Felix could break through the limits and step into the Legendary Realm, it would not be difficult to promote a student who was slightly less talented but diligent and attentive to a higher level. The ¡°talent¡± thing was an insurmountable gap for mortals. However, for the extraordinary, the gap between ¡°mediocrity¡± and ¡°genius¡± could be completely eliminated. Only the gap between ¡°talent¡± and ¡°genius¡± was impossible to pass across. For the vast majority of professions, ¡°talent¡± was completely sufficient. For example, among excavators, Reif was the most talented in his batch. Even wearing a thick protective suit, he was able to adjust his body well; his body was burdened less under the same work, and he was able to finish more work in the same amount of time. The pickaxes they were using were enchanted. They were stronger than normal pickaxes and could record the number and power of their swings¡ªthis was the key to calculating rewards. It had been more than a month since the start of the construction. When the wages were settled, Reif received nearly 20% more than an average excavator. This meant that although he also worked eight hours a day, the same as other excavators, his workload was equivalent to more than 9.5 hours. It was a pity that he only worked hard and was not good at interpersonal communication and management. Otherwise, Felix would promote him to the leader of the excavation team! ¡°What a pity!¡± At a meeting, she had specifically mentioned that excellent excavator. ¡°He is obviously very talented, but it is a shame that he is not good at talking or management.¡± ¡°There are always some people who are not good at other things except working hard and finishing their own work,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°At the end of the year, you can give him a ¡®model worker¡¯ medal.¡± ¡°Model Worker?¡± Felix¡¯s eyes lit up; then she nodded after carefully pondering for a while. People were not pigs or dogs, so they were not satisfied just with fulfilling their stomachs. As a mayor, she not only needed to improve the income of residents and their living conditions, but she also needed to let the residents see hope and have the motivation to move forward. This could make their life more radiant. It was a good idea to give medals to outstanding workers like Reif! This kind of thing also happened in the army sometimes. Some outstanding soldiers would still be awarded medals even though they had not been able to make enough merits for promotions. Of course, the gold content of those medals was much lower than the medals awarded for meritorious service. However, medals were medals. In any case, they were still a rare honor. Moreover, the soldiers who could get such kinds of medals would be respected a lot after they retired. The medals meant that they might not have been good enough or lacked opportunities, but they were still very reliable. Such people might not be qualified in key positions, but they had to be the backbones of the grassroots level and the local level. They could win others¡¯ respect and love. Exaggeratedly speaking, they were the pillars that supported the building of society. Felix and Jose had specifically sent vegetables and oil to the excavators mainly to win those strong labors¡¯ hearts as soon as possible. Sui Xiong had told them that money was secondary because people¡¯s wills were the key to success. Therefore, both he and the mayor had all thought of ways to win people¡¯s hearts as much as possible. For example, Jose now was patrolling in the forest near Pyroxene Town with some people. They were searching for the collection points of negative energy with a magic compass whose development was led by Satan, the head of the Mage Corps. They would nail specially produced purification columns down into the ground during the daytime and then push the force of the columns. The force could temporarily destroy the collection points, and it could also create temporary cleaning points in the same areas. This action aimed to reduce the possibility of the appearance of skeletons in the night around the town; this would thus avoid the skeleton tide of the ¡°Extreme New Moon Night¡± that happened every year. ¡°Extreme New Moon Night¡± was a concept of astrology. There was a night where negative energy was very active between mid-autumn and late autumn every year. Such nights were called the Extreme New Moon Night. In the Ashes Woods, on the Extreme New Moon Night every year, an inexhaustible army of skeletons would appear, launching a crazy attack on all the people who settled here. Many villages of pioneers were ruined on the Extreme New Moon Night, with no survivors left in the whole village. Even the four towns with stronger defenses were afraid that they wouldn¡¯t be able to resist the horrible skeleton tide if they were not built on the edge of Ashes Woods. When he had first come ashore, Sui Xiong had once witnessed the skeleton tide; it had been a terrible catastrophe. Not only that, a small skeleton tide would often appear at new moon nights every month. Those skeleton tides were not a problem for the towns, but they were still very threatening for the villages. Jose destroyed the collection points of negative energy around the town one by one to establish purification nodes, finally aiming to build an extremely large purification array. This was the subject of Mage Satan¡¯s current research. He had chosen the direction of ¡°purification¡± as his key to breaking into the Legendary Realm. According to his calculation, if this kind of large-scale purification array could succeed, it would mean that his thinking methods and calculations were correct. Then, what he only needed for stepping into the Legendary Realm would be enough magic power. For him, a scholar-type master mage, magic power was not a problem, but rather a large ceremony. The key was to ensure that you were in the right direction to avoid the failure of the ceremony. If his research was successful, then it would not take long for the Church of the Void Mask to have a true legendary mage, a wise man who could help travel steadily down the path of ability and wisdom. People in Pyroxene Town were not aware of those things, but they at least knew one thing¡ªwhat Jose and others had done was really good for the town. Really good! This made the residents of the town feel a bit better about the horrible red-haired giant man whose nose was able to spout sparks. They also trusted Town Mayor Felix who ruled the town, and the Church of the Void Mask behind the mayor a bit more. The rulers in the past had only paid attention to the construction of the town walls, but they had never cared for the lives or deaths of the people outside the town walls. Compared to them, this group of new rulers obviously cared more and were more humane. They thought about the people. Raising wages, stabilizing prices, repairing houses, rebuilding farmlands, developing mine veins, and purifying the environment¡ªTown Mayor Felix and her partners and subordinates were indeed doing something beneficial for Pyroxene Town. Some of what they¡¯d done gained good results immediately. Some of them did not make any effects for the time being, but they would be good in the long run. Some of them were even the very things they had already wanted long ago but were impossible to own. In the case of such measures running at the same time, the residents of Pyroxene Town naturally chose to trust and support Town Mayor Felix. Whenever she appeared in the town, the residents would take the initiative to salute her. At this time, what they had in their hearts was not fear, but admiration. Not only that, but the influence of the Church of Void Mask in Pyroxene Town was also rapidly increasing. Many residents who did not have a clear faith in the past were willing to go to the bishops of the Church of Void Mask to follow the lectures, praying with them to praise the great god who looked strange. When the special mushrooms in the first tunnel flourished, they purified the soil around them. Seeing the ground fade to gray and then back to the color of the soil itself, as well as the sprouting of the vegetables planted for tests on the ground, the residents of Pyroxene Town finally couldn¡¯t help but cheer, laugh, and cry tears of joy. ¡°You are such a great person¡­ Oh, great god,¡± in the air, the Goddess of Wealth, who had covered her figure with divine power, said to Sui Xiong, ¡°I have never seen a god who can win people¡¯s hearts in this way. In my opinion, you are not like a god. Instead, you are more like a virtuous emperor who has never really existed in the legend of the human world.¡± Chapter 300 A farmer was singing work songs, commanding an old ox to walk slowly through the field while pulling the plow. It left behind deep ditches in the land. ¡°It¡¯s incredible!¡± Knight of Charles Ouss, the eldest son as well as his heir of the late Knight D¡¯vor Ouss, was looking at the sight in front of him. He admired it again and again, and finally said to the thin man beside him who was still wearing thick clothes in the already warm weather, ¡°Lord Crick, you are the wisest person I have ever seen!¡± Crick Keane smiled, first coughed twice, then calmly said, ¡°This means nothing. It is a lord¡¯s duty to let the farmers harvest more and have the people live better.¡± After the battle a few months ago, Crick had fallen ill after returning to his hometown. After inspection, it turned out that he had been involved in the battle between the Holy Spirits and the Oracles. In the battle, he had been affected although he had been innocent and had been cursed by the Divine Power. Curses of this level were hard to get rid of. Dispelling them was only possible with either holding a large magical ritual or finding a master of the same level as that of the Archbishops of big churches. Either one had been beyond the ability of Baron Keane, so he could only stay sick. Fortunately, the leader of the Church of Void Mask who was stationed in Keane City happened to be a priest who was a master in the fields of ¡°life¡± and ¡°treatment.¡± With his help, Crick¡¯s condition had stayed stable. Although his body was somewhat weak, at least it would not continue to deteriorate. Crick thought that this was good enough. After the earth-shattering war, he was so lucky that he still owned a complete body and that he could still talk and laugh. To ask for more would be a bit greedy. He had witnessed the fall of a true god and the death of countless Oracles. As for the death of mortals, it had been too hard to count. It had been said that even the city guards were seriously suffering in the Kingdom of Eagle. In contrast, Crick had been nothing more than a little sick with a slightly weak body, cough and a low fever from time to time. These were all little things, weren¡¯t they? After all, because he had ¡°escaped from the battlefield,¡± he had rarely appeared in front of people and had made the external statement of ¡°sick in bed.¡± The title of Baron Keane had already been handed over to his sister Anna. At present, he was like a backstage manipulator in the stories, hiding behind the scenes and promoting the development of the territory of Baron Keane. Anna had naturally been very happy that her brother came back alive. Even Knight D¡¯vor had died on the battlefield. Although less than one out of ten had been able to come back alive in an army which had undoubtedly been courting death, she didn¡¯t care about anything else as long as her brother could come back. Those days, when her brother was not there, the little girl who had barely supported the family business, was really exhausted. She had never thought that being a baron would be so tiring, and she had never thought that there would be so many things to deal with. Even with the book, A Concise Handbook for Barons, left to by her brother for reference and the assistance of Housekeeper Layton, she still felt dizzy. She had often sunk into bed immediately after finishing her work and fell into a deep sleep until the morning of the next day. If Crick hadn¡¯t come back, maybe this little girl would grow up in hardship and eventually grow into a strong woman. However, since the big tree that could keep out the wind and rain for her had returned, she naturally turned into a little deer who had slept peacefully under the tree again. She had just given everything back to her brother. In this regard, Crick had had no choice but smile. His own sister was not as fond of power as those in some soap operas were, and that was certainly a good thing. However, she was, after all, the heir to an aristocratic family! What should the Keane family do if something happened to him? Although he was not the real Crick Keane, since he had inherited the identity and legacy of the young baron, he had an obligation to pick up the burden of the Keane family. In his work plan, training Anna Keane to be a qualified heir was a natural course of action. In the end, he had crossed out this one; she was an unteachable pupil. Instead of counting on this younger sister who was just ten years old, it was better for him to get married, have children, and then hurry to educate his children! With this in mind, Crick had held a small wedding. The former maid, Amyveile, the girl who was not very talented except for having a loyalty of ten, had become the former Baroness Keane. Amyveile had of course been very happy. In her opinion, whether she could become a baroness or not was not important at all. What really mattered to her was that Master Crick liked her! For a diehard who was almost brainwashed, there was nothing better than this! There was a person who deserved her loyalty; her loyalty was owned by the person she loved, and this person also loved her at the same time. With three states of happiness joining together, it was like a dream! Well, after listening to her sighs, Crick had secretly taken time to check out and see if any moaning fans of the White Album should be punched to death for influencing his wife in his own territory. But it turned out that he had worried too much. As he had been ¡°sick in bed,¡± he was unlikely to encounter any mistresses. Moreover, with an average intelligence of ten, it had been very difficult for Amyveile to be considered a b*tch. Some expansion pack about the ¡°White Album: The Keane Family¡± definitely would not appear. What Crick really cared about right now was to continue the agricultural reform that had been interrupted because of his own expedition. He had no tie to worry about trivial matters such as scrupulous women. Traditional farmers didn¡¯t have the habit of cultivation. They had thrown seeds into the soil in the spring, and then they might pour some water when the soil was dry or pluck if there were too many weeds. Except for that, they had done nothing else but concentrate on herding sheep or some other stuff. In Crick¡¯s view, this was simply a tragedy! Even if he had just been an art student who barely knew anything about agriculture, he still knew that this farming method was horrible! So started the experiment again, which was cultivation this time. ¡°Excavate the farmland with rows of ditches, then arrange the seeds one by one in the ditches; cover them with a little soil and finally water them to germinate them?¡± after listening to his plan, Mage Damwade, asked with a frown. He had been helping Crick with the research. ¡°Isn¡¯t that too much trouble?¡± ¡°Not too much,¡± Crick had said, smiling. ¡°This method, combined with the fertilizer I added to the field in the fall, should be able to greatly increase the harvest.¡± ¡°But¡­ the workload of this ¡®cultivation¡¯ you mentioned is too much,¡± Mage Damwade said. ¡°Few farmers can get the work done before the end of the planting time.¡± Crick was stunned and thought carefully. Finally, he remembered that they should use plows to cultivate the fields. However, how do you make a plow? He didn¡¯t really know. He told Mage Damwade his idea about the ¡°plow,¡± and the wise mage had had no clue as well. Therefore, he gathered all the senior officials and professionals in his territory and held a seminar. At the seminar, Nikola and Thomas proposed two different designs. Nikola¡¯s design was more complicated and ingenious, and it was fancy at first glance; Thomas¡¯s design was out of style, but it didn¡¯t seem bad. After using magic to create the ¡°plow¡± designed by those two people on the spot, even Thomas had had to admit that Nikola¡¯s design was much better than his. However, considering the problem of production efficiency, Thomas¡¯s design finally gained the upper hand. It was a pity that the manufacturing time and the required magic power of Nikola¡¯s design were close to as much as five times more than Thomas¡¯s. To make matters worse, even the most powerful spell caster, Thomas, of the entire territory and Nikola himself who had designed it couldn¡¯t make it. The only person that could make this plow was Mage Damwade, a combination of a scholar, an alchemist and a mage. In contrast, Thomas¡¯s design could be completed by ordinary mid-level mages, and more than 20 were made that day. On the fourth day, all the farmers in the territory had received the ¡°plow¡± and started the ¡°cultivation¡± either with manpower or animal power. That had been a week ago. Now the farmland in the entire territory was basically cultivated. Many places had finished sowing and watering, waiting for the seeds to germinate. What Crick and Charles were watching at the moment was the last field that had not yet been cultivated. The owner of this field was a soldier who had died on the battlefield. The farmer and cattle who were cultivating at the moment were both aided by the territory. This aid would continue until his child grew up and could support the entire family. ¡°You are a kind, generous and humane lord,¡± Charles said. The soldier¡¯s wife carefully planted with the child, and then the skilled farmer sent by the territory helped them cover the soil and water them. Seeing this, Charles couldn¡¯t help but sigh. ¡°I never thought that an aristocrat like you could exist in the world and cared so much about the civilians!¡± ¡°Haha, you are an aristocrat yourself,¡± Crick said, smiling. ¡°Both you and your father are people who care about civilians.¡± Talking about his father, Charles¡¯s look was a little gloomy, but there was still a bright light in his eyes. ¡°Father, he¡­ is the hero I admire. I want to be like him, so there are still many things I have to learn!¡± Crick patted his shoulder and nodded lightly, remembering the scene where he had fought alongside D¡¯vor in the bloody battle. When had Divor fallen? Was it when he had broken into the enemy formation? When he was defending the position? When he was involved in the big battle of the Oracle Army? When they charged with the Holy Spirits? Or was it when they were besieged after the Oracles had disappeared? He tried hard to remember, but he couldn¡¯t figure it out. The memory of that battle was both clear and vague. He clearly remembered the fierce fights, blood, weapon collisions, sorrows, roars, despairs, anger, and fear, but he couldn¡¯t remember many details. This battle was not long ago, but the pages of his memory had already begun to fade. After pondering for a while, he finally sighed. Anyway, D¡¯vor must have followed him into the enemies. Only by this fact, he was a really brave warrior! ¡°The deceased are now ashes, but the living still needs to continue to work hard.¡± Crick looked up into the distance, and there were already many wildflowers blooming in the spring breeze. ¡°D¡¯vor laid the foundation for this land, and you definitely can continue to move forward on the basis he has laid.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°You must do better than him; carry forward the Ouss family from generation to generation!¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°I will continue to work hard as well, D¡¯vor, Spencer¡­ and those brave soldiers. For their blessings, I can stand here alive. If I don¡¯t work hard enough, I will feel shame when I find them in the afterlife¡­¡± Crick looked up at the blue sky, smiling. Chapter 301 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The rain, mixed with a little bit of snow, was falling continuously; the sky and the earth were confused. This was the first rain this year, and it started later than last year. Fortunately, the Northwest region never lacked rain because the melting snow and ice were enough to supply water. There was no need to worry about ¡°spring rain being as expensive as oil.¡± Along with the spring rain, there came some astonishing news. Located at the central part of Main Plane, the Eagle Kingdom, which was the oldest human country in the history, had split up. The eastern part of the Eagle Kingdom belonged to the famous Griffon Duke. The early Griffon Duke was a semi-divine griffon who had formed an unbreakable alliance with the God of Eagle and became his most powerful subordinate. Later, the God of Eagle challenged the God of Light and failed. He died under the hammer of the God of Light. The Griffon Duke was badly injured in the battle with the God of Knights and had to use the arcane arts to reincarnate. After his reincarnation, he became the God of State and Diplomacy, also known as the God of Royalty. The God of Royalty still retained the memories of his time as the Griffon Duke. He had abided by his pledge of guarding the Eagle Kingdom. For a long time afterwards, his church, followers and he had become supporters of the Eagle Kingdom. The successive Griffon Dukes who had inherited his blood were also useful additions to the Eagle Kingdom. They defended the eastern part of the kingdom, resisted enemies from all directions and made the Griffon Duke more prosperous. They were claimed to have had one-third of the entire Griffon Kingdom¡¯s strength. But all of this had changed 150 years ago when the God of Royalty was killed by one of his mistresses, and his clergy had been taken away. His church and followers became belongings of the new-born God of Aristocracy. The God of Aristocracy did not intend to abide by the pledge made between the Griffon Duke and the God of Eagle. Under his influence, the Griffon Duke quickly deviated from the Eagle Kingdom and had the idea of splitting up. The Eagle Kingdom had suffered heavy losses in the battle of ¡°Sun¡¯s Extinction Day¡± last winter, and it would never recover in twenty or thirty years. Therefore, the Griffon Duke, who had hardly suffered any losses, finally put his plan of independence into practice. At the recent feeding ceremony, he declared his independence and founded the Griffon Duchy. Not only did the regions occupied by the former Griffon Duke and the eastern part of Eagle Kingdom become independent, but two earls near the Griffon Duke had also announced their accession to the Griffon Duchy. In terms of its land area, the newly-born Griffin Duchy occupied nearly 30% of the entire Eagle Kingdom¡¯s territory. In other words, the current territory proportion between the Eagle Kingdom and the Griffon Duchy was roughly two to one. This proportion was not ridiculous at all. Considering the difference in prosperity between the two sides and the current predicament in the Eagle Kingdom, it was certain that the Eagle Kingdom would not have the ability to counter rebellions for an eastern expedition. Leon kept silent for a long time after receiving the news, and eventually, he didn¡¯t come to his hometown. He thought over and over again and finally realized that this kind of thing was just a matter of time. Even if he was able to stop it this time, it would not be possible for him to stop this from happening later. What¡¯s more, even he himself didn¡¯t have any identification of the Eagle Kingdom. Time was the most powerful weapon. Thirty years was enough to make the former prince cease to be a member of his kingdom. Although he still remembered that the blood of the eagle flowed through his body, that was all he could remember. If one day, the descendants of Eagle Kingdom met with danger, he would probably rescue them. But he would not fight for the premeditated split. It was a great relief and pleasure for Casari. She had been worried about whether Leon would rush back after hearing the news. She thought that he would try to stop the split with his power and prestige. In that case, he would become a thorn in many people¡¯s eyes and may meet other dangers. As the owner of the Gales City and the contemporary Earl Riley, Casari¡¯s interest in the Eagle Kingdom was only that it was Leon¡¯s hometown and Leon liked eating home dishes. Except for that, she had no more interest in the Eagle Kingdom. Well, for her, it would be best if the Eagle Kingdom retained only those local dishes. Last time, in order to save the Eagle Kingdom, Leon ran to fight with a strong man whom even the Void Mask had feared a lot. That was so terrible! ¡°The Griffon Duke is independent.¡± ¡°It¡¯s expected.¡± ¡°Considering the present situation, it would be very strange for him not to be independent.¡± Words like that had spread out in every country of the mainland, and no one was surprised. Even the new king of the Eagle Kingdom was just silent for a long time after hearing the news. Then he sighed deeply and said, ¡°All right, forget it.¡± For the residents of Pyroxene Town on the edge of the Ashes Woods in the Northwest region, the split of the Eagle Kingdom could only be regarded as a leisurely conversation. For them, the most important thing at present was the first trial harvest of Mayor Felix¡¯s ¡°artificial ore vein.¡± Wearing thick protective clothing, Reif and three cautious excavators used sickles to cut off the upper part of the gray-black mushrooms. They were growing at the bottom of the first tunnel and were spurred by magic. The excavators put them in a special, sealed box. This kind of mushroom could continue to grow as long as it retained the lower part, and the negative energy it absorbed would be condensed at the top. Therefore, it was quite easy to harvest. All they needed was sufficient protection and care. The thick protective clothing had made a lot of trouble for harvesting. Everyone became somewhat clumsy, and their sickles had cut into their hands more than once. But it was lucky that the protective clothing was especially thickened and reinforced along the arms and that the sickle was not sharp, so they did not feel any pain nor were they injured. They finally harvested the first batch of mushrooms after a busy afternoon, and then they put them into six big boxes. These boxes were moved out and transported to the magic school by other workers. They would be extracted in a special extraction room and become valuable negative energy essence, as well as residue that could be used as mushroom fertilizer. After work, Reif walked out of the tunnel and stood in the Purification Array according to the regulations. When he left the array, he quickly took of his stuffy, protective clothing. Raindrops and tiny snowflakes fell on him; they were very cold. It felt so nice since he was now covered with sweat! But the young magician in charge of the supervision immediately shouted and ordered him to go back to the lounge and change into warm clothes to avoid getting sick. ¡°Are you in such a hurry to die?¡± Peik, the old man in charge of the duty room said. ¡°You¡¯re only thirty years old, and you don¡¯t even have a wife or child. Why do you take things so hard since you now live a comfortable life?¡± Reif laughed bitterly. He wanted to tell the old man that he actually had a wife and child. At least, he once did¡­ But after all, he did not say that. All the memories and thoughts turned into a silent sigh. If only he could have met such a good woman as Mayor Felix in those days¡­ Rief was depressed for just a moment. When the last digger came out of the tunnel to be purified, he took off his protective clothing and went to the newly-built lounge next to the room on duty. The young magician took out a sound transmission staff, and there came his teacher, Mayor Felix¡¯s voice. ¡°Everyone has worked hard during this period. The production and the quality of the mushrooms are excellent, and the first stage of the work in the ore veins can be said to have achieved great success. Here, I want to thank you for your hard work.¡± The excavators laughed happily. Although they did not have any education nor any experience in fighting, they could at least recognize these words were out of sincerity. Mayor Felix went on to say, ¡°Next, we¡¯ll take three days off, and the salary will be calculated according to the usual standard. And then I will give you a bonus!¡± All the excavators cheered after hearing this. They had been living such a poor life, so paid holidays were already very good; but bonuses would be even better, especially since Mayor Felix had never been stingy. She would never give them only a few coins like the previous miners got. ¡°How much will the bonus be?¡± a man with a short temper asked in a hurry. The young magician shook his head showing that he did not know. ¡°It must be a lot!¡± another said with a steadier smile. ¡°Yes! Maybe it will be five silver coins, or maybe even seven, no, eight¡­¡± Anyway, these were all just guesses. Reif smiled, wiped the sweat and rain off his body with a dry cloth, and picked up his cup on the wooden shelf of the lounge. Then he went to the big barrel to pick up a cup of steaming wheat tea and drank it. Today, the wheat tea was a little spicy and sweet. He guessed that there were herbs in it that could prevent cold and sickness. That was great! He sat on the bench and listened to the enthusiastic comments of his fellow workers. The hot tea flowed through his throat down to his stomach and then to his whole body. He could not help but laugh at the continuous spring raindrops outside. It was so nice to live such a life! After a while, a patrolman came in the rain and handed out the ¡°bonus¡± mentioned by the mayor just now. Unlike their previous speculation, it was not five, seven, eight silver coins for each person, but one gold coin! All the miners were stunned by the golden coin. Although ten silver coins could be exchanged for one gold coin theoretically, in fact, it was impossible to save a gold coin all year round for most poor civilians. Even before Mayor Felix came, most people here had no chance to even touch a gold coin. Life was so difficult. They had used up all their strength just to be alive. Save up money? Gold coins? Only in their dreams. More than one excavator turned the golden coin over and over again and looked at it many times. They were frantically trying to find a place to put it away, but they did not know where they could put it. It was really embarrassing. Reif¡¯s right hand was still holding the cup steadily while his left held the golden treasure. He felt at ease when looking at it. He clenched his left hand and felt the hard coin cut into his palm. Then he raised his head and downed the hot tea with hope and confidence in his eyes. ¡°Our life will surely get better and better!¡± He spoke to himself, but everyone around had arisen in agreement. Chapter 302 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Far south of the mainland, Knight Howard James was touring Keane Hill with his two sons in a humble countryside of the Duchy of Thunder. Seeing them passing by, farmers all stopped their work and saluted to them. That was simply out of politeness. Compared with those rude northwestern people who were mainly illiterate explorers, the residents of Keane Hill were politer. Beliefs in the God of Art and Culture were also popular here. Knight James was forty-two years old. As a mid-ranked knight, his power had almost reached its peak and would begin to decline in a year or two at most. Correspondingly, his two sons, 22-year-old Bonn and 18-year-old Shawn, had grown up. Bonn even had a daughter now. Knight James also had a 15-year-old daughter. It could be said that he had a big, extended family. So he was much luckier than Knight D¡¯vor Ouss, who had died in the battlefield, leaving his two sons, one 15 and the other 12, in the world. At that time, Knight James was left at Keane Hill for he had been weak in power and was familiar with Keane Hill. Things had been different for D¡¯vor¡ªat least one knight should go with the Hill Lord to the battlefield. They had joined the earth-shattering war that made the sun and moon out of the light. Finally, only 12 out of over 100 people came home alive. They had been badly hurt, even the Lord Hill Crick himself. Compared to that, although Knight James hadn¡¯t won the honor that could be treasured for generations, he was alive. He appreciated that a lot. Though he was dull and didn¡¯t say anything, he was clear in his mind¡ªactually, he was not that dull as he had an intelligence of nine. It was common to see soldiers with that level of intelligence, but none of them were treated like idiots. However, that war had made him alert. Since this winter, every time he was touring Keane Hill or dealing with civil affairs, he would take his two sons with him. He hoped that they could learn the skills of a Hill Lord and take his place in working for the Baron after his retirement. The Baron referred to not Crick, but Miss Anna. Although the official Baron of the Keane Hill was Anna Keane, everyone knew that she had no interest or skills in being a Hill Lord. The future of the Keane Hill relied on his Lordship, Crick. ¡°Alas! When will His Lordship recover¡­¡± Thinking about the condition of Crick, the loyal captain of the Regiment of Knights couldn¡¯t help but sigh deeply. ¡°Father, please be rest assured! His Lordship will be better soon!¡± ¡°Of course, how could a man who was able to come back alive from the battlefield of the Sun¡¯s Death Day be so easily knocked down by illness!¡± If Crick was here, he could look at Bonn and Shawn through his extraordinary talents of Transmigration and find that these two young knights were as loyal as their father with 100 percent of loyalty. Before that big war, these two young men had never been obedient to the poetic Hill Lord. However, in that horrible bloody war, Crick had managed to come back with his body badly hurt by the Divine Curse. He had also taken back the corpse of his good friend and killed the evil b*tch, Miss Machee, on the way. Thus, he had built a great, brave image among the young men as if he were an idol. What did the Divine Curse mean? It meant that he had been involved in the fight of Oracles or Holy Spirits. How brave and powerful was he for a mortal! What did bringing back Spencer Smith¡¯s dead body mean? It meant that Crick had been beside the knight when he died. He could stay alive while that famous master had died and even take back his partner¡¯s body. All of that needed accurate judgment and extraordinary wisdom. After all, Crick was a follower of the God of Art and Culture, not the God of Luck. On his way back, though he had been ill and badly hurt, he still successfully killed Miss Machee. She had done many evil things and even once became the evil God of Aristocracy to take charge of this area. This further proved that Crick was a tough guy with great power even when he was badly hurt. Being brave, wise and strong, good at governance, honest and noble¡ªLord Crick was like a hero out of mythology and legends. That had been enough to make these young people admire and worship him. Although Crick himself had repeatedly stressed that there were many errors in these statements and a lot of fabricated details, others just took that as his modesty and didn¡¯t believe it. Crick could not help it. The more he explained, the more people felt that he was hiding it. After all, that battle had been so tragic, and everyone knew that. The volunteer army had been fighting in the most dangerous place in the whole battlefield. It was an undeniable fact that Crick not only had come back all the way but also brought back the corpse of his friend. However, Crick was reluctant to damage his friend¡¯s reputation. The relationship between Smith and his sister was somewhat weird, reminding him of some unhealthy books he had read before. So he repeatedly told himself that he should never say anything and to try to forget those things. He also asked Donaldson to do so. Donaldson, growing a beard and wearing heavy armor, had been hired by Machee to disguise as Paul, the legendary adventurer. Donaldson¡¯s strength was certainly not bad, for he was also at the level of 12. Although his loyalty was only 60, it didn¡¯t matter, for Crick could monitor his loyalty changes at any time with his special skills. As long as his loyalty did not decline, 60 was enough. The most valuable thing was that his intelligence was as high as 16, which was really at the level of mages! With such a high intelligence, it was no wonder that he could disguise himself as a legendary master with the strength of a mid-ranked warrior. He had almost succeeded in tricking Spencer, who had almost stepped into the Legendary Realm. Paul was a wandering, legendary warrior who traveled around to help the weak and correct evil things. But in the last one or two hundred years, he had rarely appeared in the human world. Some people thought that he had become a god, while others thought that he had ventured into other worlds because there were no challenges in the Main Plane. The last time he was seen by others was when he rescued Spencer and his sister who were kidnapped and almost killed by bandits more than 20 years ago. Perhaps it had been fate. On that dark and tragic battlefield, they had met a man who had known Paul¡ªa general of the Orc Empire¡¯s Southern War Zone, the Iron Teeth, Ilo. Paul was a Half-Orc from the Lionman, the same as Morani. Before he realized that he was a Half-Orc, he had used the name Leonard. At that time, he had been called the Armored Great Lion, a powerful general of the Orc Empire and a good friend of Ilo. Later, Leonard became a Half-Orc and took the road of becoming a kind ranger. He said farewell to his old friends and changed his name to Paul¡ªPaul was a famous knight in history. He had devoted all his life to protecting the weak and saved countless people in his nearly 400 years of life. Time flew, and situations changed. There were few people who remembered the Armored Great Lion, Leonard. Instead, Paul the Ranger had become famous with people. In fact, Paul had become a legend. The last time Ilo met him was sixty years ago. Paul looked very haggard, sitting on a stone by the lake and meditating silently. Nobody knew what he was thinking. Ilo invited him for a drink, but Paul told him that he had quit drinking. At that time, Ilo was shocked as if he had seen a ghost. The Armored Great Lion, a hero who could drink dozens of kilograms of wine, had actually quit drinking?! Ilo had never seen him since then. According to Ilo, there was no difference between death and the alcohol-free Leonard. Crick certainly didn¡¯t think so. He always believed that Paul was alive. Maybe he was lost on the road of life? Or maybe he was just under some secret training? In short, even if Ilo couldn¡¯t see it, sooner or later the legendary figure would be on the stage of history again. Regardless, that didn¡¯t prevent Crick from asking Donaldson to shave Donaldson¡¯s beard and change into a light armor to look like a normal warrior. Since Donaldson¡¯s real career was an armored warrior, how could he disguise as a legendary, armored warrior so successfully! He didn¡¯t even enter the first level of a Bard! Donaldson¡¯s current job was Crick¡¯s entourage, handling a lot of chores for him. It was not easy, but it was not that hard. The key was that it was safe. Donaldson was a man of great strength and had a strong build. However, he was a little cowardly. He was like a silver gun with a wax head. If he was ordered to take a sword and fight with others, he couldn¡¯t even show 70% of his real power. It was really a waste for him to have such a strong build and a brave face. ¡°Sort these documents into different files.¡± While Knight James was touring Keane Hill with his sons, Crick was also doing something. After reading the regular news bulletins he had bought from the Association of Thieves, he asked Donaldson to collect them and sort them into different files by putting those closely related to Keane Hill together. Those important ones, but had nothing to do with Keane Hill, should be put on one side, and the unimportant ones to the other side. Donaldson was very familiar with this job, so he had never made mistakes. He deserved to spend a long time with Maggie. At present, the most important news was the independence of the Duchy of Griffon. But it had nothing to do with Baron Keane and deserved no attention at all. By contrast, it was the jostles of the Duchy of Thunder that worried Crick. Baron Keane was somewhat a hero, but he would be nobody in front of the Duchy of Thunder. In the last minor confrontation between those big men, Keane Hill had suffered a great loss, and even Crick himself had almost died. If he were to get involved in such a political wave again, Baron Keane¡¯s boat would be smashed to pieces by the storm this time. So Crick had been thinking about what ways could he avoid these political jostles to maintain his hill¡¯s peaceful development? After thinking for a long time, he sighed deeply. With his hands covering his chest, he coughed a few times and shook his head helplessly. After all, he still had many weak helpers. Facing such a storm, there was really no good way out. Chapter 303 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Outside of Pyroxene Town, several clusters of flowers appeared near the man-made mineral vein; there were not very dense, but they were quite neat. Looking at them from the perspective of the courtyard, it could be regarded as a beautiful scenery. Of course, these flowers were not from the sky. They were especially transplanted elsewhere by Sui Xiong. On one hand, he wanted to see how the soil was purified and whether it was suitable for fragile plants to survive or not. On the other hand, he thought that a village without flowers was incomplete, and a life without flowers to enjoy was meaningless. This undoubtedly reflected in his thoughts as a literary and artistic youth. If he were a science student who liked shouting about ¡°science and technology create the world and changed life¡± or an engineering student who praised fire and steel, he would not have such ideas. But people in Pyroxene Town loved these flowers so much. Many people even ran to the construction site and looked around those flowers again and again. If Felix hadn¡¯t noticed beforehand and had built a fence around the flowers, perhaps more people would have tried to pick one and take it home. Of course, for the entire Pyroxene Town, flowers were just a small thing. What really mattered were the other two things: first, relying on the purified land. Felix found a resident who had been a vegetable grower before he came to the Northwest region for a living, and several men with good farming skills to help cultivate a small vegetable field. The vegetables they grew were the famous ¡°green vegetables,¡± that grew very fast and required relatively loose soil. As long as the land was not barren and there was enough water and sunlight, they could grow in half a month and be picked after one month. This kind of vegetable had a strong vitality. Just by leaving a few leaves after picking and it would quickly grow many new leaves again. It was one of the favorite vegetables among the middle and lower classes. Of course, it also had disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage was that it was not good at competing with weeds for water and fertilizer. If there was no farmer to take of it, they would become weeds in just a few days. Fortunately, there were no weeds in the Ashes Woods. No small plants could survive in this environment, and even the Gold Vines were not an exception. Without magic energy, the Gold Vines could not survive in this place. Therefore, the farmer who presided over the vegetable planting soon found that all the work in the field could be done by himself without the help of other people. Thus several of his original assistants were transferred to build the outer fence. The outer paling was a simple fence made of wood about two or three hundred meters away from the town. This was certainly not for dealing with the skull tide but for guarding against robbers or demon beasts instead. Of course, no one would expect a wooden fence to block robbers or demon beasts, but they could effectively act as a buffer and greatly reduce the damage of the villagers and business troops. For a long time, the four towns in the Northwest region had been trying hard to build such a fence. Except for the completion of Dragon-Roar Town, even the most prosperous Rye Town hadn¡¯t been able to build such a fence. After all, they lacked the money to build it. It was not a small investment and depended mainly on the rich, but the beneficiaries were mainly civilians and small businessmen. For the rulers of this town, they usually lost more than they gained. So even if it was a good thing for the whole town, no one was willing to pay for it. Even the fence of Dragon-Roar Town was not built by the mayor who had taken the lead in collecting money, but by the demon beast hunters who were bored during the winter and slowly built it with sticks. However, now Felix was the mayor. Although she was a businesswoman before, she had broadened her horizons over the years she¡¯s lived in the Void Mask Land. And along with Sui Xiong¡¯s advice, she quickly thought of such a project and put it into practice. Although the construction of this project would waste the labor used for production and greatly affect the income of the town, Felix did not care too much. Even if there was no investment from the Void Mask Land, a high-level mage was enough to build such a fence without any difficulties. If Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t advised her not to do everything by herself, she would have waved her magic wand and cast a circle of fences directly. The biggest problem in Pyroxene Town was the low population and the labor shortages. Farmland and vegetable fields had opened up some jobs, and stores and shops also helped. Although there was a temporary shutdown on the man-made ore veins, it also needed hands for daily maintenance. In the end, there were only about twenty people that could be sent to build the fence, and all the work had to be done by these people, including cutting wood, trimming timber, digging holes, pile driving and tying the stick to the piles. When the whole project was completed, and Pyroxene Town had been surrounded by a circle of fence, the caravans had come here several times. Since the Void Mask Land was established, the security situation in the four towns of the Northwest region had improved a lot. The former administrator, Liv, often sent adventurers to track down bandits and then sent elite soldiers to kill them. Her sister Nice, who was good at aerial combat, had made the most outstanding contributions among them and few bandits could escape her detection from in the sky. Once they were locked down by her, they were practically sentenced to death. There were more businessmen here because the bandits had reduced a lot. But now businessmen all liked the long-distance trades from Rye Town to the Void Mask Land. In contrast, the profits between the four towns became smaller and smaller except for some bulk commodities, so only some small businessmen still sold retail. There were no caravans in winter. Even after the early spring, only when the climate got warmer could some businessmen dare to walk in the Northwest forest. But when the climate got warmer, there would be more caravans. For example, there was a caravan where Palin, the librarian of the Church of Void Mask, was an accountant when he was young. In the summer, there would be a caravan in every one to two days. Even if it was not very warm now, there were still many caravans passing by. They brought lots of food, spices, textiles, household appliances, various kinds of sundries and so on. However, what they had purchased from Pyroxene Town were those low-grade gems from the ore-veins. They could not afford the high-grade gems nor did they want to take the risk of purchasing high-grade gems. The stores in Pyroxene Town had been integrated and presided over by Haman. He sorted them according to their categories, such as daily sundries, food, necessities, and other types. The renovated big house was spacious and bright enough to display all kinds of goods on the counter, and some unused rooms were converted into warehouses or left vacant. This also accelerated the speed of transaction because businessmen did not have to negotiate with shoppers. As long as their goods were genuine and at a fair price, Haman, who had sufficient funds, would not care about buying more because they could be used anyway. In this way, the rumor that Pyroxene Town seemed to be rich gradually spread out, and before long, robbers came to this town. ¡°How should we deal with these guys?¡± Sparks flared in Jose¡¯s nose as he brought in several robbers trembling with fear. Jose threw them down casually at the mayor¡¯s office door. He was not afraid that these guys would run away and so swaggered into the office to discuss with Felix. ¡°How dare those robbers be such cowards!¡± Felix glanced at the door, frowned and said with doubt, ¡°Am I behind the times? Or is Ashes Woods too dangerous now? As she said, the Ashes Woods was not a safe place. There were skulls, devils, monsters and various kinds of demons. Those who were able to be robbers in this kind of place were usually powerful or somehow courageous. But those who were lying on the ground and trembling with fear did not look like robbers. ¡°I killed the two leaders,¡± Jose laughed and said. ¡°I haven¡¯t been able to control my strength so far. So I beat those two guys to fragments and these guys were terribly frightened.¡± Felix saw a light suddenly. She could not help but laugh. ¡°Oh, I see. Then I¡¯ll put a magic collar on them and have them be our servants.¡± She took out several magic collars put them around those frightened robbers¡¯ neck. After wearing the magic collar, they could not run away or resist. They could not only mark the location of the offender, but they could also release electricity, a widely used torture tool. Although the robbers looked grim, they all felt relieved. They would not be hanged immediately. But for Pyroxene Town, those robbers could be regarded as workers, and they did not need a salary as long as they had enough food to eat. A disharmonious idea came to Felix. She had been worrying about the shortage of hands, so she contacted the Void Mask Land and found her good friend, Nice. ¡°You want me to help find the robbers and take them to Pyroxene Town for service?¡± Nice asked doubtfully. ¡°Are you lacking hands that badly?¡± ¡°Of course. I am.¡± ¡°But recently, there might be fewer robbers¡­¡± the number one flying policewoman of the Ashes Woods murmured ¡°It¡¯s getting cold now, so a lot of robbers are moving in the Southern region. And they will come to Ashes Woods after some time. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Just catch as many as you can,¡± Felix laughed and said. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ve always been short of hands, and more robbers will be welcomed.¡± Nice thought about it and asked, ¡°Are there any requirements for race?¡± ¡°How can I choose and pick since I¡¯m in such dire need now? As long as they can understand people and have the strength to do things.¡± Therefore, Nice, who had been under the care of Felix in recent years and learned many air combat skills from her went out to catch robbers. Half a month later, the first batch of robbers was sent to Pyroxene Town. Felix couldn¡¯t help but laugh when she saw those gray-headed and frightened men. ¡°Next, a few pioneers have to be recruited.¡± Chapter 304 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Fall in!¡± Gerald, who looked like a normal bald, headstrong man again, didn¡¯t wear any armor or have any weapons today. However, he was still naturally in a stern manner, making others not dare to treat him carelessly. As a master of his level, armor and weapons were just accessories for him. The great posture of a master was the best proof of their identity and was enough to maintain their prestige. For example, at this moment, by his order, the quarters woke up in the dark with a lot of noise. Soldiers of the Regiment of Knights got up in chaos, put on their armor, took up their weapons, and rushed to the big square in the center of the campsite. Beside the feet of Gerald, a slender stick of incense was burning quickly and steadily. The length-marks on it had shown that it was a tool for timing. Although there were clocks and watches in this world, this commander of the Void Mask Knights still preferred to time with this old-styled incense when there was an emergency. His standard was very simple. Those soldiers who could put on their armor, take up their weapons and get to the square before the incense burnt halfway would be marked as excellent; Before it burnt to three-quarters, those soldiers would be marked as good, and before it burnt out completely would just be marked as passing. As for those that came after the incense burnt out¡­ good luck to them. After years of training, the Void Mask Knights had become quite an efficient troop. Even though it took some time for them to get dressed, most of them could manage to arrive at the square before the incense burnt to three-quarters of its length. In the end, there were only two that failed. Looking at the regretful and worried faces of these two late soldiers, Gerald laughed grimly and said, ¡°Clean the toilet or confinement, make your choice.¡± These unlucky boys who had almost passed looked at each other for a while and chose the former with a sigh. It was indeed dirty, smelly and embarrassing to clean the toilet, but it was much better than confinement. In traditional military camps, it was common to use physical punishment. But things had been different in Void Mask Knights. There were various kinds of punishment, but none of them were physically harmful¡ªexcept for the criminals who were escorted to court. Usually, there were two ways of punishment: cleaning the toilet or confinement. The campsite of the Void Mask Knights had been finely built; the toilets were not very messy and dirty, but were there any toilets on earth that weren¡¯t at least a little dirty and smelly? Not to mention how embarrassing this would be. They would be laughed at by their colleagues for a long time. But the latter one was even worse. The confinement room was specially made to cut off sound from the outside world, and there was only one small lamp on the roof. Under the influence of the magic array, no matter how hard one tried, it was impossible to touch the walls and roof. It felt like a small ant stood between the vast sky and earth, lonely and helpless. No matter how brave one was, they would be super scared after a few days of staying inside it. They would never want to go back there again for their whole life. The Void Mask Knights had a complicated source of soldiers, and quite a few of them were experienced adventurers. These heroes had fought with others and got injured, so they cared little about fighting or starvation. But even the proudest of them were so scared of going to the confinement room. They would rather clean the toilet than go back there again. After announcing the punishment of these latecomers, Gerald¡¯s eyes swept through the neat fourteen lines of soldiers. The eight lines in front were armored soldiers, wearing the specially-made, Void Whole-Body Armor. The process of forging them was a secret. Its major parts were fabricated with entire pieces of high-quality steel, and that had made it totally different from other normal armor. The traditional armor of this world could be divided into three types: leather armor, Mosaic Armor, and chain armor. leather armor was sewn with thick leather that had been processed by a fire-proof potion. It was light and durable and worked well in defense. The most important thing was that it was relatively cheap, so it had been the favorite choice for primary adventurers. Soldiers in the army also liked it very much. Of course, there were also high-quality leather armors, such as those made of special demon beast¡¯s leather. Those were rare to see. It was light and extremely durable, and it offered strong defensive power. Correspondingly, it was very expensive. Even high-ranking adventurers might not be able to afford it. Mosaic Armor was normally used by experienced adventurers and makeshift troops. Its main component was still leather armor, but it was set with a lot of metal sheets outside to improve its defensive power. This kind of armor had a rich variety of styles and categories. It also had a different range of price and defensive power. The best ones were set with metal sheets that were sewn into a complete piece one by one over the leather armor. It indeed offered a better defense, but it was heavier as well. Except for those who were very strong, few people could wear such heavy armor to fight. chain armor was the rarest. It was a soft armor that had countless small iron rings sewn together. Some people just wore one piece of it in the fight; some would rather wear one more layer of leather armor over it to avoid attention from other. Some would wear one more layer of metal plates, making it double-layered armor. The soft armor was called chain armor, and the double-layered one was called plated armor. In the past, plated armor had been the toughest among the various armors. Those made of large pieces of heavy metal plates were tough enough to defend against various attacks. It had no shortcomings except being heavy and expensive. However, Void Whole-Body Armor was completely different from those. It had three layers of armor: inside was a suit of chain armor, in the middle was a specially made soft leather armor, and outside was plated armor. Thus, the inner and outer layer were not sewn together. With three layers of protection, its defensive power was greatly improved. Its outside layer was forged in one piece, so it was not only tough but also flexible. The soldiers had once tried wearing Void Whole-Body Armor to run and jump; they could move their hands and legs freely and even do somersaults. Of course, they could only somersault into the air or to one side. They definitely couldn¡¯t do a back or forward somersault with the Void Whole-Body Armor. Its inner soft leather armor was also specially designed with several pothooks. When it was worn, as long as the pothooks were hooked to the outside armor, the weight of the armor would be evenly distributed throughout the body, greatly reducing the burden on the body. Those armored warriors in the Void Mask Knights could even go for long distance runs. Except in the area of enchantment, this kind of armor was no doubt the peak of so-called finely made armor. There would be no equal to it. And the designer of this new kind of armor was, of course, Sui Xiong. Before his space-travel, Sui Xiong had learned and copied a lot of European armor styles when he was learning game design. As a professional painter who graduated from a formal school, he was different from those painters who had only taken a short course. He was always serious with his drawings. Each character wearing armor that was drawn by Sui Xiong had their own original historical prototype. Thanks to that job, Sui Xiong had a deep understanding of the famous Knight Whole-Body Armor in history and could even draw the brief structure of these armors. After the Void Mask Land had settled down, Sui Xiong saw the soldiers of the Void Mask Knights moving slowly with their heavy plated armors in training. He drew sketches of the Knight Whole-Body Armor in his mind one by one, committing them to memory. Then he forged them by magic directly. However, these armors were not working as well as he had imagined. They were still very heavy. He studied them for a long time but figured out nothing. Finally, he went to Morani for help. That was why people always said that every field had its master. Morani deserved to be the God of Forging of the Half-Orcs. It took him only a few days to figure out what was wrong with the Knight Whole-Body Armor designed by Sui Xiong. Then he improved the current version of the Void Whole-Body Armor. In fact, Sui Xiong himself was also blamed for his poor academic skills. His understanding of the Knight Whole-Body Armor was only in the shape of the armor plate and the general decomposition and structure of the armor. This data was definitely correct. Even the improved armor of Morani was based on them, but Sui Xiong did not really know the internal structure of the Knight Whole-Body Armor. He did not know what kind of inner lining was sewn within the armor under its bright appearance. Of course, as a painter, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t need to know about that, and he would never collect that information. He only needed to know the external structure of the armor. Finally, the design of the Void Whole-Body Armor was highly praised by Morani. This forging expert said that the emergence of such armor was an important page in the history of armor throughout the world and that it definitely would be recorded. ¡°From now on, advanced, finely-made armor is going to enter the era of whole-body armor!¡± Morani asserted so. Sui Xiong was not very interested in being recorded in history. As an immortal super jellyfish, he was the history himself. But he was glad that the armor designed by him had been successful. He wanted to make it universal for the troops. But at this time, he had a big problem. It was extremely difficult to forge the plate of the whole-body armor. It took a senior blacksmith a month to make only a few pieces of substandard pieces. The only way to make this kind of plate was to use magic power from mid-level or even higher level mages to shape the plates directly. In this way, the production efficiency would be a problem. Sui Xiong tried hard to recall what he had seen on the Internet. He remembered that such armor was made by punching the steel plate at one time. So he wanted to try to make a punching machine and some steel plates. The latter was easy to make, and it was finished soon, but the former¡­ Even though he was very patient, after failing several dozens of times, Sui Xiong finally gave up. It was said that Edison had failed more than 10,000 times in choosing the right filament when he improved the lamp. Someone comforted him at that time, but he said, ¡°I have not failed. I¡¯ve just found 10,000 ways that won¡¯t work.¡± The authenticity of this story was another thing, but there was no doubt that Sui Xiong didn¡¯t have such reserves. Ultimately, the Void Whole-Body Armor could only be produced by a mage and had become a high-quality product. Chapter 305 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After the failure of the mass production plan of the whole-body armors, Sui Xiong had been too lazy, so he hadn¡¯t produced much more. He had only given this kind of armor to the elites of his own knights. However, the storms surrounding this kind of armor hadn¡¯t calmed down. In a later practical training session, the elites of the knights wearing the Void Whole-body Armors had fought fiercely against a famous bandit group face to face. In the battle, the Void Whole-body Armors had won because the entire Regiment of Knights hadn¡¯t lost one person. Not even a single one had been seriously wounded. The place where the battle had happened at that time was not remote. Many people had witnessed this fierce battle, and naturally, some among them could tell the good things about it. After the battle, some adventurers quickly ran to the Void Mask Land and wanted to buy such armor. High-level armors were still rare in this world. First-class refining armor required a lot of labor and materials, so the price was extremely high. However, compared to its price, the production output was a bigger problem. Adventurers above mid-level could always make up enough money to buy good armor. However, few people could really obtain their ideal armor. This was because every good armor needed the hard work of a craftsman for a few years before it could be produced. Most of those armors had been booked by large organizations¡ªsuch as the nation¡ªbefore production, so few could actually flow into the mortal world. Therefore, even among high-level adventurers, quite a few people were wearing restructured old armor or special beast leather armor. Of course, some of the old armors of the previous generation were quite good. The special leather armors made of demon beasts¡¯ skins were certainly wonderful. However, if they could, those ruthless warriors would still want a new set of heavy armor tailored for themselves. No matter how old armors were modified, it was also impossible for them to fit well. Demon beasts¡¯ leather armor seemed useful, but repairing them was a huge problem. In contrast, the custom-made heavy armors were not only firm but also easy to repair, which was beneficial for long-term adventures. Therefore, when the news of the Void Whole-body Armors had been spread, a lot of high-level adventurers had come to the Land trying to buy them. The Void Mask Land told the adventurers that ¡°the Void Whole-body Armors are very low in production and the price is very expensive, so it can only be purchased with a raffle.¡± A raffle? No problem! After the raffle, more than 20 high-level adventurers had lined up and booked their own armor. As for the mid-level or low-level adventurers, they had to give up. Over the years, the Land had sold a total of four Void Whole-body Armors, each of which had been well praised. The high-level adventurers owned a lot of money, so everyone had taken their own armor to be enchanted, turning them into four famous treasures. Many thrilling stories had developed about the four armors. In particular, one of the armors, named ¡°White Moonlight,¡± had changed three masters in just five years, and at least hundreds of people had died for it. It even became a legend. The elites of the Void Mask Knights wearing the Void Whole-body Armors had become the most famous expensive corps in the Main Plane. Countless people had been secretly targeting them, aiming to take the armor away from them. However, no one had succeeded so far. In addition to the elites wearing the Void Whole-body Armors, the knights had many ordinary soldiers. They were also wearing whole-body armor, but theirs were more simplified. They were much lighter and much easier to manufacture. This simplified version of the whole-body armors was actually considered a high-end item that couldn¡¯t even be purchased by average adventurers. Therefore, it was already a very good thing for an ordinary soldier to wear such a set of armor. When they gathered together, the bright armors reflected the bonfire, revealing a thrilling heroic temperament that made any unscrupulous people subconsciously retreat. In the morning, Gerald took his men to start their routine training. The first thing they did was running. They ran a whole circle around the Void Mask Land. The Void Mask Land was extremely big. Running around it was definitely intensive training. But for the members of the knights, the training of such a program was just a warm-up. After being around for more than 20 years, the members of the Void Mask Knights had been screened several times, so the rest were all elites. The ordinary strong men who had followed Gerald had already left the knights. Most of them had changed positions now, and the rest had turned into support crew. Now, members of the Void Mask Knights had roughly two origins. One was from the warriors of the Monochrome Bear race, and the other was from the recruited adventurers. The Monochrome Bear race was a race created by Ink, the ¡°Silent Knight.¡± This god follower of Morani had originally been a variant of the Half-Orcs. After becoming a god, he had created the Monochrome Bears based on the Half-Orcs of bear blood, according to his own appearance. The Half-Orcs of this race were very different from the traditional Half-Orcs. They were generally silent. Apart from drinking, they hardly had any traditions that could be called bad habits. On the contrary, they were hardworking and honest, which fully reflected their virtues. Because of their character, they used to live poorly in the Orc Empire. In general, they had been somewhat out of tune with the Orc society. After moving to the ¡°Sanctuary¡± of the god¡¯s kingdom of Sui Xiong from the Desolation God System, Ink had migrated them to the Void Mask Land after some considerations. This group of strong and kind Half-Orcs had quickly gained popularity and settled well in the Void Mask Land. Moreover, because of their naturally strong bodies, many of them had become soldiers and members of the Void Mask Knights. The reason why Ink had created this race was not to follow the tradition of the orc gods. The tradition of the Orc gods was to control the Orc gods¡¯ own creations and make the descendants believe in them. However, Ink created them to relive his loneliness. He didn¡¯t leave any spiritual control to the Monochrome Bear race, nor did he care what his own creations believed in. Therefore, even if someone converted them to believe in the Void Mask, Ink would have no opinion. For him, as long as this race could survive in the world, then that would do. The Monochrome Bears were so strong and tall that the common strong humans were only able to reach their chests. With such strong bodies, custom-made heavy armors and long halberds, they were first-class, heavy armored soldiers. Moreover, this race was also born with a high level of intelligence. When acquiring knowledge, they weren¡¯t clumsy like ordinary orcs, and that made their martial arts levels rise quickly. Unfortunately, their natural magic abilities were not good, and they had no blood special enough to trigger magical abilities. Therefore, the number of mages, warlocks or shamans in the race was extremely small. In other words, they were born warriors. Compared to them, the adventurers were more ingenious and alert and often had excellent martial arts and rich experience. After experiencing many dangers, they had regained stability, or even got married and started their own careers. Therefore, they had incomparable enthusiasm for maintaining their current life. In the battles, they might not be as mighty and courageous as the Monochrome Bear race, but they were more fierce. They all fought bravely and achieved countless merits. With these two groups of elites as the core, the Void Mask Knights slowly expanded. From time to time, some old members retired, but more new members joined in. At present, these knights, which had a long history, already owned 40 elite knights and 120 ordinary soldiers. Among them, even the worst soldiers had the ability to face up against senior adventurers. If they formed an array, even a high-level adventurer would not dare to fight against them directly. Not long ago, under the leadership of their head, Gerald the Roaring Giant, they had gone deep into the Graystone Mountains to fight against an evil dragon. After a fierce battle, the green dragon had chosen to yield and finally made a vow to become the mount of Head Gerald. This had made the Archbishop, Leon Igor, the top master of the Church of the Void Mask, have green eyes. Therefore, he had finally made up his mind to go alone deep into the Great Marsh near the Garth Town. Using various means of threatening and luring and finally forcing the famous green dragon, Galstoby, the Marsh Overlord, the ¡°Shadow of the Poisonous Marsh¡± to bow his head, Gerald had gained a mount. He had finally become a dragon knight. Chapter 306 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Wow! Who is this? Isn¡¯t this the King of Mount Buried Stone, Lord Talay Stone! Why are you lying on your stomach here foolishly? What! Why is there a saddle on your back? You¡¯ve been so great and powerful; how come you¡¯ve become a personal mount for others!¡± On the square, two Green Dragons were lying on their stomach on the ground, covering their faces with their front paws. Meanwhile, Frost was walking around them, shouting in a loud voice as if he was surprised. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Sui Xiong asked. In his impression, dragons were supposed to be a united race. Considering the close relationship between these three dragons, he had never allowed his subordinates to make trouble with them. Unexpectedly, not long ago, Frost had come to him all of a sudden, saying that Gerald had been such a brave and powerful master that it would be perfect to find him a personal mount. Then Frost suggested that he knew where to find a good one. So Sui Xiong sent Gerald to catch that mount, but he had never expected it to be a Green Dragon, Talay Stone! Seeing that, the hesitating Leon finally made up his mind and went to catch another Green Dragon as his personal mount as well. The one caught by him was much more famous than Talay Stone. Leon caught the famous villain of the northeast coast, the Shadow of the Poisonous Marsh, Galstoby. Thus, the Church of Void Mask had two dragon knights. With his long-cherished dream coming true, Leon was so happy that in half a month he rode the dragon and flew over the sky every day, receiving both admiration and envy from others. However, the great posture of the dragon had an extreme influence on the mortals and animals. The officers of the Garth City Hall made a lot of complaints about it. Although Leon was a master of the peak legendary, he couldn¡¯t stand so many complaints and finally stopped showing off. But that was not the end. He suddenly thought of his old friend Gerald, so Leon rode his dragon and flew over mountains and rivers back to Void Mask Land to talk with Gerald about the experience as a dragon knight. Now both of them were sitting in a pub, shoulder to shoulder. They were drinking from large bowls, talking and laughing complacently. Their personal mounts were outside together. Of course, people couldn¡¯t treat them as horses or donkeys, so they just let them rest on the square and served them with two roasted whole lambs as presents. However, before they finished their lamb, Frost ran out from the warehouse and walked around them with sharp and ironic words in his mouth. It was like he had a deep hatred and wanted to turn his words into knives and spears to throw them into the sensitive hearts of these unlucky dragons. That was beyond Sui Xiong¡¯s comprehension, so he went to Snow and asked about it. Hearing that, Snow smiled and asked, ¡°How much do you know about our dragons?¡± ¡°You are the strongest race in the world. You have unparalleled strong bodies and excellent learning talent. Apart from some backward members who do not strive for progress, all the dragons who study and practice hard are finally as strong as gods. Several gods in your clan have low divine positions, but they are very good at fighting. Your patriarch, His Majesty the Dragon Emperor, is the only master who can kill God without getting the title of God himself. He usually stays at the Dragon Cliff, and nobody dares to trouble him. And if necessary, he can call up more than 60% of the dragons on all planes at one order¡­¡± Snow nodded and asked, ¡°That¡¯s right. But do you know the branches between us?¡± ¡°Yes, I do. The most famous are the Five Color and the Five Metal. Five Color refers to the Red Dragon, Blue Dragon, Green Dragon, Black Dragon, and White Dragon, while Five Metal refers to the Gold Dragon, Silver Dragon, Copper Dragon, Iron Dragon and Tin Dragon. Besides these, there are also some sub-species, such as the Ice Dragon which is from the White Dragon, while the Rock Dragon is from the Black Dragon, etc. What¡¯s more, there is a division between the Superiors and the Inferiors. But this division is very complicated. For example, you are a ¡®very superior¡¯ Ice Dragon, Frost, and Graupel is a ¡®quite inferior¡¯ Rock Dragon. As for the two Green Dragons outside, the bigger one is a ¡®quite inferior¡¯ Mountain Green Dragon, and the small one is the ¡®nearly superior¡¯ Bramble Green Dragon¡­¡± Snow kept nodding. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to know so much about our dragons! Then, do you know of the relationship between our branches?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it for a while and then replied, ¡°I know that there are contradictions between Five Color and Five Metal, and they fight a lot. And the Superiors are authoritative to the Inferiors. When they are together, the Superiors are usually in a dominant position. That¡¯s all I know.¡± ¡°You seem like an expert in the study of dragons,¡± Snow said with a smile. ¡°Within our dragons, there are actually great contradictions. Take me as an example. I¡¯m an Ice Dragon, if I met a Red Flame Dragon¡­ Supposed we met with each other, there definitely would be a big fight. It would be better if I could freeze him into a statue and take it home. That would be quite a compliment for me¡­¡± After saying that, she made a blackboard with ice again. On the blackboard, she painted a slender dragon surrounded by snow with white ice. This slender dragon met a fat dragon with fierce fire on his head. The two sides fought with fire and ice. At last, the fat dragon was frozen into ice. The slender dragon blew a tune, and there were musical notes appearing happily around her head. She put the big ice statue into a net pocket and flew away proudly. ¡°There are similar contradictions between Rock Dragons and Green Dragons, but not as serious as ours. However, since Rock Dragons are a pure, inferior race, they often suffer losses when meeting the superior Green Dragon. So relatively speaking, Rock Dragons are usually the victim.¡± Snow painted two dragons on the blackboard again. One was a small honest dragon with thick armor. The other was a big fierce dragon with thorns like knives on his body. The big dragon twitched its tail and cracked the small dragon down. Then he laughed wildly and went away, leaving the small dragon lying on the ground with tears. ¡°But, under your protection, did Frost and Graupel suffer any losses before?¡± Sui Xiong nodded at first and asked with confusion again. Snow was not old in age, but she was super powerful. It was impossible for those two dragons outside to beat her in a 1v1 battle. If they wanted to beat her, they had to work together. However, with the pride of the dragon clan, as long as it was not a war of principle, they would never rely on more numbers to win. Snow shook her head. ¡°Didn¡¯t you send Frost and Graupel to search in the deep caves for special cave mushrooms not long ago? It was then that they met Talay Stone and were badly beaten by him. If not for my transmission amulet, they could have been hurt badly. You know the character of Frost. If he takes advantage of others, he will laugh more than happily. And if he suffers a loss, he will grit his teeth and wait for a chance to pay it back. Last time, he suffered a small loss from you, he never forgot it for so many years. What¡¯s more, in his inherited memory, the relationship between Rock Dragons and Green Dragons has always been terrible. With these two factors, he naturally wanted to seek revenge.¡± ¡°So what he did was wait for Gerald to become strong enough to make full use of his power, and persuade him to catch Talay Stone as his personal mount?¡± ¡°Yes, thus he has the chance to laugh at Talay Stone.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while, then he shook his head with a smile and sighed. ¡°How childish he is!¡± Snow also smiled. ¡°He is a little child after all.¡± Frost didn¡¯t know that his sister was talking with the giant jellyfish about his immature actions. He was in a high mood right now. He kept talking about old things that gathered so much hatred throughout the years. These words were like spears and swords, piercing into the heart of Talay Stone and making his heart like a sieve with countless holes. ¡°That damn little turtle shell! I should have bitten you to death at that time!¡± Although Talay Stone was big and heavy build, he was not stupid at all. He definitely had realized what was wrong, so he couldn¡¯t help but complain in murmurs. Hearing his murmurs, Frost was not angry at all. Instead, he laughed happily, ¡°Dear Lord Talay Stone, I should thank you for not biting me to death¡­¡± After saying that, he showed his real body. He raised his tail which was as thick and short as an iron whip, pointing at a not obvious dent with his front paw and cried out fiercely, ¡°Stop your bullshit! Who the hell bit this wound on me! Wasn¡¯t it you! I was not bitten to death at that time, for god¡¯s sake, it was because my powerful sister saved me! It had nothing to do with you!¡± He jumped up and raised his tail, trying to slap it on the head of Talay Stone. But he was dragged by Graupel. Nobody knew when she had come. ¡°Brother, forget it! Forget it!¡± ¡°Forget it! This old bastard said he should have roasted us as turtles! He also said that by soaking us in hot water several times and brushing us with salt, our shells would be soft¡­ You old bastard! Do you think I¡¯m a weak cat? You want to eat me? Why don¡¯t you open your eyes and see who is in front of you!¡± ¡°But he didn¡¯t do that¡­¡± ¡°Sister, you can¡¯t be so kind! There is no kindness with such an evil lizard! Don¡¯t you remember the story the giant jellyfish told us before? When the farmer saw the frozen snake, he felt pity for it. He took it home and put it in a warm place. However, the snake came to life and bit the farmer to death¡­ To sympathize with such an evil who deserves nothing than death is to commit the same mistake as the farmer in the story!¡± ¡°Hasn¡¯t he been punished¡­¡± ¡°Not enough! I thought he would be unyielding, and eventually be chopped into a bunch of dragon raw materials! Who knew that the bald head would actually say, ¡®I think you¡¯re all dragons from the same clan. It¡¯s really bad to kill your fellow people¡­¡¯ Who the hell is from the same clan of this old bastard? If so, does he plan to cook us for dinner?!¡± The more Frost spoke, the angrier he became. He opened his mouth and sprayed dragon breath that could turn ordinary creatures into rocks on Talay Stone¡¯s paws. His dragon breath, of course, could not turn Talay Stone, which was superior to him, into a stone, but it added many ugly gray patterns to Talay Stone¡¯s thick, solid, shield-like scales. ¡°You dead old ghost! Don¡¯t hold your head behind your paws like a turtle! Stretch your head out! Let Uncle Frost help you to see the stars in the daytime!¡± ¡°Why? Brother, what does that mean?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to hit him until he sees stars! On the other side, Galstoby, the Green Dragon, secretly watched the noisy scene and sighed. ¡°What¡¯s all this about? Did I just suffer everything by accident?¡± Chapter 307 As the saying went, ¡°Gentlemen can wait for a long time until they can take revenge, even for ten years.¡± Frost was not necessarily a gentleman, but he was a type of ¡°even for ten years.¡± In order to take revenge of that time, Gerald had quietly endured for a long time while secretly planning and building a good relationship with several legendary strongmen under the Church of the Void Mask. For that, he had even lowered himself to help the knights train as a vivid textbook. In the end, he had finally gotten the opportunity while waiting. At the end of last year, Gerald had finally mastered his own strength. He had been able to control this power freely. Not only had he been able to change his size at will, but he had also gained many extraordinary abilities as well. In addition to the human figure, he had essentially been a powerful legendary creature, even stronger than many dragons. Frost had noticed the opportunity, so he had immediately launched his plan, encouraging Gerald to find himself a powerful mount. According to Gerald¡¯s original intention, he had wanted to find something like a Heavenly Warhorse. After all, this big man was honest, not greedy. However, Frost couldn¡¯t let him just find a Heavenly Warhorse. Therefore, he had persuaded him again and again with something like, ¡°The real strongman must ride a dragon to swagger through the street,¡± or ¡°A hero must own a matched mount. The Heavenly Warhorse was not worthy of your identity as the head of the knights under the Void Mask¡¯s Majesty,¡± or ¡°First of all, a good mount must be able to help the master exert full strength. With your strength, only a dragon is suitable.¡± Frost had said countless sentences like those. Although Gerald¡¯s strength had greatly improved, his brain had not become smarter. On the contrary, his way of thinking had been more direct, or more straightforward because of his greatly improved power. If placed in some Xian Xia novels, it perhaps was equivalent to the innocent heart, or a ¡°spotless conscience¡± in the legends. He had originally wanted a powerful mount. After being encouraged by Frost, he had put down the scruples and taken his subordinates to the Mount Buried Stone deep in the Graystone Mountains. He had set up a huge boundary with humans as nodes to surround the entire Mount Buried Stone and then had gone to negotiate with Talay Stone. The negotiation between the two sides had not been pleasant at all. It could be proven by ¡°Buried Stone Hills,¡± which was directly converted from the former Mount Buried Stone after the negotiation. In the end, Talay Stone, who had been beaten black and blue, had bowed his head with a grievance in the principle of ¡°a wise man who knows when to retreat,¡± and had become Gerald¡¯s mount. This result had made Frost very dissatisfied. He had originally thought that as an overlord of the Mount Buried Stone, Talay Stone should have a temperament of breaking rather than bending. He must fight to the end, and would rather die than submit. However, it had been unexpected that this dragon could take temporary setbacks, bowing down and willing to let a person ride him like a horse. The revenge that Frost had planned for many years hadn¡¯t been taken completely, and that had made him really confused and secretly angry. Because of that, people who had come to the warehouse to get the goods had been frightened countless times. Today, Leon had ridden the Green Dragon, Galstoby, to visit, and that finally had made his repressed anger to burst out. Therefore, Frost had run out and abused Talay Stone severely, ruining the old dragon¡¯s fragile heart to pieces, and making him lose face in front of the same race. That had made him release his grievances that had been accumulated for many years. So he had suddenly felt that the sky and the ground grew, the clouds were whiter, the flowers were more vibrant, and the guys who came to receive supplies had all looked gentle, honest and kind. Therefore, that night, a rumor had appeared in the Land. ¡°Did you know? Our warehouse keeper seems to be in a good mood today.¡± ¡°I am not blind! He actually smiled at me today!¡± ¡°Right! When I went to him to get things, usually his eyes could scare me to death. Today, he smiled¡­ It¡¯s creepy!¡± ¡°Not just a smile! When I normally get things from him, he would check again and again, even picky about something small like a needle and a thread. He was more serious than a housekeeper! But today, he actually only looked at the receiving list, then simply gave me the goods without a single word. It was incredible!¡± ¡°Guys, is it possible that he is in love?¡± ¡°It is possible! Look at his smirk. He really seems to be in love¡­¡± ¡°God! That cold-faced ass can also fall in love? What girl is so great that she can accept this guy?¡± ¡°She is infinitely merciful, saving people from sorrows and sufferings!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s make a toast to the great lady!¡± ¡°Okay, cheers!¡± Therefore, these words had spread just like this. As a saying went, ¡°Truths can only walk, but rumors can fly.¡± Just in a few days, the rumors about Warehouse Keeper Frost having fallen in love had been flying around in the Land. There had also been several versions, even including an anti-ethical version that the lady had been his sister, Miss Graupel, and their sister Miss Snowflake had been acting as a villain role to break up them. Another female-oriented version said that the love interest was a bearded brawny man, and that Lord Frost was the bottom one¡­ That one was hardcore¡­ Later, Frost heard those rumors, and he was incredibly angry. He searched like a mad dog to find out which bastard was fond of spreading all that gibberish. His investigation caused great turmoil, but all those things would have happened sooner or later. After Leon¡¯s visit, Sui Xiong had dealt with the events of the church roughly; then he had started to plan a major project¡ªindustrial revolution! He had read a lot of online novels before time traveling, in which the travelers would often engage greatly in the industrial revolution. They would burn glass, produce guns, execute shooting lines, use cannons to attack cities, make steel in blast furnaces and synthesize fertilizers which were just like magic. The products of the modern industry would be invented and quickly promoted. The levels of productivity of the territories would rise rapidly. In a few years, they would catch up with the world¡¯s advanced levels and even be able to smash the whole world with such a tiny territory. Sui Xiong thought that he was not only a time traveler, but he also had such powerful abilities. On the basis of his abilities, he was confident that even when those travelers who had traveled through the history gathered together, he would be able to defeat all of them on his own. As everyone knew, most of the people who liked to climb the technology tree were from the novels of traveling through the history, so the protagonists were basically normal people with mortal physical bodies¡ªsince those mortals could do it, there was no reason that he, such a powerful being, couldn¡¯t do it. Therefore, he had been determined to retreat for a period of time, to bring out the industrial revolution first! Well¡­ what should he start with? He had made a decision after pondering for a little while to start with blast furnace steel-making! What was the basis of modern industry? Steel! To launch the industrial revolution, of course, he had to start increasing steel production! To increase steel production, certainly, he had to work on legendary ¡°blast furnace steel-making¡± technology! Therefore, Sui Xiong had found an inaccessible place deep in the Ashes Woods, the same place where he had engaged in paper-making experiments. He had built a blast furnace, got a lot of iron ore and coal, and had thrown them in to burn. There had naturally been some problems. For example, he hadn¡¯t known what shape a blast furnace was. After thinking about it again and again, he made a long, big chimney with a big ball underneath it. He probably had thought that the so-called ¡°blast furnace¡± would be like this. He also hadn¡¯t known what kind of iron ore and coal he should use. Therefore, in the concept of ¡°using the simplest materials to produce an industrial revolution in order to create advanced results,¡± Sui Xiong had used yellow iron ore. It was unconsolidated like soil and very common type of peat with a low calorific value. In another instance, Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t known what structure should be in a blast furnace, so he mixed the yellow iron ore and the peat evenly and then stuffed them into it. He was distressed to find that this thing was very hard to burn; the fire had not been strong at all and even had extinguished while burning. Why was this happening? Sui Xiong tried hard to think again and again, and finally, he thought that perhaps the coal in this world was not good enough because the worlds were different. After time traveling, I must develop blast furnace steel-making technology. However, the coal is not good enough, what should I do? Waiting online, urgent. But there was no network¡­ Fortunately, he was not the same type as Gerald, who had a one-track mind. As was said, poverty meant changes, and changes meant success. He had come up with a solution after thinking for a while. To burn, right? Just to keep it at high temperatures. There are other ways! For example, something like fire element creatures¡­ After casting spells to catch a powerful fire element creature from the fire element plane, which was comparable to advanced adventurers under a conservative estimation, he had put this fire element into the self-made blast furnace. Sui Xiong was trying to use this guy¡¯s flames to melt the mixture of iron ore and peat into boiling, molten iron. The idea had been a very good one. The flame temperature of the fire element was not low, so the peat dried up quickly, and then¡­ it burned up violently. Question: A violent burning occurred in a small space. What was this phenomenon called generally? Answer: Explosion. Accompanied by an earth-shattering loud noise, the unfortunate fire element had immediately blown up into a pile of ash, and the blast furnace made by Sui Xiong had become a mess of red-hot stones. As for the iron ore and the peat¡­ they had splashed around. Some iron slags that had fallen on Sui Xiong¡¯s body had been their final products. Luckily, Sui Xiong was a powerful god comparable to the legendary, unbreakable King Kong. After being smashed by the fierce explosion at almost point-blank range and being splashed by countless molten iron and slags, he only screamed out in pain a few times, soaked himself in water and took a break. Then he rebuilt the blast furnace, put in the materials, and began the improvements. It hadn¡¯t taken long before another loud noise occurred. Sui Xiong once again soaked in some water, rested for a while and then ran out. He had rebuilt the blast furnace, adjusted the proportion of the materials, modified the structure, and then experimented again. Then, not long after, there had been another loud noise. Therefore, with explosion after explosion, again and again, the forest soon became a white land¡ªno, it had been a black land, because the ground was full of the mixtures of iron slags and ashes. Countless unfortunate fire elements had died with everlasting regrets, turning into black ashes and scattering in every corner of the land. If the predecessor Marx had seen this scene, he would sigh and say, ¡°The blast furnace came to the world, from head to toe, with blood and dirty things dripping out of every pore¡­¡± Well, if that had happened in the novels of traveling through history, the protagonist would have died countless times. Chapter 308 Inside the black forest, there came another earth-shaking noise. Flames along with countless rubble and iron slags were splashing everywhere. Sui Xiong jumped into the river nearby and sighed as he heard the sizzling of the hot rubble and iron slags coming into contact with the cold water. ¡°So many times I¡¯ve failed!¡± He looked at the explosion site. The ground was in complete chaos. The scattered stone mud mixed with iron peat and iron slags was the result of his ¡°iron-making blast furnace.¡± ¡°What on earth is wrong with it?¡± After so many failures, even an art student could sense that something was wrong. Sui Xiong dared to bet on his morality that his iron-making blast furnace technology must have some fatal defects or maybe there were some mistakes in the key link. But he thought it over and over again and still didn¡¯t know where the mistakes were. Iron ore reacted with coal at high temperatures, reducing the combined iron to iron atoms¡ªhe remembered that from high school chemistry. Although Sui Xiong was an art student, he was also formally admitted to a university. The oxidation-reduction reaction was a key point in high school chemistry. How could he forget it all? But¡­ Why did it go wrong? Iron ore, coal, and high temperatures¡ªhe had them all. And in order to make them react fully, he specifically blended the iron ore and coal evenly. He practically ground and mixed them together. But why did it end up burning and exploding? What was the problem? Sui Xiong was not an ignorant man nor did he make the iron without any preparations. Before he started, he also went to the blacksmith¡¯s shop to inquire about and observe iron-making technology. The iron-making technology in this world was roughly like this: Mix mud and straw to build a furnace with an elliptical barrel and a short chimney; there would be two air intakes and one iron slag outlet under the furnace. Then the iron ore and charcoal were stacked layer by layer and ignited slowly. At the same time, they were also added in slowly layer by layer. This was a very slow process that would produce a lot of useless iron slags. It took a long time to fill the iron blocks with holes. Then these iron blocks were burned and slowly forged in a forging furnace. Finally, the bubbles and impurities of these iron blocks were removed, and the actual iron was obtained after that. Generally speaking, this method was inefficient and cost a lot of manpower and material resources. So the iron price in this world was very expensive; even goods made of iron were also very expensive. In fact, bronze was still widely used in many parts of the world. Of course, there was also a solution to such a problem in this magical world¡ªthat was the magic furnace. Magic could produce amazing heat that could burn the iron ore. By adding reducing agents to it, the molten iron could be obtained smoothly, and then pig iron could be obtained. Next, by adding carbon into it to re-forge, the wrought iron could be obtained, and finally, steel could be obtained by mixing the pig iron and wrought iron. This method of iron-making was very efficient, and the quality of the iron produced was also very good, but it would cost too much money. The cost of a magic furnace was staggeringly high, and several magicians were also needed to assist in the operation. In addition, more precious magic crystals would be consumed. Once a furnace was opened, hundreds of gold coins would be thrown away regardless of success or failure. As a result, the price of steel was still very high while its output was very low. The Church of the Goddess of Wealth once calculated that under the existing conditions, the iron-making method with the lowest cost was that of a high-level magician using ¡°plane travel¡± magic to search for pure iron veins on the earth plane¡­ Sui Xiong also learned that the dwarfs inherited a special spell which could raise the temperature of magma. This high temperature could melt the iron ore, and then the molten iron was extracted from it directly by using a secret magic technique. The ingot iron obtained by this method was known as ¡°dwarven steel¡± or ¡°lava ingot.¡± It was the most advanced steel among all the known steels. The output of this kind of steel was also the lowest. Firstly, it was very hard to find good lava, and even if the proper lava was found, there were few masters who could cast the special spells. Even for most dwarfs, this spell was only an ancient legend, and no one has ever seen it. If there weren¡¯t any dwarven steel products in the world, many people would have doubted whether it was just a legend or not. Sui Xiong¡¯s plan was to develop low-cost and efficient iron-making technology. In his impression, even in the backwards areas of the earth, steel was absolutely not rare. Weren¡¯t third world countries using machetes? Of course, Sui Xiong certainly didn¡¯t know that all these machetes were actually ¡°made in China.¡± But developing such technology wasn¡¯t easy! Sui Xiong sighed deeply, flew out of the river and then reinvented his magic to build the blast furnace. ¡°The explosion was due to poor ventilation. I should increase ventilation¡­¡± Obviously, this experiment had to be continued. This experiment may have a great impact on the future development of the world, but Sui Xiong who was presiding over this experiment was actually only a battle avatar. His noumenon remained in the ¡°sanctuary¡± of the kingdom of God. ¡°Auscar, are you going to hatch eggs?¡± Javier asked with a smile as he looked at Sui Xiong who was lying on the ground motionless. ¡°It¡¯s strange that hens lay eggs under their bodies while you lay eggs on top of your head!¡± Sui Xiong also couldn¡¯t help but laugh and said, ¡°This is not an egg. Have you ever seen a god that could hatch an egg?¡± Sui Xiong was lying on the ground, and his body became a concave, circular, tray-like shape. In the center of the tray, a white cocoon was steadily placed in it. From the bottom of the tray, strong Divine Power was constantly flowing into it. Dozens of tentacles were connected to the light cocoon which fixed, guided and fine-tuned the Divine Power. No one could see clearly what was inside because the light cocoon was opaque. In fact, even if you could see clearly, it was useless because there was only chaos in it at present and nothing was shaped. What was inside the light cocoon was the ¡°Love Angel¡± who was swallowed up by Sui Xiong when he attacked Cloud City. The predecessor of the Love Angel was the God of Healing, who was very good at healing and had taken it as her clergy. But the god always had bad luck and fell into the hands of the Sun God, who had taken her priesthood and transformed her into an Angel. Sui Xiong had swallowed her up and gotten the legacy of the Sun God. Therefore, he constructed such a system, taking himself as the biochemical modulation tank of the evil doctor and trying to return the Love Angel to her original clergy. This would turn her into the God of Healing again. It seemed to be an easy thing that could be done in just a few words, but it was actually extremely difficult to do. He failed several times in the beginning, and the Love Angel was blown up into chaotic fragments. Fortunately, he had made some preparations beforehand and had wrapped the Love Angel in the light cocoon. The materials were not depleted no matter how many times it exploded or failed, and he could still continue to work hard and try to improve it in the direction he wanted. But even if the materials were not depleted, his spirit and energy would be. After all, if the light cocoon could be regarded as a machine and the Love Angel inside the machine was a material that could not be damaged, the Divine Power used as the mechanical power and the energy required to control the machine would inevitably be depleted. Therefore, Sui Xiong would take a break every once in a while to relax himself. At the same time, he summarized his previous research experience so as to start the next stage of the experiment. ¡°How long are you going to spend on the experiment?¡± Morani asked curiously. ¡°It seems that you are going to spend quite a long time.¡± ¡°Three days is not short and a hundred years is not long,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°Anyway, this is the most important work for me in the next few years. When she is transformed successfully, I will add a nurse to our team, and it will be the end of my work.¡± ¡°That will take a long time¡­ I¡¯ve been looking for someone to inquire about this. I¡¯m afraid that thousands of years have passed since the Love Angel first reappeared after the Sun God caught the God of Healing,¡± Javier said. Sui Xiong sighed and said reluctantly, ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve been riding a tiger now. If I stop debugging, the divinity and Divine Power of the Love Angel will be depleted by a lot, and the possibility of success next time will be greatly reduced. So even if it takes me more time, I¡¯ll just stick to it until I succeed.¡± ¡°And¡­ In fact, this debugging work can also benefit me,¡± he continued. ¡°In the process of debugging, I also learned a lot of things and summed up many valuable experiences. So even if the experiment lasts for a long time, it¡¯s not a waste of time.¡± His friends suddenly realized whether he succeeded or not, Sui Xiong could also achieve great achievements. No wonder Sui Xiong had been working hard all this time with no intention of giving up. Sui Xiong rested for a while and then began to drive the magic power in. He used soul power to control the magic gently and tried to reconcile the chaotic divinity in the light cocoon in order to form a complete structure. Of course, this structure was not randomly arranged. It was necessary to combine them into the clergy of ¡°therapy.¡± This was extremely difficult, even if he had received information from the Sun God on the clergy of therapy. It was not easy to draw gourds. There are many famous paintings in the world, but there are few painters who can copy them exactly like the original. The information given to Sui Xiong by the Sun God was really all-encompassing and profound. It constituted a complete system of clergy, which could be used as a basis to construct a simple but at least a complete world. In addition, it contained almost all the domain knowledge of the known categories that could be gathered together into a professional, high-level encyclopedia fit only for a god. However, Sui Xiong himself had not been able to use the encyclopedia freely. It was not because his Divine Power was not strong but because he did not have sufficient knowledge. Many things that were common for powerful gods like the Sun God, and those that were too simple to be explained needed to be studied and speculated by Sui Xiong himself. He could not understand them all at once. But it was precisely for this reason that he could get more benefits from this information than through powerful Divine Powers such as Le Feng. When the Sun God was dying, he copied several copies of his wisdom and experiences in one breath and entrusted them to all the powerful gods or potential masters whom he thought might threaten the God of Light. Among them, the main gods of the following holy pedigree, such as the Orcs, natural gods, and war gods, were better than the Sun God. Even if they were not as strong as the Sun God, they could still compete with him and were better than the Sun God in their own areas of expertise. For them, this information may just be a supplement to the minor issues they did not care about, or it may just provide some valuable ideas on some of the minor difficulties, that¡¯s all. Like them, everyone who was strong enough already had their own way. No matter what benefits they might get, they could never change their way. As the saying went, ¡°If I imitate your dragon as a snake, you imitate my Phoenix as a crow.¡± Every strong man had their own understanding of the world and their own conception and pursuit of the way ahead. The Sun God had just stepped up one more level than them, and finally, he was defeated by the God of Light, proving that this step was wrong. In this case, how could powerful gods rely so much on this indecipherable information? But Sui Xiong was different. Although he knew a lot about domains and powers, he was still the lowest god. The information given to him by the Sun God was like a complete set of scientific and technological materials for a new, poor country with a lot of precious experimental data. Although this information may not be completely correct, at least it was the most complete and informative piece in the world. After obtaining such a set of information, the next step was to learn and understand gradually according to their actual situation, integrating it and enhancing their strength. If one day Sui Xiong could learn all the materials that the Sun God had given him, he would surely have stepped into the level of a powerful divine and could pursue the realm of ¡°great Divine Power¡± on his own. Perhaps, all the copies of information given by the Sun God were useless. The only copy that could fulfill the Sun God¡¯s dying dream and bring troubles to the God of Light was the one sent to Sui Xiong, an insignificant jellyfish without even a clergy. Maybe¡­ after many years, Sui Xiong might really embark on the road of pursuing the highest level because of this information. There would inevitably be a dragon-and-tiger struggle between the God of Light and him. Of course, this would be a long time from now. There were two most important things for Sui Xiong at hand: First, debug slowly and calmly in order to return the Love Angel to the God of Therapy as soon as possible, therefore adding a powerful nurse to their team. And second, seize the time to work hard and strive to complete the blast furnace research and development as soon as possible. This would thus open the territory of the iron and steel era and blow the horn of the industrial revolution! Chapter 309 Crick¡¯s ideas were much simpler and more down-to-earth compared to Sui Xiong who had far-reaching aspirations. At present, Crick mainly paid attention to the military training as well as the new agriculture. Last time, Crick was ordered to join in the volunteer army to support the Eagle Kingdom. Baron Keane had suffered great losses in the battle, and less than one-tenth of one hundred people came back alive. Even the knight, D¡¯vor Ouss died in the battle, and that had a severe impact on Baron Keane. It could be said that nearly all the elite armies had died in the battle. Generally speaking, a baronet should have three knights, and each knight roughly should have three cavalries, about ten professional soldiers (hunters sometimes could be counted), and about 20 militias. The Baron himself should have six cavalries, about 20 professional soldiers and 50 militias. In a word, a baronet could send out 15 or 16 cavalries, about 50 professional soldiers and 100 militias. Baron Keane was almost a standard baronet, and losing more than one hundred people at a time was a serious defeat for him. If Crick hadn¡¯t gotten some money and won the support of several masters and the church of the Void Mask, their territory would have been attacked and looted by bandits. But it was far from enough to rely only on the masters. Maintaining order, hunting bandits, patrolling, collecting taxes, guarding checkpoints¡­ all of these needed hands. No matter how strong the masters were, they could not be divided into more hands. So Crick had to recruit more soldiers to replace those who were dead in the battle. After careful consideration, he decided to follow the example of some historical time-travel novels¡ªtrying another way to train the army. First, he abandoned the idea of recruiting adventurers as professional soldiers. There was no doubt about the strength of adventurers, but they all lacked loyalty and discipline. Professional soldiers themselves did not need too much strength; what they needed was training and discipline. Next, he abandoned the idea of training militias. The reason why the militia was called the militia was that they were composed of the common people who had received a little military training. Such soldiers lacked both combat effectiveness and the willingness to fight, even if they had weapons in their hands. If they were in a superior situation, they probably would not be able to catch their enemies. And if they were in an inferior situation, they probably would turn and flee. Therefore, instead of wasting manpower and material resources to train militias, these resources should be saved to train more professional soldiers. With regard to the cavalry, there was no way out. There were few who could fight on horseback even among the adventurers. Most of the adventurers who could ride a horse could only ride for travel, and they still had to dismount when fighting. Men who could fight on horseback, even assault and shoot on horseback, were very difficult to recruit let alone train. In fact, there were less than ten people who had the ability to fight on horseback in Keane¡¯s baronets, including the dead knight D¡¯vor Ouss Since Crick had made a choice, he sent out the recruitment notice to recruit soldiers throughout the territory. However, the requirements for recruiting soldiers were different from those in the past. They did not recruit soldiers who were strong, fierce and daring to kill, but instead those who were honest and obedient to discipline and orders. Everyone was surprised by the requirements; even Knight James could not help but ask why. ¡°Sir, it¡¯s all right that you don¡¯t want to recruit adventurers as soldiers or train the militias. But why are your requirements different from others?¡± the royal knight Howard James asked. ¡°You are going to recruit full-time professional soldiers this time, so you should require them to be strong and daring in order to fight and kill. What can those who are honest and who obey orders do?¡± Crick smiled and said, ¡°I also know that soldiers should be strong men who can fight, but there are few men like that in our territory. If we miss the recruitment and something happens, we may even lose all the militias. On the contrary, if we leave them in our community, and when we have sufficient hands in the future, we can train them to be the leaders of the militias and they may support us when we need them.¡± Knight James was stunned by his words. He thought that what Crick was saying was reasonable, but there also seemed to be something amiss. Knight James thought it over again and again but could not figure out where the problem was. He just frowned and left. He muttered to himself as he walked away. Crick smiled and found that fooling a person whose IQ was only nine was not a challenge. It was not easy for Baron Keane, who has just lost more than a hundred strong men, to recruit more strong men to fight and kill; but it was easy to recruit ordinary people who were honest and obedient. In just five or six days, Crick had recruited 30 people. According to his plan, after these 30 people were trained, ten of them would be sent to their own villages, and the rest were to leave town. As for the two knights, Charles Oss, and Howard James, they both had the ability to guard their territory, and Crick did not have to worry about them. After the 30 people were recruited, they had to accept the training. According to their traditions, the training programs of the professional soldiers mainly include using weapons, wearing armor and simulating actual combat. The weapons of the professional soldiers were mainly divided into the following categories: sword and shield, spear, and bow and arrow. People who used a sword and shield were strong but not too tall. They were the pillars of the army. People who used a bow and arrow were professionals but few in number and who lacked lethality. They could also effectively damage the enemy¡¯s morale. As for those who had no special skills, they were better off learning to use spears because they were the simplest. With regard to their armor, swordsmen and shields-men should wear heavy armor, usually with a mosaic armor inside. Sometimes they would even wear armors composed of chains and animal skins. Lancers should wear thick leather armor, and archers, if conditions permitted, should wear chain armor; if not, they had to wear light leather armor. This didn¡¯t mean that the archers who wore light armor wanted to be more agility¡ªthey were towards the rear of the army and so didn¡¯t have to wear heavy armor. In fact, archers often had the highest value of force, and all excellent archers were good at hand-to-hand combat. But who would ask them to fight against enemies on the battlefield without any weapons? That was wasting manpower! However, when archers were going to draw their swords and fight, it meant that the Hill Lord was going to be killed. And when that time came, who would take care of others, especially when everyone was in danger? But Crick¡¯s practice was totally different from others. Among the 30 people he had recruited, there were no archers, swordsmen, shield-men, or uniform lancers. The armors he had prepared for the lancers were not the ordinary thick leather armors, but the uniform plated armors instead. Although these plated armors were crudely made, they could still work even with their low quality. A plated armor, even if it was crudely made, would cost more than 100 gold coins. The batch of plated armors for 30 people would cost nearly 3500 gold coins at a time. If the territory didn¡¯t have any stock and the Eagle Kingdom had not gained any relics, Crick, who was not well-funded at present, would have been very stressed in buying these armors. But it was undeniable that the 30 soldiers who wore the plated armors and held spears in their hands looked magnificent standing in their formation. Their momentum had already impressed everyone a lot. The training program given by Crick was very strange. It was not to prick scarecrows and stab targets but to form a line and walk in steps instead. ¡°Do these things really work?¡± Howard James asked privately. Crick himself was not so sure about it, but he thought that people had been recruited and money had been spent anyway, so he had better finish the experiment no matter what happened. Under his command, these soldiers who were farmers and small helpers before, all stood in lines and marched after having enough food and drink. In addition, they also received physical training, such as long-distance running. Generally speaking, they were not like soldiers but like a group of actors. What¡¯s more, Crick would visit the barracks every few days and give them political lessons. He told them, ¡°You guys as soldiers, but you are not fighting to earn a living but instead to guard the present peaceful life. Although death was terrible for soldiers, failure and escape are much more terrible.¡± He asked them to recall the miseries of the past and cherish today¡¯s happiness. Essentially, he tried hard to motivate them in various ways. To be honest, his ways didn¡¯t work well. Indeed, these soldiers¡¯ intelligence was not high. The highest intelligence was only nine, and there were several soldiers whose intelligence was only seven. Even still, they weren¡¯t outright foolish. They would not act like some pushovers who would only bow down and worship the protagonist when he made any sounds in the old-fashioned novels written by a famous Chinese writer named Long Ao¡¯tian. After all, they came to serve as soldiers just to earn more money so that they could live a better life. For them, nothing was more terrible than death. In fact, they hadn¡¯t been ready for the killing or being killed, nor had they completed the transformation from ordinary people to soldiers. That was why when one recruited soldiers, one usually recruited those who could kill and fight. Crick was not worried at all. He still trained them to stand in lines, walk in steps and exercise every day. He also paid regular visits to them and gave them lectures and talks. About one month later, they were all in neat lines and walked in steps. Therefore, the training went to the next stage¡ªlong spear stabbing. The long spear marksmanship was actually a huge system. Generally speaking, this system was divided into four parts: smashing, stabbing, sweeping and peaking. Smashing meant to smash from top to bottom, and this was very useful when dealing with enemies whose weapons were also long spears. Stabbing meant penetrating, and that was the main attack method. Sweeping meant to sweep around with a long spear in order to drive away monsters like goblins, and that was very useful in expelling the mob. Peaking meant to fix the long spear on the ground thus forming a gun forest, and that was used for dealing with the cavalry, though it was impossible to use in reality. An experienced soldier would spend more than half a year just learning the four main tactics of a long spear. But Crick ignored the other three tactics directly, leaving only the aspect of stabbing. In this way, the training speed had been accelerated greatly, but the combat effectiveness of the soldiers was also greatly reduced. Knight Howard James worried again. He privately tried to persuade Crick to train the other tactics as well. ¡°I don¡¯t have enough time,¡± Crick said. ¡°First, they need to master the following tactics: ranking, walking in steps and stabbing. Then they have to practice their physical fitness. Next, they can fight with enemies after wearing armor.¡± ¡°This way may not work¡­¡± ¡°Anyway, they are just going to wipe out the goblins for the time being,¡± Crick laughed and said. ¡°They don¡¯t need the other tactics at present.¡± The knight whose IQ was nine was persuaded again, though he still felt something went wrong. Chapter 310 Rena was squatting down in the crown of a big tree, hiding in the dense foliage and staring at the distant house of Baron Keane. She was an adventurer whose eyesight was amazing because she had inherited some special blood. Therefore, she often took some tasks such as investigation and prying, and that made her a little famous. Not long ago, she had received a long-term task to investigate the Baron Keane Hill and collect as much information as possible. The more information she could collect, the more rewards she could obtain. This task was settled every ten days. Although the person paying the money hid their identity and refused to show up, only letting the Association of Adventurers pay for the bill on their behalf, the money was paid without any delays. Rena also did not want to meet with the employer in case she might be murdered, so as their arrangement was just right. However, it was not easy to collect a lot of valuable information. Rena had already handed in missions twice before and after, and now it was really difficult to find new information again. For example, she had been lurking for two days in the tree outside the Baron House, but she hadn¡¯t gained anything. She only found out the rooms and work habits of everyone in the house. If able, she would not want to sell this kind of stuff as information. After all, this kind of information only seemed useful for assassinations. Baron Keane had a good reputation and powerful strength. The former Baron Keane could even come back alive from the bloody scene of the ¡°Sun¡¯s Death Day¡± with his friend¡¯s body on his shoulder. She definitely did not want to step in such irresistible hostility with such a character. Adventurers went for money, not for stimuli. Rena had an old father as well as younger brothers and sisters. After wandering to make a living for years, she was still unmarried. If she got into big trouble and got killed for this, that would be too shameful. Therefore, she had secretly made up her mind. If she couldn¡¯t find any valuable information today, she would go to another place to investigate. The sun was getting higher. When the time was close to noon, Rena saw the former Baron Keane reading documents through a slightly remote window of the study room. The former baron was a legendary man; he had been just an ordinary scholar that year, and he could compose one or two good poems. However, when he had succeeded as the baron, all kinds of wonderful stories had happened one after another. First, he had been poisoned and was dying, then was miraculously saved. Then he wiped through the territory thoroughly and almost had caught all the spies who had been sent by different powers. Next, he had gone to the Void Mask Land to recruit people, as was said. However, the result had been that he had won the legendary ¡°One Gold Coin¡± award, and everyone was crazily eager for that award before he had won it. With a large sum of money, he had begun to promote agricultural reform in his territory. If that had happened to other people, it would have already been a complete legend. However, for him, that was just the beginning of his legend. Just when everyone had thought that Baron Keane would lead his territory and his people to make great strides forward, because of the force of the upper class in the Duchy, he had been sent to the Kingdom of Eagle to support and fight against the Orcs for a narrow escape battle. Later, the battle had been really earth-shattering. Hundreds of thousands had died and were wounded on both sides. Even the earliest god of the humans, the God of Knight, had fallen due to that. However, in that terrible battle, Baron Keane had not only come back alive, but he also had brought back the body of his close friend, Spencer. Not only that, with injuries and sickness at that time, Baron Keane still had killed the enemies who had tried to intercept and kill him on the way back! Rena was very curious about the legendary man, especially about the documents he was reading. Therefore, she activated her inherited ability after some hesitation. Her original light gray eyes suddenly turned silver with a faint gleam. If it was nighttime, perhaps those eyes would be as conspicuous as two small light bulbs. When this change happened, the scene in her vision suddenly became bigger as if she had come to the study room at once. Then she went closer to the document in the former baron¡¯s hands and read it in detail. That was a document about military training expenses and recent preparations for practical training. Because of the angle, Rena had to concentrate more on understanding the document because the words were reversed for her. Because of this, she did notice that the former baron had stopped reading and was looking up with interest towards her direction. [Rena, Power 12, Physical condition 12, Agility 14, Perception 20, Intelligence 12, Charm 12, Prestige 60, Occupation: Ranger of Level 5, Scout of Level 5, Warlock of 0, Friendliness 60, Special bloodline trait.] Crick didn¡¯t have a special blood trait like Rena, but he had the ability to see characters¡¯ attributes. Rena¡¯s distance from him at this moment was exactly within the range that his ability could work. In fact, Crick had discovered Rena who was lurking in the tree yesterday. He had felt that this person¡¯s friendliness towards him was not low. She didn¡¯t seem to be an enemy. That was why he had ignored her. No matter what the person called Rena wanted to do, as long as her friendliness did not change, it had little to do with him. He smiled, lowering his head to read the document intently. The territory had not yet recovered from the last huge loss, and now all kinds of work were popping up. As a lord, he had to work harder. This little episode did not hinder his work. After reading the documents he should deal with today and completing the comments he should finish, he called the attendant to deliver the documents that needed to be sent back. Then, he went to the military camp to check on the situation of the army. The recruits had been trained for almost two months, and it was time to let them try actual combat. The military camp was built next to the Baron House; they could be considered neighbors. He arrived at the camp in a short while. He saw 30 recruits wearing heavy armor neatly arranged in a line and practicing spear thrust meticulously. They were under the command of Shawn James, the second son of Knight Howard James. Seeing his arrival, Shawn smiled slightly but did not come to say hello immediately. Instead, he ordered the soldiers to rest temporarily, and then he came to make greetings. ¡°Lord, you¡¯ve come a little earlier today,¡± he said. ¡°The daily training has not been completed yet.¡± ¡°I just come to see how the training¡¯s going,¡± Crick said, smiling. ¡°Without saying anything else, this team is neat enough. When they thrust the spears together, it is quite neat.¡± Shawn nodded. ¡°It is true. I thought they were not strong enough and they could not fight. But now it seems that such honest and obedient people are also good too. At least they train hard, and their movements are neat. In actual combat, it should be really helpful.¡± ¡°So, are you interested in getting them to try the actual combat?¡± Crick asked. ¡°There have been a group of Grey Gnomes in the nearby mountains numbering from around 20 to 30. It¡¯s a bit dangerous to have those guys settle near our houses. I intend to lure them out and ambush them. If you think that that¡¯s possible, then let¡¯s allow the soldiers to be the main force.¡± Shawn lowered his head and sighed. Grey Gnomes were a subspecies of gnomes; they had slightly stronger bodies but weaker fertility. However, for human beings, as long as they were evil and violent gnomes, no matter what varieties they were, they were nothing more than two varieties, ¡°living¡± and ¡°dead.¡± As the commander of those new recruits, Shawn was quite clear about the strength of his men. They had to defeat 30 Grey Gnomes. In theory, this was the maximum. However, counting enemies to the maximum was always right¡ªthere should be no problems. The only problem was about loss. If the loss was too big, then that would be a shame. After thinking about it again and again, the brave young knight finally made up his mind. He said firmly after looking up, ¡°Let them attack! A soldier who has seen blood can become a good soldier!¡± Chapter 311 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Since the hill lord and commander decided on it, the military camp was busy executing their orders. The auxiliary service soldiers were preparing food and examining and maintaining the soldiers¡¯ facilities while the soldiers who were going out the next day stopped training to refresh themselves. The soldiers were concerned about going to the mountain tomorrow to eliminate the Grey Gnomes. Though they already had their physical strength and capabilities promoted through the recent training and most of them had become ¡°professional¡± soldiers of the first or second grade, fear still arose when they had to confront the real magic beasts. Grey Gnomes were a well-known species of magic beasts. A single Grey Gnome was not very capable in force, but they could be rather destructive. They were smart in using weapons, laying traps and exercising various tactics to fight. According to a survey of the Association of Adventurers, the Grey Gnome was, above all, the most dangerous enemy for a newbie adventurer. Horror stories about Grey Gnomes were told in communities, such as a businessman being attacked by a group of Grey Gnomes on a trip with his donkeys and horses, and he had run away and left all his livestock and goods behind. Or a village being taken down by Grey Gnomes with all the villagers and livestock being killed and eaten. The only exceptions were several strong guarding soldiers who had escaped. In another famous story, the Grey Gnomes had even built their own brutal and uncultivated country years before which had been secured by its patron saint who had invented the unique ¡°gnome language.¡± Most of these stories were certainly made up as gnomes didn¡¯t like face-to-face combat, though they were ruthless and fast-breeding. Instead, they usually preferred to bully the weak. Even in famine-stricken times, they¡¯d rather killed among their own kind to feed themselves instead of attacking human villages. The so-called ¡°gnome-destructed villages¡± had actually been invaded by robbers but in the name of gnomes¡ªit wasn¡¯t completely a lie for some because many saw robbers the same as gnomes after all. Speaking of the Gnome Empire and the God of Gnomes, Javier had been searching for related information of their existence years before, but nobody remembered anything about such an empire. Not even the element gods who had been living since the Ancient God Age knew anything of it. Gnomes were among the derivatives when gods created all other lives, and they didn¡¯t even have a history as long as humans. Gnomes had been created around 800 to 1000 years ago, a bit later than humans and Orcs. ¡°But this is a big world, I can only say that the Gnome Empire didn¡¯t exist on the Main Plane or other common planes and that the God of Gnomes is not included in the gods of pantheon temple,¡± Javier told Sui Xiong. ¡°The world is broader than we know or could even imagine. Chances are the gnomes¡¯ kingdom is somewhere we don¡¯t know about, or their patron saint didn¡¯t take on an official god so it¡¯s not in the pantheon temple¡­¡± ¡°Everything¡¯s possible in this big world.¡± Crick¡¯s soldiers wouldn¡¯t have as romantic thoughts as the artistic Javier. All they knew was they were about to fight against the dangerous magic beasts on the field. How terrible this was! Knight Shawn believed that the two-months¡¯ training would give these fully-armed soldiers an undoubted victory over a group of gnomes. Otherwise, these soldiers should be ashamed and hang themselves at the gallows, for this type of thing should only scare thieves. But actually, Crick¡¯s soldiers had no confidence at all. After all, they had just been average farmers or labor workers two months ago. Who had ever seen farmers and labor workers fight against magic beasts? No one had ever heard of such! However, they couldn¡¯t run away as this was a military order. Baron Keane was leading a troop with strict military discipline. Though he had abolished some overly strict rules and punishment which might cause impairment as required by Crick, the remaining ones such as scolding, starving, confinement, and other mild corporal punishments¡ªtoo minor to mention for Shawn¡ªwere tough enough for obedient soldiers. For them, being punished for violating military disciplines was even worse than fighting magic beasts! So, the soldiers had no other option but to encourage and comfort themselves despite the fear. Crick frowned upon this concerned atmosphere in the camp and sent someone to fetch ¡°Three Arrows¡± Ryder who was then patrolling with a few soldiers. Ryder was an experienced adventurer who had become famous years ago for going on adventures with Knight D¡¯vor Ouss. ¡°Fire Hammer¡± Morton, the second priest of the God of Light of Baron Keane and Mr. Rafael, Baron Keane¡¯s current intelligence chief, were also in the adventure team. The latter, a gentle official, was one who had a terrifying nickname back then: ¡°Back Stab.¡± Shawn had unquestionable capabilities. Despite his young age, he was a grade-six knight. Yet compared with the more experienced Ryder, he was far behind in terms of capability and adventure experience. Speaking of grade only, Ryder was now a grade-fifteen¡ªhe had been a grade-14 adventurer and further promoted by a grade of ¡°officer¡± after joining Baron Keane, thus reaching the high level. In comparison, Shawn James¡¯ father, Howard James, was merely a grade-9 which included two grades of ¡°hill lord,¡± and that wasn¡¯t a serious grade of battle profession. The father and sons of the James family might not be able to defeat Ryder even if they teamed up together. Once Ryder heard that Crick had asked the soldiers to eliminate the Grey Gnomes tomorrow, he instantly understood why the camp had become so depressed. He laughed and suggested he could give temporary lectures on Grey Gnomes to the soldiers. Crick didn¡¯t agree right away but turned to Shawn. Although he was the hill lord, Shawn was the commander of the troop. He should respect Shawn and at least inquire about his thoughts before making a decision. Shawn didn¡¯t expect the baron to ask about his own opinions, so he suddenly felt warm in his heart and couldn¡¯t help but smile and nod firmly. ¡°No problem!¡± he said. ¡°Mr. Ryder is more experienced than me, and he wants to share with us valuable experience at the cost of blood and even lives of former adventurers. It would be the honor of my subordinates and myself to take his lecture!¡± Crick also smiled, thinking that Shawn was much smarter than his father and really deserved that high intelligence. Compliments were always pleasant to hear. Ryder was happy with Shawn¡¯s flattering words. He smiled while stroking his finely-trimmed mustache, nodding before starting his lecture. ¡°First, here¡¯s a question. Who has ever seen a gnome?¡± The soldiers looked at each other, and all shook their heads. Shawn was the only one who raised his hand, claiming that he had seen one before. Of course, he had seen one, and he had even killed quite a few of them. After all, he was a grade-six knight. Ryder smiled and shook his head. Then he took out a projection crystal. A projection crystal was a rather expensive magic prop which projected the user¡¯s memory. But it was for high-level users only¡ªspellcasters of mid-level and others of the advanced level were the least. Ryder had just been promoted to a higher level to use it, yet his projection was still weak as if playing an old video on a screen. But it still worked to enable the soldiers to have a rough understanding of what the so-called ¡°Grey Gnome¡± was. ¡°¡®Grey¡¯ means grey-colored skin,¡± Ryder explained at the same time. ¡°Normal gnomes¡¯ skin is green or sage green, but Grey Gnomes¡¯ is ash black or light grey. They are taller and stronger than common gnomes but less flexible. You should keep this in mind and need not worry that they will run away quickly when losing. They don¡¯t run fast. But that also means that they are better than other gnomes at close combat.¡± Ryder projected a different picture, showing a Grey Gnome in an armor made of bark, cirrus and wood and holding a long wooden spear to look more dangerous. ¡°They use long spears. Though their spears are much shorter than yours and not very sharp, you will get seriously hurt if you are stabbed in an unprotected area,¡± Ryder stressed. ¡°But no need to worry because your armor is hard and can defend against this weapon, so you just need to keep an eye on the unprotected parts.¡± Turning around to the armors being maintained, the soldiers were feeling more confident. ¡°But the most dangerous thing in a battle with gnomes is not their spears but their bows and arrows.¡± Ryder switched the picture again. This time it showed an extraordinarily tall gnome holding a wooden bow in a pose of archery. ¡°Gnomes are good at making wooden bows. Though their arrows are not far-reaching or have bones and teeth at the arrowhead, they can still be dangerously shot out from the wooden bows. But here¡¯s more news again; unlike their relatives, Grey Gnomes are not good at archery. You don¡¯t need to worry about the ¡®bird shooters¡¯ of common gnomes because such tiny and sharp archers could never grow among the Grey Gnomes. Still, don¡¯t ignore the shooters of the Grey Gnomes. They may not target well, but their bows are better than average gnomes¡¯ and if they shoot your head¡­ Well, I guess you know how serious that would be.¡± The soldiers shrank their necks, deciding not to take off their helmets just in case! ¡°Finally, you should pay attention to the Gnome Shamans. To be honest, I don¡¯t think these 20 or 30 gnomes actually have a shaman or any tribal chief. But if they really do, you should do nothing but stay away from it. The further, the better. Shaman spells are short-distance, so they won¡¯t be a big problem unless you volunteer to approach a bare-handed gnome wearing a bone necklace or holding a bone wand.¡± The projected pictures switched again twice, showing a Gnome Shaman and then an extremely strong gnome with unique lights of wisdom in its eyes. ¡°Remember these two, Gnome Shaman and Gnome Tribal Chief. If you are encountering any of them, leave it to your commander because you cannot deal with any of them by yourself¡­ at least not now.¡± Then Ryder turned to Shawn. ¡°Have you got any suitable weapons?¡± ¡°Yes, I have a set of nice armor and two quality swords.¡± Ryder nodded. He thought again and took off a grey wrist guard from his left wrist and passed it to him. ¡°This is the ogre wrist guard, something I got from my adventures,¡± he said. ¡°It can strengthen the wearer¡¯s power and has been one of my most important pieces of equipment. I¡¯ll lend it to you for a while.¡± Shawn was a bit surprised. He stared at the famous piece of magic equipment and took it after a short hesitation. ¡°I won¡¯t disappoint you!¡± he said seriously. Carefully putting on the wrist guard, Shawn felt some strength coming from the bottom of his heart. He picked up a wooden stick nearby and broke it easily. And in Crick¡¯s eyes, he has now had an extra set of ¡°special equipment; power plus two.¡± Crick was suddenly inspired upon witnessing what was happening. Perhaps, he should check his subordinates¡¯ equipment and prepare them with some magic kits. Even if he could not afford mid-level magic kits like what Ryder had, he could still possibly deploy low-level ones such as the raging bull wrist guard. Buying in bulk, he could probably get a discount and free shipping¡­ Chapter 312 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A magic kit was a type of magic prop, and magicians could use magic to add special effects to an ordinary kit. Prices varied with the different effects and materials used. Prices increased when the enchantment power was stronger, more lasting, and applied to a smaller kit¡­ There were clear principles. Ryder had lent one to Shawn the ogre wrister that could steadily and significantly enhance the user¡¯s power. Plus, as it was a tiny wrister that only took up a little space, its price had increased massively. It was very likely that the magician who had created it would have upgraded it further into a high-level magic kit if they hadn¡¯t been limited by the materials and size. Even so, it was already a true luxury. Crick had seen a pair of ¡°vigorous gloves of ogre¡± in an Association of Adventurers armor shop in the Void Mask Land that had claimed to ¡°substantially enhance power¡± and was priced at four thousand gold coins. He didn¡¯t know what ¡°substantially¡± actually denoted, perhaps four points of power at most¡ªas Hercules was four points more powerful than average people according to the statistics. Considering that the wrister was much smaller in size than gloves, enabling one to wear short gloves on top of the wrister, Ryder¡¯s wrister should have been worth over two thousand gold coins in a conservative case. Crick privately told Shawn about the value of the wrister after Ryder had left, leaving Shawn with his eyes open wide and staring at the grey wrister on his right hand nervously, not knowing what to do. For a second child like Shawn from a knight¡¯s family, two thousand gold coins was a big fortune and wearing such a fortune on the wrist was genuinely much too¡­ extravagant! Leaving Shawn to worry by himself, Crick immediately left for the Association of Adventurers in the Keane Town. Ordinary blacksmiths couldn¡¯t make magic kits. One had to go to magicians or adventurers for a magic kit. Though there was a magician living in the Keane Town, he mainly studied potions, not magic kits. Therefore, the Association of Adventurers was the only source that could supply a magic kit. It didn¡¯t mean that the Association produced magic kits by itself; it just resold adventurers¡¯ collections from their adventures, especially featuring low-end magic kits. Located in an area with few quality adventure venues nearby, the Association of Adventurers in the Keane Town only had some business. When Crick arrived there, he saw Piene, the president, was holding a glass of beer and chatting with his waitress, Lily. President Piene was almost fifty. He had been an adventurer and received some fame. When he had been a robber, he had been good at seeing through tricks and identifying objects. Later, he had become tired of life-risking adventures, so he had retired and used his connections to run the Association of Adventurers in this small Keane Town. Lily was the daughter of one of his old adventuring friends. Since that friend had unfortunately died in battle and left his daughter and other senior family members behind, Piene¡ªalready retired¡ªhad taken them to the Keane Town and looked after them. It had been ten years since then, and the seniors had passed away, but the little girl had grown up to become a beauty in the Association of Adventures, attracting quite a few adventurers to go there for her. ¡°Lily, you¡¯ve grown up. Has any boy here ever interested you?¡± The once adventurer was like an old father who was worried about his children now. ¡°An got married last year, and I should be a grandfather soon. You should seize the opportunity!¡± Lily obviously didn¡¯t like talking about this. After President Piene¡¯s son, An, got married, she had become the only remaining target for this old man to urge into a marriage, which frustrated her. So she was excited at Crick¡¯s visit and ran out to welcome him, easily allowing an outsider to mistake her as someone more than a friend to Crick, yet Crick didn¡¯t notice anything. After a few minutes of chatting, she asked what he had come there for. ¡°A low-end magic kit?¡± Piene thought for a minute, then took Crick to his warehouse. It wasn¡¯t a big warehouse for the Association of Adventurers, although there was a lot in there. Most of it was necessary consumables for adventures or special tools that weren¡¯t often available in ordinary stores, but few of them met Crick¡¯s requirements. ¡°Two protective waistbands with force-field shields to roughly function as thin leather armor; a pair of Boots of Life that could slightly promote vitality; a weak enchantment sling that enables ten-minute activation per day, during which it adds a weak sundering effect to stones that are thrown; a weak enchantment machete that also enables ten-minute activation per day with the effect to aggravate injuries; ten identical semi-enchantment daggers to aggravate injuries that were probably found in military camp relics, but need magic power to take effect.¡± Piene introduced all the kits to Crick and sighed, ¡°Honestly, nothing good for you, and none of them would really suit you as a baron.¡± But Crick didn¡¯t mind that. He asked about the price and paid for all this stuff, spending only around one thousand gold coins altogether. Then he returned to the camp and passed all of it to Shawn and asked him to have the elites in the troop wear these fine kits. Shawn carefully inspected the kits and expressed his concern. ¡°Sir, the semi-enchantment weapon would need magic power to activate, but we don¡¯t have anyone to cast the spell on it in our camp.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll find someone.¡± ¡°And we¡¯re training armored pikemen here. Do you think they¡¯ll still have an advantage when using daggers?¡± Crick hadn¡¯t considered this fact. He thought and agreed. Forcing a smile on his face, he said, ¡°Then let the archers use the daggers. I guess they should have some weapons for close combat.¡± ¡°But it seems a bit wasteful to have archers use magic kits.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve paid for them anyway, and I don¡¯t think we can ask for a refund.¡± Shawn sighed and asked, ¡°What about the slings? Few of us in town know how to use one.¡± ¡°Try to find someone who knows how to train them. It should be pretty easy to learn, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just not so easy to aim with them,¡± sighed Shawn. ¡°I used to practice with them out of curiosity. They¡¯re powerful at a distance of a dozen steps, at least more powerful than throwing a stone, but they¡¯re not easy to aim. It takes one no less than one or two months to practice.¡± ¡°Are you still able to use them now?¡± Shawn paused and forced a smile. ¡°I am a knight after all, it¡¯d be a shame to use this¡­¡± Crick smiled, ¡°Since you know how to use them, things are looking much easier. After the battle with the gnomes, let¡¯s get a few smart lads to practice using them¡ªI don¡¯t think there¡¯s any special physical requirements for using slings, is there?¡± ¡°Not at all. In fact, it¡¯s a simple weapon created by small and slim species like dwarves.¡± So it was decided. Among all the kits, the most popular ones were definitely the three constant magic kits, which were also major expenses. With thorough consideration, Shawn decided to distribute them to the three soldiers who had shown the best performances in training. In Crick¡¯s eyes, they were three grade-two soldiers with slightly higher properties. When everything was ready, the soldiers fed themselves properly and took a rest. It would be a hard battle for them the next day! But Crick hadn¡¯t finished his work. He was going to contact adventurers to help draw the Grey Gnomes out from the mountains so that it would be easier to encircle and suppress them. He thought of getting some help from the Association of Adventurers while he stopped to look at the big tree where Reina was hidden. Good, she was still there. He walked directly to the tree and lifted his head to shout, ¡°Reina! Can you do me a favor?¡± With her eyes closed, Reina was taking a rest from her half-day monitoring. His voice almost frightened her into falling out of the tree. The former baron? How does he know I¡¯m here? When did he find out? Is my shield really working, or am I actually being monitored by him? Gosh! That¡¯s unbelievable! No wonder he¡¯s a legend! No¡­ what should I do now? Fight? Run? Or just give in? It¡¯s not possible to fight. I¡¯m not good at fighting and I¡¯ll lose! Run¡­ can I run from him? Maybe I can¡­ but¡­ gosh! That ¡°Three Arrows¡± Ryder happens to be nearby on patrol! I can¡¯t manage to run away! Impossible! That guy could shoot three arrows in a row, and nobody can run from him! So, should I just give in? Am I going to be hanged? I could be¡­ no way! I don¡¯t want that! I¡¯m just a well-behaved informant! Why would I be involved in such things! Gosh! God! What should I do! This investigating female adventurer was struggling. If she had been a character in a modern game or animation, she might have had sparks flying around her head, and her eyes would have become vortex-like. Crick didn¡¯t hear any answer. He frowned and shouted again, ¡°Reina! Are you sleeping there?¡± It dragged Reina out from her thoughts, and she immediately answered, ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then can you come down here? It¡¯s not easy to talk like this.¡± Reina forced a smile. She gave up the idea of fighting or running away and jumped down the tree. She was expecting to be interrogated when surprisingly, she realized the former baron was talking about Grey Gnomes without mentioning anything about the monitoring. ¡°I believe you¡¯re capable and especially good at investigating. Are you interested in helping me draw those Grey Gnomes out from the mountain in the north to¡­¡± Crick thought and continued, ¡°There¡¯s an open space under the mountain at the river bend. Can you lead them there?¡± Reina was surprised. She thought a bit and said, ¡°Grey Gnomes are greedy and vicious. It should be easy to lure them there with some chickens.¡± ¡°Fine. I¡¯m leading my soldiers to eliminate them tomorrow. Once we¡¯re out of town, you can lure them there so that we¡¯ll block their retreat from the pathway and suppress them.¡± Crick said, ¡°Are you happy to take this on? How much do you charge?¡± Reina hadn¡¯t expected such a question. She thought for a while and decided to take the mission. Crick paid her deposit and left happily, leaving the female adventurer who had been monitoring him standing under the tree, confused. ¡°What am I doing¡­¡± Chapter 313 Early the next morning, the recruits woke up with the horn. Led by Shawn, they tidied up and set off for the hills in the north of the city accompanying the few veterans Keane Hill had left. Although they had been training for two months, the gap between recruits and veterans was still obvious. It wasn¡¯t so obvious when they walked a quick march in the military camp. At this moment, when they marched out of the city, the veterans had a much lighter and steadier pace than the recruits. There wasn¡¯t any trace of fear on the veterans¡¯ faces. They were all full of confidence and had a high morale. These veterans had been fierce and aggressive since before the volunteers had joined. Many of them had been even hooligans and fighters before they had joined the army. They were happy to hear anything about fights. It was their style. As long as there was a reward, a big fight would be welcomed. Even if there was no reward at all, they would fight when they were bored just for entertainment. During this period of time, they had been patrolling with Ryder. Ryder was better at martial arts than them, so they didn¡¯t dare to fight in front of him. Thus, since this group of energetic people hadn¡¯t fought for months, they became eager to fight. They were all in high spirits knowing that they were going to exterminate the Grey Gnomes. Their eyes showed bloodthirst and aggression, and they couldn¡¯t wait to vent their destructive desires that had been pent up for several months. Of course, it was because the Grey Gnomes were weak. If they were going to fight powerful creatures, such as ogres or Bear Gnomes, they wouldn¡¯t have been as excited. They could take a victory over the Grey Gnomes for granted, but to fight with ogres would be to risk their lives¡­ Affected by the veterans, the recruits also had more courage. Looking at the well-maintained armor in the carriage next to them, they held their weapons in their hands tightly. Listening to the unconcerned laughter of the veterans, they naturally became more confident. This was the advantage to the veterans leading the recruits. As long as the veterans weren¡¯t all killed, they could help lead the recruits, which made it faster to rebuild troops again. Crick had spent enough money on training of the recruits, so they were well fed and warmly dressed and also had enough training every day. They were not only well disciplined, but also in good physical condition, which was the most important in modern and contemporary armies. In Crick¡¯s view, although they still weren¡¯t strong enough, much weaker than the veterans, they still represented the direction of development for a future army. As for the veterans, they could either go further, to the level of senior adventurers, and become specialized elites, or they could be phased out and assigned to the countryside as captains of the military. That wasn¡¯t bad. The bravery and power of the veterans could effectively inspire and lead militias. When the territory had enough manpower and material resources in the future, it would be more convenient to train militias. As the troops slowly left the city, Crick saw a horse galloping away, Rena on its back. He couldn¡¯t help smiling and became more confident of that day¡¯s victory. In order to preserve the strength of the soldiers, the troops didn¡¯t march fast. They came to the foot of the mountain just before noon. Instead of rushing up the hill, Crick let the soldiers stop to have lunch and recover their strength. He took out a simple map he had drawn earlier and discussed it with Ryder and Shawn. ¡°I arranged for some adventurers to lure the Grey Gnomes to the curve of the river.¡± He pointed to the map and said, ¡°The terrain is open here and suitable for us to fight at.¡± Ryder and Shawn didn¡¯t know this beforehand, but they couldn¡¯t help smiling at each other upon hearing that. ¡°I was thinking that it wouldn¡¯t be convenient to use Two-Handed Spears in the woods, and that our array would be limited by the space. I thought we could only fight slowly with the advantage of armor. However, sir, you¡¯ve figured it out!¡± Shawn laughed and said, ¡°There¡¯s no way back for the Gnomes in the open terrain. If I still couldn¡¯t win, I would just jump into the river and die.¡± ¡°It¡¯s favorable for archers to fight in such open terrain.¡± Ryder said, ¡°There are armored spear soldiers in front to hold down the position, and I¡¯ll be behind with my archers to make sure that no Grey Gnomes can escape.¡± He talked about it with ease, not taking the twenty to thirty Grey Gnomes seriously. That wasn¡¯t due to pride. With his strength, even he alone could wipe out a tribe of hundreds of Gnomes. The reason for leading such a large scale army was nothing more than training his soldiers. Crick had brought the veterans for two reasons. First, for safety, in case these inexperienced recruits made some errors when it mattered. Second, he needed a reason to ask Ryder to come along with them. To be honest, having a high-ranking master on the team made him rest more assured, not to mention that this master was an excellent archer who could shoot three arrows in a flash. With Ryder in the troops, he could make sure that nothing went wrong and avoid any casualties. The Keane Hill wouldn¡¯t suffer any casualties now! To prepare for the coming fight, the soldiers didn¡¯t eat much. They just had a little bread and drank some cold water that had been boiled beforehand. After a while, they stood up again, moved their bodies, and waited for the order to move. After a while, a horse galloped up and stopped beside the troops. Rena jumped off the horse and smiled, although she looked a little unnatural. She said, ¡°The mission has been completed. I set up a trap by announcing that a hunting wolf was killed by a passing adventurer. The Gnomes are coming out and heading for the river.¡± Crick also laughed, waving his hand to order the troops to march again. He wasn¡¯t worried that Rena would deceive him. In her character attributes, he could see the degree of favor she had for him had risen from sixty to sixty-five. Although Rena seemed to have something on her mind, it didn¡¯t matter. Who didn¡¯t have secrets? As long as tasks could be completed well, what was the problem with having a secret? When the troops set out, they no longer marched slowly, but ran in a hurry. They took the back roads and entered in between the mountain and the river. At this time, a chaotic scene could be seen in the open space around the curve of the river. Rena had done a wonderful job. She had found a sheep and a wolf. At first sight, the sheep seemed to have been killed by the wolf. The wound forged by the senior adventurer might not have deceived her colleagues, but it was enough to deceive these Gnomes. The wolf had been killed by a sword to its head and body at different places. With the horseshoe mark next to it, it looked like the wolf had hunted a sheep and then been killed by a passing adventurer. The adventurer had to have been so skilled in martial arts that he killed the wolf with a sword without even getting off of their horse. Rena wasn¡¯t a fighting adventurer, but no matter how bad at fighting she was, her combat profession of level 10 shouldn¡¯t have been taken for granted. A wolf was not a threat to her at all. In fact, she could have tried to exterminate the Grey Gnomes by herself, but it would have been a little risky. If Crick had offered more money, she wouldn¡¯t have minded taking a risk. But Crick was not a foolish spender¡­ After occupying the favorable terrain, the recruits were busy putting on armor. They were heavily armored soldiers, and their armor had to be worn on the battlefield, otherwise¡­ A suit of armor weighed more than forty pounds, so it was absolutely impossible to fight for a long time in such a suit. But heavy armor also had its advantages. The fact that it was heavy meant that it could provide a strong defense. When these recruits put on the heavy armor neatly, then put on a barrel-like helmet, they immediately became a moving steel fortress. Thirty such steel fortresses were drawn into a huge arc. Holding almost nine-foot-long long spears with both hands, they marched fiercely¡­ Although the soldiers couldn¡¯t understand the Gnomes¡¯ language, their reaction was clear. When they saw dozens of steel fortresses armed with horrible long spears, chanting slogans¡ª¡¯One, two, one,¡¯ in order to keep the ranks in order¡ªcoming slowly toward them, they were all shocked and froze. The soldiers could even see a Gnome with bleeding flesh in his mouth making a strange cry. His mouth was so long that they wondered if his chin would dislocate and the flesh in his mouth would naturally fall out. The Grey Gnomes weren¡¯t very smart. Crick could see at a glance that they were all stupid, with the highest intelligence never beyond 9, but even if they were that dumb, they knew that there was no way out now, their only option to fight to the end. A tall Grey Gnome quickly picked up a bow and arrows from the ground. He bent the bow and shot an arrow at the recruits. The arrow whistled to the chest of a recruit and bounced off the solid metal armor, leaving only a shallow trace on it. Then several other Grey Gnome archers started shooting arrows, but their performances weren¡¯t better than that of their peer. Facing heavily armed soldiers with their heads covered in barrel helmets, ordinary wooden bows and dental arrows didn¡¯t pose a threat at all. The rest of the Gnomes also picked up weapons. Most of them chose spears, but a few of them took big sticks. They screamed angrily and rushed towards the recruits. Faced with these ugly monsters rushing at them, the recruits¡¯ neat footsteps were suddenly disturbed. Shawn, who followed the troops, immediately shouted ¡°calm,¡± but failed to calm them down. Just then, behind them came a roar. It was Crick. ¡°Attention!¡± The recruits immediately and subconsciously stood at attention, and the chaotic ranks were restored to order. Shawn was relieved and hastily ordered soldiers to hold up their spears, put on an offensive posture, and proceed slowly according to his orders, continuing to reduce the movement space for the Gnomes. The following scene was really a bit tragic. The charging Gnomes bumped into the forest of spears, and no one could reach the recruits alive. Their light grey, green, and reddish blood sprayed all over the ground and onto the recruits¡¯ bodies. The recruits immediately became flustered again, but this time, Shawn had a good command of the rhythm and led them to regain order and move on with his shouts and orders. The failed Gnomes had nowhere to go, so they turned back and jumped into the river. At this moment, it was time for the veterans under Ryder to fight. Most of them knew how to use bows and arrows. Even those who didn¡¯t know how could pick up the rocks near the river and throw them. There was even a slinger. Under all kinds of long-range attacks, the slow-moving Gnomes in the river didn¡¯t even reach the other side alive, and soon became corpses accompanied by waves of blood in the river. It was interesting that there was one Gnome hiding in a pile of corpses on the bank of the river, pretending it had died. This fellow was seen at a glance by Crick. He pointed at it with one finger, and the Gnome was stabbed by several recruits until it died. Twenty-seven Grey Gnomes had been wiped out in this battle, and none of the recruits led by Keane had been killed or injured! Chapter 314 ¡°Align, don¡¯t miss the target position!¡± Jose directed several young people, pointing at the pile that made up the huge magic junction at the predetermined position¡ªa particularly dark space in the middle of the forest, the original point of negative energy. Then he jumped up, curled his hands into fists, and hit straight on the top of the pile. With a muffled sound, the heavy magic pile fell into the ground, leaving only a dark pit. Without standing over the pit and looking into it carefully, one couldn¡¯t see the light golden magic prop buried in the pit. ¡°Well, the last one is done.¡± Jose did a backflip with the force of the counterblast, landing on the ground without any difficulty. He took out a design plan, upon which one could only see that all the intersections of the design plan had been ticked except for the last one. He smiled, took out his charcoal pen, and ticked off the last one. Then he sprinkled a handful of grass seeds on the empty ground, took out a golden gloomy looking magic compass, and urged the magic in his blood to inject into it. A great light burst out from the magic compass immediately, mixed with that from the underground magic pile. A magic array about thirty feet in diameter emerged. In this magic array, the dark ground slowly changed color, and its black color gradually faded, which meant that the negative energy of the land was dissipating. When the negative energy had dissipated to a certain extent, the land turned light gray and even vaguely had a little green in it, which was the grass seeds that had been scattered before. They began to germinate. After a while, when the magic array disappeared, the junction of the dark negative energy disappeared, as well, and turned into a green space that stood out from the surrounding black woods. Although the grass was still sparse, it was a miracle of life that there could be such a green space in the Ash Forest. After that, Jose took out a Communication Wand inlaid with turquoise and contacted Felix in Pyroxene Town through it. ¡°Is that Felix? This is Jose¡­ Yes, the last pile has been laid and the purification array has been completed¡­ How could something have gone wrong? I¡¯m not going to make that kind of mistake! All the junctions were set up after careful inspection, and the locations and depth are completely in line with the design. If there was a mistake, it would be a mistake in the design plan¡­ Easy, easy, you¡¯re right, I need to control my temper¡­ Anyway, the intersections are sure to be okay. You can start.¡± The color of the turquoise used to sustain the magic was fading, which meant that its magic had been exhausted and needed to be replenished before it could be used again. Jose drew back his wand and led his subordinates back to a place far from the grass, waiting for the magic array to start. By this time, Felix had gathered several top students from the magic school and brought them to the roof of the school, where a magic array had been pre-laid. ¡°Look carefully. Try to learn from it,¡± she told the students. ¡°But remember, don¡¯t make a fuss. Maybe, you will see something you have never seen before, but sooner or later, you will be able to do it, as long as you continue to work hard on the path of magic.¡± After saying that, she took out her wand, ¡°Mezashi,¡± and walked into the center of the magic array. ¡°Mezashi, restriction removed, transform!¡± At her command, the originally round-headed wand with a ruby on its tip burst out in red light, and the top of the wand split like a branch, stretching out into three branches of metal. The ruby also slowly flew up, floating in the air between the branches, surrounded by the emerging magic array. The lower part of the wand stretched out suddenly, from about the length of her arm to almost Felix¡¯s height. The wand, which had completely transformed, flew up from her hand and floated vertically in front of her. It emitted many magic symbols that formed into circles and surrounded her and the wand. It also began to cooperate with the array on the ground like a heartbeat, shining the same rhythm of light. Felix¡¯s eyes shone with excitement. She lifted her hand and took off the pendant necklace that constantly sent out cold air from her neck and put it in the space ring. The next moment, her whole body burned fiercely, as if she had turned into an erupting crater with endless flames. These flames danced wildly for a while, then slowly controlled themselves. Most of them gathered behind her, turning into a pair of burning flame wings, and the rest formed various patterns that appeared on her body, where only a special tight fireproof robe was left, covering her white skin with the patterns of flames. She looked like a fire fairy coming to the human world. Then she chanted the incantation. The incantation was chanted in a heavenly language that ordinary people couldn¡¯t understand. Every syllable of it contained wonderful power. With her chanting, runes floated from her body. These runes floated out of circles of magic symbols that had surrounded her and slowly began to rotate. After quite a while, the sky was full of red runes. These runes were rotating in the same direction at different speeds, transforming into a magic array that rotated with several layers. If one looked at it carefully, it would be clear that although it was very different from the magic array on the ground, they were in incredible harmony with each other, as if the two magic arrays were originally born in one, and now were finally reintegrated. It took Felix a lot of magic power to chant this incantation. Even if she had reached the level of advanced legendary peak, she could not help feeling tired at that moment. She took out a bottle of precious magic potion and poured it into her mouth. After a short rest, she finally recovered, calmed down, and continued her magic. This time, the incantation she chanted was short and powerful, allowing her to use the magic that turned into a wave of fire, rising from her body and going up into the clouds. This magic, like a pillar of fire, rushed into the sky and burst apart suddenly after reaching a certain height, then fell in all directions in a flash of fire. At the same time, the magic piles buried deep in the center of the green grassland were shining, and several golden rays of light rose in the sky, connecting with the falling fire as if they had practiced with each other countless times. Each golden light met fire, and not one was left behind. Following that, the golden and red lights scattered out to all sides, crossing the dark forest and connecting with each other again, forming a huge, tight magic array. This magic array wasn¡¯t complicated, but its scale was amazing. It was more than six miles in diameter, covering the whole Pyroxene Town and a large area of land around it. Accompanied by moving golden red rays of light, the negative energy in the forest quickly dissipated. It wasn¡¯t long before there was a refreshing breeze in the forest inside the magic array. Although the ground and trees were still black, there was no depressing atmosphere as there had been before. Originally living in the Ash Forest, creatures who had adapted to the weak negative energy in the environment became a little restless. These little guys were far more sensitive and aware of the changes in the environment than humans, but they soon regained their composure and quietly went on doing their own things, with a little more vigor in their movements. Even creatures who had adapted to a negative energy environment preferred a living environment without negative energy. This was the nature of all living creatures, with no exceptions. After a while, the golden red light faded away, but the environment in the magic array didn¡¯t deteriorate again. It maintained the scene after being partially purified. Not only that, if one looked closely, they would find that in fact, the forest in the magic array centered on those green grasslands was being purified bit by bit. Although the speed of purification was so slow that it was almost invisible to the naked eye, there was no doubt that the magic array was working on the continuous purification of the forest within its scope. It might have taken decades, or even centuries, before the forest could be completely purified. Perhaps for the Ash Forest, which occupied nearly a tenth of the Continent of the Main Plane, a circle of more than six miles in diameter in this area was insignificant, but for the people living in it, it was an earth-shaking change and a brand-new beginning! For another person, this was a great change that could influence earth and heaven, a great success, and a proof of the road to legend. In the Mage¡¯s Tower of the Void Mask Land, sitting in the center of the energy pool of six elements, including earth, water, wind, fire, positive, and negative power, the commander of mages, Satan, opened his eyes in meditation and smiled with satisfaction. At just that moment, he clearly felt that the power that had been vague, invisible and intangible, but had stubbornly stood in front of him and stopped him from making progress had disappeared. His way forward had been opened, and his preparations for surpassing the common level and entering the legendary realm had been completed. ¡°It seems that my idea was correct. My understanding of purification was also correct.¡± He stood up with a smile and went to the transmission array next to him. In a flash of light, he went to the observatory at the top of the magic tower. Inside, the observatory was empty. With only one astronomer to study the stars and one ground mirror to show the situation of the earth, he went to the ground mirror and held down the precious stone organ to open the magic prop. With the resonance of magic, the ground mirror, which had originally been a piece of transparent crystal, slowly reflected the whole Ash Forest. Because it had been completely contaminated by negative energy, the land veins of the Ash Forest were almost entirely dark. In the darkness, only the Void Mask Land was white, and the swamp of Skeleton Devourer Junior was dark gray, but now, there was one more dark gray area. It was the Pyroxene Town and the forest around it, the area covered by the vast array of purification. Besides that, in this dark gray area, there were some light white spots, which were the intersections of the purification array. With the passing of time, they would continuously purify the earth and turn this forest into a paradise of life with the fragrance of flowers and singing of birds. Satan laughed with joy at this scene. ¡°My design¡­ My way¡­ That¡¯s right!¡± He was filled with exuberant enthusiasm and joy. ¡°The next step is to prepare for the promotion ceremony. Its enormous magic will help me break through the limits of mortals and enter the legendary realm!¡± Chapter 315 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Through exercise and adventures, mortals could improve their power to the level of advanced legendary peak. What did advanced legendary peak mean? Sui Xiong had done a quantification analysis and found that it was similar to a total level of 19 in Crick¡¯s system. At this level, it would be hard to make further improvements. If one had enough resources, he or she could consider taking shortcuts to become a strong second-rate master. For example, after reaching a level of 19 in combat, one could go to a big library and study hard there for a few years to get two to three levels higher in academic rank; or become a Hill Lord, to get a few levels up in their Hill Lord rank. Thus, one could easily break through the limits of mortals and enter the legendary realm to become a Legendary Master. Of course, this kind of Legendary Master was not as powerful as others. Some of them couldn¡¯t even beat an advanced legendary genius like the late Spencer. When Leon, under the pseudonym of Ray, had been going on adventures throughout the wilderness in the west, he had fought with a second-rate master. Although Ray hadn¡¯t been able to win, he hadn¡¯t lost, either. The late Joseph Riley, the former Lord of Garth City, had been such a second-rate master. With his top equipment, he could bully those who were poorly equipped. He had even killed other legendary masters with magic arrays, helpers, and schemes. However, if it was a fair fight, he would almost always be the weakest among the legendary masters. If one didn¡¯t want to be a second-rate master, he or she had to find a way to enter the legendary realm. If this direction fit them well, they could advance to level 20, stepping into the ¡®legendary-to-be¡¯ world. If they could get through this direction and make major improvements, they could advance to level 21, becoming a real Legendary Master. In this regard, clergymen such as priests, high priests, and paladins had the greatest advantage. As the direct subordinates of God, as long as they were strong enough, they could usually receive God¡¯s guidance through prayer, so they could find their own path more easily. At least 60 to 70 percent of the legendary masters of the past and the present were clergymen, while the others added up to only half of the clergymen. Besides these clergymen, those who had majored in both physics and magic arts were also at an advantage. They were more flexible, so they had more choices than others. Those who only majored in physics fell behind them a little, and those who had only majored in magic arts were the most disadvantaged. It was amazing that among all kinds of advanced legendary professions, advanced mages had the highest social status and the strongest comprehensive ability, but it was also the most difficult for them to become legendary masters. The key to that was that mages were so knowledgeable that they had too many choices¡­ But few choices really fit them. A mage, an orthodox mage, knew at least one hundred possible ways to enter the legendary realm, but when they actually tried, they would find that these ways were not suitable for them, so they would go from one failure to another. After several times, their life would neary have come to an end. That was why legendary mages were so rare that only a few long-lived ones, or those with good mentors or good luck, could find a way before their lives were over. However, there was no gain without loss. Once a mage found their way, they would naturally step into the legendary realm like they were pushing a boat downstream. Usually with just a large ceremony, they would be able to adjust their body and soul in their direction and then directly enter the legendary realm with the help of powerful magic. It was simple and clear. In contrast, it wasn¡¯t so easy for other professions. Even if they found their way, they still needed to work hard and gather experience gradually. They also had to adjust themselves and accumulate strength. Many people failed in the process and died with their wishes unfulfilled. Satan was undoubtedly one of the lucky mages. Although he had been a bit unlucky in his youth, when he had been nearly 30 years old, he had finally waited for his chance and smoothly got Sui Xiong on his side. With Sui Xiong¡¯s support, his magic research had made rapid progress, and his strength had rapidly improved. It had taken him over 20 years to reach advanced legendary peak. As the most reliable advanced spell-casters of the Void Mask Church, the two gods of the Church took good care of him. The God of Knowledge, Wall, even spared no effort to devote his time to searching for the right path for him. Finally, several good choices were put forward. Among these paths, Satan¡¯s first choice was purification. He was an ambitious man. Although other paths might have been relatively less difficult, the corresponding divine positions already had been taken by very powerful Gods. The divine position of purification had been the only one left. If he followed this path, the resistance would be much less before he received the title of God in the future. Although at present, he was only a mortal who hadn¡¯t even entered the legendary realm, Satan¡¯s vision was far, and his ideal was great. As long as there was hope, he would strive towards earning the title of God! Thus, he had a good idea and finally chose purifying the Ash Forest as his path to be labeled a God. As long as he worked hard on this path, bit by bit, as the entire Ash Forest was purified, his accumulated strength and belief would surely be enough to get him the title! It might have taken years, hundreds, even thousands of years¡­ But he believed that he would be able to stick on this road to the end and eventually become one of the immortals of the Pantheon temple. This experiment was of great significance to him. It was related to whether he could prove his understanding of the concept of purification. If it failed, it meant that his accumulation of strength in the past two years had gone in the wrong direction. He would have to readjust his path and the structure of his magic and even adjust the stereotypes in his thinking. In that case, it would take at least ten years, or even longer. There were many mages across the world who grew old during such failures, but were unwilling to die. There were also many mages who had to gamble their lives to try more difficult means of prolonging their lives in order to have enough time to make progress. Most of them had failed in prolonging their lives or found that their path to legendary had been cut off after they had successfully prolonged their lives. There were few of them who could finally enter the legendary realm. Satan would be over fifty years old this year. With the help of life-prolonging potions, his physical and spiritual peak would last for about thirty years at most. After that, the aging of his soul would be reflected in his spirit. Even if his body would still be young, his way forward as a mage would definitely become narrower. Thirty years would be just enough to fail three times. Considering that, it was easy to understand why he had been so nervous and cautious and why he had done such a big experiment at all costs, nearly spending all of his fortune and asking for help from two great Gods. Fortunately, he had been lucky enough to succeed on his first try. Next, he just needed to hold a ceremony to adjust himself, and then with the help of powerful magic, he could surely step into the legendary realm. According to his current situation and the fortune of the Void Mask Church, it was estimated that it would be ready in about half a year. In no more than a year, he could become a legendary mage and set foot on the new peak of life! The success of the magic array was not only good for Satan, but also for Felix and Jose. Through the completion of this huge magic array, Felix¡¯s understanding and mastery of magic went up to a higher level, saving at least ten years of gathering experience; Jose improved his control of the dragon blood magic in his body and also saved a lot of time to practice magic. As for those who benefited the most, they were actually the residents of the Pyroxene Town. For a long time, the pioneers of Ash Forest had lived in a weak negative energy environment. Though the cities and villages had been protected by holy temples, people still had to go outside sometimes. Once they went outside, they would inevitably be influenced by the negative energy. In this situation, the life expectancy of residents in Ash Forest grew relatively short, and they often began to grow old and get sick at the age of 40 or so. Within a few years, they would die painfully from various diseases they had suffered. Of course, they didn¡¯t want to live this kind of life, but they had no choice. They could only endure it silently. There were magic props to resist negative energy, as well as magic potions to eliminate the bad influence of negative energy, but how could normal residents afford them? But now it had become different! With the completion of the large-scale purification array, most of the residents in Pyroxene Town didn¡¯t need to live in an environment full of negative energy. Even the negative energy accumulated in their bodies would be gradually purified over time. This allowed them to live longer lives and have healthier bodies. The former couldn¡¯t be seen just yet, but the latter showed instant results. A short while after the completion of the purification array, people outside the town felt that the surrounding environment had changed. It wasn¡¯t that there was a new smell in the air, but that the gloomy and oppressive feeling had disappeared, and they felt much more relaxed in their whole body. They looked at each other doubtfully, not knowing what was going on. But there was no doubt that it was something good! That evening, Felix gathered all the residents of the Pyroxene Town and announced that the large-scale purification array had been completed, so as long as they didn¡¯t travel outside of the green area in the woods, they wouldn¡¯t be influenced by negative energy anymore. At first, the residents were at a loss¡ªthey had no idea what negative energy was, but later, after further explanation from Felix, they were overjoyed and happy, as if they were celebrating a festival. After all, who didn¡¯t want to live a long and healthy life? Seeing that, Felix had an idea in her mind. She announced that the date would be Purification Day every year, and that celebrations would be held to celebrate this happy day. People always said that good things should be done as soon as possible. Since this festival had been set, they wanted to celebrate it today. When Jose returned to the Pyroxene Town, he saw a huge bonfire in the square in the middle of the town. Several tables were filled with white bread and rye wine, and two chefs were preparing meat and vegetables. The residents laughed and sang with joy. They laughed as freely as if they were releasing the depression and pressure they had accumulated for so long at the celebration. They sang so happily, like they were going to drive away all the bad luck, usher in endless good luck, and hold it firmly in their hands, never letting it go. Chapter 316 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When the newly planted green cabbage was flowering outside the Pyroxene Town, Reif received a special order. ¡°Go to the Void Mask Land and attend an exchange group there?¡± he repeated the supervisor¡¯s words somewhat blankly, not knowing what they meant. He could understand every word the supervisor had said, but when the words were linked together in a sentence, he didn¡¯t know their meaning. An exchange group? What was that? Why did he need to join an exchange group? Why would he spend a few days in Void Mask Land? The young magician, who was in the position of supervisor, looked at his confused face and explained with a smile, ¡°Teacher¡­ No, the mayor is going to organize an exchange group to visit the Void Mask Land. First, it¡¯s to set a goal for you guys, to let you know what we are going to build Pyroxene Town into; second, it¡¯s to hold an important ceremony in the recently built Void Mask Land. As an excellent worker in the town, the mayor feels you are entitled to attend the ceremony.¡± Then Reif understood. He thought about it for a while and asked, ¡°What kind of ceremony is it?¡± The supervisor recalled what the mayor had said and was somewhat confused. ¡°The mayor said it was a retirement ceremony. I don¡¯t know what that means, either.¡± He didn¡¯t understand, but in fact, even the mayor of Pyroxene Town, Felix, wasn¡¯t very clear herself. She only knew that His Majesty Void Mask had once asked the Void Mask Land and the Pyroxene Town to collect statistics on the ages of their workers. Once a worker reached the age of 50, she was to inform His Majesty about it. Then a retirement ceremony would be held in time to commend those who had contributed their youth to the construction of the Hill. But the Void Mask Land had been built less than 20 years before, so even if there was someone over 50 years old, they could have only worked there since their thirties. Was that anything to be said about someone¡¯s whole youth? There was one more thing that Jose couldn¡¯t understand: what if a worker was over 50 years old? No matter where, according to the tradition, unless the worker was too old to work, they had to continue to work, and if they couldn¡¯t work anymore, they would be fired and lose their source of income. His Majesty Void Mask had specially prepared a retirement ceremony. What did retirement mean? Did it mean to literally retire from a post and rest at home? Who would want to retire with nothing happening? Once one left their post, they wouldn¡¯t be paid! Or¡­ His Majesty Void Mask wanted to offer an allowance to the elderly people who were too old to work? Of course, it wasn¡¯t impossible. Just like in their tribe before, if there had been enough food, they had also given a share to the elderly who couldn¡¯t work, but hadn¡¯t that been a common thing? Why would there be a special ceremony? Similar to that, many people had such speculations and doubts. No one knew what the ceremony meant or what His Majesty was going to do, except for Mrs. Tiger, who was actually in charge of the whole thing. ¡°Your Majesty Void Mask, I have to admit that you are the kindest and most generous God I have ever seen!¡± Looking at the document Sui Xiong had compiled by himself, she was filled with emotion and excitement, and even her hands trembled. ¡°Such a system¡­ Such an approach¡­ I¡¯ve never expected¡­¡± ¡°Nothing is easy in the beginning.¡± Sui Xiong casually made a true remark, looking at the square, where a high platform was being built, and said with a laugh, ¡°I start it, and then it will be easy for others in the future. Just follow my example.¡± ¡°There are so many kind Gods, but none of them have thought of your way.¡± ¡°Everyone thinks in different ways. It doesn¡¯t mean that I¡¯m that smart.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°If you have to say at any point that I¡¯m more advanced than them, perhaps¡­ I¡¯m standing on the shoulders of giants.¡± ¡°On the shoulders of giants?¡± Sui Xiong laughed again and was too lazy to explain the allusion to Newton, a great scientist from earth. He said, ¡°After today, it¡¯s certain that this practice will be widely studied by all kind Gods. I¡¯ve made a little contribution to the progress of the world, as well.¡± ¡°This is much more than ¡®a little¡¯!¡± ¡°Haha! Just a little bit¡­¡± Sui Xiong laughed and didn¡¯t explain anything. He was planning to do that at the ceremony. He had to add ¡°I feel ashamed¡± at the beginning of the speech, and then finish the speech with ¡°thank you all.¡± Anyway, he had space-traveled to a new world, and no one would understand the jokes made by netizens from the earth, anyway¡­ Suddenly, he was stunned and remembered something. In this world, there was an Old Fairy Temple in the Ancient Forest, which was the birthplace of the Goddess of Life according to tradition. The temple was old, but the bricks and tiles were so strong that even the great magicians couldn¡¯t break them at all. There was a Spring of Life in the temple. Next to it lived an immortal old sage who looked like a frog and was honored as the Elder Frog. It was said that this old sage had talked a lot and had gotten along well with the Goddess of Life at that time. He had been powerful enough to enter any level. In this vast world, many people had been lucky to meet him, drink his longevity wine, and listen to him tell stories. When he had first heard about him, Sui Xiong had never given up his plan to visit this wonderful and visionary senior. However, there had been so many things going on over the years that he had forgotten about it. No matter what, he was free now. Since the retirement ceremony would be in a few days, why couldn¡¯t he send an avatar to go there right now? He was now very active. Once he made up his mind on something, he would put it into practice immediately, so the avatar said goodbye to him in a hurry. He jumped into a ray of light, instantly leaped over rivers and mountains, and arrived at the Geerteng Hill. Then he flew up into the sky, galloping in the high air, which was full of heavy magic power, against the strong wind, and soon flew to the Ancient Forest. However¡­ Where was the Old Fairy Temple? Looking down at the endless green forest stretching to the horizon, he was lost in his thoughts. After a while, he gave up decisively and contacted Javier directly. ¡°Javier, do you know where the Old Fairy Temple is?¡± Javier thought about it for a moment and said, ¡°Its location isn¡¯t fixed, and it often moves. I don¡¯t know where it is now.¡± ¡°Is there any way you can find it?¡± ¡°Of course, there¡¯s special magic method to find the temple.¡± After saying that, Javier sent the material of that method to Sui Xiong. ¡°This is one of the magic methods inherited by the Elves. Masters of the Elves often used this method to go to the temple. The first reason is to worship, and the second is to seek advice¡­ However, you suddenly want to find the Old Fairy Temple, are you going to the immortal elder to inquire about something?¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°I¡¯m just curious.¡± Then he studied the uncomplicated material and quickly displayed the magic. With the completion of the magic, a green light rose slowly, turning into a small road sign that pointed in a certain direction. Sui Xiong immediately flew along the direction, but it was strange that the direction began to change slowly. If he hadn¡¯t been paying attention to the road sign, he would have gone the wrong way. Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t confused by the change of direction. He flew firmly in the direction indicated by the road signs. After a period of time, the green light was suddenly shining in front of him. When the green light disappeared, he had arrived at an old but tidy temple that was full of life. The temple was made of wood and stone. It wasn¡¯t exquisitely built, but it had a harmonious aesthetic feeling. There were many plants in the temple that seemed to have been grown there. They were well integrated with the buildings in a natural and balanced way overall. The temple was not big. Sui Xiong flew through it in a short time. He turned two corners and went through a hall. There, he saw a square shrouded in green light. In the middle of the square, a huge vine-like green tree soared into the clouds, spreading its crown over the entire temple. Under the tree, there was a clear spring. In the middle of the spring, there was a statue of a young girl holding a small vase in her hand with a smile. There was water spraying out of her vase. The water mist was diffused in the air, merging with the green light and giving off a breath of fresh air. Just smelling it, Sui Xiong felt calm and couldn¡¯t help smiling. He landed on the ground, slowly walking to the spring. ¡°Elder Frog, where are you?¡± As he was walking in, he looked for the legendary immortal sage, but after a while, he found no one who looked like a sage. When he walked to the spring, he suddenly heard a laugh coming from the spring. ¡°I¡¯m here.¡± Sui Xiong was surprised. He looked down and saw a tiny frog, the size of his thumb at most, lying on the surface of the water, alternately floating and sinking, with an old pair of glasses on his eyes. He looked quite strange. This was the Elder Frog? He was too small! The frog with glasses apparently saw his doubts. He jumped with a laugh onto a nearby branch. He took out an amazingly small cup that was actually filled with hot tea. He took a sip with a laugh and then asked, ¡°What does size matter?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it for a while and shook his head. He wasn¡¯t here for a fight. What did size matter? He laughed, turning his body into almost the same size as the frog. At this moment, they were sitting on the branches of the big tree, which were too big for them to imagine. ¡°I¡¯ve wanted to visit you for a long time, but I haven¡¯t been free.¡± He said, ¡°Not until today.¡± ¡°Well, now you see me.¡± The frog smiled and said, ¡°What do you think of me?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a long time and sighed. ¡°Very ordinary.¡± The frog laughed loudly and said, ¡°I am ordinary.¡± ¡°I thought you would be a huge divine beast. Or a scholar-like frog, wearing a robe and holding a staff, living in a wooden house full of books, wearing a tall hat with a snow white beard¡­¡± ¡°Haha! How could there be such a frog?!¡± Sui Xiong also couldn¡¯t help laughing. ¡°Yes, there are no frogs like that. I was overthinking it.¡± The frog nodded and suddenly asked, ¡°So, what do you think a jellyfish should look like?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised and looked down at himself. ¡°Do you think you¡¯re a jellyfish or a human?¡± the frog asked again. Sui Xiong frowned and answered subconsciously, ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m human.¡± ¡°Then why do you look like a jellyfish?¡± ¡°It¡¯s convenient.¡± The frog smiled, took out another cup of tea, and passed it to him. Sui Xiong accepted the cup and took a sip. Before he had time to say anything, he saw the scene shaking in front of him. The green light flashing, the temple, the tree, and the frog disappeared without any trace. Only he himself was floating in the vast jungle, even the cup in his hand gone. After thinking of several things, he displayed the magic of searching for the Ancient Fairy Temple, but this time, the green arrowhead was spinning wildly and couldn¡¯t point out a clear direction. Sui Xiong pondered for a long time and finally looked up to the sky and laughed. He flew up into the sky and headed for the Void Mask Land. ¡°Elder Frog, I¡¯ll come back and have a cup of tea with you next time!¡± Chapter 317 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was a long journey from the Pyroxene Town to the Void Mask Land. It took about fifteen days for an ordinary businessman to travel it by carriage¡ªfive days from the Pyroxene Town to the Gold-panning Town, five days from the Gold-panning Town to the Dragon-Roar Town, and another five days to the Void Mask Land. It was common to spend five days travelling from town to town, but why was that? Because more than five days of travel would make communication difficult while less than five days of travel would cause overlapping development between towns and thus potential conflicts in the future. Therefore, apart from the towns that were already built in bustling districts, other towns that had been reclaimed in uncultivated lands like the Pyroxene Town, Gold-panning Town, and Dragon-roar Town had been designed with a distance of five days of travel between each other to maintain the proper connection. Here, the distance of one day of travel wasn¡¯t measured by walking, as nobody was able to take a journey to uncultivated lands by walking except for experienced adventurers. A one-day walk there would make one too exhausted to protect themself from magic beasts. One day of travel actually meant carriage travel. Before he was there, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know how far a carriage in his world could travel in a day, but it probably wasn¡¯t as far as the ones in this world, because horses in this world were much stronger than the ones in his world. They could pull a cart and walk steadily for a whole day and even run a bit in the middle from time to time. Though Sui Xiong had never ridden a horse before, he had read quite a few historical stories about travelling in which the cavalries were good at hard fighting on battlefields and short-distance maneuvering, while they weren¡¯t as good as infantry in long-distance maneuvering, for the horses were weaker than humans. In the early morning, the carriage set off carrying spectators from the Pyroxene Town. A few adventurers served as the porters, as well as the bodyguards, of this fleet of carriages. In case they confronted vicious magic beasts, Mr. Jose would be the one on the fleet to handle it, though they were not going through secluded lands, and there were businessmen passing by sometimes. Most powerful magic beasts were smart enough to avoid such an area, so it was already adequate to have experienced adventurers as guards. And this time was no exception. All was good for the entirety of the journey, and no trouble happened at all. The fleet arrived at a small village near dusk, where their camping site was reserved. On a field trip, camping wasn¡¯t recommended unless one had to. If possible, it would be better stay in a village or at least near one, because magic beasts usually didn¡¯t attack villages, but tended to attack campers. Of course, this was some advice for ordinary people or average adventurers. For experienced ones who often explored wastelands, camping was a common practice, and they were even used to fighting magic beasts during the night. Magic beasts were something usual for them. On the contrary, if there were no magic beasts coming at all, they would be rather concerned, wondering if they had accidentally entered the territory of a super powerful monster such as the Archean Dragon. Reif and his companions spent the whole day in the carriage, wasting no time, since the Mayor of the Felix Town had arranged an introduction to the Void Mask Land for them about all the countries and areas in the mainland, along with some writing classes. They wrote with a soft brush pen on a roll of light gray cloth, easy stationery that had been released recently in Geerteng City, which was known as the ¡°Home of Stationery.¡± They dipped the soft brush pen in water and wrote on the gray cloth to leave black handwriting on it. After they finished writing, the cloth would be hung outside the carriage to dry so that the handwriting would disappear to enable the reuse of the cloth. According to their adventurer teacher, this had been invented by Baron Geerteng¡ªnow Viscount Geerteng¡ªMs. Olian. She believed that the meaning of knowledge and education was to make education accessible to more people so that they wouldn¡¯t be deprived of the opportunity to learn due to poverty. This supporter of the God of Knowledge had once promised to spend her whole life promoting education across the mainland to benefit this country. She had been doing as she promised. In recent years, lots of cheap stationery had been invented in Geerteng, including this ink writing cloth. It was, reasonably, much more expensive than normal cloth. A roll of this cloth and a pen together cost a silver coin, but it was, after all, no more than a silver coin, fairly affordable for many poor kids in order to learn to write. In fact, the ink writing cloth benefited them more by making painting accessible to everyone. It could not only used for writing but also painting. One might have needed a teacher to learn how to write, but not necessarily to learn to paint. Therefore, skillful young painters were seen everywhere. Many kids liked painting at their leisure, and most of them thus discovered their talent in the arts. As they carried on making efforts, they made progress. Among them was the young adventurer who had taught Reif and the other fellows to write. He had been a soldier before and had a chance to have his own ink writing cloth. Though he wanted to learn to write and followed the writings on bulletins, he soon found he had a greater talent in painting, especially recreating the magic beasts and monsters he had seen before. He could always capture the features of these beasts and painted in a vivid and clear way. With this talent, he had earned quite some money by painting commonly seen magic beasts for a few villages for the purpose of introducing them. He decided not to be a soldier anymore. As the popular saying on the earth went¡ª¡±the world is so big, I want to have a look.¡± Travelling around the mainland, he soon found himself in the Void Mask Land. There, he took a literacy class and became a literate, educated person. Since then, he had become an adventurer and was active around the Void Mask Land. It was an amazing place. Located along the border and close to nothing except for the Dragon-Roar Town, which had many magic beasts, it was in fact the high-end transportation hub of the mainland. With its powerful portal system, one could arrive there from any capital city in the mainland in a flash and arrive in another capital in the next second. It took less than ten minutes for one to travel in between, as long as he or she could afford it financially and physically. It had made this place a trading center of high-end products, as well as an assembly point for high-level adventurers when between jobs. Whoever came there to shop or recruit had to be rich, as the transmission fee was so high that less affluent people would be blocked by the famous high-end market. Home to the world¡¯s best restaurants, hotels, opera houses, and entertainment venues, it had now become a well-known spot for entertainment consumption. Select adventurers with good records also gathered here, attracting employers who were seeking reliable labors. Speaking of the most famous talents here, chefs and accountants were among the top. Graduating from a vocational school called ¡°New Oriental,¡± these two types of professionals were popular among all chambers of commerce and nobles in the mainland. A master chef would bring more than enough customers to a restaurant, and everyone would be delighted at their cooking and get along better. An expert accountant could also help maximize the profits of a business and minimize unnecessary or foolish expenditures. It was said that this vocational school always had recruiters coming from all parts of the mainland gathering at its entrance, especially in the summer graduation season. Fortunately, there were supporters for Gods who stayed in this school, and Gods came from time to time, otherwise, the recruiters would probably have broken into the school to grab students inside. This young teacher became a bit gloomy when mentioning the vocational school. Reif guessed he also wished to study in that school. Was it because he had been rejected? Or did he not want to become a chef or accountant¡­ After a full day of class, both the teacher and students were exhausted. However, Reif failed to fall asleep. Lying on the temporary bed of a bunch of hay with a blanket on top, he stared at the tent roof in the dark, deep in thought. Over half a month, he had learned one to two hundred common words¡ªgiven that he had a good memory and wouldn¡¯t easily forget what he had learned before. Now, he was more or less literate, but what could he do with that? Start to sign his own name, ¡°Reif,¡± instead of asking the clerk for help? Start to read bulletins by himself instead of having the staff next to him help? Start to read road signs to know the directions and roads so that he wouldn¡¯t get lost? But these were all tiny things. Or¡­ maybe I should learn more? But will it be of any help? Go become a chef or accountant? They¡¯re both good, but could I really do it? Or should I also take that literacy class? As long as I pass their elementary test¡­ and it doesn¡¯t cost much. But even if I learn all the words, what can I do with them? But learning to write and read is always good anyway¡­ He thought while tossing and turning and finally fell asleep. Chapter 318 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The next day, when the sky was slightly brighter, the travelers woke up early, cooked some simple food, and washed themselves a little. After eating and drinking, they continued on their journey. The situation that day was no different from the previous ones. They walked very smoothly along the way. In addition to gaining some common knowledge, Reif and the rest also learned some words. It was the same on the third day, the fourth day, and the fifth day. On the fifth night, they arrived in the Gold-panning Town. There was a gold vein near the town, hence the name Gold-panning Town. Many pioneers had come from afar and wanted to find gold there to get rich overnight. However, in fact, the texture of the gold vein was very poor, so there wasn¡¯t much gold produced at all¡ªit was said that the reason was erosion from the negative energy. The three gemstone veins near the Pyroxene Town had also become poor in texture for the same reason. The real pillar industries of Gold-panning Town were their copper and iron ores. Therefore, this town was often called ore town, because ordinary ores were its foundation. Unlike gold and gems, copper and iron ores couldn¡¯t be eroded by negative energy, and the two veins could even resist negative energy effectively. Therefore, houses in the ore town¡ªwell, the Gold-panning Town¡ªoften used the ores to build the foundations. Outside the town, there were large areas for traveling merchants to have a rest with foundations that had been built using the ores. The leaders of Gold-panning Town were quite knowledgeable. They used their local advantage to acquire a large number of low-grade and middle-grade ores, then used them to pave the ground, centering on the town, and then paved around it, little by little. This was a huge project that had been in operation for more than two decades. At that time, ores were buried underground in a range of two or three miles around the Gold-panning Town, which had definitely caused the bareness of the town. However, it also allowed the the Gold-panning Town to not worry about the tide on extreme new moon nights. With a distance of two or three miles, it was far enough to completely block the skeletons¡¯ senses of living creatures. Moreover, even if they were going to attack the Gold-panning Town, they would become very weak in a short time when walking on foot without the support of negative energy. Therefore, when they arrived outside the town, even children would be able to kick them into pieces. In the Four Towns in the Northwest, the Gold-panning Town was quite safe. Therefore, the population there was also quite large. In general, it was a little more prosperous and could be regarded as a hub in the northwestern area. With Rye Town in the south and Void Mask Land in the north, its location was very important. It was said that a few decades before, the hub of the Four Towns in the Northwest had actually been the Pyroxene Town. However, now, the Pyroxene Town was dying. Without the efforts of Town Mayor Felix, the Pyroxene Town might have even declined forever, finally completely ruined. Reif cared little for those things. As soon as he could take a day off, he wandered around the Gold-panning Town and naturally came to a blacksmith shop. Copper and iron ores were cheap. However, if they were refined into copper and iron ingots, the prices were much higher. In further steps, if the copper ingots and iron ingots were made into metal tools, weapons, or armors, the prices could be much higher. Under the principle of taking local materials according to local conditions, there were several blacksmith shops in the Gold-panning Town. The Old Wrought Iron Blacksmith Shop that he was visiting at that moment was one of the most famous ones. The blacksmith shop hadn¡¯t been called this name at first. A few years earlier, a dwarf adventurer called Wrought Iron had gone there and bought a poorly-operated blacksmith shop to start his own business. The dwarf had strong martial arts, as well as the technique of forging iron. The most amazing thing was that he had not been a powerful mage, but he had owned a precious magic furnace that could extract superior copper and iron. With excellent craftsmanship and superior materials, he could naturally create products of good quality. When Reif came to visit, he happened to see the openness of the magic furnace. The furnace, its appearance like a huge ball, was slowly spinning on the shelf. Then a gap opened in it, from which the red melted copper poured and fell into the stone trough not far below. The hot melted copper contacted the slightly chilly air, and soon turned a bright purple-red color. Then the color became darker and darker, finally almost turning into black. After the melted copper was poured out, the furnace continued to move on the shelf. When it was above another deep pit, the whole furnace opened completely, and the residue mixed with the melted copper waste was poured into it and piled up at the bottom of the deep pit. A stout dwarf whose head only reached Reif¡¯s chest was controlling the furnace. However, Reif dared to bet that the dwarf¡¯s arms were bigger than his thighs! The dwarf was wearing a thick insulated suit that looked similar to the protective suit he used while working in the underground tunnel. He didn¡¯t know if it was a similar product. After dumping the melted copper and waste, the dwarf controlled the furnace to spin to the very end of the shelf. Then he took out a strange-shaped object that seemed to be a brush. He brushed the inner side at full tilt with sparks flying. After brushing and pouring, he dumped out some more waste. At this point, the process of opening the furnace was over. After fixing the furnace, the dwarf clapped his hands, then walked over. He took the protective suit off his head smoothly, showing an energetic face. According to his appearance, he was likely in his thirties. For a dwarf, an appearance in the thirties was nearly equal to an age of 70 or 80. Members of this long-lived race could often live to be 150 years old or even older, which was truly enviable. ¡°Hello, do you want to buy something? Or did you come purely to watch for fun?¡± the dwarf said with a smile on his face. He didn¡¯t look as arrogant and stubborn as described in the legends. Reif soon expressed he had only come to visit out of curiosity, because he had heard that this blacksmith shop was excellent. Just now, he had noticed the prices of the goods, but he was sure that he couldn¡¯t afford them. Well¡­ In fact, it wasn¡¯t really impossible for him to buy anything, but it wasn¡¯t necessary. It was hard for him to save up money, so there was no need to waste it buying something he didn¡¯t need. The dwarf didn¡¯t mind and said with a smile, ¡°Then help yourself. As long as they don¡¯t make trouble, I, Wrought Iron, don¡¯t mind people visiting my workshop¡­ ¡± While saying that, he went to the counter and sat down. He took the herbal tea that the apprentice had already prepared and took a deep sip, showing a satisfied smile. ¡°A pity that it isn¡¯t wine¡­¡± the dwarf called Wrought Iron sighed. ¡°Brother Palin said that you couldn¡¯t drink alcohol during work hours,¡± the equally strong apprentice said. ¡°Hey! That kid is a bookworm. We dwarves only have strength after drinking!¡± Wrought Iron said with some dissatisfaction. ¡°That kid¡­ He was still a tiny boy that year, but now he has become a big man. In turn, he keeps me from drinking¡­ ¡°In fact, ever since master has followed the advice of Brother Palin to not drink during work hours, your craftsmanship has risen, and no mistakes have occurred.¡± The dwarf sighed helplessly. ¡°Yes, so I had to listen to the kid. Well¡­ Is reading really that useful? This is totally different from the traditions of us dwarves¡­¡± ¡°Traditions are not entirely correct,¡± a low, but refreshing voice said from the door. Reif turned his head and saw a young man of a similarly short stature. He was wearing a robe and carrying a wooden stick with an inlaid gem on the top, surrounding them with cold air. With a pair of glasses on his face, he looked well-educated. Behind him, the adventurer who had been teaching Reif and others to read, as well as some other adventurers who had been teachers on other carriages, were following him with very respectful looks. Reif was slightly surprised. His instincts told him that the young man was important. When he was just about to ask, his temporary teacher those days had noticed him. He quickly ran up a few steps and introduced the man, ¡°This is our teacher, the chief librarian of the Church of the Void Mask, Mr. Palin.¡± After that, he said to Reif, lowering his voice, ¡°A great scholar, and an outstanding mage.¡± Chapter 319 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The mage thing is not worth mentioning.¡± The short young man was Palin. With his excellent hearing, he could even hear whispers. ¡°Being a scholar is the thing that I am most proud of, but forget the ¡®outstanding¡¯ part. I am not qualified enough,¡± he said, after turning his head with a smile. Reif was taken aback, both astonished by Palin¡¯s identity and by his amazing hearing. He hurriedly saluted but did not know how to greet him. ¡°No restrictions,¡± Palin said, smiling. ¡°You are visiting here? Please continue. I have something to talk about with Uncle Wrought Iron.¡± After that, he took Wrought Iron into the study room next to him, and they talked about something in detail. This time, Palin came to visit for two things: The first one was naturally to invite Wrought Iron to the Void Mask Land to attend the retirement ceremony. Palin¡¯s uncle, Old Soth, had passed away a few years ago. Only two people were still alive among the partners who had ventured and done business with Old Soth in the past¡ªWrought Iron and Rhyme. The former one was a dwarf with an average life expectancy was about 150 years old; the latter one was a suburb fairy with an average life expectancy of around 180 years old. Now, Wrought Iron was almost 70 years old, and that was equivalent to the early 30¡¯s of mankind. He was still in the prime of his life. After attending the funeral of his old friend, he had come to Gold-Panning Town and had become a blacksmith. Rhythm¡¯s race was rather strange; his rate of aging was similar to that of human beings. However, they could still live quite a long time after getting old. He was already gray-haired and basically lost his ability to work in his sixties. Currently, he was living in the Void Mask Land, working as a librarian in Palin¡¯s library. When Palin had been an accountant in Uncle Soth¡¯s trade caravan, he had a good relationship with Uncle Wrought Iron. Therefore, when Palin had an event this time, he personally came to invite Wrought Iron, both as a show of respect for the elder and to help for Uncle Wrought Iron keep up his appearances in Gold-Panning Town. In his current status, personal invitations to his house were enough to dispel many people¡¯s greed for Uncle Wrought Iron¡¯s blacksmith shop, thus avoiding a lot of unnecessary troubles. The second reason for Palin¡¯s visit was to learn more about the principles of the ¡°magic furnace¡± and to inquire about the skills of smelting ores from the dwarven forging technique. During this time, Sui Xiong¡¯s blast furnace experiment had not been going well, and he had failed countless times. After pondering carefully, Sui Xiong thought that he might have a lack of some theories, so he planned to make up the basic skills first. The easiest way to make up the basics had been to ask Morani. However, Sui Xiong thought that this was his own business. It wouldn¡¯t be worthwhile to trouble others for that. After thinking again and again, he finally went to find Palin. Palin had stayed in the library almost all these years, going out only a few times. He could be simply called an experienced nerd. Sui Xiong believed that after studying hard for so many years, Palin must have accumulated a lot of knowledge. Moreover, nerds seemed to have technical talents. Sui Xiong had had a college classmate whose game skills were average, but his technical skill had been very good. He had made a keyboard with many function keys, and he had no rivals in the whole department. Maybe Palin was like this. It turned out that although Palin was a nerd, he was not a technical nerd. He had known very little about metal smelting technology. He only knew what minerals could be extracted, and he could recognize some common or precious ores at most. However, Palin¡¯s brain was much more flexible than Sui Xiong¡¯s. When he had learned that Sui Xiong¡¯s experiments had been unsuccessful, he had suggested that Sui Xiong copy several common furnaces and study them slowly. Sui Xiong thought about it and then followed it. However, after a period of research, Sui Xiong still had had no clue. He had been able to copy those furnaces without any differences and expand them to amazing scales. However, it couldn¡¯t solve the problems inherent in the furnaces; either the cost had been too high, or the efficiency had been too low, all without promotion values. The crux of the problem had been that Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t really understood the design principles of those furnaces. Sui Xiong was truly superb. As long as he took a look at something, he could copy even the most complicated magic furnaces completely. However, that didn¡¯t mean that he really understood the design principles of those furnaces. Just like playing with scientific models, a person with good operational ability could use various parts to assemble a variety of interesting models. There were those who could fly in the sky and who could swim in the water. However, they might not actually understand the aerodynamics or even the law of buoyancy. This had been the case with Sui Xiong. When he had understood his shortcomings, he fell into distress. In this world, there were no perfect education or scientific research systems like there were on earth. The craftsmen inherited their experience only from generation to generation. There were not many theories which had been formed through deep studies. Even if Sui Xiong was willing to learn, he wouldn¡¯t know where to start. The mages had done a lot of research. However, unless Sui Xiong asked the Master of Mystery or the God of Spellcaster to discuss it, there would be no way to find the theories he wanted. It would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. In this case, Palin had recommended himself, claiming that he had been under the care of His Majesty for many years. He had been quietly studying all the time, and now it was time to apply what he had learned. He first went to Sui Xiong¡¯s experimental site, observing several failed experiments. Then Palin thought about it and set off to find Uncle Wrought Iron who was good at forging. Palin expressed to him that he would learn from the dwarven forging technique. Knowing his intentions, Uncle Wrought Iron couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Little Palin, I am afraid you will be disappointed!¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Palin was stunned. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Our dwarven forging technique is of course very good, but it is not worth mentioning compared to the infinite power of gods,¡± Wrought Iron said. ¡°Even the Void Mask¡¯s Majesty can¡¯t do that, so neither can our forging technique.¡± ¡°Not always,¡± Palin said. ¡°My lord has endless power, but what he wants to do is develop the skills that are suitable for mortals. This is not something that can be done by relying on the power of a god. Perhaps after gaining inspirations from the dwarven forging technique, he will succeed.¡± In this case, Wrought Iron naturally had no more doubts, so he carefully told Palin his own techniques. Palin was not interested in the subtle techniques that an ordinary blacksmith was particularly concerned about. He paid more attention to the large frame of the dwarven forging technique. After spending most of the day, he listened to the whole set of the technique at once. Then he asked about some details of the smelting part, and he had the confidence that he had basically mastered it. After that, he inquired about the experience of the use of the magic furnace. The magic furnace was certainly not dwarven technology. It was a type of technology left over from the era of the Kingdom of Fairies. With a complex magical array, they could extract the energy of the magical crystals as fuel to melt the ores. Then they would use magic power to separate the molten metal from the slags. It was poured out twice to form an ingot and some waste slags. Its cost had been very expensive, and one would need nearly 10,000 gold coins. When it was used, the cost was also very high. Every time it started, magical crystals worth thousands of gold coins needed to be consumed. Therefore, human spellcasters had carried out subsequent research into improvement and launched a low-end version¡ªthat was the one Wrought Iron was now using. Wrought Iron¡¯s magic furnace was priced at 4,000 gold coins, and it needed to be filled with a lot of magic power every time to use. However, fortunately, he didn¡¯t need to put in all the magic power all at once. He could fill it slowly several times. When the furnace had enough magic, he could start it again. Wrought Iron himself knew a few spells. Although his magic power was not strong enough, he could start it almost once a month if he filled it slowly. To be honest, with once a month, this thing was a bit disappointing. Wrought Iron had long felt that he might have been deceived by the salesman to buy something that was not suitable for him. However, he had already bought and installed it, so it would be a waste to lay it aside and ignore it. So every day, he poured magic power inside the furnace and guaranteed that it would be opened every month, never ignoring it. In the past few years, he had felt that his magic power had increased quite a bit. It seemed that the act of pouring magic power in every day was actually a good exercise. The two chatted for the whole afternoon, and the furnace had already cooled down. Therefore, Palin personally added the selected high-quality iron ores into the furnace and then closed it to pour magic power inside. Words were always not powerful enough. He wanted to understand and master the knowledge of using the magic furnace through his own practice. He also wanted to see whether he could get some inspirations from it in order to help the Void Mask¡¯s Majesty to research on the blast furnace. Chapter 320 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio As a professional mage, Palin¡¯s magic power was much stronger than Wrought Iron¡¯s. Especially in recent years, no one knew why his magic power had suddenly increased rapidly, and his strength had grown by leaps and bounds. Five years ago, Palin had only been an ordinary mage who only recently entered mid-level. But now, he had become an advanced mage, even close to the advanced legendary peak. He not only had strong magic power flowing like rivers in his body, but many inexplicable spells had appeared in his mind as well. It was like someone had injected strength and knowledge into his body. He had once consulted Sui Xiong about this. After thinking for a while, Sui Xiong had finally judged that the problem laid in his soul. Palin had actually died in the trap of the Death Cloud Spell. Later, when Sui Xiong had arrived, his soul had no longer been in his body but had entered the underworld. At that time, Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t known how to recall souls, so he used the scientific method from earth to resurrect Palin, relying solely on the thoughts left in his body. That was to say, at present, Palin was actually incomplete. Strictly speaking, he was only a body that could move around, similar to the undead monsters like the walking dead and the skeletons. However, Palin was not such a low creature. He was still alive, retaining his full vitality. His body and his soul were still connected, and that was difficult even for gods to detect. Perhaps because of this connection, when his soul became extremely powerful, it fed back the flesh and made the body grow stronger quickly. However, it could improve the flesh from a mid-level mage to an advanced legendary peak, and he even seemed to continue improving, going on to break into the Legendary Realm. How strong could his soul be? Sui Xiong and the know-it-all Javier had talked about this. Javier had believed that perhaps Palin¡¯s soul was not in the underworld, but rather went to hell and had become a big man. Hell was a special world located on the edge of the Matter Plane at the Ring of the World, adjacent to the Negative Plane. At the same time, it was connected with the Spirit Plane through the underworld river. Moreover, many places in it had passages leading to the Positive Plane which was extremely strange. The world¡¯s most important borders were the underworld and the abyss. In fact, it was a separation point between the underworld and the abyss. The evil souls should have fallen from the underworld into the abyss after death, turning into demons in the abyss. However, hell stopped them and punished the evil. When the punishment cleaned the evilness of the souls, they would be sent to the underworld river, restarting the cycle of life. Whenever the demons from the abyss wanted to make a massive invasion into the Matter Plane, they often went through hell f[1] irst. Except for some very special demons, most demons didn¡¯t have the ability to break through the barriers of the Ring of the World. If they wanted to arrive in the Matter Plane from the Negative Plane, they could only pass through one road¡ªhell. At this time, the legion of hell would move out on a large scale to stop and destroy them mercilessly, repelling the invasion of the demons again and again. In other words, hell was not only the final judgmental land of punishing the evil, but also the forefront line against the chaos. When Sui Xiong had dragged a world from the abyss back to the Matter Plane with the help of the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, as well as several small worlds that belonged to the Positive Plane sent by the God of Order, he had neutralized the Negative Plane¡¯s power of the world. Therefore, Sui Xiong could easily break through the barriers of the Ring of the World. This was a special case, so it was not sufficient as an example. In general, the more powerful the demons were, the stronger the power of the Negative Plane they had in their bodies. Therefore, it was more difficult for them to get out of the Negative Plane, and the weak demons were more likely to break away from the Negative Plane. However, they were not powerful enough. Thus, no matter if powerful demons or weak demons wanted to invade the Matter Plane, most of them could only go through hell. The supreme rulers of hell were ten powerful men who were called the ¡°Hell Kings.¡± They all had strong powers even among the gods. They were the supreme judges and the supreme leaders. Under them were the judges known as the ¡°Hell Dukes,¡± the border commanders known as the ¡°Hell Marquis,¡± and the local lords known as the ¡°Hell Earls.¡± There was no particularly strict correspondence between the three and the knights in the human world. They were probably a little bit similar in status, but that was all. Further down, there were the chief officials known as the ¡°Hell Viscounts¡± and the military officials known as the ¡°Hell Barons,¡± who often ruled together in one area as a pair. Under their Majesties, there were many powerful soldiers called ¡°Hell Knights,¡± each of whom who had been transformed by a powerful soul. These Hell Knights patrolled the territory day and night, not letting go of any sign of trouble, and not missing any clues. Not a single sinful soul could escape their arrest, and not a single demon could break through their block. Because of the frequent fighting, the strength of the innocent souls in hell tended to rise very quickly, especially those who worked in the border areas. Some could be upgraded from mortals to barons or even marquises only in a few decades. Javier had guessed that perhaps after Palin¡¯s death, his soul had gone to hell and became a knight against the demon invasion on the border. After more than ten years, he had made a lot of military achievements, so his strength had greatly improved. Recently, he had been appreciated by a marquis and had become a Hell Baron. If this was the case, then the feedback from his soul would have greatly upgraded his physical body, so his strength had advanced rapidly and reached the present level. Of course, all of that had been just a guess. Hell rejected the visits of the gods. Although it did not attack them like the abyss, if a god arrived in hell, they would surely be overwhelmingly observed by the mighty Hell Kings. In a short time, they would get out of the way silently. Sui Xiong felt that his hide was thick enough, so he had planned to go to hell to find Palin¡¯s soul. However, Javier had advised him to dismiss this idea. ¡°Suppose that you¡¯ve found him, so what?¡± Javier had asked at that time. ¡°Put him back into flesh and bring him back to life? Don¡¯t be silly! He has already been a Hell Warrior, even a Hell Baron in high status. He may become a Hell Marquis in the future. Why would he give up everything and return to the human world to work as a mage managing the library?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it, and what Javier said seemed to be the truth. Therefore, he had given up the idea. Later, he had told Palin about those things. Palin also felt that since he had lived well passing so many years without a soul, there was no need to find it back. And if he had found the soul, which would be the main force, his soul or his flesh? This problem would be difficult to solve. Anyway, he wasn¡¯t willing to bow to the guy who might have been fighting in hell for more than a decade; he might be devoured or even destroyed. For Palin, the only effect had been that his strength was greatly improved. This was a great advantage that he gained without efforts. At this moment, with his strong magic power, it took only a short time to pour in the magic power required for the magic furnace. Then, under the guidance of Wrought Iron, he had operated the furnace. With the original black furnace revealing a red light, strong magic power started to flow in it. Soon, a high temperature was generated, burning the iron ores inside to melting. The first thing that had melted were the rocks with a lower melting point; they turned into viscous magma. When the rocks were completely melted, Wrought Iron instructed Palin to open the discharge gate and dump the magma. After the magma was initially drained, the discharge gate was closed, and he started the second magical array on the furnace. Therefore, the temperature in the furnace was further increased, and the iron in the compound state was slowly melted and mixed with the residual impurities. In this process, a large amount of toxic gas was generated. Fortunately, the furnace had a filtering function, so he just needed to pay attention to the hot exhaust gas that had not been discharged to avoid getting a burn. After a while, the iron in the furnace was completely melted. At this time, the third part of the magic array was activated. The molten iron and the useless residue were separated. The molten iron flowed through the discharge gate into the stone trough covering with soil to isolate the heat. It turned into iron ingots, and the residue was subsequently poured into the waste pit. After a set of processes was completed, next came the usual step of cleaning the furnace. Wrought Iron didn¡¯t allow Palin to do that because even though Palin had become very strong, his body was still thin and weak. Cleaning the furnace was not an easy task, and so it was not suitable for him, a frail-looking scholar. In the next few days, Palin had lived in Wrought Iron¡¯s blacksmith shop. He operated the furnace twice a day, once in the morning and the other in the afternoon. When he wasn¡¯t doing that, Palin carefully thought about and studied the principle of forging iron and considered the problem of the ¡°blast furnace¡± under the research of His Majesty, the Void Mask. He had drawn a lot of pictures, analyzing and studying the magic furnace from various angles. Then, he compared the dwarven forging technique with the magic furnace, trying to find similarities between the two. He also ran to other blacksmith shops, paying the blacksmiths some money to learn their forging methods. Of course, those blacksmiths couldn¡¯t afford magic furnaces. They used traditional techniques to create balled iron filled with holes like sponges; they also had strong iron ingots through forging. Palin constantly studied, trying to integrate various technologies and eventually merging them into Sui Xiong¡¯s ¡°blast furnace.¡± It was a long project, so he still couldn¡¯t find many clues until the day when the retirement ceremony was about to take place. These days, if he had made any achievements, they would be the iron ingots in the blacksmith shop in addition to some piecemeal notes without visible value for the time being. At least for a long time in the future, old Wrought Iron didn¡¯t need to operate the furnace to forge again. These iron ingots were enough for him to use for a while. Chapter 321 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Boom!¡± After another earth-shattering loud noise, the tall and big furnace exploded suddenly. Red iron slags and burning coal flew around, but nothing fell on the green jellyfish who was close at hand. Sui Xiong had already put a trigger spell on himself, so once he was attacked, he would immediately change into a virtual state. Although the power of the blast furnace explosion was amazing, it couldn¡¯t hurt the existence of a virtual state. Of course, the virtual body couldn¡¯t directly attack any beings or entities. The ¡°untouchable¡± rule went both ways. After a while, the smoke gradually subsided, and the hot debris on the ground gradually cooled down. Sui Xiong changed back from the virtual body to his real body; then he sighed deeply while looking at the mess on the ground. ¡°What on earth is going wrong?¡± he said to himself. ¡°Obviously, I have improved it so many times. I suppose that there should be no problem¡­¡± Just then, he tipped his head and heard the voice of Palin. ¡°My lord, today is the day of the retirement ceremony, please don¡¯t forget to participate.¡± He was stunned and raised his tentacles to calculate the time, only to find that he had forgotten the days without realizing it. Since visiting Elder Frog, Sui Xiong had taken back his avatar and concentrated on the blast furnace. Unknowingly, so many days had passed since then. Without Palin¡¯s reminder, maybe he would really forget the big retirement ceremony. If he forgot the ceremony, he would remember it when everyone began to pray to him. If he ran to the ceremony at that time, then the scene would be really awkward! Thinking of this, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh a bit; then he hurriedly packed up and rushed to the Void Mask Land. The gods could walk very fast, especially to return to their own temples. A moment later, Sui Xiong had arrived at the Temple of the Void Mask, located in the southernmost part of the center of the Land. He met with the bishops and priests who were already waiting there. Seeing the arrival of their own god, the bishops and priests were all rejoicing. They sang hymns with excitement and sang the songs that Leon had stolen and recomposed from the ancient book of the God of Eagle again and again. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t stand it and asked them to stop, or else he was afraid that they would sing forever. These guys were not ordinary people; each of them was at least mid-level adventurers. They were really full of vitality, with a vital capacity conserve of more than 10,000. If they were on the earth, they would all become the kings of swimming who could swim 100 meters while diving in one breath. If he didn¡¯t stop them, they would sing and sing for a few days and nights with no problem. They could stand it, but Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t! At this time, on the square of the Land, a simple and solemn stage had been built up. The two hosts had already arrived on the stage, and the invited guests off the stage had been seated. Moreover, many curious tourists and residents surrounded outside the guest seats. The waiters were walking through the guest seats like butterflies, delivering fruit and drinks to the guests. The fruits were cut into pieces with toothpicks inserted into them, making them more convenient to eat. The drinks were prepared based on the tastes of different people. Except for alcohol, there were various kinds. Onlookers who didn¡¯t have seats also had benefits. There were dining tables on both sides of the ceremony place, offering drinks and fruits. Of course, the textures and types were far worse than those of the guests. After all, there was closeness and alienation in a relationship, so the principle of different service was universal in all worlds. People would serve close friends with good things and serve ordinary friends with ordinary things. That was the principle of different service. However, such welfare had been enough to satisfy the people. A tourist from a southern country took a beverage of Frosty Tree Fruit. Frosty Tree Fruit was the specialty of the World of Ice and Snow; the fruit was dried and then smashed into powders to make the beverage. He took a big drink and said to his family, smiling, ¡°In restaurants, such a cup is worth 2 gold coins. As it is free now, drink more!¡± His son was holding two skewers of roasted ground dragon meat in each hand, his mouth covered with oil. He looked at his father who had a face of disdain and said, ¡°Dad, why are you caring so much about money? The roasted ground dragon meat skewers are usually available in limited quantities. Today, they are infinitely available. Of course, you should eat them to fill yourself now!¡± ¡°Ground dragons are also demon beasts after all. It¡¯s not good to eat too much, right?¡± the mother asked with concern. She was holding a small cup of dessert The father was stunned and looked at his son who was eating with full strength. He thought about it and then smiled. ¡°If there was really a problem, would they be offered in unlimited quantities?¡± the son who was very open-minded said indifferently. ¡°There are priests nearby. Even if there are any problems, it will be alright.¡± Similar situations were everywhere. As it was rare to encounter such great benefits, all the tourists were happy. Residents nearby also chose some of their favorite foods, waiting while eating and drinking. Although they did not have seats, they were also very satisfied. As for the guests, most of them were very knowledgeable. Even though the fruits and drinks provided by the Void Mask Land were really high-end, the food only surprised them a little. They weren¡¯t that excited. Of course, among the guests, some were very excited, and some were even shocked¡ªfor example, Reif and his fellows. Reif was sitting uncomfortably in the guest seat, looking around. He could tell at first glance that the surrounding guests were big men. In contrast, he was only a worker, whose identity was really worse than theirs. He always felt it was a huge mistake to sit here. He worried that a husky man would come over at the next moment, grabbing him and throwing him far away into the ditch nearby. It was the same for several workers next to him. They were shaking with fear and feeling restless, their faces full of panic. ¡°I don¡¯t think this is right¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, we are sitting here. It¡¯s not suitable, is it?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s sneak to the back. I don¡¯t think it is bad to stand and watch ¡­¡± Felix, who had specially asked Madame Teague to arrange her seat in front of theirs heard their whispering. She felt funny as well as angry, so she turned her head and said to them, ¡°Don¡¯t look down on yourselves so much! You know what, you are all chosen as ¡®outstanding workers¡¯ to watch the ceremony. Although you are sitting off stage today, maybe one day you will also be a representative on the stage to accept the glory!¡± Reif and his fellows were stunned, looking at each other. They then looked at the simple but solemn, high stage with disbelief in their hearts. ¡°Mayor, are you joking?¡± Reif asked uneasily. Felix couldn¡¯t help but smile and then shook her head. ¡°Does it look like I¡¯m kidding? His Majesty, the Void Mask has paid much attention to the promotion of the status of workers. You are the best workers, so it is very likely that you will receive the glory in the future. There is no doubt.¡± ¡°Bu¡­ but¡­ We are just some ordinary people¡­¡± Felix shook his head, pointing her finger to the sky. ¡°Who is not an ordinary person in front of the gods? Aristocrats, adventurers, workers, and farmers are not very different in the eyes of the great existence of the eternal gods, are they?¡± After thinking for a moment, Reif whispered, ¡°The difference is still quite big. Rich people can donate more money¡­¡± Felix laughed. ¡°Money? His Majesty, the Void Mask doesn¡¯t care about that. What he lacks least is money¡­ Do you know that under the Land, there is a dragon living in the rock cave? She is responsible for keeping the vault for His Majesty. Guess, how much money is in that vault?¡± Reif and his fellows looked at each other, and then a worker carefully guessed, ¡°10,000 gold coins?¡± They just learned about the ¡°10,000¡± unit on their journey. Before that, they only counted with ¡°five¡± and ¡°ten.¡± Most farmers were similar, so it was good for them to count to 30 without mistakes. If one could count to 100, they must be an intellectual. Bur 1,000 or 10,000? They simply had no such concept. When the temporary teachers had described those concepts to them, they spent a lot of time understanding them and had asked the teachers to give them several examples again and again. However, with such a reason, they had special awe of such a huge number like ¡°10,000.¡± Therefore, whenever they said that word from the mouth, they felt that they had also become a little greater. Felix didn¡¯t have such thoughts. She smiled, shaking her head. ¡°Ten-thousand¡± gold coins, come on! This number is too small. Guess again.¡± Reif and his fellows looked at each other confused. ¡°Ten-thousand¡± is already an unimaginable number for them, and yet, it was too small? Then, in the underground vault, how much money was there in that collection!? Seeing their confused faces, Felix estimated that they couldn¡¯t guess. She said after a sigh, ¡°I don¡¯t know the exact number, but I happened to go there on business last time. I chatted with the dragon who guarded the vault. At that time, I saw the glistening gold coins piled up like a mountain behind her, at least as high as three floors. I was not clear how far it extended because I didn¡¯t go inside and look at it carefully.¡± Reif imagined the picture, and then asked after swallowing some saliva, ¡°How¡­ how many?¡± Felix took out a gold coin and put the small metal disc flat in her palm. ¡°Look, this is the size of a gold coin. Piling up a hill as high as at least three floors, how many gold coins would that be?¡± She smiled, sighing softly. ¡°I don¡¯t want to count that because it will make me feel depressed.¡± She didn¡¯t care about money, but when she looked at such a huge fortune with countless gold glittering under the illumination of bright magic stones¡­ Whenever she thought about it, she couldn¡¯t help but get charmed. It also made her deeply admire and feel jealous of the dragon who was sleeping on the gold coin pile as her bedding. That dragon¡­ must be the happiest dragon in the world¡­ Countless gold coins. This concept made Reif, and his fellows feel confused. They tried to imagine the huge gold hill, trying to calculate the exact amount with the weak mathematics ability that they had just learned. However, in addition to letting themselves feel dizzy, there were no results at all after calculating again and again. However, for the sake of this calculation, their original nervous emotions had been greatly relieved, and the mood had finally calmed down a bit. ¡°In short, don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t burden yourself.¡± Felix knew that it was nearly the noon, and the ceremony was about to be held, so she whispered, ¡°If you are hungry, you can just eat. If you are thirsty, you can just drink. You probably won¡¯t understand the meaning behind this ceremony for a while, so just think that you have come here to entertain yourself. Just eat and drink freely.¡± ¡°Is that okay?¡± Reif asked worriedly. ¡°I just said that the Church of the Void Mask has a lot of money.¡± Thinking about the huge gold hill that she just mentioned, Reif and his fellows suddenly felt relieved, so they picked up the fruits and drinks to hurriedly consume them. They only ate for a while, and the sun moved to the center of the sky. On the high stage, the two hosts looked at the sky, nodding. At the same time, they raised their wands. The special wands gave a soft glow and a burst of clear brightness that made every guest feel refreshed. ¡°The first employee retirement ceremony of the Void Mask Land starts now!¡± The two hosts came from the Church of the Void Mask and the Church of the God of Wealth. They were all veterans of the mall. They were not only handsome but also eloquent. They had designed a set of rhetoric in accordance with the outline prepared by Sui Xiong and made the ¡°retirement¡± extremely honorable. All the guests felt awe. In their words, the old workers had exhausted their entire youth and all their energy for the construction and prosperity of the Void Mask Land. Now that they were old, they could no longer work as they had done before, so it was time that the Land should return something to them. According to the rules set by Sui Xiong, every employee of the Land would automatically get a small amount of money in their personal pension account when they received their salary. After a long period of accumulation, one year after another, they would have gained a considerable amount of wealth. The money would not be paid in a lump sum when they retired but would be paid out with an average on a monthly basis in ten years. The reason why the time was set to ten years was that the ordinary people in this world generally could live to be around 60 years old. If they retired at the age of 50, it would be exactly ten years when they reached 60 years old. Of course, there might be people who couldn¡¯t live to 60 years old, and there might be ones who could live more than 60 years old. Sui Xiong¡¯s solution was that, if someone failed to live to 60 years old, the extra pension would be merged into the funeral expenses and distributed to their designated heirs. If someone lived to be more than 60 years old, there would be no need to worry. The Land had a lot of money, so it didn¡¯t mind paying them more than a few months. Even if someone had the ability to live to 100 years old, it was nothing more than paying for more pension of 480 months. For Sui Xiong, he really didn¡¯t care about such little money. When the hosts had elaborated on the system formulated by Sui Xiong in detail, it was totally silent off the stage. The guests, as well as the audience, were all stunned there. Not only them, but almost all the gods who cared about this ceremony were also lost in thought. After a while, the Goddess of Spring Water first promulgated the Oracles, asking the church to choose a region to try to promote the retirement pension system as the practice of the Church of the Void Mask. Then one after another, kind gods promulgate Oracles, trying to learn from Sui Xiong. The gods had lived a long time, accumulating rich experience. They couldn¡¯t think of a lot of things at first. However, once there were examples in front of them, they could quickly sort out the clues in them, analyzing the pros and cons and drawing conclusions that were useful to them. The retirement pension system proposed by the Void Mask seemed to increase spending, but it could greatly enhance the cohesiveness and the centripetal force of the church and enhance the status of the church in the hearts of ordinary people. When a person knew that they had support and dependency at their old age, they would certainly be grateful to the church that provided this benefit. Not only that, the world¡¯s affairs were caused by unfairness, not a lack of welfare. Some churches could provide a retirement pension, but some churches couldn¡¯t. Ordinary people would naturally have a tendency of choosing the churches that could provide them a retirement pension; they would naturally make the choices beneficial to them. This was the greatest benefit of this system for the kind gods! Chapter 322 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio As the saying went, tears always came with laughter. It was true among gods. When kind gods were inspired to strengthen the governing of the church and the people¡¯s support through the pension system, evil gods would be inferior. Who would bother believing in evil gods when they were living a good life? To take the Goddess of Bumper Harvest and the God of Starvation as examples, a bumper harvest and a poor harvest were quite normal scenarios. It was the same as the Madrid Derby Game; when Real Madrid scored, that meant that Atletico Madrid lost and not even a compliment curse could save them. However, something could still be done to improve the situation. If proper measures were taken to ensure local welfare, starvation might not happen during poor harvest years, or at least people would not panic and still believe in the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. There would be no chance at all for the God of Starvation. That was why fine-tuning was important. Such examples were not hard to find. Kind gods and evil gods were always in conflicts as an advantage for one meant a disadvantage for the other. Like now, kind gods had all released oracles to instruct the church to follow the Void Mask Land. Naturally, the evil gods were unhappy, and it was hard to say how many of them had been rather pissed off by that damn green jellyfish. But not much could be done, so they could only release oracles and ask their followers to prevent the implementation of the pension system at all kind gods¡¯ churches. They also tried to make a mess in the Void Mask Land such as bombing houses, spreading poison and killing people, etc. In a word, they did everything they could to disgrace that damn Jellyfish God! But as everyone knew, it was not easy to turn an idea into a plan and further put it into practice. There was a joke on earth: how does one put an elephant inside a fridge? The answer was to get an elephant first, then to have a fridge, open the fridge and put the elephant in it. It was that easy. But this was not completely the case! Nearly ten evil organizations wished to mess up the Void Mask Land, and they had designed nearly a hundred plans these years to do so. How many of them actually succeeded? Zero, none! The Void Mask Land was guarded by the real god of Sui Xiong, and this emerging city was his holy city. For the whole day and the whole year, he had been monitoring all the portals here in case anyone with bad intentions or extremely dangerous objects arrived. Like putting an elephant into a fridge, it was impossible for him to mess up here. But if someone more powerful came here with ¡°a fridge larger than an elephant,¡± they might be able to do something. For instance, Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, the God of Spellcaster who had come to trick the first Fighter Championship, was truly capable of making a mess. But he was not a subordinate of any evil gods; he didn¡¯t care about them at all. The evil gods were not that weak. Say Wuther Rang, the master god of humans, started as the God of Revenge who was a genuinely evil god. Still, he was too proud to play small tricks. Or Lefon, gods of the orcs, for example, was an evil god as well yet he was not into playing little tricks. Powerful ones were usually not keen on small tricks, maybe out of their personalities or this world¡¯s moral standards. Or maybe they just happened to be the same on this issue. But anyway, now the several high-level evil gods didn¡¯t cross the line, and the enthusiastic ones were mostly weak. This was the way it happened, and all the evil gods were concerned and whispering while not being able to come up with a good solution. Putting aside the Pantheon temple, the retirement ceremony was still on in the Void Mask Land. After the hosts¡¯ introduction, the several workers who were about to retire this year were led to the stage and granted their retirement certificate and their first months¡¯ pension by Madame Teague, the supervisor of the Land. These old workers had been informed of the procedure already, and they had even rehearsed for this ceremony, but they were still feeling nervous at this moment¡ªafter all, they were well-behaved people and had never been a part of such a grand occasion. Also, there was no audience at their rehearsal. Fortunately, the rehearsal helped. They all remembered their own speeches. After coming to the stage, making a bow, and receiving their certificates and pension, each of them made some remarks; it was all prepared and recited again and again. Though many of them had their legs shaking, they managed to speak fluently. It was as if their upper and lower body were separate, and that amused the audience. Nevertheless, the guests were respectful. The people on the stage dressed and behaved like ordinary workers. Yet from now on, they were not just ordinary people anymore¡ªtheir names would be written in history. Though they played a small role in history and were only known to historians, their names were still a part of the history of the whole Main Plane! How many of the present audience members or guests would have such a great honor? How many of the nobles, adventurers, rich or powerful people on the Main Plane would have such an opportunity? ¡°Lucky guys¡­¡± murmured a guest sitting in the back. He was a prominent businessman from Double Headed Stork City, the most northern region in the Federation of Gold Coins. He made many business exchanges with the Void Mask Land, and he had also been invited here. Born in a noble family, his life dream was to make a big fortune and the second dream was fame, ideally becoming famous in history. He wanted to be renowned as a legendary businessman; that would be a great achievement for him. But the reality was that he was nearly 50 years old and had not achieved anything great while these humble workers had managed to put their names in history. This was so frustrating! He was not the only one thinking this. Many people among the guests and the audience were whispering to each other. Having smelt the unfriendliness, these retired workers became more nervous. Witnessing this scene, Madame Teague frowned and secretly sighed. She could see that the guests and the audience members were jealous of these common workers being granted such a great honor. It had long been the tradition in this world that honors only belonged to powerful or noble people while average people could only contribute to neglectable numbers recorded in history. However, this was exactly what was to be changed by the Grace of the Void Mask Land! She recalled the Grace¡¯s words, ¡°Labor is the most glorious.¡± Perhaps¡­ this really can push this world forward¡­ Thinking of this, she smiled and gave a sign to the hosts. The hosts quickly saw her signal. They stepped back and gave her the floor. Madame Teague stepped forward and looked around the venue. She smiled and gently said, ¡°Now let¡¯s welcome the Grace of the Void Mask Land to give some remarks and deliver his wishes to these retired workers.¡± Chapter 323 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Void Mask Emperor would speak and bless the retired workers? The audience screamed and cheered loudly after hearing that. No one had ever imagined that the good fortune of these retired workers would not be over yet. They not only got the honor that many people dreamed of, but they also received the god¡¯s blessing. But, this was just an uproar. Question a decision made by the god? Regardless of seeking death, the differences between humans and gods were enough to make people doubt themselves rather than God. For example, when confronted with the King of Poisonous Milk who could manipulate the game on the spot when broadcasting live on earth, those who believed in science had been frustrated by the cruel reality many times. Let¡¯s take Sui Xiong for example. It was said that he stayed up all night to watch the European Champions League live, and he thought that it was an e-sports commentary after all, even if the King of Poisonous Milk could not manipulate it. However, facts proved that he was too naive. The King of Poisonous Milk showed his great power that night. First, he supported the strong team; then he supported the weak team, vividly manipulating the game. Especially in the final stage, a strong punch directly determined the outcome of the game, and that had startled Sui Xiong sitting before the computer screen. Coffee poured into his nose, and he had a headache and a cough the next morning. He was dispirited for the whole day. Think about it. That was just a super-powered man on the earth; imagine a true God from the other worlds. For people in this world, the idea that ¡°my thoughts are different from the gods¡± meant that the people themselves were wrong. There was no possibility that the gods would make mistakes. The premise was that the god was very normal, not like the God of Destruction, the God of Lies or the God of Plague who had problems in their brains. Therefore, Sui Xiong came onto the stage within the expectations of all the people. ¡°In this balmy spring season, everything comes back to life. We have welcomed the first commendation conference of the retired workers of the amusement park of the Void Mask. On behalf of all staff, I¡¯d like to extend my cordial greetings and highest respects to all guests and spectaculars, as well as the staff who are fighting in all positions.¡± Applause. Sui Xiong smiled and felt good about himself. He even didn¡¯t notice the expression of the funny and annoying faces of the two hosts and Mrs. Tigg. This was totally not like a god¡¯s speech! Where on earth did this old bureaucrat come from? Fortunately, the following parts of Sui Xiong¡¯s speech were not like his previous style, which relieved them a lot. If their own god had made a bureaucratic speech today, the church of Void Mask would have become the number one joke around the world tomorrow. In fact, Sui Xiong could not say words like that any longer. The previous part was really too common. Once there were any activities on the earth, the leaders¡¯ opening remarks were like that. Although Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t eaten pork, he had seen pigs walking, and that was why he could imitate them so vividly. Now if you let him continue to say words like that, it would come naturally eventually. There was a saying that smart people could do everything, which was actually just prejudice. According to Crick¡¯s system, Sui Xiong¡¯s intelligence was more than 20, and that made him a first-rate genius. But in fact, his ability was very limited; at least his literary level hadn¡¯t seen any progress compared to the time before he traveled through time. No, it was due to the different languages. Many essences of his mother tongue could not be properly applied in the common language of this world. In fact, his literary level had fallen behind in comparison to his previous level. But what he was going to say now didn¡¯t need high literacy. ¡°The reason why I want to set up a retirement pension system was that I want to improve the living standards of workers as well as the whole society,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I think the cornerstones of society are not the strong who are too powerful beyond imagination, or the nobles with high positions of power, or the merchant prince who is ridiculously rich, but the common farmers and workers. Although they keep to themselves and are paid no mind, it is because of their hard work day after day and year after year that the wealth and various resources of society are gradually accumulated. All other achievements are built on this basis without exception. ¡°I have been thinking about what kind of God I should become. This question is not easy to answer. I have observed and thought about it for a long time. Finally, I feel that since I have come to this world and have become a powerful man, I should use my strength and wisdom to promote the development of the world. But what on earth does development mean? I don¡¯t want to go too far. It¡¯s unrealistic to say things like that. Everyone will think I¡¯m only telling jokes or saying empty words. I¡¯m only talking about what I¡¯m doing right now. ¡°I want to build a territory of peace, stability, and development, such as the amusement park of Void Mask. Here we reject war, hatred, murder, and all kinds of schemes and intrigues. I welcome all the guests even those that are my enemy; I would like to sit at the dinner table with them as long as they will not make trouble for me. Even if we are going to fight for life and death at any moment, I don¡¯t mind having a drink with them before the fight. I welcome them as long as they are willing to respect the peaceful and stable atmosphere here and not destroy it. ¡°But this is not sufficient. I have to start from the social foundation so that the most ordinary workers or farmers can get more benefits. These benefits not only include material wealth, but also spiritual respect. As we all know, ¡®aging¡¯ and ¡®sickness¡¯ are the most terrible things for ordinary people. Once you are old or ill, you will lose the ability to work, and thus cut off your source of income. If you have no money, you will not be able to live. This situation is ubiquitous and common. ¡°However, I think that¡¯s wrong. A man has worked hard for half of his life and has created lots of wealth, but when he becomes old and sick, thus losing his ability to work, why does he fall into the situation of having nothing, even being unable to live? On this point, I may learn from an old predecessor surnamed Marx and write a series of long articles to explain and argue. Here, I will not talk about nonsense. I just want to announce my decision¡ªthe retirement pension system, and medicare system and industry injury system that will be pioneered later, and various kinds of social security systems¡­ I will launch and improve them one by one. ¡°I can¡¯t guarantee what I will achieve in doing so, and I¡¯m also not sure about whether I can promote the development of the whole society or not. But I think it¡¯s better to do it than not to. Now that I have the ability to do it, I will begin doing so. I had heard a story that when the tide receded, many fish were stranded on the beach. A young man ran and picked up a fish and threw them back into the sea. The elder nearby advised him, ¡®It¡¯s useless for you to do so because nobody cares about them.¡± But the young man answered, ¡®These fish care and those fish also care¡­¡¯ Yes, maybe a lot of people will frown upon my behavior and maybe my behavior will not have any effects, but I know that ordinary people, especially those who live in hardships, and those who work hard care. ¡°And if they care, then I care too.¡± As he spoke, he turned back and looked at those old workers whose hairs grew white and whose bodies were no longer straight. ¡°You have sweated a lot and sacrificed your precious youth for this amusement park. Although it¡¯s customary for me to promise my country after my death, I think that¡¯s far from enough. In return for your efforts over the years, I wish you all good health and enjoy your old age in peace here.¡± After saying that, a ray of light fell from the sky on these old people. Sui Xiong talked so much that many of the guests were sleepy, but still, some of them concentrated on his words and felt enraptured after hearing them. Well, there were some people gnashing their teeth in anger after hearing his words, such as people in the Pantheon. ¡°What a talented person he is!¡± Wuther, the God of Light, laughed and shook his head. ¡°But he is too naive to talk about this, and his ideas are too simple and too idealistic.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with that?¡± Le Feng, the Dog of Sky, asked with a smile. ¡°The strong have the power of caprice. As long as he grows stronger in the future, these ideas will not be naive and idealistic, but will sooner or later guide the world in the right direction.¡± The God of Light thought for a moment and nodded. ¡°You are right. Whether an idea is right or wrong depends not on theory but on strength. As long as he is strong enough, nothing will be wrong for him.¡± ¡°You can only talk about him in private!¡± the long-lost God of Justice Yorgaardman suddenly appeared and said. His face was gray and haggard, but he was high-spirited. His eyes were shining with brilliance. He laughed and looked scornfully across the faces of these two powerful divines. ¡°In my opinion, you sour words are really meaningless, just like a person swearing at the sun!¡± Chapter 324 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The return of the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, was really a great surprise to Sui Xiong. He thought that this sworn brother would retreat to raise his levels for about 800 or 200-300 hundred years, or at least for a 100 years. But he didn¡¯t expect that his sworn brother would come back in just a few months. After the retirement ceremony, he asked with surprise at the party, ¡°Why did you come back so early, my brother? Didn¡¯t the training run smoothly?¡± Yorgaardman listened, thought about it and then shook his head. He looked a little weird. ¡°Although I don¡¯t know what you mean by ¡®raising levels,¡¯ I can roughly understand your meaning. My trip was not rocky but too smooth instead.¡± As he spoke, he raised his left hand, and his left palm was floating in all colors. Looking carefully, each color stood for a kind of power. These colors were distinct from each other, but also showed an inclusive and harmonious trend that constituted an indivisible entity. Although there were still many omissions and imperfections in the entity, at least its general framework was tidy. It was just like a robot that could walk automatically on earth. Its frame structure, power system, and control system had been completed. What was needed were only some fillings and decorations. Sui Xiong paid attention to the light carefully and frowned slowly. He saw many familiar things in the light. That was from the knowledge presented by the Sun God on his deathbed; a full range of clergies and domains could form a basic world structure. Although Yorgaardman¡¯s system was more complete than what he had learned and there were still many things that the Sun God could not understand, many points of his system reflected the system created by the Sun God. We could even say that many ideas of its core structure were inspired by the system created by the Sun God. It was just like two people visiting the Huangguoshu Waterfall together and drawing a painting. One painted a vivid waterfall scene while the other painted a white dragon soaring up to the sky with all its powers and vigor. Only mountains and Hmong Villages under his feet could tell the origins of the scene. Of course, the latter one was much wiser than the former one, but after all, they were both drawings about the Huangguoshu Waterfall. Sui Xiong¡¯s understanding was shown in that landscape sketch, while Yorgaardman¡¯s comprehension was the one which drew a white dragon soaring into the sky. Although Sui Xiong didn¡¯t have the brushwork and painting skills to draw such a magnificent scene, as a painter, he could see that the root of Yorgaardman¡¯s painting was actually the same as his. He thought for a moment and passed on some key elements of the information to Yorgaardman with his thoughts. Yorgaardman looked at him in a daze. ¡°I¡¯ve gotten this information too,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°It seems that the Sun God had sent out many copies of it on his deathbed.¡± Yorgaardman frowned, deep in thought. He had an unrestrained and wild personality. Looking at it from the good aspects, it could be called enthusiasm. Otherwise, it would be called stupid. But he was not stupid; he was very smart. A man could become an enemy of people all over the world. If not for his intelligence, Yorgaardman would have died many times. Yorgaardman thought about it and came to a conclusion. ¡°It seems that the Sun God sent such information to the gods who would make trouble for that bastard. He may not have expected too much in return, and he just wanted us to be stronger to make trouble for that bastard when we confront him in the future. Even after getting the information from him, gods such as Le Feng can break through their bottlenecks and become the top, even stronger than that bastard.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and asked in curiosity, ¡°So what about you, my elder brother? ¡± ¡°I will become stronger than that bastard even without that information,¡± Yorgaardman said proudly, but then he smiled modestly. ¡°Of course, this information has helped me a lot. It helped me comprehend and made me understand lots of things that I hadn¡¯t noticed before or hadn¡¯t studied in depth. It was because of its help that I was able to build up my strength so quickly and that I am confident in winning against that bastard.¡± Sui Xiong also laughed. ¡°So you are now equal to the God of Light in strength?¡± ¡°Probably,¡± Yorgaardman said. ¡°In my opinion, there were still many mysteries in the previous sword waiting to be solved, but I can also wave such a sword with the same strength.¡± Sui Xiong was greatly inspired by this news and asked Yorgaardman to discuss the transformation of the Love Angel. However, Yorgaardman couldn¡¯t help in this aspect. Although he had gotten the full set of information from the Sun God, he specialized in his own domains and the core direction of his research was fighting and destroying. Concerning the knowledge and comprehension of transformation, he was not wiser than Sui Xiong. Anyway, the God of Justice had come back. As one of the pillars of good alignments in the Pantheon, and although he was bad-tempered and difficult to get along with, as long as he was here, the power gap would not be too out-of-balance. The world had gradually entered a hot summer. Summer was the best season of the year for the northwest regions due to its pleasant climate and abundant resources. Especially for Pyroxene Town, this summer was not only comfortable but also more exciting and joyful. For example, there were many green plants inside and outside the town. These plants were especially transplanted by Sui Xiong. He sent people to the northern part of the mainland, the areas bordering the wilderness and the ice fields. He sent them to places where the earth would freeze for several months in a year and had them bring back the plants. What¡¯s more, many of these plants had some edible parts. For example, the leaves of the ¡°four-leaf, needle-like pine¡± could be used for tea after washing it. It had a pleasant smell and tasted slightly bitter. It could not only refresh the brain but also do good to the eyes if one drank it for a long time. Another example was the frost vine that could bear a kind of blue and white fruit. Although it was small, it tasted sweet despite its low yields. At least it could be served as a kind of dessert for the low-income citizens. Jose had led the team to search for many seeds like these plants and cultivated them with magic power. He planted them in Pyroxene Town and its surroundings. Now, Pyroxene Town had become a green town. Many strong wooden houses were built randomly among vines and trees just like a garden. Such beautiful scenery had also attracted birds and animals. When the birds sang on the treetops, many old people who had not heard a birdsong for decades were so excited that they burst into tears. Felix had opened pension accounts for every worker according to the retirement pension system of the Void Mask. As for those who couldn¡¯t enjoy such welfare, she had prepared some relaxing jobs for them such as patrolling in the town and guarding the warehouses or empty rooms. These jobs were neither dangerous nor laborious. Although the income would be relatively low, it was enough to support themselves. Especially for those who had lost the ability to work, it was good treatment beyond imagination. The changes of Pyroxene Town were not just about the scenery, but they were also shown on the land. Because the negative energy was dispelled, the land outside of the town had restored to life. Lots of farmlands were reclaimed, and rye and vegetables were planted. Now almost all of them had sprouted and became very lush. Looking from a distance, it seemed like an idyllic scene. If one knew nothing about this town and came here, they might think that they were dreaming or they went to the wrong place. Wasn¡¯t it this supposed to be Ashes Woods? Wasn¡¯t it the barren land where most lives are hard to maintain? Wasn¡¯t it the area that had been eroded by the negative energy of the devil? Why did it look like a typical northern town? If there were no traces of the negative energy erosion on some trees, no one would think that they were in the infamous Ashes Woods. They would think that they were in the Kingdom of Holy Angels, a famous agricultural country located in the northeastern part of the mainland. Oh, now the Kingdom of Holy Angels was called the Kingdom of Light. Since the God of Glory and the Sun God had been killed by the God of Light, Wuther, the Sun God¡¯s churches had collapsed too. Some fanatics committed suicide in despair while more people went underground hoping to revive their gods through sacrifices or some legendary ancient rituals. The older orders governing the country collapsed quickly, and many sects that believed in human gods rose rapidly, receiving and dividing the beliefs of the whole country and establishing a new belief system. Of course, such a belief system was very limited. Most of the people in this country were not even believers. As long as human gods had enough time, they would change all people¡¯s beliefs completely sooner or later. Even if they could not restore the past prosperity of the Kingdom of Holy Angels, it would not be worse than any other places. The old rulers of the Kingdom of the Holy Angels had not been exterminated. The God of Light himself had issued an oracle that as long as those descendants of the Sun God would give up their beliefs, they would survive. He, who had been very vicious in the past, had become generous this time. The God of Light did not even ask those old nobles to join in the church of human gods. Instead, he just asked them to make an oral statement. But even so, a foul wind and a rain of blood had been set off in the upper classes of the whole country. Many people died in this storm. As a saying went ¡°Loyalty was the synonym of weakness.¡± Human gods were never weak nor were they loyal. Faced with those who were unwilling to make oral statements and wanted to bargain, they only had one choice¡ªkilling. More than 60% of the nobles in the whole country had been killed except the king. Once a man was sentenced to death, his whole family would be killed too. When the God of Light became a god, he was the infamous God of Revenge! The most powerful generals under his command at present were all brutal killers who had committed innumerable murders. When one has decided to kill, one should cut the weeds and dig up the roots. If this is not done, then how can one remove the seeds of future troubles? How could those who waved in determination abandon their ideas forever? As the God of Light once said, ¡°I¡¯m not good at buying hearts, but I¡¯m good at making those guys who wanted to bargain with me drop their ideas forever.¡± After the cleansing, the present Kingdom of Light had become the world of the human gods. Chapter 325 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio From ¡°Sun¡¯s Extinction Day¡± to this summer, the whole dominant continent was surging with winds and clouds in a short period of six months. The oldest human kingdom had split, and the descendants of Eagle and Griffin finally parted. The belief of the Sun God that had once ruled the country had collapsed and bleeding bodies of the descendants of noble gods were scattered everywhere. As the Void Mask rose, the apotheosis of the God of Knowledge and the greatest magician, Master Lamperus, and the Destruction of the holy solar system¡ªmany historians lamented that the world had been raging like a storm. It had come to an unpredictable era full of opportunities and dangers. It was the best time while it was the worst time. But all this didn¡¯t mean too much to Graupel who was sleeping in the underground dragon cave. She was hiding in a small building regardless of the changes of the four seasons. Gold coins piled up like mountains, and there was also thick and warm bedding in the undisturbed, underground cave. Was there anything better in the world than all this? No! Absolutely not! Well, it would be much better if there weren¡¯t any villains who tried to take her gold coins from time to time. ¡°Don¡¯t rob my coins!¡± The dragon pulled those gold coins on the ground with its claws, and its eyes were full of tears. ¡°How can you be so cruel to rob a little girl of the money she lives on?¡± Those workers who were in charge of delivering gold coins looked at each other and laughed bitterly. This underground dragon was absolutely safe as a treasury, but many troubles still existed. For example, each time when you moved the gold coins, you had to choose a time when Miss Graupel was sleeping otherwise she would cry and scream once you tried to move them. Sometimes, she would even find out a rope and claim that she would hang herself in order to blame them for their cold-blooded atrocities. ¡°Hey, these gold coins didn¡¯t belong to you!¡± But it was useless reasoning with her. Removing the gold coins from her was like cutting meat from her heart. Although these gold coins were not hers, she definitely had emotions for them. She even named many gold coins¡­ ¡°Ah! Romeo! How can you rob Romeo! That¡¯s my favorite child!¡± ¡°Ah! Juliet¡­ You are so cruel! They were obviously such a good couple¡­¡± ¡°Oh god! How can I survive without these children!¡± ¡°No! Please don¡¯t steal them!¡± The leading worker reluctantly put down the gold coin box held tightly by the dragon and took out the communication staff. He clicked it, and the turquoise piece at the head of the stick shone; a voice rang out. ¡°Hello? I¡¯m Frost. Who¡¯s calling me?¡± ¡°Lord Frost! Please take care of your sister!¡± the veteran worker shouted in despair. ¡°She even named those gold coins Romeo and Juliet and threatened that she would commit suicide without these gold coins¡­¡± A helpless sigh came from the turquoise piece, feeling a pain in his stomach. ¡°I see. Come back first and give me the withdrawal slip. I¡¯ll get them myself later.¡± After a while, Frost who had the appearance of a human came to the underground vault. ¡°Graupel, please stop playing,¡± he said. ¡°The operation of the Void Mask Land relies on these gold coins. If you keep on fooling us, you will make a lot of trouble for everyone.¡± ¡°Do you want to do such a cruel thing to me too, my brother?¡± Graupel asked in a trembling voice. She guarded the large gold coin heap behind her body just like an old hen protecting its chicken. Frost sighed deeply with his hands covering his face. ¡°Graupel, these gold coins are not yours. They belong to the Land,¡± he whispered. ¡°You are just a keeper of the treasury, just like me.¡± ¡°They are my children!¡± Graupel shouted. ¡°You are a dragon, and you can¡¯t have gold coins as your children.¡± ¡°Prejudice! It¡¯s your prejudice, my brother!¡± Graupel stared at him. ¡°As long as there is love, nothing is impossible.¡± Frost clenched his fist, and his body trembled with anger. ¡°You talked about Romeo and Juliet before, and now you talk about ¡®nothing is impossible if there is love¡­¡¯ Who taught you all these things!¡± ¡°Master Schwarier von Stolovsky Franz,¡± Graupel answered. ¡°Usually, you don¡¯t pay attention to me. Only he comes to tell me stories. You are all bad guys!¡± Frost laughed; his fake laugh was really frightening. ¡°I see. Shoggoth, right? Is that guy called Shoggoth?¡± He seemed to laugh happily. ¡°Does that guy often come to you?¡± ¡°Yeah, every time he writes new stories, he will come to me. Many of his stories are said to be inspired by the emperor, Void Mask.¡± ¡°Does he often bring delicious food to you?¡± ¡°Sure. When you pay a visit to someone, you should bring something with you.¡± ¡°Does he¡­ also say words like ¡®I can tell you stories all the time if you like¡¯?¡± ¡°What? My brother, it¡¯s bad to eavesdrop on others¡¯ words¡­¡± Frost kept a reluctant smile without mentioning these gold coins and hurried away without turning back. A moment later, a giant dragon roared and flew up, shouting at the central square of the Void Mask Land. ¡°Shoggoth, get out! You are such a bastard to cheat a little girl! I¡¯m going to tear you up and dry you out!¡± Over the years, Frost¡¯s strength had been greatly enhanced due to his hard work. Although he was just a young dragon, his power was much stronger than those adult dragons. Now he roared fiercely, and his great majesty covered the land like a tide. If Wall, who had been aware of something going wrong, hadn¡¯t weakened the impact immediately, all the tourists would have been frightened and pissed off. Even so, many tourists still turned pale with fear. Fortunately, those who were able to come to the Land of Void Mask were all knowledgeable. And they knew that the dragon was running after the bard who sang in the square. It seemed that the dragon would not destroy a large area, so everyone ran away, leaving a large space centered on Shoggoth. But they did not go too far away, just watching from a distance. No one had ever seen such a scene¡ªa giant dragon fighting with a bard. If they did not take a look, they would regret it later. Shoggoth was handing out jellyfish fudge to a little girl, and his painted face was full of laughter and joy. But suddenly, the little girl was picked up by her parents and fled away quickly. Even some of his colleagues who sang and handed fudges with him had run away, leaving him alone to face the raging dragon. The only equipment in his hands was a lollipop and a bag of fudge. Watching Frost roaring at him, Shoggoth could not help but sweat, even though he was a follower of the God of Arts and had great powers. ¡°Oh¡­ my¡­ my brother, it¡¯s just a misunderstanding¡­¡± he stammered. ¡°Who is your f*cking brother!¡± Frost was even more angry, and his body circled in the air, suddenly soaring up with his claws shining. He looked at Shoggoth and said, ¡°You¡¯ve already called me brother! It¡¯s not a misunderstanding!¡± ¡°Calm¡­ calm down¡­ We need to discuss this quietly!¡± ¡°Discuss? What do you want to discuss? No discussion!¡± Frost shone with a golden light and used some buff spells to strengthen his attack power. He sent out a stronger murderous look, and the vicious cloud of killing had condensed around him. If Wall had not come here in time, many ordinary people would have been scared to death when Frost launched the attack to disperse the after-winds of the deadly cloud. When Frost was about to attack, a flash of white light shone, and Snowflakes appeared on his head, grabbing his horn along with the whistling winds. He was directly pushed to the ground, and many paving stones had been crushed. ¡°Calm down,¡± Snowflakes said calmly. ¡°You have plenty of opportunities to kill this guy, and you don¡¯t have to make so much noise.¡± Shoggoth went from surprise to joy, but now, he suddenly became worried. He looked at the quiet and mild expression of Snowflakes and felt like he was jumping into the ice glacier in cold winter, cooling thoroughly from inside to outside. ¡°It¡¯s really a misunderstanding!¡± he said weakly. ¡°Whether it¡¯s a misunderstanding or not will be discussed later.¡± As the bustle was about to end, Wall came out laughing and waved his hand. Frost turned back into his human form and waved his hand again, the broken ground restoring at once. ¡°It¡¯s not a good place for us to talk. Let¡¯s find a quiet place and get some wine and food, and let¡¯s chat while eating.¡± Wall smiled with kindness. ¡°I think the emperor must have great interests in this matter too.¡± About half an hour later, Sui Xiong¡¯s laughter rang in a hotel compartment. Chapter 326 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Haha, haha!¡± Sui Xiong laughed so happily that his body shook back and forth, dozens of tentacles dancing in the air, as if he was convulsing. ¡°Shoggoth, you¡¯re such a genius!¡± ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡± Shoggoth looked very innocent. ¡°I just thought Miss Graupel was alone underground guarding the treasury. I thought it was so cold and pitiful for her to be there alone that I went to tell her stories. Alas! If I hadn¡¯t left my hometown in pursuit of art, I would have had a daughter her age¡­¡± ¡°What a daughter! Can you even have a dragon daughter?¡± Although the misunderstanding had been solved, Frost still had an angry expression and talked in angrily. ¡°Our dragons lay eggs. Show me how you can lay an egg!¡± ¡°I¡¯m just making an analogy¡­¡± ¡°What a damn analogy! You just want to chase after my sister!¡± Watching them quarrel again, Sui Xiong waved his tentacles, and the powerful pressure that appeared and disappeared within a second was enough to calm them down. ¡°Well, that¡¯s it.¡± Seeing the two sides stop fighting, he touched his head with his tentacles and said thoughtfully, ¡°But I really should consider changing her post. It¡¯s improper to let a little girl live underground all the time¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re wrong. Her current life is the best for Graupel.¡± Snow smiled and shook her head. ¡°If you want her move out, she¡¯ll be sad.¡± ¡°But children need to communicate with others.¡± Shoggoth said, ¡°I¡¯ve consulted a lot of parenting experts. They told me that if a child lived alone all year round, it would be easy for them to be isolated, withdrawn, and paranoid. Then they could suffer from a variety of mental illnesses¡ª¡± ¡°There isn¡¯t such a thing for dragons. That¡¯s only for fragile human beings.¡± Frost interrupted Shoggoth¡¯s remark. ¡°You aren¡¯t a Rock Dragon. Don¡¯t assume we go by human standards! For us dragons, living alone is the most normal way of life. She¡¯s even been working all day with golden coins and living in underground caves that are the most suitable for her. If other dragons knew about her life here, they would admire it greatly!¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly and asked, ¡°What about you? Do you admire this kind of life?¡± ¡°Of course I do, but I¡¯m a man! I want to gather wealth and build a dragon cave with my own strength!¡± Frost replied proudly. Sui Xiong was shocked at his reply and appreciated the boy who had always done things in an awkward way a little more. Although this kid had many shortcomings, generally speaking, he was just an innocent boy who had grown older and stronger, but not smarter. However, his ambition alone was worth others¡¯ appreciation! ¡°Then how are you going to gather wealth?¡± Sui Xiong asked with great interest. ¡°I¡¯m learning the technology of prospecting, and I¡¯m also working on plane shuttle magic. Once I¡¯m good at it, I¡¯ll go to the Earth Element Plane to mine,¡± Frost said. ¡°This is the most orthodox way for us Rock Dragons to acquire wealth. Most of our successful predecessors have gathered wealth in this way.¡± ¡°It seems that Rock Dragons are not in the kind camp. Why do you make money in such a loyal and honest way?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. Frost was about to answer, but his face turned red, and he closed his mouth. However, it was useless. At this moment, he was so close to Sui Xiong that what he was thinking was transparent in Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes. As long as Sui Xiong looked carefully, he could see the answer directly from his mind. The reason was actually simple: they weren¡¯t powerful enough. As a member of the Inferior dragons, the average power of Rock Dragons was a bit tragic. They didn¡¯t fly fast or high enough. They didn¡¯t have strong power. Their magic talents were ranked almost at the bottom of all dragons. Their only abilities were strong claws and thick scales on their bodies. In any case, they were like blue-collar basketball players on earth who had a strong build, but weren¡¯t skilled enough. They had to rely on hard work to cooperate with their teammates and were responsible for making fouls when it was necessary. Because of their poor magic power, Rock Dragons were often bullied by the Superior dragons, and even dragons such as Green and Black Dragons would purposely search for the Rock Dragon¡¯s caves to rob. Therefore, for Rock Dragons, it was best to not only strive to accumulate wealth, but also carefully guard it. They tried their best to avoid attention from others. They just wanted to make a big fortune without being noticed by others. This established that they were unable to gather wealth in the traditional way of dragon tribes, only fit to be silent miners. But even so, most of the Rock Dragons were still unable to avoid the cycle of mining, accumulating wealth, then being robbed through a depressed life. ¡°Life must be really tough for you!¡± Sui Xiong sighed deeply, put his tentacles on Frost¡¯s shoulders, and said with sympathy, ¡°Rest assured, now you¡¯re in charge of the warehouse of the Void Mask Land. If anyone dares to cause trouble for you, I¡¯ll help you. If Blue Dragons, or even the old Black Dragon Cladema, dare to rob your cave, I will tie them up and cover them with shells, putting him at your door as a sign!¡± Frost was stunned at first, then realized that Sui Xiong had seen through his mind, so he flushed with embarrassment. However, he couldn¡¯t refuse Sui Xiong¡¯s kind favor, and finally, he could only sigh helplessly and deeply with an awkward expression. The little storm ended. Shoggoth, who had misunderstood the whole thing, still ran to Graupel from time to time to tell her stories that he had collected and compiled before. Anyway, no matter what others said, he still thought her lifestyle was unhealthy and insisted on giving the poor, lonely girl a little warmth in his own way. Frost was unhappy with this, but since Graupel herself had no objections, and Shoggoth wasn¡¯t planning to chase after his sister, he did nothing further. However, he wore a more vicious and cruel expression, as if others owed him a lot of money. The staff in the Void Mask Land had to choose a victim to talk to the dragon by drawing lots when they went to the warehouse to collect things. Sui Xiong was curious about the Rock Dragon and found some information. He thought these kind of dragon miners were very interesting, so he wanted to see if there were any similar species. As a result, he found something rare and strange. With Inferior dragons, many dragons lost their ability to attract the opposite sex because they couldn¡¯t accumulate wealth and build decent dragon caves. In this case, their parents would often lay two eggs together, one female and one male. When the two dragons hatched, they grew up together from childhood and had a good relationship, and eventually, they would become a couple. This was also a natural choice made to confront the harsh situation and improve the reproductive ability of their race. When he saw this information, Sui Xiong was stunned for a long time. He thought about it several times and couldn¡¯t help laughing secretly. No wonder Frost had been so angry when he thought that Shoggoth had been chasing after his sister. There had been a reason behind it! He laughed strangely and went to Snow to tell her about it. He had thought Snow would be surprised, but he saw her indifferent and careless face. ¡°What¡¯s so strange about that? In our dragon family, it¡¯s very common to see brothers and sisters get married.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sui Xiong opened his eyes wide, marveling at the fact that the dragon clan had such a shameful (or delightful) tradition. ¡°Don¡¯t be so surprised. Weak dragons also have a right to reproduce.¡± Snow sighed and said, ¡°And even in the Superior dragons, there are such situations; for example, to maintain the purity of blood¡­ Aren¡¯t those families with special blood in human beings very fond of internal marriages? I remember that from wizards, so it¡¯s normal for siblings to get married¡­¡± Sui Xiong was perplexed. He was shocked. He was lost in the wind. ¡°I should have learned of this¡­ Is it too late to open a German Orthopaedic Clinic?¡± ¡°A German Orthopaedic Clinic? What¡¯s that?¡± Sui Xiong laughed without any emotion. It was extremely inconvenient to have to explain the famous Internet slang from earth. He left with an embarrassed face. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª- 1. The German Orthopaedic Clinic refers to medical institutions that could provide treatment for people who are caught promoting incest. Chapter 327 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A few days later, Sui Xiong quietly went to the dragon cave underneath the Void Mask Land. He happened to meet several workers who wanted to withdraw money, so he witnessed the scene of Graupel using various methods to resolutely stop the workers from taking money out. He wiped his sweat and went to Rhode, who was in charge of finance, and asked if that happened often. ¡°Not often, just every time.¡± Rhode was an old and good-tempered man. He said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s nothing serious, just a small joke. If there¡¯s no other way, we can ask Frost or Miss Snow for help. That always works.¡± ¡°But¡­ It¡¯s not a good idea to go on like this.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true. If it continues, I¡¯m afraid the little girl¡¯s mental state will be affected.¡± Rhode said with some concern, ¡°It¡¯s not good to cry or scream every few days.¡± Yun Xun was surprised at his answer. He hadn¡¯t realized that Rhode was worried about the same thing as Shoggoth. On second thought, he understood. Both of them were seniors in society, and they were old. It was natural for them to worry about a little girl after seeing her unhealthy lifestyle. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. The most suitable way of life for a Rock Dragon is to live underground with gold coins¡­¡± ¡°Your Majesty, you know what I mean.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a moment, then nodded. He couldn¡¯t find a solution to Rhode¡¯s problem. Exchanges of money were inevitable in business. It was very common to earn money and spend it later. Graupel smiled when she saw the gold coins come in and cried when she saw the gold coins out. It was in her nature, and no one could help it. Sui Xiong had been gaining a very thorough knowledge of dragons during this period. With a God¡¯s powerful intelligence gathering abilities, he could be regarded as an expert on dragons, so he knew that Graupel¡¯s attitude towards gold coins was quite common in dragons, especially in the Inferior ones. However, no other dragons would ever encounter such an extreme situation as her. As Rhode said, it wasn¡¯t good for Graupel¡¯s mental state in the long term. Maybe¡­ Should I really let her brother and her switch jobs? He thought about it as he left Rhode¡¯s home. Sui Xiong pondered for a long time. He still thought that it wasn¡¯t a good idea to let Graupel and Frost exchange roles. It could not only not cure Graupel, but it also would affect Frost, who was still acting normal. But¡­ Exchanges of money were unavoidable¡­ He had a headache after thinking about it for a while. He couldn¡¯t help complaining about the backward business and payment conditions of the world. It could have been much less trouble if they had been on earth! They would just have to swipe a card or make an online transfer, then a large portion of the transaction was completed. As for small businesses, just buying a small warehouse and transferring through retail accounts was enough¡­ Thinking about that, he began to consider it carefully, wondering whether it was a reliable idea. Theoretically, it didn¡¯t seem impossible for this world to carry out bank transfers¡­ Bank transfers on earth came from easy communication among banks and mutual trust in finance. Someone went to A-branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank to make a transfer, and money would be transferred to an account at B-branch of the Construction Bank. As long as the information was verified on both sides, the money could be transferred. There was no need to carry such a large sum of money and send it to B-branch over mountains and rivers to the people waiting for the receipt. In this world, there were also ways to monitor financial transactions and provide credit guarantees for both parties. Luckily, he knew the person who could do that and had a good relationship with her¡­ A few hours later, Sui Xiong went to the Holy Kingdom of the Goddess of Wealth, the River of Gold. He paid a visit to his close ally, Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth. After a short greeting, he made his own suggestion. ¡°Introduce bank transfer services in my divine temples?¡± The graceful Manissy frowned and began to think about it carefully. The divine temples of the Goddess of Wealth had business in depositing. Before traveling abroad to do business, many businessmen would put as much their temporarily unused property as possible into the divine temples of the Goddess of Wealth and appointed their heirs. If they came back safely, they could get the property back by paying a custody fee. If they couldn¡¯t, their heirs could go check with the divine temple and ask the priest to judge whether they were alive or dead through magic in order to decide whether to start the inheritance process. This business was also an important source of income for the divine temples of the Goddess of Wealth. Thanks to it, the divine temples of the Goddess of Wealth in various large and medium-sized cities were protected by nobles and other organizations, for they wanted to keep their money safe. However, no one had ever thought that they could connect one savings account with another and transfer money directly by making an account at the divine temple. The benefits of doing so were obvious. First, it was fast, and second, it was safe. When transferring large amounts of money, it took a long time to count the money. Sometimes, it still took a lot of people to check the authenticity of money, and both the giver and the receiver had to worry about being robbed. Even if they employed a large number of bodyguards, they still had to worry about being robbed by the bodyguards. If such a transaction could be completed through bank transfers, it would be more convenient and safer for transactions of large amounts. No matter how strong the robbers were, they couldn¡¯t steal money that didn¡¯t exist at all. As for cheating methods such as the Enchantment and the domination of human beings, it would be absolutely impossible to use them to deceive the Gods who supervised the transfer of funds. The Gods would completely prevent the possibility of using such methods to commit fraud. As long as the person in charge of the money didn¡¯t betray themself, no one could take the money away. It was also beneficial to the Goddess of Wealth. The power of a God came from two aspects: one was the mastery of the source of power, and the other was the possession of belief. The large-scale expansion of business would surely enhance her mastery of wealth, and once this convenient and reliable trading method was popularized, people¡¯s faith in her would also be strengthened. The human mind was the most elusive thing in the world, and it was also the most difficult thing to deceive. So-called belief was not only letting others blindly worship a God, but also making them identify with a God¡¯s strength, agree with a God¡¯s ideas, and trust what a God did. Beliefs coming from these aspects were far more reliable than those gained by coercive or deceptive means so as to make people worship a God daily. But¡­ in doing so, the risks were high, too. First, the deposit accounts of every divine temple throughout the Main Plane would be checked, and the integration of this data would cost the Goddess of Wealth massive magic power. This was a one-time job, but there were others to follow. When making transfers in the future, the Goddess of Wealth would also have to expend magic power to provide security for both sides and update their accounts in time. Perhaps the magic power she would spend each time wasn¡¯t much, but people always said that little things piled up. In this world, a large number of business activities were carried out every day. If the Goddess of Wealth provided a guarantee for all of them, the amount of magic power expended would be amazing. Even Gods with great power could hardly predict whether it would be good or bad. In this world, it wasn¡¯t ensured that if the idea was correct, it would be successful in practice. On the contrary, good ideas that had bad consequences had been seen too much in the long life of a God. The Goddess of Wealth thought about it for a long time and couldn¡¯t make up her mind. She knew that if this practice could be maintained, perhaps this world would eventually develop into a world where people bought and sold things without using physical currency and could complete a transfer with a simple scan of their holy emblems. She would undoubtedly become one of the most powerful Gods in the world, and might even have the chance to go beyond the level of Great Divine Power, to the great realm that was hard to predict. But she also knew that it wouldn¡¯t be so easy to stick to this practice until that day came. The Goddess of Wealth wasn¡¯t a fierce fighting goddess, and she also lacked decisive determination. She had pondered for half a year and discussed it many times with Sui Xiong. She deliberated on all kinds of possible hurdles and discussed how to deal with them. Finally, when the snow began to fall in the north that winter, she made her decision. Living in this world, there was always time to struggle. Maybe she would encounter trouble because of this project, but in order to advance to a higher and stronger realm, in order to become one of the top Gods, even if there were risks, she couldn¡¯t take them into account! The oracle of the Goddess of Wealth came along with the snow. From then on, the Goddess would count the deposits of all the divine temples. Once the statistics were completed, if both sides of the transaction had deposit accounts in the divine temple and thought it was necessary, the Goddess would provide transfer services for all large transactions over 1,000 gold coins. Chapter 328 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The decision of the Goddess of Wealth surprised the whole world. Although the divine position of the Goddess of Wealth determined that she could monitor the flow of all wealth, there was a clear difference between monitoring and controlling. The present Goddess of Wealth wasn¡¯t the first one to occupy this divine position. Before her, there had been another God of Wealth, who had been more powerful than her and had even stepped into the realm of Great Divine Power. But in order to achieve the goal of controlling the flow of all wealth, he¡¯d had conflicts with many Gods, which had eventually led to him falling under siege from the other Gods. Because of this, when she first became a Goddess, Manissy promised to never pursue the control of the flow of wealth with her own divine position. She was only a guardian of wealth, but would never become a ruler of it. Of course, this promise was not one-way. On the contrary, the Gods who had experienced fierce conflicts with the former God of Wealth promised that they wouldn¡¯t launch a siege against the Goddess of Wealth unless she took the initiative to start a war. Even if there would be irreconcilable consequences in the future, they would have to fight alone, rather than laying siege. This promise was important for both sides. If Manissy didn¡¯t make a promise, the other Gods would surely take the risk of getting seriously hurt to besiege her again, and if the others didn¡¯t make a promise, Manissy would absolutely pull her allies together in the future and kill them one by one. That was to say, thanks to this promise, the Goddess of Wealth and the Gods who had been against taking control of wealth could coexist peacefully. For many years, although there had been friction, there had been no fights. They all knew that this situation wouldn¡¯t last forever, but nobody had expected that the changes would come so fast. How many years had it been since the introduction of technical schools and the accounting system, which were results of working with Void Mask? In fact, it had been five to six years in total, quite a while, but to the immortal Gods, time was usually calculated in terms of centuries, or decades in a pinch. There was no big difference for them between five to six years and last night. But how, in such a short time, had the Goddess of Wealth successfully made such a big move? The launching of technical schools and the accounting system had improved the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s divine position before. This time, if she could clearly manage the world¡¯s savings and successfully make large amount transactions a possibility, her divine position would surely be upgraded again, or even, perhaps, she would step into the level of Great Divine Power. Once the Goddess of Wealth was on the level of Great Divine Power, there were more things that could be done. At the very least, as one of the Great Divine Powers, if she wanted to set up a divine system, there would be many Gods who followed her, including those of Weak Divine Powers and Weaker Divine Powers. Also, because of her oath of alliance with Void Mask, she had become an ally of the God of Justice, who was one of the most powerful gods among the Great Divine Powers. The society of this God system was strong enough to compare with those of the senior powerful gods. And¡­ nobody was a fool. At first they hadn¡¯t realized it, but now that the Goddess of Wealth had started, they would naturally speculate what her next move was. Taking advantage of the monitoring of wealth to realize the transfer of wealth around the world and promote account transactions to replace physical currency¡­ In that case, how strong would the Goddess of Wealth become? She might even be able to go beyond the level of Great Divine Power¡­ For a while, the Gods who¡¯d had conflicts with her were all concerned. They didn¡¯t know how many times they had discussed it with each other secretly, but they couldn¡¯t figure out a good plan. Truly, the two sides had been hostile for thousands of years. They knew what the other side would do even before they started. Now that Manissy had decided to make such a big move, how could she not have made precautions first? In fact, she really hoped several of those enemies would come and stir up trouble! She had been forced to make a promise because she had been alone while fighting at that time. Now, the situation was different. Through her oath of alliance with Void Mask Auscar, she now had several powerful teammates, and she was moving towards the top level of the Middle Divine Power. As for her enemies, they hadn¡¯t made much progress in thousands of years. They were still a group of weak, stupid people. A single fight or a group battle, whichever! In the end, these Gods didn¡¯t act irrationally, which disappointed Manissy very much, for she had made several plans to kill those who had caused trouble with her without saying a word. ¡°What a pity!¡± Privately, she complained to Sui Xiong, ¡°I¡¯ve given them enough time to prepare and come to start something with me. I thought that even if not three, there were at least one or two of them who would come to me. However, there wasn¡¯t even one¡­¡± When she said this, she was touching her special magic weapon, the Hammer of Wealth, with one hand, and her face was full of regret. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but swallow as he watched the fierce weapon, which had long nails on the round hammer and was almost as tall as her. If any God had come, she absolutely would have thrown the hammer and smashed the God down. No matter how powerful a God was, a hit like this would cause them severe inner organ damage, as well as hurt the whole body. Perhaps they wouldn¡¯t need a rescue¡­ Unfortunately, not even one God had come. Though the hammer was powerful, it didn¡¯t get the chance to show its power. It took her about two months to check the accounts, mainly because the records of those deposits were kept in the holy kingdom. To ensure that these records were solid and reliable, they had been turned into mountains. Now, to unravel these mountains one by one, to erase those that had were outdated, and to associate them under the same depositors, she had to make drastic changes to the whole God¡¯s Kingdom. That cost a lot of Divine Power from the Goddess of Wealth. Fortunately, Manissy had made preparations beforehand. Otherwise, the daily operations of the God¡¯s Kingdom might have gone wrong. Sui Xiong was also surprised at that. He hadn¡¯t expected that maintaining an orthodox holy kingdom would cost so much Divine Power¡ªall the God¡¯s Kingdoms he knew, whether it was the chat room of Desolation Gods or his sanctuary, had little consumption. Every bit of Divine Power could be saved, like a money jar for frugal people. This time, he knew of the high cost of Divine Power in the River of Gold, then realized that his impression about maintaining a God¡¯s Kingdom had been entirely wrong. If one wanted to make a God¡¯s Kingdom powerful and useful, an astonishing investment was required. There was no such thing as a horse that could run without eating grass. It was impossible, so he quickly seized the opportunity to learn how to construct and manage a God¡¯s Kingdom. His former friends were either bachelors, like Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, who hadn¡¯t established a God¡¯s Kingdom at all, or Semi-Orc fighters, the God of Forging, Morani, the God of Celebration and Enjoyment, Wall, who was at a pathetic level of constructing a God¡¯s Kingdom just by building houses in the God¡¯s Kingdom that had been established already. The only professional one was the Goddess of Ocean, Ariel, who was busy integrating the power of the distant sea and guiding the demigods to step into the realm of the real Gods, one by one. Her God¡¯s Kingdom had been a precedent, with enough to place the souls of believers, and that was all¡­ There were so many failed examples that his understanding of constructing a God¡¯s Kingdom went in the wrong direction. Fortunately, this time, he finally found the right example to follow. Manissy wasn¡¯t a God from the battle system, but she was from the top of the management system. Her technology of building a God¡¯s Kingdom was outstanding among the gods, and she was even qualified to compete with the top few. She was also a good teacher. Since Sui Xiong wanted to learn, she took the opportunity to teach him hand in hand as she was making adjustments in her God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°What is a God¡¯s Kingdom?¡± Miss Manissy put forward this question at the very beginning, ¡°This is the most fundamental problem. A God¡¯s Kingdom is the cohesion of Divine Power, the home where believers live after death, and the base where a God creates angels and resurrects after death. But these are only the most basic functions of a God¡¯s Kingdom. The deeper question is: what do you build a God¡¯s Kingdom for? What do you want it to do for you?¡± ¡°I want to build a shelter to protect all good people from evil,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°That¡¯s why you have built a strange God¡¯s Kingdom, with only a shell that is solid beyond imagination, but empty inside.¡± Manissy laughed. ¡°First of all, I¡¯d like to admit that you have a good idea and a reasonable approach, because the purer the thing, the stronger it is. Your God¡¯s Kingdom has been pure enough with its shell, so its defensive force is, of course, the strongest. ¡°But your idea is too one-sided. For your great ideal, your personal strength is too weak. To build an indestructible sanctuary on your own, it will be hard. Nobody will appreciate it but you. ¡°So you need companions. For this reason, you should leave enough access to your God¡¯s Kingdom to allow other Gods to connect their God¡¯s Kingdoms to yours, to let theirs and yours become one and form a common system. There will be both division and cooperation, and you guys will develop together.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment and asked, ¡°The God¡¯s Kingdom of the Desolation God System is now in my sanctuary and has been there for several years, so why hasn¡¯t it worked well?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the problem!¡± Manissy was busy turning a mountain into a pillar full of words, but upon hearing that, she began to laugh. ¡°Your God¡¯s Kingdom is an empty shell. It¡¯s not ready for access to other God¡¯s Kingdoms at all. Not to mention that in just a few years, even mere decades and centuries, the situation won¡¯t be different!¡± Under her guidance, Sui Xiong took time to make some small adjustments to his God¡¯s Kingdom. He didn¡¯t modify the function of the God¡¯s Kingdom itself, but used the Divine Power he accumulated during this time to travel around the God¡¯s Kingdom, pulling a number of lines vertically and horizontally. These rough flat lines looked funny, but when they helped in connecting with the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Desolation God System, they actually made the two different and independent God¡¯s Kingdoms into one harmonious entirety. In this way, there was no need to provide protection for the outer layer of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Desolation God System, so Morani withdrew these powers and built several training grounds, as was suggested by Manissy. Then they built divine temples for the Gods of Desolation, Sui Xiong and Wall. Later, Sui Xiong and Wall moved the souls of their dead followers to these divine temples in large numbers. The followers of the Desolation God System also started training. Their strength improved greatly. With insufficient investments, although they hadn¡¯t trained anyone to become their Oracle yet, it was obvious that as long as they kept up this good momentum of development, the future of this God¡¯s Kingdom would surely be more prosperous and glorious. Manissy was really an expert in the construction of a God¡¯s Kingdom. While directing the construction of Sui Xiong¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom, she didn¡¯t delay the reconstruction of her own. With her ingenious design, the original River of Gold, which had been full of mountains, had become a vast wilderness. The great River of Gold still flowed in the wilderness, while the colorful pillars were scattered in everywhere. These pillars were used to record deposits. Different locations symbolized different places where deposits were accepted. Different colors symbolized a different amount that could be deposited. As for the words on the pillars, they were naturally the details of deposits¡ªtime, place, and amount. Originally, Sui Xiong had also suggested that Manissy collect customer¡¯s detailed information to launch a variety of services based on their deposits; it would be easier to cooperate with a financial product. But after careful consideration, Manissy rejected his proposal. ¡°Your suggestion is very good. It¡¯s a far-sighted and long term plan.¡± Manissy said, ¡°But it¡¯s too advanced. Now, what I¡¯ve done has been too conspicuous. If I do more, not only will the Gods fear me, but even mortals will doubt whether I have ulterior motives.¡± As a God, being feared by other Gods was nothing, but if a God was suspected by mortals, it would be a serious problem. The Goddess of Wealth wasn¡¯t like the God of Plague, who was hated by Gods and mortals so as to gain belief from people¡¯s negative emotions. She was a neutral and kind god. Although she could do bad things, in the end, she still needed to be disciplined to be recognized and trusted by people. If she overdid it and was suspected by mortals, it would bring great danger to her. Of course, if she could complete everything in one step, it could also bring her huge benefits, but she had monopolized the divine position of wealth. There was no need to worry that other Gods would have the ability to monitor the flow of wealth. Even if she didn¡¯t have everything completed temporarily, it would be okay to finish it hundreds or thousands of years later. By that time, this world would be familiar with deposits and transfers. It would be logical to introduce services such as personal accounts, financial services, and so on. Sui Xiong kept nodding at her words. This was because of his lack of financial knowledge. In fact, Manissy had skipped two stages, remote deposits and checks, which could be called a great leap forward. If he had been a bank expert, he would have suggested Manissy slow down and go step by step, but how would Sui Xiong know that? He put forward suggestions in full accordance with his memory before his space-travel. He wished that this world would be constructed one step at a time. It would be more convenient to have online shopping and door-to-door delivery. If that could come true, he would open an online shop specializing in selling all kinds of aquatic products, and win himself the title of the aquatic giant. He would employ a few girls with particularly soft voices to do customer service. If a customer called in, the first sentence of their greeting would be, ¡°Dear customer, we provide free delivery¡­¡± Chapter 329 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong was very good at thinking randomly. This wasn¡¯t surprising, because he had been alone in the boundless sea when he had just time travelled to this world, living through countless lonely years. If he hadn¡¯t been good at occupying himself to fight against the loneliness, he might have gone mad. To be honest, many people thought that he was actually a madman. However, compared to real madmen such as the God of Madness and the God of Destruction, he still retained much of his mind, only going crazy occasionally. Whether Sui Xiong was mad or not was another research topic. However, at least nowadays, this kind of random thinking that was considered madness was actually very useful. For example, he had thought about online payment, then finance, then online shopping, then the Internet, and then online gaming. Well, he often thought about online gaming, not just once or twice, but this time, he thought about it very seriously. Sitting in the Sanctuary of the God¡¯s Kingdom that was full of wires and USB cables, he was looking at the wires around him and couldn¡¯t help but have random thoughts. ¡°Think about it carefully. It¡¯s not a bad idea to create an online game¡­¡± To make an online game, a platform, software, and a server were basically necessary. There was no way to get a platform and a server. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t even make a blast furnace, so he naturally couldn¡¯t make a computer with his bare hands. However, after all, he was a God. If he didn¡¯t care about the cost, he would definitely be able to use Divine Power to make a computer that could receive and send signals, which meant that all the operations were placed on the server. If they had been on earth, the stupid guy who had designed this would have been thrown out a window by his boss. However, it didn¡¯t matter here, because he could be the server. He still had to consider the aspects of the software, because he wanted to design a popular, not brainless, game. It wasn¡¯t just about leveling up by killing monsters brainlessly, or eight people fighting against each other with all kinds of tricks in a small area¡­ ¡°I remember that many online games used tasks, as well as dungeons, so maybe I can design one this way, too¡­¡± He began to try it while whispering. Compared to the blast furnace, which he couldn¡¯t make a breakthrough on, it was obviously more interesting to make an online game. As for the problem of the blast furnace¡­ After the repeated explosions and researching for so long, it had seemed that he really hadn¡¯t discovered the key problem. Edison¡¯s approach was obviously not suitable for him, so he had handed it over to Palin to research, who was at least a professional scholar, much better than him, who just dabbled. Strong execution was always Sui Xiong¡¯s strength. About half an hour later, he made the first ¡°computer.¡± This thing had a screen (nonsense), a keyboard (nonsense), and a mouse (nonsense again). The keyboard only had 11 buttons, including up, down, left, right, one, two, three, four, start, pause, and end. The mouse only had left and right buttons, as well, with functions too simplistic for people to approve of. When operating this computer, the operator could select the location the character wanted to go to with the mouse, then open it and select the function menu with each button. In general, it was cumbersome, but easy to understand, so even fools could learn it. This computer was actually an empty shell which could only accept or send data. The data wasn¡¯t zero and one, either, but actual instructions and images. In other words, although it was simplistic to the point of being stupid, it actually took a maddening time to load. If it had been on earth, it certainly would have been cursed by players. However, it didn¡¯t matter here, because first, the server was powerful enough, and second, the players were few enough¡ªSui Xiong planned to make no more than 500 computers, so even if only half of the people were online, 250 players would be quite a few. Anyway, he didn¡¯t plan to make a big game. He remembered that when he had been in college that year, their counselor, a senior fellow apprentice who hadn¡¯t graduated for a long time, had set up a simplistic private game server for them. He had also said that it had been ¡°The World¡¯s First Graphic Online Game.¡± That sh*t game had usually had nearly 100 players online, yet everyone had still played happily¡­ The game designed by Sui Xiong was actually similar to the one designed by the counselor at that time. The player designed a character, then the character took adventures and accepted tasks in the game world. Some tasks asked them to go to other cities to find people or go shopping, and some asked them to go to the underground maze to kill monsters, hunt treasure, or save people. In general, the feeling was similar to the real lives of adventurers. In this game, players could earn money, experience, reputation, and equipment through adventures, as well as purchase items and update equipment¡­ Although it was simple in general, the content was quite rich. It took a full month for Sui Xiong to design this game. The images needed to be drawn one by one, as did the maps, and various interfaces and dialogues needed to be designed. If he hadn¡¯t been a God who could directly convert images and texts into game contents without even programming, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to finish it even with 100 times more time! ¡°Perhaps¡­ If I can return to earth, I¡¯ll be the world¡¯s strongest code farmer, the well-deserved programmer king of the gaming industry who could defeat the combination of second to tenth place with no sweat!¡± Sui Xiong said and laughed. Like that, he turned his ideas into the contents of the game little by little. After a month, the game testing began. He had made 20 computers and selected 20 experienced adventurers from the staff of the Void Mask Land to ask them to play the game. As a result, there were some small jokes. The adventurers couldn¡¯t understand how to play the thing at first. When they started playing, they yelled and wrangled with it. Someone shouted, ¡°God! How can you keep a living soul as a plaything!¡± Someone else shouted, ¡°My soul! Has my soul been sucked out?¡± Sui Xiong had to explain to them one by one. With various ways of persuading them, he finally made the bumpkins understand that that it was just a fictional game. The people and monsters inside were just fictional things; neither the souls imprisoned inside, nor their own souls, were being sucked out. Then they also made a lot of mistakes when they were playing the game. More than one person tirelessly talked to the NPCs repeatedly, then told him, ¡°The characters inside are too stupid.The amount of information that can be provided is too small, so the adventure will be very dangerous¡±; others were stunned while going to the store to buy adventure supplies, expressing that there were too few things available to buy. With such few things, there was no difference between going out to take adventures and looking for death; as for killing monsters, they made countless mistakes in various ways. Every day, Sui Xiong was deeply troubled because of those, feeling how inexperienced and short of imagination he was. The most frustrating thing for him was that at least a third of the adventurers tried to steal from the store. The reason was simple: there were many things in the store, and the owner didn¡¯t look strong. The city didn¡¯t seem to have strong guards. One trip would get them enough to live a lifetime. Hey! You¡¯re great adventurers! Elites in this profession! You¡¯re really not afraid of going to hell when showing a robber¡¯s mentality so directly and clearly?! For the whole winter, Sui Xiong was busy testing the damn game. Until spring came with its blossoms, with countless versions being modified, the public beta version, which was completely different from the original version, was finally completed. The public beta version was designed in a world called Mount Snake-sky¡ªSui Xiong had originally wanted to call it the Mount Dragon-sky. Later, he had been reminded that joking about the dragon race wasn¡¯t very smart, so he had changed the name. The world had three layers, each with a main city and two suburban cities, as well as ten mazes. Players played as adventurers, traveling this world of three layers. They could accept various tasks and complete them, or they could simply kill monsters without any tasks. They could also rent land to farm, and even open a small shop or something of the like. Thanks to the variety of information provided by the 20 experienced adventurers, Sui Xiong had designed this small world to be quite comprehensive, and the combat system had been designed to be perfect. In addition to the turn-based system which had always been criticized, other aspects had almost won all the adventurers¡¯ approval. But this wasn¡¯t enough. When he increased the number of testers to 100 and released the public beta version, various problems appeared again, because many of the people who participated in the beta were not adventurers, various beginner mistakes occurred frequently. Many players had lost their character¡¯s lives because of mistakes before understanding what was even going on. Sui Xiong realized that he should write a player manual to teach players the basic knowledge they should know in the game. It took him more than half a month to write this player manual. He had questioned a lot of adventurers during that time, and finally had something that could be used as a guide for green adventurers. It was amazingly thick with a great deal of content. In other words, if someone wanted to read and understand it, they were required to have had a slightly high level of education¡­ Obviously, this thing had no practical value. Those who knew the facts in it beforehand had the right conditions to learn all the adventuring knowledge, and if they couldn¡¯t even read, what could they do when they received it? Sui Xiong had to find a way to make a batch of magic items, infusing the contents of the player manual. The players would just have to wear a magical item shaped like a hat to sleep, and that knowledge would be transmitted into their minds. Whenever they used something in the future, they would naturally have some knowledge of it. Just by reviewing and reflecting, they could turn that knowledge into their own experience. Eventually, when the public beta was completed, a group of experienced adventurers who enjoyed being armchair strategists showed up in the Void Mask Land. They had a wealth of adventure experience and perfect adventure knowledge, but they had no practical experience at all. In the face of problems and difficulties, they could think of several solutions, but they couldn¡¯t execute any of them. In the eyes of Sui Xiong, this was normal. A game was only a game, after all. However, Leon, who knew this, said that he might continue to make adjustments to this game. ¡°How about¡­ designing the abilities of the characters inside the game to be equal to the players¡¯ own abilities,¡± Leon said. ¡°Players can make money and buy things in the game, but to improve their strength, they must rely on real-life exercise.¡± Sui Xiong stunned for a moment, then he asked, ¡°What¡¯s the use of that? Isn¡¯t that too boring?¡± ¡°No, in this case, the game can be used to train adventurers,¡± Leon said, smiling. ¡°I think, if you adjust it a little more, it can be used to train soldiers without any problem.¡± Sui Xiong opened his mouth and widened his eyes, looking incredibly confused. ¡°I just wanted to make a game to have fun. How could it have become a virtual military camp?!¡± Chapter 330 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Leon pointed out the blind spot in Sui Xiong¡¯s thoughts. He had pursued immersion so much and finally designed a game that was amazingly rich and immersive in content, yet the graphics were a bit simplistic. Therefore, the game could be used to teach low-level adventurers or soldiers basic knowledge. Just like on earth, driving games that pursued the extreme immersion could actually be used to popularize basic driving knowledge for those who knew nothing. A qualified adventurer needed a lot of knowledge, and much of it had to be mastered by practice, but if it was just to be used for popularizing written knowledge, this game was enough. So as Leon had said, this game was more than just a game. If he connected the physical attributes of the characters to the attributes of players, it could be used directly as a simple training material. With a few modifications, it would be easy to teach soldiers some common sense. Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t expected this before, so when Leon had pointed it out, he was a bit confused. I¡¯ve been working so hard for so long, testing for this long, and finally, I¡¯ve launched an informative tool to lay the foundation for adventurers? Therefore, Sui Xiong had a problem. For personal reasons, he hated words like ¡°edutainment.¡± In his view, entertainment was entertainment and should only be used for people to relax, relieve stress, and receive spiritual satisfaction. That was enough. If education had to be added into entertainment, then it would be the same as adding odd-tasting beans into drinks, as bad as the legendary Laoshan Oldenlandia Water. There were people who liked it, but most people avoided it like the plague. He thought about it for a long time, and finally sighed deeply, starting to modify the game. Too much of the immersive content was deleted, too complicated content was deleted, and too difficult content was deleted. Finally, it became a simple and clear adventure game on a small scale. In this game, a player still played as an adventurer, but all the actions were simplified into options, with no room for free play. They could only choose fixed locations in the town, and there were fixed instructions in every location, as well as in combat. There were still a lot of instructions, so the game was generally rich in content, turning combinations into puzzles and battles, as well as a lot of monster and scene designs. However, in contrast to the original game, which had a high degree of freedom, extremely rich contents, and extremely strong immersion, there was a world of difference. It took Sui Xiong a month to finish the modification process. After expending all of his efforts, he was a little worn out when he finally launched the new version of the game. However, his hard work paid off. This new version of the game won the praise of all the players. As long as the player was literate, they would feel that the game was very interesting. The various tasks and adventures inside were imaginative, so they couldn¡¯t stop. Someone had even ¡°tested¡± it for more than 40 hours in one go and had eventually fallen asleep in front of the computer. Sui Xiong laughed in his heart, but his face was serious on purpose, adding an anti-addiction setting to the game. Every player could only play it for up to eight hours a day! If this was on earth, people who dared to be make a game anti-addictive would most likely be killed by their peers in the industry, but they would be praised by related departments. However, in this world, there were no peers in the same industry who competed with him, nor any department above him to manage him. Therefore, he could design and operate in any form he wanted. Since he was rich, his will could be done to the extreme. However, because the players had never touched other games before, they still didn¡¯t understand how anti-traditional and crazy his non-addictive design was. Every one of them actually expressed support. Upon seeing this situation, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh into the air loudly several times, feeling so proud with the happiness that he was finally realizing his ideas that day. But he was happy for only a few days before he began to get busy again. Based on the player¡¯s suggestions, he decided to develop a spoken version of the game¡ªinstead of dubbing the monsters, he added voices of various tips and introductions in the game. There were so few people in the world who were literate. As a sincere game designer, Sui Xiong felt that it was necessary for people who were illiterate to enjoy the game he designed, as well. Therefore, spoken prompts and introductions were necessary. Fortunately, this didn¡¯t take much effort. A few days later, he completed the voice system. When the game that illiterate people could also enjoy began to be tested, it was amazingly unprecedented. After several tests, the workers in the land and the nearby residents had already known of the existence of this wonderful game, but to most civilians, it was still far from them. Just the need for literacy was a huge threshold that made them unable to play. In this world, the entertainment that illiterate civilians had access to was very limited. They couldn¡¯t understand menus in the restaurants, nor signboards in pubs, and they couldn¡¯t integrate into the atmosphere in the opera houses, so their social lives were extremely barren. As a lower level in society, they didn¡¯t have any opportunities. They could only live mechanically and simply every day, like a negligible gear in a huge machine that was society. Most of them couldn¡¯t get satisfaction from manual labor, so their lives became more and more empty. They needed entertainment! And the spoken version of the ¡°Great Adventure of Mount Snake-sky¡± launched by Sui Xiong met their requirements¡ªsimple content, complete voice guidance, and easy to operate, even if they were illiterate. After the first tests, a few civilians quickly became addicted. Then the news spread unknowingly. There were more and more people who wanted to try the game. In the end, they even queued up for miles. If the land hadn¡¯t had so many people to maintain the order well, they might have already started fighting. Sui Xiong was shocked, so he hurriedly increased the number of computers. He made 200 computers in one breath, but still couldn¡¯t meet the needs of the residents around the land. ¡°This is the f**king contradiction between backward productivity and the ever-growing material and spiritual needs of the people!¡± Looking at the long line on the ground under his feet, Sui Xiong, who was flying in the air, sighed deeply. He had planned to add more computers, but after thinking about it, he felt that it wasn¡¯t necessary. The needs of the people were endless, unless he realized something that wasn¡¯t possible on earth: one computer per person. That was absolutely impossible. He didn¡¯t have that much Divine Power to squander. In light of this, he changed his mind and proposed a line for a registration system. Everyone who wanted to experience the game could register in front of a special computer, then they would get a piece of crystal that had no other use but telling them at any time how long it was until their turn to attend the tests. This simple and straightforward solution solved the problem of long lines, and players had taken their own crystals one after another. Those who needed to line up for a short time were still waiting, but those who needed to wait longer left by themselves to finish whatever they were supposed to be doing. So the small storm came to a close at this point. Soon after, Sui Xiong was surprised to find that literate people in the territory had actually increased rapidly. The reason was very simple. Even if it was the voice version of the game, there was text as well. In the game, many people had learned some words on the common menus through the connection of voice and text. This had also been an unintentional move. After finding out the cause, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. For the first time in his life, he felt that ¡°edutainment¡± was actually reasonable! Chapter 331 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio While Sui Xiong was busy with the gaming business, the deposit-transfer system of Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, finally began to work. Checking the deposits was a very important thing. After the check, Manissy was surprised to find that nearly twenty percent of the deposits of the wealthy people in the Church of the Goddess of Wealth were dead accounts. After calculating the total amount, it made up a huge number that surprised even the Goddess of Wealth. The deposits of the Goddess of Wealth weren¡¯t preserved inside the temple, but in a space that only the Goddess knew. Over the years, some temples had been broken into. Those who had broken into the temples had all grabbed many treasures. However, actually, none of them had ever grabbed even a single gold coin from the deposits. To take the money, one had to kill the Goddess of Wealth first. Although it wasn¡¯t possible to steal the deposits, if all the people who knew the about deposits were dead, or the owner of the deposit and the intended heir were dead, then the deposit would lose its meaning and turn into a dead account. More importantly, there were quite a lot of secret deposits in the Church of the Goddess of Wealth. The origin of this money was usually a bit problematic. It was either as small as a browbeaten husband¡¯s private money, or as big as a major thief¡¯s fortune that had accumulated for many years, all of which couldn¡¯t be exposed. Although it was said that the bishops of the Church of the Goddess of Wealth wouldn¡¯t reveal their secrets, it was the safest for them that even the bishops didn¡¯t know their identities. So when they died and didn¡¯t leave clues for future generations, the money was unclaimed. The money was stored in the Church of the Goddess of Wealth, and it was necessary to pay custodian fees, but the fee wasn¡¯t large. It might have been unbearable for merchants, but for many richer people, it wasn¡¯t a big deal, completely acceptable. As a result, a secret was a secret, and security was security. However, finally, the secret and the security both became dead accounts¡­ After the Goddess of Wealth had sorted out these dead accounts, she ordered her believers to find the heirs to the accounts after thinking. Except for the money that had been thieves¡¯ deposits and shouldn¡¯t have been exposed, she obliged the church to start searching, trying to find the legal heirs to the money and delivering the deposits of the rest that were able to be exposed. This wasn¡¯t an easy task. Some of the accounts that were relatively recent were fine, but the old accounts were hard to track down. It might have taken several years, or more than ten, to find the heir to a deposit. The manpower and material resources spent during it might have even been worth more than the amount of the deposits. However, the Goddess of Wealth didn¡¯t see it that way. To her, manpower and material resources were nothing. Instead, it was the key to being able to prove her credit and fight to gain faith. As long as she could prove the reliability of the deposit-transfer system, she didn¡¯t care about the cost! The higher-ups didn¡¯t care about the costs, so the errand boys naturally worked more efficiently. Not long after, the bishops of the Church of the Goddess of Wealth found the heirs to more than a dozen big and small dead accounts. Although the world was mostly plagued by natural disasters and man-made crimes, human beings had an equally strong vitality and reproductive ability. Even if the direct heirs were gone, they could still find somewhat suitable heirs. Thus, the archbishop of the Church of the Goddess of Wealth personally took the lead and held a grand and solemn ceremony to deliver the long-lost deposits to the heirs who knew nothing about them. Some of those heirs were successful in their careers, but more were poor and downtrodden¡ªthis was normal, because their ancestors were so unlucky that even the deposits hadn¡¯t been passed down. Since even the large deposits had been lost, could they expect to gain any help from their ancestors? The worst one of the heirs had even become a beggar. When the priest of the Church of the Goddess of Wealth found him, he had been lying on the corner in a small town. Several wounds on his body had been infected. He had been so skinny that he wasn¡¯t far from death. There had been even a few mice who had been biting him, intending to eat him alive. The priest of the Church of the Goddess of Wealth had been shocked, then had hurriedly driven the mice away. First, he had made him drink a valuable potion, then had taken him to the Void Mask Land to clean up his body and give him treatment at the Red Pig Clinic. The poor beggar had laid in the clinic for a long time and received more than ten divinity treatments before finally recovering. There were a lot of scars on his body, especially on his left arm that had been bitten by the mice. It was a shocking sight. Although these scars could be eliminated, he refused the suggestion and was determined to keep these scars, which reminded him that he must be careful to spend money in the future and never fall into such a situation again! He didn¡¯t receive much of an inheritance, only 100 gold coins. It was interesting to say that the money had been left by a businessman called ¡°Boof¡± by his ancestors. The businessman had been a browbeaten husband, but he had liked philanthropy. He had always tried to save money and had gradually saved up a small amount. Once, he¡¯d had a distant business trip, but he had been afraid that the money might have been discovered by his wife. Therefore, he had stored it in the Church of the Goddess of Wealth. Unexpectedly, he had been so fortunate on this trip that he had become a baron in another country. Therefore, he had hurriedly picked up his wife, children, and servants to go there. Because of his busy schedule, he hadn¡¯t found time to go to the temple to withdraw the money. He had planned to wait for spare time in the future. However, he had been busy all the time¡­ In the end, he had forgotten about it. The descendants of Boof had not lived well. The final result of the branch of the direct line had been to follow a group of elves and monsters to explore the distant sky, and they had never come back. The distant bloodlines had also been dying, and the only person left was this beggar, who was jokingly called ¡°Weak Bird.¡± Weak bird was certainly not his real name, just a nickname. This beggar had originally been called ¡°Big Bird,¡± but he had been physically weak. Although he had a big frame, he had always been bullied by others. Thus, he had earned the nickname Weak Bird. One hundred gold coins weren¡¯t worth mentioning to a powerful person like Felix, who was looking for ways to break into the legendary realm. It wasn¡¯t a big number for experienced adventurers, either. However, for poor Big Bird, it was a large number. Fortunately, for good press, the Goddess of Wealth didn¡¯t charge him custodian fees or ask him to pay for the divinity treatments, and even paid for his medical expenses. Otherwise¡­ He might have only kept the money for a few days, and then he would have had to spend all of it, with not even a copper coin left. The Church of the Goddess of Wealth used the story of Weak Bird as advertising, which had a very good effect. Many people thought that since the Church of the Goddess of Wealth would help a beggar find his money, then their deposits would definitely be safe. The number of deposits increased greatly in a short time. With careful calculations, they could earn much more through custodian fees. This made both the Goddess of Wealth and her followers happy. Was there anything better in the world than gaining fame and fortune at the same time? Of course, the Church of the Goddess of Wealth wasn¡¯t likely to use only an insignificant matter such as Weak Bird to publicize, so they quickly found a bigger matter. It was the deposit of a successful businessman from the the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs more than 300 years before. The businessman had been evil for many years. When he had grown old, he had suddenly been moved by a priest of the God of Knight, determined to change his evil spirit. He had participated in the movement against the Church of the God of Fear. With his clever methods, the subordinates of the evil God had suffered a big loss that had destroyed their huge conspiracy. However, in the world, a good person might not always have a good return. The believers of the God of Fear had come back a few years later and looked for an opportunity to kill the businessman, his whole family, and the assistants who had been working in his shop. The Church of the God of Knight had been furious, so they had dispatched two legendary fighters and dozens of advanced priests and knights. It had taken more than half a year to finally kill all the believers of the God of Fear. Although the murderers had died, the deceased could not be resurrected. The resurrection spells of this world had been severely restricted. After the believers of the God of Fear had committed crimes, they polluted the bodies of every victim with evil spells to cut off the possibility of their resurrection. This incident had a great influence. However, no one had known that on the morning of the day of the attack, the businessman had suddenly felt a strong warning sign in his heart, so he had hurriedly visited the Church of the Goddess of Wealth and deposited a huge sum of money. One reason why the believers of the God of Fear had wanted to kill him had been revenge. On the other hand, they had wanted to plunder his wealth. After the attack, the shop and the house were a mess, leaving almost nothing worthwhile. The archbishop who had helped with the deposit had visited the businessman at that time and happened to be involved in the attack by the mob. He had been killed during the fight, so everyone had thought that all the money had fallen into the hands of the mob. No one had thought of going to the Church of the Goddess of Wealth to check. Even the Church of the Goddess of Wealth hadn¡¯t expected that the deceased archbishop had made a transaction before his death. Therefore, the money had become a dead account. Its existence wasn¡¯t discovered until the Goddess of Wealth checked the accounts more than 300 years later. This businessman had a distant relative, who had been an adventurer. Later, one of his descendants had lived well and even became an aristocrat. He was now a viscount of the the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. The viscount was a believer of a Goddess with weak Divine Power, the Goddess of Flowers. He had won the favor of the church and the Goddess because he liked to donate to the church. When the Church of the Goddess of Wealth had visited him at his home and told him that his ancestor had left him a huge sum of money, his first reaction had been to donate the money to the Church of the Goddess of Flowers to promote the building of the church. Later, he did exactly that. The amount of the money had been astonishing, even shocking the Goddess herself. She had specially sent an avatar to land, blessed the devout believer, and promised to protect his family for a long time. This incident was much more influential than the lucky beggar. It not only spread quickly across the continent of the main plane, but also shook the Gods. No one had expected that the Goddess of Wealth would profit from the Goddess of Flowers, who didn¡¯t have a good relationship with her! They must have known that the Goddess of Flowers had participated in the alliance of the Gods who had sieged the previous God of Wealth. She had also threatened Manissy to make an oath that she would never seek to ¡°control wealth¡± when she became a God. After this, the credit of the Church of the Goddess of Wealth Church had finally been affirmed. Therefore, the deposit-transfer system was finally being promoted. Chapter 332 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Syndicate was a robber. He sometimes acted as a thief, sometimes as a pirate, sometimes as a smuggler, and sometimes as a helper who did something unsuitable for important men who didn¡¯t want to reveal their identities. He didn¡¯t care what he was doing on earth. As long as he could make money, whatever he was asked to do was acceptable. In private, he called himself a ¡°Cost-free Gentleman.¡± The former implied his identity, and the latter flaunted his style of doing things. Among his peers, he was indeed quite a gentleman. Every time he was doing business, as long as the opposite side was willing to surrender, even if they had still been fighting at the last moment, he would constrain his subordinates to let go of the argument the next moment. At the beginning, his subordinates had been very dissatisfied, but as their reputation had spread gradually, fewer and fewer people were willing to fight with them. More than once, other companies took the initiative to give them the money for passage as soon as they saw their logo. For those who were willing to give money for passage, he also had a standard. As long as the money was enough to let his buddies go eat and drink together, it wasn¡¯t worth fighting for more money, because he always believed that money could be earned endlessly, but reliable brothers were not so easy to find. As a result, his ¡°business¡± had grown bigger and bigger, gradually becoming the largest group in the border area between the Kingdom of the Blue Moon and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. Some people had even begun to call him the Mountain King. To be honest, Syndicate didn¡¯t like this title at all. He¡¯d had the privilege of entering the the Old Fairy Temple in the Ancient Forest, and had received the advice of the undead elder. At that time, the elder had warned him that he shouldn¡¯t be greedy, show off, or make a fortune silently. He had been deeply impressed and had always held this as his motto. His ideal was to be an unnamed robber and earn enough money to find opportunities to clean his reputation. Then, as a small aristocrat in the mainland, he would steadily spend the rest of his life, leaving enough descendants to continue the family from generation to generation. After many, many years, the descendants of future generations who would be keen to study the history of their ancestors would finally find out his origin at that time from the few words of dusty records, and they would be stunned¡­ Now, it seemed that this ideal would mostly be ruined, so he was depressed. Recently, he had received news from an old acquaintance who had cooperated with him in the past, saying that in the future, the robber business, especially the business of the big robbers, would be more difficult to do. A sales channel would become a vital part of the business. This made him a bit puzzled, and he didn¡¯t understand why it had to be. Most robbers didn¡¯t like to steal physical goods. One reason was that escaping with the goods would be slow, and it was easy to leave too many traces, which made it easy to be caught or found. The second reason was that the goods had to be sold in some way. When they sold them, goods worth a gold coin couldn¡¯t be sold for more than a silver coin, which was a loss of money. In contrast, it was much more convenient to take money directly. Even if it was a precious gem, it wouldn¡¯t be more reliable than money. Of course, if he could grab precious magic items, it would be more cost-effective than grabbing money. Magic items were easier to sell, and often the prices would not be deliberately pressed down when they were sold, making them the best hard currency. Syndicate, naturally, couldn¡¯t be excused from this, since when he had received passage money, the price was calculated according to three times the price of the goods¡ªin other words, if the consumer gave him goods instead of money, they had to give three times the value of the goods, which was equal to the price. If he could have, he would have rather taken money than goods, even though he had a good sales record. For example, this time. He had taken a dozen people to an ambush in a pit they had dug on purpose on the hillside, wearing a grass clothes covered with turf that looked like common grasslands. As long as they didn¡¯t use magic, no one could find them. The location he was ambushing was quite spacious, not dangerously steep at all. No spellcaster would go crazy to use detecting magic in such a place. For this mission, he had prepared for five days in advance. The manpower and material resources that he had used were worth hundreds of gold coins, at least under his estimation. But it had been worthwhile. As far as he had known, the Dragon Tail Commercial Firm had just shipped a large quantity of goods to Buie City, but it hadn¡¯t bought many goods from the city. This meant that they were either carrying a large amount of cash or high-value gems or magic items. Any of these were worth paying attention and even taking action personally. As time passed, the sun gradually moved west. However, Syndicate and his brothers were still lying on the ground motionlessly, as if they had become piles of weedy earth. To be a respectable business, he had to be able to hold his breath. This time, he had brought his most reliable older brothers. Every one of them understood this truth, so they could all keep their composure. About an hour from sunset, two carriages slowly approached. The sign on the carriages showed that they were really a group of bumpkins who had self-proclaimed that their ancestors had picked up the tailbone of a dragon and used it as the mascot. Each time he thought about the origin of the name of this commercial firm, Syndicate wanted to laugh, but he held back his laughter. On the contrary, he was very serious. The Dragon Tail Commercial Firm wasn¡¯t an easy group to deal with. Their ancestors had also not had the money to do business. The reason why they had been able to make a fortune in the past had not been good luck brought by their sh*t mascot, but several kinds of business that would force them to hell after death, similar to what he was doing. In the face of such opponents, if he wasn¡¯t serious or careful, he would be asking for death. The carriages weren¡¯t big. After a careful look, it was confirmed that there were quite a few goods in them. However, he noticed that the drivers of the two carriages were very stable in temperament, and he had known that they had quite good strength at first glance. As for what was inside the carriages¡­ The latter was a truck. The escort might have been a middle-level warrior who wasn¡¯t powerful enough to be afraid. However, he could vaguely feel the fluctuation of magic in the former carriage. He was afraid that a powerful mage was sitting in it, so they couldn¡¯t be careless! The carriages were going to pass by. However, for an unknown reason, a horse leading the former carriage suddenly stumbled. Its whole body was falling to the side of the road, which made the whole carriage start to turn over with it, and the people in the carriages were going to fall to their deaths. This was a trap designed by Syndicate. He had dug some small pits on the road that weren¡¯t big, just a little bigger than the horses¡¯ hooves. The pits had been covered with thick paper, and then with floating soil and weeds. They looked like nothing but ordinary ground, but as soon as the hooves of a carriage horse stepped on them, it would fall down immediately, and the entire carriage would fall with it. The people of the Dragon Tail Commercial Firm had been attacked, so they were a little panicked. Two people walked out of the former carriage. One was a mage wearing a fire-red robe, and the other was a ranger wearing soft gray armor. The two drivers and the warrior in the last carriage also took out their weapons and prepared for battle. Syndicate nodded, uncovered the turf, and stood up alone. Instead of rushing to speak, he took out a flag and inserted it on the ground beside him. In the evening wind, the flag unfolded, and a tiger sitting on the top of a mountain majestically was looking down upon the people below the slope. ¡°Mountain King?!¡± The Ranger was shocked, then began to laugh. ¡°It¡¯s not the right time for you to be here.¡± He took out a delicate saint emblem, smiling. ¡°Our commercial firm has indeed made a lot of money this time, but it has already been deposited in the temple of the Royal Crown, the Goddess of Wealth. Even if you kill us, you can¡¯t take the money.¡± A few hours later, at his own secret base, Syndicate fell into meditation. It seemed that¡­ the world had changed. This era was no longer an era suitable for the Cost-free Gentleman. When he thought of this, he made up his mind. Since then, the famous robber Mountain King, who had been active on the border of the Kingdom of the Blue Moon and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, had disappeared without a trace. A few months later, in the northern part of the Federation of Gold Coins, a small aristocrat named Thomas had appeared. Chapter 333 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Inside the dark tunnel, a group of workers dressed in heavy protective clothing who looked like ordinary workers out of a science fiction game were brandishing picks and shovels, digging hard. They used shovels to dig out the soil piece by piece and used picks when they encountered stones. Both the picks and shovels were equipped with semi-enchantment technology that saved them labor when digging the soil. They could only feel it was a little harder when they encountered stones, but they could break through eventually. The excavated soil and gravel were shoveled into the two carts nearby, and once a cart was fully filled, someone would push the cart forward along the inclined tunnel, pushing it up to the treatment station near the exit, then return with an empty cart. As for the soil and gravel sent to the treatment station, the magician-in-training who worked there would launch a magic array to purify them. After the purification, other workers would take over and send them to the ground for other purposes. This work was too hard for ordinary people to do. Even if they did it, they would feel as tired as a dead dog and become sick in a few days. These excavators had been carefully selected from the pioneers. They were all relatively strong and had also received training and conditioning for half an month, with meat everyday. Now, their bodies were in their peak form, and even the new adventurers were unable to fight with them. The one whose protective clothing was most conspicuous in color among them was their leader. He was shorter and less robust compared to the other strong men, but his work efficiency was higher than anyone else. That was because he used tools more skillfully, and his digging posture was more proper. It was this technical gap that resulted in the gap of working ability. What was more, he could also pay attention to his surroundings while working. For example, he would see whether the sticks that were used to support the top of the tunnel were strong enough or not, and he would also use the plumbing lines to match the digging direction and check everyone¡¯s protective clothing to see whether there were any hidden dangers. In a word, he was not only a worker, but also a patrol inspector and nurse. He could deal with a few things smoothly at the same time. Although he didn¡¯t dare to say that he was outstanding in dealing with these things, at least he could cope with every situation he met. This was his ability! At first, these strong men were very dissatisfied with their leader, who was obviously shorter than them, especially when they knew that he was just a miner, not a retired adventurer or former nobleman. Like them, he was just a broken pioneer from the south who had gone there only a few years earlier than them. But they all respected him after a month. The leader was able to do more work at the same time, and after work, he wasn¡¯t tired like them, still making time to take care for others. What was this? This was his ability! What was more, he could even read and write. These workers had to sign the contracts before they went to work, but they couldn¡¯t. It was he who had explained the contracts and signed for those who could only put their handprints on the contract. The general education level in this world was very low. Although a God whose clergy was knowledge and education had appeared several years earlier, he could only do little things for those who didn¡¯t even have enough food to eat. These pioneers were relatively poor. They didn¡¯t even have a decent signature, let alone advanced reading and writing skills. For them, the skills of reading and writing were too high-end to obtain. These pioneers had dared to cross numerous hills and streams to live in the legendary barren land where skeletons were said to eat people, but no matter how brave they were, they were still ordinary people, not risk-takers who licked blood off of knives, or aristocrats and officials who were accustomed to deceiving and blackmailing each other. They were just simple and honest people and faced with such an outstanding person, they would certainly admire him and bow down. Therefore, the authority of the leader was established, and everyone became accustomed to his leadership. It was so dark in the tunnel that they couldn¡¯t see the sun or the sky. There was only a shining magic stone on the top of the cave. Fortunately, there was a clock in the corner which told people the time. At about five o¡¯clock in the afternoon, the leader would call everyone to stop working for the day. ¡°It¡¯s still so early that we could continue working for a while,¡± some people suggested. ¡°Yeah. Didn¡¯t we just rest?¡± The workers all wanted to do more since their pay was directly linked to their workload, but their leader would certainly disagree. He emphasized ¡°safety first¡± and urged workers to finish their work, then return to the ground. Of course, they had to be purified before taking off their thick protective clothing. ¡®Safety first¡¯ was an iron rule at the construction site. Anyone who didn¡¯t understand and obey this rule would be dismissed immediately. A group of people stood in the purification array, looking at the milky white light flowing through their bodies like water, and laughed at each other. They remembered that the first time they had received purification, some people had shouted loudly and worried that they would drown, so they stirred up trouble in their team that even their leader was unable to suppress. Later, they found that their worries were superfluous, making the supervisor laugh at them for a while. The supervisor was a young man, about fifteen or sixteen years old. Although he was young, he had already become a formal magician, which won him everyone¡¯s admiration. As a spell-caster, his social status was very high, and according to the social rules, he could even beat someone to death on the spot, not to mention laughing at someone. However, this young man was actually very kind and approachable, which made him no different from ordinary children. Well. There must have been differences between him and ordinary children, because they were still inferior to him. It could also be said that this outstanding young man was a real ¡®kid next door.¡¯ This world had similar traditions as the earth. For example, when parents criticized their children, they often used the kid next door as an example. However, how could those children be comparable to a noble spell-caster, regardless of their excellency? Perhaps the leader¡¯s children could if he ever had time to marry and have children. Reif put his tool on then tool rack and wore his protective clothing to the washroom. He flicked a switch and clean water soaked in positive energy flowed slowly through his body. Then he turned off the switch and took off his protective clothes. He returned to the tool room and hung the clothing on the drying rack. He shook his head, turning around and moving his rigid body that had worked for several hours. After a long period of exercise, he felt completely comfortable and sighed deeply. ¡°It¡¯s really tiresome to be a leader!¡± Fatigue was inevitable. While the others were busy with their work, he was busier than them; and when others were having a rest, he couldn¡¯t rest, because he had to check the tools and protective clothing everyday in order to avoid accidents. When everything was checked, if he had time after dinner, he would go to the magic school to learn something or go to the library to read books and study by himself. Compared to those who just wandered around to kill time, went to the tavern to have fun, or slept with their wives and children, he was definitely much more tired. But it had been his choice, and he also enjoyed it. Headmaster Felix had once said life was too short. Instead of wasting time on complaining and playing, one should do something that would make them smile when they grew old and died. Reif felt that if he continued working like this, he would be able to smile when he was dying. Unfortunately, he lacked the talent for magic and couldn¡¯t become a magician. Otherwise, it would have been much easier for him! After checking everyone¡¯s tools and protective clothing, Reif left the tool room and saw several workers waiting outside, laughing, and was greeted with smiles. These people had been waiting for him specially. Reif also smiled when he saw them. ¡°Hey, leader.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a little late today. Is there something wrong with those tools?¡± ¡°No problem. Just some workers¡¯ protective clothing hadn¡¯t been cleaned.¡± ¡°Hahaha! Let me guess. Is it the straw and the wheat?¡± ¡°Yes, what else would it be?¡± ¡°Those guys! I heard that they don¡¯t even wash their feet before going to bed at night.¡± ¡°What?! How do their wives allow them to come to bed?¡± ¡°God knows. If I dared not to wash my feet at night, my wife would definitely kick me down.¡± ¡°Wake up, brother, where¡¯s your wife?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just making an analogy. Leader, what do you think?¡± Reif paused. ¡°Do you want me to beat you?¡± ¡°No! Don¡¯t! I was just kidding. Don¡¯t get angry, leader.¡± ¡°But leader, you¡¯re now qualified and literate. Why don¡¯t you have a wife? I think if you wanted one, even the grocery store owner Haman¡¯s daughter would like to marry you.¡± ¡°My God! Boss Haman¡¯s daughter is only twelve years old! What are you guys thinking?¡¯ ¡°Mostly about what to eat tonight.¡± ¡°Hahaha! You¡¯re right. What¡¯s for dinner tonight?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go to the tavern. The cook at the tavern learned at Lanxiang Vocational School and is good at barbecuing.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you tired of eating barbecue every day? I want fish soup.¡± ¡°Fish soup is very expensive. Two silver coins a basin!¡± ¡°Hey! Why are you all looking at me?¡± ¡°Of course, we have to look at you, leader, because you have the money! Last time we got paid together, I noticed that you had several gold coins!¡± ¡°How did I make friends like you!¡± ¡°Hahaha! I¡¯ll treat you next time.¡± ¡°Are you sure you¡¯ll treat me next time? Are you going to treat me to vegetable soup with black bread? ¡°Hmm?! You always know what I¡¯m thinking about!¡± ¡°¡­I should have beaten you!¡± ¡°Next holiday, let¡¯s go fishing on the river. My wife said she saw fish in the river yesterday.¡± ¡°Wow! We can cook fish soup by ourselves!¡± ¡°You can dare to cook, but we wouldn¡¯t dare to drink. It¡¯s better to find a cook for help.¡± ¡°Leader, you look down on me too much! I was able to catch rabbits in the hills and fish and shrimp in the water in past years!¡± ¡°Bullsh*t, catching rabbits in the mountains and fish and shrimp in the water, but you ended up running here for a living? You¡¯re fooling me!¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t finished yet. I mean, my neighbor was that kind of person, and I learned a little from him.¡± ¡°How much did you learn?¡± ¡°Perhaps¡­ On the hill, I can recognize rabbits, and in the water, I can distinguish fish and shrimp. I know them better when they¡¯re cooked.¡± ¡°You¡¯re such a foodie!¡± The group of people laughed while talking and walked along the newly paved gravel road to the Pyroxene Town. In the sunset, their bodies seem to be lined in gold, shining. Chapter 334 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The autumn sky was clear, and the air was crisp. In the Duchy of Thunder in the southern main plain, the air pressure wasn¡¯t high, and the air wasn¡¯t too dry, even for autumn. Therefore, it wasn¡¯t refreshing. However, facing the neat golden farmland filled with heavy ears of grain, one could estimate that it would be an impressive harvest without even having to do any reaping¡­ In this case, there were two kinds of people who were still in a low mood. One was weird people, and the other was mad people who believed in the God of Starvation. Crick was neither a weird person nor a believer of the God of Starvation, so he looked at the vast golden fields with a good mood and laughed happily. ¡°I can¡¯t imagine it!¡± Standing beside him was the magical adviser of the Keane Hill, master Damwade. This calm and cold-hearted magician was shocked at that moment, and a strange ray of light flashed in his eyes that made him become much brighter. ¡°Look at those fields. I predict that we¡¯ll harvest three or four hundred per acre.¡± The housekeeper, Layton, said with a smile, ¡°Sir, you¡¯re so wonderful!¡± ¡°It¡¯s the farmers, not me, who are the best.¡± Crick laughed and said, ¡°I just came up with ideas, but they were the ones who actually cultivated the land.¡± ¡°The yields of these fields have been almost the same for the hundreds of years that they¡¯ve depended only on farmers,¡± Master Damwade said seriously. ¡°After hearing the news, I studied the historical records carefully and found that the ordinary fields could only yield one hundred per acre, except for some special fields that were managed by magicians; even two hundred per acre could be considered a miracle, enough for people to hold a grand ceremony to thank Ms. Rich, the former Goddess of Harvest. If such a situation happened in Keane Hill, there won¡¯t any records in history apart from some obvious bragging that can be seen at first glance.¡± Crick laughed. ¡°History is always moving forward.¡± ¡°Yeah, history is always moving forward.¡± Master Damwade nodded with a smile and looked at the golden fields in a trance. ¡°Just¡­ I never imagined that I could witness such a scene with my own eyes, and I¡¯ve even become one of the figures who promoted the progress of history¡­¡± From fertilizer to harvesting and the development of various kinds of farm tools, he, who was a part-time alchemist, had put in a lot of effort. He said that if the current scene meant that ¡®history was moving forward,¡¯ then he had really contributed to promoting the great cause of history. Perhaps nobles would despise this, but as a spell-caster and scholar, Damwade knew what this meant. This meant that when he grew older and was dying in the future, he would probably be praised by some God for his contributions and thus gain eternal life. Even if there was no God who would appreciate him, the kings in hell would also treat him with special respect for his great achievements and give him preferential treatment. Only Gods and merit were immortal in this world. The housekeeper, Layton, whose IQ was only nine, had rich experience with farmland management and didn¡¯t think too much. He quickly estimated this year¡¯s harvest and the the taxes he could receive, then his old face burst into laughter immediately after his estimating. But he suddenly stopped laughing when he thought of a serious problem. ¡°Sir, since we have such good harvests here, will the price of grain be reduced?¡± Although his IQ wasn¡¯t high, he had abundant social experience after being a housekeeper for so many years. He remembered that every year when it was time to harvest, businessmen would lower the purchasing price of grain so that farmers couldn¡¯t benefit too much, even if they¡¯d had abundant harvests. The Duchy of Thunder was located in the south, with a warm climate and fertile land, always an important grain-producing area, but neither farmers nor lords had been able to make a fortune just by growing grains. Although this time, the harvests of the Keane Hill had been extraordinarily abundant, even being called a miracle, businessmen would depress the purchasing price anyway¡­ Crick raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, ¡°Do you think that the businessmen will force the price down to the lowest they can?¡± ¡°Yes. They¡¯ve done it lots of times.¡± Layton sighed. ¡°When it¡¯s time to harvest, those businessmen will lower the purchasing price of grains to its lowest¡­ I¡¯ve seen it too much.¡± ¡°They can only do that to civilians. Would they dare to do that to our nobles?¡± Crick asked in a low voice, ¡°If they encountered any bad-tempered nobles, they could be hanged immediately. ¡± ¡°Haha, as long as they can make money, even being hanged isn¡¯t terrible for them.¡± Layton sneered, ¡°I heard that a viscount hanged a businessman who had lowered the purchasing price of grains in anger, but what happened after that? Nobody wanted to buy his grains, and they ended up rotting in the warehouse.¡± ¡°That¡¯s unreasonable!¡± Crick frowned and said, ¡°Life is much more important than money!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand deep things, but I¡¯ve never heard of a businessman who wouldn¡¯t press for a lower purchasing price at such a time.¡± Layton huffed and said, ¡°Generally speaking, they form an alliance and draw up a rough price. The actual price can only float up and down from this price, and even the whole country is like this.¡± Crick¡¯s eyes suddenly lit up. ¡°The whole country is like this?¡± ¡°Definitely. ¡± ¡°Then we don¡¯t have to worry about it.¡± Crick laughed. ¡°I sent Rena to do some research before, and she found that there were no big differences from this year¡¯s harvest between that of the previous year in other regions except for Keane Hill. In other words, the grain prices should be about the same.¡± Layton thought for a long time and finally understood, bursting out in laughter. Since the harvests of the whole Duchy were almost the same as the previous year, Keane Hill would earn big profits because of its bumper crops this year. ¡°Great! There¡¯ll be much more money in the territory next year!¡± Crick nodded with a smile. Although the money they won as the grand prize at the Void Mask amusement park wasn¡¯t entirely gone, for a territory, it would be much more stable and reassuring to be able to depend on its own production. As long as the agricultural income of this territory remained at its current level, he was confident that the Keane Hill would become the most prosperous baron hill in the Duchy of Thunder within five years. Given ten years to build up Keane Hill, even a viscount hill wouldn¡¯t be able to reach the same prosperity, and given twenty years, he could be able to contend against the counties that controlled the state administration as just a baron hill. Time was on his side. The three men laughed, walked down from the watchtower, and returned to the castle. In every field of Keane Hill, farmers were both delightful and worried. The joy was certainly due to the abundant harvests, while the worry came from the fear that it would rain in the last period before harvest. As was known to all, the most terrible thing for a harvest season was rain. Once it rained, the quality of the grain would decline, and the wet grain needed more time to dry, which would cost them more energy and time. If the grain didn¡¯t dry enough, it would grow moldy and bad, unable to be sold for a good price. ¡°The barn in the village isn¡¯t big enough!¡± ¡°Why not build more barns now and expand the barnyards along the way?¡± Similar words came from the mouths of every village chief, and petitions were quickly sent to the lords. Crick certainly wouldn¡¯t refuse such a request, and he also contacted two of his knights. He suggested they seize their last free time before harvesting to build more barns and expand the barnyards. He had very high prestige in the territory, and at his command, residents from several villages gathered together and devoted themselves to the construction work. Fortunately, there was no rain for the next half month thanks to the Goddess of Harvest. Taking advantage of the rare dryness, the autumn harvest work proceeded tensely. Due to the abundant harvest and lack of hands, Crick had to hire temporary workers to finish the autumn harvest. Fortunately, a heavy rain swept the whole south just the third day after the autumn harvest was completed. In the heavy rain, many peasants burst into a flood of tears, and many lords sighed deeply, but the peasants and lords of the Keane Hill were certainly not among them. They were already preparing for this year¡¯s harvest festival at that time. Meanwhile, people from the Church of the Goddess of Harvest soon heard the news and came there. They claimed that their harvests came from the gifts of the Goddess of Harvest and called on the people of the Keane Hill to believe in the Goddess so that they, too, could be blessed and have an abundant harvest. Rena, who had been recruited by Crick and became an investigator for him, got the news quickly and reported it to Crick. At a high-level meeting among barons in Keane Hill, Knight Howard James frowned and asked, ¡°Sir, what do you think we should do?¡± He wasn¡¯t a believer of the Harvest Goddess, nor did he believe that this year¡¯s harvest had anything to do with the Goddess. As they all knew, the Goddess of Harvest had been quiet those years, without any big moves, since the last time, she had failed in battle with the Goddess of Wealth. She wouldn¡¯t grant such an abundant harvest to an area that didn¡¯t even have a temple¡­ Come on! Knight James¡¯ IQ wasn¡¯t high, but he couldn¡¯t be fooled about this matter! Besides, over the years, the Goddess of Harvest had blessed some areas, but who had ever heard of the areas that were blessed by her receiving a yield of 300 or 400 bushels per acre? Crick smiled, but his eyes were somewhat bleak. The territory¡¯s harvest was not only due to the development of science and technology, but also due to the farmers¡¯ hard work. The Church of the Goddess of Harvest did nothing bu jump out to take credit for the achievement. How could he allow such a thing to happen? They wanted to take the credit for their own, but too much merit would certainly crush them to death! He didn¡¯t rush to a conclusion. Instead, he asked his subordinates for advice first. ¡°All right. Everybody is just trying to have their fun¡­¡± Layton was obviously in a good mood facing such an abundant harvest and didn¡¯t want to have a falling out with the Church of the Goddess of Harvest. ¡°This¡­ I think it¡¯s a good opportunity to form a good relationship with them,¡± the young knight Rios, the son of late knight Devol Rios, proposed. This proposal was approved by many people. After all, the Goddess of Harvest was a very influential God, and it would be good if they could have good relations with her Church. Crick turned his head towards the priest of the Church of Void Mask. The priest had recently assumed his place, and his name was Milomon, a werewolf. It was said that he was not only skilled, but also had a good mind. Faced with Crick¡¯s inquiry, the gourmet Mr. Milomon, who was an excellent Scout for the Orcs Empire and now the local priest of the Church of Void Mask, smiled and offered his own suggestion. ¡°Since we have such an abundant harvest here while other places are suffering from disasters, we should contact those who have suffered,¡± he said. ¡°The gifts of the Goddess¡­¡± Crick¡¯s eyes suddenly lit up. Chapter 335 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Miramon was a male of an unknown age, self-described as a young and talented man. He was born into the Green Tooth tribe of the Lycan clan in the Orc Empire. As an excellent scout, he was good at almost all necessary skills, such as investigating, stalking, tracking and shooting, and so on, everything but close combat. Besides that, he was also a sincere gourmet who strangely believed that delicious food was God¡¯s last mercy. To put his sincere belief into practice, he had taken a great risk to sneak into the Void Mask Land and investigate the over one hundred kinds of food there, then he made real and reliable comments on them. When Jose and Frost had gone to murder the high-level clergymen of the Orc Empire, he had also been one of the killers. However, because of his sincere love for delicious food, he resolutely gave up his belief in the God of Lycan and became a Semi-Orc. Then he joined the Void Mask Church and took the glorious post of clergyman. In this position, his major achievement was to launch a journal named Miramon¡¯s Comments on Food, which was published once a quarter, mainly introducing various delicious foods in the mainland. It was a best-seller not only in countries on the Main Plane, but also on other Planes. A plane-traveller once said firmly that he had seen a super giant of the Earth Element the size of a mountain reading this journal, which had been magnified with magic, with great interest. As for Miramon, he was different from others¡¯ imaginations. He wasn¡¯t a gloomy killer, nor a fat man with a big stomach, and not a smiling senior who had extensive social experience and liked to touch his moustache. With a round face, he was short and of a medium build. He was definitely a Lycan, but nobody knew why he had fluffy hair and a short tail that made him look like a dog¡ªa kind of dog called a Pomeranian. Sui Xiong had asked him about that, but received no answer. Miramon had once had his blood taken for a magic analysis, and the results had shown that he had 100% pure Lycan blood. There was definitely no dog blood in him. Then how could a pure Lycan look like that? Nobody knew the reason. The reason why Miramon had left his beloved village of delicious food and come to Keane Hill to be the Bishop was that he had to work hard to advance into the Legendary Realm. He had been a high-level Scout before. Over the years, his strength had steadily improved on his post as a clergy. Now, he was close to the Legendary Realm. Theoretically, as long as he liked to work hard on the aspect of delicious food, he could easily become a second-rate legendary master through his civilian post. However, he was a valiant Lycan. If it was possible, he preferred to become a real legendary master through a military post. This meant that he had to find a suitable path for himself. He pondered in the Void Mask Land for a long time and determined at last that he¡¯d better travel to see the outside world. At that time, the former Bishop of the Void Mask Church in the Keane Hill had been asking for a transfer back to the general church. Thus, through learning and practicing, Miramon had adjusted his strength in different fields and applied to transfer to the Keane Hill. In Crick¡¯s eyes, this guy, who had a total level of 19 (Level five in Ranger, level ten in Scout, and level four in Bishop) was no doubt the top master in the Keane Baron Hill. Considering that his reputation was a 320 and his intelligence was a 17, there would be nothing wrong with consulting him if something happened. After all, he was a master who had successfully sold a food and beverage journal on the Earth Element! Miramon gave Crick very reliable advice¡ªif a rich harvest in Keane Hill came from the blessing of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, then what about the heavy rain in the surrounding areas during the harvest season? Why had the God of Richness been so kind to Keane Hill and so mean to the surrounding areas? There was definitely something wrong! In the Duchy of Thunder, there were few people who believed in the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Here, thanks to the good natural environment, agriculture had developed very well. As long as there were no special disasters, life was comfortable for the residents. Therefore, compared to the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, who had little influence on people¡¯s lives, other gods were more valued by people, like the God of South Wind. This God wasn¡¯t highly valued in other places, either. However, in the Duchy of Thunder, when the south wind began to blow, it ushered in a wet rainy season that brought abundant rain and vigorous vitality, as well as disasters, so the residents there respected the God of the South Wind very much. They put him on the same level as the God of Rain and the God of River. In almost every city, there was a united Divine Temple that worshipped these three gods together. The Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had always wanted to strengthen its support in the Duchy of Thunder and had been looking for opportunities. This rich harvest of Keane Hill, which had been more than a miracle, was the opportunity they had been waiting for! But people always said that profit would blind logical reasoning. They only saw opportunities in their eyes and ignored possible crises. Yes, the Keane Hill had a bumper harvest, but the surrounding area had been unlucky this year. There had been a disaster before the harvest. If the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest hadn¡¯t shown up, people would have only complained that the God of Rain was unkind, but they showed up, claiming that the Keane Hill¡¯s harvest was the Goddess¡¯s blessing¡­ Well, people might not have forgotten that more than a decade before, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had done something very desperate in response to her failure to grab people¡¯s belief in a competition with the Goddess of Wealth in Garth City, a famous commercial city in the eastern mainland. At that time, she had given the surrounding areas of two key locations on the mainland that were filled with believers of the Goddess of Wealth¡ªthe Commonwealth of Gold Coins and the Dhaka Commercial Association¡ªa good harvest, then left these two key places with harvest failures. As a result, a large-scale famine had broken out, and a lot of people had died. It hadn¡¯t been too long. At least, if someone mentioned it on purpose, everyone would be able to remember it. Then they would connect that with the Keane Hill¡¯s harvest and the disasters in the surrounding areas. All right, the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had said that the Keane Hill¡¯s super harvest was a blessing from the Goddess¡­ Damn! Didn¡¯t that mean that the disasters in the surrounding areas had also been done by her! Although Crick knew that this wasn¡¯t true at all, neither the Keane Hill¡¯s harvest nor the disasters in the surrounding areas had anything to do with the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, but it didn¡¯t matter. She had admitted it herself! What? The disaster had nothing to do with you? No way! Miramon¡¯s plan had been carried out in secret, and rumors about what the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had done were frequently mentioned in the surrounding areas. Then someone helped the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest to publicize the blessings made for Keane Hill. It had nothing to do with Crick. He had only delayed a little, temporarily not contacting the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest through official channels. As for why the Church¡¯s Bishop and over a dozen clergymen had died in the wild with their souls imprisoned by magic, it had nothing to do with him or any of the people of Keane Hill. The angry Goddess of Bumper Harvest tracked them with her Divine Power, only to find a few Hill Lords from the disaster-stricken areas, who no doubt didn¡¯t believe in the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. They had joined forces to destroy the followers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who were planning to come to Keane Hill to develop a career. There was no other information. As for taking revenge on those Hill Lords? Come on, didn¡¯t they have a background? They were all followers of the God of Aristocracy, who was known as the most popular God in the new generation of the Human God System. She was always ready to call her allies together to fight directly against enemies. What was worse, the God of Aristocracy didn¡¯t like to fight back directly, since she was better at trickery and assassinations. In those days, she had been a mistress of the God of Royalty and Diplomacy. It was through conspiracy and trickery that she had killed the God of Royalty and seized the divine position. To deal with such a cruel God, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had really had no confidence. Besides, even if she¡¯d had confidence and taken her revenge, what would have been different? The God of Aristocracy could beat her badly with just one hand! If she could last even ten minutes in a fight with him, she would be tough enough! As for a confrontation between churches, it wasn¡¯t realistic. The Church of the God of Aristocracy had great military power and royalties, as well as great nobles on their side. In contrast, the influence of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest mainly affected common people and average nobles. If the secular forces of the two sides fought with each other, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest would suffer a devastating loss. So the matter was ended even without an end. Nobody worried about it anymore. Crick made some comments on this. He said that the bird that took the lead would be shot. Alas! How could these fellows of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest not even understand the simple truth of making a fortune in silence? They had to learn it well for next time! However, he himself was no happier than them. This problem had just been solved, but another problem was coming. Knowing that Keane Hill had been blessed with a bumper harvest, the Thunder Lord issued an edict asking him to make a special donation to support the disaster-stricken areas in the Duchy of Thunder. Crick¡¯s mood collapsed when he got the order from the emissary of the Thunder Lord. How could His Lord do things this way? It was robbery! Weren¡¯t there any laws or rules? Or principles? Unfortunately, the Thunder Lord held supreme power over the country. As long as the great nobles didn¡¯t object to what he said, he was the laws, the rules, and the principles. Crick was trembling with anger. He wanted to pull out his sword and cut the emissary into two pieces, but he managed to hold back his anger at the last second. He asked the guards to escort the pale-faced emissary back for a rest. He tried to breathe deeply and to Layton, who was also very angry, said, ¡°Go to Mage Damwade and let him use magic to contact the high-ranking officials of the hill. Let them come as soon as possible. We¡¯ll have an emergency meeting to discuss what to do next.¡± He had a hoarse voice, and after his short speech, he couldn¡¯t help coughing violently. He coughed so badly that his chest ached. Or maybe the pain hadn¡¯t actually come from coughing. Layton looked at him worriedly and didn¡¯t leave immediately. He squeezed out a smile, waved his hands, and dismissed Layton. ¡°Go ahead.¡± After Layton was gone, he coughed violently again. He couldn¡¯t help clenching his fists and smashing them on the table. ¡°What a damn b*stard!¡± Severe coughing accompanied by a deep roar echoed in the reception room¡­ Chapter 336 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°That¡¯s unreasonable!¡± Bishop Miramon opened his eyes wide. ¡°You¡¯re just a baron, and there¡¯s a viscount, earl, and marquis between the Thunder Lord and you. How could he just jump over the others and ask for grain from you? Won¡¯t your monarch be angry? That¡¯s too much!¡± ¡°The Keane Hill is directly under the control of the Thunder Lord.¡± Crick sighed. ¡°The surrounding area is under Earl Holhuck, but ours isn¡¯t. Perhaps it was a special arrangement when the Hill was built in order to avoid Earl Holhuck¡¯s complete control of the area.¡± ¡°Since the surrounding area is under Earl Holhuck, it should be his residents that suffered from the disaster. Thus, Earl Holhuck should have been the one to ask for grain from us.¡± ¡°The Thunder Lord just needs an excuse.¡± Crick sighed again. ¡°What a shame!¡± Miramon understood. He shook his head and said, ¡°There¡¯s nothing I can do. We Orcs never do things this way.¡± ¡°In the winter of the year before last, didn¡¯t you follow the Thunder Lord¡¯s orders to join the war?¡± Knight Howard James said with a frown. ¡°I know a courtier should be loyal to his monarch. You already led your soldiers to join the battle of the Sun¡¯s Death Day. What¡¯s more, your army suffered a great loss there, and you even almost died on the battlefield. Wasn¡¯t that loyal enough?¡± ¡°That¡¯s why the letter was put it in a sincere way. It says that it¡¯s not the Thunder Lord that needs the grain, but the people in the disaster-stricken area,¡± Crick said with a sneer. ¡°How smart our Thunder Lord is!¡± ¡°We also had a good harvest last year, but he didn¡¯t ask us for grain. Why did he ask this year?¡± Knight Charles Ouss asked with confusion. ¡°Last year¡¯s harvest wasn¡¯t as noticeable as this year¡¯s,¡± Crick said. ¡°Last year, although new farming techniques were used in most fields, the harvest wasn¡¯t as good as it was this year. It saw only a 20 percent increase in output. To be honest, that was nothing special. But this year, with the wide use of fertilization and the adoption of new farming techniques, we had a sharp increase in output. Although we haven¡¯t received the final statistics, judging from the current figure, the output for this year will probably be four times what it was last year.¡± After Crick finished his words, the whole meeting room fell into an amazed silence. Several seconds later, Scout Rena couldn¡¯t help but ask curiously, ¡°Sir, is that true?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°No wonder!¡± Ryder, the captain of the military patrol of the Keane City, sighed deeply. ¡°If it was me, I would have also envied such a good harvest!¡± ¡°But our neighbor Earl Hulhock didn¡¯t envy us at all,¡± Layton said. ¡°Maybe he did. He just acted slower than the Thunder Lord,¡± intelligence officer Rafael said slowly. ¡°Earl Hulhock has held several meetings with its high-level officers recently. Maybe they¡¯ve discussed taking advantage of us.¡± Crick looked more worried. He hadn¡¯t solved the current problem yet, and the next one was already coming. What could be worse than a piece of bad news? Two pieces of bad news! ¡°Fortunately, Earl Hulhock hasn¡¯t come. We still have time to save the situation,¡± Mage Damwade said. ¡°We¡¯ve received the order from the Thunder Lord, so that¡¯s what we have to deal with first.¡± ¡°Is there anything we can do?¡± Crick huffed deeply. ¡°That fat guy is sure that there¡¯s nothing I can do about it. I really want to chop him to death!¡± ¡°Stop talking like that, please,¡± persuaded Thomas, the priest of the God of Art and Culture who had focused on researching all day. ¡°With the fighting power of our hill, we can fight against a viscount at most. If it really is the Thunder Lord, we¡¯ll definitely lose.¡± ¡°I just said that to say it,¡± Crick huffed disappointedly and coughed again. ¡°Sir, take care of yourself!¡± Layton persuaded Crick worriedly. ¡°No matter what difficulties we meet, as long as you¡¯re here, there¡¯s a future for our hill. Even if we suffer a loss this time, does it matter? After all, we had a good harvest this year, and we¡¯ll have more in the coming years.¡± Crick nodded slightly and sighed. He agreed with Layton. As Layton had said, this time, the Thunder Lord had come to rob grain from Keane Hill, but he couldn¡¯t come every year! The new farming techniques of the Keane Hill had already started on the right path. Perhaps there wouldn¡¯t be such a good harvest as this year¡¯s, but it would be possible to get an output of two to three bushels per acre, but at least two. A harvest like that would be enough to support the continuous development of the Keane Hill. Even if the Thunder Lord took a lot of their grain away this year, he wouldn¡¯t be able to find an excuse to come again next year. ¡°You¡¯re too naive,¡± Bishop Miramon said with a sneer. ¡°I¡¯m not sure whether you¡¯ve seen wolves hunting in the prairie. The average wolf only chases after animals in small groups and attacks the elderly and weak ones left behind, but strong wolves prefer to choose animals in a large group as their hunting targets. They follow these animals from a distance and hunt only several of them each time. It¡¯s just like grazing.¡± His round eyes were filled with a gloomy light. ¡°If the Thunder Lord gets grain from us this time, he¡¯ll definitely come again next year. Thus, he¡¯ll begin regularly rob grain from us in the coming years.¡± Nobody talked in the room. They didn¡¯t want to admit it, but they knew that what Miramon had said was reasonable. ¡°Last winter, the Thunder Lord called on the surrounding areas to support the Eagle Kingdom in the war, and there were at least four earls that ignored him.¡± The intelligence officer Raffle said slowly, ¡°But nothing happened to those earls in the end. They weren¡¯t punished.¡± ¡°They¡¯re earls,¡± Layton said worriedly. ¡°We aren¡¯t as powerful as earls. If even barons don¡¯t dare to separate from great nobles over such small things, we can¡¯t, as we aren¡¯t great nobles at all.¡± As Layton had said, Keane Hill wasn¡¯t any sort of great noble. They didn¡¯t have the courage and confidence to fight against the Thunder Lord. The Duchy of Thunder had been built by a knight under the Supreme Mage, Master Ymirjar Le-Peyroux. This knight had worshipped Master Le-Peyroux as his monarch, so he saw Master Le-Peyroux as the king, and he became the first Thunder Lord. The current nobles of the Duchy of Thunder could be divided into seven ranks, with the Thunder Lord, a duke, at the top. Theoretically, the Thunder Lord was the master of the whole Duchy of Thunder. However, in fact, he was just the master of some hills that were directly under the control of the Duchy of Thunder. In other hills, there were independent monarchs who were all great nobles. The Thunder Lord was just the leader of the alliance of these great nobles. In the second rank were three rulers: the queen¡¯s brother, the most highly regarded prince, and the chief general of the Duchy of Thunder. They didn¡¯t have any feuds. They were the Thunder Lord¡¯s favorite courtiers, so their authority and status were all gained from the Lord¡¯s trust. In the third rank were earls, who were descendants of those who had accompanied the first Thunder Lord to explore the world. At that time, the first Thunder Lord had not been the only subordinate of the Master Le-Peyroux, and there had been a few more subordinates who had a similar status to the first Thunder Lord. When the Duchy of Thunder had been established, the first Thunder Lord had divided the country into several areas and conferred with the other subordinates of the Master Le-Peyroux to gain the title of earls. An earl was the highest monarch of an area, and even the Thunder Lord had no right to interfere in the daily affairs of their areas. In fact, in the current Duchy of Thunder, with the development of each Earl Hill, the Thunder Lord¡¯s control of the whole Duchy of Thunder was weakening. In the fourth rank were viscounts, who were nobles with many feuds and great power. Underneath some powerful viscounts were barons and knights. Both dukes and earls had viscounts under them. These dukes and earls were the rulers of these viscounts, so they had to be loyal to them. Although these viscounts enjoyed great power in their own hills, they still had to put their superior¡¯s orders as the priority. In the fifth rank were barons. The Keane Hill was a Baron Hill. Barons were at the bottom of the nobles who governed a city. Each baron followed his own superior, and some barons even had several superiors in different ranks. Meanwhile, these barons also had knights and lower-knights under them. In the sixth rank were knights, and the last rank were lower-knights. The difference between them was whether they had feud. A knight had his own feud, while a lower-knight had to receive a salary from their supervisor. The feud and family name of a knight were passed down from generation to generation. For a lower-knight, their title of nobility wasn¡¯t hereditary. That was why normally, a lower-knight didn¡¯t have a family name. In Keane Hill, there were two knights, Knight Ouss and Knight James. Knight Ouss had inherited his title of nobility, feud, and his family name from his father D¡¯vor Ouss, while Knight Howard James¡¯s father was the best friend of elder Baron Keane. The system of nobility with seven ranks had a strict order. To challenge this system, one needed not only great courage, but also power. The Keane Hill wasn¡¯t powerful enough right now, or Crick would have already gotten the emissary out of his door. After several rounds of discussion, they felt that there was no way out except to turn over the grain to the Thunder Lord. While Crick wanted to end the meeting in a gloomy mood, Bishop Miramon had an idea. He moved closer to Crick and said in a low voice, ¡°Sir, how about killing the emissary and pretending we haven¡¯t received the order?¡± Crick was surprised at his words and began to think about them carefully. Miramon¡¯s suggestion was feasible. The Keane Hill was far from the Duchy of Thunder. If the Thunder Lord wanted to send soldiers there, Earl Hulhock wouldn¡¯t allow it. Thus, it was possible for Crick to follow this course of action. As long as Crick killed the emissary secretly, no one would know about it. Crick could firmly say that he had never received any order from the Duchy of Thunder. It would be at least a month until the Thunder Lord found out what had happened there and send another emissary to Crick. A month was long enough for Crick to find a way to transfer the grain. At that time, there would be no grain for the Thunder Lord at all! Chapter 337 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Crick wasn¡¯t vicious. On the contrary, he was rather mild and friendly, even to the servants in his baron¡¯s mansion and beggars on the street. He hardly ever behaved harshly or punished others. This didn¡¯t mean that he was weak though, nor did he tend to show unnecessary kindness on critical issues. He could also be brutal and cold-blooded when needed. For instance, he had fought atop a horse and killed numerous people during the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day two years ago in the winter. Now, facing the aggressive Grand Duke of Thunder, he again became so angry that he couldn¡¯t even stop himself from killing! The Bishop of Miramon had a good and practical idea and the most important thing was, it exposed his blind spot. Through all this time, he had never thought of confronting the Grand Duke of Thunder. After all, the Keane Hill was hugely different from the Duchy of Thunder. The Duchy of Thunder could easily summon official troops of no less than twenty thousand soldiers when needed, of which over three thousand would be armored-knights with a good command of various weapons rushing into the battlefield on their horses. What about the Keane Hill? Well they could also provide three thousand people¡ªof all ages and genders¡ªand have each of them fight with a sharpened wood stick as their weapons. However, a troop of twenty thousand people would just be wishful thinking, as the Keane Hill would never able to gather such a headcount, even if they included the livestock there. Or maybe it would be less wishful to gather twenty thousand ants. In terms of advanced force, there were typically four legendary masters based in the Duchy of Thunder. In critical cases, it would even be able to convince twice as many as usual to join. At least two of these four were direct subordinates of the Duke of Thunder, including Gates Enrique, or the ¡°Slayer of the Green-eyed Dragon,¡± who was one of the three marquesses and the Duchess¡¯ brother. Looking back at the Keane Hill, Bishop Miramon from the Church of Void Mask was its number one master to date, at level 19¡ªnot even at the advanced legendary peak. Moreover, he wasn¡¯t a direct subordinate of Crick. ¡°Three Arrows¡± Ryder was at level 15 now, the highest among Crick¡¯s subordinates, barely reaching the advanced level. It was such an obvious gap! Indeed, the Keane Hill already had its strength. With thirty armored foot soldiers, twenty senior soldiers who were good archers or skilled in other weapons, around ten knights, four middle-ranked spellcasters, and three experienced adventurers, along with additional militia at temporary request, it could manage to organize a troop of around three hundred. And the friendly Church of God of Art and Culture and the Church of Void Mask would be willing to support them at their request by providing about twenty adventurers, including several spellcasters. There was even a chance they could borrow a small group of knights from the temple. Such a force would be more than enough to defeat any baronet and most viscounts easily¡­ but defeating the entire Country of Thunder and Lightning would also require intelligence. All this time, Crick had been bound to this thought, so he hadn¡¯t refused the Lord¡¯s command last time to provide support against the Eagle Kingdom, even when it had been so dangerous that he could have died. However, Miramon¡¯s words had enlightened him like the sunlight at dawn. Indeed, the Duchy of Thunder was truly strong, and the Duke of Thunder was powerful, but why did it matter? He was nobody but the leader of the great nobles and was probably superior to a baron or viscount, yet this might not have been the case when he was with an earl. The Keane Hill was located in the heart of Earl Holhuck¡¯s territory, whose consent was necessary before the Duke of Thunder could attempt to attack with troops or masters. Besides, it would be very likely for them to negotiate for¡ªin light of the transportation modes in this world¡ªmore than a year. Then why was he still concerned? He could choose to desert the Duke of Thunder and take his oath to Earl Holhuck in the worst case! In this world, betrayal was considered an inferior move, and no honorable man would do so, even if threatened by death. This had assured the Duke of Thunder of the Keane Hill¡¯s loyalty, as he believed Crick Keane was an honorable man who would rather swallow all his complaints before betray him. How naive he had been! Though Crick truly was a decent person, he wouldn¡¯t be confined to ¡°loyalty¡± or any common notions here, because he had never belonged to this world. Crick still remembered a professor at his university from the past who had seemed to enjoy criticizing the historical transformation of traditional intellectuals. Each time he talked about this piece of history, he had always cried in grief, ¡°Be engaged in government affairs when doctrine dominates, and live in seclusion when doctrine fades. But what is the third choice if seclusion is blocked!¡± It was said that the professor had fought with another professor who had spoken ill of the first generation of governors, so it had been hard to tell if he was loyal or not. Thanks to his roar, Crick still had some historic sayings left in memory. Though he had already forgotten where they came from, at least he could make some use of them when needed. Like say, now. Since the Thunder Lord hadn¡¯t cared about being kind to his men, it would be natural for Baron Keane to betray him or pledge allegiance to a more reliable leader! Crick was feeling no pressure, but pure excitement about doing so. Though he had made up his mind to confront the Duke of Thunder, vowing his allegiance to Earl Holhuck would have to wait. After all, Crick had never thought of being one of his men before, nor had he studied this earl. Basically, he knew nothing about him except for his great influence, remarkable strength, and large number of followers. Who would easily kneel down before someone with such simple information? An idiot? With all these thoughts in his mind, he couldn¡¯t help bursting into laughter. It was a shame that he wasn¡¯t performing any stand-up comedy at that time. Otherwise, his partner next to him would have asked, ¡°What are you laughing at, my lord?¡± Yet he was not, so everyone was just looking at him with surprise. After all, he had still looked worried moments ago and suddenly seemed to cheer up after whispering with Bishop Miramon. Miramon was confused as well. Though he had believed his plan was a nice one, he hadn¡¯t expected to delight Baron Keane so much. Seeing all the puzzled faces in the meeting room, Crick smiled and explained, ¡°I just figured out something.¡± ¡°What?¡± asked Layton hurriedly. Putting on a smile again to make people more curious, Crick said casually, ¡°I risked my life before to serve the Duke of Thunder, and I don¡¯t owe him anything now. I don¡¯t have to be his man forever.¡± All were shocked by his words and looked at each other with confusion. Once, under the command of the lord, Crick had left for the battlefield with his army without a second word or concern of bloodshed. Why had he changed his mind in just a few years? ¡°Shouldn¡¯t a lord be kind to his men in exchange for their loyalty?¡± said Crick. ¡°Didn¡¯t I prove my loyalty by fighting the battles with the Duke of Thunder? But look at how he¡¯s been treating me. Do I deserve the benefits from my own land being looted? ¡°And imagine if you were my men and risked your lives fighting for me, but all you had in return was looting possessions, instead of glory and rewards. What would you think of that?¡± ¡°Impossible!¡± ¡°You would never do this, my lord!¡± ¡°You must be joking.¡± Crick sneered and slammed the table with a dagger. ¡°If that is ever true, I shall cut my own throat before any of you can say a word to save my reputation!¡± He glanced at each face in front of him seriously. ¡°But now, I¡¯m being treated exactly that way by that fat gangster!¡± The crowd finally understood and grew furious. The young and aggressive knight Charles Ouss even jumped up and yelled, ¡°Rise! Rise!¡± ¡°We need a plan. Otherwise, it would just be waste of your lives.¡± Crick raised his hands to signal silence. ¡°But without a doubt, from now on, we are not responding to any damn command of that *sshole! Rafael, find someone to secretly dispose of this messenger properly and make him look like he¡¯s been attacked by magic beasts on his way¡­ Should be easy for you, huh?¡± ¡°Very much so,¡± sneered Rafael, the source. Crick nodded. He smiled but sighed again. ¡°Poor thing, anyway. He was just doing his job delivering messages but never expected to pay with his life¡­¡± ¡°Not that innocent!¡± Ryder, the patrol captain, said with a grim face. ¡°He was rushing to the city on a horse when I saw him, and he nearly crashed into others and caused casualties. I was almost shocked when he argued that he was carrying urgent military orders!¡± ¡°Oh?!¡± Crick¡¯s expression turned cold upon hearing this. ¡°Doesn¡¯t sound like a good person. Then no more guilty words from me.¡± ¡°These messengers are mostly villains living off of their lords¡¯ power; how many good men would work like that?¡± Rena the scout snorted. ¡°Even fewer than I have gold coins!¡± ¡°How many gold coins are you with now?¡± Crick asked curiously. Rena took out her purse and emptied it. There were just silver and copper ones, along with a holy emblem from the Church of the Goddess of Wealth. Obviously, she had stored all the gold elsewhere and couldn¡¯t find any in her purse. The crowd burst into laughter and cleared away the grave atmosphere. A few days later, some adventurers discovered the body of the Thunder Lord¡¯s messenger from the capital, and they reported it to Baron Keane to receive a handsome reward. Then the baron sent the report in a letter to the capital. But why had such a capable messenger with his guards died from a magic beast attack on the main road and lost most of his belongings? And why hadn¡¯t the news arrived sooner? Nobody knew. There was no clue from Crick, anyway. Whether or not the Duke of Thunder would believe it would be determined by him alone. Chapter 338 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Of the twelve pathogens, we have found treatment for two kinds of plagues, and three kinds of diarrhea and fever,¡± Arcaian pointed to the cages of mice in the laboratory and said. ¡°But strangely, the remaining pathogens are so stubborn that all kinds of treatments are ineffective. They could only be cured by magic.¡± Many of the little mice in the cages were sick, and some were even dying. Their condition was not good. Of course, the healthy ones were larger in number. ¡°That¡¯s good enough,¡± Sui Xiong nodded and said. ¡°Is there any perfect thing in the world? The current situation is better than I expected.¡± Even on the earth, where science and technology were so advanced, there were still many diseases that could not be cured. The level of science and technology in this world was not very good. The current results had almost exhausted the research experience accumulated by the Pasteur family for thousands of years. If they wanted to go further, they might have to wait until Arcaian Pasteur succeeded in getting the title of God, and then he could do deeper research with his Divine Power. Maybe by that time, he would really make a breakthrough in developing a treatment for all the common infectious diseases that scientists on the earth had dreamed of for long period of time, but had never succeeded in. Thinking of this, he said, ¡°Your research has almost come to an end. Now it¡¯s time to think about your own business.¡± ¡°My own business?¡± Arcaian was confused at first, and then he understood what he meant. ¡°The improvement of strength is not achieved overnight. I do want to enter the Legendary Realm as soon as possible, but¡­ it is not so easy!¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while and said with hesitation, ¡°Actually¡­ it¡¯s not really that difficult to enter the Legendary Realm¡­¡± Arcaian was surprised at that and looked at him doubtfully. Since Sui Xiong had opened his mouth, Arcaian no longer hesitated. He said, ¡°You know, God can elevate ordinary people to be his electorate. Once they are elevated, the electorate¡¯s strength will increase greatly. It is not surprising that they would even step directly into the Legendary Realm. You are now a high-rank Druid. If you become an electorate, you may even enter the Legendary Realm immediately if you are lucky. Otherwise, it will be three or five years at most.¡± Arcaian¡¯s eyes turned bright. ¡°You mean¡­ Would you like to promote me as an electorate?¡± ¡°But as you know, once you become my electorate, you become my subordinate. In the future, even if you get the title of God, you will only be my God follower,¡± Sui Xiong said embarrassingly, he felt that he looked like a peddler. Arcaian burst out laughing. ¡°Your Majesty, that doesn¡¯t matter! How glorious and difficult it is to get the title of God! If it¡¯s true that as long as one is willing to become a God follower and he will get the title of God later, you just announce it. I¡¯m afraid that the semi-god masters coming to you will fill up the whole playground. The legendary masters can¡¯t even grab a seat. As for me, I have just stepped into the Advanced Realm, I would probably be slapped to death by other powerful masters on the way. ¡°I¡¯ve been with you for many years, and I¡¯ve clearly seen what you¡¯ve done over the years. You are a great, noble, kind and honest god. It will be my luck and honor if you are willing to promote me to be an electorate. Whether as a researcher or as a god in the future, I am willing to stand firmly behind you and follow your footsteps.¡± With that, he knelt down on one knee to Sui Xiong. ¡°Arcaian Pasteur swears here. I will be loyal to His Majesty, Void Mask, Auscar in my life. If I break my oath in the future, my deity may collapse, my strength may disappear, and my soul may fall into the Underground River and restart a new round of life!¡± In this world, masters didn¡¯t swear casually. Once oaths were made, the stronger the master was, the easier he would be punished. There had been many normal people who swore as casually as drinking water, but gods always refused to swear. And that was the reason. As for gods, even if the oath had been made when they were mortals, as long as the oath included something related to him after getting the title of God, he still would be punished. There were no exceptions. Arcaian had sworn today so that even if he got the title of God in the future, he would not be able to circumvent this oath. In other words, once the oath was made, he tied himself to Sui Xiong¡¯s camp. From then on, he could not retreat from it in any situations. They shared honor as well as danger together. He was no longer able to retreat at any time. But he didn¡¯t care about that. He believed in His Majesty Void Mask¡¯s character. Following such a god, even if he died unluckily in the future, he will have died for the right and just things. What¡¯s more, he was not confirmed to die, but he was confirmed to get the title of God. Facing such a great benefit, even if there was a risk of life and death, he had to take the chance. Of course, these were all his thoughts. There was no need to speak them out. All in all, it was a good choice to be loyal to His Majesty Void Mask. It was absolutely right! Seeing him swear his loyalty, Sui Xiong smiled and nodded. He raised his tentacles and gently laid them on his shoulders. ¡°I promote you to be my electorate.¡± According to the common rules, at this time he should say some encouraging words and give him a title or something, but Sui Xiong thought that as long as Arcaian stepped into the Legendary Realm, it wouldn¡¯t be long before got the title of God. Arcaian would be a god sooner or later; why should he waste energy thinking of a title? So everything was simplified, and only the powerful Divine Power, like a torrential river, was poured into Arcaian¡¯s body. It washed and tempered his body and soul and improved his strength rapidly. A moment later, Arcaian¡¯s eyes flashed; two golden-green flames burned in his pupils, and an invisible momentum rose from his body. All kinds of equipment in the laboratory were blown by his momentum, shaking slightly. In the sky above the laboratory, the clear sky suddenly became cloudy. Dark clouds swirled rapidly into a small whirlpool, but they did not really fall. Everyone on the ground had noticed that. Most of them were frightened, but there were also some that felt surprise and joy for they knew what had happened. Most of the church leaders knew that the direction of the whirlpool corresponded with the underground laboratory of Master Pasteur. The vision that appeared at this moment was that Master Pasteur¡¯s strength was advancing by leaps and bounds into the Legendary Realm. Although Master Pasteur seemed to have just stepped into the Advanced Realm, as a descendant of the advanced elves in the legend, he might have some special abilities and treasures to make his strength suddenly grow. Or maybe he had found something remarkable in his research that made him suddenly become so powerful. But anyway, for the Void Mask Land and the church, this was a good thing! The crowd was in high spirits. After a moment, the strange vision in the sky disappeared. Some impatient people had called their friends, coming in groups to the entrance of the underground laboratory to visit the new Legendary Master. However, when they just reached the door, they heard Sui Xiong¡¯s voice. ¡°Arcaian is adjusting his spirit and stabilizing his realm. If you want to see him, you have to wait until he gets the title of God.¡± Everyone was shocked. They looked at each other, wondering if they had misheard something. There seemed to be something wrong¡­ What did ¡®wait until he gets the title of God¡¯ mean? Didn¡¯t he just enter the Legendary Realm? Why did Sui Xiong mention something so far away as getting the title of God? From the Legendary Realm to achieving divinity, wasn¡¯t there at least a Demigod Realm? Had the law of the world changed so that the Legendary Realm had been the same as getting divinity? For a time, the people were confused, but they had heard Sui Xiong¡¯s order to go back and not disturb Arcaian. Although they did not understand what was going on, the order of His Majesty Void Mask always had to be carried out, so they left in doubt one by one. They were thinking of waiting until next time to meet His Majesty Void Mask so they could ask about it. Or they would ask when they met Master Arcaian Pasteur. But maybe he would be a God at that time. That was a little weird. Inside the lab, Sui Xiong smiled and looked at Arcaian whose body had a faint golden-green flame slightly moving on it. He said, ¡°You have really accumulated a lot of power. I believe that after a while, you will be able to become a god.¡± ¡°There is still more.¡± Once he entered the Legendary Realm, Arcaian felt the feedback of the power from the source of the world, and he realized the key to becoming a god. At the moment, he was confident and answered with a smile, ¡°Although I have found a way to treat many diseases, I haven¡¯t made it universal yet. Only when I do that can I really get my clergy and succeed in becoming a god.¡± ¡°And what will be your clergy?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°The God of Healing,¡± Arcaian answered. ¡°The pioneer of medical technology, the curb of plague and epidemic, the doctor who saves the poor from illness¡­ It will be my title after I become a god.¡± ¡°It¡¯s long enough.¡± Arcaian laughed. ¡°It¡¯s short actually. For some gods with many clergies, if I wrote out all their titles, it would full of a piece of paper!¡± Sui Xiong could not help but laugh. He patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him, ¡°Then go ahead. Call me when you are going to do that. Then I will find some reliable friends to help you. I¡¯ll never let others make trouble with you.¡± Arcaian nodded and said earnestly, ¡°I really need your help, Your Majesty. When I get the title of God, the God of Plague and the God of Disaster are sure to stop me. I have to ask your favor since I will be unable to fight against them.¡± Sui Xiong was confused. ¡°Why? Why will they stop you? They even don¡¯t know you. Nor do you know them.¡± ¡°Because of a conflict of clergy,¡± Arcaian explained. ¡°Once I get the title of God, the two of them, especially the God of Plague, will surely lose part of his Divine Power, and may even fall down from his divinity directly. By that time, they will naturally feel that, and they will come make trouble to stop me.¡± ¡°Rest assured! If they don¡¯t come, everything will be ok. If they dare to come, I¡¯ll beat them badly that they¡¯ll have to look for their teeth all over the floor!¡± After knowing the reason, Sui Xiong laughed and slapped his body with his tentacles. ¡°Trust me!¡± In a world of decay and gloom, the God of Plague suddenly trembled. He felt intuitively that a terrible thing was about to happen soon¡­ Chapter 339 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Among the gods, the God of Plague had always kept a low profile. He had never shown up in the Pantheon temple nor had he participated in any activities organized by the gods. He had even tried to avoid meeting other gods. He always hid in his rotten world that nobody knew of and spread plagues quietly and secretly. He also resolutely refused to make friends with anyone. He did not even respond to the prayers of his followers nor did he grant magic to anyone. People who believed in him could see him only when their souls were taken away after their death, provided that they had tried to spread the plague while they had been alive without being caught. They could also see him if they had been caught but not been beaten to death, or they had been beaten to death, but their souls had not been thrown into the Underground River or been imprisoned in the hell. After all, such lucky guys were rare, so the believers of the God of Plague, in reality, were basically a group of tragic people who were not loved by others and weak in fighting. They were bad in character and had no strength to organize something. Although there were many gods in the world, there was only one god that made his followers so tragic. In Sui Xiong¡¯s world before his space-travel, there had been so-called homebodies. It was an evolutionary version of indoors-men or indoors-women, and they basically never went out. The God of Plague was a perfect example of that. He not only rarely came out, but he also did not even communicate with others. He just stayed in his rotten world, and nobody knew what he was doing or thinking. If one were to give this world¡¯s gods a mysterious ranking, then he absolutely had the qualification to run for the top! Acting in this extremely secret way prevented him from many crises, but it also brought him great trouble. For example, as long as he communicated with his believers in the human world, it might be possible for him to discover from their prayers that Baron Keane was promoting prevention measures for the plague, or that he might be able to go further and find out where the crisis came from. Or, as long as he was associated with other gods, even the evil ones, the God of Conspiracy who had a bad relationship with Sui Xiong might help Baron Keane inquire about what was going on, and then maybe he could find Arcaian. Or¡­ Whatever, there was no need to give another example. Anyway, nothing had happened. In short, the God of Plague, who was not far away from the crisis, had clearly felt the danger, but he had no way to find out where it came from. What was worse, even at this time, he still insisted on his usual style of being a homebody. He didn¡¯t go out to find what was going on, but instead, he began to strengthen the defense of his holy kingdom. To be honest, he did nothing wrong, but unfortunately, he had missed the point. In the underground laboratory of the Void Mask Land, Arcaian sat quietly on the ground, taking slow and long breaths. With his every breath, the golden-green flame on him bounced slightly like a heartbeat. His strength was improved slightly with that as well. Although this improvement was extremely subtle that even the average Legendary Masters would be unable to notice it, at least he could clearly feel it. His strength was constantly improving bit by bit, and that made him feel great. He felt that his whole person was indulging in it, and he almost forgot everything around him. All his spirit was focused on the feeling of these changes. This state would last for a long time until his strength couldn¡¯t be improved anymore, to the peak of demigod. But in that case, it would be a waste of time. Sui Xiong just looked at him for a while and made up his mind. He called the high-level officers of the church together and began to make arrangements for the spread of medical and epidemic technologies. ¡°There will be a kind of medical technology which can cure most of the infectious diseases without the help of magic, and it can be mastered by normal people?¡± Snow, who was always calm, was shocked and asked. ¡°Does it really work without magic?¡± ¡°Of course. A lot of magic has been used in the research process, but not for now,¡± Sui Xiong answered. ¡°Arcaian has developed a way to distinguish between 21 pathogens and has found reliable treatment for eight of them. Although the others are still left with no reliable treatment, he has fully understood the principle of their infection and can effectively prevent them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s incredible!¡± Old Rhode shook his head and exclaimed. ¡°Great! What a great achievement!¡± ¡°Yes, it does deserve to be called great!¡± showing up in his avatar, the God of Knowledge, Wall, also declared. ¡°What I have done is nothing compared to what he has done!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t belittle yourself so much.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Knowledge changes life, and education changes society. What you have done is also very important and meaningful. You two just work in different directions.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± As a student and electorate of Wall, Lord Olian, the Hill Lord of Geerteng City, naturally stood on his teacher¡¯s side. ¡°Although medical treatment can spare people from suffering from illness, more educated intellectuals are still needed to make people live better. Sir, your work is no less important than Master Pasteur¡¯s!¡± ¡°Now our problem is how to promote this technology?¡± Looking at the materials copied by Sui Xiong, the Archbishop of the Void Mask Church, Leon frowned and said, ¡°I took a look at this set of techniques. To be honest, it is very complicated. Without professional training, it is impossible for ordinary people to master it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s mainly complicated in diagnosing. The identification, processing and artificial cultivation of drugs are not very difficult,¡± Sui Xiong, who had already read the full set of information, said. ¡°I plan to set up another physician training class in Lanxiang Technical School to specialize in teaching this technology. But the medicinal herbs can¡¯t be planted in the Void Mask Land. The climate here is not suitable.¡± ¡°I have a suggestion,¡± the mayor of Pyroxene Town, Felix, opened her mouth and said. ¡°There are many kinds of medicine to treat diseases, and they need to be planted in different climates. It¡¯s better to divide them into several places. Those that suit cold climate will be planted in Pyroxene Town, those that are suitable with the mountains will be planted on Geerteng Hill, and those that prefer plain areas will be planted in Garth. We can find an area around the southern Duchy of Thunder to plant those that prefer the warm climate. That will cover almost all kinds of medicinal herbs.¡± Sui Xiong was persuaded and nodded. ¡°I remember there was a noble who believed in me in the Duchy of Thunder, a baron, right?¡± ¡°Yes, that Baron was a little girl who was admitted to our church the previous winter before her brother took part in the Battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day. Later, although his brother came back alive and took over the power of the Hill again, the title still remained with this little girl.¡± As the Archbishop of the Void Mask Church, Leon was clear about all the important things of the Church. ¡°Not long ago, I sent Miramon, the Gourmet, to take over the priest there. According to Miramon¡¯s report, he had a good relationship with the former Baron named Crick Keane. Planting medicinal herbs is also a good way to make money. I believe he will accept it.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°What about the other three places? Is there any problem?¡± ¡°Our Pyroxene Town is okay.¡± Felix laughed. ¡°I have been worried about where to find sufficient financial resources.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no problem with Geerteng Hill,¡± Olian said. ¡°It¡¯s not suitable to grow food in the mountains. But it¡¯s convenient to arrange some people to grow herbs here.¡± ¡°We have to make some preparations in Garth City,¡± Lyon sighed softly. ¡°These years, we have planted many bay leaves around Garth City. Considering the income gap, I have to communicate with an area that can¡¯t produce high-quality bay leaves to persuade them to plant herbs.¡± ¡°Will they agree?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Of course. Between getting our friendship as well as physical, economic interests and offending us, even fools what choice to make.¡± Leon¡¯s smile was full of confidence. ¡°I just wanted to find a place as close as possible to plant herbs¡­ Well, maybe we need to set up a small village specializing in herbal cultivation¡­¡± ¡°Then, how long will that take?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Leon thought it over and said, ¡°It will take about ten days to no more than a month to make sure everything starts!¡± The problem of herbal cultivation had been solved, and the next step should be physician training. It was easier in theory than to cultivate herbs, but it was more troublesome to put it into practice. Physicians should be literate and be able to understand several common dialects on the mainland. Otherwise, they would not be able to communicate effeciently with the patients. They should be able to accurately identify medicinal herbs and diseases and have certain medical experience to ensure the efficacy. They¡¯d better know how to use magic. When there were urgent illness, magic could work faster than any medicine. Generally speaking, the requirements of physicians were still relatively high. They belonged to senior intellectuals in a real sense. If one selected trainees only among normal people, the first stage of training would take several years. Sui Xiong did know that on the earth, a professional physician had to undergo at least six years of training! Although the senior physicians on earth had much more to learn than the entry-level physicians he was training now, the physicians on earth were all excellent high school students. If they had come to this world, each of them would be enough to be a senior intellectual with a completely incomparable knowledge foundation. They had discussed for a long time on the matter of physician training and finally decided not to recruit normal people for the time being. instead, they would select physicians from the low-ranking priests of the Void Mask Church. Sui Xiong would use his Divine Power to help them adjust their knowledge field and then directly send an avatar to teach them. It would take six months to one year to train the first batch of physicians. As long as the first batch of physicians were trained and began to work, the churches of good gods would follow this pattern quickly. It might not be long before there would be a large number of priests who knew medical knowledge. Maybe in a few decades, medicine would become a compulsory course for priests of good gods. Of course, they should not put all their hope on the churches of good gods. Even if they would not follow Sui Xiong¡¯s pattern, the physicians of the Void Mask Church could also help in practical work and teach some good assistants. When these assistants had a certain foundation of medical knowledge, it would be time for them to further study in the physician¡¯s school. That could achieve twice the result with half the effort. As long as this pattern could be stabilized, maybe even without the help of other churches of good gods, it would only take two or three hundred years to popularize the profession of physicians by the power of Void Mask Church alone. ¡°All in all, you should be confident!¡± At the end of the meeting, Sui Xiong concluded. ¡°There may be some difficulties ahead, but the future must be bright! For a long time, we have done a lot of things that others did not think we could do, but we have succeeded. ¡°This time, it won¡¯t be an exception, either!¡± Chapter 340 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Void Mask Church was very efficient. Only half an hour later, Miramon, received the oracle and found Crick to discuss with him about the cultivation of herbs. Listening to him, Crick was astounded at first. Then after careful consideration, he became overjoyed. This could strengthen the relationship between the Keane family and the Void Mask Church, and that would offer the Keane Hill more support. The cultivation of herbs alone had great benefits. The Keane Hill¡¯s harvest was so remarkable that it could maintain peace for a year or two, but trouble had to come eventually. It was like a child holding a large piece of gold and walking alone in a strange street; it was similar to hanging a banner on his body with the word ¡°wanted.¡± So even if it was not to grow herbs, Crick had been considering adjusting the Hill¡¯s agricultural planting plans by cutting grain to free up more land to plant something else. He had considered planting fruit trees since its harvest was just average, and that would not be too noticeable. Moreover, planting fruit trees needed much less manpower, and that could save a lot of human resources for other work. But it also had its shortcomings. It took several years from cultivation to harvest, and it was not advisable to use magic to shorten this period of time, for it would reduce the quality of the fruit. If the vast amount of farmland in the hill was converted into fruitful forests, the agricultural income would be very low in the next few years. As for vegetables, the transportation in this world was quite tragic. Vegetables, which were inconvenient to transport and low in price, could only be sold in their original place and could not bring business exchanges at all. Maybe they could try to increase the output appropriately and improve the living standard of the residents here, but it couldn¡¯t take the lead in developing. In fact, it had the same problem as planting fruit, but fruit trees could produce nuts which were very convenient to ship. Even those fragile ones could be used to make fruit wine, and that was also a good way to earn money. When it came to making wine, grain could also be used in this way. But although it could solve the problem of an overbearing grain harvest, it was still noticeable in others¡¯ eyes, so it wouldn¡¯t work. This was what Crick had planned, but now it looked like he had a better choice. There were some advantages to planting herbs. First, it had less harvest. Even if the price of herbs was high, at least it would not be as noticeable as mountains of grain; second, it would be beneficial to the people and society. As long as it developed to a certain scale, it would attract a lot of kind and honest people to help him in the name of protecting the herbal field. Finally, it could help improve Keane Hill¡¯s position in the circle of Void Mask Church, and that would make it easier to get help at critical moments. Generally speaking, it had all the benefits without any harm. It was perfect! Of course, if one was to consider it very seriously, there were still some disadvantages. For example, planting herbs here would be equal to tying Keane Hill to the camp of the Void Mask Church. If the enemy of the Void Mask Church wanted to make trouble in the future, the enemies might find no way to attack Geerteng Hill, which was protected by the electorate of the God of Knowledge, or Garth City, which was under protection of the Legendary Master, the King of Seaside, Prince Leon Igor. However, they definitely had a way to attack Keane Hill. That was to say, if someone wanted to attack the Void Mask Church in the future, Keane Hill would probably be the first to bear the brunt. But it didn¡¯t really matter. Anyway, Keane Hill¡¯s situation was nothing better than that now. They had been noticed by His Majesty right now. They didn¡¯t know whether they could successfully overcome it. They might be in great danger in the future if they tied themselves to the camp of the Void Mask Church, but it at least this would help them to avoid the current crisis. That was enough. When the situation was as urgent as the fire burning on one¡¯s eyebrow, it would be better to solve the urgent crisis first. So Crick agreed to Miramon¡¯s proposal and immediately began to plan for the herbal field. First, the herbal field should have convenient transportation to make the picking and storage of medicinal herbs easy. Secondly, the herbal field should be clean and tidy, and its interior should be divided into small pieces for better planting and maintenance. Also, it would be better to build it in an eye-catching place so as to distract attention from other hills and from Baron Keane¡¯s unusual harvest. As for other factors, they were many in number and types, so he listed them one by one. Given these considerations, he studied them according to the map of Keane Hill. It was impossible to be near mountains and rivers because it might cause natural and man-made disasters such as beasts, demons, floods and so on. Being too close to the road was not feasible either, for the flying dust might affect the quality of medicinal herbs. It was not suitable to build it in areas that were not flat and open enough because it was not convenient for the farmers to work. After careful consideration, he finally plotted out several areas on the map and selected them as tentative targets. The next day, a high-ranking mage was sent from the Void Mask Church. This mage, named Felix, had a good record in the First World Martial Art Competition. She was known as the Speeding Shooter, and she was good at using a wand to launch various kinds of ray magic. It was said that she was a mage who was highly inclined towards combat. Crick naturally looked at her attributes and was startled by what he had seen: [Special Blood, Intelligence 20, Charm 18, Perception 16, Agility 16, Physique 14.] Apart from being a little less powerful, this female mage was almost a superwoman! And her rank was also cool: [Ranger, Wizard, Ancient Wizard and Magic Bomber, a total of level-19.] Crick was curious to know what an Ancient Wizard and Magic Bomber were. He had never heard of such professions! However, although they had a good feeling towards each other, 60%, after all, they were not friends. He couldn¡¯t ask these kinds of personal questions s soon, so he could only temporarily control his curiosity. Mage Felix had brought a full set of information that not only contained the identification and cultivation of various herbs but also provided many means of disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Twenty-one kinds of bacteria that could cause common symptoms were mentioned in particular. The subtle differences and specific diagnostic methods of these bacteria, as well as the methods of prevention, were also introduced. For eight kinds of bacteria, there was a perfect and reliable treatment program. Crick didn¡¯t know too much about medicine, but looking at it, he believed it would work. ¡°This information¡­ It¡¯s too valuable!¡± he said somewhat uneasily. ¡°This is the result of a master¡¯s research in our church,¡± Mage Felix said. ¡°Many generations of his ancestors have spent more than a thousand years researching, and ultimately his generation has preliminarily succeeded in achieving these results. But he doesn¡¯t want to treasure his research results like those narrow-minded old men; he hopes to spread it out and let more people benefit from it.¡± Crick showed his respect immediately in his heart and worshiped Master Arcaian Pasteur, who had made this material, as a medical saint of all living people. If one were to put this on the earth, perhaps this information alone would be enough for this master to compete with Zhang Zhongjing for the title of the Saint of Medicine. ¡°I will take good care of this information and select excellent talents to study it!¡± he said solemnly. Mage Felix smiled satisfactorily and said, ¡°In fact, our church is preparing a medical school. If you are interested, you can send some people to study there. It¡¯s better to send people with some magic talents because our medical school teaches not only medicine but also diagnostic and therapeutic techniques¡ªmainly theology. Thus, if you don¡¯t mind, we can train them into priests who believe in His Majesty Void Mask.¡± Crick couldn¡¯t help opening his eyes widely and smiled. ¡°Of course not! Just a few days, please. I¡¯ll start to select talents from the hill!¡± After sending Mage Felix away, he couldn¡¯t help jumping up and cheering. ¡°Great!¡± The Void Mask Church was indeed generous in doing things. They not only offered information but also helped train physicians. They were even willing to help train priests! Although the trained priests would believe in Void Mask, they were priests after all! As spell-casters who were good at healing, they would be welcomed by any hill! The more of that kind of spell-caster, the better! Crick had been thinking about cultivating some spell-casters for a long time, but it was very difficult to do so. It would take a lot of time and money for mages, and it required the special, talented blood of wizards. As for warlocks, they had to be called and taught by gods. Other professions of spell-casters also had a variety of harsh requirements. Perhaps these difficulties could be overcome by experienced adventurers, many of whom would try to learn some spells. But for ordinary people, these requirements were simply like a ravine that couldn¡¯t be crossed; it had failed countless people. Now that the opportunity was just in front of him, Crick had to seize it. Perhaps the normal people on his hill were not talented enough to be good priests. But even if only a few skilled physicians could be trained, it would be a great success! In the majority of the Baron¡¯s Hills, it would be precious to have two or three low-ranking priests. Thus, even if the students chosen by him could only become low-ranking priests, that would be enough to make other barons envious. Not to mention that Crick was confident in his own vision. The key attribute of a priest was perception, followed by intelligence and charm. As long as he chose some young people with high marks in these three attributes and provided them with enough support, they would surely be able to learn something useful and come back to benefit the hill. Maybe some of them would be gifted and show their talents in the Void Mask Church. From then on, they would achieve great success and become middle or even high-ranking priests. Thinking about that, Crick couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Chapter 341 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Crick¡¯s extremely outstanding power made it more convenient to look for talents. He took action as fast as possible. It took him less than two days to travel around the hill, and he found eight young men with a perception above 12 and an intelligence above ten. According to his estimates, they were capable enough to become low-ranking priests with that talent, since many of the low-ranking priests he had met were all about this level. Among them, there was a tall man named Thatch, and his perception had been amazingly high¡ªsixteen! Although his intelligence was only nine, Crick still counted him in and planned to recommend him especially. What did his perception of 16 mean? Take Crick as an example¡ªhis perception was 12. When he was sitting inside a house, there was no one who could pass by outside the house without being noticed by him. He could even know whether the one passing by was wearing armor or not or was tall and strong or short and weak. Crick¡¯s wife, the former Baroness Amyveile, had a perception of ten. She could hear whether there was someone passing by outside the house as well, if it was pretty quiet inside the house. If someone deliberately walked gently without any noise outside, she would not know it even though it was very quiet inside the house. Then with a perception of 16, what would Thatch be like? Even if someone glanced at him secretly, he would feel it and look back. He could also exactly feel whether others liked him or not. At the selection of talents, a group of young men was standing there, waiting for Crick¡¯s choice. Crick looked at them one by one, and then he stopped at Thatch for a moment. After he looked at his attributes, he smiled. Thatch felt that immediately and smiled, too. Later, Crick asked him what he had smiled at. Thatch answered, ¡°Your Lordship, I felt that you were satisfied with me.¡± Crick was astonished at that, he asked, ¡°Then can you feel what I¡¯m thinking now?¡± ¡°No, I can¡¯t. But just now you seemed very surprised,¡± Thatch said with confusion. ¡°Is there anything surprising?¡± If this guy was capable enough to read people¡¯s mind, Crick would definitely not let him be a priest. It would be better to send him to learn more about Raffle or Rena; then he could be a spy, disguising as a soldier beside him. That brought Crick great surprise in his heart. He had never expected that one would be so capable with such relatively high attributes. Then he thought of Mage Felix, whose perception was also 16. Sh*t! She had been very kind to me after several words. Was it because she felt that I admired her great attributes and rank¡­? That¡¯s embarrassing¡­ But it was too late to regret. Crick sighed in his heart and left this matter aside. He began to think about other things. Most of these eight young men would be able to learn something and make further achievements in the future. Some of them would even be able to become mid-rank or high-ranking priests. Then how would he make sure that they would stay loyal to Keane Hill rather than going to other hills after their graduation? He thought it over it a bit but figured nothing out. There were always more solutions than questions. Where could he find the solution? It was planned by the people. No matter what if Crick planned to stop them from going to work for other hills, they could find solutions to escape sooner or later. If they escaped to the remotest corner of the world one day, would he chase them there? Absolutely not! Thinking on that, he smiled bitterly and shook his head, giving up the plan to restrict these young men. If they wouldn¡¯t come back after graduation, then just let them go. They learned how to cure disease and save people, so it would be a good thing wherever they went. They would make a living based on what they had learned, and that would at least not be a shame for Keane Hill. If they were willing to come back here, Crick would warmly welcome them. If they wanted to adventure to other hills, Crick would support them as well. Since countries on the earth supported their young men to study overseas and create a career abroad, he, a space-traveler, should be as generous as that too. Maybe several years later, these young men¡ªfor example, Thatch¡ª could succeed in their career and make great achievements as famous great men; they would more or less help Keane Hill developing. Thinking in this way, Crick felt at ease. He took the time to give them a lecture, mainly advising them to work hard, not to be afraid to ask questions, and to communicate with their teachers and classmates and make more friends, etc. Although these young men were still normal citizens right now, most of them would be priests in the future. As long as they became priests, they would step into the circle of adventurers and low-ranking nobles. They couldn¡¯t be as loyal and cowardly as normal citizens anymore. They had to be more active and move forward. Crick talked for such a long time that his mouth was dry. He was not sure whether what he had said would be useful to them, but he knew that that was all he could do. After the lecture, he treated these young men to a good meal and asked the servants in the Baron House to help them get dressed. All of them put on new clean clothes. Next morning, Crick brought them to visit Mage Felix. Hearing that it had taken only two days for Crick Keane, who had been ill, to travel around the hill and select eight excellent young men, Felix couldn¡¯t help but feel surprised. She looked at Crick in a more respected way. Keane Hill was not very large, but it was not small either. A man, who knew nothing about transmission magic or flying magic, could travel around the hill and screen out talents within such a short time. His working efficiency was amazing. How talented are these young men? Thinking on that, she cast a spell and looked at these young men with her eyes full of flashing silver light. Through this spell, she could see the basic attributes and talent of others. Though it was not as exact as Crick¡¯s magic, it was just enough. In fact, Crick¡¯s magic was based on this spell, too. It was given to him by Sui Xiong after several adjustments. At this moment, in her eyes, these young people were shining in colorful lights which symbolized the basic attributes of their bodies and souls. If one had a special talent or blood, there would be a special light on their body¡ªhowever, if their talent was too weak or their blood was not special enough, there would be nothing. She was astonished at what she had seen. She had thought that it would be good if one or two of these young men had good qualifications. However, to her surprise, although they looked ordinary and one of them even seemed to be a little dull, their qualifications were amazingly good. All of them had much higher perception and intelligence than ordinary people. In a word, even the one with the worst qualifications had the possibility to become a low-ranking priest. What was even more surprising to her was Thatch, the tall man who seemed a little dull at first sight. Although he had a slightly lower intelligence, his perception was surprisingly high, and he hadn¡¯t received any training yet. Generally speaking, after the professional training of priests, the trainees¡¯ perception would be improved. After they became formal priests, it would increase a little more. If they managed to become mid-rank or high-ranking priests, it would increase again. Therefore, high-ranking priests had a surprisingly high perception. They could know the exact number of a group of walking people by a simple glance, they could easily find out which one had a wounded leg and was not flexible in walking among these people by listening to their footsteps, and they could even figure out which one was older among a nest of ants that were crawling around. Some of them were so capable that they could see through most of the traps and magic arrays only by looking, and they could tell whether others¡¯ words were true or not by listening. They could feel whether the space nearby was stable or not by feeling. Determining the quality of weapons by touching and telling whether food was poisonous or not by smelling was a piece of cake to them as well. It was amazing how powerful the perception of those outstanding high-ranking priests was. If Thatch were trained to be a priest in the future, as long as he advanced to a high-ranking priest, he would be one of this kind of priest with amazingly high perception. However, would he be a high-ranking priest? Felix was not sure about it. But at least judging from his current talent, there should be no problem. For priests, the most important thing to improve their abilities was to feel and understand God, so perception remained highly important. Thatch¡¯s perception was so high that it was possible for him to become a high-ranking priest. Maybe he would be a slightly dumb one, but what did that matter? Behind the priest was God, and His Majesty Void Mask was never afraid of losing face. He surely would support the priest directly at any critical moment. No matter how dull Thatch was, it didn¡¯t matter. His Majesty was smart. That was enough. For the rest, it depended on personal experience and luck. The silver light in Felix¡¯s eyes faded away, and a satisfied smile appeared on her face. When the effect of the spell was about to disappear, she had an idea and looked at Crick next to her. Then she was shocked and frowned at what she had seen. Although there were lights in various colors that represented different attributes on him, there was a more intense number of divine lights. On his body, there were several Divine Powers entangled with each other, and it was hard to tell if they were good or evil. But anyway, if a human body was entangled by several contradictory Divine Powers, they would definitely hurt him! Maybe¡­ This is his secret? Felix quickly suppressed her astonishment. She said that these young men were excellent and thanked Baron Keane for selecting them. She especially praised Thatch for his promising future and also encouraged him to be self-reliant and not to waste his talent. After that, she was ready to take the young men away. Before she left, she suddenly remembered the strange situation on Crick¡¯s body. She could not help but ask, ¡°Baron Keane, is there anything else you want to talk about? Or¡­ Is there anything I can do for you?¡± Crick was surprised at first, then overjoyed, and tentatively said, ¡°As far as I know, the Void Mask Land has been buying a lot of grain to make good wine, hasn¡¯t it?¡± Felix was also surprised for she had not expected that he would talk about something else other than his body¡¯s condition. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right,¡± she answered. ¡°But because of the inconvenience of transportation, we bought a lot of grain at a time and took it away directly by magic.¡± Crick laughed. ¡°That¡¯s great. We¡¯ve got a bumper harvest this year at Keane Hill, so we have a lot of grain to sell. Can you take your time to see if it¡¯s worth doing business with?¡± A Baron Hill, no matter how good a harvest it had, how much grain could it produce? Felix laughed in her heart but accepted the request. She followed Crick to a well-guarded warehouse. She froze when the warehouse opened. Golden grains piled up like mountains, almost filling the entire warehouse. This was definitely not a Baron Hill¡¯s harvest! She turned her head around in surprise and wanted to ask something, but she didn¡¯t. Everyone had their own secret. There must be a big secret behind such a rich harvest. She and Baron Keane were not very good friends, and so, she should not ask about such secrets. Crick rubbed his hands, smiled anticipatively and asked, ¡°These are not for eating this year. Can I sell them to you?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± After Felix left, Crick stood in the empty warehouse and couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Now, those greedy guys can¡¯t rob any grain from me!¡± Since he laughed, he started to cough violently. However, the worse he coughed, the more happily he laughed. Chapter 342 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The troublesome things on the Baron Keane Hill, which had happened because of the harvest, had finally ended. About a month later, another messenger of the Grand Duke of Thunder came to Keane City from the capital. The strength of this high-level knight was powerful, so naturally, Crick and his men couldn¡¯t strike a heavy blow at him secretly. He also had a high-level mage with him. However, no matter how strong they were, Crick always replied with the same words. ¡°As a reward for receiving protection, I sold the crops to the Church of Void Mask.¡± The messenger did not believe this reply at first, but they couldn¡¯t find the large number of crops that should be piled up after searching for it again and again. And the results of lie-detecting spells also proved that the crops were no longer at Keane Hill. So they had to give up and sneak away. As for the option of ¡°grabbing crops from the Church of Void Mask,¡± those who would do such a thing were basically unlikely to die before becoming a high-level strongman. It was like the question on earth that asked, ¡°Why aren¡¯t American middle-class people killed when fighting against the police?¡± The reason was very simple. These kinds of people were either in the bottom layer of society or among the rich second generation. In short, it was unlikely for them to enter the middle class¡­ Before he left, the knight from the capital solemnly warned Crick. He mainly told him about the knight¡¯s virtues, such as being patriotic and loyal to the throne, being dedicated and diligent, and being selfless and contributing. Crick seemed to listen carefully to his speech, nodding again and again, but refused to promise anything. Seeing that he was pretending to not understand his implication, the knight who had a high status was somewhat annoyed. ¡°Baron Keane, you are also a knight of the Grand Duke, so don¡¯t forget the rules of the knights!¡± he shouted in a strict voice. ¡°A knight?¡± Crick asked, smiling. ¡°When I was fighting a bloody battle in the battlefield of Sun¡¯s Death Day with the Groundbreaking Knight (the God of Knights), I didn¡¯t remember seeing you. Could you tell me where you were fighting? What was your achievement?¡± The knight¡¯s face suddenly became dark, and he couldn¡¯t say a word. He suddenly realized that the former baron, who was sick in front of him, was a fierce person who had survived the bloody battle in which legendary strongman had only been soldiers. Moreover, he was also a hero who had fought alongside the God of Knights. In the aspect of ¡°Knight¡¯s Virtues¡± and ¡°Knight¡¯s Rules,¡± the baron could be called a model. One was just asking to be insulted if they talked about that with Keane! After wrinkling his eyebrows for a long time, the knight said again, ¡°Even if you don¡¯t think about the problem from the perspective of a knight, you should consider the problem from the perspective of a lord.¡± This was an implied threat, but it still couldn¡¯t make Crick change his mind. ¡°How do you see my territory?¡± Crick asked with a smile. After being silent for a while, the knight said, ¡°Good. Although the place is not big, it operates very well. The life of the people is stable, and the army is also trained well. According to the condition of the territory, it¡¯s hard to imagine that just two years before, the territory sent troops to participate in the war. In the past two years, I have seen several territories which sent troops to participate in the war at that time. They were unable to recover from the heavy losses. Some of them focused on the people¡¯s livelihood, so the army was full of rookies and cellars, complete rubbish; some paid attention to the army, so they levied so many taxes that the life of the people was unbearably hard. But those two problems don¡¯t appear at Keane Hill. The big battle seems to have had no influence on here at all. It is incredible!¡± ¡°Actually, we also suffered heavy losses at the beginning.¡± Crick sighed. ¡°Even I, the lord, was seriously injured. My best friend, Spencer, died on the battlefield. You can imagine the situation.¡± The knight nodded with respect. ¡°But, I still led my people to quickly climb out of the trough and re-develop,¡± Crick said, smiling. ¡°I think I am kind of a good lord, right?¡± The knight nodded. ¡°So, do you think that I¡¯m a person who has no sense of importance and who courts death?¡± The knight was silent and then smiled. ¡°You are right; I was worried overly.¡± Crick said, sighing, ¡°But there is something I¡¯ve been wondering, our grand duke¡­ What is he thinking about?¡± The knight stunned. Crick said again, ¡°I have asked myself this, and I think I¡¯m loyal to his majesty. He wanted to support the Kingdom of Eagle, so I brought all the properties of my territory to the battlefield, and I almost died there. As a result, I came back with injuries and wounds, and all of my subordinates almost died. He did not give me a single word of condolence, nor did he give me a little bit of comfort. Now he turns around to ask me to support others?!¡± The knight sighed deeply, looking very sad. ¡°Sir, don¡¯t you think this is a bit inappropriate? Maybe some bad character is around his majesty encouraging him to make mistakes?¡± The knight was silent for a long time and finally sighed deeply again. He patted Crick¡¯s shoulder, shook his head without a word, and left with on his horse with the mage who had been waiting. Unlike the silent and indifferent mage, the high-level knight¡¯s figure was a little desolated when he left. Looking at them as they went away, Crick frowned with a bad idea in his mind. It seemed that¡­ there was really a problem in the top class of the Duchy of Thunder, especially around the Grand Duke of Thunder! But these things were really too far away from a baron. He just wrote them down, asking Rafael to pay a little attention to them when he had the time, and that was all. Most of the things involving a duchy and a duke were earth-shattering events. Crick didn¡¯t expect to be profitable in such big events. He only wanted to find them out before the danger came so that he could escape in time. This requirement couldn¡¯t be any lower. He thought that Rafael and others still could do it. This was the end of the matter, and there were no more people sent by the capital. As for how the Grand Duke thought about it, and if anyone would say something bad about him behind his back, Crick had no time to deal with that. It was not far from winter, so he had to hurry and organize the farmlands to plant some fruit, trees, and herbs. Then he could start what he had already prepared for a long time. ¡­ Militiamen training. The Baron Keane¡¯s territory currently had crops and money¡ªa lot of money. The crops were sold at such a good price that Crick thought that the money was miscalculated when Archbishop Miramon sent it to him. With this money, Crick¡¯s had confidence. With the addition of enough stored food in his territory, he decided to gather the youths to give them some basic military training when they had nothing to do during the winter. Of course, the training time should not be too long, and the intensity should not be too high. On one hand, ordinary civilians didn¡¯t need to be a high level as long as they could be assistants for the army. On the other hand, after all, there was still work to do in the winter, so they couldn¡¯t spend too much time training. The content of the training was divided into several parts. The first part was line training. The content of the training roughly included standing, lining up, code words and simple military regulations. It was totally crazy to ask a group of farmers to follow orders. However, it should be possible for them to only learn some basic military common sense and cultivate the basic military attainment. Even if they couldn¡¯t do it this year, they could get trained next winter. There was no hurry anyway. The second part of the training was the use of spears. Spears were the simplest and most practical of all the cold weapons. Although other weapons had various uses, spears were the easiest to train to new recruits who had no foundations. Unlike the regular army who had mastered all kinds of advanced skills and generally had a soldier level of three to four, the militiamen only needed to learn how to use spears in two moves. The first move was thrusting. The second move was hacking down. The first move was for killing, and the second move was for fighting. In the battles of civilians, they were enough. Of course, thrusting was also divided up, middle and lower jabs, and several people united to besiege. Hacking down had several technical classifications as well, which were not simple. But after all, there were just two moves, and there was enough time for them to practice. This winter, the training of the militiamen was carried out three times, once a month, and five days each time. Although the combat strength of the farmers didn¡¯t improve much, after the three sessions of military training, they were at least a little well behaved in lining up. When they held the wooden spears to practice thrusting and hacking down together, the power of them shouting in unison could scare people to some degree. Although it was actually a simple form, Crick was still satisfied that they could do that in just one winter. As they had plenty of time, the rest would continue to be practiced next year. Chapter 343 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the winter military training of the Baron Keane Hill, an interesting thing occurred. At the time of the second military training, a large group of farmers were lined up in the grain-filled ground and worked hard to practice the thrusting techniques under the guidance of the junior officer. Suddenly, the sentinel who was responsible for standing guard at the village watchtower screamed and rang the alarm bell. Every village or town¡¯s watchtower had an alarm bell, and once the sentinel found an emergency, he would ring the bell. When he rang the bell, the elderly, the weak, women and children should hide as soon as possible, and the young and strong must gather immediately, trying to resist the threat. This was the common practice in every place of the Main Plane, so various settled races were similar in practice. When the bell rang, the farmers immediately panicked. The last time the bell had rung had been when Crick¡¯s brother, Geersan Keane, had been in charge. At that time, a terrible troll had come to the territory. When Geersan led a team to kill the monster, he had been seriously injured. He had already died before he was sent to the temple to receive the priest¡¯s treatment. That was already five years ago. For most people, five years was such a long period of time that many people had forgotten that horrible experience. However, at this moment, when the bell rang, the horrible memory of five years ago emerged from the hearts of the people who had seen the monster. Their legs could not help but shake, and they almost couldn¡¯t stand still. That horrible monster had had a gray-green body like a hill and had been covered with thick moss. It was powerful, but what had been even more frightening had been that it was almost impossible to kill. More than once, brave soldiers had pierced their sharp spears into his body, watching the green blood spurting out. However, in a time of a sentence, the spurting blood had stopped, and after a few more sentences, the wound had begun to heal. It was incredible. The brave Baron Geersan had grief because of this. He had taken a group of people and tied up the monster with a strong rope. Then, he had knocked him down together with them and waved a big ax to chop it. Its head was cut off, and there was blood flowing all over on the ground. At that time, everyone had thought that this guy was not completely dead. His head had been cut off, so how could he not die? As a result, the accident had happened on the way back to show his body in public. The chopped-off head had reemerged, and the ¡°corpse¡± resting on the plank cart had recovered its vitality. The resurrected monster had jumped up and slammed down with his fists. He had hit Baron Geersan who had been riding on the horse. The poor baron had been knocked off, rolling on the ground with his body almost changing into another shape. With the joint effort of the soldiers and the hunters, the monster had been tied up again and then had been cut into pieces and burned to ashes. However, Baron Geersan had died because of his heavy injuries. No one knew what the monster that came to attack this time would be. If it was the same as last time, that would be fine. After the last time, everyone had experience. They were afraid that if it were some other horrible thing, for example, a legendary dragon or something¡­ The farmers obviously thought too much. Of course, the Duchy of Thunder had a dragon. However, which dragon would be so bored to come to attack a small village? Was there anything a dragon wanted here? Glittering gold coins? The gems used to decorate a cave? Food with strong vitality? There was nothing here. For a dragon, it was a completely barren land! After a while, under the leadership of the officer, the militiamen saw the incoming monsters. They were two ogres running out of nowhere. Using the height of a normal man as a reference, they were at least a little more than twice as high as him. Unlike trolls, they were smelly and powerful, using thick wooden sticks as weapons. They caught everything to eat, so people were naturally in their recipe. These kinds of monsters were very dangerous because they often caused serious damage. Although they didn¡¯t have undead bodies like trolls, their destructive power was stronger than trolls. Trolls often found a place to sleep when they were full, and sometimes they could sleep for three or five days after a meal. However, ogres must eat two meals every day, which resulted in an amazing gap in food intake. More importantly, trolls were omnivorous. If they couldn¡¯t find any animals to eat, they could eat grass as well. Ogres were different. They had to eat meat, and they were keen on catching creatures with two legs that ran slowly and were short of fighting capacity. That was the origin of the name ¡°ogre.¡± If they followed the rules of the last time, the militiamen who attempted to use ropes to tie the ogres would suffer great losses. After all, ogres were more powerful than trolls, and they were also good at using big sticks, so their combat power was much stronger than trolls. Fortunately, the junior officer who led the training had seen the ogres¡¯ information while studying. As an elite of the new army, he had firmly remembered the information of the common or particularly dangerous monsters. The ogres were among them. Therefore, he immediately began to make preparations, mainly to quickly convert spare spears into throwing spears. Then he had the hunters arrange in formation. Fortunately, the ogres were slow. When they reached outside the village, the hunters had finished the preparations. It was a fierce battle. The power of the ogres was unmatched in front of ordinary farmers. If the ogres attempted a melee attack, hundreds of people would be defeated in one swoop. However, relying on the two hunters in the village who attracted them with arrows, these two stupid big monsters were led to an open place, and what was waiting for them was more than a dozen throwing spears whistling towards them. While the ogres were roaring because of the pain caused by their injuries, the officer led his team to get close. They threw cables and fishing nets temporarily trapping them, and then they threw their spears again. Finally, the brave officer led several villagers with great strength to end the battle with spears. The battle was not long, but the result was great. Only one officer and dozens of militiamen, as well as two hunters, had killed two horrible ogres with simple weapons. Such military gains were splendid even in those brave areas where even children could use weapons. Moreover, Baron Keane Hill was not the kind of place where brave people appeared one after another. What was popular here was culture and art, and even farmers liked to sing and dance in their leisure time instead of fighting. But it was this group of scholars or artists that had done what ordinary warriors couldn¡¯t do! For this reason, Crick commended the officer named York greatly, giving him a bonus as well as a medal. As a hero who had led a group of farmers to kill two ogres, he deserved this honor. Interestingly, York himself also benefited greatly from this battle. His professional level increased another sergeant level on the basis of his original soldier level of four. With a combat level of five, he was enough to qualify as a professional. More importantly, ¡°sergeant¡¯ was a profession which belonged to commanders. York could comprehend this profession in the battle, which meant he had this talent. Commanding was a very rare talent. A person who had not been specially trained but could comprehend the commanding profession relying only on last-minute planning and battle experience deserved great cultivation! Therefore, after the commending, York¡¯s job was mobilized. Crick contacted Mr. Gerald, the legendary strongman ¡°Steel Giant,¡± the head of the Knights of the Church of Void Mask through Archbishop Miramon. He sent Mr. Gerald a lavish gift, asking him to let York learn officer knowledge in the Void Mask Knights. Unlike the fierce appearance, Mr. Gerald was a very easy-going person. He didn¡¯t want to accept the gift, but he couldn¡¯t stand Crick¡¯s repeated pleading. When he finally accepted the carefully prepared gift, he was actually a little flustered. This made Crick feel a bit weird but also more assured of the character of the legendary strongman. He believed that York would be able to succeed while learning from the knights. Baron Keane Hill could confer titles of knights on three people, and there was still a seat empty. If York could become a good commander, then perhaps he would be the last knight of Baron Hill. ¡°Keane Hill is still too small after all, and the people are still too few here¡­¡± After sending away York, Crick sat in his chair, thinking for a long time. Then he couldn¡¯t help but sigh deeply. He had already detected them with his own ability. Among the civilians on Keane Hill, there were no more people with great talents or high qualifications. If he wanted to find such talents, he could only search elsewhere. Fortunately, in the past few years, the management of the territory had also formed a virtuous cycle. When the fruit trees were strong, the herbs could be picked, and the workshops for brewing fruit wines were built. Everything should be all right. When he wrote it down, he felt a little painful and stuffy in his chest. He put down the charcoal pen that was used to record his own piecemeal ideas and gently tapped his chest. He coughed a lot. ¡°This illness seems to be worse¡­¡± This time, he coughed for a long time before it gradually subsided. He took the therapeutic potion with honey inside it next to his hand, took a sip and then let out a low sigh. He had investigated his physical condition in detail, and he had also looked for several priests to help him. The conclusion had basically been the same: although he had come back from the battlefield of ¡°Sun¡¯s Death Day¡± alive, he had been involved in a fierce battle with a mortal body. Therefore, he had been infused with a variety of Divine Powers, and it had formed around him like a curse. The priests could dispel the curse on him with prayers even if the curse came from the infusion of Divine Powers. A master like Archbishop Miramon could help him dispel it, too. However, because all kinds of Divine Powers in his body faintly formed a balance, even if Archbishop Miramon didn¡¯t dare to act rashly, fearing that if the balance was destroyed, some magical powers would burst out. At that time, Archbishop Miramon would probably be able to withstand it, but he was afraid that Crick¡¯s soul might be destroyed. It may even be impossible to resurrect. Therefore, Crick could only tolerate these Divine Powers fighting against each other, which seemed to use his body as a battlefield. In the course of the battle, his body was of course deeply affected. Even though he kept maintaining it, often taking therapeutic potions, he could barely stand it. Now he spent more than 100 gold coins every month on taking therapeutic potions. Fortunately, Priest Morton pastor helped treat it, otherwise he wouldn¡¯t know how much it would cost! ¡°It¡¯s a bottomless pit!¡± Crick sighed inwardly. He only hoped that these Divine Powers would soon determine a winner. No matter which side won, it would be good. Even if he got a serious illness, it wouldn¡¯t matter. It was better to have a short, sharp pain than long, dull pain. A serious illness would at least spare the later troubles! Chapter 344 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Spring returned to the earth, and so everything recovered. In the eastern part of the mainland, close to the inland area which was a little further from the coastline, there was a city called ¡°Rem.¡± The city was now the holy city of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, where more than 40% of the elites in the entire church gathered. The strength was so powerful that even the Kingdom of Blue Moon had no way to deal with them. Therefore, they could only let them develop as an independent city. To put it bluntly, the reason why the city had such a status was greatly related to Leon Igor, the ¡°King of Seaside¡± of Garth City, the Church of Void Mask and the Church of the Goddess of Wealth. Twenty years ago, the holy city of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been Garth City, the most famous commercial city on the east coast. Later, a battle had broken out in Garth City in which the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had lost to the God of Marsh. When her avatar was going to be swallowed up, she was so angry that she blew up the avatar, blowing up the entire Garth City into ruins. Fortunately, Prince Leon Igor, the archbishop of the Church of Void Mask, had led the surviving residents to work so hard that they rebuilt Garth City above the ruins, avoiding the occurrence of more tragedies. Because they had hated the disaster caused by the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, the people of Garth City had gradually given up their faith in her. Instead, they had believed in the Goddess of Wealth and the Void Mask who had made great contributions in the process of reconstruction. Now the city and its surrounding areas mainly believed in these two gods. Of course, there were also some people who believed in other gods, but very few believed in the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. The Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest certainly hadn¡¯t allowed this, so they had tried hard to fix it. First, a large number of manpower had been dispatched to do missionary work, trying to get the faith back. After being defeated by the governor, Leon Igor, they had used force. They had dispatched a large number of elite masters to try to use violence to clean the Church of the Goddess of Wealth and the Church of Void Mask out so that they could capture faith forcibly. As a result, they had kicked the iron plate. Garth City had been loose on the surface but tight on the inside. It seemed that there had been no masters, only in addition to Leon, one of the strongmen. In fact, a large number of masters of the Church of the Goddess of Wealth gathered from the portal at an earlier time. The masters of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had rushed in, and suddenly they had fallen into the trap. They had been completely defeated, and even the legendary strongmen had been killed. Moreover, they had even lost an important artifact of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest in Garth City. This incident had dealt a heavy blow to the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Although the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had retaliated, causing the main bases of the Goddess of Wealth, the Dhaka Commercial Association and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to fall into famine, they had not been able to solve the problem. Later, in order to retrieve this artifact, they had to compromise with the Church of the Goddess of Wealth. They had promised never to do missionary work in Garth City, never to participate in any movements or planning against Garth City, and to immediately offer information once they had learned of something harmful to Garth City. With those three promises, they were able to exchange for the vital artifact. However, it had been good for Rem City. Rem City had originally been the second largest city in the belief system of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Because of the loss of faith in Garth City, the top class inside the church had been divided into the ¡°Recapture the Holy City¡± party and the ¡°Re-establish the Holy City¡± party. There had been no doubt that the top class of Rem City belonged to the latter one. The struggle between the two parties had been fierce. At first, the ¡°Recapture the Holy City¡± party had taken the absolute advantage, and the ¡°Re-establish the Holy City¡± party had been badly suppressed. Like the religions on earth, once the holy city had fallen into the hands of others, people always wanted to find ways to get it back. They had never given up until they had achieved their aims or until they were completely defeated. Of course, some religions had developed, giving up the ignorant and backward, traditional church form, so there naturally had been no such thing as a holy city. The ¡°Recapture the Holy City¡± party of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had made several big moves before and after, and finally, they had quieted down when the elites among the top class had been completely defeated. And for the blessing of this dispute, the ¡°Re-establish the Holy City¡± party had prevailed in the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. They had taken Rem City as the holy city and had worked hard for a few years, gradually making it look like a holy city. Today, in Rem City, people could see the huge holy emblem of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest on the tower before entering the gate. If a person looked carefully, they would find that every guard of the gate also had a holy emblem of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest on their armor. After entering the gate, people could see the same holy emblems hanging on the door of every house in the city. Even most of the pedestrians had the graphic pattern of the holy emblem on their clothes. On every large open space in the city, there was a statue of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Some people worshiped and prayed in front of the statue all day long. In the vision of the magical aura, every statue was radiant, which meant that all of them were divine. Even from every holy emblem in the city, people could feel the divine power of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. An adventurer and mage who had just entered the city were stunned. After a while, he returned to his sense, turned and left regardless of his tasks or anything else, taking all his companions with him as well. None of them stayed here under his forceful persuasions. The guards of the gate were not surprised because similar things had happened many times in the past few days. Almost every experienced adventurer had made similar choices, and no one dared to stay. Something abnormal must have a horrible reason! Now the situation in Rem City was definitely not what should happen in a usual holy city! The most famous holy city on the mainland was currently the ¡°Land¡± of the Church of Void Mask. However, even in that holy city, everyone could only feel the omnipresent majestic power of the Void Mask¡¯s Majesty. There would never be holy emblems and statues everywhere, even though those holy emblems and statues were all divine. Was this the posture of a holy city? This was clearly an act to draw attention! A man should never stand under a dangerous wall, and that was the principle of drawing on advantages and avoiding disadvantages. This was known to all the veteran adventurers. Even if there were great benefits, they would never give in into such big news. The battle in Garth City had happened just 20 years ago, so many people who had experienced it were still alive! If there was another explosion of the god¡¯s avatar this time, well, the scene would be too beautiful to imagine. The tallest and biggest building in Rem City was now the temple of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. The house of the city owner, which had originally been a little taller and bigger than it, especially removed two floors to avoid getting in its way. The city owner was naturally very dissatisfied, but he had no choice. In fact, he had already been under the spell that could control his mind, and the caster was a legendary priest. It was estimated that he had no hope of getting rid of the control for his whole life. On the roof of the temple, a huge stone-carving holy emblem was standing there. On the flat ground at the top of the holy emblem, a white-haired old man was there. He was wearing a gorgeous robe, holding a colorful wand, and carrying a pendant with a strange glow on his chest. These three treasures were the sacred objects of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, including the magic items used before the goddess had become the god and the artifacts created personally by the goddess after she had become a god. Every treasure had earth-shattering power. At this moment, as the three treasures gathered together, although they had not yet exerted their power, only their revealed pressure had covered the entire Rem City. With such preparations and such equipment, ordinarily, there should be more than a 70% possibility of success to whatever he was going to do. However, on the old man¡¯s face, there was no such confidence that he would win. Instead, he seemed to have some concerns. He stared at the sky, silent, and sighed softly after a long time. ¡°I hope that¡­ I can succeed,¡± he whispered. ¡°My master, you really need a follower of God!¡± Chapter 345 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The old man was the elder in the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who had lived in seclusion for many years. Two thousand years ago, he had broken through the limit of the Legendary Realm and became an immortal semi-god. Over the years, he had been living in seclusion in a small world commonly known as the ¡°Half Plane¡± by magicians. He devoted himself to improving his levels, hoping to become a god successfully as soon as possible. But two thousand years had passed, and he still felt he had a long way to go despite the progress he had achieved over these years. He did not see any hope. In this case, he gradually became frustrated, and over the last one hundred years, he had been in a kind of idle depression. Recently, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest decided to find a god follower because the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had suffered great losses in the main plane. Then she found him and asked him whether he wanted to be a god follower. Generally speaking, semi-gods were unwilling to become a god follower by direct promotion because if they did so, their roads would be revised and their past efforts would be cast to the winds. What¡¯s more, they would still face huge risks when becoming a god and there would be deviations in understanding and grasping due to different roads, and that would eventually lead to failure. There still existed risks of failure due to inadequate understanding and gasping through relying only on their own strength to become a god. But in practice, one had more chances to become a god depending on their own strength than with direct promotion. Once a man had become a god, he could no longer move forward unless he was lucky and talented enough to improve his original road. Otherwise, he would only stay at the level of weak divine and could not make any progress. From ancient to modern times, few gods had been able to become a god again after direct promotion. In other words, this road was actually a dead end. But for this elder, he had already abandoned his intention to become a god through his own strength, so what did further progress matter to him? He could not even become a god so what did it have to do with him if he could not make progress after becoming a god follower? But he was afraid of death, after all, so he now felt a little uneasy and agitated. It was too dangerous to become a god through this road! But he still wanted to become a god regardless of its great dangers. If he did not try, he could not die in peace. What¡¯s more, the orders of the emperor goddess needed to be respected because her protection and help had contributed a lot to his current achievements. Now, his emperor goddess encountered difficulties which needed a god follower to help, and she found him. He had no choice but to consent to her request. It was like depositing small sums of money every month and drawing out both the principal and interest in a lump sum when the specified time came up. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest had helped him for many years, and that was equivalent to piecemeal deposits. Now she wanted him to become a god follower, which was like drawing out both the principal and interest in a lump sum. It was very fair and reasonable. Without the protection and help of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, he would have died long ago. Even if he was lucky enough to survive, he would not be able to become a semi-god. It was like on earth where a man had succeeded in being a subordinate of a big boss. And when the big boss needed him to risk his life, he could not refuse. Now, he was standing on the holy emblem and could not help but recall his whole life¡¯s¡¯ experiences as he watched the coming danger. I remember when I was young, I was a paladin. Although I believed in the emperor, I was not very pious. Later, I came across a huge opportunity and learned a big secret. If it worked properly, I could get amazing wealth, but I couldn¡¯t get it relying on my own strength. Therefore, I decided to tell this secret to the emperor¡¯s church, hoping to benefit from the power of the Church. Since then, I had become the backbone of the Church and have achieved today¡¯s success step by step¡­ If¡­I didn¡¯t choose to depend on the strength of the emperor¡¯s church, but chose to concede and endure, waiting for the next opportunity, what would happen? Perhaps it would still be the case. I was an ambitious man after all. It was impossible for me to concede and wait all my life. And if I wanted to move forward and seize opportunities, I could only rely on the emperor¡¯s church. In the end, the result would not be much different from what it was now. My life path had been probably doomed. Thinking about this, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh deeply, and his heart was filled with frustration and depression. At this moment, another idea arose in his mind. This time¡­ could I succeed? Everything would be fine. I have been in danger more than once in the past, and I have also experienced more dangerous things than this. I have succeeded in the end. But¡­ I had the emperor protect me in the past. Now, can the emperor still protect me as well? It should be okay. It was just about apotheosizing a semi-god. The emperor has met with much more complicated problems. Even if a rich businessman had problems in the turnover of funds temporarily, it would still be easy for him to subsidize a farmer to make a fortune. Yeah. It was indeed like this! Haha! The Goddess, who never came out and had always spun and manipulated the thread of destiny in the dark, has given me such a destiny, and it shouldn¡¯t end at this moment. I thought I was an actor on your stage; I was quite dedicated and have performed well. You would allow me to continue my performance, wouldn¡¯t you? He thought in silence; his mind was never calm. Time went by slowly, and after the day, there came the night. The night was also passing away slowly, and a new day was coming soon. At midnight, the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest organized the residents of the whole city to pray together in accordance with the previous maneuver. Promoting a god follower was not an easy task, especially for those who didn¡¯t reach the end of their own road and were far from being well-equipped. Promoting people like Wall and Arcaian, who were already well-equipped themselves, was a much easier task, and the god only needed to push them at the critical moment. The possibility of failure was minimal. But this kind of practice didn¡¯t actually refer to the promotion of a god follower. A true sense of promoting a god follower referred to people like the elder of the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who was not qualified in becoming a God but had been promoted to a god directly. Although there was no story about ¡°pulling up seedlings to help them grow¡± in the world, there were similar stories. And everyone knew the results of those tales. So the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had made full preparations. The church had spent lots of money in making the whole Rem City full of holy emblems and icons. The Goddess herself even made those emblems and icons possess sufficient Divine Power at any cost, and a large number of pious believers were also assembled from all sides. They even brainwashed all the residents of the whole Rem City to become believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. At least for the time being, this city was a sacred realm for the goddess and the kingdom of God on the earth! In the Pantheon, many gods were concerned about the situation in Rem City. At least 20 gods came to Rem City in their incarnations, and even Sui Xiong was called by Javier in his incarnation to visit the scene from a distance. ¡°Do you think they will succeed?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously as he watched the holy light gradually rising from the dark in Rem City. Javier shrugged his shoulders, and his pretty appearance made his gesture particularly handsome. ¡°How would I know? There has never been much certainty about such a thing. Since I became a god, I have seen many people attempting to promote a god follower, but in general, most of them have failed, and few have succeeded. In other words, failure is normal while success is¡­ Well, I can¡¯t say it¡¯s abnormal, but it¡¯s certainly not as normal as failure.¡± ¡°Moritre, the God of Harvest, will be very unhappy to hear your words.¡± Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, said with a smile, but her words showed some kind of joy. The reason why the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was so stressed that she risked promoting a god follower that was also one of the chief criminals. ¡°You are so petty.¡± Morani laughed. ¡°But considering that Moritre had been casting her eyes at my little earthworm, I also tended to make her suffer. ¡°It won¡¯t be injured in the sinews and bones anyway.¡± The silent warrior Mo murmured and then picked up his wine gourd. He seemed to be drinking all day long, just like soaking in a wine jar. The God of justice, Yorgaardman, had not spoken yet and watched Rem City carefully. He concentrated his attention on the elder who was in a perfect set of equipment and stood at the top of the temple. He was absorbing the strength of the Holy Emblem from zero distance, without even blinking his eyes. Sui Xiong could not help but look at him carefully for a while when he saw how concentrated he was. But he really could not find anything, just thought that the elder had a strong power and perhaps he could succeed. But just as he thought about it privately, Yorgaardman sighed deeply. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°This man is distracted, and he lacks fighting spirit and determination. He won¡¯t get out of the key step,¡± Yorgaardman whispered. ¡°There are generally two difficulties in becoming a god either through your own strength or by being promoting, except for Wall¡¯s case. The first is to test the understanding and mastery of the road to be taken, and the second is to test whether he can firmly believe in his understanding and mastery or not. With Moritre¡¯s help, there will be no problem in the first difficulty. But the latter difficulty¡­ It¡¯s not easy for a man who had his own path to change his own way and to be firm and steadfast! Throughout the ages, most of the people who want to promote a god follower have failed in this step. It seems that there will be another failure today. ¡± Sui Xiong thought about it and asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t the Goddess of Bumper Harvest choose the road for him? Didn¡¯t he believe in the gods he believed in?¡± ¡°Believe¡­ That¡¯s easier said than done!¡± Yorgaardman shook his head. ¡°If he were to die for Moritre, he would not hesitate. But if asked him to deny his own way and what he has been pursuing for a long time, could he really do so without hesitation and concern and be steadfast all the way? Sui Xiong thought it over carefully and shook his head. ¡°Yes, so it¡¯s hard to promote a god follower! Hard! Hard! Hard!¡± ¡°But how come so many people have succeeded?¡± Javier asked curiously. ¡°Successful people always have their own reasons,¡± Yorgaardman laughed and said. ¡°But the failures are about the same.¡± ¡°Your words are so reasonable!!¡± Sui Xiong gave a thumbs up with his tentacles. ¡°Brother, you are quite philosophical. Why don¡¯t you consider changing your image? For example, you can wear silver shining armor, comb your hair neatly and show a more serious expression. If you do so, you will have more believers.¡± Yorgaardman laughed again and shook his head. His eyes became distant. ¡°For me, justice is standing on the side of the weak who have been oppressed and fighting those who have oppressed and damaged the weak. Most of the people who need my help are in a very awkward situation. Why should I dress myself up like a man who oppresses and damages them?¡± ¡°It¡¯s always necessary to dress yourself up. You look like a beggar on the street, and that makes it difficult for you to have more believers.¡± ¡°Ha ha! I never want people to believe in me, on the contrary, I would rather people never believe in me and do not pray to me!¡± Yorgaardman laughed. ¡°If one day I die for lack of faith, then I would say goodbye to you with a smile. That would be the best and the most perfect ending which I¡¯ve long been dreaming of.¡± During their conversation, the eastern sky became a little white, and the dawn came. This also meant that the critical moment of promoting a god follower was coming! Chapter 346 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Dawn, evening, noon, midnight¡ªthese four time points had a special significance in occultism without any exception in any world. In contrast, these time points on Earth only had theoretical significance, but in this world where God and supernatural forces existed, they had great practical significance. Particularly, the dawn symbolized the birth of life, the germination of power and also the rise of the new gods. In other words, it was the best time to promote a god. ¡°According to statistics, more than 90% of gods succeed in becoming a god at dawn.¡± Even at the most critical and tense moment, Javier¡¯s mouth was still busy. He gazed at Rem City where the holy light was at its strongest point, but he was still ridiculing, ¡°But all the records of the failed gods are also all at dawn.¡± ¡°If that man fails to become a god, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest will definitely come and kill you later.¡± Morani sighed. ¡°She can¡¯t win because we have so many people here.¡± Javier smiled confidently. ¡°When she comes for us, I¡¯ll hide behind you and make you fight with her first.¡± ¡°You are such a good brother!¡± ¡°Of course! Thanks.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mean to praise you.¡± At this moment, the main priest of the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest led all the followers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest to shout loudly together and worship the ground at the same time. Many people even used too much strength to grovel on the ground, and their foreheads started to bleed. Meanwhile, an Oracle who presided over the ceremony brought out the prepared sacrifices¡ªseveral jewels with strong Divine Power, an exotic light ball with strong positive energy, and a dark, mud-like object that emitted a bloody and terrifying smell. These three sacrifices were carefully selected and captured from the ¡°positive¡± and ¡°negative¡± of the rings of the world. They were tuned slightly to the equal strength, and their positive and negative energy had been counteracted by the Divine Power. Finally, they would merge with the Divine Power, wash away the original traces of the Divine Power and purify it to its purest state for the gods to absorb. As long as the Divine Power could be absorbed, it would form a temporary cycling system of Divine Power that could transform the power of faith from Rem City to Divine Power. With high prayers and voices, the power of faith was too strong to promote those sacrifices. The power was shattered and integrated instantly into a clear light, rushing toward the top of the holy emblem. At the same time, there was a crack in the sky that showed the Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest; she was vague and unclear like a mirage. But the Divine Power flowing from the shadows of the Kingdom of Gods was not fake at all! The two Divine Powers, one from bottom to top and the other from top to bottom, collided at the top of the holy emblem; the elder who was preparing to become a god, was standing at the top of the holy emblem. The two distinct but homogeneous Divine Powers overwhelmed him in an instant, and they entangled and intertwined in his body. The elder calmed down and guided the flow of the two Divine Powers according to the previous instruction of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. He constructed the cycle of the Divine Powers in his body and engraved their track in his soul. The was just like cutting meat with a knife, and most tough guys could stand it, but this was totally different. Depending on external forces to carve one¡¯s soul was more painful than arrows piercing their bodies. Moreover, the elder had become a semi-god before and had the preliminary track of Divine Power, but now he had to erase the track he had planned according to his original path and engrave another one. This would cause double the pain for him. His body trembled slightly, and cold sweat kept coming out from his body. Soon, his whole body was like a fish out of water. If not for the sacred water-flame-resistant robe, his clothes would get all wet. But the elder was very firm in attitude. He felt so much pain right now that he wanted to die immediately, but he managed to hold on. Meanwhile, his mind was multi-tasking. He constructed the cycle of Divine Power and engraved the track of it simultaneously. Although Yorgaardman criticized him for being depressed and not having determination in forging ahead at the critical moment, those who were able to become semi-gods were not weak and incompetent. No more pain could prevent him from moving forward. On the contrary, because of the pain in his body and soul, his weak spirit became strong again just like a piece of iron being burned and forged to gradually get rid of the impurities. The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, certainly wouldn¡¯t miss the changes. He gazed at the elder who was making every effort to move forward, with a little surprise and admiration. He didn¡¯t know that the elder could withstand the pain and in turn use it to temper his will and spirit. In this way, the ceremony of apotheosis which was bound to fail may have some possibilities of success. But, those were just some possibilities. The success rate of such kind of things, like depending on external forces to become a god and change their original path, would never be high anyway. Yorgaardman could not help but sigh as he looked at the elder. He was almost soaked in cold sweat, but the man became more resolute. If the elder gave up now and returned to his original path, he could certainly go further. If given him enough time, perhaps he could really become a god by his own strength. However, it would take a long time, at least thousands of years. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest could not wait so long because she needed a god follower now. What a pity! Yorgaardman shook his head and looked up again at the illusion of the Kingdom of Gods in the sky. As a member of the natural holy pedigree, the kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest should have been in the main Kingdom of Gods among the natural holy pedigree, but this time in order to improve the rate of success, she even moved out her kingdom. At present, she moved her kingdom to a place near the Main Plane, similar to Yan Xun¡¯s shelter. Formally speaking, they were now neighbors. Of course, the Kingdom of Gods was an independent world. Although it was close to the Main Plane, there was no such scene as ¡°two books on the table.¡± For the Main Plane, the two kingdoms of God were only small points. For example, it was like opening two portals on the edge of the Main Plane that could go directly to another world. In fact, the reach between the world and the Main Plane was just a portal. So it was wrong to say that Yan Xun and the Goddess of Bumper Harvest were neighbors. In order to pour in Divine Power efficiently, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest moved to the nearest place of the Main Plane, facing Rem City directly. Although this way may not help too much, it was worthwhile for the Goddess of Bumper Harvest to improve even a little bit. In recent years, the strength of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had increased a lot, so her pressure had also increased gradually. Moreover, a few gods who had bad relations with her previously also seized this opportunity to kick her down. Her situation was really becoming harder and harder. If she failed to promote a god follower this time, she would have to change her strategy and shrink completely, relying solely on the protection of other gods in the natural holy pedigree. Such a thing was absolutely unbearable to the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who was once strong enough to compete for the king of gods in the natural holy pedigree. Therefore, no matter how much it would cost and no matter how low the rate of success, she would try her best! The surging Divine Power was like a long river rolling down from the sky, while the clear Divine Power was like a light pillar rising from the ground. Where the long river collided with the light pillar, the elder who held all the hopes of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was doing his best to adjust his body and mind in order to make final preparations for the apotheosis. It was not long from dawn to sunrise. When the sun rose, no matter how well he had adjusted or prepared, he would have to begin his apotheosis due to the natural calling without any delay. So for him, time was limited, and the task was urgent. Now all gods paid attention to him. Perhaps he had never enjoyed such a great honor in his life, but he did not care about it at all. Those who paid attention to him were both well-intentioned people and malicious people, but more people just watched out of their curiosity. Generally speaking, most people hoped for him to succeed. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest did not have many enemies. For most gods who had nothing to do with her, they would like to see the elder succeed in becoming a god. After all, who could guarantee that he would not promote a god follower someday? If that day really came, a successful experience would be more valuable than a failed farce. But there were also many gods who hoped for him to fail, including the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy. The Goddess of Wealth was almost a mortal enemy of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, and their relationship was even worse than that between the Goddess of Starvation and the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Starvation and harvest were two parts of the natural cycle, and they could not kill each other. Even if one took great efforts to kill the other, the next Goddess of Starvation or the Goddess of Bumper Harvest would appear again soon, so it was meaningless. But there was a difference between the Goddess of Wealth and the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Both sides were trying hard to beat each other because even if the other side¡¯s clergy was inherited by later generations, they would never inherit interpersonal relationships. As long as one side won this time, they could gain a complete victory once and for all. For now, the Goddess of Wealth had an advantage, even an absolute advantage, but she was not satisfied. On the contrary, she was still alarmed. A god could not be underestimated, and no one dared to say what would happen unless the opponent completely failed. Just like now, although the Goddess of Wealth had contacted a lot of helpers and arranged a lot of backers, could her preparations succeed? How many effects would she get if she succeeded? These things were still unknown. She certainly hoped to take this opportunity to beat the Goddess of Bumper Harvest Moritre down, but that was just her wish. She was not sure whether she could succeed or not. She could not help but look at her allies from the corner of her eyes. Both the Void Mask and the Steel Lion are decent people. They may offer to help someone that has met with difficulties, but they would not kick someone that was down. As for the God of Justice¡­ it would be much better if he would not make any troubles, let alone offer help. The youth may help with the ceremony, but their fighting capacity is really too low¡­ Ah! All these friends were warm and reliable people, but sometimes it¡¯s really inconvenient! Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth who was graceful in her appearance but dark in her heart, was thinking and sighing. Chapter 347 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The promotion of a god follower was both a great opportunity and a big danger for the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. If failed, the elder would certainly die, and the Goddess of Bumper Harvest would still suffer heavy losses¡ªafter all, the elder was not strong enough, and his process of becoming a god depended entirely on the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. It was like two people climbing a mountain; if one was too tired to climb then the other had to lead him forward. Even if the one who led the way was a very powerful man, he would still feel very strenuous. If something unexpected happened at this time, for example, landslides, earthquakes, beasts attack and people shooting, then their situation would become worse. Of course, there would not be any landslides, but there were indeed many people who wanted to hide behind and shoot them, such as the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy. Long before, when she learned that the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was carrying out a big renovation to Rem City and hanging holy emblems everywhere, she had already guessed what her old rival wanted to do. Therefore, Manissy, whose powers for action had increased gradually after knowing Sui Xiong, acted quickly and found some viperous people through some hidden channels. Of course, there involved many dirty transactions. To be honest, Manissy also did not want to contact those guys, but in order to deal with a god and a mid-level god, it was impossible for her to win if she did not have enough fighters or if her fighters were not strong enough and working hard. Her friends were either not strong nor worked hard to deal with a good god, so she had to find some viperous people who were disliked by anyone through some crooked ways. In order to draw them over to her side, she had spent an astonishing sum of money, and when things were done, she had to pay the rest. All the Divine Power she had used from start to end was enough for her to promote a god follower. But, Manissy thought it was worth her efforts. If her plan could be carried out smoothly, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, Moritre would suffer heavy losses. Even if she would not die, she may be unable to recover after a thousand years. By contrast, her career was on the rise, and she could certainly afford the price. It was fairly cheap for her to kick the Goddess of Bumper Harvest out of the rank of her opponents with such Divine Power expenditure. But it was not easy to want everything to go smoothly! Manissy sighed when she thought of those unreliable mercenaries. In order to maintain her image, she could not find those notorious but powerful men. Instead, she had to find those whose reputations were not bad, which meant they were not strong enough but very cautious. If they were not strong, she had to find more people; and if they were cautious, she had to pay more. This had greatly increased her expenditure and the risk of failure of the plan. The ¡°middleman¡± guaranteed that the plan would surely succeed due to his reputation. His past experience with corporations also proved that this guy was a golden broker whose ability of playing schemes had reached the peak of perfection. At least there was no doubt in his ability, but when Manissy thought about the relationship between this guy and her allies, she could not help but worry. I hope¡­ it won¡¯t go wrong¡­ After a while, the sun finally rose. When the red sun appeared on the edge of the horizon, the elder on the holy emblem roared wildly and raised his shining staff high. The surging power burst out of his body like an erupting volcano. Moreover, this power was gradually changing shape and becoming more powerful and pure, changing the direction of Divine Power. In the sky, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was radiating more Divine Power. She was like a pair of strong arms pulling the transformation of his powers in a certain direction. At first glance, everything seemed to be going smoothly. Among the on looking gods, at least two or three of them, including the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, shook their heads and sighed. They were all the powerful gods at the top of the holy pedigree in the Pantheon. These strong men who could reach that level had a far more extraordinary vision than any god. Although the ceremony seemed to go smoothly, at the moment they and noticed the fatal flaw. In their eyes, this ceremony had already failed. The elder of the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who had become a semi-god for many years could not totally give up the road he had spent countless efforts on. When he felt the endless powers from the Goddess of Bumper Harvest in the end, he could not help but think of his original road. Perhaps he was thinking that if he had such great powers, he could also succeed by his own road. Or maybe he was thinking about something else, but it didn¡¯t matter at all. What was important was that he was distracted at this moment. At this critical moment, he finally could not stand completely firm and stick to the road that the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had studied and deliberated for him. The Divine Power was still falling, his power was constantly transforming, and he seemed to be becoming a god firmly and slowly. But, in fact, everything was over. Yorgaardman frowned, hesitated, and sent a message to the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, advising her not to waste her efforts anymore. He told her to cut off the link with the elder immediately in order to not to suffer more losses and protect herself. But the Goddess of Bumper Harvest refused his advice. She also sensed that something was wrong, but if she failed, she would face a difficult situation where no god follower could help her, so she had no other choice. Even if she failed completely, it didn¡¯t matter. The worst result was that she would return to the main divine kingdom of the natural holy pedigree. Were there any differences in giving up now? She would stick to it until the last moment! Perhaps, if she insisted on, she would succeed. Therefore, instead of cutting off the link with the elder, she strengthened it. The shadow of the Kingdom of Gods in the sky became clearer and clearer, and the Divine Power falling from the Kingdom of Gods surged even more. It was just like the Yangtze River, gradually shrouding the whole Rem City. Seeing the scene and feeling the astonishing powers, Morani could not help but exclaim, ¡°She deserves to be a well-known god! At ordinary times, she does not show her ability, but she¡¯ll show her real ability at the critical moment. That is really¡­ the younger generation like me could not compare with her!¡± ¡°It¡¯s almost done,¡± Yorgaardman sighed and said. ¡°After today, she may not be as strong as you.¡± ¡°Ah?!¡± Morani was very shocked, and his eyes were wide-open in great astonishment. His family resources were not abundant, and they had suffered great losses given to his brothers to recover their bodies and repair the path of faith, he had not yet recovered completely. Now with regard to Divine Power, he was almost at the bottom of the mid-leveled gods. And compared with the mid-leveled Goddess of Bumper Harvest, their gap was still very huge. What would happen to the Goddess of Bumper Harvest that would make her weaker than him? Yorgaardman did not explain but instead sighed deeply. ¡°Now, I just hope that she will not play too hard and make her fall to the ground¡­ ¡± ¡°Is it that serious?!¡± Even Sui Xiong who had a bad relationship with the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was very shocked. Yorgaardman smiled bitterly and nodded. Sui Xiong thought for a moment and asked, ¡°Is there no one who can help her? Is everyone ready to watch her fall to the ground?¡± ¡°I have advised her, but she closed her ears.¡± Sui Xiong suddenly realized something and shook his head. He advised, ¡°Even gods can¡¯t save people who want to die. If one insists on their own practice, then no one can save them. You don¡¯t have to care about it too much, my elder brother. There are so many people in this world like her who have played all kinds of tricks in the past and the future. If you want to save everyone, you will certainly feel exhausted and extremely angry.¡± ¡°I know.¡± Yorgaardman could now help but laugh. ¡°Even the elder himself has given up, and there is no need to help him. I just feel a little depressed just watching a kind god walking on his own way to death, and I can¡¯t persuade him to change his way.¡± ¡°You should think differently.¡± Javier laughed. ¡°The fool is dead, and the next successor may be a smart man.¡± Yorgaardman was stunned. He thought for a few seconds with his head to the side and his mouth open. He finally laughed. ¡°You are right!¡± He finally put aside his worries and changed his mood. He stopped worrying about the stubborn Goddess of Bumper Harvest. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest certainly did not know about this, but she was aware that the situation was getting worse and worse. Her Divine Power was still very strong, and it was possible for her to infuse the elder for a day or two. But the situation of the elder who accepted the Divine Power began to get worse. Under the strong Divine Powers, his body had almost completed the transformation and transformed into a divine body. But the transformation process of his soul was stagnated¡ªhis soul had almost transformed into a god, but there was still a small part of his soul that could not be transformed. It was like downloading a movie whose size was dozens of GB large and seeing that 99.8% of it had been downloaded, but the last 0.2% of it got stuck for several days. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest also felt helpless in this case. At this moment, the consciousness of the elder had stagnated as if he was falling asleep. He was guided entirely by his Divine Power to finish the final transformation. But his Divine Power could not transform the last small part of his soul. He had to try again and again in vain but could not transform it a bit. One time, two times, three times¡­ He had tried many times, but his soul had collapsed in his final try and became countless light spots. The apotheosis ceremony failed. Chapter 348 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Souls were delicate for both humans and gods. To finish transforming Elder Grand¡¯s soul, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been refurbishing it repeatedly with Divine Power. Though she tried hard to control the power each time to avoid even the slightest backwash and minimize any possible harm to Elder Grand¡¯s soul, the refurbishment turned out to be so much that it exceeded the limit. What was worse, it was the ¡°limit¡± of the god¡¯s part of the soul that had been used up. In other words, since the god¡¯s part of the soul had failed in getting through to the injuries, the remaining human¡¯s part of the soul had collapsed. Before that, the elder¡¯s soul had been supported by the surrounding transformed parts of the soul like a solid foundation. But once the foundation had broken down and couldn¡¯t support anymore, the soul became as fragile as sand sculptures exposed to violent storms and waves. It collapsed in no time. Moreover, the broken part of the soul was exactly the core part of Elder Grand. That made sense. Over the past few years, he had been continuously pursuing his own dream and tempering his soul. Though he had decided to give up now, the last bit for him to give away would surely be the most critical part. He was like an old man who would sometimes forget about house chores or what he had eaten or seen, but his most unforgettable memories would never fade away. Old men usually enjoyed talking about stories of their young age, their great successes, bitter failures, saddest partings, unforgettable reunions, romantic love, etc. They recalled their parents, their wife, and their children, even though they might not still be around because these were the greatest memories. For Elder Grand, the most unforgettable and difficult thing to let go was the path he had been going along all throughout his life. His unwillingness to abandon his path had prevented him from taking the one proposed by the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Once his most critical path had been destroyed, so had his entire soul. This had happened so fast that there was no chance to save it. Though the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had reacted in time and immediately tried to force the breaking soul to gather again with its Divine Power, her efforts would just be in vain. Saving a core-breaking soul would be impossible even with the joint efforts of several great Divine Powers. In no more than one or two seconds, Elder Grand¡¯s soul had completely shattered into countless luminous spots. His body, though without the soul now, was still transforming with Divine Power. Without the binding soul, the physical body quickly finished the last phase of transformation and turned into a glowing figure. That was an Oracle who was far more powerful than Elder Grand had ever been in his life. But it was meaningless for the Goddess of Bumper Harvest or the God Ceremony. It was so disastrous to lose an Oracle created only with sufficient time and Divine Power and sacrifice the only demigod in the church! Apart from Elder Grand¡¯s death, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had also been injured. She was connected to Elder Grand by the Divine Current while leading the God Ceremony. She had been seriously injured by the disturbed current caused by the collapse of Elder Grand¡¯s soul. Having taken a hit, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s body in the God¡¯s Kingdom started to topple, and blood came out from her nose and mouth. Instead of cleaning or healing herself, she struggled and insisted on dealing with the more urgent thing¡ªthe thing on the ground. Elder Grand¡¯s soul had collapsed, the ceremony had failed, and the great Divine Powers were smashed; an earthshaking explosion was about to take place any minute. It would carry no smaller power than the previous one that hit Garth City. Being filled with Divine Powers, the entire Rem City was like a giant bomb. Once it was blown up, even the Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom would be affected by the Divine Current! Gods saw their God¡¯s Kingdoms as the real entity of themselves, so an exploded God¡¯s Kingdom would be like losing a part of themselves. That was why the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had to ignore her injuries to control and reorganize her Divine Powers and prevent the likely explosion. After her tireless efforts, she finally managed to bring back control of the Divine Powers to her God¡¯s Kingdom. She had no more energy to look after the praying followers on the ground or those church seniors who had already come to realize what was going on there. This was a grievous defeat, and now she needed to heal and recover herself even though she didn¡¯t know how long that would take. During her recovery, the Divine Powers to be released would be limited and so would be the response to praying. She would be able to maintain a much smaller size of the church. Of course, this newly created ¡°God¡¯s Kingdom¡± would have no future and eventually disappear to a negligible page in history. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest sighed when she finally got her chance to heal her terrible injuries. The gods who had been watching all shook their heads, sighed and left. There was a nice beginning and middle, but the ending was bad, stopping abruptly while the most exciting part was going on. This was such a dissatisfying event. At least five or six gods murmured, ¡°Finished already? There¡¯s nothing else?¡± At this moment, the ¡°else¡± was coming. A wild howl was heard, and no less than a dozen lights raised from the ground and went straight to the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. ¡°What?!¡± Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, yelled in surprise as he stopped in his tracks. He was surprised to see those rushing to the Goddess¡¯ God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°Devils?! Why are they here?¡± All the gods stopped to watch including Sui Xiong. The gods in the Pantheon temple who were about to get back to their own business now looked around again with more alertness but less curiosity. But devils should not be worth much attention. Devils were masters who were as powerful as gods but refused to become one. They lived completely different lives from usual gods, though something common could still be traced. Their most prominent strength was having priesthood-like capabilities and thus with similar powers to gods including taking in and responding to belief, using Divine Powers and granting divinity. Some devils built up their own kingdoms that were no weaker than the weak Divine Powers and low-level Divine Powers. There was a rumor that certain devils were already as powerful as mid-level good gods, and that would guarantee them a superior place in the Pantheon temple if they wished. Yet they rejected becoming a god or taking any priesthood. They refused to be held responsible while gaining powers. They insisted on being the way they were rather than have anything change. When a devil had been asked about the reason, it said: ¡°freedom was more important than powers.¡± It was true that gods owned great powers while carrying the corresponding responsibility, especially the God of Belief. Even the more liberal Nature God was also held responsible for his own part of priesthood. Take the four elemental gods as an example; they were in charge of the crucial parts of the four elemental planes. It was their duty to manage these places and prevent the four elements from being thrown into chaos. In the meantime, they had to combat other elemental gods to make sure their own element always dominated in the universe. That was why the God of Fire Element had tried so hard to be the Sun God. He was actually trying to enhance his control of fire elements and promote his status in the world! And since he had become the Sun God, all places with sunshine had higher temperatures. South of the Main Plane had more rain, the north had become warmer, and droughts had shown signs in the heart of the Orc Empire in the middle of the mainland¡­ Even the God of East Wind, the relatively more disadvantageous Nature Gods, had also been strengthening monsoons moving around the world and thus become hostile to the God of West Wind. They even fought from time to time. Unfortunately, the God of East Wind didn¡¯t own any weapons called nuclear bombs. Otherwise, it would have defeated the God of West Wind easily. The devils wanted pure joy from their powers, so they were seen as ¡°devils¡± which represented the distorted part of the world. Gods looked out for them, and they were feared by humans. In many places, devils were even more unwelcome than evil gods. Though the latter was horrifying, they had rules and were easy to please through their priesthood. But trying to please a devil would rather irritate it and result in disasters. But devils usually kept a low profile and were rarely seen. They knew they were not popular, so they often hid. It was unimaginable to have a dozen devils show up together! ¡°What are they here for?¡± someone among the gods asked. The god immediately realized this was a stupid question. A group of devils showed up together and rushed towards the seriously injured Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom when it had just failed in promoting a god follower. What else could it be? To attack, of course! Chapter 349 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It might be common sense that gods consisted of good gods, evil gods, devils, and demons which were all equal. But this was completely wrong. Between good gods and evil gods were neutral gods. These three made one category of gods who abided by and protected the world¡¯s order. They were also called ¡°order gods¡± or ¡°legitimate gods,¡± as they were now under the rule of the Master of Order. Not all legitimate gods were governed by the Master of Order, like the lords in hell who were not in the Pantheon temple even though they protected the world¡¯s order. The nature of ¡°order¡± in them was even more prominent than other gods in the Pantheon temple. Strange as it may be, they were good gods, though they committed evil things. ¡°Punishing evil behaviors¡± and ¡°preventing the invasion of the abyss¡± were both considered to be positive. The opposite of legitimate gods were devils, or ¡°chaotic gods¡± by some theologians. Yet ¡°chaotic gods¡± also included those powerful abyss masters. Devils were independent, not bound to orders and lived a free but messy life. In view of this, legitimate gods were combined with devils. They had different stances but shared one general principle to ensure the sustainability of the Ring of the World. Even those madmen who saw the rest of the people in the world as their enemies wished for the world to be sustained. Otherwise, their own existence would not be possible. The opposite of this combined group was demons. Demons came into being from the divine powered creatures that had gone mad. They had unparalleled powers and intended to destroy the world. That was their only goal, and nothing else interested them. That made it simple to please or attract demons¡ªjust keep on destroying. For example, some mad humans held various blood rituals to please demons for specific purposes. Yet none of these madmen had good results, as demons would never stop until the last day of the world. No one would be with the demons forever unless they were willing to give their own life. It was miserable to be abandoned by demons of course. But it might be even worse to be with demons all the time. Therefore, good gods, evil gods, and neutral gods belonged to one faction, and devils and abyss masters were a part of an opposite faction. Together, they were in a larger counter-demon faction, and simply dividing them into four categories was totally wrong. Let¡¯s get back to the subject. The point was, devils were not weak. Though they were not good at preaching or establishing a religion for themselves, they would lose to none of the legitimate gods. Just like now, more than ten devils were rushing over to the Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom, and the Goddess could not stop them even though she had put up defenses around her God¡¯s Kingdom and had some hands to help. In fact, a few of her ¡°hands¡± had escaped when they noticed these devils. They shouldn¡¯t be blamed as this was too horrifying. Other bystanders were also scared and immediately ran away. They had seen a three-headed dragon with a slender body. Its body was changing colors, and so were the three heads. More strangely, its three faces were continuously changing expressions between joy, anger, and sorrow. Any human who saw its faces, even for one second, would find themselves in mental chaos and would have all kinds of thoughts flooding over. Staring any longer would make that chaos or confusion last forever and turn the person into a hopeless psychopath. Though gods had stronger will power than humans, they also felt uneasy looking at those faces. Some weak gods stopped prying right away and closed their eyes to adjust themselves. But still, more than one of them turned pale and even spat out blood. Apparently, they had already been seriously injured by just one look. Even the stronger gods froze when seeing this weird dragon. Some of them turned away while some stared at it and frowned. Feeling the energy inside surging, others sighed and turned around to leave. ¡°Hey, old man. You are gonna do something?¡± Yorgaardman moved to the front of the Pantheon temple and asked the Master of Order. The Master of Order looked down and stood still like an old monk. He didn¡¯t intend to reply. ¡°You must have some dirty business with that thing¡­¡± Yorgaardman murmured and returned to his seat reluctantly. Not far away from him, Wuther Rang, the God of Human Beings, and the God of Light exercising the priesthood of revenge were staring at a shabby and nearly collapsed seat at the very front of the Pantheon temple. It was as if there were some secrets in there worth studying. ¡°What is so interesting?¡± Lefon the Master God of Orcs and the ¡°Dog of Sky¡± smiled. ¡°The seat of the God of Chaos had been studied a thousand times in the past but who would tell us its secrets?¡± Wuther didn¡¯t answer; he was still obsessed with that seat. Lefon shook his head and said to Wenner, the Master of War, ¡°What do you think?¡± The Master of War¡ªa worshipped and hated god¡ªthought for a while and said, ¡°With that as the reference, maybe someone could really find something out.¡± Lefon shook his head without saying a word. That devil who had suddenly appeared was the first and most powerful devil called the ¡°Dragon of Chaos.¡± It had been said to come into being from the remains of the God of Chaos after falling. Others said the God of Chaos had prepared it before being engaged in big business in case he failed. So it was reasonable to take it as a reference to find out some secrets of the God of Chaos¡¯ power. However, Lefon, the ¡°Sage King¡± before he became a god, didn¡¯t agree on such a thought. Over the long time that the three masters of chaos, good and evil were not around, the gods in the Pantheon temple had been following the path initiated by the Master of Order. ¡°Order¡± had become something deep inside that relied on the powers and faith. ¡°Order¡± rivaled with ¡°chaos,¡± so once the ¡°order¡± was in conflict with the God of Chaos¡¯ power and path, it would hurt its original path. Lefon had never seen himself as qualified to take over the God of Chaos¡¯ powers; actually, he didn¡¯t believe any one of the gods could. Or perhaps it was not necessarily good to be qualified! Lefon looked down and took a glance at the one sitting in the front row with the three shabby, old seats. His face turned cold, and he looked back at Wuther who was still studying the seat of the God of Chaos carefully. Go ahead! Sooner or later you will bring along your horde to death! The devils had no idea what was happening among the big heads in the Pantheon temple. They were now led by the ¡°Dragon of Chaos¡± and were expecting a serious fight. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s defense was stripped away immediately. Gods tried to stop this, but they could barely stand due to the whirlwind made by the dragon¡¯s wings. They all fell to the ground and had no way to stop the gust. In principle, they had such great power and shouldn¡¯t fall so easily. Yet the Dragon of Chaos only slightly tapped its wings and swept them all down. The difference between the two sides was apparent and horrifying! The following devils were more than excited to see this chance. They were greedy and wanted to take this chance to kill all of these gods. Though these were just incarnations, it was of great benefit to have a god¡¯s incarnation. But before they rushed in to do so, the Dragon of Chaos had delivered a slightly faint but resolute order. Don¡¯t waste time! Take the Goddess of Bumper Harvest! Though devils were not bound by orders, sometimes it would depend on who sent out the order. Of course, they would dismiss the green jellyfish¡¯s, but the great Dragon of Chaos¡¯ was different. Countless lights flew past the fainted gods and followed the leading dragon to break the barrier of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the goddess and go straight inside. Upon seeing this, Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, lowered her head as if not to stare at the dragon for too long. In fact, she just tried to hide her subtle smile. That schemer always hiding in the dark is really a good broker! He even engaged this one! Then Moritre will have no chance to survive, not even if Yorgaardman comes to help! Chapter 350 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Under the lead of the supreme master of the evil Gods, the Chaotic Dragon, over a dozen evil Gods joined in the fight, an astonishing and dreadful thing. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest had found many helpers to protect her, in case she was too busy with the ceremony to defend herself, but when the Chaotic Dragon showed up, some of the cowardly helpers ran away immediately without saying a word, while others were loyal to the Goddess and tried to help, but their strength wasn¡¯t as much as their bravery. Under a simple attack from the Chaotic Dragon, they were easy to crush by the evil Gods. Then the other evil Gods, following the Chaotic Dragon, rushed into the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Upon seeing the powerful Chaotic Dragon and his helpers, the Gods who had planned to help the Goddess gave up their plans and began to think about how to save the situation. Could they manage to save the Goddess of Bumper Harvest? Or should they just take over her divine position? Even worse, how would they be able to get along well with the next God of Bumper Harvest? The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, frowned slightly and transformed into a red light that soared up into the sky. However, he was stopped before entering the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, waiting just in front of the large hole created by the evil Gods. ¡°Do you want to stop me?¡± he said fiercely. ¡°Even if you are my superior, I still won¡¯t show you any mercy!¡± There was a muffled laughter coming from the hole. The other Gods who heard it felt uneasy at once, and some of the weaker Gods even cried out. They cut off all ties with the sound and tried their best to adjust their minds and calm themselves down. This was the laughter of the Chaotic Dragon, which represented the power of the most successful being in the field of chaos in this world. With their existence at this level, their voices, laughter, and appearances were all manifestations of power. A slightly weaker creature, just by looking at their appearance, hearing their voice, or even knowing of their existence, would be hurt to some degree, maybe even into madness. In the previous thousands of years, the Chaotic Dragon had seldom appeared, so the younger generation of Gods, such as Javier and Morani, had never seen him before. In the Pantheon temple, a lot of Gods with Weak Divine Power and Weaker Divine Power were from this younger generation, too. Although they had heard of the Chaotic Dragon, they didn¡¯t know how strong this evil God was, so many of them looked at him curiously and were attacked by that laughter. At that moment, inside the Pantheon temple behind the middle row, there were some Gods gritting their teeth due to the pain or closing their eyes to calm down. The scene was spectacular. People always said that after a fall into the pit, there was a gain in one¡¯s wit. Since they had felt the terrible power of the Chaotic Dragon, those Gods who weren¡¯t powerful enough would naturally not take the risk to spy on him. They were all well-behaved, not only not daring to ask about the situation in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, but even keeping their thoughts related to the Chaotic Dragon in their minds after making up their minds to stop looking for trouble. In this case, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, was the only one who had the courage to talk to the Chaotic Dragon, and to threaten that he would show no mercy, at that. He seemed to be particularly powerful and brave, outshining the other Gods. The Chaotic Dragon wasn¡¯t frightened of Yorgaardman. He smiled for a moment and said slowly, ¡°I¡¯m old. I really can¡¯t fight. Maybe you can chop me to death today. Try it.¡± This wasn¡¯t a bold statement, but with his terrible strength, it gave others a sense of indifference and pride. The God of Justice? Are you that great? Then try to chop me down. It was like that sometimes when street gangsters fought with each other. They would put a knife on the table, rip open their clothes to show their chest, and shout, ¡°Come on! Cut me down right here!¡± But those gangsters were just pretending to be brave. If they were really cut in the chest by a knife, they would definitely die. The Chaotic Dragon was different. Yorgaardman wasn¡¯t sure whether he would be able to defeat him, let alone to chop him to death. It was like that even if they were talking about different things. There was a clear difference between a big shot and small potatoes. Faced with the indifferent attitude of the Chaotic Dragon, Yorgaardman frowned tightly and slowly took out his axe. With some dips in its metal, his axe looked a little old. It was even a little rusty, but the power that haunted the axe was beyond the reach of brilliant magic weapons like the three divine objects used by the Presbyters of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, which, even if they were combined, wouldn¡¯t as powerful as his old axe. Yorgaardman held the handle of the axe in both hands, and asked for the last time, ¡°Are you sure that you want to stop me?¡± The answer that the Chaotic Dragon gave was a careless, muffled laugh. Then Yorgaardman started his attack. If other Gods had made an attack, it would have been astonishing, even affecting the sun and moon, but when he did it, there was no special effect at all. He was just like an ordinary mortal, waving an ordinary tool with both hands to cut down a tree. But just at the moment that he started, the masters in the front rows of the Pantheon temple turned their eyes to his side. Seeing his attack, the God of Light, Wuther, frowned slightly, the Master of War, Wenner, opened his eyes wide, the Sky Devourer, Canine Lefon, smiled, and Master of Nature¡¯s eyes turned bright¡­ Although everyone¡¯s performances were subtle, no God was indifferent to them, because they all knew that it was a powerful attack that condensed an enormous power that could have destroyed many small worlds, even though it seemed simple and unadorned. In other words, Yorgaardman not only possessed enormous power, but could also completely control it. There wouldn¡¯t be even a little of it wasted against his willingness. It was more shocking and admirable than it would be to destroy several worlds. Of course, some of the spectators knew nothing about this, like for example, the large jellyfish. Sui Xiong looked up at the battle inside and outside of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest with a blank face. The frightening power of the Chaotic Dragon, he couldn¡¯t feel at all; the chaos that would drive people mad at a glance, he couldn¡¯t feel at all; even Yorgaardman¡¯s powerful axe he could see nothing special about. He looked up just like he was looking in a kaleidoscope, simply for fun, because he was completely unaffected by the chaos. He was able to look at the details of the battle freely. He saw that in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, the evil Gods were fighting everywhere against the Goddess who had put all of her effort into the fight. One of the evil Gods had disharmonious organs over his body. Listening to his voice, he was one of Sui Xiong¡¯s acquaintances¡ªSteele Geerteng, who was now the director of the Red Pig Clinic and the dean of the Physician Training School. He had been assigned to be the Holy Spirit of Sui Xiong after dying, but he was killed almost instantly by a long-distance attack from Sui Xiong. At that time, Sui Xiong had contacted this guy. He had thought that it should be a handsome and graceful man, or an extremely bold and unrestrained woman like Steele. However, he had turned out to be¡­ Seeing that he and some female Oracles were having sex, Sui Xiong had thought that it was really a terrible scene that nobody should ever see! (Fortunately Steele was not his Holy Spirit. People always said that if the upper beam wasn¡¯t straight, the lower ones would slant, which meant that the younger ones would follow in the practices of their elders. How slanted the upper beam must have been!) Not far away, there were two evil Gods fighting back to back, and countless Gods were fighting fiercely, like water in the tide. Both of them had mechanical bodies. One looked somewhat like a human, while the other looked like a giant dragon walking upright. They all had incredibly strong bodies, but their fighting styles were quite different. The one that was like a human had a white torso and blue limbs. He was wearing a red armor-like coat and had metal wings like airplane wings behind him. It was clear that there were many things on his body that could be used to fight, many of which were similar to the laser cannons in sci-fi movies, but instead of using them, he tore the Void Space in front of him, revealing a world of machines. Sui Xiong realized that it was a world called the Machinery Realm. In that world, there were no creatures made of flesh and blood, but all kinds of creatures with organs that were machines of different sizes. Inside the Void Mask Land, at the exit of the Underground Adventure Park, there was a staff member, Phil Ohis Savoy, who was a creature from the Machinery Realm. Although Phil looked like a beautiful blonde woman, others could clearly see that she was a mechanical creature, for both her skin and hair had a metal sheen. However, this evil God was just like a giant robot. He opened the path to the Machinery Realm, and countless creatures rushed out from it to fight with the followers and Oracles of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. On the other side, the other evil mechanical God was constantly spewing flames like a giant dragon that stood upright. If one looked carefully, they would see that it wasn¡¯t fire, but steam coming from metal melted at high temperatures. If even metals could be burned to steam, the temperature had to be pretty high. If touched by such a flood of metal steam, one would almost die. If the Goddess of Bumper Harvest hadn¡¯t blocked his main attack, it would have been powerful enough to destroy the whole God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest simply with the flood of the metal steam. Although the Goddess had blocked most of it, the aftermath of the flood had burned countless oracles to death. However, these Oracles were immortal. Whether they were killed by creatures or burned to death by steam, they could be resurrected by Divine Power. At this critical moment of life and death, consuming Divine Power wasn¡¯t a problem for the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. That was to say, there would be infinite Oracles there. Other evil Gods were also fighting crazily, but they weren¡¯t as terrifying as the two mechanical evil Gods. Generally speaking, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, facing more than a dozen evil Gods alone, had only withstood them for the time being through the rapid resurrection of Oracles who were crazily consuming her Divine Power. However, it was just temporary. Even Sui Xiong could see that this situation couldn¡¯t last long. The evil Gods weren¡¯t fully accustomed to fighting with the Oracle army at that time, but they were adjusting their way of fighting, constantly improving their efficiency. There were even some evil Gods who were crazily devouring the Oracles, and their strength was slightly improved after eating them. In this way, it wouldn¡¯t be long before the Goddess of Bumper Harvest and her Oracles were defeated. Chapter 351 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Although Sui Xiong had inquired about the celebrities of the Ring of the World and was familiar with some of these famous evil Gods, he couldn¡¯t recognize all the evil Gods there. He recognized some of them, like the top leader of the evil Gods, the Chaotic Dragon, who was Sui Xiong¡¯s old acquaintance, and Steele Geerteng and the two evil Gods from the Machinery Realm¡ªSharp Roar and the Ancient Steel-melting Dragon. However, there were also some evil Gods that Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know. Such as the weird giant bird that was surrounded by colorful lights. This giant bird was making a pleasant sound. Sui Xiong listened to it carefully and realized that it was singing. In this fierce fight, how could this bird have been in the mood to sing a song? That was strange. This giant bird also fought in a strange way. Instead of fighting with its sharp talons and beak, it just attacked others with the colorful lights, which changed corresponding to its song. These colorful lights surrounded it like a river. Once an oracle was touched by this river, either their attack or their movement would slow down. They would become slower and slower, and during the process, they would be dragged towards and into the river quietly until they were submerged. Compared to that giant bird, the two-headed giant ape on the other side was fighting more violently. It had a strong body, as if it was made up of steel, but his limbs were different from those of normal apes. Instead, it had strong arms and legs, on which were long whips, like snake tails. The number of these long whips was changing at every moment. This giant ape fought by waving these long whips and its long tail, and almost every oracle around him couldn¡¯t escape from his attack. Only the most powerful oracles could more or less avoid his attacks. However, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know exactly who this giant ape was. ¡°One can¡¯t know everything about the world,¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help murmuring. ¡°I really didn¡¯t expect that there would be so many evil Gods in this world!¡± These evil Gods weren¡¯t coming out of nowhere. They had their own divine positions, like the Chaotic Dragon. His corresponding divine position was chaos, one of the four supreme divine positions of this world. As for Sui Xiong¡¯s old acquaintance, Steele Geerteng, his corresponding divine position was sexual desire, which was very easy to sense from him. From the two evil Gods from the Machinery Realm, Sharp Roar was supposed to be the master of the Machinery Realm. If he agreed, he would be the leader there, but he had never been willing to be a God. The Ancient Steel-melting Dragon¡¯s corresponding divine position was something like melting. As Morani had said, this guy loved to melt and swallow legendary metal weapons, which made him the biggest enemy of all weapons. Morani had been planning to ask him to join his army, but hadn¡¯t found the chance¡­ Sui Xiong had known the mentioned evil Gods already. As for the others, there were some that he knew nothing about, such as the weird singing giant bird, and some he knew something about, such as the two-headed giant ape with whips. This two-headed giant ape seemed good at fighting at first glance, but Sui Xiong observed him carefully and found out what his real power was. The oracles he killed all died in the same way. At first, they were bleeding with many wounds. After their death, their corpses completely withered in an extremely short time, like dried leaves falling down to the ground and breaking into lifeless pieces. However, this giant ape became stronger and stronger during the fight, which meant he had taken energy from his dead enemies after they fought. Thus, his corresponding divine position might have been withering or erosion. Sui Xiong looked up, staring at the fierce battle in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. He also made a comment while looking at the fight, as if he was watching a wonderful show. He had considered whether to save the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Actually, they didn¡¯t have a good relationship, since their followers had killed each other before. There had been countless fights between them, both publicly and secretly, so they were more like enemies than friends. Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t a jellyfish who was blindly kind. There was no reason for him to save his enemy. Yorgaardman was the God of Justice, so he had to save a kind God like the Goddess of Bumper Harvest from death, but Sui Xiong didn¡¯t have to. It was kind enough for him that he hadn¡¯t joined the fight against her. Thus, for Sui Xiong, this fierce battle was a good opportunity to gain social experience. Among all the fights, the one most attractive to Sui Xiong was the one-on-one battle between the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, and the Chaotic Dragon. Yorgaardman deserved the title of one of the most powerful masters among Gods. Although he wasn¡¯t very fast, his attacks were very powerful. More importantly, he had condensed strong power into an unbreakable defense around him. No matter what the Chaotic Dragon did, he couldn¡¯t break Yorgaardman¡¯s defense. At the same time, the Chaotic Dragon also showed the ability of a senior master. Although he was old, he still acted quickly and flexibly, which made him hard to follow in Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes. Wings, tail, sharp talons, and steel teeth¡­ All of them made different and fast attacks at new places. They would be hit continuously if they were careless. The Chaotic Dragon not only acted fast, but also constantly sent out chaotic breaths to drive others crazy. In the battlefield with him and Yorgaardman, a large area had been affected by his chaotic breath and turned into something like an abyss¡ªdistorted and mutating. From it emerged countless corrupt flesh capsules, bouncing like hearts in the dark red land. Sui Xiong looked at them carefully and found that there was evil breeding in these flesh capsules. Just with his chaotic breath, the Chaotic Dragon had turned a part of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest into an abyss! This was why those powerful Gods had been cautious toward the Chaotic Dragon. This horrible evil God could send out endless chaotic breath to pollute any place. Thus, even master Gods with Great Divine Power had to to give way to him. However, Yorgaardman didn¡¯t suffer a loss in his fight with him. It was something beyond the others¡¯ expectations. ¡°He¡¯s great!¡± Lefon said in a low voice. ¡°He has become more powerful!¡± Lefon didn¡¯t clearly say who ¡®he¡¯ was, but others understood what he was saying. The God of War frowned, turning his head toward the God of Light. They two looked each other in the eyes and found that both of them were worried. Meanwhile, the God of Fear frowned as well, showing some nervousness on his face. There were no serious conflicts between the God of Justice and the two Gods¡ªthe God of Light and the God of War¡ªjust some friction in terms of interest. All in all, they didn¡¯t have opposite stands as divine positions. As long as the two Gods agreed to make a compromise, they could settle the friction peacefully with the simple-minded Yorgaardman. But things would be different for the God of Fear. The God of Justice¡¯s divine position was justice and courage. Courage and fear naturally worked against each other. They were completely irreconcilable. In the Pantheon temple, although both the God of Justice and the God of Fear belonged to Great Divine Power, they had very little communication with each other. They just ignored each other with indifferent attitudes, because they knew that there would be a big fight between them sooner or later. They would fight for their own ideas and divine positions, which left no room for compromise. That was why the God of Light and the God of War were merely worried, but the God of Fear was nervous. The God of Fear even worried that after this fight, the God of Justice would take a short break and then lead his allies to attack the God of Justice¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom. As a master God of his God system, the God of Fear enjoyed a high status and supreme power. However, there were only a few God followers under him who were actually good at fighting. They could barely defend against attacks from Void Mask and the Steel Lion, but not the Goddess of Wealth. Though she wasn¡¯t good at fighting, she possessed great amount of fortune and had some God followers who were good at fighting. The God of Fear thought about it carefully. The more he thought, the more nervous he was. No matter what, if a war between the God of Justice and him broke out, he was more likely to suffer a loss! Instead of risking their lives, the allies of the God of Justice just needed to defend against an attack from the God of Fear¡¯s followers and leave the God of Justice and the God of Fear to a one-on-one battle. The God of Fear saw no possibility of his own success in a personal battle with the God of Justice, so he sighed deeply and couldn¡¯t help but think about the material he had received before. That material had been sent by the former Sun God before his death. It involved all the knowledge of the divine field and divine position of the Sun God, who had been beyond Great Divine Power and almost advanced into Greater Divine Power. It was something so precious and important that the God of Fear was afraid that there was something cunning behind it, so he had just put it aside and never looked at it. But now, he couldn¡¯t wait to see it. This super evil God who had always scared others sighed quietly. With courage, he opened the seal in his God¡¯s Kingdom and took out the material, then read it carefully. No matter what, the most important thing for him at that moment was to become stronger as soon as possible! A moment later, in the huge hole of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, the fight between Yorgaardman and the Chaotic Dragon began to slow down. The speed of their attacks became slower, and the momentum of their attacks was weaker. They didn¡¯t look like two powerful Gods, but two weak boxers that had been through eleven rounds of fighting. Both of them seemed exhausted. They were just wasting time. But others knew that they were definitely not exhausted. On the contrary, this was the fiercest time in the fight. With the risk of being badly hurt by each other, they were more cautious in their actions in order to avoid exposing any weakness to each other. On the ground, Sui Xiong was watching their fight carefully, but he couldn¡¯t help but twitch his mouth. I know you¡¯re good at fighting, but can¡¯t you consider the audience¡¯s¡¯ mood? Why won¡¯t you fight fiercely? Sui Xiong talked to himself in heart and secretly gave a negative comment on their fight. Chapter 352 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The fight between Yorgaardman and the Dragon of Chaos became more and more boring, while the fight in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was growing more and more fierce and interesting. As time passed by, the devils had gradually adapted to the rules of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, so they stopped putting a lot of effort into self-defense. Many of them had been cautious against the Goddess of Bumper Harvest before and saved half of their power for self-defense, but now, even the most conservative ones used seventy to eighty percent of their power to attack. Some of them even made full use of their great power, which would be enough to fight with a God. This could be seen clearly through the circles formed by the radiation of power around their bodies. When they had first entered the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, they; hadn¡¯t adapted to the rules of the surrounding environment. To ensure their own safety, these devils had spared almost no effort to form huge circles around their bodies, using their own strength to repel the rules of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Now they had stopped doing that, not because of their lack of power, but because they had fully adapted to the environment and were no longer worried about being hindered by the rules of this God¡¯s Kingdom. It cost an amazing amount of power to create a unique environment in another¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom, and when they put that power into attacking, the effect was also astonishing. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest, who had barely withstood the attacks before, was now retreating bit by bit. Although the oracles died and were resuscitated quickly, they were still suppressed by the attack of the devils. Even the Goddess of Bumper Harvest herself, the main fighting power, was unable to resist the joint attack of two devils from the Machinery Realm and had to step back again and again. Her retreat wasn¡¯t fast, and the God¡¯s Kingdom was big enough, but every step of her retreat was difficult and painful, as if she was walking on a cliff of ten thousand feet and might fall down and break into pieces at any time. More importantly, she was a great God, trusted by all her followers and oracles, so every step of her retreat had a great impact on their confidence and morale. No matter how high a morale they had, after seeing her retreat several times, they grew upset and worried. The oracles would be fine, but some of her followers might run away, so the Goddess of Bumper Harvest didn¡¯t want to retreat, not even one step. She warned herself, ¡°Moritre, you can¡¯t retreat any more, or you¡¯ll have no way out.¡± However, she still retreated again and again. She had thought several times about whether she should just stay there to fight until she won or died, rather than taking even one step back, yet if it came to the occasion that she didn¡¯t retreat, she would suffer a bad injury or even death, and in the end, she couldn¡¯t take the risk. Thus, she retreated continually. Gradually, she began to see her retreat wasn¡¯t a serious problem at all. She even began to consider whether to run away right then, since she was still in a good condition. It would cause extreme damage for a God to abandon their God¡¯s Kingdom and run away. First, they would drop directly to the bottom level of Weak Divine Power. Second, they could suffer a lot of damage and might even lose their divine position. If a God at the level of Weak Divine Power lost their divine position, they would die immediately. Thus, for a God, giving up their God¡¯s Kingdom and running away was a choice not much better than immediate death. Most of the Gods would rather fight to the death than give up their God¡¯s Kingdoms and run away, unless they were sure that they could find a reliable helper to supply a great amount of Divine Power to them in time after running away. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest had believed that she would be one of those Gods who would never escape. She didn¡¯t realize that she was afraid of death until she faced it. Thus, even if there was just a small chance for her to live, she still didn¡¯t want to die. Actually, she had a large chance of surviving. As an important member of the Natural God System, as long as she could manage to escape to the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Natural God System, she would find a lot of friends to help her. She didn¡¯t need to worry about a lack of Divine Power at all. Then, should she have ran away right then? She was reluctant. This God¡¯s Kingdom was the result of tens of thousands of years¡¯ of her effort. There was a great deal of Divine Power inside it, as well as numerous followers and oracles. Losing it, she would fall directly from a senior master of the Mid-level Divine Power to a lonely master of Weak Divine Power. Not only would her status be far different from now, but she would also spend a long time restoring her vitality. Since ancient times, how many of the Gods who had abandoned their God¡¯s Kingdoms and ran away could come back? Three? Or two? She knew one for a fact. It was the God of Knights, whose God¡¯s Kingdom had once been destroyed by the Orc Gods. At that time, he hadn¡¯t even been able to find someone to seek help from. He had struggled so hard alone, watching out for those who wanted to steal his divine position while protecting the human beings who were attacked by various disasters and demons. Life was hard for him. However, he finally made it through. He not only rebuilt his God¡¯s Kingdom, but also guarded the entire human race during its steady progress. He finally selected an excellent successor and entrusted his title to him, then became an assistant to his successor. Now, human beings had become bigger and stronger, and there was no doubt that they had become one of the most powerful races in the whole universe. Compared to that hard time when the God of Knights had fallen down and lost his God¡¯s Kingdom, people were really amazed at how things had developed. However, even the God of Knights was gone now. Bah! That¡¯s unfortunate! The Goddess of Bumper Harvest covertly spat and drove those bad thoughts away, but she still hadn¡¯t figured out whether she should run away. She had never been a God with foresight and decisiveness. As a God of Belief, she relied on the yearnings for a good harvest from various farming nations in the world. To put it simply, she was by nature a great farmer. Maybe she had once been wise or decisive, but that had been in the past. She thought of the former Goddess of Ocean, who had been a gentle and strong guardian for her followers. However, as time passed by, the Goddess of Ocean was eroded by countless beliefs and finally degenerated into a fierce villain. The situation of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest now was no better than that. She knew she couldn¡¯t win in this fight. The best choice for her was to run away right now, but she couldn¡¯t just give up everything there. This was the nature of farmers. It was common to see soldiers abandon everything and flee directly from danger, as did businessmen, but few farmers did so. Unless there was no way out in front of them, farmers always cherished hoping and waiting to see if it came to fruition. Sometimes they succeeded, but more often, they were just desperate in the end. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest was now in the state of waiting. She waited and waited again, hesitant to run away. Under the devils¡¯ attacks, she retreated repeatedly, constantly losing her valuable reserves of Divine Power. In the Pantheon temple, the Master God of Natural God System and the King of Sky, Tavana, and Heiner, Earth Mother, who ranked second in the Natural God System, both frowned. As the Ancient Gods of Nature, the King of Sky and Earth Mother had been cautious in accepting belief from humans, so they hadn¡¯t been seriously eroded by different beliefs. The passing of time had only brought them more foresight. Although they weren¡¯t famous for their wisdom, as long as they grasped the general trend and made steady developments bit by bit, they would eventually make great achievements. Both of them, the Great Divine Powers, had seen the dilemma of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. They thought she was just wasting time and energy. She would have been better off running away as quickly as possible, or she wouldn¡¯t have a chance to leave. They were supposed to send avatars to help her at this time. As two Great Divine Powers, if they sent their avatars to fight with all they had, they could help Goddess of Bumper Harvest to at least maintain the situation, if not defeat those devils. And if they would have liked to find her one or two more helpers, it would even be possible for her to win. But neither the King of Sky nor Earth Mother had the intention to do that. They were just looking at the fight and saying nothing. Of course, they didn¡¯t stop other Gods of the Natural God System from helping her, but these Gods, such as the God of Forest, Goddess of Spring Water and God of River, were all mid-level Divine Powers. They had sent avatars to help the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, but these avatars had all been defeated. As for those Gods with low-level and weak Divine Powers, even if they wanted help, they would be persuaded not to join the fight. For a normal god, an avatar was much less powerful than the true self. For Gods who were good at fighting, such as the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, who was in a fierce fight with the Dragon of Chaos now, their avatars were just slightly less powerful than their actual selves, and their avatars also belonged to the level of the Great Divine Power. But for the Gods in and below mid-level Divine Power, their avatars were much weaker. That was to say, an avatar of a mid-level Divine Power God was similar to a God with low-level Divine Power, which still could help on the battlefield. An avatar of a low-level Divine Power God was similar to a God with weak Divine Power, which could do almost nothing there. As for an avatar of a weak Divine Power God, they would definitely die in the fight happening just then. In fact, in the Master God¡¯s Kingdom of the Natural God System, several Gods with mid-level Divine Power were gathering their power again and preparing to send their strongest avatars to help. They planned to win the battle with a single attack. However, they were also waiting for the result of the fight between Yorgaardman and the Dragon of Chaos. The level of this battle was so high that the mid-level Divine Powers were not even qualified to take part in it. The only thing they could do was wait. If the God of Justice won, even if he was exhausted and unable to fight again, these Gods of the Natural God System still felt they had a larger chance of winning, since the Dragon of Chaos would be gone. If the God of Justice was defeated, it would be impossible for these Gods to enter the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest to help, since the Dragon of Chaos would be guarding it. A war between Gods was just like that. Although the God followers were busy fighting, and the oracles and followers were even more enthusiastic, it meant nothing. What really decided the final result of a war was the confrontation between the powerful Gods at the top. This was somewhat similar to the situation on earth, such as the small countries in the Middle East that had been caught in fierce wars and worried about producing all kinds of astonishing and scary news from time to time. But in fact, for big countries, conflicts between small countries were just small tricks. If the big powers really made a move, even if it was something like a slight slap, the seemingly powerful forces of these small countries would be in a terrible mess. They could do nothing but seek help from their stronger allies. The poor Goddess of Bumper Harvest was now facing such a dilemma. For her, the stronger helper was naturally the two Great Divine Powers¡ªthe King of Sky and Earth Mother. However, for the same reason that the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had once tried to take the position of the Master God of Natural God system, these two Great Divine Powers did not like her and had no intention to help her at all. Among other Great Divine Powers, only the God of Justice acted on righteousness, but it wasn¡¯t enough. In this way, the only thing left for her to do was run away or die. No, because of her hesitation and indecisiveness, there probably would be no chance to escape when it came to the last minute. What was waiting for her was only death! Chapter 353 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The breach that was made by the Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest had turned into a horrible world where demons and monsters danced like mad. The first batch of meat sacs had hatched, and hundreds of demons in odd shapes had crawled out of them. They didn¡¯t spread to all sides, nor were they overconfident enough to attack the God of Justice, Yorgaardman. Instead, they made strange roars which made people feel dizzy, formed an odd battle formation, and began to pray. These demons prayed in a very special way. Ordinary people prayed according to the following procedures: praying, worshipping, and meditating. But the creatures did it differently¡ªwhen they were in position, they began to dig up disgusting green sludge from the ground and put it in their mouths without any hesitation. Seeing this scene, the powerful divine figures who could stare at the Dragon of Chaos suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. It wasn¡¯t because they had been attacked or something of the like, but a reflexive action. On the ground, a floating green jellyfish made a strange cry, his face turned white. ¡°What the f*ck! That¡¯s too disgusting!¡± This scene made Sui Xiong wonder if he had been attacked by any spiritual spells. He couldn¡¯t imagine that there would be such a kind of creature that would regard the putrid sludge as food and eat it with such a fanatic appetite. ¡°The aesthetic standard of demons is really different from that of human beings¡­¡± he muttered to himself and shook his head incessantly. A moment later, the demons did more to challenge his expectations. Sludge certainly couldn¡¯t be digested, and they ate so much that their stomachs swelled as if they were seven or eight months pregnant. If human beings ate like this, they would surely be lying on the ground, unable to move, or maybe sent to the hospital for assistance. But these guys had no intention of stopping and were trying to eat more, so their stomachs finally burst. One by one, miserable wounds appeared on their chests and abdomens, and the sludge they had eaten before, mixed with their dark red blood, flowed to the ground. ¡°Are these guys insane?¡± Sui Xiong was startled. But after a while, his expression suddenly changed. Demons even grabbed the semi-digested sludge that flowed out of their stomachs mixed with their blood and ate it like delicious food. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t bear it anymore and threw up on the ground. What was worse, he vomited what looked like water, which fell to the ground and mixed with mud. It seemed similar to what the demons had eaten. So Sui Xiong vomited again, even harder. In the Pantheon, even the most powerful gods were standing up and gazing at each other. ¡°What the hell is this?¡± the God of Orcs, Lefon, muttered to himself. ¡°Should we beat our opponents in such a disgusting way?¡± ¡°God knows! But there is no denying that this way works.¡± The God of the Holy Pedigree of War, Wenner, brightened his eyes and said, ¡°Maybe I can try to learn it.¡± ¡°You¡¯re perverted enough. Don¡¯t push yourself in an even more perverted direction!¡± ¡°Quiet.¡± The God of Human Beings, Wuther, frowned and said coldly, ¡°Let¡¯s just watch what Yorggardman will do.¡± Those powerful figures suddenly quiet down. Their will was stronger than steel, so no matter how disgusting the scene was, they wouldn¡¯t shrink back. But since now they were in another man¡¯s shoes, they would certainly be affected by others. A confrontation between masters, where if one side was affected a little bit, it would become an opportunity for failure. As Wuther had said, what was most important was how the God of Justice Yorgaardman would deal with it. In terms of strength, Yorgaardman wasn¡¯t worse than any of them, even better than many people. Now, Yorgaardman¡¯s way of dealing with such things could be used for reference so that in the future, when they faced the Dragon of Chaos, they would have more possibilities to win. And the God of Justice did not disappoint them. Facing the ugly demons inspired by the Dragon of Chaos, he just raised the corners of his mouth slightly and smiled coldly without being affected by them even a bit. All the powerful Gods nodded slightly, but others sighed softly. The way that the God of Justice had dealt with such a situation was legitimate, not outrageous. They could also use such methods, and if they encountered such a situation, their practice would be similar to that of the God of Justice. This held no importance for their future reference! However, valuable information wasn¡¯t so easy to get after all. They sighed slightly and put this matter aside. ¡°I don¡¯t know what will happen after they finished their praying,¡± the God of War, Wenner, murmured. ¡°What powerful helpers will they summon? Or will they make the Dragon of Chaos stronger? The answer to this question soon came to light. When the disgusting demons had ¡°prayed¡± for a period of time, their bodies suddenly exploded into blood all over the ground. This blood fell into the pits they had excavated before and become the outline of a magic array. A disturbing atmosphere rose from these lines, lingering and merging, finally becoming stronger and thicker. Just then, when the first batch of demons had hatched, the rotten meat sacs that grew again on the ground also hatched, and many new demons were bred. This time, there were more demons, and they were more ugly than the previous ones. But these demons didn¡¯t pray. They just stood still in the same places, but their bodies began to melt like candles held to flames and gradually became pools of mud. These muddy puddles soon covered the ground and slowly flowed under the force of that disturbing atmosphere. They connected with the bloody lines that the previous batch of demons had turned into and became a tool for the magic array. Therefore, a huge, disgusting, and disturbing magic array was finally completed. The Dragon of Chaos, who had been silent during battle, laughed with joy. It flapped its ever-changing wings and stirred up a strange, colorful wind that hovered around the magic array. It seemed that there was someone singing and cheering in the strange wind. God of Justice Yorggardman frowned, wielded his axe, and slammed it heavily into the ground, but was stopped by the Dragon of Chaos. Upon seeing this scene, the powerful Gods who had experienced many battles unexpectedly showed their joy. Yorggardman acted the same. His mouth raised slightly, his hands clenched on the axe, and he slashed fiercely toward the magic array on the ground. To be honest, there was little technical content in these attacks, but they were extremely powerful. In previous battles, he had never made such an attack, because the hit rate would have been a problem. But now, the hit rate was not a problem! When their enemies had to be saved, hit rate was never a problem. The three faces of the Dragon of Chaos, which seemed to be constantly changing, showed anger at the same time, but the dragon didn¡¯t hesitate to prevent these attacks from falling to the magic array on the ground and destroy the ritual that they were about to complete. In this way, Yorggardman could fight to death without hesitation. He used 100% of his strength, and every blow was enough to make all the powerful Gods retreat thirty miles. If they had been in a normal battle and facing such a crazy attack, anyone would have avoided sharp edges as much as they could. However, in order to protect the magic array on the ground, the Dragon of Chaos had no way to avoid the sharp edges. On the contrary, it could only use its own body to resist. In a very short time, the Dragon of Chaos was wounded. It appeared ordinary, but in fact, the mighty axe cut through his solid scales and tore his flesh. The ever-changing blood flowed like a waterfall to the ground and flowed into the magic array. Seeing this, Yorggardman suddenly blinked his eyes and showed an expression of shock and regret. On the contrary, the Dragon of Chaos, who had been in a very difficult situation just then, laughed again. His blood fell into the magic array, and the strange wind suddenly stopped. The singing and cheering in the wind became more and more violent to the point that it was almost earth-shaking, as if it were going to spread all over the world. Hearing the singing and cheering, the followers of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest all felt confused. After a moment, the vitality and vigor on their faces faded rapidly and turned into mechanical, stiff smiles. Then they sang and cheered. At the forefront of the Pantheon, the God of Order, who was sitting alone, finally responded. He wrinkled his eyebrows and flicked his fingers. Suddenly, a circle of white light fell from the impossible height and landed next to the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest, counteracting the chaotic breath that was spreading in all directions. For the Dragon of Chaos, it would take a lot of effort, even its own blood, to complete the ritual. But for him, it was nothing more than a flick of the finger. However, the God of Order didn¡¯t rescue the Goddess of Harvest. He was just preventing the horrible ritual of the Dragon of Chaos from expanding excessively. The effects of the ritual that could have polluted several worlds on a large scale, and possibly even affected the whole main plane, were prevented. The Dragon of Chaos showed its anger, and roared toward the Pantheon with his head raised high. By this time, Yorggardman had rushed over, waved his axe, and launched a fierce attack. Whatever effects of the ritual of the Dragon of Chaos might have had, it was a good chance for a victory now. The Dragon of Chaos was badly injured. No matter what happened next in the ritual, it would take time to start. As long as he grasped the gaps in the interspace, he had the chance to inflict heavy damage on this terrible enemy, not to mention that the Dragon of Chaos was asking for death. Even in such a battle, he had dared to use one of his heads to roar at the God of Order. It also gave Yorggardman an opportunity to distract it for a little while. Therefore, when he was attacking it, he also sent a message to Sui Xiong, who was vomiting on the ground, at the same time. ¡°My brother, you¡¯re the only one who isn¡¯t afraid of chaos and pollution. Please try to save those polluted souls. The Goddess of Harvest is your enemy, but those followers who keep getting killed are not.¡± Chapter 354 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong was vomiting when he received the message. In order to not see the disgusting scene on the ground, first, he closed his eyes and vomited, but soon, he found that this method didn¡¯t work. As a painter, he had a strong imagination, and when he closed his eyes, he could also see the disgusting scene in his mind, so he opened his eyes again and forced himself to dig a deep pit in the ground. In this way, he could vomit directly into the pit and no one would see any abnormalities. That was his solution. As a result, when he had just solved his problem, Yorgaardman¡¯s message came. ¡°What? You¡¯re asking me to save the followers of the Goddess of Harvest?¡± When Sui Xiong received the message, he was stunned and forgot about vomiting. He wondered, They¡¯re her followers, not mine. Why ask me to save them? However, Yorgaardman had taken a little time from his busy schedule to send a message, and now the situation with the war was very complicated. His entire energy was being used in the war against the Dragon of Chaos, and he couldn¡¯t spare any more energy to explain in detail. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t receive a reply after asking, and he looked at the inside of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest, suddenly realizing the problem. ¡°What the f*ck! It seems¡­ All the followers of the Goddess of Harvest have been brainwashed?¡± he muttered, looking at the scene carefully, and his face gradually turned grave. The followers of the Goddess of Harvest were not simply brainwashed, but their souls were being eroded by the deep power of chaos, which constantly counteracted the power of the Goddess of Harvest so that they were slowly withering away from the immortal life of the Goddess of Harvest. Their blank expressions and the act of their singing and cheering together with the Dragon of Chaos all showed that they were being eroded by its power. If they continued like this, they could end up in two situations. Those whose vitality wasn¡¯t strong enough would wither and die, and those who had a strong vitality would be eroded by the power completely and turned into demons or something similar. No matter which situation they ended up in, their fates were both tragic. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t tell which way was more unfortunate, but there was no doubt that as a decent person, he had no reason to watch these ordinary people suffer. Indeed, Sui Xiong and the Goddess of Harvest were in a confrontation, and their confrontations were very large, but the Goddess of Harvest would die today anyway, and there was a saying that when people died, everything rested. Even if Sui Xiong wouldn¡¯t save her and vent his anger, there was no need for him not to save her followers. What was more¡­ among these followers, those who could withstand the erosion up to this point were all powerful people. If he could bring these people to his own kingdom, he could not only enrich his empty kingdom, but also provide talent that was in urgent need. It was common and effective to plunder and transform the followers of the other side during a great war among Gods. It would not only attack the enemy, but also strengthen themselves, killing two birds with one stone. The Dragon of Chaos was actually doing this exact thing at that moment. If the Goddess of Harvest could still hold up the fight, Sui Xiong would probably not steal her followers while she was down, but since the Goddess of Harvest couldn¡¯t hold up and protect her followers, it was better for Sui Xiong to stop the Dragon of Chaos and turn her followers into his rather than watch those followers who had been accumulated for many years die or turn into demons. Thinking about this, Sui Xiong jumped and turned into a ray of light, soaring up to the sky without any hesitation. He instantly flew out of the main plane and rushed to the Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest. Seeing him rush out, all the Gods felt puzzled. ¡°Where did this guy come from?¡± ¡°How dare he not fear the erosion of the power of chaos?¡± ¡°I remember him looking like he was dragging a small world back from the pits¡­¡± ¡°This guy is weird!¡± Just as they were wondering, Sui Xiong had bypassed the breach of the Kingdom of Gods made by the evil Gods, avoided the fierce battle between the Dragon of Chaos and Yorgaardman, and made it directly to the other side of the kingdom. The whole Kingdom of Gods was shocked by his hit, and the strong body of the green jellyfish had broken the barriers of the kingdom, which worsened the situation in this kingdom, which was swaying in the midst of storm. He rushed directly into it. The evil gods noticed Sui Xiong and some of them cried out. ¡°Don¡¯t steal!¡± ¡°Get away!¡± ¡°Do you want to take advantage of the situation?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll beat you!¡± Sui Xiong completely ignored them, bypassed the main battlefield where they were fighting with the Goddess of Harvest, and rushed directly to the area where the ordinary followers lived. The Goddess of Harvest frowned when she saw this scene, but she said nothing. In her eyes, the Void Mask was certainly going to gain some advantages, which was abominable, but since he wasn¡¯t attacking her directly, she was better off withstanding it. It was more important for her to resist the evil Gods who were besieging her. Fire caught on her eyebrows and she had to take care of what was happening. Sui Xiong was too busy to pay attention to both sides of the battle, and he quickly went to the residence of some common followers, turning into a huge jellyfish without saying a word. His green body was like a giant cloud covering the sky, with thousands of tentacles hanging down that rolled up the followers who had been eroded by the power of chaos and absorbed them into his body. His efficiency was astonishing, which was to say all the followers in this large area had been caught by him in a very short time, so he flew to another residential area and caught more followers along the way; as packed as a sardine can, he temporarily stored them in his body. A moment later, he caught all the followers in another residential area and flew to a third residential area. Seeing what he was doing, the Goddess of Harvest became very angry, and the evil Gods fell into a great rage, too. An evil God whose body was rotten and bloated with strong limbs and a completely withered head flew over and roared, ¡°You¡¯re such a thief ! I¡¯m going to drain your blood to take a bath in it!¡± After saying this, he flapped his huge bat wings and approached Sui Xiong quickly. His tail, which was also covered with spines, rolled up in the whistling winds, and it was faster than both the wind and sound. It lashed toward Sui Xiong¡¯s body immediately. Sui Xiong, who had made preparations beforehand, raised his tentacles to take the blow. He felt the breath of death coming from that thick tail, which would not only make living creatures die, but also transform dead creatures into immortal ones like skeletons and zombies. It was incredibly ferocious! But this force couldn¡¯t stop Sui Xiong. He blocked the tail of the evil God with several tentacles and stretched dozens more at the evil Gods from all directions to fight him directly. Although the body of the evil God was bloated and rotten, he moved very quickly and vigorously. Of course, he couldn¡¯t have dozens of arms to resist Sui Xiong¡¯s attack from all directions, but he had his own means. As he howled, a dark breath rose around him that burned in an instant and turned into black flame with foul smell. It created a shock wave around his body, which not only resisted Sui Xiong¡¯s counterattack, but also ignited several of his tentacles. The dark flame was very strange, like glue that was especially sticky. It couldn¡¯t be thrown off when it touched his body, and It also had strong corrosiveness, which could eat through the tentacles in an instant. Moreover, its intense toxicity and dark power had spread along the tentacles to poison Sui Xiong on the spot. Sui Xiong was very frightened and quickly broke off all the tentacles that were infected by the black flame. At just this moment, those tentacles had been burned into ashes and turned into foul gases, accompanied by black ashes that floated around them. Good job! You deserve to be the ¡®King of Death in Blood Bath,¡¯ he couldn¡¯t help but praise in his mind. You are the first one who can make me suffer this much. The name of the evil God was unknown¡ªthe names of the evil Gods were mostly unknown¡ªbecause it was fond of transforming living creatures into dead spirits and killing its enemies to take a blood bath, it was called the ¡°King of Death in Blood Bath.¡± His clergy was made up of dead spirits. It was said that he had wanted to be a God, but when he had seen that the God of Death was powerful in the underworld and all kinds of immortals bow their heads to him, he had muttered, ¡°I can¡¯t be the subordinate of others!¡± So he abandoned the idea of becoming a God and became an evil God. He was one of the few evil Gods who had a fixed living place, living in the bottomless abyss near the ¡®negative¡¯ rings of the world, standing opposite of hell at a distance. Although he looked foolish and flabby, he was indeed a sinister and cunning character. His favorite practice was to steal from the edge of the battlefield when the demons in the abyss invaded hell and were beaten by the lion of iron. Of course, he was very prudent and cunning and always helped the evil side, never provoking hell. On the contrary, he often helped hell armies when they were in a disadvantageous battle situation, so even if the kings of the hell didn¡¯t like him at all, they could tolerate him and even protected him when he was spotted by the kings of demons. The most famous act of the ¡°King of the Death in Blood Bath¡± was his establishment of a strange religion called ¡°Only Death Can Avoid Death.¡± The followers of this religion were keen to transform themselves into immortals, believing that they could escape punishment after death. There was no doubt that they were all bad guys who would to go to hell after death. Could this kind of practice help them avoid going to the hell? There was no final conclusion, but Sui Xiong figured that it would be a little effective, otherwise the kings of the hell wouldn¡¯t express their dislike for that fellow in public. However, the effects may have been limited, because if it had worked that well, the kings of the hell would probably have killed the fellow. When Javier introduced dangerous people to Sui Xiong, he emphasized that the King of Death in Blood Bath had a very powerful weapon, which was a thick black stick with a huge skull on top. This weapon allowed him to travel freely through any world without restriction, travel anywhere as he wished, and kill any life in an instant. Even when Gods were hit by it, they would be severely damaged if they didn¡¯t build a shield in advance with Great Divine Powers. This weird stick could transform all creatures it killed into powerful dead spirits, thus forming a large army of dead spirits immediately. The name ¡°King of Death¡± came largely from this terrible weapon. At this moment, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t see this weapon. Perhaps it could have appeared in the hands of the opponent in the next moment, or maybe this spiritual weapon had already been placed in the air, ready to move against him at any time. But Sui Xiong didn¡¯t feel afraid. On the contrary, he was somewhat excited. The King of Death in Blood Bath was recognized as one of the strongest men in the universe. If he could fight him without using any special means and even defeat him, he could prove that he had really become stronger! For no reason, he remembered a novel written by Gulong that he had read before. In his novel, if young people wanted to become famous, they usually used famous predecessors as stepping stones and fought with them. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh when he thought about this. He smiled, and hundreds of tentacles rose in the light of various forces, like shining stars piercing in all directions towards his opponent. Chapter 355 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong had been dedicated to studying and analyzing various powers and mastering various fields. He had greatly enriched his research knowledge after he took in the information from the God of Sun on his deathbed. Over the years, he had basically mastered the most common domains in the world and was continuing to learn the powers of deserted domains. As the most powerful God who had reached Great Divine Power from the Mighty Divine Power, the former God of Sun had made a comprehensive research of all domains. In this information, almost all kinds of domains were included, save for some particularly deserted domains, and almost all of them were elaborated in detail. It also included the Death Soul and the domains which could be used to resist it. This time when Sui Xiong was striking back, hundreds of his tentacles gathered the power of domains that could be used to resist the Death Soul! The King of Death in Blood Bath had experienced hundreds of battles and was certainly aware of what was happening. He realized everything quickly and was very shocked at what he saw. He had seen lots of masters in his life. He had seen those whose positive energy rolled like mighty rivers and were very anxious to purify their whole bodies, but he had never seen such a person who could used dozens of different powers, each in conflict with the power of dead spirits. What kinds of means was he using? What was the origin of this jellyfish? The King of Death in Blood Bath also paid attention to the battle in which Sui Xiong had killed two Gods in succession, along with the battle in which he had bombarded the kingdom of the Master of Mystery. However, in these two battles, Sui Xiong had demonstrated extreme ferocity and strange spells that belonged to deserted domains. What he was showing now were profound powers that only powerful Gods possessed, which was totally different from what he had been like in the past. Could it be¡­ that this jellyfish knows how to hide its strength? The King of Death in Blood Bath was puzzled, but his subordinates didn¡¯t dare to hesitate. They urged the power of the dead spirits and the black flames to rise around them. Flames were one of his typical weapons, and their power wasn¡¯t the most terrible. The most terrible thing about them was that they were difficult to get rid of it once they burned flesh, unless the part of the body that was burned directly by the flame was cut off, like in Sui Xiong¡¯s case. Otherwise, even a giant beast would be burned alive in a very short time. Moreover, this flame could also turned all the living creatures that it burned into dead air. The stronger the opponent was, the stronger the power of that air would become. Many powerful subordinates of the King of Death in Blood Bath were created by him by using the flame to burn countless creatures and gather lots of dead air. If Sui Xiong was burned there today, he would certainly collect an astonishing amount of dead air and perhaps even create a powerful subordinate. The King of Death in Blood Bath¡¯s lifelong dream was to set up his own organization and fight against the Grim Reaper. In fact, he hadn¡¯t meant to resist the highest powers, but he was unwilling to submit to the the Grim Reaper, so over the years, he had been working hard to accumulate his strength quietly, waiting for a day to seize the opportunity to kill the Grim Reaper and replace him. At present, he had trained several powerful subordinates comparable to the top demigods, but these subordinates were still not strong enough and could only beat drums on the key battlefields. If he could create a person who could attack in front and kill two powerful Gods in succession, or even defeat the subordinates of the powerful Gods, then he would immediately dare to attack the Grim Reaper and steal his clergy! Thinking about this, his cold and rotten heart couldn¡¯t help but become heated, and even the black flames had become red-hot. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t think too much. Now, the idea of fighting surged in his mind, and he was trying to exert more than ten types of powers. Every tentacle with its colorful lights swept through and cut off the black flames, destroying it bit by bit. Just like he was cutting meat with a blunt knife, he was weakening the power of the Grim Reaper slowly. The King of Death in Blood Bath deserved to be a world-renowned strong man. Sui Xiong¡¯s three hundred and thirty-three spurred tentacles couldn¡¯t even pierce the black flames of his shield. Instead, at least thirty or forty tentacles were burned by it. Fortunately, these tentacles were filled with power that could be used to resist the King of Death in Blood Bath, so they weren¡¯t ignited by the black flames, which helped them avoid even greater damage. Sui Xiong was stunned at first, then he understood the reason¡ªif he scattered his strength, he would naturally become weak, but if he converged his strength, he could become much stronger. It seemed very powerful that he had used hundreds of tentacles to attack at once, but faced with the strong, did it not mean that he had spread his strength thin? How stupid he was! He scolded himself and quickly converged the power, each tentacle working with one kind of power. More than a dozen tentacles controlled different forces, each like a sharp blade flying up and down, and he fought with the King of Death in Blood Bath. The power of the two sides was totally different; one was vigorous and complex, while the other was pure and accurate. It was difficult to tell which side would win at that time, but the buildings around them suddenly turned into ruins and broken walls as soon as they were touched by the power, just like the abandoned urban area that had just gone through a war. Moreover, there were also lots of black flames that danced like weird demons, cheering on the fierce battle. Fortunately, all the followers of the Goddess of Harvest who had lived here had been taken away by Sui Xiong. Otherwise, although it was difficult to tell which side would win, it was certain that the followers would have died. But Sui Xiong was blocked by the King of Death in Blood Bath, and he couldn¡¯t save followers of the Goddess of Harvest who were elsewhere. Over time, they were eroded by the power of the Dragon of Chaos. A moment later, some people¡¯s body suddenly became old and withered, falling to the ground and turning into ash. Moreover, the power of the Dragon of Chaos was gradually raging in the Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest, which was expanding like an abyss and occupied nearly a quarter of the whole Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest. By this time, the effects of the ritual that the Dragon of Chaos had put into use had also started. This ritual had greatly accelerated his erosion of the Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest, which was now advancing by leaps and bounds compared to the previous slower speed. It was very clear that the Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest was being eroded quickly, and if it continued at this speed, the whole kingdom would be totally eroded within just an hour and completely transformed into a chaotic world, like an abyss. The battle between the Dragon of Chaos and the God of Justice was gradually moving in a direction that was bad for the God of Justice. When it referred to forces, Yorgaardman was never weaker than the Dragon of Chaos, but now it was just his avatar that was fighting. Although with his ability, his incarnation wouldn¡¯t be much worse than his real body, after all, it was just an incarnation, and the power it could store was very limited. In real battles, he needed his actual body to provide more power. Previously, he could still control the battle, but now, when the surroundings had been turned into an area like an abyss, he was greatly hindered in transmitting power from his real body to his incarnation. It was like an internal combustion engine that needed to add fuel constantly when it was working. As long as the fuel was sufficient and the machinery wasn¡¯t bad, it could run for several days without any problem, but now, the fuel pipeline was blocked. Although there was a lot of fuel in the tank, it was impossible to move it into the cylinder. How terrible! If we continue fighting like this, in at most half an hour, the strength stored in my incarnation won¡¯t be strong enough to cope with this intense battle! Yorgaardman was very anxious, but he didn¡¯t show his feelings on his face. He still fought with the Dragon of Chaos steadily without seeing any decline in his posture. Even the Dragon of Chaos was extremely stunned when he saw this and couldn¡¯t help but doubt whether his means had worked or not. Over the past years, he had used these means more than once, and every time, the effects had been very successful. No matter how powerful a God was, once they fell into a chaotic environment similar to the abyss, their power would be stagnated. Even if their ability wouldn¡¯t be limited, the transmission of their power would be hindered, which made them feel weak, and soon, they would be defeated. But this time, what was wrong with this method? Generally speaking, if one found themself unable to fight a battle, one should have been nervous. However, Yorgaardman looked like a brave barbarian and seemed to be full of power. Therefore, the Dragon of Chaos was more careful and paid more attention to defend him. He was still confident about his own means and felt that as long as he delayed him for longer, it would work anyway in the end. He firmly believed that time was on his side and was determined to adopt delaying tactics. He would bide time until Yorgaardman was unable to exert his power, and then he would use a special skill to defeat him. Thus, he started a little slower, which gave Yorgaardman more energy and time to send out messages. He took the time to send out three messages. The first message was sent to the Goddess of Harvest, telling her that the situation wasn¡¯t good, and he was unable to stand up to it. What was more, he also told her to break through while he could still hold them off. The second message was sent to the God of South Wind, who was the Goddess of Harvest¡¯s best friend in the natural holy pedigree, reminding him to inform the Nature Gods to help the Goddess of Harvest breakthrough. The last message was sent to Sui Xiong with four simple words: Wind tight, start off! Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know what the Goddess of Harvest and the Nature Gods would do after they got the messages, but when he received the message, he was frozen on the spot to the point that he broke out in a cold sweat. What¡¯s going on? Can¡¯t my older brother still handle the situation ? Why did he suddenly send me message that says, ¡°wind tight, start off¡±? He even doubted whether his older brother had misremembered the wrong allusions and mistook the two countersigns ¡°brother shoulder to shoulder¡± and ¡°wind tight, start off.¡± After all, they had talked about this when they were drinking and chatting, and it seemed that everyone had been a little drunk at that time¡­ Or perhaps it was possible that he had simply said the wrong countersign? It was quite possible¡­ He muttered and slowed down his movements, so the King of Death in Blood Bath suddenly saw his opportunity and used his unique skill without saying a word. With a roar of anger, the fat and fleshy body of the evil God backfired, covering the whole God¡¯s kingdom. Sui Xiong was shocked, as he had never thought that this guy would explode, since he was still fighting a battle. He tried his best to resist the surging force while cursing in his mind, ¡°What the f*ck! He should have at least cried out ¡®XX was the best or ¡®XX Akbar!¡¯ Why is this guy so unprofessional?!¡± But at this time, alarm bells suddenly rang in his mind. Terrible! Sui Xiong used his whole Divine Power to resist, and a bright white light shone around his body, as if it had turned into a small sun that could almost wash away the blazing backfire. But before he could exert his Divine Power to the utmost, a stick of black bone with a ferocious skull appeared over his head and hit him directly. Chapter 356 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There had been a knowledgeable scholar named Bai Xiaosheng on earth. He was famous for writing a book that ranked of weapons, A List of Weapons. If there had been such a book in the world where Sui Xiong was now, it would certainly have included a nameless wand. Under normal conditions, this wand was about thirty feet long. It was made of the bone of a giant creature. At one end of the wand was a huge ugly skull. Both the wand and the skull were black, but in different ways. The wand was shiny, while the skull was a dark matte black. The owner of the wand hadn¡¯t given it a name, not because he didn¡¯t like the wand, but since he had thought it was unnecessary to name it. Since he had the wand right now, it had just been named after him. If he died one day, the wand would have a new owner. Then it would have nothing to do with him what the name of the wand would be. The owner of the wand was nameless to others, too. Maybe he¡¯d had a name, but nobody had known it. Maybe someone had known it, but they hadn¡¯t wanted to tell. Thus, nobody knew his name. People only knew that he was called the King of Death in Blood Bath, who lived in a small world, the Kingdom of Death, that was in the Negative Plane of the Ring of the World. He was the leader of the Death Soul Army. Over years, he had enlarged his army by fighting with devils. He was a Devil God, more powerful than most of the masters in this world. His wand was more powerful than most of the weapons, too. It was even as powerful as a few of the divine weapons made by Gods. This wand had seldom been used by this Devil God. Once he used it, it brought death to his enemies, though they didn¡¯t die in normal ways. Instead, they were either completely destroyed or transformed into an immortal creature, becoming a subordinate to this Devil God. Between these two types of death, which one was better? Nobody knew the answer. How powerful was this wand? Nobody knew the answer to that, either. Even the knowledgeable Gods knew only that it could send an unimaginably powerful Death Curse to enemies through the slightest touch. This Death Curse could directly kill the enemy and transform it into an immortal creature controlled by the King of Death in Blood Bath. Almost no living creature could resist this death curse. A spell like the Defense Curse or Divine Power like the Immune Curse was useless to it, as well. Only creatures that had been dead for a long time or those who had powerful defenses of positive power could ward off this curse, even though they would still be badly hurt. Besides that, this wand could also guarantee to teleport its owner under any conditions. No matter what it was, a spell like Dimension Anchor, a magic array like Space Imprisonment, or Divine Power like Space Blockade, the wand couldn¡¯t be stopped. The wand was also used to increase the speed and strengthen the power of its owner to call up and transform immortal creatures. It deserved to be called the wand of a king. As for other functions of this wand, they were only known by those who had been killed by it. Now, Sui Xiong had a chance to experience the power of this horrible wand. With a muffled sound, the black bone-like wand hit him on the top of his head. An unimaginably powerful force instantly invaded his body and destroyed his defenses of positive energy. This force tried to erode his soul by directly attacking his Core of Life. But it failed. There was no such a thing as Core of life in Sui Xiong¡¯s body. The strength of the wand swept through his body, causing him serious pain. If he had been a character in a computer game, there would have been a red light flashing over his head with a red word appearing that read -9999. However, the value of his life power was more than 10,000 points. This hit could bring serious pain to him, but it couldn¡¯t kill him. As for other effects¡­ The power of the wand swept through his body, but it failed to find his Core of Life or attack his soul. In other words, he had been beaten badly. And that was all. He suffered a lot from the hit at that time, causing him great damage. However, in fact, compared to what had happened to other masters who had been hurt or killed by this wand in the past, Sui Xiong¡¯s damage was nothing serious. But Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think so. ¡°Ah!¡± he cried out bitterly. Without saying a word, he waved his knife-edged tentacles, cutting and tearing hard at the wand. Countless attacks completely covered the wand and its surrounding space. Even a mosquito couldn¡¯t escape from the cluster. Hiding in this space, the King of Death in Blood Bath couldn¡¯t escape from the attack, either. He had planned to kill Sui Xiong with one single hit so as to have one more powerful subordinate, but he had never expected that Sui Xiong would still be alive under his attack. After suffering so much pain, instead of losing his ability to move, Sui Xiong fell into a state of rage. He sent faster and stronger attacks at the Devil God all of a sudden. When innumerable attacks fell like raindrops, the Devil God didn¡¯t even have time to respond. What happened? Why is he still alive? Even if he wasn¡¯t killed, he should be badly injured! Suddenly, an idea flashed through the King of Death in Blood Bath¡¯s mind. He didn¡¯t even have time to take any action before he was covered by fierce attacks from Sui Xiong, who had gone crazy from the serious pain. Because of the pain, Sui Xiong instinctively chose the power of purification that was the most contradictory to the power of death. His whole body emitted a pure white light that was from the field of purification and attacked the Devil God frantically with different divine skills. Arrow of Purification, Sword of Purification, Spear of Purification, Fire of Purification, Rain of Purification, Snow of Purification, Tide of Purification, and Sea of Purification¡­ Numerous sounds burst out in the dark flames. One half of them were from the collision between the power of purification and the power of death, and the other half were caused by Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles beating, cutting, tearing, hacking, and puncturing the body of the King of Death in Blood Bath. These sounds formed into a long and disturbing sound. Bang! It lasted about ten seconds. Finally, with an extremely loud scream, a shattered dark figure rose up to the sky, breaking through the black flames and the blockade of innumerable tentacles. With countless wounds, full of fear and frustration, this dark figure soared away from the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest without hesitation. Nobody knew where he was going. Some people noticed that this dark figure was the King of Death in Blood Bath, a famous and powerful Devil God. Some noticed that his body was obviously fragmented. Others noticed that it seemed he had lost a part of his wand. Of course, it was surely noticed that shortly after this Devil God ran away, a large jellyfish swallowed all the black flames and then gave a loud belch. ¡°At last, I win!¡± Sui Xiong smiled satisfactorily and threw a part of the broken bone-made wand into his mouth. Chapter 357 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong successfully got his revenge and had a brilliant victory by beating the King of Death in Blood Bath away. He even broke the weapon that had made the King of Death in Blood Bath famous. What was more, after this battle, Sui Xiong had learned something about a new field of ability¡ªDeath Soul. In this world, the King of Death in Blood Bath was the one who had the deepest understanding and the most comprehensive grasp of the field of Dead Soul, which had been publicly acknowledged by the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper had also persuaded the King of Death in Blood Bath to turn over a new leaf and not disturb the natural laws of life and death. He had promised that as long as the King of Death in Blood Bath gave up his previous immoral practices and returned to the right path, the Grim Reaper was willing to let him be the secondary Master God of the Death God system. That was an extremely favorable deal, but instead of becoming a secondary Master God, the King of Death in Blood Bath wanted to be the Master God, so they didn¡¯t make a deal in the end. When Javier talked to Sui Xiong about this, Javier showed great disapproval for the King of Death in Blood Bath¡¯s decision. He said that if he had been the King of Death in Blood Bath, he would have accepted Grim Reaper¡¯s suggestion immediately. Sui Xiong had been burned several times by the black flames in the battle with the King of Death in Blood Bath and also beaten roughly by his wand. He had completely experienced the King of Death in Blood Bath¡¯s control over the field of Death Soul and benefited greatly from it. Thus, after the battle, he could swallow all the black flames easily and completely make up for his losses. But he looked a little scary now, all black, and his whole body emitted the breath of death. It was like he had become an immortal creature. He had also realized that his appearance was somewhat scary, so he smiled and shook his body a few times. The power of the field of Death Soul in his body was shaken off rapidly to return him to a normal state. From his appearance, it looked like Sui Xiong had just faded from a gloomy and black jellyfish into a giggling green jellyfish that seemed naive and harmless to humans and animals. However, after seeing what Sui Xiong had done in the battle, there must have been something wrong with anyone who still thought Sui Xiong was naive and harmless! Sui Xiong turned back to his usual appearance, looked around, and sighed regretfully. When he had been fighting with the King of Death in Blood Bath, most of the followers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been thoroughly eroded by the power of the Dragon of Chaos. Most of them had died and withered away. A few of them were still singing the carols of the Dragon of Chaos, twisting and deforming their bodies into demons. At this point, even Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t save them. Fortunately, there were still some powerful and strong-willed followers who had endured the erosion of the power of the Dragon of Chaos. They were neither killed nor transformed. They weren¡¯t large in number, and the number of them was rapidly decreasing. Thus, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t dare to delay any longer. He hastily sped up to fly in the direction of these followers. He was on alert while flying. Although he had driven the King of Death in Blood Bath away, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t rest assured. On the contrary, he was worried about whether there would be other Devil Gods to stop him. According to his memory, the King of Death in Blood Bath had two partners who were his friends, as well as enemies. One was the Hegemony of Wither, and the other was the Prince of Betrayal. These three Devil Gods often acted together, but they often attacked each other, as well, which fully reflected the strange characters of these Devil Gods, both free and chaotic. So while Sui Xiong was flying, he was on guard against those two Devil Gods. The Hegemony of Wither was the two-headed giant ape that had been busy fighting against the oracles. He had killed them as easily as if he was cutting melons or vegetables. He hadn¡¯t noticed the defeat of the King of Death in Blood Bath, so he was still roaring and killing wildly, with no intention of stopping Sui Xiong at all. The Prince of Betrayal was a handsome elf. Wearing black armor and holding a heavy gray-green sword, he walked idly around the battlefield. He didn¡¯t attack the oracles on purpose. However, if any oracles dared to approach the area surrounding his sword, he would immediately kill them and send them to another round of resurrection. As for oracles that actively attacked him, he sometimes threw a spell casually to blow up them into pieces, and sometimes he pointed at them with his fingers. Then the oracles he had pointed at would turn blank at once and wave their weapons at their companions. This strange ability was the reason why he had been called the Prince of Betrayal. The King of Death in Blood Bath, the Hegemony of Wither, and the Prince of Betrayal were called the Big Three of the Abyss, for they lived near the abyss and always acted together. They were not abyss masters, but they always had been taken as abyss masters. Many people thought that the three of them would become abyss masters sooner or later, and their small world would correspondingly become a part of the abyss. Sui Xiong had already fought with the King of Death in Blood Bath, so he more or less knew about the power of the Big Three of the Abyss. If he had a choice, he would never want to fight with the other two. He had no interest in making an epic achievement like defeating the Big Three of the Abyss in one day. If he had been on earth, making such an achievement in a computer game would have been something that deserved to be shown off to his friends. But in this world, it meant nothing. Could he boast about it to Javier over a drink? Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think it was a good deal. Although he was tempted to receive admiration from Javier for defeating the Big Three of the Abyss in one day, he still refused to do it. It would have cost him too much. Luckily, the Hegemony of Wither didn¡¯t even look in Sui Xiong¡¯s direction. Instead, the Prince of Betrayal looked at Sui Xiong for a while with a smile, but then turned around, still walking as usual. Nobody knew what was on his mind. These two Devil Gods did nothing until Sui Xiong had finished his rescue. There were less people who needed to be rescued this time, so Sui Xiong did it much faster. It took him no more than twenty minutes to rescue all the followers who could still be cured. Thus, in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, only those who were transforming into demons and oracles who had resurrected from the dead were left. ¡°That¡¯s a great achievement, isn¡¯t it?¡± Sui Xiong absorbed the last follower of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who could be cured into his body and temporarily settled this follower in a small space. Sui Xiong looked around the cold and poor God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, which was still surrounded by fierce roars and fighting, and sighed softly. This was a God¡¯s Kingdom that had been in existence for tens of thousands of years. It had once been as prosperous as the metropolises of earth, but now there were only empty buildings and dwellers who were transforming into demons. The prosperous and busy city had disappeared like smoke. How fragile mortals are in this world! Sui Xiong suddenly became somewhat depressed. Looking at these empty streets, he couldn¡¯t help but recall the battlefield after the fierce battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day. These mortals believe in a God when they¡¯re alive only so that they¡¯ll have a good place to go after death. However, even a God can¡¯t live forever. Once the God these mortals believe in falls down, these mortals will be buried along with the God. Then Sui Xiong thought of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Sun God, Cloud City. The Cloud City was much larger in area and more prosperous and powerful than this place, but finally, it, too, was completely destroyed. It was even worse than here, because there had been no survivors at all. No, there was a survivor who was under treatment in Sui Xiong¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom at that moment. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know when he would recover enough to be the God of Healing again. It might be the best decision I¡¯ve ever made to build my God¡¯s Kingdom as firmly as possible. Thinking about this, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help laughing happily. He firmly believed that his God¡¯s Kingdom wouldn¡¯t be broken as easily by his enemies. The followers who were living in his God¡¯s Kingdom could enjoy a peaceful life there steadily. Maybe their lives won¡¯t be as peaceful as they expected, since I¡¯m not used to peace. How about things like cosplay? Imagining that his followers were ¡®tortured¡¯ by him and complained secretly about their busy lives after death, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help laughing again. In order to make that day come soon, I have to work harder! Sui Xiong thought that maybe it wasn¡¯t necessary to follow the traditional path of building a God¡¯s Kingdom. After all, Sui Xiong came from the earth, which had highly developed productivity. Although the level of science was tragically less advanced in this world, Sui Xiong could still make some changes. On the earth, people always said that even if someone had never eaten pork, he must have seen a pig walk, which meant that people have to have seen others do something before they could do it themselves. As one of the Gods who had the most advanced productivity, even if Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t lead this world to communism in the future, he was determined to make the people here live a better life. Thinking that, the damn blast furnace came into his mind again. Why didn¡¯t it work well? Must I use those expensive materials? If so, it¡¯ll be hard to make it universally accessible! With Sui Xiong¡¯s ability, he could make several magic furnaces and give them away all over the world. However, using magic furnaces consumed magic power as well, so it was impossible to popularize them among mortals who had no magic power. He had developed a magic furnace that started to work by absorbing enough magic power from nature. However, it had taken a long time for it to absorb enough magic power. Even if the magic furnace was sent to the height of a mountain top, it would take about a year to start, which didn¡¯t ensure high productivity at all. Although he wasn¡¯t an engineering student, Sui Xiong had lived on earth for so many years; how could he not have known the key role of steel production in promoting social progress! To promote the progress of productivity in this world and make the people enjoy better lives, furnaces had to meet two requirements. The first was high production, and the second was low cost. How could the people here stand such a backward world! Just as he was daydreaming, he suddenly heard a loud roar coming from the edge of the God¡¯s Kingdom. Looking around, Sui Xiong found that Yolgaardmann had become a super-giant. Leaving his axe behind, he was waving his fists to fight with the Dragon of Chaos, who had also become a huge beast. What? What is Yolgaardmann doing? Is he crazy? No matter how crazy he is, he should know that with two arms, he¡¯ll definitely suffer a loss fighting with a three-headed dragon! Sui Xiong was confused for a while, then he suddenly remembered something important. Just now, had his brother Yolgaardmann sent him a signal to run away as soon as possible? Sui Xiong jumped up without saying anything. His whole body was spinning at a high speed, like a huge green drill. Without explaining anything to the others, he rushed directly to the edge of the nearest God¡¯s Kingdom. With the momentum of the strongest drill in the world, Sui Xiong broke through the shield of the nearest God¡¯s Kingdom in a single attempt. He rushed out of the God¡¯s Kingdom of Goddess of Bumper Harvest and ran away without hesitation. After a moment, a loud sound came from behind Sui Xiong. In the end, the God of Justice couldn¡¯t resist the attack of the Dragon of Chaos anymore. He was whipped by the tail of the Dragon of Chaos and fell into the Void Space outside the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, coughing up blood. Chapter 358 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, had rich experience in fighting, so he could make an extremely precise judgment on a set of fighting conditions. If he estimated that he would finish a fight within half an hour, then he would. Just now, as the Divine Power stored in his avatar had almost been exhausted, he wanted to make a last effort. Through a fantastic spell, he turned his avatar into a super-giant, trying to even the playing field with its great power. He knew it couldn¡¯t defeat the Dragon of Chaos, but he had tried it to force the old dragon to move back a little so that he could rush over to save the Goddess of Bumper Harvest and run away after. But the Dragon of Chaos had much richer experience in fighting than him. Seeing Yorgaardman change his way of fighting, the Dragon of Chaos immediately knew that Yorgaardman must have grown weak, so he didn¡¯t move back, but turned into a giant dragon to fight back. Thus, Yorgaardman¡¯s plan failed. In this case, Yolgaardman had to step back to keep his own life. He fought fiercely with the Dragon of Chaos and found a chance to withdraw from the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Although he was badly hurt, at least he had avoided the worst result. If he was entangled by the Dragon of Chaos and stayed in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, his avatar, which had almost run out of Divine Power, would inevitably die. It wasn¡¯t so easy to create such an avatar, so it would be a pity to let it die that way. Even though he seemed to be badly hurt, as long as he withdrew from the area polluted by the Dragon of Chaos, he could get an endless supply of Divine Power. He coughed a while in the Void Space. When he turned around and stood firmly again, he was fully restored and back in his best condition. He was ready for another 300 rounds of fighting. Just then, he heard Sui Xiong¡¯s voice. ¡°Pass him by! Just ignore him!¡± Yolgaardman smiled bitterly and shook his head. He turned around and walked to the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest, but he didn¡¯t rush in. He just stood at the door, confronted by the far away Dragon of Chaos. At their level, masters were very concerned about rules. It was a common rule that the strong fought with the strong, and the weak fought with the weak. The Dragon of Chaos was waiting for him here, instead of seeking any tricks or help, just organizing an attack by himself. Thus, Yorgaardman had no reason to bypass the Dragon of Chaos and rush into the God¡¯s Kingdom from another place. Indeed, he could change direction and rush into the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest from somewhere that wasn¡¯t under the protection of the Dragon of Chaos, but in that case, he would be the first to disobey the rules. If there was a conflict between them in the future, the Dragon of Chaos could also directly attack a place that was outside of Yorgaardman¡¯s protection. Yorgaardman couldn¡¯t allow that to happen. Thus, even though it was a bit silly, he couldn¡¯t pass the Dragon of Chaos by. He had been defeated by the Dragon of Chaos. Unless the Dragon of Chaos came out and fought with him, or the situation of the fight changed, Yorgaardman couldn¡¯t be the one to start the fight again. That was one of the rules, too. He kept on guard and told Sui Xiong these rules as concisely as possible so that Sui Xiong could understand what was going on. After listening to his explanation, Sui Xiong was astounded for a moment and sighed deeply. ¡°So be it!¡± In that case, there was nothing Yorgaardman could do! Sui Xiong shook his head and didn¡¯t rush into the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, where no one needed his rescue. He just looked at the situation from afar and prepared himself to help Yorgaardman if the fight started again. After the Dragon of Chaos defeated Yorgaardman, he didn¡¯t rush out to fight with him. He just took his time to expand the polluted area. This time, without the interference of Yorgaardman, in a short time, almost a third of the whole God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been polluted, and the polluted area had gradually spread to the core of the God¡¯s Kingdom. In these polluted areas, many of the eroded followers had transformed into ferocious demons. They roared, but instead of heading for the fierce battle in the center of the God¡¯s Kingdom, they were forming a battle array and preparing to make another round of large-scale expansion. In the area near the center of the God¡¯s Kingdom, some oracles of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest couldn¡¯t resist the erosion of the power of Dragon of Chaos anymore. Their bodies were distorted and deformed. Upon seeing them, Sui Xiong finally couldn¡¯t help shouting at the Goddess of Bumper Harvest at the loudest volume. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you leave? Are you waiting for death?¡± The Goddess of Bumper Harvest, who had been somewhat dizzy because of the fierce battle, was awakened by his roar. She immediately remembered the message from the God of Justice she had received just then. She looked around and found that the oracles couldn¡¯t stand any more. The devils had a complete advantage now. Her only helper, Yorgaardman, was firmly stopped outside and couldn¡¯t reach them. Her face paled immediately. She knew that everything was over now. There was nothing she could do but run away. No, there was something else she could do in the meantime! Her eyes were cold and fierce. With a cold smile, she lifted her feet and stomped on the ground. ¡°Nobody can take anything from me!¡± With that, she urged all her Divine Power to provide the oracles with a sudden surge in strength. These oracles launched the fiercest counterattack they could against the devils. Although this wave of counterattacks exhausted all of her Divine Power, which should have lasted her a longer period of time, the oracles had been amazingly strengthened. They suppressed the devils in turn. But the devils didn¡¯t in a panic. They knew that it was simply the last counterattack of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. After all, these oracles couldn¡¯t bear such strong Divine Power. Thus, a moment later, even if these oracles weren¡¯t in exploding, they would become weak after suffering from damage caused by the Strong Divine Power. By that time, it would be the devils¡¯ turn to enjoy victory. But how could the Goddess of Bumper Harvest have given them such a chance! She didn¡¯t hesitate to use all of her Divine Power and give herself a chance to escape, as well as to launch her last attack. In a flash of golden light, she held up her divine weapon, the Sickle of Harvest, and stabbed it hard into the ground. ¡°F*ck!¡± ¡°What is she doing?¡± ¡°Sh*t!¡± ¡°Stop her!¡± ¡°It¡¯s too late! Run!¡± The devils were all experienced in fighting, so they understood what she wanted to do at a glance. They were so scared that they immediately ran away in different directions and ignored the possible chance for victory in front of them. They rushed towards the outskirts of the God¡¯s Kingdom in a panic, like homeless dogs. However, at this time, the whole God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest suddenly burst out in dazzling golden lights. These golden lights glued the escaping demons to the ground, so their actions became slow. It was difficult for them to escape in a short time. At the same time, as the Goddess of Bumper Harvest inserted her divine weapon into the ground, the whole God¡¯s Kingdom trembled violently. An unimaginably powerful force rose from the core of the God¡¯s Kingdom. This wild and violent force was indeed out of control, and it seemed to erupt completely in the next second. Seeing that, everyone understood what was going on. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest knew that she would lose, so she had finally made up her mind. She was so cruel that she wanted to detonate her God¡¯s Kingdom before running away. Even if she couldn¡¯t kill her enemies, she wouldn¡¯t leave any resources for them! ¡°That¡¯s too cruel!¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and sighed. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest urged the core of the God¡¯s Kingdom to explode, then began to run away with a wild laugh. The golden lights that surrounded the whole God¡¯s Kingdom had no influence on her. She was nearly out of the God¡¯s Kingdom. Just then, the Dragon of Chaos smiled. ¡°What a clich¨¦!¡± He spoke slowly. He finished that sentence before the Goddess of Harvest left the God¡¯s Kingdom. However, the God¡¯s Kingdom didn¡¯t explode. Sui Xiong was shocked. Looking carefully, he saw that the lower half of the old dragon¡¯s body had fallen deep into the ground and integrated with the polluted area of the God¡¯s Kingdom. If Sui Xiong looked at it even more carefully, he could see that countless colorful lines on every inch of the ground had spread out from the body of the Dragon of Chaos and were covering the whole God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Unknowingly, this old dragon had completely eroded the whole God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest! ¡°How can he do that?¡± The Goddess of Bumper Harvest was shocked, crying out as she ran desperately towards the edge of the God¡¯s Kingdom. She knew that this was a moment of life and death, and if she didn¡¯t run fast enough, it would be over. The three faces of the Dragon of Chaos wore gloomy, excited, and sarcastic. He sneered and said, ¡°Can you run away?¡± Before the Dragon of Chaos finished his words, countless colorful lines formed a huge net and covered the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, who had slowed down her pace. Just then, the Dragon of Chaos heard a sigh. ¡°Can you do me a favor?¡± A white light penetrated through the God¡¯s Kingdom in a second and tore a hole in the net that had caught the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. It also dispersed some of the force that had prevented her from escaping to let her run away. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest was in a state of shock, yet there was no time for her to thank the God of Justice. She rushed to the place where the net was torn. This time, she spared no effort to use her remaining Divine Power, in spite of being seriously injured again. She finally rushed out before the net was reshaped and escaped from the God¡¯s Kingdom, which had transformed into a cage. The Dragon of Chaos stopped chasing her. He turned around and looked at the God of Justice. ¡°Since you¡¯re good at fighting, I¡¯ll do you this favor,¡± he said in a low voice. Yolgaardman sighed, smiled bitterly, and replied. ¡°Thank you!¡± Despite his defeat and humiliation, Yorgaardman owed the Dragon of Chaos a favor. He had, at last, saved the Goddess of Bumper Harvest in a critical moment. It could be taken as a great fortune in the midst of misfortune. But before he could say anything, he was astonished at what he had seen in the distance. The smile on his face was frozen. In the Void Space not far from the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, a group of Gods of the Natural God System appeared faintly. They were there to help the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, but the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who had ran away in a hurry stopped suddenly and looked down at her chest with a blank face. A long spear dripping with the poisonous water of corruption had penetrated her chest from her back and destroyed her core of Divine Power. She turned her head and saw the grim smile on the face of the God of Marsh. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest wanted to say something, but she never opened her mouth in the end. Her body suddenly collapsed and disappeared without a trace. Chapter 359 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Goddess of Harvest died just as they saw she had almost escaped. It was her old opponent, the God of Marsh, who had killed her. All the Gods felt dizzy at this scene, but only the God of Wealth breathed a sigh of relief. Although the process had been a little dangerous, the outcome was satisfactory to her. As long as her biggest opponent was dead, the price she had paid before was totally worth it. At this time, she couldn¡¯t help but think of the expensive employment cost. All right! It always costs a fortune to do great things. My life would be much better without the constraints of that b*stard Moritre, and it was reasonable to spend some money on it. She comforted herself like this, but she still felt a little depressed. It had been a huge expense! At this time, a God who always hid in the dark also smiled. ¡°Fortunately, that fellow¡¯s head wasn¡¯t filled with mud and moss, and it was worthwhile for me to spend such Great Divine Power to arrange this ambush for him!¡± He poured himself a glass of wine with satisfaction, smiling, and drank it alone. ¡°Although I haven¡¯t received any practical benefits this time, it would be much more convincing for me to do things by making all the evil Gods move out, which would effectively attract the attention of all the Gods.¡± ¡°And¡­¡± He opened his palm with a smile and a bright pearl rolled slowly in his palm. This pearl was the biggest gain from his journey! The reason why the Goddess of Harvest had once had the ambition to compete for the position of the main God in Natural God System was that she had received a very important treasure. That treasure was the legacy of the God of Virtue, which could produce an incredible and wonderful world. It was first acquired by the Goddess of Life, and the reason why she could create such advanced elves called ¡®the golden race¡¯ was not only due to her great Divine Power, but also this treasure. Later, after the death of the Goddess of Life, this treasure had disappeared. No one knew how it had fallen into the hands of the Goddess of Harvest. Of course, the Goddess of Harvest only had a fragment of the treasure, which wasn¡¯t as powerful as it had been in the hands of the God of Virtue, nor was it as useful as in the hands of the Goddess of Life. But even so, this treasure gave her great confidence, which made her dare to challenge these two powerful Gods¡ªthe sky and the earth¡ªand compete for the throne of the natural holy pedigree. Unfortunately, her ambition went beyond her strength, and the challenge between her and the King of Sky also failed. Even the treasure was damaged again, but she wasn¡¯t stupid enough to reveal the secret of the treasure. Otherwise, the King of Sky would have killed her and robbed the treasure under the pretext of ¡°cleansing the doors of perception.¡± Over the years, although the Goddess of Harvest had always been in the natural holy pedigree, she had kept her distance from those two powerful Gods in order to protect the secret of the treasure. She had been trying to repair the treasure all this time, but unfortunately, her ability was very limited. Over tens of thousands of years, this precious treasure hadn¡¯t been repaired, and on the contrary, it was getting worse and worse with its tendency to degenerate. What was more, she had never trained sufficiently powerful subordinates because she had spent most of her Divine Power on repairing the treasure. There were no God followers or demigods among her followers. At this time, the God of Conspiracy knew about the secret of the treasure. He wasn¡¯t in a hurry to steal the treasure, but he was trying to provoke contradictions between the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and other churches, thus creating a big mess so that he could take advantage of this chaotic occasion to steal the treasure. The four evil Gods were the God of Marsh, the Goddess of Ocean, the God of Storm, and the God of Aristocracy. They were inspired by him to form an alliance and intended to unite and take Garth City as a starting point to attack the Goddess of Harvest fiercely and sabotage her faith. Originally, according to the plan made by the God of Conspiracy, the God of Marsh was to launch a frontal attack, while the God of Ocean and the God of Storm attacked from the side. At the most crucial moment, the God of Aristocracy would kill her with a knife in the back. At this time, the Goddess of Harvest would have no choice but to take out the treasure to save herself and then they who had made the preparations would steal the treasure. However, man proposes, God disposes. No one could predict that a jellyfish God of Void Mask would come, with its fighting power having reached its peak before the completion of the apotheosis ceremony! The God of Ocean and the God of Storm were beaten down, though still alive, during the great war, while the God of Aristocracy was so frightened that he didn¡¯t dare fight again, leaving only the God of Marsh in the battle. Although the God of Marsh had won the upper hand in the battle by making full preparations in advance, since the Goddess of Harvest wasn¡¯t afraid of death, she would certainly not take out the treasure. The God of Conspiracy had no choice but to plot against the Goddess of Harvest in order to get things on track. In the end¡­ the Goddess of Harvest chose to explode her incarnation and perished along with the incarnation with the God of Marsh. The God of Conspiracy could hardly wait to scold the Goddess of Harvest¡ªwhat an idiot she was! What kind of brain did she have to think of such a strange way to explode her incarnation to perish with it?! But scolding wasn¡¯t his style, so he chose to wait silently and continue to seek and create opportunities. Soon, he found another opportunity. During the reconstruction of the Garth City, serious contradictions surfaced among the Goddess of Harvest, the Church of the God of Wealth, and the Church of the Void Mask. The God of Conspiracy certainly started it with the Church of Void Mask, since that big jellyfish could defeat more enemies than the fat Goddess of Wealth. It was unreliable to only depend on the fat woman! However, things went the opposite way of his expectations. The Church of Void Mask had put its core in the Ashes Woods located in the northwest region of the main plane and built a magnificent amusement park in a desolate world of ice and snow where the negative energy was rampant. With a property this large, who would care about Garth City! The Archbishop of the Church of Void Mask, unsurprisingly, refused to confront the Church of the Goddess of Harvest, and the descendants of the God of Eagle were much more cunning than their ancestors, even making the Church of the God of Wealth willing to be their shield without any complaints. This guy is so much like my followers. If he believed in me, I would promote him as one of my candidates! The God of Conspiracy thought about this while he secretly egged on the disagreement between the Churches of the God of Wealth and the Goddess of Harvest. The Archbishop of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest in the Garth City died in the conflict and was unexpectedly killed by a group of adventurers who were recruited by the Church of the God of Wealth. The Church of the Goddess of Harvest would certainly not put the matter to rest and began to hunt down those adventurers immediately. Meanwhile, the Church of the God of Wealth had to protect their capable adventurers, so they fought with each other fiercely. The Church of the God of Wealth suffered great losses, and those adventurers, along with a Sacred Warrior, were all killed. Therefore, the Church of the God of Wealth raged and immediately spent a large amount of money recruiting more than dozens of powerful adventurers, who in turn fought against the unprepared Church of the Goddess of Harvest fiercely. The Church of the Goddess of Harvest had suffered great losses in the battle, and nearly its whole army was killed. Of course, the Church of the Goddess of Harvest wasn¡¯t the kind of group to mess around with. In great anger, they even sent the Legendary Master to fight in the battle with artifacts. If things continued like this, the Legendary Master with his artifacts and the owner of the Garth City, Leon, would be strong enough to defeat the Church of the God of Wealth, and no one would even live to come back home, so the God of Conspiracy started off to find the God of Wealth secretly. With his persuasion and encouragement, the God of Wealth used his Divine Power to block the power of the Goddess of Harvest. Then she sent at least half of the high-end forces at her disposal to the Garth City through the Void Mask amusement park. One side was both confident and careless, while the other side had made full preparations in advance. The result was predictable. The Church of the Goddess of Harvest had suffered great losses in the battle, which had destroyed its vitality, and the God of Conspiracy kept making more trouble for her in order to help the God of Wealth. What was more, the God of Wealth was extremely fortunate enough to have such a powerful and smart green jellyfish whose ideas improved the strength of the God of Wealth, quickly approaching the peak of the mid-level divine powers. As the strength of the God of Wealth grew, his ambition was also sprouting. Now, she had a new name, the Goddess of Wealth, and her new image was much more attractive compared to her previous fat appearance. She wanted to defeat the Goddess of Harvest completely so as to build up her authority and pave the way for future great actions such as stepping into Great Divine Powers, training God followers, and building holy pedigrees. The God of Conspiracy certainly supported her idea, as he had been waiting for this day for a long time. Therefore, he took out his well-designed plans. First, he would make the Goddess of Harvest promote her God followers as quickly as possible, and when the climax ceremony was over, he would send mercenaries to launch an attack on the Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest, thus forcing the Goddess of Harvest to escape. Then he would contact the God of Marsh to ambush her on the road, and if the God of Marsh failed to attack, the Goddess of Wealth would do so herself. His plan wasn¡¯t complicated, and the key lied in how to force the Goddess of Harvest to promote a God follower and where to find powerful mercenaries. The God of Conspiracy made a solemn oath and received the greatest Divine Powers from the Goddess of Wealth. Even though he also wanted to steal the Divine Power for himself, even if it would mean disobeying his oath, he didn¡¯t operate like that. On the contrary, he went to find all the evil Gods. He spent a lot of energy and time to persuade more than a dozen evil Gods, among which there was an unexpected supporter¡ªthe Dragon of Chaos, who was also very curious about this matter and showed his willingness to participate. With this powerful man, the God of Conspiracy refused to persuade the rest of the evil Gods and went directly to find the God of Marsh. The God of Marsh had suffered great losses the last time, so he could never shake the idea of taking revenge, and the two naturally hit it off. The last part of the plan was to encourage the Goddess of Harvest to promote a God follower. For others, it would be very difficult to do such a thing, but for the God of Conspiracy, it was his greatest skill to make false impressions that would give people the wrong idea. The Goddess of Harvest was depressed, because her church had suffered heavy losses, and she also was devastated by the fact that she had been forced to explode her incarnation. At present, she was in low spirits and had no confidence. Moreover, she had also been misled by the God of Conspiracy and felt that the situation was getting worse and worse, leading to a moment of life or death. At this time, the God of Conspiracy found her and told her that he had a perfect apotheosis ceremony that could turn the cities into holy areas and greatly increase the success rate of their development. In exchange, she only had to lend him the treasure for one hundred years. The Goddess of Harvest was startled and wanted to kill the God of Conspiracy, but it wasn¡¯t easy for her to kill him. If the Goddess of Harvest could have killed him, then he would have died a thousand times. The Goddess of Harvest failed to kill him and had to talk with him. They talked for a long time and bargained several times. In the end, the God of Conspiracy spent a lot of Divine Power as a reward and took out many treasures as collateral in exchange for an opportunity to borrow the treasure for ten years. In addition, he had to make a serious pledge that if he revealed its secrets or didn¡¯t return it on time, he would die immediately without even a chance for reincarnation. The God of Conspiracy acted very properly at that time. Although the Goddess of Harvest had made other requests, he firmly agreed to such conditions. If the Goddess of Harvest had asked for more, their deal would have ended, and he would have spread the secret to the world. Under the circumstances, the Goddess of Harvest had little choice. ¡°Several plans, countless ideas, how much effort did I expend!¡± The God of Conspiracy looked at the bright pearl in his hand that had many cracks and laughed brilliantly. ¡°It was worth my effort!¡± What was important was that the Goddess of Harvest died, and no one in the world would know that she had owned that treasure! Thinking about this, he smiled more happily. At just this moment, a voice which was usually not heard here came from behind his body. ¡°Isn¡¯t this the legacy of the God of Virtue? It seems weaker than before!¡± At that moment, the God of Conspiracy¡¯s whole body became stiff. He turned back slowly and saw an old man with three different of expressions, one smiling, one yearning, and one greedy. ¡°Chaos¡­ The Dragon of Chaos¡­¡± Why? Why has the Dragon of Chaos appeared here ? Wasn¡¯t he still in the Kingdom of the Goddess of Harvest? Is this a stand-in over there? Or is his stand-in in the kingdom? Why didn¡¯t he respond to my conspiracy and clergy? What the hell is going on? His mind was a mess, and he wanted to escape, only to find that his ever-proud shadow moving ability was failing. What was more, his body was too stiff to move even a finger. The old man ignored the moaning of the God of Conspiracy, who couldn¡¯t move at all, and reached out to take the pearl from him. He looked at it carefully for a long time and sighed deeply. ¡°The power of time was really so terrible that even the pearl has become like this!¡± After saying this, he brought the pearl to his middle face and swallowed it. ¡°This gift is so good. I¡¯m quite satisfied with this,¡± he said to the God of Conspiracy. ¡°I deserved to possess such a reward.¡± He faded away gradually, leaving only his words lingering in the air. ¡°Next time there¡¯s such a good thing available, don¡¯t forget to call me. I¡¯ll be on call anytime.¡± When he disappeared completely into the dark, the God of Conspiracy could move again. His reaction was to spread the news of the treasure as widely as possible. If he couldn¡¯t get it back, the Dragon of Chaos would never take advantage of it. But he hesitated and thought for a long time. Finally, he stamped his foot and shouted out in anger at the abuse. Since he didn¡¯t want to spread the news of the treasure, he could only do one thing at that time. Chapter 360 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Conspiracy¡¯s Kingdom was located in a hidden place that was known to none except itself¡ªat least, it believed that by now. Though the Dragon of Chaos had made it lose confidence, no one knew what was happening in the kingdom. Thus, they had decided not to disclose the secret of the treasure and break the relationship. Instead, they intended to make a proper plan and wait for another chance to take back the treasure from the dragon. This wasn¡¯t known to the Gods who were just keeping an eye on different issues. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been stabbed in the back by the God of Marsh, the entity collapsing and dissolving into the void. Again, there was a strange rhythm lingering around the place where it fell and slowly condensed a glowing crystal. It was the entity of ¡°bumper harvest.¡± Many Gods held their breath upon seeing the crystal. The priesthood of bumper harvest wasn¡¯t a minor one. With that alone, a God of Belief with mid-level Divine Power could be nurtured; even one at the medium peak would be possible with tens of thousands of years of dedicated effort and even Great Divine Power with the proper opportunities. Quite a few of them still remembered how strong the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been back then. Only the two master Nature Gods had been powerful enough to prevent her from usurping the throne! While the Gods all had their eyes on the priesthood of bumper harvest, the God of Marsh vanished with a weird smile on his green, mud-covered face, not attempting to take advantage and gain a part of the power. This was unexpected. Years of fighting between the God of Marsh and the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had caused them to know each other well. The God of Marsh was capable of sharing the priesthood of bumper harvest, even though it had totally different faith with ¡°bumper harvest,¡± or at least a part of it did. Yet he seemed completely uninterested. The other Gods were therefore impressed by this low-pitched God, and some of them even thought of working with him, since at least he didn¡¯t look like a greedy partner. Without the God of Marsh there, the ¡°bumper harvest¡± priest was left in the void with multiple eyes staring at him. Suddenly, the God of Rain, a Nature God, flew over and tried to catch him. He had been in a good relationship with the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. They had worked together for years and known each other well. Besides, ¡°rain¡± was closely related to ¡°bumper harvests,¡± as moderate rain was key for a bumper harvest. If the God of Rain was granted ¡°bumper harvests,¡± he would merge this into himself in a few days to hugely promote his own Divine Power. With a few more years of development, it could probably have become one of the greatest. But before the stout God of Rain could rush toward the bumper harvest priesthood, it was stopped by a lanky mummy-like figure in a gray fog. ¡°You wish!¡± the lanky one sneered and wielded a pair of bone-like daggers that were aimed at the God of Rain. The lanky figure turned out to be the God of Drought, the God of Rain¡¯s lifelong rival and sworn enemy. The two of them had been against each other, both secretly and publicly, for over tens of thousands of years, including a few times where blood was shed. It was because both sides had helping hands and allies that both of them were still around now. The God of Drought knew nothing about the priesthood of bumper harvest, but he was sure of one thing¡ªhe wouldn¡¯t allow his rival to have it! So his task was simple¡ªto strive to stop the God of Rain from approaching the priesthood of bumper harvest! As they were about to fight, the God of River, another Nature God, jumped out, came to the battlefield, and went to the priesthood of bumper harvest. ¡°Rivers¡± were also related to ¡°bumper harvests,¡± as usually fertile lands were near rivers, so he had also had a good relationship with the Goddess of Bumper Harvest and had cooperated with her a lot. And he could also merge this priesthood for his own gain, too. But¡­ he was also stopped like the God of Rain. Before he had fully gone around the battlefield, he was stopped by a hot wind and sand. From the hot wind came a giant cactus¡ªthe God of Desert. The relationship between the God of Desert and the God of River was similar to that between the God of Drought and the God of Rain. Thus, the God of River took out his artifact ¡°Torrent Rod¡± immediately and swept straight towards the God of Desert without hesitation. It was clear that he would have no way to take the priesthood, so all he could do was strike the one who had stopped him! ¡°Haha! I never expected to finally get it!¡± A girl wearing light clothing giggled and flew over to the priesthood on the warm south wind. This was the Goddess of South Wind, who wasn¡¯t really related to the priesthood, but could still be connected to it somehow¡­ It wasn¡¯t time for her to celebrate yet. When she stretched out to take the crystal, a fair-skinned and brawny arm reached out from behind her and grabbed her hair to pull her back. The Goddess of South Wind cried out in pain and took out its artifact to stab backwards, but she was being held by a much taller and stronger white-haired Goddess. That Goddess did a judo move and bound the two of them closely together. ¡°Let go of me!¡± shouted the Goddess of South Wind. ¡°You wish!¡± said the white-haired Goddess of North Wind coldly. The Goddess of North Wind was actually not as powerful as the Goddess of South Wind, but she had better battle skills. The Goddess of North Wind was as strong as a bull and looked like a bear in human-skin, while the Goddess of South Wind looked slimmer and more delicate, like a dancer who would perform at a luxury hotel. She might have been at an advantage for her flexibility on a large battlefield, but would have no chance to rival the Goddess of North Wind when it came to contests of pure strength. Other Gods came before it was too late to grab the priesthood, but things didn¡¯t change much. They all had rivals stop them on the way. Pairs of rival Gods were fighting for the priesthood of bumper harvest, creating an scene that was equally as grand as before, when a dozen devils had besieged the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. ¡°These people¡­¡± sighed Sui Xiong. ¡°They were slow to come when the Goddess was in danger, but quick as rabbits after she died and left behind her priesthood! Why didn¡¯t they fight so hard earlier?!¡± ¡°Whether you¡¯re a beneficiary or not makes a difference,¡± sighed Yorgaardman, depressed. He had tried his best already and even received help from his men, though the fall of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had still occurred. That depressed him, and what was happening now in front of him also pissed him off, as it was a matter of integrity. He felt like he was noticing a worm while eating an apple¡ªor even worse, a half-eaten worm¡­ When the Gods were still fighting against each other, the God of Sky in the front row of the Pantheon temple sighed and said to Goddess Gaia next to him, ¡°This is ridiculous! Please do something.¡± Goddess Gaia smiled and took out an extraordinarily large palm from the void. She waved the palm over to shove a dozen Gods, then the palm stretched out directly to the priesthood of bumper harvest. That was why Great Divine Power was different! The Gods couldn¡¯t do anything, though they were angry. But Goddess Gaia had already given them a chance before, and they just hadn¡¯t seized it, so they were better off shutting their mouths now. Goddess Gaia¡¯s giant palm caught the priesthood, but didn¡¯t do anything with it. Instead, it quickly shrank into a light and trapped the priesthood inside to prevent it from leaving or being grabbed by others. At this time, Goddess Gaia appeared and glanced at the crowd coldly. ¡°How ridiculous of you to create such chaos!¡± she said imperially. ¡°I will take the priesthood of bumper harvest for the time being, and its final owner will depend on how you behave.¡± Everyone became silent, and the Gods lowered their heads. Nobody could do anything but obey the top master of Great Divine Power since the ancient times. Except for one¡­ While all thought this was the end of the day, the God of Justice stood up. He roared while rushing towards the priesthood, raised an axe, and hacked at the light-covered priesthood with the hard axe. Goddess Gaia was stunned, but was too late to stop it! The axe was being wielded rapidly but strangely, it looked like it was moving rather slowly. All eyes watched it fall on the light and easily break it, then it fell on to the crystal of the priesthood and broke it into pieces without much resistance. ¡°B*tch!¡± the God of Justice carried his axe on his shoulder and glanced at the crowd coldly. ¡°None of you ever stand up until you smell the meat. *ssholes!¡± He stared at Goddess Gaia viciously, looking like he was ready to fight. ¡°And you, as well! You would have been able to save Moritre without too much effort, while I risked my life fighting against masters to save him, and my men were all in the fight against a dozen masters¡­ We¡¯re the ones who deserve this, not you!¡± He shouted again, ¡°A whore just wanting a good reputation. You really piss me off!¡± He looked even more vicious, and his hair almost stood on end, coupled with his murderous intent. He held his axe in his hands again and posed, ready for a fight. ¡°You all piss me off! Get out of here!¡± Chapter 361 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio To be honest, when Yorgaardman suddenly attacked, Sui Xiong was extremely nervous. At the most urgent moment, he was even thinking of how to escape. His older brother was powerful, so he would have been able to escape, even if he couldn¡¯t win. However, Sui Xiong was so weak that he couldn¡¯t fight against so many Gods. Especially since the Great Divine Power, Goddess Gaia, was there, too. Moreover, Goddess Gaia¡¯s best friend, the God of Sky, was also a Great Divine Power who was ready to attack at any time. Holy crap! If he fought with them, he would be made directly into a jellyfish dish! However, the God of Justice was so powerful and mighty that he really controlled everyone¡¯s attention! When Goddess Gaia gradually disappeared with a gloomy expression, and the other Gods also left as if their parents had died, Sui Xiong was very cheerful, excited, and disordered. At that moment, he just wanted to sing a song for his older brother that was similar to the background music played when heroes won a final fight, or a song for the running Gods. In fact, he did play a song. ¡°It¡¯s a good tune.¡± Yorgaardman came back when the music started, and he patted Sui Xiong on his shoulder. Smiling, he said, ¡°I like it!¡± Also smiling, Sui Xiong answered, ¡°In the future, whenever you¡¯re going to hit someone, just play a song like this.¡± ¡°Forget that, but it¡¯s okay to play a song like this once in a while.¡± The God of Justice was humble at that moment and had lost all the aggression he had just shown. Sui Xiong was trying to talk about what he had just done, but he suddenly recalled an important point. Therefore, he asked anxiously, ¡°My brother, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest is dead, and the Priesthood of Harvest is smashed. Will there be famine in the human world?¡± ¡°You¡¯re overthinking it. The God of Bumper Harvest and the Priesthood of Harvest can only collect the belief of harvest in the world so that they can promote it. But even if they don¡¯t exist, days will go on all the same,¡± the God of Justice answered, laughing. ¡°Believing in a God is just a side gig. It¡¯s good to have it, but it¡¯s almost the same without it. There wasn¡¯t a God of Bumper Harvest in the world before Moritre became a God, and famine didn¡¯t happen every year at that time.¡± Sui Xiong nodded, finally relieved. At this time, he noticed that in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, the devils had completely killed all the Oracles and began to dismantle the God¡¯s Kingdom itself. The God¡¯s Kingdom was essentially the condensation of Divine Power, in which every blade of grass and tree contained Divine Power. In other words, the God¡¯s Kingdom was the real existence of a God. As long as the God¡¯s Kingdom wasn¡¯t destroyed, the God would not actually fall. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been shot by the God of Marsh, and although she had been badly injured, she hadn¡¯t been killed. However, in order to retaliate, she had detonated the core of her God¡¯s Kingdom before she had fled. As a result, she had fallen and couldn¡¯t even be resurrected. Of course, even if she was resurrected, it wouldn¡¯t be pretty. She would come back to life among a group of devils, and she would be temporarily weak for a period of time after the resurrection. Sui Xiong thought for a while, and he thought that it seemed better to simply die, lest any disharmonious things happen. Now that the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was completely dead, and even the clergy crystal of harvest had been crushed with an axe by the God of Justice, the God¡¯s Kingdom that was controlled by the Dragon of Chaos naturally had no owner, making it a trophy for devils. What they were doing was dividing up the spoils of the war. If the whole God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was dismantled and transformed into Divine Power, how much would there be? Sui Xiong tried estimating it, then he found that his math wasn¡¯t good enough. It was inconvenient to calculate such a large number, so he had to stop. The God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was dismantled bit by bit. From the most central part, which had the highest core value, it broke apart into fragments. Then the devils transformed them into pure Divine Power and swallowed it up. Looking at this, Sui Xiong suddenly felt a little sad. Although the relationship between him and the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had not been good, and even could have been called hostile, it wasn¡¯t pleasant to see this scene. Her God¡¯s Kingdom, which she had worked hard on for thousands of years, was completely destroyed after her death. A poem says that relatives feel sad for their family¡¯s deaths, and others also sigh for their deaths, but death isn¡¯t something serious. They¡¯re just buried in the mountains. If humans die, they can be buried in the mountains. However, in this world, when Gods fall, they can¡¯t have a tomb. Even their hard-working business will eventually be completely destroyed and become Divine Power for others to enjoy. He sighed deeply, thinking about the believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest whom he had saved. They had been lucky to escape the tragic end of their God¡¯s Kingdom, but they had also been eroded by the power of the Dragon of Chaos. If he wanted to cure them, he would expend infinite time and energy. Suddenly, Sui Xiong remembered one thing. After thinking for a while, he flew into the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. ¡°You guys,¡± he yelled. ¡°My name is Oscar, and I¡¯m called the Void Mask. I want to make a deal with you.¡± The devils who were busy dividing up the spoils stopped, looking at him together. ¡°Haha, what¡¯s the deal?¡± the Dragon of Chaos asked with an old voice, smiling. ¡°I want to buy the buildings and the furniture from the residential area of the ordinary believers that were in this God¡¯s Kingdom,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You know, I saved many believers. They¡¯re all souls, so they can¡¯t live in the human world anymore. I have to arrange houses and other things for them. There are ready-made houses and furniture here, and they¡¯re actually the ones they used, so I want to buy them at the original prices. You¡¯ll save the trouble of tearing down the houses, and I¡¯ll save the trouble of building houses on my own.¡± The devils looked at each other, feeling weird. To be honest, although the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was very large, valuable parts were few. The concentration of the Divine Power condensed in different parts were different, so the places with a high concentration of Divine Power naturally had higher value, and the places with a low concentration of Divine Power had much lower value. The core of the God¡¯s Kingdom was naturally the most valuable. The second most valuable places were the barriers of the God¡¯s Kingdom, the huge magic array throughout the whole God¡¯s Kingdom, the training grounds for the cultivation of Oracles, and similar places. The least valuable place was the residential area of ordinary believers. The ordinary believers could offer the power of faith through prayers, which had been their only value to the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. She hadn¡¯t lacked the power of faith, so she hadn¡¯t paid much attention to the ordinary believers. Therefore, the residential area had seemed to be flourishing in appearance, but in fact, it had been quite rough, with some parts that didn¡¯t even contain Divine Power. Therefore, in the eyes of the devils, they had very little value. They couldn¡¯t gain much Divine Power from pulling down these buildings, but they had to deal with the garbage. That was horrible! However, when Sui Xiong proposed buying the buildings and the furniture inside, they became suspicious. The Jellyfish God is powerful, and he doesn¡¯t look like a fool. He¡¯s going to buy those worthless things, so could there be any treasures hidden in them? To be honest, greed was an unavoidable sin of all living creatures. There were few exceptions, from the great Gods down to the mad devils. It wasn¡¯t surprising that one would do something foolish once greed dominated their mind. Therefore, although they knew it was a very profitable deal, the devils still looked at each other, and nobody wanted to agree. Seeing that they were suddenly beginning to hesitate, Sui Xiong frowned. He asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? You don¡¯t want to sell them?¡± ¡°We want to sell them¡­ but the prices¡­¡± ¡°Damn the prices! What if there¡¯s something good in there?¡± ¡°There won¡¯t be any good things in the residential area where the ordinary believers lived.¡± ¡°You promise?¡± ¡°Why should I promise you?¡± ¡°Then don¡¯t talk nonsense!¡± ¡°Kid, you¡¯re too arrogant! Believe it or not, I could beat you tomorrow!¡± ¡°Tomorrow? I¡¯ll beat you up now!¡± Watching the devils quarreling and starting to argue, the three faces of the Dragon of Chaos all had angry looks. He shouted angrily, ¡°Shut up!¡± This supreme devil was still very dignified, so his simple words quieted the noisy devils. Then he turned his head to Sui Xiong. After thinking for a moment, he said, ¡°That area is nothing, I¡¯ll just give them to you.¡± ¡°Boss! That¡¯s a loss! We shouldn¡¯t make such a deal!¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a loss!¡± The devils persuaded him one after another, but the Dragon of Chaos calmed them down just by turning around and glancing at them. He looked at Sui Xiong again, smiling, and said kindly, ¡°If I remember correctly¡­ you¡¯re the brother of Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, aren¡¯t you?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment, and he didn¡¯t understand what he meant, but he still nodded. ¡°Just now, your older brother asked me for a favor in order to save the Goddess of Bumper Harvest,¡± the Dragon of Chaos said slowly. ¡°Unfortunately, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest is still dead after all, and the value of this favor has greatly diminished. I¡¯m old, and I don¡¯t care for Divine Power or treasures. I like to sell favors to others, so I think¡­ you can take whatever you want in the God¡¯s Kingdom, as long as you owe me one.¡± Now, it was Sui Xiong¡¯s turn to make a difficult decision. The Dragon of Chaos had sounded polite at first, but it was harsh when he thought about it carefully. What debt was the hardest to pay? A debt of favor. It was all right to owe ordinary people, but such an extremely strong Ancient Master Evil God like the Dragon of Chaos, should he owe him a favor? Sui Xiong knew that his abilities were limited, and he wasn¡¯t strong enough. He didn¡¯t have the same will as his elder brother. He couldn¡¯t afford to owe a favor to the supreme devil, and he couldn¡¯t return the favor of an inimitable strongman. He hesitated for a while and at last, sighed deeply. He honestly said, ¡°I can¡¯t afford to owe you a favor. Forget it.¡± After that, he turned around regretfully and was about to leave. However, he heard the laughter of the old Dragon of Chaos. ¡°Then you don¡¯t need to owe me a favor. After all, it¡¯s still something of little value, I¡¯ll give it to you.¡± After that, the whole God¡¯s Kingdom shook slightly, and all the buildings in the residential area, along with the furniture inside, flew up, merged into a stream of light, and landed in front of Sui Xiong. At first glance, it looked like a mess of mud. However, if he looked at it carefully, he could see all kinds of things lying in order. In fact, it wasn¡¯t messy at all. With a little effort and energy, he could recover everything completely. To be able to do such a thing casually, the Dragon of Chaos was indeed powerful. He was a matchless creature who had even defeated the God of Justice! Sui Xiong hesitated for a moment, and took the ¡°mess.¡± He turned to the Dragon of Chaos and expressed his thanks to him. ¡°Thank you very much!¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± The three faces of the Dragon of Chaos laughed together, and then he said, ¡°If you really want to thank me, let me have a chance to sell you a favor. Own up to your true self as soon as possible.¡± Chapter 362 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Yan Xun was puzzled and left the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest that was breaking up quickly. Then he returned to the side of the God of Justice who was waiting not far away outside the God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°How are things going?¡± he asked. He knew that the elder brother must be looking at everything. ¡°Your face is valuable, but my face is certainly not! What is he really thinking?¡± The God of Justice said, smiling, ¡°You look down on your own. Your face is actually very valuable.¡± ¡°My face? Is there any value in my face? I don¡¯t even have a priesthood.¡± ¡°But you are good at fighting,¡± the God of Justice said, smiling. ¡°You just defeated the strongest of the devils, one of the Big Three of the Abyss and made him flee quickly. Starting from the fourth row of the Pantheon temple, most gods would be jealous of that record.¡± ¡°The fighting capacity of the gods of the Pantheon temple is so weak?¡± Yan Xun stunned. ¡°The gods behind the first three rows are all weak chickens?¡± ¡°Hah hah hah!¡± the God of Justice laughed. ¡°That¡¯s a little mean! But they have to endure it. Behind the first three rows of the Pantheon temple, I¡¯m afraid that none of them dare to pat their chests and say that they could surely win against the Big Three of the Abyss.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mention the battle that year which made you famous,¡± the God of Justice said as his eyes went deep and his attitude became serious. ¡°That day, you killed the God of Storms and the God of Ocean. That force is almost at the peak of the mid-level Divine Power. In fact, some weaker ones of strong Divine Power may not be able to do the same thing. ¡°In other words, with your ability, when you really get your priesthood and become a god, you will immediately be at the same level as the first three rows. Although you will have a lower deity temporarily, no one will dare to treat you as a weak Divine Power or a low-level Divine Power.¡± Yan Xun was stunned for a while and then pointed his tentacles at himself with a confused expression. ¡°How do I become a great master? I always feel a little uneasy¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯ll get used to it. I found myself suddenly becoming a master that year.¡± ¡°And afterwards?¡± ¡°Afterwards, I got used to it.¡± ¡°Those who have simple thoughts are really happy,¡± Yan Xun said. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I mean, my brother, you are a simple and honest person!¡± Yan Xun answered. ¡°Yes. I have always been as clear as water,¡± Yorgaardman said. Hearing the words that the God of Justice used to praise himself, the faces of some strong Divine Powers who were sitting beside him went dark. As clear as water?! Well, interesting, those Great Divine Powers thought. By this time, the drama of ¡°the Goddess of Bumper Harvest selecting a god follower,¡± finally ended. Although a large number of believers were confused on the ground, the holy emblems and the holy statues in the entire Rem City had lost their radiance, and the Divine Power of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had completely disappeared. More importantly, when the believers were praying, they couldn¡¯t feel the existence of the goddess. What did this mean? Everybody knew. For a time, the entire Rem City was so quiet like a mortuary. Then, someone began to cry loudly. The crying seemed to be contagious, and it spread quickly. In a short while, the whole Rem City was full of crying, and there were believers everywhere who were crying on the ground with grief. Not only one or two, but often a group of people was crying together, choking with sobs. Yan Xun was looking at the scene, sighing deeply. ¡°Take it easy. This is how a god¡¯s battle works,¡± Yorgaardman advised, patting him. ¡°Remember the previous Sun God? His believers were much more than these people. When he fell, crying could be heard everywhere in the whole Kingdom of Holy Angels, and it was much worse than this scene.¡± ¡°And after that?¡± Yan Xun asked. ¡°After, they got used to it. Most believers changed their faith. Now they mainly believe in human gods,¡± Yorgaardman said, smiling. The smile contained indifference as well as some sorrow. ¡°Believing in a god is such a thing. When you are alive, believers are devout to you and even willing to die for you. But when you fall, believers will soon believe in other gods. A short time later, except for the most loyal ones, only historians will remember you.¡± He looked up at the sky with an indifferent expression that contained a kind of calm that he had seen through everything. Yan Xun was silent for a long time; then he said with a nod, ¡°You are right.¡± After a while, the two gods turned into lights and flew away. From the beginning to the end, they were not discovered by the people in Rem City. After returning to his own site, Yan Xun began to deal with the believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who had been rescued by him. He arranged a large-scale purification array in the God¡¯s Kingdom. First, he purified the buildings and furniture that had also been polluted by the power of the Chaotic Dragon. After making sure that they were all right, he rearranged the buildings, paving the ground and the streets according to the scene he had seen in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. After about ten days, there was already a large, residential area floating in the void in the ¡°sanctuary,¡± connecting with the ¡°chat room¡± of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Desolation God System through a bridge. Looking at them from a distance, one could see that they were together side by side in a neat row. After preparing the residential area, Yan Xun began to purify the polluted souls. This was much harder than purifying houses and furniture. Souls were delicate things that couldn¡¯t be treated roughly. They must be manipulated carefully to prevent the strong Divine Power from destroying the structure of the souls. Yan Xun had worked hard to save them, so of course, he didn¡¯t want to destroy them. It took a lot of effort and many failures during the process as well. Finally, the first souls were purified. These believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who had been sober again looked at the strange scene around them; then they looked at the familiar residential area in the distance, feeling confused. ¡°This is your new home,¡± Yan Xun said. ¡°I am the Void Mask. I couldn¡¯t bear to see you erode into monsters by the power of chaos, so I saved you.¡± An elderly believer tempted to ask, ¡°The great Majesty of the Void Mask, can you tell us what happened to¡­ Her Majesty, our goddess?¡± His voice shivered a little, apparently lacking confidence. Yan Xun whispered after a silence, ¡°As you have guessed.¡± The believer lowered his head with his body trembling softly, and tears quickly dripped from his jaw continuously. Other believers were also sad and tearful. They were able to live in the God¡¯s Kingdom by the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, so naturally, they must have had firm faith or made great contributions. Therefore, they were naturally sadder when they confirmed that the goddess had fallen. ¡°Let it go,¡± Yan Xun advised after a sigh. ¡°The Goddess of Bumper Harvest has fallen, but the days will still continue. I can¡¯t rebuild the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, but it¡¯s possible to rebuild your residential area. You can stay here first. If you want to get reincarnated or just want to die in the future, you should wait until you calm down.¡± ¡°It surprises me that¡­ it is actually you who give us a helping hand.¡± A big guy with a full bread came out of the crowd. ¡°I originally thought that you were our abominable enemy.¡± Yan Xun carefully looked at him for a while, and he quickly remembered him with the help of his powerful memory. This man had been a paladin of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest whose power had been very strong. Together with the Archbishop of the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, who had taken the position after the reconstruction of Garth City, he had brought a lot of trouble to Leon and Kalisa. Later, he had died because of the conflict with the Church of the Goddess of Wealth. After the death, his soul had gone to the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. ¡°Well, an acquaintance,¡± Yan Xun smiled. ¡°To be honest, my relationship with your goddess is really bad. If we met, it was not surprising for us to fight. But that is something between her and me, so it¡¯s none of your business. I am not a jerk who would see you die because of the contradiction with your goddess.¡± ¡°You are the kindest god I have ever met.¡± ¡°Kind? Maybe,¡± Yan Xun said, smiling. ¡°In short, you should settle down first. I will not force you to do anything. Everything can wait until you settle down and become calm.¡± He waved his hand to let the people leave and then began to treat the next batch of souls. There were many souls rescued from the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. It might take a long time to complete all the work. Chapter 363 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Looking at the bustling crowd in front, Wood nervously tidied his handsome mustache again. He knew that this action was superfluous. He was originally a little noticeable, and it would make him more compelling. However, he couldn¡¯t help but be nervous. Why? They are just recruiting refugee pioneers. Why is a dragon actually sitting there? Why does the dragon go to a human town to work? Shouldn¡¯t they burn everything and kill everyone? Could it be that I am still asleep, so I am still in my dream? He wanted to pinch himself, but he resisted the impulse. It was too strange to pinch himself for no reason. He wanted to keep a low profile, a low profile! After lowering his head and taking a few deep breaths, Wood finally pressed down all sorts of weird thoughts and impulses in his heart, and his face returned to a calm expression. He deliberately refused to look at the dragon that was covered with thick round scales and was lying on the ground, lazy and half asleep. He only paid attention to the recruitment and registration of those refugees in front of him. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Tree, my lord.¡± ¡°Tree? Tree again?¡± ¡°Yes, my lord.¡± ¡°God! Already the third Tree. Why couldn¡¯t you have some other different name?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my lord.¡± ¡°No need to say sorry. You were named by your parents, not yourself. Forget it. Tree it is. I will mark you as Tree No. 3. It sounds like a monster statue in the school. Well, forget it. I suggest you should change your name when you get famous in the future.¡± ¡°Yes, my lord.¡± ¡°Stop saying ¡®my lord,¡¯ ¡®my lord.¡¯ All right, whatever. Everyone behaves like this, and I am used to it. Tree, where are you from?¡± ¡°Black Stone Stockaded Village, my lord.¡± ¡°Where is Black Stone Stockaded Village?¡± ¡°In the south, a really far-away place, my lord.¡± ¡°In which part of the Federation of Gold Coins?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand what you are talking about, my lord.¡± ¡°What city is nearby?¡± ¡°Grey Bear City, my lord.¡± ¡°Oh! I see. It is the territory of Earl Bell of the Federation of Gold Coins. The local lord is a distant relative of Earl Bell. Good, I¡¯ve written it down. So what specialty do you have?¡± ¡°I can farm, and I can herd sheep, my lord.¡± ¡°Although my sense tells me that I shouldn¡¯t have expectations, I still have to ask: how do you usually farm?¡± ¡°Farm? I sow seeds in the spring and naturally harvest in the fall.¡± ¡°As expected! Then you have no professional skills. Do you have any specialty?¡± ¡°What is a ¡®specialty,¡¯ my lord?¡± ¡°It means that you have some better abilities than others. For example, you have a specialty of great power, or you run especially fast, or something like that.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my lord. I don¡¯t have any specialty.¡± ¡°I have also guessed that according to your appearance. People with a specialty should not be poor like you. Do you have a family?¡± ¡°I had a wife, but she died of illness last year. My child starved to death this winter. I am the only one in my family, my lord.¡± ¡°Sorry, I should not have asked about this¡­ Okay, your information is registered, and now, put your palm prints here. Miss Graupel, don¡¯t lie here, pretending to be dead. Work, you should work!¡± The dragon opened her eyes lazily. With a glow on her body, the paper on which the young mage just recorded information revealed a soft white light. At the request of the mage, the refugee called Tree pressed his hands on the illuminating paper. After a few seconds, the light of the paper disappeared, and there was a faint copy of two palm prints. The mage put the paper which had turned light gray in the box next to him with satisfaction. He pierced it on three previously prepared metal tubes, stacking it with many similar pieces of paper. Then, he took a silver-white card and pressed it on the piece of paper. After a few seconds, the palm prints appeared on the card. The mage handed the card to Tree. ¡°Here, this is your ID card. Don¡¯t lose it because you need to use it for both subsidies and job hunting. Now go to the big house north of the town. See, the one there. Look for Haman to get a bowl of porridge and then Reif to get buns. The number of buns is different for each person. According to your figure, he will probably give you two buns. Don¡¯t eat too much, or it will hurt your body. Although I know that they will also tell you all this, it is important to repeat these important words several times. Well, go. Eat, drink, and rest.¡± Tree went way suspiciously while holding the card. The young mage sighed tiredly and then raised his head. ¡°Next!¡± he said loudly. Just one after another, and after a while, it was finally Wood¡¯s turn. When Wood walked to him, the mage was impressed. Wood¡¯s dressing was not much different from the general refugees. However, because of good long-term nutrition, Wood had a healthy complexion and clear eyes that were different from those of ordinary refugees. The self-confidence that was naturally revealed from his body was also impossible for ordinary refugees to own. What was more impressive was that he had a simple wooden box in his right hand. An axe pattern was painted on the wooden box, and that showed that there were useful tools in it. Of course, the most important thing was that he was very handsome. Yes, very handsome! So very handsome. This was repeated three times because it was important. ¡°You are so handsome, how did you become a refugee? It¡¯s a pity that you are not a bard¡­¡± the mage whispered. He always thought that he himself was kind of a handsome young man. However, compared to this refugee in front of him, he was a clown in memes, and this guy was Neo from the Matrix. Just in the aspect of appearance, the mage was totally defeated. If appearances were converted into grade points, the young mage might have 70 points, but Wood could gain at least 90 points. If Wood was dressed up, he might get more than 95 points, reaching the level of handsome idols. After sighing, the mage started to do his work, asking Wood about his information. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Can I answer a few questions together?¡± ¡°Of course, saves some trouble.¡± ¡°My name is Wood, coming from Gold Crown City, the capital of the Federation of Gold Coins in the South. I have the abilities of a carpenter, so I can do everything from cutting trees to making all kinds of common wood furniture. In addition, I also have some carving techniques. I used to sell wood carvings. As for my specialty, as you can see, I sometimes rely on this face. Talking about my family, you can tell from my appearance, so ignore it. I used to have a good relationship with a knight of the Temple of the Groundbreaking Knight (the God of Knights). I also learned swordsmanship from him for a few days. Unfortunately, he died in a battle. The entire Church of the Groundbreaking Knight is almost screwed. I heard that someone wanted to make me do some special work for serving rich ladies, so I came here all the way to the North¡­¡± Wood told the story he had made up at an earlier time at ease and finally said, ¡°This is roughly the case. What else do you need me to say?¡± The mage looked at the crystal on the table, and the crystal gave off a faint blue light. This magic item could detect lies. If there was a lie, it would glow red. Otherwise, it would be a blue light. ¡°Well, no problem. Put your palm prints here and take the ID card. I think you probably have the money for meals. If you are interested, go for Haman and Reif to get a free meal. If you want to eat better food, of course, go to the restaurant.¡± The mage talked a lot and then made Wood finish the procedure, take the card which had his palm prints on it and leave. After that, he shouted loudly, ¡°Next!¡± Wood turned away as if nothing had happened. After he went away, he smiled slightly, showing a relieved look. This high-level mage, who claims to be able to deceive even the devils of hell, really has an ability. It is said that he has found the legendary road! These set of words can really fool the lie-detecting spells! Although he had tried it before, a simulation had always been completely different from actual combat. In particular, there had been a dragon near him; it was not too big but had great strength. That had made Wood eel more nervous. But still, he managed to say the prepared words without any mistakes, deceiving the lie-detecting items. He even admired himself! In order to treat himself, he decided to go to the bar for a drink. This was also for shaping his image. After all, as a craftsman who had some money, far stronger abilities and a better origin than ordinary refugees, he would be too eye-catching if he ran to eat a free meal. He couldn¡¯t help but smile when he thought that. Looking at his handsome appearance and the pleasant smile from the bottom of his heart at the moment, a few young women on the roadside were suddenly in a daze. They stood there stupidly while thinking about his handsomeness. Of course, Wood wouldn¡¯t bother to hook up with them. He just randomly found an old man who was cleaning up the street with a big broom, asked him for the direction, and went straight to the bar. In his heart, the evaluation of this town got one more point. The clothes that the old man was wearing were somewhat worn out, which showed that he was very poor. He was old and thin and obviously had no working ability. In another place, such a poor old man could only wait alone to die or become the drag of his children and grandchildren. As a result, they would frown all day. But he noticed clearly that the expression on the old man¡¯s face was mild and calm, without any sign of malnutrition on his body. It could be implied that he had a stable income source that could help him guarantee his life. When he had asked for the direction, the old man had shown his kind smile before he had opened his mouth. For a time, Wood even had had the illusion that the old man had actually been a rich man. Pyroxene Town had been dying; it had nearly been destroyed two years ago. Now it was so developed that even a poor old man who was cleaning up the streets had such good manners. Indeed, it was right for him to have this trip! Looking at this place, there was no rubbish or feces on the flat roadside. The residents walking on the streets were neatly dressed, and no one had hungry or poor expressions on their faces. Many of the buildings on the roadside had traces of being repaired, but they were all so strong that he couldn¡¯t find a dangerous house at all. He also noticed that he could not feel the slight negative energy in the air in the range of at least three or five miles away from the town. When he went closer, he saw grass and flowers. When he walked around the town, he even saw farmland and vegetable fields. Normally, Ashes Woods was full of negative energy. Except for the unique Polluted Ebony and Golden Vine, no plants could grow there. However, there was such a paradise with fertile fields, birds¡¯ twitters and a fragrance of flowers in the Ashes Woods. This was incredible! What is the way to make a remote and desolate town develop into such a condition in a short time? Even if I lose my life, I will find out the secret and send it back to my country! Chapter 364 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Unknowingly, Wood had lived in Pyroxene Town for a week. During the week, he had observed a lot, so he had a lot of understandings of the town which the federation called the Northern Hope. He also had understood something about the governing ideas and various key technologies. As a spy, he had done a good job. However, he did not take any pride or pleasure in it. Actually, he was full of worry. How could Pyroxene Town develop into a paradise in a short period of less than three years from a small town that had been so dilapidated? In his view, the key was nothing more than two points. One was opening a source, and the other one was reducing expenditure. Opening a source meant actively looking for a source of income for the town. The two most important sources of income here were the refinement of negative energy essence in the underground farms and several herb fields outside the village. The former source could produce mid-level and low-level magic materials. In the methods that he had not been able to understand, they could transform a variety of valuable resources that were popular in the international magic material market. The latter source produced important consumer goods for common people. Although the price was not high, the market¡¯s demands for them were endless. Therefore, they could always be sold well. With these two key sources of income, people could support the various policies in the town. For example, ¡°beautifying the living environment.¡± He never thought that such a small town would care so much about the environment. On the propaganda board of the town, there were pictures of the scenes of the town in the recent years that had been drawn by great painters. The pictures, which had been enhanced with magic, were tough, so people could turn the pages casually to review the history of the development of the town. From the pictures, people could see that Pyroxene Town had been extremely dilapidated when Town Mayor Felix had first arrived. The ground had been full of small pits and gravel. Starving people and feces had been everywhere, and they were frozen like hard stones. The houses had been so destroyed they looked as if they would fall down in a blow of wind. However, just three months later, when the spring had come, the houses in the town had been repaired. The big and small wooden houses had been like patched clothes. Although there were many patches on them, they had still been repaired well. There had been some smoke coming out of the heated stoves under the houses. As estimated, it must be very warm while living in the houses, so people would not be afraid of the cold. By the fall of that year, the roads of the town had been repaired, almost the same as they were now. The foundations had been pieces of gravel, and then the powder of crushed stones had been poured into the gaps of the gravel. While watering, they had been hammered down to be firm. Finally, although they had slightly been inferior to complete boulder strips, the road was flat and smooth enough. Moreover, there had been many decorative and celebratory items in the square in the center of the town. Several villagers had obviously been wearing newly-made clothes, and they had been happily decorating the place. In the spring of the following year, many houses in the town had been rebuilt. Although the repaired old houses could still be used, some of them had been too old, or the quality of some had not been good. Therefore, the villagers had pushed down the dilapidated houses, and the owners of those houses had temporarily lived in the mayor¡¯s office. In the pictures, the people who had become strong and energetic had not been afraid of the cold, and they had been working in an orderly manner. At the door of the mayor¡¯s office, an old man had been smiling at the construction site. Two women next to him had been preparing meals in a large pot. The scene had been so passionate. Even if he only saw it in the picture, Wood was so moved. The celebration in the fall of the second year had been quite grand. The picture had depicted the scene of the nighttime. Although it had been completely dark, the square in the center of the town had been full of celebratory people. Several young spellcasters had asked the residents to move a little further away, and then they had cast spells into the sky like fireworks. The lights of the explosions had decorated the night sky. The bonfire had reflected the laughing faces of people full of happiness, and expectations for the future. Wood noticed that in this picture, the town already had a lot of green plants. He assumed that the work to evict negative energy erosion was completed during this time. The last picture seemed to be completed recently. The town had held a small ceremony to celebrate the birthdays of several old people. Those old people who should be poor and hopeless in other places had been so happy here that the wrinkles on their faces looked like blossoms because of their smiles. Around the square, many trees had been planted on both sides of the road. The green leaves had been glowing like precious emeralds in the sunshine. An aerial view of another town had been attached next to this picture. There had been beautiful walls, vegetable fields, and herbal fields in the town. Only the site where the negative energy essence was refined had been blank. The painter had drawn a smiley face in this position with the words ¡°This is a secret.¡± Comparing these five pictures, Wood was moved. He could see that the income of this town was indeed not low, but more importantly, the key was that the mayor was willing to spend the money. How many high-income areas were there? Many. Only in the federation, were there so many towns with stable industries. He dared to bet that the incomes of those towns were definitely higher than Pyroxene Town. However, those towns were not comparable to Pyroxene Town. The lords who ruled the towns and the powerful people who controlled various income projects all thought hard about how to seek money, but they couldn¡¯t pay for the improvement of the conditions and the livelihood of the town. Therefore, although the income might be at the same level, the situations of the towns were quite different. And this was the second reason that Wood had summed up: reducing expenditure. For a piece of territory, although the income was high, if the ruled people completely held onto it and only occasionally spent money, then the high income would be meaningless. The reason why Pyroxene Town could develop was that the Town Mayor Felix almost didn¡¯t care about the income, and that was one of the keys to the problem. This beautiful female mage took out almost all the income of the town and reinvested it into the construction of the town. Her own industry, for example, the magic school, was built entirely with her own money. She didn¡¯t use even a coin of public funds. Public funding was a phrase often used by the residents of Pyroxene Town when they chatted in the bar. The word came from the mayor herself. She had said more than once that she was the leader of the town, but not the owner. This town belonged to everyone. Wood was a little familiar with such words. He thought for a long time and finally remembered that these were the words that the founder of the federation, Master Le-Peyroux, had said in the past. ¡°In the past years, I have seen many cruel and impersonal rulers. As a mage, as a witness to history, I don¡¯t think that is correct. Therefore, I want to build a country where people rule on their own, and the rulers are just onlookers. In this country, powerful spellcasters are the guardians of the towns and villages, but they do not possess the lands and various industries on them. We are not lords. ¡°I think this is a good practice. The spellcasters are busy in researching, so they have no time to waste on seeking people¡¯s wealth or indulging their desires. I believe that over time, this plateau on the southernmost tip of the mainland will surely become a paradise for the people of the entire continent!¡± From then until now, thousands of years had passed. However, the federation had not been able to become a paradise for civilians, but a holy place for spellcasters. He remembered the mood when he had read that paragraph in the book that year, and then he compared it with what he had seen and heard during this time. Wood had originally been able to sleep and wake up at any moment, but now he was sleepless. He thought for a long time, and he felt that he had no gains. He knew that the situation in the federation was wrong, and he also knew that the practice of Pyroxene Town was correct. However, both his sense and his instinct told him that the practice of Pyroxene Town could not be universal. The top executives of the federation were indeed knowledgeable. They had noticed the situation in Pyroxene Town, so they had sent him, an ace spy, to know more about the details in order to help the federal government and promote the progress of the federation. However, could the experience here really help the federation? He doubted about that. In order to conceal his identity, he hadn¡¯t hesitated to allow the summoned witch to completely absorb his power. He had nearly been the same as a high-level ranger. Then he had become an ordinary person who could only be counted as strong and vigorous. In order to deceive the lie-detecting spells, the federation had found an advanced mage who had found the legendary road. The mage made a set of plans for his deception to ensure that every sentence he had said had been the ¡°truth.¡± All of those things had paid a huge price. However, could they really get a reimbursed? He was very worried. With those suspicions and worries, he was unable to sleep, so when he was working the next day, he had dark circles under his eyes. ¡°You should take care!¡± In the carpenter workshop, looking at his tired appearance, the old foreman in charge of supervision and management asked with concern, ¡°Are you all right? If you are not feeling good, you should see a doctor. Go to the magic school, there are doctors who know herbalism. Or go to the temple¡­¡± Wood shook his head, expressing that he was fine. ¡°You are not fine! Look at yourself, your eyes are out of focus!¡± The old foreman patted his shoulder with dissatisfaction. As a result, his hand slipped slightly, and the sharp carpenter tool hit Wood¡¯s leg. Immediately, it scratched him, and a lot of blood came out of the wound. The old foreman was shocked and immediately rushed to the big cabinet at the entrance of the workshop. From there, he took out a white wooden box with a red cross on it. He opened the wooden box, and there were several commonly used medicines, all of which had been processed. Different packs were wrapped in oil papers of different colors, and a clean bandage was there, too. How to use them was clear at a glance. Obviously, the old foreman had received special training because his actions of applying medicines and binding were really quick. The other carpenters also stopped their work and came over to help. After taking care of Wood¡¯s wound, they took the stretcher next to the cabinet, forced him to lie on it and then carried him to the temple in a hurry. The priest of the temple asked about his conditions and then gave him a potion that could treat his body and supplement the loss of his flesh and blood. Then he took the bandage apart and made a careful examination of Wood¡¯s wound. After making sure that there was no residue such as wood chips in it, the wound was washed with holy water. The priest cast a low-level healing spell that helped the wound recover a little and stopped the bleeding. Finally, after applying the medicine again, he bandaged Wood up and asked him to rest. ¡°Can you cure it completely?¡± Wood asked. ¡°General healing spells are actually overdrawing your vitality, and I don¡¯t know advanced ones,¡± the priest said, smiling. ¡°The treatment is enough at this level, and the rest can slowly recover.¡± ¡°But it will affect my work¡­¡± When the words were spoken, the priest and his co-workers all laughed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry! This is a work-related injury. Not only will the town pay all the medical expenses, but also your salary is still paid for before your injury recovers.¡± After that, they moved him back to the stretcher and carried him back home. ¡­ In the temple, the priest started to clean up the blood, smiling. He threw away the blood-stained bandages and the discarded medicine and then washed the ground with clean water. After doing all this, he was going to rest. However, suddenly, he was stunned. This is not right! Why does the carpenter¡¯s wound¡­ recover so much slower than an average person? Why does the healing spell have such poor effects on him? Chapter 365 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Of course, Wood couldn¡¯t know what was happening inside the temple. At this moment, he was sent back by his co-workers to the small house which was specially prepared for the single craftsmen among the pioneers. Although it was not big, it had all the things that he needed. After a while, a grandmother came to the house and told Wood that she was the captain of the medical team in the town. She was responsible for caring for the injured and the sick. Every morning and evening, people from the medical team would come to his house to take care of him and check his wound to make sure that it wouldn¡¯t get worse. Wood felt warm in his heart. He said, smiling, ¡°It¡¯s just a scratch on my leg. It doesn¡¯t affect my actions. No need to bother.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that! Do you know how to care for the wound? Trauma needs fresh bandages to be re-wrapped regularly. Even if you have learned a little bit of bandaging, how can you compare with the people in our medical team!¡± The old grandmother was not tall, but she was vigorous with a pair of bright eyes. The kindness and concern in her eyes made Wood feel warm in his heart, so he couldn¡¯t say anything to refuse her. The grandmother checked his wound and nodded. ¡°The priest in the temple wrapped this, right? I smell the healing potion. But to be honest, his technology is not as good as ours.¡± Wood couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°Of course, you are professional!¡± ¡°Ha ha, young man, you are a sweet talker!¡± The old grandmother laughed happily. ¡°But I am old. I¡¯m not the one who has the best skill of wrapping wounds in the medical team. Next time I¡¯ll bring her to help you change your bandages and wrap your wound, then you¡¯ll know how good her skill is!¡± Wood nodded repeatedly; he couldn¡¯t help but be curious. It was just a medical team in a town. To be honest, they were just some civilians who knew a little about bandaging. How did they have the confidence that they were greater than the priests who specialized in medical treatment? The old grandmother might be bragging, but it was always better for the elder to be proud than to be frustrated. Thinking of this, he suddenly recalled one thing, so he curiously asked, ¡°May I know your name? My name is Wood, and I am a carpenter.¡± ¡°I know that you are Carpenter Wood. It is written on your door plate, Carpenter Wood¡¯s Home,¡± the grandmother said, smiling. ¡°I¡¯m Stinna. I used to be a maid. Now I am the captain of the medical team.¡± ¡°Maid?¡± Wood stunned, and he got more curious. Pyroxene Town was located in the Ashes Woods which was a really remote place. Even if a few rich people lived here, it was impossible to train a professional maid, let alone Grandma Stinna who knew how to read. The level was so high that he felt it was literally incredible. If she was the wife of the former mayor or a high-level believer in a temple, then it would be normal. However, how could she be just a maid? Stinna felt his astonishment, so she said with a smile, ¡°That was a long time ago¡­ When I was a maid of a big aristocratic family, whose name can¡¯t be told because it may be troublesome if I say it, my young master read too many knight novels. Therefore, he wanted to be an adventurer. After learning some skills for a few years, he got a set of luxury equipment, and then he came out to adventure the world with a few recruits and me.¡± ¡°It was quite smooth at the beginning. He did a lot of famous things. Later, he got too confident and went to kill a dragon, and the result can be imagined¡­ I was lucky enough to survive, but I dared not stay in the inland any more. I fled to the border area of the Ashes Woods, and suddenly it has been a few decades since then.¡± Wood nodded repeatedly. He had even guessed the identity of the grandmother. An aristocratic son ran out, became an adventurer and finally died. After all, although the world was very big, and such examples were few. Taking the age of the grandmother into account, only one or two names were left. Of course, he wouldn¡¯t say it, so he just asked, smiling, ¡°So¡­ over the years, you have been a maid in this town?¡± ¡°No! I used to work in a temple of the Royal Crown (the Goddess of Wealth). Well, I was kind of a maid. Later, when Her Majesty joined hands with the Void Mask¡¯s Majesty, I came to the Void Mask Land. Later, Town Mayor Felix recruited professionals, and I was very curious about her words ¡®to build a town that achieves people¡¯s ideals.¡¯ So I began to work here.¡± Grandma Stinna began to smile. ¡°I¡¯m afraid of leaking information, so I have not gotten married. I only adopted a few children. Now they are either priests or knights of the temple. They didn¡¯t want me to work. They said that they wanted to provide me with the most stable and comfortable life in my old age, but after they came here to take a look, they were convinced.¡± Wood was respectful. This grandmother was really extraordinary! Her children were either priests or knights of the temple¡ªhow excellent this mother was! Not to mention ordinary children, even in the aristocratic families, it was difficult to teach their children so well! No wonder her temperament was very different from others! No wonder he always felt that he was controlled by her temperament when he was in front of her. Thinking of this, he was shocked. He was afraid that he would show himself away carelessly. He hurriedly lied that he was dizzy. It was very common to feel dizzy when people lost too much blood. Grandma Stinna did not doubt that. She told him to have a good rest and stay in bed, and then she left. ¡­ Inside the temple of the Void Mask, the priest, who had just treated Wood¡¯s wound, had taken Wood¡¯s blood sample to the archbishop. ¡°Lord Archbishop, I just met a strange patient.¡± He told him the detailed situation of Wood and took out the blood sample. The archbishop frowned with some doubts. The healing effect was poor? This matter was not big, but it was not small, either. Generally speaking, some creatures with lower-plane blood would have such a situation, so it was not very rare. In particular, the carpenter was particularly handsome, so it was likely that he had a bloodline of a monster such as a succubus. There was not much of this blood in his body anyway. Anyway, he needed to check it first. The most important reason why the archbishop could be sent to Pyroxene Town to preside over the work was that he was careful and steady in his work. He could cooperate well with Felix and Jose. Since he encountered a special situation, he would never give up until he knew the truth. A moment later, when he came to the mayor¡¯s office, Felix was sitting at her desk and studying several documents intently. As Pyroxene Town gradually developed, the workload of the mayor gradually increased. Of course, Felix could find a few secretaries to help her. However, her original intention was to use these daily government affairs to hone her mind to make herself more mature and steady. Then she could be prepared for breaking into the Legendary Realm. Therefore, except for some meaningless trifles, she would deal with things that were a little more important in person. She was comparable to Zhuge Liang, a wise man in China who even personally checked on the small punishment of ordinary soldiers. As a strong person with the blood of the legendary creature Phoenix, Felix¡¯s physique was far superior to that of ordinary people. Of course, she wouldn¡¯t get exhausted and die because of the torture of these government affairs. On the contrary, when the owner of legendary blood wanted to enter the Legendary Realm, the most important thing was the stability and maturity of the mind. Otherwise, when they were trying to break into the Legendary Realm, they might not be able to control the power of the blood and might become a demon beast. There were a lot of such demon beasts. For example, Favnier, the Free and Weird Bird, who pretended to be a red dragon and worked part-time in the Land. According to his memories, he had originally been a person. He had liked to write some strange monster-themed novels in his spare time. Later, when he had tried to break into the Legendary Realm, something had gone wrong, and he had become a demon beast. Although Favnier had become a demon beast and his temperament had changed greatly, his mind had still been clear, and that was the only lucky thing in this misfortune. There had been more legendary blood owners who couldn¡¯t keep their minds and had become a monster without any wisdom. Of course, Felix didn¡¯t want such a result, so even though she hated the trifles, she still dealt with them little by little and dared not to be careless. After listening to the introduction of the archbishop and looking at the blood sample, she frowned. The work that she was dealing with was not very important, so she put it away temporarily. Then, with the archbishop, she came to the Isuka School of Magic¡ªa magic tower that belonged to her own. Using some tools in the magic tower, she did several experiments and quickly determined the situation of Wood. Her brows wrinkled even more. ¡°He doesn¡¯t have the blood of a lower-plane creature. His power was absorbed by a witch.¡± Looking at the results of the experiments and comparing them with the materials, she said with concern, ¡°And, a lot of power was absorbed.¡± ¡°How much?¡± the archbishop asked, surprised. ¡°How strong was he before his power was absorbed? ¡°It should be close to the high level, and might even have entered the high level.¡± The archbishop was really shocked. High-level strongmen were very rare everywhere, so there were only two or three at most in ordinary cities. Because of the concerns of His Majesty, the Void Mask, Pyroxene Town could have so many masters. However, even so, there were only three high-level strongmen in the whole town¡ªJose in the Legendary Realm, Felix at the advanced legendary peak, and he himself who had just stepped into the high level. In such a case, they had already formed a luxury army of masters. Even without Jose and Felix, he could be enough to hold a branch temple on his own. Now, a high-level strongman appeared in Pyroxene Town. His power had been absorbed by a witch, who was a special monster from the lower plane, and he had become an ordinary person temporarily. How could he not be worried because of this? How could he not be nervous! ¡°Ask him.¡± As for small things, the archbishop could deal with them on his own. As for big events, he could ask the mayor. As for disasters, His Majesty would support him in person. This was what Yan Xun had told him before he had taken the position. This was obviously a big event, so of course, the mayor should decide it. ¡°This monster, the witch, is a special product of hell. It is a transformed woman who was wronged and driven to death. They are very rare in this world,¡± Felix said in a low voice. ¡°She is different from the succubus in the abyss. When the power is absorbed by a succubus, people can recover with the Advanced Restoration Spell. However, when the power is absorbed by a witch, they must know her superior lord and pray to get a response, asking the superior lord to order her to release the absorbed power. Otherwise, they can only be treated with legendary spells. Of course, it is okay to convince the witch, but this method is negligible.¡± ¡°According to my memories, unless she is summoned, a witch rarely steps into the world. Most people who can summon a witch can also control her. In other words, it may be a form of punishment to order a witch to absorb the power of the victim, although it this too harsh.¡± ¡°You mean that he came from a large organization? He left after being punished?¡± the archbishop asked. ¡°Probably. Let¡¯s not act rashly for the time being. Just pay attention to him first.¡± Felix thought for a while, and then she said, ¡°It is just in this time that Miss Graupel is living here. I will call Jose back to watch over, to make sure that there are no risks at all.¡± ¡°That¡¯s so troublesome, isn¡¯t it? Isn¡¯t it better to ask him directly?¡± ¡°If he is willing, he will say so sooner or later.¡± Felix smiled. ¡°I believe that no matter what Wood¡¯s origins are, he will find a home for himself in this ideal town. I don¡¯t care what he did in the past. As long as he stays here for a long time, sooner or later he will become a true resident of Pyroxene Town!¡± Chapter 366 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Of course, Wood didn¡¯t know that they had known a part of his secret. He was lying in bed at the moment, recalling the distribution of powers in various countries and regions in the world because he was bored. He was silently reciting the deeds of some high-level strongmen and even Legendary Masters to kill time. As an ace spy, he remembered almost all the public and semi-public information of this type in the world, even many secrets in detail. If he sold all the information in his mind, he might sell it for a whopping price. But now, those precious materials were just being used by a boring patient to pass the time and enjoy himself. When will this injury be cured? he asked himself secretly, sighing. If this injury does not recover, how can I do my work! After a while, he became depressed. In fact, he started to realize why Pyroxene Town was so prosperous. At least, he had found the right direction. But would this information help after being sent back? Probably¡­ not. After a deep sigh, the ace spy, who temporarily changed into a carpenter, fell into a deep depression. After a while, he patted his face hard and urged himself to cheer up. Could the method of making Pyroxene Town prosperous be applied to the federation? This was something that the high-level and even legendary mages at the top class of the federation needed to think about. As a spy, he just needed to complete his own work. Maybe everything he did would be in vain. However, if he didn¡¯t try, then there would be no hope. The federation had been simply built by Master Le-Peyroux. Today, it had grown into a holy place for spellcasters of the entire Main Plane. Countless people had made contributions silently during this process. Although most of them had ultimately not been recognized, they were still the people who improved the development of the federation today! Although it was not the best choice, as a person with limited spell talent, Wood didn¡¯t mind being one of those who made contributions silently without any rewards. This was like when he had been trained; his instructor had said to his class, ¡°All you have done, your contributions and even your sacrifices may not be known. You may be like stones on the side of the road. However, the federal buildings are built with countless processed stones! Even if you are roadside stones, you¡¯ll still be useful when you are needed. Even though you and I may not be able to live to see it¡­¡± ¡°Well¡­ in the future, I may be useful,¡± Wood muttered to himself. He looked up at the rough but strong roof and smiled. The next morning, Grandma Stinna really kept her words. She brought in the best bandage master of Pyroxene Town. ¡°Are you sure that she is a specialized medical worker and not a butcher who slaughters livestock?¡± Looking at the master¡¯s appearance, even Wood, who had experienced many big events, was shocked. He looked around with some worries, looking for something to bite so that he would not have to bite his tongue in pain when being treated. He shouldn¡¯t be blamed. The master did look a bit horrible. The master was more than seven feet tall, so she had to lean down when entering the door. Her body was so strong that even an average giant would be feared. Her arms were definitely thicker than Wood¡¯s thighs. Her muscles were like steel and iron, full of strength. Fortunately, her hair was long, and she had a chest. Otherwise, Wood really wouldn¡¯t know that she was a woman. As for appearance, she was hideous and fierce. Her teeth didn¡¯t stick out of her mouth. Otherwise Wood would suspect that she was an ogre pretending to be a human being. Grandma Stinna said, laughing, ¡°You will soon know how good Ivy¡¯s medical skill is.¡± ¡°Ivy?!¡± Wood¡¯s cheeks twitched. Looking at the giant woman¡¯s appearance, he was not able to compliment her like ¡°That¡¯s a really good name,¡± so he just smiled and nodded in greeting. ¡°Hello, my name is Wood, I¡¯m a carpenter.¡± Ivy was very calm. Without any expression, she nodded and went straight to Wood. She began to remove the bandage that was wrapped around his wound. Then, Wood was shocked. Usually, the bandage would grow together with the wound because of blood clotting. When it was removed, the wound would be torn a little, and that was naturally very painful. However, when she removed his bandage, Ivy used her power ingeniously. The torn parts were all insensible blood scars. Although the wound was torn and bleeding, Wood didn¡¯t feel pain at all. Ivy¡¯s actions were very fast. She removed the bandage in a short time. After that, she wet the white cloth with warm water, used it to clean the wound and then examined the wound carefully. Finally, she smiled. ¡°You are lucky,¡± she said. ¡°This wound is quite smooth. It is estimated that it will take five to six days to heal. As long as you don¡¯t ask for trouble by running or jumping with your wound, you will almost recover in ten days. In 12 or 13 days, you will completely recover and work again.¡± ¡°Fifteen days?!¡± Wood looked at his rather hideous and severe wound with doubt in his heart. He had seen more than once people who had died because of the festering of such wounds. He had also seen how people had suffered for a long time when they couldn¡¯t get enough healing spells to treat them. With such a wound, it is normal for him to rest for a month or two. However, Ivy said that it would be completely cured in 12 or 13 days? Seeing the suspicion on his face, Ivy¡¯s ugly face showed a smile. She said, ¡°Of course, there will definitely be a scar.¡± Wood nodded carelessly. He certainly didn¡¯t expect that there wouldn¡¯t be a scar. A scar was nothing. Before this trip, he had received the spells that had tidied up his appearance. Otherwise, the scars on his body would scare these two to death! Ivy saw that he was careless, so she smiled. She helped him change his medicine and then re-wrapped the wound. Her actions of bandaging were really quick but unusually soft. Naturally, he felt a little pain in the process, but it wasn¡¯t worth mentioning compared to the pain in Wood¡¯s psychological estimation. A short time later, the wound was re-wrapped. Nothing else but just the final shape showed that her skill was much better than that of the priests of the temple. The white bandage was so smooth that not a single wrinkle could be found. It was wrapped around the wound neither tightly or loosely. Wood tried to move a little bit and found that it didn¡¯t affect his actions at all. It was just bandaging, but she was able to do it so perfectly. This could be called a miracle! ¡°Thank you very much!¡± He sincerely expressed his appreciation. ¡°I had some doubts about your ability just now. I know little, so please don¡¯t mind me.¡± Ivy smiled again. ¡°You know a lot. I was indeed a butcher,¡± she said indifferently. Looking at Wood¡¯s stunned expression, she said with some pride, ¡°I was one of the best butchers in Dragon-Roar Town. My specialty was dismembering the bodies of demon monsters. Later, His Majesty, the Void Mask passed by Dragon-Roar Town and found that my way of cutting was very good. He said a few words such as ¡®skilled butchers could dismember an ox smoothly and perfectly because they have mastered the structure through countless practice.¡¯ Then he asked me if I would like to change my job. Of course, I wanted like to, so I became a medical worker.¡± Wood already had nothing to say. He could only sigh with surprise that His Majesty, the Void Mask was really indeed the most outstanding god of the new generation. He really had great foresight. After that, Ivy left with Grandma Stinna. When they left, they both advised him that he shouldn¡¯t exercise in the next few days and that he should stay in bed. Wood accepted their good advice. He immediately laid down obediently. Then he began to silently recite some material again to kill time. Ivy¡¯s estimations were really accurate. When re-bandaging three days later, Wood clearly saw that the inside of the wound started to recover. When it was bandaged again five days later, the wound recovered pretty well. Finally, on the tenth day, the wound totally healed into a scar. He planned to go back to work at this time, but he was stopped by Grandma Stinna strictly. ¡°Such a wound is actually very fragile!¡± the old grandmother said seriously. ¡°Sweat, dust, wood chips¡­ They can all possibly pollute it and make it fester. For trauma, the festering of a wound is the most terrible thing. Even if it is only a little skin trauma, once it festers, it may kill a strong man!¡± Wood had no choice but to lie down for three more days. Finally, he received Grandma Stinna¡¯s nod, so he left home in a rush to the construction site. Staying at home was too uncomfortable; it was just like staying in jail! Wood¡¯s co-workers expressed a warm welcome to his return. Wood not only had a handsome appearance, but he was also ¡°handsome¡± in craftsmanship. He was able to chip a piece of completely flat wood board with only one-third of the time that others would use. They couldn¡¯t find a splinter on it as if it had been polished. He could also carve wood into various shapes with a small knife and complete any complex wooden structures easily. The old foreman had patted his own chest and said that as long as Wood could continue to hone his skills, he would surely become the best carpenter in the whole Pyroxene Town, in the entire Four Towns in the Northwest, and even in the whole world! Wood smiled, but he was actually sighing in his heart. If he could, he wanted to be a world-famous great mage. The second attractive aim was to be a world-famous ranger. And the third attractive aim was to be a famous spy. But the best carpenter in the world?! What the hell! After that joke, naturally, they started their intensive work. What they needed to do this time was to cooperate with the stonemasons and lay sewers for each household in the town. The sewers were used for the treatment of domestic sewage and manure. Is that necessary? Wood wondered after hearing the work. In his opinion, this was completely unnecessary. There were workers in the town who were responsible for the disposal of garbage and manure. In this case, why did they need to lay sewers? ¡°The mayor said that it was a proposal of His Majesty, the Void Mask. This can help reduce the possibility of spreading diseases greatly and improve people¡¯s living standards,¡± the old foreman said, smiling. ¡°Although I think our current living standard¡­ is already high enough.¡± Everyone laughed. As the old foreman had said, everyone was very satisfied with the present life. However, if they could live better, who would not be willing to? As a result, the work started intensively. Chapter 367 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The chairman of the Mining Union of Gold-Panning Town was so fat that he looked pregnant. He was swaggering down the road to visit the town, and he was accompanied by the deputy mayor of Pyroxene Town. He came to gain some experience to try to apply it to Gold-Panning Town. In other words, he actually had the same ¡°job¡± as Wood, but Wood secretly sneaked in, stealing the information while he visited, learning it directly. In fact, if Wood also made a direct visit, the officials of Pyroxene Town would be very happy to receive him, offering food, accommodation, and accompanists. Except for some secrets, they would explain most of the things to him in detail. However, Wood made a mistake. He subconsciously believed that the information was very precious, and Pyroxene Town would certainly protect the experience as top secrets. Without some special means, he absolutely wouldn¡¯t be able to get the information he wanted. He shouldn¡¯t be blamed for this though. After all, he came from the Country of Casters. In the Mifata Federation, the emphasis on knowledge could be described as being crazy, because knowledge was the most valuable thing for mages. They used this attitude in life and governance and gradually formed the style of the entire Mifata Federation. For the people of the Mifata Federation, they had to try their best to gain knowledge, secrets, and information, paying a huge price, or even killing a few people for it. When people visited and asked for the experience of building a town, would they easily tell them? Impossible! However, for the people in the Four Towns in the Northwest, this was different. The environment in the northwest was harsh, so it was extremely difficult to survive. Every year, on the nights of the new moon, villages disappeared under the slaughter of the tide of the skeleton army. The people in the northwest paid great attention to unity because of that. Therefore, it was a matter of course to help others who were in trouble. It was natural to take care of others when they were developed. The experience in building Pyroxene Town? Do you want to know? I¡¯ll teach you, okay? The people in the northwest, of course, used dirty tricks, and there were all kinds of fights. However, it didn¡¯t prevent them from helping each other nor did it affect their exchanging of intelligence and information. The only restriction for them to exchange information was whether the information could be used. For example, the scene that the fat chairman was looking at now. ¡°What are these for?¡± He pointed to a house whose foundation had been dug deep. Two stone troughs had been paved down there in the pit, and they were far away from each other, being encircled with wood outside. ¡°Those were sewers and tap water pipes,¡± the deputy mayor replied after taking a look. ¡°The sewers can be used right after installing, but the tap water still needs some time.¡± ¡°Sewers? Tap water?¡± the fat chairman asked curiously. He was stunned. ¡°What are those?¡± ¡°Sewers, well, you can pour the dirty water used in daily life as well as excrement into them, and the dirty things will be drained. Tap water means that there is a tap at the end of the pipe. Once you turn on the tap, clear water will flow out.¡± The fat chairman said, nodding, ¡°Very useful, but your mayor¡¯s house is a bit distant from the center.¡± ¡°That is not the mayor¡¯s house, just an ordinary resident¡¯s,¡± the deputy mayor said with a smile. ¡°Our plan is to use three summers and falls to install sewers and tap water for the entire Pyroxene Town. Meanwhile, we¡¯ll build a pipeline system covering the town. It will be more convenient when building new houses in the future.¡± The fat chairman asked, feeling shocked, ¡°How much will it cost?!¡± After thinking for a moment, the deputy mayor answered, ¡°In fact, it won¡¯t cost much. What¡¯s more, the stones are mined by the stonemasons, the wood is cut down by the carpenters, and the work is also done by the residents of the town. So, it¡¯s good to give money to everyone.¡± The fat chairman was silent for a while, and then he sighed ¡°We can¡¯t teach that. Let me learn something else.¡± So the two of them skipped the busy construction site and went to the square. Looking at the lush trees around the square, the fat chairman said, feeling puzzled, ¡°I have been very curious about how could you plant trees in your square?¡± ¡°We have a Purification Array around our town.¡± ¡°We also have one, but we only have weeds in our town.¡± The deputy mayor said, shaking her head, ¡°The scale is different. Our Purification Array is deeper than 30 feet underground.¡± The fat chairman man was shocked again. After being stunned for a while, he asked, ¡°How much did it cost?¡± ¡°Never counted. Honestly, it is difficult to count,¡± the deputy mayor replied, ¡°because many materials were provided by Master Satan, the chief mage of the Church of Void Mask. It is said that His Excellency has spent countless efforts in making such a Purification Array. Even if you have the money, His Excellency may not be willing to help you make another one.¡± ¡°There should be some other costs besides that,¡± the fat man said. ¡°It is impossible to just pay for the materials.¡± ¡°Yeah, something like manual work, so the costs are actually a bit high. However, most of the work was done by the patrol team by the way, so in general, it was not a lot.¡± ¡°Patrol team? A patrol team here?¡± the fat chairman screamed in shock. Could they return once they went patrolling? ¡°Well, we have ten strong villagers on the team.¡± ¡°That few? Is that really all right?¡± the fat man asked, feeling a bit puzzled. ¡°The Church of Void Mask supports us with five knights of the temple, a mage, and a priest.¡± ¡°That should be all right, but the cost is still a bit high,¡± the fat chairman nodded, sighing. ¡°There is also a legendary strongman leading the team.¡± ¡°Why do you say the most important thing at the end! And how can a legendary strongman be a patrolman!¡± The fat man was simply going to swear. Nobody could copy such an experience! ¡°Since there is a legendary strongman, what do the ordinary villagers do?¡± the fat chairman couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°They¡¯re responsible for moving things,¡± the deputy mayor answered indifferently. The fat chairman didn¡¯t know what to say, so he just rolled his eyes. ¡°In fact, there are other expenses,¡± the deputy mayor said innocently. ¡°After the completion of the Purification Array, the negative energy collection station that we had originally built in the first phase was also in the range of the purification. So it was directly scrapped. Later, we had to dig much deeper before we rebuilt it.¡± The fat chairman¡¯s eyes lit up because he felt that he had found the valuable information. He knew that Pyroxene Town produced low and mid-level negative energy crystals, and they were sold well in the market of magic materials. Although the quality was not very high, the price was low. Therefore, many mid-level and low-level mages were willing to buy some. It was very convenient to use them as research materials or use them to cast spells. This was one of the main income sources of Pyroxene Town, and the most enviable thing in other towns as well. At least, until today, the fat man was envious of this the most. If he could learn this technology and use it in Gold-Panning Town, he was certain that he could make a lot of money! Hearing that he wanted to know about this, the deputy mayor was silent for a while. Then she said, ¡°Well¡­ I don¡¯t understand it very well, so it is a little troublesome to explain¡­¡± ¡°I am not afraid of the troubles!¡± the fat man said directly. ¡°But I am afraid of the troubles,¡± the deputy mayor said, smiling. ¡°All right, when we pass the Isuka School of Magic a moment later, I¡¯ll find a student to explain it to you. Many senior students in the school participated in the construction of the collection station that year, so they are definitely better at explaining than I am.¡± The fat chairman nodded repeatedly. He could not wait and urged her to speed up so that they could head to the magic school as soon as possible. As for the pictures that were said to be able to strengthen the happiness and cohesiveness of the villagers, some welfare facilities in the village, and how to improve the food and drink conditions of the villagers based on the existing conditions, he was not interested in those things at all. Happiness? Cohesiveness? What were these? Welfare facilities? They cost money, right? As long as they cost money, then no! Improving the food and drinking conditions of the villagers? What a joke! He could just have a rough meal! Only one fruit a day and two desserts a week, he almost relied on roasted meat and brown bread to live. Who else could be worse off than him? As for the poor who didn¡¯t have enough to feed themselves and even died from starvation and cold on the streets in the winter, he directly ignored them. In his opinion, were the poor also considered people? Of course not! A person with no money and no status couldn¡¯t be considered a person! Because of his urging, the deputy mayor stepped up and led him to the magic school. The Isuka School of Magic was probably one of the strangest buildings in the whole of Pyroxene Town. Unlike general houses, it had no sense of art and life. It was square and flat like a cuboid standing still on the ground. The gate was on the ground floor, and the gate was open with a sign hanging next to it. No matter from what point of view, this magic school was not like a place to educate students nor a place for the mysterious mages in the legends to live. The deputy mayor led the fat chairman to the school gate, but she did not rush into it. Instead, she shouted at the gate, ¡°Isuka! Are you there, Isuka?¡± A strange light appeared at the empty gate, and a light ball emerged. A little girl¡¯s voice came out of the ball. She said, ¡°Of course, I am always here. What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°This is a neighbor of our town, the chairman of the Mining Union of Gold-Panning Town. He wants to find someone to ask for how to build a negative energy collection station,¡± the deputy mayor introduced. The light ball swayed a few times, then she replied, ¡°This question requires the authorization of my sister. I can¡¯t let him in.¡± The deputy mayor was stunned, then she turned to look at the fat chairman. ¡°Then¡­ let¡¯s go and talk to Town Mayor Felix,¡± the fat chairman said without confidence. Town Mayor Felix was not an ordinary person. She was the strongman who had gained achievements at the Fighter Championship. The fat chairman had no confidence in talking with such a strong person. As it turned out, his thoughts were correct. ¡°You want to know how to build a negative energy collection station?¡± Felix asked. Looking at the fat man, she flicked her fingers and cast a good-and-evil-detecting spell. Both she and the deputy mayor revealed the good blue light, but the fat chairman¡¯s body revealed the evil red light, and it was a deep red. ¡°I don¡¯t give technology to bad guys,¡± Felix said. ¡°If someone like you has learned this technology, they will work indiscriminately, regardless of human lives. If that happens, it will be my fault.¡± ¡°I can change myself!¡± the fat chairman said hurriedly. ¡°I can change! Really!¡± He was really sincere. As long as he could make money, so much money, he could do anything. ¡°Change?¡± Felix glanced at him with a squint. She said, sneering, ¡°So I will give you one years¡¯ time, and you should try to improve the life of the miners in Gold-Panning Town.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°A year later, I will visit in person to see the results of your ¡®change,''¡± Felix answered, sneering. ¡°But I will make myself very clear. If you tell lies to a battle mage who is also at the advanced legendary peak, you won¡¯t know what will happen to you!¡± After saying that, she waved her hand and it got dark around them. The fat chairman was sent out of Pyroxene Town before he could even ask for mercy. Chapter 368 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio With a wave of her hand, the fat chairman was sent away. Felix was still somewhat unhappy. She frowned for a while and took out a list. The list contained a row of more than a dozen names; they were actually the names of the big men who ruled the Four Towns in the Northwest. On this list, the real rulers of Dragon-Roar Town and the spokesmen they arranged were all checked. The heads of the army of the Rye Town, the chairman of the Association of Adventurers and others were also checked. However, few people of Gold-Panning Town were checked. She took the pen and checked in front of the name of the chairman of the Mining Union of Gold-Panning Town. ¡°Another one solved.¡± Putting down the pen and paper, Felix said, sighing, ¡°It¡¯s really inconvenient for us to do things as His Majesty has required¡ªwith legal means, those can at least be explained!¡± The deputy mayor said, smiling, ¡°But in this case, everyone will be more relieved.¡± ¡°Yes, people who follow the rules are always more popular than those who don¡¯t,¡± Felix answered, nodding. But she could not help but sigh. ¡°Just¡­ It¡¯s a waste of time!¡± ¡°I think you¡¯re requesting too much. In only a short year, you have convinced or controlled so many people. According to this speed, it is estimated that it will take only a few years to completely control the Four Towns in the Northwest. Even a mortal like me can afford it, let alone a great mage like you.¡± Felix said, smiling, ¡°You are right. Now time is the least important thing for me. I still can¡¯t get rid of the inherent old thinking method, so I am bound by the concept of the mortal time. You are really a very talented person. Why don¡¯t you consider learning magic from me?¡± ¡°Please allow me to refuse,¡± the deputy mayor answered, smiling and shaking her head. ¡°I just do my own work. It takes too much time and energy to learn magic. I don¡¯t want to spend more than a half of my life on the skills that I may not use for a lifetime.¡± ¡°How could you not use it? Magic can help you do a lot of special things!¡± ¡°But I can also do those things without magic,¡± the deputy mayor said. ¡°Magic can move things, can ignite bonfires, treat injuries, and eliminate monsters¡­ But I can do these things by other means, or I can ask others to do them. I am just an ordinary civil affair official, so originally I don¡¯t have to do them on my own.¡± Felix lowered her head in frustration, sighing. Another failed persuasion. Ever since she had discovered that the deputy mayor had good magic qualifications and clear and steady thoughts, she had been trying to persuade the deputy mayor to learn magic from her. But up until now, after several attempts at convincing her, none of them had ever worked. The deputy mayor, who was always gentle and smiling, was actually a rather stubborn person. Her ideal of life seemed to be a good civil affair official, and she was not interested in anything other than that. Felix really didn¡¯t understand that. Could just a deputy mayor of a small town have a higher status than a mage? Moreover, with the qualifications of this subordinate, if she got involved in magic research, she might not be able to become a legendary mage, but at least it would be possible for her to enter the high-level. Felix believed that. As a high-level mage, she could even speak equally with the big aristocrats who held real power. It was much better than being a deputy mayor, wasn¡¯t it? Moreover, after becoming a mage, her life expectancy would be greatly increased! In this world, ordinary people could only live to 50 or 60 years old, and people who could live to 70 were already called the stars of longevity; it was admirable. However, for mages, even mid-level mages could easily extend their lives to hundreds of years. High-level mages didn¡¯t need high-risk means to extend their lives, because it was easy for them to live to 200 years with simple and safe methods. As for the legendary mages¡­ At that time, Master Ymirjar Le-Peyroux had led his disciples to end the Witch Age and had created the Mifata Federation. He and his disciples had entered the Legendary Realm, and none of them had died of old age. For women, just youth and longevity should be worthwhile in pursuing, right? For this important reason, the proportion of women among mages was far more than half. However, Felix had met a woman who was not interested in youth and longevity, so she had no way out. After a deep sigh, Felix took out the documents and the materials that she had just put away and continued to devote herself to the never-ending work. Work was always endless, and this was true for everyone. But work could always come to an end temporarily; this was also true for everyone. For example, for Yan Xun. ¡°It¡¯s finally over!¡± The last group of souls of the believers who had been rescued from the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was heading to the residential area. Looking at that, Yan Xun took a long breath and wiped away the sweat that did not exist on his forehead with his tentacles. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Really, when you just look at the work, it seems like a lot. But when you actually do it, it¡¯s not a lot. So many souls. I thought I needed to purify them for a long time, but it didn¡¯t take long before I finished them all.¡± ¡°How are you going to settle them in?¡± Morani asked curiously after coming over. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you haven¡¯t decided that yet until now.¡± Yan Xun smiled, feeling embarrassed, and he refused to answer him directly. ¡°Make them change their faith,¡± Morani said. ¡°Since they have received your life-saving grace, of course, they should repay you with their faith.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, but I always feel very embarrassed,¡± Yan Xun said, scratching his face with his tentacles. Then he said with a bitter smile, ¡°I didn¡¯t save them for those benefits. I just couldn¡¯t bear to see them die with the Goddess of Bumper Harvest.¡± ¡°It is not important whether you saved them for no benefits or not. The important thing is whether they can bring you benefits!¡± Morani said seriously. ¡°I know that you are a good guy, but good guys should not harm themselves to help others when doing good things. They make everyone benefit.¡± ¡°How can there be such a good thing!¡± ¡°No, there are often no such good things in the world, and that¡¯s why we should retreat to a lower level. At the very least, we shouldn¡¯t let good guys only pay out completely. Just let them get some rewards.¡± Yan Xun was silent for a while; then he said, ¡°That is also very hard.¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s hard, but shouldn¡¯t we do this?¡± Morani advised. ¡°You have done enough for them, and now they should repay you. You pay, you gain. As a god, you should especially maintain this rule!¡± Yan Xun nodded, sighing softly. A few days later, the saved believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest received a notice from His Majesty, the Void Mask. ¡°Due to the lack of manpower in my God¡¯s Kingdom, I need to recruit a number of believers. People who are interested can come to my place to negotiate. The treatment is the same as your past one, and it may be even better.¡± Some stubborn believers ignored this, and some extreme believers even thought that this was insulting their belief. However, after all, many believers were moved. Losing the power from the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, they would lose their eternal life. They changed their faith in order to live on. After all, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had fallen. Chapter 369 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Faith was a very serious matter. It was not just based on the words ¡°I believe¡± or ¡°I don¡¯t believe.¡± Only the recognition from the heart could become faith. To take an extreme example, Jose, Yan Xun¡¯s subordinate, had once been a tribal chief of the barbarian race on the Northern Iceland. Now he had turned into a half-dragon man and continued to work hard to give birth to many descendants so they could form a tribe. He had really hated the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield and Blizzards but had faithfully believed in this goddess at the same time. Therefore, the strong belief and the strong hatred had merged into a deep curse. This was faith. Even if they hated this god, they would still be able to believe in this god, and that didn¡¯t conflict. Similarly, although the believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest respected and appreciated Yan Xun because he had saved them and he was willing to give them an opportunity to be eternal again, it was still not enough to change their faith. The key to the problem was ¡°recognition.¡± Generally speaking, to recognize a god, people must understand the god¡¯s doctrines and ideas first. And then, they would compare them with their own ideas. If they could find a matching point between each other, they could have faith in the god. The more matching points there were, the stronger the faith would get. If they believed that the god was correct about everything, and completely abandoned their own ideas, they would become the so-called sincere believers. And if they went further, they would believe that only their own god¡¯s ideas were correct, and any other conflicting ideas were wrong. Then they would become crazy believers. Of course, Yan Xun did not expect to convert the crazy believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest into his own believers. That was also actually impossible. The crazy believers were still gathering together every day and praying as if the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had not fallen. They knew that there was no hope, but they still did not give up. Seeing them, Yan Xun believed that they would never change their faith. The Imagination that they would change their faith was both an insult to their piety and an insult to his own IQ. Sincere believers were better than crazy believers. Although they had accepted the ideas of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, sincere believers could at least admit the fact that the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had fallen. In the face of the hopeless end, many people began to reflect, thinking about their own ideas to see whether they could be modified and improved. Of course, most of them still stayed the same. They were either praying with the crazy believers or silently mourning, waiting quietly for the advent of death. Yan Xun did not intend to disturb their peace, so he just let them go. Some people were willing to reflect and change. Therefore, they began to follow Yan Xun¡¯s priests to learn the doctrines like ordinary believers. However, to be honest, the doctrines of Yan Xun were really not that good. The professionals began to put up their suggestions while learning, and many suggestions were actually very pertinent and valuable. Yan Xun was so overjoyed that he held a special seminar. At the seminar, he personally introduced his own ideas of development and progress. He hoped that everyone would start from these two fundamentals and propose a complete set of feasible doctrines. The seminar was held for almost two months. At the beginning, everyone was very gentle. The priests of Yan Xun were very polite when they spoke. The believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest were also somewhat restrained. Later, as the exchanges of opinions became more direct and in-depth, their voices got louder and louder, and the restraints got fewer and fewer. Finally, they even fought against each other. If Yan Xun were not there to control them, the two sides might have already beat their brains out of their heads. No one would know how terrible it would be! However, such intense exchanges were also very helpful for the advancement of the mind. Not only was it good for the improvement of the doctrines, but even Yan Xun himself felt that he had benefited a lot. About the understanding and the grasp of this world, the believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who had lived for thousands of years or even tens of thousands of years were at an extremely high level. Although their knowledge and talents were far worse than gods, who could form a luxury group of thousands of gods to help him discuss and perfect the doctrines? Even the Master of Order couldn¡¯t do that! With such a strong and unprecedentedly large discussion group, Yan Xun¡¯s doctrines were quickly modified and improved. When the seminar was completed, and the new doctrines were compiled, not only were the two sides of the discussion satisfied but even Yan Xun himself was shocked. ¡°The 21st century is the century of talents¡­ Damn! I didn¡¯t understand this truth completely until now!¡± Soon, these new doctrines were picked up and distributed. Everyone, from the God of Justice down to the students in the literacy class of Lanxiang Vocational School, praised them the new doctrines. Well, some were unsatisfied with them. For example, an old black dragon who was hiding in an underground cave. ¡°All living beings in the world, regardless of their origins or forms, have a desire to make their lives consistent with their own preferences. If this desire can be achieved, they will be happy; and if not, they will be sad. The Progressive Philosophy of our lord is to make our world joyful for more and more living beings. Therefore, our lord is a natural, kind god and represents the most practical direction of goodness.¡± ¡°The old black dragon wrinkled his eyebrows that looked like two big pine trees. He muttered with dissatisfaction, ¡°What the hell is ¡®practical direction of goodness!?¡¯ It actually means that ¡®everything against me is evil!''¡± He thought for a while, then said, sneering, ¡°Well, I am always evil, so it doesn¡¯t matter!¡± ¡°The resources in the world are infinite. However, in the same era, the resources that a society can control are limited. One of the most important root causes of all kinds of contradictions and conflicts is the fight for resources. Our lord believes that instead of trying to compete for resources, it is better to try to develop new resources or to increase the utilization of existing resources. This is the essence of the Developing Philosophy.¡± ¡°This seems very interesting¡­ For me, instead of competing with others for underground caves, why not excavate one on my own?¡± The old black dragon pondered for a while, and then he said, shaking his head, ¡°Too much trouble! If others have a ready-made cave, then I can grab it. That will be much easier!¡± After that, he spurted out flames and burned the Doctrines of the Church of Void Mask to ashes. His body flashed, splitting out a half-human and half-dragon avatar, and then the avatar disappeared into the void. ¡­ After a while, a visitor appeared in a dark, quiet and cold world hidden in endless darkness. ¡°Welcome,¡± a tall, looming figure said. He was wearing heavy armor. Although he stood up to greet the guests, he did not reveal his true appearance; he was still a black shadow. The avatar of the God of Underground Caves squeezed out a smile. He asked, ¡°Is your master here? I have something important to discuss with him.¡± ¡°If it is about being an enemy of the Void Mask, then you don¡¯t have to bother,¡± a small, old figure answered. He walked slowly, followed by shadow which was clearly approaching with no one feeling its existence. ¡°What do you mean?¡± the God of Underground Caves asked, frowning. ¡°Do you intend to grab the power, King of Night?¡± ¡°No, this is what His Majesty means,¡± the figure wearing the heavy armor replied. ¡°His Majesty believes that there is no substantive conflict between us and the Void Mask. On the contrary, there is room for cooperation. So he doesn¡¯t want to participate in any actions against him.¡± ¡°Then, if I become an enemy of the Void Mask, you may help him instead of helping me?¡± the God of Underground Caves asked coldly. ¡°This is our secret,¡± the old figure said, smiling. It seemed that he agreed with what he had said indirectly. The God of Underground Caves stormed out, and then a majestic figure appeared next to the three god followers. ¡°It seems that many people can¡¯t wait,¡± he said. ¡°Our old acquaintance makes a big move this time!¡± ¡°But his doctrines are very good. I think they have reference value,¡± the old figure said. ¡°Yes! If I could have met him before becoming a god, perhaps our Night God System would be much stronger than it is now!¡± the majestic figure said, smiling. ¡°But it¡¯s not too late. He has a good relationship with the Boy of Ceremony. Let¡¯s use that relationship.¡± He turned his head and looked at the tall figure. Then he said, ¡°I¡¯ll give the task to you. Can you do that?¡± The tall figure seemed uncomfortable, but in the end, he lowered his head and accepted the order. Chapter 370 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Do you like little girls?¡± On a very warm winter day, Javier found Yan Xun and asked him this strange question. Yan Xun was stunned for a moment, thought about it carefully and answered, ¡°Yeah, I like them. As long as they are not wild kids.¡± ¡°So do you think little girls are cuter than grown-up women?¡± Javier continued asking him. Yan Xun thought about it carefully for a moment and said, ¡°Perhaps little girls are much cuter. At first, little Niss would play the game of ¡®transformation of magic girls,¡¯ but now she hides the magic bracelet in the cupboard¡­¡± ¡°So which kind of situation do you prefer, being surrounded by a group of beautiful grown-up women or a group of lovely little girls?¡± ¡°Your questions are really weird! Are there any big differences to us?¡± ¡°Although I don¡¯t think there are many differences, it¡¯s a question I have to ask,¡± Javier said seriously, ¡°so give me your answer quickly.¡± Yan Xun sighed and said, ¡°If I must give my answer, then I would choose the little girls. At least, I can play games with them. If I¡¯m with a group of grown-up women, do I have to pray with them?¡± Javier nodded and laughed, ¡°Very well. Your answer is not satisfactory, but at least it¡¯s qualified.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I mean, it¡¯s qualified,¡± Javier began to explain in detail. ¡°I have a friend who doesn¡¯t have any contact with me, but recently, he told me that he wants to meet you and make friends with you. But he has some misunderstandings and contradictions about you, so he wants to resolve them. However, he is also very stubborn, and he wants to make sure that you are compatible with him. That¡¯s why I asked you such strange questions.¡± Yan Xun was silent for a moment and carefully recalled those questions and his answers. ¡°Is he a perverted pedo?¡± Javier laughed but did not reply. Yan Xun sighed deeply and asked, ¡°Can I not see this pervert?¡± ¡°You really don¡¯t want to see him? To be honest, he is very interesting.¡± ¡°But he is a pervert.¡± ¡°There are so many perverts among the gods,¡± Javier said. ¡°What¡¯s more, you are a jellyfish, running to maintain the peace and stability of the human world and promote its development and progress. Do you think you are normal?¡± Yan Xun had nothing to say, so he sighed silently. A few days later, Javier introduced Yan Xun to meet that pervert. He was a tall and serious-looking god in heavy armor; he did not look like a pervert. He exuded a deep breath of death and darkness, and a bloody odor came from his body but without any substance. He was very calm and firm. His temperament and appearance reminded people of the towering mountains at night¡ªsilent and firm as if he was indestructible. ¡°My name is Sleeplessness, and I¡¯m a gatekeeper of Night God System. People usually call me ¡®the night gatekeeper,¡¯ or directly call me ¡®the night watchman.''¡± Under the heavy armor came a magnetic male voice that said, ¡°We have some contradictions, and I apologize for that.¡± Yan Xun was stunned for a moment and quickly remembered his identity¡ªhe was the number one fighter headed by the ancient vampire, the ¡®King of Night¡¯ in the department of the Night Gods. It was said that he had been a gatekeeper for the castle of the King of Night when he was a mortal and was a very loyal minister who had not slacked or rested for a moment for a hundred years. No guardians or watchdogs could compare with him, but he was an evil god. Yes. The gatekeeper, Sleeplessness was an evil god. His evil firstly manifested in his doctrine. As a god, he did not call on his followers to contribute to the church, but in fact, he and his priests were not interested in material wealth. What they wanted were the souls of the followers. Anyone who chose to become a follower of the night watchman would swear that their souls belonged to his kingdom after their death. But most of these followers¡¯ contributions were not enough for them to transform into the ¡®soul followers,¡¯ so they could only become magic beasts used in necromancy. This alone could prove that he was very evil. However, Yan Xun could not blame him for his doctrine because his priests would tell people this before they entered his church. Regardless of the outcome, it was their own choice. Although there existed many inequalities of information and status, as well as many mean methods, such as deception and inducement, behind their choices, many poor people who had lived a very hard life would still choose to be his followers. This was because he would not charge them money and would provide shelter for these poor people. Yeah, it was very likely that they would become magic beasts after their death if they chose to become followers of the night watchman. But what was wrong with that? If they could live a better life when they were alive, why would they care about what would happen when they died. Even if they would not become the magic beasts after their death, the underworld was not a good place for them. For ordinary people, the best result was nothing more than to become some soul fragments in the underworld river and go around the great circle of the world. Was this a good ending for them? For people who had nothing at all, the only thing left was to make their lives a little better when they were alive since there was no heaven for them to go. This was also the common style of the department of the Night Gods. The gods in this department unswervingly followed the bottom line, developing their followers among the poor and strengthening their power little by little. The department of Night Gods have a long history, but they had been attacked by powerful gods like the God of Sun more than once. They were almost destroyed every time. However, every time they had gotten through the difficulties and brushed themselves off up just like some immortal people who would never give up. Today, the department of the Night Gods had developed into a force that all gods dared not look down upon. Its overall strength had become stronger than that of the Desolation God System and had some voices in the Parthenon. So although Yan Xun disliked the evil gods, he also did not want to fall out with them. ¡°The contradictions happened between us before were mainly caused by your priests, and I would not blame you. As long as you don¡¯t bother me, our contradictions are over now,¡± Yan Xun said calmly. He still did not mean to have a deep relationship with him. The night watchman nodded but did not give Yan Xun the name of the priest who had caused the contradictions. This made Yan Xun think a little highly of him. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s just stop here today.¡± The night watchman was not in a hurry. He took out a silver box and handed it to Yan Xun. ¡°This is one of my works, and I believe that it will help you a little. I¡¯ll use it as my apology for what my priests have done before.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need any apologies.¡± Yan Xun frowned and wanted to refuse. The night watchman did not give him the chance to refuse. He gave the box to Javier and then disappeared immediately. ¡°Why does this guy close his ears to me?¡± Yan Xun complained angrily, but his eyes could not help but fall on the box. There was a saying that curiosity killed the cat. Yan Xun was such a curious person. Javier noticed his eyes, smiled and opened the box for him. There was a small manor inside the box, and some beautiful little girls were living peacefully in the manor. It showed many gentle and quiet stories from the box. Yan Xun frowned. He disliked someone sending people to him as gifts. Javier also frowned but could not help but observe it carefully. He observed for a while and was startled, whispering, ¡°Look! The souls in it¡­ are not natural!¡± Yan Xun was shocked when he heard Javier¡¯s words. He rushed to observe it carefully and even used the means of soul induction which he had not used for a long time. Of course, from the perspective of these souls, there were mottled lights on these little girls inside the box, and they were made up of many soul fragments. After careful observation, it could be found that most of these soul fragments were not from human beings, but were joined together by delicate artistic means after debugging and repairing various kinds of chaotic soul fragments, thus forming many little girls. Among the souls that had been joined together, some of them had already become quite concise, gradually gathering parts into a whole and truly transforming into a complete and independent soul. When Yan Xun discovered this, the voice of the night watchman came out of the box. ¡°Although our positions are different, I think you are also troubled by the fact that some followers¡¯ contributions are not enough for them to complete the soul transformation. I hope this gift will help you.¡± Yan Xun looked at the man-made souls inside the box carefully and thought his words over. This time he did not refuse anymore. Chapter 371 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The gift sent by the night watchman Sleeplessness was not only beyond Yan Xun¡¯s expectation, but it was also exactly what he needed. For a long time, the lack of high-ranking followers had been a major problem for Yan Xun. It was not only a problem for him but also the most difficult problem for all new gods. Followers were the foundation of the God¡¯s Kingdom and faith. A god must have as many followers as possible for faith was the quickest source of Divine Powers. Otherwise, he had to take the natural road of strengthening his Divine Powers little by little over a long period of time. Of course, depending on faith to strengthen their Divine Powers was a very dangerous thing. From ancient times to the present, there were many gods who had suffered great losses or even died that way, thus transforming into ugly appearances dominated by their faith. When they finally died, they often found that if they did not accept so many followers at first, even if their Divine Powers were not as strong as they were now, they would never have died so quickly. But Yan Xun did not have to consider this at present because he had few followers and they were not enough to form a strong faith. For any god, this was not worth mentioning at all. Not everyone was qualified to be ¡°dominated by faith.¡± At least, one¡¯s accumulation of faith had to reach mid-level Divine Power. Who had ever heard of a weak-level Divine Power being dominated by faith? That was totally impossible. From the perspective of a god, it was imperative for Yan Xun to do the following two things: Firstly, he had to seek a clergy that fit his ideas, and he had already had a good goal for that. No gods in the world had occupied the clergy of ¡°progress¡± and ¡°development¡± so there was no need for him to worry about conflicts with other gods. Secondly, he had to gain more followers to strengthen his faith, which was what he was doing now. But he still did not gain many followers even though he was very kind and powerful. Up to now, the number of his followers¡­ the number of extensive followers was quite large¡­ but they were not strong enough to enter the God¡¯s Kingdom. All right¡­ just don¡¯t count the exact numbers of the followers who were strong enough to enter the God¡¯s Kingdom and give the big jellyfish some credit. Yan Xun also worried about the second thing, but the piety of his followers was not easy for him to change. He could not think of any better ways for a while. However, the gift sent by the night watchman gave him a new idea. ¡°Why do I have to wait for more pious followers? Why can¡¯t I collect the soul fragments, gather them together and make new independent souls by myself?¡± After saying goodbye to Javier, he sat in a secluded corner of the God¡¯s Kingdom, thinking and talking to himself. Undoubtedly, it was not hard for him. The night watchman¡¯s box gave him great inspiration, and there no encryption technology inside that box. It only took a little time for him to deduce the techniques used inside that box. Of course, this kind of technique was of little significance to most gods. Only the department of the Night Gods who had failed and revitalized it several times could study this magic. The common gods had to just wait two or three hundred years to accumulate more followers. Yan Xun did not want to wait patiently for two or three years, so at present, it seemed that he had no other choice other than to adopt the techniques. Therefore, he sighed deeply and began to observe the box carefully, analyzing the wonderful techniques of the artificial souls. If the basis of essence was the molecule or the atom, then the basis of the soul could be called spirit. Those tiny particles did not contain power themselves, but they could absorb the power of roots in the world and gather together under its impetus, condensing into many soul fragments. Numerous fouls fragments were in the underworld river, running along the world¡¯s circle and were ultimately purified and merged into a sea of souls. When living creatures were born, the sea of souls would ripple, and there would be souls pouring into it. Sometimes, when there were so many souls pouring into the sea of souls that it would create powerful creatures with strong souls; but sometimes, it would also create some pitiful creatures with weak souls. The sea of souls was a forbidden zone in the whole world, and almost no living creatures could get close to it. This was not because they were not strong enough but because this zone had been forbidden by the Master of Order. In the past years, some evil gods had tried to get small gains in the sea of souls, but they all ended up with being killed by the Master of Order, leaving only their wails echoing in the sea before they were completely destroyed No matter which way they adopted to the sea of souls, as long as you got close to it, you would hear the moaning, and that was an obvious warning meaning that ¡°friend, you stepped on the line.¡± What would happen if they move forward to the sea of souls? No one knew because none had come back alive. Of course, Yan Xun did not intend to die in the sea of souls. He just sent his incarnation to the underworld. He just needed a few soul fragments to finish his research, and he could just collect some from the underworld river. Anyway, there were always exhausted souls that were ready to collapse at any time. Before going to the underworld river, he made a special circle and looked at the Shadow Devil from a distance. It had been a decade since they fought with each other. The Shadow Devil who had some problems with Yan Xun and owned Satan a life did not get much better. He still lay there half-dead and was even worse than before, showing a sense of despair. It was perhaps because of his new neighbor. The Death Knight, Greg, always held his head, rode on a skeleton horse and muttered philosophical questions like, ¡°Who am I?¡± He was really nasty. Since Greg had been sent to the underworld to be a neighbor of the Shadow Devil by Yan Xun¡¯s transmission magic, he had enjoyed a happy and full life every day. He got up very early in the morning, tidied himself up and visited his neighbors. Facing the Shadow Devil who had lost the ability to move and fight, Greg could not stop talking with this old neighbor whom he had known for a long time. He talked about such magnificent and profound topics such as the world, life, ideals, existences, the future, and the universe. Greg lost his train of thought in the conversations and talked from morning to night without a break. If he hadn¡¯t retained the basic etiquette of bidding farewell to the Shadow Devil every night and returning to his simple cabin, the Shadow Devil would have been killed by his endless conversation just like some little monsters in the novel A Journey to the West. No, perhaps the Shadow Devil wanted to die, but he could not die himself. Yan Xun smiled with satisfaction as he watched the friendly conversation from afar between the Death Knight who was holding his head and the Shadow Devil who was lying down like dead wood. I¡¯m such a good friend of Greg¡¯s! Yan Xun silently praised himself from helping Greg becoming a neighbor of the Shadow Devil and left carefully without leaving any traces. Because he was in a good mood right now, the gloomy and dark underworld river had become a pleasant scene for Yan Xun. He randomly chose some souls that were collapsing at present, easily collecting sufficient soul fragments for his research, and returned to the God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°Now it¡¯s time to witness miracles!¡± He waved his tentacles and encouraged himself in high spirits. As for whether it would work or not¡­ even the perverted pedo could succeed so why would he fail? It was impossible for him to fail because of his good moral quality compared to that perverted watchman. Chapter 372 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio If he wanted to use the soul fragments to create a new soul, Yan Xun needed to identify a soul core first. Like living beings, a soul must have a core. The more powerful the creatures were, the more significant roles the soul cores played. A soul core was related to various abilities of a creature, as well as to the innate attributes. The first thought of Yan Xun was to create a brave and fearless soul. He was self-confident that he was good at fighting. However, if he was alone in a war of gods like the one he had witnessed before, he would hardly be able to fight against so many enemies. Even if he had helpers, so would his enemies. What¡¯s more, in a war of gods, it had to be the kings versus kings and the soldiers versus the soldiers. Once he and his helpers were blocked by the gods of the opposite side, the battle at the level of Oracles and believers would become a one-sided slaughter. The main cannon fodder of a war of gods was of course Oracles. However, Yan Xun had no Oracles; Morani and the others had a few Oracles. The only one who had many Oracles was Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth. However, as people all knew, the Oracles and the believers under the Goddess of Wealth were not good at fighting. Therefore, Yan Xun naturally focused his research on the creation of powerful Oracles. What¡¯s more, when doing scientific research, of course, he should first solve the most difficult and key problem. As long as the most difficult problem was solved, others would naturally be solved as well. When he had talked with a group of players, some researchers had said something about that. When they had set up projects and had persuaded their superiors to invest money, they had repeatedly emphasized the most important and key difficulties with some sentences like ¡°break through this, we can reach the advanced international level,¡± or, ¡°this difficulty is a stubborn disease that troubles blah-blah industry in our country. It seriously affects the self-sufficiency rate.¡± Yan Xun still could recite a few of the sentences. Yan Xun himself didn¡¯t know anything about scientific research. However, although he had no actual experience, he had at least seen others do it. Since the great researchers had all said so, this must be the best way! With such an idea in his mind, Yan Xun started his research. To make the soul brave, he naturally needed to pick out the soul fragments which contained more courage and aggression and then put them together. Identifying the attributes of soul fragments was a very difficult technical task, so even the Great Divine Powers may find it a little difficult. Because the soul fragments themselves were already fragile, a little more strength might make them break. At this point, the Great Divine Powers were less suitable than the Weak Divine Powers because their existences were powerful forces. A ¡°look¡± already contained relatively strong power for the soul fragments. However, this was not a problem for Yan Xun. He had the wonderful ability of soul sensing, so he could wrap the soul fragments gently within his own field of sensing force. Therefore, he could protect them while studying them carefully. ¡°It¡¯s a good piece of fragment. It contains the firm belief that a warrior fought to protect his lover until he died! ¡°Wait a minute, this guy¡¯s lover¡­ Why is the name of his lover so strange? ¡°I¡¯ll find out where the rest of the fragments are¡­ ¡°Got it, his lover was¡­ Holy crap! The man¡¯s lover was a horse! ¡°Damn pervert! Get away! I don¡¯t want to use such a perverted soul as the soul core of my Oracle!¡± Yan Xun wiped away the cold sweat that actually didn¡¯t exist. He simply gave up the soul fragment that he had just thought highly of. He searched again and found another good soul fragment. This piece belonged to a person who had resented those people who had persecuted her. When she was dying, her resentment had been stronger than the fear of death. She hated that she couldn¡¯t kill more of them. It took Yan Xun some time to find other pieces of the person¡¯s soul, but it turned out she had been a prostitute. The woman had been forced to be a prostitute. She had endured it and prepared poison quietly, and finally, she had poisoned the man in charge. Then she had committed suicide by poisoning herself. There was no doubt that since she was dead, things would definitely get worse and worse. It was hard to say how many people would get involved, but at least the procuress behind her couldn¡¯t escape. It was nice revenge, but unfortunately, the woman was a half-elf. None of the gods of the Natural God System she had believed in had a priesthood of Revenge. Otherwise, she would be welcomed in that God¡¯s Kingdom. Because her sin was not bad enough to overwhelm her goodness, her soul escaped the degeneration impulsion resulting from sin. She did not fall into hell, nor into the abyss. Yan Xun inspected the life of this soul with satisfaction. He nodded repeatedly. Next, he began to create the core of a new soul. He would use this piece as the most important part of the core. He picked out the pieces that tended to be brave and fierce one by one from the soul fragments. First, he found a less important piece and tried to pick it up with some Divine Power. Broken. Yan Xun was stunned for a moment. He looked at his tentacles and then looked at those spirits that had turned into countless light spots. They existed in the smallest and the most basic form. They flowed with the ubiquitous world stream slowly heading to the original place and also the destination of all souls. ¡°Too much strength? I¡¯ve got a lot of control already!¡± He thought about it and found another piece that had little value. He tried reducing his strength again and slightly touched the soul fragment with his Divine Power. Broken again. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?! Why are soul fragments so fragile? Are the souls in this world so fragile? No way!¡± Yan Xun knew he must have made a mistake somewhere, but he did not continue trying. He opened the box and watched the girls with artificial souls in the box repeating their monotonous and peaceful daily actions. The field of sensing force had been fully unfolded, and he was carefully observing the structure of their souls. According to the introduction of the Nightwatcher¡¯s technology, the soul fragments needed to be deeply processed with Divine Power. He needed to erase those deep impressions of the previous life and pick the strong feelings out and throw them away. Then the fragments could be restored to a purer state in order to be used to reorganize a new soul. If he used them to reorganize a new soul directly before he did the above steps, the conflicting ideas and memories in each soul would strongly reject each other. Then the new soul would possibly break down. Even if it was lucky and did not break down, the soul would not slowly bridge the differences. It wouldn¡¯t be able to condense them into a complete entity through time. Instead, it would keep the state of all the intricate ideas rejecting each other. As a result, it would become a mad soul whose ideas and attitudes would change without reason at any time. Such a madman couldn¡¯t be a believer or a fighter; he would even be unqualified as a suicide bomber. The reason was that nobody could be sure whether he would suddenly change his mind or not. Maybe he would regard the god who created him as an enemy. Yan Xun studied them carefully for a long time, but he still failed to get the gist. In the Nightwatcher¡¯s statement, it didn¡¯t seem very complicated. However, why was it so difficult to do this by himself? He meditated for a long time, but he still could not figure out where the problem was. In desperation, he had to find Javier and asked him to contact the Nightwatcher, the damn pervert who seemed tall and powerful but in fact was a pedo. Obviously, the Nightwatcher had been waiting for Yan Xun to contact him. He arrived as soon as he got the news. Yan Xun exchanged a few words of greetings with him and then asked about the difficulties he had encountered. The Nightwatcher gave him an unexpected answer. ¡°There¡¯s no other way, just practice slowly?¡± Yan Xun asked, opening his eyes wide with surprise. ¡°Yes, just practice slowly. It¡¯s a technical job, all depending on the feeling of your hands,¡± the Nightwatcher said. ¡°A little more is too much, and a little less is too little. I can¡¯t teach you the subtlety of it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s too tough!¡± ¡°There¡¯s no other way, but you are good at fighting and grow fast. You can get the experience very quickly. And if you can find the right direction from the beginning, you¡¯ll surely be able to do it in 20 or 30 years as long as you concentrate on practicing!!¡± The Nightwatcher said in a positive tone of encouragement. ¡°You got this!¡± You got this!?F*ck you! Yan Xun held back his swearing and reluctantly accepted this fact. It¡¯s just like the story of the oil seller that I learned of in high school. The oil seller concentrated on pouring oil for 30 years, and he could naturally pour the oil through the hole in the center of the coin without wetting the coin at all. Well, I admit that many of the world¡¯s best skills are practiced like this, but I¡¯m not going to become a microscopic carving craftsman, so do I need to practice like this? After seeing off the Nightwatcher, Yan Xun looked at the soul fragments that were waiting for him to process them or for him to practice. He felt so bad. He tried picking up a piece of worthless soul fragment, controlled his power as much as possible and wiped it slightly. Broken. He shook his head, picked up another piece and rubbed it gently. Broken. After nearly 20 pieces were broken, he finally reduced his strength to a point where he could wipe the soul fragments slightly without breaking them. Yan Xun was so overjoyed that he couldn¡¯t help but laugh and scream for a long time before he came back to work. Then, he found that he shouldn¡¯t have been happy just now. The soul fragment was indeed unbroken, but the things he should have erased were not gone. Most of them were still there. One more time? Looking at this lucky piece which survived in his hands, Yan Xun chose to give up without any confidence and sealed it up as a souvenir. Anyway, when the soul was broken, the ¡°whole life¡± of this creature was completely over. It didn¡¯t matter how the fragments were because the fragments were not able to constitute a perceptual system. If they were so complete, they wouldn¡¯t be called fragments. Yan Xun continued to practice, and pieces of soul fragments were transformed into spirits one after another under his Divine Power. Sometimes, some of them were not completely broken, but they were still far from the target. After months of being so busy, he finally couldn¡¯t stand it. Yan Xun threw the mountain of soul fragments down to the ground and swore. Without looking back, he jumped up and said, ¡°I¡¯m tired! I need to relax!¡± Chapter 373 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Relax. Where should I go? Of course, the Void Mask Land! The Void Mask Land had the best hot springs. With the service of the professional masseuses, people could fully relieve the fatigue in their bodies. It also had the best food and drinks; they could make people feel warm from their stomachs to their hearts so that their tired minds could be quickly refreshed. The Land had the most interesting entertainment projects and the most exciting adventure games. They were exciting enough to make people¡¯s heartbeats accelerate and the blood course through their body, finally eliminating their low moods. Finally, the Land had the most romantic and exciting evening activities. Some activities were luxurious enough for the rich to spend thousands of gold coins on. The Land also had the most charming women, and so the men would definitely have a pleasant night there. Of course, Yan Xun was also a man. However, his form was a big jellyfish, so most of the projects in the Land were not suitable for him. So he thought about it again and again and finally created a human avatar. He lowered his physique to a slightly higher level than that of an average person and then went to play in the Land. He ate and drank and had fun on various entertainment facilities. Finally, at night, he drank iced fruit wine while bathing in the hot springs. After drinking, he fell asleep directly by the warm spring water. When he woke up the next morning, he was already in high spirits. All the depression and frustration he had had been swept away, and he was in full swing. Of course, all those were secrets. Yan Xun didn¡¯t want others to know that as a god, he would disguise himself in a human appearance to play here like this. Anyway, these events were a little childish, so it would be a little embarrassing. It would be just like the head of an economic power who was said to read comic books during a serious meeting. Once it was known, it would become a big scandal. So he was really cautious, sneaking in like a thief. Early the next morning, he sneaked away secretly and immediately took the avatar back without leaving any trace. However, the goal of ¡°relaxing¡± had been achieved. Therefore, Yan Xun devoted himself to his busy work once again. Practice, practice, and practice. After practicing for about another month, he felt that this method was not very reliable. He should use his brilliant painting techniques to depict beautiful rivers and mountains. The second option was to draw pictures of some beautiful girls to attract other people¡¯s eyes. How could he use his hands to do the work of a craftsman? A specialist was only a master in their own field. This was not his specialty! Many masters of painting were also masters of sculpture. They could make all kinds of sculptures, including clay and wood sculptures, stone-carved sculptures, and casted bronze statues. In fact, even Yan Xun himself knew some skills of sculpture. He dared not brag about it, but at least it was not difficult for him to pinch out a cute doll with clay. In those days, he had copied Japanese anime models to make clay dolls. He had sold them to earn pocket money, and his business had been good. However, even if art masters came here, they would have no way to deal with such difficult technology. Even the legendary craftsmen of the top class would quit, so it was natural that he couldn¡¯t do it either. Therefore, Yan Xun secretly ran to the Land again. He transformed into a mortal and played for a day, no, for two days. Then he began to work again. This time he only insisted for half a month, and he could not help but run to the Land to relax for three days his time. If I always relax like this, I¡¯m going to be a loser! Shortly afterwards, the Jellyfish God, who had just ended a five-day vacation, was lying on the floor of the God¡¯s Kingdom, staring at the sky blankly. ¡°Man, you can¡¯t be too lazy¡­¡± he muttered. He was determined to cheer himself up and try to finish the work. But he couldn¡¯t do it. He just couldn¡¯t. Soul fragments were fragile to the extreme. It was impossible to eliminate some of the contents inside without affecting their integrity and firmness. However, for soul fragments, there were no such things as ¡°integrity¡± and ¡°firmness!¡± If there was no living evidence in front of him, Yan Xun would definitely think that the damn pervert, the Nightwatcher, was fooling him. ¡°What should I do? Do I really need to take decades to slowly hone this skill? Will I eventually have strong arms like that pervert?¡± Yan Xun muttered to himself. He looked at the girls who lived peacefully in the box and fell into meditation. He habitually unfolded his soul sensing, observing the souls of the girls. Artificial souls were full of cracks, but they were not fragmented. They looked like the valuable broken porcelain vases of Song Dynasty he had seen in the museum that had a different aesthetic feeling. However, Yan Xun could not accept such an aesthetic feeling. He tried to divide his soul power out a little and infiltrate it into the cracked soul. The next moment, a miracle happened. The countless cracks in the soul quickly healed. It absorbed the tremendous soul power, which was relatively insignificant to Yan Xun, and constantly made up for the cracks. In a very short time, the striking cracks began to heal from the deepest core, and eventually, the inner part was almost completely healed. There were just some traces left on the surface just like the scars left when a wound had healed. ¡°What?! This is good!¡± Yan Xun was pleased and surprised at the same time. He urged his soul power to continue to infiltrate into it. However, when the artificial soul basically completed the whole healing process, and so the speed of absorbing the soul power declined greatly. It no longer had the sense of urgency like a few dry sponges just met with water, nor the instant miracle effect when someone gave a cup of water to a person who was dying of thirst. His soul power was still slowly exerting its effect. However, it might still take a long time to see the results. Yan Xun waited patiently for several days and finally saw one trace left by a crack completely disappear. Only one trace. However, in the artificial souls of the girls, there were hundreds and thousands of such traces. He realized that at this stage, it was purely a time issue. However, for Yan Xun, this had been great progress. He thought carefully for a long time and finally rolled up a soul fragment and brought it to his face with a wave of his tentacle. ¡°Since it¡¯s not firm enough, then let¡¯s start with improving the firmness.¡± After those words, he put his soul power into the soul fragment. The fragment was extremely weak, and it could completely collapse at any moment. Like magic, the soul fragment, which had almost completely collapsed, quickly solidified and became much thicker. Yan Xun rushed to use his Divine Power to pick at it and wipe it. While picking and wiping, he continued to pour in his soul power to maintain this fragile fragment. About an hour later, he looked at the soul fragment floating in the air with satisfaction, smiling. It was an extraordinarily firm and thick soul fragment. Compared with the nearby fragments, it was a completely different thing. They were different in the aspect of size, strength, and feeling. The nearby soul fragments had a hanging sense of powerlessness as if they could collapse in the next instant. Only a cloud of obsessiveness still refused to disappear in it, and it maintained its existence. Just like a gambler who lost everything, although he had nothing, he still wanted to turn the tables. However, this soul fragment was filled with a sense of firmness and steadiness. The cloud of obsessiveness had calmed down a lot, so it became soothing and calm. It was just like a successful person who had completed their lifelong career, and they were roaming on the street to enjoy the quiet scenery. Yan Xun had erased all the unnecessary distracting thoughts in this soul fragment, leaving only loyalty and courage. The rest were simply strengthened. The original soul fragment was a crazy, overloaded truck that could only carry five tons, but was actually carrying at least 20 tons. Now, the soul fragment was a bus that could carry 30 people, but it only carried ten. They were both running on the road, and they were both large vehicles. However, the degrees of flexibility and reliability were quite different. Based on this soul fragment, the next work would be much easier. Yan Xun chose the soul fragments which contained the fewest distracting thoughts and joined them together in the ¡°core¡± according to the method of the Nightwatcher. However, unlike the Nightwatcher, every time he joined them together, he poured in some of his soul power. At the same time, he wiped out some distracting thoughts. It was like making large clay sculptures. While increasing the weight of the mud, people still needed to repair the shape in case the overall structure would be affected. When the most important body framework was assembled, he began to select some pieces that could be used as good filling. Unlike the Nightwatcher who only pursued the ¡°integrity,¡± he naturally pursued better results since he had mastered more effective means. Therefore, Yan Xun¡¯s goal was to produce something more perfect than the ones in the Nightwatcher¡¯s box. When he got busy, he forgot the time. He was really sleepless during the day and night. When he finally finished patching up the whole soul, he found that the world had come to the warm spring. The flowers bloomed, and everything came back to life. ¡°Hah hah! What a good day!¡± Yan Xun was floating in the air lazily, laughing happily. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a good day to feel the sea breeze.¡± The speaker was a girl wearing a white, soft hat with ornaments of golden eagle wings and three blue leaves on one side. The girl was dressed in black and white overalls which were simple but charming. She stood beside Yan Xun, smiling gently. ¡°If you want to feel the breeze, let¡¯s go together. I¡¯ve been busy for so many days, and I want to rest,¡± Yan Xun said with a smile. ¡°Of course, everyone should have time to rest. But how long are you going to rest?¡± ¡°A week first. It¡¯s really been a hard time.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I want to remind you that even God rested for only one day after he had created the world.¡± Yan Xun was stunned. The girl knew that he had understood her hint, so she smiled and bowed, lowering her head. Then her figure gradually disappeared. She said, ¡°Then, goodbye. I¡¯m going to the seaside to practice my martial arts. Don¡¯t be lazy, please!¡± Seeing Oracle No. 1 under his command fading away, Yan Xun wiped the sweat from off his forehead. ¡°She should be a gentle and sensible secretary in my setting, how is she a workaholic? What¡¯s wrong with her?¡± Chapter 374 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong, of course, would not rest for only a day. God had created the world, but only taken a one day break. That was just a story, and in his impression, God hadn¡¯t done any great work until he had made the flood. So you see, taking a break wasn¡¯t a big deal, and the longer the better. On the contrary, if one worked too hard, trouble might come and even cause a disaster! Ah, they needed to learn their lesson from history! What was the lesson? Well, to not work too hard. Zheng Banqiao, a Chinese poet, had said that ignorance was bliss and that it was a folly to be wise. Now that ignorance was a good thing, so was laziness. For example, before Sui Xiong had traversed through history, he had read a novel in which the main character had been called ¡°not lazy.¡± It was a nice name, huh? But the writer had spent several years on the book without finishing. It made the readers too anxious to read. Some crazy readers even tracked the writer¡¯s character name in an online game and registered accounts on purpose to chase and kill him, pestering him to update the novel! Thinking about that, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help laughing. Then he found a place lazily to sleep. After all, after being busy for so many days, he was extremely tired. ¡°I¡¯m tired.¡± Crick Keane laid on the chair and bathed in the warm spring with a depressed look. ¡°Really, I¡¯m just tired.¡± Subordinates looked at him with eyes full of worry and kept silent. A few days ago, he had inspected a spring plow when he had suddenly fainted. Although there had been doctors and priests that came to his rescue, he still fell into a coma for almost a whole day. After waking up, he was feckless. He tried to cheer himself up, but just from his pale looks, everyone knew his condition was worse for wear. No, it wasn¡¯t ¡°worse for wear,¡± but ¡°very bad!¡± ¡°Brother, he¡­ Is everything okay?¡± Baron Anna, whose face was full of worry, stared at Priest Miramon, the man who had treated Crick, in the side hall of Baron mansion. After being silent for a moment, Miramon said with a sigh, ¡°Crick is a great man. If I were in his situation, I would have already died, like a weed in the winter dies slowly.¡± Anna didn¡¯t reply, but couldn¡¯t help holding the hand of Amyveile, who was her sister-in-law. Anna, the young Hill Lord, used her slender white hands to hold the baroness¡¯ slightly rough hands tightly, but couldn¡¯t feel any warmth from the other¡¯s palms. At that moment, their feelings ran as frigid and cold as a bitter winter. ¡°Will¡­ he get better?¡± the former Baroness Amyveile asked in a low, husky tone. While shaking his head, Miramon replied, ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°How about a sacrifice?¡± Anna asked. ¡°Please forgive my offense¡ªI mean, if we use the whole power of our territory to hold the grandest party for your majesty¡ª¡± ¡°Miss Anna, don¡¯t entertain foolish ideas,¡± Miramon said with a wry smile. He was reluctant to interrupt, but still continued, ¡°Even if our God was here, he couldn¡¯t really can do anything. God is our leader, our light, our belief, and our home. He¡¯s not one of those so-called ¡®Omnipotent Gods¡¯ created by crooks, and there is no ¡®Omnipotent God¡¯ in this world. ¡°In order to treat Crick, I even prayed to God for a supreme spell and received it. But even so¡­ what I can do is still limited.¡± Miramon sighed deeply and continued, ¡°Crick now has all types of Divine Power in his body which resulted in erosion. I tried to drive the Divine Power away, but found that even just removing a tiny bit would cause a mad reaction, nearly boiling all the Divine Power. If it wasn¡¯t prepared well before, he¡¯d be almost dead now.¡± ¡°All I can do now is add vitality for him, and help him last longer.¡± He hesitated for a moment and said, ¡°In fact¡­ please let me make this clear. What you¡¯re doing is causing him pain.¡± Anna and Amyveile¡¯s faces paled, like they were dead. ¡°You mean¡­ We¡¯d better let him go, let him quietly¡­¡± Amyveile said hesitantly, ¡°Go rest?¡± ¡°Yeah, everyone needs rest,¡± Miramon said. ¡°Over these past years, as the chief of the Keane Hill, he really devoted his whole life. I remember once when I visited here, I even saw him reading and commenting on a document about someone being punished with five lashes¡­ He¡¯s too tired and really needs to go rest.¡± Anna could hardly hold back her tears and finally cried in a low voice. Miramon shook his head and sighed deeply, then said, ¡°I can sustain his life temporarily through the strength of my God. But¡­ this will not last long.¡± ¡°What should we do?¡± Amyveile was in a daze. Over these years, she had already become accustomed to following her husband¡¯s command. Upon hearing the news at that moment, she felt like almost everything was gone, leaving her with an empty heart. She didn¡¯t know what to do. ¡°Just act like normal.¡± Miramon couldn¡¯t help sighing. ¡°He¡¯s one of the most intelligent people I¡¯ve ever seen. He must know the condition of his own body. I¡¯d never believe that he would be scared by death! So I think he must get everything arranged, just like before, at the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, when he went with his army.¡± Grasping onto a last hope, Anna said with a loud voice, ¡°Everyone thought brother would die, but he still came back alive.¡± ¡°Yes, I also hope that a miracle could happen again and pray for this blessing all the time,¡± Miramon said with a wry smile. ¡°Please forgive my incompetence. All I can do now is this.¡± Then he gave a bow and left the hall, leaving the two helpless woman there crying for the almost dead man. Miramon walked quietly on the flat and clean street, looking at the prosperous shops on both sides and the people who came and went on the street in high spirits. Looking at this, he couldn¡¯t help laughing. But the next moment, he couldn¡¯t help sighing. Over these years, the progress and change of Keane Hill had been witnessed by all. Now, this small baronet had been regarded as a pearl by the Duchy of Thunder and attracted attention from many parties. More than one powerful noble family had sent envoys to invite Baron Keane to join their camp. Everyone knew who brought them all this honor, but the man who had invited it was dying. Miramon shook his head, took out a bottle of wine, and took a sip. This grass liquor had been specially produced in an Orc flavor by Void Mask Land. They had soaked all kinds of grass with delicate liquor and carefully chosen ingredients. Finally, it had developed a wonderful flavor that made people think of a prairie after taking a sip. Miramon always liked to drink when he was in a bad mood. The taste and aroma of this grass liquor helped him recall his early life. At that time, he had been carefree, running on the grasslands, grazing with the sheep, guarding villages, and fighting fierce beasts. Although life had been hard, his mind was clear and refreshed, without any gloom. He was much stronger than before, but no longer had a clear mood like he had before. Clear liquor flowed down his throat into his stomach, as if it had turned into fire that was burning in his chest. However, this time, his mood didn¡¯t improve, but became even more gloomy. He remembered the helplessness he had felt as a child, like poverty, death, departure¡­ At that time, he had been carefree, which didn¡¯t mean that life could really be carefree. He just hadn¡¯t understood it. He closed his eyes, and the sky was dark. To a youth, being carefree was nothing but expected. Miramon drank a lot in his anxiety, and his mood became worse and worse. At last, he threw the liquor bottle on the ground angrily and scolded himself, ¡°I want to quit drinking!¡± After that, he realized that he still didn¡¯t want to throw the liquor away and picked it back up. ¡°Wasting isn¡¯t good. We¡¯d better finish it all off before we think about anything else.¡± Then he shook his head and waddled along the street in a state of intoxication. Ignoring everything along his way, he returned to the Church of Void Mask. When he was still far away, two diners sitting next to a window chatted about him at a busy tavern nearby. ¡°Baron Keane is really dying.¡± ¡°Yes, even this high-level priest looks desperate. It¡¯s probably hopeless.¡± ¡°What a pity!¡± ¡°What¡¯s the pity? Everyone¡¯s going to die.¡± ¡°Although everyone will die, everyone¡¯s life is different. A man like Baron Keane shouldn¡¯t die at this moment, even if he will die eventually!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not something that you and I can decide. What we can do is accept the reality and see if we can take advantage of this opportunity to make a profit.¡± ¡°Really? Can that really make us a profit?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure now, but I think there¡¯s a very good chance. You see, he¡¯s dying. The unruffled guys who had been suppressed by him over the years must take action, so this is our chance.¡± ¡°Well¡­ which party should we stand with?¡± ¡°From our standpoint, of course, we should stand on the side that will take action. After all, more stable the Keane Hill is, the less of a chance we have, or maybe a stable society will be more suitable for our interests.¡± ¡°What you said is too profound, I cannot understand!¡± ¡°Haha, l¡¯ll make it short. Do you think Baron Keane is a coward because he¡¯s close to death?¡± ¡°Absolutely not!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. An injured beast is the most dangerous. At this moment, his life has come to an end. In order to guard the people and the things he values, his actions have to be very ferocious. Making trouble now is the same as putting your head in the mouth of an angry beast, like a performance in a circus. ¡°That¡¯s asking for death!¡± ¡°Yes, since so many people are seeking death, why don¡¯t we just seize the opportunity to get a profit? No matter where they come from, profits are profits. The color of gold never changes according to its origin.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°And I believe, even if the man is dead, it won¡¯t mean his family is over, so seize your last chance to be friends with him, and maybe there will be an unexpected harvest.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Chapter 375 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°I know a lot of people want me to die. They¡¯ve been waiting for a long time.¡± Crick sat in a wheelchair and was being pushed slowly by Amyveile along the streets of the Keane City. He looked at the pedestrians on the streets, searching with his special abilities for those who were particularly unfriendly, and said casually, ¡°But I won¡¯t make them happy too soon. Of course I¡¯ll die, but not now.¡± Amyveile tried to squeeze out a smile, and nodded. ¡°Hm.¡± ¡°I know all of you guys don¡¯t believe me now. Everyone thinks I¡¯m dying. To tell you the truth, I really can live a lot longer!¡± Crick laughed as he spoke, but he couldn¡¯t help coughing. He put his hand over his mouth and coughed heavily several times. Then he put his hand into his pocket as if nothing had happened, but Amyveile had clearly seen a smear of blood in his palm. Her body trembled, and she made a great effort to hold back her tears. Crick didn¡¯t care about it, merely wiping his hands in his pocket and suddenly pointing at a beggar by the road. ¡°Catch him,¡± he said calmly. ¡°I want to talk to him.¡± The guards immediately moved to surround him, and the beggar looked pale. He jumped up, his movements unusually vigorous. He was very vigilant and didn¡¯t want do anything desperate. He just ran away in haste, but only a few steps later, he was struck by a white light from behind and fell to the ground, trembling. Crick put down his shining wand and coughed quietly, then laughed and asked the guards to bring the beggar before him with his hands and legs in the air. ¡°Weak electric shocks will just make you incapable of fighting, but they don¡¯t make you unable to speak,¡± he said gently. ¡°Now, let¡¯s have a good talk.¡± Beggar looked at him in panic, not wanting to talk. Crick smiled and said, ¡°Faith Lindall. I¡¯ve never heard of your family name, it might not be a big family, but you¡¯re an aristocrat either way. Why did you want to be a spy?¡± Suddenly, the beggar¡¯s face became pale, full of despair. He no longer kept silent, asking in a low voice, ¡°How did you know?¡± ¡°Haha, it¡¯s a secret. Everyone has their own secrets.¡± Crick smiled and said, ¡°Now, can you answer my question?¡± Faith Lindall paused, shook his head and said, ¡°Execute me. Give me a way to die as a spy.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t execute a man for that.¡± Crick laughed and said, ¡°How about you come and join me? At least I¡¯ll give you a job that won¡¯t insult your family¡¯s name.¡± Faith kept his eyes open wide and hesitated, but eventually grew depressed. Crick said, ¡°Looking at your expression, I understand. But I¡¯m not a cruel man who kills people casually. Guards, put him into prison and keep watch on him all the time. Don¡¯t let him run away.¡± A guard took out a magic rope that was a little thicker than his thumb, waved his hand, tied Faith up like a caterpillar, and then carried him toward the barracks. Keane Hill¡¯s prison had originally been in the lord¡¯s mansion. The year before, Crick had moved it to the barracks. He believed that the dangerous guys should be guarded by the army, and only then could he really feel relieved. When Faith was sent away, Amyveile asked curiously, ¡°Was that man special?¡± Crick smiled and said, ¡°That man wasn¡¯t very strong, but he¡¯s very talented. If he can be properly cultivated, he¡¯ll become a talent, so it¡¯d be a waste of his talent to kill him as a spy!¡± The level of all attributes were fourteen, while his rank was two as a swordsman and a spy¡­ We could easily develop him to a middle-ranked level. If we could help him find a balanced career, he might even be able to step into a high-ranked level! What a talent he was! Now that I¡¯ve met him, how could I let him go! Faith¡¯s attitude toward him hadn¡¯t been very rude. Although Faith was a spy, his friendliness was forty. He wondered if it was just that he saw many good people and good deeds in Keane Hill or simply thought highly of Crick. After the uproar just before, Faith¡¯s had friendliness increased to forty-five instead of falling. If Crick continued to work on him like this, with a little more effort, he would surely convince the man who bore pain inside. He couldn¡¯t help laughing again at this thought. ¡°Come on, keep on patrolling,¡± he said to the guards. ¡°I¡¯m in good spirits today, trying to tour the whole town of Keane.¡± He did what he had said, but the cost of doing so was another cough of blood on his way back. After returning to the Baron¡¯s Mansion, everyone looked worried. More than one subordinate suggested he go rest. He laughed and asked, ¡°If I take a break now, will I get better, or ever recover?¡± The subordinates were all speechless. Even if they wanted to tell him lies that ¡°you can recover as long as you take a break,¡± they needed to understand who they were facing. Who was Crick Keane? He was the sage who had made ¡°Pearl of Thunder¡± by himself! Telling lies to deceive him? Who would dare do it? With only that sentence, Crick rebutted everyone. He laughed and said, ¡°Really, all of you guys are too worried. My physical condition gets worse and worse day after day, but there¡¯s still a long way to go before I die. And if all of you keep worrying so much, maybe I¡¯m not dead yet, but you guys will scare yourselves to death.¡± Everyone laughed bitterly, and the topic was left behind. Two days later, Crick paid a visit to Faith. Faith was out of his ropes, but confined to a solid cell. They talked across the iron bars, and next to Faith was a middle-ranked bard with a wand, making sure Faith wouldn¡¯t get mad and hurt Crick. This bard, called Scherdell, was almost fifty years old. He had originally lived in the north, but offended a powerful enemy, forcing him to flee to the south. For his safety, he had asked for a job that didn¡¯t require him to appear in public. Crick had offered him a job as the prison warden. He had agreed. Keane Hill¡¯s prison wasn¡¯t as dirty and dark as other prisons. It was not only clean and well lit, but also didn¡¯t house cruel and horrible punishments or hopeless prisoners. It was Crick¡¯s belief that if a person was worth keeping alive, he wouldn¡¯t let him despair; if not, he killed them directly. There was no need in wasting time torturing them. Scherdell, the warden, had a good time here. He read books and sang songs every day. He rarely went above ground in order to avoid being discovered by his enemies, but he was very content to live like this. Recently, he had even begun to write novels, saying that he wanted to be like the famous novelist ¡°Schwarier von Stolovsky Franz¡± who could write stories that warmed others¡¯ hearts and inspired young people. During these days, Scherdell had chatted with Faith several times. Although Faith was trying to keep secrets, he still divulged them when he chatted with a bard who was so good at asking for information. Of course, the information had been sent to Crick, and he had read it carefully. It was because of this information that Crick had decided to come and talk to Faith. ¡°What are you going to do about your family?¡± He went straight to the point and said, ¡°If you like, how about I send a few people to accompany you and bring them to Keane Hill to live here?¡± Suddenly, Faith¡¯s eyes lit up, and his friendliness level rose to sixty. But after thinking for a moment, he sighed deeply and shook his head. Crick frowned and wondered where he had made a mistake. He thought for a moment, feeling upset, and couldn¡¯t help coughing a few times. Upon hearing his cough, Faith became more depressed. Then Crick understood. ¡°You¡¯re worried that my sister won¡¯t keep the Keane Hill after I¡¯m dead and that your family will still have bad luck, right?¡± Faith felt shocked and raised his head. ¡°Your worries are nonsense.¡± Crick laughed. ¡°Who am I? I¡¯m Crick Keane! My name is legendary! In today¡¯s world, there are few people who are stronger than me! Remember, I won¡¯t die so soon. Even if I die, I will leave enough plans to defend my territory! ¡°No matter how strong a person is, no matter how good a planner is, everyone is weak when it comes to death.¡± Faith sighed and said, ¡°You insist that you won¡¯t die soon, which means your heart is confused.¡± Crick laughed instead of growing angry, because he wasn¡¯t afraid of Faith¡¯s arguments, only his silence. ¡°I¡¯ve always believed that practice is the only criteria for testing the truth. Whether something is the truth or not is not to be claimed, but proven in practice.¡± He laughed and said, ¡°I¡¯m much more experienced than you with sickness and death. Would you like to have a competition with me?¡± Firth thought a while and shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not as good as you. However, everyone knows that you¡¯re running out of time. That isn¡¯t just a rumor.¡± ¡°You¡¯re very smart, but have you ever thought about why everybody knows that, since it should be kept secret?¡± Faith was stunned, then fell into meditation. After a while, his eyes grew brighter and his face became more and more hardy. ¡°It seems that you understand. That¡¯s why I trusted you enough to tell you my secret.¡± Crick smiled. Seeing Faith¡¯s friendliness rise again, he asked Scherdell to open the door and let Faith out. ¡°Well, now you can go take a bath, enjoy a good meal, and keep your spirits up. I¡¯ll arrange people to discuss the plan in detail with you and make sure it¡¯s all fine.¡± Crick turned around and left. It was no surprise to hear Faith swearing his allegiance to him. He smiled and waved, like he had heard nothing Faith had said before. ¡°Come on! I like you.¡± When Crick was out of the prison, he walked for a while, then stopped with his face flushing extremely. He put his hands over his mouth. After a heart-breaking cough, there was more blood spilling from his mouth onto his fingers. He shook his head and wiped the blood off his mouth and hands with a bitter smile. ¡°No wonder Leonardo DiCaprio spent 23 years working towards a best actor Oscar. It¡¯s not easy to be an actor!¡± Chapter 376 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong knew about Crick¡¯s situation. Although Crick¡¯s problems were a little difficult, they weren¡¯t unsolvable with Sui Xiong¡¯s ability. However, after careful consideration, he gave up on treating Crick. As his incarnation, Crick had undertaken the task of experiencing life and understanding the world from the perspective of a Hill Lord of Aristocracy. Of course, there would be a variety of ups and downs, sorrows and joy, and death was also inevitable. Sui Xiong could only be an onlooker in Crick¡¯s life. If he interfered too much, it would certainly affect Crick¡¯s attitude and ideas¡ªcooperation with the Church of the Void Mask was enough to change Crick¡¯s ideas a great deal. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know whether these changes were good or bad, but he didn¡¯t want to see any further changes. It was cruel, but the result of his ¡°research¡± would be used to determine a God or a church government. Sui Xiong could only apologize to the ignorant ¡°traveler.¡± There was a famous saying from an unknown author that the progress of medicine depended on countless sacrifices. Actually, the progress in other fields was probably the same. Sui Xiong was unwilling to make so many sacrifices, so he could only sacrifice himself. As a ¡°traveler,¡± he observed and experienced the world from all angles of society so as to gain a comprehensive understanding of the whole world and find the right way to promote its development. He felt very sorry for Crick, but since it was he who wanted to understand the world and push it forward, it was he who should shoulder the responsibility. Every ¡°traveler¡± who had died was Sui Xiong himself under certain conditions. At the moment of ¡°traveling through time,¡± he had followed different possibilities, and thus produced different processes and obtained different results. Their own choices followed their own principles and consciences. In other words, supposing that Sui Xiong on earth hadn¡¯t become a big jellyfish after traveling through time, but an ordinary person, the outcome would probably have been like this. So¡­ there was nothing to complain about¡­ Shortly after waking up, Sui Xiong watched far afar and returned to his wheelchair, pretending to be as weak as Crick and sighing deeply. He could see that Crick was dying. Crick intended to do big things before his death, clearing up obstacles as much as possible for his relatives, friends, and territory so that he could rest peacefully. All of his performing was for this purpose. ¡°Good job!¡± Sui Xiong praised himself and laughed. ¡°If I were him, I would also use this kind of cunning style. ¡± He thought for a while and decided to help him a little bit from the dark. Soon, a rumor spread quickly throughout the Duchy of Thunder. Crick Keane, the former Hill Lord of the ¡°Pearl of Thunder¡± Keane baronet, was too ill to stand up. He often fainted and could die at any moment. When the news of his illness spread, many people with high aspirations were greedy for his territory. Although Crick had been married for several years, he hadn¡¯t had any children, probably because he had been badly injured on the battlefield on the Sun¡¯s Extinction Day. At present, the current Keane Baron, Anna Keane, who was also his sister, was the only heir to the Keane Hill. Miss Anna was fourteen years old and could only be regarded as comely, not beautiful or charming, in terms of her appearance, but she had one of the most prosperous Baron Hills in the Duchy of Thunder as a dowry. More than one businessman had assessed that although the Keane Hill was just a Baron Hill, it could accumulate as much wealth as any Viscount Hill! With such a big dowry, even an ugly person could be transformed into a beauty. Even if people discriminated against hideous appearances, a big dowry would be enough to make people ignore any defects in appearance. Moreover, Miss Anna at least had regular features that could be considered beautiful compared to noble ladies whose mothers had probably fornicated with ogres or goblins. Even many people would marry those noble ladies for their big dowry not to mention such a beauty Anna! Therefore, many young talents set off in a hurry to impress Miss Anna so as to gain her heart and win her dowry. Of course, if they couldn¡¯t have both at the same time, they wouldn¡¯t mind too much, as long as they had the dowry¡­ ¡°What? Do they really think so?¡± After listening to Rena¡¯s report, Crick didn¡¯t become angry, but smiled and seemed very calm. Rena nodded. ¡°I watch and read their lips while they¡¯re drinking and chatting.¡± Crick chuckled twice, shook his head, and said with some regret, ¡°I had hoped that there would be outstanding young people among them, and if some of them had been talented or virtuous enough that they would mesh well with Anna¡¯s temper, I wouldn¡¯t mind giving this dowry, which could be the most valuable currently, to them.¡± ¡°What a pity!¡± He sighed deeply and regretted that those young men hadn¡¯t lived up to his expectations. ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll go and check again for more outstanding people¡­¡± Rena said tentatively. Crick nodded. ¡°Then you shall take on the task. I really can¡¯t manage all these things with my limited energy.¡± Rena nodded with hesitation and asked, ¡°My lord, how is your body¡­?¡± Crick laughed. ¡°It¡¯s getting worse, but I¡¯m not dying just yet.¡± ¡°So¡­ those rumors¡­ What¡¯s going on?¡± Rena frowned and felt worried. ¡°I noticed that these rumors all appeared at almost the same time. I¡¯m afraid there must be powerful men spreading them around.¡± Crick¡¯s eyes shone suddenly and his voice became heavy when he said, ¡°Did you find any clues?¡± He knew that Rena would never guess at random when she mentioned something. She must have found some proof before reporting this to me. Rena sighed and said, ¡°I investigated carefully and found that these rumors came from middle and low-level people. When I continued my investigation, I couldn¡¯t find any further information. I even caught a person who had spread the rumor and used cruel means to force him answer my questions. But he was also at a loss, and I finally came to the conclusion that he figured it out while drinking¡­¡± Crick sneered, ¡°Figured it out while drinking? It¡¯s not surprising that one or two people are like this, but it¡¯s very strange that a lot of people are acting this way. Do you think they¡¯re under a spell?¡± ¡°I feel like they¡¯re under the effects of ¡®memory weaving.''¡± Rena said with some worry. ¡°But¡­ ¡®memory weaving¡¯ is an esoteric spell that many advanced mages cannot cast. That person would have to have cast this spell on such a large scale. Could it be that there¡¯s a powerful man who¡¯s been in the Legendary Realm for many years so he could organize a group of advanced mages?¡± The more she said, the more worried she became, a cold sweat even breaking out on her forehead. Although Rena was also powerful, she wasn¡¯t the kind of hero who had survived hundreds of battles. Once she was under great pressure, she couldn¡¯t take any more. Since the great war on the Sun¡¯s Extinction Day, senior adventurers had either died in the war or retreated. Now, all the adventurers on the Main Plane were decreasing in both numbers and strength. For a new generation like Rena¡¯s, most of them lacked experience¡ªnot in risk taking, but in dealing with adversity. It was very understandable that most of the experienced and courageous men had gone to participate in the great war. In the end, they either died in the war or were discouraged into retreating. Even the reliable predecessor Nikolas, whom people had thought would never retreat, had left and lived in seclusion. The next generation, including Rena, still lacked the experience and strength of the pre-war era. For example, if Rafael had heard the news, he would only have sneered and said a few words like, ¡°It¡¯s a little troublesome to kill a lot of people.¡± He would never have been as nervous as Rena. (After all, she was so young!) Crick sighed deeply upon seeing Rena¡¯s nervous face. Maybe Rena would become stronger in a few years, but he was afraid that he wouldn¡¯t see that day. When Rena became stronger, she could be a reliable assistant to his sister, helping her deal with both open and covert attacks. ¡°Those rumors are good for me,¡± he said confidently. ¡°I¡¯m planning to create the illusion that I could die anytime, and I¡¯ve made a lot of preparation for it. Although I don¡¯t know who has spread the rumors, since he¡¯s so powerful that even you couldn¡¯t find any clues, we should stop investigating this matter.¡± ¡°How can we stop it?¡± Crick sighed slightly and asked, ¡°Rena, if the world was going to go extinct today, would you be able to stop it?¡± Rena shook her head in a daze. ¡°That¡¯s right. When things are beyond our abilities, it makes no sense to worry about them too much. ¡± Crick smiled and said, ¡°If this person is assembling a group of advanced mages who know how to cast ¡®memory weaving¡¯ and could cast this spell many times in a short time, they are far beyond our abilities. If such a powerful man really wanted to deal with us, do you think we could escape?¡± Rena thought for a long time and nodded in frustration. ¡°Think about it another way. If you were such a powerful man, would you take so much action just to deal with a baron?¡± ¡°Of course I wouldn¡¯t. I would just kill him,¡± Rena answered immediately, then realized suddenly. ¡°Hahaha, yeah, it¡¯s very simple.¡± Crick laughed, ¡°So you don¡¯t have to worry about it too much. If he didn¡¯t come to us directly, then his target is probably not us.¡± When Rena was relieved and ready to leave, he lost his smile, but showed a glint of cunning in his eyes. ¡°Perhaps¡­ I can also borrow their powers¡­¡± Chapter 377 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Crick was busy again. Although his life was like a candle flickering in the wind, he had no intention to rest at all and still maintained his original working style. He was so diligent that when Sui Xiong saw how hard he was working, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but think of a famous allusion¡ªa famous person called Zhu Geliang had bent his heart and exhausted his energy for his lord until his heart had ceased to beat. Since Liu Bei, Zhu Geliang¡¯s lord, had entrusted his son to him, Zhu Geliang had worked hard to support Liu Bei¡¯s son and fought against many strong enemies. Not only did he lose inches of land, but also made several northern expeditions, which eventually threatened Chang¡¯an, the capital of his enemies. if he hadn¡¯t been overworking all the time, he would have reversed the trend of history with his own strength and realized the ideal of ¡®reviving the Han Dynasty¡¯ that he had agreed upon by Liu Bei. However, Zhu Geliang hadn¡¯t realized his ideals and was killed by exhaustion. Now, Crick also wanted to be killed by exhaustion just like Zhu Geliang. Upon seeing this incarnation with no special powers act so diligent at the end of his life, Sui Xiong was moved and felt ashamed of himself at the same time. How could Crick work so hard while he still felt no sense of shame when resting? I¡¯d better continue my work! But what on earth should I do? Sui Xiong thought about it over and over again and finally decided to continue creating Oracles. It was quite funny that he originally intended to create man-made souls to make up for the souls of high-ranking followers in his kingdom, but after practicing, he found that the souls he created weren¡¯t ordinary souls, but more concise and powerful then ordinary followers¡¯ souls. If such man-made souls were only used as ordinary inhabitants of the God¡¯s Kingdom in order to enrich the kingdom, it would undoubtedly be a waste of talent and resources, so after careful consideration, he changed his mind and further transformed the first man-made soul into an Oracle. As a faithful fighter and reliable cannon fodder of a God, the greatest advantage of an Oracle laid in its soul imprint, which was engraved in the God¡¯s Kingdom. With this, even if it was killed a hundred times, it could be resurrected a hundred times. As long as it was provided with enough Divine Power and time, it could be resurrected many times. But the Oracles created by Sui Xiong before didn¡¯t have such powerful abilities. Of course, it could be resurrected, but the efficiency of its resurrection was very slow, and if it died, it would take a few days to come back to life. It would be weak for a long time after resurrection and temporarily wouldn¡¯t be able to restore its combat effectiveness. This situation was due to the complexity of souls. The souls of ordinary Oracles were very powerful, but their compositions were much simpler, which made them unable to form normal and complete personalities to think independently. This was due to poor manufacturing, so they were just mass-produced cannon fodder that sought great powers and rapid resurrection. They didn¡¯t need complex souls to be controlled; on the contrary, they needed their souls to be as simple as possible in order to increase the speed of remodeling and recharging. Therefore, their souls were very powerful, but lacked complexity. Of course, there were always exceptions. For example, some Oracles that were transformed from powerful followers had both great power and a complex thinking pattern, but their speed of resurrection was greatly affected, just like the one Sui Xiong originally created. There was nothing wrong with such an Oracle, who was powerful and thoughtful enough to shoulder heavy responsibilities, but it was just¡­ they couldn¡¯t sufficiently do the job of ¡°cannon fodder.¡± So should he design another kind of souls for followers? Sui Xiong thought for a moment and gave up on this idea. Since he could create more perfect souls for advanced Oracles, why would he lower his standards and waste his energy to create ordinary souls? The point was that he had been deeply shocked by Crick¡¯s diligence, but now, he really didn¡¯t want to do such a boring job, so he had better design souls for Oracles this time! Sui Xiong made up his mind quickly and began to think about what kind of Oracles he wanted to design. Firstly, he thought of creating an Oracle as cannon fodder according to the practice of Gods. It was easy for him, and he designed several schemes for his plan. The creation of the cannon fodder Oracle wasn¡¯t advanced technology, so almost every God could do it. These cannon fodder Oracles Sui Xiong created were also very good and probably qualified to meet their missions, yet after careful consideration, Sui Xiong rejected these designs, too. As an artist himself, he couldn¡¯t accept the practice of creating cannon fodders in batches! Such a kind of practice lacked aesthetic sense and healthy trends. More importantly, it lacked positive enthusiasm! But¡­ What kind of oracles should I design if I don¡¯t design Oracles like these? The cannon fodder Oracles were also necessary, after all! He thought about it over and over again, and at last, he came up with a way to make the best of both worlds. After all, what he needed was not a ¡®cannon fodder Oracle,¡¯ but ¡®cannon fodder with the same Divine Power as an Oracle.¡¯ At first glance, they looked similar, but in fact, they were quite different from each other. ¡°Why¡­ didn¡¯t he create a special Oracle that could make and control powerful cannon fodder?¡± He talked to himself, pondered over this idea, and thought it was wonderful! Since what he had created was just cannon fodder, they didn¡¯t need defenses that were too strong, as long as they couldn¡¯t be killed in a second by a wide range of enemy attacks. Since they were meant to die, they didn¡¯t need a complex shape, instead needing to be as simple as possible! As cannon fodder, their ability of resurrection was also redundant, as long as their cost was low and they could be created in a very short time. What he really wanted to do was create special kinds of cannon fodder troops and then design an Oracle that would create and control them. It was just like an aircraft carrier! Although Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t a military enthusiast, at least he had some common sense. On earth, aircraft carriers had become the absolute core of large fleets, and the absolute main force of the navy. If two fleets with the same numbers fought against each other, one side with an aircraft carrier and the other side without an aircraft carrier, it was certain that the side with an aircraft carrier would win. Since practices on earth had proved this point, what else should he consider? ¡°Why didn¡¯t I think of this practice earlier? What I did before is just a waste of time!¡± Sui Xiong shouted out loudly and then threw himself into research design with high spirits. At this moment, he could only feel endless enthusiasm and inspirations pouring into his mind like a tide. As if he had received an illustration order and found that the deadline was drawing near, his whole body was burning up. The fierce roar of the big jellyfish echoed over the God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°Fighting!¡± A few days later, at the monthly meeting of the Church of Void Mask, Sui Xiong, who was usually lazy at meetings, was cheerful and confident. ¡°I¡¯ve done a big thing!¡± he said mysteriously. ¡°My majesty, have you killed another God?¡± Gerald, head of the Regiment of Knights in the Pantheon, asked curiously. Hearing such a question, everyone looked at Sui Xiong with surprise and curiosity. Killing a God was by no means an easy task. However, if it was the emperor of Void Mask who wanted to kill a God, as long as he was powerful and controlled a huge holy pedigree, it wasn¡¯t surprising at all. They were just curious about who had made their emperor angry. Sui Xiong felt a little embarrassed at their gazes. He rubbed his nose and protested, ¡°Why do you all think that Gerald guessed right? Do I look like such a cruel person?¡± Everyone looked at each other. Some of them nodded silently, some laughed awkwardly, and some were puzzled. ¡°Isn¡¯t it an honorable thing to be powerful and ferocious?¡± asked the big weird bird Favnier that had recently started believing in the Church of Void Mask. Sui Xiong was unable to respond at that moment. After looking at the beautiful feathers and fierce claws of Favnier and the terrible jagged fangs in its mouth, he wisely gave up the idea of talking about mercy and kindness to it. ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve created powerful magic!¡± In order to avoid the topic going in an inexplicable direction, he had to say it straight. Everyone¡¯s attention was immediately attracted by his words, and the Archbishop Leon first asked in surprise, ¡°What kind of magic is it?¡± For a long time, the spell-casters in the Church of Void Mask had been facing a troublesome problem¡ªa lack of sufficient Divine Power to choose from. They especially lacked the exclusive Divine Power that could represent the Church of the Void Mask. The so-called divinity was a kind of magic granted by clergymen like priests or pastors. Because it took a long time to pray and preach, most clergymen weren¡¯t strong as mages or wizards. In order to remedy this situation, most Gods would choose to create a series of magic powers, and clergymen could master and apply them with the help of Divine Power, as long as they had enough magic power. That was what people called divinity. Except for universal divinities, most Gods in the world would create their own exclusive divinity, which could not only provide unique skills for the clergymen, but also highlight the characteristics of their churches. But for a long time, the Church of Void Mask didn¡¯t have an exclusive divinity, which was mainly because Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t created yet¡ªhe had been too busy. It didn¡¯t matter too much if they didn¡¯t have an exclusive divinity, because most of the young Gods hadn¡¯t created their own divinity. With the help of universal divinity, the clergymen lived the same way, but it would have been much better if they had exclusive divinity. However, exclusive divinity needed to be reliable. If it was like the divinity of the God of Love and Beauty, which served only for pleasure, it would be very teasing to all the Gods. And that was why Leon asked this question first, because he was quite concerned about it. Leon was certainly very familiar and clear about his emperor Sui Xiong¡¯s personality. He was a good man¡ªor a good jellyfish¡ªbut he often came up with unreliable ideas and put them into practice. What if this time, he adopted one of his weird ideas to create a strange divinity? And what would he do if Sui Xiong really did so? He couldn¡¯t help but worry about when thinking about this. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think too much about it when he heard Leon¡¯s inquiry. He laughed, and with a light shining from his body, he showed his divinity to everyone. It was a summoning divinity called ¡®summoning of Oracles.¡¯ Just as its name implied, it could summon Oracles created by the emperor of the Void Mask. Leon and the other Gods were relieved after seeing this. Although the summoning of Oracles wasn¡¯t a distinctive divinity, it was fair and square. Leon felt very happy and asked what kind of Oracles it could summon. Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes suddenly lit up when he heard his question, and he laughed proudly. He waved his hands and summoned his newly-created Oracle. ¡°Come on! Say hello to everyone!¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Chapter 378 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Oh? Everyone felt a little stunned upon hearing this kind of greeting. Did anyone greet people like that? Looking closely, they saw that the Oracle was a girl of medium height with white hair and fine features. She was wearing white clothes, black pants, and a black cloak with a black wooden staff in her hand. Generally speaking, her appearance looked very normal, but it was strange that she was wearing a huge black hat in a shape that was so strange that it looked like a round-headed fish with a huge mouth. ¡°Her appearance is good, but her hat is really too strange!¡± ¡°Yeah, is it necessary for her to wear such a strange hat?¡± ¡°Looking carefully, she might be a beauty if she takes off her hat¡­¡± ¡°But that hat is still too strange! Even if she wants to wear a hat, she should wear a jellyfish-like hat, not a huge fish one.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? It doesn¡¯t matter whether she¡¯s beautiful or not. What matters is her combat skill.¡± Looking at their discussions, Sui Xiong smiled and snapped his fingers. ¡°Show them your skills.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± The Oracle who looked like a beautiful girl replied to Sui Xiong in an unknown language and raised her black wooden staff. At the top of the staff shone scarlet lights that looked like blood. The light wasn¡¯t bright, but maae everyone present feel a sense of danger. A few seconds later, the hat on her head suddenly made a bubbling sound and opened its huge mouth. ¡°Ah?!¡± ¡°Open¡­ it opened its mouth!¡± ¡°Is it really a fish?¡± ¡°Why would she wear a fish on her head?¡± Everyone was startled to see the huge round-headed fish which had been worn as a hat. Inside its mouth, there was a scarlet light, and then more than ten palm-sized red flying fish flew out of it. Although these flying fish were small in size and contained very little energy, they made people feel they were in danger. Leon looked at Sui Xiong and asked curiously, ¡°What is this?¡± Sui Xiong looked around, his eyes sweeping over everyone until they finally fell on Leon. ¡°You might be the strongest one here.¡± ¡°No, you should be the strongest, my majesty.¡± Leon quickly realized what Sui Xiong meant and rebutted immediately. However, Sui Xiong completely ignored his words and with a laugh, said to the Oracle next to him, ¡°Take him as a goal, but control your strength and don¡¯t hurt him.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°What exactly does she mean by ¡®oh¡¯?¡± Leon was surrounded by red light before he could protest, followed by an explosion around him. If it hadn¡¯t been for Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power protecting the meeting room, the whole room would have been blown up. After the explosion, the smoke gradually dispersed. Leon stood there with a gray face filled with embarrassment. He wasn¡¯t hurt, but it was clear that he had suffered a little just then. He wasn¡¯t angry at the loss he had suffered and asked the Oracle curiously, ¡°How much power did you use just now?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°¡­I can¡¯t understand what you mean by saying ¡®oh.¡¯ Can you say something else?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Leon sighed deeply and turned to Sui Xiong. ¡°Can she only say ¡®oh,¡¯ my majesty?¡± ¡°The word ¡®oh¡¯ has twenty-four different pronunciations, and it can express different meanings according to the subtle differences in the posture of pronunciation,¡± Sui Xiong explained. ¡°What she meant by saying ¡®oh¡¯ just now was that she wanted to tell you that she only used fifteen percent of her power.¡± Leon frowned, thought for a moment, and said, ¡°Fifteen percent of her power is probably comparable to the level of beginning legendary¡­ How about trying 100% power?¡± Sui Xiong was shocked by his words. He looked at Leon for a long time and advised, ¡°Leon, the world is so beautiful, and life is so wonderful. Why do you want to die?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Even if you want to end your bleak life, you should consider a better way. It¡¯s so tragic to be blown up!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that!¡± ¡°When I look around, Kalisa looks so worried for you. Do you want to break her heart? Do you want her to see you get blown to pieces and become like a mosaic?¡± Leon noticed that Kalisa wore a sad expression and couldn¡¯t help but roar loudly, ¡°I don¡¯t want to die!¡± ¡°Really? You didn¡¯t mean to ask for death?¡± ¡°No! Absolutely not!¡± Sui Xiong looked at him carefully, nodding his head and snapping his fingers. Along with the Oracle, they went to the God¡¯s Kingdom with a shining light. ¡°It¡¯s strong enough here to blow up anyway.¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°Finally, I have to confirm, you really want her to use 100% power?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Leon took a deep breath and his fighting spirit rose like flames that finally turned into white light armor to protect his body. ¡°I¡¯m ready!¡± He nodded and concentrated. ¡°Come on!¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Do you need me to provide you with any defensive equipment?¡± Leon thought about his offer for a while and shook his head, ¡°No, it was only 15% of her power just now¡­ Even if she used 100% of her power, I should be able to resist it.¡± ¡°Really? Do you need to consider my offer for a moment?¡± ¡°Rest assured. I can manage it.¡± Leon laughed. ¡°If I can¡¯t resist, I¡¯ll run away.¡± ¡°¡­Are you sure you¡¯ll be able to run away?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°She¡¯s very fast!¡± ¡°I¡¯m fast, too!¡± Leon said confidently. ¡°Besides¡­ maybe she¡¯ll run away, not me!¡± Sui Xiong looked at him for a moment and thought, This man is pitiful and mentally handicapped. He shook his head, sighed, and gave orders to the Oracle. ¡°Oh!¡± The next moment, the Oracle disappeared suddenly and reappeared behind Leon, hugging him. ¡°Ah?!¡± Leon was stunned immediately. Before he could recover, he was surrounded by a mushroom cloud with a bang. Half an hour later, Leon, who had been saved by Sui Xiong, sat on the ground in low spirits. He looked at the Oracle who had already been resurrected and was playing with a few flying fishes in high spirits. ¡°I¡¯m so stupid! Really stupid! ¡± Yes, he had been a bit silly. As a standard Oracle that could be resurrected in a short time, Sui Xiong had called it the ¡®Oh Oracle,¡¯ whose unique skill was to move to the enemy¡¯s side, grab them, and explode themselves. It was simple and crude, but it was an effective way of attacking. Leon was depressed for a long time and finally cheered up. He said, ¡°Tell her not to use her unique skill and stick to using the little flying fishes to attack. I want know whether I can resist or not.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and gave the order to the ¡®Oh Oracle.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± The next moment, the whole body of the ¡°Oh Oracle¡± was shining with golden light as she raised her staff high. There was a magic light rising behind her, as if a deep ocean was surging. Then countless golden flying fish rose gradually and rushed toward Leon from the deep sea. ¡°So many flying fish! How is it possible for me to resist them?¡± Leon cried out in alarm for a moment and was quickly surrounded by the golden flying fish from all directions. However, instead of rushing to explode, these golden flying fish opened their mouths and spewed out countless tiny particles. These particles carried a powerful energy due to their astonishing speed, and they suddenly turned into violent hurricane that the naked eye was unable to see, sweeping through Leon and the air around him. Small explosions went off together and didn¡¯t subside for a long time. After a long time, Sui Xiong heard Leon¡¯s weak voice coming from the place where the explosions still continued. ¡°I admit defeat!¡± He snapped his finger to make the Oh Oracle stop attacking. All the golden flying fishes stopped. As the smoke and dust dispersed, Leon sat on the ground, feeling faint and weak. His arms and body were full of wounds that looked terrible. ¡°This¡­ What kind of attack does this belong to?¡± As he was healing his wounds, he asked curiously, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t she come directly at me and explode?¡± ¡°The explosion is a torpedo attack, while the golden flying fishes¡¯ attack is like shooting a machine gun,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°There¡¯s another way of attacking, which is to drop bombs. This method focuses on the power of a single attack with a speed that¡¯s relatively slower.¡± ¡°There are three ways of attacking in total?!¡± Leon was shocked and exclaimed at first. Then he couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Why make it so troublesome?¡± Sui Xiong was confused and asked, ¡°Torpedo, fighter, and bomber, aren¡¯t these the standard types? I haven¡¯t started a scouting plane yet¡­¡± It was like playing the lute to a cow when Sui Xiong tried to explain to Leon, and their discussion wouldn¡¯t have any results, but at least there was one thing that was certain. The Oh Oracle created by Sui Xiong was extremely powerful! If his clergymen could summon such an Oracle in the future, even if what they summoned was just a weakened version, those Oracles would be strong enough for them to shock the whole world. ¡°In fact, I¡¯m still working on other versions of the Oracles,¡± Sui Xiong said with interest. ¡°This is the aircraft carrier version. I also plan to design an expulsion version, light patrol version, heavy patrol version, and battlefield version. In addition to the five common versions, there will be a submarine version, battle patrol version, mine patrol version, navigational version, and light master version¡­ and there are also some strange versions, such as the submersible version, heavy cannon version, mother submarine version, replenishment version, jellyfish version¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s the jellyfish version?¡± Without understanding anything else, Leon questioned the last one. ¡°Like a miniature of your body?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment and shook his head, ¡°These things are too complicated. Let¡¯s talk about them later.¡± In fact, he recalled carefully for a while, but couldn¡¯t remember what kind of boat the so-called jellyfish version was in the game that he had helped to make illustrations for¡­ But he remembered another important thing. Whether it was the game he had helped illustrate or a similar game at home and abroad at that time, there were no copyrights on them in this world. This meant that he didn¡¯t have to worry about being accused to the point of bankruptcy, nor did he have to worry about being looked down on by other players. He could bravely copy their ideas! ¡°I¡¯ve been invincible since I threw away my conscience!¡± ¡°What are talking about, my majesty?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m just kidding.¡± Sui Xiong laughed, and his eyes flashed. Chapter 379 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Was it just a joke? Of course. After all, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t throw away his morality, especially when the two games had the same characters, but with totally different images. Well, even if he wanted to throw away his morality, he couldn¡¯t throw two copies away in the same place. He called it a hypothesis. What he was talking about was just a hypothesis! Because it was very important, he had to emphasize that it was just hypothesis, especially if Sui Xiong created an Oracle that corresponded to a famous and legendary warship that kept its crew wherever it traveled. The problem was the excavator technology¡­ no, Sui Xiong knew that the legendary warship had two different versions, so which one would he choose? Obviously, no matter which one he chose, he could only choose one, not two. Sui Xiong laughed and enjoyed himself. People in this world could certainly not understand why he was laughing, but it didn¡¯t prevent him from enjoying himself. After laughing, he began to create his Oracle. First, he would create Oracles through mass production, considering that in the future, when the clergy summoned Oracles, the lowest level of destroyers would be their main summoning targets. Thus, Sui Xiong started from this base. He carefully tried to remember for a moment, shaking his head again and again at the various versions in his memory. Fish-like creatures? No! Fish-like creatures that stretched out one or two arms ? Was this a horror movie? No! A little girl standing in the mouth of a huge fish-like creature? It was creepy to think about. No! A little standing beside a huge fish-like creature? It could be considered. A little girl with no legs who rode a sprinkler board? This would look like child abuse. No! Girls who wore old Japanese children¡¯s clothes with terrifying guns in their left hands? This could also be considered. ¡­ Sui Xiong thought for a long time and finally realized that there were only two choices for him. It could either be a girl dressed in cool clothes with a huge fish-like monster or a girl dressed conservatively with a huge gun in her hand. Sui Xiong thought carefully for a long time and finally decided to choose the former. The reason was simple. He thought that wearing cool clothes may distract the enemy in battle. Anyway, for Oracles, their defensive powers were determined by the strength of their Divine Shields, and clothes were just for decoration. Moreover, when a little girl appeared with a huge fish-like monster, it would be difficult for enemies to judge who was the target, because some people may have thought the huge fish-like monster was more dangerous and given attacking it priority, while others may have thought that the monster was summoned by the little girl and would attack the girl first. In this way, the enemy¡¯s firepower would be spread over a greater area, and their fighting capacity would be greatly diminished. As for whom the Oracles were representative of¡­ Sui Xiong had a sinister smile on his face. He wouldn¡¯t tell the others that actually, these Oracles had no representation. Even if they were bombed to pieces, as long as their will from the God¡¯s Kingdom didn¡¯t collapse, and they absorbed enough magic, they would be reshaped quickly and fight again! After choosing a target, it was easy for Sui Xiong to continue creating his Oracles. Oracles that were mass produced didn¡¯t need soul structures that were too complex, especially the lowest level of destroyers. If their souls were too complex, it would increase the power needed when summoning them, which wasn¡¯t worth it. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s creation, the intelligence of these kinds of Oracles wasn¡¯t high. They could only execute four orders: offense, defense, vigilance, and retreat. Among them, he attached the highest importance to the orders of attack and retreat. The former was the key to winning, while the latter was the key to the survival of his middle and low-level clergy. The greatest advantage of the destroyer-like Oracle was that she was extraordinarily fast. She could fly faster than sharp arrows in the air, and in the water, she could swim faster than most kinds of fish. When attacking enemies, she would skim over her enemies at amazing speeds and launch magic attacks with small gun barrels on the huge fishes. And when circumstances permitted, she would move closely to enemies and ask the huge fishes to jet out massive torpedoes. Once they were hit by the torpedoes, even legendary masters were likely to be seriously injured, or even killed. Considering that summoning this kind of Oracle only required people to reach the level of a middle priest, it was the best choice for traveling, adventuring, and attacking. What was more, the high speed of the destroyer-like Oracles could also be used in patrolling and retreating. They could run quickly, so they could naturally patrol more areas. As for the retreating function, it was the ability that satisfied Sui Xiong the most. When the situation was worse, this kind of Oracle could allow the clergy to lie on the back of the huge fish and escape. It was hard to imagine that enemies could successfully pursue such a fugitive with the high speeds at which this kind of Oracle could run. Although escaping would be a bit dishonorable, the greatest value of this kind of Oracle was to protect the clergy from being caught by enemies! A few days later, Sui Xiong had completed the creation of this kind of Oracle, so he took one and showed it to his subordinate. ¡°She¡¯s wearing too little.¡± ¡°Yeah. Too little clothing! Others might suspect that we¡¯re poor¡­¡± ¡°My lord, I know you don¡¯t care about what mortals think of you¡ªmortals won¡¯t think a jellyfish is lecherous¡­ But you should put yourself in the position of your clergy and think about them! Wouldn¡¯t you be ashamed for a white-haired and noble low-ranking priest to summon such a young girl whose clothes are the equivalent of a handkerchief?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised, thought about it carefully, and realized that was indeed a valid point. ¡°If I were the one who summoned the Oracle, I would have the impulse to crash into the roadside.¡± Old Rhode, the oldest one in the church sighed, ¡°My lord, please make sure that you dress her more appropriately!¡± Sui Xiong was a kind man who accepted other people¡¯s opinions easily. Creating a suit of clothes was as simple as eating or drinking for Sui Xiong. He waved his hands, and suddenly, a leather suit appeared on the Oracle. To be honest, this leather suit was still a little too sexy, overemphasizing the woman¡¯s curvy figure. However, in this world, there were many fantastic creatures who dressed up more exaggeratedly than this, so it wasn¡¯t a problem for the Oracle to dress like this. After changing her clothes, the next step was to show her ability. In fact, no one was very impressed by her attack. Even if she used the powerful torpedo attack, it didn¡¯t make any sense, because to use the powerful torpedo attack, she had to stand right in front of her enemies. But everyone praised her high speed. Especially when Sui Xiong acted as an injured clergyman and asked the huge fish to help him escape, demonstrating her ability to retreat, everyone was deeply impressed and nodded in praise. Sui Xiong¡¯s considerations had been very reasonable. For the Church of the Void Mask, which lacked a clergy, any middle or low-level clergies were valuable. Whenever possible, Sui Xiong tried his best to protect them. This kind of Oracle, who could help injured clergies retreat at a high speed, were excellent summoners even without any other abilities, if only for their ability to retreat. The destroyer-like Oracles were highly praised by everyone and greatly inspired Sui Xiong¡¯s enthusiasm to work, so he continued to follow up with his work. In less than ten days, he had created two more kinds of Oracles, the ¡°light cruiser level¡± and ¡°heavy cruiser level.¡± The Oracle of light cruiser level looked like a black-haired girl with a mask, a leather skirt, and long hair. She wore heavy leather boots and tough leather gloves. When she was fighting with enemies, she would summon two kinds of guns which were equipped in her hands, and she would control the direction of the guns with her arms. When she had to move quickly, her boots would release a light shield, forming an air cushion that would greatly improve her speed. This kind of Oracle was an evolution of the destroyer-like Oracles, whose speed had slowed down a bit due to an improved attacking ability. What was more, this kind of Oracle could also throw torpedoes. The key was that they could summon light guns when necessary. When the two light guns on their arms attacked together, they could form a defensive layer in the air and effectively attack flying demon beasts, or a large number of other magic beasts. Generally speaking, she was also a defensive Oracle. However, the Oracle of heavy cruiser level was totally different. This kind of Oracle looked like a little girl wearing light leather, suspended rings over her head, and a long tail. Once this little girl entered combat, she could summon two kinds of heavy giant fish heads. These two heavy weapons were very powerful, and even the legendary masters would find it difficult to resist when they continued firing. If more heavy weapons were summoned and attacked together, they were powerful enough to sweep a large area, which could make enemies in the legendary realm retreat as far as thirty miles. In other words, this kind of Oracles was for offense. When Sui Xiong asked the Oracle at the heavy cruiser level to show her power of heavy artillery firing, everyone nodded in succession and praised her combat effectiveness. ¡°You can¡¯t really tell from their appearances¡­¡± ¡°Very strong!¡± ¡°They¡¯ve reached the level of legendary combat effectiveness.¡± ¡°Can they be summoned by the advanced clergy? Doesn¡¯t that mean the advanced clergy in our church have the power to compete with the weaker legendary masters?¡± ¡°Wow! Will the level of force in our church be improved this much?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh after hearing everyone¡¯s comments. ¡°It¡¯s wishful thinking! Is it really that easy to summon Oracles?¡± Everyone thought for a while and laughed. Indeed, a legendary master could maintain strong combat effectiveness all day long, but the clergy in the Church of the Void Mask couldn¡¯t summon Oracles of heavy cruiser level for the same amount of time. When the clergy summoned Oracles, they had to use their Divine Powers constantly, not only to summon the Oracle, but also to maintain its existence on earth. If the clergy forcibly kept the Oracle on the earth all day long, it could not only consume lots of Divine Power, but also impose a heavy burden on the clergy¡¯s bodies. Even if the clergy¡¯s Divine Power could keep up with this, their bodies might have been unable to stand a constant output of Divine Power. Chapter 380 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio That the four level of Oracles¡ªaircraft carrier, destroyer, light cruiser, and heavy cruiser¡ªhad been highly praised made Sui Xiong happy and inspired. He wanted to have further success based on these by finishing the design of the last and the most important level of mass produced Oracles¡ªbattleship. Then he could complete the initial development of this exclusive project. However, just as he was ready to start, something unexpected happened that attracted his attention. In Keane Hill, Crick had carefully prepared and plotted a big show. Now, it was time to open the curtain. Perhaps it was nothing special to other Gods, just a battle for the inheritance of a baronet, but it was of great significance to Sui Xiong. Crick¡¯s life was coming to an end, and this big move was almost the last time in his life he would be able to use his wisdom to fight with others. If he succeeded this time, at least he could die peacefully. But if he failed, he would die with sadness like Zhuge Liang, one of the greatest strategists of Post-Han China, as well as a statesman, engineer and scholar, who had great wisdom and resourcefulness, but couldn¡¯t make further achievements due to his weak body and in the end, died regretfully. Either for the responsibility of being the same person as Crick or as the God of the Church of Void Mask, Sui Xiong felt obliged to go to Keane Hill to protect this small territory and try to help Crick fulfill his last wish in life without being discovered by others, so he stopped his research on Oracles of the battleship level to go to Keane Hill. This time, however, he wasn¡¯t a floating green jellyfish, but an average-sized young man with a pleasant smile, who looked somewhat weak. That was what Sui Xiong really looked like. But he wouldn¡¯t let Crick see his real looks. As for the others, even if they saw Sui Xiong¡¯s face, they would remember nothing but a vague impression. It wasn¡¯t an advanced spell, but it lasted for a long time. As long as Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t exceeded in terms of will power, no one would remember his real appearance through any spell. Regarding classifying the identification of will power, could mortals break through the magic performed by a God with their own will power? It wasn¡¯t completely impossible, but obviously, it couldn¡¯t be done by average people. Even among the Legendary Masters, there were few who could do it. At this moment, the Keane Hill was very busy. Countless people from different places were gathered there, but if one looked closely, they would find that there was not even one Legendary Master present. A baronet, even the most valuable one in the world, was ultimately too narrow a stage for Legendary Masters. Sui Xiong strolled along the streets of Keane City, browsing the scenery as he liked. Crick¡¯s idea of city planning was the same as that of Sui Xiong¡ªafter all, they were the same person. They had the same aesthetic view and artistic talent, so they had made almost the same final design. If experts in city design had compared the design drawings of Keane City and the Void Mask Land, they would have found that they were similar to each other, especially certain details. One was the hotel Sui Xiong was facing now. Opposite this hotel was a piece of green grassland with a delicate pavilion in the middle. Sui Xiong loved to make such designs. He had made several design drafts this way when he had been in college. In the Void Mask Land, opposite the most luxurious hotel there was also a piece of grassland, but the layout of the grassland was much more complicated than that of the one in Keane City. There was not only a pavilion, but also a pool. The pavilion was built in the middle of the pool, from where one could reach the grassland only through a winding water corridor. The pool was full of lotuses, and in the spring and summer, green leaves and colorful flowers made for pleasant scenery, making it a very famous scene in the Void Mask Land. The view of Keane City wasn¡¯t as beautiful as the one in the Void Mask Land, but after all, the fundamental design idea was the same. Sui Xiong had a large fortune, so he could make it bigger and more beautiful; Crick preferred to have lower costs, so he had made a small but delicate design. That was the only difference. Sui Xiong stood by the door of the hotel, stared at the pavilion, and couldn¡¯t help laughing. Just then, Sui Xiong heard a strangled noise. Two obviously unkind young people, surrounded by a dozen strong men, were walking towards the pavilion. They rudely drove the children playing on the grass to the ground, occupied the whole pavilion, and set aside their drinks and food, eating and laughing delightedly. Sui Xiong frowned and looked at the children. Upon seeing that they weren¡¯t injured, Sui Xiong turned away and found a corner at the roadside. There, he transformed into a slightly depressed traveler and sat down on the ground to rest. Of course, the two young men didn¡¯t realize that they had unintentionally offended a God. They just kept talking and laughing. According to them, they had come from two big merchant families of the Dhaka Commercial Association. They were too young to inherit the family business, so they wanted to take advantage of their families¡¯ fame and influence to earn reliable property before their brothers inherited everything. That was nothing surprising, for at least a third of the young people who came to Keane Hill now had this plan. Among them were the sons of big merchants, the second and youngest sons of middle-class aristocratic families, and the illegitimate children of great aristocratic families. For them, it was absolutely impossible to inherit the family business. Thus, instead of staying at home and being watched by their elder brothers, they preferred to take advantage of their family¡¯s fame to earn something. Since their fathers were still alive, these sons could cheat others in the name of having a right to an inheritance, which had little practical significance, so as to obtain reliable property as soon as possible. There was no doubt about the eagerness of such people to marry Anna Keane, but what they valued most was obviously Keane Hill. As for Anna Keane, they probably didn¡¯t care about her at all. However, they actually weren¡¯t that bad. Sui Xiong observed them for a while and found that these two young men weren¡¯t terribly bad. If he¡¯d had the time and energy, maybe he could have tried to save them, although there was little hope. A moment later, he stopped looking at them, shook his head, stood up, and turned away. After a short walk, he suddenly stopped and looked at a pub on the roadside. As a God, he could see very far, and even walls and floors couldn¡¯t block his sight. Thus, he clearly saw upstairs, where a young man who had a smile similar to the male characters in pornographic movies was flirting with a waitress. The waitress¡¯s clothes had been torn apart in several places, so she was very embarrassed. Several waiters beside her had been knocked down. The boss was hiding under the counter, trembling and not daring to come out. Sui Xiong frowned and decided to help the waitress, but then changed his mind. He secretly broke the sound-proofing magic array that had been made by the young man, passing the waitress¡¯s cry for help to the patrol captain Ryder, who was patrolling the street with his long bow. Ryder had such fierce eyes that many people on the roadside fled from him. For Sui Xiong, it wasn¡¯t proper to punish such a young man as a God. This young man was, at most, close to a high-ranking bard. As a high-ranking ranger, Ryder had several pieces of good equipment. If he made a sudden attack, this young man wouldn¡¯t be able to resist it. All Sui Xiong did was manipulate a glass to fall off a table when this young man tried to escape with a special magic tool. The glass rolled over to the young man¡¯s feet and tripped him. That was all. As for whether this young man had noticed that¡ªa dead man couldn¡¯t say anything, especially with three arrows in his body. After doing this, Sui Xiong went on walking through the city. At night, when he was resting in the sky, he couldn¡¯t help sighing deeply. ¡°No wonder Crick is going to make a big move. What a mess it is here!¡± Chapter 381 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio At that time, the Keane City was a mess indeed. Plenty of aggressive guys had flushed into the city. They were like a group of sharks attracted by the smell of fish or a horde of flies chasing after decayed corpses, making others feel disgusted. Most of these guys had bad personalities, and some of them were even the trash of society. As for those with good personalities, how many of them could do things as disgusting as stealing from a little girl while her brother was dying? Sui Xiong scanned the whole city carefully and found an old acquaintance among them. It was a middle-aged man with half of his hair turned gray. He was calm and peaceful, and his words and deeds were full of confidence and charm. He, both a bard and a thief, wasn¡¯t weak at all. His overall strength had reached the advanced level, which made him a real master. Compared to Sui Xiong, this man¡¯s strength wasn¡¯t even worth mentioning, but what interested Sui Xiong was his identity. Sui Xiong had met this man several decades ago, not long after his arrival in this land. At that time, Sui Xiong had been planning to build his own church, so he had traveled a long distance to recruit excellent administrators for his territory, from the northwestern Ashes Woods to the southern Mifata Fedaration. On the way, he had passed an Explored Territory called Geerteng Viscount Hill, which was located on the border of civilized society. At that time, the old Hill Lord had died, and Miss Steele, the heir, had been so open with her sexuality that nobody had liked her. Then, a young man named Romon had appeared. He brought some proof left by the old Viscount Geerteng that indicated that he was the illegitimate son of Viscount Geerteng. He wanted to compete for the inheritance. It was quite a long story. At last, the successor who was named to Viscount Geerteng was neither Steele nor Romon, but a little girl named Olian, who hadn¡¯t been famous before the decision. Olian was from the collateral branches of the Geerteng Family, which had been originally in a low spot in the order of inheritance. But at that time, she was the most talented and most likely to lead Geerteng to prosperity, so Sui Xiong had used a Divination Spell to find her, then helped her become a Hill Lord. Certainly, Olian was powerful. She was the only student of the famous Legendary Master, Black Blade, or Wall. After Wall was given the divine title of God of Knowledge and Education, she became his only electorate, acquiring an immortal life and great power. Now, Olian Geerteng had become a world-renowned master and sage and led the Geerteng Hill in steady progress. This small and remote territory had become the largest stationery production center in the whole Main Plane. In addition to the recently launched herbal cultivation industry, the residents in Geerteng Hill, though not large in number, enjoyed a very high per capita income, which was probably second only to that of the well-known Void Mask Land. Geerteng Hill was somewhat similar to Keane Hill. The only difference was that the Hill Lord of Geerteng Hill was powerful. She also had powerful support behind her. Thus, no one dared to take her territory, but Keane Hill had a weak base, and the most powerful characters there were a few high-level adventurers. Besides, it didn¡¯t have a powerful support backing it up. If not, how dare this group of unknown guys come to Keane Hill and chase after the baron¡¯s sister while he was still alive? After Olian had inherited Viscount Geerteng¡¯s title, she had expelled Steele, who had lost the competition for the inheritance. Later, Steele had followed Sui Xiong and gained experience. Now, she had become the director of the Red Pig Clinic in the Void Mask Land, and was also a world-famous master in medicine and first aid. However, she was more famous for her uncontrolled lifestyle. She had once said that she could sleep with anyone, as long as they were a man. In recent years, it had developed to the point that she could sleep with anyone, as long as they were strong or lovely, whether a man or a woman¡­ Another competitor for the inheritance of Viscount Geerteng was Romon. However, when he had been about to be exposed as a fake illegitimate son, he had seized the moment that Sui Xiong and fled. Nobody knew where he was going. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t meet him again until that day. Decades later, Romon was much older. His hair was half gray, and his face was wrinkled, but he was still handsome, and he looked more mature and reliable. He was working as a teacher and military adviser to a second son of a nobleman, planning for this young boy to get both beauty and money. Wearing a monocle, Romon, who looked like a scholar, asked gently, ¡°Young Master Stephen, what do you think is your advantage?¡± The one named Stephen was a teenager, about fourteen or fifteen years old. He looked very young, and his eyes were full of naivety, showing his lack of social experience. It was hard to explain why his family had sent this young boy to make a proposal. He had such a silly and soft appearance! It was a miracle that he hadn¡¯t been murdered and robbed on the way. ¡°I think¡­ I¡¯m from the Carter Family. Does that count?¡± Stephen thought for a moment and asked with little confidence. Romon smiled and shook his head. ¡°The Carter Family, as the famous earl in the Kingdom of thousands of Springs, is certainly very influential. However, Young Master Stephen, you are only the sixth successor of the Carter Family. There are three older brothers and two uncles before you. Unless they all die of a sudden illness, it¡¯ll never be your turn to inherit the title of earl. If they really do die all of a sudden, I¡¯m afraid the whole Carter Family will encounter a huge crisis, and then the title of earl won¡¯t be yours, either. On the contrary, it may be your turn to die with them.¡± ¡°Wow¡­ Teacher, please don¡¯t be so mean to me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just letting you know the reality as soon as possible.¡± Romon smiled with no mercy. ¡°Okay, that was a wrong answer. Tell me your advantage again!¡± Stephen thought for a long time and answered, ¡°I¡¯m handsome.¡± Romon looked at Stephen¡¯s face carefully and nodded. ¡°Well, that¡¯s right. Your appearance is in the top ten among the suitors here. If you dress up well, you will hopefully be in the top five.¡± ¡°Then am I right?¡± The young boy was happy. Romon¡¯s face immediately turned gloomy. ¡°Absolutely wrong! What can a good-looking man do? Are you going to sing an opera?¡± ¡°It¡¯s said that Mr. Crick loved art very much. Maybe he¡¯ll like someone who can sing opera,¡± the young boy whispered. ¡°Actually, I¡¯m very good at singing.¡± Romon sighed deeply. Sui Xiong, who was hiding in the air above their heads, could clearly feel that Romon was trying to suppress his anger and frustration. After a long time, Romon calmed down and sighed. ¡°Young Master Stephen, if the baron is in good health, maybe you can really win his appreciation with your handsome appearance and excellent literary talent. It might even possible for you to be allowed to marry his sister. But please note that the baron is seriously ill now, at a critical moment of life and death. At this time, what he needs isn¡¯t a handsome and talented brother-in-law, but an excellent man who can protect his sister and the Keane Hill!¡± ¡°I surely can¡¯t do that.¡± Stephen hung his head and his face was full of frustration. ¡°I¡¯m not good with swords, bows, or arrows! Even my spells aren¡¯t very powerful. I¡¯m confident in singing, but not fighting.¡± Romon knew clearly about the strength of this young boy. It would be impossible for this young boy to protect a girl coveted by countless villains, as well as the rich, but not powerful enough, Keane Hill. ¡°That¡¯s a wise judgment, Young Master. You¡¯re actually very clever, but you still need some time to grow up.¡± Romon laughed and encouraged his student, then said, ¡°In fact, you only see the negative sides of yourself, but not the positive sides.¡± ¡°What¡¯s positive?¡± Stephen asked curiously. ¡°First, your age.¡± Romon smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ve investigated that among the suitors here, not including those mysterious guys hiding something, you¡¯re the youngest one with a good family background. You¡¯re likely to make a proposal successfully.¡± ¡°Is age an advantage?¡± Stephen asked, puzzled. ¡°Of course it is!¡± A symbolically confident smile appeared on Romon¡¯s face. ¡°Miss Anna is only fourteen years old. Among other suitors, the youngest one is twenty-two years old. You¡¯re the only one close to her in terms of age.¡± ¡°Twenty-two and fourteen¡­ There isn¡¯t a big difference, is there? My uncle married a fourteen-year-old girl when he was forty.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve seen a man marry a fourteen-year-old girl at sixty, not to mention forty.¡± Romon laughed. ¡°But in that case, it was always an unequal marriage, or even a man who was just playing with a girl. In aristocratic society, there can¡¯t be too big a difference in age in an equal marriage. There is certainly not an unacceptable gap between twenty-two and fourteen, but in contrast, aren¡¯t fifteen and fourteen more suitable?¡± Stephen thought for a moment and nodded softly. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, I think I really have an advantage.¡± ¡°Besides, you don¡¯t belong to any church right now, so you can change your belief in God at any time. As far as I know, Miss Anna is a follower of His Majesty Void Mask. You can also believe in him.¡± When Romon mentioned the Void Mask, he was a bit melancholy. Sui Xiong clearly saw that from the sky and couldn¡¯t help laughing secretly. ¡°The Void Mask? Teacher, don¡¯t you often say that he¡¯s a little unreliable?¡± Stephen asked curiously. ¡°Yes, he is somewhat unreliable, but he¡¯s powerful enough!¡± Romon grinned bitterly and said, ¡°For us now, the most important thing is for you to make the proposal successfully. It will win you a firm foundation and protect you from being hurt by others in the competition for the inheritance of Carter Family. Thus, everything else can be dealt with.¡± Hearing that, Sui Xiong was a bit angry. What did ¡®everything else can be dealt with¡¯ mean? Sui Xiong thought he was a good God. In these years, he had never done anything terrible, such as killing or robbing the poor, nor had he done anything immoral, such as bullying widows or digging others¡¯ graves. How could believing in a God like him be conceding something? Sui Xiong also found Romon was a bit discontent. What? Romon, is there anything for you to be discontent with? Are you a decent guy? You¡¯ve tried to take another¡¯s property by pretending to be his illegitimate son, so how do you even deserve to be called a decent person? What a shame! But even so, Sui Xiong had to admit that Stephen seemed to be a good choice. Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t met Romon, a jerk, for decades. And this time when they met, Roman had given him such a big present¡­ Chapter 382 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio That night, Romon had a dream. In his dream, he went back to his youth and happened to meet a rich guy in a casino. This rich guy was the illegitimate son of a viscount. His father was seriously ill now, so he was going back to compete for the inheritance. Upon learning that, Romon killed this rich guy, then spent almost all of his fortune on finding an advanced mage to hold a blood inheritance ceremony that could help him inherit the blood of the rich guy¡¯s family. Then with this proof of his identity, he went to the Geerteng Viscount Hill after the viscount died. Everything went smoothly for him, since the other heir was so abhorrent that she wasn¡¯t competitive at all. Romon made various promises to the aristocrats in the surrounding territories to gain their support. Soon, the situation was stabilized. At last, he inherited the title of earl successfully and became the new viscount, as well as the Hill Lord of Geerteng Hill. After the coronation, he sat on the throne in the meeting hall and looked around. This hall wasn¡¯t magnificent or luxurious, but it was large enough at least. Then he couldn¡¯t help laughing. ¡°Great! But it¡¯s just a dream. What a pity!¡± ¡°Oh? How do you know it¡¯s a dream?¡± Sui Xiong showed up in the form of a jellyfish, floating in front of Romon. Romon looked at him, a bit scared, but not surprised at all. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I¡¯ve had this dream many times over the decades.¡± Upon hearing that, Sui Xiong knew the reason and couldn¡¯t help laughing, and then said, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect that you would take things that happened decades ago to heart so much. Do you still want to be a Hill Lord?¡± Romon was silent for a while and answered, ¡°No, I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Then why do you still have dreams like this?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°If you didn¡¯t have such ideas, I wouldn¡¯t be able to make you have such a dream unless I used a special spell.¡± Romon smiled bitterly. ¡°Actually, I just feel regretful.¡± ¡°For what?¡± ¡°That I didn¡¯t take the opportunity to find powerful support for myself!¡± Romon shook his head and said with a sigh, ¡°At that time, if I had directly knelt to Miss Anna and respected her as the Hill Lord of Geerteng Hill, I could have been one of her subordinates. Then I might have been a big man respected by others right now, and I might even have been one of the high-ranking officials of the Church of Void Mask.¡± Sui Xiong thought about it carefully and then nodded. ¡°It might have been possible¡­¡± Romon sighed deeply and said with a bitter smile, ¡°It was all because of my bad decision at that time. Such a good opportunity was sent to me, perhaps the best one of my life, but I just messed it up!¡± ¡°But it was dangerous, too.¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help comforting him. ¡°At that time, you were disguised as the illegitimate son of Viscount Geerteng. Once you were exposed, you would die.¡± Romon didn¡¯t care about that at all. He said casually, ¡°Opportunities always come with danger. The better the opportunity one has, the greater the danger one meets. Over these years, I took many risks, but did I finally seize a good opportunity? Never! As a result, up until now, I¡¯m just a tutor to the sixth successor of the earl family. I¡¯m not even a knight!¡± Romon opened his hand and asked, ¡°Do you agree that it would have been better for me to take a risk at first?¡± ¡°It sounds reasonable. I have nothing to say.¡± Romon laughed and asked, ¡°I don¡¯t know who you are, but you have the appearance of Void Mask and showed up in my dream. Are you just coming to chat with me?¡± Sui Xiong laughed as well. ¡°I¡¯m not disguising as Void Mask. I am Void Mask.¡± ¡°You must be kidding. No Gods would do such a boring thing.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s what I¡¯m doing. Excuse me.¡± Romon was astounded for a moment. He looked at Sui Xiong carefully and asked, ¡°Then, may I ask how you know who supported Miss Anna at that time?¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while and said, ¡°It was me. But I think I made the right choice. She was more suitable than you to be a Hill Lord.¡± Without saying a word, Romon jumped down from the throne and knelt down in front of Sui Xiong at once, holding Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles in his arms. ¡°Hey! What are you doing?¡± ¡°I¡¯m hugging your legs!¡± Romon replied firmly. ¡°I missed the chance to seek support from a God last time. If I let you go this time, my life is over!¡± ¡°How could you be so straightforward? What¡¯s more, these are my tentacles, not my legs!¡± Sui Xiong shouted. ¡°Let them go! Let them go!¡± Romon still held onto Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles tightly and didn¡¯t let him go. He shouted, ¡°Your Majesty Void Mask, please allow me to work for you! I will do whatever you ask me to! Please!¡± ¡°Why are you begging in this way? At least you¡¯re a respected teacher now, do you need to do something like this?¡± ¡°Of course! Facing such a good chance to become your subordinate, over 99% people in the world would act like this, but they wouldn¡¯t be as determined as I am!¡± ¡°How can you be so straightforward¡­¡± Sui Xiong felt defeated by this guy, so he waved his tentacles and tried to throw him off. However, in the world of a dream, a person¡¯s will determined his power. Romon¡¯s will at that moment was so strong that unless Sui Xiong used his Divine Power to beat him back, he wouldn¡¯t be able to shake him off. Seeing Romon begging like that, Sui Xiong felt sorry to take any violent action. He just tried to throw him away, yet failed. He sighed and persuaded Romon, ¡°Why are you holding my tentacles? Sooner or later, you¡¯ll wake up.¡± ¡°So please allow me to work for you! I will work hard. I won¡¯t ask for any benefits from you. Please just allow me to retire at your God¡¯s Kingdom after I die!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that, and then realized why Romon was doing this. Sui Xiong asked, ¡°Are you doing this because you haven¡¯t believed in any God so far and have nowhere to go after death?¡± Romon had an unhappy face, as if he had just eaten something bitter. ¡°I do have a belief. But I¡¯m not devoted and sincere enough that I can go to the God¡¯s Kingdom after death. I could possibly go to hell!¡± ¡°Are you begging to work for me just so you won¡¯t go to hell?¡± Sui Xiong sighed. ¡°How utilitarian you are!¡± Romon explained loudly, ¡°I¡¯m sincere in wanting to follow you! You can test me at any time!¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°I trust your sincerity, but you can¡¯t take belief as something that can be traded.¡± ¡°Why do you think it¡¯s a trade? I work for you, and you¡¯ll arrange a place for me to retire after I¡¯ve done the best I can. It¡¯s reasonable.¡± ¡°It sounds reasonable indeed.¡± ¡°Of course! I don¡¯t think I¡¯m asking too much.¡± Romon saw there was hope, so he said loudly, ¡°I know there are a lot of talents working for you, and I¡¯m not necessarily one of them. But I think I¡¯m still valuable, for I¡¯m willing to sacrifice myself for you at any time, and I¡¯m quite smart. What¡¯s more, I¡¯m powerful. There are few people in Keane City who could defeat me in fighting!¡± Hearing that, Sui Xiong hesitated. What Romon had said was reasonable. He hadn¡¯t requested too much from Sui Xiong. Actually, it was Sui Xiong that could benefit a lot from this deal. As for the personality of Romon¡ªalthough he had made many mistakes before, he was still young. There would be chances for him to correct his behavior and act the right way. Sui Xiong thought he should give him a chance. Frankly speaking, Sui Xiong was almost persuaded by Romon. It was hard to find a real talent, especially people like Romon, who had both ability and courage and were flexible in their skills. Besides, he would be more loyal than others, since he had nowhere to go. Sui Xiong hesitated for a long time and finally sighed softly. The next morning, Miramon took Romon to visit Crick. ¡°This is Mr. Romon, a secret believer of our god,¡± Miramon introduced. ¡°He¡¯s more powerful than me and good at stratagem. I¡¯m sure he will be a great helper for you.¡± Sitting in a wheelchair, Crick was holding a fan of feathers, just like Zhuge Liang. He was surprised for a moment, then looked at Romon. Romon had a confident smile and bright eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best to help you stabilize the situation of Keane Hill!¡± Romon laughed and said, ¡°None of those bad guys who are making dirty plans on your Hill will be able to leave here alive!¡± Crick was astounded at that, and his eyes turned bright with delight. Chapter 383 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After introducing Romon to Crick, Miramon left. As the Bishop of a divine temple, he had a lot of work to do and couldn¡¯t leave the divine temple for long. Besides, he didn¡¯t want to get involved in this. He wasn¡¯t scared of killing, but he didn¡¯t like complicated tricks. That left only Crick and Romon in the study room. Romon took a seat and started a discussion with Crick. ¡°What¡¯s your plan?¡± Crick asked. Romon had made preparations for this discussion, so he answered immediately with his plan in mind. ¡°It depends on your health conditions, Your Majesty. Excuse me, but may I ask if you¡¯re just seriously ill or actually dying?¡± That was a rude question, but Crick didn¡¯t care. He smiled and asked peacefully, ¡°Is there any difference?¡± ¡°Yes! There¡¯s a big difference actually!¡± Romon replied, ¡°If you can manage to live a few years more, this time, we should just punish some of them as a warning to others. On one hand, we should leave no mercy to those who Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Since Crick had found someone to pose as him after his death, his original plan had to be adjusted. According to his original plan, it was time to take the final action of gathering the evil suitors through several events which had been prepared earlier and kill them all at once. Of course, there would be different ways to kill them, such as explosions, poison, and offering them up as a sacrifice to demons. In a word, since Crick was going to take action, he wanted to ensure that all of them would be killed, with no exceptions. However, things had become different now. For Crick, the most important thing now was to make arrangements for Romon to be disguised as him. As long as this was done, the residents of Keane Hill would have enough time to defend themselves against those evil guys in the future. With Romon¡¯s help, Crick didn¡¯t have to worry too much about his sister being bullied by others after his death. Thus, his violent means were no longer needed. It wasn¡¯t a big issue to make a few enemies. But if it wasn¡¯t necessary, Crick preferred not to make extremely powerful enemies. He had a detailed discussion with Romon for a while and finally made a preliminary plan. Then he gathered the most loyal and reliable high-ranking officials in the Keane Hill and introduced them to Romon. ¡°This is Mr. Romon, a master from the Church of Void Mask,¡± he said. ¡°He¡¯s not only powerful, but also good at deceiving others. ¡°After my death, he will disguise himself as me. Under the excuse of seclusion to recover, he won¡¯t appear very often. Then others won¡¯t find out about my death.¡± He said this calmly, totally ignoring his astonished subordinates. ¡°You¡¯ll help him in this act as much as possible so as not to let others find out. Besides that, he¡¯ll also serve as Anna¡¯s consultant. Anna, if you have any problems, you can ask him for advice.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll help you solve things directly when it¡¯s necessary.¡± Romon saluted the girl who was still a bit young. ¡°I¡¯m a good bard. As long as I¡¯m not fighting a Legendary Master, I can win. Well, if I can¡¯t win, I at least won¡¯t get hurt.¡± This statement was quite confident, displaying his eye-catchingly strong power. But Anna didn¡¯t care about it at all at that moment. She just looked at Crick with shock and worry. ¡°Brother! Are you really¡­ really¡­¡± She choked several times, but still couldn¡¯t voice her terrible assumption. Crick sighed and whispered, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m really dying.¡± For a moment, the atmosphere of the whole meeting hall was morbid. Apart from Baroness Amyveile, who had already known everything, even Anna, the current Baron, had just learned now. For a long time, in others¡¯ impressions, Crick had been a knowledgeable sage who could do anything. No matter how big a problem was, he could find a way to solve it. But today, he had told them clearly that he was dying. Although he had also found a way to help the Keane Hill overcome their difficulties and solve the last problem, he was dying anyway. All the people who could attend this secret meeting were loyal to Keane Hill and Crick. Now they were all in shock and sorrow, and no one could speak a word for a moment. Finally, Crick broke the silence. He laughed and said, ¡°Why are you so astonished? It was incredible that I could come back alive from the battlefield of the Sun¡¯s Death Day. Even if I die now, I¡¯ve earned a few more years of life. What¡¯s so sad about that?¡± Still, nobody talked. ¡°You guys are too young and simple! Open your eyes!¡± Crick smiled and shook his head. ¡°Keeping a family growing and developing doesn¡¯t depend on a person, but the inheritance from generation to generation. For example, Charles, your father, the Knight D¡¯vor, died on the battlefield of the Sun¡¯s Death Day, but you inherited his title and territory, and you have done a great job all these years. If I¡¯m not wrong, your wife is pregnant, isn¡¯t she?¡± Charles Oss nodded. His wife was the second daughter of a nobleman living nearby, and they got along well with each other. Charles had planned on inviting Crick to preside over the naming ceremony after the birth of the child, but now that wouldn¡¯t happen. ¡°Last time, you mentioned to me that you would like me to hold the naming ceremony and be the godfather of your child after they were born, and I promised you.¡± Crick laughed and said, ¡°Of course, I can¡¯t do it anymore. However, that doesn¡¯t matter. You¡¯ll have Anna as your child¡¯s godmother instead.¡± Knight Charles was stunned, then understood the meaning of his monarch, and looked at Anna at once. ¡°Will I?¡± Anna was still confused about why her brother had suddenly mentioned this, so she looked at Crick with a blank face. Crick sighed in his heart and nodded with a smile. Only then did she relax and make the promise. Alas! My sister¡¯s intelligence is only ten. She¡¯s really not very smart! Upon seeing his sister¡¯s mediocre performance, Crick was worried. Even with the help of loyal subordinates, as well as consultant Romon Geerteng, his sister was still too weak to support the family business. With a deep sigh, Crick couldn¡¯t help thinking of her marriage. His sister wasn¡¯t powerful at all. Relying on her alone, it would be hard to keep the family business alive. Thus, it would better to find a suitable husband for her while Crick was still alive. Then the couple would support each other and pass on the blood of the Keane Family. However, her husband should be a man with a good personality, but not too aggressive. He couldn¡¯t have a powerful background, either; otherwise, he might take advantage of Crick¡¯s sister and annex the whole Keane Family. Thinking about it, Crick couldn¡¯t help sighing. Romon looked at the worried look on Crick¡¯s face and then at Anna, who was somewhat confused. He understood more or less what Crick was thinking, so he said with a smile, ¡°All right, I have one more thing to say. Of course, it¡¯s just for reference.¡± The others in the conference room all looked at him, but he wasn¡¯t scared at all. He smiled and said, ¡°I am currently a tutor for Stephen Carter, the fourth son of the Carter Family in the Kingdom of thousands of Springs. This time, I brought him to propose to Miss Anna.¡± The others were shocked at that, then they looked at him in a hostile way. Romon had gone through countless storms in his life, so he didn¡¯t care about their attitudes at all. He laughed and said, ¡°Stephen is only fifteen years old now. To be frank, he¡¯s a bit young and innocent. His relationship with his three older brothers isn¡¯t good, nor is he highly valued by his father. I watched him grow up from a little child, so I can promise that he has good character. You don¡¯t have to worry about him colluding with others to steal the Keane Family¡¯s fortune. He¡¯s kind of talented, so he may be able to make some achievements in the future.¡± ¡°Of course, his greatest advantage is that he¡¯s good looking.¡± Romon looked at Anna with a smile. ¡°Is Miss Anna interested in meeting him?¡± Anna blushed immediately and didn¡¯t know what to say. Crick coughed twice and asked, ¡°Did you bring the Projection Crystal?¡± To be honest, Crick was also curious about how handsome Stephen was. Romon nodded and took out the Projection Crystal to show the image of Stephen through a spell. There was a beautiful little boy, as quiet as a girl, sitting at his desk and reading quietly. With the slow change of the image in the Projection Crystal, the boy gradually grew up. He learned swordsmanship, archery, and horseback riding, but it could be seen that he wasn¡¯t very good at any of them. He also learned spells, but he wasn¡¯t doing very well there, either. However, his innocence had never changed, nor did his handsomeness. He was indeed a good looking man. After a while, the image disappeared. Romon put away the Projection Crystal and smiled at the others. He said, ¡°Did you see that? I wasn¡¯t boasting. Stephen is definitely one of the most handsome men in the world.¡± Crick smiled and turned to Anna. Anna¡¯s face flushed, and her head hung down. Crick immediately understood her and burst into laughter. ¡°This world prefers good looking men a lot!¡± He laughed and said, ¡°This young man is handsome, and that¡¯s surely an advantage! As for his personality and other aspects, we can test them later. All of you will help me with that, okay?¡± Upon hearing that, the others understood his meaning and immediately burst into laughter. The Baroness Amyveile even went to Anna and congratulated her in a low voice. Anna¡¯s face turned even redder. She was so shy that she wanted to dig a hole to hide herself in. The gloomy atmosphere of the meeting room from earlier was gone. Instead, it was full of joy. Chapter 384 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Since Crick had found someone to pose as him after his death, his original plan had to be adjusted. According to his original plan, it was time to take the final action of gathering the evil suitors through several events which had been prepared earlier and kill them all at once. Of course, there would be different ways to kill them, such as explosions, poison, and offering them up as a sacrifice to demons. In a word, since Crick was going to take action, he wanted to ensure that all of them would be killed, with no exceptions. However, things had become different now. For Crick, the most important thing now was to make arrangements for Romon to be disguised as him. As long as this was done, the residents of Keane Hill would have enough time to defend themselves against those evil guys in the future. With Romon¡¯s help, Crick didn¡¯t have to worry too much about his sister being bullied by others after his death. Thus, his violent means were no longer needed. It wasn¡¯t a big issue to make a few enemies. But if it wasn¡¯t necessary, Crick preferred not to make extremely powerful enemies. He had a detailed discussion with Romon for a while and finally made a preliminary plan. Then he gathered the most loyal and reliable high-ranking officials in the Keane Hill and introduced them to Romon. ¡°This is Mr. Romon, a master from the Church of Void Mask,¡± he said. ¡°He¡¯s not only powerful, but also good at deceiving others. ¡°After my death, he will disguise himself as me. Under the excuse of seclusion to recover, he won¡¯t appear very often. Then others won¡¯t find out about my death.¡± He said this calmly, totally ignoring his astonished subordinates. ¡°You¡¯ll help him in this act as much as possible so as not to let others find out. Besides that, he¡¯ll also serve as Anna¡¯s consultant. Anna, if you have any problems, you can ask him for advice.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll help you solve things directly when it¡¯s necessary.¡± Romon saluted the girl who was still a bit young. ¡°I¡¯m a good bard. As long as I¡¯m not fighting a Legendary Master, I can win. Well, if I can¡¯t win, I at least won¡¯t get hurt.¡± This statement was quite confident, displaying his eye-catchingly strong power. But Anna didn¡¯t care about it at all at that moment. She just looked at Crick with shock and worry. ¡°Brother! Are you really¡­ really¡­¡± She choked several times, but still couldn¡¯t voice her terrible assumption. Crick sighed and whispered, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m really dying.¡± For a moment, the atmosphere of the whole meeting hall was morbid. Apart from Baroness Amyveile, who had already known everything, even Anna, the current Baron, had just learned now. For a long time, in others¡¯ impressions, Crick had been a knowledgeable sage who could do anything. No matter how big a problem was, he could find a way to solve it. But today, he had told them clearly that he was dying. Although he had also found a way to help the Keane Hill overcome their difficulties and solve the last problem, he was dying anyway. All the people who could attend this secret meeting were loyal to Keane Hill and Crick. Now they were all in shock and sorrow, and no one could speak a word for a moment. Finally, Crick broke the silence. He laughed and said, ¡°Why are you so astonished? It was incredible that I could come back alive from the battlefield of the Sun¡¯s Death Day. Even if I die now, I¡¯ve earned a few more years of life. What¡¯s so sad about that?¡± Still, nobody talked. ¡°You guys are too young and simple! Open your eyes!¡± Crick smiled and shook his head. ¡°Keeping a family growing and developing doesn¡¯t depend on a person, but the inheritance from generation to generation. For example, Charles, your father, the Knight D¡¯vor, died on the battlefield of the Sun¡¯s Death Day, but you inherited his title and territory, and you have done a great job all these years. If I¡¯m not wrong, your wife is pregnant, isn¡¯t she?¡± Charles Oss nodded. His wife was the second daughter of a nobleman living nearby, and they got along well with each other. Charles had planned on inviting Crick to preside over the naming ceremony after the birth of the child, but now that wouldn¡¯t happen. ¡°Last time, you mentioned to me that you would like me to hold the naming ceremony and be the godfather of your child after they were born, and I promised you.¡± Crick laughed and said, ¡°Of course, I can¡¯t do it anymore. However, that doesn¡¯t matter. You¡¯ll have Anna as your child¡¯s godmother instead.¡± Knight Charles was stunned, then understood the meaning of his monarch, and looked at Anna at once. ¡°Will I?¡± Anna was still confused about why her brother had suddenly mentioned this, so she looked at Crick with a blank face. Crick sighed in his heart and nodded with a smile. Only then did she relax and make the promise. Alas! My sister¡¯s intelligence is only ten. She¡¯s really not very smart! Upon seeing his sister¡¯s mediocre performance, Crick was worried. Even with the help of loyal subordinates, as well as consultant Romon Geerteng, his sister was still too weak to support the family business. With a deep sigh, Crick couldn¡¯t help thinking of her marriage. His sister wasn¡¯t powerful at all. Relying on her alone, it would be hard to keep the family business alive. Thus, it would better to find a suitable husband for her while Crick was still alive. Then the couple would support each other and pass on the blood of the Keane Family. However, her husband should be a man with a good personality, but not too aggressive. He couldn¡¯t have a powerful background, either; otherwise, he might take advantage of Crick¡¯s sister and annex the whole Keane Family. Thinking about it, Crick couldn¡¯t help sighing. Romon looked at the worried look on Crick¡¯s face and then at Anna, who was somewhat confused. He understood more or less what Crick was thinking, so he said with a smile, ¡°All right, I have one more thing to say. Of course, it¡¯s just for reference.¡± The others in the conference room all looked at him, but he wasn¡¯t scared at all. He smiled and said, ¡°I am currently a tutor for Stephen Carter, the fourth son of the Carter Family in the Kingdom of thousands of Springs. This time, I brought him to propose to Miss Anna.¡± The others were shocked at that, then they looked at him in a hostile way. Romon had gone through countless storms in his life, so he didn¡¯t care about their attitudes at all. He laughed and said, ¡°Stephen is only fifteen years old now. To be frank, he¡¯s a bit young and innocent. His relationship with his three older brothers isn¡¯t good, nor is he highly valued by his father. I watched him grow up from a little child, so I can promise that he has good character. You don¡¯t have to worry about him colluding with others to steal the Keane Family¡¯s fortune. He¡¯s kind of talented, so he may be able to make some achievements in the future.¡± ¡°Of course, his greatest advantage is that he¡¯s good looking.¡± Romon looked at Anna with a smile. ¡°Is Miss Anna interested in meeting him?¡± Anna blushed immediately and didn¡¯t know what to say. Crick coughed twice and asked, ¡°Did you bring the Projection Crystal?¡± To be honest, Crick was also curious about how handsome Stephen was. Romon nodded and took out the Projection Crystal to show the image of Stephen through a spell. There was a beautiful little boy, as quiet as a girl, sitting at his desk and reading quietly. With the slow change of the image in the Projection Crystal, the boy gradually grew up. He learned swordsmanship, archery, and horseback riding, but it could be seen that he wasn¡¯t very good at any of them. He also learned spells, but he wasn¡¯t doing very well there, either. However, his innocence had never changed, nor did his handsomeness. He was indeed a good looking man. After a while, the image disappeared. Romon put away the Projection Crystal and smiled at the others. He said, ¡°Did you see that? I wasn¡¯t boasting. Stephen is definitely one of the most handsome men in the world.¡± Crick smiled and turned to Anna. Anna¡¯s face flushed, and her head hung down. Crick immediately understood her and burst into laughter. ¡°This world prefers good looking men a lot!¡± He laughed and said, ¡°This young man is handsome, and that¡¯s surely an advantage! As for his personality and other aspects, we can test them later. All of you will help me with that, okay?¡± Upon hearing that, the others understood his meaning and immediately burst into laughter. The Baroness Amyveile even went to Anna and congratulated her in a low voice. Anna¡¯s face turned even redder. She was so shy that she wanted to dig a hole to hide herself in. The gloomy atmosphere of the meeting room from earlier was gone. Instead, it was full of joy. Chapter 385 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio No matter where one was, being cute and good looking could be a great advantages in many ways. For example, there were different kinds of rare animals on earth. Many of them were as rare as pandas, but only cute species could enjoy the same treatment as the panda. As for others, such as the the Arctic wolf, the Cuban crocodile, and the dwarf rhinoceros, which were as rare as pandas, they were perhaps less in number, but they didn¡¯t live lives as comfortable as pandas did. The reason was that they were not good looking or cute at all! When it came to marriage, the advantages of being cute and good looking were even more obvious. Before Sui Xiong¡¯s space-travel, he had known a novelist who was quite rich, with a steady income and fame in both the illustration and comic industry and the animation industry. However, such a man was still single in his thirties. Even though he had managed to get a girlfriend, she had left him very quickly. Why? Because he was ugly. He was tall, but very fat, making him look like a strong bear. What was worse, he had been born with a fierce face. Even though he tried to smile kindly, he still gave others the feeling of an evil guy. With his shining bald head and his white teeth, he looked like a terrorist who was ready to set off bombs in America¡­ At that time, this man had been in the same group as Sui Xiong in an online game, and the girl this man was chasing after was Sui Xiong¡¯s friend. Considering that they were partners in game and this man had offered a lot of work opportunities to Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong tried to help the man by telling a lot of good stories about him to the girl. However, at last, the girl had said, ¡°I know he¡¯s not handsome, and I don¡¯t mind, but if we get married and give birth to a daughter who looks like him, then what can I do?¡± What can you do? How about taking her to Korea for plastic surgery? Sui Xiong suggested that and was blacklisted by the girl. Appearance had been so important on earth, a highly developed and open society, let alone in this world, with a relatively closed and backward society. Actually, being good looking was even more important here. Stephen Carter was handsome enough, and he could even make a living with his handsome face to be a super star or something like that. Actually, Romon was also handsome, but he was older. A middle-aged man wasn¡¯t suitable to become an idol. Anna knew none of the suitors. Thus, compared to the others, this super handsome young man, Stephen Carter, would be the best choice for her. However, after several thoughts, Crick was worried. He talked to Amyveile privately. ¡°This young man is even more beautiful than my sister. After getting married, won¡¯t she feel stressed?¡± Amyveile didn¡¯t think so. In her opinion, the most important thing in marriage was stability first, and the second was loyalty. As for appearances and love, they didn¡¯t matter as much. However, Stephen Carter was, indeed, beautiful. That night, Romon went back to the hotel and passed the Projection Crystal to Stephen. ¡°Here you are. It¡¯s from Miss Anna,¡± he said carelessly. Stephen accepted it without paying it special attention at first. Then he was shocked at what Romon had said. ¡°Sir, what on earth did you do today?¡± ¡°What did I do? Nothing special,¡± Romon answered carelessly again. ¡°I went out this morning to visit the Archbishop of the Church of Void Mask, Mr Miramon, and he introduced me to Lord Crick. We talked about cooperating and your proposal. Lord Crick prefers that it be decided by the two of you, so I showed you to Miss Anna through the Projection Crystal. She seemed to like you, so Lord Crick asked her to record something on the Projection Crystal for you.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°Rest assured. I didn¡¯t watch it. You can go back your room and watch it yourself.¡± Romon touched his student¡¯s head and said, ¡°However, you need to be mature. You¡¯re going to get married, after all.¡± Stephen blushed at once and couldn¡¯t say a word. Romon laughed loudly and asked Stephen to go back his room with the Projection Crystal. Romon went to his own room, took out the the doctrine of the Church of Void Mask that Bishop Miramon had presented just now, and studied it carefully. Romon¡¯s strength had reached a bottleneck at that time, and he had to be ready to work hard for the Legendary Realm. Theoretically, he could have been a Legendary Bard, or a Legendary Thief as he had originally planned, but now, he had changed his mind. He wanted to work hard in the direction of priesthood, aiming to become a legendary clergyman. That wouldn¡¯t be easy, but being a clergyman would make entering the Legendary Realm much easier. For that advantage only, it was worth a try. Romon had always been a realistic person, which had made him lose a lot, but also gain a lot. When he had been young, he had wanted to change himself and be a positive and hardworking man. But now that he was middle-aged, it was too late to make a change. There was nothing wrong with him maintaining what he had always been. However, when he looked at the lively doctrine, full of enthusiasm and righteousness in its lines, and compared it to his almost withered heart, he couldn¡¯t help laughing bitterly. If he wanted to be a clergyman, he had to be a sincere follower of his God first. Romon was willing to die at His Majesty Void Mask¡¯s order, but it was impossible for him to completely accept his overly naive and kind doctrine. To be honest, His Majesty had a great vision. For example, he believed that the fundamental reason why there were so many disputes in the world was competition for means of production. Nations, countries, races¡­ The emergence of these organizations was nothing more than forming alliances through various ties to grab means of production. And even within the same organizations, there was also competition for means of production¡­ These remarks were something Romon had never heard, and he felt very surprised at that. Compared to his adventuring experience over the years, he felt that what His Majesty had said was quite reasonable. It seemed to uncover a veil in front of Romon and help him see the truth of the whole world more clearly. But Romon didn¡¯t agree with His Majesty¡¯s solution to this problem. The Jellyfish God thought that the problem couldn¡¯t be solved through competition. Instead of increasing the means of production, competition would consume a good deal of it. Therefore, the more competition there was, the greater the damage to social production. If there were successive years of wars, it would even develop to the point where people suffered from starvation and a worse quality of life. In order to avoid such mistakes, they had to promote progress, both in technology and management, to increase the efficiency of production or reduce the consumption of the means of production. In this way, either increasing the output or reducing the consumption could effectively reduce the competition for means of production. That was reasonable, but Romon thought it was too idealistic. He felt that the vast majority of the people in this world, especially the powerful ones, were inclined to take possession of as many means of production as possible. He didn¡¯t know how to put it into a theory, but all the things he had seen over the years would help prove it. His Majesty¡¯s doctrine was good enough, and his idea was wonderful, but it was definitely impossible to achieve. However, most of the Gods¡¯ doctrines and concepts in this world weren¡¯t feasible, so he didn¡¯t care whether this Jellyfish God could achieve his doctrine or not. But if Romon didn¡¯t agree with that idea, he couldn¡¯t become a sincere follower of His Majesty Void Mask, and then he, naturally, wouldn¡¯t become a clergyman. This was an irreversible law that was set in stone. The core of the clergyman¡¯s power came from his God. For the extent his power could reach, the key element was the degree of his agreement with his God. Not all followers who highly agreed with their God¡¯s doctrine could be high-level clergymen, but to be a high-level clergyman, the follower had to strongly agree with his God¡¯s doctrine. Romon couldn¡¯t persuade himself to completely accept the doctrine of His Majesty Void Mask, so he couldn¡¯t be a clergyman at all. He could only be an extensive follower of the God at most, one who understood and respected his God¡¯s doctrine and acted under his lead, even though he didn¡¯t agree with it completely. In fact, Romon quite agreed with the doctrine of the God of Conspiracy, but that God was not only mean, but also cunning in other activities. Romon didn¡¯t want to entrust his life to a God who had no credit and often did evil things, so he couldn¡¯t exactly believe in the God of Conspiracy, either. People like me probably can¡¯t really believe in any God¡­ Romon mocked himself, laid aside the doctrine of Church of Void Mask, and began to think about what to do next. For a period of time to come, he would definitely play the role of Crick Keane. He was sure that he had the ability to do it well, at least to ensure that he wouldn¡¯t be exposed by others. But was that enough to fulfill His Majesty¡¯s orders? Probably not. Perhaps His Majesty had planned to lead the Keane Hill to stability and prosperity, and then it would be a base in the south for the development of the Church of Void Mask. If Romon wanted to accomplish this task well and earn His Majesty¡¯s appreciation, he needed to assist Anna Keane in promoting the development of the Keane Hill. But it wouldn¡¯t be easy! Romon had a headache when he thought about Anna¡¯s mediocre performance that day. As an assistant, the most fearful thing was working for mediocre monarchs. Generally speaking, it would be excellent to work for a talented monarch, and it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to work for a less capable monarch, since he would easily believe the assistant¡¯s tricks. Monarchs who had mediocre abilities or were only slightly better than ordinary people were the most difficult to deal with. The tricks wouldn¡¯t work on them, and it was impossible for them to come up with any good ideas, either. Since ancient times, many outstanding assistants had been tortured by such mediocre monarchs and eventually died of exhaustion. Romon had never worked with Anna Keane, so he didn¡¯t know whether this little girl was open to others¡¯ suggestions or not. He just hoped that she was neither aggressive nor addicted to power; otherwise, things would be incredibly difficult in the future! ¡°Alas! How wonderful it would be if Young Master Stephen could be the Hill Lord!¡± Stephen Carter wasn¡¯t very talented. He probably belonged to the category of those who were slightly better than ordinary people but far from being called talented. However, he had a great advantage¡ªhe was gentle and willing to listen to others¡¯ suggestions. If he met an aggressive assistant, he would take the authority easily, but if he met an honest assistant, his gentleness would be the perfect advantage. On the earth, Liu Shan, the emperor of the Shuhan Dynasty, had been a person like this. The good stories about him and his assistant, Zhuge Liang, had been widespread on earth. They¡¯d had such good teamwork that after entering the new era, a group of young historians had even tried to find some conspiracies in their cooperation on purpose. Of course, they had just wanted to become famous in the hype. If Stephen became the Hill Lord, and Romon became his assistant, they would be the Liu Shan and Zhuge Liang of this world. However, that was impossible. Romon thought about it for a while, then shook his head and smiled. If that was so easy a task, why had His Majesty Void Mask asked him to do it? Correspondingly, if he could finish this difficult task satisfactorily, he would prove his ability! However, there was still one important thing left to be done before that. He took out the secret material he was given by Crick when he left. This material had introduced almost all the suitors there in detail. What he had to do was study it carefully and find out a way to defeat them all at one time! Chapter 386 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A few days later, a rumor was spread throughout Keane Hill. It was said that Crick Keane had contacted some suitors and prepared to hold a party to let them meet Miss Anna Keane. These suitors were relatively weak in power so that they would not be a threat to Keane Hill in the future. During the party, Miss Anna would communicate with them and make her final choice of a fianc¨¦. That was just a rumor, but many people believed it was true since it had been presented vividly. Thus, many suitors sent their subordinates to investigate the whole thing in a hurry, and then many traces were found. Certainly, these subordinates reported what they had found in a hurry. After getting the information from their subordinates, these suitors exchanged it with each other and further confirmed that it was not a rumor but truth. Come of the suitors couldn¡¯t wait to discuss what they should do next. In a temporary camp outside of Keane City, Connor Griffin, coming from the Duchy of Griffon, was very angry after listening to his subordinate¡¯s report. His good mood after lovemaking was completely gone. He was sitting on a chair made of a kind of fragrant wood that could help to calm the mind. He was also wearing a precious item from the deep sea, the Ice Tear Pearl. However, with the help of these two things, he still couldn¡¯t suppress his anger and violence. With a gentle kick, the sound of broken bones came from the woman on the ground that he was using as a mat. This woman was hunted down by him this morning. He wanted to keep her for a wonderful night, but now he couldn¡¯t. Perhaps it was a happy ending for this woman to die so easily. However, Connor had an even worse mood, and his eyes became more violent. ¡°How dare Crick not send me an invitation!¡± he said coldly. ¡°How dare he!¡± Nobody answered. His subordinates knew his temper very well, so they knew that the one who replied would probably be his target to relieve his anger. Life was so precious that none of them would like to die here meaninglessly. Among all the suitors here, Connor Griffin had the highest rank. He was the younger brother of the current Griffon Duke. Although the current Griffon Duke had four sons, Connor was still one of the successors to the throne according to the law. Thus, in Connor¡¯s opinion, it would be an honor for the Baron to marry him. But in fact, Connor didn¡¯t even send an official note. According to the official documents Keane Hill had received, this camp belonged to a businessman called William. The reason why he came secretly was that he had too bad a reputation. As an earl of the Duchy of Griffon, Connor had a series of nicknames with evil meanings, including the Fierce Beast of Griffon, Evil Wolf, and Man-Eater. If he was not at such a high rank, these names would be even worse. His mother, a spy from the Orc Empire, was a Half-Orc with the blood of a werewolf. She was found and caught by the former Griffon Duke when she was disguised as a maid in the palace. As a spy, she was supposed to be killed, but at that time, instead of sleeping with human women, the former Griffon Duke was interested in the exotic female werewolf, so he made the exception to keep her alive. After several months, this female werewolf was pregnant. But she didn¡¯t give in, she kept resisting. The former Griffon Duke made her lose the ability to fight, so she kept cursing the former Griffon Duke as well as her child. At last, to make sure she could give birth to this child smoothly, the former Griffon Duke cut open her body and let an evil mage who had been good at the Death Soul Spell transfer all her vitality to the premature baby through the horrible spell. Then this baby was born alive and was named Connor. Connor was talented in martial arts. Now he was almost 40 and had become a high-level soldier. Besides, he had also made some achievements in magic and become a rare Magic Swordsman. But he was violent and ferocious, and he couldn¡¯t always control his anger over small incidents and acted very cruelly. At first, the former Griffon Duke was interested in studying Connor¡¯s behavior. Later, he focused mainly on seeking the independence of his country and lost his interest in Connor. When he died, his eldest son, the current Griffon Duke, succeeded his title. But the current Griffon Duke did not like his cruel brother. Being busy with all the government affairs, he simply ignored Connor and let him live in his own way. If things went on like this, Connor would probably become an unimportant member of the royal family all his life. He would be rich and powerful, but had no real power, and probably would not have his feudal territory. Unless he worked hard to advance into the Legendary Realm, he would live such a life until death. Connor certainly didn¡¯t want to live like that, so he had an idea when he heard that the Pearl of Thunder, Keane Hill was looking for a man to marry the Baron. With his high rank, there would be no problem in marrying such a Baron. No matter how bad his reputation was, he was still an earl of the Duchy of Griffon. But knowing well that he would most probably be rejected if he made the proposal in his real name, he decided to hide his identity and wait until the critical moment to suddenly show who he was in public to directly force Anna Keane to marry him. When was the critical moment? Would everything go smoothly then? These questions were too profound for Connor. He didn¡¯t want to pay attention to them nor did he bother to think about them. But that didn¡¯t mean he was a fool. Crick Keane had secretly invited suitors who didn¡¯t have powerful backgrounds to a party. It was clear that he wanted to solve the problem before others could take any action. He just wanted to avoid anything untoward happening. Of course, it also might be that Crick was dying and had to take the time to get things done. Connor was too lazy to guess Crick Keane¡¯s plan. What he was thinking about now was how to find out the time and place of the party. As long as he found out that, he would directly come to the party. What could a Baron do to him? If Crick Keane accepted him, then everything would be fine. If he didn¡¯t, Connor would just kidnap the little girl named Anna and come back to Keane Hill to inherit the title after Anna gave birth to a child. Everything would be simple and clear. That was what the Fierce Beast came up with. On the other hand, Drucker Ricci, a son of a big merchant from the Dhaka Commercial Association, remained silent when he heard the rumor. He was still eating with a smile, and there was not even a shiver in his hand when he took up the knife and fork. ¡°Crick deserved to be the master who came back alive from the battlefield of the Sun¡¯s Death Day. Apparently, he has a clear mind and is able to make a smart decision!¡± After the meal, he slowly wiped his mouth and washed his face and hands. He drank a cup of tea in an elegant manner that was contrary to his bloated appearance. He appreciated Crick¡¯s decision a lot, but could not accept it. The reason was simple. He was not invited either. Although he had known that he would never be invited; he would absolutely invade the Keane Family after that happened. He had even made plans to kill Anna after she gave birth to a child. In fact, that was what the Ricci Family had planned in advance. ¡°Go and check carefully when and where the party will be held. I don¡¯t care how much it will cost,¡± he said to his competent subordinates. ¡°Make it public as soon as you find out everything. Make sure every suitor knows it.¡± He paused for a moment and looked to the north with a smile. He stared at Connor¡¯s camp that nobody was willing to approach. ¡°Especially that one over there¡­¡± Chapter 387 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A single suitor didn¡¯t have much energy. However, when dozens of suitors worked together to investigate, the energy was amazing. Even the poorest suitors had at least three or five subordinates. If they didn¡¯t have such wealth, could they marry a female baron with a territory? Only in their dreams. Some powerful suitors such as Connor and Drucker even had dozens of subordinates. If added up, the dozens of suitors at least had 300 or 400 subordinates in total. Many of those subordinates had no ability, so they just ran errands. However, there were also many subordinates who had some abilities. If they really worked together, even a powerful earl couldn¡¯t resist it if he was off guard, let alone a baron. In the past, they had naturally been hostile competitors, so it had been impossible to cooperate. But now, at least for the purpose of ¡°investigation,¡± they cooperated. All of the people in this group acted, and their generated power was amazing. After just over an hour, Drucker got some actual news first. Then he spread the news in accordance with the established plan. It took less than half an hour, and all the suitors knew the time and place of the wine party. There was no doubt that when the party began, a lot of uninvited ¡°guests¡± would appear. ¡°These people are really amazing!¡± In the study of the Baron House, Crick smiled after listening to Rafael¡¯s report. He said to Romon, ¡°Although we originally intended to leak the news, their actions were much faster than we had expected.¡± ¡°Since they have the confidence to occupy our possessions, they must have some abilities,¡± Romon answered, sneering. ¡°Unfortunately, they are too greedy! It is necessary for the fakers to know that greed is the biggest taboo. This time, they will be killed by their own greed!¡± They talked a little, and then Ryder rushed in with a gloomy face. After entering the door, he immediately said with anger, ¡°My lord, one more died! That hybrid wolf has totally crossed the line!¡± The smile on Crick¡¯s face disappeared, and his eyes showed a dangerous glare. After a few seconds of silence, he said to Ryder, sighing, ¡°You, go to the girl¡¯s family. Comfort and compensate them well.¡± Ryder didn¡¯t answer but just looked at him. Crick understood the meaning of this subordinate, so he said, smiling, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Just let them wait a few days. Just a few days later, and I will let them see the dead body of the wolf.¡± Ryder was relieved. He bowed and hurriedly turned away. ¡°Your subordinate is really good,¡± praised Romon, who had just been silent. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about him. Such a person will never betray you.¡± ¡°I always believe in them,¡± Crick said, smiling. ¡°As for literacy, at best, I can compose some bad operas that will make the audience fall asleep. As for martial arts, probably, I can fight against a group of goblins. As for spells, I can become a magic apprentice, and that¡¯s the top. As for acting, you will think I¡¯m too stupid if I work as your assistant. Probably I¡¯m only good at politics, and that¡¯s all. ¡°You see, I¡¯m such a bad person, but I built up the barony. The key is that I am willing to trust them. I give them the positions that suit them best so that they can make the most of their talents.¡± Crick said, sighing softly, ¡°What I worry most about Anna is that she probably can¡¯t continue to do this like me. If she asks Rafael to manage the economy, Shawn to manage the intelligence, Rena to manage the troops, Ryder to manage the diplomacy, and Layton to manage the defense¡­ it will be a nightmare!¡± Imagining this situation, Romon couldn¡¯t help but smile. He said, ¡°That will be a tragedy!¡± ¡°Yes! The most terrible leader in the world is the one who is self-righteous and arranges work at his will,¡± Crick said, sighing. ¡°Qualified leaders should try hard to understand the talents of their subordinates and put them in suitable positions. Then, the rest of the work will be easy.¡± ¡°It¡¯s easy to say, but it¡¯s hard to do.¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s hard to do!¡± Crick couldn¡¯t help but sigh. He was able to do this because he had an extraordinary talent after time traveling. He could directly see the attributes of others. However, his sister didn¡¯t have such a talent. How could she do this? Difficult! Too difficult! Romon realized that Crick was in a low mood, so he found a topic to divert his attention. He said, ¡°Right, Lord Baron, why do you tolerate those guys making trouble in your territory?¡± He had wanted to ask him this question for a long time. Crick was obviously a good lord who valued the territory and the people. So, how could he tolerate those bad suitors making trouble in Keane City? Some of those guys used both sticks and carrots to drive the residents out and occupied their houses. Some cheated and bluffed to disturb the order and affected the residents¡¯ lives. Some were criminals who simply liked to burn and rob. Even some murderous villains like Connor Griffon, the Beast of Griffon, were here too. Normally, with Crick¡¯s temper, he should have fought with those people. Even a few of them should have been killed. How could those guys still be alive and continue to bring trouble to the residents of Keane City until now? Hearing that, Crick was silent for a while. Then he said, sighing, ¡°I know. But¡­ if I want to take it, I have to give it first. If they don¡¯t let their guards down, I won¡¯t be sure to kill them all at once.¡± Romon suddenly understood why. In his heart, he couldn¡¯t help but admire the lord who led Keane Hill to the road of glory. No wonder he had been able to come back from the horrible battlefield where even the gods had fallen. Although he felt bad and reluctant, he wasn¡¯t soft-hearted. Usually, Crick looked harmless and gentle, which was obviously not acting. However, at the key moments, he could be cruel and cold. The contrast made people fear him. The Keane family had originally been unremarkable, even to be occupied by others. Perhaps, only such a person as Crick could lead this family to overcome the difficulties step by step. He could make the territory more and more prosperous and finally led it to be famous in the world. Unfortunately, he was dying. If he could live another 20 or 30 years, the achievements of the Keane family would definitely not be restricted to a baron, a viscount, and an earl. He could even do what the Grand Duke of Griffon had done. It was quite possible to split a piece from the Duchy of Thunder and build his own country! What a pity! Romon couldn¡¯t help but sigh again; then he asked, ¡°What are you going do with them? Borrow power from my lord? Summon a demon or something else?¡± It was definitely not an easy task to kill hundreds of people at a time, and there were many masters among those people. If some legendary strongmen did the task, they might not be able to do it neatly. In this world, if someone wanted to do such things so efficiently that people wouldn¡¯t have an opportunity to find faults in the future, there could be only two ways: one was borrowing the Divine Power, and the other was to use the power of demons. If he wanted to borrow Divine Power, the power of the Void Mask was naturally the most reliable. However, to be honest, Romon was not sure that he could convince his lord and ask him to lend his power to create a massacre. In his impression, His Majesty, the Void Mask, was brave and bellicose, but he was not a murderous god. Among those hundreds of people, some didn¡¯t commit capital crimes. With the Void Mask¡¯s temper, he might only kill the chief villains. At that time, facing those who were not killed, Romon¡¯s position might be a bit embarrassing. Kill them? He would definitely violate the will of his god, which might make His Majesty unhappy. Not kill them? He would definitely leave the Keane family with hidden danger. If the danger broke out, the entire Keane family might die. In contrast, although it was dangerous and horrible to borrow power from demons, it was much simpler to deal with the aftermath. They just needed to try to get rid of those summoned demons, fighting them back into the abyss. With his own skills and the power to summon His Majesty at the key moment, Romon believed that it should easy to do that. However, the problem was that it was evil to summon demons. He didn¡¯t know whether Crick was willing or not to do it. Hearing those words, Crick smiled slightly. He said, shaking his head, ¡°Both the Divine Power and the demons will leave too obvious of a trace. I am not going to use those methods.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your solution?¡± Romon asked curiously. ¡°An explosion,¡± Crick answered. ¡°An explosion? Detonating magic crystals?¡± Romon thought for a while, then he advised, ¡°The cost is too high, and the explosion speed of magic crystals is slow. Maybe some people will run away.¡± ¡°Magic crystals? I won¡¯t use such mild things!¡± Crick said, smiling mysteriously. ¡°I have prepared a super powerful explosive, and the power is definitely strong enough!¡± ¡°What?¡± Romon was stunned. He didn¡¯t understand what could explode so quickly and violently. ¡°This thing¡­ I also spent a lot of time making it,¡± Crick said. He looked up at the window and sighed deeply with a sad expression. It had been really difficult. It took him a lot of time and energy to make concentrated nitric acid and then glycerin, which he had also spent a lot of time on. When the two had combined at last, good luck had been really important during the process! Fortunately, it was kind of simple. He had read the detailed manufacturing method in a novel that had been forbidden. With the fragmented information in his memory, he and Mage Damwade had secretly studied it for a long time. Finally, they had successfully made that thing whose name was inappropriate to mention. The danger of that thing could be proven by Mr. Nobel. Crick had sealed the finished product in a man-made cold environment, and then he had stored it in a very reliable space pocket that was specially ordered. He had been very careful during the whole process to avoid detonating it. He hadn¡¯t had any special plans to make that thing, and he really hadn¡¯t thought about using it to deal with someone. He had just felt that that thing might be useful someday. In fact, he had discovered that that thing had really been useless in this world. As for the power, it was no more powerful than the explosion of magic crystals. Moreover, it was more troublesome to detonate, and it was more difficult to store and produce. Therefore, it was no wonder that the world used magic crystals to explode stones. No one ever thought of inventing what Crick and Mage Damwade did. However, that thing was the most suitable item to use in this occasion! The explosion of this item was fast and powerful, and there was no magic reaction at all, so he didn¡¯t need to worry about being discovered. Most importantly, in this world, he was the only one who truly understood its principles. Even Mage Damwade only knew ¡°how¡± instead of ¡°why.¡± If he used it this time, and after his death, Mage Damwade went to live in the Void Mask Land, then no one could track it down no matter how great their abilities were! That great invention had promoted the development of an era on the earth. However, in this world, it was only a flash in the pan. What a pity. It would be a very beautiful flash, a triumph flash that would annihilate evilness! Chapter 388 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The next evening, a large group of guests came to the manor in Maple Leaf Village of Keane Hill. Keane Hill had one city and four villages, and every village had a manor. Manors were the industries of the lord. If a village had a canonized a knight, then the manor would be the knight¡¯s residence. Maple Leaf Village didn¡¯t have a canonized knight currently, so it was an industry directly belonging to Baron Keane. This manor was the place where Crick Keane had lived when he hadn¡¯t inherited the title yet. Later, his brothers had passed away, and he had inherited the title. Therefore, he had moved to Keane City, and the manor had been empty since then. Usually, no one had lived in it, so only a few farmers had helped to watch the gate and occasionally had cleaned it. A few days ago, the baron had sent a large number of people there, and they had carefully cleaned the manor both inside and outside. The old doors and windows had been replaced with new ones, the furniture had been polished brightly, and the ground had been spotless. Even the flowers and trees inside the manor had been adjusted to the flowering season by the mages who were specialized in the natural system spells. For a time, this manor, which had become ruined, was immediately revived. Even the pickiest person had to admit that it was a suitable place for the engagement ceremony of a baroness. ¡°Crick Keane is indeed an amazing man!¡± Drucker stood on a hill near the manor, looking at the beautiful scene. He said to the people around him, ¡°Look, in just the blink of an eye, the manor is all cleaned. This efficiency should be the top in any place!¡± ¡°Yeah, he is really amazing!¡± ¡°Unfortunately, he is dying,¡± Drucker said, sighing with some regrets. ¡°If he could live for another eight or ten years, I wouldn¡¯t dare to target his sister no matter how brave I am. However, even a wild wolf dares to roar at a dying dragon. The folk proverb is vulgar, but it makes sense!¡± ¡°My master, you are too modest! You are not necessarily worse than him!¡± ¡°Hah hah, don¡¯t praise me like that. I still have the self-knowledge,¡± Drucker said, laughing. ¡°Of course I have some abilities, but they are far worse than his! Alas, if I had his abilities, the heir of the Ricci family would be mine. Then why would I bother doing something bad that would only haunt me in the future?¡± This time, the subordinates really didn¡¯t know what to say next. Drucker laughed, then his eyes fell on the group of people who were quarreling with the guards at the manor¡¯s gate. They were trying to break in. ¡°These guys really lack respect. Since I have come here with Connor, then it¡¯s none of their business. They are so noisy and arrogant. What exactly do they want to do?¡± ¡°Maybe they think they still have a chance,¡± one subordinate said. ¡°As the saying goes, every dying person feels that they can still be rescued by a priest.¡± Drucker laughed. He said, patting him on the shoulder, ¡°You are right! People are always like this. Even if there is no hope at all, they always want to struggle and then fight for it again. If people didn¡¯t have such a mentality, the profits that our businessmen earned would definitely be seriously reduced. For example, now, if these idiots are going to take the lead, I can feel at ease behind them. Anyway, no matter what the benefits are, we must have a share.¡± ¡­ At this time, on the road not far from the manor, Connor was feeding his mount. His mount was a Land Walking Dinosaur, whose body was taller than an upright horse. Its face was fierce, and its fangs and sharp paws were combative. This kind of creature was completely different from the Nargacuga that Leon had been riding in the past. It was not a ¡°mount¡± in the general sense, but a kind of beast, even close to the level of a demon beast. It was proof of Connor¡¯s strength that he was able to tame it as his mount. The food he was feeding it at the moment was a live goat. The beast that had no bridle and was chewing up the goat. He held it with one paw and smashed it into two halves with blood flowing everywhere. ¡°Good boy! You are eating really well!¡± Connor said with his face full of joy. He patted the shoulder of the mount and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s a pity that this is not my own place. It¡¯s not convenient to get you some snacks. Don¡¯t worry. When I get this territory, I¡¯ll get you snacks every day!¡± His subordinates had been accustomed to this kind of scene a long time ago, so they were not surprised and kept quiet. After a while, the Land Walking Dinosaur almost ate the whole goat, leaving only pieces of the fur and horns. It ignored these things, kicked them away, and snarled with its head up high, asking his master to go. Connor laughed loudly. He jumped on the back of the Land Walking Dinosaur. With a command, a long line of people continued to move ahead, leaving a mess on the ground. After a while, Rafael arrived at the place where the Land Walking Dinosaur had eaten the goat with two elite scouts. A scout noticed the debris and bloodstains of the goat on the ground. He hurriedly jumped down from the horse and used his finger to dip into a little bit of blood on the far side of the goat¡¯s debris. He smelled it, licked it, and then his serious face relaxed a bit. ¡°Not human blood,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m not sure about what the blood is, but it is not human blood anyway. Probably¡­ an unlucky goat¡¯s.¡± ¡°Not human blood, then it¡¯s okay,¡± Raffle said in relief. ¡°That damn hybrid wolf! He killed people and actually took their hearts and livers to feed his dinosaur. Totally a madman!¡± ¡°I have heard a rumor that his mount is particularly fond of eating hearts and livers of living people, so he often kills people and takes their hearts and livers to feed it. He also calls the organs ¡®snacks,''¡± another scout said. Rafael¡¯s face darkened. He screamed angrily, ¡°Don¡¯t tell rumors! Did you see that? Did you hear that? Even if it is true, shut your trap. I just had a meal!¡± The two scouts laughed. The scout who had checked the bloodstains took out a folding shovel invented by Crick. He shoveled the flesh and blood debris to the side of the road and put some dirt to cover them. Then he took the shovel away and returned to his horse. ¡°Cap, do we continue chasing him?¡± he asked. Rafael looked at the sky, then he said, nodding, ¡°Let¡¯s continue to chase but remember to keep a distance. We are not looking for a fight with that hybrid.¡± His subordinates nodded, and their team continued to move along the road. ¡­ At this time, people were quarreling at the manor¡¯s gate. Groups of dozens of suitors were arriving constantly. With the number of their subordinates, the total number of people was already over 100. They wanted to enter the manor, so they kept yelling. Although some guards were trying to block them, they couldn¡¯t stop them at all. If they didn¡¯t fear about infuriating Crick Keane, they would have pushed the guards away forcibly and broke into the manor. Then Connor came. Looking at the messy scene here, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh scornfully. After laughing, he didn¡¯t talk to the guards nor did he greet the other suitors. He patted the head of his mount directly and said, ¡°Move!¡± The huge Land Walking Dinosaur immediately stepped forward and walked towards the inside of the manor. It completely ignored the people on the road and the guards who were trying to block them. It went straight into the manor. It was too crowded, so the dinosaur directly trampled the crowd to go inside. At least three or four people were injured by its steps, and they fell to the ground, screaming in pain. The companions of those people were shocked. They wanted to swear, but they didn¡¯t dare. They had to hurriedly drag their companions back to the roadside. Other suitors were also shocked by Connor¡¯s unreasonably fierce behavior, so they honestly just got out of his way. Then, his subordinates followed him closely, and they wandered into the manor. As a result, the efforts of the guards were lost. After Connor and his group went in, the other suitors also followed and broke in. They went straight to the manor hall. ¡­ On the hill in the distance, Drucker nodded. He said to his subordinates, ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go. Let¡¯s just join in the fun.¡± Then everyone rode on their horses and headed towards the manor. ¡°By the way, Master, when the time comes¡­ how will you negotiate with Connor?¡± a competent subordinate asked. Drucker smiled, and his fat, pig-like face showed murderous intent. ¡°Negotiate? No need to negotiate with that wolf. At that time, when you hear my secret signals, just shoot him directly with the poisonous crossbow, and all will be over.¡± ¡°What?! But he is the prince of the Duchy of Griffon!¡± ¡°What are you afraid of? So many people are there, so it is easy to find a scapegoat,¡± Drucker said indifferently. ¡°Just use this opportunity to remind the Keane family that they should recognize the situation. This piece of land, the territory known as the Pearl of Thunder, is ours from now on!¡± Chapter 389 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Half an hour later, suitors gathered in the hall of the manor house of Maple Leaf Village. Crick Keane, sitting in a wheelchair, was still at ease. But the Baroness pushing the wheelchair had lost her calm and her nerves showed. His subordinates and guards were even more anxious, embarrassed, and restless. They looked as if they were facing their enemies. But they did not dare to act rashly. Seeing that, many suitors felt contented and less worried. Even the strong ones who managed to come back alive from the battlefield of the ¡°Day of Sun¡¯s Death¡± would die eventually. Crick in the present was like a dying beast. Even a milk-fed puppy could bark at him without fear. Of course, these suitors were not little puppies. They were all insidious, cunning and vicious. It would be hard to find even one easy-going person among them. So where were the easy-going and kind ones? ¡°Sir, why are you calling us together? Miss Anna is having a cocktail party over there,¡± Stephen complained with a bitter face, puzzled at the teacher¡¯s decision. Romon smiled and did not reply. He just took his glass and greeted the suitors he had invited. From time to time, he cheered with others, drank a little, laughed, and said a few words. The suitors he invited had all been well selected, and their personalities were relatively good. Among them were knights from declining families; adventurers who were tired of fighting; young people who were confident in their talents; and downtrodden nobles who just wanted to find a place to escape the pressures from their families. They all had one thing in common. At least in Crick¡¯s eyes, they were all good men. That was enough. So when Crick was ready to take some great action, he asked Romon to invite them all under the fame of the Carter family. Of course, another reason for inviting them was to negotiate issues on cooperation and common development. Anna Keane was not a famous beauty. None among the suitors really came to Keane Hill to admire her. They were relatively weak in background and did not expect too much. It was more practical to talk to the Carter family about cooperation than to compete with dangerous guys such as Connor Griffin and Drucker Ricci. Unfortunately, not all of the invitees arrived. Some were so obsessed that they insisted on attending Miss Anna¡¯s cocktail party. To such people, Crick could only say that if a man insisted on doing something deadly, then he would die. Crick was a good man, but he was no saint. After a while, Romon greeted all the invitees and came to the center of the temporary venue arranged in the rented lobby of the pub. ¡°Welcome!¡± he said. ¡°First of all, please allow me to introduce to you the host of tonight¡¯s meeting: Miss Anna Keane.¡± For a moment, the hall was completely silent. They all kept their eyes on the slowly approaching Anna, accompanied by Rena who disguised herself as a maid. Anna walked in through the back door of the hall and came to the center at a steady pace until she stood next to Romon and Stephen. Nobody had expected that Anna, who should have been present at the cocktail party, would be here! And, it was Romon who introduced her. Not only that, but their positions were crucial. On the left was Romon, beside him was Stephen, then Anna, and finally Rena. With Anna standing next to Stephen, they looked like a young couple! What did that mean? Had the Keane family decided to cooperate with the Carter family via marriage? It seemed reasonable. Stephen Carter was about the same age as Anna Keane. The young man was also handsome and had a certain amount of fortune. At least in this venue, he was the best choice. So who else on earth would get a chance? A rashly tempered knight could not help but ask, ¡°Excuse me, but has Miss Anna been engaged to Mr. Stephen Carter?¡± He asked so straightforwardly, it made the thoughtful and cautious suitors around him unhappy. What the hell was that? There were only two answers to that: yes or no. It was forcing Miss Anna to make a decision! Maybe Miss Anna was still hesitating and hadn¡¯t made up her mind yet, and being asked in this way would make her answer ¡°yes.¡± If she said ¡°no,¡± it wasn¡¯t a good sign either. The other suitors would be deceiving themselves in thinking there was hope if Stephen failed here! Suddenly five or six pairs of eyes looking at the reckless Knight filled with anger. But the knight was confused and could not understand what was wrong. The few careful suitors expected what happened next. Anna, in fact, hadn¡¯t made up her mind yet. But when asked in this way, she didn¡¯t think carefully before she turned to Stephen to see his dazzlingly handsome face. She took a deep breath and answered, as calmly as possible. ¡°Yes.¡± It would be appropriate to describe the mood of the suitors in the hall as disappointed and regretful. Some people saw the hesitation in Anna¡¯s eyes, noting that she first turned to Stephen before finally making up her mind. Some people were heartbroken, but even more sighed with relief. It was indeed a torture to work on something so apparently hopeless! There was applause in the hall that nobody could pinpoint the origin of. Others followed, and applause came in waves. Later came the whistles, which plunged the small meeting hall, which was neither luxurious nor lively, into a happy atmosphere. Stephen was perplexed for a while and felt a little dizzy. How did it work? He hadn¡¯t expected it at all. Yes, he had talked with Miss Anna through the Projection Crystal several times about a lot of things. He felt that this Baroness was really a good person and very suitable for him. But how did it suddenly develop into engagement? Perplexed, he turned his head to his teacher for consultation. Romon, always watchful, immediately performed magic by an invisible ¡°Wage¡¯s Hand.¡± He gently pushed Stephen¡¯s face so that he turned his head to Anna instead of Romon, On the other side, Anna heard Romon¡¯s voice. ¡°Look this way.¡± She was a little shy and embarrassed, so she did it subconsciously. She looked up Romon¡¯s side and her eyes met instead with Stephen¡¯s. This was the truly first eye contact they had since they had known each other. They had talked with each other several times through the Projection Crystal and certainly liked each other but had never met. Before tonight, neither had looked the other in the eyes so seriously. After all, they were shy teenagers. This time, under Romon¡¯s arrangement, they finally looked into each other¡¯s eyes. Two pairs of crystal eyes and two hearts with the same innocence met. Like magnets, their eyes were inseparable from that moment on. At first, they were somewhat blank and curious. This soon turned gentle happiness. Their eyes seemed to talk as they exchanged thoughts and emotions with each other. They completely forgot themselves for a while and left everything around them. The hall gradually quieted down. Everyone smiled and watched the boy and the girl stare at each other. Some time later, perhaps due to an itchy nose, someone sneezed. The hall was quiet, and the sneeze was so astonishingly loud that it woke Stephen and Anna up. They turned their heads away in a hurry. Meanwhile, their faces flushed and their heads drooped down in synchronicity. ¡°Haha! They look like husband and wife!¡± A bold and bright adventurer laughed. ¡°You are the best match!¡± Stephen and Anna¡¯s faces turned even redder, but they could not help but laugh. Romon could not help himself either. He held up his glass while laughing. ¡°Blessings to them! Cheers!¡± The guests also laughed and raised their glasses. ¡°Cheers for Mr. Stephen and Miss Anna!¡± Glasses of wine were sent to lips, and just as they were all about to drink up the good wine full of joy and blessings, a loud noise came from outside the city. It came from the direction of Maple Leaf Village. Chapter 390 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sometime earlier, inside the manor of the Maple Leaf Village. Crick was wearing a fake smile. He pretended to be calm, chatting with the suitors to buy time. The suitors were noisy. Most of them wanted Miss Anna to come out and meet with everyone. There was no courtesy in their words. In their view, Crick Keane was already a dead tiger, so they didn¡¯t need to be afraid of him. Keane Hill was a dish on the menu. They were holding knives and forks in their hands, just waiting for the feast. Crick tried to hold back the anger in his heart so that he would not sneer. He tried to steer clear of certain topics when chatting with them. If he couldn¡¯t stall them off anymore, he would cough violently until blood came out of his mouth. Of course, those people would not be polite to him even if he coughed up blood. However, he coughed so violently that he couldn¡¯t talk, so they could do nothing about that. Connor had been watching the scene with a cold face. In this mess, he finally spoke up. ¡°I know that you are dying, but before you die, you must do the business first!¡± He pushed a few nearby suitors and their followers aside casually. They couldn¡¯t stand steadily. A thin suitor even fell down, knocking down a table next to him and falling heavily to the ground. ¡°Ouch!¡± ¡°Jack! Are you okay, Jack?¡± ¡°Watch out! You blind fool.¡± ¡°How unreasonable!¡± ¡°Shush! He is Connor, the Beast!¡± ¡°What?! That wolf?¡± For a time, everyone was in an uproar. However, Connor didn¡¯t care. He swaggered towards Crick. If there were some people who were upright and brave here, they might step forward and speak out from a sense of justice. However, at this moment, people who had gathered here were poor in character. Most of them recognized Connor¡¯s identity, so they weren¡¯t willing to conflict with this fierce villain. A few didn¡¯t recognize Connor¡¯s identity, but they also saw the strength Connor had shown, so they weren¡¯t willing to speak up for that unlucky guy. In fact, at this moment, many people were secretly pleased because of that guy¡¯s misfortune. Connor went directly in front of Crick. People along his way separated, making way for him. The scene was solemn. This tall man, who was of werewolf descent, was looking down on Crick, who was sitting in a wheelchair. Connor¡¯s eyes were full of disdain, and his body revealed more coercion. ¡°Do not play dead! Make your sister come here and give her to me, then you can die in whatever ways you want,¡± he said coldly. Crick didn¡¯t answer. He even didn¡¯t look at him. He just looked at the people attending the wine party calmly. In the eyes of those people, he couldn¡¯t see goodwill and friendship. He couldn¡¯t see care for Anna, and he couldn¡¯t see any respect for the Keane family. On the contrary, he could see greed, viciousness, contempt, impatience and all kinds of ugly desires. Maybe the men here haven¡¯t committed capital crimes, but at least for me, all of them¡­ should be killed! He couldn¡¯t help but smile when he thought about that. ¡°Is this is what you want, or what everyone here wants?¡± Crick asked. After the smile, he still didn¡¯t look at Connor but asked everyone in the hall. Connor frowned, feeling that he was underestimated by this dying, sick man. He couldn¡¯t help but reach his arm out to grab Crick. He wanted to pick Crick up from the wheelchair and punch him. Just then, Drucker spoke up. ¡°Connor Griffon, you think too highly of yourself!¡± Connor immediately loosened his grip. He turned back and stared at Drucker in disgust. ¡°Fat pig! Who allows you to talk to me in this tone!¡± With a careless smile on his face, Drucker didn¡¯t become angry because of the insulting name. He still stood there, not even interested in moving forward. His eyes were full of disdain, as if Connor Griffon, who was now angry, wasn¡¯t a famous master. In his eyes, Connor wasn¡¯t the Beast of Griffon, but a small dog who was barking at him from the roadside. This contemptuous attitude made Connor extremely angry, so he rushed toward Drucker, screaming at the same time, ¡°I want to twist your fat head off!¡± Before Connor¡¯s voice died away, Drucker raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. At the same time, his followers around him took out heavy crossbows whose height was the same as half a person¡¯s height. Each crossbow was full of arrows, and the arrows were poisonous, which could be used to kill huge demon beasts such as ground dragons. Without any hesitation, they fired together at Connor. The rushing winds of arrows whistled. Before the winds whistled, the fast-moving arrows had crossed the short distance between them and had flown into the face of Connor. Connor hadn¡¯t thought that Drucker would start attacking directly and they intended to kill him. Under the circumstance, he couldn¡¯t dodge at all, so he could only try his best to raise his airflow. While trying to block the arrows with his airflow, he tried to jump into the air. He wanted to jump to the side of Drucker and launch a violent counterattack. However, everything was in vain. All of Drucker¡¯s subordinates were good at using heavy crossbows, each of whom had the strength to participate in shooting competitions and won the prizes. In this sudden surprise attack at a close distance, Connor had no defense, so Drucker¡¯s subordinates wouldn¡¯t miss the target. With the whistles of flying arrows, Connor was already shot by a dozen arrows, and the poison infiltrated into his organs. Connor had originally been roaring and jumping in the air, but now his body had lost its vitality. He fell down in front of Drucker. Until then, Connor¡¯s subordinates realized what had happened. They screamed with horror and then rushed over, trying to protect their master. However, it was too late. After the successful shots, Drucker¡¯s subordinates immediately dropped the heavy crossbows; then they pulled out their weapons to attack Connor¡¯s followers. Drucker slowly walked up to Connor, who was unable to resist. He stepped on Connor¡¯s head and pulled a sharp knife out from his boot. He didn¡¯t mean to waste time, so he just cut straight down. The magic knife enchanted with a high-level sharp spell was amazingly sharp. It was easy to cut Conner¡¯s neck open. His black blood sprayed out, splashing all over the ground. At this moment, the people around had already escaped, so the blood didn¡¯t splash on them. Otherwise, if they were splashed by his poisonous blood, they might be poisoned and die as well. After the first cut, Drucker didn¡¯t stop. The second cut, the third cut, then the fourth¡­ It was only a moment later, and Connor¡¯s head was separated from his body. He was completely dead. Probably, this fierce and violent guy, who had been violent for decades, never imagined that he would die like this. Someone cut his head off so easily, just like killing chickens and slaughtering sheep. Connor¡¯s followers were scared of that scene, but no one dared to escape, so they had to attack madly, trying to break through the blockade of Drucker¡¯s subordinates to kill Drucker. The Grand Duke of Griffon was extremely strict, and he used the military law to manage those followers. Those people hadn¡¯t protected Connor well, and Connor had died in front of them. They had committed an irreparable capital crime. At this moment, they had to kill Drucker and avenge Connor. Otherwise, they would have to die in this battle, so that they wouldn¡¯t involve their families. At this point, they had no choice. For a time, swords were crossing, flesh and blood was splashing, and the scene was extremely fierce. The suitors and their followers were scared, but they were too afraid to leave. Therefore, they could only hide in the corner of the hall, away from the battlefield. Some had retreated to the gate so that they could escape immediately if the situation got worse. Drucker¡¯s obese face showed a peaceful smile. He didn¡¯t take it to heart that he had just killed the prince of the Duchy of Griffon. He walked to Crick with a smile. ¡°Hello, Lord Baron Keane,¡± he said with a bow. ¡°I am sorry I allowed that uncultivated bastard to disturb you.¡± Crick smiled and nodded. ¡°No, I want to thank you,¡± Crick said. ¡°As you can see, I have completely lost my fighting ability. You have killed him for me. I have vented my anger, so I want to thank you.¡± Drucker¡¯s fat eyes narrowed because he hadn¡¯t expected Crick to have such a reaction. He said, laughing, ¡°So, Lord Crick, do you think that I am a suitable husband for Miss Anna?¡± Crick did not answer. He just smiled at Drucker. ¡°I admit that my appearance is a bit ugly, but it is just because I¡¯m too fat,¡± Drucker said with a smile. ¡°In the culture of our Dhaka Commercial Association, we¡¯re proud of being fat. Being fat represents wealth. After all, only rich people can eat good food and become fat. I have been living there for a long time. But you don¡¯t need to worry. As long as you give me a few months, with the power of magic, I can lose weight fast. At that time, I will be quite handsome.¡± Crick nodded, smiling. He said, ¡°I totally believe that.¡± ¡°So, you see, appearance is not a problem. As for my strength, you must have already known that others can¡¯t compete with me,¡± Drucker said with confidence. ¡°If I get married to Miss Anna, it¡¯ll be impossible for the aristocrats around to get their hands on Keane Hill, even including the Grand Duke of Thunder!¡± Crick smiled again, and he didn¡¯t answer that. ¡°As for the feelings, I admit that I have no feelings for Miss Anna. But is it important for people at our level? Marriage is for the mutual benefit, and you are not an innocent boy who believes in feelings, right?¡± Crick nodded again. He said, ¡°You make a lot of sense, but we can¡¯t completely exclude others. So, I will call Anna out to meet you guys. How¡¯s that?¡± Certainly, Drucker wouldn¡¯t object, so Crick asked his wife to leave with the servants. Anna was waiting in the back room, so he asked them to help her to change clothes, dress up, and then come to meet the guests. However, Amyveile, who had always followed his words, violated his orders this time. She waved her hand to order the servants to do those things, and she still held the wheelchair, refusing to leave. Crick looked up at her, frowning. She smiled softly. When Crick had just woken up, sick in bed, she had looked after him with the same soft smile. Then he understood. He sighed secretly. Without saying a word, he patted the back of her hand and smiled at her. ¡°Sorry, my wife is a little worried about me¡­ So, you just wait for a little longer, please. I¡¯m afraid that it will be a bit slow when only the servants do the work,¡± he said with a smile. At the moment, people were fighting in the hall, so the suitors weren¡¯t free to care about that! Although a few people were worried when they saw that the servants had left, they were relieved when they that saw the Keane couple had stayed here. However, after a while, Miss Anna didn¡¯t appear, and the servants didn¡¯t return, either. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Crick frowned, pulling out a pocket watch with difficulty. He looked at the time, then he asked, ¡°Why do they spend such a long time?¡± ¡°Women always take some time in dressing up,¡± Drucker said with a smile. He felt the victory was in his grip, so he was in a good mood now. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t take such a long time! Is she playing games?¡± Crick shook his head. He looked at the pocket watch again with a dissatisfied expression. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Let¡¯s drink,¡± Drucker said, smiling. He walked to the table where the wine was placed; then he poured two glasses of wine. He returned to Crick with a glass in each hand and handed one to Crick. ¡°Although this is a bit sad to say, I don¡¯t think you mind drinking now.¡± Crick made a bitter smile. He asked his wife to take the glass of wine, and then coughed for a while. After that, he looked down at the pocket watch again. ¡°How can she be so slow!¡± he muttered with dissatisfaction. ¡°Did something unexpected happened?¡± ¡°Do you need me to send a few people to check?¡± Drucker asked. ¡°From my side¡­ it should be possible to pick two or three people out.¡± Crick said, shaking his head, ¡°Let¡¯s wait. Anyway, I will wait once more.¡± Hearing those words, Drucker thought that Crick completely surrendered and admitted defeat, so he couldn¡¯t help but smile more blissfully. At this moment, the ground under their feet suddenly burst. In a flash, an unthinkable violent explosion swallowed the entire hall. The prepared Crick and Amyveile and the unprepared Drucker and the other suitors and followers had no time to react to that violent explosion. In the next moment, a loud noise shook the world. The shock wave along with the noise of the violent explosion destroyed the entire manor. The aftermath waves continued for a long time, and Maple Leaf Village almost became a ruin. The ground vibrated violently just like an earthquake. This vibration spread in all directions, so people could even feel it hundreds of miles away. At this time, the servants who were originally in the manor and the villagers in Maple Leaf Village were away from the village under the leadership of Knight Charles and the soldiers. They were hiding in a forest. Many of them were shaken down to the ground, and more of them were stunned, staring at the huge flames rising from the manor. They couldn¡¯t speak. Charles stared at the flame quietly and burst into tears. Among the people present, he was the only one who knew what had happened there. ¡°If we could be more powerful¡­ our lord wouldn¡¯t have needed to ¡­¡± ¡­ Hearing the explosion and feeling the vibration, Romon¡¯s smile disappeared. He sighed deeply. ¡°What happened?¡± the people attending the party asked in a panic. ¡°Nothing.¡± Romon waved his hands, asking everyone to calm down. ¡°I can tell from the sound that it is far from us. No matter what happens, it won¡¯t affect us. Don¡¯t worry.¡± In order to prevent Anna from revealing her nervousness and worry, Crick hadn¡¯t told her about his plans. He even hadn¡¯t told Rena who accompanied Anna to participate in the party. Therefore, in the hall of the party, Romon was the only one who really understood the meaning of the loud noise. ¡­ At this time, next to the small portal of the temple of Void Mask, Mage Damwade looked back in the direction of the explosion for the last time. He sighed deeply and then walked into the portal without turning his head, traveling to the Void Mask Land. If nothing else happened, he would spend the rest of his life there. ¡­ Archbishop Miramon was a little shocked. Although he had had some understandings of Crick¡¯s plan, he hadn¡¯t expected that the method of Crick would be so fierce. This was shocking! ¡°Even if two legendary strongmen had a fight to the death, the scene would be fierce just like this¡­¡± he couldn¡¯t help but mutter. ¡°The power of Mr. Crick¡¯s last move is really beyond imagination!¡± ¡­ In the study room of the Baron House, Housekeeper Layton was sitting in the dark corner, crying loudly. This old man had always paid attention to his appearance. Now, his tears had wet his white beard, but he totally ignored that and kept crying. ¡°Young master! Young Master Crick! Why did you pass away, too! Master! You asked me to take care of the young masters, but I was useless. I didn¡¯t take good care of the three young masters! None of them!¡± ¡­ Knight Howard James was leading his two sons and all the riders in the territory to guard the main road to Keane City. Suddenly, he turned back, looking in the direction of the fire and the loud explosion. His body had always been strong, but now his hands trembled, and he gradually became unable to hold the reins. ¡°Why¡­ I¡¯m such a useless old thing. Why didn¡¯t I die instead?¡± ¡­ Ryder was patrolling with the soldiers in the city. Suddenly, he stopped and turned back to look in the direction of the explosion. His old friend next to him, Priest Morton, the Fire Hammer, was stunned. He asked in confusion, ¡°What happened?¡± Ryder was silent. Then he answered, sighing deeply, ¡°A great man has passed away.¡± Morton frowned, and then he understood what Ryder meant. He looked a little surprised, but he said nothing, just sighing for a long time. ¡­ The information officer, Rafael, was standing on the observation tower at the top of the castle. He was also looking in the direction of the explosion. Usually, he never drank alcohol. However, he poured a glass of wine today and drank with Warden Shadow, who rarely left his prison. ¡°What happened there?¡± Shadow asked. Rafael sighed and whispered something to him. Shadow¡¯s face was full of horror. He suddenly stood up in shock, then finally sat back down again. ¡°Fess doesn¡¯t know that, right?¡± he asked. ¡°No. In the entire territory, no more than ten people know,¡± Rafael whispered. ¡°If our lord is gone, what will happen to the territory?¡± Shadow asked with concern. ¡°There will always be a way!¡± Rafael said seriously. ¡°There will always be a way!¡± Looking at the old warden who was over 50 years old, Rafael¡¯s eyes were bright for the first time in his life. ¡­ The sanctuary of the God¡¯s Kingdom was covered with soft white light. In the sanctuary, Crick and Sui Xiong met. Of course, what Crick met was Sui Xiong¡¯s human appearance, exactly the same appearance as when he had been a person on earth. Without words, the communication of their souls allowed them to understand each other. Originally, they were the souls of one body, so they were conveying their true feelings and thoughts in a way that no one could understand. ¡°Is my life meaningful?¡± Crick asked. ¡°Your life is equal to my life,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°You are neither a puppet nor an experimental product. You are ¡®Sui Xiong,¡¯ just on another path with a different life.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I did it well enough. I should have been able to do better,¡± Crick said. ¡°No, you have done a good job, even better than me,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°This short life makes you passionate. Although I¡¯m a god, the light that you exude makes me feel ashamed.¡± ¡°Amyveile, what about her?¡± Crick asked. ¡°If you want, I can resurrect her. But I don¡¯t think that she will like that,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You are right, that¡¯s too cruel for her!¡± Crick sighed deeply. ¡°Can you help me eliminate her memories, change her appearance, and let her live peacefully and happily ever after?¡± ¡°Does that make sense?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°It may not make sense to her, but it makes a lot of sense to me,¡± Crick said with a bitter smile. ¡°That¡¯s the only thing I can do for her.¡± ¡°If you want, actually, you can live in my God¡¯s Kingdom together, and no one will know your identity,¡± Sui Xiong proposed. ¡°No, that¡¯s not the ending for me.¡± Crick smiled and shook his head. ¡°You are taking the path of a god. I am taking the path of a mortal. Let me walk this road to the end and leave you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m very sorry.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to apologize. If you can open up the world a little bit in the right direction, then everything will be worthwhile! It would be the same if you were me, right?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I would be as noble as you are,¡± Sui Xiong said with a blush. ¡°Hah hah, you are me. In similar situations, you would make the same choices that I have made,¡± Crick said, smiling. ¡°I don¡¯t have much time. In short, I¡¯ll leave everything to you.¡± ¡°Your wish is my wish,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Amyveile, Anna, Keane Hill, and your friends¡­ I will take care of them. Or to say, you are still the one who takes care of them, just with a different appearance.¡± Crick smiled, and his soul gradually disappeared, turning into countless light spots. However, the biggest light spot didn¡¯t disappear. When Sui Xiong showed his real body, the spot fell to the forehead of the giant jellyfish and turned into countless messages. At the end of these messages, there was a relieved chuckle. ¡°I have no regrets in my life!¡± Chapter 391 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the incubator of His Kingdom, the giant jellyfish pondered quietly while supplying force to the God of Healing in the light cocoon. Crick¡¯s message to him was far more striking than any avatar¡¯s before, both in quantity and quality. His insight helped Sui Xiong open his vision in many ways that he had never thought possible. Due to his limited strength, Crick had not gotten much insight in terms of the laws of power and the origin of the world. But in social, political, economic, and other aspects, he showed profound understanding. He was like a meteor crossing the sky and made the whole world remember him. It was no exaggeration to say that Crick had left him a rich legacy beyond imagination. Since Sui Xiong¡¯s arrival in this world, he had received important intelligence several times. The first was the gift from the God of Redemption, who gave him a preliminary understanding of the world, the Gods, and other powerful characters. He provided geographical knowledge and information on race and culture. It could be said this gift got rid of his ignorance about the world. The second was communication with the Boy of Ceremony, Javier. Javier was a social and insightful optimist, so he collected a lot of information. His documentation style was very messy and it was hard to find context, but it was rich and varied. It provided Sui Xiong with a deep understanding of the world¡¯s heroes. The third was the information given by the Sun God. The Sun God exposed the world¡¯s power system, evolved various fields, and mastered the composition of clergies. Sui Xiong had not been able to thoroughly understand it all. But with the knowledge he could hold on to, his strength would surely advance by leaps and bounds. He could become one of the world¡¯s most outstanding masters, a rare thing. The fourth time was now, with the information from Crick. What he provided had nothing to do with power, but it greatly broadened Sui Xiong¡¯s horizons. Crick gave him a deeper understanding of the inner workings of social evolution and the social world, which was something that only time-travelers were willing to study and think deeply about. Sui Xiong finally had a clear understanding of how to promote the development and progress of this world. In Sui Xiong¡¯s opinion, Crick¡¯s information was just as valuable as the Sun God¡¯s. No! Crick had provided something even more valuable, something unparalleled in this world. The information from the Sun God was enough to pave the way for a great man to become a divine force. But there were so many divine forces in the world. Who had brought peace and progress to the world? Who would make people live in peace and contentment? Who had promoted productivity and development? Nobody! Crick¡¯s information was different. It wasn¡¯t for the creation of great men but paved the path for those who were willing to push the world forward. Those who would strive to make ordinary people¡¯s lives better. Crick made it clear what to work hard towards instead of slaving at a goal that would soon be obliterated by history. Sui Xiong thought the most appropriate name for the information might be Capital. Capital? Haha¡­ Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh at this thought. When the revolution is won, should I give Crick the title of Great Mentor? He laughed to himself again. Then, he enacted an order. It said, ¡°From now on, cooperate with Felix to unify the four towns in the Northwest.¡± This did not surprise anyone. Felix¡¯s management and preparation in recent years had headed in the direction of unifying the Northwest and building an independent country. His Majesty Void Mask issuing the statement was blowing the final horn directing all to charge. However, the document that was subsequently launched left many confused. According to the document, there would be no more nobles in the new country unifying the four towns of the Northwest. A person who did meritorious deeds could be promoted to an official or given various rewards, but he would not become the ruler of an area. Of course, aristocracy still existed, but it would be an honor and allowance which would be gradually reduced with the succession of descendants. If their descendants were not devoted, after five generations, even the highest-ranking Dukes would be downgraded to the lowest rank of Barons. Fortunately, they wouldn¡¯t be further downgraded. Unless there was a crime, the title of Baron could be passed on forever. But the title of Baron would be accompanied by a salary that just managed to guarantee enough food and clothing for the family, as well as several honors, but without much practical benefit. Unless they were really comfortable with a poor life, the descendants of nobles needed to continue to work hard to maintain the honor and status of the family. Knighthood would be below the rank of Baron, and would not be hereditary. If people wanted their children to benefit from them, they would need to work hard. What¡¯s more, official posts would be separated by rank or title. A high official might not come from a high rank; a high ranking noble might not take a high official post. The official post would be decided by honor, while the title would be given by performance. Of course, people who worked well would certainly be honored, but they would not necessarily be able to get titles. Only those outstanding people who had made far more than the standard of achievement could get titles. In general, the value of the noble titles would be greatly reduced according to this system. The future state that unified the Northwest would be ruled by officials rather than the aristocracy, which had never been seen before. Officials would no longer be acquired through inheritance or promotion, but through extensive screening, practice, promotion from the grass-roots level to the top. Moreover, the powers of officials and the aristocracy were explained and restrained in this document. It repeatedly emphasized that the core of governing the country lay in public opinion, and the law was the basic criterion for dealing with the daily affairs of the country. In this new country, no one could surpass the law, from the highest governor to the adventurers who passed by occasionally. As long as they were located in the country, there would be no exceptions! In the past, many countries¡¯ laws emphasized the sanctity of rulers. The three chapters of the famous Code of Eagle Kingdom at the time were ¡°The rights of kings, the rights and duties of nobles, and the duties of civilians.¡± For a long time, that was the basic principle legal system in the whole world. Kings had unrestricted rights, and aristocrats had rights but had to fulfill their obligations. The rights of civilians were not guaranteed, while only their obligations were necessary. The document issued by His Majesty Void Mask clearly negated the social order that had stood for thousands of years. In that new country, the rights of all people would be guaranteed. All people would fulfill their obligations, with no exceptions. At the end of the document, Sui Xiong called this unprecedented form of state the Republic. It meant that this country would not be the private property of a king, a family, or even a God, but shared by all citizens. Second, it meant that all ranks of the country were equal before the law, and everyone¡¯s rights would be guaranteed. There would be no more domination or control. The name of this new country would be The Republic of Northwest. Chapter 392 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Javier rushed here hurriedly. As soon as he saw Sui Xiong, he yelled angrily, ¡°You are so crazy! Are you going to be an enemy of all the gods? Are you tired of living, so you want to die?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not as serious as you said,¡± Sui Xiong said calmly, without a feeling of tension. ¡°Why do you think that I am going to be an enemy of all the gods?¡± ¡°Your project is denying the rule of royalty and aristocracy, but royalty and theocracy are always integrated. If you deny royalty, then it will be equal to denying theocracy!¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling, ¡°Bro, you are much older than me, but as for experience, you are really not as good as me. How do you feel that royalty and theocracy are integrated? Which one is relying on which?¡± Javier was stunned. He thought for a while, and then his nervous expression gradually calmed down. ¡°It seems that you also understand that. In this world, the real ruler of society is a theocracy. Royalty is just relying on this ¡°big tree,¡± theocracy. It is just a small addition to theocracy.¡± Crick had thought about those problems in the past, and Sui Xiong had carefully pondered them as well. At this moment, he naturally gave Javier the answers without thinking about it. ¡°The reason why theocracy needs an addition is because the number of priests is limited. None of the gods have enough priests under their Majesties. Moreover, the main tasks of priests are cultivation, prayer, and preaching, so they don¡¯t have much time and energy to deal with governmental affairs. Therefore, they need another set of national systems to deal with these political affairs. ¡°To be honest, royalty and aristocracy just have that tiny value.¡± Javier nodded. He said thoughtfully, ¡°So, although you directly abolished royalty and canceled aristocracy, as long as you don¡¯t change the foundation of theocracy controlling the country, then there is no fundamental change in the situation for the gods.¡± ¡°Correct! For the people, the days will be much better without the exploitation and oppression of the upper class. However, for the gods, countries are the same countries and people are the same people,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Not only that, because there¡¯s no royalty to hinder, the contact between the people and the gods will be closer, so theocracy may be strengthened.¡± Javier thought for a long time, and he asked, frowning, ¡°There are still many theocratic countries in the world, and theocracy and royalty are integrated there. How do you explain that?¡± ¡°Which country are you referring to? Specific examples need to be analyzed closely.¡± ¡°For example, the Kingdom of Holy Angels. Although that country perished, it had existed for almost 3,000 years.¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling, ¡°In the Kingdom of Holy Angels, theocracy and royalty were integrated. However, in essence, it was an outdated blood-based country. In fact, most of the stable theocratic countries are blood-based countries. The rulers of those countries have bloodlines from the gods they believe in. Although those bloodlines may not bring them any special power, they are easily identified, and that makes them natural aristocrats. So, they build the system of domination based on that. In such an environment, a more devout faith means that they own a purer bloodline and higher sacredness so that their theocracy is consolidated. In fact, this kind of political system is very poor and not stable at all. For example, after the Sun God was killed, the Kingdom of Holy Angels was immediately destroyed, and the people in the kingdom couldn¡¯t resist at all.¡± ¡°In theocratic countries, when the gods have fallen, the countries will certainly become weak all at once. What¡¯s wrong with that?¡± Javier asked. Sui Xiong answered, shaking his head. ¡°I will give you an example¡ªthe Kingdom of Eagle. In this country, people inherit the bloodline of the God of Eagle. However, from the very beginning, theocracy and royalty were already separated. Priests didn¡¯t take secular positions to maintain the purity of faith. Later, when the God of Eagle fell, it greatly affected the strength of the country, but it didn¡¯t make the country perish. On the contrary, in the year when the God of Eagle fell, the Orc Emperor at that time thought that the Kingdom of Eagle had a big crisis, so he wanted to ¡°fish in troubled waters.¡± He launched a large invasion but was ambushed by the Kingdom of Eagle. The Orc Army was defeated, and six legendary strongmen died. Even the Orc Emperor himself died in the battlefield. ¡°Those are the two scenarios. One is negative, and the other one is positive. So you can tell which is good and which is bad easily.¡± Javier nodded as he listened. Now he felt that he had worried too much before. He had been a fuss. However, after thinking for a while, he was worried again. He asked, ¡°In any case, the combination of theocracy and royalty in many countries is quite common. If you are against royalty openly, the kings and the big aristocrats will definitely use their influence to attack you. If they unite, it will be difficult for each temple to reject their request!¡± Sui Xiong smiled. However, this time, it was not a gentle smile but a cold smile. ¡°If they are not afraid of death, they can try,¡± he said coldly. ¡°Don¡¯t forget, bro. In this world, I am the only god whose real body is walking in the mortal world. If they really irritate me, I can kill all the royal families and all the big aristocrats overnight. I will kill their entire family as well!¡± Javier trembled and widened his eyes, staring at Sui Xiong. ¡°You¡­ you are not serious, right?¡± ¡°Do I look like I¡¯m kidding?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°That¡¯s too much!¡± ¡°Too much?¡± Sui Xiong said, sneering. ¡°The tears of a family are better than the tears of a country. What¡¯s more, I always pay attention to credit. If I say I¡¯ll kill their entire family, then I will kill their entire family. And I¡¯ll make sure that their family will die neat and tidy, so no one will be left to wail at the funerals.¡± Javier couldn¡¯t help but swallow some saliva. He decided to note all the gods who were friendly with him so that they wouldn¡¯t instigate and ask Sui Xiong for trouble. This jellyfish friend¡­ It seems that his jellyfish friend had some mental problems. The most terrifying thing was that he was a super strongman who had the ability to turn the threat of terror into reality! If he said that he would kill their entire family, then he would kill their entire family. He really could do that! ¡°The basis of domination is violence. In the face of more powerful violence or the violence that is not strong enough but cannot be restrained, any rule is pale and weak.¡± Sui Xiong stopped sneering and explained seriously to Javier. ¡°In the current Main Plane, I am the most powerful force of violence. Even if the gods are united and send down their avatars, they could only drive me away at best. But, as soon as they leave, I will come back and kill those families immediately. So in this case, I am not afraid that the kings and the big aristocrats will mess with me. If I don¡¯t use violence to deal with them, then they should be thankful.¡± Javier nodded repeatedly. Until now, he started to feel that his jellyfish friend¡¯s brain was still normal and not mad. However, he still needed to tell his other friends not to bother Auscar. This was still very necessary. Javier thought about it, and then he asked, ¡°Those things are alright. However, how are you going to solve the contradiction between you and the two gods, Royalty and Aristocracy? When you propose this document, you will stand on the standpoint of their life-and-death enemy, and there will be no room for negotiation!¡± ¡°Solve? Why should I solve it with them?¡± Sui Xiong said, laughing. ¡°The God of Royalty has no sense of existence and the God of Aristocracy¡­ I have a contradiction with her. If I have the opportunity to kill her, I wouldn¡¯t mind stabbing her. If I am the unlucky guy, she will definitely come to hit me with a stone as well. Now, I¡¯m just clarifying the contradiction between us. So what?¡± ¡°If she comes to fight against you?¡± ¡°Then let her come! I¡¯m not afraid of a war between gods!¡± Sui Xiong said with confidence. ¡°As for the fight at the mortal level¡­ Hah Hah! Let her find a way to send her big troops to the Ashes Woods first!¡± Javier thought about it, and then he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. In a war of gods, he believed that his jellyfish friend was absolutely not afraid to fight with the God of Aristocracy. If they really fought, Javier even dared to bet over it. If the God of Aristocracy won, then that would be one to ten; if the Void Mask won, then ten to one. And the battle in the mortal world¡­ As his jellyfish friend had said, the future Republic of Northwest wouldn¡¯t border any regions where the God of Aristocracy had a strong force. Therefore, it was simply impossible for the God of Aristocracy to find trouble with the Church of Void Mask in a mortal war. ¡°The northwest is very remote,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°It is very distant from the ¡®civilized world¡¯ in the general sense. As long as I don¡¯t take the initiative, after a few decades, everyone will get used to the existence of the republic. After all, there are many strange countries in the world. There are many strange gods, too. For most aristocrats, as long as we don¡¯t live near them and we don¡¯t attack them, then what we say and what we do is none of their business.¡± Javier nodded. He finally let go of his worries. ¡°I thought you were going to find trouble out impulse. Now it seems that you are still very calm. As you said, as long as you don¡¯t blindly expand and you patiently develop slowly, after a few years and decades, everyone naturally will default to the existence of the Republic of Northwest.¡± After saying that, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Maybe at that time, many gods will change their minds and support the system you designed!¡± ¡°To be honest,¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling, ¡°I don¡¯t have much hope. But think about it; one day, maybe I¡¯ll succeed. Perhaps in the not-too-far future, the Republic¡¯s system will become the mainstream of the human world. By then, all countries will implement a system of separating bureaucrats and titles under the premise of respecting theocracy. They will no longer confer the territories and no longer cast royal power. At that time, those who engage in royalty and aristocracy will become the outsiders who will be warned and rejected by others.¡± ¡°I think there will be a day like that.¡± ¡°Yeah, there will be a day,¡± Sui Xiong said with confidence. ¡°It may take a hundred years, maybe a thousand years, but for us, is time that important? ¡°As long as the direction is correct, I don¡¯t care how much time it will take!¡± Chapter 393 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There was no big discrepancy between how things went and Sui Xiong¡¯s estimation. The rulers of the main planes were very dissatisfied with this document issued by the Void Mask, but they were only ¡°dissatisfied¡±. In fact, no one condemned that. Not even one, including the Church of the God of Aristocracy. It was probably the credit of Javier, Sui Xiong thought. The guy, Javier, had been likely to tell others the words he had said at that time with some additional trimmings. Then the hearers exaggerated them a bit more, and spread out. At that time, Sui Xiong had already said the words with murderous expressions. After being exaggerated for several times, the words, as assumed, might had been processed like this. ¡°Somewhere there was a person named Dragon. ¨C Somewhere there was a dragon. ¨C Somewhere there was an evil dragon, very dangerous. ¨C Somewhere there was an evil dragon, burning, killing and pillaging, committing all kinds of evil crimes. ¨C Somewhere there was an evil dragon that had just kidnapped a princess recently, and had killed the knights who had tried to fight against it.¡± Anyway, Sui Xiong believed that the kings and the big aristocrats would not have such guts to stand out and spoke up when facing such danger. As for the God of Aristocracy, Sui Xiong felt a little confused. This God was supposed to issue a declaration, criticizing his own practice as a reverse action, a reversal of the history and a self-denial to the people¡­ Blah, blah, blah. For this, Sui Xiong had been ready to debate with him. In this period of time, he had tried to list all kinds of debate methods and sociological materials read on the Internet in his previous life, regardless of whether they were useful or not. Then he had examined and studied them carefully to prepare for this battle. In the end, everything he had done became idle work. The God performed nothing. It made Sui Xiong feel like punching with his full strength but hit nothing. It was really uncomfortable. However, in any case, the less trouble, the better. It was absolutely a good thing that the God of Aristocracy didn¡¯t bother him. Compared with the calmness in the top class, Sui Xiong¡¯s documents created an uproar in the grassroots class. Many adventurers who had been persecuted by the aristocracy set out for the Four Towns in the Northwest. Most of them were wealthy enough to live a peaceful life in any place. However, because of their bitter experience in the past, they had an innate feeling of insecurity about living under the aristocratic rule. They naturally thought of moving at this moment when they heard that a country which was not ruled by aristocrats had been built. Most of them just came and had a check of the situations first. A few of them, who were bachelors, simply sold their belongings and moved there directly with a bag of luggage. Anyway, once they were fed, no one in their families would be hungry. This situation was not beyond the expectations of the Church of the Void Mask, so those apartment buildings that had been empty for a long time were finally put into use. When the Kingdom of Eagle had been in those hard days, Sui Xiong and Leon had thought that they might need to relocate the refugees, which had been on a large scale. Therefore, Sui Xiong had taken the time to build a lot of apartment buildings in the outer side of the Void Mask Land, which had been prepared for the refugees to live. However, how the things had gone was beyond everyone¡¯s estimation. After a fierce battle, the Kingdom of Eagle had lived through it successfully. The estimated refugee flood hadn¡¯t happened, so the apartment buildings had been empty there. Although some people had moved in gradually over the past few years, the occupancy rate was still very low on the whole. If the real estate was on the earth and the occupancy rate after the construction was as low as this, most investors would climb to the roof and jumped down¡­ Fortunately, relying on magic and sufficient personnel, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t need to take loans from the bank for the construction of these buildings, or worry about the maintenance costs. Therefore, although these buildings had been empty for so many years, he was not under pressure at all. In fact, these buildings had never been totally empty. Over the years, the Land had put a lot of furniture into them. The apartments refined a lot, gradually from the original ¡°roughcast ones¡± which could only be used to shelter, into ¡°almost fully furnished ones¡± which people could move in directly with luggage. As for the person who created these styles and the decoration designs which were completely different from the designs of this world, the chief designer waved his tentacles, declaring that he knew nothing about that, and his fingers just got itchy occasionally¡­ ¡°This house is really strange¡­ But after a closer look, it seems to be very suitable for living as well¡­ What is the price?¡± ¡°(A certain number)¡±. ¡°That¡¯s not expensive! I thought that the house here would be very expensive! ¡± ¡°We are implementing a household registration system here. Only when you register and live permanently can you buy a house.¡± ¡°No wonders! In other words, if I buy a batch of houses, I can¡¯t keep them for a few years, and sell them again, right?¡± ¡°Yes, one can only buy a house for his own residence.¡± ¡°It may not be a bad idea. Well, what else should I pay attention to?¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t have enough savings, and you don¡¯t find a suitable job for the time being, you can rent it first and buy it later. The house you have rented to live in will not be sold. When you buy the house in the future, the rents of the past years can be counted as part of the payment.¡± ¡°So good? ! I feel a little unreal¡­ Who will do business like this?¡± ¡°This is the oracle of His Majesty the Void Mask. For His Majesty, he doesn¡¯t care about money and wealth.¡± ¡°What does he care about on earth? Sis, I¡¯m taking care of your business anyway. Give me some news more or less.¡± ¡°Sorry, the thoughts of His Majesty¡­ It¡¯s also difficult for us to guess¡­¡± ¡°No way! Is it safe for me to live here?¡± ¡°Safety is not lip service. Since the establishment of the Void Mask Land, many major events have been held. We were also attacked by the real God, but it never caused civilian casualties .¡± ¡°You¡¯ve convinced me! Okay! I¡¯ll live here first.¡± ¡°Please fill out this household registration application form, the most important of which is about your speciality and the requirements for the future job.¡± ¡°Your work is so efficient!¡± ¡°Now that we can finish it in one time, it doesn¡¯t have to be finished after several times.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve filled it out, and then?¡± ¡°Nothing else, you can live here now. The ID card will be sent here soon afterwards by our staff. For the various public facilities, please refer to the map on the table and the signs of the residential area. Wish you a happy life here. Goodbye.¡± ¡°It¡¯s kind of confusing. I just came to ask for the price, but how did I begin to live here all of sudden¡­¡± Such similar cases happened over and over again during this time. These female shopping guides were carefully selected by Sui Xiong. They were all insanely charming. Additionally, Sui Xiong brazenly gave them one by one a spell that enhanced their charm and negotiation ability. Thus, most people would be influenced unconsciously when talking with them, and finally followed their suggestions. Although those retired adventurers were less influenced because of their extraordinary strength, they had retired after all. Their willpower had dropped a lot compared with how it had been when they fought years ago, licking the blood on the tips of their swords. What¡¯s more, the conditions given by the Void Mask Land were indeed generous, so they had already been willing to buy a house and settle down. Therefore, under the suggestions or the influences of the female shopping guides, they also fall into the ¡°traps¡±, becoming the new residents of the Void Mask Land pretty soon. Sui Xiong hid in the sky, paying attention to the sale of residential areas silently. He secretly felt funny about it. On the earth, if those ladies in the sales office have such skills, China will not be worried about the real estate bubble! When the time comes, countless people will definitely hold a lot of money, shouting ¡°Buy it! Buy it! Buy it! Buy or die!¡± with red face and gasping breath. No matter what kind of houses they are, they will be sold out immediately after the launch. No, in that case, the f*king real estate bubble crisis will be more severe. Thinking of that, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh happily. Chapter 394 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When Sui Xiong was laughing proudly, Felix was laughing, too. However, she was more reserved than the big jellyfish. Her smile was very gentle and elegant, full of the elegance that a lady would have. The premise was to ignore the giant demon ape which was lying on the ground. She was stepping on its back. Its body was still smoky, and no one knew how badly it was burned. Not too far away, several big men from Rye Town and Gold-panning Town were looking at that scene, totally stunned. They couldn¡¯t believe their eyes. ¡°How¡­ how could that happen?!¡± This was said by the people who were unwilling to face reality. ¡°That is a water monkey! A legendary monster! It defeated nearly 100 invincible strongmen continuously in the arena! How could it be defeated so easily!¡± This was said by the people who had been confident. ¡°Stand up! Smart Monkey! Don¡¯t you claim to be undefeated?¡± This was said by the people who knew the strength of that demon beast. ¡°It¡¯s over. We¡¯re over. Completely over.¡± This was said by the people who lost hope. However, no matter what they were thinking, although they were mourning, roaring, and desperately groaning, in general, everything was meaningless. That demon beast was their last hope. It was a horrible demon beast that they got with the price of a lot of fortune and some luck. It could destroy a town alone, and it was said that it had defeated a legendary strongman. Now it was unconscious and lying on the ground. It seemed to have lost its fighting capacity completely. What was lying on the ground with it was their power and status. ¡°What a great after-dinner activity!¡± Felix said. She stretched her arms and legs and then took out a few pieces of equipment with magic ice crystals on them from her space pocket. She wore them, and suddenly, heavy white steam lifted from her body. After the steam disappeared, her hair and skin changed from bright flame-red back to a normal color. Then, she took out an ordinary mage robe and wore it. The beautiful, steady, and wise Felix, the town mayor, the principal of the Isuka School of Magic, reappeared in front of everyone. However, everyone present at the scene had witnessed her rushing at the speed of a storm. She had fought with the huge monster that could transform moisture into bombs. Finally, Felix¡¯s whole body had completely turned into a bright red color as if she had been a firebird circling and roaring in the air. The light bombs had rained down, and the hill-like demon beast had eventually been defeated. After witnessing that scene, in their hearts, Felix was no longer a human. She was an extraordinary monster. Such a powerful person¡­ No, it was not suitable to call her a ¡°person.¡± Such a powerful existence definitely couldn¡¯t be defeated by mortals! In the face of her, mortals were only ants who had demands! When Felix looked at them with a calm and smiling look, they unconsciously shivered, realizing the desperate gap between them from the bottom of their hearts. The sky was so remote. Even if they climbed the highest mountain, they couldn¡¯t reach it. It was the same with their gap, which couldn¡¯t ever be made up. They were fundamentally different from her. She was able to follow in the footsteps of the great god. She could appear in a great career that would be passed down or cursed by later generations. She could become a chapter of the legends. And they were nothing more than a number that might be mentioned in a certain story. After figuring out that point, the big men of the four towns, who had been high above the ordinary civilians, could no longer maintain the hardness of their knees. They knelt. When their knees touched the hard ground, it seemed that something was broken in their hearts. What was broken was their arrogance and power and pride. From this moment on, they were no longer the rulers of the Four Towns in the Northwest. They were just the ordinary bureaucrats of the Republic of Northwest. Unless some unexpected accidents happened, they would never get rid of the shock that Felix gave them. They would live in her shadow for the rest of their lives, and they would not be able to own any courage to fight against her until death. Of course, Felix didn¡¯t know what they were thinking. However, with her sharp sense of perception and her past experience, she knew exactly what was happening to those people. They were defeated by the pressure of the Phoenix. Felix was a strong person with the blood of the Phoenix, a legendary creature. When she untied her bounds and fought at her strongest, her body would send out a terribly high temperature and powerful pressure waves. The Phoenix was not a fake legendary demon beast like that Water Ape that needed training to enter the Legendary Realm. A Phoenix was a horrible demon beast located at the top of all demon beasts, close to the gods. An adult Phoenix was powerful enough to fight with some less powerful gods. Of the generally known demon beasts, only certain superior dragons could have such power. It was said that the God of Fire Element, one of the strongest warriors under the present Sun God, was a Phoenix. And the force of that Phoenix was powerful enough to defeat at least half of the gods in the Pantheon temple. The blood of such a powerful creature would naturally help her reveal the pressure of the superior. Although the current power of Felix was still very weak for adult Phoenixes, at least it would not be worse than the young Phoenixes. In other words, when she untied her bounds and exerted her blood power to the extreme, she was a Phoenix. She was just a little young and not so strong. However, she had the power that a Phoenix should have and the pressure of the superior creatures. If she was faced with a relatively powerful creature, for example, the demon beast that she had fought with, she would have to completely release her power, with the danger of overheating, to defeat it. Then, her pressure would not be effective at all. For that beast, if it encountered that kind of pressure in the future again, the pressure would just remind it that it had failed. It would feel ashamed instead of feeling scared. However, for those ordinary mortals who hadn¡¯t reached the level of mid-level adventurers, the pressure of the superior creatures was like red iron¡ªit deeply burned fear and obedience in their souls. In the past years, Felix had seen such circumstances for more than once. She used to hate those circumstances because it made her feel that she was a monster. But now she didn¡¯t have that feeling anymore. She was not a simple girl who only grew old instead of growing mature. After years of work as the mayor of Pyroxene Town, she matured a lot, and her angle and depth of viewing things were also different. Now, she was no longer afraid and wary of her own blood. If she failed to enter the Legendary Realm, she would not be desperate as if it was the end of the world. She would try to adjust her soul and try to live as a newborn Phoenix. In fact, that was not bad. Fanvier also lived a happy life. However, accepting the identity of a Phoenix didn¡¯t mean that she was willing to become a bird directly. Unless she had no choice, she would work hard to maintain her human identity. After all, becoming a Magic Bomber was the direction she chose. If she became a Phoenix, she would lose that direction and become an Ancient Wizard. If she was willing to choose the direction of an Ancient Wizard, she wouldn¡¯t have worked hard to change her direction that year. She wanted to gallop at full speed in the sky or on the earth! She wanted to shoot light bombs from the sky and exert a mighty force. That was the road she longed for and pursued! And that wonderful power which came from her blood was very useful at certain times. For example, just now. Looking at the guys who were terrorized by her, she smiled with satisfaction. ¡°I remember that we had a deal before. You should have improved the living standards of the people under your rules in exchange for the profitable technology of Pyroxene Town. However, you failed. No, this is not a question of ¡®fail¡¯ or ¡®succeed.¡¯ You didn¡¯t mean to keep your words, right?¡± The people who were kneeling on the ground trembled and dared not to answer. ¡°It seems that you agree with my words. Let me continue. I am an advanced mage. As you have seen, in fact, I am not far from entering the Legendary Realm. Therefore, how dare you play tricks in front of me, such a strong person? Do you really think that your power and status are useful in front of me, powerful enough to force me to suppress my anger?¡± Those people who were kneeling on the ground trembled even more. ¡°So, when I found out that you didn¡¯t keep your promise, I was really surprised! Really. In addition to my surprise, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder sincerely what ¡®cards¡¯ you had up your sleeves. I am a person who likes to put my ideas into practice, so I made an appointment with you and said that I wanted to talk about it in detail. I chose a remote place on purpose, a place where I wouldn¡¯t affect others no matter how I fought. My intuition and my experience told me that there might be a big fight. ¡°And it turns out that I was right. The reason why you dared to ignore the original deal with me is that you found a helper,¡± she said. Then she stepped hard on the demon beast which was still smoking. ¡°To be honest, this guy¡¯s strength is really good. I don¡¯t believe that with your abilities, you could find such a powerful helper. So, as the price for forgiving you, tell me honestly. How did you find this helper!¡± The previous big men of the Four Towns in the Northwest were kneeling on the ground, trembling. They were trembling so hard that they couldn¡¯t make comprehensible sounds, and then they tried hard to explain how they found that helper. In fact, it was very simple. Some strong person who didn¡¯t want to reveal his identity had found them and had lent that horrible demon beast to them. That was all they knew. They dared not test the strongman or spy on him. Therefore, they couldn¡¯t give Felix more information. Felix didn¡¯t really expect them to be able to tell her any valuable information. After asking them one by one, she asked them to go back and prepare for the merging of the four towns. She didn¡¯t want to scare those people anymore because there was no need for that. When those people were gone, she took away her foot which was stepping on the demon beast. Then, she stepped away. ¡°Don¡¯t play dead! I know that you didn¡¯t do your best,¡± she said, smiling. ¡°Get up. I think that you must have something to tell me.¡± Chapter 395 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After saying that, Felix waited aside. But the huge demon beast still lay on the ground with its face down. Its body was smoking, as if it had been fully burned and lost its vitality. She waited for a while, but the beast took no action. She sighed, raised her right hand with a pulsating flame above her fingers. ¡°If you go on pretending you are dead, I¡¯ll burn you again. In fact, I am also curious. Is the ¡®fire and water proof¡¯ an absolute power? If not, how long will it take before I burn a part of your tail off? ¡± Before she finished her words, the seemingly dead demon beast made a sigh, turned over and sat up. ¡°Why don¡¯t you pretend to leave without knowing anything so that I can escape when nobody notices?¡± During the conversation, the burning smoke on its body disappeared rapidly, and the burnt black fur returned to the grey black as before. If it was not its heavy breathing, there would be no clue to the fight just now. Comparing with its dead look before, even the strictest judges had to admit that its performance of a faking dead was really brilliant. At the moment, its hairy face was full of human expression. Apart from being too big, it looked like a sad sighing orc, contrary to the ferocious and mad look just now. If just looked at it now, no one could imagine how fierce and terrible it had been. Hearing its question, Felix held back the fire and said with a smile, ¡°You are really good at pretending a dead. If just by looking at you, I could find nothing. But you know, I am not an ordinary Mage but a ¡®Magic Bomber¡¯. I focus extremely on magic control. Thus, even when I am fully involved in a fight, I can clearly feel what effect each of my light bombs has achieved¡± ¡°Perhaps you won¡¯t believe it. When I was going to advance to a Magic Bomber, the final test was to be blindfolded to light twelve thin wooden bars with magic ray in a completely dark room. Those wooden bars were as thin as ten or so tied-up hairs, and they would be broken if they were exerted a little harder. But I lighted them up with my perfect skill of magic control, and none of them was broken.¡± ¡°Compared with then, I am much stronger. Now I can clearly figure out every magic I send out, where it went and what effect it had.¡± said Felix, smiling. ¡°Although I seemed to be insane just now, I was quite clear actually. At that time, I clearly felt that my light bomb hit on you. It did burn your skin, but it was offset by the magic force in your body. To the most it would be a slight skin wound rather than such a bad injury as you were in. With your strong vitality, such an injury can be restored after two gasps, then how could you be killed alive!¡± ¡°So it was!¡± The giant ape suddenly understood and sighed deeply. After that, he regained his spirits and asked, ¡°Why do you wake me up then?¡± ¡°I am very curious.¡± said Felix, ¡°How could a strong one like you be controlled by others?¡± ¡°Under the eaves, who can not bow?¡± The giant ape grinned bitterly and shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t tell you the details, or I will be in great trouble, even die.¡± Felix understood and asked, ¡°Is it for the pledge?¡± The ape did not answer it, and there was even no expression on its face. That was acquiescence. Felix nodded and asked, ¡°So, would you like to go with me? I can try to help you out of the pledge.¡± The giant ape gave no response, as if it had been petrified. ¡°It seems that the contents of the pledge are very troublesome!¡± Felix thought about it a while, but laughed again. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, let the best master I know solve it!¡± Then she took out the silver Holy Emblem and lifted it up to the sky. There was no need to recite any incantations or shout slogans. Her powerful magic and the divine power on the Holy Emblem agitated and instantly turned into a pillar of light, soaring into the sky. ¡°Ah? Why did you suddenly call me? Are you in trouble?¡± It took less than a second for the light pillar to appear, and the nearby air rippled like water waves. The huge floating jellyfish appeared in front of them. Sui Xiong was busy when he felt that Felix was calling for help. So he sent his doppelganger who was thinking about how to make a battleship oracle. Felix did not talk nonsense either. She reported the whole story to him directly by ideological communication. Sui Xiong got it clearly and turned to the giant ape that was staring at him. Through a simple soul sensing, he immediately found the divine power hidden in it. This power was strong and cold, noble and unusual, but there was something cunning hidden in it. It was the power of the God of Aristocracy. Without saying anything, Sui Xiong waved his tentacles, froze the giant ape as well as the space around it, and then transmitted it to his own Holy Kingdom. ¡°Do you want it alive or dead?¡± Had done that, he turned around and asked Felix. ¡°If it¡¯s possible, of course, I hope it will be alive.¡± Felix answered with a smile, ¡°But if it¡¯s too troublesome, then whatever. The point is¡­I want to know who actually behind the curtain controlled and ordered it to make trouble with us.¡± ¡°The God of Aristocracy.¡± Sui Xiong replied, ¡°I have seen the divine power in its body. It seems that His God wants to disturb us a little.¡± ¡°With this guy?¡± Felix frowned. ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t think such a legendary demon beast will cause trouble to the upcoming Republic of Northwest. It did hide part of its strength just now. However, even if it goes all out, it will probably win me or Josh. But there will be little hope to win Hermann, let alone Gerald and others¡­ To say the least, even the Noble Maids takes advantage of its strength to beat us all here, as long as His Highness Leon came, it would surely be defeated. In fact, I think you might have been able to help yourself before that.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and nodded, ¡°Of course, I will not tolerate anyone to make trouble in the country we all worked so hard to build! I won¡¯t wait it to beat down some of you. As long as it starts to make trouble, I will feel it and slap it to death without saying even a word!¡± He talked about something murderous in a quite reasonable manner, without any hesitation. ¡°Yes, then¡­ What does the Noble Maids want?¡± asked Felix, ¡°Does she think she can achieve something with this guy?¡± Sui Xiong pondering for a long time, then shook his head. ¡°If she just wants to disturb me, there¡¯s no need to send such a great character. Because once it is taken over by me, she will lose a powerful subordinate¡­Actually I don¡¯t understand what is in her mind, either.¡± But instead of worrying about that, he laughed and consoled Felix, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, all the conspiracy in the world must be based on strength. No matter what plans she has, she is not strong to be my opponent now. That is a difficult problem for her to solve. So you may rest assured that no matter what the God of Aristocracy is planning or how many gods behind want to cause us trouble, I will defeat them one by one!¡± The giant jellyfish clapped its body with its tentacles, like a human clapping his hands on his chest as a guarantee, ¡°Even if the sky falls, I¡¯ll support it. Don¡¯t worry!¡± After thinking for a while, Felix finally nodded his head and rested assured. ¡°Then, I will go to the Rye Town and deal with the merger staffs.¡± ¡°Ok, be more careful.¡± Sui Xiong urged, ¡°If there is anything wrong, call me. Don¡¯t hesitate or delay. You have done a good job this time.¡± Then Felix flew away. Sui Xiong stood there for a while, thinking about the whole thing. Then he shook his head and flew back to his holy kingdom. At this time, in the solemn palace, the God of Aristocracy is whispering with the God of Conspiracy. ¡°What do you really want to do?¡± The God of Aristocracy frowned and asked, ¡°If you want to send someone to make trouble with them, just send a weak one. Why do you give him a fighting force in vain?¡± ¡°Just confusing him.¡± the God of Conspiracy, whose face was covered by his cap, laughed gloomily. ¡°It¡¯s not only a show, but also a distraction to him, and that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Haha¡­¡± Chapter 396 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A moment later, in the God¡¯s Kingdom, Sui Xiong unfroze the giant demon ape, and he removed the vow of the God of Aristocracy from his body. ¡°I¡¯ve solved your worries,¡± Sui Xiong said casually. ¡°Now, can you tell me what is going on?¡± In the face of a real god, a powerful and famous god, this demon beast certainly did not dare keep silent. He immediately knelt and said everything that he knew respectfully. In fact, there was nothing to say about the incident. This demon beast was an aquatic race that was not very rare¡ªthe Water Apes. Originally, they had lived in the deep sea. Once, this beast had lost to a powerful legendary demon beast in a territorial battle, and he had been seriously injured. In the deep sea which was full of dangers, that was equivalent to being sentenced to death. Of course, he wasn¡¯t willing to die. After careful consideration, he was determined to come to the shallow sea in peril. He had lived near the Mifata Federation. The shallow sea was much safer than the deep sea. There were no powerful monsters, so a seriously injured Water Ape could live too. However, the risk in the shallow sea was different from that in the deep sea. The shallow sea was close to the influence sphere of the land races, so the strongmen from the land always patrolled the shallow sea, being alerted to attacks from the sea. For example, when Garth City had not formed an alliance with the Storm Sea yet, Leon had patrolled the shallow sea near Garth City from time to time. He patrolled along the coastline which was about 1,000 miles long. In this range, once a powerful monster appeared in the shallow sea, Leon would go to that the monster. He would negotiate with the monster, asking the monster not to attack the coastal residents and ships, or he would use an impolite way to persuade the monster back to the deep sea. If the monster didn¡¯t want to go back, he would simply kill it with his sword. The Water Ape hadn¡¯t been very lucky. He had lived in the shallow sea for less than half a month and then had been found by a patrolling legendary mage. At that time, his injury had recovered only a little. In the face of a legendary mage who had been on guard, he had had no way to fight back. He was arrested and became a prisoner. Fortunately, the legendary mage was not a cruel person. After thinking for a while, he had signed a contract with it. He had asked the creature to work as a golden gladiator in an arena in a big city, so the Water Ape could save money to buy back his freedom. And he had worked for a few years. Honestly, in the past few years, he had done a good job. He had a flexible method of combat, and he had a clever judgment on various strategies and tactics, so he obtained a name, ¡°Smart.¡± The Water Ape had almost saved enough money, so he would be able to be free again half a year later. He had been ready to return to the deep sea and become a local overlord again. However, just at that time, an archbishop of the God of Aristocracy had found the owner of the arena. He had taken out a lot of money to buy the remaining work hours of Smart. According to the original contract, this kind of transaction must be approved by Smart himself. However, facing the threat of, ¡°If you refuse to cooperate with me, I will send legendary advanced strongmen to participate in the combat,¡± Smart really had had no choice. He hadn¡¯t wanted to take risks, and he had wanted to spend the rest of his time safely and peacefully. However, he didn¡¯t want to die! Under such circumstances, the transaction naturally had been successful. Smart had changed to a full-time thug of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, and he had been paid only when he had finished his tasks. The contract was absolutely terrible. Smart had lived in the Church of the God of Aristocracy for nearly four months, but he hadn¡¯t gotten any tasks. Not only had he failed to make money to redeem himself, but he had owed a lot of living expenses. He had been so anxious that he scratched his head and cheeks, not knowing what to do. Not long ago, he had finally gotten a long-awaited task. The same archbishop had asked him to come to the Four Towns in the Northwest to temporarily accept the commands of those big men who hadn¡¯t wanted to merge with the Republic of Northwest. He was asked to fight with Felix. Ordinarily, it was not a big deal, but it was strange that the archbishop had cost a lot to cast a powerful God Descending Spell. He had planted a vow in his body with the help of Divine Power. The vow had ordered him not to reveal anything related to his origins. Smart had suddenly felt that something was wrong. After thinking, again and again, clever Smart had thought of a solution to the problem. Although the contract hadn¡¯t said it at the beginning, it was a rule followed by every organization that organizations must give pension to the dead in battles. As a legendary demon beast, the number of his pension was naturally large, far enough to offset the remaining ransom. Therefore, as long as he was ¡°sacrificed¡± in this task, his debt would naturally be offset. From then on, he could be free. As long as he didn¡¯t stupidly return to the sea near the Mifata Federation and hid in the deep sea of the northwestern area quietly, no one would find it! As for the vow of the God of Aristocracy¡­ Well, why should he think about that? He could think about it after being free again. With such ideas, he had cheated in the battle with Felix. The battle looked fierce, but in fact, he hadn¡¯t used his true strength. Water Apes were never known for being fierce. Compared to other demon beasts whose muscles grew even in their brains, his race was good at winning with skills and wisdom. Smart had cheated while using magic to protect his internal organs. He had quickly been ¡°defeated¡± and wobbled down to the ground under the indiscriminate bombardment of Felix at her full power. He had pretended to be burned with smoke rising from his body. Seeing this, anyone would believe that I¡¯m dead, he thought. The result turned out to be counterproductive¡ªhe didn¡¯t fool Felix at all. But in general, the results were still good. Sui Xiong removed the vow from his body. As for the remaining redemption expenses in the contract, Sui Xiong expressed that as long as he was willing to work in the Void Mask Land, the land could lend him some money to pay for the expenses. And there was no interest. After listening to Sui Xiong¡¯s statement, Smart couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Such good conditions? Aren¡¯t you worried that I¡¯ll flee?¡± ¡°Why would you flee?¡± Sui Xiong asked, confused. ¡°Is the Land not good?¡± Smart was stunned. He didn¡¯t expect that he would get such an answer. ¡°We offer good accommodation. Life here is easy and stress-free, and we can keep you safe. Favnier, who was ordered to work to pay off debts because of some trouble, has fallen in love with the life here, saying that he wants to spend his rest life here. Do you have any special requirements for life? Or do you want to live in the sea after all?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Smart thought for a long time and found that he really had no special requirements. As a legendary demon beast, he mainly relied on absorbing the magic of the natural world to maintain his livelihood, which was conducive to his strength. However, if there was not enough magic in the outside world, it wouldn¡¯t be bad to eat food. As for accommodation, as long as he could be full and sleep well, Smart was not picky. He wasn¡¯t picky about food. He could eat both meat and vegetables as long as the food wasn¡¯t rotten. Although he had been a golden gladiator in the arena for many years, his living conditions weren¡¯t very good. He could tolerate the gladiator life, but then why couldn¡¯t he work in the Land? he had heard that the Void Mask Land was the most prosperous, the most interesting and the safest place in the world. If he could live in the Land for a long time, it would be beneficial to his life. So they made a deal, and a new gatekeeper appeared in the Land. Gerald also now had a co-worker to change shifts with. The new guard was eight feet tall and had a waist circumference of about eight feet as well. The guard had a strong body, wearing a short shirt. He always carried a big iron bar that looked really heavy. He was never energetic, always napping lazily. Some people who knew demon monsters judged that the new gatekeeper wasn¡¯t a human being. Nonsense. Only from his appearance could people tell that he was not an Orc or a giant. He was a very rare creature on land called the Water Ape. Such a horrible demon beast should have been huge like a hill; now he looked so small and polite. As for why, they thought that maybe the Void Mask had recently returned to his old home and brought a youngster from the sea. After all, the Void Mask was a jellyfish, and jellyfishes lived in the sea. ¡°Hey, Gatekeeper B, did you know someone of your race was also called Smart?¡± a businessman who was very knowledgeable and experienced asked curiously. ¡°A few years ago, there was a Water Ape in the arena of the Highest Tower. But he was much more powerful than you. His finger was almost as thick as your arm!¡± Smart rolled over and showed that guy his ass. What terrible eyesight! Are you blind? With such poor eyesight, how can you go out and do business? You haven¡¯t gone bankrupt yet? What a peaceful world of the land creatures. However, just like what His Majesty, the Void Mask said, the Land is really calm and peaceful! Peace is good! Thinking so, the legendary demon beast, who had changed to a smaller size, yawned in the warm sunshine. He soon began to snooze lazily. he couldn¡¯t really fall asleep during working hours. If he was caught, his salary would be deducted. However, the sun was warm, and the wind was very comfortable. The happy sounds of the little children in the Land seemed to be getting farther and farther away, echoing vaguely in his ears like waves. Ah! So good! So comfortable! Snore, snore. At the end of the month, when seeing the salary sheet, Smart was so depressed that his ears were drooping. [Name: Smart. Position: Gatekeeper. Working days: 30. Work situation: Fell asleep during work hours 25 times, so deducting the bonus of this month and the salary of 25 days.] In the end, the salary he got was only enough for him to eat a few meals from the cheap food stalls. Eating simple pancakes and barbecue and drinking cheap ale, Smart drooled when he smelt the scent of the high-end foods and wine floating from the nearby restaurants. ¡°Next month, I won¡¯t sleep during work,¡± he announced loudly after making a decision. Then, the next month, he fell asleep 26 times during work. Smart lacked biological knowledge, so he would never know that for deep-sea races, ¡°now safe¡± meant ¡°he is time to sleep.¡± This was the instinct that was imprinted in their blood, passed from generation to generation. Chapter 397 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Today is a day worth writing down in history books. Starting from today, the republicanism appears for the first time in the history of world civilization.This is a great beginning¡­¡± Felix was reading out her speech carefully on the platform, announcing the formal establishment of the Republic of Northwest. Sui Xiong, who was invisible and floating in the sky, listened to her reading below and couldn¡¯t help smiling. ¡°You¡¯ve done something amazing!¡± Javier poured him a glass of wine, grinning. ¡°I¡¯ve visited several old Gods to talk about what you¡¯ve done. Most of them think that it looks unorthodox at first glance. But after a careful consideration, they thought it had some great merits. Now many gods think that possibly you are not messing about, but really promoting the progress of civilization.¡± ¡°What? ! They changed their opinions so fast?¡± Sui Xiong was a little surprised. Although he believed that the republican system must be much more advanced than the aristocratic feudal system, according to his estimation, it would still take decades or hundreds of years to convince the gods with facts when the Republic of Northwest prospered and showed its vitality. To his surprise, there were certainly many wise ones among the Gods. They found out the advantages of republicanism with only silent deduction and reflection. ¡°What else did they say?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°Too many details. I¡¯ll choose some representative ones. His Majesty, the God of Light, believes that although you have temporarily damaged the social stratum, you can establish a stratum system which is more efficient, more energetic and more capable of arousing people¡¯s enthusiasm. So he is looking forward to seeing the scene when the Republic of Northwest was developed. He also said that he will help if you are in any trouble. Of course, he will also bring down some resistance for you, so you don¡¯t have to worry about the rejections from the God of Royalty and the God of Aristocracy.¡± Sui Xiong was impressed. He did not like the personality of the God of Light, but he had to admit his great power and amazing courage. If he was able to get his support, the future Republic of Northwest might not be as stable as a mountain, but at least it could throw its biggest worry away. To be honest, he feared the God of Aristocracy very much. This God had powerful strength, but his tricks were more powerful than it, especially the dirty tricks which even made Sui Xiong secretly afraid. If possible, Sui Xiong would rather fight him with swords and guns than fight a battle of wits and conspiracy. He knew himself well that he was really not a person who was good at playing tricks. Even though he had received the material from Crick which introduced Crick¡¯s experience in fighting a battle of wisdom and courage with the aristocrats around in recent years, he didn¡¯t believe that he could gain even a little advantage in conspiracy against the God of Aristocracy. Not to mention that the God of Aristocracy and the God of Conspiracy were allies. It was not as simple as ¡°one plus one equals two¡± when two conspirators came together! Fortunately, the God of Light promised to him. As long as he could do as he had said, the God of Aristocracy would never have the guts to violate this God of Human Beings. The God of Light was recognized as a typical tyrant. If the God of Aristocracy dared to play the trick of ostensible obedience with him, he would definitely kick him out and choose a new God of Aristocracy directly. There were so many talents in Human God System. Outstanding demigods, Holy Spirits and low-level Gods could be found everywhere. A lot of gods had not found the right priesthoods because they were still on the threshold of weak divine power, or they could not make progress because their priesthood had been occupied by others. It was no exaggeration to say that if most of the Gods in the Human God System fell, including the God of Light himself, they could be substituted in a very short time, and for some priesthoods there would be several substitutes. There must be a substitute for the God of the Aristocracy, as he himself had been one of the substitutes of the old God of Royalty. Later, he had murdered the old God of Royalty and captured several priesthoods, which had made him the God of Aristocracy and a rising star in the Human God System. But even so, he hadn¡¯t got the priesthood of ¡°Royalty¡±. It had been inherited by a Holy Spirit transformed from an ancient Sage King under the arrangement of the God of Light. Although the new God of Royalty usually kept a low profile and showed no sense of being, the God of Aristocracy never dared do anything against him. This, of course, was not because the newly appointed God of Royalty who only had weak divine power had any special abilities. It was just because the God of Aristocracy dared not take the risk of provoking the God of Light. The deterrent force of the God of Light was evident! For Sui Xiong, the support of republicanism by the God of Light did not only mean that he didn¡¯t need to be on guard against the God of Aristocracy for a period of time, but it also meant great encouragement. The God of Light was the key figure who had led the human race from being weak to being strong. Before him, although the God of Knights had been brave and good at fighting, he could barely maintain the survival of human beings instead of making human beings grow more populous and stronger. After he had came into power, he had used all kinds of means, including documents or forces, directly and indirectly. Many of them were shady or bloody. Sui Xiong did not agree with how he had done them, but he had to approve his achievements. Nowadays, human beings had become the most powerful race in the main plane, not only surpassing the dwarfs and the pygmies who had been in the same situation as them, but also, to some degree, overwhelming the orcs, the sworn enemies who had been fighting with them for tens of thousands of years. As was known, in terms of congenital conditions, human beings were not comparable to orcs. When the God of Knight had been the God of Human Beings, what he only knew in his mind was fighting with the orcs blindly. Although he was very brave, even almost destroying the Orc God System all by himself, what he had done slowed the progress of human. By the time he left, mankind had not been developed. However, the first strategy after the Lord of Light came into power was to make an initiative concession and direct the great migration of human beings. They gave up the vastest grassland with the most abundant resources in the mid-northern part of the main plane, and turned to guard the natural defense line surrounded by Graystone Mountains, Giant Beast Mountains and Broken Cloud Mountains, where now the Kingdom of Eagle was established. At the same time, they launched an attack toward the south, bypassing the Broken Cloud Mountains, then suppressed and seized the territory of the pygmies where the present Kingdom of Blue Moon was. It took humans about 2,000 years to defeat the country of the pygmies and annex the fertile fields along the mid-eastern coasts. Then, after about 1,000 years of development, they had launched a large-scale attack on the territory of the elves. The Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had been established during the attack. Till today, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was continuously encroaching on the Ancient forests where the elves lived, never ending. On the border, fierce conflicts often erupted between humans and elves . Around five thousand years, human beings had acquired a stable territory, and they could concentrate on development. During thousands of years after that, humans had ushered in a period of talent explosion, with nearly 20 Gods appearing in total. Although most of these gods had fallen, it was during that time that human beings had established their position as the overlord of the main plane. Normally, to this point of humans¡¯ development, it had reached the limit of geography then. After all, seas or deserts were not suitable places for humans to reproduce. All that remained to be done was to choose whether to fight the orcs or the elves. However, in this case, the God of Light had opened up a new path, launching a grand immigration pioneering plan, which was called ¡°Great voyage¡± by later generations. The establishments of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, Mifata Federation, Duchy of Thunder and Dhaka Commercial Association were all the results of the Great Voyage. The costs, toil, sweat and sacrifice of it was really countless. Anyway, the human race finally succeeded, occupying more than one third of the territory on the main plane mainland and becoming the well-deserved overlord of the main plane . All of that was achieved under the lead of the God of Light! To be affirmed by this great hero, Sui Xiong naturally couldn¡¯t help being complacent, even if he did not like him. Chapter 398 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Of course, the God of Light was not the only god who praised the republican system proposed by Sui Xiong. Later, Javier listed a number of gods, many of whom were really famous. What surprised Sui Xiong the most was that the God of Sky of the Natural God System actually spoke highly of the system. When Sui Xiong heard that, he couldn¡¯t help but feel shocked. He asked, ¡°If I remember correctly, the God of Sky is a Nature God, right? Why is he interested in a mortal national system?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know why either. I heard his words from others,¡± Javier said, smiling. ¡°Do you think that I can talk to His Majesty directly? Although I have many friends, my identity is so much more different from his. It¡¯s impossible for me to talk to him!¡± Sui Xiong thought about it and then laughed. Gods of Belief and Nature Gods were in two camps. Although they weren¡¯t enemies, it was also hard for them to become friends. It was really great that Javier was able to pick up some information and hear the God of Sky¡¯s evaluation on the republican system. Javier was comparable to the ¡°inquiry¡± role in some old-fashioned love games. If he could actually ask the God of Sky himself directly, Sui Xiong would doubt whether Javier was a master of disguise or not. ¡°How did the God of Sky evaluate the republican system?¡± Sui Xiong asked with a smile. ¡°His Majesty said that this system is conducive to the flows of social classes. Compared to aristocracy, it can better reflect the principle of survival of the fittest. Moreover, the strong people can get the corresponding status according to their contributions. It is far better than strength equaling to high status. He said that this system is closer to the evolution of nature and it is a laudable innovation.¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but nod. Even though he did not fully agree with the view of the God of Sky, he had to admit that the God of Sky¡¯s evaluation on the republican system from the natural point of view was very inspiring to him. It took Javier almost half an hour to finish telling Sui Xiong the gods¡¯ evaluations he knew on the republican system. Most of the evaluations were positive, but some were negative. For example, the Master of War¡¯s evaluation was negative. The fierce and aggressive god felt that the republican system paid too much attention to the interests of the civilians, so it lacked the guarantee of the interests of the strong people. ¡°No, the strong people have more power than ordinary people, so it is easy for them to get more honor and a higher status. Isn¡¯t that a good guarantee?¡± Sui Xiong asked in wonder. ¡°The Master of War just said those words, so I don¡¯t know what he really meant,¡± Javier answered, shaking his head. ¡°But I think that he might mean that he wants the authority of the strong people to be more powerful. For example, he wants to build a society where the strong people rule everything, and social status is determined by force. The ordinary people would either become stronger or become slaves.¡± Sui Xiong thought about it and then shook his head. He said, ¡°I don¡¯t agree with him. He is really different from me.¡± For Sui Xiong, the reason why he wanted to promote the progress and development of society was that he had witnessed the hard life of the civilians in this world. Therefore, he hoped to do something for those laborers who were exploited and oppressed. This was his initial aim as well as the fundamental principle that he wouldn¡¯t compromise. In fact, the birth of the republican system was already a compromise of his own ideas according to reality. In this world, strongmen were the most important foundation for productive progress. This was undeniable. However, Sui Xiong absolutely disagreed with the idea that the strong should occupy everything and the production resources should be distributed according to the degrees of strength. If a society wanted to progress, the grassroots people would be the foundation. Losing that foundation, the so-called ¡°strong culture¡± would be nothing more than a castle in the air. A short time later, it would collapse. The basic reason was that if there were no huge number of civilians to provide the population from generation to generation, where would the strongmen come from? Only from the descendants of those who had been strong? It was almost like the social form of dragons, and the dragon race was famous for its small population. Many people had misunderstood the dragons. They thought that the dragons had a small ethnic group because they had a low fertility rate. In fact, this was not the case at all. The fertility rate of dragons was not low. The common Five Color Dragons could give birth once every hundred years. Each time, they would give birth to two or three babies. According to their powerful strength and longevity, their fertility rate was very high. However, why did the dragons still have such a small ethnic group? This was related to their abnormal social form. In the society of dragons, the strong ones could trample the weak ones arbitrarily. They could take whatever they wanted from the weak. The mortality rate of the young dragons was astonishingly high. Most of them were killed by dragons of the same race. Among the common advanced professions of dragons, more than half were specialized in restraining dragons, which further proved their barbarism. This crazy natural elimination process helped increase the average combat power of dragons greatly, but it also made it impossible for them to increase the population of their ethnic group. Nearly 10,000 years ago, the Dragon Emperor at that time had made a law with a harsh attitude. The law strictly forbade the superior dragons from killing the inferior dragons. If not for that, their ethnic group would have already shrunk to its extreme! Therefore, listening to the criticism of the Master of War, Sui Xiong sneered. He even secretly felt that perhaps he would have to fight with the Master of War in the future. He would need to convince the Master of War with force. This thought just appeared in his mind like a flash, so he didn¡¯t care about it. After Javier told Sui Xiong the praises and criticisms of other gods, Morani also told Sui Xiong the evaluation of Lefon, the Master God of the Orc Gods. ¡°His Majesty, the Sky Devourer Canine asked me to tell you that he thinks that your system is very innovative. It seems to be quite suitable for the Orcs. If you can¡¯t continue to push it in the human society, you¡¯re welcome to join in the Orc God System. Majesty Lefon is willing to let you host the social transformation of the Orc Empire.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. He asked with widened eyes, ¡°You¡¯re sure you didn¡¯t get that wrong? He said ¡®I¡¯m willing to let you host the social transformation of the Orc Empire¡¯? The republican system is totally different from the imperial system!¡± ¡°I asked him this question. He said, ¡®Orcs are not in a cultural group, so we have no special traditions. As long as the country can become bigger and stronger, besides the republican system, it will be okay to take turns in being emperors.''¡± ¡°He is really open-minded,¡± Sui Xiong said, sighing. Then, he couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°So, what if I can operate the Republic of Northwest well?¡± ¡°I asked the same question at the time. He said, ¡®Then we will be neighbors. Anyway, I believe that the jellyfish will never be a racist like some narrow guys. Even if he becomes a racist, he won¡¯t discriminate against the Orcs.''¡± Sui Xiong shook his head, smiling. Lefon, the Sky Devourer Canine, was really an open-minded god. He was so easy-going, which made Sui Xiong wonder how he was able to control the whole Orc God System. After smiling, Sui Xiong looked at the God of Justice who had kept silent since the beginning. Sui Xiong asked, ¡°My brother, how do you see my system?¡± The face of the God of Justice was very dignified. He was looking at the establishment ceremony of the Republic of Northwest carefully and thinking silently. When Sui Xiong asked him for the second time, he suddenly came back to his senses, but he still didn¡¯t answer. He just looked at Sui Xiong with doubt. ¡°Bro, I don¡¯t understand your thoughts anymore,¡± he said. ¡°Why do you build this country?¡± ¡°I want to pursue my ideals and shelter my believers. Why else would I build it?¡± Sui Xiong answered naturally. ¡°Since this is the case, why don¡¯t you make the Church of Void Mask as the state religion of the Republic of Northwest?¡± ¡°State religion?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. He had certainly thought about that before, but he always felt that a theocratic state was very strange. It would remind him of some barbarians who wanted to return to the 7th century in the 21st century. I, Sui Xiong, am not talented, but I won¡¯t do those things which make the society go backwards! But the gods in this world wouldn¡¯t understand his statement. He finally came up with an answer after thinking for a long time. ¡°If it becomes the state religion, then I will become the patron god of this country,¡± he said half-sincerely. ¡°I am willing to be a guardian, but I don¡¯t want to be a patron god.¡± ¡°Guarding a certain region, a certain country, or a certain race. To be honest, it is a good priesthood,¡± Morani advised. ¡°For a new god, it is a very reliable priesthood, and you don¡¯t need to worry about conflicts with others. I feel that it is very good.¡± ¡°Yeah. Starting as a patron god is the best way for a new god,¡± Javier also persuaded. Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth didn¡¯t join the ranks of persuasion. She felt that her ally, the Void Mask, was inscrutable. Since he didn¡¯t want to be a patron god, then there must be an important reason. Instead of persuading him in vain, it was better to talk about something meaningful. Therefore, when Sui Xiong smiled and rejected everyone¡¯s suggestions, she asked, ¡°Are you planning to continue the freedom of belief in the Republic of Northwest?¡± Sui Xiong answered, nodding, ¡°I think that beliefs should be free. Belief must come from the recognition of a god¡¯s ideas; then it can be regarded as a meaningful belief.¡± ¡°In this case, how are you going to manage the churches, temples, and clergies?¡± Manissy asked again. ¡°I notice that you didn¡¯t mention this in the republican system¡¯s documents.¡± Sui Xiong was silent and then sighed. ¡°This is¡­ It¡¯s hard to deal with!¡± After all, in this world, the power of the gods was the origin of all power. Sui Xiong was not the kind of madman who wanted to use a knife to cut everyone in the world. He knew clearly about his abilities, so he didn¡¯t intend to challenge the essence of this theocratic society. Therefore, he avoided the questions about gods, churches and other similar questions. ¡°Although it is difficult, you have to deal with it,¡± Manissy advised. ¡°Many of the gods are hostile to each other. If you really allow the churches to preach freely, I bet that in less than three or five years, serious disputes between the churches will break out in the Republic of Northwest. What will you do at that time?¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a long time; then he sighed deeply. He said with a forced smile, ¡°At that time, I will say only one sentence.¡± ¡°What sentence?¡± ¡°Follow the basic law to preach.¡± Chapter 399 Chapter 399: Chapter 109 A new country appeared in the northwest of the mainland on the main plane. It was named the Republic of Northwest. The name was very strange, as well as the location. It was located in the famous Ashes Woods, formerly known as the Void Mask Land, and the lesser-known the Four Towns in the Northwest, with a group of villages of pioneers. The Ashes Woods was a well-known forbidden area of life. It was filled with thin negative energy everywhere, which would erode everything silently. No matter tools, livestock or people were all ¡°broken¡± really fast there. The strong iron would become fragile in a week or two, and the furniture made with hard work would be damaged in four or five days. As for people, even an ordinary person over 30 years old couldn¡¯t be found there. If they had no special means to resist the negative energy, the ordinary people would die of weakness in the wild in only two or three days. Of course, there were inhabitants living in the Ashes Woods. They were the desperados who had nothing to lose except for their lives. They opened up a small and poor living space relying on the power of the Gods, planting vines that were difficult to swallow. They barely survived like the weeds on the roadside. Even so, the Ashes Woods often showed ferocious face to them. When night fell, monsters and the Undead creatures, all sorts of horrible things would come and attack people. What was the most terrifying was that, on the extreme new moon night every year, the tide of skeletons would rise in the Ashes Woods. Countless skeleton armies would attack all living beings crazily. Even if they had strong walls, most of the time they would not be able to withstand the onslaught all night of countless skeletons. Usually, after a extreme new moon night, the lucky survivors would get the sad news before catching their breath. The nearby villages had been broken through. No one was spared, regardless of ages and genders. ¡°What kind of country can be built in this place? The country of the Undead?¡± Many people thought so. However, some knowledgeable people knew more things. The negative energy intensity of the Ashes Woods was decreasing from the center to the periphery. Pioneers lived at the edge of the Ashes Woods, close to the Mountains of Barrenness. In such a place, negative energy was blocked by the power of the mountains¡¯ earth vein, which was relatively suitable for survival. As long as they were careful on the extreme new moon night, they didn¡¯t need to worry too much at ordinary times. Certainly, cold and barrenness were always the enemy of all life beings. However, in general, that place was not a forbidden area of life. It was just not conducive to large-scale exploitation and development. Even so, with enough capacity, it was still possible to open up a living space in this barrenness. For example, if you were a powerful God and could squander your power without care, you could completely create a prosperous paradise in the north-central part of the Ashes Woods, where a cup of boiling water would turn into ice cubes when pouring into the air in winter. That was the Void Mask Land, the most peaceful and prosperous city in the world. The city, which had been renamed ¡°Void City¡±, was the capital of the Republic of Northwest. It had a permanent population of more than 50,000. Every day, many people from all over the world came here to have a visit. It provided the tourists with the best enjoyment, the most interesting entertainment and the most fresh adventure experience in the world. Moreover, it was also a well-known place of peace. As long as you followed the laws of the Republic of Northwest and behaved yourself, no one could get you into trouble here. More than ten legendary strongmen lived in this huge city all year long, and two real Gods kept paying attention to it. Didn¡¯t mention about humans. Even Gods couldn¡¯t make trouble here! From the Void City to the east and the south, there were four towns in turn, namely Dragon-roar Town, Gold-panning Town, Pyroxene Town and Rye Town. These four towns, together with some villages of pioneers near the towns, and the Void City, constituted the main body of the Republic of Northwest. The Four Towns in the Northwest had their own characteristics, and most of them couldn¡¯t be underestimated. Dragon-roar Town was the world famous original place of material of demon beasts. The people here were very sturdy. Even the children on the street knew how to use swords and guns. A lot of adventurers lived here, who made a living by hunting for demon beasts. They entered the mountains with space cracks and killed the demon beasts that rushed into the main plane from the other side of the crack. Then they split them into various materials and sold them to the merchants who purchased these materials. They lived a life with licking the blood on the tips of their swords, so fierce. In Dragon-roar Town, the social status of a person was decided by how powerful demon beasts he could hunt. The famous men in the town, only in groups of several, could bring down the terrifying demon beasts that were close to the legend level in a special way, dragging them back to slaughter and split them in public. ¡°Go to Dragon-roar Town to See the Slaughter of Demon Beasts¡± was also one of the famous tourism projects in the northwest. Gold-panning Town was one of the relatively backward ones in the Four Towns in the Northwest. It had gold mines, but the quality was very poor. Some other minerals, such as copper mines and iron mines, were not good enough either. The production was barely able to feed the people. However, to the further south, the situations of Pyroxene Town were completely different! Pyroxene Town was a pearl of the north. It was quiet, peaceful and prosperous. The town was surrounded by a huge Purification Array, so the negative energy couldn¡¯t invade it at all. Cold ¨C resistant pines and cypresses could be seen everywhere in the town, green and luxuriant, offering people a feeling of vitality. The large acres of fields outside the town were beyond people¡¯s imagination that they were in the Ashes Woods which was called ¡°the forbidden area of life¡±. If the plants grown in the fields were not mainly the cold-resistant crops and herbs, they would even remind people of the famous grain ¨C producing areas. In fact, it really produced grain here, and it was of very high-quality. Due to the cold weather, the growing period of grain here was long, and it matured only once a year. The long growing period made it much fuller than the grain in other places, and the taste was completely different from ordinary ones, which made it the best. This kind of grain used to produce only a small amount in the Orc Empire. It had always been the speciality for the nobles and high ¨C end hotels. Since its successful cultivation in Pyroxene Town, it had become a bright spot industry here. However, for Pyroxene Town, the most important industries were herbs and negative energy crystals instead of the grain. Needless to say, herbs, as precious consumables, had always been in short supply no matter how much they were produced. Negative energy crystals were very good low ¨C end magic materials. The negative energy crystals produced in Pyroxene Town were small in size, but they were very pure and well received by the middle ¨C level and low ¨C level mages, which were in short supply as well. With these three terms of incomes, the people in Pyroxene Town were quite wealthy. The highlight of the town was not just about the industries. It had a magic school named Isuka School of Magic, which was dedicated to training battle mages. The headmaster of the magic school was the mayor who led Pyroxene Town into prosperity. She, Felix, was also the celebrity who united the Four Towns in the Northwest and laid the foundation for the establishment of the Republic, . At present, Felix was already the second-seat commander of the Republic of Northwest. She was in charge of the work of the four towns and the various villages of pioneers. It was calculated that if the area she managed was counted as territories, then she would be the most powerful countess of the whole main plane. If people went farther to the south from Pyroxene Town, the border of the Republic of Northwest could be seen. Rye Town, an important town of commerce and agriculture, was located here. Rye Town was an old town in the northwest region with strong strength and developed commerce and agriculture. What was most well-known here was the strong guard group owned by the town, comparable to an imperial army of an ordinary country¡¯s palace, with outstanding strength and equipment. Rye Town was also the most populous town in the Republic of Northwest, with a total population of nearly 10,000. A legendary strongman stationed here all the year round. Before making trouble here, it was recommended to have a look at the corpses of the thieves hanging in a row on the gallows outside the city. In general, the foundation of the Republic of Northeast was not weak at all, though the geographical location was somewhat weird. Many countries in the world were not as good when they first got built. Chapter 400 Chapter 400: Chapter 110 Governor Felix was sitting in her office and stared at the documents that piled up like a hill. ¡°Why did work suddenly increase so much?¡± When these documents appeared in front of her, she complained. ¡°I remember that there wasn¡¯t so much before.¡± Even powerful mages who could defeat legendary demon beasts were afraid of this much work. She drew a line of height with her hand. But that height was only about a tenth of the files in front of her. That was not easy work. In the past, she spent more than three hours every day dealing with these documents. She had to read them carefully, to understand and she needed to think about how to deal with them. Even a skillful government official could only deal with 30 documents in an hour, and that was almost the limit. ¡°Even if I do not eat and drink and work overtime every day, I won¡¯t finish this work!¡± Felix screamed. ¡°What should I do?¡± ¡°Your Excellency, maybe you could consider decentralization.¡± The former deputy mayor of Pyroxene Town and now the mayor said. She was one of the governors of the Republic of Northwest and known as ¡°Yellow Crystal.¡± This aristocratic woman, who had never shown her family name, came to Pyroxene Town with her husband, Clito. It was said that she eloped with her husband. Clito was a handsome black-haired boy¡ªwe should call him a man. After all, he was beyond 18 years old. But when he came with Asner, many people had mistaken them for two women. Unlike his delicate appearance, Clito was a strong swordsman. His weapons were two swords; they were similar to a paladin¡¯s double knives but much more powerful. The two swords waved like the wind, and there was almost no space between them. He even practiced turning the Dou Qi airflow of a single sword into that of two swords. When he spared no effort to attack, few people could resist it. Although Asner worked in an office, she was not a weak girl. The Arrow of Purification hanging around her waist was not an ornament. She pulled it out faster than you could imagine, as if a meteor flew through the sky. Jose had fought with this couple, winning against both in a one-on-one fight, but losing against them in a one-on-two fight. It showed that the couple¡¯s cooperation was strong enough to contest against this legendary master. After that, Jose once said to Felix, ¡°Neither of them can be considered particularly strong. But their talent is very good, and the most important thing is their mutual understanding and trust. When working together, they can fight far beyond the normal level. I suggest that you let them follow Leon or Olian for a while because they don¡¯t have much professional training. Asner is better because she learned aristocratic swordsmanship before, but Clito only learned from practicing. There are many mistakes in their swordsmanship. I could kill them in an instant if I really wanted to fight to the death.¡± Felix kept that in mind and told this couple the next day. They had no objection to it at first. After all, it was the dream of all swordsmen to learn swordsmanship with the ¡°King of the Seaside.¡± But a few days later, when they planned to transfer from the Void Mask Land to Garth City, Asner felt uncomfortable. After checking at the Red Pig Clinic, she was pregnant. Of course, pregnant women were not suitable for intense sports. Clito could learn by himself, but he was a good husband. To accompany his wife, he even skipped his patrol before. How could he go out to learn swordsmanship without his wife? So this was delayed. Then Asner gave birth to a daughter. They were busy taking care of their child, and of course, they couldn¡¯t leave. Days went by, and soon a few years passed. Asner became an excellent government official while Clito was a fisherman. In the purified river water, there were some aquatic magic objects. Only a master like him could ensure the safety of fishery. Looking at the piles of documents and hearing Asner¡¯s suggestion, Felix could not help but recall what happened when they first met. ¡°How time flies!¡± She couldn¡¯t help sighing. ¡°I remember there was only a little work to deal with before. When you introduced yourself as my secretary, I said, ¡®I don¡¯t need a secretary.''¡± ¡°It was clear that you had just become a governor for the first time,¡± Asner laughed and said. ¡°With the prosperity of the territory, there will surely be more and more work for government officials. This is due to the republic just being established, and the places are not fully prosperous. If all four towns fully develop, then you can¡¯t imagine how much work you¡¯ll have to do. You won¡¯t be able to finish it all by yourself unless you have hundreds of tentacles like Your Majesty.¡± ¡°That means I really should recruit a group of people who can share my work, right?¡± ¡°Yes. After all, you are a mage and the principal of the magic school. For you, you just need to make the big decisions, and the rest work should be left to others. Felix nodded, stood up and replied, ¡°Then, let¡¯s issue a notice and recruit mid-ranking officials from the four towns¡ªno, from the whole republic!¡± And then Felix said, ¡°Well¡­ You have also been waiting for too long. If you delay any longer, the golden age of learning would be gone. It¡¯s better to seize this opportunity to finish that work here and go to Garth City. ¡°My child is still young¡­¡± Asner replied. ¡°Little Yue is about five years old. When I was five years old, I began to learn to write and arithmetic with my father. If you¡¯d like, let me teach her. After all, I¡¯m a good teacher.¡± ¡°Let a legendary mage be a babysitter? That¡¯s a waste.¡± ¡°We are friends, aren¡¯t we?¡± Felix laughed and said. ¡°Youth is precious. Don¡¯t delay it any longer. Leon is a very good teacher. After studying with him, you will make huge progress. If you and Clito can step into the Legendary Realm together in the future, you can even accompany each other for thousands of years¡­ It is worthwhile to give up the present stability for the future. Asner meditated for a moment and then nodded heavily. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll contact Clito and get ready to go.¡± ¡°So fast?¡± ¡°Decisions should be implemented as soon as possible. Otherwise, it may be delayed again.¡± ¡°How about little Yue?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll take her to Garth City,¡± Asner laughed and said. ¡°I can¡¯t really let you be a nanny. We will come back after we have progressed in our studies. Maybe at that time, you can really teach Yue then.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Asner smiled and nodded, put down her documents and walked towards the door. She soon reached the door. As she stepped out, she said with a smile, ¡°Well, all the government work has to be done by you. Your Excellency.¡± Felix, who was still stretching, suddenly turned to the horrible mountain of documents on the table. This time, there was not one mountain but two. ¡°My God!¡± she screamed. ¡°Asner! We are friends. Don¡¯t go so fast! Let¡¯s deal with these first. Asner¡¯s voice came from afar, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, most of these aren¡¯t that important. I¡¯ve marked out the most important ones. You can use the rest for the test questions.¡± When Felix thought about it, she suddenly changed from being sad to joyful. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea! Thank you!¡± Asner, who had gone far, waved and soon disappeared. Felix also laughed and waved. After thinking for a while, she contacted Sui Xiong through the Channel of Religion. ¡°Your Majesty, I really have too many government affairs here. I am too busy!¡± Sui Xiong was wondering how to perfect a god¡¯s summoning technique and answered, ¡°Really? You didn¡¯t mention that before?¡± ¡°I used to be in charge of Pyroxene Town, but now I am in charge of four towns!¡± ¡°Where were the previous officials of the four towns?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°When we merged, we dismissed a lot of people who were too bad. So we are short on manpower. I need to handle everything,¡± Felix sighed and said. Sui Xiong thought for a moment and said, ¡°Let¡¯s recruit.¡± ¡°I just wanted to say that.¡± ¡°No problem. If you don¡¯t have enough people, you should recruit.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and suddenly remembered something. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Why don¡¯t we take this opportunity to change the name of the officials?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Um¡­ Let¡¯s call the officials ¡®civil servants¡¯!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Then, next is the first civil servant entrance examination! Amazing! I am proud of myself!¡± ¡°What are you talking about, Your Majesty?¡± ¡°Ha ha! An idea.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and told his plan in detail. Felix nodded as he spoke, admiring him all the while. ¡°You are the greatest god! How could you imagine a recruitment method like that! Bravo! First, the written test and then the interview. We use the written test to kick out those who lack basic cultural ability and social experience. This can greatly improve the efficiency of the interview¡­ That¡¯s a brilliant idea!¡± Sui Xiong proudly waved his tentacles and laughed. Half an hour later, this recruitment from Governor Felix was magically spread to every town in the republic. Chapter 401 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The first Civil Service Recruitment in the Republic of Northwest had attracted many people¡¯s attention. Although they did not understand what the so-called ¡°civil servant¡± was, there were still many participants. There were no fools. By careful thinking, they could infer that the ¡°civil servant¡± should be the official who managed the daily affairs of the territory. According to the past tradition, officials were promoted by the Hill Lord. They were generally selected from the Hill Lord¡¯s subordinates or relatives. It had been a rare case as the Republic of Northwest to directly select officials among the normal people. It was just rare, but it did happen. After all, the foundation of the Republic was weak; the number of its high-ranking officials was small, and so was the number of their relatives and subordinates. Thus, it was hard to promote enough officials after all. That offered chances to everyone. So in just three days, not to mention people with expertise in the four towns area had almost all signed up, many people even had managed to the Void City through the transportation portal to sign up. Three days later, according to the final statistics, the number of registered people was over 10,000. Such a huge number made the statisticians stunned. ¡°Do we have so many positions to offer?¡± After receiving the statistics, Felix stopped for a moment and asked. Mrs. Teague, the governor of the Void City, pondered for a while and shook her head. ¡°How many positions will be there?¡± Felix asked again. ¡°It has been counted. At present, our vacant positions¡­There are about three to four hundred in urgent need.¡± ¡°Make it more, five hundred. That means to choose one from at least twenty people¡­¡± Fred sighed, ¡°I¡¯m afraid there will be a mess.¡± Although she had never experienced such a thing, she could understand it by simple imagination: 19 would be eliminated out of 20 talented people ¡ª If that was the case, things would be easier. But as the number expanded to over 10,000, it meant that more than 10,000 people would have been eliminated. It definitely would cause a lot trouble, or she would swallow the statistic list! It had proved that she was still too young and simple. There was still a lot for her to learn. When Yan Xun got the report, he glanced at it carelessly, smiled and said, ¡°The enrollment rate is five percent. It¡¯s quite high.¡± What? Quite high?! At what point? Hearing that comment, Felix felt surprised and confused. She couldn¡¯t help asking why, and Yan Xun smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s not too hard for twenty people to compete for a job. This is just a sign up, not even a written test.¡± ¡°Will the written test fail a lot of them?¡± Felix frowned and said, ¡°There are too many people!¡± ¡°It might be. After all, it will be an examination.¡± Yan Xun said kind of irresponsibly, ¡°If it¡¯s still hard to choose, we can make the exam paper more difficult, or we can just choose the top few of them. There are always more solutions than problems.¡± ¡°An examination?¡± This was something different from a ¡°written test¡± in her mind. ¡°Isn¡¯t that something done at school?¡± She asked, ¡°Doesn¡¯t a written test mean to let the participants write something to prove that they are able to write and count?¡± ¡°How could it be!¡± Yan Xun opened his eyes wide. ¡°If in that way, how can we judge the good and bad?¡± Felix stopped again. She really hadn¡¯t thought about that. In her opinion, the so-called written test was only a way to eliminate those who couldn¡¯t read from the competition. Unexpectedly, Yan Xun wanted to set a high standard by imitating the school curriculum. ¡°If we want to recruit civil servants, we must take the exam first.¡± Yan Xun said, ¡°Through the exam, screen out those who do not even have the basic level of education as well as those who have strange ideas and are not in tune with normal people; then eliminate those who are not competent and completely do not know how to do things well¡­After eliminating these worthless people, the rest is taken as effective registration.¡± After thinking for quite a while, Felix realized what he meant, hesitated to ask, ¡°But¡­ Leave those illiterate people alone. How about those can read or count a little?¡± ¡°If they are not such qualified, how could they be civil servants?¡± Yan Xun laughed, ¡°Being a civil servant, he has to write a report when something happens; write a note or sign when it¡¯s his responsibility; at least he has to be able to understand the document by the superiors¡­I¡¯m not asking them to write poems and operas or something like that, but they still need at least the ability to read, write and calculate.¡± Felix frowned for a moment and then asked, ¡°So, what is Your Majesty going to do with those who have been eliminated for their lack of education?¡± ¡°If they are interested in learning to read, they can apply for settlement and then go to literacy classes. The tuition fee is low and the course arrangement is loose. As long as they work hard, after half or a year, they will learn a lot of words. For those who have money or are willing to pay back money in the future can sign up for school. But now the school enrollment quota is very tight, they may not be able to get enrollment. As for those unwilling to learn, there is nothing I can do.¡± He laughed and said, ¡°Can I force a man who doesn¡¯t want to make a progress to learn?¡± ¡°¡­I was interested in doing that, but not for now. I have to manage more and more things now. I really don¡¯t have enough energy.¡± Felix quite understood Yan Xun. She kept silence for a moment and asked, ¡°What should we do if those who are eliminated make trouble?¡± Yan Xun sneered. ¡°I¡¯ll let Wor hold the written test then. I¡¯d like to see who dare to be wild in front of the God of Knowledge!¡± In fact, none. In fact, some of the people who came to register this time had had doubtful origins and bad motives. However, no matter what their thoughts were, seeing the God of Knowledge descending into the world and holding the written exam by himself, they gave up their original intention. Under the eyes of a real god? What a joke! Of course, there were also people who were not afraid of death. But facing with a real god, it had been difficult for even those strong-willed people to bring up courage to do something. One or two of them had gone through repeated ideological struggles and had a slight impulse to go out. However, before they had made up their minds, they had been spotted by Wor. He waved his hand and took them directly to the sanctuary of the Kingdom of God. As for these people, they had bitten their teeth tightly, promising to explode themselves in the examination hall at the beginning. Then they were taken to the Kingdom of God to face a giant jellyfish laughing in a scary way. Would they have a nervous breakdown or be crazy? No matter what, it was not within the scope of the civil service examination. The written examination went very well since Wor had been the one holding it. As Yan Xun estimated, most of the applicants failed to get the lowest pass marks in the written examination and were eliminated. That was definitely not caused by the written examination paper being too difficult, but because of the low level of education in this world. The paper, written by Felix, had been divided into four parts. The first part was to judge whether thirty common words had been written correctly. The second part was ten easy addition and subtraction. The third part was to read a notice and write a brief summary of it. The fourth part was to listen to a civil dispute and write the way to deal with it. In these four parts, if they finished the first two parts correctly, they could get the pass marks. In the view of Felix, it was almost the easiest exams. Not to mention the students from the magic school, even many of the miners at the negative energy mine could do that. But it turned out that she had been too optimistic. When she corrected the papers, she was almost collapsed by the messy mistakes. She rushed out of the office more than once and roared for a long time without any reason before she calmed down and started correcting the papers again. Seeing her like that again and again, Yan Xun finally couldn¡¯t take it. He took over the work of correcting the papers. Those low-level mistakes were really maddening, but Yan Xun used his magic power and did not need to correct them by himself at all. He was able to do it all at once. When the less than 20 percent passing rate came out, Felix was calm. She even asked curiously, ¡°Your Majesty, did you lower the standard? How could the passing rate be so high?¡± If it was before the exam, she would never have such an idea. But after being tortured by test papers full of various mistakes, she had completely lost confidence in the cultural level of the candidates, resulting in a serious illusion. In her opinion, if 1/10 of these candidates could pass, she would be thankful. It had proved that that was just prejudice. Results of the written test were soon published, and the candidates did not make any trouble. After all, they knew the level of their knowledge very well. There was no one that thought he should have passed but didn¡¯t. On the contrary, there were some people who stared at the blue ¡°pass¡± behind their names on the list, didn¡¯t move for a while and then giggled. At that moment, if someone acted like Fan Jin, saying ¡°Oh! I¡¯m in!¡± It must be very suitable to the situation. Of course, they were not in yet. There was still an interview. The number of candidates had been cut from over 10,000 to less than 2,000, and among them 500 would be hired eventually. Such a proportion had made Yan Xun mutter several times, but nothing more than ¡°Why did I never meet such a high admission rate at that time!¡± As a regular college graduate, Yan Xun had also taken part in the civil servant examination before. However, students majored in arts were really not suitable for such an examination. His written test results were so bad that he had no qualification for an interview. He was not the one to blame. There were cases that students majored in arts had passed the examination, but it was too rare! It was only possible for those who were really good at basic knowledge. However, if the exam paper could be as easy as this time, anyone could make it. Well, on the premise that the paper had been translated into Chinese¡­ The situation of the interview was slightly better than the written examination, at least it was not to eliminate more than 80% of the people ¡ª after screening, 500 relatively excellent people were finally selected. For the rest, if they were willing to settle down in the Republic of Northwest, they could jump the written examination into interview directly for the next recruitment. Otherwise they had to go through the written examination again. Finally, more than 1,000 people chose to settle down. With those 500 recruited civil servants, the population of the Republic of Northwest increased by more than 1,500 at a dramatic rate. All of these people were highly qualified ¡ª compared to the average level of this world. It made them all very happy, especially Felix, who was finally able to say goodbye to the mountains of papers and could hardly stopped laughing. But Yan Xun was not that happy. During the examination, he didn¡¯t even find a truly talent. He had thought that holding such a big event would attract a group of talents. However, he had not expected that he wouldn¡¯t find even one brilliant people among those candidates! That made him sigh and gloomy for a while. A few days later, Morani came to visit him occasionally to discuss making equipment for oracles. Seeing his bitter face, Morani could not help asking. When he heard that Yan Xun wanted to find some outstanding talents, he was silent for a moment and said, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, I have someone to recommend to you.¡± ¡°Who?¡± Yan Xun was stunned, then asked happily. ¡°He was the famous vagrant hero, known by people as Paul the Ranger. He was once almost succeeded to be a real god, but he gave it up. Now he is kind of an evil god, a rebuilt brave lion, Leonard.¡± Morani thought about it and added, ¡°He once was my voter, now my enemy.¡± Chapter 402 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Your enemy?¡± hearing the last sentence, Sui Xiong asked out of curiosity. ¡°How did he change from your voter to your enemy? Since he is your enemy, why didn¡¯t you bombard him and recommend him to me instead?¡± Morani remained silent for a moment before laughing bitterly. Long, long ago¡ªno, not really that long ago¡ªin the ¡°Lion-men¡± of the Orcs, there was an excellent soldier named Leonard. The founders of the Lion-men had been defeated in the battle with human gods, so their beliefs were diverse, and Leonard believed in Morani, ¡°the Iron Lion,¡± who was the patron saint of armored warriors. ¡°Alas? Is that your former clergy?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°It¡¯s just for this position. At that time, my clergy was armored warriors and forgers,¡± Morani said. ¡°But my forging level is very low, so my major business is armored warriors.¡± ¡°Does a god have a major and minor business?¡± ¡°If you work in a large God System, you will know.¡± As he answered Sui Xiong¡¯s questions, Morani continued to recall more things. Leonard was a talented person who had become a master at a young age and even stepped into the Legendary Realm, something that ordinary people could not expect in their whole life. According to the Orc¡¯s tradition, he joined the army, fighting in the front lines of the battle against the Eagle Kingdom. He and Iroqi, ¡°Iron Teeth,¡± were famous for being great partners. One was good at defending and the other at attacking. When they worked together, they even fought back the King of the Eagle Kingdom who carried the Three Eagle Artifacts. As a god, Morani also had requirements for his clergymen. One of those requirements was that a clergyman must prepare his armor and weapons by himself. Leonard could not forge, so he turned to a businessman and went to the dangerous world of beasts to hunt the legendary monster, ¡°Nimel Diamond Lion.¡± With strong power, Leonard strangled the horrible monster with his hands and then brought the whole lion¡¯s body back to the tribe. He asked a shaman to cast a spell to empty the lion¡¯s flesh and blood, turning the lion¡¯s skin into heavy leather armor. The name ¡°Armored Great Lion¡± came from this story. Morani liked Leonard very much; Morani promoted him to be the chosen one and even gave him the eternal life. Everything seemed to be going well, and the future looked good. Leonard would continue to grow up to be a demigod or even a god. However, it didn¡¯t take long for the accident to happen. It was autumn, and the climate was somewhat bad. The grass on the grassland was obviously fewer than that in previous years This situation was rare. Every time this happened, it would lead to a war. Generally speaking, in that condition, the Orcs would launch a fierce offensive fight against the humans in the late autumn, not only to plunder food but also to wipe out the population. These wars were extremely miserable because unlike other wars, a large number of ineffective races would be sent to the front line to consume human combat power with their lives¡ªor, in other words, to commit suicide. Leonard reacted with anger to this action. He said that he fully agreed with the idea of plundering human¡¯s food, but how could he let the weak races die for lack of food? ¡°I¡¯m an Armored Warrior. I¡¯m a guardian on the battlefield. I can¡¯t let this happen!¡± He roared so loudly that even the Orc emperor heard. However, nothing would help. The problem of food shortage could not be solved by just a legendary master. In fact, the food that was taken from human countries was very limited. It was more practical to eradicate the population than to take the food. The war that year was miserable, and countless were dead. Leonard fought frantically on the battlefield, not knowing how much blood drenched his body. The blood even changed the skin color of the Diamond Lion Amor to scarlet. He couldn¡¯t change anything at all. After a long period of depression, Leonard began to doubt the value of his life. To comfort him, the Orc Emperor had one of his daughters marry Leonard. Soon, a baby was born, and Leonard was cheered up by the warmness of his family. A few years later, the Orcs got a message that God of Knights and the God of Justice who guarded the Eagle Kingdom began to cooperate, and a war against the Orcs was about to start. This made the Orc gods anxious. Although the God of Knights was old, he was powerful, and although the God of Justice was unreliable, he was very strong. With the joint efforts of these two powerhouses, together with the power of the Human God System, the Orc God System might be defeated in this battle. In this case, Lefon, the God of Orcs, found the War God System and asked for a plan from the God of Strategy. It was a very vicious and effective plan, and soon it was put into action. The specific content of this plan was very complex, and the implementation process was also very complex. It was difficult to tell you all, but the result of this plan could be concluded in one sentence. The frontier guards of the Eagle Kingdom attacked actively and massacred nearly 100 tribes¡ªmore than 100,000 Orcs and civilians, regardless of the gender and age, were all slaughtered. It shook the whole Pantheon temple and made the God of justice furious. He scolded the Eagle Kingdom and gave up the intention of an alliance. On the whole, the plan was a great success only by paying a small price to a god. However, when Leonard learned about the plan afterwards, his anger, which had been accumulating at the bottom of his heart, burst completely. It was a massive scuffle. Leonard, already at his legendary peak, was extremely powerful and was supported by many people. They fought battles against the cruel faction headed by the Orc¡¯s Emperor. Both sides received heavy blows. This time, Leonard wouldn¡¯t give in, and no one could persuade him, including Morani. His stubbornness irritated the Orc gods, and they punished him. Leonard¡¯s comrades-in-arms and family died as punishment, and he was almost killed. But at the very moment of life and death, Leonard broke through the limit and stepped into the demi-god realm. Divine punishment could kill legendary masters, but it was meaningless to demi-gods. Only a god clone could kill demi-gods. Leonard broke out of the encirclement, left the Orc Empire and became a lone ranger. He abandoned his belief in Morani. In front of Morani¡¯s temple, he threw away the lion¡¯s leather armor which he regarded as a treasure, and then he put on a simple steel armor. He abandoned the name of ¡°Armored Great Lion,¡± but wandered around with the name of ¡°Paul.¡± He believed that God¡¯s tyranny and cruelty were the roots of most disasters in the world. So when he was strong enough to become a ¡°god of a vagrant,¡± he gave up and became an evil god. His favorite thing was to prevent Gods from expanding their influence, to destroy the activities that powerful gods used to recruit followers and to persuade those who would become a god to abandon the idea and join the evil gods. And after that war, Morani began to reflect. Eventually, he left the Orc God System and established the Desolation God System, becoming the patron saint of the Orcs, the warriors, and the forgers. ¡°Sounds like a sad story¡­¡± after listening to Morani¡¯s story, Sui Xiong paused for a while and said. ¡°Are you sure he will help me instead of beating me when we meet?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± Morani said seriously. ¡°I saw him growing up. I know him well. Although you often do something unreliable, your policies are the ones he appreciates most.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Morani laughed. ¡®I¡¯m looking forward to seeing him become a real god under your guidance!¡± So Sui Xiong paid a visit to Leonard. Leonard¡¯s residence was not a secret. This stubborn and powerful evil god never wanted to resist. When Sui Xiong visited him, he even came to meet Sui Xiong in casual wear without any weapons or armor. Leonard had no appearance of a lion-man. He looked like a half-breed who was about forty years old, and there were whiskers on his face. He was tall and strong, and people would even feel that he was very flexible at first sight. He stood there calmly, but whoever saw him would realize at the first moment that he was a strong man that could never be underestimated. ¡°I see.¡± After listening to Sui Xiong¡¯s explanation, Leonard calmly said, ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll help you.¡± Sui Xiong was surprised. He prepared a lot. He planned to spend several days in persuading Leonard, but he didn¡¯t expect that this evil god would be so nice and so quick to agree. After hesitating for a moment, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°How come you are so quick to say yes?¡± ¡°You¡¯re a good man,¡± Leonard answered. ¡°I like your policies very much. If Republicanism could be popularized all over the world, it would okay to work for you.¡± Sui Xiong understood his point. While complaining about Morani saying that nothing was important, Sui Xiong thanked university political teachers. By the way, he was glad that he didn¡¯t skip class and went out to play online games. Although a little bit surprised, Sui Xiong was satisfied with this good result. That was good enough! Chapter 403 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong had been more than satisfied to recruit such a powerful evil god as Leonard. But then he found that there was more good news. As an evil god, Leonard was not a general without an army. Instead, he also had some subordinates. These subordinates were mainly rangers. They weren¡¯t good at riding and shooting arrows nor did they wear light armor or use short weapons¡ªthey were vagrant heroes. Most of these subordinates could read and write, and the rangers had higher education and more social experience. They were capable of completing official work. Although most young rangers were not interested in settling down, they would eventually grow old. Older rangers were happy to have a stable job and to use their wisdom to do something beneficial later on. These rangers had been a part of society for many years. They used to deal with trouble by themselves and gathered a lot of experience. Even the older rangers who didn¡¯t have enough energy to deal with government affairs could be teachers at a school. They could pass on their own experience like passing a flame from generation to generation. Both those rangers and Leonard were satisfied with that. Leonard had been less active these years mainly due to the gradual increase of his older subordinates. He always worried about them. Most of them worshipped the hero, Paul in their youth and then followed in his footsteps to be heroes and maintain social justice. No matter what, he could not ignore these people. So he was very happy to find them a good place to settle down in. So was Sui Xiong. These rangers were excellent, but Leonard could do much better. This relatively young, perhaps even the youngest, evil god of his time had remarkable abilities. He was good at civil affairs but even better at military affairs. In the entire Republic, he was the only one that had commanded an army, fought in a battle, and finally won among all the subordinates of Sui Xiong. In the past, this ¡°rebuilt brave lion¡± Leonard was one of the marshals in the Southern War Zone of the Orc Empire. Although he preferred defense to attack, he had been in charge of tens of thousands of soldiers to fight with the Eagle Kingdom on many occasions. Neither of them had been the winner, but Leonard never really suffered any losses. His military talent was even higher than that of Leon, who had almost been the King of the Eagle Kingdom. To Sui Xiong, it meant that finally, there was a really talented high military official in his camp. So he arranged for Leonard to be a drillmaster. Hearing his arrangement, Leonard was quiet for a while and asked, ¡°Are you asking me to give lectures to those soldiers? To teach them military discipline, tactics, and strategies? How many soldiers there?¡± Sui Xiong estimated and answered, ¡°About¡­ three to four hundred.¡± ¡°Such a small number.¡± Leonard was surprised. ¡°I can¡¯t teach those who lead less than one hundred soldiers. I¡¯m not good at small-scale fighting.¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you a ranger for a period of time?¡± ¡°At that time, I was a lone ranger.¡± Leonard shook his head. ¡°I have experience in both commanding an army and fighting alone, but I have never led a team of thirty or fifty soldiers.¡± ¡°You have never commanded a team of that size?¡± ¡°Never. When I was young, I joined the army and kept fighting. My military rank was high just because I had been brave enough to fight. It wasn¡¯t until entering the Legendary Realm that I really took the lead and directly took over half of the southern theater,¡± Leonard laughed and said. ¡°There were at least ten thousand soldiers under me.¡± Sui Xiong was in silence for a moment and then sighed deeply. The Republic of Northwest was still too small! But his disappointment didn¡¯t last long. He soon cheered up again. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Your experience will be useful one day,¡± he said. ¡°The Ashes Woods is large enough. As long as we purify all the negative energy, there will be enough space to build a large country.¡± Leonard was surprised at his answer. He asked, ¡°Do you know how to purify the entire Ashes Woods?¡± ¡°The head of my mage group has been studying this.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°It works quite well.¡± ¡°That is a talented person worth cultivating!¡± Leonard responded. ¡°If he could really work out a way to purify the entire Ashes Woods, he would probably get a position among the gods. There isn¡¯t any god in charge of purification. He can work hard for it!¡± ¡°Huh? Are you not an evil god? You never encourage others to become a god.¡± Leonard laughed. ¡°Getting a divine position doesn¡¯t equal becoming a god. On the contrary, possession of a divine position without becoming a god can prevent future generations from embarking down the wrong path.¡± Sui Xiong was dumbfounded for a moment and asked, ¡°Does that work?¡± ¡°Of course. Taking a divine position is a way to gain mastery over something. You can choose to make it public or not. But no matter what, the fact that the masters take the lead is not going to change,¡± said Leonard. ¡°As long as the forerunners gain adequate mastery, there will be no hope for the late-coming ones to take their position. For example, have you ever seen the gods of machinery, gear, and construction of living beings in this world?¡± Sui Xiong shook his head after thinking. ¡°That¡¯s because the Master Evil God in the Machinery Realm had gained mastery over these things. So it has been impossible for others to grab a share. It is the same as those gods who have taken a divine position alone, just whether they make it public or not.¡± Sui Xiong suddenly realized what Leonard was saying, to which he couldn¡¯t help showing his admiration. Leonard might not be the most powerful god, but he had a high standard of thinking that left many senior masters far behind. As for other evil gods, some were only concerned about how to stay away from social matters and enjoy a free life. There were some farseeing ones, but what they pursued the most was to become the ruler of a certain area. However, Leonard was considering taking a divine position to reduce the number of new gods. With such profound thinking, it¡¯s no wonder that he could be so powerful in only one thousand years! Sui Xiong expressed his admiration and asked Leonard for suggestions on the new Republic of Northwest. ¡°In my opinion, the biggest problem of the Republic is a lack of productivity,¡± Leonard said. ¡°It¡¯s true that Void City makes a good fortune every day, and that has been more than enough to support the whole country. However, a country can¡¯t seek its development only through the support of its central cities. The local governments also have to play their roles in developing highly competitive industries to support themselves. Currently, it seems that only Gold-Panning Town has fallen behind in development. However, if compared with the standard of development of Void City, or lower the standard, with that of Pyroxene Town, all the other three towns would fail. ¡°The problem is that we currently can¡¯t find out ways of development for the three towns currently. Dragon-Roar Town¡¯s production relies on the hunting of demon beasts. We can manage to enlarge the number of demon beasts, but we can¡¯t find enough hunters; Rye Town is based on agriculture and commerce, both are not able to be increased greatly in a short period of time. Compared to that, it is the declining Gold-panning Town that is able to surge quickly, for it boasts enough miners and negative energy mines.¡± Sui Xiong thought about this carefully. After a while, he asked, ¡°Then how do I solve these problems?¡± ¡°Through amalgamation,¡± Leonard answered. ¡°There is no need to keep all four towns. That¡¯s too many. It would be better to cancel some towns and amalgamate its population to other towns. In my opinion, turn Rye Town into a fortress and give up the agriculture there. Then the unoccupied people will be arranged to live in any of the other three towns, especially Gold-Panning Town to promote the economy there. As for Dragon-Roar Town, it¡¯s better to not place the living standard of Void City there. Leave it with its savagery and wilderness where it will be a perfect parading ground.¡± Sui Xiong froze at his answer. He thought about it for a while and asked, ¡°Why should I turn Rye Town into a fortress? We¡¯re in good relations with our neighbor, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins.¡± ¡°A good relationship for now,¡± Leonard answered carelessly. ¡°With the development of the Republic of Northwest, there will be more and more immigrants coming from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, and that will make your relationship worse and worse. There will be war sooner or later. There is nothing wrong with taking precautions before it¡¯s too late.¡± Sui Xiong was more surprised at that. ¡°Why would I fight with my ally!?¡± ¡°An ally for now,¡± Leonard said. ¡°The Goddess of Wealth is a god of belief, so she has to follow the demand of merchants. The current Void City and the whole Republic with Void City at its core have developed an independent business system, from which the country has made great profits while the merchants have just gotten a relatively small share. As time goes by, the greed of the merchants will change the attitude of Her Majesty.¡± ¡°She is not that kind of person.¡± ¡°It has nothing to do with what kind of person she is. A god of belief has no choice before their people¡¯s demands.¡± Leonard sighed. ¡°The God of Justice is like that. Would a weaker god like the Goddess of Wealth be different?¡± Sui Xiong remembered what Leonard had been through before and sighed deeply. This evil god had a strong prejudice. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I will figure it out before the contradictions are intensified,¡± he smiled and said. ¡°If the contradictions develop to a certain degree, it will be impossible to solve them. But I won¡¯t let things go that far. It won¡¯t be so easy to solve the problem caused by greed and evilness. Even if you have the power to know everything about heaven and earth, it won¡¯t help at all. Human beings, in their nature, are all longing for safety and peace. Living has been their first desire.¡± Sui Xiong had seen this kind of question before on an online game¡¯s bulletin board system. He had made it clear when he was sorting out data last time. So he answered immediately, ¡°Of course there are cases where other¡¯s demands win the desire of living, but they are rare.¡± ¡°The soldiers and normal people lose their lives while the ruler gains his power and wealth. How do you prevent things like that?¡± Leonard asked. ¡°Make the rulers lose their lives first,¡± Sui Xiong answered with a smile. Leonard didn¡¯t say a word. He looked at Sui Xiong as if it was his first time looking at him. ¡°You¡¯re right! Why have I never thought about that!?¡± After a moment, he sighed deeply and said, ¡°Now I¡¯m really curious about where you will lead this unprecedented country and what achievements you will make¡­¡± Chapter 404 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the deep and quiet darkness, an old dragon darker than the darkness was pondering over something. In fact, the plan was fully prepared; he was only waiting for the implementation. But the dragon began to hesitate on the plan. His experiences accumulated over the years told him that it wasn¡¯t a good idea to put the plan into action now. Indeed, the jellyfish was having a leisurely time and had dropped his guard. If the old dragon attacked him now, he might succeed. But after he succeeded in attacking the jellyfish, the jellyfish would take fierce revenge, and that made the dragon worry too much. The scene of the jellyfish killing two gods in those years was still fresh in all the gods¡¯ minds. The old dragon thought that he was stronger than those two gods who were high in deity but were not good at fighting. If he were going to fight with one of them, he would definitely win. But if he had to fight with the two of them, he might be at risk. If he was not forced to challenge those two gods, he would never do such a thing. But that jellyfish did and won. Although after winning, the jellyfish seemed to suffer a lot and took a long time to recover, if it as the old dragon that was fighting with those two gods, he would suffer more than the jellyfish. Of course, the jellyfish did not have followers and could only rely on himself at that time. The old dragon had many subordinates, and he could also turn to some helpers whom he had contacted beforehand. However, if he asked his subordinates to fight, they would suffer great losses; if he wanted to turn to his helpers, he would pay a lot of money, and that made the stingy old dragon feel ache. What¡¯s more¡­ now the jellyfish was not alone. He had friends, subordinates and reliable allies. During this period, the old dragon also contacted many gods. Theoretically speaking, he could resist the attack of the jellyfish and his helpers, making the two sides fight face to face. But if he really did it in this way, he would feel worthless. Even if the old dragon killed the jellyfish, he would feel worthless if he suffered great losses in the fight! So even if the old dragon felt hatred and malice toward the jellyfish, he had to think it over whether to cancel the plan or not. However, he did not cancel the attack plan in the end. The reason was simple¡ªhe could not wait anymore! Since the jellyfish dug the underground maze and changed it into an amusement park, Cladema¡¯s clergy had been a little stable. The dragon¡¯s clergy consisted of three parts: the underground cave that he stole, the underground relics occupied by management, and the underground maze that he was planning. According to the dragon¡¯s plan, when the three parts of his clergy were completed, he could claim to be the master of the underground and establish an underground city holy pedigree. The dragon would recruit some weak divines such as shadows, earth elements, and minerals, as his god followers, and they would formally step into the second row of the Pantheon to sit on equal footing with all the gods. By that time, he would take actions toward clergies like the underground veins and underground lava. With every clergy he took, he would have a higher mastery of the underground. When he reached a certain level, he would be worthy of being the master of the underground. At that time, he would contact those gods who were contradictory to the Natural God System and fight with them in order to kill the God of Earth and control the whole land. When this was completed, the next step was to fight with the God of Earth Element and expand his scope of clergy. When all those clergies were in hand, the dragon¡¯s strength may be enough to challenge the jellyfish god. There should be a new master in the vast world! The old, evil black dragon could not help but laugh for a long time when thinking about this. After laughing, he had to face reality. The idea was good, but the reality was that his long-planned clergy of the underground maze was about to leave him. Even the clergy of the underground relics was beginning to show signs of instability. He was aware that all those changes were the result of a change in identity. The clergies in the Natural God System were not fixed, and they were also related to people¡¯s cognition. For example, he generally believed that the clergy of flood was controlled by only one god. But as long as the other gods had some understanding and mastery of the clergy of flood, the clergy of flood would deviate and eventually fall to the hands of that god. Cladema himself obtained the clergy of the underground relics in this way, so he was very familiar with that situation. For all the people in the world, the jellyfish god who had excavated the world¡¯s largest underground maze and built it into a huge adventure park was undoubtedly an expert in the underground maze. Compared to him, those gods were just on a small scale, and they were far from the maze built by the jellyfish. If anyone was fit to be the god of the underground maze, it must be the Void Mask. This had made all of Cladema¡¯s efforts wasted. If the Void Mask had planned to compete for the clergy of the underground maze, Cladema would lose completely. If that were the case, perhaps Cladema could still tolerate it. After all, the Void Mask did not show any intention of contending for that clergy. And Cladema didn¡¯t feel that this big jellyfish would turn around and fight for this clergy either. But, Cladema could not tolerate the instability of the clergy of the underground relics. He knew that it was not the intention of the Void Mask, but the fact was that the Void Mask was still expanding and perfecting the huge underground maze. That made people become more and more aware of his good underground work. Except for the natural underground caves that had nothing to do with him, as long as they were man-made underground facilities, people would feel that the Void Mask was the most appropriate master. Among them, there also included the clergy of the underground relics. Cladema realized this point and decided to fight with the Void Mask fiercely. He wanted to knock down the Void Mask¡¯s prestige and sweep the floor with him so that everyone would know only the powerful black dragon, Cladema, from ancient times to now had the ability to control everything in the underground. Whether it was natural or man-made, all underground things should belong to Cladema! Therefore, Cladema drew up his plan. The first step of the plan was to lead the jellyfish out of his territory and into the battlefield that had been prepared before by attacking the jellyfish¡¯s underground maze. In the past few years, Cladema had done such kinds of things more than once. For example, Cladema also used this method to kill the former God of Underground Caves. At that time, he was just a semi-god, and he attacked the main temple of the former god of the underground caves, killing hundreds of his clergymen including his pontiffs. This had made the former God of Underground Caves so angry that he pursued Coredema at any risk. The former God of Underground Caves was a monster with a cow head and was very good at fighting at close distance. But he was brought to a place where he could not use his abilities at all and was defeated in the magic battle. Then Cladema took advantage of the victory and pursued, killing this weak divine and seizing his clergy of underground caves. Many gods thought it was a despicable plot, but Cladema was proud of it and thought it was a manifestation of his wisdom. Now he had to use his wisdom again. After examining his plan for the last time and making sure it was all right, Cladema, the God of Underground Caves and Relics lifted his head and roared fiercely. With this roar, the adventure paradise beneath the Void City was shaking. The soil, rocks and all the buildings were shaking, and the sky, walls, and pillars were filled with huge cracks as if they were about to collapse. Cladema launched a terrible attack with all his powers acclimated in the clergy of the underground maze. Chapter 405 Chapter 405: Chapter 115 Sui Xiong was aware of the attack the moment it came. He used his Divine Power without thinking, trying to block the attack. However, his Divine Power was thwarted like throwing an egg at a stone wall¡ªwhen it hit against the enemy¡¯s attacking power, it blocked nothing at all. This surprised him because, since his space travel, it was the first time he had encountered such a situation! How is this happening?! But this was not a good time to consider the problem because the enemy¡¯s attack had caused great damage to the adventure park ¡°Dragon and Dungeons.¡± If not saved as soon as possible, not only will the entire underground maze collapse, even Void City on the ground will collapse with it, turning to ruin. He would never allow this! Therefore, he didn¡¯t think about it at all. He roared, turning into a giant beast almost as big as half of the underground maze. Then he used his body to hold the crumbling dome, which seemed ready to crumble at any time. His tentacles held up the entire maze with Void City above, just like giant pillars. How heavy was a city? Probably no one would be so bored to try to figure this out. Anyway, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know the answer. However, there was no doubt that it would be very heavy! If he weren¡¯t strong enough, Sui Xiong would be seeking for death. And even if he was so strong, extremely strong, and incredibly strong that even the Gods felt surprised, that would make him see stars and nearly fall down. If his real body were here, he could try to absorb the negative energy in the underground of the Ashes Woods directly to refuel himself. However, his body was ¡°incubating eggs¡± in the ¡°shelter room¡± of his God¡¯s Kingdom. He was trying to revive the God of Healing using the Love Angel under the previous Sun God as a base, and this cost him countless resources and energy. Therefore, he really couldn¡¯t make up his mind to give up at this time and moved his real body here. He felt that this avatar seemed to be able to hold on, as long as more Divine Power was provided. So he just did it, and the powerful Divine Power came in like a great river flowing, trying to reinforce this body that was already very powerful. Then the avatar was strong enough to support the entire Void City easily, and he even had the strength to repair the underground maze. Of course, at the same time, he also sent messages to all his subordinates and friends, asking them to help. He was neither a fool nor a purely kind protagonist with freakish ideas in a Japanese anime. He also was not a strange regressive leftie or a holy, European philanthropist who had been brainwashed by the idea of ¡°humanitarianism.¡± When he saw this case, he immediately realized that someone was getting him into trouble. And it was a very powerful guy! My opponent was very powerful, and I can¡¯t do many things at one time. What should I do? Look for some help, of course! Sui Xiong sent out a group message without thinking. He didn¡¯t care what his opponent would do. He was just trying his best to gather help first. However, before he sent the message, the follow-up attack of his enemy came! The sky above Void City suddenly became as red as blood. In this bright red, a huge fireball sent out awe-inspiring pressure and fell down toward Void City. It came with infinite weight and heat, as well as poisonous gas which could make common people die immediately if they breathed it in. Upon seeing that after arriving, Wall, the God of Knowledge changed his face and screamed, ¡°Yin Chen?!¡± Although he was not a master of spells, his knowledge of spells was sufficient because of his priesthood. Therefore, he recognized the spell used by the enemy immediately. It was ¡°Yin Chen,¡± one of the ¡°Seven Spells of Extinction,¡± which was said to be sealed long ago and impossible to appear again. The origins of the Seven Spells of Extinction couldn¡¯t be verified. Some people believed that they were created by a powerful god who had been mad. Some people said that they were one of the ways in which the world realized the ¡°destruction¡± of its origin. Other people thought that they were the masterpieces of the God of Evil, one of the Supreme Four Gods of the past. However, it was certain that the seven spells were powerful enough to frighten the gods, and it made them use the words ¡°extinction of the world¡± to describe them. In a book, the seven spells were described as follows: When the first angel blew the trumpet, hail fell from the sky mixed with fire and blood, and it burned one-third of the trees and grass. When the second angel blew the trumpet, the burning mountains fell into the sea and turned the sea water into blood. One-third of the sea creatures died, and one-third of the ships were destroyed. When the third angel blew the trumpet, the huge burning star called ¡°Yin Chen¡± fell into the rivers. The water in the rivers became as bitter as Yin Chen, and many people died. When the fourth angel blew the trumpet, one-third of the sun, the moon, and the stars were hit and dimmed. The daylight was no longer bright, and the night owned no more stars. An eagle flew in the air and cried, ¡°The angel will blow the rest of the trumpets; Thee who live on the ground! Woe to you! Woe to you! Woe to you!¡± When the fifth angel blew his trumpet, a star fell from the sky and opened up a bottomless pit. A burst of smoke emerged from the pit, covering the sky; Clouds of locusts rushed out with the smoke like battle horses who were prepared for a war. They were wearing golden crowns, with faces like men and hair like women. They had lion-like teeth and iron armor on their chests, dragging the tail of a scorpion and flapping their wings like horses galloping. When the sixth angel blew his trumpet, four demons were released. They had already sworn to kill one-third of the people, and so they immediately followed their oaths. Their military forces were massive, in which the cavalries wore fiery chest armor with purple amber and sulfur. The horses were all magnificent, with heads like a lion and a tail like a snake. The horses kept spouting fire and smoke from their mouths, carrying thick streams of sulfur. Thus, one-third of people died under their feet¡­ It was said that if these seven spells were used together, they would be powerful enough to destroy most parts of the world, bringing doomsday. That would make the gods desperate and unable to survive. Wall didn¡¯t know if these seven spells had such great power, and he couldn¡¯t use any of them. However, as the God of Knowledge, he clearly knew two points: First, he knew what it was like when these seven spells were used. Second, he knew that these seven spells were supposed to be sealed against the gods. Even the Master of Mystery, who mastered all spells in the world, had no way to use them. So, who actually used this horrible spell to launch a crazy attack on Void City? Wall didn¡¯t know that, but he knew that he had to do something now. Otherwise, Void City would be completely devastated! But although he knew this, he couldn¡¯t do anything! He painfully found out that he was too weak as a god! In the face of the powerful, destructive magic, he was so powerless! Chapter 406 Chapter 406: Chapter 116 Even if it couldn¡¯t be stopped, one had to try their best to stop it. With this in mind, Wall¡¯s incarnation sprang up as fast as an arrow and rushed towards the falling red stars in the sky. At the same time, he had used all his Divine Powers, and his whole body shone bright golden light like a brilliant star, crashing towards the red star. Now, the red star, Yin Chen, was not far from the ground, and she emitted a strong breath of death that collided violently with the divine enchantment that was used repel the negative energy, cold, and danger against Void City. There were no colors in the breath of death nor did the divine enchantment have colors. But where the two forces collided, people could see strong lights rising, with five different colors drifting away that dazzled the people. It was as if all the colors in the world could be found here. But the lights also made people frightened. Just looking at it from a distance, they would feel cold all over their body, and all kinds of terrible and confusing ideas came to their minds. Except for those who were particularly strong-willed, most people would fall into panic and confusion when seeing the lights, and their eyes would completely lose clarity. At this time, Wall incarnated into a golden star and rushed up to the sky, crashing fiercely into the red star, Yin Chen. The golden star exploded suddenly when it was about to hit the red star. It emitted a strong but warm light that warmed up the people who had seen it. Just like a clear and warm spring day, it flew through people¡¯s heart, dispelling all of the confused and terrible thoughts of people¡¯s minds and calming all the people who had been panicking. At this moment, hope rose in everyone¡¯s heart. Many people were praying in secret, hoping the warm golden star would repel or even eradicate the red star. However, this was just their fantasy. The golden star hit the red star and then disappeared. It disappeared. Instead of being crushed by the powerful forces of the red star or being contracted by the red star¡¯s forces and annihilated, it just disappeared. It was just like a drop of water falling into a pool without making a splash. It was just it never existed. The bright and warm light was just people¡¯s illusion. ¡°This¡­ what on earth happened? How could it be like this?¡± Javier was a little later than Wall, but he was not good at fighting, so he didn¡¯t help. Now, he was startled at the scene and wondered if something was wrong with his eyes. Wall had just destroyed his incarnation! Wall, the God of Knowledge and Education, had just stepped into the level of the weak divines, but his strength was actually the most powerful among all the weak divines. His incarnation had gathered a great deal of Divine Power, almost at the top of the weak divines. If he were to detonate his incarnation, even those weak mid-level Divine Powers would be unable to resist. But the red star had succeeded in resisting Wall without even striking a blowing. This made Javier feel frightened. He had moved the main temple of his church to Void City. If this horrible red star fell, the high-level followers of his church would be killed! Javier had worked so hard and spared no efforts in accumulating his strength and building his church. If it were not for the reputation of the amusement park of the Void Mask, his whole church would still be a grass field without even a temple. When the great temple was completed, he laughed heartily. ¡°How unexpected that I can own such a great temple now! This is so good! Ha ha ha!¡± But he never imagined that the amusement park would face such a crisis. Once the great temple collapsed and all the high-level followers of his church were killed, Javier himself would surely suffer great losses. He would not only lose lots of Divine Power, but also his deity level would be reduced. He may even be reduced from the weak Divine Power to feeble Divine Power. Am I making my own bed and killing myself? He roared angrily and tried desperately but sadly found that he could even not fight back with his limited abilities. Learn from Wall to detonate his incarnation? But he didn¡¯t even know how to gather the powers of self-detonating towards a single direction. ¡°F*ck! I have made so many friends who can fight well. How come I haven¡¯t learned some useful fighting skills?¡± In fact, his complaints were quite unreasonable. As the God of Celebration and Pleasure, he had nothing to do with fighting, and so Javier could not fight when he was a human being. He was a prince at that time and was good at eating, drinking and playing games. Whether Javier was a mortal or a god, he had never learned any fighting skills. Fortunately, there was a god who was especially good at fighting among Sui Xiong¡¯s friends. ¡°Seven Spells of Extinction? How could that happen here?¡± Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, was delayed a little and arrived a little late, but he just saw the scene of Wall detonating his incarnation with no effect. Of course, he was not like Javier who only paid attention to eating, drinking, entertaining or gossiping. He recognized the most famous Spells of Extinction at once and suddenly felt dumb. That¡¯s impossible! Didn¡¯t everyone swear together to seal off the Spells of Extinction completely and to never mention them? Who was so frenzied to make them out? He cursed the fellow who made the Spells of Extinction reappear in the world to die secretly. He quickly used all of his Divine Powers and his artifact to turn his axe into a golden lightning bolt. Yorgaardman was about to break through the divine enchantment in Void City and hit the huge red star, Yin Chen. ¡°No matter who you are, you need to ask for my permission if you want to make trouble!¡± With his roar, the golden lightning bolt broke through the sky with an irresistible force and collided with the red star. Previously, the huge red star, Yin Chen broke through Wall¡¯s all-out attack without any effort, but now, faced with Yorgaardman¡¯s attack, he wasn¡¯t as calm. The golden lightning bolt collided with the surrounding red lights, causing continuous explosions. With these explosions, Yin Chen¡¯s momentum began to drop, and the red lights around him began to wave. It was obviously that Yin Chen was at a disadvantage this time. Seeing the scene, Javier who had a sad face before now laughed, and Manissy who frowned tightly before now smiled. Even the God of Art and Culture, whose face was full of worries and anxieties now smiled. Morani who was ready to take his chances with all his efforts breathed a long sigh of relief, and Leonard, who had taken up his huge shield and began to rush to the sky to fight also breathed a sigh of relief. Even the silent white-and-black bear swordsman laughed, put down their knives and picked up their wine gourds. They had to admit that although there were some problems in Yorgaardman¡¯s personality because he was not so reliable in his words and actions, at the critical moment, Yorgaardman, the God of Justice was really powerful and reliable! Chapter 407 Chapter 407: Chapter 117 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, deserved to be among the top gods in the Pantheon Temple. He had been really a powerful force, turning the tides when he attacked at the critical moments. Although he failed to completely smash the bloody star, Yin Chen, he succeeded in preventing it from falling. What he had done could be taken as a great beginning as well as the most important first step in meeting the Seven Spells of Extinction head-on. The other gods were relieved to see that Yin Chen had finally stopped falling. But then suddenly, Yorgaardman yelled out, ¡°Why are you just standing by and watching? Do something!¡± The others were stunned for a moment before they realized that they had done a terrible job. The fact that they had just stood by while Yorgaardman had been doing his best to fight was a bit unpleasant. So they laughed embarrassedly and rushed to use their own forces to fight against the horrible bloody star. With Yorgaardman, a super master, standing up in front, things had been easier for the other gods. They were able to do their best calmly. The God of Ceremony and the God of Art and Culture both knew nothing about fighting, so they provided some magic or Divine Power to help. Morani and Leonard were heavily armored. Morani was attacking the side of Yin Chen with a huge battle axe, while Leonard was throwing out a huge shield transformed by Divine Power to cover the sky of the Void City. The shield also helped ease the pressure and fear brought by Yin Chen to the people on the ground. The Monochrome Bear swordsman laid down his wine gourd temporarily and waved his long knife. The light reflected on the knife seemingly transformed into the shape of a new moon. His attack continuously fell on the side of Yin Chen, where Morani had been attacking. Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, had spent a lot of time preparing for a spell of great power by reciting a long mantra. In the southern part of the Main Plane, there were thousands of believers chanting mantras together in the holy kingdom of the Goddess of Sea. Their chanting had cooperated with the Goddess of Sea¡¯s Divine Power, and her demigods added their strength to the powerful attack being prepared as well. Almost all the believers, demigods, and the Goddess gathered their strength together and condensed it into a bright, sea-blue light ball that was breathing as if it was alive, expanding and shrinking gently. Every time it breathed, its strength advanced to a higher level. Later, it became terribly powerful. It seemed that with a slight shock, the newly born holy kingdom would be shaken apart or even completely collapse. ¡­ The gods had done their best. They had done what they were really good at and had sent out their most violent attacks. But when these attacks fell on Yin Chen, they deeply felt the gap between the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, and themselves. They had realized just how powerful the God of Justice was. He had fought alone in the world and defended his beliefs in justice like a clown in a brutal and funny way. Yorgaardman¡¯s single attack with his axe had stopped the falling of Yin Chen, while the others¡¯ joint attack had only made Yin Chen shake slightly. The differences in power had made them neglect Yorgaardman¡¯s unserious and unpleasant action and begin to worship him with respect. But that didn¡¯t help to solve the problem. Yin Chen was still in the sky above Void City. It was shaking there, and it seemed ready to fall down at any time. ¡°You guys are really unreliable!¡± Yorgaardman had not expected that the power of so many gods joining together to be far weaker than that of him alone, so he couldn¡¯t stop complaining. His complaint had embarrassed the others, so they strengthened their attacks. But it didn¡¯t work. There was no change to the situation at all. Yin Chen was still hanging over Void City, constantly colliding with the forces of Yorgaardman. Although it seemed to be somewhat weaker, there was no sign of quickly being defeated. Apparently, the gods had done their best just now, so no matter how hard they tried again, there wouldn¡¯t be any more powerful effects. No, at this moment, there was actually another god who could help. His power, if not to end the stalemate, at least could help make the situation a little better. That god, of course, was Sui Xiong. Yorgaardmann surely knew that. His avatar here had been fully devoted to the battle and spared no energy in finding Sui Xiong and telling him about the urgent situation. But outside of the Main Plane, he had other avatars, and he was even able to temporarily create an avatar to send out a message. That was what he did. Just a minute or two later, his message-sending avatar arrived at the shelter room of Sui Xiong¡¯s holy kingdom. ¡°Auscar! My brother! Where are you? Your house is going to be ruined by the enemy. Why don¡¯t you fight against it?¡± As soon as he entered the room, he yelled out. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? What are you busy with?¡± However, no one answered. Yorgaardmann was a little surprised. He shut up and quickened his pace toward the ¡°incubator¡± inside the shelter, which Sui Xiong joking called the ¡°education base for bad people to develop into better people.¡± There, he saw Sui Xiong, quietly holding a huge light cocoon and pouring Divine Power into it. But there was no other reaction. With a glance, Yorgaardmann found the problem. Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power was still here, but his soul had gone somewhere else. Yorgaardmann had no idea what was going on here! He felt numb on his scalp, and the hair on his body stood up. There were few gods in the world who could know more about the true abilities of his slightly strange jellyfish brother than he did. Perhaps in the eyes of others, Sui Xiong was only a giant jellyfish with great power and weird ideas. It was difficult to say whether he was a good or bad god. But in Yorgaardman¡¯s view, his brother¡¯s strength had approached the level of the most powerful divinity, and his special abilities, such as being unaffected by Chaotic Energy in the abyss, were beyond the reach of even the most powerful divine. How could such a powerful man suddenly disappear from his soul? Then how powerful was the one who had caught Sui Xiong¡¯s soul? Would he be powerful in an exaggerated and crazy way to make people desperate? At least Yorgaardman knew that he was unable to do that. He even doubted that there would be such a god in the world like that! No! There was one! In the Pantheon Temple, Yorgaardman rushed to the King of Order, lowered his voice and asked, ¡°Old man, why did you capture my brother?¡± The God of Order did not turn back. He said lightly, ¡°I am not the only one with that power.¡± But that was all he said. No matter what Yorgaardman asked, he gave no other reply. Chapter 408 Chapter 408: Chapter 118 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Where had Sui Xiong gone? He himself wasn¡¯t very sure. About a minute ago, he had been working hard to stabilize the situation and trying to use his body to support the underground adventure park, ¡°Dragon and Dungeons,¡± that was about to collapse. As a result, before the rickety vault was fixed again, he felt a horrible wind coming from the sky, as if it was going to destroy him, the whole underground maze, and the Void City below. ¡°F*ck! Don¡¯t take me for a hello kitty when I¡¯m a sleeping tiger!¡± Sui Xiong was so angry that he was about to launch a fierce attack and show the enemies his true colors when he saw shining lights around his body. Just before he could launch an attack, he felt a strange force block him. The force was cold and gloomy, filled with an indescribable sense of evil that creeped people out. But what made Sui Xiong worry more was that he found the force to be extraordinarily powerful. How powerful was the force? Sui Xiong had fought with his brother Yorgaardman before. Although neither side had tried their best at that time, Sui Xiong had still been able to feel the strong Divine Power of Yorgaardman. Now, he felt that the evil force was more powerful than even that of Yorgaardman. Moreover, it wasn¡¯t as strong as he had experienced in the battle in which the God of Light had killed the God of Sun, but it was totally different in essence from that battle, which made people feel that they weren¡¯t even at the same level! How?! Sui Xiong cried out in alarm, and curiosity overwhelmed everything in his heart immediately. He left one of his avatars filled with great Divine Power to support the underground adventure park and temporarily created another avatar, transferring his consciousness into that one, and went to meet with the powerful stranger. His actions were certainly not wise and could even be called crazy. If¡­ even if he was given a second or two to think about, he couldn¡¯t possibly have made a crazier choice. But in an instant, when everything vanished in a flash, he had no time to think about it and had to make decisions subconsciously. However, at that moment, he made an incredible choice without knowing that it was affected by his artist¡¯s nature or that he was affected by the force, and his heart was overwhelmed with curiosity. He made his choice in just a moment. A moment later, Sui Xiong found himself in a deep and dark world. From the space wave that hadn¡¯t calmed down yet around him, he guessed that he had travelled a long distance in an instant and wasn¡¯t sure how far he had travelled. Sui Xiong was also not in the mood to think about issues like how far he had travelled. He snapped back to attention and paid close attention to any clues around him with the greatest of vigilance. Although he didn¡¯t know where he was, he was sure that it was a very dangerous place! Visual, auditory, smell, taste, touch, Divine Power scanning, magic scanning, soul sensing¡­ He used all his abilities to detect his surroundings, even the sonar abilities he had developed when he had lived in the sea. Therefore, the darkness faded in his eyes and his surroundings became clear again. Then he was stunned. ¡°F*ck! What the f*ck is this?¡± For a moment, he couldn¡¯t help but cry out. It wasn¡¯t because he was ignorant, but because what he had seen in front of him was too weird! It was a blurred darkness, or maybe not darkness at all, but indescribable chaos. It could only be recognized as black because Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t see its true colors through his sensory organs. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t find any signs of life from the chaos, but his intuition told him clearly that the chaos in front of him was the culprit that had summoned him here and torn up space. There was no need for reasoning, because the incredible force from the chaos was evidence, solid evidence. How could such chaos to be so powerful? Sui Xiong was very confident now, so he asked tentatively, ¡°What¡¯s your name? Why do you invite me here?¡± No response. Sui Xiong frowned, thought for a moment and asked again. However, this time, he didn¡¯t use the common language spoken by ordinary people in the Main Plane, but the language with the oldest history he knew of¡ªthe language of the dragon race. The dragon race was not the earliest intelligent race in the world, but it was the best-preserved and most complete race among them. Among other races, many had changed their languages many times in a relatively short period. For example, the elves had the Archaic Elvish Language, or golden elvish language, ancient elvish language, which had begun in the middle of the elvish empire and modern elvish language. The human race had changed at least fifteen of their major languages. The Orcs¡¯ was the most exaggerated. They had changed their official languages six times in the past three thousand years, which had destroyed the continuity and inheritance of their culture. If they had no God who would live forever and regard time as nothing, the Orcs couldn¡¯t maintain a reliable culture. However, the dragon race was different, for the first time the dragon race had established their civilization, they had stubbornly conserved the traditional languages and characters. Although with the passage of time and changes in society, they would add new words, they would never delete any old words. Their stubborn and inflexible practice had made their language grow more and more complicated and lengthy with each addition. Scholars of other races often needed to spend much time and energy to learn their languages, which contained infinite meaningless content. This was a very painful thing, especially when people knew that most of what they had learned was useless, so scholars of other races once said with grief and indignation, ¡°We have to spend a tenth or more of our lives to learn things that are meaningless to non-immortals. That¡¯s ruining us!¡± However, regardless of people¡¯s grief, indignation, or criticism, the dragon race still insisted on their stubborn way of passing down their culture, which people found hard to imagine. Anyway, it wasn¡¯t a problem for a dragon to learn their language, because every newborn dragon could learn their language directly from their blood without any trouble. Sui Xiong had also learned the language of the dragon race at the beginning¡ªit wasn¡¯t a simplified version of the language that casters had learned, but a complete version that linguists and archaeologists learned specially. Now, this language had become useful. Sui Xiong dared to bet with his own tentacles that unless the chaos deliberately pretended to be silly, it would not be entirely indifferent to the complete version of the language of the dragon race! Chapter 409 Chapter 409: Chapter 119 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After Sui Xiong asked questions in the dragon language, the chaos, which was so deep that even he couldn¡¯t help but feel terrified, finally reacted. It was like a machine which had been out of commission for a long time, and it was just beginning to resume work, slowly vibrating. Or, it was squirming. The rhythm of its squirm was very strange. It had a sense of incompatibility that couldn¡¯t be described, but it also made people feel that it was reasonable. It seemed that it was supposed to act like this, or any actions that were different from it were wrong at this time. Only the way it acted was correct. Seeing it squirming, even Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but learn to squirm like it for a bit. Of course, Sui Xiong was not exactly like that strange chaos, and so, he couldn¡¯t squirm like it. It made him feel defeated deeply and unwillingly, and he could not help but want to change his own form into the appearance of this strange chaos in front of him. He would almost do it. If he didn¡¯t wake up suddenly, he would. What suddenly made him wake up was a sense of horror from the bottom of his heart. His intuition told him that if he really learned the act of the strange chaos and changed his form, then he would cause serious consequences that were possibly irreparable! Sui Xiong was not the kind of madman who would act recklessly and silently look for trouble. For example, in some science fiction works, the villain scientists clearly didn¡¯t have sufficient control over some unknown technology, but they would still apply it into practice. Brother Sui Xiong would never do something like that! Therefore, when he realized that learning the act of the strange chaos was dangerous, he immediately stopped. This time, even curiosity couldn¡¯t drive him. After all, ¡°adventure¡± and ¡°death¡± were completely different! When Sui Xiong extinguished the idea of learning that strange chaos¡¯s movements and changing his form, he couldn¡¯t help but let out a long sigh. He felt cold sweat on his forehead. However, the strange chaos made a strange and unutterable sound; it sounded like¡­ sighing. A cloud of chaos could sigh? This was really unbelievable. This sounded like a weird story told by a poor bard. But this was the truth. Sui Xiong even felt that the word ¡°like¡± was completely redundant, because it was definitely sighing! Therefore, he couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Why are you sighing?¡± The chaos squirmed again. It was slightly different from the last way, but it was still strange, unutterable and reasonable as well. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but raise the idea of learning its movements again, but he stopped in time again. Damn it! This is too weird! What on earth is it? How can it bring me such a great sense of danger just by watching it squirm? Sui Xiong looked at the strange chaos with wonder and worry. After pondering for a while, he used more than a dozen different spells on himself. Almost all the spells of this kind were especially powerful after being upgraded and strengthened. With the protection of these spells, he finally felt a little relieved, and his thoughts were a bit clearer. His thoughts were clear, then he immediately realized and understood what he should do now. In the face of such a horrible thing, let communication go to hell! Shouldn¡¯t I curl my whole body up into a ball and roll away as far as possible!? I must be losing my mind if I¡¯m talking to such a powerful thing! This is definitely looking for trouble! Compared to what I have done, it is nothing serious to swallow liquid nitrogen, touch an electric switch, or get bitten by poisonous snakes to promote the antitoxic ability of the body. The lonely journey to the wild, which is commonly seen on the Internet, unprotected high-altitude climbing, or catching dangerous animals with my bare hands are simply at the same level of ¡°I¡¯ve bravely eaten a carrot today¡± from kindergarten! He would bet that if he really learned the act of the strange chaos and tried to transform his body into a similar form, definitely ¡°death¡± would not be able to solve the problem! Yes, the situation would be even worse than death! The most optimistic possibility was that he would transform into such a cloud of strange and evil chaos, making all kinds of lunatic evil actions. For example, he would order his followers to cut their bodies and artificially create some tentacle-shaped meat strips. Or he would directly transform them into monsters with chaotic heads at the top and countless tentacles at the bottom. Or he would mass-produce various ugly and terrifying tentacles, and he would direct them to invade and rebuild the whole world, turning all the creatures into tentacles or the seedbed for breeding tentacles¡­ Bad enough, right? But in fact, relatively, they were probably not that bad. These were situations that still had some hope. Sui Xiong was simply unwilling to imagine a really bad situation! Or, he dared not to imagine it. The power of this strange chaos was so scary that even the hairs on the body prickled with fear! Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to think about these bad things anymore. He yelled, and his body swelled up like a balloon, and he expanded to a scale that was going to explode. This approach is a bit risky, but the success rate is the highest. Other methods may be safer, but if I can¡¯t escape from it, then everything will be meaningless! Well¡­ No matter how dangerous it is, it is better than staying in front of this guy. Sui Xiong told himself so; he made up his mind. After a few seconds, his body expanded at least a thousand times bigger than what he had been before, but his weight did not increase. In other words, his skin was thinner, surprisingly thinner than ever before. After a few more moments, the strange chaos seemed still be conforming to what Sui Xiong wanted to do. Sui Xiong¡¯s body had expanded to the limit, so he used the only tentacle which was not that expanded to give the middle finger. Then his whole body suddenly exploded. It turned into a burning torch of Divine Power illuminating the deep darkness around in a flash. But, it was only a flash. A moment later, the incubator-shaped jellyfish, which was motionless in the ¡°shelter room¡± of the God¡¯s Kingdom, opened his eyes, and the same light of wisdom appeared in his eyes Sui Xiong¡¯s adventure had succeeded! He was deeply relieved and secretly decided that he must find a way to retaliate against this damn chaos in the future. You freaking old bastard, wait and see! Chapter 410 Chapter 410: Chapter 120 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Finally Sui Xiong succeeded in escaping from the weird chaos and couldn¡¯t help but feel a little proud of himself while he relaxed. He dared to say that the chaos must have been one of the most powerful entities in the world and most likely, one of the Top Divine Powers that surpassed the Great Divine Powers. He shouldn¡¯t have been able to escape successfully from such a powerful guy, which he couldn¡¯t help but admire his own ability for. But before he could laugh loudly, he saw Yorgaardman in a great rage. Yorgaardman was running around him in a hurry, just like an ant being chased. ¡°What are you doing, my brother?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Yorgaardman was shocked and turned his head suddenly. He was surprised to see that Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes were clear again. ¡°Your soul¡­ has come back?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°Although I met some trouble¡­ Well, actually, I met with big trouble¡­ But I managed to come back.¡± Considering the current situation, Yorgaardman wasn¡¯t in the mood to ask for details. He sighed and said, ¡°Now that you¡¯re back, let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°What? Go?¡± ¡°Someone has thrown a ¡®Yin Chen¡¯ at the Void City and I can resist it with my own powers, but I can¡¯t completely repel it. If that person throws another one down, for example, summoning an Abaddon, or showing the four calamities or erupts a volcano directly on the Void City¡­ Anyway, I can¡¯t resist it anymore. After all, my power is limited in the Main Plane, and even if I wanted to help, I don¡¯t have the ability to.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said nothing more. He immediately created a strong fighting avatar and arrived at the square in the Void City in a flash of light. The square was empty now, except for the Gods who had stayed there to fight against the Magics to Extinguish the World. Sui Xiong looked around and didn¡¯t see any blood or souls of the dead. He finally relaxed a little. Up to that point, he still had no idea of what Yorgaardman was talking about, but that didn¡¯t matter, since he only had to know where the enemy was. Well, the enemy was in the sky! Unsurprisingly, Sui Xiong saw the shaky red star was fighting with the golden lights emitted from the incarnation of the God of Justice. Although the red star was being pushed upward bit by bit, it was still very powerful. Javier was the first one to notice his arrival and shouted happily, ¡°Finally, you¡¯re here!¡± ¡°Be careful! It¡¯s dangerous,¡± Morani cautioned calmly. ¡°Just now, Wall exploded his incarnation, but it didn¡¯t work,¡± Leonard alerted him. ¡°Wait a moment if you want to attack. I¡¯ve almost finished my great magic,¡± Manissy said. ¡°When I finish my great magic to attack the red star, there¡¯ll be a gap.¡± Next came the news of Ariel, the Goddess of Ocean, whose content was similar to that of Manissy. Sui Xiong asked them to cooperate with each other in order to strengthen the fighting power of their magic. ¡°Then I can only use auxiliary spells to help you.¡± The old God of Art and Culture sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s a shame that I can¡¯t help you at a critical moment! Thanks for your care over the years.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and tapped the old man¡¯s shoulder to comfort him. ¡°I can also give some auxiliary spells.¡± Javier said, ¡°But when the battle is over, I want to learn some fighting skills from you. I¡¯m still very young, and it¡¯s not appropriate for me to be an onlooker.¡± Sui Xiong nodded with a smile, accumulated his strength silently, and readied himself to launch his attack. The God of Art and Culture and the God of Celebration rushed to help him with all kinds of auxiliary spells. Many powerful spells fell on him, one after another, and covered his body with a colorful curtain, which made him look like a giant colorful ball. In fact¡­ sometimes, there were huge balloons hanging in the Void Mask Land. Sui Xiong had once suggested making balloons in his appearance in order to shape his image of being close to the people, and facts had proven that it worked very well. Among all the Gods in the world, the most amiable and easy-to-approach God wasn¡¯t one with a beautiful appearance, but a big jellyfish¡ªSui Xiong, who often laughed loudly and looked silly. Even Javier, the God most amiable to people¡ªfelt it was inappropriate for Sui Xiong to shape his image in such a way. After all, the Gods and the mortals had to be separated from each other. If they were too close, the Gods would lose their dignity and be disrespectful among the mortals. But Sui Xiong showed an attitude of ¡°accept moderately, but never change¡± toward his friends¡¯ advice. After several tries, everyone found it was useless to persuade Sui Xiong into changing his practice, so they abandoned it. They felt that with the passage of time, their friend Sui Xiong would find their advice useful sooner or later. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to understand what his friends said! What was a God supposed to do? What was the matter with him? As an artist whose powers were strong enough for him to do whatever he wanted, he did not care about the so-called rules of the world. Just like the last line of Hong Qi in the movie Ashes of Time¡ªwho said that one couldn¡¯t take his wife to join the adventure, right? One could even take his family on an adventure, so what was wrong with a God who wanted to be close to the people? Another advantage of being close to his people was that Sui Xiong could rightly attack his opponents on the grounds that they ¡°posed a threat to his people.¡± There were many Gods who attacked their opponents for this reason, but few could really stand up for them. For example, someone could have shouted about ¡°consoling the people and punishing the wicked,¡± but in fact, they may have committed more serious crimes than the wicked. Those who shouted ¡°in the name of people¡± usually didn¡¯t take the people seriously at all. The Liberal Party was never free, and democracy was only a slogan of theirs. It was foolish to believe such words. However, there were also some people who genuinely served the people and who could rightly shout that they wanted to protect their people, such as Sui Xiong. A moment later, when Manissy and Ariel sent out a message that they were ready to attack, Sui Xiong gathered up his confused thoughts, calmed down, and prepared for the battle. The next moment, he sent out a signal. Two lights rose suddenly, one from the kingdom of the Goddess of Wealth and the other from the Goddess of Ocean. They traveled a long distance and bombarded the same position of the red star, Yin Chen. Such an attack only made Yin Chen shake slightly, but more fierce attacks arrived in quick succession, which not only made Yin Chen shake violently, but also made the scarlet light around the red star split, creating a large gap. Then came the roar of Sui Xiong, who rose high in the sky. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t fear the suffocating breath of death and jumped up, rushing into the red light through the gap. Chapter 411 Chapter 411: Chapter 121 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Smelly, and sticky. This was the first thing Sui Xiong felt after rushing into the red light. What was smelly and sticky was the malevolent power; it was so strong that it even turned into an entity. It was made up of hate and resentment for all the living creatures of the world and all the goodness and kindness in existence. When so much hate was mixed together, it formed a complete evil. No more reasons were needed. This extreme hate was the deepest and purest evil, without any other impurities. At the moment when he had gone in, Sui Xiong even had the feeling of suffocating. He was very grateful that he did not need to breathe. Otherwise, to inhale in this damn thing¡­ Even if his body could resist its erosion, it would be super disgusting! He smiled secretly, using the smile to ease the pressure in his heart. Surviving and fighting in this environment really made him feel stressed. If he didn¡¯t find some relief, he was afraid that he¡¯d go mad. Mad?! Sui Xiong was suddenly stunned and then frowned. He remembered the strange chaos he had just met. The power of the chaos was vague and disorderly, but it was incredibly infectious and erosive. However, in its nature, it was actually just strong malevolent power, but he had never realized until just now. This was not due to his observational abilities. He subconsciously neglected the malevolent power as he was facing the huge crisis of possibly being eroded by its chaotic powers. At this moment when he went to the evil star Yin Chen, he suddenly understood that although the malevolent power contained in this evil star was slightly different from the malevolence in the chaos, they were similar in the origin. Perhaps¡­ the falling evil star which was going to destroy Void City was controlled by that strange chaos? Sui Xiong shook his head after thinking for a while. Impossible. If it is that thing, it wouldn¡¯t need to do that. With only one finger, it could crush all of Void City into pieces without anything left. Even a second finger wouldn¡¯t be necessary. If such a strong thing is behind this, why would it bother to go around the sun just to meet the moon? Thinking of that, he couldn¡¯t help but smile and feel relieved. The power of this evil star was possibly related to that chaos. However, as long as it was not its own power, he had nothing to fear. In other words, after having met that chaos, the level of Yin Chen could no longer make Sui Xiong worried or afraid. As for how to deal with this evil star, he came up with a way after thinking for a while. ¡°Change!¡± With a yell in a low voice, Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles merged into a huge drill bit after a shake of his body. He then drilled toward the surface of the evil star. The evil star, Yin Chen was powerful because it contained terrible, malevolent power. Its power was not only poisonous, but it was also able to erode most things in the world. For example, when Wall detonated his own avatar, it undoubtedly let out amazing power. However, his Divine Power was eroded and got polluted the moment it approached Yin Chen, turning into a part of its own evil power. That was why it did not work at all. However, in addition to this horrible malevolence, the power of Yin Chen itself as a star was actually very limited. To put it bluntly, it was nothing more than a big stone. Even if it had been infiltrated by malevolent power, it would not become a piece of refined steel. If it was refined steel, then so what? In the face of Sui Xiong¡¯s drill bit, steel was no stronger than mud. Of course, there were things in the world that could stop his drill bit, which was created at the last moment for temporary use. However, at least the rise and decay of Yin Chen was not one of them. The drill bit easily drilled through the surface of the evil star with a harsh sound. Then a horrible roaring sound came out of the shell which had been drilled through. The roaring sounded surprised at first, panicked the next and then fearful again. Then it became muffled and hoarse, without any clarity whatsoever. In the Underground Dragon Nest of his God¡¯s Kingdom, the noumenon of Cladema let out an earth-shattering roar and scream with blood coming out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The purple-black blood dripped down his body and onto the treasures around him. His firm dragon scales could still withstand the blood, but those precious treasures were completely unable to withstand the terrifying power it contained. They were completely eroded and destroyed, turning to ashes in an instant. Just in this time, he lost as much wealth as what a small city owned in the human world. Usually, such a loss would make him sad and drive him crazy. He would have to find a place to ravage; that would help him to vent his anger and make him calm down. But now, Cladema completely neglected the loss of his wealth because all his energy had been focused on something else. He cut off the connection with one of his own avatars. It was not an ordinary avatar, but the most powerful one which he put the most into. Its predecessor was a long-lived old dragon who died a natural death¡ªa black dragon just like him. After he managed to steal the body of this old dragon, he spent countless precious materials and Divine Power to completely transform it into an extremely powerful body strong enough to store more than half of his Divine Power. For gods, the power stored in an avatar was limited. Except for the strong ones with special skills, the upper limit of most avatars¡¯ power would be one level lower than that of their noumenons. If a noumenon contained powerful Divine Power, then the avatar would be at a medium level at most. If a noumenon was weak, then the avatar would only contain weaker Divine Power. However, this avatar of Cladema was different. It could store more than half of his Divine Power. In combat, the exerted power could be at least comparable to the power of the noumenon in a short period of time. In other words, this avatar was his secret weapon that allowed him to burst out increased fighting power in a short period of time. This was counted as one of this old dragon¡¯s Sunday punches. However, he had lost this punch. Compared with the loss of wealth, the loss of this avatar really made Cladema¡¯s heart heavy. However, this was not the biggest loss for today. Wealth was just a worldly possession, and the avatar was originally prepared for loss; he could accept this in the end. Since he was ready to attack someone else, he had to be prepared for a loss too. Cladema had experienced the world for so many years, so he understood this truth. However, just a moment earlier, he was eroded by the power of the outer layer of Yin Chen. Only a moment. Fortunately, it was only a moment. The old dragon screamed for a while, finally letting himself calm down again. He carefully collected the purple-black blood on himself, condensed it into a ball and then sealed it carefully. He dared not to breathe a sound during the whole process. After finishing all this, he sighed deeply and laid on the heaps of treasures in exhaustion. Then whispered in pain. ¡°That damn big jellyfish!¡± After groaning for a while, he couldn¡¯t help but curse, ¡°What kind of monster is that guy?! Why can¡¯t even the relics of His Majesty kill him?¡± After a few curses, he sneered. ¡°Now my avatar is completely eroded by the power of His Majesty and turned into an invincible horrible monster. That big jellyfish is probably having a headache. Well, maybe he isn¡¯t having a headache because his brains may have already been hit out of his head! Ha ha ha ha!¡± The old dragon laughed wildly, but he accidentally touched his injuries, and that made him scream out loudly in pain. Chapter 412 Chapter 412: Chapter 122 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On the surface of red star Yin Chen, Sui Xiong looked at the cracked shell of the star and paid attention to the strange figure who was trembling and transforming at the same time. Originally, that figure had been a black dragon. But now¡­ Sui Xiong had no idea what he was. A moment later, most of his body had melted away, and the lower part of his body had become a pool of mud, but his wings and head were still intact and complete. The weirdest thing was that he had obviously suffered heavy injuries, but instead of falling down, he had laughed strangely, and the momentum of his body kept rising gradually. Of course, Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t been expecting something like a childish animation, to just stand foolishly and watch his enemy transform successfully. Just then, he launched an attack directly at the black dragon. However, the powerful force hidden in Sui Xiong¡¯s attack fell on the black dragon, with only little ripples caused, not even any wounds. Magic immunity? Or suppression of the Gap of the Person? Sui Xiong frowned and decided not to use anymore magic. Instead, he raised one of his tentacles, and the top of it grew brighter and brighter, just like a small sun. Finally, he threw it hard at the black dragon. He had a good grasp of his power. When his tentacle flew in front of the black dragon, it exploded and burst into brilliant sparks. But when the sparks dissipated, only a few minor wounds appeared on the black dragon¡¯s body. What was more, when the black dragon crept over using its body, all the wounds had disappeared without any trace, as if it had never been injured before. Is its self-healing ability more powerful than its defense ability? Sui Xiong thought for moment and wanted to use one of the most powerful weapons on the earth to deal with the black dragon, but he gave up this idea quickly. Now, he was situated just above the Void City. If he was going to use that powerful a weapon in this place, it would be suicide! He didn¡¯t want the residents of the Void City to learn from the residents of Fukushima, where the biggest nuclear power plant was located, and light up their passive skill of ¡°anti-radiation.¡± Since he couldn¡¯t use the powerful weapons he had available, there weren¡¯t many ways for him to deal with a guy with such an astonishing self-healing ability. Sui Xiong pondered over it for a while and decided to try a skill he had learned recently. Recently, after watching the battle between the Dragon of Chaos and Yorgaardman, he had found that the skill the Dragon of Chaos used was really great. First, it created vantage ground, then it summoned subordinates to help it, which was an extremely amazing skill! He was also thinking about whether he could follow the example of the Dragon of Chaos and had created a similar skill. At first, he¡¯d had no ideas at all. But when he began to create Oracles through mass production, he had finally found inspiration and created a similar skill. Seeing as the weird black dragon that was still creeping and transforming with a constantly rising momentum, Sui Xiong raised his tentacles and called out the name of his skill coolly. ¡°Come out! My deep-sea fleet!¡± At his command, endless black gas spread out from his body. This black gas was a pure and powerful negative energy. It continued to devour everything around it, leading all creatures to their deaths, all activities to silence, and finally, the whole world into cold silence. The viciousness around Yin Chen, which was so dark that even the Gods wanted to vomit, met with an opponent who could restrain it, at least this time. The negative energy was neither good nor evil and wasn¡¯t the manifestation of destruction. It simply meant death¡ªthe death of all creatures and the death of the world¡ªwithout any resentment or impurity. And this simple and pure power of death could restrain Yin Chen¡¯s power. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know that the essence of the Seven Spells of Extinction was made to kill everything in the world. In other words, pure negative energy meant that pure death was what it wanted to achieve. So when the pure power of death came into being, the heavy viciousness around Yin Chen was absorbed and transformed quickly, making the negative energy become more powerful. In just a short time, the powerful negative had built up into a black sea. Then, in the black sea, a mass of white shadows emerged. These shadows soon became clear, transforming into white-haired women in black dresses. They looked different, but they wore the same black clothes and held the same equipment with their fish-like features. Of course, considering their appearances were different, their clothes and equipment were also slightly different. Among the women with black clothes and white hair, there were the ¡°oh Oracle¡± Sui Xiong created and special Oracles that he had mass produced recently. For example, a strange woman standing on a giant flat-headed fish, whose body was surrounded by black rings. Generally speaking, it was like a strange woman who was standing on a combination of a giant fish and a huge snake. This was one of the Oracles that Sui Xiong had mass produced whose name was ¡°Island,¡± and her specialty was an ¡®island fortress.¡¯ Not only did she possess great defensive powers, she could also launch extremely fierce attacks. The only disadvantage was that she could launch frequent attacks, though her attack precision wasn¡¯t very high. In a word, this kind of Oracle belonged to the position attack type, corresponding to her name ¡®fortress.¡¯ Among Sui Xiong¡¯s subordinates, there were much more powerful oracles, but if he wanted to use the skill he had just created, only Oracles that could be mass produced like cannon folder wouldn¡¯t break his heart. After all¡­ he didn¡¯t want to ask his powerful Oracles to commit suicide. With the help of the negative energy, Sui Xiong could obtain a lot of energy in a very short time and produce more Oracles. But in the end, the negative energy was the manifestation of death, and the Oracles would only exist for a very short time. Generally speaking, after one or two attacks, they would melt back into the sea of negative energy and become new cannon folder. This was a skill Sui Xiong had created that was similar to that of the Dragon of Chaos. It wasn¡¯t as powerful as the artificial abyss made by the Dragon of Chaos, but as long as it could deal with the black dragon, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care how powerful it was. The skill was suitable for the present situation and could deal with the black dragon, thus it solved Sui Xiong¡¯s problems. No one would care about whether he was more powerful than the Dragon of Chaos or not. The black sea of negative energy continued to spread, and the number of Oracles that could be mass produced was also increasing. When the number reached a certain level, the Oracles turned into a large black jellyfish that waved its tentacles to issue orders to attack. Silent messages transmitted among the Oracles born for death, and all the Oracles¡¯ eyes shone suddenly, strange flames burning in their eyes. Attack! The next moment, the mass produced Oracles whose eyes sparkled like fire made cold sounds, neat and uniform. ¡°Attack!¡± they said. The vast contingent was divided into several ranks. The powerful battleship Oracles and fortress Oracles were in the front lines, and the battle cruiser Oracles, heavy cruiser Oracles, and heavy artillery Oracles were in the middle, while the light cruiser and destroyer Oracles, whose main attacks were torpedoes, were wandering around and looking for opportunities. The aircraft carrier Oracles were left behind to launch automatic aircraft attacks. It looked like an unusual battle, but a well-ordered one. In fact, strictly speaking, they were soldiers, and this was a war to them! Chapter 413 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Under the scarlet light of the outer layer of the evil star, Yin Chen, Sui Xiong was urging the mass-produced Oracles to launch an onslaught on the weird black dragon hiding inside the evil star, one whose origin was still unknown. Outside the evil star, the gods were still indiscriminately throwing spells on it. This kind of battle was fierce enough to make the most powerful mages in the human world exhaust their last magic power to death. However, for the gods, they just needed a breath to recover. This was so even for Javier, who was relatively weaker, or Wall, who had just lost his main battle avatar. They could still maintain such a fierce battle for more than ten days with ease. This was the might of the gods. This was also the important reason why countless strongmen fought one after another trying their best to become gods. Among the gods, Yorgaardman, the god of Justice, was definitely the main force. He wielded his Artifact, the axe, and kept sending out golden lightning, forcing the evil star to retreat again and again. Although the speed of each retreat was not quick, both he and the other gods had smiles in their eyes. The reason was simple. The speed of its retreat was accelerating. Why? Of course, the answer was that the Void Mask, who rushed in, had brought great trouble to the evil star and then greatly reduced its strength. My bro really has supernatural powers! Yorgaardman was fighting while thinking this in his own mind. What on earth did he use to stand up against Yin Chen? Whatever it is can weaken this horrible evil star so much¡­ I thought that he was just cooperating with me to speed up my heavy attacks a little bit. I didn¡¯t imagine that he would be able to fight so well. Among the gods present, Yorgaardman knew the most about the Seven Spells of Extinction. After all, he had indeed experienced the birth and destruction of these seven spells, and he had personally participated in the war in which they sealed the seven spells. In the end, he was one of the gods who had vowed on the ruins to seal the secret of the Seven Spells of Extinction forever and not to mention them to anyone else. Wall got the information on the Seven Spells of Extinction only because he relied on the role of his priesthood, Knowledge. Moreover, the information he got was very sketchy; it was not detailed at all. If it was detailed enough, he would not be so foolish as to try to stop Yin Chen by detonating his own avatar because that had proved to be useless long ago. In the dark and horrible days of that year, many gods had tried this method to stop Yin Chen, but it never worked once. As for the origin of the Seven Spells of Extinction, that was a long story. However, regarding their destruction levels, there was not much to say. After the Master of Mystery had destroyed the Elf God System as well as the Elf Empire, the Seven Spells of Extinction began to appear in the human world. The first one was ¡°Abaddon,¡± a guest from the Bottomless, the king of the demon locusts. That little insect wearing a golden crown and iron armor could summon endless armies of demon locusts out of thin air. Those demon locusts could bite and devour everything they came across, whether it be animals or plants, soil or even rocks. As long as they ate enough, they would split into two more locusts, and two would turn into four. After a short time, the demon locusts would form vast armies that could blot out the sky and the earth, leaving nothing but barren and heavily damaged land where they had traveled. The second was the ¡°Dark Star.¡± It was able to make the sun, the moon and the stars lose their light, the earth become cold, and all the living creatures tremble in cold and fear. This cold force was irresistible. Even if they lit bonfires, they would find the flame pale and weak and without any heat. Then the third one was the ¡°Rain of Fire and Blood,¡± and it contained large hailstones wrapped in blood and flames at the same time. They fell onto the ground, burning everything it touched. All kinds of plants were ignited. No matter how strong the fortresses were, the flames could find the gaps and invade through them, burning all the people and animals hiding inside and turning them into bloody torches. The fourth spell of extinction was ¡°Yin Chen.¡± This evil star broke in in full fury. However, its greatest power was not the shock waves caused by its falling, but the terrible toxin it contained. This toxin was called ¡°malevolent power.¡± Soil would become toxic soil and plants would become toxic as well, as long as they were contaminated by it. The most dangerous situation was when it fell into the water. The upper and lower reaches and related tributaries would all be contaminated in a short time by the terrible toxin. In that dark and horrible era, Yin Chen fell four times in total, and only once in the water. That was the time where several gods and countless mortals were killed by the poison. Later on, more than twenty gods joined powers and risked a lot to completely eliminate the remaining poison. Yorgaardman did not help in cleaning up the remaining poison. At that time, he was in the void, fighting ¡°Abaddon¡± which had grown very powerful and commanded numerous armies. It was one of the hardest battles in his life: he almost died more than once. After those battles, all the gods were exhausted. They made up their minds to kill all the creatures who knew the ¡°Seven Spells of Extinction¡± fiercely. Finally, after countless killings, they sealed those horrible spells away and earned peace over the years. However, the seven horrible spells unexpectedly appeared again! Yorgaardman wielded his axe, and the golden lightning was constantly improving the speed of repelling the evil star. His attacks coordinated with the attacks of the other gods and with Sui Xiong who was inside the evil star. At this rate, around ten minutes later, the evil star would be beaten out of the Main Plane and into the nearby void. Once it was pushed into the void, Yorgaardman would immediately send his noumenon there, using all his strength to seal the evil star. At that time, he was definitely not the only god who was eager to seal the evil star. However, the dangerous and frightening figure behind this incident must be hiding around here somewhere. He was definitely not one of the gods who had vowed to fight against the spells at that time. Everyone¡¯s oath had been very serious, and that meant that no one was likely to violate it. Then, the culprit must have escaped when all the insiders were killed. Now that he had escaped from the killing, why did he jump out and make trouble after all these peaceful years? Yorgaardman frowned, feeling puzzled. In his mind, thirty percent of his thoughts was confusion, but seventy percent was worry. On the other side, Cladema, who had recovered a little bit, sighed deeply, took out a black book and gently opened it. There were originally seven pages in the book, but there were only five left when he first got it. Not long ago, one of the five pages was used. He was wounded when he experienced the Seven Spells of Extinction at that time, and he just pretended to be killed so that he could heal his wounds. Later, due to a certain opportunity, he got the book and knew a lot of things that the common gods didn¡¯t know and shouldn¡¯t know. He wanted to forget those things. However, when he needed power, overwhelming power, power strong enough to crush his enemies, he couldn¡¯t help but find out the book which he had carefully sealed. After several repeated hesitations, he used one of the five pages. He had believed that that damn big jellyfish would definitely die without even having a burial place after his unique skill. However, things didn¡¯t go as well as expected. The power of His Majesty¡­ Has it weakened to such a state? Cladema frowned in silence. At the same time, he could not help but feel a little happy. If the power of His Majesty had weakened for sure, that would mean that it was sort of okay for him to use a few of the book¡¯s pages. This was really good news! Chapter 414 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Cladema was worrying about his gains and losses in his nest. The incarnation he had worked hard on for many years was fighting with Sui Xiong on the red star Yin Chen. In other words, his avatar was fighting with the Oracles that could regenerate that Sui Xiong created. In regards to the individual strength of the Oracles, even elite Oracles couldn¡¯t beat Cladema¡¯s incarnation, which had eroded and been transformed by the power of the red star, let alone the regular Oracles. But as the saying went, quantitative changes could make qualitative changes, and when the numbers of those Oracles reached a certain level, the situation would be totally different. The black dragon that had been eroded by the red star roared constantly and spewed acid with a strong toxicity and corrosiveness. Every time it spewed, it covered a fan-shaped area with a radius of at least 330 feet, which was horrible. If such an attack was used in modern times, it could kill thousands of people, or even more, at one time. If the crowd was dense enough, for example, if a group of enthusiastic foreigners had been watching a fireworks show on a national holiday, such an attack could have killed more than ten thousand people. However, such an attack was nothing to the Oracles. They weren¡¯t afraid of the toxicity, because they had been created based on the negative energy, and only the corrosiveness of acid could harm them. Although the fortress and battleship Oracles who were in the front lines as meat shields weren¡¯t tall, their vitality and endurance were very powerful. If they were sprayed by the acid, there would only be small wounds on their faces or bodies. According to the game these Oracles had come from, at best, those wounds would only be called a ¡®troublesome¡¯ degree, which was still far from ¡°complete break¡± or even ¡°sink.¡± If that was all, more acid would be enough to kill the Oracles, but Sui Xiong sneered and sent out a group of new Oracles. These new Oracles wore thin clothes and looked like fashion models, holding weapons that looked like water guns in their hands. Instead of going to the front lines, they just stood near the aircraft Oracles and fired at the aircraft Oracles with their water guns. Treatment guns. They were one of the special types of Oracles¡ªthe supplying warship Oracles. They had no fighting ability and wouldn¡¯t turn into invincible heroes when they were enraged at being defeated several times. They only had one skill, which was treatment. Oracles didn¡¯t need a supply of ammunition or fuel, because ammunition and fuel were manifestations of power for them, and as long as they had sufficient power, they didn¡¯t have to worry about the whether the amount was enough or not. But most of the Oracles didn¡¯t have self-healing abilities, and even if some of them did, their self-healing abilities weren¡¯t strong, so Sui Xiong had specially designed this kind of Oracle, which could do nothing but heal. Their main task was to treat injured Oracles on the battlefield so that they could fight longer. Facts had proven that this kind of warship Oracle worked very well on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the treatment ability of this kind of Oracles only worked for Oracles. Otherwise, Sui Xiong¡¯s clergy could have completely relied on the method of summoning Oracles to solve their problem of insufficient self-healing abilities. With the help of these warship Oracles, the heavily equipped Oracles at the front lines could live longer, and as long as they weren¡¯t defeated by a sudden attack, the battlefront of Oracles wouldn¡¯t collapse. Even if the black dragon used powerful means to defeat one, or a group of, Oracles, it couldn¡¯t directly turn the tide of the war. In the negative energy that had turned into a deep black sea, new Oracles were created constantly. Their increasing numbers could make up for the losses on the front lines. The increasing numbers of enemies was a terrible thing, even if sufficient ants could kill an elephant, similar to the increasing numbers of Oracles. This was the situation that the black dragon was faced with. What was worse, it played the role of the elephant that was bitten by the ants. If it hadn¡¯t been eroded to the point of losing its mind, leaving only a blank impulse to destroy and a fanaticism for fighting, it would have fled using its wings. Artillery fire burst onto the black dragon. The artillery shells, torpedoes, and bombs dropped by the aircraft Oracles were all black, and there were no bright sparks. All that could be seen was a gloomy mass of black gas. It was the gloomy black gas that had left many deep scars on the black dragon. Although its self-healing ability was very powerful, it couldn¡¯t heal all the wounds on its body. Almost every time it healed two wounds on its body, three new wounds would appear. Before long, its body was filled with wounds that made it look miserable. But Sui Xiong knew that such injuries were nothing to the black dragon. The black dragon had no weak part on its body. Unless its body was damaged so severely that it was in fragments or completely destroyed, it would recover from its injuries given the time it needed to rest. But Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t give it the time to rest! As the saying went, ¡®it was wise to chase poor aggressors bravely,¡¯ so just then was the time to pursue and win! Sui Xiong waved his tentacles, and another batch of Oracles were summoned, merging into the army that had already formed on the front lines. ¡°No matter what you are, if you dare to cause trouble in my land, you¡¯d better be prepared for me to kill you!¡± Sui Xiong looked coldly at the black dragon that was thrown into a panic at his attack. Numerous strange dark purple patterns appeared on its body due to the transformation of negative energy. Looking carefully, these patterns were magic arrays linked with one another, and it was with their help that Sui Xiong could summon so many Oracles. This was also a skill he had learned from the Dragon of Chaos. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t automatically create a large number of summoning arrays on the ground, so he had changed his method to build a summoning array on his body that corresponded with the surrounding environment, so as to achieve the effect of a large-scale summoning. Compared to the full automatic summoning of the Dragon of Chaos, Sui Xiong¡¯s skill was much less efficient and easier to interrupt, but it worked for him to some degree, just like some underdeveloped countries grit their teeth and held back their efforts in order to produce powerful weapons. Although they may not have been able to use their weapons when fighting with other countries, it was a grand way to solve the problems of ¡°yes¡± and ¡°no¡± and ¡°how to use weapons.¡± This could be seen in when a country that had cried for a greater food supply every year due to poverty suddenly developed a powerful weapon and became proud, with full spirits and loud voices. They had even exclaimed that they were the strongest country moving forward and that they would also take on a policy of reforming and opening up. This was the best example! Looking at the black dragon, if it had the similar ability to that poor country, it wouldn¡¯t have been beaten so badly. Sui Xiong laughed coldly and continued summoning Oracles. He wasn¡¯t sure whether the black dragon had the ability to explode its avatar and perish along with its enemy or not, so he decided to kill it with more Oracles. The number of Oracles he could mass produce was infinite. As long as Sui Xiong had enough power, he could summon as many as possible. ¡°Come on, show me how long you can hold up!¡± Sui Xiong sneered at the black dragon whose body was full of injuries and whose movements had slowed down. Chapter 415 Chapter 415: Chapter 125 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°There seems to be something wrong inside Yin Chen,¡± Wall quickly judged. He turned his Divine Power into the Qi of a sword and shot it at the bloody star in the sky. Among all the gods on the scene, except for the God of Justice who had known the background of Yin Chen but refused to say anything, the God of Knowledge, Wall, had been the only one to know what the bloody star was and what it represented. So upon seeing its light becoming unsteady, and seemingly weaken, Wall was more worried than happy. If Yin Chen was split open in the sky of the Main Plane, its severe toxicity would be spread everywhere. That would be nothing different from falling down to the ground¡ªit would be even worse! So he called the other gods immediately and told them to slow down their attacks. He specifically reminded Yorgaardman to slow down his violent attacks and to not break the bloody star apart. Hearing that, the other gods didn¡¯t make any comments, except for Yorgaardman. He was confused and turned his head to Wall. He was sure that this God of Knowledge and Education had never been through those days under the Magic of Extinction. It hadn¡¯t been a long time after he became a real god, and he had never traveled around, so he hadn¡¯t gotten a chance to know about the horrible Seven Spells of Extinction. Then why did he talk in a way as if he had known everything about Yin Chen? He looked at Wall deeply but asked nothing and cautiously controlled his attack. The golden lighting seemed powerful and furious, but when it hit the bloody star, it softly pushed the star back into the sky. His precise control over his magic power could be regarded as a miracle. Although most of the gods here were masters of different types of magic, they were still surprised to see that. If they hadn¡¯t been in a fight, they would have stopped to learn and imitate what he had done. Compared with attacking, simply pushing back the star was much easier. So Yin Chen moved backward faster and faster, gradually moving away from the ground. Finally, it was pushed to the edge of the Main Plane. With a strong attack from Yorgaardman, it flew out of the Main Plane and fell into the Void Space outside. All the gods couldn¡¯t help cheering. Meanwhile, Cladema frowned. As the summoner of Yin Chen, he was able to feel the condition of the bloody star more or less. So when it had been finally pushed out of the Main Plane, he was both annoyed and worried. He was annoyed at that he had done something useless¡ªhe ruined a powerful avatar and a precious piece of magic paper without any achievements. He even got himself injured and lost a lot of treasure. He was worried about whether this would be noticed by the other gods, especially the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, who was powerful and skilled and hated evil. He was like a bachelor who couldn¡¯t stand having sand in his eyes. If he realized the bloody star had been called here by Cladema, the old black dragon dared to bet that Yorgaardman would come directly to his house and cut his head off with his axe! So he was both annoyed and worried, frowning tightly with endless worry. What should I do next? However, his worries were gone soon because there was a chaotic and evil thought coming from the other four strange black magic pages. As soon as he connected with that thought, Cladema froze. He hadn¡¯t been able to resist it nor make a sound. He only watched the weird black book fly up, over his head, and grow bigger than him. Then it slowly pressed down on him. When Yin Chen was hit out the Main Plane, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, who had been waiting there for this moment took immediate action. Countless golden lighting surrounded it and formed into a huge cage, trapping the evil star inside it. He relaxed and then called Sui Xiong. ¡°Brother, it¡¯s done here. You can come out.¡± Hearing that, Sui Xiong coldly looked at the black dragon. Over three-quarters of the dragon¡¯s body had melted, and he had almost turned into a giant mud monster. Sui Xiong sent what he had heard and seen during this period to Yorgaardman. Just from a simple glance, Yorgaardman flew into a rage immediately. The black dragon¡¯s head was still there, so Yorgaardman recognized who he was immediately. ¡°What a mudfish Cladema is! I¡¯m coming right now. I¡¯ll kill him.¡± Those were not words out of anger. He really planned to do it. It was because Cladema was one of those gods who had sworn together not to leak anything about the secrets of the Seven Spells of Extinction. However, this evil old man had hidden the material of Yin Chen and studied it to take advantage of its magic. What¡¯s worse, he had called out this evil star and ordered it to crush the territory of his own brothers! If that could be tolerated, then nothing would be unacceptable! If he could tolerate not taking his axe to fight back, then he would not be the God of Justice! In the Pantheon Temple, the avatar of Yorgaardman became more than furious. He yelled and jumped up, taking out his axe and chopping down straight towards the head of Cladema. ¡°Old dishonest, evil man, I¡¯ll kill you!¡± That was out of everyone¡¯s expectation, and what happened next further stunned them. Yorgaardman jumped in front of Cladema, chopped his axe down onto the Cladema¡¯s body, who had a dragon¡¯s head and a man¡¯s body. Cladema didn¡¯t move to avoid this axe, and his avatar fell apart directly after such a powerful attack. But this was not the end. The momentum of his axe kept going down and chopped the seat of Cladema in the Pantheon temple into pieces. It had been chopped into pieces. Seeing that, even Yorgaardman was stunned. He couldn¡¯t believe it. He looked at the smashed chair and his axe, and then he turned back and looked at the God of Order. ¡°My old sir, did you change the rules of the Pantheon Temple?¡± he asked. The God of Order didn¡¯t answer. ¡°Have I advanced to such a great level of power that I can even smash the unbreakable seat in the Pantheon temple with just an avatar of communication? What the hell was that?¡± There was still no answer. Yorgaardman breathed heavily. Without saying a word, he carried his axe directly to the seat of the God of Conspiracy. ¡°Hey! What are you doing?!¡± The hooded face of the God of Conspiracy turned pale, and he cried out. ¡°Just a test, don¡¯t worry!¡± Yorgaardman answered carelessly. He held up his axe and chopped violently at the God of Conspiracy. The God of Conspiracy cried out strangely. A pair of machetes appeared in his hands to ward off that attack, but it was too powerful! The God of Conspiracy staggered back. He couldn¡¯t stand on his feet and fell down to the ground. Yorgaardman held up his axe again and swung his axe at the seat of the God of Conspiracy. This time, it was he that staggered back and fell on the ground. ¡°There is nothing wrong! Then why it was like that just now?¡± Yorgaardman was perplexed At that moment, in the holy kingdom of Cladema, the underground caves and the God of Underground Sites was gone. The only thing left was a weird black book that returned to having seven pages. Chapter 416 Chapter 416: Chapter 126 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Cladema, the God of Underground Caves and Relics, was the only victim of the ¡®Yin Chen¡¯ incident. Even the adventurers in the amusement park of Dragons and Dungeons weren¡¯t killed or injured, except Cladema. This was certainly due to the admirable emergency measures the amusement park had taken, and the tourists who had been in Dragons and Dungeons had each carried a special magic tool. If they were seriously injured or felt extremely hungry and tired or met with danger, they would automatically be transported outside of the adventure park, rather than returning to the city or to the exit. In fact, they were transported directly to the clinic. The clinic was the strongest and safest building in the whole adventure park. Even if it collapsed, people in the clinic wouldn¡¯t see any danger, not to mention that the clinic wouldn¡¯t collapse. But this time, the clinic became so crowded that everyone felt uncomfortable because so many people had been transported there. Many people were dissatisfied, but when they heard what had happened, all the discontent in their hearts vanished into deep fear and relief. An honest man said, ¡°What a surprise! It¡¯s safer staying in underground than above ground!¡± A curious man said, ¡°What a pity! If I were above ground, would I have been able to see that terrible red star?¡± A man who had inquired about it in detail said, ¡°Even if you had been above ground, you would have had to take refuge, and as a result, you wouldn¡¯t see anything.¡± ¡°Even if I couldn¡¯t see anything, I could at least feel the nervous atmosphere!¡± the curious man answered. ¡°Aren¡¯t you nervous when you¡¯re in the clinic?¡± an old man asked. Like this, everyone laughed and the ¡®Yin Chen¡¯ incident ended. As a result, the safety of the Void Land had been confirmed again. Even a star that fell on the Void Land couldn¡¯t kill anyone; could there have been a place safer than the Void Land in this world? Absolutely not! So in the next few months, the number of people who moved to the Void Land or who rented houses there to apply for temporary residence increased dramatically. Even the civil servants of the Void Land were unable to deal with the increasing numbers of people. Fortunately, this situation didn¡¯t last for too long. After all, there were still only a few people who had an extraordinary need for security. Another outcome of this incident took place in Cladema¡¯s kingdom. After hearing the news of Cladema¡¯s death, many Gods rushed to his kingdom. First, they wanted to know how Cladema, the old dragon, had died, and second, they wanted to take over his legacy. But Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, was the first one who arrived at Cladema¡¯s kingdom. He didn¡¯t come for his legacy, but to investigate what was going on. The Underground Dragon Nest of Cladema¡¯s kingdom was in dead silence. There should have been some followers, one or two holy spirits or some Oracles created by Cladema, but there were no living creatures, and all the things that could be seen were dead and still. Yorgaardman pondered over it for a while and stepped into the deepest cave in the Dragon Nest. There, he saw mountains of treasure, but didn¡¯t find Cladema or any other living creatures. He searched carefully in the golden treasure heap, but still couldn¡¯t find any valuable clues. This wasn¡¯t because he didn¡¯t have good enough observation skills, but because the weird black book had left after devouring all the creatures in Cladema¡¯s kingdom. When it left, Yorgaardman hadn¡¯t arrived yet. After searching for a long time, the God of Justice had to admit that he really couldn¡¯t find any clues, but he didn¡¯t want to give up, so he sought Sui Xiong¡¯s help. To be honest, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to go out at that time. The battle with the strange black dragon had exhausted him, but he had also been inspired by the battle and intended to make small changes to his Oracles. But when Yorgaardman asked him for help, he still went. He specifically turned himself into a white jellyfish with positive energy and flew across the underground Dragon Nest, all the Gods eyeing him with hostility as they dared not come closer. He searched around the kingdom and felt something special. When he arrived at the deepest treasure heap, he felt that breath again. It was a terrible breath that he could never forget, and it came from the strange chaos. Compared to Yorgaardman, who could only use his Divine Power to detect his surroundings, Sui Xiong was much more sensitive to the world around him with his soul sensing. Although the black book had deliberately erased its breath, the remaining breath was enough for Sui Xiong to determine its origin. He thought for a moment and told Yorgaardman the origin of the breath in details, with special emphasis on the horror of the strange chaos. Yorgaardman listened to Sui Xiong¡¯s introduction seriously and thought for a long time. His face became more and more dignified. Finally, he advised Sui Xiong to take some time and go with him to the wheel of order and ask the King of Order for more details. ¡°So you think the chaos was the God of Chaos¡­ But that¡¯s not right! Wouldn¡¯t the God of Chaos have changed into the Dragon of Chaos? What¡¯s the origin of chaos?¡± He touched his short beard that looked like steel wool and talked to himself. Just then, the ground around them shook violently, and they fell into a strange silence. Suddenly, the God of Order, with silver armor and white hair, appeared in front of them. ¡°Your guess is wrong,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s not my old opponent, but the one who has killed my old opponent.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t pay much attention to it, but Yorgaardman exclaimed, ¡°The God of Chaos has been killed by someone? Why is his seat still over there?¡± ¡°He wasn¡¯t completely killed,¡± the God of Order said. ¡°Now, the Dragon of Chaos was his last breath of life and still remains. He lingers on with his last breath of life, so his seat in the Pantheon is fragmented, as if it could collapse at any moment.¡± Yorgaardman suddenly understood his words and asked curiously, ¡°So what does the weird chaos represent?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve made it clear enough.¡± The King of Order disappeared gradually. ¡°There are some things that you shouldn¡¯t ask about in detail or publicize. It¡¯s not good for you.¡± After he disappeared, Sui Xiong frowned and said, ¡°According to his words, the chaos is probably either the God of Virtue or the God of Evil¡­ How about their seats in the Pantheon?¡± ¡°The seat of the God of Virtue is complete in general, but it has become dim and old. There¡¯s a huge crack in the center of the seat of the God of Evil, from top to bottom, nearly dividing the whole seat into two halves. It¡¯s strange that it hasn¡¯t collapsed up until now,¡± Yorgaardman answered immediately after observing the seats. Sui Xiong thought for a moment and said, ¡°So it might be the God of Evil?¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because¡­ I always think chaos is very evil, and its magic is also very evil. Even if the God of Virtue has degenerated, he wouldn¡¯t become so evil.¡± ¡°But why does the God of Evil look like that? Why there is a huge crack on his seat?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand, either¡­ The world is so big that there are many mysteries waiting to be solved.¡± Sui Xiong laughed freely when faced with Yorgaardman, who was full of confusion and doubt. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. You¡¯ll know the answers sooner or later.¡± Yorgaardman frowned for a long time and finally accepted Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestions. As Sui Xiong had said, sooner or later, he would know the answers. For example, if one day the God of Justice succeeded in reaching Great Divine Power, the God of Order wouldn¡¯t mind sharing the secrets that had been hidden for so many years with him. Or one day, if the God of Evil or the God of Virtue returned to the world, he could also ask for information. In the worst case, maybe the God of Order would be in a good mood someday and willing to talk about it in detail. In a word, he just had to wait patiently. In regards to patience, the God of Justice wasn¡¯t bad off. After thinking about it, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh loudly. ¡°You¡¯re right. Sooner or later, we¡¯ll know the answers!¡± He said, ¡°But now we have something big to do.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°War reparations!¡± Yorgaardman said happily with his eyes glancing proudly over the huge treasure. ¡°Cladema ran to attack you, but he died for no reason. The huge treasure he accumulated should be your spoils for the war to compensate his crimes of provoking you.¡± Sui Xiong also looked at the huge treasure and couldn¡¯t stop himself from swallowing. ¡°The reparations are really¡­¡± He shook his head and sighed but then laughed again. ¡°Thinking carefully, I have many enemies, and I¡¯m not sure whether any of them will attack me. Come and attack me! It feels so good to gain so much treasure from Cladema!¡± Chapter 417 Chapter 417: Chapter 127 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After a while, the Gods outside the Underground Dragon Nest of the God¡¯s Kingdom couldn¡¯t resist it. Even if it would make the God of Justice angry, they still entered carefully. They saw a wonderful scene that proved what empty land was. In the whole God¡¯s Kingdom, everything that could be carried away had been moved, including plants, buildings, and even bricks. The Gods were reluctant to accept this reality, looking left and right. After searching inside and out several times, they were finally sure that the God¡¯s Kingdom had suffered a great ransack. Nothing was left there. ¡°Why did we come?¡± a God said blankly. The Gods all sighed with sadness, saying that the trip had been meaningless, and condemned the God of Justice and Void Mask. After, they knew they couldn¡¯t find anything and left separately, leaving only the empty God¡¯s Kingdom remaining. But after a while, the Gods who had been indignant before came back secretly. They looked around and saw the excitement in each other¡¯s eyes. ¡°How could those newbies think that there would be a fortune!¡± ¡°Yes, yes! In fact, these two Gods were very kind to us!¡± ¡°We just said a few bad things about them and need to apologize afterwards.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s not waste our time. Let¡¯s begin! After a delay comes the spoils!¡± So they began to tear apart the whole God¡¯s Kingdom bit by bit, broke it into countless pieces, packed it up, and took it away. The God¡¯s Kingdom itself was the crystallization of a God¡¯s Divine Power. Frankly speaking, it was a piece of condensed Divine Power. They could break it, take it back to their own kingdoms, and process it. Then they could restore it to Divine Power, and transform it, making them stronger. Cladema, the God of Underground Caves and Sites, wasn¡¯t high on the list of deities, but he was powerful and had lived for a long time. Most of the Divine Power that he had accumulated over the years had transformed as a part of the kingdom, like a bank deposit, and some of the Divine Power had been absorbed by that strange black book. As a clergyman, Yorgaardman couldn¡¯t participate in the act of looting, while Sui Xiong felt that he had already taken so much, and it was unkind to remove a God¡¯s Kingdom. They merely discussed and only removed the most important part of the God¡¯s Kingdom, which was very useful, and left the rest to the other Gods who would come later. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of Divine Power!¡± After Sui Xiong returned, Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, suddenly opened her eyes wide, exclaiming in surprise and unwillingness, ¡°So wasteful!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised and asked, ¡°A lot?¡± ¡°It¡¯s actually a lot.¡± Morani smiled and looked indifferent. However, Morani¡¯s words and facial expressions weren¡¯t the same at all, which confused Sui Xiong. Then Sui Xiong turned to Javier. Javier sighed and said, ¡°The God¡¯s Kingdom of Cladema really contained a lot of Divine Power. But to be honest, this power belonged to the evil camp, and you belong to the good camp, so if you want to transform this evil Divine Power into your Divine Power, it¡¯ll consume lots of time and energy, and we all know that the ultimate efficiency of transformation won¡¯t be high.¡± He laughed again and said, ¡°Royal Crown is excited because his camp is neutral and maybe slightly evil, so it¡¯ll be much easier and less wasteful to transform Cladema¡¯s Divine Power. In fact, from your point of view, it was wise not to take the whole God¡¯s Kingdom.¡± Sui Xiong suddenly realized that he had done the right thing and couldn¡¯t help laughing. ¡°Actually, I came back with something.¡± With a wave of his hands, countless treasures, sealed plants, and buildings of all sizes flew out and piled up like hills beside him. Among these treasures, the most noticeable one was a black ball, which was dark and emitting a cold and clear light. If one looked closely, they would see a black dragon flying inside the ball. If one listened to it, they could hear the roar of the dragon from inside. And one could feel the extremely powerful Divine Power from it. At a glance, they all knew that it wasn¡¯t an ordinary treasure. The eyes of the Gods sparkled as soon as it was taken out. ¡°How could you say you didn¡¯t take anything! Nothing could compare to this!¡± Manissy laughed and shouted, ¡°This is the most valuable thing!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised. He knew that this was the core of the Cladema kingdom, but¡­ was it that precious? At that moment, he remembered the sly smile of Yorgaardman when he had suggested taking it. What a pity! After leaving the kingdom of Cladema, Yorgaardman had said he had something to do and left. Otherwise, Sui Xiong would have asked him what the magic of the core of the kingdom was. Fortunately, Manissy was an expert and explained it to Sui Xiong with a smile. Each God constructed their kingdom in different ways. For example, the God of Cladema was a dragon who often preferred to construct a sphere first and design a whole kingdom in it. Then when he wanted to build it, he could directly inject magic power into the sphere, which was like a tool to project the designed object. This was not only very fast and created a quality product, but it also saved a lot of magic power. Over the years, with the injection of Divine Power and the construction of the God¡¯s Kingdom, the sphere would transform into a valuable artifact, commonly known as the ¡°dragon ball.¡± ¡°A dragon ball?¡± Hearing this, Sui Xiong was surprised and looked carefully at the black ball, hoping to find the pattern of stars on it. At the same time, he asked casually, ¡°Are there seven known dragon balls in total?¡± Manissy answered in surprise, ¡°How could there be seven of them? As far as I know, included this one, only four balls have appeared in all.¡± Sui Xiong frowned, disappointed. It seemed that even if seven dragon balls were gathered together, the dragon couldn¡¯t be summoned. He had dreamed of finding seven dragon balls to summon the dragon, and then letting the dragon send him back to earth. ¡°Dragon balls are useful in many aspects. Actually, I haven¡¯t found a dragon ball, so I don¡¯t know the specific effects.¡± Manissy laughed and said, ¡°But there is no doubt that it is one of the most precious treasures in the world, even compared to the other treasures you¡¯ve collected, or the whole Cladema kingdom!¡± Sui Xiong then understood, and nodded slightly, trying to say something. Suddenly, Ariel, a Goddess of Ocean who seldom paid him visits, said, ¡°Actually, there are five dragon balls, but one of them was destroyed.¡± ¡°Ah?!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised and asked curiously, ¡°How was it damaged?¡± ¡°A long time ago, Vorpocus, the former Goddess of Ocean, killed a weak Dragon God and seized his dragon ball. This dragon ball was later transformed into an ornament in the center of her throne and was the core of her control over the God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°When she died, the whole God¡¯s Kingdom collapsed, and the dragon ball was destroyed,¡± Ariel answered. Sui Xiong understood and sighed with slight regret. There was no doubt that the dragon balls of this world couldn¡¯t be assembled to seven to summon the divine dragon. In his understanding, the dragon balls that could summon the divine dragon wouldn¡¯t be destroyed. After sighing, Sui Xiong asked Ariel how to use the Dragon ball. As the successor of the former Goddess of Ocean, Alice had not only inherited the clergy and most of the Divine Power, but also some pieces of Vorpocus¡¯ memories. Although a lot of the memories had been lost, fortunately, the knowledge about dragon balls had not. Ariel introduced in detail the various methods for using dragon balls and helped Sui Xiong practice some. Unfortunately, this dragon ball wasn¡¯t very helpful for Sui Xiong. He always felt that the dragon ball was slightly awkward to use. When the Divine Power was injected into it, it was difficult to use every bit of it. It was said that practice made perfect. But after several days of practicing, he still felt that there was a slight gap between him and the dragon ball, and he didn¡¯t know what was wrong. It was just that he couldn¡¯t use it well. Then he gathered his friends and asked them if they had any good methods for using a dragon ball. ¡°It¡¯s good for controlling the God¡¯s Kingdom,¡± Manissy said. ¡°Even if it doesn¡¯t work well now, it¡¯ll get better after more practicing.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a matter of practicing, it¡¯s just¡­ a lack of coordination between the ball and me.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°Then how about transforming it into something else,¡± Morani, the master of forging, suggested. ¡°I think it might be possible to transform it into a powerful artifact.¡± ¡°Too wasteful!¡± Not waiting for Sui Xiong to reply, Manissy screamed against it and said, ¡°There are only a few artifacts in the world that are more precious than dragon balls. Using them as raw material is too wasteful!¡± ¡°Then how about selling it,¡± Javier said. ¡°I believe that the God of Light needs such a dragon ball to show off his power. If you like, I can negotiate with him.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment. If there were no other good ideas¡­ This one could be taken into consideration. ¡°It¡¯s a pity to sell it or leave it unused. And it¡¯s wasteful to use it as raw material. Why don¡¯t we try to use it as a core to reinforce the Void City?¡± Wor suddenly said. Everyone was surprised when they heard this. Although no one had ever constructed a human city with a precious dragon ball, it seemed that¡­ it sounded okay to them! Using a dragon ball as the core and reinforcing the Void City, they could not only greatly avoid the risk of future attacks, but also give the city many wonderful functions. It seemed that this was the best choice for the Gods who regarded the Void City as their holy land. The Gods looked each other, and they knew everyone agreed, so it was decided that they would reinforce the city. Chapter 418 Chapter 418: Chapter 128 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio To come forward with the idea of reinforcing the Void City was easy, but it wasn¡¯t as easy to take action. Dragon balls were high-level artifacts, while the level of Cladema¡¯s dragon ball was extremely high. It wasn¡¯t difficult to use one as the core of a God¡¯s Kingdom, but it was very difficult to use it as the core of an ordinary city. After all, the power of this dragon ball was too strong! As an art student, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t learn mathematics and physics well. He wasn¡¯t able to figure out how much energy Cladema¡¯s dragon ball contained, nor could he work out a perfect model that was suitable for the dragon ball project. But he knew that when he wasn¡¯t sure about something, he should find a quiet place to do an experiment first. In short, Sui Xiong spent about half a month in the Ashes Woods doing tests and finally worked out a magic array. Combining this magic array with an indoor altar, he could disperse the power of the dragon ball to reinforce the surrounding buildings and safeguard the boundaries. After this experiment, he decided to put it into practice. Finally, he chose to prepare the altar in the most central place in the center square of the Void City. Actually, this place wasn¡¯t the dead center of the whole city, but the intersection of life and vigor. If the altar was built there, according to an old Chinese saying, it would be just like a majestic stone tablet in the Capital Square of China that was strong enough to give a whole country good luck. Sui Xiong had his own sense of ¡°beauty.¡± After thinking for a long time, he finally decided how to design the indoor altar. From the outside, the altar would just be a huge fountain. Only by using the specified magic tools could people enter the indoor altar to worship or do maintenance. The room which the altar was placed in wasn¡¯t high, rather a bit flat. A huge magic array covered the whole floor and roof, which also extended far beyond what the naked eye could see. It was connected with the perimeter of the Void City. This altar in the center of the room was the intersection of the outer, inner, and upper magic arrays. The material used in the altar had been created by Sui Xiong and was named ¡°Star Boundary Stone.¡± This stone was extremely solid, but it had no weight at all. In fact, it wasn¡¯t a real material in essence, but the manifestation of spirit. The Star Realm was a world of spirits and souls. In this world, sometimes some powerful creatures came into being. If these creatures could die of natural causes, the energy they accumulated over their whole life would gather in their corpse and slowly transform into Star Boundary Stones. These stones were a condensation of pure spirit, which was known as the magic conductor, so using them to make the altar would have the best effect. And the cost was also very high. If Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t had the ability to create things freely, it would have taken years to collect these stars. If one bought them from the Star Realm¡¯s merchants, it would cost them an insane amount of money. There was a very famous saying that ¡°a problem that could be solved with money was not a problem at all.¡± Although Sui Xiong had enough money to buy these stones, he would much prefer to create the star stone by himself than spend money on them, because he had once been an ordinary citizen and understood that earning money wasn¡¯t easy. And he felt that money should be spent and circulate in the market. Buying luxury goods from businessmen was just putting wealth from one bank into another, which was of no use to society. Money that didn¡¯t circulate in the market was worthless! Sui Xiong remembered this sentence had often been said by a teacher who studied economics and published his research. However, the teacher had printed his book by paying for it, so Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t sure about his professional accuracy. Anyway, he had to be more professional than Sui Xiong. This was true. Over the years, he had been practicing this principle, using money as much as possible in a way so that it could circulate in the market. He believed that he had genuinely promoted social progress a little. But back to the topic, all in all, Sui Xiong chose to make the star stones, the altar, and even the pool above the altar, by himself. There was a smiling jellyfish statue with big eyes in the middle of the pool. In the whole Church of Void Mask, only His Majesty would make such a funny statue of himself. When he came to the altar, Sui Xiong checked it for the last time and confirmed that the magic array and the altar were both in good condition. He took out the dark and shiny Cladema dragon ball and placed it in the middle of the altar. When the dragon ball floated in the air, the altar began to shine. Circles of white light slowly fell from the ceiling; oblong green lights rose from the ground. The two lights met at the height of the dragon ball, turning into a soft golden light. When the golden light had brightened to a certain extent, the altar on the ground began to shine. Then a light pillar that contained the dragon ball connected the ground and the ceiling. The next moment in the magic array, the dragon ball emitted a black light, which eventually turned into a warm white light. It flowed around the magic array, then merged with the boundaries of the city. Cladema¡¯s dragon ball was incredibly powerful. Merely a little power from the ball strengthened the divine enchantment of the city greatly. If a large number of troops came to attack and the people didn¡¯t want to open the city doors, nobody would be able to come in! Defense wasn¡¯t the only use of the dragon ball. Sui Xiong created several magic arrays to run daily at the suggestion of the Goddess of Ocean, Ariel, so that residents wouldn¡¯t worry about drought or floods any more. He also created several magic arrays to let the excess energy of the dragon ball be used to supply the power of places like magic schools, temples, and alchemy workshops. What a good idea! It killed two birds with one stone! ¡°Kill three birds with one stone!¡± Frost said, digging a small hole beneath the sealed cave where the altar was placed and then lying in it. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Practicing.¡± Frost was very happy and answered, ¡°If I could live here for eight or ten years, maybe I could progress quickly and step into the legendary level!¡± Sui Xiong was curious to ask why, then realized that this environment was most suitable for the Rock Dragon. The Dragon ball from Cladema greatly enhanced the effects of the environment. Frost might have taken about 300 years outside to grow from a young dragon to an adult, while it would have only taken 30 years in this indoor altar. For dragons who enjoyed long lifespans, 30 years passed quickly. Frost and Graupel were ¡°youth dragons,¡± so as long as they stayed there for eight or ten years, they could fully grow up and become adult dragons. Sui Xiong was delighted, because in eight or ten years, their territory would have two more Legendary Masters. How amazing this could be¡­ Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help thinking that when there was a conflict with other Gods in the future, he would have to take the core of their God¡¯s Kingdom as soon as possible, since this dragon ball was so great. Chapter 419 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Under the dim magic light, two honest giant dragons were lying on their stomachs on the ground. Their dragon scales were round in shape and not sharp at all. Both of them were in a state between waking and sleeping. ¡°Are they okay?¡± Sui Xiong had thought that Frost and Graupel would be meditating like old, calm, and silent monks, but he had never expected to see them so sleepy shortly after getting there, so he was a bit worried. Snow looked carefully at the two dragons for a while, then shook her head with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. They¡¯re fine. Since their bodies have entered a stage of super-fast growth, they have to sleep a lot to reduce their mental consumption. Thus, they can completely control the power of their blood, as well as the new knowledge brought by the growth.¡± After several seconds of thought, she turned her magic into a blackboard made of ice and drew an oval-shaped ball in the snow on it. Then she added a little snoring dragon huddled in the ball. ¡°In fact, it¡¯s similar to getting back to the state we¡¯re in before we¡¯re born. For our dragons, we¡¯re in a state of super-fast growth before we break the shell. All kinds of knowledge appears constantly in our blood, and our power also increases from nothing to a certain amount. For Superior dragons like me, the growth hasn¡¯t been as obvious, but for the Inferior ones, let¡¯s say a Rock Dragon, the growth is quite obvious.¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that and asked curiously, ¡°Isn¡¯t it an excellent way of growing? Why don¡¯t the Superiors do the same thing?¡± Snow smiled and answered, ¡°This is the result of natural development¡ªyou see, in fact, the weaker a creatures is, the stronger they are at birth; on the contrary, stronger creatures are much weaker when they¡¯re born. Do you know why?¡± Sui Xiong pondered for a while and recalled a TV show on earth, The Animal World. Then he understood. ¡°I see. With weak creatures, the parents don¡¯t have the ability to protect their children, so the children should be born with stronger abilities. Thus, it¡¯ll be easier for them to escape from danger. And for powerful creatures, the parents can protect their children very well. Thus, it doesn¡¯t matter whether their child is weak or not at birth. After giving birth to a child, the only thing for powerful parents to do is to wait for their children to grow up slowly. However, the parents will be at risk if they¡¯re pregnant for a long time, so it¡¯s better to have the children as soon as possible so that the parents can recover their full fighting power quickly.¡± Snow was surprised at that. She hadn¡¯t expected Sui Xiong to make such a clear statement. In her impression, this Jellyfish God was slow and careless towards everything; he thought a lot, but had only learned little and had many strange ideas. But that day, he was different. After thinking it over several times, she understood. No matter what, this guy is a God! A powerful God! So it¡¯s normal for him to know that. Thinking that, she couldn¡¯t help laughing and wasn¡¯t surprised at Sui Xiong¡¯s statement anymore. ¡°When Frost and Graupel grow up, will they step into the Legendary Realm?¡± Sui Xiong asked again. Snow hesitated for a moment and answered, ¡°To be honest, I¡¯m not sure. After all, Rock Dragon was an Inferior. Even if they become adults, they still may not be able to enter the Legendary Realm.¡± ¡°But Frost said he would with great confidence.¡± ¡°That might have been his prediction,¡± Snow said with a smile. ¡°Both of them have been with me all these years. Compared to the lazy Graupel who sleeps a lot, Frost has been more active, and he¡¯s more excellent than Graupel, both in study and exercise. If there is one of them that can step into the Legendary Realm after growing up, it will most likely be him.¡± Sui Xiong understood and nodded. Generally speaking, even if the Rock Dragon reached an adult age, it probably couldn¡¯t become a Legendary Master directly. It had to exercise more and grow up, too. However, Frost had been following Snow over the years, so he had gone through a lot of practice and growth. Besides, with the added help of his improved blood after becoming an adult, he could directly enter the Legendary Realm. Correspondingly, it would be hard for Graupel. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, it will be a pity!¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help sighing. ¡°It would be perfect if Graupel can enter the Legendary Realm, too.¡± ¡°Our dragons are legendary creatures, so it¡¯s not as difficult for us to enter the Legendary Realm. She just needs to wait for a period of time.¡± Snow disagreed with Sui Xiong. ¡°Compared to pure growth of power, learning how to control and use that power is more important. ¡°Suppose that Frost and Graupel had the same power, if they fought with each other, Frost would enjoy a complete victory, no matter how many times they fought. Even if Graupel is more powerful, she still won¡¯t win,¡± Snow said with a slight huff. ¡°Among the races that have a weaker foundation than us at birth, there are usually high-level dragon-killers. Although the gap between high-level and legendary is extremely huge, the dragons at the legendary level are usually defeated and killed by the high-level dragon-killers. Why? Because these legendary dragons don¡¯t know how to control and use their power. They just fight with their instinct and the knowledge they inherited from their blood. Thus, no matter how strong they are, others aren¡¯t scared of them.¡± Sui Xiong kept nodding at that. The fundamental element of being a master was control over their power. If they couldn¡¯t learn how to control their power, they would be no better than the Reserve Army of Self-Explosion. What did that mean? During the three stages¡ªfrom mortal to Legendary Master, from Legendary Master to demigod, and from demigod to real God¡ªif one couldn¡¯t control and use their power appropriately, they would be out of control when their strength surged. That would mostly likely lead to self-destruction. Thus, Sui Xiong had named this type of person after the army in his favorite online game, calling them the ¡°Reserve Army of Self-Explosion.¡± He always waited happily to see them run into trouble. Of course, if it was his own partner or someone he felt was worth saving, he would give them special guidance and teach them how to take control of their power. For example, he was now planning training programs for Graupel when she grew up. He wanted her to learn how to control her strength skillfully as soon as possible. Although it seemed that legendary creatures would never encounter a problem like self-destruction, it would still be beneficial for her to have better control of her own power. After thinking for a while, he thought of another issue and asked if Snow was interested in meditating there for period of time to improve her own strength. Snow was already a Legendary Master; if she could improve herself to a higher stage, she would surely be even stronger! ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Snow smiled and shook her head. ¡°For the Void City, and even for the Republic of Northwest, my strength is enough. As long as you¡¯re here, there¡¯s no need to worry about a lack of strength, so it¡¯s better for me to continue to be a government official rather than a stronger master. What¡¯s more, I¡¯m different from ordinary dragons. I prefer to do more meaningful things than count gold coins in my nest. It would be even more perfect if I could make money from my job.¡± Sui Xiong kept nodding at that. However, he felt that Snow seemed to have something to say, so he couldn¡¯t help asking what else there was. Snow nodded honestly. ¡°You¡¯re right. I mean, boss, I¡¯ve worked for you for so many years that you should increase my salary!¡± Chapter 420 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It could be seen that Snow had been thinking about a raise in her salary for a long time. However, she wanted to keep her pride intact, so she didn¡¯t want to talk about it in public. She wasn¡¯t a follower of Sui Xiong, so she couldn¡¯t contact him through the Channel of Religion. As for contacting him through magic, she hadn¡¯t mastered powerful enough magic that she could make contact from the human world to the God¡¯s Kingdom. Thus, she had delayed for several years until that day, when she finally found an opportunity to talk to Sui Xiong about it. Sui Xiong had never been mean to his subordinates. He thought about Snow¡¯s request for a while and realized that compared to her contribution to the Republic of Northwest, her salary was indeed low¡ªSnow was one of the governors of the Republic of Northwest now. If she hadn¡¯t been too lazy to do more work, she could even have become one of the Great Governors. Sui Xiong had planned to have only one Great Governor in the Republic of Northwest, but that had turned out to be unreliable. It would be too heavy a workload for just one person to do, unless this person was willing to exert their utmost to fulfill the duty until their death, like Zhuge Liang. Thus, Sui Xiong simply set Great Governor as a position for the highest-ranking civil servants, and these Great Governors were similar to important leaders back in Sui Xiong¡¯s country on the earth, with names that couldn¡¯t even be casually mentioned in a novel. However, all the important leaders in Sui Xiong¡¯s country together wouldn¡¯t have been able to beat just one of the Great Governors of the Republic of Northwest in a fight, while the total work of all the Great Governors here was less than that of the least busy one of the important leaders in Sui Xiong¡¯s country. After all, the size of the Republic of Northwest was similar to a prefecture-level city on the earth, and its total population was even less than a single county on earth. The Republic of Northwest boasted a territory almost as large as Canada on the map, but most of it was Ashes Woods, mountains, and snowfields. Thus, it was meaningless to have such a large territory. At present, there were three Great Governors in the Republic of Northwest in total: Madame Teague, who was in charge of the civil affairs of Void City, Leonard, who was in charge of the military affairs, and Felix, who was in charge of the civil affairs of the Four Towns in the Northwest. There were supposed to be seven governors under them: three in the Void City and four in the Four Towns in the Northwest, but Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t found enough of them. Instead, he had almost finished the recruitment of lower-rank officials and civil servants through the civil servants examination. After much careful estimating, Sui Xiong offered Snow a higher salary. ¡°That isn¡¯t enough.¡± After she heard Sui Xiong¡¯s offer, Snow murmured, ¡°That would be enough for a human official, but I¡¯m not a human. If there are any emergencies, I could help fight, so you should at least pay me as much as a bodyguard.¡± Sui Xiong was speechless about that and raised her salary to a higher number. Then he paid her an extra sum to make up for the salary differences of the past years, from roughly the start of the Void Mask Land to that time. Snow had never expected something like that, so she was stunned for a while. Then she said, ¡°If you don¡¯t want to be a God and decide to be a king, I think you¡¯d do a better job.¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and didn¡¯t talk about it too much. A king? There wasn¡¯t much difference. Hadn¡¯t Crick Keane made greater achievements before than the king of a small country? After he settled everything for Frost and Graupel¡¯s dormancy, Sui Xiong sent a fighting doppelganger out into the Void City. The Underground Adventure Park, Dragon and Dungeons, had to be governed by a dragon. This dragon didn¡¯t need to be very powerful, but they had to have a good personality, or at least couldn¡¯t have a bad habit like eating people. To think it through, if tourists found the Underground Dragon Nest and wanted to take an adventure inside, and then were eaten by the dragon¡­ That would be a great scandal! Thus, evil dragons couldn¡¯t be chosen by Sui Xiong, so he targeted the kind dragons. There were divisions in dragons¡ªkind dragons, evil dragons, and neutral dragons. The kind dragons were represented as Metal Dragons. It didn¡¯t mean that they were made of metal. They just had a metallic luster on their dragon scales. The evil dragons were represented as Five Colors, which had thick and heavy dragon scales like colorful stones. The neutral dragons were represented as Gem Dragons, whose dragon scales were as sparkling and crystal-clear as a gem. It might have sounded weird but there were huge differences between dragons and their subspecies in character. For example, a White Dragon was a kind of evil dragon. Instead of settling down somewhere, they loved to travel around and bully others. However, its subspecies, Ice Dragons, preferred to find areas to be their territory and become a Hill Lord there. Besides, Ice Dragons were generally neutral in character and sometimes tended to be kind. As for the most cunning, Black Dragons, their subspecies were Rock Dragons. The Rock Dragons were famous for being simple, loyal, and honest. The relatively cunning ones among Rock Dragons were like Frost. Sui Xiong wandered around the Main Plane for almost a week. After some searching, he finally came to a mountain pass located in the southwest of the Mountain of Broken Cloud, close to the Kingdom of thousands of Springs. There was a large copper mine there, but it hadn¡¯t been exploited yet, first because of its remote location and inconvenient transportation, but also because there was a mean dragon living there, a Copper Dragon named McHale. McHale was about 500 years old now. For a Copper Dragon, that age was quite delicate, because it was just between middle age and old age. There was also an important division between ordinary dragons and legendary dragons. For ordinary dragons, after living to this age, both their bodies and mentalities would begin to age. They would become less energetic gradually and sleep for months, or even a couple years. Even if they woke up, they just looked for food and went back to sleep again. If they couldn¡¯t manage to live beyond this age, the ordinary dragon would gradually grow old in this decadent state and become sleepy and less energetic by the day. Dragons at this age were also known as Twilight Dragons, and that meant their lives had almost come to an end. Normally, Twilight Dragons could manage to live two or three hundred years more and die of old age. Of course, Twilight Dragons weren¡¯t very common to see, because most dragons could live beyond this limit easily. After that, their wisdom and magic would be greatly enhanced, and they would transfer from a warrior to a spell caster. This process of transformation was a bit slow. Generally speaking, they would be about 700 to 800 years old¡ªthat was the age when Twilight Dragons died¡ªwhen they finally completed the transformation and became an Old Dragon. Although they were called Old Dragons, they were more powerful than middle-aged ones. These Old Dragons were both powerful warriors and excellent spell casters, both legendary creatures and legendary adventurers. The state of Old Dragon could last for a long time, as short as 1,000 to 2,000 years, and as long as 4,000 to 5,000. But after that, the dragon would still grow old and die. To escape from growing old and dying, the Old Dragon had to advance a level to become an Archaic Dragon. Archaic Dragons existed beyond time. They were all demigod masters and had a lot of powerful subordinates. The level above Archaic Dragons was Archean Dragons. Cladema, the God of Underground Caves and Sites, who had died earlier for no reason, was one of the most famous Archean Dragons. Regarding McHale, whom Sui Xiong was looking for, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know which stage he was in. The last time McHale had shown up was nearly 50 years earlier. At that time, he had been a Middle-Aged Dragon and never shown any powerful magic. Thus, people now were wondering whether he was going to become a Twilight Dragon, and many adventurers were temporarily staying in a small town less than 100 miles from the Valley of Copper, waiting for McHale to fail in breaking the limit and become a Twilight Dragon. It was said that some of them had been waiting for ten years! Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to meet these guys at all, so he became invisible, flew over the small town, and arrived at the Valley of Copper. It was quiet and peaceful in the valley, and all kinds of animal were living in harmony there. Although there was still hunting and killing there, there was still a sense of nature, making others feel pleasant. Sui Xiong flew into the valley, searched with his soul sensing, and smiled. He found a man in green snoring underneath a big tree with his face covered by a book. ¡°Wake up, McHale!¡± Sui Xiong touched him with his tentacles, but the human-looking dragon didn¡¯t get up. He didn¡¯t even wake up at Sui Xiong¡¯s prodding, just turning to the side and sleeping on. Sui Xiong was at a loss. He hadn¡¯t expected this famous Copper Dragon would like sleeping as much like Graupel. After several considerations, he took out a bag of gold coins and dropped them on McHale¡¯s head. When the coins slid across McHale¡¯s neck and face, Sui Xiong clearly heard the dragon sniffing and breathing heavily. ¡°It¡¯s the smell of gold!¡± McHale, wearing green, threw aside the book on his face as fast as lightning and moved his hands quickly to pick up all the gold coins around him. ¡°Don¡¯t waste them!¡± he said to Sui Xiong seriously. ¡°There are seven Gods behind each gold coin, so you¡¯ll be punished if you waste money or gold coins!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. He really wanted to ask why he had never heard that there were seven Gods behind each gold coin. But on second thought, he didn¡¯t. Perhaps this was just McHale spouting bullsh*t. After a while, McHale was completely awake from his sleep. This seemingly less energetic dragon sighed sadly as he played with the gold coins he had been given by Sui Xiong. ¡°Alas! How I wish that the dragon ball was from a Blue Dragon or a Water Dragon!¡± McHale said. ¡°You¡¯ve said that many times.¡± Sui Xiong sighed helplessly. ¡°Money isn¡¯t so necessary, and neither is treasure. As long as you work hard enough, sooner or later, you¡¯ll have your own dragon ball.¡± ¡°It would help me save at least 200 years if I could borrow the power of that dragon ball!¡± ¡°If you work hard for me, I can help you save that 200 years.¡± ¡°Really? How are you going to do that?¡± McHale asked curiously. Sui Xiong smiled and didn¡¯t answer. What else could he do? It would be nothing more than special training, extremely hard training. If McHale didn¡¯t want to take part in the training, it would be a pity! He didn¡¯t want to have only Graupel involved! Chapter 421 Chapter 421: Chapter 131 McHale was a smart dragon. Although he was a bit lazy, he had very good intuition. Thus, although he didn¡¯t know how Sui Xiong would be able to help him save time to grow, he refused the offer. But he accepted the job at Void City to disguise himself as the evil dragon underneath the Dragon and Dungeons section of the Underground Adventure Park. On one hand, it wasn¡¯t anything difficult nor dangerous, so it wasn¡¯t worth taking the risk to offend a powerful God; on the other hand, he was also curious about what this magnificent and luxurious Void Mask Land looked like. Later, this Copper Dragon, who others also called the Dragon of Autumn Twilight, started his journey with not too much of his treasure. He flew a long way with Sui Xiong and finally arrived at the Void City. ¡°How magnificent it is!¡± McHale was deeply attracted by the scenery there as soon as he arrived. In the center of the Void City was a large playground surrounded by many recreational facilities. These facilities were scattered among flowers and trees and between pools, making the city look like a garden. Sui Xiong had made full use of his art talent in the design of this city. He didn¡¯t dare to say that every brick was built per his designs, but the general layout of the city had been his idea. He had practically built this city by himself. In the city, there were a variety of classical architectural styles, including Chinese-style palaces and gardens, Japanese-style pavilions and courtyards, and Greek-style temples and stone pillars¡­ Even the relatively less influential schools of architecture could be seen. If an architect from earth came there, he would probably have shook his head and complained, ¡°What obvious plagiarism!¡± Or he might have praised it with a smile and said, ¡°The designer of this city is quite interesting.¡± He might also have laughed at it and commented, ¡°I see nothing original in this.¡± But none of that would happen. In this world, Sui Xiong was the only space-traveller, so when they saw these different but beautiful buildings, everyone would just be amazed. McHale was no exception. Especially when he learned that these buildings had all been designed by His Majesty Void Mask, he became stunned for a while and said, ¡°You deserve praise, Your Majesty Void Mask.¡± Sui Xiong had heard this kind of comment countless times. Most people would say it when they heard for the first time that he designed the Void City. And rightfully so. It wasn¡¯t a secret that Void Mask was powerful. Actually, there were a lot of powerful people, but it didn¡¯t mean that they were well-educated, had good taste and great design talent, and were good at many different design styles, like Sui Xiong. In the human world, there were almost no architects who could make such a great design. Even among advanced fairies, who loved art deeply and were almost immortal, one couldn¡¯t find such an outstanding designer. Nor there could have been one among the Gods. The God of Technics had visited the Void Mask City before, when it had still been called Void Mask Land. This God was worshipped by people for his great talent in design and building. He looked at the Void City carefully and left without saying a word. According to Javier, the God of Technics had been worried since then. He seldom appeared in public and seemed to be on guard against something all the time. Sui Xiong could clearly feel that people preferred his technique in architecture, so he was worried that the God of Technics would come and cause trouble for him. However, the God didn¡¯t do anything. The reason might have been that the core of that God¡¯s clergy was manufacturing and inventing art works. Although architecture was also a part of his clergy, it wasn¡¯t the most important part. The God of Technics didn¡¯t want to be an enemy of Void Mask, because it was against both his position and his own beliefs. Nothing had happened since then, but at least Javier was very optimistic about a relationship between Sui Xiong and the God of Technics. ¡°Why are you so optimistic about our relationship?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°You¡¯re so talented that you¡¯re destined to create a new God system. Then, due to the clergy and recognition of belief, the God of Technics and I will be forced by human recognition of belief to join your God system,¡± Javier said. ¡°What? Does a human¡¯s recognition of belief have that much power?¡± ¡°Of course. For the Nature God, or any God that intends to be the Nature God, the influence of human belief isn¡¯t so obvious, but for pure Gods of Belief, such as the God of Technics and me, it has a great influence,¡± Javier said with a smile. ¡°Why haven¡¯t I completely joined the Human God System? Because as the God of Celebration, I¡¯ve monopolized the clergy of celebration. As for the clergy of enjoyment, it doesn¡¯t belong to any one clan now. The God of Technics did the same. He monopolized the clergy of technics. Thus, if the humans generally believe that you¡¯re the great master of enjoyment and technics, their recognition will turn into great power that can pull the God of Technics and me towards you, to be your subordinates. Similarly, if there¡¯s a patron saint in the Northwest area in the future, he¡¯ll naturally be your subordinate without any doubt, and it would be impossible for him to be independent or work for others.¡± Sui Xiong thought about it for a long time and finally understood. That also brought him a deeper understanding of belief and made him a bit cautious. Sui Xiong was sure that the God of Technics didn¡¯t like him. He might have hated Sui Xiong¡¯s appearance or style, or he might just not have wanted to be someone else¡¯s subordinate. But according to what Javier had said, as long as the humans approved of Sui Xiong, what the God of Technics thought wasn¡¯t important at all. If they had been on earth, it would have been explained this way: If one understood something well, they would be willing to do it; if one didn¡¯t understand something well, they would still have to do it and try to figure it out during the process. But Sui Xiong became more cautious in his heart. Although he wasn¡¯t aggressive, he was kind of proud. Thinking that he would be forced by the recognition of belief and his clergy to become a subordinate of another God, he was a bit worried. It wasn¡¯t like ¡°give me liberty or give me death,¡± but he just didn¡¯t want to be forced by others to do things. Since Leonard had come here, Sui Xiong had already had several long talks with him. Under Leonard¡¯s persuasion, Sui Xiong gradually thought of his own idea. It was indeed a good idea to obtain and occupy the clergy but not become a God of that type. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care about the benefit brought by human belief. He was already one of the most powerful masters in this world, and he wasn¡¯t afraid of anyone that wasn¡¯t a Great Divine Power. Even if he met a Great Divine Power in a fight, he would be able to fight a few rounds with them. He was sure he would lose, but that he could manage to escape. With such strength, he had the confidence not to be bound by human belief, either. However, Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t really made up his mind to be a devil. The largest disadvantage of being a devil was not to die easily or something like that, but the careless control of human belief. None of the devils in this world were able to take good care of their followers, because when they refused to take over the clergy, their belief system was badly damaged. Thus, in this world, devils usually didn¡¯t have too many followers. In other words, they couldn¡¯t take care of too many of their followers. Now Sui Xiong managed his belief system very well, but if he chose to be a devil, this system would be badly damaged. Then he would have trouble in either the cultivation of clergyman or spell education, or even feedback for his follower¡¯s prayers. According to Leonard¡¯s explanation, Sui Xiong understood that it was like moving from an indoor wireless network relying on 100 yards of optical fiber to a satellite network system in a remote area, and both stability and efficiency would be greatly affected. That was the key reason why Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t make up his mind. Of course, Leonard wanted Sui Xiong to become a devil, and he had tried to convince him many times. Some of Sui Xiong¡¯s friends, including Manissy and Javier, wanted Sui Xiong to be a legitimate God and had persuaded him many times, too. As for others, such as Yorgaardman and Morani, they didn¡¯t care what Sui Xiong was. In their opinion, there wasn¡¯t much difference. That was Yan Yun¡¯s opinion, too. No matter whether he accepted or rejected the clergy, he just had to be himself. This was the most important premise for everything. As for other things, there was no need to make a decision in a hurry. Sui Xiong wanted to think more about them. After settling everything for McHale, Sui Xiong went back to his God¡¯s Kingdom. He was studying the improvement of summoning and considering the question of accepting the clergy and becoming a God. He had been thinking about that question for a long time, but he hadn¡¯t come up with any ideas. To be honest, he was somewhat indecisive on even not so urgent issues. While he was thinking about these questions, something big happened. Arcaian Pasteur had finished his meditation in seclusion and become a Legendary Master. He had decided to believe in Sui Xiong and become his electorate before, with Sui Xiong¡¯s help, he had stepped into the Legendary Realm. He had been living in the underground research room without eating, drinking, or taking a rest. With the help of Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power, he tried to adjust himself and designed his own path in his own direction¡ªmedicine. Sui Xiong also helped him and gave him a lot of advice. Now, he had finally completed the whole process of meditation and steadily stepped into the Legendary Realm. The first thing he did after that was report to Sui Xiong and prepare to become a God. Chapter 422 Chapter 422: Chapter 132 After he heard the news, Sui Xiong went to meet Arcaian at once. This new Legendary Master hadn¡¯t left his underground research room. Instead of sitting on the ground and meditating, Arcaian was busy now. ¡°How time flies!¡± After greeting him, he said with strong emotion to Sui Xiong, ¡°Nine years have passed during my meditation! Look! Your Majesty! Before I started meditating, I had sealed these research samples with magic. Now the seal is still here, but it¡¯s covered in a thin layer of dust. Thankfully, the research room is underground, and there is less air circulation, or I¡¯m afraid my notebook would have been buried in dust.¡± ¡°Yes, how time flies!¡± Sui Xiong was touched by his emotion and couldn¡¯t help sighing. ¡°I still remember when I first landed on the ground, and now several decades have passed¡­¡± After a short while, they went back to their business. ¡°Are you sure of becoming a God?¡± Sui Xiong asked seriously. ¡°To be honest, I think you should make more preparations. It isn¡¯t very easy to do that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not so easy for others, but that¡¯s not true for me,¡± Arcaian replied with a smile, and his face was full of confidence. ¡°In fact, I¡¯m able to become a God at anytime I like. During nearly ten years of meditation, the medical knowledge that I was learning has been widely spread to all the countries in the Main Plane, so I¡¯ve already gotten enough practice, feedback, and human recognition.¡± ¡°Really? Then why haven¡¯t you started?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°I needed some adjustments to make everything perfect,¡± Arcaian answered. ¡°That¡¯s why I contacted you. According to my estimate, this time, I might have a lot of trouble.¡± Sui Xiong was perplexed at that, so he asked cautiously, ¡°What do you mean by big trouble? What is that?¡± Arcaian smiled and answered carelessly, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that many Gods and demons that represent plagues, illness, and difficulties will come to make trouble for me.¡± ¡°Is that just ¡®big trouble¡¯? That¡¯s a disaster!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Actually, when Wall became a God, there was also a lot of trouble,¡± Arcaian replied with a smile. ¡°It was just that he completed the whole thing suddenly, so others didn¡¯t have time to take any action. But I think you must remember the violent reaction of the Master of Mystery after that.¡± Sui Xiong sighed. Of course he did. At that time, if Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t attacked the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Master of Mystery with his Super Electromagnetic Gun, it wouldn¡¯t have ended so easily. It probably could have developed into a full-scale war between the Church of Master of Mystery and the Church of Void Mask. Thus, it was a reasonable to say that nuclear bombs and guns had helped to maintain peace and truth to some degree. ¡°Luckily, this time, your enemies don¡¯t have too many followers.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and said with a smile, ¡°At least I don¡¯t have to worry about a religious war breaking out between the mortals.¡± ¡°Actually, if we contact those kind Gods, we¡¯ll find more helpers,¡± Arcaian suggested. ¡°After all, for the kind Gods, it¡¯s good news that I can become a God. Even the patron saints of other clans would be on my side.¡± ¡°But it¡¯ll be difficult to pay back others¡¯ favors.¡± Sui Xiong sighed. ¡°I want to avoid that if possible.¡± ¡°But if just rely on us¡­ I believe that Your Majesty is powerful and good at fighting, but no matter how powerful you are, you can¡¯t defeat them all by yourself,¡± Arcaian argued. ¡°Although it¡¯s difficult to pay back others¡¯ favosr, we have to do it this time.¡± Sui Xiong thought about it for a while and then shook his head. ¡°No, we don¡¯t have to. You just hold the God Ceremony in the central playground of the Void City, and I¡¯ll show my avatar to help. In the Main Plane, I¡¯ll be able to kill whoever comes. I¡¯ll kill them all until more are too scared to come.¡± With that, Sui Xiong had a grim smile on his face. ¡°Think about it carefully. I didn¡¯t show my real power for many years. This time is an opportunity. Others will take it as a deterrent, and it¡¯ll kill two birds with one stone. Thus, it will also make up for my loss.¡± ¡°Your loss?¡± Arcaian was confused. ¡°Will there be a great loss for you?¡± ¡°Not a great loss. I just have to give up something I¡¯ve been working on.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and explained to him about the Love Angel. ¡°I planned to reinvent it as the God of Healing. However, since you want to become a God, I¡¯ll leave that clergy to you, and I¡¯ll transform the Love Angel into an Oracle; anyway, I won¡¯t have that kind of super-powerful Oracle now.¡± Arcaian listened carefully, frowned and thought about it for a long time. Suddenly, his eyes turned bright, and he came up with an idea. ¡°Your Majesty, I have an idea!¡± he said excitedly. ¡°We can use that Love Angel as a cover!¡± ¡°A cover?¡± Sui Xiong was confused. He didn¡¯t understand what Arcaian was talking about. ¡°My clergy is medicine and medical care. Although there¡¯s something about Healing Spells in my clergy, it¡¯s not a key part.¡± Arcaian thought about his idea carefully again and said with great confidence, ¡°As for the Love Angel, and the God of Healing, its clergy includes Healing Spells. Strictly speaking, it¡¯s not in conflict with my beliefs. On the contrary, we¡¯d be complementary to each other.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. But I have to protect you during the God Ceremony, so I don¡¯t have time to revive it.¡± ¡°Why not think about it another way? The main reason that the God of Healing can¡¯t come back to life is that you can¡¯t help it construct the clergy of Healing Spells, but I can help you by separating the Healing Spell from my clergy. Although it¡¯s just a small part, you will be able to successfully construct a clergy from it.¡± Upon seeing Sui Xiong nodding slightly, Arcaian continued. ¡°With the clergy and its own divinity, and the Divine Power you¡¯ve given, the God of Healing will successfully be revived. After that, the attention of the Gods will surely be on him, making it a perfect time for me to become a God. In this way, even if some of the Gods suspect something and use their Divine Power to spy on us, they¡¯ll only be attracted by the revival of the God of Healing. Its revival will harm the evil Gods and demons to some degree, but still to a lesser extent than I do.¡± ¡°I see. We¡¯ll take advantage of the revival of the God of Healing to attract their attention. The God of Healing isn¡¯t very powerful, so even if they find out, they won¡¯t care too much or take violent action. When you begin the God Ceremony, it¡¯ll be too late for them to take any action, since they won¡¯t have prepared well,¡± Sui Xiong said excitedly. ¡°Perhaps it won¡¯t stop them from starting trouble with you, but it can effectively prevent them from joining hands together in a fight. For me, as long as these guys don¡¯t come together at once, I can kill them all!¡± Sui Xiong was happy at first, then couldn¡¯t help frowning again. ¡°However, in this way, you¡¯ll lose the clergy of Healing Spell. That¡¯d be a great loss.¡± ¡°The core of my clergy is medicine, medical care, and physicians, and my original idea was to allow normal people who can¡¯t use spells to cure sickness and save patients.¡± Arcaian laughed. ¡°It definitely will have an impact on me if I lose the clergy of Healing Spell. It¡¯ll be a loss. But if it can help bring the God of Healing back to life, what I gain will outweigh the loss,¡± Arcaian said sincerely. ¡°Your Majesty, in the end, the God of Healing is the one who¡¯s good at the Healing Spell. If he can manage to come back to life, we¡¯ll complement each other, and that will lead to a better effect than me taking control of the Healing Spell by myself. What¡¯s more, as far as I know, since the God of Healing died, the God of Healing¡¯s seat has been empty. Its revival will surely bring a great advantage to the clergy of Healing Spell. It¡¯ll be much better than anything I can do.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly, but he was still a little worried. ¡°So you have to give up a part of your clergy before you become a God. Will that hinder you?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Yes, but not seriously.¡± Arcaian thought about it for a while and laughed suddenly. ¡°No, I was wrong. Actually, it¡¯ll be a good thing for me.¡± ¡°A good thing?¡± ¡°Yes. Instead of keeping the clergy of Healing Spell that I¡¯m not good with, I¡¯d better give it up and focus on medical techniques. That way, I can make sure that the clergy of medicine is occupied only by me, and it¡¯ll be impossible for others to share the human belief of this aspect with me in the future.¡± Arcaian¡¯s eyes were bright, showing great confidence. ¡°Haha! Now, even if I don¡¯t help revive the God of Healing, I¡¯ll still give up the clergy of Healing Spell.¡± Sui Xiong was reassured and began to discuss the details with him. Later, Sui Xiong went to Yorgaardman and discussed with him again. Several days later, the news was sent out from the Church of Void Mask: His Majesty Void Mask has helped the God of Healing, who has been transformed into the Love Angel by the former Sun God, with reconstructing his clergy. This mid-level Divine Power will come back to life soon. Chapter 423 Chapter 423: Chapter 133 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The God of Healing is going to be revived?¡± In the center of the brilliant palace, after hearing the reports from his followers of God, the Master God of the Human God System, Wuther Rang, didn¡¯t show any emotion on his face, but his fingers began to tremble on the arm of his throne. He wasn¡¯t worried that the God of Healing would bring trouble to the Human God System or himself, because the God of Healing was a kind God who was nice to everyone. Thus, his revival would be a good thing to all the clans in the Main Plane. As for the Human God System, although the revival of the God of Healing would influence the effect of the Healing Spell for other clergymen who didn¡¯t believe in the God of Healing, it wouldn¡¯t be to a severe degree. When the God of Healing was alive, the clergymen who were following other Gods were allowed to use their powerful Healing Divinity Spell. Thus, only those who used Healing Spell will be affected. In this world, besides the clergymen, such as priests and shamans, only the spellcasters who mastered the power in direction of healing and life could use the Healing Spell. Since the God of Healing had been transformed into the Love Angel, the clergy of Healing Spell had collapsed. Therefore, there had been no limitations on the use of the Healing Spell since then, and it had been used as casually as normal spells. Now, the God of Healing was going to come back to life, and that meant this clergy would soon be returned to the God and most of the mages and wizards would lose their ability to use the Healing Spell. It seemed like a serious matter, but after careful thinking, it was nothing too serious. Mages and wizards were mainly the followers of the Master of Mystery and the God of Spellcaster, and in the core of these two Gods¡¯ concepts was to pursue supreme mystery and the source of the world, and promote the construction of magic civilization, and so on. Losing the Healing Spell did have some disadvantages on the construction of a magic civilization, but it would be made up for by the clergymen, since they were still able to heal others with magic. At least there was no such a thing as a pure mage culture. However, in the vast Ring of the World, there were some races and civilizations that didn¡¯t have any clergymen. During the years without the clergy of healing, they had gotten used to the Healing Spell. Thus, its sudden loss would have a big impact on them. The God of Light was very calm, and there was no change in his eyes. The small clans that couldn¡¯t even stand firmly on the Main Plane deserved no attention from him! A similar situation occurred in all the major God systems. The Great Divine Powers who were leading the God systems didn¡¯t worry about the revival of the God of Healing, because they were fairly powerful and confident themselves. However, some of the weaker gods felt quite anxious, especially those who had been in conflict with the God of Healing over the clergy. After Arcaian was recognized by the source of world for his medical achievements, all the Gods who had fought with him over the clergy felt anxious. Among them, the most anxious one was the God of Plague, and during this period, he always felt uneasy. He felt that he would be in great trouble, but he couldn¡¯t predict anything. After all, the recognition of the source of the world was something beyond anyone¡¯s prediction. Thus, the God of Plague even changed his hermit style and went out secretly to perform divination. However, it didn¡¯t work at all. He still felt uneasy, and the divination had told him nothing. Now, he knew that his anxiety was coming from the revival of God of Healing, so he was somewhat relaxed. The God of Healing was indeed his enemy. When he was alive, some devils, including the God of Plague, had been severely suppressed by him. The God of Healing was polite and nice to everyone, except for them. Every time he met them, he immediately became angry and wanted to beat them to death. What was more tragic, these devils had few friends, since they always brought disaster upon others, but the God of Healing had a lot of allies, so it would turn into a fight between a devil and several gods. It was tragic. But no matter what, at that time, he was still alive. The God of Healing had been a mid-level Divine Power then, but now, the God of Healing would at most be at low-level Divine Power, so the God of Plague wasn¡¯t afraid of him at all. It¡¯ll be nothing serious, I¡¯ll just beat him! Compared to the God of Plague, the other Gods, like the God of Epidemics and the God of Bitterness, didn¡¯t feel so relaxed. They went to the God of Fear one by one to seek help from him to stop the God of Healing from reviving. In this world, devils rarely worked together, and the God of Fear was almost like their leader when it was necessary. Once something serious happened, most devils would gather around this Great Divine Power and seek help from him, as well as work for him. The God of Fear, of course, wished to strengthen his rule among the devils. For example, he wanted to make any of the devils who hadn¡¯t yet formally taken refuge in him completely submit and turn them from allies to followers of God. He thought that was a good and appropriate deal. But it still depended on what it would cost. If it cost too much, then he wouldn¡¯t do it. Although they were all devils, he didn¡¯t want to risk his life for others. Surrounded by the black gas, the God of Fear was pondering on his throne made of bones. A moment later, he asked in a low voice, ¡°What do you think about this?¡± Under the shadow of the throne came the God of Conspiracy, and he answered, his face covered by the hood. ¡°It depends on what Your Majesty wants.¡± ¡°You should know what I want.¡± The God of Conspiracy said with a smile, ¡°If you haven¡¯t changed your mind, Your Majesty, I think you can do it.¡± ¡°Really?¡± The God of Fear didn¡¯t rush to show his opinion, nor did he reject his suggestion. ¡°I always feel that it¡¯s not so simple,¡± the God of Conspiracy said. ¡°I saw the power of the God of Healing before. To be honest, I think he was just so-so. At least, I don¡¯t believe that he¡¯s powerful enough to make so many Gods anxious.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s true that he can suppress the other Gods in the clergy,¡± the God of Fear said. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s true. However, even when he was the mid-level Divine Power and had a lot of friends, was there anyone who was really suppressed by him?¡± the God of Conspiracy asked. ¡°The most badly suppressed one was the God of Plague, but what he suffered was a few beatings from the God of Healing. He¡¯s still alive, and he even didn¡¯t fall to a lower level of power.¡± The God of Fear did not reply. ¡°Now, even though the God of Healing is going to be revived, only the Healing Spell is left in the core of his clergy. With little divine power storage and few allies, he¡¯s only a weak Divine Power. How can he be a threat to others?¡± The God of Conspiracy said calmly, ¡°So I think there must be a more powerful God behind the God of Healing, and that God must have a similar clergy to the God of Healing.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no such God in the Pantheon temple,¡± the God of Fear said. ¡°But it doesn¡¯t mean there are no such Gods in other places,¡± the God of Conspiracy continued. ¡°After all, there are only legitimate Gods in the Pantheon temple. Gods-to-be, devils, and demons aren¡¯t included. It can¡¯t be a demon, but it once happened that a God-to-be became a God, and the devils became legitimate Gods. You must know that there¡¯s an extremely powerful God-to-be in the world. If he decides to take the clergy and become a God, he¡¯ll be the peak of mid-level Divine Power at the least.¡± The God of Fear stopped knocking on the arm of the throne. He was silent for a while and asked, ¡°Do you think it¡¯s the jellyfish? Didn¡¯t he announce that he would be the God of Development and Progress?¡± ¡°He did announce like that, but he hasn¡¯t done it yet,¡± the God of Conspiracy said, ¡°During these years, that jellyfish has been working hard on spreading medical knowledge. If he finally makes it, he¡¯ll be a great threat to those anxious Gods.¡± ¡°You mean¡­ Instead of reviving the God of Healing, that jellyfish is going to receive the clergy of medicine?¡± ¡°Perhaps,¡± the God of Conspiracy replied. ¡°But we have to prepare well for it.¡± The God of Fear pondered for a while and asked, ¡°What do you think we should do?¡± ¡°The most practical thing to do is kill him, or at least hurt him badly,¡± the God of Conspiracy answered directly. The God of Fear shook his head and said, ¡°That¡¯s impossible. That jellyfish has an aggressive brother. Even if I join the fight, it¡¯ll only be a draw between us. It¡¯s impossible for me to kill that jellyfish, since his brother will be there to help.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have a lot of subordinates?¡± The God of Conspiracy laughed. ¡°Especially those coming to seek help from you around this time. They should do something.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t fully rely on them. That jellyfish is far more powerful than them.¡± The God of Fear sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t mean to be too humble, but even if those guys join together, they won¡¯t beat that jellyfish.¡± ¡°Of course we can¡¯t fully rely on them. We have other helpers.¡± The God of Conspiracy laughed coldly. ¡°The doctrine of the God of Development and Progress is clearly aimed at promoting world peace.¡± The God of Fear hesitated for a moment and finally made up his mind. ¡°It¡¯s up to you. If you can persuade the War God System to help us, then we¡¯ll fight with our best. Let¡¯s see whether we can kill him or not.¡± He paused for a moment and said, ¡°However, you have to communicate with the Human and Orc God Systems as well. That jellyfish has a lot of friends, so we have to prevent him from making the situation worse. If he persuades the God of Light and the Sky Devourer Canine to be his helpers, things will be difficult for us.¡± ¡°Please rest assured, Your Majesty.¡± The God of Conspiracy bowed and said confidently, ¡°I always have several plans at the ready. No matter whether things go smoothly or not, I¡¯ll make preparations in advance. Even if it¡¯s beyond our control, I can make sure that we¡¯ll still benefit from it.¡± The God of Fear nodded and laughed. ¡°You have always been reliable. Go ahead, time is limited. Don¡¯t delay too much.¡± The God of Conspiracy bowed again, walked out of the divine temple, and disappeared without a trace. When he left, the God of Fear suddenly sneered. ¡°This guy, he¡¯s planning to take advantage of me to help deal with his enemies. How dare he!¡± He sneered again, pondered for a moment, and said to himself, ¡°But¡­ Maybe this time, it¡¯s an opportunity for me. I might not be able to kill the Void Mask, but it¡¯s possible that I could have several clergies and teach the disobedient guys to be honest and follow me. I don¡¯t care about the lives or deaths of these guys! I¡¯m the God of Fear, not their patron saint!¡± From the deepest part of the divine temple, in the midst of darkness and poison gases, a thrilling laugh could be heard. Chapter 424 Chapter 424: Chapter 134 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Some of the Great Divine Powers might not be normal, but they were not fools. Therefore, although the ¡°resurrection of the God of Healing¡± had caused an uproar, nothing happened until the target date that Sui Xiong had announced before. At least seemingly, everything was peaceful. However, both the gods who were concerned about this matter and Sui Xiong himself were very careful. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know what others would do. He just invited all his reliable friends he could invite, of course, in the name of ¡°viewing the ceremony.¡± The location of the ceremony was in the Big Competition Field of Void City, which was the place where the Fighter Championship was going to be held. It was almost the time to hold the second Fighter Championship, so Sui Xiong had already prepared the competition field. The scale of this competition might be smaller than the previous one, but the level of quality would be greatly improved. The specific method of the competition was temporarily a secret, but it would definitely be wonderful. The Big Competition Field could accommodate 100,000 people, so it wouldn¡¯t be a waste if it was also used as a ceremony field. For example, now, the real body of Sui Xiong was holding the light cocoon at the center of the competition field. One avatar of Sui Xiong was chatting with his friends on the stand beside, and another avatar was patrolling in the air. Gods had this advantage. As long as their Divine Power was enough, they could have countless avatars. However, almost no one knew about the other event. In the secret underground room below the competition field, Arcaian Pasteur was making the final preparations. The time when the God of Healing would be resurrected was also the time when Arcaian would become a god. This was a plan that had been decided after consultation. They would use the resurrection of the God of Healing to attract attention, so it would help him slightly conceal the movements when he became a god. Of course, when he was successful in becoming a god, the vibrations from the origin of the world and the new seat added in the Pantheon temple couldn¡¯t be concealed. However, by that time, it didn¡¯t matter whether others knew it or not. The most terrible thing would be if someone was disturbed at the moment when they were becoming a god. It didn¡¯t matter after the completion though. In fact, many gods had been disturbed when they were becoming gods. They had resisted their enemies until they succeeded and then had killed all their enemies. With a strong magical barrier, Arcaian couldn¡¯t feel the situation on the ground. But that didn¡¯t affect him because a communication avatar of Sui Xiong was left beside him. The avatar could always tell him about the outside world to avoid any mistakes. No one else knew of this because Sui Xiong did the confidential work extremely well. In addition to Yorgaardman, Sui Xiong¡¯s elder brother, even Sui Xiong¡¯s friends who were invited to view the ceremony didn¡¯t know that a new god was going to be born in a place that was about 20 or 30 meters under the ground. Yorgaardman was the only one who knew that. He wasn¡¯t good at telling lies, so he just pretended to be asleep. Anyway, he only had one task today. If someone came to make trouble and Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t resist them, Sui Xiong would ask him for help. He was good at being a hatchet man. The plan he had drawn for himself was to keep silent. He didn¡¯t need to open his mouth. He just fought when Sui Xiong needed him to fight. Silence was gold. A real man just did instead of talking. Although these were only the words Sui Xiong said when Sui Xiong occasionally made a joke, Yorgaardman really liked those two statements. Compared to him, Javier, who knew nothing about that, had more enthusiasm. He curiously circled around the light cocoon several times, carefully observing it up and down; then he went to the avatar that Sui Xiong arranged to chat with the guests. Javier asked, ¡°You were always worried about how to reunite the priesthood of Healing Spells. How did you solve that problem?¡± When Sui Xiong¡¯s friends heard Javier¡¯s question, they couldn¡¯t help but come together. They were all very curious. Because Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t reunite the priesthood of Healing Spells for the God of Healing who was going to be resurrected, he had asked many of his friends. However, he hadn¡¯t found any valuable advice. That was not because they didn¡¯t care or they hid something they knew. There just didn¡¯t have good methods. In general, there were two ways to resurrect a god. The first way was to leave a medium for resurrection before the god fell. This medium might be an artifact, descendants who inherited the blood, or a secret altar. In the future, when the appropriate opportunity came, with sufficient Divine Power and divinity to activate the medium, the priesthood would rely on the medium to reshape, and then the god could be resurrected. This situation was quite common. In the past years, at least a dozen gods had been resurrected this way. The second way was that other gods would help maintain the churches and continue the belief system after the god fell. Believers repeatedly prayed for decades. After accumulating enough belief, the fallen god could be resurrected from death. This situation was relatively rare. After the fall of the god, the god couldn¡¯t grant believers divine spells. Moreover, without the guidance of the god, the believers would only fall into the underworld after death. Therefore, the god must have a very reliable god friend to help. Even if the relationship between the gods was good, it would rarely be so good. If a god helped their friend to maintain the churches¡¯ continuation and belief system, then that god would only spend Divine Power without any gains. Moreover, that god would have to spend more than just Divine Power. In order to prevent the soul of their fallen friend from falling into the underworld, that god must help their friend to keep their soul and even help build a small God¡¯s Kingdom. An ordinary god couldn¡¯t bear such effort and energy to be spent this way. So even if a relationship was good, very few gods were willing to help. Many good gods were willing to do others a favor, but it was difficult to support others selflessly until the other was resurrected. The condition of the God of Healing didn¡¯t belong to either of those two ways. She had been tortured by the previous Sun God. Although her divinity still remained, her priesthood and deity had completely collapsed, and her divinity was distorted. In this case, with her own power, she could only be the Love Angel. It was absolutely impossible for her to become the God of Healing again. As for her churches and believers, during the long time of more than 10,000 years, they had long been completely annihilated. Even archaeologists had difficulty in finding relevant relics, let alone gather believers to continue praying to her. What was even worse was that even the name, the God of Healing, had been occupied by other gods. The God of Pain, one of the Great Divine Powers, had a god named the God of Healing. However, the priesthood of that God of Healing god was not Healing Divinity Spells¡ªit was Relief and Salvation. The idea of that god wasn¡¯t to spread healing spells or cure injuries and illness.; his aim was to help people suffer less. Of course, helping people to suffer less naturally contained the content of Healing Divinity Spells. However, that god wasn¡¯t pursuing that aspect, so he hadn¡¯t condensed that priesthood entirely. This was because that priesthood was destroyed by the previous Sun God. Therefore, no one could reunite it. After the previous Sun God had died, it was only able to be reshaped. Reshaping it was the key to resurrecting the God of Healing, and it was Sui Xiong who did that. The resurrection of the God of Healing relied solely on Sui Xiong. The Divine Power was supported by Sui Xiong, and the divinity was shaped by Sui Xiong. Her priesthood was also reunited with the help of Sui Xiong. Strictly speaking, the God of Healing wasn¡¯t being resurrected but was rather starting a new life. The original God of Healing was always wearing a smile. She had a good temper and only got angry when facing the God of Plague or the God of Suffering. After a while, the god that would come out of the light cocoon would definitely not be the original God of Healing. She would be the new God of Healing who was influenced by Sui Xiong and would have similarities and common points with Sui Xiong in some aspects. Sui Xiong and the others all felt that nothing was wrong with that. However, Ariel, the Goddess of Ocean seemed to have a slight opinion on that. She had once come to visit Sui Xiong, specifically complaining about that. Her thoughts were all jumbled up when she spoke. After she had finished, Sui Xiong had sorted out what she had said. In conclusion, he thought that her words could be understood as ¡°Do you have a hobby of resurrecting fallen gods? It¡¯s only been a few years, and this is already the second one. I thought you wouldn¡¯t do it again!¡± Well, roughly, it was like that. Although Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t an expert in child psychology, he thought that her words seemed to be similar to a child screaming ¡°I don¡¯t want a younger sibling.¡± That showed that Brother Xun was not only an expert in child psychology but also knew a little about female psychology. After all, he was an artist. At that time, facing the complaints of Ariel, he had been very puzzled. He had asked, ¡°Is it not good to save others? The God of Healing is also a kind god.¡± Ariel had been speechless and turned into a bubble, escaping angrily. Sui Xiong had thought that she wouldn¡¯t come today, but she actually came. She was even dressed very beautifully. What a kid! She regained her life with Sui Xiong¡¯s help, so Sui Xiong somehow treated her as his own child. At this moment, seeing her childish behavior, he thought it a bit funny. ¡°Okay, don¡¯t be angry,¡± he said to Ariel. ¡°Anger can¡¯t solve a problem. You see, after the God of Healing is resurrected, you and her will become natural allies. Isn¡¯t it good that you guys will help each other, support each other, and make progress together in the future?¡± Ariel looked at him with her blue eyes. She looked at him for a long time and finally sighed deeply. ¡°Don¡¯t think of me as a child who understands nothing!¡± she muttered, a little crestfallen. ¡°There, there,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. He turned his tentacle into a palm like an ordinary person, gently touching her hair. Then, Ariel was even more crestfallen. Manissy came. She asked with interest, ¡°What kind of work are you going to arrange for the God of Healing after her resurrection?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment. Then, he said, ¡°I don¡¯t plan to arrange work for her temporarily. She can do whatever she wants. After she fully recovers, perhaps I will let her preside over the work of the clergymen.¡± Manissy was stunned, then she asked wonderingly, ¡°Why not let her preside over a hospital or a medical school?¡± Sui Xiong was suddenly speechless. He couldn¡¯t say that ¡°those jobs were for Arcaian.¡± Indeed, without Arcaian, the God of Medicine, the God of Healing would be very suitable for those jobs. If those jobs could be hosted by a real god, there would be great progress. However, he had Arcaian! He thought about it repeatedly, and he really couldn¡¯t think of any suitable answer. In the end, he had to say something unrelated. Of course, Manissy wouldn¡¯t be fooled by his little trick. She looked at Sui Xiong carefully and then nodded thoughtfully. ¡°I get it, I think,¡± she said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will support you.¡± ¡°What? What do you get?¡± Sui Xiong asked in surprise. Manissy didn¡¯t explain; she just laughed happily. Sui Xiong was more puzzled and curious, so he couldn¡¯t help but ask her again. Manissy looked around. Then, she whispered, ¡°You just want to keep this seat for the woman who can turn into a pig, right? Don¡¯t worry. To tell the truth, I also think that she is funny. Although her private life is a bit terrible, she is doing proper business. Over the years, under her management, the clinic has become better and better.¡± Only then did Sui Xiong understand what she meant. He only felt that there were 500 alpacas running past cheerfully in his heart, leaving a mess. ¡°Why would you think of the weirdo, Steele? Even if she becomes a god, she won¡¯t become a god in the direction of healing. I think she will become a certain god whose name is forbidden to write down.¡± Manissy shook her head, smiling. She said, ¡°Why do you play dumb! I have been paying attention to that woman. Don¡¯t worry, I will keep your secret.¡± Facing such a self-righteous guy, Sui Xiong was helpless. He couldn¡¯t scream at Manissy¡¯s ear, ¡°How¡¯s your eyesight!¡± After a sigh, he decided not to think about that question. It was still early from noon, so he simply shook his head; he went to look for Morani and Ink to drink wine. Chapter 425 Chapter 425: Chapter 135 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Morani and Ink had wine. The wine wasn¡¯t old enough, but at least it was strong enough. Orcs liked strong wine, so they still liked it after they became gods. However, for the gods, mortal strong wine wasn¡¯t much, so it was difficult to find strong wine that could satisfy them. Silent Knight Ink had such wine. He had paid a great price for it, buying it from a mysterious astral merchant. Gods weren¡¯t really omnipotent. Sometimes, some demigods were really capable. They even could do something that gods couldn¡¯t do. The God of Light was the master god of a big god system, and he had a lot of followers. Certainly, if a god who was powerful like the God of Light couldn¡¯t do something, then probably no demigods in the world couldn¡¯t do that, either. Ink cherished the wine he bought very much, so he only drank homemade wine usually. He only took out those good wines when he met the things that were worth celebrating. Of course, that was not today. However, for Sui Xiong, as long as everyone was happy, it didn¡¯t matter whether the wine was strong enough or not. They were chatting while drinking, and then they started talking about making wine. ¡°In fact, making wine is not very complicated,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°The so-called spirits are nothing more than drinks with a high alcohol content.¡± ¡°That is wine in the mortal world,¡± Javier said. When it came to eating, drinking, and entertaining, Javier was a big expert. ¡°I don¡¯t understand what the ¡®alcohol¡¯ is you said. However, no matter how pure the wine is in the mortal world, it has limitations after all. For us gods, if we drink the poison in the mortal world, we will only feel nothing but a little strange taste. It is not so easy to make us feel drunk.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned; then he realized the key to the problem. He thought about it, and then he said, ¡°When I finish this event, I will have a taste. Maybe I can make some good wine.¡± ¡°What are you going to do?¡± Javier asked curiously. ¡°I¡¯ve got no idea yet. I just had this thought.¡± The Liquor Swordsman Panda was always silent, so he just nodded. With a flash, a crystal appeared in his hand. ¡°The experience of making wine,¡± he said briefly, handing the crystal to Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong took the crystal with a smile. If he had just had a rough idea of making wine, now he had some confidence. Perhaps it wouldn¡¯t take long before the first special product appeared in a real sense in his sanctuary of his God¡¯s Kingdom. The gods were chatting while drinking, and the time was gradually nearing noon. When the sun got to the center of the sky, Sui Xiong stood up. He cleared his throat, and he was going to announce the beginning of the resurrection ceremony. However, before he opened his mouth, the sunny sky suddenly darkened. Black clouds gathered overhead and completely covered the sun so that even a ray of light couldn¡¯t get through. Suddenly, the area of Void City and the surrounding area in the range of at least 1,000 miles was totally dark. People couldn¡¯t see their hands in front of them. Sui Xiong frowned. He waved his tentacles, and a white light shot towards the sky. Then, it turned into a ball of dazzling white light like a small sun appearing in the air and shining on the ground. ¡°Who is coming here? Don¡¯t you think such a grand entrance is in poor taste?¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. His voice was not loud, but it echoed between the sky and the ground so that everyone could hear it clearly. A light flowed into the black clouds, and then a rancid smell came out. This smell was so fierce that it could kill all the plants, trees and animals it touched. However, the entire Void City was shrouded in powerful Divine Power boundary. The outside of the boundary was the deep Ashes Woods. There were no humans or animals, and even the trees were cut down for safety and beauty. That god had been casting spells for a while, but he didn¡¯t get more results except for polluting the land outside the boundary into disgusting gray-green. However, this move had already exposed his identity. ¡°It turns out to that old man of rot!¡± Javier said, smirking. ¡°You should shrink in the thoroughly rotten marsh! Why have you come out? Aren¡¯t you afraid of being caught by the Goddess of Spring Water?¡± The God of Rot wasn¡¯t a famous god. He, as the name implied, was the god who could make everything rot and become ruined. Although in theory, rot was only a natural phenomenon, so there was no good or evil. However, this god himself was an evil existence. When he hadn¡¯t become a god, he had been a very powerful wizard who was best at rotting spells. With only one touch, he could turn his enemies into horrible zombies. After becoming a god, he exerted his ability to the fullest, so he became a very disgusting and fearful guy among the gods. However, the God of Rot was just a low-level Divine Power. Besides facing Sui Xiong, the Goddess of Spring Water of the Natural God System had hunted him more than once. The grievances between the Goddess of Spring Water and the God of Rot were accumulated over a long history. It was said that the God of Rot had polluted a clear spring altar of the Goddess of Spring Water, so they had begun to be enemies. At the beginning, the Goddess of Spring Water wasn¡¯t very powerful, so the two sides were equal. Later, the Goddess of Spring Water had cooperated with the Human God System, and then she had built the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. Her strength had advanced by leaps and bounds, and she had gradually become a strong god among the mid-level Divine Powers. The God of Rot couldn¡¯t bear her attacks, and his God¡¯s Kingdom had been broken by her three times in total. Each time, he had nearly been killed. Since then, the God of Rot rarely came out in front of the gods. Unexpectedly, among the evil gods who came to disturb the resurrection of the God of Healing, he took the lead! Facing Javier¡¯s ridicule, an angry gasp came from the black clouds. However, the God of Rot didn¡¯t answer Javier, and he just tirelessly blew the gray-green evil wind, constantly blowing the rotten smell to Void City. It was a pity that his strength wasn¡¯t powerful enough. Even if he did his best, he couldn¡¯t break the Divine Power boundary built with Cladema¡¯s dragon ball as the core. It just made everyone watch the scene. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t rush to attack him. He looked at the sky coldly for a long time, and then he said, ¡°Since you are here, why not come out?¡± No answer came from the black clouds, but the gasps of the God of Rot were even more urgent. Sui Xiong sighed. His noumenon was still concentrating on hatching the God of Healing who was in the light cocoon. Therefore, his avatar waved and turned a tentacle into a throwing spear. He threw it towards the black clouds in the sky. This spear was traveling very fast, just like a flash of light. It pierced into the black clouds in an instant. Until it disappeared into the black clouds, its loud bang began to spread from the ground toward the sky continuously. Finally, it turned into a short and fierce scream in the clouds, and the scream abruptly stopped. After throwing the supersonic spear, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t pay attention to the fate of the God of Rot. He directly announced that the resurrection ceremony of the God of Healing had now started. ¡°Are you sure you want to start it now?¡± Javier asked with concerns. ¡°The god in the sky has come with bad intent!¡± ¡°Bad intent? It¡¯s just a god who is rushing to his death,¡± Sui Xiong said, sneering. ¡°He dares to seek death, then I dare to kill him. He doesn¡¯t believe that my sword is sharp enough?¡± His words were quite murderous, and it sounded like a show-off. However, he had injured or even killed the avatar of the God of Rot with a random spear. That wasn¡¯t showing off. The avatar of the God of Rot was at least a weak Divine Power. It was really shocking that the avatar was killed by Sui Xiong¡¯s random attack. In the dark clouds, a group of evil gods with gloomy faces gathered in a circle. They were watching the unlucky god who was nailed to the chariot with a spear. His body was still twitching slightly. This unlucky god looked like a lonely old beggar. His hair and beard were sparse, and his clothes were also ragged. His body had many edemas and ulcers. He didn¡¯t look like a living person. Instead, he looked like a zombie who had been dead for a while. This was the appearance of the God of Root. He was so disgusting to the extent that most people with a normal sense of aesthetics would avoid him. With such an appearance, no matter where he went, no one would welcome him. If people looked at him closely, they could see that venom was constantly dripping from his body. It was no wonder why the Goddess of Spring Water who loved cleanliness had been furious and had fought with him after he had polluted her spring water altar. Usually, even the evil gods who were also the co-followers of the God of Fear were unwilling to look at the God of Rot, and they wouldn¡¯t get close to him, either. But now, they were in a circle carefully observing the co-follower who they didn¡¯t like. The God of Rot was riding on the Black Cloud Chariot, and that was specialized for the Fear God System. However, the firm chariot couldn¡¯t protect him. A throwing spear accurately penetrated the window of the chariot and shot him. He was nailed to the wall of the chariot like a fly specimen. This spear was extraordinarily powerful. Although the body of the God of Rot was still twitching, everyone could tell that the avatar which had cost him a huge price was definitely dying. The twitching got less and less, and the rotten venom on his body also lessened. Therefore, the avatar couldn¡¯t be saved at all. The evil gods looked at each other, and they saw the horror in each other¡¯s eyes. It¡¯s just an attack from an avatar, but it has such power?! That big jellyfish¡­ How powerful is he? Chapter 426 Chapter 426: Chapter 136 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong had used a throwing spear to kill a weak Divine Power, and it actually wasn¡¯t a big deal. After all, weak Divine Power was almost the lowest level among the real gods. However, from another point of view, it was something really serious. Nearly half of the gods in the Pantheon temple were weak Divine Powers. That was to say, at least half of the gods in the Pantheon temple couldn¡¯t resist the throwing spear of the Void Mask. They would be defeated with only one strike. Moreover, the strength of this weak Divine Power who had been killed was far higher than the level of ordinary weak Divine Powers. His real body was a low-level Divine Power. Therefore, killing him with one throwing spear meant that most of the low-level Divine Powers couldn¡¯t resist Sui Xiong¡¯s spear. What was the difference between the weak Divine Powers and the low-level Divine Powers? It meant that most of the gods in the Pantheon temple were vulnerable in the face of the big jellyfish. If a fierce battle happened, the majority of the gods in the Pantheon temple were nothing but cannon fodder for Sui Xiong. Cannon fodder. As soon as they thought about this word, the group of gods in the black clouds who were mainly low-level Divine Powers showed bitter faces. They had always been high in status, and they had deliberately brought disasters to all living beings in the mortal world. Although sometimes they would be attacked by others, generally, they were very powerful and remarkable. However, at this moment, Sui Xiong used only one spear to smash the pride in their hearts. This throwing spear not only killed the strongest avatar that the God of Rot had cost a lot to produce but also destroyed almost all the confidence of the evil gods. If they didn¡¯t know that the God of Fear was looking at them from behind their backs, they would have escaped by now. After an urgent discussion, they decided to change their previous plan. They would no longer make provocations that might bring them trouble. They would honestly face the Void Mask. Anyway, they weren¡¯t really responsible for the fighting part of the battle. They knew this point, and Sui Xiong also knew that. ¡°What are those guys coming for?¡± Sui Xiong asked, sighing. Looking at the black clouds, he became speechless. His friends were silent for a while, and then Javier said, smiling, ¡°Maybe they come to put on a funny play to make us happy?¡± Sui Xiong laughed loudly, and everyone else laughed, too. ¡°But, the sky is so dark. It is not okay after all,¡± Sui Xiong said after laughing. ¡°I will have to try and see if I can dispel these black clouds.¡± After that, he waved his tentacles towards the air, and suddenly wind began to blow in the sky. The wind wasn¡¯t an ordinary wind that blew on the ground; it was a headwind that blew from the ground to the sky. An ordinary gust of wind would become weaker during the blow, but this wind would become more and more fierce. On the ground, it was just a cool breeze, but when it rushed into the sky, it became a storm with a loud noise. It seemed that the storm could sweep up the whole world. The evil gods who were hiding in the black clouds didn¡¯t expect that Sui Xiong would actually have such a skill, so they were suddenly in a difficult position. They tried to stabilize the black clouds, but they couldn¡¯t resist the storm that Sui Xiong had created with his Divine Power. The black clouds were blown away, almost falling apart. In the higher void, the God of Fear was looking at the scene, and he was slightly frowning. ¡°Wind Zone? He is so skillful!¡± he said to himself. ¡°It is not surprising that a jellyfish can control the power of the Water Zone to this point. But why is he so great in using Wind Zone?¡± Although he was curious, he couldn¡¯t watch his people fail and be blown away by Sui Xiong¡¯s storm. Therefore, he raised his finger, and black gas fell down into the black clouds. This black gas wasn¡¯t eye-catching, but when it encountered the black clouds, it stabilized them. The black clouds had been swayed by the storm, and they had barely been connected with the power of evil gods. It had almost collapsed. And now the clouds were completely stable. The storm blew up again, but the black clouds were swaying like water waves. They were able to resolve the wind power so that they wouldn¡¯t be blown away. Seeing this scene, Sui Xiong frowned. ¡°A powerful big god is in the sky,¡± he said. ¡°This skill isn¡¯t something that ordinary gods can do.¡± ¡°No matter how powerful he is, just come down and fight with us,¡± Morani said coldly. ¡°If he doesn¡¯t dare to show up, then what¡¯s the use of his powerful strength?¡± Sui Xiong smiled, nodding. He no longer cared about the blacker clouds in the sky, and he directly began to reunite the priesthood for the God of Healing in the light cocoon. Then, the light cocoon that originally radiated a slight white light shook gently. Every time it shook, its light was much brighter. Although the light was bright, it was not dazzling at all. It was soft to the extreme. When the light fell on the people¡¯s bodies, it felt like being touched by a piece of extremely silky silk; it was very nice. Wherever the white light arrived, the surrounding ground would begin to glow a warm green. Originally, this square had been covered with flat slates. At this moment, these slates gradually changed in the white light. The white color of the slates gradually faded, and they became grass green. This was the power of life, and life was precisely one of the areas that the God of Healing was best at. In the black clouds, the evil gods frowned. The God of Illness couldn¡¯t help but wave his hand, and a black gas suddenly spread out like a huge flower, smashing down to the ground. With this attack rushing down, the Divine Power boundary with the dragon ball as the core suddenly shook a few times. The strength of Cladema was far more powerful than that of the God of Illness, but the power of the dragon ball was limited by the magical array. The powerful strength was output stably and evenly in the whole boundary. The powerful strength was evenly distributed throughout the whole boundary, so it was much weaker when it was distributed. Under this attack, although it wasn¡¯t broken, it clearly revealed some weakness. The evil gods were old thugs, and they immediately saw the opportunity. There was no need to discuss it, and some gods immediately attacked together. At first, balls of green fire fell down, and the boundary stopped them. However, the fires didn¡¯t extinguish. They continued to burn in the air, weakening the power of the boundary. After that, lightning that was thicker than a person fell down. The lightning fell right in the same positions of the fires. Then ice covered with black mist smashed down towards the same positions. Three attacks fell down one by one. The entire boundary was generally stable, but the attacked portion began to shake violently, and it seemed to collapse completely. At this time, Morani looked at the sky with a dignified face. ¡°Watch out!¡± he couldn¡¯t help but remind Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong put most attention to the resurrection of the God of Healing, so his reaction was a little slower. Hearing the reminder, Sui Xiong looked up and saw that the black clouds were shaking, and gradually, a huge mountain showed up. That mountain was at least as big as the entire Void City. Its height, under the conservative estimation, was more than a kilometer. It was extremely steep. At this moment, it was totally reversed, with the bottom at the top and the top at the bottom. The steep mountain peak was like the tip of a nail, pointing directly to the Void City. ¡°Damn it!¡± Sui Xiong only said two words before he saw the mountain falling down to the ground. The Art of War by Sun Tzu said that the energy developed by good fighting men was as the momentum of a round stone rolling down a mountain thousands of feet in height. If a round stone rolled down from a 1,500-meter high mountain, then it would be extremely powerful. However, what if a mountain of more than a kilometer fell down from the clouds? Anyway, most of the gods on the ground looked worried. ¡°Let me!¡± After a yell, Leonard had jumped up before Sui Xiong reacted. Leonard turned into a huge giant in the air, wearing a lion¡¯s skin. The lion¡¯s head was his helmet. In his hand was an extremely huge shield, almost like a cloud covering the sky. With a loud scream, Leonard, who had turned into a giant, attacked the falling mountain with his shield. In a flash, the mountain and the shield had bumped together. The loud bang was shocking, and a strong wind swept across the sky in an instant. The huge mountain collapsed in his attack, turning into countless gravel. With the continuous noise, the gravel fell on the boundary which was guarding the Void City. They bounced off the boundary and finally fell around the city. At the foot of Leonard, colorful light kept flashing. Morani was supporting him with Divine Power, avoiding the aftermath of the violent bump falling to the ground to affect the ongoing resurrection ceremony. Although they had already pretended to ignore each other when they met, Morani was still the one who was most familiar with Leonard¡¯s fighting style. Morani could match Leonard¡¯s style with his spells so that Leonard could fight with confidence. After blocking the mountain with his attack, Leonard¡¯s body quickly became smaller and returned to its usual appearance. At this moment, his appearance was a bit miserable, full of burning, electric shock, and traces of ice. He had suffered numerous injuries, so even his spirit was a little down. Just now, he not only had blocked the falling mountain but also had suffered many other attacks. In order to ensure that the mountain could be blocked, he couldn¡¯t use much energy to resist other attacks, so he was heavily injured. However, Leonard only smiled. He didn¡¯t even groan. He just went straight to the side and recovered silently. As a heavy warrior who always rushed to the forefront in battles and acted as a shield for his comrades, he was not afraid of any attack. During Leonard¡¯s attack, Sui Xiong had been ready. At this moment, he screamed and attacked more violently than his previous throwing spear. With several light rays, his attacks were aimed directly towards the evil gods in the black clouds. The black clouds had the effect of shielding against the Divine Power. However, in the face of Sui Xiong, such a shield wasn¡¯t effective. The joint attacks of the evil gods had achieved some effects. Before they could cheer, Sui Xiong¡¯s counterattack arrived. Their strength wasn¡¯t as good as that of Sui Xiong, and they were a little distracted at this moment. Therefore, all of them got attacked, and no one could escape. Everyone got shot by a throwing spear. Their bodies were pierced, and countless white light was rushing out from their wounds. It was the positive energy that was strong enough to bring people back to life, and that was in conflict with their evil strength. In an instant, more than half of these evil gods fell down. If the God of Fear didn¡¯t save them immediately, Sui Xiong¡¯s attack would have killed all of them. Chapter 427 Chapter 427: Chapter 137 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio With only one attack, Sui Xiong had made the pioneers of the evil gods suffer huge losses. He had killed more than half of them. When those avatars were killed by the throwing spears one by one, their noumenons in the God¡¯s Kingdom knew immediately. Moreover, because they had poured so much power into the avatars, their faces became pale, and their bodies began to shake. They couldn¡¯t stand stably at all. However, few of these evil gods were angry or unwilling because of that. Most of them showed a relieved smile. ¡°We finally got through this!¡± An evil god slowly stepped back to his seat, lying softly in the chair. He said weakly, ¡°This was not easy!¡± In another God¡¯s Kingdom, an evil god who had been heavily injured was lying on the ground, gasping for air. His face was pale, but he was smiling happily. Why were such weird situations happening? The answer was because of the God of Fear. The leader of the alliance of the evil gods was a cold and stern guy. Whenever there was a large-scale military operation, his requirements for the participants were always strict. For him, there were only two kinds of subordinates: one that was brave and not afraid of death, and the other that was going to be executed. There was nothing else. When they had fought with the God of Brightness in the past, the God of Shadow had naturally been restrained. Therefore, he had retreated from the battle. As a result, the God of Fear had directly killed the God of Shadow after the war. He even hadn¡¯t given the God of Shadow the opportunity to explain himself. Of course, these evil gods didn¡¯t want to get killed after the war, but they didn¡¯t want to die in the war either. Therefore, the best way was to get injured and leave at the beginning of the battle when the fight was not too intense. However, it was an esoteric study about how to grasp the scale between ¡°getting injured and leaving¡± and ¡°getting injured and escaping.¡± Although these gods were mostly experienced nerds, they had to do their best to make it seem real. Just then, when Sui Xiong had shot the God of Rot at the beginning, if everyone had rushed in, then it would obviously show that they wanted to get seriously injured to be able to escape. If so, then they would likely be executed afterwards. So they had to wait until a suitable opportunity appeared, an opportunity to be beaten down fair and square. The reason why they teamed up to attack Void City was also the same. Both Sui Xiong and the God of Fear knew that these guys who took the lead didn¡¯t have the ability to cause much trouble to Sui Xiong. That could be seen from their deities. A group of weak Divine Powers couldn¡¯t bring any trouble to Sui Xiong. After all, Sui Xiong had killed two powerful mid-level Divine Powers, the God of Storm and the God of Ocean. And he had also defeated the Master of Mystery. It would be strange if they could succeed! However, in any case, it was absolutely necessary for them to find an opportunity to get out of the battle. If they didn¡¯t find an opportunity temporarily, then they would create an opportunity on their own! The opportunity before had been created by themselves. Joining hands to attack the boundary was the plan in order to force Sui Xiong¡¯s side to attack. After Leonard had attacked, they had turned to attack Leonard to irritate Sui Xiong. They were experienced. As long as they acted like this, the enemies would get angry. As long as the enemies were angry, the enemies would launch fierce attacks. In this way, they could be seriously injured and leave the battle. Moreover, they could test the enemies¡¯ ability for the God of Fear. It was the best method to leave for good reasons. It turned out that their ¡°best method¡± was really effective. The irritated Sui Xiong had made a fierce attack. If the God of Fear hadn¡¯t saved them, all the pioneer gods in the black clouds would be killed. Now, the gods whose avatars had died on the battlefield had left with glory. They were totally relieved. And the gods whose avatars had escaped from the attack were secretly swearing. They complained that the action of the God of Fear had been so fast, and the Void Mask hadn¡¯t been efficient enough. If they didn¡¯t leave when the battle wasn¡¯t very fierce, they would really fall when their noumenons attended the battle. However, before they finished their complaints in their hearts, Sui Xiong began to sneer. His tentacles drew a rune in the air. He shouted, ¡°Explosion!¡± With this loud shout, those throwing spears that he had shot before suddenly burst into flames. They exploded. That was beyond the expectations of all the enemies. Even the God of Fear hadn¡¯t expected that. He hurriedly reacted, but there was no time. His subordinates who took the lead were wrapped in a ball of dazzling white light. Suddenly, they exploded into ashes. A big hole even appeared in the black clouds because of the explosion. Sunshine fell through the big hole. It was like a column of light, falling to the center of Void City. It precisely fell on the light cocoon which was holding the God of Healing. Sui Xiong had killed all the pioneers of the enemies with that attack. He yelled towards the sky, ¡°If you want to bring me trouble, then come out by yourself! Do you think it is useful to rely on these running dogs to take the lead?¡± Hearing his yell, the God of Fear felt humiliated. He was the King God of the great Divine Powers, the leader of the alliance of evil gods. When had he been challenged like this? Well, it seemed that he was often challenged. Some bachelor god who was going to starve to death on the roadside never cared about that. He often challenged him with a face of poverty and despair. After thinking about it, he found that the damn bachelor god was the sworn brother of this big jellyfish. It was no wonder that he inherited the style of his elder brother. They never respected the God of Fear. Of course, the God of Fear would never know that he didn¡¯t deserve their respect. If he were the Dragon of Chaos, both Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman would respect him. All in all, the God of Fear was angry now. What happened when he was angry? Of course, he would attack! The rumbling of thunder suddenly appeared above the high sky. A purple-black electric light cut the sky, straight down towards Void City. This was a serious attack from the God of Fear, a great Divine Power. It was so powerful that it almost touched the limits that the Main Plane could bear. The thunder hadn¡¯t landed yet, but the sky had been pierced through. Numerous clouds suddenly turned into black storms, and the storms were blowing around. After the thunder came closer, the storms condensed into a dark tornado, extending towards the ground like a funnel. In the Big Competition Field of Void City, Sui Xiong¡¯s friends all had dignified faces. More than a few of them were prepared to fight. However, the first attack was launched by Sui Xiong. He jumped up, and his battle avatar suddenly turned into an extremely long silver spear. It rushed to the black lightning directly. There was no earth-shatteringly loud noise. There was just a heart-shattering sound. The sound started from the top of the spear and extended to the end of the spear. The wonderful thing was that at this time, everyone discovered that the end of the spear had a dozen tentacles that were spreading out on all sides. The tentacles reached far out of Void City, nailing to the ground in the distance. The black electric light spread along the spear and eventually flowed into the earth, disappearing without a trace. When the electric light disappeared completely, the spear transformed in the air and turned back to a jellyfish. However, at the moment, Sui Xiong was very different from his usual appearance. His body was smoky, and a suspicious scent of barbecue came from the wind. It smelt like roasted squid. ¡°Eh-hem, eh-hem!¡± Sui Xiong coughed a few times. He flew back, whispering, ¡°This guy is really powerful! I feel like I am almost cooked!¡± ¡°Not ¡®almost cooked,¡¯ you are ¡®already cooked.''¡± Javier poked Sui Xiong¡¯s body with his finger, smiling bitterly. He only used a little power, but his fingertip poked easily into Sui Xiong¡¯s smoky body. ¡°Ninety percent cooked. If we brush you with sauce, we can start to eat you now.¡± Chapter 428 Chapter 428: Chapter 138 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Fear proved himself to be a great Divine Power, the leader of the alliance of the evil gods, and a strong god who was called the Master of Fear. When he was serious, with a single attack he could seriously injure Sui Xiong¡¯s battle avatar, even though that avatar was condensed with a lot of power. The skin of that avatar was almost ninety percent cooked. More importantly, after that attack, the God of Fear found a huge weakness of Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong cared about Void City! The God of Fear was an evil god, so he was extremely selfish. Unlike him, Sui Xiong was a kind god. He had very deep feelings for Void City because he had worked so hard on it for many years. Unless he had to give it up, he would guard Void City and protect the residents and the buildings here. In the eyes of the God of Fear, that was a very significant weakness. As an evil god, he certainly thought that gods should be selfish. They shouldn¡¯t be too concerned about outside objects, and what were outside objects? Everything except themselves! For example: believers, churches, temples, and holy cities. For an evil god, as long as he felt it was necessary, everything could be abandoned. Because of that, evil gods rarely had priesthoods like ¡°Guardians.¡± They wouldn¡¯t guard anything except themselves. The God of Fear was the representative of the evil gods, so of course, he had the same opinion. At this moment, Sui Xiong would rather get seriously injured to completely resolve the God of Fear¡¯s attack because he wanted to avoid damaging Void City. Seeing that scene, the God of Fear couldn¡¯t help but laugh loudly. ¡°Although you have some ability, you¡¯re still too inexperienced!¡± the God of Fear roared. After laughing, he raised his black scepter high. The scepter of the God of Fear was shaped like a big two-handed sword. In fact, it was indeed a two-handed sword called the ¡°Annihilator,¡± a famous, powerful artifact known all over the world. For the God of Fear, few enemies would make him wear his robe and fight with his big sword. In most cases, he used that sword as a scepter. The Annihilator naturally wasn¡¯t forged for use as a scepter. Therefore, as a scepter, its effect was very ordinary. It could only slightly enhance the power of the spells cast by the God of Fear. But that was enough. The powerful leader of the alliance of the evil gods didn¡¯t need to rely on outside objects to strengthen his power. He was powerful enough. For example, now, he only lifted his ¡°scepter.¡± He sent out purple-black lightning almost the same as the previous one. In fact, the lightning was exactly the same. He didn¡¯t use more power, not even a little more. He knew that such an attack would be dispelled by the Void Mask, but it didn¡¯t matter. Resolving such an attack was a heavy burden for the jellyfish, so the jellyfish would get seriously injured. That would be enough. Take it slow. The great Master of Fear wasn¡¯t in a hurry. As expected, that lightning was dispelled by Sui Xiong just the same. It couldn¡¯t hurt anything in Void City. However, before Sui Xiong could take a break, the third lightning strike had come. ¡°Damn it! You are so mean!¡± Sui Xiong was so angry, but he could do anything about that. He could only turn into the ¡°spear¡± again, in other words, the lightning rod, to release the power of the lightning. This time, he could smell the barbecued scent of his own body. Seeing that Sui Xiong was being attacked helplessly, Morani frowned. He thought, This is not gonna work. ¡­ In the sanctuary of the God¡¯s Kingdom, Morani, the Steel Lion, the Half-Orc Warrior, the God of Forging, stepped out of his workshop and went to the arsenal. He put on the artifacts that he had built over the years, preparing for a fight. ¡°What are you doing?¡± a voice asked. He was fully armed, neat and tidy. Before he left, he was seen by Wall, the God of Knowledge and Education. Wall was walking around in the sanctuary and looked really worried. Wall knew the meaning of Morani at a glance, so he asked Morani in surprise. Of course, Wall asked while knowing the answer, so Morani didn¡¯t answer him. Morani just looked around and determined the direction of the God of Fear. He had a golden electric light at his feet and was going to fly over there. Wall quickly rushed over and stopped him. ¡°You will die! Your Majesty!¡± ¡°Not as serious as death,¡± Morani said, smiling. ¡°If I can¡¯t defeat him, I¡¯ll run away. I¡¯m not a fool.¡± ¡°Are you sure you can run away at that time?¡± Wall asked. Morani was speechless. He was silent for a while and then shook his head. He said, smiling, ¡°To be honest, I¡¯m not very sure.¡± ¡°Since you are not sure, why bother to take risks?¡± ¡°I have to do something!¡± Morani answered, sighing. ¡°If it goes on like this, Auscar can¡¯t hold out for too long!¡± Hearing what Morani had said, Wall didn¡¯t panic. Instead, he laughed. ¡°Your Majesty, the Steel Lion! You are looking down upon my master!¡± Wall said. ¡°Although usually, my master looks sloppy, in fact, his mind is very clear at the important moments. If he really can¡¯t hold on, he will definitely ask for help from his friends. In other words, since he hasn¡¯t spoken yet, he can still hold on.¡± Morani frowned. After thinking about it carefully for a while, he felt that Wall¡¯s words seemed to make sense. Therefore, he temporarily dismissed the intention to go to fight against the God of Fear. However, he didn¡¯t put his weapons and armor away. He was still fully armed, ready to fight. He always felt that his friend might need his help today, so it was better to be prepared in advance to avoid getting there too late. Wall convinced Morani, but he himself was not at ease. It was very obvious that the Void Mask definitely couldn¡¯t defeat the God of Fear. Sooner or later, the Void Mask would need help. Wall had always prided himself as the No.1 fierce fighter in the Church of Void Mask. However, at this time, he found that he was still too weak after all. He couldn¡¯t do anything to help at the important times, so he was very upset. However, it took time to improve the deity and accumulate Divine Power. In just a few decades, he had grown to a low-level Divine Power. His speed of progress had been amazing, but he still needed a long time to be able to participate in a battle among the mid-level Divine Powers or even among the great Divine Powers. In accordance with the most optimistic estimates, he still needed at least 100 more years to enter the level of mid-level Divine Powers. At that time, he would be able to fight in a battle like today¡¯s. Of course, he would fight now. For example, he could act as cannon fodder to bait the enemy. However, he was very clear that the Void Mask didn¡¯t need any cannon fodder. The Void Mask wouldn¡¯t allow him to do that. Therefore, he could only wait silently, restraining all the anxieties and worries in his heart. The enemies wouldn¡¯t only be the God of Fear. Sooner or later, other enemies would appear. Someday, he would have the opportunity to fight for His Majesty! ¡­ Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know what was happening in the sanctuary. He was so busy that he couldn¡¯t notice those unimportant things. The God of Fear wasn¡¯t in a hurry. Lightning fell down one after another. Sui Xiong had to use his full strength to resolve each one so that he could protect Void City from the aftermath. The attack of the great Divine Power was really powerful. If he couldn¡¯t completely resolve them, a small aftermath would cause serious casualties. At the same time, he had to draw energy to promote the resurrection of the God of Healing. It was not an easy task to do two things at the same time, especially when the two things were difficult. More than once, he wanted to ask his friends for help. He knew that as long as he asked, his friends would definitely help him. The reason why they didn¡¯t act was because it seemed that he could hold out. However, every time, he dismissed his idea of asking for help. The God of Fear was indeed very powerful, and the situation was indeed a bit terrible. However, he could still hold out a bit longer. Not only could he hold on, in this dangerous situation, he also felt that he was growing again. He was improving the control of his power gradually. He felt that he gradually understood the power of the purple-black lightning from the God of Fear. Perhaps after a while, he could not only resolve the lightning but also could swallow them and could bounce them back! At that time, the reaction of the God of Fear would be very interesting. Only for that moment would he work hard to persist. It was the most enjoyable thing in the world to step on the faces of those arrogant people! Chapter 429 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Over the sky of Void City, the purple-black lightning was constantly flashing, but they always fell on a giant silver-white lightning rod. Even though they had infinite power, they could only be guided by it to fall into the ground far from Void City. They couldn¡¯t cause any harms. Beyond the Main Plane, the God of Fear was still sending out lightning bolts one by one. He wasn¡¯t in a hurry. He didn¡¯t care whether the God of Healing could be resurrected. She had just been a mid-level Divine Power in her peak period. Whether she was resurrected or not, she was not qualified to be noticed by him. His current goal was to defeat the Void Mask to terrorize the gods. If he didn¡¯t stop the resurrection of the God of Healing, the evil gods who were restrained by the God of Healing would be dissatisfied, but so what? As a great leader, a conqueror and a ruler, he didn¡¯t care whether his subordinates were dissatisfied. He only cared if they obeyed him or not. Dissatisfied? It didn¡¯t matter. He just needed them to obey him. As for how to make his subordinates obey, the God of Fear was very good at that. Therefore, he wasn¡¯t in a hurry now. He just sent out lightning bolts casually. He even took out his wine set and poured wine for himself to drink quite leisurely. On the ground, Sui Xiong was struggling to support himself. He was resolving the power of the God of Fear, promoting the resurrection of the God of Healing and analyzing the essence of the power of the God of Fear. It was really hard to do those three things at the same time. However, it was strange that he gradually adapted to it. Gradually, it was easy for him to do those three things at the same time as if he could do that from the beginning. ¡°Damn! It¡¯s true that pressure is power! It turns out that I am so powerful!¡± Sui Xiong gave himself a compliment and continued to get busy. After a while, he felt that the pressure of the purple-black lightning on him was gradually decreasing. He also studied and analyzed the power of the God of Fear contained in the lightning. It was about time that he could try to fight back. However, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t rush. He continued to pretend to struggle while secretly dividing more energy to deal with the resurrection of the God of Healing. After a while, the situation remained the same. The God of Fear gradually began to frown, feeling that something was wrong. The big jellyfish turned into a silver-white spear as he was shocked by the lightning again and again. As expected, Sui Xiong should be seriously injured and shouldn¡¯t be able to support the lightning anymore. His avatar should have completely collapsed, so why could he still support it? The God of Fear was clear about how powerful his lightning bolts were. According to his estimations, the Void Mask should have been unable to hold out against it. Why is this happening? He was a little puzzled, but he didn¡¯t stop the lightning. Have I misjudged the power of the jellyfish? He thought so, trying to increase the power of the lightning. With that increase, Sui Xiong immediately felt that the pressure increased, but it didn¡¯t increase to the point that he couldn¡¯t stand it. What the hell! What is the God of Fear doing? He suddenly increased his strength? He isn¡¯t afraid of triggering the guardian system of the Main Plane? The system can blow him to ashes with just some lightning. Sui Xiong was puzzled, but he still had to perform well. The power of the lightning increased, so he tried to pretend that it was more difficult for him to bear it. It seemed that in the next moment, he would be completely defeated. However, his acting was really bad. Even his friends found out what was happening. Only a few seconds later, Sui Xiong heard the voice of Manissy. She said, ¡°You have revealed yourself! We all know that you are pretending!¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. Just when Sui Xiong was going to react, the God of Fear was so angry that he took out a scimitar artifact and threw it down like a flying knife. This knife was so fast, even faster than the purple-black lightning. Sui Xiong was stabbed through the chest before he noticed it. The power of this knife was also amazingly strong. The avatar of Sui Xiong who had turned into a giant lightning rod was completely penetrated. His avatar couldn¡¯t stop the knife. It even broke through the Divine Power boundary of Void City and went straight to the ground of Void City. Fortunately, it was already a spent bullet. Morani caught it easily. The scimitar fell on his hand, making a squeaking sound. It was shaking as it flew up to the sky. However, Morani smiled. He slightly touched the blade, and the sharp edge cut his palm, causing blood to flow. He rubbed his hand up and down the knife, smearing his blood on the blade. The scimitar had wanted to fly away, but now it quieted down. It was laying in his hand motionlessly. Morani finally had the chance to observe it carefully. After a glance, he couldn¡¯t help but compliment, ¡°Good knife!¡± ¡°Why are you only looking at the knife? I¡¯ve been stabbed!¡± Sui Xiong said, protesting. ¡°Because I know you are fine,¡± Morani said with a smile. ¡°I earned a free artifact, and it is good quality. Nice.¡± Sui Xiong smiled, agreeing with Morani. Although it was a bit painful to get stabbed, he had won some time and had mastered some of the God of Fear¡¯s power. Finally, his friend had received such an artifact. Sui Xiong also felt that he earned a lot. In contrast, the God of Fear was extremely angry. He hadn¡¯t thought about it just now, so he had picked up an artifact and threw it down. The artifact had originally been owned by him, so he could call it back. However, he hadn¡¯t expected that Morani would have the priesthood of Forging. With the power of his priesthood and using his own blood as the medium, Morani had suddenly seized ownership of the artifact. The imprint left by the God of Fear on the artifact was completely erased. Now, this scimitar was the property of Morani. Even if the God of Fear was angry, he couldn¡¯t change that fact. However, the wrath of the God of Fear was definitely not so easy to deal with. The leader of the alliance of the evil gods waved his hand. Black gas was surging around them. A lot of Oracles appeared wearing ferocious armor and ghost-like face masks. They were flying in line into the Main Plane and rushed to the direction of Void City. At the same time, the void not far behind him was shaking. Some evil gods of the mid-level powers were looming, waiting for his orders. The God of Fear wasn¡¯t a good-tempered god. If he suffered a loss, he would use the blood of his enemies to calm his anger! However, before the leading Oracles arrived at Void City, the light cocoon on the platform at the center of the competition field of Void City suddenly began to shine. A white light rose into the sky, turning into a white beam of light and thrusting into the clouds. At the same time, all the gods felt the vibration of the origin of the world. Not only that, all the evil gods, who had felt the crisis before, felt a very strong crisis once again, especially the God of Plague; he even found that his priesthood was being weakened. Even though he consumed a lot of Divine Power, he couldn¡¯t stop the decline of his deity. ¡­ Weird! The Master God of the Orc God System, Sky Devourer Canine, Lefon frowned. Why is the vibration of the origin of the world so strong? How can there be such a big reaction when only a God of Healing is being resurrected? ¡­ Wuther, the Master God of the Human God System, the God of Light, was sitting on the throne. His eyes lit up and looked at Void City thoughtfully. ¡­ In the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Natural God System, two master gods, the God of Sky and Goddess Gaia had been walking together. Now, they stopped at the same time. The God of Sky frowned because he felt a little bit confused. However, Goddess Gaia smiled. She whispered a few words to him. ¡°Good means!¡± the God of Sky said, nodding and smiling. He suddenly realized what had happened. ¡­ ¡°Two gods! Two gods are becoming gods together!¡± the God of Strategy said, being determined. ¡°The location of another god is just below the God of Healing! Sui Xiong is using the God of Healing as a disguise to attract attention to cover for another god!¡± ¡°Which god is that?¡± the God of War asked in a low voice. ¡°Not sure, but it is definitely in the direction of healing!¡± the Goddess of War and Death said, frowning. She was also restrained by the priesthood of Healing. ¡°I feel it. From this moment on, the death in wars will be significantly reduced!¡± ¡­ Similar questions appeared in the hearts and out of the mouths of the gods, but no one could give them an exact answer. The next moment, from the vibration of the origin of the world, everyone knew the answer. The new-born God was the God of Medicine. He would use medical skills instead of spells to treat injuries and illness. He would promote the popularization of medicine. He would train doctors, improve medical and ambulance systems, treat diseases, prevent infections, and prevent the spread of epidemics such as the plague. The power of the god was far more powerful and comprehensive than the God of Healing. He would restrain the evil gods such as the God of Plague, and his restraint was far stronger than that of the God of Healing too. For a moment, countless evil gods frowned, and countless good gods smiled. There was no doubt that the birth of the God of Medicine would cast a heavy weight on the balance of the powers between the good gods and the evil gods! Chapter 430 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the secret underground room below the competition field of Void City, the communication avatar of Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Though he is a fox, he still drinks my foot-washing water!¡± He deserved to be proud. This time, he had changed his style of being a berserker. He had used tricks to deceive the gods. Arcaian had become a god without any disturbances. It was a victory of wisdom. Both the evil gods and the good gods had been attracted by the ¡°resurrection of the God of Healing¡± on the surface. Whether chaos or assistance had been launched around this core, no gods had noticed the secret room nearby or Arcaian who had become a god in the secret room. Sui Xiong¡¯s noumenon had shielded them from being detected, so all the gods could only see the God of Healing on the platform. As for the other places around them, nothing seemed weird. In fact, no god could detect what was buried underneath the noumenon of Sui Xiong because no one expected Sui Xiong to place Arcaian there. In a sense, Arcaian became a god directly in the face of all the other gods. The so-called ¡°darkness under the lamp will usually be ignored¡± referred to this situation. In this method, he had succeeded in fooling everyone. Of course, his good acting skills had also been a factor. After all, he had been attacked and was fully cooked from inside to out. No one would have thought that he was playing tricks. There was a common saying that said, ¡°If honest people tell lies, they will be more horrible than ordinary deceivers.¡± In the past, Sui Xiong might not have been an honest person, but he wasn¡¯t a fool either. However, in the eyes of others, he was a person who wasn¡¯t tricky. Therefore, when he played tricks, the effect was particularly good. It was a pity that the effect was only good for the first time. He would be mistrusted in the future. However, Sui Xiong thought about it, and he felt that it wasn¡¯t necessarily a bad thing. From then on, when enemies fought against him, they would have to draw some energy and manpower to guard against his possible tricks and traps. It was the same as weakening their power. In this way, perhaps his enemies would lose the battles that they would originally win. As for the battles that his enemies would originally lose, they would lose them more quickly. As for the battles that Sui Xiong would definitely lose, in this way, he might find an opportunity for him to escape. Well, um, very good, very good! Thinking about that, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh again. Arcaian, the new God of Medicine, was also laughing at the moment. He had estimated all kinds of possibilities, conceiving the dangers that he might encounter when he became a god. He had even thought about the possibility of failing to be a god and dying because of that. However, he had never thought that things would go so smoothly. He hadn¡¯t encountered any dangers or obstacles at all. He had become a god easily without any dangers. ¡°Really¡­ incredible!¡± he said. Recalling the past, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh. ¡°Almost twenty years ago, I could only do small experiments covertly. I was a fugitive who was always worried about being arrested by Lord Orc Judge. But now, I am already a real god, a respectable and good god. That¡¯s incredible!¡± ¡°The fate of a person must depend on self-strengthening, but a person should also consider history,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°I once knew a guy. He always muttered, ¡®I¡¯m destined to be alone in my life.¡¯ In a short period of three or four months, he had a sweetheart and got married. His friends were surprised, so they asked him why he was so fast. He just answered with that.¡± ¡°Who was that person?¡± Arcaian asked curiously. ¡°He is¡­ a friend who I have never met face to face before. Probably, I won¡¯t ever meet him in the future, either.¡± Arcaian was stunned. He wisely chose not to ask Sui Xiong again. ¡°Humans never know that they can¡¯t estimate themselves,¡± Sui Xiong said, looking up to the sky. ¡°I was a good warehouse keeper and a good part-time illustrator. How could I travel here to become a god? If possible, please choose another one instead of me. I am not modest. The god thing doesn¡¯t work for me!¡± Those things were said in Mandarin, so even if Arcaian was a god, he couldn¡¯t understand what Sui Xiong said. The gods in this world had the special ability to automatically master all languages, but all languages didn¡¯t include languages on earth. After all, the law of this world didn¡¯t contain the contents of the earth. Without the support of the law, the ability of the gods to understand languages wouldn¡¯t work. After sighing, Sui Xiong asked Arcaian to slowly get familiar with and master the power of being a god, and Sui Xiong got busy with another thing. Just after Arcaian became a god successfully, with the stimulation of the aftermath, the God of Healing was finally resurrected. The light cocoon had cost Sui Xiong countless time, energy, and Divine Power. Now, it gradually became transparent, and the original chaos in the light cocoon gradually became clear. Finally, it turned into a human figure. Like a person waking up, the human figure slowly stood up and stretched. After the stretch, the light cocoon had disappeared completely. A cute girl with soft, short hair was standing there wearing a fitted, long dress. This girl¡¯s appearance was beautiful. She didn¡¯t have the charm like the old Love Angel. The old Love Angel¡¯s charm could make people feel uneasy. However, now, she had an apparently undeveloped figure. Except for some perverts, no one would be tempted by her. However, what attracted everyone¡¯s attention was her temperament. It was peaceful to the extreme, so she was somewhat indifferent. After waking up, she did not speak. She just looked around and went straight to the place where Sui Xiong¡¯s friends gathered. She stood behind the avatar that was almost fully cooked, and at the same time, a white light flashed on her hand. The radiance of healing spells shrouded the avatar of Sui Xiong. She proved herself to be the God of Healing. Her spells were amazingly powerful. After only one or two breaths, the avatar that had been almost fully cooked had returned to normal. Even the traces of burns on his body were gone. It seemed that the previous sufferings had never even happened. ¡°Awesome! Awesome!¡± Javier said, giving a thumbs-up. ¡°This is the most powerful healing spell I have ever seen! Even the Love Angel in the past couldn¡¯t be as great as you.¡± The God of Healing turned to Javier. She glanced at him without any expression and didn¡¯t answer him. Javier didn¡¯t expect that she would react like that, so he couldn¡¯t help but feel awkward. Fortunately, he had a thick skin. He had experienced a lot of such situations, so he naturally had ways to cope with it. He talked about another topic while laughing, and no one cared about his previous embarrassing statement. Since then, when other gods talked to the God of Healing, the newly resurrected goddess kept silent as if she couldn¡¯t speak. She was so calm as if she had face paralysis. She gave a cold look to anyone without saying a word. After Sui Xiong¡¯s noumenon flew back and merged with the avatar, Javier couldn¡¯t help but speak to him. He asked, ¡°Did something go wrong when you resurrected her? For example, did you forget to give her a throat?¡± Sui Xiong was silent, and then he asked, ¡°Do gods have to use throats to talk?¡± ¡°Seems not,¡± Javier answered, confused. He just came to his senses, licking his lips. It seemed that he was very curious now. The curiosity was killing him. If he had enough time, he would definitely chat with the God of Healing shamelessly until she said something. A ¡°go away¡± was also okay! However, this was not the time to chat. Beyond the Main Plane, the God of Fear was so angry that he even laughed. He had already made up his mind. Waving his big sword, an avatar came out of his body and stepped into the Main Plane. ¡°Let me see how powerful this jellyfish is!¡± Chapter 431 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Fear had planned to send the Oracle army to cooperate with his followers in the attack, for that would bring pressure on the Void Mask and force his friends to come help him in the fight. However, at this moment, the God of Fear realized that he had been cheated by the jellyfish, and that made him so angry that he went crazy. He directly used the most powerful weapon¡ªhis own Battle Clone. The God of Fear was a great Divine Power, so his Battle Clone was almost at the peak of mid-level Divine Power; that was naturally beyond the Power Limit of Main Plane. That was to say, his Battle Clone was supposed to be detected by the Goddess of Life¡¯s boundary as soon as it entered the Main Plane, and then it would be destroyed by a lightning bolt. This kind of funny thing had occurred several times when the boundary was first built. After so many years, the gods had finally found the solution to it. Although it couldn¡¯t completely solve the problem, at least it could solve a part of it. The first way was to send the clone that had less power than the limit of the boundary. It was the most common way¡ªsafe, reliable and without any side effects. But it was not available at this time since a less powerful clone couldn¡¯t win against the Void Mask in a fight. The gods realized that the Jellyfish God, Auscar or the Void Mask, seemed not to be limited by the Goddess of Life¡¯s boundary, and his power was not constrained even though it was beyond the limit of the boundary. That made him almost invincible in the Main Plane. On the premise of the Power Limit of the Main Plane, no matter how powerful a god originally was, it was definitely impossible for his clone to defeat Sui Xiong in a fight. The second way was to tolerate it and take no action. Sometimes, tolerance could bring a peaceful life and withdrawal could win the larger space. The world was so big that there were a lot of beautiful and pleasant things to do, so why should they keep negativity in mind? Certainly, that would not work, either. The God of Fear was unwilling to tolerate anything. Moreover, even for the sake of his face, he could not tolerate it. Thus, there was only the last option left. That was to send the powerful clone, and separate its surrounding area from the Main Plane and turn this area into a temporary God¡¯s Kingdom. Thus, it could pass the judgment of the boundary and allow the clone to fight in the Main Plane freely. But in this way, it would cause an amazing consumption of Divine Power. Unless there was a really deep hatred, no god would choose this way to break through the Power Limit of the Main Plane. However, for the God of Fear, there was indeed a deep hatred between the Void Mask and him! The power of the God of Fear came from humans¡¯ fear. Since he had few followers, he couldn¡¯t get enough support for being a great Divine Power relying on his followers¡¯ belief. Therefore, he was keen on spreading fear in the human world and tirelessly portraying his image as a powerful, mysterious and unpredictable god whom nobody could fight against or escape from. This would strengthen his horrible image among the people. For a long time, it had been a successful way to create a horrible image for him. People felt scared even when he was just mentioned in their talks. It had won him a lot of power of belief from the humans. It had also helped him move forward and finally step into the realm of a great Divine Power and become the leader of the evil gods. But this was also a double-edged sword. Once his horrible image was broken, it would easily make him lose his influence among the people. That did not mean that people did not fear him anymore, but they would just treat him as an ordinary god rather than the unpreceded God of Fear. So the God of Fear couldn¡¯t tolerate any failures, especially failure in a large-scale battle. Then why was there such deep hatred between Yorgaardman and him? The key reason was that Yorgaardman had defeated him once before and that severely damaged the God of Fear¡¯s image. Now, if he and the evil gods were defeated by the Void Mask and his allies, his image would be damaged again, and things would be worse since they were fighting in front of countless people in the Main Plane this time! So the God of Fear couldn¡¯t withdraw. He had no choice. Around the powerful Battle Clone, the purple and black gas spread to a large area, temporarily separating a large space from the Main Plane and transforming it into a God¡¯s Kingdom. In this way, the clone of the God of Fear stepped into the Main Plane with countless powerful Oracles around it. In this temporary God¡¯s Kingdom, there were several clones of other gods behind it, and they were ready to fight as well. Sui Xiong stared at the sky, seeing them come closer and closer. ¡°There are a lot of them,¡± he said. ¡°Yes, they almost cover the sky and the ground.¡± Javier sighed. ¡°It hasn¡¯t been a long time since the Sun¡¯s Death Day! How could a terrible war between Oracles in the human world break out so soon again!¡± ¡°We can¡¯t do anything about it since we are not the one who started it,¡± Morani said carelessly. In the lights floating around him, many strong Half-Orcs came out wearing armor and holding tomahawks in their hands. They were Morani¡¯s Oracles, the powerful creatures named the Armored Lion Soldiers. Then, the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, summoned her Oracles. They were a group of children. With their entire bodies glimmering, it seemed that they were made of gold. Although they were small in size, they were not weak at all. The Goddess of Ocean, Ariel, sighed slightly. It had not been long since she became a god, so she didn¡¯t have an army of Oracles now. As for others, such as Javier, their Oracles were either scarce in number or weak in power, so it didn¡¯t matter whether they sent them to help in the war or not. In the sky and on the ground, two huge Oracle armies were confronting each other, and a large-scale war was going to break out at any moment. Sui Xiong suddenly laughed. ¡°Do they want to win me in the number of Oracles?¡± he sneered and asked. ¡°I remember one of my seniors said that in social adventures, one would have great advantages if he had more money, more weapons, and more friends. The God of Fear, how can he be so confident about having more Oracles than I do?¡± As soon as he finished his words, the giant jellyfish¡¯s body became swollen suddenly, bigger than the entire Void City, and then he breathed deeply into the sky. His breath was as red as fire, and it turned the sky into a burning red in less than a second. Countless bodies vaguely showed up in the roaring flame. ¡°Burning Army, go and smash them!¡± With that order, countless half-human, half-fish Oracles appeared in the flame. They roared and rushed to the army of the God of Fear. Sui Xiong had never planned to fight with the enemy within Void City because it had cost him several decades¡¯ effort to build it. Every building, even every blade of grass and tree there had cost him, and he didn¡¯t want them to be destroyed by the enemy! So he chose to take the initiative to attack! Do you want to defeat me in the number of Oracles? Alright! I can create Oracles through various kinds of power, and I¡¯m not scared of a large-scale battle. His Oracles created from mass production were different from others¡¯. They were a kind of purely modular creature that could be reshaped even if they were smashed as long as there was appropriate energy around them. This process did not even need his Divine Power, but its efficiency was amazingly high. And this time, he chose fire as the power. War and fire always went hand in hand. Thus, the only thing he had to do was to set a fire blazing constantly. As long as the flame burned hot enough and the sea of fire was wide enough, the number of his Oracles that could be created would be too many for the enemy to bear. He was confident about this! Chapter 432 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The war between the Oracles started in the sea of fire in the sky. Countless Oracles fought in completely different ways. Some of them wore black Whole-Body Armor and held swords in both hands. On the thick and heavy armor were sharp horns, and nobody knew whether they were for decoration or for fighting. The handle of the sword was set with a skeleton. If one listened carefully, one could hear the skeleton still howling. These were the Oracles of the God of Fear, and they were simply called Fear Messengers or Fear Knights. Although they didn¡¯t have specific mounts, they were able to fly, using the air as their mounts. They looked clumsy, but in fact, they were very flexible and powerful. Being powerful was the most important thing. They were powerful enough to fight against those giant beasts at the legendary level, and they were fast enough to avoid those arrows shot by powerful crossbows. Although they didn¡¯t know excellent martial arts, they had made up for that with their appropriate magic talent. If it was necessary, these seemingly armored knights were also able to use magic. Although the number of their spells was small, they knew almost all kinds of magic. Whether they wanted to attack, defend, move, strengthen their power or weaken that of the enemy, there had enough spells available to them. That was more than enough. For the ones that got involved in war, most of the spells mastered by professional mages were meaningless to them. It didn¡¯t mean that these spells were useless, but they were just not needed, especially when they had Divine Power. They could get what they wanted with Divine Power, and that made many unpopular spells meaningless. These Oracles were able to increase their strength, speed, and ability of attack and defense, and they could also directly use magic to attack their enemies from long-distance. Moreover, they could unite together and cast some powerful combined spells. That was certainly enough. At least they could use more spells than Sui Xiong¡¯s mass-produced Oracles. To be honest, Sui Xiong¡¯s Oracles were weaker. Compared to these Fear Messengers, even the most powerful mass-produced Oracles were weaker. As for the weakest, destroyer-type Oracles, they would be just cannon fodder if they met the Fear Messengers. They would be killed as easily as cutting vegetables. But Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care. If there was a gap in power, he could make up for it with a larger number of Oracles. The mass-produced Oracles were originally a kind of military force that won the fight through their sheer quantity. As long as the advantage of quantity could make up for the disadvantage of power, there would be no problem. Judging from the current situation, it might work. Sui Xiong did not intend to study carefully how terrible the frontline battles were when the two sides met; instead, he paid close attention to the demarcation line between the red sea of fire and the black cloud. Since the meeting of the two sides, the demarcation line had almost remained in the same place without moving. That was good. Sui Xiong was quite satisfied. More importantly, he could clearly feel that the dark cloud of the other side consuming great amounts of Divine Power every second, and so was the revival of their dead Oracles. Compared to that, the consumption of Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power was much less because he just needed to light the fire in the sky and draw magic power from other places to supply him; that was all. The distribution of magic power in the Main Plane was wonderful. The magic concentration at sea level was the lowest, and then it increased gradually from there. At this moment, they were fighting in the sky, so the concentration of magic power was quite high. Thus, Sui Xiong just needed to dispatch some magic power from nearby, and that would be enough to support the burning of the fire. As for the mass-produced Oracles, they were not supported by Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power. Instead, they were created by the power of the fire. After their deaths in the fight, their remains would be collected back in the fire and become the source of the production of more Oracles. The sea of fire was like a cruel and rigorous war machine, constantly producing tools then recycling the damaged tools into raw materials for the further production of new ones. The fire collected not only those dead mass-produced Oracles but also some dead Fear Messengers. Although not large in number, there were indeed some Fear Messengers swallowed by the fire after death. They were transformed into energy for the mass-produced Oracles. Because of that, Sui Xiong knew something about how the God of Fear created his Oracles and the secret behind it. To be honest, Sui Xiong was somewhat disappointed. The Fear Messengers were shoddily made without any amazingly exquisite feelings. They were designed based on the legendary priests, and their physical fitness was slightly enhanced. The God of Fear eliminated most of the unnecessary spells of the legendary priests and finally made these Fear Messengers. The God of Fear apparently didn¡¯t put much effort into the creation of his Oracles. Perhaps in his view, these Oracles that could be revived after death with sufficient Divine Power deserved no special attention from him. However, Sui Xiong saw something special in them. It was carelessness. This leader of the evil gods was kind of careless. That was not a big problem since Sui Xiong was somewhat careless too. But the God of Fear was too careless in small things, or in other words, there were too few things that deserved his attention. In terms of creating Oracles, the God of Fear was the most careless among the gods that Sui Xiong had known. At least, in Sui Xiong¡¯s opinion, there was room for further optimization of the Fear Messengers. If they could be fully optimized, their fighting power could be increased by at least 30%! It was definitely worth a try, but the God of Fear didn¡¯t pay attention to that at all. Thus, Sui Xiong thought that this leader of the evil gods was not only careless but also not so popular among other gods. If Sui Xiong found that there were obvious defects in the design of his friend¡¯s Oracles and there was room for substantial improvement, he would surely tell his friend about it and help him improve his Oracles. But apparently, the God of Fear didn¡¯t have such a friend, and his subordinates had never made such a suggestion either. It was somewhat tragic for such a leader! Sui Xiong sighed in his heart while thinking about what he was going to do next. He dared to bet that the God of Fear would never let go of this easily. The huge Oracle army here might just be a cover for his real intentions, and this evil great Divine Power must have other plans. It was easy to come to that conclusion. Since the Oracle army of the God of Fear failed to defeat Sui Xiong here, he would have to find other ways to win against Sui Xiong. Although he didn¡¯t do anything until now, he would definitely do something as long as he was not a fool. Then, what would he do? Sui Xiong had several ideas in his mind. First, he might directly attack Void City. The real intention of the God of Fear was not to kill the Void Mask, because that would be an epic task with a difficulty degree of at least five stars. He should aim for letting the humans know that he was powerful so as to spread more fear among them. This was easy to see since this was determined by the God of Fear¡¯s clergy. Then based on that aim, this would be the most proper way to directly attack Void City. Everyone knew that Sui Xiong valued Void City very much. Thus, if the God of Fear could destroy this city, even if it couldn¡¯t hurt Sui Xiong badly, it would still make Sui Xiong angry and sad. That could be taken as the God of Fear¡¯s achievement. It was a shame for a great Divine Power to attack mortals; that was against the identity of a god. However, was the God of Fear a god who valued others¡¯ opinions and always did the right things? As far as Sui Xiong had known, he was not. So this was the most possible choice for him. However, Sui Xiong was not scared of that at all. As the saying went, think of failure before victory. This was common sense for those who knew anything about strategy. One should think about how to deal with their possible failure in the war before it started. Although Sui Xiong was an art student, he had seen many novels and movies about wars, so he had common sense. Even if the God of Fear really broke the boundary of Void City and attacked the mortals there, this despicable god would only lose his face in vain and gain nothing beneficial to him! If the God of Fear really came to attack Void City, Sui Xiong would be relaxed and give a thumbs-up to his stupid choice. Second, the God of Fear might also plan to unite the evil gods to launch a sudden attack on Sui Xiong. Although the power of one god¡¯s clone was not as strong as Sui Xiong, things would be quite different if more than a dozen god¡¯s clones joined hands together against him in the fight. In those years when Sui Xiong tried to soothe the hatred with various efforts in the Orc Empire and to punish those aggressive robbers, he was defeated by the Orc gods in this way. At that time, Sui Xiong suffered a great loss. He was completely defeated in the fight and ran away, embarrassed. The God of Fear knew about that, so he might attack Sui Xiong in the same way. However, Sui Xiong was not worried about that, either. As the Chinese saying went, after three days of absence, the scholar has to be looked at with new eyes. Sui Xiong was much different from the past. If the evil gods sent their clones to form a joint attack against Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t mind showing his real power to let them know what an unconquerable god looked like. Sui Xiong thought that if he couldn¡¯t beat them up badly enough so that even their mothers couldn¡¯t recognize them, then he would at least carve his name into their minds. These guys had thought they were hunters, so Sui Xiong really wanted to see what expression they would have when they finally realized that they had made the wrong decision and became the hunted. That would be very interesting! The third choice for the God of Fear was probably to pretend to attack Void City and secretly make a joint attack on the sanctuary. That would also be possible. After all, a God¡¯s Kingdom was the real foundation of a god. As long as the sanctuary was attacked, Sui Xiong would suffer a great loss. Even though he didn¡¯t officially become a god now and wouldn¡¯t fall to a lower level of clergy, he would inevitably be badly hurt. But Sui Xiong was not afraid of that either. The sanctuary was firmly built and close to the Main Plane. If really something did happen, Sui Xiong could manage to go there with his allies quickly. What they should do then was just transfer the battlefield from the Main Plane to the outside of the sanctuary. The war between the gods¡¯ clones would be upgraded to a war between the gods¡¯ noumenons. This was nothing serious, so why should he be scared? If that was really the case, Sui Xiong was not sure of winning, but at least he didn¡¯t think he would lose. It would be nothing more than putting all he had into the fight. In those years, in the newly built sanctuary, Sui Xiong had helped the Desolation God System successfully defend against the attack of the War God System. Now, the sanctuary was firmer, and Sui Xiong had more friends and allies. It was just that his enemy changed from the War God System to the relatively weaker God of Fear. Why should Sui Xiong be scared? Besides these three ways, the God of Fear might also have some other strange and tricky methods. But after thinking for a bit, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think he should be worried. Moreover, who said he had to wait for the God of Fear to take action first? The giant jellyfish showed a slightly cunning smile and waved his tentacles. In the sea of fire, the golden dots gradually emerged and turned into girls who dressed and were armed in different ways from the mass-produced Oracles. These were his really powerful subordinates, the Oracles of the elite level. ¡°Go ahead!¡± Sui Xiong waved his tentacles, giving them strong protective abilities and greatly enhancing their fighting power and ability of survival. ¡°Achieve victory before dawn!¡± Chapter 433 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The mass-produced Oracles multiplied fast like weeds growing in the spring breeze. The elite-level Oracles were different. They were not able to proliferate rapidly, and their efficiency of resurrection after the war was not high. However, at the cost of that, the elite-level Oracles had outstanding combat skills. The elite-level Oracles of the destroyer level were called ¡°pupils.¡± However, they could walk through the battlefield with amazing speed and agility, even though the battlefield was filled with flying bullets. At the crucial moments, they could escape their enemies¡¯ attacks and seize the opportunity to attack the enemies at the same time. Compared to the torpedoes of the mass-produced Oracles of the destroyer level, their torpedoes had amazing attack range and power. As long as the enemies were locked onto in advance, their torpedoes could even change directions mid-flight to chase the enemies. Strictly speaking, their torpedoes were missiles. As long as the Fear Messengers were attacked by a torpedo, they would hardly maintain their combat abilities. If they were unlucky to be hit without defending or if they were hit by several torpedoes at once, they would definitely die on the spot. Although the ¡°pupils¡± could only fire four to six torpedoes at a time, they never lost their targets. In other words, each round of their attacks could defeat at least two or three Fear Messengers. If they were in a modern war where tens of thousands of bullets could kill only one enemy on average, with their killing efficiency, they would simply become Valkyries or cruel angels who brought death. If they were sent to the earthen war zones where slaughter happened without good combat skills, only a few of them would be needed to protect a city. However, among the elite-level Oracles, the ¡°pupils¡± were actually weak. The cruiser level was one level higher than the destroyer level. There were several kinds of Oracles of the cruiser level, and their specialties were different. Some had fast speed, so they could always make use of every single opportunity to fire a torpedo; then they would flee like foxes. Some were damage ¡°monsters.¡± Even if they had no cannons, they would take only a little time to prepare and then release 40 torpedoes at one time. Some were support experts whose strength lay in defense rather than offense. They could provide effective buffs to their surrounding comrades. Some were cannon maniacs. They were equipped with large-scale warship weapons, even though they had small body sizes. Their firepower was nearly the same as that of the capital warships. Those Oracles had different fighting styles, but they had similarities. Each of them had excellent combat abilities and could play a significant role in the war overall. However, in the overall situation, the leading roles were still the Oracles at the capital warship level. These girls, without exception, were equipped with extremely luxurious, large-scale warship weapons, so they had to spend a little time on unfolding the weapons and establish temporary bombardment bases before the attacks. It was a bit troublesome, but it was totally worth it. Once their weapons were fully unfolded, they could launch massive bombardment attacks. For example, the first elite-level Oracles at the capital warship level created by Sui Xiong was a girl with strange, taupe hair shaped like cat ears. She had four sets of two-shot main cannons, so she needed about ten seconds to unfold her weapons. However, after the unfolding process, one round of her bombardment could cover at least hundreds of square meters. In the close range around her bombardment base, those Fear Messengers couldn¡¯t survive at all. There wouldn¡¯t even be a trace of them left. The elite-level Oracles at the capital warship level were difficult to produce. Until now, Sui Xiong could only produce six girls. They were just enough to form a team like the formation in the game. At this moment, the six girls distanced themselves from each other and unfolded their bombardment bases. With loud bangs, their shots were strongly bombarding the places where the enemies were the most in number and where the formations were the most clumped. Seeing that they were powerful, Sui Xiong was relieved. He couldn¡¯t help but think, Alas! When I was playing the game, it would be great if I had such powerful and intelligent characters! ¡°What are you worried about?¡± a voice rang around him; it was the voice of the first elite-level Oracle created by him. ¡°Nothing,¡± Sui Xiong answered, smiling. Then, he asked the girl in black and white, ¡°You are standing here. Isn¡¯t this too far from the battlefield?¡± ¡°No. After all, I don¡¯t need to go to the front lines in person,¡± the girl said, smiling. The blue butterfly hair accessory next to the right side of her hat was shining. ¡°Look, those aircraft carriers will do their job and bring an unforgettable sea breeze to the enemies. I only need to direct them at the rear, and that is enough to complete the battle,¡± she said with confidence. ¡°As the flagship and the most advanced aircraft carrier of your majesty, in the most intense battles, I can still maintain my grace and elegance.¡± Sui Xiong wanted to say something, but he kept silent after thinking for a while. He didn¡¯t want to attack the enthusiasm of his subordinates. As for the flagship issue¡­ His eyes swept over the six Oracles at the capital warship level, and then he thought for a while. At least now it seemed that no one would fight against her for the flagship seat. Anyway, among his Oracles, she was the eldest one. Seniority was an advantage. Some evil enterprises bragged about enterprise culture, but they actually cheated their employees. Except for them, in every long-established formal enterprise, the seniors from the start-up period had a special status. The Oracles created by Sui Xiong were soldiers in terms of his design ideas. Soldiers paid much attention to seniority, and that aircraft carrier was the main force. If an army cook had enough seniority, he would still win the respect of the people. Maybe, in the future, new warships and the senior aircraft carrier will compete for the flagship seat, and they might even fight. However, the future was in the future. Sui Xiong left the issue aside irresponsibly and focused on the command of the battle. To be honest, in fact, he didn¡¯t need to command them all the time. He just needed to ask the mass-produced Oracles rushing in front to be cannon fodder and the elite-level Oracles to fire with full power under the cover. Anyone who had played commanding games could do that. As for the more complicated things, sorry, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know. This attitude of ¡°not knowing¡± wasn¡¯t justified, but he was not ashamed at all. After all, in this world, many commanders didn¡¯t understand the art of command at all. They only knew how to raise their weapons and yell ¡°Brothers, follow me.¡± Then, they would rush forward with their troops, killing the enemies or being killed by the enemies. In short, they didn¡¯t have any complicated thoughts. Such people could be generals. At least, Sui Xiong knew how to use cannon fodder to cover the main force, so he was a qualified general! Well, absolutely qualified! In the battlefield, under the command of ¡°Famous General Sui Xiong,¡± the Oracle troops of the Void Mask had already gained the upper hand. The Oracle troops of the God of Fear retreated, and the battle line was constantly pushed back towards the sky. It wouldn¡¯t be long before the Oracle troops of the God of Fear were beaten out of the Main Plane and completely defeated. In this case, even if the God of Fear had other ideas and plans, he would have to deal with the problems at hand. In any case, he couldn¡¯t allow his Oracle troops to be defeated. Therefore, with one order, the avatars of his followers went out. These avatars were almost the strongest at the level of low-level Divine Powers, so they were powerful enough to trigger the defensive enchantment of the Main Plane. However, as long as they didn¡¯t leave the region of the God¡¯s Kingdom temporarily constructed by the God of Fear, they didn¡¯t have to worry about this risk. Of course, they wouldn¡¯t rush out directly; they used their Divine Power to summon their Oracles. One after another, black space doors opened, and mighty Oracle troops went out of them. They rushed into the battlefield. These Oracles were different, but they had good combat abilities, so they were not weaker than Fear Messengers. With their participation, the Fear Messengers who had already lost their confidence immediately regained their front, and they gradually fought back. Seeing this scene, Sui Xiong frowned and sneered. ¡°You can¡¯t win by yourself, so you bring a group here?¡± Sui Xiong said with disdain. ¡°However, what gives you the illusion that there is safety in numbers?¡± After saying that, he took a deep breath and then breathed out towards the front lines. His breath changed into raging flames. After the flames, the original battlefield and even the surrounding sky was ignited. From the ground, people could only see a red sky, like the evening glow in the summer. However, everyone had seen the beauty of the evening glow in the sky, but who had ever seen real flames in the sky? Now they had seen them. As the scope of the sea of fire had been expanded several times, the mass-produced Oracles nurtured in it naturally increased greatly. Not only that, Sui Xiong was still standing in the sea of fire, creating a new type of mass-produced Oracle impromptu. The most horrible type that existed only for this situation. The self-detonation level! Chapter 434 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On earth, at least before Sui Xiong time traveled here, in addition to the mysterious killing weapon in the legends, the most horrible troop was self-detonating soldiers. They didn¡¯t need gorgeous equipment, long-term training or strong back-up support. They only needed to encircle strong explosives on their body or put several kilograms of TNT in a car. Then, they only needed to get as close as possible to the enemies and ignite the explosives. Boom! Before Sui Xiong had traveled here, the group in which men were dressed in white robes and women were dressed in black robes was the best at self-detonating. From the Eastern Hemisphere to the Western Hemisphere, from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere, they could explode any place or anyone. Therefore, every time people in such costumes appeared, the people on the roadside would be very nervous, and the security workers such as the police would immediately enter a state of preparation. In some places like the airports and the train stations, they might cause small chaos. It was said that some comedians had tried dressing like them, throwing a black handbag in a crowded place. As a result, it had almost caused a big riot, and they were almost killed by the angry people. What was a deterrent force? This was a deterrent force! Sui Xiong wouldn¡¯t use their classic slogan nor would he create TNT. He also wouldn¡¯t use their old-style religious brainwashing techniques. However, those things didn¡¯t hinder his awe of the self-detonating troops. The design style of the Oracles at the self-detonation level came from the well-known, self-detonating culture on earth. There were two types of this kind of Oracles. One was the high-speed assault type. Although their self-detonating power wasn¡¯t very high, their speed was very fast. They could rush into the formation of the enemies in large numbers. As long as the formation had a gap, the follow-up Oracles would continue rushing over, and they could soon destroy the front of the enemies completely. They were women whose entire bodies were wrapped in black robes. They seemed slim and small-sized, totally harmless. However, every enemy who was bombed by them was impressed by their appearance. Sui Xiong hoped that the enemies wouldn¡¯t have a psychological shadow because of that. The other type of Oracle was incredibly explosive. They couldn¡¯t move fast, but their explosion power was enormous. On earth, some self-detonating soldiers had blown themselves up instead of enemies. In order to prevent such awkward situations, Sui Xiong had spent much time thinking when he had was designing this type of Oracle. He had to ensure that they would only explode actively. If not actively, then they shouldn¡¯t explode because of the enemies¡¯ attacks. As for the appearance of this type, they naturally looked like billionaires in white robes. In their hands were big cases that seemed to be filled with cash. As for what was inside the cases, well¡­ The ideas of creating those two types of Oracles were long-established, but Sui Xiong had never put them into practice because he felt that making such things was like opening Pandora¡¯s box. It would bring terror and disaster to the world. Of course, he knew that this was just an illusion. In contrast to the process of civilization in this world, the present period of this world was equivalent to the ancient period of the earth. At that time, the ancestors of the self-detonating race were still the flowers of an advanced and splendid civilization. They had handsome and honest hero leaders, dancers who were dressed beautifully, knowledgeable and humorous scholars and poets, and adventurers and businessmen full of adventurous spirit. The children and grandchildren weren¡¯t as good as the ancestors, but this couldn¡¯t be blamed on the ancestors. Of course, this was all off-topic. For Sui Xiong, the most important thing now was to ask the God of Fear and his followers to see the powerful force from earth. ¡°The God of Fear,¡± he whispered, raising his tentacles high as if he were holding a commander¡¯s sword. Then his tentacles fell down fast like he was waving the sword, and he pointed to the enemies. He said, ¡°Today, I¡¯ll make you see what real fear is!¡± ¡°Oracles of the self-detonation level, attack!¡± Sui Xiong yelled. With his order, the sea of fire was surging, and then countless women in black robes appeared from the sea of fire. Their speed was fast beyond imagination. In a flash, they had rushed into the enemies¡¯ formation whose core was the Fear Messengers. Of course, because of their weak defense, most of the Oracles of the self-detonation level were knocked down or cut down easily by the enemies on the road. On average, one or two in one hundred could successfully arrive at the destination. However, this was enough. Just as they approached close enough, these seemingly uncompetitive women in black robes shouted strange slogans. Then, they exploded. To be honest, the power of their explosion wasn¡¯t very big; it only harassed the enemies a little. However, in the second that the enemies were harassed, more women in black robes appeared in the sea of fire. They rushed fast into the formation of the enemies, and they continued to explode. Because of the previous distraction, the number of Oracles who rushed through had increased significantly, at least by about 10%. Of course, they detonated themselves again quickly, causing a greater disturbance to the enemies so that more of their companions could rush in. Then, explosions happened one after another, never stopping for even a second. In the temporary God¡¯s Kingdom, the face of the God of Fear was very pale. He didn¡¯t expect that the big jellyfish had such means! How could those strange Oracles come back to life so fast? How could that jellyfish still have enough power to resurrect them when so many of them had died? This was unreasonable! However, the problem at hand wasn¡¯t whether the means of the Void Mask was reasonable. The God of Fear should command his Oracle troops quickly, and try to block the enemies¡¯ onslaught. The God of Fear of course knew what he should do, but he really had no way of doing it at all. As Sui Xiong had said, in this world, very few people had military commanding abilities. The God of Fear wasn¡¯t one of them. When he commanded, he yelled, waving his sword, ¡°Go, cut them into pieces!¡± He could only do that. Compared to the people who led troops to assault in person, he would be more like a commander. However, his effect was worse. After all, there would be a large assault when the commander yelled, ¡°Follow me.¡±¡±Rushing¡± was just nonsense. His Oracles were blown up and defeated, and the situation was even worse than before. Seeing that, the God of Fear was angry, and he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little worried. Should I ask the gods to fight? He thought so, frowning. There were rules in the wars between gods. Gods versus gods, and Oracles versus oracles. If his Oracles were defeated and he asked other gods to fight with their Oracles, no matter whether he won or lost, he would lose his credibility. The God of Fear was a god who cared a lot about his reputation. He didn¡¯t want to lose respect. Therefore, after careful measurements, he decided not to support the battle of the Oracles. After all, Oracles were just cannon fodder, so it didn¡¯t matter if they lost or not. If he sent gods for that, he would just bring more shame on himself. In exchange, he decided to attack the Void Mask directly. It didn¡¯t matter that he lost the battle of the Oracles. As long as he defeated the Void Mask, he was still the invincible leader of the Alliance of Evil Gods! The execution ability of the God of Fear was still very strong. Once he made a decision, he would put it into practice immediately. He used divine thought to order his subordinates. Then, he waved his hand, carrying the temporary God¡¯s Kingdom, and he rushed out, screaming. He rushed straight to Sui Xiong who was hiding behind the Oracle troops. On this road, he had to pass through the battlefield of the Oracles. Under the command of Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong¡¯s Oracles didn¡¯t fear the power of the God of Fear. They attacked him, but their attacks were ineffective. No matter what kind of attacks they launched, they couldn¡¯t break the defense of the temporary God¡¯s Kingdom. However, the God of Fear was not an honest god who would stand the attacks quietly. He didn¡¯t attack them, but he released a little bit of his pressure, sneering. The little bit of his pressure already overwhelmed most of the mass-produced Oracles. They couldn¡¯t stand it, and they exploded into flames. Those elite-level Oracles could still stand it, but they couldn¡¯t move at all. Even the six Oracles at the capital warship level had no way to operate their unfolded bombardment bases. They couldn¡¯t fire a shot. The suppression of this level was too strong. This made the God of Fear feel a little better, so his paces were much lighter. The only thing that made him a little dissatisfied was the unintelligent flames. All the flames were extinguished wherever he went. However, when he moved, the flames in the other places went to the areas that he had passed through. The flames from the other places were filling up the already extinguished areas. It seemed that he was trudging through the sea of fire and that slightly damaged his glorious image. However, looking at the big jellyfish who seemed to be too scared to escape, he couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°Stupid guy, you haven¡¯t really seen the power of a strong god after all!¡± After saying that, he passed through the sea of fire and went up to Sui Xiong. ¡°Now, it¡¯s not too late to surrender,¡± the God of Fear proudly said because he was confident. ¡°I can give you the glory of being my subordinate.¡± He thought that Sui Xiong would recognize the situation and surrender. After all, in the face of a great Divine Power, any guy who had a brain would know what to do. Many of the evil gods conquered by him had been trying to resist him until he had gone to them, face to face. In the face of his incomprehensible power, every enemy had chosen to surrender, without exception. He felt that this time there wouldn¡¯t be an exception. Therefore, although he was unsatisfied that Sui Xiong¡¯s answer was a little bit slow, he decided to be magnanimous and give the bumpkin jellyfish a chance to surrender. However, he didn¡¯t get the answer he wanted. The answer was Sui Xiong¡¯s insidious smile. ¡°Amentia!¡± It took the God of Fear about half a second to understand the word. In half a second, before he got angry, he found that he had been surrounded by a group of men in white robes. They were fat, looked really rich, and were carrying large cases in their hands. The men in white robes were dull without any trace of intelligence. Many of them were still smirking as if something happy was happening. This is? Before the God of Fear had the time to think, Sui Xiong had already whistled and snapped. Before the sound of his snap spread, all the self-detonating Oracles had shouted their slogan together and launched their only skill¡ªself-detonation. Huge flames suddenly rose up like a mushroom, wrapping the God of Fear in the middle. Chapter 435 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On earth, people always respected wonderful scenes. It was the scene where flames and smoke rose upwards to a certain height and then spread out, shaped like a huge mushroom. This scene symbolized strength, power, and unrivaled authority. It symbolized the absolute force that could shock the world and make all enemies tremble! In fact, most people didn¡¯t know that it wasn¡¯t necessary to use a killing weapon that could destroy a country to create such a magical scene. As long as the explosion was strong enough, this scene could appear. For example, not long before Sui Xiong had just time traveled here, in a port in the north of his country, a horrible explosion caused by chaos in management had happened. Dozens of outstanding young people had lost their lives; the lives of those that should have been a great success had all ended. In that explosion, a mushroom had also appeared. After seeing the video and science articles about that incident, Sui Xiong learned that the mushroom cloud didn¡¯t necessarily have to be created by a lethal weapon. Now, he had just practiced that point. Nearly a hundred Oracles of strongly explosive type power exploded together, and the power generated was strong enough to shake the earth. In a flash, the strong explosion created a hot pillar of fire. When the pillar rose to a certain height, it spread out and turned into a mushroom cloud. Sui Xiong had prepared for it, so he had made a defensive measure below with his Divine Power. When the explosion occurred, several layers of magical arrays were continuously penetrated. However, when they were penetrated, they transformed the flames into a part of the sea of fire. The sea of fire that had already been surging, now, as a result, had expanded broader. The fire in many places was even strong enough to change its color. Even so, the pillar of fire in the central position of the explosion continued to extend toward the ground. Sui Xiong had warned the gods before, so they had cast spells to resolve it and finally turn it into a violent, hot storm. As for Sui Xiong himself, of course, he had teleported himself the first time, escaping from the scene. He wasn¡¯t stupid. Why would he stay next to the mushroom cloud waiting to turn into a roasted squid? Then, the only one who was left there was the God of Fear. He was surrounded by nearly 100 passionate Oracles of strong explosive power. A few seconds later, a thunderbolt struck down from the sky, striking heavily on the place where the explosion had just happened. Beyond the Main Plane, the noumenon of the God of Fear cried out. He suddenly put his hand on his chest. His battle avatar was destroyed. In fact, the power of those self-detonating Oracles wasn¡¯t strong enough to kill his avatar. After all, his avatar was equivalent to the peak of a mid-level Divine Power. However, their power had destroyed the temporary, fake God¡¯s Kingdom, so his powerful avatar had directly appeared in the Main Plane. In other words, his avatar had directly appeared in the enchantment of the Goddess of Life. As for the result, of course, the enchantment had been triggered, and a Thunder of Godly Punishment had fallen down and killed his avatar. Sui Xiong was looking at the thunderbolt in awe. At this moment, he knew that he was about ten kilometers far away from this Thunder of Godly Punishment. He was close enough to see everything. He had clearly seen that the powerful avatar of the God of Fear hadn¡¯t suffered much damage in the explosion and that the avatar had collapsed under the seemingly simple thunderbolt. It had turned into a wreck without any trace of life left. Although the Goddess of Life had disappeared for many years, the power she had left was still strong enough to shock anyone! Sui Xiong was shocked. He waved his tentacle and caught a knife that almost stabbed him. ¡°This is a clever assassination. I didn¡¯t even find you until you attacked,¡± he said, smiling. ¡°Unfortunately, I still found your knife.¡± After saying that, dozens of tentacles shot out, turning into numerous sharp spears and turning that black figure into a sieve. That black figure was the one who had sneaked behind Sui Xiong and had tried to assassinate Sui Xiong. In the next moment, the figure fell apart and disappeared in the sky. Beyond the Main Plane, next to the throne of the God of Fear, a figure in the shadows squatted down. He said, ¡°Sorry, Your Majesty. I couldn¡¯t assassinate him.¡± The God of Fear waved his hand, expressing that this loyal subordinate didn¡¯t need to kneel. Then, the God of Fear sighed softly. He said, ¡°I have been ¡®killed¡¯ by him once. You have done a good job.¡± This figure was the God of Shadow and Assassination, the valuable assistant of the God of Fear. In the past, the God of Fear had executed the God of Shadow who had been weak in combat. He had picked the priesthood of ¡°Shadows¡± and given it to his valuable subordinate, the God of Assassin. Since then, the God of Assassin had become the God of Shadow and Assassination. This made the strength of the God of Assassin increase greatly, and the God of Fear owned a really powerful and dangerous assistant because of this. This was dangerous to any of the God of Fear¡¯s enemies. The God of Shadow and Assassination could be perfectly concealed anywhere. Unless he took the initiative to come out, no one could find him. When his enemies found him, his Knife of Assassination would have already reached their chests or even penetrate their bodies. If Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t felt the God of Assassin had from the sense of his soul, he couldn¡¯t have found the god next to him. It made Sui Xiong surprised, and he even started to sweat. Fortunately, he had sensed that knife! The God of Fear had failed, and even the God of Shadow and Assassinations had failed. The evil gods who followed the God of Fear into the Main Plane looked at each other, and they didn¡¯t know what to do. Now, they could conceal themselves with the help of the temporary existence of the fake God¡¯s Kingdom for a period of time. They could also use this power to maintain their combat power for a while without being discovered by the enchantment of the Goddess of Life. However, how could they defeat that jellyfish? Positive confrontation was definitely unworkable. Even if they added up, they couldn¡¯t be stronger than the avatar of the God of Fear. Even the avatar of the God of Fear was defeated, so they were totally useless. Sneak attacks certainly didn¡¯t work, either. They didn¡¯t have the unimaginable hidden technique like the God of Shadow and Assassination. They would be discovered before sneaking behind the Void Mask. It seemed that there was only one way left. The evil gods looked at each other and nodded. They rushed out after screaming, surrounding Sui Xiong in all directions to attack him. What greeted them were tentacles that had been changed into all kinds of weapons. A while later, after noises of smashing and screams, the evil gods were kneeling in front of the throne of the God of Fear with depressed faces, asking for mercy for their defeat. They had lost the battle without any suspense just now. In fact, since the avatar of the God of Fear had been killed by the Thunder of Godly Punishment from the enchantment of the Goddess of Life, this battle has no suspense. Unless the God of Fear sent down another powerful avatar that was as powerful as the previous one one more time, with simply those gods under his command, he couldn¡¯t win the battle at all. ¡°This jellyfish is stronger than before,¡± the God of Fear said. He waved his hand, asking his subordinates to stand up; then he was silent for a while. After that, he said to himself, ¡°He was vulnerable when he was besieged by the avatars of the Orc gods.¡± ¡°Maybe because at that time, his injury didn¡¯t recover,¡± a low, hoarse voice said inside the shadow behind the throne. ¡°Maybe,¡± the God of Fear said, nodding. ¡°Now, in this case, what do you say? What should I do?¡± ¡°If I were you, I would choose to retreat.¡± ¡°But you are not me,¡± the God of Fear said, sneering. ¡°Conspiracy can be defeated because even if it fails this time, the failure won¡¯t damage its next threat. However, fear can¡¯t be defeated. Defeated fear will be overshadowed.¡± ¡°So, there¡¯s only one choice left,¡± the voice said. ¡°Yes,¡± the God of Fear said, nodding. ¡°In fact, from the beginning, I thought that that choice was the best!¡± After saying that, he issued an order. After a while, not only the members of the Fear God System but also all the evil gods received an order from their leader. Everyone gather to besiege the sanctuary of the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Void Mask! Chapter 436 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In a famous Chinese movie called Kung Fu Hustle, the leading actor, Stephen Chow had a line: ¡°Hearing the whistle of the cloud-crossing arrow, thousands of troops rush to the battlefield.¡± The line was appropriate for this moment. The God of Fear was the only leader who stood out to shoulder the main responsibilities among the evil gods. His order wasn¡¯t as simple as a cloud-crossing arrow. When his order was issued, even the whole Ring of the World was shaken. In countless worlds, all kinds of evil gods took actions. A certain god monopolized a world, and he made the whole world like a jar that was filled with venomous insects. The venomous insects in the jar had to fight each other until only one insect survived. He advocated the survival of the fittest, so all races in his world killed each other madly. Even in a family, the members didn¡¯t have any close relationships. In their mind, there was only one word, ¡°stronger.¡± At the end of their trips of becoming ¡°stronger,¡± they would be transformed into Oracles and become that god¡¯s reserved soldiers. Usually, this god was high above, overlooking the world from the clouds. From time to time, he gave the mortals some miracles or trained one or two masters who had no backgrounds. By doing that, he could stir up the ¡°water¡± of the whole world, so that the world could become more chaotic and the battles could be more frequent. From the battles, he could pick out more talents. However, today, this high god above was worried. He brought more than half of his subordinates, rushing to the vicinity of the Main Plane to gather in response to the great God of Fear¡¯s order. In another world, good and evil were upside down, and the order was chaotic. All kinds of creatures didn¡¯t have parents, because they were born by the sense of natural magic. They were born to be fierce and aggressive, treating tyranny and hate as good and kindness and generosity as evil. They continually attacked indiscriminately without a clue of what they were actually doing. They just spent time and energy on conspiracies and killings. In this world, a god was as happy as a duck to water. He constantly created a variety of warlike creatures, asking them to fight and kill, and then he enjoyed those chaotic killings and robberies. However, the order of the God of Fear came. That unwilling god wanted to resist it. However, after repeated consideration, he still obeyed the order, sending his strongest avatar to respond to the call. In another world, at first glance, everything was in order. However, in this orderly world, some unusual individuals often appeared. Those unusual individuals had unimaginable power to trample on the order of society and act wildly. All other kinds of creatures in the world couldn¡¯t deal with them, so they could only accept their actions. Fortunately, such horrible individuals usually only existed for a short period of time. The people in that world simply believed that it was an irresistible natural disaster, so they just put up with it. For example, now, a three-headed dog was raging in the southern part of the world. Its three heads spurted flames, poisonous smoke, and storms, and it was killing and destroying everywhere and everything with self-pride. However, just at this moment, its body suddenly froze. After a few seconds, the horrible three-headed dog barked, turned into black smoke and quickly disappeared into the sky. He was running wildly, rushing to the Main Plane of the Matter World to respond to the call of the great leader of the evil gods. Although it interrupted the entertainment that this creature had long wanted to indulge in, the order of the great leader of the evil gods was absolute. No one could violate his order. In another world, evil dragons were constantly raging inside. The power of the mortals wasn¡¯t strong enough to confront the dragons, so only the Knights of Apocalypse could fight against the dragons. When the dragons came out to do evil things, some knights would receive Oracles, and then they would go to fight against the dragons. Most of the knights would be dead in the battles. Only a few knights would come home alive with severe wounds to tell people that they defeated the dragons. At this moment, a knight just killed an evil dragon. He was seriously injured, lying in blood all over the ground. He was totally exhausted and breathing hard. He didn¡¯t have the strength to take off his armor to relax. ¡°You are very good!¡± a gloomy voice came. The knight hurriedly turned to look in the direction of the voice and saw the rock wall inside the dragon cave wriggling. A strange creature came out. The appearance of the creature was difficult to describe, but it exuded a heart-shattering majesty. It looked at the knight who had lost his combat ability with creepy eyes. ¡°Well, I¡¯m so happy to make this decision!¡± The creature didn¡¯t mean to talk to the knight in detail. It just waved its paws, and the knight saw that the huge corpse of the evil dragon next to him quickly melted into blood; the blood was infiltrating his body. ¡°What¡­ what is happening?!¡± the knight yelled in horror. He tried to struggle, but it didn¡¯t help. After a while, all the blood went into his body, and then he felt a strong force emerging from within. Gradually, his mind blurred. The knight had a strong will, and that allowed him to continue to resist the erosion of that weird power. However, what made him desperate was that he saw his body beginning to change. His hands became claws, his body grew bigger, and he had black scales. After a while, the knight who had killed the evil dragon wasn¡¯t in the dragon cave anymore. Now, only a new-born evil dragon was roaring angrily, confronting the lingering ambiguity in its mind. Its instinct told it that it should leave the dragon cave and go out to kill and destroy. However, another strong will in its mind stopped it from doing so. ¡°Well, let me see how long this dragon-killer can last,¡± the creature said, smirking. ¡°Compared to the boring dragon-killing game, this is the most satisfying thing!¡± However, before the knight¡¯s last remaining will disappeared, the creature changed his expression and frowned. ¡°Damn! Why at this time!¡± He complained, but he didn¡¯t dare to stay here any longer. The creature¡¯s figure quickly faded. On the outer side of the world, a strangely distorted dragon was complaining. He spread his wings and flew toward the location decided by the God of Fear. Just as the dragon-killers were powerless to disobey, this one couldn¡¯t disobey the great God of Fear. Similar situations were happening in one world after another, in the kingdoms of the evil gods. Most evil gods responded to the call of the God of Fear, hurriedly rushing to the edge of the Main Plane, the gathering place mentioned in the order. Of course, there were always exceptions to everything. Some evil gods didn¡¯t care about the order of the God of Fear. ¡°It¡¯s really interesting. What makes this guy have the illusion that he can order me?¡± the God of Aristocracy said. She was sitting in her own palace, reading the message that she had solidified with her Divine Power. Her mouth slightly tilted, and her face was filled with a disdainful smile. As a member of the Human God System, she could totally ignore the God of Fear! After thinking for a while, the God of Aristocracy couldn¡¯t help but smile. She took the message with her to visit the God of Light. ¡°Your Majesty, I just got a message,¡± she reported, presenting the message. The God of Light swept his gaze over the message that was solidified into a crystal shape. His two thick eyebrows were slightly closer together, and a deep wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. ¡°This guy¡¯s hand stretches a little further,¡± he said. ¡°He is going to do some big thing now, so I will not embarrass him for the time being. When it is over, I have to remind him not to always aim at others¡¯ homes.¡± He said that simply, but his words naturally had a convincing power. The God of Aristocracy hurriedly bowed her head, but she couldn¡¯t help but laugh secretly in her heart. To be honest, she never liked that arrogant and rude guy! The God of Fear was just a common guy, but how could he be so arrogant to call himself the leader of the Alliance of Evil Gods? What actually gave him such confidence? Ridiculous! A leader of an alliance should be like the God of Light, leading an ethnic group from weak to strong. In the future, the group would continue to progress indefinitely, being destined to shine. The God of Light could even become the hero who would rule the whole world. Such a man was eligible to be a leader of an alliance! ¡­ ¡°This guy is mad again!¡± the Orc¡¯s God of Assassination said. He handed the message that he had turned into a piece of leather to His Majesty, Lefon, the Sky Devourer Canine. He said to Lefon with dissatisfaction, ¡°I am the Orc¡¯s God of Assassination, and it¡¯s none of his business!¡± ¡°Some people always feel good about themselves, always,¡± Lefon said, smiling. His finger flipped through the order, and the leather was burned to ashes. ¡°The God of Fear isn¡¯t like this from today on. He has always been like this.¡± ¡°This is not the case!¡± the World-Ring Snake said, opening his eyes. He was the oldest god among the Orc gods, one of the only remaining two gods of the Six Giant Orc Gods created by the Ancestor God. He had just woken recently. ¡°We Orcs didn¡¯t mean to be the leader of the evil gods, but we can¡¯t tolerate the provocation of others!¡± Lefon immediately bowed his head, paying tribute to this elder. ¡°I understand. I will arrange my subordinates as soon as possible to teach that rude guy a lesson!¡± he said. The huge head of the World-Ring Snake gently nodded, and his only eye that was bigger than a mountain was slowly closed. He said, ¡°Be careful. Victory will always belong to a cautious warrior.¡± After that, he fell into a deep sleep again. No one knew when he would wake up again. The Human God System and the Orc God System were really angry. Compared to them, the War God System was really happy. The God of War patted the shoulder of the God of Strategy, laughing and praising the God of Strategy. ¡°Your guess was completely right. The guy really couldn¡¯t make it. He is asking us for help!¡± ¡°The tone was a bit uncomfortable,¡± the God of Battle said with dissatisfaction. ¡°Damn, this guy doesn¡¯t know what politeness is.¡± ¡°He has always been like this, are you still not used to it?¡± the God of War said indifferently. ¡°Ask everyone to get prepared. Let¡¯s go!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, do we really have to respond to that damn call?¡± the Goddess of Pirates said, frowning. ¡°We will lose our honor!¡± ¡°Honor? I don¡¯t care, as long as we can fight happily!¡± The words were naturally said by the God of Berserker. The God of War waved his hand, preventing the subordinates from quarreling. He said, ¡°Don¡¯t quarrel! This time, we are not going to help that idiot, but instead look for an opportunity to see if we can get some benefits! Did you forget? In the damn sanctuary, there is always something that we may want!¡± The war gods no longer argued. They looked at each other and then left, going to prepare for the battle. After a while, the mighty army left the God¡¯s Kingdom on a huge battleship, heading straight to the sanctuary. Chapter 437 Chapter 437: Chapter 147 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong turned his tentacles into a telescope, looking at the scene in a pretentious manner. ¡°Marvelous!¡± he admired. ¡°I didn¡¯t really expect our small place to attract so many freaks today!¡± ¡°Yeah, really lively!¡± Yorgaardman said with a smile. ¡°I actually see a few guys who I worked hard to find, but I couldn¡¯t find them in the past. Hey, where did they hide before? When I catch them a moment later, I¡¯ll ask them about the details.¡± Yorgaardman was always optimistic. However, when talking about ¡°asking for the details,¡± his face showed a terrifying expression. Seeing his face, Sui Xiong was stunned. However, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t ask, wisely. It could be seen that Yorgaardman and those evil gods had deep hatred. As his brother, Sui Xiong thought that he shouldn¡¯t ask like an annoying aunt in some Hong Kong movies. What he should do was to find an opportunity to help Yorgaardman catch those guys who had hated him. Sui Xiong would tie their hands to their backs and send them to Yorgaardman. This was what a brother should do. Therefore, the atmosphere was a little awkward. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know what to say. Yorgaardman didn¡¯t want to talk. As more and more enemies gathered together, the atmosphere in the sanctuary gradually became tense. Many believers were uneasy. In this case, Javier decided to say something to ease the tension. ¡°Auscar, can your God¡¯s Kingdom be besieged by so many enemies?¡± Javier asked. ¡°I haven¡¯t tried it. Maybe it can, maybe it can¡¯t,¡± Sui Xiong answered with an indifferent smile. ¡°I won¡¯t give them a chance anyway.¡± The believers suddenly recovered their spirits. Although they didn¡¯t know the plan proposed by the Void Mask, everyone knew that His Majesty only liked to tell jokes, not lies. Since he had said it, he could most likely do it! ¡°What are you going to do?¡± Javier asked. If Javier ran to earth without his Divine Power, he could be a reporter. Well, at least he was in good health and could run fast. Sui Xiong thought for a moment. Seeing more and more evil gods arrive outside with their Oracle troops, Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°This scene. I really should do something.¡± After saying that, he raised his tentacles and slammed them down heavily on the land under his feet. Under the control of mighty Divine Power, this piece of land began to transform slowly. It became a huge rectangular box. With a close look, people could find that there were countless slender tubes in the box, but no one knew the use of them. ¡°What is the use of that?¡± Javier asked. He was really curious, and his intuition told him that that thing was really dangerous. However, how was it dangerous? Javier didn¡¯t know. Sui Xiong smiled mysteriously, manipulating this huge rectangular box to slowly fly up to the edge of the God¡¯s Kingdom. Then, Sui Xiong carefully adjusted the position and angle of the rectangular box so that its exit was aimed at the direction outside the God¡¯s Kingdom, where the enemies were the most abundant. ¡°Do you know that,¡± he paused for a while, smiling confidently, ¡°the most terrible thing in this world is not overwhelming power, but rather power that you can¡¯t understand at all.¡± After saying that, he opened a door on the indestructible barrier of this God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°Hey!¡± he yelled at the countless evil armies outside the door. ¡°Your mothers have called you back home for dinner!¡± After saying that, countless tubes began to energize from the huge rectangular box. The powerful magnetic field pushed the special bullets to accelerate in the vacuum created by the Divine Power. In an instant, the Arrows off Strings achieved such high speed that they seemed to be motionless. After that, they rushed out of the barrels towards the evil armies outside. Su su su su¡­ Su su su su¡­ There was no violent noise nor dazzling light effects. There was only the continuous sound of su su su su. Along with this mild sound, most of the evil armies fell down like wheat cut by sickles. Those bullets contained the Divine Power of Sui Xiong. The creatures without real bodies should have been immune to physical attacks. Now, because of that, they couldn¡¯t resist the bullets. As for those who originally consisted of flesh and blood, they were even more miserable. The speed was too fast; those bullets wouldn¡¯t explode after hitting the enemies. They would penetrate the enemy¡¯s body and continue to attack the next enemy. After dozens of bodies were penetrated, they finally lost too much power and exploded in the body of the last enemy. However, it didn¡¯t mean that the enemies who were penetrated before could be safe. In fact, they were even worse, because in just a moment, they were penetrated hundreds of times more and got hundreds of wounds. Except for a few enemies such as Ooze who didn¡¯t care about this kind of wound, most of the Oracles fell down before they could scream. Their bodies were covered with horrible tiny wounds like a honeycomb. In the farther places, explosions happened one after another, forming a strange scene. Sui Xiong manipulated the huge rectangular box that looked rather weird, and swept back and forth two or three times against the evil armies. As a result, a large area near the God¡¯s Kingdom was quiet. Except for some ignorant creatures like Ooze, almost all the enemies were quietly lying in the void like decorations. There was no doubt that they were probably the most horrible decorations in the world. In only a few blinks, almost one-tenth of the evil armies that besieged the sanctuary of the God¡¯s Kingdom was killed. The dead ones were all Oracles who could be resurrected. Because the evil gods didn¡¯t like to charge in the forefront, they didn¡¯t get attacked by Sui Xiong. However, Sui Xiong¡¯s unimaginable heavy strike still badly destroyed their morale. They had been confident because they were crowded, but now, they couldn¡¯t help but feel worried and upset. For a time, at least twenty evil gods looked around, clearly showing uneasiness. Some of them mobilized the most defensive Oracles to be in front of themselves, and they took out their best defensive artifacts. They hoped to make themselves a little safer by strengthening their defenses. Others adjusted their positions without revealing their intentions. They hoped that between themselves and the horrible gate of the sanctuary that had just appeared, there could be as many comrades as possible, especially other gods to act as their shields. More of them carefully retreated a little, tending to move to a safer place. The first two types were okay, but the third type actually infuriated the God of Fear. He frowned, and his big scepter version sword in his hands glittered in black. The gods who were retreating suddenly had balls of inconspicuous black flames on their bodies and the flames disappeared in a flash. However, just in this flash, those gods couldn¡¯t help but scream. The flames penetrated their avatars, passing the unimaginable pain directly to their noumenons. If they were not strong, they would have fainted because of the pain on the spot. ¡°Rectification!¡± the God of Fear said. He didn¡¯t say nonsense such as ¡°No retreating.¡± He just issued his new order coldly, ¡°Prepare for attack.¡± ¡°Since the jellyfish has opened the door, just rush into it,¡± he said. ¡°Rush in, kill him, destroy everything. This is the command of me, the leader of the Alliance of Evil Gods.¡± Chapter 438 Chapter 438: Chapter 148 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Fear didn¡¯t learn modern science from earth, and he never went to the Machinery Realm to specialize in machines, so he couldn¡¯t recognize the means of Sui Xiong. But it didn¡¯t matter. In battles between gods, it was not surprising for gods to use tricks that others couldn¡¯t recognize; that was common. For gods, the important thing wasn¡¯t to recognize the enemies¡¯ tricks but to defeat and even kill the enemies. Reality was not a story, and fighting was not playing cards. If a god couldn¡¯t understand the others¡¯ tricks, of course, there would be some adverse effects on the battle. However, in fact, the effect wasn¡¯t as big as many people thought. At least, the God of Fear had experienced many similar situations. He had been too lazy to count how many times he had defeated his enemies before he had had time to recognize what tricks his enemies had used. This time, he thought that there wouldn¡¯t be an exception. A very powerful means of attack, but I want to see how powerful your attack can be in the face of endless enemies? He thought so, watching the situation of the war indifferently. The evil gods who got the order didn¡¯t directly rush to the gate opened by Sui Xiong in the barrier of the God¡¯s Kingdom. Instead, they used Divine Power to create, or in other words, resurrect a large number of Oracles. Those Oracles would once again gather like a flowing river and rush toward the gate. Of course, it took them some Divine Power, but there were so many gods here. If every god sent out 2,000 to 3,000 Oracles, that would be enough to gather together tens of thousands of Oracles. Just 2,000 to 3,000 Oracles wasn¡¯t a big burden for them. After a few moments, the countless evil Oracles who had gathered together again began to roar, rushing to the gate that Sui Xiong had deliberately opened. What greeted them was the bullet storm that rushed with a whistling sound. But this time, the battle result of the bullet storm was much worse than that of the last one. The evil gods were not stupid. They had recognized that the bullet storm was first of all something powerful like crossbow arrows, so they all added a powerful remote-attack prevention spell to the Oracles. The level of this spell was not high. It was basically a spell that even rookie mages who didn¡¯t officially learn spells could cast. However, when gods used Divine Power to cast it, the effectiveness was greatly enhanced, reaching the height that rookie mages couldn¡¯t even imagine. The remote-attack prevention spell cast by rookie mages could resist one or two arrows shot from light short bows, but the same spell cast by gods was powerful enough to resist the giant crossbow arrows used in siege warfare. It could even resist them several times over. With the protection of this spell, the defense ability of those Oracles was greatly improved. When the high-speed bullets hit them, the bullets seemed to fall into a sticky liquid. The speed of the bullets was greatly reduced, and the power was rapidly decreasing. In spite of that, the explosive power of the bullets suddenly played a role, and the Oracles that rushed to the front were blown up. However, the efficiency of blowing up the enemies couldn¡¯t keep up with the speed of resurrecting the enemies. Everyone could see that the mighty troops of Oracles were gradually approaching, getting closer and closer to the gate on the barrier of the God¡¯s Kingdom. However, Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t worried. He just changed the type of the bullets, smiling. In the next moment, the su su sound was mixed with the strange sound of electrical currents. When those high-speed bullets fell on the bodies of those Oracles who were rushing over in line, the bullets didn¡¯t simply penetrate them; they burst out dazzling electric light, turning into countless electric arcs and jumping around on the enemies. In just one moment, tens of thousands of Oracles who were rushing in the front were blown to ashes. The bullets that could turn into strong electric arcs didn¡¯t stop, and they continued to sweep toward the formation of the enemies. Wherever they arrived, bright electric light appeared, and countless Oracles were electrocuted into black corpses. It was not the patent of the evil gods to use Divine Power to strengthen the effect of spells. Sui Xiong was good at it, too. Most of those Oracles had good spell resistance abilities, and the effect of general lightning bolts on them wasn¡¯t big, but the lightning added with Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power was completely different! Seeing this scene, many evil gods frowned, but some evil gods with particularly rich combat experience laughed. ¡°Good! That¡¯s it!¡± they said. The evil gods once again gathered large Oracle troops and asked them to rush toward the confrontational position that Sui Xiong prepared for them. This was of course not because the evil gods were stupid, but because they had found an opportunity to win. The power of the lightning was indeed strong, but the evil gods could clearly feel that it was because Sui Xiong increased the spell with his Divine Power. How much Divine Power did it take to increase the power of lightning to this point? Of course, although the Void Mask consumed a lot of Divine Power, he could defeat so many gods at a time. In terms of the proportion of Divine Power consumption, the Void Mask definitely made a big profit. But what did it matter? Nearly a hundred evil gods were here. If every evil god spent a little bit Divine Power, the total Divine Power would be strong enough to force this junior god who had only debuted decades ago to spend all his Divine Power. The evil gods didn¡¯t know the old saying that ¡°victories of wars were decided by back-up resources,¡± and they never heard of the sentence ¡°seeing the number of their factories, I know I can¡¯t win against them.¡± These things were said by a gambler from a small country in East Asia. However, they were very clear about the similar principles. The war between gods was rarely determined by the direct battles fought by two real gods. Most of the time, this kind of war would become a long and cruel war of attrition. No matter what means the two sides used, the war was ultimately consuming the Divine Power of each other. There were so many evil gods here. Even if they used 10% of their Divine Power to offset 1% of the Void Mask¡¯s Divine Power, they would surely win the war! After talking for a while, they decided on the strategy. In the next battle, all the evil gods unanimously summoned monsters that had particularly tenacious vitality. Or they simply sent Oracles like Ooze. Those stupid and ugly troops had neither decent attack force nor fast speed. Their only advantage was that they could consume Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power as much as possible in a simple war of attrition. Seeing this scene, the God of Fear slightly tilted his mouth, showing a satisfied smile. Although this is clumsy and stupid behavior, the overall direction is still quite good! Thinking so, he couldn¡¯t help but nod slightly. ¡­ On the other side, the Master of War frowned. ¡°Do you feel it strange?¡± he said to his subordinates. ¡°We all know that the defense of the God¡¯s Kingdom is very strong. If I were the Void Mask, I would have to rely on the strong defense to fight a positional type of warfare. But why does he open a gate on the unbreakable barrier? Doesn¡¯t he bring trouble to himself?¡± The war gods looked at each other, and they finally looked at Augmentin, the God of Strategy. This was their rule. If they couldn¡¯t understand something, they would just ask Augmentin. The God of Strategy carefully watched the situation of the pure war of attrition. He pondered for a moment, and then he said with some uncertainty, ¡°Perhaps¡­ he is only setting traps.¡± ¡°Traps?¡± the God of Battle asked curiously. ¡°The gap between their strength is so large. Are traps meaningful?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about this. But from my point of view, I guess that it is precisely because the gap between the two sides is so large, so he needs to use traps to make up for the difference in strength,¡± the God of Strategy said. ¡°If I were him, I would definitely set a trap that is as strong as possible so that I could strike the enemies heavily at once in order to make up for the gap as much as possible.¡± ¡°You mean that the gate is actually a trap, and it is very dangerous, right?¡± the God of Hunting and Holocaust said, revealing his usual, cruel smile. ¡°I like this! Although the jellyfish makes me sick, what he does is very interesting!¡± ¡°Anyway, direct battles are more interesting!¡± the God of Berserker said, sighing. He took out a sharpening stone and sharpened his own axe wearily. He asked, ¡°When is our turn to fight?¡± The God of Strategy smiled, and he didn¡¯t give the God of Berserker an exact answer. ¡°Anyway, at least not now. Just wait,¡± the God of Strategy said. They waited for more than half a day. ¡­ After changing the type of bullets once more and defeating a large number of evil Oracles, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but frown. He knew that it was impossible for him to go on like this. Although he could kill a large number of Oracles, the battle had become a simple war of attrition. He alone had to fight against so many evil gods, so it was totally impossible for him to win. He looked at the huge box next to him with regret and couldn¡¯t help but shake his head. ¡°After time traveling, others can kill anyone with only a gun. Or they will produce a machine gun, and they definitely can win the whole world. But what happened to me? I even made a damn electromagnetic automatic cannon. As a result, they have found a way to restrain it in such a short time.¡± Sui Xiong said so, but he still had to fight. After all, he had to find a way to solve the problem. Fortunately, he had expected before that he might encounter such a situation, so he had already been prepared. Now, it was time to change his strategy. Sui Xiong looked at the electromagnetic automatic cannon with regret for the last time, then he raised his tentacles to pat on the cannon that looked like a giant rectangular box. The fierce weapon collapsed into countless light spots. He didn¡¯t let the Divine Power that constructed the weapon disappear. Instead, he directed it to re-aggregate and become a huge flamethrower. ¡°If I can¡¯t defeat you in this way, I will use another way!¡± After saying that, Sui Xiong used the flamethrower to spurt out raging flames. The flames turned into a sea of fire in the void, and there were countless figures shaking in the sea of fire. They were the mass-produced Oracle troops again. Compared to that electromagnetic automatic cannon, this kind of mass-produced Oracle needed less consumption. More importantly, they could proliferate on their own. ¡°Is it so great that you have so many people?¡± Sui Xiong said, twitching his lips disdainfully. He hooked his tentacles toward the place where the evil gods gathered, and he said, ¡°Well, if this is a competition of numbers, I will never be afraid of you!¡± Chapter 439 Chapter 439: Chapter 149 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Flames were raging, and the sea of fire was endless. At first glance, what people could see was only burning flames. Up and down, far and near, in all directions, there was a sea of fire that was filled with flames everywhere. Sui Xiong had once ignited raging flames before, and he had used the firepower to produce the mass-produced Oracle troops. However, compared to the flames that he ignited this time, the flames he had ignited before was just a small joke. Just from the perspective of the range, the flames that had been ignited before was at most within a range of 100 miles. However, this time, the range of the sea of fire was more than 1,000 miles, and it was still expanding. This time, Sui Xiong was determined to play his trick to the end; it was called the Burning Army. He released flames madly. He almost wrapped his entire God¡¯s Kingdom with flames, and the flames were constantly spreading. Seeing this scene, all the evil gods changed their facial expressions. The ones who were standing in the front couldn¡¯t help but retreat a few steps. Of course, they were not afraid of fire, but they all knew that there were countless horrible things hidden in the sea of fire. Although those things wouldn¡¯t be able to kill them, it was better to be far away from them. As commanders, it was also conducive to mastering the battle situation when they kept a distance from the front line. The evil gods were good at finding reasons, so they found the right excuse very quickly. They summoned more Oracles and gathered them into a group that seemed like the vast ocean. The Oracles rushed toward the endless sea of fire. Moreover, the evil gods retreated a little further. At the same time, they also commanded the Oracles carefully without showing any trace that they were scared. The God of Fear didn¡¯t care about their small tricks. He looked at the countless Oracles under the command of the evil gods coldly and saw them rushing into the sea of fire. The Oracles were fighting with the strange creatures that were born continuously inside the sea of fire. The Oracles won, or were defeated, or died together with some of those creatures. Then, countless Oracles would follow the previous ones without a pause. Therefore, the God of Fear smiled slightly. Although he wasn¡¯t good at battlefield command, he could judge the current situation with his amazing eyesight. The Oracles of the Void Mask in the sea of fire were increasing, but their speed of increasing couldn¡¯t keep up with the speed at which the evil gods summoned their Oracles. This meant that it was beneficial to his own side to fight a war of attrition. In fact, this was almost a matter, of course. Nearly 100 evil gods gathered on his side. The formation was so powerful that it was surprising. In contrast, Sui Xiong only used his own power to summon a mighty army that could fight directly with the subordinates owned by nearly a hundred gods. That was really scary. At least, after witnessing this war, many gods had secretly included the Void Mask, the God of Development and Progress who hadn¡¯t determined his priesthood officially, into the ranks of the great Divine Powers. Power didn¡¯t rely on others¡¯ praises, nor on bragging, but rather on people¡¯s own strength. The Void Mask showed the power that was comparable to the strength of the great Divine Powers in this battle. He should be positioned to the status that conformed to his strength. In the world of gods, there were no idiots who acted like snobs and habitually asked others to beat them. Among the strongmen who could become gods, there would be a few whose brains were not normal, but there were no true fools. Let alone others, only the evil gods who had been called together by order of the God of Fear had shown considerable calm and reason. They firmly grasped the advantage that they owned more people, so they didn¡¯t take risks resolutely. They relied on this advantage to slowly consume Sui Xiong to death. Of course, Sui Xiong could tell what they meant, but for a time he had no good way to deal with it. It seemed great that one person could defeat one hundred people, but in fact, the one person needed overwhelming and absolute strength. If he had no such strength, he would have to strike the morale of the enemies to make them feel hopeless and escape, and then he could win. If enemies didn¡¯t run away and kept fighting bravely, then even if he was a really powerful person, he would have only one way that led to death. The gap between the combat ability of tigers and the combat ability of dogs was big enough, right? However, if there were hundreds of trained hounds under the command of hunters, they could kill a tiger. If a tiger didn¡¯t escape after seeing hundreds of hounds rushing over, the intelligence of that tiger would be really low. If such a tiger died early, it would help improve the average intelligence level of its race. People followed that principle more seriously. For example, Hero Xiang Yu killed hundreds of enemies before he died. That was a story written by an official historian when his romantic factors asked him to be a literary artist. Everyone knew that it was an impossible story. On the contrary, the episode of when the leader broke his cup as a signal, and 300 executioners rushed into the tent was always scary for any fierce generals to imagine. Of course, Sui Xiong was very strong. If he fought one-on-one battles, among the hundreds of evil gods that had been called together, no more than one-tenth of them could resist his attacks. Only one or two at most could fight with him. If those enemies stood in line to fight him one by one, he was confident all of the hundreds of evil gods would be seriously injured. Even if their mothers were here, they wouldn¡¯t be able to recognize their sons! However, those hundreds of evil gods set up a team, and they acted like that they were going to fight against the final boss in a big dungeon. Therefore, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t stand it. He was so disadvantaged! In those difficult dungeons, the final boss at the end of the game would generally fight with 40 people. However, he had to fight with 100 enemies! A dungeon of 40 people and a dungeon of 100 people were totally different! The guy who wrote this script, come out. I promise I won¡¯t kill you! Sui Xiong complained secretly in his heart, but he didn¡¯t dare to stop his attacks. He tried hard to enhance the flames. He knew that he himself couldn¡¯t really defeat 100 enemies. He wasn¡¯t very arrogant, so he didn¡¯t believe that he could defeat the entire Alliance of Evil Gods all by himself. However, in the face of so many enemies, he still couldn¡¯t help but try to do his best and see where his limits were. ¡°Auscar, do you need help?¡± Javier shouted behind Sui Xiong. ¡°At least, I have a few Oracles.¡± Sui Xiong smiled. With his tentacle shaping like a thumb toward his back, Sui Xiong said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I can still hold out, and the situation is not bad now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t fight alone. After all, you can be regarded as the leader of our alliance!¡± Leonard said with a smile. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, let us spend some efforts too, okay?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh happily. He said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. When I¡¯m really straining, I will ask you to help me!¡± In other words, he didn¡¯t feel strained yet. Although the mass-produced Oracle troops on his side couldn¡¯t resist the enemies anymore, and they were slowly retreating, Sui Xiong always thought that he still had a way to deal with it. The situation was far from the degree of him needing to ask for assistance. While stimulating his Divine Power, he continued to enhance the flames while looking around to find the opportunities for victory. After a while, his eyes lit up. He finally thought of a solution. ¡°Right! Who said that I could only set a fire outside the God¡¯s Kingdom!¡± Clapping his tentacles, Sui Xiong laughed. He used his Divine Power to set raging flames in the void that was close to the outer barrier in the interior of the God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°What?¡± Morani asked questioningly. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Supplementing my strength,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. As he spoke, countless of mass-produced Oracles appeared in the sea of fire inside the God¡¯s Kingdom. They completely ignored the barrier of the God¡¯s Kingdom, and they easily crossed through the barrier. They went to the sea of fire outside and quickly joined the front line. With the joining of this new force, the mass-produced Oracles who were slowly retreating outside finally stabilized their battle line. The battle became one of tug-of-war once again. ¡°How is this possible?!¡± the evil gods who were commanding the battle couldn¡¯t believe their eyes. ¡°How come the enemies have increased so suddenly?¡± This was totally unreasonable. The sea of fire released by the Void Mask was just that large. Therefore, the total number of Oracles that could be nurtured in the sea of fire at the same time was that big also. How could the number suddenly increase so much? They soon found that some particularly powerful individuals appeared among the Oracles of the Void Mask. They were naturally the Oracles of the elite level. He had been busy with enhancing the flames, so he hadn¡¯t had spare power to summon them before. However, when he ignited the sea of fire inside the God¡¯s Kingdom now, it was much easier to summon them here. With them as the core of the battle, the mass-produced Oracles would enhance their combat abilities more, and they could stabilize the situation. Moreover, they slowly moved the battle line toward the outer side. At this time, the advantages of the Burning Army were revealed. As long as the front line moved forward, the sea of fire could spread forward, igniting all the wreckage on the battlefield and then turning them into fuel for the sea of fire. Because of that, the flames could burn more vigorously, and the mass-produced Oracles who were nurtured inside were also stronger and more in number. Just like snowballing, as long as it began, it would roll down, turning bigger and bigger until it couldn¡¯t be stopped! Looking at the battle line that was gradually moving forward, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but smile. If the evil gods didn¡¯t hurry to think of a solution, the victory of this positional warfare would belong to him! Chapter 440 Chapter 440: Chapter 150 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Although the evil gods were not as powerful as Sui Xiong, they had a lot of fighting experience. Sui Xiong could see the changes in the war situation, and of course, they could see those changes too. Watching all the Oracles being unable to hold back the situation and seeing the front lines slowly being pushed back, they stood there dumbfounded and could not believe their eyes. ¡°How could this be possible?¡± ¡°Even if he has great Divine Powers, this is impossible to do!¡± ¡°Stop complaining and work harder!¡± Under the reminder of some relatively sober-minded gods, the evil gods acted instantly to use their Divine Powers and summoned more Oracles as soon as possible. They knew well the personality of the God of Fear. He would not mind if they were unable to win with all their efforts, but if they still had power and refused to use it, or they were afraid to risk their necks and thus hindered the military operations, they would be punished severely. It was not surprising for some of them to be executed as punishment. Nearly all of the one hundred evil gods here were afraid of death. In other words, if they were not afraid of death at all, they would not heed the orders of the God of Fear and participate in the war. When they thought of the possibility of death, they were all in a panic and rushed to dedicate themselves to summon a larger number of Oracle troops. ¡°These guys!¡± The God of Fear looked from afar, frowned and criticized them discontentedly. Unlike good gods, most of the evil gods were selfish. Even if they were under high pressure of the God of Fear, they would also try their best to shirk work or responsibility. They would not use their true abilities and work hard until there was no way out for them. For example, all of them looked fierce as if they had used up all of their strength and many of them even looked pale and were shaky as if they had overdrawn their Divine Power. In fact, if their lives really were really in danger, even those who were in the worst situation could show powerful means or struggle hard to flee. Ah! Although those good gods are disgusting and sentimental, at least they are more reliable than those evil gods in battle. The God of Fear sighed deeply but could do nothing. If the God of Fear were a good god, he would never control his subordinates by means of threats or terror. And if he abandoned his troops of the evil gods, he would not know how much energy and time he would have had to spend in order to bring together such a large group of subordinates. So although the evil gods had some problems with their fighting will and discipline, they had more advantages than the good gods because they could be controlled by violence. At least, there were no such big alliances among the good gods. Although the number of the good gods, evil gods, and neutral gods was roughly the same, the scale of the holy pedigree or alliance of good gods was much smaller than that of the evil and neutral gods. In a larger holy pedigree or alliance, the leaders were always the evil gods or neutral gods. The reason lay in this: The God of Fear was not in a hurry to ask his subordinates to fight for their lives, for he knew that it was not the time to risk their lives. Despite the fierce battle, it was just that the two sides were exploring each other. If both sides only sent the Oracles to fight in the battle between gods, it was like two superpowers on the earth supporting some small countries to fight. At first glance, the war situation would seem very fierce and many people would either be killed or injured. But for the superpowers behind those small countries, it was just a matter of money. Unless the superpowers participated in the battle and fought with their enemies, battles like this were just for show. But apparently, the thinking of the God of Fear was totally different from that of Sui Xiong. The God of Fear thought battles like this were tempting, but Sui Xiong did not think so. Ah! A little trouble! Those guys seem to try their best to fight¡­ Watching the evil gods summon a larger number of Oracles troops to push the front line back to Sui Xiong¡¯s side, Sui Xiong could not help but frown. He was more agitated now. But as everyone who had been exposed to artists knew, most artists were very meticulous in their professional fields, and they often made big differences in their lives. The most annoying thing for them was to dawdle backwards and forwards. Sui Xiong was no exception. The most hated thing in his life was this meaningless procrastination and delay. If one had to venture in the world, they would inevitably meet with danger. But even if they were met with a revengeful murder, they would die as soon as the knife stabbed into their body. But if they did not die, they would be able to live for a long time. So, how could they dawdle on like this? Was this a bargain in the market or a friendly chat among neighborhood aunts? Didn¡¯t they feel bored? So Sui Xiong became more and more agitated and almost went to the edge of an outbreak. He frequently scanned the one hundred evil gods and wondered about how to do to deal with them. Soon, he found an opportunity. A strong evil god with a monkey¡¯s head and a turtle¡¯s shell did not know what was going on and stood in the front. Looking carefully, it seemed that he wanted to get closer in order to command his Oracles that looked like walking turtles with bull¡¯s heads to fight well and orderly. This did not matter. Really, it did not matter at all. Nothing else mattered except for that he had stood in the front. He had walked a little bit forward, and that was enough for Sui Xiong to deal with him! Sui Xiong thought for a moment, and his mouth raised slightly, showing a vicious smile. Unconsciously, a red tentacle that had turned into a flame crept through the whole sea of fire and came to the front line of the battlefield. This position was not far from the evil god who stood in the front line. But it was not close enough. Sui Xiong thought for a moment and commanded a large number of Oracles to launch a fierce attack. Thousands of Oracles with high speed emerged from the sea of fire and rushed to the enemy¡¯s battle line. All of a sudden, a gap appeared in the battle line of the evil god¡¯s Oracles. Then a large number of mass-produced Oracles entered this gap as if they were going to break through in a very short time. The evil gods did not care because the same thing had happened several times before. The first time, they were a little worried, but now, even the evil god with a monkey¡¯s head and a turtle shell was not afraid. But they did not know that this time was different! When the troops of the evil gods were slightly broken down, the mass-produce Oracles rushed to the strange evil god with blazing flame. A long rope suddenly stretched out from the flame and fell on the evil god¡¯s head. The evil god reacted immediately. By the way, his official name was the ¡°God of Freshwater Fish Monsters and Fishing Obstacles¡± and his clergies included small and middle-sized Fish Monsters and cursing the fishermen who fished in freshwater. Although these two clergies were not so good, once they combined with each other, they were equal to a weak Divine Power. As the evil god saw the rope approaching, his first thought was ¡°what was the origin of this strange Oracle?¡± Because of this thought, he did not pay too much attention to it and did not try his best to defend or evade. He just used his Divine Powers to form a shield to block and was ready to intercept the strange Oracle and make a good study of it. If Sui Xiong knew what was he was thinking, he would laugh and say, ¡°That¡¯s what I think too.¡± The thing that looked like a rope was nothing else but a tentacle of Sui Xiong. The tentacle easily pierced the divine shield and wrapped the God of Freshwater Fish Monsters and Fishing Obstacles tightly without waiting for the other evil gods to save him. A black flash of lightning suddenly came and rushed to catch up, but eventually, it slowed down a little bit and could only hit the solid barrier of the shelter. It failed to stop the God of Freshwater Fish Monsters and Fishing Obstacles from being caught by Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacle and dragged to the shelter. ¡°Brother, is this the guy that you want to deal with?¡± Sui Xiong caught the God of Freshwater Fish Monsters and Fishing Obstacles alive and was in a good mood. His incarnation took the God of Freshwater Fish Monsters and Fishing Obstacles tied up like a dumpling to his friends. ¡°No,¡± Yorgaardman glanced at him and said. ¡°This guy is the God of Freshwater Fish Monsters and Fishing Obstacles, and he is not powerful or important.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment, but he reconsidered for a while. He suddenly realized that Yorgaardman was right. This guy could be caught by him so easily, so he should not be some powerful guy. After all, he was just a second-rate god. ¡°Javier, do you know any enemies of this second-rate god?¡± He turned to him and asked, ¡°I can sell the second-rate gods to enemies and make sure that the price is fair and reasonable.¡± Javier was stunned for a moment and finally realized who the second-rate god was. He could not help but laugh. Then he thought carefully and said, ¡°Perhaps the God of Fishermen is his enemy but mostly because the God of Fishermen had bad relations with the sea monsters. This guy¡­ is really not qualified to make enemies with anyone.¡± ¡°The God of Fishermen?¡± Sui Xiong muttered to himself, pondered for a while and then suddenly realized something. ¡°Isn¡¯t he a giant god? Oh my god! How dare this second-rate god offend such a giant god who can fight so well?¡± Many gods had combat effectiveness beyond their deities, and Sui Xiong was an obvious example. The dragon gods and giant gods both belonged to gods whose combat effectiveness were beyond their deities. The God of Fishermen was a giant god with weak Divine Powers. But from the fact that he had fought with the Goddess of Ocean several times, we could see that he was very powerful. After Ariel became the goddess of the ocean, she talked with him specifically and signed a nonaggression treaty with him. This could show his strength and deterrence. How dare the second-rate god that had been caught by Sui Xiong offend the God of Fishermen? Why wasn¡¯t he killed by the fishing rod of the God of Fishermen? Sui Xiong was curious and wanted to ask for more details but was interrupted by an angry roar. Looking at the battlefield, the God of Fear was so angry that he raised his sword with both hands and waved it towards Sui Xiong, issuing the order of attack. Chapter 441 Chapter 441: Chapter 151 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio According to the original plan of the God of Fear, it was not the time for a general offensive. The battles between gods also had a common routine. Generally speaking, they would first send as many Oracles as possible to weaken enemies¡¯ Divine Powers. When their enemies were tired and weak, gods would participate in the battle and beat their enemies in a short amount of time. The reason why this method was called a common routine was that it was efficient and had a good chance of winning. But this common routine would change according to the war situations. For example, now. The God of Freshwater Fish Monsters and Fishing Obstacles, who was nicknamed a second-rate god by Sui Xiong, was trapped by a powerful tentacle that appeared suddenly. The God of Fear could not rescue him in time and could not help but sigh deeply despite his great anger. He knew that things could not go on as planned. His original plan was to make the evil gods besiege the shelter. No matter how solid the barrier of the God¡¯s Kingdom was, it was impossible to prevent so many evil gods from breaking in. Hundreds of evil gods attacked together, along with the holy pedigree of the God of Fear and the God of War. No matter how well the Void Mask had prepared and how powerful he was, he could only be defeated. When a group of evil gods besieged a God¡¯s Kingdom, they did not need any special tactics because they were powerful when they attacked together. In fact, the God of Fear did not worry about winning or losing. He was worried about whether he could catch the jellyfish and not let him run away or not. But Sui Xiong actually opened a door on the God¡¯s Kingdom and sent a large number of Oracles to begin fighting with the enemies, and that broke apart the plan of the God of Fear. The original siege turned into a positional fight, and that made the God of Fear who had been accustomed to mastering everything feel a little unhappy. But luckily, he adjusted his plan just in time. This situation was the most common one in the gods¡¯ battles and everyone¡¯s Divine Powers were exhausted during the war. He intended to ask the evil gods to fight with the Void Mask and his companions for a year or half a year or more so as to slowly consume their Divine Powers. When both sides were tired, he would lead the elite troops who had been trained for a long time to break through the shelter and win a brilliant victory. However, he never thought that Sui Xiong could send a large number of Oracles to launch a surprise attack through the sea of fire and immediately catch an evil god alive. In this way, the evil gods were not only demoralized, but also everyone else was endangered too. Therefore, they would be more cautious in the next battle and wouldn¡¯t want to show any flaws. If they showed any flaws in the battle, they would not have any chances to win. In they continued fighting in such a way, the scheduled plan of consuming the Divine Powers of the Void Mask would be in vain. If the God of Fear could not give enough pressure to his enemy, the depletion of his enemies¡¯ Divine Powers would be much slower. Of course, it would be depleted anyway. Maybe after one hundred years or a much longer time of fighting, the Divine Powers of the Void Mask would be exhausted eventually, and the God of Fear would win. But the God of Fear could not wait for that long! Not only because he was impatient but also because he dared not wait that long. The Void Mask, who was a mysterious jellyfish god, grew so fast! From his first appearance in the world, he had made lots of friends and formed an alliance. He also trained three god followers, and that only took him several decades. Maybe after one hundred years, Sui Xiong would step into the level of a great Divine Power and create a lot of new Oracles. Or perhaps he could even form a powerful holy pedigree. What¡¯s worse, he may even become a banner of the good gods and form an alliance with them. In that case, the God of Fear had no chance of winning. Of course, he could choose to wait and dawdle for a time. Once he found that there was a growing trend in the powers of the Void Mask, he could launch a sudden attack and perhaps this would be the most secure choice. But the God of Fear would not like doing so! He felt if he did so, he would not have the advantage to win. That was impossible! As a symbol of fear, the God of Fear had to take an absolute advantage. So after careful consideration, he made a bold decision to launch a general offensive. At a command, even if the evil gods were reluctant to move forward and worried, they had to move forward slowly. In order to ensure their safety, they even summoned as many as Oracles to protect themselves. Many evil gods even connected their Divine Powers to form a temporary whole so as not to be attacked by the strange jellyfish. Behind them, the Fear God System was moving forward slowly, one by one toward the shelter. The War God System would certainly not lag behind, and their huge warship carrying their combat-able soldiers also moved forward slowly and steadily, following behind the camp of the evil gods. Therefore, there was a shocking scene on the battlefield. There were countless Oracle troops just like mountains moving toward the endless sea of fire slowly; and there were a few groups of evil gods with surprising momentum who walked in the middle, just like giants pushing the mountains aside. Finally, there was the Fear God System and the War God System; one on the left and the other in the right. They followed the group of the evil gods and fought for them. Facing the countless Oracles troops fighting for death toward the sea of fire, the burning sea of fire could not resist anymore. Although mass-produced Oracles came from all directions and used different means to attack madly, it was difficult to shake the position of the evil gods. This time, the Alliance of Evil Gods was determined to break through the shelter in one breath. Those Oracles were not only more in number than before but also were supported by gods. Their fighting effectiveness had improved greatly; it had exceeded the limit that the Burning Army could deal with. Sui Xiong saw something wrong in the war situation, and after some consideration, he sighed deeply. He used his Divine Powers to take back the countless mass-produced Oracles and the vast sea of fire outside the God¡¯s Kingdom. All of this was pure flame energy and could be transformed into Divine Power. Watching the vast sea of fire and countless mass-produced Oracles disappear slowly, Sui Xiong¡¯s momentum had increased a lot. His friends were stunned for a while. Although transforming all kinds of energy into Divine Powers was something that almost every god could do, people had never seen such a scene. Sui Xiong¡¯s transformation speed was so fast, and his efficiency was very high. ¡°It¡¯s Auscar! It¡¯s clever to do that¡­ No, fantastic!¡± Morani praised. ¡°It looks like it¡¯s time for a decisive battle. Will you refuse our help now?¡± Sui Xiong returned and smiled, ¡°Why would I! I¡¯m not a fool. I would never do such a thing as die for reputation.¡± All the gods laughed. They were dressed neatly and were ready to fight. This time, even the nonmilitary ¡®celebration juvenile¡¯ Javier had changed into a light armor and took a colorful harp in his hand and a bayonet to his waist. ¡°I¡¯m not surprised that you can use a harp, but how can use a sword?¡± Morani, an old companion of him asked curiously. ¡°I¡¯ve known you for so many years, but I¡¯ve never known that you could use a sword.¡± ¡°Just pretend to be brave,¡± Javier smiled stiffly and said. ¡°I¡¯ll use magic to assist you later, and to be honest, that¡¯s all I can do. When the battle is over, I¡¯ll learn how to fight with you, and at that time I won¡¯t be lazy!¡± ¡°You can¡¯t say that. It¡¯s very bad to say that before a battle,¡± Wall who was a mercenary before reminded him. ¡°I have a friend who was much stronger than me. Later, we took on a very difficult but well-paid task, and he was very happy at that time. He said that when he finished the task, he would have enough money to retire to his hometown and get married. Guess what happened to him later?¡± Javier¡¯s smile grew stiffer and stiffer, ¡°Is he dead?¡± ¡°In our mission, we met a mad mage who tried to open the abyssal passage. Although the mad mage was killed by us, my friend was invaded by the monster from the abyss. After being invaded, he became so powerful that he almost destroyed us. At the very moment, he suppressed the monster in his body with his last bit of will power, and we seized the time to blow him to ashes without even a piece of him left.¡± Javier¡¯s smile was almost frozen on his face. ¡°So don¡¯t say words like ¡®what I am going to do after a battle¡¯ before a battle.¡± Wall patted him on his shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s not good luck!¡± Javier spat and whispered, ¡°I¡¯ll just provide you with some auxiliary spells, and that should not be dangerous, right?¡± ¡°Rest assured,¡± Arcaian, who had just become a god recently laughed and said. ¡°You see, the only two gods whose clergies are healing are here. We will look after you, and even if you get injured, we can rescue you.¡± After saying that, Arcaian turned back and said to the god of healing who was silent as a crystal, ¡°Do you agree with my words?¡± The God of Healing looked at him with calm eyes and then looked at Javier. She seemed to think for a moment and then nodded slightly. Seeing this scene, Javier felt more worried. ¡°What are you worrying about?¡± Leonard sighed and asked. ¡°When we began to fight, those who are in the front lines like us are in real danger. If even you need treatment, I¡¯m afraid that the whole army will have been destroyed. If that¡¯s the case, then why would you still need treatment. Just run as quickly as you can!¡± Javier opened his mouth wide and did not know what to say. Yorgaardman stretched out his hands, grabbed Javier¡¯s cheeks and moved his face from left to right. Then he pulled up gently, turning Javier¡¯s stiff face into a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t look so sad. You are the God of Celebration and Pleasure. Just laugh!¡± The God of Justice was still ragged without armor as he took out his battle axe slowly. ¡°Don¡¯t make any mistakes in the celebration of victory later!¡± After saying that, Yorgaardman strode over to Sui Xiong and patted his shoulder with a smile. ¡°This time, we brothers are fighting together, and we must kill them all!¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± Sui Xiong nodded, and his tentacles turned into frightening weapons with cool-colored lights. ¡°We will beat the sh*t out of them!¡± Chapter 442 Chapter 442: Chapter 152 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Watching the Oracle troops who played as vanguards getting closer and closer to the shelter of the God¡¯s Kingdom, Yorgaardman, with a cold flash in his eyes, suggested, ¡°Why don¡¯t we go out to kill them and make them cow into submission?¡± He was a typical militant who advocated attack as the best defense, but he had not established his kingdom and church yet. He only wanted to be free to venture the world with his sword. At this moment, facing the countless enemies attacking together, he was unwilling to defend passively. In his view, defense was like being beaten up, and it was better for him to rush out and kill those enemies. After listening to Yorgaardman¡¯s words, Sui Xiong¡¯s mind flashed and came up with an idea. It was just¡­ this idea was a bit risky. Even if he was very audacious, he could not help but think carefully. After thinking it over, he was still not sure and so told his plan to Yorgaardman secretly. ¡°Your plan is perfect!¡± After listening to Sui Xiong¡¯s plan, Yorgaardman was stunned for a moment. Then he could not help but sigh. ¡°If your plan were carried out successfully, you would gain a lot of benefits, and your momentum would increase a lot. But are sure you can make it?¡± ¡°It should be possible for me to do so. But the problem is that someone may cause trouble for me.¡± Sui Xiong sighed. ¡°If I am going to execute my plan, I will try my best. And if someone stabs me at that time, I will be injured, and my plan might fail.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I will prevent them from making trouble for you,¡± Yorgaardman said without thinking. ¡°I can stop them for a while.¡± Sui Xiong looked at him carefully and shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s too dangerous. Our enemy has two powerful gods!¡± ¡°It¡¯s because of those two powerful gods that I say that I can only stop them for a moment.¡± Yorgaardman smiled indifferently. ¡°If our enemy had one powerful god, I¡¯d rush over and kill them all!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment. Then he remembered that his elder brother Yorgaardman was a powerful militant. Although Yorgaardman was a good man, he was definitely not a gentle man. There was a poem that was widely circulated on the internet that could describe his personality well. Ten years of sharpening a sword whose blade had not been shown to the world. Today, this sword had been shown to the world, and it would help those who were treated unfairly. If it were not for the two powerful gods, two holy pedigrees and the terror forces of the Alliance of Evil Gods, Sui Xiong would have screamed and wielded his axe to kill them all¡­ Thinking about this, he could not help but laugh. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll just depend on you then.¡± ¡°Rest assured!¡± Yorgaardman patted his chest and said. ¡°I¡¯ll make it for you!¡± After discussing with Yorgaardman, Sui Xiong took a deep breath and began to prepare. The next thing that he was going to do was very dangerous, and he had to be prepared well. Otherwise, even if he would not lose his life, it was inevitable for him to lose honor. What mattered most in fighting was morale, so he had to succeed! He prepared carefully, but the evil gods did not know anything of his preparations. They still followed the Oracle troops and moved slowly toward the shelter. Because of the absolute advantage of the forces, the evil gods were determined to fight slowly and steadily this time. Wherever Oracle troops went, they would first deploy a defensive front to ensure that no positions would be broken through by sudden attacks. As long as this could ensure their safety, dragging down the marching speed was just a small matter. It took about half an hour for the Oracle troops to reach the front of the shelter. Some of the Oracles had come to the area where ordinary spells could work. But they did not rush to attack. Instead, they put forward their defensive position in a leisurely manner and moved forward slowly. They were just like hedgehogs with some peculiarities. With every step they made, they shrank their bodies and showed their spikes. Then they continued to crawl and shrink which all looked pretty clumsy. But there was no denying that this clumsy approach really worked. When the Oracle who was on the front line came almost within reach of the shelter barrier, the door that still existed opened suddenly and a brilliant green light shone from it. The evil gods had made preparations before and used their strongest defenses immediately. At that time, all kinds of lights rose around them, covering them as well as the surrounding group of Oracles. It was as if countless light curtains were connected together. There was no doubt that the effect of the defenses was very powerful. Even if Sui Xiong attacked again, he might be unable to take advantage of the situation. However, Sui Xiong was not going to attack them. The green light flew into Void City and changed into a huge jellyfish even bigger than the whole kingdom. Standing on the ground and looking up, people could see green all over the place. They could see nothing but green light flashing, and it made people feel dizzy. The evil gods were stunned and retreated subconsciously. Even the God of Fear and the God of War could not help but lead their followers to retreat. The Void Mask suddenly became so strong. Was he going to fight to the death?¡± Everyone remembered that the Void Mask raged and incarnated as a giant beast, killing two gods because his Archbishop was killed. Now, he turned into a giant beast again, and he seemed more powerful this time. How could everyone not be wary of him? But unexpectedly, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t attack the evil gods. He just spread his body out like a huge piece of leather and wrapped the Oracle troops summoned by the evil gods. He just swallowed thousands of Oracle troops in one gulp. All the gods stared at the scene with their eyes and mouths wide open. Even the gods who were watching the war in the Pantheon were stunned. ¡°Explode!¡± The God of Fear firstly responded, roared and gave orders. At the command, the gods of the evil alliance understood what to do and blew up the Oracles swallowed by Sui Xiong. As a consumable, most of the Oracles had the function of self-detonation, but few of them could concentrate on self-detonation like the white and black Oracles created by Sui Xiong. Now the number of the Oracles swallowed by Sui Xiong was more than one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand. Even if they were not professional self-detonation balls and they did not shout out a slogan that even ghosts would feel afraid after hearing, as long as they were blown up together, the energy they would emit would be very powerful. It was enough to describe the energy using the word ¡°earth-shaking.¡± Minimally, it was as terrible as Mars hitting the earth; largely it could blow up the whole holy pedigree. But in the next moment, the gods of the evil alliance changed their faces. They could not get in touch with their Oracles! ¡°How¡­ how come?¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t I contact my Oracles?¡± ¡°My Divine Powers¡­ I can¡¯t sense their existence¡­¡± ¡°What should I do?¡± For a while, those evil gods were all in a panic, but Sui Xiong shook violently in the air. His body began to tremble while slowly shrinking as if he was trying to digest those Oracles. Seeing this scene, the God of Fear could not stand it anymore. He jumped up with a roar and turned into a black gust of air rushing toward Sui Xiong. But before he could rush to Sui Xiong, he was blocked by a golden light and could not move forward. Moreover, the power of the golden light was obviously much stronger than he was. After blocking him, it could force him to retreat slowly. Only a few seconds later, the black gust of air shook violently, and it was evident that it was unable to resist and was going to be defeated. The God of War shook his head on the huge Dragon Warship and pouted, but he did not stand by. Instead, he pulled out his sword and threw it out. The sword turned into a red light with a slight shock in the air and came to the battlefield where the golden light and the black gust of air were fighting. In a flash, it rushed into the golden light and black gust of air and separated them. The black gust of air refused to stop and wanted to fight again, but when it saw that the red light was only a barrier with no intention of assisting, it turned back into the God of Fear again. His face was full of unwillingness. The golden light did not retreat but remained in place, confronting the red light. ¡°Yorgaardman, do you want to fight against us two?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°That¡¯s really your style! But are you sure that you can win against us two?¡± ¡°How can you know if I don¡¯t try.¡± ¡°Haha! If you really wanted to fight with us, you would not have let the God of Fear go just now.¡± ¡°Hmph!¡± Two powerful gods confronted each other, and the evil gods on the ground dared not to act rashly. Even their majesty, the God of Fear, the leader of the evil alliance, was defeated just now. What could they do? Run towards death? This gave Sui Xiong plenty of time. About half a minute later, the huge jellyfish shook violently and turned into a green light, flying back to the God¡¯s Kingdom. Then the golden light that was incarnated by the God of Justice flew back too, leaving a temporary pause for the brief confrontation between the two powerful gods. As soon as Yorgaardman returned to the kingdom, he turned into his human form and asked in a hurry, ¡°How about you? Can you digest those Divine Powers?¡± The green light was spinning in the air but did not turn into the form of a jellyfish. Then Sui Xiong¡¯s voice came from inside, ¡°Too many Divine Powers¡­ I¡¯m a little overfed.¡± ¡°Overfed?¡± ¡°Just now, I swallowed those Oracles all in order to prevent the evil gods from making them explode, but I haven¡¯t been able to digest them all¡­¡± Yorgaardman was relieved. Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t been able to digest them all; at least he could digest some. It was just a matter of time. That was enough. ¡°This time you were so majestic!¡± Javier came up and said with a smile, ¡°You swallowed at least two hundred thousand Oracles this time. No god has broken your record up to now.¡± The green light rotated awkwardly and laughed proudly. Their laughter was bright and happy, full of the joy of victory. It echoed not only over the whole God¡¯s Kingdom but also spread to the outside of the kingdom, to the ears of the evil gods and to the heart of every god who was watching this war. Chapter 443 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There was a placed called ¡°Lion Camel Ridge¡± in a famous Chinese novel Journey to the West, and three atrocious monsters lived on the Lion Camel Ridge. The third monster was a big Roc bird who was very clever and cunning. He was not only very powerful but also had the great ability to fly ninety thousand miles. He was one of the strongest monsters who had truly threatened the Monkey King¡¯s life on the way to the west. The second monster was a white elephant with infinite strength and great combat effectiveness. But the leader of Lion Camel Ridge was a green lion whose offensive and defensive power was not very high. The greatest ability of the green lion was swallowing the sky with its big mouth and eating a lot of things. According to the boasting of some demons, the green lion could swallow ten thousand soldiers in one mouthful. Maybe this ability was not important for the strong, but it was the most powerful means of the green lion, and it had also helped the green lion to become the leader of Lion Camel Ridge. Eating, at all times and in all countries, was considered an important ability even in the immortal world. Watching Sui Xiong swallow up all the Oracle troops summoned by the Alliance of Evil Gods and digest them all, the evil gods could not help but feel frightened. Even the gods who had watched the battle also felt very scared, especially those who had contradicted Sui Xiong. ¡°This guy¡­ is so powerful!¡± Lefon, the God of Orcs laughed bitterly and said. ¡°His big mouth is so horrible!¡± ¡°The most powerful thing is that he can cut off the control of the evil gods to the Oracles and digest at least two hundred thousand Oracles in such a short time!¡± Wuther, the God of Human Race, who had always been calm, could not help but stare at Sui Xiong. ¡°How on earth did he do that?¡± Several eyes looked at Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, which made him feel quite uncomfortable. ¡°Why do you all look at me like that? I¡¯m just helping him to stop those who want to make trouble for him. How would I know how he¡¯s so powerful?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± After hearing Yorgaardman¡¯s insincere words, all the gods turned their heads wisely and stopped looking at him. They did not believe in his words, but seeing that he was going to have an outburst, they were afraid of provoking him again. Once he was provoked, he would hit all the gods¡¯ heads with his axe. Yorgaardman could see their attitude clearly, but since they had turned their heads already, even if he was unhappy, he could not chop people with his axe. He viciously looked around and finally stared at the God of Fear. ¡°Hey! How about a fight?¡± The God of Fear frowned and did not answer. ¡°Coward! You dare to make trouble for my brother, but you dare not fight with me!¡± The God of Fear squinted menacingly but still did not answer. Yorgaardman stopped talking nonsense and jumped up with his axe, slashing the God of Fear directly. ¡°Damn!¡± The God of Fear waved his two-handed sword, put his axe aside and shouted angrily, ¡°Are you mad? Do you really think that I¡¯m afraid of you?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care whether you are afraid or not. Let¡¯s just fight!¡± Therefore, the Pantheon was in chaos. The God of Justice and the God of Fear were fighting fiercely, and all the gods who were watching their fight felt very weird. Everyone in the Pantheon used their Message-Sending Clones that had little power. Even if Yorgaardman took the upper hand and chopped them to death with his axe, it would not show that he was powerful. There were also some thoughtful and kind gods who gave likes to the practice of the God of Justice. It should be noted that the power of the God of Fear was rooted in fear, of which people¡¯s fear toward him was the biggest source. If he was defeated by the God of Justice in the public eyes of all the gods in the Pantheon and was even cut down to the ground, his terrible image would be discounted! However, they could think about this and so did those powerful gods. So the God of Justice and the God of Fear only fought for a short time, and then the God of War stood up and became a peacemaker between them. No matter how powerful Yorgaardman was, he could not win against two gods who were attacking together. Watching the God of War clearly show an attitude of stopping their fighting, Yorgaardman snorted and returned to his seat with his axe. He also threw an insulting gesture at the God of Fear and said, ¡°Wait and see!¡± The God of Fear was very angry, but he dared not answer. He was afraid that the God of Justice would seize the opportunity to fight with him in the public eye. His family knew his own abilities. He could not win against the God of Justice. Thousands of years ago, he had fought with the God of Justice secretly, and at that time, he had exhausted all of his means. Still, he failed to withstand the axe of the God of Justice, and finally, he had to flee. This was the biggest shame in his life, and it had been kept secret. Over the years, he had always regarded the God of Justice as his number one enemy and had practiced means of restraining the God of Justice. However, to his dismay, thousands of years had passed, and although his strength had increased, the strength of the God of Justice had increased even more. He could not even resist for a moment in a confrontation with the God of Justice. If it were not for the help of the God of War, he would have been defeated. This depressed the God of Fear and made him lose confidence and a lot of fighting spirit. Since he could not win against the God of Justice anyway, it did not matter too much for him to launch an attack on the Void Mask. It was true that he could break into the shelter, but with the protection of the God of Justice, he could never kill the Void Mask. If the jellyfish fled back to the Main Plane, who could kill him? On the contrary, if he really made the jellyfish mad, the jellyfish would act in disregard of its identity to kill his followers and erase the God of Fear¡¯s belief all over the world. The God of Fear had limited followers, and he did not care about his followers at all. But he knew that many of his followers and the gods in the alliance of the evil gods cared much about the followers and church. If he really fell out with the green jellyfish, the jellyfish would wave its tentacles all over the world to detect his followers and swallow them all once it found them. Maybe after three or five years, the Alliance of Evil Gods would be scattered. Those evil gods would send their incarnations one by one to kneel in front of the Void Mask and beg for mercy. At that time, the alliance of the God of Fear that had been accumulated for so many years would naturally disappear. This battle was obviously a failure. Thinking about this, he could not help but feel nervous and began to retreat. However, after watching Sui Xiong swallow up two hundred thousand Oracles in one mouthful, not only the God of Fear, but also the gods in the Alliance of Evil Gods wanted to retreat for a long time. The power of Oracles was relatively weak compared with gods, but when the number of the Oracles was very large, their powers could not be ignored. Against two hundred thousand Oracle troops, even powerful gods may be unable to kill them all. But the Void Mask just swallowed them up just like that. In the later battle, would he catch someone and swallow them up? Then would he burp and praise, ¡°Crisp! Tastes just like chicken?¡± Many evil gods had the habit of eating people, but no evil gods wanted to be eaten. So when Sui Xiong¡¯s laughter came, the whole battle fell into a strange silence. Although the Alliance of Evil Gods had numerical strength, none of them dared to say anything. They even stopped moving and refused to move forward. Sui Xiong, who had swallowed up two hundred thousand Oracle troops, had really calmed the battlefield! Chapter 444 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After about three or five minutes of silence, the army of the Evil Alliance moved forward again. This time, the battle was led by the Oracle troops of the Fear God System. And the number of the Oracle troops was close to 20,000. Actually, 20,000 Oracles was an amazing number. But compared with the number of more than 200,000 just now, the troops of 20,000 Oracles in total seemed a little small and shabby. It made people feel that the evil gods were weak in military power. On the other side, Sui Xiong, Morani and Leonard, who had really led the army in battle, frowned at the same time. Compared with the last batch of Oracles that was defeated by Sui Xiong, the number of Oracles this time was small, but the troop¡¯s quality had improved too much. The strength of Oracles lay not only in their own strength, but also in the gods behind them. At the crucial moment, gods could give Oracles Divine Power to help increase their strength greatly. The gods behind the previous batches of Oracles were those with weak Divine Powers. Even the most powerful ones only got mid-level Divine Powers. When the war came, they could only offer very limited Divine Powers to Oracles. Although the previous number was large, it represented nothing. Even the legendary masters could kill these weak Oracles with ease. But in this batch of Oracles, the worst ones had a god with mid-level Divine Powers.Some Oracles even followed those strong gods who were the direct subordinates of the powerful God of Fear. Although the number of them was not much, they could get a powerful divine blessing at the critical moments. If one sent the legendary masters to fight in this battle, they would be killed in a minute without any chance of rescue¡­ ¡°Can you swallow another mouthful?¡± Morani asked Sui Xiong, who was still green. The green light shook several times, and then Sui Xiong said, ¡°It¡¯s a little difficult¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s a no,¡± Morani sighed and said. ¡°Close the door of the God¡¯s Kingdom. Let¡¯s prepare for the battle.¡± ¡°Why? Wouldn¡¯t it be better to fight in one place?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°I think it¡¯s much more convenient to fight in one place than to fight everywhere!¡± Morani looked at him then laughed. ¡°How foolish they would be if they were going to fight from all sides. Nothing would be better than that. Your God¡¯s Kingdom is very strong. It was not too difficult to break through by concentrating on one point. However, if you dispersed your power, it would take you ten or eight years to fight in vain!¡± Sui Xiong realized that he had asked a silly question. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Then he exerted his Divine Power to turn the temporary portal into a solid divine barrier. It also meant that he gave up his intention to fight again. Seeing this, the morale of the evil gods had risen a little. This time, without further orders from the God of Fear, they quickened their pace and rushed to the front of the Sanctuary and attacked the solid divine barrier. As Morani said before, these evil gods did not separate and fight for each other, but instead united to launch a powerful attack against the God¡¯s Kingdom. Because Sui Xiong¡¯s kidnapping of the thousands of soldiers was too shocking, none of the other soldiers were willing to get closer and instead attacked him from a distance. For a time, the light pillars and rays shone together, and all kinds of powerful magic fell on the solid barrier of the God¡¯s Kingdom. Different Divine Powers stirred with each other, splashing countless sparks and intense ripples. When Sui Xiong first created the Sanctuary, he wished for nothing but a strong ability of defense. As a result, the barrier of the God¡¯s Kingdom was incredibly solid. If other God¡¯s Kingdoms were attacked like this, they would probably be broken down within a second. But after the evil gods bombed wildly for at least ten minutes, the God¡¯s Kingdom of Sui Xiong only had a few cracks on the wall. It was too early for it to be broken. But in the God¡¯s Kingdom, Sui Xiong was very angry. He had never been blocked and bombed at his place like this. Besides, this group of guys in his view was totally weak, and that made him extremely angry. If one or two powerful gods came, Sui Xiong knew that his skill might be inferior to that of others. So he could tolerate the situation of them messing up his place. But here came these weak guys. This was not him bragging. If he didn¡¯t care about the God of Fear who was controlling this troop, he would rush out and kill them all. He hated that he didn¡¯t have two legs. Being bullied by these weak guys was ridiculous. The only thing that Sui Xiong could feel was anger. The green light in the air flashed fiercely. After a moment, it changed into the shape of a huge jellyfish. There was an obvious dark air around his body, and the jellyfish looked quite vicious. As a god of justice, Yorgaardman was the most sensitive to evil powers. He immediately knew that the dark air was actually very strong evil power. He frowned and asked anxiously, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Poor digestion?¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°I can¡¯t absorb this power. I¡¯ll kick it out later.¡± ¡°You want to go out?¡± Morani said apprehensively. ¡°Forget it. It¡¯s too dangerous.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head, turned and became a green light. Then he crossed the barrier of the God¡¯s Kingdom and went out. The God of Fear had been watching the whole Sanctuary all this time. He immediately noticed Sui Xiong and hastily reminded his subordinates to be careful. But his reminder was too late. Sui Xiong burst out laughing and rushed to the temporary camp of the evil gods. If we believed that the evil gods were not fully prepared, we would be wrong. In fact, they were well prepared, and their defense system was solid. However, Sui Xiong was much stronger than them, and he was very angry at the moment. Without any hesitation, Sui Xiong exerted his strength to the limit. This group of weak guys could not have any method to stop him at all. Only a loud noise was heard, and the green light bumped into the black protective boundary constructed by the evil gods. The solid boundary was smashed in a flash. Then the green light rushed directly into the group of evil gods without any hesitation. Only then did the reminder of the God of Fear reach the subordinates. Obviously, this was meaningless. The next moment, among the evil gods, there was a bloody killing. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t stop for a moment at all. His speed reached the extreme. He was like a high-speed brandishing blade, cutting the evil gods crazily and leaving a group of defeated generals with deep scars. Everyone felt panic and terrified. If there was no the God of Fear watching, someone would have fled. Seeing the situation turn sharply, the God of Fear finally could not hold back and shouted angrily, turning into a dark thunder light and rushing straight to the green light of Sui Xiong. ¡°Good!¡± Sui Xiong said and did not want to retreat at all. He bumped into the dark thunder light and wanted to fight with the God of Fear. How can this be! Is he mad? At that moment, all the gods who watched the war were shocked. Yorgaardman immediately rushed out in a golden light. He knew that it was too late to stop this fight, but at least he had to take Sui Xiong back before he got seriously injured. When the golden light just flew to the edge of the Sanctuary, Sui Xiong and the God of Fear had hit each other. In a flash, even the gods watching the battle felt a sudden shock, and their bodies shook involuntarily several times. On the battlefield, this violent, shocking wave caused these evil gods to stumble. No one could stand. The loud noise that followed made those Oracles bleed. Many Oracles were killed directly and turned into countless light spots. Yorgaardman¡¯s golden light was not affected. He caught Sui Xiong who was knocked down in the air. He first removed the recoil force and asked anxiously, ¡°Are you okay?¡± Sui Xiong became a jellyfish again and was pale, but he was very happy. Hearing his brother¡¯s question, he turned his tentacles into a thumbs-up, pointed to himself and said, ¡°No problem!¡± On the other hand, the God of Fear was not able to take much advantage. Sui Xiong¡¯s strength was contrary to his expectation. This collision not only caused Sui Xiong pain, but also him. The dark thunder light flew back and became his figure in dark armor, staggering back and forth for a long time before standing firmly. If anyone stood beside him at this moment, they would see his eyes closed. His usual dark face, like a black iron, was full of turquoise lights that were like scars, and they looked very ferocious. Not only that, but the God of Fear was also surprised that when he collided with Sui Xiong, what Sui Xiong used was not positive power but a rare life power. Since the disappearance of the Goddess of Life, few gods could use life power. Life power was not only powerful but also resilient. It was most suitable for long-term battles between the strongmen, and it could reproduce and multiply on its own. It was the only nemesis of evil gods like the God of Fear. If Sui Xiong used positive power, the God of fear would just be slightly shocked and would recover soon. But the wound caused by life power was not so easy to recover from. He stood there for nearly half a minute, eliminating all the life power that had invaded his body to completely recover the wound. At this time, the evil gods who had been defeated before could not resist Sui Xiong¡¯s fierce attack anymore. They screamed and ran away. With the help of the God of Justice, Sui Xiong recovered quickly. No matter how strict the discipline made by the God of Fear was, they were meaningless to the evil gods who would die if they did not escape. It was in this short half a minute that Sui Xiong had killed more than ten evil gods in one go. It was amazing. When he recovered, what the God of Fear saw was the waving tentacles of this giant jellyfish. This jellyfish laughed at his subordinates and almost defeated the whole alliance of evil gods. Seeing this scene, the God of Fear was so angry that he ground his teeth. He knew that whatever the outcome of this war would be, he had lost a lot. Chapter 445 Chapter 445: Chapter 155 To be honest, the gods of the Alliance of Evil Gods shouldn¡¯t have lost the game so fast. They were all powerful gods with exceptional, life-saving skills. If they worked together, Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman couldn¡¯t win, let alone Sui Xiong by himself. However, the most typical character of evil gods was ¡°selfishness.¡± At the moment, selfishness was a flaw for them. For the evil gods, they wouldn¡¯t work together to fight in a war until there was no choice. But now, there was a great opportunity to escape, who would risked their lives to fight the Void Mask? They just had to run faster than the others! This was similar to a famous joke on earth: Two men met a lion, and one man ran without looking back. Another man shouted, ¡°Why are you running so quickly? Can you run faster than a lion?¡± The former man ran and answered, ¡°I don¡¯t need to be faster than a lion. I just need to be faster than you.¡± Actually, this joke was wrong. Beasts like lions and tigers would attack their prey¡¯s back. So when the former man just turned around, the lion would go after him. As for the other one who didn¡¯t turn around timely, he might be able to escape. Therefore, wilderness survival experts always emphasized this. When you encounter beasts in the wild, never turn around or run away. What you need to do is to stand up straight and look at it bravely while stepping back slowly. Experts who lived in the wild would never turn their backs to beasts. The reason was the same. Fortunately, Sui Xiong was not a tiger or a lion. The principle of his attack was not so complicated. There was only one motivation¡ª attack whoever was near him. Therefore, the evil gods were doing right. As long as they ran fast enough, Sui Xiong would fight those who ran slowly and were close to him first. And then, the evil gods understood the principle, and everyone ran fast. In the half-minute when the God of Fear removed the life energy, the evil gods were defeated like a collapsed mountain, and there was no chance at a comeback. The God of Fear almost went crazy. He was nominally the Master God of the Fear System and the leader of the alliance of evil gods. But in order to avoid being framed, he had never signed a real covenant or agreement with any god. Strictly speaking, he only had one man, and that was himself. The reason why he could keep this evil gods system and maintain this alliance was due to his powerful strength and ferocious deterrence; his invincible faith accumulated a long term with his troops, and so did his iron discipline and cruel punishment. If they were defeated this time, it would ruin all the faith and discipline. That would not be easy to bring up again! He asked himself how many gods would follow him without faith and discipline. Would they follow him as usual if there was only force and brutality? Maybe only the God of Shadow and Assassination. The God of Fear was extremely angry. He took his sword and rushed to Sui Xiong directly. Fortunately, he has not lost his cool. On the way, he took time to send a message to the God of War, asking this powerful god to help him. Although there was no allusion of ¡°death of the lips and cold of the teeth¡± in this world, the God of War knew that if the God of Fear died, he himself would also die. He was ready and waiting for the God of Fear to ask. Getting the message of God of Fear, he led the whole War God System to attack without any hesitation or delay. The giant, leading warship was slow in daily life, but at the important moments, it moved extremely fast. Immediately, it rushed straight towards Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman. ¡°I will fight the God of Justice, and you kill the Void Mask,¡± in the message to the God of Fear, the God of War said. ¡°Of course, if I get the chance, I will help you kill the Void Mask.¡± The God of Fear had no objection because the God of War was only a helper he had invited. It was good that the God of War could fight the God of justice. And the God of Fear had no more wishes. Hey, if he is the helper, will he help a lot? the God of Fear asked himself. There were lots of descriptions about that message, but in fact, it only took a minute to think. When the God of Fear opened his eyes, Sui Xiong had just killed the eleventh evil god, and when he rushed to Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong had killed the twelfth. With a loud noise, Sui Xiong turned more than a dozen tentacles into solid weapons, blocking the two-handed sword of the God of Fear. Next, he took full advantage of his tentacles flapping up and down, beating the God of Fear freely. But the God of Fear was smart. He not only could block all his attacks but also seized the opportunity to fight back. Each two-handed sword attack came with amazing strength and powerful Divine Power. And the condensed Divine Power was more difficult to deal with than pure power. It took great effort for Sui Xiong to tackle each attack. At first, Sui Xiong was able to gain the upper hand through his many tentacles. But as time went by, the strong strength of the God of Fear came into full play. Every time they confronted, Sui Xiong suffered losses, so the balance of victory slowly tilted towards the God of Fear. Sui Xiong became more and more disadvantaged. Looking at this, Yorgaardman wanted to support Sui Xiong but was stopped by the God of War. The God of War was very shrewd, and he did not seek merit. He united the forces of the whole War God System and enclosed Yorgaardman. He was not in a hurry to attack, so ninety-nine percent of his energy was devoted to defense. All he was thinking about was putting Yorgaardman on hold for as long as possible so the God of Fear would have enough time to kill the Void Mask. Of course, Sui Xiong¡¯s other friends had come to help, but they were stopped by the gods of the Fear System and the evil gods who had escaped before. There were several powerful gods on both sides. Morani and Leonard had done their best. Ariel and Manissy joined, and the only two Gods of Healing in the world helped, but they still fell behind. That was to say, Sui Xiong had to rely on his own strength to fight with the God of Fear for a while. If he could not hold on, he would have to choose between dying in the battle or running away. At least from the current situation, he seemed to be defeated. Sui Xiong certainly understood this. He was not brainwashed by militarism to believe that ¡°death was the most glorious thing.¡± When the situation was not good, of course, he would choose to escape. But after thinking, he found it was not easy to escape. At this moment, he and the God of Fear fought, and each one¡¯s power was entangled. Once Sui Xiong wanted to escape, he would be immediately perceived by the God of Fear. Thus, it would greatly weaken his power, and the other side¡¯s power would be greatly increased. He knew that he could not win against the God of Fear. If they kept this seesaw game going, he would be killed. In other words, he could not win, and it was difficult to run away. He could only wait to die. Chapter 446 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the Sanctuary outside of the God¡¯s Kingdom, a giant green jellyfish fought with a giant black armored fighter. The jellyfish¡¯s tentacles shone with cold light, and they changed into swords and halberds freely attacking in disorder. The black armored fighter held his swords tightly in two hands, used his armor to block the less dangerous attacks, and seized every opportunity to chop away at his opponent. The big sword constantly collided with the cold, light-emitting tentacles. Every time, these two weapons would make a deafening sound. Along with this sound, Sui Xiong found there were many black stripes on his body. Looking carefully, these black stripes were actually dark wounds. The wounds were filled with strong evil power which made it difficult for him to heal. On the armor of the God of Fear, circles of green patterns appeared like a series of vines intertwined. Looking carefully, these ¡°vines¡± seemed to be alive and tried to break the armor to attack the God of Fear. Under this condition, this close-range fighting was very tense. The two sides had no spare time in dispersing the intruding power in their bodies. They could only tolerate the wounds and exert as much strength as possible to fight. Inside the Pantheon temple, witnessing this battle, several powerful gods¡¯ expressions turned solemn. ¡°What a surprise¡­ The big jellyfish that I had fought before has become so strong!¡± Lefon said with a few sighs. ¡°If I knew that he would be so powerful, I would try my best to invite him to join our divine system!¡± ¡°It is not late for you to go now,¡± Wuther said expressionlessly. ¡°If you go now, it would be a timely help.¡± ¡°No!¡± Lefon shook his head and said. ¡°I promised before that I would not help anyone in this battle. A boss should keep his word. If not, how could he convince others to follow him?¡± ¡°The worth of a word can be sold at crucial moments,¡± Wuther said coldly. ¡°You keep your word this time because you are making some preparations for a big deal next time.¡± ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t look me that way! Although I¡¯m uncouth, I always keep my word when I make a promise!¡± Lefon was furious, and his eyes that stared viciously at Wuther turned rounder than eggs. Wuther remained unmoved and focused on watching the battlefield. There was a light in his eyes. This battle¡­ The final result is unknown. Looking at this battle, Sui Xiong did not have any advantage at all. There were numerous dark wounds on him. Many wounds had become one in a row, so some minor wounds had become one major wound. The most serious one was almost one-third of his body, and that was a sad story. On the other hand, the God of Fear, with his powerful armor, could keep most of the Divine Power attacks outside of his body. Even if some Divine Power got through, they would only cause some scrapes. His condition was much better than Sui Xiong¡¯s. Looking at the battle, it was clear that Sui Xiong would lose. But Wuther felt that everything would not be so simple. Auscar always comes up with some fantastic trick. This time should be no exception. Among the gods who watched the battle in the Pantheon temple, there were many gods with similar ideas, and some even spoke straightforwardly. ¡°What is the Void Mask doing?¡± The God of Strategy of the War System murmured. ¡°He could never lose easily. There must be some other skills that he hasn¡¯t used yet. Why does he refuse to use them now?¡± As a military counselor of the War System, he was used to analyzing all kinds of information on the battlefield in order to deduce the most accurate conclusions. According to the data collected before, the Void Mask was not the type of playing a positional game. He was good at fierce charging like a berserker who exchanged minor injuries for serious injuries or serious injuries for killing the enemies. He would use some fantastic tricks to fight and make people surprised. But why at this time, that the most amazing jellyfish in the world would use the silliest and the least skilled attacks? Even without reasoning, according to his intuition, the God of Strategy believed that there must be deception in it. He thought about it and could not figure out where the problem was. It was a normal result that he could not figure out, because Sui Xiong had not come up with a good way yet either. Sui Xiong was just fighting as hard as he could, resisting and defusing the attacks of the God of Fear as much as possible. At the same time, he was trying to bombard the Divine Power of life into the enemy¡¯s body to defeat the opponent from the inside. Over the years, Sui Xiong had been busy resurrecting the God of Healing. In the process, he gradually gained a basic knowledge about the power of life. At this moment, the attack of Divine Power of life achieved an unexpected result. But, using the Divine Power of life to fight seemed a little weird because there was an uncoordinated feeling that affected him and prevented him from exerting all his power. If there was no uncoordinated feeling, maybe he could win? Or not. After all, there was a gap in power. Sui Xiong thought bitterly in his mind and dared not to get distracted. Hundreds of tentacles waved like a whirlwind, protecting himself from all sides and never giving the God of Fear a chance. It was clear that if he could keep all attacks away, he would probably be able to hold on for a little while longer. But as long as there was a move that could not be avoided and he let the powerful two-handed sword cut into his body, there probably would be no ¡°later¡± for Sui Xiong. Damn it! I remembered that I still have an advantage just now. While fighting, he couldn¡¯t help muttering in his mind. Was this the legendary saying of ¡°three delusions¡± that made one say ¡°I have an advantage¡±? Wars were always wonderful and strange. The relation between advantages and disadvantages, victory and defeat, and even life and death, often changed quickly and made people unable to predict the outcome. I don¡¯t know how many people fell when they were about to win; I don¡¯t know how many people won when things were bad. There were too many examples. Even though he was an art student and could not give too many examples, Sui Xiong knew that this kind of example could be seen everywhere. It was just that when he became the example, it was a little uncomfortable for him. Of course, minor discomforts could be negligible compared to an imminent crisis. But it seemed that this minor discomfort could not be negligible when one was about to be beaten to death. Sui Xiong sighed in his mind and wondered what to do next. After thinking about it, he still couldn¡¯t come up with any good ideas. Time passed quickly, and the attacks of the God of Fear became harder. The wounds on Sui Xiong became more serious. At last, the longest and deepest wound penetrated his body completely, almost dividing his whole body into two parts. It was almost the crushing blow, but Sui Xiong found the inspiration when his body was almost cut into two parts. His body was just the body for him. Others were afraid of being hurt because their bodies would be destroyed. But that was not a worry for him. Over the years, he was used to living and fighting as a jellyfish, so he had subconsciously forgotten that he, Sui Xiong, was not a jellyfish but an earth-man whose soul traversed there. The body of this jellyfish was nothing more than a coat worn by his soul. The coat was about to be destroyed by the enemy. But so what? I don¡¯t care! Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh at this. Thinking about that, he did not defend anymore but waved his tentacles wildly. All these attacks became violent. Does he want to die together?! The God of Fear was about to win but got scared because Sui Xiong suddenly became crazy and focused on violent attacks without any defense. In his mind, the Void Mask knew that he would fail and wanted to die together with him at all costs. How could this be? He, the God of Fear, would be the leader of the evil gods. He would try to attack the great gods and inherit the throne of the evil gods. How could he die here with a silly jellyfish? The God of Fear immediately changed his fighting style and put 90% of his power into dodging and defending, leaving only a little to maintain the attack. This little attack could not bring Sui Xiong much pressure, but it was enough to continue the battle and make his wounds become more and more serious. Under the desperate attacks of Sui Xiong, the God of Fear tried hard to defend, but his own injuries were still increasing rapidly. ¡°If we let them continue to fight like this, will they really die together?¡± inside the Pantheon temple, the Master of Mystery spoke. ¡°How about we go and mediate? We can¡¯t just watch them all die.¡± ¡°It¡¯s ridiculous for two powerful gods to die like this,¡± the God of Sky of Natural God System said. ¡°I don¡¯t think they should fight anymore.¡± The Goddess Gaia immediately echoed. This couple had always worked together and followed each other; that was really uncommon in couples. But the God of War disagreed. He shouted, ¡°No mediation! The final result will only be that the Void Mask fell and the God of Fear got badly injured. There is no way they will die together!¡± ¡°You have a problem in judging the situation,¡± Lefon shook his head and said. Wuther said nothing and turned to Yorgaardman. The God of Justice frowned and kept silent. Obviously, he believed Sui Xiong would be the underdog. If they continue to fight like this, it was more likely to be what the God of War said. The God of Fear would get badly injured, and the Void Mask would die. At the time when gods quarreled, the situation was changed. Sui Xiong had been bruised. But he suddenly rushed and used his tentacles to wrap the God of Fear, regardless of the danger that he would be pierced by the fierce swords of the God of Fear. The God of Fear once saw him kill the Goddess of Ocean by similar means. So he immediately screamed and urged all the Divine Powers in him to transform his armor to wrap around him fully. He guessed that the Void Mask was going to use poisoned needles. But his guess was wrong. Sui Xiong did not want to use poisoned needles at all; he just wanted to entangle him tightly. With a laugh, Sui Xiong shouted a slogan. The next moment, the huge jellyfish exploded. Chapter 447 Chapter 447: Chapter 157 Even though they couldn¡¯t understand Sui Xiong¡¯s slogan, they were not hindered from watching this big explosion. The raw material of the explosion was Sui Xiong, a master who was almost a great Divine Power. What was more, he spared no effort in this, and his whole body had been completely detonated. The explosion was unimaginably powerful. At first, the dazzling lights made the gods on the scene see nothing but a white flash. The light released a lot of heat, and things around it had been burned hot, and those not solid enough had been burned to ashes or even gas. Then, there followed a blast shock wave. It was like countless sharp knives fell down with a roar to cut everything into pieces; it was also like countless sledgehammers hitting everywhere while they were constantly colliding with each other. At last, there was a horribly loud sound. Hearing that, everyone was extremely scared, and at least half of the gods in the Pantheon temple that had been watching the war were stunned for a long time. The explosion had an even bigger impact on those on the battlefield. All the Oracles nearby were blasted to pieces, and the gods were in a complete mess. Even the two great Divine Powers, the God of War and the God of Justice, also suffered great damage. However, there was something funny. The evil gods were standing between Sui Xiong and his friends when the explosion happened, so they acted as the explosion-proof wall for Sui Xiong¡¯s friends and were tragically damaged by the blast. The evil gods of weak Divine Power were almost blasted away by the shock wave, and they didn¡¯t need to be rescued at all; those low-level Divine Powers exploded into the sky, and some of them collapsed during that and died immediately. Those mid-level Divine Powers were not killed, but they were all badly injured. Only those great Divine Powers were safe from the explosion¡ªnot because they were extremely powerful, but because they noticed that the God of Justice suddenly shared his Divine Power to protect his allies. So they directly moved the Dragon Warship behind them to ward off the impact of the explosion. However, the God of War was also blasted into the sky, or to put it more exactly, he was hit by the Dragon Warship into the sky. As for the most important divine weapon of the War God System, the Dragon Warship, it was directly blown up into pieces. Its solid body had broken into over thousands of pieces in different sizes, and only the most solid part, the ram of the warship, remained completely in shape. The ram had been engraved into the look of a dragon head, and the God of War was hit by the ram just now. But thanks to the ram, it shielded the War God System from the explosion. Thus, the War God System suffered much less damage than the evil gods and the Fear God System. Although they were also badly injured, there were at least no casualties in the War God System. Compared with that, the Alliance of Evil Gods almost came to an end, and the Fear God System was not much better than that. The explosion also had a bad impact on the gods in the Pantheon temple¡ªstarting from the God of Fear, over half of the gods in the Alliance of Evil Gods directly died, leaving dozens of seats empty in the Pantheon temple. Moreover, many gods were so badly hurt that they fell to a lower level of power, and among them, the most obvious one was the God of Fear. At the moment of the explosion, the Message-Sending Clone of the God of Fear collapsed with a loud cry, and then countless cracks showed on its seat. With a flashing light, this clone fell several levels down to the mid-level Divine Power from the level of a great Divine Power. The gods in the Pantheon temple were all shocked at that, and even the God of Light, who had been indifferent and always had no expression on his face, opened his eyes widely as if he had seen a ghost. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the Void Mask? Why did he suddenly detonate himself?¡± ¡°That was really powerful!¡± ¡°Was that the horrible strength of a great Divine Power?¡± ¡°The God of Fear is over this time¡­¡± ¡°He deserves it!¡± ¡°Well, since so many gods died this time, they left many clergies empty¡­¡± ¡°So are their God¡¯s Kingdoms!¡± At the mention of that, many gods had tricky smiles on their face. A lot of gods died this time, and almost every one of them left an unprotected God¡¯s Kingdom for others to inherit. Even if the gods had to follow the rule to allow the Void Mask and his friends to choose first, they could also benefit a lot from it! Last time, a lot of gods had gained plenty of Divine Power from the death of the God of Underground Caves and Sites, Cladema. This time, although the dead gods were not in high clergies, they were large in number. Thus, they could provide more Divine Power in total than Cladema! However, before that, they had to confirm one thing¡ªwas the Void Mask still alive? If he was dead, how were his friends? If his friends were also badly hurt, then they wouldn¡¯t have the chance to choose first because the other gods might take advantage of their injury to attack them to get more benefits. Unluckily for them, Sui Xiong¡¯s friends were in good condition now. Sui Xiong had warned them before his self-detonation, so they had defended themselves very well. With the protection of the ¡°explosion-proof wall¡± provided by the evil gods and the rescue of the God of Justice, they looked embarrassing with their heads full of ashes, but they were not badly damaged. Sui Xiong¡¯s Sanctuary was the only place that had been safe under the impact of the explosion. The Sanctuary shared the same power as the explosion, thus, the blast shock wave did no harm to this God¡¯s Kingdom. Instead, it helped strengthen the boundary of the God¡¯s Kingdom, just like Sui Xiong did with his Divine Power. The only influence on the Sanctuary was that it was pulled to move a long distance by the strong impact power of the explosion, and that was all. ¡°Fall back! Back! To the God¡¯s Kingdom!¡± The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, didn¡¯t wait for the results of the explosion. He was shouting while leading Sui Xiong¡¯s friends to withdraw in a hurry to the God¡¯s Kingdom. That made the gods in the Pantheon temple very confused¡ªShouldn¡¯t Sui Xiong¡¯s friends chase after the God of Fear and the God of War, the invaders, and beat them heavily since Sui Xiong had won the fight? If not now, then when? But they soon knew the reason. The smoke gradually disappeared, and they could see that a flame was burning in the center of the explosion. ¡°I come from the shadows,¡± in the flame echoed a roaring voice like muffled thunder. ¡°As a pacifist, I am keen on solving problems through negotiation. I think that as long as the cake is bigger, everyone can share the benefits, and that can solve all the problems. I thought that was a good idea, but it is meaningless.¡± That voice was silent for a moment, and then the flames swelled violently into the figure of a giant, whose eyes looked like erupting volcanoes. This giant was staring at the evil gods that were still in shock after the explosion. The giant of the flames opened his palm, and in it was the God of Fear who was struggling to build a shield with his Divine Power. His face was pale, and he seemed to be near death. ¡°You¡¯re looking for death!¡± After saying that, the body of the giant swelled again with a white light flashing on his chest. He shouted, ¡°For a blue and clean world!¡± There was an explosion, again. This time, the Alliance of Evil Gods and the gods of the Fear God System couldn¡¯t stand it anymore. Except for the God of Fear and several mid-level Divine Powers that managed to survive after being badly injured, all the others died immediately. The God of War was alert enough that when the giant started talking, he left those things that couldn¡¯t be taken behind and ran away. Finally, he escaped from the explosion, alone. After the explosion, there was nothing left in the space. It was as quiet as a graveyard. ¡°What was that?¡± ¡°Was that the Void Mask? Didn¡¯t he just detonate himself? How can he do that again?¡± ¡°Does it mean that the giant is his real body?¡± ¡°But why did he do that again? He has already defeated his enemies¡­¡± ¡°Then is he really dead this time?¡± ¡°Who knows!¡± After saying that, a lot of gods turned their eyes to the God of Justice, Yorgaardman. They knew that if they wanted to know the condition of the Void Mask, Yorgaardman should be the best one to ask. With so many eyes staring at him, the cheeky Yorgaardman didn¡¯t feel panic at all. He laughed, cleared his throat and pretended to be confused. ¡°Why are you looking at me?¡± ¡°Stop it!¡± Lefon sighed and asked. ¡°How is the Void Mask? Is he really dead?¡± ¡°Of course not!¡± Yorgaardman laughed. ¡°My brother has vast magic powers. In a human¡¯s story, it is said that a cat can grow several more tails when it lives a long enough life, and every extra tail brings it one more life. My brother has so many tentacles, so how many lives do you think he has? This was just a piece of cake for him this time.¡± The God of Light sneered. ¡°What a boast!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not boasting. I have evidence!¡± Yorgaardman jumped and shouted as if he had been mistaken by the others. ¡°Although he hasn¡¯t become a god, his followers are all here! Why don¡¯t you go and ask them?¡± The gods then remembered that the Void Mask had some followers and began to look for them in a hurry. The God of Knowledge and Education, Wall, the God of Medicine, Arcaian Pasteur, and the God of Healing whose name was still unknown to others¡ªthese three gods were all in good condition and didn¡¯t show any panic of losing their master god. ¡°His Majesty is really fine.¡± Wall was not as cheeky as Yorgaardman, so he stood up with a bitter smile and spoke. ¡°He is just tired and needs to rest.¡± The gods looked at each other and accepted his explanation silently. They thought that that might be a gentle way of describing Sui Xiong¡¯s serious injuries. It was inevitable for Sui Xiong to be injured in such a fierce fight. However, as long as he was alive and would recover in the future, he definitely would be s supreme master that even the great Divine Powers would have to treat him in a polite and equal way. After all, Sui Xiong had proved his qualification with his power. He had completely destroyed the Alliance of Evil Gods and almost the whole Fear God System by himself, and he killed almost 100 evil gods and beat the War God System away by the way. That would be something impossible for even the great Divine Powers. Moreover, the most horrible thing was his power and his determined attitude shown in the two consecutive self-detonations. Nobody even knew how many times he could detonate himself! ¡°Bro, they were all scared.¡± Yorgaardman laughed loudly. In the center of the Sanctuary, where the God of Healing had been nurtured before, there was one larger pool. In the bottom of the pool, the crystal that Leon had robbed from the palace of the God of Hunting and Holocaust and then given to Sui Xiong was lying there quietly. There were lights flowing in the crystal; then a transparent figure showed up vaguely. ¡°I¡¯m really exhausted this time.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s faint voice was transmitted out of the pool through the crystal and with Divine Power that had been turned into water. ¡°But I think it¡¯s worth it.¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Yorgaardman gave him a thumb-ups. ¡°Good job!¡± Yorgaardman¡¯s eyes swept over the other gods, and he said with a smile, ¡°What are you waiting for? Don¡¯t you want to tell your churches and followers about such a great victory as soon as possible? It deserves a great celebration!¡± Chapter 448 Chapter 448: Chapter 158 Not until they were reminded by Yorgaardman did the gods realize that there should be a celebration, so they quickly sent out an Oracle. The churches and followers in the human world had known that the god they had believed in took part in an extremely fierce war, and they had also known that this war was inevitable in order to maintain peace. Now, they got together under the organization of the churches and clergymen to pray together¡ªthis was the necessary procedure because the prayers of all people united in one purpose could greatly encourage the gods and enable them to exert more power in the fight. Now, after accepting the Oracle, the clergymen who had been anxious about the result of the war began to laugh. They sent the Oracle to the equally anxious followers. Immediately, carols were heard everywhere. These believers laughed happily and sang in unison in the altars and divine temples under the leadership of the clergymen to praise this great victory. The carols constantly turned into pure power of belief. The gods felt the power clearly, and they looked at each other and couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°This time, we take these power for granted.¡± Javier said, ¡°Actually, we did nothing in the war.¡± ¡°No, you came at the critical moment and stood with me under the great risk. You helped a lot.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s Message-Sending Clone said with a smile. ¡°We should have done more.¡± The Goddess of Ocean, Ariel, sighed. ¡°Because of Vorpocus, I have put all my efforts into civil affairs. Thus, I didn¡¯t pay enough attention to the improvement of the military force. Now, it seems that what I have done is an overcorrection, and I have reached another wrong path. After I go back this time, I will begin to train the military force. Thus, I will certainly be able to help in the war next time!¡± The Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, shook her head and said, ¡°There won¡¯t be a next time. This time, Auscar has shown imaginably strong power. All the gods are scared of him now, so there won¡¯t be any who dares to make an attack openly at such a grand scale.¡± ¡°In other words, if they want to attack Auscar next time, they¡¯ll have to choose a time when he is alone or make a sudden joint attack,¡± Morani said with a bitter smile. ¡°At that time, it will be too late for us to help, even if we wanted to.¡± ¡°Why are you so worried?¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°It will be quite an honor for me if they treat me as a great Divine Power! What¡¯s more, even if they make a joint attack, it will be nothing serious. I can just cause another explosion.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. They won¡¯t attack you until they find a way to fight against your bombs.¡± Leonard nodded and directly left the God¡¯s Kingdom to train his army. As for Sui Xiong¡¯s three followers, they had been busy with his arrangement¡ªthey mainly followed the clone of Yorgaardman to collect their spoils of the war. They went to the God¡¯s Kingdom of those that had died in the explosion and took away the treasure there. There was a lot of work for them, and it would cost them a lot of time, so they were not sure whether they would be in time for the celebration. There must be a grand celebration for such a great victory! In the Pantheon temple, Wall and the others were surrounded by those kind gods that came to congratulate them. In this war, Sui Xiong had killed over one hundred evil gods, and that greatly reduced the evil power. Even the fierce leader of the Alliance of Evil Gods, the God of Fear, had almost been beaten to death, and that made the evil gods lose their support. It could be estimated that in a long period of time in the future, the kind gods would be able to outweigh the evil ones in a fight. This was all thanks to Sui Xiong¡¯s Bonn! Wall and the others had never seen such a scene, so they were at a loss and didn¡¯t know how to deal with it. The new God of Healing showed an attitude of ¡°don¡¯t ask me, because I won¡¯t say anything.¡± She pretended to concentrate on reading a fantastically thick dictionary and completely threw the responsibility of welcoming the guests to her two colleagues. Or, to Wall. Because Arcaian was quite a nerd addicted to techniques, so he didn¡¯t know how to deal with so many compliments. He was so embarrassed that he didn¡¯t even know where to put his hands. In response to the congratulations of the kind gods, Wall kept on being polite and thankful, and his face was stiff with laughter. It was hard work, but he felt happy. On the contrary, the God¡¯s Kingdom of the War God System, the Testing Ground for Martyrs, had a gloomy atmosphere. The War God System had been invited by the God of Fear cooperate and make a joint attack on the Void Mask and his allies. It was supposed to be an overwhelming victory for them, but on the contrary, it turned out to be a complete loss. None of the gods of the War God System died in the war, but that didn¡¯t mean that they didn¡¯t get hurt. Since they had planned to storm Sui Xiong¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom, they had prepared many special weapons, and those were of great importance. With their defeat in the war, the gods fled in a panic, and nothing else could be taken away except the equipment on their body. It was really a complete loss. It was like that in a battle between two armies, one side was defeated, and its commander took nothing else away except for his armor and horse. That was embarrassing and tragic. ¡°No matter what, we managed to come back alive.¡± Seeing that everyone was in a low mood, the God of War, Wenner, comforted them with a forced smile. ¡°It isn¡¯t a complete loss for us. As long as we¡¯re alive, there will be a chance for us in the future.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, in the future we really can¡¯t go against the Void Mask anymore!¡± the God of Strategy, Augmentin, tried to persuade him. ¡°His explosions were too powerful! He could even explode twice in a run. That was amazing! I have been thinking about it, and I haven¡¯t figured out a way to win against him!¡± After hearing that, the God of War smiled bitterly. ¡°Go against him?! I¡¯m not insane! That guy is beyond powerful. If I go to disturb him again, it will be the end of my life!¡± Then, he was silent for a moment. He pondered for a while and said in a low voice, ¡°Later, let¡¯s count what treasure we have now and send him some as a present.¡± ¡°What?!¡± The gods of the War God System were astonished at first, but after some thinking, they understood the intention of their leader. The battlefield was like a casino. If one dared to take part in a war, he had to be willing to accept the result for losing everything. If he won, he could rob the treasure from others, and if he lost, he had to pay for it. This was an eternally immutable rule. However, led by Wenner, the War God System had been invincible all along. They had never failed once. No matter what kind of enemy they met, as long as His Majesty Wenner came out, they would win in the end. Even though last time they failed to annex the Desolation God System, it was actually a victory, too. It was just that they failed to win the entire battle. However, this time, the whole War God System took part in the war in full swing but suffered a great loss in which only the gods managed to come back. It was really something had never happened before! For the gods of War God System, there was only victory, so they had forgotten the duties of a defeated party. It wasn¡¯t until they were reminded by the God of War that everyone realized that they had lost the war this time, and they had to pay for it. For a while, the atmosphere became more gloomy, and even the God of Berserker was depressed and did not want to say anything. Losing the battle was one aspect, but more importantly, it made them lose confidence. Sui Xiong¡¯s first explosion was powerful, but the second terrible explosion was indeed amazing. The gods of the great Divine Powers had been discussing in private about how it worked since then. Even though Sui Xiong was not dead after his first explosion, he should have been seriously injured. How could he explode twice? In the face of the two consecutive explosions, even if the God of Light couldn¡¯t say that he could win, let alone the rest. It was a complete failure for the evil gods this time. After several sighs and complaints, Augmentin stood up and headed to the treasure house to select the present. Over the years, as a diplomat of the War God System, he did not know how many times he had held his head high to accept others¡¯ reparations or how many times he had blackmailed others. But now, he had to prepare reparations for others. He only wished that there wouldn¡¯t be a next time! ¡°There won¡¯t be a next time!¡± As if he had guessed what the others were thinking, the God of War lowered his voice and said firmly, ¡°There will never be a next time!¡± ¡°Oh? What are you going to do, Boss?¡± The God of Berserker raised his head with hope in his eyes that were as big as a buffalo¡¯s. The God of War smiled, and his eyes shone with a cunning light. ¡°I¡¯ve decided to make an alliance with the Void Mask!¡± ¡°What?!¡± The other gods shouted out together. They were as astonished if seeing thunderbolts in the clear sky. ¡°Why do you look like that? Is there anything wrong with my idea?¡± Seeing his subordinates acting as if they had just seen a ghost, the God of War couldn¡¯t control his anger. ¡°Are you becoming arrogant after the victories before? I have to make it clear here; the whole War God System can¡¯t defeat the Void Mask. Thus, why not just be obedient to him and regard him as the leader after we make an alliance with him? What¡¯s wrong with the weak being obedient to the strong?¡± The God of War stood up and asked loudly, ¡°Who has a different opinion? Speak directly! This is our private discussion, so no need to hide it!¡± His eyes swept over the gods of the War God System. Although they were unsatisfied, none of them expressed a different opinion. What should they say? It was true that they were weaker! ¡°What¡¯s more, I have no other choice!¡± The God of War sat down again and said with a deep sigh, ¡°Do you know that? I have just gotten some reliable news that the God of Fear didn¡¯t return to his God¡¯s Kingdom.¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°Where did he go?¡± The God of War looked up into the sky, silent for a moment, and said, ¡°The clone of the God of Justice is chasing after him. Yorgaardman means it this time, and he says that he will beat the God of Fear to death even if he has to chase after him to the end of the world.¡± With that, the God of War said with a sigh again, ¡°In this war, the Fear God System, the Alliance of Evil Gods and we made a joint attack on the Void Mask and his allies. Now, the Alliance of Evil Gods has collapsed, and only a few of the evil gods survived. I don¡¯t even know whether they can manage to recover. So has the Fear God System. The God of Fear is being chased by the God of Justice, and there is almost no way out for him. So, do you really think that the Void Mask will forgive us after we pay him a lot of money?¡± The gods of the War God System didn¡¯t say anything. They just looked at each other, only to find upset expressions on each other¡¯s face. That was true. Two of the three parties that made the joint attack had been completely defeated, and the War God System was the only safe side now. The Void Mask was such a fierce master that he could even make himself explode twice, so there was no way for him to forgive them so easily! ¡°If we don¡¯t honestly lower our heads and be obedient to him to make him satisfied, then I¡¯m afraid that he will come to blow us to ashes!¡± In a helpless silence, the God of War sat back in his throne powerlessly and gave orders to the God of Strategy, Augmentin. Augmentin had just come back with a huge package. ¡°Go ahead and visit the Void Mask. Either to admit our mistake or to beg for his mercy or to regard him as our leader¡­ No matter what, as long as he is willing to forgive us, we will do anything.¡± Chapter 449 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was like a sea of happiness in Void City. Although the celebration didn¡¯t start officially, many of people had celebrated it anyway. It had been too pleasant a victory this time! To be honest, His Majesty, the Void Mask had earned great merits these years. He had won many times in fighting, or in other words, in others¡¯ impression, he had never lost in a fight. However, was there any victory that could be as great as this time? In terms of quantity, he had killed nearly a hundred gods and disabled many others this time. It was said that the God of Fear was still being chased by the God of Justice all over the world. In terms of quality, this time he had disabled a great Divine Power and driven another great Divine Power away. He had also badly beaten a number of mid-level Divine Powers. As for the low-level and weak Divine Powers, they were not calculated, since there was no need to count the dead ones. Most importantly, he had killed a lot of evil gods! Actually, in this war, all the gods that had been killed by Sui Xiong were evil guys! There was a saying on the earth: killing the evil is to save the good and punishing the evil is to promote goodness. It was true in this world, too. To eliminate the evil ones was to save the good ones. How could they eliminate the evil ones? That would be a hard task. But, how could they eliminate the evil in the most efficient way? That was easy¡ªjust kill all the evil gods! The evil gods were not only the peak of the evil masters but also the background for those bad guys. This time, more than one hundred of them had been killed, and that made countless bad guys lose their patrons. For them, the best thing to do would be to keep a low profile for a period of time and find a new patron, if they could. For those that would have no patrons from now on, they should be more obedient and not do too many evil things. The worst result would be that they would be killed by their old enemies since they had lost the protection of their patrons, and they would go to hell to be punished according to their evils. There was news that in the capital of all the countries, at least twenty evil leaders had been killed, and many aggressive and arrogant bad guys had hidden themselves from their enemies now or directly ran away with their fortune to somewhere nobody knew. There were a lot of good guys that had been smart in social matters and were preparing to kill more evil guys. For the mortals, that was the best news! The gods were too far from the mortals, and it was these bad guys that were in front of them every day. These normal people didn¡¯t clearly understand what the Void Mask killing more than one hundred evil gods meant, but they clearly knew that after this war, the bad guys in different places would be obedient for a long period of time and many of them would even die. For the people in Void City, some of them just wanted to make a fortune or to open up a career here. The others were sad people that had been forced to leave their hometowns by the bad guys there; so did the old pioneers of the whole Republic of Northwest. They all had a sad past and had some hatred in their heart that would never be forgotten until their death. This time, seeing that their enemies would be in trouble, the hatred that had been kept in their hearts for several years, decades, and even from the beginning of their ancestors went away. They were very happy! There should be a celebration for their happiness, and they wanted to sing and dance. For those who had dared to leave their hometowns and adventure here, they might not be powerful, but they had to be brave. And there was no such rule of ¡°singing and dancing are forbidden during work in Void City,¡± so many of them couldn¡¯t help but sing when they were doing their work. What were they singing? It was naturally something to express their happiness. Certainly, nobody would sing a sad song at this moment. When others heard this song, they felt it was wonderful to express their happy mood. Then, many people couldn¡¯t help joining in on the singing. So a lot of people were singing here, and others began to dance. Gradually, the whole Void City was full of joy. Not only in Void City, but also in all the towns of the Republic of Northwest and even those villages, people were celebrating the victory happily after they got the news. Sui Xiong and his friends were chatting, and he was shocked at the scene when he took a look occasionally at the people. How did the Republic of Northwest suddenly play an Indian opera? This was crazy! He was puzzled, so he asked somebody about the reason. Then he realized why they were so happy, and he couldn¡¯t help laugh. ¡°What a surprise! I didn¡¯t expect that there would be such a result!¡± Sui Xiong touched his chin with his tentacles¡ªlet¡¯s assume that jellyfishes had chins. He imagined that the bad guys all over the world were in a panic after losing their patrons, so he laughed happily. Only then did he feel that he had made a right choice to fight in this war. He had not only protected his God¡¯s Kingdom and his people, but also, more importantly, he had promoted the development of justice! I¡¯m competent for being the God of Development and Progress (tentatively). Indeed, I have made great contributions to the world! He couldn¡¯t help but hum a song when he thought of this. It was getting dark, but the lights were shining brightly in Void City. Usually, the evening had been a good time for those spenders to enjoy life, but tonight, things were different. In this world, most of the people who could enjoy freely without thinking about how much money they had spent were usually not good guys. At least 80% of them were believers of all kinds of evil gods. And now, almost half of these bad guys had just lost their gods and were in a state of panic. Thus, how could they be in the mood to have fun? So, this evening belonged to those happy mortals! Upstairs in the government hall of Void City, Madame Teague looked at the bright lights in the city and listened to the songs and laughter coming faintly from the night breeze. She couldn¡¯t help but laugh. After that, she sighed deeply. ¡°If there had been such an invincible god in the Golden Tower City to bless us, perhaps Parne would not have left us so early¡­¡± After saying that, she sat down again and checked the celebration plan one more time to see if there was anything that needed to be revised or improved. Those days had passed, and her two daughters had grown up. The world belonged to the younger generation. What she could do now was to help the younger people deal with the chores while blessing them with a smile. Only those great and immortal gods like the Void Mask could be able to watch the joys and sorrows of all the people calmly, in spite of the passing of time. The next morning, people continued to prepare for the celebration. According to Javier¡¯s original plan, the celebration would be held at noon today. But because people had celebrated too late yesterday and many of them were sleepy now, Javier directly revised the plan and put off the celebration until the evening. It had been impossible for normal people to hold the celebration at night because after the sun went down, there wouldn¡¯t be enough light and that might lead to accidents easily. But this time, even the Goddess of Twilight that held part of the clergy of the sun would come to congratulate the Void Mask, so there was no need for them to worry about the light. Another reason why celebrations had not been held in the evening was that the power of the evil god¡¯s followers tended to increase at night, and people were always afraid of them. But now, the evil gods themselves had been frightened by the Void Mask. Would there be any evil gods who dared to allow their followers to make trouble with him now? Don¡¯t forget that it was just yesterday that this giant jellyfish who always smiled had killed over one hundred evil gods. Make trouble with him? If one was really tired of living, why not just go to the Negative Plane of the Ring of the World and jump into the abyss? It would be much simpler. Maybe one could even turn into a demon monarch or something like that and rebuild their career in twenty years. The most important thing was that they would not harm others. This time, the evil gods were really frightened by Sui Xiong! Since ancient times, apart from the catastrophes that had killed several gods, had there ever been a death of so many gods at one time? And more importantly, the dead ones were all evil gods. If it were not for the great Master of Order mentioning Sui Xiong, people might even doubt whether the Void Mask was the reborn remnant of any great god that had died. Otherwise, how could he be so powerful? There were indeed many masters that liked to pretend they were weak in daily life, but how could this giant jellyfish from the sea be so amazingly powerful? If one were to describe this with the online saying on the earth, it would be, ¡°This is not scientific.¡± However, science and something like that didn¡¯t exist in this world. Thus, whether the evil gods could understand it or not, at last, they had to be obedient. The problem of light was solved, and there were no more concerns about safety. Everyone was happy, so it didn¡¯t matter when they held the celebration. Until now, everything was settled for the celebration. It was like in an online game where ten groups of soldiers beat one. The player just needed to click the mouth to select an area and click the button to attack, and then everything would be done. It was easy even for monkeys. ¡°Such a simple celebration can¡¯t fully show my ability as the God of Celebration!¡± Javier turned into the appearance of a bard and wandered in the streets, looking around. After a while, he shook his head and sighed. ¡°They don¡¯t need my blessing at all.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that a good thing?¡± Sui Xiong turned into the appearance of a barbarian carrying a big stick, walking side by side with Javier. ¡°As the god, shouldn¡¯t we want the people to live a safe and stable life without worrying about food and clothing? They just need to pray to us on holidays when they are happy, and they never need to ask for our blessings.¡± Javier didn¡¯t reply. After a while, he said helplessly, ¡°You set too high a standard for being a god, and I can¡¯t keep up with you on that¡ªin other words, I really doubt now that aren¡¯t you the reborn God of Virtue?¡± ¡°The God of Virtue?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at first, then remembered a movie character on the earth (a monk named the God of Virtue in a comedy) and couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Although I¡¯m bald, I¡¯m not a monk!¡± ¡°A monk? A priest? A pontifex?¡± Javier was confused and wondered how the great God of Virtue could relate to a monk. Sui Xiong did not explain it. He carried the big stick across his shoulder with a smile and swayed forward. As he walked, he hummed a song that no one in this world could understand. Chapter 450 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong met an unexpected guest before nightfall¡ªthe God of Strategy, Augmentin, the deputy leader of the War God System. Augmentin didn¡¯t wear his silver armor, nor did he ride his white horse or carry his big sword. He just dressed as casually as the normal residents, carrying a large bag almost as big as him. With a haggard face, he showed up on the street of Void City, just in front of Sui Xiong and Javier. Javier was startled by Augmentin¡¯s sudden appearance at first and then recognized who he was and calmed down. He asked confusedly, ¡°Augmentin, why are you carrying such a large bag? Are you moving?¡± There had just been a war between them, but that was an official affair. Personally, Javier had a good relationship with Augmentin, and that was why he was polite to him. The War of God, Wenner, knew this very well, so he sent Augmentin as the envoy¡ªif the War of God came himself, the result would be worse. Heard Javier¡¯s question, Augmentin smiled bitterly and answered, ¡°Come on! Don¡¯t laugh at me. This time we lost in the war, so I¡¯m coming to pay the reparations and beg for mercy.¡± Sui Xiong and Javier were surprised at that. They had never expected that such words would come from the mighty deputy leader of the War God System. Then they looked at each other and hurriedly invited Augmentin into the God¡¯s Kingdom for a detailed discussion. Augmentin was not good at compliments, so after entering the God¡¯s Kingdom, he directly opened his bag. Suddenly, with colorful lights flowing, countless treasures fell down like a tide and piled into a small mountain within a second. Not long ago, Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman had plundered the God¡¯s Kingdom of the God of Underground Caves and took back all the savings of that old dragon. The treasure had piled into a mountain, and even the Goddess of Wealth had been shocked at its amount. She said, ¡°It is true that war and plundering are the fastest ways to earn money.¡± But compared to this time, Cladema¡¯s savings were much more vulgar. In terms of quantity, the whole life¡¯s savings of the old dragon was much larger. But in terms of quality, what Augmentin brought today was much better. There had been several pieces of treasure that the old dragon had valued most, but they were normal to see in the reparations of the War God System. Moreover, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t even know what some of the treasure was in front of him now, but he knew without asking that it must be extremely rare. However, the treasure was nothing special compared to over a dozen light balls in different sizes floating in the bag. Not to mention Sui Xiong who was still unfamiliar with some treasures of this world, even the expert of wealth, Manissy, and the super powerful Yorgaardman were all shocked at seeing these light balls. ¡°Oh my god! These are God¡¯s Kingdoms that have been sealed by magic!¡± Manissy¡¯s eyes turned bright, and she almost rushed to those light balls. ¡°Every one of them is full of strong vitality. It means that the God¡¯s Kingdom was controlled and sealed by magic when the god was still alive! Oh my god, there are so many of them!¡± ¡°The War God System deserves to be the expert of plunder and robbery. You have so many precious things.¡± Yorgaardman couldn¡¯t help swallowing. ¡°Now I feel that maybe you are the richest God System in the Ring of the World!¡± ¡°Maybe we were, but not for now,¡± Augmentin said bitterly. ¡°These years, we have collected 15 God¡¯s Kingdoms. Now, they are all here. Please check and accept them.¡± He paused for a while and started again sadly, ¡°Most of them were conquered and sealed by magic with my hands, several of them were stained by my blood, and two even¡­ In order to get them, I even lost some important partners¡­¡± He couldn¡¯t go on talking anymore and lowered his head in silence. The gods all felt respect at that, all except for Sui Xiong, who barely knew anything about that. He asked confusedly, ¡°Is there anything special in these God¡¯s Kingdoms? My followers are collecting treasure from the God¡¯s Kingdom of the evil gods that were destroyed by me now. Is there any big difference between them?¡± His words put the room into an uneasy silence. A moment later, Javier jumped up all of a sudden and grabbed one of Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles and cried out, ¡°Auscar, we are friends, right?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°Then how about sharing the benefit with me?¡± Javier hesitated for a moment and said finally, ¡°Can you give me one of the God¡¯s Kingdom? The smallest one will be good enough for me.¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that, and he looked at Javier carefully. Although Javier was still acting like a fool, his eyes were quite clear, and there was an irresistible desire burning in his eyes like a flame. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you? You never look like this!¡± Sui Xiong said with worry. ¡°No matter what kind of treasures they are, they are just external things. Shouldn¡¯t you worry about your mental state first?¡± Javier was startled. He closed his eyes in a hurry and kept breathing deeply. After a while, he opened his eyes again, and though they were still full of longing, they were no longer as fanatical as before. ¡°Thank you!¡± he grinned bitterly and said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I just lost my mind.¡± ¡°Never mind, the God¡¯s Kingdom¡­¡± ¡°Forget it! You heard nothing just now.¡± ¡°You needn¡¯t be so polite. There are a lot of them,¡± Sui Xiong said with confusion. ¡°No!¡± Javier shook his head with a firm answer. ¡°No matter how many of them there are, these are all the reparations for you. You have won them with your life. What did I do? I made no contribution to the war. If I take one of them from you, I will feel uncomfortable in my heart for many years. No matter how precious the treasure is, my inner peace is more important.¡± Sui Xiong was still confused. He looked at his other friends only to find that they all grinned bitterly. Although they were longing for the God¡¯s Kingdom a lot, none of them opened their mouths to ask for it. ¡°What on the earth are you all doing?¡± Sui Xiong was a bit angry and shouted. ¡°Don¡¯t keep me guessing! What is so special about these God¡¯s Kingdoms? Tell me!¡± At last, it was Yorgaardman that answered his question. These God¡¯s Kingdom had been sealed by magic when the god was alive. That meant that the origin of the god had been sealed inside, but their consciousness had been taken away. In other words, they were empty now. Moreover, since the origin of the god was still sealed inside the God¡¯s Kingdom, their clergy was not empty after their death. It was still occupied by their empty God¡¯s Kingdom. A mortal, as long as he understood and mastered the corresponding area of a clergy and got one of the God¡¯s Kingdoms, would have a great chance to take over the clergy that had left by the god and directly become a god himself. In other words, the fifteen God¡¯s Kingdom represented fifteen chances of becoming a god. They were definitely not hopeless and risky chances. And for a god, owning the fifteen God¡¯s Kingdoms meant that he would have 15 new god followers. Fifteen! What an amazing number! Even if most of the 15 God¡¯s Kingdoms were correspondent to the clergy of a low-level or weak Divine Power, they were gods after all! For a god, there was a huge difference between having a god follower and not. If he had a god follower, it not only meant that he had a respected identity in this world, but it also meant that he had great advantages in the world order that had been created by the King of Order. As long as his god follower was alive, the master god would have constant Divine Power and a source of belief, no matter how bad the situation he was in was. Although there were also disadvantages in having a god follower, in total its advantages would outweigh them. However, the masters that would be able to become gods were all highly-aimed in life, proud and firm in purpose. They would be other¡¯s subordinate at most, but how many of them would like to be the followers of others¡¯? Once they became a god follower, they had to be under the control of their god for their whole life unless their master god let them go. In some extreme conditions, the master god even might grab their God¡¯s Kingdom and directly occupy their clergy, and that would make these God followers drop from the rank of a god. Let¡¯s take the God of Fear as an example. The God of Fear didn¡¯t have any god followers, and now he had to run away embarrassedly to avoid being hunted by the God of Justice. If he had had one god follower before, such as the God of Shadow and Assassination, that had been extremely loyal to him, then he would have directly occupied the clergy of his god follower and grabbed his divinity and Divine Power for a faster recovery. In this way, although he couldn¡¯t turn his failure into success, he could be confident in protecting himself and manage to run away safely, to wait for his chance in the future. In all God Systems, there were almost no god followers in a real sense, except those three of Sui Xiong¡¯s who had been promoted by him all the way. Most of the so-called god followers just had the title, and they were not really under the control of their master god. However, these 15 God¡¯s Kingdom meant 15 actual god followers! Javier had suffered a hard life all along. Although he was sociable and smart enough to maintain a good relationship with others, there were few gods that really respected him. There were many gods like him¡ªtheir clergies were not important to real life, and they were not powerful enough, so they were almost at the bottom of the Pantheon temple. Even some powerful demigods could ignore them. Why did Javier feel like Sui Xiong was his old friend when they first met? They soon became best friends too. The reason was that Sui Xiong had never looked down upon him for his lower strength and useless clergy. Although Sui Xiong was far more powerful than him, Sui Xiong was always sincere to him and treated him as a real friend. However, if Javier could have a god follower, he would become a master god, and that would be a totally different identity! Nobody dared to look down upon a master god, even if he had just one god follower. And Javier would be at a higher level than the normal gods. That was exactly why Javier had been so excited and lost his mind just now! Over the years, although he always had a smile on his face, his heart was really bitter and tired. No one among the gods here could be more eager for strength and status than he did. But at last, he suppressed this desire and calmed down again. After known everything, Sui Xiong became more cautious and serious when he looked at those floating light balls, those God¡¯s Kingdoms that had been sealed by magic. He completely understood the value of this present and clearly felt upset at the War God System as well as their sincerity in begging for his forgiveness. Then, he picked up the light ball that Javier had asked for just now and passed it to him. ¡°Here you are,¡± he said. ¡°This is indeed an extremely rare treasure, but, my friend, you need it more than anyone. So take it. I¡¯m not sharing the reparations with you. I¡¯m taking care of my friend. Please don¡¯t reject it.¡± Javier was silent for a while. Finally, he reached out silently and took over the light ball that seemed to emit warmness. He lowered his head and covered his body with fog to hide the moment when his tear dropped on the light ball. A moment later, he calmed down, put the God¡¯s Kingdom away and showed up in front of everyone. He laughed very loudly and shouted, ¡°It¡¯s time for the celebration. Let¡¯s go. There are a lot of guests waiting for us.¡± The Void Mask and his friends looked at each other and burst out in laughter together. They walked out of the God¡¯s Kingdom with Augmentin, who smiled bitterly but felt quite released, and appeared in the center playground of Void City. When they showed up, sacred light soared into the sky, making everyone around them cheer. The victory celebration started now! Chapter 451 Chapter 451: Chapter 161 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The celebration for the mortals was nothing more than singing and dancing, eating and playing. What about for gods? Actually, it was even boring than that of the mortals! At least at this moment, sitting in the center of the celebration venue, Sui Xiong, in a dignified posture, thought so. Sui Xiong looked around at those mortals. Some of them had met him once before, and some of them had even been his acquaintances when he had turned into the appearance of a human. He had never met some of them before, but he still could feel their appreciation and happiness. They were very happy now. The young were singing and dancing, and the old were chatting and drinking beside the long table in the corner of the playground. Several middle-aged men who had participated in the development of the Void Mask Land began to boast about their youthful experiences and praised the good life of today. Several old men who had worked hard half in their lives and were now retired laughed and looked at the young ones while chatting with their old friends. There were also some foreign adventurers here. Since the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, the adventurers in the Main Plane had become very few. But in recent years, because of the introduction of the Adventurer Experience Games in the Void Mask Land, many young people from rich families had accumulated a lot of experience through games and adventures in the underground playground and became good adventurers. They greatly enlarged the team of adventurers. This new generation of adventurers was very different from their predecessors. They were more cautious and never followed others blindly; they always collected information carefully and made good plans in advance. They were not particularly greedy and always had things done within a bottom line. They paid more attention to credit and principles. Moreover, they also had a wide range of social relations. Once in trouble, it would be easy for them to get help, and if they were killed, there would be a search or even revenge for them soon. If the adventurers of the past had lived like wild dogs, this new generation was more like proud hounds. Although they were not as free as their predecessors, they lived a more secure and reliable life. Their lives were much easier than those of their predecessors. They didn¡¯t have to worry all day about saving money and life after retirement. So they were also the most enthusiastic celebrities in the world because they had both money and leisure. For example, now, there were many adventurers in the celebration venue. Those more active ones were singing and dancing with the crowd, and those quiet ones were sitting in the square in groups of two or three, eating, drinking and chatting. Sui Xiong saw another two people, and each of them held a silver-white personal game machine the size of a book and played with it very happily! What the hell! Isn¡¯t that the limited edition game I launched last time? I remember that only high-ranking officials of the church and players who performed well in the testing game could get it. How did these guys get it? Curious in his heart, Sui Xiong could not help dividing a bit Divine Power to spy into the mind of the two guys. Then he couldn¡¯t help but laugh because it was a long story of how they got their game machines. The tall young man on the left got his game machine from the test player Clito. Clito took his wife and children to Garth City to learn from Leon Igor and took a part-time job in game testing in his spare time. With his fast response and sincere attitude in work, he performed well in the test and received a prize. The tall man, Klein, was also a test player. However, his performance in the test was not good enough, so he did not get the reward of the highest level. But he had a very good relationship with Clito, and he kept begging Clito for the prize. Finally, Clito had no choice but to transfer his prize to him. Another bald-headed man, Egil, was also a test player who did not perform well enough in the test. He was a good businessman, almost monopolizing the high-end liquor market in all of Garth City. He was also a member of the upper class. In order to get a personal game machine, he tried his best. Finally, Kalisa Riley, the Hill Lord of Garth City, saw that Egil almost went mad in getting a game machine, and she gave him hers. These two men had a good friendship and often played games together in their spare time. They had made full use of the personal game machines and quite enjoyed playing. They were at least better than Leon, who had put his in the warehouse to be buried by dust. Sui Xiong felt funny in his heart, and his original depression was relieved. Well, if the mortals wanted to have a good time, the gods could just be a good mascot on the side. Anyway, he just needed to leave a clone as a statue here, and he could spare time to develop new games or to perfect the god¡¯s summoning technique. Sui Xiong looked at the gods beside him and found that Yorgaardman, his powerful elder brother, and Wall, the God of Knowledge and Education, who had been busy just now, all looked like statues now! Even Javier, who liked celebrations most before, went back after the first blessings were given. He might go back to select excellent believers to build his God¡¯s Kingdom as soon as possible. These unscrupulous guys! Everyone was with me in the fight. But when we have to sit here steadily like a decoration in the celebration, they all ran away one by one¡­ Sui Xiong complained about it for a while, and then couldn¡¯t help but laugh. The fact that everyone was with me in the fight is enough. What is there to complain about? After that, he planned to go back as well. Suddenly, he was shocked and looked up into the sky. With the colorful lights flowing in the sky and the positive energy falling down in the rain, Void City was full of energy suddenly. The old felt they were younger, and the young men felt there was more strength in their arms and legs. The young girls felt their skin was more delicate and soft. Even the children felt that they were smarter, and maybe they could get more pocket money from their parents at home. Sui Xiong smiled, sent a message to his friends, and then flew up to meet these guests. The sacred lights turned into a rainbow bridge, and good gods came one after another in an amazingly large number. There were thirty to forty gods in front of Sui Xiong now, and looking back, there were many more on the rainbow bridge. He couldn¡¯t even see exactly how many of them were there. What¡¯s going on? Although they said they would come to congratulate us, I thought there would be three to five of them at most. But look at this now. Did the whole Pantheon temple come here? Sui Xiong¡¯s guess was almost close to the truth. Because of this great victory against the Evil Camp, the gods of the Good Camp of the Pantheon temple were very happy. By the initiative of the Goddess of Joy, the Goddess of Fortune, the God of Moon and other gods, the Good Camp, were all to come, even though they didn¡¯t come with all their members. Of course, all of them here were the clones of the gods, and even the weak Divine Powers did not come in their real bodies. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care about that at all. On the contrary, if the gods came in their real bodies, he would feel a bit strange. It was much easier to entertain the gods¡¯ clones than to entertain the gods! Sui Xiong¡¯s friends reacted quickly and returned in a few moments, so the dull statues on the playground quickly regained their vitality. Under the leadership of Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman, they greeted the good gods one by one. Javier, who had planned to become a god quickly, had to suppress the anxieties in his heart and temporarily act as the host to introduce these gods that came to congratulate them to Sui Xiong one by one. ¡°This is the Laughing Girl (the Goddess of Joy). She brings laughter to the world and keeps people away from crying and sorrows. She comes from the Sorrow-Proof Field, where it is always full of warm light and gentle breeze so that everyone can forget all their sorrows.¡± Sui Xiong immediately nodded his head and greeted. ¡°Nice to meet you!¡± The Goddess of Joy smiled and handed him a silver mask. ¡°Thank you very much for your great contribution to the promotion of goodness and the fight against evil. I hope this mask can make someone you care for happy all his or her life.¡± Sui Xiong accepted the gift with a smile, and before he could check its performance, the Goddess of Joy had directly moved past him, casting blessing spell on the crowd. Then she turned into a light and disappeared. Of course, she couldn¡¯t stay. There were over two hundred gods to congratulate Sui Xiong this time. If they all stayed here, wouldn¡¯t the square be full of gods? Were they going to move the Pantheon temple to the human world? The second one was the Goddess of Fortune, who dressed in a bold style. Even if she went to the earth of the 21st century, her dressing could only be seen in places like animation shows, fashion shows or something like that. Fortunately, she concealed herself so that the mortals could only see the sacred light shining around her. Otherwise, Sui Xiong was a little worried about whether the men in his territory would have sexual dreams tonight. ¡°This is the Goddess of Fortune, the benefactor of blessings, the great artist who built the jewel palace in the Sorrow-Proof Field, and the daughter of the God of Fate,¡± Javier introduced. Sui Xiong knew about this goddess. Not to mention other things, her background was amazing. She was the most mysterious of the gods, and she was generally acknowledged as the only child of the God of Fate who might be closest to the greater Divine Power. The God of Fate was so powerful that he needed no introduction. Although the Goddess of Fortune seemed to have inherited only half of her father¡¯s abilities, it made her even more popular. A goddess who brought only good luck and blessing to people was much lovelier than the God of Fate who controlled both good and bad luck! ¡°I wanted to bless you, but you are so powerful that you are beyond the range of my blessing.¡± The Goddess of Fortune kissed Sui Xiong gently on his forehead. ¡°But I still want to kiss you. Thank you for killing those hateful guys! Countless mortals will have good luck because of this, and it¡¯s all because of you!¡± This goddess was so free that she didn¡¯t bring any gifts except a kiss. Of course, if one could choose, Sui Xiong believed that most people would prefer her kiss more than anything else. The kiss of the Goddess of Fortune was the strongest blessing of good luck, and it could make people have good luck all their lives. Even for the gods, it could effectively avoid adversity, so it could be taken as a very precious treasure. Following the Goddess of Fortune was the God of Moon, who was born from a part of the dead God of Thunder and Destruction. He was cool and brave. Although he looked as pretty as a woman, he was actually quick-tempered like fire. In the past years, he was the second most powerful god of the Good Camp in the Pantheon temple, just after the God of Justice. Therefore, he was called the guardian of the night, the hero gazing at the earth from the sky, and the pioneer fighting against evil. He did not say much, but hugged Sui Xiong and said in a low voice, ¡°Good job!¡± His gift was quite personal. It was a longbow with no bowstring and arrows. It could shoot out holy arrows like moonlight and break down the evil arrows if it was urged by Sui Xiong¡¯s mind. Next, the gods came one after another in the introduction of Javier. They congratulated or thanked Sui Xiong, and then presented their presents in turn. At last, they gave the mortals of the Void City a blessing and disappeared one by one. To be honest, it was like a merry-go-round. Sui Xiong replied to their greetings and compliments, but in his heart, he imagined that there was a large merry-go-round here¡ªhe stood in the center, and these good gods were flashing around him one by one. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh again. Chapter 452 Chapter 452: Chapter 162 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°This is the God of Berries and Grass, a rambler in the Fresh-Spring Mountain. She brings berries and fresh grass to all good creatures and likes to sing in the spring breeze.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been looking forward to seeing you!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so polite.¡± This god of weak Divine Power smiled and passed a basket of fresh berries with dew on them to Sui Xiong. ¡°Maybe you know who I am, but I really don¡¯t believe that you¡¯ve been looking forward to seeing me.¡± Sui Xiong took over the basket and laughed embarrassedly. She was right. Sui Xiong was trying to be polite just now. Actually, he just had a vague impression of the God of Berries and Grass. He only knew that she was a friend or a subordinate of the Goddess of Spring Water, and that was all. The congratulations of the good gods had almost come to an end, and now it turned for those gods of weak Divine Power. These gods were poor both in popularity and strength. Many of them did not even have formal churches or shrines, and they barely maintained their belief among people through several altars guarded by some clergymen. Naturally, they couldn¡¯t bring any decent gifts. For example, the God of Berries and Grass gave Sui Xiong a basket of berries blessed with Divine Power. If these berries were given to the mortals, they could probably help strengthen their body, but couldn¡¯t even prolong their life. Compared with the gifts from the first few gods, there was really a huge difference between them. But Sui Xiong didn¡¯t mean to underestimate them at all. It was a pleasure to have visitors coming from afar! No matter what they gave to Sui Xiong, something precious or not, they were all sincere. Not to mention that these gods had traveled a long way to be here and presented good gifts to Sui Xiong. Even if they just picked a flower as a gift or said a few words of congratulations without any gifts, Sui Xiong would still be very happy. Today was a happy day! The last good god just finished his congratulation and turned into a light and left. When Sui Xiong was about to address the mortals of the Void City as well as thank the gods, Yorgaardman came over through the rainbow bridge that had not disappeared yet in a flash of light. ¡°Congratulations!¡± he said. Sui Xiong felt that was interesting. ¡°My brother, what are you doing? Why do you congratulate me? We were in the fight together.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I¡¯m talking about.¡± Yorgaardman laughed and took out a package that Sui Xiong felt familiar with and unfolded it on the ground. Inside it was a black armored soldier who was tied up tightly with the golden light that looked like a rope. He had been beaten black and blue but was still struggling desperately. ¡°Is this the God of Fear?!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised, and the gods beside him could not help but exclaim as well. ¡°This fellow was smart. He tried to escape from the underworld to hell and then to the abyss,¡± Yorgaardman smiled and said. ¡°To be honest, I really didn¡¯t expect that, so I lost him on the way. However, he did too many bad things before and was doomed to die at our hands. While in hell, he ran into a newly promoted Hell Baron on patrol. The young Hell Baron recognized him at a glance, so he sent out a signal for help and led his patrol to stop him. Soon, all the barons nearby came to support him, and later two marquises arrived with a large number of soldiers. The God of Fear fought hard for a long time but could not escape. I got the news from a follower of mine that was also a baron in hell and rushed to catch him.¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help laughing. ¡°He deserves it!¡± ¡°Yes, he deserves it!¡± Yorgaardman nodded and laughed. ¡°I wanted to kill him on the spot. But I looked at the time and found that there were just good gods coming to congratulate you. I thought about it for a moment and realized that I was also one of the good gods. Thus, it¡¯s ok for me to join them, isn¡¯t it? So I just brought him here as a gift to you.¡± Sui Xiong then understood the whole thing. He looked at the God of Fear who was lying on the ground still struggling, frowned in disgust and asked, ¡°What are you going to do with him?¡± ¡°It¡¯s up to you,¡± Yorgaardman shrugged his shoulders and said with ease. ¡°You were the one bullied by him before, so you have the right to punish him. Of course, it is up to you to make this decision.¡± Sui Xiong looked at the God of Fear coldly. This old leader of the Alliance of Evil Gods, the Master God of Fear God System and the most horrible existence in evil gods was in the most embarrassing condition now. He apparently didn¡¯t give up his life and was struggling hard to escape from the rope that was made of Yorgaardman¡¯s Divine Power, but everyone could see that there was no chance for him at all. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s character, at this moment, he should directly make a 40 meters long knife by magic and severely stab this evil god several times, so as to turn a joke he had seen on the Internet into reality. But when he thought about it again, he changed his mind. ¡°This guy has a lot of enemies, doesn¡¯t he?¡± he asked. ¡°Of course,¡± Yorgaardman replied. ¡°Even a gentle, kind and non-aggressive man like me was offended by him!¡± Sui Xiong felt funny about his brother¡¯s reply and looked at Javier. Javier paused for a moment, thought about it carefully, and said seriously, ¡°Yes, the good gods almost hate him. There were even several that had been killed by him.¡± Sui Xiong clapped his tentacles. ¡°Good! Then I have an idea! Let¡¯s have a public hearing.¡± ¡°A public hearing?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s friends were all confused. They looked at each other because they didn¡¯t know what that was. ¡°When the good gods came to congratulate me just now, I kept thinking about how to pay them back. I would like to hold a public hearing and invite them all to sentence him and decide the punishment. That would be great!¡± Sui Xiong said as his eyes gradually turned bright. After hearing that, others felt surprised at first. But on second thought, they found that Sui Xiong¡¯s idea was very reasonable. To pay the good gods back, would there be anything more pleasing to them than joining the trial of the evil God of Fear? For the God of Fear, the best way to wipe out his remaining influence was to have a public hearing, so that everyone could see the so-called leader of evil gods was not invincible. In this way, who else would be afraid of this evil god that had been arrested, sentenced and punished publicly in the future? ¡°That¡¯s really a good idea!¡± Morani laughed loudly. ¡°I agree!¡± ¡°Yes! That¡¯s a great idea!¡± Ariel nodded. ¡°It can eradicate his belief among humans completely. It will also make sure that even if someone succeeds to the clergy of fear in the future, it won¡¯t give this evil god any chance of resurrection.¡± ¡°However, I feel it¡¯s a bit tragic for such a respected great Divine Power as well as a master god to end up like this. He will be sent to a public trial and be criticized by the ones who had been nobodies in his eyes.¡± The Goddess of Wealth, Manissy sighed. ¡°He deserves it!¡± the patron saint of Monochrome Bearman, the Silent Knight, Ink, said suddenly. After the discussion, the matter was settled. Then Sui Xiong sent invitations to all the gods to invite them to a place near the Main Plane. He was busy with the settings of the public hearing venue with his friends to make sure that everyone could judge the God of Fear together. Augmentin looked at that in silence. Besides the sadness and fear of the coming death for a great Divine Power, there was also a special feeling in his heart. It was the same feeling as meeting His Majesty, Wenner and following him to the war, defeating the enemy and winning the fight at last. It was a feeling of excitement, happiness, and enthusiasm. On the Void Mask, he saw a similar light to His Majesty¡¯s, but it was clearer and brighter than that of His Majesty as well. This jellyfish could not only defeat the enemy but also spread the light of victory to others. As long as one followed him, one would surely have a brilliant future! He couldn¡¯t help laugh at that thought. Your Majesty, Wenner, you deserve to be my monarch! I have to look at these things by myself, and then I can understand it, but you¡¯ve already known everything before! He did not hesitate to come over to Sui Xiong when he understood that. ¡°Your Majesty, I¡¯d like to say something now.¡± Sui Xiong, considering how to decorate the venue, turned to him and said, ¡°What¡¯s that? You can¡¯t plead for this guy. I¡¯m serious. This guy is dead this time. We are just waiting to choose a way of death for him.¡± ¡°No, I want to say something else,¡± Augmentin smiled and said. ¡°It¡¯s much more important than the death of the God of Fear.¡± At this time, not only Sui Xiong was shocked but also his friends. Even the powerful good gods who had just received the news and came here were shocked, too. What else in the world would be much more important than the death of a great Divine Power? Under the gaze of the others, Augmentin took another step forward and knelt down on one knee in front of Sui Xiong. Then he untied the sword that the God of War handed to him before departure, and held it high. ¡°Your majesty, the great Void Mask, your bravery and spirit of justice are highly admired by our War God System. From today on, we are willing to obey your orders, accept your leadership and regard you as our leader. This is the sword of His Majesty, the God of War. Please accept it as proof of our obedience to you.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked again, so were his friends and the good gods who came to attend the public hearing. The whole Pantheon temple was silent at the moment. No one could have expected that after being defeated by the Void Mask in the war, the War God System would be obedient to him and decide to regard him as their leader. But no one would take it as Augmentin¡¯s personal decision since the sword he was holding high was proof. That was from Wenner, the God of War. It was more of a ceremonial prop than a weapon to Wenner, and he loved it a lot and always took it with him. This sword had been presented to Sui Xiong! The War God System was really determined! Sui Xiong hesitated for a while and looked around at the others. Finally, his eyes fell on Augmentin. Then he laughed and took over the sword. ¡°Rest assured, I will not let you down!¡± Chapter 453 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Some events of this year were bound to be recorded into history. First, the Evil Camp of the Pantheon temple was badly damaged. Their largest organization, the Alliance of Evil Gods, was almost destroyed. The Alliance¡¯s leader, the God of Fear who was a great Divine Power, together with his Fear God System, was almost beaten to pieces. In a few minutes, there were about 100 evil gods who died all at once. It was amazing enough. It was almost the worst loss that the Evil Camp had suffered in the past tens of thousands of years, but it was not over yet. Just one day later, the God of Fear, who had been badly wounded and fled away during the war, was captured alive by his old adversary, the God of Justice, and would be tried in public and punished with justice and severity soon. Compared to these two things, other events that should have been enough to shake the world, such as the good gods going to Void City to express their congratulations, or the War God System bowing their heads to a god that didn¡¯t even have a formal clergy, were less amazing now. In all these events, there was an absolute protagonist that had to be mentioned. That was the Void Mask, Auscar, a jellyfish from the sea. ¡°Why did you suddenly decide to submit to the Void Mask?¡± In the front row of the Pantheon temple, Lefon, the Sky Devourer Canine, curiously approached Wenner, the God of War. ¡°What about him is worth you guys following?¡± ¡°First of all, he¡¯s powerful, then he¡¯s fair, and finally he¡¯s full of pioneering spirit.¡± Wenner, the God of War, didn¡¯t want to hide anything, so he answered frankly. ¡°What really moved me was actually the last one.¡± Lefon nodded slightly and understood what he meant. ¡°Auscar¡­ He is really full of pioneering spirit. Many of his ideas are not only original but also very practical. Perhaps he can really create a situation that has never existed before and bring development and progress to the world.¡± ¡°I think the word perhaps is redundant.¡± Wenner laughed and said, ¡°He has proved this through the development of the Republic of Northwest. If one wants to stop him from moving forward, one probably has to start a war. But who can defeat him? As long as he shows up, he will hold his opponent and explode twice in a row, and who can beat that?¡± ¡°Yes! He has enough strength to defend his dreams.¡± Lefon nodded. ¡°I envy that a lot!¡± ¡°So I decided to follow him. To be honest, I have been at a loss for years. Although I have won countless battles, I really don¡¯t know where I should go and where I should lead the War God System,¡± Wenner sighed softly and said. ¡°Now, everything has been settled. I just follow him. I believe that there will be a brilliant future for the War God System!¡± ¡°That¡¯s for sure. If he wants to promote his way of development, he will inevitably fight with others¡­¡± ¡°Haha! You¡¯re a little too direct.¡± In the middle of the Pantheon temple, there were also others discussing Sui Xiong. ¡°It¡¯s hard for me to understand it now.¡± The God of Scholar and Debate shook his head. ¡°His Majesty, the Void Mask is clearly just a jellyfish, but how does he know so much? Why does he have such wonderful ideas?¡± Beside him, the God of Righteousness and Law was thinking about it quietly. When heard the news of the coming public hearing, the one who felt the most shocked among the gods was the God of Law. He had always adhered to a neutral stand. He had been impartial in doing things and was dedicated to improving the legal system and training seriously. He was a powerful law enforcer. Although he had met a lot of difficulties, he still felt that his work was fruitful and his team of followers and clergymen were gradually expanding. He believed that the future would be better and better. However, the sudden emergence of the Void Mask had a great impact on him. This jellyfish seemed to know everything by nature, and his policies and regulations in the Void Mask Land were amazingly perfect. The God of Law once asked his followers to collect the documents about the Void Law System¡ªthat was what he called the laws and regulations that had been launched by the Void Mask¡ªand spent a lot of time studying them carefully. He finally came to the conclusion that the jellyfish, the Void Mask, was really better than him, the formal God of Law. Especially after the Republic of Northwest was founded, and its formal laws were promulgated, the God of Law read them carefully and immediately felt a sense of admiration. He could see that there were obvious signs of deletions and revisions in this set of laws and regulations. It was probably that the Void Mask had put forward the original version of the regulations, and then the governors of the Republic of Northwest revised them based on the practical situation. It had been so excellent a law system after the revision, and he really couldn¡¯t imagine how great the original version would be! With this idea in mind, the God of Law could not help but want to visit Void Mask and have a good talk with him to exchange ideas and mutually learn. But he didn¡¯t make up his mind. Actually, they had met and talked with each other before. That had not been a pleasant conversation because they had opposite understandings of the law. After a few words, the conversation stopped, and they almost fought with each other. It was nothing surprising because the conversation between the God of Law and other good gods had always ended up like this. The Void Mask had been one of the mildest gods, and the fiercest, the God of Justice, had almost destroyed the God¡¯s Kingdom of the God of Law. After that, the God of Law disliked Sui Xiong more or less. He thought that this jellyfish was so idealistic that he couldn¡¯t understand reality, just the same as the God of Justice. But facts had proved that the Void Mask was a master who could do what he said, and he really had the ability to turn his ideas into practice! From the Void Mask Land to the Republic of Northwest, he really launched a legal system that was more vigorous and efficient as well as fairer than ever. This made the God of Law both surprised and curious. In the past, he had planned to visit the Void Mask more than once. He wanted to have a peaceful talk with him about the understanding of the law and society. But he had cared about his honor too much. After all, he was older among the gods, even older than the God of Justice. Moreover, he had stubbornly maintained his absolute neutral attitude all along. He had also quarreled with the Void Mask before, so he felt a little embarrassed to bow his head for advice. But now, he had no such idea. Honor? What was that for? His Majesty, the Void Mask, by himself, had almost wiped out the whole Alliance of Evil Gods and the entire Fear God System. Would it be embarrassing for the God of Law to bow his head to ask such a master for advice? On the contrary, as a god of mid-level Divine Power and a useless old man who managed to become a god when he was almost 10,000 years old, was he qualified enough to care about his honor when standing in front of such a genius master who had achieved countless great deeds in his less than a hundred years of life? Therefore, after received the news of the upcoming public hearing, the God of Law started his journey immediately and arrived at Void City to visit Sui Xiong that night. Sui Xiong certainly welcomed him. Sui Xiong had long wanted to have a good talk with him. However, their last conversation had ended unhappily within a few words due to their bad mood, and since then, Sui Xiong had been a bit angry and did not want to see him again. Today, the God of Law visited Sui Xiong in person, and that really made Sui Xiong happy, just like a sleepy person who saw a pillow. They talked for almost two hours. Sui Xiong introduced his understanding of the law and society carefully, and the God of Law mainly listened and asked questions. From time to time, he raised some questions according to his own understanding. Both of them had been pleasant during the conversation. The God of Law was indeed an expert. In this world, the society was somewhat deformed, and the development of law was slow, so his insights were limited, and he had been stubborn in many problems. However, his profound accumulation was indeed remarkable. Many times Sui Xiong just gave a brief introduction or advice, and the God of Law could think along the direction Sui Xiong had pointed out and draw a fairly reliable conclusion. That made Sui Xiong praise him more than once for his sensitivity and profound knowledge. The God of Law learned more about the deep connotation of the Void Mask. Many problems that he had been thinking about for a long time were not even problems at all to the Void Mask and were solved by him easily. What was more striking was that this Jellyfish God also developed his ideas on more profound and essential issues, and that benefited the God of Law a lot. It was like he was climbing a very high mountain under the leadership of this Jellyfish God, and he felt open-minded at last. For example, at the beginning of their discussion, they started with the nature of law. His understanding was that law was the tool for the strong to manage the weak, while Sui Xiong said naturally that law was the embodiment of the will of the ruling class. At first glance, there was not much difference between them, but when Sui Xiong explained what class and rule, social mobility and development, compromise and progress meant in detail¡ªmainly something he had seen and learned before his time-travel¡ªthe God of Law was completely shocked. He tried his best to ask questions and to understand these concepts one by one, and then he compared it with the experience that he had learned from the Code of the Republic of Northwest and his actual governing work; he soon became enlightened and could not help but laugh. At that moment, there was a relaxed and happy look on his face, and that was as funny as an Internet emoji on the earth. Late at night, when the God of Law was ready to say goodbye and leave, this influential god respectfully saluted Sui Xiong and honored him as a teacher. Thus, there was one more big event that happened in the past few days¡ªthe God of Righteousness and Law publicly declared that he had worshiped His Majesty, the Void Mask as a teacher and learned legal knowledge from him. He had learned so much that it could be said that he had found a new direction. From today on, if there was anyone who dared to go against his teacher, the Void Mask, the God of Righteousness and Law would treat them as an enemy and would kill them under his teacher¡¯s order. No one would be surprised if these words were from the God of Justice, but things would be different when it was the mature and honest God of Righteousness and Law that said that. This was not his style! Several gods who had a good relationship with him asked about the whole thing carefully to make sure that this old god was not talking nonsense. They found that he really worshiped the Void Mask as his teacher now, and what he had said was utterly and sincerely from his heart. Others were more surprised, wondering whether the Void Mask was really so powerful. Otherwise, how could the God of Law be completely obedient to him? With surprise and curiosity, they all looked forward to the upcoming public hearing. Chapter 454 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The venue of the public hearing was built in the space near the Main Plane. From a distance, it looked like a hemisphere. It was surrounded by at least a hundred brilliant divine lights, which were the good gods, under the leadership of the God of Justice, guarding the surroundings to avoid others¡¯ disturbances. The shell of that hemisphere was a boundary that no masters beyond the Legendary Realm could pass. If one wanted to break in it by force, one would arouse the defense of the boundary, and it would send an alarm so that the nearby gods would come immediately. ¡°You want to break in by force? Come on! As long as you could win the joint defense of over a hundred good gods, just come! It is not difficult at all, is it?¡± When the God of Justice made such a declaration, he laughed very arrogantly. Many evil gods went to the venue for a look in advance, and then secretly gave up the idea of making trouble during the public hearing. Just like others, they sent their Message-Sending Clones here. After entering the hemispherical boundary, the scene inside was quite different. On the ground was a flat, white stripe of stone and overhead was a clear blue sky. It was cloudless; a red sun was hanging high in the sky, and it didn¡¯t mean to move at all. The venue was located in the center of this boundary, and its main style was something squarish. The trial stand, the plaintiff stand, the accused stand, the witness stand and the judge¡¯s bench that were facing the trial stand were all square. There were rows of square seats, too. Looking at this formal venue of the public hearing, almost everything was square, and the color was solemn and grand. There was nothing mild or casual in it, and that created an unusually dignified and serious atmosphere. On the judge¡¯s bench was the God of Law, on the plaintiff¡¯s seat was the Void Mask, and on the defendant¡¯s seat was the God of Fear who had been tied there by a complicated chain made of at least fifty to sixty Divine Powers. Only the witness¡¯s seat was empty. The witnesses wouldn¡¯t show up until the formal trial started. Because the venue was not far from the Main Plane, most of the masters of the Legendary Realm could come. Therefore, besides the gods sitting in the front row, the audience also included a large number of masters from the human world or other worlds. Half of them were curious, and the other half were planning to take this opportunity to see if they could meet or make friends with one or two gods so as to find support for themselves. Few masters that could enter the Legendary Realm were stubborn, so they seldom insisted on developing their power all by themselves. Of course, self-independency and self-improvement were necessary, but what was wrong with finding a stronger backer? The seniors helping the juniors was always the right way to pass on the civilization from generation to generation. As the appointed time got closer and closer, more and more audiences appeared in the venue. Later, when it was the appointed time, the huge venue was fully occupied, and those late-comers had even sat at least two or three miles away. It was impossible for ordinary people to see anything clearly at this distance, but things were different for legendary masters. As long as there was no obstruction in front of them, they could see the venue clearly as if it was just in front of them. Sitting on the plaintiff¡¯s seat, Sui Xiong looked at the audience that had stretched out for thousands of meters and could not help frown. He hadn¡¯t expected there to be so many people. But after a rough thought, he had an idea. With a tap of his tentacles, the white stone floor began to sink slowly, one layer after another. Thus, the back row was slightly higher than the front one, just like a staircase. This kind of seat was very common to see here, but Sui Xiong really did not expect that even the court could need it. After this slight modification of the venue, Sui Xiong was relieved because even the last row of the audience could see the central trial stand clearly. A moment later, the God of Justice, acting as the host, announced the start of the trial. To be honest, there was not much suspense about this trial. Everyone knew that the God of Fear was dead for sure. It was nothing more than choosing a way of death for him. But soon after the trial began, many gods were surprised. ¡°I¡¯m Auscar, the Void Mask. I believe many of you here have known me, or not, but that doesn¡¯t matter. What matters is that I¡¯m the plaintiff today.¡± Sui Xiong took the lead in the speech. ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t think I am the victim of the evil acts of the God of Fear. He was too weak to bully me. But the God of Law thinks that I¡¯m the most suitable one to be the plaintiff for I was a direct target of his latest evil act, so I¡¯m here. ¡°I know I¡¯m a bit annoying, so I¡¯ll skip all the nonsense. There is no need to introduce anyone because I believe that everyone knows the God of Law who is sitting on the judge¡¯s bench and the God of Fear that is sitting, let¡¯s assume he is sitting, on the defendant¡¯s seat. So let me get back to the business¡­¡± Sui Xiong paused for a moment and said loudly, ¡°As the plaintiff in this case, I have brought a complaint on behalf of the victims of the evil acts of the God of Fear over the past tens of thousands of years. After a period of investigation, I compiled a list of horrible crimes committed by the God of Fear. Here I prosecute him for 1,276,449 crimes in total!¡± 1,276,449 crimes?! The audience was in an uproar. Even the gods were stunned, not to mention those legendary masters. Wasn¡¯t that too many? It was true that the clergy of fear had been in existence since the ancient time, and it had a long history that was hard to verify. But the contemporary God of Fear had only become a god for about 123,000 years. In these years, this guy had committed more than 1.27 million crimes? Didn¡¯t that mean there were more than ten of them every year? Wait¡­ Ten crimes a year¡­ It seemed like¡­ Maybe that was not a large number. Thinking of this, the gods restored calm. The God of Fear had lived a long life, so it was natural for him to commit a lot of crimes. Even though the figure of more than one million was astonishing, that would be nothing serious if it had gradually happened during more than 100,000 years. There was a god under the stage who couldn¡¯t help but open his mouth and ask, ¡°Were there so few of them? Did he just do evil things ten times a year?¡± Many gods nodded secretly. In their impression, the God of Fear and his subordinates had done all kinds of evil things. It would more than appropriate to describe them as having committed every crime imaginable. For such a gang of evil guys, one said that they had just committed ten crimes a year? This one must be kidding! Sui Xiong did not stop the audience from asking questions, and later he answered, ¡°In fact, we initially collected an astonishing number of crimes, but after some screening, we found that most of them were committed by his subordinates, not directly related to him. These crimes have been summarized by us in one as supporting the weaker evil gods and people and acting as an umbrella for their crimes (to protect them).¡± ¡°Then that must be heavily judged!¡± that god said again indignantly. ¡°If it hadn¡¯t been for his support, many heinous crimes would not have happened!¡± ¡°Please rest assured. We will judge him strictly in accordance with the law.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°Even if I¡¯m not reliable, can¡¯t you believe the one on the judge¡¯s bench?¡± The gods smiled and nodded, and the court was quiet again. According to the traditional legal procedure, Sui Xiong should read out a document at this moment, listing the crimes of the God of Fear one by one. However, it was really impossible for him to read over 1.2 million crimes one by one, so Sui Xiong just talked about them in brief, and then transferred the right to speak to the judge. The face of the God of Law looked still old, but there was something more vigorous on his face and body today than before. After listening to Sui Xiong¡¯s part, he didn¡¯t make any comment and turned his head to the God of Fear. ¡°As a totally neutral god, I am neither inclined to good nor evil,¡± the God of Law said. ¡°So here, both sides have equal right of statement and debate. The God of Fear, as the defendant in this case, is there something you want to defend yourself?¡± Apparently, the God of Fear had thought about it before, and even though he looked worried, he did not hesitate to answer immediately, ¡°Of course. As you all know, I am one of the evil gods. The evil that I pursued is one of the most basic principles in the world, just the same as the other good gods valued. In my opinion, the balance between good and evil is an indispensable standard for maintaining the normal operation of the world. Judging evil with good is like distorting the original law of the world. It doesn¡¯t make sense at all!¡± When he finished that, there was an uproar again. The audience had never expected the God of Fear to make such a counter-attack when he was almost the meat on the chopping board. All of a sudden, he raised the topic to the height of the world¡¯s law. If his justification worked, they were afraid that it would be impossible to convict him of his crimes this time. Chapter 455 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Fear was a very shrewd fellow. Although sometimes his tricks brought him nothing than trouble, at least at the moment of life and death, his tricks were quite reliable. As he had said, good and evil were inherent in the world, and the balance between them was the basic law of the world. Judging evil with good was to deny the balance between them, and that didn¡¯t make any sense. What he had said was quite remarkable. Not to mention ordinary people, even the gods nodded their heads in secret. Most of the gods in the world belonged to the Neutral Camp. For them, the general good or evil did not matter. Instead, they cared more about their own camp and rules, and that was all. If the balance between good and evil was broken, there surely would be a winner between these two, and that would have a huge impact on the world. Whether it was good or bad, currently, no one wanted to see it happen¡ªno one knew what it would lead the world to. Faced with the God of Fear¡¯s justification, Sui Xiong gave a cold smile carelessly. It was not surprising to see the God of Fear defend himself in this way, or, in other words, not surprising for the God of Law. For this trial, Sui Xiong had talked to the God of Law in detail in advance, and he had also asked the God of Law to play the role of the God of Fear to conceive how he would defend himself. And what the God of Fear was saying now was one of several possibilities that the God of Law had conceived at that time. Thus, Sui Xiong was well prepared for such an argument. ¡°Are you the world?¡± he asked. The God of Fear was surprised at that and then shook his head. ¡°Then, am I the world?¡± he asked again. The God of Fear shook his head again. ¡°Well, are we, I mean you and I, the world?¡± ¡°What on earth do you want to say?¡± the God of Fear asked cautiously. ¡°I don¡¯t think this topic makes sense.¡± Without paying attention to him, Sui Xiong turned to the audience and said, ¡°All the gods present here, do you think our gods together are the world?¡± The gods discussed it and after a while gave a relatively consistent answer. ¡°No.¡± The world was vast and boundary-less. It had been a great cycle since ancient times and had even existed long before the gods appeared. Even if the gods died in the future, the world would still exist. The gods were the masters of some laws of the world, the guardians of the operation of the world, and the strivers in pursuit of infinite power even beyond the world. But anyway, even if all the gods of the Pantheon temple were counted, they were still smaller and not worth mentioning compared to the world. Since ancient times, many clergies had been occupied by different masters, and even many gods had passed their titles on for several generations. Everyone was just the master of a certain clergy in a certain generation. Even if all gods were united, they were just the masters of clergies in a single generation¡ªthat was all. They were not the world. Even if all of them were counted, they were still not the world. Sui Xiong listened to the results of the discussions among the gods and looked at the God of Fear. ¡°Do you agree with them?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The God of Fear nodded. ¡°Then here is the question. Since even if our gods together are not the world, how can the death of a single god be serious enough to influence the balance of the world?¡± Sui Xiong sneered and said. ¡°Whether there is a trial for you or not, does it have any influence on the balance of the world?¡± The God of Fear was speechless and didn¡¯t answer that. ¡°Let me ask you again, am I the good? Are you the evil?¡± Sui Xiong continued to ask. ¡°Of course I don¡¯t think you will answer it, so I¡¯d like to ask all of you here. Is there anyone here that thinks that you are the good or evil? Or do you think that all good gods add up together to be the good itself? And the same for the evil?¡± After a brief discussion, the gods gave a negative answer. Not to mention the gods here, even the former God of Virtue and the former God of Evil were just the supreme masters of the good and evil, but not the actual good and evil themselves. It was like the God of Sky not being the sky, the Sun God not being the sun, and the God of Joy not being joy. Even the God of Fear himself was not fear. A god was just the master or manager of the clergy, and that was all. After getting the answers from the gods, Sui Xiong looked at the God of Fear with a sneer again. ¡°You see, I am a good god, but I am not the good itself, you are an evil god, but you are not the evil itself. So it has nothing to do with evil when we are judging you here. How are you related to the evil? For the world, for the evil itself, you are nothing more than a temporary staff holding the clergy of fear. Why do you value yourself so much? You¡¯re so arrogant!¡± At this point, he paused for a moment and continued ironically, ¡°I¡¯ve seen more than once that when ordinary people are drunk, some of them claim to be the king of the world, some boast that they are the most handsome man in the world, and some shout that they are invincible in the world. I definitely remember that you weren¡¯t given a drink, but why do you suddenly get so drunk?¡± There were laughs in the audience, and among them, the happiest one was from Yorgaardman, the God of Justice. The God of Fear was very angry. He knew that he had lost this debate, completely. After that, Sui Xiong turned to the God of Law who was the judge today. ¡°Your Honor, I don¡¯t think his defense is tenable. The judgment on him will have no effect on the balance of the world. Please adjudicate it.¡± The God of Law looked around at the whole court calmly and finally looked at the God of Fear, who was in a bad mood but had nothing to say now. ¡°The defendant, do you have anything to say?¡± The God of Fear silenced for a moment and said, ¡°Whether it will have an impact on the balance of the world is one thing, and whether it intends to is another. A trial with a clear tendency doesn¡¯t make any sense.¡± This was his last rebellion because he knew that once the trial entered the stage to discuss and provide proofs for his specific crime, there would be absolutely no room for him to defend. If he wanted to survive at last, he had to fundamentally deny this trial, and then he could manage to find a chance to save himself from this doomed dead ending. The God of Law was indifferent to his statement and turned to Sui Xiong. ¡°The plaintiff, do you have anything to say?¡± ¡°I think what the God of Fear said is ridiculous,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t the trial make sense? The trial is based on the law, and the law itself has its tendency more or less¡ªto maintain social stability, to guard the interests of the public, or more clearly, the law is the product of order, and its existence is to maintain a stable ruling order. Thus, why can¡¯t the law have its tendency? Why should the trial not be biased? If there¡¯s really no tendency, then there is no need to hold a trial. I can kill the defendant with one knife and finish everything here.¡± He turned to the God of Fear and said, ¡°What will you say?¡± Fear rose in the eyes of the God of Fear because he knew that Sui Xiong was absolutely not joking. If it hadn¡¯t been for the sake of the public hearing, Sui Xiong would have killed him long ago. ¡°You¡¯re just insulting me!¡± the God of Fear said stiffly. ¡°Judging an evil god by the law of the good is simply an insult!¡± ¡°I really doubt you¡¯ve drunk too much.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and sighed. ¡°I just made it clear that the law existed on the basis of order. Order and chaos are another set of balances parallel to good and evil. Why are you talking about things that have nothing to do with good or evil right now? You must be drunk!¡± Then he looked at the God of Justice under the stage and said, ¡°Brother, did you give him a jar of wine or something like that today?¡± ¡°How could I!¡± the God of Justice cried out. ¡°If there was a good wine that could make a powerful god drunk, I would have saved it for myself! For this bastard, I prefer to give him an axe than wine!¡± The other gods laughed again, and that laughter was full of irony. The God of Fear frowned tightly and tried to think about how to defend himself in the debate, but he could not think of any useful words. To be honest, he was not a skilled debater. He had pursued the principle of solving problems with his fist but not his tongue, and he had preferred a fight than a negotiation all along. Who was he? The God of Fear! He was a god that brought disaster and fear to the world! To negotiate with others with words? That was not that cool. But now he hated his old ways and regretted that he hadn¡¯t practiced how to debate over the years. If time could go back, he would have practiced arguing. No! If time could go back, he would not dare to disturb that jellyfish. This was clearly looking for death when the weak tried to disturb the strong! Unconsciously, the God of Fear had placed himself in the position of the weak, and regarded Sui Xiong as the absolute strong that was invincible. In the mind of the God of Fear, not only rose the fear of death, but also the fear of Sui Xiong. The power of the clergy made him understand that in an instant, and he was ashamed and angry. He could not help roaring like a beast that fell into a trap and was caught in a net by hunters with spears, forks, and crossbows aimed at him. He had fallen into despair. But it was too late for him to regret. The God of Law just waved his hand to cut off his roar from the defendant¡¯s seat, and with a short delay, the trial entered the stage that was familiar to the audience. The crimes of the God of Fear were mentioned one by one. The witnesses appeared in court one after another, and the evidence was constantly provided. The crimes committed by the God of Fear over the past 100,000 years had been shown before the public without any disguise. As the sentences were made, the face of the God of Fear grew darker and darker, so were his eyes. Everyone could see that this evil god, who had committed countless crimes and spread fear widely to the world during a long time, had finally come to his end. Chapter 456 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The facts of the crime are clear, and the evidence is conclusive, so the crime is certain!¡± Once again, the God of Law announced the establishment of another crime committed by the God of Fear. This was already the 198th day of the public hearing, and nearly 700,000 crimes had been verified. The vast majority of the more than 1,200,000 crimes committed by the God of Fear were those crimes that didn¡¯t require detailed verification. For example, on a certain date, he instructed or partnered with other evil gods to launch certain evil activities. Such things were well known in the Pantheon temple, so there was no need for further verification. If those crimes needed to be verified, it would be equal to laughing at everyone¡¯s IQ. What needed to be verified were crimes which weren¡¯t well known to the public or those particularly serious ones. Gods didn¡¯t need to rest, so the public hearing continued in this way. A pile of crimes was successively proved. From time to time, just by hearing the names, the gods were clear that the content didn¡¯t need further verification. By now, more than half of the crimes had been checked. At last, those crimes would be summed up. It was almost unquestionable to figure out what a serious crime it would be and how cruel the punishment would be. The God of Fear sat silently in the prisoner¡¯s box. He completely abandoned resistance. He knew that he was completely lost, so there was no need to resist. It was better to take advantage of his last time to enjoy the preciousness of life. However, this ¡°enjoyment¡± was really a torment. The verification of every crime made him shocked. He knew that his time decreased a little more, and he had little time left originally. At this time, he was grateful that he had done so many bad things over the years. It took so much time to verify those crimes, and that made him earn some time to live. It was so good to live¡­ The God of Fear completely ignored the trial. He just sat in the chair of the prisoner¡¯s box powerlessly, staring blankly at the blue sky and the red sun created by divine power above his head. After a long time, he suddenly shouted, ¡°I protest! Why are there no clouds in the sky here?¡± Sui Xiong, who was busy verifying his crimes, was stunned, looking at him doubtfully. ¡°Since there is the sky and the sun, why are there no clouds?¡± the God of Fear eloquently asked. ¡°And there is no wind! It¡¯s ridiculous!¡± ¡°Is this related to your crimes?¡± Sui Xiong asked. The God of Fear didn¡¯t answer, but repeatedly emphasized the irrationality of this sky. In the front row of the audience, the God of Sky blinked. He found that many gods paid attention to him. ¡°Ugh? How is this related to me?¡± he asked, being confused and depressed. However, his name was the God of Sky. Under the gaze of the gods, he sighed. He had to wave his hand, and many large and small clouds appeared in the monotonous blue sky. The clouds flowed without urgency. In the open hall of the public hearing, soft wind began to blow. After solving this problem, the God of Fear sighed with satisfaction. He turned back to the previous appearance again. He was seemingly half-dead, sitting in that chair and staring at the sky blankly. ¡°This guy won¡¯t be stupid, will he?¡± some gods muttered. ¡°I always feel that his mind is already not normal.¡± ¡°You are not the only one who thinks so.¡± ¡°Yeah, I think so, too!¡± ¡°Damn, I thought I was the only one who thought so!¡± ¡°Hah hah, me too!¡± There was no wonder why the gods thought so. The God of Fear seemed like an abnormal person, well, an abnormal god. Sui Xiong stared at him carefully for a long time. Then, Sui Xiong asked him questions repeatedly, but he never answered. Finally, Sui Xiong had no choice but to sigh, not paying attention to this guy who suddenly became abnormal. Sui Xiong continued the trial. Time passed little by little. When all the crimes were verified, the gods secretly let out a sigh of relief. This was probably the longest trial in the world. The entire trial process lasted for more than 300 days. Considering the time required for the final judgment, it was nearly a year in the mortal world. In the mortal world, trials might last for a long time sometimes. Most of the time, they happened when the two sides couldn¡¯t decide whether the crimes were certain, or whether the accusations were established. The two sides would make heated debates and constant argumentation. However, the vast majority of crimes committed by the God of Fear didn¡¯t need to be argued at all. As long as they were briefly explained, everyone could be sure that they were established. Only a very small number of crimes needed witnesses. The efficiency was high enough to make the mortal courts feel ashamed. However, the number of crimes committed by the God of Fear was really too big! 1,276,449! If a court in the mortal world was asked to judge, it was estimated that several sets of judges and plaintiffs would be prepared, and everyone would take turns. Otherwise, the judges and the plaintiffs would be exhausted before the trial result came out. Fortunately, the gods wouldn¡¯t be tired. At least, they wouldn¡¯t be tired because of such simple and easy work. Sui Xiong and the God of Law successively judged the 1,276,439 crimes one by one and showed them in front of the gods and the legendary strongmen from the mortal world. The crimes were verified one by one. This process was so long that some legendary strongmen couldn¡¯t stand it when they had heard half or less than a half, and they went to rest. There was a special lounge in the conference hall. The layout of the lounge was relatively simple; it was just an ordinary room. Mortals or gods could go to this simple room if they were tired. Fortunately, even if they were the mortals who had the highest requirements on living conditions, they knew that they couldn¡¯t complain about this to the gods. Therefore, no one jumped out to find fault. Everyone rested honestly and then continued to listen to the trial. For the immortal gods, a year was like a flash. Even for those mortals, a year was nothing serious. The life span of the legendary strongmen was calculated by the unit ¡°millennium,¡± so everyone could afford a year. However, a year was unbearable suffering for the God of Fear. He tried to find a way to dispatch his depression, but in the end, all the methods lost their effects. Now he just sat in the chair blankly, opening his mouth slightly. His eyes were dull, and he was motionless. His divine light was still stable. Otherwise, everyone would believe that he was dead. ¡°Well, all the crimes have been verified,¡± the God of Law said solemnly. ¡°Now, I will pronounce the conviction of these crimes. However, before the verdict, according to the rules, I have to ask, who else present would like to supplement these crimes? Or is there an objection?¡± The gods looked at each other, shaking their heads. Supplement? More than one million crimes, there was nothing else to supplement! Objection? They were not crazy, so they didn¡¯t dare to have an objection here! They didn¡¯t want to die! However, someone actually stood up. ¡°I have an objection!¡± a thin god in a black robe said, standing up. ¡°The vast majority of the crimes committed by His Majesty, the God of Fear are verified. However, there are no relevant laws. Since there are no relevant laws, then though the crimes are conclusive, the accusations can¡¯t be established!¡± What?! Someone actually wanted to die?! The gods were stunned as they looked at the guy who raised the objection. A god next to that god suddenly screamed, ¡°You are the God of Shadow and Assassination! You are not dead?!¡± The god who was covered in a black robe simply took off the hood that covered her head, revealing a pale face. She was a black-haired girl who seemed to have been seriously injured and didn¡¯t recover yet. Everyone was unfamiliar with this face because for a long time, even most of the unlucky people who died under her knife only saw her black figure. ¡°Yes, I am the God of Shadow and Assassination,¡± the girl admitted frankly. She was the only loyal subordinate of the God of Fear. ¡°I know what you want to say. Since I come here today, I don¡¯t mean to leave alive! However, I have an objection to this trial!¡± ¡°There are no clear written laws among the gods, and there are no contents for gods in the laws of the mortal world. Therefore, even if the crimes committed by the God of Fear are verified, you can¡¯t establish his accusations!¡± She wasn¡¯t afraid of the gaze of hatred all around her. She stood in the audience seat with a seemingly proud gesture, glancing at the judgment seat without retreat. She looked at Sui Xiong and the God of Law, shouting loudly. ¡°This trial should stop here!¡± Chapter 457 Chapter 457: Chapter 167 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio As the loyal subordinate of the God of Fear, perhaps the only loyal subordinate, Hasarin, the God of Shadow and Assassination, had always been wondering how to save her boss. It was definitely impossible to save him from the execution ground. She was just a mid-level Divine Power. Even if she was a great Divine Power, it was also impossible. The two great Divine Powers had joined hands, but they had still been defeated by the Void Mask. If she wanted to save him from the execution ground on her own, she would need to change her body at first. She needed to change into the Master of Order, the greater Divine Power. Or she could pick up a stone on the side of the road, and it happened to be a deity fragment left by one of the other three greater Divine Powers. Such things just existed in her imaginations. Hasarin was a pragmatic god, so what she thought about was how to use a non-forceful method to save the God of Fear. Honestly, this was an impossible task. Hasarin wasn¡¯t a wise god, so she changed her idea. I am not wise enough, then I¡¯ll find a wise person to help me! Therefore, her avatar sneaked into the mortal world and found six officials who were engaged in legal work. She also found two scholars who studied history, hoping to get solutions from those professionals. Because she needed to disguise her identity, she didn¡¯t dare to use Divine Power. She could only seduce those people with ordinary money, treasures, and even beauty. It was lucky that gods were free to change their appearances. Otherwise, with her face which was as pale as a dead person and her malnourished figure, her ¡°beauty¡± might have an adverse effect. After many inquiries, Hasarin finally found a way. There were two kinds of laws. One was that ¡°the things that are not permitted by laws are illegal,¡± and the other one was that ¡°the things that are not prohibited by laws are not illegal.¡± For civilians, the former one was usually used, and the aristocrats usually used the latter one. As for the kings, they didn¡¯t need to follow laws, because they were above the laws. Since the God of Fear had become a prisoner, then the principle ¡°kings didn¡¯t need to obey laws¡± couldn¡¯t be used. However, it inspired those smart professionals to come up with a good idea. Since ancient times, all laws had been established to restrain mortals, and no laws had ever been about gods. Since there were no laws about gods, then it didn¡¯t matter whether gods committed crimes or not. In other words, whatever gods did were not crimes. Hasarin didn¡¯t know whether this method could be used to save His Majesty, and she didn¡¯t know what would happen after he was clear from a charge. However, she had no time to think about that, because the public hearing had almost come to an end. So even though she knew that the hope was little, she still used the method she had prepared for a year. Hearing her words, the gods were stunned at first, and then they began to talk about it. ¡°What she said seems right. There are no laws about us gods.¡± ¡°Definitely. It is true that laws are also applicable. There is a famous saying in the mortal world, and it said ¡®kings will never be illegal.¡¯ Another principle can be estimated in the same manner. Of course, gods will never be illegal.¡± ¡°Yeah, after all, gods are much nobler than kings!¡± Those words were said by the gods of the Neutral Camp. ¡°A bit bad! They caught the blind spot!¡± ¡°Yes, no matter in the past or at present, there are no articles about sanctioning gods in any laws.¡± ¡°There was no such thing that happened before. So what should we do?¡± ¡°At least, I can¡¯t think of a way, so I¡¯m afraid we can just try hard to think of one.¡± ¡°In my mind, there shouldn¡¯t be a public hearing. Just kill that bastard directly, and the world will be peaceful again!¡± ¡°Ugh! Who would have thought of such an accident!¡± According to their attitudes, they were good gods. ¡°Well, this time we can have some fun!¡± ¡°If you want to be a prostitute, don¡¯t pretend to be a virgin in public. You want both fame and fortune, but how can you be so lucky!¡± ¡°Although we have suffered a big loss this time, we can see this good show. It is a bit comforting.¡± ¡°Hasarin, what a pity. I thought that after Dyalt (the God of Fear) died, I would try to conquer her.¡± ¡°She¡¯s a dog of someone else¡¯s. Why do you target her? Even if you conquer her with force, she won¡¯t treat you like her original owner. You¡¯d better train one by yourself.¡± ¡°That is also true. When she¡¯s dead, the corresponding priesthood will be vacant. I have some good assassins, and I can ask them to have a try.¡± Those were naturally said by the evil gods. Compared to the discussions of the gods, the face of the God of Fear had been calm and sorrowful, but now he became energetic again. He stood up and looked back at the God of Shadow and Assassination, sighing deeply. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have come here.¡± ¡°I should have!¡± The God of Fear said, smiling sarcastically, ¡°If you come here, you will die, and you can do nothing but die.¡± ¡°I should have followed you. Wouldn¡¯t it be better if I could do something?¡± the God of Shadow and Assassination said with excitement. ¡°Even if we both die here today, at least I will prevent them from insulting you with such a ridiculous trick of a ¡®trial!''¡± ¡°Naive! Do you think this is a reasonable place?¡± the God of Fear said. He shook his head and sat down again. ¡°Stupid child, you will soon understand that¡­¡± As the accused one of this trial, he thought more deeply than others. He had already seen through the true purpose of this trial. In fact, dealing with him was just their secondary goal. The Void Mask and his group wanted to use this opportunity to establish their authority! In order to achieve this goal, even if the accusations couldn¡¯t be established, they still would verify his crimes. What¡¯s more, many accusations were really able to be established. Hasarin¡¯s idea was good, but it was actually useless. The God of Law could explain any law as he wanted! The God of Fear didn¡¯t say these words, because he felt that it was meaningless to say this. He would just be refuted and humiliated again. As the leader of the evil gods, even if he had reached the end of his life, he would maintain his reputation. Now, this was all he could do. In the face of the question of the God of Shadow and Assassination, the God of Law was silent, but Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but smile. After the arguments of the gods stopped for a while, Sui Xiong said, ¡°Your question does make sense. In the past years, there were no laws about gods, and no laws could be used to sanction gods. But those were things in the past.¡± As he said that, with a golden light in his hand, a book that contained infinite Divine Power appeared. ¡°This is the Code of Gods. It has been reviewed and approved by the Master of Order, and it has been engraved into the order of this world.¡± After saying that, Sui Xiong poured his Divine Power into that golden book. The book slowly rose into the air, and a heart-shattering majesty revealed from it, and that was the Divine Power of the Master of Order. Along with the Divine Power of the Master of Order, there was a law that was not complicated or even a little simple. The core spirit of this law lay in an old saying, ¡°do as the Romans do.¡± This law deprived gods of their supreme identities. It declared that since gods were also a part of the rules of the world, then they should follow the rules. When gods arrived at a certain place, they should respect and follow the law of that place. Of course, they could ignore the laws with their powerful force. However, if they were caught because of their crimes, they would be judged according to the law of that place. Another important point in this law was the unlimited retrospective rights. No matter where and when the crimes happened, as long as they happened in this world, no matter how long ago they had happened, they could be traced and judged according to this law without any exception. In other words, from now on, there were laws about gods in the world¡ªunless, of course, the gods could capture their enemy gods like Sui Xiong, or it was easier to kill the enemies than to judge them according to the laws. This law was still in a mere form, but its establishment had immeasurable significance. For example, when Sui Xiong demonstrated this law, the power of the God of Law was constantly improving. In the end, he broke through the limits of mid-level Divine Power and entered the realm of a great Divine Power. He broke through the last limitation of ¡°there are no laws about gods,¡± and laws were finally fully established in this world! Chapter 458 Chapter 458: Chapter 168 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Seeing that the God of Law was promoted to a great Divine Power, the gods were surprised at first, and then they were relieved. Although the God of Law had just been a mid-level Divine Power, he was really powerful. There had been rumors that his deity hadn¡¯t been promoted because of the lack of an opportunity. It seemed that the rumors were true. What he lacked was indeed an opportunity. It was an opportunity of creating a law about gods and setting rules for gods. Now that the opportunity had arrived, he was immediately promoted to a great Divine Power, and everything was logical. ¡°Hah hah! Hah hah hah hah!¡± the God of Fear laughed wildly. ¡°No wonder you spend so much energy on this so-called public hearing. It turns out that it is true that you just pretend to humiliate me. What you really want is to pave the way for your promotion! Law Brans (the God of Law), you are really an old fox! Very crafty! Who says that you are old fashioned? They are all blind!¡± The God of Law was silent. He didn¡¯t recognize or refute those words, but Sui Xiong sneered. ¡°How come you look down upon yourself? Is a great Divine Power really great? You are also a great Divine Power, right? How can a new great Divine Power be compared to you, an old great Divine Power? What¡¯s more, you are still the leader of a large group of evil gods, and you master a god system. See, today, before you die, you still have a loyal subordinate to help you. Don¡¯t look down upon yourself. This public hearing is prepared to deal with you. As for anything else, just by the way.¡± ¡°Deal with me?!¡± The God of Fear acted like he heard a joke. He asked, sneering with disdain, ¡°To deal with me, ask that poor clown under the stage to jump up and chop me with an axe. Everything will be over, right? Is it necessary to be so troublesome?¡± Sui Xiong answered, shaking his head. ¡°You look down upon yourself, or in other words, you look down upon us. You really think that we don¡¯t know what the priesthood of Fear means? You really think that we don¡¯t know that you have prepared a lot of back-up plans over the years? Even if you fall, you will still have a good chance to be resurrected.¡± The face of the God of Fear gradually became gloomy, and he was silent. ¡°Well, you can look down on me. After all, I am indeed a rookie. Apart from being good at fighting, I don¡¯t understand anything else. But how can you look down on my elder brother? Do you forget that in addition to Justice, he has another major priesthood?¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°He is not only the God of Justice but also the God of Courage. Courage and fear are precisely tit-for-tat rivals.¡± The God of Fear was still silent, but his face was already as gloomy as the cloudy sky before raining. ¡°My elder brother has been investigating you for years. I believe that you have also been investigating him, but he is a real bachelor. There is really nothing to investigate. In contrast, you are different,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°If my elder brother didn¡¯t tell me, I wouldn¡¯t know it! It turns out that you have prepared so many methods! No wonder my elder brother had to capture you alive with a lot of trouble. If I used an axe to kill you, maybe you would have been resurrected by now?¡± The God of Fear said nothing, but his facial expression had already explained the problem. ¡°I won¡¯t explain what specific methods you have one by one. But I want to tell you that the reason why we spend so much on preparing this public hearing is to completely beat you down into the ashes, so that you will never have a chance to make a comeback! Not only that, but we also want to change the direction of the priesthood of Fear and move it to a direction that is completely different from yours!¡± The eyes of the God of Fear suddenly widened, staring at Sui Xiong. He was not afraid of the threats of Sui Xiong because he was still very confident. Even if he was dead now and most of his preparations were not effective, one or two of his methods that were particularly hidden could be effective. He would never really fall. There would always be the day when he could return to the world. However, if the priesthood of Fear changed its direction, he would be really finished! All his methods were based on the premise that he was the God of Fear. Even if others inherited the seat of the God of Fear, as long as they followed the traditional direction, they could only pave the way for him. No matter how well developed they were and how strong they were, sooner or later they would be replaced by him, and he would perform the Return of the King. However, if the direction of the priesthood of Fear changed, then his arrangements would be totally useless. ¡°What do you want to do!¡± he yelled madly. He was pretending to be powerful, but he actually revealed a weakness. ¡°Nothing,¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling. ¡°In this year, I have played a few games. They are quite scary and very fearful. According to the demo result in the mortal world, many people find it very interesting, and it is also very popular.¡± The God of Fear clearly showed panic. ¡°Next, I plan to build some haunted houses, make some horror movies and some VR horror games. All in all, in fact, fear is also a good selling point. If people can experience fear more in safe conditions, it will be good to improve their courage. It is also a pleasure in life.¡± ¡°Bastard!¡± the God of Fear screamed angrily as if he wanted to rush out of the prisoner¡¯s box to fight desperately with Sui Xiong. However, when he exerted his power, the chains of Divine Power on his body shone at the same time, and he was firmly locked and suppressed in his seat. ¡°I plan to spend some time reshaping the image of fear in people¡¯s minds and shifting it from radical evil to neutrality towards evil. This is not an easy task, and I don¡¯t know how much time and effort it will take,¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling. ¡°However, in order to make you, the head villain of the Pantheon temple, completely finished, it is all worthwhile. So, die in peace. The old age when the priesthood of Fear represented darkness and cruelness will disappear into the long river of history and become a topic for future scholars.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t accept it!¡± the God of Fear shouted. ¡°Conspiracy! It¡¯s all conspiracies!¡± ¡°I have done all these things clearly, so why are they conspiracies?¡± Sui Xiong asked, smiling. ¡°Either the public hearing or the horror-themed entertainment in the mortal world, which one do I do secretly? Which thing is unclear?¡± ¡°That law!¡± the God of Fear shouted. ¡°The law is what you make secretly!¡± Sui Xiong laughed happily. With a white light flashing in his hand, another book appeared in his hand. The words on the cover showed that it was The Code of the Republic of Northwest. ¡°Today I will make you know clearly why you will die!¡± He turned the pages and pointed to the first article on one page. He said, ¡°Look, what is this?¡± The relevant words suddenly magnified, turning into words that anyone could see clearly. They then floated in the air. The Republic of Northwest is a country ruled by laws. All creatures in the Republic of Northwest are equal before laws. ¡°In fact, I plan to use this law to deal with you from the beginning,¡± Sui Xiong said leisurely. ¡°But my new friend said that it was not good to punish other gods with our own law. Therefore, he proposed to visit the Master of Order. The Master of Order represents the order of the world, so it killed two birds with one stone to ask him to sign the Code of Gods. It not only provided us with a sufficient legal basis to punish you, but also supplemented the most important part that the world¡¯s legal system lacked. Although it was not pleasant enough, I still accepted his advice for the long-term planning of the world.¡± After the explanation, Sui Xiong looked at the God of Fear mockingly. Sui Xiong said, ¡°Okay, now you choose on your own. The Code of Gods or the Code of the Republic of Northwest? You can choose whichever you want. It¡¯s fair enough, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Damn Code of the Republic of Northwest! I am not in the territory of your Republic of Northwest!¡± the God of Fear roared. ¡°Not in the territory of the Republic of Northwest?¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling. His hand waved, and the surrounding light and shadow flowed. The audience including the gods found that the surrounding scenery suddenly changed, and they were already in the Ashes Woods. From the treetops not far away, they could clearly see the huge observation deck of the Void Mask Land. ¡°What do you say now?¡± ¡°Despicable!¡± the God of Fear cursed angrily. ¡°Despicable and shameless!¡± Sui Xiong took out a cigarette from nowhere and lit it up. He took a deep breath and spat out a huge smoke circle, and the smoke circle drifted away slowly in the air. ¡°Ironic. I follow the rules to do everything, and you say that I am despicable?¡± Sui Xiong said. He laughed loudly while shaking his head. Then he said, ¡°For you, such a villain, as long as you can¡¯t make profits, then everything is a despicable act. However, everything will be over.¡± The cigarette that was created by Divine Power disappeared, and the surroundings of the public hearing were again covered by the blue sky. No one could see the outside scene. ¡°It is time to pronounce the sentence now.¡± The God of Shadow and Assassination seemed to have no sense of presence, and she closed her eyes all the time. Now she shouted, ¡°Wait a moment!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. He said, turning to look at her, ¡°You have been in contact with your avatar in the mortal world, right? It seems that you have found a special lawyer there.¡± The God of Shadow and Assassination didn¡¯t answer him. She said in a hurry, ¡°All legal provisions should have a retrospective period, so the Code of Gods has no exception!¡± Sui Xiong said, shaking his head, ¡°The retrospective period of human beings exists because of their limited life. Gods have an infinite lifespan, so the retrospective period is unlimited. ¡°Don¡¯t use mortal laws to rule gods. Gods and mortals are different.¡± Chapter 459 Chapter 459: Chapter 169 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When Sui Xiong said those words, the discussion was almost over. However, the God of Shadow and Assassination still refused to give up. She said, ¡°Even if the time of the retrospective period is infinite, the retrospective place can¡¯t be unlimited. His Majesty, the God of Fear, didn¡¯t commit crimes in the territory of the Republic of Northwest, so neither the Code of Gods nor the Code of the Republic of Northwest has articles to punish him.¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but sigh. He said, ¡°You really don¡¯t give up! Little girl, you have done enough for this guy. Do you think that he will really appreciate it?¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t avoid the problem!¡± Sui Xiong smiled awkwardly. He rolled his eyes, and he thought of something. With a flash, a floating green jellyfish appeared next to the avatar of the God of Shadow and Assassination in the mortal world. ¡°Wow! No wonder you can always think of a problem. It turns out that you have a military counselor next to you!¡± the green jellyfish said, laughing and looking at the fat man who was confused next to him. The jellyfish said, ¡°Hey, fat guy! What benefits do you get for working out ideas for her? ¡°Money? Power? Eternal life or something else? What did she give you?¡± The fat man had obviously been shocked, but now he calmed down. He was a little angry when he heard those words. He said, ¡°I, Cambrona, am not a vulgar person. Except for sincere love, nothing can make me work for it!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. He looked at the fat man and then looked at the avatar of the God of Shadow and Assassination next to him. She changed into a tall, beautiful woman who had a good figure, and she was wearing a special costume for some nightclub waitresses in Void City. Sui Xiong had to admit that when this cheongsam-style dress was worn on a woman with a good figure, the charming effect on men could increase by 10%. It was not surprising to increase by 20% or 30%. After all, the dress was the brainchild of Brother Xun! Sui Xiong hesitated for a while, then he asked, ¡°Brother Cam, do you really know the origin of this girl?¡± ¡°The origin of Jane is none of your business!¡± the fat man said angrily. ¡°I am not interested in her past!¡± ¡°What? Not interested? You are so generous¡­¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Correct! Not interested!¡± the fat man said categorically. ¡°Whether she is a robber or a spy, a killer or a prostitute¡­ Even if she is a judge from hell or even a demon from the abyss, I don¡¯t care!¡± He looked sincere. He said, holding the hand of ¡°Jane,¡±¡±We have already made a deal. To be or not to be, we must be together!¡± Sui Xiong looked at them carefully, especially at the eyes of this fat man. From his eyes that were a little small because of his obesity but still very energetic, Sui Xiong saw resoluteness and sincerity without any hypocrisy. Sui Xiong was silent for a long time and finally said nothing. He sighed deeply and disappeared without a trace. At the hall of the public hearing, Sui Xiong frowned. He stared at Hasarin, the God of Shadow and Assassination, unhappily. ¡°That¡¯s not something beautiful!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You are a mid-level Divine Power, but you deceived a mortal to work himself to death for you, especially using such a method¡­¡± Hasarin didn¡¯t answer this question but instead continued to ask, ¡°Please answer my question!¡± Sui Xiong said, shaking his head, ¡°Most of the crimes of Dyalt, the God of Fear, were actually done in his God¡¯s Kingdom. After all, in most cases, he only needed to command. At most, he sent out a few Oracles. Even if he occasionally attacked, he just released his Divine Power, and he didn¡¯t need to arrive at the crime scenes himself. According to your statement, most of his crimes can¡¯t be established, right?¡± ¡°At least according to the Code of Gods, it should be true!¡± ¡°You can ask that fat man. Assuming that Person A cheats someone¡¯s money in one place, and Person B kills someone and sets a fire in one place, if the victims want to go to other places to file suits, what is the difference?¡± Hasarin was stunned. She lowered her head, asking her avatar to inquire. Just a moment later, his face became paler. ¡°It seems that the fat man also told you, as for cheating money and similar crimes, generally speaking, officials in other places won¡¯t judge them. The officials will ask the victims to notify the local government of the crime scenes or go to their hometowns to report to the officials there. However, crimes such as murder and arson, no matter where the victim is going to sue, as long as the evidence is conclusive, the wanted order will be issued immediately,¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling. He had already learned about those things from the God of Law. ¡°When I first sorted out the case files, I have neglected those cases that didn¡¯t include serious crimes such as murder and arson. Otherwise, since the God of Fear has done evil for more than 100,000 years, how can he only own so few crimes?¡± ¡°The witnesses just came to the platform one by one. If they are counted as the victims, then I¡¯m the one who accept their suits. Here is my territory. Of course, I can deal with him according to my law. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± Hasarin was silent for a long time. She asked, ¡°Assuming there is a wolf and it eats the sheep of a herdsman, isn¡¯t that a crime?¡± Sui Xiong said, shaking his head, ¡°No. Wolves eat sheep because of their instinct. If they don¡¯t eat sheep, they will starve to death.¡± ¡°So, it is an instinct for an evil god to do evil things,¡± Hasarin said. ¡°If evil gods don¡¯t do evil, they will fall. Why are you willing to tolerate a wolf, but you are so harsh on a god?¡± ¡°Assuming this god is an evil-born god, then this is hard to tell,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°But Dyalt is not an evil-born god. He was a mortal. He became an evil god because he did a lot of evil things. For him, evil is not his instinct, but the result of his choice. So he deserves to take responsibility for it and pay the price.¡± ¡°Even though he will fall if he doesn¡¯t do evil?¡± ¡°Yes, even though he will fall if he doesn¡¯t do evil,¡± Sui Xiong said earnestly. ¡°To live in an evil way isn¡¯t his inalienable nature, but his choice. Therefore, he must be punished for it. What¡¯s more, even if it is his instinct, so what?¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling. ¡°Wolves eat sheep because of their instinct, so I will not blame wolves. However, herdsmen will kill wolves because of property damages. If a herdsman asks a priest who believes in me to kill a wolf, I will not stop the priest from doing so.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Just as a wolf eats a sheep because of instinct, a good priest also fights against evil because of instinct,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°After all, I am a good god.¡± ¡°The law-executors shouldn¡¯t be moved by good and evil, and should uphold an absolutely neutral position.¡± ¡°Absolute neutral positions belong to the laws, but law-executors always have their own positions,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°Protecting good and fighting against evil, in my mind, is the duty of every law-executor. If you think that I am a law-executor, then I am willing to accept this duty.¡± ¡°In that case, how can you guarantee that you are absolutely fair?¡± ¡°Does absolute justice exist in the world?¡± Sui Xiong said. He couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°For example, you are the God of Shadow. Is there an absolute shadow that completely rejects light in the world?¡± Hasarin thought for a while. She frowned, shaking her head. ¡°Light and shadow are relative. Justice and injustice are also relative. If I have to abandon my good standpoint for justice, it will be unfair to the good,¡± Sui Xiong said seriously. ¡°You should know that those who are hurt are mostly good people. They are already born in a weak position. If law-executors are no longer partial to the good, the whole world will certainly be biased towards the evil.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that taken for granted? This result is correct,¡± the God of Shadow said. Sui Xiong used his tentacles to ¡°shrug.¡± He said, ¡°Hey, this is the key difference between the good gods the evil gods. This is about our concepts. It is just a waste of time to talk more about that. Let¡¯s return to this trial. Do you have any objections?¡± ¡°I will not recognize this trial!¡± Hasarin said angrily. Sui Xiong asked, raising his eyebrows, ¡°As far as I know, evil gods actually know what is good and what is evil, right?¡± ¡°Of course. Otherwise, where does our evil standpoint come from?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Sui Xiong said, nodding. He suddenly raised his voice, and then he said to all the gods, ¡°I want to remind the evil gods here. I, Auscar, am a good god. Just as you often find trouble with some weak, good gods because of your interests or just for fun, I am also likely to bring you trouble because I¡¯m happy or I¡¯m unhappy. If you don¡¯t want this to happen, I suggest you keep a low profile and don¡¯t let me notice you.¡± The good gods in the audience seat laughed loudly. The evil gods frowned, but no one spoke. Sui Xiong¡¯s attitude was already very obvious. If they said something now and irritated that big jellyfish, maybe it would bring them great trouble! Sui Xiong nodded. He just turned and suddenly turned back. ¡°By the way, there is one more thing to do,¡± he said to the God of Justice. ¡°Brother, please, watch over Hasarin.¡± ¡°Do you want to remove their source and completely eliminate the Fear God System?¡± Yorgaardman asked. ¡°No, in my mind, this person seems able to be saved. You just watch over her at first. In the future, I¡¯ll find a way to slowly adjust her camp,¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling. ¡°No matter whether it¡¯s shadow or assassination, it doesn¡¯t have to be evil.¡± After saying that, he turned to look at the God of Fear. He said, ¡°So, do you want to say something for yourself?¡± The God of Fear was silent. Then he said, sneering, ¡°I didn¡¯t know that you were so chatty! I hope that when you encounter the same end as I encounter today, the person who judges you won¡¯t allow you to talk nonsense!¡± Sui Xiong smiled again, and he didn¡¯t care about his words. ¡°So, judge, please sentence your judgment.¡± The God of Law stood up, knocking on the wooden table with a wooden gavel. ¡°According to the Code of Gods, the crimes of Dyalt, the God of Fear, can be sentenced according to the Code of the Republic of Northwest. According to the relevant provisions of the Code of the Republic of Northwest, Dyalt¡¯s crimes are conclusive. The circumstances are serious, so he is sentenced to death!¡± Chapter 460 Chapter 460: Chapter 117 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, deserved to be among the top gods in the Pantheon Temple. He had been really a powerful force, turning the tides when he attacked at the critical moments. Although he failed to completely smash the bloody star, Yin Chen, he succeeded in preventing it from falling. What he had done could be taken as a great beginning as well as the most important first step in meeting the Seven Spells of Extinction head-on. The other gods were relieved to see that Yin Chen had finally stopped falling. But then suddenly, Yorgaardman yelled out, ¡°Why are you just standing by and watching? Do something!¡± The others were stunned for a moment before they realized that they had done a terrible job. The fact that they had just stood by while Yorgaardman had been doing his best to fight was a bit unpleasant. So they laughed embarrassedly and rushed to use their own forces to fight against the horrible bloody star. With Yorgaardman, a super master, standing up in front, things had been easier for the other gods. They were able to do their best calmly. The God of Ceremony and the God of Art and Culture both knew nothing about fighting, so they provided some magic or Divine Power to help. Morani and Leonard were heavily armored. Morani was attacking the side of Yin Chen with a huge battle axe, while Leonard was throwing out a huge shield transformed by Divine Power to cover the sky of the Void City. The shield also helped ease the pressure and fear brought by Yin Chen to the people on the ground. The Monochrome Bear swordsman laid down his wine gourd temporarily and waved his long knife. The light reflected on the knife seemingly transformed into the shape of a new moon. His attack continuously fell on the side of Yin Chen, where Morani had been attacking. Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, had spent a lot of time preparing for a spell of great power by reciting a long mantra. In the southern part of the Main Plane, there were thousands of believers chanting mantras together in the holy kingdom of the Goddess of Sea. Their chanting had cooperated with the Goddess of Sea¡¯s Divine Power, and her demigods added their strength to the powerful attack being prepared as well. Almost all the believers, demigods, and the Goddess gathered their strength together and condensed it into a bright, sea-blue light ball that was breathing as if it was alive, expanding and shrinking gently. Every time it breathed, its strength advanced to a higher level. Later, it became terribly powerful. It seemed that with a slight shock, the newly born holy kingdom would be shaken apart or even completely collapse. ¡­ The gods had done their best. They had done what they were really good at and had sent out their most violent attacks. But when these attacks fell on Yin Chen, they deeply felt the gap between the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, and themselves. They had realized just how powerful the God of Justice was. He had fought alone in the world and defended his beliefs in justice like a clown in a brutal and funny way. Yorgaardman¡¯s single attack with his axe had stopped the falling of Yin Chen, while the others¡¯ joint attack had only made Yin Chen shake slightly. The differences in power had made them neglect Yorgaardman¡¯s unserious and unpleasant action and begin to worship him with respect. But that didn¡¯t help to solve the problem. Yin Chen was still in the sky above Void City. It was shaking there, and it seemed ready to fall down at any time. ¡°You guys are really unreliable!¡± Yorgaardman had not expected that the power of so many gods joining together to be far weaker than that of him alone, so he couldn¡¯t stop complaining. His complaint had embarrassed the others, so they strengthened their attacks. But it didn¡¯t work. There was no change to the situation at all. Yin Chen was still hanging over Void City, constantly colliding with the forces of Yorgaardman. Although it seemed to be somewhat weaker, there was no sign of quickly being defeated. Apparently, the gods had done their best just now, so no matter how hard they tried again, there wouldn¡¯t be any more powerful effects. No, at this moment, there was actually another god who could help. His power, if not to end the stalemate, at least could help make the situation a little better. That god, of course, was Sui Xiong. Yorgaardmann surely knew that. His avatar here had been fully devoted to the battle and spared no energy in finding Sui Xiong and telling him about the urgent situation. But outside of the Main Plane, he had other avatars, and he was even able to temporarily create an avatar to send out a message. That was what he did. Just a minute or two later, his message-sending avatar arrived at the shelter room of Sui Xiong¡¯s holy kingdom. ¡°Auscar! My brother! Where are you? Your house is going to be ruined by the enemy. Why don¡¯t you fight against it?¡± As soon as he entered the room, he yelled out. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? What are you busy with?¡± However, no one answered. Yorgaardmann was a little surprised. He shut up and quickened his pace toward the ¡°incubator¡± inside the shelter, which Sui Xiong joking called the ¡°education base for bad people to develop into better people.¡± There, he saw Sui Xiong, quietly holding a huge light cocoon and pouring Divine Power into it. But there was no other reaction. With a glance, Yorgaardmann found the problem. Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power was still here, but his soul had gone somewhere else. Yorgaardmann had no idea what was going on here! He felt numb on his scalp, and the hair on his body stood up. There were few gods in the world who could know more about the true abilities of his slightly strange jellyfish brother than he did. Perhaps in the eyes of others, Sui Xiong was only a giant jellyfish with great power and weird ideas. It was difficult to say whether he was a good or bad god. But in Yorgaardman¡¯s view, his brother¡¯s strength had approached the level of the most powerful divinity, and his special abilities, such as being unaffected by Chaotic Energy in the abyss, were beyond the reach of even the most powerful divine. How could such a powerful man suddenly disappear from his soul? Then how powerful was the one who had caught Sui Xiong¡¯s soul? Would he be powerful in an exaggerated and crazy way to make people desperate? At least Yorgaardman knew that he was unable to do that. He even doubted that there would be such a god in the world like that! No! There was one! In the Pantheon Temple, Yorgaardman rushed to the King of Order, lowered his voice and asked, ¡°Old man, why did you capture my brother?¡± The God of Order did not turn back. He said lightly, ¡°I am not the only one with that power.¡± But that was all he said. No matter what Yorgaardman asked, he gave no other reply. Chapter 461 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Governor Reif Kawat, the second mining director of the Northwest Republic, stood under a lush tree about two miles from Pyroxene Town and overlooked the northeast of the road. Beside him, there were tables and chairs that were placed here temporarily, along with a silver box on the table. ¡°Clito has sent me emails through the temple before saying that he will be back today. Why hasn¡¯t he shown up since it¡¯s already evening?¡± Reif waited for a long time, but Clito still did not appear. He could not help but frown and complain. ¡°It¡¯s all right that he has wasted half of my day. Anyway, I¡¯m on vacation today, and I have nothing to do. But he still has not shown up; the fish meat will probably melt!¡± Just then, he saw a carriage emerge from the end of the road and come briskly along the way. A handsome man wearing light leather armor and who had long, black hair was driving the carriage. He could be praised by the people for his beauty, but he could also be called effeminate. The man had good eyesight, and he could not help but laugh loudly when he saw Reif from far away. He waved his horse whip in the air and drove the hybrid horse with some scales on its forehead and limbs, whistling along with the carriage. Then he slowed down and stopped right beside Reif. ¡°Hey, Reif! You really came to pick me up!¡± he jumped out of the carriage and said with a smile. ¡°You really shocked me! I didn¡¯t expect you to act on what you said since you are so busy.¡± ¡°Biding by my words is one of my life tenets, and I have promised you before in the email,¡± Reif said seriously. ¡°Originally, I asked for special leave today and as a result¡­ It¡¯s almost getting dark now. Actually, I don¡¯t have to ask for leave today. It seems that I won¡¯t be late even after work.¡± ¡°I had planned to come back earlier, but I met with an accident, so I was delayed for a while. Actually, I was going to arrive at Pyroxene Town right after your work¡­ I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t make it clear before and have kept you waiting for so long.¡± The man opened the carriage curtain with a smile. A young woman with bright, golden hair jumped down from the carriage and greeted Reif with a smile. ¡°Good afternoon, brother Reif¡­ Oh, I should call you Governor Kawat!¡± Asner, Clito¡¯s wife, who had served as the mayor of Pyroxene Town, was now the governor of the Northwest Republic like Reif. She greeted him with a smile. Reif laughed and knew that they were just joking with him. The couple did not care about their friends¡¯ status. When he met them, they both were excellent adventurers, but he was just a miner. They still got along well at that time, and there were no barriers between them. Now, they almost had the same status, and they should be able to get along very well. ¡°What could delay you two for so long? I remember that you acknowledged Majesty Leon as your master and have stepped into the Legendary Realm recently. The Three Sword Combination in Garth City is you. You have a great reputation. What kind of enemies did you meet?¡± ¡°It was not an enemy but an old-fashioned guy who was slower than a normal person.¡± Clito laughed sarcastically. ¡°What decade was he from? He still muttered words like ¡®Druid traditions should not be destroyed¡¯ or ¡®the Pasteur School is heresy for the Druid.¡¯ Come on! Mr. Pasteur has become a god now. Is he trying to make trouble for a god in order to preserve the old tradition that has been left behind for so long?¡± Reif frowned. As a civil servant, he was not familiar with the killings in the world, but according to Clito, Arcaian Pasteur, the God of Healing, who had become a god ten years ago, seemed to be involved in this matter. That was not a small matter! ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s settled,¡± Asner smiled and said. ¡°Later the God of Healing descended his incarnation, and we left.¡± Reif was relieved and talked about his business. ¡°Don¡¯t talk about this. Let¡¯s just enjoy my wife¡¯s dishes.¡± He laughed and raised his hands. He pressed on the silver-white square box on the table, and the buckles popped opened. Inside the silver-white thermal baffle, there was a box of silver-white fish preserved in ice. It was clear that the chef had good skill in cutting up meat. Each fish was almost as thin as paper. Beneath the fish, various fruits as a side dish could be seen clearly. ¡°Ah! Is this ice fish? Oh my god, how did you get this in the summer?¡± Clito exclaimed, ¡°Did you embezzle from someone?¡± Reif was so angry that his nose became twisted, ¡°Corruption? How could I! It is a joint commercial project of Pyroxene Town and Gold-Panning Town. I can¡¯t say the specific content, but looking at your reaction just now, I know that this project has a bright future and will definitely be profitable.¡± Clito was relieved, and without saying a word, he picked up a piece of fish meat with a small wooden fork beside the box and gently brought it to his mouth. The ice fish that was supposed to be produced in the ice area during the coldest winter was tender in quality. When cutting it into thin pieces, it became the most delicious food. As soon as it entered one¡¯s mouth, it melted between one¡¯s tongue and teeth. Its special fragrance mixed with the sweet and sour taste of the fruits, turning into pleasure flowing through one¡¯s lips and teeth. It made one squint with joy and sighed deeply. ¡°How delicious! I could even eat it in the mid-summer! Just this box of fish is worth me traveling back thousands of miles!¡± Reif smiled and did not disturb his enjoyment. He just told Asner to taste the fish. Of course, Asner would not be modest with her good friend whom he had known for many years. She also brought a piece of fish to her mouth and squinted her eyes and gave an admiration with her nose. ¡°Delicious!¡± Clito shouted and ate quickly. When he had eaten half of the box, he stopped consciously and talked to Reif. ¡°Reif, is this ice fish also the production of your mining sector?¡± he asked curiously. ¡°In addition to minerals, gems, and energy essence, can people dig the ice fish from underground?¡± ¡°Business secrets,¡± Reif laughed and said. ¡°To be honest, the cost of the fish is not low. A box of costs about twenty gold coins, which does not include my wife¡¯s hard-working.¡± ¡°Her hard work is worthless, it¡¯s at least worth double the price,¡± Clito said, but his face had turned serious. ¡°However¡­ it¡¯s also very cheap. I guess one box of this fish will cost thousands of gold coins if it¡¯s put in a fancy restaurant within Garth City. It¡¯s almost the price of friendship.¡± ¡°To tell you the truth, I haven¡¯t eaten this fish before. I remembered that you said you had eaten it once when you chatted with me. At that time, your expression was really¡­¡± ¡°Ha ha, don¡¯t make fun of me!¡± Clito smiled awkwardly. ¡°I just ate a little at that time, but it was so delicious that I couldn¡¯t forget it for the rest of my life. But that was worse than this one. I¡¯m not sure whether it¡¯s my illusion or not.¡± ¡°It¡¯s indeed your illusion.¡± Asner, who had eaten the rest half of the box and wiped her mouth and hands with a white handkerchief said. ¡°To be honest, this one tastes a little different from the one produced in winter. Of course, the difference is very subtle and not obvious. The reason why you think this one tastes more delicious is mainly because of the weather¡ªeating ice fish in the summer is totally different from eating it in the cold winter.¡± Reif laughed bitterly. He never doubted Asner¡¯s evaluation. In fact, before her, another government had made the same evaluation as her. The government who had published more than one gourmet books was the absolute authority in the world¡¯s gourmet industry. Asner could make the same evaluation as him, which was enough to prove her outstanding taste. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, my brother Reif. Weather is very important,¡± Asner advised Reif when she saw that he was a little depressed. ¡°If the ice crumbs that can be seen everywhere in winter is added with some sugar and fruit juice in a bowl, it can become a best-selling product to relieve the summer heat. Melons and peaches can become the signature deserts in some high-end restaurants if it¡¯s preserved well in winter. Ice fish can only be eaten in the coldest winter. It is very sensitive to space magic, so it can¡¯t be stored with space magic. Therefore, no mortals could eat it in seasons except the cold winter. Now you can change the situation and bring it to the table in the hottest summer. That alone can produce an astonishing impact among people.¡± She thought for a while and said, ¡°In terms of taste, the ice fish cooked in winter is one hundred points; then this one that was cooked in the hot summer is ninety points. But due to the different climate, its score in summer should be multiplied by at least three times. If I were to score this ice fish, I would score it 270 points!¡± Reif was happy to hear that and laughed loudly. Looking at the sky, he pointed to a solid wall that was not very far away. ¡°Let¡¯s go. It¡¯s getting dark now. It¡¯s time for Martin and Yue to leave school¡­ If we come back too late, Yue will complain again.¡± ¡°All these years, she has complained more than once that you work outside all day and that you don¡¯t take your daughter seriously. Now you have a vacation, and you should get together well these days!¡± After saying that, he picked up his tables, chairs, and boxes. The foldable tables and chairs were equipped with back straps and could be turned into large backpacks easily. The box was re-closed and held in his hand. The group of people was too lazy to get on the carriage again, and they just led the horse and walked slowly towards the city gate. In the sunset, Pyroxene Town¡¯s thick walls looked as if they were painted with a golden layer, making people feel at ease. It was no longer the crisis-ridden Ashes Woods but the prosperous Northwest Republic. Chapter 462 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There were the sun, the moon, and stars in the ¡°sanctuary¡± of the God¡¯s Kingdom. They were just being projected, but they looked the same as those in the Main Plane. Arcaian Pasteur, the God of Medicine, sat in his chair and looked calmly at the man opposite him. He was a young man with golden hair and eyes. He was like sunshine itself with his strong vigor. Of course, Arcaian knew that this man wasn¡¯t young at all, but even older than most of the Gods of the Pantheon temple. As one of the heroes among the advanced fairies who had fought alongside the Goddess of Life, Buddy Brista, the Big Druid, had also been named the ¡°Orc Judge.¡± He was a demigod. Although he hadn¡¯t became a God, he was strong enough to compete with many Gods. Later, the Goddess of Life had disappeared, and most of the advanced fairies had disappeared as well. Only a few advanced fairies, including him, remained to protect the civilization of the fairies. Years later, the Master of Mystery launched a war against the fairies. The war was very fierce, with many fairy Gods and advanced fairies dead or wounded. In that war, the Orc Judge had shown great strength and killed many oracles of the Master of Mystery, but the oracles had been outnumbered. Finally, the Orc Judge had disappeared during that war. For nearly a thousand years afterwards, he never appeared in the world. Everyone thought he had died in that war. But about a thousand years later, he appeared again. His appearance looked the same as before, but his strength had declined dramatically, so he was in the Legendary Realm. Buddy Brista didn¡¯t care and continued his previous work. With a respected reputation as Big Druid, he always wandered around the Ancient Forest to fight against all acts that destroyed the balance of nature. Clahot Pasteur, Arcaian Pasteur¡¯s great-grandfather, was the student of Buddy Brista. Clahout had been enlightened from a fermentation legend that his ancestors had discovered and invented cheese, so when he studied the magic, he turned his research direction to the analysis and control of various microorganisms. Then he put forward the concept of ¡°Ash of eternal decay,¡± believing that there was a great spirit in the world that controlled the decomposition of all kinds of microorganisms and maintained the operations of the world. From this concept, he had created a unique technique of Spagirism and applied it to fermentation and medicine. The famous Pasteur cheese and Pasteur liquor had been invented by him, and the Pasteur Spagirism School was formed. But according to Spagirism, a Druid had to maintain the balance of nature. It was a betrayal of the Druid ideology that Clahot Pasteur had become an alchemist who distorted nature. He angrily declared Clahot Pasteur was a heretic and punished the ingenious scholar severely. This didn¡¯t scare the descendants of the Pasteur family. After Clahort, for three generations, the Pasteur family had insisted on the in-depth study and expansion of their own Spagirism School. Although there had been some tragedies, like Clahort¡¯s son¡¯s accidental death in an experiment, the Pasteur family studied continuously. After three generations of studying, the generation of Arcaian Pasteur eventually made great achievements. Of course, Sui Xiong had also contributed to this outcome. If not for his inspiration and important ideas and experiences from Earth¡¯s civilization, Arcaian would probably have needed a longer time to find the right research direction. Or maybe he, like his ancestors, wouldn¡¯t come to the right conclusions even after a life of research. There would only be accumulated experimental data to represent his life¡¯s work¡­ But Arcaian finally succeeded. With his research on bacteria, he organized and created a medical system that had never appeared before in the world, so the treatment of diseases and injuries could no longer only be done by spellcasters. He made a great contribution to the world and was approved by the World¡¯s Origin, and then he became the God of Medicine. It had been almost ten years since he had become a God. Overall, the ten years had been peaceful. Apart from the trial of the God of Fear, nothing unusual had happened in the Pantheon temple. Even the declining deity of the God of Plague wasn¡¯t a big deal. During the past ten years, Arcaian had been perfecting his doctrine system. His followers could generally be put into three categories: medical staff, clergymen who were keen on treating people¡¯s pain, and recovered patients who had been sick or injured. Among these three kinds of people, the numbers of the first two wouldn¡¯t increase substantially, but the third group had the possibility of increasing. Therefore, he emphasized on spreading his belief towards patients who had been sick or injured. During his busy days, Arcaian often recalled his great-grandfather and father. According to the traditions of the advanced fairies, these two legendary masters couldn¡¯t be executed directly. They were sentenced to be put into the Archaean Glacier and frozen. According to the law of the Elf Empire, if the descendants of the Pasteur family made a great contribution, or the Empire had a great crisis and needed the strength of these sinners, they would be freed. Otherwise, they would be frozen in forever, never to be freed. With Arcaian¡¯s strength, of course, he could go straight into the Archaean Glacier and rescue his great-grandfather Clahot and his father Tuela. But he had been there three times and hadn¡¯t found his great-grandfather or father. Instead, he had found several sinners that had been frozen there by Orc Judge Buddy. Of course, these sinners had shouted that they had been wronged, but Arcaian knew that they were lying at a glance. It wasn¡¯t very easy for ordinary people to deceive a God, so they were sent into the glacier again and frozen harder. Maybe next time the Orc Judge wanted to release them, he would find it embarrassing that he couldn¡¯t thaw them¡­ Arcaian once considered finding Buddy and asking him to release his great-grandfather and father. Undoubtedly, as a kind God, Arcaian¡¯s contribution was enough to release his two elders, but the Orc Judge was secretive to a fault. Arcaian hadn¡¯t found him for years, so he had given up. But he didn¡¯t expect the Orc Judge to be in front of him! Arcaian waited for Buddy to speak first, but he didn¡¯t know that this elder would be so patient, not uttering a word. He just sat there and closed his eyes. After waiting for a long time, the young God finally exhausted his patience and said, ¡°Mr. Brista, I¡¯ll be frank. When are you going to release my great-grandfather and my father?¡± Orc Judge Buddy opened his eyes, shot him with calm but emotionless glance, and shook his head. ¡°What¡¯s up? Just tell me if you¡¯ll release them or not!¡± Buddy smiled slightly. He had the upper hand against the God, which made him feel very accomplished. ¡°Your achievements are indeed great. As far as all of society, in recent years, your achievements can be ranked in the top three.¡± He said this first, but before Arcaian could get too happy, he continued, ¡°But¡­ Does this matter to our forest or the Elf Empire?¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Arcaian was shocked and didn¡¯t understand. ¡°We, the elves, live in the forest. Because we have a high proportion of spellcasters, we¡¯ve never worried about diseases or injuries. Your anti-epidemic and treatment system is very useful for races like humans and Orcs, but not for us at all!¡± Buddy shook his head and looked regretful. ¡°Unless you make a great contribution to the elves or to the forest, you can¡¯t make up for the crimes of your great-grandfather and father.¡± ¡°They didn¡¯t commit any crime!¡± Arcaian said loudly. ¡°I proved that their research was correct!¡± ¡°They committed a crime,¡± Buddy said calmly. ¡°Although their research turned out to be a great undertaking with your effort, it can¡¯t change the fact that they committed crimes in the past.¡± ¡°That¡¯s unreasonable! The Pasteur family is just doing scientific research and has never harmed even a single elf!¡± ¡°But your research on ¡®decomposition¡¯ has harmed many trees.¡± ¡°We replanted a lot of trees after that! And are these trees more important than people?¡± ¡°Your research is of no use to the Elves. Under these conditions, even trees are more important.¡± Arcaian shivered with rage, hoping that a bolt of lightning would kill Buddy directly, but as a kind God, he couldn¡¯t do this, as it was against his morals. In the end, he could only kick Buddy back to the world roughly and sit angrily in his God¡¯s Kingdom. After being angry for a long time, he finally made up his mind and went to ask Sui Xiong for help. He didn¡¯t want to bother His Majesty for personal matters, but this time, he really had nothing left to do but turn to his Master God. ¡°B*stard! Buddy Brista! The Orc Judge! You fuddy-duddy! You¡¯ll see! When I get my majesty¡¯s help, I¡¯ll definitely go rescue my great-grandfather and father. At that time, I¡¯ll shut you in the Archaean Glacier and freeze you for a hundred years to let you know the pain they suffered!¡± As he walked, he grumbled with a smoldering look, ¡°I will do what I¡¯ve said today!¡± Chapter 463 Chapter 463: Chapter 3 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The ¡°sanctuary¡± wasn¡¯t as large as other God¡¯s Kingdoms, and it was near the dwellings of the Gods, so it only took Arcaian several minutes to find Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong usually stayed in the outdoor conference hall that was at the center of the God¡¯s Kingdom and seldom left. Normally, he would lie motionlessly on the big table in the conference hall, as if he was a decoration on the table. Once, the God of Celebration, Javier, had seen this and said, ¡°Where did this large plate of jellyfish come? Leaving the sauce off is fine, but why didn¡¯t they cut it?¡± In fact, Sui Xiong was just resting and thinking. Ten years earlier, he had suffered a lot from war. The first self-explosion had consumed the Divine Power stored in his body, but the second one had consumed his soul power, and the soul power had reunited with the power that had spilled in the first explosion. Then the reunited power had triggered a second self-explosion that was more violent. The second explosion not only destroyed his enemies, but also badly wounded him¡ªthough he wasn¡¯t exactly wounded, but tired. This tiredness came from the soul, rather than the body. Decades earlier, when he had killed the God of Storm and Sea, he had been seriously injured. Only his body had been seriously injured, not his soul. At that time, he had been sick and unable to lift his spirits, because he had overdrawn his Divine Power and his body was weak. In theory, if he could have switched bodies, he would soon recover. But this time, he could clearly feel that his fatigue came not only from his body, but more from the soul. He was extremely tired, so he spent most of his time lying there, motionless, and recovering his soul. The process was long. Ten years after, he still felt tired, even though he had recovered a lot. At this rate, it would take hundreds of years to get well. It was okay. There was plenty of time anyway. The world was so peaceful. Even if he lay here for a hundred years, there would be no problem. Although he was a little tired and in a poor condition, his fighting ability was strong. If there was any trouble, he could still handle it. Like, for example, this time. ¡°This is the first time I¡¯ve heard you talking about your family in detail.¡± After listening for half an hour, Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°So, what are you going to do now? Are you going to convince Buddy to release your great-grandfather and father? Or just go to the Archaean Glacier and save them?¡± ¡°If I can convince the Orc Judge, I¡¯d like to!¡± Arcaian immediately answered. ¡°Being stuck in the ice isn¡¯t fatal. On the contrary, it can make people live forever. Great-grandfather and father have been frozen for so many years that it won¡¯t make any differences if I save them a few days earlier or later. In contrast, if we can persuade the Orc Judge to respect the name of the Pasteur family, they¡¯ll be happy!¡± Sui Xiong nodded and meditated. Saving people is very simple. That would be a simple trip for me. No matter how big the Archaean Glacier is, I could find them in the end. But¡­ it would hard to convince the Orc Judge! Even Sui Xiong had heard of the name Buddy Brista, the Orc Judge, and more than once. Buddy Brista was perhaps the only one of the famous ¡°Golden Ethnic Group¡± who was still around in contemporary times. Although he was no longer a demigod and only had the Legendary Realm, no God would dare to belittle him. He had lived from ancient times to the present and even survived the war in which the Master of Mystery had exterminated the Elf God System. He couldn¡¯t be underestimated! No one knew the real level of the Orc Judge, and no one wanted to use their valuable Legendary Masters¡¯ lives to test it. Ordinary legendary strongmen weren¡¯t enough to compete with Buddy. One had to send Legendary Masters who were in the legendary peak and had almost become demigods. But peak Legendary Masters were precious! Only crazy people used them as bait! Even the Master of Mystery had let the Orc Judge go! At that time, the Master of Mystery had destroyed the whole Elf God System, so why had he let the Orc Judge go? So even Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to fight with Buddy. Even though he was sure he would win, he wasn¡¯t sure whether Buddy would have the means to do great harm to him, his territory, or his followers. But how would they convince stubborn old Buddy without force? It wouldn¡¯t be easy! Sui Xiong scratched his head and thought anxiously. He knew that he wasn¡¯t a good debater. He had prepared so much at the beginning, but eventually shown his timidity at the public trial meeting. Then he¡¯d had no choice but to use the name of the Master of Order to support himself. If the gold-medal debater from his university had come, they could have fought with a single mouth and made the opposing Gods speechless. It was unnecessary for them to use any aids. If one had seen the video of Sui Xiong¡¯s performance during the public trial meeting, they would have probably squinted, shook their head, and said disdainfully, ¡°So weak.¡± So trying to persuade the Orc Judge wasn¡¯t okay. It will be impossible to fight or persuade. What should I do? Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but look distressed. He thought for a long time and asked, ¡°You¡¯ve been a God for ten years. As a member of the Elves Race and one of the Elf Gods in the world, have any elves come to contact you?¡± ¡°Of course they did.¡± Arcaian was surprised and wondered why Sui Xiong had asked this. ¡°So¡­ who are they? Do they have respected reputations?¡± Arcaian then understood, shaking his head and sighing, ¡°One is an elder who enjoys a very good reputation among the Elves Race. But no matter how famous he is, the Orc Judge is always the one with the best reputation in the Elves Race. He cannot be persuaded by anyone. When my great-grandfather was imprisoned by him, some elders persuaded him that my great-grandfather had contributed a lot to the elves, but had harmed few trees in the experiment. Besides, even if some trees were damaged, we could plant more. It¡¯s not worth punishing a Legendary Master who contributed a lot because of something this small, but the Orc Judge didn¡¯t pay any attention to the elders.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°One elder won¡¯t work, since he can ignore him, but if there were two or three elders there to persuade him¡­ or even if every member of the Grand Council supported the release the two elders of the Pasteur family, how would that be?¡± Arcaian¡¯s eyes lit up. Even the highly respected Orc Judge couldn¡¯t work against to the whole Elf Grand Council¡ªmaybe his power was strong enough, but without the support of the Grand Council, he had no right to punish anyone at all, not to mention that Arcaian¡¯s great-grandfather, Clahot Pasteur, was a legendary master who had made a great contribution to the Elves Race. Of course, the Orc Judge could stick to his own view, but as long as the Elf Grand Council decided to revoke the original wrong punishment and release the two elders of the Pasteur family, it didn¡¯t matter what the Orc Judge thought¡ªit wasn¡¯t only him that knew the location of the Archaean Glacier prison. Arcaian could find another elder to lead the way. This method was the best one. They couldn¡¯t talk to Orc Judge Buddy directly, but they could solve the problem through legal procedures. For the elders of the Pasteur family, it might not have been the best solution, but it was a good one. After all, no one could convince Buddy. A few days later, Arcaian¡¯s clone visited an elder of the Elf Grand Council, the same one who had pled for mercy for Clahot Pasteur, and talked about this plan in detail. ¡°The Orc Judge was unreasonable!¡± said the frowning gray-haired elder. ¡°The ancestors of the Pasteur family didn¡¯t make any big mistakes. They just had different ideas. When he wanted to punish them, I was very opposed to it. Now he¡¯s even refusing the words of a kind God. Is he crazy?¡± ¡°Thanks for your belief in the God of Medicine, Arcaian. Your Majesty, I understand what you mean. That¡¯s a good plan. I¡¯ll give you my full support.¡± Arcaian, who had been worried that the plan might not have worked, finally breathed a sigh of relief and smiled satisfactorily. Over the next few days, at this elder¡¯s recommendation, Arcaian met with all the elders of the Elf Grand Council. He was very humble and modest, without any of the arrogance of a God. He talked with the elders sincerely, so they were very cooperative. No one embarrassed him. Many elders admired him very much and even asked him if he was interested in building temples in the Ancient Forest to train his followers. Since the Elf God System was destroyed, there had been no reliable God for a long time. Over the years, there had been several Gods among the elves, but none of them were reliable, and most of them even belonged to the evil side, but Arcaian was a kind and well-known God. He was the reliable God that the elders had been waiting a long time for. In Orc Judge Buddy¡¯s view, medical technology was meaningless to the elves with high magic level, but from the the elders point of view, rebuilding the belief system of the Elves Race and cultivating the clergy were far more important than medical technology. As everyone knew, the direction of research at the Pasteur School wasn¡¯t only focused on medical treatment. In the coming years, Arcaian Pasteur, the God of Medicine, would be likely to increase the clergy again and create get the clergy of battle. Would anyone say that elves couldn¡¯t fight by then? The elders believed that the Orc Judge had prejudices against the Pasteur Spagirism School and had denied Arcaian¡¯s achievement. Buddy, the chief elder of the Grand Council, was too stubborn. Everyone had tolerated him for a long time. It was a great opportunity to tell him that the goal of the Grand Council was to seek benefits for all elves and that everything wasn¡¯t decided solely by him! It didn¡¯t take long for the elders to put forward the proposal of ¡°revoking the wrongful punishment of Clahot Pasteur and his grandson, Tuela Pasteur, restoring the reputation of the Pasteur School, and formally introducing the belief of the God of Medicine to the elves¡± at the conference of the Grand Council. When he heard the proposal, the Orc Judge¡¯s face grew very pale, and he couldn¡¯t help but shout. The same elders who had always yielded to his authority were united this time and insisted on passing the proposal. This meant that the Pasteur School was finally recognized by the Elves Race, and the Pasteur family name was finally set right by Arcaian. Waiting outside the door, Arcaian clearly heard the whole discussion in the congress hall. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh silently. Chapter 464 Chapter 464: Chapter 4 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When the proposal was passed, the Orc Judge fell into a great rage and slammed the door, brushing past Arcaian, who was waiting outside. When he stepped out of the town where the big meeting had been held, he suddenly saw a man in a grass robe, standing at the door and waiting for him. ¡°Tragic Wind? What are you doing here? Were you also persuaded by the boy to support me?¡± He frowned and asked coldly. Rumbling laughter came from under the Big Druid¡¯s robe. ¡°I was just worried about my old friend, so I came to see you.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about me. I¡¯m fine.¡± ¡°But you were almost killed by the Void Mask.¡± The Tragic Wind said this sarcastically, but he was actually concerned about his safety. ¡°If you had launched an attack, you would be dead by now.¡± The Orc Judge thought for a moment and said, ¡°Anyway, I won¡¯t fight with the Fairies Council.¡± ¡°Yeah, after all, you are the patron saint of the Elves. But as their patron saint, you really haven¡¯t done a good job. How could you use the excuse of ¡®destroying the balance of the nature¡¯? Can the Pasteur School be more of a threat than me when it comes to destroying the balance of nature? Do you know that there are rumors among the elves that you fear that the Pasteur School will grow too quickly and threaten your status, so you sentenced them as heretics regardless of the elders¡¯ opposition?¡± Buddy lowered his eyes, ¡°Whatever they say, it¡¯ none of my business.¡± ¡°But now it matters. The successor of the Pasteur School has become a God, and he has a master who¡¯s much stronger than you. Now they can just kick you aside and not consult you at all. Don¡¯t you feel a little angry?¡± ¡°Why would I feel angry?¡± Buddy frowned. ¡°Whose side are you on?¡± ¡°I stand on my own side, on the side of the human Druids and a man who sees the Elves Race and you as close friends.¡± The Tragic Wind sighed and said, ¡°My old friend, what are you thinking about?¡± Buddy was silent again, then said, ¡°Now that the goal has been achieved, I don¡¯t have to keep it a secret. I just wanted to give young people a little pressure to push them to grow faster and stronger.¡± ¡°You gave them too much pressure!¡± The Tragic Wind sighed. ¡°Do you know how many elves that you¡¯ve pushed too hard have become devils over the years?¡± ¡°That¡¯s weeding them out. If they cannot become stronger spiritually, what qualifications do they have to lead the future of the Elves?¡± ¡°If the knife is sharpened too hard, it will not become sharper. It will only break.¡± ¡°But as a result, I trained a lot of talents that can support the future of the Elves.¡± Tragic Wind sneered, ¡°Do you really think it¡¯s all due to you? If the Void Mask hadn¡¯t helped him withstand the pressure, if he had always been under your direction, do you think he would have been able to study things that have nothing to do with the battle? In the past years, didn¡¯t his grandfather and father come up with something so useful that it can support a race?¡± ¡°Excellent people are different from mediocre people.¡± ¡°If a seed isn¡¯t allowed to grow well, no matter how good it is, it won¡¯t grow into a big tree. Tragic Wind sighed, ¡°My old friend, your practices are really out of date now.¡± Buddy was silent for a long time and sighed deeply. ¡°Maybe I¡¯m too old.¡± ¡°Yes. You should admit that you are old and not always think that the rise and fall of the Elves Race is on your shoulders. Don¡¯t always be obsessed with responsibility and the past. Times have changed.¡± There was a pause. ¡°Are these so-called ¡®different times¡¯ referring to the appearance of the jellyfish?¡± ¡°Probably. Anyway, the river of destiny has rippled and may blow in another direction.¡± ¡°So have I hit the jackpot?¡± ¡°Maybe. Before the torrent of fate sweeps through the ancient forest, make the God of Healing owe the elders too much and split the relationship with the Elves Race. Anyway, I think it¡¯s a good plan.¡± Tragic Wind thought again and said, ¡°In this matter, the only one that suffered would probably be you.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t suffer. I just took it for granted.¡± Buddy shook his head and looked back at the hall. He nodded slightly and then walked away. ¡°Where are you going?¡± The Tragic Wind asked. ¡°I just want to find a place to rest for a while. Over the years, I¡¯m been a little tired. I¡¯ve seized the time to rest before the arrival of the flood of fate so I can build up my energy.¡± As he spoke, he passed by Tragic Wind, saying, ¡°In the next few years, I¡¯ll be isolated from the world temporarily. Don¡¯t expect me to help if you¡¯re in trouble.¡± ¡°Who would make trouble for the isolated Druid? You really worry too much.¡± ¡°Maybe. You should be more careful.¡± After saying this, Orc Judge Buddy Bristol turned into a huge golden eagle surrounded by golden light and spread its wings, soaring into the sky and instantly disappearing without trace. When he had gone away, the Tragic Wind sighed slightly and said to the sky above, ¡°My majesty, the Void Mask, now you can rest assured.¡± With a flash of light, Sui Xiong appeared, smiling and nodding. Of course, he wouldn¡¯t place all his hope on the Elves¡¯ conference. Although the outcome of the lobbying seemed to have been decided, in this world, the decision of the overall situation was mostly not the will of the people, but of the strong. The Orc Judge was stubborn, and he was the absolute strongest in the Elves Race. Therefore, whether things could go smoothly or not, in fact, even Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t sure. Therefore, he specifically found the Tragic Wind Big Druid that had sent him a message of friendship. He had asked the only strong man in the world who was as famous as the Orc Judge to come out. If the situation deteriorated and the talks between two sides broke down, he would come out to reconcile with him. This was a kind of insurance. Although it didn¡¯t work in the end, as least it could test the real ideas and attitudes of Orc Judge Buddy. Sui Xiong felt like it was worth his effort. ¡°Thank you!¡± He nodded at Tragic Wind. ¡°I won¡¯t forget your help.¡± ¡°If I could earn your friendship for this little thing, then I¡¯m grateful!¡± Tragic Wind laughed. This Big Druid who was as famous as the Orc Judge liked laughing a lot, totally different from the Orc Judge, who never laughed. ¡°Friendship is not a trade, but a communication of good will.¡± ¡°Yes¡­ My majesty the Void Mask, do you mind if I create an exit on my secluded half-plane and have it lead to your kingdom?¡± ¡°Of course not.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and nodded. ¡°You¡¯re welcome to.¡± Chapter 465 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A few days later, under the guidance of an elder of the Grand Council, Arcaian¡¯s clone went to the prison of the Archaean Glacier, found his great-grandfather and father sleeping in the ice, and then released them. His great-grandfather, Clahot Pasteur, was a legendary master and one of the advanced fairies. The prison life hadn¡¯t changed this pioneering scholar at all. When he awoke from his deep sleep, the first sentence he said was, ¡°Can I go back to the laboratory and finish some experiments before we start talking about something else?¡± Wow, how crazy he was to devote his whole life to this scientific research! Seeing his craziness, it was no wonder that when the Orc Judge wanted to imprison him, there was only one elder who asked for mercy for him. In contrast, Arcaian¡¯s father, Tuela Pasteur, was much more calm. When he woke up, he meditated for a while and looked at his son. He wasn¡¯t as strong as his grandfather. He was only at high-level and hadn¡¯t entered the Legendary Realm. He didn¡¯t know that Arcaian was a God, but was surprised that his son was so young. Only a few years had passed? ¡°What a surprise! Only a few years later, you saved us!¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you did it, but you¡¯re amazing. I am so proud of you!¡± Arcaian burst into tears and held his father in his arms. Arcaian may have been a God, but at this moment, he was just a teenager who had been separated from his father for many years. After the happy family reunion, Arcaian talked in detail about what had happened over the years. When he heard that his idea hadn¡¯t gotten good results, but his research materials had been applied, Clahot Pasteur seemed a little sad. He said with regret, ¡°Maybe there was something wrong with my idea¡­ I¡¯ll take some time to review my research data and do some control experiments¡­ I believe firmly that my idea is right¡­¡± Towards his great-grandfather, a science enthusiast, Arcaian had no memory of anything but his craziness. When he was born, he had never seen his grandfather, let alone his great-grandfather. All he knew was that his great-grandfather and grandfather had both been science enthusiasts and spent most of their time in the laboratory. They didn¡¯t know anything about the outside world. They used all their wisdom on scientific research. Tuela Pasteur was less interested in research than Clahot Pasteur. For him, the study of ¡°Ash of eternal decay¡± was nothing but a family tradition. Compared with scientific research, he cared more about his son¡¯s life over the years. ¡°You explained too simply before.¡± When he returned to the Ancient Forest for lunch, he said, ¡°You must have worked very hard these years. Tell me more about it.¡± ¡°Actually, it wasn¡¯t hard at all¡­¡± Tuela touched his son¡¯s head, laughed, and said, ¡°You¡¯ve grown up. Even if the sky fell, you would want to carry it on your shoulders. Now you¡¯re much stronger than your father, but remember that you are always a child who needs care and love from their parents.¡± ¡°Really, it wasn¡¯t hard!¡± Arcaian¡¯s face went red. ¡°Dad! I¡¯m a God now. Don¡¯t treat me like a child! ¡°Well, you¡¯re not a kid anymore. You are great. You are amazing.¡± Tuela laughed as he spoke, apparently not taking it seriously. ¡°Let¡¯s go and visit His Majesty Void Mask. I don¡¯t expect great-grandfather will take the time to go, so let¡¯s go and thank him. ¡± Arcaian agreed. A few hours later, they came to the ¡°sanctuary¡± in the God¡¯s Kingdom. Sui Xiong was still lying at the conference table, looking like a jellyfish dish. Tuela sincerely thanked him and apologized that Clahot Pasteur hadn¡¯t come, because Clahot had gone straight to the lab after they got out of prison. Of course, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care about this. He laughed and said that he hadn¡¯t helped much, but Arcaian had contributed a lot. Actually, he had asked Tragic Wind Big Druid for help and prepared a Plan B quietly. But he didn¡¯t mention this. ¡°In fact, I¡¯m more grateful for your help in taking care of Arcaian over the years than for your help rescuing us.¡± Tuela was nervous at first, but found that the Void Mask was a good person, or rather, a good jellyfish. He was more relaxed, laughing and saying, ¡°As a father, when I heard that my son had advanced quickly and even became a God¡­ Words are not enough to express my gratitude to you!¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but scratch his head. ¡°In fact, I¡¯ve done nothing. Arcaian has helped me a lot over the years, and all I¡¯ve done for him is¡­ building a laboratory for him, finding several laboratory assistants, giving him new ideas, and helping him promote the research results. But all of this had tremendous benefits for my church and territory, so I only did what I had to do.¡± Tuela laughed happily. ¡°No wonder he can be a kind God. To tell you the truth, before I was imprisoned, I was worried about whether he would go astray with resentment¡­ I¡¯m not afraid of death, but I am afraid that my death will have a bad impact on him. It¡¯s so lucky that he met you!¡± Sui Xiong laughed very happily. Although Tuela was a scholar, he wasn¡¯t nerdt like other scholars. He took good care of other people¡¯s feelings, and it was pleasant to chat with him. They talked for a long time. Finally, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but ask him if he was interested in serving as a governor in the Republic of Northwest. ¡°Me?¡± Tuela was surprised. ¡°I¡¯m a fairy and a scholar. Is it really appropriate for me to be a governor that deals with government affairs?¡± ¡°I believe you,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°There are different kinds of jobs in the government. You¡¯re very good at getting along with people. You¡¯re also very strong. By the way, you¡¯re Arcaian¡¯s father. There are many jobs that you can do well.¡± Tuela hesitated and turned to his son. ¡°Dad, whatever you decide, I¡¯ll support you!¡± Arcaian said immediately. Under these conditions, Tuela put aside his worries and accepted Sui Xiong¡¯s offer. To be honest, although he was a scholar, he wasn¡¯t really interested in scientific research. For him, scientific research was nothing but the family tradition. Compared to being a scientist, he would have preferred to be a pub owner or something¡­ It was when he was a pub owner that he met Arcaian¡¯s mother. Unfortunately, Arcaian¡¯s mother had died of an illness soon after Arcaian was born. Otherwise, their family reunion would have been perfect. Sui Xiong had also asked Arcaian about this and only knew that the whole family was really unlucky, perhaps cursed by the Goddess of Family. Clahot Pasteur¡¯s wife had disapproved of Clahot giving up his Druid status to become an alchemist and divorced him, Tuela¡¯s parents and brother had died in a serious accident during an experiment, and even Tuela had been seriously injured at the time. Tuela¡¯s wife had also died due to illness. As for Arcaian¡­ Ever since he started working with Sui Xiong at the age of seventeen, he spent all day in the laboratory, so he didn¡¯t have a girlfriend, let alone a wife! For a God, marriage wasn¡¯t a must. If they needed to continue their family line, they could create their own child directly without the processes of marriage and pregnancy. They could even make the child grow up quickly and save time educating the child. Tuela was angry about that and scolded Arcaian, the God of Healing, to find a girlfriend. In Tuela¡¯s view, even if one became a God and their career had reached its peak, one still had to make a family. ¡°His Majesty didn¡¯t have a family¡­¡± Arcaian muttered in a low voice. ¡°Well, I need to tell you one thing,¡± Sui Xiong sneered, raising one tentacle. ¡°In fact, I was married once.¡± Arcaian¡¯s eyes suddenly opened as wide as pigeon eggs. It seemed that he couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°How¡­ How could that be possible? What woman wants to marry a jellyfish?¡± He was shocked, his mouth opened wide, and shouted, ¡°Was it Steele? Besides her, it¡¯s impossible that anybody else would marry a jellyfish!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s face suddenly darkened. ¡°Who told you that I married someone as a jellyfish? And why did you mention Steele? She¡¯s a pig! Why would I marry a pig?¡± ¡°Okay, so who did you marry?¡± Arcaian asked. Sui Xiong was about to blurt out, but suddenly realized something and smiled. ¡°It¡¯s a secret.¡± Arcaian pouted his lips disapprovingly, but before he could say anything else, Tuela had grabbed his head angrily and asked him to apologize. ¡°You b*stard, how dare you! How could you talk to your Master God like this? Your Majesty¡¯s kindness is not an excuse for your rudeness!¡± Tuela angrily scolded Arcaian. Looking the scene, Sui Xiong was amused, but he couldn¡¯t help feeling homesick. Arcaian¡¯s family was reunited, but what about mine? Is there any chance for me to go back to earth and meet my parents? The jellyfish looked up at the sky in silence. Chapter 466 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Bang! Bang! The guns roared, mixing with the smoke and spraying red fragments of paper into the sky. Then, like snowflakes, the papers fell down from the sky, bringing joy and happiness to everyone. Compared to the first passionate, but somewhat chaotic, Fighter Championship and the second Fighter Championship that had been rigorous and boring, the third Fighter Championship had a more relaxed atmosphere. This championship wasn¡¯t like before, when all participants fought together. In this championship, all the participants were divided into three groups. The first group was the juvenile group, in which all the participants under the age of 18 were included. The gifted young boys and girls would compete with each other, and the top eight would be chosen by single elimination. Then the ranks of the top eight would be decided through a circular competition system. The Fighter Championship was scheduled to be held once every ten years, so the next time these gifted young people participated, it would be when they were in peak shape. If they were strong and lucky enough, they would be the world¡¯s first hero and a strong competitor for the title of ¡®world¡¯s strongest.¡¯ The second group was middle-level people, in which none of the participants had reached the advanced level. To be honest, they could have been described by the phrase ¡®with no tigers in the mountains, monkeys dominate the world.¡¯ A group of people who hadn¡¯t even reached the advanced level dared to compete for the first place in the world, which made people laugh. But the Northwest Republic encouraged middle-level people to participate, because they not only received a bonus, but could also get in touch with powerful guys and try to attract them. This was the suggestion of Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth. She thought that instead of attracting advanced and powerful people, she should mainly focus on the middle-level people. In the vast majority of countries in the world, middle-level people had become the pillar of the society. They were qualified for most jobs and positions and didn¡¯t need to be stronger. Moreover, the middle-level people weren¡¯t arrogant. They would be more generous and careful no matter whether they were alone with their colleagues or performing tasks. In fact, they were the most suitable to become citizens of a country. Originally, there had only been the juvenile and adult groups in the championship, but because Sui Xiong had accepted Manissy¡¯s suggestion, the middle-level group was included in the championship. The third group was the adult group, in which all the advanced and powerful people would show their strength and wisdom to the utmost. Its official name was the ¡®hero group.¡¯ There were powerful people from all over the world who wanted to gain wealth or fame. Because the competition was fair enough, and it didn¡¯t discriminate against anyone, even the participants¡¯ security would be guaranteed. This year, many participants from other worlds were coming to the Main Plane to compete. For example, the favorite to win the competition was Rio, from the mechanical realm. He was an organ man, three times as tall as an ordinary person even when he used magic to reduce his size. His strength had reached the Legendary Realm. This organ man, who had been alive for nearly two thousand years, could not only use several powerful weapons, but he had also mastered the power of magic, and his martial arts were also strong. The reason why he had come to the competition was because of news he had heard from his friend, Phil Ohis Savoy. Phil Ohis Savoy was also in the competition, but unfortunately, he was unlucky and eliminated in the group tournament. Phil Ohis Savoy was a worker at the Void Mask Land. He was from the mechanical realm, but he was interested in adventuring. Now he had transformed into a blonde mechanical girl, collecting items and distributing prizes at the exit of the Dragon and Dungeons, an underground adventure park. This rigorous organ man worked very hard. Over the years, no one had been able to sneak items out of the maze, nor had anyone been mistakenly rewarded. He could have been called a model employee. Unfortunately, the organ people¡¯s powers hadn¡¯t progressed quickly. He was now still at the middle level. He had participated in the Fighter Championship three times, yet hadn¡¯t been able to achieve good results. Another favorite was Rose Belia Quinn, a woman who loved the world of blood magic. This woman had long white hair that was like an ice waterfall and a cold temperament that seemed to freeze people. In fact, she talked a lot, but a chilliness kept radiating out of her whole body, so anyone standing beside her felt cold. Seeing her reminded people of the second runner-up in a previous Fighter Championship, the white dragon Queen Isa. She was a competitor from another world and was good at using the powers of ice and snow. Although she had been defeated in the final because of her relatively monotonous ability, her ability to use the powers of the ice and snow was so skillful that even after ten years, people were still talking about her. Compared to participants from other worlds, there weren¡¯t many outstanding people from the Main Plane. This didn¡¯t mean that there were no heroes in the Main Plane, just that a few of the famous masters had stepped into the Legendary Realm. Leon Igor, who was known as the ¡°Swordman¡± and ¡°the King of Seaside,¡± had held a friendly contest in Garth City to invite people who were interested in martial arts to discuss and exchange tips. Of course, this contest couldn¡¯t be compared to the Fighter Championship, but many people still took part in it in order to receive the guidance of the Swordman. Leon kept his promise in the contest. After a relaxed invitational competition, he gave everyone a special lesson for a short period of time and talked with people whom he thought had bright futures to give them practical advice. As a result, at that time, several strong men were inspired by him found their own ways and stepped into the Legendary Realm. This was certainly a good thing, but the upcoming Fighter Championship would be a little embarrassing. In the Main Plane, there weren¡¯t many advanced and powerful people. Several of the strong men had stepped into the Legendary Realm, and the top level was nearly vacant. Maybe after a few years, more people would become stronger, but that would happen over time. The situation of the spellcaster group was similar. Since master Lamperus had become a God, he often sent his incarnation to give magic lectures at the supreme tower located in the capital of the Mifata Federation. The advanced spellcasters were eager for the lectures. Many people had found inspirations in them and found their way into the Legendary Realm, so in that group, the top powers below the Legendary Realm were so weak that they couldn¡¯t support the scene. Therefore, in this year¡¯s Fighter Championship, there weren¡¯t many famous participants from the Main Plane. The one called Yeyu, who had participated in the first Fighter Championship, was probably the most famous. A couple decades wasn¡¯t a long time for the advanced and powerful people. Yeyu had only been twenty years old at that time, but now it seemed that he was middle-aged, even if the hair at his temples wasn¡¯t white. His powers had now reached the summit of the advanced level. He had even shown his strange crystal magic and nightmare magic in a fierce conflict not long before. A master who knew about magic very well said that he was appreciated by the legendary monster Crystal Snake and signed a contract with him to gain the power bestowed by the Crystal Snake. Although many people disliked him, the reputation of the Main Plane could only be supported by him. Chapter 467 Chapter 467: Chapter 7 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Reality and perfection were always different. Among the top players from other worlds, Night Rain wasn¡¯t the most outstanding. He made it to the top eight, but ended at only fourth place in the round robin. It was difficult to be a dark horse in the round robin, so the results were similar to what everyone had guessed before it took place. Leo and Isa won first and second place respectively, but the third place was a surprise to everyone. Although Kratos from the Mifata Federation was defeated by Night Rain, he won third place by beating the other players. According to the rules of the round robin, each player had to fight one game against the other seven players. Winners earned two points, while losers earned no points, and if both sides ended in a draw, they received one point each. Leo won seven games and had fourteen points in total; Isa won six games, losing one game to Leo, and had twelve points; Kratos lost one game each to Leo, Isa, and Night Rain and won the rest of the games, so he had eight points; Night Rain lost two games, won two games, and tied three games, so he only had seven points. As for the other players, the fifth won twice, tied two games, and had six points; the sixth won once, tied three games, and had five points; the seventh tied three games and had three points, and the last one tied once and only had one point. Night Rain refused to accept fourth place, so he went away, shouting, ¡°I¡¯ll be stronger next time.¡± Kratos was delighted. After receiving the prize, he went straight to the gate of the Void Mask Land to give his prize to Smart, because Kratos was very grateful to him for helping him get rid of his slave identity. He had once been a slave in the arena. His work had been to entertain the audience by using his life to fight. It was Smart who had paid for him and set him free. During the night, they were very happy to eat and drink at the street stalls. Even the weakest one was a master at the advanced legendary peak. They ate simple and spicy barbecue, drank liquor, talked, and laughed in high spirits. This strong, happy, and free group of people was unique in the Void Mask Land. Jose had used to be a part of this happy group, but ever since he had become the Inspector General of the Republic of Northwest, he¡¯d had lots of government affairs to handle. Several days before, when they met in the evening, Favnier and Shoggoth had often said, ¡°Four people at one table are perfect.¡± Today, the table was finally perfect with four people. Actually, there were two demon beasts among these four people, but that was okay. Even the boss of the street stall didn¡¯t care, so who would say it was strange? It was a coincidence that a few friends of theirs were eating and drinking in another street stall nearby. Morani had many followers and Divine Power in the 3rd Fighter Championship. He was delighted to celebrate with Sui Xiong, Javier, and Wor. He also wanted to invite his good brother, Ink, and Yorgaardman, Arcaian, and the God of Healing, who Sui Xiong had named ¡°Three Nothingness.¡± But Ink said he had drunk too much and didn¡¯t want to walk today; Yorgaardman was away on business; Arcaian¡¯s father, Tuela, had recently found a new girlfriend and wanted to let Arcaian to have a look; and Three Nothingness¡­ When Morani looked at him for about three minutes, he went away without saying anything close to an invitation. ¡°Never mind. Four people are perfect.¡± Sui Xiong, who appeared as a bald man, laughed and said, ¡°A table has just four sides. Everyone sits at one side, then we can play mahjong or poker after dinner.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a little strange, Your Majesty. Four Gods gathering in the street to gamble?¡± Wor said immediately, frowning. Before Sui Xiong replied, Javier handed a cup of wine to Wor. ¡°Are you old-fashioned? It¡¯s okay. Nobody knows us here. They would even let me sing and dance naked there. I could do that, let alone gamble. Anyway, who here knows me?¡± Wor¡¯s face darkened instantly, and he believed that¡­ Javier would really join in. The Boy of Ceremony was free and unrestrained, and he didn¡¯t take social criticism seriously at all, not to mention the fact that ordinary people couldn¡¯t recognize him. Even if ordinary people really recognized him, he could sing and dance while naked without pressure. Going out with such a unrestrained person, the God of Knowledge, who was modest, was a little uneasy. When he saw his Majesty¡¯s eyes shining, showing he was eager to try, he feared that they would really run naked in the night if they were drunk. If I had known this, I wouldn¡¯t have come out! Wor was regretful and secretly made up his mind. No matter whether the majesty invited him in the future, as long as the Boy of Ceremony was there, he would never go out with them! Fortunately, Morani was a reliable man. He didn¡¯t agree or oppose Javier directly, but changed the topic. ¡°Auscar, you¡¯ve been at the conference table for more than a decade. Aren¡¯t you bored?¡± he asked. Speaking on this, Sui Xiong felt tired at once and then leaned back and said, ¡°I always feel tired, and I can¡¯t lift my spirits up. It¡¯s nice to lie on the table. You know that turtles lie all day long.¡± ¡°Turtles run very fast when danger comes,¡± Morani said. ¡°Ah? Really? Don¡¯t joke with me!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, it¡¯s true. I¡¯ve just checked it, and it¡¯s real,¡± Wor said. ¡°Sh*t¡­¡± Sui Xiong was speechless. ¡°But that¡¯s okay. I also run very fast when danger comes!¡± ¡°You¡¯re a dish of jellyfish when you lie there, not a turtle,¡± Javier said with a laugh. ¡°A jellyfish and a dish of jellyfish are two different things!¡± Sui Xiong protested. ¡°Wash the jellyfish and cut it into pieces. Then it¡¯s called a dish.¡± ¡°You lie on the table all day. And dishes are always set at the table, so you¡¯re a dish of jellyfish!¡± Javier laughed as he replied. ¡°Even the sauce has been prepared. You just need to slice the jellyfish and put it onto the plate.¡± Sui Xiong was so angry at first, but after a while, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Okay, it¡¯s quite similar. Hahaha!¡± Then even Wor laughed. After laughing, Javier advised, ¡°Lying on the table all the time is boring. If you do nothing all the time, you¡¯ll grow lazy. You¡¯ve been resting for so many years. How about finding something to do?¡± ¡°But what can I do?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°At present, the territory and the church are going well. If I add new plans there, something might go wrong.¡± ¡°I meant finding something else you like to do,¡± Javier said. ¡°What do you like to do?¡± ¡°Painting, designing, and playing games,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Drawing is boring. Well, about design¡­ Over the years, I¡¯ve designed enough, and I even designed the Void City. Now I don¡¯t have any more ideas to design¡­ Maybe build another city?¡± ¡°No.¡± Morani shook his head. ¡°I believe you have the ability to build another city, but do you have enough people to live in it?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment and shook his head. ¡°No, it would be an empty city. Forget it.¡± ¡°So what about games?¡± Morani asked. ¡°This is impossible. I can make a game, but the players are too few!¡± Sui Xiong sighed and said, ¡°There are only a few people in the world who have the money and time to play games! Even if I launched a new game, it¡¯d just be to let the old players play a new game. It¡¯d only be wasting the resources.¡± After saying this, Sui Xiong felt tired again. ¡°You can do something else,¡± Morani said. ¡°When you were at the public trial conference, you said you wanted to promote the concept of fear. Let¡¯s start now.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment and nodded. ¡°That¡¯s okay, but what should I do and how should I start?¡± ¡°It¡¯s up to you. We¡¯re just reminding you that you can do something,¡± Javier said immediately. Sui Xiong laughed and thought carefully. At that time, though he had said that people¡¯s perception of ¡°fear¡± should be changed subtly by propaganda, how could he do that? It wasn¡¯t an easy task. Horror films? Horror games? To be honest, he thought it over carefully. Horror films and horror games couldn¡¯t eliminate the negative factors of fear. On the contrary, they could strengthen people¡¯s negative impressions towards the concept of fear. Before he had travelled in time, he had heard that there was a person who didn¡¯t dare go to the toilet alone at night after watching horror movies, so this man peed in a bottle. Of course, that was just one example, but even Sui Xiong, after playing a horror game, would find everything terrifying for a while. Why would this happen? Probably because of the unknown. The unknown can become a fear. For example, darkness and loneliness would reinforce people¡¯s sense of the unknown and make them feel fear. Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t a rookie who didn¡¯t know anything. He had an initial idea after thinking. I could make a game called the ¡°fear experience game¡± that allows players to experience danger. For example, what does the darkness feel when it hides ghosts, monsters, and so on? And what¡¯s the difference between that darkness and ordinary darkness? That¡¯s great! Why are ordinary people afraid of darkness but risk takers are totally not afraid? Because risk takers know the dangerous darkness is no different from ordinary darkness. With enough experience, fear won¡¯t be a threat or pressure, but an effective early warning that can help risk takers avoid danger. He wanted to make it right now. ¡°I decided!¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m going to make a new game!¡± ¡°What game?¡± Javier was a gamer, and when he heard the word game, he was excited. ¡°I¡¯m going to collect the experiences of ordinary risk takers and learn what they feel when they take risks. In my game, I¡¯ll let players play as these risk takers and experience their feelings at that time,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Really dangerous things and really horrible things are totally different with the so-called ¡®fear¡¯ in our peacetime. If we really experienced them, we wouldn¡¯t be afraid of our fears in life, like darkness.¡± The other three Gods nodded, and Morani said in surprise, ¡°What a good idea!¡± ¡°So what¡¯s the name of the game?¡± Javier asked curiously. Sui Xiong raised his eyebrows, laughed, and then said slowly, ¡°It will be¡­ the Infinite Terror!¡± Chapter 468 Chapter 468: Chapter 8 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Infinite Terror had been one of Sui Xiong¡¯s old plans. However, at that time, he had considered introducing a virtual reality game that borrowed from famous film and television animation works, but he hadn¡¯t thought about the problem of overcoming fear. But now, he thought that the biggest benefit of his plan was that it could give ordinary people the opportunity to experience real danger and relieve their fear in real life through the illusions. Of course, this was useless on Earth. Most of the people who could play games on Earth lived in peaceful countries with high incomes. What they needed was not to relieve their fear, but to use the fear to gain excitement. But in this world, excitement was everywhere. Instead, the precious experiences were more in line with the needs of the people in this world. Sui Xiong always thought of one thing¡ªbefore he had time travelled, he had heard of the introduction of the virtual reality game system, but the system was expensive and required a relatively large room in order to use it well. Sui Xiong had been somewhat wealthy, and it had been okay for him to buy a game system, but he hadn¡¯t been able to afford a large home, so he hadn¡¯t been able to play the new game that had blown up all over the internet until he time travelled. So in this world, if conditions permitted, he wanted to introduce the new system. Were the conditions permitting? Of course. Sui Xiong was strong enough. Over the years, he had gained a deeper understanding and analysis of the knowledge of clergy and domains he had received from the Sun God. Even if he didn¡¯t use his Divine Power to simulate, he could create a virtual world for ordinary people to play through with his own understanding of the world¡¯s laws. As for equipment, after years of accumulating skill, he was able to create more efficient, safe, and stable gaming equipment at a lower cost, and he didn¡¯t need to create a server by himself. Divine Power was indeed a very wonderful thing. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t understand computer engineering and coding languages, but he had created a powerful game server with Divine Power. It was placed in a corner of the God¡¯s Kingdom and looked like a hill, but its practical ability¡­ Anyway, it could create a virtual world over sixty miles in diameter. Even ordinary adventurers couldn¡¯t distinguish which one was the real world as long as they didn¡¯t try to destroy the world. If he could have returned to Earth, he would have brought this game server back and introduced it to lead a new era. After years of continuous publicity and influence, there were many stable game enthusiasts in the Main Plane. They had money and leisure time, but they lacked strength. They were willing to experience life in a safe way even if it would cost them a little money. Sui Xiong intended to make a big move this time. He would not only introduce them to try the new game, but also spread the experiences of the adventure game as far as he could, spending decades to make the Church of the Void Mask affect the whole region, and its citizens, regardless of their gender and age, would have a chance to experience the game at least once. If people experienced real danger and fear for once, they would understood how silly their usual worries and illusions were. Then they would cooperate with Sui Xiong to distribute the game and change people¡¯s attitudes toward fear. After making his decision, Sui Xiong began to design his game system. He chose a group of people who had previously been adventurers in the followers of the God¡¯s Kingdom. When those followers heard that their monarch would borrow their adventuring experiences to help people overcome their everyday fears, they expressed their full support. Based on their experience, Sui Xiong designed more than a dozen of experiences for the game, aiming at defining the topography and landform of each region, as well as local customs and conditions. In these adventure experiences, players would change into adventurers and experienced the real terrors hidden in the darkness, including jungles, cemeteries, and other dangerous places. At the same time, there would be enough protection equipment and prompt hints in the game so that they could discover and detect the differences between real terror and the terrors they felt in their usual lives. As for whether it would have bad effects on players, Sui Xiong said that his own Divine Power would protect them so there wouldn¡¯t be any problems. He wasn¡¯t some mad scientist who would waste thousands of lives in order to pursue his ideas. A scale as small as thousands of lives was not enough, and Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care about it at all. What he wanted to do was to shake the whole world. In this world, Gods didn¡¯t care about the lives and deaths of mortals. If one wanted to attract all the Gods¡¯ attention, one would have to kill two Gods in one breath. Of course, it would better for them to kill hundreds of Gods, like Sui Xiong had last time. This showed that Sui Xiong had gone beyond the realm of ordinary terrorists, who merely wanted to kill pagans or heretics in order to go to the heaven and enjoy happiness. However, he wanted to eliminate others¡¯ chances at heaven when he killed them. After six months of intensive research and development, Sui Xiong began to recruit game testers in the Void City. Coincidentally, the two disciples of Leon Igor, the Archbishop of the Church of the Void Mask, were playing with their daughter in the Void City that day. It was rare for the couple to have a day off to talk with their daughter, who was gradually entering a rebellious period, and they played with the little Yue in the Void Mask Land¡ªoh, she couldn¡¯t be called ¡°little Yue¡± because she was already fifteen years old. ¡°You¡¯re so out of date! I¡¯ve been tired of these things for a long time!¡± Yue was speechless at her parents. Two legendary masters who could fly away easily at any time were fascinated with children¡¯s amusement parks. Why on Earth was that? The roller coaster was a little high, but her dad could jump higher than it easily. ¡°Mom, you¡¯re so dramatic! You couldn¡¯t even catch a doll in the claw machine after so many times. Don¡¯t tell me that you couldn¡¯t even do this little task. If you pulled out your sword, wouldn¡¯t you be able to kill even a mosquito?¡± Acting! Acting! It was all acting! But the two acted so exaggeratedly that it made no real sense! ¡°I¡¯m already fifteen years old! Don¡¯t treat me like a child!¡± After a few hours, Yue couldn¡¯t hold back her temper and said angrily, ¡°And you¡¯re overacting!¡± The legendary couple looked at each other, but didn¡¯t know what was wrong. Looking around, weren¡¯t everyone¡¯s children having a good time? While glancing around, Clito saw some clergymen dressed in the uniforms of the Church of the Void Mask were recruiting game testers on the corner of the playground. He was enthusiastic and pulled his wife and child over. If that couldn¡¯t satisfy his daughter, then he really had no idea what would. Chapter 469 Chapter 469: Chapter 9 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The staff that was responsible for recruiting experience players here were Klein and Egil from Garth City. They were old friends of Clito and wore the uniforms of the Church of Void Mask. When they saw Clito and Asner coming with Yue, they were surprised. Klein asked, ¡°You two want to be experience players?¡± ¡°Yeah, just to play a new game.¡± ¡°But¡­ it¡¯s for ordinary people who don¡¯t have adventure experience,¡± Klein scratched his head and said. ¡°The risks here can¡¯t make you feel bad.¡± Klein and Clito were old friends. In Garth City, Clito often visited Klein¡¯s pub. Clito, who had black hair and black clothes, always ordered a bottle of liquor, some vegetables, and sea fish, and sat in the corner to eat slowly by himself. Klein didn¡¯t know him, but he was curious as to why the man was eating so slowly. He talked with Clito first, and then they became friends. Later, they helped each other many times, and their friendship was good. Klein knew his friend was powerful, so he felt very puzzled that Clito and his wife wanted to be experience players. ¡°This is a test for ordinary people, you can¡¯t join,¡± Egil said in a serious tone. Clito laughed, took a step aside, and ask his daughter to stand in the middle. ¡°Asner and I can¡¯t do the tests, but Yue can. She¡¯s just a trainee magician.¡± ¡°I will be strong!¡± Yue blushed and said loudly. ¡°It¡¯s the principal who asked me to learn all the basic knowledge first. She said that it¡¯s not good for me to learn magic too early. If I learn magic too early, it will be easy for me to go astray¡­¡± That was not nonsense. Yue¡¯s magic talent was very good, and she had an excellent ability to master magic. It would b easy for her to go astray without a good basic foundation of knowledge. Many people admired magicians who could use magic through intuition. But Felix, the principal of the Isuka School of Magic, scolded this idea. She had always emphasized that ¡°the power that is fully understood and mastered can be called real power.¡± Yue had outstanding talent. So it was necessary to learn basic knowledge first to ensure that she could use her power correctly. This was good in the long run. Generally speaking, with her talent, Yue should become a good junior magician at her age, or even a mid-level magician. But now, she was just a trainee magician who could only do some easy tricks. Because Felix had emphasized the importance of basic knowledge many times, Yue was not dissatisfied with her learning progress at all. But when she talked about it with others, she was shy and wanted to explain herself. Klein was surprised and then smiled and nodded. ¡°That¡¯s okay. Miss Yue, please come here and test this new game.¡± Yue wanted to pretend that she didn¡¯t care. But a ¡°new game¡± was a temptation for most young people in the Republic of Northwest, and she was no exception. After a moment¡¯s hesitation, she accepted the test. Accompanied by her mother Asner and a female clergy, she changed into protective clothing to ensure her safety and then laid down in a transparent device. ¡°I believe this game equipment is expensive¡­¡± Clito looked at his daughter and said, ¡°The cost is too high. Can it really be popular?¡± Yue was lying in the transparent equipment, wearing a breathing mask and gradually being flooded with the protective fluid. Over the past few years, he followed Leon to learn sword skills. He knew many high-end things, and his horizon was greatly broadened, so he knew that this equipment was very valuable. It might be difficult to popularize the game. ¡°It was not designed to be popularized,¡± Klein answered. ¡°His Majesty said in the oracle that he would make hundreds of such equipment and place them in every temple. Every ordinary people need only about two or three experiences, and they can be fully familiar with most dangerous situations. There¡¯s no need to experience it again unless they want to play it.¡± Clito understood, thought carefully, and then asked, ¡°In that case, what¡¯s the meaning of making this game?¡± ¡°The oracle says that it is to correct people¡¯s misconceptions about fear.¡± Klein repeated Sui Xiong¡¯s words as follows, ¡°Fear is not a threat, but an instinctive response when people feel in danger. It is beneficial and can effectively help people to avoid risks. An experienced risk-taker will never fear easily, and once he fears, he will be careful and even retreat at that time. For them, fear is not an enemy but an assistant. Only those who lack the experience of taking risks, those who don¡¯t know what danger is will be afraid and panic. This virtual reality experience game is to help ordinary people to be truly exposed to danger in order to eliminate those meaningless fears, and to make the attitude of the whole society towards fear better.¡± Clito frowned and thought for a long time, but he still did not understand and so turned to his wife. His wife, Asner¡¯s swordsmanship was not as good as him, but she was smarter than him. Whenever he encountered something puzzling, his first reaction was to ask his wife for help; and Asner never let him down. Her idea might not be the best, but at least it would be more reliable than that of Clito. This time was no exception. Asner understood Sui Xiong¡¯s intention of this game. ¡°His Majesty, the Void Mask, wants to reshape the priesthood of fear!¡± She said. It seemed that others did not understand, so she explained in detail, ¡°Do you remember? More than a decade ago, His Majesty punished the God of Fear and imprisoned him in the Tree of God. Maybe by now the God of Fear is dead, and the priesthood of fear has been lost, so His Majesty wants to change the world¡¯s view towards fear and then reshape the priesthood of fear.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Crito asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe His Majesty wants to cultivate a kind God of Fear. It¡¯s impossible, but at least a God of Fear who would not be in the Evil Camp.¡± ¡°Is it good for His Majesty?¡± Klein asked. ¡°When did His Majesty do a good thing for ¡°benefits¡±? Asner asked. Everyone understood and couldn¡¯t help but laugh. His Majesty always did something unexpected. We could never analyze him with the theory of interest. This was not to say that His Majesty was changeable and easily angered. In fact, everyone who had been with His Majesty knew that he was very easy-going. Even if you made fun of him, he would only laugh and never be angry. After all, he was a jellyfish. The thinking pattern of a jellyfish was different from that of humans. This was the conclusion drawn by many scholars and advisers. After all, they had been surprised countless times by Sui Xiong¡¯s wonderful and unexpected ideas. His Majesty was quite different from other gods. He had a very unique thinking pattern. Fortunately, one thing was sure¡ªhe was a good god. No matter what action he took, he would never harm people, and he would only harm those who were vicious and bad. This had been proved by his countless achievements. Unless someone wanted to make trouble with him, he would not fight with others first. Of course, he did some puzzling things. Even when he fought with evil, many of his actions were unexpected, but anyway, the result was good. And that was enough. Yes, in this world, people and gods only pursued good results regardless of the process. Everyone laughed happily. But in the virtual game, Yue couldn¡¯t laugh at all. She never imagined that this game would turn her into an ordinary risk-taker and let her explore an ancient haunted castle with several partners. Yue was afraid of ghosts! The more she thought about ghosts, the more frightened she was. She did not know why, but she was afraid of darkness and spirits. Principal Felix said that this was because she lacked real adventure experience. When her magic was good enough, the principal would arrange for her to practice with an excellent adventure team for a period of time. ¡°I used to be afraid of the dark and ghosts in the past. But after I experienced some risks, I am not afraid anymore,¡± Felix said. But Yue didn¡¯t want to experience ¡°some risks¡± at all! Only once was enough! ¡°If I had known there were ghosts, I would never have come¡­¡± she said in a low voice. ¡°Why do we need to explore this ancient castle with ghosts?¡± ¡°Because we are short of money,¡± a companion heard her complaint, sighed and said. ¡°If we don¡¯t make any money, we need to sleep in the wild.¡± ¡°This task is pretty safe,¡± another clergyman with a metal cane said. ¡°There are ghosts, but no one will die. After all, if we went to exterminate wolves or to expel goblins, it would be very dangerous for rookies.¡± Yue¡¯s face was pale when she heard that. Yes, this team was made up of a group of rookies: trainee knights, trainee paladins, trainee warriors, trainee magicians, and trainee clergymen. All of them were trainees. What was a ¡°trainee¡±? That was to say, this person learned some skills corresponding to a certain profession, but had only just started. They were far from skillful. The trainee knight meant that he could wear a full set of armor and use his weapon. He would certainly not cut himself, but his companions should stay away from him because he might slice others by mistake. The trainee paladin meant that he could use a bow or crossbow and only shoot from a very short distance. A trainee warrior meant that he knew how to use long and short weapons and shields to defeat a wolf or a goblin in one-on-one combat. That was all. The trainee magician, Yue, only knew a few tricks and could play a minor auxiliary role. Her fighting ability was almost zero. Probably the trainee clergymen were the most valuable of all trainee professions. After all, they could give medical treatment and had some melee ability. Yue suddenly realized that she was the weakest one in the whole team, the one who couldn¡¯t offer any help for the team. Chapter 470 Chapter 470: Chapter 10 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Yue, who had become the weakest member of the team, was not depressed but instead was very angry. As the most excellent student in the Isuka School of Magic, she never lagged behind in any activities, even if it was a confrontation, something she was not good at. (The most important thing for a magician was not the ability to cast spells but a clever and clear mind, and rich and practical knowledge.) But she gradually calmed down after recalling her principal¡¯s instruction. ¡°I think we should recognize the resources and information,¡± she said suddenly. ¡°Maybe we will encounter enemies soon. It¡¯s good for us to make preparations beforehand.¡± ¡°There will be no enemy,¡± a younger trainee soldier whose beard had covered the second half of his face said rudely. ¡°I asked when I was on duty. The ghosts only haunt the castle; they never attacked people.¡± ¡°But in general, no one would enter this old castle.¡± Yue, of course, would not be refuted so easily. She pointed out the omission of this piece of information immediately. ¡°So, who on earth found out that there were ghosts haunting this place? Why were they willing to spend money to hire adventurers to deal with problems here?¡± Everyone was silent and looked at each other. They did not know how to answer. After a few seconds, the trainee soldier said uncertainly, ¡°There was no information about the client in the mission but from the large reward¡­ Could it be that the villagers who felt uneasy gathered fifty gold coins to hire us?¡± ¡°If you were a villager, would you take out fifty gold coins to deal with those ghosts in the old castle at least two miles from the village?¡± Yue asked. ¡°Of course not!¡± The young trainee soldier, the captain of the adventure team answered. ¡°You are right! There is something wrong.¡± Compared with soldiers who concentrated on fighting, there were much more things for knights to learn, such as military command and strategy. In theory, a qualified knight was not only an excellent fighter but also a commander. Although this trainee soldier was not very powerful, he had to be aware of the problems after Yue pointed them out, otherwise, he would not be qualified for his apprenticeship. ¡°If there are no ghost attacks, or if ghosts really attacked the villagers¡­ there are no injuries. Villagers will not pay for things that have nothing to do them.¡± the trainee knight thought and said. ¡°What if there are ghosts here? Ghosts rarely leave to attack people, so it¡¯s safe for villagers to avoid this old castle. Compared with fifty gold coins, it¡¯s much easier and cost-effective for the villagers to avoid this area.¡± Everyone nodded, and Yue could not help but smile. She was a little worried about whether her teammates would be fools. Now, it seemed that her worries were superfluous. Although those virtual teammates lacked fighting ability and adventuring experience, at least their minds were clear. That was enough! ¡°Captain, do you mean that there have been ghost attacks and people have died, so the villagers are very upset and hired us to solve the problem?¡± The trainee opened his eyes wide. ¡°Did they tell us lies in the mission information? How dare they deceive a group of adventurers!¡± ¡°Maybe this mission was not issued by villagers.¡± The trainee soldier shook his head. ¡°As I just said above, even if there were ghost attacks and dead people here, the villagers would not care about that. They could just avoid this place and flee. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± ¡°Do you mean that those who issued the mission are the ones who have entered this place?¡± the trainee ranger murmured. ¡°They have been attacked by those ghosts and are very afraid, but they have to come back here again. So they have no choice but to seek the help of the adventurers.¡± ¡°Yes. That¡¯s very much possible!¡± the trainee knight nodded and said. ¡°In theory, they would not tell lies in the mission information, so the fact that ¡®no one has ever been killed by a ghost¡¯ is probably true. But this does not mean that there are no ghosts or that those ghosts are weak. It is more likely that those who are attacked acted quickly or retreated in time.¡± ¡°Did they react that quickly?¡± the trainee soldier frowned and asked. ¡°They are just ordinary people.¡± ¡°What if they are not ordinary people?¡± the trainee knight sneered. ¡°What kind of people need to enter such an old castle?¡± ¡°Adventurers?¡± asked the priest. The knight shook his head. ¡°They are running an underground business, and many of their transactions are not transparent, so they have to find a place that is rarely visited by people as their trading venue. This old castle is not far away from the nearby town, and villagers dare not approach it. Isn¡¯t it the best place to trade?¡± Everyone was nervous. Those who were running the underground business all had some powerful skills in their hands. Those ghosts could make them retreat in a hurry and even hire adventurers to deal with them. Maybe those ghosts were very tough to deal with! ¡°That¡¯s what I think, so we have to make preparations now,¡± Yue responded. ¡°Considering that the enemies may be very tough to deal with and even those smugglers had to spend money to hire us, we must be well prepared.¡± She paused for a moment and tried to solve the problem more easily. She said, ¡°Actually, we can withdraw now and go back to ask the client for detailed information¡­ For us, this task is a little too difficult, I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s very difficult to guarantee that there will be no casualties.¡± The last sentence made everyone¡¯s face gloomy. Even the trainee soldier who was more optimistic than the others could not help but frown. ¡°You are right, but we have no money,¡± the trainee knight sneered and said. ¡°We have no money to return to the city. If we want to go back to the city, we have to walk. And after we return to the city, we have no money for accommodation today. The Adventurer¡¯s Guild Hall does not offer free accommodation.¡± ¡°Moreover¡­ even if the mission information was wrong, the mission deposit won¡¯t be returned,¡± the trainee ranger frowned and said. ¡°In addition to the traveling expenses, our last bit of money has paid the deposit, for which we have borrowed money from the Association of Adventurers. It said that we have to return the money in three days at most, otherwise, we have to pay extra interest. If we go back now, we won¡¯t be able to finish the task in three days ¡­ at that time, our qualifications for adventurers will be canceled by the Association of Adventurers.¡± Of course, they could go back, but going back meant that they would lose their income and jobs. Everyone looked at each other, and all felt depressed. How could this group of people be so poor? Yue could not help but sigh deeply, but she had to put on a smile in order to comfort everyone. Fortunately, she, as a trainee magician, was very good at comforting people. Everyone¡¯s face was getting better and better. When everyone was in a good mood, they started to make preparations for a possible fight. ¡°What do you think if we set fire to the castle?¡± The trainee soldier had a fantasy suddenly and proposed. ¡°In theory, it should be possible.¡± The trainee ranger¡¯s eye lit up. ¡°This old castle is so dilapidated that there must be no owners. Even if it was lit up, people would not care about it too much!¡± ¡°What if it has an owner?¡± the trainee knight asked. ¡°If it has an owner, there will be servants who are responsible for cleaning it,¡± the trainee priest said. ¡°Maybe there were servants, but they were killed by those guys who were running the underground business,¡± Yue sighed and said. ¡°Or maybe¡­ what we have to deal with is those loyal servants who are dead but never forgot to guard their masters¡¯ property.¡± Her words made everyone feel frightened. The trainee soldier shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t say such horrible words! That¡¯s so scary! Do you want to scare me to death?¡± Yue sighed and shook her head, pointing to the ground. ¡°Didn¡¯t you notice? This ground is old and damaged, but it doesn¡¯t grow weeds. It is impossible for the ruins. The only explanation is that someone is cleaning it.¡± Everyone looked in the direction where her finger was pointing at. They could not see any weeds nor could they see any dirty spots or stains. Although this old castle was dilapidated, it was clean inside, so everyone felt more frightened now. No one knew that there was a giant jellyfish over the castle that was watching them. ¡°Hey! They really regard the virtual experience as a real adventure!¡± Yan Xun looked at Yue¡¯s performance and could not help but laugh. ¡°This little girl has a bright future!¡± Chapter 471 Chapter 471: Chapter 11 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Yan Xun never expected that someone would regard ¡°Infinite Terror,¡± a horror experience game, as an adventure game. In his design, this group of rookies would search the ancient castle for a day without gaining anything. They would have to stay in the castle at night and then encounter a ghost¡¯s attack. The other team members would die. When the player was in danger, an old loyal servant would come to help. They would work together to kill the ghost, and the old loyal servant would exhaust all the magic that sustained his life. He would ask the player to help him find the descendants of the castle¡¯s owner. At last, this old loyal servant would disappear in the morning light. This story was not fiction; it was a personal experience of a follower in Yan Xun¡¯s kingdom. This follower was a man who kept his promise. He spent almost twenty years searching everywhere. Finally, he found the heir of the ancient castle and brought him to visit the castle again. At that time, the heir became a small businessman. Unfortunately, because the time interval was too long, there was a new owner in the castle. They could not get back this ancient castle which belonged to the heir. It was not a perfect ending to the story. It had been nearly fifty years since this happened, but Yan Xun felt that the story was very good and worth making others experience it. So he created the game. But Yue seemed to lead the group of rookies to kill the ghost directly without the assistance of the old loyal servant. ¡°Seriously? There is no award for you even if you kill the ghost by yourself. I don¡¯t have any reward points or other tasks for you,¡± Yan Xun complained, but he didn¡¯t want to make the game more difficult for Yue. But he was seriously thinking about whether he should give Yue some extra awards if she really killed the ghost without the assistance of the old loyal servant. Every player who experienced Infinite Terror would get a little bit of Divine Power as a gift so that they could stay healthy and happy for a time. This Divine Power was transformed from the power of beliefs gathered by the Tree of God. In some sense, it was the legacy of Dyalt, the God of Fear. That guy did bad things all his life, and it was good to use his power to do a good thing after his death. According to the setting in a famous online novel Yan Xun had read before he traversed, a little Divine Power would be a common reward for every player. But if some players performed very well, it seemed necessary to give them some extra rewards. Yan Xun wondered what the extra rewards should be. He thought for a moment, and then he laughed. Yue and her team members hadn¡¯t seen any of the two ghosts. Why should he think about the rewards so early? Yan Xun stopped wondering and gave a thumbs up to Yue. ¡°Come on, little girl, I trust you! You can do it!¡± Yan Xun¡¯s thumb was not helpful to Yue. She was annoyed. Her teammates were really a group of rookies! To explore a haunted place, how could they not prepare a few weapons or props for dealing with ghosts specifically! Ghosts belonged to a special kind of spirits. Ordinary weapons were useless to them. Even low magic weapons might be useless because ghosts had translucent bodies. To harm them effectively, it was necessary to use weapons that had received divine blessings, or weapons that were made specifically for fighting spirits. Ghosts were creatures that could never die, so weapons that had special effects on creatures that could never die could also harm the ghosts. Among these weapons, the easiest one to get was the weapon that had received divine blessings. Generally, every risk-taker would prepare two or three bottles of divine water. When encountering ghosts, risk-takers would smear the divine water on the weapons. And then the weapons could temporarily receive divine blessings and cause harm to ghosts. If the divine water could be directly sprinkled on the ghost, it could cause serious damage to the ghosts. If we used refined, advanced divine water, we could even kill the immortal creature. Of course, these rookies had divine water, but only one bottle. At first, Yue did not believe it. But after she asked and searched, finally she accepted the reality. They had only one bottle of divine water, and there were no other weapons or props that could cause harm to the ghosts. After Yue checked carefully, the bad news was that this bottle of divine water was of low quality. If you poured a whole bottle of this divine water into the ghost¡¯s mouth, maybe it would cause harm to the ghost. Otherwise¡­ Anyway, smearing this bad divine water on the weapon probably would not work at all. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. A clergyman can dispel the ghosts,¡± the trainee warrior said loudly. Yue hid her face with her hands and gave up trying to explain. What was ¡°magic intensity¡±? What was the ¡°will of confrontation¡±? What was the ¡°concentration of divine grace¡±? Would these guys really understand? By the way, the trainee clergyman in their team was good at fortune-telling and traveling through realms! Fortune and traveling realms?! Can you believe that? There were four important areas for a clergyman. ¡°War¡± could strengthen others¡¯ fighting ability. ¡°Life¡± could heal others. ¡°Element and plane¡± could strengthen the ability to expel ghosts, and ¡°dead¡± could strengthen summoning or counter a creatures summoning ability. Yue never believed that there would be a clergyman who didn¡¯t choose one of these four different realms, but now she believed. The world was so big to contain all kinds of people. She just met a freak! To be honest, fortune-telling and traveling realms were not bad. The former could give clergymen some extra good luck, and there were many special spells in a protective direction. The most important thing was that after becoming a high-level clergyman, it could greatly reduce the damage caused by the God Descending spell. Many clergymen who followed the Goddess of Fortune were good at the God Descending spell. And the Goddess of Fortune was one of the gods who sent their clone to the world frequently. The latter could help clergymen move faster than ordinary people to immunize most of the action-restricting spells and traps. It could also give some effective spells such as the transmission spell and the positioning spell. However, was there a clergyman who learned these two realms at the same time? Well, if you wanted to be a ranger, it was okay to learn these two realms. But the role of clergymen was set to lead the team and to assist everyone! Did this guy in the team want to be a ranger and believe that ¡°the world was so big, so I want to see it¡±? Yue signed and carefully calculated the success rate in dispelling the ghosts. Zero. As an academic magician, she could estimate various spell confrontations. And her estimation was always similar to the results. The greater the gap between the strength of the estimated object and hers, the lower the accuracy of the estimation. But the strength of the trainee clergyman was quite similar to hers. So the accuracy rate of this estimation was at least 90%. If this clergyman used his ability to ¡°expel¡± even the weakest ghost, the success rate was less than 30%. Ordinary ghosts couldn¡¯t frighten smugglers into fleeing in a hurry. And the smugglers hired risk-takers to explore instead of coming back by themselves, so there must be strong ghosts instead of ordinary ghosts in this castle. Expelling strong ghosts was much more difficult than expelling ordinary ghosts. If a clergyman did not have the ability in the ¡°sun¡± realm that could enhance the expelling effect, or in the ¡°dead¡± realm that could strengthen the control of immortal creatures, he could never win. Only mid-level clergymen or higher clergymen could win the ghosts. This rookie, who was an ordinary clergyman, was only able to expel three or five times a day. Okay, even if he could expel five times a day, it was absolutely impossible to expel the ghost. Of course, the expelling might weaken the strength of the ghost a little bit, or it might make the ghost angry and attack him crazily. When she thought about this, Yue sighed again. The other adventure teams would let the knights or warriors go in front. Paladins and thieves were flexible. Clergymen and magicians provided back up in the rear. But in her team, the trainee clergyman played was in front and even the trainee magician, Yue needed to fight. The other teammates had no work to do! Oh my god! Could you believe it? The trainee magicians were the weakest in melee ability of all professions. How could they let a trainee magician be the fighter? Yue couldn¡¯t believe it, but she accepted the reality in the end. She could only rely on the role she played now. Well, her role was a trainee magician who was specialized in energy spells. The role she played could cast fire, thunder, lightning and frost spells. In reality, she would sneer at such a foolish role. A trainee magician who was specialized in energy spells was useless because these attack spells could only cause little harm to the enemy. Even a stick was more powerful than weak fire, weak electric shocks, and cold rays! A trainee magician should learn some auxiliary spells instead of attack spells! In a competition at the Isuka School of Magic, she attacked a magician who was two years older than her with a pair of sticks. When she used the pair of sticks to fight as double swords, the poor senior classmate did not even have the time to cast a spell. He was whacked over the head and defeated by her. But now, she had to thank the choice of magic in her role. Anyway, at least the effects of these direct attack spells on ghosts were real. These direct attack spells would cause at least a little harm to the ghosts. As long as she made good use of these spells and hit the ghost every time. It would harm the ghost in the end. If Yue was lucky enough to hit a vital part, the ghost might be killed. Although, that would be very hard. Arg! Why not let me play a knight role? I am good at using double swords and a short bow! Yue complained, but she couldn¡¯t change it. Chapter 472 Chapter 472: Chapter 12 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After complaining, it was time to get down to business. If a wild magician was here, he could do nothing but take one step at a time. People may think that he acted at the right moment, but some people might think he was forced to act rashly. But Yue was not a wild magician. She came from the only magic school in the northwest region, and her teacher was the most powerful magician who had stepped into the Legendary Realm. Sometimes, she could also listen to the teaching of another top magician who had stepped into the Legendary Realm, and even the great God of Knowledge would come down to teach. Throughout the whole Main Plane, there wasn¡¯t another magic school with such high-quality teachers except for the highest tower where Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, the God of Spellcaster had dominated. Although the learning time was short, the students of the Isuka School of Magic had not grown to a brilliant level; many of her senior classmates had become mid-level sorcerers. Even herself, if she had laid a good foundation, would have reached mid-level. The cost of laying a good foundation several years was that her caster rank could not keep up with those gifted teenagers of her age. The benefit was that her knowledge and skills had far exceeded the ordinary magicians. For example, she knew how to arrange magic arrays, especially those high-level magic arrays. The chief magician of the church of the Void Mask, Mr. Satan, who was respected as the purifying sage, had spent years of painstaking research to come up with a fantastic magic array that could effectively clean up the negative energy pollution. The magic array was very complex, involving different links. If one was not taught carefully by Mr. Satan, he would not be able to make the magic array work even if he had drawn the array exactly the same according to the gourd. The key of the magic array was to calculate the direction of energy flow according to the surrounding ground veins and eventually encompass the energy of this area and turn it into a closed circle. If there was negative energy in this circle, it would become the power to stimulate the magic array, promoting the operation of the magic array. With the help of the characteristics of positive and negative energy conflicting, it would attract the positive energy located in a different world. Thus it could not only completely offset the negative energy but also could create a weak positive energy environment conducive to the reproduction of living beings. Among the students of the Isuka School of Magic, except for the two predecessors who were teachers and had learned from the headmaster before the foundation of the school, only Yue knew how to arrange the magic array. It was not Principal Felix who had taught her the magic array, but a friend of hers, Miss Nice, who was also her teacher. Miss Nice was the closest disciple of Mr. Satan. It was a wonderful fate for Yue to meet her. But it was a long story that was not worth mentioning. In a word, they had a good relationship, so Nice taught her the magic array. Yue did not know that this meant that she was recognized by the two magic giants of the church of the Void Mask and stepped into the core circle of casters. It had nothing to do with her parents who were legendary masters, but because her personality and ability were recognized. She was excellent in talents, ability, and mind. Although she was ill-tempered to her parents, that was just a shortcoming. How could Miss Nice teach Yue Mr. Satan¡¯s greatest accomplishment of his life if she had not tested her reliability? With her current ability, of course, Yue could not arrange a complete Purification Array. But it was possible for her to make a small one. Now it was in the afternoon; it might be late for her to arrange the magic array by herself. Fortunately, she had some teammates. ¡°You said that we have to go outside of the old castle and arrange a magic array in the open space outside. When the evening comes, we will retreat to the magic array and spend the night inside, right?¡± the trainee knight, who was the captain asked. ¡°That means we have to go camping¡­ Is that necessary?¡± ¡°I hope it¡¯s just a waste of efforts,¡± Yue said confidently. ¡°But I believe it¡¯s worth spending the night outside compared with getting paid for the task and avoid the risk of fighting with the ghosts at night.¡± Her confident appearance convinced everyone. Therefore, a group of people who should have been searching inside the old castle went outside and arranged the magic array in the yard. Arranging the magic array was a meticulous work, and it was absolutely unsuitable for ordinary people to do this. But it was not a problem for Yue. The key of the purification array lied in those links, which were naturally made by herself and would never go wrong. What her companions had to do was to clear a section of flat ground wide enough to dig ditches according to her request, forming a very simple magic array. Yes, the basic layout of the purification array was very simple, even if lay people would not make mistakes, not to mention those professional casters. When Jose, the Red Flame Dragon led a group of people to arrange a huge magic array covering the whole Pyroxene Town. Now, it was called Pyroxene Town. The main excavation work was done by ordinary strong men who did not know anything about magic at all. As a result, the magic array had worked very well. Over the years, there were no problems. Although Yue and her virtual adventure partners were not powerful, they were stronger than a group of ordinary strong men. In fact, they did really well. With the help of the trainee priest, the magic array had been excavated and laid out before dark. Compared with her peers, Yue was slower in making those magic links. She had completed four-fifths of the magic links, and she would finish all the links by the sunset. This was because this body was not her own body. There were many subtle differences in her work, so she had made a few mistakes that she should not have made in the beginning and had wasted a lot of time. Fortunately, she still had time. Yue was not in a hurry, and she carefully carved complex patterns on the wood that had been cut into the shape of a nail. Every time she finished a piece, her companions would pin it into the kinks of the magic array. She gradually increased her speed of carving. When the red sun in the west completely set, leaving only the remaining light to illuminate the ground, the last nail was nailed into the ground, and the whole magic array was completed. At that moment, everyone all felt that there was a white flash of light in front of them, but when the white light was fleeting, they all felt that it was an illusion. However, the sudden sense of freshness in the air was definitely not an illusion! ¡°Now, let¡¯s just wait for the ghosts to attack us,¡± Yue patted the sawdust off her body and said with a smile. ¡°I hope the ghosts attack us tonight so that we can finish the task earlier and go back to receive our rewards.¡± Everyone looked at each other and laughed. Chapter 473 Chapter 473: Chapter 13 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was getting dark. The castle was located on the edge of the sparse woods. In the distance, the moon rose slowly from the horizon. The villages could be faintly seen during the day, but now they disappeared into the darkness. It was silent all around. ¡°Something is wrong here,¡± the trainee paladin said. ¡°In this season, it shouldn¡¯t be so quiet in the wild.¡± ¡°The Departed Soul monsters can emit negative energy, so no creatures like them as a result. In addition to a few variant monsters in the Ashes Woods in the northwest, common demon beasts deliberately avoid the range of negative energy,¡± the trainee priest said. He was very clear about these things. ¡°But¡­ when we come here during the day, there are many beasts here.¡± ¡°Yeah, I planned to catch some beasts to barbecue at night,¡± the trainee paladin said, sighing. ¡°We can only eat solid food.¡± ¡°Probably during the day, negative energy is suppressed by the sun,¡± the trainee priest guessed. ¡°At night, negative energy is strengthened. Therefore, it is said that in the Ashes Woods, a large number of Departed Soul monsters come out at night, so it is extremely dangerous.¡± ¡°Departed Souls? If they are skeletons, they won¡¯t be horrible,¡± the bold trainee warrior said, laughing. ¡°Just find a thick wooden stick and knock them down.¡± ¡°One or two skeletons are certainly not horrible. Even ordinary farmers can deal with them,¡± Yue said, smiling. ¡°But it is said that the skeletons in Ashes Woods don¡¯t appear in a small number. If they appear, there will be at least hundreds of them. On every full moon night, there may even be tens of thousands of skeletons. Do you think that you can defeat that many skeletons?¡± The trainee warrior shook his head directly without thinking. Of course, some heroes in the world could defeat hundreds of skeletons, but he certainly was not one of them. Let alone hundreds, just eight to ten skeletons at a time could kill him. After all, although one skeleton had weak combat ability, it wasn¡¯t afraid of pain and death. When the number of skeletons was large, their threat immediately rose. Moreover, once a person¡¯s legs and head were caught by five or six skeletons, he could do nothing but die. If that person was a hero born with superhuman strength, he might have a chance to escape. However, as long as he was an ordinary person, even if he had good combat ability, he would also die. The trainee warrior was counted as a good fighter. If he used all his skills, he could drive a dozen farmers away. However, in the face of a dozen skeletons, he would be the one to run away. ¡°It is strange that I can¡¯t feel negative energy. Why?¡± The trainee priest sensed for a while carefully. He said, confused, ¡°I can¡¯t feel it at all.¡± ¡°Go out of this magic array, and you may feel it,¡± Yue said indifferently. ¡°But it also means that you may be attacked by evil spirits.¡± The trainee priest said, shrinking his neck, ¡°I don¡¯t want to take that risk. It is okay that I can¡¯t feel it.¡± Everyone laughed kindly. For those rookie adventurers, safety-first was the undisputed golden rule. Most people who didn¡¯t respect this rule would die in an adventure and had no chance to enjoy a bright future. ¡°Well, it¡¯s late. Everyone, eat some solid food and go to bed early. We three will take turns to keep watch at night.¡± After laughing, the trainee knight began to arrange the night watch. During adventures, the night watch was an essential and important task. At night, most monsters were active. If they didn¡¯t arrange a night watch, once they were attacked by monsters, everyone would die without knowing why. There was a common practice among adventurers. Spellcasters didn¡¯t keep watch at night. The reason was that others wanted to take care of the spellcasters. Spellcasters¡¯ bodies were relatively weak, so they needed sufficient rest. Moreover, other adventurers had to ensure that the conditions of the spellcasters during the day weren¡¯t affected, so the success rate of spells didn¡¯t decrease due to lack of sleep. Enough sleep could help spellcasters recover magic power, and it could also help them maintain a good mental state. Unless there were enough spellcasters in the team that they didn¡¯t need to care about those things, everyone would obey this rule ¡°Spellcasters don¡¯t keep watch at night.¡± In other words, in an adventurer team, if spellcasters kept watch at night, they would definitely be rookies! Of course, there were exceptions. For example, for some priests who believed in the God of Night or the God of Shadow and some necromancers, nighttime was their home court. During the daytime, they were sluggish instead. However, such spellcasters would certainly not move with ordinary adventurers, so strictly speaking, they were not really special cases. Yue and that trainee priest were naturally not special cases. Both of them needed to rest to ensure that they could have sufficient magic power and good conditions tomorrow. Different from Yue who slept very well, the trainee priest obviously didn¡¯t sleep well. He turned again and again and woke up several times during the night. More than once, he clearly felt that an evil force was gazing at him, so he woke up in his sleep. However, when he looked around, he didn¡¯t see anything. Soon after he fell asleep, he felt that the evil force was gazing at him again, and he was awakened again. It repeated several times, so he couldn¡¯t sleep well that night. The next morning, his whole person languished, and he was apparently in poor condition. His companions naturally noticed his condition, and they asked him about it with concern. When he told them that he had been awakened several times during the night, the three who had kept watch were confused. The warrior and the knight had relatively weak perceptual ability, so they hadn¡¯t felt anything. However, the paladin had better perceptual ability. He hadn¡¯t felt any evil gaze, either. ¡°Don¡¯t think about it. This is the usual means of evil spirits,¡± Yue said, sighing. After a good sleep, she was full of energy. ¡°They spy on you from the spiritual world. They know that spellcasters are their archenemies, so they try hard to disturb your spirit. It may be something good because it proves that this evil spirit is not very strong. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t need to use such means.¡± After analyzing it like that, everyone was relieved. The curious warrior thought of something. He asked, ¡°What about you? You are also a spellcaster.¡± Yue said, smiling, ¡°Probably, it can only disturb one person¡¯s spirit, and that is already its limit. In any case, a priest is definitely more threatening to it than me, a mage.¡± What she said was, of course, a lie. Although she was using the body of that trainee mage, the soul in that body was a genius young mage as well as the child of two legendary strong people. According to some scholars, her soul was inherently stronger than that of an average person. That evil spirit had tried to attack her at night. As a result, it had failed to disturb her spirit. Instead, it had been countered and had suffered a serious injury. However, she naturally couldn¡¯t explain those things to her companions. Anyway, that evil spirit was mentally injured, so its strength definitely declined. Although her previous analysis was wrong, at least the result was correct. In contrast, she was somewhat curious about another thing. During this night, she had clearly felt that a kind soul was watching her. It had wanted to convey friendly news. It was a pity that she was a mage instead of a priest. She was not good at soul communication, so she couldn¡¯t hear it clearly. It was truly a pity. ¡°How many days is our solid food enough for?¡± the captain asked. The paladin, who was responsible for managing the supplies, checked it. He replied, ¡°If we save up, it will be enough for three days. If we don¡¯t, we will have to hunt after tomorrow¡¯s lunch.¡± ¡°Then we rest this morning,¡± the captain said. ¡°The priest must get enough rest. We can¡¯t take risks.¡± No one disagreed, and the paladin even said that he could use this morning to hunt and catch a few rabbits for lunch. So they ate roasted rabbit at noon, along with a little solid food. The barbecue skills of these rookie adventures were not very good, but at least the food was cooked. Yue was not satisfied with the food, but she still ate it. She was safe and full. This morning, she wasn¡¯t idle. While checking the purification array, she made some temporary items. She used some materials she collected at the scene and used up almost all the gems reserved by this trainee mage. She made a few roughly-crafted pendants, strung them with thin strings and gave them to her companions. ¡°Mental protection pendant,¡± she said. ¡°It can slightly improve your ability to defend against mental attacks.¡± Her companions were very happy to wear these pendants, but Yue knew that the pendants couldn¡¯t help much. The characterization of the mental protection array was correct, and the matching of materials was strictly in accordance with the rules. The problem was that the material level was too low, and she didn¡¯t have enough magic power to infiltrate these materials to enhance their effects. This was called enchantment. It had the necessary requirements for the magic power of the spellcasters. The trainee mage only had so much magic power. Considering that she might need to fight in the afternoon or the evening, the only magic power she could use was just this much. If they were safe tonight, she would be able to rework these pendants tomorrow morning to enhance their effects. Although she couldn¡¯t improve them much, at least she wouldn¡¯t waste those gems. Yue thought so, putting scrolls and wands in a place where she could reach at any time. Then she hung two daggers made from a Chinese scholar tree at her waist. The two daggers were made by a knight at her request this morning. Chinese scholar trees could blend well with negative energy. As an essential, the two daggers could also be used to harm evil spirits. Of course, she still needed another kind of essential, but if it was not necessary, she wouldn¡¯t want to use it. Even though it was just a game, Yue never intended to risk her own life. However, if it was really necessary, she wouldn¡¯t hesitate. In a battle, the most useless emotion was hesitation. No matter what choice a person made, it was better than not choosing. After lunch, the priest finally rested well and recovered his spirit. Therefore, the team set up the formation that was most suitable for battles and stepped into the castle again. This time, they were much more serious and nervous than yesterday. Looking at them from the sky, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°This kid, Yue, seems to be very talented as a commander.¡± Chapter 474 Chapter 474: Chapter 14 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the old and slightly wrecked castle, the team marched cautiously. They set up a long and narrow formation. The knight walked in the front, the warrior was about three steps behind the knight, and the mage was about three steps behind the warrior. In order, they were followed by the priest and the paladin. This formation focused on defense. The knight and the warrior in front could defend well. The paladin behind could react quickly, and the priest behind was wearing armor. Even if they were attacked, they could resist for a period of time and protect the mage in the middle well. Yue didn¡¯t think that she needed such protection. Although this mage lacked sufficient exercise, her combat experience could completely compensate for the lack of physical force. Even if she encountered a sudden attack of evil spirits, she wouldn¡¯t wait for death helplessly. However, she didn¡¯t reject the kindness of her companions. On the contrary, she was very happy. She was in a team where people cared for each other. The team wasn¡¯t powerful, but it was at least warm enough. These five people moved against the wall, walking very slowly. They stopped and observed the surroundings from time to time. Under the reminder of Yue, the priest cautiously used the ability of sensation, a priest¡¯s talent. He also used the ability of relative energy which was his own talent. He used his abilities to avoid spiritual attacks of evil spirits. Without this observation point, they could only use their eyes and ears more to look for clues from the surrounding environment. Every time they passed a window, the warrior pulled down the cloth covering on the window. It meant that the owner of the castle needed to spend a small amount of money on repairing them. However, compared to bringing trouble to the owner of the castle who was nowhere to be found, it was more important that they could get light after pulling the cloth down. Sui Xiong silently looked at their actions, nodding slightly. In the past, an adventure team had broken into the castle without any preparation. They had searched all the way, and they hadn¡¯t found any clues. However, they had been marked by evil spirits unconsciously. At night, they had lived on the second floor of the castle. The room had been attacked by the evil spirits. They had fought really hard, and they had almost been completely defeated. Now, compared to that of the previous team, the strength of this adventure team was the same. After all, there were also five people. However, with the preparations and commands of Yue, the combat effectiveness of the entire team had been improved a lot. If nothing else happened, at least this afternoon, the evil spirits wouldn¡¯t dare to attack them. By the time of tomorrow, Yue could prepare more. At that time, the disadvantages of the evil spirits would be even worse. However, Sui Xiong frowned immediately. He clearly saw that the evil spirit lurking on the upper floor of the castle actually revealed the intention to attack. Moreover, as it showed its intention to attack, its strength slowly increased. ¡°Weird! How could this happen?¡± Sui Xiong said to himself, confused. He was sure that he did nothing, but why did this evil spirit want to launch an attack in the daytime even though it would suffer losses? For evil spirits, the daytime was not suitable for combat. If it had to fight in the daytime, it would be weaker, so how could it become stronger? He was puzzled, so he hurriedly examined the detailed settings of the world with his Divine Power Finally, he found out the reason. The overall settings of the world came from the believer¡¯s memory of his past adventure. In the believer¡¯s memory, the evil spirit was a fierce and dangerous enemy. Therefore, when faced with an increasingly unfavorable situation, the evil spirit would make corresponding changes according to the impression of the believer. The reason why it suddenly became stronger was for the same reason. This change was actually very unreasonable, and it didn¡¯t conform to the common style of evil spirits in the real world. After figuring out the reason, Sui Xiong nodded slightly. He sighed in his heart. What kind of enemies were the most powerful? The enemies that were feared by people were the most powerful because fear would weaken people¡¯s power. It would also create an impression that the enemies were so powerful that they were difficult to defeat. In a materialistic world like the earth, this situation wasn¡¯t obvious. However, in this idealistic world, consciousness was a part of power. Therefore, people¡¯s fear would naturally become a part of the power of villains, making them stronger. For example, the fear of the believer gave this evil spirit a powerful force that was beyond the strength of its own. Sui Xiong frowned, using his power to modify the settings of this world. The evil spirit that was hiding in the darkness revealed an ugly face. It was staring at Yue, but its strength was suddenly weakened. ¡°Fair, fair first,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°I am not the evil master god, the Big Light Ball. It is unreasonable to increase the difficulty when the adventurers behave well.¡± Yue and his companions didn¡¯t know about those things happening secretly. They spent some time circling around the hall on the ground floor of the old castle. After ensuring that nothing was wrong, they carefully stepped on the stairs leading to the second floor. After a short distance, the priest suddenly frowned. He said loudly, ¡°Have you heard the cry of a woman?¡± Everyone stopped, listening carefully. After a while, the paladin replied, ¡°No, but I am slightly uneasy. Maybe the enemy is launching a mental attack.¡± ¡°I feel nothing at all,¡± the soldier said carelessly. ¡°Did you make a mistake?¡± The knight didn¡¯t rush to conclusions. He looked at Yue, waiting for her judgment. Unknowingly, although the strength of this mage might be the weakest among the team, the knight had regarded her as a wise leader. It was that same that some military forces would ask civil officials to lead troops. As long as they were wise enough, their own combat strength was unimportant. Yue didn¡¯t let him down. She listened for a while, or in other words, made the action of listening for a while, and then she reached a conclusion, nodding. ¡°Although I don¡¯t know why, but that crazy evil spirit wants to fight us during the daytime,¡± she said, smiling. ¡°To be honest, I have never seen such a stupid evil spirit.¡± ¡°Is the daytime bad for evil spirits?¡± the warrior asked. ¡°Of course. During the day, the sun will shed strong positive energy. Any Departed Soul monsters will be affected and weakened,¡± Yue said with a smile. ¡°If the sunshine can directly fall on it, maybe it will die without our attacks.¡± ¡°That is great!¡± the warrior said happily. ¡°What should we do next?¡± Yue was stunned for a while, and she couldn¡¯t keep up with his mind. After thinking for a while, she said, ¡°Don¡¯t pay attention to the cry. Follow our own plan.¡± ¡°What? Don¡¯t pay attention to the cry?¡± the priest said. He was a little surprised. ¡°If we don¡¯t pay attention, we will give it enough time to prepare, won¡¯t we?¡± Yue explained, smiling, ¡°As for time, it has been in the castle for so long, so it had enough time to prepare for whatever it wanted to. It is possible that the current cry is used to lure us to dangerous places. It is most possible that there are traps.¡± ¡°In this case, shouldn¡¯t we avoid the cry?¡± the knight asked. ¡°In theory, it¡¯s right, but I don¡¯t know what the evil spirit is thinking. If it is intelligent and is trying to play tricks, what should we do? Perhaps the direction of the cry is the safest way.¡± The warrior was confused. He asked, ¡°What should we do? It means that either way is very dangerous, right?¡± ¡°So my advice is to leave it alone,¡± Yue said, smiling with confidence. ¡°As long as we control our pace and follow our planned actions, we can react correctly!¡± Chapter 475 Chapter 475: Chapter 15 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio What Yue had said was quite reasonable. No matter what the evil spirit was thinking, they just had to act at their own pace. There were indeed gods that had great wisdom as vast as the sea. They could infer the enemy¡¯s overall plan from a little trace, and come up with specific solutions to fight against the enemy. However, these guys were not gods. Thus, they had to solve the problem in an honest and practical way, just as the mortals did¡ªthat was to move forward steadily and safely and do what they were supposed to. After the discussion, they continued to move forward. As they approached closer, the priest found that the cry was much clearer. After a while, the paladin and the mage heard it, too. Later, even the knight and the warrior heard the cry. ¡°How annoying!¡± the warrior muttered discontentedly. ¡°It makes me feel anxious!¡± ¡°Is there someone in danger that needs help?¡± the knight listened for a moment and said worriedly. ¡°Let¡¯s go and take a look.¡± ¡°Sir, how could anyone in this place need help?¡± The paladin sighed. ¡°Look at the ground, please. Besides the footprints we left behind, are there any signs of other people walking around?¡± The knight looked carefully on the ground for a moment and shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s it. According to our footprints, this place hasn¡¯t been visited for at least two or three months,¡± the paladin said. ¡°Suppose someone has been locked up here without eating or drinking for two or three months, they would have died.¡± ¡°Even if they were still alive, they wouldn¡¯t have the strength to cry so loudly,¡± the warrior added. ¡°Maybe there¡¯s food and water in this place¡­¡± the knight guessed. ¡°Don¡¯t be silly, Captain. Who would prepare food and water for the prisoners? This isn¡¯t a meditation in seclusion for the clergyman.¡± Even the priest could not help laughing. After some careful thoughts, the knight realized his idea was ridiculous. He laughed bitterly and shook his head. ¡°Sorry, when I hear the sad cry of others, I always want to help.¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing to apologize for.¡± The warrior laughed and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Just because you are such a person, I decided to put down my hoe and carry a weapon on an adventure with you.¡± ¡°Yes, Captain, you¡¯re a good man. It¡¯s something that you can feel proud of no matter where you are. There¡¯s nothing to apologize for.¡± Yue nodded in agreement. Wherever it was, a good man always deserved more trust and support from others. After that, they continued to move forward as they had planned. At first, they went towards the same direction as the cry, but later on, they went far from it. If one listened carefully, one could roughly tell that the cry came from a room in the middle of the third floor. But now, they were searching the second floor slowly without any intention of going upstairs to save someone. Perhaps the evil spirit was also anxious, and later the cry became wired, and its direction also changed. ¡°What? The direction of the cry has changed.¡± The paladin was the one most sensitive ones to direction, so she frowned and told the others this as soon as she found out. ¡°Never mind,¡± Yue sneered. ¡°No matter what this guy did, he just wants to deceive us to go there. As long as we stay here, there¡¯s nothing he can do to us!¡± ¡°But¡­ That cry is approaching us slowly!¡± the paladin said worriedly. ¡°It¡¯s approaching above our heads.¡± Yue frowned and looked up at the ceiling. The evil spirit was a kind of virtual creature, and this virtual creature could penetrate ordinary physical obstacles¡ªthe ceiling was naturally included. Did the evil spirit want to attack them from the ceiling? She thought about it carefully and shook her head in secret. It was unreasonable. If the evil spirit really dared to attack them in public, it wouldn¡¯t have waited until now. She did not know that originally, the previous adventurers had been attacked by evil spirits in the same position where they were now. It was almost in the center of the castle. There was not enough light, especially on the other side of the window. It was blocked by the tower, and the sunshine couldn¡¯t come in. For evil spirits, this place was almost the most suitable place to fight in the daytime. Yue didn¡¯t know that, but she quickly made a decision. ¡°Withdraw!¡± She cried out, ¡°Whatever the reason, withdraw first! Safety goes first!¡± Everyone turned their heads and began to run without any hesitation. The evil spirit had never expected the adventurers to run so decisively, so he kept chasing after them. But it was too late. Before he could reach the top of their heads, they had retreated to the stairs and ran straight to the basement lobby. Seeing that they were about to escape, the evil spirit was filled with anger. He uttered a scream, and, in spite of anything, he launched a special skill. An illusion! At this moment, the paladin, running in the front, was about to walk down the stairs, but with a flash, she found the scenery around her had changed suddenly. Instead of the stairs leading to the lobby, she was in a very luxurious guest room now, and there was the cry of a woman coming from the concealed door. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± She was so frightened that she did not dare to open the door. She retreated quickly and ran into the priest by accident. The priest was not attacked by the illusion, but he had never expected that the paladin would suddenly go back and run into him. He was distracted by their collision and was immediately caught by the illusion. Following him was the warrior, who was not mentally strong either, and naturally, he was attacked. The knight managed to keep himself from the illusion for a while, but just for a while. When he saw that everyone stopped in front of him, he could not help thinking what happened¡ªwhen he was thinking, he was also caught by the illusion. In the illusion, the four of them found that they were standing alone in front of a luxurious room where the weird cry came from. They didn¡¯t know what to do. This was the most powerful skill of evil spirits¡ªcreating an illusion to drag the enemy into it. As long as the enemy was strongly stimulated and mentally shaken, they would be badly injured and might even expose their mental weakness. Then the evil spirit could directly possess the enemy¡¯s body. As the four of them were all caught in the illusion, a transparent grey figure fell slowly from the ceiling not far away and stared at them coldly. But it didn¡¯t rush over to them because there was still one that had a clear mind. Yue looked around warily and did not dare to be careless. Although she was not dragged into the illusion, she also clearly felt a mental attack from the evil spirit. Seeing her companions stop and their eyes become dull, how could she not realize what was going on? Feeling that there was someone behind her, she slowly turned back and saw the evil spirit looking at her coldly. ¡°It¡¯s crazy that you dare to come out in the daytime,¡± she sneered and said without fear. Naturally, the evil spirit would not chat with her. He made a deep roar to frighten the girl who had not been dragged into the illusion. Then he met with a white light from Yue¡¯s palm. It was Yue¡¯s magic, the Frozen Rays. This magic had weak power, and it could freeze a teacup or make an ordinary person who lacked exercise tremble violently and feel cold all over their body. If an ordinary person were attacked by this spell two or three times in a row, they could also be knocked down or even killed. But for the evil spirit, its power was far from enough. It was absolutely impossible to knock down an evil spirit without twenty or thirty times of trying. However, the spell could only be used five times in total. Fortunately, the evil spirit knew nothing about that. He only knew that he had been attacked, and although the attack was not powerful, he could still get injured. So he suddenly became scared and angry, gave out a crazy roar, and rushed to Yue. This is what I was waiting for! Yue was not nervous at all. She took off the locust sword hanging around her waist. Meanwhile, she spoke a curse out loud. It was a super magic skill, Combat Spell-Casting. This was definitely not something that a trainee mage could perform. In fact, without special training, many advanced mages could not perform such a spell while fighting. This was one of the best skills of a Magic Bomber. As an extreme battle mage who needed to run and fight while casting spells, a Magic Bomber had practiced Combat Spell-Casting to a more perfect level. From this, it even developed a special, super magic skill, enabling the Magic Bomber to fight with the enemy in full swing while casting spells smoothly. As a student of Felix and as the most outstanding Magic Bomber in the world, Yue had also learned this necessary skill. Moreover, she had learned it very well. It was impossible for her to cast some complicated spells, but it would be no problem for her to cast an easy flashing spell. When she and the evil spirit were about to fight with each other, she shouted suddenly, and her right hand lit up. The evil spirit had never expected there to be such a mage, so it was too late for him to run away. He was dazzled at the strong light and unconsciously stopped the illusion. The four adventurers were then released from the mental attack. The next moment, the strong-willed priest first escaped from the illusion. His eyes became clear again, and he heard that Yue was fighting with the evil spirit. Without hesitation, he immediately lifted the Holy Emblem of the Goddess of Fortune and performed the best skill of the priest¡ªthe Dispersal Spell. Theoretically, the Dispersal Spell of the priest could dispel many things, from demons to all kinds of negative magic. It could even dispel the bad luck in life. But for this trainee priest, his spell had only one effect: dispel the evil spirit. The golden light suddenly lit up, turned into a circle and spread out to the surroundings, covering both Yue and the evil spirit who were in fighting inside it. The white smoke arose from the evil spirit¡¯s body, and he began to roar angrily. This Dispersal Spell did not hurt him badly; it made him angrier. At the same time, however, the power of the Dispersal Spell had also helped the other three companions to completely escape from the illusion and regain consciousness. Without saying a word, the paladin took out the bottle of divine water and rushed towards the evil spirit. The divine water had to be poured on the head of the evil spirit, so it had been given to her for she was good at throwing things to certain places. She knew that the divine water had limited power, so she had to make sure it was poured on the target. As for the warrior and the knight, without others¡¯ order, they rushed to the left and right side of the evil spirits separately to limit its movement with their bodies. On the one hand, they wanted to rescue their mage, but on the other hand, they wanted to have an appropriate position for the paladin to attack. These were all strategies that had been discussed in advance. They even rehearsed it several times this morning in order to make sure that they could cooperate well in this set of attack and to kill the evil spirit quickly. It had been proved that the pre-training was very useful. The evil spirit was caught between the two of them. Their attacks were supposed to have little effect on him, but the two of them took out the pendant that could provide slight protection from the mental attacks, and they threw the pendant on the evil spirit. The pendant gave off an unpleasant odor that the evil spirit hated, and that slowed it down in action. At that moment, the paladin had rushed to the front of the evil spirit, pulled out the cork of the bottle, and poured almost all the divine water on it. Chapter 476 Chapter 476: Chapter 16 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When the bard told adventure stories, he liked to describe the adventurer and the evil monster in three hundred rounds of fierce fighting¡ªboth of them were badly hurt, and finally, both of them were exhausted. Then the adventurer thought of justice, honor, his companions, relatives in the distance and those people in need of help, and he let loose more energy to fight. He leaped forward and killed the monster with one sword under the nervous yet passionate background music. Of course, if it was a story about a knight, then the knight would always be graceful. No matter how powerful the monster was, he would be weak in front of a knight. When describing the battle, the bard also liked to play some relaxing music to prove how easy it was for the knight to win the fight. But these were just stories, and they were far from the truth. In real combat, adventurers, especially those at the mid and low levels, often fought fiercely and swiftly. On one hand, they did not have enough strength to support a long-term battle, and on the other hand, they had never met a very powerful enemy. So in the combat, they were usually cautious in action and spent a lot of time finding out what their rival wanted to do, and there would be a sudden outbreak at last to decide who the winner was. It was just like this time. The two sides had prepared and planned for the fight for a long time, and they also spent a lot of time tempting and deceiving each other, but the duration of the final combat was very little. Even if one counted from the moment when the evil spirit tried to trap the four adventurers with the illusion, the whole battle took less than one minute. If the counting started from the encounter between the evil spirit and Yue, it was just about twenty seconds. What happened in the last ten seconds was like this: the evil spirit met Yue, and Yue sent out Frozen Rays. The evil spirit was hit and rushed to her angrily, and Yue pulled out her swords to fight with him. She attracted the evil spirit¡¯s attention with two wooden swords that were slightly attractive to both the negative energy and the dead, and she performed bright, flashing magic at the same time and hit the evil spirit all of a sudden. The evil spirit was frightened, so the power of illusion was greatly weakened. Then the priest escaped from the illusion and performed the Dispersal Spell, and that successfully hit the evil spirit one more time and the illusion completely collapsed. The knight, warrior, and paladin all escaped from the illusion. The knight and the warrior restrained the movement of the evil spirit and let Yue who had been tired after casting the spell have a rest. At last, the paladin rushed over and poured the only bottle of divine water on the evil spirit. ¡°It takes more time to tell the story than to do it¡­¡± When they tried to conclude what they had done after the battle, the warrior couldn¡¯t help laughing. ¡°It¡¯s almost the most successful battle I¡¯ve ever fought.¡± ¡°Yes, especially since the enemy was powerful,¡± the paladin laughed and said. ¡°Faced with an evil spirit that was able to build an illusion, we finally won so easily, and no one got hurt. It is a miracle!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. How great it would have been if we had you as our companion before¡­¡± The priest smiled and nodded. ¡­ Yue looked around in a daze only to find that the figures of the warrior, paladin and priest were gradually blurred. The knight was getting old and eventually became a grey-haired old man, but had a better spirit. ¡°What¡¯s¡­ what¡¯s going on?¡± she asked in surprise. ¡°You¡¯ve passed the test.¡± A figure suddenly appeared behind her. She turned back immediately in horror and saw a grey-haired transparent figure standing less than three steps away from her. With his transparent body and the fluctuation of negative energy on him, he was clearly a phantom. At this moment, she was really frightened and almost threw away all her wooden swords. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see that you are frightened by me,¡± the old phantom smiled and said. ¡°You¡¯ve behaved so well before. You weren¡¯t like a little girl of this age, and that makes you unreal. Now it¡¯s much better. You look like a normal person.¡± Yue didn¡¯t know what reaction she should give now. She had defeated the evil spirit but was frightened by the old phantom that was obviously much weaker than the evil spirit. ¡°Would you like to listen to an old man to tell stories?¡± the old knight asked. ¡°My story, and the story of this castle.¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Yue smiled and nodded. ¡°But¡­ Are you real now? Or are you just an illusion?¡± ¡°There is no difference between reality and illusion for our lord as long as he wishes,¡± the old knight answered. ¡°But I am real now.¡± This was not a lie, of course. Just now, Sui Xiong found out that Yue was about to win, and so he had a new idea. He contacted one of his believers who had provided this experience in the game¡ªthe only survivor of the adventurers at that time, the knight. The knight was astonished to know that there was someone who could win that fight and asked Sui Xiong to let him talk to this outstanding girl. Sui Xiong was willing to let them meet each other, so the two of them were in a virtual environment now, but their conversation was real. The old knight praised Yue¡¯s calm and rational mind as well as her accurate judgment. He admired her a lot and praised that she would have a successful career in the future and become a great person that was highly respected by others; Yue praised the old knight after she learned that he had spent 20 years to fulfill a promise to the phantom, and she also said that he was a role model for all the knights. ¡°What happened to that castle later?¡± Yue asked curiously. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s still there,¡± the old knight said with some yearning. ¡°It has been almost sixty years since I visited the castle with the descendants of the castle¡¯s owner. If it was not well repaired and maintained, it may have collapsed. But at that time, there was a new hill lord, and perhaps he took good care of the castle.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pity that the story doesn¡¯t have a happy ending!¡± Yue said with a sigh. ¡°Generally speaking, it¡¯s not a bad ending.¡± The old knight had already let old things go with a smile. ¡°The descendants of the castle¡¯s owner lived a good life later. He was a believer of the Royal Crown (Goddess of Wealth). I had the privilege of meeting him in the exchanges between the two God¡¯s Kingdoms, and I was glad that we all had a good place to go after death.¡± ¡°But it was a pity that the castle fell into others¡¯ hands!¡± ¡°Indeed it was, but there was nothing wrong with that,¡± the old knight laughed and said. ¡°After all, nearly a hundred years have passed. The hill lord who owned the land had waited for his heir for so long, so there was nothing pitiful.¡± ¡°Is a hundred years long?¡± Yue said discontentedly. ¡°He¡¯s been waiting for a hundred years. Why couldn¡¯t he wait a few more decades?¡± The old knight laughed heartily and said, ¡°My little girl, when you grow up, you will understand that it is benevolent enough for the hill lord to spend a hundred years waiting for the heir of the castle to appear. The world of adults is not as simple as yours, and the hill lord has his pressure as well. What¡¯s more, in 100 years, the hill lord has already passed his title on for several generations. Perhaps the first hill lord was determined, and his heir had to be determined as well for they cared for the hill lord¡¯s feeling a lot. But a hundred years later, the hill lord, his sons, and even his grandchildren may all die. Who will worry about the feelings and ideas of an old man several generations ago?¡± Yue pouted unhappily. She was dissatisfied with such an ending. ¡°Thus, you have to work hard to become an immortal. Then you will stand outside of the limit of time and watch the life and death of the mortals as well as the prosperity and decline of the country. At that time, you can take time for granted.¡± The old knight smiled kindly. Then his figure faded away, and the whole castle became transparent, turning into a pure white light that made people feel warm. Yue heard a gentle voice in the pure white light. ¡°You did a good job. What kind of reward do you want?¡± Chapter 477 Chapter 477: Chapter 17 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Reward? Yue was surprised at what she had suddenly heard. Isn¡¯t this a test game to experience fear? Why is there a reward? That voice seemed able to see through her thoughts and said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯ve done a better job than I expected. So I think I should give you some rewards. What do you want?¡± Only then did Yue understand his meaning. After thinking, she suddenly realized who the voice might be and couldn¡¯t help exclaiming, ¡°Are you the Void Mask?¡± Sui Xiong, whose identity had been exposed, showed up in front of Yue. He was just a palm-sized green jellyfish, floating not far from Yue. ¡°That¡¯s right. I¡¯ve been observing every tester, hoping to find out what¡¯s not perfect about this game. These days, I¡¯ve found some problems indeed,¡± he laughed and said. ¡°This game is designed to help people face up to fear, understand what fear is and stop being frightened all the time so that they can understand that fear is a warning sign from the mind. According to the testing results, I find that although it works more or less, it is not good enough. Many testers feel nervous during the game, but they can¡¯t adapt to fear and fail to distinguish the warning signs from their illusions. It¡¯s somewhat a pity for me.¡± Yue didn¡¯t understand what he meant. After a while, she was confused. She asked directly, ¡°Then why do you want to give me a reward?¡± ¡°Because you did a great job,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°I really didn¡¯t expect someone in this world to be able to turn this fear experience game into an interesting adventure and pass all the tests. You must have heard from the people who provided the story just now that they had suffered a lot in the adventure before, and if it hadn¡¯t been for the help of a good phantom, they would have all died. But with your wisdom and planning, the adventure went on smoothly. Although there were dangerous moments, you guys successfully killed the evil spirit, and nobody was injured. It was just a game indeed, but everything was designed according to a real adventure. In other words, if you can kill the evil spirit in the game, you are surely able to lead such a group of weak adventurers to eliminate a powerful evil spirit in real life.¡± He kept nodding his head and said¡ªalthough it seemed a little weird for a jellyfish to do that. ¡°You really did a great job, and that made me show up in front of you to give you extra rewards. You deserve it.¡± ¡°Extra rewards?¡± Yue was surprised. ¡°In other words, those ordinary people are not rewarded?¡± ¡°Of course, it has already been a precious reward for them to be able to experience the adventure and have the chance to face up to fear. Now that they have gained such valuable experience, how can I reward them again?¡± Yue understood that completely. She thought about it for a while and asked, ¡°So, what reward are you going to give me?¡± Sui Xiong laughed again. ¡°You are such a smart girl! You kicked the question back to me!¡± He paused and said, ¡°In this world, although I dare not say that I can do everything, there are absolutely a few things that I can¡¯t do. As long as it¡¯s not too demanding, I can make you satisfied.¡± Now it was Yue¡¯s turn to be confused. She did not know what the standard of too demanding was. She kept thinking about it and did not know what to ask for. ¡°Your Majesty, Void Mask, if I want to be smarter, or faster, or have more powerful magic¡­ Will that be too demanding?¡± ¡°Of course not.¡± ¡°Then, if I want my parents to have more free time and can be with me more often, will that be too demanding?¡± Sui Xiong was perplexed for a moment. He thought about it for a while and shook his head. ¡°No.¡± Yue smiled happily. ¡°Then I¡¯ll take this reward!¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± Sui Xiong was somewhat puzzled and asked. ¡°It is not so easy to get my reward! Why don¡¯t you ask for something good for yourself? For example, eternal youth, powerful magic or precious treasures¡­ I can give you all of them.¡± ¡°But those things don¡¯t mean much to me,¡± Yue said with ease. ¡°It will be good to have them, but it doesn¡¯t matter if I don¡¯t. Compared with these things, I hope my parents can accompany me more often, and that is what I want most.¡± Sui Xiong looked at her carefully. The girl was clear in her heart, and she didn¡¯t hide any intentions. What she had said was true. He couldn¡¯t help sighing softly. ¡°Since you want your parents¡¯ company so much, why do you often quarrel with them when you are with them?¡± Yue looked down. ¡°I don¡¯t mean to do that, but¡­ When I think of them leaving me so soon to be busy with their work, and nobody knows when we¡¯ll meet each again, I can¡¯t help acting indocile¡­¡± ¡°Alas!¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°I understand you, but you shouldn¡¯t act like that!¡± ¡°Then what should I do?¡± asked Yue. ¡°You needn¡¯t ask me about that. Instead, you can ask some older people about that.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and then became serious. ¡°Let me reconfirm. Do you really want to use this rare reward to make your parents less busy so as to accompany you more? Don¡¯t answer me in a hurry. I want to remind you that you are fifteen years old this year. You will grow up in five or six years at most. When you are in your twenties, you will surely join society on your own. At that time, even if your parents want to accompany you, you will also hope that they don¡¯t hold you too tightly, and you will want some space of your own. Then in the next ten or twenty years, you will have a family and start a career. You will also have your own children. Will you still want your parents to accompany you at that time? Of course, your parents are legendary masters, and it¡¯s not difficult for them to live eight hundred or even a thousand years. Maybe in the future, when your hair turns grey, they will be as young and beautiful as they are now. Are you sure you want them to be with you all the time?¡± Yue was shaken by what Sui Xiong said. She bowed her head and thought about it carefully. ¡°Little girl, your life is still very long, but there will not be much time for you to spend with your parents. Instead of using this good reward that may happen just once in your life to solve the current problem, why not think about the future?¡± Yue nodded slightly and felt touched by his words. ¡°Look at nature, the birds or other animals; when they grow up, they have to live independently. Of course, people are no exception. Why don¡¯t you choose a reward that will help a lot in the future?¡± Yue didn¡¯t say anything. Sui Xiong wanted to continue persuading her, but this time she interrupted him at the beginning. ¡°Your Majesty, Void Mask, would you please be quiet for a while?¡± she said unhappily. ¡°Don¡¯t keep talking so much. I¡¯m annoyed by what you said.¡± Sui Xiong smiled embarrassingly and pretended like nothing had happened. So there was no voice in the white light. There was only a girl with her head bowed pondering there, facing the green jellyfish floating silently in front of her. After a long while, Yue looked up, and her eyes were clear. ¡°You¡¯re right. I see,¡± she said. ¡°My vision was really too short. I have to look far into the future!¡± Sui Xiong smiled and nodded, but he felt a little sorry. He felt that he had done something uncouth. ¡°What is your decision?¡± he asked. ¡°What reward do you want?¡± Yue smiled. Instead of answering that directly, she asked a question. ¡°Your Majesty, Void Mask, I¡¯m wondering if you know that my parents are not your followers.¡± ¡°Of course. I know that your mother believes in the Goddess of Wealth and your father believes in the Goddess of Fortune,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°Although they are not particularly pious believers, both of them are legendary masters that have unlimited bright prospects and enjoy high positions in their churches respectively. I don¡¯t know about the Goddess of Fortune, but the Goddess of Wealth talked to me about your mother before.¡± Yue nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. According to the god¡¯s rules, generally speaking, a god will only bless his followers, right?¡± ¡°Yes, very few gods will bless those who do not believe in them.¡± ¡°Well, then I want to use my reward to exchange your blessings for my parents, and I want you to bless them as your followers. Is that alright?¡± Yue asked nervously. ¡°Is that too demanding?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised again. This time, he kept still for a long time before he said, ¡°Of course, it isn¡¯t. But why do you ask for that?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s reply made Yue very happy, so she smiled happily and said, ¡°After all, I¡¯m just an ordinary person. I¡¯m not sure whether I can enter the Legendary Realm or not in the future. If I can¡¯t, then I will probably live a life for several decades, at most two or three hundred years. However, both of my parents are legendary masters, and they can live for at least a thousand years, or even longer. You just advised me to take a long view. I thought about it carefully and tried to look as far as possible. Then I realized what I should choose. As you said, this kind of good luck might only appear once in my life. Then should I use it on myself who can only live for decades to two or three hundred years, or should I use it for my parents who can live for at least a thousand years? It¡¯s clear at a glance.¡± ¡°But then you won¡¯t get any benefit for yourself,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I hope I can do something for my parents,¡± Yue replied. ¡°The principal once taught us a poem wrote by a bard. Its name was Space-travel, and it mainly talked about parents¡¯ care and love for their children. The parents never asked for repayments for their efforts, and the children seldom had a way to pay them back properly¡­ I was thinking at that time¡ªwhat can I do for my parents? But it was just like the poem said; even if I did something, it wouldn¡¯t be enough to pay back their kindness to me. I was really sad that day, and for several days afterwards, I was in a bad mood.¡± ¡°So you decided to give them this award?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Yes, I want to do something for my parents, and that¡¯s all,¡± Yue nodded and answered with a smile. Sui Xiong was silent for a moment and nodded slightly. At this moment, he felt very comfortable and warm in his heart. ¡°You are a good girl,¡± he said. ¡°Rest assured. I will make your wish come true. By the way, you haven¡¯t decided which god to believe in, have you?¡± He thought about it, smiled and said, ¡°Well, believe in me.¡± Chapter 478 Chapter 478: Chapter 18 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After a while, the cylindrical cabin made a ringing sound like a bell, telling people around that the game was coming to an end. The clergymen in charge of the operation immediately came over, and Clito, who had been worried all the time, came to the forefront. Then, the protective fluid in the cabin was slowly absorbed, and the breathing mask on Yue¡¯s face was folded up. The door of the cabin rose slowly, and the whole cabin tilted a little so that Yue could come out easily. Her eyelashes moved slightly, and then she opened her eyes. Her mind was somewhat blank at first, but soon, she regained consciousness. ¡°What an interesting experience!¡± she smiled and said. ¡°If it can be popularized, there will be a lot of people addicted to it all day!¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡± Klein shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s very expensive. Besides, to make sure it could function well, it needs to be placed in His Majesty¡¯s divine temple or his altar. Thus, it can¡¯t be popularized.¡± Obviously, he had already inquired about it in detail before, so now he was full of regret. ¡°I asked whether it would be possible to build an altar in my own house before, and the answer was no. The game cabin needs an altar that is presided over by a clergyman and can offer daily sacrificial activities.¡± ¡°You¡¯re very rich. What¡¯s so difficult for you to recruit a clergyman and offer sacrifices every day?¡± Clito asked curiously as he watched his wife and daughter go to the dressing room with the clergyman to change their clothes. ¡°Come on! It¡¯s not that simple!¡± Klein said with a bitter laugh. ¡°I¡¯m living here in Garth City. There is already a divine temple of His Majesty¡¯s, and it is presided over by the Archbishop. Am I going to build another one here? It is definitely impossible.¡± After that, Clito understood the whole thing and couldn¡¯t help laughing. ¡°Then why don¡¯t you move to another place?¡± he asked. ¡°The environment in Garth City is very good, and I¡¯m used to living here. If I move to another place, I¡¯ll feel uncomfortable.¡± Klein sighed. ¡°My current plan is to be a clergyman. Then I¡¯ll buy a game cabin with my bald brother and put it in the divine temple, and then¡­ haha, you know¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like that nickname!¡± Egil, a bald man, frowned and gave Klein a punch. He behaved like a rude guy, but his fist was not powerful at all. It caused no pain to Klein. ¡°But you are indeed bareheaded.¡± Egil sighed helplessly. He was too lazy to argue with this fellow, so he just picked up a blank survey report and waited there, looking in the direction of the dressing room. After a while, Asner came out with Yue, who had changed her clothes. Egil immediately walked towards them and asked, ¡°How are you feeling now? Would you like to give some comments? All opinions and suggestions are welcomed.¡± Yue thought about it carefully and said, ¡°The game is easy. It¡¯s good enough to be an adventure experience, but it¡¯s not so scary. Anyway, I didn¡¯t feel scared at all, except for when I was finally frightened by a phantom that had suddenly appeared behind me.¡± ¡°A phantom?!¡± She spoke with ease, but her mother was really shocked and asked, ¡°Are you okay? Were there any dangers? Did you get injured? Is there anything wrong with you now?¡± Yue hadn¡¯t expected that her careless answer would make her mother so nervous to ask a lot of questions in a row, and Yue shook her head in a hurry. ¡°No, nothing! Mom, you are thinking too much now! It¡¯s just a game. It¡¯s not real!¡± Asner felt relaxed after hearing that and then realized that she had overacted and could not help but blush. But she still looked at her daughter with concern and felt worry in her heart. Just now, Asner had suddenly felt something happened in the dark, but the feeling was quickly gone, and she didn¡¯t know what that was. So when she heard her daughter say that a phantom had appeared behind her, she immediately had a horrible scene in her mind. That made her overact just now. People were easily anxious when they were concerned about something or somebody, and it was true even for the legendary masters. Later, Yue began to share her game experience in detail. When heard that she had turned the fear experience game into an adventure game and that she had won the battle easily, Egil, holding a pen and paper in one hand and scratching his bald head with the other, did not know what to say. During these days, there had been hundreds of players participating in the test, and most of them had described the game with words such as interesting, horrible or meaningful; and some of them had said it was too horrible and suggested to make it less difficult. There were also some who said that the game was too easy or boring. All of them were retired adventurers or trained adventurers. But she was the only one that had played the game in a different and interesting way. Yue did not tell others that at last Sui Xiong had appeared and allowed her to make a wish, so Egil could only think about how to write the test report based on what she had said. Compared with Klein, who was mainly responsible for communicating with the testers, Egil had to do something more serious and boring because of his better educational experience and less handsome appearance. He was dissatisfied with it, but he could do nothing. He was born this way. Who could he blame? After talking to Egil in detail, Yue finished her game test. Holding a souvenir¡ªa green jellyfish toy¡ªshe continued to play in the Void Mask Land with her parents, and they were all very happy. She had always been at odds with her parents before, but today she seemed particularly gentle, and that made Clito very happy. He said several times that his child grew up and became sensible now. In the air, the invisible Sui Xiong looked at them and could not help smiling. It wasn¡¯t that Yue suddenly grew up and became sensible, but that when he had talked to her just now, he influenced her thoughts with his Divine Power. Usually, children will have great contradictions with their parents when they were about to grow up or after they just became adults. This was the so-called rebellious phase. How did it happen? How should one deal with it? It was an important subject in both psychology and pedagogy. Sui Xiong knew nothing about it. Besides some animations with the theme of such rebellious teenagers that he had read when he did some illustrations, he had no knowledge of this phase at all. Sui Xiong himself had never experienced the rebellious phase. When he was a teenager, his parents had been busy with business and had seldom been at home all year round. He had also been living with his grandparents until he graduated from college and found a job. And after he settled down, he made the space-travel here. However, that didn¡¯t mean he could not help. It was nothing to influence Yue with his Divine Power and give her a hint that she should be gentle and obedient to her parents. It was simple, very simple! The effect of this hint could maintain for more than a decade, and after that, Yue would have grown up and passed the rebellious phase naturally. Looking at the happy family in the Void Mask Land, Sui Xiong touched his chin with his tentacles. ¡°Perhaps I should develop some magic that has no fighting effect but can improve people¡¯s lives effectively.¡± He thought about it carefully with his head down. A moment later, he came up with several interesting ideas. Chapter 479 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Are you talking about creating some new magic to improve people¡¯s living standard?¡± In the hall of the Sanctuary, Ariel, the Goddess of Ocean, who was the best talented in magic, pondered for a moment and nodded with a smile. ¡°It¡¯s a good idea. Improving the living standards of the believers will help maintain their beliefs and strengthen their power. When they become powerful, they can promote the expansion of the beliefs, and that will finally lead to a virtuous cycle.¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that. He had never expected something like that, but he was relieved after thinking. Only with goals could people have motivation, and only with benefits could people have enthusiasm. If his idea could benefit the people as well as his friends, wouldn¡¯t that be the best result? ¡°Yes,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°So I think we can work together to sum up what troubles people have in their lives that can be solved simply by magic, and then create some magic correspondingly.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea.¡± Yorgaardman, the God of Justice who always wore shabby clothes, shook his head and showed his disagreement. ¡°Spell-casting is a very difficult thing, and it takes a lot of time and resources to train the spellcasters. Thus, if it is just to solve some nonurgent problems, it will be a waste to spend so many resources.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s better than to not solve the problems,¡± Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, said. ¡°It¡¯s better to have a solution than to not.¡± ¡°You¡¯re too naive.¡± Yorgaardman sighed. ¡°You see, the resources of training the spellcasters are mainly controlled by three forces now. The first and largest one is religion. However, the gods are antagonistic towards each other. Besides preaching religion, the spell-casting ability of the clergymen is mainly consumed in a meaningless confrontation between gods. Thus, there are few resources that they can spare.¡± Seeing that everyone nodded slightly, he went on saying, ¡°The second one is aristocracy. The spellcaster consumes a lot of money, so usually, only those nobles and business families can afford that. When businessmen acquire the ability of spell-casting, they will mostly seek aristocratic identities. Similarly, many spellcasters who were scholars and adventurers before also prefer to become aristocrats. For example, there are a large number of spellcasters settled in the Mifata Federation, but as long as they reach mid-level, almost all of them will be nobility.¡± ¡°But the nobles do not care about the lives of the civilians. Although there are some outstanding and honest men like the late Baron Keane, most of them are still hostile to civilians. There was some magic that could help improve people¡¯s living standard in the past, and the nobles mastered a lot of these spells. But did they use these spells to benefit the civilians? They have never thought about it at all!¡± All the gods sighed with gloom. ¡°The last one is the adventurers. They are very strong, but they are like sand and don¡¯t have even the most basic organization. They may be a powerful force in destruction, but if it¡¯s for construction, they can¡¯t help. Not to mention other aspects, how can the adventurers who have always pursued freedom settle down for a long time and work for ordinary people? Do you have any idea?¡± The gods thought about it for a moment. They looked at each other and shook their heads. Yorgaardman talked a lot in one breath and finally took up his glass and poured a lot of wine into his mouth. ¡°Generally speaking, after we create the new spells, it will not help improve people¡¯s living standards but will become a tool for the nobles to enjoy themselves.¡± He had spoken quite reasonably, and everyone couldn¡¯t help but fall deep into thought. To talk about the understanding of human society, none of the gods could know as much as Yorgaardman. He was not only born at the bottom of human society, but he also always walked around in the appearance of a mortal. He saw too much of the joys and sorrows of the mortals as well as the good and evil in the human world. All the gods on the spot together couldn¡¯t know more about the world than he did. If he believed that the magic to improve people¡¯s living standards would only serve as a tool for the nobles to enjoy themselves, then that would probably happen. However, Sui Xiong still wanted to try. He felt that magic, like technology on earth, would never have any vitality if it served only a few people. If he wanted to usher in a great development of magic and to further promote the progress of the whole society, he should let the power of magic serve the public and popularize it. But Yorgaardman was right. Talent and resources were required if one wanted to learn magic. It was like two high thresholds, ruthlessly shutting out the vast majority of ordinary people from magic and made it impossible for them to enjoy the benefits of it. Correspondingly, why should people who had crossed these two thresholds condescend to serve ordinary people? How was this kind of problem solved on earth? Sui Xiong thought about it carefully and tried to find a solution. On earth, not to mention those backward areas, in the relatively advanced and developed areas, almost everyone had to learn scientific knowledge. But in fact, for the vast majority of people, what they learned was still far from the scientific front. For example, Sui Xiong was a college student, and he had studied for 16 years from primary school to university. But the scientific knowledge he had learned just belonged to the mainstream level of society. If he wanted to do scientific research with what he had learned¡­ Look at how many times he had tried to produce a blast furnace and how many times it exploded and failed; one would know that there was still a long way for him to go. So, on the earth, how did people solve the problem when they couldn¡¯t keep up the pace with science? The vast majority of people on earth did not have the ability to transform science into productivity, but they could still enjoy the convenience of science without obstacles. What was the key? Sui Xiong frowned and thought about it hard. On earth, when technology first appeared, it was also used as a tool for enjoyment by a few millionaires and nobles, wasn¡¯t it? I remember that there is an idiom in China to describe this¡­ I don¡¯t know about what people do in Europe, but we are all humans that have two eyes and one mouth, two arms, and two legs. There shouldn¡¯t be much of a difference. Then, when did science and technology begin to be used by the public in large quantities? At this moment, Sui Xiong regretted that he had not studied history well. If he had been a master of history, he could have solved this kind of problem easily. Then no matter if it were science and technology or governmental affairs, it would have been a piece of cake for him! Alas! Why was he an artist student? What was the use of art at this moment? Even on earth, the Renaissance was supported by businessmen! Wait! The Renaissance?! Businessmen?! Sui Xiong suddenly had an idea in his mind, and this sudden inspiration made him thank himself for not skipping class to play games when he was studying art history. I remember! The key to the popularization of science and technology is also businessmen or the capital! When we were in class, we were taught that the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution were the results of the development of a capitalist society to a certain extent and the destruction of the old feudal system! God! I have to thank Professor Cheng, who looks a bit like a famous movie star. He always liked to talk about something else when he talked about art history. At that time, I only thought his words were interesting. When I recall what he said now, it was actually the crystallization of the painstaking efforts of scholars of all dynasties! Unfortunately, the professor didn¡¯t talk about how to make a blast furnace. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh quietly, and he had a plan in mind. ¡°I really need your help this time, Manissy,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You have the most businessmen in your followers, and we all know that businessmen always pursue profits. As long as we can let them find some new profit points, coupled with the promotion of your church, I think it is hopeful to make the magic work well.¡± Manissy looked at him in confusion. ¡°I know that businessmen always pursue profits, but why do you think businessmen can shoulder such a heavy responsibility? They have always made a living depending on the aristocrats. Even if they become rich and powerful, they will only choose to become new aristocrats.¡± She sighed while saying that. ¡°In the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, wealth symbolizes the social status. But the millionaires still spend a lot of money and time to seek the chance to become aristocrats. Having wealth alone is not enough for them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because becoming an aristocrat can always bring them privileges. No matter how rich a businessman is, wealth can¡¯t bring him enough power,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°This problem can be solved gradually. What we need to do now is to create magic that can not only improve people¡¯s lives but also bring enough profits to businessmen.¡± He turned to look at everyone. ¡°The threshold of this kind of magic should not be too high, otherwise it will be meaningless. The cost should not be too high, or it will be difficult to make a profit from the civilians. As for the rest, we have to take the control.¡± ¡°Yes, there is no limit for the businessmen to pursue profit, so their activity needs to be restricted by law.¡± The God of Law nodded first. ¡°We should also strengthen the supervision to avoid the nullity of the law.¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s better to control this magic in the direction of good magic,¡± Yorgaardman said. ¡°Good clergymen are the most reliable force, and if we can control the magic in this direction, it can directly eliminate many dangerous elements and avoid many potential troubles.¡± ¡°Last but not least,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said confidently, ¡°we should strictly control the use of this magic. We are not going to blindly promote it on a large scale but popularize it bit by bit. Let¡¯s start from the Republic of Northwest. There is no aristocratic power there, so we can avoid the interference to the greatest extent.¡± At this moment, he remembered many of the earth¡¯s sages as well as some famous arguments. ¡°In the future, if we have any new ideas, we may also choose a small area to try these ideas first. This area will be called the ¡®Special Administrative Region.''¡± The gods looked at each other and nodded. Thus, everything was settled. Chapter 480 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Seek ideas of magic that can improve people¡¯s living standards?¡± Wood, the famous sculptor of Pyroxene Town, looked at the new announcement. ¡°What does that mean?¡± Usually, there was a clergyman from the Church of Void Mask standing next to the notice board, and he was responsible for explaining the news to people. Hearing Wood¡¯s question, the clergyman explained it in detail with a smile. ¡°His Majesty, the Void Mask intends to use the power of magic to improve people¡¯s living standards, so now he asks people for opinions. He wants everyone to think about what magic can help.¡± A few minutes later, Wood was on the way to the workshop while murmuring. He was somewhat a celebrity in Pyroxene Town and had his own workshop. Since sculptures didn¡¯t need a large space, his workshop was not big. His main work was to make some wood carvings that were full of the characteristics of Pyroxene Town and the Northwest Republic, and that could fully reflect the pioneering culture here. These wood carvings would be sent to the Void Mask Land and would be sold to tourists from various places. Depending on different sizes and sophistication, the price would be different. The cheap ones would be about five silver coins, and the expensive one would be about twenty gold coins. For every wood carving sold, Wood, the producer, would get half of the money, and the rest went to the transporter and retailer. There was no need to pay tax because it had been paid during the store¡¯s operation. It was not allowed to charge tax twice on the same good. Payment was made once a month at the end of the month. All Wood had to do was to look for the proper wood and carve it into a wood carving. There was no request for quantity. It would be good if he could make more, and it wouldn¡¯t matter if he made less. In a word, he was the boss. Wood was not so busy with this job, but he was well paid. Thus, many people admired him a lot. Over these years, many old people came to visit him and wanted to introduce some girls in the town that were waiting to be married to him. But Wood refused them. He said there was someone he liked a lot. ¡°If there is someone you like, why don¡¯t you get married soon?¡± Grandma Stinna, who had a good relationship with him, heard about that and went to him. ¡°You¡¯re famous now. As a master of sculpture in the Republic of Northwest and an artist who extols life with a knife, you are popular in the upper class of the Main Plane now. With your current identity, even if your sweetheart is the daughter of a noble family, you can still be confident to go to her house and make a proposal!¡± Grandma Stinna didn¡¯t know the real condition of Wood. She just thought that he admired a girl that had a higher position than him, so she persuaded him like that. Wood could only laugh bitterly but did not reply. Sweetheart? What sweetheart!? Who had ever heard of a spy having a sweetheart? How could a spy love a girl or be loved? That would be like looking for death! However, he was also touched by her words. During these years, although he had achieved little in his career as a spy, he had made great progress in sculpture. With his current status and fortune, it was really necessary for him to get married. If he kept on being single, others would feel weird about him, and that would attract others¡¯ attention. More importantly, he really liked life in Pyroxene Town now. Life was smooth and safe here, and that made him feel relaxed. If he could live here for a lifetime, get married and start a career, have his own children and grandchildren¡ªthat would be really wonderful. In his opinion, this new town was the most suitable place to live in this world; it was the place that he had been looking for. If he hadn¡¯t sworn to be loyal to the Mifata Federation, he perhaps would have been an honest citizen of the Republic of Northwest. However, as a spy, having a family was something he tried to avoid. Among all the possible dangers, the most difficult one for a spy to guard against was always in his home. Even the best spy could hardly fool his wife that slept beside him. If he really got married, he didn¡¯t know how troublesome his life would be! After sending Grandma Stinna away, he pondered for a long time alone. Finally, he chose to write his current situation in a recent report and send it back to the Mifata Federation through the secret channel. A spy was also a soldier. As a soldier, he should obey his commander¡¯s order. Since he couldn¡¯t make the decision, he¡¯d better ask his superiors about it. Over these years, he had been sincere in doing his job and had collected plenty of information. Even if he had no merit, he had been working hard enough. He hoped that his superiors could understand his difficulties and make up a reason for him to avoid others¡¯ doubt. Certainly, it would be better to send a female spy to form a family with him, and that could not only improve his work efficiency but also become the best cover-up for him. Moreover, he really wanted to have a family. He was not young anymore. If he couldn¡¯t build a family now, it would be too late for him. Watching the postman who had disguised as a special timber merchant leave, Wood sighed secretly and returned to his workshop. But he did not know that shortly after the postman left, the information hidden in a wood carving was delivered to the Great Governor, Felix. ¡°These worthless things again¡­¡± Felix looked at the information and shook her head. ¡°Over these years, he¡¯s sent nothing valuable except a few defense maps back to his country.¡± ¡°It¡¯s inevitable,¡± Asner, laughed and said. She had become Felix¡¯s assistant again and had also persuaded her husband to be a governor. ¡°There are many secrets in our republic. As a wood carving artist, it is impossible for him to have access to those core secrets. Over the years, he has actually done a good job.¡± ¡°Yes, but unfortunately, his intelligence is not very useful. What?¡± Felix exclaimed and laughed. ¡°This guy wants to get married. According to him, he seemingly wants the Mifata Federation to send someone to be his wife.¡± Asner approached curiously, looked at the intelligence and frowned slowly. ¡°It¡¯s a bit troublesome¡­¡± ¡°Troublesome?¡± Felix was confused for a moment and then understood. ¡°You mean that his superiors might be dissatisfied with him and take some action against him?¡± ¡°Yes. Generally speaking, the intelligence he sent back over the years is of little value. His superiors must have been dissatisfied with his low efficiency long ago. Taking advantage of this opportunity, they are likely to send a much fiercer spy to preside over the intelligence work,¡± Asner frowned and said. ¡°Wood is a spy, but he has a good character. We¡¯ve always wanted to win him over to our side and let him really join the republic. Judging from his performance over the years, I think it¡¯s possible for us to do that. But if there is another spy coming, things will be different, and most probably they will change into the direction that we don¡¯t want to see.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s the case, why don¡¯t¡­¡± With a flash of cold light in Felix¡¯s eyes, she made a gesture as cutting a knife. ¡°I don¡¯t think we need to be in such a hurry,¡± Asner sighed, shook her head and said. ¡°After all, it¡¯s not yet the time to kill others. To be honest, these spies that have been working for the Mifata Federation are quite respectable. After all, I don¡¯t want to turn the Mifata Federation into our enemy now.¡± ¡°Will the Mifata Federation be our enemy for the deaths of a few spies? Those politicians are ruthless!¡± Although saying that, Felix still started to restore the information and put it back into the wood carving. Later, exactly the same wood carving was returned to the merchant who was traveling slowly towards the South. A few days later, it was sent to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins and then to the Mifata Federation by another merchant who was engaged in shipping. The whole process was smooth without any flaws. Yes, even the spies did not find out that the intelligence had already been checked at the desk of a Great Governor in the Republic of Northwest. Chapter 481 Chapter 481: Chapter 21 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Similar to that on the earth, all countries in this world attached great importance to intelligence work. For example, there was a group of scouts called the Eyes of Sky in the Eagle Kingdom and the Duchy of Griffon. These scouts were able to ride demon beasts that could fly in the sky and conceal their figures and breaths with magic. They always hid between the clouds so as to spy on other countries¡¯ situation. While in the Mifata Federation, there was a giant, magic pond, and countless mages temporarily stored their magic power inside it for future use. The government of the federation could use the great amount of magic power in the pond to cast extremely high-level spells so as to collect secret intelligence that was impossible to get through normal channels. As for the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, they preferred to enlarge their channel widely by gathering intelligence from all the merchants and vendors, and then a group of smart and capable intelligence officers had to read plenty of information every day to sort out what they needed from countless fragments of words. The Republic of Northwest was just founded, and its intelligence services were limited in manpower and resources. Therefore, they had to make up the shortage of resources with high-quality intelligence. With little manpower, they had to ignore those simple things and invest the limited manpower into important things. For example, the one that took Wood¡¯s information away from the spies and sent it back later was Clito, the deputy director of the Fishing and Hunting Resources Investigation Office of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Northwest. Clito didn¡¯t want to do this job because it was out of his realm. However, he was somewhat obedient to his wife, so when his wife stared at him, he immediately agreed and left, murmuring, ¡°You have to pay me for overtime.¡± Clito was a legendary master now. He had been able to marry the daughter of a marquis without her parents¡¯ permission and take her away when his power had been at the mid-level, so now it was a piece of cake for him to do this job. Although he was unwilling, he completed the mission very well without anyone¡¯s attention. About two months later, the officials in the Federal Intelligence Service of Mifata Federation received Wood¡¯s intelligence. For intelligence work, it was amazingly slow to deliver the information in two months. In this field, magic communication was used in most cases. Although it was expensive and inefficient, it was faster. Fast, that was enough. Intelligence was all about accuracy, secrecy, and speed. The first two might depend on luck. Even if the best intelligence personnel were sent out, they couldn¡¯t make sure that the intelligence they finally got was accurate and secret. Only the speed could be guaranteed since what it required was money. Other countries might have a headache in finding a group of high- and middle-ranking mages willing to serve them, but things were different for the Mifata Federation. It was the holy land of magic in the whole Main Plane! Would there be a shortage of mages here? Since they had enough manpower, the only problem that remained was money. But would money be a problem for such a big country? Therefore, the intelligence work of the Mifata Federation had always been the best. Even if something happened on other planes, as long as it had a close relationship with the Mifata Federation, the intelligence would be sent to the intelligence agencies for reference and research within a day or two after it happened. However, no matter how rich the Mifata Federation was, people there didn¡¯t like to spend money on useless things. Thus, only valuable and important information could be delivered. This kind of information was always delivered by magic and had to be sent back to the federation as soon as possible. Wood¡¯s intelligence was initially able to enjoy this treatment, especially when he found the defense map of Pyroxene Town. That time, his intelligence had made his superiors very satisfied, and he had been praised for that as well. But his good treatment didn¡¯t last long. As time passed by, there was less and less valuable information from Wood, so his treatment was getting worse and worse. Now, the intelligence he sent out was labeled as the least urgent. It was delivered through the same channel as civilian information, and the only difference was that his information had to be delivered secretly. Wood knew nothing about that. He only knew that his country needed him to lurk in the central area of other countries to constantly collect all kinds of information and send them back. Perhaps, he had to stay here for his whole life; perhaps he had to be ready to fight when it was necessary. In short, he was a pin on the machine of the vast Mifata Federation. No, he was far less important. He was probably just a handful of soil in the farmland or a glass of water in the pond, that was all. But even if he was just like a handful of soil or a glass of water, he was very conscientious in fulfilling his duty and dared not to be careless even once. Unfortunately, his superiors did not think so. ¡°These worthless things again¡­ Wood, that fellow seems to have something else on his mind.¡± It took the director of the intelligence service about half a minute to read Wood¡¯s information, even faster than Felix did. Then he frowned, tapped his finger on the table and began to think about what to do next. After a while, he made up his mind and asked the herald to issue an order. Within three minutes, a very ordinary looking middle-aged man, who was like a drop of water in the sea when he walked on the street among the crowd, walked in. ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with the spy No. 97,¡± the director said. ¡°Get ready for the replacement program.¡± The middle-aged man tried to recall who this spy was, and a moment later, he remembered the identity and duty of No. 97. He said with a frown, ¡°He has taken root in the Republic of Northwest, and it is hopeful for him to get into the upper class in the future. It¡¯s a pity to replace him now.¡± The director shook his head and said, ¡°He is not loyal to us anymore. He hasn¡¯t sent back a valuable piece of information in the past three years.¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just because he¡¯s cautious?¡± the middle-aged man said. ¡°At that time, in order to complete his mission successfully, he even completely gave up his high-level power. Would such a man betray us? It¡¯s unlikely for him to do that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what you say, but the fact is that he¡¯s changed his mind.¡± Instead of explaining his meaning in detail, the director waved his hand and said, ¡°Get ready for it. We have to keep that information station.¡± The middle-aged man was speechless for a moment, and then he left with a sigh. It was a soldier¡¯s duty to obey the commander¡¯s order, even if he disagreed with it and thought it was ridiculous. He had made his suggestion, and it was not taken. Then there was nothing that he could do. After returning to his room, this middle-aged man was silent for a long time before he said to his assistant, ¡°Are there any female spies with certain artistic knowledge recently? I need one that is able to perform a long-term task, and she can¡¯t be too old or too young.¡± His assistant thought for a moment and wrote down several names. ¡°Arrange a special training in sculpture for them, and search for the detailed information of spy No. 97,¡± the middle-aged man said. ¡°After training, choose the one that has the most stable performance to disguise as No. 97¡¯s wife, and send her to Pyroxene Town.¡± The assistant nodded and wrote it down, then asked casually, ¡°Do you need it done urgently?¡± ¡°No.¡± After several thoughts, the middle-aged man showed something different in his eyes. ¡°The training should be more detailed and reliable, and no mistakes will be allowed. This spy is to replace No. 97, so the training has to be at a high standard.¡± The assistant immediately understood that, and he smiled slightly, nodded and left. After he left, the middle-aged man thought carefully for a while, shook his head and frowned tightly. ¡°How can this be?¡± He muttered, ¡°This is totally unreasonable¡­¡± ¡­ At this moment, there came a magician in a black robe to the director¡¯s office. ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with one of my spies,¡± the director said indifferently. ¡°I¡¯m going to send someone to replace him, so you have to prepare for it well. By then, I¡¯m going to make him die as if he drank too much. You have to make sure no one finds the truth.¡± The magician in a black robe did not say anything; he nodded silently. ¡°What a pity! If I had known that he was unreliable, I would have fed him to a witch. Maybe he can help cultivate a witch for us,¡± the director said with some regret, and then started another topic. ¡°How many witches are available at present?¡± ¡°Six,¡± the magician answered with his old, hoarse and weak voice. ¡°That¡¯s too little!¡± ¡°It is troublesome to cultivate a witch, while it is easy to lose one.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Because the witch works very well.¡± The intelligence director smiled, but there was nothing good in that smile. ¡°Speed up the training.¡± ¡°It is difficult to obtain the materials needed to cultivate a witch because it needs authorization.¡± The director sneered. ¡°It¡¯s useless to talk about that. I can¡¯t give you this authorization. You need materials? Find them your own way! I won¡¯t give you any promises. On the contrary, if something goes wrong, I won¡¯t admit it or take responsibility, either. Do you think that I don¡¯t know about you evil magic researchers? You just want me to take responsibility for you in various ways! Don¡¯t even think about it!¡± The director¡¯s face turned as cold as ice. ¡°No.97 is much better than you both in seniority and power, but I can replace him whenever it is necessary. It¡¯s the same for you.¡± The magician didn¡¯t say anything again. ¡°Get ready. I¡¯ll let you know when I need you.¡± The director waved his hand as if he were driving flies away. ¡°Don¡¯t try to fight for anything. If there is something good available for you, I¡¯ll give it to you naturally. Now you are a soldier, not a businessman, so don¡¯t bargain with me¡ªthis is my last reminder, do you understand?¡± The magician didn¡¯t reply. He bowed his head to say goodbye, turned away and left. After he left, the director began to tap his finger on the desktop slightly again and got lost in his thoughts. This time, he was thinking about other issues, as for the spy named Wood¡­ A useless spy was no longer worth even a second from him. Wood had no idea that his fate was being determined by several conversations in an office thousands of miles away. Chapter 482 Chapter 482: Chapter 22 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°This one? Is it too¡­ simple?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Looking at the gray-white box, Sui Xiong frowned. Arcaian said, sighing, ¡°In a month, this one is the most reliable one among the submitted ideas.¡± Sui Xiong gently pressed the box with his tentacles. The box opened, and there was no cold air inside. It was just at a normal temperature. This surprised Sui Xiong a little, so he asked, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t it use a cryogenic refrigeration method?¡± ¡°It¡¯s difficult to use a cryogenic refrigeration method on a large scale, and the storage time and storage costs are much higher,¡± Arcaian answered. At the same time, he took out a delicate silver-white box. ¡°This is a refrigerated box that is used to store high-end foods. It is worth about 500 gold coins. Even people with high incomes are generally only willing to rent one. It can save food for about two days. However, in fact, after a day, the taste of the food will obviously go worse.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. The silver-white box was very delicate, but it had a simple construction. It consisted of the outer shell, the insulation layer, and the ice trays inside. After the food was put in, the food was equivalent to being stored in an ice house, so the food could naturally be preserved for a long time. ¡°There are also some high-end refrigerated boxes. They use spells to lower the temperature inside the boxes. At the lowest temperature, ice can stay frozen for a long time,¡± Arcaian said, ¡°but the cost is even higher. The cheapest ones are worth thousands of gold coins. Moreover, magic crystals inside work as an energy source. They need to be replaced regularly. It was a real luxury. Anyway, I have lived for so long, but I only saw it in person recently because of the investigation.¡± Sui Xiong nodded gently. He understood the actual situation of the ¡°refrigeration¡± technology in this world. In terms of technology, the level was quite high. As for a promotion, it was sh*t. ¡°In contrast, this new idea of a preservation box is completely different. It uses spells to sterilize the food, and it can kill all bacteria or fungi that can rot and degrade food. Moreover, it can keep food fresh for a longer period of time without lowering the temperature,¡± Arcaian said. ¡°I never thought about it. My research can be used in this area!¡± This kind of preservation box was invented by an assistant of Arcaian before Arcaian became a god. That mid-level mage was very curious about Arcaian¡¯s research, so he had been learning from Arcaian. However, unlike Arcaian, his main research direction was ¡°how to eliminate bacteria and fungi¡± and what happened if they were eliminated. Over the years, he had been quietly studying this and enjoying himself in the research. If Sui Xiong didn¡¯t issue the oracle this time, he might continue to study like that and never consider an actual application. ¡°Is he a theoretical scholar?¡± Sui Xiong asked after reading the inventor¡¯s information. He couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°Roller. This name is quite familiar.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with this name? It¡¯s very common. Have you heard of any big man who owns the same name?¡± Arcaian asked curiously. Sui Xiong shook his head. He couldn¡¯t tell Arcaian that he had read a set of science fiction books when he had been a child, and Roller was the name of the author. But at this time, he couldn¡¯t help but come up with an idea. By the way, in this world, there are only fantasy novels, but there are no science fiction novels. Why don¡¯t I write a few science fiction novels? It was no doubt that Time Travel, the famous bard who never appeared in public, would publish new work. As a friend of Arcaian, Roller changed his faith and became Arcaian¡¯s believer after Arcaian became a god. As one of the few high-level believers of the God of Medicine, he had been contacted by Arcaian. Arcaian had talked with him about ¡°collecting magical ideas that would improve people¡¯s living standards.¡± Roller had thought for a while and had made this preservation box. After listening to the introduction, Sui Xiong asked wonderingly, ¡°So easy?¡± ¡°Almost,¡± Arcaian said happily. ¡°He has accumulated enough, so it¡¯s natural that he can gain an achievement. He just didn¡¯t think about turning his research results into practical things before.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and then studied the preservation box carefully. The box didn¡¯t pursue a strong insulation effect, so its production cost was not high. Every time people wanted to save something, they just needed to ask a low-level mage to charge the magic array. After the charge, people could put food inside and activate the magic array; then the process was done. After that, as long as they didn¡¯t open the preservation box, the food could be preserved for ten days to half a month. Although it was not cheap to ask a low-level mage to cast spells to charge it, it was at least much cheaper than the previous refrigeration box. However, there was also a problem with this preservation box. Most of the food could be well preserved, but the taste of a very small amount of foods would slightly change after being put in the box. After people took out the food, the taste was almost the same at first bite. However, when people carefully tasted and chewed it, they would feel that the food lacked a sense of delicacy and transformation. As for this, Roller didn¡¯t know why. Arcaian certainly didn¡¯t know why, either. There were too few samples available for research. Why would the taste of these foods become less delicate, but other foods wouldn¡¯t change with the same spells in the same environment? Roller had already taken this problem as one of his own research topics. After completing his current research, he would study this topic carefully. Sui Xiong also pondered it for a long time, and he didn¡¯t understand where the problem lay. However, he was sure that with this small flaw, this invention could still be regarded as an important achievement. Not only that, but Roller also proposed a special spell model. It could be used to eliminate various bacteria, fungi, and any other living things in food without any difference. This spell sounded very ferocious, but in fact, it had a narrow range of applications. It could only be used to help preserve food. After Roller¡¯s experiment, Roller proved that after using this spell, as long as the seal was confirmed and the air was isolated, the storage time of the food could be greatly prolonged. His preservation box was actually designed based on this spell. The main difficulty was not the casting, but the sealing. It had really bothered him for a while. Therefore, it had taken him more than half a month to make a material object because he couldn¡¯t find a proper sealing method. In the end, after discussing with a few food businessmen, he had found a better idea and had completed the design and manufacture of the preservation box. The next day, Sui Xiong personally met Roller. After understanding the cause and effect of the entire invention in detail, Sui Xiong greatly praised Roller. Sui Xiong said that he would specifically calculate the legendary road for him, and would escort him when he was going to break into the Legendary Realm. Of course, Roller was very happy. However, at the same time, he didn¡¯t forget to emphasize the help of those businessmen and their credit for the entire invention. Therefore, those businessmen were fortunate enough to see the supreme Void Mask, the great designer, and builder of Void City. ¡°I have already given Roller what he wants. What do you want?¡± Sui Xiong asked with interest. The businessmen looked at each other. After a while, a brave one answered, ¡°Your Majesty, you have given us what we want.¡± ¡°What?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. After thinking carefully for a long time, he was sure that he had never seen those people before, let alone gave them something. ¡°In the Republic of Northwest, we businessmen can do business at ease. We don¡¯t need to worry that some evil forces will seize our properties, and we don¡¯t need to worry that some aristocrats will have jealous eyes. This is what we have been pursuing. You have given us a place to live, so we always want to do something to repay you. We are very happy that we can make some contributions to you,¡± the businessman said, laughing. ¡°Really, this is enough.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. He pondered for a long time and finally laughed. ¡°I never thought that what I did could get such a high evaluation,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°In fact, I just do what I want to do, building a satisfactory social order that I love. I am very happy that you approve of it.¡± Then the atmosphere became harmonious and friendly. Finally, Sui Xiong invited those businessmen to have dinner in his God¡¯s Kingdom. He also gave every one of them a bottle of specially-made wine. The taste was naturally good. The most important thing was that this wine had the effect of life extension. In fact, it was invented based on the potion that could prolong one¡¯s lifespan. The wine was designed for Kalisa Riley by Sui Xiong. The First Beauty on the East Coast was now over 50 years old, but she was still young and beautiful. She was no different from a 22-year-old girl. Her own strength was not very powerful, and the key to maintaining youth and beauty was this amazing divine wine. As for her own effort, well, it also made some contributions. The businessmen liked this wine very much. When they left, they were really thankful. Sui Xiong was also very happy. In the past few years, his mood had never been as good as it was now. A few days later, Roller was called out from the lab. He built a workshop with those businessmen to produce preservation boxes. The spell model he designed was also widely spread. Any interested mages could learn this model after paying a little tuition fee through the Association of Mages or some other organizations. As for whether they could master this spell smoothly and whether they could cast it well after mastering it, that was their own business. Seventy percent of the tuition fees would be possessed by the organizations that preserved and taught the spell model, and the remaining thirty percent was possessed by Roller. This was also the practice. The inventors of every practical spell, as long as they were willing to spread their spells, would get a lot of wealth. They could then continue to research and get new results. It was a virtuous circle. ¡°The author can only take 30%. Really stingy!¡± Sui Xiong muttered. After learning about that, he was somewhat dissatisfied. ¡°I used to draw comics for others, and I can get half of the subscription incomes.¡± Therefore, he ran to negotiate with Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, the God of Spellcaster. Eventually, he changed the proportion. Roller was the first mage to benefit from the new proportion, so this new proportion was called the Roller Proportion. Chapter 483 Chapter 483: Chapter 23 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Looking at the girls who were playing around in the warm sea waters, Mage Damwade swallowed his spit nervously. These girls were indeed young and beautiful, but the way they were playing was too hot! Generally speaking, children could play with water on the beach. For example, they could splash water on each other. There was a man-made beach in the Void Mask Land. Every day, a War of Water Splashing was held there. Children with excellent grades could get special prizes. However, in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Void Mask, why did the girls play with water in this way? They stepped on the water, skiing at high speed while bombarding each other. They also threw fireballs and released light beams. The one who was wearing black clothes, why did she rush up, hug the others and explode with a boom? What kind of entertainment was this? Is this really the God¡¯s Kingdom of His Majesty, the Void Mask and not the arena of the War God System? he complained secretly in his heart as he followed after the girl in black and white in front of him. Her pants seemed to be made from black silk, but it stuck closely to her body. She was especially tempting. They proceeded carefully in the ¡°playing area¡± that was filled with gunfire. ¡°Why does His Majesty, the Void Mask, want to meet me here?¡± he couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but the order I received was to bring you here to meet him,¡± the girl replied with a very calm voice. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Although they are naughty here, in fact, they are decent when doing other things. They won¡¯t really bring you danger.¡± Before she finished her words, a girl wrapped in a black robe rushed towards them, shouting the slogan that Damwade couldn¡¯t understand. It seemed that she wanted to hug Damwade and made an amazing explosion. The girl in black and white was so angry that her blue-butterfly hair accessories were shaking. With a wave of her hand, at least 50 or 60 strange glittering small objects flew out. They shot dozens of fireballs down on the girl in a black robe. The girl was burnt into ashes. ¡°Sorry. The self-detonation level was stupid,¡± the girl explained to Damwade, smiling awkwardly. She used only one shot to eliminate the girl who had planned to make trouble. After saying that, they heard a bold voice coming from a distance. The voice said, ¡°Hey! It¡¯s Le who calls herself the secretary ship there! It¡¯s good weather today, suitable for retirement!¡± Damwade looked in the direction where the sound came. A blonde was standing on a nearby island. She was very beautiful, but she was wearing a black one-eyed blindfold that a normal woman would never wear. Her temperament was really ambiguous, like a fierce one-eyed pirate. Hearing the words, the girl who led the way for Damwade was suddenly stiff. She hurriedly turned to the direction of the sound, shouting, ¡°Wait a minute!¡± ¡°Wait my ass! Eat this!¡± the one-eyed pirate said, laughing loudly. A line of great steel and machines appeared behind her, and eight black barrels were pointing murderously at them. In the next moment, all the barrels shot loudly. Flames broke through the air and completely covered the surrounding area. ¡­ ¡°Ah!¡± Damwade screamed, opening his eyes. In the warm sunshine and the warm sea waters, he was floating on the water like a floating corpse. Not far from him, several girls who were wearing strange equipment were standing on the water, looking at him curiously. ¡°Are you a special model?¡± two girls said. They looked similar, but their figures were very different. One was wearing a white-rimmed blue skirt, and the other one was wearing a white-rimmed red skirt. They came to him and squatted beside, looking at him curiously. The girl in the blue skirt poked him with her finger. ¡°Are you still alive? Are you seriously damaged? Do you need to be repaired?¡± Damwade was stunned for a few seconds, and then he spat out some black smoke. He asked, ¡°I¡¯m still alive?¡± ¡°This is a training field, so you¡¯re at most seriously damaged,¡± the girl replied. ¡°And you can be repaired for free, so the training is very efficient!¡± Damwade was silent for a while. He asked, ¡°I want to meet His majesty, the Void Mask. Can you tell me how can I get there?¡± ¡°What? His Majesty? You can¡¯t go there now!¡± the girl in a red skirt said, shaking her head like a rattle drum. Her figure was so good that people would wonder what she ate to own such a good figure. ¡°The capital warships are fighting for the seat of the secretary ship. Now they are already fighting together. If you dare to approach, you will be seriously damaged in a flash. It¡¯s really terrible!¡± Damwade didn¡¯t quite understand some of her words, but he could understand her meaning, especially after he had just experienced the fighting power of the girls. He thought for a while, sitting up with his sore body. He couldn¡¯t stand up, so he just sat down first. He described the two girls he had just met, asking them about their identities. ¡°I see. You are talking about them,¡± the girl in a blue skirt answered. She obviously knew the two people. She laughed after hearing his words. She was always smiling, so she looked quite kind. ¡°The one who led you is Sister Le, the secretary ship of our fleet. The girl with the blindfold is Wave. She always calls Sister Le the chief flagship. Her slogan is ¡°Defeat Le, and then I¡¯ll be the secretary ship.¡¯ Every time she makes some progress, she will run to challenge Sister Le. However, Wave has never won yet.¡± ¡°It will be strange if she wins,¡± a girl in a short red robe and black stockings said with a smile. She was wearing a strange shoulder pad and carried a peculiar long stick on her right shoulder. ¡°Wave is not good at air battles, but Sister Le is an aircraft carrier. If Wave wanted to rush to Sister Le to assault her, she couldn¡¯t run as fast as Sister Le. Even if they fought 1,000 times, she would still fall behind Sister Le. Sister Le would widen their distance and bombard her down 1,000 times.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so sure. The world is big, so anything is possible. You, little one, just grow your body instead of your brains. What do you know?¡± a young girl said. She had a long pigtail, full of masculinity. She was spinning a pair of short sticks that were connected by a chain with a whirr. There was some deliberate ambiguity in her words. She wasn¡¯t tall, but her words were old-fashioned. It was weird. The girl who was refuted frowned. She wanted to say something, but she held her words back. After all, Damwade had lived for almost 60 years. At first glance, he knew that the little girl with long pigtails was a wild child. She would quarrel with anyone. He thought that her companions were also very clear about that, so they were unwilling to argue with her. Such creatures like wild children would be more and more aggressive if people argued with them. Fortunately, there were still people who could ¡°tame the wild.¡± One girl gently patted the wild child¡¯s shoulder with a green bamboo flute. She looked similar to the wild child, both in appearances and in clothes. However, she had two pigtails. Her movements were really light and soft. It seemed that she used no power at all, but the face of the wild child suddenly changed. It changed just like a sunny day turning into a cloudy day. The wild child had four invisible words on her face, I am so scared. ¡°Hem. Your elder sister, I, just heard someone was bullying others because she was older. Do you know who¡­ that¡­ was¡­?¡± Her voice was also very soft, and it was light as if she had no power at all. However, a horrible feeling was hidden in it. Seeing her face, no one knew when her eyes lost their focal length. Her eyes became deep and cold, and her body revealed murderous horror. That murderous horror was so strong that Damwade felt cold after a distant glance. He couldn¡¯t help but jump up. Hem, the wild child standing in front of her sister was shaking her legs for a while, and Hem¡¯s speech was stuttering. She couldn¡¯t speak her words smoothly at all. ¡°I¡ªI¡­ Y¡ªyou¡­ h¡ªheard¡­ w¡ªwrong¡­¡± ¡°Is¡­ that¡­ wrong?¡± the girl with two pigtails asked, smiling. Her bamboo flute slowly moved on the back of her younger sister. It slid slowly towards the direction of the ribs, and finally stopped at the position of the back of her heart. Looking at the expression on her face, Damwade suspected that the bamboo flute would become a long sword at the next moment, and then it would stab through the wild child. The face of the wild child was already terrible at the moment, and it seemed that she couldn¡¯t stand up at all. It seemed that the tragedy of ¡®sisters killing sisters¡¯ was going to happen. At this time, a person finally couldn¡¯t stand it, so that person came out and mediated. ¡°Sister Rey, forgive Sister Hem this time. She will behave well.¡± The girl who was speaking was white-haired, and she was wearing a white blouse and a red dress. She was holding a beautiful bamboo umbrella with blue on the outside and red on the inside. Her temperament was gentle and peaceful, but she naturally revealed some firmness. Obviously, this girl was the leader of this group of girls. That could be seen from her standing position and the tone of her speech. After she spoke, the murderous horror of the girl named ¡°Sister Rey¡± quickly disappeared. Her eyes returned to their focal length, and she changed back to her original gentle appearance. ¡°Well, it mustn¡¯t happen again,¡± Rey said, putting away the bamboo flute. She held her younger sister who was almost unstable and retreated to the side. ¡°Hello, visiting guest,¡± the girl who was holding the umbrella said. She smiled, walking up to Damwade. She first lowered her body slightly for a greeting. Then she said, ¡°Welcome to the southeastern sea. Different from other fierce battlefields, it is a relatively peaceful place here. How should we call you, please?¡± I finally meet a reliable person! Damwade was relieved. He also smiled. About an hour later, in the so-called southeastern sea, Damwade recovered his spirit after resting. According to the guidance of the group of those girls, Damwade was holding a fairly detailed map. Along a winding coastline, he was directly heading north. Hearing the buzz and boom that came from far away, Damwade was really scared. Sometimes, strange objects flew away above his head, and that continually aggravated his worries. Can I really meet the Void Mask? Will something go wrong? It turned out that his worries were superfluous. Without knowing why, although the girls were fighting fiercely, no fireballs fell down towards him. He safely reached the end of the coastline and walked up on the land through a small river that suddenly appeared. After just a few steps, the scenery in front of him suddenly changed. It turned into a magnificent and resplendent palace. The thick red walls of the palace gave people an invisible amount of pressure. The tall tower with five doors made him clearly feel that he was small. Looking up at the tall tower, he said, sighing, ¡°Sure enough, it is indeed the residence of a god!¡± ¡°Damwade, you are in the wrong place.¡± A familiar voice came from the side. ¡°Those are just settings.¡± Damwade immediately turned around. He saw that a handsome young man in a robe was standing not far away from him. The young man was full of an artist¡¯s temperament, and he was holding a long feather-woven fan; he was so elegant. No one could tell from his appearance that he was a great person who had made a group of villains be buried with him when he was dying. Chapter 484 Chapter 484: Chapter 24 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was a surprise for Mage Damwade to meet Baron Crick Keane in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Void Mask instead of the God of Art and Culture. Crick had helped Damwade¡¯s career, so Damwade was really happy to meet Crick. For Sui Xiong, it was a decision after careful consideration to meet Damwade here. Many of Crick¡¯s policy objectives and specific measures were deserving of praise. Crick and Sui Xiong were one, so their ideas were roughly the same. They did things in similar ways. Any experienced people could find that there was a significant connection between Baron Keane and the Republic of Northwest, and then they could guess the identity of Crick. If that incident had been concealed, people and gods would be more and more suspicious of that. Even though Crick was a hero, his soul had never been heard of since his death. The gods had long been doubtful, and even Brother Yorgaardman was tracing Crick¡¯s whereabouts. In order to dispel their suspicions, it was necessary to let Crick appear several times again. Sui Xiong just needed to find the right time. This time, Mage Damwade had invented an important spell. The spell was extremely helpful for improving social productivity and improving people¡¯s living standards. It was worthy of praise. Sui Xiong finally found the right opportunity to let Crick out. Under the guidance of Crick, Mage Damwade met Sui Xiong who was busy with working in the experimental field. ¡°Your invention is amazing!¡± Sui Xiong praised Damwade as soon as they met. ¡°With such achievements, you can own a page in the history book of the world civilization!¡± Damwade suddenly blushed. He hurriedly said, ¡°Actually, this is not my contribution. I could invent this spell for two reasons. On the one hand, it comes from the advice of Lord Keane. On the other hand, it comes from the information published by the Church of the God of Medicine. I just relied on my small inspiration. I linked them together and thought about them, and then I gained some results. The remarkable people are Lord Keane and the God of Medicine.¡± Sui Xiong patted Damwade¡¯s shoulder with his tentacle, smiling. He said, ¡°Don¡¯t be modest. Crick told me about you. When you were at Baron Keane¡¯s place, you were very concerned about agriculture. You were eager to help him advance agricultural technology. There are many powerful mages in the world. The mages who are more powerful than you are more than my tentacles. Why are those powerful mages not able to gain those achievements but you are able to?¡± Damwade was stunned, shaking his head confusedly. ¡°The key is that the directions that people pay attention to are different,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Most mages pursue personal strength, or so-called ¡®truth,¡¯ or the joy of pure research. But you are different. Although you left Baron Keane, you didn¡¯t give up agriculture. You didn¡¯t give up the research that seemed a bit rough and disqualified for a noble mage. I¡¯d like to ask, in this world, what mage is willing to stay in the field all day long, working with mud, crops and even excrement? This great achievement was destined to belong to you!¡± Mage Damwade was speechless and then smiled quietly. ¡°You really surprised me,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You found the roots of soil fertilization, and you invented the spell that could safely remove harmful components from domestic waste. The spell can also turn them into fertilizer quickly. I was really surprised when I heard that!¡± ¡°You know what? In fact, I am also studying this. With my Divine Power, my experimental field is far better than yours. However, until now, I haven¡¯t been able to gain something that can be widely spread in the mortal world,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°As a mortal, you are better than me in the same research field. I am really strong among the gods. I hereby admit that you are a better researcher than me. Congratulations on your success.¡± Damwade was excited. Indescribable feelings of success and satisfaction filled his heart, making him want to laugh, sing songs loudly, and find a pub to get drunk. ¡°Your spell is really amazing! I have studied it carefully, and its concept is very clever. It not only distinguishes bacteria that can help convert waste into fertilizer to promote the growth of crops, but it also eliminates harmful bacteria and avoids possible pollution and disease. The two steps are completed in the same spell. What it needs is only a mage who hasn¡¯t stepped into the middle level. This is precisely the problem that I¡¯m not able to overcome. ¡°Before seeing you, I have been thinking. What kind of talented brain do you have to make you so much better than me? Now I understand that the key to the problem is not your brain, but your heart,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°You have a focused heart. You don¡¯t care about yourself, and you don¡¯t care about other people¡¯s opinions. You concentrate on research, and you have a scholar¡¯s heart. You care about farmers, people, and all the creatures in the world. You have a hero¡¯s heart!¡± Mage Damwade smiled. He didn¡¯t know what to say. He never thought that he was so great, so he thought that the Void Mask spoke too highly of him. ¡°Okay, stop chatting now,¡± Crick interrupted Sui Xiong¡¯s eloquent speech, smiling. ¡°Your Majesty, the reason why you called him here was not just to praise him.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. He waved his tentacles, and the surrounding scenery turned from the experimental field into a chamber. Then Sui Xiong asked, looking at Damwade seriously, ¡°What reward do you want?¡± Damwade was stunned again, not because of what Sui Xiong did now, but because of Crick¡¯s attitude towards Sui Xiong. He thought for a while, but he didn¡¯t ask about his doubts. He told Sui Xiong the reward he wanted. As a mortal, on the one hand, he was happy that his research continued to gain achievements. On the other hand, he was also worried because he was getting older and his energy was getting less. In any case, he was already an old man of nearly 60 years old. He had stayed at the high-level threshold for many years, and he hadn¡¯t made any progress. He had already reached the evening of his life. In three to five years, or eight to ten years, his mind and magic power would begin to regress. Maybe he could linger out for a few years, but it would be impossible for him to continue his research. Perhaps this achievement would be the last glory of his life. He couldn¡¯t take that. Therefore, he was not shy. He plainly expressed that he wanted longer life and youth so that he could continue his research. After hearing his wishes, Sui Xiong nodded. He said, smiling, ¡°Life and youth, these are not a problem. I have a proposal; are you interested?¡± ¡°What proposal?¡± Damwade asked curiously. ¡°Since the Goddess of Bumper Harvest fell, the priesthoods related to the Bumper Harvest have collapsed. No one could inherit these priesthoods over the years. I know that you don¡¯t have enough learning and knowledge of the field of Bumper Harvest. However, if you like, I think you can change your direction. You can try to establish your own priesthood from the perspective of agriculture.¡± Damwade was stunned. He could hardly believe his ears. ¡°What¡­ What did you say?!¡± ¡°I mean, if you want, I¡¯ll help you fight for the priesthood of Agriculture, and you can become the God of Agriculture in this world,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°This is, of course, a good thing, but it will also bring some trouble. Once the priesthood of Agriculture is established, it will take away a large part of the priesthood of Bumper Harvest. At that time, I¡¯m afraid that the new God of Bumper Harvest will be hostile towards you. If you don¡¯t surrender to that new god, you will have to fight in the future.¡± ¡°That is not trouble!¡± Damwade shouted. ¡°I¡¯d love to! I¡¯d love to! Completely!¡± He was shouting so loudly that the blue veins on his neck jumped out. His eyes were bright, and they were full of enthusiasm and longing. Seeing that, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. It seemed that this was very hopeful. Chapter 485 Chapter 485: Chapter 25 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Damwade was a very practical person, and he was not bashful at all when he encountered issues of vital interests. Compared with those who said ¡°no¡± but actually wanted to pursue interests, he may not be so coy; he was more realistic and reliable than them. For example, now, when he heard of the opportunity to become a god, he immediately said, ¡°I would like to.¡± He could hardly wait to prove that he was very willing to become a god without any falsehood. Sui Xiong had to cast a spell on him to calm him down before talking to him in detail because he was too excited. The clergy of ¡°Agriculture¡± had never appeared before because there had never been a concept of agriculture in the world. But there had been a patron saint of farmers¡ªlater, he was killed by the Goddess of Harvest. In the past few years, the Goddess of Harvest and the Goddess of Wealth were antagonistic, and both sides continued to attack each other. The Goddess of Harvest fell probably because of her low intelligence. Finally, she made a dangerous attempt to promote a god follower, but she failed. As a result, she not only lost the only powerful semi-god of her church, but also her kingdom was attacked by a large group of evil gods. Although the God of Justice and the Void Mask had helped her, she did not escape in the end. She had abandoned her kingdom to escape, but she did not know that the God of Marsh who had hated her for thousands of years would ambush her in the dark. When she was about to escape successfully, she was attacked and killed by the God of Marsh. After the death of the Goddess of Harvest, the clergy of ¡°harvest¡± was open, and all gods fought for it. Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, was very angry with those guys who were dragging and dawdling in the prior rescue but rushed like mad dogs when they saw the benefits. So in a great rage, he used his great Divine Powers to smash the clergy of ¡°harvest¡± to pieces. Since then, the clergy of ¡°harvest¡± and others clergies related to it had been in a state of chaos. According to all the gods, it would take two or three hundred years before those clergies could be reunited and reshaped by human faith. At that time, there would be fierce battles in order to gain those clergies. But Sui Xiong did not think so. He thought that the breaking of the clergy of ¡°harvest¡± was just an opportunity for him to occupy its content and condense other clergies. If the clergy of harvest was still here, the clergy of agriculture would not appear because the faith of the farmers must first point to the concept of ¡°harvest.¡± As for agriculture¡ªfarmers could not understand such distant things! They only cared about the most direct thing, and that was harvest! Therefore, if the clergy of harvest hadn¡¯t collapsed and broken, it would have been inconvenient for Damwade to unite the clergy of agriculture. ¡°What shall I do, my Majesty, the Void Mask?¡± Damwade calmed down under Sui Xiong¡¯s magic, but he was still very anxious and asked Sui Xiong in a hurry. Sui Xiong thought for a moment and said, ¡°First of all, you have to put fertilizer, farming and farming tools together and write an agricultural guidebook as a clear sign of your faith.¡± Damwade nodded, but then he was suddenly shocked and said, ¡°This¡­ actually, many things were designed by Baron Keane.¡± ¡°Crick¡¯s situation is different from yours.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°He won¡¯t seek to be a god or pursue a clergy or anything. It doesn¡¯t mean anything to him.¡± Damwade looked at Crick in surprise and then looked at Sui Xiong. He seemed to guess something and asked tentatively, ¡°Is it possible that¡­ Crick has become your Holy Spirit?¡± This was exactly what Sui Xiong had arranged for Crick¡¯s status¡ªnoble status, outstanding contributions, but rarely appearing in front of people. Sui Xiong nodded with a smile and admitted to this matter. ¡°So it is!¡± Damwade nodded. The Holy Spirit was both the incarnation of a god and the successor of the god after his death, and its status was equivalent to that of a country¡¯s crown prince. Except for a few gods, most gods would protect and hide their Holy Spirits tightly so as not to make them be exposed and killed by their enemies. Since Crick Keane was the Holy Spirit of the Void Mask, it was no wonder that he had made such great achievements. It was also no wonder that he shone brilliantly when he was alive, but his soul disappeared without any trace after his death. ¡°Hmm? Since Crick is your Holy Spirit, why does he come out again this time?¡± He thought about it and asked doubtfully. ¡°It just happened,¡± Crick laughed and said. ¡°My current job is mainly to train and manage Oracles. This time, when your Majesty saw your achievements and remembered that we were acquaintances, he asked me if I would like to see you. Of course, I wanted like to, so that¡¯s why I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°I will keep it a secret for sure!¡± Damwade said firmly. ¡°No one will know where you¡¯ve gone from me! I will destroy this memory with magic later!¡± His method was so resolute and reliable. If he really used magic to destroy this memory, nobody would know where Crick was. But¡­ Sui Xiong did not want this result. You don¡¯t need to be so troublesome,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°I¡¯m glad that you are so thoughtful, but your plan is wrong.¡± He said mysteriously, ¡°When you return to the mortal world this time, you don¡¯t have to keep it a secret. Instead, you need to tell others that Crick is here with me and your reward beyond your own contribution is mainly due to his special care. You should also tell others that he is training troops for me.¡± ¡°Ah!?¡± Damwade stared at Sui Xiong and felt that his mind could not catch up. Weren¡¯t other god¡¯s Holy Spirits supposed to be hidden? Didn¡¯t the Void Mask hide his Holy Spirit before? Why did he change his mind suddenly? And it was a big turn of 180 degrees. Sui Xiong saw that he was still confused, smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ll ask you a question. If you want to do something that is not a secret and it¡¯s easy to attract people¡¯s attention, but you don¡¯t want others to notice you, what would you do?¡± Damwade thought for a moment and answered, ¡°Cover it up with magic?¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°Find a hidden place as far as possible, such as a half plane?¡± Sui Xiong shook his head again. ¡°Then I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Of course, there is no good way, but there is a way you can try,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You can find another person who has some relations with you and who is much more noticeable than you. You can ask him to do something that is much more noticeable than you and attract people¡¯s attention on what he is doing.¡± Damwade opened his eyes wide and understood Sui Xiong¡¯s meaning suddenly. But he was more surprised. ¡°This¡­ this means that Crick will cover for me?!¡± His voice trembled a little because of the excitement. ¡°This¡­ this¡­ I¡¯m not really worth this treatment!¡± ¡°You deserve it.¡± Crick laughed and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Helping you to become a god is the most important thing for us at present. In order to accomplish this matter, I would like to become bait to attract people¡¯s attention.¡± ¡°This¡­ it really scares me¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be scared. You should be proud.¡± Crick laughed. ¡°You are the first and probably the last person in the world who deserves me being bait to provide cover for.¡± ¡°So you have to work hard in order to become a god successfully,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I will contact you often with the details, or perhaps I will send Crick to contact you. In short, your goal is as follows: The first is to define the concept of agriculture in the mortal world. The second is to make people think of you, Damwade, when they talk about agriculture. As long as you can do these two things, just leave the rest to me.¡± He clapped his body with his tentacles and spoke with a deep and powerful voice. ¡°Besides fighting, I like to help people become gods. And so far, those who have accepted my help have all become gods successfully. None of them have failed!¡± Chapter 486 Chapter 486: Chapter 26 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After the discussion, Damwade left with joy and excitement. Only Sui Xiong and Crick spoke face to face in the God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°I didn¡¯t imagine that we would see each other again,¡± Sui Xiong sighed and said. ¡°I didn¡¯t think that there would be such a day!¡± Crick shook his head. ¡°Your thoughts are so strange. I am you, and we are just the same person from different destinies going to different directions. To tell you the truth, I wonder if you have schizophrenia. You are just like someone in the online novels who says such words as ¡®I meet an old friend¡¯ to his incarnation.¡± Sui Xiong laughed bitterly. ¡°It seems that you are right! I¡¯m just like someone in the online novels.¡± ¡°Yes. When I read that novel, I used to ridicule it more than once. But when certain things happened, you did such a stupid thing!¡± Sui Xiong was speechless and sighed. ¡°An insignificant division can produce such a different result. That really makes me lament this wonderful fate!¡± ¡°Insignificant division?¡± Crick sighed. ¡°Look at you and look at me. We are totally different!¡± Sui Xiong understood what he meant and could not help but sigh. To be honest, Sui Xiong was also a little puzzled. Why didn¡¯t he feel uncomfortable with a jellyfish body since he was actually a man over the years? He didn¡¯t feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, he felt very comfortable with this jellyfish body, and he had no intention of changing into a human form again. Among all the gods, many gods¡¯ noumenons were huge, such as a mountain, a cloud, an ocean or a flame. For example, Sui Xiong¡¯s noumenon was a big jellyfish, and that was nothing compared to them. But no matter what their noumenons were, when they interacted with other gods, they would likely change into human beings with only a few exceptions. It was said that this was a rule made by the Goddess of Life, which was approved by the Master of Order and had become a law of the world. It was unclear whether this rule was true or not but nobody was going to seek for the truth. They could not seek for truth anyway. Could they seek for truth from the Master of Order? Weren¡¯t they afraid of being killed by the Master of Order? Sui Xiong was a rare special case. He was very powerful, and his mode of thinking was very similar to human beings, but he was always in the form of a jellyfish. Except for hiding his identity, he seldom changed into a human form. It was so strange for a god. He had thought about it himself before, but he could not figure it out. He had also created human incarnations and tried to change into a human form, but he always felt uncomfortable. Finally, he changed back to a jellyfish. At this moment, Crick raised this question again, but he was distressed and did not know what was going on. ¡°You don¡¯t have to head blindly towards a dead end. Existence is reasonable.¡± Crick saw his eyebrows knitted and his face show an expression of, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? What¡¯s going on?¡± He could not help but advise, ¡°I remembered that when I was in school, more than one professor had severely criticized some famous paintings that were sold at very high prices. He said that they deviated from the essence of art and were nothing more than tools for hype and money laundering. But so what? Among those professors, there were many respected elders, even those who could be regarded as masters at art festivals. But their criticisms could not shake the status of the famous painters who had made huge profits. Even those paintings that I could draw better than with my eyes closed could be regarded as a symbol of art and be crowned with a high price. So what¡¯s wrong with a person changing into a jellyfish?¡± ¡°They are not the same thing.¡± ¡°Of course, they are not the same thing. That¡¯s a big deal!¡± Crick said rudely. ¡°As an artist, I don¡¯t care if I¡¯m a human or a jellyfish.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± ¡°What was wrong with a jellyfish? With so many tentacles, a jellyfish can hold more than a dozen brushes at the same time with different sizes and colors and can draw whatever it wants. It can also put its hands freely on the drawing board. How relaxing and how convenient!¡± Crick laughed. ¡°It¡¯s more convenient to make statues. Chisels, chisels, and knives are all in its hand at the same time, and they can work in all directions together. Its tentacles can even pick up the whole statue and adjust its position arbitrarily. Think it over carefully; it¡¯s really super convenient! ¡± Sui Xiong could not help but nod. ¡°Yes! Super convenient! It¡¯s also very convenient to fight with people. There is a saying that a strong man cannot resist two punches at the same time. When I fight with people, I can hit ten or throw out hundreds of punches at the same time.¡± After saying that, Sui Xiong laughed loudly and showed an expression of, ¡°I¡¯m so strong.¡± It made Crick laughed. ¡°Well, now that it¡¯s all right. I¡¯ll just go,¡± Crick said. ¡°I¡¯m going to train the Oracle troops.¡± ¡°Hmm? Can you really train the Oracle troops?¡± ¡°I can train them a little, such as quick marching, raising a gun or a left stab.¡± ¡°Those Oracles are essentially human warships, what you have just said is useless for them.¡± ¡°Yes. So, I can¡¯t train them.¡± Crick laughed. ¡°But other people can help me.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment and then laughed. ¡°You are right. Anyways, you are the one to do it.¡± ¡°Not me, but yourself!¡± Crick said rudely. ¡°If you go on like this, you will have to see a brain doctor.¡± ¡°Is there a brain doctor in this world?¡± ¡°Yes. If your hands or feet or head hurt, the doctor will just cut your hands or feet or head. His medicine will take effect as soon as you take it.¡± Crick sneered. ¡°I¡¯ve seen a few of them myself.¡± Sui Xiong recalled that he was talking about those witch doctors who spent their lives through the means of some bad magic and deception. As for the fate of those witch doctors, of course, they were arranged by Crick to study medicine compulsorily. Among them, those who would like to correct their mistakes and learn honestly became real doctors. As for those who were always cheating and trying to muddle through would naturally be killed. Crick Keane was able to stabilize the regime and withstand pressure from all sides, not just by uniting people and fantasies, but also by using different powerful means when needed. The discussion in the God¡¯s Kingdom came to an end. Sui Xiong once again started his god-making plan without telling the others. While in the mortal world, Damwade returned with a generous reward that made people feel jealous of him. Compared with the mage who made the preservation box and designed the preservation magic last month, Damwade, who designed the fertilizer manufacturing technique, looked much lower and had no sense of superiority. Many traditional mages even thought that he had lowered to the professional style of a ¡°mage¡± and scorned him. However, he received a much richer reward than his counterpart. That mage did not mind at all, but many unrelated people could not help but feel indignant. They thought that the Void Mask was unfair. They tried hard to seek for the truth and eventually found it out from Damwade. It turned out that the late Baron Crick Keane had become the Holy Spirit of the Void Mask and he had a good friendship with Damwade in his lifetime. It could even be said that Damwade, an ordinary mage who was not outstanding at all, was entirely supported by Crick. Damwade got a lot of extra rewards from his help. ¡°Damwade is so lucky!¡± someone said indignantly. ¡°He is so lucky to meet such a powerful friend! If I had known Baron Crick Keane, I would have had all of his achievements! Maybe I could even be stronger than him!¡± But more people were shocked by the news. Crick Keane, whose soul had disappeared after his death, became the Holy Spirit of the Void Mask?! Thinking about it carefully, it seemed that it made sense. Baron Keane¡¯s many policies were similar to those of the Northwest Republic. It could be seen that Crick Keane and the Void Mask had a lot in common in their ideas. Wasn¡¯t this exactly the chance for Crick to become the Holy Spirit of the Void Mask? The so-called Holy Spirit had no faith. As long as one¡¯s principles of life had fit the ideas of a god, he could naturally be promoted by the god after death. That was exactly the case with Crick Keane! But, Crick Keane was a very powerful man. He was respected as the world¡¯s greatest talent for his wisdom and political strategy over the last hundred years. If his own strength was powerful enough, he would establish a country. Now, he had become the Holy Spirit of the Void Mask and was backed by the super powerful man who could compete for the top three among the gods. It was obvious that he would make such a great achievement! In this way, those who were in conflict with the Void Mask and the church of the Void Mask would suffer! Under this circumstance, as Sui Xiong hoped, everyone had focused on Crick Keane and relaxed their attention on Damwade. Chapter 487 Chapter 487: Chapter 27 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong¡¯s plan was well executed, and no one disturbed Damwade¡¯s work. As usual, Damwade studied, did his research and worked on a farm. He was doing work that other magicians regarded as ¡°self-abasement,¡± that other magicians would never do. In fact, some people doubted him, but after a couple days, they found that Damwade was indeed doing some ordinary work. So they gave up. Did Damwade really do the same thing every day? Generally speaking, it was almost the same. There was no big change in the research. But if someone looked at his research notes, they would find that there were some differences from those of the previous records. The previous records were chaotic, while his recent notes were well organized and easily understandable. The content was not related to the research data, but it was more like a summary of his research data. This was something that Crick taught him. It was the most effective way to ¡°hide a secret.¡± It was very normal for a magician to take notes when doing research. No matter how superb the spies were, they couldn¡¯t peek at Damwade¡¯s notes. And it was no use peeking at the notes because the spies wouldn¡¯t understand them. In fact, Damwade was writing his book called Agricultural Textbook. Because of his excitement, he had to cast some calming spells on himself in addition to routine protective spells every day. After that, he could ensure that he wouldn¡¯t laugh out of control when he was writing this book. What he looked like was totally an ordinary magician who was quiet and focused on his research. Apart from the bizarre content of his research, there was nothing strange. A month later, Damwade finished his first draft. ¡°No.¡± After reading his first draft, Crick shook his head critically. ¡°You¡¯ve written in the wrong direction.¡± ¡°Written in the wrong direction?¡± Damwade took up the draft and said in puzzlement. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± He really didn¡¯t understand. He had written all of the research data and his understandings in recent years. How could that be wrong? ¡°There are at least two obvious mistakes in your book,¡± Crick sighed and said. ¡°The first one was the logic mistake.¡± ¡°Ah? I think I¡¯ve written logically.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what you think,¡± Crick shook his head and said. ¡°When you read this book, you will think at your own position instead of the position of a reader who does not understand agriculture at all. So you omit a lot of details that you need to explain and skip a lot of content that you think is basic knowledge. This is a mistake that professional scholars would easily make. Those who get some magic notes of the great magicians often find that the notes are difficult to understand. They clearly understand every word, but they can¡¯t understand when words are linked. As for your book, I believe most mages could understand it, but you should know that the target reader of your book in the future are people who have less knowledge than mages.¡± Damwade realized where he was wrong and opened his mouth widely. ¡°The second mistake is your expression,¡± Crick said. ¡°Do ordinary people understand your expression?¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t they? Isn¡¯t that easy to understand?¡± ¡°Easy?¡± Crick sighed and read one sentence, ¡°¡®The way to set ridges, or take ridges.¡¯ What do you think of this one? ¡°I understand it.¡± ¡°To be honest, I can also understand, but I guess those readers who have little knowledge can¡¯t,¡± Crick sighed and said. ¡°You know, this book is not for scholars to exchange views, but for ordinary people to learn how to farm!¡± Damwade looked blank. ¡°What should I write?¡± Crick thought for a moment and said, ¡°Like this one, you can write, ¡®The way to make ridges in the fields requires dividing the land into rows one by one. There should be no difference between high and low places. The high places are called ridges, and the low places are like small ditches, which can be used for watering and fertilizing.¡¯ This would be easier to understand.¡± ¡°Okay¡­ But that¡¯s too simple!¡± Damwade was shocked and said. ¡°A bard never writes in such simple language, let alone a spellcaster like me¡­ If I really wrote in this simple language, I¡¯m sure I would be a laughingstock.¡± But he finally made up his mind. ¡°Fine! If it¡¯s just that the book should be written in a simple language, then I don¡¯t care if I become a laughingstock. If I can become a god by doing so, then I will!¡± he said firmly. ¡°I want to be a god! I don¡¯t care about others¡¯ views. Who would call a god a laughingstock? If you can be a god, you can do whatever you want.¡± The more he talked, the more excited he became. He squeezed his fist tightly, and his eyes were shining again. He became crazy. Crick looked funny, but he could not help but sigh. Damwade was a mid-rank mage in his early thirties, and his achievements were not bad. However, in the Mifata Federation, there were so many talents. He was not outstanding. Without a strong supporter, he could not become a mercenary and seek a long-term contract to continue his research. Then he was hired by Crick to work in Keane Hill for more than ten years. Over the past ten years, he worked hard and did not complain. No matter what orders Crick issued, he carried out them faithfully. He had never refused to do anything, even to help farmers. In order to avoid disaster, he came to Void City and did not study anything related to explosions. He was immersed in the study of agriculture for more than ten years, and his strength was just at the level of an advanced mage. How could such an ordinary mage not be excited when faced with the opportunity of being a god? It was amazing that Damwade didn¡¯t show his desire for being a god in his daily life. ¡°Calm down, you¡¯re so excited.¡± Crick laughed and patted Damwade on the shoulder. ¡°Relax. Your Majesty, he is easy-going and reliable. He says you have a chance to become a god, and that is true. There¡¯s a big possibility. Every person that was mentioned by Your Majesty has become a god afterwards.¡± Damwade closed his eyes and took deep breaths several times before he calmed himself down again. ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯m too excited. I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. Anyone in your situation would be excited. I can understand you.¡± Damwade¡¯s eyes lit up, and he asked, ¡°Then¡­ so were the God of Knowledge and the God of Medicine? Crick said, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ll ask them.¡± In fact, there was no need to ask. He and Sui Xiong were the same person, and memory was also interoperable. He could recall it. But he couldn¡¯t say that. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit and gods could be contacted at any time. It didn¡¯t take much time to ask. A few seconds later, he laughed and said, ¡°When the God of Knowledge knew that he could become a god, he was very excited and swore allegiance to His Majesty immediately. The God of Medicine started to meditate in seclusion, without good food or clothes, in the research room. Well, you¡¯re probably a little more excited than the God of Knowledge, but you¡¯re calmer than the God of Medicine.¡± Damwade kept silent for a moment and then smiled. ¡°It¡¯s a wonderful experience to be compared to two great gods,¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I¡¯ve calmed down now.¡± ¡°Because you know you can succeed,¡± Crick said. ¡°When a person is determined, his mood becomes calm.¡± ¡°To be honest¡­ I¡¯m not sure,¡± Damwade grinned bitterly and said. ¡°I always found it hard to believe that just summarizing an agricultural textbook and spreading it out can make me a god?¡± ¡°If you just did it for yourself, of course not. But you¡¯re doing it for the Church of the Void Mask. It will be an 80% assurance,¡± Crick said. ¡°It will be an 80% assurance? That high?¡± ¡°In fact, I underestimated it. Unless you are killed before you succeed, it will be 90%. The last 10% is that you must not get too excited and fall ill.¡± Damwade could not help but laugh. ¡°You¡¯re still so funny after all these years!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve only died once. Everything is okay for me now. People will naturally be more relaxed and interesting when they are peaceful,¡± Crick also laughed and said. ¡°You know the Boy of Ceremony, don¡¯t you? A merry god. I¡¯m on good terms with him. ¡°You show off!¡± ¡°Ha ha, why are you so smart!¡± They laughed and talked, and then Crick said goodbye. When he left, one mage smiled at a glittering crystal ball in front of him in a house not far from Damwade¡¯s residence. ¡°What does Crick Keane want to do?¡± ¡°What else can he do? It must be his territory,¡± a soldier next to the mage said. ¡°He has no children. The heir of his family is his sister. At that time, he was desperate to protect his sister¡¯s safety and the inheritance of the Keane family. Now he takes some actions. What else does he want besides that?¡± ¡°Hasn¡¯t Keane Hill been developing well these years?¡± Another mage asked. Although it didn¡¯t have a big harvest, it has been progressing steadily. I remember¡­ this year, the Thunder Lord also issued an order to promote Keane Hill as the Viscount Hill. His sister, Anna Keane, is now a viscount.¡± ¡°That order was not good!¡± the soldier, who was the leader of the spy group, sneered and said. ¡°The responsibility of a viscount is quite different from that of the baron! Do you know how much wealth Keane Hill gave as a reward for this promotion?¡± He looked at his subordinates and reached out his fingers. ¡°This number!¡± ¡°My God!¡± ¡°My God!¡± ¡°How nice it would be if the money was given to me!¡± ¡°I suspect that it was probably because of this that he suddenly appeared. He had been hiding behind the scenes as the Holy Spirit, training His Majesty¡¯s Corps of Divine Envoys for the Void Mask.¡± There was a flash of light in the soldier¡¯s eyes. ¡°Otherwise, why wouldn¡¯t he hide himself anymore? Why does he appear?¡± The subordinates nodded, and all agreed with his judgment. ¡°But I still don¡¯t understand why he contacted Damwade?¡± The soldier thought about it and frowned. ¡°Damwade, this fellow¡­ After the big explosion on Keane Hill, he fled to Void City. Everyone speculated that he was related to the explosion, and many people doubted him. But in these years, he has been dealing with mud, crops, garbage, excrement and other things. Most of his friends here are peasants or some low-ranking civil servants. That big explosion seemed to have nothing to do with him¡­¡± ¡°Ah? Really?¡± the surveillance mage was shocked and said. ¡°Aren¡¯t we wasting time then?¡± Unlike other spies, they were spying on the earth-shaking explosion that Keane Hill had. The power of the big explosion was astonishing. Many people wondered if Crick Keane had found a way to detonate the Divine Curse in his body. But others thought that Damwade had developed some powerful explosives. If not, why would Damwade run to the Void Mask Land overnight? Many people doubted him. But in these years, Damwade had no intention of studying explosives at all. Instead, he was doing some farming as he had done at Keane Hill. Gradually, the spies were disappointed, leaving one after another. Only this group was left. If Damwade really had nothing to do with the explosion, this group would leave as well. It was good for spies to be able to retreat safely, but it was a pity to waste more than ten years on a mission! After all, ten years is precious in our lives! The soldier was silent for a moment and shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m still not sure¡­ Or, I¡¯m still not reconciled! I always feel that he must know something, but he has decided to bury those secrets in his heart and never tell.¡± ¡°What a pity! If we weren¡¯t in Void City, we could have caught him and tortured him, even use magic to pull out his soul for interrogation.¡± ¡°If we weren¡¯t in Void City, I¡¯m afraid it would not be our turn,¡± another mage said. The soldier laughed dumbly. ¡°You¡¯re right. We¡¯re not big men either. How could it be our turn!¡± He clapped his hands and drew the attention of his subordinates. ¡°Anyways, let¡¯s not slack off and keep looking. I believe that as long as we keep looking, we will find clues sooner or later!¡± ¡°I have a strong hunch that things will not end like this!¡± There was a shimmer in his eyes. ¡°Crick Keane¡¯s appearance is a sign!¡± Chapter 488 Chapter 488: Chapter 28 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The deep seawater was transparent just like a giant crystal. Well, that was not true. First, the water here was not sea water, but fresh water. Second, there were too many bubbles, too many turbulent flows in the water. And most importantly, because of the lack of light, it was gloomy. It was not really like a crystal. Sui Xiong sighed. For nearly half a month in the dark water, he was bored. However, it was necessary to work. He was just trying to enjoy himself. In fact, Sui Xiong was not good at performing monologues, regardless of them being serious, lyrical or funny. He couldn¡¯t even amuse himself. ¡°The Heart of Elements¡­ Where can I find that?¡± Sui Xiong talked to himself and swam slowly according to the map drawn in his mind. As he swam, he maximized his detection ability and tried to search for any possible clues around. If the map in his mind was drawn out, he would find that his whole trace was a spiral line, turning around and around, slowly expanding the scope of detection from inside to out. There was no omission. It was a silly way, but there was no other choice. The plane of the water element was a chaotic area with neither mountains nor barriers. The landmarks here were warm currents, cold currents, torrents, turbulence, huge whirlpools, bubbles, hot water, cold water, brine, fresh water, and poisonous water. If there was no guidance, even the most powerful god like him could only swim like a headless fly. In fact, at present, there were nine other gods in the Water Element Plane: the Goddess of the Ocean, Ariel, and her eight sea kings. After all these years of preparation, Ariel almost built her own God¡¯s Kingdom. But she wanted to make the God¡¯s Kingdom a fortress of attack and defense, so she needed to add some powerful and unique facilities to it. The most important one was the ¡°Water Element Condensation Pool.¡± It was a special magic facility that could transform magic power into mysterious element activity and give life to ordinary water and make it into a water element; it could also expend magic power to promote the growth of ordinary water elements to quickly grow into elite creatures. If you were willing to consume more magic power, it even could help the elders specialized in water elements break through their bottleneck, step into the Legendary Realm and become a Lord of Elements. As for becoming a demigod, there were no shortcuts. If there were any exact ways to cultivate a demigod, the rulers of the four elements would have become the strongest. Was there really no way for Ariel to make a Water Element Condensation Pool? There was no Water Element Condensation Pool in the former Goddess of Ocean, Vorpocus¡¯ God¡¯s Kingdom. She built the whole kingdom into a fortress and then used Divine Power to strengthen the defense or to set off storms in disorder. The ¡°Despot of the Sea,¡± the ¡°Monarch of Storms,¡± the ¡°Master of Storms¡±¡ªsuch titles were sufficient to illustrate the problem. Ariel was not as absurd as Vorpocus. She had many legacies of Vorpocus, including the lessons that Vorpocus summed up in her life. For the next god of the sea, Vorpocus urged her not to expand the clergy and belief arbitrarily. If she wanted to expand the scope of the clergy and belief, she could adopt the method of aligning with other gods. One advantage was that she would have the most reliable allies. The other was that she could greatly reduce the risk of being swallowed by the power of belief. In view of Vorpocus¡¯s advice, Ariel had put herself in the right place from the very beginning. She positioned herself as ¡°the God of Mermaids, the Mediator of all Ocean Races, and the Ally of Sea Gods.¡± She distributed such things as storms, waves, sea fog and even sea areas to all demigods and legendary masters in the sea. She promised them shelter and guidance as long as they were willing to live with other sea races in accordance with the general rules of peace, and to help them when needed. At first glance, the clergy was not powerful, but other gods would never underestimate her. On the contrary, many powerful gods expressed their willingness to make alignment and share mutual assistance. At least they could live in peace. Although Ariel¡¯s deity rose more slowly than Vorpocus¡¯s, her deity would be exceptionally strong and concise. There was no need to worry about the contamination of divinity by faith for her. Not only that, with her strength, sooner or later, a group of sea gods would gather under her leadership to form a pretty large-scale god system. The weakness of this system was also obvious. The lack of high-end force was fatal. After all, the strongest one in the whole god system was Ariel. Although Ariel only had a limited fighting capacity, she had two strong ¡°mentors.¡± Her mentors would probably be the top two among the gods. With the strong backing of the Void Mask and the God of Justice, would high-end force still a problem? That was what Ariel herself thought. The Void Mask told Ariel the idea of building her God¡¯s Kingdom as a fortress. This meant that her God¡¯s Kingdom would be able to retreat at the critical moments. The core part of the fortress needed to be highly mobile and able to move all followers in when necessary and leave the unimportant parts there. As for these unimportant parts, these could be transformed into countless water elements immediately. As for how the enemy should deal with these thick-skinned water element creatures, that was the enemy¡¯s problem. In order to achieve this goal, she not only needed to build the Water Element Condensation Pool, but also to build the largest one in the world. After all, it needed to turn the God¡¯s Kingdom into countless water elements at the critical moments. Making a Water Element Condensation Pool bigger had another advantage. If the battle was not particularly fierce, it just needed to create some water element creatures to fight. There was no need to send many Oracles to fight. It was true that Oracles could be resurrected, but resurrecting Oracles required a lot of energy. So it was more economical to use water element creatures than to use Oracles. This was Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion. He tended to use element creatures as his troops. For example, in several wars, he used element creatures as his troops. Why? Nothing but economical. Thousands of Oracles rushed up and died one after another. That seemed impressive, but they were all precious Divine Powers. In contrast, element creatures could grow and revive by absorbing element power. Although element creatures were weaker than Oracles, one can win the battle by quantity. Facts had proved that his idea was very useful. That was why Ariel wanted to build a huge Water Element Condensation Pool and create element creatures troops. Of course, element creatures were not something that could only be used in wartime. They could be used to cultivate Oracles or to act as a handyman of the God¡¯s Kingdom. As for the deficiency of mental capacity of the element creatures, that was not a problem. Followers could act as commanders and give orders, and element creatures were responsible for working. Generally speaking, Ariel¡¯s design was very good. They could be used both in wartime or peace. The only problem was that building such a huge Water Element Condensation Pool required a huge amount of materials. Ordinary materials were easy to get, but the most precious one was the Heart of Elements. Specifically, it was the heart of water elements. The origin of this thing was simple. If a water creature died because of age, it might produce a water element heart in its corpse. The problem was that element creatures did not have the concept of ¡°life spans.¡± They would grow and become stronger. But in any case, they wouldn¡¯t die of aging. Once before, there were powerful magicians who imprisoned some weak element creatures and used powerful magic to keep them senile. After nearly a thousand years, these magicians were dying of old age, but these element creatures were almost the same as when they were captured. To make element creatures die of old age, we must first make them have a life span. This means breaking its own limits. In other words, we need to help them step into the Legendary Realm. Unlike ordinary creatures, element creatures would produce a life span when they stepped into the Legendary Realm. This was a good thing and a bad thing. But as long as there was a chance to be a legendary master, few element creatures would refuse. Certainly, that would make them lose eternal life, but even element creatures with relatively low intelligence knew that it was not life spans but strength that determined how long a person could live in this world. There were lots of element creatures without strength dying every day. But for the Lord of Elements who were in the Legendary Realm, not even one would die each year. Not to mention that ¡°becoming stronger¡± was the nature of all living creatures. There were no exceptions! Once element creatures stepped into the Legendary Realm, they could become Elemental Lords. Even an Element Lord at the lowest level could live for thousands of years. If he was lucky enough to die, he would leave behind the Heart of Elements. It took about one hundred Hearts of Elements to build the huge Water Element Condensation Pool that designed by Ariel. She just had to be patient. Chapter 489 Chapter 489: Chapter 29 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Looking for water element hearts in the Water Element Plane, one could probably find one hundred. If the task was to find about one hundred water element hearts in the Water Element Plane, even Sui Xiong, who had a good relationship with Ariel, could only use the classic line in the Legend of Zhen Huan to reply, ¡°I really can¡¯t do this!¡± Fortunately, this number was not fixed. If they could find a more advanced water element heart, then the advanced one could be equivalent to several ordinary ones. In fact, they only needed to find about forty or fifty water element hearts. The Goddess of Wealth had some water element hearts in her kingdom. Javier also went out to communicate with other gods and some other countries, and he bought some back from them. Now they only needed to find less than twenty-five water element hearts. Such a number was what they could try to find. So Ariel led all the strong men of her subordinates and friends who were good at fighting in the water¡ªthe Sea King of Eight Planes, herself and Sui Xiong. A total of ten God-level strong men scattered in all directions searched everywhere in the Water Element Plane, trying to make up the remaining number. If they could find some more advanced water element hearts, this number could be further reduced. If they could find water element hearts left by the Lord of Elements who had stepped into the demigod realm, they could build the giant Water Element Condensation Pool based on that water element heart they found. Another question was how to make the powerful demigod who had gained eternal life die of old age. ¡°In fact, there are some ways¡­¡± Sui Xiong kept on turning around and murmured. ¡°For example, I can find a Demigod Lord and try to kill his immortality. Then we just have to wait patiently for him to die of old age.¡± ¡°Hmm, waiting for thousands of years, he may die.¡± ¡°Oh god! That¡¯s so long!¡± Sui Xiong sighed deeply and dropped this unreliable idea. How does one make a demigod die of old age? Anyway, Sui Xiong could not come up with any reliable ideas! What¡¯s more, the Water Element Plane was too large! The Water Element Plane was the inner layer of the ¡°material world.¡± The so-called inner layer was formed as the basis of the material world together with several other element planes. Those planes were boundless in size, and even the powerful gods could not find their margins. In the boundless world, there existed many kingdoms. For example, the most common kingdoms were the aquatic animal kingdom and the elemental organism kingdom. Sui Xiong and his men wanted to find water element hearts mainly in those kingdoms. Did they expect to find a water element heart in the wild? Of course, there were some possibilities, but it was just like buying a lottery ticket and winning five million. Sui Xiong had never met such good luck. So far, he had found two water element hearts from some kingdoms. The first came from an elemental organism kingdom, the founder of which was a water element from the Legendary Realm. Later, it died of old age and left a water element heart. The second came from a kingdom of ¡°long-finned fishermen,¡± but it did not originate from this kingdom. It was snatched from the national treasury of another kingdom in a foreign war. Of course, considering that this kingdom was not an elemental organism kingdom, water element hearts may also be stolen from another kingdom. Sui Xiong adopted different attitudes towards those two kingdoms. Although those elemental organisms were not mild, they were not savage and hostile. Sui Xiong communicated with them for several days and finally got water element hearts in exchange for helping an elder of water element step into the Legendary Realm. As for the kingdom that had attacked Sui Xiong after his secret search, he was sure that it was a brutal bandit kingdom. He broke through its magic fence without saying a word and used a spell called the ¡°Stable and Unparalleled Justice¡± that he had learned from his eldest brother. This spell had no other effects but would make people suffer the pain that they had caused to others. Although the spell was weak in general, if a person had done all kinds of evil, they would definitely die. When the spell hit the kingdom, about one-third of people in the Long-finned Fishermen Kingdom died. Sui Xiong stuck out his tongue and murmured something. Then he grabbed all the souls and was going to throw them into hell when he returned to the Main Plane. He would leave the words ¡°good and evil will always be rewarded¡± above the water with his Divine Powers and then marched off. Of course, before leaving, he did not forget to take some ¡°souvenirs¡± from the treasury of other kingdoms. In general, those two things were very interesting. It was interesting to talk to those slow-moving water elements, and it was also interesting to see the faces of those bullies who bullied others. This little bit of fun could make Sui Xiong feel happy from time to time during his boring search. In fact, he really looked forward to what kind of kingdom he would encounter next. With this expectation, the giant jellyfish searched in the boundless abyss and slowly went around in circles. About two or three months later, Sui Xiong encountered five or six kingdoms in the Water Element Plane, but he only collected three water element hearts from the Sea Kingdom. Other kingdoms did not have water element hearts. The three water element hearts that Sui Xiong had received were from a kingdom hosted by the Golden-tailed Fishermen. The Golden-tailed Fishermen were keen on doing business, and their favorite thing to do was to collect gold and all kinds of treasures. They were often robbed by some greedy strong men because they had so much treasure. Therefore, they often migrated in order to avoid disasters. They were also keen on making good relations with some powerful men, hoping to seek help when they were in danger. Those methods were unreliable, but for those who were not good at fighting, this was a good way. Sui Xiong¡¯s visit surprised the king of the Golden-tailed Fishermen. As a big businessman, he knew a lot of people who did cross-plane transactions and who were quite well-informed. The giant green jellyfish was gentle except for his speech and behavior being a little strange. The most important thing was that he was super powerful. Combined with these points, Sui Xiong did not even need to give self-introduction; the Golden-tailed Fishermen recognized him immediately. When they knew that Sui Xiong was helping the Goddess of Ocean to search for water element hearts, they gave three water element hearts to Sui Xiong without hesitation from their treasury. Then they tried to ask whether the Goddess of Ocean wanted to accept the loyalty of their race? For a variety of reasons, few gods would bring their faiths to the Elemental Plane, and the Goddess of Ocean was no exception. Sui Xiong contacted Ariel for a while, but Ariel felt somewhat embarrassed. She even wanted to give up the three water element hearts. Sui Xiong did not understand why the Goddess of Ocean refused to accept the Golden-tailed Fishermen as her followers since others were pulling people to believe in them? ¡°This¡­ It¡¯s easy to anger the Rulers of the Elements by developing followers in the Elemental Plane,¡± Ariel said with a bitter smile. ¡°It¡¯s not worth risking angering the Queen of Water Elements and the King of Fire Elements for three water element hearts.¡± Sui Xiong frowned and instead of telling the Golden-tailed Fishermen this answer, he asked whether they wanted to believe in him? ¡°Believing in me is a little more complicated than believing in the Goddess of Ocean,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I have requirements for the behavior of my followers. Generally speaking, I require my followers to refuse to cooperate with the evil camp and be as good as possible. Is this requirement too high for you businessmen?¡± The king of the Golden-tailed Fishermen shook his head immediately. Sui Xiong was worried that he would break the two long beards on his chin because he shook his head too hard. ¡°Great, the Void Mask! We really want your protection! As for those requirements, we will adhere to strictly. Please rest assured!¡± In this way, Sui Xiong got the three water element hearts and a group of devout followers. When they knew that the Void Mask was willing to protect them, the Golden-tailed Fishermen were very excited, and many of them even cried. This made Sui Xiong feel very emotional. These guys¡­ How many hardships had they suffered in the past!? However, Sui Xiong¡¯s troubles came soon. Shortly after he left the kingdom of the Golden-tailed Fishermen, a huge shadow of water elements appeared above him, accompanied by violent turbulence. Not needing to look carefully, Sui Xiong guessed this identity just from the pressure they gave off. He was one of the leaders of the four elements¡ªthe Queen of Water Elements. Chapter 490 Chapter 490: Chapter 30 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong felt a little nervous when he saw the Queen of Water Elements, not because the Queen of Water Elements was so powerful, but because he had just done something shameful and was caught on the spot. He was not as cheeky as the former sage Zhang Daqian. Although he thought he had done the right thing, he could not help but feel worried. ¡°That¡­ ha ha, the weather is good today.¡± The green jellyfish, who was much smaller than the Queen of Water Elements, waved its tentacles and greeted her. A huge shadow of water elements gradually solidified and eventually turned into a much smaller water element. Its color was very deep, and the water that constituted its body was almost solidified. It was hard to distinguish whether it was a water element or an ice element. Sui Xiong knew that it was the Battle Clone of the Queen of Water Elements. The real appearance of the Queen of Water Elements was naturally a huge and incomparable water element. She liked to change into an ice-sculptured noblewoman, so she was often respected as the ¡°Ice Queen.¡± However, the Ice Queen was not her Battle Clone. Her true Battle Clone was the frozen water element in front of Sui Xiong now, called the King of Dead Water. ¡°I¡¯m just passing by¡­ There¡¯s no need to fight with each other,¡± Sui Xiong said with a reluctant smile. ¡°I¡¯m just an incarnation. No matter if I win or lose, it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± The King of Dead Water did not open his mouth; he looked at him coldly. Sui Xiong waited for a while but saw that the King of Dead Water did not want to fight. He was more puzzled and asked, ¡°What on earth are you going to do? Your territory is not well managed, but you don¡¯t allow others to interfere. After I interfered in your territory, you don¡¯t want to talk nor do you want to fight¡­ Why?¡± The King of Dead Water finally spoke. His voice mixed with the sound of bubbling water, making it very difficult to understand. Fortunately, they both were gods, and they could exchange their ideas through their minds. ¡°Finally, you are here.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Sui Xiong did not expect the King of Dead Water to say such words. He was stunned for a moment. ¡°What do you mean? Did you want to see me for a while? If you wanted to see me, you could¡¯ve just sent me a message. It would be impossible for me not to come when my predecessor calls me.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t speak.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t say.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s talk about something that you can speak about.¡± Sui Xiong did not intend to insist on getting to the bottom of the matter and asked. ¡°Tell me something else. For example, why did you want me to come here?¡± The King of Dead Water was silent for a moment and then answered, ¡°I wanted to talk to you and to see you.¡± ¡°Now that you have seen me, what do you want to talk to me about?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Fate, future and transcendence.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a long time and asked doubtfully, ¡°Are you sure you want to talk to me about this? I always thought that we weren¡¯t friends or that our friendship was not deep enough to talk about such profound topics, right?¡± Sui Xiong did not mean to beat around the bush. For gods, words and deeds were often in line with certain laws, so the contents for ¡°talking¡± were also very particular. Generally speaking, it was no problem for them to talk about eating, drinking, and entertainment. It was a little difficult for them to talk about whom they were going to kill or whom they were going to make friends with¡­ Unless their clergies included deception, lies, or they were good at such clergies. Gods were basically free to say what they wanted to say according to certain laws. As for topics like fate, future, and transcendence, that was to exchange thoughts about the future. If two gods were not reliable allies, they would never talk about those topics. This was the first time for Sui Xiong and the Queen of Water Elements to meet each other. Not to mention friends, they were not even acquaintances. Why did the Queen of Water Elements want to talk with a guy who was not her friend or ally about those important topics? The Queen of Water Elements did not answer but instead kept silent. After what seemed a long time, Sui Xiong found that the Queen of Water Elements had left her original position and appeared in the center of a huge whirlpool. This shocked him. Space movement was not a great skill, but the Queen of Water Elements could display space movement, and she moved them together without him realizing it. Until the moment the movement was completed, Sui Xiong found that he had moved. The Queen of Water Elements was really powerful! Sui Xiong frowned and looked around. It was easy to find hundreds of magic spells and arrays in the whirlpool. It was obvious that this was carefully constructed by the Queen of Water Elements. Unknowingly, he had fallen into a trap. ¡°Hey! What is the meaning of this?¡± He was worried and spoke less politely than before. There was no doubt that this environment was particularly beneficial to the Queen of Water Elements, and that was why she moved Sui Xiong here. She probably had the idea of fighting with Sui Xiong if she could not persuade him. Sui Xiong also agreed to start fighting when he could not persuade the other side. But he preferred to take a different position before talking. If one¡¯s position was contrary to his, he would stop talking nonsense and fight with them directly. Looking at the Queen of Water Elements, he was afraid that the Queen of Water Elements would probably fight with him instead of laughing and drinking together. In that case, he did not need to waste any more time; it was better for him to attack first! The Queen of Water Elements clearly sensed the murderous look on Sui Xiong¡¯s face. She smiled and slowly changed into an ice-sculptured noblewoman with a golden crown on her head. She changed into the ¡°Ice Queen¡± that was the most familiar image among gods. ¡°Well, now that you are here, we can talk with each other more easily.¡± The Queen of Water Elements in the image of the Ice Queen was more talkative and gentle. ¡°Put your murderous look away. I did not come to fight with you.¡± ¡°Then why did you move me here?¡± Sui Xiong did not relax his vigilance. ¡°It¡¯s just to hide from other people¡¯s eyes,¡± the Queen of Water Elements laughed and said. ¡°After we finish talking, I¡¯ll blow up the whole place and destroy the evidence.¡± Blow it up? Destroy the evidence? Sui Xiong frowned. His intuition told him that the next thing that the Queen of Water Elements was going to talk about was a bit unusual. ¡°Can I not listen?¡± he asked. ¡°To tell you the truth, I¡¯m not really interested in what you want to talk about.¡± ¡°I know that you are not interested, but I¡¯m interested in talking about it,¡± the Queen of Water Elements smiled and said. ¡°You can choose to kill my incarnation and blow up my whirlpool to leave, or you can choose to listen to me. It¡¯s your choice.¡± Sui Xiong suddenly felt helpless. He did not think that a Ruler of Four Elements, such a top deity, would play such a roguish trick. However, the trick hit him on the spot, and his personality decided that he could not fight over such a thing. There was no hatred between Sui Xiong and the Queen of Water Elements, and the behavior of the Queen of Water Elements did not violate his bottom line. Strictly speaking, he was still a little guilty¡­ In that case, it would be really embarrassing to fight with the Queen of Water Elements. So it seemed that he had no choice. Chapter 491 Chapter 491: Chapter 31 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Seeing the Queen of Water Elements make a desk and a chair with magic calmly, Sui Xiong tried one last time to refuse the conversation. He said, ¡°I really don¡¯t want to know the secrets of you guys, my seniors. I¡¯m not that curious!¡± But the Queen of Water Elements just sat down in a relaxing way and took out a wine pot and two cups from nowhere, waiting to have a chat with Sui Xiong. ¡°Please have a chat with an old lady,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said in a very humble way, without the posture of a senior at all. But what she said was still a threat to Sui Xiong. ¡°Or, do you young men just like to chat with beautiful young girls and not with an old lady like me?¡± Sui Xiong looked at her face and shook his head. The Ice Queen was a first-class beauty. The gods didn¡¯t care about the length of a life span at all; so what did age matter? ¡°Then, where shall we start?¡± The Queen of Water Elements held her chin in her left hand and thought for a moment. ¡°Well, let¡¯s start from the very beginning.¡± From the very beginning? Does she want to start with ¡°Five hundred years ago, a stone monkey was put into prison under the Five Fingers Mountain¡±? Sui Xiong muttered in his heart like that, but he was too lazy to argue with her. He picked up the wine pot and poured himself a cup of wine. The wine in the bottle was freezing cold, and Sui Xiong felt no burning feeling in his belly after drinking it. Instead, he felt quite refreshed. He was shocked at that. This feeling was absolutely unusual! He knew that this small cup of wine he had drunk just now might be more valuable than one water element heart. Well, after listening to her story, I¡¯ll buy several water element hearts from her. I bet she surely has some in stock, those high-class ones! ¡°I don¡¯t know what the world was like at the very beginning. In my impression, the world was made up of two parts, matter and spirit, that¡¯s all.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked at Queen of Water Elements¡¯ first sentence. What the hell¡­ Is she going to start from the birth of heaven and earth? How long will this conversation last?! ¡°At that time, the material world was not divided into the outer space and the inner space yet, and all kinds of elements and energy were mixed up in a mess. Many masters were born in the midst of the chaos, and they kept fighting with each other, striving to swallow each other to grow bigger. Of course, I was one of them,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said. ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly what the spiritual world looked like at that time, but it should be about the same as the material world.¡± She paused for a moment and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know how long this chaotic situation lasted. At last, the war in the material world was coming to an end. There were more than a dozen powerful masters born, and they were unable to defeat each other. However, they were afraid of being killed by each other, and that developed into a delicate balance. You know, balance means peace.¡± Sui Xiong nodded at that. Where did peace come from? Of course, it came from balance. Only the balance between different powers could truly bring peace to the world. It was like the situation on earth¡ªbenevolence and righteousness couldn¡¯t bring peace to people. Only when all the countries were within the attacking range of each other¡¯s nuclear bomb could the world be really peaceful, for there would be balance between them. There were many places caught in war on the earth when Sui Xiong space-traveled, and that was usually because neither party involved in the war had nuclear bombs. The Middle Eastern countries were always caught in wars, why? Because they were all weak. It was very difficult for them to really threaten each other. If they were as powerful as the Soviet Union and the United States, they could destroy each other with nuclear bombs and send each other to see God. Then presumably, there wouldn¡¯t have been so many wars since then. Western scholars always said that the nuclear bomb was the greatest threat to human security, and that was something Sui Xiong never agreed with! ¡°However, that was only the peace of our material world,¡± the Queen of Water Elements continued. ¡°Since we achieved peace within ourselves and stopped fighting with each other, we had to start a war with a foreign country. I think you can understand that, right?¡± ¡°Yes, I do. I fully understand that!¡± Sui Xiong laughed and did not say the second half of the sentence. You were just a group of violent fanatics. I¡¯ve seen many types of people like this in online games. They feel uncomfortable when they can¡¯t kill others in the game for a day. If there is no battlefield available, they will run to kill those new players in other game camps. At that time, there was a famous player. His main account in the game was named ¡®Three-Crop Rice,¡¯ and he took upon killing those new players and other players¡¯ second accounts in the game as his career. ¡°So we organized a legion and marched to the spiritual world.¡± The Queen of Water Elements suddenly smiled in a mysterious way. ¡°Can you guess what happened to us?¡± ¡°Most probably you met the expeditionary force of your enemy,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°Yes! Before we reached the spiritual world, we met their expeditionary army,¡± The Queen of Water Elements laughed and said. ¡°It seemed that we all had the same idea. Then, you can guess what happened next. There came another war, and it took even longer than the last one did. Countless masters died in the war, and countless desperate means were used. In the end, the most powerful masters in the material world, including me, came up with a crazy plan: we decided to cut off a part of the material world and use it as a throwing weapon to smash it into the spiritual world.¡± Hearing the Queen of Water Elements describe such a crazy plan so easily, Sui Xiong opened his mouth widely and did not know how to evaluate it. What the hell! A group of war fanatics! It¡¯s insane! ¡°That was out of the expectation of the spiritual world. They had never thought that we could do that.¡± The Queen of Water Elements smiled proudly. Although she did not know how long it had been since that war, she was still very proud of it. But her smile soon disappeared. ¡°But we didn¡¯t know that things would develop beyond our expectations as well. The part we cut from the material world hit the spiritual world heavily, and that not only caused great damage to the spiritual world but also created a huge circulation beyond imagination, the surging Big Circulation.¡± ¡°The Big Circulation?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment and could not help asking, ¡°The Ring of the World?¡± ¡°Yes, the Big Circulation was the origin of the Ring of the World. Once the circulation started to move, it was hard to stop it, and several masters who tried to stop it were destroyed. Thus, everyone gave up on the idea to stop it, and we watched its development. With the flow of the Big Circulation, the material world and the spiritual world gradually collapsed into numerous pieces, and they were almost about to collapse completely and merge into the Big Circulation.¡± Even though he knew that it did not happen in the end, Sui Xiong could not help but swallow nervously. ¡°In that case, there were four masters in the material world, including me, who decided to sacrifice ourselves to stabilize our world,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said calmly. ¡°We purified our powers as much as possible and then tried our best to collect those pure powers and put them together, trying to form a solid core to fix the position of the material world.¡± ¡°Did you succeed?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Yes, but we also failed.¡± Sui Xiong was surprised. According to the current situation of the world, the four masters who had sacrificed themselves to stabilize the world had succeeded. At present, the material world existed with the elemental world of the inner space as its core. Wasn¡¯t that the result of what the four masters had done? The Queen of Water Elements saw Sui Xiong¡¯s doubts and sighed softly. ¡°When we finally combined our powers into a solid core of matter, something unexpected happened. The core of the material world failed to reduce the power of the Big Circulation. On the contrary, it aroused the violent shock of it. The shock swept through every part of the Big Circulation in an instant, destroying almost everything and eventually turning into a terrible torrent.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. He had never heard of such a thing in this world. ¡°At that time, we were also in a very dangerous situation. We could only do our best to unite more closely with each other, and that was all we were concerned with. I don¡¯t know how long it took for the torrent to subside. Only then did we realize that the world was already unconsciously divided into four parts by the torrent of the Big Circulation,¡± the Queen of Water Elements laughed bitterly and said. ¡°That¡¯s what you know as the Matter Plane, the Spirit Plane, the Positive Plane, and the Negative Plane.¡± Sui Xiong suddenly realized that in the torrent, except for the Rulers of the Four Elements and a few lucky ones, all other creatures were killed. That was why there was no relevant information left. ¡°The world was destroyed and then rebuilt. It was empty. We looked at each other and didn¡¯t know whether we should be happy or not.¡± The Queen of Water Elements sighed. ¡°The ones that had planned to sacrifice themselves eventually survived, and all the others died. I have to say that this is a very ironic result.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and said. ¡°If just a few people could survive at that time, then, of course, it would be better to let those who were willing to sacrifice themselves survive.¡± ¡°The God of Virtue said something similar,¡± The Queen of Water Elements smiled and said. ¡°If you are lucky to meet him, you will find that you two have something in common.¡± ¡°The God of Virtue¡­ have you ever met the four greater Divine Powers?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°Of course I have. I am their senior,¡± the Queen of Water Elements laughed and said. ¡°They are the projection of the Big Circulation and the embodiment of the core laws of the Four Planes of this world. The order of the Matter Plane, the good of the Positive Plane, the chaos of the Spirit Plane and the evil of the Negative Plane. When they first appeared, we thought they were just like us and took them as the new generation of the first generation of gods.¡± ¡°And then?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help asking. ¡°Then, we found that only four masters were born this time, but the strength of these four masters far exceeded that of our four seniors.¡± The Queen of Water Elements sighed. ¡°You know, up to now, the other three of the Rulers of the Four Elements of the ancient times have all died. I am the only one alive. However, I¡¯m just a great Divine Power. In order to become a greater Divine Power, I have spent so much time and energy and made countless attempts, but I¡¯ve failed.¡± She sighed with pity, showing disappointment on her face. Seeing her act like that, Sui Xiong did not know how to comfort her. What she pursued was something too high-end. It was similar to Sui Xiong having the privilege of drinking with the CEO of one of the richest companies, and then CEO says while drinking, ¡°I have been a successful businessman in my life, and now I want to transform into a politician. I want to be the president of my country, but why there is no way for me to do that!¡± Well, what should Sui Xiong say? Chapter 492 Chapter 492: Chapter 32 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The distress of the Queen of Water Elements was really high-end. Until now, Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t officially become a god. He didn¡¯t even have a formal priesthood, and his deity was only at the level of ¡°god-to-be.¡± With such an identity, Sui Xiong thought, Madam, you have a lot of time to be distressed. I came here early today; I haven¡¯t even brushed my teeth yet¡­ He was just teasing. Actually, Sui Xiong was a little curious. He wanted to know what efforts the Queen of Water Elements had made. Was there any experience for reference? Although he was still far away from these things, everyone had curiosity. As an old saying went, a journey of a thousand miles began with a single step. Sui Xiong was still a god-to-be who couldn¡¯t be counted as a weak Divine Power, but he could use the experience when he grew into a great Divine Power! Maybe he was going to follow the route of devils, and he wouldn¡¯t pursue great Divine Power or greater Divine Power. However, the experience of a strong predecessor who pursued a stronger realm was always valuable. Why did many painters do some part-time work? Some did it in order to earn money to support their families, but more were just seeking inspiration. The experience of others could help a person find his own shortcomings. This principle worked everywhere. The Queen of Water Elements sighed for a while; then she began to introduce her efforts to break through the great Divine Power and step into a greater Divine Power in these years. Of course, she hadn¡¯t done that blindly. At first, she had analyzed the characteristics of the four great Divine Powers. Every one of them was a master of a world, and the worlds they controlled were big enough. ¡°Big¡± meant not only a large scale but also referred to complicated and rich content. Talking about scale, the four Elemental Planes were also infinite. In fact, there were many infinite worlds, but they were all contained within the four planes that the Big Circulation flowed through. The key to the problem lay in the complexity and richness of the world The King of Earth Elements had made the first attempt. He had believed that in order to make a breakthrough, it had been necessary to raise the level of the Earth Elemental Plane to the same level as that of the Four Planes. Therefore, he had started to urge the Earth Elemental Plane to launch a large-scale erosion towards the Matter Plane. He had planned to replace the Matter Plane in this way, and then to replace the seat of the Master of Order. ¡°What was the result?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°He was killed by the Master of Order.¡± ¡°Well, very reasonable.¡± The result was so reasonable without any turns or suspense, so it was boring. The King of Wind Element had made the second attempt. He believed that he should develop the Elemental Planes. It had taken him countless amounts of energy to push the four Elemental Planes to influence each other. As a result, some secondary Elemental Planes had appeared. It had been a great project. Finally, he had created four secondary Elemental Planes. The Wind Elemental Plane and the Fire Elemental Plane had interacted with each other and had created the Smoke Plane. The Fire Elemental Plane and the Earth Elemental Plane had interacted with each other and had created the Lava Plane. The Wind Plane and the Water Plane had interacted with each other and had created the Ice Plane. The Water Plane and the Earth Plane had interacted with each other and had created the Mud Plane. This had brought tremendous changes to the world. The resources had been richer, and the creatures had become more diverse. Therefore, the King of Smoke Elements, the King of Lava Elements, the King of Ice Elements and the King of Mud Elements had been produced. However, the King of Wind Elements hadn¡¯t been advanced because of that. He hadn¡¯t been discouraged. He believed that he hadn¡¯t created enough things, so he continued to think about what to do. After observing the Big Circulation for a long time, he decided to build some worlds that symbolized the Positive Plane, the Negative Plane and the Spirit Plane in the inner part of the Matter Plane. Therefore, it could form an independent circulation. ¡°I always felt that the amount of the engineering was a bit much,¡± Sui Xiong commented. The Queen of Water Elements sighed. She nodded silently and then continued to speak. ¡°This time, the amount of engineering was larger than that of the last time. The King of Wind Element tried his best to build the two planes of Positive Energy and Negative Energy. When he wanted to build the Soul Plane, he suddenly fell down and died.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes widened, and his mouth was wide open. After being stunned for a long time, he asked, ¡°Who killed him?¡± ¡°Nobody,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said, sighing. ¡°He was exhausted to death.¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a long time before he came back to his sense. Exhausted to death. Well, in Chinese mythology, Pan Gu, the creator of the universe, had also been exhausted to death. In contrast, it seemed reasonable that the King of Wind Element had been exhausted to death. However, he was a top-class powerful god who was going to become a greater Divine Power. It was a bit ironic that he had finally been excessively overworked and exhausted to death. The King of Wind Element had died, so the efforts to create a new world had naturally been interrupted. The Soul Plane hadn¡¯t been able to be built, and the two planes of Positive Energy and Negative Energy had interacted with the existing four big planes. As a result, another eight planes, which were smaller than the Secondary Elemental Planes, had appeared. In the direction of Positive Energy, there was Lightning, Light, Steam, and Ore. In the direction of Negative Energy, there was Vacuum, Ash, Salt, and Dust. The huge system composed of the four Main Planes, two Subordinated Planes, four Secondary Planes, and eight Sub-Secondary Planes had finally been formed. The worlds inside the Matter Plane had also produced their own circulations. After hearing this, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but sigh. He said, ¡°The King of Wind Elements¡­ What a pity!¡± ¡°Yeah, what a pity,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said, sighing. ¡°If he wasn¡¯t exhausted to death, he might have really succeeded.¡± ¡°Yeah, he might¡¯ve.¡± However, this was nonsense. The King of Wind Elements had died. It meant nothing to him whether he had succeeded or failed. After the death of the King of Wind Elements, the Queen of Water Elements and the King of Fire Elements had been silent for a long time. On the one hand, the road that had seemed to work had already been used by the King of Wind Elements. Even if they had wanted to go through this way, there had been no worlds that could be created on a large scale. On the other hand, they had been scared. After a long time, the King of Fire Elements had suddenly come to visit the Queen of Water Elements, indicating that he had had a new idea. ¡°What idea?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°You can¡¯t make something without breaking something first. He wanted to give up his deity and start from scratch again,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said. ¡°This time, instead of sticking to fire element, he wanted to include all the contents of the inner part of the Matter Plane.¡± ¡°Including water elements?¡± Sui Xiong asked, frowning. ¡°Yes, including water elements.¡± Sui Xiong said, widening his eyes, ¡°You actually agreed?!¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I?¡± the Queen of Water Elements asked. ¡°I only lost my priesthood temporarily. For me, the priesthood was originally something I gained afterwards. Even if I didn¡¯t have a priesthood, I was still strong enough to rival any great Divine Power. I was still the absolute overlord of the Water Elemental Plane.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment, and then he nodded, but he was still a little confused. ¡°In that case, the King of Fire Elements tried hard to control the inner part of the whole Matter Plane. Did he succeed?¡± The Queen of Water Elements was silent for a while, and then she said, ¡°Of course not. It was successful at first. However, when he tried to contain the water elements in his newly established priesthood, he exploded.¡± ¡°Exploded?¡± ¡°Yes, he exploded and died,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said calmly. ¡°Water and fire are completely in conflict, so they can¡¯t be integrated at all.¡± ¡°But he had integrated wind and earth successfully. They are also in conflict,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°He was a fire element,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said. ¡°I see!¡± Sui Xiong suddenly knew the reason. ¡°Frankly speaking, these are your own innate attributes.¡± The Queen of Water Elements nodded. She said, sighing, ¡°After finishing the failure experience of others, it is time to tell you my own. Are you still interested in listening?¡± Sui Xiong was completely attracted by her words, so he answered without hesitation, ¡°Of course!¡± Chapter 493 Chapter 493: Chapter 33 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Three companions had died in succession. After that, even though the Queen of Water Elements had had a strong will, she couldn¡¯t help but be discouraged. More importantly, she had been really scared. From great Divine Power to greater Divine Power, this step was too dangerous. She had asked herself, Why should I go further to reach the highest peak? I¡¯m already almost at the top of the gods. Compared to the past, I still have a good life. What¡¯s more, even if I become a greater Divine Power, what will be the difference? Are greater Divine Powers better? There were four greater Divine Powers. After a short time, there is only one left now. Their survival time is not as long as we Rulers of the Four Elements. With such an idea, the Queen of Water Elements had been quiet for a long time without any movement. ¡°Hold on!¡± Sui Xiong interrupted her narrative. Then he asked, ¡°You just said that there were four greater Divine Powers. After a short time, there is only one left now?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°I have been very curious about this, but no one knows why. I originally thought that unless I could ask the Master of Order, I would never know the reason. Unexpectedly, there is an insider here!¡± After being silent for a while, the Queen of Water Elements said, ¡°Actually, that is not a secret. All the ancient gods probably know why. In general, there is no difference between the situation of we four rulers.¡± ¡°Do you mean that they also pursued higher realms and then they died one by one?¡± ¡°Almost,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said. Obviously, she didn¡¯t mean to keep a secret for the greater Divine Powers. She was even willing to tell Sui Xiong her own secret today, let alone others¡¯. ¡°First of all, the God of Evil managed to attack the Master of Chaos. The specific approach was probably like this. He led the Master of Chaos into the center of the Negative Plane that he controlled, and then he launched a powerful sneak attack. As for how he attacked him in detail, I wasn¡¯t there at that time, so I didn¡¯t see it with my eyes. But I still knew the result. The Master of Chaos was severely wounded, so he had to give up his body and most of his Divine Power to escape. Maybe he was afraid that the God of Evil would wait for him at his home, so he didn¡¯t return to the Spirit Plane. He healed himself in a secret place that was unknown. The Dragon of Chaos, the ancestor of the devils that we usually see, can be regarded as the reincarnation of his residual power.¡± Sui Xiong nodded, expressing that he understood. The Dragon of Chaos was actually one of the greater Divine Powers, but he was only a reincarnation. Moreover, he was the reincarnation of the residue. The reincarnation of his residue was already so powerful, so how powerful was the Master of Order? The Master of Order was comparable to the Master of Chaos. His elder brother wanted to challenge the Master of Order. After hearing that, Sui Xiong thought that it was impossible for his elder brother to win. ¡°The God of Evil won, and everyone thought that he might go further. However, the result was exactly the opposite. After devouring what the Master of Chaos had abandoned, he couldn¡¯t digest it at all. Instead, because the power was too condensed, he was dominated by chaos,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said, shaking her head. ¡°You have been to the abyss, right? As the core area of the Negative Plane, the abyss should have been an extremely evil place, and everything else should have been secondary. But now, chaos is the theme of the abyss, and evil is a secondary one. It is conceivable how the situation of the God of Evil is.¡± Sui Xiong carefully recalled what he had seen and heard in the abyss and then he understood her meaning. If nothing was wrong with the God of Evil, he should have occupied the Spirit Plane on the basis of the Negative Plane. However, in fact, either in the Spirit Plane or in the Negative Plane, there were no leaders. Sui Xiong had never heard of any rulers. Moreover, even if the Spirit Plane was occupied by the God of Evil for a while, there should have been an obvious tendency towards evil. However, as far as Sui Xiong knew, the situation of the Spirit Plane was similar to that of the Matter Plane. There was no particularly obvious tendency towards good or evil. In other words, although the God of Evil had won, he hadn¡¯t succeeded. Instead, he had suffered a huge failure. It was very likely that he had been eroded too much by chaos. He had lost his clear thoughts. At this moment, Sui Xiong was suddenly shocked. He remembered a guy he had met before. The strange chaos that had summoned him! It was so powerful and horrible that he felt he would never fight against it! Could it be¡­ the God of Evil? He hurriedly told her his experience at that time. After hearing his narrative with interest, the Queen of Water Elements said, nodding, ¡°Yes, what you met was him. It seems that he hasn¡¯t been able to fully digest his rich loot. Otherwise, even if he is half awake, you wouldn¡¯t have the chance to escape from him.¡± Sui Xiong disagreed with her words. He felt that even if he met the God of Evil when the God of Evil was completely awake, he could run away then. Of course, if he said that, they would argue for the sake of arguing. Therefore, he didn¡¯t say that. After telling Sui Xiong the story of the God of Evil and the Master of Chaos, the Queen of Water Elements began to talk about the God of Virtue. According to her introduction, the God of Virtue had given up his priesthood and deity. He had given them to the Master of Order. However, the Master of Order believed that order should be neutral between good and evil, so he had refused to accept this gift. As a result, the Master of Order had forged them into the Wheel of Order. It was located high at the center of the front of the Ring of the World. The Master of Order usually sat in it, maintaining the running of the world. ¡°Damn! Comparisons are odious!¡± Sui Xiong complained. He couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°The God of Evil spent so much energy and paid such a great price, but finally he didn¡¯t get the real benefit. However, the Master of Order did nothing, and he got what the God of Evil dreamed of. Fortunately, the God of Evil has been stupid. If he is still awake, I am afraid that he¡¯ll be extremely angry!¡± After sighing, he curiously asked about the whereabouts of the God of Virtue. ¡°Nobody knows,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said, shaking her head. ¡°Since the day he went to the Matter Plane to visit the Master of Order, no one has known his whereabouts. I think that maybe he died quietly somewhere, or maybe he still lives a leisurely life in a quiet and peaceful place. Of course, it is possible that he made a breakthrough after giving up the clergy of Virtue. Maybe he has reached a higher level than the greater Divine Power. According to my personal feelings, I hope that this could happen to him.¡± Naturally, Sui Xiong understood the idea of the Queen of Water Elements. If the God of Virtue really surpassed the greater Divine Power, it would mean that the road ahead was still a long way. Compared to surpassing greater Divine Power, it was certainly much easier to surpass great Divine Power. Undoubtedly, it would be a great encouragement to those great Divine Powers, including the Queen of Water Elements. ¡°If someone abandons his own priesthood and deity, will he have the opportunity to make a breakthrough?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Maybe, I¡¯m not sure,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said, shaking her head. ¡°This is a road, but I dare not try it readily. ¡°In the past few years, many gods tried this road, but no one succeeded as far as I know,¡± she said, sighing. ¡°The most recent god who made an attempt was the first god of humans, the God of Knight. According to the level of his power at the end of his life, perhaps he really found the way to enter the greater Divine Power. However, he was extremely weak. He had no power to go through that way. What a pity!¡± When the God of Knight had fallen, Sui Xiong had been participating in the battle against the Sun God System. Later, he had learned of the scene from his friends. Every one of his friends who had told him at that time hadn¡¯t forgotten to emphasize this point. The God of Knight hadn¡¯t had any priesthood at all, but his power had suddenly increased. Now, he finally knew why. ¡°So, what road did you try?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°The one I tried was mainly to build a system of Big Circulation,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said. ¡°However, I didn¡¯t rush to occupy other planes. I built a small world on my own, and I formed a microscopic Big Circulation in it. I tried to resolve and master the mysteries in it.¡± ¡°Have you made it?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Now, water is the main force for most worlds to circulate. Tell me, have I made it?¡± The God of Water Element showed an uncommon smile, though the smile immediately disappeared. ¡°However, that¡¯s all. I achieved such a result hundreds of thousands of years ago, and I haven¡¯t made any further improvement for hundreds of thousands of years.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°I thought about a lot of possibilities, and I did a lot of experiments. In the end, I thought it was probably decided by my own essence. Even though I mastered the mystery of the Big Circulation, I could only reflect it as the water circulation. Only beyond water can I make a true breakthrough and become a greater Divine Power.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly. He felt that her guess was very reasonable. ¡°And this is why I want to meet you and talk to you,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said, looking at Sui Xiong. Her eyes glowed with passion. ¡°You come from the ocean and belong to the aquatic life. How can you completely get rid of your own nature? Besides the appearance, both the quality of your power and the temperament of your soul have no relationship with the ocean. I am really, really curious!¡± Chapter 494 Chapter 494: Chapter 34 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Queen of Water Element had said so many things. First, she introduced her own origins, and then she told Sui Xiong the secrets of the Rulers of Four Elements and the four greater Divine Powers. She did all those things for her final question. You clearly come from the ocean, and you¡¯re obviously a jellyfish. However, how can you get rid of your own nature, and why are you not affected by your own attributes? This question was really difficult for Sui Xiong to answer. Normally, the power of any creature in the water would inevitably be affected by the attribute of water. There were two most typical examples¡ªthe Goddess of Ocean and the Queen of Water Elements. These two were believed to be the most powerful gods of the aquatic kind in this world. Of course, they could exert the power of other attributes, but they could never use them as naturally as they used water, nor as strongly. Usually, they would use different strengths depending on the needs of the situations. At the crucial moment, their foundation was eventually water. It was different for Sui Xiong. His appearance was a jellyfish, but in fact, he had no relationship with a jellyfish. Of course, he could exert some skills of a jellyfish, such as poison stings. That was the unique skill of a jellyfish. However, what kind of attributes should a jellyfish have? What was the nature of the soul of a jellyfish? Those had nothing to do with him. After all, his soul was not a jellyfish¡¯s soul, but a human¡¯s soul from a different world. Hearing the inquiry of the Queen of Water Element, Sui Xiong was silent. The Queen of Water Element wasn¡¯t in a hurry. She sat there quietly, waiting for his reply. Time was not a problem for those two, especially for the Queen of Water Element. She could even be regarded as being born before the world was born. For that answer, she could wait as long as she liked. If she had to wait until another world was created, she could wait. Could Sui Xiong make her wait until another world was created? Obviously not! He wasn¡¯t that shameless! However, he really didn¡¯t want to tell her his own origin. Everyone had their own secrets and somethings they didn¡¯t want to tell others. Maybe some people were willing to use their own secrets to exchange for other people¡¯s secrets, but it didn¡¯t mean that others were willing, too. For Sui Xiong, of course, he was interested in the things that the Queen of Water Element had told him. He was willing to pay a price for knowing those secrets, but that didn¡¯t include his origin! He was a space traveler, and he couldn¡¯t tell this secret to anyone! Sometimes, he thought that time travel was actually not so secretive. His own origin was not strange, so it didn¡¯t have to be a secret. However, he just didn¡¯t want to tell others! For example, a person liked all kinds of fruits except apples. He knew that apples were nutritious and good for his health, but he just didn¡¯t like apples. He didn¡¯t want to eat them. If he was really hungry, he would eat apples, because if he didn¡¯t eat apples, he would starve to death. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t look at apples. When Sui Xiong had been in college, the condition of his classmate had been more serious. That classmate believed in Buddha, so he didn¡¯t eat meat, such as pork, mutton, and beef. He didn¡¯t eat any kind of meat. As a senior intellectual, his fellow classmate naturally knew that being vegetarian wasn¡¯t necessary for Buddhists. In fact, one should not eat onions, garlic, and coriander. However, his classmate just didn¡¯t eat meat. That was the habit he had developed from his childhood, so he couldn¡¯t force himself. One time that classmate had fallen in love, and his girlfriend was a female cook whose family members were all cooks. She had a faithful attachment to eating meat. On the issue of love, a man naturally had to compromise. In desperation, that classmate had eaten a piece of meat once. After returning to the dormitory, he had vomited several times. Finally, he had burst into tears and had said that although the girl was good, he couldn¡¯t be in her league. There were some more extreme examples. Indians had had an uprising for butter, and Arabs had fought with others for the sake of pork. Therefore, if some people didn¡¯t eat something, they just couldn¡¯t eat it. Alas, nothing could help. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to tell others his own origin for the same reason. So he was silent for a long time, and he finally sighed deeply. ¡°Sorry, I can¡¯t tell you,¡± he said. ¡°I am really sorry, but¡­ I can¡¯t tell you the reason why my strength is not affected by water although I¡¯m a jellyfish.¡± The Queen of Water Element sighed deeply. The result was not beyond her estimation. The reason why the Void Mask was not affected by its own race was a great secret. It could be counted as the foundation of his life. Once this secret was known by others, it would be equivalent to giving someone a blade that could kill him. In any case, he wouldn¡¯t tell her this secret. She could judge his feeling on her own. If she were him, she wouldn¡¯t tell others such a secret. Suppose that I had such a secret¡­ ¡°So, can you give me a hint?¡± she asked. This requirement was a step back. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t refuse her. After thinking for a long time, Sui Xiong said slowly, ¡°Have you ever lived by the sea?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± the Queen of Water Element said with a smile. ¡°I have sent my avatars to live for a while in most of the terrains in this world. Don¡¯t mention the seaside, they even lived in lava.¡± Sui Xiong secretly sighed. He said, ¡°There is a kind of small crabs on the beach. Their carapace is not strong enough, so they often look for some big conchs. They kill the conchs and drill into the conch shells to protect themselves by the shells. Have you ever seen such little creatures?¡± ¡°You are talking about hermit crabs? Of course, I¡¯ve ever seen them,¡± the Queen of Water Element said. ¡°They are strange. I think they have a spirituality. For common creatures, if they want attack force, they will improve their strength. If they want defense, they will improve their shells. If they want mobility force, they will improve their speed. However, hermit crabs are different. They choose to use tools to enhance their defense. This is the ability that ordinary creatures don¡¯t own. It is the spirituality that can distinguish between wisdom and obscurity.¡± After being silent for a while, he said, ¡°So, have you ever thought about where its spirituality can be used?¡± Obviously, the Queen of Water Element had thought about this problem. She said, shaking her head, ¡°Spirituality is spirituality, and talent is talent. Birds can fly, and fish can swim. Fire elements need fire, and water elements need water. Those are natural attributes. No matter how powerful its spirituality is, its spirituality can¡¯t surpass its natural attributes.¡± Sui Xiong said, sighing, ¡°If you don¡¯t go beyond your natural attributes, how can you go beyond your limits?¡± The Queen of Water Element said, sighing, ¡°Your words are true, but how can I go beyond my natural attributes? For so many years, only you could do that.¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t reply. He kept silent. He had already hinted his secret to her, but she misunderstood him. He could do nothing about it. After a long silence, the Queen of Water Element understood that he wouldn¡¯t say more, so she sent him away with politeness. When they just stepped out of the huge whirlpool, they heard an earth-shattering sound. The huge whirlpool filled with countless spells of Divine Power suddenly collapsed and set off boundless turbulence. Looking at the scene that was horrible enough to make ordinary people horrified, Sui Xiong was shocked in his heart. He sighed secretly. The tree wanted to be quiet, but the wind didn¡¯t stop. It wouldn¡¯t be easy for him to live a peaceful life. Chapter 495 Chapter 495: Chapter 35 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Queen of Water Elements was a kind god. Before parting, Sui Xiong told her that he wanted to buy some water element hearts. She agreed and promised that she would send the hearts to the sanctuary as soon as possible. However, she didn¡¯t mention the price. This made Sui Xiong worried, so he hurriedly asked what he should pay. ¡°I don¡¯t need anything,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate an old woman who is even older than the Ring of the World. My wealth is beyond your imagination.¡± ¡°No matter what, they are very precious,¡± Sui Xiong responded. ¡°They¡¯re precious to you,¡± the Queen of Water Elements said indifferently. ¡°For me, there is nothing ¡®precious¡¯ in this world.¡± Sui Xiong agreed. This was like Bill Gates deciding to give others a million dollars. For ordinary people, the price of their houses was constantly rising, but their houses were unsellable when it was necessary. If they deducted their houses, their assets wouldn¡¯t be as much as a million. However, for Bill Gates, a million was really not a worthy topic. Maybe his income for one day was more than this number. Therefore, Sui Xiong sighed, and he could only sigh. After sighing, he secretly remembered this favor, hoping that he could have a chance to repay. Although, he couldn¡¯t think of any way to pay it back. Generally, the reaction of Water Elements was a bit slow. In the Four Elements, water elements were just a little bit faster than earth elements that were sleeping all year round. However, the efficiency of the Queen of Water Elements was not slow at all. After Sui Xiong left for a short while, her messenger had already visited the sanctuary of the God¡¯s Kingdom of Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong even had no time to contact Ariel and talk about this matter in detail. It was interesting that the messenger was not a water element, but a jellyfish in the Legendary Realm. This jellyfish was qualified as a messenger, so his wisdom was naturally high. He was very curious about and admired the world¡¯s most famous and powerful Jellyfish God, so his words were extremely humble. Sui Xiong suspected that if Sui Xiong was more gracious and more polite, that jellyfish might hug his thigh and cry. That jellyfish might say, ¡°We jellyfish look forward to your appearance. We have been looking forward to it for so long.¡± Alas! It seemed that he had read about such a scene in some historical novels. However, after all, that jellyfish was the messenger of the Queen of Water Elements. It was no doubt that he was loyal to the Queen of Water Elements. After some sighs and greetings, he was still reluctant to leave, leaving a gift that made Sui Xiong feel thorny. It was a box that was big enough to allow a small kid to curl up his body in it. Several layers were stacked inside, and all of them were gemstones of the same kind with a blue radiance. Each gemstone had a breath of water. With so many gemstones gathering, not only did the surrounding area shine blue, but also, the air was filled with the breath of water. Sui Xiong even heard the sound of waves clearly. He certainly recognized those things. They were water element hearts. A box of water element hearts. A large box of water element hearts! After being silent for a moment, he asked, sighing deeply, ¡°How can I pay for this favor?¡± After sighing, he contacted Ariel. ¡°I found some water element hearts.¡± ¡°Oh? We also found a lot. How many pieces have you found?¡± ¡°A box.¡± ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t quite understand your quantifier. Why do you use ¡®box¡¯ instead of ¡®piece¡¯ to count them? Don¡¯t you find something wrong with that?¡± ¡°In short, you will know when you come to see them,¡± Sui Xiong said weakly. ¡°Ask them all to come back. I think the number should be enough.¡± After a while, Ariel¡¯s avatar, a mermaid that was always surrounded by clear water, went to the sanctuary. When she saw the box of water element hearts, her facial expression was ¡°wonderful.¡± After a moment of silence, she asked, screaming, ¡°Sir, what did you do? Which God¡¯s Kingdom have you robbed?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t describe your teacher as a robber. Moreover, what place do you think can be wealthy enough for me to rob of so many water element hearts?¡± Ariel thought for a moment, and she shook her head. Then, she understood, and her eyes widened. ¡°You¡­ you robbed the eldest of the gods, right?¡± She looked at him with incredulity. ¡°God! I only asked you to help collect some water element hearts, but I didn¡¯t ask you to do this! You¡­ This¡­ this¡­ this is too exaggerated!¡± Sui Xiong naturally knew that the ¡®eldest one of the gods¡¯ referred to the Queen of Water Elements. In the past, he had always thought that the Queen of Water Elements was just an ancient god like the Goddess of Life. It turned out that she was a super elder who was even older than the Big Circulation. She was a powerful god who had been living from the previous era before the creation of this world. Therefore, he shook his head, smiling. ¡°I¡¯m not as great as your imagination. The Queen of Water Elements is powerful. How could I rob her?¡± ¡°Then where do these come from? Except for the treasure house of the God¡¯s Kingdom of Her Majesty, I really can¡¯t think of any place where there are so many water element hearts.¡± ¡°She gave these to me.¡± Sui Xiong gave her a concise and comprehensive answer. Ariel couldn¡¯t believe it. She said, shaking her head again and again, ¡°I am talking to you seriously. Don¡¯t always joke, please.¡± Sui Xiong was speechless. He said with a bitter smile, ¡°I am not kidding. This is really a gift from the Queen of Water Elements.¡± ¡°Does Her Majesty have a good relationship with you? Why did she give you such a precious gift?¡± Ariel asked with unbelief. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t she give me a gift?¡± ¡°How would I know?¡± Sui Xiong said, sighing. ¡°But this is indeed a gift from her. Her messenger just left. Many people here have seen the messenger.¡± Ariel frowned, looking at Sui Xiong left and right, up and down, and that made him feel very uncomfortable. After a while, she curiously asked, ¡°I have heard a rumor. It is said that in the past, the God of Virtue disappeared into the sea. Perhaps, he became something that lives in the water.¡± Sui Xiong was confused, and then he understood what she meant. He said, shaking his head repeatedly, ¡°What are you thinking? I am not the God of Virtue.¡± ¡°Besides the God of Virtue, I can¡¯t think of anyone who could have such a big honor.¡± ¡°I just know that I have a lot of honor,¡± Sui Xiong said with a bitter smile. ¡°In short, this many water element hearts should be enough for you to use, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s enough, more than enough.¡± Ariel¡¯s gaze swept inside the box. She reached out, and about a dozen water element hearts flew up. One of them was an especially deep blue, revealing a fascinating beauty that was very different from the others. ¡°These are enough,¡± she said. ¡°These, together with the previous collection, are not only enough to build a condensed pool of Water Elements, but also enough to raise its scale to a higher level. With the rest in the box, the pool can be raised several levels higher. However, considering the balance of the entire God¡¯s Kingdom, that is already the limit.¡± ¡°What should we do with the rest?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Should I give them back?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to. I don¡¯t think Her Majesty, the Queen of Water Elements cares much. You may keep them. Maybe sometime you¡¯ll need them.¡± After putting away the water element hearts, Ariel thanked Sui Xiong and hurried away. She was busy with building the condensed pool of Water Elements. Seeing that Ariel left, and then looking at the box of water element hearts that was hardly reduced, Sui Xiong was silent for a long time and sighed deeply. He always felt that he was under so much pressure! Chapter 496 Chapter 496: Chapter 36 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Making friends with a rich man was very stressful for people. Especially when this rich man was kind to you, but then you did something bad to him. If that rich elder sister (Queen of Water Elements) said that ¡°I¡¯ll kill you, and no one could save you in this world¡± or something like that, Sui Xiong, a master who had never been obedient to power, would let her go naturally just like a fart. However, besides her deep regret, that rich elder sister did not show any dissatisfaction. On the contrary, when Sui Xiong needed help, she helped him generously. It was just like a friend of yours needing your help to get promoted, but you didn¡¯t help him. However, instead of being angry with you, he still treated you as a friend and tried his best to help you without hesitation when you needed his help. In the face of such a friend, who could not feel ashamed? Who could feel no pressure? Sui Xiong was no exception. He sighed softly, but he didn¡¯t find a solution for it. He directly put it aside and began to think about what he could do to kill time. After thinking for a bit, he suddenly remembered something, and he couldn¡¯t help but laugh again. ¡°That¡¯s right! Now that I can use magic to go back in time and spy on what happened in the past, why not go back and find my real body?¡± he said to himself. ¡°Maybe my real body is still sinking somewhere at the bottom of the sea.¡± His eyes turned bright at that thought. He was always efficient in action, so he set out immediately. He first returned to Gold-Panning Town; it was the starting point for him to truly enter the civilized world. Then following the direction from his memory all the way down, he soon found White Leaves Village. White Leaves Village had been destroyed by Sui Xiong¡¯s anger decades ago, and it was still in ruin now. Sui Xiong could feel that there was still some cold air here after his attack. He was surprised to find that some people were living here. There were several adventurers¡ªtwo warriors, two mages and a paladin. Sui Xiong observed them for several days and found that they lived like hermits. The two mages were a master and his apprentice. The two warriors were probably the relatives of that apprentice, and the paladin was hired by them. They lived here mainly because they needed the cold air in White Leaves Village to practice. The older mage¡¯s hair had mostly turned grey, and his power probably belonged to the mid-level. The apprentice was just twelve or thirteen years old and had barely stepped into the realm of a mage. Amazingly, the apprentice had very special talents, and he had an extraordinary affinity for cold power. No wonder his teacher and family were willing to accompany him to this dangerous place to improve the efficiency of his practice. After that war, the negative energy near White Leaves Village was basically dispelled. With the shielding of the remnants of Sui Xiong¡¯s cold air, there was no need to worry about the attacks from skeletons and other dead spirits. But there were not only dead spirits in Ashes Woods, but also many other Magic Beasts. It was really risky for these five people to live here. Sui Xiong observed them for some time and found that they had good personalities. He nodded approvingly and made some secret arrangements in White Leaves Village to ensure that they would not be attacked or killed by Magic Beasts. Then he left and headed for the sea along the road he had traveled before. It was not difficult to find the road. Although it seemed to be the same everywhere in the forest, Sui Xiong could find his own breath along the way he had passed by before more or less. That breath was very thin now, but it was still enough for him, just like a clear line of footprints in front of him. It was not long before he came to the seaside and found the place where he had landed before. Sui Xiong smiled. Instead of getting into the water, he searched the air for the trace he had left in the past. It was much more difficult than looking for a trace on land because the sea was moving. Thus, whatever that breath was, it could be washed away quickly. Sui Xiong spent a lot of time searching but still failed to find the breath that he had left before. He sighed softly and began to cast a spell. A bright circle of light appeared in front of him, showing the scene of the sea that was constantly changing. This was a spell to trace back to what had happened on this beach in the past. This spell was called Recall the Past and was quite famous. It could trace back to any scene that had happened in the past at a certain place, as long as that place was not specifically covered by other spells. Of course, the premise was that the spell caster needed enough magic. Certainly, Sui Xiong had enough magic. If he wanted, he could even trace what had happened hundreds of thousands of years ago, not to mention what had happened just a few decades ago. After a while, the scene of Sui Xiong¡¯s initial landing appeared in the circle of light. He laughed and continued to cast the spell, but he gradually raised it toward the sky, slowly pulling the lens away. When the lens reached a certain level, the scene on the ground became very blurred. Even the original giant jellyfish became just a small black spot in the sea. If one didn¡¯t pay careful attention to it, they could easily ignore it. But the lens also reached far enough, at least for hundreds of miles. Sui Xiong maintained the spell at the current state, traced the direction of the small black spot in the scene and moved forward. This time, he flew slowly, and it took him several days to find the place where he had left the deep sea before. At that time, he had been quite successful in practice and thought he had become powerful enough, so he left the ice trench in the sea for land, looking for the trace of civilization. Now he had to go the other way around, looking for the place where he had come to this world. Sui Xiong slowly landed and went into the sea. He was very powerful now. Although the seawater couldn¡¯t hinder his spell, it still influenced his sight. Thus, he had to shrink the vision of his spell to make sure that he could clearly see the path he had traveled before. Luckily, it was just a short and straight path. Sui Xiong went all the way down and soon found the ice trench in the sea, just below the sea surface. That ice trench was still sending out horribly cold air. Although Sui Xiong was very powerful now, he still couldn¡¯t underestimate it. He had known nothing about the ice trench at that time, but now he knew where it was from. A long time ago, a demigod master from the Ice Plane, a plane that was equivalent to the inner space of the material world, came to the human world and had conflicts with a demigod master from the sea. After a fierce fight, the Sea King killed the Lord of Ice Elements at this place. The remains of the Lord of Ice Elements had been naturally taken away by the Sea King as a trophy. But his residual breath had been lingering here, turning into this extremely cold, ice trench. Over the years, there had been many people practicing in this ice trench. Sui Xiong was not the only one, and he still knew some others. However, that was something that had happened a long time ago. In recent years, Sui Xiong was the only one who had practiced and became a master here. The circle of light was like a mirror, reflecting the solitary figure that had been busy practicing under this cold environment. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know how long it took him to finally find the scene when he had first come here. In that scene, a strange-looking jellyfish came here cautiously, trying to touch the frost with one of its tentacles, but that tentacle immediately turned into an ice stick. Then the frost spread rapidly towards its whole body along with it. The jellyfish immediately cut off the tentacle and saw a long ice stick slowly sinking into the seawater, falling onto the glowing frost. Without bouncing, it silently turned into powder, sprinkling on the ground. ¡°I miss that so much¡­¡± Sui Xiong sighed. He continued to cast the spell to trace the way along which he had come here before. This time, it was much more difficult because Sui Xiong had been swimming in the deep sea to search for this place before. Relying on the scene reflected in the circle of light, Sui Xiong followed the footprints he had left behind before and went backwards. He stopped several times and then went on walking, adjusting the effect of the spell in order to ensure efficiency. After a long time, he finally came to the shallow sea and saw himself fighting with the single-horned giant whale through the spell. Now, he already knew the identity of the giant whale. It was a small but famous sea monster in the sea of the Northwest. It had a small clan, but almost every adult was a legendary beast. Of course, that had been something in the past as well. Sui Xiong watched himself kill the giant whale and couldn¡¯t help but laugh. When I killed this fellow by myself, I really took some risks and suffered great losses! Who would ever have thought that a seemingly silly whale could still know how to play tricks? And who would ever have thought that Sui Xiong, a smarter man among all creatures, the world-wide famous Majesty Void Mask, could have ever been deceived by a whale. Sui Xiong shook his head and smiled bitterly as he watched the giant whale freeze the jellyfish and then bite off almost a third of its body. ¡°This fellow¡­ Shall I say it¡¯s smart or silly? At that time, if it had chosen to make friends with me instead of attacking me, maybe it would have been a powerful creature that would have a great influence on people. Maybe it would have become a god.¡± Sui Xiong always took good care of his friends, and with his help, most of his friends lived a better life now with growing power and a better career. After watching the short battle in rewind, Sui Xiong finally improved the efficiency of his search again. Before fighting with that giant whale, he kept moving in the shallow water. The distance was not too far, so Sui Xiong could see his figure clearly through the spell from the sky. He saw that he was swimming and hunting while trying to modify his body, growing bigger and stronger all the while. In other words, during his search, he kept looking at a strange jellyfish. It could be described as a wonderful scene. Sui Xiong saw himself constantly changing. From the third perspective, he saw that he had once fantastically added all kinds of constitutions to his body, so he couldn¡¯t help but smile at that. Along the way, he had gradually come to a very distant part of the sea. Here, he finally found the place where he had become a jellyfish. But this was not the place where his space-travel had started. Because he remembered that he had traveled a long way in the water in the state of a soul, just like a water ghost. It wasn¡¯t until he had almost been swallowed by the single-horned giant whale that he had been scared to go into the jellyfish¡¯s body. The circle of light clearly reflected the scene when the single-horned giant whale rushed out of the deep sea but caught nothing. Then, it also showed the sudden deaths of small fish and jellyfishes in the seemingly empty sea water of earlier times. The souls of these weak creatures were taken away by Sui Xiong, and they died without knowing what happened. Sui Xiong¡¯s attack was powerful. Over the years, he had never missed his targets, and no one had escaped from him. There were no exceptions. But he had rarely used this tactic. In those days, in order to survive, he would attack those ignorant lower creatures in this way without hesitation. But when he stepped into a civilized society, he was reluctant to use this method to attack those wise creatures. Either that, or he was strong enough that there was no need for him to use such a tactic. It was weird and horrible to him even now. Sui Xiong had always been unwilling to use this tactic. Maybe it was because of his morality, or maybe he just thought it was unnecessary; perhaps it was because of some kind of presentiment in the dark. He always felt that saving this tactic could be of great use in the future. ¡°Well, it may just be my illusion. There are many illusions in life, and I don¡¯t care if there is one more,¡± Sui Xiong spoke to himself while searching carefully. He searched for traces of the deaths of small fish and jellyfish to find his own figure. It was strange. Although Sui Xiong had been in the state of a soul at that time, now he was certainly powerful enough to see that soul. Then why couldn¡¯t he find his soul through the spell, Recall the Past? That was really strange. Fortunately, even so, he finally found the place where he had first come to this world. In front of that place, no small fish or jellyfish died suddenly. Sui Xiong marked this place with his spell. From now on, instead of spending time looking for it, he could find it as soon as he wanted. Meanwhile, he also marked the current time to avoid any mistakes in his memory. Although he wanted to search for his body immediately or go down to the bottom of the sea and start digging there, he still decided to wait. He needed a rest. This long journey had taken him about a month. During this period, he had continually cast the Recall the Past spell, so the consumption of magic was naturally high. That made him feel very tired. At first, he was fine, but then¡­ He traced back almost a thousand years ago! Sui Xiong had never expected that he had stayed in the sea for nearly a thousand years. It was roughly like this: several hours were taken from the start of his space-travel to become a jellyfish. Then it took about ten years for him to become top dog in the distant sea and eventually kill the single-horned giant whale. It took more than a year to find the ice trench. Finally, he spent more than a dozen days to get out of the trench and find land successfully. These things were nothing serious. What really consumed a lot of time was his practicing in the ice trench. If it hadn¡¯t been for this trip, Sui Xiong would never have known that he had been practicing in the ice trench for almost a thousand years. ¡°In the myths and legends on earth, there are usually some old demons that have practiced in the mountains for a thousand years. I never thought I was such an old demon.¡± Thinking of this long period of practice, Sui Xiong could not help but laugh. ¡°Well, hello, 1000-year-old demon.¡± Chapter 497 Chapter 497: Chapter 37 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Tracing back a thousand years was not an easy job even for a god. It was nothing serious if it was just to trace back to a fixed time and place, but what Sui Xiong had done was track his experience for a thousand years. That was something only possible for a powerful god like him. As for others, not to mention the mortals, even ordinary gods would be exhausted in the process. Sui Xiong felt tired as well, so he decided to take a rest and wait for his spirit to recover before continuing to track his body. Anyway, if his body was still somewhere in the sea, it had already been soaking in the water for a thousand years. It probably didn¡¯t care about soaking for another two or three days. If his body was no longer there, what would be the difference between tracking now and a few days later? If his body had been eaten by a fish or swept away by sea water, he didn¡¯t know how long his tracking would take. Then, what did a few days¡¯ rest matter? Thus, Sui Xiong, who had originally planned to find his body as soon as possible, changed his mind and then leisurely returned to his God¡¯s Kingdom. He laid on his stomach on the table in the hall again, making his body soft and relaxed. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m so tired. I have to rest for a while.¡± By the way, Javier had named this wonderful gesture as the Jellyfish Crouch. Coincidentally, when Sui Xiong laid down to rest and thought about Javier naming that gesture, Javier came to visit him. ¡°Talk of the devil and he shall come! I just thought of you in my mind, and you came! You are much faster than the devil!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± Sui Xiong put the proverb from the earth aside and asked with a smile, ¡°What¡¯s the big deal that you¡¯re looking for me this time?¡± Javier was surprised at that and asked with confusion, ¡°I haven¡¯t said anything. How did you know that?¡± He frowned and said to himself, Did anyone tell him about that? That¡¯s impossible. I didn¡¯t even mention it to anybody before. Even if someone found clues about what I was going to do and make a guess, they wouldn¡¯t come and tell him¡­ ¡°You¡¯re overthinking now,¡± Sui Xiong floated up from the table and said with a smile. ¡°I just guessed this casually.¡± ¡°Guessed it casually?¡± Javier did not underestimate that answer. He thought about it carefully and smiled. After a while, he said happily, ¡°That may be a good thing. Premonition is a common ability and phenomenon, but being able to apply it to a god like me means that your divinity is above mine, much higher than mine.¡± ¡°But why are you so happy?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°I have been more powerful than you in fighting since before too.¡± ¡°It has nothing to do with whether you can fight or not. Higher divinity always means the upper limit of divinity that can be reached. I am now a god with a higher divinity as a weak Divine Power, and the fact that your divinity is much higher than mine proves that you can become at least a mid-level Divine Power with a relatively high divinity.¡± Sui Xiong still didn¡¯t understand what was so good about that. At present, not to mention the mid-level Divine Powers, even in the face of great Divine Powers, Sui Xiong was not scared at all. What on earth was it worth to be happy about being just a mid-level Divine Power? Sui Xiong spoke out his doubts frankly, and Javier became very distressed and did not know how to explain it to him. After thinking about it for a long time, Javier finally said, ¡°We all know that you¡¯re good at fighting. In terms of power, you might have reached the level of a great Divine Power, and you might even be one of the most powerful among them. But being powerful doesn¡¯t mean that you have a respectable status.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t power represent one¡¯s status?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Yes, it does, but status is not just about power. It is much more than that.¡± Javier had sorted out his ideas in a short time and explained. ¡°It is not enough to prove one¡¯s high status by power alone.¡± ¡°What else does it need?¡± ¡°Deity,¡± Javier said. ¡°Another proof of status is deity. If you are powerful enough but without a high deity, your friends and enemies could respect you, but the gods who have nothing to do with you might treat you as an upstart. Only when you are powerful enough and have a high deity can it convince all the people to respect you.¡± Sui Xiong then understood that and couldn¡¯t help but sneer. ¡°Those weak and nameless gods, I don¡¯t care if they are really convinced or not. If they think they are more powerful, they can come and challenge me. I¡¯ll wait here!¡± Javier sighed deeply, feeling that sometimes it was really hard for him, a well-educated people, to find a common language with this violent jellyfish. ¡°Auscar, you are cultured and good-mannered all the time. But why are you so unreasonable on some issues?¡± he could not help but ask. ¡°Because it¡¯s my principle,¡± Sui Xiong answered proudly. ¡°The regime comes out of the barrel of a gun. If I have a gun, I surely can¡¯t tolerant those guys who cling to old ideas.¡± ¡°What you¡¯re talking about is¡­ It¡¯s too mean.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing mean. It¡¯s just my attitude.¡± Javier sighed. Instead of tangling with Sui Xiong on this issue, he turned to business. He really had something to do here this time. ¡°I received your gift before, the God¡¯s Kingdom that was sealed by magic, right? I chose a very reliable believer and helped him improve his power, and now he¡¯s almost been able to become a god,¡± Javier said. ¡°I plan to help him to become a god soon. By the way, I will sort out my beliefs and adjust my clergy. I¡¯ve been the God of Celebration for too long, and it¡¯s time for me to give this clergy to someone else. I plan to change my clergy to the God of Pleasure at this God Ceremony.¡± Sui Xiong nodded, but then could not help but frown. He remembered what had happened when the Goddess of Bumper Harvest promoted her god follower. She had made a lot of preparations for it, but it ended sadly. Not to mention the fact that she had failed to help her god follower become a god, she even died. Javier was much less powerful than the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Thus, wouldn¡¯t it be more dangerous for him to promote his god follower? Sui Xiong spoke of his worries frankly, but Javier just smiled and shook his head. ¡°With the sealed God¡¯s Kingdom, there is little risk in promoting my god follower. Even if there is, it will not be me bearing it. At most, the God¡¯s Kingdom will collapse, and all I¡¯ll need to do is to save the soul of my believer,¡± he smiled and said. ¡°I am not as good as you in fighting, but you can¡¯t treat me as a god that can do nothing. It¡¯s not so hard for me to deal with such a trifle.¡± Sui Xiong asked worriedly, ¡°But you still have to adjust your clergy.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not so dangerous to adjust the clergy. I can hand over the clergy of Celebration to my Holy Spirit. It¡¯s quite logical for the Holy Spirit to inherit the clergy. There¡¯s no risk. The only risk is that I want to fight for the clergy of Pleasure. However, I¡¯ve prepared a lot for it. Most importantly, that clergy has not been occupied by anyone, and there are even no gods who are intending to occupy it, so I don¡¯t have to worry about dangerous competition for the clergy. As long as I manage to get through the period of weakness between losing the clergy of celebration and gaining the clergy of pleasure, there will basically be no problem.¡± ¡°What if you can¡¯t make it?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Don¡¯t look down on me like that. How can I not make it!¡± Javier didn¡¯t know whether he should laugh or cry. ¡°Even a dog can survive that short period of weakness as long as no one comes to make trouble!¡± A cold intent flashed in Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes. ¡°You came to me today because you are afraid that someone will make trouble with you?¡± Javier nodded. That was why he was here. For a god, the conversion of clergy was not dangerous in itself. The danger was in the period when the god lost his original clergy, and the new clergy was not available yet. During that period, his deity would temporarily fall down to the level of god-to-be, and he would fall into a state of weakness because of losing his clergy. If attacked at this time, he would probably die. In the past years, more than one god had died like that. Of course, there were those who were powerful beyond imagination, and even in a weak state, they still maintained great power in fighting. Not only did they survive the enemies¡¯ attack, but they could also kill the enemies in a counter-attack. Of course, such an amazingly powerful master was not someone like Javier, a civil servant who had just learned how to fight in recent years from Morani. With Javier¡¯s current power, once he was attacked in the period of weakness, there would be only death waiting for him. So he came to Sui Xiong for help. He hoped that Sui Xiong would act as his bodyguard to protect him from being killed while he was weak, and that could prevent others from taking advantage of his death. ¡°No problem!¡± After that, Sui Xiong clapped his body with his tentacles on the part that was probably his chest. He laughed and said, ¡°Trust me!¡± ¡°At that time, I will guard the arena with my friends, and I will also talk to some powerful gods that have good relations with me in advance.¡± Sui Xiong thought about it shortly and began to list the names. ¡°My brother is sure to help, and so is Manissy. Wenner said before that he treated me as his leader, but I haven¡¯t asked for any help from him for years. If I ask him for help now, he surely will come. The three of them and I¡ªthere will be four great Divine Powers in total. As for the mid-level Divine Powers, I¡¯m too lazy to count them one by one. I think there will be no problem in having seven or eight of them. There will also be some low-level and weak Divine Powers¡­ Shit, I don¡¯t know how many helpers I have until I list these names. I have a super gorgeous team!¡± Javier certainly had thought about that before, so he just smiled at what Sui Xiong said. ¡°Hey, Javier, please be confident in us, okay?¡± Sui Xiong made a big grin. ¡°There will be a lot of people acting as your bodyguards. With such a super-luxurious group of bodyguards, are you still afraid that someone will dare to come and make trouble with you?¡± ¡°There are no absolute things in the world. Maybe there will be someone fearless,¡± said Javier. Sui Xiong sneered and turned his tentacles into hands. He rubbed his palms heavily. ¡°If there really is someone that is so fearless of death, I would like to cut off his head to see if his brain is different from other people!¡± Chapter 498 Chapter 498: Chapter 38 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong had to act on what he had said. He put searching for his own body aside and went all out to work on finding helpers for Javier. He first contacted his elder brother, Yorgaardman. Yorgaardman was willing to help, but he also reminded Sui Xiong that Javier was not very powerful. Thus, when he entered that period of weakness, he would be as vulnerable as a paper man that could be killed with a single attack; Sui Xiong had to find more helpers. ¡°Will there be anyone who dares to make trouble with us?¡± Sui Xiong found something ominous from his brother¡¯s words and asked in surprise. ¡°There isn¡¯t anyone so eager to die, but you know, the rewards are large enough this time.¡± Yorgaardman sighed. ¡°As long as there are enough benefits, people are usually willing to do business in risk of losing their lives. Let¡¯s say this time, if someone can catch the opportunity to make a quick attack and run away immediately, as long as he is well prepared beforehand, he may be able to escape before we take any action. By then, if he escapes to the abyss and hides there, who can hunt him down there?¡± ¡°I can!¡± Sui Xiong said viciously. ¡°Even if you can, you¡¯re the only one. It¡¯s safer to be chased by you than by two great Divine Powers.¡± ¡°There is no such thing as ¡®safe¡¯ for the man I¡¯m chasing!¡± Sui Xiong was so angry that his eye opened widely. ¡°Besides, there are more than two great Divine Powers!¡± ¡°You mean the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy? Forget it. She just has the title of a great Divine Power.¡± Yorgaardman laughed and shook his head. ¡°Let me tell you, even though she is a great Divine Power, she most likely will be defeated by those powerful ones from the mid-level Divine Powers in a fight.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked in his heart. ¡°Is she that weak?¡± ¡°She is just a bigger-sized Javier. Now Javier is also a low-level Divine Power, but do you think he can defeat those powerful ones from the low-level Divine Powers?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it for a while and shook his head helplessly. Then, he realized that the Goddess of Wealth was indeed a second-rate master, and she wouldn¡¯t be a useful helper. ¡°But we still have Wenner. He¡¯s indeed a great Divine Power,¡± Sui Xiong added. ¡°I think he¡¯s quite reliable.¡± Yorgaardman was surprised at first. Then he remembered that Sui Xiong had the whole War God System as subordinates, so he couldn¡¯t help but laugh quietly. ¡°Of course, Wenner is powerful enough. He is even one of the most powerful ones among the great Divine Powers,¡± Yorgaardman said with a smile. ¡°I still don¡¯t understand why he was willing to submit to you when he lost in the war. Even if he couldn¡¯t defeat you, he could at least protect his God¡¯s Kingdom.¡± ¡°God knows. Anyway, he swore to treat me as his leader, and I don¡¯t think he would joke about that.¡± ¡°Of course, no gods can act against their oath, or¡­ Anyway, all those who dared to do so were dead. Wenner is not a fool, and he won¡¯t want to be such an example,¡± Yorgaardman laughed and said. ¡°But I didn¡¯t count him in as one of our helpers. Why don¡¯t you go and ask Law Brans for help? He is your student, and he is supposed to help when his teacher is in trouble.¡± ¡°The God of Law?¡± It was Sui Xiong¡¯s turn to be a little surprised. He really hadn¡¯t thought about the God of Law. ¡°I don¡¯t think he will help. I remember that his doctrine is all about rigorous and impartial things, and he would never do something for selfish means. Isn¡¯t it against his doctrine to use his power for private purposes?¡± ¡°How could this be a private matter? It¡¯s civil business!¡± Yorgaardman said indifferently. ¡°What¡¯s more, there is more than one way to explain the law. As long as we can find a proper excuse, will there be anything illegal? Will there be any idea against his doctrine?¡± It could be seen that Yorgaardman was biased or even hostile towards the law and law enforcers. It was probably related to his background and his early experiences¡ªperhaps it was due to what he had seen and heard during his travels in the human world over the years. He had always been wandering around as a poor warrior and fighting for those weak people. Thus, he had seen too many improper actions of the law enforcers. The law that should safeguard fairness and justice had been used by them to bully the good and take care of the evil. Sui Xiong did not see anything that Yorgaardman had seen and heard, but he still knew more or less about that. After thinking for a bit, he understood why his elder brother was so dissatisfied with the law. However, he was not Yorgaardman. He had no expectations for the law, and naturally, there would be no indignation. Besides, the God of Law was his friend now, and he really did not want to embarrass his friend. So after thinking about it carefully, he decided not to seek help from the God of Law. Even if Manissy was a second-rate master, her identity as a great Divine Power could still be a threat to others. Coupled with Yorgaardman, Wenner and Sui Xiong, there would be enough high-end forces. Moreover, there would still be those god followers from the War God System, as well as Sui Xiong¡¯s friends from the mid-level, low-level and weak Divine Powers. With such a large group of helpers to protect Javier, even if there were insane gods that wanted to attack Javier in spite of the losses, they would make Javier safe. So a few days later, the friends of Sui Xiong and most of the gods of the War God System gathered around Javier¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom, the Joy of the Wild. By the way, it was not until then that Sui Xiong learned from Javier that the God¡¯s Kingdom he had chosen before belonged to the God of Wine. The late God of Wine lived a short life. He was keen on doing business after he became a god. He sold his wine at a high price and gained many benefits. However, that was envied by others. Later, the gods of the War God System seized the opportunity to launch a sudden attack and caught him alive. Then they sealed up his God¡¯s Kingdom with magic, waiting for someone to replace him. The War God System had planned to cultivate a new God of Wine by themselves, but it was hard to do that. It was almost a fantastic idea to find someone who could match the doctrine of the God of Wine among the followers of the War God System. The doctrine of the gods of the War God System was all about the longing for bravery and fighting. But the God of Wine was a weak god, and what he pursued was that no matter what the future might be, he had to have a good drink today. How could a fellow who held such an indomitable idea match the ideas of the War God System and become their high-ranking follower? Looking for an heir for the God of Wine out of the followers of the War God System¡ªthat was something beyond their consideration. In that case, it had been delayed until now. Then Javier got that God¡¯s Kingdom. At that time, Javier just subconsciously felt that ¡°this treasure and I have a destiny,¡± and when he came home and had a look at it, he could not help but laugh happily. There was no such a follower in the War God System, but there was one in his followers. Actually, there was not just one, there were many more! Wasn¡¯t the doctrine of the God of Wine hedonism?! Maybe this was the arrangement of fate. Javier had never planned to become the God of Pleasure so early, but when he got the God¡¯s Kingdom of the God of Wine, he felt the breath of fate and changed his mind. Therefore, while arranging for his believer to take over the clergy of the God of Wine, he also prepared for the adjustment of his own clergy. In fact, that was a helpless move. If Javier did not take advantage of this opportunity to change his clergy now, later, the clergy of Pleasure would probably be automatically awarded to the new God of Wine. Although that would not change the status of Javier, a master god, and his god followers, it would undoubtedly be a very bad situation for him if he wanted to be the God of Pleasure. Thus, he was actually forced to do this at this time. ¡°Fortunately, although fate is mean to me, my friends are still very kind!¡± Javier stood in the center of the huge magic array that had been built in the God¡¯s Kingdom. He looked at the large group of bodyguards that had surrounded the whole God¡¯s Kingdom and smiled, finally calming down completely. Chapter 499 Chapter 499: Chapter 39 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio What Javier did now was the same as what the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had done before. In order to ensure the success of the God Ceremony, Javier chose to separate his God¡¯s Kingdom, the Joy of the Wild, from the Nation of Light. The Nation of Light was the unified God¡¯s Kingdom of the Human God System where Javier had originally lived. Now, the Joy of the Wild became a self-governed kingdom, and it was moved to a place that was close to the Main Plane. By doing that, Javier could avoid being affected by the power of beliefs of the Human God System, and he could avoid damaging his divine independence as a follower. He could also absorb and utilize the power of belief in the mortal world to the greatest extent and reduce loss. Of course, what he did was definitely dangerous. The painful lesson of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had happened not long ago. She had much more power and more accumulation of the church than Javier, but she had still died. Even though Javier received the sealed God¡¯s Kingdom of the God of Wine, without reliable bodyguards, he wouldn¡¯t dare to do what he did now. If a child was walking in the street alone with a lot of money, the child would be seeking for death. But now Javier had a different idea. As long as the bodyguard group was strong enough, nothing else was a problem! As for the strength of the bodyguard group, who could compare with him? ¡°Javier, this time, the escort team that I arranged for you is strong enough. If you still can¡¯t make it, then you really can¡¯t do it,¡± Sui Xiong said. Just as Javier was full of confidence, Sui Xiong was secretly complaining. Before space-traveling, Sui Xiong had loved to read network novels. When the authors had described big scenes in the background of mythology in those novels, most of them had liked to quote the plots in the classic story, Journey to the West. There were divine troops descending from heaven, Four Heavenly Kings, Eighteen Arhats and so on. Now the bodyguard group of Sui Xiong was similar to that formation. His group was even more powerful than that formation. There were four great Divine Powers: Mid-level Divine Powers, low-level Divine Powers and weak Divine Powers. They added up to more than 18, and the number of powerful Oracles was far more than 100,000. In the face of such a group, even if the Monkey King came here, it wouldn¡¯t be easy for him to win. Of course, if the Monkey King really traveled here, he would definitely be invited by Sui Xiong to drink and chat. Would he be free to fight with Javier? Was Javier that great? Was it deserving for a big man to attack him? Of course not. Sui Xiong was looking around with a smile. In fact, he was complaining about his friend with disrespect secretly in his heart. It was rare to send such a powerful group. If Garen of the League of Legends didn¡¯t jump out of the bush¡­ Sorry. If a fool didn¡¯t jump out of the bush to ask for trouble, then the work done by everyone would be useless. They would be leering at a blind man! That was not good. Just for the sake of doing something useful, someone had to jump out for them to beat! However, that wasn¡¯t something that Sui Xiong could decide. Although he hoped that some evil guy would stand out and yell, ¡°Javier! Today is your death day,¡± those evil gods obviously had no reason to do what he hoped for. In particular, it would be extremely dangerous to do what Sui Xiong hoped for. It was 99% possible that the evil gods would die on the spot, and the remaining one percent would be hunted afterwards. Was there a big difference between ¡°punishing them according to military law immediately¡± and ¡°locking them up and punishing them afterwards¡±? Not at all. Therefore, Sui Xiong waited for a long time, but Garen who was supposed to jump out of the bush didn¡¯t come. In the Joy of the Wild, the ceremony of Javier was coming to an end. In order to guarantee the success rate of becoming a god, he arranged a lengthy ceremony. The ceremony was cruelly long. It took almost two days to complete the whole process, and it also needed a lot of Divine Power. In general, he spent so much time and Divine Power on this ceremony because he could prepare with all his strength without fearing of attacks from behind. Otherwise, Garen wouldn¡¯t need to jump out of a bush. Even if a sledgehammer fell from the sky, Javier would be smashed into Javier paste. Javier paste sounded cute. However, if Javier paste meant meat paste instead of a nickname, it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate for people to continue to talk about. All in all, Javier didn¡¯t encounter Garen who was supposed to jump out of a bush, nor did a sledgehammer fall from the sky, so he completed the lengthy ceremony successfully. At the moment when the ceremony was completed, all his believers in the mortal world received a clear omen. So they knelt, cheering together. They praised the name of Javier, singing a song of praise for him. The song had nothing to do with seriousness. It was dissolute, lazy and careless. With the sound of the song, the power of belief rose from everywhere in the Main Plane to the Joy of the Wild. The power of belief that came from Void City was the most abundant t, especially from several large hotels, restaurants and some other entertainment venues. The power of belief formed into light beams. However, compared to the ceremony held by the Goddess of Bumper Harvest before, his ceremony was still a small one. Seeing that the power of beliefs flying into the Joy of the Wild, Sui Xiong whispered, curling his lips, ¡°So small. Javier, why don¡¯t you create some big news?¡± He really wronged Javier. Javier certainly wanted to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a big scene and some big news! However, he couldn¡¯t! He only had a few believers. His church was small, and his own strength was not very strong. Fortunately, it didn¡¯t matter that the scene was small. As long as the ceremony was successful, everything would be all right. It was like if someone wanted to kill a warrior, he wouldn¡¯t need a large troop. He would just need an arrow. The scale of Javier¡¯s ceremony was not very large, and the scene was not as big as that of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. However, in terms of effect, it was much better than the one held by the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. The key to the problem lay in the item that was used to help create a god¡ªthe sealed God¡¯s Kingdom of the God of Wine. The candidate that Javier had carefully selected was a little pygmy girl called Rein Dinger. She had been born in a small aristocratic family. She had been keen on drinking and holding wine parties before her death, but she hadn¡¯t pursued luxury. She had loved the feeling of everyone being drunk and then giggling together with no regrets left in their hearts. Since 15 years old, she had kept this habit for 30 years. That time, she had been drunk at a harvest festival and then had never woken up. If such a person was in the God¡¯s Kingdom of Sui Xiong, she might be a clown. However, in the God¡¯s Kingdom of Javier, she was respected by everyone because of her cheerful style and bold attitude. When Javier had considered who should inherit the God¡¯s Kingdom of the God of Wine and become the next God of Wine, she had been chosen after many discussions. Rein was not worried or upset about the fact that she was going to become a god. Instead, she felt that this might be her destined mission. If she was going to become another god, she would be uneasy, and she would be worried about whether she would be competent. However, she was going to become the God of Wine. Well, was there anything more suitable for her than this? Was there anything easier than loving wine? At least for her, the answer was no. Therefore, at the end of the ceremony, she was wearing a confident smile. She walked to the center of the magic array, holding the God¡¯s Kingdom of the God of Wine that was sealed in the shape of a gemstone. ¡°I¡¯m ready,¡± she said. ¡°Since you¡¯re ready, let¡¯s get started,¡± Javier said with a smile. He didn¡¯t mention anything like ¡°relax¡± or ¡°believe in yourself.¡± As Rein believed in herself, Javier also believed in her. If she couldn¡¯t become the God of Wine, then no one in the world could become the God of Wine. At least that was what Javier believed. Javier was gazing at Rein with a smile. Under his gaze, Rein nodded. She cut her palm with a special ceremony knife. Red blood flowed out of her reshaped flesh, and it dyed the jewel-like God¡¯s Kingdom. The next moment, the gemstone cracked. The light between illusion and reality enveloped her. The gods, including Javier, were relieved at a glance. As estimated in advance, the relationship between Rein and the priesthood of Wine was very good. People even had the feeling that she was born to be the God of Wine. As soon as the seal was removed, the God¡¯s Kingdom of the God of Wine between illusion and reality immediately accepted her existence and quickly merged with her. Now, as long as there was no accident, after a while, the mortal Rein Dinger would become history. Rein Dinger, the new generation of the God of Wine would step into the Pantheon temple. She would continue the happy wine party that she hadn¡¯t ended during her lifetime. Javier looked at the scene with satisfaction. He nodded, and a person wrapped in a white robe was called out. The whole body of that person was wrapped, so people couldn¡¯t tell the gender from their appearance. ¡°Next, I will transfer the priesthood of Celebration to you. As for the priesthood of Pleasure, you have to fight for it on your own,¡± Javier said seriously. ¡°As the previous generation of the God of Celebration and Pleasure, I must warn you. Pay attention to mastering the principles of faith, philosophy, and self. Don¡¯t make yourself fall into the exhaustion and dizziness of chasing after celebration blindly.¡± The person in the white robe didn¡¯t speak and just nodded to show awareness. He, or she, was one of the few Holy Spirits of Javier. Even at this moment, Javier still carefully hid that person¡¯s true identity. He didn¡¯t allow anyone to know that. After completing the final entrustment, Javier held another ceremony¡ªa very small ceremony. It was a ceremony that could only be held when a god was completely willing to hold it¡ªpriesthood separation. Chapter 500 Chapter 500: Chapter 40 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio For a long time, Javier had planned to separate the priesthood of Celebration from him and fight for the priesthood of Pleasure again. He had even made done than one rehearsal. He had practiced what he should do at the scheduled time, and how to deal with all kinds of emergencies to ensure that there would be no risks at all. However, even if he had done many rehearsals, the rehearsals couldn¡¯t replace practice. For example, he hadn¡¯t known that it would be very painful when the real priesthood separation happened. In fact, he had already rehearsed it before. He had also borrowed a few cruel butchers from Morani and had asked them to stab him. At that time, he had hurt so much. Thus, he had believed that he was fully trained even to the point of self-abuse. Now he understood that his previous rehearsals were not enough at all! The pain of the priesthood separation was far beyond his expectation, even beyond his imagination. ¡°Ou¡­ Ou¡­ Ou¡­¡± Because of the extreme pain, he couldn¡¯t even scream. He could only make a meaningless cluck from his throat, just like a rooster whose neck was caught. It seemed that he was losing his breath. Of course, that was just an illusion. Pain alone was not powerful enough to kill a great god. However, for a short moment, Javier thought that it might be better to die than to be alive. After all, everyone knew that dead souls couldn¡¯t feel pain. This ridiculous thought only existed at that extreme moment, and then it was directly annihilated by him. Then, regardless of everything, he resisted the horror of the pain. He tried to stabilize the separated priesthood, trying to pass it to the Holy Spirit relying on the last connection between him and the priesthood. White light glittered. The Holy Spirit who had originally been in a white robe suddenly revealed divine light around its body. The divine light tore the white robe. No one had been able to tell its gender, but now, the Holy Spirit turned out to be a handsome man. He was wearing a very gentle smile, and his eyes were like two crescent moons. He could make people feel good at first sight. However, Sui Xiong and others had no time to observe and understand the new God of Celebration at this moment. Everyone was paying attention to Javier. The most difficult and dangerous thing in this ceremony now began! The strength of Javier had been decreased after the priesthood separation. He had fallen to the level of a god-to-be. In particular, he was not good at fighting, so he was even weaker than a god-to-be. If a powerful legendary power came here, he would be defeated. It was no doubt that Javier was weak to the extreme now. He had found Sui Xiong before, asking Sui Xiong to help protect him. He had done that just for this moment. For a time, all the gods were paying attention to Javier. They couldn¡¯t care about other things. ¡­ Just then, a mysterious visitor came to a cage hidden in a small Half Plane near the Main Plane. ¡°Here¡¯s the opportunity,¡± the visitor said. He was covered with black smoke, so no one could see his figure clearly. His voice also changed because of the strange smoke. His voice was hoarse and low, so no one could tell his origin. ¡°The poor madman and the green jellyfish are now busy with a big event. They have no time to focus on you.¡± In the golden divine cage, Hasarin, the God of Shadow and Assassination opened her eyes. She didn¡¯t ask for a reason but instead chose to believe that statement. I have already fallen to this point. What benefits can he gain from deceiving me? What¡¯s more, I have already been like this. What else can I lose? What else can I be scared of? Death? Death is nothing to fear. I never fear death. Therefore, she smiled. At the next moment, she spent all her Divine Power without reservation. The divine cage that trapped her was built by Yorgaardman. He was a great Divine Power, so the cage built by him was naturally strong enough to completely trap a mid-level Divine Power. However, Yorgaardman couldn¡¯t pay attention to her now because of the situation of Javier. When Hasarin spent all her Divine Power, a flaw that shouldn¡¯t exist suddenly appeared on the cage. Hasarin popped up through a small gap. In the next moment, Hasarin¡¯s body exploded in the cage and turned into black fire. Most of the black fire was annihilated by the powerful Divine Power filling the golden cage. However, a portion of the fire escaped from the small gap in the end. A portion was enough. For Hasarin, even if a small part of her body escaped from the cage, it would mean that she completely got out of trouble. The black fire changed back to Hasarin. Her face looked pale and tired, but the light in her eyes remained firm without any hesitation. ¡°What do you want to do next?¡± the figure covered in smoke asked. Hasarin didn¡¯t answer him at all. Her figure quickly disappeared without a trace. The next moment, she appeared in front of the god tree at the edge of Void City. The tree had been used to suppress and annihilate Dyalt, the God of Fear. Her body was covered in a strange black flame that was constantly distorting. In this way, she was temporarily separated from the Main Plane, so that she could avoid being found by the enchantment. The enchantment was left by the Goddess of Life to guard the Main Plane. If she was found, the enchantment would send a thunderbolt to kill her. However, the black flame was clearly weakening. It was obvious that her power was also weakening. However, Hasarin didn¡¯t care at all. She had thought that everything was hopeless. Now, she finally had hope. For this hope, she cared about nothing else. She was staring deeply at the god tree, and her gaze seemed to be able to see through the big tree. She could see the figure that was sealed forever in the middle of the tree. He was wearing a hideous black armor. With a smile, the God of Shadow and Assassination rushed up without hesitation. In a flash, she burned up her remaining Divine Power. All the power was injected into the artifact dagger she often used, the Thorn of Killing Soul. She used it to stab the god tree harshly. The power of this stab was amazing. Even though the vitality of the god tree was strong, it couldn¡¯t bear her power. In an instant, the leaves went yellow, and the trunk was rotten. It seemed that it had been eroded by countless years after its death and had been completely weathered. At this moment, if a light breeze blew, this god tree would completely collapse and turn into countless debris. However, countless green veins in the god tree shone. In the next moment, green light filled the rotting god tree, replacing its original structure and reshaping its body according to its previous appearance. It was still green and tall. It seemed that its previous decay was just an illusion. However, Hasarin couldn¡¯t see this scene at all. That stab had burned all of her power, and even her foundation of existence as a god was burned out. From that moment on, there was no longer the existence of her character, Hasarin, the God of Shadow and Assassination in the world. When a brave person was determined to do something, they often said, ¡°If I don¡¯t succeed, I will choose to die.¡± Hasarin made one step further. She didn¡¯t care whether she could succeed or not. She took her life as part of the bargaining chip and used it up. ¡°Amazingly decisive!¡± From the big tree that was reborn from the decay, a face emerged; it looked like Sui Xiong when he had been on earth. Fortunately, he integrated an avatar into this god tree so that he would able to reshape the god tree at important times. That helped prevent the priesthood of the God of Fear from flying away. Because of this, he didn¡¯t have time to catch Hasarin again. He could only watch the loyal assassin, who he admired, fall. Secretly sighing, Sui Xiong used a branch to roll up the artifact dagger that had fallen to the ground and put it in the trunk. He placed it next to the crystal of the priesthood of Fear, together with the hideous armor left after the collapse of the God of Fear. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you had a good relationship with each other during your lifetime, but I think that your relics should be put together and always stay with each other,¡± Sui Xiong said to himself. ¡°Maybe someone will think that I am wrong, but I think I should keep these two artifacts as memorials to you.¡± After that, the god tree regained its silence as if nothing had happened. Chapter 501 Chapter 501: Chapter 41 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Outside the God¡¯s Kingdom, the Joy of the Wild, Sui Xiong frowned. He was guarding here, but suddenly his body shook. Leonard, the Armored Great Lion, was not far away from him. Seeing the situation of Sui Xiong, Leonard immediately asked him what had happened. ¡°Hasarin just escaped from my brother¡¯s cage and sneaked into Void City. She gave up her life to save Dyalt,¡± Sui Xiong said, sighing. ¡°Her attack was extraordinary. The god tree that relies on the earth veins was killed by her attack. It was lucky that my avatar was still hidden in the god tree. After killing the god tree, her attack was not that powerful. I resisted it and prevented the priesthood of Fear from being released.¡± Leonard was stunned. He asked, frowning, ¡°She has a helper? Can you find out who her helper is?¡± Of course, Leonard should ask this question. The God of Shadow and Assassination was just a mid-level Divine Power, and she wasn¡¯t a warrior who was good at face-to-face fighting. It was absolutely impossible for her to escape after being locked into a cage by a great Divine Power, the God of Justice. However, she escaped. Therefore, when Leonard thought about it, he understood that the key to the problem was to trace the one who had helped Hasarin escape. As for Hasarin and Dyalt, they were fallen gods. They were not worthy of his attention. Sui Xiong closed his eyes and looked the dagger over carefully. First, his eyes lit up, but then he shook his head. ¡°I found some interesting information, but it¡¯s not related to the incident of her escaping from the cage. I didn¡¯t sense other gods. It seems that she escaped by her own power,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Incredible!¡± Leonard said. ¡°Yeah, amazing timing,¡± Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, said. His figure suddenly appeared beside them. He said, sighing, ¡°Not too early or too late. It happened just during the few seconds when I was concentrating on protecting Javier. At that time, the strength of the cage weakened. I thought she couldn¡¯t feel it, but she actually felt it. Moreover, she actually used those seconds to escape from the cage without any hesitation. She¡¯s amazing. I looked down on her!¡± ¡°Yeah, we all looked down on her,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°But she also looked down on us.¡± ¡°We looked down on her, so she was able to escape. She looked down on us, so she eventually ended her life in vain.¡± This passage eventually became the footnote of Hasarin, the God of Shadow and Assassination. After a short chat, they didn¡¯t pay attention to Hasarin anymore and continued to guard Javier. In the God¡¯s Kingdom, Javier, who had lost his deity, was raising his hands up to the sky, praying silently. He was calling for the agitation of the source of the world. With his understanding of the concept of pleasure and the promotion of this concept, he was trying to attract the corresponding priesthood. This was a big event that had attracted the attention of the gods. Therefore, another little thing that happened at the same time was almost unnoticed. ¡°Master Tu Ya¡¯an, can you do it or not?¡± Cambrona asked. His face was still fat, but his body was not fat anymore. His body was strong. He already had some white hair on both sideburns. He had originally been gentle, but now he had several obvious scars on his face, and the scars made him look fierce. The former No. 1 lawyer of Mill City in the South, Cambrona, was now standing in a basement, facing a huge sink. He was talking unfriendly to a fat man in a black robe next to him. Hearing his doubts, the fat man turned his head and glared at him. The fat man¡¯s eyes flashed with horrible cold light, and that was fierce enough to stop children from crying at night. However, it couldn¡¯t make Cambrona sacred. Instead, it brought his complaint. ¡°Master! Can you be serious? Don¡¯t look around!¡± Cambrona complained. ¡°I am a Legendary Mage. Will you die if you just respect me?¡± the fat man said. ¡°Respect your ass! No one will respect a fat man who is willing to lie on the ground and let a little girl ride him like a horse!¡± Cambrona said. ¡°She is my sister!¡± the fat man said. ¡°I also have a sister. Why don¡¯t I do that?¡± Cambrona said. ¡°Your sister looks like a female bear. Her butt can break a person¡¯s waist. Only a madman would carry her! My sister is so beautiful and cute!¡± the fat man said. Hearing the fat man¡¯s words, Cambrona¡¯s face trembled. It took him a lot of effort to hold back his complaints. Your sister is so beautiful and cute? She¡¯s a little girl who will never grow up, a living dead who relies on the legendary artifact, the Life Cabinet, to sustain life. How can she be beautiful and cute? Well, to be honest, the little girl was really pretty, and her character was pretty cute. However, she was almost 40 years old. Cambrona was not a pervert. He was not concerned about a beautiful and cute girl. In contrast, he was more concerned about the situation of his wife. More than a decade ago, his wife had been ill and had fallen into a coma. Countless doctors and priests had had no way to cure her. His comatose wife had thinned day by day, and she was about to die soon. Seeing that, in desperation, he had become a drowning man who would clutch a straw. He had found Tu Ya¡¯an, a necromancer who was disreputable. Tu Ya¡¯an was one of the two Legendary Mages in Mill City. However, compared to the highly respected Master Mia, Tu Ya¡¯an, the close disciple of Master Mia, was not respected by others. It was said that he specialized in Dead Soul Spells, so his character was unsocial and arrogant. He hated coming in contact with others. He always locked himself in a magic tower in the mountains, and the tower was guarded by a group of rancid zombies all day long. He never went out. Anyone who had dared to find him had become a member of the group of zombies, wandering around his magic tower. If Cambrona had had another way, he would never have gone to find Tu Ya¡¯an. However, he had finally gone to find Tu Ya¡¯an. Around the magic tower of Tu Ya¡¯an, there had indeed been a group of horrible rancid zombies. However, it had been strange that those zombies hadn¡¯t attacked Cambrona. They had just acted as if Cambrona had never existed. Therefore, he had easily gone to the gate of the magic tower. He had shouted a few times and called for Master Tu Ya¡¯an to come out. Seeing the visit of Cambrona, Tu Ya¡¯an had also been confused. He had grabbed Cambrona, a fat man who had been quite similar to himself, dragging Cambrona into the magic tower. He had done several experiments on Cambrona without any words. The experiments hadn¡¯t been painful or dangerous. Cambrona hadn¡¯t suffered any harm. However, Tu Ya¡¯an seemed to be deeply hurt. He had muttered to himself, sitting on the side blankly, ¡°The world is crazy. Not fair at all.¡± Cambrona hadn¡¯t understood why, and he hadn¡¯t wanted to ask more. He directly asked Tu Ya¡¯an to help save his wife. In the beginning, Tu Ya¡¯an refused. He had also thrown Cambrona out of the magic tower directly. He sent two monster statues to take Cambrona back to Mill City. However, the next morning, Tu Ya¡¯an had hurried to the home of Cambrona. He expressed that he had done a bad job yesterday, and that had been inappropriate. He had hoped that Cambrona would give him a chance to make up for that a little. Cambrona hadn¡¯t understood why a Legendary Mage had been so humble, but he wasn¡¯t a person who liked to ask questions. He had taken Tu Ya¡¯an to the inner room and asked Tu Ya¡¯an to help him cure his wife. After taking a look, Tu Ya¡¯an had promised to do his best to cure her. He had even used the honor of his teacher, Master Mia, to promise. Maybe he had also known that he had been disreputable, and his reputation couldn¡¯t be used to promise. Moreover, Tu Ya¡¯an had really done what he had said. He had paused all his research projects and had tried his best to cure Jane, Cambrona¡¯s wife. To cure her, he had used countless precious materials, and so much money had been spent by him just like running water. Cambrona was surprised. He wasn¡¯t a young child who had been inexperienced. Among the precious materials that had been used by Master Tu Ya¡¯an, although he had only known no more than one-third of them, the value of that one-third had been ten times more valuable than all of his assets! As had been known, Cambrona had been the No.1 lawyer in Mill City, so he had been quite wealthy. At least, just for curing Jane, he had spent almost 2,000 gold coins before. However, compared to the cost of Master Tu Ya¡¯an, his cost hadn¡¯t been worth mentioning. He hadn¡¯t known Master Tu Ya¡¯an before, and they hadn¡¯t had any friendship. Why had Master Tu Ya¡¯an spent such a price on helping him? He had wanted to ask Master Tu Ya¡¯an, but he hadn¡¯t dared to ask. If a person should know something, others would tell him before he asked. If a person shouldn¡¯t know something, then he shouldn¡¯t ask. So he hadn¡¯t asked. Master Tu Ya¡¯an had been very polite to Cambrona, but Cambrona had been worried. He couldn¡¯t help the master to save his wife in the complicated magic experiments, so he had told Master Tu Ya¡¯an that he had wanted to do something for the master. At first, Master Tu Ya¡¯an hadn¡¯t wanted him to do anything. However, the same morning, the master had hurriedly found Cambrona, saying that Cambrona had been idle for too long. The master had said that Cambrona needed to cheer up quickly, so the master had helped Cambrona apply for the Regiment of Knights. Since the fall of the God of Knights, eight Goddesses of Virtue had inherited his authority. Strictly speaking, these eight goddesses weren¡¯t true gods, and the level of their deities hadn¡¯t reached the level of a weak Divine Power. They needed to rely on the accumulation of power for a long time, absorb enough faith, and own enough believers to become true gods. Nowadays in the world, Regiments of Knights often chose one of the eight Goddesses of Virtue as their own faith. The Regiment of Knights where Cambrona had been trained believed in the Goddess of Tolerance, one of the eight Goddesses of Virtues. This goddess asked her followers to be tolerant and to be compassionate to kind creatures. She asked her believers to use their own force temperately and to cast their anger and power to the evil and cruel ones. Among the eight Goddesses of Virtue, the size of her faith was in the mid-level. However, it was at least not very small. As its name, the Tolerant Knights were a group of quite tolerant knights. However, facing Cambrona, the lawyer who had a bad reputation, they hadn¡¯t been very tolerant. They had given him a very rigorous training course. Combrona had completed the training course in a year, and the knights had been amazed by his rapid progress. More than one knight had said that Cambrona had wasted his time in the previous 20 years. If he had come to be a knight earlier, he might have already been a famous strong man. A famous strong man? Then die on the battlefield on Sun¡¯s Death Day? Cambrona had complained secretly in his heart, and then he had continued to devote himself to more rigorous advanced training. After another two years, the knights had taken him to kill monsters. The plateaus were in the South, so the concentration of magic was high. Monsters were everywhere, so they needed constant annihilation to ensure the safety of residents and travelers. Many knights had grown up in such battles. Some had become famous, and more had died in obscurity. In the next five years, Combrona had experienced many battles. He had suffered a lot of injuries and had really grown up. The head of the Knights, Florio, a beautiful female knight, had given him a certificate, acknowledging that he was a fully qualified knight. Cambrona, who had completed all the training programs, had hurried back to the magic tower of Master Tu Ya¡¯an. He had wanted to report the good news to his wife. However, he found that his wife was still asleep. Master Tu Ya¡¯an had been busy for so many years, and he had never been able to wake her. Because of that, he had suddenly become angry, and he had naturally become impolite to Master Tu Ya¡¯an. Moreover, during this long-term relationship, he had found that the character of Master Tu Ya¡¯an was really disreputable. His character wasn¡¯t that bad, but people couldn¡¯t respect him, either. Therefore, the two sides had gradually shaped such a strange relationship. ¡°Hey! This morning, you said that my wife¡¯s situation seemed to have changed. What happened?¡± Cambrona asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Master Tu Ya¡¯an answered. ¡°You don¡¯t know?! Haven¡¯t you been studying her for more than ten years?¡± Cambrona asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know! I don¡¯t know! Do you think that your wife¡¯s situation is normal? What do you think can be studied in a decade? Let me tell you¡­ No, I won¡¯t tell you. You shouldn¡¯t know about this,¡± Master Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°What is f**king happening? Why shouldn¡¯t I know the things about my wife?¡± Cambrona said. ¡°In short, you don¡¯t need to ask. Even if you ask me, I won¡¯t tell you. Put down your sword. Even if you kill me with your sword, I won¡¯t say it!¡± Master Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°Master Tu Ya¡¯an, let¡¯s not mention any secrets. Give me a definite answer. Will my wife wake up or not?¡± Cambrona said. ¡°She will sooner or later,¡± Master Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°When is this ¡®sooner or later?''¡± Cambrona asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Master Tu Ya¡¯an answered. ¡°I am not surprised that you don¡¯t know, but why do you feel so confident and energetic this morning?¡± Cambrona said. ¡°I¡­ Tessa praised me today. She praised me for doing things seriously, and I was happy!¡± Master Tu Ya¡¯an said. Hearing that, Combrona finally couldn¡¯t help but get angry. He jumped up, grabbing Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s collar. He yelled, shaking Tu Ya¡¯an back and forth, ¡°Can you tell me any more crap? Your sister praised you for doing things seriously?! Do you want me to drag you to her to make a confrontation now!¡± Cambrona shouldn¡¯t be blamed for his overreaction. Tessa, Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s sister, always liked to criticize her brother. She didn¡¯t really hate her brother, she only behaved like a housekeeper. She often criticized him for sleeping too late at night, for not bathing, not eating healthy foods, being too lazy, and for lacking entrepreneurial spirit. Will she praise Tu Ya¡¯an for doing things seriously? Are you f**king kidding me? Did the sun rise from the west today? Tu Ya¡¯an smiled awkwardly, but his smile immediately froze on his face. He revealed an incredible facial expression, looking straight behind Cambrona. ¡°How¡­ How can that be possible?!¡± Master Tu Ya¡¯an muttered. Cambrona noticed his look, and he vaguely guessed something. He hurriedly loosened his grip and turned around. He saw his wife who had been in a coma for more than a decade standing up from the wonderful potion that was made from countless precious materials. Green water was dripping down her black hair, flowing on her good figure and finally returning to the sink. Cambrona opened his mouth. He didn¡¯t know what to say. Countless thoughts came up together, making him feel confused and speechless. Just then, a crisp and delicate voice sounded. ¡°Brother! What are you looking at!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an turned his head so quickly that he could even hear his neck bones cracking. But it was still a little late. A girl rushed over. She had faded white hair and looked a little similar to Tu Ya¡¯an. However, she was a lot younger. There was 2% charm, 3% vicissitude, and 95% anger in her eyes. She completely ignored her burdensome, full-length dress and rushed over, punching her brother in the stomach heavily. Tu Ya¡¯an bent down, letting out a low groan. After such a punch, the powerful Legendary Mage completely lost his action capability. Then the girl picked up her skirt and bowed to the Cambrona couple, dragging her half-dead brother away. Outside the door, the conversation between the brother and the sister sounded vague. ¡°Brother, you¡¯re so shameless! She doesn¡¯t wear clothes. You shouldn¡¯t look at her!¡± Tessa said. ¡°She didn¡¯t wear clothes during the treatment in these years,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°Treatment is different!¡± Tessa said. ¡°How is it different?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°Stop quibbling!¡± Tessa said. Then, came the sounds of punching. Finally, when all the sounds were gradually gone, there came a strange sound. ¡°Brother, you should only look at me.¡± Cambrona didn¡¯t know whether this was his imagination or not. Chapter 502 Chapter 502: Chapter 42 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the face of his wife who suddenly woke up from a coma after more than a decade, Cambrona was silent for a long time before he spoke. ¡°How are you?¡± he asked. After saying that, he wanted to slap himself. What the hell! My wife has been in a coma for more than ten years. How is she? This question is simply strange to the extreme! However, Jane¡¯s answer was equally strange. Her eyes were a bit blank. She wasn¡¯t looking at Cambrona; instead, her gaze fell on something in the distance. ¡°I¡¯m dead,¡± she said. What? If others used the emojis from earth to describe the facial expression of Cambrona at the moment, it would certainly be a big ¡°O-O.¡± What does ¡°I¡¯m dead¡± mean? You were just in a coma, not dead. Moreover, now that you are awake, why do you think that you are dead? Tu Ya¡¯an, you¡¯re so unreliable! Did you hurt Jane¡¯s brain during the treatment? Many unreasonable thoughts appeared in his mind, but he didn¡¯t know that he really guessed something this time. Tu Ya¡¯an and his sister bypassed several rooms and started the preset magic arrays. After completely shielding the sound here, Tessa showed a smug smile. ¡°Brother, I behaved well, right?¡± Tessa said. She loosened her hand that had been grabbing the collar of Tu Ya¡¯an. She smiled, and it seemed that she was asking for praise. ¡°If I didn¡¯t save you in time, it might not be so easy for you to get out!¡± ¡°Yes! Thank you for that!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. He stood up, patting the dust off his body. There was no pain on his face, but there was fear after the event on his face. ¡°I was really scared just now! She actually woke up. She should sleep for at least five or six more years,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°It¡¯s not surprising when it is related to the gods. After all, we are only mortal people, so we don¡¯t have to think about such fancy things,¡± Tessa said. Tu Ya¡¯an was silent. Then he said, nodding, ¡°You are right. Actually, my great tutor is using my hand to fight against the Shadow Assassin. No matter which side wins, no matter what the outcome is, it¡¯s not related to me. I just need to pretend that I know nothing. A while later, I¡¯ll send them away, and then I will complete the oracle of my great tutor.¡± After thinking for a while, Tessa frowned. She asked, ¡°But, can you really complete your mission?¡± ¡°How would I know?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said with a bitter smile. ¡°Do you think that I have the courage to stay there and ask, ¡®How do you feel, Your Majesty, the Shadow Assassin?''¡± ¡°No! You¡¯ll die,¡± Tessa answered. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll die,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said, sighing deeply. He found a chair to sit down. From the space pocket, he took out a bottle of iced fruit juice mixed with the essential oil of flowers. He raised his head and drank a big gulp. The juice that was mixed with ice cubes entered his throat. Feeling the irritating effect of the essential oil and the cold ice, his body couldn¡¯t help but shake, and he suddenly became energetic. ¡°In any case, the oracle that has tossed me around for more than a decade is finally coming to an end!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°Yeah, what happens next doesn¡¯t matter to us,¡± Tessa said, laughing. ¡°Brother, what are you going to do next?¡± ¡°I have to make money first,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°I have spent too much money in these ten years. I don¡¯t have enough money to buy new clothes for you. In the next ten years, I plan to concentrate on making money first. I¡¯ll save a lot of money before thinking about other things.¡± Hearing those words, Tessa suddenly blushed. She had died when she was young. She was able to regain her soul by relying on her brother¡¯s spells and continued her life in the state of a living dead. However, spells weren¡¯t a panacea. Even if Tu Ya¡¯an had paid a huge price, she couldn¡¯t be a complete person after regaining her soul. She couldn¡¯t grow up anymore. She was forever 13 years old. She lost her sense of taste, smell, and touch. She couldn¡¯t feel cold or hot, and she couldn¡¯t smell flowers. When she ate delicious food, the food tasted no different from soil. She also needed to constantly consume vitality. Every day, she needed to consume almost the same amount of vitality that ordinary people consumed for a month. She had to use legendary equipment to take vitality from powerful demon beasts to maintain her life. For all these reasons, her remaining entertainment was extremely limited. As a half-dead person between life and death, she didn¡¯t dare show her face. In addition to reading in her room every day, she could only change into beautiful clothes and dress herself up nicely. That was one of the few things that could make her feel alive. She was still a living person, not a monster that was wearing a human body. Tu Ya¡¯an certainly fully supported his sister¡¯s hobby. For him, her younger sister was the driving force of his progress and the foundation of his survival. Her existence could prove that he was still a living person with flesh and blood. It was the only way to prove that he wasn¡¯t a machine that was dominated by magic power. According to the wording on earth, this guy was a fan of her sister, and he was a super big fan. In the past ten years, in order to complete the oracle of Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, the God of Spellcaster, he had consumed a lot of wealth to purchase the materials that he needed for various magic experiments. He could buy all kinds of materials at the cost price because of His Majesty¡¯s authorization, and he could also obtain some extremely precious materials for free directly from those high-level mages and Legendary Mages. However, by purchasing the common materials, he had spent a lot of wealth. He became so poor that he once ran to the Highest Tower to cry in the face of Le-Peyroux. If the God of Spellcaster was a rich god like the Goddess of Wealth, he wouldn¡¯t hesitate to reward Tu Ya¡¯an with a large sum of money. However, Ymirjar Le-Peyroux was also poor even though he was a god. More importantly, as a typical mage, he didn¡¯t care about money. Therefore, Tu Ya¡¯an just received the improvement of his magic power as a reward, but he couldn¡¯t get a single copper coin. This irrelevant reward made him feel helpless. Therefore, he had to find a way to raise money. If Jane didn¡¯t wake up in advance, maybe one or two more years later, he would need to run to a friend to borrow money. Fortunately, Jane had already woken up, and his mission had come to an end. Then, as long as he worked hard to make money, he would soon be able to regain his calm and happy life. Thinking of that, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. On the other side, Cambrona was laughing, too. However, he was laughing bitterly. His wife woke up from a coma after ten years, but it seemed that something was wrong with her brain. Jane didn¡¯t respond to his call. She just looked into the distance in a stupid way. It seemed that she was worried about something, so she had no time to look at her husband who was standing in front of her. He tried to talk with his wife, talking about the past, the future, and the good times that they had spent together. He talked about his own experiences over the years and the prospects for the family. However, Jane was always wearing the same facial expression. She wasn¡¯t moved at all. The only thing she said was, ¡°I¡¯m dead.¡± After a while, Cambrona couldn¡¯t stand it anymore. He took off his coat and put it on his wife, and then took his wife to find Tu Ya¡¯an in the magic tower. Tu Ya¡¯an was not here. Tessa said that he went out for some other things. Cambrona had no choice but to temporarily entrust his wife to Tessa. He ran out to prepare suitable clothes for his wife. After he left, Tessa looked at Jane, silent. At this moment, Jane was only wearing the coat of Cambrona. The thin coat couldn¡¯t cover her good figure, especially the lady parts that symbolized the great fertility of a woman. They were so majestic that any man would look at them. Tessa¡¯s body was frozen at the age of 13. The difference between their figures was just like the gap between the sky and the ground. Looking at her figure, Tessa was extremely angry. However, she didn¡¯t dare to lose her temper in the face of this dangerous person. She had to tear a ribbon to ease her anger. She tore it again and again and almost broke it into pieces. Jane didn¡¯t speak, and she didn¡¯t want to talk to others. Therefore, the room was totally silent. This silence lasted for a long time until Cambrona returned. He brought back a lot of clothes, roughly the style that Jane had liked before the coma. It was sexy, feminine, and full of charm. Tessa was even more unhappy. In particular, Cambrona took his wife to go to his room to change clothes. It took them a long time before they came out. When they came out, there was a suspicious flush on his face. Tessa even wanted to tear the shameless couple into pieces with her honorable claws! How dare they do that activity in her house! Obviously, she couldn¡¯t tear them into pieces. If she really fought with them, she didn¡¯t fear Cambrona although he was a powerful knight. However, Jane was here, too. As long as the suspicious woman had even one-thousandth of her true strength, Jane could kill her instantly without a drop of sweat. Therefore, she didn¡¯t dare to do it. She could only show an unhappy face, asking the waiter in the magic tower to arrange accommodation for the Cambrona couple. Of course, she didn¡¯t forget to ask him when they planned to leave. ¡°Leave? I am not going to leave for the time being,¡± Cambrona said. ¡°Although Jane is awake, something wrong may also happen to her. I¡¯ll wait until Tu Ya¡¯an comes back. I¡¯ll ask him to do a detailed examination of Jane and then to carry out a follow-up treatment. In short, she must be totally cured.¡± Damn cure! If my brother is so powerful, would I still be a half-dead person? Tessa secretly complained in her heart, but she didn¡¯t dare to show it on her face. She asked Cambrona indifferently whether he needed to change his room or to arrange a room for Jane. In the past, he had lived in a single room. Now that there were two people, then of course he would need a two-person room. It required temporary renovation of the residential area within the Magic Tower, but it wasn¡¯t difficult for Tessa. She could command the construction team of the monster statues. ¡°Of course, a double room!¡± Cambrona said. He gave a thumbs up to the girl who was much younger than him. ¡°There should be a big bed in the room! And a big bathtub!¡± Speaking of this, he couldn¡¯t help but look at his wife again. He licked his lips and smiled, narrowing his eyes. Pervert! Tessa thought. Tessa was so irritated. She even wanted to bite the neck of that idiot. She turned around, and then she said indifferently, ¡°I see.¡± Then she left. If she still stayed there, she was afraid that she might bite him. However, she still completed Cambrona¡¯s wishes. That night, the Cambrona couple lived in a new room. As for why Cambrona had dark circles under his eyes in the next morning, and why he had soft legs, that was something else. Chapter 503 Chapter 503: Chapter 43 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Tu Ya¡¯an returned to the magic tower at noon the next day. He looked very tired and frustrated, so Cambrona didn¡¯t want to make him annoyed. He just said something about his wife simply. ¡°I see,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. After listening to the introduction of Cambrona, Tu Ya¡¯an thought for a while, and then he said, ¡°She woke up from a long-term coma. It¡¯s normal that she may have a messy mind and amnesia. Although your wife¡¯s situation is extreme, at least she is still awake. Her action is still normal. She doesn¡¯t need someone to take care of her. This is already very good. Next, we can just cure her slowly. I can¡¯t come up with an instant therapeutic plan.¡± If Tu Ya¡¯an said that he could easily cure Jane, Cambrona would definitely not believe him. But what he had said was so solemn and serious. His attitude was quite conservative, and that made Cambrona believe him. After all, Jane was indeed in a coma for more than a decade. If she had no sequela, then it would be strange. Tu Ya¡¯an said that he was a little tired today, so he wanted to rest first. After resting, he would search for information, and he would find a way to cure Jane. When Cambrona saw that Tu Ya¡¯an was exhausted, he advised Tu Ya¡¯an not to worry. Tu Ya¡¯an needed to rest. Anyway, Jane had woken up and returned to health. As for the problem of her brain, it was not urgent. After returning to his room, Tu Ya¡¯an sat silently at his desk for a long time and finally sighed deeply. At this time, Tessa also came to his room. Seeing his depressed face, Tessa asked with concern, ¡°Brother, what happened to you?¡± ¡°I just got back from the Highest Tower,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°I met His Majesty, and he told me that I missed the opportunity.¡± He lowered his head before his sister said something. He said with dismay, ¡°I spent more than ten years on hard work. I paid a lot of money and energy, but I eventually failed.¡± ¡°It¡¯s difficult to complete such a task,¡± Tessa said. ¡°It¡¯s not easy for a mortal to take away the divinity of a god!¡± ¡°You are right. I also know that it is not hopeful. It¡¯s just that when I really face a failure, I begin to realize that I¡¯ve put too much energy into it over the years. I had too much expectation,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said, sighing. He didn¡¯t raise his head. He still lowered his head in frustration. ¡°I also know that failure is a matter of course. Success is an accident with a very small possibility. But, over the years, I have been thinking about success all night. I have been thinking about gaining the divinity and going beyond the mortals. From then on, I will enjoy eternal joy together with you. Now, I failed. I¡­ I¡­¡± He said ¡°I¡± for a few times, and finally, he couldn¡¯t say it anymore. He whimpered, and his body shivered. Although he was a Legendary Mage who was supreme in the eyes of mortals, he was actually not much different from ordinary people in the face of heavy blows. Seeing that her brother was so depressed, Tessa sighed. She went to hug Tu Ya¡¯an, holding his head in her arms. Because she was a half-dead person, she had no body temperature. Her body was as cold as a corpse. However, this cold body gave Tu Ya¡¯an great comfort. He was frustrated and exhausted at the moment, and he was almost desperate. However, her hug was just like adding new fuel to a bonfire that was going to be extinguished. He could continue to burn. He quickly revived and began to think about what to do next. At that time, he had been willing to take over Cambrona¡¯s commission to treat a comatose Jane for two reasons: On one hand, he had done it to complete the oracle of His Majesty, Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, the God of Spellcaster. On the other hand, he had done it for himself. His great mentor (the God of Spellcaster) had told him that Cambrona¡¯s wife was actually the only avatar of the God of Shadow and Assassination in the mortal world. The reason why she had been unconscious was that her noumenon had been imprisoned by the great God of Justice. This avatar didn¡¯t have any extraordinary power, but great divinity was hiding in the depth of her soul. As long as he could get even a little from the divinity, his strength would go further. He was already a Legendary Master. If he got it, it would be easy for him to enter the demigod realm. Tu Ya¡¯an had been inspired by that. Over the years, he had tried his best to find a way to steal divinity from Jane¡¯s soul. In the end, he had learned a method from a demigod mage who had been living in seclusion for a long time. As long as he spent enough time, he could separate a trace from Jane¡¯s soul. He could bind it and slowly digest it. It was extremely difficult to steal a trace of the soul from the avatar of a god. It should have been impossible, but the old mage had found another path. He had told Tu Ya¡¯an to smash the souls of powerful demon beasts, to wash them into the purest soul power, and then to inject the power into Jane¡¯s soul. Jane¡¯s soul would expand, and finally, a trace would be separated. If Tu Ya¡¯an was lucky, there would be some divinity in this trace. Just a little divinity would be enough to serve as a seed for him to enter the demigod realm. The old mage had repeatedly told him that he needed to use this method slowly. The slower he went, the more stable it would be, and it would be less likely to make mistakes. Therefore, Tu Ya¡¯an had always been stable to avoid problems. However, beyond everyone¡¯s expectation, the God of Shadow and Assassination had been able to escape from the cage built by the God of Justice! As soon as she had escaped, she had immediately connected with Jane. The energy that Tu Ya¡¯an had injected into Jane¡¯s soul over the years was naturally too much for a mortal woman, but it was not worth mentioning for a great god. Therefore, Jane had immediately woken up. All the plans of Tu Ya¡¯an had been abolished, and his hard work over the years had been lost. In fact, when he had seen Jane wake up, he had been so scared that he had almost fainted. For a moment, he had even thought that the God of Shadow and Assassination had already known his plan and that she wanted to kill him. Fortunately, Tessa had come to help him to cover it up. He hadn¡¯t exposed his plan, and he had deceived Cambrona successfully. Tu Ya¡¯an had escaped from the danger. However, after the event, he had thought about it. He was not willing to fail like that. Therefore, he had hurried out and gone to the Highest Tower, asking the great God of Spellcaster for help. He had thought that the God of Spellcaster would be able to help him solve the problem, so he hadn¡¯t been worried in his heart. However, the God of Spellcaster had told him that he couldn¡¯t help him. The relationship between the gods was disciplined. The God of Spellcaster could give his believer, Tu Ya¡¯an, some hints, but he couldn¡¯t do it for Tu Ya¡¯an personally. He couldn¡¯t help his believer seize the divinity of the God of Shadow and Assassination directly. Tu Ya¡¯an had begged him for a long time and had eventually been thrown out by the guards of the Highest Tower. He had been frustrated, disappointed, and desperate. The next day, he was ill. A Legendary Mage was ill. That was really surprising. However, Tu Ya¡¯an was seriously ill. Four days later, his condition hadn¡¯t improved, and then an unexpected visitor came to the magic tower. The visitor was a green jellyfish floating in the air. The jellyfish was as big as a palm. This jellyfish looked really small and cute. However, hearing that the jellyfish came, Tu Ya¡¯an hurriedly got up, regardless of his bad health. He went out of his room to meet the jellyfish under the support of Tessa. ¡°Welcome, Your Majesty, the Void Mask,¡± he cautiously said. ¡°I don¡¯t know why you suddenly come to my place. Do you have any orders to give me?¡± Glancing at him, Sui Xiong shook his head. Sui Xiong said, ¡°As a patient, you should rest. The pressure on your heart is too big. You need to relax.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an was not surprised that Sui Xiong could see through him. He replied with a bitter smile, ¡°Of course, I want to relax, but I can¡¯t do that.¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t talk about this topic anymore. Everyone had their own secrets in their hearts, and everyone had their own burdens. Tu Ya¡¯an was not able to relax. Naturally, Sui Xiong wouldn¡¯t force him to relax. He came here to see Jane. The God Ceremony of Javier had ended, and it had been a great success. Now, Javier was the new God of Pleasure. He had two god followers, the God of Celebration and the God of Wine. Although Javier was just a low-level Divine Power, he was a real King God. No one could underestimate him now. At present, the noumenon of Sui Xiong was participating in the grand celebration held in the Joy of the Wild, but his avatar came here by following the breath left in the artifact dagger of Hasarin, the God of Shadow and Assassination. He came here to check this avatar of the fallen god. He wanted to see if there was any possibility that she could be resurrected. Shortly afterwards, he saw Cambrona and Jane. At first glance, Sui Xiong saw through Jane¡¯s situation. Over the years, Tu Ya¡¯an had given her too much soul energy, and that had made her soul almost overflowing. If this was just the case, she would just be energetic. However, when Hasarin had escaped, her soul and Hasarin had a momentary synchronization because of that overflow. It was just a very short moment, otherwise the avatar would have been integrated with Hasarin. Jane would have become the true avatar of Hasarin and would have died together with Hasarin when Hasarin had fallen. The synchronization at that moment had caused great confusion in Jane¡¯s thoughts. The short lifespan of a mortal was not worth mentioning for a god who had long years. Therefore, she now had a strange sense of dislocation. She mistakenly thought that she was Hasarin, but Hasarin had fallen. Therefore, Jane felt that she was already dead. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t want to conceal the truth. He had told them those things, and then they understood the reason. Looking at the green jellyfish that had once appeared in front of him that year, Cambrona came up with an idea in his heart. He immediately knelt down, asking Sui Xiong to help save his wife. ¡°Your wife is not ill,¡± Sui Xiong said. He didn¡¯t want to get involved in this matter. ¡°But according to her situation, something is wrong with her,¡± Cambrona said. He kept kneeling on the ground. ¡°Your Majesty, please cure her. I don¡¯t expect that she can be completely cured. At least she can recognize me. She can remember the years that we spent together.¡± Sui Xiong looked at the man. He had been fat in the past, but now he was tired and withered. His face was full of vicissitudes. Sui Xiong was silent for a long time, and finally nodded. ¡°Well, come to Void City. There is a big god tree outside the city. I will wait for you under the god tree,¡± Sui Xiong said. Cambrona was immediately overjoyed. He hurriedly said goodbye to the others and then set off for Void City. Chapter 504 Chapter 504: Chapter 45 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong temporarily solved the problem of Cambrona and Jane, and then he turned to Tu Ya¡¯an. Sui Xiong said, ¡°Necromancer, what do you want to do? I don¡¯t understand.¡± In the face of the famous Void Mask, Tu Ya¡¯an didn¡¯t dare to conceal his thoughts. He explained his plan in detail to Sui Xiong. ¡°I see,¡± Sui Xiong said. Sui Xiong carefully thought about it. If Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s plan was successful, it wouldn¡¯t cause any harm to Jane. Therefore, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care about what he had done although he had taken advantage of Jane¡¯s bad situation. ¡°Now your plan has failed. What are you going to do in the future?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Make money first,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said after pausing for a moment. ¡°Thanks to you, I have calmed down. The plan to seize divinity has ended, and frustration can¡¯t solve the problem. I should come down to earth and go back to my own life. I had already thought of that, but I was just defeated by complete failure. I was in chaos. The future is still very long. I can still step into the demigod realm by relying on my own strength.¡± Sui Xiong said, nodding, ¡°It is good that you can think in that way. Relying on the divinity of a god as the seed, you can certainly step into the demigod realm. However, it will also limit your path. It seems that you are not a person who can go on the road of Shadow or the road of Assassination. So this failure is also a good thing for you.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an showed a bitter smile. Was it really a good thing? The meaning of the Void Mask was obviously about becoming a god. However, he was only in the Legendary Realm. He was not a demigod, so it was still too far away to become a god. Moreover, what he was pursuing was only immortality. It was enough for him to just become a demigod. A true god was certainly better than a demigod. However, he was just like a baby. He still couldn¡¯t walk, why did he need to bother running and jumping? Therefore, he really couldn¡¯t nod to show his approval. He could only show a bitter smile. Sui Xiong was not angry about that. Instead, Sui Xiong thought that this person was pragmatic. He didn¡¯t want to reach for what was beyond his grasp. After thinking for a while, Sui Xiong said, ¡°If you are interested, you may come to Void City.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an was stunned. He asked, ¡°Your Majesty, if you have any instruction, you can tell me now. I will try my best to do it.¡± Sui Xiong said, smiling, ¡°You think too much. I just think that you are very interesting and that you are a diamond in the rough. You should know that my place is not like the Mifata Federation. We are short on spellcasters, especially talented mages. If you are willing to join my church, you can gain good pay.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an couldn¡¯t help but smile bitterly again. Do I deserve such good pay? How can I make the Void Mask, the famous and powerful god among the gods, come to invite me personally? ¡°I am deeply moved by your kindness, but I am a believer of my great tutor. I am not going to change my faith,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. He hesitated for a moment, and then he refused. The routine that ¡°I¡¯m deeply moved and then I¡¯ll reject your confession¡± made Sui Xiong feel bad. However, Sui Xiong knew that he couldn¡¯t force others to change their faith. If others didn¡¯t agree with his idea, then it would be useless to force them. However, it also made Sui Xiong think more highly of Tu Ya¡¯an. Tu Ya¡¯an was a person who could refuse the invitation of such a powerful god. Anyway, at least in terms of loyalty and braveness, Tu Ya¡¯an deserved praise. Therefore, after thinking for a while, Sui Xiong said, ¡°So, let¡¯s not talk about faith, let¡¯s talk about work. Are you interested in working in Void City? To be honest, I really need a high-end spellcaster like you.¡± Sui Xiong paused for a moment. Before Tu Ya¡¯an answered, Sui Xiong said again, ¡°Don¡¯t hurry to refuse me. Hear the reward first, okay?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an, who had intended to refuse, closed his mouth and looked at Sui Xiong with some doubts. He saw that Sui Xiong was looking at his sister, smiling. A sudden inspiration flashed in his heart like a lightning bolt, bursting like thunder in his heart. His heart was shaken, and his mouth was dry. He was so nervous that he was almost speechless. He almost guessed the ¡°reward¡± that the Void Mask was going to give him. ¡°The situation of your sister is a bit bad,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Her body is actually dead. You use spells to inject vitality into her body forcibly and force her soul to be fixed in her body. Only relying on that can she maintain the appearance of a living person. But in fact, she consumes a lot of vitality. More importantly, this body also has many inconveniences. If my guess is right, something is wrong with her sense of taste, smell, and touch. These problems don¡¯t appear from the beginning. Her senses are slowly lost in a period of time. If this continues, she will lose her sense of hearing and vision in the future.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an naturally knew that. The lifespan of a half-dead person was longer than that of an ordinary person, but the length was also limited. The reason why his sister could live to this day was that he had spent countless magic power and materials. However, even so, her soul was still going bad. The integrating degree of the soul and the flesh was gradually decreasing. When it declined to a certain extent, her soul could no longer give the flesh ample vitality. Therefore, her perception would decrease significantly, and her senses would gradually disappear. When she lost both her sense of hearing and vision, he could only manage to transfer his sister¡¯s soul to a monster statue, so that his sister could survive in the state of a monster statue. However, her soul would continue to go bad. Sooner or later, it would deteriorate to the point where she couldn¡¯t be saved at all. On that day, Tu Ya¡¯an would be helpless. He could only die with his sister. However, could it be that the Void Mask had a solution? Well, he must have a solution! He is a great god who is the best one of the great Divine Powers, Tu Ya¡¯an thought. ¡°I¡¯m not talented, but I¡¯m good at treating such illness,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°I can give you a few therapeutic plans for you to choose from. The price is¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to say it!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said categorically. He interrupted Sui Xiong¡¯s words. ¡°As long as you can cure Tessa, I¡¯ll give you my life. Whether I am alive or dead, I¡¯ll do whatever you ask me to do. Any time! For any reason!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned. After a few seconds, Sui Xiong said, ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t mean to use this to force you.¡± ¡°I know. As time goes by, your church will be stronger and stronger. You have a lot of talents, so I¡¯m dispensable. However, to me, Tessa is everything. In order to save her, I am willing to pay my everything!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said seriously. ¡°I will work for the one who can save her. This is the commitment I made a long time ago. Now, I will fulfill it.¡± After a silence, Sui Xiong asked, ¡°The God of Spellcaster couldn¡¯t save your sister?¡± ¡°His Majesty said that he could transform her into an Oracle,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°Although it will be good to be an Oracle, will she be Tessa anymore?¡± After thinking for a while, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t give him an accurate answer. Oracles were essentially tools created by gods. Even if they were created on the basis of the souls of mortals, they were still tools that would be loyal to gods unconditionally. There was no essential difference. Sui Xiong was not sure if that could be counted as saving Tessa, but it was obviously not the result that Tu Ya¡¯an wanted. Le-Peyroux was the God of Spellcaster. He almost reached the peak in the field of spells. However, it could be seen that there was still a gap between his ability and Sui Xiong¡¯s ability. Thinking of that, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but feel a little proud. Therefore, he gave Tu Ya¡¯an and his sister three plans, and they could choose on their own. In the first plan, Sui Xiong would use Divine Power to activate the longings contained in the body of Tessa, and then he would construct a special circulation in her body. Continuous longing would blend into her soul to nourish it. It would solve the problem of the deterioration of her soul. When her soul recovered, the various senses of her body would naturally recover. In the future, as long as her body was not damaged, she could live forever theoretically. Of course, it would still be necessary to supplement vitality, but the consumption would be much less than that in the past. In the second plan, he would create a new body for Tessa. The new body would look no different from her present body. However, in fact, the new body would become a strange long-lived creature that was unimaginable for mortals. He would personally transfer Tessa¡¯s soul into it. After that, Tess might take some time to get used to it, but there were basically no consequences. Gerald, the head of the Void Mask Knights, was such an existence. In the third plan, he would directly give Tessa divinity. Tessa would turn into a divine creature. The soul level of a divine creature was very high. As long as she was not affected by Dirty Spells, she wouldn¡¯t need to worry about the deterioration of her soul. Moreover, she could even refine her body to improve it. In the future, it might be possible for her to evolve into an existence that was similar to some Heavenly Creatures at the front of the Ring of the World. Facing such sudden happiness, Tu Ya¡¯an and his sister didn¡¯t know what to do. They had originally tried their best, but they couldn¡¯t avoid the hopeless ending that would come sooner or later. They had been depressed. However, the Void Mask gave them three plans to solve the problem, and each one seemed to be quite good. However, it also made them somewhat distressed. They didn¡¯t know which one to choose. This was like a poor man that hadn¡¯t had enough food to eat suddenly making a fortune. Sitting in a high-end restaurant, he would look at the high-end dishes on the exquisite menu. He wouldn¡¯t even know the names of those dishes before. Therefore, he would want to taste every dish, but his stomach wouldn¡¯t be big enough. Obviously, this was troublesome, but a happy kind of troublesome. Tu Ya¡¯an and his sister talked with Sui Xiong for a moment, and then they knew that they didn¡¯t have to rush. Therefore, they began to discuss it. According to Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s idea, naturally, the third plan was the best. There were no consequences, and they didn¡¯t need to worry about any bad changes. Moreover, the essence of his sister might evolve. She might gain real immortality. In that way, even if he failed to step into the demigod realm in the future and became old and finally die, at least his sister would still be alive. That would be a comfort. However, Tessa didn¡¯t think so at all. She was clear that her brother was a necromancer. If she became a heavenly creature with good divinity, then she might hurt him when she was close to his brother in the future. This was absolutely unacceptable. Absolutely! Although Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s strength was much stronger than his sister¡¯s, it was Tessa who made the final decision. Therefore, after discussing for a while, they vetoed the third plan that he liked. Finally, they chose the second plan. Tessa was not willing to tell him the reason for why she chose this plan. She had been slightly dissatisfied with her figure. According to her body, she was a 13-year-old girl. However, her soul had grown up. She was not satisfied with her immature teenage figure. In particular, she had seen Jane¡¯s figure yesterday. She was impressed with her good figure that would make the most decent men glance. Thinking of her own thin body, her heart was deeply hurt. Therefore, she insisted on choosing the second plan. She could ask the Void Mask for a favor when he rebuilt her body. She wanted to be a little more mature. For real. Just a little more. Chapter 505 Chapter 505: Chapter 46-1 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A few days later, the dusty-faced Cambrona came to Void City together with Jane, who was still very confused at the moment. Void City, the most prosperous city in the whole Main Plane or perhaps in the world, had been established for almost fifty years. Over the past fifty years, it had experienced several ups and downs, but it still stood here. No residents had been killed in an earth-shaking crisis, and it was a well-deserved paradise. Over the past fifty years, a variety of delicious foods, entertainments and recreations, and all kinds of new things had been constantly appearing here. They then spread to the other parts of the Main Plane, which more or less promoted the progress of the entire Main Plane. Cambrona had never been here before. He was a dirty pettifogger when he was young and was busy making money. Later, he was concerned about his wife and did not want to travel long distances, so he chose to live near Mill City. Therefore, although he had heard of the city¡¯s prosperity many times before, he was deeply shocked by the scene he saw when he crossed the portal. In front of him, there was a huge square. Including the portal he had passed through, about a dozen portals stood around the square. Each of them was constructed into different shapes. Some were like wheat ears, some were like gears, some were like mountain peaks, and some were like flames. Inside the different frameworks, pure white light was the portal that led to all the prosperous cities in the Main Plane. For example, behind him, the portal that he just passed through was like a light ball held by two hands, and it led to the Highest Tower of the Mifata Federation. This square was very large, but Central Square in Mill City was only a ¡°small child¡± compared to it. However, for Void City, this square was nothing. In front of the square, there was a road that could accommodate at least hundreds of people walking side by side. It led straight into the distance. Cambrona could not see what the end of the road looked like because of his poor eyesight, but he could see that there were several tall buildings that stood at the end of the road. Firstly, there was a high tower made of precious stones, bending and rotating into the air. He could vaguely see that there were several platforms at the top of the tower. There seemed to be something else on the platform, but he could not see clearly. Then on the other side, there was a huge¡­ He couldn¡¯t tell what it was. It was red, crooked, and there was a huge arc in its part. As he gazed at it, he saw that there was something moving on it. Its speed was fast at first, but then it slowed down for a while; he wondered if it was an illusion due to his poor eyesight. There was also a steeple that soared into the clouds. The top of the steeple became larger, like a flattened ball. He felt like the flat ball was spinning, but he had to walk in to know whether it was spinning or not. What¡¯s more, there was also a huge circle on the ground. There seemed to be something on the rim of the circle. He could not tell what it was, but he felt that the whole circle was spinning as well. There were two square towers next to the circle that was connected to each other. One tower was very thick, while on the top of the other tower, there was a long bar. It seemed that something fell down from the bar but was dragged back by something else. Except for those man-made buildings, there was also a mountain that was apparently surrounded by something on its top, but¡­ Damn! Cambrona hated his poor eyesight so much. Over the years, he had suffered more than once because of his poor eyesight. ¡°Hey, man! Don¡¯t stand in the way!¡± Just as Cambrona stopped to take a look, a voice came behind him, ¡°Let me in! Let me in!¡± He just came to and found himself standing in front of the portal. He hastily apologized and then took his wife and walked to the side where it was not crowded. ¡°Jane, what do you think of the scenery here?¡± He asked as he walked. Jane stopped, looked around and gazed into the distance. After a while, she said, ¡°It¡¯s a very beautiful scenery, but I don¡¯t know why I don¡¯t like it.¡± ¡°Ah? You don¡¯t like it?¡± Cambrona was surprised. For the first time, he had heard someone say that they did not like the scenery of Void City. ¡°Yes. I always feel that there exists something that I hate,¡± Jane said. ¡°But¡­ there are also things that I miss and yearn for¡­¡± She looked around carefully for a moment and then stretched her finger in one direction, in which a faint green could be seen. ¡°Over there. I always feel something over there calling me.¡± When she said this, her face was a little blank, but there was a light that flashed across her eyes. Cambrona was a completely hen-pecked husband who always gave in to his wife. When his wife told him to go east, he would never go west, and when his wife told him to kick the chicken, he would never beat the dog. Now that his wife told him that there was something attractive to her over there, he would immediately go there to have a look. So they went directly to the place his wife told him about. But there was no way to get to the place. Cambrona went to a big man in a stiff blue-and-white shirt with a blue label on his chest in order to avoid getting lost. He knew at first glance that this man was a worker of the Void Mask Land and asked him how to get there. ¡°Over there?¡± The big man with Kazuna on his nameplate was stunned for a moment. He thought about it and said, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s in the direction of the Tree of God. If you want to go to the Tree of God, you have to go to Central Square first and then go to North Square.¡± He thought for a while and said again, ¡°Although the Tree of God is a famous scenery, it is almost in the most northern part of Void City while the portal square is in the most southern part. Are you sure you want to go through the entire Void City to see the Tree of God? It¡¯s a bit of a waste of time.¡± Cambrona looked back at his wife, but his wife did not want to change her mind. ¡°To tell you the truth, we are very curious about the Tree of God¡­¡± Cambrona made up a random excuse. The big man laughed and said, ¡°Man, you may not know that my biggest strength is to detect lies.¡± Cambrona, whose excuse was exposed on the spot, felt embarrassed and laughed, but he insisted on seeing the Tree of God. ¡°If you want to see the Tree of God, you can¡¯t walk. It¡¯s really far away from here.¡± The big man pointed to a direction and said, ¡°First, you have to go to the square that I pointed to, and you will see a green platform with a shed on it. Pay attention to the words painted on the wall next to it¡­ Oh, you can¡¯t see clearly. Then I will tell you that there is a bus stop over there. There is a bus from South Square to Portal Station over there. You can take the bus to North Central Square and then you have to transfer to another bus from North Square to the Tree of God. The terminal is not far from the Tree of God, and you can just walk there after getting off the bus.¡± Cambrona was stunned for a moment. He did not expect the traffic in Void City to be so convenient. He thanked the big man and took his wife to the bus platform with curiosity. The bus platform was large enough to accommodate hundreds of people. By this time, there were twenty or thirty people waiting for the bus here. They were from different races and had different appearances, but they all looked calm and confident. That meant that they had lived a good life here. While waiting for the bus, people who knew each other were chatting. ¡°Hey, did you watch yesterday¡¯s Handsome Half-Orc Adventures?¡± a tall and thin man with pointed ears who looked like a half-elf laughed and said. ¡°It¡¯s so funny. That big man always worries that he will be drugged by someone. He is such a big man! How can he be so foolish?!¡± ¡°It¡¯s mainly because those fairy girl¡¯s eyes are too frightening. If I were him, I would also be afraid.¡± The man who answered him was very big with a visible beard on his face and two pointed teeth on his lip. His tan skin was rather rough, which showed that he was apparently a Half-Orc. ¡°Well, we elves would never drug someone!¡± A female elf with green hair and delicate eyebrows and skin spoke up. ¡°If we wanted to drug someone, a spell would be enough.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not the point!¡± The Half-Orc stepped back and was a little frightened. ¡°Why do you focus on this point?¡± Watching his face fill with worry and the shorter female elf whose momentum had overwhelmed him, Cambrona was amused and almost laughed out loud. At this moment, many people on the platform had already laughed. ¡°You two really act so well¡­ You can act on TV!¡± ¡°This is a good performance. I give nine points and deduct one point for fear of your pride!¡± ¡°You should change your jobs and go to the entertainment industry. If you don¡¯t do something comedy related, it would really be a waste of talent!¡± Seeing everyone laughing, including the Half-Orc and the female elf, Cambrona realized that they were performing a piece of a drama. It looked really interesting. When Jane had recovered, we would live here for some time and watch all these interesting dramas. Shorty afterward, the bus arrived. The bus in Void City was a huge metal box with rows of wheels under it. The puller was a robot that looked a little like a spider, but it had more legs, and it was much shorter than a spider. As soon as it arrived at the station, the half-elf who had performed before smiled and greeted the puller. ¡°Hey, Do¡¯Urden, you look great!¡± The spider turned its head and smiled. Its eyebrows twitched twice. ¡°I¡¯m feeling good every day.¡± People laughed and got on the bus. There were large and small seats on the bus. Big men like the Half-Orcs sat in the back seat, while small men like dwarfs naturally sat in the front seats. The Cambrona couple sat in the seats near the door and tied a pair of silver bands on both sides of their bodies like other passengers. Then they heard the voice of the robot called Do¡¯Urden from in the bus. ¡°Bus No.13 is leaving. Passengers are requested to sit in their seats and tie their safety belts.¡± Then it counted to ten seconds. Ten seconds later, the bus suddenly accelerated and moved forward quickly. Cambrona was shocked at first and then was relieved to see that most of the passengers acted normal. He could not help but laugh when he saw the scene outside the window. Void City¡­ was really amazing! Chapter 506 Chapter 506: Chapter 46-2 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Do¡¯Urden, a robot, ran very fast and had great strength. It pulled the bus of thirty or forty people and ran swiftly. It saw the scenery outside the window hurtling back and forth, and the bus that it pulled stopped and drove all the way. Soon, the bus crossed the long street lined with houses on both sides and came to a huge square. Cambrona could not see how big the square was because his vision was limited on the bus, but at least he knew that the bus had stopped twice at the square. The third time it stopped, he came to the first stop of their trip¡ªNorth Station of Central Square. Do¡¯Urden always announced the station name at every stop, but it only used a brief name. For example, the ¡°North Station of Central Square¡± was called ¡°Square North.¡± This statement was really strange, but it was not difficult to understand. When the bus arrived, Cambrona got off with his wife who was still very confused at the moment and went directly to the green platform. After leaving the bus where his vision was limited, the Central Square of Void City immediately came into his view. ¡°How big!¡± For a moment, Cambrona could only say such a word. Yeah, it was so big! The Central Square of Void City was really too big! How big was this square? He was currently standing on the bus platform on the north side of the square. At first glance, he could not even see the boundary of the square clearly. Of course, perhaps it was because Cambrona was short-sighted. But even so, the size of the square was enough to make him feel like he was at sea. Of course, such a huge square would not be empty. There were many pools, flower beds, small and middle-sized entertainment facilities. There were also many artists performing in the open, some singing, some reciting, some performing acrobatics and some performing magic tricks. He even saw several adventurers performing. For example, there was a female ranger who set up several targets about fifty paces away from herself. Every arrow was shot on the target. Near the target, a swordsman in leather was practicing fencing. His swordsmanship was not very fast, but it was steady and fierce. Cambrona thought in his mind that if he could not rely on his strength as an advantage to fight with the swordsman, he would probably be defeated after several rounds. On the other side of the target, a bare barbarian was also performing. His way of performing was very rough¡ªhe allowed ordinary tourists to hit him with thick sticks. Many tall and strong men held sticks that were thicker than their arms and hit him heavily. Although he was often hit, he did not suffer any injuries. Ordinary people only felt intrigued when they saw this, but Cambrona felt frightened. Oh god! Did I see that right? That should be the barbarians¡¯ special skill ¡°Injury Relief.¡± How could the barbarian practice the skill so well? He might have stepped into the high-level. How could a high-level adventurer be a street performer? My eyes really need to be treated¡­ When Cambrona saw several performers on the other side, he even wondered if anything was wrong with his brain to cause an illusion in his mind. There were several mages who performed at least mid-ranked spells. Unlike adventurers who practiced martial arts, spellcasters generally had a good life and a steady income. They did not need to perform on the street, especially those who had passed through the most difficult time of being a low-ranked mage and became a mid-ranked mage. Every mid-ranked mage had the same wealth as a low-ranked aristocrat. Many mid-ranked mages had more wealth than most knights, and their wealth was even equivalent to that of a baron. Cambrona could not imagine that a baron would perform on the street. What¡¯s more, looking at their faces, it seemed that they were having a good time. Why? Shouldn¡¯t the mid-ranked mages be building or preparing to build their magic towers? Even if they were poor, there should be a magic lab for them! Why did those mid-ranked mages come out of their labs and perform on the street? ¡°There must be something wrong with the world¡­¡± Cambrona muttered. He was too lazy to see more, so he closed his eyes and leaned feebly against the pillars of the bus platform. As a resident of the Mifata Federation, he was educated in his childhood that, ¡°Everything is inferior; only a mage is superior.¡± Now he had seen several respectable mid-ranked¡ªeven higher than mid-ranked¡ªmages performing on the street. This had a strong psychological blow on him. Cambrona was devastated by the scene that he had seen just now and was absent-minded when he took the next bus to God Tree Station in the North Square. He walked like stepping on cotton, staggering and standing unsteadily. If he was alone, he might fall down. Fortunately, Jane was beside him and took good care of him. With Jane¡¯s help, Cambrona finally managed to stand up and regained his calm. ¡°Every place is different. The wild vegetables that could be seen everywhere in the South may be precious food in the North. Flocks of fish in the ice lakes of the north could sell a high price at restaurants if moving them to the South¡­ Food is like this, not to mention people.¡± Cambrona spoke to himself and slowly calmed down. Of course, this was mainly due to the green light in the air. After getting off the bus at God Tree Station, Cambrona felt cool and comfortable. The cool feeling was not from the skin but from inner heart. What refreshed the soul was the green light that pervaded the air. The green light came from the lush tree canopy that almost covered the sky. However, not far ahead, there was a huge trunk that needed at least twenty or thirty people to circle around it. When Cambrona saw the huge tree, his heart seemed to have been washed away by clear water, and all kinds of confusing ideas in his mind had disappeared. He had completely restored his usual calm and stability. He turned his head to his wife whose confusing look had disappeared already. Although her eyes were still a little confused, she seemed much more energetic than before. ¡°Jane, is that the tree you just felt?¡± He asked. ¡°Yes¡­ No¡­¡± Jane nodded first and then shook her head. She frowned, thought for a while and said uncertainly, ¡°Inside the tree¡­ What attracts me is in the tree.¡± Cambrona was stunned for a moment. He took his wife¡¯s hand, and they went to the Tree of God together. He looked carefully at the thick trunk but could not find even a crack on it, let alone a place to hide things. ¡°Are you sure? The tree seems to be whole,¡± he said. Jane shook her head violently. ¡°No! Not like this! Something inside the tree is calling for me!¡± She got excited suddenly and threw off Cambrona¡¯s hands. She squeezed her hands into fists and hit them hard on the trunk. ¡°Open! Open quickly! Open for me!¡± Cambrona was shocked; he grabbed her arms quickly and dragged her back. But Jane, who was usually weak, burst out with amazing strength. Even Cambrona who was a knight could not stop her. On the contrary, he staggered back several steps and almost fell to the ground. ¡°Jane! What¡¯s wrong with you!¡± He was very frightened. ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± ¡°Nothing. She is just infected by some magic,¡± another voice answered him. A green jellyfish appeared in front of them. He stopped Jane with its tentacles and rolled her back to Cambrona. Cambrona saluted in a hurry to meet His Majesty, the Great Void Mask. ¡°I¡¯m glad that you came so soon,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°Her situation is very simple, but I really don¡¯t know how to explain to you¡­ Or I can tell you the truth but are you sure that you want to know the truth?¡± He smiled and looked at Cambrona who was very frightened and confused. He then looked at Jane, who was still trying to break the tree trunk even though she was caught by his tentacles. ¡°Behind the truth, it is often very sad and heavy. Cambrona, are you ready to bear the sad and heavy truth?¡± Cambrona was shocked and looked at the Void Mask who was smiling. He also took a look at Jane, who seemed mad and was still trying to move forward. Finally, he went into deep thought. He thought for a long time. At last, he took a long deep breath and said, ¡°I¡¯ve decided not to ask for the truth.¡± ¡°Who was Jane in the past? What are her origins? Does she have any enemies? Or does she burden any missions¡­? Of course, I want to know everything about her,¡± he said. ¡°But I know one thing for sure. The past is in the past. It is really important for us to grasp the present and strive for a better future. If the past becomes a burden on us, then we will just let it pass completely. I don¡¯t want to ask for or know anything.¡± After saying all this, he relaxed, and his worries that had been weighing heavily on his mind finally disappeared. In fact, he had always been worried and frightened over the years. Who on earth was his wife? Why did the Void Mask suddenly find him? What else did he say? He did not understand why, but he knew that there must be an amazing secret behind it. Cambrona¡¯s wife had been in a coma for more than ten years, and this secret had something to do with it. The Legendary Master, Tu Ya¡¯an would suddenly change his attitude and was willing to help him, probably because of this secret. Even the Void Mask would find him again and ask him to go to Void City to see the Tree of God, mostly because of this secret. What was the secret? Of course, he would be curious and want to know the secret, but compared with his curiosity, he wanted to restore his usual stable and peaceful life more. He was just an ordinary man and wanted to live the life of an ordinary person. No matter what secrets Jane had, it was not worth destroying the peaceful life they were about to have. For their stable and happy future, he had better let the secret go with the wind! Chapter 507 Chapter 507: Chapter 47 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Watching the relieved look on Cambrona¡¯s face, Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°Very well, you made a wise choice,¡± he said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter what happened in the past. After all, people can¡¯t live in the past. The present and the future are the most important.¡± Cambrona nodded and said, ¡°Then it¡¯s time for us to say goodbye.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t leave in a hurry,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Since I said that I will help you solve the problem, at least I should act on what I have said. Don¡¯t think that there is only one way to solve this problem. I have great abilities!¡± After saying that, he waved his tentacles and the huge Tree of God waved too. All the branches and leaves were shaking together, and the green light fell like rain, instantly submerging the area. In the green light, a black-handled knife with a green scabbard slowly moved out of the tree and appeared in front of Cambrona and Jane. ¡°What is this?¡± Cambrona asked. ¡°Something to treat your wife¡¯s amnesia,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. Cambrona was stunned for a while, but he saw his wife reaching out to hold the knife in her hands. Her left hand held the green scabbard, and her right hand held the knife¡¯s handle. It was a standard backhand pulling position. However, the knife seemed to be solidified in the scabbard and could not be pulled out. She was stunned for a moment and looked at the knife doubtfully. Then her body shook violently, and her eyes were filled with confusion. After a while, her confusion disappeared, and her eyes became clear. She completely awoke up again without the previous feelings of ignorance. ¡°I feel like I was in a dream¡­¡± She raised her head and looked at the green light that fell down like rains. ¡°A very long dream.¡± ¡°No matter how long the dream was, you will wake up in the end,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Now it¡¯s time to wake up.¡± ¡°If dreams are longer than reality, then what is the dream and what is reality?¡± Jane asked. Sui Xiong thought for a moment and said, ¡°There was a sage who had a dream when he took a nap. He dreamed that he became a butterfly and flew freely. When he woke up, he was still in a trance and wondered, ¡®Was it I who became a butterfly? Or did the butterfly turn into me?¡¯ What do you think?¡± ¡°Both of the two questions are possible. Who knows what is true and what is false¡­¡± Jane lowered her head and whispered. ¡°No. This question is quite easy to answer,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°What stands next to you is real.¡± Jane was shocked, and she looked up and turned her face. She saw Cambrona¡¯s concerned eyes immediately. Looking at Cambrona¡¯s face that had changed a lot from her memory, she was stunned for a moment. His face had more vicissitudes, but the concern showed in his eyes was the same as before. After a while, she finally smiled and said to Sui Xiong, ¡°You are right. What¡¯s around me and who¡¯s next to me is real. Everything else is an illusion.¡± After saying that, she took Cambrona¡¯s hands and said to him, ¡°Over the years ¡­ you have done a lot of work.¡± ¡°No, no, it¡¯s fine for me,¡± Cambrona replied naturally. ¡°It¡¯s been really hard for you to take care of me all these years. I remembered that your soft hands could only use ink to write or paint, but now they have become so rough with so many old blisters¡­¡± She picked up his big hands that were no longer as soft as they used to be and put them on her cheeks. Cambrona clearly felt a little coolness fell on his fingers except for the warmth of her cheeks. ¡°You¡­ Why are you crying?¡± ¡°I¡¯m happy.¡± ¡°Happy? Yeah, today is a happy day¡­¡± Cambrona, who was skilled in debate, now became clumsy in front of his wife and echoed back like a yes-man. Sui Xiong shook his head and interrupted the warm scene. ¡°Well, I have done what I promised to you. What are you going to do next?¡± Cambrona turned to Sui Xiong quickly and wanted to bow to him, but he could not pull his hands back from his wife. He smiled awkwardly and answered, ¡°I¡¯m going to take Jane to travel here for a few days first. It¡¯s really an interesting place. She¡¯ll love it.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and said, ¡°It¡¯s a good idea, but to be honest, the expense of living here is not low. Are you sure you can afford it?¡± Cambrona thought for a while and said, ¡°Can I find a temporary job here? I¡¯m a powerful knight.¡± ¡°Void City does not need strong fighters,¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°Our strength is quite sufficient for national defense.¡± Cambrona recalled the scene he had just seen in the square and laughed bitterly. He thought it over and said, ¡°I was a good pettifogger. I was good at grasping the legal provisions, debating in court, and choosing the applicable law in all kinds of situations. Although I haven¡¯t had a lawsuit for more than a decade, I believe I can still play a role in this regard.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°That¡¯s right! Construction is more important than fighting. There are too many people in the world who are good at fighting while too few people are good at building. For Void City and the Northwest Republic, a good pettifogger is far more useful than a powerful knight. Come on, I believe you can do it!¡± After saying that, the green rain stopped sharply, and Sui Xiong disappeared without any traces as if he had never appeared. Cambrona opened his mouth in shock, turned to his wife and then smiled. He thought about it and laughed. They turned around and walked hand in hand towards the bus platform. ¡°Jane, I¡¯m going to sell my house in Mill City and move here. What do you think?¡± ¡°Very well, Mill City is located in the south, so it¡¯s very hot in summer. Void City is located in the north, so it must be very cool in summer.¡± ¡°But I¡¯m afraid we don¡¯t have enough money,¡± Cambrona sighed and said. ¡°After you fell into a coma, almost all of my property was used to find someone to treat your illness¡­¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter even if you don¡¯t have a copper plate,¡± Jane smiled and said. ¡°What¡¯s the difficulty of making money with your skills? People here also need to go to court.¡± Cambrona smiled, and the former number one pettifogger in Mill City who dared to quarrel with gods appeared in him again. ¡°You¡¯re right! With my skills, where can¡¯t I go in the world? Where can I not make money? Well! I just don¡¯t have to pay attention to the dilapidated house in Mill City. I¡¯ll go and find a job right now!¡± After saying that, he grabbed a passer-by in uniform next to him. ¡°Hey man, do you know where to find a job in Void City?¡± The staff member was stunned for a moment, looked at him and looked at Jane again. Then he asked somewhat blankly, ¡°What kind of job are you looking for?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a pettifogger, and I¡¯m good at litigating,¡± Cambrona laughed and said. ¡°Of course, I need to find a job that suits me.¡± ¡°Then you must be well-educated; you can go to City Hall to take a look,¡± the staff member said. ¡°They are always recruiting people who are well-educated. Maybe you can try it.¡± Cambrona nodded and asked how to get to City Hall. Then he expressed his thanks to the staff member, turned to Jane and smiled proudly. ¡°You see, that¡¯s settled.¡± ¡°Then what are you waiting for? Let¡¯s go!¡± Half an hour later, in the waiting room of City Hall, Cambrona raised his head proudly and came out. He laughed, raised his thumb to Jane and pointed his finger at himself. ¡°Got it done! I will be working here to deal with some civil disputes starting from tomorrow.¡± He looked very proud and confident. ¡°When I was interviewed, the HR officer looked at me like I was a monster. When I said that I didn¡¯t have a house, he even shouted that he could help me arrange for my lodging. Haha, even the house has been settled!¡± ¡°You are awesome!¡± Jane said with a smile. ¡°Of course! I¡¯m your husband. That¡¯s what I should be!¡± In the air above City Hall, Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman watched them together, and when they saw this, they could not help but laugh. ¡°Looks like that we don¡¯t have to worry about them,¡± Yorgaardman said. ¡°We don¡¯t have to worry about them at least for the next decade or even decades.¡± ¡°Even after decades, we don¡¯t need to worry,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°She has woken up and will not return to that darkness.¡± ¡°It¡¯s incredible¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s so incredible?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°The love between Hasarin and Dyalt cannot compare with the love between Jane and Cambrona. Isn¡¯t it taken for granted that true love triumphs over distorted loyalty?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t say words like that. Cambrona is just a mortal, and Jane is also a mere mortal. How can the love between two mortals compare with that between two gods?¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and said, ¡°Love should not be compared in this way. What kind of genuineness can Dyalt give to others? The reason why Hasarin is dead set on him is that she has nowhere to go. The love between Jane and Cambrona is true love. How can their love be inferior to the twisted feelings between a monarch and a minister?¡± Yorgaardman still shook his head and said, ¡°The time in which Jane and Cambrona have been together is really short! They¡¯ve only lived with each other for more than ten years and Jane was in a coma for most of the time. But Dyalt and Hasarin have been living together for tens of thousands of years!¡± ¡°Time is not a problem and identity is not a problem. There is only one problem, that is, the sincere degree of their love,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Jane and Cambrona would both die for each other without hesitation. What about Hasarin and Dyalt? Hasarin would definitely die for Dyalt, but what about Dyalt?¡± Yorgaardman was silent. ¡°So you think too much. In terms of emotions, true love is the strongest. Sui Xiong said. ¡°True love is invincible!¡± Yorgaardman thought for a while, nodded and laughed. ¡°You¡¯re right, true love is invincible; I like this ending!¡± ¡°Come on, let¡¯s find a place to drink,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Although neither of us has found true love and it is difficult for us to find it, today is worth toasting to true love!¡± ¡°All right! Cheers to true love!¡± Chapter 508 Chapter 508: Chapter 48 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Compared with the Cambrona couple, who had little family property and could travel freely and easily, it took Tu Ya¡¯an and his sister nearly half a month to finish all the things on their plate. Then they finally came to Void City. Having decided to serve His Majesty, the Void Mask from now on, Tu Ya¡¯an even gave up his magic tower. Apart from some very important and memorable objects, he left almost everything in the magic tower to the wizard who inherited it¡ªone of his brothers. Originally, he wanted to give the magic tower to his teacher, Master Mill, a legendary mage. But Master Mill went out to explore other worlds and could not return for at least a year and a half, so he had to transfer the magic tower to Master Mill¡¯s oldest disciple. That disciple was an advanced mage who had lived for nearly 300 years, and he was Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s older brother. In order to prolong his life, he sealed up his body and boarded up his soul in a statue, so he was called the ¡°magician of the statue.¡± Knowing that his younger brothers who came up from behind were planning to go to Void City, the oldest disciple was dissatisfied at first because this meant that there would be no legendary mages sitting in Mill City. Even if he did not take the security issue into account, this would make him lose face. But when Tu Ya¡¯an told him that he would transfer the whole magic tower to him, he immediately changed his mind and praised Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s wisdom and vision. He claimed that Tu Ya¡¯an would have great achievements in the future. It was obvious that he was just in it for the legendary magic tower! Tu Ya¡¯an did not want to talk more with his aging older brother and led him directly to the magic tower. He counted all the facilities in the magic tower and all kinds of materials in the warehouse one by one. Then he explained all the magic spells and robots to his brother without any reservation, except for the magician¡¯s ¡°secret tunnel.¡± His older brother would be very satisfied if he got an empty magic tower. He did not expect that Tu Ya¡¯an would leave all kinds of things in the tower and the materials in the warehouse to him. He suddenly felt uneasy and asked if Tu Ya¡¯an was going to do anything dangerous. In his view, this was not just transferring the magic tower but also entrusting all his relics! Tu Ya¡¯an wanted to laugh and weep all at once, but he was also moved by his older brother. After all, he had met some good friends over the years. It was just that his older brother really made a mistake. He repeatedly explained to his older brother, but his brother was still doubtful. Eventually, he had to guarantee that he would often contact his brother after he settled down in Void City so as to reassure him. However, before he left, his brother came to see him off and told him to pay attention to his safety. Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s brother also knew that in Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s family, they had an idea of ¡°men managing external affairs and women managing internal,¡± so when he found out that Tu Ya¡¯an did not take his words to heart at all, he turned to Tessa and told her to take good care of Tu Ya¡¯an and not allow him to do any dangerous things. ¡°If necessary, you can break his legs. It¡¯s much easier to treat broken legs than to recover from death!¡± He told Tessa like this. After hearing that, Tu Ya¡¯an felt very frightened, especially when he saw Tessa taking a pair of white crutches from his brother secretly. This crutch was made by his brother to celebrate Master Mill¡¯s millennial birthday. He had made two crutches in total. The second one that was much better than the first one was sent to Master Mill, while the first one had been treasured by him over the years. He did not expect that his brother would send it to Tessa. This crutch seemed ordinary and plain except for the fact that it could emit white light. In fact, it could trigger seven or eight different spells when necessary, among which the most ferocious one was ¡°Great Disintegration.¡± That was a spell that any caster would be afraid of. There was a saying that said, ¡°When disintegration comes, gods will hate, and ghosts will cry.¡± The Great Disintegration Spell could not only destroy the effect of any other spells, but it could also destroy all kinds of magic props. In front of it, any protective magic and magic armor would become useless. Even a legendary mage like Tu Ya¡¯an would suffer serious injuries if he was beaten by the crutch. He may even be dismantled by a single blow. Thinking about this, Tu Ya¡¯an really wanted to use his most powerful spell, ¡°Death Finger¡± to beat up his brother. In the end, he did not do as he thought, but he was laughed at several times along the way by Tessa. Therefore, when he arrived at Void City, he really felt a little exhausted. He wanted to find a place to lie down immediately and sleep for a day or two. Sui Xiong met him in the great temple of the church of the Void Mask. At the same time, the high levels of the church also took some time to see him. The scene was very big and grand, and it fully showed that the church of the Void Mask really paid great attention to him. Although Tu Ya¡¯an was a necromancer who was unpopular among ordinary people, he was also a legendary mage after all. What¡¯s more, he was not the kind of newcomer who had just stepped into the Legendary Realm; he had stepped into the Legendary Realm for nearly a hundred years, and he had almost reached the mid-legendary level. Facing a powerful mage like Tu Ya¡¯an, any country or any organization would show their utmost sincerity and enthusiasm to welcome him. If one didn¡¯t take Tu Ya¡¯an seriously and treated him casually, it was not only insulting Tu Ya¡¯an, but also insulting to themselves. The high levels of the church of the Void Mask were not prejudiced against Tu Ya¡¯an for being a necromancer. They believed in Sui Xiong¡¯s vision. Compared to necromancers, which were unpopular among ordinary people but were at least orthodox mages, demon beasts such as Slim, Big Birds, and Sea Monkeys were obviously much more dangerous and evil. How could the church of the Void Mask discriminate against Tu Ya¡¯an if they could treat those demon beats as their partners? Tu Ya¡¯an was so happy that he couldn¡¯t even speak well after feeling the friendliness and kindness of the church of Void Mask. Of course, he was not good at talking to begin with. No one would expect a man who usually only talked to his sister to be good at face-to-face communication. Therefore, the person in charge of negotiation became Tessa again. She was much better than her brother. With her lovely appearance and tragic life experience, she quickly gained the love of the compassionate and kind-hearted people, like Madame Teague. People who were knowledgeable but not very kind, like Leon, would not deliberately engage her. In the end, she was much more popular than her brother, and she quickly got along well with everyone. After the welcome meeting, they went to the welcome dinner. At the dinner party, Big Bird Favnier and the Sea Monkey, Ling Ming, who belonged to the evil camp in theory, also welcomed their new friends from the evil camp. They sincerely invited Tu Ya¡¯an to join the ¡°Happy Bachelors in the Night¡± organization. Favnier even said that he would share some information that he collected over the years about the places he had gone to in hopes of finding girls and where everyone could enjoy their lives together happily. Finally, Tu Ya¡¯an was dragged by Tessa to his hotel that night. Favnier shouted back, ¡°That¡¯s all right! Let¡¯s start in a few days! I have gone to many different brothels, and I¡¯m very familiar with most of them. I can take you there.¡± As for how Tu Ya¡¯an would be educated and cursed out by his sister after being dragged back to the hotel, well, nobody would know. Chapter 509 Chapter 509: Chapter 49 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The next morning, Sui Xiong went to the hotel and saw Tu Ya¡¯an, who was forced to wake up by Tessa, with a pale face. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t drink so much,¡± Sui Xiong said, ¡°You face is so pale now!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an smiled bitterly. He wanted to tell the truth but finally chose to be silent. How could a legendary master be drunk? A necromancer was good at handling abnormal conditions. The reason why he looked pale was because he was scolded by Tessa¡­ But Tessa was nearby. Tu Ya¡¯an decided to hide this truth and not say it out loud. Sui Xiong failed to see through this because a god¡¯s mind reading power didn¡¯t work on a legendary master. Seeing Tu Ya¡¯an stay silent, Sui Xiong patted him on the shoulder with his tentacles and treated him with Divine Power. Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power was extremely powerful. With only one second, Tu Ya¡¯an immediately felt refreshed. Even a little bit of tiredness disappeared, and he was in good spirits. ¡°Well, back to business,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I¡¯m going to start building a magic tower for you. Are you going to give me a blueprint or a general idea, and then I¡¯ll add the details?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an paused and asked, ¡°You would like to help me build a magic tower?¡± ¡°Of course, how could a legendary mage not have a magic tower?¡± Sui Xiong was shocked and did not understand why he asked that. ¡°Since I asked you for help, I naturally had to prepare a magic tower for you. Even employers would arrange accommodation for their employees in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an did not ask where Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou were. He was silent for a moment and said, ¡°I have no special requirements for the magic tower. Just not place with positive power.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°Do you look down on me? How could I make such a stupid mistake!¡± Since Tu Ya¡¯an had no special requirements, Sui Xiong put forward his own idea. He planned to build the magic tower next to the ¡°Dragon and Dungeons¡± Adventure Park. The entire magic tower was mostly underground. It could avoid letting ordinary people see those ghostly and terrible Dead Soul Spells. This magic tower had only three floors on the ground but six floors under the ground. Most importantly, this magic tower had a pool of negative energy, a projection room of the underworld and the channel of the River Styx. The pool of negative energy could provide an abundant source of magic for Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s magic research. The projection room and the channel of the River Styx could allow him to detect the underworld without going out, and he could even capture experimental materials directly from the underworld. The pool of negative energy could be constructed with money and common materials; Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s previous magic tower had one. But the projection room and the channel of the River Styx were very difficult to construct. Even legendary mages could not do it. In the past, Tu Ya¡¯an always used a transmission formation to get to the underworld. In order to ensure the safety of the transmission, he had to clean up all kinds of underworld Magic Beasts at the exit. It was troublesome. With the projection room and the channel of the River Styx, it was more convenient. Tu Ya¡¯an could not only see the underworld directly in the magic tower but also capture the experimental materials directly with a little magic power. The amount of magic consumption was not a problem with the pool of negative energy. There was no doubt that Sui Xiong was going to build an ideal magic tower for Tu Ya¡¯an. Tu Ya¡¯an planned to develop step by step in Void City. Firstly, he would build a magic laboratory; then he would accumulate some money to expand the laboratory into a magic tower as he had done in the past. He never thought that His Majesty would help him to complete his dream all at once! He wanted to express his gratitude in a sincere way, but he was ineloquent in saying anything. He could only say, ¡°Thank you.¡± After Sui Xiong left with a smile, Tu Ya¡¯an sighed deeply and said to his sister, ¡°I finally understand why so many people crazily admire and worship His Majesty.¡± ¡°Yes, he is a king who makes people look forward to meeting him! Maybe we don¡¯t have to run away if the earl could be as great as His Majesty,¡± Tessa sighed and said. In the past, when Tessa and Tu Ya¡¯an were little, their parents were the magic counselors under an Earl of the Duchy of Thunder. Their parents accidentally offended the earl¡¯s love child, and the earl wanted to kill them for it. Before they died, their parents burned their life essence, using the strongest power to transmit Tessa and Tu Ya¡¯an to Mill City. There, they had asked an old friend to take care of them. This old friend was only a mid-ranked mage. Of course, he wasn¡¯t able to avenge their parents for them. What he could do was take care of Tu Ya¡¯an and Tessa. But Tu Ya¡¯an and Tessa had been seriously injured and poisoned, and the mage did his best but only saved Tu Ya¡¯an. He froze Tessa, who was going to die. When Tu Ya¡¯an became a powerful necromancer under Master Mill¡¯s teaching, he resurrected his sister, she became a half-dead person. Later, when Tu Ya¡¯an became a high-level magician and was ready to step into the Legendary Realm, he returned to his hometown to seek revenge from his enemies. But he forgot two important things¡ªtime and life span. At that time, he was almost seventy years old, a young and promising magician. But seventy years for ordinary people had exceeded most people¡¯s lifespan. When he returned to his hometown, even their grandson was dead, let alone the earl and his son. Tu Ya¡¯an gave up taking revenge on the grand-grandson and left in frustration. But this touched him very much. Shortly after he came back, he succeeded in stepping into the Legendary Realm and became the first legendary mage among the students of Master Mill. These were past stories, and Tu Ya¡¯an almost forgot them. Tessa mentioned them and felt that time passed quickly. Looking back on the past, Tu Ya¡¯an had the same feelings as Tessa. If they had met a kind lord, Tu Ya¡¯an might not have become a legendary mage, but could have a happy family with healthy parents and lovely children. He might¡¯ve been an ordinary magician, who grew old and died peacefully. It would not be bad to have such a life, but it was impossible now. A Lord like His Majesty would only be the builder of the Pearl of Thunder, like Baron Crick Keane, who was the Holy Spirit of His Majesty. With a deep sigh, Tu Ya¡¯an began to wonder what he could do for His Majesty. A legendary mage was an extremely important high-end force for most countries and organizations, but it was not helpful for His Majesty. After all, His Majesty was one of the most powerful gods. He had to think about what he could do besides using force. He wondered for a long time and was distressed to find that he did not seem to have any special skills other than being able to fight. That was common for most mages. If force was not taken into account, he might be a scholar. However¡­ A scholar? Was that useful to a god? They were probably useful, but that was not worth having a magic tower. Tu Ya¡¯an meditated and discussed with his sister for a long time but never found a good answer. A few days later, Sui Xiong told Tu Ya¡¯an that the magic tower had been completed. After he moved in with his sister, he was inspired while creating several dead servants to do some housework temporarily. ¡°I know what I can do!¡± He laughed excitedly and hugged his sister. ¡°I¡¯m going to open a special store and rent out all kinds of dead servants!¡± Chapter 510 Chapter 510: Chapter 50 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The hug by her brother surprised Tessa. Then her face turned red. For a half-dead person, this feeling was rare. She wanted to hide her feelings but hesitated. She was reluctant to give up this rare feeling of family union. Suddenly, Tu Ya¡¯an said he wanted to open a store. ¡°Ah?¡± At this moment, she didn¡¯t know what she should say next. ¡°Why did you suddenly mention this?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an did not understand the true meaning of her sister¡¯s words at all. He laughed and said, ¡°I just got some inspiration. What do you think the Dead Soul Spell can do? The most common thing is to summon or create Dead Souls! Ghosts without entities can¡¯t do anything, but skeletons, zombies, and living corpses are all honest and obedient. Although they are mentally slow, they won¡¯t disobey their master¡¯s orders. No matter what kind of order the master gives, there is no hesitation or delay. Isn¡¯t such a skeleton the best kind of worker?¡± The more he spoke, the more proud he became. ¡°Recently, I have also done a detailed survey of the current situation in Void City and the Northwest Republic. The biggest problem here is the scarcity of workers. A large number of people are needed in farming, working and exploiting. But the number of vagrants that can be recruited is getting smaller and smaller, and they cannot meet the needs at all. In this case, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a chance for necromancy?¡± he said happily. ¡°Imagine it. We can handle over all the dull and simple work to the dead. The living people just need to command the dead. Doesn¡¯t that add a lot of workers at once?¡± Tessa really wanted to beat her unromantic brother to punish him for destroying the moment they just had. But she was rational. After listening to this idea, she put aside that feeling and seriously considered the matter. ¡°Dead Souls need to be manufactured by magic,¡± she thought for a moment and said. ¡°Magic costs a lot, and it¡¯s not cheap.¡± ¡°Necromancy is the cheapest among all spells,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an shook his head and said. ¡°I¡¯m not going to make the mid and high-ranked Dead Souls, just the lowest level Dead Souls. As long as I have enough materials, I can create at least two or three thousand Dead Souls in one day. Give me ten days or a half month, I can even launch a Dead Soul Army. He was right, and that was the real reason why necromancers were feared by many countries. In this world, the most unsettling spells for rulers were necromancy spells. Necromancy could quickly create a Dead Soul Army. Although the fighting capacity might be weak, the Dead Soul Army was loyal and brave. Even if the whole army were killed, they would carry out the orders of their monarch without hesitation. They were the most terrible army in the world. In the past, there had been more than one occasion in history where legendary necromancers launched a Dead Soul Army to declare war on another country. Unless there was a strong man who was extremely powerful, these countries would be defeated by the legendary necromancers every time. Facing the Dead Soul Army, the army of the living had never won once. This was one of the important reasons why Tu Ya¡¯an wanted to become a necromancer. Only when he became a powerful necromancer could he be sure of revenge. Of course, the most important reason was poverty. Other spells needed a lot of money. Only necromancy was the cheapest. He was poor because he spent lots of money to save his dying sister. If he had enough money, he could find a big temple and donate a huge sum of money to invite the Bishop to perform a powerful spell to heal Tessa. The reason why he was saved was because of his adoptive father, the old friend of his father. He had donated lots of money to the Temple of Wealth. Tu Ya¡¯an was not good at making money and was not sure that he would become a high-ranked magician, so he only could try to cure his sister himself. Among all the treatments, the only one he could possibly afford was necromancy. So he became a necromancer. If he had known that he would become a legendary mage, he would never have chosen this life. A legendary mage could ask most of the temples to cure Tessa without giving money. Over the years, Tu Ya¡¯an had more than once regretted his original choice. But now he was glad that he had chosen to be a necromancer. Necromancy could help the Northwest Republic a lot at this moment. This time, what he wanted to do was not to gather a Dead Soul Army to attack a country, but to let the Dead Souls participate in national construction. He wanted to let the Dead Souls become the largest exporter of labor in the Northwest Republic. He knew that there were many masters in the Northwest Republic and the Church of Void Mask. But they didn¡¯t have a Dead Soul Army like him! Ha ha! Ashes Woods had the world¡¯s richest resource of the Dead Souls. Although most of them were only skeletons of the lowest rank, they could work as a labor force. The skeleton was weaker than a living person, and even an ordinary farmer could knock it down in one blow. But when it came to working, a skeleton was much better than a farmer. The farmer needed to eat and rest, but the skeleton could work all day long by adding magic to it and regularly repairing it. Of course, in the daytime, skeletons would be damaged by the positive energy contained in the sunlight, but this was not difficult to solve. We would have the skeletons work at night. Ashes Woods had negative energy. These skeletons working at night could continuously absorb the negative energy and become stronger! The more Tu Ya¡¯an thought, the more satisfied he was. He told his sister that he was going out to meet Sui Xiong in the Church of the Void Mask. He met Sui Xiong and said his plan. Sui Xiong was shocked. He never thought that necromancy could be used in this way. But after careful deliberation, he found that this plan was really feasible. There were even some additional benefits. For the pioneers of Ashes Woods, the greatest danger was the attack from the Skeleton Army on the first night of every month. The Skeleton Army actually came from the corpses of every creature that died in the Ashes Woods for so many years. The number of the Skeleton Army was amazing, but if Tu Ya¡¯an, the legendary necromancer, executed his plan, he could turn all the corpses of a large area into skeletons under his control, thereby completely eliminating the danger in that area. Even just for this purpose, it was worth letting him do it! After a while, Sui Xiong could not help but frown. Satan, head of the Church of the Void Mask, was working to purify negative energy for years. His plan was to build a huge Purification Array that would cover the whole of Ashes Woods and transform the forbidden area of life into a beautiful paradise. Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s idea was good, but it contradicted Satan¡¯s plan. Sui Xiong favored Satan plan. It was not because Satan joined him earlier, but in the long run, Satan¡¯s plan was clearly more reasonable. It was more suitable for the people to live and work in peace and to restore the properties of the Ashes Woods. A beautiful Northwest Republic was better than a Northwest Republic with numerous skeleton force. Who would like to stay with skeletons all day? He hesitated for a moment and told Tu Ya¡¯an this. Tu Ya¡¯an was silent. Although his strength was higher than that of Satan, who had not yet entered the Legendary Realm, he understood that His Majesty¡¯s consideration was correct. For the ordinary people of the Northwest Republic, they would not want to spend all day with skeletons even if the skeletons could be a good workforce. ¡°Sorry, I was inconsiderate,¡± he said with a deep sigh. ¡°You¡¯re right. Without my sister, I would not have chosen to be a necromancer who played with skeletons all day, let alone ordinary civilians¡­ My idea was still too simple and naive. I¡¯m sorry to have wasted your time.¡± When Sui Xiong saw that Tu Ya¡¯an was depressed, he said immediately, ¡°Your idea is very useful. At least in the immediate future, the Northwest Republic needs your plan. As for the future¡­ Who knows? Let¡¯s talk about your plan. Even if these skeletons are not useful in the future, at least they have been useful. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an then turned joyful and laughed again. ¡°You¡¯re right. Nobody knows the future. Even if the Northwest Republic does not need me in the future, I can play a role now. It¡¯s better to do something for you now than to do nothing!¡± He clenched his fist, and his eyes had a strong light of confidence. He wanted to do something! He knew that he needed to hurry up and gain some achievements. Time was limited. Chapter 511 Chapter 511: Chapter 51 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Seeing that Tu Ya¡¯an had recovered his spirit, Sui Xiong nodded with a smile. He asked Tu Ya¡¯an when Tessa would receive the treatment and change to a healthy body. ¡°It will take you a lot of time, won¡¯t it?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an asked with doubt. ¡°Of course not,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°In fact, I could do it that same day. It seemed that you were not in a hurry, so I thought that it didn¡¯t need to be rushed. That was why I didn¡¯t say it at that time.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an laughed. The problem that had tortured him for so many years was just like lifting a finger for the Void Mask. ¡°From my point of view, of course I¡¯d hope to treat her as soon as possible,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said, smiling. ¡°How about I bring her here now?¡± ¡°Alright, but there is something I have to tell you first,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°If I rebuild her body, her faith may change because of that. She may become my believer.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an laughed heartily and interrupted Sui Xiong¡¯s words. He said, ¡°You think too much! You¡¯ll give her a rebirth. Of course, you should own her faith. That¡¯s reasonable. I¡¯d rather say that¡­ as long as people believe in you, they will own the opportunity to be reborn. Once people hear such a good thing, they will fight for it!¡± Sui Xiong smiled. He also knew that it was actually nothing serious. When he first saw Tu Ya¡¯an and Tessa, he knew that Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s belief in Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, the God of Spellcaster, was quite stable. However, Tessa didn¡¯t have such a strong belief. Therefore, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem for Tessa to change her faith and become his believer. If so, he could avoid a lot of trouble. ¡°Okay, bring her here,¡± Sui Xiong said. However, after thinking for a while, Sui Xiong said, ¡°No, I¡¯ll go directly to your magic tower and then take you back to my God¡¯s Kingdom. It is more secure to use that method in my God¡¯s Kingdom.¡± Of course, Tu Ya¡¯an wouldn¡¯t refuse. On the issue of the resurrection of his sister, he wouldn¡¯t refuse anything that could ensure her security. With a wave of his tentacles, Sui Xiong took Tu Ya¡¯an to his new magic tower and appeared directly outside the room of Tessa. Tu Ya¡¯an knocked on the door, and Tessa was a little confused. She soon learned that she could be resurrected now, and she was shocked and happy at the same time. She also looked a little blank. Her blankness didn¡¯t affect Sui Xiong. With a wave of his tentacles, he brought Tu Ya¡¯an and Tessa to the sanctuary of his God¡¯s Kingdom, just in front of the nutrition sink he had established for the resurrection of the God of Healing. Since the resurrection of the God of Healing, Sui Xiong had been thinking that he should rebuild the nutrition sink. He might need to use it in the future. When he had been free in the past few years, he had rebuilt the nutrition sink in addition to doing Jellyfish crouches on the table in the chamber. Of course, this rebuilt nutrition sink would definitely not be as good as the original one. The original one was his noumenon, and this one was just a replica. However, this nutrition sink was more than enough for such a little thing such as the resurrection of Tessa. According to his command, Tessa lay on a temporary platform at the top of the nutrition sink. She closed her eyes securely. Sui Xiong began to get busy. He wanted to create a body for Tessa, a body that was healthy enough. Moreover, her body couldn¡¯t be as weird as Gerald¡¯s body. Tessa was a cute little girl. She wasn¡¯t a rough man like Gerald. Just then, he heard the prayers in Tessa¡¯s heart. Your Majesty, the Void Mask, can you make a small change when you rebuild my body? Of course. What do you want? Sui Xiong answered with his thoughts. Tessa was shy, and then she told Sui Xiong what she wanted. Hearing her words, Sui Xiong laughed secretly. He guaranteed that there was absolutely no problem. He even pulled her soul into the spiritual world, and designed the figure of her resurrected body in front of her face, asking her to decide how to adjust it. Tessa didn¡¯t expect that the Void Mask would so kind. She was stunned. However, she quickly returned to her senses. She understood that now was an important moment related to her future happiness. Therefore, she carefully observed the body in the design without any shyness. She proposed many suggestions constantly. Sui Xiong naturally followed her suggestions, although he thought that Tessa¡¯s excessive pursuit of beauty and neglect of combat ability were not wise enough. However, this was her own body. As long as she liked it, others shouldn¡¯t give advice. In fact, he still gave a lot of advice. As an art student in the direction of fine arts, he had considerable accomplishments in human structure and aesthetics. Before his space-travel, his accomplishments had been useless except for drawing some popular pornographic books. However, at least it was useful at this moment. Under his advice, Tessa slightly adjusted her body design again and finally got a completely satisfactory model. ¡°Just like this,¡± she said. ¡°I am satisfied with this!¡± ¡°If you are not satisfied with this, I¡¯d think that you were purposefully finding faults,¡± Sui Xiong chattered, smiling. Then, he began to build this body. This time, his speed was much faster than the last time. On the one hand, he had previous experience. On the other hand, he had enough understanding of this body. He already had a detailed draft in his mind. It took only about half an hour for him to complete the construction of this new body. Under the traction of Divine Power, Tessa¡¯s soul was separated from her original half-dead body. After seeing the body that she had used for hundreds of years for the last time, she flew toward the new body without hesitation. ¡°Congratulations. You¡¯re reborn now!¡± Sui Xiong said, laughing. His laughter echoed in her heart. ¡°May you be happy!¡± She also thanked Sui Xiong with a smile, and then she opened her eyes in the nutrition sink. In the next moment, the nutrient solution inside the nutrition sink quickly flowed away. The closed hatch opened, and smiling Tessa appeared in front of Tu Ya¡¯an who was waiting for her anxiously. Looking at his sister, Tu Ya¡¯an widened his eyes. Tessa didn¡¯t wear clothes, so he could clearly see that vitality was overflowing from every inch of her skin. He could see the fresh brightness that only living people could have on her face and body. Especially, her pink cheeks and red lips were full of living brightness. ¡°Tessa¡­ You¡­ are resurrected?¡± he whispered. He hesitated. He felt as if he were dreaming. Tessa laughed. She rushed over, jumped into his arms, and held him tightly. He also held her tightly. ¡°Of course! I am resurrected!¡± Tessa said. She looked up at her brother who was stunned, surprised and happy. They looked at each other, and there were some unclear feelings in her big, watery eyes. ¡°Brother, these years¡­ you suffered a hard time!¡± Tessa said. ¡°Not hard at all!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an immediately replied. Under such close contact, he could clearly feel the temperature of his sister. He could even feel her heartbeat and breath. Because of the tightness of the hug, he could even feel that her blood was flowing vigorously along with the beating of her heart. Her body was constantly producing endless vitality. This was life! This was being ¡°alive!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an was so excited that his eyes went wet. For a time, he thought about a lot of things. He remembered his childhood time when his parents had still been alive. How happy he had been at that time! He remembered the sudden disaster in his home. He and his sister had escaped with heavy wounds and poisoned bodies relying on their father¡¯s sacrifice. They had escaped to seek help from their adoptive father. At that time, he couldn¡¯t think of anything. He had only had two words in his head, Stay alive. He remembered the desperation when he had woken up from a coma. He had seen his sister¡¯s frozen body lying quietly in the ice coffin. At that time, he had wanted to be the one lying there, not his sister. He remembered the days when he had spared all his efforts to learn spells day and night so that he could own enough power to save his sister as soon as possible. It had been very hard during that time, but it had also been enriching. With a clear goal, he had been full of fighting spirit every day. He remembered the moment when he had cast a spell to resurrect his sister after some successful study. Seeing that she had opened her eyes again, he had been extremely happy. At that time, he felt that the whole world was colorful again. The sky had been blue, and the water had been green. Even the wind had been full of happiness. He remembered the time when he had returned to his hometown to get revenge. However, he had found that his enemies had already died of old age. No one had even remembered the names of his enemies. They had just been some weak names in the earl¡¯s genealogy. At that time, he had felt blank for a long time. In the end, he realized that in the face of a long time, love and hatred were nothing but passing clouds. Only beyond time could he truly grasp his own life. He remembered the scene when he had entered the Legendary Realm. At that time, when he had come out of his room, everyone had come to congratulate him. However, he had only wanted to hurry to find his sister and share his happiness with her. He remembered the time that he had spent with his sister over the years. He had tried hard to maintain his sister¡¯s physical condition, but he hadn¡¯t been sure about the future. He remembered the time when he had gotten an oracle from his great tutor. He had worked hard to steal divinity from the God of Assassin. Although his heart had been full of uneasiness, it had also been full of hope. He remembered the sudden resurrection of the avatar of the God of Assassin. He had been in such a panic that he had almost fallen to the ground because of fear. At that time, what he had been truly worried about was whether his sister had gotten hurt because of him. ¡­ In the end, all his thoughts disappeared. He stared at his sister¡¯s bright eyes and felt the fresh body in his arms. He opened his mouth, laughing silently. Chapter 512 Chapter 512: Chapter 52 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio His sister was resurrected. She was no longer a living dead that relied on his Dead Soul Spells. She didn¡¯t need to swallow a lot of vitality to survive. She was a true living person. Her heart was beating again, her blood was flowing again, and her organs started working again. From now on, her pale life would be colorful again. She could recover her beautiful youth! My sister is really resurrected! When Tu Ya¡¯an thought this, his heart was filled with wild joy. All the hardships of these years had vanished at the moment. ¡°Wonderful!¡± he said incoherently. ¡°Tessa, wonderful! Wonderful! You are alive again! Wonderful!¡± Hearing his words, Sui Xiong rolled his eyes. Tu Ya¡¯an and his sister naturally didn¡¯t know Sui Xiong¡¯s secret thoughts at all. At this moment, they were completely immersed in happiness. They couldn¡¯t care about other things! Sui Xiong just complained in his heart. Even if he really chatted for a long time, Tu Ya¡¯an and Tessa would only treat him as a large mosquito. They would not pay attention to him at all. ¡°Brother, we must be together all the time,¡± Tessa said. ¡°Okay! We must be together all the time!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said, nodding. Tessa was very happy. She said, laughing, ¡°By the way, do you think that I¡¯m different from the past?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an was stunned. After taking a closer look at her sister¡¯s face, he licked his lips. He vaguely felt that she was a bit different, but he wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°It seems that¡­ you¡¯re¡­ a little bit different,¡± he said, hesitating. ¡°Is it because you are really resurrected? Of course, there is a difference between a real living person and a half-dead person.¡± Tessa frowned. She loosened her hands that were holding her brother and took two steps back. She showed her body to her brother without any shame. She even turned her body around, emphasizing certain parts. ¡°Do you see it now?¡± she asked, full of expectation. After looking at her carefully for a while, Tu Ya¡¯an frowned for a long time. Finally, he asked with uneasiness, ¡°Are you¡­ a little fatter?¡± Tessa became dull, and she stood still. What the f*ck? Sui Xiong yelled that in his heart. He couldn¡¯t help but close his eyes. This guy is 100% an idiot! Tessa had sincerely asked Sui Xiong to make her body more feminine. She didn¡¯t want to have an immature appearance. Her present figure had the most suitable ratio under her current height. That was decided after a careful discussion with Sui Xiong. With one percent more, she would be too fat. With one percent less, she would be too thin. She had the perfect golden ratio. Her figure was not as good as Jane¡¯s figure that could attract the eyes of all men, but her figure was definitely good enough. As a result, Tu Ya¡¯an only thought that she was ¡°fat?!¡± If you don¡¯t look for trouble, trouble won¡¯t look for you. Bro, I wish you good luck. Sui Xiong muttered secretly in his heart, shaking his head again and again. The following scene wasn¡¯t beyond his expectation. Angry Tessa used the attack method that women were best at. She scratched and pinched Tu Ya¡¯an, and Tu Ya¡¯an was totally defeated, yelling for mercy. He didn¡¯t understand what his mistake was. They were fighting, in other words, one was hitting the other one. Seeing the messy scene, Sui Xiong secretly shook his head. In the past, he had thought that there had been some kind of unethical relationship between Tu Ya¡¯an and his sister. At that time, he had just thought that ¡°they really dare to play with fire,¡± but he hadn¡¯t cared about that. In this world, consanguineous marriage was not rare. Many families that relied on blood to inherit power would do that. It was normal. For example, Leon Igor, the archbishop of Sui Xiong¡¯s church¡ªhis parents were cousins. They had the same grandfather. Of course, it was still relatively uncommon for a brother and a sister to marry each other. However, in order to inherit the blood and improve the possibility of giving birth to a powerful baby, that was nothing major. Not long ago, when Sui Xiong was drinking, he had heard that his subordinate, Jose, the Red Flame Dragon, had arranged a marriage for his son and his daughter. That son and daughter had been born after the red dragon¡¯s blood had been stable, so they had all showed some characteristics of a dragon. Therefore, Jose had arranged a marriage for them. In this way, Jose hoped that they could stabilize the blood of the family and truly open up a dragon family. Legendary Masters would also die of old age. With the inheritance of powerful blood, a family could really last forever. If such a situation happened in society before Sui Xiong¡¯s space travel, it might be horrible. It might be called a ¡°German Orthopedic Clinic¡± by some netizens. This name came from the story of a brother sleeping with his younger sister, and he had been beaten so heavily that his leg was broken. As a result, he had gone to an orthopedic clinic in Germany. However, in this world, a ¡°German Orthopedic Clinic¡± was nothing serious. Well, it didn¡¯t matter if their legs were beaten and broken. The priests in this world were especially good at treating fractures. Just until now, Sui Xiong found that the relationship between Tu Ya¡¯an and Tessa was not the same as he had guessed. Sui Xiong was surprised. They were indeed intimate. However, as for a ¡°German Orthopedic Clinic,¡± only Tessa had such an idea. The beautiful sister showed her good figure without any clothes in front of Tu Ya¡¯an and asked him to take a closer look. However, Tu Ya¡¯an asked her, ¡°Are you fatter?¡± If his sister didn¡¯t fall in love with him, Tu Ya¡¯an might be alone forever! Thinking of this, Sui Xiong suddenly remembered a funny video that he had watched before his space travel. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh loudly. In that video, a nerd had been concentrating on playing games on a laptop. His girlfriend had been taking off her clothes and making flirty gestures. However, the nerd hadn¡¯t noticed her at all. Finally, his girlfriend had closed his laptop angrily. In the next scene, he had directly driven his girlfriend out the door. According to the current situation, Tu Ya¡¯an would act like that nerd! Well, he wouldn¡¯t. He was more like a henpecked husband. His laughter awakened Tu Ya¡¯an and Tessa who were fighting, and Tessa finally realized that an outsider was here. Her pretty face suddenly turned red, and the red spread along her neck to her chest. She hurriedly pulled off her brother¡¯s robe and put it on her body. She had no time to care whether it fit or not or whether it could cover her whole body. In short, she just needed to cover her embarrassment first. Girl, did you forget the scene where you discussed with me about how to design your body? Sui Xiong was speechless. Then he said, sighing, ¡°You just realized that I was next to you? I am such a big guy!¡± His words even made Tu Ya¡¯an blush. Tu Ya¡¯an hurriedly apologized. After thinking for a while, he also hurriedly expressed his thanks. Then, he naturally expressed his loyalty. Of course, Sui Xiong wouldn¡¯t care about that. In fact, seeing the happiness of Tu Ya¡¯an and Tessa, he was also very happy. He had watched such a good drama. He thought that he had earned some benefits. Chapter 513 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Tu Ya¡¯an and Tessa left and went back to the magic tower to figure out what to do in the future. Originally, Tu Ya¡¯an had two goals in his life. The first one was to revive his sister. The second one was to strive to become a demigod so that he could stay with his sister forever. Other things such as making a lot of money to buy all kinds of clothes for Tessa were things that could be done easily, and they were far from long-term goals. Now, his first goal had been achieved, perfectly. As for the second goal, would it be so easy to become a demigod? He needn¡¯t rush on that. And now, he had no idea about where to start. His power was still far from the legendary peak, so he¡¯d better put that second goal aside. He preferred to wait until he reached the legendary peak before working hard. Now, he was thinking about how to apply his Dead Soul Spell to production. In theory, he could summon skeletons by himself. It would be nothing difficult for him to summon hundreds or even a thousand of them at one time. As long as food and accommodation were provided, and there were enough human bones as material, summoning ten thousand skeletons was not a big deal for him. However, unless there were other spells that could dominate the Dead Soul Spell, the skeletons Tu Ya¡¯an summoned would only obey his commands. This was an important feature of low-level Dead Souls: they were mechanical. That was to say, the reason why a low-level Dead Soul was loyal and brave was that it had no ability of thinking at all, just like a car or a knife, and it could be simply regarded as a tool. Of course, if no one controlled it, the low-level Dead Soul usually intended to show strong aggression against all living creatures because of the conflict between positive and negative energies. That was why there had always been many skeletons in the Ashes Woods. The Dead Soul created by Tu Ya¡¯an also had the nature of attacking all living creatures. If Tu Ya¡¯an was too far away from them, he would be unable to give them a new order in time. Then they would be dominated by this nature and turn into horrible demons after executing the original order for a period of time. That was the biggest problem that Tu Ya¡¯an faced now. How could a mage control low-level Dead Souls for a long time when he was far away from them? That was a major problem of the Dead Soul Spell, and so far no mage had found the solution. Tu Ya¡¯an was no exception. If he could solve that problem, he could go to the underworld and control the low-level Dead Souls there. He could also gather them together and establish a kingdom to move forward to the realm of god. Theoretically, if he could solve this problem, there would be indeed a great hope for him to succeed. But that was impossible. He really couldn¡¯t find a solution. So he had to change his way of thinking and consider the means of how to hand over command to others easily when he was far away from the Dead Souls. That was easy. The elder necromancers had thought of this possibility long before and developed a variety of solutions. One of the cheapest methods was the so-called Command Wand of the Dead Soul. The Command Wand of the Dead Soul, it seemed to be something very luxurious, and of course, it could also be made in that way. But in most cases, it was just a branch of a locust tree that was picked by a necromancer. The necromancer had to engrave a simple magic array on it and then correspondingly engrave the magic array on the body of the Dead Soul that needed to be controlled. That was all. That was something originally designed for new apprentices, and it enabled them to control a few Dead Souls to protect them or to work for them. But who would like to spend a lot of money and energy making a high-level magic tool that could control a large number of Dead Souls? Only an absolute idiot would! Tu Ya¡¯an could certainly make such a magic tool, but the problem was that he was alone and couldn¡¯t make it any faster. It was not to say that it was troublesome to make such a wand, but this wand needed to be matched with the magic array on the Dead Soul. Thus, he had to engrave an additional magic array on the Dead Soul, and that was really troublesome. Tu Ya¡¯an thought about it for a long time but still could not figure out anything. Finally, he felt that instead of pondering at home alone, he should go out and look for places where there were a lot of workers to see if he could find some good ideas. After all, the wand was made for these workers. They would be the ones to manipulate the skeletons to work, so they were the most qualified ones to make some suggestions. With this idea in mind, Tu Ya¡¯an left the magic tower with Tessa and went to Gold-Panning Town, the farthest back of the towns of the Republic of Northwest. Gold-Panning Town hadn¡¯t been able to make much progress until the last few years when they started to engage in special farming, and that was considered to be a truly reliable way to make money. However, with a lot of manpower invested in it, the special farming technique failed to create a stable income. The mayor of Gold-Panning Town, Dios Almark, felt very upset and anxious and didn¡¯t know what to do. Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s visit made the mayor very happy. The mayor laughed with his mouth wide open and said that he was going to have a big banquet to welcome him. After all, in the mayor¡¯s mind, although Tu Ya¡¯an was just a necromancer, he was still a legendary mage! Tu Ya¡¯an was not interested in the banquet. He explained his intention straightforwardly and asked if his idea could help Gold-Panning Town. Almark thought about it for a long time. He frowned at first, then thought about it again, but then shook his head. Later, he seemed inspired and pondered for a while before nodding with a smile. ¡°I have an immature idea,¡± Almark said. ¡°Can these skeletons help with digging or something like that?¡± ¡°Of course, but they can¡¯t work in a way as accurate as human do,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Almark laughed. ¡°Our town¡¯s special farming is underground. At present, the biggest problem is that the scale of the farm is too small. You know, we have a small population here, and we don¡¯t have much money to hire people to work for us. Thus, we can only dig the tunnels when we are free from the farm work, so the digging progress is very slow. If the skeletons can help dig the underground tunnels, I think they will be very helpful!¡± Tu Ya¡¯an paused for a moment and said, ¡°What I want to ask is whether you have any ideas to make the skeletons obey your orders after I leave.¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy. I can find a certain area to let them dig there slowly, and no people will be allowed to approach there,¡± Almark laughed and said. ¡°Are you afraid that they will attack the living creatures? Then let¡¯s make sure there are no living creatures around them. According to what you¡¯ve said, the reason why the skeletons don¡¯t obey your orders when you¡¯re far away from them is that the instinct of attacking takes the upper hand in their minds, right? But if there were no living creatures around, they would always obey your orders and find no chances to attack others.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an remained silent for a long time and finally nodded with admiration on his face. ¡°I¡¯ve never thought that a mayor of a small town could be so wise!¡± He sighed deeply. ¡°I¡¯ve always thought that I¡¯ve been very smart, but I¡¯m nothing in front of you!¡± Almark laughed naturally in a humbled way, and that was how the matter was settled. The next night, Tu Ya¡¯an, together with Almark, found a suitable area. Then Tu Ya¡¯an manipulated the skeletons he had summoned to start the digging there. Chapter 514 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Digging underground¡ªit was something easy to talk about, but hard to do. It was easy to choose a suitable place; you had to avoid soil that was too hard or too soft and have an underground water vein. It was compulsory to dig the tunnel into the right shape to make it convenient to access and transport soil and rock. Moreover, the first priority was to strengthen the tunnel and avoid any collapses while digging. All of these were things that had to be done, and they had to be done well. Otherwise, it would lead to either failure or accidents while digging. The most common accident, of course, was collapsing¡ªthat was the most common and terrible accident. The tunnel was buried deep underground. Once it collapsed, almost everyone in the tunnel would die. Even professional adventurers found it difficult to survive in collapsed tunnels because they would die before rescue arrived. In the past, Pyroxene Town had had several such accidents, and that made miners the most horrible occupation among the people. It was not until the arrival of the mayor, Felix, who led Pyroxene Town into a new era, that digging technology was improved to avoid this danger. But the price was that the cost of mining had risen dramatically, at least three times as much as that in the past. There were also veins around Gold-Panning Town, but they were different from that of Pyroxene Town. The veins here were shallowly buried and were usually open cast or semi-open cast. Thus, there were fewer risks and more yields in mining here. That was why Pyroxene Town was slowly declined while Gold-Panning Town was able to maintain development. But that had both advantages and disadvantages. Since it had been easy to dig a mine, Gold-Panning Town lacked skilled miners, and that made this town a pupil in the mining industry. If it hadn¡¯t been for some people having been sent to Pyroxene Town to study digging skills, Gold-Panning Town would not have been able to have a mining industry. After all, the technology known as the ¡°Pyroxene Digging Skill¡± was really complicated. It involved not only the judgment of soil quality and the construction of supporting projects but also a set of very detailed inspection techniques to ensure that the tunnel could be firmly supported and not collapse in the future. The Pyroxene Digging Skill helped make the digging safe but failed to create a high, working efficiency. Over the years, Gold-Panning Town had tried to recruit as many people as possible, but they just managed to dig a small underground farm that could only raise a pond of ice-and-snow fish. It took three years for this slow-growing fish to grow up to be marketable, and the three years of constant care was costly in manpower. But when the fish came on the market, the price would drop a lot because of the slightly higher production rate. At present, the senior epicures in the Main Plane had experience in eating this kind of fish. They preferred to wait three years to eat the ice-and-snow fish in summer rather than pay a lot for it as they had done before. In that case, the mayor of Gold-Panning Town had been thinking about digging another underground farm. But he really couldn¡¯t deploy more people to do that. At present, there were in total four or five people digging there, and the progress was so slow that it made the mayor desperate. If he could replace workers with skeletons, these problems would be solved much more easily. Collapse? It didn¡¯t matter because he could summon more skeletons when the original ones died. Besides, the skeletons might survive in the collapse since they didn¡¯t need to breathe at all. Lack of manpower? Well, he didn¡¯t have to pay the skeletons. He didn¡¯t even need to provide them with food and accommodation. The only thing to note was that the surrounding of the digging area had to be designated as a restricted area and no one would be allowed to approach it. Only those who hold the breath-shading magic tool made by Tu Ya¡¯an could occasionally come and check the progress of the skeletons¡¯ work. ¡°The skeletons can¡¯t work efficiently.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an summoned the skeletons, gave them the order to dig the tunnel. ¡°You can¡¯t expect them to dig the tunnels quickly.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not in a hurry,¡± Mayor Almark laughed and said. ¡°It¡¯s always good to try first. It doesn¡¯t matter whether it will work or not since it won¡¯t cost anything anyway.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an laughed, too. He thought it was a good thing for Almark to have such a peaceful mind. He had seen too many people fail in what they could have done because of their anxiety. Let¡¯s take one of his seniors as an example. That senior had started earlier than Tu Ya¡¯an, and his achievements were above that of Tu Ya¡¯an as well. However, because of his anxiety, that senior failed when he finally tried to enter the Legendary Realm and even failed to transform into a lich to continue to live. He eventually died. Tu Ya¡¯an thought about it for a while and reminded Almark. ¡°Be careful. Make sure that no one breaks the ¡°NO APPROACHING¡± sign around this area, and try to avoid someone going in by mistake.¡± ¡°Rest assured,¡± Almark replied. ¡°People in the northwest area are quite well disciplined. As long as I tell them about it once, no one will dare to approach it. You know, with skeletons, we are actually very scared of them!¡± Although saying something like that, Almark still laughed very heartily. ¡°If someone deliberately brings these skeletons out¡­¡± Tu Ya¡¯an frowned. ¡°Then just let them come,¡± Almark said carelessly. ¡°There¡¯s a Purification Array around the town. The skeletons can¡¯t get in.¡± ¡°But¡­ what if they were led to the constructing farm?¡± ¡°There is also Purification Array around there.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an shook his head. ¡°The Purification Array can be destroyed.¡± Almark laughed and said, ¡°You¡¯re too worried! If there is really someone so powerful, why would he bother to do that? He could directly kill the people one by one, and maybe that would be faster than a bunch of skeletons.¡± He pointed to the skeletons that were slowly digging with bone tools at the construction site and said, ¡°Look, there are about 200 skeletons here. They seem a lot in number, but they are not powerful at all for they can¡¯t walk fast. About ten strong men would be enough to break through their formation. What¡¯s so terrible about them?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an thought it over carefully and realized that it was quite reasonable. A small number of skeletons was not dangerous to the people. He had just fallen into a misunderstanding that the Dead Souls were too dangerous for ordinary people. In fact, ordinary people would not be killed by skeletons unless they were caught off-guard or the skeletons attacked on a large scale. Although the people couldn¡¯t defeat the skeletons, couldn¡¯t the people run faster than them? Of course, it would be another thing if the skeletons were upgraded, but with Tu Ya¡¯an here, it was certainly impossible for him to give these skeletons a chance to get upgraded. If one said that a skeleton could be upgraded to a higher level under the eyes of Tu Ya¡¯an, a legendary necromancer, then this one looked down upon Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s professional abilities! Not to mention that as long as there were signs upgrades on a skeleton, Tu Ya¡¯an would take the skeleton away and summon another ordinary skeleton to replace it. The upgraded skeletons were very useful. It would be a pity to use them for mining. Later, Almark began to talk to Tu Ya¡¯an about his payment. Of course, Tu Ya¡¯an didn¡¯t want any payment. For one thing, he felt His Majesty, the Void Mask had paid him enough; for the other, he really didn¡¯t care about the payment from Gold-Panning Town. In his opinion, such a small place couldn¡¯t afford to pay a legendary mage at all. But the mayor put an end to that. ¡°I intend to divide the benefits of this farm into three shares, one for the republic, one for the development of the town, and one for you as a reward. You can take it as a good asset for your offspring, or your relatives, friends, students¡­ Even if you don¡¯t need it, they may need it.¡± After listening to that, Tu Ya¡¯an thought that was a good idea. Of course, he didn¡¯t care for the money, but he would definitely have students in the future. When these students graduated, it would be good to give them some property as a gift. Even if he wouldn¡¯t have students in the future, Tessa was now resurrected and would need a dowry when she grew up. It would be great if she had some property as her own! However, thinking of his sister¡¯s future marriage, he couldn¡¯t help but frown tightly. Chapter 515 Chapter 515: Chapter 55 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Tu Ya¡¯an was not interfered by his mood. He soon made a contract with Mayor Almark and returned to Gold-Panning town to get it signed. Then, Almark gathered the inhabitants of the town together to announce the news. People were shocked that there would be a group of skeletons volunteering to work outside the town. Some timid people rushed to inquire about the location of the construction site in detail and then said that from now on, they would never go to that direction. They wouldn¡¯t even look in that direction anymore. Others worried about the possibility of accidents in the future. But the mayor convinced them that the most important thing was to increase the town¡¯s income. The threat of skeletons was certainly acceptable compared to having a new farm in the near future. Moreover, there wasn¡¯t a great threat. There were armed forces in Gold-Panning Town. With two retired mid-level adventurers as the captains and a patrol of 30 people, they could easily defeat 200 ordinary skeletons. If any accidents happened, the residents just needed to run back to town and call the patrol. Anyway, it was impossible for the skeletons to rush into the Purification Array! As Mayor Almark had predicted, the residents of Gold-Panning Town became less afraid of those skeletons with the Purification Array as the final protection. There were even some brave ones that volunteered to be the inspectors to go to check the skeletons¡¯ work regularly. So it was finally settled, and everyone was very happy. Tu Ya¡¯an returned to the magic tower with satisfaction and told his sister about the result of this trip. The next day he set out again and went to Pyroxene Town. ¡°Let the skeletons work for Pyroxene Town?¡± After hearing that, Mrs. Asner, the Great Governor of Pyroxene town, pondered for a moment. ¡°What can these skeletons do?¡± ¡°Basically, they can do everything that a human can do, but they can¡¯t be as accurate. Generally speaking, their work is rough and inefficient,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said. ¡°After all, they¡¯re the lowest level of skeletons. The only advantage of them probably is that they are tireless and needn¡¯t be paid.¡± Mrs. Asner thought for a moment and said, ¡°Well, can they help in logging?¡± ¡°Certainly.¡± ¡°How about farming?¡± ¡°That will be a little difficult. I¡¯ve never thought of letting skeletons working on the farm,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an answered honestly. He was polite in facing another legendary master. That was not to say that he looked down upon weak people, but that between legendary masters, they would naturally respect each other from the heart. That was totally different from their respect for ordinary people. The latter was just out of politeness or even charity, but the former was really derived from identity. ¡°That¡¯s fine. It will be good enough if the skeletons can help us save manpower from logging,¡± Mrs. Asner said. ¡°It¡¯s just that the Purification Array around Pyroxene Town is a little wide. In that way, additional personnel is needed to carry the wood. What¡¯s more, the unpurified wood is not very useful because they can only be used as fuel.¡± She wrinkled her beautiful eyebrows and fell into deep thought. After a while, she asked, ¡°Can skeletons work underwater?¡± ¡°Of course, they¡¯re heavier than water, so they won¡¯t float up.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an knew almost everything about skeletons, and he could tell all kinds of information as soon as he opened his mouth. ¡°Well then, we¡¯re planning to dig a reservoir in Pyroxene Town, and that is supposed to be dug in the Purification Array. I¡¯ve been worrying about where to put it these days,¡± Mrs. Asner said. ¡°Although the Purification Array of Pyroxene Town is very large, the town also needs a lot of supporting facilities, and that takes up a lot of land. At present, there isn¡¯t enough land available here, so it is difficult to allocate a large area to build a reservoir. But now that skeletons can help in working, we can let them dig new canals for us and build a reservoir. It won¡¯t be difficult for them if they can work underwater.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an thought it over and nodded. Because necromancers didn¡¯t like light, many necromancers had placed their laboratories or magic towers underwater. When building the foundations, they often summoned a group of skeletons to do it. The skeletons had no complaints of the hard work and had no fear of drowning. They were the most reliable workers. Then, Mrs. Asner asked him to wait for two days because Pyroxene Town had to invite specialists to study how to arrange the canal and where to place the reservoir. She kept her word; it took just two days to make all the arrangements. Two days later, her husband, Vice Director of the Fishing and Hunting Resources Investigation Office of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Northwest, Clito, visited Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s magic tower and gave him a newly completed construction plan. Tu Ya¡¯an was somewhat surprised to see this black-haired swordsman as he looked a bit weak. Mrs. Asner is already a legendary master, and so is her husband? The couple looks still very young. How could they both step into the Legendary Realm? Of course, he did not really ask such impolite questions. He buried his curiosity in his heart, took over the construction plan and read it carefully. It was obvious that this plan was specially designed for laymen. The map was drawn with realistic painting techniques, as if someone was overlooking the earth from the air. In the forest, an extra canal and a reservoir were added. Tu Ya¡¯an noticed that there were many strange signs on the map, and he asked what they were. ¡°It¡¯s just some signs that will make it easier for you to arrange the construction plan. After all, even with the map, it will still be easy for you to make mistakes. So we put some markers on the ground. If you follow these markers, you will surely make no mistakes.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an was silent for a moment and nodded. Actually, he wanted to ask whether they thought he was nearsighted, just like Cambrona, but he didn¡¯t. They were not friends yet. They didn¡¯t even know each other before, but still, the couple had prepared everything for him in great detail. What could be the problem then? After studying the map for a while, Tu Ya¡¯an said goodbye to Tessa and set out with the Vice Director, Clito, to the outskirts of Pyroxene Town to summon the skeletons and start the construction. As Clito said, there were many markers on the ground. With them as a reference, Tu Ya¡¯an could easily arrange the skeletons¡¯ work. It was more efficient than the previous Gold-Panning Town had done. Maybe that was why Pyroxene Town could develop into a city, while Gold-Panning Town still remained a town. Over the next few days, Tu Ya¡¯an was busy. He had seldom been so busy with other people¡¯s affairs before, and now it was a completely new experience for him. But it didn¡¯t feel bad. When everything was ready, he could not help but laugh. He felt a sense of accomplishment from the bottom of his heart when he saw hundreds of skeletons digging slowly according to the plan on the long construction site. The Dead Soul Spell could not only be used to destroy something or to do something frightening; it could also be used in construction! Chapter 516 Chapter 516: Chapter 56 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio During the following period of time, Tu Ya¡¯an visited several construction sites in the Republic of Northwest to arrange and supervise the work of the skeleton construction team. There were about 2000 skeletons in the construction team, and they worked honestly under Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s control, even without any additional commands. Tu Ya¡¯an had estimated that the skeletons might not follow his order because he was too far away from them, but in fact, he found he was wrong. He had ignored an important factor. That was His Majesty, the Void Mask. Sui Xiong did not just stand aside and let Tu Ya¡¯an fight alone; he also helped a lot. He made several props for Tu Ya¡¯an, and that helped Tu Ya¡¯an transmit his will and magic over long distances and store them in extremely solid signal towers on every construction site. Through these signal towers (with special magic props built in), Tu Ya¡¯an could sense these skeletons in his magic tower and give them orders. He needn¡¯t worry that the skeletons would fall into blind action without his command. In this way, even the last problem was solved. People in the Republic of Northwest could rest assured and let the skeleton construction team work for them without worrying about any possible rebellions. Under the control of Tu Ya¡¯an, a legendary necromancer, would there be any skeleton that could make trouble? As for those troublemakers from other planes, they could try to compete with a necromancer that was close to the mid-legendary level for the control of skeletons. Sui Xiong said that if Tu Ya¡¯an was defeated, Sui Xiong would come and fight with them. It was deserving of him to put his face aside to catch someone of or even above the mid-legendary level alive. There were almost endless skeleton resources in the Ashes Woods. Theoretically, under the control of Tu Ya¡¯an, there would be no limit to the number of skeleton armies. If necessary, Tu Ya¡¯an could even manipulate tens of thousands of skeletons to work together. If they worked quickly, they could build a city in a few days. That helped alleviate the population problem that had been restricting the development of the Republic of Northwest all this time. Although there were still not enough people, at least there was enough labor. At least there was enough labor for the hard work. Under Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s manipulation, skeletons helped people cut wood, dig into the earth and build roads. They worked tirelessly. A large number of materials were produced constantly and transported to the edge of the city. Then these materials were transported by human workers to the place where they were needed, transforming into bricks and stones on the buildings of the Republic of Northwest. According to the estimates of the governors, if the skeleton labor could be used in this way continually and extensively, the people¡¯s income level of the Republic of Northwest could be raised by another half in four to five years! If they could maintain such a mode of production for a long time, it was estimated that the other three towns in the Republic of Northwest could develop into cities in just ten years. In another 20 years, they would complete the construction of the fifth city. In another 30 years, they would start the construction of the sixth and seventh cities together. In another 50 years, the Republic of Northwest would undoubtedly be the most prosperous country on the Main Plane, and no one could match it. All of this was based on the use of skeleton labor. The skeletons had once been a great threat for the pioneers in the Ashes Woods, and they had always become scared even when they only heard the word ¡°skeleton.¡± But now, the skeletons were no longer threats to them. Instead, they were the best helpers for them to build their homes and explore the land. The report was sent to Sui Xiong almost two weeks later. After reading it, Sui Xiong invited several god followers and friends for a special meeting. ¡°Could these skeletons be so useful?¡± after reading the report, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, said in surprise. ¡°They¡¯re just the lowest-level of monsters. I didn¡¯t expect that they could be so helpful!¡± ¡°No wonder those kings in the underworld could build extremely luxurious palaces and capitals.¡± Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, apparently had been very interested in those things. Now, reading the report, she frowned and asked, ¡°From now on, if I let my clergymen begin to study the Dead Soul Spell, do you think it will promote the development of my church to a large scale?¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid not,¡± Morani, the Steel Lion, shook his head and said. ¡°Your followers don¡¯t have the conditions to create skeletons on a large scale. What¡¯s more, people in your followers¡¯ territory are not as familiar with the skeletons as the residents of the Republic of Northwest are. If you¡¯re going to follow Auscar¡¯s practice, it¡¯s very likely to make the residents scared and run away. By then, what you¡¯ve gained can¡¯t cover your losses.¡± That was right. As Morani said, the Republic of Northwest had plenty of nameless bones underground, so they could create countless skeletons easily. That was incomparable to the other parts of the Main Plane. If skeletons were created elsewhere, it would definitely cause enormous trouble because of the source of the bones. Moreover, once these skeletons showed up, ordinary civilians who had never seen them but only heard horror stories about them would be frightened. At that time, not to mention maintaining the steady production and living, it would be brave enough for them if they did not run away with their families! Under such circumstances, it was obviously impossible to replicate the practice of the Republic of Northwest and use skeleton labor to promote infrastructure and production. Morani¡¯s analysis made Manissy sigh and give up the idea of promoting skeletal workers in her own region. But she could not help but show her admiration. ¡°Auscar is really capable, and he can even use the skeletons as a labor force. Since ancient times, no one has been able to do that on the Main Plane.¡± Sui Xiong thought about it for a moment and realized that what she had said was true, so he couldn¡¯t help but laugh quietly. ¡°Everything has its first time. Perhaps in decades and centuries, others will see the benefits of skeleton labor, and this practice will gradually spread throughout the world.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t.¡± Yorgaardman shook his head. ¡°You underestimate the fear of the Dead Soul among ordinary people. And if it weren¡¯t for the negative energy environment of the Ashes Woods, the cost of keeping skeletons working for a long time would be large. If you make a comprehensive estimate, you will find that this practice won¡¯t be popularized in most places.¡± Yorgaardman thought for a while and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know if you remember the Witch Age. At that time, the status of civilians was very low, and spellcasters used all kinds of cruel means wantonly¡ªmost of the Dead Soul Spells were invented or had a prototype. At that time, there were powerful sorcerers who used Dead Souls to work on a large scale, and they could temporarily create a prosperous culture. But soon they were besieged and completely destroyed by other sorcerers.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Sui Xiong was confused for a moment. He didn¡¯t know that there had been such an occurrence. He asked curiously, ¡°Why did the others attack him?¡± ¡°First, of course, because of the contradiction between the living and the dead. It was common for sorcerers of that age to control Dead Souls, and many sorcerers even felt that Dead Souls were more reliable than the living man. But there were also a large number of sorcerers who disagreed with this idea. Thus, there were deep contradictions between them,¡± Yorgaardman said. ¡°The God of Spellcaster at that time was also a sorcerer, and he supported the living.¡± He paused for a moment and then went on to say, ¡°Second, there were also contradictions within the sorcerers that supported Dead Souls. The Witch Age was a cruel age of fierce competition. If a sorcerer¡¯s territory became stronger, this sorcerer would take a big step ahead of others, and that was likely to be a threat to others. If others supported him, the result would be that the Dead Soul supporters would win against the living man party. This sorcerer would be above others within the Dead Soul supporters and became the king of sorcerers.¡± Sui Xiong understood it immediately. ¡°I see. For other sorcerers, they couldn¡¯t tolerate a sorcerer who used Dead Souls to make his territory extremely prosperous and grow, so they just joined hands to kill him!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Yorgaardman sighed and looked at Sui Xiong seriously. ¡°I¡¯m not an expert in history. I don¡¯t know if history will repeat again, but¡­ My brother, you¡¯d better be well prepared. If this practice goes on, your Republic of Northwest will probably be the target of others and repeat the tragedy of that sorcerer¡¯s territory.¡± Yorgaardman was worried, but Sui Xiong just smiled carelessly. ¡°You worry too much,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Since the day I first promoted the republican system, the Republic of Northwest and I have been the target of others. But so what? Can they defeat me in fighting? If they feel they are stronger, they can come and challenge me. I¡¯ll wait here!¡± He smiled calmly and confidently. Chapter 517 Chapter 517: Chapter 57 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong was rooting his own horn, but he didn¡¯t really lose his alertness. He knew that his elder brother¡¯s fear was very reasonable. Before this, his enemies were only the aristocrats. Relying on the two groups, citizens and businessmen, he had the confidence to defeat the aristocratic society without using Divine Power, and he could open a new era. Although aristocrats were all over the Main Plane and extended into many other worlds, he could also defeat them. Sui Xiong believed that as long as he carried out a great policy like land reform, the high building of the aristocratic society would immediately become a castle on the beach. It would be overthrown by a mere push. However, if the Hatred Departed Souls were also involved in, the situation would be different. People couldn¡¯t carry out a campaign without any justifiable reason. This principle was universal in every world. If the aristocrats attacked the Republic of Northwest, it would be an ordinary political struggle. No matter whether they won or lost, it involved neither good nor evil. It belonged to a low-level struggle. However, if it rose to being the contradiction between the living and the dead, it would involve the field of good and evil, and the field of life and death. At that time, it was likely that some good gods who supported him before would change their positions and become his enemies. Of course, Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t afraid of being the enemy of the good gods. He was not an idealist who insisted on good. If necessary, he wouldn¡¯t mind using some evil means. For example, in this world, it was absolutely an evil means to use skeleton laborers. Even on earth, it wouldn¡¯t be a good means. In the same way, if necessary, he wouldn¡¯t mind fighting with all the good gods. He would defeat them and make them bow down so that they wouldn¡¯t dare to criticize him. However, unless he had no alternative, he wouldn¡¯t want to be the enemy of the good gods. It was a pleasant thing to defeat and even kill the evil gods. However, it was completely different to defeat or even kill the good gods. Even though the good gods were a group of ignorant old-fashioned guys, Sui Xiong still didn¡¯t want to fight with them, or eventually kill them. Therefore, after thinking for a while, he sent an avatar to contact the good gods and to explain the problem of skeleton laborers in the Republic of Northwest. ¡°Ugh! Gods are much more troublesome than humans!¡± Sui Xiong complained. As he complained, he also thought about what to say. He had on a long face. The development of the incident was in general much better than what Yorgaardman had thought. Probably, in the last war, Sui Xiong was so powerful that the gods of the evil camp didn¡¯t take advantage of this opportunity to jump out and provoke a war with the Void Mask. However, the negotiations with the good gods were not successful. Sui Xiong worked hard to explain it, and he also emphasized that those skeletons weren¡¯t made of dead bodies. They were the natural storage of the Ashes Woods. However, few of the good gods were willing to accept his explanation, understand him or support his actions. Fortunately, although most of the good gods didn¡¯t support his actions, they weren¡¯t against him strictly. In fact, a lot of gods weren¡¯t willing to meet Sui Xiong at all. Even though some met him, they weren¡¯t willing to talk with him in detail. They just said a few words casually and said goodbye to him, making him lose his honor. However, that was enough. For Sui Xiong, as long as those good gods didn¡¯t turn against him, that would be successful. Of course, he didn¡¯t want to be a worldly enemy, but he really didn¡¯t care about the so-called ¡°friendship¡± with those guys. For him, as long as his friends coordinated with him, and as long as his friends agreed or at least didn¡¯t oppose his actions, that would be enough. As for the others, well, although it seemed that Sui Xiong was pretty urgent and went to explain himself everywhere, in fact, these words remained the same in his heart: If you¡¯re dissatisfied with this, fight me. I¡¯ll take you on. With such an idea, the effect of his negotiations was naturally unsuccessful. The gods in this world were different from the politicians on earth. They were not afraid of fighting for their own ideas until the last moment. Even if they died, they would never give up their ideas. On earth, as long as a small country held a powerful killing weapon, it could threaten the surrounding powers. If it was willing to start a global nuclear war, then it could force the world¡¯s three major powers to sit down and negotiate with it. The reason was that everyone feared death, and so did the politicians and the bureaucrats. They feared that their power, status and wealth would disappear in a large-scale nuclear war. However, in this world, the situation of the gods was completely different. Nature Gods were better than Gods of Belief in this aspect. Gods of Belief were a group of idealists who were extremely stubborn. If they believed in something, they wouldn¡¯t hesitate to use their lives to guard it. If they weren¡¯t sincere in front of their own ideas, how could they go beyond the mortal world? How could they evoke the resonance of the source of the world and create an immortal priesthood? So it was really difficult to convince the gods in this world. Sui Xiong was busy for a long time. In the final statistics, about a dozen gods expressed clear hostility towards him. Unless something unexpected happened, the Republic of Northwest would continue to use skeleton labor on a large scale. It was possible that one of them, or a few of them, or perhaps all of them along with their allies would come to fight against him. ¡°Well, unknowingly, it seems that I will be besieged again by the gods,¡± Sui Xiong said. He was reading a list. In the list, there were the names of those opposing gods, the names of their close allies, and the names of the gods who would take this opportunity to fight against him. It was a large number of names. He smiled, waving his tentacles. The paper with names turned to ashes. ¡°I have already said what I should say and have done what I should do. From my personal point of view, I have already done my best,¡± he said, smiling. ¡°If anyone else insists on coming to bring me trouble, they shouldn¡¯t blame me.¡± A famous Chinese writer, Gu Long, had once said that the end of roads was the end of the world, and the end of words was a war of swords. Sui Xiong thought that he had said all he could say. If he continued, he could only ask swords to speak for him. Coincidentally, Sui Xiong was good at using swords to negotiate. With such an idea, he sent an Oracle to the Church of the Void Mask to get ready for the possible outbreak of a big war. Of course, Leon and the others also thought of this. Their experience might not be as rich as Yorgaardman¡¯s. They probably didn¡¯t know how the wizard, who had attempted to establish a Dead Soul Labor Force System, had died. However, it didn¡¯t prevent them from understanding the problems that the Republic of Northwest was facing. The Great Governors had argued fiercely more than once on whether the practice of using skeleton labor on a large scale should be abolished. In the end, Leon put an end to this debate. ¡°The rise of a strong man must inevitably impact the spheres of influence of the old strong men. There is limited meat in the bow. If you eat it, the others will have no meat to eat,¡± Leon said. ¡°All the time, we are developing silently at the border of the civilized world. Therefore, we have no conflicts with others. However, with the further development of the Republic of Northwest, sooner or later, we will compete for resources with other countries. Sooner or later, a war will break out.¡± Looking around at the Great Governors who supported or opposed him, he said again, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I think it will be better for us to start the war early. The earlier we start the war, the fewer enemies there will be, and the higher chance we have if winning.¡± ¡°With the present opportunity, we can force some potential enemies to jump out first. We¡¯ll hurt them, and then they will fear us. In the long run, it will be beneficial!¡± Leon said. With his words, and together with the Oracle of Sui Xiong, the gods settled on a conclusion for this controversy. Thus, with the Republic of Northwest and the Church of Void Mask, the huge war machine began to operate slowly. Chapter 518 Chapter 518: Chapter 58 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Coming events often cast their shadows before them. However, it didn¡¯t have a great impact on the civilians of the Republic of Northwest. In this world, and in most cases, war was related to the minority. A few knights with hundreds of soldiers could determine the ownership of a baronet. A dozen knights with 300 or 400 soldiers could control several viscount territories. Hundreds of knights with thousands of soldiers could shake a country. They could cause a big war that could attract the attention of all the countries in the mainland of the entire Main Plane. Super wars, such as the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, were few in the civilization history of the Main Plane. In fact, once the total number of people on both sides of the war reached more than 10,000, it would shake all the countries and leave a strong title in history. The Republic of Northwest was located in the border area. Apart from the Rye Valley in the south which led to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, there was no decent main road. The valleys in the east that traveled through the Mountains of Barrenness? Hey! Going through those valleys also meant going through the desert! Except for the smuggling merchants who didn¡¯t care about their lives, no one dared to go through the desert to do business. How could the scale of such businesses grow that way? No matter what the guys who were hostile to the Republic of Northwest thought, they were unlikely to find a way to assemble an army to attack it because of its geographical location. Even if their army could fly, they had to fly over the Mountains of Barrenness, the desert, the Orc Empire, and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins first. It would be okay if they launched a blitz. If they launched a long-range raid, they couldn¡¯t hide from the War God System that had surrendered to the Void Mask. All wars couldn¡¯t escape from the search of the war gods. If the enemies were really stupid enough to fly such a long distance to attack, they would be exhausted. When they got here, they would find that the Church of the Void Mask and his allies with a mighty army, waiting to give them a head-on blow. Moreover, it was also possible that they would finally fly into the big open mouth of the giant jellyfish after flying through the clouds. Therefore, according to the estimation of Leon, it was most probable that the enemies would send elite troops at the level of professional adventurers. They would be led by top masters, and they would attack Void City directly. In this case, the war would become a war between the few powerful people. It wouldn¡¯t have much to do with ordinary civilians. In other words, in this war, ordinary civilians and soldiers wouldn¡¯t be eligible for being cannon fodder. If they knew too much about it, they would only panic. What would be the use of that? Therefore, after a discussion, everyone unanimously agreed not to disclose the news. They would only hold a few risk-avoiding exercises. The civilians had been too secure gradually over these years. Those exercises would be enough to warn them not to be careless and not to lose their vigilance. The real preparations for the war were still carried out by the powerful masters who represented the high-end force. Their imaginary enemies were also strong masters at the same level. The strategy department led by Devil Leonard made a detailed deduction. They estimated that the attacking enemies would consist of many Legendary Masters. It wasn¡¯t surprising that there would be tens of them. There might be some Legendary Peaks or even demigods. When they fought, most of them would directly launch mass-destruction attacks. Whether it was useful or not, they would cause a lot of death and injuries first. That was the most horrible thing for the Republic of Northwest. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s original intention, nothing was horrible because he would stand guard here personally. If the battlefield was limited to the Main Plane, he had the confidence to defeat all the enemies. Even if the believers of the gods of the Pantheon temple formed a team and all the strong masters of the entire Ring of the World came, he still had the confidence. However, Leon and the others disagreed with him. After all, the gods had their own rules. Although Sui Xiong was strong enough to ignore the rules, sooner or later he would become a god, and he would leave the Main Plane. At that time, he would have to pay for his behavior. In order to not be attacked by all the gods at that time, he shouldn¡¯t be so arrogant. They made a lot of sense. Although Sui Xiong thought that it was meaningless to think about such far away things, he was still convinced by them. He promised that unless the situation was particularly urgent, he wouldn¡¯t use his noumenon. At most, he would send an avatar like what the other gods did. As a result, the long-term threat disappeared, but the present danger was bigger. On the side of the Republic of Northwest, the high-end force under the gods was quite strong. With a Legendary Peak as the lead, there were about twenty Legendary Masters. There were warriors, knights, and mages, and they had a perfect combination. However, the problem was that they lacked demigods who were at a higher level. Moreover, the combat force was also insufficient at the mid and high level. No one should be blamed for that. It had been less than 50 years since the establishment of the Void Mask Land. How many talents could they accumulate in such a short period of time? They had attracted many outstanding masters from the two Fighter Championships. Otherwise, the situation of the Republic of Northwest would be much worse. Whenever he thought of this, Leon, the chief commander of this war, felt a little stomach ache. To be honest, he wished that the enemies would jump out now and fight with him with sharp weapons. If so, he was confident that he wouldn¡¯t lose even if he fought with a demigod. However, the enemies obviously wouldn¡¯t do what he wanted. Therefore, he had to be worried while stepping up the intensity of military training. Leonard, who presided over the training work, didn¡¯t take the upcoming war to heart at all. He thought that it was nothing important. The enemies would come over, the two sides would fight, and a large group of people would be killed. Wasn¡¯t that normal? There was nothing to be worried about. It was normal for people to die in wars. From a certain point of view, what he thought was right. People died in wars. After a war, it was common that blood flowed everywhere and for there to be a lot of corpses. Void City had experienced many wars. However, as a result, not a single person had died. That was something uncommon and unbelievable. Sui Xiong hoped that no one from his own side would die, and so did Leon. The top class of the Republic of Northwest and the Church of Void Mask thought so, too. The Republic of Northwest was located in the northwest of the Main Plane. It was at the border, far away from the civilized world. This new country was the sustenance of their ideals. They hoped that the country could be peaceful and safe. The residents here could live and work in peace and contentment. Even though it was ridiculous and even though it was naive, they still didn¡¯t want ordinary residents to die in this war. ¡°In this case, you should surrender to them,¡± Leonard said. Sui Xiong showed a bitter smile and said nothing. Leonard¡¯s idea was right, but there was something he couldn¡¯t understand. There was a fundamental contradiction between the republican system and the feudal system. This contradiction was totally irreconcilable. Even if he wanted to give in, the others wouldn¡¯t agree. At first glance, this incident of skeleton labor seemed to be his own arbitrariness. He insisted on speeding up the construction, and that led to this trouble. However, behind this dispute, almost all the countries on the whole continent and almost all the rulers were unanimously hostile to the Republic of Northwest. The current Republic of Northwest was actually a tiger which was standing in a wolf pack. As long as it showed any weakness, it would be surrounded and killed. Therefore, Sui Xiong knew that he could temporarily resolve this crisis as long as he stopped using skeleton labor. However, he was definitely not willing to do that because he couldn¡¯t lower his head, and the Republic of Northwest couldn¡¯t lower its head either. The new order that they symbolized couldn¡¯t lower its head! Only through repeated battles could he blind the eyes that were peeking at the Republic. He would break the hands that reached out for the Republic. He would kill all the guys who were hostile to the Republic. Then, he could relax, and the Republic could also relax. Peace never came from compromises. Peace came from fights. The green jellyfish was crouching on the conference table. He closed his eyes, and it seemed like he was sleeping. However, there was an extremely cruel sneer on his lips. Chapter 519 Chapter 519: Chapter 59 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Ahhhhhhh!¡± Cambrona made a miserable cry, like a pig that was going to be killed. It was nothing to be ashamed of. At the same time, at least 20 people were also screaming. As for those who didn¡¯t scream, about half of them were so scared that they couldn¡¯t make a sound. Only a few people, such as his wife, could be calm and take it carelessly. ¡°Ahhhhhh!¡± People began to scream again. This time, they were much louder. Along with their screams came a dull mechanical sound. Huge metal wheels were biting on the firm track. The roller coaster was running at different speeds on the track up and down. With the protection of both magic and the machine, the roller coaster wouldn¡¯t fall down even if the passengers were upside down in the air. However, for the passengers, it was driving them crazy. They were upside down, hanging in the air as high as a mountain. It seemed that only the guardrails on their shoulders and the seat belts on their waists could protect them. After they screamed, the roller coaster suddenly accelerated, rushing down at a dizzying speed. The passengers felt as if they were being pulled by a huge force. It seemed like they were going to fly out of the roller coaster at any time. They couldn¡¯t even scream because they were being choked by the incoming wind. Then, in a flash, the roller coaster suddenly stopped. On earth, at least half of those people would have cerebral hemorrhaging. However, magic power could dissolve the horrible kinetic energy and make everyone be uninjured. Well, not totally unscathed. At least five or six people had already been paralyzed in their seats. They couldn¡¯t move at all. Many people¡¯s faces were pale like paper. Their bodies were covered with cold sweat. They were vomiting into the metal basins that suddenly appeared in front of them. The staff wearing horns on their heads came over. They pulled the passengers who had soft legs out of the seats like they were carrying rabbits. Then they put them lightly on their sides in the resting area. The waiters wearing rabbit ears brought special drinks. The drinks had tasted bad, but they could effectively treat dizziness and resolve the aftereffects of the roller coaster. Cambrona was one of the few people who could walk out of their seats by themselves. His face was also pale, but at least he could walk normally. Jane wanted to help him, but he refused. He staggered to the resting area and then took a cold drink from a smiling, rabbit-eared waiter. Cambrona had no time to care about the taste of the drink. He held his breath and swallowed an entire cup. It was strange. He had just been dizzy, and his chest had been tight. He had felt that something was turning in his stomach. However, after the drink, all that discomfort quickly disappeared. After a while, he hiccupped and spat out strange, acidic phlegm, and his whole person completely recovered. ¡°This drink is really good!¡± he couldn¡¯t help but praise. ¡°If they sell it as an antidiabetic drug, they could sell it at a good price.¡± ¡°Beverage fees are included in the cost of the roller coaster ride,¡± Jane said with a smile. ¡°It takes two gold coins to ride the roller coaster once. What kind of antidiabetic drug could be so expensive?¡± Cambrona thought about it and couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ve completely recovered,¡± he said. ¡°What are we going to do next? I¡¯m resting today, so I¡¯ll accompany you to do whatever you want!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you are very good with these rides,¡± Jane said with some worry. ¡°When you rode the Furious Sea, you were the same as when you got off the boat.¡± Cambrona¡¯s face was red. As a qualified knight, he was not afraid of the bumps while riding on horseback, but he did get a little motion sick. Only a little. At least, in reality, he hadn¡¯t seen such a boat that turned fast and continually swayed up and down! He had once escorted a merchant ship with the knights of the Tolerant Knights. He had fought with groups of fierce murlocs at sea, and he had also sat on the merchant ship, experiencing the great winds and waves. He even needed to use ropes to tie himself to the side of the ship to avoid being blown into the sea. However, to be honest, he would rather fight the murlocs in the storm again than return to the damn amusement boats of the Furious Sea in the Void Mask Land. He didn¡¯t want to experience the terrifying waves that only ¡°the King of Pirates¡± could defeat. That bump was really difficult for humans to endure! When he had got off the boat, he said, ¡°This is definitely the most horrible ride in the world.¡± However, in less than an hour, he had to correct his own statement. The Furious Sea was really, really scary! That damn roller coaster rushed at different speeds on the track, spinning, swaying, and circling all around. It suddenly accelerated and suddenly decelerated from time to time. Sometimes, it violently vibrated. Just now, it had even stopped for a while when they had been upside down! Which mad guy invented such a ¡°ride?!¡± Stand out! Cambrona will teach you a lesson! Although he thought about that, he was also very happy when he saw his wife enjoying herself happily. He wasn¡¯t feeling well, and he had spent a lot of money. However, as long as Jane had fun, everything was worth it! He worked in City Hall, so he was also a well-informed person. During this period of time, he heard some bad news. He learned that the Republic and Void City might face another huge crisis. Cambrona was not afraid of crises. He had experienced so many crises in his life, especially when he had trained with the Tolerant Knights. He had encountered urgent situations many times. However, he didn¡¯t want to die like this. In any case, at least he had to take his wife to enjoy all the rides in the Void Mask Land before he died! As a resident of Void City, if he died before riding the rides in Void Mask Land, he would be laughed at by others in hell. Yes, he would be laughed at by others in hell. He never believed that he would go to heaven after he died. He had done a lot of good things over the years. However, the good things he had done with the Tolerant Knights couldn¡¯t make up for the sins he had accumulated when he had been a lawyer. The judges in hell would never be wrong. He was not a man who could ask a god to save him and to take away his soul on the way. Therefore, after death, he would definitely go to hell. Before going to hell, he would enjoy everything with Jane. He would make up for the pain of these years so that he could die without regret. Although, it seemed impossible for him not to die with regret. Cambrona sighed in his heart, but his face didn¡¯t show a trace of that. He turned his head, looking around, and then he pointed to the square, high platform in the distance with a long horizontal bar reaching out. He said, ¡°Next, let¡¯s go on that one.¡± ¡°That one?¡± Jane asked. She glanced at it and then took out the map of the Land. She compared them and looked at them carefully. She said, doubtfully, ¡°That is¡­ Bungee Jumping? It seems to have a six-star terrorist index. It¡¯s more horrible than the roller coaster.¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay!¡± Cambrona said. He certainly knew what that ride was. Although he was scared in his heart, his face had on a forced smile. ¡°It¡¯s rare for us to be able to come here. Today, we must have a good time!¡± he said. Therefore, after standing in line for almost an hour, his scream echoed again into the air. Chapter 520 Chapter 520: Chapter 60 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Except for people in the Northwest Republic and the church of the Void Mask, many other people were also preparing for the coming war. The Mifata Federation located in the most southern part of the Main Plane while the Northwest Republic located in the most northern part of the Main Plane. There were tens of thousands of miles apart from the two countries. It would take one about ten days from one country to the other even if he rode a flying demon beast. The long geographical distance made it impossible for the two countries to have any conflicts of interest. To put it another way, even if they had conflicts of interest, they were unable to attack each other remotely. To sum up, I think that in the coming war that the Northwest Republic will face, we can stand on a position that is irrelevant to both sides and try to benefit from the war. I believe we can make big profits in selling goods to both sides in the war at the same time! If we have to choose one country to support, I suggest the Northwest Republic because in any case, it will not be defeated by a small number of people¡¯s attack. As long as it does not collapse, it will regain its vitality quickly and become strong and prosperous again. There is a saying that goes, ¡°When we are starving, a cake is much more precious than a table of dishes.¡± If we can seize the opportunity to make a good relationship with the Northwest Republic, we can form a solid alliance. If two great powers join hands with each other, they will embrace the whole Main Plane! In this way, a few hundred years later, this alliance will undoubtedly become the dominant force of the whole Main Plane! Wood finished the last line, put down his pen and looked at the secret letter that was densely written in code. He smiled with relief. Having been hidden in Pyroxene Town for so many years, he finally came up with valuable information. This information carefully analyzed the interests between the Northwest Republic and the Mifata Federation from the perspectives of geography, resources, humanities, society, and even the outlook of the world pattern. Then it finally came to a conclusion. He believed that the conclusion should be correct. As a senior spy, Wood had traveled to a lot of places and engaged in a lot of political matters. He had been trained in the field of politics. Although he was only a woodcarving craftsman in Pyroxene Town, he was actually fully qualified for the job of a governor. Over the years, he had been learning and thinking about various policies in the Northwest Republic and Pyroxene Town. He felt that his level of politics had improved a lot over the past ten years. Now he could be regarded as an excellent political talent, walking in the sunshine fairly and admirably. Of course, he had no such ambitions. For him, it was enough to help the federation become strong. If the Mifata Federation was a huge magic tower, it was good to be the shining gems or mighty statues outside the tower. However, it was also good to be the cornerstone of the tower. Wood was willing to be such a cornerstone and would like to contribute his whole life to the prosperity of the Mifata Federation. Therefore, although he loved Pyroxene Town and the Northwest Republic, he would still be on the side of the Mifata Federation on key issues. After writing the secret letter, he carefully checked it twice to make sure that there were no mistakes or omissions. He summed up his ideas and information completely and wrote it in detail. He put the secret letter away with satisfaction, sealed it with magic props and took it out with him. His destination was a shop selling magic items. This shop was not an information center of the Mifata Federation, but if necessary, it could provide some services to deliver small items over long distances. However, the cost was very high. Wood was a regular customer of the shop. He often came here to buy magic materials to add special effects or functions to his wood carvings in order to create rare boutiques. Most of the carving tools he currently used were customized to dwarfs living on the southwest coast of the Mountain of Broken Cloud with the help of the shop owner. That set of tools cost him a lot of money, but it was really worth the high price. It was very convenient for him to use, and it could greatly improve his work efficiency and reduce the difficulty of making fine wood carvings. After chatting with the shop owner for a bit, Wood said that he wanted to borrow the transportation portal to order something from a shop called ¡°Gray Pigeon Magic Props¡± in the Duchy of Thunder. Gray Pigeon Magic Props was an old magic shop. It was located in a town on the southeast cape of the Main Plane, and it was famous for custom-designed magic props. Among the carving tools that Wood had customized before, the most precious carving knife was made by this shop. In addition, the shop also had an identity as a transit point for Mifata Federation spies to quickly transmit confidential information. However, if this shop had been used to transmit information, it would mean that the information needed to be delivered immediately to federal intelligence officers. Once this shop was used, it almost meant that the spy was likely to be exposed. The secret of the Gray Pigeon Magic Props shop was not a big secret to the top intelligence agencies around the world. Wood did not know if he would be exposed this time, but he thought it would be worthwhile if the information could be sent out smoothly. Over the years, he had been cared for by many people in the Northwest Republic and Pyroxene Town, especially when he was seriously ill. If it hadn¡¯t been for Grand Governor Felix, who had been the mayor of Pyroxene Town before, giving him the panacea bestowed by the Void Mask, he would have died. The serious illness was essentially caused by a secretly trained ¡°devil girl¡± who had absorbed his strength. In fact, people whose strength had been absorbed by this devil girl wouldn¡¯t generally live for more than ten years. Even if they barely survived the outbreak of sequelae, their body would weaken quickly, and soon they would become very old. But Wood was totally different. He not only recovered from the serious illness, but he also regained the lost strength absorbed by the devil girl. Now he had almost recovered to the legendary peak, even stepping into the advanced level. All this told him how precious the panacea was! Even for the Legendary Master, such a panacea was worth collecting. Perhaps when a king was in danger, it would be very hard for him to have it save his life, but Governor Felix gave it to Wood and saved his life. Generally speaking, Wood could only give back his life to Felix to express his appreciation, but he was a spy¡­ Over the years, his heart had been suffering. Loyalty and benevolence were like two huge stones, making it hard to breathe. He did not know how many times he had awakened from the nightmares. Maybe¡­ this time, I can solve it completely¡­ Wood sighed deeply as he launched the micro-transportation portal and watched the secret information disguised as an ¡°order form¡± disappear into the light of transmission. Probably, it was all over. ¡°All right,¡± he said to himself, ¡°although I am very sorry to Governor Felix, I am a spy after all. Being discovered, arrested, interrogated and killed¡­ That¡¯s all I can do for her.¡± He could imagine how disappointed Governor Felix would be, but he had no choice. He was a shameful betrayer and a despicable man who had stolen the trust of a friendly and kind master. He had nothing to atone for but with his own life. Although, his life was not enough for atonement, what could he do about it? Living in the world, people would meet unsatisfactory things at least seven to eight times out of ten. Wood grinned bitterly, sorted out his clothes and walked out of the conveyor room. How long can I live? He pondered over it. Before my death, I¡¯ll go and finish some of the wood carvings I had promised before. I already feel guilty over Grand Governor Felix, but I don¡¯t have to feel guilty to the guests who had paid their deposits! Chapter 521 Chapter 521: Chapter 61 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Wood did not know that his message had not been sent to the Grey Pigeon Magic Props Shop immediately, but had been sent to the Holly Hall of the church of the Void Mask in Void City instead. In fact, Wood¡¯s identity had been exposed long ago, and the plan for him had already been completed. Every piece of information he sent out would be secretly intercepted halfway and reviewed by Grand Governor Felix. Then the information could be returned to the way it was supposed to go. Even if he used the transportation portal to deliver his messages, there was no exception. In terms of transportation portal technology, nobody in the world was more powerful than Sui Xiong. Only a few gods would be as powerful as him. The interception transportation portal in the Holy Hall of Void City was made by Sui Xiong. It could effectively intercept all the information involving the Northwest Republic, both inside and outside. It was Felix who had suggested to make this transportation portal. However, Felix herself did not realize that the first time the interception transportation portal had played a role was in intercepting Wood¡¯s confidential information. ¡°He¡¯s very cautious this time.¡± Looking at the secret letter, the deputy director of the Office of Fishing and Hunting Resources Investigation, Clito, frowned. He was responsible for intelligence work. ¡°Not only did the letter use the transportation portal, but it also uses cryptic words that I have never seen before.¡± ¡°Is there any important information in the secret letter?¡± Felix asked. ¡°No. Nobody has ever been found to use these kinds of cryptic words before. Perhaps only the high-leveled spies in the Mifata Federation can understand it.¡± Clito had become more and more adapted to his work. He now knew a great deal of confidential information from all over the world and could understand a lot of different cryptic words. It was not difficult to design a secret language for a high-level spy; in fact, it was quite necessary to do so. But, nobody expected Wood¡¯s level to be so high. ¡°It¡¯s so incredible! I always thought that he was a low-level spy and would be hidden somewhere for all his life¡­¡± Felix muttered to herself. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that he was such a big guy.¡± ¡°People who can be sent out as spies aren¡¯t normally big guys,¡± Clito shook his head and said. ¡°I can only say that he is a high-level spy beyond our expectations.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tangle with such small matters. What about this information? Do you have any ways to decipher it? Clito looked at the information carefully, thought for a moment and shook his head. To decipher an encrypted message, a prophecy spell called ¡°Deciphering Cipher-text¡± could be used. Although the spell was very difficult, there was no shortage of such talents in the Northwest Republic. However, the prophecy spell could not be used to decipher a document written in a man-made language. They could only use the ¡°common language¡± to try to find out the writer¡¯s meanings¡ªnot the meanings of the words written in the document, but the ideas of the writer. At first glance, it seemed to make no difference. Generally speaking, the writer¡¯s ideas were the content of the document. But for professional spies, they could think of something else when they wrote a document. The ideas left on the document were totally different from what the writer thought. If this document had used a unique man-made language, there was no way to decipher it by magic. If one broke it like an actual piece of cipher text, they would get a mess of worthless text. If one read the writer¡¯s mind, they would get irrelevant content. There were only two ways to decipher such a message. The first way was to use the legendary spell to directly trace the content of this message, and it required a large-scale ceremony and a lot of time. Of course, the cost would be very high as well. The second way was to try to decipher this kind of man-made language. It would take professional linguists and archaeologists a lot of time to decipher it and inevitably, they would make some mistakes. But for them, time was certainly not enough. The interception transportation portal could intercept the message, but it could not intercept it for too long. Otherwise, it was likely to be perceived by Wood easily. In that case, they could only use the unconventional way. ¡°It¡¯s a little humiliating to bother Your Majesty for such a message,¡± Clito sighed and said. ¡°As an intelligence chief, I¡¯m so ashamed of myself!¡± ¡°You are just the deputy director of the Office of Fishing and Hunting Resources Investigation, under the Ministry of Agriculture,¡± Felix reminded him. ¡°Intelligence work is just your part-time job.¡± ¡°My part-time job¡¯s salary is almost three times that of my own job.¡± ¡°There are many people whose part-time income is three times that of their main jobs, but unless you resign, your position will always be that,¡± Felix smiled and said. ¡°Are you interested in resigning and then concentrating on being an intelligence director? The salary can be improved a little more.¡± Clito thought about it and shook his head. ¡°The title ¡®Intelligence Director¡¯ is too ugly to hear. I can consider being a writer.¡± They went to the prayer room and reported this incident to Sui Xiong. A few seconds later, Sui Xiong sent out his incarnation and deciphered this document with Divine Power. No matter how difficult the encryption of the document was, it was child¡¯s play for Sui Xiong, a God who had studied Divine Power in such fields as knowledge and culture. He could read the document directly from the perspective of the source of the world. Whatever Wood thought about when he wrote the document, it would not change the content of the document itself. What Sui Xiong read was the original content of this document. A moment later, a document written in common language was handed over to Felix. Felix and Clito looked at the document carefully and could not help but laugh at each other. ¡°Wood is such a good guy!¡± Felix said with a smile. ¡°I was a little sad when I gave him the panacea before. Now it seems that the panacea was not given to the wrong person.¡± ¡°He is a good man. His works of art can directly reflect his heart. His works are full of warm and strong emotions, which obviously show that he is a kind and strong-willed man!¡± Sui Xiong curled his lip after hearing Clito¡¯s words and thought that his statement was untenable. The German dictator, Hitler¡¯s paintings were also warm, meticulous and rigorous. Although his level was not high, at least not as good as Sui Xiong himself, a little human concern could be seen in his paintings. However, as a matter of result, Hitler also massacred about six million people. Since there was no problem with this document, it was unnecessary to continue intercepting this document. A few minutes later, this emergency document was sent to the Grey Pigeon Magic Props Shop. Of course, those spies at the intelligence station of Mifata Federation could not understand the document, but they knew the importance of the document and sent it to the Information Center of the Highest Tower immediately. A few minutes later, the document that had been deciphered was sent to the intelligence director of the Mifata Federation. The intelligence director read the document carefully at first but frowned when they read only half of it. They even became very angry when they read all of it. ¡°This guy¡­ Does he think of himself as a somebody? How dare he make comments on the federal policy?!¡± The intelligence director growled angrily and then issued an order. Soon, a trained female spy set out from the Highest Tower and arrived at Void City through the transportation portal. She would kill Wood and take over his job. ¡­ At this time, Wood was still working hard in the sculpture room. He was in a very relaxed mood with a smile on his lips; he had no idea of what he was about to encounter. Chapter 522 Chapter 522: Chapter 62 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The female spy, whose code name was ¡°North Wind,¡± dressed in simple clothes and stepped out of the portal. Her dress was deliberately chosen; it not only reflected her own cultural accomplishments but also subtly gave others a sense of alienation, minimizing unnecessary negotiations and contact with others. Of course, this was to avoid overlapping with others until contacting Wood. North Wind was not very familiar with Wood¡¯s current situation. She only knew that his code name was ¡°ninety-seven¡± and he was one of the best spies in the Federation who had made great contributions. But she did not know why such an excellent spy might have been suspected of mutiny. Yes. Wood was suspected of mutiny. This was what the Intelligence Agency of the Mifata Federation judged about him. North Wind was ordered to go to Pyroxene Town and live with Wood as his wife. Then she had to kill Wood at a proper time and take over his Intelligence Station that had been stagnated by his rebellion. Then she would resume its normal operation. This task was not easy to accomplish. Wood was an excellent spy whose qualifications and strength were far above North Wind. Although he had become weak because his strength was absorbed by the devil girl, he had completely recovered after eating the precious panacea. Now, he had probably become a high-level paladin with the powers of a magician. North Wind was a spy whose clergy was knowledge and culture. Although she knew some fighting skills, she was definitely not a good fighter. Faced with a high-level paladin, she may die in a few seconds if a violent conflict broke out between them. She had to be very careful and choose a proper time to finish the task of killing the traitor, Wood. However, killing Wood was just the first step of her task. Next, she had to take over Wood¡¯s Intelligence Station and resume its normal operation. A widow of a great artist was definitely not the right image for her to show up in all day long in the public eye. Even if she did not care about her reputation and wanted to be a degenerate widow, it was impossible for her to seduce many people. According to North Wind¡¯s plan, she intended to act as a painter who enthusiastically supported young artists. When she went out for her investigation, she could explain herself by saying, ¡°I¡¯m collecting folk songs¡± or, ¡°I¡¯m choosing beautiful scenery.¡± When she met with other spies, she could hold art salons as a cover. As long as she subsidized several well-known artists, she would be able to make more friends from the upper class and build up her interpersonal circles. It was also one of the most common methods used by spies. Ordinarily, Wood, who was a great artist should do the same. However, Wood was totally different. He spent most of his time either working or wandering around the streets, looking for inspiration. How could he build a truly effective information collection system? How could it be possible for him to effectively gather important information? As a senior high-level spy, such a mistake should never be made! Wood should not have made such a stupid mistake. Who would believe that he wasn¡¯t a traitor? North Wind felt a little uneasy sitting on the bus to Pyroxene Town. If Wood really betrayed them, she would be killed by him after arriving at his door. It was just like a rabbit knocking at a fox¡¯s door and asking, ¡°Hey, Mr. Fox, are you hungry?¡± Only when Wood had not completely rebelled could she live to finish the task. In that case, Wood was likely to be provoked and immediately determined to rebel. Then she would also be killed by Wood. Generally speaking, her chances of success were not very high, and her chances of death were more than ninety percent. But North Wind was not afraid. As a spy of the Mifata Federation, she had already put her life and death aside. She only worried that she would not be able to finish the task. However, worry could not solve the problem. She slowly calmed down and reorganized her action plan on the way to Pyroxene Town. The bus drove slowly and steadily. This was not only due to the ability of the driver but because the road was very smooth. Although the cities and population of the Northwest Republic were not very large, it seemed a little prosperous from those infrastructures. Of course, the Northwest Republic was not comparable to the Mifata Federation. Among all countries, the road construction of the Mifata Federation was unique, far more developed than other countries. Only when they had a large caster team could they use their precious magic powers to build and maintain roads. They had also completed the world¡¯s unparalleled main road system. In the Mifata Federation, every city had a main road connecting it to other cities. Those main roads were built of stones and were smoothed by spells. Of course, it was impossible for those roads to be as smooth as mirrors, but they were smoother than most streets of other capitals in the world. People who drove the carriages would not feel a single bump when driving on those main roads. Those roads had greatly reduced the pressure of pulling horses and had improved the efficiency of transportation. Businessmen in Mifata Federation often did business on a large scale, which further promoted the prosperity of the country. Of course, the Northwest Republic could not possibly have the conditions of the Mifata Federation, but the roads between its towns were well-built. The compact Rammed Soil Pavement was paved with gravel; then specially-made mortar was poured between the gravel. Finally, a layer of soil was rammed upward. Generally speaking, the pavement was built into a slightly arched central shape, and that could effectively drain the water and avoid the pavement being soaked and starting to deteriorate. However, in North Wind¡¯s view, this was meaningless. How many times could it rain all year round in the Northwest Republic? What was the purpose of making a waterproof pavement? People who designed this pavement actually saw this pavement design before and copied it in their own country without thinking about the actual situation of their country. These pavement designs, if being used in the Mifata Federation, would be quite good¡­ North Wind thought about this and was a little shocked by her ideas. Those things were not what a spy should consider! If she handed in her ideas as a piece of information, then she would become a traitor like Wood too! She frowned, driving those meaningless thoughts out of her mind and concentrated on her action plans. But she didn¡¯t know that on the top of the carriage, no more than two meters straight from her head, an invisible green jellyfish was thinking while watching her. Where on earth did my pavement design come from? When North Wind just stepped into the Void City, she was noticed by Sui Xiong immediately because Sui Xiong had been monitoring the portal these days. He even sent an incarnation to follow her in order to see what she was going to do and what the outcome of this matter would be. Just now, Sui Xiong noticed North Wind¡¯s ideas and used magic to cause her ideas to develop. Unexpectedly, she reacted smartly and quickly got rid of the idea that Sui Xiong had imposed on her. Sui Xiong could not help but think highly of her. Apart from other things, the spy of the Mifata Federation really had a strong will! Wood was such a strong-willed spy too. Sui Xiong had more than once sneaked into his dreams and persuaded him to submit to himself. But Wood never promised, not even wavering. So Sui Xiong became more curious and wanted to know how the two spies, who were equally strong-willed and loyal to the Mifata Federation, would get along with each other? Would they kill each other? His idea was a little dark, but since everything had been under his control, why not take a look? Perhaps¡­ there would be some unexpected gains in all this. Chapter 523 Chapter 523: Chapter 63 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The speed of the coach was not very fast, and so it took a long time to get from Void City to Pyroxene Town. During this period, North Wind had no conversations with the other passengers. She spent two days in Dragon-Roar Town and Gold-Panning Town for the rest. She didn¡¯t want to be with the other travelers and wanted to reduce the possibility of being on the same road with the same passengers. She never imagined that there would be a guy on top of her head who was always following her. But she never found out. When the coach stopped at Pyroxene Town Station, North Wind waited deliberately for some time before leaving the coach. After getting out of the coach, she looked a little tired. After a short rest, she asked the pedestrians by the road about the sculptor, Mr. Wood¡¯s address. Mr. Wood was a celebrity in Pyroxene Town. Everyone knew him. However, this pedestrian did not know where Mr. Wood lived. The pedestrian took her to the guards who were patrolling the city and asked the guards for Wood¡¯s address. When taken by this pedestrian to look for the guards, North Wind was very nervous. Although she pretended to be calm, Sui Xiong knew she was nervous and fearful. Ha ha, this woman is easier to see through than Mr. Wood! Sui Xiong laughed and looked at them. North Wind said that she was Mr. Wood¡¯s wife who had been lost for many years. Then, accompanied by the guard who was surprised, she went to Wood¡¯s woodcarving workshop. Wood certainly did not know who North Wind was, but when North Wind said, ¡°I heard about you in Cape Town,¡± Mr. Wood understood immediately. Where was Cape Town? It was a town where the Grey Pigeon Magic Shop was located. The Grey Pigeon Magic Shop was famous for its magic props, and only federal spies would mention this place. Mr. Wood immediately pretended to be very surprised and joyful, admitted that North Wind was indeed his wife. He insisted on giving the guard a small gift to express his gratitude. In fact, at that moment, the expression of North Wind was slightly weird. The guard was a retired adventurer, so it was easy for him to notice this. However, Sui Xiong secretly disturbed the guard¡¯s thoughts so that the guard would not say anything. What a bore it would be if something was said by that guard! When the guard left, Mr. Wood and North Wind entered the workshop and sat down face to face. ¡°Are you here to replace me?¡± Wood said happily, ¡°Can I go home?¡± The idea of ¡°home¡± was jargon for spies. Home meant handing over the task and returning to base. For those who were loyal to the Mifata Federation, there was no difference between returning to his country and returning to his home. Most of the spies were orphans, and the Mifata Federation was their only home. Looking at Wood¡¯s happy face, the North Wind had some doubts in her mind. It was weird. If Wood had betrayed the Mifata Federation or had the intention of betrayal, he would have been surprised or angry to see her. Over the years, although he had not done his job well enough, he successfully hid his identity and built a reputation here. In this case, there was no way to let him return home. If the high officials of the Mifata Federation let him back home, it meant they were dissatisfied with his work and that he had failed his task. How could Wood be happy? But she didn¡¯t know that Wood had been in trouble all the time and wanted to go back to the Mifata Federation. As a senior spy, he was quite clear about the policy of the Mifata Federation. He knew that his information was not enough to change the decisions of the high-level officials. There was a high possibility that the Federation would join an unfavorable alliance against the Republic of Northwest and attack this place. That made him worried. He could guarantee that the attack would not have any effects. It would only disturb the peaceful life of the civilians of Void City. That was all. It was meaningless for the Federation to join an unfavorable alliance to attack this place. Besides, such a meaningless attack would take the lives of high-ranked or legendary masters. Wood really felt that that was a pity and waste. He knew how hard it was to cultivate a legendary master. Wood really looked forward to returning to the Mifata Federation and so introduced his ideas to these high-level officials. He wanted to tell them what he had seen and heard over the years, and emphasized the choice between ¡°war¡± and ¡°harmony.¡± Not only that, returning to the Mifata Federation could help him get rid of his trouble and return to his normal life. Wood was in a dilemma lately. He feared that he would be discovered and hoped that his important information would work. Actually, these didn¡¯t matter to him at all. What mattered was that he was in a dilemma between his loyalty to the Mifata Federation and his affection for Pyroxene Town. His loyalty to the Federation was beyond doubt. Although his heart was solid as a rock, over the years, everyone in Pyroxene Town was so kind and nice to him. The people¡¯s goodwill had softened his heart. No matter how solid the stone was, it would be worn down by constant contact. Although Wood was unwilling to admit it, his mind was wavering. After he sent out his last piece of information, he was supposed to be dead, but nothing happened. He still lived in peace and stability. He was confused and had a little doubt about his own principles. To treat goodwill with goodwill and malice with malice was Wood¡¯s principle of life. However, Pyroxene Town had only goodwill and no malice towards him. Faithfulness to the Mifata Federation was also his principle, so he was in a dilemma because there was a conflict between his principles. He thought he would die, but he was still alive. His mind became more active during this period, so he thought over many things that he had never thought about in the past. Did no one know that he was really a spy? No one? Or maybe someone had known, but they didn¡¯t tell anyone. Wood did not know for sure nor did he want to know. He feared that if he knew the truth, he would not be able to adhere to his principles. When he saw North Wind coming and guessed that she was coming to replace him, he was really happy. These high officials were far-sighted and thoughtful towards their subordinates. They knew that his current situation was somewhat awkward, so they sent North Wind to replace him. This idea was obviously naive, but Wood could only think like this. As for other ideas, he was reluctant to think about them. There were no other ideas! Sui Xiong who was floating above them knew every thought of Wood¡¯s. He smiled and quietly watched them. His intuition told him that it would not only be very interesting but also very rewarding to watch these events unfold. Chapter 524 Chapter 524: Chapter 64 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio North Wind, of course, was not coming to replace Wood so as to let him leave his position and go back to the Mifata Federation. She did come to replace him, so that much was right. But she was not to let him leave alive; she had to kill him. Of course, she couldn¡¯t tell him about that. Only a fool would do that. She had already prepared a set of speeches, and that was what she was saying now. ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯m here to assist you,¡± North Wind said. ¡°In recent years, your work efficiency has declined significantly. Our leaders thought it might be because you¡¯re alone and inconvenient in working, so I accepted art training specifically to be your assistant.¡± Wood was upset, but his doubts disappeared. Indeed, as North Wind had said, in recent years, the efficiency of his intelligence collection had indeed declined a lot. On one hand, it was because the work of woodcarving took up a lot of time and energy. On the other hand, it was also because he was alone and inconvenient in intelligence searching in many cases. In order to avoid others¡¯ suspicion, he had to act very cautiously. Although that helped him hide his identity very well, that still greatly limited his actions. In a whole day, he usually just had one or two hours of free time. He had to strictly act within a reasonable scope and had never done anything out of his character. As a spy, it was necessary for Wood to be cautious. In the past few years, his main duty had been to lurk in other countries, so there had been nothing wrong with him being so cautious. But now, seeing the great changes on the Main Plane, everyone was afraid that in the near future, there would be fierce frictions between the Mifata Federation and the Republic of Northwest. In that case, being cautious had to give way to efficiency. Wood understood the whole thing at once. He knew why North Wind came to help him. So he sighed and asked, ¡°Did you see my report before your departure?¡± North Wind was surprised at that and shook her head. She really knew nothing about the report. Wood shook his head and said with regret, ¡°I had suggested in my report that the Federation should be neutral in the coming war and that we should even support the Republic of Northwest. I wrote many specific reasons; it was very detailed. But I¡¯m not going to tell you all about it. But what a pity! According to your mission, the Federation has chosen to support the enemies of the Republic of Northwest. To be honest, I don¡¯t think they can win!¡± Wood said with regret. ¡°Those guys may get some benefits from the war by chance, but what can they do with the Republic of Northwest that is thousands of miles away? Nothing! It¡¯s just like the situation when the Federation was founded¡ªthe old and conventional forces were not in favor of the great mentor, but there was nothing they could do. Their high-end force was useless in front of the great mentor, and their army could not attack us across the forests, swamps, deserts, and mountains. ¡°That was why we could build up our country smoothly. I think you are also familiar with the history. Don¡¯t you think the situation of the Republic of Northwest now is very similar to that of the Federation from before?¡± North Wind did not expect Wood to say all that. She thought about it carefully and frowned. Although there was something wrong with Wood¡¯s position of thinking, what he said was quite reasonable. For the Federation, even if they won this war, they wouldn¡¯t get many practical benefits. Then why should they even bother? North Wind was also a high-level spy. Although she was far less experienced than Wood, she had all the accomplishments and insight that a high-level spy should have. She was the one to take over the intelligence station in Pyroxene Town from Wood. That proved that her ability was quite remarkable. With her own insight, she could clearly sort out what Wood had said and drew conclusions that were similar to his. She remained silent for a moment, sighed quietly, and then said nothing. It could be seen that Wood knew the situation of the Republic of Northwest very well, and he also had a good understanding of the relationship between the Federation and the Republic. Maybe he could have been a good diplomat if he could go back to the Federation. But she could also see that Wood¡¯s attitude was ambiguous. If she were in Wood¡¯s position, she would not give so much praise for the Republic of Northwest when she was asked. Some of the details of Wood¡¯s words did show his problem. The senior officials of the Federal Intelligence Service have made an accurate judgment on Wood. It is possible for this high-level spy to betray them! If that was the case, her task was clear. Execute Wood and take over his job! Certainly, she didn¡¯t show anything on her face. Instead, she acted as if she was deep in thought, thinking carefully about what Wood had said. After a while, she sighed softly and said, ¡°What you¡¯ve said really makes sense. Unfortunately, judging from my mission, your suggestion was rejected.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right!¡± Wood sighed deeply. ¡°I realized that when I heard you say that you¡¯re here to be my assistant instead of replacing me. If it¡¯s not for the purpose of strengthening our intelligence work, why should they send an assistant for me? And if it¡¯s not for the hostile relationship between the Federation and the Republic, why do we need to strengthen our intelligence work?¡± North Wind nodded and agreed with what he had said. ¡°So, what are you going to do?¡± Wood asked. ¡°Of course, it will be much more convenient for two people to work than just one. But have you made a plan of action? I can help you modify it. I¡¯m not questioning your professional competence, just¡­ After all, I have lived here for more than ten years, and I am more familiar with the actual situation here than you are. I know you must have read a lot of information, but after all, the written information can¡¯t outweigh the practical experience. So I would like to know your plan first and see if there is anything to add.¡± North Wind did not mean to hide her plan, so she just told him about it. ¡°You want to be a painter and travel around, pretending that you¡¯re looking for inspiration for your painting, and then expand your acquaintances through those young artists¡­¡± Wood pondered for a moment and shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s certainly a good idea, but in the eyes of those vigilant professional intelligence personnel, you¡¯re too obvious.¡± ¡°So what do you say?¡± North Wind was not angry that her plan had been rejected. Wood was her senior and even had become a high-level spy of the Federation before she was born. It was natural that he had a better idea than her. Wood thought carefully for a moment and said, ¡°I suggest that you open a painting class to teach children how to draw.¡± North Wind was confused for a moment, and then she understood what he meant. With a group of children as a cover, her intelligence collecting behavior would be concealed under cover of collective activities. And through these children, she could also have more social connections. Of course, she might be more close to the middle-class society, but as a latent spy, focusing on the activities of the middle-class society could help a lot in hiding her identity. After all, there were many elites in the upper class, and they might have all kinds of wonderful powers. By contrast, staying among the middle class was much safer for her. As for the intelligence searching, as long as she worked hard to screen the information carefully, she could even collect information from small restaurants in poor neighborhoods. As an excellent spy, North Wind was very confident about getting enough valuable information by communicating with her students¡¯ parents. She couldn¡¯t help but laugh at that thought. She paid more respect to Wood, but she felt far more regretful for him. How could such an excellent high-level spy be suspected of betrayal? What a pity! What a pity! But she still had to do what she was supposed to. With words of praise and appreciation, North Wind had already sentenced Wood to death in her heart. Sui Xiong was floating in the air invisibly, watching the communication between the two high-level spies. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh happily. Things were getting more and more interesting. Chapter 525 Chapter 525: Chapter 65 Since everything had been settled, naturally, the next was to put it into practice. However, there were two parts in doing it, the public part and the private part. In the public part, Wood took North Wind to the City Hall of Pyroxene Town to register her residence. North Wind¡¯s current identity was an illegitimate daughter of an earl in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. She had fallen in love with the painter Wood before, but her father hated Wood and wanted to kill him. Thus, Wood ran away in a hurry to Pyroxene Town, where he became a woodcarver. Several years later, North Wind was married by her father to the Duchy of Thunder and became the wife of an ocean-going merchant. Later, that merchant was hit by a storm at sea. The ship was destroyed, and he was dead. North Wind sold part of her husband¡¯s property to pay off the debt owed by the shipwreck. Although there was not much money left, at last, it would still be enough for her to live a stable life if she could be wise in the expenses. Over the years, she had no child with that merchant. She lived alone after his death, and she naturally remembered her old lover Wood. Through some inquiry, she was surprised to know that Wood was still alive and had a good life. Most importantly, although over a decade had passed, he was not married yet! Therefore, she did not hesitate to take all her fortune to find Wood. She went through most of the Duchy of Thunder and arrived at Void City through the transportation portal. Then she took a public carriage all the way to Pyroxene Town and finally met Wood. This love that spanned more than ten years in time and over the mainland of the Main Plane moved the little girl in charge of registering to tears. She held the couple¡¯s hands respectively and put them together closely. ¡°God bless you!¡± she choked and said. ¡°I wish you to be happy forever!¡± Wood and North Wind were naturally full of emotion. They looked very happy, and their happy faces made the girl full of tears again. It was as if she were watching an animated film that had been played before Sui Xiong¡¯s space-travel. It had been said that all couples would go straight to the Civil Affairs Bureau to register for marriage after they saw that film. Sui Xiong had space-traveled very early, so he did not have the chance to see that film and didn¡¯t know whether it was as touching as the reviews say. However, now looking at them, Sui Xiong had an idea: If the fabricated story of Wood and North Wind was made into a movie, it would certainly earn countless tears from the audience and move countless people. That would leave a deep impression in history, wouldn¡¯t it? That was possible because there was indeed a film and television industry in the Republic of Northwest nowadays. Sui Xiong was not good at engineering, but he was a god as well as a master of magic now. If the power of science and technology was not enough here, he could use magic. In this way, he created movies and TVs. Of course, the proper name should be something like ¡°large projection equipment¡± and ¡°simple household projection equipment.¡± But it didn¡¯t matter. Sui Xiong was the boss of the Republic of Northwest. Thus, if he said those were movies and TVs, then they were. Of course, it was not enough to only have the equipment. There was also an action team under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Northwest, and they were responsible for making movies and TV programs. The leading director was none other than the electorate of the God of Art and Culture, Saint-Vallier Von Stovski Francis. Well, that name seemed a bit too long. Sui Xiong had once suggested him to keep a low profile and use the name Shoggoth, but Shoggoth said that he had to use the name of Saint-Vallier Von Stovski Francis and make his offspring remember it. Thus, future generations of historians would think about where this name came from, and then they would compare the genealogy of aristocrats around the world to find which famous family it belonged to. ¡°I¡¯m so excited when I think of it giving the scholars in the future a headache!¡± Shoggoth said. Sui Xiong thought about it for a while. He agreed that it was really something interesting, so he did not persuade Shoggoth to change his name anymore. Now, the name Saint-Vallier Von Stovski Francis was popular among the people. He was a famous opera writer who had created many popular operas and a famous legendary novelist who had written many fascinating legends. Moreover, he was also the first great director in this world who had presided over the shooting of many popular programs. Due to personal preference, most of the programs produced by Shoggoth were comedies, such as The Daily Life of the Decent, Stereotyped Tall Orc in the Bold and Unrestrained Elf Village. This was also very popular among the people. This comedy was full of opposites and humor, and it also contained a lot of erotic content. If it were broadcasted on earth, it would definitely be severely reprimanded by those moral guardians and be labeled as vulgar work. It might also be banned from being broadcasted or even be directly criticized during some conference. However, those so-called decent people who criticized it might be even worse behind the scenes. Maybe it would be even more vulgar if their private lives were made into movies. Naturally, there were no such problems in the Republic of Northwest, where the main leader was Sui Xiong, an artist. That was something very important and had to be emphasized. He was an artist! Art! Sui Xiong was very decent in behavior. He was different from those disorderly guys who definitely would go to hell after death. That did not prevent him from opening his mind to the outside world. Even if he had been conservative before, he became open-minded after graduating from art school. Not to mention other aspects, if he had been too conservative, how could he pass the live figure drawing classes? Sui Xiong had never failed that course. On the contrary, he had been quite good at that! In the humorous series, The Daily Life of the Decent, Stereotyped Tall Orc in the Bold and Unrestrained Elf Village, many scenes were created by Sui Xiong, and many things were even hand-painted and hand-carved by him. Maybe in a few decades, when this comedy became a legend, the props he had made would become the most precious collections in the thematic memorial hall along with the scripts written by Shoggoth. Sui Xiong was very efficient in action. Just half an hour later, Sui Xiong and Shoggoth were in Void City sitting on small stools in the shape of humans. They were eating barbecue and drinking ale, discussing the script on the table. The script¡¯s ink was not completely dry. ¡°What name do you think is better?¡± asked Shoggoth. ¡°Just call it Gone with the Wind,¡± Sui Xiong poured a large glass of wine into his mouth and said happily. As for whether that name would give people who knew about the original movie a strange feeling and make them look down upon Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong did not care. He was the only space-traveler in this world, so who could have the time to feel weird about the movies¡¯ name? Chapter 526 Chapter 526: Chapter 66 Then they had to deal with the private part. In fact, this part was very simple. Wood and North Wind were registered as husband and wife. What kind of private affairs would there be between a husband and his wife? There was no need to explain that in detail. North Wind naturally had no objections to this part. As a spy, even if she was not a woman that could sleep with anyone, at least she did not take sex too seriously. As for Wood, he had been living a bachelor¡¯s life for years in order to avoid divulging his secrets. Not to mention having a wife, he never even dared to get a prostitute because he knew that men were most likely to divulge secrets in a woman¡¯s bed. Wood was a healthy man, both psychologically and physically. Especially after taking the panacea, he was in a better state than ever before. It was not a problem for him to have sex with a woman seven times a night or something like that. In that case, it seemed strange that he had insisted on abstinence from sex just like those clergymen; his explanation was that he couldn¡¯t forget his old lover. His heart was filled with a deep-seated true love, so he could not accept another woman or another love. That was really a wonderful reason, and no one could cheekily force such an honest man to change his mind. Wood didn¡¯t have friends like Favnier and Shoggoth who acted like wild horses, so he remained single all these years. Then North Wind came. According to the background setting, North Wind was the woman who had left Wood alone in the empty room for more than ten years. She was the one he had been waiting for. Thus, after they went to City Hall to register and confirm their relationship and then go back home, what would happen? All in all, the next day, Wood seemed to be in a good mood, like a little male horse that had been successfully bred for the first time. His whole body shook, showing how happy he was. He traveled around that day to visit friends he had known over the years one by one and invited them to a party. ¡°What party?¡± his friend Reeve Kawat asked. ¡°My wedding party,¡± Wood replied. Reeve opened his eyes wide and stayed still for several seconds before he asked, ¡°If I¡¯m not wrong, you have a lover who has been apart from you for many years¡­¡± ¡°I just met her again. She¡¯s had a hard time these years.¡± Wood skipped the unimportant part. ¡°But anyway, she¡¯s here with me now and will stay with me forever.¡± Reeve opened his eyes wide again. This time he stayed still longer than last time, and then he jumped up like there was a spring under his feet. He grabbed Wood¡¯s shoulder and said, ¡°You! Good job! It¡¯s been more than ten years! She must have gotten married a long time ago, and maybe she also has children¡­ What magic did you use to make her leave everything behind and come to you? And to stay with you all your life? Wood, you are my brother, so teach me how to do something like that!¡± As the head of the mining industry in the Republic of Northwest, Reeve was a Second Governor and one of the high-ranking bureaucrats. With his social status, naturally, he had married and had several children. But Mr. Kawat, who was always serious in the workplace, was very obedient to his strict wife at home. He had to hand in all his pay to her and only asked for some pocket money. In his daily life, if his wife asked him to go east, he dared not go west. Although Reeve didn¡¯t hate such a life, sometimes he really wanted to slightly improve his family status, but dare he say higher than his children! He wanted to at least be at a higher level than his wife¡¯s cat! He had consulted many people for that, such as Jose who had many wives and concubines¡ªhis children were enough to form a small army¡ªand Shoggoth, who had lovers everywhere. Shoggoth had more than 100 of them in a conservative estimate, but the methods of these two were of no use to Reeve. As for his best friend Clito, he was just slightly less obedient to his wife than Reeve. There was barely any difference between them. Reeve usually talked with Clito about that. When they complained, they often used Wood as an example. Although they were obedient to their wives, at least they had a wife, and that was much better than Wood, an old bachelor. They had never expected that Wood would be so good at attracting a woman! Over ten years later, Wood was still able to make his old lover fall in love with him. And once she found the opportunity, she abandoned her family and children and came to him at any cost. She even wanted to stay with him forever. What wonderful charm Wood had! Compared to Wood, Jose and Shoggoth were careless. As for Reeve and Clito, they were not even qualified enough to be mentioned as negative examples! At this moment, Reeve Kawat looked at Wood with great admiration. Seeing Reeve so excited, Wood was somewhat stunned. Even though he was a trump spy, he had never seen such a scene before. After all, Wood was a professional. He soon realized what Reeve was thinking, but he didn¡¯t know how to respond. ¡°Why do you have such a ridiculous idea? Why do you say that she abandoned her husband and children and came to me? What kind of person do you think she is?¡± ¡°What? Didn¡¯t she?¡± ¡°Of course not!¡± Wood sighed and told him about the background of North Wind in detail. When Wood said that North Wind had been sent to the southeastern Cape Town of the Main Plane to marry a merchant who was at sea almost all the time, Reeve couldn¡¯t help sigh sympathetically. When Wood mentioned that that merchant was dead and North Wind had to sell his property to pay off his debts, Reeve kept nodding again and again. When Wood said that North Wind sold all her remaining property and packed her bags to come find Wood, Reeve could not help but look at Wood with admiration. Finally, Wood said that they had just registered their marriage at City Hall and we¡¯re going to have a wedding tomorrow. ¡°Rest assured! I will be there on time!¡± he slapped his chest and promised loudly. Reeve was so touched by their story that his eyes turned bright. Then he advised Wood not to rush because it was impossible for many of the others to arrive here in a day. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to have a large wedding party,¡± Wood said. ¡°You know, she¡¯s not ordinary in identity. If I make it too big, her father will know about it.¡± ¡°What are you afraid of?¡± Reeve opened his eyes wide again. Being a miner before, he had never been afraid of anything. He had once used an enchantment picker to fight with an underground demon monster and killed the monster in the end. ¡°He is just an earl! What¡¯s the big deal?¡± Reeve asked. ¡°You are no longer a bard to be treated casually. Now you are a great artist in our Republic of Northwest, and there are several legendary masters as your friends. When you were sick, even the Great Governor Felix came to visit you. Her father is an earl too, and you¡¯re at least on an equal footing with him now. Don¡¯t be afraid of him!¡± Wood was stunned for a moment. He had never thought about that before. Am I already a powerful man? He remained silent for a long time. Then he grinned bitterly and shook his head. ¡°Come on, it¡¯s better to let those things that happened more than a decade ago leave us forever. If her father knows about the wedding and then makes trouble with us, even if it does not cause any damage, it will still be very annoying,¡± Wood said. ¡°It wasn¡¯t easy for us to get together again. I want to live in a safe and stable way. I don¡¯t want to deal with those things anymore.¡± He paused and then continued, ¡°I think she must have the same idea as me.¡± What he said seemed to be the truth, and that finally convinced Reeve. Although Reeve still muttered that they showed too much mercy to that old earl, he chose to respect Wood¡¯s opinions and didn¡¯t say anything more. But he did not know that Wood was sighing in his heart. I¡¯ve said more and more lies to my friends. What should I do when these lies are exposed one day? Reeve and the others have been good to me. They really treat me as a good friend, even to the degree that they are willing to live and die together with me. As a result, will my only reward to them be a despicable betrayal? For the rest of that day, Wood visited his friends¡¯ families one by one with a smile on his face, but he kept sighing in his heart. Above his head, Sui Xiong looked at him seriously, falling into deep thought. Chapter 527 The next day, Wood and North Wind¡¯s wedding and ceremony were held as scheduled. Although Wood did not invite many guests due to the limited time, the quality of the guests was shockingly quite high Wood¡¯s good friend, director of mining in the Northwest Republic, Reif Kawat, and two chairmen of the Association of Woodworking had come to his wedding. The great artists represented by Shoggoth had also come. What¡¯s more, the following people also came: the director of construction and development of the Northwest Republic, the Great Governor, Felix Isuka, the governor and director of Township Development, Asner, the Military Director of Pyroxene Town, Red Flame Dragon Jose, and the deputy director of Fishing and Hunting Resources Investigation Office, Clito. What surprised Wood the most was that even Madame Teague, the director of civil affairs in Void City, and Mr. Palin, who was the second president of the Association of Mages of the Northwest Republic and the library director, both came to his wedding! Wood did not have much friendship with Madame Teague and Mr. Palin, but he was more surprised by the following guests. As the ceremony was about to begin, three more important guests also came. The God of Art and Culture, the God of Pleasure and the founder of the Republic¡ªthe Void Mask, who had founded the great republic in the deserted land, all came to Wood¡¯s wedding! The three gods met with Wood and the other guests in their usual image. The God of Art and Culture was an elegant bard with a harp in his arms while the God of Pleasure was a beautiful young man who squinted his eyes and laughed happily. Of course, the Void Mask was a green jellyfish floating in the air. Speaking of Sui Xiong¡¯s image, there was actually a little joke. It was well-known that all denominations would give preferential treatment to certain people or creatures because of their family backgrounds or hobbies. For example, because the powerful God of Destruction liked riding on white cattle, his followers regarded such cattle as sacred things and worshiped them. They dared not to destroy that cattle. However, yellow cattle, which were not so white in color, were inferior in status. As for buffalo, they would often be killed and eaten by the followers of the God of Destruction. Sui Xiong¡¯s noumenon was a green jellyfish, so the high levels of the church of the Void Mask once held a meeting to discuss how to give preferential treatment to jellyfish, especially green jellyfish. Sui Xiong also attended the meeting at that time and was very embarrassed to hear their discussion. Although he did use the image of a green jellyfish to appear in front of people, he was actually a human being! So he immediately rejected the proposal and told his high levels not to give jellyfish special preferences because of him. That was not faith; it was confusion. Of course, Sui Xiong¡¯s followers obeyed his words. Therefore, jellyfish who might have been treated well regrettably lost this opportunity. But even so, the green jellyfish were still regarded mascots by many people who worshiped Sui Xiong. Some people even grabbed ordinary jellyfishes and dyed them green in a special way in order to sell them for a good price. This kind of cheater had been caught more than once, and although every cheater had been severely punished, this kind of business could not be prohibited due to its high profits and low costs. After all, it was very easy to dye jellyfish. People could grab a group of jellyfish at a time and add green dye to the water that fed them. If they did not die after a period of time, they would turn green and stay that way for a long time. Sui Xiong did nothing about it, that or he was too lazy to deal with such trivial things. Actually, he was really busy and had no time to deal with such trifles. For example, now he was tracing his body in addition to observing Wood and North Wind. At present, his main incarnation stayed in the sea that he had traveled through space and time at the beginning. He was slowly tracing whether or not a person fell from the sky in the past couple of years. He was sure that at least on the day he woke up, there was no traverser falling from the sky, in the sea, or even in the vicinity of about a hundred miles from the sea. However, even Sui Xiong himself was unsure whether he really woke up as soon as he traveled through time and space. Maybe it took many years for him to really wake up. Considering that the soul would not change according to changing circumstances, he decided to lock the sea area in a foolish way and push back time bit by bit, slowly tracking his body. Whether it would take him one day or two days, a thousand years or two thousand years, he had plenty of time, and he was determined to get to the bottom of this! But in this way, he had less time and energy to spare to do other things. He could not do his proper business for the time being and could only concentrate on some entertainment projects. For example, he was interested to see what kind of ending Wood would get eventually. The God of Art and Culture and the God of Pleasure were naturally invited by Sui Xiong. The God of Art and Culture was interested in the great artist, Wood, while the God of Pleasure was interested in the ceremony. So when Sui Xiong invited them, they nodded and agreed to come. Of course, the three gods all sent their Message-Sending Clones with little fighting power to Wood¡¯s wedding. Anyway, they did not come for fighting, and Message-Sending Clones were enough for them. Even if they just sent their Message-Sending Clones, their dignity had made all the guests awed and shocked by Wood¡¯s ability. What was the origin of this guy? How could he hold such a big wedding ceremony and attract three powerful gods together to congratulate him? However, Wood himself did not know why the three powerful gods would come. Now he was smiling happily, but in his heart, he was crying and complaining. I have to keep a low profile! But how can I keep a low profile? It was really difficult to keep a low profile! This wedding scene was too splendid! Unlike Wood, North Wind was frightened and angry. She was frightened by Wood¡¯s high position in the Northwest Republic. Even the Void Mask would come to his wedding ceremony to congratulate him. If Wood hadn¡¯t betrayed them, would such a powerful God as the Void Mask come to congratulate a spy? Or could it be that Wood had fooled the Void Mask? With this in her mind, she affirmed the fact that Wood had betrayed them, and at the same time she began to feel worried. Would the three gods recognize her identity? She was not frightened nor did she feel angry when she thought of this. Instead, she was full of worry. As a high-leveled spy, North Wind was not afraid of death. But if she fell into the hands of other gods, it was really not ¡°death¡± that could solve the problem. A god¡¯s power was so great that people could not die as they wished. A god could keep their souls in captivity and torture them slowly. A god could even reverse the thinking of mortals directly, turning warriors into cowards or righteous men into villains. This was possible for gods to do! When she thought of this, she was shocked again. Could it be that Wood had been forced to change his mind by the Void Mask and thus betrayed? This evening, she did not enjoy herself at all. Although she always had a happy smile on her face, her heart was always disturbed, as if hundreds of people were quarreling. She suddenly felt worried, relaxed, happy or upset. Her heart was a mess. However, it was precisely for this reason that the God of Art and Culture and the God of Pleasure did not see through her mind. As for Sui Xiong¡­ North Wind¡¯s careful thinking was transparent in his eyes, but he did not expose it. Instead, he laughed and pretended to know nothing. This will be quite a good play! Just wait and see! Chapter 528 After getting married, Wood¡¯s life changed a lot. Now he no longer spent seven or eight hours doing sculpture work in the workshop. Instead, he was busy at home every morning or taking a walk with his wife. Then he went to the workshop in the afternoon and went home early in the evening. Neighbors near the workshop could no longer see the light that was always on at night but saw Wood¡¯s face glowing with health instead. Wood¡¯s smile became more and more vivid, and he no longer kept others a thousand miles away. Everyone was very happy about his changes. Even North Wind felt happy too. Of course, the reason why she was happy was different from what others thought. Others were happy because Wood had become happier while she was happy because Wood had shown his weaknesses. When Wood and North Wind first met, Wood was a very cautious person. He was very careful even when facing his companions from his motherland, but after getting married, he obviously relaxed a lot. His weaknesses could be seen everywhere in his ordinary life, and his behavior had changed a lot. If North Wind wanted to kill him, he would have been dead by now. But North Wind did not want to kill him so quickly. She was still a stranger at present and had to take advantage of Wood¡¯s relationship to take root in Pyroxene Town. When she became very familiar with Pyroxene Town, Wood would be definitely killed by her. But as the days went by, she became doubtful again. Wood did not behave like a betrayer. If he had really betrayed them, why would he live a stable life with North Wind and have no intentions of hiding somewhere? Wasn¡¯t he afraid that his secret of betrayal would be discovered? Was he so contemptuous of North Wind? North Wind felt very upset at present. Being underrated was actually a good thing for spies. If the enemy belittled those spies, it was easy for the enemy to show their weaknesses and they would also make mistakes at that time. So spies were good at hiding their actual strength. However, being looked down upon by companions would make them feel unhappy especially since Wood was North Wind¡¯s husband! When North Wind first became a spy, she had heard about Wood¡¯s story. Wood had acted as a court bard, provoking contradictions in the royal family of the Duchy of Thunder, and successfully triggering a small-scale rebellion. He had sent the most talented son of the Grand Duke of Thunder to hell, removing the potential threat. He had also traveled thousands of miles and crossed the entire Ancient Forest when there were many enemies following him, successfully delivering an important message from the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. He was badly injured and almost died. Even the priest was surprised and praised him for his spirit. If not for his spirit having transcended his body, he would have died on the road. Wood was a character worshipped by the younger generation of spies, and North Wind was no exception. So after strict training and repeated screening, North Wind was selected to finish the task of killing Wood. She was shocked when she learned of her task before leaving. How was this possible? Why would Wood betray them? That was impossible! When she calmed down, she thought about it and felt a little lucky. If Wood really had betrayed them, it would be a rare honor for her who had worshipped him before to be able to punish him in person. Though, she did not want the glory at all. When she arrived at Pyroxene Town and met Wood, she actually found the former trump spy had become a little weak now. It was not that his strength had become weak; he was still very powerful. Even on the next day after he married North Wind, he had stepped into the advanced level and became a respected person who could raise his head high when going in and out of the king¡¯s court. The ¡°weakness¡± felt by North Wind was that his ability as a spy had become weak. He was still able to gather information, but his sensitivity to information was reduced. His alertness to danger was reduced, and he gradually became less like a spy, but more like a real artist. Those changes showed slowly after he got married. Although only a few signs had been shown, for North Wind who was good at observing, what those signs had predicted could be taken as a fact. This Wood was not what the Wood that North Wind had imagined. She thought she would have to match his wit and bravery, and perhaps she would even have to spare every effort to kill him. She also imagined that her mission would be easily exposed, and then she would be killed without a fight by Wood. What¡¯s more, she imagined that Wood had not betrayed them and that everything had just been a misunderstanding. What she thought about most though was that Wood had not betrayed them. Unfortunately, all her imaginations were wrong. Wood had really betrayed them, and he was getting weaker and weaker. He was no longer a trump spy who had a strong sensitivity and alertness. Seeing him like this, North Wind was both happy and angry. She was happy that her task would be easily finished. The reason why she felt angry was that she saw her idol in a degraded state. Who was Wood? He was the best spy in the Mifata Federation and the idol of the younger generation. How could he become so weak! How could he lose the sensitivity and alertness that a spy should have? Being looked down upon by him who had become so weak now made her furious, and she could not help but want to roar. Was there any reason for that? As an excellent spy who always kept a strong sensitivity and alertness, how could North Wind be looked down upon by someone who was becoming more and more careless, more and more dull and less vigilant! Damn! What the f*ck! But North Wind could not show her anger nor could she show any signs of her emotions. Wood had become weak now, but that didn¡¯t mean he was really trash. On the contrary, he may regain his spirits and become as sharp as a cat, as cunning as a fox, and as fierce as a wolf at any time. Anyway, he was still very powerful, and his past brilliant achievements lay here. Those who dared to belittle him were either having problems with their eyes or with their brains. North Wind¡¯s eyes and brain were normal, so she never dared to show any suspicions. She honestly acted like a younger generation spy sent to assist Wood in his work. If Wood hadn¡¯t betrayed them, she would have been his true assistant. So she did her work very well and had no problems at all. About half a month later, North Wind began to carry out her education career according to her original plan. Firstly, she rented out a room and cleaned it up. At Wood¡¯s suggestion, she rounded up all the sharp wood-works in the room and wrapped them in a soft cloth in order to ensure safety. Then she imitated a professional studio and built a much larger painting classroom. She bought a lot of simple painting materials. When everything was ready, she began to publicize her painting classroom and invite the residents of Pyroxene Town to send their children to learn to paint. At first, the residents of Pyroxene Town had some doubts and were worried. Painting was such a high-end thing for the residents of Pyroxene Town, and most of them had little upper-class background. For them, ¡°painting¡± was a little too far away from them. But no parent in the world did not want their children to learn useful skills or to be able to move upward. Even if they could not enter upper-class society, it was at least good for them to learn the skills of upper-class society! Therefore, when they learned that the cost of learning painting in North Wind¡¯s classroom was not high, they dispelled their worries and rushed to send their children to study. Anyway, she was the wife of the great artist, Mr. Wood. Even if she was not as good as Mr. Wood, she was at least an artist. How honorable it would be if their children were taught by a real artist! If their children could go further to learn some real skills and become an artist in the future, that would be even better! North Wind didn¡¯t expect so many families to send their children to her classroom. She was in a hurry to arrange everything. Fortunately, Wood was very rich, and he immediately recruited many helpers in order to avoid her making mistakes in her busy work. ¡°What a surprise!¡± After the busy start of class, North Wind sighed. ¡°People in Pyroxene Town are so keen on letting their children learn to paint! Although my tuition fee is not high, it is not low either. Two gold coins a year; that is equivalent what an ordinary farmer can save in a whole year!¡± ¡°Two gold coins is not expensive,¡± Wood said. ¡°How do you feel after getting familiar with the prices of Pyroxene Town and the Northwest Republic?¡± ¡°Goods here are a little expensive,¡± North Wind said. ¡°Two copper coins can buy a chicken in a small federal town, and three copper coins in the Highest Tower, but four in Pyroxene Town. Will it cost five copper coins to buy a chicken in Void City?¡± ¡°You are right. It¡¯s very remote here. Most of the goods are transported through the mountains and rivers. For example, chickens and ducks, which can be raised by the residents of Pyroxene Town, are relatively cheap,¡± Wood smiled and said. ¡°But people here also earn a lot. With Void City as the core, the income of residents in the Northwest Republic is much higher than that in other places. For the people here, two gold coins are nothing more than the fare for the whole family to go out to Void City. If they want to eat something special there or do something interesting, they have to pay more.¡± ¡°Pyroxene Town is the second most prosperous area in the Northwest Republic. Every family here can easily take out hundreds of gold coins. Middle-income families can save such a sum of money in two or three years. So it¡¯s not an unacceptable high price for them to spend two gold coins a year to let their children learn painting.¡± North Wind was silent for a long time and sighed softly. Over the past few days, she had been working hard to collect information, and she felt that she had been familiar with Pyroxene Town. The weather patterns, the residence of important people, the changing rules of the town defense soldiers, or the patrol routes of the town guards¡ªshe almost memorized it all. But now she realized that she still needed to know more. She was only a layman in Pyroxene Town and the Northwest Republic. Wood deserved to be one of the best spies of the Mifata Federation in recent decades. Even though he had gradually become dull and careless, his accumulated knowledge about the Northwest Republic over the years was still an amazing asset. If he could return to the Mifata Federation, this amazing asset would belong to the Federation. She thought about this but immediately told herself not to think fantastically. Faced with such a strong man as Wood, she would be killed at any time if she were to get careless. It would be good for her to kill him smoothly to accomplish her task. She really couldn¡¯t think too much! But she just couldn¡¯t help but to think about it. A few days later, she finally could not contain herself and asked Wood if he had any plans to return to the Mifata Federation. Wood opened his eyes wide, and his face was full of surprise. He shouted, ¡°Is that really okay?¡± ¡°Probably it¡¯s okay¡­ Now we have two people here, and it¡¯s okay for us to leave. As long as we don¡¯t leave for too long, it should be all right.¡± Wood jumped up with joy. ¡°Great! I¡¯ll go and pack my bags! Tomorrow morning, we¡¯ll head out!¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t even thought about it yet,¡± North Wind frowned and said. ¡°It¡¯s not good to make hasty decisions.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a hasty decision,¡± Wood laughed and said. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about going home for a long time! You just arrived here, so you don¡¯t know what I mean! For a long-term spy, homesickness is like a poison sinking deep into the bone marrow, so you can¡¯t help but think of the grass and trees in your hometown¡­ For a time, I have dreamed of the Highest Tower, its grand main gate, its soaring tower, its southern snack shops in the living area under the Tower, and many magical apprentices entangled with grocery owners for half a day with a silver coin. I¡¯m not afraid of being laughed at by you, I miss every tree there and even every weed! ¡°I remembered when I started out, my supervisor told me that this latent job might last a long time. I thought it would take about two or three years. In the twinkle of an eye, more than a decade has passed.¡± He looked up to the sky and sighed. ¡°More than a decade! Such a long time!¡± Then why did you betray us? North Wind didn¡¯t say that, but secretly she ridiculed him in her heart. ¡°I¡¯ve also said in my report that I had been away from my hometown for too long and had been lurking here for too long. I suggested them to have someone take over my job, but they rejected it,¡± Wood sighed and said. ¡°You know, sometimes I even worry that my superiors have forgotten about me. Sometimes I even have some ridiculous ideas and think that they have destroyed my files and want me to be an honest wood-carving artist in the Northwest Republic.¡± Wood sat down and shook his head with a bitter smile. ¡°I was really scared when that idea came into being. I almost wanted to throw everything away and run back to ask the truth.¡± ¡°You really think too much,¡± North Wind said. ¡°Yes, I think too much. I haven¡¯t been forgotten by my supervisors, it¡¯s just that my ideas and my superiors¡¯ are at odds, so I¡¯ve been cold-handed.¡± Wood laughed bitterly. ¡°But that¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay. I don¡¯t care about making achievements. I¡¯ve done enough. I just want to return home alive, and be able to spend the rest of my life at home.¡± His face glowed, and his eyes lit up. ¡°I dreamed that when I was old, I would buy a house in a small town near the Highest Tower and get a small bookstore. I would sell some travel books and other books. Then I would sit between the bookshelves every day and watch the young people walking around. I would introduce my books to them¡ªoh, and of course, my sculptures.¡± North Wind looked at his cheerful appearance and sneered. His emotions toward his hometown might be true, but for a spy who had betrayed them, these were just fantasies. This guy probably wanted to go back to the Mifata Federation and be a double-sided spy. Ha ha¡­ What a joke! She lowered her head and covered her true thoughts with a smile. Chapter 529 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The children¡¯s painting classroom was in good condition. North Wind was really good at painting. Although she was not an artist, she was an excellent painter. More importantly, she thought highly of teaching children how to draw. She put her heart into it. Unlike some irresponsible teachers who made some simple graphics for children to copy, she taught from the basic skills of painting, including structure, line, color, layout and so on. The first lesson she taught was ¡°sketching.¡± Sketching referred to the use of a pencil to quickly express an idea. Some strong artists like Sui Xiong could use a pencil to draw a picture that made people clearly feel the strength, speed, temperature and even emotion of the picture. Ordinary painters could only draw and copy without emotion. What North Wind taught was the simplest thing in sketching: drawing a box. She put a box on a plate and taught the children how to draw it. It was easier said than done. North Wind taught them one by one. It took her almost a week, but only four or five children learned how to do it. These children who learned it first were either gifted or had basic knowledge from before. Generally speaking, they could do better in the future. As for the other children, their drawings were disorderly and didn¡¯t even have a basic frame. You could never know what it was at all. If North Wind was a grumpy teacher, she would kick them out, but she didn¡¯t do that. Her patience surprised Wood. She divided the children into three groups according to the students¡¯ level and taught them with specific training. Those gifted children made huge progress, but those with slow progress cost her tremendous time and energy. Luckily, there were no lazy students or mischevious children in the class. Every child who came here was diligent, and they practiced hard. That was the reason why some children could make such rapid progress. As for those children with slow progress, they were also diligent, but they had neither the basic knowledge nor the talent. They found it hard to build ¡°shapes¡± in their minds, so their paintings would be very messy. The basic skills of line and color could be mastered through training, but how to ¡°shape¡± a picture in their mind was difficult for them. When North Wind studied painting, her teacher never told her how to master this ability. A person without this talent would never be a painter, so it was better to have those children with slow progress give up. She didn¡¯t want to do that. She wanted to give those children hope so that she could establish her name in Pyroxene Town. An ordinary teacher and a respectable teacher had completely different social statuses! For a spy, being a respectable teacher was the best disguise. Of course, it would be better to be a high-ranked official of a country, but that was too difficult. Even Wood could not do that, so North Wind did not believe that she could do it. Being a respectable teacher meant giving up more than being an ordinary teacher¡ªmore time, more energy and more effort. Wood advised North Wind not to be too hard-working. After all, the teacher¡¯s identity was only a disguise. If she was too good, it might cause some unexpected trouble. ¡°Look at me, I was just going to be a carpenter. And then Felix saw my woodcarvings, I became a woodcarver. Then I became an artist, and now I am a great artist,¡± Wood smiled bitterly and said. ¡°Do you think I can still be a good spy?¡± North Wind looked at him calmly and shook her head. ¡°Yes and no,¡± Wood sighed and said. ¡°The best cover for a spy is to be outstanding but to be ordinary. If I were just an ordinary carpenter, I might be even better at spy work.¡± North Wind frowned slightly. Even though it wasn¡¯t the same as what was taught in a spy training class, she knew that Wood had a point. ¡°When we were trained, the instructor said, ¡®A good identity is the best cover.¡¯ Of course, there is nothing wrong with this statement, but a good identity needs more time and energy to make, and it needs to shoulder greater social responsibility,¡± Wood said. ¡°If we spent lots of time in establishing our name, there would be no time to collect information.¡± North Wind thought about it and nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. You¡¯ve been taking up too much time in woodcarving. If I spend too much time in art education, the work of my information collection will be greatly affected.¡± So North Wind suddenly fell seriously ill. The doctor said that it was hard work that led to her illness. ¡°You¡¯ve worked so hard these days that you need a few days of rest,¡± the doctor said to North Wind. He was an expert of the New Oriental Polytechnic School. ¡°It is not easy to recover soon. Remember not to work too hard in the future. In a situation like yours, it¡¯s easy to get worse and worse if you still work hard like before!¡± When the parents of the untalented children knew about this, they came to visit North Wind. They said that they wanted their children to stop learning how to paint. North Wind was confused. Although these children were had slow progress, they were still very diligent in learning! She was not really sick though. Instead, she had taken special medicine to make herself sick from the ¡°accumulated work.¡± A few days later, North Wind recovered from her illness. At that time, she had only about 20 students in her painting classroom. That was enough. Looking at these twenty children, North Wind was smiling. Without the burden of these untalented children, North Wind was able to teach much more easily. In just two or three months, the fast-progressed children had completely mastered the ¡°sketching¡± skill. It was time to take them outdoors to learn basic color theory and other skills. That was the fundamental reason why she started this painting class. With the excuse of teaching painting outdoors, she would not be suspected of spying on some places. If a person just sat there and drew pictures, they would stand out. But if the painting teacher was drawing with a group of children, no one would doubt her intentions. A few days later, she tried going outside with the kids. This time, they went to the South Gate of Pyroxene Town, and she ultimately painted the South Gate. The wall and gate of Pyroxene Town were designed by Sui Xiong. He adopted the architectural style of ancient China, and so the wall and gate were very thick. The structure was not complicated, but it had a convincing sense of security. A group of children who had just learned to paint for several months could not draw the gate vividly, so North Wind drew it first and explained it. She used the sketching technique. Sui Xiong, who was concealed in the air, saw her painting, shook his head, and said, ¡°Her painting is not good.¡± In fact, Sui Xiong and the God of Art and Culture often communicated with each other about painting techniques, and they both had a lot to gain from each other. The God of Art and Culture even said directly, ¡°Your understanding towards painting fully qualifies you to be the God of Painting.¡± Sui Xiong felt very honored to be called the ¡°God of Painting.¡± To a person who loved painting, it was wonderful to be compared to that level. However, he was no longer an ordinary painter. He was a leader of a major force, shouldering the responsibility of a church and a country. His dream was no longer the same as before. In the past, he wanted to be a good painter and then make some money to live peacefully and stable. He now wanted to lead those who believed in him forward and build their homes better. He also wanted to promote social progress, change those unreasonable and unfair conditions, and make society better and better so that people could live and work in peace and pursue their own dreams. This was a big dream, and it cost him a lot of time and energy. Although he wanted to be the God of Painting, he eventually refused the proposal of the God of Art and Culture. ¡°I want to be the God of Development and Progress,¡± he said. ¡°Painting is my hobby, but promoting the development and progress of the world is my dream!¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with making your hobby a clergy?¡± the God of Art and Culture asked. ¡°Many gods do that.¡± ¡°In my view, my hobby is less important than my dream,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. The God of Art and Culture was silent for a moment and then asked, ¡°Have you ever wondered how much resistance you would encounter if you really wanted to promote development and progress in the whole world, or at least the entire Main plane?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°Progress is not achieved by saying, but by doing. To achieve this process, there will inevitably be fights and wars¡­ I¡¯ve been prepared for that.¡± ¡°Even if the whole world is your enemy?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Shortly after that conversation, a war broke out. The evil gods besieged Sui Xiong¡¯s sanctuary. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think there was anything wrong with it at that time. It would never be bad to eliminate evil anyway, but there were many good gods among his enemies this time. He felt a little uncomfortable. ¡°Maybe¡­ I really should have chosen to be the God of Painting¡­¡± Sui Xiong could not help but say to himself. In fact, if he wanted to be the God of Painting, he could do it anytime, even now. But that was not his dream, so he would not make that choice. Just like North Wind¡ªshe could choose to be a real, respectable painting teacher, but instead, she had to be a spy. Just like Wood, he was a great, respected artist now. As long as he wanted, the Republic of Northwest would give him strong support, and no one could attack him because of his past spy identity. However, Wood still insisted on his status as a spy and his loyalty to the Mifata Federation. Even if it hurt the people who cared for him over the years, he would not change his mind! North Wind¡¯s painting classroom was well-run. Half a year later, the people of Pyroxene Town had fully adapted to her existence. It was common for her to go out with her students and draw everywhere. She often put up students¡¯ paintings outside the classroom for people to see. From these works, one could clearly see the progress of the children, even though their paintings were not perfect. Even those who did not understand art could feel that they were getting better and better. This gave North Wind more courage, and even her request to paint the off-duty miners was approved by Mr. Reif Kawat. Of course, Mr. Reif Kawat couldn¡¯t let her take these children into the underground mine to paint. It was too dangerous. North Wind could only take the children to observe the miners when they got off work. But this was enough to make North Wind very happy. In the past, no spy had ever gone to the Negative Energy Crystallization Mine, let alone observe the off-duty miners off closely. When North Wind sent that information, she was praised by the Mifata Federation. ¡°Great!¡± The chief officer of the intelligence station looked at the information and smiled. ¡°It was a good idea to send someone to take over No. 97¡¯s job!¡± ¡°That¡¯s true, but I still suggest that it¡¯s not necessary to kill Wood,¡± one subordinate said. ¡°At least, Wood has not caused any hindrance to the work of North Wind. On the contrary, he¡¯s actually helped a lot.¡± The chief officer thought for a moment and nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. Whether he has betrayed us or not, at least he hasn¡¯t stopped sending this information back. This shows that he hasn¡¯t betrayed us. There¡¯s no need to kill him now.¡± After discussion, they decided to ask one of the intelligence officers to send this command. Of course, there was no need to use the Transportation portal. Besides, North Wind and Wood got along well during this period, so there was no need to worry that North Wind would kill Wood immediately. However, to their surprise, North Wind took action while the command was still on the way. Chapter 530 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Today is a good day,¡± North Wind said to herself after getting up in the morning. ¡°It¡¯s time to kill Wood!¡± It should be finished soon. After all, Wood had betrayed them. He thought that she did not know of his betrayal, so he pretended to be loyal to the Mifata Federation. He made her feel sick every day! She had been in Pyroxene Town for almost a year. Looking at the situation, she was accepted by everyone. It was time to kill Wood. She smiled, looking exactly the same as usual. Breakfast was prepared by Wood. Every morning, he prepared the breakfast in advance so as North Wind could have a sound sleep. He really loved and cared for North Wind. Lunch was the same, but dinner was different. He was going to work in the woodcarving workshop in the afternoon, so there was no way for him to make dinner. She was responsible for preparing dinner, and dinner was the best chance to kill Wood. If North Wind wanted to kill him at breakfast or lunch, Wood might be saved. In the past, Felix, the highest governor of the Republic of Northwest, had treated him with a precious panacea. If North Wind poisoned him at dinner, Wood would die silently at home. Nobody would know. In this world, there was a resurgence spell. When a person died, as long as the resurgence spell was performed in time, he could be resurrected. In order to assassinate a person, it was necessary to make a person unable to be resurrected. The most common way was to use a weapon with devil power. And if conditions permitted, it was better to have a Blaspheme Ceremony. The general idea of every method was similar¡ªto send the soul directly to the abyss. Once the soul fell into the abyss, any resurgence spell would be useless, and even gods would be helpless. North Wind would poison Wood at dinner. The poison had been specially designed for Wood. It was sure to not be noticed by Wood while he ate. The poison was very special. First, it would run throughout the whole body, but it would not kill Wood immediately. Only when North Wind used a special magic scroll, would the poison kill Wood immediately. In testing, even a legendary demon beast, which was extremely powerful, could only hold on for two or three seconds before dying. No matter how strong Wood was, he would die. Actually, even two or three seconds would be enough for Wood to kill North Wind. It was very likely that the action to kill Wood would result in them dying together. North Wind was not afraid of death. Although it was a pity to die like this, it would be worth it. Wood was already a poisonous thorn rooted in the hearts of federal intelligence officers. To pull out this poisonous thorn¡ªwhatever the price, it was worth it! On that day, she taught her students as usual and continued to follow what she had said yesterday. Everything was peaceful. In the afternoon after class, when preparing dinner, she changed an ingredient of the Tomato Fish Soup. Tomato Fish Soup was a special dish of the Mifata Federation; it was spicy. Only people from the Mifata Federation liked it, and people from other countries didn¡¯t like it. There was an explorer on the earth who was known for ¡°standing at the top of the food chain.¡± He often ate some very disgusting and horrible food, including all kinds of insects. Even so, he had fallen when he ate a specialty of a nomadic ethnic group in Africa. It was goat testes and camel fat. These were of great value in the eyes of the local people. Only a good friend of high status was worth having this food, but he really couldn¡¯t eat it. Tomato Fish Soup was certainly not that disgusting, but it tasted bad. With pepper and fennel, it tasted disgusting and horrible. It was said that when a visitor went to Mifata Federation, if he could finish a bowl of Tomato Fish Soup in one gulp, he would only have to pay half of the price or it might even be free. That was a nice idea because it was impossible for anyone to do that, even the locals. North Wind and Wood couldn¡¯t do that either, though they all liked this dish. North Wind usually cooked this dish. She said, ¡°I have been living in the south these years, so I like it very much.¡± In fact, this was just a cover. This dish contained one ingredient that smelt and tasted exactly the same as the poison. For this assassination, North Wind spent almost a year to prepare. This dish was ready, and it didn¡¯t take much time to make the other dishes. North Wind, as usual, prepared everything and began to clean up the house. In the evening, Wood shouted, ¡°I¡¯m hungry,¡± as soon as he got home. It was his usual practice. Although he was actually not hungry at all, he just liked saying it. He just missed North Wind. As usual, all the dishes were shared, even the Tomato Fish Soup. She had the antidote, so she didn¡¯t worry. After dinner, Wood, as usual, did exercise outdoors. When she cleaned the table and kitchen, North Wind took the antidote. There was only one antidote. Even if Wood killed her, there wouldn¡¯t be another. After sunset, Wood finished his exercise and returned home. He took a bath, talked with North Wind for a while, and then got ready for bed. In the bathroom, Wood muttered that his back was itching and asked North Wind to scratch it. However, when North Wind came into the bathroom, she was immediately held up by him. ¡°Ha ha! I caught you!¡± Wood said with a smile. He liked doing this very much, and North Wind had no objection to it. She was weaker than Wood. After a while, she was tired and was carried back to the bedroom by Wood. As for his clothes that were completely wet, Wood could clean them with an easy spell. Don¡¯t forget, Wood was not only a paladin but also a spellcaster. Although his rank was not high, it was enough to cast this spell. When they got to bed, Wood didn¡¯t continue. Although he was full of energy, North Wind was really tired. When they got married, he had some excessive demands, and North Wind was extremely tired every day. Since then, he knew that he needed to control his desires. North Wind was strong compared to other ordinary women, but Wood was much stronger than other ordinary men. They were impossible to compare. They were not in the same class at all. That was the reason why North Wind would get tired easily. This time was no different from before. Wood took care of North Wind gently, and then they talked about the intelligence work. ¡°There¡¯s nothing special today,¡± North Wind said. ¡°I¡¯m going to have a tea party in a few days to bring parents and children together for entertainment.¡± ¡°A tea party would be a good idea. A lot of valuable information could be gathered there,¡± Wood said and nodded in favor of her plan. As for Wood, he worked in the workshop in the afternoon and never saw another person except for his apprentice. Of course, there was no information that he could share. In fact, intelligence work was like this. Most of the time, there was no particularly valuable information to collect, and there was no need to collect information specifically. As long as one waited patiently, one would accumulate enough information over time. If a spy was always active and searched for information everywhere, he could easily be exposed and die very soon. After the conversation, Wood and North Wind were ready to sleep. After a while, North Wind said she wanted to get up and go to the toilet. Wood would not follow her, so he did not see North Wind take out a small box in the toilet and pull out a gray-green magic scroll from it. The toilet was a little far from the bedroom, beyond the effect of the magic scroll. North Wind had to go back until it reached the door of the bedroom, and then the distance was enough to activate the scroll. The door of the bedroom was closed. Wood could not possibly see North Wind. However, Wood could hear her. For a high-level paladin and at this short a distance, whether it be breathing or heartbeats, they were all quite obvious to him. He could also hear footsteps as clear as day. Although she used Stealth Technology to eliminate the sound of her footsteps, it was of no use against Wood. Wood clearly heard his wife slowly coming back. At first, he smiled, but his smile soon disappeared. Why did North Wind use Stealth Technology at home? Ordinary footsteps and stealthy footsteps made a completely different sound. For Wood, it was a clear signal that something was wrong. Was there an enemy? He immediately denied this because he did not hear any sound of a second person. He was only heard the breathing and heartbeat of North Wind. More importantly, her footsteps, breathing, and heartbeat were smooth, not like she was being attacked. No! She did see the enemy. Wood understood instantly, and his face turned as pale as a sheet of paper. The enemy that North Wind had to deal with was none other than himself! He knew that North Wind was slowly approaching. She came to the bedroom door, but she did not enter. She stopped there. Without thinking carefully, Wood jumped like an arrow and broke through the bedroom window and went to another room. This action saved his life. Almost half a second after he jumped out, the gray-green light burst from the scroll and swept the whole bedroom. Luckily, Wood was no longer in that bedroom. The poison was powerful, but the magic power that really touched him was so weak that it was not enough to kill him. Although it was just a little bit of magic power, it made Wood feel pain all over his body. It was like there were millions of sharp knives stirring in his stomach. However, all the pain was not equal to the pain in his heart! North Wind wanted to kill him?! Why! Why! Why! He roared wildly in his heart, but his eyes couldn¡¯t help but cry. Why? In fact, he knew why. Why did a spy like North Wind kill a person? Of course, it was a federal order! Chapter 531 Wood was a sophisticated spy, and he had almost reached the acme of mortals in this field. Even though he had become a little insensitive over the past few years, his underlying strengths and basic quality still existed. Now, in the midst of crisis and pain, his dullness caused by those years of relaxed living had been brushed away like dust, and he had become the best spy again. In just a moment, he guessed roughly what was going on. But he preferred to be as dull as before, or worse. He would rather have guessed nothing. It already became clear that the Mifata Federation believed Wood had been bought over by the Northwest Republic because the information he had sent back to the federation over the years became less valuable. North Wind came here not to assist him, but to kill him. In fact, he had long been aware of everything. Even if the Federation wanted to send him an assistant, they would only send a person to lead him and then reduce his status to that of a deputy. How could they send an elite spy to help him? If the Federation really wanted to send him an assistant, they also would have sent one earlier. What¡¯s more, Wood did not need any elite spies. As long as they could help him to cover up his work, an ordinary spy would be enough. However, the Federation sent North Wind to help him. He was afraid that maybe after killing him, North Wind would take over his intelligence station. As for the way she planned to assassinate him, that was even more obvious. His unbearable pain was not only due to the magical effect but also due to powerful toxins. What¡¯s more, he was unaware of the toxin when he ate it, and he was in so much pain afterwards. It was obvious that this kind of toxin was specifically designed, maybe for him. This really made him feel sad. Since the Federation had time to design a special kind of toxin to deal with him, why couldn¡¯t they just send someone to help him? If they had sent an assistant earlier, the situation would be very different now. He smiled bitterly. Although he was heartbroken, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh at this moment. It must have cost a lot of manpower and resources to design such a toxin. In addition, the Federation even sent a high-level spy¡ªNorth Wind! The Federation really spent a lot in order to kill him! Ah! Since the Federation had so much time and so many people, why not send someone to make sure whether Wood had betrayed them or not? ¡°What is the meaning of this?¡± Wood murmured. North Wind had planned to commit suicide if she failed to kill Wood, so as not to expose the secret after being caught. However, after seeing that Wood did not fight back immediately, she suddenly grasped some opportunities. Wood had probably been attacked by the toxin, and now his combat effectiveness was limited. He had to wait for reinforcements to save him, so he wanted to buy some time by talking with her. Thinking of this, she did not answer his question. Instead, she ran out of the bedroom, brought out her usual crossbow from under the bed, and rushed towards Wood. Wood did want to drag out his time a little. He was too poisoned. Although he tried to use Dou Qi airflow to temporarily suppress the symptoms of poisoning, its effect was not too strong. Now, he needed more time to try to use magic to suppress the toxin. Of course, he thought that magic would not work either, but it did not matter. He had weapons and medicine in every corner of the house, including antidotes. Although it may not detoxify the toxin, it could at least alleviate his pain. However, North Wind deserved to be called the trump spy of the Federation. She immediately judged the situation and took the right measures. Wood sighed deeply as he watched North Wind rush towards him with a crossbow. The crossbow was specially prepared by him. It was not large in size, but it was very powerful. Its only disadvantage was that it could not repeatedly shoot, unlike ordinary small-handed crossbows. However, its power was not inferior to military light crossbows at all. The name ¡°light crossbow¡± did not sound powerful at first, but its strength was actually very strong. Except for those strong men who had strengthened their defenses, most adventurers would be killed if they were shot by it without armor. Unlike heavy crossbows, such types of crossbows could penetrate anything. Specially-designed crossbows could make wounds difficult to dress and handle. Sometimes these crossbows were covered in special toxins in order to increase its lethal power. Wood¡¯s crossbow was poisonous, and it used a very powerful toxin¡ªdangerous snake venom. Every three days, this crossbow needed its toxin replenished. The last time he had changed it was yesterday. Today, it should be very toxic. As long as the crossbow cut one¡¯s skin, it was enough to kill an ordinary strong man. Wood was much stronger than ordinary people. Normally, if he had been shot by the crossbow, he would not die immediately. But now, since he had been attacked by a special kind of toxin, he was not sure whether he could survive or not. If he was shot by the crossbow that had the snake venom on its bolt, he would die for sure! If he was in good health, he would be able to dodge the crossbow, but he was in poor health now, and North Wind¡¯s shooting skills were quite good. If North Wind was going to shoot him, he could hardly escape or survive. So he had only one choice left. North Wind, who had raised the crossbow and was going to shoot Wood, suddenly felt a shock throughout her body. She tried very hard to raise the crossbow again, but her body fell to the ground softly and without warning. Blood gushed out from two wounds on her chest and back. In an instant, the blood had soaked into her pajamas, spread out on the floor, and turned into a large red puddle. It was Wood¡¯s flying knife, which had pierced her body and destroyed her heart. She was killed by Wood¡¯s flying knife in an instant. There was a martial arts novel on earth in which the protagonist, who had suffered a lot, was good at throwing knives. But if he faced a fat man, his flying knife might lose its effect. If Wood was the protagonist in the novel, his flying knife would be able to shoot through the fat man¡¯s heart even if the fat man wore heavy military armor. North Wind was neither a master of ¡°Qigong¡± nor did she wear super-strong armor. She would certainly die after being pierced by Wood¡¯s flying knife. Wood couldn¡¯t help but sigh deeply in his heart, but he had no time to feel sad. He rushed back to his bedroom and took out a bottle of medicine from another box under the bed. After careful examination, he opened the bottle cap and drank it. The potion that he had taken out from under his bed was light-gold and looked very beautiful. But its price was more expensive than a bottle of gold sand. This was an advanced antidote. A bottle of such antidote would cost two thousand gold coins! Generally speaking, even adventurers did not always have such precious and expensive medicine. They often preferred to use potions that would cost about two hundred gold coins to alleviate the toxin. Potions that could neutralize the toxin would cost them about five hundred gold coins. Such advanced antidotes were mostly used by rich or high-ranking nobles. Wood was not a millionaire, but he had spent most of his income preparing for everything he could possibly use. A great artist¡¯s income was very high without considering saving money. He could also afford such advanced antidotes. After drinking the advanced antidotes, he immediately felt the toxicity in his body weakening, and the intolerable pain in his body was slightly alleviated. But this advanced antidote could not detoxify the toxin completely. This toxin that was specially designed by the Federal Intelligence Service was not so easy to deal with! Wood shook his head and took all the other antidotes he had prepared, but they were far less effective than the advanced antidote. After drinking them all, he could still feel pain everywhere in his body, especially in his internal organs. But it was better to drink them than to not. Wood was not surprised by this result. He would have been surprised if the toxicity could be removed so easily. Returning to the room where he had just fought with North Wind, he sighed deeply. He saw North Wind still clutching the unused crossbow after her death. ¡°Why? Why did you do that?¡± he shook his head and asked sadly. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you talk to me? I really did not betray the Federation!¡± He was a good actor, and if necessary, he had a hundred ways to perform ¡°sadness.¡± But at the moment, his performance became pale and thin as if the color of his whole body was fading. Now standing next to the dead body of North Wind was only a black-and-white sketch. Wood was silent for a long time, took out a special powder and sprinkled it on the body of North Wind. This powder could effectively remove the scent of blood and avoid being detected by others. Then he cast a spell to remove the bloody smell from the house. After that, he wondered about what to do next. Maybe he could give himself up to the Grand Governor Felix, and he would not receive any severe punishments considering his past friendship with Felix. But this idea was extinguished by him as soon as it arose in his mind. No way! He was the trump spy of the Mifata Federation. Even if he died, he would die as a trump spy! He would never betray the federation! Now, he would run away as soon as possible. North Wind was also a public figure, and her death could not be covered up for too long. But¡­ where could he escape to? Wood was at a loss. He remembered the maps of most areas on the Main Plane, but now when he looked back at those maps, he felt that there was no place in the world to escape to. Escape? Where could he escape? The Federation would not let him go. When the dead body of North Wind was found, the Northwest Republic would know his true identity and would probably send someone to kill him. He could not escape to the remotest corner of the world if he was pursued by two great powers from the South and the North. Even if he escaped from the Main Plane to other planes, or to the vast universe, he might not be able to escape successfully. What¡¯s more, he couldn¡¯t find a way to escape from the Main Plane at present, but he had to run away at once. Unless he wanted to die, he absolutely had to. Wood was not afraid of death, but he did not want to die. He wanted to do many things. For example, he wanted to open a bookstore in a small town near the Highest Tower of the Federal Capital after retirement. He wanted to go back to his hometown, the famous Yun-ta City, and eat the most authentic home dishes. He also wanted to marry an ordinary wife who had nothing to do with politics or spies, have a few ordinary children, and live a stable life. Above all, he wanted to understand why his superiors so easily judged that he had betrayed them. That needed to be cleared up. That made no sense! Thinking of this, his body regained strength. Yes, he could not die now. He still had important things to do! Maybe North Wind misunderstood the order, or maybe his supervisor had made a mistake when he promulgated the task. Anything was possible! If he did not rush back to the Federation and ask his superior for truth in person, he would never die! So before that, he could not die! Wood acted quickly. He temporarily froze North Wind¡¯s body with magic and hid it in the basement. Then he sealed the basement completely. He came back and carefully cleared the traces of fighting in the room to make sure that others could not see what had happened here. By the time all of this was done, almost half of the night had passed. Fortunately, nights in the North were much longer. Otherwise, it would be a bit embarrassing if it was daybreak now. No one would be able to find North Wind¡¯s dead body unless he was as powerful as Wood and searched carefully, so Wood began to pack up all the valuable things in his house and prepare the luggage for the long journey. When everything was ready, he put on his travel suit, found a board and wrote, ¡°Something urgent came up, we will be out for a while, and all work will begin after we return home.¡± He hung the board on front of his door and then went out. He believed that could buy him some time¡ªmaybe three or five days, maybe ten days or even longer. By the time everything was exposed, he had mostly arrived at the Highest Tower. It would take him four to five days to get to Void City. But since he was not in good health and could not run fast, it would take him longer. He thought for a while. Then he went to the car shop near the city gate and bought a carriage. It was a good carriage, light and compact. The horse that pulled the carriage had a little demon beast blood. It could pull the carriage for more than ten days as long as Wood fed it some special food every night. Of course, he had bought the special food; at least, it was enough for the journey. The car shop also sold passenger food and water, so he bought them all together. Pretending that his wife was in the carriage, he drove out of the gate and headed for Void City at night. At this time, he could not help but thank Governor Asner of Pyroxene Town who had decided not to close the gate at night. Otherwise, he would have had to wait until dawn at the gate. In that case, the fact that North Wind was not in the carriage would be exposed. Now he drove all the way and felt a little tired, but at least he had covered up the fact that North Wind was not in the carriage. The night was very dark. Although Wood had the ability to see through the night, he still felt very gloomy. Perhaps it was not the scenery around him that was gloomy but his heart. Over Wood¡¯s head, Sui Xiong was silent and looked at him with pity. North Wind¡¯s soul was cut off by Sui Xiong, so he had fully understood the cause and effect of the matter. He was not very optimistic about Wood¡¯s journey. He would follow Wood all the time and see what would happen in the end. Chapter 532 Wood was an excellent spy. He mastered a variety of skills, both for combat and for life. Of course, his skills included driving and riding. Even though he was poisoned and uncomfortable, he was still a good carriage driver. He could drive the carriage steadily on the road. Moreover, because his carriage didn¡¯t have much cargo, it was faster than an average carriage. He overtook many carriages on the road. If this happened on earth, this would absolutely be cool. Certainly, it was the same in this world, but Wood was not happy about this. He was a spy, and he had just killed his wife. No matter which crime was exposed, there would be great trouble. So now he needed to be as low-profile as possible. According to this idea, he should have driven the carriage slowly. But now he was eager to go back. He hoped that he could own wings and fly directly to the Highest Tower. How could he slow down! He gave it up after a day. If he wasn¡¯t found, that would be good. If he was found, then that would be his destiny. In fact, what could he do when he went back? He was just a spy. Although he was at a high level, he was still a ¡°cornerstone¡± of this huge ¡°building,¡± the Mifata Federation. His superior was a federal high official whose identity was almost equivalent to a governor or a great governor. If Wood met him as an artist, Wood might be able to meet him. However, if Wood met him as a spy, he might not be able to enter the door of the Intelligence Service. Maybe, he could go through the official path. He could use this identity, the Great Artist of the Republic of Northwest, to meet his superior. Wood was thinking about that while resting at the station at night. The station was built in the recent few years. To put it bluntly, it was a large hotel for overnight stays. At the same time, it also had fences and stables, as well as special personnel to take care of the horses. Of course, there were also waiters who took care of the passengers. As long as people were willing to spend a little money, they wouldn¡¯t sleep in the open at night. They could sleep on a firm bed with bedding, mattress, hot water, and a good dinner and breakfast. Of course, businessmen were so stingy. They weren¡¯t willing to spend such little money. They preferred to sleep in the carriages at night. There was a large open space next to the station for these stingy people. However, even so, they still needed to buy water at the station. There was no clean water in Ashes Woods. If they were willing to take up the valuable space in their carriages to carry water, they wouldn¡¯t need to buy water. However, no one would buy their water in any town. Businessmen certainly wouldn¡¯t do that, so they could only buy water from the station. The water at the station had a cost because it needed to be purified by the magic array. Stations were built along the road, so they couldn¡¯t rely on the ground vein. Therefore, in addition to some magic power from the nearby ground vein, the magic power of the magic arrays mainly came from the magic plants people planted, or simply from magic crystals. That was not a small expenditure. If they were not operated by the government of the Republic of Northwest, many stations wouldn¡¯t be able to sustain themselves. The prices of accommodation and clean water were calculated based on the total cost. According to the prices, these stations could have a little surplus. It was not much, but they still made money after all. As for the staff at the stations, they all received their salaries from the Republic. It meant that they had a secure job under the collectivism. Sui Xiong had thought about using contracts or giving the staff a basic salary and asking them to take a percentage of the total income. However, after discussing it, everyone had thought that this method wouldn¡¯t be very useful. The result of the predicting spell had almost been the same, so Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t insisted on his own plan. After all, this was not a game. He was governing a country. The results were the most important things. His personal thoughts and concepts would give way to actual results. In fact, there was nothing wrong with collectivism. At least the stations were still working well, and although he woke up several times because of the visceral pain, Wood had a good rest that night. The next morning, the businessmen made a lot of noise when they hurried to get on their way while Wood quietly continued on his own journey. He started at dawn and stopped at night, and he finally arrived in Void City. His journey was quite smooth. However, Wood felt that his body was weaker because of the poison. He wanted to go to the temple and find a priest to treat him, but that meant that he would expose his whereabouts. It was nothing serious to expose his whereabouts, but how could he explain why he had a strange poison in his body as an ordinary artist. Wood couldn¡¯t think of any reasonable explanations, especially since the priests had spells to detect lies. That made it even harder for him to deceive them. Therefore, he had to stand the pain and go to the Kingdom of Light through the portal. The Kingdom of Light was the old Kingdom of Holy Angels. The people of the old Kingdom of Holy Angels had all believed in the former Sun God. Since the fall of the former Sun God, the upper class of the kingdom had been greatly purged. Countless people had died, and that had laid the foundation for the new country. Over the years, although the believers of the former Sun God still wanted to create some big news from time to time, the beliefs of the human gods had essentially been stable. After all, the god before them had fallen. His priesthood had been divided by the God of Fire Elements and the Goddess of Twilight. There was no possibility of his resurrection. In this case, even though some people insisted on believing in him, what was the meaning of a belief that would never get a response? In the capital of the Kingdom of Light, Wood easily found a temple that was willing to treat him. Although the charge was a bit expensive, he didn¡¯t care. He didn¡¯t intend to come back alive. Since he didn¡¯t care about his life, then why should he care about money? Although the charge of the temple was expensive, the treatment was really good. The main bishop treated him in person with six bishops and six priests. A total of thirteen people jointly held a ceremony. The poison in Wood was removed immediately, and he completely recovered. Wood was healthy again. He put on makeup and then used the portal again, first to Void City, and then to the Highest Tower. However, standing in the street of the Highest Tower, he was a bit confused. Should I go there directly as a spy, or as an artist? He had always been a decisive person, but at this time, he was a little hesitant. After thinking about it again and again, he decided to wait for a while. First, he would solve the things that he wanted to deal with. When all his worries and wishes ended, it wouldn¡¯t be too late to go to find his superior and talk with him. After all, when he talked about the details with his superior, he would probably die. Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated and went straight to the civilian area. A small restaurant was there. It had been passed down by four generations. The owner had a secret family recipe and several southern specialties that were really tasty. For the past ten years, Wood had often thought about this place when he had had meals. Wishes need to be realized one by one, so let me start with this! After almost an hour, before Wood finished that meal, his information was sent to the hands of the federal intelligence director of the Mifata Federation. ¡°Wood came back?¡± the director asked. Reading the information, he frowned. ¡°What does he mean?¡± ¡°Private return of a spy is treated as a betrayal,¡± his secretary said. The director said, shaking his head, ¡°We have already identified him as a traitor. His return doesn¡¯t have an effect anymore.¡± After thinking for a while, his eyes suddenly widened. He asked, ¡°Is it possible that¡­ he didn¡¯t betray us?¡± The more he thought about it, the more he felt that his idea was reasonable. He couldn¡¯t help but smile. He said, ¡°I don¡¯t know what method he used, but he definitely found out from North Wind that we thought he betrayed us. Well, he¡¯s come back to find us to quarrel!¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t there a problem with his method?¡± the secretary officer asked, frowning. After thinking for a while, the director said, ¡°Of course there is a problem. However, compared to Wood not betraying us, that is not important. Talents are precious. A talent like him is even more precious. I really want to punish him according to the rules, but the rules are fixed, and people are flexible. Let me put it this way, Wood has the qualification to be an exception.¡± ¡°He is just a spy¡­¡± ¡°Hah hah! You can¡¯t treat him like an ordinary spy,¡± the intelligence director said happily. He was in a good mood. ¡°He is almost the best spy of our entire federation. He may even be the best spy in the contemporary world. As long as he doesn¡¯t make a fundamental mistake, everything else he does is not important.¡± ¡°However, for so many years, he has not been able to send us any valuable information,¡± the secretary said. The director¡¯s face darkened, and his smile disappeared. After a few seconds, he sent an order, asking the official, who was in charge of the spy work, to come over. After the official came, he introduced Wood¡¯s situation and asked the official to deal with it. ¡°What should I do?¡± the official asked calmly. ¡°It¡¯s up to you,¡± the intelligence director replied calmly. ¡°We only have such information. Why he came back, what he did before he came back, and even whether he betrayed us¡­ these things are still uncertain. The most important thing is, what has he experienced in the past few years? Why did his intelligence efficiency decrease? North Wind didn¡¯t tell us these things, and we don¡¯t have a way of knowing it.¡± ¡°Therefore, you want me to ask him first to make everything clear?¡± the official asked. ¡°Whatever,¡± the director said, smiling and waving his hand. ¡°I believe in you.¡± After the official left, the intelligence director narrowed his eyes and revealed a cold smile. Yes, of course, I believe in you. The good results will be due to my leadership, but if you make any mistakes, you will let down my trust. ¡­ ¡°Wood, why did you come back? What are you going to do?¡± the official muttered, looking up. ¡°Anyway, no matter what you want to do, the most important thing for us is that you still obey us. I hope you can understand this. Otherwise, you won¡¯t be ¡®useful¡¯ anymore.¡± Chapter 533 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The official who was in charge of spy work returned to his office. After thinking for a while, he asked his subordinate to trace Wood¡¯s whereabouts. About five minutes later, his subordinate reported Wood¡¯s current position. ¡°There he is,¡± the official said. It seemed that he was thinking about something. Then, he nodded and got prepared. He took a few people out and went directly to the small restaurant. After about ten minutes, he arrived at the door of the restaurant. It was a restaurant in the civilian area. The size was small, and the storefront was a bit old. However, the fragrance coming from the store was very appetizing. It was strong enough to evoke the appetite of everyone. Although he was not hungry, he couldn¡¯t help but feel that his stomach was empty when he smelled this seductive fragrance. He felt that he needed to eat something. So he walked in through the door and saw Wood sitting at the table against the wall, facing the door directly. Wood was alone, but he occupied a whole table. The table was full of various southern specialties. Three or five ordinary people couldn¡¯t eat so much. The official came in with a few people, so Wood certainly saw him at a glance. However, Wood didn¡¯t move. He was still eating and drinking. According to the situation of the plates and bowls on his stable, he might be able to eat so many dishes by himself. The official didn¡¯t speak. He went straight to Wood and sat in front him face to face. ¡°There are too many dishes on this table. It is a waste if just you alone eat them,¡± the official said. ¡°Not a waste. I can finish them,¡± Wood replied. ¡°Do you mind if I eat some?¡± the official asked. ¡°No. Help yourself,¡± Wood said. Therefore, he asked for tableware and began to eat. It was no doubt that this official had good strength, but he wasn¡¯t as powerful as Wood. The same was true for food intake. Most of the powerful warriors had an incredible amount of food intake. There were nearly no exceptions. After about half an hour, Wood was finally full. Looking at the plates and bowls that were almost empty in front of them, he couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°I haven¡¯t eaten so well for a long time!¡± he said. The official in front of him had been full a long time ago. He had put down his tableware and waited for Wood. At this moment, Wood finally finished eating. The official asked, smiling, ¡°Are you going to tell me that you came back just for this meal?¡± Looking at the official, Wood shook his head with a smile. ¡°I¡¯m too full. How about walking with me?¡± Wood asked. ¡°Not a problem.¡± Wood called the waiter over and paid for the bill. Then he used a long sword with a sheath as a stick to pick up a small bag and threw it over his back. He took the lead and walked out the door with the official and his silent subordinates following closely behind. After about half an hour, they walked to a cliff outside the city. The Highest Tower was actually a city built on a high cliff. In the past, Master Ymirjar Le-Peyroux had taken his disciples here. They had made an arduous journey here and created the Country of Casters. He had cast amazing spells in this place, and the cliff had risen directly from the plateau as the foundation of the Highest Tower Later, the city had been built on the high cliff created by Master Le-Peyroux. The city¡¯s four sides had been close to the four edges of the high cliff. Looking from here, people could see everything in the distance. When the weather was good, people could see the mountains below, and when the weather was bad, people could see the sea of clouds below. The name, ¡°Highest Tower,¡± came from this. Wood walked to the edge of the cliff. If he went forward one more step, he would fall down and break into pieces. However, he completely ignored the horrible environment, sitting on the cliff and swinging his legs in the air. At this moment, his posture was very dangerous. A strong wind could blow him off the cliff. What would happen if he fell down? The corpse collector might be annoyed because he would not likely find Wood¡¯s body intact. They would need some time to piece him back together. Some great professionals could piece bodies back together so that they looked like their living selves. The corpse collectors of the Highest Tower often needed to deal with the corpses that fell from the cliff, so many collectors owned such a skill. However, it was no doubt that the price of hiring such a skillful corpse collector was pretty high. Thinking of this, Wood couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°How much do you earn now?¡± Wood asked. ¡°If I jumped off here, would your monthly salary be enough to hire someone to put me back together?¡± The face of the official went dark. He said, ¡°You traveled so far to come back, you¡¯ve treated me to a meal, and now you¡¯re teasing me?¡± ¡°No, no, you are completely wrong,¡± Wood said, smiling. ¡°First, I didn¡¯t plan to treat you a meal. I originally wanted to eat the meal all by myself.¡± ¡°And second, you are not teasing me. You are actually going to jump down in a bit, right?¡± the official asked. ¡°It will depend on the outcome of our negotiation,¡± Wood said. As soon as he said that, the relaxing atmosphere became tense in a moment. The official sighed. He walked to Wood and sat with his legs hanging over the side of the cliff like Wood. ¡°How many years has it been since we last sat together and chatted like this?¡± he asked. ¡°Twenty years?¡± ¡°Twenty-two years,¡± Wood replied. ¡°After we joined forces to kill the Grey Eagle, you gave up the old business and went to work as an official. I went to host an intelligence station in the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. Since then, we haven¡¯t spoken like this.¡± ¡°Yes, twenty-two years!¡± the official said, sighing deeply. ¡°You look so young, but I am so old.¡± ¡°You are almost ten years older than me. The difference between 40 years old and 50 years old is obvious,¡± Wood said, smiling. ¡°Moreover, now I am a high-level paladin. My aging is slower than you. There is nothing strange about our appearances.¡± ¡°Sometimes I also think that we should gather our old classmates and hold a party,¡± the official said. ¡°That wouldn¡¯t work,¡± Wood said, shaking his head. ¡°Many of them are dead.¡± ¡°It would be easy,¡± the official said. ¡°Look, we have a party now.¡± Wood was stunned. He asked, ¡°There¡¯s just us left?¡± ¡°Yes, just us,¡± the official said with a bitter smile. ¡°Among the graduates of the 1096th elite spy training class, it¡¯s just us left.¡± Wood sighed softly. ¡°I¡¯m not surprised. There weren¡¯t many people in the class.¡± ¡°So, therefore, I don¡¯t want one more to die,¡± the official said. ¡°Especially not our class president, the youngest and most talented of us all.¡± Wood was silent for a while. He said, ¡°That wish is hard to achieve.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not so hard,¡± the official said, ¡°as long as you take a step back.¡± The official said, pointing to the cliff below, ¡°The cliff is here. If you don¡¯t jump, you will not die naturally.¡± Wood smiled a bitter smile. ¡°Do you know why I came back?¡± Wood asked. The official shrugged. He said carelessly, ¡°You feel wronged, so you came back to fight. North Wind is really unreasonable. She was actually swayed by you and told you the contents of the mission.¡± Wood was silent. ¡°I knew that it wasn¡¯t a good idea to ask her to kill you,¡± the official said. ¡°But you also understand that your performance during these years was really worrying.¡± ¡°You wanted to kill me just because of some worries?¡± Wood asked. ¡°For a person like you, worries are serious!¡± Then the official said again, laughing, ¡°Well, forget it. Anyway, that is in the past. Just come back and explain it clearly, and then everything will be fine. I am going to arrange a debriefing session for you. At that time, you have to behave well. Even if our supervisor is willing to help you, the old guys are not so easy to deal with!¡± He turned around and took two steps before hearing Wood¡¯s low voice. ¡°I killed North Wind.¡± The official stopped, and his whole body froze. He was completely stiff. Chapter 534 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Every country had an institution that trained spies. Well, the Republic of Northwest didn¡¯t have one temporarily, but the Mifata Federation certainly had one. No one knew since when the Intelligence Department of the Mifata Federation began to collect orphans from the civilian area. The Federation taught them the idea of being loyal to their country from childhood and taught them various skills. The Federation wanted to train them into excellent spies. The talents of the orphans were mostly average, but sometimes there were some talented ones. These talented children were chosen for higher-level training. The government regularly gathered a group of talented children, and the Mifata Federation invited former ace spies to be their teachers. This was the origin of the elite spy training class. The ¡°1096th class¡± didn¡¯t mean that Wood was one of the 1096th trained elite spies. The year when they had been trained was the 1096th year after the official establishment of the Mifata Federation. There were a total of 25 young people who had been trained in that batch. The oldest one had been 16 years old and the youngest one had been only 11. He had just received introductory training for three years. However, after the initial training, the 11-year-old child had surpassed everyone else and had become their class president. After being specially trained for half a year, they had graduated. At that time, the instructor who used to be an ace spy had said with a sigh, ¡°This child will definitely become a new ace spy of the Federation as long as he doesn¡¯t die young. He will be stronger than me!¡± His prophecy had quickly become a reality. Just five years later, the 16-year-old boy, who was Wood, had become one of the best spies in the Federation. The reason for using the word ¡°one¡± was because the Federation was large. There had been many excellent spies, and the senior generation hadn¡¯t retired. Accurately, there had still been one senior who hadn¡¯t retired. That senior had originally wanted to retire. However, when he saw how good Wood was, he had said he wanted to stay on for a few more years. ¡°If young people reach the summit too early, they will be proud,¡± he said. ¡°What¡¯s more, it¡¯s too lonely to stand at the summit alone. Even though I¡¯m just an old man, it won¡¯t be a bad thing if someone accompanies him.¡± So he had continued working for a few more years until the end of his life. Two years later, he had died in a difficult task in order to cover a group of juniors. The one who had killed him was a famous scout master of the Orc Empire nicknamed ¡°Grey Eagle.¡± Wood, who had been on vacation at that time, had attended his funeral. At the funeral, the remaining ace spy of the Mifata Federation showed utmost respect. Wood behaved as if he had been the elder spy¡¯s disciple. After attending the funeral, Wood had spent half a year preparing and then had summoned several classmates that had been trained with him. They had traveled thousands of miles to the Orc Empire to assassinate Grey Eagle. That battle had been extremely fierce. Only two of them had survived: Wood and the oldest one. However, that classmate had also been seriously injured and had basically lost the possibility of becoming a strong master. After returning, they had gone their separate ways. One had become the ace spy of the Mifata Federation, and the other one had become the official of the Intelligence Service. They had never seen each other again. It has been 25 years since then. Although he hadn¡¯t been a spy for 25 years, the official didn¡¯t lose his basic skills. On the contrary, because of the long-term processing of intelligence, his sensitivity to intelligence gathering and his ability to speculate things had become stronger. Therefore, after Wood had said, ¡°I killed North Wind,¡± he guessed all the possible causes and consequences in a flash. He naturally understood that Wood¡¯s situation was very bad. Wood would really be considered a traitor. If Wood just used his own charm or other means to swindle intelligence from North Wind and then rush back, that would be a harmless mistake. As long as it was properly concealed, it might become a good story. However, Wood had had a conflict with North Wind. It was likely that he had killed North Wind when she had executed the ¡°elimination¡± portion of the mission. That was totally different. After being silent for a long time, the official whispered, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have come back.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t say that,¡± Wood said. ¡°That¡¯s not fitting.¡± ¡°F*ck!¡± the official cursed. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± ¡°I want to ask the director why he wanted to kill me,¡± Wood said earnestly. ¡°I didn¡¯t betray the Federation. I did poorly in my work these years because of poor working conditions. At most, he could dismiss me or even fire me. Why did he want to kill me? What qualification does he have?¡± Woo¡¯s voice became louder. ¡°I have always been loyal to the Federation, and I made a lot of contributions. How can he question my loyalty? I gained the Federal Gold Wand Medal, and I had a noble title. How could he execute me?¡± The official sighed deeply. ¡°If you were within the Federation, he would certainly not be qualified. But you were in the Republic of Northwest. You were so far away from the Federation, so he could decide whatever he wanted. He judged that you had betrayed us, and then he decided to kill you. That follows the right work procedure, and that was within his authority,¡± the official said. ¡°F**k that authority! Since when could the Federation deem an ace spy a traitor without a trial? Since when could the Federation sentence a person like me to death without a trial?¡± Wood asked, sneering. Then, he said with disdain, ¡°Authority? Believe it or not, if I were to walk into the Highest Tower with him to apply for a meeting with His Majesty, the Great Mentor, I will more likely be accepted than him!¡± The official knew that what Wood had said was the truth. As the only ace spy of the current Federation, Wood might be more important than the director of the current Federal Intelligence Service in the eyes of the God of Spellcaster, the founder of the Mifata Federation. ¡°Actually, a few years ago, he started to mention this,¡± the official said after thinking for a while. He decided to tell Wood everything. ¡°At that time, he gave me an order to prepare someone to take over your job, and to kill you at the same time.¡± Wood frowned. He didn¡¯t say anything, waiting for the official to continue. ¡°Of course I didn¡¯t agree, so I used my methods to delay it. It¡¯s not easy to train someone who can kill you and take over your job, right?¡± Wood laughed. In that laughter, there was 70 percent pride and 30 percent of anger. ¡°But¡­ Ugh! You sent a message back last time, and you analyzed the relationship between the Federation and the Republic of Northwest in detail. Finally, you concluded that if the two sides were enemies, they would only benefit others. If they could work together, they would become bigger and stronger, right?¡± Wood said, nodding, ¡°That¡¯s true. I really spent a lot of effort on that information. I collected a lot of data and came to that conclusion after a detailed analysis.¡± ¡°Probably that information angered him,¡± the official said, sighing. ¡°He¡¯s not a spy, so he couldn¡¯t understand your position among the spies. Or maybe he could understand, but it¡¯s also possible that he pretended not to understand your point. I¡¯m sure that he has been jealous of you and dissatisfied with you for a long time. Think about this. Is it reasonable for the Federation to send you out to do simple intelligence gathering? Our Federation is very stable around the years, and the Great Mentor is guarding us. However, you are an ace spy. It is better to send you to other places than to send you out on a simple mission. An ordinary spy can also do that.¡± Wood was silent. ¡°I don¡¯t know how he convinced the top class. However, it is no doubt that he had planned to kill you since then,¡± the official said.¡± Wood said, frowning, ¡°You¡¯re exaggerating. I don¡¯t believe it.¡± ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t believe it myself, but it is the truth,¡± the official said. ¡°In the past few years, there were many signs. In a word, he always wanted you to die.¡± ¡°He can ask me to do some high-risk tasks,¡± Wood said. ¡°Even if I am covered with steel, eventually, how many nails can I stand being driven into me? As long as he keeps asking me to finish high-risk tasks, I will die sooner or later. The last ace spy died in this way too.¡± Remembering the old man they respected, they were silent for a while. ¡°I am not in his mind, and I can¡¯t read his mind, so I don¡¯t know what he is thinking,¡± the official said. ¡°According to my guess, he doesn¡¯t want you to shine. He doesn¡¯t want you to be worshiped by people. For this goal, killing you is, of course, the best. However, he couldn¡¯t kill you, so he sent you to a distant place, to the other side of the Main Plane. No one could see you anymore. Out of sight, out of mind.¡± Wood sneered. ¡°This method is generally good. Many young spies have never even heard of you,¡± the official said. ¡°But North Wind heard of me, and she admired me,¡± Wood said. ¡°Unfortunately, when she attacked, she didn¡¯t hesitate and showed no mercy.¡± ¡°Because she is also very excellent. A good spy¡¯s personal feelings will not affect the task,¡± the official said. Wood nodded and sighed softly. ¡°How did North Wind die?¡± the official asked. ¡°How did she die? She wanted to kill me, but she hesitated. Then, she was killed by me,¡± Wood replied. The official said, shaking his head, ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t have killed her. As long as you didn¡¯t kill her, you would still have a chance, but you did. No one can save you now.¡± Wood said, sneering, ¡°At that time, I was poisoned. My whole body was in pain. It felt like at least 20 knives were stabbing me in my stomach, and then she rushed over with her crossbow. Tell me, except for killing her, did I have another option?¡± The official was silent for a while, and then he sighed deeply. Indeed, as Wood had said, in that case, he hadn¡¯t had another choice. Since he had had no choice, he had to kill her. As for the consequences of killing North Wind, and whether it would confirm his crime of betrayal, those were the issues that a living person needed to think about. A dead person didn¡¯t need to think about those. Wood could still sit here now, chat with him, and come back to ask about the reasons because he had killed North Wind. If he hadn¡¯t killed North Wind, he would have already died as a traitorous spy. ¡°You want to ask him? For what?¡± the official said, sighing. ¡°He won¡¯t see you. You know that.¡± ¡°Can you help me?¡± Wood asked. ¡°No, unless I betray the Federation also, and I will not betray the Federation,¡± the official answered. Wood was silent for a while, and then he said, ¡°To tell the truth, I don¡¯t know how to find him. Tell me, if I go to meet him as ¡®Wood, the Great Artist of the Republic of Northwest,¡¯ can I see him?¡± ¡°Then you will only see me,¡± the official replied. ¡°He can ask me to meet you. I am one of the oldest seniors in the Federal Intelligence Service. My qualification and record of service are older than his. In many cases, I attend the activities as the representative of the Intelligence Service. As long as he mentions my qualifications, no matter how high your identity is, you can only see me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s f*cking useless to see you!¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s useless to see me,¡± the official said, sighing. Wood didn¡¯t give up. He asked, ¡°What if I try to get in undercover?¡± The official said, smiling, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me that your brain has become dull during the 25 years when we didn¡¯t see each other. Have you ever heard of someone getting through our door under cover?¡± Of course, Wood had never heard of that. In the past years, some extremely strong people had attacked them and got into the Intelligence Service. However, not a single one had got in undercover. His ability was not powerful enough to attack them and get through. He was at a high level, but even if he stepped into the Legendary Realm, it would still be impossible. Of course, if he entered the Legendary Realm, as a legendary spy, his identity would be much higher than that of the director of the Intelligence Service. At that time, he could directly meet Le-Peyroux, the Great Mentor. He would directly complain to His Majesty. His Majesty would naturally call that guy to confront him. And if that was the case, Wood could use his status to gamble. No matter what he had done in the past, no matter what he said, and no matter who was right, the final result would definitely be beneficial to him. The director who was jealous of him could use his own identity to deal with Wood. In the same way, if Wood became a Legendary Master, he could also deal with the director through his own identity. This was not mean or insidious; it was normal and correct. ¡°Remember the time when I was in the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs?¡± Wood asked. And then, he was silent for a while. ¡°I received a piece of information at the time. The information came from a spy lurking in the top class.¡± ¡°I certainly remember. It was really dangerous at that time,¡± the official said. ¡°But there are some things that you may not know,¡± Wood said. ¡°At the time, a guard found out the identity of that spy. The guard was going to reveal him, but the spy just sneered at him. He called the guard a madman, and then he asked the others to drag the guard out and kill him.¡± The official didn¡¯t answer. He knew what Wood meant. ¡°I sighed at the time. The difference between identities was like the gap between heaven and earth. No matter how loyal you are or how capable you are, as long as others¡¯ identities are higher than yours, you¡¯ll be nothing important,¡± Wood said, sighing deeply. ¡°I never thought that I would reach this point.¡± The official said nothing; he just sighed. ¡°You came with four people. Are you going to kill me?¡± Wood asked. ¡°It¡¯s just a force of habit. You know my physical condition. Without a few reliable bodyguards, I can¡¯t go anywhere.¡± Wood said, smiling and nodding, ¡°So, are you ready to ask them to besiege me?¡± The official didn¡¯t answer but slowly clenched his fists. Chapter 535 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In this world, many things were wrong, but people still did the wrong things for some reason. For example, a soldier on the battlefield didn¡¯t need to consider whether his fight was just or evil. First, he had to live. Otherwise, everything else would be useless. For example, in the face of a patient who was dying, a doctor didn¡¯t need to consider whether the patient was a good person or a bad person. The doctor didn¡¯t need to ponder whether it was right or wrong to save the patient. As long as the patient was saved, the doctor would be relieved. Also, for example, a spy like Wood. What he had to do and what he could do were only one thing. ¡°Go back with me,¡± the official said after being silent for a while. ¡°After going back, I¡¯ll go to the internal court to accuse him of undermining federal order and damaging federal interests. By then, you will be a very important witness.¡± Wood said, smiling, ¡°I was waiting for your words!¡± Wood walked over to him and patted his shoulder. Wood said, ¡°Don¡¯t be so nervous. I never thought about fighting with the federal companions. I¡¯m bringing you here for nothing but your words.¡± ¡°However, what are you going to do specifically?¡± Wood asked. ¡°It is not easy to accuse that guy. Do you have any reliable evidence?¡± ¡°You are the evidence!¡± the official answered. ¡°Aren¡¯t you reliable?¡± ¡°I used to be reliable, but now I¡¯m not,¡± Wood said, shaking his head. After thinking for a while, the official frowned. In addition to Wood, he didn¡¯t have any reliable evidence to prove that the director of the Intelligence Service had done something harmful to the federal interests due to his own selfishness. ¡°We could use magic to detect his lies,¡± he said. He didn¡¯t give up. ¡°Even if I have no evidence, magic detection can prove anything!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t rely so heavily on magic,¡± Wood said, sighing. ¡°Magic is not omnipotent. You also know that the result of magic detection can¡¯t be used as evidence in court.¡± ¡°The internal court doesn¡¯t have so many rules. Torture and magic detection are all available,¡± the official said. Wood said, sneering, ¡°According to the identities, tell me, if those methods are used, which person will those be used on?¡± The official was stunned and then sighed deeply. As Wood had said, according to their identities, even if torture and magic detection were used, those methods would be used on Wood and the official, not the director. There were no rules like, ¡°No punishment for officials, and no politeness for common people,¡± in this world. However, people in this world did that more thoroughly than people in the feudal era on earth. The idea of only kings having power, aristocrats having power and obligations, and civilians only having obligations was almost universal. Many people thought that this was a matter of course, the same as the rising sun and cold weather. Only the newly-built Republic of Northwest, under the leadership of Sui Xiong, denied that rule. Although the Mifata Federation used the federal system, it was still a Federation of feudal territories. The feudal privilege system was still regarded as a standard here. Wood and the official hadn¡¯t entered into the top class of the Federation. However, the director of the Intelligence Service was one of the top classes with the highest status. According to this, it was difficult to accuse the director and incriminate him. ¡°But, I have to do something before I give up!¡± the official said, clenching his teeth. ¡°That guy dared to do such thing. I can¡¯t spare him!¡± ¡°Of course you can¡¯t spare him, but your approach is wrong,¡± Wood said, smiling. ¡°I will go back with you, but you don¡¯t need to go to the internal court to accuse him. You just need to find an opportunity to take me into the inner tower and meet the Great Mentor.¡± The official was stunned, and then he suddenly understood Wood¡¯s idea. The official couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°You are right! The status and identity of a mortal are meaningless to the Great Mentor. As long as you can see His Majesty, or as long as you can successfully reach the audience chamber to apply for seeing His Majesty, the status of that guy will be completely meaningless!¡± ¡°Moreover, as long as the gods want it, mortals can¡¯t conceal secrets in front of them. In this way, evidence is not a problem anymore,¡± Wood said. The official nodded repeatedly. Now he felt that there was some hope. They would surely win. According to Wood¡¯s identity, it was extremely difficult to accuse the director and incriminate him. However, it was not that difficult to reach the audience chamber to apply for seeing the Great Mentor. This was equivalent to changing the goal from becoming the richest person in the world to just making a hundred million dollars. Although the difficulty of both was quite high, the latter one was at least possible to realize. The former one was basically unbelievable. On the earth, fewer than 100 people were qualified to challenge the title of ¡°the richest person in the world,¡± or to fight for this title. However, if the goal turned into having a hundred million dollars, then more than 1,000,000 people could fight for it. At this time, Sui Xiong was invisible in the air. Seeing this scene, he couldn¡¯t help but nod. Although Wood was a bit unlucky, his head was still very clear. He knew what he should do to achieve success. In other words, he knew what he had to do the increase the possibility of success. In Sui Xiong¡¯s point of view, his plan was still very promising. In fact, Sui Xiong could help him. For example, he could go to talk with Le-Peyroux, the God of Spellcaster. He believed that as long as he showed up, such a small request was not a problem at all. But he couldn¡¯t do that. If he did that, he would disrespect Wood¡¯s loyalty to the Mifata Federation. This was different from the last time. Last time, he had used his Divine Power to create panacea to save Wood, but it had been at the request of Great Governor Felix. The one he had saved was the Great Artist of the Republic of Northwest. That was reasonable in any case, so even Wood couldn¡¯t say anything. However, if he showed up this time, he would be helping the spy of the Mifata Federation. In this way, even if Wood could defeat that intelligence director, his betrayal to the Federation would become a reality. What betrayal was more serious than colluding with the Void Mask? None. The Void Mask was the top one of the Republic of Northwest. If Wood colluded with him, he would be considered as seeking refuge with the Republic of Northwest. Therefore, he couldn¡¯t show up. He could only look on at Wood. Wood had acted as if he had been tired of living before, so Sui Xiong had been a little worried about him. He had been afraid that Wood would run back to his hometown to court death. Wood might be thinking, ¡°If I die, I must die in my hometown.¡± Now it seemed that he didn¡¯t really give up on himself. He was still trying to survive and win, so Sui Xiong was relieved at this. Since things had been discussed successfully, Wood left with the official. They didn¡¯t return to the Intelligence Service. Instead, they went directly to the inner tower, the core of the Highest Tower. They planned to go directly to the audience chamber. As the saying went, speed was important in a war. No matter how powerful the intelligence director was, he couldn¡¯t use his powers in such a short period of time. They only needed to seize the opportunity of the time delay to meet His Majesty before the director reacted. Then, they would win. They walked hurriedly in the street of the Highest Tower. However, before they covered less than 1/3 of the road, they were blocked by a person. ¡°Wood, I haven¡¯t seen you for a long time,¡± a middle-aged man said, blocking their way. He was wearing a thick and formal robe embroidered with complicated patterns, and he was holding a golden wand. His robe was bright and colorful, and the wand in his hand was dazzling. There were at least seven or eight circles of magic halos on his body. It was clear that he had used all kinds of buffs before he blocked them. Seeing him, Wood and the official became nervous. This man had been a spy. However, during a mission, he had encountered a lich that had been in seclusion for many years. The lich had been a wizard. In order to avoid death, he had turned himself into an undead monster. However, the lifespan of a monster was still limited. No matter how he had delayed his death, he had finally reached the day where his life had been exhausted. In desperation, the lich had tried to use his own soul to devour the soul of others. In that way, he had changed bodies and continued his life. After a long period of time, his soul had gotten weaker. He had lost to a determined spy in a mental battle. Therefore, a lich who had been afraid of death had disappeared in the world, and a spy who was good at spells had appeared. Soon after, the spy had changed his job. He was no longer a spy. He became a mage. ¡°Seems that you have a good life,¡± Wood said in jest, looking at that guy carefully. ¡°You are wearing the Robe of Law.¡± Although he was saying that, his heart was shaking. The Robe of Law was a very special instrument. In other places, it was just an ordinary powerful robe. It could provide the owner with the defense that was no weaker than that of heavy armor. Moreover, it could greatly reduce the possibility of failing spells. It could also reduce the back-flow damage of the failing spells. However, inside the Highest Tower, its power was comparable to that of an artifact! This robe had a special effect. As long as it was inside the Highest Tower, it could connect to the Great Magic Pool of the Highest Tower, and it could extract magic power from it. It could even turn the magic power directly into spells, skipping the process of casting. In other words, as long as you were inside the city of the Highest Tower, the mage who was wearing this robe could use any spell at will without casting. The spells could be directly displayed. This power was almost comparable to the power of an artifact. Only a talented Master like Le-Peyroux could create such a wonderful instrument and such a powerful combination. Being blocked by that guy, Wood, and the official had to give up their plan. ¡°What do you want?¡± the official asked with a low voice. ¡°Do you need to ask me?¡± the former colleague said with a smile. ¡°I just received an urgent message, saying that the former ace spy, Wood, who betrayed the Federation and killed his colleague, appeared in the city. He is going straight to the inner tower, and he may destroy the city. As a result, I didn¡¯t say anything and rushed here. Tell me, what is it that I want?¡± He looked at Wood again. His face was smiling, but his eyes were cold. He asked, ¡°Wood, did you really kill your colleague?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask about the betrayal first?¡± Wood asked without answering his question. ¡°Killing your colleague means betraying the Federation,¡± that guy said, looking at Wood coldly. Wood was silent. After a long time, he sighed deeply. ¡°Can I defend myself?¡± he asked. ¡°I am not a judge,¡± the former spy, the current mage, said. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear your defense. Now I will give you two choices. The first one is to fight with me. You killed a colleague anyway, so you won¡¯t care about killing one more. Besides, I was your former colleague who quit this job. As long as you kill me, no one can stop you, and you can do anything you want by then.¡± Wood smiled bitterly. He said, shaking his head, ¡°I want to hear the second choice.¡± Of course, he wouldn¡¯t choose to fight. In the face of a great mage who could freely cast any spells and even omit the process of casting¡ªonly a madman would choose to fight! He was only a high-level spy. Even if he was a Legendary Master, in the face of such an enemy, he would be more likely to lose. If he lost, a Legendary Master could escape. However, he wouldn¡¯t have a chance to escape. ¡°The second choice is to surrender now,¡± that guy said. ¡°According to your identity and your contributions, you can at least keep your dignity.¡± ¡°It seems that the two choices have the same result,¡± Wood said with a bitter smile. ¡°The difference was between being caught honestly or being beaten and then being caught.¡± ¡°Right, choose one,¡± the former spy said. After being silent for a while, Wood said, ¡°Can I ask you a few more questions?¡± ¡°Yes. Anyway, time is on my side,¡± the former spy wearing the Robe of Law said confidently. ¡°How did you know that I was in the city?¡± Wood asked. ¡°No one should have known about this.¡± ¡°No one?¡± that guy responded, stunned. Then he laughed, ¡°What gave you such a ridiculous idea? If you didn¡¯t want others to know about it, then you shouldn¡¯t have done it. Did you really think that your actions could be hidden from the Federation?¡± ¡°We are all spies. Don¡¯t tell me that,¡± Wood said disdainfully. The former spy said, smiling, ¡°Well, then I will tell you the truth. The intelligence director contacted me. For that, he used the emergency contact channel. Fortunately, this information was indeed worthwhile. Otherwise, he would definitely be in big trouble.¡± Wood frowned. He was not surprised by the result, but he didn¡¯t understand how the intelligence director knew that he was in the city. It had been a short time since he entered the city. Even if a spy was supervising him, that spy shouldn¡¯t have enough time to report to the director. He thought hard, but he couldn¡¯t understand why. Just then, a voice came. ¡°You still don¡¯t understand? In fact, you have been under my supervision.¡± Wood turned back and saw the intelligence director coming quickly. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Wood asked in a low voice. The intelligence director smiled. He said, pointing to the bodyguards of the officials, ¡°These people are carrying a special instrument. They can report the news to me at any time. Not long ago, when you were laughing and discussing, I already got the news.¡± Wood understood why. He sighed deeply. ¡°I see! It seems that I have no choice,¡± Wood said. ¡°You have a choice. This is your choice,¡± the director said, shaking his head. ¡°I admit I was jealous of you, but then your performance got worse and worse. I¡¯m no longer jealous of you. I want to kill you for the interests of the Federation.¡± Wood said, nodding, ¡°Perhaps¡­¡± Before he finished his words, his figure disappeared. Wood turned into a bright light and then rushed towards the intelligence director. Chapter 536 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Seeing that the Robe of Law was in front of him, Wood knew that his risky return became a failure. But he didn¡¯t want to give up. As an ace spy, he had encountered countless dangers throughout his life. The current situation was far from ¡°desperation.¡± As expected, it didn¡¯t take long before the opportunity came. No one knew what the director was thinking, but he actually came here, too. Moreover, this guy actually went directly to Wood. The distance between them was shorter than 20 steps. This distance was easily within Wood¡¯s reach! As a high-level paladin, he was best at mid-range attacks. At such a distance, he could use two steps at most to rush to the director¡¯s face. According to the speed of his attack, two steps were equal to the time it took to blink once. How long did it take to blink? Few people calculated it because it was too short. Wood used to think so, but this time, he felt that a blink was still too long. If the time could be shorter, it would be better! In a flash, Wood rushed to the face of the intelligence director, and he pulled out his sword at his waist. Of course, he didn¡¯t rush over to talk to the director. He didn¡¯t want to negotiate. He wanted to do only one thing. Kill! The reason why he wanted to kill the intelligence director was due to personal resentment, but that was secondary. The main reason was that he believed this person shouldn¡¯t live in this world anymore. This person framed an ace spy of the federation because of envy. No matter how noble his identity was, he was only suitable for being an unimportant official. He was not suitable for being a director in a key department. However, this guy was now a director, and he was in one of the most important departments of the federation¡ªthe Intelligence Department. To make matters worse, this guy had been an intelligence director for more than a decade. That was a very serious mistake! Wood decided to correct it. This might be the last thing he did for the federation, so he wanted to do it well without any mistakes. For so many years, he had rarely made mistakes in his tasks. He didn¡¯t want to discredit his glorious resume at the last moment. So he wanted to be faster so that no one could react. The intelligence director would have no time to resist or escape because of his fast speed. That would be good! Wood did his best. It was the first time since he stepped into the high level. He was a little surprised to find that his pace was faster than that in the past, and his sword was faster, too. The improvement was not obvious, but he was already very fast. On that basis, even if he was only a little faster, it would be a huge improvement. Just like in the 100-meter race on earth, professional athletes could finish it in 11.5 seconds, national athletes in 11 seconds, world-class athletes in 10.5 seconds, and Olympic final players in ten seconds. As for 9.5 seconds¡ªat least before Sui Xiong space-traveled here, no one on earth could be that fast. One hundred meters, from 11.5 seconds to 9.5 seconds¡ªthe gap was just two seconds. The distance of 20 steps was as long as 15 meters on earth, less than 1/6 of 100 meters. Suppose that there was a person who was the champion of all the physical competition events on earth. He achieved a world record that no one could break. At this distance, his rushing speed was a little faster than in the past. What did that mean? There was a phrase that was very suitable in describing that¡ªas fast as lightning. At least for the intelligence director, Wood was really as fast as lightning. At the moment when Wood rushed over, the intelligence director didn¡¯t react. When he reacted, it was about 1/10 of a second later, or a little longer. Anyway, when he came back to his senses, Wood had already rushed to his face. He even saw the blinding light of Wood¡¯s sword. A sword¡¯s cold light. At this moment, the intelligence director¡¯s thoughts were fast beyond imagination. He remembered a lot of things in a mess, but it disappeared with nothing left, like water infiltrating into the sand instantly. He wanted to react. For example, he was also carrying a sword. He could use it to fight. He also carried several advanced magic scrolls, and he could cast spells. Moreover, he had several good magic items. As long as he activated them, not only could he save himself, but also he could kill Wood. But he just ¡°thought.¡± He could do nothing but think. His body couldn¡¯t keep up with the speed of his mind. He saw Wood rushing towards him, and he saw Wood pulling out his sword. He saw his bodyguards trying to block Wood, but they didn¡¯t have the time to rush over or to even pull out their swords. He saw the official who was in charge of spy work with a stunned expression on, his mouth wide open. He saw that the great mage, whom he had just contacted with, was also stunned. Then the face of the great mage was full of anger, and his body let out strong magical fluctuations. The intelligence director also saw that at least four or five magic lights rushed in from all directions. The lights were about to stop Wood. He also saw that a magic light flashed on his own body. Most likely, the magic item that could save his life was passively activated. But he could only ¡°see.¡± The sword¡¯s cold light was getting closer and closer. It stabbed towards his forehead. Everything was meaningless to him at the moment, everything except for the glinting light that was getting closer and closer. At this moment, he suddenly had a wonderful feeling. So beautiful! Time stopped. All kinds of magic spells coming from all directions stopped. The sword that was faster than any spells stopped. So beautiful! Wood¡¯s sword pierced his forehead with powerful airflow. It smashed half of his skull. At that moment, that sentence was all he was thinking in his mind. If someone examined his body carefully, they would find that the expression on his face was not fear or horror. Although he was assassinated by Wood, the last expression on his face was sincere and pure admiration without any impurities. The sword¡¯s light flashed and disappeared. Then, magic lights of various colors appeared. Most of these magic lights fell on Wood¡¯s body, and only one fell on the intelligence director, mixing in with the light that flashed on the director. However, it was useless. The director was already dead. The situation was similar to those lights that attacked Wood. When the first light fell on Wood, his speed slowed down instantly, and it was as slow as a freeze-frame in a movie. Then, the second light fell, and his face instantly became gray. His vitality quickly left his body. The third light fell, and half his body became withered. The enchanted sword in his hand lost its brilliance, and it looked a little rusty. The fourth light fell, and his eyes completely lost vitality. His whole body fell down to the ground. Before he fell, the fifth light had turned him into dust. The other following lights all lost their target. Chapter 537 Chapter 537: Chapter 77 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio With shining lights, advanced mages arrived quickly one after another. ¡°What shall we do?¡± ¡°Save him first!¡± ¡°Save who?¡± ¡°Are you silly? Can the other one be saved now?¡± ¡°Yes, with the great prayer spell.¡± ¡°Then you just save him!¡± ¡°Forget it.¡± That was the dialogue between two advanced mages. ¡°Search for their souls! Prevent them from going to the underworld, or it will make it more difficult for us to resurrect them!¡± ¡°Weird. We¡¯ve only found one; the other is missing.¡± ¡°Maybe that one was destroyed in the attack just now. There were so many spells used, so it¡¯s not weird for his soul to be destroyed.¡± ¡°Whatever it is, the one that needs to be resurrected is still here.¡± That was the dialogue between several other advanced mages. After that, it was time to resurrect them. Of course, there was a divine temple as well as some priests in the Highest Tower. Just a moment later, the advanced priests from the divine temple of the Master of Mystery arrived. They performed the advanced resurrection spell. The intelligence director¡¯s body was somewhat incomplete. The most troublesome thing was that a small part of his head was missing. Ordinary resurrection spells were useless for such a body, and only the advanced resurrection spell could solve that problem. The advanced resurrection spell was powerful, but it also cost a lot. The advanced priest that cast this spell would be overloaded because he would have absorbed too much Divine Power to cast it. It would take at least half a year for him to recover, and it would be impossible for him to get all his power back without two to three years¡¯ rest. But even the advanced resurrection spell was not perfect. The intelligence director who had been killed by Wood would also become very weak after his resurrection. This was because his brain had almost been completely blown up, and his mind would be in a chaotic state for a long time. Even if he recovered, he might still suffer some after effects such as being slow to react and not remembering things well. There was no doubt that he wouldn¡¯t be able to do his original job because that required a clear mind. And that was why Wood had pierced his head with his sword just now. As an ace spy, Wood was not very good at magic, but he had a very deep understanding of it, especially resurrection spells. He knew that unless legendary spells such as the great prayer spell were used, there was no way to resurrect a person whose brain had been blown up without any after effects. Even the advanced resurrection spell couldn¡¯t do that. When the spies carried out assassinations, if they couldn¡¯t make sure that their target would not be resurrected, then they would have to try their best to neutralize the target¡¯s threat. That was a professional lesson that they had learned before. Wood had gotten a perfect score in that lesson. Decades later, what he had done proved that he deserved that score. He had learned it very well. The newly resurrected intelligence director was escorted away by the others, and those advanced mages also left. The deputy officer in charge of the spies stood there silently, looking at Wood¡¯s ashes with a gloomy face. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to sigh about. You never expected him to do that.¡± The former spy that the deputy officer had known before came to comfort him. ¡°You¡¯ll definitely be censored in a couple of days, but I think you can make it. After all, this kind of thing¡­ No one could have expected it to happen.¡± ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have persuaded him to come back with me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to say. There are some mistakes that people can¡¯t make, or it will lead only to death. No matter whether you persuaded him or not, there wouldn¡¯t be any difference.¡± ¡°If I didn¡¯t persuade him to come back, maybe he would only need to run away now. He is good at that. Nobody can catch him.¡± ¡°But do you think he¡¯d like to be on the run like that all the time?¡± ¡°No, he was so proud that he would rather die than do that.¡± ¡°So this is the best ending for him,¡± the former spy, now the Great Patrol Magician of the Highest Tower sighed and said. ¡°I can see that there is mostly some resentment between them. Alas! It¡¯s really disgusting to involve personal hatred into work!¡± ¡°But the other one can still be resurrected,¡± the deputy officer said quietly. ¡°We can¡¯t do anything about that. After all, he is from the Lamperus family.¡± The magician sighed. ¡°My work is almost over today. How about having a drink with me?¡± ¡°Well, I have nothing to do anyway.¡± The last group of people were going farther and farther away. On the empty street, Sui Xiong smiled and said to Wood¡¯s soul that had been hidden by the spell, ¡°Now you have nothing to do anyway. How about working for me?¡± Wood looked at him carefully. After a long time, he asked, ¡°Did you arrange all this?¡± ¡°How could it be me? I¡¯m not so powerful.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and shook his head. ¡°I was just watching on the side.¡± Wood didn¡¯t believe that at all. If one looked into his eyes, one could see the look of ¡°you can¡¯t cheat me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not lying to you!¡± Sui Xiong certainly could see what he was thinking and sighed. ¡°Although I¡¯m a little unreliable, I¡¯m still honest. I really hate doing things like digging a hole and then burying someone in it. What¡¯s more, I always respect those who have ideals and principles. It was silly of you to insist on being loyal to the Mifata Federation. But you were silly in a respectable way. How could I do such a thing against you?¡± Wood was still not fully convinced, but he had no reason to doubt Sui Xiong at the moment. He thought about it for a bit and asked, ¡°When I was sick before, the Great Governor Felix gave me the panacea to save my life. Was that also your gift?¡± ¡°Yes, it was. I don¡¯t think that people like you should die a meaningless death like that.¡± ¡°Do you think it was meaningful for me to die in the way I did just now?¡± ¡°You should decide whether it¡¯s meaningful or not,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°Do you think your death was meaningful?¡± Wood was surprised at that. He bowed his head for a long time and then laughed. ¡°I think it was. Although I¡¯ve been expecting something better, the current result is at least acceptable. Anyway, I¡¯ve cleared one hurdle for the development and progress of the Federation.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°It seems that you have learned a lot in the Republic of Northwest these years. You are able to talk about something like development and progress.¡± Wood had never thought about that before. So now, after some careful thinking, he sighed softly. ¡°You¡¯re right. Over these years, I¡¯ve really learned a lot in the Republic of Northwest,¡± he sighed and said. ¡°I wanted to show what I had learned in my country to promote the progress of the Federation. But it turned out that I¡¯d been too simple-minded.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Come on, it¡¯s all over. There¡¯s a saying that the dead are gone. You¡¯re dead because of your loyalty to the Mifata Federation. That¡¯s enough.¡± Then he returned to the original topic. ¡°You have done enough for the Federation. Would you like to work for me now? Rest assured, I won¡¯t let you fight against the Federation.¡± This time, Wood hesitated for a short while and bowed his head to Sui Xiong. ¡°I¡¯ve learned a lot in the Republic of Northwest, and you¡¯ve saved me more than once. So I¡¯ll do anything that you ask me to, as long as it¡¯s not against the Federation.¡± Chapter 538 Chapter 538: Chapter 78 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After spending a lot of time and energy, Sui Xiong finally succeeded in having Wood work for him. If Sui Xiong considered the whole thing from the perspective of combat power, he would find that the losses definitely outweighed the gains. Wood was just a high-level paladin. He had not reached the level of pseudo-legendary power yet. At present, there were more than ten Legendary Masters in Sui Xiong¡¯s subordinates. Thus, it didn¡¯t matter whether Wood agreed to work for Sui Xiong or not. But Sui Xiong still thought it was worthwhile because he knew that Wood was not a general talent, but a rare talent in intelligence work. Currently, Clito was in charge of the intelligence work of the Republic of Northwest. Clito, the spy leader, who had been a paladin before, was good at tracking, sneaking, hiding, stealing and other special skills. However, in terms of spy thinking and intelligence analysis, he was totally a layman. With the power of a legendary master, he could easily sneak into most places and steal all kinds of things if he wanted; he could also silently send someone who was unfavorable to the Republic of Northwest to the underworld before they even realized how they were killed. He could also trace details to find out all kinds of clues and secrets that others wanted to hide. However, that was all he could do. He was a good burglar, a good assassin, a good hunter and a good policeman, but he was not a good spy. For example, not too long ago, he found that some people were monitoring Master Damwade, the one who had been chosen to be the God of Agriculture by Sui Xiong. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s idea, he could secretly observe what these people wanted to do with his great power, or directly arrest them for interrogation to know where they were from. But Clito didn¡¯t do that. He just raised his sword and cut these people into mosaics, like the ones in children¡¯s movies. Sui Xiong was speechless when he learned about that. Why were you so violent? Don¡¯t you think there is something wrong with what you have done? You are a spy! A well-educated man! Why do you always think with your fists, muscles, and sword? Have you ever seen any spy that is busy fighting and killing all day? Sui Xiong sighed deeply, but he did not know how to explain this to Clito. Sui Xiong became more and more determined to invite Wood to his team. Although he had spent a lot of time and energy, he finally achieved that goal. With Wood, the shortcomings of the intelligence work in the Republic of Northwest would be covered. Sui Xiong needn¡¯t worry about Clito, who had been much better at fighting than intelligence collecting, doing something shocking again. Clito was fit to be a lone ranger or to take a team to fight, but he was not a leader because he didn¡¯t have the talent. In the end, a real professional like Wood was needed to do such a job. Sui Xiong took Wood back to his God¡¯s Kingdom happily. He greeted Lamperus, the God of Spellcaster who had been watching from afar. What was Lamperus thinking? Since he didn¡¯t show up to stop Sui Xiong just now, he must have accepted the result. The gods were usually willing to fight for a believer that they truly valued. For example, when the legendary necromancer Tu Ya¡¯an moved to the Republic of Northwest, the God of Spellcaster visited Sui Xiong and said, ¡°I chose him long ago, and I¡¯ve been cultivating him over the years. You can¡¯t grab him away from me.¡± Sui Xiong certainly wouldn¡¯t do that, but he thought Lamperus was too confident about himself. It was clear that what Tu Ya¡¯an pursued was immortality. Although Tu Ya¡¯an had to return to the God¡¯s Kingdom after death, nobody knew when that day would come or whether it would come at all. Wood, by contrast, was a better choice. He was talented and professional. Moreover, he was a mortal, so he couldn¡¯t live a very long life. Sui Xiong just had to wait 80 to 100 years at most, and then Wood would die and report to his God¡¯s Kingdom obediently. But things would be different if he chose Tu Ya¡¯an. As far as Sui Xiong had known, there were quite a lot of demigod masters in the world today who were born shortly after the formation of the Big Circulation and the restart of heaven and earth. Although most of them were in a state of seclusion, they would still continue to live endlessly unless the world was destroyed once again. Sui Xiong was in a good mood because he thought he was wiser than Lamperus. He kept smiling when he helped bring Wood back to life. Wood didn¡¯t know why he was happy, but as a spy, he didn¡¯t have the bad habit of making random inquiries, so he just kept silent. However, when he saw the body that Sui Xiong had prepared for his resurrection, he finally opened his mouth. ¡°Please modify my figure and appearance,¡± Wood Said. ¡°It will be better for me to be very different from the past.¡± Sui Xiong was confused. He stopped the work at hand and turned to look at Wood. ¡°Do you know that it will reduce the degree of fit between your soul and your body?¡± Wood raised his eyebrows. ¡°I do now.¡± ¡°And do you still insist on modifying the body?¡± Wood thought about it carefully and nodded. ¡°Why?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. Wood gave a bitter smile and replied, ¡°It¡¯s just a farewell to the past. The old me is dead, and now I want to live with a new face.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just self-deception. You¡¯re still you after all,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°But at least it can give me some psychological comfort. And it can also reduce unnecessary trouble,¡± Wood said. ¡°Trouble?¡± Sui Xiong sneered and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Let me tell you one thing. My subordinates never have to be afraid of trouble!¡± On his honest jellyfish face, a fierce expression emerged. ¡°Over the years, those who dared to make trouble with us are basically unable to disturb others anymore. Recently, our troubles are getting less and less. To be honest, I¡¯m not quite used to it. If there¡¯s some trouble, that¡¯s good. I¡¯m too bored now.¡± Wood didn¡¯t say anything further. This new boss was absolutely arrogant; his glorious achievements over the years did deserve such pompous speech. But he persuaded Sui Xiong at last. After all, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t have the bad habit of insisting on his own opinions and making others feel uncomfortable. A few minutes later, Wood got up from the ground and looked at his new look in a temporary magic mirror next to him. Unlike the handsome but apparently not young artist of the past, he was now a tall and brave young man. He was at least one head taller than he had been in the past. With broad shoulders and a thick body, he looked strong and powerful at the first glance. Moreover, he could clearly feel that his body contained amazing power. He felt he could crush iron into pieces if he gripped it with his hand. ¡°Am I imagining things? I feel like I¡¯m full of strength now,¡± he couldn¡¯t help but murmur to himself. ¡°If this is real, maybe now I am able to fight with a dragon without using any weapons.¡± ¡°Of course that¡¯s real,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°Your body was created by me, so how could it be weak? Although you look like a human being now, you are essentially a legendary creature.¡± Sui Xiong paused for a moment and then said, ¡°What¡¯s more, you¡¯re stronger even among the legendary creatures!¡± Chapter 539 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Am I a legendary creature now? Wood was shocked for a moment. He felt that there was power constantly rising in his body, and that was something he had never imagined before. It was incredible. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh bitterly. People always said that a god¡¯s mercy was as vast as the sea and that a god¡¯s power was as great as the mountain. He really saw that today. It was incredible to know that His Majesty, the Great Mentor, had dug into the ground and created a large mountain. But now, His Majesty, the Void Mask, could transform him from a mortal into a powerful legendary creature in a short time. What¡¯s more, Wood felt completely compatible with his body. In stories and legends, if one gained a powerful force suddenly, he would definitely suffer some strong after-effects, such as having difficulty controlling that force or even going mad. Sometimes, one might even have to swallow living creatures or consume a lot of precious resources. However, these were all evitable things to His Majesty, the Void Mask. He had just created a legendary creature very easily. Moreover, he had created a stronger creature among the legendary creatures. This is the power of a god! No wonder so many masters are obsessed with the desire to become gods. No wonder the Great Mentor has been under meditation in seclusion for hundreds of years so as to succeed in becoming a god. If it¡¯s for such a power, it¡¯s really worth it! But Wood was wrong. Sui Xiong was extremely powerful, but this ability to create a legendary creature had little to do with the mercy and power of a god. Instead, that was Sui Xiong¡¯s personal skill. However, strictly speaking, that did have something to do with his Divine Power. Since his Divine Power became stronger, Sui Xiong could use it to improve his body to work more efficiently, and then his work became more refined and perfect. It was like a master craftsman with excellent skills¡ªif he could master more advanced tools to assist his work, he could make better works that were good enough to outweigh what he had done before. On earth, where Sui Xiong had lived before his space-travel, there were many inheritors of traditional skills. With the help of science and technology and ideas of the new era, they were able to arrive at a height beyond the reach of the previous generations of sages. For example, Sui Xiong¡¯s expertise was painting, so he usually got along well with people in that area. He found that some of them could create a painting that was almost the same as reality. But for the past predecessors, no matter how hard they had tried, they couldn¡¯t draw out such precise and rich colors, and the scenery that they had painted was always different from reality. That showed the progress of skills. Sui Xiong¡¯s level of painting was not that high. Before his space-travel, he had never been able to create such vivid paintings. But now, he could paint whenever he wanted; his great strength and almost omnipotent Divine Power were the best tools for him. Moreover, Sui Xiong¡¯s mastery of these tools was constantly improving, and that could be seen from his works. At first, the body he created for Gerald was rough. Although it was powerful, it was still imperfect in many aspects. Thus, Gerald¡¯s soul was in turn affected by the body and became a little simple and straightforward, bold and rough. Then, Sui Xiong¡¯s skill was improved, and he adjusted Gerald¡¯s body twice to make him completely return to normal. Now, others couldn¡¯t find any trace of the bald giant on Gerald, the head of the knights of the Void Mask Church. Instead, Gerald was just a tall knight that always laughed very kindly and had great strength. Now Sui Xiong¡¯s skill was more than perfect. Wood¡¯s body was specially designed for the fluctuation of Wood¡¯s soul. Although his new body was not as perfect as his original one, it still had fit his soul to the greatest extent. Unless Wood was a soul psychic who specialized in soul power, he would not feel any discord between his soul and his body. Moreover, the body would adjust itself slowly and automatically, and as time went on, it would become more and more closely integrated with his soul. By the time the two fit perfectly, Wood¡¯s power would be greatly improved. However, the demigod realm was not just about power. No matter how hard Sui Xiong tried, he could not create a demigod body. If he could, then he would want to change the bodies of the high-ranking members of his church. If he could change their bodies into ones that would never get old or die, never feel tired or hungry and that had high divinity and infinite possibilities¡ªhow wonderful that would be! Over the years, Sui Xiong had been worrying about the matter of birth, age, illness, and death. Of course, he was not worried about himself. In fact, he did not feel any signs of those problems. Maybe there were no such things at all on his body, and he was just worrying about his friends. From Gerald, Palin, Rhode, Snow to Leon and Liv, and even the friends he made later¡ªalthough they might just admire and respect him as a leader, he really treated them as friends. In his mind, there was no difference between these mortal friends and those god friends such as Yorgaardman and Javier. However, in fact, they were quite different. A god would never get old and die because they were out of the influence of time. But no matter how strong a mortal was, he still couldn¡¯t escape from aging and dying. No matter what means were used to prolong their lives, after all, there were still limits. Old Rodhe had gradually approached that limit. Although Sui Xiong kept supplying life-prolonging medicine to him, the effect of that medicine on him was declining. At present, the medicine that could extend the life of ordinary people five years became just three or four months on him. Rodhe knew his condition very well, so he often advised Sui Xiong not to waste the medicine. He had lived for more than 90 years, and that was an amazingly long life for an ordinary burglar who had not even reached the high-level. Besides, he was quite healthy now. Even without any life-prolonging drugs, he could live for a few more years. That might be enough for him to live to 100 years old, an age very impossible for ordinary people. ¡°I¡¯ve lived long enough,¡± in a private chat, he said to Sui Xiong. ¡°Your Majesty, you¡¯ve been merciful enough to me.¡± What if he was dead? Rodhe didn¡¯t worry about that at all. For him, death was nothing more than the complete retirement from his work. Then he would move to the God¡¯s Kingdom of His Majesty, the Void Mask to live in peace and tranquility for the rest of his life. But Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think so. He thought there was a big difference between life and death, living people and a soul. In this world, there was a huge limitation on resurrection¡ªthe soul of a person that had died of old age couldn¡¯t be resurrected. This had nothing to do with skill or ability, but with some sort of order. Sui Xiong had once used some people who had died of old age in an experiment. He was sure that even with his magic power, he could not bring such people back to life or even create bodies that fit them. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know why. It was clear that the body and the soul were compatible with each other, but the soul just couldn¡¯t be combined with the body. That situation made him helpless, but he became more eager to change his friends¡¯ bodies. It was just that most of his friends were reluctant. The reasons were varied, but all of them were unwilling to do that. Sui Xiong was speechless about that. All he could do was just to try to find examples to persuade them. Thus, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh happily when he saw Wood moving his body to gradually adapt to the surge of power and then falling down several times as a result. I hope this example can convince all of you¡­ Chapter 540 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A few days later, Wood, who had basically adapted to his new body, was introduced to the high-ranking officials of the Republic of Northwest as Easter by Sui Xiong. That name was from the online game that Sui Xiong had designed before his space-travel. There had been a very powerful spell in the game that could resurrect the dead, named Easter. Of course, because of his poor English, Sui Xiong did not know that the word was actually used to describe the resurrection of Jesus. Fortunately, no one in this world would care about it. Even Wood had no objections to this new name. Thus, from now on, Wood, once the ace spy of the Mifata Federation, no longer existed in this world. Only Mr. Easter, a teacher of the intelligence personnel training class of the Republic of Northwest, was alive. ¡°Easter is a very good spy,¡± Sui Xiong introduced. ¡°Of course I won¡¯t let our only spy talent work abroad. He will be a teacher to train our spies. He will give lessons to our intelligence personnel about how to be qualified intelligence officers and teach them how to find out, analyze and solve problems.¡± As he spoke, he looked at Clito who was looking around carelessly and said, ¡°Hey! Clito, that¡¯s you! You are the one that should learn from him specially!¡± Criticized by name, Clito blushed and explained in a hurry, ¡°I didn¡¯t know how to do the intelligence work before. I¡¯ll learn from him and study very hard. Even if I can¡¯t be good at that, at least I can follow his instructions. It¡¯s not bad to have a legendary fighter like me.¡± Sui Xiong was so angry that he rolled his eyes. This guy! He thinks he can¡¯t do it even before he starts. Of course, Sui Xiong would not allow Clito to be lazy in learning. Although he did not say it directly, he secretly asked Easter to add a little extra burden to Clito in class and to make sure he worked hard in class. ¡°It won¡¯t be easy to play tricks with a Legendary Master,¡± Easter said with a bitter smile. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t do that.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t look at things with your old standard. Now you are stronger than him. Don¡¯t be scared of him!¡± Easter was confused at first. Then he realized that he was no longer a spy who had just become a high-level paladin, but a powerful legendary creature. As they all knew, legendary creatures were powerful. If legendary creatures could master some professional abilities, it would not a problem for them to defeat several others of the same level. If this was in an online game, an average Legendary Master would have the power between level 20-40, while a legendary creature would be equal to level 40 or higher. In other words, a legendary creature, even at the level of a junior adventurer, was already as powerful as a normal Legendary Master. The reason why Legendary Masters tended to be more powerful than legendary creatures was that most legendary creatures had no professional abilities at all. Although Easter had not fully adapted to his new body yet, he was at least at the level of a mid-level paladin, and that meant he was roughly equivalent to the mid-legendary level. Thus, he naturally had great advantages over Clito who was from the junior-legendary level. More importantly, after Easter became thoroughly familiar with his new body, he would completely recover his high-level paladin and spellcasting skills, and his power would reach the level of the advanced legendary, maybe even close to the Legendary Peak. By that time, a junior legendary paladin would be just like a monkey in the hand of a Buddha. No matter how hard the monkey tried, it would never be able to escape that hand! Easter became confident when he thought about that. He said he would work hard to train a group of decent intelligence personnel as soon as possible. ¡°Don¡¯t stress too much.¡± Instead, Sui Xiong was a little uneasy, and he kept telling him, ¡°Our country is strong, very strong, so there is no need to make our intelligence personnel too tired. Forget about those rigorous training programs.¡± Easter was confused and asked, ¡°What exactly do you mean?¡± Sui Xiong laughed embarrassedly. ¡°Well, for example, tricks that may cause body damage or even death to the spy. There¡¯s no need to teach them that.¡± Sui Xiong found that Easter disapproved with what he had said, and he immediately realized that he might have said something silly. Sui Xiong grinned bitterly and said, ¡°Essentially, you have to control the standard. I set up this country to have everybody live a good life, not to play a game of hegemony. So the people of this country, whether they are ordinary workers, farmers, special soldiers or intelligence personnel, I hope they can live a comfortable life without working too hard. Anyway, with me here, the sky won¡¯t fall.¡± Easter remained silent for a long time, and then sighed with a smile. ¡°I suddenly feel very assured at that.¡± ¡°Ha-ha, you can be at ease. Anyway, we¡¯re safe here. If there are people planning evil things against us, I¡¯ll clutch them like tiny bugs one by one! So you don¡¯t have to work too hard or shoulder too heavy a burden. I¡¯m here.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Do you understand what I mean?¡± ¡°Yes, I do. Please rest assured!¡± Sui Xiong nodded and said nothing more. Easter was a smart man. Since Sui Xiong had put everything clear in that way, he surely understood his meaning. Sui Xiong could rest assured by having someone like Easter work for him, someone that was smart in talking and action. Naturally, it was not a good idea to let Easter be in charge of all the intelligence work. Easter had his own bottom line and would not do anything against the Mifata Federation. Therefore, it was in the interest of the Republic of Northwest to let him train intelligence personnel and then let those trainees further grow up in practice. As for Easter himself, being a teacher, he would never have the chance to go against the Mifata Federation. Even if there was a war between the Republic of Northwest and the Mifata Federation in the future, instead of going to the front line of the battle, he could just stay in the country for backup. That would naturally not violate his principles. If anyone said that backup was also a support for the war or something like that, Sui Xiong would kill that person with one slap. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t win against others in talking, but he could win in fighting. So he laughed very happily when he left. But he became unhappy soon because he seemed unable to find his own body. In the past few days, within this sea area where his space-travel had started, he had traced back to the time when the Big Circulation came into being, the so-called restart of heaven and earth. At that time, the Main Plane had just formed, and the sea had been full of storms and waves. Countless burning stones had fallen from the sky, the earth had been erupting into flames, and the wind had been raging with great poison. In such an environment, it was impossible to find a space-traveler¡¯s body. In fact, Sui Xiong did not think that his body could remain intact under such circumstances. Even a piece of meat was not expected to be found. He stood over the sea he had crossed and stopped his time tracing spell. ¡°Maybe I traveled here only with my soul.¡± He sighed and shook his head. Chapter 541 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was no harm for Sui Xiong to be sure that his soul had traveled. At least he could stop thinking about where his body was going. Sui Xiong soon put down the matter of where his body was and got busy with other things. In fact, he had a lot of things to do, but all of them were delayed because he wanted to find his body. Now that he was sure that it was not his body but his soul that had traveled, he could do something else. The first thing he wanted to do was steel-making. Thanks to Palin and after decades of research, the technology of blast furnaces had gradually matured. Palin was inspired by the fact that when wood burned in charcoal, the temperature was much higher, and so tried to calcine coal as well. Many mistakes had been made and countless time and materials had been wasted during the calcining process, but finally, Palin found some solutions. He used graphite in the end, which burned at a much higher temperature than ordinary coal. With graphite, the most critical step in steel-made blast furnaces was completed. Next, he only had to finish some designs and improvement work. Palin and a group of craftsmen thought for many years, and finally, they succeeded in building a blast furnace. This blast furnace could not supply both raw materials and molten iron at the same time, and this was different from what Sui Xiong had imagined. It needed to mix the raw materials in advance, put them together like building blocks in the furnace and then start burning. But after a short time, the high temperature produced by graphite would melt iron ores and other raw materials into molten iron. Depending on the special design, the molten iron in the lower layer could be poured out and cooled into ingots in mud tanks. The slag in the upper layer needed to be removed by special tools or cleaned up after the furnace was cooled. Although it took a lot of effort to clean the furnace each time, after Palin¡¯s thorough research and experiments, he had been able to solidify the molten iron directly into steel without further processing. This had saved a lot of time and efforts. What¡¯s more, it also made up for all the time and manpower wasted in other areas. More importantly, the ingots produced by this method were very uniform in texture. When using those ingots as raw materials to make equipment, there was no need to worry about such problems as the materials not being uniform enough. Moreover, as long as proper molds were used when cooling the molten iron, various shapes of rough steel could be produced. That rough steel could directly become suitable weapons, armors or tools after further processing. Palin tried to make some steel plates and then used the hydraulic press invented by Sui Xiong to stamp the steel plates. As a result, they had made some very good steel breastplates with little effort. Those breastplates were more uniform and stronger than ordinary hand-forged, steel breastplates. But the time it took to make them was far less than that of making the hand-forged steel breastplates. In the past, it took at least more than half a month for a master blacksmith and his four or five apprentices to make such a breastplate. Now, with sufficient materials and the help of a hydraulic press, a master blacksmith and his four or five apprentices could make six or seven such breastplates in a day. ¡°That¡¯s really a good source of money!¡± Palin said happily when reporting to Sui Xiong. ¡°As long as we find enough iron ore, coal mines and mineral veins of auxiliary materials, find a relatively stable and turbulent river and some helpers, I am sure that in half a year, we will produce enough armor for an army!¡± Sui Xiong was also happy, but he was not thinking about making weapons and armor. He was glad that it could speed up the production of the tools. With the development of the Northwest Republic, more and more people lived here, and more tools were needed. But depending only on imports would cost a lot of money and time. People had to wait a long time for the goods to be produced and transported, causing them to be upset. Now, with a blast furnace and sufficient steel, more tools could be produced. Sui Xiong believed that when the skeleton laborers used the new steel tools, their work efficiency would be greatly improved, and the construction speed of the Northwest Republic would be greatly accelerated. Before traveling to this world, Sui Xiong had once heard a saying that went, ¡°if the country is a machine, then the steel industry is the engine of the machine.¡± This, of course, had to have been said by some science students. Although Sui Xiong was an art student, he also thought that saying was reasonable. With sufficient steel, they could produce more and better tools, and the national construction speed would certainly become faster! Now, Sui Xiong even began to wonder whether it was suitable for him to develop something like tractors. Of course, Sui Xiong could not do that scientific research by himself. Facts had proved that it was unreliable for an art student to do scientific research. Although Sui Xiong was very powerful, he was not as good as the research team led by Palin. This kind of thing still needed professional people to do it. ¡°Hmm? Do you want to make tools instead of armor?¡± Palin was very surprised when Sui Xiong gave that order. ¡°Tools are not as valuable as armor.¡± ¡°Yeah, tools are not worth much, but we need them,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I need thousands of picks, hoes, axes, and hammers¡­ Which country do you think can supply us so much?¡± Palin was shocked by the number and asked curiously, ¡°Why¡­ Do we have that many workers?¡± Sui Xiong was also stunned for a moment. Apart from some work from the Magic Corps and the Magic Association that he could not avoid, he had devoted himself to research. He had spent most of his time and materials on the research of blast furnaces and steel-making. He did not even know that the Northwest Republic had used that many skeleton laborers. So he told Palin about this. ¡°Oh¡­ Very good! Those skeleton laborers don¡¯t need a salary or rest, and plus, there are so many of them. Isn¡¯t that perfect?¡± Palin asked. ¡°Why do you think there would be a problem, Your Majesty?¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a moment and told Palin the reactions of all good gods to this matter. ¡°That¡¯s ridiculous! We haven¡¯t transformed human corpses into skeletons. We just used the resources of the Ashes Woods,¡± Palin was furious suddenly. ¡°When there were so many skeletons in the Ashes Woods, why didn¡¯t they clear up those skeletons?! Why do they feel angry when we use skeletons to do things? That¡¯s unreasonable!¡± Palin said angrily, ¡°Your Majesty, I think your plan should be adjusted. Instead of making tools first, we might as well make a large number of weapons and armor first, Then we don¡¯t have to sell them. We should first change our army¡¯s equipment, and the rest of the weapons and armor will be displayed near the portal to show them our strength!¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment, and then he couldn¡¯t help but applaud Palin¡¯s idea. ¡°That¡¯s a very good idea!¡± Chapter 542 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong was not familiar with history, but that didn¡¯t matter that because netizens understood history. When chatting with netizens, he once heard a story. In ancient times, a tribe called ¡°Miao¡± or ¡°You Miao,¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t recall, did not obey the orders of its emperor. At that time, the emperor was Shun, but there were other leaders, Yao and Yu. Together, they were the three most famous tribe leaders in ancient China. He had sent a group of big men with axes and shields to a place near the tribe and conducted an armed exercise. After that, the tribe began to obey his orders. The reference to this matter was called ¡°Xiuwen de.¡± Sui Xiong still did not understand why the armed exercise was called ¡°Wen¡± virtue. If an armed exercise could even be called ¡°Wen¡± virtue, then what kind of killings could be considered ¡°Martial¡± virtue? When Sui Xiong heard the story at that time, he felt that the emperor¡¯s practice was too pretentious, but he also thought this practice was a good way to make all the other tribes listen to him. Therefore, he had been wondering about how to implement this practice in his own kingdom. Hearing what Palin had said at the moment, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but think of this story and laugh. After laughing, he supplemented Palin¡¯s plan. ¡°We will not only display fine weapons and armor near the portal, but we will also send troops to train and exercise in the portal square¡­ Oh no! The portal square is too small. Well, let¡¯s put up a large projection there and show everyone the scene of our exercises!¡± Palin was stunned for a moment and asked, ¡°Exercise? What does that mean?¡± Sui Xiong just remembered that there was no concept of ¡°exercise¡± in this world. If someone wanted to train their armies, they could train them very hard in barracks. One could also find Magic Beasts or robbers and ask his armies to fight with those beasts and robbers. Of course, if conditions permitted, large-scale hunting could also be organized and used as a military exercise. Generally speaking, their military concepts were quite backwards! However, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know that in ancient times, similar military exercises were also used. The only reason why it seemed backwards was because there were not enough resources to afford military exercises like in modern times. In military exercises, some people were inevitably injured. Ancient medical standards were far behind modern ones. The death rate of soldiers who were injured during military exercises was very high, so no one would conduct a military exercise. But this was not a problem for the Northwest Republic because they not only had enough medical teams but also had Sui Xiong¡¯s full support. Even if their soldiers were badly injured, Sui Xiong could cure them. With Sui Xiong¡¯s help, it was not easy for the soldiers to die accidentally. With reliable security guarantees, the Northwest Republic could certainly conduct military exercises. So Sui Xiong called together the military officials of the Northwest Republic and announced that he wanted to conduct a military exercise. ¡°No problem,¡± said the evil god Leonard. He was almost the chief military officer. ¡°But it takes some time to mobilize and assemble troops from all over the country and to change their equipment. Until they are fully adapted to the new equipment, they can¡¯t receive the relevant training. After training them for a period of time, we can conduct a military exercise.¡± Sui Xiong frowned and asked, ¡°How long will that take?¡± ¡°If we have sufficient equipment, it will take about two months.¡± Sui Xiong certainly understood that Leonard was right, but he could not help but sigh. It would take two months¡­ Mortal armies were really inconvenient! If they were Oracle troops, they would not need much time to prepare; they could receive training tomorrow. If Sui Xiong was really in a hurry, once he gave the orders, those Oracle troops would be able to start the exercise immediately. But Sui Xiong also knew that the Oracle troops were totally different from mortals. Essentially, they were just the manifestations of magic power. It was not very meaningful to train those Oracle troops. For the Oracles of the elite level, the training would have some effect, but for those mass-produced Oracles, any training would be meaningless. Therefore, in a God¡¯s kingdom, no one had ever wasted the time and energy to train them; they could die at any time. In fact, in terms of efficiency, it was faster and better for a god to send out a large number of Oracle troops to fight in human wars. But this would not only consume a lot of magic power but also easily anger the public. Everyone would be training mortal armies; how could one send out an Oracle army to fight against those mortal soldiers? Did that really show off your strength? It was like a rich man with lots of money and silver-lined clothes going to a slum, laughing and shouting, ¡°I¡¯m very rich.¡± Well, the rich man would definitely be beaten by the poor people. Sui Xiong certainly did not want to do such a stupid thing, so he had to wait patiently, waiting for the mortal armies to be trained and well-equipped. Fortunately, before that, he could find something else to do. For example, he could improve the technology of the armor. He went to Palin¡¯s Metallurgical Research Institute and asked them about their progress. He also visited their new armors that had been made recently. Compared to traditional armor, the new armor was a little too simple. There were almost no decorative patterns on it; the armor was connected simply by solid leather and metal ropes. Sui Xiong could see from several samples that the new armor looked really simple, not only in its style but also in its color. Its color was gray because Palin had performed an anti-rust treatment on the armor in order to prevent rusting. The color was not beautiful, but the treatment worked very well to prevent any rust. Sui Xiong looked at the armor carefully and experimented on them in person. He was very satisfied with those samples. Of course, that armor wasn¡¯t as good as the fine armor made by Divine Powers or spells, but they were much better than the fine armor made by ordinary craftsmen. If they were used to arm soldiers, they would be strong enough to make any army in the world feel jealous. After all, many knights did not have a complete set of heavy armor! However, he carefully looked at the armor for a while, and suddenly he felt that it was lacking something. He could still make further improvements. What could possibly be missing? Sui Xiong did not bother Palin¡¯s research work. Facing the new, gray, mass-produced armor and the shining breastplates, he just stayed quiet and wondered where this new type of armor could be further improved. He thought about it for a long time and finally came up with an idea. The new armor looked bare, just like a fresh sheet of white paper. With such a blank sheet of paper, why couldn¡¯t he draw something like magic patterns on them? He told Palin and the others about his idea, but Palin and the rest simply looked at each other. Finally, they said that they had thought about it, but they did not know how to do it. ¡°Why? Is that so difficult to do?¡± Sui Xiong was somewhat surprised. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be difficult to engrave magic patterns on such smooth and glossy armor¡­¡± ¡°The point is¡­ we don¡¯t know how to engrave,¡± Palin laughed bitterly and said. ¡°A magician¡¯s technique of instilling magic into a certain weapon needs to start from the process of armor production. If you want to engrave magic patterns in after the armor is finished, you have to ask advanced mages for help or you can find a Rune Mage to engrave the runes. The former is too costly while the latter is¡­ Where can we find a Rune Mage?¡± Sui Xiong then understood the truth, and he slapped his chest, saying that he could find them a Rune Mage. Chapter 543 A Rune Mage was actually a special caster. Instead of using incantations or rituals to cast spells, they turned those spells into runes beforehand and then used magic to stimulate them. In this way, they could cast any spells they wanted. Rune Mages were more flexible and faster than ordinary spellcasters, but they also needed to be more sensitive and stronger. In order to carry the power of those spells, the materials used to make runes were generally quite strong. ¡°Strong¡± and ¡°heavy¡± were roughly twin brothers. People who needed to carry a large number of runes had to be very strong, even if they were not thickly built men. For example, if Palin, who was weak and small, were given eight or ten runes, he would hardly be able to walk. If he were given twenty or thirty runes, those runes might crush him to death. So Rune Mages were generally strong people, and they also needed powerful magic because they had to cast spells. There were not many spellcasters who were both strong and possessed powerful magic, but in some races, such kinds of people were quite common. For example, the Dwarf Race. The Dwarf Race was created by the God of Earth Elements and the Goddess Gaia. Originally, they wanted to create a race that was both powerful and flexible with smart minds and good magic qualifications. But when they actually created the race, they found that these advantages could not be taken into account at all. In other words, the two gods were not powerful enough to create a race that could take those advantages into account. Unfortunately, they lowered their standards and eventually created a race that was slightly shorter than humans but was very strong and powerful. They also had good magic qualifications and smart minds. Generally speaking, the Dwarf Race was a very powerful race, but they also had their own shortcomings. Most dwarves were single-minded, probably because they were created by the God of Earth Elements, but that did not mean that they were not smart. They were just quite stubborn. For example, when a dwarf went to a restaurant for dinner to order Yu-Shiang Shredded Pork. When the dish was served on his table, he would probably ask the waiter, ¡°Where is the fish in this dish?¡± He would pester the waiter with this question for a long time. It was almost impossible to convince him that there was no fish in Yu-Shiang Shredded Pork. He would only nod in recognition only if he really received fish or some fish soup. Of course, he would never stray from his task; dwarves were creatures that would obey orders. If this was a minor weakness of the Dwarf Race, then the other weakness was a little bigger¡ªa dwarf¡¯s fertility was not high. It was said that the original dwarves did not have this shortcoming, but after the death of the God of Earth Elements, their fertility had reduced a lot. They suddenly fell from being a high-fertility race to a low-fertility race. It was said that at the worst time, there were no dwarven babies born in the whole world for twenty years. Of course, this problem was very serious, so Goddess Gaia came up with a number of ways to solve this problem. As a result, she could only maintain the Dwarf Race to prevent them from going extinct. However, she also had to pay a huge price for this. Although they still had good magic qualifications, they had poor control over magic, and this made it difficult for them to cultivate good spellcasters. There was a saying that said that when people were very poor, they would think of any way to get rid of their poverty. A dwarf¡¯s intelligence was not low, and eventually, they would find ways to solve this problem. Finally, the current Dwarf Rune God came up with a way. The Dwarf Rune God, who was only a forging master at that time, took a different path. He engraved runes representing magic on a solid metal plate, and when he was going to cast a spell, he just had to inject magic into those runes to stimulate its power. Such a method of casting spells quickly became popular among dwarves, and it spread to other races. It even affected the Elven Race who were the main spellcasters. Many of the magic props now contained this rune technology. However, it did not mean that anyone who could use those runes to cast spells was a Rune Mage. A qualified Rune Mage must be able to create runes. Sui Xiong was looking for such talents who could create runes. Where he went was not to the Kingdom of Dwarves in the Mountain of Broken Clouds, but rather to the Kingdom of Dwarf Gods. It was not easy to talk to dwarves, so Sui Xiong just went to the Kingdom of Dwarf Gods to discuss with them. After all, he was a powerful god among all gods, and if he visited the Kingdom of Dwarf gods in person, they would warmly welcome him. Sui Xiong thought for a while and soon arrived at the Kingdom of Dwarf Gods. The Kingdom of Dwarf Gods was called the ¡°Eternal Mountain,¡± and its overall structure was basically a very majestic mountain. It was surrounded by low mountains, hills, and plains. There were no forests or oceans because dwarves did not like them. The dead dwarf followers lived in this vast kingdom. Some of them lived in the plains, some in the hills, and many lived in the mountains. But only those who had made great contributions or had been recognized by a dwarf god could live in the central mountain. The dwarf gods and the best dwarf followers all lived in the mountains. When Sui Xiong arrived at the Kingdom of Dwarf gods, the dwarf gods received him in a hall in the mountainside. The dwarf gods were surprised and somewhat uneasy about his arrival. The Void Mask was good at fighting and had a strange personality. He often did things against the usual principles¡­ In short, his reputation was not good. Sui Xiong had killed hundreds of evil gods, and even the God of Fear, who was almost the master of all evil gods was killed by him. In the eyes of the good gods, Sui Xiong was an eccentric person who freely used necromancing spells to enslave dead souls to work for him, and he did not see anything wrong with his actions. The Dwarf Race belonged to neither the evil camp nor the good camp, so they could at least welcome Sui Xiong¡¯s visit and not shut him out. Of course, they also had to welcome him because he was very powerful. After eating a scrumptious dinner, Sui Xiong explained his intention. ¡°I want to recruit some Rune Mages,¡± he said. ¡°The pay will be satisfactory.¡± The dwarf gods looked at each other, and finally, the Rune God asked with curiosity, ¡°That¡¯s why you came here?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that important?¡± Sui Xiong asked. The Rune God was silent for a moment then said, ¡°I don¡¯t quite understand your thinking, but if you want to find some Rune Mages, I¡¯ll go with you. To tell you the truth, I¡¯m curious why you would come to us to recruit Rune Mages¡­¡± Chapter 544 It only took a short time for the Rune God and Sui Xiong to return to the Northwest Republic. Then they went directly to Palin¡¯s Metallurgical Research Institute. This Metallurgical Research Institute was actually made up of several houses built on the river bank, in which Palin¡¯s residence and study room were included. What¡¯s more, one of those houses was also used for small metallurgy research. Later, the blast furnace and two hydraulic machines were added. This institute was particularly simple if being looked at from the perspective of China¡¯s development level in the 21st century on earth. Even in the third world, it would be very difficult to find such a backward and simple institute. But in this world, such a research institute was well suited to everyone¡¯s cognitive design, and Palin and the other researchers were quite satisfied with it. Sui Xiong did not disturb Palin who was conducting metallurgy research. He took the Rune God directly to see the new mass-produced armor. ¡°You see, this is the armor,¡± he said. ¡°I want to add some runes to it and transform it into magic armor. I feel strange seeing such a big, bare board with nothing on it.¡± The Rune God did not rush to answer but instead examined the armor carefully. It took him a long time to examine the armor. He felt, touched and looked at it many times. Then he stopped examining the armor and thought for a while. Sometimes, he would tap on it and listen to it. At this moment, the Rune God did not look like a great immortal god but like a serious dwarven craftsman who was carefully studying a work he had never seen before. He had studied the armor for a long time. Finally, he put the armor down, sighed softly, and said, ¡°Who made this armor? It¡¯s amazing!¡± ¡°Amazing?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment and looked at the gray and unfashionable armor. ¡°Why do you think it¡¯s amazing? It¡¯s very ordinary.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not ordinary at all!¡± the Rune God shouted loudly. He sounded disappointed with Sui Xiong who had underestimated the armor. ¡°Although this armor is very ordinary in design and simple in production, the craft used to make it is very extraordinary! Its texture is very uniform. I can¡¯t feel the residual force of repeated hammering on it, and there is no trace of quenching. If I¡¯m not mistaken, this was made of steel sheets directly, and then the sheets were bombarded by some huge force which pressed it into the shape of the chest armor. That¡¯s all right, but I really don¡¯t understand how that made the texture so uniform. In the steel part of this armor, I can¡¯t find any uneven materials anywhere. The uniformity of the steel is basically the same on every part of the armor. It feels like¡­ It¡¯s like¡­¡± He said such words as ¡°it seems like¡± several times and finally sighed deeply. ¡°Oh my God! I can¡¯t find any suitable adjectives to describe the armor. It¡¯s really amazing!¡± He finally calmed down, and so Sui Xiong asked him with curiosity, ¡°Is there any special advantage of a uniform texture?¡± ¡°Of course, there are advantages, such as being stronger. For example, there is a certain magical resistance in itself,¡± the Rune God said earnestly. ¡°This armor will have unexpectedly strong resistance when facing the Great Disintegration Spell of the so-called ¡®Equipped Star.''¡± ¡°Hmm?!¡± Sui Xiong was startled. ¡°the Great Disintegration Spell? This armor can resist the Great Disintegration Spell? Are you kidding me?¡± the Great Disintegration Spell was a special kind of magic that had great powers of damage. However, its most famous and dangerous aspect was not damaging powers but its ability to destroy the structure of magic and equipment. It would cause powerful magic or solid equipment to disintegrate and become useless. In battle, if one was attacked by the Great Disintegration Spell, even if they got rid of its powers, their equipment would certainly be destroyed. Its powers had made many people feel terrified. As was known to all, most of the world¡¯s masters would wear the strongest equipment to ensure their security in battle. If their equipment was destroyed by the Great Disintegration Spell, they would not only lose a huge amount of wealth, but it would make them depressed! Could this gray armor really resist the Great Disintegration Spell? How was that possible? The Rune God did not say anything. With a flash of light, he used the Great Disintegration Spell to hit the gray armor. The gray and white light that was strong enough to make everyone want to escape in battle hit directly on the front plate of the armor. This proved that the Rune God was an expert who had experienced many battles. The power of his Great Disintegration Spell was astonishing. Generally speaking, it could make the enemy lose his soul and flee away in fear if they were hit by it. In fact, most spellcasters would hit the ground directly when using the Great Disintegration Spell to form a small area, thus maximizing the powers of this area. But only those who had really honed themselves in high-level battles could use such powerful magic in order to kill the enemy in one blow. The gray and white light hit the breastplate accurately. In normal circumstances, the surface of the armor would rust or crack, eventually turning into a pile of scrap iron. But Sui Xiong waited for a long time and did not see any obvious changes in the armor. He curiously picked up the armor with his tentacles and brought it in front of him. He examined the armor carefully. He could clearly feel that the powers of the Great Disintegration Spell still hovered over the armor and did not completely dissipate. The leftover powers of the Great Disintegration Spell were still looking for something to destroy. However, the Great Disintegration Spell could do nothing to the armor. Eventually, its powers hit the other parts of the armor, destroying the leather and metal rope used to connect it together. This was not a problem. There were many other ways in the world to connect the plates of the armor. ¡°Incredible!¡± Sui Xiong collected the fallen plates of armor in his hand. He looked at them and kept praising, ¡°How awesome!¡± ¡°Yes! It¡¯s incredible!¡± the Rune God also lamented. ¡°When I first came to this conclusion, I thought I was wrong. But after I carefully compared and analyzed the principles of the Great Disintegration Spell for a while, I proved that my first conclusion was right. Although the armor looks very ordinary, it can resist the powers of the Great Disintegration Spell, which is really amazing! Amazing! Sui Xiong thought this word was well used. A simple and gray armor could resist the great powers of the Great Disintegration Spell that many gods and ghosts were afraid of. Such a thing could only be described by the word ¡°amazing¡±! Chapter 545 Chapter 545 Chapter 85 ¡°But why?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while, but he still did not understand how the newly mass-produced armor that looked very common in any way could resist the Great Disintegration Spell. Finally, he had to ask the Rune God like a school pupil asking his teacher for the truth. The Rune God laughed and touched his long white beard like an old teacher and said, ¡°The key to the problem is its uniform texture. Essentially, the Great Disintegration Spell has to find defects in the target structure and destroy them. But when the Great Disintegration Spell faces equipment with a uniform texture, it cannot exert its powers. This has long been known. For example, a shield can resist the Great Disintegration Spell by one polishing the shield with a piece of uniform crystal.¡± Sui Xiong blinked; he really hadn¡¯t known that. Not only him, but also most gods had not already known that. Perhaps only the dwarf gods knew that armor with uniform textures could resist the Great Disintegration Spell. ¡°What about this armor? Its greatest feature is its uniformity,¡± the Rune God said. ¡°Amazing! Its uniformity is almost like crystal¡­ It never occurred to me that even metals could reach this point!¡± Sui Xiong guessed the reason why the armor had such a uniform texture. The steel used to make the armor came from the molten iron flowing out of the blast furnace, and the molten iron needed to be stirred repeatedly during the production process, so the texture became more uniform. Compared to armor produced through other means, this type of armor had a more uniform texture. ¡°Unfortunately, this armor is still not entirely uniform,¡± the Rune God lamented.¡± If its texture becomes more uniform, the powers of the Great Disintegration Spell can not hover on it and destroy the parts that connect the armor. Instead, the Great Disintegration Spell will dissipate directly as soon as it hits the armor because there would be no ¡°uneven places¡± to accommodate it.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly, but his eyes brightened. In his eyes, it was possible to make the armor more uniform. The first time, the molten iron produced from the blast furnace had to go back into the furnace again and then it was stirred repeatedly with more strength in the second blast furnace. Therefore, impurities would be removed, and the texture of the molten iron would become much more uniform. As for the second blast furnace, it could be heated by magic power or by electric energy. Anyway, as long as the steel had been smelted, there were many ways to make its texture more uniform. ¡°It seems that you have already come up with an idea.¡± The Rune God immediately saw through Sui Xiong¡¯s expression. He smiled and said, ¡°When you make a new armor, you must let me see it!¡± ¡°I can make a new armor with more a uniform texture now, and you don¡¯t have to wait for a long time.¡± Sui Xiong laughed, and his tentacles picked up the plates of the armor that had fallen to the ground earlier. He threw them into the air, suspended them with Divine Power and then spewed out flames to heat them up. It was not difficult for him to burn iron and steel into molten iron with his strong Divine Power. After a while, there were no plates of the armor in the air, only a mass of hot and red molten iron. Sui Xiong controlled the molten iron with his Divine Power, eliminated the unnecessary impurities, and finally got a new mass of molten iron. He re-condensed the molten iron and turned it into a new plate. Because he was only doing an experiment, he did not turn it into armor, only making it into the shape of a shield. When this plate cooled down, Sui Xiong cast a Great Disintegration Spell at it immediately. The Great Disintegration Spell, which had not been strengthened by Divine Power, hit the shield and dispersed in an instant without any power being left behind. It was exactly what the Rune God had expected! ¡°Amazing! I never thought there would be such a wonderful thing in the world!¡± the Rune God said excitedly. ¡°It¡¯s amazing that the texture of the plate can be uniform enough to disperse the Great Disintegration Spell!¡± Sui Xiong nodded and rolled up the shield with his tentacles. Then he frowned and said, ¡°It became soft?¡± ¡°What?¡± The Rune God was stunned for a moment and took the shield from Sui Xiong. He pinched and knocked on the shield. Then he could not help but frown. ¡°That¡¯s really strange! Why would it become soft?¡± In fact, the shield had just become a little soft; at least, it was much stronger than wood or other solid things. However, Sui Xiong and the Rune God were so sensitive that they could immediately feel any slight softness of the shield. It was like a hard stone turning into a slightly softer one-any experienced craftsman could feel the difference. However, why would steel become softer after further removing the impurities of it? Sui Xiong and the Rune God looked at each other and did not understand the reason. However, if Sui Xiong was an engineering student, he would have known the reason. Unfortunately, he was just an art student. The hardness of pure iron was lower than that of steel, and most common magnets in life were made of pure iron. People who had played with magnets knew that they were slightly softer than steel knives or other things made of steels. As for why the shield would become softer, Sui Xiong could even write a special paper to explain. But no one in the world was able to write such a paper. Even if there was such a paper in front of Sui Xiong, he would only stare at those symbols representing hardness, strength, temperature and so on. Sui Xiong would only say, ¡°I know every word, but I can¡¯t understand when those words constitute a paper.¡± This episode did not affect Sui Xiong and the Rune God. They thought about it for a while and came up with a solution to the problem. They made this very uniform steel into a thin piece and inlaid it on the outside of the armor, just like wrapping iron on the outside of the wooden shield. The inner armor was made to provide strong protection while the outer iron cladding was made to resist the Great Disintegration Spell. The only disadvantage was probably that the armor might be too heavy. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that only Hercules can wear such a suit of armor to fight in battles,¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment and said with a bitter smile. ¡°If ordinary people wear such kind of armor, they wouldn¡¯t be able to even walk fast.¡± ¡°Never mind. A Hercules is not difficult to find,¡± the Rune God laughed and said. ¡°Compared with making this kind of armor, it¡¯s much easier to find a group of Hercules¡¯s. If you can¡¯t find a Hercules, I¡¯ll get a group of them for you. They are many of them in our Dwarf Race.¡± The two gods smiled at each other after saying this. Dwarves were relatively short, which meant their armor would use less steel. What¡¯s more, most dwarves were strong. Even if the armor was heavier, it would not be a problem for them at all. That was to say, this kind of wonderful armor suited them very well. Once the armored warriors of the Dwarf Race wore such armor and added more protection magic, they would become real ¡°mobile fortresses.¡± The ¡°anti-magic¡± problem that plagued them so much in the past would no longer exist! The Rune God looked around and whispered to Sui Xiong like a thief, ¡°Your Majesty, are you willing to work with me during this time?¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°For a long time, we dwarves have never had any disputes with the Church of Void Mask or the Northwest Republic.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°In that case, would you be interested in strengthening our relationship?¡± the Rune God asked tentatively. ¡°I think there is still a lot of room for cooperation between us¡­¡± Sui Xiong smiled and agreed with him. ¡°No problem!¡± Chapter 546 Chapter 546 Chapter 86 After receiving Sui Xiong¡¯s positive reply, the Rune God ran away happily. It seemed that he was going to return to the Kingdom of Dwarf Gods located in the Eternal Mountain and discuss with all gods about cooperation with Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong felt very happy about the Rune God¡¯s behavior. But when he thought about it for a while, he still felt a little puzzled. What kind of value did this kind of armor have? Was it worth the dwarf gods jumping out at this urgent time to corporate with him? On Earth, when one did not know about internal affairs, they could ask Baidu for answers, and when they did not know about foreign affairs, they could turn to Google for help. Sui Xiong now had neither Baidu nor Google, but he had many knowledgeable friends. The God of Water Elements was the oldest and had seen much, while the God of Pleasure was the one who had many friends and knew a lot of things. It seemed that this matter had nothing to do with history, so Sui Xiong had to ask the God of Pleasure, Javier. Javier listened carefully to Sui Xiong¡¯s narration and asked for some details. He nodded while listening and finally laughed. ¡°No problem,¡± he said. ¡°My friend, the dwarf gods¡¯ sincerity to you is beyond a doubt, and their need for your new armor is also apparent.¡± ¡°But why?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a long story.¡± Javier laughed and brought out tables, chairs and drinking vessels. He filled each other with wine and said, ¡°We can talk while drinking.¡± As a brave, fighting race, the dwarves were very powerful. However, they still had many deficiencies in the field of spellcasting because they had poor control over magic. As was known to all, spellcasters were indispensable in wars, especially in large-scale wars. If an army lacked sufficient spellcasters, it would suffer great losses. In order to solve this problem, dwarves put forward an interesting idea. Since they could not make a large number of spellcasters emerge from their race, they would study how to attack the spellcasters! Based on this idea, they eventually developed a special kind of army-the Dwarf Breakers. The Dwarf Breakers also belonged to the Rune Mages. They wore heavy armor that had undergone special processing and had strong resistance toward magic. What¡¯s more, they could also cast some spells toward their enemies, and they could even cast several important spells relying on runes at major moments. That was powerful enough for them to deal with various situations. With the help of rune magic, once the Dwarf Breakers entered the battlefield, they would rush into the enemy¡¯s formation and disrupt the enemy¡¯s formation. Or they would directly attack the enemy¡¯s spellcasters so that the spellcasters, even if they were lucky enough to escape, could not provide help for their comrades, thus dragging their enemies into a ¡°no magic assistance¡± situation. In this case, dwarves were not afraid of any enemy! But the Dwarf Breakers also had their fatal flaws¡ªthey could not resist the Great Disintegration Spell. Indeed, the Great Disintegration Spell was a high-level spell, and anyone who used it must at least be an advanced mage. In mid and low-level battles, dwarves did not have to worry about someone using the Great Disintegration Spell. But, there was also no need for the Dwarf Breakers to fight in mid and low-level battles. Once the Dwarf Breakers, whose numbers could only be counted by ¡°ten,¡± were sent to the war, it had to be an important, large-scale war. In such a critical war, it was not difficult for the enemy to gather up several advanced mages and used the Great Disintegration Spell. The Great Disintegration Spell could be used on areas to form a powerful magic area. For the Dwarf Breakers who had worn heavy armor, they would die immediately if they were hit by the Great Disintegration Spell. Even if they only stood in the area within the reach of the Great Disintegration Spell for a few seconds, they would suffer great losses. They could resist the damage of the Great Disintegration Spell with their strong physique and divine blessings because the Great Disintegration Spell was not very harmful to creatures. However, their armor could not resist the powers of the Great Disintegration Spell. The special armor that could resist most magic would be completely damaged and disintegrated. Without armor, the Dwarf Breakers were nothing more than a group of unarmed, fierce fighters. Both runes and weapons would be destroyed by the Great Disintegration Spell. The Dwarf Kingdom was located in the middle of the Mountain of Broken Clouds, bordering the Eagle Kingdom, the Duchy of Griffon, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Ancient Forest. In the past, they fought with the elves, and when the Elf Race declined, they fought against the human race that came after them. The Dwarf Breakers had made outstanding contributions in previous wars, but they also suffered heavy losses. After every war, less than one-tenth of them would come back alive. What¡¯s worse, with the improvement of magic technology, the difficulty of using the Great Disintegration Spell was also reduced. In the past, only mages who were close to the legendary level could use the Great Disintegration Spell. Now, the Great Disintegration Spell had been specially studied because there was an increasing need in wars. In the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, many special magic arrays and equipment appeared so that mages who had just stepped into the advanced level could successfully use the Great Disintegration Spell. With the popularization of the Great Disintegration Spell, the Dwarf Kingdom was losing ground in high-end battlefields. Their fighters were brave and not afraid of their enemies and sacrifice, but their courage alone was not enough. Over the past hundred years, most parts of the Dwarf Kingdom had been occupied by the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, and the number of dwarf warriors who had been sacrificed was exponential. Shortly before Sui Xiong visited the Kingdom of Dwarf Gods, the Dwarf Kingdom had fought fiercely with the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. The Dwarf Kingdom was defeated, and even the current dwarf king died in the battle. He was one of the Dwarf Breakers who had led more than twenty Dwarf Breakers to try to break through the Mage Corps of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. Unfortunately, they died after being hit by the Great Disintegration Spell. In fact, if it hadn¡¯t been for the Main Plane surging, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would have launched another attack on the Mountain of Broken Clouds. Anyways, their expansion targets were these two places¡ªthe Mountain of Broken Clouds or the Ancient Forest. If they wanted to occupy the Mountain of Broken Clouds, they had to beat the dwarves, and if they wanted to occupy the Ancient Forest, they had to beat the elves. Of course, the dwarf gods were worried about this, but they had no way to stop the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. Indeed, they could promote more priests and Sacred Warriors, but their spellcasters could not win against the human race. They could also try to fight with those spellcasters of the human race, but they had to face the human gods in person. Whether it be the God of Revenge or the God of Light, they were not sure if they could fight back. In this way, the dwarf gods only had one choice left-leave the Main Plane and migrate to other worlds with the people that believed in them. Like many races who had lost in the struggle for hegemony in the Main Plane, they had to find a world far away from the Main Plane and live in peace, like a wounded beast tonguing its wounds silently. However, migrating to other worlds meant that their race would lose the abundant materials in the Main Plane. Studies had already shown that if races who had lived in the Main Plane for a long time settled in other planes, not only would their fertility decline, but their population would also deteriorate slowly. In other words, migrating to other worlds was like long-term suicide. Of course, the situation of the Dwarf Kingdom had not reached rock bottom. Depending on the location of the Mountain of Broken Clouds, they could still entangle with the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs for a period of time, maybe hundreds or thousands of years¡­ However, if they could not solve the problem of resisting the Great Disintegration Spell, they would only die sooner or later. Perhaps the dwarves could also learn from the pygmies. They could abandon their country and spread their people to other places in the Main Plane. But that was not in line with the dwarves¡¯ cultures, traditions and values. They did not want to do what the pygmies had done unless they really had no other way to escape. ¡°In such circumstances, they see your special armor.¡± Javier drank all the wine in his cup and then picked up the bottle only to find it empty. He sighed regretfully. ¡°Of course, they would pay much attention to this kind of armor. It can resist the Great Disintegration Spell, that will make up for the shortcoming of the Dwarf Breakers, and help the Dwarf Kingdom resist the invasion of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs! ¡°In my opinion, the Rune God only talks about cooperation with you, which is obviously a little conservative. Maybe next time, the Dwarf gods will discuss with you the design and manufacture of this armor in detail and finally complete some samples¡­ When the samples are finished, it¡¯s time for them to make a real bet!¡± Javier laughed and stood up. ¡°At that time, I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s not as simple as cooperation. I guess they would form an alliance you.¡± Sui Xiong thought about it and frowned. Dwarves and humans were at war, and it was obvious that all the human gods stood behind the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs who had launched an attack on Mountain of Broken Cloud. Did he really want to support the dwarf gods and fight against the human gods? He hesitated a little. After saying goodbye to Javier who had run out of wine, Sui Xiong was lost in thought. He thought it over and wondered what he should do. But he was never able to make up his mind. After careful consideration, he decided to bring together the core members of his church to discuss the matter. Collective discussion may not be a particularly good way, but at least it would not be particularly bad either. The high positions of the church of the Void Mask soon gathered together after receiving Sui Xiong¡¯s Oracle and held a temporary meeting During the meeting, Sui Xiong elaborated on the causes and consequences of the incident and then asked for everyone¡¯s opinions. ¡°It¡¯s not worthwhile.¡± The Archbishop, Leon Igor, shook his head first. ¡°The dwarf gods obviously can¡¯t beat the human gods. It¡¯s not wise to offend the human gods in order to attract the dwarf gods¡­¡± ¡°In fact, it¡¯s not impossible,¡± the knight leader, Gerald said. ¡°Our majesty¡¯s strength is enough to bridge the gap between the dwarf gods and the human gods, plus our allies¡­ Then the pros and cons will be reversed.¡± ¡°But that¡¯s going to cost a lot,¡± said Rhode. His hair had turned gray and he could not walk fast due to old age. ¡°It will cost a lot!¡± The chief mage, Satan, laughed and said, ¡°The price is not a problem. The question is, is the friendship and alliance of the dwarves worth the price we will pay?¡± ¡°In fact, that¡¯s not bad either. Over the years, although Our Majesty is very strong, we lack sufficient deterrence in the Church of the Void Mask and the Northwest Republic. If we can take advantage of this opportunity to show our deterrence, there will be less troubles for us in the future,¡± Palin said. He would take over Satan¡¯s job as the leader of the Mage Corps because Satan was receiving training. Many people were impressed by Palin¡¯s statement, and Steele, the head of the medical team, immediately supported Palin¡¯s idea. She said straightforwardly that it was necessary for the Church of the Void Mask to fight in order to show its strength. Fighting would not only kill people but also cause great damages. If wars were unavoidable, it was better to fight in other people¡¯s countries than to fight at their own doors. Even if something was damaged, they would not feel it because it would be other people¡¯s goods that were damaged. Felix, the Great Governor of the Northwest Republic, also agreed with this view. In order to show the great strength of the Church of the Void Mask, they had to find an opponent to fight. Running to the Mountain of Broken Clouds to fight with the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would not damage the infrastructures of the Northwest Republic, but the supply pressure would be greater. The espionage chief instructor Easter, who had just joined the core circle, looked at the issue from another angle and said, ¡°Our Republic is a country that advocates openness and tolerance, which makes the races of the inhabitants of our country very chaotic. Whether it be Orcs or humans, dwarves or pygmies, even organs from other worlds or demon beasts-as long as they are kind, we welcome them to join our country and become our brothers and sisters. Our national policy conflicts with the guiding ideology of the human race, dwarf race and even any other race on the continent. So I think we should help the relatively weak races to shape our positive image. As for the powerful races¡­ Anyway, the contradiction between them is inevitable. Even if we compromise and give in now, will we really change our national policy in the future to cater to their preferences?¡± This statement made many people fall into deep thought, and even Sui Xiong had not taken this into account. For a time, everyone was thinking silently. After a while, Leon sighed and said, ¡°Helping the weak to fight against the strong will cost a lot, really, a lot. I admit that you¡¯re right. Even if we don¡¯t help the dwarves, sooner or later, as the human deities gradually become hegemonic, they will pose a threat to the Republic. But¡­ Anyway, at least there are Orcs in front of us who will be attacked by the human race first. We don¡¯t have to pay the price in such a hurry!¡± ¡°Now we have a good opportunity,¡± Easter said. ¡°Now the price will be relatively small.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been talking for a long time, but I don¡¯t quite understand what you are talking about.¡± Casalie Riley, the first beauty on the East Coast, asked distressingly, ¡°Generally speaking, you are going to help the dwarves to fight against the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, right? So I want to ask¡ª I will not say anything about the bad luck of losing-If we win, what can we get?¡± On this issue, there were many discussions. At this moment, Gerald stood up. ¡°What can we get? In my opinion, the most important thing is to get is the satisfaction of committing kindness and justice!¡± The first follower of Sui Xiong spoke seriously. ¡°We all know Our Majesty¡¯s personality. If he was a god who paid so much attention to interests, most of us would have had no chance to live or even sit here at all. Helping the weak to resist aggression-as beneficiaries of all kinds of good and just actions of Our Majesty, what position do we have to question this?¡± He turned his head to Sui Xiong, held his right hand in his fist and placed it in front of his chest and heart. ¡°My majesty! Please give your orders! For your glory, the Regiments of Knights are fearless!¡± Chapter 547 In the end, Sui Xiong did not rush to order. From his personal point of view, he totally understood and supported the Dwarf Kingdom in defending its territory to resist the invasion of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. But he was just a jellyfish, not the Virgin Mary, and the dwarves were not his relatives or friends. Why would he send his followers to risk their lives to help the dwarves protect their country? When Chinese volunteers fought against the United States in order to aid the Democratic People¡¯s Republic of Korea, it was because if the DPRK was defeated, China would face great dangers. If the Americans killed the president of the DPRK, China would become the front line of the US-Soviet hegemony war. Once World War III broke out, it would be a horrible scene of nuclear bombs bombarding the northern part of China. The Chinese volunteers ultimately didn¡¯t choose to fight because they had a special liking for the president of the DPRK nor did they want to help him protect his country. Whether it be the Dwarf Kingdom or the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, neither bordered the Northwest Republic. In this case, why would Sui Xiong send soldiers to fight for the dwarves just for justice? Would Sui Xiong really be so stupid? Speaking of justice, even the God of justice, Yorgaardman, hadn¡¯t sent an incarnation to stay in the Dwarf Kingdom. Of course, he did not tell his followers about this. Instead, he found an excuse to temporarily prevaricate them. In fact, Sui Xiong was very happy and proud of being praised as a kind and just god by his followers, so he didn¡¯t want to let them down. He just left this matter alone and decided to discuss it later. What¡¯s more, maybe after a while, the situation would change. Perhaps at that time, he would really send soldiers to help the dwarves. So their discussion did not come to any definite conclusions; they would just have to wait and see. But that didn¡¯t mean they wouldn¡¯t do anything now. After the discussion, Sui Xiong began to study the new type of steel. What he studied was not how the steel could resist the Great Disintegration Spell, but what other potential it had besides resisting the spell. After a lot of research, he found that the toughness of the iron block that had been purified by him was quite good. The most interesting thing was that when he tried to surround the iron block with a current, the iron showed strong magnetism, but when the current disappeared, more than half of the magnetism also disappeared. It was really amazing. In the past, when Sui Xiong used electromagnetic guns, the shells were also made of steel. Because of the influence of a strong magnetic field, the shells would become strong magnets immediately after coming out of the gun. Of course, this was not bad. If he used metals insensitive to the magnetic field, the shells would not be so fast. Moreover, because of the high temperature generated by friction after they discharged, the magnetism of the shells would weaken rapidly. When those shells hit the target, they would generate a high temperature again, and then there would be almost no magnetism left. As an art student, of course Sui Xiong was unclear about these principles in electromagnetic guns. But that couldn¡¯t prevent him from making strong magnets through the use of strong electromagnetic fields¡ªbut for the time being, they could only be used as toys. Sui Xiong¡¯s discovery of this kind of iron block reminded him of a special material known as an ¡°electromagnet¡± before he traveled to this world. Electromagnets were wonderful things! When electrified, they would produce a strong magnetism, but when the electricity was cut off, the magnetism would be greatly weakened or even completely disappear. Sui Xiong had seen electromagnets at a large waste disposal station. They could easily and quickly point out the magnetic materials such as iron and steel in the garbage dump. It was very convenient. Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t truly thinking about garbage disposal. What he thought about was how to use electromagnets to help in mining. In mining, trying to get purer iron ore had always been a big problem. Generally speaking, the purity of iron ore could only be distinguished by people¡ªthis was commonly known as the ¡°quality.¡± Iron ore with good qualities was naturally more conducive to smelting and had high values. However, iron ore with low qualities was much more difficult to smelt, and their values were naturally much lower. People in this world had thought about using magnets to select iron ore. However, the magnetism of natural magnets was not strong, and their efficiency of mineral selection was not high. At least, using natural magnets to select iron ore was not as quick as old miners selecting iron ore. So the idea of using natural magnets to select iron ore only stayed on paper and not in practice. As for using man-made magnets to select iron ore, it seemed that no one in the world could create any strong man-made magnets before Sui Xiong. Even after Sui Xiong himself created strong magnets, he only found that they were not suitable for mineral selection. Of course, man-made magnets could effectively adsorb iron ore with good qualities. But after being absorbed, it was a bit troublesome to separate them from the man-made magnets. This was an embarrassing thing. If the magnetism of those magnets was not strong, they would not be able to effectively absorb the iron ore and achieve the purpose of using them. But if the magnetism of those magnets were strong enough to pick the iron ore out of the gravel, it would be very difficult to get rid of what was absorbed. Then there was another problem: Sui Xiong did not know any non-metallic things that could shield the magnetic field so that workers could work directly under the strong magnetic field. Was it OK for workers to work under a strong magnetic field? He thought about it for a while, but he was afraid that it would be impossible. From the scientific knowledge that he had mostly retained from his teachers, there was no essential difference between magnetism and electricity. Strong electromagnetic waves were certainly harmful to the human body. The hospital¡¯s X-ray room doorway was plastered with such warnings ¡°Do not enter casually.¡± Sui Xiong was not the kind of brutal boss who ignored human life. He absolutely did not want his workers to work under a strong electromagnetic environment for a long time! Therefore, although he was not sure whether a strong magnetic field was harmful to the human body or not, he was very careful about it. But now since he had found a new kind of material, he could change that. It was not difficult to make strong currents of electricity. There were spellcasters in this world who had developed a device that could produce a strong current of electricity for a long time. However, this device needed magic to maintain its operation. Sui Xiong did not need it to emit lightning to bombard opponents. As long as it could emit strong electricity and create strong electromagnetic fields, that would be enough for Sui Xiong to turn soft iron into strong magnets. Of course, it would save a lot of energy by using this way to create strong magnets. Sui Xiong found a magic wand of lightning as his energy source and made a set of auxiliary circuits. Finally, he created the first ¡°electromagnet¡± in the world. The electromagnet was about half the width of an ordinary man¡¯s arm, and its shape was a slightly heavy metal box. After a charge was completed, it could work for about ten minutes. When it was working, one side of it would produce strong magnetism enough to absorb iron ore. As long as the switch was pulled, it would stop working, and the magnetism would be greatly reduced or disappear. Ten minutes seemed like a short time. In fact, it only took less than ten seconds to select iron ore once. In other words, after each charge, it was enough to select iron ore 50 or 60 times. Sui Xiong himself had tried to pick out the iron ore. If he smashed the iron ore, he could use the ten minutes of time to select a large number of iron ore with high purity. Indeed, the purity was very high. Even if he were a layman, he would also be able to see the high purity of those iron ores. There was no doubt that Sui Xiong¡¯s idea was feasible! Chapter 548 After completing the preliminary design, Sui Xiong spent some time modifying it, especially the energy source part. The next day, he went to Palin¡¯s research center with something shaped like a broom. The workers just needed to crush the iron ore into pieces and sweep over them with that broom, and then those parts with a higher iron content would be pulled out. After sweeping two or three times, the remaining residue had very little iron content and little value. As for crushing the iron ore into pieces, there was nothing difficult in that. After all, when it came to iron-making, the smaller the pieces were, the better the effects it would have. Palin liked the new design very much. After several tests, he offered some suggestions for a revision. For example, Palin thought that there could be a wide belt that could move forward slowly, carrying the crushed iron ore. Then the belt could go under the tool called the mineral processing machine for a quick screen to find the better ore. That would help them get ore with better quality more effectively. A dwarf craftsman thought that the mineral processing machine could be made differently according to the different types of magnetic strength so as to screen out ores of different purity and distinguish their grades. There were many valuable suggestions. Sui Xiong listened to them one by one and then made the corresponding adjustments. He also made some auxiliary equipment. Thus, the final product was a device quite different from his original design. It looked like a semi-automatic machine. First, a heavy hammer was lifted by the power of flowing water to crush the iron ore into pieces. Then these pieces would be transported to another room by the belt with rollers underneath. Through three sets of mineral processing with different magnetic strength, the raw material of three different grades would be screened out and transported by three other belts for separate storage in three places; the remaining residue was transported elsewhere. Looking at this semi-automatic processing system that was the size of several rooms, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help thinking of the factories he had seen before his space-travel. Honestly, this system was rough and imperfect, but the rudiments of the modern industry could be seen from it. Sui Xiong was somewhat touched by seeing how it worked¡ªthe iron ore was sent to the crusher by the workers, and then the crushed pieces were carried by the belt to three processing machines. After that, three different grades of iron ore were sorted out and stored separately. Finally, the waste was put aside. Although he was not an engineering student, Sui Xiong was still very happy to see this industrial scene before him, like the ones on earth before. He felt as happy as when he had successfully created movies and TVs here. No, he was much happier than that. After all, the so-called movies and TVs were nothing more than adding a screen to a projector, which was essentially just the popularization of the projection magic. Compared to the movies and TVs that looked luxurious, the humble factories and production lines in front of him now were the real industry! When will the factories on Earth actually appear in this world? The productivity of science and technology on Earth is far from comparable. If I can really promote the coming of the industrial era, I will surely be able to make adequate supplies for the people in this world, and that will help everyone to live a good life! Sui Xiong sighed in his heart. Then he greeted the Rune God who had visited him again. This time, the attitude of the Rune God was quite different from that of last time. He wore gorgeous armor as a formal dress and took several Oracle servants with him, and he even brought the token of the Dwarf God System¡ªa hammer named the ¡°Root of the Mountain.¡± In contrast to the Human God System and the Orc God System, the Dwarf God System didn¡¯t have a king. Instead, the Dwarf God System was much like a parliament. The patron saint of the dwarf clan was His Majesty the Holy Hammer who was a greater Divine Power. Although he enjoyed a high reputation among the dwarfs and was respectfully addressed as ¡°Great Elder¡± by them, it did not mean that dwarfs would totally obey him when discussing important matters. They had never been scared of arguing with him. So it usually took more time for the dwarf gods to discuss some major issues. Sometimes, it was not surprising to see them talk about something for a year and a half or even three to five years. However, the Rune God went back to his God¡¯s Kingdom just a few days ago, and in these few days, he finished the discussion and even managed to come back to Sui Xiong with the token that the dwarf gods used to make an alliance. That was very efficient! Sui Xiong even wondered whether they had really come to a common conclusion after just a short discussion this time. He asked that question, and the answer was yes. Seeing the sample brought back by the Rune God, the dwarf gods took a little time to test it and decided that it was really useful and could make up for the biggest shortcoming of the Dwarf Breakers. It could also allow the mortal followers to be able to do something in the face of the Great Disintegration Spell. In that case, the matter was generally settled. Next, what the Rune God and Sui Xiong were mainly discussing were the ways and costs of this cooperation. ¡°I had been planning to make an alliance with you,¡± the Rune God said with regret. ¡°But after the reminder of the Great Elder, I realized that our dwarf gods were not good enough to do that. Even in the human world, our followers are not so helpful to your followers. Thus, making an alliance with you comes off as us just trying to take advantage of you. However, taking advantage of friends is definitely not our way of doing things. So we finally decided that we will send workers and materials to assist you and your followers in exchange for this special steel and its technology of production.¡± The Rune God laughed. ¡°To be more frank, we are willing to work for you, for the Republic, in exchange for the material and technology that is helpful to us.¡± What he had said was far beyond Sui Xiong¡¯s expectations. That gave Sui Xiong a new and precise understanding of the degree of the dwarfs¡¯ order-keeping spirit. Faced with such a great opportunity, the dwarf gods considered not only their own interests but also those of Sui Xiong. They thought carefully about whether the dealing was fair and were unwilling to take advantage of the other party, even though their current situation was not good. If they could get Sui Xiong as an ally this time, they could greatly improve their situation. It might be said that they were stubborn or silly, but behind that was something reliable to others. It was really nice to do business with such people. Thus, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help laughing after hearing the introduction of the Rune God. ¡°You are as stubborn and honest as the legend says,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°I¡¯ll surely become friends with you guys!¡± Chapter 549 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong valued friendship very much. Since he had decided to be friends with the dwarfs, he would no longer treat them as business partners. So he invited the Rune God with a smile, ¡°Would you like to visit my factory? I just built it.¡± The Rune God was certainly interested in that. The Void Mask had always been mysterious, but he had never done something blindly. Since he had introduced the factory so proudly, there must be something special about it. Thus, they went to the newly built factory and looked around carefully. ¡°It¡¯s wonderful!¡± The Rune God had been a master of mining, smelting and forging before he became a god, so he found the advantages of the factory at once. ¡°Though these means, the best iron ore can be selected. Then when it comes to iron making, the quality of the steel will be very good!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°Generally speaking, to make high-quality equipment, we need good steel, and that certainly needs high-quality iron ore. Before the process of iron making, those experienced miners and blacksmiths should carefully select the best ore to make good iron and then forge good equipment. But through my mineral processing factory, the selected iron ore is absolutely the best, and it takes very little time to do it. That is equivalent to having a group of top workers helping me to select the better ore, and with the blast furnace, we will get the best steel!¡± ¡°Of course!¡± The Rune God nodded, and his eyes turned bright. ¡°The best steel comes from the best iron ore!¡± ¡°With all due respect, the quality of iron ore in your Republic of Northwest is still not good enough. Although this processing method is used, the final product is still slightly brittle, isn¡¯t it? You have to find ways to reprocess it, right?¡± the Rune God smiled and asked. ¡°But if the iron ore from our Mountain of Broken Clouds is used, you will get the best ore in the world and then be able to make the best iron in the world!¡± Sui Xiong was surprised at that. He had never paid attention to the quality of iron ore. So he simply took the Rune God to Palin to find out more about that. Sui Xiong and the Rune God did not hide who they were. Learning that the famous Rune God was coming, Palin and the craftsmen were very excited, especially several dwarf craftsmen. If there was wine next to them, they would surely have a good drink to celebrate. When the Rune God spoke of his speculation, Palin and the craftsmen nodded with praise. ¡°You¡¯re right! In the past, the iron produced in our four towns has been somewhat brittle and so has the iron produced with the new machine this time. But we did a small experiment to mix various things into the hot iron and finally found a solution to the problem,¡± Palin said. ¡°Generally speaking, as long as several special minerals are added and melted in the hot iron in certain proportions, the hot iron will be purified and the final steel won¡¯t be brittle anymore.¡± The Rune God nodded slightly and did not ask questions like what minerals were used, what the proportion was and how to add them, etc. As a craftsman, he knew the rule of this industry and respected it very much. Since this technology was invented by Palin and his friends through hard work, it was supposed to be their secret. If he wanted to know it, he should pay enough to exchange for it. Moreover, he did not need this technology at all. The iron ore that the dwarfs got from the Mountain of Broken Clouds was much better in quality than that from the Ashes Woods, so there was no need to purify it like this. Then they went to see the smelting of the blast furnace. The finely selected, top-grade iron ore and various carefully calculated ingredients were put into the blast furnace, and then it was ignited and blasted. With the help of magic, the heat of the leftover coke was fully exerted, and soon, the furnace¡¯s temperature rose to a very high level. The mortals couldn¡¯t see through the furnace wall, so Palin and others had to use magic to observe what was going on in the furnace, but Sui Xiong and the Rune God could directly see with their eyes. They saw that the iron ore was gradually melting, and the impurities and those added ingredients were combined together and then turned into a foam-like slag, floating on the hot iron. Palin had to dump the slag out when it accumulated to a certain amount of slag, so it was inevitable for some hot iron to be wasted in the process. However, every time the slag was removed, the hot iron became purer. Finally, when Palin thought it was ok, he stopped heating. He poured the pure-enough hot iron into the prepared trough. Then the red-hot iron soon cooled down, turned into dark red hot steel, and eventually became a slightly rougher steel plate. This kind of steel plate needed to be polished smoothly before stamping. In order to demonstrate the whole process to the Rune God in a short time, Palin just used the steel plate that he had made before. The solid steel plate was firmly fixed on the base, and then the chain was moved by flowing water to lift the hammer slowly. The hammer would then fall down heavily. After a loud bang, the steel plate turned into the shape of the main part of the breastplate. ¡°That¡¯s how it works!¡± The Rune God fully understood. ¡°Technically speaking, it is not so difficult to learn, but the most precious part is the concept and idea behind it!¡± The Rune God then asked curiously, ¡°Who invented this method to use the power of the flowing water to lift a heavy hammer and stamp the steel plate directly into the shape of a breastplate?¡± ¡°His Majesty, the Void Mask, of course,¡± Palin answered. The Rune God smiled. He was not particularly surprised at that. No matter what the Void Mask did, the Rune God would not be surprised at all. Having seen the wonderful mineral processing factory just now, the Rune God had known that Sui Xiong was a master of crafting. Then what was so strange about a master who could invent a mineral processing machine to make a hydraulic press? The main part of the breastplate consisted of several pieces of armor plates on the chest and back. As for the supporting shoulder protectors, they were also made by this hydraulic press, but that could not be demonstrated today; the hydraulic press needed to be specially adjusted to make different armor plates. Palin usually adjusted the hydraulic press once a few days and produced a lot of armor plates at a time. If the quality of the armor plate was good, they would be assembled into armor. If the quality was not good, they would be sent to another smaller blast furnace to heat up into hot iron, and then they would be processed into steel plates again. That had already been a complete process, so Sui Xiong did not intend to make any changes to it. After looking at how to make armor plate with the hydraulic press, they finally came to the armor assembly workshop. Several experienced craftsmen and some young workers were busy here. Some armor plates and other materials for assembling were piled up here, and there were also some finished products. Each of these finished products was as plain as Sui Xiong had seen before. However, these pieces of armor were neatly displayed, sending out a naturally cool atmosphere that made people feel respected. ¡°This is the most important thing in the country!¡± The Rune God looked at the armor in neat rows and looked back at the series of blast furnaces as well as the factory. He couldn¡¯t help but praise with admiration, ¡°This is really the most important thing in the country!¡± Chapter 550 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care about the fame of making the most important thing in the country, but he was in favor of the Rune God¡¯s idea. The foundation of a country was no nothing more than military and civil affairs. To put it more bluntly, it was money and knives. Money was another matter. The knife just represented the military construction of a country. However, the army needed people, weapons and armor. Then where did weapons and armor come from? Most Hill Lords chose to purchase them from others. As for those slightly more powerful lords, they preferred to buy steel to make their own armor. Only the really powerful lords could produce everything by themselves, from the raw materials to the final product. For those who purchased weapons and armor from others, even if they had enough money, they would not be able to buy enough of them in a short period of time. Even if they could, the quality would not be guaranteed. Even if the quality was good, there would be wear and tear on the weapons and armor; it had always been troublesome to repair them and supply new ones. Therefore, only those who could produce their own weapons and armor were qualified to talk about things such as conquering other states and becoming the leader of the world. In this world, that was the same. For example, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was not a country, but different feudal territories built by dozens of businessmen and nobles. There had been endless attacks and fights between them for nearly 100 years. Finally, several major forces rose in the fight. They had their own smelting and forging workshops, as well as the ability to produce weapons and armor steadily. It was also true that with this kind of productivity, they could manage to defeat those old rivals in the war lasted nearly 100 years. It was just like the competition of being the leader in a pack; only the strongest ones could remain alive in the end. However, under the mediation of the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, these powerful forces did not have a final battle. They chose to compromise with each other and form a federation, and that was the current Commonwealth of Gold Coins. On one hand, none of them was confident enough to defeat the others and be the last remaining winner. On the other hand, Manissy¡¯s strategy helped a lot. There was not only mutual cooperation but also great contradictions and conflicts between monarchy and theocracy. In countries where monarchy was consolidated, theocracy was often weakened; in countries that had a stronger theocracy, they usually had a weaker monarchy. What the nobles pursued was obedience and honesty of their residents. They did not want a god who stood beside the residents and restricted the power of the nobles. Despite the actual benefits, the Hill Lords that used to be decisive always felt annoyed about the god¡¯s endless suggestions. As for the church, they wanted people to be devout to the god, and they wanted the Hill Lord to encourage such devotion and promote the construction of the church. However, a lecherous Hill Lord would obviously hinder the stable life of the people. and without a stable life, would there be the construction of a church? Moreover, when people had faith and a church, they would have an organization. Thus, would they be obedient to the rule of the Hill Lord? Would they live honestly under the oppression of the Hill Lord? Therefore, in the long history, the contradiction between monarchy and theocracy had been consistent. Neither of them had been the winner, and there had rarely been peace between them. Over the years, the biggest exception had been the Republic of Northwest. There, nobility was just an honor and did not represent any actual ruling power. The political activities of the Void Mask Church were strictly limited to the perspective of supervision and justice. Sui Xiong had never allowed the church to cross the line. For example, in every town, the Void Mask Church had a special job of collecting public opinions and suggestions about the government. These opinions and suggestions would be examined. If they were true, they would be summarized and transmitted to the government for processing. If the local government couldn¡¯t deal with them or people were unsatisfied with the results, the problems would be reported to the higher-level church and eventually directly to Sui Xiong¡¯s altar. Of course, there had never been such a big event in the past few years. On one hand, under the supervision of the church, officials were more cautious and honest in their work. On the other hand, the Republic of Northwest was currently under rapid development, so people were living quite a good life now, and they didn¡¯t have too many complaints. Thus, in the Republic of Northwest, theocracy, and monarchy, assuming they did exist here, coexisted with each other peacefully. Actually, they were even complementary to each other. However, even in the Mifata Federation, where there had been a better situation, the conflict between theocracy and monarchy was extremely serious. Various fights between the two constantly emerged, and even means such as assassination were frequently used. The fight between theocracy and monarchy had naturally hindered the development of the country. It was like that in a factory, where the leaders were divided into several parties. They were busy with setting traps or playing tricks on each other, and the workers didn¡¯t have enough food to eat or clothes to wear. There were complaints from the workers every now and then. In that case, it was totally impossible for the factory to seek any development. But the Republic of Northwest was just like this mineral processing factory in front of them. It was stable, strong and in good order. Everyone here was treated well, and they were all working hard for a better tomorrow. That brought a positive atmosphere here. The Rune God smiled calmly, and he didn¡¯t explain to Sui Xiong what ¡°the most important thing in the country¡± meant. In fact, to the Rune God, this factory was not the most important thing in the country. Although it could rapidly produce a large number of weapons and armor and could expand its scale in a short period of time, it was not. Instead, it was the positive atmosphere in the factory, the joy, self-confidence and positive attitude he had seen in the faces and hearts of the researchers and craftsmen. This was the most important thing in the country; this was what he had praised highly. I¡¯ve never seen such a scene before. This white-haired dwarf god smiled but sighed in his heart. Since the defeat of the dwarfs in the war, they had to retreat from the eastern plain, the most fertile land in the Main Plane, to the Mountain of Broken Clouds. Just like that, the positive atmosphere of their race was gone. Since then, the habit of drinking spread among the dwarfs. For many older dwarfs, instead of liking the taste of wine, they just gave themselves up to the wine so that they wouldn¡¯t think of the many years after the war or of their original homeland; then they wouldn¡¯t be sad. The Rune God was also an old dwarf of that generation. Even though he had become an immortal god, many past events were still clearly engraved in his heart. Not only him, but also the other dwarf gods were all thinking about where the future direction of the dwarfs would be. What on earth could they do to make their race develop again? Now, the Rune God saw hope in this big factory of the Republic of Northwest. The biggest problem of the dwarfs was that they had a small population. People were the most important productive force. With such a small population, they wouldn¡¯t have a large enough workforce. But in this factory, the number of workers was obviously much less than that of ordinary factories. According to his estimates, if the dwarfs wanted to build a factory of the same size as this, they would need at least three times as many workers! If they could save manpower in production, they would be able to have a stronger productive force with their current population. Perhaps that was the direction that the dwarf gods had been looking for! Chapter 551 Chapter 551: Chapter 91 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Although believers liked to sing praises to the gods and considered them omnipotent, in fact, gods were not omnipotent at all. For example, almost every god in the world could trace the past, but only a few gods could see the future. The future was confusing as if it were covered with thick fog, so it was difficult to see. It was easier when the gods were out of the way. When they were in the way, they couldn¡¯t see the future no matter how powerful they were. The Queen of Water Elements was almost the most powerful existence among the great Divine Powers. She was also the oldest god in the world today. She might even be the oldest existence in this world. However, even she couldn¡¯t see what her future would be like. If she had the so-called ¡°eyes that could see into the future,¡± she wouldn¡¯t have needed to design a big swirl that could shield the greater Divine Powers. She only dared to talk about those secrets with Sui Xiong. Moreover, if she could see into the future, she wouldn¡¯t have to try so hard to find a way to break through the limits of a great Divine Power. From this point of view, perhaps even the legendary God of Fate, who could see the future, was not that miraculous. The Rune God was relatively powerful among the dwarf gods. He was currently at the peak of mid-level Divine Power. If he tried harder, he could become a great Divine Power. Once he became a great Divine Power, there would be two great Divine Powers among the dwarf gods. At that time, the human gods would carefully consider whether it was necessary to continue to ask the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs to attack the Kingdom of Dwarfs. It was true that at the mortal level, dwarfs were completely unable to compete with the people of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. However, at the god level, the Dwarf God System had two great Divine Powers. They were not opponents that humans could easily defeat. After all, the arch-enemies of the human gods were always the Orc gods. If there were only one great Divine Power of the dwarf gods, the human gods could deal with that. However, there were two great Divine Powers. Along with the Orc gods, the human gods would have a fierce battle. Even if the human gods won, they would pay a huge price. Therefore, for the current dwarfs, they only had two ways: one, they would have to find a way to fight against the humans at the mortal level, or two, they would have to help the Rune God become a great Divine Power. They didn¡¯t have a third way to get out of trouble. The Rune God quickly returned to the Dwarf God System. He told everyone what he had seen and heard. ¡°They replace manpower with machines. It is indeed possible to greatly reduce the pressure caused by insufficient manpower in production,¡± the Rune God said. The King of Hills, the god who presided over the national government of the dwarf gods, pondered for a long time; then he said, nodding, ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. We should learn and promote it!¡± ¡°That¡¯s a huge favor!¡± the Great Elder said, sighing. Although in theory, the Great Elder should be immortal, but he was old like an old stump; he usually didn¡¯t move much. ¡°We must remember the good things that our friend has done. We should find a way to repay him.¡± The gods all nodded seriously. However, when they discussed how to repay him, they all had nothing to say. As for money, the richness of the Republic of Northwest was well known. In the Fighter Championship that was held every ten or twenty years, the bonus alone would attract countless people. It was said that Rio, the champion of the third Fighter Championship, had been robbed more than 20 times on his way back to the Machinery Realm from Void City. If his friend Phileo hadn¡¯t persuaded him to ask for help from the Void Mask, he might have lost his life along with his bonus. Rio was a strong man who was about to enter the Legendary Realm! The amount of money he had could be imagined. The Republic of Northwest could offer such a bonus every ten or twenty years. Did they care about money? In addition to money, the dwarfs were proudest of their forging techniques. About one-third of the most famous artifacts in the world today were created by dwarfs. It would also be a good way to repay the Void Mask if they created a powerful artifact for him. However, to be honest, they all thought that the Void Mask was too powerful. He didn¡¯t need any artifacts. This was not to say that Sui Xiong didn¡¯t need weapons. However, his unique skill was to detonate himself twice in a row, and he could do this continuously. Even if he owned all the artifacts in this world, the artifacts would be useless. His self-detonation power was too great, so no artifact could be preserved in that kind of attack. For example, the famous self-detonation cars on Earth were used for bombing, so no one would use luxury cars that were worth millions. Durable and cheap trucks were good to use, so vans were not bad. It was okay to use small off-road vehicles at most. The second solution couldn¡¯t work. The dwarf gods looked at each other for a while, not knowing what to do. In the face of a friend who was wealthy and powerful, they really couldn¡¯t think of a good way to repay him. In fact, as everyone knew, the Republic of Northwest was now extremely short of citizens. They had to summon a lot of skeletons and use them as laborers. However, the Kingdom of Dwarfs was also short of citizens, even more so than the Republic of Northwest. The Republic of Northwest was only short on workers, but the Kingdom of Dwarfs was short on soldiers. If they were short on workers, then they could wait. However, if they were short of soldiers, they really couldn¡¯t wait. In other words, the Kingdom of Dwarfs wanted to wait, but the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs didn¡¯t agree. After some discussions, the Great Elder finally put forward the most reliable solution. He said, ¡°They may lack excellent craftsmen and technicians¡ªafter we adopt their methods, we can save a group of people. So we can send those people to help them train craftsmen. That can be regarded as our appreciation. Of course, this is not enough to repay his help. However, it is better than nothing, isn¡¯t it?¡± The dwarf gods discussed it some more and agreed on the suggestion. Then, the Kingdom of Dwarfs started a large-scale industrial reform. The first reform was about mineral processing. The dwarfs couldn¡¯t make electromagnet concentrators because they didn¡¯t have the special iron that Sui Xiong owned, but they could buy the machines from Sui Xiong. Because of the large scale of mining, the dwarf gods ordered one hundred concentrators at once. If mortals received such a huge order, they might need more than a year. However, both the dwarf gods and Sui Xiong were not going to use the mortal method. The dwarfs couldn¡¯t wait that long, so Sui Xiong produced it for them personally. He only needed a few days to produce the concentrators. He even went to visit the God¡¯s Kingdoms of the dwarf gods again and delivered the concentrators to their doors. A home delivery service was necessary on Earth in block trades. Moreover, when people bought things for their family members online, the shipping fee was usually free. The mobile company advertisements always started with ¡°Beautiful living environments, with spring blossoms; use 4 Mb/s broadband, order food online and have it delivered to your door.¡± In short, for Sui Xiong, this wasn¡¯t a problem. However, the dwarf gods were moved by his action. Sui Xiong felt pleased, but he was also surprised by the backwardness of the service industry in this world. After the mineral processing, they thought about furnaces. The iron ore of the dwarfs was very good, and they had suitable furnaces. Although it was impossible to produce special steel like that in the Republic of Northwest, they could produce ordinary steel. Reforming furnaces was not an overnight effort, and the dwarfs couldn¡¯t wait. After the furnaces, they thought about the hydraulic presses. These were not difficult to build. There were many rivers in the Mountain of Broken Clouds, and those rivers were enough to build several hydraulic presses. Moreover, they didn¡¯t contain much technical content, just little tricks that could be understood easily. The Rune God had only looked at it and completely understood its structure. Finally, it was on to manufacturing in pieces and then assembling in general. This was Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion. In his opinion, the production method currently used by the dwarfs was still too traditional. For example, according to their method, a craftsman would lead a few assistants to make a set of armor. The craftsman would build various parts of the armor in person and then assemble them with his own hands. There was nothing wrong with this method, but it was too slow. Under the suggestion of Sui Xiong, the dwarfs changed the production process. They divided the craftsmen into several groups, and each group produced a certain part of the armor and finally assembled them. As a result, production efficiency was greatly improved. The dwarfs were amazed. Originally, increasing the speed often meant lowering the quality. However, after using Sui Xiong¡¯s method, the speed was improved, but the quality was not reduced at all. On the contrary, because the craftsmen only focused on a specific part, the quality was getting better and better. Sui Xiong lived with the dwarf gods for half a month. When he left, he not only gained the dwarf gods¡¯ gratitude but also their friendship. Moreover, he gained a group of senior craftsmen and technicians from the Kingdom of Dwarfs in the mountains. Chapter 552 Chapter 552: Chapter 92 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio All the time, Sui Xiong had felt that the New Oriental Comprehensive Technical School in Void City was unworthy of its name. Its name was a technical school, so it should be a school for technical training. However, in the school he started, students learned about culture, science, accountancy and calculation, herbal medicine and cooking. However, no one could teach the students mechanical engineering and mining. In the technical schools on Earth, students could take the basic courses, such as how to be lathe and bench workers. In Lanxiang, a famous technical school in China, students took more difficult courses. Students could learn about car operation, car repairing and building. There were all kinds of construction machinery courses like excavating, bulldozing and paving. That was a technical school! Sui Xiong was not dissatisfied with the achievements of his own New Oriental, a ¡°cheap copy¡± of the New Oriental Comprehensive Technical School. However, without mechanical majors, he felt that this technical school was incomplete and lacked vital content. Now, with the arrival of these craftsmen and technicians from the Kingdom of Dwarfs, he could finally make up for this deficiency! ¡°What? The work assigned to us by the Void Mask is¡­ to be teachers?!¡± Hara Hill said. He was the leader of the group of dwarf craftsmen and technicians and the younger brother of the king of the contemporary Kingdom of Dwarfs. He was stunned and looked at Liv Parne with a confused look. Liv was conveying the command to them. Hara asked again, ¡°Who will be the students?¡± Liv had just married recently. She was not young and reckless like the time when she had first met Sui Xiong, Leon and Steele. She was now calm and virtuous, and she was full of heroism because of her long-time adventures. Her eyes looked like her mother¡¯s, Madame Teague, but her temperament was vaguely like her father, Knight Parne. Seeing the confused sturdy dwarf in front of her, she smiled softly and then explained it in detail. After her explanation, Hara Hill was even more confused. He was an excellent blacksmith and an excellent miner. He was also a master of manufacturing and machinery maintaining. He was a brave Sacred Warrior, a descendant of the King of Hills. However, he was never a teacher. Well, in dwarf society, how did a teacher teach his students? Hara tried to recall that. First, he would need to get a wooden stick that was thick and firm enough. Then he would need to prepare a lot of wine. After these two things were ready, he would go to work with the little guys who wanted to learn his skills. If they did well, he would give them wine. If they didn¡¯t do well, he would hit them with the wooden stick. Hara looked at his hands with a guilty conscience. His hands had super strength. When they were holding a shield, Hara could resist a charge launched by a demon beast that was as tall as four or five people. When his hands were holding an axe, Hara could cut a heavily armored warrior in half. If I use a wooden stick to hit the weak humans who don¡¯t wear armor¡­ I will kill them. Definitely! Obviously, the traditional education model of the dwarfs that he knew was definitely not suitable for this place. So, how should he be a teacher? So difficult! Therefore, Hara asked, frowning, ¡°Is there any other work that suits me? I am such a powerful Sacred Warrior. It is a waste to ask me to be a teacher.¡± ¡°Because you are so powerful, you have to be our teacher,¡± Liv said with a smile. ¡°Correctly speaking, we want to invite you to be the vice president of our technical school. You will be responsible for mechanical engineering and mining courses. Of course, you also need to teach the elite class.¡± ¡°But I really don¡¯t know how to teach humans¡­¡± ¡°No one was born knowing everything. Compared to others, at least you are more capable. Your starting point is a lot higher than that of others,¡± Liv said. ¡°Excuse me, among the craftsmen and technicians who come from afar, are you at the highest level and the best at technology?¡± Hara nodded; Dwarfs didn¡¯t know how to be modest. ¡°That¡¯s right. If you can¡¯t be the vice president, who else can?¡± Hara was not good at talking. Hearing Liv¡¯s words, he could only accept the result and honestly think about how to be a teacher. The work of the Republic of Northwest was very efficient. In less than half a month, new school buildings were built. To supplement their education, Sui Xiong created a mining pit for them. The pit was built according to a real mine pit; the ground, stones, and the vein were all built the same way. For that, he even used his extraordinary Divine Power technique, ¡°Shaping All Things¡±¡ªthe cost was high. This man-made mine pit had been well received by the dwarf teachers. Everyone said that with such good conditions, at least in mining and mineral processing, they could certainly teach well. In contrast, in the field of mechanical engineering and forging, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t give them much help. He provided them with high-quality forging furnaces and various tools, but besides that, he really couldn¡¯t help much. He wanted to produce all kinds of machine tools that existed on Earth. Even if he could only produce the simplest ones, it would be good. However, in these fields, he knew nothing. He didn¡¯t know about the structures of machine tools. Even if various machine tools were put in front of him, he wouldn¡¯t be able to recognize them. In painting, sculpture, costume design, building construction, interior design, and even antique identification, Sui Xiong could be regarded as an expert. However, in industry, he really knew nothing. For example, if a chemist went to plant a field of vegetables, he would not be able to do anything. It would be better to find an old farmer to do it. Fortunately, the dwarfs were experts. Even the youngest one had been engaged in blacksmith or mining for more than 40 years. For them, these tools were enough. After practicing, the dwarf teachers determined that all the necessary things were prepared. They could recruit students now. In fact, most of them were still a little worried. They worried that they might mislead and cause harm to the young men. But they didn¡¯t need to be worried. In general, most people who had such worries would not mislead the young men. The New Oriental Technical School built a new campus to teach techniques such as forging and mining. This admission notice was quickly spread throughout the Republic of Northwest and also to nearby countries. Soon after, people who were interested came to the New Oriental Technical School. Because these courses would be hard and dangerous, the tuition was much lower. It was basically equivalent to being free of charge. The New Oriental Technical School even offered accommodation. However, after the completion of the courses, the students had to work for the Republic of Northwest for five years before they left. Of course, they would get paid during these five years. Such conditions could only be considered as so-so in Sui Xiong¡¯s mind. However, for the people in this world, it was beyond their imagination. There were many young people signing up, including a lot of Orcs. To be correct¡ªHalf-Orcs. Sui Xiong was very puzzled about this. Why did the Half-Orcs take the risk of being buried in the Gobi Desert to learn about technology in the Republic of Northwest? Were there any big moves being made in the Orc Empire? Sui Xiong changed into his human appearance and went to the Orc Empire to find out the reasons. As a result, he found that he was completely wrong. There were no big moves being made in the Orc Empire. These Half-Orcs who came to learn about technology really just wanted to learn some skills so that they could feed their family. Chapter 553 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the Orc Empire, the Half-Orcs were an embarrassing group. Unlike the fantasy novels that Sui Xiong had read before, in this world, the distinction between the Orcs and the Half-Orcs was based on their blood, not their faith. The Orcs were the creations or descendants of the Orc gods. Because of the influence of their blood, they had been born as the believers of the Orc gods. Their souls were controlled by the Orc gods. This situation was unique. Although the creator of other races also had a strong influence, they definitely couldn¡¯t control the souls of their creations. For example, the Mother of Sea, the creator of humans, had little control and influence over the humans. That was why she had been killed by the God of Light. Because their souls were influenced and controlled, the Orcs believed faithfully in the Orc gods. However, this situation was not absolute. Sometimes, some Orcs would wake up for various reasons and could get rid of the control of the Orc gods. In the Orc Empire, this was called Deterioration. There were also some mixed-race children who had the blood of the Orcs and of other races. Because of the insufficient blood concentration, they were naturally not controlled by the Orc gods. Whether congenital or acquired, once their souls were freed from the control of the Orc gods, they were called Half-Orcs. In the Orc Empire, the situation of the Half-Orcs was not good. Even if they still believed in the Orc gods, the Orc gods wouldn¡¯t respond to them. For the Orc gods, believers who weren¡¯t under their control were not qualified believers. They treated such believers in the same way how farmers treated weeds on the roadside. They might consider eating them during a famine, but they would never put them on their recipe. For devout believers, it was a very painful thing to have their faith be ignored. However, they had to suffer more pain. The Orcs didn¡¯t have a friendly relationship with these types of believers. In the past years, more than one campaign for slaughtering the Half-Orcs in order to purify their faith had happened. Every time, it had caused thousands and even tens of thousands of Half-Orcs to be massacred. Fortunately, this situation hadn¡¯t happened in the last one hundred to two hundred years. That was probably because Junero, the ambitious and outstanding leader, was secretly controlling the public opinion. However, even Junero was not friendly to the Half-Orcs. Not only did they suffer heavy exploitation and oppression, but also in the wars, they were organized into a single group. They were asked to carry out the most difficult and dangerous tasks, but the reward was not much. Half-Orcs were not idiots nor were they masochistic. Therefore, many Half-Orcs changed their past beliefs after being educated by their cruel reality. They also changed their lifestyle and left their homeland, going far away to a new place. In the continent of the Main Plane, the Half-Orcs were the most common wandering race. These wanderers had the blood of the Orcs, but they couldn¡¯t get their creators¡¯ response like the Orcs. Among these confused wanderers were the best mercenaries and the most ferocious robbers. After losing their faith, a small number of powerful Half-Orcs regarded honor as their life creed. According to their behavior, even the proudest knights had to admit that they were upright and noble. However, many powerful Half-Orcs completely indulged in material desires after the collapse of their faith. They became ferocious robbers and did evil things everywhere. A large number of Half-Orcs had no ability. They couldn¡¯t do good things nor evil things. They lived ignorantly, constantly wandering and working part-time. After saving some money, they continued to wander to find a place where they could have peace of mind. However, most of those Half-Orcs couldn¡¯t find a place where they could feel at ease. They could only grow old during the constant wandering and finally die in poverty. In general, most Half-Orcs were very unhappy. They were eager to find a place where they could live and work or learn something that could make themselves feel safe and live better. In recent times, the climate of the Orc Empire was not very good. Although there were no large-scale natural disasters, the grain harvest has been declining. It was said that this was because the new generation of the Sun God had a good relationship with the human gods. The Sun God deliberately embarrassed them. Moreover, after the fall of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, this priesthood hadn¡¯t been inherited. In the past, the Orc gods had often given the Goddess of Bumper Harvest a lot of benefits in exchange for the fertility of the Orc Prairies. Relying on the richness that they had purchased, they could maintain a large number of the Orcs. Since the death of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, they couldn¡¯t buy any more crops. The Orc Prairies had lost its extra abundance and the population that it could support had naturally reduced. In the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, a lot of Orcs had died. A large number of the population was eliminated. Otherwise, the situation of the Orc Empire might be even worse, and the population pressure might be even greater. When the population pressure was greater, food was naturally insufficient. When food was insufficient, the Half-Orcs would be the first to starve. In recent years, many Half-Orcs had even starved to death. So this time, when they heard that the new technical school in the Republic of Northwest didn¡¯t have tuition fees, a large number of relatively strong Half-Orcs went to the Republic of Northwest. Regardless of danger, they followed the merchants, who preferred money over life, to go through the desert and through the canyons of the Mountains of Barrenness. In the Republic of Northwest, they met their fellow villagers, the Half-Orcs who had lived here for a long time. The Republic of Northwest didn¡¯t discriminate against the Half-Orcs. Sui Xiong was usually very kind, but he was quite strict in front of some problems, one of them was racial discrimination. This was not a policy established after the founding of the Republic. It had been a basic national policy since the establishment of the Church of Void Mask and the establishment of the Void Mask Land. In the Republic of Northwest, racial discrimination was a high tension cable. Anyone who stepped on it would be shocked by electricity. This was not a description or a metaphor. The penalties of the Republic of Northwest really had an electricity penalty. Sui Xiong was inspired by a guy who had a bad reputation on Earth. That guy¡¯s name was Yang Yongxin, and he believed that electric shocks could cure internet addiction. The penalty was used to punish the people who had problems in thinking, and racial discrimination was one of the key problems. Over time, everyone¡¯s attitude naturally changed. In the current Republic of Northwest, many Half-Orcs were living here. A few of them had moved here before, and most of them were born and raised here. In theory, the Republic of Northwest and the Orc Empire were neighbors. However, they were actually separated by the world-famous dangerous area, the Gobi Desert. For common Half-Orcs, that was like a natural moat blocking their way. Therefore, in the past few years, few Half-Orcs had moved here from the Orc Empire. Now the Half-Orcs in the Republic of Northwest had either moved from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins in the South or were the relatives and friends of the Half-Orc masters. Among them, even the relatively weak ones had left their home and wandered for a while in the past. Mentally, they were much stronger than the Half-Orcs who had just left the Orc Empire. Besides, they had lived in the Republic for a long time. They had been influenced by the enlightened, friendly and positive atmosphere here. Their mental attitude was completely different from that of the newcomers. The bigger difference was between them and the new generation who was born and raised in the Republic from an early age. During their childhood, those Half-Orcs had never been taught that ¡°only the ones who believe in the creators can really gain happiness¡± and had never suffered any discrimination. On the contrary, because of their respective blood, they often had some advantages in different parts of their bodies. Some were tall and sturdy, and some had great physical strength; some were agile, and some were very fast. They behaved well among their peers, so they were full of confidence. There was a happy and positive atmosphere around them as if they were in a state of high morale. When those Half-Orcs were standing alongside those Half-Orcs who had recently moved here, they looked like two completely different races. Although their appearances were similar, their temperaments were totally different. Just in a few decades, I¡¯ve got such a result, Sui Xiong thought. He was invisible in the air, looking at these different Half-Orcs. He couldn¡¯t help but smile, feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride in his heart. Chapter 554 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong had the qualifications to be proud. In a world where racial discrimination was prevalent, he had established a country that allowed all races to live in peace, get along with each other well. He had eliminated discrimination and hatred. This was a great achievement. But he was not satisfied. Before he had space traveled here, he had participated in a game design project where the theme was anti-racism. The player had played as a Native American in the game. The character had united with various natural souls and progressive forces from various nationalities to resist the brutal British invaders. They had maintained the vast land of North America and used spears and spells to reject the exploitation of ¡°civilization.¡± He had been one of the painters at that time, but he had also read the storyline. At the end of the second chapter of the plot, the character had raised the banner with his friends to establish the anti-British base. An article had been put there. Apparently, the article had been written by a talented person who was highly praised by a propaganda leader. There were no stories or references in it, no boring stereotypes, and no empty words. The simple and sincere words had touched the hearts of the people. At that time, Sui Xiong and all the staff were also very touched. Everyone had been looking forward to the real launch of this game. They had been looking forward to the players¡¯ reaction after seeing this scenario. However, there was no gain without pain. When Sui Xiong had space traveled here, the game had still been stuck in the final review. The reason was that it ¡°insinuated reality.¡± According to the opinions of the industry experts, it would be best to change the background to a different world. Sui Xiong really came to a different world now. When he thought about how to deal with the problem of racial discrimination, he naturally thought of that article. He originally had some hesitations and considered whether he should respect the traditions of this world. After thinking of that article, he made up his mind. A good tradition was a tradition, but a bad tradition was just a bad habit! When he had been on Earth, he had been a painter with no influence over world affairs. He couldn¡¯t do anything about the many bad habits in the world. However, now he was one of the best masters among the gods. Why should he compromise? Why should he give in to bad habits? Tradition! Go to Hell! I, Sui Xiong, don¡¯t like you, so I¡¯ll change you! Therefore, he finally decided to abolish racial discrimination forcibly. He would complete this project even if he had to use his iron hands. Now his efforts indeed gained some results. He established a country where, at least, there was no racial discrimination on the surface. Then, in the next step, he would gradually expand his influence. He would try his best to make racism in this whole world become history. After thousands of years, when scholars saw this world, they would wonder why the ancients were so backward, ignorant and barbaric. This was not an easy task. It would take a lot of time, and there would be a lot of resistance. However, Sui Xiong had a lot of time and strength. The key point was that he was not in a hurry, and he could take it slow. He could push forward little by little and spread civilization little by little. Even if it would take thousands of years, he could afford the wait. The green floating jellyfish smiled and looked at the bustling registration crowd. The number of people who signed up this time was bigger than any time in the past. As estimated, the ¡°three free¡± policy, ¡°free accommodation, free tuition, and free allocation,¡± attracted them. ¡°There were no good conditions like this before,¡± a half-elf said, laughing. He was sorting out the registration materials. ¡°I remember in the first accounting course, the tuition fee was not expensive, and there were accommodation subsidies, but students still needed to spend some money.¡± ¡°Yeah, but a lot of people also came at that time, just a bit fewer than this time,¡± a staff member who had a lot of white hair said. ¡°I remember that I was quite young at that time. Suddenly, I am so old now. Look at you, you are still young. The blood of elves is really good!¡± ¡°Not good! Your grandson is at school. I have been married for 30 years. I don¡¯t even have a child yet!¡± ¡°There are no things that are best in both aspects in this world. You live a long life. You can always have a few children during your lifetime.¡± ¡°Thank you for your good words,¡± the half-elf said, smiling and nodding. He picked up the pile of sorted materials, walked around the corner along the gallery, and walked towards the distant data room. Because he was turning back and speaking, he wasn¡¯t looking where he was going. He bumped into a short Half-Orc. The half-elf and the Half-Orc were not strong, so they both suffered pain. They stumbled backward and fell to the ground, the organized papers scattered in a mess around them. ¡°Sorry!¡± the short Half-Orc said. He had a strange pointed nose, and he was so scared that his face was pale. He hurriedly apologized, and his long ears swayed back and forth. It was really embarrassing. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault. I wasn¡¯t looking where I was going. I deserved that,¡± the half-elf said, smiling and shaking his head. After comforting the Half-Orc, he looked at the materials on the ground and sighed deeply. ¡°Old Dodin, sometimes I really miss the time when we adventured together!¡± the half-elf said. ¡°Although we were poor and in danger, at least we didn¡¯t have so much complicated work!¡± His friend Dodin, the man with a lot of white hair, said with a smile, ¡°At that time, we were worried because we didn¡¯t have enough work. After finishing one meal, we had to think about how to get our next meal. We never thought that we would complain about too much work one day.¡± The half-elf also smiled. He stood up and pulled up the Half-Orc who was still sitting on the ground. Then he was about to pick up the materials that had fallen on the ground, but he was suddenly stunned. He began to look at the Half-Orc with fixed eyes. Dodin put his own things on the ground, and then bent over to help him pick up the materials. Seeing the half-elf in shock, Dodin curiously asked, ¡°What happened? What¡¯s wrong with this little guy? You know him?¡± The half-elf shook his head, and then he asked, ¡°What kind of Half-Orc are you? Half fox or rabbit?¡± Dodin knew the half-elf¡¯s meaning. He turned his head and saw that the little Half-Orc had rabbit¡¯s ears, but he also had a fox¡¯s pointed nose. His appearance was very weird. ¡°Hm? If you didn¡¯t mention that, I wouldn¡¯t have noticed!¡± Dodin said. He also curiously walked up to the Half-Orc and carefully looked at the nervous little guy. ¡°Usually, the children of two different races will have clear racial tendencies. A marginal type between two races is rare. Even if there is such a type, they would normally be the children of two Orcs who have similar bloodlines. A fox and a rabbit¡­ they are so different. They could also give birth to a marginal child? I have never heard of that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s doesn¡¯t matter whether you¡¯ve never seen it or not. Seeing is believing, after all,¡± the half-elf said. Hearing their words, the short Half-Orc was more nervous. He lowered his head, and his body was shivering. ¡°Oh! Do we scare you?¡± the half-elf asked. He was more sensitive, so he sensed his nervousness. The half-elf apologized hurriedly, ¡°Sorry! But we don¡¯t mean to harm you. We are just¡­ a little surprised.¡± ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re just surprised,¡± Dodin also hurriedly explained. ¡°You don¡¯t need to be nervous. In the Republic, no one will discriminate against you because of your appearance and race.¡± ¡°If someone dares to do that, you can report it to the people of the Church of Void Mask, the priests who have painted jellyfishes on their robes on the street,¡± the half-elf said. ¡°They will give that person electroshock therapy. Not even his mother can recognize them after that!¡± ¡°Or he can¡¯t even recognize his mother after the electric shocks,¡± Dodin said, joking. ¡°The last time, I saw a guy bullying a gnome, and then he was given electroshock therapy in public. I saw blue and white electric lights lingering around on his body with a buzzing sound. Everyone was amazed. Some people even yelled, ¡®He¡¯s gone up to heaven.''¡± The two cooperated with each other perfectly. They echoed each other just like a comic dialogue. Although it was not funny at all, it dispelled the fear of the short Half-Orc successfully. The Half-Orc finally laughed. ¡°Thank you!¡± he said. He stood up and thanked the two people. ¡°I¡¯ve come to sign up for the technical school. Is this the right place?¡± ¡°Yes, you¡¯re in the right place,¡± the half-elf said, nodding. He pointed to the corner and said, ¡°Turn around this corner, you will see the recruitment table.¡± ¡°According to your stature though, I am afraid that you may fail,¡± Dodin said, shaking his head. ¡°This time, we¡¯re recruiting craftsmen and miners. This work needs strength. I am afraid you won¡¯t be able to do it.¡± ¡°I can do it well!¡± the short Half-Orc said stubbornly. ¡°Other people use 10% of their strength, but I will use 20% of my strength. Others work for an hour, and I will work for two hours. As long as I am diligent enough, I can always do something well.¡± The two former adventurers looked at each other, and then they nodded and smiled. ¡°Little guy, what is your name?¡± Dodin asked. ¡°Maybe after a few years, we will be colleagues.¡± ¡°Hopes,¡± the short Half-Orc replied. ¡°My name is Hopes Wilder. Thank you for your guidance.¡± He took brisk paces and quickly turned around the corner. Seeing him, Dodin said to himself, sighing, ¡°Not many Half-Orcs have family names. What is the origin of this little guy?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what his origin is,¡± the half-elf who had once had a noble family name said with a smile. ¡°In this country, what matters is not the past, but the future.¡± Chapter 555 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Name?¡± ¡°Hopes Wilder.¡± ¡°Gender?¡± ¡°Male.¡± ¡°Really? Buddy, we don¡¯t discriminate against women here.¡± ¡°I am a man!¡± A Half-Orc behind in the line said, laughing, ¡°You can just take off your pants and prove it!¡± Hopes suddenly blushed, but he didn¡¯t dare to argue with the others. He was really embarrassed. As a result, the clerk responsible for registration helped him. The clergy said, ¡°Hah hah, you don¡¯t need to. You look delicate. Age?¡± ¡°Sixteen years old.¡± ¡°Too young, and your body is thin and small. To be honest, you really don¡¯t suit these courses. Why not consider accounting or cooking?¡± ¡°I have no money.¡± The clerk was sturdy like a bull. He was actually a Half-Orc with huge bull horns. Looking at a frustrated Hopes, he said, smiling, ¡°No money is not a problem. When I first came to Void City, I didn¡¯t have a single copper coin. I was worse than you at that time. At least you have good clothes. I just had a pair of broken shorts¡­¡± He was about to continue, and a colleague next to him coughed and interrupted him. ¡°Sectary, don¡¯t talk about your old stories. There are people waiting in line.¡± The clerk smiled. He continued to ask, ¡°So, little Wilder, are you sure you want to sign up?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Hopes said firmly. ¡°I want to learn technology and then support myself! The clerk and his colleague beside looked at each other, and then they nodded. The clerk asked again, ¡°So, what are you going to learn? This year, we recruit the following majors: firstly, miners and mineral processors; secondly, smelting craftsmen and blacksmiths; thirdly, armor craftsmen and leather craftsmen; and finally, mechanical craftsmen.¡± Hopes didn¡¯t expect that he would have so many choices. He was stunned. After thinking for a while, he asked, ¡°Which one is most suitable for me?¡± ¡°To be honest, none is suitable for you,¡± Clerk Sectary said, sighing. ¡°Even if you do the relatively easy work, your figure is too¡­ Let me give you an example. If you are a leather craftsman, the main thing you need to do is to be careful. There is not much demand for strength, but you must at least be able to pick up a piece of whole-body armor and shake it to check the quality.¡± He said, shaking his head, ¡°You are shorter than a piece of half-body armor!¡± Hearing his words, Hopes was frustrated, but he still refused to give up. He asked, ¡°Is there any work that demands less height and strength?¡± ¡°Mineral processing may be a good choice,¡± Sectary¡¯s colleague who worked as the assistant said. He was a fat Half-Orc who might be a Catmen or a leopard man. ¡°As long as you are familiar with minerals and you are careful, the rest will not be a problem.¡± ¡°I am good at these things!¡± Hopes said loudly. He was so happy that his ears, which had slouched, sprung up. Looking at Hopes and the other applicants behind him who were urging them to hurry up, Sectary shrugged his shoulders and filled in the last line of the registration form. ¡°Finally, sign your name,¡± he said, handing the registration form and the ink pen to Hopes. Hopes took the pen and the paper, but suddenly he stopped his action. He whispered, ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know how to write.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if you can¡¯t write. In the past, I couldn¡¯t, either,¡± Sectary said, smiling. He took out a bright red inkpad. ¡°Press your fingerprints here. It¡¯s the same as signing your name.¡± According to his request, Hopes put the five fingers of his right hand on the ink pad, and then he pressed his five fingerprints in the place where the signature should be made, completing the entire process of the registration. After saying goodbye to the enthusiastic clerk, he walked out of the technical school. Looking at the crowds coming and going in the big square, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit confused. There is still some time between the registration process and the start of the term. I have no money, how can I solve the problem of eating and living? The problem of living is easy to solve. Void City is very warm. The grass next to the streets looks soft enough to be a bed, but where can I find food? Should I eat grass? Most likely, I can only eat grass. His rabbit bloodline had brought a lot of trouble to himself these years. However, thanks to it, he could at least eat grass when he was hungry, If I were a purebred fox, I would probably have starved to death. Hopes laughed at himself. It was still early, so he didn¡¯t hurry to rest. He started wandering around. His speed was very fast. After a short time, he arrived in the northern part of Void City, the famous Tree of God Square. From the intersection on the southern side of the square, he could clearly see the tree trunk of the Tree of God. The trunk was so thick and huge that it was beyond his imagination. Its crown was like a green cloud on the horizon. People could see it clearly from far away. Hopes curiously walked toward the Tree of God. After a short time, he found that many people were lying on the open space below the Tree of God. Some women wearing white clothes with a red cross painted on their shoulders or chests were busy. It seemed that those women were checking their bodies or treating their wounds. After getting closer, he was surprised to find that those lying people were all Half-Orcs! To be correct, it was a group of Pigmen with big beards. He was a little timid, so he suddenly stopped his pace. He didn¡¯t dare to get closer, so he just found a fat man who looked kind nearby. ¡°What¡­ what is going on here?¡± Hopes asked. The fat man was not clear about that, but he caught Hopes¡¯ arm and expressed that he would take him to ask about it. Hopes didn¡¯t expect that the fat man would be so enthusiastic. He suddenly started to panic. He wanted to struggle, but the fat man had such great strength that he couldn¡¯t leave the fat man¡¯s hand. In desperation, he had to follow the fat man to the base of the Tree of God where the busy women and the lying Pigmen were. ¡°Hello, Jane, I¡¯ve come to visit,¡± the fat man said, smiling. He said hello to a woman in white. ¡°What are you busy with?¡± ¡°What? You know her?¡± Hopes asked. He was stunned. ¡°Weird! How can I not know my own wife?¡± the fat man said with a smile. ¡°If she wasn¡¯t here, I wouldn¡¯t have run down to ask questions. Would I just flirt with a little girl like that?¡± Hopes knew that he was being teased. He was a little angry, but he was more curious. He really wanted to know what was going on here. ¡°Don¡¯t mention that!¡± the woman named Jane said. She was very beautiful, and her figure was also very good. However, her eyes made Hopes believe that she was powerful. She said, sighing, ¡°They are a group of refugees who crossed the desert with the trade caravans not long ago. They¡¯ve come to us for shelter.¡± ¡°Refugees? How can they be like this?¡± the fat man asked in surprise. ¡°Look at them, they are seriously injured. They should have been left on the road by the trade caravans.¡± This topic was a bit cruel, but it was the truth. The journey across the desert was very difficult. Even if the caravan members were heavily injured or seriously ill, they would be left behind, let alone the refugees who just followed the caravans. When Hopes was journeying to the Republic of Northwest, he had seen an ill man being left behind on the road. The man had cried and begged, but it had been useless. In the end, a guard had given him mercy and killed him without pain. ¡°They were not injured when they arrived,¡± Jane said, sighing. ¡°However, they had a conflict with the local Half-Orcs here.¡± ¡°A conflict?¡± the fat man said, looking at the group of Pigmen. ¡°They are quite strong. How could they be beaten like this?¡± ¡°They said mean words and offended too many people,¡± Jane said. ¡°It¡¯s still a problem of faith. They think that the Half-Orcs who don¡¯t believe in the Orc gods are sinful¡­ You understand what I mean, right?¡± ¡°I understand! They deserve the pain,¡± the fat man said, nodding. The compassion on his face suddenly disappeared. ¡°They deserve it! Let them learn their lesson. The Republic doesn¡¯t allow religious persecution!¡± ¡°Three of them were killed on the spot, and the rest are all here,¡± Jane said, sighing. ¡°The Tree of God is full of vitality, and that is good for their recovery. When they fully recover, they will receive the subsequent punishment.¡± Hopes was stunned. He asked, ¡°Since you will punish them, why do you treat them now?¡± Jane was looking at him confusedly as if she was looking at a monster. She said, ¡°Punishment is for making people become better. They didn¡¯t commit any unforgivable felony. If we don¡¯t treat them, they will die.¡± Hopes had thought for a long time before he understood what she meant. The Republic of Northwest wouldn¡¯t let those who committed crimes off the hook, but it would still give them the due care. The bearded Pigmen were frowning and moaning because of the pain, but they behaved well. Looking at them, Hopes couldn¡¯t help but smile. This country was even better than he had imagined. Chapter 556 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It had to be admitted that living on grass was indeed a great advantage. A few days later, when the vocational school announced its enrollment list, Hopes came back to the school again. He looked energetic with a ruddy face while wearing his worn clothes. He felt the sufficient life energy of the Tree of God, so he just lived under it these days. He ate the grass on the ground and some leaves that were blown down by the wind. When he was full, he either practiced martial arts or sat there for meditation. Although he was not good at martial arts or magic, Hopes knew something of them. In the past, he had been a coward and always kept a low profile in action, so he seldom practiced them. But now he was free, and he could practice as much as he wanted. He didn¡¯t know if it was because he was in the proper environment or because his mind had changed, but in short, he found that the effect of his practice had greatly improved¡ªespecially when he was meditating. He could clearly feel the existence of natural magic now, and those vague and unclear feelings in the past became very clear. He felt natural power flowing around him as if it went into his body with every breath, and that made him very energetic. How wonderful it could be if I had been like this few years earlier! Hopes thought of that, but he knew it was just a dream. The past was gone. What he had to do now was to be a good worker. He wanted to earn money to make a living, and he wanted to be a brave man with dignity so that he could live without relying on others. These days, the life here made him think a lot. There were also poor people in the Republic of Northwest, and he had seen people with patched clothes passing by many times. However, although they were poor, they were still in good spirits. They were neither pale or haggard because of hunger, nor were they depressed because of poverty. Their eyes were bright, and they seemed very confident. It was interesting when some poor men noticed Hopes camping under the Tree of God. They came to persuade him not to be so decadent and at least to find a temporary job to make a living. There were a lot of people in Void City, but because of its service industry, the working staff was always insufficient. As long as Hopes was diligent, it would be easy for him to find a job. As for problems that had been normal to see in other places, such as being bullied by a boss or having difficulty getting paid on time after work¡ªthose things would never be seen here. The clergymen of the Void Mask Church patrolled around the city all day like vigilant hounds to search for clues of misconduct. They might not catch those thieves, but they surely would deal with matters such as a boss refusing to pay his employees. The method they chose was quite simple and effective as well. They usually dragged the boss into the streets, erected some magic pillars in public as a temporary altar, and then held a public trial. In the face of the great Divine Power, His Majesty, the Void Mask, neither traitors nor deceivers could escape from punishment. It was even more impossible for them to resist it. As long as they were convicted, various devices of torture would be taken out on them. The most common form of punishment was the tickling machine. It would not cause substantial damage to people, but nobody dared to take it as a mild and harmless punishment after they saw someone still laughing while being tickled to tears. He even peed and had a runny nose afterwards. A fiercer form of punishment was the famous electroshock therapy char; it was a kind of chair with a rubber base and a metal frame. The one being punished would be firmly tied to it, and then as soon as the switch was on, a beeping sound could be heard. After a while, the blue and white light would appear on the metal frame, and that would cause terrible torture to the one in the chair. It was said that the electroshock therapy chair was a very powerful magic prop. It could cure the prisoner while punishing him, and that could effectively avoid serious injury and death of the punished person. However, that might not be a good thing. Generally speaking, people who went through this punishment would be foolish for a few days, or even a week. It was said that the most tragic ones had been dumb for half a month. Not to mention the pain during the punishment, even the period of being dumb would make people extremely scared. In recent days, Hopes had witnessed a public trial of the Void Mask Church. The punished man was a fraudster who had always traveled around and made up information about injuries or illnesses of other people¡¯s children to take money from them. In fact, that was nothing serious if he had just cheated others for money. But the most hateful part in him was that what he had made up was something too serious. That made many elders ill out of fright! The trial of that man was quite simple because there was a conclusive witness and there was evidence. He could not deny it at all under the Divine Power. Finally, he was sentenced to reformation through working with the Dead Souls. As the priest chanted incantations and a dark green light fell on the temporary altar, the man screamed while his body turned into that of a zombie. Of course, this was a temporary punishment. When the money he earned through his work was enough to pay the fine, he would regain his health without any other consequences¡ªwell, assuming that working with a group of Dead Souls would not leave him any psychological damage. Hopes was curious about the death sentence here, so he inquired about it. Then he found that there were few death penalties in the Republic of Northwest. People would not be executed, even if they were spies or organized a rebellion. Only those murderers would be sentenced to death. But that did not mean the legal punishment here was weak. The so-called strength of law depended not only on the intensity of punishment, but also on the efficiency of finding and arresting criminals. In this respect, the Republic of Northwest enjoyed a high rate of arresting. Families here were divided into groups with ten families per unit. In each group, elderly people were mainly responsible for taking care of children in public kindergartens and patrolling the residential areas. The residents here were from different races that had different rest times, so there were always people patrolling in the city day and night. Together with the conscientious and responsible patrol soldiers, as well as the mysterious clergymen from the church, it was very difficult for those bad guys to commit crimes in the Republic of Northwest without being caught. Hopes loved the environment here very much. He felt reassured. So these days he slept comfortably even though he was camping outdoors. But when he went back to school, he was surprised to see that several Catmen who were poorer than him were obviously fatter than he had seen them last time. Those Catmen were brothers, and the eldest one was Walter. They came to the Republic of Northwest on the same caravan as Hopes. Because Catmen only ate meat, they lived a hard life here. All of them were skinny due to hunger. Hopes had thought that they would be much thinner these days since they would not be able to live on grass, but he had never expected these guys to gain so much weight. He asked about this curiously, only to find out that these Catmen had found a part-time job. They had been working as delivery men in the underground amusement park these days. There was a huge amusement park underneath Void City called Dragon and Dungeons, and it was full of traps and Magic Beasts. Although they wouldn¡¯t cause serious damage to people, they were still a little scary to them. Tourists from all over the world who were interested in taking risks but had no strength could experience the feeling of danger here if they paid a small fee. And if they were lucky, they could also earn some rare things as spoils. There were supplies in the underground amusement park, and they had to be regularly checked and supplemented. This was a troublesome job, so it was usually done by some part-time workers. With their flexible bodies and good vision in the dark, the Catmen were able to do their work well in the underground amusement park. This part-time job paid more for more work, so these Catmen had made a lot of money these days. And because they had often been invited to dinner with the adventurers, they could eat meat almost every meal. That was why they gained a lot of weight lately. Thus, this time, they just came back to cancel their registration because they had found a job that really suited them. ¡°Congratulations!¡± When Hopes heard that, he smiled. ¡°You guys are great!¡± ¡°In fact, you can also do that,¡± Walter said. ¡°You¡¯re smart. It¡¯ll be easy for you to find a job.¡± ¡°Who would employ a mixed race guy¡­¡± ¡°What you¡¯ve said is true for other places, but not for here.¡± Walter¡¯s eyes brightened. ¡°There¡¯s no discrimination against us here. Although we can¡¯t get a response from our god, no one treats us badly here. As for race, that¡¯s not a problem at all. I¡¯ve seen goblins working in ambulances here. You see, even goblins can find jobs. Are you worse than them?¡± Hopes was almost convinced by what Walter had said, but he insisted on his original plan when he heard from the clerk, Sectary that he had been admitted to the major of mineral processing. After all, a part-time job was not a long-term plan. It would be better to learn a skill first! Chapter 557 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Hopes was a student majoring in mineral processing at the New Oriental Comprehensive Technical School now. In the next few years, he would learn a lot of things. He would learn about different minerals, learn various methods to decide mineral grades, and eventually become an expert who could select fine products from a large number of ores. There were over a dozen students like him. Most of them were dwarfs, and the others were humans and Half-Orcs. But he was the only Half-Orc that was not from the Republic of Northwest. The other Half-Orcs were very young. They were born and raised in the Republic, so they were curious about the scenery outside the Republic and were full of yearning for the vast, grassy homeland of the Half-Orcs. When talking with Hopes, they expressed their desire to go to the grassland to visit those ancient places more than once. They wanted to find the footprints of their ancestors to see how they actually had lived. Hopes sincerely advised them to put an end to that thought. The fact that they were Half-Orcs and they did not believe in the Orc gods would be a serious crime on the grassland. If they lived in a more extreme tribe, they would be killed directly as a sacrifice to the gods. ¡°What? Killing people as a sacrifice? Are the Orc gods so cruel? Oh my god! Then I¡¯m not going there!¡± Sri, a Half-Orc from the Republic, was shocked at that. Sri was half leopard. He liked cooking very much, and he was especially good at making rice balls and steamed bread. However, instead of being a cook, he yearned to travel all over the world and see all kinds of places. The reason why he chose the major of mineral processing was that he intended to be an explorer in the future; he could look for mineral deposits all over the world. Most of the Half-Orcs in the Republic were like him¡ªsimple-minded and easy-going. That didn¡¯t mean that they were silly. They had just grown up in a friendly environment, and their family members, neighbors, and friends were all kind to them. Therefore, they couldn¡¯t imagine there being a place where people would be treated as criminals or even be killed just because they didn¡¯t believe in a god. Hopes really admired their naivety. Although he was young, he was definitely not an ignorant rookie. What kind of environment had they grown up in to have such kind characters and ways of thinking? After some thinking, he knew the answer. On the grassland, even the life of those pure-blooded aristocrats from powerful tribes was full of calculation and disputes. Many of them began to have evil or cunning ideas since they were young, and some of them had even killed others. As for the civilians, they lived an even harder and more embarrassing life. Every day they had to work and train hard in order to win or survive in the fights that seemed happen every day. Other countries often envied the fact that almost every Orc could be a soldier, but how many people could really understand the bitterness behind that? By contrast, the Republic of Northwest was full of peace and joy, just like a God¡¯s Kingdom in the legends. Although he hadn¡¯t been here for very long, Hopes felt that he had fallen in love with this place. Even if he couldn¡¯t be a good blacksmith in the future or he could only do some part-time jobs, he still wanted to live here. Perhaps, it would be good enough to just live here all his life. While Hopes enjoyed his peaceful life as a student here, some Half-Orc refugees from the Orc Empire made a request, and that disturbed the quiet life in the Republic of Northwest. Those refugees thought that since they were followers of the Orc gods, they had to worship their gods wherever they were. Therefore, they asked to build altars of the Orc gods in several places in the Republic. To be honest, it was not a big deal, but when Mrs. Teague brought it up at the high-level meeting, Sui Xiong, who had always been mild, became furious. ¡°Today they build altars, tomorrow they will build divine temples; the day after tomorrow they will build a food supply system that suits their habits, and then they will reject other people¡¯s eating habits. Finally, they will reject other people¡¯s culture and traditions¡­¡± He had no expression on his face, and his body was sending out an angry aura. ¡°In the end, other people will either have to have the same belief as them or be killed by them, right? I will never allow such things to happen!¡± The high-ranking officials of the Republic had not expected Sui Xiong to act out so fiercely, so they could not help but look at each other in confusion. ¡°Your Majesty, aren¡¯t you taking this problem too seriously?¡± Mrs. Teague paused for a while and asked hesitantly. ¡°Too seriously?¡± Sui Xiong sneered. ¡°Did any of you ever live in the Orc Empire?¡± ¡°I lived there for a while,¡± Leon said. ¡°You know, in the western wilderness. Generally speaking, the situation over there was good. Although the Orc gods were very powerful and they pushed other divine temples to the edge of society, other divine temples still existed there at least.¡± ¡°It was because the western wilderness was full of cruel and fierce adventurers from different races. If they hated someone, they could draw their swords out to kill his whole family. And you were one of them! No matter how fierce the Orcs were, they didn¡¯t dare to treat those adventurers in that way.¡± Sui Xiong sighed. ¡°But things are different in our Republic. Here, all the good people abide by discipline and law. Many of them have never killed any living things since they were born. Some of them have never even held a knife. Most of them like to see things from a good angle. But those Orcs are different! If they make trouble here, the situation will be out of control!¡± Leon nodded slightly and understood Sui Xiong¡¯s meaning. In the Republic of Northwest, the people were not weak. As the descendants of the pioneers, they were both brave and strong. But they were always full of goodwill towards others. Thus, if their goodwill was taken advantage of by others, it would be easy for those forces with evil intention to grow into a threat to society. ¡°Then, what¡¯s your opinion, Your Majesty?¡± he asked. ¡°Refuse their request or force them to change their faith?¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a moment and sighed. ¡°I haven¡¯t figured it out. Do you have any good ideas?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it should be you who should refuse them. Let us do it,¡± Gerald said. ¡°You¡¯re in a high position. If you show up, it will develop into a bigger deal.¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t say anything for a moment. When he heard the report, he subconsciously thought about some things that had happened before his space-travel. Naturally, he took the problem very seriously. But, after some careful thoughts, he began to hesitate. On Earth before his space-travel, did the absolute top leader of a country like him really need to be so nervous and worried about such issues? ¡°It seems that I really don¡¯t need to show up.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. In fact, there is no need for any one at the level of a great governor to do that. We can just send a normal governor to criticize them severely, and it is over.¡± Snow used her painting to persuade the others again. She painted a group of small ants that were chittering about something, and then a huge fist fell down from the sky. She added a cross beside them. Then she painted the same group of small ants again. A big dog came to the ants and spat at them, and the ants ran away immediately in different directions. Then she drew another cross beside them. Sui Xiong looked at the painting and couldn¡¯t help laughing. ¡°You¡¯re right. I worry too much. It¡¯s up to you to figure it out. Anyways, don¡¯t give those guys any chance to take advantage of us!¡± ¡°Yes, Your Majesty!¡± several voices answered together. Chapter 558 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The small turmoil caused by the Half-Orc refugees settled down quickly. A governor in charge of civil affairs of the Republic of Northwest stated that the Republic respected the beliefs of everyone; nobody could infringe upon the belief of others. If the refugees wanted to build an altar, they had to ask the local church for permission. Of course, it was absolutely impossible for them to get permission. Unless one was a close ally of Sui Xiong, such as the God of Justice, no one would be allowed to build an altar for other gods in Sui Xiong¡¯s area. Even those who had a good relationship with Sui Xiong wouldn¡¯t be allowed. That was a matter of principle! Moreover, Sui Xiong and the Orc gods were just acquaintances at most. They were not even friends, nor did they have a close relationship with each other. In fact, the key to the peaceful coexistence of all religious beliefs in the Republic of Northwest, the non-interference between the altars and divine temples of all gods and the peace among the clergymen of all factions was due to the official coordination of the Republic and the lead of the Void Mask Church. But this time, neither the Republic nor the Void Mask Church was willing to help solve the problem. Thus, how could other churches tolerate the followers of Orc gods to build altars here? Thus, the Half-Orc refugees¡¯ attempt to build an altar here was in vain. Strictly speaking, they were still able to build altars for the Orc gods. As long as they built a pioneering village by themselves, they could build any altar they wished. However, every time the matter of building a pioneering village was mentioned, those refugees who had shouted loudly before would pretend that they didn¡¯t hear anything or change the topic immediately. In short, they just refused to do that. Sui Xiong was invisible in the sky, looking at this. He felt this was funny, but he still felt more alert about the situation. There were strong lights of belief on the body of those who encouraged others to build an altar for the Orc gods. Thus, they definitely had not lost the response of the Orc gods. They came to the Republic of Northwest and encouraged the Half-Orc refugees who had lived under discrimination in the Orc Empire to build an altar, saying that this would please the gods and make them respond again. But what was their real intention? There was no need to even ask. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect the Orc Empire to make the first move.¡± When he talked to Esther about it in private, Sui Xiong had an angry face. ¡°I thought we had a good relationship with the Orcs. It seems that I thought too much!¡± ¡°No, Your Majesty, you are too worried,¡± Easter said. ¡°Most gods in the world are different from you. They don¡¯t take care of everything like you. So do the Orc gods. I think what the Orc Empire did this time should be under the order of some high-level officials, at most of the Orc emperor, but not the Orc gods.¡± ¡°What? Why are you so sure about that?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°Because the Orc gods would never be so gentle or relaxed. You know their temper. They may have designed such a plan, but would they give up immediately after failing? Is that their style?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it carefully. That was true. If there were Orc gods behind this turmoil, how could it be ended so easily? According to the Orc gods¡¯ style, even if they couldn¡¯t kill the enemy, at least they would make a lot of trouble. For example, they might ask a group of people to summon some demons in the Republic of Northwest. That was something the gods of the Evil Camp were good at. With that in mind, Sui Xiong immediately strengthened the supervision over those Half-Orc refugees. In this way, he saw something interesting again. In the evening, one of the Half-Orc refugees who had been encouraging others to make trouble went to the place where the refugees lived together. He tried persuading them to build an altar for the Orc gods. But this time, he failed. An elderly Half-Orc refugee said they were no longer going to believe in the Orc gods. ¡°What?!¡± The bearded Pigman could hardly believe what he had heard. ¡°What did you say? Do you want to betray His Majesty?¡± ¡°Belief is not just about the honesty of us. Since His Majesty has abandoned us, why should we still be loyal to him?¡± the old but still powerful Elephantman said as he touched his broken left tusk. ¡°I fought twice for His Majesty. Half of this tusk was lost on the battlefield of Sun¡¯s Death Day. And I also lost two brothers, one son, three nephews and the eyes of my other son there.¡± There was a sad look on his face. ¡°But His Majesty abandoned me.¡± ¡°We were created by His Majesty. How can we try to bargain with our creator?¡± the Pigman asked angrily. ¡°Why not?¡± the old Elephantman asked casually. ¡°These days, people from the Religious Bureau of the Republic often come here to teach us religious knowledge. They tell us the division between man and god as well as the difference between piety, fanaticism, and honesty. We all agree with that. All of us have been abandoned by His Majesty. All the efforts of the past and years of devotion have been abandoned by him without mercy. Please forgive us. In this case, we can¡¯t continue to believe in him. We can¡¯t just keep quiet when we see no hope in front of us.¡± He sighed deeply. ¡°I¡¯m old, not far from death. Over the years, I have done a lot of bad things. I invaded other countries and killed people there. At first, I held the idea that I did all this for His Majesty, so I didn¡¯t care about anything. But now I do. I don¡¯t want to go to hell. I¡¯m scared. I¡¯m scared to death!¡± ¡°So you choose to betray His Majesty?¡± The Pigman¡¯s eyes became gloomy. ¡°And so do the others?¡± ¡°That¡¯s almost right. We have different reasons, but in the final analysis, it is because His Majesty has never responded to us, and we feel upset about that.¡± The Pigman did not say anything; he just turned away and left. He walked very fast this time and quickly disappeared. When he had left, the old Elephantman returned to his house with a sigh. He lived in a simple but strong and warm wooden house. Inside the room, a blind middle-aged Elephantman sat at a table, trying to read a woodcut book through touch. ¡°Dad, did you drive the messenger away?¡± He asked. ¡°Yes,¡± the old Elephantman whispered. He sat directly on the floor. ¡°I thought I would be afraid, but when I really made up my mind, I realized that it was nothing serious.¡± ¡°Of course.¡± His blind son sighed. ¡°We mean nothing to His Majesty, and neither does our belief. It¡¯s just that we valued our belief too much in the past! Over the past few years, we Orcs have lived only for our belief. Now, when we look back, it¡¯s just like a tragic joke.¡± The father and son talked about that with ease and calm, but there was a sad feeling in their words that made people want to cry. They had lost their status, honor, home, and belief, and now they really had nothing. After a while, the old Elephantman stood up and said, ¡°It¡¯s almost dinner time. I¡¯ll get some food for you. We can¡¯t fool around like this anymore. Tomorrow, I am going to find a job, porting or something like that. I¡¯m old, but I still have strength!¡± ¡°Sorry, I¡¯ve been a burden to you.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that! I¡¯ve been inquiring about it all these days. It¡¯s quite easy to make money here. I should try my best to make enough money to cure your eyes. And then, you will find a wife, and we will have a family again.¡± With that, the old Elephantman pushed open the door and went out without looking back at his son. Similar scenes could be seen in the homes of many Half-Orc refugees. They finally decided to abandon their beliefs in the Orc gods and embarked on the first steps towards a new life. Sui Xiong, invisible in the air, looked at that and could not help but smile. Chapter 559 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio About half an hour later, Sui Xiong laughed again. He sneered murderously. Clito strolled idly in the streets and caught a Ratman who was poisoning the refugees¡¯ relief food. During this period, he had learned a lot from Easter and had made great progress. He easily learned why the Ratman would poison the relief food and asked who had instigated the Ratman to do so. It was a fat man wearing a white robe. Although the fat man covered his face and deliberately changed his voice, Sui Xiong could still find him. By tracing back in time, he easily found the guy, who was a big Pigman with a beard and who had argued with an old Elephantman before. Clito felt very angry and wanted to kill the Pigman while Sui Xiong, who had shown a murderous look before, was now calm. Clito waved his hands, and the big Pigman with a beard was frozen in a piece of ice. Then he walked away with the ice without disturbing anyone else in the house. They soon arrived at Easter¡¯s home, the Intelligence Training Center. Soon, the Pigman honestly told Easter everything. They belonged to an Orc Empire called Isis, and this Empire had been working hard to spread the belief of the Orc gods and to fight against those who were not pious to their beliefs. They mainly persecuted the Half-Orcs, and they were keen on exporting refugees and inciting unrest. They also often committed massacres of the Half-Orcs and the other ¡°enemies¡± who were not pious enough to them. They were also keen on trafficking human beings, destroying cultural relics, and monuments. In a word, they were just a group of evil people who had committed a lot of crimes. ¡°But why would those evil people pay attention to us?¡± Sui Xiong asked calmly. ¡°There are so many countries in the world that are antagonistic to Orcs. Why don¡¯t they go look for trouble in those countries?¡± ¡°Because they feel that we are hiding our sinister motives and want to destroy their great and pure beliefs through gentle means,¡± Easter answered. He was in charge of torturing the Pigman. What else could Sui Xiong say about this? Perhaps he could only say, ¡°F*ck those idiots!¡± They were so f*cking stupid! Sui Xiong did not like swearing usually, but at this time, he could not think of anything else but swearing. After cursing them out, the problem still needed to be solved. Anyway, he could not wait patiently for those idiots to make more trouble for him. There was no such thing as waiting for thieves to come clean. Sui Xiong soon decided what to do in order to deal with them. He decided to set fire to those evil people and kill them. Since those guys could probably use this way to deal with him, why didn¡¯t he attack them first? Looking at his murderous face, Clito asked uneasily, ¡°Your Majesty, what are you going to do with them?¡± ¡°Kill them all, of course,¡± Sui Xiong said coldly. ¡°Rest assured! In a few days, there will be no more Isis in the world.¡± What he meant was so clear, so undisguised and so exposed that even Clito who was a legendary master was frightened. ¡°That organization¡­ How many people are there?¡± Clito asked. Easter knew that and answered with a smile, ¡°There are about fifty thousand to six thousand people. Of course, I mean the loyal core people of the organization.¡± ¡°That many people?¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. ¡°Why are there so many people in a terrorist organization?¡± ¡°Although it is a terrorist organization, it is a large organization officially recognized by the Orc Empire. It has great influence in many places and must not be underestimated,¡± Easter said. ¡°I remembered that more than 200 years ago, there an Orc emperor appeared from this organization.¡± ¡°What?! An Orc emperor really appeared from this stupid organization?! Are you kidding me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not joking. The Orc emperor slaughtered many Half-Orcs after he took office, and finally, the Armored Great Lion Leonard appeared and killed him.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned for a moment. He rushed to send an incarnation to find Leonard and asked him about Isis. ¡°They are disgusting guys,¡± Leonard frowned and said. ¡°They are more disgusting than muddy monsters!¡± Obviously, Leonard didn¡¯t want to talk too much about the organization. But Sui Xiong had to know the details, so he kept asking Leonard, ¡°What are the characteristics of this organization? If I want to distinguish them from the crowd, is there any concise and reliable way to do so?¡± Leonard¡¯s eyes lit up and looked at Sui Xiong. The wise man didn¡¯t need to be reminded much. He had understood Sui Xiong¡¯s meaning already. ¡°Give me a few days, and I¡¯ll look into it,¡± he said. ¡°I promise you a satisfactory answer.¡± ¡°Thank you. But I¡¯m afraid that you might get into trouble,¡± Sui Xiong said. Leonard shook his head and laughed. ¡°No, I¡¯m not in trouble. You¡¯re the one who¡¯s in trouble.¡± Sui Xiong also laughed. ¡°That¡¯s impossible. What trouble can they cause me? That¡¯s not even worth mentioning!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate them; more than one Orc god supports them.¡± ¡°But how many Orc gods are willing to support them with their lives?¡± ¡°Yeah, you are right! We¡¯d better have a drink.¡± ¡°Wait till the matter is done,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°When the matter is done, we will have a good drink in order to get rid of our bad luck.¡± After discussing the matter with Leonard, Sui Xiong began carrying out his plan. This time, Isis had sent a lot of people to the Northwest Republic, but they were just garbage to Sui Xiong. If Sui Xiong didn¡¯t clean up the ¡°garbage,¡± he would not be able to sleep soundly. Thus, led by Easter and assisted by Clito, the intelligence agency of the Northwest Republic launched a large-scale search throughout the whole country for five or six days. Through their search, they arrested about 140 members of the Isis organization. They also found about 200 Orcs and Half-Orcs who were influenced by the organization¡¯s propaganda. This number had shocked the high levels of the Republic. The hostile organization with a total of about 350 people had been operating in the Republic in such a magnificent way for a long time. Thinking about this carefully, everyone felt frightened. Fortunately, this huge organization was eventually cleared up. As long as the Republic was careful in the future, such a thing would never happen again. However, everyone had a headache when they thought of how to deal with those arrested Isis members and those who were influenced by their beliefs. It was easy for Sui Xiong to deal with those arrested Isis members. In any case, the Republic did have a death penalty. Even if those arrested Isis members were not killed immediately, they could also be sent into servitude. But for those who were just influenced by the organization, they did not commit any real crimes. They just listened to the propaganda of the terrorists, and some of them tended to applaud the terrorists or receive their propaganda materials¡ªthat was all. It was not in conformity with the spirit of the laws of the Republic to severely punish those who were people. The laws of the Northwest Republic generally used the theme of ¡°learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones and curing illness and saving people.¡± Although they did not exclude the death penalty, they did not like to use the death penalty. Even in most cases, law enforcers preferred to use some penalties which looked severe but did not actually cause any serious consequences. But would such a punishment be too light? For a time, there were a lot of discussions among the people, and it was difficult to reach an agreement. In this case, Sui Xiong gave his suggestions. ¡°That group of people doesn¡¯t need to be severely punished,¡± he said calmly but somewhat gloomily. ¡°Soon, there will be no more Isis members left in the world.¡± Chapter 560 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°What a surprise that you¡¯ve come to see me.¡± Next to the magnificent altar of the temple, a man with a lion¡¯s head spoke to Leonard with a smile. ¡°I thought I¡¯d never see you again in my life, my brother.¡± ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t want to see you again, but there is a big event. I am afraid that it would cause trouble to you, so I have to come here,¡± Leonard said expressionlessly. ¡°Do you know the organization Isis? There is a powerful god who wants to deal with this organization. If you have anything to do with Isis, you¡¯d better cut them off soon.¡± The lion-headed man frowned and asked, ¡°Who wants to deal with them? Is it Yorgaardman? He always likes to do crazy things.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter who wants to deal with Isis. What matters is whether you have anything to do with Isis or not.¡± The man was silent for a moment and said, ¡°I will not lie to you. I am indeed one of the gods who supports Isis.¡± ¡°Then get rid of this organization as soon as possible!¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible. This organization is very big and powerful. Without a proper reason, I can¡¯t get rid of it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s really a matter of life and death! You¡¯d better get rid of it soon!¡± Leonard said angrily. ¡°Do you want to die again?¡± The big man sighed and said, ¡°There are some things that should be done even if they are dangerous. I can¡¯t convince myself unless you give me a good reason.¡± Leonard remained silent for a long time and finally shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t tell you,¡± he sighed and said. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll have to do something else to convince you.¡± As he spoke, the clothes he was wearing turned into heavy armor, and a sword that was taller than an ordinary person appeared in his hand. ¡°I¡¯ll beat you so badly that you won¡¯t be able to participate in any activities of Isis.¡± The big man was stunned for a moment and laughed. ¡°Good! You are really my good brother!¡± After saying that, the big man also put on a suit of heavy armor and a huge battle axe suddenly appeared in his hands that were bigger and stronger than ordinary strong men. ¡°Come on! We haven¡¯t had a good fight in a long time!¡± Therefore, they began to fight with each other. Of course, the two men would not fight in the temple. They turned into lights and flew up into the sky. They flew out of the Main Plane and fought in the void space fiercely. Their fight was very fierce, and both sides exhausted their powers. However, both of the two gods were very powerful, and neither side could get the upper hand. In the Endless Field of the Orc Kingdom, the Sky Devourer Canine Lefon, who was also the God of Orcs, was thinking about something. Suddenly, he frowned and looked at a lion-headed man dozing in a chair. ¡°Hi Singh, why do you fight with Leonard?¡± he asked. ¡°Didn¡¯t you two become good brothers?¡± The lion-headed man was Singh, and he was also the God of Lionmen. He had died once in the past and was later revived by taking advantage of Morani¡¯s divinity. But for a long time, his divinity had been insufficient, and his deity had not been stable. So later, he was reborn as a mortal and experienced the road to becoming a god from an ordinary person to a Legendary Master again. This was to make up for his own divinity and stabilize his deity. Leonard was Singh¡¯s younger brother when Singh was reborn as a mortal. At first, they had a good relationship with each other, but later they separated because of the conflict of their ideas. This was a secret that few people had known. Even those Legendary Masters who had worked with Leonard before only knew that his subordinates and relatives had died of divine punishment. They did not know anything about his brother at all. But Lefon certainly knew the secret. When Singh was reborn as a mortal, Lefon had helped to look after him. So when he saw Singh fighting with Leonard fiercely, he asked Singh why. Asked by his own god, Singh could not pretend to sleep anymore. He sighed, shook his head and said, ¡°My brother just came to me about Isis and asked me to quit this organization.¡± Lefon frowned. The reason why Leonard was antagonistic to the Orc Emperor and fought with him fiercely was because of the organization, Isis. Their fight even angered all the gods, so they all punished Leonard severely. It was hard to say anything about that. In a word, the means that the Orc Gods had adopted were really disgraceful. Over the years, when Lefon recalled the past, he sometimes regretted it. He felt that a more appropriate way should be adopted. But that was a long time ago. Later, Leonard left the territory of the Orc race and even abandoned his name of the ¡°Armored Great Lion.¡± He traveled around as ¡°Ranger Paul,¡± and everyone thought he had let go of the past. Now it seemed that Leonard hadn¡¯t put the past behind him. ¡°That organization is a very useful tool,¡± the God of Werewolf shook his head and said. He was the best at tracking among all the Orc gods and was practically the intelligence leader. ¡°Since it is a tool, of course we can give up it when necessary. But we have spent a lot of time and energy building it to a large scale. It is impossible for us to give it up.¡± Singh laughed bitterly, but he didn¡¯t tell the others what Leonard had told him. Although he didn¡¯t know what his brother was doing at present, it must be risky and dangerous for his brother to come to him this time. Still, he just didn¡¯t appreciate it. If he betrayed his brother again, he would feel very disgraceful. However, Singh was also a kind god who followed the orders of the world. He could never do such a thing as betraying his brother. ¡°Can¡¯t you ask him for some more details?¡± asked Lefon. Singh laughed bitterly. ¡°If he had told me the details, why would we have fought with each other?¡± The Orc gods shook their heads and sighed. Lefon sent the God of Eaglemen and the God of Werewolf separately to investigate what Isis had done in recent years and why Leonard would come to make trouble about it. However, their investigation was doomed to be a failure because it was Sui Xiong, not Leonard, who was making trouble for Isis. What¡¯s more, in recent years, Isis had done a lot of bad things and offended a lot of people. A few days later, the God of Eaglemen and the God of Werewolf made a list in which they wrote down all the evil things that Isis had done. This even gave the Sky Devourer Canine a headache. ¡°I am a soldier, not a clerk!¡± Lefon laughed bitterly and picked up the list. He looked at it carefully. As a member of the Great Divine Powers, Lefon was very powerful. In his eyes, every name on the list seemed to be a detailed piece of information. Occasionally, he could even see the information that his two subordinates hadn¡¯t investigated yet. This was the power of the field of knowledge, which he did not study until he was inspired by the legacy of the former Sun God. Even though Lefon was almost a professional fighter, or simply a big and tough fighter, he had to admit that the power of knowledge was really great! Unfortunately, the clergy of knowledge had been monopolized by the god follower of the Void Mask. No matter how powerful the other gods were, and no matter how deep their research in the field of knowledge was, they could not get the clergy of Knowledge. It took Lefon half a day to finish reading the list, and then he put it down with a deep sigh. ¡°These bastards! They have provoked so many people!¡± he said angrily and helplessly. ¡°If these enemies attack together, we can¡¯t resist them all, much less the Orc Empire!¡± ¡°Then¡­ Your Majesty, what are you going to do?¡± Singh asked. ¡°Leave those bastards alone!¡± Lefon said angrily. ¡°If the house is dirty, it needs to be cleaned up. If the team is in disorder, it also needs to be cleaned up. Just let Leonard deal with them.¡± So Singh, who was still fighting with Leonard in the void space, waved his axes violently and pushed Leonard back two steps; then he said, ¡°We should stop fighting with each other! The Sky Devourer Canine has promised not to interfere with the matters between you and Isis. If you want to deal with them, just do as you wish!¡± Those fanatics who were planning various kinds of terrorist attacks never dreamed that their fate would be decided like this. Chapter 561 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Leonard was stunned at what Singh had said just now. ¡°What did you say?¡± he couldn¡¯t help but ask. So Singh repeated what he had just said. Leonard was silent for a moment, shook his head and then said nothing. He went directly to the mortal world. Although things were going very differently from what he had planned, they were changing for the better, not for the worse. The Orc gods had abandoned the Isis organization. That meant that there would be no resistance in dealing with this organization. In that case, everyone could save time. However, all over the years, the organization¡¯s fanatics had done a lot of evil things for the Orc gods. But in the end, it was so easily abandoned by the Orc gods. Thinking of this, he felt very angry. After a while, he went to the capital of the Orc Empire, the Great Golden Tent, and met with the Orc Emperor, Junero. Emperor Junero¡¯s face looked somewhat pale. It was not because he was afraid of something but because the Main Plane had excluded him. This made him feel very uncomfortable. As an old Demigod Master, although Junero had not become a real god, his power was much stronger than ordinary gods and had almost exceeded the guard line of the protective boundary of the Main Plane. From a long time ago, he had been deliberately hiding his strength in order to avoid being discovered and punished by the protective boundary. But even so, as he grew stronger and stronger, he was unable to hide his actual strength any more. It was like a god stepping into the mortal world¡ªhe could certainly hide his power up until the legendary rank. However, his realm was still there, and the realm itself was a kind of power. So when he was too strong to hide his strength, he could only leave. From ancient times to the present, at least one-third of the Demigod Masters who had left the Main Plane and went out for adventures were like him. He had tried hard to hide his strength, but he was so powerful that he could no longer hide his actual strength. For example, now Junero had hidden most of his strength, and he was too weak to kill a chicken. But even so, his realm alone had almost exceeded the protective boundary of the Main Plane. Now he was in a very embarrassing situation. Although he was extremely powerful, if he was not careful enough, an ordinary high-level warrior would beat him. Now Junero was just like Lord Lao Zi in the novel Journey to the West. Lord Lao Zi was the creator of the ¡°four continents of the world¡± in the novel, and many gods were his incarnations. He was really powerful among all the gods in the novel. But after the Monkey King jumped out of his Eight Diagrams Stove, his reaction was to stretch out his hand to pull in the Monkey King. Then he was caught by the Monkey King and fell down to the ground. This had proven that Lord Lao Zi was the most disgraceful god in history. Actually, Junero¡¯s situation was like Lord Lao Zi; Lord Lao Zi claimed to be the most powerful god, but in fact, he did not have much power. In fact, Leonard used one of his incarnations to walk on the Main Plane. His real body was still outside the Main Plane fighting with Singh. Normally, Leonard usually hid his real body in a small world that was created by him. Now, he hid his small world in a place close to the ¡°shelter¡± of the Void Mask Kingdom. Unless someone broke through this ¡°shelter,¡± it was almost impossible for people to find his real body. But when he fought with a powerful man like Sigh, he had to use his real body. Otherwise, he would only use his incarnations to fight with somebody. In this respect, he acted like a real god and not like those ¡°evil gods¡± who did not obey the orders of the world. Therefore, it was no wonder that he would put forward a new theory of evil gods. He also repeatedly encouraged Sui Xiong to become an ¡°evil god¡± like him so that Sui Xiong could occupy a clergy without actually becoming the god of that clergy. His orderly behavior was no different from that of the good gods. Perhaps he represented a better direction than the evil gods did, just like the Dragon of Chaos who did not always obey orders when doing things. Seeing Leonard come quietly to him, Junero, who had been reminded by the Orc gods, greeted with a smile. ¡°Hello, I am the Orc Emperor, Junero. Speaking of¡­ Haven¡¯t we met before?¡± Leonard nodded. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to come to see you, but now I have a matter to attend to. I have to ask you for help.¡± ¡°It¡¯s about Isis?¡± ¡°Yeah, I want to get a detailed list of the organization.¡± Junero was silent for a moment and then said, ¡°The Isis organization has made great contributions to the Empire.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t say such kind words because you are an emperor.¡± There was a sarcastic smile on Leonard¡¯s face, and he spoke with some malice. ¡°Are you really that kind? The emperor I knew at that time would not even blink when killing 100,000 people.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just 100,000 ordinary people. But if you want to thoroughly clean up Isis, most of the powerful people would be killed,¡± Junero said reluctantly. ¡°It will take at least twenty to thirty years for the Empire to fully recover from such a clean-up.¡± ¡°So what?¡± Leonard retorted. ¡°I have been planning to fight with the Kingdom of Light in the near future, and I want to try to occupy more fertile land. But if you really clean up Isis, I¡¯m afraid that we can only defend our empire instead of attacking the Kingdom of Light.¡± ¡°Defense is not a bad thing,¡± Leonard said indifferently. ¡°When the great plague swept across the empire, the empire was also attacked by the Kingdom of Holy Angels, the Eagle Kingdom, and the barbarian tribes of Northern Iceland. But the empire now still has its prosperity and vigor.¡± Junero shook his head with a bitter smile but did not try to change Leonard¡¯s mind. He just asked Leonard to give him a few days so that he could collect information and organize the list. Leonard didn¡¯t believe him very much, but he didn¡¯t want to push people too hard, so he agreed. A few days later, he got a list from Junero. It was a thick book, at least as thick as an ordinary man¡¯s hand. It contained tens of thousands of names, many of which who were followed by detailed identity descriptions and simple life stories. Leonard looked at it briefly and laughed bitterly. At first glance, the list looked complete, but in fact, the number of high-level members of the organization was really small. If the Isis organization only had that many members, the emperor would never beg him to give up dealing with the organization. But he did not go on questioning how many members Junero had hidden from him. But it was difficult to deceive a god! As long as Leonard got this list, the emperor of the Void Mask could easily find the names of the people who had been hidden by Junero. Perhaps Junero could arrange for those people to escape to the ends of the earth, or even to other worlds. In that case, even the Void Mask would not be able to hunt them down. But it was also very sad for those people to be exiled to other worlds. What¡¯s more, the Void Mask was a super strong man who could even pull up a small world from the abyss. Was there anything in the world that he could not reach? Leonard didn¡¯t think so. So he smiled and left with the list without saying anything. A moment later, the list appeared on the table in the conference room of the shelter. Sui Xiong looked at the list and laughed. ¡°The person who gave you this list really worked hard,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s not easy to choose a few of the high levels to sacrifice!¡± Leonard also laughed. ¡°What are you going to do with those people? Just let them escape?¡± ¡°Forget it, that¡¯s also their fate,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Let¡¯s just write their names down. If they can correct themselves, then that¡¯s the end of the story. If they can¡¯t change their habits, sooner or later they will do the same thing again. When the time comes, no one can save them.¡± Leonard thought for a moment and sighed. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that the time will come sooner or later.¡± ¡°Yes, many ideas and habits that have been formed over a long period of time can¡¯t be easily changed!¡± Sui Xiong sneered and said. ¡°For them, it¡¯s nothing more than living for a few more days. For those who refuse to change, are their future lives happier than death? After that, Sui Xiong picked up the list and turned away. There were so many names on this list; he would be very busy for the next few days. Chapter 562 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A few days later, something that shocked the world happened. The Jellyfish God, the Void Mask, came up with some papers claiming that the Orc organization, Isis, had done so many evil things beyond the world¡¯s tolerance. Thus, Sui Xiong was going to destroy it. He also emphasized that ¡°destroy¡± meant to kill them all; there were no exceptions. That was quite a scary threat to everyone. For a while, countless people who had ever done evil things couldn¡¯t even fall asleep at night. They kept thinking about their guilt, tossing and turning, and even if they managed to fall asleep, they were always awakened by terrible nightmares. As they all knew, His Majesty, the Void Mask was a man, well, a jellyfish that always acted on what he said. Since he had said that he would kill all the members of Isis, then he would. There were absolutely no exceptions. Naturally, the members of Isis became terrified all the time. They tried to find ways to save their lives, and so did other criminal organizations. They were like birds that were frightened by the sound of a bow. From the top leader to the low-ranking members, all of them left what they were doing aside. They tried to keep a low profile and find places to hide. They even wished they could turn into turtles so that they could put their heads in their shells. Although that actually couldn¡¯t help at all, at least they would feel a little more secure. After Sui Xiong issued that declaration, he went towards the direction of the Orc Empire. He did not teleport nor did he fly as fast as he could in the sky. Instead, he flew slowly and steadily near the ground at a speed that others could keep up with if they rode a fast horse. Many people were confused, wondering why he traveled so slowly, but many gods understood his purpose. He was demonstrating his power! It was well known that Isis was an officially recognized organization of the Orc Empire, and it was basically composed of fanatical followers of the Orc gods. Now, the Void Mask had declared in public that he was going to destroy the organization and then moved so slowly towards them. In this way, he was giving the Orc Empire and the Orc gods time to decide whether they were going to fight against him or to admit defeat directly. Yes, there was no third option. They had to either fight or throw in the towel. The Void Mask had made the declaration in such a direct way, so it was obvious that he wouldn¡¯t change his mind. Wouldn¡¯t it be the laughingstock of the gods if he changed his mind now? But the Orc gods would never give in either. If they couldn¡¯t protect their fanatical followers, how could they get respect from others? How could they continue to be gods? Thus, most gods thought that the Orc gods were going to fight fiercely with the Void Mask this time. As for the result of this battle, to be honest, no one thought the Orc gods would win. The Void Mask had wonderful skills, and his power was not limited even in the Main Plane. That was so great an advantage that he was almost invincible in the Main Plane¡ªunless he was crazy to run out of the Main Plane to fight with the Orc gods. In this way, even if they asked their allies for help, they still wouldn¡¯t be able to defeat Sui Xiong in the fight. The protective boundary left by the Goddess of Life limited the power of the masters in the Main Plane to the level of weak Divine Power. Correspondingly, their clones were even weaker. Even if a hundred of clones united together in the fight, they wouldn¡¯t be able to defeat Sui Xiong, a great Divine Power. Others also guessed that the Orc gods might just admit defeat directly, hiding their heads in the shells like turtles. That was acceptable. Since they couldn¡¯t protect their followers, they could only admit that they were defeated. After all, there were at most tens of thousands of people in Isis, and that was just a small part compared to the Orc race with tens of millions of people. It was a god¡¯s duty to protect his followers, but the followers here referred to all the followers, not only a specific group. If in order to protect the members of Isis the Orc gods suffered heavy losses in the battle against the Void Mask, the loss would outweigh the gain. In that case, it would also weaken the Orc gods¡¯ strength, and that went against the duty of protecting all the Orcs. ¡°All in all, excuses are always available.¡± Morani shook his head and sighed. He had just returned from the Endless Field, the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Orc gods. He had visited them and talked to them in detail. ¡°They decided to give in after all?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s god follower, the God of Knowledge, Wall asked. ¡°Yes, they don¡¯t think it¡¯s worth fighting with Auscar for Isis.¡± Morani looked a little hesitant. ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s a good thing for us.¡± Morani¡¯s position was somewhat awkward. On one hand, he had a good relationship with the Orc gods, and he had even been one of them for a long time. Although now they belonged to different camps, they were still friends. There was no hatred between them at all. On the other hand, the Void Mask was his good friend. They had drunk and fought together, and the Void Mask had even saved his life before. He felt very uncomfortable between the two parties. Fortunately, this time, the Orc gods took the initiative to give in and finally did not let the situation deteriorate completely. Although he was in an awkward spot, he didn¡¯t need to fight with either party. If the two parties fought with each other one day, he really would not know what to do! He was a man that would not frown even when cut with a knife. But thinking of the conflict between the two parties, he still couldn¡¯t help but sigh deeply. Sui Xiong certainly understood why Morani sighed, but he could do nothing. Sui Xiong wanted to destroy Isis, not just because these guys made trouble with the Republic of Northwest, but also because he really didn¡¯t agree with what these bastards had done. Someone would step on the road to make it even, and someone would deal with the bastards to maintain world peace! Since no one else was going to stop these bastards, then Sui Xiong would! Of course, there was also the influence of what he had seen and heard before his space-travel. If Isis was similar to the Buddhist organization, maybe he would not take such violent actions. However, Isis¡¯s ideas, propaganda concepts, and style of doing things reminded him of an organization that had truly impressed before his space-travel. That was why he took such violent action against Isis. It was a long story. Sui Xiong had had a neutral attitude towards all religions before, and he had never treated anyone differently for religious reasons. But then there was one thing that made him hate those who were quite similar to Isis. One time, he went to a restaurant that had a special green sign for dinner. The restaurant was small. Sitting in it, he could directly see into the kitchen. He noticed that there was a yellow kettle in the kitchen, and it looked quite elegant. As an artist, Sui Xiong was a curious man. He asked the waiter what the kettle was for. However, the waiter hesitated to give a clear answer. After that, Sui Xiong kept asking, and the waiter directly went away and totally ignored his question. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t give up easily. People always said that with a mobile phone, one could know everything about the world. A mobile phone connected to the Internet was like an encyclopedia. Thus, Sui Xiong searched the Internet on for a while, and he suddenly opened his eyes widely. He could not believe the search results. That kettle was for washing your hands after going to the toilet. If that was just the case, then nothing was wrong with that. However, the search results especially highlighted that most people who used this kettle were strictly religious, and according to their doctrine, after going to the toilet, they couldn¡¯t clean themselves with paper. If one couldn¡¯t wipe their sh*t with paper, what would they do? Answer: clean the sh*t with your hands and then take the kettle to pour water to wash your hands. Seeing that, Sui Xiong¡¯s face turned pale. He felt the meal he had just eaten moving violently in his stomach; he felt sick. He tolerated his discomfort and called another waiter to see if the results of his online search were true or not. Then he was beaten by the waiters and vomited on the floor. From then on, he felt sick to his stomach whenever he saw that green sign. When Cantonese people cursed others, they loved to say ¡°eat sh*t¡±! And Sui Xiong had once watched an online parody video with the topic of that. However, he had never thought that he would really eat sh*t one day! Sui Xiong was unhappy again when he remembered that past story. Although he didn¡¯t bring his real body from earth, he still felt a little sick in his stomach now. Chapter 563 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Although Sui Xiong traveled very slowly, he still arrived at the Orc Empire rather quickly. His first destination was the famous western wilderness. The western wilderness was the farthest part of the western Orc Empire. Various races lived there, so it had a terrible public order. Since there were some rare but expensive special minerals in this area, many people who wanted to make a fortune had come here to try their luck. Many others who served them or wanted to take advantage of them also came. Over time, more and more adventurers gathered here. They came from different ranks and formed into a powerful force. The Orc Empire¡¯s rule in the western wilderness was unstable because of that messy group of adventurers. Those adventurers were not scared of the Orc Empire. If they broke up with the Orc Empire, these adventurers could cross the desert into the Four Towns of the Northwest, now the Republic of Northwest, or go south to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. In short, there was always a way out for them. However, the local officials of the Orc Empire had a much more embarrassing position. They dared not use fierce means to attack the adventurers because that would provoke a strong resistance among the adventurers¡ªthe officials might even be killed accidentally. Decades ago, the supreme ruler of the Orc Empire in the western wilderness, Belem Syrah, also known as the Raging Iron Arm, lost his life accidentally and died for nothing. He was a senior master who was almost 500 years old, and the fourth number of the Bishop Group of the master god of the Orc God System. It was said that he had died of excessive sex. Nobody had grabbed his soul away or cursed him, and he had just played around too much and died of exhaustion. Of course, no one believed that. How could a Legendary Master who could tear down a wall with his bare hands die of exhaustion! However, both the priests and the forensic experts insisted on that statement, and that eventually became a stain on the Orc Empire. Every time someone was dissatisfied with the Empire, they would bring up that topic. For example, almost every low-ranking officer of the Empire in the western wilderness had heard of something like, ¡°The Empire is so amazing that even a Legendary Master can die on a woman¡¯s belly.¡± At first, they were naturally very angry upon hearing that. But over time, they became accustomed to it. They even thought that Belem Syrah had died in a quite unique way. At least it was very sexy and romantic to die on the bellies of women. He was much better than those who died on the battlefield, because their dead bodies had been cut into pieces by their enemies. The enemies did this to gain a reward from their leaders. People always said that from the first small beginning one could see how things would develop. Thus, since the officials of the Empire could take such things carelessly, what else couldn¡¯t they understand and tolerate? In that case, naturally, the officials would not spend too much effort on the intensity of their rule. They just fooled around day by day. People knew that the owner of the Empire was His Majesty, but the owner of their lives was them. Even if these low-ranking officials were sacrificed for the Empire, what benefit could they get? Instead, if they died, their families would lose a source of income. Maybe their wives and children would die of hunger quickly. Was there anyone on earth who wanted to regroup with their families in hell? It was absolutely impossible for those rebellious ideas and remarks to be spread to the mainland of the Empire, but in the western wilderness, people could talk about that frankly. Even the most loyal officials could just sigh at that. It was easy to see the decline of the rule of the Orc Empire in the western wilderness from that. Actually, that had a great deal to do with Sui Xiong. At the beginning, the woman who killed the most powerful master in the western wilderness of the Orc Empire in bed was no one else but Steele Geerteng; she was Sui Xiong¡¯s subordinate, the head of the medical team. Of course, neither Steele nor Sui Xiong would admit that. Belem died in a muddle, and even he did not know who killed him. Thus, nobody else would know the reason for his death. Theoretically speaking, a big event like the death of a Legendary Master was worthy of the Orc Empire using a Divination Spell to track down the murderer. But Steele was a subordinate of Sui Xiong, so he could shield her from tracking spells. Thus, even the spell cast by the Orc gods would never find her. Eventually, Belem Syrah¡¯s death became an unsolved case. Until Sui Xiong entered the capital of the western wilderness, the task of tracking down the murderer who assassinated Lord Belem Syrah was still attached to the top of the message board beside the city gate. By the way, the murderer was next to Sui Xiong now, but who would associate Miss Steele, the famous head of the medical team in the Republic of Northwest, with the female assassin? If there really was someone thinking of that, others might feel that there was something wrong with his brain. Steele smiled upon seeing that notice but said nothing. Decades had passed, and she was much more mature now. She would never act carelessly as she had done at a young age. The reason why Sui Xiong brought her here this time was mainly because she might be useful. Despite Steele¡¯s appearance as a weak woman, she was actually one of the best forensic experts, doctors, trackers, and negotiators in all of the Republic of Northwest. She could definitely be a top spy if she wanted to. Although Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think there would be any accidents, he still took her. Steele should be able to help in case there were any accidents. Coming to the square in the center of the city, Sui Xiong looked around and found that many people were gathered there. This time, instead of turning into a mini jellyfish, Sui Xiong showed up as a giant floating jellyfish that was at least the size of a house. Even those who were nearsighted could see such the huge jellyfish with his group of followers clearly. Thus, many people had gathered in this direction long before they entered the city. There were also some bold people who came over to ask why they were here. The answer they got was that a public execution was going to be held in the central square of this city. The news spread quickly, so more and more people came here. Some of them came for excitement, some hoped to get some benefits from Sui Xiong, and some were hostile to the Isis organization and wanted to see with their own eyes how their enemies died. Sui Xiong looked around at the crowd, nodded satisfactorily and said, ¡°Here is okay.¡± So his followers, under Steele¡¯s command, began to lay out the guillotine for the executions. Sui Xiong used the most classic guillotine in European history. The punished one would be tied to the wooden table, and then, on Sui Xiong¡¯s order, the high-hanging blade would fall down along the chute and cut off the punished one¡¯s head. The whole process would take less than a second. That method of death was almost painless, so it was not suitable for those extremely guilty people. But Sui Xiong was going to execute too many people this time. If each of them were to be executed according to their crime, that would need as many executioners as an army, and it would also take more than half a year to do. On one hand, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t have that many executioners. On the other hand, he didn¡¯t want to waste time. Thus, he had to deal with this as soon as possible. Anyway, those evil guys had to die. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t think they would complain about a faster death. As for the audience, wasn¡¯t it enough for them to see the exciting scene and the death of their enemies? After the guillotine was laid out, Sui Xiong took out the sorted name list and began to read the criminals¡¯ names one by one. Every time he announced a name, his tentacles would wave in the air, grabbing a person out of nowhere like magic. Naturally, these people he grabbed here were all members of the Isis organization. Sui Xiong used his Divine Power to bind them so that they couldn¡¯t run away or open their mouths. Sui Xiong was going to say something like, ¡°No one in the world can save you now,¡± but he lost interest as there were too many people to be sentenced. He calmly brought these evil guys to the guillotine, and the executioners who followed him to assist the execution quickly fixed them on the wooden table. The only part that could move on the criminals¡¯ bodies were their eyelids. Each time, ten of them would lay on the guillotine in a row with their heads hanging off one side. Not far from their necks hung a sharp blade glittering with cold light. When they were well fixed, Sui Xiong temporarily stopped his sentencing. He began to introduce their charges. Most of them did so many evil things that Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t finish saying all of them in a short while, so he just introduced the most serious crimes. About ten minutes later, the charges were all introduced, and then he solemnly announced the trial results. ¡°The previously mentioned ten persons shall be sentenced to death for their crimes!¡± With that, his tentacles waved in the air. ¡°Do it, now!¡± The executioner let go of the rope in his hand, and the blade, which had lost its traction, fell down with a sharp whistle. With a slightly dull sound, the heads flew, and blood poured onto the ground. Among the audience, some felt amazed, some sighed, and some wept with joy. Sui Xiong looked at that scene calmly and took out the name list again. Chapter 564 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The sun was sinking in the west. The huge square was crowded with people now, but there was a large empty area in the center of it. That was the execution ground. There was a river of blood under the guillotine now. With ten people in each group, shortly in half a day, there had been more than 30 executions here, and more than 300 people had been beheaded. Three hundred didn¡¯t sound like a large number, but actually, it was. Their blood gathered under the guillotine and formed a terrifying little pond. Their bodies were returned to the original place where they had been caught by Sui Xiong, and that frightened countless people. The air was full of the strong smell of blood, and the serious atmosphere made the audience feel heavy in their hearts. Even those who just got revenge for themselves gradually lost their smiles. Even the executioners felt stressed. Although they always boasted about killing people without blinking an eye, they had never killed so many people like killing pigs. More importantly, many of the criminals they executed today were dressed in exquisite or even gorgeous clothes, and others would know that they were not ordinary people at first glance. They were rich people at least, maybe even aristocrats. But that had no influence on Sui Xiong. He had a strong mind and would not be touched by such things. Moreover, when he caught these people with his magic power, he could see their sins and the complaints made by those who had been bullied by them. Even those who were soft-hearted would never be merciful to these guys if they saw their countless terrible sins. Thus, with a cold smile, Sui Xiong grabbed these evil guys one by one, tried them, sentenced them, and then sent them back. When the sun went down to the west, he looked at the sky and sighed softly. ¡°Let¡¯s stop here today. We¡¯ll continue the trial and execution tomorrow.¡± With that, he took Steele and the executioners off the guillotine and went to the hotel he had reserved beforehand. ¡°What a great today!¡± Steele laughed. ¡°I¡¯ve seen many dead people and murders over the years, but I¡¯ve never seen anything like that of today. Did you notice, Your Majesty? There were many nobles among the people executed today!¡± ¡°I only paid attention to whether they were guilty or not, and whether they deserved to die or not,¡± Sui Xiong said casually. ¡°We can¡¯t kill good people by mistake.¡± ¡°There will be no good people in that kind of terrorist organization,¡± one of the executioners said. ¡°Good people can¡¯t survive in that place. Some of them have to follow the evil guys to do evil things, and some are forced to leave. Sometimes, they are even killed by those evil guys.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. Among those who were executed today, even if they had been good at first, they gradually learned to be evil. In fact, the majority of the members of Isis were not necessarily evil at first. However, one would be influenced by the environment they were in. These good people had stayed with a group of ferocious fanatics for a long time, so they were unavoidably affected by them. That night, in Iron Sand City, the capital of the western wilderness, many people couldn¡¯t fall asleep all night. Some people were too happy, so they couldn¡¯t fall asleep due to excitement; others were sleepless because of nervousness and worry. As for those who were nervous, a small part of them was afraid that they would be hurt or even killed accidentally if the Orc gods fought with the Void Mask in Iron Sand City. Most of them remembered their lives and found that they had done a lot of bad things or had some involvement with Isis, and that made them worry whether they would be punished by the Void Mask. When the knife hung over your head, no matter how fierce or dull you were, you would feel scared after all. And this night, many people ran away overnight to flee from the western wilderness. Naturally, they were members of Isis. They had thought that they might escape the punishment. Some of them had hoped that they wouldn¡¯t be discovered, some of them had hoped that the Orc gods they had believed in would protect them from the punishment, and others were just dull. But after what had happened today, they were all frightened. Today, during the daytime, many people witnessed their church friends being swept away by a tentacle that appeared out of nowhere. And later, they returned, with their heads and bodies separated from each other, and they turned into corpses that still remained warm. Among those sentenced was a high-ranking aristocrat. He was in discussion when he was caught by Sui Xiong, and a high-ranking priest was beside him. Seeing that the aristocrat¡¯s body was still warm, the priest hurriedly cast a resurgence spell, hoping to resurrect him. When he started, he could feel the Divine Power flowing down his hands and into the corpse. The corpse gradually regained its vitality, but the priest couldn¡¯t feel the return of the aristocrat¡¯s soul. Of course, the priest couldn¡¯t give up, so he had others pray together with him. They begged the god they believed in for help to bring back the aristocrat¡¯s soul. Then he got an answer from his god: the aristocrat¡¯s soul had fallen into hell and was taken away by a Hell Judge. Once a sinner¡¯s soul fell into the hands of a Hell Judge, it would be engraved with the brand of hell. Then, even if the god the sinner believed in risked bringing his soul back from hell, the god would still not be able to revive him. Besides, how could a believer deserve their god risking going to hell? The judges of hell were very unfriendly to the gods because they always thought that if the gods took a soul back to their God¡¯s Kingdom, they obstructed the judgment of hell and violated the world order. Thus, if any god dared to enter hell, he would be attacked by the judges of hell immediately. Not to mention that the god that aristocrat believed in was just a mid-level Divine Power, even a great Divine Power among the gods would be killed if they were besieged by the judges of hell! At this point, it was almost over, so the priest had to give up. After people died, it would take anywhere from ten minutes to one or two hours for the soul to fall into the underworld, but why was it so fast this time? The answer from the god was that His Majesty, the Void Mask, had specially contacted the judges of hell, and the messengers from hell were just waiting there. That answer stunned the public. They had never imagined that His Majesty the Void Mask had so many friends that even the judges of hell were acquaintances with him! On my god! Didn¡¯t that mean that once one was caught, judged and beheaded by Sui Xiong, one would not only die, but one couldn¡¯t even go back to his God¡¯s Kingdom after death? Thus, one would fall directly into hell! Thinking of that, everyone was horrified. They looked at each other, only to see the pale face of each other. They looked even more miserable than if their parents had died. They had done all kinds of evil things. Thus, if they went to hell, they couldn¡¯t imagine how miserable they would be! By then, it would be impossible for them to die even if they wanted to! ¡°Run away!¡± The priest murmured. ¡°It will be only a dead end to stay in the western wilderness!¡± The others nodded silently and then rushed to run away in different directions. They didn¡¯t even have time to pack up their fortune. Their fortune could be packed up by their servants at home, but running away was something that they had to do in person. Originally, these members of Isis were fanatical followers of the Orc gods, so they did not fear death at all. In their view, death was nothing more than just returning to the God¡¯s Kingdom of their great gods and continuing to serve and worship the gods, so they didn¡¯t feel scared at all. But His Majesty, the Void Mask didn¡¯t allow that to happen. He did not only take their lives but also sent them directly to accept the punishment of hell! If that was the case, death would be something very horrible! So they all ran away quickly, but the news spread faster than they did. It was not entirely dark yet, and the mid-and-high ranking leaders of Isis in Iron Sand City had known about Sui Xiong¡¯s punishment. All of them, from the top leaders to those who were just responsible for running errands, ran away faster than rabbits. They even wished that they were born with two more legs. Just as they fled in the darkness, Sui Xiong arrived at the underworld. He set up a table to entertain a friend that was both familiar and strange to him. It was a judge from hell, Baron Palin. Chapter 565 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Baron Palin was that little mage who had followed Sui Xiong with curiosity and had finally died in the trap of the Quick Hand, Ryan. After his death, his real body was resurrected by Sui Xiong, and he became the library head of the Void Mask Church. At present, he was also the head of the Mage Corps. Over the years, Palin, the mage, had devoted himself to the research of smelting and forging technology. Recently, he had just made a blast furnace that could directly smelt iron ore into steel, and that helped Sui Xiong build friendly relations with the Dwarf gods. Palin¡¯s soul naturally went to the underworld after his death. After several events, he eventually became a Hell Judge. Later, he was promoted to a Hell Baron, and in the battle to catch the God of Fear who had tried to escape from hell into the abyss, he met the God of Justice, Yorgaardman. Then he met Sui Xiong again, as well as the mage, Palin. The meeting between the two Palins was quite interesting. They didn¡¯t act like how a comedy usually played out, asking weird questions like, ¡°Who am I?¡± Instead, they had a good talk with each other. After that, Palin, the Hell Baron, also became a follower of Sui Xiong. When Sui Xiong planned to exterminate the cult organization, Isis, he naturally thought of Palin, the Hell Baron. As a Hell Judge, Baron Palin hated evil things very much. As soon as Sui Xiong mentioned his plan, Palin showed that he would do his best to help Sui Xiong. He also promised that he would send all the evil guys who wanted to seek protection from their Orc gods and escape the punishment of hell to where they should be. None of them should be spared! He acted on what he said. He asked his friends for help and reported the news to his leader as well. Finally, he made a group. During Sui Xiong¡¯s trial and execution in the daytime, a group of Hell Judges stayed invisible near the guillotine. Every time one died, the judges immediately took the soul away without any delay. On the way, there were other Hell Kings who helped supervise the whole thing. The Orc gods did not have a chance to save those souls. Even if they did, there would be no hope for them to do that; those souls were doomed to go to hell! ¡°Thank you,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°Today, those who believe in Isis must be in a state of panic. If I let them die easily, that¡¯d be too merciful for them. But I have no time or interest in torturing them, thus, at least, I want them to be frightened before they die. That¡¯s a kind of punishment as well.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just a little worried. Won¡¯t they really run away and go somewhere you can¡¯t find them?¡± Baron Palin said worriedly. He looked extraordinarily brave and smart and wore black armor. ¡°If they really run away, that will be like a fly getting caught in ointment.¡± Sui Xiong laughed slightly. ¡°Run away? Where can they go? Although the Main Plane is large, I can still find them if I want, no matter where they go. As for running away to other worlds, that¡¯s not what ordinary people can do. Even if they managed to do that, there would be 100 people at most. After all, the main body of Isis can¡¯t run away.¡± Baron Palin nodded slightly and agreed with him. ¡°It¡¯s just that I don¡¯t feel comfortable in thinking that some of the criminals will escape,¡± Palin sighed and said. ¡°I know it¡¯s unrealistic to blame all of them for the whole thing, but if I can, I hope that I can catch them all!¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Even if they flee to another world, it does not mean that they really found a way out. After I punish all the evil guys on the Main Plane, I will naturally go after them. Haha, if they really think that they will be safe as long as they escape from the Main Plane, they look down on me too much!¡± Baron Palin laughed with relief. When the discussion was over, Baron Palin was ready to leave. Since there was no need to capture the souls at night, he wanted to do something else first. As a Hell Judge, he was busy indeed. It was a little exaggerated to say that he had almost 10,000 matters to deal with every day, but he really didn¡¯t have much free time. However, he liked this kind of life very much. As he had said before, this was what he had pursued when he had been alive¡ªa life full of pressure, risks and dangerous situations. Sui Xiong had a good sleep that night. Early the next morning, when the sky turned slightly brighter, he brought Steele and the executioners, who had also had a good rest and a good breakfast, to the guillotine in the central square of Iron Sand City. After last night, the big pool of blood yesterday had almost infiltrated into the ground, leaving only a dark red trace. But it didn¡¯t matter. By this evening, there would be a big pool of warm blood again. Sui Xiong was waving his tentacles and traveling through distant space, catching the evil guys who were still running away. He tried them while pondering on some irrelevant topics. In this world, many ordinary objects will gain unimaginable power after they have some legendary experiences. Then, will my guillotine also gain some power after these executions? Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at the sharp edge of the blade that was pulled up and dropped down repeatedly. The blade could cut ten heads off accurately each time. Sui Xiong could not help admiring his own foresight. The blade was made by him, not of ordinary steel, but of a special metal called ¡°Orichalcos.¡± This kind of metal shone like gold, and it was much stronger than iron and steel. It had a very low production rate in the Main Plane. In order to make this blade, he made a special trip to the inner space to collect enough raw ore from the Ore Plane. With his Divine Power, he extracted the minerals that were almost impossible to extract by an ordinary furnace and forged them into a blade. He also attached powerful magic to it to ensure that it would always remain sharp and would not be worn out. The blade had an important duty. Sui Xiong created it to cut off the heads of all the members of Isis! Generally speaking, this kind of metal should be used to build divine props. Thus, Sui Xiong did not humiliate this wonderful metal by using it to exterminate the cult organization, Isis. Although there were many divine props in the world, how many of them had a brilliant record of killing tens of thousands of evil guys? Maybe there was just one¡ªthe axe of his brother, Yorgaardman. But there would be one more soon. When the execution is over, I¡¯ll worship the blade in Void City and people can visit. Maybe in a few hundred years, it will have a spirit. After all, there are examples of weapons turning into monsters among the demons and monsters in this world. Sui Xiong thought about that in his heart as he waved his tentacles around. His tentacles were like the sickles of the Grim Reaper, sweeping through the fugitives. Each time, ten people disappeared, and ten dead bodies returned with their heads and bodies apart. At first, the fugitives were screaming. Every time someone was captured, they screamed. Every time a dead body was brought back, they screamed. But after several times, they gradually became numb. The rich and powerful high-ranking people had already gone very far through teleportation or by flying on mounts. The vast group fleeing towards the inland of the Orc Empire now was made up of the mid-and-low ranking members of Isis in the western wilderness. Of course, there were also people so poor in Isis that they had nothing other than their lives. These people didn¡¯t run away, and they had nowhere to run because they couldn¡¯t even afford to buy horses. If they ran on two legs, they would die of fatigue on the road. So they had to stay at home, waiting for the blade hanging over their heads to fall down. But Sui Xiong was not in a hurry to kill these poor people. Now he was mainly chasing those who had some fortune and power and could run away on a horse or by carriage. Looking down from the sky, he saw a huge troop of carriages and horses rushing forward in disorder. There were also some corpses falling down from time to time. They looked like they had been robbed. In fact, their situation was much worse than being robbed. They could always drive the robbers away by offering a bride or by threatening and attacking. Sometimes, the robbers would even want to join Isis. After some careful thoughts, Sui Xiong realized that the robbers might like the last choice the most. In fact, most of the robbers in the area of the western wilderness were familiar with Isis, and at least 70% of them had cooperated with Isis before. Isis had plundered villages and caravans for wealth, grabbed people for sacrifices to demons, and they massacred others to achieve the purity of their belief. It was not enough to rely solely on the Isis members to do that. But now, the power chasing after them couldn¡¯t be driven away. The power of justice in the hands of Sui Xiong was a sanction in this world! Chapter 566 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the early afternoon, continuous whinnies of exhausted horses suddenly came from the running caravan group. Then, at least a dozen horses slowed down, and those people were left behind by the large group. They were relatively poor in that group. They were not riding special horses with bloodlines of demon beasts which could run thousands of miles. They were riding fine-quality horses like ordinary adventurers. Fine horses were of course good. Common inferior horses couldn¡¯t compete with them. However, since the night, they had been running. Although they were fine horses, they were still exhausted. The knights¡¯ horses were equally exhausted. Looking at the caravan group that was running further, they stayed silent for a long time. Then, they stopped and sighed. ¡°No Solution,¡± a powerful person in this team said. ¡°We probably can only escape here.¡± ¡°What should we do next?¡± another person asked. ¡°Where are we going?¡± ¡°Is there a big difference?¡± the person who had previously spoken said with anger. ¡°In the face of a true god, it is the same wherever you flee to.¡± ¡°Maybe it would be better to escape to a temple,¡± another person said. ¡°Let¡¯s find a temple.¡± ¡°Even the priests of temples are running with us. Do you think they are more stupid than you?¡± the powerful guy said. He found a relatively flat grassland and laid down. ¡°I figured it out. I¡¯ll just lie here. If His Majesty wants to kill me, I¡¯ll die no matter where I am. At least let me rest before I die.¡± Seeing him, most of them also found a place to sit or lay down. After running for half a night and half a day, they understood that such an escape was meaningless. When they were originally running away, they had a kind of herd mentality. In other words, they had the selfish idea that ¡°I can¡¯t be faster than a tiger, so I¡¯ll just run faster than my companions.¡± Now they calmed down and naturally figured it all out. Such an idea was nothing more than an illusion. Recalling the scene when the Void Mask caught people today, they found there were no rules at all. He didn¡¯t catch people according to their speed, personal status, and strength. No one knew what the jellyfish god was thinking. Maybe, he just caught people at random. After figuring it out, the power that had supported them to escape naturally disappeared. Since it was the same whether they escaped or not, why should they bother to escape? ¡°I am stupid, really!¡± a relatively old person said, sighing. ¡°It is at least a little more comfortable to lie at home peacefully and wait to die. In that case, I would still be lying in a soft bed, full of food. Well, I was not willing to drink the bottle of good wine stored in the cupboard. I should have drunk it.¡± His words resonated with those people. For a time, they were angry about their stupidity. Anger was useless, but they were still angry. At this moment, one of the people was suddenly entangled in tentacles that appeared out of thin air. That guy cried out in alarm and then disappeared without a trace. After a while, the tentacles reappeared and threw his dead body back. His head was separated from his body with blood squirting. Those people looked at each other. Someone shouted, ¡°Run.¡± So they immediately stood up, climbed on the horses and ran wildly again. This time, they only ran for a short time. Those fine horses didn¡¯t rest well, so their temperatures were almost as high as having a fever. They foamed at the mouth and couldn¡¯t run anymore. During this time, the tentacles appeared again and took away another person. No one saw his body, but they knew that he was definitely dead. ¡°My horse can¡¯t run. What should I do?¡± ¡°The horses can¡¯t run, but we can still run!¡± ¡°But is it meaningful to run like this?¡± There was no answer to this question. No one could answer it. In fact, it was still meaningful. Even if they could be a little farther away from the horrible jellyfish god, they could make themselves feel a little better. Although it was just an illusion and although the short distance was useless, people would also firmly grasp the last straw when they were going to drown. After running hard for a while, someone finally couldn¡¯t help but shout, ¡°I don¡¯t want to be killed by a jellyfish!¡± After shouting, he pulled out a knife and cut his neck. Suddenly, blood spewed, and his body fell down softly. The people stopped running and looked at each other. Finally, they looked at the person who was still bleeding and dying on the ground. Slitting your neck, seemed to be a solution. After all, if they committed suicide, at least their souls wouldn¡¯t be sent to hell. They were all devout believers of the Orc gods, and these years, they had worked well for the gods. Even if they made little contributions, at least they worked hard. In any fashion, they would be brought to the God¡¯s Kingdom. However, in a flash, something that made them desperate happened. A figure wearing a black robe and holding a scythe appeared next to the man who was about to die completely. The figure wielded the scythe and swiped through his body. The scythe didn¡¯t hurt his body, but it hooked onto his soul like a real hook, dragging his soul out of his body. His soul was like a specimen pinned by a needle. The figure in the black robe with the scythe immediately disappeared with the hooked soul. During the whole process, he didn¡¯t look at the people around him at all. Even so, the gloomy chill that he left behind and the cold and solemn feeling that could make all the wicked people cringe clearly told them his identity. He was the Soulbringer from hell. In the legends, Soulbringers were Oracles who would take the souls of the wicked bring them to hell before the messengers of their gods came. ¡°How¡­ how can this be possible?!¡± a person yelled in panic. ¡°We can¡¯t even commit suicide?¡± ¡°Lord¡­ Where is our Lord? He¡­ he should¡­ should send messengers to pick¡­ pick us up,¡± another person stuttered out. Even his words were trembling. It was not his fault. Whether they were being executed or committed suicide, they would eventually go to hell. Seeing that scene, they were desperate to the extreme. Someone started to kneel on the ground and prayed in a low voice. ¡°Lord, who I serve, please pity me. Take my soul away so that I will not fall down to hell.¡± So the other people copied him and started praying, but it was useless. A moment later, Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles reappeared, taking a person away to the guillotine. He stated their crimes and declared their punishment¡ªthe death penalty. Then, he cut off their head, and the Hell Messengers took their soul away. Throughout the process, the Orc gods didn¡¯t react at all. In the Endless Field, Lefon, the Master God of the Orc God System, was watching the scene taking place in the mortal realm. He shook his head and sighed deeply. He knew that this was only the beginning. It was only the beginning. ¡°Your Majesty, it won¡¯t work like this!¡± a god advised. ¡°Even if you don¡¯t stop the Void Mask from arresting people and executing them, at least you should pick up the souls who commit suicide.¡± ¡°This time, the attitude of hell is very tough,¡± Lefon said, shaking his head. ¡°Unless we want to fight with them, we can only give in this time.¡± ¡°But, the souls of the believers are our own property!¡± another god said angrily. ¡°How can those hell guys reach into our bowls to grab our food!¡± ¡°Hell has always announced that all souls should accept fair trials after their death. They should be responsible for what they did during their lifetime. They have always condemned the actions of us gods. We set up God¡¯s Kingdoms to pick up the souls of our believers. They think that is destroying the world order and rebelling against the Big Circulation. For this, we have fought a few times,¡± an old god said, sighing. ¡°If we don¡¯t give in this time, we will definitely fight one more time.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t defeat them?¡± Lefon asked, looking around. The gods meditated, and then someone whispered, ¡°After leaving the underworld, the combat power of the hell guys will decrease.¡± ¡°But I bet as long as we fight with hell, the human gods will unite with Hell and attack us,¡± Lefon said calmly. ¡°In that case, we will definitely lose.¡± He said, sighing again, ¡°Forget it. We still have a long future. The adverse effects of this time will sooner or later be eliminated over the years. After a hundred years, who will remember what happened this time?¡± The Orc gods sighed and looked at each other without speaking. Chapter 567 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong¡¯s trials and executions in Iron Sand City lasted for ten days. Ten days later, the soil under the guillotine was soaked with blood. On the next day, after last night¡¯s penetration, the blood could no longer continue to penetrate into the soil and became a black-red lump. Then, the blood of this day covered the lump, so the bright red pond was much larger than before. Just when the audience discussed how big the bloody pond would eventually become, Sui Xiong announced in the evening that the first phase of the annihilation work ended successfully. He would leave the western wilderness and head towards the hinterlands of the Orc Empire. After arriving in the next big city, he would continue the second phase of the annihilation work. Hearing the news, the people were in an uproar. They had originally thought that the Void Mask would finish everything here, but they had never thought that he would go east to the hinterlands of the Empire to continue the killing. It seemed meaningless. The past ten days had proven that distance was meaningless to the Void Mask. Perhaps, as long as he was willing, he could catch the criminals no matter whether they escaped to the hinterlands of the Orc Empire or even out of the Main Plane. That was useless. Then why would he continue to go east? Some smart people quickly understood, or they thought they understood. The Void Mask wanted to humiliate the Orc Empire and the Orc gods. He wanted to tell everyone who was the boss in the Main Plane! Sui Xiong didn¡¯t notice their thoughts. If he noticed them, he would definitely laugh out loud. Did it make sense to be the boss in the Main Plane? Moreover, what he was pursuing was nothing like this. Sui Xiong certainly liked honor and to be the boss, but that only made sense when others really respected him. Was it meaningful to bully the Orc gods because they couldn¡¯t reach out to the Main Plane? Of course, he did mean to get revenge against them in his heart. In the past, he had wandered into the Orc Empire and had kindly helped resolve the contradiction between the Orcs. As a result, he had been attacked by the avatars sent by the Orc gods. He had been seriously injured, so he had to resort to the secret channel that his elder brother, Yorgaardman, had built with painstaking efforts. He had escaped and took refuge in the abyss. He still remembered that. Many years had passed, and the Orc gods had apologized for that. However, they had just opened their mouths and said a few words lightly. Well, you have severely injured me, and then you just say ¡°sorry¡± lightly. That¡¯s it? If ¡°sorry¡± was f*cking useful, then why would we need the police? Brother Xiong was a very generous person, but that didn¡¯t mean that he was a big fool. He was not someone who could be easily deceived. He could tell which people were really kind to him and which ones were pretending. Lefon, the Sky Devourer Canine, thought that he himself was smart. Well, what a coincidence, Brother Xiong also thought that he himself was smart. A smart guy vs. a smart guy. What should they do? A duel of wits like a police and gangster film or a suspense film? Bah! Brother Xiong could now teach him a lesson with his fists. What the f*ck was a duel of wits? As the old saying went, what was the strongest bit of wisdom? Your fists. I can beat you with my fists, and I can make you unable to take care of yourself. No matter which helper you invite, you can¡¯t stop me. Then your wisdom will be totally useless. Although Brother Xiong¡¯s fists were not that powerful, Lefon¡¯s wisdom was also not that brilliant. They were at the same level. If they really competed with each other, Brother Xiong wouldn¡¯t be afraid of him. This time, Isis came to the Republic of Northwest to make trouble. Sui Xiong was angry, but he also felt happy secretly. An opportunity! This was an opportunity! In the past few years, his relationship with the Orcs gods was not bad. They were acquaintances. For some reason, he couldn¡¯t find an excuse to attack the Orc gods and bring trouble to them. But now, Isis looked for trouble, and that gave him the opportunity and the excuse. And this excuse was just and straight. No one could find a problem with it. For a long time in the past, Isis had been steadfastly rushing on the road to death from generation to generation. They had a firm spirit. They didn¡¯t stop looking for trouble until they died. People were really ¡°touched¡± by their spirit. They totally went to the extremes. Therefore, now Sui Xiong used the annihilation of Isis as his excuse. It wouldn¡¯t arouse people¡¯s resentment, and it also won the acclaims of mortals and the gods. According to the statistics of Wall, the God of Knowledge and the diplomat of the Void Mask God System, in the past few days, at least 20 to 30 gods had looked for him to show their kindness. Most of them were good gods. There were also many neutral gods and even a few evil gods. Isis was really good at offending others. It was hated by all kinds of gods. This time, Sui Xiong killed the members of Isis, and that immediately offset the negative impact of him using skeleton laborers previously. After careful calculation, there were still some profits. According to a game¡¯s statements, he had used skeleton laborers before and ignored the prevention and suggestions of others. His world¡¯s reputation had reduced by 500. His reputation in the good camp had reduced by another 500. Now, he annihilated the evil extremist organization, Isis. His world¡¯s reputation increased by 600, and the reputation in the good camp increased by another 600. This was a rough meaning. The numerical value could always be discussed, so just understand the meaning. Regrettably, some guys had taken the advantage to unite with each other to fight against Sui Xiong when he had used skeleton laborers. He was afraid that those guys wouldn¡¯t change their minds because of this. However, without the help of the good gods, he estimated that they couldn¡¯t make big trouble. At least, Sui Xiong hoped so. He was not sure about the final result. However, he would always have the means to resist them. Sui Xiong, the Church of the Void Mask, and the Republic of Northwest all had the confidence. They dared to face all their challenges, and they also had enough confidence to defeat all their enemies! He was stable and confident without any nervousness, just like his footsteps that were heading to the hinterlands of the Orc Empire. He was not one who should be nervous. The top class of the Orc Empire that had long colluded with Isis should be nervous. This time, Sui Xiong had made up his mind. If people blocked his way, he would kill them. If any gods blocked his way, he would kill them too. No matter who dared to jump out and block his way, he would mercilessly stab them. He would use the cruel reality to tell those guys that they would die of their bad actions no matter if they were people or gods. He went forward in this way. Every time when he went to a big city, he held a ten-day event. The contents of the events were very simple: arrests, trials, and executions. To be honest, the members of Isis were not all evil to the extreme. Many non-core members were not very evil. However, Sui Xiong was very clear that if he was soft-hearted and didn¡¯t kill these people, the Orc Empire could easily rebuild the organization afterwards. The root of the wicked organization, Isis, didn¡¯t lie in the top class that might be lucky enough to escape. It lay in the seemingly insignificant roots! If Sui Xiong had enough time and manpower, he could try to implement labor reform. He could use an idea like ¡°the people of the old society turning into ghosts, and the new society turning ghosts into people.¡± However, he didn¡¯t have the time or the manpower, so he could only shake his head, sigh and clamp his teeth shut. After these people died, the punishments in hell would be lighter. After being punished, their souls would be sent to the big samsara and would start a new journey. If they had an afterlife, they should remember to be good people in their next lives. The most important thing was that they shouldn¡¯t get involved in evil doings! Evil things were like a towering tree in a thunderstorm. They could stand in any other places, but they insisted on standing under the tree. They also fertilized the tree to make it grow stronger. Well, at first glance, it seemed that it could help them take shelter under the wind and rain. In fact, they were just waiting to be struck by lightning. So they shouldn¡¯t complain or cry out about their innocence. Before Sui Xiong had space traveled here, he had read a famous article titled ¡°No Innocent Souls under the Atomic Bombing.¡± It had talked about the event where a certain island nation in the east had been attacked by two atomic bombs. The people of the island nation had always complained about how many civilians had died due to the atomic bombs and how innocent they had been. The article, however, had torn off the hypothesis of the so-called idea of ¡°humanitarianism.¡± It had used the cold and stiff reality to tell the people that these ¡°innocent¡± civilians had been the reliance behind those evil executioners. Most of the tragedies would not have happened without their contribution and help. Therefore, they were not innocent. When Sui Xiong executed Isis¡¯ root members and the non-core members who seemed to commit minor crimes, he also silently said this to himself. Don¡¯t be soft, they are not innocent. You can let them go today. Who let go of those people who were attacked and killed by these guys? If they are innocent, what about the victims? Are the victims guilty too? There is no wrong soul on the guillotine! Chapter 568 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The capital of the Orc Empire was called the ¡°Golden Tent.¡± Long, long ago, the Orcs had still been a nomadic society. They had lived by rivers and grass and had used tents as their homes. At that time, high-ranking tribal leaders had liked to use golden tents to symbolize their power and status. Later, the various races of the Orcs had achieved unification after years of war. After the unification, they had formulated relevant regulations on the colors and decorations of the tents. According to the regulations, only one pure golden tent could exist in the entire Orc Empire, and it belonged to the Emperor of Orcs. Princes could use tents that consisted of silver tops and golden sides. Dukes could use tents that consisted of silver tops, silver sides, and golden totems. Marquises could use tents that consisted of silver tops, silver sides and golden decorations. Earls could use tents that consisted of silver tops, silver sides, and golden tassels. Viscounts could use pure silver tents, and barons could use tents with silver totems. As for people under viscounts, they were not aristocrats. They didn¡¯t have the qualifications to talk about the ritual system. Times had changed, and now the Emperor of Orcs didn¡¯t live in a tent anymore. He lived on a low hill in the central region of the prairie, and they built a city there. They still used the name, Golden Tent. The city was often ridiculed by others because it didn¡¯t have walls. However, why did the city need walls? If the Orcs didn¡¯t invade others, others would be thankful. Who dared to invade them? Monsters? Beasts? The Orc patrols were all around the city. The farthest one was hundreds of miles away. What beasts or monsters could pass through the defense line of countless patrols and break into the city? The Golden Tent didn¡¯t have stone walls, but it built a living wall with countless patrol officers. The most conspicuous thing in this city was the tall building that stood on the platform at the center of the low hill. The golden top was shaped like a tent. Obviously, it was the palace of the emperor. Around the palace, circles of houses lined in order and distributed down along the slope. The residences of the emperors and the aristocrats were not built directly on the ground. Instead, they first built high platforms on the ground and then built their residences on the high platforms. Civilians were not allowed to build such houses. Although some businessmen had a lot of money, they could only build their houses on the ground since they were not aristocrats. The Orc Empire paid great attention to the ritual system. According to the levels of their identities, the foundations of their houses were different. The number of steps they could build from the high platform, the height of every step, and the decorative patterns they could use all followed particular regulations. Sui Xiong looked down on such regulations. He thought that a powerful country and a powerful nation shouldn¡¯t regard a ritual system as something really important. Of course, they should still follow some regulations, but the regulations shouldn¡¯t be too particular. Instead of thinking about how to set rules for the people at different levels, the leaders should think more about how to win the hearts of the people. A country relied on its people and resources, certainly not on a ritual system. Therefore, the Republic of Northwest didn¡¯t pay much attention to such rules. Of course, they still followed some rules. However, in today¡¯s world, the Republic was definitely a country that cared the least about the ritual system. They didn¡¯t have an imperial garden, an imperial workshop, or an imperial style. Apart from some measures taken to ensure safety, there were no essential differences between the lifestyle of the officials of the Republic of Northwest and that of the civilians. When Sui Xiong showed his idea, some people advised him not to be so extreme. They thought he should respect the tradition. However, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t care. He asked lazily, ¡°Tradition? We jellyfish don¡¯t have any traditions.¡± His words were obviously artificial arguments. However, the Void Mask was indeed a jellyfish. No one could ask a jellyfish to do things according to the rules of others. The Orc Empire obviously did things according to the rules of others, and they were very crazy about that. Sui Xiong walked down the street with his subordinates, and he saw a white stone road. It was located in the central part of the wide street, and it was wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. It stretched from the edge of the city towards the center of the city. ¡°This is the famous Imperial Road to the Golden Tent, right?¡± Steele asked. Steele looked at the white stone road curiously, but Steele didn¡¯t stupidly walk over and touch it. ¡°It is said that unless the emperor permits, even the aristocrats won¡¯t be allowed to step on this road.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Sui Xiong said, nodding. ¡°One foot on it, cut off the foot. Two feet on it, cut off the head. No exceptions.¡± ¡°How horrible! The emperor doesn¡¯t go out usually. It shouldn¡¯t matter whether others walk on this road or not.¡± ¡°It can create a sense of authority and sacredness,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°It seems to be close at hand, but it actually has an unreachable distance. As a result, people can clearly understand the gap between their identities. This method is quite old-fashioned.¡± ¡°What? Old-fashioned? Is there another country that has an imperial road?¡± Steele asked curiously. Sui Xiong smiled. He didn¡¯t explain. He couldn¡¯t say that on the Earth, this method had been used more than a thousand years ago. It was not rare at all. They walked on the wide street. There were separate houses on both sides of the street, but they didn¡¯t see any shops. In the Golden Tent, shops were concentrated in a block called the Businessman Square. Except for this block, shops were not allowed in other places; the violators would be executed. At this moment, Sui Xiong and his subordinates were heading towards the Businessman Square. He had already studied the topography of the Golden Tent. There were about three places that were suitable for building guillotines: The first place was the large square in front of the palace. The place was large and broad enough to accommodate a large audience. However, people were not allowed to enter it without a reason. The aristocrats couldn¡¯t enter the square if they didn¡¯t have official missions or the emperor¡¯s calling. Even if a guillotine was built here and it was used to execute a lot of people, it would be useless because no one could see it. The second place was the large square in front of the Guard Camp. It was also large and broad enough to accommodate a large audience. However, civilians were not allowed to enter that either. The aristocrats were unrestricted, but there were only a few aristocrats here. Moreover, they grieved for their fellow beings. How could they come to watch the execution? So there was only one place that they could choose¡ªthe Businessman Square. This large square was a place where large-scale markets were held in the middle of the month and at the end of the month. It was usually empty, and no one used it. This time, it was suitable to be used to hold activities. In fact, it was much smaller than the other two squares. However, getting there was convenient. It was adjacent to the civilian residential area, and it didn¡¯t limit the entry and exit of the civilians. It was the most suitable place. Of course, Sui Xiong was powerful. As long as he was willing, the Orc Empire couldn¡¯t prevent Sui Xiong from calling people to see the fun no matter if the place was the square in front of the palace or the square in front of the camp. However, Sui Xiong would leave this place eventually. At that time, the Orc Empire would blame the civilians. He was not willing to bring such trouble to the civilians. Therefore, Sui Xiong simply found a place where the civilians could enter and exit freely. For this ¡°performance,¡± he specifically left some important ¡°actors¡± behind! Chapter 569 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong¡¯s preparations did lead to a very good effect. When the guillotine was built, the audience gathered. The first criminal he arrested made them surprised, and some people even fainted. That one¡­ That person is¡­ ¡°Are my eyes deceiving me?¡± ¡°How is that possible!¡± The audience under the guillotine were talking about it. Those civilians could only see the clues from the gorgeous costume. However, the aristocrats, especially the older aristocrats and the legendary masters, were all stunned at the moment. This person was the previous Emperor of the Orcs. He had retired due to his old age and weak body. He was now the Grand Elder who lived in the Divine Temple. He was a demigod. However, people were still not sure. After all, this was too strange. Sui Xiong quickly dispelled their doubts. He began to declare the identity and the accusation of this person. ¡°Hogg Bale, the former Emperor of the Orcs, the current Grand Elder of the Divine Temple, the leader of Isis.¡± He only said one sentence, but the audience under the guillotine were in disorder. The civilians were yelling. Some people rushed back to stay further away so that they could avoid the possible danger. Some people were screaming and squeezing forward. They wanted to get close to see him clearly. Moreover, some loyal guards and masters of the Orc Empire rushed over. Seeing that their previous emperor was going to be executed, they forgot their own lives even though they had to face a great Divine Power. They wanted to save him from the guillotine. But all that was useless. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t do anything special, but all the people present found that they suddenly couldn¡¯t move as if they were frozen. For a time, the people who were going backward, the people who were squeezing forward, the people who wanted to rush over, and the people who quickly looked for helpers all became grotesque ¡°statues.¡± They couldn¡¯t move at all. Sui Xiong simply kept the order, and then he began to declare Hogg Bale¡¯s crimes. The former Emperor of Orcs was not talented and ambitious. He was far worse than Junero, the current emperor. Hogg was best known for two things: the first one was his great martial arts, and the second was his brutal character. The reason why he had been able to ascend to the throne was because the former emperor and Leonard had had a fierce battle, and the former emperor had been killed by Leonard. Leonard had also been punished by the Orc gods. The two sides had perished together. More than half of the entire Orc Empire had been killed in the civil strife. After that, the interior of the Orc Empire had been chaotic. The Orc Empire was going to enter turbulent times. At this moment, Hogg Bale had appeared. He had united with several large families relying on his powerful strength, and then he had killed an important competitor with lightning speed. He had also killed all the family members of his competitor. The Orc society was relatively primitive, and the members of a tribe always had blood relations with each other. Killing all his family members meant slaughtering the whole tribe. The tribe that had been slaughtered by him had been a large tribe. There had been at least more than 10,000 people including men, women, children, and slaves. However, he had led a large troop to slaughter those more than 10,000 people overnight. It had really been a ruthless, mass slaughter. With this incident, he had shocked those various forces who had wanted to compete for the throne. Then with the help of a fox sage, he had used both the ¡°stick¡± and the ¡°carrot¡± to invade others or to draw them to his side. In just a year, he had killed more than 100,000 people, and he had annihilated several famous tribes. Finally, he had made the Orcs of all races convinced of his emperor position. An Orc historian had once said, ¡°Since ancient times, Emperor Hogg has chosen the most difficult way to become an emperor.¡± The key reason was that the Orc gods, especially the master god, had supported other people when someone different was going to become emperor. However, when Hogg was going to become emperor, the Orc gods hadn¡¯t expressed any opinions on that. They had purely been spectators. Everyone had understood that that was a very clear sign. The gods hadn¡¯t been satisfied with Hogg. They had been looking forward to seeing someone defeat him and replace him. However, such a person had never appeared. In the end, Hogg was the Emperor of the Orcs and had been recognized by the Orc gods. However, his position hadn¡¯t been firm. In his first 100 years as an emperor, a total of ten large-scale rebellions had broken out. Every time, he had suppressed them with extremely bloody methods. The bodies of the killed were everywhere. From the second 100 years, he had changed his ruling strategy. He had vigorously promoted the bloodline-dominated theory of the Orcs and had declared that Orcs were excellent races and should be the only leaders of the vast land. He had promoted the belief-purified movement to discriminate against the Half-Orcs. With his encouragement and support, Isis, who had originally been hurt in the Battle of the Raging Lion and then had been attacked by Leonard, had quickly recovered. It had developed and grown up, and they received recognition as an official organization, something they had always been dreaming of. Hogg¡¯s indirect method had a miraculous effect. In this method, Hogg had successfully transferred the domestic contradictions and had launched several wars before and after; that had earned him great prestige. That situation had ended in a war. In that war, he had invaded the Kingdom of Eagle again. He had been defeated by John Igor, the Eagle-Feather Blade Master, Leon¡¯s grandfather. Hogg had been seriously wounded. At that time, he was already at the legendary peak, but John was at the Legendary Peak, too. Hogg owned the artifacts of the Orc Empire, but John had also owned the Three Eagle Artifacts. However, the most important thing was that John had dared to risk his life and Hogg hadn¡¯t. Therefore, he had lost. If Old General Norem Bull hadn¡¯t saved him, he might have died under the sword of John Igor. This failure had made him suffer a lot. After lying in bed for half a year, he had recovered. Then, he had decided to seek a higher and stronger road. Thus, he had abandoned the emperor position that had become a burden. So he held a large-scale competition to select the next emperor. As a result, in the competition, he had met Junero Tiger who had come out again. Junero, who had usually appeared in public in the form of a weak scholar, managed to convince Hogg to give him the emperor position after talking all night. Then, Hogg retreated to the most mysterious Divine Temple of the Orc Empire. He had become the Grand Elder of the Divine Temple. Soon after, he had broken into the demigod realm and had become one of the strongest existences who still walked. Of course, he had been supporting and directing Isis. In recent years, the large-scale attacks carried out by this organization had all been under his command. ¡­ The speed at which Sui Xiong spoke was not fast, and every sentence was clear. It took him a while to finish telling Hogg Bale¡¯s life. Finally, he announced his judgment on the former Emperor of Orcs. ¡°Hogg Bale, the death penalty.¡± After that, he waved his tentacles and sent Hogg to the executioners. Hogg¡¯s strength was fully banned, so he couldn¡¯t speak, and the executioners were waiting excitedly. Because of the excitement and nervousness, the hands of the executioners were shaking. They failed to catch Hogg well, allowing him to fall to the ground. Steele stepped forward and grabbed Hogg immediately. Then, she handed him to them. Seeing the excited executioners, she said, smiling, ¡°Be serious, this is a big man. When you cut his head, you must cut it beautifully. If you do a good job, you can brag about it in front of your children and your grandchildren when you are old. Your descendants could also brag about this in front of others.¡± The executioners smiled and calmed down. They carefully examined the guillotine and placed Hogg Bale in the right position. Then, they dropped the sharp blade. The head flew off with bright red blood flowing out. In the whole process, Emperor Junero and the Orc gods didn¡¯t show any indications of intervening. Chapter 570 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Before Sui Xiong had space traveled here, there a famous movie line appeared on the Internet. It said, ¡°I have done a good job for XX. I have bled for XX. You can¡¯t do this! I want to see XX!¡± Then it had been followed by, ¡°Drag him out,¡± and sounds of gunshots. This plot had been used in several movies. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t know its original source; he only remembered that he had seen several different versions. It could be used when dragging a dog across the street to the death of a certain NPC in a game. It was quite appropriate in those scenes. The situation of Hogg Bale was also quite suitable for this line. If he could speak, he might say, ¡°I have done a good job for the Empire! I have bled for His Majesty! You can¡¯t do this! I want to see His Majesty!¡± Regrettably, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t allow him to speak, so there was no ¡°drag him out¡± being said. Moreover, the guillotine was not suitable for the phrase, and in the end, there were no sounds of gunshots. After thinking about it carefully, Sui Xiong felt that this was not perfect enough. He was silently thinking with a cold face. However, in his heart, he was laughing. Beside the blade on the other side, a fierce battle, which was invisible to mortals¡¯ naked eyes, was happening. After all, Hogg Bale was a demigod. He was immortal. Even though his flesh was killed, his soul still had strong power. He was not an ordinary person who could be easily caught by Hell Messengers. If ordinary Hell Messengers came today, Hogg might be able to defeat them with his own strength and then escape. However, hell had been notified by Sui Xiong in advance, so two dukes came here today. Hell Dukes were roughly equivalent to mid-level Divine Powers. However, after leaving the underworld, their strength would slightly decrease. They would be roughly equivalent to low-level Divine Powers. Of course, because of the existence of the protective enchantment of the Main Plane, they couldn¡¯t directly step into the Main Plane. However, they could create a small Half Plane here and stay inside, giving the Hell Messengers power at almost zero distance. With the power they provided, the Hell Messengers immediately became energetic. Several messengers surrounded Hogg, and they fought fiercely. However, as time went by, the power contained in Hogg¡¯s soul gradually disappeared, and the power the Hell Messengers received from their own bosses was almost endless. Therefore, the result of this battle was already determined. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t intervene in this battle. This was the request of the Hell Judges. For them, it was their professional ethics and dignity to arrest the souls of the wicked with their own hands. They were not the old-fashioned guys who would starve to death with dignity. However, since their current combat power was sufficient, why would they bother to damage their dignity? Sui Xiong thought that was fine. He appreciated it. In fact, in this world, what he appreciated the most was the Hell System. They had power in numbers, and they had an unwavering stand. They were never soft-hearted when punishing the evil, and they did things straightforwardly and clearly. They were perfect. In contrast, something was wrong with the powerful human gods. Unfairness was their biggest problem. The more knowledge they had, the more reactionaries there were. This sentence could be used to describe their situation. However, Yorgaardman, a just god, basically had no influence at all. He was totally alone, wandering in this world with a sword. Well, he didn¡¯t even have a sword; he used an axe. He always fought on his own. Even if he was a piece of steel, how many nails could he bear? There were so many bad things in the world. How could he deal with all of them on his own? Sui Xiong thought that perhaps he should be a middleman and ask his elder brother to communicate with the Hell Judges to promote cooperation. Cooperation meant benefits for both sides. Sui Xiong knew that because of this event. If he didn¡¯t invite the Hell Judges to work together with him, he might not be able to keep order with his own strength. The Orc gods might send their avatars down to attack him again. He was not afraid of that, but that still wasn¡¯t good. If smacking their faces turned into fighting, that would be pretty low-end. Honestly speaking, if it was really necessary, Sui Xiong wouldn¡¯t mind turning smacking into fighting. He was more familiar with fighting than smacking. However, if he could smack their faces, that would be good. Therefore, he had started from the border of the Orc Empire. He had gone forward to the hinterlands again and again, and the people he was going to kill became more and more important. Perhaps, the Orc Empire and the Orc gods had originally wanted to attack Sui Xiong. However, when they had seen the end result of the dead Isis members, they forgot about it. Although the dead had been more important, this could still be tolerated; they had just ignored it, and so it had happened again and again. This was called the ¡°frog-boiling effect.¡± When Sui Xiong had been in college before space traveling, he had a professor that was especially good at using this method. During the whole year, he had slowly increased the amount of homework. In the end, the abominable old man had given them the most homework among all the lessons. That was really cruel! Well, by the way, there was no way to boil a frog in warm water in this world. Sui Xiong had once thought of that, so he had curiously caught a frog to experiment. As a result, the frog had dishonored him. When the water got warm, the frog had jumped away. There weren¡¯t any feelings like, ¡°Oh, I can tolerate the water temperature, so it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Presumably, the frogs of the two worlds were different. Thinking about those strange things, Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t delayed his work. He had been capturing the head members of Isis in no hurry. Then, he had declared their crimes one by one and executed them. Of course, those who had been caught by him deserved the death penalty. There was such problem as ¡°too severe a penalty¡± during the executions of those people. According to the law in Sui Xiong¡¯s hometown, even if people committed minor crimes, they would be shot 100 times, leaving them with holes all over their bodies. As for Hogg, he had committed the most capital crimes, and Sui Xiong had once asked Cambrona, the legal expert, to help estimate. The conclusion had been that Hogg probably needed to be executed more than 10,000 times to offset his crimes. At that time, Sui Xiong had been a little confused. He had asked, ¡°So many times? That¡¯s a scary number.¡± ¡°In fact, the number is still relatively small. I have counted a lot of felonies as one death penalty,¡± Cambrona had said. ¡°If you really want to quantify it in detail, the number will increase some more.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°For example, if he kills 10,000 people, how many death penalties should he receive?¡± Cambrona had asked. After thinking for a while, Sui Xiong had asked, ¡°10,000?¡± Before Cambrona had replied, Sui Xiong had shaken his head first. He had said, ¡°No, the soldiers responsible for the massacre and the officers at various levels are also guilty. The 10,000 death penalties should be divided equally between them. Alas, it is difficult to calculate!¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Cambrona had said, laughing. ¡°So just give each one of them a death penalty. That would be fair.¡± Sui Xiong had nodded again and again. He had totally agreed with Cambrona. Later, he had sentenced all members of Isis to death. This decision had been influenced by the words of Cambrona. Cambrona was a fat man who was also kind; he smiled all day. After work, he often ran to pick up his wife. He never thought that his words could decide the fate of tens of thousands of people. Chapter 571 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The soul of Hogg Bale eventually lost to the hell Messengers. He was knocked down by several hell Messengers, and then he was tied up like a rice dumpling. They raised his arms and legs and moved him away. They smiled happily and were filled with a sense of accomplishment. hell hadn¡¯t caught a demigod villain like Hogg for many years. On the one hand, demigods were immortal, and they never got sick. Unless they were killed, they were unlikely to die. On the other hand, even if they were dead, their souls would have enough power to support them until their saviors arrived. As for the saviors, naturally, they were the different gods. If demigods wanted to offer their services, a lot of gods would be willing to protect them, especially since those evil gods didn¡¯t care whether the faith fit or not. It was worthy of offending hell to fight for such subordinates. In any case, they had already seriously offended hell because they had been sheltering villains for years. So over the years, when the evil demigods had died, the hell Messengers usually had no time to arrive there. Or, they had arrived there, but they had failed to take the souls. In the end, the souls had almost all been picked up by different gods. hell was naturally very dissatisfied with this. If the hell Kings used black notebooks to record things, then countless sins of the evil gods would be recorded in the notebooks. However, the soul and the flesh of a god were one whole. Even if the gods were killed, they would either fall or be resurrected. It was impossible for only their souls to be arrested and judged. Just like the last time, Sui Xiong had killed over 100 evil gods. As a result, these guys had all fallen. No one had souls left to be punished by hell. The hell Kings had lived for a long time. They didn¡¯t care too much about such things. However, these hell Messengers were still relatively young. They still cared about that. They couldn¡¯t catch those sinful evil gods, but they could catch a sinful, evil demigod. It helped them vent their anger. More importantly, Hogg¡¯s soul was defeated and captured by them. Sui Xiong just killed this guy, but he did not help when the hell Messengers arrested Hogg¡¯s soul. It meant that this credit was completely due to the hell Messengers, and that made it more valuable. The most important ¡°big fish¡± today was Hogg. There were no special aristocrats who were judged and beheaded, so Emperor Junero, who was secretly concerned about the guillotine, was quietly relieved. As for Hogg, Junero never felt that this guy was important. The Orcs didn¡¯t need boors and savages anymore. They needed wise and clear-minded people. For example, the famous Wilder family of the fox men was known for their sages. After knowing that Sui Xiong wanted to annihilate Isis, Junero had first sent people to find the patriarch of the Wilder family. The patriarch would bring together the relatively important figures in the family who were related to the organization. He had personally cast spells to escort this group of people to a safe and reliable place. He had also hidden some other people with those fox men. He thought those people were important to the Empire, so he couldn¡¯t lose them. He believed that even though the Void Mask was powerful, Sui Xiong still wouldn¡¯t be able to find the people he had hidden. As for the rest, like Hogg Bale, he could afford such losses. He didn¡¯t care. A demigod seemed to be very important and powerful. However, there was little need for such a strong person to come out in the wars on the Main Plane. As for the wars outside the Main Plane, there were a lot of Orc gods. They could send a true god. Who cared about a demigod? The most important thing was that Junero didn¡¯t like Hogg. The Orc gods didn¡¯t like him, either. He had made a contribution to the Orc Empire and had bled for the Orc gods, but he had also made many mistakes. The biggest mistake was that he had jumped out to fight for the emperor¡¯s seat without the permission of the Orc gods. The emperor of the Orc Empire was the most important subordinate of the Orc gods. He was the highest commander of the Orcs and could represent the Orc gods to command the Orcs. This position should of course be designated by the Orc gods. The Orcs shouldn¡¯t fight for it by themselves. Just like in Curse of the Golden Flower, the emperor had a famous line: ¡°What I give you is yours. You can¡¯t grab what I don¡¯t give you.¡± Hogg had violated this taboo. Therefore, no matter what he had done afterwards, it couldn¡¯t offset that mistake. In the hearts of the Orc gods, his name had long been blacklisted. Otherwise, the Orc gods would have at least taken him to their God¡¯s Kingdom before Sui Xiong had executed him. Even though Sui Xiong was powerful, it wouldn¡¯t be easy for him to grab a person from the Endless Field, the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Orc gods. Of course, Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t that powerful, and he didn¡¯t need to do that. He had so many people to catch and kill. He couldn¡¯t care about the ones who were sent away. The next morning, the first villain he arrested, tried and executed was another great aristocrat¡ªBurton Tiger, the famous master of the tiger family, the duke of the Orc Empire, the Legendary Master, the ¡°Tiger Who Tears Mountains.¡± Burton was a distant descendant of Junero, but he didn¡¯t respect his ancestors much. Instead, he was ambitious and wanted to replace Junero. Because of the need to suppress power, Junero had always acted as a weak scholar. As for the secrets of his combat power, only a very small number of people knew about it. Burton was not one of them, and that caused this unscrupulous descendant to have some ambitions that he shouldn¡¯t have had. In the past few decades, he had more than once suggested holding a Golden Tent Contest to select outstanding talents so that he could share Junero¡¯s cares and burdens. Even fools knew what he had been thinking. Sometimes, Junero really wanted to kill this bastard. However, he couldn¡¯t do this because it was not convenient to use forces in the Main Plane Therefore, when he had found that this bastard was actually in the top class of Isis, he had been particularly annoyed. He was one of the top masters of the tiger family, but he didn¡¯t try to compete for the position of the patriarch. Instead, he rushed to stay with some bastards who were thinking about all sorts of terrorist attacks all day long. Did the nutrients he ate all become muscles and so his head was empty? He had also tried to save this bastard. For example, he had advised him in person directly and hinted at him indirectly, but Burton hadn¡¯t been moved at all. He had still persisted in his old ways. His mind was full of violence and ambition. He believed that as long as he tried hard to strengthen himself and to please the gods, he could do anything in this world. For ordinary people, nothing was wrong with such an idea. However, for a Legendary Master, such an idea meant that he didn¡¯t strive to go further ahead. What was a Legendary Master? A Legendary Master was a person who had surpassed the limits of mortals and walked the first steps toward the path of immortality to become a god. At this level, how could he use mortal eyes to view things and or mortal ways of thinking to solve problems? Burton was talented, but his brain was too dull Junero couldn¡¯t save a fool. Therefore, when Junero had learned that the Void Mask wanted to annihilate Isis, he had given up on Burton. Anyway, Burton didn¡¯t have any training prospects. It was better to use his life to shape the positive image of the tiger family. As a royal family, they could share the same pains with people. Junero was sitting on the throne of the palace, but his eyes couldn¡¯t be blocked by the distance and the obstacles on the road. He clearly saw that Burton was caught and fixed to the guillotine, along with some other high-status aristocrats. Finally, the blade fell down and cut off their heads. Junero nodded slightly and smiled. ¡°This fool finally played a role!¡± Chapter 572 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Compared to the scene when Hogg Bale had been executed on the first day, the trials and executions of the next few days were relatively ordinary. It was not because the people who were executed were not in high positions. In fact, all the people who were executed in these days were aristocrats. There were no civilians among them. Many of them were great aristocrats, and more than one chief of the big tribes was put on the guillotine. However, compared to Hogg Bale, their weight was a bit light. Sui Xiong thought that his drama was not good enough. He didn¡¯t arrange it well. Actually, he should have executed Burton Tiger on the first day. He should have executed a Legendary Master both on the second day and the third day. When the audience would think about which Legendary Master would be executed next, he would suddenly execute Hogg on the fourth day. That would be more shocking. It was a pity that the past was over and done with. The past was the past. What a pity! Unlike Sui Xiong who regretted his drama not being perfect enough, the audience was very satisfied with the bloody drama these days. This could be seen from the increasing number of the audience. On the first day, there hadn¡¯t been many people. Even though Sui Xiong had already made good preparations, would those people with high status and identities be interested in this open death penalty? The statuses of the people he had killed before were not high enough. However, Sui Xiong¡¯s first blade in the Golden Tent had killed the previous emperor of the Orc Empire. That had immediately aroused everyone¡¯s interest. The first one is such a big man. Who will be the next? People had been very curious. Therefore, as soon as the news that he had executed Hogg had spread, many people had rushed to the Golden Tent from all directions to see what had happened. People lived in societies. Of course, there were struggles within the Orc Empire; there were power struggles and ideological struggles. They fought for real benefits and speaking rights. As a collection of extremists, Isis had many enemies all over the world. Even inside the Orc Empire, they had a large number of enemies. Before Emperor Junero had come to power, they had been keen on purging the Half-blooded Orcs in the top class. Just that action alone had earned them many enemies. The marginal group referred to the children born by Orcs of two different races. Those children had the characteristics of the two races. The bloodlines of the Orcs were amazing. If they married into a race other than the Orcs, they would give birth to children with weakened Orc characteristics. Those children were Half-Orcs in the biological sense. However, if the Orcs from different races got married, then regardless of the races of the husband and wife, the children would generally show the characteristics of only one race. For example, if a fox and a rabbit got married, they would give birth to either a fox or a rabbit. The child wouldn¡¯t show the characteristics of both sides. It was said that this was the pre-set of the Orc gods who had created them. It would ensure the purity of the bloodlines so that it wouldn¡¯t cause disputes on the issue of belief. There were always exceptions to everything. With about a 1% chance, an interracial couple would give birth to a child with two racial characteristics. In the previous example, it was possible to give birth to a child who had the characteristics of both a fox and a rabbit. This kind of child was a part of the marginal group. Hopes Wilder, who had gone thousands of miles to the technical school of the Republic of Northwest to study mineral processing before, was such an example. In the past, the Orcs hadn¡¯t particularly discriminated against the marginal group. Although they were born as Half-Orcs, there had been a lot of Half-Orcs in the Orc Empire. That hadn¡¯t been a big deal. Although members of the marginal group were strange in appearance, there had been no difference between the treatment of them and the other Half-Orcs. Moreover, because of better family conditions, their living standards had been pretty good. However, Isis believed that since two bloodlines were awakened at the same time in their bodies, they couldn¡¯t get a response from any god. Members of the marginal group were born to be Half-Orcs. They were the shame of their families. The top class of the Orc Empire should be examples for the civilians. They should serve the gods more devoutly. They should deal with such children on their own so that the children won¡¯t dishonor their families, and so that they won¡¯t discredit the gods they believed in. Those were high-sounding statements, but how could the great aristocrats be willing to kill their own children! Dishonor? We don¡¯t think so! Discredit? The gods say nothing. Who are you? With the support of Emperor Hogg, Isis had forcibly executed the marginal group of many aristocratic families. For a long time, because of that, various races of the Orcs had stopped interracial marriage. Later, Emperor Junero came to power. The law proclaimed in writing that it was forbidden to kill any member of the marginal group. The Orcs started having interracial marriage again. But even though Emperor Junero openly opposed it and even issued a clear order, Isis still secretly killed marginal group members. They didn¡¯t dare to oppose the command of the emperor and kill openly. However, they could use various means to put pressure on the families who just gave birth to a marginal child. They could force them to kill the children on their own. As an official organization, Isis was supported by Hogg Bale. Its force was naturally very powerful, and few Orc families could resist their pressure. Hopes left his hometown, went to the Republic of Northwest to study, and decided to live there for a lifetime. That was largely because of this reason. After all, Hopes was a descendant of the branch of the Wilder family, a famous Sage Family among the Orcs. Hopes had the family name Wilder, so he was an aristocrat with high status. Because of the pressure from Isis and the discrimination against the Half-Orcs, even he had to leave his hometown and go far away. Others were in worse situations. However, people held a grudge. Even though they killed their own children because of the pressure, it didn¡¯t mean that the parents would really believe in the damn words of Isis. They didn¡¯t believe that they killed their children to maintain the honor of the families and to glorify the gods they believed in. Instead, they secretly remembered it and kept this hatred deeply in their hearts, waiting for the opportunity to get revenge. Therefore, this time, when Sui Xiong wanted to annihilate Isis, inside the Orc Empire, many people applauded and even held parties to celebrate. Countless parents went to the places where their poor children had been buried; the children couldn¡¯t have official graves. The parents comforted the dead souls, crying and laughing. Many people who came to see the doomsday of the Isis leaders this time were such people. Later, every time a group of people died on the guillotine, a large group of people cheered under it. Their cheers were widely spread, echoing in the air of the Golden Tent. It also came into the palace. ¡°Do you hear that?¡± Morani said beside Junero. ¡°The civilians really hate those guys!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know that before!¡± Junero said, sighing and shaking his head. ¡°If I knew that their grievances were so big, I would have used my own hands to clean up this evil organization!¡± ¡°You knee, you just didn¡¯t pay attention,¡± Morani said, shaking his head. ¡°Just like you and I didn¡¯t know that Lefon had hidden his strength.¡± ¡°I remember. At that time, we were called Hero Lion and Hero Tiger, and we were the most probably runner ups,¡± Junero said. Thinking of the past, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°In a flash, it¡¯s been thousands of years. We are old.¡± ¡°Yeah, even though our bodies don¡¯t grow old, our souls still grow old,¡± Morani said, sighing softly. ¡°When are you going to leave the Main Plane? I will see you off.¡± ¡°Wait a moment,¡± Junero said. Hearing the cheers coming from the distance, Junero shook his head with a bitter smile. ¡°At least, I won¡¯t leave until the disturbance ends.¡± Chapter 573 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio As the days went by, the number of Isis members that Sui Xiong had killed grew ever more. One morning, he pulled out the list of names again and was just thinking to himself that he should capture and kill them in order of rank. Suddenly, he realized that the highest-ranking one on the list was no more than a viscount. A viscount was still nobility, of course, nobility with very high status and rank. But as far as the enormous Orc Empire or the Isis members were concerned, that rank wasn¡¯t worth much respect. This viscount was the head of a region belonging to Isis, but if one were to lower their standards, a viscount would still count as a big fish. But as far as Sui Xiong¡ªwho¡¯d killed the organization¡¯s leader¡ªwas concerned, they really didn¡¯t amount to anything. He inwardly let out a sigh and moved on down the list of names. If he kept on killing for another two days, there¡¯d be pretty much nothing but commoners left to kill. Of course, a good chunk of the civilian members of Isis was full of evil as well, so not sparing them wouldn¡¯t cause any indignation. But to run all the way out to the capital of the Orc Empire and occupy a big public square downtown, just to kill a bunch of common criminals¡­ Sui Xiong felt that was somewhat undignified. Maybe I should consider changing locations, like a big open space on the outskirts of town for example, and then get back to killing them slowly¡­ He didn¡¯t stop his actions as he thought. In any case, he could still kill for another two days and then consider it again. Time passed quickly; two days passed in the blink of an eye. Once Sui Xiong had confirmed there were, in fact, no nobles left for him to kill, he took his troops with him and left the Golden Tent. All they left behind was a patch of blood-soaked earth and a thickly coagulated, bloody ¡°pond.¡± This time, he¡¯d killed for half a month. That was much more than usual. After they left the Golden Tent, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t follow his original idea of picking a random place to start killing but instead continued heading east with his troops. He¡¯d changed plans. Since he¡¯d already passed through half the Orc Empire, why not pass through the other half and cross straight through the country? Plus, the people of the eastern Orc Empire should get a chance to see the Guillotine Blade he¡¯d put so much effort into making. They should also get an up-close look at that group of elite executioners who¡¯d perfected their art through chopping thousands of heads! Yes, due to the good fortune of having to kill all those Isis members these past few days, the executioners Sui Xiong had brought out this time had raised their skill level by leaps and bounds. If one were to evaluate them based on the ¡°job level¡± system that Sui Xiong had originally created, this would be the result: When they left the Republic, the highest-level executioner hadn¡¯t been more than level 3 or 4, but now, the lowest was at least level 19. Actually, these executioners were all level 19, all of them stuck at the threshold between the advanced level and the advanced legendary peak. To cross this threshold, you needed to find your own legendary path. But could they find a demonic legendary path? One that would make them into the most outstanding executioners who could kill off all the villains on this earth? In fact, an executioner really had been planning to walk a path like that, but Sui Xiong had dissuaded him. This might have looked like a nice path to take, but the truth was it was full of problems. All else aside, just the problem of ¡°what to do when faced with evil¡± would have been enough of a headache. Every god had Sacred Warriors among their troops, and among the Sacred Warriors of some kind-hearted gods were those determined to stand against evil, unwilling to compromise as long as there were still battles to be fought. This wasn¡¯t a bad goal to have, but as long as a Sacred Warrior held this as their life¡¯s dream, the possibility of their being able to reach the Legendary Realm was incredibly low. As for why, it was because good and evil were naturally a part of this world, so to strongly reject one side would cause the standards of this world to deviate. As the saying went, he who is too critical has few friends. If you were to actually be that narrow-minded, once you were ready to take that step towards the Legendary Realm, it would be very difficult to hold back your feelings in the test to cross over the realm of the ordinary. All else aside, who could guarantee that everyone they ever killed in their lives was entirely full of evil? So Sui Xiong recommended that these executioners not to be in a rush and to pick a path they personally felt they were able to take. He didn¡¯t expect these people to become particularly powerful members of the Legendary Realm, considering that their growth up to this point had honestly relied on chance encounters. An opportunity like this, for example, was one they¡¯d likely never see again. But whatever he might say about it, legendary was still legendary. Even if it was the lowest level, a ¡°false legendary¡± gained through relying on civil and martial duties, at the very least, you¡¯d be able to gain a very long lifespan. A talented person who could live a few thousand years or more would be useless regardless of where you put them. What¡¯s more, these executioners actually had a pretty good aptitude for their jobs; when Sui Xiong was picking them out, he¡¯d specially chosen ones with high basic attributes. It was entirely possible they could become genuine Legendary Masters¡ªmaybe not advanced legendary, but the mid-legendary level at least. Their hopes of becoming part of the central level of legendary figures were honestly pretty high. This was why he¡¯d repeatedly warned the executioners: ¡°You must not rush. The legendary path is a major event; you need to think hard on it. By comparison, Steele had no such problems. As a variety of the Holy Spirit, she¡¯d been a legendary creature to begin with. In the past ten years, she¡¯d single-mindedly devoted herself to medical work, accumulating a deep understanding of the profession; Perfect wishing spells were things she¡¯d accumulated a good number of by now. She¡¯d gained some fantastical objects through using this Perfect wishing magic, and she had greatly promoted her own abilities. She normally never showed her true strength, always giving off the appearance of someone harmless to all living creatures. But the truth was that she was amazingly powerful; even if you were to put her in a one-on-one match with Leon, she¡¯d be able to hold out for a good while. Leon had long since reached the legendary peak. He was a top champion feeling his way towards becoming a demigod! Compared to him, people at the false legendary level or even at the average starting-rank legendary level¡ªlike Clito and his wife, for example¡ªwould likely get knocked out in one blow. The fact that Steele was capable of exchanging blows with Leon already made her impossibly strong. Not only that, but if Sui Xiong could capture the evil god, King of Lust, and extract his divinity to give to her, she¡¯d even be able to use it to replace him, becoming a new evil god. The clergy might have some bias on that front, of course¡ªafter all, the current Steele was already no longer the simple, superficial woman she¡¯d been before. Over the course of the past few years, she¡¯d gained formidable power and the wisdom of maturity. Honestly, Sui Xiong was seriously considering capturing that evil god. He hadn¡¯t told anyone about this though. He was secretly working on it himself, preparing for that perfect moment when he could put things in motion and finish the whole affair in an instant. Of course, the stronger his subordinates were, the better. And besides, that guy had wanted to murder Steele first, and according to the xianxia stories back on Earth, he still owed her an enormous karmic debt. The party kept traveling east, stopping at each major city they reached to set up a guillotine in the city¡¯s central square. They then carried out death penalties in bulk. This went on for two months or more. By the time they finally reached the easternmost end of the Orc Empire, right at the border between the Empire and the Country of Light, the Isis still had about twenty thousand people left that had yet to be killed. It wasn¡¯t that Sui Xiong had compassionately spared them, but that this organization really had way too many members. Despite him deliberately extending their ¡°working¡± hours in the last few cities, there was still a large quantity left in the end. Chapter 574 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Looking at the remainder of the list, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help feeling a little vexed. He¡¯d never thought such a situation as there being too many damn people to kill was even possible. But that was exactly what had happened¡ªthat was what he was facing right now. Unless he turned around and tried going through the Orc Empire north-to-south this time, those remaining twenty-thousand people would have to be killed right here, wouldn¡¯t they? After running some basic math, he decided to give up on this idea. The guillotine could execute ten people at a time. As they needed to announce each person¡¯s crimes, the executions couldn¡¯t go very quickly, taking about ten minutes a batch at most. In reality, though, he usually took about twenty minutes to kill each batch. If this were on Earth, this would be akin to treating human lives like weeds. A certain Mister Sui would have been a peerless evil comparable to a certain mustached German. Even if he killed ten people in ten minutes, that would be sixty people an hour; in a ten-hour work week, he¡¯d be able to kill six hundred. How long would it take to kill twenty thousand? Even an elementary schooler could figure that out¡ªa little over thirty-three days. If he started now, then he¡¯d be able to finish around noon after a month and four days. As if! What kind of person would sit down at this border and diligently kill a month¡¯s worth of people! That would be mental trauma right there! Sui Xiong shook his head, giving up on this improbable notion. So then how should he deal with these guys? Dig a hole and straight-up bury them? It was said that in the late Warring States period, during the Battle of Changping, General Bai Qi of the Qin army had 400,000 people buried in a pit. This lead to him gaining eternal fame with the brutal nickname ¡°King of Killers.¡± Compared to the glorious records of his senior homicidal maniacs from past generations, burying twenty thousand people in one go didn¡¯t really count as all that outrageous. Sui Xiong remembered an old professor back in the day who always wore a cheongsam and highly revered the ¡°last of the Confucian scholars¡± Zeng Guofan. Later on, the man had been criticized by the history-loving Professor Cheng, saying, ¡°Why does a perfectly good person like you insist on worshipping a deranged homicidal maniac? Just in the city of Nanjing, I¡¯d estimate that baldy Zeng killed around 500,000 people.¡± At the time, those words had made everyone¡¯s blood run cold. Afterwards, someone had asked Professor Cheng if he was joking, but he answered very seriously. Following the most generous assessment, when Zeng Guofan was suppressing insurrection from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he¡¯d killed over a million people at the very least. To think he could become as famous as Zeng Guofan¡­ That made Sui Xiong feel a little depressed. But it was much too embarrassing to go and say something like, ¡°Oh dear, I feel that killing too many might be rather bad.¡± After having killed tens of thousands of Isis members over the past few months, he really had no place to be saying such things. In a difficult-to-manage situation like this, he had no choice but to go to a friend for help. ¡°Hahahaha!¡± After hearing his worries, the God of Pleasure let out a hearty laugh before saying, ¡°Is this what it means to kill until your hands go limp with exhaustion? But your hands were limp to begin with! You¡¯re a jellyfish!¡± Sui Xiong rolled his eyes, inwardly grumbling to himself about how he shouldn¡¯t have come to this guy for advice. ¡°If you¡¯re sick of killing then just don¡¯t kill. In any case, whether you kill them or not doesn¡¯t really matter, it¡¯s all up to you.¡± Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, said in an off-handed manner, ¡°Two hundred thousand people isn¡¯t all that big a deal anyway; if you think killing them would be bothersome, you could also just throw them straight into hell while still alive.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a bad idea! And if the judges of Hell decide they don¡¯t deserve to die, they can just kick them back out.¡± Wall nodded his head and said, ¡°Your Majesty, I believe this is a very appropriate solution.¡± Sui Xiong laughed bitterly. This certainly was an appropriate solution, but it also caused trouble for hell. ¡°If you ask me, once you¡¯ve started, you should make sure you finish it cleanly,¡± Morani advised him. ¡°You¡¯ve already killed tens of thousands; twenty thousand more shouldn¡¯t be a problem. If you stop now, this matter ultimately won¡¯t be properly taken care of, and that wouldn¡¯t be good at all.¡± Sui Xiong was thrown off by that and stared at him suspiciously. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be telling me not to kill them?¡± he asked. Morani laughed and shook his head. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t begun to kill them, then, of course, I would have suggested you refrain from doing so. But since you¡¯ve already killed so many, regardless of what you feel or think, you have a responsibility now to see the matter through to its conclusion, finishing it properly and neatly.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a moment; then he quietly let out a sigh. True, dealing with Isis was his responsibility. If he spared a few of them just because he¡¯d gotten a little reluctant, wouldn¡¯t those earlier people have died a little too unfairly, especially those who hadn¡¯t committed any crimes worth dying for? ¡°Your Majesty, if you find it inconvenient, let me help!¡± The God of Medicine, Arcaian, volunteered himself after seeing Sui Xiong so depressed. ¡°I can seal them all away; then whenever they need killing, you can pull them out to kill.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head, saying, ¡°People aren¡¯t goods, you can¡¯t treat them like that.¡± Just then, Yorgaardman¡ªwho¡¯d been silent all this time¡ªsuddenly spoke up, ¡°Well then, how about I plead leniency on their behalf?¡± He smiled under everyone¡¯s astonished gazes and continued, ¡°Brother, you¡¯ve already killed so many; those with a heavy blood debt were killed long ago, and all that¡¯s left now are accomplices and the like. Just speaking from a legal point of view, between killable and un-killable, is there really a need to kill every last one of them? Consider giving them a way out, on my behalf.¡± Sui Xiong was a little bewildered as he asked, ¡°Elder Brother, following your personality, shouldn¡¯t you be cheering me on to kill them?¡± Yorgaardman let out a bitter laugh, ¡°Don¡¯t make fun of me, I really did cheer you on at first. But after a while, the people you killed had lighter and lighter crimes, and I slowly started to feel that something wasn¡¯t quite right. Now, here you are discussing how to execute twenty thousand people who really don¡¯t deserve execution. The more I listened, the more inappropriate this felt to me, and now I¡¯ve finally figured out where the problem is.¡± ¡°Where is it?¡± asked Sui Xiong. ¡°Justice shouldn¡¯t be limitless,¡± Yorgaardman said. ¡°For instance, let¡¯s say someone bands together with some henchmen, slanders a young girl by saying she¡¯s a demon who brings disaster, and then burns her to death. This person would, of course, deserve to die, as would those who helped him forge the evidence, excite the populace, and build the wood pile on which to burn her. But as for those surrounding people who cheered on the proceedings, would they really deserve to die?¡± Sui Xiong thought on this, then said, ¡°From the point of view of the victim, they deserve to die, because they¡¯re accomplices as well. But from the point of view of an unrelated third party, they don¡¯t deserve to die, because they didn¡¯t actually do anything.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, an overwhelming majority of those twenty thousand leftover people are also no more than supporters, or people who helped add to the noise. Though they may have participated in a good many acts of persecution, they ultimately never actually killed anyone. The way I see it, their crimes aren¡¯t deserving of death.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly, then spoke again, ¡°But if they don¡¯t die, then how can I console those lost souls who were persecuted to death? If ¡®crimes not deserving of death¡¯ is enough to leave them alive, then what can we say about those who were killed without any crimes at all?¡± Yorgaardman let out a heavy sigh, ¡°That¡¯s why I said I was ¡®pleading leniency.¡¯ It¡¯s all well and good as long as you spare their lives, there¡¯s no problem with other forms of punishment¡­ anything is fine, just try not to kill them.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a long while, before finally sighing. ¡°I now understand why you¡¯re so good at fighting. You have such brains, yet you managed to muddle your way to being all alone in the world.¡± Yorgaardman of course had understood this long ago and smiled bitterly without a reply. Sui Xiong laughed, speaking no more on that subject. Then he began discussing with everyone the best way to enforce punishment. After a while, his voice resounded before the chief seat, ¡°As the God of Justice, His Majesty Yorgaardman, has pleaded leniency, I¡¯ve decided to cease execution of the remaining lower-level Isis members ahead of schedule. But though they are exempted from capital punishment, they cannot escape punishment entirely; I will have these people sent to the Kingdom of Dwarfs in the Mountain of Broken Cloud, where the dwarves will see them reeducated through hard labor!¡± Chapter 575 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio This plan was, of course, decided after first discussing it with the various dwarven Gods. Though he might have spared those lower-ranking Isis members from execution, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t just let them go without any punishment at all. According to tradition, if someone was spared from execution, they should usually get a hard beating, followed by exile. He didn¡¯t feel like beating them up though, so he just went with exile. But where they should be exiled to, was a big problem in itself. He couldn¡¯t throw them into one of those places where only tenacious creatures like cacti could survive, nor could he send them to a dangerous place where demon beasts ran wild. These didn¡¯t conform to the idea of ¡°sparing them from capital punishment.¡± Plus, if these people weren¡¯t looked after, who knew what sort of trouble they would get up to! He¡¯d actually considered sending them to the Republic of Northwest to do forced labor under the army¡¯s supervision. But after thinking on it, he¡¯d given up on the idea. This group had been deeply influenced by Isis¡¯s extremist ideology; if he left them in the Republic of Northwest, who knew how much of a disturbance they would cause! Sui Xiong absolutely did not want to look at this sort of extremist ideology. Back on Earth, a world that didn¡¯t even have real gods, extremist ideologies could build countries as strong as steel and as cold as ice. So how much trouble would they cause in a world like this one, where gods were real! Even if these people could technically be classified as relatively conservative members of Isis, he didn¡¯t want to use the Republic of Northwest to see whether or not the conservatives could stir up headlines. Heaven have mercy, he¡¯d only just heard about some sort of big news caused by the conservatives in Europe not long before he space-traveled. Seeing as how he couldn¡¯t just drop them off at some remote place or leave them in the Republic of Northwest, and he had to have them under watch to top it off¡ªthat didn¡¯t leave very many places for him to put them. Leon had suggested that if there weren¡¯t any objections, they could send these people to Garth City. He had all sorts of ways to clean up these guys and make them obedient. But when Sui Xiong saw the killing intent practically leaking out the corners of Leon¡¯s mouth as he talked, he gave up on this plan as well. You must understand, Leon was from the Igor family, a descendant of the Eagle Kingdom royal family. Even the current king of the Eagle Kingdom respectfully referred to Leon as Uncle; the last king, Woods¡¯s son, had already died not long ago. What would happen if a group of Orcs was left in the hands of the Igor Family, a family that had a deep and long-running grudge against Orcs? This wouldn¡¯t be an honest move at all; it couldn¡¯t be done. Sui Xiong asked Manissy for advice and was told that the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was already going through enough internal conflict. The merchant faction and the noble faction were constantly arguing with each other. If they added in an Orc faction, who knew what might happen? ¡°If you want to send them here then certainly you can, but I can only temporarily guarantee their personal safety,¡± she¡¯d said, after a round of complaints. So, Sui Xiong had shaken his head. He then asked Ariel if she had any interest in accepting them in her underwater city. Ariel expressed with great distress that the sea people were rather xenophobic; it would be really difficult to arrange for so many of them to come all at once. It was for lack of a better option that Sui Xiong thought of the dwarven gods. He tried asking the God of Runes, and rather than immediately replying, he asked, ¡°These people¡­ I can ensure they aren¡¯t killed, but if they come to our side, in order to avoid trouble, they¡¯ll probably spend the rest of their lives in underground mine shafts and caverns. That isn¡¯t a problem, is it?¡± Sui Xiong thought on that, then asked, ¡°Won¡¯t they get sick from long periods without sunlight?¡± ¡°We have special medicines for that.¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s not a problem.¡± Sui Xiong gave his answer before asking again, ¡°But¡­ aren¡¯t you afraid they¡¯ll cause trouble?¡± The God of Runes let out a hearty laugh. ¡°We dwarves have never feared anyone causing trouble before. Those with the guts can go ahead and try¡ªif they aren¡¯t afraid to get beaten next week, that is!¡± It was then that Sui Xiong remembered that the Dwarf Race all had natural-born strength. Even if those Orcs did try to cause trouble, they¡¯d have to first consider the difference of strength between them. So it was decided. Sui Xiong gave those Isis members who¡¯d been sentenced to labor in the Kingdom of Dwarfs a few days to prepare, then he used his Divine Power to send them over. What somewhat surprised him was that although there had only been twenty thousand people in his original exile plans, those who were willing to go to the Kingdom of Dwarfs ultimately numbered to almost fifty thousand. This was because many Orc families relied on their men for support; with the man gone, unless his wife remarried, the family would quickly fall apart. In order to avoid such a huge risk, those families decided to all move together to the Kingdom of Dwarfs. The Dwarf Race could be said to have a relatively good reputation; despite their somewhat violent tempers, there had never been any talk of dwarves bullying or murdering the weak. They¡¯d probably be able to start brand new stable lives after moving to the Kingdom of Dwarfs. Situations like this weren¡¯t uncommon, and Orc families often had seven, eight or even over ten people. This was how twenty thousand people became fifty thousand. The God of Runes was very sorry after hearing about this, and asked, ¡°Your Majesty, the Void Mask¡­ could you send the families of those that were previously executed to our Kingdom of Dwarfs as well?¡± Sui Xiong was somewhat puzzled and asked why he wanted so many people. This wasn¡¯t just three hundred or five thousand people¡ªthis was many tens of thousands! The God of Runes let out a sigh and explained that the biggest problem for the Kingdom of Dwarfs was a low population. Because of their years¡¯ long war with the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, they were seriously lacking people. They¡¯d reached a point now where they would love to be able to split one person into two, one to focus on childbirth and the other to take charge of battle. Once these Orcs came to the Kingdom of Dwarfs, whether for birth or for battle, they¡¯d most definitely be of use. Putting aside the birthing part, if they did become soldiers, there was no way they¡¯d hesitate in fighting the human armies of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. Even if their military force was lacking, and they were unable to be good soldiers, they could always take positions as auxiliary forces, like the military supply force or something. There were many among the Orcs who were adept at traversing mountainous regions; they traveled over land and water as easily as walking on flat earth. People like that would definitely fit the requirements for a military supply force, regardless of their lower fighting strength. Having received this reminder, Sui Xiong helped him announce the news: the Kingdom of Dwarfs was willing to enlist Orcs for permanent residence, with job opportunities, a stable pay and accommodation provided. As for how many people this piece of news could recruit once distributed, the Kingdom of Dwarfs could handle that themselves. Once he¡¯d had these fifty thousand people sent to the Kingdom of Dwarfs and the kingdom¡¯s soldiers and civil affair officials took over, Sui Xiong count this affair as finished. After worrying over this for many months, killing tens of thousands of people, and exiling tens of thousands more, this historical incident¡ªcalled ¡°the Destruction of Isis¡± by a few historians¡ªwas finally put to an end through relatively peaceful means. This led those who¡¯d been hoping to see everyone get slaughtered all at once to be a little unsatisfied, but it led those who¡¯d frowned upon Sui Xiong¡¯s previous massacre to secretly heave sighs of relief. As for the negative effects, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs expressed that the Void Mask helping the Kingdom of Dwarfs was an unfriendly action towards their kingdom; that was about it. But that didn¡¯t matter; who cares! Sui Xiong truly had no idea that they were the core force making connections and plotting against the Republic of Northwest! Chapter 576 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The addition of 50,000 people was no small help for the Kingdom of Dwarfs. The total population of the Kingdom of Dwarfs numbered over a million, so 50,000 normally wouldn¡¯t count for anything. But as a matter of fact, suddenly obtaining 50,000 people really allowed them to breathe out a huge sigh of relief. Not only that, but this incident also helped the Kingdom of Dwarfs to make the diplomatic breakthrough they¡¯d been wanting for a long time now: setting up relations with the Orc Empire. Orc Emperor Junero didn¡¯t have much time left on this earth, so he wasn¡¯t as fussy over a lot of things as he¡¯d once been. The only thing he cared about right now was to create as good an environment as he could for the Orc Empire before he left the mortal plane, and to leave a relatively even path for his successors to follow. This would ensure stable development for his country¡¯s future. For this reason, he was willing to make concessions, incredibly large ones at that. He could turn a blind eye to Sui Xiong¡¯s elimination of Iris and even secretly offer assistance; he could also open up foreign relations with the Kingdom of Dwarfs without any demands or benefits. He even willingly sent out people of the bear and ox races¡ªwho had relatively honest temperaments and high physical strength¡ªto help the Kingdom of Dwarfs carry out construction for their people. In regards to cooperation with the Kingdom of Dwarfs, his only minimum requirement was that if the Kingdom of Dwarfs wanted Orcs to take the place of dwarves on the battlefield, they must first consult with the Orcs and prepare compensation payment for those who were injured or killed. ¡°We Orcs do not fear death, but a dead man can¡¯t leave his debts uncollected. As long as you prepare the compensation fee, our warriors will be willing to fight for you at any time,¡± Emperor Junero said as he confronted Gela Sancho, king of the Kingdom of Dwarf. Gela Sancho had come in person to conduct these negotiations. Emperor Junero spoke very frankly, ¡°In any case, as far as we Orcs are concerned, it doesn¡¯t matter where we¡¯re fighting, as long as it¡¯s against the human race.¡± Gela Sancho naturally welcomed this suggestion, happily promising that the Orc soldiers would receive the same treatment as the dwarven ones. They would most definitely not be discriminated against. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s add this line to the treaty,¡± Junero said. ¡°We¡¯ll count this as official¡ªdon¡¯t worry, if the Orc soldiers are fighting for you, then that makes them your subordinates. Govern them however you feel is right. If there are any who disobey your orders, or if there is a need, feel free to kill them; the Empire will not dispute with you over such matters.¡± This was yielding to an extreme degree, to the point that even the Orc Empire¡¯s upper class were having difficulty putting up with it. But Junero persuaded them all after it was done. ¡°In the current world, humans and Orcs are basically the two strongest races in the land. The conflict between us will one day decide ownership of this boundless earth and confirm who is the Main Plane. Regardless of what price we must pay, all will be worth winning this conflict!¡± ¡°But¡­ the dwarves are currently in such dire straits that only one million people remain of their population; can they truly be of help to us?¡± a duke asked. ¡°They might, and they might not. But of one thing I can be certain: as long as the Dwarf Race can maintain their current scale, then their gods will not grow weak,¡± Junero smiled as he said. ¡°A majority of you are legendary fighters, so you must learn to look at problems from an even higher level. At the level of ordinary people, dwarves will certainly be of no help to us, but looking at it from the level of a god, they will be a powerful help indeed!¡± The dukes all nodded their heads thoughtfully. ¡°Currently, the situation on the deity level is already more-or-less clear; the human gods are unquestionably the strongest, followed by our Orc gods. As for the dwarf gods, naturally they all either don¡¯t have enough high-level fighting strength or lack basic-level fighting strength; in short, none of them can compare to us,¡± Junero patiently gave his analysis. ¡°The current greatest variable is the Void Mask God System. But judging by the Void Mask¡¯s conduct and deeds these past few years, though they will not show a special preference for any particular race, I can tell by their words and actions that they have a very slight preference for humans.¡± ¡°Now this may just be an insignificant leaning, but at a crucial moment, this insignificant learning could influence their decision. Therefore, we must do our utmost best to forge good relations with them. Meanwhile, we must also put great effort into involving those weaker God Systems in order to prepare for the decisive battle in the coming future.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t affairs on the god plane too far away for us to be considering them?¡± another duke asked. ¡°Are they really? I don¡¯t think they are,¡± Junero said with a smile. ¡°Those who don¡¯t consider the distance will never get very far. No matter how powerful the gods may be, they were mortals once too. They must hold apprehensions over their own followers and their own faith. So to influence the gods from the mortal plane isn¡¯t as impossible as you may think.¡± ¡°Let me speak first of the dwarven gods. If we earthly Orcs help the dwarves to work, to fight, sweating and bleeding in defense of their country and race, this would inevitably earn us friendship with the dwarven people. This friendship will become a part of their faith, indirectly affecting the dwarven gods¡¯ attitudes toward us. The one day in the future, when the final battle begins between our Orcs and the human race, there will be a higher possibility of the dwarven gods standing on our side.¡± Not waiting for the dukes to react, he continued to speak, ¡°As for the Void Mask, that situation is somewhat easier to manage than the dwarven gods. This god¡¯s level of interest in mortals is unparalleled among the gods. While I do not know why an immortal being of their level holds such fascination in insignificant mortals, this makes for a great opportunity! As long as we put effort into pulling them to our side, sooner or later they will change their stance and lean more towards our Orcs in terms of preference.¡± ¡°This¡­ isn¡¯t all that doable?¡± ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s very difficult,¡± Junero said. ¡°This will be a very long task, one I will be unable to complete with my own hands¡ªit likely will not be finished even under the next emperor, the fruits of our labor never to be seen by any of us standing here today. But what does that matter? Even the farthest place can be reached if you keep walking; even if we ultimately turn to dust, those great immortal gods will certainly be able to see our success!¡± It was then that the Orc dukes finally ceased their hesitation, all nodding their heads. After the meeting was adjourned, His Majesty, Emperor Junero Tiger had all the attendants leave. Sitting solitary and alone in the shining golden hall, he gazed up at the sky and let out a heavy sigh. ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to sigh.¡± Morani¡¯s figure appeared at his side. ¡°Your actions are undoubtedly correct!¡± ¡°Perhaps.¡± Junero laughed. ¡°I think so as well.¡± Though he laughed, the tone of his voice grew gloomier as he spoke, ¡°It¡¯s just¡­ I can¡¯t quite be certain¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯ve always flaunted yourself as having everything all planned out, what is there to be uncertain about now?¡± ¡°I have everything all planned out? Back then I¡¯d thought I would certainly defeat you, becoming a powerful emperor. And how did that turn out?¡± Junero shook his head and smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s not speak of mere mortals; could even the great immortal gods have everything planned without a flaw? If such a thing were true, my old friend, then why did you change from the Orc God of Forging into the head god of the Desolation God System? And now you¡¯ve become a member of the Void Mask God System?¡± Morani didn¡¯t dispute him having been a member of the Void Mask God System. He only smiled calmly. ¡°Regardless of what you say, I¡¯m quite satisfied with my current circumstances,¡± he said. ¡°Oscar is a good person; once you get to know him, you¡¯ll naturally come to understand.¡± Junero nodded. ¡°I know he¡¯s good, which is why I hope to become his friend rather than his enemy.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll tell him you said so.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Junero laughed again. He looked up at the sky and said, ¡°It¡¯s about time for me to leave.¡± ¡°Where are you planning to go?¡± Morani asked. ¡°First, I think I¡¯ll take a walk around a few stars I once explored,¡± Junero responded. ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to do a proper study of the cultures and races of other stars. Now is a good chance to do it.¡± As he spoke, he stood up, a golden light slowly emerging from his body. ¡°Oh yes, once you¡¯re gone, who should the emperor¡¯s seat be passed on to?¡± Morani asked. ¡°I¡¯ll contact the mortals again,¡± Junero happily replied. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s fine.¡± After speaking, the light on his body shone more and more brightly. Finally, he was wrapped in a pillar of light that shot straight up towards the sky. Chapter 577 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Emperor Junero¡¯s departure shook the whole of the Orc Empire. It was more shocking to the Orcs than Sui Xiong¡¯s earlier elimination of Isis. These past 100 years, under the leadership of this ¡°frail scholar,¡± the Orc Empire had expanded at an unceasing pace. They were becoming more powerful and prosperous with each passing day, and the country¡¯s administrative systems were becoming increasingly orderly and proper. All else aside, if this were the time of Hogg Bale¡¯s reign, Sui Xiong¡¯s systematic slaughter from the westernmost to the easternmost ends of the Orc Empire would most definitely have dealt a strong blow to the empire¡¯s prestige. Possibly, it would even signal the collapse of the regime¡ªbecause at the time, the Orc Empire¡¯s upper class had consisted of regional officials, most of which were Isis members. But after Junero rose to power, his first act had been to suppress this extremist organization and to limit propagation of all kinds of extremist thoughts. Because Hogg was still around, he¡¯d honored the previous emperor by not revoking the organization¡¯s official status. Instead, he¡¯d used a variety of tricks to force each of its members out of all levels of government administration. He spent over 30 years in total before he was finally able to shrink Isis from having enough power to influence the empire¡¯s political situation to being a humanitarian organization with official status. At the time, everyone had thought he was crippling his own military or breaking his own limbs, so to speak. Later, they fought a disadvantageous war against the Kingdom of Eagle, leading everyone to question even more whether this scholar was capable of controlling a kingdom. But Junero very quickly let them all know that their doubts were unfounded. In a word, he pushed forward three projects: the first was to strengthen their agriculture. The Orc Empire had always been largely nomadic; this admittedly allowed its people to be proficient fighters¡ªenough that it could even be counted as a military nation. But it also meant that their food output was rather low, leading to a nationwide famine most winters. It wasn¡¯t strange for tens of thousands of people to starve to death after a big storm. Under circumstances like this, the conflicts and battles between different Orc tribes were also exceptionally desperate. After all, everyone was fighting not only for honor but also for their own families¡¯ survival! Junero sent people to contact the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, and at the enormous cost of the Orc tribes¡¯ attempts to combine in armed rebellion, he finally managed to persuade her. Under the condition that they do not disturb the clergy, she bestowed great fertility upon that savannah under the Orcs¡¯ control. In correspondence with this, he energetically promoted farming to Orc society. Because of cultural tradition, Orcs had respected brave herdsmen and discriminated against weak farmers, but Junero believed that agricultural production could far exceed that of herding and so strongly supported it. Attacking the problem from two angles at once, it still took over 20 years before he managed to turn the eastern part of the Orc Empire into a stable food production location, thus giving the Orcs a more reliable source of food. It was around the time of the failed southern expedition that the farms they¡¯d gradually built began to give back to the livestock industry, leading the Orc Empire¡¯s food production to rise little by little. For many years after that, though the Orcs still didn¡¯t have enough food in the winter, large-scale famine after a snowstorm was much rarer than before, as was the tragic sight of entire tribes dying of cold and hunger. Because they had farms to serve as a foundation, and bumper harvests to serve as a safeguard, the Orc Empire¡¯s population gradually began to rise. It reached a point that, after the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, they surprisingly didn¡¯t suffer very many casualties. In fact, they still had the resources to prepare for a battle with the Country of Light. The second project Junero put into action was strengthening centralized power. The Orc Empire was a country formed of separate tribes; rather than the ruler of a country, the emperor could be better described as the chief of a tribal alliance. While he did hold authoritative power, the same couldn¡¯t be said of the officials below him. Especially at those times when the tasks they carried out conflicted with the separate tribes¡¯ short-term interest, most tribes wouldn¡¯t take them seriously and would continue in their own ways as before. When all was said and done, the Orc Empire was essentially a country where its leaders ruled by divine right. Each tribe¡ªparticularly the larger ones¡ªcould construct their own shrine, contact the gods, and request an Oracle. With commands given to them by a god, who would pay attention to those of an emperor? Targeting these kinds of situations, Junero had a long talk with Lefon, the God of Orcs. Having old former friends meet again was sure to make one sigh. Five thousand years was a long time. When Junero stepped into the demigod realm, honestly speaking this was no small achievement, but compared to the great Divine Power of Lefon, it was barely worth mentioning. However, Lefon greatly appreciated his insight as well as his rulership philosophy. For this, he stuck up for him, ordering all the Orc gods not to send out random Oracles thereafter. If anyone¡¯s ideals conflicted with the emperor¡¯s commands, they were told to discuss it with Lefon rather than initiate a direct confrontation. A snake without a head was useless. As the Orc gods needed a reliable and authoritative leader, so too did the Orc Empire. Junero¡¯s final project was a large-scale establishment of cities. He believed the Orcs¡¯ lifestyle was too nomadic and lacked stability. This led to a decrease in the country¡¯s efficiency when it came to mobilization and also relative chaos in regards to societal order. So he chose areas of the Orc Empire that had sufficient water and weren¡¯t susceptible to floods and built a good number of cities. The Orc Empire of course had cities in the past, but they were few in number, and all of them were large. There was generally no need for small or mid-sized cities, so there basically weren¡¯t any. In the over 100 years that Junero was Orc Emperor, he built over 100 small and mid-sized cities. These cities were like chains, connecting the loosely-scattered Orc tribes and gradually forming them into one consolidated body. In the current Orc Empire, their efficiency and ability to mobilize was far beyond what was possible in the past. This series of actions naturally put all the countries¡ªand even the God Systems¡ªon high alert. The Human God System was especially afraid of the consequences of this development. In the years he was emperor, assassination attempts alone occurred over ten times. These assassins were both elite and full of determination, but Junero wasn¡¯t truly a fragile scholar. Even if he suppressed his own might, there was a limit to how much he could do this. Because of this, the assassins were all forced to either retreat with their tails between their legs or lose their lives in vain. When Sui Xiong eliminated Isis, quite a few people had waited to see some excitement. Many of those had secretly hoped that Junero would lose his head over it or be unable to stand this attack on his reputation and go out in opposition to Sui Xiong. But not only did Junero not do that, he secretly assisted Sui Xiong and led those hopeful people to be greatly disappointed. Inwardly, they cursed this guy; he didn¡¯t have a damn lick of ability, just a really clever mind. Now, he¡¯d finally revealed his true strength and left the Main Plane. After the shock and astonishment from other countries¡¯ leaders, there was inevitably some secret delight. If he¡¯d continued to be emperor of the Orc Empire, even if it was just for another 50 years, the Orc Empire would definitely have gained another level of strength. When the time came, it might even be strong enough to engulf the world. Now that he was gone, the next Orc Emperor might continue to walk down the path he had set for them, but it was unlikely they could reach have his level of competence. The sharp sword hanging over the heads of all the countries surrounding the Orc Empire had finally disappeared. So according to reliable sources, after news got out that Junero had left the human world, the Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins and even the barbarians of the Northern Iceland convened for an extensive celebration. They sent off this hateful bastard with as much fanfare as one might give a demon of pestilence. ¡°When is he coming back?¡± asked Sui Xiong after Morani had told him the news. ¡°Roughly a few tens of years from now, possibly longer,¡± Morani said. ¡°It¡¯s also possible¡­ With his departure this time, if he doesn¡¯t become a god, he¡¯ll never again return to be seen by mortal eyes.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a moment. He raised his wine glass, circulating his Divine Power, and the figure of Junero Tiger¡ªwho¡¯d carelessly left in a golden beam of light¡ªappeared before his eyes. ¡°A toast to you. I wish you a pleasant journey.¡± Chapter 578 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Junero¡¯s departure didn¡¯t have much of an effect on Sui Xiong. Though this ¡°scholar emperor¡± hadn¡¯t been emperor of the Orcs for very long, he¡¯d accumulated a great amount of power. On top of that, rather than dying, he¡¯d done the equivalent of ascending to the heavens in broad daylight. Such a feat meant that not only did he not lose relevance after leaving the Mortal Plane, but he actually became more famous than before. In a situation like this, there was great meaning in the succeeding Orc Emperor¡ª¡±Iron Teeth¡± Ilo¡ªstrictly adhering to Junero¡¯s policies. As for those ambitious folks hidden throughout the Orc Empire, they behaved for now. None of them wanted to stand out among the crowd. Everyone knew this state of affairs wouldn¡¯t last long. Emperor Ilo had his own understanding of how to rule a country and would have his own plans in the future. But whatever anyone said, there wasn¡¯t anything wrong with maintaining the status quo for now. Even if you wanted to stir up trouble, it was best to wait and see first, spending a few days in getting a feel for this new emperor¡¯s approach to things. The surrounding countries virtually all had the same reaction, and they calmed down for the time being. Everyone knew that the Orcs were a warlike race and that the ascension of a new emperor would necessitate war and victory to establish his strength. The current Orc Empire was like a steel plate covered in sharp thorns; only someone with rocks for brains would foolishly run headlong into that! Although this world had never lacked in either geniuses or fools, someone who could become ruler of a country most certainly couldn¡¯t be a fool. Even Woods Igor, who Leon had once ridiculed, was at least considered smart enough not to make such a weak-minded mistake as this¡ªand he was a man with mediocre ability. He¡¯d seized the throne with the help of the Church of the God of Aristocracy only to be abandoned by that same church. To his dying day, Wood could never clear up the mystery behind why they¡¯d helped him or why they¡¯d left. But the borders of the Orc Empire calming down did not necessarily mean that all the countries across the continent of the Main Plane were completely peaceful. Barely a few days later, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs began summoning its army. They decreed that they were once more expanding their borders into the Mountain of Broken Cloud to take the fertile, mineral-rich land from the hands of the barbarous dwarves. This world¡¯s level of civilization was slightly lacking compared to that of Earth. For example, when each country issued decrees, it generally wasn¡¯t as erudite or cunning as when done on Earth. This decree from the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs clearly and plainly said that they would be plundering the dwarves of their silver, gold, and other valuable mineral resources; there wasn¡¯t even the slightest pretense of concealing their intentions. ¡°Developing our borders is the basis upon which our Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was founded, our fundamental national policy. In the past, we have diligently marched onwards into the forests and mountains, capturing rich and fertile wealth for ourselves, thus allowing our country to ceaselessly expand, and allowing our people to live rich and peaceful lives. Now it is once more the time to march toward the mountains! These next few days, we will be recruiting any and all brave fighters willing to join the expeditionary force and fight to take the Mountain of Broken Cloud; all who join will be given preferential pay!¡± Sui Xiong slowly finished reading this announcement, then laughed coldly as he said, ¡°This is much too straightforward; is the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs really that tyrannical?¡± ¡°As a powerful and constantly invading country, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs has always been this way.¡± Easter sighed. ¡°Regardless of whether it¡¯s the Kingdom of Eagle to the north, with its recently-added Duchy of Griffon, the Kingdom of the Blue Moon to the east, or the elves of the Ancient Forest to the southwest¡ªall are targets for them to invade. The Kingdom of Dwarfs in the Mountain of Broken Cloud is comparatively the weakest of these, so of course, they would choose the Kingdom of Dwarfs to attack. ¡°You might not believe this, but the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs once even considered using large-scale Transportation portals as a springboard with which to attack the Mifata Federation. This wasn¡¯t just a plan, either¡ªthey really did begin deploying them. If the Mifata Federation¡¯s spies hadn¡¯t found out about it and sent the information back home, I¡¯m afraid they really would have gone through those portals and invaded the Federation¡­¡± The high-level members of the Republic of Northwest were all dumbstruck at this, unable to believe what they¡¯d just heard. ¡°Why don¡¯t I have the slightest recollection of this?¡± Leon asked curiously. ¡°When did it happen?¡± ¡°It was probably not long after the Void Mask Land was built,¡± Easter said. ¡°At the time, His Majesty constructed Transportation portals all over the world. Remember, it was from this that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs gained the inspiration to come up with such a plan.¡± Leon nodded slightly, saying, ¡°Now that I think of it, this does sound like their style.¡± ¡°But how did you know?¡± asked Gerald. ¡°If you can¡¯t tell us that¡¯s fine, I don¡¯t have any intention of getting to the heart of the matter on this.¡± Easter let out a bitter laugh, saying, ¡°In fact, I really can¡¯t explain my sources, as this affair was quite secret. Many high-ranking people within the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Mifata Federation don¡¯t even know about it. The only reason I know about it myself is¡­ a secret.¡± Sui Xiong saw how everyone looked incredibly curious, yet too polite to ask further, and he couldn¡¯t help quietly laughing to himself. Of course, Easter knew about this because the one who had originally sent that information back to the Mifata Federation was Easter himself. This was the battle that had made Wood famous as an ace spy, as well as the turning point that had destroyed his early life¡¯s career. This affair had given him great honor but had also led his superiors to become extremely jealous of him. Because of this, not long after he recovered from his injuries, he was sent to work long-term as a mole in the Republic of Northwest. Back then, the Republic of Northwest hadn¡¯t even been established yet. Easter had probably thought of this as well, as he lost some of his earlier cheer. Although he hid it quite well, someone at the legendary peak like Leon could easily see through it. Leon then quietly signaled to everyone else, leading the following conversation to turn to more cheerful topics in order to bolster his mood a bit. Sharp as Easter was, he obviously saw what everyone was trying to do. Looking at all these earth-shakingly powerful figures chatting back and forth like a comedy show, he couldn¡¯t help laughing. It wasn¡¯t until this moment that he finally truly understood that the choice he¡¯d made back then hadn¡¯t been wrong. Compared to the Mifata Federation, the Republic of Northwest was much better suited to be his home. At the very least, this place had much more human warmth and left him feeling more at ease. Just as everyone had basically settled into idle chatter, the door to the conference room was suddenly pushed open. ¡°I could hear the laughter in here from miles away. What sort of happy matters are you all chatting about?¡± The mage who came in was wearing magic glasses and a silver-white magic robe. Though his hair was already greying, there wasn¡¯t a single wrinkle on his face. He looked both like a young man in his 20¡¯s and like an older man in his 40¡¯s or 50¡¯s. Patrol Captain, Nice Parne reacted most quickly to his entrance, immediately jumping up and happily exclaiming, ¡°Teacher!? You¡¯ve come out of seclusion?¡± This man was naturally Nice¡¯s teacher, first-generation guild president of the Republic of Northwest¡¯s Mage¡¯s Guild. He was also the head mage of the Church of Void Mask and ex-head of the Mage Corps: Mage Satan. Chapter 579 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Satan, the mage whose name held terrifying meaning on Earth, was one of Sui Xiong¡¯s earliest recruited members. He was a man of outstanding talent and one of the genius mages of the Mifata Federation 70 years ago. This wasn¡¯t just shown through his remarkable magic aptitude; more important than that was his prominent magical research abilities. As far as magicians were concerned, having the former was already enough; the latter was entirely unnecessary. Studying in a normal routine manner could get you to very high places just as easily, after all. But in the point of view of the Organization of Magicians, whether or not you had the latter was like the difference between heaven and earth. Having your own scientific research skills wasn¡¯t required to set up a factory as long as you could properly use the results of other people¡¯s research. But running a research laboratory without having research skills yourself? Are you joking? Ever since the Void Mask Land was established and the church stabilized, Satan had been living in seclusion. He¡¯d mainly been working on experiments, continuously putting out no small number of achievements. He had given a huge push to the promotion of the Republic of Northwest¡¯s magic levels. The most important achievement of his research was the Purification Array. The Purification Array was an extremely complex type of magic array. It could dispel negative energy within the magic array¡¯s boundaries as well as draw positive energy directly from the Ring of the World; although it didn¡¯t have a particularly large effect on either one, putting them together wasn¡¯t so easy as one plus one equals two. Using a magic array like this could create clean earth, free of negative energy in the negative energy-filled Ashes Woods. This would allow people to safely live and work in what would normally be a forbidden zone to living creatures. He¡¯d completed the first Purification Array with the help of Felix and Jose back before the Republic of Northwest was established. Not long afterwards, he¡¯d smoothly stepped into the Legendary Realm and became a Legendary Master. But this information had been kept secret all this time and not just from the outside world, either. Even a majority of the upper levels of the Republic of Northwest had only known that Mage Satan was in seclusion studying to reach the Legendary Realm, not that he¡¯d actually already entered it long ago. These past few years, he¡¯d carried out quite a few modifications and improvements on Purification Arrays and had built these arrays in the four greatest cities in the Republic of Northwest. Though there was still a large amount of negative energy in the Republic¡¯s countryside at present, at the very least, there was absolutely no need to worry about corrosion inside the cities. If someone who had visited the northwest regions around 50 years ago came back to see it again now, they probably wouldn¡¯t believe their eyes because the past and present northwest regions were as different as black and white. Back then, the northwest countryside was just wild field where, aside from the black wood caused by contamination from negative energy, you could rarely even find weeds. Birds and beasts were even less common than that; aside from a few particularly tenacious insects, the only creatures capable of surviving there were mostly Magic Beasts. Those Four Towns where people gathered weren¡¯t very well off either. Though walls, fences, and the strength of the townsfolk themselves were enough to fend off skeleton attacks, they were unable to defend themselves from formless negative energy. Due to the corrosion of the negative energy, the people here aged quickly, often doddering and senile by the age of 30 or 40. Even adventurers here were more haggard and aged than those from other regions, and they spent every day exhausted beyond belief. And this was just in the spring or summer when the weather was relatively warm. In midwinter, the bitter cold combined with negative energy was more than enough to overwhelm those who weren¡¯t in the best of health. In many cases, a third or more of the population would be dead by spring. But more than all this, the scariest thing about the northwest regions was the surging skeleton tide that erupted every year on the extreme new-moon night. Many different energies on the earth had highs and lows, according to the revolution of the stars. Every extreme new-moon night, the world¡¯s negative energy levels would reach its peak. It was then that the Magic Beasts of necromancy would appear all over the place, and each good god¡¯s priests would go around luring them out to maintain humanity¡¯s safety. But in the northwest, these circumstances would trigger the terrifying great catastrophe that was a surging skeleton tide. Skeletons weren¡¯t a particularly scary Magic Beasts; as long as you stayed calm and collected as you faced it, even a common farmer could knock one over. But when the surging skeleton tide erupted, tens of thousands of skeletons would come rushing in like an endless storm of raging waves. Even a high-level master could lose his life in such an attack from all sides. As for the average person, they¡¯d be dead in a split second without the chance to even defend themselves. Scarier still, once a certain number of skeletons was amassed, it could induce a great wave of negative energy! That was a scene ordinary people could never have the chance to see more than once in their lives: gray-black negative energy flowing towards them like a slow but unstoppable tide. All strategies were useless before it. Even temples that took years of painstaking effort to build were unable to stand the tide of negative energy for very long. In a situation like this, aside from a god sending down a clone of themselves, there was no possible hope of rescue. In past years, there were about three instances in which great negative energy tides had happened in the northwest regions; The first two destroyed two towns, and the last was repelled when the God of Law sent down a clone. But even then, the God of Law had suffered quite a few losses. The northwest back then was just such a terrifying place. Aside from those who were unable to make a living in their homelands, no one else was crazy enough to come here. But the current northwest was already a different thing entirely. Even on the outskirts, there was a wide road along which could be seen a wide expanse of open land. On this land was a solid perimeter wall, inside of which was a tall building¡ªa relay station, safe enough for tired travelers to rest. As for the towns themselves, there was emerald-green vegetation wherever you looked; fresh flowers would even bloom from time to time, just like in the South. Pedestrians on the roads still looked a little tired, but because they could get adequate rest at night without fear of danger, they no longer looked as haggard as before. The people within the towns, meanwhile, were all rosy-cheeked and full of energy. Even if they were relatively poor, you couldn¡¯t tell that they were particularly hungry or cold, and occasionally you might even see a couple of fat people walking around¡ªthat was entirely possible in the old northwest. All the people here¡ªregardless of whether they were young or old, male or female¡ªwere often smiling, their faces brimming with hope in their future and confidence that their lives would be even better. After some travelers visited a while ago, they¡¯d sighed with great feeling, ¡°This place was once hell for humanity, but now it¡¯s like a holy kingdom on earth!¡± The main thing that had brought about all these changes was none other than the Purifying Arrays that Mage Satan had invented! In regards to this point, the government of the Republic of Northwest never hid the truth; in fact, they had put in great efforts into publicizing Mage Satan¡¯s contributions. Because of this, he was popular among the people of the Republic of Northwest, and everyone respected this old magician who spent all his days in a magic tower and almost never came outside. He was extremely well-known in other countries across the continent as well. A large number of people even called him the ¡°Wise Man of Purification¡±¡ªthis basically regarded him as a Legendary Master, even though on the surface he had yet to enter the Legendary Realm. Now, Satan had left his magic tower, and you could tell from the look in his eyes that he was ready to return to the people once more. Chapter 580 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong was a little surprised at the sight of Satan walking towards them but couldn¡¯t help smiling nonetheless. Satan had been spending these past few years planning something big; if he was out of seclusion now, that most likely meant his plans were about to come to fruition. ¡°Almost done preparing?¡± he asked with a smile. ¡°There¡¯s still a lot that needs to be done, but what¡¯s left can¡¯t be done unless I¡¯m there in person,¡± Satan replied with a smile of his own. This exchange left everyone else at a loss, but after barely a moment, Leon¡¯s cry of surprise cleared it up for them all. ¡°The legendary peak!?¡± Satan¡¯s scent had caught Leon¡¯s attention from the moment he first stepped into the room. Though he¡¯d looked gentle enough on the surface, something about him seemed to give off a faint feeling of danger. Leon was puzzled by this. He was unsure of how a magician who was only at the junior-legendary level, despite having reached the peak of strength, could possibly be dangerous to him. Reality wasn¡¯t like in the stories; the difference between junior legendary and the legendary peak was extremely huge. Unless Satan spent ten or eight years arranging positions before trying to break through with force like some sort of madman, then even if Leon stood still and let him plot against him, at most he¡¯d get a light injury. Even at the peak of his strength, getting seriously injured by Satan was unthinkable. At a level like this, there was no way he could feel in the least bit threatened. To threaten Leon, one would at the very least have to be at the mid-legendary level and carry magical objects of the same level. Only with these two things combined could one catch Leon off guard and inflict serious damage. If you wanted to kill him, being at the mid-legendary level or having low-level magical objects wouldn¡¯t be enough. You¡¯d either need to be at the advanced legendary level with magical objects of the same level, or you¡¯d need to be at the mid-legendary level with an official magical object; nothing else would work. Originally, Leon had assumed Satan was hiding part of his power and was carrying a powerful magical object given to him by the Void Mask. But when Satan spoke just then, he suddenly came to a realization¡ªthere was another possibility, as well. Mage Satan had been in seclusion for many years researching the path to the legendary level. Those who didn¡¯t know all assumed he¡¯d yet to reach the Legendary Realm, but looking at how he was right now, it was obvious he¡¯d entered the Legendary Realm a long time ago. If that was the case, then what in the world had he been researching all these years? Did his coming out of seclusion at this moment mean that his research had yielded results? Or was it already completed? Also, in regards to ¡°that event,¡± which Sui Xiong and Satan were talking about, Leon himself was vaguely aware of a bit. These past few years, the Void Mask Mage Corps had been buying some magical materials through the number one strategic business town on the continent¡¯s eastern shore: Garth City. Though not particularly rare, these materials had particularly unique uses, and a large majority of them had gone missing. Leon was well aware of this happening, but he had never looked into it, thinking there was no need to. Thinking back on it now, these materials had only had one use to begin with, one which he¡¯d heard His Majesty make vague mentions of occasionally during idle chats. It was the construction of an ultra-large-scale Purification Array to purify the entire Ashes Woods! This sort of thing was definitely not something your average Legendary Master could accomplish. Keep in mind that even the ¡°Great Mentor¡± Le-Peyroux from days of old would have been unable to accomplish such a feat. If he could, why would he have needed to take all those students with him to the southern plateau to establish the Country of Casters? Compared to the Magic Beast-infested southern plateau, the western forest was obviously a much more fitting area. He feared only a mage on the level of a demigod would be able to assure he could do something like this. And if one compared the way Satan spoke with the fact that he¡¯d come out of seclusion¡ªthe verdict was already reached. That guy Satan had been hiding the truth all this time, quietly meditating, and had even actually made it to the legendary peak! Having reached this conclusion, Leon couldn¡¯t help blurting it out in surprise. Everyone was naturally shocked by his words; only Sui Xiong and Satan exchanged looks and smiled. ¡°You saw through me so quickly, it really makes me feel like I¡¯ve lost.¡± Satan laughed, shaking his head, the scent on his body suddenly changing. The wild feeling of power that the junior-legendary level had surrounded him with gradually calmed down, and it slowly settled into something like a silk robe enveloping his body. This really was the legendary peak, the sign that one had hope of entering the demigod realm. The crucial point for advancing from an average mortal to the legendary peak was that you needed to find your own path and break through mortal boundaries. This could certainly bring you formidable strength, but how to control that formidable strength would become a problem of its own. More battle-inclined Legendary Masters were a little better-off, having strong enough bodies to accommodate this tremendous power. The situation was a little more awkward for mages, as their comparatively weaker bodies were definitely unable to handle that boundless typhoon-like might. Unless they suppressed it, this power would accompany them at all hours, turning their surroundings into a frantic whirlwind of magical power. The more control you had, the milder your situation would be. The worst was like when Jose had first started; he was almost entirely unable to control his own power and every raise of the hand or every step he took destroyed everything around him. It was so bad that he even spat out fire when he breathed, just like a walking human flamethrower. In the end, he¡¯d spent an incredibly long stretch of time slowly acclimating himself to it before being able to barely count as having returned to a level where he could meet people. Even then, he¡¯d often spit out fire by accident. This is where the title ¡°Red Flame Dragon¡± came from. So to tame your magic power in its entirety, wearing it on your body as easily as a silk shawl was truly the ability of a master at the legendary peak. Forget the fact that he looked weaker, apparently lacking the power from when he was at the junior-legendary level. The truth was that this layer of magic held an astonishing amount of defensive power, to the point that even if you shot him at close-range with a heavy crossbow, you weren¡¯t likely to even leave a scratch. But this defensive power was nothing compared to Leon¡¯s battle-oriented legendary peak. When a martial master reached the legendary peak, their bodies were already so strong that they surpassed most magical weapons. A certain character in a video game Sui Xiong once saw before he space traveled had a line he used with his ultimate move, and it could summarize this scene quite well. That line was: ¡°I am the bone of my sword.¡± For example, unless he deliberately suppressed his own strength, Leon¡¯s body was more unyielding than a large majority of holy soldiers¡¯ weapons. If he wanted, he could copy the Sacred Sword technique used by Capricorn in Knights of the Zodiac at any time. Even cracking mountains in half with a karate chop was within his ability. If he entered the demigod realm on top of that, he¡¯d become stronger to the point that unless you used a magical object, your average holy soldiers¡¯ weapons were about as useful against him as fighting empty-handed. So aside from those lucky enough to obtain a magical object, most Demigod Masters generally went unarmed¡ªor you could say that their bodies were their best weapon. Leon was lucky; before he even entered the demigod realm, Sui Xiong helped him prepare all the weapons he needed. Satan was the same. As far as they were concerned, there was only one thing they needed to do now¡ªstrive to enter the demigod realm and truly obtain eternal, everlasting life. Chapter 581 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Satan coming out of seclusion was indeed because he¡¯d already cultivated himself to the peak of the Legendary Realm. In theory, the Legendary Realm was without limits; even if there was no way to become a demigod, you could still grow stronger at an unceasing pace, continuously becoming more and more powerful. Such Legendary Masters had existed back in relatively more savage, ancient times. Their formidable level was such that it was even enough to shock the gods¡ªforget weak Divine Power, even if you had low-level Divine Powers, it wouldn¡¯t necessarily be enough to compete with them. But legendary was still legendary. If you hadn¡¯t truly completed your life¡¯s transformation, that meant you hadn¡¯t escaped the river of time and had ignored the ability available to you as it passed you by. Following the passage of time, these impossibly powerful Legendary Masters were ultimately unable to defeat time itself, each of them growing older and dying instead. As far as Sui Xiong knew, there were no longer any Legendary Masters of this sort existing on this earth. This wasn¡¯t to say that the ancients surpassed modern people. In today¡¯s world, once Legendary Masters reached the legendary peak, they¡¯d generally begin pursuit of the demigod realm, thus attempting to defeat time by obtaining immortality. Satan was no different. Him coming out of seclusion this time came with the intention of beginning his large-scale purification of the Ashes Woods. He would use this accomplishment to validate ¡°purification,¡± and get himself approval from the World¡¯s Origin. This would allow his soul to ascend and get that much closer to becoming a demigod. In certain schools of thought, this was called ¡°igniting the holy flame¡± because at the moment your soul ascended, your entire body would be covered in bright flames as if you¡¯d been set aflame. Originally, Sui Xiong had expressed that he had some knowledge of Purification and was willing to share a little divinity with him. By directly swallowing this piece of divinity, he would be able to start his soul¡¯s ascension. But Satan insisted that he wished to rely on his own ability to receive the world¡¯s response and obtain that ascension on his own. This would obviously be much more difficult than ascending through Sui Xiong¡¯s Purification divinity, but you get what you pay for. Relying on the world¡¯s response to activate your spirit¡¯s ascension would give birth to the best-suited divinity for that person. There would be no need to slowly meditate and revise the divinity you had received, and achieving godhood would also be much easier in the future. Because the world had responded to you, this signified that the Origin had already prepared a share for you. Afterwards, you simply needed to accumulate enough belief or reach an appropriate level of strength. Once you decided to put this share to use, turning it into a chair within the Pantheon temple wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to do. By comparison, if one were to ascend through someone else¡¯s divinity, that person would not have received the world¡¯s response or approval, and they would have to put in effort to acquire a share. When pursuing godhood, the difficulty would also be much higher than it was for those who had already received their own share. It was to a point where you could say that they were on entirely different levels. So Sui Xiong never brought up giving Leon divinity because he wanted him to be able to find his own path to obtaining a share from the origin, therefore giving him hope towards obtaining godhood. But Satan normally didn¡¯t require such prudence. No one to date had obtained the Purification clergy, so even if there wasn¡¯t just the one portion, the origin of this particular aspect should have quite a lot to spare. Even if he didn¡¯t obtain it when his soul ascended, it wouldn¡¯t be difficult to do so in the future. Sui Xiong and Satan had discussed this in detail before. Satan stressed that since he had the chance to monopolize an entire clergy for himself, why wouldn¡¯t he try to do just that? If he could obtain the world¡¯s response and have his soul ascend through igniting the spiritual flame. In that moment, he would be able to know whether or not he had any rivals. It was best if he didn¡¯t, of course, and if he did¡­ hehe, well some things were better off left unsaid. Sui Xiong was convinced by his words. A god with an entire clergy to himself was certainly nothing an average god could compare to. Wall, for example, had gained full control over the clergy of Knowledge. Even though gods from many god systems gained enlightenment, concentrating all their efforts on this domain, they were unable to take even a sliver of that clergy. If they reached a crucial moment, he even had the ability to temporarily seal off the entire Knowledge domain from others. Similarly, Arcaian dominated the clergy of Medicine and had the same power. But another one of Sui Xiong¡¯s followers, the God of Healing, named Three Nothingness, was a different matter. Although the God of Healing had once had full control over the Healing clergy, he was unluckily harmed by the previous era¡¯s Sun God and got turned into a Love Angel. In the endless years following that, although the Love Angel¡¯s existence prevented anyone from being able to take his place over the Healing clergy, many of the gods cut corners and divided up a portion of it. Now, pretty much all the bigger god systems included gods who possessed the Healing clergy. He¡¯d managed to regain a new life with Sui Xiong¡¯s help, and he obtained a large portion of the Healing origin all at once. But even still, after all was said and done, he still didn¡¯t have the sort of imperiousness one could get from total domination over a clergy. Now, all he could do was partition the healing abilities of those gods who held the domain but not the clergy. He was entirely unable to do anything to those who also held sway over a portion of the clergy. If Sui Xiong started a war with other god systems, his followers would be able to directly absorb the Knowledge and Medicine powers of both the opponents and their believers. Though, there weren¡¯t quite as many actions available to them in regards to Healing. So for this benefit, finding out early whether or not Satan had any rivals was very important. Satan exchanged a few general greetings with everyone then gave his long-separated student, Nice some homework¡ªa new magical research topic¡ªbefore beginning to speak on proper business. ¡°I plan to construct another large-scale purification array,¡± he said. ¡°The plan is split it into two steps: first, we build purification arrays for the border villages as well; second, using all of these purification arrays as nodes, we create a gigantic array that includes all of the frontier areas within it.¡± Everyone couldn¡¯t help exclaiming in admiration at the thought of his tremendous plan. Only Madame Teague, the great governor in charge of civil administration, turned pale. ¡°This would take far too many resources!¡± she promptly opposed. ¡°At present, we are unable to bear the burden of undertaking such a large-scale project!¡± Sui Xiong stared blankly at her, asking, ¡°Are we lacking in money now?¡± ¡°Money isn¡¯t the problem.¡± Madame Teague realized she¡¯d forgotten herself in the heat of the moment, and hurried to explain, ¡°We have no shortage of money. But to construct this many purification arrays, especially that last super-giant purification array, would consume a great amount of manpower. Furthermore, constructing magic arrays requires a lot of resources, and those which we have stored are not sufficient for such a plan. If you insist on starting as soon as possible, not only will this slow down construction across the entire country, there is also the possibility of you finding yourself in the awkward situation of having run out of resources with a project over half-done.¡± It was only then that everyone finally understood; they couldn¡¯t help but furrow their brows at this revelation. Insufficient manpower had always been the greatest problem which the Republic of Northwest had to face. Even if they went as far as using skeleton laborers, their population was still far from enough, and many of their construction operations were stuck in that same awkward situation due to a lack of manpower. Mage Satan¡¯s plan was certainly tremendous and grand, and it would bring them immense profit once completed. But with the current state of the Republic of Northwest, where were they going to get the people to build so many magic arrays? While the lack of resources wasn¡¯t as large a problem as the lack of manpower, it was still not one they could ignore. Hearing Madame Teague¡¯s explanation, Mage Satan creased his brows, asking, ¡°Can you really not transfer staff for this? By my estimation, we only need around 1000 people for it.¡± Madame Teague¡¯s eyes widened, staring at him as if she were looking at a madman. ¡°One thousand people!? We can¡¯t even transfer 100, let alone 1000¡­ Where am I supposed to find that many people for you!¡± ¡°We have skeleton laborers don¡¯t we, just get the necromancer to summon another batch,¡± Steele said lazily. He continued, ¡°In any case, as far as he¡¯s concerned, it should only take two or three days.¡± When he said this, Mage Satan let out a sigh, whereas Nice couldn¡¯t resist laughing out loud. ¡°Aunt Steele, we¡¯re talking about constructing purification arrays! If skeletons went there, wouldn¡¯t they get purified straightaway just by touching the materials?¡± At this reminder, Steele couldn¡¯t help laughing as well. Really? Letting skeletons construct purification arrays? That was even more unreasonable than beating a dog with a meat bun! Chapter 582 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Manpower was lacking, and skeletons couldn¡¯t be used. From the looks of it, Satan¡¯s great plan had run aground on the reefs before it even managed to set sail. Naturally, he didn¡¯t want to give up, but he didn¡¯t want to wait too long either, so he turned his gaze toward Sui Xiong. If ordinary people couldn¡¯t solve the problem, he could only turn to the gods for help. Sui Xiong thought for a moment then asked, ¡°Leon, Olian, Anna, is it possible to transfer manpower from your three territories?¡± Currently, Geerteng Hill, Garth City, and Keane Hill each belonged to their own separate countries. However, because the Church of the Void Mask held positions of absolute control in their lands, they were more-or-less basically all a part of the Republic of Northwest. One thousand men¡¯s worth of manpower was certainly impossible for the Republic, but if the number was split between these three territories then it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to manage, would it? Olian Geerteng was the first to reply. ¡°We can transfer 200¨C300 people on our end, but I¡¯m afraid any more than that isn¡¯t feasible. Our farms, stationery factories, and medicine fields all require a lot of people on staff.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe I can manage even 300 on my end.¡± Anna Keane, who rarely spoke and therefore truly achieved the phrase ¡®talk less, listen more,¡¯ let out a sigh. ¡°The Keane Hill has always had a low population.¡± ¡°Then the rest can be left to me,¡± Leon said with a smile. ¡°Though you¡¯ll need to give me some time¡ªlet¡¯s say around two months. I can collect the rest of the required manpower within two months.¡± ¡°They¡¯ve got to be reliable! I don¡¯t want any people that might start causing trouble halfway in!¡± Satan stressed. ¡°If any problems come up in this project, it¡¯s going to be a huge incident!¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly why I¡¯m asking for two months¡¯ time,¡± Leon said, full of confidence. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, two months from now, the men I¡¯ll have for you will be the most faithful and reliable you can find!¡± Thus, the matter was decided. Madame Teague would check the current supply stores, doing her utmost to raise sufficient supplies for the project, while the three territories would begin enlisting and transferring personnel in preparation for the job. This would begin in two months¡¯ time. After the meeting, Garth City¡¯s Lord, Kalisa Riley worriedly asked, ¡°This is 5 or 600 people we¡¯re talking about; can we really pull together that many? With such an important project, it wouldn¡¯t be very reasonable for us to enlist from outside either¡­¡± After tens of years of self-discipline, the Kalisa of today was no longer the ¡°first beauty on the east coast.¡± Although she couldn¡¯t necessarily be called a capable official, she could at least manage not to be as disappointing as the great majority of this world¡¯s ruling nations. She understood Garth City¡¯s situation relatively well, and after a little calculation, she had realized it would be very difficult to pull together enough surplus workers to fit the current demand. ¡°What¡¯s so hard about it?¡± Leon laughed and said. ¡°We can trade out people from some of our current projects, use the outside recruits to work for us instead, and have the ones that prove reliable be sent out to the Republic of Northwest to help construct the magic array. Two months¡¯ time is more than enough for the new hands to gain experience, so nothing will be delayed.¡± It was only then that Kalisa understood his plans, hurrying to nod in agreement. This was actually quite a simple affair, although the majority of the people had momentarily failed to realize it. Of course, even if Olian Geerteng and Anna Keane thought of the same solution, they wouldn¡¯t necessarily be able to follow through with it. Geerteng Hill was relatively remote, its population low to begin with, so enlisting new laborers would be no easy task. Keane Hill might have more convenient travel, but the territories surrounding it didn¡¯t exactly hold friendly feelings towards them; with them basically hemmed in at the center, enlistment would be more difficult for them than for Geerteng Hill. When they enlisted people in the past, foreigners were usually brought in through the help of transmission formations. Not only did such a method have high costs, but the people they enlisted needed to settle down first. For a short time, they were unable to begin work, so as far as they were concerned, it was truly impossible to transfer that many people. It was not just an intentional avoidance of responsibilities. By comparison, Garth City not only had convenient travel but also had a flourishing trade and was overlord of a large swathe of the surrounding region. Those heroes brave enough to say ¡°no¡± when up against the Swordsman¡¯s blade had pretty much all already obtained honorable ends. They most likely would be praised as brave and courageous by everyone up in their respective Gods¡¯ Kingdoms. As for the ones currently remaining, they¡¯d all already bowed their heads like the well-behaved citizens they were, going so far as to send their own sons and daughters to Garth City both to study and to act as hostages. Even if you sent them some courage, they wouldn¡¯t dare to obstruct Leon¡¯s business. He wasn¡¯t called the King of the Seaside for nothing! If Leon wanted to enlist workers, there wouldn¡¯t be many difficulties on the whole. The only bit of trouble was that the newly-recruited workers might include too many spies. He therefore had no choice but to send local workers to the Republic of Northwest to assist with construction, while local construction was handed over to the newly-recruited outsiders. Would these newly-recruited foreign workers include spies? Would these spies cause trouble? Leon didn¡¯t care in the slightest. If someone¡¯s spies caused trouble, he¡¯d make a note of it in his black notebook; then, when he found the time, he would pick up his sword and go pay them a visit. He¡¯d have a nice long talk with the leaders of those countries that had sent out the spies. Of course, his approach was sure to be a friendly and amiable one, but who knew whether the other person might suddenly get unwell and contract some terrible illness or something. Anyway, whatever happened was none of his business. Whether it was their heartbeats suddenly stopping, or them shouting and screaming as they committed suicide, or them maybe writing a baffling string of characters before dying¡ªnone of that was any of his business. In any case, he wasn¡¯t there to prove anything. If a master at the legendary peak wanted to cause a bit of inconvenience for someone, how could he possibly make any mistakes! Not long afterwards, all three territories began their enlistment of manpower. Funnily enough, it just so happened that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was also enlisting at the same time. They were enlisting people for the invasion of the Kingdom of Dwarfs though, whereas the three territories which followed the Void Mask were enlisting for construction within the homeland. As the salary was about the same on all sides, quite a few low-level adventurers much preferred running off to join Garth City¡¯s workers rather than go to become soldiers for the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. This wasn¡¯t only because of money. Admittedly, being a worker was the tougher job and not as relaxing as being a soldier, and it did not have the extra income from looting after a victorious battle. But who could guarantee that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would win? News traveled fast among the adventurers¡ªrelations were currently intensifying between the Orc Empire and the Kingdom of Dwarves. The Orc Empire¡¯s new emperor Ilo had even stated that if the Kingdom of Dwarves really did come into a crisis, he wouldn¡¯t mind putting on armor and heading out to the battle himself to help his new friends in battle. This was certainly just business talk, but everyone could see from it that the Orc Empire had strong support for the Kingdom of Dwarfs. With the Orc Empire¡¯s support, the Kingdom of Dwarves was no longer the weak little country that had lost many kings in battle to the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. Now, whether or not the Mountain of Broken Clouds¡¯ Border-Developing Campaign could have positive results or not was something that could be brought into question! The propaganda of those government officials naturally wasn¡¯t worth writing home about. Among the adventurers¡¯ currently more widespread opinions, even the most positive people believed that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs wouldn¡¯t be able to gain more than a slight upper hand. If they wanted successive victories like they¡¯d had in the past, seizing control of great quantities of wealth and resources¡ªwell, that was basically impossible. Meanwhile, a more pessimistic view was that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would be utterly routed this time around, with the only question being how many losses they would take. The most pessimistic of all even suspected that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would have their army entirely defeated, with the Orc and Dwarf allied armies coming in with a counterattack to take back the land they had previously lost. Whichever possibility you chose, the long and short of it was that this war was going to be a difficult one. Difficult meant that people would die, and the first ones to die would obviously be the mercenaries. If there weren¡¯t any other options, then they might as well. However, seeing as how going to Garth City to do manual labor was an option they could choose¡ªaside from a few brave people with great skill or those willing to risk their lives for money¡ªthe large majority of adventurers decided they¡¯d much rather just travel over to Garth after weighing the pros and cons. After all, manual labor was a safe job, and what adventurers wanted to do was to earn money, not gamble their lives! So Leon unwittingly struck a huge blow to the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs without moving a single soldier, ultimately giving the Kingdom of Dwarfs powerful assistance in their resistance against the coming invasion. Chapter 583 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The capital city of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was called Nephrite City. Before Void City appeared, this city was known as the most beautiful city in the Main Plane. Its city walls were constructed with stones beautiful as white jade, and when the weather was good, the light of the sun made those walls glitter like a single gigantic piece of jade. It was more beautiful than anything you could imagine. Until now, it had always been called a ¡°heaven on earth,¡± or ¡°the city as beautiful as the Holy Kingdom.¡± Not only had wandering bards composed countless ballads praising it, even the gods themselves often sent down clones to visit it. Of these, the one who visited most often was the Goddess of Spring Water. This mid-level god from the Nature God System loved more than anything to wander about between mountain forests and spring waters, her core requirements from her believers being to ¡°cherish spring waters¡± and to ¡°increase the number of fountains.¡± She cared for nothing else. Good or evil, soldier or thief¡ªnone of that mattered to her. Yet, it was precisely because of this attitude of hers that she was chosen by the human gods to give them the power they needed to strike against the Ancient Forest and the Mountain of Broken Clouds, fully supporting the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs with all her strength. Nephrite City, as the capital of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, was covered all over in fountains. These fountains weren¡¯t like the ones in Shandong, that famous spring city on Earth where the water bubbled out from underground; these fountains were three parts natural, seven parts manmade. Back when they¡¯d first built this city, a good number of great legendary magicians had worked together to create a portal beneath the city that lead directly to the Water Element Plane. An unending stream of fresh water flowed underground through that portal, following pre-cut fountain holes up to the surface and creating the fantastic scene that was ¡°a city of 1000 springs.¡± Within this city, surrounded by those white jade walls¡ªno more and no less¡ªwere exactly 1000 fountains. When they first built this city, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was only in its fledgling stage and had yet to even decide on a name for itself. It was after this city of 1000 springs was built that the Goddess of Spring Water sent down a clone, personally giving her blessings to this country and christening it the ¡°Kingdom of Thousands of Springs.¡± But behind this beautiful city lay mountains of corpses and seas of blood. There originally had never been a Country of Thousands of Springs on this planet, and neither had there been a Nephrite City. Originally, the land southeast of the Mountain of Broken Clouds had been a zone of never-ending hills. Its north bordered on the Mountain of Broken Clouds, its south faced the Golden Desert, to the east lay a great plain, and to the west was the Ancient Forest. Dwarfs, Pygmies and other races all mixed together here, living peaceful lives. When humans rose to power, they first followed the God of Knights in fighting a series of battles against the Orcs, but ultimately came out at a disadvantage. Afterwards, the God of Revenge took power. He changed their strategy, leaving only a small portion of humans to guard that bit of fertile land between the Broken Clouds, Graystone, and Ash-Beast Mountains from any more Orc invasions, while the rest of the humans were sent out to assault the east. This was the famous human historical event called the ¡°Eastern Campaign.¡± Over the course of these conflicts spanning several thousand years, the humans wiped out the Pygmy, Fairy, Dwarf, and other races¡¯ countries which had originally occupied the eastern part of the continent. In the most fertile eastern plain on the entire planet, they then established the 28-City Commonwealth¡ªwhat would later become the Kingdom of the Blue Moon. Afterwards, the humans split into two branches. One branch worshipped the Sun God; they turned their assault to the north, thoroughly annihilating the Pygmy Kingdom and establishing the Kingdom of Holy Angels. The other branch turned their assault to the southwest, capturing the Elf God System and subsequently being exterminated by the Master of Mystery. Finding a chance to inflict serious damage, the Elf Race then joined forces with a part of the Nature God System. They annihilated all the Dwarf and Pygmy powers in the hills and erected their country. Naturally, there was a massive amount of killing involved in this course of events. The Fairies, once famed as the ¡°Dexterous People¡± due to their skill in manufacturing small-scale machinery, were practically wiped out. The few survivors left the Main Plane for some other unknown world under the protection of their god; a good number of Pygmy countries of all sizes were wiped out as well, the Pygmy race becoming famed across the continent as a vagrant race. Only the Dwarfs, with their sturdy physiques and undying fighting spirit, continued to tenaciously resist. These past few years, probably once every three or five or ten years, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would organize an army and head out to attack the Kingdom of Dwarfs in the Mountain of Broken Clouds. On one hand, they coveted the local mineral resources and the Kingdom of Dwarfs¡¯ money and valuables; on the other hand, they simply wanted to follow things through to the end, forcing the Dwarf race to leave the Main Plane like the Fairies did and thus resolving one of their worries. Every time they prepared to invade the Mountain of Broken Clouds, they¡¯d set up temporary barracks outside the east gate of Nephrite City and hang up recruitment orders, always managing to bring in a large number of adventurers. Once the actual conflict began, these adventurers were especially given all the dangerous jobs. They would naturally be the front lines of any attack and the rear guard of any retreat. Although most of those who survived could gain piles of money and riches, not even a third of the adventurers could actually make it back safe and sound at the end of it all. Of course, when people died there had to be compensation, so the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs always lost a great amount to compensation payments. Adventurers weren¡¯t idiots; if it weren¡¯t for that compensation pay, who would be willing to risk a two-thirds chance of death just for some riches? A lot of injured or aging adventurers actually came specifically for that little bit of compensation money. What they wanted to earn wasn¡¯t riches or honor, but this little payment for their sacrifice instead. This was the poor man¡¯s sorrow, something that didn¡¯t change much regardless of the place. But the situation this time was a little different; temporary barracks were once more set up outside the east gate of Nephrite City, and recruitment orders were hung up again. But this time, most of the applicants that came were strong and healthy, tough-as-nails fighters. The usual situation where average-level and sometimes even fragile applicants gathered at the recruitment table didn¡¯t happen. The person in charge of recruitment was a count. At the moment, he was sitting atop the recruitment platform watching the enlistment area from a distance. After a while, he breathed out a heavy sigh. ¡°My lord, is there something wrong?¡± asked the trusted aide by his side. ¡°We didn¡¯t get to recruit much cannon fodder this time around.¡± ¡°If there isn¡¯t any cannon fodder, we can just use the militia instead,¡± one of his sons said in an offhand manner. ¡°As long as we get elite recruits, it¡¯s fine.¡± The count shook his head and furrowed his brows, not bothering to explain to his son in detail. If outsiders die, there won¡¯t be any regrets; if your own die, there surely will be! Although the life or death of commoners wasn¡¯t worth all that much, if things went bad this time, it was hard to say how things might go in the future. Perhaps in the future border-developing wars against the Mountain of Broken Clouds, the country would lean more towards letting its citizens be the cannon fodder. The country might also stop enlisting low-level adventurers, thus avoiding having to pay compensation fees. This was obviously a good thing in the short term since it saved them a lot of money, but it would ultimately be detrimental to the country¡¯s long-term plans. The people of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs were happy at the news of war partially because the war could bring them profit, but also because the losses on their side would be relatively few. If every battle caused the loss of numerous civilians and resulted in with thousands of tearful households in mourning, this would constitute a huge blow to popular sentiment. Over time, the people of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs would cease to see war as an opportunity to excel and earn riches, and instead consider it to be a serious burden. Of course, there was no way he¡¯d be able to see all of this himself. But who wouldn¡¯t be worried sick thinking of a future like this! Chapter 584 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Meanwhile, inside the imperial palace of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, the current king, Dyke Spoolin was also looking anxious. As the ruler of a country, he naturally wasn¡¯t worried over the problem of cannon fodder, but rather a different issue. He¡¯d only just received reliable news not long before informing him that the Orc Empire had dispatched approximately 2000 elite soldiers to provide support to the Kingdom of Dwarfs. Two thousand people wasn¡¯t really that big a number, but 2000 elite soldiers was another thing entirely. The Mountain of Broken Clouds didn¡¯t exactly have wide terrain; an army numbering in the tens of thousands had no way of spreading out their forces, so 2000 elite soldiers were more than enough to hold a strategic location. Even the most impressive display of manpower couldn¡¯t hope to break through in a situation like that. It didn¡¯t need mentioning that the Orcs could also help make up for the dwarves¡¯ greatest weak point¡ªthough their shaman magic had the disadvantage of being relatively short-range, it was at least more nimble than dwarven rune magic, and had a wider range as well. Its effect as a supplement in battle was therefore on an entirely different level. Dyke picked up that piece of secret information and scrutinized it again, unable to resist heaving a deep sigh. Because the Orc Empire had changed their emperor, there¡¯d been a bit of upheaval among their personnel, giving the spies quite a few opportunities to work. Even then, the information they managed to gather wasn¡¯t detailed enough; all they¡¯d learned was that 2000 elite soldiers had been dispatched, along with a few spellcasters. But who exactly was coming? How many spellcasters were there? There was no way for them to ask. These were genuine mysteries. They were near impossible to get the truth of no matter how much effort the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs¡¯ spies put into it. After all, even spies weren¡¯t omnipotent. As for divination and detection spells and the like, if you could predict the Orcs¡¯ plans then they could predict yours; the same went for detection. While it was true that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had their human gods to support them, the Orc Empire also had their Orc gods. The two sides were still equally matched after all these years of fighting, so who could manage to get an advantage? Thus, King Dyke could do nothing but sit here alone looking miserable, unable to think of a solution to his problem. After a while, he sighed again, then had someone call in his chief mage so he could give him the information to look at. ¡°This is a difficult situation!¡± the chief mage¡¯s face darkened as he said. ¡°This next battle will be a tough one to fight!¡± ¡°Indeed! If I hadn¡¯t already sent out the orders, I might have even considered not fighting at all,¡± the king said with a bitter smile. ¡°If we fight on like this, the only victory we might obtain will be a tragic one, with far more losses than gains!¡± ¡°I agree that it would be best not to fight; this isn¡¯t just an issue of pride. So long as we can get some benefit out of it, what does it matter if we lose a little pride?¡± the chief mage continued to urge. ¡°If you were to turn me into a demigod right this moment, then tell me to strip all of Nephrite City naked and have them bark like dogs, I¡¯d be ready and willing!¡± His example was rather extreme, but it was also quite persuasive. King Dyke lowered his head and began to ponder. He thought and thought, and the expression on his face changed multiple times. After breathing out a particularly heavy sigh, he shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s no good, this isn¡¯t a problem of my own honor. To go back on my word over something so big as this¡ªthat¡¯s a much more serious issue than losing a war! Rather than take back the order, it would be better to reduce the scale of the war; we¡¯ll send two or 3,000 men to deal with it, take our losses, and then withdraw, denouncing the Orcs as collaborating with the Dwarves to conspire against us!¡± The chief mage nodded slightly. ¡°This could certainly be called a plan where there is no plan; it¡¯s one I can accept.¡± ¡°But I still wish to win this battle,¡± King Dyke said, unresigned. ¡°In the past five generations of kings, none have ever lost a battle in their punitive expeditions. I don¡¯t want to be the first to set that example! I¡¯ll be the laughingstock of posterity!¡± The chief mage had been here since the time of the king¡¯s grandfather and had even been intimate friends with his father; upon hearing his words, he couldn¡¯t help letting out a sigh of his own. He had no children and so more-or-less regarded Dyke as his own son. Of course, he had no desire for the man to face such humiliation. But if they wanted to avoid humiliation, they needed to win this war, and winning this war was easier said than done! After pondering for a good while, he said, ¡°I have an idea that might be worth a try¡­¡± ¡°What idea?¡± Dyke hurried to ask.Read the next chapter on our novelhall.com ¡°If we wish to win this war, I believe we should strengthen our army¡¯s mage troops. In order to do this, we can ask the Mifata Federation to help us by sending out high-level battle mages¡ªif we can manage to get one or two Legendary Masters, that would certainly be even better.¡± King Dyke repeatedly nodded his head but immediately followed that with a furrowed brow. ¡°That incident back then¡­¡± King Dyke said, ¡°it¡¯s enough of a blessing that the Mifata Federation never hit us while we were down. Why would they ever choose to assist us?¡± ¡°That incident happened over ten years ago now, and besides that, it never accomplished anything, so there¡¯s no need to think too hard on it,¡± the chief mage said with a smile. ¡°All they need is enough benefits, and your enemy can quickly become your ally; it isn¡¯t such a rare thing.¡± ¡°But what sort of benefits can we offer them?¡± the king asked. ¡°Our lands don¡¯t border theirs, and I don¡¯t believe they¡¯re lacking in funds. What exactly is there that they need which we can offer them?¡± The chief mage began to mutter to himself. After a while, he quietly said a few things. King Dyke¡¯s eyes widened; he shook his head at first, but after thinking on it, he, too, sank into contemplation. A long time passed before he sighed and gave a heavy nod. Having gained this acceptance, the chief mage took his leave. Not long after, he used transmission magic to arrive at the capital of the Mifata Federation, the Highest Tower. As a Legendary Master, it was only natural that people came to receive him when he arrived at the Highest Tower. Within the Country of Casters, even if someone said that he¡¯d had a direct relationship with the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs¡¯ attempt to surprise attack the Federation years ago¡ªa Legendary Master could not be censured simply due to hearsay. Besides, he even brought a present that the Federation had longed for day and night. ¡°Are you serious?¡± The Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation were unable to stay calm while looking at that object. They whispered in each other¡¯s ears for a good while before the oldest of them opened his mouth to say, ¡°This is not something to joke about!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already brought it here. Does it look like I¡¯m joking to you?¡± ¡°Truthfully, we do indeed greatly desire this,¡± another Legendary Master said. ¡°But if the price we must pay is to go to war with the Orc Empire¡­¡± ¡°So what if it is?¡± the chief mage calmly asked in reply. ¡°Are you to say that the Country of Casters cares who their enemies are? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re afraid of the Orcs.¡± ¡°Of course not!¡± ¡°If you aren¡¯t afraid, then as long as there are enough benefits to it, what does a single war with the Orcs matter to you?¡± the chief mage continued. ¡°As long as we win, there aren¡¯t any problems, am I right?¡± The oldest Legendary Master nodded his head, saying, ¡°What you say makes sense. As long as we win, nothing else will be a problem. However¡­ how can you guarantee that we will, in fact, win?¡± The chief mage laughed aloud at that as if he¡¯d just heard something particularly funny. ¡°You must be joking! If the entire country were fighting then that would be another story, but a battle like this, between just a few thousand people? With our two countries combined, who could rival our strength?¡± ¡°The Orcs aren¡¯t weak,¡± said the old mage. He seemed like he might be even older than some countries¡¯ entire history. ¡°All else aside, they have the most Legendary Masters on the continent.¡± ¡°That was in the past,¡± said the chief mage as he shook his head. ¡°They¡¯ve recently lost quite a few.¡± ¡°But that could only be a good thing for them,¡± the old mage replied. ¡°After getting rid of that bunch, their government can now move without obstruction, and the entire country¡¯s efficiency will become much better as a result. It won¡¯t be long before that nation¡¯s power sees a noticeable level of growth.¡± ¡°We speak now of the war before us, nothing else,¡± the chief mage calmly said. ¡°In truth, you already made your decision the moment you set eyes on this thing, didn¡¯t you?¡± The Mifata Federation¡¯s leaders exchanged looks with each other, then nodded their heads one after the other. The next day, the Mifata Federation and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs declared a temporary alliance in order to stop the Orc Empire from digging their claws into the lands beyond the plains. Chapter 585 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The Mifata Federation and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs have formed an alliance?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help a moment¡¯s shock at receiving this information. ¡°This¡­ it¡¯s a little ridiculous!¡± He knew perfectly well what had happened years ago. Considering that the other country had attempted to surprise-invade them through large-scale transportation portal, the fact that the Mifata Federation hadn¡¯t dispatched Legendary Masters to bring down a couple of meteors upon their enemy was already quite generous and gentlemanly of them. But how could they have suddenly turned around and formed an alliance with them? This couldn¡¯t possibly be that syndrome where you fall in love with the person oppressing you, could it? Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t bring himself to believe it and so went to look for Easter. Easter calmly listened to his story, thought over it, and then said, ¡°It isn¡¯t all that strange, really.¡± ¡°What? It isn¡¯t?¡± Sui Xiong asked in bewilderment. ¡°What part of it isn¡¯t strange? The Mifata Federation and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs are sworn enemies! If you hadn¡¯t successfully sent back the news back then, they¡¯d have suffered unavoidably great losses!¡± ¡°But the fact of the matter is that they didn¡¯t suffer any losses,¡± Easter said. ¡°That¡¯s just how people are. If they haven¡¯t truly lost anything, then they won¡¯t truly hold a grudge. Even if they had suffered losses, what of it? There¡¯s a proverb¡ªI don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve heard it before or not¡ªthat goes: ¡®As long as the price is right, even your own family can be sold.''¡± Sui Xiong frowned. ¡°That goes far beyond moral principles!¡± ¡°And what are moral principles? How much money can you make by selling them?¡± Easter asked with a small smile. ¡°That¡¯s politics for you¡ªsince ancient times, it¡¯s never changed.¡± ¡°But¡­ aren¡¯t the leaders of the Mifata Federation a group of Legendary Masters?¡± Sui Xiong continued. ¡°Legendary Masters are always relatively reserved; they should have some level of integrity, a sense of honor! And yet they just¡­ this is practically a betrayal of the work you risked your life to complete!¡± Easter let out a laugh that was as pained as it was calm. ¡°I¡¯m grateful that you would care about what I think, but you shouldn¡¯t use your own ethics to make demands of others, especially when those others are rulers of countries. Although you may be a jellyfish, your code of ethics already surpasses that of a vast majority of people. As for those rulers of countries, most of their ethics are far lower than the rest of this world¡¯s average level.¡± Sui Xiong knew all this perfectly well; he just couldn¡¯t bring himself to understand it. After a long, heavy sigh, he lamented, ¡°Back then¡­ that really wasn¡¯t worth you dying!¡± ¡°Perhaps, but there are many things I might never have been able to accept if I hadn¡¯t gone through that experience,¡± Easter said with a smile. ¡°That¡¯s life for you¡ªyou win some you lose some, you lose some you win some.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head, choosing not to dwell on this potentially painful subject, and asked instead, ¡°What do you think is the reason for their collaboration this time around? Is it just to fend off the Orc Empire?¡± ¡°It most likely to fend off the Orc Empire, yes,¡± Easter said. ¡°Though their choice of battlefield will be the Mountain of Broken Clouds.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s pupils contracted slightly; he understood what that meant. The Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had allied with the Mifata Federation in order to defeat the Kingdom of Dwarfs, who had support from the Orc Empire! ¡°I think¡­ maybe we should do a little something,¡± he said. ¡°The Dwarves are our friends, and we have relatively good relations with the Orcs as well. At the very least, we have better relations with them than with either the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs or the Mifata Federation.¡± ¡°The simplest solution would obviously be for you, Your Majesty, to make a personal appearance and prevent this war,¡± Easter replied. ¡°I don¡¯t know what price the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs may have paid to get that alliance with the Mifata Federation. But I can guarantee that a relationship based on bribery cannot be kept for very long. If this war fails, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs will regret paying whatever price they did, and the Mifata Federation of course won¡¯t be willing to return the profit they¡¯ve already gained¡­ just like this, the two sides will start to feud. We might not even have to lift a finger, and their alliance will fall apart like ashes.¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help smiling at that. ¡°Letting me set out to mediate on my own¡ªI have to say that¡¯s a much higher level than just ¡®lifting a finger.''¡± Easter already understood his temperament and gave a smile of his own. ¡°I get the feeling, though, that Your Majesty is someone who would definitely enjoy this proposal.¡± Sui Xiong laughed aloud at that. ¡°You¡¯re right! I absolutely love this proposal!¡± He really did like it, too, so he went ahead and followed it. One morning a few days later, a gigantic green jellyfish set out from Void City. It flew through the sky all the way to what could pretty much be called the border between the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Kingdom of Dwarfs. This was where the Dwarfs had constructed a fortress to defend against the coming invasion. The area outside the fortress was covered in strange rocks, and rugged terrain like countless blades pointed up at the sky. There was only a single little road between the precipitous mountain rocks that could take you near to the fortress. The topography truly made this mountain pass one in which a lone man could hold out against ten thousand enemies. Placed on Earth, one couldn¡¯t imagine getting a step past its boundaries even with the most magnificent army you could muster. But in this world full of magic, as long as you had enough magical power to help you, a natural stronghold like this couldn¡¯t really do anything to hold back its enemies. For example, if a mid-ranked spellcaster were to put in all his effort, he could manage to make maybe three to five people fly. Although they wouldn¡¯t be able to fly for long, that would already be more than enough to have them pass the stronghold, fly into and maybe even right out the back of the fortress. As for an advanced mage, if he didn¡¯t consider the toll it would take on his body, he could even construct a temporary portal and allow a fully armed battalion of over 1000 men march right into the fortress, making the natural stronghold lose all meaning. So although the Dwarves always picked strategically-viable places to build their fortresses, those fortresses had never actually done anything to obstruct the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs from invading. But if they stopped building fortresses because of this, that would be even more unacceptable. Although the fortresses couldn¡¯t prevent their enemies from attacking, they could at least use up a great amount of the enemy¡¯s magic power! So the Dwarves continued to build fortresses with that thought in mind and were continuously breached in turn. If it weren¡¯t for their persevering nature and stubbornness, they probably would have fallen apart long ago. Now that they had the Orcs to support them, the Dwarves had gained a boost of confidence. But when they found out the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had gained support from the Mifata Federation, they became riddled with apprehension all over again. The Country of Casters was famed for its military prowess. Who wouldn¡¯t be afraid? There were many countries on the continent, but which of them could manage to turn both the countries surrounding them into vassals? None but the Mifata Federation! There were none who dared to be confident when faced with them as an enemy. Filled with apprehensive thoughts like this, the Dwarves and Orcs guarding the fortress looked up to see a gigantic jellyfish. The jellyfish was speeding towards them from the northwest skies, then gradually dropped down over their heads before resting motionlessly halfway up the mountain. This was His Majesty the Void Mask, wasn¡¯t it? What was he doing here? The guards all shared bewildered glances. After a long while, the jellyfish still had yet to move and in fact had started snoring. Huh? Why would this honorable elder want to run all the way here just to sleep? Was this a good spot for sleeping? Everyone looked at each other, but none were willing to run down and wake up the sleeping god, rushing instead to send news back to the rear lines. Soon enough, the king of the Dwarves received the information. He frowned at first, but after thinking for a moment all the wrinkles on his face smoothed out, and he laughed aloud despite himself. ¡°I get it! His Majesty, the Void Mask, really is too generous!¡± When he said this, the chancellors of the Kingdom of Dwarves, as well as the high-level army commanders who¡¯d rushed over as support from the Orc Empire, all understood both what he meant and what Sui Xiong intended. It could be assumed that this kind of jellyfish god couldn¡¯t bear to see the terrible sight of these two sides warring against each other, and so had blocked the battlefield with his own body. With him sitting there, who could pass through? Even if you were fearless enough to try forcing your way through, you¡¯d still have to move him out of the way first! ¡°This battle can no longer be fought,¡± said a young Orc. ¡°I¡¯m a little disappointed.¡± ¡°Not needing to fight is the best outcome we could have,¡± said an elderly Orc. ¡°Besides, if it¡¯s war you want, you¡¯ll have plenty of opportunities in the future.¡± ¡°Whatever you want to call it, peace is definitely the best!¡± The king of the dwarves, who¡¯d previously been so worried he¡¯d even quit drinking, immediately lifted a small wine barrel. He shouted in great delight, ¡°Let¡¯s all drink a toast to peace! A toast to His Grand Majesty, the Void Mask!¡± ¡°Cheers!¡± The sound of laughter echoed throughout the underground stone-carved hall. Chapter 586 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In sharp contrast to the joyous atmosphere in the Kingdom of Dwarfs, the royal palace of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was currently covered in dark clouds. ¡°Why! Why would the Void Mask suddenly appear? Not only that, but he¡¯s even chosen to sleep there¡­ what in the world is he thinking!?¡± Dyke Spoolin felt as if he was soon about to explode; only through yelling and shouting was he able to give vent to the feelings pent up within him. This allowed him to calm down just enough so that he wouldn¡¯t burst into pieces on the spot. He continued to roar for a while, then angrily glared at the head of intelligence. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you get any news of this before? I don¡¯t expect you to be able to keep surveillance over a god, but why wasn¡¯t there a single hint of any of this within the daily reports you gave me on the Republic of Northwest and the Church of Void Mask¡¯s movements? I remember your people had analyzed at most ten days ago that the Void Mask was on bad terms with the Orcs, so their offering assistance here was likely because they¡¯d discovered he was getting the Dwarves involved, they and hoped to prevent that¡­ In which case, could you kindly tell me why the Void Mask would run over here to help both the Dwarves and the Orcs?¡± The head of intelligence was a round-faced, middle-aged man of average height. At present, his brows were beaded with sweat, almost as if the grease had been squeezed out of his fat body. Because he was standing relatively close, King Dyke¡¯s angry roars had already covered his face in spit, but he didn¡¯t dare lift a hand to wipe it off, instead keeping a nervous smile plastered on his face. He was afraid to even attempt to justify himself. All he could do was quietly receive the torrential downpour of denouncements. King Dyke didn¡¯t have high martial skills, being at only an average level; after about half an hour of yelling, he finally got tired enough to stop and calmly looked to the head of intelligence for a reply. It was only then that the head of intelligence said with a pained look on his face, ¡°The Void Mask¡¯s way of handling matters has never been by the book¡ªone could say that he does as he pleases. Often, he won¡¯t give his subordinates a word of warning before going ahead with action. I don¡¯t know what he¡¯s thinking, but I can guarantee that the Church of the Void Mask and all the people of the Republic of Northwest have absolutely no idea that he has come to assist the Dwarves and the Orcs.¡± This wasn¡¯t actually true, as Easter at least knew about it. But¡­ could the spies of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs get any information from him? Hehe. They¡¯d have to find a way to get into the heart of intelligence staff training to meet him in the first place! Of course, there was no way King Dyke would know any of this. He felt that what the head of intelligence had said made a lot of sense. The Void Mask¡¯s actions didn¡¯t follow the rules of common sense¡ªthat was a commonly-known fact. He was a jellyfish, after all. You could analyze a human¡¯s thought patterns or those of a Dwarf or Orc, maybe even a demon, but could you really understand a jellyfish¡¯s way of thinking? Who even heard of a jellyfish having ¡°thought patterns¡± before? Mages and Druids had researched all sorts of animals on this earth in the past, and while the concrete details of that research were no longer accessible, they¡¯d ultimately made an ¡°intelligence chart¡± for all the different creatures. On this chart, legendary creatures such as dragons were listed as having the highest intelligence, relatively intelligent creatures such as apes and monkeys were generally around the average level, then below that were cats and dogs and the like followed by birds and a few large fish. At the very bottom were creatures such as small fish and shrimp. As for jellyfish, they were on par with your average insect, a species listed as ¡°lacking intellect.¡± Unless unusual changes occurred, these creatures basically had no intelligence to speak of and had only the most basic instincts. Ever since the Void Mask appeared, quite a few people had begun studying jellyfish. Naturally, some of them even made an attempt to raise the creatures¡¯ intelligence, hoping they could bring them up to a level that could be called intelligent. From there, they hoped to begin studying their behavior patterns. Regrettably, up to now, these studies had yet to produce any decent results. King Dyke knew all of this, of course, which is why he knew that trying to guess the Void Mask¡¯s thoughts would be even more difficult than ascending to the heavens. You could at least use magic when trying to ascend, and if you had high-level magical talent then succeeding wasn¡¯t impossible, but guessing at a jellyfish¡¯s thoughts¡­ Alas! Truthfully, he¡¯d only been using the head of intelligence to let off steam. He hadn¡¯t really expected him to be able to give any worthwhile answers. ¡°The thing¡¯s already happened, so we might as well focus on how we should respond.¡± The only one still able to keep calm at a time like this was the chief mage. There was worry in his eyes, but this was still much better in comparison with the king and the gathered chancellors. ¡°In actuality, this occurrence isn¡¯t necessarily entirely lacking in benefits for us. Our army has no way to advance with the Void Mask blocking the road, meaning that naturally, this battle can no longer be fought¡ªbut not needing to fight means we can avoid quite a few risks.¡± So saying, he turned to look at King Dyke. King Dyke of course knew what he meant. Even if they¡¯d managed to pull in assistance from the Mifata Federation, they couldn¡¯t be sure that this battle would end with their victory. They could only be sure that their odds of success would be relatively large. But to have to pay out such an enormous price just for a ¡°relatively large¡± chance of victory¡­ This truly wasn¡¯t worth it. With the Void Mask currently blocking the space right between the two opposing sides, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs could use the excuse to back down, no longer needing to fight a war they had no certainty of winning. You couldn¡¯t say this wasn¡¯t a good thing. Thinking of the price he had already paid, he couldn¡¯t help frowning once more. ¡°That Void Mask¡­ why couldn¡¯t he have come earlier!¡± he said irritably. ¡°It would have been wonderful, if only he had come ten or eight days sooner!¡± Yes, if this had happened ten or eight days earlier, he would have given up immediately, and he wouldn¡¯t have paid such a great price to involve the Mifata Federation. Now the Void Mask was here, and the war could no longer be fought, but they¡¯d already sent out their declaration with the Mifata Federation. That meant that the arrangements had already been completed, and they couldn¡¯t take back the object they¡¯d given before. Thinking on it again, his eyes lit up, and he said in a low voice, ¡°Do you all think¡­ If I insisted on fighting now, would that be possible?¡± His chancellors all paled at that, hurriedly trying to convince him to give up on this unreasonable idea. Only the chief mage looked pensive, lowering his head as he pondered the king¡¯s suggestion. King Dyke ignored his chancellors¡¯ adjurations, only looking at the chief mage as he waited for an answer. After a long while, the chief mage lifted his head and quietly sighed. ¡°I¡¯m afraid it wouldn¡¯t be easy,¡± he said. ¡°Those bastards are quite shrewd!¡± ¡°You once taught me that there are no truly loyal people in this word, neither are their shrewd ones; as long as the lure is strong enough, anyone can lose their head, even the gods are no exception.¡± The chief mage nodded his head. ¡°But we aren¡¯t capable of bringing out a big enough lure.¡± ¡°If it isn¡¯t big enough, then we just have to add to it.¡± A trace of determination flickered in King Dyke¡¯s eyes as he spoke. ¡°Whatever the price, as long as it helps us reach that goal, I can consider it acceptable.¡± The chief mage began to ponder again. He thought for quite a long while before saying, ¡°Your Majesty, I believe that in this matter¡­ it wouldn¡¯t hurt to ask for instruction.¡± Ask for instruction? Who could the king ask for instruction? The gods, of course. King Dyke stared dumbfounded for a moment before realizing what he meant; then he began laughing aloud. ¡°You¡¯re right! I really should ¡®ask for instruction¡¯ here!¡± He said the phrase slowly, putting emphasis on each word as the teacher and student looked at each other and smiled. If Sui Xiong were here and saw this scene, he would probably have muttered to himself and given them each a fox¡¯s tail. Chapter 587 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After agreements were concluded, King Dyke made his way to the shrine to pray. Through prayer, he would report the situation in detail to the gods, following which he would ask them how best to deal with it. Within the palace of human gods, the God of Light¡¯s mouth tilted slightly upwards, showing a hint of a smile. For someone as normally serious as him, this was an incredibly rare sight to see. It was so rare, in fact, that the other gods were all a little astonished, and the God of Heroes couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Your Majesty, has something happened worth celebrating?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say it¡¯s quite worth celebrating, but it is rather amusing,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°I¡¯ve just received news that the Void Mask is lying on the border between the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Kingdom of Dwarfs, preventing either side from fighting each other.¡± The human gods all exchanged looks, unsure what about this news was so amusing. ¡°I assume all of you know that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs often launches attacks on the Kingdom of Dwarfs. But this time, the Kingdom of Dwarfs received assistance from the Orc Empire. Thinking that they wouldn¡¯t be able to win relying solely on their own power, they took out a piece of a dead god¡¯s remains which they¡¯d found by chance some time ago and offered it as payment for the Mifata Federation¡¯s cooperation in a united offensive.¡± The God of Light continued to say, ¡°However, just as they¡¯d finished preparations and were about to send out their troops, that big jellyfish went and laid itself down on the border. Consequently, they have no way of continuing and have been forced to pray to me, hoping I can give them instruction¡ªdon¡¯t you all find that funny?¡± The human gods all stayed silent for a while before finally, the God of Heroes, who had a relatively higher position than the rest, sighed and said in a sincere voice, ¡°Your Majesty, I¡¯m very sorry, but I really don¡¯t see what¡¯s so funny about that¡­¡± The God of Light shook his head. ¡°All of you really should find more time to study strategy!¡± As he spoke, he laid his gaze upon the God of Aristocracy. The God of Aristocracy naturally understood what he meant and began to explain to the other gods, ¡°The Kingdom of Thousands of Springs wishes to admit defeat, but they can¡¯t resign themselves to simply giving away their precious god¡¯s corpse to the Mifata Federation. Hence, them now coming to His Majesty with prayers¡­ In truth, all they want to ask His Majesty is whether or not it would be alright for them to use this opportunity to plot against the Mifata Federation, perhaps even going so far as to scheme against the Master of Mystery.¡± The human Gods were all shocked; so this was an attempt to scheme against the Master of Mystery? ¡°But¡­ what should we do, then?¡± asked the God of Heroes. ¡°In a word, all they need to do is attempt to incite the Mifata Federation¡¯s greed, letting them send themselves to their deaths at the Void Mask¡¯s hand. Afterwards, they can spread this news to the public, forcing the God of Spellcaster to make an appearance. The God of Spellcaster definitely won¡¯t be able to win against the Void Mask, meaning that the Master of Mystery will have no choice but to take the task on himself.¡± The God of Aristocracy laughed, then said, ¡°It¡¯s a rather simple plan but also quite dependable¡ªI like it.¡± The God of Heroes nodded, saying, ¡°This plan is simple, yes, but as long as we can complete the first step, the rest should all come together very neatly. Not bad at all.¡± ¡°The problem is with the first step,¡± The God of Light said. ¡°The king of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs prayed to me in hopes that we could improve upon that first step, guaranteeing that they could seduce those Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation into recklessly throwing themselves at the Void Mask.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a really difficult problem!¡± said the God of Heroes with a frown. ¡°Are we going to have to use our Divine Power to control their minds? But if we do that and the God of Spellcaster looks into it, we¡¯ll be the ones he finds¡­¡± ¡°There¡¯s always a plan,¡± said the God of Light. ¡°There¡¯s no need to rush on this. All of you go contact your friends; what we need are reliable people who can be cautious and meticulous in their work and who are good at keeping secrets, too.¡± The gods all stood up together, answered in unison, then left. The palace, filled with gods just moments ago, was now empty save for the God of Light sitting alone on his throne. He gently drummed his fingers against the armrest, thinking aloud in a low voice, ¡°Ever since you eliminated the Elf God System, you¡¯ve never once put out all your strength; even last time was no different. Have you grown stronger after all these years? Or have you become weaker? Hehe, I¡¯m truly looking forward to it!¡± At about this same time, near an enchanted spring surrounded by rainbows, the Master of Mystery¡ªdressed in a simple and unadorned magic robe¡ªopened his eyes. ¡°Your Highness, is something wrong?¡± asked the surprised God of Spellcaster serving as an attendant by his side. The Master of Mystery usually maintained a meditative posture, pondering the mysteries of the world. The number of times he had opened his eyes in the past few hundred years could be counted on one¡¯s fingers. For him to suddenly open his eyes without any apparent reason like this probably meant that something had happened. The Master of Mystery shook his head, a sliver of a smile revealing itself upon a face as mottled as an old tree. ¡°An old friend is thinking of me.¡± The God of Spellcaster naturally understood what he must be referring to. He narrowed his eyes, revealing a hint of murderous intent. ¡°Don¡¯t get excited, as long as people are alive on this earth, one can¡¯t avoid being thought of on occasion,¡± the Master of Mystery serenely said. ¡°There have been all sorts of old friends thinking about me these past few years, so there¡¯s no need to care about one more.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go arrange things right now. Regardless of who it is, if anyone dares to stir up trouble, I¡¯ll teach them a thorough lesson!¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need to be so nervous,¡± said the Master of Mystery, shaking his head. ¡°Why worry before they¡¯ve even begun to take action? If they wait a thousand years without moving, will you just stay worried for a thousand years?¡± The God of Spellcaster froze at that, saying without thinking, ¡°A thousand years? That¡¯s too long!¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call it long. In a god¡¯s point of view, spending a thousand years to prepare a trap against an enemy can only be called prudent, rather than slow.¡± The Master of Mystery continued to speak, ¡°You still have yet to change your ways of thinking. Don¡¯t let yourself be held back by a mortal¡¯s ideology. Time holds very little meaning to you and I.¡± The God of Spellcaster stared blankly for a moment before slowly sitting back down. He sank deep into contemplation. The Master of Mystery said no more, only calmly staring off into the distance as a thoughtful smile snuck its way onto his face. Sometime later, Sui Xiong received a strange piece of news. ¡°Someone wants to fight me?¡± He stared in confusion at the scroll that had suddenly appeared before him. As he stared, the words written upon it slowly faded away until even the scroll itself began to disappear. It was much like a piece of ice left in the water, slowly melting away. ¡°Who would challenge me? I even came all the way out here just to defend world peace. Why would anyone want to challenge me? What happened to the natural order of things!¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t stop this scroll from disappearing, instead quickly getting his brain to work. Who in the world could be plotting against him? And who was it that had come to warn him? It seemed that there were a lot of people who might want to plot against him. The possibility that it was the evil gods was pretty high, but that didn¡¯t mean that it being the good gods wasn¡¯t possible. Then there were some among the neutral gods too who might dislike him and want him to suffer a bit. As for who might have contacted him, there weren¡¯t very many possibilities. Firstly, this person had to have talent, with at least mid-level Divine Powers, or else they wouldn¡¯t be capable of doing this. Then they had to have a considerably high position, making them well-informed, but with an identity that made it a little awkward for them to contact him in person. Lastly, they had to hope that Sui Xiong would use this chance to kill in retaliation¡­ so if Sui Xiong considered all this¡­ ¡°F*ck! There¡¯s still too many!¡± Sui Xiong let out a helpless sigh, split off a clone, and gathered his friends for a discussion. As an artist, trickery and strategy and the like really weren¡¯t his forte. Chapter 588 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After receiving Sui Xiong¡¯s notice, his friends each sent out a clone to discuss the situation with him. But even after gathering an entire group of gods, it made no difference to the fact they couldn¡¯t think of any answers. You couldn¡¯t blame them all for not trying; the information Sui Xiong gave them was just too vague to work with. Someone was plotting against him; then some other very talented person who didn¡¯t wish to show their face had warned him, and they were supposed to figure out who was plotting against him just based on those two clues? If they really could find this person, then the God of Luck must have definitely disguised himself and snuck into his circle of friends! Everyone talked back and forth for a while, but the only conclusion they could come up with was to be careful and prepare against the unexpected¡ªbut that was something so simple even a child could understand it. Seeing Sui Xiong looking so dejected, Javier suddenly grew thoughtful, saying, ¡°Why don¡¯t you go ask the War God System?¡± Sui Xiong blinked in surprise at that, giving him a blank look. The War God System? Did they have a particularly good information network? But to tell the truth, they weren¡¯t exactly on good terms with each other. Looking at his obviously uncomprehending expression, Javier let out a sigh and said, ¡°In any case, you still count as their leader, so what¡¯s wrong with going to them for a little information? As for the efficacy of their information channels¡­ Don¡¯t underestimate them! They have many believers among servicemen and soldiers, so it¡¯s more than likely at least one of their believers might know something.¡± It was only then that Sui Xiong saw the light. After giving his thanks, he hurried over towards the God¡¯s Kingdom of the War God System. Aside from being surprised by his visit, the war gods all welcomed him. When he gave them his reason for coming, they immediately got busy working. Gods were able to know their believers¡¯ every thought and belief; although the gods usually didn¡¯t bother using this particular ability, it happened to be needed right now, so it didn¡¯t matter if it was a little inconvenient. After maybe five or six hours, the God of Strategy, Augmentin finally picked up a clue. ¡°I have a believer in the upper levels of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs,¡± he said. ¡°Yesterday, the emperor of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, Dyke Spoolin, raged for a while before discussing something secret with his head mage¡­ I believe it may have something to do with you.¡± He used his Divine power as he spoke, projecting the scene from his believer¡¯s memories. What the scene showed was the imperial hall in Nephrite City, and King Dyke had been yelling in rage. Sui Xiong furrowed his brows after watching the image, sinking into deep thought. It was clear that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs wanted to use him to cause something. But what, exactly? ¡°This Dyke Spoolin is certainly bold!¡± Augmentin knew perfectly well that Sui Xiong was bad at coming up with strategies and so helped him understand by saying, ¡°What he¡¯s planning to do here is to get the human gods to act for him!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Sui Xiong paused and stared at him with a puzzled look. It was then that he remembered the god standing before him was one of the best masters of strategy among all the gods. Why was he thinking so hard when he had a professional right here! ¡°This plan of his is split into steps. The first step should be to entice the Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation into attacking you. There¡¯s an element of uncertainty to this, as it¡¯s much too difficult to manage, so there¡¯s no way for them to succeed unless they ask the human gods to help,¡± Augustin said. ¡°But once this step is complete, the rest is all quite clear: those Legendary Masters will obviously be severely punished by you, thus forcing the God of Spellcaster to make an appearance. He isn¡¯t anywhere near strong enough to be your opponent, so the Master of Mystery will have to appear as well¡­ My guess is that the human gods probably want to use this chance to feel out the Master of Mystery¡¯s strength. If he reveals a weak position, it won¡¯t be long before the Human God System will turn out in full force to eliminate him.¡± Sui Xiong continuously nodded as he listened. He thought for a moment then asked, ¡°But what if I don¡¯t severely punish those suicidal Legendary Masters? For example, if I turn them all into little girls and let them figure out how to turn themselves back on their own. That wouldn¡¯t count as a severe punishment.¡± ¡°Common sense dictates that based on your way of handling things in the past, you wouldn¡¯t be lenient towards anyone who tried to threaten you.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°I¡¯m actually a very friendly person.¡± Augustine laughed as well at that. ¡°Which is why I quite look forward to seeing their faces when the time comes.¡± It was clear that the hole in the plan was especially obvious; all it needed was for Sui Xiong not to get angry, and the rest had no possibility of proceeding. ¡°What do you think I should do, then?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Beat them at their own game,¡± said Augustin. ¡°This is a pretty good chance. It¡¯s entirely possible for you to blackmail both the Mifata Federation and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs here.¡± Augmentin then listed a huge number of plans all in a single breath. These plans were all obviously created with Sui Xiong¡¯s measures in mind, all of them perfectly suiting his appetite, and Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh aloud. ¡°These plans are very amusing! I like them!¡± After another while, Sui Xiong took his leave. The Master of War, Wenner, watched him disappear into the distance before he said to Augustin, ¡°He¡¯s an interesting person.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right; he¡¯s as powerful as he is amusing. Never in my life did I imagine there would be someone like this in the world.¡± ¡°Perhaps this is just the way jellyfish think?¡± ¡°Perhaps. But the fact that he¡¯s so willing to listen to others¡¯ opinions and suggestions is a very good habit.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a mystery who will be out of luck this time around.¡± After a while, Wenner smiled and said, ¡°Once the time comes, we can use the opportunity to gain some profits of our own.¡± ¡°Personally, I¡¯d quite like to see what the Master of Mystery¡¯s true strength is.¡± Augustin went quiet for a moment then said in a low voice, ¡°I keep getting the feeling this former peak master has grown weaker¡­¡± Wenner¡¯s eyes lit up at that. ¡°How sure are you of that?¡± ¡°At least 60 percent!¡± ¡°Sixty percent is already worth the gamble! Make the plans!¡± Augustin nodded, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone. Wenner returned to his own throne and poured himself a cup of wine, but rather than drinking it, he fell into deep thought as he held the cup in his hands. If they used this opportunity to discuss the Master of Mystery¡¯s base and discovered that he¡¯d become weaker, then they could act immediately. They wouldn¡¯t give the human gods the chance to go first. In the past, the War God System had always followed a quick, accurate, and ruthless method of attacking to continuously annihilate their enemies and strengthen themselves. So even if they were using their own leader, Wenner wouldn¡¯t hesitate. In any case, as long as they could reap enough benefits from it, His Majesty the Void Mask probably wouldn¡¯t object to being used once. Besides, in the end, the ones putting their all into charging the enemy lines would still be the War God System; they were just borrowing the Void Mask to act as an excuse and gain the initiative. Wenner carefully calculated the situation, weighing the pros and cons and considering what they should do once the time came. Meanwhile, Sui Xiong had already returned to his own God¡¯s Kingdom. He mulled over the plans Augustin had just given him, thought a bit, and then laughed. Just from imagining the looks on those conspirators¡¯ faces when the plan went into effect, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. After he¡¯d laughed for quite a while, he suddenly remembered something and was struck with inspiration. In a flash of green light, his clone had already appeared before Satan in the human realm. ¡°Are you busy right now?¡± he asked. Satan was just in the middle of surveying the land in preparation for setting up the gigantic purification arrays. He jumped at the voice, not understanding why His Majesty would suddenly come looking for him with a question like this. He shook his head, looking somewhat at a loss. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call this busy; I can spare two or three days without a problem.¡± Sui Xiong laughed at that. ¡°Then how about you take a walk with me?¡± ¡°To where? To do what?¡± ¡°We¡¯re heading to the underworld,¡± Sui Xiong said with a chuckle, ¡°to settle some old grudges.¡± Satan had some misgivings about this¡ªwhat sort of grudges did he have with anyone in the underworld? Or was it His Majesty that had grudges to settle and was inviting him to come watch? But while he could doubt all he wanted, he still had to obey Sui Xiong¡¯s orders. So after dealing with the mages who¡¯d come to help him, he got himself ready to go with Sui Xiong to the underworld. They arrived near a palace which, while gorgeous in its construction, clearly hadn¡¯t been cared for in a while. Sui Xiong laughed again as he looked at that palace. He then drew in a deep breath, raised his voice, and loudly yelled, ¡°Shadow Devil, I¡¯m here to settle accounts with you!¡± Chapter 589 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Shadow Devil¡± was a famous legendary monster. Many years in the past, he had always chosen the northwest part of the Main Plane in which to appear. Green Fog Forest in the southern part of the Ashes Woods was his main base of operations, from which he would occasionally go out to raid and stir up havoc. This guy mainly did two things: One was raiding villages, killing the residents and turning them into his own shadow soldiers; the other was receiving sacrifices from those followers of evil and granting them poisonous weapons filled with shadow magic. It went without saying that all of these were bad things. As for any good things he did¡­ Sorry, but even the most erudite scholar wouldn¡¯t be able to think of anything good. So sticking it with the title of ¡°devil¡± might have been exaggerating its strength just a bit, but in respect to how evil it was, the name really did fit it perfectly. It didn¡¯t paint a false picture at all. The masses had sharp eyes; it might have been given a wrong name, but its nickname was an accurate one. On the other hand, Shadow Devil hadn¡¯t actually caused any trouble in the human realm these past few decades. Regardless of the people it had once hurt, the people swearing eternal vengeance, or the people who¡¯d borrowed its strength before and hoped to get some benefits out of finding him again¡ªnone had been able to meet him. This was only natural because back when it made the suicidal decision of bothering Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong hit him with a ¡°Tathagata God Hand¡± and left him half-dead. Having basically lost the ability to move, Shadow Devil had been staying in this abandoned palace ever since, unable to go anywhere at all. ¡°Half-dead¡± wasn¡¯t a metaphor or an exaggeration; it was a real, honest fact. Sui Xiong¡¯s single, open-handed strike had been imbued with powerful life energy. It was enough to make a dead soul like Shadow Devil have a little bit of life of his own, thus becoming literally half-dead and half-alive. Life energy was a good thing, and it allowed most living creatures to live long, healthy lives, as well as allow the mournful spirits of the dead to move on. But for a thoroughly terrible, absolutely evil undead magic beast like Shadow Devil, it was a powerful poison. Just look at how he had barely moved an inch decades after getting hit with that one strike. He basically used all the strength he had to dispel the life energy from his body. Sui Xiong was a generous person, or at least that¡¯s how he viewed himself. He believed that being alone was a scary thing, so he¡¯d personally found Shadow Devil a companion¡ªthe most annoying chatterbox in the world, one of the great monsters of the Ashes Woods almost as famous as Shadow Devil himself, the Death Knight, Greg. Greg really was a good guy. Although he was quite formidable, he never abused his power. He was always pondering on things like ¡°who am I,¡±¡±where did I come from,¡±¡±what is my purpose,¡± and other similarly profound questions. He also loved to discuss these questions with every intelligent creature it came across, and he never tired no matter how long the discussion went on. Sui Xiong had chatted with him for a few days and nights, and Greg hadn¡¯t shown a single sign of exhaustion or boredom. So Sui Xiong had especially sent him to keep Shadow Devil company, believing the two would certainly be happy with the arrangement. Yes, at least Greg was definitely happy because the minute Sui Xiong let out that roar, he caught sight of Greg¡¯s figure. This undead knight dressed in armor and carrying his own head was currently sitting on the floor right in front of the palace entrance. He was idly chatting with a monstrous half-black, half-white creature. Or maybe it wasn¡¯t idle chatting; a ¡°serious discussion¡± would be more appropriate. They¡¯d already been talking for many years. If Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t come and interrupted them, they might have even continued until the end of time. To be honest, Sui Xiong felt this wasn¡¯t too bad of an ending for Shadow Devil and Death Knight, but when all was said and done, there were still a few things that needed proper settling. Years ago Shadow Devil had taken advantage of his being gone to attack the Church of the Void Mask, killing many believers, including Satan. Sui Xiong never forgot this incident, and all this time had wanted to give a well-deserved punishment for it. The way he saw it, the most fitting punishment would be for its original victim to personally put an end to it! His original plan had been to wait for Satan to enter the Legendary Realm, then come to harvest the half-dead Shadow Devil. But Satan felt that pursuing greater heights was more important than seeking revenge, so the whole affair was delayed. Now Satan had pretty much reached the highest level he could go, so it was about time to settle this grievance once and for all. Having roared out in lieu of a greeting, Sui Xiong slowly headed forward with Satan, who now understood what was going on. The two walked at an unhurried pace towards Shadow Devil and the Death Knight. Upon seeing them appear, vivid horror showed itself on Shadow Devil¡¯s thin, haggard face. He had been stuck with the Death Knight these past few years, listening to him ask his damned ¡°who am I¡¯s¡± and the like, practically dying of irritation. More than once Shadow Devil had even thought to himself, ¡°I might as well just f*cking die.¡± But now that he was staring death in the face, he suddenly realized that he wanted to live after all. Even if he had to keep being stuck with that horrible bastard Greg, that was still better than actually dying! As he watched Sui Xiong and Satan walking slowly towards them, Greg got up to greet them. ¡°Who am I?¡± asked the headless knight. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t answer. He waved a tentacle, and a ball of cold air appeared from nowhere, enveloping Greg and instantly turning him into a rock-hard block of ice. This wouldn¡¯t cause any real damage to Greg; the move was just meant to make him quiet and keep him from getting in the way. They were doing serious business right now, so Sui Xiong didn¡¯t have time to chat with. Satan naturally recognized Shadow Devil. Looking at the half-black, half-white figure slowly backing away from him, he couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°I remember you,¡± he said. ¡°You killed me once, back then.¡± Shadow Devil let out a low shriek of fear. He wanted to say something, but all these years stuck listening to Greg had caused great damage to its intellect, especially his ability to speak. At this moment, all he could manage were indistinct, meaningless roars. ¡°You certainly cut quite the tragic figure,¡± Satan calmly said. ¡°Back then, I¡¯d always considered myself an intelligent man, one who could avoid any danger simply relying on my own knowledge. But once I was killed in that surprise attack, I realized that simply having knowledge wasn¡¯t enough and that great strength was truly more important¡­ So I should actually be thanking you.¡± The calmer he was, the more nervous Shadow Devil became. This magic beast had lived a few thousand years and had met all kinds of different people. He naturally understood that someone being able to stay calm at a time like this would also have a will so resolute that they wouldn¡¯t waver even if the earth split open beneath their feet. ¡°In the past, I¡¯d thought more than once about what I¡¯d do to you once I reached the Legendary Realm, how I¡¯d get my revenge, how I¡¯d annihilate you, even how to mock and revile you before giving the final blow¡­ It wasn¡¯t until later that I realized there was no point to any of that,¡± Satan said. ¡°The only reason I¡¯d been so fixated on getting my revenge was simply because I was weak. Once I became sufficiently powerful, you were no longer worth my attention.¡± He smiled as he continued saying, ¡°You might not believe this, but these past ten-or-so years, not once did I think of seeking you out for revenge. I¡¯ve been busy every day, pondering on how to become stronger, thinking over how to pursue higher realms, considering methods to promote my magical levels¡­ I really have been very busy. If His Majesty hadn¡¯t brought me here, I might have even forgotten you entirely.¡± Shadow Devil wailed aloud; he sincerely wished that Satan would forget it. Although his injuries had yet to heal and his strength had been reduced, Shadow Devil¡¯s vision hadn¡¯t gotten any worse. Satan wasn¡¯t hiding his strength right now either, so his Legendary Peak realm could be seen at a glance. Faced with an opponent like this, Shadow Devil would have retreated even if it was at full strength, not even stopping to hope that it had a chance of winning¡ªor to put it another way, being able to manage a smooth escape could be considered a victory in itself. As it was right now, both injured and unable to move, the only future it could see for itself was certain death. Satan laughed again, shook his head, and began to recite an incantation. Colorful rays of light rose up from his palm, turning into something like a rainbow, then twisting and condensing before finally becoming a multi-colored light ball. This light ball looked quite pretty, but even Sui Xiong, standing a good distance away, could clearly sense that it contained terrifying power. Without a doubt, this was an incredibly powerful legendary spell. Shadow Devil cried out in despair as it attempted to make its escape, but it had barely taken a few steps before the light ball flew from Satan¡¯s hand, chasing after it faster than a lightning strike, and hit. Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The power of legendary magic was extraordinary; after Shadow Devil was hit by that rainbow light ball, his body abruptly froze entirely as if he had turned into a statue. Satan was also a little tired out after casting this spell. He didn¡¯t even bother looking at the results of his attack. Instead, he turned around and walked over to Sui Xiong. ¡°Done?¡± asked Sui Xiong. ¡°Mhm, it¡¯s over,¡± Satan said. ¡°This spell is pretty interesting,¡± Sui Xiong laughed said. ¡°What¡¯s it called?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t thought of a name for it yet,¡± Satan replied. ¡°I might just call it ¡®Satan¡¯s Rainbow Magic Sphere¡¯ or something.¡± Sui Xiong went silent. He felt this name¡­ really lacked even the slightest hint of artistry. It was terrifyingly tacky! Just then, the part of Shadow Devil¡¯s body that had been hit with the rainbow light ball suddenly exploded. This explosion was so powerful that the shockwave from it instantly destroyed a large portion of the palace, sending countless scattered pieces flying into the air just like a tiny mushroom cloud. ¡°Huh!?¡± Sui Xiong obviously wasn¡¯t hurt by the shockwave, but he was shocked. This spell was incredibly impressive and formidable! Definitely formidable! Just then, a brilliant idea flashed through his head, and he said, ¡°How about you call it ¡®Satan¡¯s Infernal Magic Sphere¡¯ instead?¡± Satan stared blankly at him for a moment, not understanding why his spell would be considered ¡°infernal.¡± He didn¡¯t have any intention of fixing that though, and after thinking over it, he accepted Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion; although, he did make a tiny change to it. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s take my name out,¡± he said. ¡°Just calling it ¡®Infernal Magic Sphere¡¯ makes it feel a little more imposing.¡± And so, it was decided. As they were leaving, Sui Xiong also picked up the frozen ice block that was Death Knight and those few pieces that remained of the exploded Shadow Devil and took them along with him. Later after they returned to the human realm, he¡¯d have his subordinates take Shadow Devil¡¯s remains to put on public display; the other one could give a witness testimony that one of Satan¡¯s spells had blown both Shadow Devil and his palace to smithereens. Although, getting this guy to speak normally for a ¡°witness testimony¡± wasn¡¯t exactly easy. News of the incident spread quickly, and spread along with it was a banner that Sui Xiong had written himself to display at the scene. It read: Ten years is nothing for a nobleman¡¯s revenge. Some people asked what a ¡°nobleman¡± was supposed to mean. The clergy in charge of propaganda went to ask and afterwards stuck a note next to the banner. A nobleman was a very high-level gentleman. Was His Majesty, the Void Mask talking about himself? Some people asked this. The clergy replied that this was referring to the head mage, Lord Satan. Others looked at the image and asked what was up with that impossibly powerful spell. When they learned that it was a legendary spell created by Mage Satan himself, people immediately began inquiring if the master was still accepting students or if perhaps he might occasionally teach a class to the Mage Corps. Still, others quietly asked when the master had created this spell. Was it a long time ago or just recently? The clergy went and asked and then gave out answers to each of these questions: Master Satan had taken in a few students over the past few years; he was currently busy with a big project, so while he might not be accepting apprentices right now, he was willing to teach a few things to anyone who showed outstanding talent. Once the master was finished with his project, he would return to take charge of the Mage Corps again, at which point he would open regular classes. Finally, this legendary spell was created over the past few years, but as for a long time ago? The master had yet to enter the Legendary Realm then. After receiving these answers, over the span of a few short days, the Church of the Void Mask¡¯s Mage Corps received over 200 applications for enrollment. When Satan received the news, he simply shook his head and let out a bitter laugh, but Sui Xiong was a little bewildered¡ªthis wasn¡¯t the result he¡¯d wanted! According to Sui Xiong¡¯s plans, killing Shadow Devil and displaying his ¡°Ten years is nothing for a nobleman¡¯s revenge¡± right now would create a powerful and ferocious persona for himself, which would then help promote the belief that he was particularly terrible and ruthless. First, this would raise the price those Legendary Masters would have to pay if they made trouble for Sui Xiong, and secondly, this would make those shadowy figures behind the scenes show some interesting expressions once Sui Xiong cheerfully let them go. He¡¯d never imagined that not only would it fail to produce this effect, but it had actually gotten Satan a whole bunch of students¡ªor rather, fans. Could this be called winning with a lucky stroke? Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t exactly unsatisfied with this result; he just felt it was a little¡­ unexpected. This was just like if you happened to see bubbles coming up from a pond and decided that there must be fish down there. You throw out a net only to discover that you¡¯d caught not only fish but also shrimp and crabs as well. A happy accident! Until now, the Republic of Northwest had always been relatively lacking in magical talent. Even after decades of educating and recruiting, they¡¯d never been able to match up to other countries, and this was largely because of the Mifata Federation and the Mystery Gods. Actually, if the growth of Wall, the God of Knowledge, hadn¡¯t convinced a lot of scholarly spellcasters to begin thinking that growing under the God of Knowledge¡¯s flag wasn¡¯t a bad idea, the number of spellcasters in this northwest territory would have been even lower. Sui Xiong had often worried over this, but he never thought it would be so easily solved. Once they heard that the Republic of Northwest had a genuine legendary great magician, the kind that could even research and invent his own legendary spells, many vagrant and half-vagrant mages were immediately moved. No matter how good the Mifata Federation was, no matter how much the Country of Casters was a mage¡¯s holy land¡ªnone of that really mattered. They could go there, sure, but even if they did, they wouldn¡¯t be able to find a teacher willing to instruct them. In the mage profession, once you reached a certain level, then unless you were a bonafide genius, you¡¯d need to find a teacher to continue making progress. Those Legendary Masters who¡¯d fought twenty years to reach their position either had unusual bloodlines, were being watched over by gods, or were those pure battle mages that were popularly nicknamed ¡°Spellcasting Barbarians.¡± In any case, for an ordinary mage, being unable to find a teacher was absolutely unacceptable. But finding a high-level teacher was easier said than done! To be able to teach mages who¡¯d already reached a certain level, a teacher would have to at least be at a high level themselves. However, what high-level mage would spend their energy teaching a bunch of strangers from who-knows-where? The Mifata Federation was the Country of Casters, where geniuses came out by the dozen and outstanding talents gathered in swarms. Even if these mages were willing to sell themselves to get help, the high-level mages would still prefer to raise recognized fellow countrymen. So after living in the Mifata Federation for a while and working as hard as they could, many mages still managed to gain nothing at all. This time, they were surprised to discover that the Republic of Northwest held an incredibly powerful spot in the high-end spellcaster sphere¡ªinventing legendary spells was definitely not something a genius could just hole themselves up and complete, nor was it something that could be made possible just through battle experience. This was something that could only be done through reliance on communication and cooperation among outstanding mages, as well as a good amount of assistance and aid. This meant that the Republic of Northwest not only had an official spellcaster-oriented Legendary Master, it also had a reliable research team and sufficient high-level magic materials. At the very absolute least, they definitely had to have a really top-notch library! To put it another way, if you joined the Republic of Northwest, you¡¯d not only get the chance to be taught by a legendary great mage (and even hopefully become Master Satan¡¯s personal disciple), you¡¯d also be able to use those high-level magic materials to make up for your own deficiencies. After confirming this last point, there was no questioning what choice they would make. After getting personally examined by Wall, those mages stepped into the great library and saw all the precious works Satan had collected. Their eyes lit up. They borrowed the books that they¡¯d only dreamed of being able to read, and they¡¯d even shed silent tears from how moved they were. How they felt right now needed no explanation. This incident also brought Satan enormous popularity. Barely a few days later, the name ¡°Wiseman of the Northwest¡± began to spread along with the incomparably powerful legendary spell Infernal Magic Sphere¡­ Chapter 590 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The power of legendary magic was extraordinary; after Shadow Devil was hit by that rainbow light ball, his body abruptly froze entirely as if he had turned into a statue. Satan was also a little tired out after casting this spell. He didn¡¯t even bother looking at the results of his attack. Instead, he turned around and walked over to Sui Xiong. ¡°Done?¡± asked Sui Xiong. ¡°Mhm, it¡¯s over,¡± Satan said. ¡°This spell is pretty interesting,¡± Sui Xiong laughed said. ¡°What¡¯s it called?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t thought of a name for it yet,¡± Satan replied. ¡°I might just call it ¡®Satan¡¯s Rainbow Magic Sphere¡¯ or something.¡± Sui Xiong went silent. He felt this name¡­ really lacked even the slightest hint of artistry. It was terrifyingly tacky! Just then, the part of Shadow Devil¡¯s body that had been hit with the rainbow light ball suddenly exploded. This explosion was so powerful that the shockwave from it instantly destroyed a large portion of the palace, sending countless scattered pieces flying into the air just like a tiny mushroom cloud. ¡°Huh!?¡± Sui Xiong obviously wasn¡¯t hurt by the shockwave, but he was shocked. This spell was incredibly impressive and formidable! Definitely formidable! Just then, a brilliant idea flashed through his head, and he said, ¡°How about you call it ¡®Satan¡¯s Infernal Magic Sphere¡¯ instead?¡± Satan stared blankly at him for a moment, not understanding why his spell would be considered ¡°infernal.¡± He didn¡¯t have any intention of fixing that though, and after thinking over it, he accepted Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion; although, he did make a tiny change to it. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s take my name out,¡± he said. ¡°Just calling it ¡®Infernal Magic Sphere¡¯ makes it feel a little more imposing.¡± And so, it was decided. As they were leaving, Sui Xiong also picked up the frozen ice block that was Death Knight and those few pieces that remained of the exploded Shadow Devil and took them along with him. Later after they returned to the human realm, he¡¯d have his subordinates take Shadow Devil¡¯s remains to put on public display; the other one could give a witness testimony that one of Satan¡¯s spells had blown both Shadow Devil and his palace to smithereens. Although, getting this guy to speak normally for a ¡°witness testimony¡± wasn¡¯t exactly easy. News of the incident spread quickly, and spread along with it was a banner that Sui Xiong had written himself to display at the scene. It read: Ten years is nothing for a nobleman¡¯s revenge. Some people asked what a ¡°nobleman¡± was supposed to mean. The clergy in charge of propaganda went to ask and afterwards stuck a note next to the banner. A nobleman was a very high-level gentleman. Was His Majesty, the Void Mask talking about himself? Some people asked this. The clergy replied that this was referring to the head mage, Lord Satan. Others looked at the image and asked what was up with that impossibly powerful spell. When they learned that it was a legendary spell created by Mage Satan himself, people immediately began inquiring if the master was still accepting students or if perhaps he might occasionally teach a class to the Mage Corps. Still, others quietly asked when the master had created this spell. Was it a long time ago or just recently? The clergy went and asked and then gave out answers to each of these questions: Master Satan had taken in a few students over the past few years; he was currently busy with a big project, so while he might not be accepting apprentices right now, he was willing to teach a few things to anyone who showed outstanding talent. Once the master was finished with his project, he would return to take charge of the Mage Corps again, at which point he would open regular classes. Finally, this legendary spell was created over the past few years, but as for a long time ago? The master had yet to enter the Legendary Realm then. After receiving these answers, over the span of a few short days, the Church of the Void Mask¡¯s Mage Corps received over 200 applications for enrollment. When Satan received the news, he simply shook his head and let out a bitter laugh, but Sui Xiong was a little bewildered¡ªthis wasn¡¯t the result he¡¯d wanted! According to Sui Xiong¡¯s plans, killing Shadow Devil and displaying his ¡°Ten years is nothing for a nobleman¡¯s revenge¡± right now would create a powerful and ferocious persona for himself, which would then help promote the belief that he was particularly terrible and ruthless. First, this would raise the price those Legendary Masters would have to pay if they made trouble for Sui Xiong, and secondly, this would make those shadowy figures behind the scenes show some interesting expressions once Sui Xiong cheerfully let them go. He¡¯d never imagined that not only would it fail to produce this effect, but it had actually gotten Satan a whole bunch of students¡ªor rather, fans. Could this be called winning with a lucky stroke? Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t exactly unsatisfied with this result; he just felt it was a little¡­ unexpected. This was just like if you happened to see bubbles coming up from a pond and decided that there must be fish down there. You throw out a net only to discover that you¡¯d caught not only fish but also shrimp and crabs as well. A happy accident! Until now, the Republic of Northwest had always been relatively lacking in magical talent. Even after decades of educating and recruiting, they¡¯d never been able to match up to other countries, and this was largely because of the Mifata Federation and the Mystery Gods. Actually, if the growth of Wall, the God of Knowledge, hadn¡¯t convinced a lot of scholarly spellcasters to begin thinking that growing under the God of Knowledge¡¯s flag wasn¡¯t a bad idea, the number of spellcasters in this northwest territory would have been even lower. Sui Xiong had often worried over this, but he never thought it would be so easily solved. Once they heard that the Republic of Northwest had a genuine legendary great magician, the kind that could even research and invent his own legendary spells, many vagrant and half-vagrant mages were immediately moved. No matter how good the Mifata Federation was, no matter how much the Country of Casters was a mage¡¯s holy land¡ªnone of that really mattered. They could go there, sure, but even if they did, they wouldn¡¯t be able to find a teacher willing to instruct them. In the mage profession, once you reached a certain level, then unless you were a bonafide genius, you¡¯d need to find a teacher to continue making progress. Those Legendary Masters who¡¯d fought twenty years to reach their position either had unusual bloodlines, were being watched over by gods, or were those pure battle mages that were popularly nicknamed ¡°Spellcasting Barbarians.¡± In any case, for an ordinary mage, being unable to find a teacher was absolutely unacceptable. But finding a high-level teacher was easier said than done! To be able to teach mages who¡¯d already reached a certain level, a teacher would have to at least be at a high level themselves. However, what high-level mage would spend their energy teaching a bunch of strangers from who-knows-where? The Mifata Federation was the Country of Casters, where geniuses came out by the dozen and outstanding talents gathered in swarms. Even if these mages were willing to sell themselves to get help, the high-level mages would still prefer to raise recognized fellow countrymen. So after living in the Mifata Federation for a while and working as hard as they could, many mages still managed to gain nothing at all. This time, they were surprised to discover that the Republic of Northwest held an incredibly powerful spot in the high-end spellcaster sphere¡ªinventing legendary spells was definitely not something a genius could just hole themselves up and complete, nor was it something that could be made possible just through battle experience. This was something that could only be done through reliance on communication and cooperation among outstanding mages, as well as a good amount of assistance and aid. This meant that the Republic of Northwest not only had an official spellcaster-oriented Legendary Master, it also had a reliable research team and sufficient high-level magic materials. At the very absolute least, they definitely had to have a really top-notch library! To put it another way, if you joined the Republic of Northwest, you¡¯d not only get the chance to be taught by a legendary great mage (and even hopefully become Master Satan¡¯s personal disciple), you¡¯d also be able to use those high-level magic materials to make up for your own deficiencies. After confirming this last point, there was no questioning what choice they would make. After getting personally examined by Wall, those mages stepped into the great library and saw all the precious works Satan had collected. Their eyes lit up. They borrowed the books that they¡¯d only dreamed of being able to read, and they¡¯d even shed silent tears from how moved they were. How they felt right now needed no explanation. This incident also brought Satan enormous popularity. Barely a few days later, the name ¡°Wiseman of the Northwest¡± began to spread along with the incomparably powerful legendary spell Infernal Magic Sphere¡­ Chapter 591 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°What in the world are they thinking?¡± Sui Xiong was spread out on the ground looking like he was fast asleep, but in truth, he was wide awake. According to his spiritual awareness, there was a pair of gray-haired mages so old they might as well be corpses, standing at the foot of the mountain around five or six miles away. They were currently holding a nervous discussion and sending out cautious gazes in his direction. A Legendary Master¡¯s perceptive abilities were not to be underestimated. Even if they normally couldn¡¯t sense Sui Xiong¡¯s spiritual line of site, he didn¡¯t want to test what it would take to put them on guard; all he did was watch from afar, not making any other moves. A long time passed, and the sun already past noon before the two Legendary Masters finally finished discussing things and made their decision. Their movements then sped up. Using flight spells, they crossed the five or six miles in no time at all, traveling halfway up the mountain to land before Sui Xiong. After they landed, the slightly older-looking mage opened his mouth to yell, ¡°Your Majesty! Your Majesty!¡± Sui Xiong ignored him, pretending to be sound asleep. The two mages exchanged looks, and rays of light began flickering from the slightly younger one¡¯s hand; he¡¯d cast a simple spell¡ªNoiseburst. This spell was quite a common one, usable by even lower-level spellcasters, but normally, the only people who used it were priests. Most mages couldn¡¯t learn it¡ªthough of course, that wasn¡¯t a problem for Legendary Mages. They could figure out how to cast a decent version of this spell after only thinking about it for a bit. This spell wasn¡¯t powerful, but it could create a very loud noise. The loud noise was enough to make your average person dizzy and make them unable to do anything for half a minute at most. But for Sui Xiong, it was nothing more than a big alarm clock. ¡°Who¡¯s there! Disturbing other people¡¯s sleep this early in the morning¡ªwhere¡¯s your sense of civility!¡± Sui Xiong put on a very irritated expression as he opened his eyes and glared fiercely at the two Legendary Masters. ¡°Tch, so it¡¯s just a pair of old men¡­ What are you trying to do here? Have I gotten in your way just by sleeping?¡± What he¡¯d said was honestly a little too gentle. It was not what someone who¡¯d just been roused from sleep would say, but Sui Xiong¡¯s speaking habits had always been like this¡ªit was impossible for him to sound more vicious. Then again, coupled with the intense power pressure he exuded, the result wasn¡¯t all that bad. The two Legendary Masters had long had power pressure resistance spells and the like activated, but Sui Xiong¡¯s power pressure was too intense for their spells to completely cancel out. Their faces turned pale the instant he roared and, suddenly, they were unable to stand steady on their feet; they tottered backwards a couple of steps. After that, it was still the older mage who spoke first, saying, ¡°Your Majesty, the Great Void Mask, we truly did not intend to interrupt your sleep, but there is something important that we need to report to you.¡± ¡°Tch! You think I can¡¯t tell? You¡¯re obviously followers of the Master of Mystery. If you have a problem, then report it to him; it doesn¡¯t have anything to do with me!¡± Sui Xiong blew air out through his nose and smiled disdainfully. He put on an attitude which seemed to say, ¡°I might not read much, but that doesn¡¯t make me easy to trick.¡± This reaction didn¡¯t go against the two Legendary Masters¡¯ expectations at all. They shared another glance, and the slightly older mage once again said, ¡°Your Majesty, the Void Mask, have you ever heard of the Wine of Eternal Life?¡± Sui Xiong stared blankly a moment, carefully went over his memories, and then asked, ¡°Are you referring to that super medicine that can supposedly allow mortals to gain eternal life? That¡¯s just a legend. Legends shouldn¡¯t be taken seriously.¡± ¡°But it really does exist,¡± the older Legendary Master said. ¡°We recently acquired the recipe for it.¡± Sui Xiong was immediately interested and curiously asked, ¡°If you came especially to me, does this mean you¡¯re planning to sell the recipe to me? I can definitely do that¡ªof all the things I lack, money isn¡¯t one of them.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not lacking in money either¡­¡± the slightly younger, probably ¡°only¡± 3000-year-old Legendary Master said with a pained smile. ¡°After carefully studying this recipe, we discovered we lack an incredibly important ingredient¡­¡± Sui Xiong pondered a moment, then asked, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡­ it¡¯s a giant jellyfish¡¯s tentacle?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a real god¡¯s flesh, and it must be from a living god¡¯s body.¡± The slightly older Legendary Master, probably around 1000 years older than the other one, obviously didn¡¯t have very much patience. Interrupting the totally pointless guessing game, he said in an understanding tone, ¡°The only one we could find in the mortal realm was you.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a few seconds, then calmly asked, ¡°So you plan to cut off a piece of my flesh to use in your Wine of Eternal Life? Are you two actually dotards? Or are you so audacious you¡¯ve forgotten how to spell the word ¡®death¡¯? I¡¯ve killed a bunch of gods over the past few years; where did two insignificant Legendary Mages like you find the confidence to face me?¡± He spoke very gently without a single hint of ferocity, but his words seemed to make a dark, cold smell appear from thin air; it gradually filled their surroundings like slow-moving ice water. The two Legendary Mages felt as if they¡¯d fallen into an icehouse and were seemingly unable to put any of their defensive spells to use. They shared a terrified glance, only to see thin layers of ice on each other¡¯s faces. So it wasn¡¯t their imagination!? In an instant, with just that shared look, the two realized that their feet were already entirely numb. Not only had they lost feeling in their legs, but the numbness was climbing upwards at an incredible speed. In no time at all, it had reached their waists, and if they waited even the slightest bit longer, it would probably climb up to their chests, their necks, and their heads. At that point, it would be a fatal disaster! With this imminent catastrophe fast upon them, these two mages¡ªwho together were older than the Stone Age site Sui Xiong had found on Earth back before he had space-traveled¡ªcould no longer bother keeping up appearances. They began to involuntarily shout. ¡°Spare us!¡± ¡°We have something to report!¡± It was then that Sui Xiong realized he¡¯d been unintentionally emitting a killing intent, the cold air already close to freezing them to death. He hurriedly sucked in a deep breath and drew all the cold air back in, thus saving them from a frozen fate. Even so, they were still cold to their very cores, feeling as if all their organs had frozen. When they spoke, it almost seemed as if they were going to spit out ice. ¡°The¡­ the situation¡­ is¡­ is like this¡­¡± They then gave him a detailed account, speaking with a bumpy rhythm. It turned out these two had only joined from a foreign land after Master Le-Peyroux established the Country of Casters. As they weren¡¯t part of Le-Peyroux¡¯s inner circle and ordinarily put on airs because of their old age and seniority, over time their relations with the Mifata Federation had gradually worsened. As Legendary Masters, bad relations didn¡¯t matter much, so there¡¯d been no need to care, but years had passed. A few thousand years later, their lives had almost reached their limits. These two characters who¡¯d been around since the Witch Age had experienced quite a few wars, and they¡¯d taken more than a little damage. Even if they used every trick and plan they could think of, they could only manage to stretch their lives out to this point. Seeing that they would turn to dust in another 100-or-so years, there was no way they wouldn¡¯t be burning with anxiety! It was then that they chanced upon a piece of information and discovered a ruin from the Witch Age. Ruins from the Witch Age weren¡¯t worth much to two seniors who¡¯d gained fame during that same era, but those ruins often included items left over from that time. The spellcasters back then were only average in skill, relying mostly on precious materials to increase the power of their spells, so ruins would occasionally include a few relics. The pair entered the ruins and, while they failed to find anything of worth, they did discover the recipe to the legendary Wine of Eternal Life, as well as a few remnants. As they spoke, they pulled out the hide scroll with the recipe recorded on it, as well as some leftovers within an almost entirely dried-up bronze cup. Sui Xiong examined the objects; they really were items from 4 or 5000 years ago, and there was nothing fake about them. The two by this point had reached the end of their rope and so were perfectly happy to grasp for straws. After analyzing the recipe, they discovered with astonishment that in order to complete this legendary elixir, they would need to find Sui Xiong. And so, though they knew perfectly well how dangerous it would be if they angered him, they still came anyway. Chapter 592 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After getting all the details of the situation, Sui Xiong went silent. He looked at the two nervous yet incredibly determined Legendary Masters and couldn¡¯t help being a little moved. Of all the difficulties they¡¯d faced throughout the ages, all they feared was death! Speaking of which, these two Legendary Masters were already quite old. If this was back on Earth, even that slightly younger one would have lived longer than a great majority of the civilizations in the world. The older one was so old, he could probably compete with the pyramids. The two were basically live human fossils! Normally, one would say they¡¯d lived long enough not to be afraid of death, but the centuries had failed to give them the bravery to calmly face death. Instead, it made them fear it even more than before. This wasn¡¯t all that strange, and it happened quite a lot on Earth, in fact. Forget the Qin and Han dynasties, even Sui Xiong himself had met a 100-year-old man before who constantly talked about healthy living habits with the attitude of someone who wanted to live another 500. Indeed, 100 years didn¡¯t mean much to these two Legendary Masters, as the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty was no more than their junior, but when it came to wanting to continue living, they were all the same. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t discriminate against them or mock them at all. Not being afraid of death was certainly worthy of admiration, but being afraid of it wasn¡¯t something to make fun of. He was just a little rueful¡ªthese two had already lived to pretty much the peak of ¡°mortal¡± lifespans. Looking at their extremely old and frail appearances, it looked as if they were paying a great price for every day they continued to live, but despite that, they still continued to struggle at death¡¯s door, refusing to actually die. ¡°You two¡­ really aren¡¯t easy!¡± he said with a sigh. ¡°Is death really that scary? Judging by your statuses, you could be accepted into a God¡¯s Kingdom after death. If you wanted, the Master of Mystery could even accept you right this moment¡ªif you did that, then wouldn¡¯t that also be avoiding death?¡± ¡°That¡¯s different,¡± said the older Legendary Master. ¡°Whether it¡¯s as followers or as Oracles, they¡¯re both essentially phantoms relying on divine energy for their continued existence; that can¡¯t be counted as truly living. Likewise, liches and monster statues are no more than shadows left behind by once-living people, not the once-living people themselves.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly, obviously not because he agreed with this point of view, but because he understood their position on the subject. This ideology was a particularly famous one coming from an ancient sage. That sage believed no one in the world could live forever. Once your flesh body rotted and your spiritual body withered, everything would dissipate. Even if you could change your form and continue living, keeping your old memories and feelings, that was no more than a shadow of olden days. This ideology had a very strong influence, with many life-extending secret spells being invented because of it. Sui Xiong had put some effort into this field himself in order to help lengthen Rhode¡¯s life, so he naturally knew about it. He even knew quite a few things that had been derived from it and could see at least ten different life-extending methods being used on the Legendary Mages standing before him right now. Some of these life-extending methods were harmless, but others had serious side effects, some to a particularly serious degree. For example, he could envision one method called ¡°Pain Is Life.¡± Using this method to lengthen your life would place you in constant pain, and the longer you lived, the stronger the pain would be. This pain couldn¡¯t be contained or eliminated either, or else the life-extending spell would fail on the spot. Considering their ages, the pain they were going through was probably already at a terrifying level. To put it in layman¡¯s terms, you¡¯d be willing to die just to let out a breath of air, yet they continued struggling to survive, still wanting to continue living. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help feeling bad for them, actually. Living like that was truly ugly beyond words and without a single bit of dignity! ¡°You two¡­ want to continue living like this?¡± he couldn¡¯t help asking. ¡°We do,¡± replied the younger Legendary Master without hesitation. ¡°We are willing to pay any price to live!¡± The older Legendary Master followed up with, ¡°We know that we are insignificant in your eyes. We don¡¯t know what we can trade that would be capable of satisfying you, so we can only promise. We are willing to pay any price at all if it will give us a piece of a real god¡¯s flesh to complete our Wine of Eternal Life, thus allowing us to live for eternity.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while and looked at the mixed fear, hope, and determination showing on their terrifyingly old faces. Finally, he let out a very heavy sigh. ¡°To tell the truth, I really dislike you two,¡± he said. ¡°Although I can understand your fear of death, the lengths you¡¯re willing to go in order to ¡®live¡¯ are extremely ugly. I can clearly see the essence of old age and death lingering around your bodies. It disgusts me.¡± Not waiting for the two Legendary Masters to explain, he continued, ¡°I can also see that you¡¯ve used quite a few sinister methods in order to lengthen your lives. Many of these methods are outrageous and offensive¡ªhow many people have you harmed in order to live ¡¯til now? Five hundred? One thousand? Or even more, I¡¯d guess.¡± The two Legendary Masters stopped trying to explain themselves, instead silently lowering their heads. This had been what they were most afraid of. As a good god, His Majesty, the Void Mask was able to see all the sins they bore. ¡°But I also noticed something very interesting,¡± Sui Xiong said, changing the topic. Compared to the sins you¡¯ve collected trying to extend your lifespans, those few other sins you¡¯ve committed are basically insignificant¡ªor to put it in other words, aside from those meant to extend your lives, you haven¡¯t really done any other evil deeds, which is quite a rare thing.¡± ¡°Because we don¡¯t dare to,¡± explained the younger Legendary Master. ¡°If we do too much evil, heaven knows when a warrior of justice would come to punish us¡­¡± ¡°And yet you¡¯ve still done a lot of evil in order to live.¡± ¡°If we can¡¯t keep ourselves alive, there¡¯s no point bothering with anything else.¡± Sui Xiong laughed, shaking his head. ¡°In short, what I see before me is a pair of men willing to sacrifice everything in order to survive. You¡¯ve really reached the pinnacle in that respect, and even I can¡¯t help being moved and feeling a little bit of admiration for you¡­ So I¡¯m willing to offer you a hand, but the price I want you to pay isn¡¯t a small one.¡± The two Legendary Mages were energized again, and they answered hurriedly. ¡°Please instruct us! Whatever price it may be, we¡¯re willing to pay it!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right! Any price at all is fine!¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°Once you¡¯ve succeeded in lengthening your lives, what you¡¯ll have gained is an endless lifespan. In which case, I want you to spend that lifespan devoting yourselves to improving people¡¯s lives, allowing them to live in safety and comfort.¡± The two Legendary Masters stared blankly at the unexpected demand. They exchanged looks with each other, not understanding what Sui Xiong meant. Of course, Sui Xiong could tell what they were thinking, so he laughed and said, ¡°You don¡¯t get it? That¡¯s fine, you¡¯ll have plenty of time to slowly think it over before you start putting it into practice.¡± He slowly lifted a tentacle, and golden divine blood dripped down from it. The blood floated in the air before the two and then transformed into a pair of red-gold gems the size of fingernails. ¡°If you¡¯re willing to accept this condition and pay this price, then you can take the divine blood I¡¯ve granted you. Or else¡­¡± Not waiting for him to say it, the two Legendary Masters unhesitatingly pulled out specially-made medicine bottles and collected the divine blood. They then worshipped before Sui Xiong. ¡°His Majesty, the Great Void Mask, we will use the remainder of our lives to fulfill our promise to you!¡± ¡°Yes, if we ever violate our promise, allow us to drop straight down into hell!¡± Under the shine of Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power, their pledge transformed into a fantastic imprint engraved upon their souls. Even the greatest level of Divine Power couldn¡¯t alter this pledge. Chapter 593 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio As he watched the two Legendary Masters use transmission magic to leave, Sui Xiong shook his head and went back to fake-sleeping. Only this time, he was actually planning to sleep. But while he could sleep, news wouldn¡¯t. On the contrary, this piece of news traveled so fast it almost seemed to have sprouted wings; it spread out in barely two days. Those two old farts from the Mifata Federation who never paid attention to anything that didn¡¯t involve extending their own lives had met a flood of good fortune. Somehow, they managed to obtain a real piece of a god¡¯s flesh from the Void Mask and were currently concocting the Wine of Eternal Life! This news couldn¡¯t be called unsurprising, especially with Wine of Eternal Life being involved. Many people in the know were shocked when they heard about this, and a good number of their eyes lit up with excitement, wanting to plan a way to steal it. You really couldn¡¯t blame them for being greedy. Keep in mind that this Wine of Eternal Life was a legendary divine object, and though it didn¡¯t give strength, it could allow mortals to obtain everlasting life like the gods themselves. There were countless people in the world who had power, influence, money, and strength, but how many could say they were able to live forever? If a mortal really wanted to live forever, the only way was to become a Demigod Master. Other methods to eternal life all had this or that problem, but aside from those relying on a god¡¯s support, there might not even be a single Demigod Master in 1000 years who could manage it on their own power alone! The immortality gained from the Wine of Eternal Life naturally wasn¡¯t perfect, and there were rumors of it having a few side effects. But whatever you might say about it, immortality was immortality. Even if there were side effects, living was still better than dying! This was particularly relevant to those important figures who were already very old, many of them already at death¡¯s door. Among them were those who believed they¡¯d already experienced all they could in their lives, and they had enjoyed all that was available. They readied themselves a place in their God¡¯s Kingdom, so they didn¡¯t particularly fear dying. But still, others either hoped they could continue enjoying life in the mortal realm or had great aspirations they¡¯d yet to realize. But either way, they couldn¡¯t bear to die. But no matter how much you hated dying, when the time came, you¡¯d still have to die. However, right before their eyes, a chance had appeared that could allow them to avoid that! So in the span of only three days, over 1000 people had flooded into the Highest Tower. Some of them were emissaries who¡¯d rushed here to represent the head of their families, some were spies who¡¯d snuck in on orders, and still others were those impatient important figures themselves. Either they had strong connections or had excellent skills because it didn¡¯t take much investigation for them to discover the exact location of those two lucky Legendary Masters. And then they were struck dumb. This pair of Legendary Masters were currently renting out the hidden chamber on the lowest level of the Highest Tower and locked it up entirely. They locked themselves inside as they focused on creating this legendary panacea. Before entering, they¡¯d even announced that either they¡¯d come out having drunk the Wine of Eternal Life, or they¡¯d die inside; there was no third result. What¡­ what were they all supposed to do now!? The hidden chamber in the lowest level of the Highest Tower was the safest place in all of the Mifata Federation. Back then, the Demigod Master, Ymirjar Le-Peyroux went into seclusion for multiple centuries to temper his divinity, adjust his spirit, and finally obtain godhood to become the great God of Spellcaster. All of this had all been done in this exact same hidden chamber. At the time, there had also been six Legendary Masters keeping year-round guard outside the chamber. But truthfully, even if you managed to break through six Legendary Masters, you¡¯d have no chance of breaking into that hidden chamber. According to legend, Le-Peyroux had gone to other planes of the Ring of the World, shedding endless blood, sweat, and tears to find the unique and priceless materials used to make this hidden chamber. Then when building the chamber, he¡¯d spent who knows how much more of his heart¡¯s blood and rare materials. Its level of stability was beyond imagination. Forget insignificant mortals, even a real god who overlooked mortals would find it hard to break in to. As stable as it was, and with a background like that, this hidden chamber obviously wasn¡¯t a place your average person could use. But those two Legendary Masters were characters from the same time period as Le-Peyroux, and the current leaders of the Mifata Federation could all pretty much be counted as their juniors. After obtaining the divine blood Sui Xiong bestowed upon them, they immediately returned to the Federation. They abandoned all shame in brazenly demanding that they borrow the hidden chamber, and the leaders were hard-pressed to deny them. By the time they came back to their senses, it was too late to stop those two. ¡°Is there really nothing we can do?¡± After hearing the particulars, a Legendary Master who had particularly good relations with the Mifata Federation couldn¡¯t help asking. ¡°I just want to say a few words to them, just a short conversation! Are you saying there are no magic arrays we can use to communicate with those inside the hidden chamber?¡± The Legendary Master who¡¯d given him the news showed a pained smile. ¡°After entering, they left us a few matters to work on, and then they destroyed the summoning array¡­¡± That Legendary Master stared blankly for a moment, then couldn¡¯t resist loudly asking, ¡°Isn¡¯t that hidden chamber supposed to be very stable? Why would the summoning array inside it be so easy to break?¡± ¡°They were the ones who created that summoning array to begin with.¡± That Legendary Master was dumbfounded by the answer, only then remembering that the two old men holed up in that hidden chamber were fossils even older than the Mifata Federation itself. With age came wisdom, and these two had been traitorous all their lives. They might have been well-behaved in front of Sui Xiong, but they were actually quite shrewd! Why had they shamelessly insisted on using that hidden chamber? Obviously, it was because the room had the setup they¡¯d originally created! A setup left behind thousands of years ago still being usable today would probably be considered a happy surprise. Seeing that the situation was already beyond saving, the group all separately admitted defeat. Most of them went home grumbling and complaining, but a few still refused to lose hope. They stayed at the Highest Tower, thinking that once the two Legendary Masters left the chamber they could ask if perhaps there was any extra Wine of Eternal Life left. Even if there wasn¡¯t enough to give them eternal life, a few hundred more years would be good too! Even if the worst-case scenario happened and the two masters drank every last drop of the Wine of Eternal Life, at the very least, there¡¯d still be a recipe and a few leftover materials. Even if they couldn¡¯t find some blood from a real, living god and were unable to create a genuine Wine of Eternal Life, if they took their time working on it, they could probably manage a counterfeit at least. The real Wine of Eternal Life could allow someone to live forever, so a counterfeit should at least be a panacea capable of lengthening your life, right? As for what sort of price they¡¯d need to pay for this research and imitation or how many innocents they¡¯d need to sacrifice, none of these big-name characters even bothered to consider it. A good majority of this information all managed to make it to Sui Xiong¡¯s ears. Actually, he¡¯d straight-up created a clone, changed it into a human form, and sent it to infiltrate the Highest Tower. Leaning on his clone¡¯s investigation, as well as borrowing official channels and information obtained from the Adventurers¡¯ Association, he more or less already understood what had gone on these past few days. There might still be a few unusual secrets he¡¯d yet to find out, but he didn¡¯t really care. He knew that most of it was good enough. In short, the situation¡¯s development was all within his expectations. ¡°Hehe, it feels great to have everything in my grasp!¡± Sui Xiong lay on the mountainside pretending to sleep, but inwardly he was loudly laughing. ¡°Just wait ¡¯til they come out of seclusion. I¡¯ll be able to show up and pretend I¡¯m really angry, then try some extortion means on the Mifata Federation and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs!¡± ¡°These guys all think they¡¯re so clever. Do they really think I don¡¯t know where that recipe came from!?¡± Chapter 594 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There was such an allusion on Earth that talked about how someone wanted to bribe their boss. The boss would say, ¡°Someone else will find out about this matter. It is inappropriate.¡± This person would then persuade his boss, ¡°On Earth, there will only be you and me who know about it, no one else will know.¡± The boss would then say with a sigh, ¡°Heaven and Earth know, the gods and spirits know, you and I know, how can there be no one else who knows?¡± Sui Xiong had little talent and limited knowledge, and he could not recall the exact content of this allusion. But that saying of, ¡°Heaven and Earth know, the gods and spirits know, you and I know,¡± was quite interesting, so he could remember that part. Actually, on Earth, such a saying could only be regarded as superstition. After all, on Earth, spirits, and gods within the heavens and earth were all illusionary things that were created from imagination. Yet, in this world, there were spirits in heaven and on earth, and both ghosts and gods had knowledge. All of these things were certainties without a doubt. Take Sui Xiong for instance; as a god, he did have some marvelous perceptive skills. Regardless of where he was, so long as someone mentioned him or wanted to plot against him, he would be able to sense something. If it was a god making the move, perhaps such a feeling could be masked, but regardless of whether it was the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs or the Mifata Federation, those in charge were merely mortals. As they were discussing the plan, Sui Xiong had already felt that vague sensation and knew that there were people from these two places who were plotting against him. The only thing was, he did not know the specific details nor did he know who they were. However, none of that mattered. Just like how the God of Strategy, Augmentin, had discussed with him earlier on, regardless of who the culprits were, by then, he just had to find faults with these two countries and demand compensation. He was the great Master Void Mask; would he even want to talk about ¡°witness and evidence¡± with this group of monsters? Evidence, your head! Whatever I said would be evidence! If there was anyone who didn¡¯t believe so, I, the great Master, would pull out whatever I know about you, be it literary or military, then with my Divine Power, I would read your minds. Anyone of you could try your best to see if you could find any evidence! However, by that time, the price of compensation could be¡­ This was the method that Augmentin had taught Sui Xiong back then. At that time, Sui Xiong observed that Augmentin would display three kinds of expressions. His face would express his anger, his ferocity and his overbearing arrogance that showed his disregard for things. From these expressions, Sui Xiong already knew that Augmentin had encountered such situations before or had watched such situations happening on several occasions. Those from the War God System were belligerent and had fought countless wars. Of course, they also had innumerable experiences of taking advantages of others who were in a weaker position. Being an adviser of the War God System, it was natural for Augmentin to participate in events that took advantage of the weak. Even if he arrogantly self-proclaimed that his identity was too high and mighty to be handling the situation personally, he would certainly have learned enough from frequently watching these situations. Sui Xiong was a modest and eager learner. Whilst learning from Augmentin, he often felt that he had not learned enough. He was always hoping for more opportunities for him to put to practice what he had learned, and through these practices, he would find his inadequacies so that he could work on raising his standard. Honestly speaking, this was the reason why he hoped that the masterminds from the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Mifata Federation would not accede to provocation so quickly. Whether they chose to act dumb or to simply be in a daze, nothing mattered more than the time and opportunity to practice what he had learned. If he had gone swinging over ostentatiously, causing the other party to succumb in fear the moment he spoke up, then even if it was an easily achieved task, he would always feel a sense of uncertainty. The feeling of ¡°I have yet to show my power, how could you have fallen¡± would be bugging him constantly. He found this extremely disagreeable. Besides, since he was going to take advantage of those in a weaker position, then of course, he should rip off as much as he could from them! When he thought about it, he could not help but laugh to himself again. Though this time, he only managed to laugh for a short while before he was disrupted by someone. The uninvited guest was one of his followers, the God of Knowledge, Wall. Wall was originally a swordsman who was extremely fierce. After studying for many years, his temperament gradually toned down and became more peaceful. However, there were still traces of his untamed nature. It was only until he earned the title of a god, where under the influence of priesthood and beliefs, the toughness and ferocity in him could finally be considered to have faded off. He gradually acquired the refined scholarly airs of a learned man. As of today, he donned a long robe and held onto scrolls, yet on his waist, he still wore his ¡°Black Blade,¡± the blade that earned him his reputation back then. Now, on this very blade, there were no longer signs of murderous intentions. On the contrary, he seemed to be like any other ordinary scholar who roamed about leisurely, with their blades merely as an accessory. However, at that very moment, he did not show any trace of leisure or relaxed temperament. On the contrary, he seemed to be flustered and fuming with anger. ¡°Your Majesty! How terrible!¡± He had yet to arrive before Sui Xiong, but he was already shouting, ¡°You¡¯ve been fooled!¡± Sui Xiong was taken aback. Feeling puzzled, he asked, ¡°What is this about?¡± Wall asked, ¡°A few days ago, weren¡¯t you bestowed with some divine blood, which you have passed to the two Legendary Masters to brew and refine the wine of eternal life?¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°Indeed, I have done as such.¡± ¡°Aye! There is a problem with that wine of eternal life!¡± Wall took in a deep breath; then he said, ¡°No doubt it is able to give immortality to ordinary people, but that is, in fact, made possible only after it has stolen the divinity of gods. ¡± Sui Xiong was slightly shaken and his brows furrowed into a frown. Divinity was the foundation of all gods. When condensed, divinity would give rise to the formation of deities; when scattered, divinity would become Divine Power. Even the tiniest bit of it was wondrously and endlessly useful. So long as a mortal was able to receive a trace of divinity, if they were to integrate it into their own souls, there would be some hope of stepping into the demigod realm. If it was a Legendary Master who got hold of some divinity, the chances of making a breakthrough would be greatly enhanced. However, this was, on the contrary, harmful to the gods. The situation could be likened to that of ¡°cutting one¡¯s own flesh to feed the tiger,¡± which was a Buddhism allusion on Earth. No matter how infinitely powerful one could be and how fast one could heal injuries¡ªyet to cut out a part of one¡¯s own flesh, how painful that would be! He immediately shut his eyes and examined himself inside out, but he did not seem to discover any bit of his divinity being stolen. This was weird. Seeing how flustered Wall was, there was no way this could be a lie. Come to think of it, the origin of that wine of eternal life was highly questionable. No wonder it was lost for so many years. But, why was he not affected? Deep down, Sui Xiong was greatly puzzled, but he did not let it show. With a smile of indifference, he dismissed the matter lightly by saying, ¡°Just a tiny bit of divinity, is that a big deal? I am, in any way, a great Divine Power; I can still afford to bear such a small loss.¡± Wall was taken aback. Feeling somewhat confused, he asked, ¡°Your Majesty, you have yet to complete the condensation into a priesthood, right? It is the most critical moment for you now. Losing that tiny bit of divinity might possibly weaken your deity form in future¡­¡± Sui Xiong smiled without saying a word. After a few deep conversations with Leonard, he grew quite interested in Leonard¡¯s proposed idea of ¡°possessing priesthood without being a god.¡± Such a method might cause him to lose a substantial amount of his power as a god, but at the very least, he could still retain the few most important abilities. He could avoid being infected by the power of beliefs and could also avoid falling into chaos like the normal devils. Carefully thinking, this was indeed a good way out. He was not someone from this world, thus, he did not place much emphasis on the rules of this world. Without a doubt, he would simply go down whichever path was most appropriate. The path that Leonard had researched consisted of the merits of both the legitimate gods and the devils. Though not as powerful as the legitimate gods, it was not inferior to the devils. So at the very least, there was a good balance between both the legitimate gods and the devils. This path was, after all, a very desirable choice. Since he had such a notion in mind, he no longer put the matter of whether he could complete the condensation into a priesthood to heart. Since he was not intending to complete the condensation, would it even matter if he had to lose that bit of divinity? However, it was not appropriate to disclose this piece of news for the time being. He had decided to put it off for now. Seeing how Sui Xiong was not really concerned about the situation, Wall was so anxious that he was so close to stomping his feet. There was such a saying on Earth, which went as such: ¡°The emperor is not worried, but his eunuchs are worried to death.¡± This could most probably be used to describe Wall¡¯s look now. In the end, it was Sui Xiong consoling Wall, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It is just a tiny bit of divinity. I have my way of making up for this; it is not going to exceed one and a half years.¡± Wall was taken aback and looked at Sui Xiong in surprise. Divinity might be formed via the condensation of divine power, but tracing back to its source, its roots were derived from the ¡°recognition of the world.¡± For the gods, unless there was an advancement in their deity forms, if not, no matter how much divine power there was, it would not condense into divinity. This was why even a great Divine Power seldom bestowed divinity upon its own followers to enable them to become demigods. However, based on what Wall just heard from Sui Xiong, it seemed as though Sui Xiong had a way to make up for the lost divinity. What an amazing supernatural power! Wall was quite quick-witted himself and realized this within a flash. Very quickly, he retracted his look of shock and willed himself to regain a calm demeanor. ¡°Your Majesty, there really is no problem at all?¡± he asked in a low voice. ¡°Really, there¡¯s no problem at all,¡± Sui Xiong said amidst laughter. ¡°Relax.¡± Seeing as how Wall was finally reassured, Sui Xiong finally got to asking about the matter that initially worried Wall. ¡°Just now, you mentioned something about the wine of eternal life¡ªwhat exactly is the matter with it?¡± he asked out of curiosity. ¡°Tell me every single detail you know¡­¡± Chapter 595 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The wine of eternal life had always been a legendary thing. Even the various gods had never seen the real deal. Wall was considered to be the youngest among the various gods. If his age was counted on a mortal scale, he was barely one hundred years of age. This age, not to mention among the gods¡ªeven within the group of Legendary Masters¡ªwas considered to be very young. Of course, he would not have seen the wine of eternal life before and would not have known how such a wine was concocted. However, he was the God of Knowledge. Relying on his priesthood, he could search for relevant information on the wine of eternal life via the World¡¯s Origin. Searching in this manner was comparatively vague, and the search results were usually confusing. Furthermore, a large amount of Divine Power would be consumed. The key contributing factor was that he would never be able to find the formula for the wine of eternal life, which was why Wall would never waste his Divine Power on such a meaningless matter. Yet not too long ago, he obtained some incredible information from a follower. The ancestors of that follower were medicine experts of the Witch Age and had left a lot of secret records. In those records, there was information on the wine of eternal life. This marvelous formula was able to grant eternal life to mortals. This was why, even during the Witch Age where medicament played a more dominant role as compared to modern times, this was considered to be one of the most precious kinds of elixirs. However, not only was the process of concocting it extremely difficult, but it also required many rare ingredients. The most precious ingredient was the flesh and blood of a real god¡ªthe flesh and blood of a clone would not work. It must be the original body of a real god. Honestly speaking, this was not considered a big problem. In the formula, the amount of flesh and blood of a real god was extremely little. Not to mention a real god, even a mortal would not be bothered over losing a little bit of flesh and blood. In fact, this bit of blood and flesh was only an introduction. With it as a medium, one could steal a trace of divinity during the preparation process of this formula, and through some ingenious means, one could integrate the stolen divinity into the formula. In this way, the moment this formula was administered, the subject would gain attributes similar to that of an Oracle. In short, one would never grow old nor would there be death following the end of a lifespan. This was definitely good news to the mortals, but to the gods, it was another story altogether. Because there was a boundary imposed by the Goddess of Life, only real gods with weaker Divine Powers could move around the mortal world. However, how much divinity could these real gods with weak Divine Powers actually afford to lose? Even the tiniest bit of divinity lost could possibly lead to the collapse of an originally precarious deity form, and a real god would be downgraded to a god-to-be. The mortals would never be able to cheat the gods. This was why no matter how gullible any god was, so long as a mortal requested a tiny bit of flesh and blood to concoct the wine of eternal life, the god would be able to see through the thoughts of this mortal. Then, what would happen next? Oh, that was needless to say. To successfully concoct the wine of eternal life, there were only two ways: One, find a generous god willing to bestow a trace of divinity, and two, defeat a god and forcibly seize the blood and flesh. Because of these reasons, the wine of eternal life was never able to be handed down as time passed. The first way was too difficult, while the second way would incur the wrath of the masses. In other words, both ways were not feasible. Over time, no one showed any more interest in the wine of eternal life, and so it became nothing more than a legend. That follower of Wall was a historian and had seen the records left behind by his ancestors. When he heard that the Void Mask had bestowed some divine blood, thus allowing the two Legendary Masters to be able to complete the wine of eternal life, he was startled. He hurriedly went back to check the information he had. Finally, he determined that he did not remember wrongly, so he prayed to, and at the same time, reported the matter to Wall. Upon learning about this, Wall did not dare to show any negligence. Right away, he carried out a search with his Divine Power, in spite of how much of it would have to be consumed. Although he could not find the formula and effect of the wine of eternal life, he managed to find that in the past, there was indeed an incident where a god flew into a rage because of the wine of eternal life. Comparing that incident with what his believer had told him, Wall determined that the information given to him was accurate; then he hurriedly rushed to report this to Sui Xiong. After learning all the causes and consequences, Sui Xiong scratched his head with his tentacles as he wondered. Had he been duped by those two Legendary Masters? Impossible! They were simply incapable of keeping such a secret before him. If they had been that capable, they would not have remained at the mid-legendary level that they were now at. Then, why had he not detected anything? He thought hard, but still, he could not make light of the situation. He had no choice but to send a clone over to the War God system to seek advice from Augmentin. Out of all the gods that he knew, there seemed to be only one who might possibly know of ways to deceive the gods and deities. He was none other than the God of Strategy. After Augmentin heard his introduction, he thought briefly and then smiled. ¡°I see,¡± he said. ¡°The solution is, in fact, very simple, so long as we do not let them know the truth about the wine of eternal life.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Sui Xiong went blank. He had never thought of such a possibility. One look at Sui Xiong¡¯s expression, Augmentin knew that such a thought had never crossed Sui Xiong¡¯s mind. With a smile, he explained, ¡°We are gods, but we are not omnipotent. Although we are able to read their minds and see through their hearts¡ªbut things that even the mortals themselves, are unaware of, how are we supposed to know? So, if they want to hide things from us, there is a very simple, yet effective way. They just have to make the mortals unaware of the truth before sending them over to deal with us.¡± ¡°Take the wine of eternal life, for instance¡ªthose two fellows are not even aware that the wine of eternal life is able to produce the desired effects because of the stolen divinity from the gods, so undoubtedly, there is no way you could see this from looking deep into their minds. Under their impressions, the wine of eternal life is a legendary secret concoction that is extremely rare. It allows mortals to gain eternal life, but it must borrow the flesh and blood of an existing real god¡­ that¡¯s all. They are completely oblivious to the principle of how this thing works.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. Previously, he had probed deep into the minds of those two Legendary Masters before and had seen for himself that the situation was indeed like what Augmentin had said. ¡°Then, we have a problem¡­ who on earth told them about the formula for concocting the wine of eternal life? Why is there a crucial part missing from the information on this formula?¡± Augmentin squinted his eyes. ¡°Obviously, that person is the true culprit plotting something against you!¡± Sui Xiong nodded. The corners of his mouth lifted as he sneered. ¡°Actually, I only intended to blackmail for a sum of money as compensation. Now, it seems like I have to take some lives before I can put the matter to rest.¡± ¡°This matter is not as simple as taking a few lives.¡± Augmentin shook his head. ¡°You cannot think of this as simple as what you see from the surface. In fact, the culprit had played the two Legendary Masters, both who have lived for a few thousand years, like monkeys in the circus, and he even successfully duped you¡­ with such guts, the culprit is definitely not a mere mortal. He must be a real god!¡± Sui Xiong shivered with fear. Thinking about it carefully, it was indeed so. Even if a mortal was able to devise such a scheme, where would they find the guts to actually put the plan into action? This was like how everyone on Earth knew that the security for the US president was, in fact, not that powerful all. Since nth years ago, there had been more than one incident where the US president was assassinated. But how many people truly dared to assassinate a US president? Without anyone to back them up, no matter how eager the ordinary people harbored the thought of assassinating the president, in the end, a majority of them would never dare to put their thoughts to practice. But¡­ who is this culprit behind the scenes? Sui Xiong thought as his brows furrowed and he frowned. ¡°Who would stage such a play just to cause me to lose that tiny bit of divinity?¡± ¡°Not sure,¡± Augmentin replied. ¡°But there is one thing for sure¡ªnow, we need to go look for the Master of Mystery. He will be able to provide you with some explanations!¡± Sui Xiong fell into a daze. His eyes were glowing radiantly. ¡°Spells, potions, the remnants of the Witch Age¡­ all these things fall within the range of the priesthood for both the Master of Mystery and the God of Spellcaster who is under the Master of Mystery¡¯s command. It doesn¡¯t matter who devised such a scheme; there is no way either of them can get away so easily.¡± ¡°But¡­ could it be that someone was deviously plotting in order to drive a wedge between the Master of Mystery and us?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°After all¡­ for the Master of Mystery to be the one backing this culprit, then this plot might seem too clumsy and straightforward to be his doing.¡± ¡°The Master of Mystery is definitely not the culprit¡¯s backer, however, we should still look for the Master of Mystery,¡± Augmentin said. ¡°No matter who devised such a scheme, no matter what this fellow intends to do, the important thing is, what can we gain from it?¡± ¡°Because of the God of Knowledge, you have some existing conflicts with the Master of Mystery. This conflict is irreconcilable, and sooner or later, there will be a war. In this case, it will be fully in line with your interests to weaken the Master of Mystery first,¡± Augmentin said murderously. ¡°And who exactly devised such a scheme is, in fact, not important at all. So long as this culprit continues to be your enemy, then sooner or later, he will expose himself. By that time, all you have to do is beat the life out of him!¡± Sui Xiong gave himself a while to think carefully. He had to admit that what Augmentin said made sense. If he was not willing to hand Wall over, then he would always be enemies with the Master of Mystery. Sooner or later, there was bound to be a war. In that case, why not take the chance to weaken his opponent now? This time around, he had a just cause for whatever action he intended to take. If the Master of Mystery wanted to make a move, then he could just call upon his friends and deal with the Master of Mystery once and for all. This was a good chance for him to eliminate a major hidden danger. Moreover, even if he did not kill or defeat the Master of Mystery, so long as he was able to get his opponent to bow before him, he would already be considered to have earned himself some great prestige. The spellcasters within the mortal world were very smart. If they saw how the Master of Mystery was not his match, would they be so stubborn as to continue to tie themselves to the war chariot of the Mitafa Federation? Just like how Augmentin said¡ªit did not matter who was the one who devised such a scheme. Now, he just had to make trouble for the Master of Mystery, and eventually, it would all work to his benefit! He could not help smiling at the thought of it; amidst his smiles, there was also a murderous intent. Chapter 596 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God¡¯s Kingdom of the Master of Mystery was named the ¡°Seven Colors Spring,¡± and it was located in the ¡°Country of Rainbow¡± at the front of the Ring of the World. The Country of Rainbow was not exactly a country. In fact, it was an extremely vast field with a surface area that was much bigger than its Main Plane. This field was filled with springs and basked in sun rays. It was also home to countless beautiful colored living creatures. Right in the middle of this field was where the ¡°Seven Colors Spring¡± could be found. This God¡¯s Kingdom was unlike the others¡ªit did not stay on the ground. It was suspended up in the air instead. It was like a colorful ball of light that was suspended over the gigantic spring right in the middle of the Country of Rainbow. There were strands of Divine Power falling from it that, when mixed with the spring water and then placed under and amidst the sun rays, would transform into an enormous rainbow. That was how the name the ¡°Seven Colors Spring¡± came about. The scenery within this God¡¯s Kingdom was not very different from the scenery on the outside. Both were equally bright and warm, and springs with rainbows suspended over them could be seen all over the place. Right in the middle of this God¡¯s Kingdom, there was also an enormous spring. The Master of Mystery would usually transform into an elderly man with colorful hair and sit by the side of this spring as he meditated in silence. That day, he was in the midst of meditation when he suddenly frowned and got to his feet. ¡°The Void Mask has arrived,¡± he told the God of Spellcaster who was by his side. ¡°This uninvited guest most probably comes with ill intentions.¡± The God of Spellcaster was taken aback and asked, ¡°Are we going to prepare for war?¡± ¡°I hope there is no need to fight.¡± The Master of Mystery sighed. Then, he sent a clone of himself out of his God¡¯s Kingdom. Coincidentally, his clone came face-to-face with Sui Xiong, who was just making his way over at a roaring speed. The two of them confronted one another outside the Master of Mystery¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom. At this time, the environment was filled with genial sunshine and a heartwarming breeze, yet between the two gods, a flow of chilliness was being exchanged. ¡°Why have you come?¡± the Master of Mystery asked after a short moment. ¡°A few days ago, I met two Legendary Masters. They were praying for some divine blood so they could prepare to concoct some wine of eternal life.¡± Sui Xiong continued to say, ¡°At that time, I acceded to their requests and gave them some. Thereafter, I realized that this so-called ¡®wine of eternal life¡¯ was able to obtain eternal life by stealing the divinity of a god.¡± ¡°If you are having regrets, you can always look for them and settle the scores. What has it got to do with me?¡± the Master of Mystery asked with a frown. ¡°Just that tiny trace of divinity means nothing much to me. Since I was willing to help them achieve eternal life, I didn¡¯t mind losing that tiny bit of divinity.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°But there is just one thing that bothers me a great deal¡ªwhen they were praying to me for some divine blood, I was very sure that they did not know the truth about the wine of eternal life.¡± The Master of Mystery frowned again, then asked, ¡°You mean to say, that someone is messing with you behind your back, secretly plotting something against you?¡± ¡°That should be. If not, how could everything be so coincidental?¡± Sui Xiong sneered, then asked, ¡°Don¡¯t you think so?¡± The Master of Mystery was silent for a moment as he used his Divine Power to probe and investigate. Then, he nodded gently and said, ¡°You are right; things cannot be so coincidental. The two people that you are talking about, I know them too. They should be specially selected, and they were most probably chosen because, firstly, they were not experts in the medical field back then, so it was impossible for them to know the truth of the wine of eternal life; and secondly, for so many years, they probed deep but kept things simple. Other than doing their best to continue living, they did not really do anything bad, so it was relatively easy to gain your understanding¡­ but things can¡¯t possibly be that coincidental.¡± ¡°Right, if there¡¯s really a formula for the wine of eternal life within the ancient legacy, then it¡¯s impossible for it not to have any mentions of it in any relevant history, especially when this is something that could possibly anger the gods. This is one point that must have been especially emphasized,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°This is why, when they have obtained that formula, they must have made it a point to destroy all the relevant content about it. ¡°The masterminds responsible for all this plotting and scheming¡­ first, they must have reached a certain age old enough to be able to retrieve something from that generation; secondly, they must be powerful enough to be able to twist the two Legendary Masters, both of which were a few thousand years of age, around their fingers so easily. People of this caliber, no matter what, do not seem to exist in great numbers.¡± Of course, the Master of Mystery would not raise any objections to the inferences Sui Xiong made. He listened quietly, then asked, ¡°So, why did you come to me?¡± ¡°Since this person is someone from the Witch Age and an expert in the medicinal field, then coming here to you is definitely the right thing to do,¡± Sui Xiong sneered and said. ¡°How vast this world is. If someone of that caliber intentionally hides himself, then I really have no way of getting him out of his mouse hole. But you, being the Master of Mystery, and of spells, potions, and sorcery¡­ these all fall within the range of your priesthood. Someone like this culprit would never be able to escape your attention.¡± Without waiting for the Master of Mystery to explain, he went on to say, ¡°The truth is, in this world, anyone with exceptional powers, whether they be your followers or not, would definitely have a good relationship with you. For this person to be daring enough to plot behind my back, he must have someone that he can rely on¡ªand I think his backing is no one else but you!¡± The Master of Mystery remained silent. ¡°If you think there is a problem with my reasoning, you can point it out,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°If not, hand over the culprit to me.¡± The Master of Mystery did not reply. On the other hand, the God of Spellcaster, who had rushed over later, was already incredibly mad. ¡°Void Mask, be it your self-conduct or your way of doing things, but you have to be reasonable. Without any evidence at all, here you are, making trouble for His Majesty. Please be reasonable!¡± With a sneer, Sui Xiong retorted, ¡°Reasonable? When the Master of Mystery condoned the others who are plotting against me, how was that reasonable?¡± He continued to say, ¡°Or let¡¯s put it this way, in this world, there is a spellcaster who had lived for a few thousand years. He has formidable powers, great wisdom and is well-versed in the field of medicine, but the strange thing is, the great Master of Mystery knows nothing about him?¡± Up to this point, his face fell, and he shouted angrily, ¡°Do you take me for a fool?¡± ¡°If you have fallen victim to someone¡¯s plot, you should investigate the matter on your own. What use will it be if you come looking for us!¡± the God of Spellcaster asked furiously. ¡°Regardless of whether we know anything or not, why should we help you look for this person?¡± ¡°You are very much mistaken!¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I am not asking for your help. I am warning you, do not offer any form of protection for this fellow!¡± ¡°We are, most certainly, not hiding him. You can search to your heart¡¯s content. After you have found him, how you choose to deal with him is up to you. We are not going to utter a single word at all.¡± ¡°If you guys do not hand him over, it is the same as protecting him!¡± Sui Xiong said coldly. ¡°For a criminal, you know who he is, know where he is, and yet, you are unwilling to hand him over. If this is not protecting and hiding him, what else could it be!¡± The God of Spellcaster was momentarily dumbfounded. He did not know how to explain further. After a while, he sighed and then said, ¡°If I tell you that I too, have no idea who this fellow is, would you believe me?¡± Sui Xiong merely sneered with indifference. He did not even bother answering. The God of Spellcaster closed his eyes and began to search for the culprit with his Divine Power. After a long time, he opened his eyes, but his expression was somewhat unpleasant. ¡°I can¡¯t find him,¡± he said. ¡°Believe it or not, no matter what, I really can¡¯t find such a person.¡± Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°Please give me a reason to believe you.¡± ¡°What I say can¡¯t be trusted?¡± the God of Spellcaster answered him with another question. Sui Xiong ignored him and turned around to look at the Master of Mystery, who had been quiet all this while with eyes shut; then Sui Xiong asked, ¡°Is this your intention?¡± The Master of Mystery opened his eyes; then he sighed gently as he said, ¡°I understand. I dare not say that I will definitely be able to find this person, but I will find clues for you. This person is definitely under the protection of some other god. I really cannot find him for the time being. But just as you have mentioned earlier on, spells, potions¡­ all of this fall within the range of my priesthood, so long as I am given enough time, even if I am unable to apprehend him directly, I will still be able to look into the matter thoroughly. ¡°Are you satisfied with such a reply?¡± the Master of Mystery asked. Sui Xiong thought for a moment, frowned, then nodded before he said, ¡°Well, I will be waiting for the outcome of your investigation then.¡± Finishing what he had to say, Sui Xiong turned and left straight away, leaving behind the Master of Mystery, who was contemplating in silence, and the God of Spellcaster, who was still very mad. Chapter 597 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°You are just too kind. Oh, this is going to become a hidden danger¡­¡± Augmentin sighed and said. ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t have given them time!¡± With a smile, Sui Xiong replied, ¡°Since they have subtly expressed through their tone, that they would conform to a compromise, then there is nothing wrong in giving them some time to investigate.¡± ¡°There is no need for them to investigate at all!¡± Wenner shook his head repeatedly. ¡°In my opinion, we should charge our way straight towards them and wipe them out. Don¡¯t you have the God of Knowledge under your command? Think about it from another perspective; let him absorb the priesthood of the Master of Mystery, and then, let him be the one to investigate. He will be more reliable than the Master of Mystery!¡± Sui Xiong blanked out for a moment. He really had not considered this just now. On second thought, he said, ¡°Destroying the Master of Mystery and all of his men would not be easy at all¡­¡± ¡°How difficult can it be!¡± Wenner shook his head vigorously and asked. ¡°No matter how powerful the Master of Mystery is, in a one-on-one fight, he will never be able to win. Then, I will lead our brothers to attack his underlings, chop them up like minced meat¡ªplain and simple. Needless to mention, your underlings also have a group of people under their command¡­ My dear alliance master, you are, in any case, a top master who could cause the entire Pantheon temple to vibrate from a single stomp of your feet. Can¡¯t you be a little more confident!?¡± Sui Xiong was taken aback, but thinking back carefully, it seemed like the situation was really like how Wenner had pointed out. The reason why the Master of Mystery could earn himself such a resounding reputation throughout the world was because of that one major battle that wiped out the entire Elf God System. But back then, was the Elf God System really that great? At that time, the Elf God System had nearly 50 real gods, more than 200 demigods, and thousands of Legendary Masters under their command. It was, indeed, extremely powerful. But through these years spent on understanding the Elf God System, Sui Xiong already knew the fact that at that time, throughout their entire god system, there was only one great Divine Power, three mid-level Divine Powers, six to seven low-level Divine Powers, and the remaining 40 or so real gods were weak Divine Powers. As for those 200 demigods, a majority of them could step into the demigod realm only because they were bestowed with a trace of divinity by the gods. At best, they were immortals that did not grow old and die. To say they were extremely powerful was, in fact, an inept statement. Also, their army of Legendary Masters would have no problem dealing with other races, but if they were to go against a god with great Divine Power, then these Legendary Masters would be nothing more than cannon fodder. Even the more powerful Oracles would be rendered powerless. The reason why the elves were powerful was not because they had a god system, but because they had the backing of the Goddess of Life and the advanced fairies from the highly-reputable ¡°Golden Race.¡± After these advanced fairies disappeared with the Goddess of Life, the elf race retained its status of a prosperous civilization with a massive territory and had an astonishing number of masters in its army. But in truth, their top-rated martial skills were already weakened by a great extent. If Sui Xiong were to go back in time to exist in that era, he could easily defeat and wipe out the entire Elf God System relying on his powers alone. Though, he might not necessarily be able to annihilate the entire race at one go. There were several occasions that clearly displayed how powerful Sui Xiong was. For example, a few years back, Sui Xiong defeated the Fear God System in one breath, and he was so close to annihilating the Alliance of Evil Gods. The number of gods that he had annihilated could be as many as the total population of two Elf God Systems put together. Since ancient times, other than a few especially terrifying demons, there had not been any other gods with such intimidating combat accomplishments. Upon comparison, the Master of Mystery did not seem to have anything that could put him at an advantage over Sui Xiong. ¡°We have always been pondering, exactly how powerful is this Master of Mystery?¡± Wenner observed that Sui Xiong seemed to have gained some enlightenment regarding this question, and so, he continued to say, ¡°He is powerful, that is for sure, but is he truly so powerful that even a great Divine Power would be rendered helpless before him? No matter what, this is something that I can¡¯t bring myself to believe.¡± ¡°Back during that one battle that occurred many years ago where he annihilated the entire Elf God System, the time he had taken to wipe out the elves, from beginning to the end, was very short. The entire incident seemed hasty, and there were no witnesses among the numerous gods. After the incident, at least a hundred gods have investigated this incident. However, other than learning that the Elf God System had been annihilated by the Master of Mystery, there wasn¡¯t anything else that they could find,¡± Wenner said. ¡°At that time, I wasn¡¯t born, so naturally, it was impossible for me to investigate this. But after I became a god, I had investigated this incident by virtue of my priesthood¡­ As you know, my priesthood is ¡®war,¡¯ so everything related to battling, even academic debates, business competitions¡­ so long as they were intense enough, my priesthood would be able to obtain some traces of information, and with those traces, I can try to investigate this. ¡°I have been investigating for almost 100 years, but what I can see is still very blurred. There is nothing I can see or tell for sure; the entire scene merely gives me a very hazy impression. It¡¯s just like¡­ a dream that I can¡¯t recall clearly.¡± Wenner let out a gentle sigh, then said, ¡°But I¡¯m very sure about one thing. At that time, there was no fierce battle.¡± Sui Xiong squinted, ¡°There wasn¡¯t a fierce battle? That makes no sense!¡± ¡°Indeed, that doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± Wenner nodded. ¡°At that time, I was very puzzled too. The Elf God System was, after all, a complete god system with a great Divine Power assuming command. How could it have been completely annihilated without first going through an intense battle? Could the Master of Mystery be so powerful to such an extent where the entire Elf God System would simply succumb without being able to resist at all? This would be more plausible if it was the doing of the Master of Order!¡± What Wenner said made sense. If the Master of Mystery was really so powerful that even a god system under the command of a great Divine Power was instantly annihilated without the chance to fight an intense battle, then earlier on, he would have been able to kill Sui Xiong directly with one strike. Even if Sui Xiong had been within the Main Plane at that time where it was inconvenient for him to make a move, he had all the chances in the world to attack when Sui Xiong had left the Main Plane to save the Desolation God System. Even if he had boasted himself to be of more noble identity and was unwilling to join the siege that the others were staging, he could have waited for that battle to end where he could attack Sui Xiong. No matter how sturdy the Sanctuary of Sui Xiong¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom was, there was no way it had a chance against a super master who could reduce an entire Elf God System to ashes in the twinkling of an eye! ¡°After hearing what you just said¡­ he is indeed not as strong as how the legends have portrayed him to be.¡± Sui Xiong recalled to the best that he could every single detail of the scene where he had met the Master of Mystery, along with everything that they had conversed about earlier on. Then slowly, he said, ¡°He is powerful, there¡¯s no doubt about this, but he does not make me feel suppressed. He is not that powerful to make me feel that sense of danger as though a blade were positioned right in front of me.¡± Wenner nodded. Of course, he too had paid the Master of Mystery a visit before, and the conclusion he arrived at was similar to Sui Xiong¡¯s. Augmentin was a little puzzled though, so he asked, ¡°So Your Majesty, who is the most powerful god you have ever seen? What kind of feeling does he give you?¡± ¡°Of course, it¡¯s Master of Order,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Although I have only met a clone of him, the feeling he gave me at that time¡­ it was indescribable. It carried a kind of feeling like ¡®this is just how things should be¡­¡¯ Anyway, I can be sure of this. If I were to really fight the Master of Order, I wouldn¡¯t even be half as powerful as his clone.¡± ¡°Who is next in line?¡± Augmentin continued to ask. ¡°Next in line would be the frightening and sticky Chaos,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°That fellow is extremely frightening. As compared to the Master of Order, he is probably only weaker by a tad. But exactly how much weaker? I have no idea. Anyways, I fled the scene.¡± Augmentin stared blankly for a moment, then asked, ¡°Sticky Chaos?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ you didn¡¯t know about that? Then I shall not go into the details, lest the Master of Order finds out and gets angry at me.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head then continued to say, ¡°I am in no capacity to mention the third name. This concerns someone else¡¯s secret. The fourth and fifth would most probably be the God of Light and my oldest brother, the God of Justice. Who is more powerful of the two, I am also not too sure. Do you need to go on with the remaining ones?¡± ¡°No need.¡± Augmentin shook his head; then he asked, ¡°So, at what level do you think the Master of Mystery could most probably be?¡± After a moment of careful deliberation, Sui Xiong turned to look at Wenner, ¡°Honestly speaking, I feel that you and him¡­ should be almost the same, he can¡¯t be much more powerful than you¡­¡± Wenner stroked the needle-like beard under his chin as a murderous intention surfaced in his eyes. ¡°If that is the case, what are we waiting for?¡± Sui Xiong gave a blank look and asked, ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Since he is not all that powerful, then I shall assemble our men now. In one swift move, we shall break through the ¡®Seven Colors Spring¡¯!¡± Chapter 598 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was only just a day or two ago that the God of War wanted to kill the Master of Mystery and seize his Mystery God System. The War God System might be teeming with talents and clouded with masters, but a majority fell under the martial system. Comparatively speaking, the number of spellcasters was much smaller¡ªthis was determined by the sources of belief and talents. In general, wars of beliefs, battles, and warriors of gods were mostly from the martial system. The spellcasters were more or less those with a more literary style or had scholastic inclinations. Even if they were to enter a battlefield due to various reasons and had to fight, in their hearts, they would still see themselves as people with culture. They would see themselves as intellectuals but never as warriors. Belief influenced the gods and also determined the talent reserves of a God¡¯s Kingdom. Spellcasters had no faith in the various gods of war, and thus the War God System naturally lacked gods from the Spell System. Wenner, the God of War, had always wanted to change this situation. His game plan was to kill the Master of Mystery and seize the Mystery God System. This way, the spellcasters would naturally become followers of the War God System. The problem would be solved instantly. For this, he had prepared extensively, just for the moment where he would attack the Mystery God System. And the key factor that stood in his way was the inscrutable power of the Master of Mystery. No matter what, it was genuinely true that the Master of Mystery had annihilated the entire Elf God System back then. Even if there were thousands and millions of explanations, Wenner would still refuse to go up against a master who was capable of annihilating an entire god system. However, with the help of his lord, the Void Mask Alliance Master, Wenner would dare to give it a shot. It was just annihilating a god system! Back then, the Alliance Master had done it before. So long as Sui Xiong could stall the Master of Mystery for a bit, he was confident that with the many years of preparations he had made, the Master of Mystery would be utterly defeated. Also, Wenner always had this doubt¡ªwas the Master of Mystery truly that powerful? So powerful that he could easily kill an army of close to 50 gods under the command of a great Divine Power? If that fellow was really that powerful, how could he have not noticed it all these years? Earlier, when Sui Xiong said, ¡°I feel the Master of Mystery is indeed not as strong as how the legends had portrayed him to be,¡± it was as though a heavy weight were suddenly cast onto a formidable scale; he made up his mind, through and through. Attack! It¡¯s now or never! Where military orders must never be disobeyed, the moment Wenner gave his orders, the entire War God System leaped into action right away. Within fleeting moments, the Void Warship that had been rebuilt since the previous battle sailed out slowly, and thousands of elite Oracles took their positions. The dozens of followers of the War God System, and five to six gods of subordinate positions also boarded the warship. The moment Wenner was on board, the warship set sail towards the Seven Colors Spring to attack the Mystery God System. Sui Xiong had not expected Wenner to actually be as good as his word and attack when he said he would. He was taken aback quite suddenly. ¡°You all¡­ So you¡¯re all set for action?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Augmentin nodded and said. ¡°In war, speed is of utmost importance! Countering slowness with speed has always been an irrefutable truth. Whether the enemy is strong or weak, so long as we are fast enough, so fast that they have no time to react at all, then the strong will weaken, and the weak will become even more vulnerable. Since we have already decided to attack, then the faster, the better!¡±Read more chapter on our novelhall.com ¡°But¡­ I told them that I would give them time to investigate¡­¡± ¡°You promised to give them time, we did not!¡± Augmentin smiled and said. ¡°So long as you don¡¯t lay a finger on them, who can blame you? In fact, you can sit on the warship and watch as an innocent bystander. We have absolute confidence that we can win this battle!¡± ¡°The opponent is a great Divine Power anyways. Don¡¯t you want to consider it a little more?¡± ¡°If we consider further, it will be too late.¡± Wenner grabbed Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles and dragged him onto the warship. ¡°Let¡¯s get on board first. There is still time for us to slowly consider it along the way.¡± Wenner had said that they could ¡°slowly consider it,¡± but in fact, he had no intentions of doing so. The War God System had long since prepared space coordinates near the various places that they wanted to attack their targets from. After everyone was onboard, the Void Warship set out with a loud roar as it glowed with resplendence. Right away, it cut through space and sped towards the coordinates that it had already prepared earlier on. Because the distance was far, even if they were to travel by teleportation, they would also need to keep flying for some time. Sui Xiong sat at the bow of the ship and thought of how he would explain himself at that time. He could not help feeling that the way things were being done was a bit shameful, like the doings that Professor Cheng he had mentioned before. He recalled that Professor Cheng, who relished in bringing up ancient classics during class, had once criticized a student for going back on his word. At that time, he had given such an example: He said, ¡°During ancient times, there was a general who had sent his advisor over to his opponent to persuade them into surrendering. With an outstanding eloquence, his advisor had succeeded in persuading the opponent to surrender. However, when the other party was ready to surrender and no longer put up any form of defense, this general had jumped at the opportunity to launch a fierce attack. That was how he managed to defeat his opponent¡¯s army. Thereafter, the advisor naturally met with a mishap, and he, on the other hand, won himself a perfect victory.¡± ¡°What happened next?¡± one of the students seated in the front row asked out of curiosity. ¡°Then, this person also died, of course. Thinking back, it¡¯s kind of funny. He was not trustworthy, yet he too died at the hands of someone who also lacked trustworthiness.¡± The professor laughed and said. ¡°Trustworthiness is something that may seem to be useless at first glance, but if you are always not keeping to your word, sooner or later you will come to realize that you have, in fact, dug a pit for your own death.¡± This was roughly the situation. Sui Xiong could not recall the specific name of that general or which era or generation he was from, but he was convinced of his professor¡¯s teachings. In life, it was indeed important to keep one¡¯s word. Don¡¯t you see, even films featuring the lifestyle of gangsters had placed emphasis on the need to ¡°keep their word when out in the streets, and if someone says that he will kill an entire family, he¡¯ll do just that¡­¡± ¡°This feels like¡­ something is not right¡­¡± He was talking to himself and could not hold back another sigh. At that moment, the Void Warship suddenly jerked. Then, it transferred from the state of teleportation and fell back into normal space. Around the warship, countless Divine Runes were glowing brilliantly with streams of light. They were forming layers of protection that served to block the crevices and fluctuations caused by the rupture of space, therefore avoiding any possible dangers. ¡°What is the matter?¡± Sui Xiong suddenly jumped to his feet and asked in a loud voice. ¡°We were sabotaged!¡± shouted the Goddess of Pirates. She was responsible for navigating the warship. ¡°Someone has discovered our space coordinates prior to our arrival and tampered with them!¡± ¡°It must be the Master of Mystery!¡± Wenner¡¯s brows were furrowed into a deep frown. He asked viciously, ¡°Where are we now?¡± ¡°After we discovered that the coordinates were wrong, we quickly stopped the teleportation to avoid a bad outcome,¡± the Goddess of Pirates said. ¡°Now, we are roughly somewhere near the Seven Colors God Mountain, which is not too far away from the Country of Rainbow.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s fly there straight away!¡± Wenner immediately decided. ¡°To be able to devise such a trap, it only goes to show their lack of confidence! Now, we will charge our way there and wipe them out! Victory will be ours!¡± Chapter 599 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The war fortress that the War God System used previously was a huge dragon ship. It had taken thousands of years and a tremendous amount of materials put together to build that fortress; thus its power was unparalleled. Whether it was defense or speed both were considered to top their respective lists, even its attack power was extremely strong. It could be said to be the most powerful mobile war fortress. However, there was once where it had joined forces with the Fear God System to attack the Void God System. During that particular battle, a great part of this huge dragon ship had been destroyed because it had to bear the terrifying power from Sui Xiong¡¯s self-detonation. It was such a challenge to repair the ship. Under such a situation, the War God System had remodeled it into a memorial hall after removing precious components. After fitting these components with their original accumulation, they had created a new generation of war fortress¡ªthe Void Warship. The Void Warship was slightly smaller than the huge dragon ship. It did not possess those horrifying methods of attack, and even its speed of flight and teleportation were lower compared to its predecessor. Its defensive abilities were, on the contrary, the only aspect that had been greatly enhanced, even to the extent of being stronger than the huge dragon ship. Of course, this was a change that was made after they had summed up their experiences. They had deeply reflected on their painful experience, and that had taught them a good lesson. Then they made their choice. The huge dragon ship was infinitely powerful, but at times when it mattered most, its defense ability was actually its most important asset. Other abilities were at best used to bully the weaker opponents. When confronting a true master in a battle, it would not be of much help. That being the case, there was no need to waste precious resources on this. It would be more viable to create some other more powerful magical items instead. This conclusion naturally had its reasonability. The Void Warship was indeed quite powerful. Although it was not able to move at an astounding speed, it was, nevertheless, still capable of high-speed movement. It still had the ability to shuttle through space easily, which, when coupled with its defense ability that was said to be formidable, utilizing this warship was indeed more convenient than its predecessor, the huge dragon ship. Without considering any other factors, just one of the previous occurrences where there were cracks appearing in Space, the huge dragon ship most probably would not sustain any damage, but the warriors onboard were very likely to suffer great losses. Regardless of how insignificant the loss was, it would, nevertheless, demoralize the warriors right from the very beginning. As for now, the strength of these cracks in Space had no chance of getting close to the warship as they were directly blocked off by the Divine Shield outside the warship. Whether it was the warship itself or the warriors within it, all remained unharmed. This was like two armies raging war against one another. One of the armies accidentally fell into the trap its enemy had laid, only to realize that this trap was pathetically weak. After a moment of tumbling about, other than discovering some dirt and soot, everyone found themselves to be unharmed, and even their clothes were not dirtied at all. This was why Wenner¡¯s absolute confidence was understandable¡ªeven the trap they laid was quite a weak and harmless one. There was simply nothing to be afraid of! He had thought as such and thus had spoken as such. ¡°The Mystery God System is truly nothing more than a snow job!¡± Standing at the bow of the speeding Warship, Wenner laughed loudly and said. ¡°Their achievements in magic are indeed brilliant, which was why they managed to discover our space coordinates so quickly and then set a trap while awaiting our arrival. Even I have to admit that this was one area they were really good in. But¡­ the trap they set was so ridiculous that it seemed like a total joke! I have never seen such a weak trap before in my entire life! To actually come up with such a trap as a means of conquering their enemy is already a display of the extent of their weakness!¡± ¡°True!¡± Augmentin nodded and said. ¡°If we had known earlier that their true capability was only at this level, we wouldn¡¯t even need to mobilize our Void Warship. Everyone would be able to fly directly over there and charge towards them!¡± They spoke so loudly that many people could hear them. Then, news spread rapidly, and the warriors were all smiles. Their smiles consisted of 30 percent confidence, 30 percent state ease, and 40 percent mockery; the subject of their mockery was none other than the Mystery God System. ¡°Even when setting a trap, they had been so gentle and lacked the lethality. The ways of those cultured people are just so unreliable!¡± The Goddess of Pirates, who was in charge of navigating the warship, said. ¡°Even a lady like myself would never resort to pulling such a flowery move. I¡¯ll simply bury a white blade in their necks and pull out a red one¡ªhow efficient and neat!¡± ¡°How efficient and neat!¡± Seated next to the Goddess of Pirates was the God of Berserker, who was in a slightly drunken state. In a muffled voice, he nodded and voiced his agreement. Sui Xiong saw how high-spirited they were and could not hold back his laughter. This would most probably be a typical situation where the heart of an army would be presumed to have its usability. At that moment, he heard Augmentin¡¯s voice. ¡°Don¡¯t take these words to heart. Just a while ago, I looked at the new path that our space coordinates¡¯ positions had been changed to. If we had not discovered that trap in time and forcibly stopped teleportation midway, we would have directly barged into the nest of a group of Star Devouring Beasts. By that time, it would definitely be a challenge trying to get ourselves out, and at best, we would merely incur a substantial loss.¡± Sui Xiong felt a shiver of fear as his smile faded a few degrees. The ¡°Star Devouring Beasts¡± did not actually refer to a specific race. It was a general term used for the scary demon beasts that were of the demigod level. Amidst the endless Void, there were numerous such demon beasts, and they existed in various sizes. They cruised freely all over the place, and occasionally, they would launch attacks on the different worlds. At times, they would be repulsed by the gods guarding these worlds; at other times, they would be able to devour those worlds in their entirety, and even the gods that were safeguarding those worlds were not spared. To the various gods, these beasts were a strong and powerful threat. Often enough, gods would combine forces to strangulate these demon beasts to death. Yet, strange enough, regardless of how many of these beasts the gods managed to strangulate, they came to realize that there was no significant decline in the number of these demon beasts. From time to time, a few would appear before them. For the Mystery God System to be quick enough to realize that the War God System had left space coordinates within the vicinity of their God¡¯s Kingdom¡ªthis did not surprise Sui Xiong. However, the fact that they could actually shift the space coordinates to cause the War God System to head directly into the nest of the Star Devouring Beasts¡ªthis was something shocking for Sui Xiong. How conceivable it was, that if the Void Warship were to make its way in that direction, the moment it stopped teleporting, it would surely collide head-on with those scary demon beasts. By that time, needless to mention warriors, even the various gods of war would possibly sustain heavy injuries. If the Mystery God System had further prepared some other means, then it was highly possible that there would be several gods of war facing annihilation even before the battle had truly begun. Just thinking about this, Sui Xiong could not help shaking his head in awe as he complimented, ¡°So powerful!¡± ¡°Yes, truly powerful!¡± Wenner also conveyed his thoughts via voice transmission. ¡°The Master of Mystery is truly an established great Divine Power. He was someone who had earned his fame even before I was born. This method he deployed seemed as though he was taking the matter lightly, yet in truth, there was a murderous intent lurking behind his understated concern of the situation. He is, indeed, capable!¡± However, he suddenly changed the subject. With great confidence, Wenner said, ¡°But I am not intending to take a different stand from before. Using such a trap to sabotage others just goes to show his lack of confidence. If he had the confidence, he would have come out directly to confront us head-on!¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment then nodded slightly. Wenner¡¯s words made sense. Even for Sui Xiong, if he was truly filled with confidence, then he would certainly take on his aggressors outright upfront. Then he would smack his enemy to death in one swift move. There was simply no need to play so many tricks! Currently, the Void Warship was fast approaching the Country of Rainbow. If the Mystery God System truly had enough confidence, then by right, they should have laid base and prepared themselves information to take on their aggressors. But until now, they had not seen even a single figure from the Mystery God System. ¡°However¡­¡± Wenner¡¯s tone suddenly sounded a little hesitant. ¡°I keep getting strange vibes about the outcome of this battle. I¡¯m afraid that the outcome might not be what I had expected¡­¡± ¡°Will there be danger?¡± Augmentin asked out of worry. ¡°No, I don¡¯t sense any danger, however¡­¡± A figure suddenly appeared in front of the Void Warship and interrupted their conversation. That heavily-equipped warrior was donning gold, heavy armor and carrying a gigantic shield. The shield seemed to be as tall as the warrior himself. This was one of the three great Divine Powers of the Human God System, the God of Protection. Chapter 600 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The human god System had three great Divine Powers, namely, the God of Light, the God of Protection and the God of Heroes. The God of Light was ranked as the topmost master out of the three supreme great Divine Powers. He was qualified to compete for rank of second-in-command within the Pantheon temple, a position secondary only to the Master of Order. On the other hand, the God of Protection and the God of Heroes were merely at the entry level of a great Divine Power. Within the realm of a great Divine Power, they were regarded as the bottom of the hierarchy. But regardless, they were still great Divine Powers after all! The God of Protection, in particular, was extremely skilled in defense. At that moment, his entire body was surrounded by a divine light. Apparently, that was him appearing in his truest form. The shield that he carried was also glowing radiantly, and this impressive sight also indicated the authenticity of the shield he had brought along. He did not transform himself to take the appearance of a giant; thus he was so insignificant that he was nothing worth mentioning when compared to the size of the entire Void Warship. However, even with the Void Warship, the Goddess of Pirates would never dare to try confronting the God of Protection head-on. She could only bring the Void Warship to an urgent halt. This ¡°emergency brake¡± came so suddenly that at least a third of the warriors onboard were thrown off balance. Many of them stumbled about and eventually fell to the ground like falling gourds. The Master of War frowned and gestured to his side. Then the God of Strategy and the God of War jumped up from where they were and transformed into two streams of light before flying off to where the God of Protection stood. ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this?¡± the God of War, with his body and face full of bruises, asked ferociously. ¡°Are you trying to pick a fight!?¡± The God of War and the God of Strategy both had mid-level Divine Powers, but when it came to combat power, both were confident that they would not lose out to the God of Protection. The God of Protection¡¯s ability was too undistinguished, highly capable in defense but lacking when it came to attacking. Even if they could not win the fight, they could still ensure that they were able to make a dignified retreat without sustaining any serious injuries. This confidence, coupled with the anger in their hearts, naturally made their tones unfriendly and hostile. As he spoke, the God of War had already taken out his weapon, just like someone who would wield his blade to hack someone up the moment there was the slightest disagreement. The God of Protection was completely unmoved. After waiting for about a minute or two, he slowly opened his mouth to reply. ¡°Welcome!¡± he said in a dry tone. ¡°Although relying on our strength alone is enough to defeat the entire Mystery God system, we would still like to welcome everyone who has come together as comrades!¡± The various Gods of War were startled upon hearing his words. Sui Xiong was so surprised that he jumped to his feet. What?! The human god System had already gone ahead and attacked the Mystery God System?! ¡°How is that possible!¡± Sui Xiong could not help flying out. He landed right before the God of Protection, and in a loud voice, he asked, ¡°At the time when I left, which was not too long ago, all was well, wasn¡¯t it? Why are you all fighting all of a sudden?¡± The God of Protection had fought alongside Sui Xiong on previous occasions, so more or less, they shared some form of friendship. Hearing Sui Xiong¡¯s questions, the God of Protection cast him a glance and replied in the same slow tone, ¡°It was just after you left when we made our move.¡± Sui Xiong was even more surprised and hurriedly asked, ¡°Since that time, you all have ambushed the surroundings?¡± ¡°Not exactly the surroundings. At that time, we were outside the Country of Rainbow,¡± The God of Protection said. ¡°However, there was someone responsible for keeping a close watch over ¡®the Seven Colors Spring¡¯ as we waited for an opportunity to strike.¡± A sudden thought struck Sui Xiong, and he asked aloud, ¡°How did you all know there was an opportunity?¡± The God of Protection was silent for a moment; then he replied, ¡°I didn¡¯t know. I just waited there, that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°So, who told you there would be an opportunity?¡± The God of Protection did not reply. It was then that a strong tremor suddenly spread over the Positive Plane of the entire Ring of the World. This tremor did not contain any form of power, yet it evoked a heart-throbbing sensation. At the same time, all spellcasters from all over the world could clearly sense the chaos of magic power. The power they used to be able to control easily suddenly felt so distant from them. Furthermore, there was a determined voice resounding within them. ¡°I, Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, will never surrender!¡± Right after this angry roar, there was another faint, long sigh; following this sigh, the magic power got even more violent. All the spellcasters felt an emptiness in their hearts as though they had suddenly lost a large part of it. Magic arrays from all parts of the world started to vibrate and shake violently. All magic props seemed to rapidly lose their glow as though they had lost their powers. There were also some people who previously consumed magic potions to prolong their lives that rapidly grew so old that it seemed as though they might die the very next second. Then, another long laugh was heard. ¡°Old friend, there is no need for you to take things so hard!¡± This laugh was like an anchor of stability, and right away, it brought that riotous magic power back to a state of calm and peace. The magic arrays that were about to collapse a moment ago resumed normality; the magic props regained their glow, and the magic potions restored their power. However, spellcasters from a thousand other worlds grew all the more frightened and worried. Even without any knowledge about the various gods, anyone could vaguely guess what was going on at that moment. The great magicians with rich experience and extensive knowledge would most certainly clearly understand what was happening. The Mystery God System had been compromised. The God of Spellcaster was unwilling to surrender, and out of anger, he committed suicide. Likewise, the Master of Mystery also wanted to take his own life, but he was subdued by his opponent before he had his way. Anything that mortals could understand, the various gods would most certainly be able to understand even better. Even for those who did not understand what was going on, one could see how the God of Spellcaster suddenly disappeared from the Pantheon temple, with his throne collapsing altogether. One could also see how the Master of Mystery sighed while looking so dejected¡ªanyone could guess from these obvious clues that something unpleasant had happened. Sui Xiong was communicating with Wall right then. Wall was half-surprised and half-delighted as he exclaimed, ¡°Your Majesty! The Mystery God System is done for! The God of Art and Culture has now pledged allegiance to us!¡± ¡°Take him in and protect him well,¡± Sui Xiong replied compendiously. ¡°Understood!¡± Wall replied immediately; then he asked again, ¡°What else do we have to do?¡± ¡°I am in the vicinity right now. Let¡¯s play by the ear, if there is anything advantageous to us along the way, I will not stand on ceremony,¡± Sui Xiong replied quite casually; then he ended the conversation. Inside the Sanctuary, with eyes wide open and mouth agape, Wall was quite stunned. ¡°His Majesty¡­ how could he have made his way to the ¡®Seven Colors Spring¡¯ in such a short period of time? His speed unbelievably fast!¡± Right before Wall stood the God of Art and Culture with a face filled with worry and unease. Seeing Wall¡¯s response to Sui Xiong¡¯s answer, he could not help asking, ¡°That¡­ His Majesty, the Void Mask, how exactly did he answer you?¡± Wall also happened to recover from his preoccupied state just then. With a smile, he patted the God of Art and Culture on the shoulder and reassured him, saying, ¡°Fret not, His Majesty has given us his word. From now on, you can stay here with us. Aye! If you ask me, I would have told you to move in with us ages ago. Wouldn¡¯t here be much more suitable for you than the Seven Colors Spring?¡± The God of Art and Culture finally heaved a long sigh of relief as though a large stone was lifted off his chest. Just now, numerous human gods launched a sudden attack. With their combined forces, the three great Divine Powers had quickly broken through the defense of the Seven Colors Spring within the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Mystery God System. The impending battle made him decide to abandon his body over at the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Mystery God System. Right away, he transferred his divinity over to the outside of the Main Plane so that he could take care of his clone that he had left at his one and only temple (i.e., the Great Theatre of Void City). Instantly, he had switched between his noumenon and his clone. Then while spellcasting to shift the souls of his core followers away, he did not hesitate in sprinting towards the Sanctuary within the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Void God System. He was looking for the God of Knowledge with whom he shared quite a close friendship with. The moment he got there, the first thing he said was, ¡°The Mystery God System is finished. I have come to pledge my allegiance to you. On account of our friendship, do take me in!¡± Wall was thrown into a loss by what the God of Art and Culture said, so he contacted Sui Xiong, who explained the scene that just unfolded. Chapter 601 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong was actually somewhat at a loss himself. To tell the truth, he was feeling a little confused and disoriented today. First, he¡¯d learned that the Wine of Eternal Life was actually a divinity-stealing potion; then Sui Xiong had accused the Master of Mystery of wanting to fight him, only to see the master effortlessly lower his head and agree to personally help investigate those who¡¯d plotted against Sui Xiong. Ordinarily, those events should have ended there, but after Sui Xiong told the War God System what had happened, they¡¯d been unexpectedly quick to decide that the Master of Mystery was weaker than he looked and therefore not worth fearing. They turned out in full force to destroy the Master of Mystery and annex the Mystery God System. After pondering on the fact he and the Master of Mystery were technically in a conflict, Sui Xiong planned to follow the War God System over and see how things would go before deciding on whether to help or defuse the battle. But before he got there, it turned out that someone had already been plotting, and this plot made the battle basically impossible to avoid. But before any of them could arrive, the Mystery God System was defeated by the Human God System, and the God of Spellcaster committed suicide. Then the God of Art and Culture had come to Sui Xiong seeking refuge, and the Master of Mystery was unexpectedly beaten into surrendering. What the hell was going on! Honestly, all of this didn¡¯t really matter to him. He wasn¡¯t like Zhuge Liang who wanted to know every detail of every event. Anyways, Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t lost anything from this, and he even caught himself a God of Art and Culture. He¡¯d made a profit whichever way you looked at it. If he had something to earn, then it didn¡¯t matter if the situation was unclear. But he was really concerned about something else. Taking everything into account, the time it took for him to leave and come back wasn¡¯t more than an hour. What sort of tricks had the Human God System used to breach the Master of Mystery¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom in such a short period of time and to subdue the Master of Mystery himself into surrendering? This was nowhere near easy! The Master of Mystery really and truly had formidable Divine Power; defeating or killing him might not be hard, but capturing him alive was harder than ascending to the heavens. Was the God of Light really that ferocious? With a thought like this in mind, rather than rushing to discuss contract terms with the God of Art and Culture, Sui Xiong went with the War God System to ask the Human God System for the particulars of what had happened. Considering the current circumstances, the War God System approaching so rashly would normally be considered inappropriate and wouldn¡¯t be welcomed. You could tell that just from seeing the God of Protection blocking the way. But Wenner told Sui Xiong that if he wanted to ask anything or share in some of the profits, they¡¯d have to break through the God of Protection¡¯s barrier. ¡°This is standard practice: if you have the ability to enter the arena, you¡¯re entitled to a share of the profits,¡± he said. ¡°We follow the same rule whenever we attack others.¡± ¡°Are you saying that charging in like this won¡¯t start any feuds?¡± Sui Xiong asked worriedly. ¡°As long as we watch ourselves and don¡¯t get too greedy when they¡¯re splitting the profits, there won¡¯t be any feuds to worry about,¡± Augmentin explained. ¡°One person can¡¯t hog all the gains to himself, especially not a large god system.¡± Sui Xiong relaxed at that and got off the boat with the others. They then changed into rays of light and flew towards the Seven Colors Spring. Strangely enough, Wenner, the Master of War, hadn¡¯t brought all his subordinates. He¡¯d only brought the God of Strategy and the God of Battle. Adding himself and Sui Xiong, their group was only made up of four people. ¡°Huh? If we¡¯re sharing the profits then the more people, the better, so why is it just the four of us?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°You need the qualifications to be able to share in the profits,¡± Augmentin said with a sigh. ¡°Actually, if you weren¡¯t here, then probably only His Majesty would have the qualifications to join in out of everyone in the War God System¡­ After all, we didn¡¯t put any effort into this war.¡± ¡°Then doesn¡¯t that mean¡­ the Human God System is basically hogging it all to themselves?¡± Sui Xiong said with a frown after thinking over it for a moment. Wenner had great Divine Power. If he was the only one qualified to share in the profits, then how many others were there in the world with that level of power! ¡°That¡¯s not entirely true. Once they¡¯re more-or-less finished plundering, they¡¯ll have left behind a broken God¡¯s Kingdom for those unqualified gods to clean up and split amongst themselves,¡± said the God of Battle. ¡°By then, they¡¯ll only be able to split a little bit of Divine Power amongst themselves, and the trip we¡¯re going on now is to divvy up the good stuff, so they really can¡¯t compare.¡± It was only then that Sui Xiong clearly understood. The four of them were going there to split up the best parts of the spoils of war, whereas those who were stopped outside would naturally get to clean up the battlefield after the Human Gods were done plundering all the Mystery God System had. Whether they could pick up anything that had slipped through the cracks or not would be left up to chance. The four gods flew extremely fast, and they had already almost reached the Seven Colors Spring in the course of that short conversation. They could even already see the God¡¯s Kingdom floating in the air like a rainbow light. Though compared to when Sui Xiong had come to visit a few hours ago, the radiance of current Seven Colors Spring had already dulled; there was also a humongous hole at the top, clearly a vestige of the Human Gods¡¯ forceful breach. Sui Xiong had seen the attack and defense of a God¡¯s Kingdom before. He had also participated in it himself as both the attacker and defender, so he could count himself as an expert. In every attack on a God¡¯s Kingdom, once it was broken, it would basically lose 90% of its people, while the remaining 10% could do nothing but attempt to escape. Escaping was considered a Great Learning. Back in the day, Professor Cheng had mentioned in a history lecture that there were four classes of experts in the art of war: When a first-class expert finished drawing his plans, his enemy was as good as defeated. The enemy would be unable to win no matter how hard he fought. Second-class experts basically won once they started the actual battle, regardless of the size of the victory. Third-class experts weren¡¯t necessarily guaranteed to win, but they definitely wouldn¡¯t automatically lose either, as they¡¯d be able to preserve their strength regardless of what happened. Fourth class experts could suffer an utter defeat, but they¡¯d be able to escape, and after some time, they would return to make a comeback. The way Sui Xiong saw it, the God of Light was probably a first or second-class expert, the Master of War was perhaps a third-class expert, and the God of Fear could maybe count as a fourth-class expert if you squinted. After all, he¡¯d only been hit with those setbacks because of bad luck, or else his own big brother wouldn¡¯t have been able to catch him. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest and all the rest, meanwhile, didn¡¯t even count as fourth-class experts; they were no more than the dregs. As for Sui Xiong himself, well, he was an artist. How could you judge an artist by his level of battle skills? It¡¯d be an insult to his intellect! What would an artist do? They¡¯d read books, chat, and if they were in a good mood, then they could maybe pick up a backpack and travel the world. Or, if they were in a bad mood, then they could stay at home and recite poetry or paint. Unfortunately, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t recite poetry; he could only paint. Whether it was fighting, scheming, one on one fights or letting your sword taste blood in a massacre¡ªwhy would an artist care about any of that! That was why Sui Xiong thought so highly of living the hermit life. He liked having a little money in hand just enough to provide for the basic necessities, and he also liked living somewhere that was not too far nor too close to the city. He¡¯d want it to be neither noisy nor lonely and also be somewhere where he could spend every day reading leisurely and drawing freely. Back when he¡¯d worked as a warehouse manager and had a second job as an illustrator, Sui Xiong had felt very much like this kind of hermit. Unfortunately, he hadn¡¯t lived in seclusion for very long before he space-traveled, it was really a pity! Because he was thinking about weird things like this, when Sui Xiong entered Seven Colors Spring and came before the God of Light and the rest, he was somewhat absent-minded and inattentive. But his absent-mindedness came across as being calm and profoundly mysterious, and it made the God of Heroes¡ªwho was in charge of handling post-war affairs¡ªthink better of him than before. On the other hand, Wenner had already begun to converse with the God of Heroes. ¡°Where is the God of Light?¡± ¡°After defeating the Master of Mystery, His Majesty left to take him into custody,¡± the God of Heroes said. ¡°How could His Majesty be allowed to do this sort of battlefield cleanup work, that¡¯s really beneath his dignity! Don¡¯t you think so?¡± Wenner rubbed his nose and tried to dodge the subject. Whenever the War God System breached a God¡¯s Kingdom, they always relied on Wenner to take charge of dividing the spoils, or else, the gods would all end up fighting each other over it¡­ Chapter 602 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Once greetings were done with it was time to get to business, and business in this case obviously meant figuring out how exactly the human gods managed to breach the Seven Colors Spring in the Mystery God System¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom, as well as how they¡¯d be splitting the spoils of war. Sui Xiong was interested in the former, whereas Wenner was more interested in the latter. The God of Heroes naturally brought up the former first. Although dividing a part of the profit was something that couldn¡¯t be avoided, the longer he delayed it, the better. While the God of Heroes knew that there was no way he could misappropriate any of the best spoils for himself with the professional pillagers that were the War God System, even making them wait for just a little longer helped him feel a little better about things. ¡°To be honest, we¡¯d planned and prepared for this a long time ago.¡± He took a moment to inwardly organize his words, then said with a calm voice, ¡°Back when the Master of Mystery annihilated the Elf God System, our king had already been granted divinity. He was very puzzled then; the Master of Mystery clearly wasn¡¯t all that strong, so why did he have such astonishing power?¡± Wenner and Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help nodding, both of them very curious. The Master of Mystery was definitely not one of those particularly powerful gods, and there was no doubt about that. Particularly powerful gods were like the previous age¡¯s Sun God. He¡¯d been capable of fighting such a close match with the God of Light, and it shocked the other gods to their very core with the intensity of their battle before the Sun God was finally defeated. The Master of Mystery¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom had been breached in less than two hours, and he was even forced to surrender and lost the war. A person like that¡­ could you consider him strong? Hehe. ¡°His Majesty secretly looked into him for a very long time before finally deciding that there were two possibilities: The first was that he really did have great power, but in order to pursue even higher realms, he usually kept that power sealed, only using it at crucial moments.¡± The God of Heroes paused a moment, then continued, ¡°Another possibility is that he wasn¡¯t actually all that strong, but instead had some sort of extremely special skill which, when used, was enough to wipe out an entire god system.¡± Wenner couldn¡¯t resist saying, ¡°Are you saying you never considered a third possibility? Maybe a problem arose within the Elf God System itself. For example, perhaps the powerful God King wanted to attack a great Divine Power and got the entire God System to provide support, only to fail in the attack and have the Master of Mystery take advantage of their resulting weakness¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s possible as well, but I still trust in His Majesty¡¯s judgment.¡± The God of Heroes had no intention of arguing for the sake of arguing. He gently said, ¡°In short, His Majesty believed that the Master of Mystery¡ªor I suppose we should call him the God of Mystery from now on¡ªhad some sort of powerful trick which needed some preparation in order to employ. As long as you kept him from using this trick, you could defeat him effortlessly.¡± ¡°But how did you keep him from using it?¡± asked Sui Xiong. ¡°That¡¯s our secret,¡± said the God of Heroes with a smile. ¡°The facts prove that His Majesty¡¯s judgment was accurate. We didn¡¯t waste much effort at all, neither did we suffer any deaths or injuries when we successfully defeated the Mystery God System and subdued the Master of Mystery. The sad thing is that the followers in his troops either died in battle or committed suicide, and the only survivor ran away¡­¡± He looked at Sui Xiong as he spoke. The fact that the God of Art and Culture had run to the Void Mask¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom couldn¡¯t be hidden from anyone. If Sui Xiong had a nose, right now he¡¯d probably be copying Chu Liuxiang and rubbing his nose to hide his embarrassment. But jellyfishes didn¡¯t have noses¡­ ¡°Hehe, by the way, how exactly are we splitting the profits?¡± Avoiding the subject was truly a simple and useful strategy. The God of Heroes had no intention of insisting on embarrassing Sui Xiong, so he left it at that. He smiled and said, ¡°Following the old rules, either you drop a level to split it, or each of you goes to pick one thing.¡± Sui Xiong didn¡¯t understand what exactly ¡°the old rules¡± were, so he turned his head to look at Wenner. ¡°We didn¡¯t help with this battle, so when the time comes time to split the spoils of war, if we want to participate in the sharing of profits after inventory has been organized, we¡¯ll have to lower a deity standard. For example, we have great Divine Power, so when splitting profits, our portion will be in accordance with those of mid-level Divine Power. Those two have mid-level Divine Power, so they¡¯ll get a share for someone of a low-level Divine Power,¡± Wenner explained. ¡°As for the latter option, that means we each get to pick one object from those that have yet to be chosen. Of course, you can pick a really good one, but however good it may be, it¡¯d still be only one thing.¡± Sui Xiong nodded; he understood now. Picking the first option would mean participating in an honest and open share of profits. Since he hadn¡¯t put in any effort, sharing according to a lowered deity system was proper and expected. Picking the second option, meanwhile, meant leaving everything to chance and to your own visual judgment. If you had a good eye, you¡¯d definitely have a chance of picking out something really good, but if you didn¡¯t, then most likely you¡¯d be better off going for the first option. No, even if you did have a good eye, it wouldn¡¯t be easy to find an object that could compare with the entirety of a mid-level Divine Power¡¯s spoils! Sui Xiong quietly started thinking. Based on his family background, the second option seemed to be a little more worthwhile. He had spoils from a few big wars, so he already had a perfectly ample background. Forget all those things he¡¯d gotten from the God of Underground Caves¡¯ God¡¯s Kingdom¡ªback when Sui Xiong defeated the Fear God System and the Alliance of Evil Gods, it took Wall and the other followers nearly half a year before they finished moving all the inventory from the God¡¯s Kingdoms of the various gods Sui Xiong had killed. All they¡¯d left behind were empty shelves for the long-expectant ¡°spectators¡± to share among themselves. They¡¯d really struck the motherlode back then! So if he received a mid-level Divine Power¡¯s share of the profits, he didn¡¯t think that he would like any of the things he got. Sui Xiong was better off picking out an object himself and maybe finding something better. Having thought up to this point, Sui Xiong decided to speak up. But right at this moment, the God of Heroes paused slightly in surprise and said, ¡°I just received news from His Majesty: he says that if you hadn¡¯t sounded out the Master of Mystery¡¯s fundamental weaknesses, we might not have been so prompt to act. We wouldn¡¯t have had the chance to beat the War God System to the punch¡­ so it can¡¯t be said that you didn¡¯t help. Therefore, if you are willing to choose the first option, your share can be that of a great Divine Power, and what His Majesty should originally have split into two parts, he is willing to share with you again. If you choose the second option, aside from the core of this God¡¯s Kingdom, you are free to choose anything you¡¯d like, including those things we have already moved away.¡± Sui Xiong was suddenly at a loss again. The former option undoubtedly had great value, as the Human God System had three great Divine Powers in all. Adding Sui Xiong in would be splitting the finest spoils into four parts. This would definitely be no small number of prizes, and most importantly, there would most likely be a lot of valuable objects among them too. However, the latter option was really good too. Keeping in mind that the Human God System had already moved away all the valuable treasures, the hope of finding something that had ¡°slipped through the cracks¡± wasn¡¯t very high to begin with. But if his range of choices had expanded to include even those treasures that had already been moved out, then its worth automatically went up by more than just one level. With this turn of events, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help finding this all a little difficult to decide. It was at that moment that he suddenly heard a message from Wall. ¡°Your Majesty, Song Ballard (The God of Art and Culture) just told me that when she was escaping, the Master of Mystery contacted her and gave her a pair of strange coordinates.¡± He immediately gave Sui Xiong the coordinates. Sui Xiong turned and looked around at the entirety of Seven Colors Spring, his eyes immediately lighting up. ¡°I choose the second option,¡± he said in a loud voice. ¡°I¡¯ve got extreme confidence in my vision!¡± Chapter 603 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When an artist copied a famous painting, he¡¯d usually place a grid over the picture and then draw that grid on his on paper. He¡¯d turn a complicated picture into relatively simpler little squares and had ensured that the copy could be as similar as possible. This craft was often called the grid method; some more traditional artists considered it beneath them to try, but pretty much all young people learned it. As a new-generation artist with a regular family background, Sui Xiong had obviously learned the grid method and had gotten quite proficient with it too. So the moment he got those coordinates, it only took a quick visual sweep of the God¡¯s Kingdom for him to easily find the location they indicated. To tell the truth, he had no idea what would be there, but he was willing to bet it was something really good. A master god had absolute control over his followers. If the Master of Mystery wasn¡¯t willing, the God of Art and Culture wouldn¡¯t have had the chance to escape the battlefield. Being able to run all the way to Sui Xiong¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom¡¯s Shelter and, based on the way she spoke, even being ready to accept Sui Xiong as her master god¡ªwhich was even less of a possibility. That meant that the Master of Mystery had already abolished the contract and had given back her freedom. The Master of Mystery clearly meant to give the God of Art and Culture to Sui Xiong through this action, and the reason he was giving up the God of Art and Culture was most likely because of Wall. Just based on Wall¡¯s clergy, he could be said to be the Master of Mystery¡¯s nemesis. The Master of Mystery mixed ¡°mystery¡± and ¡°knowledge¡± into one whole, thus forming his ¡°mystery¡± clergy, but lately ¡°knowledge¡± had grown independent and was continually growing on top of that. Sooner or later, as time passed, it would cause his own clergy to crumble. If the Master of Mystery could obtain Wall as a follower, there¡¯d be no problem avoiding such a situation. But that was already impossible, which was why as he was on the brink of defeat, the first thing he thought of was that he needed to do his utmost in order to please Sui Xiong. Doing so would hopefully prevent Wall from taking action, therefore keeping his clergy from being split apart. Although this would only be a temporary reprieve, the longer he could stretch that time out, the better. Letting the God of Art and Culture join the Void Mask God System was done with this goal in mind, and telling the God of Art and Culture those coordinates was, of course, for that same goal. None of this was particularly complicated; you could figure this out if you just took a little time to think on it. Even if Sui Xiong had never eaten pork before, he¡¯d still seen a pig walk¡ªat the very least, he¡¯d seen a big herd of pigs in the movie Angry Birds¡ªer, that¡¯s going off-topic. In any case, once Sui Xiong guessed what was going on, he made his decision and set off to get the item at those coordinates. After choosing the second option, he made it look as if he was searching all over the God¡¯s Kingdom. He walked back and forth, passed that location a couple of times without paying attention to it; then he tried exploring more carefully. The tricks the Master of Mystery used to hide his things were quite fantastic. If Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t known the coordinates beforehand, even if he passed through 100 times, he would never have been able to find it. But after learning the coordinates and once he began probing the area, Sui Xiong immediately discovered a tiny hidden seal that appeared to have a God¡¯s Kingdom within it. A sealed God¡¯s Kingdom? That certainly does count as something good, though it¡¯s not as good as I¡¯d have hoped¡­ By this point, Sui Xiong was no longer the country bumpkin he used to be: he knew exactly how valuable a sealed God¡¯s Kingdom was going to be. It¡¯s just¡­ back when the War God System fought that losing battle, they¡¯d given him quite a few sealed God¡¯s Kingdoms as war reparations. To this day, he¡¯d only ever used one of them, so he really didn¡¯t care all that much about this thing. But whatever you might say about it, it was definitely still a valuable object worthy of being picked up. The third time Sui Xiong had walked over here, he suddenly stopped and muttered, ¡°It looks like something¡¯s hidden here¡­¡± Then when he waved a tentacle and pulled out the sealed God¡¯s Kingdom, the God of Heroes stared at him so hard it seemed that his eyes might fall out of his head. ¡°This¡­ there are still treasures like this around here!?¡± As he stared dumbstruck at the gem-like God¡¯s Kingdom Sui Xiong was holding, he couldn¡¯t resist swallowing. ¡°This is really¡­ beyond my expectations¡­¡± ¡°Is it okay if I take this?¡± asked Sui Xiong with a grin. The God of Heroes hesitated a moment, then let out a heavy sigh. ¡°Of course it is. If we agree to bet, we must accept to lose. Being able to find valuable objects is your own talent.¡± Sui Xiong raised his eyebrows, laughing happily. He didn¡¯t intend to tarry any longer, and so he promptly took his leave. He brought the sealed God¡¯s Kingdom with him back to his own God¡¯s Kingdom¡¯s Shelter. Within the Shelter, he saw the God of Art and Culture, Song Ballard. This goddess was the same as always, wearing a high-quality yet modestly styled gown, carrying a harp in one hand and a scroll in the other. The Mystery God System¡¯s destruction didn¡¯t appear to have struck much of a blow to her, or at least, she¡¯d already completely regained her calm by now. ¡°Did you get the thing?¡± she asked. Sui Xiong nodded and pulled out the sealed God¡¯s Kingdom. The God of Art and Culture¡¯s eyes lit up, obviously having realized what this was. She curiously asked, ¡°Which god is this God¡¯s Kingdom from?¡± Sui Xiong hadn¡¯t actually checked yet, so he split off a bit of Divine Power and dropped it inside. The next instant, he was struck speechless. This wasn¡¯t a ¡°sealed God¡¯s Kingdom¡± at all! No¡­ that wasn¡¯t right either; it was still actually a sealed God¡¯s Kingdom, and it currently had the ¡°medicine¡± clergy sealed within it. But this light ball interior shone like a gem. The most important thing here absolutely wasn¡¯t the ¡°medicine¡± clergy, but a gigantic hidden treasury! This was a hidden treasury secretly prepared by the Master of Mystery. Most likely, he¡¯d originally planned to use it to make a comeback after running into unexpected mishaps in the future. Within this treasury was a huge pile of who knows how many gems, all overflowing with stored Divine Power. If you absorbed them all and had abundant divine support, it could probably make a god ascend to the level of a great Divine Power. But this was actually the least remarkable thing within the treasury. The real priceless artifacts here were all the sealed god corpses. There weren¡¯t all that many, just twelve or thirteen altogether, but this was a bunch of real gods¡¯ corpses! What shocked Sui Xiong most of all was one of the corpses in particular. Judging by its appearance, this corpse was clearly an elf. He had a slender build, a determined-looking face, and even though he was already dead, there was still a smell remaining on his body that Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t just brush off: there was no doubt he¡¯d had great Divine Power when he was alive. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t even need to guess to know that this was the body of the Master God of the former Elf God System. The other corpses were all about the same, with the same unique attributes¡ªslender limbs, pointed ears, hair so bright it seemed to shine¡­ These were all distinctive characteristics of the Elven Race! Not just that, but within the treasury were also a few powerful magical objects and a few extremely rare materials. The large majority of them were in the style of the Elven Race¡¯s culture, especially the decorations and designs on the magical objects. They were all identical to a lot of elven historical sites. In which case, this treasury was in all likelihood a spoil of war that the Master of Mystery had collected after wiping out the Elf God System. In other words, it was the legacy of the former Elf God System. Thanks to this treasury, even if the Master of Mystery met with an unfortunate end, as long as he was able to resurrect them, Sui Xiong could quickly regain his great Divine Power or even rebuild a god system. ¡°A present this big is really too generous¡­¡± he couldn¡¯t help quietly muttering to himself. ¡°Why would that Master of Mystery¡­ want to give me a present like this?¡± Chapter 604 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong didn¡¯t consider himself to be particularly handsome¡ªmaybe he was considered handsome among jellyfish, but that didn¡¯t mean anything at all. He wasn¡¯t the Master of Mystery¡¯s father or anything, neither had he ever asked the Master of Order to adopt him. So why would the Master of Mystery want to send him such a generous gift? Indeed, the Master of Mystery did want to entice and curry favor with him, hoping he wouldn¡¯t kick him while he was down by letting Wall split the ¡°mystery¡± clergy. But Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t the kind of person who couldn¡¯t separate public and private interests, and considering the strength of the ¡°knowledge¡± clergy, the ¡°mystery¡± clergy¡¯s fall would happen sooner or later regardless. Offering up a follower and a sealed God¡¯s Kingdom already seemed like enough in Sui Xiong¡¯s point of view, so was there really a need to add on such a luxurious gift package? This was like if John Doe sent someone a set of valuable antique furniture so that person could help him with a job. The other person gladly accepts, only to discover that this furniture was filled with precious jewels over 100 times more valuable than the furniture. Sui Xiong felt that way. Aside from some bankrupt bigshot who didn¡¯t bother doing inventory checks even after receiving a few hundred thousand dollars and left the bills to grow mold in the cellar, most people wouldn¡¯t be bold enough to accept this. Of course, if the current Sui Xiong were to discuss status and position, he ranked unspeakably higher than any bigshot back on Earth. But when it came to insatiable greed, he still couldn¡¯t compare to them. Which is why after thinking back and forth over it, he still couldn¡¯t figure it out and even found himself feeling a little terrified. So he was forced to ask the God of Art and Culture: what exactly was the Master of Mystery trying to do in giving him such a generous gift? The God of Art and Culture was shocked when she saw the treasury. After calming down, she was silent for a long while, then said in a very uncertain voice, ¡°Your Majesty, the Void Mask, I believe one reason the Master of Mystery has sent you this treasury is as a plea to you, and the other reason¡­ is probably because he doesn¡¯t want this to fall into the hands of the human gods.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s mouth gaped wide; he¡¯d only just now realized the huge blind spot in his thought process. When the Master of Mystery was defeated by the Human God System, he had no choice but to surrender, but he wouldn¡¯t have accepted it in his heart. He definitely wouldn¡¯t want his most prized secret treasury to fall into their hands to greatly increase their strength. But the human gods had already occupied his God¡¯s Kingdom and were currently doing a full sweep of the place, or you could say they were digging three feet deep. Even if he hid his secret treasury really well, it wouldn¡¯t necessarily be able to avoid the human gods¡¯ search. In a situation like this, him choosing to send the treasury to Sui Xiong was a logical conclusion. Whatever you might say about him, Sui Xiong at least wasn¡¯t a member of the Human God System. Plus, he was sworn friends with the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, and the two had a conflict of philosophy with the master god of the Human God System, the God of Light. If things went as expected, sooner or later the two sides would end up in a fierce battle that could only end with one side¡¯s survival. Increasing the strength of Sui Xiong¡¯s side was equivalent to weakening the Human God System¡¯s strength, which was also equivalent to indirectly avenging the Master of Mystery. As for the question of whether or not the Master of Mystery would become cannon fodder by the time the two sides fought¡ªhehe, that was still a huge uncertainty! The God of Light had always been vicious and merciless. If the Master of Mystery was human, he might have been able to sincerely sell himself out and place himself at the other¡¯s mercy. He¡¯d be able to live the life of a well-behaved little brother for the rest of his days. But the Master of Mystery wasn¡¯t human. As far as the God of Light was concerned, no matter how loyal the Master of Mystery might act, it was still better to kill him and confer his clergy to a human god. Having thought up to this point, Sui Xiong suddenly jolted, feeling as if a tiny wisp of cold air had threaded its way into his heart. All the followers in the Master of Mystery¡¯s troops were human¡­ No wonder he¡¯d allowed these followers to fight to their deaths. The God of Spellcaster Ymirjar Le-Peyroux had probably committed suicide under his orders. It was all to prevent the God of Light from killing him and giving his clergy to these human gods! He¡¯d killed his own loyal subordinates just to protect himself from danger¡­ This realization left Sui Xiong sighing for a good while; the little sympathy he¡¯d had for the Master of Mystery, as well as the uneasiness because of that present, vanished like smoke. A vicious and merciless person like this wanting to take advantage of him was expected. It wasn¡¯t something he needed to feel unsure about. Morals and the like were something you could only talk about with good people. If you tried to talk about morals or kindness with someone like this, you¡¯d need your head examined! Did the words ¡°morality¡± or ¡°kindness¡± exist in his head? It¡¯d be a wonder if they did! So Sui Xiong¡¯s mood quickly improved as he stopped pondering on all those trivial matters. He moved on to complete the contract with the God of Art and Culture and take her in as a follower, but the God of Art and Culture was clever as well. Right when she finished signing the contract, she gave Sui Xiong a very valuable suggestion. ¡°Your Majesty, as the God of Classics has already fallen, I believe you could have the God of Knowledge attempt to take the clergy for himself.¡± Sui Xiong thought on this, then looked at Wall standing by his side. It was quite a reasonable suggestion. Wall liked books and had been a librarian before, so following his philosophy, it was entirely possible to gain recognition from the source of the world and inherit the ¡°classics¡± clergy. Wall had been pensive this entire time, looking noticeably preoccupied. Sui Xiong stared at him for a good while before the God of Medicine, Arcaian, called him back to reality, and he hurriedly apologized. ¡°It¡¯s fine, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± The grinning Sui Xiong honestly didn¡¯t mind; on the contrary, he was a little curious as to what Wall had been thinking about. If he had questions, then naturally he¡¯d ask them. Wall had no intention of hiding anything either, calmly replying, ¡°I was just thinking¡­ should I take advantage of this moment to extend my church to the Mifata Federation?¡± Everyone was surprised at that, and they exchanged blank looks with each other. If you thought about it, this was a really reasonable decision. The Mifata Federation primarily worshipped the God of Spellcaster, Le-Peyroux, but now that Le-Peyroux was already dead, a blank space had appeared where their object of worship had once been. Of course, many of them would most likely choose to switch their faiths to the Master of Mystery, but the Master of Mystery had just lost a war, been taken captive, and surrendered on top of that. All this really ruined his image. Those who were a little more courageous might not be willing to worship a weakling, and if you compared him to the God of Spellcaster, Le-Peyroux, you could see at once how much worse he was. Heroes generally worshipped heroes. Even nasty and evil villains usually hoped their bosses would be an upstanding, courageous guys rather than soft eggs who admitted defeat without the slightest hint of shame the minute things started to go wrong. So at the very least, within a certain period of time, very few people were likely to actually make the decision to worship the Master of Mystery. If the God of Knowledge, Wall were to forcefully get himself involved right now, his clergy would definitely be able to attract a lot of scholars. His legendary life and his history of being happy to act on either gratitude or revenge could also add quite a few points. Even more was the fact that Sui Xiong was backing him. The giant jellyfish, who was called the Void Mask, was the only god powerful enough to walk on the Main Plane using his real body. This jellyfish had an honest way of doing things too, and he had a bold and powerful personality. He was also rather good at governing a kingdom, and in the short span of a few decades, he¡¯d turned the overgrown, desolate northwest territory into a prosperous and powerful country. You wouldn¡¯t lose a thing from relying on a boss like this! This was why Wall got this inclination to run over and preach to the Mifata Federation to expand the Void Mask System¡¯s influence. ¡°This is no small matter! I think we should discuss it further¡­¡± the God of Medicine, Arcaian, frowned as he said. ¡°I¡¯m afraid it will cause conflict with the Human God System¡­¡± ¡°If we clash, then we clash. What¡¯s there to be afraid of!¡± The God of Art and Culture, Song Ballard, had no good opinions of the Human God System. She let out a cold humph as she said, ¡°Your Majesty helped the Kingdom of Dwarfs prevent an invasion from the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, and you¡¯ve already long since offended the Human God System. Besides, fighting over believers is the basis of being a god; you shouldn¡¯t concede even to a lover or a friend!¡± ¡°I agree!¡± The habitually silent God of Healing, Three Nothingness, had opened her mouth to give this rare comment. Sometimes, she wouldn¡¯t say a single word in an entire day. In order to increase his persu asiveness, he purposely moved to stand by Wall, making his position clear. With three vs. one, the result of the four great followers¡¯ discussion was made evident. Sui Xiong didn¡¯t make a hasty decision though, instead beginning to ponder over it carefully. He thought a lot before finally remembering his bro, Yorgaardman, and then he made a decision. ¡°Go do it!¡± he said to Wall. ¡°I can go back you up whenever you need it!¡± Wall laughed, lowered his head in a bow, and hurried away. On his person, a fierce edged sword made its long-awaited reappearance. Chapter 605 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Wall was originally born to a small merchant family and could be counted as being a part of the grassroots of society. He¡¯d learned to fight in his youth; when he was 17 or 18 his family ran into unexpected trouble and not only lost the family fortune, but also owed a huge debt. He was left with no choice but to travel across the country as an adventurer, risking life and limb countless times for around ten years before finally being able to pay back that money. Once he¡¯d cleared out his debts, his inclination for adventure dampened, and he settled down instead. He¡¯d originally planned to live out his years in this calm and steady manner, but unexpectedly, misfortune came knocking at his door again. Thus the legendary story of him drawing his Black Blade to kill a noble and creating the peerless hero who endlessly terrified all the nobles in the world for almost 100 years came about. All these events were already in the past, but Wall would never forget them. Even if he¡¯d already become a god, he was still rather unfriendly towards merchants and nobles. Conversely, he was quite friendly towards adventurers, but this didn¡¯t really match with the ¡°knowledge¡± clergy at all. On one hand, he¡¯d gained some realizations while cultivating his mind and spirit these past few years, but on the other hand, he¡¯d been influenced by the power of belief and slowly began to change. What this meant was that he was no longer hostile towards merchants and nobles; on the contrary, he was willing to give his respect to those merchants and nobles who had the ambition to learn or who were willing to spread civilization. Thus belief in him slowly began to spread throughout the middle and upper classes. Whatever you might say about it, knowledge would always be an extremely important power. Having knowledge meant having immense resources in your grasp that could greatly aid you in both war and governance. Great nobles and merchants might be able to ignore it, but those elites who yearned to join the upper class were deeply committed to learning and were all actively educating their own members¡ªnone of this could come to be without ¡°knowledge.¡± Not only that, but many spellcasters revered Wall as well. Academic magicians had always especially believed that knowledge was the foundation of magic, and that a mage¡¯s education must first start by teaching the cultural arts. All of this leaned towards the conduct of Wall¡¯s religion, and many such people had already become his believers. So when Wall came to the Mifata Federation and called his church and believers to begin expanding their influence, establishing a sphere of scholarly cultural influence within the once tough-as-steel Country of Casters, what they gained wasn¡¯t the indifference Sui Xiong had originally been a little worried about, but a warm welcome and fervent support instead. Because the God of Spellcaster Le-Peyroux had passed, the people of the Mifata Federation were now all a little anxious and apprehensive. Especially because for a long time now, Ymirjar Le-Peyroux had been the Federation¡¯s patron saint, the stabilizing force in everyone¡¯s hearts. No matter how many storms the Federation weathered through, as long as they had him, the mages all held total faith that they¡¯d make it through. And yet, he was gone. Ever since the Federation was established, he¡¯d been like a towering sacred mountain that reached to the heavens, withstanding any pressure. No matter how dangerous the situation, he could manage to make the correct decision or simply use his own great strength to break through their predicament. Generation after generation, from ancestors to offspring, the people of the Federation had long since grown used to his presence, even forming a habit of praying to Master Le-Peyroux whenever they ran into any inconvenience. This was just like how people in the east back on Earth would often lament, ¡°Oh Lord of Heaven,¡± and people from the west liked to lament, ¡°Oh my God.¡± And yet, he had already fallen. The Mifata Federation¡¯s ¡°Lord of Heaven,¡± their ¡°God,¡± no longer existed. This left a lot of people feeling empty inside. Often, people would run into trouble and subconsciously begin to quietly pray to Le-Peyroux for his blessing, only to suddenly remember that the Federation¡¯s patron saint was already gone¡­ As a result, many people would suddenly start crying and completely break down in tears. When the Church of the God of Knowledge stepped out to publicize their own doctrine and called everyone to believe in the God of Knowledge, they were taking advantage of the perfect moment. Those people whose hearts were empty wanted something to rely on, and the God of Knowledge¡¯s doctrines and experience all gave them very good opinions. As soon as the public appeals began, a lot of people came in with the currents, directly putting their belief in Wall. Of course, Wall wasn¡¯t the only god to take the chance for wanton evangelizing; there were actually quite a few churches all throwing manpower and physical resources into missionary work within the Mifata Federation. But missionary work wasn¡¯t something you could succeed at just by throwing down manpower and resources. Belief wasn¡¯t a business, and if your doctrine couldn¡¯t obtain people¡¯s approval, then even if they joined your church, they could never manage to become true believers. This sort of situation was called ¡°false belief,¡± meaning, ¡°I say I believe, but in truth, I don¡¯t.¡± The situation above this was called ¡°careless belief,¡± meaning ¡°I usually don¡¯t have much belief, but at the very least I believe when I¡¯m praying.¡± Careless believers still counted as believers, but their belief wasn¡¯t steady, and at least half of them would worship multiple gods at the same time. They¡¯d choose different gods to pray to depending on the circumstance, and they would hope for those gods¡¯ blessings in return. This was like the people in the east back on Earth, who believed in the sky, different gods and in their ancestors. In short, whoever was willing to bless him, they were willing to believe in. Many westerners felt that the belief of those in the east was hypocritical and that they¡¯d turned religion into a business. They thought that belief should be given to one subject alone, and as for a god¡¯s blessing, that was something to consider after you¡¯d paid your share. They even thought that, regardless of whether or not you received any blessings, that shouldn¡¯t affect your investment. On this basis, they developed the ideology, ¡°Everyone should worship our god and non-believers deserve to be taken out and hacked to death.¡± This ideology then developed into, ¡°All believers should follow our school¡¯s method of worshipping and understanding God, or else you¡¯ll be branded heretics and hacked to death.¡± Eastern people generally just chuckled at this, while inwardly lamenting, ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with their heads.¡± That kind of belief system naturally existed in this world as well. Believing in investment without asking for anything in return was called reverent belief, and thinking that those who didn¡¯t believe in your own god were committing a crime was called mad belief. In addition, there was another type of person whose life philosophy agreed with a god¡¯s doctrines on a fundamental level, to the point that their every action was basically in accordance with the doctrine. This type was the rarest and was called upright belief. Those believers between reverent belief and careless belief only followed one god, but if this god didn¡¯t bless them, then they couldn¡¯t be expected to stay loyal. If necessary, they would just switch religions. These kinds were called true believers. False belief, careless belief, true belief, and reverent belief were the four most common types of religious belief. Aside from fake belief being at the lowest level, the other three all needed to have a certain level of acknowledgment of the god¡¯s doctrines in order to be attained. The Mifata Federation was a country of casters, and modern mages often discussed things using culture as their foundation. Therefore, even old farmers who couldn¡¯t recognize their letters knew to respect the culture in this country. The God of Knowledge¡¯s doctrine very quickly gained everyone¡¯s acknowledgment, making the missionary work incredibly easy. As for the other gods, they naturally didn¡¯t have this sort of advantage, so their missionary efficiency couldn¡¯t even compare to the Church of the God of Knowledge. Moreover, the Church of the God of Knowledge had another big advantage as well: They had money, and lots of it too! Having come across this once in a blue moon chance, Sui Xiong definitely didn¡¯t worry about such an insignificant thing as money. He rationalized that spending it was also promoting societal progress. Have you not heard of GDP, my lord? Earning money and spending it are both GDP, you know! Therefore, he gave out the order and spent an ocean of money as if it were flowing water. You could even say that he was paving the way with gold. Earning money wasn¡¯t easy, but anyone could spend it! With adequate funding to back them, the Church of the God of Knowledge¡¯s missionaries truly didn¡¯t pay any attention to the costs. The missionaries in some areas even shouted the catchphrase, ¡°We wish to promote the entire country¡¯s education.¡± This left other gods¡¯ churches green with envy, but none of them had any money to use, so envying was all they could do. In barely four or five days¡¯ time, the Church of the God of Knowledge had expanded without restraint within the Mifata Federation, or at least, they had gained a few hundred thousand believers. On top of that, they were still growing. Even the rulers of cities, as well as high-level mages sitting at the peak of the mages¡¯ tower, all chose to believe in him. Accompanying this great increase in believers was the rapid promotion of Wall¡¯s Divine Power, and before he knew it, he¡¯d reached the standing of a mid-level Divine Power. Chapter 606 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°This really is fortunate!¡± As he watched silently from Wall¡¯s side, Sui Xiong was sincerely happy for him. After working hard for so many years, Wall had finally managed to get some good luck. Or maybe, this was fate making up for the past, if fate was something that really existed in the unseen world of spirits. But Wall wasn¡¯t entirely lacking in opponents. Among all the gods wantonly evangelizing here, there was also one who was evenly matched against him¡ªThe God of Aristocracy. The God of Aristocracy had already spread his reach over the Mifata Federation some time ago, and his churches already covered the land. He had a temple in practically every city. The core of his doctrine was to sing the praises of noble lineage and continuously rouse one¡¯s drive to advance upward. The former provided rationale for rule by aristocrats while the latter could lull the people, as well as continually cause those of outstanding talent to be absorbed into the aristocratic group. Actually, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t really dislike the God of Aristocracy¡¯s doctrine¡ªit¡¯d be fine as long as you added one more line. The influence of a nobleman will die in the fifth generation. This was a line he¡¯d learned from the internet. It meant that regardless of how great your achievements were, regardless of how outstanding your success, you wouldn¡¯t be able to pass it down past the fifth generation. If your achievements weren¡¯t great enough or your successes weren¡¯t outstanding enough, the number of generations you could keep them relevant would be even shorter. If he just added this, Sui Xiong would be able to say that he accepted the God of Aristocracy¡¯s doctrine. Even if you twisted the grandeur of one¡¯s actions into the grandeur of blood lineage, it wouldn¡¯t be straying all that far. But without this, it just didn¡¯t work. However great your ancestors were, what did any of it have to do with their offspring? How was it fair for the children and all the following generations to lie on their ancestor¡¯s credit book, indulging in a life of debauchery? Behind red doors, meat and wine go to waste, while out on the road lie the frozen bones of the poor. Were those tyrannical rulers who oppressed the people really any more noble than those starving people by the wayside? Bah! But this argument was greatly welcomed by the aristocracy, as well as those who didn¡¯t have to worry about basic necessities or whose lives were progressively getting better. The former felt comfortable with it, whereas the latter saw hope. Even a good number of those people who weren¡¯t doing all that well approved of the God of Aristocracy¡¯s doctrine, because it at least let them console themselves with, ¡°The reason I¡¯m not doing well isn¡¯t for any reason other than the fact my bloodline isn¡¯t noble enough.¡± So the God of Aristocracy¡¯s doctrine really did have a foundation among the masses. About half a month later, the great missionary trial between all the major churches had already begun to show results. The Church of the God of Knowledge and the Church of the God of Aristocracy had undoubtedly taken the first two places in the race. If you added all the new believers of all the remaining gods¡¯ churches together, the resulting number wouldn¡¯t be able to compare to either one of them. If you were to say that the religiously available people in the Mifata Federation numbered ten thousand, then the Church of the God of Knowledge would have taken two thousand, the Church of the God of Aristocracy had about the same, and the rest of the churches together took 1,800 or 1,900 people at most. To put it in other words, there was around 40% of the population still available to continue competing over. But having reached this point, the easy-to-win people had already been won. Of the ones who were left, either they required great amounts of manpower and resources, or they were still hung up over the god they had lost; neither was easy to obtain. Many gods¡¯ churches drew back at these circumstances. Only the Church of the God of Knowledge and the Church of the God of Aristocracy continued to put in effort. One of these churches had an advantage in their philosophy, and with their great wealth of money, there was no problem they couldn¡¯t overcome. The other¡¯s advantage lay in their having operated here a long time, and with their powerful abilities and no lack of wealth, there was no reason for them to back down either. But, as the missionary work gradually intensified, the two churches had more and more incidences of friction and conflict. The contradictions were growing greater by the day, and it was clear that a fierce battle would break out at any moment. Honestly, situations like this were very commonly seen. Competing over believers was the most common reason for conflict between churches. Of course, it was alright to avoid battles as well. As long as one side retreated, then a war became impossible to fight. But the Church of the God of Aristocracy had a forceful attitude and clearly had no interest in retreating. Most likely, the God of Aristocracy had already decided that he was willing to risk a war. Under these circumstances, it was Wall who began to hesitate. ¡°Your Majesty, do you think¡­ I should quit while I¡¯m ahead?¡± he asked in a somewhat worried manner. ¡°I¡¯ve already expanded by almost five million believers, which is quite sufficient for me. Should I continue expanding? I feel like any more would be too greedy¡­¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. ¡°The God of Aristocracy has expanded by that many believers as well, but why isn¡¯t he quitting while he¡¯s ahead?¡± ¡°His church supports aristocrats, after all, so they have a natural advantage,¡± said Wall, shaking his head as well. ¡°It¡¯s been barely 300 years since he achieved godhood, and he¡¯s gone from a weak Divine Power to the peak of a mid-level Divine Power. I estimate that he plans to use this chance to break through to become a great Divine Power. At this point, there isn¡¯t any chance of him backing down.¡± ¡°That¡¯s even more reason for us not to back down!¡± said Sui Xiong. ¡°The Human God System already has three great Divine Powers, and if they add another, their expanded influence will be too hard to deal with. Because of our connection with Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, we¡¯re ultimately not on the same side as the God of Light. There¡¯s a good chance that one day we¡¯ll become actual enemies. When the time comes for Yorgaardman to go handle the God of Light, I¡¯ll probably take charge of controlling the God of Heroes and the God of Protection¡­ Are you planning to use mid-level Divine Power against the God of Aristocracy¡¯s great Divine Power?¡± Wall was startled, and his gaze quickly turned fierce. ¡°I understand!¡± he said in a heavy tone of voice. ¡°I¡¯ll just have to alter my plans then. Missionary work is a trivial matter here; what¡¯s important is striking at the Church of the God of Aristocracy and ensuring that the God of Aristocracy has no chance of advancing!¡± ¡°We may need to pay a heavy price for this, but whatever one might say, any cost is worth preventing him from rising smoothly through the ranks.¡± Sui Xiong nodded his head, then sighed. ¡°To tell the truth, I¡¯ve always been a little afraid of the God of Aristocracy. That guy¡­ he¡¯s kind of hard to understand.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, no matter the consequences, I¡¯ll be sure to stop him!¡± came Wall¡¯s resolute reply. ¡°So he wants to take this chance to advance? Dream on!¡± Wall was a man of his word. A moment later, he¡¯d sent down an Oracle to tell the church to mobilize their believers and begin preparing for battle against the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Not just that, but he even had his priests give speeches criticizing the Church of the God of Aristocracy¡¯s doctrines. This practice was considered taboo. Going this far was basically a declaration of war¡ªwhich was exactly what Wall intended. War was what they wanted anyway, so why not do their worst? Let¡¯s fight! There was truly a great number of competent people among the Church of the God of Knowledge¡¯s priests and believers¡ªscholars especially. When they started putting their minds to work on attacking the God of Aristocracy¡¯s doctrine, they easily found all sorts of justifications and started violently attacking it from every possible angle. Some scholars came from a historical angle, surveying tens of thousands of years¡¯ worth of history in order to argue that noble bloodlines would ultimately either dissipate or degrade into scoundrels. Some scholars looked at it from a biological angle, listing all kinds of powerful creatures and arguing that powerful lineages happened not because they were noble, but because their ancestors had probably crossbred with some sort of demon beast. Still, others used a societal angle, analyzing that those who spared no effort for progress most likely wouldn¡¯t be able to obtain a noble family background, but rather, they would be eaten alive by the people far beneath them before finally getting discarded like an old cleaning rag. The numerous arguments were all wildly different, but without a doubt, the way every one of them was worded was sufficient enough to make the believers of the God of Aristocracy so angry that they were practically itching to pull out their swords. People said, ¡°Hurt the body, not the pride,¡± but that line could no longer describe the problem with the Church of the God of Knowledge. What they were doing now was punching the opponent in their figurative right cheek, then the left cheek, then aiming for the chin, after which they struck at the nose. Forget the fact the Church of the God of Aristocracy had always been overbearing, even the most open and honest church wouldn¡¯t be able to endure a situation like this! Since they couldn¡¯t endure it, they might as well get ready to fight! For a moment, the air was cold with murderous intent, and both churches vigorously assembled armed forces. It was obvious that a large-scale war was about to begin. Chapter 607 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Before war broke out, Sui Xiong sent a priest to arrange a meeting with one of the priests of the God of Aristocracy. He wasn¡¯t planning to stage any kind of nauseatingly melodramatic scene involving ¡°rivers of blood below, drinking and gambling above.¡± What he wanted was to use this time before the inevitable falling out to ask a few things. A few things¡­ that had happened over 40 years ago. The two priests¡¯ meeting place was a particularly high-class restaurant, inside of which were a number of private rooms. They weren¡¯t large, just big enough for five or six friends to eat and drink together, or possibly for two or three people to have a private chat. Sui Xiong¡¯s priest arrived first. Upon arrival, he immediately broke the legs of every chair in the room and moved the only intact one to the northwest corner. Then he pulled out a green-dyed, wooden jellyfish figurine and respectfully placed it on the table. He devoutly kneeled in worship before it before casually pouring out a few drinks over the dining table. He was standing solemnly in front of the sculpture like some sort of waiter quietly waiting for the other person to arrive. After a long while, the God of Aristocracy¡¯s priest walked in. This priest was dressed in an entirely different style from the Void Mask¡¯s priest. He wore an embroidered brocade gown so gorgeous it was enough to make people fear approaching. On this gown was an innumerable number of Magic Runes. If someone were to recklessly use magic sight to look at it, they¡¯d be so dazzled that they might immediately go blind. The priest himself was robust and prosperous. You could tell at a glance that he lived like a prince by that round chin with at least four or five rolls of fat beneath and a protruding fat belly stuffed full of who knows how much of the nation¡¯s hard-earned wealth. By comparison, the Void Mask¡¯s priest was much more plain. He was dressed in sackcloth with a suit of light armor and a single long staff. He was also carrying a little backpack on his back, giving off the dignified appearance of a traveler. Compared to this priest from the God of Aristocracy, he truly looked extremely poor. But the truth was that this was all a misconception. The God of Aristocracy¡¯s priest wasn¡¯t actually a fat, good-for-nothing loser living off the wealth of the people, and the Void Mask¡¯s priest wasn¡¯t some destitute traveler either. If the need arose, both of them had enough talent to face a 100-man army without any trouble, fighting if they wanted and leaving if they felt like it. High-level clergymen generally had that sort of ability. The first thing the God of Aristocracy¡¯s priest saw as he walked in was the Void Mask¡¯s priest standing solemnly before a holy sculpture. It was only after that he noticed the broken chairs and the soaking-wet table, and couldn¡¯t help letting out a bitter laugh. According to custom, in a negotiation like this, the two sides should bring out figures of their gods to worship, an act which signified that this was a holy conference being watched over by the gods. But at this moment, aside from those chairs with sawed-off legs, there was only a table covered in spilled drinks. Neither of these was fitting for worshipping a holy figure, which made things rather difficult for him. But this priest was a high-level one after all, with a quick-witted mind. It didn¡¯t take much thinking for him to come up with a solution. He pulled out a silver-colored seed and a vessel of holy water from his storage belt, filled a clean empty bowl to the brim with holy water, put the seed inside, and began reciting incantations. In an instant, that seed began to grow branches and leaves. It didn¡¯t take more than a moment¡¯s effort for the seed to become a little silver tree, at the top of which there was an inexplicable hollow shape. It was the perfect size for him to place the God of Aristocracy¡¯s holy figure and pray to it before also standing in attendance. In this short span of time, with the help of a magic weapon and holy water, he¡¯d created a temporary shrine. At this point, you could see the different details within the two churches. The Church of the Void Mask was a newly-emerging one, having talented people but lacking in resources, while the Church of the God of Aristocracy relied on the Human God System. They had profound levels of inside information, but their talent was slightly inferior in comparison. The negotiation had yet to begin, and the two priests had already used such a trivial thing as worshipping holy figures as an excuse to have a fight. They each had their advantages, so it was hard to tell the outcome. Once both sides¡¯ holy figures had been worshipped, the two priests didn¡¯t say a word, but divine thoughts were crossing swords in the space between them. This was the two gods each sending down a sliver of divine thought, attaching themselves to their holy figures, and opening the negotiation. Negotiations between high-level priests like this were pretty much all like this. They were just there to act as witnesses and to pass the story on to the believers in their church. The actual negotiation was between the gods the two sides believed in. The first to speak was the God of Aristocracy. He was disinclined to exchange greetings, instead directly asking, what exactly did Sui Xiong mean by this? Why was he secretly contacting him when the two sides were clearly about to go to war? Sui Xiong skipped the pleasantries as well, giving the other an honest explanation of his purpose in coming. ¡°About 40 years ago, there was a Golden Tower City in the Mifata Federation. Your believers existed in this city, along with believers of the God of Knights, and both sides were at constant war with each other. Because the believers of the God of Knights were lacking in money, they slowly began to lose their advantage. It was then that a great merchant made contact with trade routes on the distant seas, so both sides set out only to run into the legendary sea monster, Undercurrent Timsar. They died together on the sea. Because their families were in debt from buying goods, your church pressed them into quite a wretched state¡­¡± Sui Xiong gave his simple summary of what had happened in the past, then asked, ¡°I¡¯ve always felt that something odd had been going on in the background back then. What do you think?¡± The God of Aristocracy laughed indifferently. ¡°There¡¯s nothing odd there, that sea monster was lured there by a clergyman of mine. In truth, even that long voyage and the moment they borrowed money were all planned out in secret by my clergyman.¡± ¡°But didn¡¯t he die as well?¡± ¡°Dying for the sake of evangelizing is an honorable death indeed,¡± said the God of Aristocracy. ¡°His soul has already been received into my God¡¯s Kingdom. In a clergyman¡¯s point of view, what could be wrong with this sort of death?¡± It was only then that Sui Xiong fully understood. He nodded, then said, ¡°There is another thing I¡¯d like to ask. When there was civil strife in the Kingdom of Eagle, Prince Woods launched an armed rebellion and killed the king¡­¡± ¡°That was also something pushed forward by my believers,¡± said the God of Aristocracy, not waiting for him to finish. ¡°Though the difference between this and the other incident is that in the other, they formulated, planned, and carried it out on their own; all I did was approve the report they submitted. This one I personally plotted and promoted, and I even sent a legendary Oracle.¡± ¡°Then why did you suddenly retreat after all your great success without obtaining any profits?¡± Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t at all surprised by his reply, but he was extremely curious about the events that had followed. The God of Aristocracy was quiet for a while, then let out a heavy, wordless sigh. Sui Xiong waited a long time without receiving an answer. He was puzzled at this and so couldn¡¯t help asking, ¡°What is it? Is something like this really worth keeping secret?¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing to hide about it.¡± ¡°Then why won¡¯t you tell me?¡± ¡°Why must you ask?¡± asked the God of Aristocracy in reply. ¡°What use do you get out of knowing all this?¡± Sui Xiong smiled, but he didn¡¯t reply. How could it be useful? He was just curious, is all. He really was puzzled right now, though. Why was the God of Aristocracy refusing to talk? Could it be¡­ he wasn¡¯t able to? Or maybe¡­ he was afraid to? Having thought up to this point, he got an idea and asked, ¡°Did someone order you to retreat?¡± The God of Aristocracy went back to playing mute. Sui Xiong immediately confirmed his guess¡ªas expected, the reason the God of Aristocracy had been in such a rush to start the great purge after pushing Woods Igor into seizing the throne had originally been because he wanted his own church to occupy the Kingdom of Eagle. But just when the purge was complete, before he could find the time to rake in the fruits of his labor, he¡¯d unexpectedly been forced to leave by the God of Light. As a result, he¡¯d wasted his energy and gained nothing at all. In which case, why had the God of Light forced him to retreat? Was it because he was on good terms with the God of Knights? Or was it some other reason? Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t be sure, but he knew that he wouldn¡¯t be getting any more information here. He was silent for a while then said, ¡°I have one more thing I¡¯d like to discuss with you.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you think your doctrine isn¡¯t comprehensive enough?¡± Sui Xiong hesitated a moment but ultimately still decided to give his suggestion. ¡°An aristocrat¡¯s status should be able to go up or down so that an ancestor¡¯s honor cannot become capital to be enjoyed for every subsequent generation. If the offspring don¡¯t make something of themselves, it would only be right for them to lose their noble rank.¡± ¡°Like what you have going on over at the Republic of Northwest?¡± The God of Aristocracy had evidently studied the Republic of Northwest¡¯s aristocratic system. There was a grin of dissatisfaction on his face as he asked in return, ¡°So it¡¯s fine if your ancestors¡¯ struggles are turned into insignificant honor? Then what point is there in the people¡¯s shedding blood as they strive?¡± ¡°The ancestors didn¡¯t fight for their successors to become opponents in other people¡¯s struggles!¡± ¡°Who would work so hard, if not to stand above others! If not to let their family stand above others for generations to come! Who would put in so much of their heart into their church and country! Why don¡¯t you go read some history books!¡± ¡°People can¡¯t always live in the past; they need to look to the future and push forward for historical progress,¡± urged Sui Xiong. ¡°Just look at the late Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, that¡¯s what he did. Is there anyone now who still follows the practices of the Witch Age?¡± ¡°In all these years, there¡¯s only ever been the one Le-Peyroux,¡± scoffed the God of Aristocracy. ¡°Do you want everyone to be Le-Peyroux? That¡¯s unrealistic.¡± ¡°The Main Plane only has so much land, but there is no limit to the aristocracy¡¯s greed. If this goes on, no family can last for long. Whether it be in a few decades or a few centuries, those people who have been so crushed by greed that they have nowhere else to go will eventually rise up and put an end to the aristocracy. When that time comes, any kind of family will be destroyed,¡± said Sui Xiong. ¡°I¡¯ve studied history before. Since ancient times, there has rarely been a family that lasted more than 200 years, most of them dying out in the fourth or fifth generation. It was because their successors had fallen entirely into corruption, oppressing the people to the point they had no choice but to revolt.¡± ¡°Is being able to pass it on for four or five generations not enough?¡± asked the God of Aristocracy in return. ¡°A mortal¡¯s lifespan is only so brief. Is being able to pass on their family¡¯s honor for four or five generations not enough reason for them to fight?¡± ¡°But why can¡¯t they use a gentler method? Something more progressive, more capable of pushing later generations to continue striving¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s not possible!¡± came the God of Aristocracy¡¯s stiff reply. ¡°Breaking long-held traditions just for an insignificant bit of progress is a stupid way of handling things. I¡¯m not going to hurt my core believers¡¯ benefits. That¡¯s my absolute position.¡± ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll have to do it myself.¡± Sui Xiong let out a heavy sigh. ¡°Don¡¯t blame me when the time comes.¡± ¡°If you can really push the entire aristocratic system to change, I¡¯ll certainly already have fallen by then,¡± said the God of Aristocracy in a dull voice. ¡°When that happens, you can tell the new God of Aristocracy about what we spoke about today.¡± Having finished speaking, the holy figure in the temporary shrine shook slightly; The God of Aristocracy had already taken back the sliver of divine thought. Chapter 608 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After a while, Sui Xiong was already seated inside the conference hall of his God¡¯s Kingdom. He was telling his various followers and alliances about the general content of his secret meeting with the God of Aristocracy. ¡°Seems like the God of Aristocracy is adamant in going all the way through this dark course,¡± Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, said with a sneer. ¡°In fact, there is still time for him to turn back, but unfortunately, he refuses to.¡± ¡°It¡¯s also difficult for him to want to turn back,¡± the Half-Orc warrior and Morani, the God of Craftsmen, said amidst sighs. ¡°His core followers are aristocrats, particularly, the prominent ones. Such a practice is similar to the saying that goes, ¡®the good influence of men of virtue will not last more than five generations.¡¯ It is quite impossible for these aristocrats to want to support such a practice that offers no guarantee for longstanding success. Even if he does turn back, whether or not he can succeed, is unknown. However, the price to pay will definitely not be small.¡± ¡°But if he doesn¡¯t turn back, sooner or later, he will still come to a dead end! With the advancement in technology and culture, the new era will come sooner or later. By then, the traditional Aristocratic System is bound to collapse. Now that the fight might not be so intense, this is practically the best chance for him to turn back. That way, if he ever wanted to turn back, the price then would be even heftier than it would be now. It might even be possible for him to no longer be able to turn back. He would only be a sacrificial object and eventually die off with the old era,¡± Wall, the God of Knowledge said as he shook his head with a sigh. ¡°The mortals often refuse to listen to advice; thus minor illnesses escalate to major ones, and these major illnesses will claim their lives. Actually, it was almost the same for the gods!¡± ¡°This is also something that cannot be helped. New eras will rise while the old ones come to a closure, and all of these will definitely be accompanied with the births and falls of a great number of gods.¡± With great power but an aged appearance, Law Brans, the God of Law, whose remaining days seemed to be numbered with one foot already in his grave, sighed. Then he said, ¡°This is just like the rise and fall of a nation in the mortal world. There will be the birth of a new batch of aristocrats, but also a batch of old aristocrats that will have to be buried along with the fallen nation¡­ This is a price that all nations will have to pay when the time comes.¡± ¡°This will always be a pity anyhow. They are all great talents¡­¡± Sui Xiong sighed and said. ¡°If these people could just spend their energy on governing the country, it would be better not only for the people but also for themselves. In the end, there would always be unnecessary bloodshed whenever there was a change in dynasties. The people had to sacrifice their lives and all family possessions for their fallen nation and be buried along with the old era. That really isn¡¯t worth it at all.¡± The God of Justice said, ¡°Civilians die, soldiers die, aristocrats naturally had to die too. Everyone was connected with the same lifeline, and no one¡¯s life was more precious than another.¡± Shaking his head, he continued saying with a sneer on his face, ¡°The same goes for the various gods.¡± ¡°Speaking of which, I am more concerned about another thing¡­ What on earth do you all think the God of Light is thinking?¡± Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, asked. She had always lacked interest in the matters involving fighting and killing, but she was very interested in the movement of the God of Light. She said, ¡°Clearly, he has been suppressing the God of Knights and supporting the God of Aristocracy all this while. The God of Aristocracy had impelled Woods to usurp the throne and assisted in purging the God of Knight¡¯s followers. Throughout the entire time, the God of Light had adopted an acquiescent attitude. So after the purging was completed, why did he order the Church of the God of Aristocracy to withdraw without giving them any share of the benefits at all?¡± She paused, then added, ¡°Even if he did not give any benefit to the Church of the God of Aristocracy, he should at least allow some other churches to occupy the vacated place¡­¡± All the gods shook their heads as they too wondered about the reason. After Woods had purged the God of Knight¡¯s followers and those ministers who had pledged loyalty to the previous king, whether within the imperial court, or the army, many places had been vacated. Even if these places were not taken up by the Church of the God of Aristocracy, the God of Light might have at least planned for other churches to take up the vacant spots. After all, this was a benefit that the God of Aristocracy had seized from the God of Knights. To the various human gods, this could be likened to the meat in one¡¯s own bowl¡ªhow could it be given so to others so freely? Yet, the God of Light did not allow a church belonging to any human god to be stationed in the Eagle Kingdom¡ªnot a single one. And he had seen to it so strictly that after the purge, Woods immediately fell into a predicament where there were no talented people left to be deployed. In spite of being the awe-inspiring and oldest country of mankind, the Eagle Kingdom had to scour for talents from the pool of adventurers and local aristocrats to support its core. Such a situation was hard to imagine. It was like a person who had gone hunting, and after working so hard and even getting himself injured, he finally managed to catch prey. Then he killed it, sliced off its flesh, and roasted it well¡ªbut then, he did not devour it. Instead, he threw it away. If this had not been the doing of the God of Light, everyone else would have definitely felt that the fellow behind this had gone out of his mind. This would most likely be taken as something an evil god, who was in some extreme state of confusion, would do. However, the God of Light was the god of order and direction, and his nature determined that he would never do such a thing. What exactly was the secret then? After a round of discussion, the crowd was still unable to find the missing point, so at the end, there was still no concluding outcome. Of course, if the idea of ¡°there being something wrong with that fellow¡¯s mind from the beginning¡± could be taken as a conclusion, then there could still at least be a conclusion. But¡­ Yorgaardman was the one who came up with this conclusion. If they had to make a choice on who they thought was the one with a delirious mind, then between Yorgaardman and the God of Light, almost all the various gods of the Pantheon Sanctuary would unanimously choose Yorgaardman. Even his close brother, Sui Xiong, was no exception. Sui Xiong too felt that this older brother of his did indeed have a mind that was a little unsound¡­ Just as the various gods commenced their conference, a battle between the Church of the God of Knowledge and the Church of the God of Aristocracy in the mortal world had started too. Both parties did not pull any tricks like ¡°checking out the opponent¡¯s plan of action¡± or ¡°provocative war¡± prior to the actual fight. Right from the very beginning, both sides had put in their all. The Church of the God of Aristocracy had assembled all of its nine Legendary Masters at the Mifata Federation, while the Church of the God of Knowledge had assembled six of its Holy Sons and Holy Daughters that it had painstakingly trained. The team was personally led by Olian Geerteng, an elector of the God of Knowledge who had set the stage and assumed a stance showing readiness to fight. It was quite a coincidence how the place where they would confront one another was Green Tree City. This was the place that Sui Xiong had brought Leon and Steele to when they first entered the Mifata Federation. Back then, when they passed by this city, they got into some conflicts with the Green Family who were the rulers of Green Tree City. At last, Sui Xiong had to execute his great magic powers and transform into the Wuzhi Mountain so that he could suppress Old Green, the Legendary Master who was the founding father of Green Tree City. Sui Xiong had held Old Green captive within a secret chamber in the mountains for the purpose of getting Old Green to purge all evil thoughts and intentions from his heart and mind. Only freeing himself from all negative thoughts could Old Green shake free from the shackles of captivity and regain freedom. That was something that happened almost 40 years ago. However, when the high-standing masters of the two churches met one another in a confrontation, the Wuzhi Mountain was still there, and Old Green was of course still imprisoned within the secret chamber in the mountains. Indeed, this had nothing to do with both parties. They chose this place to start a war because it was nearest to the border of the Mifata Federation. When the war started, damage to the surroundings could be kept to a minimum, and also, they could avoid adverse effects on the surroundings too. The followers of the God of Knowledge belonged to the Good Camp and would avoid implicating and hurting the innocent; the followers of the God of Aristocracy were, on the contrary, not concerned about this. However, they wanted to preach, so they had to maintain a positive image of themselves. This was the reason why they had to stand on some scruples. After a series of discussions and consultations, they decided to fight this battle by the peripheral region of the Mifata Federation; the battlefield they chose was a forested area 20 miles away from Green Tree City. This forested area used to be a large-scale logging yard and had provided a large quantity of wood for the construction of Green Tree City. Old Master Green had led his disciples and soldiers, who had fought several battles in the surrounding area of this forested land, against the elves who protected the woods. At long last, with the help of other Legendary Masters, they managed to drive away the elves and seize this piece of land. However, this was already a thing of the past. The logging yard had long been abandoned. Only that forested area, that was apparently much shorter than everything else in its surroundings, was able to prove that this area had once been ¡°opened up.¡± If one looked closely, there would probably be some remnants of broken weapons that could be discovered within the depths of the shrubs or skeletal remains that were yet to be completely broken down by efflorescence. Those were all the traces left behind by the great battles once fought here. This was the battlefield of the past, but it was also the battlefield of today. The stage remained unchanged, and only the groups of actors were different; thus, there was a change in the repertoire. Chapter 609 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°After today, I don¡¯t know how many more corpses will be added or how many skeletal remains there will be¡­¡± Olian Geerteng looked intently at the lush forest surrounding her, yet she was feeling low-spirited and gloomy. From a personal point of view, she did not want to fight this battle. The world is vast, and there were so many places to preach to. Moreover, preaching was a long-term affair, so there was really no need to fight for a specific time and place just to preach. There was simply no need for such competition. But she also knew that Teacher had made the right decision. To her teacher, the God of Knowledge, this mission at present was nothing much to get upset over even if they did not have the affinity to complete it. Yet, to the God of Aristocracy, this was the best opportunity for him to strike down a great Divine Power. If he took this chance to strike at a great Divine Power, then in future when the two God Systems confronted one another, her side would most certainly not be spared from suffering a great loss. This was why, even if it meant weakening their enemy to protect themselves, they had to stop the God of Aristocracy and not let him advance. Although it was necessary to fight for this, people would die, and they themselves would incur a gigantic loss. Still, all of this would definitely be worth the while! The people shouldn¡¯t just look at what¡¯s right before them; they should be more farsighted. This was why she merely sighed once then pulled herself together. She deployed the church followers in a battle array, arranging their positions according to a planned layout, she and did all necessary preparations to fight a hard battle. Today, every single person she brought with her from the Church of the God of Knowledge was an elite. Even the ones in charge of miscellaneous tasks were no ordinary people. At her command, everyone started to get busy. It only took a moment of work for them to cut down the trees within the surroundings and level it to flat ground. Some of the roots were dug up and removed, while others were left behind as base points for setting up the magic array, engraving the runes and refining them into temporary magic weapons. It was said that many hands made for light work, and so the more people there were, the higher the efficiency of getting work done. All these jobs were necessary, and the battle of churches was unique. It was different from the small-scaled melees where adventurers trapped and killed. It was also different from the cold and horrendous large-scale battles that the soldiers fought. The majority of their battles depended on their respective Divine Positions and drew support from their Divine Power to execute various methods. Especially for the Church of the God of Knowledge, where their top-rated martial skills did pale in comparison to its opponent¡¯s skills¡ªthey had to pay special attention when building up the formation of their Divine Positions. Only after they managed to build a perfect layout of Divine Positions and summon the gods could they make up for the difference in martial skills between them and their opponent and turn the tables to achieve victory. On the other hand, the Church of God of Aristocracy had an entirely different style from the Church of the God of Knowledge. They too built on the layout of Divine Positions, but they directly made use of their Magic Flames to burn down an entire patch of forest. They then paved the area with slates that had been engraved with Magic Runes, and they laid out the magic weapons that they had prepared beforehand all around their Divine Positions. This was not only a faster method, but it also produced more effective results¡ªbut of course, at a much higher cost. Speaking of cost, the Church of the God of Knowledge was most certainly, wealthy. Yet ¡°cost¡± did not only refer to monetary wealth. Even without considering costs, those magic weapons that could be used to speedily build Divine Positions also required a tremendous amount of time to manufacture. However, from the day it was established up to the present day, the Church of the God of Knowledge¡¯s age might only add up to a total of a couple of decades. Where would they find such an accumulation of magic weapons? Ultimately, the problem was still the lack of manpower. ¡°Our spies have returned, and they say that the other side has leveled the ground and laid out their positions,¡± a tall and skinny elderly laughingly said. ¡°But the funny thing is that they have unexpectedly left a lot of roots behind. On these roots, they engraved Magic Runes which are to be used as nodes of their Divine Positions.¡± ¡°Ha ha! How pathetic!¡± a burly man laughed and said. ¡°The roots are not strong at all. When the Divine Powers of both sides collide, just a few crashes will send these roots shattering to bits and pieces.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hold high expectations for these later generations. The oldest among them is not even older than your grandchildren,¡± a lady said with a smile. She was dressed luxuriously, looking very poised and graceful, and yet, her smile seemed to be full of mockery. The three of them were among the nine Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Because they were skilled in tackling fortified positions, moving quickly, and even space magic, they were always at the forefront of formations. This was naturally to strike fear in their opponents by displaying their strength before the battle. Even if the situation might not be favorable, they would still be able to advance or retreat freely without being killed easily. A lady with a silver crown said, ¡°In the Church of the God of Knowledge, apparently there is only one Legendary Master.¡± Then she continued to say in a light tone, ¡°But, we should be on guard as the Legendary Master of the Church of the Void Mask might come and help.¡± At the rear of the entire layout of Divine Positions that the Church of the God of Aristocracy had laid out, six Legendary Masters were in discussion. ¡°But that would be flouting the rules!¡± the elderly man exclaimed. He seemed so old that he might soon become a corpse. He slammed his crutches heavily against the solid ground, causing the ground beneath to split into pieces due to the sudden impact. Obviously, his temper was as great as his age, and he was truly getting firmer as the years went on. Beside him, a jolly young fellow hurriedly intervened. With a flash of green light, the broken pieces were superimposed, and the broken slate was restored back to its original form in the twinkling of an eye. Another middle-aged man, who had the gentle disposition of a scholar, was persuading the elderly man to cool down and not to stoop to the same level as those uncouth people. These three people might seem to be of three different eras, yet they were in fact, all from the same era. Their differences in their ages did not exceed more than a hundred. It was just that the one who looked like a young fellow paid particular attention to maintaining his appearance, while the one who looked as though he was a walking corpse was intentionally making himself look old. This was the reason why from outer appearances alone, they looked like they had a huge age gap. The other three in front consisted of the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, along with two other identical, sturdy men donning suits of heavy armor who stood by the side in silence. They all made up the nine Legendary Masters of the reputable Church of the God of Aristocracy. The God of Aristocracy had been given his title not too long ago, so presently, he was not even 300 years old. Out of the nine Legendary Masters under his command, only four of them were talents that he had recruited or nurtured after he had become a god. The other five had long been well-known masters, prior to pledging their alliances to him. For instance, the trio consisting of the elderly man, the jolly green fellow and the middle-aged man were all masters who were once under the command of the former God of Royalty. Back then, they had some conflicts with the Archbishop, who thus gave them the cold treatment for several hundred years. That had left them full of resentment. Thereafter, when the God of Aristocracy assassinated the God of Royalty and gained independence, the three were quick to offer themselves to the God of Aristocracy, where they were highly-regarded and greatly used. Generally speaking, regardless of what kind of battle, it was more than enough just by mobilizing the three of them. However, this time around, the Church of the God of Aristocracy chose to gather all the nine Legendary Masters to firstly ensure victory; secondly, they wanted to take the chance to establish their might and prestige, so as to show the various other churches how powerful they were. Interesting enough, the other side, which was the Church of the God of Knowledge, also thought likewise. Their Divine Positions that had just been fully constructed were surrounded by wreathing smoke. This was their way of using magic to block off all kinds of spying methods and to hide the actual scene in the middle of their formation. At the core of the formation, an altar that could accommodate around four to five people had been constructed to completion. The clergymen were in the midst of arranging precious stones, gold coins, steel, and materials from various creatures neatly into four different piles onto the altar. ¡°Madam, are we injecting too much capital into this?¡± a high-level priest asked begrudgingly as he looked wistfully at the four little piles on the altar. ¡°To spend this amount in one go¡­ this is easily ten thousand gold coins.¡± ¡°Money is not an issue,¡± Oilan said in a peaceful manner. ¡°This time we are going up against a powerful enemy who owns the nine Legendary Masters. If we do not summon a powerful god, we are bound for failure. No matter how much money we have, it will be useless to us if we are dead.¡± ¡°But¡­ we also cannot spend so much in one go. From what I can recall, 30 units of every kind of resource here is required before we will be able to summon a god¡­¡± the priest replied. ¡°And will this god be of some help?¡± Olian retorted. That priest fell silent for a while, then muttered to himself, ¡°At the very least, it could execute a power close to a high level¡­¡± ¡°But you can only use it for a few seconds,¡± Olian said, ¡°as such a god would not help much in a battle of that level.¡± ¡°Who knows, I might get extremely lucky and summon a powerful one¡­¡± the priest replied. Olian could not hold back her laughter and said, ¡°Thirty units of every form of resource, and you wish to summon the great elite gods¡­ My dear Joseda, I see that you are not exceptionally white-faced, how is it that you can be so confident about your character? That priest also knew that what he said sounded untrustworthy and could not help going red in the face. He shut his mouth and spoke no more. Chapter 610 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio This marvelous summoning technique was not a means of the Church of the God of Knowledge¡ªit was bestowed to them by the His Majesty, the Void Mask. It was said that His Majesty, the Void Mask, called this summoning technique, ¡°Major Building,¡± but no one knew what it meant. To complete this summoning technique, an altar needed to be built, then four types of resources had to be placed on this altar, namely, gold coins, precious stones, steel and materials from a variety of creatures. These materials were generally portioned into the most basic amount known as a ¡°unit.¡± Thirty units of each resource would be the minimum requirement to complete one summoning technique. If converted into gold coins, this amount would require approximately one hundred gold coins. When sufficient resources had been placed onto the altar, a simple ritual could be performed to carry out the summoning. Through this ritual, the resources would be consumed, and then Oracles from the Sanctuary of the God¡¯s Kingdom would descend upon the mortal world to become reliable helpers. Every helper was merely temporary and would return to its God¡¯s Kingdom after a short period of time. They were not only very powerful, but they were also really beautiful too. No one else could be more reliable than them as comrades, and besides, they were very attractive visually. This was why although this technique was not formally spread and made known to all, internally, it was already very popular among the higher-ups of the churches who knew about it. Almost every high-level clergyman within the Void Mask God System would make it a point to specially learn this technique. At times when the need arose, they would execute this technique to summon Oracles for help. In general, using more resources would enable a more powerful Oracle to be summoned. Yet among the gods, there was a special group of elite Oracles who were far more powerful than the ordinary Oracles. However, the price for summoning them was no different from that of ordinary Oracles. With resources that did not differ much, a different kind of luck was added on. Yes, the key was ¡°a different kind of luck.¡± When experiments were run internally, the occurrences of summoning an elite Oracle with the minimum amount of resources had taken place more than once. But most of the times, a great number of resources had been spent. Yet it was still the mass-produced Oracles being summoned. The clergymen were all frustrated over this situation and had prayed to His Majesty, the Void Mask hoping that he could bestow a more stable summoning technique. However, this was how His Majesty had responded: ¡°Whether one¡¯s face was born dark-skinned or fair-skinned, one¡¯s fate can never be changed. Just like how the possibility of attempting to alter one¡¯s fate is as low as trying to retain the trace amounts of Krypton found in air.¡± Hey, just what exactly was this supposed to mean!? Although it was not very clear what His Majesty, the Void Mask meant, the clergymen were quick to spread the concept of comparison between a ¡°Dark Mask¡± and a ¡°Light Mask¡± among themselves. Those who could summon the elite Oracles were ¡°Light Masks,¡± while those who were still only summoning the mass-produced Oracles were the ¡°Dark Masks.¡± By the way, the priest who was persuading Olian not to waste so many resources was a representative of the Dark Masks. Until the present day, he was never able to summon an elite Oracle¡ªnot even once. Kabbalah, the young man who was currently conducting the summoning ritual, was a representative of the Light Masks, and he had managed to summon an elite god almost five times. His extremely high success rate made all his colleagues so jealous that their eyes practically went green with envy. Undoubtedly, this was one fellow who could be considered the epitome of the Light Masks. According to Sui Xiong, he could be described as a ¡°European who ought to be burned to death.¡± As for why the Europeans ought to be burnt to death, this story began with one of Brother Xiong¡¯s past gaming experiences. This was a long story to tell, so to keep it short, everything could be summed up in one sentence. Brother Xiong, he¡­ was an African, and one of the purest African blood at that. He could recall a mobile phone game that he had played previously where he had to collect enough resources within the game to summon different kinds of cards. Generally speaking, so long as the player was not wasteful, it was possible to collect enough resources to summon three cards on a daily basis. He had played the game for one full year, yet he failed to own a rare card that he had gained via his own summoning. The few rare cards that he owned were all giveaways from events. Similar occurrences had happened more than once, and although Sui Xiong might have started out as an apathetic faction, he eventually changed into a reasoning faction. Then he continued to change until he reached the point where he became a part of the ¡°burn the Europeans, long live the African brothers¡± faction. These were all past events that happened long ago. Now, Sui Xiong could most certainly summon anything and everything he wanted to. But the feeling was different from before when it simply felt as though he were playing a game. The clergymen went about accumulating resources, and everyone wore different expressions as they did their best to add resources to the existing piles on the altar. Some looked gloomy, and some had overcast expressions or faces reflecting hope, while others displayed determination through gritted teeth. In reaction to the results, some were rolling their eyes or beamed with pleasure, while others heaved long sighs or showed indifferent faces. Sui Xiong was reminded of his original life, and he could not help but let out a knowing smile. At that moment, he kept himself unseen whilst high up in the sky as he gazed down at the summoning ritual. He was also looking down at the two gods in the midst of a confrontation. At a distance slightly above the formation of the Church of the God of Knowledge, a clone of Wall, the God of Knowledge, was also present in an invisible form. Not too far away from Wall¡¯s clone was the clone of the God of Aristocracy, who was also invisible. This was a necessary move when war broke out between churches. Gods from both sides would send clones of themselves down to keep a close eye on each other. Firstly, this was a preventive measure in case the other party paid no heed to their identity and planned to hurt any humans. Secondly, this was their way of looking out for the talents that they held in high regard during these intense battles so that they could help them avoid any possible injuries. To the humans, a war of churches was a matter of high severity. But to a god, so long as there was no war between gods, everything was negotiable. The ordinary followers and clergymen would incur some losses, but did that really matter? Their souls would go directly to their God¡¯s Kingdom, which in fact, might not be that great of a loss after all. As for the rise and fall of human power¡ªthe thoughts and perceptions of gods followed a timeline calculated in units of hundreds or thousands of years. Even the weak Divine Powers might not be concerned about the rise and fall of two generations of humans, needless to mention, two mid-level Divine Powers. Of course, this was on the premise that Sui Xiong did not make a move. If Sui Xiong were to make a move, given the fact that he was the one and only great Divine Power in the whole world with such a formidable might, he alone would most likely be able to uproot the forces of all the various churches on the Main Plane and drive them all out. If Sui Xiong really made his move, then his act might be tantamount to offending the numerous gods; if Sui Xiong had really made his move, then he could forget about taking another step out of the Main Plane as he had made himself the biggest public enemy of all the gods on the Main Plane. The God of Aristocracy knew that Sui Xiong would be restrained by every god possible, and he would no longer need to fear Sui Xiong. Yet, the threat of Sui Xiong making a move was still very possible. This was why even the God of Aristocracy did not dare to pull any tricks. Instead, together with the God of Knowledge, they followed the rules humbly this time around. Although, the God of Aristocracy had really wanted to make the Church of the God of Knowledge suffer a crushing defeat so that he could swallow up the additional gaps in belief released by the Mifata Federation. These gaps of belief were his chance to wield a powerful force that could enable him to strike down a great Divine Power, such as Sui Xiong. Just as the two gods were in the midst of a confrontation, the Church of the God of Aristocracy had finished laying out the entire formation of their Divine Positions. They couldn¡¯t be bothered with sending people out to make a resounding announcement to challenge their opponents. Under the lead of the Archbishop, over 200 clergymen headed towards the middle of the formation, where they knelt before the statue of the God of Aristocracy and then started to recite their prayers. There were more than 200 people reciting together, yet their voices were so neatly synchronized without a hint of clutter at all. This fully displayed the high level of training they underwent. With the sound of recitations, a fluctuating wave started to appear, and it disrupted the calm evening air. Just rippling waves in water, this fluctuating wave spread towards the Divine Positions of the Church of the God of Knowledge. This wave might seem gentle, but it actually had an irresistible force. The moment the fog that shrouded the Divine Positions of the Church of the God of Knowledge came into contact with this wave, it was utterly destroyed. It was as though it had met with a strong gale of wind that sent it scattering all about like stars. Within a fleeting moment, the majority of this fog had dissipated. The followers stationed outside the formation stumbled about; they felt like they had just gotten punched in the face. There were even some who could not stabilize themselves and thus fell to the ground with blood oozing out of their noses and mouths. However, at that very moment, the Church of the God of Knowledge started their retaliation. Led by a high-level priest, hundreds of clergymen prayed together, and then, magic roused their Divine Power, transforming it into a black blade mounted with gold trimmings. This blade flew out of the residual fog and effortlessly penetrated the layers of waves, where it then headed right to the core of the opponent¡¯s formation. If not for the few high-level clergymen from the Church of the God of Aristocracy who intercepted it by casting a spell together to stop it, it would most likely have shot its way right to the statue of the God of Aristocracy. The moment both sides started to attack, it was an unceremonious exchange of strong methods deployed by both parties. Chapter 611 Chapter 611: Chapter 151 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The sun was slowly setting as the sky gradually darkened. The Mifata Federation could be found in the Southern Plateau located on the Dominant Continent, where the climate was relatively warmer. However, Green Tree City was almost at the northernmost tip of the Southern Plateau. During autumn, when it was deep into the night, the weather could get quite cold. Under such cold weather, any ordinary person would most certainly need to light up a bonfire to stay warm. However, for this trip, both the churches had sent only their elites. There was not a single ordinary human. All of them were either mid or high-level clergymen or experienced adventurers. Though they might not be completely insusceptible to the extremities of harsh weather conditions, at the very least, this much cold was certainly not significant enough to bother them. Amidst the glimmering twilight, the recitations of prayers from the Divine Positions of both churches blended as one. The roles of prayers from both sides were to generate successive strong spells. Both sides could then choose to either cast these spells successively and bombard the other party or cast these spells as their own reinforcements to gain a firmer hold over their own Divine Positions. Each spell would be useful in some way or another; not a single one was regarded as merely a flowery trick. At first glance, both sides seemed to have everything in good order, as though they had rehearsed everything, so all was well in place. But in fact, they had drawn out the maximum amount of power they could possibly afford to, and every spell they cast was chosen after prior studies were made. All these measures were taken to ensure that not a single spell and not a single second would be wasted. Such a battle was no joke. Having gathered such a sizable number of clergymen to pray together just for the purpose of casting a spell, the amount of power assembled was sufficiently comparable to the power capacity of a legendary priest. Even the slightest graze by this power could instantly kill an ordinary human, and rescue would never come in time. If any one side was unable to maximize the increase in their efficiency of fighting, it was very likely to see their opponent break down their wall of defense because of an accidental slip. By that time, even if the most highly-skilled masters were able to escape, the elites of that Church would have to suffer heavy losses. This situation was what the heads of both Churches did not want their people to encounter. But of course, they most certainly hoped that their opponent would run into such a situation, and so, both were trying their best to make it happen. So whatever they had done so far, was there any effect at all? Judging by the solemn expressions both heads of the churches wore on their faces, it was easy to tell that it was not only effective, but the effect was, in fact, ideal. It was so ideal that both sides were brought under a great deal of pressure. At the Divine Positions of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, the Archbishop had already handed over the task of leading the prayers to a high-level clergywoman. She stood aside to observe the battle, and after looking very carefully for a long time, she could not help frowning as she muttered under her breath, ¡°Strange! They are just a bunch of fellows who established a church for just 20 odd years, yet they can make use of such combined spellcasting techniques so efficiently?¡± This seemed very illogical. It should be noted that nurturing a clergyman was a long-term job. If the number of clergymen was not enough, then it would be pointless to talk about ¡°combined spellcasting techniques.¡± And even if there were enough clergymen, they would still require a tremendous amount of training before they could achieve a perfectly synchronized recitation of prayers in order to achieve combined spellcasting. The Church of the God of Knowledge was only about 20 years of age since the day it was established. During its first ten years, it did not even have enough manpower to deploy people in places to spread it teachings. It was only in the recent few years that it became comparatively more well-staffed. Yet even so, where did they find the time to assemble all these elite clergymen and train them for this rare combined divinity formation? This could be likened to a predicament of a particular company, one who was seriously lacking in manpower. This company was really desperate. Thus, they had to go to the extent of having to entrust the men¡¯s work to the ladies, and the men were in turn entrusted with work supposedly given to draught animals with great physical strength. This company even had to entrust the jobs of two people to just one person. Under such circumstances, how could this company possibly find the extra time and effort to sing, dance, make a speech, deliver a report, or inject such vigor in expanding this hated ¡°corporate culture?¡± Generally speaking, a church needed to have at least a hundred years of history, with an accumulation of four to five generations, or even more, of clergymen to gather enough manpower to train for this combined divinity formation. Just like how the Church of the God of Aristocracy had only started training in this aspect after it had reached its hundredth year of establishment¡ªthis was something that an upstart like the Church of the God of Knowledge was most certainly incapable of! The Archbishop was not the only one in for a surprise; even the God of Aristocracy, who was watching the battle from the sky in his invisible form, was surprised. He carefully assessed the clergymen under the command of the God of Knowledge, eager to find the reason for their achievement. But this was destined to be a waste of effort because even the gods would never be able to find out how or when these clergymen actually found the time to train¡­ perhaps, when they were asleep. A few years back, Sui Xiong came up with a virtual reality game. Originally, he had intended to use this system to allow people to experience fear. He had wanted to make them face up to their fears to help them overcome their phobia for fear. As they were always so fearful of the Clergy Camp, Sui Xiong had wanted to help them overcome every form of fear possible so that they would no longer fear the members of the Clergy Camp. While testing the system for practicality, he realized that not only could this system be used for dispelling fears, it could also be used for training purposes. When using this system to experience various snippets of virtual life, the human body would more or less be in a state of rest. In general, one would be lying down like that for four hours, which was equal to about two hours of sleep. As a result, the Church of the Void Mask and its subordinate Churches of the God of Knowledge, the God of Medicine and the God of Healing all began to make use of this system to train their clergymen. Making use of these rather realistic experiences, their clergymen could gain the experience of taking risks and could also pick up some skills that they usually had no time to learn¡ªfor instance, combined divinity. The greatest difficulty in mastering combined divinity was the need to gather all the clergymen together to conduct the training. With this virtual reality game system, and the gods as a medium, all the clergymen lying within the numerous game compartments could be connected; therefore, joint training could still be carried out even if they were to stay put at home. This also would not take up much of their rest time. After undergoing a few years of training, a few churches had successfully trained many clergymen to be capable of executing a combined divinity formation. They had even managed to train their men to be adept in quite a number of attack and defense routines using combined divinity. At that very moment, if these clergymen were to work together in reality, it would be like how things worked within the virtual reality and how they had trained together in the game. Everything would be orderly, and everyone would be without a trace of panic. Even if anyone were to make meticulous comparisons, they would discover that the efficiency rate in spellcasting of the churches of the Void God System was much higher than their opponents! These were secrets that the various churches of the Void God System shared, things that the God of Aristocracy and his church would never know! Of course, they would never be able to figure anything out no matter how hard they racked their brains. Though Sui Xiong was suspended high up in the air, he remained concerned about the situation of the battle both sides were engaged in. Whether it was the surprised expression that the God of Aristocracy showed or the confused expression that the Archbishop of his own church wore on her face as she muttered to herself, nothing escaped him as he saw and heard everything clearly. The green jellyfish smiled as a sense of pride swelled up his chest. Ultimately, technology is the first productive force, and you turtles are still far from it! But the power of technology was not limitless. In fact, even if they were to rely on the virtual reality system and trained enough clergymen who could execute a combined divinity formation, the lack of manpower was still a problem that troubled the Church of the God of Knowledge. Apart from anything else, the Church of the God of Aristocracy had almost 200 people praying, but this was merely half the number of their opponent. The essence of combined divinity was to combine the energy of the prayers from the crowd and transform it into a powerful spell. This was, of course, a situation that supported the concept of ¡°the more, the merrier.¡± The more people there were, the higher the efficiency could be. With one side outnumbering the other by double, the difference in the amount of power was made very obvious. If not for the fact that the efficiency rate of the Church of the God of Aristocracy was slightly higher than its opponent, as well as its speed of spellcasting being relatively faster by only a tad, the Church of the God of Aristocracy would have lost the battle much earlier. Yet even so, the Church of the God of Aristocracy was already gradually heading towards a downturn. At the very beginning, both sides were mutually attacking and defending, then slowly, the situation changed, with the Church of the God of Aristocracy having to observe and react according to circumstance. Out of ten spells cast by the Church of the God of Aristocracy, around seven or eight would be used for the purpose of defending. There would also be one or two for assistive purposes, but as for counter-attacking, only occasionally, would they retaliate as a way of warning their opponents to not to get complacent. Olian Geerteng watched the scene before her with a deep frown. She waited for quite a while, then finally, she could not help but ask, ¡°Can the Oracles attack now?¡± ¡°Wait a little bit more,¡± a voice replied from the altar. ¡°We have yet to summon an elite Oracle. Without an elite Oracle to lead the army, merely relying on the mass-produced Oracles, it is impossible for us to fight against the Legendary Masters.¡± Olian took a deep breath to allow her tone to sound as peaceful and calm as could be, but her speed of speech was still hastened as she asked, ¡°Kabbalah, don¡¯t you usually have a white face, why is it suddenly dark today?¡± Over at the altar, the young priest, who usually had Lady Luck smiling upon him, smiled bitterly. He was unable to answer her question. Luck, who truly knew what that was all about? Just as how the possibility of attempting to alter one¡¯s fate was as low as trying to retain the trace amounts of Krypton found in air, the possibility of rounding up enough luck to summon an elite Oracle seemed to be as good as zero. And this was an undying fact that no one could do anything to alter, because if there was really a way to resolve the problem of bad luck, then there wouldn¡¯t be such a large number of high-ranking Dark Masks. They were known as the unluckiest group of ¡°Dark Masks.¡± If there was a solution to them being so unlucky, then their number would not be so great to begin with. Chapter 612 Chapter 612: Chapter 152 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Kabbalah, a man of 24 years of age, was a mid-ranked priest with no talent when it came to battles. He specialized in writing leaflets and sermons. Originally, he was an ordinary priest with the commonplace role of logistical personnel within the Church of the God of Knowledge. After Sui Xiong invented the god¡¯s summoning technique, he had participated in a test related to spells and surprisingly discovered that he seemed to be especially lucky when he was in the ¡°Major Building.¡± On average, he was able to summon an elite Oracle one out of every five times. This type of luck was so overwhelmingly formidable that it quickly gained him the title of ¡°Little White Face of Europe.¡± For the great battle between the Church of the God of Knowledge and the Church of the God of Aristocracy this time around, Madam Geerteng, an elector, had specifically brought him along. He was not required to do anything other than focus on summoning Oracles. However, his average success rate of one out of every five did not guarantee that he would able to summon an elite Oracle every time. Kabbalah had utilized all sorts of methods he knew of to boost his luck¡ªincluding, but not limited to, spells, equipment, potions, etc. He had tried using all these, yet until now, out of the nine summons he had made, he merely managed to summon nine mass produced Oracles. There was not a single elite Oracle. Today, my luck is quite bad¡­ No, I should say, such luck is normal. Normally, my luck just seems to be overly good. Kabbalah was sighing inwardly. His hands did not stop, not even for a moment, as he continued to pile resources onto the altar after sorting them out into the four respective categories. Because this was a major battle, each summoning would require a tremendous amount of resources, and each time he summoned an Oracle, even if it was not an elite Oracle, it would still be a relatively stronger one than a mass-produced Oracle. There were those at the battleship level, aircraft carrier level, and many others. All of these were in abundance and could be found everywhere. Honestly speaking, there is something I just can¡¯t seem to understand, even up till now. The so-called ¡®battleship level,¡±light aircraft level,¡±light cruiser level¡­¡± What do all of these actually mean? Due to geographical reasons and the type of species found on the Main Plane, the maritime industry was not developed nor did it have a good navy. Oh, there was a navy, but they were all directly swimming in the ocean waters and not aboard a ship¡­ For this reason, be it battleship or cruiser, aircraft carrier or destroyer, nothing was developed at all. There were only two kinds of ships in this world¡ªfishing boats and merchant ships. However, within the Oracles¡± that Sui Xiong created, there were none at the level of fishing boats and merchant ships. At most, one would be at the level of ¡°Fish-Farming Operations.¡± By the way, there were only two vessels at the level of Fish-Farming Operations, which, with negligible combat power, were usually responsible for miscellaneous matters and logistics¡­ The altar was once again piled with resources. Kabbalah stepped aside to wash his hands and face with clean, cold water. Then he used a piece of white cloth that was specially prepared for him to wipe himself clean before smearing some white paint onto his hands and face. Thereafter, he made his way back to the front of the altar. Such methods were concluded by the clergymen, perhaps these were ways that could possibly boost their luck during the summoning of Oracles. Speaking of which, there were indeed spells and equipment in this world with the ability to boost luck, but it seemed like all of these were not much help to the ¡°Major Building¡± summoning technique. Also, the kind of luck that the Major Building summoning technique sought to enhance was not really known. With a deep breath, Kabbalah composed himself and began to recite an incantation. The incantation was not long. Kabbalah finished it within a short moment. Then he nervously and uneasily cast the spell. The four piles of resources rapidly turned transparent. Then they transformed into countless light spots that flew up and remained hovering in the air. Gradually, these light spots disappeared, and then the altar began to glow. According to the rules, when light rays were observed, the person carrying out the summoning would roughly know the level of the Oracle he had summoned. White light rays would be the lowest level. This was often seen when the minimal amount of resources was used to carry out the summoning. In this case, the Oracle that was summoned would be from the weakest group of Oracles or even be among the mass-produced Oracles. Even a mid-ranked priest like Kabbalah would not be able to render much help. Green light rays were of a slightly higher level. The Oracles being summoned might be mass-produced Oracles, but at least they were slightly stronger than those with white light rays and could be of some help. Blue light rays indicated an even higher level. This color represented the standard of the so-called ¡°Main Force level,¡± and the few Oracles that Kabbalah had summoned today were all of this level. Further up, the color of the light rays would be gold, and this represented the rare elite Oracles. This category of Oracles might not be particularly powerful, yet they all had excellent wisdom and were able to command the mass-produced Oracles in battles. With their lead, even the combat power of the mass-produced Oracles would be greatly enhanced. It was just that this time around, the light rays seemed a little different from how they were. They weren¡¯t white, but neither were they green or blue, and they most certainly were not gold. It was a colorful glow. Kabbalah was a little dazed as he watched the colorful glow gradually fade away. He asked, ¡°What level is this?¡± Donning a long, white skirt which was heavily trimmed with lace, a young maiden with a small, golden-red crown and a gem-studded scepter in her hand appeared before him. The assemblage of dress and skirt that this young maiden wore was definitely modest and civilized, yet she wore it in quite a bold and uninhibited manner. The front of the dress was completely omitted, and the silk stockings with black straps were attached to the short, body-hugging vest she was wearing, fully displaying the beautiful silhouette of her body. The long skirt was visible in its entirety, yet by right, it should have been concealed. The materials used to put this outfit together, whether top or bottom, were so economically chosen that her fair skin was revealed in large areas. Coupled with her breathing, the clothing swayed ever so gently. She was simply a sight that could tempt one into committing a crime. This outfit¡­ reminds me of the singers in those entertainment places in the Void City¡­ Kabbalah looked on, still in a dazed state. He was completely oblivious to the fact that he was having a nosebleed. The young maiden opened her eyes to look at him with a slightly surprised, yet delighted expression. She said, ¡°Although I would like to say, ¡®Please take a look at how beautiful I am,¡¯ it seems like you have already seen that for yourself.¡± Kabbalah was in shock. Subconsciously, he touched his face, causing the white paint and the blood from his nose to blend together. All of a sudden, he seemed to become a male character in a Beijing Opera with a painted face. Recovering from his dazed state, he laughed wryly and hastened to stop the nosebleed with a spell. He managed to stutter, ¡°That is¡­¡± He hesitated for a while before asking curiously, ¡°What level Oracle are you at?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a fantasy type Oracle, at the battleship level. I¡¯m Lion,¡± the young maiden replied. Then she added one more line, ¡°I am completely different from the shame of other fantasy type Oracles.¡± ¡°The shame of fantasy type Oracles? Who do you mean?¡± The young maiden, known as ¡°Lion,¡± said, ¡°Please don¡¯t ask, I will not acknowledge that someone as frivolous as a comedian is¡­¡± She stopped midway and turned to look at the Divine Positions on the other side from her. ¡°Are those our enemies?¡± she asked. Kabbalah was aware that that was a topic this particular Oracle did not want to talk about, so he played it smart by not pressing further. Instead, he went along with her attempt to change the topic, ¡°That¡¯s right, we are now waging war against the Church of the God of Aristocracy. This time in summoning you, we are hoping to enlist your help in dealing with the Legendary Masters of our opponent.¡± ¡°How many are there?¡± Lion asked. ¡°There should be about nine.¡± ¡°Nine? Even for me, I won¡¯t be able to handle nine Legendary Masters all at once¡­¡± ¡°Which is why there will be other helpers,¡± Kabbalah said with a smile as he pointed to the side. ¡°We have already summoned nine Oracles. Although they are all mass-produced Oracles, that shouldn¡¯t be a problem with you in command, right?¡± Looking in the direction he was pointing at, Lion saw the other nine mass-produced Oracles who were all standing in line with solemn expressions as they awaited orders. Chapter 613 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Kabbalah was not aware that in certain games, there was a ¡°Ten Consecutive Summons Guarantee the Minimum Success Rate¡± mechanism, meaning to say that if ten consecutive summons were made in one breath, one would manage to at least obtain a relatively rare card. That was also what Sui Xiong did. But, until the present, the Major Building summoning technique was still in the test phase, and no one clergyman had ever tried to carry out ten consecutive summons in one breath. So ever since the day this Ten Consecutive Summons Guarantee mechanism was designed and produced, this was the first time it had been triggered. Speaking of which, this time around, the Church of the God of Knowledge was placed in a rather risky situation. The church had only prepared a total of fifteen sets of resources, and if this amount were any less, the church might not have even been able to hold on up to this point. The thing was, this was only the first time that this mechanism had been triggered, and already, one of the only two fantasy-type Oracles had appeared. Kabbalah¡¯s luck was indeed quite powerful! The fantasy-type Oracles were the latest type of Oracles Sui Xiong had just created, so currently, there were only two. As far as fighting was concerned, these two Oracles might not be more powerful than elite Oracles, but they did have special abilities. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s plan, next up, he would design a system for the promotion or evolution of Oracles. After an Oracle had been summoned, he could sign a contract with this Oracle and allow it to continue living in the mortal world. The Oracles who chose to live among the humans would gradually become stronger as they gained more life experiences, and eventually, they would ascend the ranks and be promoted to higher-level Oracles. Of course, this was designed for the mass-produced Oracles. As the number of elite Oracles was quite limited, a much greater consumption of magic would be required to allow them to remain in the mortal world. This was not a realistic move. More importantly, Sui Xiong¡¯s idea was to promote the growth of mass-produced Oracles through the accumulation of experience and ultimately allow them to reach the elite level on their own. On one hand, he really did not have the time and energy to design that many Oracles. On the other hand, he had some expectations of ¡°growth¡±¡ªjust like playing strategy games, if there was an upgrade system for soldiers, who wouldn¡¯t want to try fully upgrading a few? These Oracles might have been designed by Sui Xiong himself, but how much potential did they really have? How high was the possibility of their growth? All of these things were aspects that even Sui Xiong could not say for sure. He desired answers for these questions, and thus, follow-up plans emerged. However, that was a matter for the future. The important issue at hand was to look at the actual combat results of the fantasy-type Oracles. As Sui Xiong was pondering over these matters, the lion on the ground had already arrived before the mass-produced Oracles and wasted no time in interacting with them. The interaction between Oracles was naturally achieved via the exchange of thoughts, which was why Kabbalah had no way of knowing exactly what they were talking about. He could only see Lion nodding as she broke into a smile. ¡°The situation looks pretty good, so do allow me to lead your army!¡± she said with utmost confidence. ¡°Even if we cannot win, at least we won¡¯t lose!¡± ¡°The opponent is one of the Nine Legendary Masters,¡± Kabbalah emphasized. ¡°Which is why I have no chance of winning,¡± Lion said with a smile. ¡°However, if the number of comrades can be increased by just a little more, say 30 or so comrades of this level, then I am very sure I can fight them off.¡± Kabbalah almost choked upon hearing her request. Thirty or so comrades at this level? Thirty Main Force level, mass-produced Oracles? That was almost 300,000 gold coins! You really come from heaven, so oblivious to the daily costs of living expenses in the mortal world! Do you have any inkling of what 300,000 gold coins would look like? I don¡¯t even know if there is there as much money within the unrestricted budget of the Church of the God of Knowledge for the entire year! Kabbalah was born into the family of a merchantman. Since his grandfather¡¯s time, his family had been serving a viscount. As far as he knew, that viscount¡¯s annual income¡ªincluding tax collections, sale of various products, and the management of his subordinates and merchants under him¡ªwould not exceed 10,000 gold coins even when everything he earned was added together. What would 300,000 gold coins look like? Three-hundred thousand gold coins was an equivalent of 30 times the annual income of that viscount! No doubt, that was generally a more average viscount with a relatively low income. Yet regardless of how average he was, he was also a big shot with an authoritative presence in a certain area. He had his manor and a vassal. He also had a baron and some knights under his command. Within a radius of 200-300 miles, he had the ultimate say in various matters. There was no need for him to provide any reason if he wanted to hang someone to death. He was simply that high and mighty. Kabbalah was currently a mid-ranked priest. According to the system for social status, he was probably an equivalent of the lowest-ranked knight among all the feudatory aristocrats. This was his current status based on his identity as a clergyman, which was much higher than that of the average adventurer. Otherwise, he would be, at most, only an equivalent to a potential knight without any land. If he made it to the baron-collared level, he could most likely become a bishop of the local Church of the God of Knowledge, where he could enjoy jovial conversations with the other barons. However, if he were to go to a more regular viscount-collared level, then his social status would be slightly lower, but he would have to at least close to the rank of a high-level. In fact, most of the viscount-collared bishops were mid-peak close to high-level, or they had just stepped into the rank of high-level. For example, concerning that viscount that Kabbalah was familiar with, on that viscount¡¯s territory, the biggest church would be the Church of the Goddess of Wealth. The bishop of this church was a high-level priest. Just imagine, even a high-level priest was only equivalent to the level of a chief vassal under someone else¡¯s command, and yet, this Oracle here was shooting her mouth off without a second thought, requesting for that viscount to take out thirty years of hard-earned income to pay for one single battle¡­ Hey! Are you going to fight a war? I think you are only here to burn money! So he shook his head right away and said, ¡°Impossible! We simply do not have that many resources!¡± But then he immediately added, ¡°That¡­ On the contrary, if we were to go for the weaker Oracles, we could summon a lot more¡­¡± Lion froze for a moment and thought about it. She sighed with some regret. ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal whether we have quality help or not; it¡¯s the quantity that matters. One more person means one more set of hands,¡± she said. ¡°Well, do try your best to summon some more then. I have the ability to command, so I can help them improve their strength.¡± She paused for a moment then said, ¡°The English Faculty will be the best, or at least, Oracles from the European Faculty, which is one notch lower than the former. If you are going to summon me one from the Japanese Faculty, I¡¯m afraid I won¡¯t be able to command them¡­¡± Kabbalah was in a slight daze; he was simply clueless over what an ¡°English Faculty¡± or a ¡°Japanese Faculty¡± meant. At least he understood one part¡ªthe power level of this Oracle that he had summoned was, at the moment, still an uncertainty. But it seemed like she was good at commanding, so it was a good thing to build an army with more men. Since that was the case, he immediately greeted the other church members who were feeling as clueless as he was and redistributed the remaining five sets of resources. Among the number of redistributed sets, there were about 100 sets meeting the minimum standard, while the rest fully met the criteria of all requirements. During this period, the clergymen came up with a conclusion based on their experiences. They came to realize that through adjusting the allocation of the four different resources, they could summon Oracles from different walks of life in a more purposeful manner. Although these experiences were not necessarily reliable and unexpected accidents were frequent, it was still better than bumping their way around aimlessly. And so, numerous sets of resources were continuously piled onto the altar to be completely used up over and over again, and Oracles walked out of the light rays successively. The one responsible for summoning the Oracles would naturally be Kabbalah, who had once again proven by practice that he was indeed a purebred Light Mask. Sui Xiong watched this scene unfolding before him and could not help whispering under his breath, ¡°This young fellow, he is so talented! If he had made his way all the way over to Earth, he would cause a lot of trouble for between groups of people! They might even pin him up and burn him to death!¡± Chapter 614 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Kabbalah, how much longer do you need over there?¡± Madam Geerteng could not help asking when she saw how messy the situation was. ¡°Not much!¡± Kabbalah managed to reply despite being in a pressing situation. ¡°Just a little while longer.¡± ¡°This ¡®little while,¡¯ how long is that? Give me an exact time!¡± Olian Geerteng, who was of scholar origin, had been the lord of the viscount for many years. She was someone very sensitive to numbers, so the moment such a vague answer was given, she felt a little unhappy at once, and her tone also became quite harsh. ¡°Based on their rate of efficiency, they will just need another 27 minutes and 33 seconds to complete the summoning. Based on our opponent¡¯s combat power, we can start the war in 12 minutes. If we can guarantee that there is stability at our battlefront, we will not fail,¡± replied a crisp and confident voice. Olian was momentarily shocked as she turned around to gaze right into Lion¡¯s eyes. Four eyes met one another. Inwardly, Olian was slightly startled. Those eyes¡­ This was no ordinary Oracle! As a Legendary Master, Olian Geerteng¡¯s strength far surpassed a majority of the mass-produce Oracles that had been summoned. Even among the elite Oracles, there were not many who were on par with her. After all, the mortal world was not a God¡¯s Kingdom¡ªto be summoned out would reduce that particular Oracle¡¯s ability by a certain degree. But Olian had never seen this Oracle before, and this Oracle could evoke a shudder of fear in her. Obviously, this was no ordinary figure. ¡°How should I address you?¡± ¡°Lion.¡± OIian frowned and nodded upon confirming the other party¡¯s identity. As an elector of the God of Knowledge, she knew information that many ordinary people could not possibly know, among which, was the list of elite Oracles. At the end of that list, there were two names that were added not too long ago, one of which was ¡°Lion.¡± She knew that the names in the list were not arranged according to the strengths of the Oracles. The list was arranged according to the order that the Void Mask, His Majesty, had created these Oracles. For instance, ¡°Lexington,¡± the name at the top of the list, was the first elite Oracle that His Majesty had created. Based on impression, after creating numerous elite Oracles, the Void Mask had originally ended this matter. However, just some time ago, he created two more Oracles. Needless to say, these two Oracles would most certainly have special abilities that were entirely different from the previous elite Oracles. She did not really know what the other party was capable of, but since the other side had daringly said, ¡°the war will start in 12 minutes,¡± then there must be a reason for such confidence. So she laughed and gave her orders, ¡°Hold on a little while more. In 12 minutes, we will launch a counterattack! The army of clergymen, whose morale was sinking, suddenly regained their vigor. Almost instantly, even the voices reciting the prayers sounded louder. In the world of spells, one¡¯s belief was a source of power. When their morale was low, the power of their combined divinity would decrease, but the moment they regained their morale, the power of their combined divinity would greatly increase. Although this increase was not enough for them to fully retrieve themselves from their current disadvantageous position, they were still able to pull themselves up enough to make a comeback. On the Divine Positions of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, the Archbishop, dressed so luxuriously that he seemed to be able to light up the night, wore a deep frown on her face. ¡°How strange¡­ Where did that group of fools find all that confidence?¡± The Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy had been following the God of Aristocracy even before he was given the title of a god. She had lived for almost 500 years since then. She had weathered countless ups and downs in her life and had since honed an extremely sharp eye. At that very moment, anyone could see the sudden boost in morale of the army of the Church of the God of Knowledge to the extent that even the power of their divinity was increased. Yet this, on the contrary, got her wondering. The morale of the army naturally came from the boost in confidence, so where did this confidence come from? Could it be¡­ that the God of Knowledge had the intention of descending to the mortal world? She secretly thought that this could be a possibility. The Church of the God of Knowledge lacked top masters. There was only one Legendary Master, Elector Olian Geerteng. Without the help of a clone of the God of Knowledge, when confronting the Church of God of Aristocracy, which had nine Legendary Masters, the Church of God of Knowledge was simply vulnerable. Cultivating or subduing Legendary Masters was not easy. On the contrary, training a handful of Holy Sons and Holy Daughters who had the ability to sense and accommodate divinity was much easier. This time around, it could be assumed that the Church of the God of Knowledge would be bringing along more than just a pair of Holy Sons and Daughters. The unknown was how many clones the God of Knowledge was prepared to send down. She could not help sneering at the thought of that. Relying on the method of being possessed by a descending god, regardless of how powerful that certain god was, the clone that had descended would never be very strong. At best, it would be the equivalent of an ordinary Legendary Master. If one could kill a Holy Son or Holy Daughter who was possessed by a descending god, then the god¡¯s clone would also be extinguished together with the body of the Holy Son or Holy Daughter. This was the kind of loss that no god could possibly ignore. She had brought along all the top masters from the Church of the God of Aristocracy in hopes that she could tap into their top-rate martial skills to gain an advantageous edge over the Church of the God of Knowledge and force the God of Knowledge to send his clones down during the confrontation between the two churches. By that time, she would have outnumbered her opponent. Then so long as she could eliminate one or two clones, she would be able to deal with the God of Knowledge. To defeat a god of one¡¯s enemy was quite a remarkable contribution. It was worth it even she had to put in some effort and take some risks. The Legendary Masters around her were all figures with much experience and extensive knowledge. Whatever the archbishop could tell or observe, the Legendary Masters would be able to do likewise. The two silent warriors would most certainly not say anything, but the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow had started their discussion. The first to speak was the middle-aged man. He said, ¡°It seems like a clone of the God of Knowledge is going to descend soon.¡± ¡°But we do not know how many clones he is going to send down,¡± the old Legendary Master said. ¡°A god with mid-level Divine Powers can only send a maximum of nine, and this god must be like His Majesty, one who has already reached the peak of mid-level Divine Powers. Given the deity level of the God of Knowledge, he could most probably send down a maximum of five to six clones,¡± the middle-aged man said. Then he started analyzing very carefully and continued to say, ¡°Five to six god-sent Holy Sons and Holy Daughters¡ªtogether with Olian Geerteng, this group pitted against us¡­ so long as we are not careless, we can definitely win this battle. The question is, how many clones are we able to destroy?¡± ¡°That is hard to tell¡­¡± the ¡°youth¡± commented. He might seem to be the youngest out of the three, but he was in fact, the leader of the trio. With a sigh, he said, ¡°You all must know, the crux of the problem now is not whether we can win, but rather, are we able to destroy the clones of the God of Knowledge. Or to put it across more bluntly, the question to ask should be, are ¡®we¡¯ able to defeat a clone of the God of Knowledge, and¡­ how many are we able to kill?¡± He gave such an explicit explanation that the two Legendary Warriors who had kept silent all this while could not help giving him cold stares. He was trying to urge his two friends to cooperate with him to go in for the kill together! ¡°It¡¯s still too early for the three of you to be considering such things,¡± the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy said with a smile. She continued to explain, ¡°I feel that we should destroy their formation of Divine Positions and truly gain an edge over them before we discuss such matters.¡± As she spoke, she turned to look towards the Divine Positions of the Church of the God of Knowledge. Numerous powerful spells were confronting one another high up in the atmosphere surrounding that formation. Countless light rays were convulating, colliding and tearing at one another. Sharp and piercing sounds were constantly heard. No doubt, her men had the upper hand. Also, this situation had been going on for quite some time. If it was not for the sudden boost in morale of the followers of the God of Knowledge, the followers of the God of Aristocracy would have already routed their enemy¡¯s Divine Positions, and victory would have been theirs to claim. She could not help frowning again, but soon enough, her furrowed brows relaxed a little. No matter how high their morale was, they were still not a match for the Church of the God of Aristocracy, so all their efforts were nothing more than a futile delay. Since her side was going to emerge as the victorious party, she did not mind waiting a little while longer. And the trio who had just been exposed of their selfish motives merely looked at one another and laughed. There was not a hint of embarrassment to be detected in their laughter. After living to an age of hundreds of years, their brazen attitudes had reached a level where they no longer knew what it meant to have a sense of shame. They did not speak up further but instead continued to interact with one another via eye contact. They discussed how they could attack and destroy all those clones of the God of Knowledge to the best of their ability, as well as the tasks they could complete that would maximize their merits. The thing was, be it them or the Archbishop, everyone seemed to paint an overly beautiful picture of the situation they wished for. They made everything seem so justifiable, as though everything was just as it should be. Chapter 615 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Twelve minutes passed quickly, and in no time, Kabbalah had summoned another batch of Oracles. Because considerably less sacrificial offerings were used this time, the batch of Oracles that were summoned was far less powerful than the previous batch. Kabbalah himself was embarrassed at all of the ¡°white-level¡± Oracles who surrounded him. Fortunately, he managed to summon a ¡°gold-level¡± Oracle. Even though she was not so much at the capital warship-level as Lion was, she would still be of great help even as a destroyer. Rather interestingly, this young blonde girl with a single heart-shaped cowlick adorably flopped over her forehead¡ªXiao¡¯ao¡ªhad a signature attack move of hitting her opponent with potatoes. Kabbalah had casually asked her what powers she specialized in, but upon seeing her response, he was at a loss for words and utter hopelessness filled his heart. Hitting your opponent with potatoes? How powerful could that be? Little girl, that was a joke, right? However, Lion informed him very seriously that this was definitely not a joke. In the hands of Xiao¡¯ao, an ordinary bag of potatoes could be transformed into incredibly powerful projectile weapons. If they were to land squarely on an opponent, even a single potato would be sufficient in making a fully armed and armored warrior see stars. Thereafter, he would fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The effects were long-lasting enough to keep him on the ground for some time. ¡°Potatoes can be this powerful?¡± Kabbalah was amazed by Lion¡¯s explanation. ¡°Xiao¡¯ao¡¯s potatoes are powerful,¡± Lion gently corrected him. ¡°That¡¯s all.¡± Xiao¡¯ao¡¯s potatoes could be compared to a thin branch: In the hands of a child, they were useful only for stabbing balls of dung by the roadside. However, in the hands of someone like Swordsman Leon, the same branch could split ordinary swords apart and cut through armor as if it were an actual powerful weapon. With the addition of Xiao¡¯ao, Lion became more confident. As soon as she estimated that they had enough manpower, she reported to Olian that they were ready to attack. Olian, who had been waiting for this moment, wasted no time in getting his men into formation. He immediately ordered all of the praying clergymen, who were supposed to perform the divinity combination formation, to switch their tactics as they began their conquest. As for Lion herself, she took out a dark and quaint wooden staff, raised it in front of her and chanted a magic spell. Without the defensive power of the combined divinity formation, the forces from the Church of the God of Aristocracy rapidly approached them. Just as the base camp of the Church of God of Knowledge was about to be completely engulfed by the forces of the enemy, a brilliant and colorful light emerged from Olian¡¯s body. That ray of light transformed into a light shield that resembled a large bell as it contained the entire perimeter of the base. The roaring sounds merged into an endless chaotic furor as powerful spells crashed onto the shield one after the other. The light shield shook and swayed, but it never collapsed. Seeing this, the three Legendary Masters who stood right in front of the Church of the God of Aristocracy frowned. ¡°The legendary Golden Shield? Someone actually turned this legend into a real power!¡± ¡°Prepare to defend; we have incoming!¡± ¡°Quickly disperse, we¡¯ll regroup with the larger forces¡­¡± As they spoke, a dazzling golden light rose from the base of the Church of the God of Knowledge, turning into a lightning bolt with seven forks as it charged towards the base of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. This was the ¡°Seven Ruling Beams,¡± and it was a power normally possible only through combined divinity. This magic power was a true legend, and even in the realm of legendary magic, it was regarded as a power of a higher order. Although the lightning bolt with seven forks could only propel a single blow to the enemy, the strike had seven different domains, so there was almost no way to defend against it. To cast this spell, not only would one require strong magical talent, but they would also need the ability to master all seven different types of magic at the same time. Even among the legendary priests, few people could achieve such a level. Only a large number of magic clergymen could attempt to use this power through a combined divinity formation. In order to cast this spell, the Church of Knowledge had paid a hefty price. For example, Madam Geerteng, the elector, had to single-handedly resist the powerful wave of attacks from the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Even though she possessed extraordinary powers, she still bore the brunt of the shock. Her face turned pale in that split second as blood flowed from her nose. Of course, it was worth it because by the time the Seven Ruling Beams hurtled off to the Church of the God of Aristocracy¡¯s base camp, it was too late for the enemy to defend themselves. It was not that they had no defensive abilities. In fact, at least four or five magical shields formed from their own combined divinity surrounded their base. Theoretically, this would be enough to protect them against any attacks. Their defense mechanisms were not, however, meant for attacks like the Seven Ruling Beams. As the lightning beams fell onto their base, four ear-shattering booms were heard consecutively, and the Church of the God of Aristocracy saw their four strategic defense shields disappear like popped bubbles. At the same time, four out of seven of the lightning forks fizzled out. Immediately after, two of the three remaining beams collided with a few spells that had been cast by a few Legendary Masters in a last ditch effort to recover from this unexpected development. This time, two low-pitched blasts sounded one after the other. At last, after six of the forks were gone, the remaining magical blast looked just like an inconspicuous normal lightning bolt. Finally, it slammed right onto the base of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Upon the loud roar, at least 20 priests were killed immediately, and smoke billowed from most of their bodies. The number of people who were maimed from their injuries was twice the number of deaths, and the number of people who fainted and who were temporarily unable to fight was double that of the maimed victims. With just a single blow, nearly a hundred priests from the Church of the God of Aristocracy had withdrawn from the battle sequence. The attacks from the Church of the God of Knowledge, however, was not over yet. On the contrary, they were only just beginning. Almost as soon as the priests had prayed together and cast the Seven Ruling Beams, Lion had already commanded the main battleship-level Oracles to be lined up in threes, ready to fight in their attack formation. Her staff waved around as she orchestrated the movement of the Oracles. ¡°Bombard them!¡± On command, the Oracles, who in appearance seemed just like ordinary young girls, began to shine. Countless specks of light bloomed and floated around them before they condensed together to form a battleship with a gun barrel. This was the true potential of Oracles in war. In this form, their energy would deplete quickly, and the time they could spend in the mortal world would also be greatly reduced. However, they were extremely strong! The endless sounds of warfare were accompanied by countless bright trails of light. A steady stream of fiery red beams screamed with the wind as they traveled across the border between the two opponents and charged towards the base camp of the enemy. By now, although the Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy were all fighting on the ground, and although the better-trained priests had recovered and were beginning to rebuild their defensive shields, the successive and unrelenting bombings were causing a lot of trouble for them. The spellcasters were already under insurmountable pressure in the face of continuous shelling, and they concentrated solely on maintaining their defense magic. Under such conditions, how could they have any power left to attack? At the moment, the other Oracles who were less skilled in heavy bombing had, under Lion¡¯s command, begun their offensive. Their ships were much weaker than the capital warship-level Oracles, and there was a significant difference in size and thickness throughout the ship, especially the gun barrels. If the gun barrels of the capital warship-level Oracles were equal to heavy weapons such as copper hammers and large axes, then the other Oracles would be the equivalent of light weapons such as daggers and longswords. However, a light weapon was still a weapon, and weapons could kill. As long as the weapon was used correctly, the seemingly insignificant sword¡ªderided as ¡°child¡¯s play¡±¡ªcould kill the toughest of men. The same went for those seemingly exquisite and petite warships. The Oracles appeared in vast numbers. In fact, Kabbalah was still summoning more Oracles by the altar. At the moment, he was using the minimum amount of sacrificial offerings and summoned only Oracles who glowed white and twinkled once, the least powerful variety. As soon as they were summoned, all they had to do was to get themselves armed and charge towards the Church of the God of Aristocracy. The advantage of a ship being loaded with only light equipment was that it could move around faster. With a single command, the Oracles who had reached the frontlines were already beginning to attack as they neared the base of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. If their firepower was not enough, they could always bring their weapons closer to the enemy! The new wave of attacks was, of course, incomparable to the power of the bombs created by the capital warship-level Oracles, but due to the proximity and accuracy of these weapons, the defense systems of the Church of the God of Aristocracy was facing insurmountable pressure. In fact, one mustn¡¯t look down on these ¡°light cruisers¡± and ¡°destroyers,¡± for despite their weak firepower, they had another potent capability. ¡°Torpedo!¡± Lion held the scepter as she slowly moved forward. She issued an order to the Oracles who were charging towards the base of the enemy. Before this, the warships of the young maidens already possessed a strange, long cylinder with a perfectly round tip and a slightly convex rear that looked like arrow feathers. One after the other, those cylinders appeared beside the girls and produced a soft humming sound. On Lion¡¯s command, the torpedoes charged like a fish briskly navigating a stream. It was like a sharp blade that had lodged itself into the magical shield of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. A moment later, the shield exploded. Chapter 616 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The attack capabilities of the light cruiser-level and destroyer-level Oracles were not high, and to add insult to injury, they had already been weakened by their rough landing on the Main Plane. Even with the usage of the most powerful weapon onboard, the ¡°torpedo,¡± and even if they managed to launch a fully accurate frontal strike, it would only be enough to send the high-level adventurers retreating by a few steps. However, if one attack was not enough, what about ten? What about a hundred? The gradual accumulation of damage would eventually lead to visible change. At least ten Oracles took part in the wave of attacks. Not a single bit of ammunition was spared as they threw out all of their torpedoes in one go. Of course, those torpedoes would be reproduced by expending their magical powers, but that would take some time. Each of the Oracles had at least six torpedoes, and those with more had eight or even twelve of them. Since there were more than ten Oracles attacking together, they had close to a hundred torpedoes. Thanks to Lion¡¯s guidance, nearly a hundred torpedoes slammed into the magic shields that surrounded the base of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. That was equivalent to the force of seventy or eighty high-level adventurers striking together. Moreover, the attack was concentrated in a small area. What would the results be like? It goes without saying. A single ear-shattering boom¡ªfrom that sound, one could tell how accurately the Oracles had timed the attack. Despite there being close to a hundred torpedoes, only a single resounding chime was heard without the chaotic rumbling one might expect from an attack of that scale. That seemingly sturdy, magical shield violently shook and burst like a bubble impaled by a needle, disappearing without a trace. At the very moment when the magical shield disappeared, the faces of at least twenty clergymen from the Church of the God of Aristocracy paled dramatically. Blood poured from their noses and mouths almost like those film stunts seen on TV. The victim who had it the worst had blood spurting two meters away from his mouth, and his entire person quickly shrunk and became thin. He eventually became a bag of bones and fell straight to the ground, evidently dead. This was known as magical antiphasing. The more power the spell generated, the greater the risk of getting injured upon the destruction of the spell. The magical shield that protected the base of the Divine Positions was the combined efforts of everyone. Hence, when it broke, the force of the magical antiphase was naturally the same as the combined powers of everyone. While the Legendary Masters had it better than the rest, even the high-level clergymen could not withstand such strong magical antiphasing, let alone a clergyman who had yet to reach that level! Even the Legendary Masters began to feel dizzy as if there were 365 ducks quarreling in their minds, or perhaps it was two groups of housewives quarreling in the market¡­ In short, it was the kind feeling where one was about to be driven insane but could do nothing about it. If Sui Xiong learned about this, he was likely to say, ¡°Isn¡¯t this the legendary buzzing sound of a fly headed for your ears?¡± In fact, that would not be too far away from the truth. Fortunately, all of the Legendary Masters possessed a spirit and will strong enough to suppress that sensation, and their combat power was restored very quickly. However, by the time they did so, the Oracles had already charged forth to a position close to themselves. Mass-produced Oracles may not be not strong, but no matter how weak they were, they had the advantage of being close to the high-level adventurers at the moment of the full-force explosion. In front of those clergymen from the Church of the God of Aristocracy who were injured and dazed from the effects of the magical antiphase, the advantage that they now had over them was overwhelming. The thin and seemingly exquisite gun barrels, at the same time, were just as capable of launching a deadly attack. While such an attack would not have any effect on a completely armored Sacred Warrior, Xiao¡¯ao, who had been lurking amongst the frontline troops, already knew what to do as soon as she saw the situation. She commanded her comrades to ignore the Sacred Warriors, and instead, they were to aim all of their firepower on the clergymen who had only mid-grade armor on at best. As for the sorcerers without armor¡­ they did not even stand a chance, and nearly all of them had already been killed by then. However, a new problem had cropped up for the Oracles¡ªthree Legendary Masters had decided to step up and fight. The first one to join in the battle was the tall and lanky elder. He was a paladin, so despite his weak appearance, he was actually very strong. Seeing that the Oracles were coming closer and that the gunfire was about to reach him, he sneered as he took a bow and arrow out of his haversack. Without even aiming for a kill, he mounted the arrow and began to shoot. One arrow after the other flew out like raindrops, and with minimal effort, six or seven Oracles were hit by the arrows. The old paladin¡¯s archery was legendary, and naturally, every arrow was fatal. If he had been pit against a group of ordinary people, then there was little chance for anyone to survive his attacks. However, although the Oracles looked like young maidens, they were created from Divine Power in essence. Hence, they simply do not have any concept of mortality. Regardless of whether it was an arrow to the heart or an arrow to the throat, to them, it was nothing more than a strike to a muscle or their thighs. Hence, when the old paladin saw that a few Oracles with arrows in their brains were still alive and well, he knew that he should give up on his fight and let the others step in instead. Of course, it was not that he could not fight. However, was he going to risk a battle with a bunch of people who could not care less about an arrow in their heads? That would simply be suicidal! The other two Legendary Masters had a better battle record than he did. The burly man was a fierce warrior, and seeing as the enemy was near, he let out an angry roar, and his veins popped out all across his body. He raised his large axe and charged at them. His axe was extremely heavy. In fact, it was heavier than the average person, and when such a powerful weapon danced in the air, it naturally had a menacing aura. The Oracle nearest to him was only able to fire one torpedo in his direction before she became his first victim. One chop and she was sliced into half from shoulder to hip. Unquestionably, they were dead meat, even the Oracles who were immortal. The blast that was sent out in desperation earlier managed to hit him, but it was fended off by the armor-like bloodthirstiness in him. The burly man sliced through his opponents as he laughed madly. His eyes took on the crazed appearance of a madman as he aligned his axe horizontal to the ground. With another roar, his entire person began to twirl like a spinning top. At the same time, the axe transformed into a razor-sharp whirlwind that swept across the ground. As for the ornately-dressed woman, being a Legendary Master, she had the extraordinary power to control time and space. Of course, she did not stupidly stand too close to the enemy. Instead, she first stepped into a high-velocity space leap, retreating more than twenty steps. Thereafter, her right hand, the one with two rings on it, began to glow a bright white. Immediately, four beams of light shot across the battlefield like crescent moons, heading for the Oracles on the battlefront. Her attack was the stealthiest. Despite the fact that she had neither the ferociousness of the burly man nor the stern demeanor of the old paladin, she turned out to be the deadliest of them all. Those streaks of crescent-like light were actually vacuum rifts torn from matter. Anything in the way of those deceptively ¡°harmless¡± beams would be obliterated regardless of how they were hit, resulting in large losses for the Oracles. The vast majority of Oracles completely lost their combat power after getting hit, and some of them were killed upon impact. Of course, the mass-produced Oracles were still charging forth wave after wave, and with Kabbalah¡¯s reserve of resources, he could continue to summon them hundreds of times. Furthermore, these charging Oracles were not alone, for they had plenty of reliable comrades behind them. Approximately one or two seconds after the three Legendary Masters began their attack, Lion had already received the latest report from the frontlines, and she made the necessary adjustments. The aforementioned adjustment was to let the capital warship-level Oracles rotate their gun barrels, aim for the three Legendary Masters and open fire. ¡°Bombard them!¡± She waved the scepter as she commanded in a booming voice. ¡°Suppress their attack!¡± On her command, the sound of firing cannonballs again merged into a single roar as streaks of red flames descended from the skies. The three Legendary Masters were trapped underneath the blanket of gunfire. Such an attack was definitely not enough to kill them directly, but it was enough to keep them busy so that they did not have time to return the attack. Under such circumstances, after a brief attempt at resisting the attacks, all three of the Legendary Masters chose to retreat simultaneously. They could have taken the risk and continued to fight, but what was the use of that? Retreating quickly and regrouping with the larger forces was a much more pragmatic option. With the retreat of the Legendary Masters, the clergymen from the Church of the God of Aristocracy on the frontlines were naturally exterminated. The Church of the God of Knowledge was without a doubt the definitive winner this time around. Chapter 617 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Annihilated the frontline troops of the Church of the God of Aristocracy?¡± asked Olian upon hearing this piece of news. She could not hold back a smile. ¡°Well done! Now, we have the winning edge!¡± Both churches had started out with their own strong points, but the Church of the God of Aristocracy had a longer history and thus, more experience and expertise, it had a certain advantage over the Church of the God of Knowledge. Using numbers to estimate the odds of winning, both sides would probably be at a ratio of 40 to 60 percent. But after a few rounds of crossfire, especially after the frontline troops of the Church of the God of Aristocracy was just wiped out, there was a switch. The ratio was still at 40 to 60 percent¡­ However, the 60 percent chance of winning now belonged to the Church of the God of Knowledge instead. After a good laugh, Olian recomposed herself. Once again, she regained a calm and stern demeanor. ¡°Advantage¡± and ¡°victory¡± were two different things, without needing to mention the 60% chance of winning, even if it was a 99% chance of winning, so long as there was no real victory, then there was not much practical significance. And she also noticed that it was no small problem on her own side either. The Oracles certainly did possess a very strong explosive force. The power of this wave of attack was quite spectacular. But to back up such an onslaught, an astonishing consumption of power was required. At that moment, many Oracles were falling into exhaustion. If they did not pause for a breather, they would not be able to continue fighting. Or even if they did catch up on rest, their explosive force would not be the same as before, where they easily fought with the aggressiveness of a wild storm of fierce wind and torrential rain. The Church of the God of Aristocracy was dealt with quite a harsh blow, but it did not lose any of its Legendary Masters. That would mean the church was not bruised with any major injuries at all. To such a big church that had been established for several hundreds of years, with its multiple temples built all over the world, so long as it was not a massive number of around 10,000 men under the command of its Legendary Masters being killed in one go, any number of deaths smaller than this would not be considered a big deal at all. So the hustle and bustle of the battle currently at play would surely produce a certain outcome. But coming to a conclusion on which church would emerge as true victor of this battle¡ªit was still too early to tell. ¡°Kabbalah! You got to speed up!¡± Olian commanded. With a wry smile, Kabbalah nodded. However, he simply could not think of any way to speed up further. The Oracle-summoning team under his leadership could, on average, summon thrice within a minute, which was already a speed that could be considered unbeatable. Yet he was asked to speed up further? How much faster did he have to be in order to match expectations? On the other side, Lion also allowed the capital warship level Oracles to reduce their frequency of attack for the time being so they could rest. She herself continued to advance forward to get to somewhere close to the enemy camp so that she could observe it carefully. After watching it for a moment, she frowned. Founded 300 years ago, the Church of the God of Aristocracy was truly deserving of its reputation of a well-established church. Moreover, it had the Church of the God of Royalty, which was established more than 3,000 years ago, as its predecessor. Although its frontline troops had been annihilated and only three of its Legendary Masters managed to escape, no one panicked at all. On the contrary, within a short minute, everything was reorganized. The combined divinity formation had been readjusted, and the magical shield was re-built. The magical shield this time around was different from before. It was very colorful and divided into several regions. Upon scrutiny, one could see that even the internal parts were divided into multiple layers. Obviously, this was an adjustment made with respect to the previous attacks. With such a magical shield in place, if the Oracles were to focus their attacks on one particular point, most certainly, they could break the shield. But they would not be able to bring it to the point of utter collapse, which would in turn, bring about a magical antiphase. ¡°This is going to be a great challenge ah¡­¡± Lion sighed. With a wave, she used her mind to command the Oracles to adjust their formation and method of attack. Then a continuous stream of less powerful cannons poured towards the direction of the magical shield. She wanted to make use of this method to probe into the second layer of defense put up by the Church of the God of Aristocracy. She wanted to find out if there were any loopholes that she could make use of. A moment later, she had a conclusion and thus commanded the Oracles to launch another round of attacks with the aggressiveness of a wild storm. Countless cannons ceaselessly bombarded the magical shield that was safeguarding the formation of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, causing it to waver and shake like water waves. A moment later, the magical shield broke apart, resulting in a few gaping holes. Beneath the shield, the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy wore a solemn expression. She looked coldly at the messy pile of injured members sprawled all over the place then looked over to the Legendary Masters who were all in deep frowns and could not help feeling angrier and angrier. It was very apparent that a majority of these Legendary Masters had already made up their minds to withdraw, because expecting them to fight such a life-and-death battle was simply out of the question. So long as they were willing to fight hard enough, the situation would not have deteriorated to such a point! She fought back the urge to roar. Taking out an exquisite wooden box, she placed it before the statue of the God of Aristocracy and kowtowed to it before opening the box. The moment the box was opened, a furious roar that sounded like the cries of dragons and tigers resonated within the people¡¯s hearts. It was as if there were countless roaring primeval beasts charging out from the inside. However, upon composing oneself before taking a look, there were in fact no such beasts or demons inside. There was only a single precious stone exuding a brilliant glow to be found. ¡°The Jewel of the Heaven¡¯s Wrath?!¡± exclaimed the connoisseurs among the Legendary Masters and high-level Clergymen, as they all gasped in surprise. This precious stone, called the ¡°Jewel of the Heaven¡¯s Wrath,¡± was made by the God of Aristocracy back when he assassinated the God of Royalty and then collected all the divinity dispersed all over the place after the death of the God of Royalty. It was placed right before the statue of the God of Aristocracy at the headquarters of the church all year round to absorb the power of beliefs. Once it was used, there would be a force as strong as that of a real god striking a blow, which was almost reaching the limit to what the human world could accommodate. Over the years, it was only used a few times, yet every time it was used, it would never fail to vanquish the enemy. The Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy wanted to make this situation formal and proper, and thus she had specially brought along this precious treasure. Originally, she had thought this treasure would not be required; yet she had not expected that the faintly discernible premonition that hit her before they set off for this battle to come true. Now was truly a time for this treasure to be used! Coldly, she surveyed her surroundings. Then she took the Jewel of the Heaven¡¯s Wrath out of the box and lifted it high. ¡°God¡¯s wrath would be the heaven¡¯s wrath. God¡¯s punishing hands would thus be heaven¡¯s punishing hands!¡± she shouted at the top of her voice while holding the jewel that was glowing with a most radiant splendor. She continued to shout, ¡°In the name of God, receive heaven¡¯s punishing hands!¡± In the blink of an eye, a dazzling golden light rose from the center of the divinity formation of the Church of the God of Aristocracy and transformed into a gigantic fist. Then it hurled itself mercilessly towards the Church of the God of Knowledge. This was the legendary divine spell, Punishing Fist of Heaven. This spell was very famous. It could almost be one of the legendary divine spells with the highest ¡°appearance rate.¡± Going through its history, at least a dozen or more churches had used it. It was powerful and had a stable structure. So long as its spellcasting procedure was complete, there was no need to worry about a counter-spell or the spell being cracked. Also, this divine, gigantic fist might seem clumsy, but it was in fact, extremely agile. It could even track its opponent. There was no other way to counter this spell. Blocking its attack was the only way to work against it. But to receive such a forceful attack with brute strength alone was easier said than done! This spell could bring about a large, explosive amount of magic in one go. Its power was extremely shocking. Also, theoretically speaking, there was no limit on its power. The more power injected into casting this spell, the stronger it would be. In history, there had been churches gathering thousands of clergymen together to pray, then finally, a Legendary Master would host a ritual for the spell. There was even record of an occasion where once the Punishing Fist of Heaven was executed, an entire city of a sizable scale would be completely smashed flat to level ground. Attention, it was completely smashed flat to level ground, and not even piles of debris or ruined buildings were left lying around. Such a feat was difficult to achieve, even for the greatest killing weapon on Earth, the nuclear bomb! Both Lion and Olian knew of this divine spell. The moment they saw that golden gigantic feast appearing, both their expressions changed. There was no time for careful consideration. Immediately, Lion commanded that all the Oracles direct their attacks towards that gigantic fist. Now was no time to be prudent over the use of magic. Every bit of magical power to be spared must be used. Otherwise, if they could not manage to block that Punishing Fist of Heaven, all of them would not live to see tomorrow. Olian was in no position to worry about the internal injuries she had sustained just a moment ago. Once again, she launched her most powerful defense spell, where a Golden Shield appeared once again and positioned itself right above the formation of the Church of the God of Knowledge. She had just completed casting the spell, only to find that the golden gigantic fist was already pitching itself against the almost-raging cannons fired by the Oracles and was slowly smashing into them. The two legendary divine spells crashed into one another. There was no earth-shattering noise, nor was there any vigorous explosion. The Legendary Golden Shield gave one violent shake, then disappeared without a trace. The Punishing Fist of Heaven, on the other hand, lost its brilliance and dimmed. Subjected to the firing cannons of the Oracles before it could even fall to the ground, it dissipated completely. As a result of this one blow, Olian¡¯s body started to shake violently. She could only get to her feet most grudgingly with the help of the Oracles by her side, but blood was already flowing from her eyes, nose, and ears, painting her fair-skinned face into a hideous scarlet red. She wanted to speak, but the moment she opened her mouth, without even saying anything, she spewed countless droplets of blood. Chapter 618 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Jewel of the Heaven¡¯s Wrath was truly deserving to be known as the hidden trump card of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. The moment it was utilized, the Church of the God of Knowledge was dealt a devastating blow. To block the Punishing Fist of Heaven that this jewel had dealt, the leader of the Church of the God of Knowledge, Elector Olian Geerteng, was severely injured. She was lucky enough to survive this ordeal because she had a body bestowed upon her by the gods. Yet to recover to the point where she could fight against the enemies was absolutely not achievable within one to two days. Of course, she could rapidly speed up the recovery of her combat power through certain means, but the price to pay was conceivable. In short, Olian had to give up on this thought after some consideration. At present, there were no talents at the advanced legendary peak level, least to mention, any talents who had hopes of stepping into the Legendary Realm. For the next 10 to 20 years, she would still have to be the pillar of support for her church and its people. ¡°What the hell did I just see! How could they have such a powerful spell?¡± said Olian¡¯s most powerful aide, Bishop Montero, who was the oldest among all the higher-ups of the Church of the God of Knowledge. He was looking up in the air with some trepidation¡ªthat was where the Punishing Fist of Heaven had just dissipated. When it utilized its final bit of power, it could still reach a distance no more than ten steps away from the clergymen on the ground. ¡°Who knows? But there is no doubt that there is a huge price to pay for this spell,¡± said Bishop Garett. ¡°If it could be used as they pleased, they would have used it already.¡± This was something obvious. Also, it was precisely because they could figure it out that they could maintain a certain level of morale among themselves and not be easily frightened away even when the army¡¯s morale went south. Honestly speaking, if their opponent could indeed easily throw out the Punishing Fist of Heaven to smash them all, then even if her underlings were reluctant to take flight, Olian would have taken them away with her and make a quick escape. To stand up to the Punishing Fist of Heaven and preserve through a battle with it¡ªthere would be no one valiant enough to do so, at least not on the Main Plane. Oh¡­ with the exception of the Void Mask. The fortunate thing was that the opponent obviously did not have the ability to launch this strategic spell successively. This comforted and eased an uptight Olian up to some extent, allowing some peace of mind. She had allowed herself to accept treatment and thus had been ingesting precious potions. At present, she barely recovered some energy and vitality, but she was still struggling with speech and could only make incoherent utterances. Even if that was the case, this battle still had to be fought. If she could see the situation over at the other side¡¯s formation, perhaps she might change her perspective. Because over at the other side, the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy was looking at her palm with a gloomy expression. Within her palm, there was a broken, precious stone. Though it was crushed beyond the point of salvaging, the shattered pieces were still exuding bright rays. Not only that, as the outer shell that made up the divine magic array had shattered, the powerful force that was hidden within now radiated out. The fragments of the broken precious stone, when met with the hidden force that was now spreading outwards, emitted a powerful oppressive force so frightening that with the exception of a few Legendary Masters, no one else dared to look it straight in the eye. ¡°How could it be that even my Jewel of the Heaven¡¯s Wrath could be shattered¡­¡± said the Archbishop with a heavy expression. Then she whispered, ¡°The capital put into this battle is really too high!¡± Yes, too high. The loss of dozens of mid to high-level clergymen was, honestly, not a big deal¡ªother than a few of the high-level ones, the remaining mid-level clergymen did not even qualify for a second glance from her. If they were dead, then so be it. That was totally unworthy of her concern. But to lose the Jewel of Heaven¡¯s Wrath¡ªthis price was much too hefty! She could not help feeling frustrated as she pondered about how she could give an acceptable explanation to the elders when she got back. Although she was the highest-standing Archbishop in the entire church, there were still the elders who had very high qualifications and many years of experience that she had to answer to. These elders might not be very powerful, but they had very high prestige. Although they were usually respectful towards her and would obey her orders, a grave matter such as damaging the Jewel of Heaven¡¯s Wrath was something that would definitely incur their wrath. It was obviously unrealistic to think that they would let the matter pass without a few words of accountability. There was something else that got her wondering. Over the years, the Jewel of Heaven¡¯s Wrath had been used several times. Each time it was used, its attack power would not be any weaker than this time, and yet, the jewel remained intact all this while. Why did it completely shatter this time around? This did not make sense at all! Yet it had never occurred to her that, over all these years, the Jewel of Heaven¡¯s Wrath had been used repeatedly. Time after time, it launched powerful attacks, but whenever it had done so, when was it able to remain unscathed? The increasingly bright glow it exuded that day was in fact, merely a refraction of the countless tiny fragments of the shattered jewel. Accumulating impact from the numerous repeated attacks, the jewel finally reached its limit. Of course, it would eventually shatter. It was said that back then, if the God of Aristocracy had used some rare and sturdy materials to make this treasure, it would have been sturdy and durable. But to tell the truth, this matter was a slight violation of taboo, and thus the God of Aristocracy dared not to invite trouble. So with a mindset of ¡°able to use once, I make no loss; able to use twice, I have earned,¡± he had casually picked a random gem as his chosen material, since something was better than nothing. Over the years, also counting this time, the jewel had been used five times. He had already earned more than enough. At this moment, the clone of the God of Aristocracy was staying out of sight up in the air. He had seen everything clearly from where he was, but he did not say anything at all, much less give his followers a little hint or some comfort. To him, with the exception of a few legendary followers, the rest were all dispensable. As for those treasures that the Archbishop had placed so much significance on, to him, they were nothing more than consumables. Even if this were a major battle, he did not attach a particular importance to it. No doubt, winning was good, but it did not matter if they did not win. So long as enough had been accumulated, then he would have met all the requirements for him to successfully advance. No one would be able to stop him. On the other side of the sky, Wall, the God of Knowledge, was unable to stay as composed and levelheaded. He frowned deeply as his gaze was fixated on Olian, who was still coughing from time to time. He saw how every cough would be accompanied by the spewing of blood and felt extremely worried. Although he could see that Olian¡¯s injuries had basically stabilized, and so long as she did not fight against anyone, she would be able to recover, he was still worried. Olian was his only disciple. Since she was young, she had led a lonely life. Although she was a collateral relative of the Geerteng family, she did not receive any actual benefits by having the same family name. Both her parents passed away when she was seven, and she was sent to the library when she was only eight years old. At that time, she was short and thin, so even if she wore the smallest robe in the entire Church of the God of Classics, she would still be dragging more than half the piece of clothing on the ground. She looked as pathetic as a homeless little puppy. Wall¡¯s heart melted at the sight of young Olian. He was reminded of his own child who was burned to death on the fire rack with his mother, deprived of the chance to be born. Therefore, he ignored the fact that he had to keep his identity a secret and began taking care of this little girl. Later, he simply took her under his wing as his disciple and taught her all the skills he knew in his lifetime¡­ That was almost 50 years ago, and that timid little one was now a lord who held command over a piece of territory and an entire church. Not to mention, this little fellow had already stepped into the Legendary Realm. On the Main Plane, this little fellow was considered to be quite a big shot who could cause the entire place to shake with the stomping of her feet. But in his heart, he still felt that Olian was weak and delicate and still needed to be taken care of. He was always worried about her. So not long after he was sealed with the position of a god, he had impatiently made Olian an elector. At that time, without having much to spare, he had given her some of his divinity. As a result, he had been haggard for a few months before he fully recovered. When Sui Xiong learned about this, he had advised Wall, the God of Knowledge, on more than one occasion against such attached feelings. But Wall simply could not let go. This must be the heart of all parents in the world. Even though they knew that their children had matured into adults and could live their lives independently, but in truth, how many could truly and completely let go of their children? Looking at his injured and fragile disciple, the God of Knowledge was filled with worries. After a while, he turned around to look towards the Church of the God of Aristocracy, and his eyes were filled with murderous intent. Within the Sanctuary of his God¡¯s Kingdom, Wall¡¯s original body returned to his seat on his own altar. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± Sui Xiong had already observed this situation through his cloned body. From the way Wall was behaving, he could vaguely guess what Wall intended to do. He was just asking for the obvious. ¡°Create a clone and descend upon Earth,¡± Wall said ferociously. ¡°How dare he bully my disciple, this is unacceptable! I want them to regret this for the rest of their lives!¡± Chapter 619 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong could tell that Wall was really in rage this time. At that moment, he wore a murderous look on his face. That murderous intention, in turn, contained a cold and fierce aura, as though Wall was a demon beast ready to rip his enemy alive. That was hostility, and it was something more brutal than being murderous. Usually, people would confuse murderous intent with hostility. In truth, these were two different concepts altogether. A murderous intention was an entity in its purest form, like battle, killing, victory¡­ it was a demonstration of the innermost fighting spirit rooted within the blood of all living beings, so it was clean without any impurities. Hostility, on the other hand, was not pure. It was hatred, jealousy, greed¡­ so on and so forth, it was the embodiment of various kinds of negative emotions, which were all the deep and gloomy by-products of wisdom. In nature, there were many kinds of wild beasts carrying such a murderous aura. But even the most ferocious beasts, like the lions and tigers, would not carry with them an aura filled with hostility. This was because their intelligence level did not support such strong emotions. In other words, if one could detect hostility from any of these wild beasts, then the wisest choice would be to run away while they were still far from the beast¡ªthis thing might have already transformed into a demon beast, so any delay in running away would render one as lunch for this beast. Wall was a neutral god, who sported more traits of being a good god, and yet, he did not belong to the Good Camp¡ªthis was perceivable from how he had gained his fame way back then. The moment he got angry, he would wield his blade; in the depth of the night, he would go out killing, and such deeds were most certainly not something gods from the Good Camp would do. Even those known as the ¡°Wandering Paladins¡± from the Chaotic Good Camp would not be capable of such vicious doings¡­ something to take note of¡ªback when Wall wanted to seek vengeance, he had slipped into the temple of the Kingdom of Holy Angels during the promotion ceremony of the Duke of Holy Fire. But along the way, he had killed many soldiers and guards who were completely unrelated to him and whom he did not bear any hatred for at all. A person capable of such killings was undoubtedly someone capable of harboring hostility. Over the past few years, Sui Xiong had never seen such hostility from Wall. Even back when Wall got to know that Sui Xiong was injured by the various Orc Gods and when everyone had made a commotion about taking revenge, all Sui Xiong could sense from Wall was a murderous aura. There was no hostility to speak of. Sui Xiong had thought that after years of self-cultivation, Wall finally managed to transform hostility into peace, just like how Xiao Yuan Shan and Mu Rong Bo, from The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, a martial arts novel, were enlightened by eminent monks. Yet now, Sui Xiong could see this hostility. But instead of worrying, he was, on the contrary, secretly smiling. Wall practically looked upon Olian as a child. When his own child was injured by someone else, it would be impossible not to incur a father¡¯s wrath. It was a good thing that he was able to show such hostility. This showed that there was still much humanity in him. To a god of belief, humanity was essential. Only humanity was able to resist the erosion of the power of belief, hence allowing the god to retain their clear and complete self. If even their humanity was worn out, then this god would gradually become what their followers believed or expected them to be¡ªa god that was no longer themselves. Of course, this was an extremely long process. The shorter periods would be around a few hundred years while the longer periods could take as long as tens of thousands of years. But for one who was just sealed with the title of a god, the first hundred years were the most important. If within these hundred years, the newly sealed god could effectively resist the erosion power of belief, then this god would be able to retain his original self for a long, long time. On the contrary, if during the first hundred years, the newly sealed god underwent a distortion of character, then the outcome would often be that this god would become a pure polymer of beliefs within the next three to four hundred years. Wall was originally a warrior; yet over the years, he had become more and more like a scholar. Sui Xiong had always been a little worried about that. But seeing how fearsome he looked at that moment, clearly, he was still that fighter from the good old days, whose blade tip was always dripping with blood. This gave Sui Xiong peace of mind. So when Wall said that he would make a clone of himself and descend upon the earth just to fight against the Church of the God of Aristocracy, Sui Xiong had no intention of stopping him. Instead, Sui Xiong had encouraged him to go ahead with his plans. ¡°Well said!¡± said Sui Xiong as he nodded; then he continued to say, ¡°But has it ever crossed your mind that the most powerful ones out of all those Holy Sons and Holy Daughters from your church are at most mid-level, even if they were most carefully selected? How much of your Divine Power can they bear? If you are unable to transfuse them with enough Divine Power, then there is no way they can become strong enough. By then, not only will they lose their lives in vain, you yourself would be easily losing your divinity for no reason at all.¡± Wall frowned all at once. This was a topic that struck home. Possessing a body in order to descend upon the earth was the most economical method for a god to arrive in the mortal world, but it would impose very demanding requirements on the person being possessed. Not only must their physique be able to adapt to the influx of Divine Power to the greatest extent possible, but they were also required to be strong enough to accommodate as much Divine Power as possible. The purpose of the gods possessing human bodies to descend upon Earth was to fight enemies. If the amount of Divine Power taken in was too little, then even if one was possessed by a god, there would not be an increase in combat power. On the contrary, the enemy would most likely destroy this follower who was possessed by the god, along with that trace of divinity gained when being possessed. That would be a heavy loss. Of course, there would naturally be ways to improve such a situation and the most commonly used one would be to make blood offerings. Back when there was great chaos within Garth City, Sean Riley, the second son of City Lord Joseph Riley, had used such a method to allow the Goddess of Marsh to pass down a tremendous amount of Divine Power. It was so powerful that he was able to suppress his father, who was a Legendary Master, and his sister, who had also summoned a god into descending to the earth. Ultimately, Sean Riley managed to force the Goddess of Harvest into self-detonating its clone. It should be noted that his ability had barely reached mid-level and was thus completely incomparable to his sister, Heli Riley¡¯s, ability. She was already a high-level clergyman. In the ordinary course of events, even if the Goddess of Marsh were to possess a body to descend upon the mortal world, it would be absolutely impossible to win against the Goddess of Harvest, who had also possessed a body to be able to appear within the mortal world. But in order to achieve the effect of allowing the Goddess of Marsh to pass on a great amount of divinity, Sean had killed his wife and children. He wiped out his entire family and used all of them as sacrificial offerings. Such an act was simply insane and perverse, and no one with the slightest hint of conscience in them would be capable of pulling that off. Only an evil god like the Goddess of Marsh would allow her followers to perform such cruelty. Undoubtedly, Wall would not possibly do something like that, and that was why he was feeling a little troubled. Seeing how troubled he was, Sui Xiong gave a secretive smile. ¡°You can count on me on this!¡± Sui Xiong said as his tentacles began flashing out radiant light rays, thereafter churning out a few pills. ¡°Distribute these pills to the Holy Sons and Holy Daughters in a while and get them all to swallow one pill each. After the pills take effect, you can possess the bodies to make your descent. I guarantee that you will be able to cast down a great amount of Divine Power.¡± Wall took the pills from Sui Xiong and gave them a little squeeze. The crust was a little soft, and upon taking a closer look, he could see that the inside of the pill was vaguely a tad transparent. It seemed to contain a certain kind of liquid. ¡°What effect does this pill have?¡± Wall asked out of curiosity. ¡°That¡¯s a secret. You will know in a while.¡± Wall asked no further. He directly sent the pills over to Olian and instructed her on what she had to do with the pills. At this time, relying on the Punishing Fist of Heaven, the Church of the God of Aristocracy had salvaged itself from any disadvantage that it was at and was about to counterattack. Its Legendary Masters were successively raining attacks while the mass-produced Oracles, who were charging forward, were steadily losing ground. Upon seeing how the loss was quite substantial, Lion got the Oracles to retreat for the time being. They would wait for the subsequent backup to arrive before fighting again. At this point, it was almost time for them to go all out. This was why Olian had not hesitated in giving out these pills to the Holy Sons and Holy Daughters and getting them to swallow them. Normally, when asked to eat medicine of an unknown origin, people would tend to feel worried. But being Holy Sons and Holy Daughters, they were originally meant to be one-time warriors of sacrifice. In most cases, when the god possessed a body to descend upon the earth, the soul of the human would be jostled out of its body and then be sent to its God¡¯s Kingdom. So regardless of the final outcome, their lives as ¡°mortals¡± had definitely come to an end. If that was the case, then they were certainly not bothered about what medicine they were about to take. These pills had a strange yet unique appearance, and the effect they evoked was even more extraordinary. Not only would they melt in the mouth right away, but the moment they were swallowed, there would be a rush of heat produced, which in turn would tumble about within the chest and stomach. The ones ingesting these pills would feel a great bout of energy gushing out from within their bodies, causing them to feel the irresistible urge to let out a loud, ferocious roar. Even someone with average ability could tell that they had undergone a massive transformation¡ªneedless to mention anything else, just that sudden vigor arising was certainly not something that could be falsified. ¡°Right now!¡± Sui Xiong reminded loudly. Wall nodded. He shut his eyes as his face went a little pale. The statue right in the middle of the formation of the Church of the God of Knowledge suddenly glowed with an outburst of brilliant rays, shooting out numerous streams of brilliant white light that fell upon several Holy Sons and Holy Daughters. The next moment, the looks in their eyes completely changed. Their eyes now looked fierce and resolute and were all the more filled with murderous intent. Wall, the God of Knowledge, had possessed another¡¯s body to make his descent into the mortal world. Chapter 620 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°One, two, three, four, five, six¡­ a total of six,¡± said the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. She squinted to count the number of powerful auras that suddenly appeared from the formation of the Church of the God of Knowledge. There were no traces of fear on her face at all. On the contrary, she was smiling as she said, ¡°The God of Knowledge really dared to invest so much capital this time; in one go, he sent down six of his clones.¡± ¡°A bit cheap, isn¡¯t it? That¡¯s not even enough for us to have one each,¡± said the elderly man from the trio consisting of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow. He sighed and appeared to be a little depressed. ¡°Are we going to fight our way there or wait for them to charge their way here?¡± asked a female mage who was skilled in space magic. She had just retreated from the battlefront. The Archbishop made no reply. Instead, she turned to her assistant by her side and instructed, ¡°Get our Holy Daughters ready and prepared for our god¡¯s descent too. It may happen at any time.¡± Her assistant nodded and saw to the task right away. That was when she finally addressed the few Legendary Masters, ¡°By right, with nine against seven, we should have more than a winning edge over them. But the methods of gods are difficult to fathom, so my intention is to request for Your Majesty to send two of your clones to descend upon the mortal world. Not for any other purpose other than for us to at least be able to see through their methods.¡± The Legendary Masters, undoubtedly, would not object. Despite how confident they were of their capabilities, a powerful comrade watching their backs would certainly be much better. After arriving at a unanimous decision, the Archbishop smiled emotionlessly as she took out a scarlet wand. ¡°We are still unclear of how strong the clones that the God of Knowledge has sent down are. So let us first put them to a test.¡± With that, she started chanting a spell. Then the scarlet wand glowed with a glorious bloody light that even gave off a nauseating stench. In the blink of an eye, there was a long, crimson snake that sported a hideous snakehead and a pair of eyes that emitted a devilish green light. It hissed as it flew up into the air, and then it hovered in the air for a moment before transforming into a python so huge that it could swallow a living man whole. It emitted a stench that encircled it as it flew towards the formation of the Church of the God of Knowledge. This was another extremely powerful treasure. Even though it was a far cry from the Jewel of the Heaven¡¯s Wrath, when placed in many small churches, it was more than qualified to be a supreme treasure that dominated over others in the vicinity. It was made of a legendary venomous python, and the first step of the refining process was to pull out the soul of the venomous python and replace it with the soul of a living human. Then after numerous vicious and terrifying processes, it would ultimately become a terrifying weapon that would make anyone shudder with fear. The venomous python that flew towards the Church of the God of Knowledge had an extremely strong resistance against spells. A majority of the spells were useless against it, and its body was extremely sturdy with infinite power. So long as it had knotted its body around something and then exerted strength to strangle it, then whatever it encircled would be easily shredded to pieces, even if it were a piece of chain metal. Not only that, it had extremely lethal toxicity. Once bitten, even a Legendary Master might not be able to survive. Even if not bitten, just a little drop of the toxic fog was lethal enough to kill an ordinary human right away. What was even scarier was that those humans who were poisoned to death by this toxic fog would undergo mutation after some time and transform into strongly aggressive living corpses. If people around were not paying attention, then there was a likelihood of a second round of injuries. Over the past years, there was once someone who had used this magic wand to stir up trouble in a city under the command of a Legendary Master. If that person had not been found and killed, perhaps just the power of this wand would be enough to destroy the entire city. At that time, the Archbishop was among the group of adventurers that found this person. But at that time, she was merely a mid-ranked priest out on a risky venture with some other adventurers. They had paid a huge price and had sacrificed almost half of their team before they managed to kill that evil mage who had been manipulating that wand. However, when they brought that magic wand and the corpse of that mage back to report to their higher-ups, what awaited them was not a welcome, gratitude, or a reward. On the contrary, there were framed and backstabbed, just because the captain of the city¡¯s patrol team had wanted this magic wand for himself. In the end, out of this group of adventurers, only two managed to escape. Twenty years later, the two joined hands and set off a terrorizing bloodbath in that city, massacring more than 30 soldiers who had previously participated in the fabrication of untrue evidence against their group. So now, these two returned to kill these 30 soldiers and their entire families, sparing neither young nor old. Then they even took this wand away from the City Lord¡¯s treasure vault. Her last companion was severely injured in that battle and passed away shortly after. This magic wand became all that she had left. Through these years, it had accompanied the Archbishop on her various conquests where she had killed countless lives and made a name for herself. Seeing that gigantic, venomous python flying over, the expressions of many people from the Church of the God of Knowledge changed. ¡°Scarlet Venomous Python Wand!¡± someone could not help shouting aloud in surprise. ¡°Beware!¡± Lion frowned as she watched the venomous python approaching her side in the air. With a wave of her scepter, she sent out a signal. Following her command, at least 20 cannons were fired at that gigantic python, and approximately two-thirds of these cannons seemed to be successful shots. The gigantic python was hit and recoiled a few times, but it was uninjured. ¡°Ordinary attacks have no effect on it,¡± a clergyman of adventurer origins rushed to say. ¡°We are left with no other choice; only Your Majesty can help us now!¡± With that, everyone cast their gazes over at the young men and women who stood unmoving, as though they were all in a trance. These were, of course, the Holy Sons and Holy Daughters who had just accepted the possession of the God of Knowledge. At that very moment, they were no longer mortals, but the clones of the God of Knowledge. They were all standing still because, one, they had to conserve energy, and two, for them to better adapt to a mortal¡¯s body, so when it was time for the next battle, they would be able to wield a greater force. Feeling the eyes of the crowd on them, one of the possessed bodies opened his eyes and looked right at the venomous python that was hovering and tumbling about in the air. The snake was occasionally spurting toxic fog, and even the concentrated cannon attacks by the Oracles could not force it into descent. ¡°Pathetic humans!¡± said the god while letting out a deep, low sigh. A glowing light flashed in his hands; then a simple, long black blade speedily appeared between his hands. Then with a deep, low sigh, he wielded it towards the sky. The lightly swaying blade seemed void of energy, but the black trail that it left amidst the sky had sliced a void space along the way. The lingering rays were about to disperse without a trace. Transforming into a stream of black blade light, it headed straight towards that venomous python. The venomous python had the soul of a human, so naturally, it had a certain level of intelligence. Catching sight of that blade light, it knew that its visitor came with hostile intentions. Immediately, it gave out a strange cry, then huddled into a bundle within the air. Scarlet light rays changed into layers of matter that resembled scales as they attempted to block that blade light. But this was not of much help. The black blade light easily penetrated those defenses put up by the scarlet rays to strike upon the python¡¯s body. This blade did not seem to be much of a heavyweight, but the moment it landed upon the venomous python¡¯s body, it caused the python to jerk violently. Right away, it transformed into a stream of red light and attempted to fly out of the range of the black blade. In the blink of an eye, it had flown back to the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy and had transformed back into its original form of a wand. Then in a most dejected manner, it made its landing. The Archbishop bent down to pick up the wand and found that the area nearest to the tail of the wand had a black mark that seemed to have been imprinted onto it by a soldering iron. She frowned and started to chant the spell, but she realized the wand no longer responded to her. After a round of meticulous examination, her expression became gloomier. ¡°Truly deserving to be the means of a god,¡± she said then fell silent for a moment. She continued to say, ¡°Though it did not manage to cause massive damage to the wand, the soul that was sealed within it has been expiated. Losing that soul, this wand will become useless for the time being.¡± ¡°Can it be restored?¡± asked her assistant. ¡°Of course, it can be restored,¡± said the Archbishop in a deep voice and her face registered an uptight expression. Restoring it was not difficult. The prerequisite was that she would have to make it back alive. But judging from the strength of this blade, she could not quell the worry rising from deep within her heart¡­ Chapter 621 Chapter 621: Chapter 161 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Archbishop could not help feeling an ominous premonition brewing in her heart. Strictly speaking, there was no basis for her to feel this way. This was merely a piece of treasure. If it was destroyed, then so be it; it should not be such a great deal, right? Given her identity and status, if she had the intention of collecting treasures of such standard, while she dared not say that she would be able to collect a great amount, getting ahold of ten to 20 of such treasures was certainly not worth mentioning. But other than a few squirrel-like people who crazily hoarded treasures, no one else could be so bored as to think of collecting so many treasures. Owning around three to five pieces was more than enough, so long as the treasures suited one¡¯s needs. Even the Greek god, Hercules, owned nothing more than a handful of treasures. Treasures owned would eventually pile up, where one would even lose track of the treasures under one¡¯s possessions. The reason for their existence was only to serve as a treasure vault that could provide the value for experience. But some treasures were different. For example, the Scarlet Venomous Python Wand. The Church of the God of Aristocracy had been established for nearly 300 years, and with the Church of the God of Royalty as its predecessor, its family heritage ran deep and long. The Jewel of Heaven¡¯s Wrath was a precious stone of such a level that no one could ever own too many of it, but on the other hand, the Scarlet Venomous Python Wand was at a level that was often seen. But this wand held a special significance to the Archbishop. It could be said to be a symbol of the first half of her life. Back then, she was also an ordinary young maiden filled with integrity and innocence. Yet after that fateful adventure, she truly realized the darkness and cruelty of society. Since then, she had turned over a new leaf¡ªor perhaps, this phrase should not be used as such¡ªshe had repented through her misdeeds and made a determined effort to turn over a new leaf, and she quickly became a successful person. Twenty years later, she had become a clergyman at the advanced legendary peak and received much adoration from Her Majesty of the Holy Kingdom of Noble Maids, who was yet to be sealed as a god at that time. Upon her return after seeking vengeance, she helped Her Majesty incorporate the Church of the God of Royalty into their own church, thus establishing her status within the Church of the God of Aristocracy. She became the successor when the first generation Archbishop passed away. That was something that happened hundreds of years ago, but still, everything was vivid in her mind. All these years, she had kept the Scarlet Venomous Python Wand by her side. It had weathered countless ups and downs and participated in numerous battles with her. It had always been intact, but this day, it was destroyed¡­ Maybe¡­ this is an omen. The God of Fate is using this to remind me, tonight is the day I must return to my God¡¯s Kingdom¡­ Though thoughts were running through her mind, she showed no nervousness or worry on her face. Gloomily, she looked across her, and after a while, she said, ¡°Those clones sent down by the God of Knowledge are very powerful.¡± ¡°Yes, it won¡¯t be easy to deal with them,¡± said the middle-aged man, who was the leader of the trio consisting of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow. He continued to say, ¡°Even if it were me, it would still be difficult to destroy that magic wand with one strike.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s not impossible,¡± said the jolly green fellow from the trio. Yes, it was not impossible. To these Legendary Masters who had been famous for so many years, so long as they were prepared beforehand, this magic wand would not become a big problem. Although so much was said, everyone still wore worried expression. Those Holy Sons and Holy Daughters of the Church of the God of Knowledge who had agreed to be possessed by a descending god, all had powers that were at least comparable to that of established Legendary Masters. This was not good news at all! Amidst their shock and worry, everyone was, on the contrary, feeling a tad bit thankful. In general, after using the Jewel of Heaven¡¯s Wrath to wield the Punishing Fist of Heaven, the next step would be to launch an aggressive attack. Yet the Archbishop had chosen to test the waters again. This time around, when she did so, she lost a legendary weapon but managed to find out the most formidable means of the Church of the God of Knowledge. Without a question, if they were to directly attack a moment ago, by now, more than half would have been met with trouble. What a great loss that would be! ¡°Normally, when possessed by a descending god, how powerful can one get?¡± asked one of the youngest Legendary Masters after a few minutes. He was a berserker warrior who seemed to be even stronger than a wild boar, but he asked in a cautious tone. In return, he saw dejected looks all over his comrades¡¯ faces and heard the bitter laugh of helplessness from his own leader. ¡°Usually, a body that is possessed by the clone of a descending god would most probably only be at the junior legendary level. Masters at this level, even if there were six of them would still not be a big deal,¡± the elderly man of the trio replied with a sigh, ¡°because if the three of us combined forces, we would be able to annihilate all of them.¡± ¡°But the situation is different for the other side, right?¡± asked the berserker. He was no fool, and he had asked the most crucial question. The elderly man let out a deep sigh and then said, ¡°To mortals, the power of god, can be said to be inexhaustible, but the body of a mortal cannot accommodate such great power.¡± ¡°Their Holy Sons and Holy Daughters¡­ why are they so strong?¡± ¡°If I had known, I would have retreated by now,¡± said the Archbishop, who continued to say, ¡°Compared to this technology, losing a battle against another church is really nothing at all.¡± Yet she did not know that everything was obvious. Although she had reported all the information that she acquired to the church headquarters via communication skills, this degree of intelligence was far from enough. So she quickly adjusted her train of thought and issued new orders. Try to capture a Holy Son or Holy Daughter of the Church of the God of Knowledge, be it dead or alive, then retreat. ¡°Does this mean we have to capture a descending god alive?¡± asked the berserker. The Archbishop kept quiet, and there was silence all around her. ¡°Alright, I got it, Boss, this will call for a pay raise. I don¡¯t mind fighting a descending god, but I really have not thought about trying to catch one.¡± ¡°Remuneration is not the problem,¡± said the elderly man of the trio with a deep sigh. He continued to say, ¡°the problem is, you must be able to live long enough to get that pay.¡± In the face of six possessed bodies, all of which had powers as forceful as established Legendary Masters, and furthermore, to be supported by Olian Geerteng, an elector of the God of Knowledge from the true Legendary Realm¡ªsuch a team would bring a frown to anyone¡¯s face, regardless of how optimistic one would usually be. It was nine fighting against seven. This was absolutely not a ratio of combat power that would allow anyone to feel at ease nor be able to take it lightheartedly. Also, not forgetting that beyond the good looks of this group of youths, all of them were in fact, quite ferocious. The moment they started to fight, they would be Oracles who fought without fear and who paid no heed to whether they were killed or not! Seven true-blue Legendary Masters with a group of weaker mid-level clergymen and a group of stronger high-level clergymen, and even possibly an Oracle troop near to the legendary level¡­ if they had charged over on impulse a moment ago, probably they would be the ones losing. Even now, when they were prepared to attack again, their chances of victory would not exceed 50%. And this 50-50 chance of winning was based on the premise that a few Legendary Masters would be sacrificed. The Legendary Masters certainly did not relish in the thought of dying, and thus, they were not eager to win this battle. This was most likely the reason why the Archbishop wanted to change her battle plan. She no longer pursued victory but rather sought to execute the second-best plan, which was to capture either a Holy Son or Holy Daughter from the Church of the God of Knowledge. Although this goal was difficult to achieve, at least it was slightly easier than winning the battle. It was a little more viable, with a smaller price to pay and was more in line with the interests of the Legendary Masters. Just like on Earth, many parents would hope for their children to excel academically and be accepted into prestigious schools like Peking University or Tsing Hua, but many children would rather be stars like singers¡­ In fact, upon careful calculation, it might be even easier to get accepted into Peking University and Tsing Hua as compared to becoming a singer. After all, on a national scale, a few thousand people would make it into Peking University and Tsing Hua annually, while on the other hand, the number of singers who could truly carve a successful career out of singing, might not even reach ten every year¡­ ¡­ On the other side, the lead commander of the Church of the God of Knowledge, Olian was also announcing her battle plan. ¡°We¡¯ll charge towards them¡­ All of us will launch a sudden attack¡­ shatter their¡­ god¡¯s statue¡­ destroy¡­ their¡­ formation,¡± she said. As she was still nursing her injuries, such a simple sentence actually took Olian almost a minute to complete. ¡°Just like that?¡± Lion asked with a tinge of surprise. ¡°Just like that¡­ is more than enough,¡± Olian replied. She was still very pale, but she managed a weak smile as she continued to say, ¡°God descending¡­ time is not long¡­¡± The duration for a god¡¯s descent would not be long. There was nothing that could be done to change this iron rule. Especially during the beginning stage of battle, when the human body had to accommodate a strong Divine Power to fight the battle, the ¡°consumption rate¡± would be extremely demanding. These few clones representing the descending God of Knowledge were all very powerful, but this was nonetheless, a double-edged sword. Even if they had a considerable advantage over their opponents during the battle, they were still unable to sustain such an ability to fight for too long. So she had to consider the situation from a more prudent perspective to try to devise a method that could destroy the statue of her opponent¡¯s god. The battle of churches also had its own rules. Whichever side had its god statue destroyed would be the side that lost. As for going back on one¡¯s words¡­ in a duel that had the attention of the various gods, who would even think of trying to go back on one¡¯s word? Ha, ha ha, ha ha ha ha¡­ Chapter 622 Chapter 622: Chapter 162 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After both sides made up their minds, the battle started again. Strictly speaking, the battle had never stopped. Even when the heads of both sides were busy discussing a short while ago, the mid and high-level clergymen did not stop reciting prayers. Repeatedly, they sent forth the combination of divinity and carried out an intense exchange of attack and defense. The thing was¡­ both sides were not in good shape. One side was suffering from heavy casualties with soldiers getting injured and generals getting slain. The other side almost wet their pants after being scared of their wits by the Punishing Fist of Heaven. Caught in such a situation, their performances were naturally vastly different from before, where they could meet the expectations of the so-called textbook standard of combined divinity and defense mechanisms. If expressed in network language, previously, it was a great battle of masters crossing swords with one another; but now, it was merely a domestic fight of chickens pecking at one another. And even though they might seem more like chickens pecking at one another, none of them wasted a single second to rest. This showed what fine people they were and how well-trained they were. What a pity! Both sides were declining at the same time. Once again, they were locked in a battle where neither wanted to give in. This was because if any party had chosen to give in, there was a possibility that the other side would gain some advantages out of the situation. Of course, this duel between the two churches, which had 16 Legendary Masters participating, could at most provide a mere advantage, but that wasn¡¯t really a big deal. Even though out of all these clergymen who were executing the combined divinity formation, the ones lowest in rank were minimally mid-ranked clergymen who were qualified enough to take up positions as bishops in smaller areas. Yet in today¡¯s battlefield, they were merely the backdrop for the Legendary Masters. Not only were they in the backdrop, the moment the Legendary Masters came to grips with one another, these clergymen would even become hindrances that might get in the way of the fight. This was why when the nine Legendary Masters from the Church of the God of Aristocracy were spreading the influence of their powerful aura without inhibition as they advanced towards the battlefront, the attack and defense mechanism of the combined divinity formation of both sides finally came to a halt. Now, it was battle of the Legendary Masters. No matter how they fought and banged away, not only were the clergymen unable to render help, they might even be a hindrance to the Masters representing them. However, even though the attack and defense came to a halt, the confrontation between the two formations of combined divinity did not stop. It was merely replaced with a confrontation between buff spells and nerf spells. Should one side speed up, the other side would slow down; if one side displayed their strength as a powerful, superior bull, the other side would weaken its glowing halo as much as it could. In short, there would be one side trying its best to enhance and strengthen the state of its Legendary Masters, while the other side would be doing all it could to weaken its opponent.Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Generally speaking, this was actually the job of magicians in an ordinary, large-scale battle. The only difference in the situation was that it was a group of people casting spells on a few people when usually, it would be a few magicians casting spells on a large group of people. But today, the roles were reversed. However, if only combat power was taken into consideration, then such a reversal was understandable. It did not matter whether there was a large number of clergymen executing the combined divinity formation or not. If a fight really happened, all that was required were two to three Legendary Masters to achieve the task of utterly defeating these clergymen and sending them fleeing helter-skelter after dropping their shields and armor. At such a level of combat, all that these clergymen could do was supplement help by casting spells. Also, looking over to the other side, six figures were leaving their positions from the formation of the God of Knowledge. This caused them even more distress than before. Those six figures consisted of young boys and maidens, all with expressions as calm as still waters. Not a hint of effects, buff spells or nerf spells could be detected from them. This was certainly a matter, of course. So long as one was willing to, the gods could immunize any spells below the Legendary level. Even for clones with powers that were so insignificant when compared to those of the actual being, the same could be achieved. In such a battle, it was certainly not an exceptionally good choice to be without any state spells. However, as compared to personally experiencing a continuous switch between buff spells and nerf spells, this was so much better. The trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow were already muttering uncontrollably, ¡°This is not going to be an easy battle at all!¡± The Archbishop maintained an indifferent expression. Without even turning back, she said, ¡°The situation is in our favor. I suppose, Olian might have sustained injuries just now, which should most probably be the outcome of the Punishing Fist of Heaven.¡± Even without her reminder, everyone had noticed that only the six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters from the Church of the God of Knowledge were sent to battle. Olian Geerteng, the Legendary Master, did not attack. Although no one was certain whether the situation was just as how the Archbishop had predicted, this was unquestionably a great piece of news! Now, it went from nine Legendary Masters to six. Furthermore, the Holy Sons and Holy Daughters from their side could be mobilized as descending gods any time to render assistance. ¡°What a great advantage!¡± said a berserker warrior with his mouth so open that even his long beard could not hide his excited smile. Like a wild, ferocious and hideous-looking beast about to go on a hunt, he said, ¡°Seems like the Goddess of Fortune is smiling upon me and wants me to earn a big fortune!¡± A female magician adept in space magic happened to be beside him and smiled when she heard what he said. ¡°Not smiling upon ¡®me,¡¯ but smiling upon ¡®us,''¡± she said. ¡°Maybe after this battle has ended, we should all make a trip over to the Pantheon Temple and donate some offerings.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a problem at all. By that time, I will be loaded with cash.¡± The tall elderly man walked over to the other side of the berserker warrior. This time, he also smiled as he said, ¡°By that time, do remember to count me in. After receiving the luck bestowed upon us, we should always show how grateful we are.¡± They continued their conversation as though no one else was around, looking as though they had already won the fight. Comrades who heard them simply had to laugh upon hearing their conversation. Even the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy had to smile at their conversation, though she must be muttering in her heart, This is obviously my lord protecting us; how does this concern the Goddess of Fortune? An army¡¯s morale could either be boosted or deflated, and now was the time for them to boost theirs. High up in the sky, the God of Aristocracy was also facing the God of Knowledge with a most complacent smile. Without a doubt, his followers now had the upper hand. So long as no accidents happened, victory would be his to claim. The God of Knowledge was rather nonchalant over the battle outcome. He merely wanted to teach the fellow, who had executed the Punishing Fist of Heaven and severely injured Olian, a good lesson. Winning the battle did not matter much to him; though of course, it would be good if they could win. Even the God of War could not really ensure that he could win every single battle he fought, so so what if the God of Knowledge were to lose a battle or two. Did it really matter? Even if this ended up being a failed attempt to block off the God of Aristocracy, and he successfully stepped into the realm of a great Divine Power¡ªso what? No one could be certain of what would happen in the future. In the future, would there really be a war between the Void God System and the Human God System? By the time war was waged, who knew what the situation would be like? In just more than 50 years, His Majesty had nurtured and cultivated three of his followers, and soon, there would be a fourth ¡°God of Agriculture.¡± After another one to two hundred, the followers under his command would increase in number and power! Not only that, but His Majesty¡¯s allies would increase in number. Previously, he had formed alliances with the God of Justice and the Goddess of the Ocean, then the God of Desolation, and the Goddess of Wealth. Now, his allies had extended to the addition of the God of Law and the God of War. Furthermore, the God of War had brought along his entire God System to join in the alliance. In the future, his alliances would definitely grow steadily. By then, who could tell which side would be dominating through sheer weight of numbers! Besides, the God of Aristocracy was making progress, and he was also making progress. Over the past 30 years, he had progressed from a mortal to become a mid-level Divine Power; given another few hundred years, he might already have stepped up into the level of a great Divine Power. This was definitely not an idle dream of his. He was very confident. He knew that the Human God System would never allow the Master of Mystery to lead such a peaceful life. Rescinding the Master of Mystery¡¯s sealed title and relegating him to the God of Mystery was only their first step. Sooner or later, they would strip him of all priesthoods related to ¡°Mystery.¡± By that time, the God of Knowledge could seize the opportunity to tear apart the priesthood of Mystery; then he could easily gain a steady foothold and step up to the level of a great Divine Power! Eventually, when the two god systems really came to a confrontation, he, the God of Knowledge, would absolutely not lose to the God of Aristocracy! With such confidence, he smiled without the intention of backing off from any possible battle. And at the same moment when he smiled, the six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters picked up speed without warning and instantly became six streams of flowing light that directed their path towards the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. For now, nothing else mattered more than what he wanted to do, and that was to first kill the guy who had injured Olian! Chapter 623 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Seeing as how the six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters were running towards her while causing such commotion, the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy was not the least bit surprised. Instead, she was in a highly vigilant mode. Although, throughout the whole wide world, the idea of ¡°catching the king before nabbing the thief¡± would never be found in any textbook, and this was a fact that everyone knew¡ªjust like how Olian Geerteng would have been besieged by the nine Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy if she had not been absent from the start. This was just the nature of things; it was perfectly justifiable because it was a principle of heaven and earth, and therefore, it was right and proper. In any slightly larger-scale battle, such a situation was commonplace. So long as there was a chance, either side would be sure to first gather all their firearms to kill the opponent¡¯s leader. This had led to the situation of top masters dominating a majority of the positions of leaders of armies. In this world, it was almost impossible to catch sight of the common situation of civil officials leading troops out to the battlefields or the situation of ¡°scholar-generals¡± emerging. Out of the nine Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, the Archbishop¡¯s capability could be ranked among the top three. Of course, this was not a weak position at all. If it were, she would be deliberately walk in the back, instead of putting on a brave front that called out to those under her lead to ¡°Follow me.¡± But even so, and even though she was a Legendary Master, when pitted against six descending gods, she still had no chance of winning. A flicker of a smile showed at the corners of the Archbishop¡¯s mouth. She crushed that precious stone containing a silver rune that she had been holding within her left palm all this while, and then she emitted a golden light that encircled her and started spreading outwards. This golden light kept her enshrouded even as it continued to spread outwards. The six figures that were charging towards her stopped in their tracks with confused looks. The Legendary Holy Domain Spell! The Holy Domain Spell was a well-known, low-level divine spell. It would keep the spellcaster under the protection of Divine Power so that any ¡°attacker¡± would first have to confront the protection given by the Divine Power with their own willpower before they could reach the spellcaster. If the willpower of this particular attacker was unable to prevail over the protection of the Divine Power, then they would have to wait for the spell to wear off before thinking of the next plan of action. Unless the spellcaster himself turned to committing certain acts that would disrupt peace, or on the contrary, if the attacker directly lost all will to attack, this outcome would not change. The Archbishop had idealized this spell so that it would work for the gods as well. Even though the effectiveness of the spell would be weakened and its effect could only be sustained for a short period of two seconds, these two seconds were still more than enough to determine the outcome. Within that fleeting moment where the six descending god clones of the God of Knowledge fell into a confused state, with the exception of the Archbishop, the other eight Legendary Masters made their move without further ado. There was no need for a prior agreement. In that split moment, they could make an accurate judgment very quickly. There was no time for any delay, not even one-tenth of a second. The moment the six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters who had been accepted as descending gods were about to be wiped out, an extremely fierce roar suddenly sounded. Countless cannon balls came falling down from the sky, enshrouding such a large piece of land that both sides were completely covered. The Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy were under the impression that victory would soon be theirs to claim, but the sudden attack threw them into a frenzy. They hastened to change their plan of action in order to resist the attack that fell from the sky. They had been and were still in an advantageous position, so they did not want to sustain any serious injury without rhyme or reason. Only the two warriors who had kept mum all this while were different from the rest. They paid no heed to the cannon attacks falling from the sky and continued to advance while attacking. The injuries they had sustained did not stop them from wanting to destroy their targets. Unlike the other few Legendary Masters, they were Sacred Warriors who were specially trained and nurtured by the Archbishop after she had assumed her position. They were truly and completely loyal to the God of Aristocracy, and they were diehard, loyal subjects of the church. To them, scoring victory and winning glory for His Majesty and the church were the true significance to their existences. Solely to achieve this goal, not to mention getting hurt, even if they were to give up their lives, they would do so without a second thought. So positioned in the midst of blaring gunfire, the two golden lights did not budge an inch. Steady and sharp, they hacked down at two of the Holy Sons who were possessed bodies of the God of Knowledge. Soon, the gunfire spread and shrouded the entire area. For a certain period, smoke and dust filled the atmosphere while sand and stone flew all over the place. No one would be able to have a clear view of the surroundings in such a situation. A moment later, a Legendary Master cast a spell to summon a strong gale to disperse all that smoke and dust, and a most unbelievable scene appeared before everyone. The six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters of the God of Knowledge might appear to be covered in dirt and grime, but they did not show signs of obvious injuries. On the contrary, the two Scared Warriors from the Church of the God of Aristocracy, who had charged towards the Holy Sons, had fallen to the ground. One look at their motionless bodies was enough to know that they had breathed their last. But¡­ how was that possible?! Although it was said that the power of a god would always be far stronger than that of mortals, it did not mean that the Legendary Masters were able to be compared on the same scale as the gods. However, in the face of the idealized Holy Domain Spell, even a clone of any god would inevitably be stunned into a momentary daze. When Legendary Masters were engaged in a confrontation, that short fleeting moment of a momentary daze was more than enough to distinguish between the conqueror and the defeated! But how were the tables turned? For a moment, the six Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy retreated a few steps in concert without prior discussion. They even seemed to be closing the distance among themselves as they retreated, to put up a defensive stance. Whenever there were abnormal occurrences, there had to be-be demons up to mischief. The others in the army definitely did not want to end up like the two Sacred Warriors whose lives had ended in such an inexplicably unreasonable manner! But then, they were struck with a thought. The moment they all retreated, the Archbishop would be left all alone at the battlefront. Although they realized that they had made a huge mistake right away and had hurried towards the direction of the Archbishop, they were still a step too late. Seeing their chance, the six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters, who were the possessed bodies of the clones of the God of Knowledge, took off for their assault without hesitation. They charged towards the Archbishop, where the glow of the Holy Domain Spell around her had dissipated. The three Holy Sons launched the attack while the three Holy Daughters took charge of blocking off attacks. With three people resisting six people, the three Holy Daughters emphasized fully on defense without attacking at all. Although they were at a great disadvantage, at the very least, blocking off attacks for a short period was not an issue to them. On the other hand, the Archbishop, whose Holy Domain Spell had just lost its effectiveness, had to face three Holy Sons who were bodies possessed by gods. Would she be able to hold out long enough? Obviously, she could not hold up for long. All six Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy were clearly aware of this too, which was why they too held back no more. With their strongest methods, all of them attacked like crazy and without any hint of hesitation. Out of the six Legendary Masters, the berserker warrior was the most violent attacker. As a mercenary, he was someone who was very particular about professional ethics. If his inadequacy in combat power was the reason that led to his employer¡¯s death, then even if this did not affect the remuneration he would receive, it was derogatory to his reputation. This made him feel even more uncomfortable. He quickly wielded his huge battle axe that was accompanied by a bloody light. This battle axe was so forceful that anyone strike it made was able to split a hill, and this battle axe was slamming heavily against the wall of defense that the three Holy Daughters had built with concerted efforts. His attitude spurred the other five Legendary Masters, so likewise, they did their best in attacking as rigorously as they could. Within a timeframe as short as two to three breaths, two out of the three Holy Daughters responsible for blocking attacks sustained injuries while one lost her life. Their line of defense was brought to the brink of collapsing. However, in the end, they were still too late. Right in the middle of the battlefield, the Archbishop had slumped to the ground, looking feeble and weak. The last thing she could do was to drag a Holy Son to her grave with her. To be able to accomplish something of this degree was already very remarkable. After all, it was one against three, and her opponent was a clone of a god, whose power could not be unleashed to full potential due to the restricting fact that this was a mortal being possessed. But to an actual mortal being, this was already an existence that was powerful beyond imagination. The key to why the Archbishop was able to drag an opponent to her burial ground, was that she was resolute enough, and also, she was smart enough. She started out with clenched teeth and an expression that cried out her determination to fight to her death, but when her three opponents pressed her into fighting them, she suddenly stripped herself of all defense. She¡¯d rather risk getting killed immediately just to seize that one opportunity to launch a vicious attack on any one of those three Holy Sons. This tactic was a success. Under such a situation where one was pitted against three, the outcome with the highest possibility would be for her to get killed while her opponents either escaped unscathed or were merely slightly injured. But now, she had successfully turned to ashes along with one of her opponents. At least in terms of combat power, she suffered no loss at all. Chapter 624 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After an intense battle, the nine Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy lost three of its members, while the group of six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters from the Church of the God of Knowledge saw two dead and two injured. For the moment, the comparison of combat power was almost the same as a situation of six against three. The Church of the God of Aristocracy had a great advantage. However, up in the sky, the God of Aristocracy did not seem to register a pleasant expression. All the smoke and dust in the air had never been able to obstruct the view of the gods. This was why the God of Aristocracy could clearly see what was happening in that battle amidst all that smoke and dust that filled the atmosphere. The two Sacred Warriors from the Church of the God of Aristocracy arrived one after the other. Just as their blade rays were about to strike two of the Holy Sons, tremors suddenly filled the air around them. A golden-haired maiden appeared out of nowhere, and with that bizarre ship of hers, she opened fire successively and caused the two blade rays to deviate from their original path, thus saving the two Holy Sons. The two Sacred Warriors, who were as strong as steel, expressed a hint of surprise, but their hands did not seem to show any hesitation. Immediately, they changed direction. They positioned themselves on either side of the maiden, then at the same time, they wielded their blades in the direction of this young maiden who was attempting to obstruct them. Going by the fact this young maiden had most probably just reached the Legendary level, so if she was to fight alone against the other two, she was bound to lose her life. But she showed no traces of worry or uneasiness on her face. On the contrary, she was grinning as she removed a pouch that she had hung around her waist, and from the pouch, she took them out¡ªa few potatoes. The God of Aristocracy simply could not believe his eyes. A few potatoes?! Why would it be a potato? What was so special about them? Were they powerful? Or could they be used as some kind of medium for a particularly unique spell? Or perhaps, this thing might resemble a potato on the outside, but within, it was actually hiding a clone of the Void Mask? All his conjectures and guesses were wrong. These really were just ordinary potatoes. The young maiden tossed out the potatoes in her pouch, then dashed to the front of the blade rays and hit the two Sacred Warriors right in the head with her potatoes. There was no element of suspense to look forward to. The potatoes were directly crushed into pieces while the two streams of blade rays hit her hard. Her body became a hideous and sorry sight within an instant. There was no time at all for her blood to splatter all over the ground. Together with its owner, the blood simply vanished and transformed into countless light spots. And this was what an Oracle looked like at the point of death. Of course, this was not truly a clean death as total extinction was. She could still be resurrected within her God¡¯s Kingdom. However, to be resurrected, she had to first bear the pain of death. That was all. The same theory applied to the devout followers who believed that death was not the end. Upon death, their souls would head back to their God¡¯s Kingdom, and perhaps, soon enough, their souls would be transformed into new Oracles that would always fight for the respective gods they believed in. For the two Sacred Warriors who each had one blade, killing this young maiden who stood in their way was nothing to fret over. From the point in time where she appeared to when she was finished off, it did not take them more than half a second to complete the deed. At this point in time, they should change their targets right away and continue to attack the Holy Sons and Holy Daughters. They needed to make full use of the remaining time where the influence of the legendary Holy Domain Spell was still in effect. Even if they did not have time to kill the Holy Sons and Holy Daughters, they could still grasp the opportunity to inflict heavy injuries upon the other party. But for no apparent reason, they stood rooted to the ground like fools. It was as though¡­ they were also under the effect of a Legendary Holy Domain Spell. The God of Aristocracy was baffled. These were two Sacred Warriors whose will powers were said to be as strong as steel, where even the willpower of gods might not be as resolute as theirs. Would the Holy Domain Spell work on them? Technically speaking, even if it was a Holy Domain Spell, with the demise of the spellcaster, the spell should have lost its effect! Through the connection of beliefs, he could clearly see that at that moment, the two Sacred Warriors were at a complete loss. They had not lost their will to fight, but they simply could not find any target to attack. They were just like headless flies, aimlessly doing things. Before the God of Aristocracy could figure out what was going on, the six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters who were the possessed bodies of the clones of the God of Knowledge, had already recovered from the influence of the Holy Domain Spell. Without hesitation, they made their moves. It was now six against two, where those two were still in a daze. The outcome, of course, was just like what people would see after all the smoke and dust had dispersed. What strange methods this Oracle has. The Void God System is indeed worthy enough to be an underling of that giant jellyfish. Even a mere Oracle could boast such amazing ability! With a single wave, the God of Aristocracy brought the souls of the two Sacred Warriors back into his God¡¯s Kingdom as he secretly lamented his loss. Perhaps, I should also study and research to see if it is possible to design some Oracles with special abilities¡­ When the various gods were creating their Oracles, they would generally consider purely the combat power or an Oracle¡¯s preaching ability. Abilities in other aspects were basically not taken into consideration because there was no need to. The God of Aristocracy naturally did the same. But today, seeing how impressive the Oracles from the Void God System were and the chemistry they had in splitting the task and working together with one another so effectively, he could not help but start to rethink his past practices. He felt that perhaps there were areas that might have been wrong and require some adjustments and modifications. On the other side, the God of Knowledge maintained his silence just as he did from the very beginning. Thinking about his six possessed bodies falling into a predicament thus having to rely on Xiao¡¯ao¡¯s sacrifice to turn the tables in order to kill the two Sacred Warriors from the other side, or the subsequent vicious battle where it cost him a dear price of four casualties, with two injured and two dead, just to kill the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy¡ªall this while, the God of Knowledge remained passive and did not do anything. This was not because he had such a deep character that he concealed his emotions. It was because the body that he left in the sky was, in fact, only an empty shell used to hide his true intentions and cover his tracks. With the help of the pills that Sui Xiong had given him, he had invested a large amount of divinity during this descent and had hidden this divinity within the body of one of the Holy Sons. In other words, he was near to descending in his own true form. He was only hiding his true ability and waiting for the critical moment where he could turn the tables! Now, he had no time for any distractions. ¡­ It was four against six, where two were quite severely injured so their combined strength might only be the equivalent of one. Such a situation was truly an extreme disadvantage for the God of Knowledge. Especially when the Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy were fully prepared with all their strengths poured into the game. They were truly doing their utmost best. With the death of the Archbishop and the loss of the two Sacred Warriors, the leaders representing the Church of the God of Aristocracy for this battle could be said to have been completely wiped out. In the end, the surviving ones were more of those from the core level that consisted of members like the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man and the jolly green fellow¡ªwho were not considered leaders¡ªor the trio consisting of settlers from other places, who were only hired for the purpose of fighting battles. If they did not put in more effort to strive for victory, they would most certainly be criticized when they returned to the church. Or even if they were so powerful that people did not dare to criticize them upfront, people could still point fingers and make comments behind their backs. What could they do then? Not to mention, the criticisms made by the mortals. They could perhaps choose not to accept those, but what about the criticisms from His Majesty, the God of Aristocracy? The moment the thought of them possibly upsetting the God of Aristocracy crossed their minds, the six Legendary Masters immediately felt a shudder in their bones and tasted bitterness in their mouth. They had to fight with everything they had to the best they could. They had to fight hard to win a beautiful battle. Now that the mistake was made, it was simply impossible to salvage anything. They could only hope that they could atone for their mistake by accomplishing a victorious win. So long as they could kill all the six god-possessed bodies sent by the God of Knowledge and win this duel of the churches, then at the very least, they could still be considered to have accomplished their mission. In the future, when they had to face His Majesty, the God of Aristocracy, at least they could hope that he would not brood over their past mistake and hold it against them. Instead, they hoped that he would mete out a lighter punishment. Now, this was all they could count on, nothing else but this. So they shouted, roared and screamed as they fought, and the battle grew even wilder than before. Then, once again, gunfire fell from the sky¡­ Chapter 625 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio This bombarding gunfire was, undoubtedly, under the command of Lion. When Olian was injured and fell, Lion and Xiao¡¯ao had already discussed their countermeasures. Because their combat power was lagging behind, they had decided to win by novelty where they would take their enemy by surprise. To put it across bluntly, most probably they would not win if they were to fight in a head-on confrontation, so they had to play some tricks in order to win. The entire plan was divided into two parts. Xiao¡¯ao would be responsible for one part, which was to find a chance to assassinate one to two of the Legendary Masters from their opponent¡¯s side. The other part was Lion¡¯s job, which was to render Xiao¡¯ao with assistance whenever necessary. She also was to create diversions to confuse their opponents to hide their real agenda, as well as to deliver the final, crucial blow. Xiao¡¯ao completed her part of the mission very successfully. She had an advantageous edge with her petite build and extreme speed. Taking advantage of the smoke and dust flying all over, she dashed into the battlefield. It did not take a long time to pin down the two Sacred Warriors who happened to be the most determined and strong-willed members of the other side. With her special skills, the two Sacred Warriors were knocked unconscious with just a few potatoes. Although she died in her own battle, to an Oracle like herself, dying in a battle was nothing more than returning to one¡¯s own God¡¯s Kingdom for resurrection. Right now, she had returned to the God¡¯s Kingdom she belonged to and was having a conversation with her companions. They were discussing the battle that had just taken place. ¡°All of you would never know how urgent the situation was back then, it was truly, an emergency! Watching how the two streams of blade rays were about to strike, and if that happened, at least two from our side would fall. Who knows? If the two Sacred Warriors smoothly pulled out the first strike, then dashed to the front and attacked another time, most probably all six of our side would fall! But, at the most critical moment, I shouted loudly and made a boisterous appearance. With just two potatoes, I knocked them unconscious. When the other six regained their composure and ability to react, shua, shua, shua, shua, the two living beings became two dead bodies! From the start to the end, I took at most two seconds!¡± ¡°Just look at yourself tooting your own horn. Do you really think your potatoes could be so powerful? It¡¯s not like we haven¡¯t experienced the power of your potatoes during our practice drills.¡± Xiao¡¯ao retorted, ¡°What¡¯s tooting my own horn? During our practice drills, all of you were mentally prepared to be struck. If my potatoes were used to hit enemies who are prepared to receive the blows, the effect would be reduced. Only if I strike when the enemy least expects to be hit and is thus caught unprepared, will I be able to unleash the greatest potential of my skill and maximize its effectiveness!¡± ¡°From the way you narrated, it must be a very heated fight down there right now?¡± ¡°Yes, unfortunately, that summoning technique is greatly limited. Within a given period of time, it will be absolutely impossible for the same person to summon twice in a row. If not for that, I would have wanted to go back there and fight another round! Now is the most exciting and crucial moment!¡± ¡°It sounds like manpower is required over there right now?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, urgently.¡± ¡°Then what are we still waiting for? Let¡¯s go down!¡± ¡°Are you sure they will be able to summon you?¡± A young maiden with a white bonnet and blue butterfly hairpin laughed upon hearing this question. ¡°The summoning technique is managed by my sister. Let me talk to her about it, she is bound to help!¡± The young maiden was like a stone that raised a thousand waves, and all of a sudden, the crowd¡¯s enthusiasm mounted and feelings ran high everywhere. Many young maidens who had not participated in any major battles in this period were starting to feel an itch from being idle too long. Immediately, they started to make a lot of noise. The most aggressive ones were those maidens donning clothes that had patterns like cherry blossoms. Right away, they grabbed the young maiden with the blue butterfly hairpin by her four limbs and lifted her up. They paid no heed to her loud protests and headed straight for a cliff where a gentle sea breeze was blowing. There, they found the commander of the Oracle troop who was seated under the shade of the tree basking in the gentle sea breeze. ¡°General Lexington, the mortal world needs our strength right now. Do let us all go down together!¡± ¡°Yes, yes, if we don¡¯t set off, we will not be able to catch up with all the buzz!¡± ¡°Not making it in time for the buzz is not a big deal. The key point here is that they are waiting for us to save them!¡± ¡°Eh? Waiting for us to save them? Is the situation that serious?¡± ¡°How could you possibly be so upright! If we do not make the situation out to be so serious, do you General Lexington would give consent?¡± ¡°I thought we agreed to take Little Sa as our hostage and force General Lexington to agree?¡± ¡°You are either pretending to be silly or truly brainless! If General Lexington refuses to give her consent, do you really think we can do anything to Xiao Sa?¡± ¡°Seems like there is not much we can do.¡± ¡°So, shut up! Let me do the negotiation, understand?¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Hearing the babble of voices because everyone was talking at the same time, the other young maiden who was also wearing a blue butterfly hairpin like Little Sa laughed. She said, ¡°Rules are rules, the summoning has always been random.¡± ¡°But¡­ the battle is getting really intense down there!¡± ¡°True! Someone might get killed if we delay any further!¡± The pioneer Oracle who was responsible for leading this group was all smiles but shook her head the entire time. ¡°We are soldiers. To us, it is our duty to obey orders. I will not be giving special allowances unless specific orders are given.¡± Although her voice was gentle, the underlying meaning of General Lexington¡¯s words was firm. She was not going to give any preferential treatment, and most certainly not about to take even half a step back. The faces of those young maidens itching to go to battle were almost distorted because they were so angry. Yet all they could do was relent and show obeisance. It was not by nature that they had to be controlled by her. It was because, aside from the fact that their capabilities were a far cry from this general of theirs, it was also a fact that they belonged to a country that had its army¡¯s ¡°settings¡± programmed in such a way that positioned its soldiers within a top-down hagiarchy. This hagiarchy determined that they would have to be extremely respectful and compliant to their general. There were still traditions like ¡°bottom overcoming the top¡± that existed, but in their case, since it was a fact that they would not be able to win against their general, then of course, they would have no other choice but to show obeisance. On Earth, the country that they belonged to had been managed for so many decades that it had come to resemble a family with three generations living under the same roof. These young maidens were like the grandchildren, who were usually so obedient that there were never occurrences of rebellious acts. Of course, they were created by Sui Xiong after all, so their character would still be very different from the real thing found in the actual ¡°country of origin.¡± Strictly speaking, these young maidens were created according to the settings found in comics that Sui Xiong was familiar with. Back then, Brother Xiong might not be wealthy, but neither was he so poor that he would be reduced to begging out on the streets. On the other hand, his assets were not enough for him to travel to the other island country thousands of miles away either. So he was not really well-informed of the actual situation over at that other island country. But it did not matter. Anyway, now that he could not even return to Earth, the fact of whether the settings were close to the original version or not had simply lost its significance. Just as both sides were bickering and causing a din, a gentle voice that sounded like its speaker was all smiles was heard. ¡°Let them go. It is not good to have them cooped up at home all day long. Youngsters like them should move about more. That is better for them.¡± The speaker was a young man sitting on a bamboo chair, holding a book in one hand and a feathered fan in the other. This was Crick Keane, another clone of Sui Xiong, the Traverser. Crick¡¯s identity was, doubtlessly, kept confidential. However, the Oracles, relying on their instincts, could still sense that he was essentially similar to the Void Mask, so naturally, he became the Supreme Commander of the Oracle troop. There were even many people who called him their ¡°Admiral.¡± Usually, he would just quietly be reading a book while sorting out his thoughts, and no one dared to disturb him. So now, the moment he opened his mouth, the matter was settled right away. ¡­ And so, a moment later, Kabbalah, who was standing right before the altar, stared in muted amazement at the streams of golden rays and the mighty maidens who emerged alongside the golden rays. His expression registered nothing else but stupefaction as he went into a daze. ¡°Hey! Kabbalah, you are truly a formidable Light Mask! You have consecutively summoned six to seven elite Oracles!¡± ¡°This is not an issue of being a Light Mask or not! With this many resources, you could actually summon Oracles at the battleship level. Oh, what is going on!¡± High up in the air, Sui Xiong smiled slyly. He knew that so long as Xiao¡¯ao had made a trip down, this talkative young lady was bound to tell her companions all about the situation down in the mortal world. And then, when there were Oracles who were willing to volunteer themselves to be summoned, things would certainly be much simpler. Strictly speaking, this was kind of hypocritical. On one hand, he seemed to be the encouraging leader who found it meaningful for the young maidens to step out of home for more exposure; yet in fact, he had another agenda in mind. But in this world, most things only required a reasonable excuse to validate their existence. No matter what, he had no intention of seeing Wall¡¯s church lose this battle! Chapter 626 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°This doesn¡¯t make sense¡­¡± Everyone saw how Kabbalah used the minimum amount of resources to summon the Oracles. The outcome was a glorious scene of golden light rays flashing past the altar in a continuous stream. Then many heavily armed elite Oracles, all exuding a murderous aura, descended successively. Dressed in a full battle kit, it was apparent from the first look that these elite Oracles were equipped with impressive combat power. Kabbalah, the senior summoner who was a Light Mask, simply felt that either his eyes were playing tricks on him or his brain was malfunctioning. Or perhaps, there were problems with both his eyes and mind. Kabbalah did some calculations with Sui¡¯s Classification Method and estimated that around two out of the 14 to 15 intellective elaborations had met with problems. Therefore, he felt relieved. ¡°Hallucinations, these are just hallucinations. There is no way I will be fooled by these hallucinations!¡± He was muttering under his breath as he continued to summon more Oracles. As compared to his other colleagues who simply registered dull expressions and looked as though they were in a daze, his reaction was undoubtedly the most sedate and composed out of the lot. He even earned himself approving looks from several elite Oracles. Erm, those were just approving looks. The elite Oracles were very busy at the moment. They simply had no time for a deeper conversation with this fellow, who was clearly more of a Dark Mask but was instead termed a Light Mask. The situation was just like how they had speculated back in their God¡¯s Kingdom. At that point in time, there was indeed an emergency. It was four against six, of which two out of the four had injuries. In such an unfavorable situation, even a god¡¯s clone might not have the ability to salvage such a desperate situation. Oh, by now, it was no longer four against six. The ratio had changed to two against five. The two injured Holy Daughters had been sacrificed, but in exchange for two of them, their opponent merely lost one berserker. From the Church of the God of Aristocracy, out the remaining five Legendary Masters, the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow, as well as the Space Mage, were in perfect condition without even the least bit of injury. The tall, lanky and old ranger sustained some injuries that were not severe, and thus his combat power was not affected. Even if the remaining two Holy Sons were more or less unscathed and generally maintained their combat power at full force, in a battle of two against five, they would still be placed in an adverse situation. It seemed as though they were about to collapse soon. The two Holy Daughters had dragged the most vicious warrior from their opponent¡¯s army, the berserker, to death. All three had perished together. Thereafter, the sacrifice that the two Holy Daughters made served as a deterrent, albeit to the slightest degree. As for the Holy Sons, the final two still standing, if they had been ambitious and sought for great accomplishments instead of trying their best to steer clear of making mistakes, they too would have been killed a long time ago. Also, the Holy Sons had the help of other Oracles with diverting and containing their enemies. This, coupled with the help of the gunfire, allowed the two Holy Sons to pull through. If all these things were not in place¡­ the outcome was imaginable. There was a price they had to pay for the help they received. The Oracles at the light cruiser and destroyer level were responsible for the upfront diversion and containment of the enemies who had lost their lives. Even the Oracles at the capital warship level had been deployed by Lion to help disperse the gunfire and block the shooting guns. If not for these countermeasures, this battle would have ended long ago. Currently, Lion was standing somewhere not too far away from the Circle of the Battle with a solemn expression. From how tightly she was grasping onto her scepter with both hands, anyone could see that she was hesitating at that moment.Read latest chapters at novelhall.com There were only two fantasy-type Oracles, and she was one of them. There were no doubts about how impressive her combat power was. If she were to join in the fight, she would at least be an equivalent of a Legendary Master. If she were to be a little more forceful, perhaps her power might even be able to defeat the equivalent of one and a half Legendary Masters. But this was her limit. Her value as a warrior obviously paled in comparison to her value as a commander. However, as a soldier, Lion found it hard to accept a situation where her comrades were fighting with their lives at stake, while she merely stood aside when she clearly had the ability to help. If there was nothing she could do to contribute, so be it. But she clearly had the ability to do something, yet she was not doing anything. This stifling feeling suffocated her. So when she saw the descending elite Oracles and knew help had arrived, she laughed with extreme delight. Even back when she was in training drills, she represented the ¡°Alliance Camp,¡± and they were always locked in crossfires with the Oracles from the ¡°Axis Camp.¡± The fights were never-ending as blows were thrown to and fro as though they were in a table tennis match. Her ship was even bombarded and sunk by someone of the other camp on several occasions. However, this time around, the timely arrival of these reliable fellows was tantamount to a shot of adrenaline for her. She felt a boost in confidence as her tumultuous emotions started to ebb. She collected herself and once again regained her inner calm and peace. Even before she reached the battlefield, a fair maiden with golden hair, whose style of dressing was more westernized and very different from her companions, shouted, ¡°How do we fight this battle? Fantasy-level, give us the tactical commands, hurry!¡± During the usual battle training drills, the main mission of this fair maiden with golden hair was to search for Lion at breakneck speed. Then she would have to hinder Lion¡¯s commands, and if she had the opportunity to, she would bombard and sink Lion¡¯s ship. But practice was, after all, just practice. Everyone knew that when there was a true battle to fight, Lion, being a fantasy-type Oracle, would still be an extremely reliable commander. This was why the moment she opened her mouth to speak, she asked for battle tactics. ¡°Is there a need for any tactics¡­¡± Lion asked back with a smile; then Lion said, ¡°Charge towards them, hit them to the ground. That¡¯s all you need to do.¡± ¡°This tactic suits me fine. I like it. We just have to make use of all our weapons.¡± ¡°I like it too. Straightforward and as plain as can be!¡± The maidens laughed and cried out their agreements. Then one by one, they accelerated to top speed. All weapons were in full swing as the maidens charged towards their enemies in a raving manner, pouring out heavy gunfire into the distance while brandishing their personal close-combat weapons that they were accustomed to using. It only took a brief moment for the tables to be turned. The battle outcome had been reversed. No doubt, these elite Oracles were somewhat weakened after being summoned. However, these elite Oracles were true Legendary Masters. Furthermore, every single one of them already had prior experiences participating in such large-scale battles between Oracle troops. On normal days when they were idle, these elite Oracles would be practicing drills and exercises. All year round, at least six months would be spent on combat, so they really did not lack the experience in this aspect. In just a brief moment, they had grasped the extent of how much they had been weakened, and then, in accordance with their own combat habits, grouped themselves into several combat teams sporting different characteristics. Last but not least, they went seeking respective opponents based on the characteristic of their teams. This was the time the difference between ¡°professional¡± and ¡°amateur¡± would be made apparent. Taking in the change of the situation, the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow formed a triangle camp right away and made a speedy retreat. However, the Space Mage, as well as the tall and lanky ranger, were a little slower. They were thrown forward and left with no choice but to take up the responsibility of being the first ones to receive any attacks coming their way. The remaining two Holy Sons had no intention of giving chase. Immediately, they moved over to entrap the Space Mage and the ranger. The elite Oracles who arrived thereafter also joined in the situation and speedily formed a firm Ring of Encirclement. With frowns all over their faces, the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow asked one another, ¡°What should we do?¡± ¡°Retreat! We¡¯ll go over to where our Holy Sons are!¡± said the middle-aged man without hesitation. So they retreated without regard to loyalty, leaving behind the furious tall and lanky ranger and Space Mage who were struggling to pull through the ordeal. After a while, the ranger finally gave up. He was attacked by several Oracles all at once. Without even the time to let out some final screams of agony, he was reduced to a pathetic state that resembled the mosaic patterns used to censor inappropriate parts in films. Witnessing this scene, the Space Mage, who had been making several attempts to escape, finally gave up and shouted, ¡°I surrender!¡± How fortunate. She shouted in the nick of time as a shiny blade was already pointing out at her nape. Just a split second more and she might have been beheaded. Feeling the aura of the cold, sharp blade on her beck, the Space Mage went pale in the face. Her body was shivering like the tree leaves rustling in the wind. But there was a trace of a smile on her face. Since this blade had not served its original purpose of beheading her, then her life was saved. Whether her act of surrender would incur the wrath of Her Majesty of the Holy Kingdom of Noble Maids¡­ Ultimately, she was only a mercenary paid to fight a battle. Although she had been under the employment of Her Majesty¡¯s church over the past hundred years, she was not a member of the church after all. At most, she was considered a visiting god. Visiting gods and the likes of them¡­ should always keep a distance from their employers so that they could always turn around and change sides when the situation called for the need to do so. She repeated herself, earnestly, ¡°Really, I surrender!¡± To prevent accidents from happening, she emphasized again, ¡°If you need me, I can transfer my allegiance over to you right away¡­ So, please, can you just please get that blade away from my neck now?¡± A maiden with two ponytails who was holding onto that super-long blade hesitated for a while. Then after heaving a sigh, she turned the blade away and put it back into its sheath. ¡°We accept your surrender,¡± said Olian with a smile. She walked over then continued to say, ¡°But, please show us your sincerity.¡± Because of her serious injuries, the Space Mage was as pale as paper. Yet, even so, she was smiling very happily. Chapter 627 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio For someone who changed sides at the very last minute, it was only right to show some sincerity. Otherwise, who would know whether the same situation would happen all over again? This was like a funny online article titled, ¡°The Biography of an Early-Slow Bear¡± that Sui Xiong recalled reading some time back. The biography was about a man termed as an Early-Slow Bear, who, from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, had changed sides countless times. He had no moral integrity to speak of, and seriously speaking, he had no base limit to how despicable he could be, even as a human being himself. Back then, out of curiosity, he once asked, ¡°Was the situation really that chaotic back during the end of the Ming Dynasty? Should I just surrender and change sides?¡± One of the veteran patrons on the online forum replied, ¡°The situation might have been chaotic towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, but to say that you will just surrender and change sides so casually, all this might be a joke to you. You really take everyone for fools? If there weren¡¯t any restrictions imposed, or you were not forced into doing something before you changed your allegiance, who would really accept your surrender?¡± However, a story was after all, just a story. Although Olian was seriously injured and her combat power was basically nothing, her authoritativeness still came with her status. Just one word from her was enough to rip that dignified and elegant Space Mage of all ability to think. So all that the Space Mage could do was to abide orders. What exactly was ¡°sincerity?¡± Of course, she understood. Helplessly, she let out a short, bitter laugh. Then with both hands adjoined, she formed the print of a rune, and a Space Crack resembling a gigantic, long sword extended out from her hands. She directed this Space Crack to the position of the Church of the God of Aristocracy and struck at it head-on. Although this strike was blocked, many stone slabs engraved with magic arrays that were laid all over the ground were shattered by the after effects of the forceful strike. The collapsed Space Crack was also transformed into countless tiny pieces of debris that flew all over the place as though there had been an explosion in the air¡­ well, it was not as exaggerated as a nuclear bomb, but if this were to happen on Earth instead, it could almost qualify as an event that ought to be subjected to the criticism of human rights organizations. What would happen if something like this were to blow up over a group of people? Although the three Legendary Masters had tried their best to protect as many people as possible, when the after effects of the explosion had completely dissipated, the number of survivors from the Church of the God of Aristocracy who could still stand independently was less than 30. That meant that on the average, each Legendary Master protected less than ten people. When a Legendary Master put aside their own dignity to attack a group of clergymen who at best had just stepped into the category of high-level clergymen, the outcome was cruel and savage. There were two reasons why this handful of survivors was able to escape unscathed. One, they had a certain degree of power, and two, they were under the protection of the Legendary Masters. If there was no one to provide protection and if they were ordinary human beings instead, then once that spell had been cast, even a crowd as massive as a few hundred people could forget about finding a single survivor. Olian did not know this spell, but she could see numerous souls leaving their bodies to be guided over to their God¡¯s Kingdom. So she smiled with satisfaction. ¡°You did well,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s better than I expected, really. I did not expect you to go to such an extent. ¡°Anyway, there is no other road I can turn to, I can only walk down this road, all the way towards the darkness at the end,¡± said the Space Mage. Her face was almost as pale as Olian¡¯s, but on top of it, she gave off a gloomy and somber vibe. She sighed deeply and said, ¡°Just now, my spell was broken by them, so within the next 20 minutes or so, I will temporarily lose my ability to cast such a high-powered spell.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve done enough.¡± Olian was not bothered about the Space Mage¡¯s temporary loss of ability to cast powerful spells. She said, ¡°Now, you should go get some rest. If you want to, we have the doctrines of my god here, perhaps you can take a look, and maybe you will find them to your liking.¡± As an elector with a vein of divinity in her, she saw no lines of faith in the other party. This meant that the other party was a nonbeliever, or the greater possibility was that the other party, the Space Mage, probably placed her belief in the God of Spellcasters. However, that god had fallen, and so she had been reduced to a state of having no belief. For such a talent like the Space Mage, of course, Olian had to try her best to get her onto their side. Regardless of whether she succeeded or not, there was no harm in trying. The Space Mage kept silent for a moment. She did not reject the brochure of the God of Knowledge handed over to her by Bishop Montero. This old, white-haired bishop was Olian¡¯s best aide. Back when she had just become a lord, he had assumed the position of an Assistant Officer. Then he had followed her into becoming part of the first batch to pledge their beliefs in the God of Knowledge. In the church, he was mostly in charge of jobs like preaching, and he had personally compiled that brochure. The Space Mage flipped open the brochure and browsed through it. Then she gave a slight smile, but there was apparently no ¡°scintillating¡± reaction from her. ¡°By the way, how should I address you?¡± asked Olian. ¡°Would you prefer to be called Shelly, the ¡®Sky-Shattering Blade,¡¯ or Ms. Mary Sting?¡± The Space Mage froze, and she turned even paler. It took her a few seconds to recover, then in a somewhat husky voice, she replied, ¡°I like the former.¡± ¡°Alright, Ms. Shelly. I look forward to a pleasant cooperation with you.¡± The story behind these two names was a long one to tell, and recounting this story would somehow be quite offensive as it would be intruding on someone else¡¯s privacy. In fact, it was because Olian Geerteng was an elector of the God of Knowledge, so to a certain degree, she could tap into the special rights of a god to seek information. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for her to learn about the name ¡°Mary Sting.¡± Those who knew of this name should have died long ago. This was why when Shelly heard that name, she was so surprised that she was unable to stay calm. In fact, Olian herself was not really clear what that name really meant. She was intuitively looking up information about this person, Shelly, the ¡°Sky-Shattering Blade,¡± and had found some vague and disorderly words. Among these words, she had found this line ¡°Original name, Mary Sting.¡± If she wanted to, she could have specially conducted a ceremony just to trace Shelly¡¯s past in detail, as the rights of the God of Knowledge were more than enough to achieve such a task. So long as she was willing to fork out enough Divine Power as payment, this would be possible. But of course, she would not do something so pointless. The past held no significance at all. So long as everyone was able to work together with sincere hearts, then there would not be any problem at all. Or it could also be due to the fact that these clergymen were already so used to having a whimsical, flying jellyfish as their master god that nothing in this world could ever qualify as a ¡°problem.¡± ¡°We have a big problem, and a very troublesome one at that,¡± said the elderly man who was the leader of the trio. The middle-aged man, who was usually with a steady disposition, was now showing signs of distress as he said, ¡°We are now at a disadvantageous position.¡± ¡°If you all had been more cautious back then, or braver, maybe you would not be troubled over the situation you are in now,¡± said a comely maiden with delicate features and who exuded a seductive vibe. The middle-aged man made no retort. He merely sighed softly. This maiden was a Holy Daughter of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Next to her, the other maiden who exuded a similar aura as she did was also a Holy Daughter of the church. The other maiden merely focused on reading her book silently. Unlike the Church of the God of Knowledge, all the descending gods from the Church of the God of Aristocracy were young maidens. Because it was a massive church with a rich history of more than 300 years, it was able to gather enough young maidens to serve as the medium for Descending Gods. After all, the god that these maidens believed in, when still in the mortal stage, was already a woman. If conditions permitted, Wall would unquestionably be inclined towards choosing a man as the medium for his own descending god, but the history of the Church of the God of Knowledge was too short. It did not have enough followers, so there were not enough options to find a suitable one for the job. On the contrary, even the appearances and aura of these women bore resemblances to the God of Aristocracy. These were women chosen after thorough consideration. For this battle, the Church of the God of Aristocracy had brought along two Holy Daughters. By right, this number was more than enough. In fact, the Archbishop originally felt that there was no need to bring any at all. Wouldn¡¯t the nine Legendary Masters be more than enough? In the end, because of some inexplicably amazing premonition, she decided to bring along these two Holy Daughters. The Archbishop¡¯s hunch was indeed accurate. Though she had not been able to save herself, nor was she able to obtain victory¡ªgiven the present situation, even if the God of Aristocracy were to descend immediately, it would still be almost impossible to salvage the battle situation. At first glance, it seemed that they had already lost the battle. Chapter 628 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Olian had no intentions of giving the enemy too much respite. Soon enough, she was giving orders to the clergymen executing the combined divinity formation to continue reciting the prayers. This time, they were going to attack with all their might! Hundreds of clergymen gathered and started reciting the prayers. Their combined divinity was so powerful that every strike it executed was comparable to that of a Legendary Master. The clergymen of the Church of the God of Aristocracy had already suffered a great loss. Although they were still doing their best to cast their spell, their combined divinity formation had become too vulnerable to resist any attacks. Every time they wanted to attack, they would require help from a member of the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow, who were taking turns making their move. This was the only way they could completely defuse the combined divinity of the Church of the God of Knowledge. This was not without a price. The strength of the Legendary Masters might be very powerful, but it would not be possible for them to strike blows progressively with this same amount of force all the time, as that would inflict disastrous damage to their bodies. Take Shelly, the ¡°Sky-Shattering Blade¡± for instance, though she wielded a skill that could wipe out an entire army with one blow, every time she struck once with this skill, she would have to recuperate for some time. The trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow was stronger than Shelly, but regardless of how much stronger they were, they were after all, only at the mid-legendary level. Helping the clergymen defuse the attacks of their opponent¡¯s combined divinity formation, was to them, quite a heavy burden to bear. Fortunately, there were three of them, so they could take turns to go out onto the battlefield. Otherwise, the moment the battle dragged on a little while longer, they might not be able to hold out any further. After helping the surviving clergymen resist the combined divinity that descended upon them from the sky, the middle-aged man said, ¡°This can¡¯t go on.¡± With a frown, he continued to say, ¡°They are obviously using such a method to use up our power, while buying time for their Oracles and Holy Sons to recover. Then when their Oracles and Holy Sons have fully recovered, they¡¯ll charge at us without warning. By then, we¡¯ll have no choice but to concede defeat.¡± The two Holy Daughters glanced at one another and exchanged nods. There were strange fluctuations rising up around them. Up in the sky, a mysterious smile appeared on the God of Aristocracy¡¯s face. A while later, Olian frowned. But her frown was short-lived and once again, her smile returned. ¡°The God of Aristocracy had descended as well,¡± she said. ¡°And most probably, the God of Aristocracy has sent down two clones. What cannot be determined is the amount of power they have.¡± ¡°Two against two, leave it to me,¡± a Holy Son said. He was sitting on the ground with a long, black knife that was hovering between material and immaterial in his arms. This ¡°me¡± most certainly did not refer to his actual self, but to the God of Knowledge. ¡°When the projection of the magical object has completely stabilized, we will attack,¡± said another Holy Son. ¡°I will first force that fellow to retreat, then I will come and help you all.¡± ¡­ A peaceful and stable voice ordered, ¡°Get up. None of you are at fault.¡± Trembling in fear upon hearing this voice, the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow, who were perspiring profusely, got to their feet. Their expressions clearly reflected that they were still on pins and needles. Although the appearance of the two Holy Daughters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy remained unchanged, their aura had changed. Their ¡°human¡± touch had completely disappeared. In place, there was a deep and unfathomable vibe about them, and the aura they exuded now was cold and intimidating, such as that of the Superior. Naturally, this was because the God of Aristocracy had descended. At that moment, they were no longer mere mortals, but gods that had descended upon Earth. ¡°The God of Knowledge does not seem to be very particular after all, allowing so many clones of him to descend together at one go, and then consecutively losing four of them¡­¡± commented the two Holy Daughters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy as they both looked towards the direction of the Church of the God of Knowledge. With a sparkling but inhospitable twinkle in their eyes, they went on commenting, ¡°Whether the battle is won or lost, he is going to suffer a massive loss. It seems like his loss is going to outweigh his gain!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, what should we do now?¡± the middle-aged man asked. The God of Aristocracy looked at him coldly in the eye and said, ¡°When I need you to do something for me, I will give my orders for sure.¡± The beads of perspiration on his forehead had yet to dry off, yet suddenly, a group of companions had appeared and joined him. The middle-aged man hurriedly shut his mouth and did not dare to say anything else. Apparently, the Noble Lady, otherwise addressed by her followers as Her Majesty, was not in a very good mood. He did not dare to incur her wrath, lest he should lose his life because of it. The God of Aristocracy paid no heed to him thereafter. She scrutinized in the direction of the Church of the God of Knowledge, then muttered under her breath, ¡°The greatest problem still lies with those Oracles. These Oracles that the Void Mask created truly possess extraordinary power. It is going to be difficult dealing with them!¡± She deliberated for a moment; then with a cold laugh, she said, ¡°Seems like we have to play by the old rules! Mortal against mortal, gods against gods and Oracles against Oracles. Such rules undoubtedly make more sense.¡± As the God of Aristocracy spoke, a Holy Daughter picked up an ordinary magic staff and walked to a clearing next to them. She quickly drew several symbols on the ground where the land had already been blown to pieces. Then with a casual toss of her magic staff, she faced the glittering symbols and started chanting. In the Country of Light, which was the God¡¯s Kingdom of the human gods, the noumenon of the God of Aristocracy sneered. With a single wave, a glowing portal appeared in the air. Then one after the other, numerous Oracles stood in line to wait for their turn to walk into the portal and out through the glittering symbols into the mortal world. Amongst these Oracles, there were ¡°Noble Knights¡± and ¡°Lady Knights¡± who were under the command of the God of Aristocracy. There were also other well-known Oracles under the command of some of the various human gods, even including the prominent three types of elite Oracles: ¡°True Silver Holy Sword,¡±¡±Hammer of Revenge¡± and ¡°Sword of Justice.¡± These three were under the command of the God of Light, who was the God of Human Beings. Masters of aristocratic origin who had died would transform into Noble Knights. Not only were these Noble Knights skilled in using various kinds of weapons, but they also had an excellent ability to work with spells. Combining spells and martial skills would give rise to a perfect and graceful battle technique. In this world, there were numerous elites among the aristocrats. They were rarely seen on normal days, but within the God¡¯s Kingdom of the God of Aristocracy, there were, indeed, many of them. At the moment, the unanticipated sight of so many elites gathered together instantaneously became an eye-catching view that was so awe-inspiring, even to the extent of giving off a murderous vibe. Lady Knights did not really refer to actual knights. Upon the deaths of female followers of the God of Aristocracy, they would be trained all over again and eventually, they would be transformed into Lady Knights, who were slightly different from the Noble Knights. Their armor was much lighter, and their battle equipment was so much more magnificent. The fanciful-looking Lady Knights might even give others the impression that they were very showy. But anyone who belittled them because of their appearance was definitely slow in the head, because this handful of maidens who looked nothing like outstanding knights were actually a group of spellcasters. They were a group of spellcasters who were quite powerful in combat, but even more powerful in spellcasting! As for the three types of elite Oracles, namely the True Silver Holy Swords, the Hammers of Revenge and the Swords of Justice, who were even more renowned, they had fought north and south on many fronts and had won countless victories. They had conquered so many battles that at the sight of them, the three Legendary Masters heaved great sighs of relief as though the lot was cast and they had a foregone conclusion about the battle outcome. Without mentioning any other things, just within the group of the Hammers of Revenge, every one of these Oracles had capabilities that were near to a weak Divine Power. Even though they had been weakened because they were summoned into the mortal world, they were, nonetheless, not easy opponents to ordinary Oracles! Along with the numerous elite Oracles emerging in a single file, the surviving clergymen from the Church of the God of Aristocracy regained their confidence and smiled. ¡°You want to use your Oracles to fight mine? Will I lose to a god that is thirty years my junior?¡± the God of Aristocracy asked with a sneer. He continued to say, ¡°Even if he has the Void Mask backing him up, how many elite Oracles could he possible deploy for use? Our Human God System has such a profound heritage that has been accumulated in abundance over the years, it is impossible for us to lose!¡± Chapter 629 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A moment later, a great big troop of Oracles uproariously charged towards the formation of the Church of the God of Knowledge. Watching this scene unfold, even Sui Xiong had to frown. At that moment, the capability of every god system would be made apparent. The Human God System had a long history, so it knew various divine spells. For instance, a divine spell to open transportation portals to connect the mortal world to the God¡¯s Kingdom and then another divine spell to enable Oracles to directly step over. To deliberate and thoroughly research these spells required a great deal of time, resources, and Divine Power. Theoretically speaking, opening a transportation portal between the mortal world and a God¡¯s Kingdom was not difficult. Sui Xiong had done so too, However, to limit the spell to take effect only within the ¡°mortal¡± level, even if it was reduced to the level of legendary peak, that would still be extremely difficult. The crux of the problem was that the power of mortals was too weak when compared to the power of gods. Such weak power would not be enough to support a temporary erection of a transportation portal. Transboundary transportation was a very complex spell. The difficulty level of transportation to various places was different. Transportation to the World of Shadow was the easiest, and so long as one was at the level of a mid-ranked mage, it was achievable. On the other hand, transportation to a God¡¯s Kingdom was considered the most difficult level. Even if it was to transport oneself over, generally, it would require a legendary mage to be able to perform such a spell. As for erecting a stable transportation portal between God¡¯s Kingdom and the mortal world, even if it was only temporarily, it was still not something an ordinary legendary master could possibly achieve. To reduce the difficulty level of this spell, not only must there be a corresponding transportation portal erected within the God¡¯s Kingdom, there must also be research conducted to specially devise a spell relative to this transportation portal¡ªthis spell must have no other purpose, it must only be used to open a transportation portal within the mortal world to establish a connection with the God¡¯s Kingdom. Sui Xiong had the intention to study this spell and later found that the amount of time and energy required for it was simply astronomical. Eventually, he had to give up. But the Human God System had long since completed a God¡¯s Kingdom Transportation Spell that belonged to them. At that moment when they opened this transportation portal, their Oracles were able to walk out in an endless stream, and thus, there was a sudden reversal in the situation, and the tables were turned. In the face of such a situation, Sui Xiong was really at a loss. The method he had invented, which was to perform a ritual to offer a sacrifice through a formation to summon Oracles, was considerably simple and highly efficient. If not for the situation he was facing right now, his method could almost be invincible. However, meeting such a situation where a transportation portal was erected and connected right to the God¡¯s Kingdom to allow the Oracles to step through directly, using the method of a ritual to offer sacrifices through a formation to summon the Oracles was somewhat slow. It would not be able to keep up with the rate of consumption of the battle. To resolve this problem, the simplest way was for Sui Xiong to intervene personally and to open another transportation portal that connected the mortal world to his God¡¯s Kingdom. Then what followed next would be nothing more than the fighting out between the Oracle troops of both sides. No matter how the Oracles of the various human gods fought, Sui Xiong had never felt that the battleship maidens that he had created with his own hands would lose. But he could never do so because this was a war between the Church of the God of Knowledge and the Church of the God of Aristocracy. He could intervene indirectly, but to directly take a shot would constitute a breach of the rules. If he had done so, even if the Church of the God of Knowledge managed to win this battle, the God of Aristocracy would not willingly concede defeat. This would only serve to intensify the estranged relationship between both sides, and the situation would evolve into a tragic war of attrition. If they were to fight a war of attrition, the Church of the God of Knowledge would lose for sure. What should I do? He saw how the Oracles from both sides were throwing attacks back and forth, but it was obvious that the God of Aristocracy¡¯s side had the advantage because it had a greater number of people. Sui Xiong frowned as he fell into deep thought. After a while, his eyes lit up. He had thought of a way. Indeed, he could not intervene personally, but so long as he kept things obscured behind a pretty fa?ade, it was not that difficult for him to find the chance to shoot an edge ball. As time was of the essence, he headed for the treasure vault of the Sanctuary without further ado in search for suitable materials. Very quickly, he found what he needed. It was a golden-green piece of leather that came from an aged dragon at the demigod level. There was no trace of resentment on the leather, which was probably a piece that was skinned off a fallen limb after the dragon was injured, or it might be from the shedding of skin during molting¡ªthough there were not many dragons that shed skin, there were some that still existed after all. It was also possible that that aged dragon had wanted to regain its youth, so it underwent a body replacement¡­ but none of this mattered. The important thing was, this piece of leather was sturdy enough for him to use to make what he wanted¡ªa magic scroll. What Sui Xiong wanted to make was a magic scroll that could cast the ¡°Door to God¡¯s Kingdom.¡± In his God¡¯s Kingdom, there was no transportation portal leading to the human world. He still had time to start building one now, but if he really could not erect one in time, at most, he could temporarily transform into a transportation portal. Anyway, no one could see whatever was happening within his God¡¯s Kingdom. As for that scroll, it was nothing more than a cover-up tool. The spell engraved on it was indeed powerful, but without Sui Xiong¡¯s guidance within his God¡¯s Kingdom, it was impossible to solely depend on a single scroll to establish a transportation portal to connect the God¡¯s Kingdom and human world. Even if such a portal was barely opened, time that it could be sustained would be so short that not even a handful of people could make it through. To put it simply, the key to this spell did not lie with the scroll but with Sui Xiong himself. Of course, the scroll was useful in its own way. It opened up a transportation portal leading from the human world to the God¡¯s Kingdom. This was an indisputable fact. Well, that should be enough. It would take up more time explaining such matters, but the actual work could, in fact, be done very quickly. In less than two minutes, Sui Xiong had completed this scroll and handed it over to an Oracle. He told that Oracle to head down to the battlefield by answering to the summons and then to use this scroll on the battlefield. A moment later, a blue Door of Light appeared beside the formation set up for the summoning. From the Door of Light, Oracles from the Sanctuary of the God¡¯s Kingdom walked out in an endless stream. With their support, the Church of the God of Knowledge that was originally in a most disadvantageous position speedily salvaged the situation. Once again, both sides were back on the same starting line, where the balance between victory and defeat was restored again. And at this time, on the other side of the God¡¯s Kingdom, the human gods were all whispering to one another. ¡°How long is this battle going to last?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it getting a little too massive? It has already progressed to a battle between Oracle troops¡­¡± ¡°If this fight goes on, will it likely escalate into a war of gods?¡± ¡°That will not do! Human affairs should stay within the world of humans. This situation, having developed to this stage, should be considered the maximum. Any larger scale than this would be too much!¡± ¡°But from observing the current stance, I¡¯m afraid we won¡¯t be seeing a victory anytime soon. As you all can see, the number of Oracles deployed by both sides is in fact, not that many. From how they are throwing attacks at one another in mutual retaliation, don¡¯t be cheated by all the hustle and bustle. In fact, the loss is not a big one. I have estimated that the number of Oracles on both sides add up to only two to three hundred, and with such a small number, fighting up to a year and a half is certainly no problem at all¡­¡± ¡°Fighting for a year and a half? That would be dragging on for far too long, isn¡¯t it so!¡± ¡°What else can we do? Both sides refuse to concede defeat, so the most they can do is continue to consume their power and energy.¡¯ ¡°How about¡­ we expand our transportation portal by a little?¡± ¡°You take the other side for fools? If we can expand our transportation portal, they can do likewise. Then we are just fighting a larger scale battle, that¡¯s all. Even if the number of Oracles is doubled, it is still, in fact, not really a big deal¡­¡± The human gods shook their heads and sighed as they spoke. All of them were simply at their wits¡¯ ends. On the other side, Sui Xiong laughed heartily as he looked at the Oracles who were in line before the transportation portal that would lead them to the battlefield. Then he said to Wall, ¡°Seems like there will be a battle to fight after all, and I¡¯m afraid there won¡¯t be an immediate outcome for this battle, it might last for at least ten days or even half a month.¡± ¡°In fact, fighting up to this point in time, everything seems so meaningless,¡± said Wall. He continued to say, ¡°Mobilizing the Oracle troops to fight this battle, and yet we cannot expand the scale of the battle. A battle as such can go on forever without a winner or loser.¡± ¡°Then we shall fight this for as long as it takes,¡± Sui Xiong replied easily. ¡°Anyway, we are just idling time. We can just take this chance to train our army. Usually, when they are back in my God¡¯s Kingdom, they often engage in military exercises. Wall thought about it and nodded. Although it felt a little awkward to him, this was one battle that he truly did not want to lose. Since he did not want to lose, then no matter how long it took, he had to persevere and fight on¡­ Chapter 630 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The sun had begun to rise, shadowing the moon. A faint white glow could be seen in the East. Within the woods, not too far away from Green Tree City, the sound of fighting resonated far and loud, where even those by the edge of the city walls could hear. On the observation deck by the city gate, a soldier donned simply in a half-body armor was looking far into the distance where the fighting was happening. There was some longing in his eyes, but more of it was worry. When the immortals fought, the mortals would suffer. With two churches engaged in battle, where it was said that more than ten Legendary Masters were present, this battle was going to be crazy. Any shot deviating from the actual target, even to the slightest degree, would most likely bombard Green Tree City. Of course, Green Tree City was under the protection of a magic array, so it might not necessarily be hit with that much damage. But if the magic array could not withstand the oncoming waves, the unlucky one to be hit first would certainly be him. ¡°Ugh! How worrying!¡± ¡°What are you worried about?¡± asked a friend who was stationed at the lower deck after hearing the soldier¡¯s lamentation. Out of curiosity, he asked, ¡°You made your wife angry in the morning, so now you have no lunch?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one without lunch!¡± the sentry replied in a most unpleasant tone. ¡°I am worried about the battle over there. What should I do if they continue to fight like that and the aftermath of their clashing blades or magic come our way?¡± The sentry on the lower deck pondered for a moment before saying, ¡°There is nothing to worry about. If we are really going to be affected by their battle, we still have the magic array to block it.¡± ¡°What if our magic array can¡¯t block the hits?¡± the anxiety-ridden sentry asked. ¡°If our magic array can¡¯t block the hits, we will be the first to meet misfortunate!¡± ¡°If the hits are not blocked¡­ then we just have to admit that we are in a streak of bad luck,¡± replied his friend with a bitter laugh. But after giving it some thought, his furrowed brows relaxed, and he said, ¡°As a matter of fact, there is nothing to be afraid of. The attacks of Legendary Masters, they must be awfully powerful! We will most certainly be dead in a flash, there will be no pain at all.¡± ¡°Thank you for your comforting words,¡± replied the sentry on the upper deck as he forced a laugh; then he turned back again, fixated on the place where the intense battle was ongoing. After a while, he spoke again and said, ¡°Sigh! If only I were powerful enough, I wouldn¡¯t have to worry then.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it a little too late to be mulling over this now? If you had worked hard when you were young, who knows, maybe you would have been very powerful now,¡± said their captain with a sneer. He happened to pass by and overhear their conversation. He went on to say, ¡°You are almost ten years older than me, and when I reached your age, most likely I would have advanced up to a high level. But you, look at you, you are not even mid-level! If you had not put in the effort to work hard when you were young, what¡¯s the point in lamenting now?¡± said the captain, who seemed to get angrier the more he spoke. ¡°Let¡¯s not even talk about when you were young, let¡¯s take the present for instance, you find excuses to run away whenever you are training¡­ with that attitude of yours, how could you possibly become a master?¡± ¡°I heard people saying that there was someone who happened to pick up a treasure, or ate some wonderful fruit, then all of a sudden, he became a master¡­¡± ¡°You can stay in that reverie of yours for as long as you please!¡± said the captain who shook his head and walked away with disinterest. ¡°Captain, wait!¡± shouted that soldier who was patrolling the lower deck. He quickly chased after the captain. He had some questions about the topic earlier on. After listening to his inquiry, the captain fell into a moment of deep thought before replying, ¡°Your worries are unnecessary. No matter how strong these Legendary Masters are, they would not go about wasting their powers. In battle, they need every ounce of strength to vanquish their enemy. If they can¡¯t do so, most probably they will lose their lives. Your worries of any blasts or magic coming our way and destroying the magic array that protects Green Tree City are just foolish conjectures.¡± Upon hearing so, the sentry let his worries rest, saluted the captain respectfully and then left hurriedly. After seeing the sentry leave, the captain frowned. He looked into the direction where the sounds of battle were coming from, and after a long time, he turned around again. Walking a short distance down the street, he arrived at a house that was not very spacious, but well-kept and neat. ¡°Teacher are you there?¡± he asked as he knocked on the door. The unlatched door opened. A bald, old man with slightly stooped shoulders, a slightly hunched back, and long white brows and beard walked out. His face was full of wrinkles, but still, the wrinkles were unable to conceal his ferociousness. When he was young, he must have been a very aggressive character. But the kindness in his eyes and the way his neighbors greeted him with smiles proved that he was very popular and was not some bad guy. The captain of the patrol team bowed reverentially to the old man, and then he asked, ¡°Right now, there are two churches in battle outside the city. I heard there were more than ten Legendary Masters participating in the battle. I am a little worried and would like to head over to check out the situation. Do you think it is alright for me to do so?¡± This bald, old man was also considered to be a legendary figure within Green Tree City. Back then, he was a regular hatchet man who was met with an accidental opportunity. Thereafter, he had turned over a new leaf and did many good things. The God of Justice had even bestowed upon him a gift, and as of the current day, he was one of the few remaining high-level masters in the city. He had wandered about for years; thus, he carried a rich base of experience and knowledge. So whenever the captain of the patrol team had worries, he would naturally come looking for the old man with his inquiries. ¡°Which two churches?¡± the bald old man asked. ¡°The Church of the Great Educator (the God of Knowledge) and the Church of the Noble Lady (the God of Aristocracy).¡± ¡°Then there is no cause for worry,¡± replied the old man. ¡°The Great Educator is a good god, while the Noble Lady is an orderly god. Neither of their followers would do misdeeds such as attacking cities and towns or killing innocent people.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you mention this to me before, that the concept of a camp was actually not very reliable?¡± ¡°This is true when the number of people is not high. But if it is just one person we are talking about, then a kind person may do evil while a rebellious one may abide by order. But the more people there are, the more difficult it is to do things that are against the camp,¡± the old man replied with a smile. ¡°There are so many people gathering together with the two churches put together, if any side were to do something inappropriate, it would not reflect well upon them. Therefore, you need not worry at all. These Legendary Masters value their image more than life itself.¡± The captain of the patrol team was silent for a while, and then with a sigh, he said, ¡°How good it would be if I were to become a Legendary Master too!¡± ¡°That is not going to be easy, at least for our Mifata Federation, that is not easy at all,¡± replied the old man with a sigh. Then he continued to say, ¡°Over on our side, there are those who are born into good families with access to enough resources, and thus, they have the opportunity to learn profound knowledge and skills. You have talent, you are also hardworking, but ultimately, these alone are never enough.¡± ¡°Then what should I do?¡± asked the captain of the patrol team. The old man thought for quite some time. Then he pulled his student into the house and whispered, ¡°If you really want to become strong, go to the Republic of Northwest and seek the people of the Church of the Void Mask.¡± ¡°Seek them out? What¡¯s the point in looking for them?¡± ¡°Thirty years ago, when I was still a nameless hatchet man, I occasionally ran into His Majesty, the Void Mask, and was enlightened by him. That was why I had repented and turned over a new leaf¡­ All these years, I have prided myself in doing the right things and not letting myself to go awry. I have lived up to his teachings and have not let him down. If you go there and pray to him, thank him on my behalf and while you are at it, do request to join his church¡­ there should be chances for you to pick up some profound abilities over there.¡± The captain of the patrol team froze for a moment; then asked out of curiosity, ¡°Teacher, back then, did you meet His Majesty, the Void Mask, personally?¡± ¡°Yes, I met him. Not only did I meet him, but I also saw the ¡®King of the Seaside,¡¯ Leon Igor and the ¡®Master of Healing,¡¯ Steele Geerteng,¡± said the bald old man as he recalled these past events. He could not help holding back a smile as he said, ¡°Back then, there were, in fact, four people who were receiving his guidance, but I was the only one who finally managed to make my way back to the right path of life¡­ no matter what, I should go and express my gratitude. What a pity, I¡¯m old, and I can¡¯t walk long distances¡­¡± Realization dawned upon the captain of the patrol team, who then nodded his head profusely. Early the next morning, he resigned from his post and with his bag slung across his back, he rode a fine steed and bade farewell to his teacher. Then he hurried out of the door and headed in the direction of the Highest Tower. To make it to the Northwest Republic, the most suitable channel was none other than the transportation portal of the Highest Tower. And until this point in time, the sounds of intense fighting coming from the forested area outside the city were still ongoing. Both sides did not seem to have any intention of putting the battle to an end¡­ Chapter 631 This war between the Church of the God of Knowledge and the Church of the God of Aristocracy lasted longer than what everyone had expected. Before the war, everyone had estimated that they would fight for around a few hours before a winner would emerge. Even if this had developed into a war of attrition, no matter how strong the endurance of the Legendary Masters was, they would at most last for one full day. Or it might be because both sides were reluctant to lose any of their men, and so they were dawdling for as long as they could. But even so, dawdling for three to five days should most probably be enough to produce an outcome. But in truth, even up to half a month later, the churches were still at war. A small-scale battle could go on for so long, and even talking about it might somehow sound a little ridiculous. It was not uncommon for the masters with extremely strong endurance to persist for long when engaged in one-on-one fights, but under a situation where there was a melee battle going on, persisting for so long was certainly not easy at all. If someone were to sneak onto the battlefield to take a closer look, they would realize that the clergymen from both sides were, more or less, worked to the point of exhaustion. Only the indefatigable Oracles were still fighting on. In truth, such a statement was not completely correct. Oracles would get tired too, especially when they were fighting in the world of humans. After the Oracles¡¯ reserve of magic was depleted, they would automatically perish and return to their God¡¯s Kingdom to be resurrected; then they would have to go through the transportation portal to return to the world of humans, where they would continue to fight the battle. This was something mortals could never do, and not even the immortal demigods were able to achieve this. Only the Oracles who could be resurrected indefinitely could sustain such an intense battle. ¡°If the battle continues to go on like that, then it¡¯s going to be never-ending!¡± said Bishop Garett, who was no longer able to maintain his composure of before. Now, he looked haggard with heavy eye bags and seemed to be in a slight trance. For example, under normal circumstances, he would certainly not make such a complaint. But compared to Bishop Montero, he was in a much better condition. The elderly Bishop sat listlessly on the ground, without even the strength to stand. His eyes showed that he was obviously already in a daze. Where am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? As a matter of fact, they did not lack any dietary needs, nor were they deprived of time to rest. But as the higher-ups of the Church of the God of Knowledge, they could not rest for too long. Especially when they had to protect the young people who were executing the combined divinity formation, they, being the predecessors, had to stand up and support the situation. The fighting style of the Oracles was much too simple yet brutal. If there was no one to command them, the situation would easily develop into a tragic one with both sides dead set on killing one another. They would kill to a point where only the winning Oracles survived¡ªthis was the kind of situation that no one wanted to see happen. The gods who had possessed bodies in order to descend to the earth had long since left, and the Holy Sons and Holy Daughters had transformed into lifeless corpses. The leaders from both churches were either dead or seriously injured, thus unable to exert themselves physically, so the weight of this heavy responsibility of directing the battle naturally fell upon the shoulders of the higher-ups. The situation was slightly better for the Church of the God of Aristocracy as the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow were taking turns going onto the battlefield. This was enough to support the commanding role, but the Church of the God of Knowledge was not faring as well. Olian was seriously injured and needed to recuperate while Shelly had just surrendered. There was simply no authoritative figure that was convincing enough. As for the young ones, no matter how outstanding they were, they were still not mature enough to lead the troop. So the main commanding job fell upon the shoulders of the two bishops, Montero and Garett. Directing a battle over a long period proved to be an extremely tiring matter, especially when they were at some place where they could not eat and sleep well. The aftermath of the battle, the roaring sounds, and vibrations, the suppression of Legendary Masters¡­ such things naturally made people nervous and tired. Bearing these things for a short time was nothing much, but being subjected to such conditions over a prolonged period¡ªno one would be able to withstand for long. Even the three Legendary Masters from the Church of the God of Aristocracy were now starting to show signs of exhaustion. ¡°Exactly when is this fight going to end!¡± lamented the youngest one. ¡°I just want to go home, eat well, drink well, and then sleep to my heart¡¯s content. Just look at my face, what a sight I am!¡± ¡°There is nothing we can do, just bear with it,¡± the elderly man advised. ¡°A battle of churches will never allow for an increase in manpower, we are only left with this mere number, so no matter what, we have to pull through!¡± ¡°How lightly you make it all sound. Anyway, it doesn¡¯t matter much to you, when you are so old with skin like an orange peel¡­ I am still a youthful man in my prime!¡± ¡°You are older than me by quite a few years.¡± ¡°Stop arguing!¡± said the middle-aged man, who was commanding the Oracles as he shook his hands in an exhausted manner to stop his quarreling companions. ¡°If you two have the energy to quarrel, you might as well make good use of the opportunity to rest while I¡¯m in command now.¡± ¡°Boss, in a place like this, where can I possibly rest!¡± complained the young fellow. ¡°The aftermath of a fight between Oracles, even if you hide in the secret mansion, you can still feel it so clearly.¡± The middle-aged man sighed. He knew that it was quite an inconsiderate thing to ask of them. The Legendary Masters might be much stronger than ordinary people, but their awareness was much more sensitive as well. Under such a situation, even if they wanted to rest, their instincts would make it impossible for them to take a restful break. Not to mention the young one¡ªeven he and the elderly man were unable to sleep well. What made matters worse was that they were running low on food. The combat power of a Legendary Master was very strong, so naturally, their body would consume much more energy as compared to ordinary people. They were able to draw and replenish energy from their surroundings, but under such conditions where they were unable to rest well and were mentally exhausted, and where the surrounding energy was in disarray because of the bombardment caused by the battle of the Oracles and the combined divinity formation, the amount of energy they could absorb was limited. They had no choice but to rely on dietary input to replenish their energy. What made matters even worse was that these Legendary Masters seldom brought large amounts of food along with them, especially those clergymen who belonged to the churches. They could usually use several divine spells to conjure up a meal. Regardless of whether they used junior divine spells to make water or food, or intermediate divine spells to make army meals, or even advanced divine spells to make a ¡°hero banquet,¡± all of these spells ensured that they ate and drank well. But now, the magic of the clergymen was completely used to maintain their transportation portal and to execute their divinity combination in order to confront their opponent¡¯s divinity combination. There was simply no additional magic to make food. They could only rely on a few pieces of magic props to create some food and drinking water to sustain their lives. This food and drinking water was unquestionably enough for normal humans. For the Legendary Masters who were not in combat mode, this would suffice too. But when placed under a prolonged period of battle, to these three Legendary Masters who needed a great deal of food for energy, this meager amount was far from enough. Chapter 632 As the intense war wore on, both churches did not waste time idling around. They were still very busy going around preaching and spreading their teachings. Because the higher-ups were all occupied with fighting the war, the Church of the God of Knowledge was currently without a leader. The Church of the Void Mask had deployed quite a number of higher-ups to help overlook the situation, and they were also tasked in bringing in a tremendous amount of money. Sui Xiong had already made up his mind that, at most, he would throw in as much money as required. No matter what, he had to render enough support to win this battle of belief. The Church of the God of Aristocracy also received support from the various churches under the command of the human gods, so it did not lack manpower or capital. Their job of preaching was, likewise, not affected by the ongoing war and continued to be carried out in an orderly manner. Although the more accessible areas where they could conveniently carry out their preaching had all been ¡°carved up¡± and taken into account, there remained some bordering areas, as well as those areas that had a very deep belief in gods, like the God of Spellcaster and the Master of Mystery, that were still worth fighting for. Although¡­ the inhabitants on the bordering areas had always complied to a very primitive attitude, where they would ¡°submit themselves to anyone who could feed them,¡± whereas those living in areas with a strong belief would never change their attitude because the God of Spellcaster had fallen or because the Master of Mystery had surrendered and was captured. But the tons and tons of money, as well as the manpower invested would nonetheless always work to produce some visible effect. In general, the Church of the God of Aristocracy had a slight advantage. After all, they had a profound background. Without needing to mention any other aspects, just the number of missionaries they could mobilize was already much more than what the Church of the God of Knowledge could send out. It was always a good thing to have a large pool of human resource. Watching the situation, the God of Aristocracy could not help smiling discreetly. If this went on, regardless of what the outcome of this battle of churches would be, she would still be the winner. If the battle were to go on for another two to three months, where everything had settled down, no one would ever be able to stop her from progressing up the level of ranks. But her happiness was short-lived, for a few days later, the World¡¯s Origin slightly trembled and sent a piece of news to the world. This message was considered neither major nor minor. Wall, the God of Knowledge, had obtained four priesthoods, namely, ¡°Classics,¡±¡±Library,¡±¡±Scholar,¡± and ¡°Culture.¡± He made tremendous progress as a deity and had just stepped up to a mid-level Divine Power. Within the mid-level Divine Powers, he was also one of those with a higher level of Divine Power. Without a doubt, these four priesthoods were left behind by the few fallen gods from the Mystery God System. The Human God System had long since allocated these priesthoods to certain people, but they had been kept busy until now. And though they were more certain about the priesthood of a ¡°Mage,¡± they were still figuring out that of the ¡°Scholar.¡± Though they also wanted the other priesthoods, they were unable to obtain them for the time being. At the start of the war, the Master of Mystery had been very absolute. Every fallen god from the Mystery God System had to destroy his priesthood upon death so that their enemies could not take advantage of the situation. And so, the human gods who had intended to plunder the priesthoods during this war failed to achieve their most important goal. The Master of Mystery was currently imprisoned and had been quarantined from any support in terms of belief from his followers. He would also be stripped of his priesthood sooner or later, but the resulting benefits could still fall into the hands of others, and this made the human gods very unhappy. But¡­ no matter how unhappy they were, it was already too late. ¡°Honestly, there¡¯s nothing we should worry about regarding this,¡± said the God of Heroes when they were all in the sacred, solemn palace. ¡°The God of Knowledge originally had an advantage in these areas, and a great advantage to speak of. In truth, we are unable to compete against him; that is a given.¡± The human gods nodded slightly in agreement. Though they might also have all kinds of feelings, they would never let their emotions dictate their behavior, even though they advanced to such a level. They were naturally able to view things from a calmer and objective standpoint without making the mistake of ¡°I know, but I won¡¯t admit it.¡± When the God of Knowledge had just been sealed as a god, the Master of Mystery felt pressurized, so much so that an intense conflict had once erupted between the two sides. The Master of Mystery saw his chance of seizing the four priesthoods with the defeat of the Master of Mystery, thus promoting the ascension of his deity status. This was a matter, of course. ¡°In fact¡­ I¡¯m more worried about another matter,¡± the God of Aristocracy said with a frown. ¡°Do you all remember? Back then, when the God of Knowledge had just been sealed as a god, there had been signs of instability in the priesthood of the Master of Mystery¡­¡± The human gods were quick to understand what the God of Aristocracy meant to say. The priesthood of the Master of Mystery was amazing. Back then, he was called the ¡°God of Wisdom and Magic,¡± meaning to say that his core priesthoods were ¡°Wisdom¡± and ¡°Magic.¡± However, after he was defeated and captured this time around, the human gods were surprised to discover that his priesthood was neither Wisdom nor Magic. It was a mixture of Wisdom, Magic, and several kinds of priesthoods blended together. That was how the priesthood of ¡°Mystery¡± came about. This priesthood was so profound that it was inexplicable. The human gods could not even understand it, let alone expropriate it from the Master of Mystery to give it to their own brothers. So they could only imprison the Master of Mystery first, then slowly think of a solution. But exactly what was going on? How did the Master of Mystery accomplish this? That priesthood of his¡­ what kind of state was it in? Upon learning about this, the leader of the human gods, the God of Light, Wuther Rang, had carefully examined this matter and since then, he had retreated to his palace where he isolated himself to mediate. Up till now, he had yet to step out of seclusion. Due to the loss of his command, the human gods hesitated about who they should be supporting in this fight of belief, the God of Aristocracy or the God of Knowledge. They did not dare to make a big fuss about things. They were not particularly afraid of the Void Mask, but if things were blown out of proportion and both sides were to fight, that would disrupt His Majesty¡¯s thinking and research, and that would be terrible! Just thinking about it was enough to make one see how terrifying this situation actually was! ¡°The priesthood of the Master of Mystery has indeed shown signs of instability before,¡± the God of Protection said, ¡°but since then, I have never heard of such a situation recurring anymore.¡± The God of Aristocracy nodded and said, ¡°We have always thought that it was the God of Knowledge who took the initiative to limit the development of his divinity in order to avoid the outbreak of intense conflict between both sides. But from how it seems now, that may not be so.¡± She looked around, and her gaze swept through every comrade present; then she said, ¡°Maybe the God of Knowledge has always been enhancing his possession of knowledge in the field of ¡®Wisdom,¡¯ and maybe, his ultimate goal was to completely break down this priesthood and split up the parts pertaining to learning and thinking from the parts pertaining to intuition and inspiration. Then he could thoroughly master the former.¡± ¡°At that time, we had thought so too. But later on, we felt that he was only temporarily putting this task on hold. But seeing how he managed to master four priesthoods within such a short time, perhaps we have made things seem much better than they actually were¡­¡± The human gods frowned. They were secretly feeling distressed. If the God of Knowledge had truly been putting in so much effort on researching this area, then even if the human gods had eventually succeeded in stripping the Master of Mystery of his priesthood and breaking it down into the different components, a large part of it would still go to the God of Knowledge. At that point in time, by making good use of this opportunity, the God of Knowledge might directly shoot up to becoming a great Divine Power. ¡°Maybe¡­ we should also combine our priesthoods?¡± the God of Protection whispered to himself after a while. ¡°What do you say¡­ What¡¯s His Majesty thinking of?¡± the God of Diplomacy suddenly asked. ¡°Could it be that he is also considering this approach?¡± ¡°This is a very good idea, indeed. Blending one¡¯s priesthood into a form where no one else but yourself could understand¡ªnaturally, you wouldn¡¯t need to worry that it will be snatched away from you,¡± said the God of Heroes. ¡°But how did the Master of Mystery manage to do that?¡± No one could answer as everyone was also feeling confused¡­ Chapter 633 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Because of the increase in the God of Knowledge¡¯s priesthood, the number of followers increased rapidly. In particular, those who used to follow the God of Classics and the God of Scholar had accepted Wall¡¯s belief without much resistance, and they became his devout followers. There were two reasons for this: one, they needed a belief. Wall¡¯s priesthood and his accomplishments were well-suited to these scholars and bookworms to follow. Two, they were people with relatively high cultural standards. Regardless of how devoted they could be, it was unlikely that they would become fanatics. Madly believing and ignorance were two sides of a coin, the proportion of crazy fanatics would be smaller within a more open-minded crowd, so they could accept the fact that a god had died and there was a change in the priesthood. Just like those films that depicted life in the real, unprotected world, where the old and experienced would not refuse to acknowledge the change to a new mogul¡ªespecially if this new head was nice and had nothing to do with the death of his predecessor¡­ Oh right, after obtaining his new priesthoods, the God of Knowledge also had a change in name. Now, he was officially known as the ¡°God of Knowledge and Culture.¡± The former included the acquisition, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge; the latter included the research, preservation, and promotion of culture. Of course, he could further split his priesthood into several subdivisions or even promote a few of his followers to partake in these priesthoods. According to the calculations by the experienced and knowledgeable God of Justice and God of Pleasure, if there were enough time, with just the present priesthood alone, Wall could already step up to the level of great Divine Power. Probably¡­ accumulating for a thousand years would do. One thousand years to gods with immortality was really nothing much at all. ¡°From being sealed as a god to becoming a great Divine Power, it took me more than 2000 years. To the other gods, this was considered extremely fast. And yet, you only took half that time¡­¡± said Yorgaardman, the God of Justice. He seemed to be quite affected as he continued to say, ¡°The younger generation sure does surpass their elders!¡± ¡°There are also many gods who have spent a few thousand years or even tens of thousands of years, but they have not been able to step up to the level of a great Divine Power,¡± lamented Javier, the God of Pleasure. As for Morani, who had not been able to step up to the level of great Divine Power after a few thousand years, he was already at a loss for words. Right, there was also Ariel, his predecessor, as well as the former Goddess of the Ocean, Vorpocus, who were examples of gods who had not been able to step up to the level of great Divine Power after tens of thousands of years either. In fact, the God of Law and the Goddess of Wealth were also regarded as examples. However, they had now stepped up to become great Divine Powers, and at least they would not lose their dignity before the younger generation. ¡°Taking a thousand years to become a great Divine Power is in fact, not considered great at all,¡± said Wall with a smile. ¡°His Majesty only took a few decades to step up to this level; that is truly remarkable!¡± The moment he said so, everyone immediately cast their sights over to Sui Xiong. The God of Justice pouted and then said helplessly, ¡°We can¡¯t compare ourselves to him, if we did so, everyone here would be extremely angry¡­¡± Everyone laughed at the God of Justice¡¯s comment. It had only been around 50 years since Sui Xiong¡¯s first appearance in this world, yet he was already recognized as one of the great Divine Powers. Not only that, but he was also one of the candidates qualified to vie for the title of ¡°strongest¡± amongst all the great Divine Powers. This pace of progress was simply beyond belief, and there had not been a second one like him seen through the ages. Not only that, he had always been helping and promoting other gods. With his help, there were two gods who had stepped up to the level of great Divine Power, and two others who were newly sealed as gods. Furthermore, there were two who had been reborn and several others who had greatly enhanced their strength with his help. There was now a famous rumor among the gods, that if one became friends with the Void Mask, most likely it would mean that one¡¯s divinity could increase by a notch, and that was more real than a true god. In this regard, Sui Xiong could only say¡­ Friends, we need to believe in science. Don¡¯t be so superstitious! ¡°In this current war of missionary work, I¡¯m almost about to win,¡± said Wall with a smile. ¡°The problem is, how should I wrap things up? What do you all suggest?¡± Upon hearing his question, the gods all started to ponder. Just like how he said, because he had obtained new priesthoods and inherited the followers of the God of Classics and the God of Scholars, he had gained a decisive advantage in this battle of missionary work against the God of Aristocracy. If this was an intense competition where both sides started out as equals, then from this moment on, the competition had progressed into a period of garbage time. Unless the God of Aristocracy could come up with a truly massive piece of news to throw out or do something that was earth-shattering, there was no way anyone could see how he had any other means to turn the tables. Among the fallen gods from the Mystery God System, the priesthood of the God of Spellcaster had no successor for the time being¡ªit was said that the Human God System was going to introduce a God of Mages, but until now, no one turned up; the successor to the God of Classics and the God of Scholar was Wall. Just from a perspective on the change of priesthood, it was apparent that Wall had a great advantage. After he took over those two priesthoods, many scholars and mages who were originally inclined towards the God of Aristocracy had shown a change in attitude¡ªbelief was hard to fake. Even if they had been tempted by the benefits that the Church of the God of Aristocracy had offered them, what they actually believed in persisted on, and the principles of life they held onto¡­ these were difficult to change. Moreover, the benefits that the God of Aristocracy could give, the God of Knowledge¡ªnow known as the God of Knowledge and Culture¡ªcould give too. But the benefits that the God of Knowledge could give, the God of Aristocracy might not be able to do likewise. If the total number of followers from both sides that were up for grabs was originally 100, where each had 30, and both were still fighting over the remaining 40, then now, the ratio was almost 60 and 20. Among the remaining 20, there were many who were inclined towards Wall¡¯s side. So just like what Wall said, now was not the time to think about how they should win, but how they should wrap things up. Wall did not want an estranged relationship with the God of Aristocracy to the point of a fierce struggle, nor did he want to trigger a war between the two God Systems. But he was also reluctant to give up on the subsequent missionary work¡ª70 to 30 and 60 to 40 were both victories, but the effect both had were completely different. The former should be able to effectively fend off the impact from the great Divine Power of the God of Aristocracy, while the latter might not necessarily be able to do so. As such, the ¡°end¡± would indeed become a difficult problem. Especially with the higher-ups of both churches still fighting one another, where they had already been fighting for more than half a month but were still fighting even now. How could they put an end to this fight? This proved to be quite a headache. The truth be said, both sides had incurred great losses. The Church of the God of Knowledge lost all its Holy Sons and Holy Daughters. The Church of the God of Aristocracy lost three of its most loyal and reliable Legendary Masters, among which, there was also the church¡¯s Archbishop. Under such a situation, it was not easy trying to get them to cease fighting, even for the gods. After all, devoutness and fanaticism were two very different things. No matter how devout the followers were, they had their own interests and emotions. Especially these higher-ups of the churches¡ªeven the gods could not completely feign ignorance to their notions. Maybe the God of Aristocracy could, but Wall was totally incapable of such a thing. After a long discussion, the mass finally decided to heed Sui Xiong¡¯s opinion. Let them continue fighting, and when they reached the point of exhaustion, naturally, they would stop. This was not really a good idea, but under the current circumstances, it was the most reliable approach. As for the issue of missionary work, since the higher-ups of both churches were still fighting, then it would be better if the gods from both sides continued to preach on their own. ¡°Somehow, I still feel as though we have not done anything¡­¡± said Wall with frustration. ¡°Being able to get things to develop in the right direction without doing anything, now that is what I call capability!¡± said Sui Xiong as he laughed aloud. Chapter 634 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Doing nothing and yet things could develop in the right direction? Of course, this was a very good idea, but putting it to practice was not easy at all. The tension in the atmosphere between the two churches was very strong because the higher-ups of both churches were still fighting outside Green Tree City. Accidental conflicts occurred repeatedly, and every now and then, there were both major and minor conflicts happening that could even lead to fights. Fortunately, both churches were disciplined enough to comply with the rules. According to the rules, before there was an outcome for the battle, both churches were not to carry out any large-scale crossfire. This limited the intensity and scale of the battle, also allowing Wall, who was originally very worried, to gradually let out a sigh of relief. In contrast to his relief, the mood of the God of Aristocracy was getting from bad to worse with each passing day. It was clear to him that in this battle of belief, he was already at the losing end. His original intention of taking advantage of this opportunity to deal an impactful strike to the great Divine Power would most likely be difficult to achieve, and even the sphere of influence that was previously defined was somewhat shaky. This was the thing that infuriated him the most. The God of Aristocracy did not really emphasize the attribution of belief. In his opinion, the most important thing was not who the people believed in, but rather, who the aristocrats governing these people believed in. So long as these rulers believed in him, whether or not the commoners did likewise did not matter to him. So, all this while, he had focused on spreading his belief among the upper class of society without sparing a glance for the lower class. In other countries, the influence of his church was much stronger than that of the Church of the God of Knowledge and Culture¡ªthe Republic of Northwest was another story altogether, but in the Country of Mages, the situation was reversed. Even after years of preparation and influence, the mainstream thinking of the Mifata Federation was still that mages were the most honorable presence. The modern mages attached extreme importance to knowledge and culture, which was why the cultural atmosphere was so strong over here. Not to mention the spellcasters, even among the aristocrats, the nobility of bloodlines might be important, but nurturing the cultural side was just as essential. So when the God of Knowledge acquired a new priesthood to become the God of Knowledge and Culture, many aristocrats and mages who were originally inclined towards the God of Aristocracy re-directed themselves to place their belief in the God of Knowledge and Culture. It was no surprise that the mages would make such a choice. But with the aristocrats doing likewise, this made the God of Aristocracy unhappy. He even felt that this was outright betrayal! Shouldn¡¯t the aristocrats believe in him? He had been trying hard all this time to propagate the nobility of the aristocratic bloodline, the natural rationality of the aristocratic rule, and the correctness of the aristocratic system! How could they switch their belief over to the God of Knowledge and Culture just because of their habits and traditional thinking? He did not speak out such thoughts, but he was fuming on the inside. Anger, on one hand, was unable to resolve the problem. After some deliberation, he decided to find help. ¡°Are you sure you want my help?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± ¡°Sorry, I can¡¯t help you with this.¡± ¡°Why? I thought you had a solution for every situation. For example, stirring up some internal strife within aristocratic families that are tending to incline towards the other side, or stirring up some conflicts between the mages and aristocrats, or stuff like that¡­ aren¡¯t these things your forte?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m good at, you are right about that, but I don¡¯t have a death wish!¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I admit that doing these things are completely in line with my position, and they too suit my palate. But why should I make a sudden presence at this sensitive moment, just to provoke the God of Knowledge and Culture? Don¡¯t forget that he has the Void Mask supporting him! ¡°Are you afraid?¡± ¡°Crap! Of course, I¡¯m afraid! I¡¯m not like you, you have the God of Light to back you up. Even if the sky were to fall, you have him to hold it up. I¡¯m a loner.¡± ¡°But you¡¯ve long since offended him. Not only that, you have offended so many gods from the Pantheon temple, and you have offended them so many times before, why would you suddenly be concerned about such things this time?¡± ¡°There are certain things that I can¡¯t tell you. In short, for the time being, I will most certainly not get involved in anything that would make me an enemy of the Void Mask.¡± ¡°Is that a hint?¡± ¡°You can think of it that way, on account of the friendly ties we shared in the past, this can be considered a hint.¡± ¡°I see¡­ I will carefully think through it again.¡± After the God of Aristocracy left, the God of Conspiracy, who had been hiding in the shadows, laughed bitterly and shook his head. Changing into a cloud of smoke, he disappeared and returned to his own God¡¯s Kingdom. He had a big plan, but achieving this plan would be beneficial in maintaining a relatively good, or at least a neutral relationship, with the Void Mask. Although this might not necessarily ensure the success of his plan, or more correctly put across, that might only be a glimmer of a chance for success, yet it was something that he had to do for this almost-impossible plan to become a reality. For this reason, even if he had to give up the chance to spread his conspiracy, it was still worthwhile. The God of Conspiracy was not a crazy god who was forever looking at whatever was right before them during times of chaos. He had a strict train of thought and clear judgment. For his future long-term interests, he could completely give up on the immediate benefits right before him. The God of Aristocracy was likewise. Upon returning to his God¡¯s Kingdom, he pondered long and hard. Finally, he came up with a decision. It was alright to concede defeat first. As for the hidden trump card that he had arranged beforehand, he could use that later. Anyway¡­ this was a trump card that had no expiry date. ¡°Concede defeat?¡± the God of Heroes asked. He was looking at the God of Aristocracy with amazement as though he had never seen the latter before. ¡°You are actually going to concede defeat on such a major thing like preaching? Just to strike the great Divine Power with impact, you are going all out at any cost?¡± ¡°I used to think I was, but after thinking through it carefully, I realize I wasn¡¯t,¡± said the God of Aristocracy calmly. ¡°If the price is too great, then it isn¡¯t worth it. Anyway, I have gained some benefits this time around, so even if I have no way of further expanding the scope of my belief, just based on the benefits I gained this time, they are enough to greatly shorten the time I need to strike down that great Divine Power.¡± ¡°But if you can drastically expand your scope of belief this time, maybe you can strike the great Divine Power much sooner,¡± said the God of Protection. ¡°Indeed, but our God¡¯s System doesn¡¯t really lack great Divine Powers. With you all around, it will be enough assistance to His Majesty. If I can possibly strike that great Divine Power now, of course, it will be ideal, but now¡¯s not the time. It should still be alright even if I were to wait for another few hundred years to strike.¡± The God of Protection and the God of Heroes looked into one another¡¯s eyes and nodded. ¡°We are really glad you can think in such a way,¡± said the God of Protection. ¡°How do you intend to lose? You can¡¯t just withdraw like that.¡± ¡°I intend to speak with the God of Knowledge and Culture,¡± said the God of Aristocracy in full confidence. He seemed to already have a plan in mind. ¡°Let him offer us some benefits in exchange for my concession. This way, at least it would allow me to look more dignified.¡± Soon, his plan was put into practice. The God of Aristocracy sought an audience with the God of Knowledge and Culture. After a round of negotiation, the God of Knowledge and Culture yielded a rare treasure, and in return, the Church of the God of Aristocracy would acknowledge that they were defeated in this war of missionary work. Both sides also discussed how the sphere of influence would be divided up, and they ended the state of hostility and enmity between them. When this news was disseminated, the higher-ups of both churches who had been engaged in a fierce battle for almost a month and were already exhausted to the verge of collapse were finally able to heave sighs of relief. Then almost at the same time, all of them acted concertedly and sprawled all over the place. Wherever they were, all fell into slumber amidst loud snores. Chapter 635 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Located in the east of Mifata Federation, there was a small city called ¡°Grey Tower City,¡± which was naturally named as such because it had a magic tower called the ¡°Grey Tower.¡± At that time, an advanced mage named Ronald Hart established this magic tower. Later, with this magic tower as the center, the residents gathered slowly and eventually formed the city. It was a city filled with the unique features of Mifata Federation, and its history was similar to many other cities, but there were also differences. For example, the most prominent Hart Family in this city placed their beliefs not in the noble Master of Mystery, nor in any of the various human gods, but in a slightly reclusive god¡ªthe God of Scholars. The God of Scholars was a follower of the Master of Mystery, with only low-level divine power. He did not have many followers, of which, the most important one was probably the Grey Tower that was led by the Hart Family. More than 400 years later, following the construction of the Hart Family as well as the gathering of people from all around the continent who believed in the God of Scholars, this city gradually became the Church of the God of Scholars and resembled a Holy City. Of course, a city with less than half the inhabitants believing in a certain god was not qualified enough to be called a Holy City. A Holy City should either be inhabited by gods, be highly-ranked in terms of historical status, or be a place with belief that was pure enough. An example of the first requisite listed above was ¡°Void City,¡± the Holy City of the Church of the Void Mask. An example of the second requisite was the ¡°Highest Tower,¡± the capital of Mifata Federation. And as for the last type¡­ quite a handful of cities were like this, like the former Garth City, and later on, Rem City, too. Regardless how hard the Hart Family had been working, wanting to build and establish the Grey Tower as the Holy City of the Church of Scholars, at least judging from the current progress made¡ªor rather, at least since a month or so ago up till the present day¡ªtheir efforts still proved to be futile. Then further down the road, this simply became an impossible mission all because the God of Scholars had fallen in the war between the Mystery God System and the Human God System. The fall of a god was, unquestionably, an earthshattering event. The God of Scholars was not the only god to have fallen in that particular battle, nor was he the most powerful god out of all the gods present in that battle. But to the people of the Grey Tower, especially to the Hart Family, the fall of the God of Scholars was like telling them that the sky above them was about to collapse! How was that possible? How did the great God of Scholars actually fall?! He had been nothing but kind, amiable and harmonious with the world around him! But no matter how surprised or angry they were, the fall of the God of Scholar remained an indisputable fact. Nevertheless, the people of Grey Tower did not give up on their belief in the God of Scholars. They persisted in saying their prayers every single day. Members of the Hart Family even converted the public square in front of the magic tower into a large-scale array for sacrificial ceremonies, and every day, they would lead a team of clergymen into the array to carry out rituals. They did all these in the hope that all their prayers and wishes would gain enough belief for the God of Scholars to be resurrected. Theoretically speaking, this was fully possible. Even if a god had fallen, so long as there was sufficient belief in him, coupled with some appropriate and timely opportunities, it was indeed possible for the resurrection of a god to happen. In history, there had been more than one occurrence of a god being resurrected after a fall, putting on a live show of the ¡°Return of the King.¡± However, a theory was, after all, only a theory. There were so many fallen gods, yet how many of them could actually be resurrected? At least, for the people of Grey Tower City, who had been praying for such a long time, none had yet to see any possible sign of resurrecting their God of Scholars. Under such a situation, they got more nervous and uneasy as they simply did not know what they should do. Then the Church of the God of Aristocracy and the Church of the God of Knowledge arrived at the Grey Tower City to preach. These two churches had very different attitudes, and they both had very different doctrines, but they both had one matter where they shared a common view: they both declared that the God of Scholars had been completely annihilated and that it was impossible to resurrect him. They advised the people to give up on their belief in the God of Scholars as such a belief had already lost its significance. It was meaningless to hang on to such hope. They encouraged the people to move on and cast their beliefs into either of the two respective churches. This statement was not necessarily wrong, but the thing was, it sounded a little hateful. If it were just the ordinary inhabitants, then what the two churches said did not mean much. However, the Hart Family was quite influential, and on top of this, the Patriarch of the family was an advanced mage who had the power to reign control over an entire magic tower. After he heard what the two churches had to say, he went into a rage and roared, ¡°Who said my lord couldn¡¯t be resurrected? All of you are dogs in your true form, merely hiding behind those mustached faces! Uncivilized vultures!¡± Then he led an army consisting of the Mage Corps and the City Defense Army Corps. Together, they purged the preachers from the other two churches out of their city. The missionaries from the two churches were driven out of Grey Tower City even before they could gain a firm foothold within the city, and the Patriarch had declared that they were not welcomed in Grey Tower City. He had forbidden them to set foot within the sphere of influence of Grey Tower City ever again. This matter was not considered insignificant, but it couldn¡¯t be deemed extremely significant either. To the current city inhabitants, there really weren¡¯t any other events more important than trying to resurrect the God of Scholars. The days went by, but there were still no signs of resurrecting the God of Scholars. ¡­ This day, a junior from the Hart Family was praying in the public square when the voice of an elderly man called out to him and interrupted his prayers. ¡°Young Master Owen, Young Master Owen!¡± That was none other than the old butler who had been taking care of him since he was a little boy. After respectfully bowing to the statue of the God of Scholars, as though the aura of the statue had yet to dissipate, Owen Hart got to his feet and walked out of the array for sacrificial ceremonies. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± he asked in doubt. The old butler¡¯s expression was a tad complicated to comprehend. It seemed to carry a little anxiety and a little unease, then again, there seemed to also be some relief and ease. Seeing Owen Hart coming out of the array, he smiled and said, ¡°Master is asking you to go home.¡± Owen froze for a moment, then realized that his grandfather and father, who usually spent more than ten hours here almost every single day, just to pray, were not around. Not only that, but many members of the Hart Family were also not there. How strange, where has everyone gone? He had some doubts in mind but said nothing. He simply followed the old butler and left the public square. Then both of them returned to the magic tower. The moment he stepped into the magic tower, his heart gave a slight lurch as he keenly felt that there was something not quite right in the atmosphere. The Grey Tower was different from the other magic towers. It was not just a magic tower; it was also a holy object that contained a great amount of Divine Power. It was almost like a treasure of the Church of the God of Scholars, a treasure that was a magical object. Walking inside this magic tower, not only could one feel the strength of magic power all over the place, but also the warmth and kindness of the place. This place was filled with the tranquil and remote aura of the Divine Power of the God of Scholars. However, after the God of Scholars had fallen, the Divine Power that spread over and filled the entire magic tower dissipated. There were many people who had long been accustomed to such an environment filled with Divine Power, so they were unable to adjust to the change in environment after the Divine Power dissipated. There was a void in their hearts, and physically, they felt really uncomfortable. Owen was one of them. He was not considered a devout follower, but placing his belief in the God of Scholars had long become a part of his life. It had become a form of habit that was engraved in his soul. Since birth, he grew up in an environment immersed in the Divine Power of the God of Scholars. He had long been used to such a power, which was why, even though he was not a particularly devout follower, Owen would still pray hard every day, hoping that he could help the God of Scholars to be resurrected. He also hoped to be able to help the God of Scholars to relive his life again. And today, while he was in the magic tower once again, he felt the presence of the Divine Power of the God of Scholars! ¡°Your Majesty¡­ has been resurrected?¡± he asked with much astonishment and surprise. Once again, the old butler registered a complicated expression. Wordlessly, he continued to walk alongside Owen. Soon, they arrived at the top level of the magic tower¡ªthe prayer hall. However, in the prayer hall, what Owen saw was not the resurrection of the God of Scholars, but a specious figure. ¡°Hello there, young Holy Son,¡± said the figure with a smile; then she continued to explain, ¡°I am the successor of the God of Scholars, I am the God of Knowledge and Culture, Wall.¡± Chapter 636 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Looking at the smiling Wall, Owen Hart fell into a daze. He looked around him, feeling at a loss. He saw his father¡¯s bitter, yet somewhat relaxed expression, he saw his grandfather seated dejectedly in another corner of the room, silently stroking that Holy Scripture that he always carried with him wherever he went, and he also saw the elders and loved ones from the Hart family. Then last but not least, there were the higher-ups from the Church of the God of Scholars. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± he could not help asking. ¡°If I were to go into the details, it would be too complicated. Simply put, I have inherited the priesthood of the former God of Scholars,¡± this God of Knowledge and Culture, an elderly man who donned a long robe and called himself Wall, said with a smile. ¡°I have no intention of taking advantage of another¡¯s perilous situation, it¡¯s just that the priesthood of ¡®Scholars¡¯ cannot be left vacant for so long. And it¡¯s a fact that I have been working hard in this direction all this while, which is why I¡¯m taking over this priesthood¡ªof course, now, I¡¯m not the God of Scholars yet, or rather, I¡¯m not just the God of Scholars.¡± Owen Hart fell silent for a moment, then asked, ¡°Then what about Our Majesty?¡± Wall shook his head and said, ¡°For a long, long time to come, there is no way you all can see him again. Perhaps in future, when I have become a great Divine Power, I might be able to resurrect him in my capacity as a god¡­ but that is destined to be an awfully distant matter. Probably a few hundred years, to even a few thousand years, or maybe, even a Legendary Master may not live long enough to witness such a scene.¡± Now, Owen understood why his elders had such expressions. He thought for a moment, then asked, ¡°So, you want us to believe in and serve you, just like how we believed in and served His Majesty before you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not demanding for anything,¡± Wall said while shaking his head. ¡°All of you are his devout followers, and I have no intentions of insulting your sense of loyalty. But as you can see, I have already inherited his priesthood, so until I am strong enough to segregate a part of this priesthood out to reconstruct a god follower based on this priesthood, there is no way he can be possibly resurrected.¡± Owen hung his head low and said, ¡°To show us, the losers who now have no true home to return to, just how majestic you are? He spoke lightly, but there was a hint of resentment in his intonation that was hard to miss. Wall did not get angry. Kindly, he said, ¡°Show off or just to show? Neither. I won¡¯t be so senseless to that extent. I just thought it¡¯s necessary to tell you about it. After all, the future is still very far away. You all should always think more about the future.¡± Owen understood what this god meant. He was already 15 years of age, no longer a child. He had long been involved in politics, where he also had a specific area of study. The God of Knowledge and Culture had specially come to pay a visit and had demonstrated his Divine Power. All of these things were in fact, just to tell the Hart Family and the followers of the God of Scholars that the god they believed in was never going to come back again and that now, other than changing over to believe in him, they really had no other way out. This was not considered as some kind of ferocity or some kind of bullying. A god as great and mighty as the God of Knowledge and Culture took a gentler approach, which could even be said to be quite a tolerant approach. But Owen still could not help feeling disappointed. He even had complaints. He was not a devout follower, but he had long been accustomed to believing in the God of Scholars. He held on to this belief that had long become a part of his life, just like how he must eat, sleep, and drink every day. Now, the God of Knowledge and Culture wanted him to change this habit, so he found it really difficult to accept. Of course, the thoughts that went through his mind could not escape Wall¡¯s eyes. Looking at the intriguing character of this Holy Son, Wall simply could not help smiling again. It was truly intriguing. He had never seen or even imagined that in this world, there could actually be a Holy Son who was not a devout follower. This teenager, by the name of Owen Hart, had not devoted himself wholeheartedly to the God of Scholars. Regardless of how well he understood the teachings of the God of Scholars, or that he had adhered to these teachings well in his daily life routines, deep within Owen¡¯s heart, he did not quite agree with this set of teachings. To him, these teachings, this life, and this belief were merely just habits. Yes, they were just habits. They were intriguing, but also very reasonable things. It was just that, they were matters that people took to heart. The God of Knowledge and Culture smiled. He stretched out and pressed the top of Owen¡¯s head, and a gentle will, accompanying his warm Divine Power, flowed into Owen¡¯s mind. Young man, I don¡¯t sense any unease from you, but why are you unwilling to place your belief in me? Within their minds, the God of Knowledge and Culture asked. Having communicated with the God of Scholars via this way so many times, this method of interaction evoked an immediate response from Owen. Likewise, he replied with his mind, I am so used to living my life believing in my god, it is just like the Divine Power that used to fill up this entire magic tower. It was a part of my life. I don¡¯t wish to change it. Wall replied, But life is ever changing, just like how people always grow older. The fleeting life of humans, to a great god like you, what does it really signify? Wall asked. Wall was silent for a moment, then said, I have once heard such a story from my Master God, who is the great Void Mask. To us, just like who the God of Scholars is to you all, he is Our Majesty. Are you interested in hearing it? Of course, I would like to listen to your teachings, Owen said. And then, Owen saw the view before him change. He was no longer standing within the magic tower. He was now standing amidst the sky, looking at some tiny bugs swimming in the water. These bugs are very tiny and weak. They are born in the spring and grow in the summer. When fall comes, they lay their eggs and die. The eggs will spend a winter¡¯s time developing, then be hatched by the next spring to begin their life, Wall explained while demonstrating the life cycle of this tiny bug before Owen¡¯s eyes. Its life is so short that it is completely impossible for it to know what ¡®winter¡¯ is, and also, what ¡®a year¡¯ means. The teenager nodded, though he did not understand why the god was demonstrating this. The view changed, and now it was showing a huge tortoise slowly crawling about a swamp with mottled patterns all over its back. it looked just like a gigantic rock, and there were even weeds growing on this rock. This is the ancient tortoise that lives in big swamps. It leads a very monotonous life eating to its fill then going back to sleep. After sleeping enough, it gets up to eat again. After a certain period, it will start to get lethargic because of the tidal cycle of magic. That is the unfolding of a part of its life akin to hibernation¡ªfrom one hibernation cycle to the next, it will take about 1000 years. The teenager looked at that huge, slow-moving tortoise in surprise, and was in total amazement over the extreme length of its lifespan. The view changed again into one that depicted a tiny flying bug in the air. It was flying all about at first with great agility and speed, but it did not take long before the bug slowed down. Then in pairs, one bug would gather with another where both of them would mate, lay eggs and die. This is another kind of bug. From the time the egg is hatched to the time the adult bug dies, the entire timespan will only take one day. Or if not, the most it could last would be up to two or three days, said Wall. Their lives are so short that it is impossible for them to know what ¡®a week¡¯ means, Wall continued to say. The view continued to change. Now it had changed into such a towering, ancient tree that every branch hanging from it was just like an ordinary tree. This is the Divine Tree. From its birth to the present day, hundreds and thousands of years have passed¡­ Oh, great god, what exactly are you trying to tell me? asked Owen, who was baffled beyond words. Back then, I asked the same question. Then His Majesty told me, whether it was those bugs whose lifespans were so short and fleeting or the Divine Tree whose lifespan was so long that it outlived countless gods, what they all lived through was in fact only ¡®a lifetime.¡¯ A short life is nothing to lament about, while longevity is not necessarily something to be proud of. Down the long river of time, even the gods may not necessarily have immortality. So long as we have taken our lives seriously and lead a meaningful life, we can be satisfied, said Wall; then he continued to ask, Just like the God of Scholars who has fallen, no doubt it had been a meaningful life for him. What about you? Owen was silent for a long time; then eventually, he knelt down before the God of Knowledge and Culture. Chapter 637 Of course, this story did not originate from Sui Xiong. He was an artist, not a philosopher. There was no way he could write a story that showed such depth in thought. As for the original source of the story¡ªnaturally, that too was unclear. Reading about the history of art was enough to make Sui Xiong feel sleepy, so if he could stay awake within ten minutes from the moment he held the book, Zhuang Zi and attempted to read it, that would be a miracle. This was actually a story that his teacher told him when he was still in school. This was the reason why he knew of such a story. At that time, Sui Xiong¡¯s academic performance was relatively weak, so the possibility of him getting accepted into a mainstream high school was almost zero. His parents were very worried, and even he himself was frustrated. That was when a teacher who was quite close to him encouraged and advised him to make good use of his interest in art and pursue a future in this aspect, especially when he had the advantage of being gifted in this aspect. Since then, Sui Xiong had put in a lot of hard work and effort to practice painting and drawing, hoping that, in future, he could make it into an art school. ¡°Is this a reliable way out? Can you really earn a living to support yourself in the future, just by painting and drawing?¡± asked his parents, who were still worried. ¡°The situation in our nation will get better, the economy will become more developed, and so, the demand for arts will increase. So long as you do a good job in painting, you won¡¯t be needing to worry about income,¡± that teacher said after analyzing the situation. Therefore, Sui Xiong went to learn how to paint. But learning how to paint was not easy at all. After half a semester of lessons, he felt that he had made some improvement, but it was very limited progress after spending so much time. He felt that the tremendous amount of effort and hard work did not pay off, and he was so discouraged that he started to doubt life itself. ¡°Could it be that I have no talent in painting?¡± he asked. ¡°A majority of artists do not actually have much talent,¡± said his painting teacher. ¡°In this society, the most gifted people generally become scientists. To go into the profession of art, firstly, you need to be very passionate and determined. Especially for artists, being talented or gifted or whatever is not as important as you think it is.¡± ¡°But¡­ what if I am unable to acquire the skill of painting?¡± ¡°I have never seen anyone who was serious about learning how to paint and not be able to pick up the skill. The speed of learning is the only question; if not there would be nothing to worry about,¡± said his painting teacher, who continued to explain, ¡°Even the Great Master of Chinese Painting, Qi Baishi, only shot to fame in the later stages of life.¡± Sui Xiong deliberated about what his teacher said, but still, he felt that there seemed to be a bit of a problem in what his teacher pointed out as a ¡°shot to fame in the later stages of life.¡± Therefore, he grew even more skeptical about life. His teacher told him this story because he was always in a dazed state with a big frown on his face all day long. At the end of the story, that teacher said, ¡°The lives of humans are simply too short. Those with better luck could live up to 100, those without much luck might just live up to their thirties. It is just too meaningless to think about things that are too far away. After all, none of us will know whether we are going to be like the short-lived bugs or the long-lived ancient tortoise.¡± ¡°So, what now? What am I supposed to do?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°First, you must ensure that you are able to earn a living. Then you can do whatever you want,¡± the teacher said with a smile. ¡°Life is too short, none of us know how long we can live. So rather than worry about whether or not you can produce results, you should just focus on doing well in what is right before you. There is really no difference between what¡¯s big or small in life, be it the tiny bugs or an ancient tortoise. All that matters is that you take your life seriously and live it to the fullest.¡± Strictly speaking, this was a pot of Chicken Soup for the soul. If this was Sui Xiong at 25 years of age, this pot of Chicken Soup would not be able to work its influence over him, but at 15 years of age, he was still so innocent. This was why he believed whatever he heard and continued to put in his best into learning how to paint. Then he made it to art school, where later on, he became an amateur painter, and then¡­ he achieved his breakthrough. Yet regardless of what had been said, that teacher who told him about how ¡°there was really no difference between what¡¯s big or small in life¡­¡± had indeed told him something very inspirational. Sui Xiong had used this to encourage the current Sun God, who was always worried that he would not perform up to the standard of the former Sun God. He had also used this to inspire Wall, who would never be able to take his revenge. Now, Wall was using this same story to encourage Owen, who was feeling at a loss, not knowing where he should head in life. And, the story worked its purpose in producing positive results. Owen was originally feeling very troubled. As a Holy Son of the God of Scholars, it did not matter whether he had a belief or not, because whether or not he believed in the God of Scholars would not change the fact that when in times of need, the God of Scholars would make a timely appearance. However, now that the God of Scholars had fallen, with his priesthood being inherited by the God of Knowledge and Culture, Owen¡¯s value of existence as the Holy Son of the God of Scholars seemed to disappear. Not only that, the life he led over the past few decades seemed to be denied and written off so easily. There seemed to be no more significance in his existence¡­ How honest and well-mannered he was; he could not help feeling all the complaints welling up inside him. He felt as though he were a toy, or perhaps, his life was a joke, where it was casually manipulated by the high and mighty gods, and he could only be twirled and twisted around their little fingers. What was the significance of such a life? Then at this point in time, he heard Wall conveying such a teaching, and suddenly, he seemed to gain some enlightenment. Mortals were indeed insignificant relative to the gods, but the value of life was determined by oneself, so was there really a significant role that others could play in one¡¯s life? Be it the ancient tortoise, or the Divine Tree¡ªno matter how long-lived they were, what did it have to do with short-lived bugs? Even if that tiny bug were to be eaten up by a bird, at least it had taken its life seriously to render it significant. At least, it had a life that belonged to it. No matter how small or insignificant anyone could be, so long as they had taken their life seriously, then this one lifetime they had would be valuable and not some hollow toy void of meaning! So he suddenly saw the light, and all the more, he was filled with reverence for this God of Knowledge and Culture. This god was very different from the God of Scholars, who always seemed so distant. His Majesty, standing right before him, was the great existence that he truly sought to follow! Not only that, His Majesty had just shown him a magnificent world that was far beyond his wildest imagination, giving him much to look forward to as he eagerly yearned to see more. So long as he followed closely behind this majestic God of Knowledge and Culture, then perhaps someone as insignificant as he was could also truly catch a wider and more magnificent view of this world. This way, his life could become more exciting! ¡°Oh, great God of Knowledge and Culture, do let me follow in your footsteps!¡± said Owen with heartfelt sincerity. ¡°I have come to realize the value of my life, but still, I yearn to see an even more magnificent view. I still long to see a more distant future!¡± Wall laughed and helped Owen to his feet. ¡°From this day on, you shall be a pastor under me,¡± Wall, the god, said. ¡°You have my promise, that if you are able to reach the level of the advanced legendary peak, I will help you enter the Legendary Realm. Then I will promote you to an elector and grant you a body of immortality.¡± This promise carried such weight that it roused the interest of all the elders of the Hart Family, as well as the higher-ups from the Church of the God of Scholars. None could remain unmoved. To be promoted to an elector would mean one would be granted with a trace of divinity. This would constitute a substantial loss for the god responsible for the exultation of a mortal to an elector. This was the reason why a majority of the gods were reluctant to grant the promotion of electors. Take the God of Scholars, for instance¡ªfor so many years, he had never promoted anyone, not even a single elector. Upon comparison, Wall, who promoted an elector after he was just sealed as a god, and now, promising another promotion to the next person, did somehow give out a different vibe. But this did not affect the belief and reverence his new followers had for him. On the contrary, it strengthened and intensified their belief in him. Although beliefs were based more on principles rather than interests, a magnanimous and generous god would be more likely to win the people over as compared to a stingy and petty god. Yet in life, interests were necessary as well. When Wall left, all the people of Grey Tower City, who originally believed in the God of Scholars, had turned to Wall, the God of Knowledge and Culture, and became his devout followers. Chapter 638 While the Church of the God of Knowledge was actively going about to preach, the Church of Void Mask had also carried out its own preaching activities within the Mifata Federation. Of course, they would not intentionally snatch any of the followers from the Church of the God of Knowledge, but if they did meet with anyone sharing similar ideals and principles, appropriate preaching was naturally permitted as a matter of course. Or rather, it would seem inconceivable for a clergyman to not carry out his preaching when an appropriate opportunity was presented to him. Not only that, the Church Union of the gods, consisting of the God of Medicine and the God of Healing, was also going about to preach. Although the influence of their preaching was not that obvious, the number of their followers was indeed increasing. About half a year later, this wave of preaching activities gradually passed. The gaps in belief that originally emerged upon the fall of the various gods from the Mystery God System had been remedied and divided amongst the various churches. The religious arrangements of the Mifata Federation had undergone some massive transformation too. At this point in time, something, that was both surprising, yet somewhat within expectation, happened. Grey Tower City, which was once almost considered to be the Holy City of the God of Scholars, openly declared that the belief of the God of Knowledge and Culture would henceforth become the local, official belief. The city also declared that it would be absorbed into the Republic of Northwest and become an enclave of the Republic of Northwest. In fact, this meant nothing at all. According to principles of law, the Mifata Federation was not considered a country, but an alliance formed between a certain number of cities built around a mage tower. The Mifata Federation was loosely structured, so the various cities were free to join or quit as they pleased. Back then, the establishment of the Duchy of Thunder and the Dhaka Commercial Association was accompanied by a situation where several cities had cut ties with the Mifata Federation. It was only later when the Federation finally decided to convert these two countries into their own vassal after trying out various means and ways did they manage to play down the impact of that incident. But now, with the Grey Tower City openly announcing that it would be seceding from the Federation to join the Republic of Northwest, this incident re-surfaced and once again, became the topic of discussion. The key to why the Mifata Federation could stay so stable and united over the years was because they had the great founder of the new Spell System, Master Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, as their spiritual leader. With the passing of Master Le-Peyroux, the capable leaders still heading the Mifata Federation did not wield that same powerful influence and appeal as Master Le-Peyroux. A country with them as the core would not have a natural form of divinity as when it was led by Master Le-Peyroux. So following Grey Tower City¡¯s declaration of their intention to secede from the Mifata Federation, quite a handful of cities also started to make alternative plans for themselves. It was long before Grey Tower City announced its secession from the Federation and began its journey as an autonomous city. Not too long ago, Grey Tower City had completely shifted its belief over to the God of Aristocracy and became a territory of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, thus making it difficult for the Mifata Federation to issue orders over at this city. Now, the Federation had come to the point where it was merely left with the last step to take, which was to tear down that final layer of fig leaf that was protecting its very last shred of dignity. Two cities gaining independence from the Federation successively was more than enough to anger the higher-ups. More than one higher-up had proposed that they take a military approach to resolve the problem, where they would suppress the two cities by force and eliminate these separatists. However, when the time came for a meeting to be held to discuss whether they should use force as a solution, all these great mages began to hesitate again. The use of force was no trifling matter as it concerned the fate of an entire country. Not only did it require a tremendous amount of money, material resources, and manpower, it would also bring about great damage to the country and people. More importantly, if the use of force could enable if to win the battle, then there was nothing much to worry about. But if the Mifata Federation was still unable to win by using force, then it would lose the final governing legal principles that it held over the two cities and could no longer stop them from gaining their independence. This was a responsibility that was difficult for anyone to shoulder. So they discussed it over and over again, from different perspectives and all, and yet, after more than half a month of discussions, they were still unable to reach a final decision. Quite a handful of higher-ups even felt that perhaps it would not be all that bad to let the matter drag on like this. Anyway, so long as the Mifata Federation did not acknowledge their independence, then these two cities would not be considered as truly and completely independent. If there was a chance in the future, the Federation could still force them to give up their autonomy. This was obviously wishful thinking on their side. They were too na?ve in thinking that this would work out because it would not take long for another city to show signs of wanting to gain its independence from the Federation. Moreover, this time around, it was not only one or two cities showing such an inclination towards gaining independence. The number was up to five or six. Their combined sphere of influence covered quite an extensive area of the northern part of the Mifata Federation. Or rather, the total area occupied by all these cities added up, could possibly be as big as one-tenth of the entire territory of the Mifata Federation. Seeing the stage at which things had gotten to, the higher-ups of the Mifata Federation were finally forced to face up to reality. They could no longer adopt the ostrich policy and continue to live with self-denial. There was no way they could put up with such a situation any longer, and it was time to face up to reality. As a result, something that had never happened in the entire history happened¡ªthe Mifata Federation issued an order to all the cities under its command to mobilize and assemble their army troops, and then prepare to launch a military siege on those areas with autonomy. The convenience they had by relying on a large number of spellcasters was that the army they called for was assembled very quickly. A great amount of material resources was also amply prepared way before the army was assembled, all ready to go to battle. ¡°This is destined to be a fierce and intense battle that will go down in history,¡± said a Legendary Mage in high spirits before the grand army set off. He was entrusted with the role of chief commander for this battle. Filled with enthusiasm, he said, ¡°We will make a grand victory to prove that our Federation is not only about knowledge and wealth. The power of our magic, when used in battles, is also unstoppable!¡± But he spoke a little too soon. A few days later, on their way to Golden Tower City, they met with an ambush and suffered a great loss of heavy casualties. That was not a large-scale ambush to start with, so the damage it could do to this grand army sent out by the Mifata Federation was limited. But to the army¡¯s morale, the influence was massive. Originally, the generals felt that they had a great advantage, even to the extent of thinking that a simple flat push was all they needed to win. But the facts told them otherwise. Their advantage was not as great as they thought it was, and their enemy was definitely not that easily defeated with just a simple flat push. Therefore, that Legendary Mage exercised prudence right away. He changed the momentum of his army from a full-throttle advance to an unhurried march. On an average day, the furthest they traveled on foot would at most be around 40 miles. Advancing at such a slow-paced march, the ability of the army in taking precautions against ambushes and sudden raids was naturally enhanced. Yet at the same time, the consumption of material resources was also greatly increased, especially when the army had to spend a much longer time traveling as compared to before. Amidst the army, an atmosphere of worry and unease was growing with the passing of time. Of course, such an important matter would not go unnoticed by the Legendary Mage leading the troops. But he was at his wits¡¯ end. There had been peace within the Mifata Federation for much too long, and though the Federation had an army, there were not many who were talented in the military aspect. If not, who would have chosen a Legendary Mage, who should be assuming a commanding presence within a magic tower and spending all day long on researching tasks, to be a chief commander of an army heading out for the battlefield? This master had to wield extremely powerful combat power. Unfortunately, one¡¯s personal combat power and one¡¯s ability to lead an army out to battle did not equate to the same thing. Slightly more than ten days passed again. The army finally arrived at Golden Tower City, albeit much later than expected, and started to launch attacks on the city. Half a year was spent on this bout of attacks. Golden Tower City, which had long built a firm and secure defense, had the support of followers of the Church of the God of Aristocracy from all over the world. Despite falling behind in military strength and resources, relying on a firm belief and the support of fellow church followers, Golden Tower City managed to block off the attacks of the army troops of the Mifata Federation time after time, steadily defending and holding onto its city. Subsequently, that Legendary Mage also realized that it was hopeless trying to conquer the city by attacking it. So without further ado, he changed his plan of action to laying siege around the city. He hoped that the siege would cut off all supply of material resources to Golden Tower City, which would, in turn, bring down the morale of its army and thus, the city would have no choice but to surrender. However, in a magical world, confronting a city that had the help and support of a great number of clergymen and various spellcasters was not a reliable approach. On the contrary, the morale of the army laying the siege was continuously on the decline. After around half a year, this grand army of the Mifata Federation finally gave way and had to declare the withdrawal of its troops. As a result, the independence of Golden Tower City had more or less, become an established fact. It brought about a domino effect where a few other cities, including Grey Tower City, had made good use of the favorable circumstance to achieve their goal of gaining independence. Chapter 639 ¡°I¡¯m a little depressed,¡± said the God of Aristocracy, who was watching all the cheering going on in Golden Tower City from amidst the clouds. There wasn¡¯t a trace of a smile on his face. On the contrary, he was feeling more distressed than happy. ¡°I can¡¯t help getting an inexplicable feeling, like I have just received a blow on behalf of the Church of the Void Mask.¡± ¡°Your feeling is quite accurate,¡± said the God of Protection with a smile. ¡°The moment Golden Tower City gains its independence, a large area of the western and northern parts of the Mifata Federation will be considered substantially independent. But in this area, the various gods from the Church of the Void Mask God System will be in the dominating position, while your church will, at most, only have one or two strongholds.¡± ¡°In the first place, it was obvious that the best of all things had been taken by them; as a result of that, my followers were left with no choice but to fight a losing battle that would bleed them dry. How loathsome!¡± said the God of Aristocracy furiously. ¡°Those guys from the Mifata Federation are really bastards! It was clearly Grey Tower City that first declared that it would be seceding from the Federation, so why are they attacking Golden Tower City instead? I have specially instructed and reminded my followers to stay low and not do anything that would attract unnecessary attention to them. Yet in the end, the arrow is still directed at us!¡± ¡°You can¡¯t blame them,¡± the God of Diplomacy explained. ¡°Grey Tower City came into existence at least a century ago. By then, it had already been regarded as a private plot of land set aside for the God of Scholars, so it has long been the equivalent of a semi-independent city. Over the years, the Mifata Federation had been suppressing the progress of Grey Tower City¡¯s development. The Federation was also mentally prepared for Grey Tower City eventually wanting control over its own independence, especially when it was surrounded by a massive area of fertile land. But its geographical location was relatively remote at best, and the city could support and feed a larger population. It will not have a great influence in the commercial and political sectors, but most certainly, it is capable of going independent. ¡°By contrast, Golden Tower City¡¯s geographical location is more prominent, and it certainly deserves the description of a commercial hub district. If it breaks away from the Mifata Federation, the business of the entire Federation will be affected¡ªalbeit a small impact. Compared to the Grey Tower City, which is not as indispensable of course, Golden Tower City will receive more attention.¡± As compared to the other gods, the God of Diplomacy had a more acute sense and clearer understanding of politics. He knew that in addition to its engagement in research on spells, the Mifata Federation was also a commercialized country where business was its true foundation. This was why the Federation had left Grey Tower City untouched, even though it was the first city to initiate a secession from the Federation, and instead focused on attacking Golden Tower City, whose decision to secede would affect it to a varying degree. The God of Diplomacy was best able to understand why the Mifata Federation had decided to attack Golden Tower City and not Grey Tower City. ¡°Not only that, Golden Tower City has a geographically pivotal position that concerns traffic over a large area from the western and northern parts of the Mifata Federation. So as you all can see, the moment the Federation Army fails to suppress Golden Tower City, cities within that area will start to demand independence because they know that since the Federation was unable to bring down Golden Tower City, then all of them would naturally be safe from the Federation. It would be highly unlikely for the Federation Army to make a detour around Golden Tower City just to attack them.¡± ¡°Hearing what you just said makes me even more depressed!¡± the God of Aristocracy heaved a deep sigh and said. ¡°Doesn¡¯t that mean that if I choose not to fight this battle, the Void God System will only be able to seize as much as Grey Tower City?¡± ¡°More or less¡­ yes.¡± ¡°Now I shall get my followers to negotiate with those from the Federation, and also, I am going to support them in their crusade against those independent areas. What do you all think of this?¡± The human gods kept silent; then after a while, the God of Heroes whispered, ¡°Are you ready to put all dignity aside?¡± Now, it was the God of Aristocracy¡¯s turn to fall into silence. After a long time, he replied dejectedly, ¡°No, I don¡¯t think I can.¡± Since he was not ready to lose face, then he would have to face up to such a suffocating loss. Fortunately, in any case, this war of independence that Golden Tower City fought, greatly boosted the morale of the followers of the God of Aristocracy, forged stronger bonds among followers of the entire church, and found an opportunity for further development for the Church of the God or Aristocracy. This thus opened the gap. Now, aristocrats from all over the world were watching Golden Tower City. They wanted to see if the Church of the God of Aristocracy had the confidence and capability to govern the city well, as well as whether the church could become a reliable ally. On the other side, within the Sanctuary of Void God System, Sui Xiong and his followers were discussing this matter. ¡°Up to the end of this battle between the Church of the God of Aristocracy and the Mifata Federation, we are the ones who stood to gain some unexpected advantages. How delightful!¡± said Wall, amidst laughter. He continued to say, ¡°Originally, when the Hart Family talked about wanting to leave the Mifata Federation to join the Republic of Northwest, I felt they were being a little too hasty. Now it seems like they must have figured this out long before¡ªthese guys are really people who have been semi-independent for a long time. They are not just your average, old cons trying to gain something to their advantage!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Previously, I was still a tad bit worried. I was even prepared to send some Oracles over. In the end, none were required,¡± said Sui Xiong with a smile. ¡°No wonder those fellows are all so calm. Even that young guy can show a look that says, ¡®Rest assured, everything is in place¡­¡¯ Wall, your followers are indeed remarkable!¡± Wall nodded and said, ¡°Yes, they are remarkable. The moment they joined my church, their status shot up the ranks rapidly. Presently, a few old people from Hart Family could almost be considered to be at the level of figures such as elders or brains of the church. Frankly speaking, if not for Olian¡¯s presence, perhaps the core of my church might have really shifted from Gerteeng Hill to Grey Tower City!¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with that,¡± said Sui Xiong, ¡°since walking on two legs is much more stable than hopping on one leg. Also, with the two churches being thousands of miles apart, even if there is competition, things will not get too carried away. So after all, it is a good thing.¡± Having said so, he looked towards Arcaian and Three Nothingness and said, ¡°This time around, the both of you must seize the opportunity to develop your Church Union. Although the development will be limited, you can at least break free from the status of a grassroots unit. This is something worthy of congratulations and celebrations!¡± Arcaian smiled wryly in return. Speaking of which, his church was quite an uncommon one. Though he might be the God of Healing, his followers were mainly from the Elven Race. In fact, many elves saw him as a symbol for the rise of a new beginning for their own Elven Race. Whether or not they truly could understand his principles and ideals, they did not hesitate to worship and follow in his stead. This created a tremendous amount of pressure on him. Until recently, following the large-scale preaching activity that the Mifata Federation carried out, the God of Healing was finally able to form a group of followers who identified with the same fundamental principles as he did. They truly followed him down along his path of beliefs. They were not just a group of followers who simply believed in him as a god. However, there was still another matter that bothered him a little¡­ He had put in a great deal of effort for this joint preaching activity, but within the entire Void God System, his achievements were sadly still the worst of them all. He was not even on par with Three Nothingness. Oh, what a sight I condemned! Three Nothingness did absolutely nothing at all! The God of Healing had not been pleased with the uneven distribution of efforts they both put in. Often, he would mutter under his breath, ¡°This world truly does not know what it means to be reasonable.¡± Although having not done anything, Three Nothingness was still unable to bear the impact from the strong foundation of the others. Besides, the God of Healing was, anyhow, a most reliable and well-established name among the good gods, with friends all over the world and followers across vast seas. Although he had later met with a disaster where his church dissipated, and his followers were forced out of their safe haven and left to wander the vast world¡ªso long as there were still spellcasters from the Healing System surviving in this world, he was not worried that there would be a problem with belief. Besides, out of all the clergymen, those from the Healing System were most likely to be respected and followed by people at large. So even if he, as a god, did not do anything, as long as he gave his followers sufficient Divine Power as a reciprocation of their belief in him, it would be enough to allow his church to flourish and develop. In short, making use of this opportunity, the Void God System ushered in a fruitful period of great development. Not only that, about half a year later, while the Mifata Federation was still kept busy in the North and the West by those who declared independence, during the time when there was a matter of disputes over trifles, another major event occurred. A follower of the Void Mask, a mage named Damwade who was dubbed the ¡°Old Farmer¡± because he had been studying agriculture tirelessly for many years, had succeeded in being sealed as a god. He hence became the God of Agriculture. Chapter 640 There was yet another person under the Void Mask¡¯s command sealed as a god! In the twinkling of an eye, the news had spread all over the world. Although the process of being sealed as a god for Damwade was kept low-key, he still gained fame all at once. Being a new god, it was hard not to become famous! Especially for a god like him who did not take over an existing priesthood full-scale. His priesthood of Agriculture cut off the most important parts of the priesthood of Harvest of the late Goddess of Bumper Harvest, but it also added on some other valuable content like ¡°cultivated land¡± and ¡°farmers.¡± The newly finalized priesthood was not only rich in content, but it also had an extremely large space that allowed for further expansion. Also, just as he was being sealed as a god, a large amount of belief and divinity that originally belonged to the priesthood of Harvest was rapidly transferred to him, allowing this newly entitled god to skip the weakest phase of becoming a weak Divine Power all at once. Within a fleeting few minutes, he had become a low-level Divine Power. Be it among the various gods or among the humans, neither had ever lacked members with discerning eyes. Within such a short time, he had attained the level of a low-level Divine Power, and obviously, he had great potential. In the future, he would, at the very least, be at the standard of a mid-level Divine Power. Back then, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was at this standard, so no matter what, it would not be possible for the God of Agriculture to be any weaker than her. ¡°At least at the mid-level Divine Power, there is the God of Knowledge who can most likely step into the level of a great Divine Power; at the peak of mid-level Divine Power, there is the God of Agriculture who is likely to step into the level of great Divine Power, and at the level of weak Divine Power, there are the God of Medicine and the God of Healing¡­ What a teeming pool of talents the Void Mask has under his command!¡± There were already gods lamenting within the Pantheon temple. ¡°Rather than saying there are many talents under him, it is more apt to say he is good at nurturing talents. In just a short span of 50 years, or to be exact, slightly more than 30 years, he had nurtured four of such talents into followers of different gods. Such ability¡­ tracing all the way back to the time when Earth was created, there was no other Master God who could match up to him!¡± ¡°And he himself is an able fighter who can hold the fort well.¡± ¡°Yes! This is the most critical factor! A Master God who is highly skilled in fighting will truly be able to support and ensure an entire God System to sustention! Just like the God of Knights back then who had single-handedly supported the Human God System, allowing it to gradually develop from nothingness to something¡­¡± ¡°But the God of Knights is still far less efficient than the Void Mask when it comes to nurturing his juniors.¡± ¡°But the God of Knights had nurtured¡­ you know.¡± ¡°If you say so, then in truth, the God of Knights is still more formidable!¡± ¡°You should not put words across in such an absolute and assertive manner! In another tens of thousands of years, who can guarantee that there won¡¯t be such a figure emerging from under the Void Mask¡¯s command? Besides, he is so powerful that, who knows¡ªafter a few tens of thousands of years, he might step into the realm of a greater Divine Power¡­¡± ¡°Ah, a greater Divine Power¡­¡± As they were all in the midst of conversation, a god suddenly said, ¡°Right, the Void Mask, he¡­ has not been formally sealed as a god, right? Up till now?¡± The moment this remark was made, the entire place that was originally boisterous with heated conversations suddenly quietened down. This was a god who was so powerful that even among all the great Divine Powers, he would absolutely be among the top. However, he had yet to be officially sealed with the title of a god. How could this not be considered bizarre? And¡­ it was quite a cause for worry¡­ ¡°This situation reminds me of the Dragon of Chaos,¡± said the God of Conspiracy in a low voice. Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, frowned. Just as he was about to speak, Wall roared furiously, ¡°Watch your language! You despicable fellow!¡± According to the God of Conspiracy¡¯s usual practice, at this point in time, he would most probably be adding fire to the fuel, and he would not let the matter rest without a good quarrel. But this time around, he chose to back off. With a few chuckles, he disappeared without a trace. Although the God of Conspiracy was gone, the problem he brought up remained. This was actually, one of the methods the God of Conspiracy was accustomed to using. He would casually pass comments with the intention of planting a hidden thorn deep within their hearts. Then he would wait for the matter to blow up eventually. However, these gods here had all lived long enough to accumulate enough experience. Such a method did not affect them much. After a while, one of these numerous gods broke into a smile and said, ¡°If the Void Mask is really going to become the next Dragon of Chaos, then it seems like we have no time to waste. We need to hang on to him. After all, he is someone who values reason and affection. So as long as we stay on his good side and hang onto him as tightly as we can, for the next few tens of thousands of years, we will have nothing to worry about. Hearing such comments, the various gods broke out into peals of laughter, and the heavy emotions which were originally weighing down the atmosphere earlier on instantly dissipated to nothingness. That god who just spoke was also someone with the gift of the gab, thus the way he put his words across was very apt. Just a brief moment was all he needed to find the crux of the problem¡ªSui Xiong was different from the Dragon of Chaos. The Dragon of Chaos liked to turn things topsy-turvy and made everything as disorderly as it could. It also relished in killing and destroying. Sui Xiong, on the other hand, was more inclined to do things as he pleased and did not appear to be bothered about whether he was in tune with the rest of the world or not. But Sui Xiong was very particular about being reasonable, and he was also particularly discriminating when it came to love and hate relationships. He always made it a point to end his tasks perfectly, so there was nothing that others could really nitpick about with regards to his performance. If a lunatic or a villain were to become a greater Divine Power, that would worry everyone; on the other hand, if it was someone who could at least be considered kind, for this someone to become a greater Divine Power, the various gods would most certainly welcome him with open arms. However, some of the gods might be all smiles and receptive to the idea of Sui Xiong becoming a greater Divine Master, but deep down in their hearts, they might be secretly muttering otherwise. The Dragon of Chaos did not only show that it had problems with its character and the way it did things¡ªmost importantly, it was an evil god! The contradiction between the honorable gods and the evil gods were not just a conflict between two organizations; there was also a conflict of principles and order. Among the honorable gods, there might be lunatics who were chaotic and evil, but no matter how crazy these gods were, they had to abide by their priesthood, camp, and doctrines. This was the iron rule that they could not violate. Also, this was the key to how they interacted and carried out dealings with one another. The evil gods were different. They were completely unfettered and did things as they pleased. They went to places they wanted to go and did everything they wanted to do without a trace of restraint. Even those evil gods who were relatively kind in nature would often do things that rebelled against the ¡°rules,¡± thus subjecting the people who had to get along with them to a tremendous amount of stress. If Sui Xiong was really not sealed as a god and chose to become an evil god, it would mean that there would be no effective guarantee when dealing with or collaborating with him. There would always be a possibility where he might suddenly turn hostile and attack. Even if he was not such a person, so long as such a possibility existed, those gods who wanted to work with him would still have misgivings about a cooperation. Perhaps in the future when they had to make such a decision again, they would consider then reconsider for umpteen times, or they might even banish such an intention from their mind. Such a matter was not apparent to Wall, but it was all very transparent to Yorgaardman, the God of Justice. But he was at his wits¡¯ end too¡ªhe could urge Sui Xiong for a thousand times or even 10,000 times, yet ultimately, the key lay with Sui Xiong¡¯s choice. If he was adamant about becoming a completely unrestrained evil god, then he could not blame anyone who harbored doubts about him. That was just the way things turned out to be in this world. There would always be two sides of a coin, and everything was fair and square. Fortunately, in any case, Sui Xiong had built a good resume over the years, and that greatly worked to his favor. Throughout the years, all the gods who ever had the opportunity to work with him had benefitted greatly. On the basis of these facts, it was not difficult to believe that, in the future, even if he did become an evil god, he would still be able to make many dependable friends. ¡°How unbelievable! Damwade, you have actually been sealed as a god!¡± Within the God¡¯s Country Sanctuary, Damwade, the God of Agriculture, met Crick Keane who was presently the Holy Spirit of the Void Mask and formerly his employed, life mentor. ¡°Originally, His Majesty mentioned that you were likely to be sealed as a god, and I was still thinking maybe you would need another few decades or even a century. I wasn¡¯t expecting it to be so soon!¡± ¡°Yes. I did not expect this either¡­ yet unknowingly, I have accumulated enough. Then without making an earth-shattering or grand spectacle, naturally, I was sealed as a god.¡± ¡°Even the way you were sealed is so muddle-headed. You really have not changed at all!¡± ¡°Ha ha, you have not changed either¡­¡± Crick looked exactly the same as he had back then. He was still as skinny, still wore a loose-fitting robe, and he still held onto a fan made of feathers that looked like a sage ready to take flight at any moment. On the other hand, the clumsy mage who had always been so rigid in his ways and style of work and who could only carry out tasks honestly according to Crick¡¯s instructions, had now become a newly emerged, great god. Looking at Damwade, who looked no different from how he did in Crick¡¯s memory, Crick could not help laughing as he greeted, ¡°Haven¡¯t seen you in a long time.¡± ¡°Yes, long time no see¡­ Time flies, it has been so many years in just the blink of an eye¡­¡± said Damwade, who had yet to completely adjust himself to his identity as a god. The way he walked and talked was not different from any ordinary human. He said, ¡°Among all my old friends, there is already a handful who have passed on.¡± Among the group who had worked with Crick in building Keane Hill, there was Layton, the old butler, who had long passed away. Like Amyveile, Crick¡¯s late wife, his soul had been reincarnated with Sui Xiong¡¯s help, and then both had moved on with new lives. There was also Knight D¡¯vor who had died on the battleground of the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, and Knight James who had passed away shortly after his youngest grandson fathered by his oldest son had gotten married. Knight James was 60 years of age when he passed on, though he had not led a long life, he had died peacefully. Ryder, captain of their patrol team, had long since retired. However, he was seen in the army barracks, moving about with the accompaniment of his crutches and little granddaughter, guiding the youths in archery. Pastor Mori had become an Archbishop and left Keane Hill. Last year, he even wrote a letter to Ryder to tell their captain that he was currently at the Kingdom of Light, where he was tasked to manage the ancient classics within the temple. He also mentioned that he was about to retire soon. Rafael, the intelligence officer, had suffered a sizable amount of injuries due to various open or hidden attacks. Later on, while at his daughter¡¯s wedding ceremony, he had a drop too much to drink, though he was rarely seen drinking so much, and that caused a relapse of some old injuries. Without living to the day, he could hear his grandson greet him as ¡°Grandfather,¡± before he died. Bishop Miramon, from the Church of the Void Mask, had left to become a Legendary Master. Currently, he was a world-renowned gourmet chef. Thomas and Nikola, from the Church of the God of Art and Culture, had jointly established a temple. However, the two leaders of this temple were often quarreling. Two old men, both sporting heads of white hair, still quarrelling with one another day in and day out had proven to be quite a headache for the younger generations, who were at a loss on how they could persuade their two elders to get along. Warden Shadow had died due to excessive drinking, and his job was succeeded by Fess, who was, however, also nearing the age of retirement. Donaldson, who had been an ¡°actor¡± for many years, had passed away. He had died a lonely death without any children. Presently, the main pillars of Keane Hill were Romon, a Legendary Master, and a few other middle-aged knights¡ªfor instance, Knight Shawn James, who was nearing 40 years of age. On a side-note, his wife, two years his senior, was one of a special bloodline. She was Rena, who once served as a scout at Keane Hill. Then there was Charles Ouss, son of Knight D¡¯vor, who was in his prime at around 35 to 36 years of age and was also rich as well as powerful. Anna Keane and Stephen Carter had five children. Their oldest son, Louis, was 15 years old and was considered to be a talent. He was working hard to learn about governmental affairs so that he could become a worthy successor. His younger siblings were not as outstanding, but neither were they that bad. Overall, they could still be regarded as a generation of pretty good successors who would be able to maintain the achievements of their predecessors. Time passed like flowing water, and 20 years passed by ever so quietly. Crick and Damwade talked about worldly matters as they sipped on wine. Sometimes, they smiled, and other times, they sighed. They raised their glasses to toast for the happy, sad, lamentable and interesting memories and also toasted to their long-lost reunion. The past was gone, and from now on, it would be a whole new beginning. Chapter 641 It was late autumn, icy frost had long since covered the grounds in the North. Even in the South where the climate was warm, there was a significant chill in the air. The streets were filled with pedestrians who were mostly donned in thick clothes as they came and went, and even the low-income civilians tried to wrap themselves with as many as two layers of clothing. Though many of them had patches sewn onto their clothes, they were generally neatly dressed in clothes that were warm enough to help them withstand the cold wind while maintaining some basic decency. Such a situation was not easy to come by even in the capital of the Duchy of Thunder. Out of the uptown district where the aristocrats resided and the inner city where the rich lived, when one arrived at the midtown district, workers donning worn-out clothes were still a common sight, even though the locals were observably quite well-dressed. As for the outskirts and downtown districts¡­ every morning, the patrol team would be tasked with the important job of cleaning up the frozen bodies of the dead homeless wanderers. Every winter, even for the capital of the Duchy of Thunder, there would be hundreds of homeless wanderers freezing to death. Their dead bodies would become snacks for those wild beasts roaming the city outskirts. But in this city, such a situation never happened. Of course, the winter season was enough to freeze people to death, but the people here would never die because of cold or hunger. More than 20 years ago, starting from the former lord, Baron Crick Keane, and after two generations of barons, the Keane City was now a rich and prosperous land second to none within the entire Duchy of Thunder. Unlike the other lords in general, the Keane family practiced a policy of ¡°leaving wealth with the people¡± and were very particular about the interests of the people under this policy. Every winter, the lord would arrange for various jobs, minor and major roles alike, to be allocated so that the poor had a stable income. Most of these jobs would come with a free lunch. This naturally cost a lot, and the lord was often ridiculed by the other lords in the surrounding cities. But there was no denying that over 20 years of management, the living conditions of the people on Keane Hill were indeed quite good. If going by Earth¡¯s way of doing things, they would have moved away from a city of basic needs like ¡°food and clothing¡± and were on their way to becoming a well-off society. Although, this was perhaps just the beginning. Seated at a table on the second floor of the ¡°White Beard¡± Tavern, Sui Xiong ordered some common dishes and rice wine. With food and drink on his table, he looked down at the street below. After a good, long look, he finally gave a satisfied smile. ¡°All these years¡­ Anna and her company have been doing a pretty good job¡­¡± At this moment, he was neither appearing as Crick Keane, nor was he in the form of a green jellyfish. He was Sui Xiong, in his original form as a man from Earth. He had black hair, black eyes, and tan skin, with a medium build but was more on the shorter side. He was proportionate yet slightly thin and donned a pair of ordinary, black-rimmed glasses that framed his face, giving him a scholarly look. Such a look was commonly seen on Earth, but over in this world, there were relatively few people sporting this style. Even in recent decades, the Church of the God of Knowledge had been striving to promote the popularization of education, but the results had been mediocre. ¡°Reading literacy¡± was still quite unattainable for most people. Even in Void City with the highest level of education, most residents could only read and write their names, and in passing, they might learn to recognize about a hundred frequently used words. Keane Hill also attached much importance to education. But people like Sui Xiong, who had a more scholastic mind, were not aplenty. The waiter in the tavern had a quick eye for the extraordinary. One look was all he needed to recognize Sui Xiong as someone with quite a background. So he showed great politeness and was very attentive to Sui Xiong. At this moment, he saw the pedestrian out on the street smiling and could not hold back the urge to close in on the situation. ¡°Sir, did you see something interesting? Is there anywhere I can be of service to you?¡± asked the tavern waiter in a fine voice as he smiled brightly. He looked slightly older than Sui Xiong¡¯s current look. ¡°I just felt like sighing, that¡¯s all,¡± said Sui Xiong, ¡°I am a traveler and have visited many places¡­¡± He noticed the hint of doubt that flashed in the tavern waiter¡¯s eyes and could not help feeling a little embarrassed¡ªthe image of ¡°Sui Xiong¡± was definitely not one of a traveler because he did not have calluses on his hands due to long-term use of a walking stick nor did he have any frost accumulating on his face due to long-term traveling. Especially when the corners of his eyes were still so flat and even, clearly, this was a pair of eyes yet to be exposed to much wind. And for someone like him to call himself a ¡°traveler¡±? It was no wonder that this waiter, who was quite knowledgeable, might seem accommodating on the surface, but regarded Sui Xiong with total disbelief in his heart. But, Sui Xiong truly did not lie. He had been to a majority of the countries on the Main Plane, though he generally maintained an invisible form when he did so, as he slowly floated by from high up in the sky. Yet at least, pertaining to the two aspects of ¡°traveling extensively¡± and ¡°having wide experience and extensive knowledge,¡± he was indeed a traveler. ¡°I¡¯ve been to many places and seen many cities. Many of them are more prosperous than Keane City, but there are few like this city, where the poor have higher living standards,¡± said Sui Xiong. He wisely brushed off the waiter¡¯s doubts with due negligence and went on saying, ¡°It is not difficult for a city to be prosperous and strong, but it is not easy to ensure that the poor also lead stable and decent lives. From this point alone, Keane City is indeed a good place that is worthy of being called the ¡°Pearl of Thunder! Among all the cities that I¡¯ve been to, probably only a few cities in the Republic of Northwest are similar to it,¡± said Sui Xiong. He went on to say, ¡°I heard that Baron Crick Keane, who presided over the reins of government of Keane City, was once a Holy Spirit of the Void Mask, His Majesty, who was the founder of the Republic of Northwest. I had been a little skeptical about this before, but now, it seems like this rumor may be true.¡± Upon hearing what Sui Xiong just said, that waiter nodded vigorously. The smile on his face also became a little more sincere. ¡°I¡¯m not sure whether the rumors are true or false. After all, the matters of the gods have always been so far out of our reach,¡± he said happily. ¡°But what you said previously is right, our Keane City is indeed a wonderful place! Although I have not traveled extensively like you have, I have been to a few nearby cities, and they simply cannot compare to us! ¡°Just like what you have said, over here, even the poor are able to lead stable and safe lives without needing to worry about making ends meet. And so long as anyone is willing to spend effort and put in more thought, wanting to earn more is not difficult at all,¡± he said, and the more he spoke, the happier he got. He added, ¡°Twenty years ago, my parents escaped that major flood and arrived here. Originally, families like ours would most likely be at the bottommost societal level. No matter how desperately we struggled, our situation would have been hopeless. Perhaps, it would not take long for our entire family to freeze and starve to death. But we have relied solely on our hard work and got ourselves out of such a predicament. Slowly, we accumulated our family assets¡ªdid you know? Recently, my sister has been assessed with a certain level of qualification. She has received a scholarship and is now studying to become a doctor!¡± Looking at his smile, Sui Xiong also smiled and picked up his wine glass. He poured another glassful and passed the glass of wine to the waiter, saying, ¡°Let¡¯s toast for the good days ahead of us!¡± The waiter did not refuse him. Taking the glass of wine, he downed it all in one gulp then walked away with a hearty laugh. Looking at his departing figure, Sui Xiong smiled and poured himself a drink. ¡°Such a nice place, so of course, it was worth putting in the effort to protect it. Though it was inappropriate for Crick and the Void Mask to make an appearance, yet even so, does that mean that I should also sit back and watch others make trouble for it?¡± He smiled and shook his head, then said, ¡°Alright, let me see, exactly who could be so greedy and actually dare to stick out their paws like that? And, I need to think of an interesting idea to kick the crap out of those guys. Also, I need to teach the others who have an agenda up their sleeves a good lesson so that they will not do such annoying things again.¡± As he spoke, he poured himself another glass. Only at this moment did his eyes flash with a sharp, cold light. Chapter 642 There were reasons for Sui Xiong¡¯s visit to Keane Hill. Wanting to revisit the place was one of the reasons, but the main reason was to help them resolve their troubles. In recent months, Baron Keane had met with an extremely difficult problem. This problem was way beyond what they could handle¡ªor rather, it was way beyond what they could resolve at a relatively low cost, so they called for help from the Church of the Void Mask. It was said that sending a team of elite clergymen, coupled with the help of one to two Legendary Masters who would help keep the situation well under control, should be enough to solve this problem. However, after a long period of quietness, Sui Xiong was struck by a sudden inspiration and wanted to return to this territorial land that he had once poured in countless efforts to establish. So without telling anyone, he secretly transformed into his earthly appearance and came here. At the moment, sitting within Keane City, he was in quite a complicated mood¡ªCrick Keane¡¯s life was also a part of his life. Crick¡¯s deep affection for this piece of land and its inhabitants was also passed down to him. Looking at how this city that he had been apart from for so long, seeing how prosperous it still was and how it was still following the path he had set for it at the very beginning, he was gratified. Yet at the same time, he felt a deep sense of responsibility. ¡°Maybe¡­ I should have come back more often to see it all these years¡­¡± Long-lived people often encountered this problem. The extreme extension of life expectancy and the extreme length of cultivation had led to their lack of understanding for mortal time. For instance, it was normal to spend two to three years just to carry out a large-scale military exercise within the Sanctuary. The process would start from the decision to organize one, and then to the design and building of a formation. Then it would come to the planning and preparation of both sides to formally start the war and eventually would conclude with the aftermath of the war. And all of these things, to Crick Keane, who was the commander in chief of the Oracle army, were nothing more than entertainment to pass the time. Sui Xiong had not wanted to return just to look into the situation because, in his view, this was no pressing matter. With a Legendary Master like Romon around, Keane Hill could be described as being as stable as Mount Tai. Even if Romon was just a second-rate Legendary Master who had attained a breakthrough from the limit of a civilian post, yet regardless of being second-rate or not, he was still a Legendary Master nonetheless. To a mere baronet, he was more than enough. Not long ago, because Mage Damwade was sealed as a god, after both sides had some detailed discussions, he unknowingly realized that 20 years had passed by quietly. Many old friends had passed away, and the remaining ones had all aged. If he had delayed any further, perhaps by the time he revisited this place, he would not be able to find a single familiar face. He was touched right away. Then upon some investigation, he realized that Keane Hill was curtly facing quite a big problem and was in great need for help. Therefore, he left a clone of himself to oversee matters within his God Kingdom, changed into the look of ¡°Sui Xiong¡± so that nobody would recognize him, and then quietly made his way here. Looking at the familiar yet changed streets, he felt a tinge of emotion. A sizable part of it was lamenting on how time had passed, but most of it was a sense of pride. He must have left a mark on the roads he once treaded upon, and in less than ten years, he had left a deep mark on this territory. This mark had not diminished over time, but rather, it had become a riverbed that flowed along with the river of time, becoming even more profound. Just like on Earth, there were Chen Sheng, and Wu Guang from ancient China who had both staged a revolt but failed and died as a result. The entire process, in fact, took a very short time. However, their cry of ¡°Kings and marquises, prime-ministers and generals; such men are made, not born¡ªeveryone is born equal¡± had since been pointing out the way forward for the Chinese nation. It led generations of people in their fight against tyranny, lasting through generations of change in dynasties, as well as establishing the world¡¯s one and only ¡°rebel culture.¡± These things were all going to continue to exist. In the eyes of many Westerners, the Chinese did not place importance on blood lineage at all. The Westerners pointed out that the Chinese had a tradition of using ¡°no pressure,¡± which was savage beyond words. Yet to the Chinese, those people who had been specifically bullied to the point where they were on the brink of death and yet were not putting up any resistance, were completely wasted lives. They were a complete disgrace to humans¡ªwhat difference were they from dogs! All of these things, in fact, originated just from that one cry¡­ Crick Keane¡¯s contribution was certainly not as great as that of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, yet even with the Void Mask¡¯s Republic of Northwest blocking it from the front, Keane Hill was still a place that aroused the attention of many. Relative to its remote location, and with it being a wonderful kingdom that had gods commanding its operations, this territory that was situated in a densely populated area of the Duchy of Thunder was evolving and improving bit by bit under the watchful eyes of its people. As of the present day, its entire process of improvement had been documented by the people concerned over its progress, and they compiled it into a book. Almost every aristocrat on the continent who aspired to boost his own territory to a prosperous land would place a copy of this booklet, commonly known as Keane¡¯s Treasury of Knowledge on his study table, frequently studying and learning from it. The degree of diligence they showed was comparable to that of the Earth¡¯s white-collared worker when they studied the Carnegie Book Series. Judging from the situation in recent years, the overall influence had been relatively positive. More and more enlightened aristocrats were gradually starting to identify with, or at least partly identify with, the governing concept that Crick had put forth. Also, the living conditions of the people in many other places were gradually improving. On the other hand, there were also many aristocrats who showed hostility towards Crick¡¯s philosophy. These aristocrats had dismissed his concepts as fallacy and heresy and felt that this set of governance strategy was completely contrary to their fine tradition. There were even people who believed that his governance strategy paid no respect to their ancestry and was as good as a rebellion. The former group mainly consisted of the emerging aristocrats. They had shallow roots, but it was just like how it would be easier to make a U-turn with a smaller boat. So long as they could quickly strengthen themselves, other matters were not worth them being over-calculative. The latter was naturally those established aristocrats, especially those in the major league. They had deep roots, extensive power, and were not the least bit interested in this slight benefit. However, they were very wary of the emerging aristocrats, so they spared no effort in suppressing their growth. The differences in governance strategies were a good reason for suppression. It was apparent that where the issue at hand revolved around was how a territory should be governed¡ªa battle was inevitable. The most immediate impact of this battle was the trouble that Keane Hill was currently facing. Whether or not it was to suppress Keane Hill, no one knew, but not long ago, the Duchy of Thunder adjusted the territories under the command of aristocrats and conferred a new Viscount to a territory somewhere near Keane Hill. This Viscount was originally a baron without an actual territory under him. With a group of mercenaries and his family¡¯s private army, he was fighting species from the Marsh populations, like the Lizard Man, at a place near the Great Marsh, which was northwest of the Duchy. Recently, he ran into a streak of extremely good luck and made a meritorious contribution, and thus his title rose one notch up the ranks. He even gained an actual territory¡ªhis territory was in the south of Keane Hill. It included a large mountainous region and a small plain, with a total of one manor and three villages.Read more chapter on novelhall.com As far as this land was concerned, this Viscount was in fact, just about the level of a baron. However, he commanded an army that was not at the level of an ordinary baron. His military strength was even stronger than most barons, and thus he was considered a formidable adversary. Originally, Anna Keane did not see this new neighbor as an enemy, yet who would have known that after this guy arrived at his territory, he was constantly getting into conflicts with Keane Hill. It seemed as though he had taken the wrong dose of medicine. Borrowing the power of her husband, Stephen Carter¡¯s family, Anna carried out some investigations and was surprised to learn that this Toon Samat was a diehard follower of the second son of the Thunder Lord. And this second son of the Thunder Lord was none other than the radical representative of the young generation of the traditional aristocrats. In other words, the purpose of sending this Viscount Samat over here, was in fact, to deal with Keane Hill. And this Viscount Samat was indeed very capable. He was a high-level Order Warrior, a mutant of the Sacred Warrior who was not so strict with the requirement of belief and whose combat power was more inclined towards group warfare. He also believed in the God of Aristocracy. Under his command, there were at least four high-level adventurers and two mysterious figures from the capital. Not only that, he had an army of around 200 men, all of whom were elite warriors that had received at least five years or more of training, with no less than ten years of actual combat experience. There were even several unique talents that he had brought over from the Great Marsh¡­ because they were hidden, for the time being, their identities were unknown. The most troublesome thing was one of his special spoils of war¡ªa magic altar that was transformed with totem poles obtained from one of the tribes in the Great Marsh. Natives of the Great Marsh generally believed in ancestral spirits, and the totem poles were where the ancestral spirits lived. After years of worship, an ancestral spirit would transcend worldliness and attain holiness. This was likely to be the highest grade of altar material to be found in the world. That altar, constructed out of the totem poles as raw materials, had incredible power. So long as there was a high-level pontifex overseeing the altar, it could even be inextricably involved in a fight with Mr. Romon. And this was the reason why Keane Hill was disadvantaged. Although the losses were small, they were still very worrying. As Mr. Romon had suggested, they sent out a letter of help to the Church of the Void Mask. The Church of the Void Mask sent more than 20 church knights. They were the ¡°Steel Giants,¡± and Gerald was their leader. This troop of knights had powerful strength, and their leader, Gerald, even had a green dragon as his mount. The moment they arrived, the situation stabilized. However, while it was not difficult to win against Samat with this strength, it was still not enough to truly resolve the problem that Keane Hill was facing. As for Sui Xiong himself, he was here to help them resolve this problem once and for all¡­ Chapter 643 After a pleasant morning in Keane City, Sui Xiong ate lunch then set off for Viscount Hill of Samat. He had no intention of meeting anyone from Keane Hill, nor did he intend to meet any of his followers¡ªit would be a little awkward for him to do so given his current capacity. It was inappropriate for ¡°Auscar, the Void Mask,¡± to interfere in such small matters, but ¡°Crick Keane, the Holy Spirit,¡± on the other hand, was suitable to make an appearance in his capacity. However, doing so would do more harm than good. Over the years, all the help that he had rendered Keane Hill stopped at the degree of being ¡°friendly.¡± Other than secretly helping Anna, Stephen, and Romon to prepare some life-saving trump-cards, he did not do anything noticeable enough to arouse attention. In the case of Crick Keane being the Holy Spirit of the Void Mask, this relationship seemed a little unfamiliar. However, there was nothing to be done. Many times, showing outright indifference was not necessarily something bad. On the contrary, being overly close might bring trouble. If Crick was overly concerned about his loved ones and friends, while he could provide some convenience in small matters, it would also draw the attention of the truly strong and powerful enemies. Or it might even make them the targets of attack. In that case, they were at great risk. As compared to the risk, the little conveniences were not worth mentioning. Having to shoulder such a great risk just to gain some small benefits would not be a wise move at all. So after thorough consideration, Sui Xiong finally decided to maintain a certain distance from them, so much to the extent of treating them with an aloof attitude, just to dispel thoughts that people should not be having. If it could really hurt Crick¡¯s feelings, his enemies would certainly attack Keane Hill, even if it were to cost them a hefty price. But since Crick himself was not very bothered, then it would be inappropriate to give the game away. Frankly speaking, this was also a game. Life was like a play, and it all depended on one¡¯s acting skills. It would require two days on horseback to get from Keane City, the capital of Keane Hill, to the Manor of Samat, the capital of Samat Hill if the ride was a special horse with an alarming amount of stamina due to its bloodline of a demon beast. As for walking, it would require four to five days. This distance was the minimum limit for territories at the baron level. Anything lower than this limit would result in a relative lack of property, and more importantly, people¡¯s safety could not be guaranteed. Given this world¡¯s level of technology, unless any side was willing to make use of magic communication props, it was practically at the level of ¡°communication via roaring,¡± where even the method of sending a message via a flying pigeon did not exist. So in the event of a war, if there was not enough distance between territories, then the army would not take more than a day to reach the enemy¡¯s ground. The side being attacked might not even have the time to gather its troops. Of course, those who broke the rules would be punished, but how did that relate to the dead? So there must be a certain distance between the territories of two aristocrats. This was an unwavering rule. Special horses would need to gallop for a good half a day. For Sui Xiong, it seemed to be nothing more than taking a leisurely stroll. After lunch, he left the city and in about ten minutes or slightly more, he reached the Manor of Samat. Along the way, he did not use any means of flight or teleportation. He went there solely by foot, where every step was made with both feet on solid ground. And yet, there was also a difference from the ordinary way of walking. Every step that he took, the distance that he covered was equivalent to at least dozens, or even a hundred steps made by ordinary people, yet he did not seem like he was flashing about. Every step was firm and steady, yet light as though he were afloat. Even pedestrians traveling the same way on the same road did not sense anything amiss at all. As to whether realization would hit them at some point in the future, and they learned of the wonderful spell called ¡°Land Contraction Spell,¡± that would really depend on their own luck. Unlike Keane City, the Manor of Samat was shabbier and more unsophisticated. It was originally the manor of a knight, but after Viscount Samat chose this place as the capital of his territory, he raised the old manor to be the core of the capital with the power of magic. Then he made some enhancements to this piece of raised land, where the inner city would be used for the lodging of the lords and officials and the surrounding area would be used for the residents¡¯ accommodations and various architectures, thus forming the city¡¯s outskirts. Beyond the city outskirts, there would be a solid wooden fence with a structure that would obstruct cavalry. Surrounding this fence was a trench of considerable width and depth. To prevent the breeding of mosquitoes, the trench was sprinkled with slaked lime. But there was no irrigation involved, and instead, drains were specially installed. Overall, this manor might seem unsophisticated and boorish, yet in terms of floor area, layout planning or defensive ability, it was in fact, quite a good place. Other than lacking in appearance, it did not have any shortcomings. There were two roads leading to the manor, and both involved suspension bridges. There were heavily armed soldiers guarding both sides of the bridge. Just by looking at their burly figures and ferocious looks, anyone could tell that these guards were by no means ordinary military soldiers. The cold light flashing in their eyes from time to time was more than enough to terrify many civilians. There were very few who would dare to crack jokes before them. With black hair and black eyes, Sui Xiong¡¯s appearance might be a little bit special, but he wasn¡¯t treated unpleasantly. He claimed to be a traveler, paid the tax, then under the watchful eyes of the soldiers, he leisurely walked across the suspension bridge. There was no trace of nervousness in him at all. ¡°There seems to be something wrong with that fellow,¡± a soldier whispered. ¡°He seems a little too calm!¡± ¡°He has done nothing guilty, so of course he is calm,¡± an old soldier by his side replied disapprovingly. ¡°But¡­ the way he dresses, and he looks nothing like a traveler!¡± ¡°Precisely because he looks nothing like one, that¡¯s why there isn¡¯t a problem at all,¡± said the old soldier as he laughed. ¡°If you were a spy, would you dress like him and then claim to be a traveler?¡± ¡°Of course not! That¡¯s just like writing ¡®I am suspicious¡¯ all over my face.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right! Don¡¯t take others for fools,¡± said the old soldier amidst laughter. He patted that new recruit on the shoulder and said, ¡°Daring to do so, either that person is a fool, or he must be a master who is very powerful. This guy doesn¡¯t look like a fool, so of course, he belongs to the latter.¡± ¡°Is he a very powerful Master? Do I need to report that?¡± ¡°You think our captain can¡¯t see that?¡± ¡°That¡¯s true¡­¡± That captain that they were referring to was one of the most important generals under Toon Samat¡¯s command, Lande Tu. This last name was strange because of its pronunciation or meaning. It was because its owner was no ordinary man, but a native from the Great Marsh¡ªa half-dragon human. The half-dragon humans were cold-blooded creatures with human-like torsos and heads with dragon horns, big mouths, and sharp teeth. Their bodies were covered with thick scales that could provide them with protection comparable to that provided by medium-sized or even heavy-duty armor. They had alarmingly strong bodies, even if they were not towering, but in terms of strength, they were strong enough to fight an average demon beast. Yet relatively speaking, their movements were not as agile, especially during cold weather, they would appear to be a little lazy and drowsy. If the climate got a tad colder, they would even go into hibernation. In view of this, the half-dragon humans preferred activities in the South. The further south they were, the better it was. The Manor of Samat was south enough, so even though this Captain Lande might seem a little lacking in energy, at least he showed no intention of hibernating. He stood in a mid-level room of the watchtower and peered out of the window, keeping his gaze on Sui Xiong who was walking leisurely on the street. His eyes were alert, yet gloomy. ¡°This man is not easy to deal with,¡± said his deputy, a paladin whose capability was close to a high level. Lande nodded then spoke in a jerky discourse, ¡°Get our soldiers to pay more attention to him but don¡¯t bother him. So long as he doesn¡¯t stir up trouble, we¡¯ll just pretend we see nothing.¡± This was a very popular practice. In the presence of masters whom they could not afford to provoke, soldiers in most territories would choose to do this. Hearing Lande¡¯s command, his deputy was taken aback and asked in surprise, ¡°Is he that strong?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just worried that I may have underestimated him,¡± Lande replied bitterly. ¡°Though I can¡¯t find any evidence, I still feel that he is very strong, super strong, stronger than what we could ever imagine¡­ Anyway, we just need to be careful.¡± Lande had a peculiar profession. He was neither a warrior, nor was he a paladin. He was a shaman¡ªa spellcaster who came from the Desolation World. He was a special pontifex who indulged in the soul and spiritual strength. Shamans were among the core of the Desolation society. They had a combination of various duties like those of mages, priests, doctors, and pontifex. They could communicate with ancestral spirits, gods, and elves from nature itself. Lande, being a shaman near to the advanced legendary peak, other than sporting some semblance to a Dark Mask and being a little unluckier, in terms of ability, he could almost be said to be perfect. So there was a fleeting moment just then, where he vaguely felt that beneath the common appearance of a mortal, Sui Xiong was hiding an unfathomable power. Admittedly, although he was usually quite unfortunate, when it came to key issues, he was still quite lucky. Chapter 644 Just as Shaman Lande was feeling nervous and secretly praying to the ancestral spirits for nothing to go wrong, Sui Xiong had already strolled into a tavern. The Manor of Samat had an entirely different style from Keane Hill. Keane Hill was a town mainly agriculture-based with business as supplementary. A majority of the city¡¯s inhabitants were either rich farmers or small businessmen, or veterans who had already retired from the army. The entire city gave a rather quiet and warm vibe¡ªthis was probably because, for two decades, the city had been under the rule of a gentle and soft-spoken couple. The lord and his wife were people who relished in the idea of quiet and peaceful lives. On the other hand, the inhabitants from the Manor of Samat consisted mainly of adventurers, businessmen, and soldiers of service. These people were more ambitious. They were full of vigor and vitality, yet they were also more vicious and uncouth. Take the taverns, for instance. The tavern in Keane Hill only started to serve customers in the evening. The tavern mainly sold wines that had a milder taste, like rice wine and fruit wine. The side dishes served were generally foods that were rich and thick, but easy to digest, like stewed dishes and meat broth. The prices were also relatively cheaper. On the other hand, at the Manor of Samat soon after lunch, their taverns would already be almost half-filled with a small crowd of customers and the menu hanging by the bar top would suddenly present super-strong spirits like ¡°Drunk Dwarf,¡±¡±Blood of Demon Beast¡± and ¡°Burning Iron,¡± that had been mixed with a small number of drugs to enhance their intensity. The dishes were more boorish, mainly consisting of huge chunks of barbequed meat, so the prices were naturally higher in comparison. This signified that the inhabitants of the Manor of Samat were more passionate about seeking excitement as compared to those of Keane Hill. It also proved that they had more powerful capabilities¡ªthose strong spirits infused with drugs were not what an average person could drink. For ordinary civilians who downed a single glass, under the milder effects, they would be knocked out for four to five days, while the under the stronger effect, they would have to be carried over to the temple for emergency rescue. It was not strange even if they were to lose their lives. And¡­ this also meant that the locals were much richer than the people of Keane Hill. ¡°Strong, rich, and eager to seek excitement¡­¡± Sui Xiong sat by a corner near the main doors in the tavern and pondered in silence. He wanted to help Keane Hill solve their problem, but he did not wish to bring attention to himself. This limited the methods and power he could use, but it also gave him a different kind of fun. It was like playing a game. Some liked to use a modifier directly, which was simple, rough, and brainless; some liked to do things according to a prescribed routine, following the normal procedure to slowly go through the game. There were also some who liked to impose restrictions on themselves and increase the difficulty level just to pursue a higher level of fun. Sui Xiong used to belong to the second group, but now, he wanted to use the third way of playing the game. Anyway, under the worst situation, he could just tear off his disguise and reveal his identity of a god. Then he could clear the scene using violence. As for the post hoc explanation¡ª¡±Brother Xiong has been doing many things in a ¡°topsy-turvy¡± way throughout these years, would one more make any difference?¡± Moreover, it made perfect sense for gods to roll up their sleeves to beat someone up just to protect their own followers. These were more compliant to the rules as compared to the things he had done in the past! Of course, unless it was absolutely necessary, Sui Xiong still wanted to resolve the problem by using normal means. After all, that would at least be a relatively more interesting way. Just like now, where he could have clearly ordered better wine and dishes that were better suited for his palate, he had instead, asked for the usual strong spirits and barbequed meat. Then just like how normal travelers behaved, he took his time and ate unhurriedly. But just by doing this, he had already caught the attention of others. ¡°Look at that black-haired fellow,¡± said a tall man near the bar with a mohawk, as he pointed in Sui Xiong¡¯s direction. He said to his companions, ¡°He seems a little strange, right?¡± ¡°Here in the Manor of Samat, at least 20 to 30% of the people are weird,¡± said his companion with indifference. His companion was a short man who wore his heavy suit of armor even while he was eating. He went on to say, ¡°At least that guy is still a human being, no matter how weird he is. That¡¯s better than him being an orc of a lizard man or the likes of these creatures.¡± ¡°But look, he seems so weak, but he actually travels alone. Don¡¯t you all find that strange?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t think so at all,¡± another companion replied simply. ¡°What¡¯s so strange about it?¡± a short, thin martial monk dressed in simple and plain clothes, with nothing but vegetables and water before him, said flatly. ¡°Although this person carries no dust and dirt, dons neat and clean clothes, he may possibly be a mage. There is a simple spell that could allow him to do something like this effortlessly.¡± ¡°But his mental state seems very good too,¡± said the thin man, who refused to give up. He whispered, ¡°A lone traveling mage should at least appear to be a little tired. But look at him, it seems like he just set off from home, so relaxed and at ease.¡± At this comment, his companions could not help looking towards Sui Xiong. Then, they all started to frown. ¡°Indeed, something does not seem quite right¡­¡± whispered the companion who was more of a succinct speaker, as his brows furrowed. ¡°Even if he came from Keane City, the nearest city from here, he would need to trek for a long journey of at least two to three days. Even professional adventurers like ourselves, after such a long, tedious journey, it is impossible not to show signs of fatigue,¡± said the martial monk. In a low voice, he said, ¡°Unless he is a resident of this city. But I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve never seen him here before.¡± ¡°Mm, there aren¡¯t many black-haired and black-eyed people in the Manor of Samat. Those with such scholarly looks are few too. And those with these two features together, we couldn¡¯t possibly miss seeing any of them,¡± the short man mumbled as he picked up his wine glass. ¡°But, what has that got to do with us? No matter who he is, it has nothing to do with us.¡± ¡°Not necessary! For all we know, he could be some kind of spy or scout¡­¡± said the thin man. But before he could finish his piece, he was cut off by the short man, who interrupted with a laugh, ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous! Have you ever seen such an eye-catching spy? Such utterance, do you even believe that yourself?¡± The thin man thought for a while, then broke into laughter. Just as what the short man said, in the spy business, one must stay as inconspicuous as possible. Looks were inherent, that could not be helped, but at least when it came to dressing sense and working style, one should try to be as common as possible. Only in stories by bards did those spies, who donned fine clothes and rode well-groomed horses drink fine wine with beauties by their sides, and who were so high-profile that they had no friends at all exist. In true life, they were nowhere to be found. So no matter how suspicious Sui Xiong appeared to be, with at least four to five adventurers discussing him, ultimately, no one dared to hastily step forth to sound him out. People with strange appearances were bound to have eccentric abilities. This strange person most probably would have some strange ability. Those adventurers¡¯ purpose was to seek wealth. It was not worth provoking a potentially dangerous person for the sake of a little curiosity. However, those adventurers choosing not to do so did not mean that no one else would. After around ten minutes, a short man wearing a leather jacket that was not the least bit eye-catching walked in with two burly men. They headed straight for the bar, and then the short man ordered each of the burly men an expensive bottle of fine wine. He gave them some instructions, then quietly retreated to the innermost corner of the entire tavern. The two burly men were obviously not very intelligent, and they had exceptionally uncouth personalities. They finished their drinks in one breath and then in a somewhat drunken stupor, they walked over to Sui Xiong in an unsteady manner. They dragged two stools from the side, then stationed themselves on either side of Sui Xiong. Boldly, they sat down in a straightforward and imposing manner, keeping him surrounded in the middle. Sui Xiong smiled. He was neither angry nor surprised. He continued to sip his wine and chew his food peacefully. ¡°Hey! You black-hair!¡± one of the burly men said in a gruff voice. ¡°How about you change your seat?¡± Sui Xiong looked up at him and said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re drunk.¡± ¡°Nonsense, I¡¯m not drunk.¡± ¡°You are really drunk.¡± That burly man suddenly flew into a rage. Raising a clenched fist that was as big as a king-sized bowl, he threw a punch at Sui Xiong. ¡°Drunk, screw you!¡± A moment later, the two burly men went away in a scurrilous tirade. The adventurers looked at one another with eyes filled with bewilderment. Sui Xiong, who had been badly battered, lay in the corner with a badly bruised face, looking like a pile of non-recyclable garbage. If his chest had not been heaving up and down, everyone would most probably have suspected that he had been beaten to death. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Something¡¯s wrong! Something¡¯s really wrong here!¡± ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be like this!¡± The adventurers whispered among themselves. Some could not even believe their own eyes. ¡°How is that possible? How could that guy possibly be so weak!¡± said the thin man who spoke earlier as he shook his head. Finding what they saw as unbelievable, he said, ¡°Those two were merely rough journeymen who knew nothing at all. I could easily fight ten of them! He is such a mysterious character, but at the very least, he should not be weaker than me!¡± ¡°Honestly speaking, he should be stronger than you.¡± ¡°Nonsense! I wouldn¡¯t be able to pull off such a stance¡­ But why would he choose to take a beating like this?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said the short man, who was very focused on fighting a huge chunk of pork that was not very cooked. At that moment, the martial monk had already gotten to his feet. He walked straight to where Sui Xiong lay. ¡°Hey! What are you going to do?¡± ¡°Walking over to take a look,¡± replied the martial monk who did not even bother to turn around. ¡°If I don¡¯t find out what is happening, I can¡¯t understand the situation. Then my mind can¡¯t work well.¡± Under the watchful eyes of almost every adventurer present, he went over to Sui Xiong, then reached out to help Sui Xiong up. But Sui Xiong, who was originally black-haired with black eyes, underwent a drastic change in appearance. He went to the short man wearing a gray leather jacket. This was the man who had brought the two burly men in earlier on. The martial monk froze because of astonishment. The adventurers were all taken aback too. For a moment, the entire tavern fell into dead silence. A while later, many people quickly turned their heads to look at where that gray-clad man originally sat. Sui Xiong smiled and stood up. The food and wine on his table were finished. ¡°The bill, please,¡± he said to the waiter standing next to the bar. Then he added, ¡°By the way, serve everyone here a glass of wine. That wine the two drunk men had earlier on.¡± With a snap of his fingers, a golden coin flew across half the tavern in an arc and landed on the bar top. Loud clangs sounded out as the golden coin became a small pile of gold coins. To say the least, there should be at least 20 to 30 coins. Again, the adventurers froze. This time, the martial monk was still the first to react. He reached out to open that small leather purse used to put money. The purse was fastened around the waist of that gray-clad man who had been beaten unconscious. Although he had no reason to, his intuition told him that he should at least look to see what was inside the purse. Just as he had expected, there was a lot of loose change in the purse, but all of them were silver and bronze. There was not a single gold coin to be found. Chapter 645 In fact, Sui Xiong was left with no other choice, so out of helplessness, he had to play such tricks. Originally, he wanted to show off his might. For instance, within a snap of his finger, he could flick those two silly big men like dust and send them flying away or something. But thinking about it, given his identity and status, if news of him fighting with mortals were to spread, and furthermore, with these two foolish men falling short of even the standard of junior adventurers¡­ this could almost become a scandal. Of course, Sui Xiong was not afraid of scandals. However, he found it quite embarrassing to create one. The people in his church had toiled hard to promote him, to create a great and just image or a mysterious and reserved image of him. Even if he could not render them help, he could at least not make trouble. His thoughts stopped short here; he had no choice but to change his mind and use another way instead. Fortunately, he was strong enough and had more than enough ideas. Within a moment, he came up with a pretty good idea. That gray-clad man had instigated the two foolish men to find trouble with him. He had thought that he had everything well-kept under wraps, but Sui Xiong clearly had seen through his plot. Since this fellow wanted to make things unpleasant for Sui Xiong, then Sui Xiong shall take a little revenge too. This was, of course, also very reasonable. So he executed his Divine Power and made a switch with the gray-clad man. He even limited the actions of that man and coated him with an illusionary disguise, making that man look just like himself. As a result, the two foolish men, as expected, did not sense anything amiss. They swung their fists, as big as vinegar pots, at that man, then gave him a good beating. The man was beaten until half dead, and if not for the little protection that Sui Xiong was secretly giving him, most likely he would have been beaten to death by those two foolish men. In fact, that fellow had brought it upon himself. Being beaten to death was quite a good ending, but as Sui Xiong took a closer look, he saw that this man was not a bad person. The reason why he tried to create such trouble was purely because of his duty, which was to sound out and investigate any strange characters he saw. Though he did make a mistake, his mistake did not warrant a death sentence. Which was why giving him a beating to teach him a lesson was good enough. As to whether this man, named Knight Philip, Intelligence Chief of Toon Samat¡¯s men and one of the Masters of the Manor of Samat, would learn from his lesson to behave and work with a more low-key and gentler approach, Sui Xiong was not too sure himself. Maybe he would? If not, that guy would be courting his own doom sooner or later, and he would not be worthy of any sympathy. Seeing how the two big, foolish men were giving Knight Philip a good beating, Sui Xiong transformed into Knight Philip¡¯s appearance, then sat in a corner of the tavern with a drink as he watched on. He had thought the entire episode would end just like that, but someone had unexpectedly found it necessary to stand up and find out what was going on. Of course, Sui Xiong could have strengthened his spell so that no one would discover that Knight Philip had become him. But that would create quite a sensation; it would be overpowering and too profound for people to understand. So after sparing a moment of thought, he let that martial monk reveal the truth, and at the same time, he changed back to his original appearance. As for those golden coins used to treat the guests in the tavern to drinks, of course, those were taken from Knight Philip¡¯s purse. Anyway, it would have been considered as a work injury for that guy. Given Toon Samat¡¯s style of handling such matters, he would certainly allow Knight Philip to put up a claim for reimbursement for action funds and medical expenses. A slight loss of gold coins would not mean much. A student of this caliber, he truly did not know how he could teach him¡­ Smiling as he popped out the gold coins, Sui Xiong walked out of the tavern unhurriedly and headed for a nearby hotel. This time, he did not use any special methods. Just like any other ordinary person, Sui Xiong walked into the hotel and rented a better room. Then returning to his room, he lay on the bed with soft sheets that had obviously been smoked with incense and prepared to rest. Come night time, he would have to continue investigating the Manor of Samat and the situation of Toon Samat. But before he could even fall asleep, he sensed someone entering the hotel and asking the hotel owner about his lodging details. It was one of those adventurers that had first started the discussion about him, that thin man who was the companion of the martial monk. His profession could either be a thief or a paladin. What is this guy here for? Sui Xiong was a little puzzled. It was said that curiosity killed the cat. This was something all experienced adventurers knew. Away from home, they needed to keep a tight rein over their curiosity. They should never inquire about things they should not know and should never track people that they should not follow. Otherwise, they would most probably be courting death. He clearly displayed his powerful ability, and yet this thin man still dared to track him down? He truly was not worried that he would provoke Sui Xiong into giving him a slap of death? This man really had a lot of guts! The thin man had a lot of experience; he easily bluffed his way through to earn the hotel owner¡¯s trust, and he managed to ask which room Sui Xiong was staying in. Then without another word, he went upstairs and headed straight to Sui Xiong¡¯s room. And then, he knelt down on both knees and expressed his great admiration for Sui Xiong right at his doorstep. Hey! What kind of play is he staging?! Even someone as powerful as Sui Xiong stood frozen at that very moment. He had thought this man was here to find trouble with him or was here to get close to him. Not in his wildest imagination would he have expected this person to make such a big bow in salutation while keeping such a low profile. He had intended to ignore the thin man but felt bad doing so. After hesitating for a moment, he let out a sigh inwardly, got up from the bed, and went to open the door. ¡°Come in if you have something to say,¡± he said bluntly without even waiting for the thin man to open his mouth. The thin man immediately scrambled to his feet and practically flew through the door. Sui Xiong closed the door and casually found a stool to sit. Then he took another look at the thin man who had gotten down on both knees to worship him again. He could not help but sigh again. ¡°What are you trying to do here?¡± ¡°I want to be your disciple.¡± ¡°Disciple?¡± Sui Xiong was taken aback. He could not help looking into this guy¡¯s heart. After he ascertained that this man truly wanted to acknowledge him as a teacher and learn from him, Sui Xiong could not help feeling a little distressed. ¡°Why would you think of coming here to look for a teacher?¡± Sui Xiong asked. The thin man answered very naturally, ¡°Because of your power. Seeing a master like yourself, I really want to be your disciple and learn from you. Isn¡¯t this something very normal?¡± How is this normal? Normally, people just think of doing so, they would not actually put their thoughts into action like you! Sui Xiong laughed wryly and then asked, ¡°So, what would you like to learn? Magic? My guess is, you¡¯re either a thief or a paladin. My ways of a mage, are they going to be useful to you at all?¡± ¡°Given the ability to, who would refuse to be a mage?¡± the thin man asked him in return. He made a reasonable point, and Sui Xiong was rendered speechless for a moment. ¡°And so long as you are willing to teach me, be it magic or something else, I¡¯ll be sure to put in the effort to learn very seriously,¡± said the thin man earnestly. ¡°So long as you are willing to teach me, anything will be good!¡± In one look, Sui Xiong could tell that this man had only just stepped up to the level of a mid-ranked adventurer. Sui Xiong was silent for a moment, and then he asked, ¡°Why do you want to learn from me? You should at least have a purpose for doing so. For example, you have a very powerful enemy back in your hometown, or someone you were supposed to marry broke off the engagement, or maybe you were a prodigy when you were young but became overly obsessed and thus lost all the martial arts skills you used to have¡­ no matter what, there should be a reason.¡± ¡°I want to become strong,¡± said the thin man. ¡°There¡¯s no other reason. Just seeing how powerful you are, I want to learn from you. It might be impossible to become strong like you, but no matter what, so long as I can become stronger, even a little bit more will be good enough.¡± He was telling the truth. Sui Xiong could tell that at once. However, Sui Xiong could not help feeling a little embarrassed. This was someone who had come to him in good faith, hoping that he would agree to become his teacher. He honestly felt bad refusing him. But¡­ was he able to teach this man anything? Come to think about it, he had many things to teach, but almost everything was very high-level¡ªsince he came into this world, most of the abilities that he came into contact with were high-level, especially the information he had received from the former Sun God. That was at a level that was way beyond the other high-level things. So even if he were willing to teach, it was highly unlikely that this thin man would be able to learn anything. Chapter 646 ¡°Ray Shack, 23 years old, second son of Baron Shack¡¯s younger brother. Aspired to become a knight since young, but had never been strong enough to receive any knight training. Had since followed an old thief who had been captured and assimilated, who taught you the skills he had. Became an adventurer five years ago; skilled at playing with daggers and crossbows, also quite accomplished in picking locks, appraising values, as well as hunting and tracking activities, but has standard skills in dismantling mechanisms, disassembling traps, and pickpocketing, and is relatively poor¡­¡± Sui Xiong completed this introduction in a casual manner, then asked, ¡°Am I right?¡± The thin man, Ray Shack, who was kneeling on the ground, registered a shocked expression. Then his shock transformed into relief and admiration. Sui Xiong could see very clearly that in Ray¡¯s heart, he must be shouting things like, ¡°Indeed, this is a master! So impressive!¡± Has it ever crossed his mind that I might possibly be some kind of spy? Sui Xiong was somewhat speechless as he secretly sighed again. Then he asked, ¡°Everything should be going perfectly well for you since you are the child of an aristocratic family. While we can overlook how you ran off to be an adventurer, how could you even think of becoming a thief? That is a little embarrassing.¡± ¡°Other than this, what else could I be?¡± Ray Shack said with a bitter expression. ¡°To become a knight, I must undergo specialized training. I am not strong enough, and my family is not willing to waste any money for me to receive any training. As for the warriors, paladins or the likes of them, they are not any better than being a wanderer¡­¡± ¡°Wanderer?¡± Sui Xiong was slightly taken aback. It was only then that he realized why Ray¡¯s skills were configured in such a manner¡ªevery profession had subcategories of different tendencies. Among the thieves, there were assassins who specialized in assassination, treasure hunters who specialized in discovering and cracking mechanisms, highly-skilled thieves who specialized in pickpocketing and swindling, and also those like Ray Shack, who specialized in combat and had some other auxiliary skills. But he was a wanderer who was not skilled in treasure-hunting or stealing. To put it bluntly, wanderers were the kinds of thieves who were more inclined to face-to-face combats and collaborative adventures. They had strong survival abilities and were able to adapt quickly no matter where they went. At the same time, they tended to exhibit more positive behavior and thus were less likely to attract trouble or enemies. As for Ray Shack, a child from nobility, this was indeed a better choice. ¡°Then, what do you want to learn from me?¡± Sui Xiong cut to the chase and asked directly with a smile. This time, it was Ray Shack¡¯s turn to freeze. In fact, it was only after he saw how Sui Xiong could be so ominous and well-informed that immediately, intense envy and admiration arose within him. Without thinking through carefully, he had rushed over to ask Sui Xiong to be his teacher. As for what he should really learn? The moment Sui Xiong raised this question, he was placed in a quandary.¡± From his point of view, this master must be someone extremely modest. He should be highly skilled in magic, or his skills might even have reached the acme of perfection. There were so many people in the tavern, and yet no one had noticed when or how Sui Xiong had actually switched positions with that official spy, or when he had subdued that man and changed that man¡¯s appearance into that of his own. If Ray could acquire such a skill, his capability would improve by leaps and bounds, which would be a great help regardless of whether it was for exploration or for combat. But what this master was truly skilled in, was it really only magic? And¡­ If he was the best at using magic, would he be willing to impart his own special abilities so easily? Ray Shack thought carefully and recalled the difficulties he went through back when he was learning skills, and he also recalled that old man¡ªthe old thief who imparted techniques to him¡ªwho taught him with a draggy and dodgy attitude. He could not help secretly worrying. That was when he started feeling that he might have been a little too reckless. Maybe he should have felt out Sui Xiong¡¯s opinions or feelings first? Or maybe¡­ ¡°Are you done thinking?¡± Sui Xiong asked, interrupting Ray¡¯s thoughts. Once again, Sui Xiong raised the question, ¡°What do you want to learn from me?¡± Ray Shack was shocked. Suddenly, his wandering mind was pulled back from its preoccupation. Subconsciously, he replied, ¡°Magic.¡± ¡°Magic?¡± Sui Xiong asked with a little surprise. ¡°You want to learn magic from me?¡± ¡°Yes. The magic skills you previously displayed were simply beyond my wildest imagination. So I hope to learn magic from you. Of course, so long as you are willing to guide me or impart anything to me, I am willing to learn any technique. I¡¯m not greedy to the extent where I must learn magic and nothing else but magic,¡± Ray Shack replied. Sui Xiong looked at Ray very carefully, ascertaining that he spoke the truth, and then thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Of course you can if you want to learn magic. But I cannot just impart you with skills for no reason¡­ Let¡¯s do it this way. I shall give you some tasks. Then based on how well you fare, I will impart you with an amount that matches your performance level.¡± Ray Shack heaved a long sigh of relief and felt a little more assured. Yet at the same time, he started to feel a little apprehensive. The tasks given by this master would most probably not be easy to accomplish¡­ ¡°I¡¯m very curious about the situation over at the Great Marsh. It¡¯s said that the Lord of that place, Viscount Samat, was sealed with a title after he made a meritorious contribution at war, so I¡¯m also curious about what actually happened,¡± said Sui Xiong. ¡°These two things will be the main topic that you are to collect information about. I will decide how much I will impart to you based on the level of detail and reliability of the information you gather.¡± Ray Shack nodded vigorously and then asked, ¡°So, do I still come here to look for you?¡± ¡°Yes, I will not check out. Even if I¡¯m not here when you return, you just need to wait for a few days.¡± After this thin man left hurriedly, Sui Xiong sat within his room and could not help laughing. Ray Shack had limited capabilities, and naturally, his level of judgment was not ideal. As a matter of fact, what Sui Xiong executed was not magic, but rather some method that was very much more high-end: First, he used the technique of Hold Person to control the gray-clad man; then he executed the Transposition Technique to swap their positions. Lastly, he used two advanced Phantom Spells to change their respective images¡ªall of these things were carried out using two special skills, respectively, ¡°Invisible Spellcasting¡± and ¡°Speedy Spellcasting,¡± to achieve such a magic-like effect. In fact, he had an even simpler way, which was to directly execute the power of gods¡ªfor instance, temporarily creating a God¡¯s Kingdom out of the entire surrounding area, then using one of the techniques within his Divine Power, ¡°May Your Wish Come True,¡± he could easily achieve the same result. But that would be too conspicuous, so Sui Xiong preferred to take the more troublesome way out. The spells he used might have all been driven by his Divine Power and were therefore much more powerful than ordinary spells, but at least, he did not directly make use of his Divine Power. Ray Shack was completely oblivious to all of these things. If he could differentiate any of this at all, he would definitely not have said that he wanted to learn magic. Out of all the spells that Sui Xiong cast, only the advanced Phantom Spells could be counted as magic spells, while the techniques Hold Person and Transposition Technique were not. And as compared to the advanced Phantom Spells, the super magic skill, ¡°Invisible Spellcasting,¡± was even more profound. As for using the Speedy Spellcasting skill four times consecutively, that was powerful to a level of breaking through the limits of the horizon. It was powerful beyond one¡¯s wildest imagination, so powerful that it reached a stage that a majority of spellcasters in the world would never dream of achieving. Not taking other things into consideration, just the fact that he could execute Speedy Spellcasting skill four times in a row, within the same instant, was already a phenomenon that was totally beyond all reason. The ¡°speedy¡± part referred to things that could be completed at extreme speed, but within a certain period, it could only be executed once. In other words, within the same instant, it would be right that this Speedy Spellcasting skill could only be used once. Using Speedy Spellcasting four times in a row instantly¡­ Even if it was cast two times in a row, that would already be considered a legendary skill. If a mage had such an ability, he could basically beat up anyone of the same level. As for those like Sui Xiong, who could execute the same skill four times in a row within the same instant, that was simply powerful, invincible, nature-defying¡­ and the list could just go on. But all of these things did not matter to Ray Shack at all. And for the time being, they also had nothing to do with Sui Xiong. At present, the most pressing issue for Sui Xiong was to give himself a crash course. He had to research and improve his magic ability, so when Ray Shack finished his tasks, he could impart some skills to him¡­ Chapter 647 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Because he had never studied magic before, Sui Xiong spent almost a day¡¯s time to sort out the common spells with the use of a Directional Spell. Thereafter, he successfully converted himself into a Master of Spells. That was when he realized that magic was indeed, very useful. For example, take the day before at that little conflict at the tavern; he could, in fact, use a Mass Illusion Spell to settle the problem. After all, it was just to let everyone witness a scene of ¡°two burly men beating up a black-haired traveler.¡± It was not the least bit important whether that scene happened or not. True, the use of magic spells up to a certain extent could really create something out of nothing or even cause make-believe to become a reality. Such spells that could cause a group of people to conjure up an illusion were still not the most advanced ones. The most advanced spells could cause a large group of people to suffer from burns, get frozen or even die, and yet, even a forensic expert would not be able to investigate the cause¡ªin fact, those were only the effects of magic spells. Compared to other spells, the greatest advantage of magic spells to achieve a particular effect was most probably, speed. Under normal circumstances, a spell was enough to solve a problem¡ªif a spell could not be used to solve a problem because the opponent would temporarily gain an enhanced immunity to the spell, using a few more spells would also be in vain. It was like a ¡°once-and-for-all¡± business deal. Of course, given the strength of Sui Xiong¡¯s spells, it was completely impossible for mortals to try and resist the spells he cast. Even gods might not necessarily be able to do so. ¡°Alright, now I¡¯m also an expert in spells,¡± Sui Xiong said. Completing his preparatory work, Sui Xiong walked out of his room in full confidence. He went to the small restaurant on the ground level of the hotel to eat. Just then, he was struck by a sudden vibe that caused him to frown. He cast his gaze over in the direction of the entrance of the Manor of Samat. A few soldiers had taken a badly wounded Ray Shack into custody. With a rope around his neck, they hung him onto the gallows by the suspension bridge outside the manor. Ray Shack was apparently seriously injured, for he was unable to put up any resistance at all when he was being hanged. A few friends who often went on adventures with him were nearby. Their eyes showed how much they could not bear to watch what was happening to him, but they did not dare to do anything. Sui Xiong shook his head. He had lost all interest in eating. Turning around, he went back to his room. On the floor of his room, the wounded Ray Shack opened his eyes in a dazed state. ¡°I¡­ I thought I was going to die!?¡± ¡°How can someone working for me die so easily!¡± Sui Xiong said lightly. ¡°Even though you are not very bright and your efficiency at work is substandard, putting up with a beating is enough. If I were to let you be hanged, where could I possibly hide my face? Ray Shack snapped back to reality and looked at Sui Xiong in surprise. Sui Xiong shook his head, then lifting his hand, white light like raindrops sprinkled over Ray as Sui Xiong watched that injured body rapidly recover. It only took a moment of slightly more than ten seconds, and Ray was already fully restored to health. Other than the bloodstains on his clothes because of the prior injuries, there was not a trace of him being beaten up to be found. ¡°This fellow, not even capable of doing such a small thing. How did you mingle around to the extent of being hung up on the gallows?¡± Ray Shack fell silent for a moment. Then with an awkward smile, he gave a recount of the day¡¯s events. In fact, it was nothing more than an old-fashioned plot¡ªRay Shack was discovered when he was investigating for intelligence, and so, he was caught. After being tortured and interrogated, even though he did not say anything, he was still convicted of spying activities and sentenced to death by hanging. ¡°Can something like the death penalty be decided so easily?¡± asked Sui Xiong with a frown. ¡°The Lord Viscount holds militarized management in great esteem. According to his rules, barely scraping the corners of certain things would render a death penalty.¡± Sui Xiong frowned again then asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t anyone voice an opinion about it? Hasn¡¯t anyone ever given him any advice?¡± ¡°He has a soldier background, and most of the officers under his command are soldiers too. They don¡¯t find anything wrong about his way of doing things,¡± said Ray Shack. ¡°As for others¡¯ opinions, do you think he would pay heed to any?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment, then asked, ¡°What about the Duchy? He made and implemented such strict laws. The Grand Lord of the Duchy, or his superior, or even that younger son of his, none of them have had any opinions in this regard?¡± ¡°No matter how strict the law is, it cannot punish them. Why would they have an opinion?¡± ¡°But you are also from a noble family. A nobleman like yourself, how could he execute you so easily?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Ray Shack gave a bitter laugh and replied, ¡°I am merely a son of a noble family; I have no title to speak off, even when it comes to the right of inheritance. I am very much behind in the line. How can someone like me be considered nobility¡­¡± ¡°Then, if it was a true-born nobleman? Would he sentence such a person to death too?¡± Sui Xiong asked again. Ray Shack thought for a moment, and then with uncertainty, he said, ¡°I think he would still make the same decision. In fact, for him, it was just to find an excuse. As a confidant of the second son of the Grand Lord, he seldom shows concern for his acts.¡± ¡°That¡¯s only the second son, does he need to get this wild?¡± ¡°The Grand Duke did not make it clear on who would be his successor. Judging from the current situation, the chances of both the eldest and second sons are more or less equal.¡± ¡°Politics are indeed not to my liking!¡± Sui Xiong said. Heaving a long sigh, he changed the topic and asked, ¡°So what do you intend to do next?¡± Ray Shack thought for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, ¡°I have not been able to complete the task you assigned, but I am indebted to you for saving my life. Now, you can regard this life of mine as yours. I¡¯ll do whatever you want me to do.¡± ¡°What if I don¡¯t want you to do anything?¡± ¡°Then I will just have to go home and work for my cousin as a clerk or be an insignificant officer or something. I believe feeding one more mouth like me makes no difference to the Baronet Shack.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°That would be too wasteful. Why don¡¯t we do this, you shall be a lord, what do you think?¡± Ray Shack froze, then said, ¡°I have no intention of vying for the title with my cousin¡­¡± Sui Xiong laughed aloud and replied, ¡°I am not referring to Baron Shack, I am talking about Viscount Samat.¡± Ray Shack¡¯s jaws opened wide, and he stood frozen to the ground. He did not know what to say. ¡°Although this is something quite certain, I still feel that you are a much better choice as a Viscount compared to that Toon Samat. Anyways, based on what you said, whether that eldest son will be the successor of the Grand Lord or not, that is still unknown. Even if he did gain the position of the Grand Lord, he might not necessarily be able to make any meritorious contributions. In that case, won¡¯t it be nice for you to be the Viscount?¡± Ray Shack was silent for a moment, then asked, ¡°Given your ability, maybe you could change my appearance to be that of Viscount Samat, but I know almost nothing about his past, it will not take long for someone to see through me.¡± ¡°Leave that to me,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Since I am the one asking you to be the Viscount, of course, I can help you solve this problem. Now, the only question is, are you willing to be Viscount Samat?¡± ¡°I¡¯m willing to, of course, I¡¯m willing to¡­¡± ¡°That will do!¡± Sui Xiong interrupted Ray Shack and said with a laugh, ¡°Since you are willing to, then come with me.¡± ¡°Where to?¡± ¡°To be a Viscount,¡± Sui Xiong said as he opened the door. ¡°¡®Oh, before that, let¡¯s go and have a meal first. We shall fill our bellies before setting off.¡± More than an hour later, Ray Shack sat blankly on the throne of a Viscount. Made out of rough wood, the throne was extremely sturdy, but it could not be considered comfortable. His face registered a dazed and forced expression. ¡°How did I become a Viscount? This is simply¡­¡± He was muttering ceaselessly, and his eyes had lost a slight bit of focus. In his eyes, he could see a floating book not too far ahead. The book¡¯s cover was a picture of a ferocious young man who was filled with anger. That was none other than Viscount Samat. Then he flipped open the book, and all major and minor events during the lifetime of this Viscount was recorded in this book. ¡°Do a good job,¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s voice resounded by his ears. ¡°Be a competent lord. Don¡¯t blindly do pointless things. I do think highly of you.¡± Chapter 648 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It would be quite funny to make a recount of what happened when Sui Xiong brought Ray Shack to the Manor of Samat. Entering the Viscount residence through the northern wing, they happened to run into the Viscount and a youthful maiden engaged in the important job of reproducing life. At that time, the two of them were on the throne of the hall, engulfed in the heat of their passion. Viscount Samat was truly a great man who had made some meritorious contributions in war. He had such a fit physique and had changed between five or six different stances within a single breath without the slightest intention of taking a break. Sui Xiong was relieved that fortunately, he had not brought Steele along. If not, things would have been somewhat terrible. Sui Xiong was a just and kind man. Of course, he would not bother others when they were busy with such a thing. Ray Shack was already in a daze, simply at a loss over what he should do. Therefore, both of them stood by the door for around an hour and watched in silence. They saw how the Lord Viscount, with his colorful hair toppling upside down, showed off all his brilliant moves to tire out the young maiden into a slumber. She was definitely more than 90% smitten over him. Then they walked over to the throne. ¡°Hello,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Sorry to impose. I have something to discuss with you.¡± Viscount Samat obviously had yet to satisfy himself to his heart¡¯s content, but his female companion had already fallen asleep. There was no way he could continue with what he had been busy with. At that moment, his face was filled with an expression that said, ¡°I¡¯m in a very bad mood, so don¡¯t talk to me.¡± Seeing Sui Xiong appear brought him to draw a sword from the side of his throne right away, and then he hacked his sword head-on at Sui Xiong. Well, maybe he was just feeling shy; after all, he was now butt naked. While on the subject, though the Viscount had good physical strength, the size of his manhood was in fact, quite ordinary and maybe Steele would look down on him because of this¡ªthis was also something highly possible. After all, Steele had seen a wider horizon now. With a much higher expectation, she was certainly not sexually attracted to an average human at all. Viscount Samat¡¯s blade was of good quality. It was made of cold iron, plated with silver and protected by advanced magic. On top of that, it had the effect of ¡°sharpness¡± and ¡°tearing.¡± It could honestly cut gold and break jade, and it could really chop iron up into a mass of mud. A brush against it could cause injury and a strike by it bring death. But there was nothing useful about it at all. This strike of his blade was fast and accurate, and true enough, it felt like the speed of lightning. It was so fast that one could never dodge quickly enough. It was completely impossible to tell that he had just undergone a ¡°ferocious battle¡± where he had exerted a great deal of physical strength. If this strike was received by Ray Shack, even if he was in perfect condition, it would still be impossible for him to put up any resistance, or there might not even be time for him to react at all. He could only watch wide-eyed as the blade fell upon him and cut him into two halves. But there was nothing useful about the strike at all because the one receiving this blow was Sui Xiong. As the blade fell and hacked down on Sui Xiong¡¯s neck, it made a dull sound as if a blunt knife cut into a wooden block. ¡°Don¡¯t get so fiery-tempered,¡± Sui Xiong said with a sigh. With a slight tilt of his head, he clasped the knife and said, ¡°Let¡¯s have a nice discussion, shall we?¡± Of course not. Viscount Samat released his hold of the blade and took out a magic scroll from his storage ring. He had yet to unroll his scroll when it, together with the ring, went right to Sui Xiong¡¯s hands. ¡°I am really here, strictly and seriously, to have a discussion with you,¡± Sui Xiong said. Viscount Samat sighed helplessly and decided to use a stalling tactic to drag time. Then he could wait for an opportunity to strike again. Therefore, he asked, ¡°What do you want to discuss?¡± ¡°No, now, I no longer want to discuss with you.¡± Sui Xiong raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Then with a startled look, the Viscount Samat disappeared without a trace. ¡°Why does this guy think I¡¯m honest and easy to bully?¡± said Sui Xiong as he removed the blade that was bent after being clasped by him. With a casual stroke, he recovered its original appearance and then tossed it to the ground. Then he said to Ray Shack, ¡°I was talking to him nicely, and he wanted to chop me up; I put up with him once, and again, he wanted to use a spell against me. I tolerated it again, but he still tried to get smart and play tricks on me¡­ He really thinks I¡¯m easily manipulated, or a pushover, is that it?¡± Ray Shack¡¯s face was filled with confusion. At that moment, he really did not know what expression to show when he needed to speak. He also did not know what he should say. ¡°Forget it, let¡¯s not be bothered about this passer-by. We will get down to real business,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I will cast a perpetual spell on you so that when someone else looks at you, they¡¯ll think you¡¯re this guy here. Even if you say something wrong, they will subconsciously help you find a reasonable explanation¡ªso long as you don¡¯t go overboard, that is.¡± With that, he raised his hand. There was purple light flashing from his hand, and then he slapped Ray Shack¡¯s body. ¡°Alright, this will do.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± asked Ray Shack. He had just recovered his conscious mind from a good shock, and in a somewhat dazed manner, he asked, ¡°So¡­ what am I supposed to do?¡± ¡°Why are you asking me what you are supposed to do?¡± Sui Xiong asked him back with puzzlement. ¡°So long as you lead an honest life without creating trouble, this lifetime of yours will more or less be just like that¡ªreally, it doesn¡¯t matter much to me.¡± Ray Shack froze for a moment, then could not help asking, ¡°But¡­ why did you want me to be this viscount?¡± ¡°A nation cannot go without a ruler for a day,¡± Sui Xiong said matter-of-factly. ¡°This guy has been giving my junior much trouble. I have been wanting to solve this problem in a more low-key manner, but I just changed my mind¡ªrather than finding a way to convince him, I¡¯d rather change the lord of this place. You have quite a good heart, and you are quite positive and motivated, I think you are suitable for the role of a lord. Especially since you are already ¡®dead,¡¯ the issue with identity is easily settled. So I¡¯ve decided that you are good for the role of a lord.¡± Ray Shack was silent. He felt that his brain, which was originally quite quick-witted, might have been damaged when he had been tortured earlier on. Otherwise, how was it possible that he could not keep up with the pace of this master¡¯s thoughts at all? So he could only stay silent because if he spoke up, he felt that he would not be able to hold back the many questions that were bombarding his mind. At first glance, anyone could tell that this master was someone who hated it when people around him spoke nonsense. He did not want to anger him with something he said. However, when he saw that Sui Xiong was about to turn around to leave, he could not help asking, ¡°That¡­ Where is Viscount Samat?¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you him?¡± ¡°I meant, the previous one.¡± ¡°I threw him someplace where no one will ever find him,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, no one¡¯s ever going to see him again. I promise!¡± With that, his figure disappeared without a trace, and only Ray Shack was left behind¡ªoh, now he should be called Toon Samat. He stood rooted to the ground. After a while, the newly-assigned Viscount sighed and went to sit on the throne. The orders of a master should never be refused. He must think about it very carefully, how he should do a good and steady job as a Viscount and also how to make it last. But¡­ he kept feeling that it was going to be very difficult! For instance, right before him, he had a very challenging problem to solve. He looked at the naked young maiden lying on the ground next to him, with a woebegone expression. No matter how formidable that master was, was it possible to trick someone into sleeping with this Viscount Samat? Not that possible, right¡­ Maybe¡­ but it was not impossible either, right? So what should he do? While he was in great distress over what to do, Sui Xiong had already returned to his God¡¯s Kingdom and was looking at the naked Viscount Samat sitting on the ground. His face was filled with nervousness and rage. ¡°Hello,¡± he said. ¡°In the future, this is where you will live. Food and lodging provided.¡± Viscount Samat flew into a rage and jumped to his feet. He landed a punch right on Sui Xiong¡¯s face. He knew he was definitely not a match for this strange, black-haired person. But just like how it was said, regardless of whether he chose to advance or retreat, he would still be struck to death. As a man who had spent his life on the battlefield and who experienced countless bloody storms and obtained countless victories, he was not afraid of death! This punch landed right in the middle of Sui Xiong¡¯s nose, but it was as though he had hit a piece of wood that carried some fluidity among its solidness. Other than his fingers aching from the vibrating impact, there was no other effect. ¡°You, this guy¡­ I know you were trying to trick me just now,¡± said Sui Xiong helplessly. ¡°But after coming here, you are still trying to act fierce. Aren¡¯t you taking me a little too lightly?¡± Viscount Samat totally ignored him. Straightaway, he punched and kicked, and employed all the skills he knew. Sui Xiong sighed. He raised his hands and clapped once, then Viscount Samat became a thick piece of meat pie. It took a while before he regained his original appearance. There was no death in a God¡¯s Kingdom, let alone being beaten up to look like a meat pie. Even if one were to be burnt to ashes, he would still be restored fast enough. If not, during the various drills where the Oracles trained with all kinds of guns and explosives that rumbled so loudly to the extent of being earth-shattering, many would have died from all this long ago. After Viscount Samat was restored, he temporarily lost his will to fight. He was no fool; not only was he unable to win, even dying was impossible. Under such a situation, if he were to still insist on fighting, would he be any different from a monkey performing tricks in a circus? At this moment, Sui Xiong suddenly exclaimed in surprise, ¡°Ah, yes!¡± He realized that he had forgotten something major. ¡°Let me borrow your memory,¡± he said. Then without waiting for Viscount Samat to gain an understanding of what he meant, Sui Xiong raised his hand to grab the top of Viscount Samat¡¯s head like he wanted to grab hold of something that was inside his brain. Then he rubbed and pinched, and eventually, a book was formed. This was a book with Viscount Samat¡¯s face as its cover. Sui Xiong waved his hand, and then this book vanished without a trace and appeared before Ray Shack, who had transformed into Viscount Samat. Ray Shack picked up the book. In his mind, Sui Xiong¡¯s voice could be heard, explaining to him how he could make use of this book. Basically, this book was a search tool. So long as he silently chanted the key word in his heard and then flipped open this book, he could find all the relevant information from Viscount Samat¡¯s memories. The usefulness of this book was comparable to that of Baidu and Google, and there was no fake information, nor were there any advertisements. It could even be called the consciousness of the search community! As for what purpose Ray Shack would be using it for, Sui Xiong was not the least bit worried. This young man was quite a nice guy, and at least he was much better than this rude and unreasonable fellow. ¡°What exactly do you want to do?¡± Viscount Samat asked helplessly. ¡°Nothing much, anyway, it has nothing to do with you,¡± Sui Xiong replied casually. Then he thought for a moment before he snapped his fingers again. This time, he sent Viscount Samat to a small isolated island by the border of his God¡¯s Kingdom. This small island had trees, plants, and animals. There was freshwater too, which was presumably, enough for him to survive. Before traversing worlds, Sui Xiong recalled watching a network video about how a bald foreigner brought nothing with him and yet survived on a deserted island for 60 days. At least, Toon Samat¡¯s combat ability was better than that baldie, and even his bare hands were comparable to various powerful tools. He would be able to continue surviving just like that. Yes, standing aloof from worldly success while leading a tranquil life till the end of time. He will become a most respected hermit. Thinking up until this point, Sui Xiong could not help laughing. After a good laugh, he took a great stride and once again, arrived at Keane Hill. This time, he was here to meet Gerald and the rest. Soundlessly, he arrived at the Baron¡¯s house where he met with Gerald, who happened to be in a discussion with Anna Keane and company over their next course of action. Gerald, Sui Xiong, in the form of an invisible jellyfish, sent a message via the mind communication method. Don¡¯t worry. The problem has been resolved. At first, Gerald froze; then he stood up happily and hurriedly bowed to salute Sui Xiong. ¡°Your Majesty, what brings you here?¡± Gerald asked. He was surprised and happy. On one hand, he was glad that Sui Xiong had come because he could be his mainstay and backbone. On the other hand, he was surprised because why would such a minor issue bother Sui Xiong into personally making a trip over it? Furthermore, he was also a little nervous and worried. He was the Head of the Regiment of Knights, a stately Legendary Master, and a Dragon Knight; yet in the end, he could not even settle such a small problem. Instead, he had to trouble His Majesty to personally take matters into his hands. This was a serious dereliction of duty! ¡°Nothing much. I was just passing by, that¡¯s all,¡± Sui Xiong said with a laugh. ¡°Just passing by.¡± ¡°A few days ago, Crick told me that his sister and brother-in-law met with some trouble. I thought to myself and felt that that could not do; I had to take care of this matter. So I left for the Manor of Samat. To tell you the truth, there was something very wrong with the way the mind of that Viscount Samat works, and even his attitude was also very problematic. I tried negotiating with him in an amicable and friendly manner, but the result was not ideal, so in the end, I had to think of another way to solve the problem.¡± Gerald was silent for a while, then asked, ¡°Can you tell me, exactly how was the problem resolved?¡± ¡°I gave them a new lord,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Someone quite reliable, at least who is sharp and quick-witted enough to know what should be done and what should not be done.¡± ¡°Not just anyone can become a lord. This person must be sealed with the title of a lord by relevant parties of the Duchy¡­¡± ¡°Rest assured that nothing will go wrong,¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said. ¡°I¡¯m not a child who is oblivious to the way of the world. How can I not be aware of such a simple principle? Don¡¯t worry, set your heart at rest. Nothing will go wrong.¡± ¡°So¡­ where is the original Viscount?¡± Gerald asked out of curiosity. ¡°Sent to my God¡¯s Kingdom. I felt that he lacked proper education. So in my spare time, I will have a good talk with him¡­ or I can get Greg, the headless knight, to have a good talk with him. Greg enjoys chatting with people, so he will be able to educate him well.¡± Gerald fell silent because he knew exactly what kind of person Greg, the headless knight, was. Would Greg be able to educate someone well? He found it unbelievable! It was more believable to say that that guy could annoy the person to death, but to educate? That guy was, after all, a dead soul, and one with a demented mind. Who has ever heard of such a dead soul being able to educate anyone? It was possible, though, to say that Greg would drive the Viscount Samat crazy! ¡°So Your Majesty, if this problem has been resolved, I should take my leave, right?¡± Gerald asked after thinking for a while. ¡°Anyway, there is nothing much for me to do if I were to stay here.¡± ¡°That¡¯s up to you¡­ Right, don¡¯t tell them that I did this. Also, don¡¯t tell them I came by,¡± Sui Xiong said. The turned and left, leaving the problem to Gerald. Gerald sighed helplessly and thought for a moment. Then to the lord and his wife, who were looking at him with surprised expressions, he said, ¡°The problem is solved. It was fixed by a respectable great master.¡± Anna Keane froze for a moment, and then her eyes lit up as she asked, ¡°Does this have anything to do with my brother?¡± Gerald could not help giving a wry laugh as he replied, ¡°Yes, it does, but I am saying no more. In short, you all should stop your wild speculations, let alone making them known.¡± Anna Keane and her husband, Stephen Cart, looked at one another in the eyes, then laughed. ¡°No problem!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry!¡± ¡°If there is a change, say hello to my brother on my behalf.¡± ¡°In a few years¡¯ time, we will go find him in his God¡¯s Kingdom.¡± ¡°Hey, this might sound a little inauspicious.¡± ¡°We are not young anymore, us heading to the God¡¯s Kingdom after a few years, what¡¯s wrong with that?¡± ¡°Seems like, there¡¯s nothing wrong with that¡­¡± Chapter 649 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Shortly afterwards, the Thunder Lord received a report from Viscount Samat. It was a detailed report that elaborated on the situation at Keane Hill, especially emphasizing on that green dragon that patrolled the skies from time to time. ¡°Originally, I thought that Toon Samat was a capable warrior that could help share his Lord¡¯s worries. But from how it seems now, he is nothing more than just an uncouth man,¡± the Thunder Lord said when he finished looking at the report. Angrily, he threw it on the table, and then to his assistant, he said, ¡°I have made a mistake in having such high hopes in him.¡± ¡°Hey! A majority of these nobles are like that!¡± said that assistant with a long sigh. ¡°Even if everything was agreed upon before he set off, that he would cause conflicts at all costs so that Your Majesty would have an excuse to directly intervene in the matters of Keane Hill¡ªthe moment he becomes a lord, with all kinds of interests within his reach, his family and reputation¡­ Of course, there are self-sacrificial soldiers who will really do whatever it takes, but from the start, I have not had much hope in expecting this lord to be a self-sacrificial warrior.¡± The Thunder Lord nodded and wrapped up his depressed mood. He said, ¡°Even though he was brave and aggressive like a wild boar on the battlefield of the Great Marsh, when he becomes a lord, he will become sleek and vulgar¡ªor rather, even if he had wanted to persevere in keeping to his past practices, his men and subjects will force him to change. Such a thing is reasonable and makes sense, so in fact, there is nothing much to feel sorry about.¡± ¡°Yes, no matter what, his presence there will at least put some pressure on Keane Hill. Perhaps in the future, we will still be able to find the chance to stir up some trouble¡ªthe nail has already been buried, sooner or later it will serve its purpose.¡± The Thunder Lord laughed and said, ¡°That¡¯s right. A man made for great things should never do things in haste.¡± But he suddenly switched the conversation to another topic. With a solemn expression, he said, ¡°But¡­ there are certain things that should and still have to be done.¡± The next day, the Thunder Lord summoned his second son, the one who had recommended Toon Samat, to the palace and got him to read the letter. Then he severely criticized his son. ¡°Do you know what your mistake was? Getting a nobleman with a territory to be a self-sacrificial soldier, how can something like that possibly be successful!¡± the Thunder Lord showed no mercy with his words as he criticized this son, who had always been known for being intelligent and sharp. He didn¡¯t mention how he had laughed with a supportive look back when he first heard of this suggestion. ¡°Ah, you! Still too young after all! Like to take things for granted! Politics are very complicated, and so are people. Governing a nation is even more complex! It¡¯s better that you go back to study hard for a while, I will get the palace consultant to frequently check on your academic progress.¡± Finishing his piece, he ended the conversation without giving his son a chance to explain himself. News spread quickly. Soon, everyone knew that the second son of the Grand Duke, who once had the upper hand in contesting for the successor of the Grand Duke, had been severely criticized for a job not done well. The balance of power, which was originally inclined towards his side, was immediately reset back to the norm. Even a slight inclination tended towards the eldest son of the Grand Duke who took a more modest and steady approach in his work. The eldest son of the Grand Duke was naturally, the first few to learn of this news. After having a good laugh at home, he sent a messenger to Keane Hill. This messenger arrived at Keane Hill almost as soon as the rumors did. He brought a handwritten letter by the eldest son of the Grand Duke that was full of compliments for Keane Hill¡¯s achievements in construction. However, it also contained criticism on Keane Hill¡¯s approach in overly pursuing public welfare. And the most important content of this letter was the promise this eldest son made, plainly and clearly. ¡°If I were to become successor, during my tenure as the Grand Duke, I would guarantee that Keane Hill will continue its current status of basic autonomy. Unless the country meets with a crisis, no military or material support will be sought from Keane Hill.¡± This was a very heavy commitment because, at the end of this letter where the promise was, the seal of the Church of the God of Law and Justice was stamped on it. From the flowing light on the seal, it was clear that there was Divine Power involved. In other words, the eldest son of the Grand Duke was not making an empty statement, but rather, he was committing to this promise under the supervision of the gods. It was a promise that could not be broken. To restrain a nobleman, relying on reputation and status alone was not practical. But, even a king of a country would not dare break a promise made under the supervision of the gods. Otherwise, no one in the entire world would be able to save him. A promise made under the supervision of the God of Law and Justice was particularly more solemn. Once violated, the god¡¯s punishment would be next to come. Not even a second delay was allowed, and none of the other gods would render a helping hand. If it were any of the other gods, maybe he could still ask someone under him who was a follower of that god to intervene. He could pay compensation or something to appease the anger of the god and end the matter. But the God of Law and Justice would not buy this method. And asking the other gods to make an enemy out of the God of Law and Justice, who wielded powerful Divine Power, for the sake of a mere mortal king? Ha ha, that was simply overestimating oneself. The life of a king would at most last a few decades, and his tenure as king could be around 30 to 40 years, or even shorter¡ªmaybe slightly more than a decade or even a few years. To a god with eternal life, it was nothing more than a mere snap of their fingers. Who would bother going up against a great Divine Power over such a small matter? It might be possible for certain gods who were known as ¡°lunatics,¡± but provoking those gods were much more serious than aggravating the God of Law and Justice. Of course, Anna Keane and company would know of these principles. So after reading the handwritten letter, they suddenly felt more settled. To the messenger, they gave their promise that Keane Hill would do their best to support the eldest son of the Grand Duke and would strive to help him succeed as the next Thunder Lord. After a series of discussion, everyone was satisfied and happy. A few days later, Viscount Toon Samat also received a letter from the capital. The content was quite critical of him, but overall, it largely affirmed his mindset, so long as he did not forget why he was first sent there. He was not to indulge in government affairs or to forget his real task. Viscount Samat got several of his important officials to read the letter, then said helplessly, ¡°This is going to be quite troublesome!¡± ¡°It¡¯s only right that things are going to be troublesome. If everything is going to be easily done, will you even have a turn at owning such a piece of land, my lord?¡± asked his think-tank, a scholar of a minor aristocratic background from the capital. This man said with a smile, ¡°But no matter what, we have gotten the benefits. As to what should be done, that is still up to us to dictate!¡± ¡°Yes! Boss, you are finally enlightened. As your brothers, we are also very happy!¡± the valiant generals under his command said. A barbarian, who came from the bordering area of the Great Marsh, said with a grin, ¡°You¡¯ve always insisted on being an enemy of Keane Hill, speaking of which, we are all always very worried about it!¡± Viscount Samat smiled, then said, ¡°Previously, I couldn¡¯t seem to come around, but now, I¡¯m done thinking through it. I¡¯m no longer a soldier, but a lord. Although I still must remain loyal to His Majesty, I must also spare a thought for the lords here and my people. To directly be in conflict with Keane Hill, the risk is much too great! Even if I¡¯m not afraid of dying, I can¡¯t be putting all your lives at risk, ah!¡± ¡°Right, right, right!¡± the barbarian said as he nodded vigorously. ¡°We aren¡¯t afraid of dying either, but it hasn¡¯t been easy. We have risked our lives so many times, and finally, the good days we so looked forward to have arrived. I will be very unwilling to accept if I were to die just like that!¡± ¡°But¡­ it is not going to be easy accounting to His Majesty¡­¡± said an intelligence officer with a miserable look. He was the one who had previously wanted to sound Sui Xiong out but got beaten up instead. ¡°My Lord, you had pledged to do a good job with fists against chest¡­ I guess he must not be very happy now.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be helped if he¡¯s unhappy now. We can¡¯t be sending ourselves to meet our doom just to make him happy,¡± the barbarian said crudely. The intelligence officer gave a wry laugh, then nodded and said, ¡°You are not wrong in saying so. This is just the way the aristocratic world works, and it¡¯s our ability to be able to trick the people. Even Her Majesty of the Holy Kingdom of Noble Maids is in great favor of such an approach. But¡­ but¡­¡± He said a few ¡°buts,¡± yet up till the end, he still did not say anything and merely heaved a deep sigh. Toon Samat¡¯s reason for breaking his promise was very strong and convincing, which was why it garnered the support of most of the important officials. Upon comparison, even the vassals who were relatively more loyal to the Grand Duke did not find it wise to be too critical of him. After all¡­ that green dragon hovering in circles above the Manor of Samat, which could be seen carrying a Legendary Master on its back from time to time, was giving them too much pressure. In the face of such an enemy, even the most strong-minded people would find it hard to muster up enough courage to stick to their original ideas. Above all, there was another Legendary Master over at Keane Hill, Romon Geerteng, who was known as the ¡°Southern Scholar.¡± Previously, when Mr. Geerteng had come to create trouble for Toon Samat, it was only through the concerted efforts of everyone and the power of the altar that they managed to fight him off. Now, with the addition of this Dragon Knight, it has indeed exceeded the limits to what Keane Hill could possibly resist. To make matters worse, Mr. Geerteng had once expressed that he would consider asking his two cousins for help if what Keane Hill had was not enough. His two cousins were none other than the ¡°Border Sage,¡± Olian Geerteng, who was an elector of the God of Knowledge and Culture, and the ¡°Great Healer,¡± Steele Geerteng, who was a higher-up of the Church of the Void Mask. The former was a world-famous scholar and an extremely powerful Legendary Master. Not long ago, she led the Church of the God of Knowledge, established since a short 30 years ago, in fighting a great war against the Church of the God of Aristocracy, which had been established for almost 300 years. Furthermore, the Church of the God of Aristocracy had also inherited the legacy of the Church of the God of Royalty. Though in the end, there was no clear victory between the two sides, in terms of the losses incurred by both sides in this war, the Church of the God of Aristocracy had suffered a great loss. This included losing their Archbishop and five Legendary Masters, as well as losing one other Legendary Master who decided to change sides and pledge allegiance to the Church of the God of Knowledge. In other words, under the leadership of Olian Geerteng, the Church of the God of Knowledge won against the powerful Church of the God of Aristocracy. Such a master like her could instill fear even in the king of a country. As for Steele Geerteng, she was known for leading a terrible style of life¡ªit was evident from her other title, the ¡°Unethical Great Healer¡±¡ªbut she had very strong skills. Previously, when she followed the Void Mask in wiping out the ¡°Isis¡± Organization, she had shown the strong presence of a Legendary Master. And all these years, she had been treating the sick and saving lives in Void City. She had also trained a great number of doctors and nurses. Among the civilians, she had an extremely high reputation. Being an enemy of hers might not involve as much danger as compared to being an enemy of Olian Geerteng, but the hurt inflicted upon reputation and popular sentiments would have a more far-reaching impact. In the face of two such potentially strong enemies, even those who were loyal to the Thunder Lord found it impossible to say things like, ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, face it outright with your resentment.¡± After all, all of them were not fools! After a short discussion, everyone from Samat Hill coalesced to arrive at a unified sentiment¡ªif the Grand Duke, His Majesty, really wanted to deal with Keane Hill, then of course, Samat Hill would be willing to fight at the battlefront. However, so long as the Grand Duke did not formally issue his order, they would just wait. If Samat Hill were to charge forward bravely and start a battle with a bang, only to see the Grand Duke sitting aside and saying, ¡°You guys can have fun, I¡¯ll just watch,¡± that would truly be a scam! Come to think of it, such a thing was highly likely to happen! The key reason to why Samat Hill insisted on being an enemy of Keane Hill was because Lord Toon Samat insisted on doing so. Now that the lord himself had finally come round, of course, everyone would be happily at ease. Just like what that barbarian said, after risking their lives for so many years, finally, they could look forward to a good life. Who would be willing to die so easily? A few days later, a messenger came from Keane Hill. The First Knight of Keane Hill, Shawn James, had come to visit Samat Hill. He had brought along two letters. One was a friendly letter from Anna Keane to Lord Toon Samat, while the other letter was the letter that the eldest son of the Thunder Lord wrote to Keane Hill. There was nothing special about the first letter. Its content was so clich¨¦ that no one took it very seriously. But the second letter certainly surprised everyone at the Samat Hill, especially that clear promise and the seal of the Church of the God of Law and Justice. That added to the heavy feelings weighing them down. Knight Shawn Kames did not request for Samat Hill to make any promises; he merely had a friendly conversation before taking his leave, and of course, he took the second letter with him. But after he left, the crowd in Samat Hill started a heated discussion. ¡°What! Those great aristocrats are really heartless!¡± the barbarian said viciously as he spat. ¡°The second son encourages us to court our doom while the elder son goes to the second son to talk peace¡­ not even worthy to be compared with the long tongue of the long scales!¡± The long tongue of long scales referred to the Lizard men. At the edge of the Great Marsh, people treated the Lizard men as enemies all year round. Both shared a deep feud with each other. To the people, comparing someone to Lizard men was the greatest insult ever. ¡°The world of the nobles is really so eerie and gloomy, a real hair-raiser!¡± said the intelligence officer with a sigh. He was of civilian background. He no longer insisted on his earlier viewpoint, ¡°Luckily, our lord was fast enough in grasping hold of the opportunity and did not tread to the end of the dark path. Otherwise¡­ Ahh¡­¡± Looking at his fearful face, it was not hard to know what was on his mind. The chief of assistants sighed and said, ¡°Such a thing is in fact quite normal. After all, the two sons are competitors, giving one another tit-for-tat, taking different attitudes, there is nothing strange at all. But recently, I heard some news that the eldest son managed to turn the tables and gained an advantageous position in this competition for the rights of inheritance. If we are to continue to place our stakes on the second son now, the possibility of experiencing a great loss is much too high. It¡¯s not worth it!¡± ¡°If you ask me, I think we should focus on building our territory and create a good life for ourselves, that will be enough. Why must we bother about what those big shots at the capital think?¡± said the patrol chief who was a half-dragon human. ¡°So long as we build our territory well, then no matter what, we will never suffer.¡± Toon Samat¡ªor rather, Ray Shack¡ªnodded with a smile. Thus, the thing was settled as such. A few days later, a messenger from Samat Hill came on a secret visit to Keane Hill, bringing along a friendly letter from Viscount Samat. ¡°Political affairs are really too bothersome!¡± Sui Xiong said as he witnessed the entire episode unfold. He could not help lamenting, ¡°Clearly such a minor thing, yet so much scheming and plotting; it¡¯s simply a pain to watch!¡± Chapter 650 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After solving the little problem at Keane Hill, the following days were calm and peaceful without nothing much to be mindful of. At least, there was nothing for Sui Xiong. So just like that, time rolled by smoothly. And soon, it was time to usher in the celebration ceremony of the 20th anniversary of the Republic of Northwest. Conveniently, it was also the opening day of the fourth Fighter Championship. Originally, according to the rules, the Fighter Championship should have been held the previous year. However, the higher-ups of the Republic of Northwest had a discussion over how they held the Fighter Championship in the first year, followed by holding the National Day Ceremony in the next year. They had always felt that it was a bit of a waste of human and material resources. So they simply made a clear-cut adjustment and put the two events into the same year. By doing so, the time spent would be more reasonable, and staffing arrangements would be more appropriate. The Fighter Championship would be held in the summer while the National Day Ceremony would be held in the winter. Both were major events that required a few months to plan and prepare. It so happened that this year, everything was completed. ¡°During the Republic¡¯s 20th anniversary, the Fourth Fighter Championship is convened. Though the contestants weren¡¯t as amazing as the first, they were at least not as weak-kneed as those of the second, and they roughly maintained the standard of the third. It can be expected that, unless something happens to cause a drastic change in the group of masters below the legendary level on the Main Plane, contestants of the Fighter Championship will roughly be maintained at this standard. Maybe we can sort out the changes in the group of masters on the Main Plane through this competition perhaps once every ten years¡­¡± A young historian who was sitting in the study room used a special magic ink to record down these words on a piece of special paper made of demon beast skin. This historian was regarded as a different species among his own kind. This was apparent from the way he numbered the years when chronicling events. On the Main Plane, historians mainly used ¡°major events¡± as the way they numbered the years. The specific approach was to take 12 years as one ¡°period,¡± where each ¡°period¡± would cite the most important event in the form of an epic, and the remaining events would be differentiated according to when they happened about the major event. For instance, the period where the Republic of Northwest was established could be recorded as ¡°the period of the Rise of Snow Country,¡± and then, this entire period would be specifically divided and numbered from ¡°the 1st year of the period of the Rise of Snow Country,¡± all the way to ¡°the 12th year of the period of the Rise of Snow Country.¡± This approach originated from the time of the ancient Elf Empire. At that time, philosophers of the elven race had used such a method to number years. Later, though the Elf Empire was wiped out, this method of numbering years was passed down and inherited by historians. Though many people felt that such an approach was a little indirect without a good focus, the historians begged to differ. They felt that such an approach was very appropriate if they had a good grasp of the main point. After all, in this world, the difficulty in the field of ¡°archaeology¡± would be far lower than the limitless height of Earth. If historians wanted to know exactly when a certain event occurred, they were not required to work so hard in cross-referencing against astronomical phenomena or various records. They could simply use a prophecy spell. So long as the events were recorded correctly, the prophecy spell could accurately tell exactly when the events happened. The more accurate and detailed the records were, the clearer and more convenient the positioning of time would be. There would not be any confusion at all. As for the unique situations where prophecy spells were unable to reap any results, the usual causes were generally because some powerful Legendary Master, or even masters at a god¡¯s level, had executed some earth-shattering means to conceal certain events that occurred during the long course of history. One had to be wary of looking for trouble if they had the desire to examine the event closely¡ªit was like you obviously knew certain matters were very sensitive and yet, you went ahead to investigate. Then in the end, you landed yourself in prison, and that would still be¡­ sacrificing yourself for the sake of truth. Throughout the years, this method of numbering years had always been used. Until the establishment of the Republic of Northwest, some scholars who came from the Church of the God of Knowledge came up with a new method of numbering years. They suggested using some major historical events that could ¡°open new chapters in history¡± as nodes so that a long history could be divided into a few big stages. Every stage would be specifically divided further into a varying number of years. Though this would cause the numbers to be relatively large, for the ordinary people, it was still a far friendlier approach as compared to the cumbersome ¡°numbering years method via major events.¡± A certain year in the Archean Calendar, a certain year in the Elven Calendar, a certain year in the Orc Calendar, a certain year in the Development Calendar and a certain year in the Republic Calendar¡ªthe new method of numbering years divided the history of civilization into these five stages. This five stages then corresponded to the era before the prosperity of ancient civilization, the era from the rise to the decline of the elf civilization, the era from the rise of the Orc civilization to the great development of mankind, the era from the great development of mankind to the establishment of the Republic, and lastly, the era after the establishment of the Republic. This was just like on Earth, where the history of human civilization was divided into the primitive society, the slave society, the feudal society, and the near-modern society. It was simple and clear, where the person studying the history could roughly determine which stage of human civilization they were looking at exactly. This might not be necessary for historians, but it was for ordinary people. Over the past few years, because education was not popularized, a majority of ordinary people did not have the ability to recognize words, so they did not even worry about which year they were in nor did they know about their history. But the goal of the Republic of Northwest was to eliminate illiteracy and ensure a Republic where all its people had the ability to read. So the field of history responded to this call and embarked on the journey of innovation. It was just like how a cicada would be aware in advance before the first autumn breeze blew. The more experienced and knowledgeable people were, the more they would be able to detect the changes in history, and the more they would feel the pulse of the great era. Therefore, they would be able to make correct choices in advance. Just like if someone on Earth drew a divination lot that said ¡°Here ye, here ye, someone by the name of Liu Xiu is going to become the emperor,¡± and thus he changed his name to Liu Xiu and tried to stage a revolt. As a result, the great scholar made a grave mistake due to incorrectly feeling the pulse of a great era. This was a lesson that the future generations could learn from, so they could prevent such mistakes from recurring. After he finished writing a part of the record, the young historian put down his pen and gently blew a few breaths onto the paper before carefully placing it on the cork platform that was especially used for drying such materials. Then after he finished packing up the pen and ink, he moved to loosen up his neck and shoulders before getting to his feet. Looking down from the window on the second floor, he could see that amidst the autumn scenery, many people were busy preparing for the National Day Ceremony. The Republic of Northwest would hold a National Day Ceremony once every ten years. It was, more or less, the most important celebration ceremony of this country. And it was so grand and spectacular that even tourists from all over the world did not want to miss out on such a big excitement. During the celebration ceremony, there would be endless wonderful performances, an unlimited supply of fine wine and an inexhaustible spread of fine cuisines. Just for that one celebration ceremony, the people of the Republic of Northwest, especially those from the Void City, needed to prepare for as long as three to four months. Spending three to four months on preparing for just one celebration ceremony, was it worth it? The young historian shook his head, sighed, and then laughed. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s worth it.¡± He said so to himself. By this time, the paper made from the demon beast skin, that was placed onto the wooden platform, had dried. He took out a small yet sturdy little box, and from within, he took a pinch of powered stones that had been ground so finely that they were more minute than flour. Evenly, he sprinkled this power onto the piece of paper, and then he chanted the spell. Following this wonderful spell, a magic rune appeared above that piece of paper made of demon beast skin. Then slowly, it fell upon the paper and blended in. At first, both were clearly two separate entities, just like how oil and water were immiscible. However, as the spell continued to work its magic, such a feeling gradually waned, and finally, both blended to become a perfect combination. Just like mixing alcohol with water, they merged into one regardless of each other¡¯s original form. When the historian finally ended the casting of the spell, there were beads of perspiration above his brows. And that originally grayish-white paper of demon beast skin had now changed to a faint gold. The original black and green handwriting was also glowing with a silver-white light. He held the paper up as though it were something very precious. Then from the bookshelf next to him, he retrieved a book made up of several loose pages strung together. He unstrung the book and placed this piece of paper as the last page. This was the most important job of historians¡ªdocumenting history. Just for this job, they had to dedicate an entire lifetime, vowing never to seek fame and fortune, never to leave offspring, and only for their ideals to be passed down from generation to generation. In return, they earned the ability to create such wonderful pages that were almost indestructible. On that shelf, there were several other books; those belonged to his teacher, and his teacher¡¯s teacher. Those books belonged to the many generations of historians of their faction, the fruit of the painstaking labor of their entire lifetime. And this house was the sacred place of the historians. It was their temple, their altar, the place where they prayed and fought. The young historian finished his work for the day. After putting away all his tools, he walked out of the room wearily. He felt very tired. He needed to go out for a walk to get some fresh air. Then he would eat a hearty meal and take a good rest. Walking through the streets full of tourists and workers, he watched the scenery that was increasingly lively with all the bustling activities and could not help laughing. After a while, he arrived at the public square. There was a bard who had used oils to paint strange shapes all over his face but could not be described as funny. Donned in a suit of flowery clothes, he was strumming away on his balalaika, singing a merry tune. Around the bard, many tourists were listening with interest. After he finished a song, he did not take off his hat to ask for tips. Instead, he took a whole lot of green jellyfish gummies from out of nowhere and distributed them to the surrounding children. Munching on the gummies, the children ran about happily while the adults quickly thanked him before leaving. ¡°Today¡¯s work seems to be quite pleasurable,¡± said the historian, who had walked over to the bard. With a smile, he said, ¡°But it¡¯s truly surprising how someone like you, in your capacity, could actually do something like that.¡± ¡°What¡¯s so surprising about this?¡± asked the elector of the God of Art and Culture. With a smile, he said, ¡°I¡¯m a bard. Performing on the streets when I¡¯ve nothing much to do, bringing joy to the people, isn¡¯t this just how I should naturally be?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just like how you, an elector of the God of Knowledge and Culture who is in the field of ¡®scholars,¡¯ are busy all day long, either with teaching and educating people, or documenting history.¡± An elector of the God of Art and Culture with the name of ¡°Schwarier von Stolovsky Franz,¡± who was known to people all around the world as a great author, playwright, musician, and bard¡ªShoggoth was also the bellwether of the field of art and culture in the Republic of Northwest. With a smile, he took a wine jug and passed it over to his companion. Owen Hart, an elector of the God of Knowledge and Culture who was from the Hart Family that was well-loved by their people, whose family had worshipped the God of Scholars for hundreds of years, was someone who could inherit the title of Baron anytime. He smiled and received the wine jug. ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t fancy spirits,¡± he said; yet without hesitation, he opened the lid and tilted his head to take a big gulp. Then his face turned red immediately, as though there was a blazing flame. ¡°How can a man not drink spirits!¡± said Shoggoth. With a smile, he said, ¡°You¡¯re a grown-up now. Don¡¯t be so wishy-washy like when you just came here.¡± ¡°Age doesn¡¯t mean anything to me,¡± said Owen. ¡°Just like how the intensity of this wine holds no significance to you. I just simply dislike the taste of this wine, that¡¯s all.¡± Electors had deathless bodies that were also immune to many abnormal conditions. Being ¡°drunk¡± was one of them. If there was a need to, both of them could easily drink the strongest wine in the mortal world as though it was cold water, and no matter how much they drank, at best they would drink until they felt full, but they would never get drunk. So Owen had never been able to understand why Shoggoth liked drinking so much. But that did not affect their friendship. ¡°Speaking of which¡­ you have never attended the great celebration ceremony, haven¡¯t you?¡± asked Shoggoth, as he took the wine jug from Owen. He raised his hand and brushed it across his face. The colorful paint on his face instantly vanished without a trace, and even his flowery clothes were changed to a long and simple robe. He now looked very similar to Owen in his scholar outfit, who was sitting next to him. This was their usual daily attire. As for that fanciful outfit, it was just a costume he wore when he was performing on the streets. ¡°Yes, I have not been to one before. So I am also looking forward to it,¡± Owen said. ¡°After this celebration ceremony, I will record it down in detail and especially make a golden scroll for it.¡± ¡°To that extent? Making an entire volume in gold is not an easy job for you right now.¡± ¡°But I feel that there¡¯s a need to. All this while, historians have been overemphasizing on documenting the ¡°major events,¡± but they think nothing of the lives of people and the various aspects of the society. Or maybe, from their perspectives, the joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness of civilians are simply not worth a mention,¡± Owen said solemnly. Then he added on, ¡°This is wrong! No matter how great some people are, they too came from ordinary people. No matter how major an event is, it still began from the accumulation of minor things where it first started to develop. As a historian, I want to record all the joy, anger, sorrow and happiness; these are emotions that ordinary people should remember, and I also want to record the causes and effects of major events influencing the world.¡± ¡°That is quite difficult,¡± said Shoggoth as he himself took a sip of wine. Then he went on to say, ¡°Your lifetime, I¡¯m afraid, will be spent doing this.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with that? Finding something worthy for you to spend a lifetime doing, then spending your lifetime to do it well. Such a life is simply perfect.¡± Shoggoth nodded and said, ¡°In a way, you are also right. Being able to spend a lifetime doing something worthwhile and doing it well, such a life could be said to be perfect. Oh how envious I am, of you!¡± ¡°What about you?¡± Owen asked. Shoggoth laughed and said, ¡°I¡¯m not as solemn as you are, and I¡¯m also not as serious as you. I only need to be a good bard, to bring laughter and joy to people and spread those wonderful ideas, interesting stories, beautiful music. That¡¯s enough for me.¡± ¡°This is good too.¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯m also an elector, after all. If I don¡¯t do well, it will be as good as an insult to His Majesty¡¯s judgment!¡± ¡°Haha! It¡¯s getting late, and I¡¯m also feeling a little hungry. Shall we go have a meal?¡± ¡°Great, it¡¯s your treat.¡± ¡°Great writer, I think you are much richer than me.¡± ¡°You are a nobleman, right? The noble one does not pay, while I, the civilian, has to give a treat, does that make sense to you?¡± The two gradually walked afar; then slowly, they walked into one of the nearby restaurants. The public square was filled with people who marveled and laughed. Chapter 651 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Winter was the harshest season in the North. The whistling cold wind was as sharp as razors, and the ice would be frozen so solidly that even with a hammer, breaking the ice would still be extremely difficult. The land would be covered with frosty snow, so it was almost impossible for any car to pass through. During the coldest time, if one held a cup of hot water and walked around the house, tilting the cup over would cause cold water mixed with shaved ice to fall to the ground. This shaved ice would not disperse. Instead, it would freeze together to form a mini icicle. In such terrible weather, who would want to organize an outdoor activity? Only a super old person that had grown tired of living such a long life would want to. But within Void City, holding an outdoor activity was possible. By virtue of the Void Mask¡¯s divine enchantment, the severe cold was blocked outside the boundary of the enchantment. Of course, within the city, it would still be cold, but the temperature was not so cold to the extent of being unbearable for the people. So long as they did not ask for trouble by running about in summer clothes, even the usual autumn wear would suffice in fending off the cold for a short time. As for those donning winter wear, many could not help but shed some layers so as not to feel uncomfortably warm. ¡°Republican calendar, December 25, year 20, sunny. Outdoor temperature, five degrees Celsius, level two winds from the northeast direction, air quality is good,¡± Cambrona said as he wrote this line at the top of the daily governmental record sheet. Then he sent this record sheet to the archive room. As the shift officer of the municipal office this week, he had clocked out later than usual for six consecutive days and even had to return to the office for overtime work during the weekends. Sending this record sheet to the archive room for filing every day was one of the important parts of his shift duties. Having finished his work, he packed his things and went to the main door of the office. His wife, who had also changed into casual clothes, was waiting for him. In the rental carriage next to her, the coachman was holding a picture book. He was laughing while looking at it, almost to the extent of completely forgetting himself. ¡°Where are you going for dinner today?¡± he asked with a smile. ¡°Prol Restaurant,¡± Jane replied with a smile. ¡°Tomorrow will be Beta Grill, and the day after will be the Frog Prince Hotel.¡± ¡°Ha, you¡¯ve prepared in advance, eh?¡± ¡°Who could have expected them to come to such agreements, with a different restaurant serving food at a special price every day until the opening day of the celebration ceremony,¡± Jane said with a smile. ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up, if we are going to those mid or lower-end restaurants, then there¡¯s nothing to worry about. But Prol Restaurant is so high-end; if we are late, we will not find any seats.¡± ¡°I think even if we were to run there now, it is likely that we might not get a seat¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Before coming here, I already made a reservation. The staff said that they¡¯d give us half an hour to get there.¡± Cambrona felt relieved upon hearing this. Holding his wife¡¯s hand, he boarded the carriage next to him. The coachman put his book away. Gently, he waved his whip. Then the strong horse started pulling the carriage and clattered its way ahead. Thanks to the even road, the carriage was able to move swiftly and steadily. They arrived at the famous restaurant fairly quickly. Without waiting for the coachman to release the footboard, Cambrona jumped off the carriage. As an officially registered knight within the Tolerant Knights, he could most likely be unscathed even if he were to jump down from three to four floors high. This little elevation would not have the least bit of an effect on him. Seeing him stand by the side of the door, Jane did not wait for the footboard either. She jumped directly into his arms and was firmly caught by him. ¡°Have I gotten a little heavier?¡± she asked. ¡°No, you are very light,¡± Cambrona said. ¡°I happen to think you eat too little. This is not healthy enough.¡± ¡°But if I eat too much, I¡¯ll get fat.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with being fat? Being a little chubby is very adorable too!¡± Watching them banter with one another as though there was no one around them, the young coachman sighed and advised, ¡°Dear Sir and Madam, if you want to show how lovey-dovey you guys are, the street is not the right place! Also, may I trouble you guys in taking away this bag, I still have a business to run.¡± Cambrona hurriedly set his wife down, touched his nose, and smiled awkwardly. Taking their bag from the coachman, they paid the fare. Then the couple walked through the door, chatting while laughing. They spoke briefly to the usher at the door and gave him their reservation number. The usher brought them to the seats that were reserved for them, and at the same time, ordered the kitchen to start preparing the dishes to be served. As they were about to walk deeper into the big dining hall, Jane suddenly frowned. Turning around, she looked out the main entrance. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Cambrona asked. ¡°Feels like someone is watching us,¡± Jane said, ¡°but I don¡¯t know whether it¡¯s just my imagination or not.¡± ¡°You¡¯re so beautiful, so it¡¯s not strange at all, if there¡¯s someone looking at you,¡± Cambrona said as he laughed. ¡°Or maybe, that person is looking at me, studying exactly how a toad like me managed to swallow a swan¡¯s flesh.¡± ¡°What ¡®swan¡¯s flesh¡¯! I¡¯m getting on in years¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re still very young. Even after a hundred years, you¡¯re still as fresh as a swan¡¯s flesh.¡± ¡°Shriveled swan¡¯s flesh?¡± ¡°Shriveled swan¡¯s flesh or not, you are still as adorable! Best choice for a shriveled toad!¡± The couple talked and laughed as they walked, not taking the earlier matter of concern to heart. At the same time, in a relatively more secluded room, an old mage with his eyes closed let out a deep breath as he finally put his highly-strung heart to rest. ¡°What a terrible intuition. I was discovered when using the spell for remote distance spying!¡± he said. He closed and re-opened his eyes; then with a tad of trepidation, he said, ¡°Indeed worthy of being called a ¡®weapon of god,¡¯ even if I were to take the form of a mortal now, my original person would still exist.¡± ¡°I must be more careful and avoid provoking her. Otherwise, even if I were to flee to the end of the world, I¡¯ll still be unable to escape death!¡± ¡°I feel that you¡¯re thinking too much,¡± the voice of a young man suddenly resonated by his ears. ¡°Before you even consider running to the end of the world, you might most possibly need to go to jail for a few years. Our Republic of Northwest has always been very strict about espionage.¡± The mage froze, then subconsciously lifted his hands to touch a ring. However, he did not even have the time to touch the ring that could instantly cast a life-saving spell. A cool sensation was felt pushing against the nape of his neck that immediately stopped him of any movement. He was rooted to the ground, not daring to move at all. ¡°Very well, your wise decision has saved your life,¡± the voice said. The air around him vibrated slightly, and then the handsome Legendary Master, Clito, appeared. The long, black sword that was pushing against the nape of his neck, also appeared before the old mage. It was now firmly in the grip of Clito¡¯s hands. So long as Clito pushed it a little further, it would pierce through the neck of this spy, or even directly cut his head off. Given the degree of sharpness of this advanced magic weapon, the latter was more likely to happen. ¡°I¡¯m not a spy,¡± the old mage said. He did not take Clito lightly just because of Clito¡¯s youthful appearance. He hurriedly explained, ¡°I was just very curious about that woman¡­¡± ¡°Attempted trafficking with women and children; you will face a sentence of ten years¡¯ imprisonment. Consummated trafficking with women and children will result in a death sentence. Repeated offenders will also have their souls drawn out to receive further punishment,¡± Clito said, without any expression. ¡°I have no intention of selling her, ah!¡± the old mage hurriedly called to redress his grievance. ¡°I just wanted to obtain a little divinity from her¡­¡± Clito froze for a moment as he saw the old mage¡¯s eyes become increasingly unfriendly. ¡°Murder,¡± Clito said. ¡°No! You really got it all wrong!¡± the old mage yelled out of anxiety. ¡°You don¡¯t need to be so loud. Yes or no, it¡¯s useless to tell me. You should save some energy to talk to the judge,¡± Clito said with indifference. ¡°By the way, the woman that you secretly have plans for, her husband is one of the legal consultants of Void City. He is often assigned the role of a lawyer. I hope you won¡¯t be that unlucky to have to meet him in court. ¡°If you¡¯re so unlucky, then you¡¯re definitely going to be heavily sentenced. That Cambrona guy may seem to be big and strong, but he certainly doesn¡¯t have a big heart¡­¡± Chapter 652 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Upon hearing Clito¡¯s words, the old mage¡¯s face suddenly went pale. He was no longer bothered about the sharp blade still against his own neck as his right hand reached straight for the ring on his left index finger and pressed onto it. He wanted to activate this magic tool and escape regardless of all consequences. From his point of view, rather than wait hopelessly to be sentenced to death, he would be better off taking a chance with luck. Even if he were to be killed right now, at least his body could be transported to a predetermined place where he could still have a chance of being resurrected. Although the resurrection was going to be very difficult while hope was not very high, it was still better than staying here to wait for death! But, as a mage who was not very agile, was it possible to find the chance to escape from a Legendary Master like Clito, who belonged to the swift and sharp type? Obviously, it was impossible. Before the mage¡¯s right hand could touch his left, Clito had reached over and with a single swipe had removed all four magic rings on both the old mage¡¯s hands. He was so swift that no one could see when he made his move. Then without waiting for the old mage to say anything, Clito threw a punch directly at the back of his head with the intention of knocking this suspect unconscious. ¡°Ugh! It¡¯s always troublesome when I have to capture them alive!¡± sighed Clito. After tying the guy up with a magic rope, he stuffed him into the Devil Pet Pocket, which was originally used to feed devil pets. Shaking his head, he said helplessly, ¡°It is still more satisfying to bury a white blade in him and pull it out red, that would be so easy.¡± Though he spoke as such, he did not really intend to drag that mage out of the pocket so that he could drive a blade into him. Instead, he looked around the house to ascertain that there was only one suspect, then he used a communication instrument to contact the police of Void City. Almost an hour later, the old mage, who was awakened by the odor of smoke, groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He saw the handsome youth who had caught him earlier on and another young man who was not as good-looking, but very tall and valiant. He had eyes that were exceptionally bright, as though they could penetrate the hearts of the people. The two stood by his side, one on his left and the other on his right, as they watched him. ¡°This was really out of my expectation. You were just out shopping with your wife and children, yet along the way, you were still able to apprehend a spy and bring him back here,¡± the man with the very bright eyes said. ¡°And an advanced mage at that.¡± ¡°An advanced mage could actually turn out to be a spy, I¡¯m very surprised too,¡± Clito said. ¡°What exactly is this world coming to? I really don¡¯t understand!¡± ¡°Can you please not pretend to be such a knowledgeable person?¡± the chief of intelligence, Easter, said with a sigh. ¡°I just feel that your luck is the problem. Why are you always running into such events? Remember that group of spies that was sent to monitor His Majesty, the God of Agriculture, previously? They were also discovered by you.¡± ¡°Maybe I¡¯m born to be at odds with the spy business,¡± Clito said with a smile. ¡°If not, why am I always encountering these guys?¡± The once ace spy laughed. He did not continue to elaborate on this somewhat bizarre topic. To the advanced mage who still seemed to be in a slight daze, he said, ¡°You have two choices.¡± ¡°What are the choices?¡± the high mage was quick to regain his sobriety and sanity and asked as calmly as he could. ¡°The first choice is to try and see if you are able to kill us, then escape,¡± Easter said. ¡°This choice is not that difficult. It is nothing more than unleashing your potential via an outburst. It¡¯s just killing two Legendary Masters; that¡¯s not that difficult, right?¡± The advanced mage did not answer this question. With a sigh, he asked, ¡°What about the other choice?¡± ¡°The other choice is to behave yourself and give us your honest cooperation,¡± Easter said. ¡°In fact, I¡¯m also very curious. Exactly what do you know? Where did you learn of the news? Who else knows about this?¡± There was a dangerous glow in his eyes as he said, ¡°The most important thing is, I need you to work with us. We need to find all these guys who know of things they shouldn¡¯t know!¡± The advanced mage was silent for a while and then asked, ¡°Can you give me some time to think about it?¡± ¡°No problem, you can think through it slowly. I¡¯m not in a rush,¡± said Easter. ¡°I¡¯ll just wait here, when you are done considering, you can call me anytime.¡± ¡°Eh? You are going to stay here to accompany him? What about your job?¡± Clito asked in surprise. ¡°You¡¯ll cover this shift for me,¡± Easter said with indifference. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m quite idle during this period. My job is still mainly to train the kids. You can handle those things too¡ªand I remember you have always been popular with the kids, especially the young ladies.¡± Clito smiled awkwardly then hurriedly left, leaving only Easter and that apprehended advanced mage in the house. It was only after Clito had gone far enough that Easter could once again look at that advanced mage. But at that moment, his eyes had become gloomy, cold, and full of murderous intention. ¡°Just now my friend was around, there were certain things that I couldn¡¯t speak of,¡± he said coldly. ¡°Regarding the issue with Cambrona and his wife, rightfully, there should not be any outsiders who know of it. How on earth did you know about his wife¡¯s identity? Not waiting for the other party to answer, he continued to add on right away, ¡°I know you must be unwilling to tell the truth, but it doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m also not expecting you to give me an honest answer. I¡¯m going to send you to meet someone in a moment. Right in front of him, there¡¯s no way you¡¯ll have the chance to hide anything!¡± ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡± the advanced mage asked with worry. ¡°A necromancer. Maybe you know him,¡± Easter said lightly. ¡°I was just thinking about it. In fact, the greatest possibility of how you got this news might be from him. ¡± The advanced mage instantly showed his discomfort and panic. With a bitter expression, he said, ¡°Can I not meet Tu Ya¡¯an? If I were to meet him like this, I would lose all my dignity¡­¡± ¡°Dignity? If you have wanted to retain your dignity, why did you become a spy?¡± Easter asked as he laughed coldly. ¡°Now I know who you are¡­ haha. You are one of the city lords of Mill City and also a great mage who owns a Legendary magic tower. Why have you come all the way to our Republic of Northwest to be a spy?¡± That advanced mage was Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s ¡°Senior,¡± the oldest among all the disciples under Master Mill, a Legendary Master. He happened to discover some wonderful traces in Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s magic tower, and after a period of research, he figured out that Tu Ya¡¯an was carrying out some research related to the ¡°extraction of divinity.¡± Suddenly, he felt invigorated, and he started to investigate the matter at all cost. After several years of investigation, he was almost done sorting out the entire matter, especially in ascertaining the possible existence of a ¡°weapon of god¡± that carried divinity with it. That was none other than Cambrona¡¯s wife, Jane. So regardless of identity or dignity, he hurriedly made his way over to Void City where he stayed in the dark to secretly spy on Jane¡¯s situation. He wanted to get a clear understanding of what was going on. Unfortunately, he might be an expert in magic, but in the spy business, he was nothing more than an outsider. Being discovered after a few attempts at spying was not considered that bad, but the worst thing was to be seen through by Clito who just happened to pass by. Clito then sneaked into the mage¡¯s house and caught him in the act. Facing a situation where he was caught red-handed in the act, there was certainly no way he could show any denial. Especially after his identity was discovered by Easter, robbing him of the last trace of hope to escape by sheer luck. Caught in such a helpless situation, even this old mage who was highly respected could only hang his head in dejection as he accounted for everything with complete honesty. Chapter 653 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Eh?! Senior, what brings you here?¡± Tu Ya¡¯an asked. He was very happy to learn of his senior¡¯s visit and came out of his magic tower to welcome him. Given his status as a Legendary Master, for him to personally come out to receive this guest, it could be seen how much honor he was giving this old mage. Even Easter, who had accompanied the old mage on this visit could not help feeling a little surprised. He felt that perhaps he had somewhat underestimated this old man. In their world, legendary and below legendary were two completely different levels. Some masters, the extreme ones, even felt that any living thing that was below the legendary level simply did not qualify as ¡°humans¡±; they were nothing more than mediocre and incompetent beings that were ¡°living.¡± Even for masters who were relatively more liberal-minded, most of them would not see the humans who had yet to step into the Legendary Realm as equals. At most, they would cast friendly looks at them, but they did so from a commanding position. This was not only because of the power gap but rather, the more important reason was because of the difference in each other¡¯s mortality level. The Legendary Masters had long lives and all kinds of wonderful abilities. Moreover, they had taken the first crucial step towards breaking through the limits of being mortals to enter the Legendary Realm. In the near future, they had the possibility of obtaining immortality, or even the hope of being sealed gods. They were like boulders, tenaciously putting up a resistance to avoid being washed away by the river of time, and they thought little of the storms and the change of dynasties within the mortal world. By contrast, no matter how much hard work was put in, the mortals who could at best live up to a hundred years old, were simply incomparable to them. It was even difficult trying to establish a common language for one another. They could probably eat and drink together, and chat about those earthly yet mundane topics. But if they were to really discuss those solemn and profound matters, any mortal below the legendary level would find it difficult to keep up with the pace beyond a few sentences into the conversation. Once or twice would be fine, but over time, a huge gap like a deep chasm would naturally take form between the Legendary Masters and the mortals who were below the legendary level. Under such a situation, for Tu Ya¡¯an, a master with prestige who had entered the Legendary Realm, to come out in person to receive this languid old man, it was certainly kind of strange. One look at this old mage and anyone could tell that he must have exhausted all possible means to extend his life. Without much luck, he probably only had a few remaining years in this lifetime. It was definitely impossible for him to enter the Legendary Realm. Easter was filled with doubts, but he showed no traces of it on his face. He merely smiled and followed the two into the magic tower. At the same time, he quickly related the entire matter, from start to end, to Tu Ya¡¯an¡ªvia the method of mental communication. After listening to what Easter had told him, the smile on Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s face froze, and he could not help cursing and swearing in his heart. The main reason why he ran out to welcome his guests was because he had been too idle during this period, so idle that he felt bored. Occasionally running into a familiar face, of whom he could have a discussion with, was still better than nothing, even if the topic was something close to home. But he had not expected this senior of his, who must be getting so old and muddle-headed to actually have plans for Jane. Hey, that¡¯s not your average human, she¡¯s a clone of a real god ah! Regarding Jane¡¯s identity, Sui Xiong had explained to Tu Ya¡¯an in detail. Whenever he thought of he himself having an ulterior motive previously, where he wanted to steal the divinity from her, even up till today, Tu Ya¡¯an still could not help but feel the cold shivers running down his spine as he panicked. And this senior of his, though old enough, his strength was not fantastic. At best, he would just have made it up to the level of advanced not too long ago¡ªat his peak, his strength might perhaps reach a level that was near to the legendary level. But as the years added on to his age, for the sake of prolonging his life, he had used several methods that were detrimental to his own strength, which was why his strength had been continuing to decrease. Being able to maintain the advanced level had not been easy either. With such mediocre capability, he dared to toy with the idea of having plans for the clone of a real god? That was simply courting death! And¡­ even if there was hope, he should be first in line! This senior of his, this fellow, had gained an entire legendary magic tower from him, was it still not enough for him? To think this fellow could still make use of those clues that Tu Ya¡¯an had inadvertently left behind to steal the opportunity that belonged to him¡­ Hey! You shouldn¡¯t be so shameless! He was fuming mad inside but did not show it on his face; to his guests, he was still all smiles. He even got his apprentices to prepare some tea and juice to serve these two guests of his. At present, there were about 50 apprentices in Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s magic tower, of which, only four were under his guidance. The rest were educated by these four mages, who strictly speaking were his disciple¡¯s disciples. Usually, these disciple¡¯s disciples, in addition to learning, were tasked in maintaining the operations of the magic tower, and along the way, they would have some miscellaneous errands to run. Tu Ya¡¯an was not a harsh and stringent kind of mage. This magic tower, hand-built by Sui Xiong, was not a tower that the old magic towers could be compared to. It was extremely highly automated. From hygiene to meals, tower spirits with intelligence controlled almost a hundred puppets and statues of all sizes to aptly bring every task to completion. They completed their work so well that apprentices usually did not have many opportunities to do manual work. The tea and juice were served shortly, and these apprentices, having been taught by professionals, had a certain degree of discernment, so they bowed to take their leave. Before leaving, they even closed the door of the meeting room and called two statues over to guard the door so that no one would come to disturb them. Tu Ya¡¯an held up a cup of herbal tea, which was so bitter that one sip of it could bring tears to one¡¯s eyes. He sniffed deeply to take in the simple, exquisite tea aroma, and then lightly, he took a sip. Relishing in the fragrance that followed the bitter aftertaste, he could not help smiling. ¡°Senior, I could fairly say that I know of your purpose in coming here, but why would you think of doing such a thing?¡± he said point-blank. ¡°This is really beyond your ability. Remember what you taught us in your lessons, didn¡¯t you emphasize that as mages, the most important thing we needed was wisdom, and the key to wisdom was to know what we could and couldn¡¯t do?¡± The old mage, who had aged so much that his entire face was full of wrinkles, gave a bitter laugh and said, ¡°Of course I knew the principle, but when I was in the face of the situation, I was unable to rein in enough control.¡± He also held up a cup of herbal tea and took a sip. The extreme bitterness of the tea caused his eyebrows to knit into a frown. It took a long while for him to finally recover from the effects of the tea, and he could not help but exclaim his compliment. ¡°What fine tea! My tongue almost lost all its ability to taste, and yet I could feel its bitterness and fragrance. The ingredients used for this tea must be extraordinary.¡± ¡°There is nothing uncommon about it, it is mainly made out of the young leaves from the Divine Tree and the ashes of Legendary Dead Souls,¡± Tu Ya¡¯an said lightly. ¡°The key is the combination of the two and the skill used during the manufacturing process. If you like, I can pack up a few pounds of it for you later on, and you can bring it back and slowly enjoy the drink.¡± The senior mage laughed bitterly; then shaking his head, he said, ¡°I don¡¯t have many days left to live. This time, it¡¯s all thanks to you, so since I can make it back alive, I should make arrangements for my funeral. This tea¡­ just a packet the size of my palm will be enough for me. Any more than that will go to waste.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an sighed gently then urged, ¡°Actually, if you want to live a few more years, it is not impossible¡­¡± ¡°You mean, turning into a dead soul, right?¡± asked the senior mage as he laughed and shook his head. ¡°I am, after all, a city lord. I can die, or I can commit some heinous crimes or do some shady deals and get killed in the process¡ªthere¡¯s really nothing I can¡¯t do. But if I were to opt for turning into a dead soul, that would be going overboard. Even if I don¡¯t care about my dignity, I need to think about the future of my descendants, and above all, I have to consider our teacher¡¯s dignity.¡± Hearing this, Tu Ya¡¯an could not suppress a bitter laugh. He shook his head gently and never mentioned that suggestion again. Chapter 654 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Their teacher was one of the famous Legendary Masters in Mifata Federation, Master Mill. This master was known as the ¡°Sage of Life and Death,¡± and he had carried out profound research on the two types of spells involving life and death. However, he had always taken his stand with the side of ¡°living.¡± Although he dabbled in spells pertaining to dead souls, he had never taken the initiative to turn a living being into a dead soul. The fact that Tu Ya¡¯an became a necromancer had already made Master Mill quite displeased, to the extent where Tu Ya¡¯an found it embarrassing to continue staying in the Mill City. He found a place that was significantly far outside the city and built his own magic tower. His senior was the oldest disciple under Master Mill and had been a city lord for Mill City for many years, so he could be known as a contemporary flagship figure of Mill School. If he too revoked Master Mill¡¯s teachings to turn into a dead soul for the sake of living longer, then Master Mill would lose all his dignity and never be able to lift his head before all the other Legendary Masters. ¡°I¡¯ve been on the receiving end long enough,¡± his senior said. ¡°Of course, it is good to be able to find a way to extend my life, but even if I can¡¯t extend it, I¡¯ll live with it. There are certain things that can¡¯t be achieved after all.¡± Tu Ya¡¯an did not persuade any further. He merely gave a bitter laugh. With a secret method, he informed his sister to bring some snacks to them so he could resolve the slightly awkward situation they were in at that moment. Tessa was aware that there were guests as soon as they came, but she did not fancy that somewhat rigid senior of theirs, so she had no intention of meeting him. At this moment, upon receiving her brother¡¯s message, she frowned a little, but she still prepared the snacks and personally delivered it to them. She did not make these snacks, of course. She had bought them from a little stall on the street. Despite her wealthy background, Tessa did not pay special attention to the pricing of the food she ate. She was only particular about the taste. The snacks from that street stall were tasty enough and suited her palate, so she bought a lot. Then using magic, she preserved them. When she had a craving for them, she would take a little out to eat. It was very convenient. Speaking of which, her current lifestyle was simply way too lazy. Every day, other than reading books, she would be eating snacks or lying in bed watching entertainment programs screened by a magic projector, which were more commonly known as movies, while snacking. Occasionally, she would go to the theater to catch a performance; then along the way, she would treat herself to a hearty meal, and this outing would be considered as intensive exercise. This was just like the kind of life one led in raising a pig. If it was administered to someone else¡¯s life, a round and lazy little pig would have been raised. But Tessa¡¯s body was created with Sui Xiong¡¯s Divine Power, so there was no way she could get fat at all. No matter how many high-calorie things she ate, no matter how much she neglected exercising, she could still maintain an ideal body. If word of this got out, she would really be the envy of those aristocratic ladies who were trying their best to lose weight. However, while physical problems were easily solved, mental problems were otherwise. Long term decadence with a lifestyle of a pig apparently made Tessa lazy all day long. Other than changing into all sorts of new clothes and parading before her brother, usually, she was not motivated to do anything much. She was only short of finding a soft cushion, lying prone on it, then reciting her line, ¡°I¡¯m almost a wasted person already.¡± When she pushed that little cart and brought a few plates filled with a variety of snacks and a bag of specially concocted herbal tea, Easter was indifferent, but the senior mage¡¯s eyes widened in shock. He had never delved into the Dead Soul Spell, but as the oldest disciple of Master Mill, and in addition to being on friendly terms with Tu Ya¡¯an, naturally, he would have an acute, discerning eye when it came to aspects related to dead souls. Just at first glance, he could tell that Tessa was no longer in a half-dead state like before but had become a real living person. She had a complete life, and like ordinary living humans, she could die of sickness and old age! ¡°This¡­ how is this possible?¡± he asked with surprise. Tu Ya¡¯an naturally understood what he meant. He smiled and explained Tessa¡¯s situation. When the old mage learned that Tessa¡¯s present body was personally created by His Majesty, who was none other than the great Void Mask, a real god, he made peace with the situation. Gods could accomplish such deeds, so indeed, there was nothing strange about it at all. He could not help sighing at the thought of it. A trace of a smile seemed to appear in Easter¡¯s eyes, who had been watching with indifference as he seized the opportunity. ¡°Mage Hailaer (his senior¡¯s last name), I wonder if you¡¯ve ever considered switching your allegiance to another master?¡± Tello Hailaer froze for a moment and then questioningly looked towards Easter. This Legendary Master, whose origins were unclear, had kept mum all this while. From Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s attitude towards him, he should be a higher-up from the Republic of Northwest, but he did not seem to be on very close terms with Tu Ya¡¯an. Come to think of it, that was very normal. As a necromancer, Tu Ya¡¯an rarely went out to meet guests, so it was reasonable for him not to have many friends. If he had a party where many distinguished guests and friends turned up, that would be strange. But why did he suddenly say such a thing? After a moment of silence, this old mage, who could almost see the Grim Reaper waving to him, hesitated to ask, ¡°What you just said¡­ what exactly does that mean?¡± ¡°Our Majesty has always been passionate about his search for talents. For this, he has never been stingy with rewards,¡± Easter said. ¡°I and Tu Ya¡¯an have both received his favor, that¡¯s why we are leading such good lives now. If you are willing to change sides and be under his command, I believe you¡¯ll be able to get what you want.¡± The old mage naturally understood the underlying meaning of his words, and suddenly, he hesitated. He thought for a while, then said hesitantly, ¡°I am a follower of the Master of Mystery¡­¡± ¡°His Majesty, the Master of Mystery, is now in a difficult situation himself. Are you sure he still has the strength to protect his followers?¡± Easter said bluntly, without any due respect for the prestigious Master of Mystery. ¡°If you were to live for another 200 to 300 years, you might even witness his fall with your own eyes!¡± The senior mage laughed bitterly and said, ¡°But Teacher was a follower of His Majesty, the Master of Mystery. So am I. We, from Mill City, have always been hard-core followers of the Master of Mystery. His teachings have long been integrated into our lives and have become an integral part of us. Even if I wanted to change over, there is no way I could convince myself into changing my principles.¡± This was a huge problem. Beliefs were not just about ¡°I¡¯m willing to believe in who.¡± It was not that simple. More importantly, it was about ¡°I think whose teachings are more reasonable.¡± Like Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s senior, a mage who had lived for hundreds of years, his outlook on life, his worldview, and his values of life had long been fixed. Just as how he himself had said¡ªeven if he wanted to change over, it would be impossible to change his views. Easter was neither disappointed nor angry. On the contrary, he laughed and said, ¡°Yes, you can¡¯t change your views just like that, but you can change the political inclination of Mill City, can¡¯t you?¡± The old mage was taken aback momentarily, but he understood what Easter meant almost immediately. Easter wanted him, not in his personal capacity as an advanced mage, but in his capacity as city lord of Mill City. Or rather, Easter wanted Mill City. If the old mage wanted to reap benefits from Sui Xiong, his only choice was to drive Mill City into changing its allegiance. Even if Mill City could not openly cut ties with the Mifata Federation, it had to at least hover within the boundaries of both the Republic of Northwest and the Federation, and yet not violate the rules of either place. This was no small matter. Given his prestige and status, if he wanted to drive this matter to success, he would require a great deal of time and effort, and he would be spending an exorbitant amount of political capital. This old man, who had performed the role of city lord of Mill City for so many years, could not help hesitating. He could afford to pay such a price, but¡­ was it really worth it? Chapter 655 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Mages formed a special group that showed no devotion to beliefs. It was not that they had no beliefs. Most mages also had their own beliefs. They often believed in the Master of Mystery, or the God of Spellcasters, or some even believed in the God of Scholars. These three were considered the mainstream gods that the mages believed in. Furthermore, there were also all kinds of other beliefs¡­ Right, because the God of Spellcasters and the God of Scholars had fallen, now among the gods that the mages believed in, in second place was the God of Knowledge and Culture, Wall. There was even quite a substantial number placing their belief in the wonderful jellyfish god, who was none other than the Void Mask. However, no matter which god they believed in, it was very rare that the mages would truly place their beliefs on an equal level as life, or even place their beliefs higher than life. To them, beliefs were nothing more than things that could hold their ideals. And ideals were ideals because they were the opposite of reality. Most mages were realists, and of course, they were willing to pursue their ideals, but rarely, would they be willing to devote themselves to pursuing their ideals. In a sense, this group of mages was very unrefined. They were far less than the purity of the group of scholars. No matter how these two groups had great similarities or even places of overlap, the scholars were far above the mages both in terms of reputation in the outside world and cohesion within the group. Of course, the mages were not concerned about this. Instead, they felt their attitude was the right way to handle their beliefs¡ªfor a belief to become established, the key lay in the conformation of everyone¡¯s ideals. Humans could sacrifice for their ideals, but if they sacrificed themselves for their beliefs, that would be tantamount to using the wrong purpose and means. They would be doing the unimportant things before the important ones. Some extreme mages even called those who were devout followers of beliefs fools, finding that they had abandoned the most precious things humans had¡ªspiritual independence. hey felt they had been degraded to domesticated beasts or even mere tools of gods. In certain worlds, there were also mages who had formed powerful unions to ostracize all religions, and they even forbade the people to believe in gods. Tello Hailaer was certainly not such an extremist, but neither could he be said to be devout to his belief. Or in other words, he was a typical mage. This kind of person could either become absolute believers who came to hold the same ideals as gods, or at best, real followers. But unquestionably, they could never become devout followers or passionate followers. This was because their attitude towards life revolved mainly around ¡°I,¡± so they would never give up their independence. Mage Hailaer¡¯s belief in the Master of Mystery roughly fell between the range of absolute and real. On one hand, he agreed with a large part of the teachings of the Master of Mystery, but on the other hand, he also had completely different views from those of the Master of Mystery on various other matters. Such a situation was commonplace among the advanced mages, so there was nothing surprising about it. To him, the problem with belief could be seen as a deal. So long as there were reasonably good conditions, he did not mind switching over to believing in another god. But this did not mean that he would become a devout follower of the other god. This was because he would never change his principles. So if Easter had wanted him to change his belief, he might give it some careful consideration, coupled with some negotiation, and agree to come to terms with a change of belief. However, what Easter wanted was not his belief. Easter wanted a change in the political attitude of Mill City, and this put him in a difficult spot. As a city in the middle east of Mifata Federation, Mill City¡¯s status was way beyond that of Golden Tower City, it could even be said to be the most important city within the whole of Mifata Federation¡ªthis was apparent from the fact that they had two Legendary Masters in command of the city. For such a city to change its political standpoint, this was no small matter at all! Back when Golden Tower City became independent, the Mifata Federation mobilized a large army, despite the costs, and fought a siege that lasted several months. In the end, though the army did not manage to bring down Golden Tower City and had to withdraw its soldiers and depart dejectedly, the Federation still did not acknowledge Golden Tower City as an independent state. From this event, the Federation¡¯s attitude was evident. If Mill City wanted independence or wanted to pledge allegiance to the Republic of Northwest instead, it would evoke an even greater reaction from the Mifata Federation. By that time, it might not only be a great army of soldiers charging over to attack, but even be more than a dozen Legendary Masters coming together. They would attack with their powerful legendary spells progressively, which would fall upon Mill City like raindrops. Would Tello Hailaer be able to weather through such a scene? Without deliberation, he knew, for sure, that he could not possibly hold it off. And there was no need for the Legendary Masters to participate. His teacher, Master Mill, would most likely show his disapproval as Mill City was a city hand-built by Master Mill himself. Though he had handed the position of city lord over to Hailaer, the highest authority of the Mill Magic Tower still fell within Master Mill¡¯s hands. In other words, he truly remained as the city¡¯s most powerful figure with the highest authority. With the magic tower given to him by Tu Ya¡¯an, Hailaer was not without the ability to fight a war against his teacher, but being able to fight, also did not necessarily mean it was possible to win. If Master Mill was willing to, so long as he paid the due cost, he could definitely destroy Hailaer, along with the magic tower that was given by Tu Ya¡¯an, and blow everything up. After all, Hailaer was not the creator of that magic tower, so the tower and him were not a very good fit. More importantly, his ability was inferior to that of Master Mill. This perfectly depicted what a famous line in a martial arts novel meant¡ªfor most people in this world, even if they had a sword in hand, that would not make them a Sword God. To make use of that magic tower to grapple with Master Mill, then it would be more viable for Tu Ya¡¯an to personally fight the battle instead. But Tu Ya¡¯an clearly would not run all the way back to render support to Hailaer, and it was all the more impossible for him to fall out with Master Mill, who had guided him as a teacher. So this was absolutely impossible. Hailaer was silent for a long time, then at long last, he heaved a deep sigh. ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m almost close to a dead end. I¡¯m just like a drowning person, even if it¡¯s just a straw of grass, I¡¯ll still grab it tightly while hoping that it can save my life,¡± he said slowly with a heavy heart. ¡°But I really don¡¯t have the capacity to change the political standpoint of Mill City. This is not a question of whether I want to or don¡¯t want to do, but rather, whether I can or can¡¯t do it.¡± Easter laughed. Hailaer had seriously considered this before rejecting him, evidently showing that he had, indeed, taken the matter to heart and also, clearly showed that he had indeed been tempted. If that was the case, it would make things much easier to handle. ¡°If you are worried that you lack combat power, I can think of a solution,¡± he said straightforwardly. ¡°If there is a need to, I can always deploy at least ten Legendary Masters over to help you hold the fort. I believe with so many Legendary Masters out in the open, even the Mifata Federation wouldn¡¯t possibly risk trying to annihilate so many Legendary Masters and try to resolve the problem by force.¡± Mage Hailaer, who had already given the matter serious consideration, still shook his head and said, ¡°The problem doesn¡¯t only exist here. Even if you all can help me in the fight against Mifata Federation, what if Teacher were to show up? I can¡¯t possibly rope in outsiders to go against Teacher. If that is the case, I¡¯d rather die!¡± He sounded so resolute and determined that there was no room for any other alternative solution to change his mind. In truth, Tello Hailaer was not under the control of Master Mill and thus did not dare to become enemies with his teacher. If there was a need to, he did not mind fighting his teacher. But if he had to fight his teacher, he also had a baseline. He could look to his senior or junior brothers, who were all disciples of Master Mill for help, and that was acceptable to him. But if he were to enlist help from outsiders to tackle his teacher, that was simply unacceptable! Using Earth¡¯s lingo, this was known as the difference between ¡°internal conflicts¡± and ¡°external conflicts.¡± If it was an internal conflict, even if the fight involved thrashing the wits out of one another, it was still acceptable. After the fight, everyone could still sit down together to eat and drink. There would not be any problems if they were to swear and yell at one another. But if it one was to collude with outsiders and get them to meddle in the fight, that would be a treacherous act where one would be a snitch or a traitor! Without bothering on whether it was justifiable or not, the first thing to do would be to punish oneself by driving a sharp blade into your leg as a form of self-inflicted injury. Driving a silver blade in and pulling out a red one thereafter was the right thing to do! Just like in China, two parties fought one another till there was only chaos and darkness, and they killed until all the blood flowed like a river. But the moment the Japanese Invasion began, the first and foremost thing they did was cast aside their internal disputes to join hands against Japan. This was what it meant by saying, ¡°internal disunity dissolves at the threat of external invasion.¡± Resisting foreign invasion was the cardinal issue of right and wrong, and before this matter of great pertinence, nothing else was worth mentioning. Of course, ideals and reality were two different stories altogether. From Nan Ming¡¯s, ¡°Borrowing the captives to put down the invaders,¡± to the end of Qing¡¯s, ¡°Better to be bullied by outsiders than to be bullied by people at home,¡±¡ªsuch situations of incompetent and hateful people breaking through baselines were commonplace. Even for a VIP, so honorable that his name must always be surrounded by more space to distinguish it from the rest, would never forget the need to suppress the Communists. And the desire to do so was so strong that it even led to the Southern Anhui Incident, but at least, Tello Hailaer was not such a person. To him, one of the basic principles that he adhered to in life was never to collude with outsiders to go against his teacher. He could die, but he must never go against his principles! Easter saw how resolute he was, and with a slight frown, he looked towards Tu Ya¡¯an. Tu Ya¡¯an could not help letting out a sudden bitter laugh. He knew he would definitely be implicated in this matter, but there was nothing he could do. ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t want to become enemies with my teacher,¡± he said. After hesitating for a long time, he shook his head and said, ¡°Mr. Easter, if you truly want me to go against my teacher, just you speaking up is not enough.¡± Easter naturally understood what he meant. It was only him doing the talking, but his words did not carry enough weight. For Tu Ya¡¯an to make up his mind to help Tello Hailaer tackle Master Mill, the Void Mask must be the one asking for the favor in person. This was the greatest concession that Tu Ya¡¯an could allow and also his baseline. He had received grace and kindness from His Majesty, the Void Mask, and had long since entrusted his entire life to this god. If the Void Mask was the one asking him, he would be able to convince himself to fight his teacher. But this made Easter somewhat hesitant. It was obvious that Tu Ya¡¯an did not have much fighting spirit. Given his state of mind, if he were to exchange blows with Master Mill, a Legendary Master with a reputation of almost a thousand years, exactly what would the odds of winning be? Easter only feared the chance of winning was not high. Not only that, Tu Ya¡¯an might get seriously injured, and it would not even be surprising if he were to lose his life. To the Republic of Northwest, Tu Ya¡¯an and his skeleton labor corps were an important source of power that was indispensable. If necessary, Easter could even use his life to protect and keep this Legendary Master alive. So no matter what, he could not allow Tu Ya¡¯an to risk his life in any way. The situation was akin to when herders wanted to exterminate wolves. Of course, there was nothing wrong with using sheep as bait to lure the wolves. But those who went against the principle of ¡°having your cake and eating it too¡± were either naturally cold-blooded beasts or mental retards with brain problems. No matter what the situation seemed to be, one¡¯s own children would always be much more important than the wolves! Easter pondered for a long time, but in the end, he was still unable to make up his mind. With a deep sigh, he silently prayed to Sui Xiong, beseeching Sui Xiong to make the decision. Sui Xiong received the prayer right away, and almost immediately, he rushed over to where Tu Ya¡¯an was. A green light flashed by, and then a palm-sized floating jellyfish appeared right before them. Easter and Tu Ya¡¯an hastened to bow and pay their respects while Tello Hailaer also expressed reverence for this great god. ¡°Your Majesty, what do you think?¡± Easter asked with some anxiety after the salutations were done. Though he was still fond of the Mifata Federation, it did not mean that he would not do his best to consider what was best for the Republic of Northwest. Just like roping in the border cities at the northern boundary, like Gray Tower City, to join the alliance, or digging up a corner of the surrounding wall of Mill City¡ªhe saw no problem with any of these things at all. So long as what was done did not cause any natural disasters or dire poverty loss within the Federation, he saw no problems at all. As for digging a hole in the corner of the wall, that would not even be considered a problem either¡­ Sui Xiong had learned of the entire matter from Easter¡¯s prayers. After thinking about it, he asked Mage Hailaer, ¡°If Master Mill doesn¡¯t mind Mill City changing its allegiance to another camp, then naturally, that is a happy ending for us all. But if he¡¯s unwilling to, what is the greatest extent you can go in fighting him?¡± ¡°I can combine forces with the other disciples against Teacher or even chase him away,¡± Tello Hailaer replied without hesitation, ¡°but I¡¯ll absolutely not kill him. Nor will I collude with outsiders against him.¡± The green jellyfish swayed back and forth a few times, which meant he was nodding his head. ¡°So if you were to become a legendary creature now, do you suppose you will be able to fight Master Mill?¡± Mage Hailaer frowned, and he thought for a long time before replying, ¡°That depends on what kind of legendary creature I become. If it is one that¡¯s especially powerful, of course, I am confident in going to battle with Teacher. But if it¡¯s something mediocre, then I don¡¯t think I can.¡± ¡°How powerful do you need to be?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°At least to the level of the legendary dragon race,¡± Hailaer replied. ¡°Like the Iridescent Dragon, the Forceful Dragon, the Time Dragon¡­ if I have that level of power, coupled with my own spellcasting ability, I should have enough power to fight Teacher.¡± Now, it was Sui Xiong¡¯s turn to frown. The three types of dragons that Hailaer mentioned were none other than the famous ¡°Legendary Three Dragons.¡± Once they reached adulthood, they would become Legendary Masters, and when they become full-grown dragons, they would even be worthy opponents of the gods. ¡°You¡­ are you willing to become a dragon?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while, then asked. Hailaer shook his head right away, then said, ¡°I¡¯m just willing to become a legendary creature, not actually become a dragon¡ªmy human form, this is the limit to what I can accept. Even if I were to take the appearance of a goblin, so be it, but to become a dragon¡­ is really way beyond the limit to what I can accept.¡± Sui Xiong sighed. He had expected Hailaer to think as such too. For Hailaer to become part of the legendary dragon race or to become a legendary creature of this level, he might still be able to come up with something. But under such a situation where he had to enable Hailaer to maintain his human form while becoming a legendary creature of this level¡ªthat was seriously a little beyond his power. This was mainly because he was not a true ¡°expert¡± in legendary creatures. His ability to transform the physical mortal body was, in fact, only an attribute of his own creativity. Like how the Sun God had created the Angel race out of nothing, he was not capable of achieving the same thing. Thinking of which, his eyes suddenly lit up as an idea struck him. ¡°Do you mind long wings?¡± he asked. Mage Hailaer thought for a while then shook his head. ¡°Alright!¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°Then, that¡¯s it!¡± Chapter 656 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The former Sun God, who had since fallen, had an extremely unique technique that was exclusive to him. He could create angels. He could make use of all kinds of things to create angels of all sizes, from angels as big as gods, to angels as small as birds and beasts. So long as he was willing to, it was possible to attach a pair of wings on everything in order to obtain a template of a legendary creature. This was probably like some of the illustrators that Sui Xiong had done before he traversed worlds. No matter how beautiful the female characters were, these illustrators liked to add a special, mysterious organ to the hips; thus the famous ¡°Ah Lucifer, please take my soul¡± faction came into existence. And a faction that was diametrically opposed to it, the ¡°help him out¡± faction, was also inaugurated. While on the subject, Sui Xiong himself was a two-sided fence-sitter. When he was in a good mood, he would come up with decent paintings. On the other hand, if he was not in a good mood, he would also draw women with XX (i.e., mysterious organs) Of course, if there were bosses willing to spend money on his art, he too would not mind drawing to their preferences, even if he was not in a good mood. For an illustrator, there was no such thing as moral integrity. So long as the price was acceptable, any kind of painting could be sold. Anyway, any affair related to the cultured people was always full of elegance, haha haha. Of course, there were also some principles that could not be sold. Sui Xiong had a friend who was capable of illustrating paintings that looked as though they were photographs, but still, he led a very down-and-out life. And then, when someone recruited him to draw some political propaganda with content that would defame the country¡¯s nationality. Without thinking twice, that friend simply burst into a storm of abuse, then directly reported that point-of-contact¡¯s conduct. If the same thing happened to Sui Xiong, he would have done likewise. We¡¯ve digressed too far from the topic, so time to get back to the original topic. Originally, Sui Xiong also obtained this technique from the legacy of the former Sun God, but he was not interested in creating a group of angels that would surround him and sing ¡°Holy, holy, holy¡± at the top of the voices. So he had always kept this technique perched on the highest shelf where he would cleanly forget about it. He had never used it before. Now, to think about it, he was, on the contrary, a little curious. Despite using so many life-extending means, at least Mage Hailaer was still an ordinary human. What kind of changes would there be if he were to wear an angel template over his original form? Other than an additional pair of wings, what else would there be? Filled with curiosity, he studied the related information carefully. Three days later, Sui Xiong took Tello Hailaer to his own God¡¯s Kingdom and once again, he opened that Life of Spring that had been constructed out of convenience after the transformation of the Love Angel. Then he got the old man to soak his naked self in the spring water. ¡°I feel an upsurge of the Power of Life.¡± Hailaer was a man with a most discerning eye, and he recognized the value of things. The moment he soaked himself in the spring, his face expressed how pleasantly surprised he was. ¡°Maybe, just by soaking in this spring water, I¡¯ll be able to live another 30 to 50 more years.¡± Sui Xiong smiled without saying anything. Indeed, so long as Hailaer was able to soak himself in this Spring of Life, he would be able to live for at least another 30 to 50 years. Of this, nothing much needed to be said. This was the product Sui Xiong came up with after studying the Divine Power of Life. Its degree of completion was not high enough, but compared to when he first got that single strand of Divine Power of Life from Leon, at least now he could be considered to have made some progress down a more positive route. Even if a god was seriously injured, such a precious treasure could enable a speedy recovery, not to mention extending the life of a mere mortal. But¡­ the effect he wanted to achieve was to give a living human a major transformation, not to extend his life! So he would not be saying nonsensical things like, ¡°Ah, since it¡¯s taking effect, so there we go.¡± He merely smiled mysteriously, activated his Divine Power, and started to transform Hailaer. When the Sun God created angels, he used the power from the ¡°Holy Realm¡± and created angels that were all glistening with rays of light, especially their wings. They were like a combination of white paper and a fluorescent lamp that emitted such a glaring brightness. Sui Xiong most certainly did not wish to create such a freak. That was not in line with his aesthetic standards as an artist. So after some consideration, he decided to use the power of the ¡°Botanic Realm¡± to transform Hailaer¡¯s body. The Botanic Realm could be considered as a sub-derivation of the Life Realm. It could form the perfect fit with the Spring of Life. Living creatures created from this realm usually had extremely long lives, which was the perfect choice for life-extension. And it was not as glaring as the other Life Realms, so it would not attract attention from countless pairs of eyes. This was relatively more appropriate. Following the influx of Divine Power, a brush of jade-green gradually appeared within the milky-white Spring of Life. This little splash of jade-green slowly thickened and started to spread within the spring water. After some time, the entire spring was a scene of jade-green, looking much like a superior piece of jade. Hailaer could not help marveling at what he saw. Though his power was only at what he had when he first stepped up to advanced level, his eyesight was still close to the legendary level. He could easily tell that the power in the spring water was changing and heading towards the direction of ¡°botanic.¡± After some pondering, he understood Sui Xiong¡¯s intention¡ªthe Life Realm was too eye-catching. The slightest mistake might attract the masters who were hankering for this priesthood. On the contrary, the Botanic Realm was much more low-key. Demigods created from botanics were commonplace, and the number of legendary creatures was large to start with, so it really was not much of a difference with or without him. As for his own attitude¡­ so long as he could extend his life, he was not concerned about whether the power from the Life Realm or the Botanic Realm was used. Both were similar to him anyway. Even if there was a large difference, it also did not matter to him. There was no need to be so contentious in life. So long as he could continue to live, that was good enough! After a while, and under the influence of a strong Divine Power, the green spring water rapidly seeped into Hailaer¡¯s body and started replacing the flesh and blood. This process was somewhat agonizing. Fortunately, Sui Xiong was taking control of the speed with great caution to make it tolerable for Hailaer. But cold perspiration from tolerating the pain was still evident on his forehead. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Sui Xiong asked when he noticed that Hailaer was gritting his teeth. ¡°Is it that painful?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt more than certain magic experiments,¡± Hailaer said through clenched teeth. ¡°It¡¯s nothing much; I can take it!¡± Sui Xiong nodded, but still, he further slowed down the process of the transformation. He was not like a mad scientist who only bothered about his own experiments without caring about the lives of others. Since he could do this slowly and gently and still achieve the desired goal, why would he make it torturous for others? That would simply make him a psychopath! After a while, the botanic power had completely penetrated Hailaer¡¯s body. At this moment, though he was still soaked within the spring water, Hailaer had started to assimilate into the spring water. If this situation persisted, he would gradually blend into the spring water and transform into an existence similar to a ¡°spring water elf.¡± Of course, this was not the result Sui Xiong wanted, so he re-adjusted his Divine Power, and following the method stated in the information left behind by the former Sun God, he constructed an amazing vein within Hailaer¡¯s body. Because he was well-prepared, this process was completed very quickly. At this moment, Hailaer was already blended into one harmonious entity with the botanic power, so he felt no pain at all. Earlier on, the reason for using the botanic power to completely penetrate and transform him was just for this moment. If there had not been any preparatory steps earlier on, no matter how strong-willed Hailaer had been, it would still be death for him now. There would be no exceptions. After the completion of the vein construction, Sui Xiong divided out a little of his Divine Power and lightly lit up the core area of the vein. Instantly, Hailaer¡¯s entire body started to burn with blazing flames, as though a fire torch was tossed at a flammable object. These flames completely and cleanly burned away all the impurities within and outside his entire body, only leaving behind, the vein that was constructed by the botanic power. So for a sudden moment, he did not have a human form. He became a composition of a frightening green network. Fortunately, this process was short. A moment later, a strong power began to reconstruct his flesh and bones. His internal organs, skeleton, blood vessels, muscles, skin, hair¡­ all of these re-emerged at lightning speed, and finally, a healthy and strong man who looked at least 70 to 80 percent similar to Hailaer took form. But this man was much younger than the old Hailaer. This man looked around 30 years old. He was in the prime of his life and was full of vigor. The muscles on his body were well-proportioned, there were no signs of obesity on his body, nor were there signs of fatigue because of excessive exercise. Looking closely at him, it was as though every muscle on him was ready to show an outburst of power. His entire being felt as though it was filled with strength and vigor, just like a leopard saving up its strength as it got ready to start out. Behind him, a green light was still flowing and combining to slowly form a strong and huge pair of wings that looked as though they were formed by countless tree leaves. This pair of wings was currently closed, but if they were spread open, they would most likely be able to wrap around his upper body. These wings were the most important organ of an angel. Not only could they assist with spellcasting, but they could also enable the angel to fly and were even able to store a humongous amount of power to allow for an outburst of power at critical moments. And they still had their most important use: When caught in a desperate situation, an angel could use magic to light up their wings. This would then create a scary explosion so massive that it could engulf a large patch of land. The angel¡¯s soul would then make use of this massive explosion to escape to secure its chance for a future. The former Sun God did not have a likable character, but his technique would indeed render anyone speechless. The angels he created were much more powerful than those ¡°angels¡± created by the Power of the Good at the front of the Ring of the World. They were also more complete. If he had been able to continue living on, probably this technique could have further room for improvement, and that might, in turn, allow the angels created to be even closer to perfection. However, all of this was no longer possible. From what Sui Xiong knew, among the numerous gods, there was no one else who had begun another round of large-scale creation of angels. Most likely, there was no longer anyone willing to emulate a dead man¡¯s practice. When the finishing details of the wings were finally completed, Sui Xiong smiled, snapped his fingers, then shouted, ¡°Still not waking up? When are you going to wake up?¡± This voice was not very loud, but when heard by Hailaer¡¯s ears, it was a stentorian voice that sounded like the loud ringing of a large bell and the rumbling of big drums. The voice rudely shocked him awake from a slumberous state, and he hurriedly opened his eyes. Right away, he saw the change in the world around him. Previously, when he looked about Sui Xiong¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom, he could only see all kinds of buildings and sceneries. But what he could see now were countless veins containing power, and this power was slowing flowing through these veins like running water. The flow of power seemed to contain some kind of wonderful laws that had him obsessed instantly. He began studying all about it like a nerd. Sui Xiong sighed, and then, he snapped his fingers loudly again. Hailaer only heard the ¡°boom¡± of a thunderclap; then he was completely awake and realized that he had just done something that was seemingly offensive and rude. He quickly apologized to Sui Xiong. ¡°You can save that apology. I have no need for that. In the future, I just want to see less of it, that will do,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said. ¡°It¡¯s not me being petty about this, but rather, even though your life level has changed, regarding the understanding of power and laws, your body itself has yet to be able to keep up with the pace. This would be too sophisticated for you to study now. Not only will you not be able to reap any results, you will be wasting your energy, and you might even get sick because of it.¡± Of course, Hailaer understood what Sui Xiong meant. In fact, he had realized this just then and had hastened to shut his eyes right away. He did not dare to take another peep. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go,¡± said Sui Xiong, who smiled again. With another loud snap of his fingers, Hailaer was teleported out of the spring and onto solid ground. The clothes that he had taken off earlier were automatically back on his body. Although there were many changes made to his figure, and there was also an additional pair of light wings on his back, his clothes were, in fact, a magic kit with the ability to automatically adapt to one¡¯s body type. So he was not really affected in this aspect. Of course, no matter how adaptable to body type his clothes were, there was no way they could adapt to that pair of wings. Fortunately, that pair of light wings did not have a tangible form. Otherwise, given his current appearance, he would have been extremely embarrassed. A moment later, Sui Xiong brought Hailaer, whose appearance had undergone a major facelift, back to the mortal world where they arrived back at Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s magic tower. At this time, Tu Ya¡¯an was helping out in the kitchen as his sister¡¯s assistant. They were making some light snacks. Two days ago, Tessa watched a romantic serial where there was a female character who had superb culinary skills. Her pet phrase was, ¡°If you want to seize a man¡¯s heart, first entice his stomach.¡± Tessa truly took this for real, and so she decided that from that moment on, she would put in hard work to brush up on her culinary skills. She strove to become an ace chef as soon as possible. To any decision that his sister made, Tu Ya¡¯an would always support it by raising both hands in favor. Regardless of how it meant that he would have to help out in the kitchen as an assistant, which would be very toilsome and also it was a task that was highly incompatible with his status, but since it was his sister who needed his help, he would do whatever laborious task it was. Would status mean anything at all? Because Tu Ya¡¯an was directly determined as the anchor point before the transmission, when Sui Xiong and Hailaer arrived at the magic tower, they appeared in the kitchen where he could be found. At that time, Tessa was having quite a difficult time before the oven. She seemed to be fighting with a cake that looked very weird, as though it was a badly beaten up piece of slime that had completely changed form. It seemed like she was trying to make it into a regular cylindrical shape so that she could put it into the oven. On the other hand, Tu Ya¡¯an was already fully powdered in flour and stained with water marks. He was a total mess as though he had slipped and fell in a pile of flour¡ªno, maybe he had already slipped and fell two, three, four, or even five times¡­ Looking at the messy state of his hair and clothes, that imposing figure of a Legendary Master that he was supposed to be was nowhere to be found at all! If those people who believed in the legends about the ¡°scary necromancers¡± saw this villainous devil, who was said to have manipulated an entire army of skeletons and colluded with the frightening jellyfish known as the Master Evil God, who knew how much they¡¯d laugh at seeing this scene, only to quickly change their minds. Or would they stare with mouths agape and then lose all will to fight? Anyway, at least Hailaer was struck dumb with astonishment. He knew that this junior of his was ¡°henpecked¡± by his sister at home. The severity of his situation was comparable to the losers who ogled at pretty ladies on the streets and were thus punished by their wives who made them kneel outside the house with the ants around them upon reaching home. But to see an imposing Legendary Master in such an overwhelming state, he still felt a deep sense of regret and grief. So he opened his mouth to speak right away and tried to persuade Tu Ya¡¯an not to do such a thing anymore¡ªit was just baking a cake anyway, he just needed to get a few servants to do the baking as he relaxed. Even if he could not find a servant, at least he could still use magic to perform the task! Perhaps, the power of magic might not be able to do a good job in baking the cake, but at least, he would not be in such a sorry state! Tu Ya¡¯an begged to differ. In his opinion, since Tessa wanted to have fun ¡°baking cakes with her own hands,¡± that would mean that he had to put in his best to do likewise. Tessa wanted to become a chef, so he too needed to hurry in educating himself in this course. In short, if Tessa said the sun was square, then the sun that day would have to be so adorably squarish, like a big, boxy piece of wood! No matter how Hailaer tried, Tu Ya¡¯an could not be dissuaded, so Hailaer had no choice but to give up. Sui Xiong, on the other hand, had no intention of using persuasion at all. On the contrary, he was full of praise for Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s attitude. ¡°No matter what, baking a cake is better than carrying out some scary magic experiment,¡± he said. There was really nothing much Hailaer could say, so he asked to retreat while explaining that he needed to return to Mill City to plan and propagate the issue on a change of allegiance. After gaining Sui Xiong¡¯s approval and amidst Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s shouts of, ¡°Stay and try the cake I baked,¡± he ran off without turning back. He was afraid that the longer he remained, the more likely the soul of his mage¡¯s identity would not be able to hold back and would cry out loud in misery. Chapter 657 Tello Hailaer immediately called for a meeting with the higher-ups the moment he returned to Mill City and began to broach the topic on changing allegiance, but things were just as he had expected. This idea met the objections of the masses, and there was almost no one who supported it. ¡°We don¡¯t have many followers of the God of Knowledge in Mill City and even fewer followers of the Void Mask. Why should we change over to their side?¡± most would say. This was the most common attitude observed. ¡°Of course, there isn¡¯t a problem with changing camps. But how much can we benefit from the Republic of Northwest? Are the benefits going to be worth us taking this risk?¡± said those selfish high-ups who had no moral integrity to speak of. Only they were able to make such comments. ¡°We aren¡¯t pushovers or dispensable like Golden Tower City, nor are we like Grey Tower City who has long lingered on the border of half-independent. As a city with Legendary Masters in command, we can be said to be one of the pillars supporting this ¡°Mifata Federation¡± building. How can we possibly detach ourselves from the Federation? Simply ridiculous!¡± said Hailaer¡¯s junior. Out of all the disciples of Master Mill who were still alive, this was the second oldest one. He had always been upright and peace-loving. At this moment, as he opened his mouth to speak, his tone was solemn and forceful. Another junior saw how tensed the situation was and hurried to mediate between the two other disciples, ¡°Older Senior was only bringing this up as a suggestion¡­ but in my opinion, this matter is indeed not quite appropriate. Let¡¯s not talk about feelings, given how important our Mill City is, the Federation will never permit our secession from it.¡± ¡°True! By that time, if a group of Legendary Masters were to come over, what are we supposed to do?¡± said an old judge, whose beard and hair had all turned white, in a quivering voice. ¡°I¡¯m old. I just want to lead a peaceful and stable life. City Lord, please don¡¯t make life difficult for us.¡± The moment his words left his mouth, all the higher-ups were suddenly nodding their heads. The mindset that priority must always be in the order of seniority was a common failing where all living creatures with wisdom were concerned. There was no exception. Being able to make it up to the senior management level of Mill City, most of these members would have been of a certain age group. At this moment, what this elder said struck the right notes to aptly allude to what everyone truly felt. The situation was pretty good in Mill City now. Everyone was leading stable lives, so why would they want to take the risk and pursue even better lives? Regardless of what benefits the Republic of Northwest could offer, it was not worth putting everyone at risk. Hailaer did not get angry. On the contrary, he laughed. Such a reaction had long been within his expectation. The reason why he broached the topic and suggested that Mill City should change allegiance over to the Mifata Federation¡ªnaturally, he had an ulterior motive. ¡°Of course, I have my reasons for bringing up this suggestion,¡± he finally opened his mouth to speak up when the chaotic objections gradually mellowed down. ¡°We¡¯ve been friends for so many years, I don¡¯t wish to beat about the bush with you all. I¡¯ll tell you all the most direct reason first: I¡¯ve received a kind gift from His Majesty, the Void Mask, and I¡¯ve broken free from the mortal world and stepped into the Legendary Realm.¡± His words were like pouring a ladleful of water into a boiling oil cauldron; they threw the entire meeting room into an uproar. When they had seen him return with restored youth, no one had thought much of it. After all, Tello Hailaer was known as the ¡°Statue Mage,¡± where he would usually seal his true body and attach his soul into a statue as he moved about. Although the statue he used this time was different from his past style, there was nothing surprising. In this world, there were many mages who would use statues that looked exactly like their true selves, not to mention that the one Hailaer was using now did not resemble him at all. Considering the fact that he was almost 300 years old, those mortals who had seen his looks when he was in his thirties would most probably have died a long time ago. There were also some people who could vaguely guess what was going on. After all, the Church of the Void Mask had an extremely famous specialty product¡ªa life-prolonging potion. This potion could at most extend one¡¯s lifespan by 10 years, and thereafter, no matter how much more one drank, the total number of years added on would not exceed 15 years. But since His Majesty was able to consent to the sales of this potion, then he must have a more brilliant method of extending life. If he had not gained any benefits from extending his life, given Tello Hailaer¡¯s character, would it be possible for him to suggest that they should change over to the side of the Void Mask and pledge allegiance to the Republic of Northwest? However, even the most imaginative person would not have expected Mage Hailaer to have restored his youth and even step into the Legendary Realm! Of course, this was because Hailaer had kept his power pressure under restraint. He was not a person of an unorthodox background. He had been receiving guidance from a Legendary Master for many years and had a good friendship with another. He himself had once been someone who had reached the legendary threshold. He knew a lot about the Legendary Realm. Although he was a little out of control initially, he quickly mastered his current power. Instead of returning directly to Mill City from Void City via a teleportation spell, he had first arrived at the Highest Tower, where he put together a group of bodyguards and found himself a ride home in a luxurious carriage. Then unhurriedly, he made his way back. The entire journey took about ten days, which was more than enough for him to completely grasp control over his power. Now, so long as he was willing to, he could conceal his power anytime. Even if he were to become someone who was completely powerless, it would also be a piece of cake. So if not for the fact that he was the one explaining himself, no one would have expected him to have actually become a Legendary Master. The most intense reaction came from a few of Hailaer¡¯s juniors. There was one junior in particular who was relatively young; he could not even hold himself back as he stood up and exclaimed in alarm, ¡°Impossible!¡± It was no wonder he reacted so strongly. Among all of Master Mill¡¯s disciples, except for Tu Ya¡¯an who was alienated by the rest because of his study on the Dead Soul Spell, he was already at the top of the ranks in terms of ability. Currently, he was already at the advanced legendary peak. If it was not for the pursuit of reliability, where he had hoped for a one-time success, he would have a shot at shaking the Legendary Realm. However, being able to impact the Legendary Realm did not necessarily mean he could enter the Legendary Realm. Many years back, his oldest senior, Hailaer, had also once reached the advanced legendary peak, and impacted the Legendary Realm, but the result was a typical failure. Not only did he fail to succeed, he even sustained serious injuries. After recuperating for close to ten years and eating many kinds of precious medicines, had he managed to recover his vitality. Since then, Mage Hailaer had tried to impact the Legendary Realm again, twice at that, but still, both times he ended up in failure. If not for the three failures he underwent, then regardless of how long he continued to live, his strength would not have weakened to such a degree. Currently, this junior had yet to try impacting the Legendary Realm, not even once. It was the time where he had the greatest momentum and was brimming with confidence. In fact, he had already given this much thought. If he were to wait a while longer, when his oldest senior¡¯s health could no longer hold out, he would rely on his powerful strength to pull some strings. Then he should be able to become city lord. By that time, he would use his courage and shock the Legendary Realm. There, he could rejoice over the double victory that he obtained! However, with Hailaer entering the Legendary Realm, his plan naturally fell through and ended up in smoke. Tello Hailaer was about 300 years old this year. To mortals, this age had practically reached an ultimate limit. No matter how he tried to prolong his life, death would still be something that would happen within the coming three to five years. But as a Legendary Master, a mere 300 years old was considered young. It might be possibly because he had lost too much previously, if not, he would likely appear to be in his early twenties now. In other words, he had at least another 300 to 400 years to live. If he continued to put in the effort to prolong his life, another 1000 years might not even be a problem. Within the Mifata Federation, there was a Legendary Master who had lived for 4000 to 5000 years. And it was said that in a particularly small world, there was a senior Legendary Master who had lived up to 10,000 years old by hiding himself away in a deep slumber to delay his aging process. But no matter what, it was impossible for this junior here to live for another 300 to 400 years. That was to say, unless he entered the Legendary Realm, he would most probably be unable to wait until his oldest senior reached the age of retirement. This made Hailaer¡¯s junior very resentful. It was not a must for him to become city lord, but this had made him lose his confidence. His original plan that had been perfect was foiled, and this had impaired his mental state. If he did not do anything to mend it, shaking up the Legendary Realm was bound to fail, and there would be no possibility of success. This was the thing that truly made him so annoyed and angry. But no matter how angry he was, he did not dare flare up at his oldest senior who had already entered the Legendary Realm. Without speaking about seniority, with their strengths at that moment, just Tello Hailaer alone was more than enough to crush him. A Legendary Master who was able to conceal their power at the legendary level so well, without showing the slightest bit at all, was definitely not someone that anyone below the legendary level could challenge. So he got to his feet and shouted in a fit of anger, then said nothing more as he sat down sullenly. Seeing the situation, Tello Hailaer had no expression on his face, but in his heart, he was secretly smiling. In recent years, whether it was right in his face or behind his back, this junior of his had mentioned topics related to ¡°death¡± and ¡°retirement¡± on more than one occasion. It was obvious that he had long since accumulated a deep resentment. Before now, Tello Hailaer¡¯s strength was not as high; he was facing imminent death and thus was at his wits¡¯ end. Now, his strength was greatly enhanced, and he had a long life ahead of him. The roles of the strong and the weak had been reversed, so of course, he had to remedy this grievance! Of course, he would only go up to this extent. After all, they were all fellow brothers and had yet to shed all pretenses of cordiality. More importantly, their teacher was still around. If Master Mill was no longer around, would it be possible for this junior brother to allow an old guy who was only left with advanced-level power to be city lord? Regardless of life or death, would he even think of backing off? Similarly, if not for the fact that Master Mill was still around, Hailaer would not take such great pains to play this game and provoke his junior right at the beginning of the meeting earlier on. And then, when the other party could no longer hold it in and make his move, Hailaer would use his true strength to crush the other party directly. Even if he could not kill the other party, he would inflict some serious injuries, the kind that would require the injured person to lie in bed for a good half a month. As for Mill City, to the many disciples, Master Mill was the anchor of stability for them; he was their mainstay. Whether it was Tu Ya¡¯an, who had previously entered the Legendary Realm with his own efforts, or Hailaer, who had now entered the Legendary Realm relying on the help given by the Void Mask, all of them garnered respect. In their impression, this teacher was the embodiment of wisdom and power. Even when compared with His Majesty, Lamperus, who founded the Country of Mages, he was nowhere near inferior. None of them would choose to be an enemy of their teacher unless it was their last resort. After playing a little trick to deal with his junior, Hailaer finally stopped concealing his strength and unleashed his Legendary Master¡¯s aura. There were jade-green light rays all around him like a blooming flower. The vigorous force of nature was flowing from his body like clear spring water that brushed past everyone. For a moment, everyone felt as though their bodies had been flushed inside out, and even their bones felt a little lighter, especially those who were getting on in age. They felt much more comfortable, as though they had become ten years younger. Compared to the people, the tables and chairs in the meeting room felt this effect even more clearly. The tables and chairs in the room were all made of wood. Of course, they had long been chopped down, dried up and had totally lost their vitality. But under the influence of Hailaer¡¯s power, these wooden pieces that were already sun-dried, and even treated by preservatives, once again glowed with vitality. The chairs could be seen sprouting branches and leaves, and they were even connecting themselves to that large table. The large table, naturally, was also growing branches and leaves, and it was also creating many aerial roots that deeply inserted themselves into the wall next to the tables. Slowly, they were becoming one with this big room that was used to convene the meeting. Lastly, in the middle of the large table, a green vine twisted and turned to reveal a huge flower bud that was slowly blooming into a beautiful and bright flower. Seeing this scene unfold, there was no longer anyone who had doubts about Hailaer¡¯s power. A person capable of something like this, if he said he was no Legendary Master, would anyone believe him? The higher-ups of Mill City were all very knowledgeable and experienced, and they had all seen Legendary Masters before. Just his stance itself, Tello Hailaer was not the least bit inferior to the other Legendary Master that everyone knew, Tu Ya¡¯an. And the things that he just did were things that anyone below the legendary level was incapable of. ¡°Strange¡­ Senior, have you changed your specialty? After a while, the second senior, whose seniority was second only to Hailaer, asked out of curiosity. ¡°I remember you never used to follow this course; why have you changed¡­? Is this ¡®nature¡¯ or ¡®botanic?¡¯ It can¡¯t be these two, right?¡± ¡°My brother, you are indeed an expert. Nothing can be hidden from you!¡± Hailaer smiled and nodded as he replied. ¡°With the help of His Majesty, the Void Mask, I finally understood that the original path I chose was not really corresponding to my inner being. What I wanted, in fact, was a stable, long-lasting life like the ancient Divine Tree mentioned in the legends.¡± The second disciple nodded vigorously and said, ¡°You are right! This path does, indeed, suit you well. No wonder you failed three times previously. So the path that truly suits you is not anything else but this, ¡®botanic!''¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m saying, that if we change sides to be under the command of the Void Mask, you all will also have the chance to ask His Majesty to do something to help you all find the path that truly suits you all,¡± Hailaer said as his eyes swept across all his juniors. When he finished scanning through, ¡°If even I can succeed, don¡¯t you all want to take this final step and become a Legendary Master, just like me?¡± This being said, not only his juniors, nut every advanced Master present fell into silence. Who would not want to advance a step further, to become legendary? Who would not want to break through limits and live up to hundreds and thousands of years old? Now, hope was right before their eyes! Amidst the silence, Tello Hailaer laughed. ¡°In fact, there¡¯s no need for us to rush into changing sides,¡± he said. ¡°We can first reveal a slight inclination towards the other side, such as inviting the Church of the Void Mask over to preach their teachings¡­ We must tread the road step by step, just like how we eat our food, one mouthful at a time. We have plenty of time. Why should we worry?¡± This was his true purpose. He had said so much previously, just to set a goal that was too difficult to achieve, to create a false impression in everyone and then, to weaken the feelings of objection they felt in their hearts. Just like a business deal, when one quoted an exorbitant price, the purpose was simply just to make a counteroffer on the spot. Chapter 658 Hailaer was not a businessman, but he had lived for 300 years and had dealt with countless businessmen. He had long picked up the tricks of the trade. When at work, businessmen did not practice a straightforward approach. They generally liked beating about the bush, playing some tricks or using some other methods. The most commonly seen method was this: Imagine you had something with a purchase price of 50 gold coins, then your quoted price should not simply be set with a direct 10 percent profit to become 55 gold coins. The quote should depend on both the customers¡¯ and stores¡¯ situations to be adjusted accordingly. For example, let¡¯s say you had a relatively stable roadside stall and had been doing business by the street for a long time. You should quote 80 coins, then let your customers make you a counteroffer. After a round of nonsensical negotiation, at last, the item will generally be sold for a price ranging from 53 to 58 gold coins. If you opened a high-end shop with luxurious interior decorations on the most prosperous street in a big city like the Highest Tower, then you must never degrade yourself. Right away, you could mark up the price directly to 200 or 300 gold coins, and even bargaining would not be necessary. You just needed to bear your stance of ¡°small things are not worth talking about; let¡¯s talk business.¡± Hailaer¡¯s current situation was almost the kind where ¡°the goods are good, but the customers can still choose whether to buy or not, so I have to sell.¡± So he had to toss out some shocking news to first trigger the higher-ups of Mill City. Then he threw in the second piece of shocking news again to trigger them further. When they started to waver and began to consider agreeing to his suggestion, only then would he tell them his true demands. This way, everything would naturally unfold. To put it bluntly, this was, in fact, the same as haggling with a street vendor. ¡°Hey, miss, what do you think of this fish? Fresh and tender, it¡¯s good!¡± ¡°Well¡­ it¡¯s not bad, how much is it?¡± ¡°Five silver coins.¡± ¡°That¡¯s too expensive. The number of chickens I could buy instead!¡± ¡°Just listen to yourself. Chickens are not rare; this is very rare! This is a seawater fish, so you can¡¯t find it in rivers. Just to bring it over here alive, I had to use seawater along the way, and that took a lot of effort! Just this work alone is enough to make this price worth it! ¡°That¡¯s truly laborious, but still, you can¡¯t sell it at such a steep price! Anyway, if you¡¯re making a trip to the seaside, you should bring something back. So whatever it is, aren¡¯t you still bringing something back?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t speak of it like that. Bringing this over was exceptionally tiring. If I were to bring back some miscellaneous groceries, that would be so much more convenient.¡± ¡°But if you brought in some small groceries, you wouldn¡¯t be able to sell it at a good price.¡± ¡°Yes, so look at this fish, look how good it is! To tell you the truth, this fish is in fact a little different from the average fish.¡± ¡°Eh? Different in what sense?¡± ¡°Think about it, the common fish, even if you take good care of it, after a journey of a few hundred miles through a period of a dozen days on the road, no matter what, it would still die, right?¡± ¡°That¡¯s for sure. Fish are delicate things.¡± ¡°But look at this fish of mine. It¡¯s not dead, on the contrary, it¡¯s still full of vigor.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that it¡¯s because you raised it well?¡± ¡°You think too highly of me. If I truly had the ability to keep a fish alive and well for so long, would I still be setting up a stall by the street? I would have long joined the management team of some trading company!¡± ¡°That sounds about right.¡± ¡°So the key, in fact, lies in this fish¡ªthis fish ah, it has the blood of a demon beast!¡± ¡°Ah?! Demon beast?!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get so nervous! It does carry a little blood of a demon beast, just like those horses with long scales that the knights rode, but it is not really a demon beast.¡± ¡°You scared me! So what is your reason for selling this?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you know? Eating things that carry the blood of demon beasts stimulates the power of the blood inside your body.¡± ¡°Indeed, there seems to be such a saying.¡± ¡°Of course, there is. Don¡¯t the adventurers frequently eat demon beast meat? Demon beast meat is, in fact, not delicious at all. But to become stronger, they can only resent that they don¡¯t have big enough stomachs, so they can never eat enough. Think about, if your own children eat this, thus slightly stimulating that bit of power in their blood¡­¡± ¡°Indeed, this is something good!¡± ¡°Yes, so although the price is a little steep, it is still worth it!¡± ¡°But it¡¯s still expensive. I¡¯m going to go buy a few chickens for my children to eat. That is also good and nourishing.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t put it across like that. You may find this expensive, but you can just walk into an adventurer¡¯s shop to take a look, how much does demon beast meat cost? The prices there are all paid with gold coins. Just a piece as big as your palm will cost you one gold coin! You look at this fish of mine, at least three pounds, but it¡¯s only five silver coins.¡± ¡°But that is demon beast meat.¡± ¡°All of those are made into dried meat! All the vendors in our line of business will know that only by eating it fresh and alive will the effects be good! Here, just like my fish, you can buy it and bring it home, kill it or eat it alive. That¡¯s the best!¡± ¡°But it¡¯s still expensive ah¡­¡± ¡°Alright! You are my loyal customer. I will give in further and sell it to you for three silver coins. But with one whole fish, if it really stimulated the power of blood for your children, then you better shower me with more care in the future.¡± ¡°Deal! There¡¯s nothing more I can say!¡± The conversation above was a scene that Hailaer had chanced upon while on the street as he was making his way back from the Highest Tower earlier on. At that time, he was hit with a bright idea and inspiration. In fact, it was just something typical. This scene was nothing more than someone selling a seawater fish that ¡°gave hope to people about stimulating one¡¯s power after eating it.¡± What he sold was merely a ¡°hope for longevity or to enter the Legendary Realm.¡± Frankly speaking, what everyone bought was the same thing¡ªhope. Hope, to some people, was worthless, but to others, it was something so valuable that no amount was enough to trade for it. Similarly, for a person, there were certain things one would not spare a glance for, but there were also some other things that one would spare no effort in pursuing. It was the same for Hailaer himself. To continue living, he had spent god-knew how much effort all these years, enduring through so much suffering and going through countless risks. Just recently, if it was not to extend his life, would he, a city lord who was perfectly alright, go all the way to the northwest border just because he had plans for a divine master? That would simply be looking for trouble! Generally speaking, a person who sought death was bound to die. If he got lucky, then not only would he not die, he would even have gained benefits. But the benefits always came with a price, because His Majesty, the Void Mask, was no longer so kind and gentle, and he would not be forgiving to a mortal who had deceived him. If he did not produce any results, the outcome¡­ he did not even want to think about that. So throughout the entire journey, he pondered and deliberated on how he could perfect his plan. Finally, he came up with a plan, which was none other than this. Judging from the effect after the actual implementation, this plan should be considered a success. The higher-ups of Mill City had a brief discussion and decided on several strategies like the ¡°invitation to the Church of the Void Mask to come and preach,¡± the ¡°establishment of a temple for the Void God System,¡± the ¡°strengthening of communication with the Republic of Northwest,¡± and the ¡°effort to promote a mutual friendship.¡± Although this was a little inferior to the ideal result, such an outcome was more than enough for him to report to the Void Mask on his mission. And¡­ in fact, such a result might be for the best, as it was something everyone could accept. He also did not need to worry about triggering the Federation¡¯s higher-ups, and in particular, he did not need to worry that his teacher would suddenly fly into a great rage and make an appearance to expel him from his school of disciples. His Majesty, the Void Mask could also smoothly pave a way for his church to enter Mill City and the surrounding area. As for what would happen in the future to the gods who had eternal life, so long as there was a good beginning, what remained to be done would be nothing more than a meticulous job. Time was something the gods never lacked. In fact, Sui Xiong also thought so. When he first received Hailaer¡¯s report and knew about the result of the meeting among the higher-ups of Mill City, he sang high praises of Hailaer. ¡°Very well, this is a beginning that I¡¯m satisfied with,¡± said a voice that seemed to be spoken with a smile, as the shadow of a jellyfish floated before Hailaer. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll just let it slowly develop like that. So long as the end result is something good, I¡¯m not bothered about how much time is spent.¡± This was exactly in line with Hailaer¡¯s speculation, so he was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief and put his heart to rest. And after Sui Xiong ended contact with Hailaer, Hailaer started to think about something else. With his ability, he could totally strive for the development of his church by helping those aged lords to continue living. He believed that when faced with the temptation of being able to live another few more years, such a thing as preaching was insignificant. It should probably be considered as nothing much at all. At least for a majority of the lords, it was nothing much to them. There were also people in this world, of course, who attached immeasurable importance to belief and who would rather die than make any compromise in this aspect. But among the aristocrats, such a group of people should be relatively few. Among the aged aristocrats, the number would be even smaller. On one hand, the moral standards of the aristocratic community were generally a little low. But on the other hand, it was often not easy for such honest and stubborn people to live long¡­ Such a situation where bad money forced good money out of circulation was by no means a good thing for territorial land. It was harmful to the entire aristocratic community. But to Sui Xiong, who wanted to carry out his preaching on a massive scale, this situation was certainly beneficial. So long as he lowered his expectation on the terms of exchange by a slight degree, most of the aristocrats would presumably be willing to make this deal. The only problem was¡­ was helping these aristocrats to extend their lives on such a massive scale really a good thing? This was the problem Sui Xiong was most worried about. This problem was neither big nor small. Though he would not easily help people to enter the Legendary Realm, helping so many people to continue living for a long time was something that would affect the order of the entire society. It would also affect the attitude of the gods. Among them all, the one most likely to show a violent reaction was of course the Grim Reaper. The teachings of the Grim Reaper said that death was nothing scary; just like birth, it was an inevitable destination afterlife. From birth to death, this would be a complete cycle. So the Grim Reaper and his followers found spells like ¡°Raising the Dead¡± and ¡°Creating Soul-Binding Corpses¡± extremely revolting. They had always been trying hard to fight the necromancers. Previously, when Sui Xiong had trusted Tu Ya¡¯an with an important position on dealing with the matter of skeleton labor, the Grim Reaper showed the most aggressive objection. At that time, he was very worried about whether the Grim Reaper would wage a war of gods against him¡ªthat master of the underworld might not strike frequently, but he was extremely powerful. He was himself a great Divine Power, and though he had no god followers under his command, he had a large number of dead souls at the demigod level. Especially when the underworld was connected to countless worlds, how many masters had been bred? What kind of profound inside information was there? No one really knew. Don¡¯t you see? Even the God of Glory, who had led the humans in defeating several races, had never gotten into any conflicts with the Grim Reaper. Also, even back when the Master of War, who had a belligerent nature and relished in combats, wanted to recruit followers of god with the priesthood of death, he had hesitated repeatedly. He had even made a trip to the underworld personally and made that decision only after he had a detailed discussion with the Grim Reaper. Therefore, it was apparent that the Grim Reaper was a strong deterrent force with strong power! Sui Xiong truly did not want to have any conflict with the Grim Reaper. They already had a huge one before. If there was a next time, he was afraid they would really go to battle! And¡­ previously when he had a conflict with the Master of Mystery, it had already led to his spellcasting ability being locked. If it was not for the Master of Mystery who softened his attitude later, up till now, he might still be a primitive who was incapable of casting spells. If both were to get into a conflict with the absolute control over ¡°death,¡± what would the Grim Reaper do to him? Sui Xiong could not recall for the time being, but he also did not want to delve into this problem. He truly and absolutely, no matter what, was determined not to ever stir up unnecessary trouble again! Now that his place was getting bigger and bigger, every move he made concerned the lives of countless people. If he created trouble and brought in devilish demons, even if he was able to win every single battle, he would not be able to guarantee that the people under his command would be safe. For instance, in a certain war of gods, a god¡¯s casual strike on a certain village or town in the Republic of Northwest¡­ Especially when the Grim Reaper was no ordinary god. In this world, the souls of the vast majority of people who have died would head for the underworld. Even with all the gods put together, the number of souls they could salvage was only two-thirds of the total, the remaining 30 to 20 percent of souls would eventually have to enter the Grim Reaper¡¯s sphere of influence. If Sui Xiong made the Grim Reaper angry, the Grim Reaper might not even need to come fight him. Any slight tweak to the treatment the civilians of the Republic of Northwest would be subjected to after death was more than enough to make Sui Xiong grimace in pain with a splitting headache. This was what it meant to not be afraid of the county magistrate, but to be fearful of the current official-in-charge! He, the mighty Xiong, would never grow old and die, but the civilians of the Republic of Northwest eventually would! This was just like the famous saying, ¡°I¡¯d rather offend the one who kills, but I¡¯ll never offending the one who saves.¡± The one who killed people might not necessarily succeed in killing you, but the one who saved people who most probably be able to save your life. Before traversing worlds, Sui Xiong had actually witnessed such an incident: One of his secondary school classmates went up to a technical secondary school after graduating from junior high school and then majored in nursing. Five years later, he graduated and became a nurse. He worked in a small hospital that was near Sui Xiong¡¯s house. On a certain day, there was medical trouble in that hospital that stirred up the entire hospital and threw everyone off their feet. It was unknown how many people had suffered from the trouble that bastard caused. At that time, everyone merely put up with the situation, but they were all secretly muttering, ¡°You disdainful prick, you better not fall at the mercy of my hands.¡± Later on, that crackpot really fell at the mercy of their hands when he himself also fell sick. It was quite a troublesome illness too. Talking about the follow-up events of that incident truly made no difference at all. In short, Sui Xiong learned two very profound lessons: Firstly, never offend a doctor, not even a nurse should be offended. Secondly, if one really offended a doctor or nurse, it was best to move to another place. But in this world, if he really offended the Grim Reaper, it would be useless regardless of where he moved to! So after repeated deliberation, he finally made up his mind and set off for the underworld. He might possibly make the Grim Reaper angry, or he might even have to suffer a loss, but if he wanted to say anything, he should just directly do so without thinking too much. To help such a big group of people extend their life was something so massive, if he did not even mention a word about it¡­ Haha, it was still better to go and ask to be certain. Chapter 659 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The underworld was a place of eternal darkness. The sky was dark and dense, the land was gloomy and lifeless, and there was even a disturbing fog that was spreading in the air. No need to speak of the living, even the departed souls of the dead would have felt restless and panicky if they had to be here all day long. Fortunately, such a situation would not last for long. The underworld would periodically get windy, and every time, a vast, mighty wind would sweep through the entire place, and those departed souls would be blown away. Like paper confetti and fallen leaves, they would flutter with the wind and eventually fall into the underworld river. Then they would drift along the river and head towards a place that was the ending and beginning point for all souls. That place was called the Sea of Souls, a sacred land that all gods yearned for but were forbidden from approaching. Of course, in the process of heading towards the Sea of Souls, these souls would be scoured by the underwater river in their entirety. Gradually, they would collapse and be scattered into countless spirits¡ªthese were the basic units that constituted the soul. In this process, every event that this soul underwent in its past life would completely dissipate, and even its physical body would disintegrate. Then in the following days, these spirits would recombine with other spirits to form new souls, and these new souls would begin a new life. Sui Xiong floated by the side of the underwater river and watched the souls be swept up by that cold wind successively and continuously fall into the underwater river. Originally, their faces would carry all kinds of expressions, but soon after they fell into the underwater river, all expressions would gradually start to show calm and peace instead. Eventually, all would show the same look of tranquility. It was said that within the underwater river, all souls were in a deep slumber. It was the kind of deep sleep where they would never be able to wake up. With Sui Xiong¡¯s ability, it was not difficult for him to fish out a few souls from the underwater sea. He also had such a thought¡ªsouls that had entered the underwater river would most likely be regarded as things without masters, so whoever had the ability to fish them out from the river would be able to claim ownership over these souls. As for bringing the souls back to nurture them into followers or to transform them into oracles, those were all up to one¡¯s personal business. So long as nothing harmful was done, no one would probe. For example, the Night God System that once had a conflict with Sui Xiong, but later, with Javier¡¯s help, made peace with Sui Xiong and even gifted him with a Soul-Reconstruction Technique. This Night God System frequently went over to the underwater river to fish for souls, which they would then bring back and transform these souls into followers. No choice. The members of the Night God System were mainly phantoms, vampires, necromancers¡­ it was certainly not easy if they seriously wanted to search for followers. On the contrary, relying on the method of soul-reconstruction to create man-made followers, the efficiency rate was much higher. Many small god systems, as well as gods on the Main Plane who had yet to begin preaching, would choose a similar approach. Even the good gods did not object to this approach. In any case, it was better to either become a follower living within a God¡¯s Kingdom or an Oracle than it was to become a spirit that had to flow into the Sea of Souls again. Sui Xiong observed this very carefully, but after half a day, he still did not find any souls worthy of being rescued from the Sea of Souls. He had very high requirements; if the soul was not outstanding enough, he would not make a move. A god like him with a church of sizable scale did not lack the souls of followers. After a while, he finally found a soul that was not too bad. The degree of strength that the soul possessed was high. Though it had already fallen into the underwater river, it still maintained a relatively complete self, unlike the ordinary souls that would begin to disintegrate after falling into a peaceful slumber. This was the best material that could be used for the construction of an Oracle. He waved a tentacle, which transformed into a strip of silk that was fine like a fishing line, and lightly probed the underwater river with it. It did not take more than a moment to encircle that soul and hook it out of the river. ¡°Its strength is indeed not low,¡± said Sui Xiong. The moment he got the soul, he had confirmed that his observation was correct. The soul was entirely worthy of the special effort put into fishing it, so he quickly infused some Divine Power into it to stabilize it. He kept it like that for the time being¡­ Because he had something important to do right now. ¡°Hello, it¡¯s been a long time,¡± Sui Xiong said hello to the figure that had suddenly appeared not too far away from him. It was cloaked in a black robe and carried a long sickle. Sui Xiong first broached an irrelevant topic, ¡°Say, I¡¯ve always had this question. Your clothes and those of the other Soulbringers are similar; did they learn from you, or did you learn from them?¡± This figure was naturally the Supreme God from the underworld¡ªthe Grim Reaper. Apparently, the Grim Reaper had not expected Sui Xiong to especially make a trip to the underworld, and after releasing news of an invitation to meet, Sui Xiong¡¯s opening statement was actually such a question. The Grim Reaper was momentarily frozen from shock before replying, ¡°I have a cooperation agreement with hell, so I have lent them some power. That attire of the Soulbringers is a necessary part of the ritual for borrowing some of my power.¡± This answer was not out of Sui Xiong¡¯s expectations at all, so he could not help asking, ¡°So would you be willing to sign a cooperation agreement with me too? If there is a messenger from the underworld assuming command in the courtroom, I believe it can greatly enhance the national deterrence against criminals.¡± The Grim Reaper nodded and said, ¡°No problem. I¡¯m willing to cooperate with all gods who respect the principle of life and death¡ªbut the reason you came to me was just because of this small matter?¡± Sui Xiong laughed, hesitated slightly for a while, then told the Grim Reaper his true intention of visit. ¡°I don¡¯t agree,¡± the Grim Reaper simply replied after listening to his account. ¡°Those lords have already lived long enough. They shouldn¡¯t be living even longer. I have no issue with you occasionally helping one or two of them, but this will not do if you want to help them extend their lives on a large-scale.¡± Such an answer was not surprising to Sui Xiong. In fact, he could almost guess that this would be the answer he would get. To the Grim Reaper, nothing else other than protecting the principle of life and death was important to him¡ªbe it good or evil, order or chaos, none of these made any difference to him. The Grim Reaper could still accept if the gods had interfered slightly with the life and death of mortals, but if they wanted to stage a large-scale intervention, that would be beyond the limits of his tolerance. Of course, everything was negotiable. However, Sui Xiong was unable to list any exchange conditions that could satisfy the Grim Reaper. Besides, he was not a Garfield who wanted to be in the limelight, nor did he intend to go to war with the Grim Reaper over such a small matter. So he could only give up on this matter. With some regrets, he sighed. Just as he was about to leave, the Grim Reaper suddenly asked, ¡°Why do you want to help those lords in extending their lives?¡± ¡°In exchange for helping me preach,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°There are so many conditions that can be used as exchange; why must you use the most difficult, but also the most valuable thing to exchange?¡± Sui Xiong froze. He really had not thought about this. Continuing one¡¯s life was naturally a big thing, where almost anything could be used in exchange for it. However, just as what the Grim Reaper said, as a powerful god, he was capable of so many things, so why must he use such a big thing like extending their lives to exchange with those lords? ¡°And¡­ from my impression, aren¡¯t you pushing for republicanism?¡± the Grim Reaper asked. ¡°That means you should be against the Familial Lord Hereditary Succession System. Since you are against this, why do you want to help those aristocrats who treat the rulership of territories as their personal possessions, then pass on and inherit these from generation to generation within their family clan?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes widened as the intensity of shock deepened. On one hand, the blind spot in his line of thoughts had been pointed out. On the other hand, he was surprised that the Grim Reaper could be so concerned about the matters of the mortal world. ¡°You¡­ why do you study up on all this?¡± he could not help asking. ¡°Because I¡¯m bored,¡± the Grim Reaper calmly replied. ¡°The underworld is so boring; I¡¯m always finding ways to pass the time.¡± Because of boredom¡­ Sui Xiong was speechless. For a long time, he was silent. Then he asked, ¡°So according to what you think, what should I do?¡± ¡°What you should do? Why are you asking me?¡± the Grim Reaper asked him back. ¡°What should be done is up to you.¡± ¡°No suggestions at all?¡± ¡°I¡¯m the Grim Reaper, for the matters of the living, don¡¯t ask me.¡± With that, his figure vanished without a trace, leaving only Sui Xiong standing in mid-air as he pondered in silence. Chapter 660 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio For the civilians, or for the lords? Sui Xiong realized that he had spared much thought on this. Originally, this should have been a matter of concern, of course. Whether it was his moral principles as an earthling, or the need to propel the development of this world, he needed to do things from the standpoint of the civilians. But in recent years, especially after the Mystery God System was destroyed and many churches from the Void God System started to spread their teachings comprehensively within the Mifata Federation, Sui Xiong grew more and more concerned about missionary work. This gradually shifted the focus of his work. Even¡­ the focus of his thoughts also changed. Why did he want to help the lords continue living? Just to expand his sphere of influence, to promote his church? In that case, why would he have imposed limitations on the Life-prolonging medicine that Slime Alchemist, Wendy, had created previously? He could have directly launched that kind of potion that could endlessly prolong people¡¯s lives, would that not be a better way? So long as he had a firm grasp over that potion, would those decrepit aristocrats dare to do anything to him? He was no longer the same as before. He had enough clout. At least within the Main Plane, he feared no challenge at all. Did this mean he had to change his tune and direction? Of course not! How those old lords, who had outlived their usefulness, continued living was no business of his at all! It was good that they could support their own churches, but it also did not matter if they could not. Waiting for maybe another eight to ten years, or at best, 30 to 50 years to pass¡ªwould they not die by then? When they had died, the next generation of lords might not necessarily support the Church of the Void Mask. Even if the next generation was not supportive, he could always wait for the next generation in line. Who knew, maybe after waiting up to the nth generation, the family clan of this lord would have reached its end. On the continent, generally, the lordship within a family clan would be handed down for five or six generations. Then a hundred to two hundred years later, they would almost have reached their end. There were many reasons why they had to meet their end. The most common one was war, followed by political struggles and the likes of them. On more than one occasion, there would be a situation where several heirs of a particular lord contended with one another overtly and covertly, and the conflicts had intensified so much that they were killing one another. Then the immediate heirs would die, thus leading to the posterity of that family being cut off. The king would thus be outraged, and so he would get the rest of the aristocrats who were related to his family to inherit the territories of the dead. Generally speaking, a king should never dictate the inheritance rights of a lord. This was the rule, and it was also an implicit rule that the various lords recognized. But in such situations where the successors were creating such an absurd commotion, even to the extent of directly severing ties, as the alliance master of the lords, the king had the right to come out and mediate. He also had the right to mete out punishment to families who went overboard and who broke the rules. So generally speaking, even if the aristocrats were to struggle over inheritance rights, they would still observe the rules and allow the defeated party to walk away with some dignity. They also would not go to the extent of hurting people. But the longer the family¡¯s inheritance was, the more the conflicts accumulated, and eventually, it would become impossible to stop them. Therefore, an extensive family clan with a long historical standing would almost have reached a dead end by then. Of course, these things had nothing to do with Sui Xiong. Anyway, whether these noble lords were prosperous or down on their luck, whether they had many children and grandchildren or were left with a family that was broken and decimated; either way it was really none of his concern. As a god with eternal life, it was completely unnecessary for him to pay attention to these lords. Above all, he also did not want to pay attention to these people. From his point of view, these lords were, frankly speaking, almost as good as parasites that clung onto their people, sucking their blood dry. There was no essential contribution to the society that they had made to deem them indispensable. Look at the earth¡ªthe places without lords were generally developing better than the places with lords. The former had oil beneath their feet, but there were no signs of them developing into democratic and strong societies. On the contrary, all kinds of phenomenal works and monstrous things had appeared in large numbers. Entering the 21st century, yet still upholding the values and moral principles of the 7th and 8th centuries, eliminating and destroying all the terrorist organizations who did not accept this old, aging theory¡ªthe origin of this group of people was none other than the carefree noble lords who lay over the ocean of oil. Of course, among the lords in this world, there were also some who were enlightened and made progress. They put in the effort to strive for the benefit of the people, but they were unable to establish their practices for good. They could not ensure that their mindsets and practices would still be observed after their deaths and be handed down from generation to generation. On the contrary, after the deaths of people, the cessation of governments was the norm. In the eyes of the descendants of those wise lords, they saw how the other lords indulged themselves with fine wine and sensual pleasures, how the other lords were relaxed and carefree, and how the other lords did whatever they pleased in a most wanton manner¡­ Each descendant would wonder why he should be subjected to all kinds of restrictions. Why should he restrain himself so much that he can¡¯t have any fun? Why must he put in so much effort and work so hard? So it was still a situation with bad money forcing the good money out of circulation. Sui Xiong felt that this was something inexplicable. Anyway, he was never able to find a solution, either from the textbook or the Internet. When he was in college, even the professors who were well-read and had extensive knowledge about things from past to present were unable to come up with any solution¡ªoh, there was a way. Their solution was a revolution. By the way, during Sui Xiong¡¯s days in college, there were two professors who had the deepest influence on him. One was a thoroughly true-blue humanist while the other was a resolute Bolshevik¡­ Sui Xiong did not want to be a part of any revolution in this world. He felt that he was simply not cut out to be a member of a revolution. But he was also unable to force himself to accept and fancy those people who trampled upon others, who indulged in fine wine and sensual pleasures, and who acted like tyrants. So he had no choice but to turn to republicanism, albeit how untimely it was. It would almost be like single-handedly created a republic. This might perhaps be the first republic to appear in this world, and Sui Xiong would be propelling it towards continued progress. So now, was he going to change? Of course not! His thoughts came to a halt, and Sui Xiong could not help laughing. ¡°I¡¯ve been taught a lesson¡­¡± he said to himself with some degree of self-depreciation. ¡°I¡¯ve always thought of myself as a man of vision, yet I¡¯m, after all, nothing more than a mere earthling.¡± After laughing, he bowed to the infinitely dark and gloomy underworld, said his thanks and turned to leave. The next day, all the temples and altars of the Church of the Void Mask received divinations. The divination reminded them not to neglect the core of the Void Mask¡¯s teaching just because the preaching work was currently in a favorable situation. They must bear in mind that only by allowing the people to achieve happiness, could they truly achieve development and progress. This was the foundation on which the Church of the Void Mask was established. If the balance of weight was reversed for the sake of preaching work, then no matter how widely they managed to spread their belief, it would still be a failure. This divination shocked many of the bishops, many of whom decided to shut themselves up and reflect upon their mistakes in solitude. Because of the change in situation, many bishops were gradually shifting the focus of their work in the direction of the noble lords. They felt that so long as they could convince the lords to place their belief in His Majesty, they would be able to promote their church rapidly. But it had never occurred to them that beliefs originated from recognition. For a high-and-mighty lord to truly acknowledge this concept of development and progress¡ªthat was simply easier said than done! Even if this lord agreed now, would he change his mind in the future? Even if he did not change, what about his children and his grandchildren? By contrast, it would still be more plausible to get the people to acknowledge and agree to this concept. After all, people would always have needs in this area. At some point in time, the entire Church of the Void Mask began to make a massive adjustment¡­ Chapter 661 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°I¡¯ve never understood why so many wise people can¡¯t overcome this step involving a struggle of ideologies. Clearly, everyone could have sought common ground and reserved their differences on various issues, then we could progress towards development together. Why must the problem always magnify to such an extent where it will always end up with the use of force?¡± Sui Xiong was looking at the territorial waters where enemies were banging away at one another. Bullets and sparks flew up into the air together, and the fighter planes became the color of the black smoke. Thoughtfully, he said, ¡°Now, I kind of understand.¡± Crick smiled and said, ¡°In fact, these were truths that you should have long understood. But understanding and ¡®knowing¡¯ are two different things, if you have not experienced something for yourself, in the end, your knowledge can never truly become your understanding.¡± ¡°Yes! From knowing to understanding, how difficult it is!¡± Sui Xiong sighed. He waved his tentacles, then turned and flew away. A while later, he arrived at the meeting room of his God¡¯s Kingdom. The Void God System and many allies who had clones permanently were residing here. When they saw him entering the room, the God of Pleasure, Javier, asked hurriedly, ¡°Auscar, why did you issue that divination so suddenly?¡± Sui Xiong was momentarily taken aback, then he responded by asking, ¡°Is there any problem with that divination?¡± ¡°Of course, there¡¯s a problem!¡± Javier said as he took a deep breath. Then he added, ¡°Do you know, in general, when would a god issue out such a divination?¡± ¡°Ah, eh? Wouldn¡¯t other people would also do the same thing?¡± Sui Xiong asked in surprise. ¡°Of course! This is a trial that gods must pass. Only after passing this trial, can they be considered to have formally stepped into the world of ¡®real gods,¡¯ and truly possess ¡®eternal¡¯ qualifications.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes widened¡ªthe eyes of a jellyfish were originally big, and at that moment, the front of his body was practically occupied by his pair of eyes. This made for a very vivid interpretation of what the word ¡°shock¡± meant. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you all tell me about this!¡± ¡°Who would have started doing such a thing so early!?¡± Javier asked with a sigh. ¡°Generally speaking, after becoming a sealed god, when almost the first 100 years or so has passed, a god will need to reflect on whether there is a deviation of the guiding principles of his church¡¯s teachings from his own teachings. He needs to start thinking whether he should adjust his teachings to suit the situation, or whether he should rectify the church¡¯s teachings instead. But look at you, yet to be an officially sealed god, and you have actually started to get busy with this¡­¡± ¡°This is the difference!¡± said a figure that was practically considered to be boss of the Half-Orc race and the desolated wild beasts. Steel Lion, Morani, who had recently conquered another few demigods, lamented, ¡°I spent almost 300 years figuring out this problem before I set things right in the church and boosted those in my Desolation God System up from where they were¡­ You only took a mere 50 years!¡± ¡°He didn¡¯t even take 50 years,¡± said Yorgaardman, the God of Justice. ¡°It was about 40 years ago when the Church of the Void Mask truly started developing. Before that, this ¡®church¡¯ was nothing more than a messy group of individuals put together like an organization of mercenaries.¡± ¡°Mainly because you are developing too fast!¡± Morani said. ¡°Within a short period of a few decades, your church has already become a very influential major organization on the Main Plane. Your number of followers could be as many as hundreds of thousands, and you even have the entire Republic of Northwest as your foundation¡ªand now, you have unquestionably reached the stage of ¡®conversely being influenced by one¡¯s own belief.''¡± Speaking of this, they could not help shaking their heads. They were all feeling depressed from the realization gained from their afterthoughts. But Sui Xiong did not feel that they had made any mistakes, and this made him even more puzzled. Unlike the other gods, he did not absorb the power of belief. Instead, he transformed it into Divine Power, which he fed back to his followers, including his priests, pontifex, and Sacred Warriors so that they could use it for divine spells. Within a God¡¯s Kingdom, there was a special divine altar that was entrusted with this job. The accumulation of a massive amount of Divine Power had even given rise to a dazzling crystal. If Sui Xiong had not especially obscured its radiance, most probably, it would be as glaring as the sun that had fallen to the ground. Since he had never absorbed the power of belief, why would he be influenced by the power of belief? This was just like a vegetarian who believed in Buddha. When his neighbor ate meat, was that any of his business? Unless he believed in those cults with a ¡°work yourself to death if you don¡¯t believe in me¡± style, otherwise, no matter what, the right thing that should be observed was that he should not be under any influence. He hesitated for a while, and eventually, he told his story. The gods were surprised¡ªsince he did not absorb the power of belief, then naturally, he should not be influenced by it. But given Sui Xiong¡¯s current situation, clearly, there were some signs of him being influenced by the power of belief. Why was that so? They discussed for a long time, and in the end, the God of War, Wenner, came up with a speculation that was more convincing. He felt that although Sui Xiong did not absorb the power of belief, he still accepted and responded to the prayers of his followers. In this process, Sui Xiong was continuously in contact with the will of his followers, so he could feel their joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. Unknowingly, he could have been brought under the influence of their power of belief. This influence was not like ¡°pollution¡± that would distort his will. Rather, it reduced the divinity of his soul so that he would gradually move closer to the ¡°human¡± perspective and slowly lose the transcendental attitude that gods should have. Fortunately, because Sui Xiong was never actually polluted by the power of belief, the moment he realized that he had made a mistake, he could rectify it immediately without any bit of struggle or hesitation. ¡°On the overall, you do have a very good idea, that goes without saying. The only downside is that the capital required is too costly,¡± Wenner finally concluded as such. ¡°The power of belief is one of the main sources of our Divine Power, but you are not absorbing any of it at all. This will cause your usual accumulation of Divine Power to be much slower than the other gods.¡± ¡°From his looks, I really can¡¯t see exactly where the ¡®slow¡¯ part is¡­¡± Javier muttered to himself. ¡°If he is considered ¡®slow,¡¯ then wouldn¡¯t I be like a snail¡­¡± ¡°How could a genius be seen with such mortal standards!¡± Wenner snorted and said. ¡°From past to present, an extraordinary genius such as our lord, our alliance master, is a rare sight. If he had not refused to absorb the power of belief, he would definitely be much stronger than he is now!¡± ¡°Alright, alright. I am already powerful enough. There¡¯s no need to be ¡®much more powerful,''¡± Sui Xiong hurriedly advised when he saw how a quarrel was about to start. ¡°Since the matter has been determined, we should now consider the follow-up action¡­ What do you all say, should I take this as an opportunity to set things in order within my church and unify everyone¡¯s mindsets?¡± The gods looked at one another, and eventually, it was still Wenner, the God of War, who had the largest church among all the gods present, speaking up, ¡°This matter that you speak of¡­ isn¡¯t it a little too far off?¡± ¡°Far off? ¡°Within a church, there are all kinds of people with all kinds of ideas, thus giving rise to all kinds of factions,¡± Wenner said. ¡°Perhaps, you feel that this would hinder the efficiency of the church, which might possibly cause a meaningless internal consumption or might even have an unpleasant influence on what you do. But has it ever occurred to you that different ideas and tendencies might also contain some hidden value? Perhaps now, it feels like the wrong idea, but in the future, there might come a time where it might be the right thing to do¡­ If you reject them all now, while the present allows your church to become purer and stronger, in the future, it might reduce the possibility for an all-rounded development and also, its ability to resist risk and transformation.¡± After hearing what Wenner said, Sui Xiong fell silent. This was Wenner¡¯s heartfelt advice. If it was not for the deep relationship they shared, no one would ever expect to hear such advice from him. This was based on all the life experiences of his predecessors; this advice was more precious than any other valuable treasures. But¡­ did he really want to follow Wenner¡¯s advice and make his church into one that was ¡°tolerant to diversity like how an ocean accommodated the hundreds of small rivers¡±? He considered it for a very long time, but in the end, Sui Xiong still shook his head. ¡°Perhaps that might be very good, but that¡¯s not what I want.¡± Chapter 662 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong felt that for a god, a church was not only a tool for preaching; it was also an embodiment of his ideas. Perhaps, from a strategic point of view and proceeding from practical interests, a god should encourage or at least acquiesce to a variety of ideas, as well as different factions to co-exist within his church. And gods who owned very powerful churches, like the God of War, Wenner, and the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, all did as such. But Sui Xiong did not want such a church. What he wanted was a church that was relatively purer and full of vitality and fighting spirit. In his church, everyone might have different ideas, but their fundamental life philosophy and goal would basically remain consistently alike. He knew that what he had in mind might be a little too idealistic and unrealistic. To establish such an organization, even if he had the support of a real god, it still wouldn¡¯t be easy. He felt that if it was because he did not have enough conditions, then he could forget about it. But since he was a powerful god who could know what his followers were thinking, he could always empower the clergymen according to the degree to which their ideas conformed to his. Then there would be no reason for him to carry out his ideas. It was true that doing so would reduce the number of devoted followers and the number of clergymen. But as the saying went, ¡°Troops are valued for their quality, not their number,¡± so just one high-level clergyman could be much more powerful than 100 low-level clergymen put together. A temple presided by an outstanding bishop would be much more valuable than ten altars manned by capricious leaders. At least, that was what he thought. So after careful consideration, a few days later, he proceeded to issue another divination, urging his followers, especially those who were clergymen, to study their teachings well enough to find the contrast between their own teachings and life. This way, they could reflect on whether they had the tendency towards secularization or vulgarization, and thereafter purify their minds. For those clergymen who ¡°clung onto their desires in the mortal world,¡± he did not criticize them, but instead, he set up a new department within his church and got them more engaged in dealing with society and with the matters that required softer and more flexible approaches. In this regard, he received a lot of support and suggestions from the God of Law, Law Brans. The God of Law, Law Brans, was often called the ¡°Master of Justice.¡± He was not the master god of a god system, so technically speaking, he could not be called ¡°Master So-and-so,¡± but the things that he had done, especially for the Sacred Warriors under his command, had won him such prestige. The Sacred Warriors under the God of Law consisted of a group of rigid fuddy-duddies. They respected and protected the dignity of the law and would do everything to maintain the regular order of society. Under most situations, they protected the small and weak, limited the powerful and authoritative, and maintained order in favor of the lower to middle classes. But if necessary, they would attack those people who resisted violently in order to help the rulers maintain social order. If the ¡°Nine Great Camps¡± system was used to evaluate this, the Sacred Warriors of the God of Law would most likely belong to the two camps of the Order of Good and the Order of Neutrality. More would fall under the former, but there would still be many falling under the latter. Unlike churches such as those of the Goddess of Wealth and the God of War, the system that the Church of the God of Law was much purer. From bishops to priests to Sacred Warriors, they strictly observed and adhered to the teachings of the God of Law, even the slightest detail on a specific operation would require a temporary prayer to obtain a consultation. Such an inflexible and unprogressive approach naturally greatly reduced the efficiency of work, so much so that the clergymen of the God of Law were often derided for being ¡°blockheads,¡± having ¡°heads full of stones,¡± and so on. But there was no denying that such a stubborn, to the extent of being rigid, style had earned them the trust of the society as a whole. Everyone knew that the clergymen of the God of Law were absolutely disciplined¡ªeven if there was a rule that they did not agree with, they would only choose to leave or persuade the relevant rule-maker. They would never make a move to fight against the rules. With such a reputation, even in the most chaotic areas, these rigid clergymen of the God of Law were still positively welcomed. Even the evil lords showed a friendly attitude towards these masters who maintained order and upheld the rules. The key to everything here lay in the ¡°purity of the organization.¡± Among the gods, there were also others who did place greater emphasis on the purity of their churches as compared to the God of Law. But wanting to grasp the concept of ¡°moderation¡± judiciously in order to turn it into a power to boost organizational strength, all while not hindering the degree of organizational development¡ªno one could have done it better than the God of Law. This was the reason why Sui Xiong naturally thought of asking the God of Law for advice when he wanted to start off the internal rectification of his church¡¯s work style so that he could improve the organization¡¯s purity. The God of Law was very happy that Sui Xiong had approached him with inquiries and shared with him many experiences. He also sent a few clergymen who had made outstandingly meritorious contributions throughout the history of educational development of the church to help Sui Xiong. There were even two who were his Holy Spirits. With the help of this group of experts, Sui Xiong was able to quickly organize and come up with a series of documents and plans. Then he launched a large-scale retraining system of clergymen throughout the Church of the Void Mask. He came up with a very long schedule, which he listed his plans for the coming two to three years. During this period, he would be recalling all the clergymen back to the main temple of Void City and send them for retraining. The first to receive training would be those clergymen deployed to the Mifata Federation to preach. Under the influence of their preaching work, these clergymen were on the friendliest terms with the lords and aristocrats, or rather, they were under the influence of upper-class society. Sui Xiong gathered them, and through the analysis of social development, he recalled the struggles between the upper-class socialites and lower-class civilians which startled them all. They came to realize their mistakes and thus, redefined their standpoints. Among them, there were of course some who had already changed their minds and no longer felt that development and progress must follow a bottom-up approach and find foothold from people of the lower and middle class. For these people, Sui Xiong did not harshly reprimand them. Instead, he decided to give them a good lesson. He might not be some historian, but he had seen many debates on the Internet and naturally understood that such a concept was in fact, quite marketable¡ªit was nothing more than the so-called ¡°reformism.¡± In the Earth¡¯s network society, reformism was quite popular. Because for areas with reasonable ease of access to the Internet, their economic conditions would generally be not too bad, social contradictions were relatively less intense, so ¡°improvement¡± was naturally more popular than ¡°struggle.¡± And in this world, the clergymen inclined towards the direction of improvement were mostly from rich families. The people they usually preached to and kept in contact with, were those who had comparatively better-living conditions, or they usually preached in places where the lords were relatively more liberal, so they felt that social contradictions were somewhat moderate. This led the clergymen to feel that, so long as they promoted open-mindedness within the upper-class society, they would be able to propel the development and progress of the entire society. One of the lessons that Sui Xiong put them through was to station them at areas where the lords were not so liberal-minded and where the influence of the Church of the Void Mask was weaker. This way, they could experience for themselves how naive and ludicrous the idea of ¡°improvement¡± was. To make progress through improvement? Of course, it was possible. The premise was that they must first be able to force those in power to the point where they had to accept improvement. Relying only on publicity to persuade others on the idea of achieving progress through improvement¡ªhow could there be something so good in this world! Chapter 663 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There were some truths, no matter which part of the world, that would always be reliable, for instance, ¡°genuine knowledge comes from practice.¡± In the face of the callous lords and the civilians who had difficulties in simply surviving, those naive reformists were greatly affected. Their mindsets had since changed most drastically, and among them, there were many who even underwent a complete change of heart to directly become a part of the most intense anti-aristocracy group. They changed to such a degree that Sui Xiong had to change to another perspective in order to give them ideological and political classes. He spoke to them about the principle of gradual improvement and gave a lengthy talk about how ¡°Rome was not built in a day¡± and so on. He tried his best to detoxify them by feeding them with full-flavored ¡°chicken soup for the soul.¡± Fortunately, there were not many who were either extreme leftists or extreme rightists. Most of the reformists did not jump from one extreme end to the other extreme end upon realizing their mistakes. They were only slightly depressed for a while. Thereafter, they picked themselves up and re-emerged with high enthusiasm and morale as they immersed themselves into their job again. As for whether any credit went to the few articles that Sui Xiong sent them, especially that story on the life of Pavel Korchagin, no one knew. That story inspired countless readers on Earth by showing that a person¡¯s life should be spent like this: ¡°When he looks back at his entire lifetime, he will not have any regrets over the time he idled away, nor will he be ashamed of not accomplishing anything at all. On his deathbed, he would be able to say, ¡®My whole life and all my energy has been dedicated to the most magnificent cause in the world¡ªthe fight for the liberation of all mankind.''¡± ¡°I suddenly realized that as a traverser, I have a huge advantage,¡± Sui Xiong said to Crick amidst all the rumbling sounds of gunfire. ¡°That generic method of using ¡®chicken soup for the soul,¡¯ which has become so commonplace on Earth, and all those famous sayings and epigrams on Earth where even the children can recite the whole thing¡ªthey are all still very fresh and new in this world. So long as I use them all, I will be successful in whatever I do; this is simply a magical object at an extrinsic level.¡± Crick sighed and said, ¡°I already knew this.¡± He turned his chair with both hands, then slowly walked to the table. He poured himself a cup of tea, then with the cup in his hand, he sighed again and said, ¡°Don¡¯t you feel the signs that you are getting a little delirious?¡± ¡°Ah?¡± ¡°Someone who is perfectly fine, but talking to himself all day, this is obviously a sign that you are starting to get a little schizophrenic,¡± said Crick as he shook his head. Then he said, ¡°We are of one body, not only do we share the same knowledge, even our thoughts are the same. Whatever you want to say, I will know even before you actually say it; likewise, whatever I want to say, before that you would already have known. What is the point in having a conversation like this?¡± Sui Xiong laughed, ¡°Don¡¯t you remember reading that novel on immortals before traversing world? In the novel, there was a master who was greatly accomplished in his cultivation. He relished in frequently cutting up three of his dead bodies, then with a bang, another him would jump out from his body and make a bow with his hands folded in front, then greet him with a, ¡®Hello, my friend¡­''¡± ¡°That¡¯s definitely not just killing three clones, that¡¯s simply a personality disorder alright!¡± Crick said with a frown. ¡°And even if it¡¯s cutting up three dead bodies, I¡¯ve never seen anyone talking to the three dead bodies that one has made a cloned of. You actually coming here to chat with me, what difference is it from talking to yourself? Think about it carefully, this is even more serious that having a split personality. If this is not considered as having a neurological illness, then I¡¯m afraid there will no longer be anyone considered to be mentally ill in this world anymore.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that serious, I don¡¯t think¡­¡± ¡°Though it might not be so for the time being, if this continues to develop, the situation will get serious,¡± Crick said, with no expression on his face. ¡°I¡¯ve gone through the statistics, in recent years, you have been coming over for an idle chat with me more and more frequently.¡± ¡°What does this show?¡± asked Sui Xiong. ¡°It shows that you are lonely. So lonely to the point that you need to depend on self-talk to send your loneliness away,¡± Crick said coldly. ¡°In terms of power, you might already be one of the few masters who is very near to the peak of the pyramid of power in this world, but in terms of spiritual cultivation, you¡¯re still just a normal person. You are much stronger than the average person, but the spiritual side of you has yet to undergo any essential change. Your emotions are still similar to that of the ordinary person. I¡¯ve also studied the mental state of the other gods and found that, while they might also have emotions, their emotions felt more like ¡®alienation¡¯ or using an ¡¯emotional barrier¡¯ kind of method. Perhaps that¡¯s how they can master such indifference that¡¯s independent of time. I feel that this mentality is what you need to master right now.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while, then he said, Remember the book A Letter of Farewell to My Wife? ¡°Just like how a minister of Jiangzhou soaked his uniform with his tears because of the grief he felt for others, I should never forget how to show empathy after being successful in self-cultivation?¡± ¡°Yes, I can¡¯t do it.¡± ¡°You have never tried to do it before, how will you know whether you can or can¡¯t do it?¡± Crick shook his head, then said, ¡°Just try.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment, then suddenly he laughed and said, ¡°What do you say. Will I do it, or not?¡± Crick suddenly buckled under with his face full of frustration. Or course he knew Sui Xiong would never do so. In fact, he knew that he himself was merely a braggart. And just as he had said, there was no such thing as a ¡°two-faced body¡± existing between him and Sui Xiong. So it was not only Sui Xiong who would refuse to do so, it was the same choice for him. ¡°My brilliant idea is wasted in vain!¡± said Crick as he breathed a long sigh. Then finally, he said angrily, ¡°I¡¯m like mud that can¡¯t even help to hold up the wall, I¡¯m such a disappointment!¡± ¡°No choice, that¡¯s your innate nature,¡± Sui Xiong laughed heartily and used his tentacles to pat Crick on his shoulders. Then he came up with another topic to switch to, ¡°Right, how come the exercise this time around is taking such a long time? It has been going on for a good half a year.¡± ¡°Mainly because the exercise is much more extensive this time. The previous exercises revolved around the elite Oracles as the core, the mass-produced Oracles only needed to follow commands. But this time, I intend to adjust my concept and shift the core over to the mass-produced Oracles. The elite Oracles will only appear as a dagger force when necessary,¡± Crick said. ¡°In this way, this exercise will be of great help in effectively enhancing the combat technique of the mass-produced Oracles.¡± ¡°The mass-produced Oracles are so weak; would they be of any help?¡± ¡°Precisely because they are weak, it¡¯ll be easy to summon them. And if their combat techniques can be enhanced, then after being summoned, they will be of a greater help,¡± Crick said. ¡°For the clergymen on Earth, the mass-produced Oracles are more important than the elite Oracles!¡± Sui Xiong nodded with understanding, then looked into the distance at the sun rays. There was a big tree that was growing at such a slow rate that it was almost unnoticeable to the naked eye. He asked, ¡°That¡¯s the altar that¡¯s prepared for the mass-produced Oracles¡¯ progression, right? Why is it making such slow progress?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no other way, because the energy we need fully depends on how much of it spills out from the battle of Oracles,¡± Crick said. ¡°Only then are we guaranteed the maximum degree of correspondence, and then we can increase the success rate of progression.¡± ¡°That¡¯s how the theory works, but I can¡¯t help feeling it¡¯s too slow¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s not slow,¡± Crick said with a smile. ¡°I reckon that when you are done with your ¡®rectification movement,¡¯ the altar on my side will be completed as well. By then, we can summon a large number of mass-produced Oracles and effectively boost the combat power of the clergymen on Earth.¡± ¡°With the help of the Oracles, I trust that the power of the church will be greatly enhanced,¡± said Sui Xiong as he nodded. ¡°When that time comes, I believe it will be a great wave of development and progress.¡± ¡°That¡¯s for sure! Since I¡¯ve come to this world, then I must do something¡ªpropelling it towards development and progress is simply the right role for me!¡± Chapter 664 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Slightly to the southeast side of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, there was a place called ¡°Dahl Hill.¡± This place belonged to the Dahl family. This family, like most of the other aristocrats within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, were merchants. Some five or six generations ago, an ancestor had relied on a little wisdom and some flexible approaches amidst wartime¡ªthe specifics were no longer testable, but it could be assumed to involve quite a fair bit of deception, violence, and conspiracy. This earned him his first bucket of gold. Then he began to engage in trading and fraudulently buying, selling, and smuggling, as well as money lending. This ancestor of the Dahl family was very good at business and had very good foresight. He was always able to grab hold of the right chance to accurately strike at the former lord. All-in-all, he had backstabbed two former lords to finally achieve great success in his career as an aristocrat qualified to own a piece of territorial land. At first, this ancestor was only a knight who had an actual piece of territory. Above him, there was still a viscount presiding over him as a monarch. But for some unknown reason, that viscount and his family were ambushed by bandits on a family trip, and most unfortunately, the entire family was killed. When he learned about this, the Dahl flew into a rage. Not only did he mobilize all the soldiers within his territory, he even forked out a fortune to hire a large number of adventurers, and then he formed a sizable army to investigate the cause of death of the monarch. As the investigation work progressed, a huge conspiracy gradually surfaced¡ªit turned out that the only baron under the monarch had colluded with another knight and together, they had plotted to murder the monarch. The furious Dahl and a few other knights joined forces right away and launched an attack against these two conspirators. After a bloodbath, the rebels were wiped out, but from the group the knights, there was also one who had been sacrificed. As a great contributor to the investigation of crime and elimination of treason, the Dahl was highly commended by the people and received great support from all, especially the big shots from Royal Town, who even extended their friendship to him. Very soon, he became a baron. With a few other knights who had turned to pledge their allegiance to Royal Town, they managed that piece of territory together. In the years that followed, this area was considered peaceful and calm. There was a dispute over the succession rights within a certain knight family, where the ultimate heir was said to bear a slight resemblance to someone from the Dahl family, but that was obviously slander. The present Dahl Hill was considered a quiet and remote place. It was a little far from ¡°Southeast Avenue¡± that was located along the seafront, where neither adventurers nor trade caravans would pass by. And generations of Baron Dahls had not shown any interest in attacking the Great Marsh to open up new territories. Unable to gain the support they needed, the adventurers and mercenaries naturally would not use this place as their logistical stronghold to set off from to open up or invade the Great Marsh. On the contrary, there were some smugglers here who engaged in murky business dealings via the black market between the Commonwealth of Gold Coins and the Great Marsh. However, such dealings could only be carried out discreetly, so the business scale could never grow much bigger. So overall, Dahl Hill was peaceful and quiet, and it was filled with a leisurely atmosphere that gave him a sense of comfort. Whenever he drank tea on the terrace on the top floor of his castle and looked down at the territory beneath his feet, his heart would be filled with a sense of peace and comfort. He would often exclaim, ¡°Ah ah! Life is really so beautiful!¡± However, recently, Baron Dahl was not in his usual good mood, and even the afternoon tea that he usually relished began to taste less delectable. This was because there were a few unwelcomed figures who had arrived in Dahl City, and they had done certain things that were very unwelcomely. Those were clergymen that came from a place called the ¡°Church of the Void Mask.¡± There were around ten of them, where three were priests, one was a pontifex, and the remaining six were Sacred Warriors. Darn it, all of them had professional-level roles, and not a single one was a wuss! After these clergymen arrived in Dahl City, they first bought a house in a more remote area. Because that house had been left in that run-down state for years, they basically did not spend much on it. As a matter of fact, as that house and its surrounding area were inhabited by the poor for a long time, it had practically become a place where many beggars and thieves gathered. It was really a den of iniquity. Unless they needed to find someone to do something that was inconvenient to speak of, or they needed to find some items that were hanging from the gallows outside the city gate, then those prominent figures of Dahl City would never go anywhere near this place. A formidable group of clergymen, where even its leader was already mid-ranked, why would they come running over to such a place? And they even bought a house for permanent residence there? Could this be a strange hobby of that god that they believed in? Recalling that the god they believed in seemed to be a huge jellyfish, Baron Dahl thought that perhaps this conjecture was true. This matter became a little joke within the upper-class community of Dahl City, and the people often talked about it at gatherings. They would just laugh at these people to pass the time. But these clergymen were clearly not here to become a joke. After they settled down, the first thing they did was to fork out money to pay those poor people to work for them, renovate their house, and build an altar. Frankly speaking, the money they took out was not a lot, probably only enough for the baron to hold one small party. But to the poor, this was quite a large sum that was at least enough to buy food and prevent them from starving to death. Other than their salary, the clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask also expressed that the poor should wear clothes that were too tattered and torn. This was against the teachings of Their Majesty, who was a great jellyfish. So the clergymen also sent the poor people some thick quilted and clean clothes. Those clothes were not very fitting and were old, too. Anyone could tell that they were probably from someplace where the middle-class people were donating for charitable purposes. But at least, they were well-sewn and could keep the body warm enough. And those clergymen were obsessed over cleanliness, to the extent of having a morbid pursuit. Every day, there would be two Sacred Warriors patrolling the slums to supervise and urge the people to maintain their cleanliness and hygiene. There was even a priest who would go around every day to catch those poor people as though he was apprehending criminals, to make them bathe and change their clothes. Baron Dahl heard a patrol knight under his command saying that once when he passed by that area, he happened to see a group of poor people bathing. That stench of foul body odor was truly revolting! After such a period had passed, the slum area gradually started looking better. The poor donned neat and tidy clothes, and the houses and streets were cleaned up. Likely because the people could eat more food, a reddish hue seemed to be returning to their complexion. So Baron Dahl sent out a tax collector. Anyone who was living in Dahl City, regardless of what line of trade, had to pay taxes. Naturally, the poor also had to pay. In the past, when they were penniless, tax collectors did not bother knocking from door-to-door. After all, there was nothing much for them to collect in that stinky place. And also, they could not cut a piece of flesh off those poor fellows to offset the tax, could they? Of course, if there was a little girl, it was possible to use her to offset the tax, but this little girl might likely be sold off or abducted long ago. So generally, the tax collectors would not have their turn in collecting taxes via this method. Most of the time, they would tag along with those human traffickers when they went to the slums. Now that the poor people had some money, tax collectors went to them right away to make up for the taxes that they owed. Yes, including the interest. By right, this was something perfectly justifiable, but those clergymen came forward to say that according to the law of Commonwealth of Gold Coins, if there was no evidence produced to prove that these were taxes accumulated from previously, then these taxes could not be charged with interest. The Commonwealth of Gold Coins, which established a country via a commercial approach, was most particular about ¡°evidence.¡± Not allowed to charge interest?! That was just an insignificant amount! Just for this matter, both sides were at a loss, and up until now, there had yet to be a conclusion. This was the exact reason why Baron Dahl was unhappy. He did not lack money, but that money should belong to him. Even if it was just one missing copper coin, he would still be very unhappy! Chapter 665 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°I can¡¯t imagine there could actually be someone so unconscionable. Simply heartless!¡± said the bishop of the Church of the Void Mask of Dahl City, Kabbalah, as he angrily hammered the table. The rage in his eyes seemed to be able to practically set those green tea leaves in the cup before him on fire. ¡°Those poor people had pulled through some difficult times to finally live a few days like proper humans should, he actually sent tax collectors here right away¡­ whenever relief is required during the occurrence of natural disasters, why do we not see him reacting so quickly?¡± ¡°From the camp aura he exuded, we can find the answer. These fellows are from the Evil Camp; would they possibly do anything related to rendering relief in times of disaster?¡± an elderly priest said with a smile. ¡°Although this camp aura is something that isn¡¯t very reliable, most of the time, it won¡¯t make unforgivable mistakes. So, we should not have even expected anything from him in the first place.¡± ¡°It didn¡¯t matter if he wasn¡¯t going to help, but it had never crossed my mind that he would stir up trouble instead.¡± ¡°Many lords are like that,¡± a young Sacred Warrior said. ¡°This is why His Majesty has taught us to use our own pair of hands to push the world towards improvement.¡± Bishop Kabbalah fell into deep thought for a long time, then nodded heavily and said, ¡°All of you are right. It is in places like this where we are especially needed. Look at those poor people, if we don¡¯t come forward to help them, what will become of them?¡± ¡°But now, the problem is, how are we going to get rid of those tax collectors?¡± asked another priest. ¡°I feel that it won¡¯t be long before they start taking out those documents on past levied taxes. By then, we won¡¯t be able to find any more excuses.¡± Kabbalah smiled coldly. With a trace of mockery in his eyes, he said, ¡°What¡¯s the use of tossing out those past documents on levied taxes? They must first be able to prove that those poor people were living in the city at that time and had not paid any taxes.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± that priest froze for a moment, then asked, ¡°Haven¡¯t they always been living in the city? And¡­ they also did not have any money to pay their taxes.¡± ¡°My fellow churchman! When it comes to such matters, words alone don¡¯t carry enough conviction to prove anything. We need evidence!¡± Kabbalah laughed and said. ¡°Without evidence, who knows whether it¡¯s true or not!¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t there a ¡®lie detector¡¯?¡± asked a Sacred Warrior. ¡°My friends, just one look is enough to tell that you are all not from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins!¡± said another Sacred Warrior without waiting for Kabbalah to answer. He was already laughing away as he said, ¡°We, from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, have never believed in things like ¡®lie detectors.¡¯ Right here, there is a well-known rule¡ªso long as there¡¯s no evidence, then nothing has happened.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no other way. Which businessman is guilt-free from engaging in activities on the low? How many businessmen in this world did business the proper way? Cheating and swindling is common sense to a businessman, everything will be fine so long as they don¡¯t let anyone get ahold of any evidence against them,¡± said that Sacred Warrior. ¡°Of course, at the moment, the situation is not good, but this is precisely the time for us to take advantage of this tradition.¡± ¡°The art of putting up a struggle is to keep abreast with the current situation at all times and make use of all available conditions to turn disadvantages into advantages,¡± said an elderly priest. With that, everyone laughed. ¡°All in all, so long as those working for the lord are unable to produce evidence to prove that the poor had previously resided here and didn¡¯t pay their taxes, then they don¡¯t owe any taxes at all,¡± said Kabbalah. After a good laugh, he said sarcastically, ¡°As a matter of fact, it¡¯s illegal to collect taxes given such a situation in the first place. The reason why these tax collectors dared to bully the poor people is that they had the lord backing them up. With the lord¡¯s backing, all they can rely on is nothing more than force. But I would like to see if they have any guts to use force against us!¡± True enough, Baron Dahl did not dare to use force. Although this group of people from the Church of the Void Mask were not considered especially strong, the most powerful being no more than a mid-ranked pontifex, Baron Dahl himself was similarly not very powerful. Currently, under his command, he had three knights and two knights-to-be; one was middle-ranked, while the other five were only at the junior level. In addition, he had raised two capable generals, whom he had promoted from the status of adventurers, and they were both at the mid-ranked level. On paper, he seemed to have a great advantage. But as everyone knew, there were not only ten people from Church of the Void Mask. Backing them up was a massive church with many Legendary Masters. Using force? What use would that be if he could win against these ten people? He did not have an absolute chance of winning even if it was just confronting these ten clergymen. His men could dominate by sheer force of numbers, but on what basis would they want to put their lives on the line for him? But those clergymen were different. For the god that they believed in and for the sake of upholding their god¡¯s teachings, they absolutely paid no heed to death. The Dahl family had a very important family motto, which was, ¡°Don¡¯t trust others, and don¡¯t even bother pinning your hopes on others.¡± Baron Dahl would never expect anyone to do silly things like risking their lives for him, because lords who made that kind of mistake would mostly be done for. So after hearing his tax collectors¡¯ reports and although his blood was boiling, he did not fly into a rage. Only wearing a gloomy expression, he got the tax collectors to look up information of the past years to see if they could find any favorable evidence. But he knew that they would most likely not be able to find any. Aristocrats, in general, would not keep things like tax records because there was a possibility that these records might become evidence against them at some point in time. Baron Dahl was such a shrewd man, so of course, he would not make such a mistake. Besides, how useful would it be even if tax records from the past could be found? Would these ruses that Kabbalah and his team of clergymen came up with not cross the mind of Baron Dahl, who was such an old hand at trickery and deception? ¡°Ah! I didn¡¯t expect a group of clergymen to actually use such a method, this is quite a misstep!¡± he said with a deep sigh and shook his head. Enduring the feeling of oppression weighing him down, he put up a false front of nonchalance and gaiety. He had to pretend to be like this as he could never be too sure whether someone in his castle might send out news. And when the news reached the ears of other lords nearby, it would in turn lead to something else. Although he was not sure about what might possibly happen, Baron Dahl¡¯s request was not to let anything unnecessary happen. For this reason, even if he might suffer a slight loss over some taxes, he still found it acceptable. But this did not mean that he had given up! A few days later, a new order was issued. The lord had prepared to make use of this coming winter season, when the wild beasts and demons were lacking food supply, to carry out a mopping-up operation in places like the mountainous regions outside the city. All the adults in the city who did not have a proper profession had to accept enlistment into the mopping-up army. Of course, there would be no salary paid with regards to this enlistment, but during the expedition, one meal a day would be provided. As for those who rejected to be enlisted, they either had to pay a ¡°subrogation fee,¡± or they had to leave Dahl City¡ªwhat they could take away with them were limited to their personal effects. This order was not unexpected, and it was quite common to carry out mop-ups of demons and wild beasts during the winter. But what the people had not expected was for the City Defense Army officer to bring a few soldiers over to the slums where he loudly read out this order. After reading the order, he gave a cold look at the impoverished people. Then with a few uncomfortable and oppressive laughs, he left straight away. It was without a doubt that these impoverished people would be the ones ¡°without a proper profession.¡± Chapter 666 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After reading out the order, the City Defense Army officer left with his soldiers, unwilling to stay even a second longer to provide a detailed explanation. They left behind the restless poor who were trembling with fear as they worriedly discussed the order. ¡°What does this mean?¡± said one of the younger ones with a bitter expression. He was barely considered young and strong, but if the lord wanted to enlist commoners into the army, he would most likely be involved. ¡°What else can it be? Roping in servant soldiers,¡± an elderly man said with a sigh. Helplessly, he said, ¡°Everyone, let¡¯s pack up. Maybe we have to leave town soon.¡± ¡°Leave town?!¡± a lady cried in fear. ¡°It¡¯s going to be snowing soon; if we leave town now, how are we going to survive!¡± ¡°We can¡¯t remain in the city. What do you think servant soldiers do? Suffering and enduring hardships aside, dealing with hunger and starving is for sure. When the battle gets life-threatening and the, it will always be the servant soldiers who are pushed to the front!¡± said that elderly man who was considerably more knowledgeable. His expression was so bitter that it seemed as though his face would start dripping bile. ¡°The worst thing is, there are no benefits at all, and yet we have to be subjected to the restrictions of military rules. By then, even without the need for the baron to open his mouth, any knight-to-be can come up with a random crime to execute you¡­ I was once a servant soldier, and I witnessed with my own eyes, a strong man, whose family owned a piece of field, refuse to continue being a soldier. Instead, he wanted to go home to plant in the fields. He was indifferently convicted of being a ¡°deserter due to fear of war,¡± and then he was executed. Because he couldn¡¯t return home that winter, his entire family, young and old, died¡­¡± He spoke in a peaceful manner without much sincerity or sorrow. It must have been due to the long years that had passed why he could only feel numbness. But what the poor people around him heard was enough to make their hairs stand up. They could feel the piercing cold that not even their new winter clothes could fend off. Every one of them felt as though the cold could pierce through their entire being, from front to back, and there were even many who started trembling on the spot. Right at that moment, a poor yet quick-witted man was struck by a sudden flash of inspiration and blurted out, ¡°Let¡¯s go find the priests!¡± This line was merely a casual statement that he said subconsciously, but to the poor, it was as though an apocalypse had started. One by one, they were all hit by the same realization and started talking at once. ¡°Yes! Go to the priests! Let¡¯s go find the good people from the Church of the Void Mask!¡± Just moments later, they had already arrived at the encampment grounds of the Church of the Void Mask. The Sacred Warrior guarding the gate was shocked to see a group of people hurrying over with faces full of fear and panic. He hastened to stop them and asked for the reason of their visit. After learning about the entire matter, he frowned. First, he let the poor people, who were perspiring profusely because of anxiety and worry, into the camp to rest; then he got a worker hired for miscellaneous chores to bring them some warm tea to warm them up. After that, he hurried over to the prayer room and reported this matter to Bishop Kabbalah. Kabbalah calmly finished listening to his account and started to frown. ¡°Their means are really devious enough!¡± he said. ¡°Wanting to send these poor people to meet their doom is not their actual intention. Now that it¡¯s freezing cold and about to snow, if these poor people were to leave town, even with our help, a good half of them will still die. This is why they have no other choice but to take the risk and be enlisted.¡± ¡°If they are enlisted, of course, we¡¯ll not sit idly around without doing anything,¡± the Sacred Warrior said as he too understood this. Then he asked worriedly, ¡°But what are we supposed to do? The lord has the right to call upon these civilians; this is an authority that we are unable to refute.¡± ¡°True. If these poor people are being enlisted and we want to protect them, the better solution would be for us to also join the army for the time being and get them sorted into the troop under our command¡ªbut with this way, I¡¯m afraid by then that there might be many traps and dangers awaiting us,¡± said Kabbalah, who was frowning as he spoke of his analysis. ¡°That¡¯s the same as courting death!¡± said that Sacred Warrior furiously. ¡°By then, even if he wanted us to slay a dragon, does that mean we¡¯d all have to charge towards one?¡± ¡°It¡¯s impossible to slay a dragon, and I¡¯ve never heard of huge dragons within the vicinity of this place,¡± Kabbalah said with a smile to give the warrior some reassurance. But his eyes seemed to reflect worry, ¡°But¡­ if it were creatures like ogres or a group of trolls, the situation would already be very bad.¡± He muttered something to himself, then sent the scared warrior out to appease the poor. Kneeling down before the altar, he started to pray. Sui Xiong, unquestionably, received his prayers right away. When he finished listening to the introduction of matter, he frowned and cast his sights over to Dahl City. At one look, he immediately saw an evil aura like black smoke rising from the lord¡¯s manor. ¡°The temple is small, yet it carries such a strong, evil aura. The water is shallow, yet it accommodates so many despicable creatures!¡± he snorted. He paid no heed to the lord and his people; instead, he headed out to the wilderness surrounding Dahl City. In the sharp eyes of the gods, all kinds of living creatures found in the wilderness were clear in sight. Be it the wild beasts, or the demons¡ªnone would be able to escape Sui Xiong¡¯s observing eyes. Carefully, he scanned the wilderness to roughly learn more about which demon communities around this area were relatively more dangerous. After sorting out this information, he came up with a map. Together with a soft, white light, he dropped the map right before Bishop Kabbalah. Kabbalah hurriedly picked up the map and skimmed through it. Then he started to smile. With this map, he had enough. After delivering this map to them, Sui Xiong did not leave right away. Instead, he continued to stay up in the skies above Dahl City to keep watch. This city had been around for hundreds of years. This territory that was located by the edge of the Great Marsh was created only after generations of families had kept it in an operational state. It was not wealthy, nor were its lands fertile. It also did not manufacture any special products. But Baron Dahl was quite rich, and his wealth far exceeded the level at which this territorial land could provide. If nothing else, just the porcelain ware in his restaurants and those spices used in the kitchens made it easy to know how rich he was. In this world, fine porcelain and superior-grade spices were extremely precious. The former needed materials of superb quality and outstanding craftsmen, while the latter required suitable climate and soil. Both were hard to come by; they could only be found through sheer luck. After years of development, generally, for the former, only a few dwarves from the plains who believed in the God of Craftsmen were capable of producing such fine porcelain. The latter could mostly be produced in some temples that believed in Goddess Gaia, but the production level was pathetically low. Sui Xiong was no engineer before he traversed the world, and he only had a bit of knowledge on agriculture. So even though he often saw the main characters making fritted glass or making gourmet powder in the time travel novels that he read, he was still at his wits end in the area of ¡°production.¡± Just dealing with this steel-making blast furnace had taken him so many years in total. Eventually, he still had to hand over the information to Palin and company where the project was brought to completion. This was why he had never thought of wanting to frit glass and porcelain. This was something he truly could not do. As for spices, before traversing the world, he knew nothing about spices at all, much less trying to harvest them. But¡­ at present, in the low-grade spices market within the Main Plane, a substantial portion was under the control of Church of the Void Mask. They were mainly the products manufactured by several medicine fields, as well as by bay leaf planting on the borders of Garth City. As for the high-quality spices, only the deep-sea-produced ambergris was mostly under his control, and that would still depend on maintaining a good relationship with the Goddess of the Ocean. Baron Dahl had a lot of spices in his possession, which not only included bay leaves of mid-range quality but also other expensive food flavors, like ¡°fragrant pepper¡± and ¡°clear Patchouli oil.¡± He owned even more varieties when it came to things like incense. To support such extravagant spending, even the merchants from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins would certainly not be able to afford this, much less a baron. ¡°Where exactly does the wealth of this lord come from?¡± Sui Xiong could not help wondering as he carefully observed the situation within the lord¡¯s manor. Chapter 667 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The origin of Baron Dahl¡¯s wealth had always been a great mystery. The neighboring lords had been investigating this matter all along, but they had never been able to find any reliable clues. Of course, there were still some traces found, and all these leads pointed to smuggling. But ¡°smuggling¡± was never just lip service. It required trade caravans and a clear channel for the smooth circulation of goods between both sides. Among the lords located around Dahl Hill, there were some who also had social connections in bigger cities, such as the capital city, where they could pull ties and get to know more people. But ultimately, they were never able to find any evidence on how generations of barons from the Dahl family had imported and exported goods. It was not that Baron Dahl did not do business, but rather, the business that he engaged in was all very normal. No one could find any problems at all. But this was nothing difficult for Sui Xiong. The mortals could not find any clues, but that did not mean that he, Brother Xiong, would not be able to find any either. With just a little bit of Divine Power, he looked into the mind of Baron Dahl¡­ Then, he felt a little embarrassed. He was not able to read his mind. Baron Dahl was not powerful, but he always carried an extremely advanced protective tool with him wherever he went. Any mental attacks below the legendary level would not work on him at all. Even if the power was increased to the legendary level, though it might be able to break through the protection provided by that tool, the attacker wouldn¡¯t necessarily be able to read the baron¡¯s mind well. Of course, Sui Xiong could still continue to increase the power. So long as he decided to get really serious, even those magical objects specially used for mental protection might not necessarily be able to block out his power, let alone the mental protective tools at a mere mortal level. But if he were to do so, it would be hard not to leave a trace, which was not in line with his intention. Leaving a trace was not a big deal, but leaving a trace would also mean he would easily be discovered. If the other gods found out and mentioned it sometime later, he would be stultifying himself! The gods were almost immortals. Unless they lost in a war of gods, then even if the people¡¯s belief in them faded to a withering end, they could always resolve this problem by creating new races or opening up a new world. In most cases, the fights between gods were, in fact, just a matter of honor. Sui Xiong certainly was unwilling to risk losing face over such a small matter, but this was only a small problem. How could it possibly subdue His Majesty, the great Void Mask? Within the blink of an eye, he came up with an idea. Recall Time! No matter what Baron Dahl did, so long as Sui Xiong made him the target when recalling time, then sooner or later, he would be able to trace down some clues. He would also investigate bit by bit from the present to the past. In the face of such a magical power that could almost be termed shameless, any concealing means would be rendered meaningless. In fact, there was no such thing as ¡°sooner or later.¡± It had only been about 12 days into the investigation, and Sui Xiong had already found clues. ¡°Haha! This fellow is truly¡­ creative!¡± After he had gained a clear understanding, Sui Xiong could not help laughing. It turned out that Baron Dahl had actually dug a very long tunnel under his castle that led all the way to the suburbs. His smuggling business was carried out through this tunnel, and he had been working with two large-scale organizations, one of which was from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins and the other from the Great Marsh. As a matter of fact, Baron Dahl¡¯s role in the smuggling industry was almost the same as that of a middleman. Any goods that needed to be sold by both parties of a deal, or if there was something that either party wanted to purchase, they would go to him and leave a deposit or the goods to be sold. Then he would complete the deal, be it to purchase or to sell, by contacting the other party At first glance, this might seem a little strange. It was as though he was just a redundant figure who could be tossed aside by both sides where they could trade on their own. Even Sui Xiong was somehow puzzled over it, so he continued to investigate. This time, he invested in much more time and power than before. After almost 50 years of looking into the matter, Sui Xiong finally made sense out of the chain of circumstances and sorted everything out neatly. He could finally gain a full understanding of what was going on. This was a long story to tell. The Dahl family had been running a smuggling business since the first generation of Baron Dahl. They did business with the tribes in Great Marsh, where they would purchase rare resources and at the same time, sell those important, war-ready materials. Without a doubt, such business dealings were illegal, especially when they had to do with the selling of things like heavy military ammunition. The moment they were discovered, it would usually end up with a calamity of family extermination. However, just as the saying went, greater risks reaped greater rewards. Just by relying on exchanges that were like dealing with the tips of blades pointing at them, the Dahl family accumulated a great fortune very quickly. About 30 years ago, the grandfather of the present-day Baron Dahl, who was already an aged baron, chanced upon a treasure. This treasure could neither be used to attack, nor could it be used for defense. Its greatest use was that it could pose a hindrance to the prophecy spell. By right, such a treasure should not belong to a mere baron who was also involved in a smuggling business. The most appropriate thing to do with it was to present it to the big shots at Royal Town. But after thinking for a long time, the elderly baron eventually decided that he would hold on to this treasure because it should not be kept in his hands. He specifically set up an underground chamber just for it. It took almost a decade to complete working on the chamber, and since then, the Dahl family had expanded their sphere of business. Not only did they get themselves involved in smuggling, but they also helped out other smugglers by providing them with a place to trade. So long as the trading transactions were carried out within that chamber, they could all effectively avoid the prophecy spell. A prophecy spell was something that these smugglers were most afraid of. No matter how well prepared they were, how thorough and careful they were, they would not be able to hide from the investigative nature of a prophecy spell directly cast upon them. Because of this reason, treasures that could be used to resist the prophecy spell were invaluable, and they all had a price but no market. Not only did the merchants engaged in the smuggling business need them, but those big shots needed them even more! This chamber of the Dahl family had a strange origin. But its background history did not matter much. Its importance came from the fact that it was effective. A few years later, the Dahl family underwent a transition period where they began to gradually transform from smugglers to brokers in the smuggling business. This form of dealing was not only profitable, but they were also completely uninvolved in any import or export of goods, so they were quite well obscured. So even if the lords in the surrounding areas were keeping watch over the Dahl family, ultimately, they would not be able to find any trace of clues. Just like that, more than a decade had passed. The Dahl family¡¯s wealth accumulated, and their lives became more and more luxurious with the passing of time. From Baron Dahl¡¯s perspective, this naturally was the result of his family¡¯s wisdom and luck, which could be enjoyed for a long time. But from how Sui Xiong saw it, this family property handed down from the preceding Baron Dahl, that had been accumulated over a long time, was not only a great benefit, it was also a great crisis. He was never deeply accomplished in areas like ¡°fate,¡± but just by looking at that black, evil aura rising from Baron Dahl¡¯s castle, he knew that this family¡¯s prospects would most likely not be as glorious as before. Although the saying, ¡°What goes around comes around,¡± was more like a beautiful form of hope, the more one walked about at night, there would still come a day where he would ultimately run into a ghost. Even if no predictive means were used, Sui Xiong also dared to place his bets. Now, there were definitely big shots who had power and direct access to the highest authorities eyeing the Dahl family. The reason why they had not acted was most probably because they were waiting for a surefire chance, or perhaps they were still discussing the issue of splitting the loot. But no matter what, if the Dahl family did not act quickly to find a way to dispose of that treasure that could bring them wealth but also crisis, then what awaited them would not be a pleasant end. Although these theories had nothing to do with Sui Xiong, he could not help but be aroused by his curiosity. Thus, he decided to stay for the time being to see exactly when the Dahl family would be struck by bad luck. Of course, he could also help his clergymen at the same time, lest they were to suffer a loss because of him being in an unfamiliar place with limited power. Chapter 668 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Shortly after the first snow fell, Dahl Hill¡¯s winter ¡°clean-up¡± army set out from the city. The main force of this army was dominated by a private army under Baron Dahl¡¯s command. It consisted of a total of 100 professional soldiers. These 100 people should not be belittled. Not only did they receive full-time training all year round, but every single one of them was also fully armed to the teeth. Baron Dahl was very generous when it came to the expenditure on armaments. All his soldiers had changed into a simplified full-body armor that was introduced by the Republic of Northwest in recent years. On the basis of a one-piece breastplate, the additional features consisted of armor around the waist, arms, and legs, as well as a helmet and mask, which were all made out of stamped steel sheets. This was truly a heavy-duty, full-body armor. Not only that, it was also much lighter than the traditional full-body armor. Putting it on might not allow its wearer to travel long distances, but the soldiers could at least raise their guns while charging at their enemies. This was something way beyond what the heavy-duty, full-body armor of the past could ever allow. As for these people¡¯s weapons, naturally, they would all be equipped with a uniform set of sophisticated weapons. Long rifles, big blades, shields and battle axes¡ªthey certainly didn¡¯t lack anything. Other than these professional soldiers, there was also an equal number of archers. They were classified as part-time soldiers. They would usually receive a salary, but they had to prepare their own equipment. During the battle, they were mainly responsible for rear support. With a single arrow, these skilled archers could usually shoot and finish off the weaker demons, like the gnomes. When 100 soldiers were gathered to form an army, their combat power could also be extremely forceful. This army of 200 men was most probably where Baron Dahl found base for power. As for the remaining 300-odd men, they were just there as do-all factotums. Among them, about a hundred were militia¡ªand a majority of these 100 men were ruffians and rogues gathered from several villages. Baron Dahl did not expect these men to be able to fight tough battles, but they could provide backup by the side, and help to destroy enemies like the gnomes by making good use of the advantageous situation their army was in. They were still capable of handling such tasks. The final 200 men were purely servant soldiers. Among them, there were specialized servant soldiers, people who grew up learning how to serve soldiers, how to march, how to set up camp, how to build the battlefield, etc. But the bulk of the group was made up of the poor people who came from slums around the city. This group of people consisted of both male and female, from young to old, all of whom who were basically untrained. They were only responsible for work like helping with the transportation of supplies and gear of the army, as well as serving the soldiers. Yes, they were only required to do this. As for the other jobs, such as being cannon-fodder, militiamen, troopers, and so on, their services would not be required. The key to how these poor people enlisted as servant soldiers were able to receive such treatment was naturally because of the clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask. To protect this group of poor people, including the local bishop and Bishop Kabbalah, all 10 clergymen had been mobilized. They even roped in two other church members to help. Twelve of them came together and formed a powerful squad. In this squad, three were of middle rank, and nine were only at the junior level, but their combat power was definitely not inferior. Even if they were pitched against Baron Dahl¡¯s bodyguards, they still had a 50-50 chance of winning. And the personnel allocation on this squad was fairly reasonable, with two paladins, one bishop, three priests, and six Sacred Warriors, and if close-combat or spells we needed, there was enough manpower to handle that too. Bishop Kabbalah even moved the sacred altar over and placed it within a big cart specifically made for it. When the need arose, he could definitely display a power that would scare any enemy away by relying on this altar. Yes, any enemy, whether it was a wild beast, demon or any human with ill intentions. This was the thing that made Baron Dahl particularly distressed. Originally, he had wanted to integrate those clergymen into the vanguard, then leave them to die as they grappled with the formidable demons. In the end, those clergymen pointed out that, ¡°Our altar is right here. If you want to give us any orders, you can negotiate with Our Majesty on your own.¡± So he could only concede defeat and retreat in shame. His Majesty, the Void Mask, was a good god, and Baron Dahl did not feel that he was seen as someone appealable to His Majesty. He felt it was better not to make himself unwelcomed. Since he did not have the guts to discuss it with His Majesty, then of course, he would not directly issue an order. However, Baron Dahl was, after all, a smart businessman. He was quick to figure things out¡ªbeing unable to scheme against those clergymen was in fact, no big deal. Anyway, when they crossed paths with the powerful yet evil demons, would these clergymen have any other choice but to fight head-on? If they were to flinch, then they did not deserve to be clergymen! Seeing how these people could possibly be of help to him when a tough battle was to happen, Baron Dahl did not calculate much with Church of the Void Mask. He even left the poor servant soldiers be and did not make them have to risk their lives. For the sake of a huge profit, he should not be so calculative over such small matters. People who did business would always know how to act according to the size of trade-offs. Of course, Baron Dahl would not pin hopes on the clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask at these crucial moments. His personal army of bodyguards were the troops that truly allowed him to rest easy. His army of bodyguards consisted of knights, bandits and mages. In this army, there were four at the mid-ranked level. Especially that mage whose expertise was in protective spells and that bandit that was skilled in stalking and tracing¡ªboth of whom Baron Dahl had spent a great deal on just to enlist their help. They had been living in Dahl Hill for five to six years, and it had always been an amicable cooperation among them, so on the overall, they could be said to be dependable. And the other two mid-ranked men were from the Dahl family itself. They were two dependable knights. These two knights gave their allegiance to the Dahl family for four generations, so they were the most reliable ones. One of them was also a distant relative of the baron¡ªthat knight¡¯s mother was also a Dahl and had the same great-grandfather as the baron. Because he had such dependable men under him, Baron Dahl dared to come out during a time where the land was frozen and covered in snow to wipe out the wild beasts and demons. This was to lay a safe foundation for the following year. In his hand was a map which was what that bandit on his army had summarized for that year. Basically, he had sorted out and made conclusions on the groups of beasts and demons in Dahl Hill. On this map, the most dangerous tribe would be the Tribe of Ogre that had migrated over here not too long ago. Closest to them was a group of gnomes. Or rather, a tribe of gnomes. ¡°Our first enemy will most probably be a tribe of gnomes,¡± said Bishop Kabbalah. When they were all back in camp that night, Bishop Kabbalah gathered all the church members. He also happened to have a map on the distribution of wild beasts and demons in Dahl Hill, and it was far more precise than the one Baron Dahl had. He spread out the map and introduced the situation to everyone. ¡°There are probably more than 200 of these guys, which is quite a big number. Among them, there is a tribal chief, a shaman, six warriors and 15 archers. In short, they are a force to be reckoned with.¡± A single gnome by itself would not be able to fight against the relatively stronger farmers, so even if there were 200 of them, they were nothing more than a group of live targets. With three to five courageous soldiers charging forward to finish off two or three gnomes, the rest would be easily dispersed. However, if there were gnome warriors among them, these gnomes would be braver; this, their side would be able to bear a certain number of casualties. If they had a tribal chief, they could even come up with some decent formations, which when coupled with some clumsy but effective plan, could make them much more menacing. Not only that, but with a tribal chief, there would be a division of labor within the tribe of gnomes. This would give rise to advanced-type monsters like hunter gnomes and archer gnomes. The archer gnomes were enemies that adventurers abhorred. These guys who used short bows were extremely skilled in archery. One careless move might cost you your life. The most frightening ones were none other than the Gnome Shamans. They might not be very powerful in combat, but they could greatly enhance the gnome¡¯s combat ability. ¡°So for our battle tomorrow, our first two targets will be the tribal chief and the Gnome Shamans!¡± Almost at the same time, both Bishop Kabbalah and Baron Dahl made the same decision. Chapter 669 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The next day, the weather was not good. It was gloomy, and the strong northern winds swept through the earth, causing the fine snowflakes to whirl around. When the wind blew at those people who did not wear thick clothes, the cold was simply like a blade slicing them up. But such weather was good for Dahl Hill¡¯s clean-up army. In this weather, the gnomes would not be able to deploy sentries¡ªeven with the leadership of a tribal chief, the gnomes were too backwards in their level of civilization to be able to prepare thick clothes that were warm enough for their sentries. Without thick clothes, could they send their sentries out in such weather? In less than half an hour, they could prepare to collect the hard, frozen corpses of their sentries. Even if the tribal chief of the gnomes did arrange for sentries to keep watch, the sentries would only be huddling in the caves and crawl out to take a brief look from time to time. In weather like this, their sense of vigilance would almost be about zero, and two to three experienced scouts would be able to settle them all. And the fact was indeed so. That bandit under Baron Dahl¡¯s command, who was at the mid-rank level, acted alone early in the morning. Then around noon, he returned with his report, saying, ¡°After lunch, we can take action. I have already confirmed the two outposts that the gnomes have arranged. By then, we will first wipe out the sentries.¡± Such a result was no surprise to Baron Dahl. Given that bandit¡¯s skill, such an achievement was common. On the contrary, it would have been strange if he was unable to do so. Therefore, he ordered the clean-up army to take a break for the time being to eat and drink. After they had fully recovered both physically and mentally, they would then follow the path that the bandit had marked and exterminate that group of gnomes in one go. The clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask were placed right at the front of the clean-up army. In front of them, there were 50 heavily armed soldiers and two knights, and not far behind them was an almost equal number of archers. As for Baron Dahl, he was even further behind. He was being protected by the remaining 50 soldiers and knights to ensure his safety. The servant soldiers were naturally following at the back of the army, with those who were ruffians and rogues on the outside and the poor people who were truly only servant soldiers on the inside. In short, Baron Dahl did indeed put some thought into how he could avoid injuries to his men as much as possible. To him, perhaps this might only be to prevent the impairment of the army¡¯s morale, but to the clergymen of the Church of the Void Mask, Baron Dahl was fulfilling his promise well, so they would also do likewise. ¡°Hey, if our opponents are just the gnomes, then this seriously can¡¯t be considered a major war!¡± said a sacred warrior in an uninterested manner. ¡°When I was still a farmer, I killed many gnomes. This is too easy to deal with; they¡¯re not even enough to be considered an opponent.¡± Seeing his strong and bearlike figure, as well as that heavy suit of armor that he wore, anyone could tell how much strength he had. His armor seemed weighty enough to pin an ordinary person to the ground. Such a strong man, even without any martial art techniques, would be able to defeat the gnomes with relative ease. Not to mention the fact that he was already nearing the mid-rank level, enemies of this level such as the gnomes, would all be too weak to stand up against him. So long as there were no tribal chiefs or shamans, even with a horde of gnome warriors right before him, the Sacred Warrior would be able to defeat them. Just as the stories often depicted how a good man could be a hero by fighting hundreds or even sweep thousands of troops away and still remain invincible, if the enemy was limited only to the level of ordinary gnomes, then even a hundred of them would not be of any difficulty for this warrior at all. Sweeping away thousands of troops or something as such, he could try his best to give it a shot all the same. The only thing that was not achievable was being invincible. ¡°Don¡¯t get so loquacious, be careful,¡± said Bishop Kabbalah with a frown. ¡°Also, take off that mask. If you were to be hit by an oncoming arrow right in your face, no matter what kind of a hero or good man you are, you will not be able to withstand the blow. The gnome archers often soak the tips of their arrows in excrement. I suppose you wouldn¡¯t want to be shot by an arrow soaked in gnomes¡¯ pee, I guess.¡± This threat was indeed so powerful that that strong and bearlike sacred warrior shut his mouth right away and pulled down his mask that kept his whole face fully protected. After a while, he could not help but say, ¡°This mask is almost perfect if not for it being a little suffocating.¡± ¡°The mask is definitely not suffocating, it¡¯s the foul odor from your own body,¡± Bishop Kabbalah said lightly. ¡°Just take more baths will do.¡± ¡°No wonder, I haven¡¯t been bathing much these few days!¡± ¡°Everyone¡¯s not really been bathing these few days,¡± said that elderly priest with a smile. ¡°This is what adventures are all about. Foul odor and such things, we just have to put up with them. If you need to, after this battle, if I still have any magic left, I can conjure a ¡®prestidigitation¡¯ to allow you to cleanse yourself. More or less, there¡¯ll be some help.¡± ¡°Prestidigitation¡± was an entry-level spell that could achieve some supernatural things, such as slightly raising or lowering the surrounding temperature, or making food and drinking water slightly tastier, or making clothes slightly cleaner¡­ things like that. Regardless of type, the effects were all not obvious, but still, something was better than nothing at all. Generally speaking, its main purpose was to work in complement with the same kind of ¡°illusion spell¡± at the entry level to execute a variety of magic means that were similar to those found on Earth, for instance, getting dead branches to flower again, creating a splash of colors, lightings or music out of nowhere and so on. However, if this spell could be further improved, it would be really exceptional¡ªthe well-known advanced level spell, ¡°Thousands of Changes Spell,¡± was its evolution, and taking a further step of improvement, it would evolve into one of the highly-reputed legendary spells, ¡°Materialization Spell.¡± If there were still conditions to make the last step of progress, that would be the might of a god, the extraordinary Divine Power that could change reality. Among the mages, this spell was only a basic skill, so practically all mages would know how to wield it. But among the clergymen, only those who majored in the fields of ¡°wisdom¡± or ¡°magic spells¡± would be able to master this spell. Of all the realm powers that the elderly priest had majored in, ¡°wisdom¡± happened to be one of them. This was why, so long as he had sufficient magic, he could most certainly make use of it to provide everyone with some ¡°prestidigitation.¡± Regardless of how effective the results were, it was still better than nothing at all. With his promise, the strong and sturdy sacred warrior suddenly brightened up. Using his iron-gloved left hand, he patted the thick armor plate over his chest. Laughing heartily, he said, ¡°Then I¡¯ll be waiting for your magic. Ha ha, I really had enough of this smell! Heavy armor and all of these might be good, but the stench is truly repulsive!¡± ¡°You should speak less about it,¡± another sacred warrior who was also clad in the same heavy armor suit lamented. ¡°I didn¡¯t think too much about it at first, but now, the more you say, the more uncomfortable I feel!¡± Everyone burst out laughing, completely not taking the imminent battle seriously. Honestly, this battle truly did not qualify as one that they should take seriously. By the time they arrived at the battlefield, the battle had begun. The tribe of gnomes who had lost their sentries had completely failed to notice the arrival of the clean-up army. They were already at a loss fight from the beginning, and the arrows that were raining upon them threw them out of their bearing. There was no way they could organize themselves into a decent formation at all. This was the disadvantage of being a backward civilization. If it were tribes like the Orcs, who had a relatively higher degree of civilization, they would at least have put up a surrounding wall or fence around their tribe, then no matter what, they would not be such easy targets for a wave of arrow attack by their opponent. But the gnomes were not so bright and skillful. They only had holes or haystacks around their grounds, only the ¡°great tribal chief¡± and the ¡°honorable Shaman¡± had tents¡ªwhich to be honest, in such weather, a tent might not even be as useful as a hole in the ground. Holes in the ground were pretty effective for blocking out arrows, but the haystacks were completely useless. And within the clean-up army, there were naturally experienced men who were knowledgeable adventurers. First, they would let out angry roars to scare the gnomes into a panic attack, who would then be scurrying out of the holes and haystacks. Then an attack of random arrows would fall upon the panicking gnomes like rain. This would make the effect much more pleasing. It was only the first wave of attack, but the tribe of gnomes was already in a state of chaos. Chapter 670 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio A gnome was a very evil and dangerous creature. It fell under the kind of magic beast that was almost entry-level, and its individual power was not strong. But when it came to its ability to appear threatening and destructive, it easily beat a variety of magic beasts and ranked among the top few. The crux of the problem lay in their powerful reproductive capacity, as well as their astonishing adaptability. There seemed to be no place in this world where the gnomes could not thrive and multiply. Even in Ashes Woods that were brimming with negative energy, there would be traces of them to be found so long as those places were slightly closer to the edge of the forests. Their ability to reproduce was even scarier. The gnomes could get pregnant all year round, and after pregnancy, they only needed around a month before they were ready to give birth. Every pregnant gnome would give birth to around four to six babies. After the baby gnomes were born, they could eat all kinds of food normally. If their food supply was aplenty, after about three months, the baby gnome could grow to maturity¡ªin other words, this thing could grow and give rise to an actual ¡°generation¡± within four months after birth, which meant that a year¡¯s time was enough to breed three generations of gnomes. Within the realm of magic beasts, other than the Slime, it was highly unlikely that there would be any other magic beasts that could reproduce faster than them. The most shocking thing was that if there was enough food, the¡±broodmother¡± would even appear among the gnomes. This was a strange female gnome that was deteriorating in all abilities with the exception of its reproductive capacity. A ¡°broodmother¡± could reproduce via parthenogenesis. Around 20 days or so, it would be able to give birth to one batch of babies, and in every batch, there would be around ten babies total. Then so long as it was allowed a break of four to five days, it would be able to give birth to the next batch. This was literally comparable to species like the queen of ants. And the baby gnomes birthed by a broodmother were much stronger, grew much faster and were thus, naturally much more dangerous than the ordinary baby gnomes. There were studies by scholars that showed that if provided enough food, a pair of gnomes could multiply to more than 200 times in a year. This was indisputable madness. What was more insane was that from the second year onwards, there would be broodmothers emerging among the gnomes, and the rate of reproduction would skyrocket. This was the reason why many adventurers felt that the gnomes were simply like weeds; they could never kill enough of them. On the contrary, new adventurers who lacked experience often found themselves besieged by a large group of gnomes and then lose their lives in a most cowardly manner. One very important reason why Baron Dahl chose the tribe of gnomes as his first target for this winter¡¯s clean-up operation was precisely because of their ability to reproduce. If these fellows caught wind of the news and took flight to seek refuge within the mountains, perhaps by the next winter season, Dahl Hill would no longer be facing just one tribe of gnomes but several tribes that came together to form a gnome alliance. Of course, the scores could not be counted as such. The gnomes were no powerful magic beasts, and such a thing as ¡°abundant food¡± was in fact, not very possible for them. And they were passionate about infighting. Once a tribe started to expand by just a slight degree, the tribe would easily fall apart into disunity¡ªthereafter, the gnomes would become food for the other magic beasts. So over the years, tribes of gnomes could be found everywhere, but alliances of gnomes were rarely seen. Legends about the existence of a ¡°Khan Gnome,¡± who was able to integrate the masses into several gnome alliances to eventually give rise to a newfound country and things like that, were just legends after all. This was like a rabbit, whose reproductive ability was much stronger than that of the gnomes. But who would be afraid to see herds of rabbits? A wave of arrows shooting all over the place drove the tribe of gnomes into a panicked state. The heavily armed soldiers were already shouting all kinds of slogans with weapons in their hands as they charged towards the gnomes. Most of them were using long weapons, like long guns and spears, forks and long blades¡­ anyway, their weapons all had long handles. This category of weapons could effectively maintain a distance between their enemies and them so that they could maximize the advantage of their equipment. These professional soldiers were all very strong physically. They wore thick and heavy armor so the weapons of the gnomes could not hurt them easily. On the other hand, they held weapons that were always able to heavily injure the gnomes. As soon as both sides exchanged blows, it did not take long for a handful of gnomes to fall down into a heap as the number of injured gnomes went past 20. Not only that, but also, not too far behind these soldiers, the archers were madly shooting arrows that rained upon the gnomes in torrents. These skilled shooters used bows of different lengths. Every three to four arrows released, they would be able to shoot down an enemy. From time to time, there would be a gnome suddenly shot by an arrow. Among them, most would be directly shot in a vital point and fall to the ground right away. This was a good opening that gave Baron Dahl great satisfaction. What followed closely was a scene that pleased him even more. Under the leadership of the Bishop, 12 clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask had positioned themselves into a square array with an arrowhead. Then they charged their way into the tribe of gnomes. The one acting as the arrowhead was naturally that strong and bearlike Sacred Warrior. He brandished the big blade that he held with both hands, and then wielding it as though it was an axe, he struck the gnomes down, one after the other. Even those gnome warriors who were clad in simple leather armor and who were more powerful that the ordinary gnomes, were just like piles of wood before him, without any strength to retaliate at all. The other Sacred Warriors that were close behind him might not be as powerful as he was, but their abilities were not inferior either. Brandishing all kinds of weapons, they knocked down the gnomes in succession. Unlike those professional soldiers, they were much more experienced in combat and were much more powerful. The gnomes that were knocked down by them, even if they had not perished on the spot, would have completely lost their ability to fight again. Meanwhile, two mid-ranked paladins were shooting arrows from time to time. Their targets were those gnome archers, who were also holding bows and arrows, or those gnome hunters who held onto short spears, prepared to aim at their enemies. They were much more skillful in archery as compared to the archers under Baron Dahl, and their bows were even more powerful. Especially with the auxiliary spells cast on their weapons by priests, their arrows were sharper and wielded more strength. So every time they loaded the bow and released an arrow, there was bound to be a gnome archer or gnome hunter falling to the ground. Not a single arrow would be in vain. Shortly after, this group had charged up to somewhere near to the core area where the gnomes had set up two tents adjacent to one another. And this time, the leaders of the gnomes, the tribal chief and Shaman, finally appeared. The tribal chief of the gnomes was a big and burly fellow who bore no resemblance to the common gnomes. He was even taller than an average human. He was covered in thick leather, held a huge wooden stick in its hands, and looked exceptionally vicious. The moment he jumped out of the tent, he let out a roar of anger. Hearing his roars, the gnomes who were originally in a frenzied state of panic, quickly regained their morale. In a messy crowd, they gathered towards their chief as though they were about to form a battle array. As for the Gnome Shaman, he was that old and thin fellow hiding in a corner, looking malnourished. He hung many bones as accessories on his body, but the wand in his hand was especially hair-raising¡ªit was made by connecting a long leg bone to a skull that was likely from a human, and both of these still had remnants of blood stains on them. Exactly what kind of an evil and terrible method was used to connect these two pieces to make such a wand was truly an unknown. He did not make any noise and merely stroked his wand in silence as he looked at the crowd in a gloomy manner. But so long as his gaze swept across them, no matter how strong the soldiers were, they could not help but shudder, and their movements in battle also slowed down considerably. In the face of these two dangerous enemies, the clergymen had to stop in their tracks for the time being to prepare for another major battle. Chapter 671 - Vol V Chapter 31 In Baron Dahl¡¯s battle plan, the tribal chief and the Gnome Shaman posed the greatest risk in this tribe of gnomes. These two fellows were not only outstanding in their martial power, but they were also even more outstanding as leaders and auxiliary soldiers. With their leadership, even ordinary gnomes would see a great boost in strength. Those that were not weak to start with, like the gnome hunters, gnome warriors and gnome archers, would experience a further increase in strength. They would become so powerful to the point where normal soldiers would not be their match at all. Of course, Baron Dahl would also have men who could command as leaders and serve as auxiliary soldiers. But their ¡°professional¡± ability was much weaker than that of the tribal chief and the Gnome Shaman. Firstly, these two mid-ranked magic beasts were indeed quite powerful. Secondly, their auxiliary abilities were almost exclusively directed at the gnomes, or even completely directed at this tribe of gnomes. The greater limitation in turn brought more power. Compared to Baron Dahl¡¯s men, who were so skillful that they could perform well at using auxiliary power regardless of who they were cooperating with, the auxiliary effect was of course, much stronger. Under normal circumstances, gnomes would never be able to beat healthy and strong humans. But with the help of the tribal chief and the Shaman, it was hard to say. Furthermore, even if they could win, it did not mean that they would not suffer any losses. If it were not for the clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask, it was likely that no matter what, this war would end up with some dead and some wounded. Seeing the crowd from the Church of the Void Mask pitting themselves up against the gnome tribal chief and Shaman, Baron Dahl nodded and exhorted the mages and knights around him to get ready to provide support anytime. Although he abhorred these clergymen who hindered his authority, he was still able to weigh the advantages against the risks. Even if it was a contradiction, he still had to wait until all these magic beasts were exterminated, and then after, he could make a triumphant return to Dahl City. In this world, there were indeed simpletons who in the face of formidable enemies could still busy themselves with infighting, even going to the extent of roping in external enemies to tackle their fellow colleagues. But Baron Dahl was not such a character. Indeed, no good men came from the Dahl family, but neither were they fools. Just as the various masters of the clean-up army had readies themselves, the tribal chief was the first to make a move. Instead of a direct attack, it let out a strange roar, and then its body glowed with a flourishing green light. In an instant, the green light dispersed. This fellow, who originally sported quite a big build, suddenly grew many times bigger and became a giant. ¡°Giant Growth?!¡± exclaimed that mage beside Baron Dahl in surprise. ¡°How could it become so big?¡± This was a question that also popped up in everyone else¡¯s minds¡ªGiant Growth was not a rare spell. Most of the masters present had seen it before. But by right, the spell would at most double the body size of the user. Given the size of the gnome tribal chief, if its size was doubled, it would at most be taller than that burly and bearlike Sacred Warrior by one or two heads. How was it possible for it to directly become a giant?! Judging by its current height, it was most likely even taller than the roof of a common two-story building. Standing before it, that Sacred Warrior, who was already considered to be a towering figure among the normal people, did not even make it to its waist level! ¡°Don¡¯t get distracted!¡± roared the old priest, whose hair was already half-white. His shout woke the crowd from their state of shock. ¡°Focus on the fight! We can¡¯t fight recklessly!¡± As he spoke, the Gnome Shaman had already made a move. It took out a fresh, bloody bone and chewed on it a few times in its mouth. It was unknown where such a strong occlusal force came from, but the Shaman simply bit this piece of bone into dregs and then, spurted everything out in one breath. These bone dregs that were mixed with blood were reduced to a blood cloud the moment they were spurted out and covered a large area around them. The eyes of many gnomes engulfed by this blood cloud turned red while their muscles obviously became one size bigger. They were even exuding a ghastly murderous intent. In particular, the murderous intent coming from the gnome tribal chief was the strongest. Those professional soldiers did not even dare to get close to it while the archers did not dare to shoot at it. This was a spell that everyone could recognize at first glance. It was Bloodlust, one of the most common spells that the Shaman used. This spell could magnify the strength of its subject, give it a boisterous fighting spirit and even reduce agony in times of injury. It was indeed very practical. But because of this, mages who knew how to crack this spell were everywhere. That middle-aged mage next to Baron Dahl had been keeping a close watch over that Gnome Shaman. When he saw it putting the bone into its mouth to chew, he had already figured out which spells it was most likely to use and had prepared himself well. At the very moment when that blood cloud appeared, he put away a few things, leaving only a small silver bottle of high-purity holy water. Chanting a spell repeatedly under his breath, the mage splashed the holy water in that silver bottle into the air suddenly. The holy water splattered but did not fall to the ground. In the air, it became a thin white fog that flew rapidly in the direction of the Gnome Shaman. This white fog seemed powerless at first glance, yet when the gnomes came into contact with it, their eyes would immediately show signs of sobriety, the bloodthirsty red light would fade, and their muscles would regain normality. This was the typical confrontation in a spellcasters¡¯ battlefield. In just a few seconds, both sides would have fought a round. And for this round of crossfire, the middle-aged mage had the upper hand. The Gnome Shaman obviously had not expected to be caught in such a situation. The great shock caused it to freeze for a short moment. Then it hesitated for a short moment before it was awakened by the intense fighting nearby. Hurriedly, it began to prepare for the next spell. By this time, the clergymen were well into a battle with the gnome tribal chief. These seasoned combat experts certainly would not fight recklessly against the gnome tribal chief, who had transformed into a giant. They spread out in all directions and kept it surrounded within their circle. They used 70 to 80 percent of their full Zen Power, which allowed their pace to increase rapidly. And they were constantly changing positions, looking as though they were on a huge carousel. They had specifically trained themselves in using this battle array for the purpose of besieging magic beasts of such enormity. This class of magic beasts usually possessed immense power and moved at quite a fast speed. Their vitality was so tenacious that it was terrifying. Common bows and arrows were unable to cause them significant injuries, while mid and low-level spells would not be able to help much. Basically, all their opponents could depend on was close combat. So while it was dangerous to take them on in close combat, there was also no other option. The only thing that could be done was to perspire more through hard work on normal days in order to avoid bloodshed during war time. The Sacred Warriors from the Church of the Void Mask usually perspired more than enough, so this time around, they finally reaped good results. Despite the gnome tribal chief¡¯s roars and successive attacks, it was unable to hit the same Sacred Warrior twice in a row. And although the Sacred Warriors were much weaker than the tribal chief, so long as they could put up some resistance, they were still able to pull through. On the contrary, the gnome tribal chief suffered quite a fair amount of loss. At the beginning, it was simply striking randomly. But after a while, it realized that the situation was not right, so it set its target to be that burliest Sacred Warrior. As it roared and spun, it strived to strike this Sacred Warrior as viciously as it could as though it could not wait to mince him up into a meatloaf. However, the outcome not only failed to produce its desired effect, it was left with dizzy from all that spinning instead. Being big had its advantages and disadvantages. The gnome tribal chief was clearly not very accustomed to such a giant form; its reaction speed was obviously a little slower and the degree of accuracy of its attacks also became quite a problem. If it were to continue fighting like this, no matter how hard it tried, it would not be able to last long¡­ Chapter 672 - Vol V Chapter 32 ¡°Interesting! So interesting!¡± While the battle went on at ground level, up in the air, where it was not far away from the battlefield, an invisible Sui Xiong was observing the two sides engaged in battle with great interest. He was pleased with the performance of the clergymen. Baron Dahl¡¯s wise decision did earn secret nods of approval from him. But at that moment, what interested him more, was in fact that gnome tribal chief. Unlike the normal humans, Sui Xiong had great powers and adequate insight, so he had long seen through the true ability of this fellow¡ªits other abilities were very ordinary, but there was just one aspect that it was very skilled in. That was its ability to suddenly become big. This ability was not the ¡°Giant Growth¡± that the spellcasters from the clean-up army had concluded. It was the Giant Worm Spell, another kind of marvelous spell with a specious nature. Of the senior adventurers, there were some who had fought in battles that involved the extermination of magic beasts like bugs. In those battles, there would be occasional sightings of magic bugs that could execute amazing abilities and instantly become as big as humans, or even bigger than humans. The spellcasters carried out studies on this class of magic bugs, hoping to parse this amazing ability and develop it into a spell. It could then be used on humans or monster statues. Take a moment to imagine this. Suppose two monster statues that were almost as tall as two people suddenly grew to a size that was ten times bigger. Just imagine how mighty would that be! Even if they could not persevere for long, for them to fight a battle in this state, even if it was only a dozen to 20 seconds, it would be more than enough to hit their enemy¡¯s battle array, and at the same time, deal a heavy blow to their enemy¡¯s morale. But after a period of research, everyone had to give up on this extremely tempting idea. Because even though they had spent a great amount of magic and resources and lost a great number of experimental bodies, they were still unable to make a crucial breakthrough in transferring this spell to ¡°the humans¡± or ¡°the monster statues.¡± Over time, the number of spellcasters studying this class of magic bugs got fewer and fewer. Eventually, this kind of research became research content from an almost forsaken department. Only mages who lost in power struggles against one another would go to such a department. And they did so unwillingly. The supply of resources to study those things was pathetic, and that department seemed fated to never yield any research results¡ªincluding the study of those bugs. The only ones who seemed to reap a little success were the druids. They researched on the famous ¡°Giant Worm Spell.¡± This spell could make a specially-bred magic bug almost 10 times bigger, so it only took a short while for them to become reliable comrades. But today, Sui Xiong saw a living example. This gnome tribal chief was supposedly of a unique bloodline¡ªaccording to Sui Xiong¡¯s analysis, it not only had a small portion of magic bug¡¯s blood, but it also had a lot of giant¡¯s blood. With the gnome¡¯s blood bridging the two kinds of blood together, the combination would produce a wonderful effect. This ability that should originally have appeared on a bug-type magic beast would be transferred over to the tribal chief. Although the degree of expansion it induced was much weaker than the original version of the ¡°Giant Worm Spell,¡± it was still a great deal more powerful than the ¡°Giant Growth¡± spell. If thorough research could be done in this situation, it was possible that a spell that was unique to Sui Xiong¡¯s church would appear. Thereafter, when his clergymen went to war, they could loudly roar, ¡°Give me strength, Holy Light,¡± then become a gigantic creature that stood taller than an entire house with an awe-inspiring and aggressive air. Imagine this: the two armies confronting each other in battle where hundreds of clergymen would put on a show of the ¡°Arrival of Avatar.¡± Even if their enemies were not frightened to death, the clergymen would still swing their weapons, which had also expanded into incomparably huge sizes, and harvest their enemies just like how they would do so to crops in the autumn fields. In the face of such an army, no matter how brave and tenacious their enemies were, they were still vulnerable to the attacks of the clergymen. Thinking of this, Sui Xiong could not help laughing more happily. On the ground, there was no way the gnome tribal chief could manage a smile. On the contrary, it was in an extremely sorry state at the moment. Being surrounded and attacked by the clergymen of the Church of the Void Mask with their besieging the boss setup made this magic beast, that was in fact not very powerful in its own right, very upset. Its strength, at best, could only tackle two to three Sacred Warriors. When six Sacred Warriors went to attack him at one time, even if it became a giant, it still could not withstand their attacks, not to mention that there were also priests and the bishop helping those Sacred Warriors at the side. The two paladins that did not attack it were now taking turns raising their bows and opening fire at the Gnome Shaman in an unhurried manner. As seasoned adventurers, they did not expect to use such an ordinary level of attack to bring down that magic beast whose strength was not their match at all. But through this method, they sought to firmly pin down the other side, leaving the Gnome Shaman at the end of its wits. It could do nothing but go on roaring. More than once, it had tried to cast spells to help the tribal chief, but it was confronted by two paladins whose strength was not any inferior to it. In the face of sharp arrows that might not be extremely mighty but were always spot-on when it came to their ability to shoot at vital points, it had no choice but to hide. There was simply no way it could cast spells properly. Just trying to ward off or hide from the attacks of these two paladins was already exhausting all its energy. As for the others, it truly could not be bothered. At the same time, Baron Dahl¡¯s army, led by knights, began a large-scale massacre of the ordinary gnomes. Heavily armed soldiers charged to the front with skilled archers following behind, only to see the gnomes falling to the ground successively as though they were wheat being harvested in the fields. There were some that were relatively stronger among those gnomes¡ªfor instance, the gnome warriors, gnome hunters and gnome archers. But their power at best was only matched to those professional soldiers who received combat training all year round. Against the knights and knights-to-be, they were still just as vulnerable. Not to mention that there were spellcasters on the hind of the army, acting as auxiliary support for these knights. Even Bishop Kabbalah from the Church of the Void Mask had lent his support and used a few extensive auxiliary spells. Among spellcasters that used divine spells, the bishops were considered the ones who specialized in this aspect. They were not like the priests who could go on the battlefield to fight while clad in heavy armor, but more like mages in the direction of divine spells. This made them far more capable in spellcasting as compared to the ordinary priests. Especially when it came to making use of large-scale auxiliary spells, they were even more outstanding. Bishop Kabbalah used a total of four large-scale auxiliary spells from the beginning until now. The first spell was to boost the army¡¯s morale. The next was to provide everyone on the battlefield with a divine armor that could slightly weaken their enemies¡¯ attack. The one after that was to append some blessings on everyone¡¯s weapons, boosting their ability to do greater harm, and the last was a spell that could allow everyone to slowly recover from any injury. These four spells were not that superior when used individually. However, when cast as a set, they could enhance the clean-up army¡¯s strength and greatly boost their morale¡ªwithout mentioning the fact that the spell itself was able to encourage the army to keep up their morale level, just the effects of having a shield and blessed weapons were enough to increase the soldiers¡¯ confidence. Coupled with the ability to clearly feel their wounds and injuries slowly healing by themselves, the soldiers would feel a great increase in courage. When it was time to fight battles, naturally, the soldiers would be much braver. As the saying went, ¡°a brave hero always wins the fiercest competition.¡± The clean-up army was much stronger than the gnomes to begin with, and coupled with them being the braver side, the outcome of this battle was in truth already predestined. Around half an hour or so of fighting, the battle finally ended abruptly by an uncompromising roar of anger from the tribal chief. ¡°What a¡­ formidable¡­ fellow!¡± said that burly and bearlike sacred warrior. He had finished the tribal chief off with a final blow by piercing the tribal chief in the chest. There he stood by the corpse of the gnome tribal chief with fresh blood gushing like a spring as he panted and wheezed. He wasn¡¯t the only one tired as the other Sacred Warriors were fatigued as well. In the battle earlier on, the gnome tribal chief had used the Giant Growth Spell three times in total. If not for their tacit cooperation and how well-trained they were, it was highly likely that injury was inevitable. Now, they were only exhausted but without anyone being hurt. This was already the best outcome. Chapter 673 After an intense battle, everyone would need rest, even Baron Dahl, who had not actually participated in the fighting. Because of all that tension he was subjected to when observing the battle, he felt exhausted and also needed a good rest. Now it was the servant soldiers¡¯ time to work. In groups of three to five people, they started scouring the grounds of the gnomes. This search had two goals in mind. The first was to see if they could find anything valuable, and the second was to search the grounds for any gnomes who were lucky enough to escape the blows of the soldiers¡¯ weapons. They would exterminate these fugitives and leave the tribe with no chance for revival. To the servant soldiers, the former was more important, whereas to Dahl Hill, the latter mattered more¡ªafter all, these ghastly things reproduced at a rate that was simply too fast. ¡°Today¡¯s fight went well,¡± said the knight who oversaw commands for the battle that day. They were in the army tent as he reported to Baron Dahl. ¡°The number of gnomes that escaped will not exceed ten. They were at the back of the tribe, so they had taken flight right at the beginning. At that time, we were still unable to allocate manpower to give chase.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just ten of them; if they¡¯ve managed to escape, then let them be,¡± said Baron Dahl with indifference as he waved his hand to dismiss his concern. ¡°In this snowy weather where the ground is frozen into ice, wherever they may escape to, they might not be able to survive long. Even if they are lucky enough to live through this winter, less than 10 gnomes, what can they be capable of? If nothing much goes wrong, at least within the next three to five years, the gnomes within our territory will not be able to reach a larger number. After all, gnomes like the tribal chief and the shaman are not frequently seen.¡± He was not wrong in saying so. The gnomes constituted a relatively weak group among the magic beasts. Without the leadership of a gnome tribal chief or a shaman, usually the size of a tribe would be maintained at a number not exceeding 100. Any bigger than that, these gnomes would be targeted by the powerful magic beasts¡ªafter all, gnomes could also be found on their recipes. If the gnomes kept their tribes small, the powerful ones would not be likely to tire themselves out just for these little things that ran fast and were hard to catch. But if the number of gnomes was large enough, then that was a different story. They just needed to work hard to catch them all and fill their bellies. In this case, those powerful magic beasts would certainly be willing to specially make a dash for them. ¡°It is strange to speak of this. This time around, we can just put an end to whatever happened with that gnome shaman, but what exactly is going on with that gnome tribal chief?¡± said a knight. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen any that could grow so big!¡± ¡°Yes, I haven¡¯t seen one like that either,¡± said another knight who nodded in agreement. Then looking to his left and right, he realized the mage was not inside the tent. He could not help laughing, then said, ¡°Guys, look. Someone has already run over to study it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid he won¡¯t be able to study it at all,¡± said a knight who just stepped in as he shook his head. ¡°I saw those people from the Church of the Void Mask dragging its corpse up onto the altar, saying that such a peculiar enemy could be used as a sacrificial offering¡­¡± The crowd froze for a while; then a knight-to-be, who seemed to be just of age, asked in surprise, ¡°Isn¡¯t the Void Mask a pure good god? How come he still accepts blood sacrifices?¡± Everyone looked at one another. But come to think of it, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it¡ªthe followers had toiled hard to kill a powerful magic beast, so it seemed reasonable to take its corpse as a sacrificial offering. At least, making offerings to the good gods was something that a war-geared church, or churches of a similar nature, would do. It was just that for the clergymen following a pure good god to also do something like this, people would come to find it a little too¡ªwell, the style of picture they depicted was not right. There was another mage who enlisted in the army who also felt that this picture was not right. However, he did not mind the clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask performing such an act of sacrificial offering. Anyway, he had already gotten his rightful share from the spoils of war¡ªan arm of the gnome tribal chief, as well as its heart. With regards to carrying out a study, these two parts were more than enough. Any more than these would go to waste. But he too was so surprised that the Church of the Void Mask would engage in the offering of such bloody sacrifices that he could not help but query. ¡°So what do you think we should use to offer as a sacrifice?¡± asked Bishop Kabbalah. He was done with conducting the offering and had basked in the warm holy light with some church members. That mage pondered for a while, then said, ¡°The first wheat harvested in autumn?¡± ¡°That is meant to be used in the ritual for the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest.¡± ¡°The first money we earn every month, or the first coin in our salary bag at the end of every month?¡± ¡°That is meant as an offering for Her Majesty, the Goddess of Wealth.¡± ¡°The prayers that we say every morning when the sun just rises?¡± ¡°My friend, can you not let your thoughts run wild!¡± said Bishop Kabbalah as he simply could not help but shake his head with a sigh. ¡°Don¡¯t try so hard to compare our situation with the other churches and gods. Our Majesty is an easygoing god who believes that so long as it is a fruitful effort, we can always use it as a sacrifice. He doesn¡¯t care what is being offered; he is only concerned over three factors: whether the sacrifice contains sincere prayers, hard work and legitimate harvest, and that¡¯s all.¡± The mage who enlisted in the army was then struck by realization as he lightly nodded. If only these three factors were included, then the victorious gains that this group of clergymen obtained from their crusade against the magic beasts naturally belonged to content that could be used as sacrifices. And today, amongst their victorious gains, the most vaunted one would be that gnome tribal chief that could become a giant. Taking its corpse as a sacrifice made complete sense. No wonder this time around, the sacrificial offering was so successful. As the sacrifice disappeared, the warm holy light fell like raindrops. Not only did it allow the people to completely recover from a fatigued state, but before the eyes of many, there were even flashes of exquisite light and joy. This must be the reward bestowed upon them by His Majesty, the Void Mask. Just then, a flash of light suddenly appeared at the altar above them. A glaive that was so big and wide that normal people would need to use two hands to wield it appeared out of thin air and fell onto the ground next to the altar. The clergymen were surprised at first, then they could not help but rejoice¡ªthis was clearly a reward bestowed by His Majesty, the Void Mask! Everyone could not help but shift their gazes over to that burly and bearlike Sacred Warrior. Because the way this glaive was modeled was almost identical to the one that he was using. ¡°When we get back, you must treat us!¡± another Sacred Warrior, who had a good relationship with him, could not help laughing as he said. ¡°Yes, a treat, a treat!¡± chanted the other Sacred Warriors as they followed suit. That burly Sacred Warrior laughed heartily and nodded. First, he faced the altar and said a prayer, then carefully, he held the sword with both hands. Holding on to the handle, he tried to wave the glaive a few times and felt how its weight was well-suited to his preference. This was undoubtedly worthy of being a great creation of a god. Compared to that sword he made by spending several years of savings on, this was far more brilliant! ¡°This blade fits my hands so well!¡± he said happily. ¡°Its size, length, weight¡­ there¡¯s nothing that doesn¡¯t suit me well. When I wield it, it¡¯s so smooth that it¡¯s like a part of my body!¡± ¡°Step aside and find a random piece of rock to try it,¡± suggested the elderly priest. ¡°A weapon bestowed by His Majesty can¡¯t simply fit one¡¯s hands so easily.¡± The burly Sacred Warrior truly thought so too. He walked to a large stone near to him. With both hands tightly grasping the sword, he shut his eyes, took in a deep breath, then mustered all the fighting spirit that he just comprehended from that day¡¯s battle. Upon gathering as much of it as he possibly could, he mercilessly hewed down at the rock in one strike. The glaive struck the rock, but there were no sparks splattering about, nor was there any rebound. It was just like cutting a wooden block that was not very hard. With a slight bit of obstruction, but still, the blade was successful in cutting into the rock. In one breath, he had made a cut into the rock that was at least a foot deep. Chapter 674 ¡°Good sword!¡± Seeing the effect of the sword the burly Sacred Warrior made in just one cut, the enlisted mage could not help but compliment. The crowd also followed suit in singing praises. They could clearly see for themselves, right before the glaive hewed down at that rock, there was a faint flash of light at the tip of the blade; then the blade drove directly into the rock. This was not the embodiment of something that was simply hard and sharp, nor was it the appearance of a blade that had absorbed some fighting spirit to take on such sharpness. It was more like the power of a fighting spirit that had been magnified. For a master who was neither too strong nor too weak like this Sacred Warrior, such a sword would suit him best. Usually, it would not be conspicuous, but when it was truly put to use, it would be extremely powerful. It was simply perfect. Of course, it was extremely difficult wanting to get ahold of such a sword. This sword could effectively boost one¡¯s fighting spirit, and yet, usually, it would not appear to be particularly sharp. Special materials were required to make it, but even more important was the need for a fairly high-skilled technique. Generally speaking, only the favored descendants of the legendary masters could own such weapons. There was a very common term for a weapon like this, and it was called a ¡°family heirloom.¡± This meant that it could be passed on from father to son, then son to grandson. It would not easily be a temptation for thieves, and at the most important moments, it could come to great use. And this Sacred Warrior had already made up his mind. If his own child strived hard enough and did not disappoint, he would pass this sword to him in the future. If his child was a letdown, then this sword would be passed down to the rising star of the next generation of Sacred Warriors in the church. No matter what, he would never let dust collect on this sword, or perhaps he could bring it underground with him when his end was to come. Such a fine sword like this should take its rightful place in the battlefield where it could shine! He smiled then pulled out the sword that was embedded within the rock. After wiping it carefully, he pulled out the sword that he had been using from the sheath slung across his back and put this sword in. ¡°What a pity, this original sword of mine,¡± he said with some regret. ¡°It took years of savings to forge this. The blade of this sword is mixed with traces of Mithril which not only makes it tougher, but also allows it to be used as a shield to block out spells¡­¡± The enlisted mage took a look, smiled and then said, ¡°There¡¯s quite a lot of Mithril mixed in here¡­ if you don¡¯t mind the sword getting destroyed, then you might as well sell it to me.¡± Though he specialized in defense spells, he also read cursorily about alchemy and enchantment¡ªmost mages like him, who were willing to accept employment under a lord, would specialize in studies of such things. After all, for a resident mage, areas like alchemy and enchantment were the fundamentals they needed in life to settle down and establish their foothold. If he could get ahold of this sword, so long as he used some unique techniques, he could refine it into Mithril ingots that contained some iron content. Though the iron content would lower the purity of the Mithril, for most weapons and armors, Mithril was originally meant to be mixed with steel when putting it to use, so this was not a matter of concern¡ªin fact, if it was used to build armor, he would have to add more steel with the Mithril to gather enough weight for the mixture. That burly Sacred Warrior froze on the spot after listening to what the mage suggested. He looked at the sword he was holding, the one that had just experienced a great war and sported a slight crack and thought carefully. Then he looked to his companions. ¡°Do any of you need it?¡± ¡°Come on, we have no use for such a huge sword,¡± said another Sacred Warrior with a smile. ¡°I intend to make more achievements through this clean-up operation of magic beasts. Who knows, maybe His Majesty will also bestow me with a sword,¡± said another Sacred Warrior. The other Sacred Warriors also shook their heads. Their display of reactions made the burly Sacred Warrior sigh. He reversed the way the sword was positioned and handed it to the enlisted mage with the handle of the sword facing out. ¡°Seems like it¡¯s time for it to reach its end.¡± The enlisted mage smiled. Then he got his attendant, an honest, strong man of few words who took his work seriously, to receive the sword. ¡°Rest assured that the price you will receive will definitely not be insufficient,¡± he said. ¡°In the future, you all can come to me too if you have any rare loot. After this winter¡¯s mop-up operation is over, I will be staying here in Dahl Hill. When that time comes, we will all be neighbors, so it would be nice if we are close to one another.¡± With that, he left with his attendant who was holding on to the sword, leaving the clergymen who were deep in thoughts behind. ¡°Bishop, what does he mean by saying that?¡± asked the youngest priest after a short while. ¡°How come I get the feeling that he is purposefully trying to cozy up to us?¡± ¡°Your sentiment is spot-on. He is trying to cozy up to us,¡± said Bishop Kabbalah after some thought. ¡°He probably feels that the lord¡¯s support alone is not enough. He wants to foster close relationships with other forces that do not have good relations with the lord; this will give him more reassurance.¡± ¡°But for what reason? Isn¡¯t he someone from the lord¡¯s side?¡± ¡°Who knows? Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts,¡± said Bishop Kabbalah as he shook his head with a smile. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what goes through his mind so long as we do our job well. We are clergymen, men who serve His Majesty. Though we can¡¯t completely ignore all the different kinds of fighting against one another from the mortal world, there¡¯s also no need for us to think too much.¡± The clergymen nodded and packed up. The battle that day was a major one that wore everyone out. There was also a lot of wear and tear done to their equipment. The physical exhaustion had already been removed by basking in the holy light after the sacrificial offering earlier on. But the maintenance work of their equipment still required hands-on work. Bishop Kabbalah was not required for the maintenance work of equipment. With his magic staff in his hand, he stood by the altar and looked in the direction of the main tent of the clean-up army, silently in thought with a frown across his face. Just a mere baronet, but how come he is stirring up so much trouble? What exactly does this mage mean? Why did the baron want someone so devious over here? He thought through the matter so laboriously that he started to feel a slight headache. Alas! I¡¯m doing well in my job in the field of summoning, why was I sent here to preside over a temple? I¡¯m really not good at all this! Your Majesty, oh Your Majesty, what on earth are you thinking? Why did you issue such an Oracle? Sui Xiong naturally knew that the Oracle which he had casually released at the beginning had evoked much incessant and bitter complaints from Bishop Kabbalah. But he did not feel that there was anything wrong with what he did. This fellow¡¯s luck was pretty good, it would be a waste of talent if he was not out doing things and instead, confined himself at home. As to whether Kabbalah was happy or unhappy, he could not be bothered. Just as how good iron was needed to make steel, or how a heavy hammer was needed to sound a drum. In the future, Kabbalah would come to understand what great pains he had taken to show his concern. At present, it was important to study that strange gnome tribal chief. At that moment, the sacrifice that he received was quietly lying in a clearing of his God¡¯s Kingdom. Sui Xiong took a look then pointed a raised tentacle. A ray of light fell, and then the body of the gnome tribal chief trembled violently. The missing blood and flesh rapidly grew back, and the lost breath of vitality also re-appeared on its body. After a while, it opened its eyes and looked blankly at the sight around it that it had never seen before. A green and round thing that had many dangling branches floated over to it. It did not know what this thing was, but the round thing was looking at it in such a manner that made it feel uneasy. ¡°The resurrection was done quite well. Luckily, I brought its soul back with me earlier on,¡± Sui Xiong said with great satisfaction. ¡°The next step is to try to analyze this strange, inherent talent it has through experimentation. Then last but not least, we can finally translate it into a spell.¡± This spoken line determined the fate of the gnome tribal chief for a period of time in the near future. That would be a tragic time of dark, miserable days. But¡­ who called for it to be such an utterly evil creature? Perhaps if it could just show a tad bit of kindness, the situation might be entirely different. If only it could know all of this, probably it would sigh and lament, ¡°In my next life, I must be a good creature!¡± Chapter 675 In a general sense, Sui Xiong was not a mad scientist. But this did not mean that when carrying out research, especially when it came to biological research, that he would use gentle means. On the contrary, because he could ensure that the gnome tribal chief would never die while being put under study, so his research methods¡­ if a video was recorded and posted onto Earth¡¯s network, it would definitely evoke great rage from a large number of animal activists, based on the assumption that gnomes were considered animals. Such research was very effective. Just a dozen days or so later, he had carried out a thorough study and gained a complete understanding of the gnome tribal chief¡¯s blood and ability. Finally, Sui Xiong created the spell that he greatly desired. It was just that the spell was slightly different from what he originally had in mind. The effect of this spell was what he called ¡°Megamorph.¡± It was not a spell ability, but rather, a blood ability. In other words, to execute this ability, one only required a healthy and strong body and not powerful and strong magic. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s speculation, a body that was probably close to the level of the ordinary people¡¯s so-called ¡°ironman¡± would be required in order to put up with the pressure of this spell. This almost meant that in general, one must almost be at the advanced close combat profession or reach up to the level of an advanced paladin to be able to have such a body. As for mages¡­ they could forget about it since even the Legendary Masters might not be able to have such strong physique. It might only be possible for the wizards. Oh, it was possible for the mages too. For example, mages like the ¡°Magic Bomber,¡± who placed extreme emphasis on physical exercise. The strength of the bodies of these professional battle mages was not the least bit inferior to paladins of the same rank, so they were certainly able to meet the requirement of this spell too. But no matter what, this ability was ultimately, much too inclined towards the physical aspect, so it was not suitable for use as a spell. So after some consideration, Sui Xiong finally decided to confer it to his clergymen as an ability of a sacred warrior. As for the name, he would name it ¡°God¡¯s Power.¡± Strictly speaking, Sacred Warriors could also be considered spellcasters because they could also use the divine spells of priests¡ªthough the quantity and prowess were greatly reduced, at least it was something. Other than the compact version of divine spells of the priests, the Sacred Warriors could also use some unique abilities. For example, some Sacred Warriors could use their own magic to guide positive energy and generate powerful healing spells. This was known as the ¡°Holy Healing.¡± Some Sacred Warriors could combine their magic and belief to generate powerful weapons or defense. This was known as the ¡°Holy Weapon¡± or ¡°Holy Shield.¡± There were also Sacred Warriors who could use magic to guide negative energy and generate a deadly impact that could sweep up an entire region¡­ all kinds of them. So even if one more type like ¡°Megamorph¡± was added, it might not necessarily be that eye-catching. After Sui Xiong completed this spell, the first people he contacted were the Sacred Warriors at Dahl Hill. It just so happened that they were just done with an expedition too. This time, the target of their expedition was a group of ferocious, wild boars. Wild boars were basically ordinary beasts. Even if their numbers were slightly more than usual, it would only take a seasoned hunter with a few soldiers to tackle them. But if there was a magic beast known as the ¡°King of Wild Boars¡± among them, there would be an earth-shattering change to the combat power of this group of wild boars. The King of Wild Boars was not only ferocious and formidable in its own right, but it was also able to use its own magic without affecting those akin to them. This would cause a dissimilation of the ordinary wild boars where they would grow much bigger and become much stronger. If a situation dragged on for too long, it might even cause these wild boars to develop brutality, where they would be labeled with a notorious name of ¡°Brutal Wild Boars.¡± Just how scary could the Brutal Wild Boars be? Just two points would be enough to make people understand the severity of the problem: First, the biggest one of these guys could be up to three times the size of an ordinary wild boar. It was not three times the size of an entire wild boar, but rather, only three times its height! Second, even if they were severely injured to the brink of death, their movements were still as agile as when they were in a healthy state. Their movements would not be affected at all. In the face of such a scary character, even if there was only one, it would still require a team of skilled adventurers to be able to deal with it. If there was a group of them¡­ even the regular army would have no choice but to back off. Originally, Baron Dahl did not see these wild boars as a target that required cleaning up. In fact, he was still thinking about letting them be, just to add to the fun of hunting. But when he learned that among these wild boars, there was a giant beast that was suspected of being the King of Wild Boars, he got jittery right away. God be damned! If there was really a King of Wild Boars, it wouldn¡¯t be more than a few years before he would have to tackle a herd of brutal wild boars! By then, who knew how much money would be spent to find enough masters to form an army for an expedition to catch these ferocious beasts! So even though he knew it was very dangerous, he still made the decision to kill this King of Wild Boars this winter. This battle was much more dangerous than the one where they exterminated the tribe of gnomes. The professional soldiers of Dahl Hill lost six men, and a dozen others were wounded. This was all thanks to the clergymen who took to the front to hold the fort at the most critical moment, hence preventing the King of Wild Boars, which was going wild in a frenzied state because it was seriously injured, from executing its most formidable method¡ªcharge. That King of Wild Boars was almost as big as a poor man¡¯s hut in Dahl City. When it charged ahead, the earth trembled and the mountains swayed. At first, the soldiers tried to trip it with a rope. Who would have known that this creature actually had the ability to use spells? When it tripped and realized that it was going to be dragged down to the ground, it let out a loud roar which was accompanied by a faint green light that his body emitted. Suddenly, the ropes automatically slid off. There was no way the ropes could entangle themselves around it at all. This was the effect of a mid-level spell known as the ¡°Freedom of Movement.¡± Perhaps the level of execution by the King of Wild Boars was slightly inferior to that of a true mid-ranked mage, but it was enough. Starting from the moment it executed this spell, to the point at which the enlisted mage cracked its spell, the entire process took only around 20 seconds or even less. But it was these few seconds that it took to charge at all those soldiers who used the rope on it and throw the entire army into disarray¡ªuntil the clergymen came to the rescue. What followed was an unquestionably vicious battle. In the end, among the clergymen, almost everyone was injured. There was even one who was severely injured. If not for Bishop Kabbalah, who transformed almost all his magic power into a healing spell, they might have to fear losing some men. But it was also precisely due to this reason that the clergymen were unable to retain enough magic power to treat all the seriously injured members. Out of the six soldiers who lost their lives, two had died because they were heavily wounded. Because of this, the clergymen all seemed to be in low spirits. They were not the kind of teenagers who fantasized about being able to save everyone, but seeing people who really needed help dying before them, how could they not feel upset? The famous quote, ¡°Extend the respect for the elderly in one¡¯s family to those of other families, and extend the love for the young ones in one¡¯s family to those of other families,¡± by Mencius was not found in this other world. But the good clergymen were mostly able to achieve this. They could feel the pain of others, but this also brought them sadness because their abilities fell short of their wishes. This sadness would in turn become their motivation, pushing them to become stronger, as well as to do things more prudently and competently. Just as they were all feeling depressed, Sui Xiong transformed into a holy light and appeared in front of them. ¡°You¡¯ve all done well,¡± Sui Xiong understood the entire course of events instantly. With a smile, he comforted them, ¡°Even the gods are not omnipotent; you all have put in your best, which is very good. I¡¯m very satisfied. He laughed, then said, ¡°I know you all think that you¡¯re not strong enough, so now, I¡¯m going to give you all new power. In the future, if you all encounter such a situation again, this power will certainly be able to help.¡± With that, two holy lights fell from the sky and landed upon two Sacred Warriors. They had stepped into the mid-ranked level because they were proven to be capable of fighting fierce battles. ¡°Its name is called ¡®God¡¯s Power.''¡± Chapter 676 The effect of the ability of ¡°God¡¯s Power¡± was extremely powerful. It could allow a Sacred Warrior to transform into a giant that was almost four times its original height in about half a minute¡¯s time. At the same time, the weapons and armor on its body would also become large. As the size of his body enlarged, this Sacred Warrior¡¯s strength would also experience an explosive boost, and this was likewise for the powers of his weapon and armor. In Sui Xiong¡¯s experiment, a follower who used this ability could repel six followers combined, and the powers of these six were already equally matched to his in the first place. His combat ability could be said to have skyrocketed. But this ability also had flaws. It could be dispersed by the ¡°Magic of Removal¡± spell or any powerful negative energy. The Sacred Warrior, who had become a giant, would not gain any enhancements in intelligence, willpower or agility; spells like Confusion and Deceleration would still be effective on him. If he was faced with a team that consisted of a reasonable combination of mid-ranked adventurers who were all very experienced in combat, then even if the Sacred Warrior had this ability, he could only gain a temporary advantage. But when it came to tackling magic beasts, these problems would no longer exist. For example, if in that day¡¯s battle, a certain Sacred Warrior exhibited this ability, then he would gain powerful strength. Within a short period of time, he could confront the King of Wild Boars. With his enlarged size, he could even directly knock down the King of Wild Boars and then stab a hole through its heart. Upon receiving this ability, the Sacred Warriors studied it a little, then smiled with joy. They were happy that they had become stronger, and even happier because His Majesty, the Void Mask, had affirmed their ability. For the clergymen, the latter was far more delightful than the former. After Sui Xiong helped the clergymen to recover from all their injuries and restore their vitality, he left¡ªor rather, he made it seem as though he was leaving. And this news soon reached Baron Dahl¡¯s ears. ¡°His Majesty, the Void Mask, has just sent an avatar down and bestowed the Sacred Warriors with the ability to temporarily become giants?¡± he muttered to himself for a short while. He did not associate this matter with the gnome tribal chief. Instead, he considered the issue of getting along with the Church of the Void Mask in the future. According to his original plan, he would make good use of the clean-up operation this winter to weaken the power of the Church of the Void Mask. It was best if he could kill one or two of them. And after the clean-up operation had ended, he could launch an attack on the night of the celebration to wipe them all out once and for all. But now it seemed like this plan was not appropriate. That jellyfish god appeared to be more inclined to shield his clergymen¡¯s shortcomings than he seemed to be. When he knew that his clergymen were forced to yield, with great impatience, he sent his avatar down immediately and bestowed them with an ability that allowed them to handle the giant beast. A god like him, not saying whether anyone had seen one before, even hearing of one like him seemed unprecedented. Could it be that¡­ among those clergymen, there is a so-called ¡°elector¡± or ¡°Holy Son?¡± Baron Dahl pondered in silence and felt that what he speculated might perhaps contain a certain degree of truth. If that was the case, his plan would need some adjustments. Killing a few ordinary clergymen was not a big deal, but killing a Holy Son or an elector was brazenly teasing a god by tugging on his beard. It would be offending the god and subjecting oneself to risk. It was an act that could well be seen as the ultimate way of courting one¡¯s doom. Without saying how Baron Dahl did not have any strong and powerful gods to back him up, even if he did have someone¡¯s backing, he would never make a joke out of his own life. No matter how strong a support he had, at the most important moments, it might not necessarily be reliable. Was there not such a proverb of, ¡°Relying on mountains, the mountains will fall; relying on waters, the waters dry up. One should rely only on one¡¯s ability, that¡¯s the most dependable!¡± The idea of ¡°relying on oneself¡± was to change his course of plan. He must not go against the Church of the Void Mask any further, or at least, he should not do anything too drastic. He could pressure them or find ways to make trouble for them. He could even make use of the winter clean-up operation to kill one or two of them. But he must never directly lay a finger on them. This was the bottom line that he must never, ever cross! In fact, Baron Dahl had already given up his intention to kill a few clergymen. Since he had no intention of wiping out all the clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask who were in Dahl Hill, then killing a handful of them was meaningless. It was nothing more than giving the other side a clear reason to deploy more men over to Dahl Hill. As a descendant of a businessman, Baron Dahl took delight in doing evil. Yet, if he had done something evil and reaped no returns, he was willing to put on a disguise to look as though nobody or nothing had come to harm, or he would pretend to put on a look that said, ¡°I¡¯m still abiding by the rules.¡± Businessmen could sell anything, including their conscience and morality. So long as the price was right, nothing else mattered. In other words, without a suitable price, why would they sell their moral conscience or their glorious image? To depreciate themselves? After deciding on a new action plan, Baron Dahl began to express friendliness to members of the Church of the Void Mask discreetly. He did not expect to go from foes to friends with the other party¡ªjudging from one another¡¯s moral orientation, he knew this was absolutely impossible. He only wished to strengthen communication with each other so that some form of cooperation could be established in times of need. Of course, in the future, there was bound to be contradictions among them. But contradictions and cooperation were two different matters, and the two should not hold up one another. First, he got his men to send some fresh vegetables and meat to the clergymen, who had been nibbling on dry food for days, and he had even used tree leaves to make soup. And this made the clergymen wonder. Then, the baron sent his second son to visit Bishop Kabbalah and express longing for the ingenious methods of the Church of the Void Mask, as well as to ask if he could follow along and learn something. Bishop Kabbalah was even more confused. He came from a family of merchants who served the noble aristocrats, so he had some understanding of the etiquette and rules of aristocracy. He knew that this meant Baron Dahl had acknowledged the official legal status of the Church of the Void Mask and even had the intention of cozying up to them. But¡­ why would Baron Dahl do that? So he did not rashly rush into saying yes. Instead, he put off the matter for the time being. Then back at camp that night, he took the chance to hold a meeting with the other church members. ¡°What exactly does Baron Dahl mean?¡± he voiced his doubt, and then, doubtfully, he looked at the crowd and said, ¡°Previously, didn¡¯t he try to find ways to crush us? So why is he changing his approach and trying to get friendly with us now?¡± ¡°Probably because he realized that we are very strong,¡± said a burly and bearlike Sacred Warrior. It was the one who had been bestowed a sword from Sui Xiong earlier on obtained a special ability called ¡°God¡¯s Power.¡± At that moment, he was filled with confidence as he smiled and said, ¡°For a lord to secure his rule, he certainly needs to foster good relationships with the powerful forces within his territory.¡± ¡°What you say is right, but we were quite strong before now too,¡± said Bishop Kabbalah. He shook his head and said, ¡°After we fought the first battle, he should have known that we were very strong, but why did he wait till now to express something?¡± ¡°Could it be because His Majesty sent his avatar down and this stirred up some emotions in him?¡± guessed the elderly priest. ¡°His Majesty¡¯s profound and extensive power has influenced him and made him yearn for kindness and betterment. This is also very likely.¡± This was a standard priest-like style of thinking, but still, it was not enough to convince Bishop Kabbalah. Of course, he knew His Majesty was kind and progressive, but he did not feel that this was enough to affect Baron Dahl. In the earlier days when he had just arrived at Dahl City, he had quietly cast the Detecting Camp spell. Through eyes that had been purified by Divine Power, he could clearly see that Baron Dahl was a downright scoundrel. Would such a person turn over a new leaf just because he felt the greatness of His Majesty? Hey, let¡¯s not joke about this, alright! After some discussion, everyone was still unable to reach a decent conclusion. The final intention was to maintain the status quo. No matter what Baron Dahl did, they just had to play their own parts well. The clergymen were not politicians. What was the point in pondering so much! Chapter 677 - Vol V Chapter 37 The battle with the King of Wild Boars was not the most dangerous one that winter. The most dangerous one was that battle where they crusaded the ogres¡¯ camp. There was a tribe of ogres in Dahl Hill who lived by the edge of the marshes in the mountains. In the past, Baron Dahl had never thought of waging a crusade against them. First, though the ogres were named as such, they did not take humans as a staple food. They did nothing more than occasionally go down the mountains to catch one or two humans to make a little improvement to their meals, and those they caught were normally farmers and the likes of them. To Dahl Hill, these people were honestly too insignificant. Second, those ogres were extremely powerful. Their camp was also situated in a very dangerous location, so he was not very certain. Just how strong were these ogres in particular? He was not sure, but he was sure that there was a Shaman among them. A tribe of ogres with a shaman, compared to another without one, would be entirely different. The latter was probably still closer to wild beasts, but the former could nearly be seen as a barbarian race. Wild beasts and barbarians of equal strength were vastly different in the danger that they posed. And the campsite of the ogre tribe was not an easy place to attack. It was located on the mountainside where only one steep mountain road could lead the way to it. If not for the hunters who walked about in the wilderness amidst these mountains throughout the years, it was likely that no one would have made it to the campsite because they would have fallen into the mountain valley, without even leaving behind a complete corpse. As such, those hundreds of elite soldiers that Dahl Hill was so proud of having were of no use; even among the archers, at most, only one-third of them could successfully make it through this steep mountain road. After crossing this mountain road, what exactly was the layout of the campsite of the ogres? How many ogres were there in the camp? Other than the Shaman, how many ogres had advanced into becoming ogre warriors? Was there a tribal chief? Were there any two-headed ogres as mentioned in the legends? All these things were unknown to him. Baron Dahl was a businessman. He was good at doing business but not good at fighting wars. But he was nothing like those well-known rulers in history, who were fatuous, self-indulgent and thought themselves so smart that there was nothing they could not achieve. He threw his weight around and had to have a say in everything, but when it was time to mobilize his army to fight wars, he would listen to all arrangements made by that elderly knight and appear to be someone who placed full trust in his men¡ªof course, to tell the truth, there was nothing much to doubt. Everyone was a Dahl, and if he could not even trust his own kin, who else could he trust? That elderly knight might be getting on in years and was no longer able to participate in this winter¡¯s clean-up operation of magic beasts, but the years of experience he accumulated would not die off along with the aging of his body. On the contrary, the older he got, the more tenacious he would be. He had long carried out a meticulous and thorough analysis of the various demons and ghostly creatures in the territory and listed several series of combat strategies. At a critical juncture when confronted by enemies, the soldiers just needed to act according to his strategy, so even if they did not win the battle, they would not suffer a crushing defeat. In the series of strategies that he came up with, there was only for the ogre camp: Unless the ogres themselves made a mess. Otherwise, the army could just stand guard at the foot of the mountains and find ways to lure the ogres out. If they were unable to draw the ogres out, then they would rather abort the plan than head up the mountain. Most of Dahl Hill¡¯s knights were students of this elderly knight, and there were even knights who were his nephews, so of course, they would not go against his wishes. Besides, even if they had any intention to defy his wishes, Baron Dahl would personally disagree with them. Hence, a group of them went on an expedition to sweep through the entire territory. After almost every dangerous magic beast had been wiped out for good, they had originally wanted to return in great triumph. But at that moment, they felt a terrorizing power skim across the sky. It then left far into the distance. ¡°A dragon?!¡± said that elderly priest who was the first to react. He had worked in Void City and had frequently met with the church¡¯s knights. The sight of the captain of knights flying past him while sitting astride a dragon was no novelty to him. The feeling the dragon gave him then was quite similar to what he felt at present. No, the feeling he had back then was slightly weaker than what he felt now, probably because it was under the constraint of Lord Gerald, so it did not dare to go rampant. In other words, was it only a dragon that had just flown over everyone¡¯s head? At this point in time, everyone had tilted their heads back to look up into the sky. However, dark clouds were gathering in the sky, so how was it possible for them to see anything happening up in the sky? But that imposing power earlier on was unquestionably something that could not be falsified. Didn¡¯t everyone see how all the horses in the army had gone soft in their knees where they sprawled onto the ground, not daring to move an inch? Other than the dragon, would anything be able to wield such power? ¡°Why is there a dragon passing by?¡± said Baron Dahl. At that moment, he was quite near to where the clergymen were. Hearing what the elderly priest said, he wondered and said, ¡°We have never seen a dragon appearing here before.¡± ¡°Maybe it was just passing by,¡± said the enlisted mage. ¡°Young dragons often wander about in search of treasure. It¡¯s not surprising if one were to pass by occasionally.¡± ¡°Such a small place like ours, what treasure can it hold?¡± The enlisted mage shook his head. Of this, he truly had no idea. If he knew what treasure this territory held, he would have secretly dug it up for himself. There was no way he would leave it around for the dragon to add to its collection! ¡°My lord¡­ I think just now the dragon seemed to be¡­ coming from the direction of that mountain where the ogres live,¡± said a knight all of a sudden. ¡°Could it have just robbed the ogres?¡± The moment this was said, the crowd froze in momentary shock. It might sound somewhat ridiculous and absurd, but thinking about it carefully, it did make sense. The ogres had occupied the mountains for so many years. They might have saved some precious things that were attractive enough to make the dragon be a willing robber for once. A group of ogres was certainly very powerful to Dahl Hill, but would they even matter to a dragon? The moment their thoughts arrived at such a conclusion, everyone felt relieved. No matter what, those ogres were harmful to Dahl Hill. If the dragon could finish them off, that would be a good thing! Baron Dahl lowered his head and started muttering to himself. He contemplated for a while, then turned his gaze towards that thief that he had hired at a high price. But immediately, he shifted his gaze away to where the two paladins from the Church of the Void Mask were. ¡°There is something that I would like to ask of the both of you,¡± he said. He smiled before going on to say, ¡°May I trouble the both of you to make a trip over to somewhere near the campsite of the ogres and find out if the ogres are in a frenzied mess now? Do we¡­ have an opportunity to strike them unaware?¡± In the end, he still had to come out with this intention. That elderly knight, who was a distant uncle of his, once said that to deal with the ogres, the army should never go up the mountains, unless something unforeseen happened among themselves. In other words, if there was internal disorder for the ogres themselves, then it was not possible to send just a few elites to exterminate them all. The two paladins were not as cunning as the baron, but they had understood what he meant. They exchanged looks and then looked at Bishop Kabbalah. The clergymen of the Church of the Void Mask were under the rule of this bishop. ¡°If your body can take it, then there¡¯s no harm in making a trip,¡± Bishop Kabbalah said. ¡°But you must be very mindful of your safety. If we want to deal with the ogres, there will be plenty of chances in the days to come. If you really can¡¯t go, after some time, I can also request the headquarters to send some help¡­¡± With his words, naturally, the two paladins would have more confidence for they knew what to expect. They bade their farewells and left on their horses. About an hour later, they returned to their troop. They brought news that affirmed everyone¡¯s speculation. The ogres were attacked by the dragon and not only were they in a chaotic mess at the moment, but it also seemed like their head, the shaman, was dead. This was a golden opportunity not to be missed. He had to send his troops to attack the camp of ogres! Chapter 678 - Vol V Chapter 38 Attacking the camp of the ogres was undoubtedly very dangerous. But the benefits were colossal. Being able to gain a firm and stable rule was already an immense reward, not to mention the ogres often had many collections. Things that the dragon did not fancy might not necessarily be worthless to Baron Dahl. And if he could capture these ogres alive, whether for the purpose of training them to become soldiers or for the purpose of selling them away, either could bring great benefits. If it was the former, so long as he had tamed two or three ogre soldiers, Baron Dahl would have the guts to make a move on the other lords around him and expand his sphere of influence. If it was the latter, at least he was able to earn a large sum of money. He could even make use of this opportunity to establish good relations with some forces that he had long wanted to get connected with. Even if the ogres were dead, their corpses were just as valuable. Many body parts were good material, especially the famous ¡°Ogre Gloves,¡± which could greatly enhance the strength of an ordinary human to become a beast with a human form. Baron Dahl did remember that this newly hired consultant was a mage talented in alchemy and enchantment techniques. If there were enough ogre materials, he could combine those and make a few pairs of Ogre Gloves. That wouldn¡¯t be a problem at all. Whether to keep them for one¡¯s own use or to sell them for money, treasures like these which could produce an immediate effect in enhancing strength were both equally good choices. As for the danger, he had considered that too. After all, the ogres were robbed by the dragon, and even their Shaman was dead. Even if there was some danger, it was not impossible to take a risk. Thinking about this, he made up his mind. Of course, this time, he would certainly not be going up the mountains. Whether the attack was a victory or not, he should never put himself in danger. For this, he made a solemn promise. If the attack was successful, no matter how much revenue was gained, 70 percent would belong to the team that went up the mountains to carry out the attack. And even if the crusade against the ogres were to fail, he would also take out a large sum from his own fortune to pay remuneration. But he was tight-lipped on any pension-related matters. This was not because he was reluctant to pay if the money was meant for their pension. It was because he knew that at this juncture, he should only mention the benefits and not the risks. He had to bluff his way into everyone¡¯s heart and make them envious and fired up so that they would want to covet after the gains. This was the only way to make this successful. As for whether people were going to die? How many would die? At this point in time, he was no longer bothered. So long as he was not one of the dead ones! Since Baron Dahl had made up his mind, after the knights had a discussion among themselves, they too agreed with him. No matter what, attacking the ogres was always a meritorious contribution that one could boast on for many years down the road. And if they were afraid to provoke a bunch of losers, who were all beaten up with injuries after being robbed by a dragon, would they even have the face to sit astride high, mighty horses and parade through town? They should just go home earlier to their wives and children! Not to mention, this adventure would fetch rather satisfactory returns. It was worth it! The clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask did not even hesitate. For them, so long as there was enough hope, defeating evil and eradicating demons and monsters were definitely important matters of course. This was the so-called, ¡°I¡¯m the soldier, and you¡¯re the thief,¡± situation, so was there even the need to consider so much? As for whether this would benefit Baron Dahl¡­ No matter how mean he could be, Baron Dahl was a human being after all. He was a lord at that, so the least he could do was to shoulder the basic responsibility of a lord¡ªfor example, sweeping his territory for demons and wiping them out well. Just like in the Europe of this world where Sui Xiong had traversed to, there were elites whose minds were clouded by the White Left perspective, and who were otherwise known as Holy Mothers. Unless there was something fogging the baron¡¯s mind, otherwise, would he find demons more dependable than humans? The decent and upright ones were bad guys, while the ones with magic were, on the contrary, very righteous. That was just a nontraditional romantic story that should not be taken seriously! But they were still in discussion. They were discussing whether or not they should fight this battle and how they should fight it. According to Bishop Kabbalah¡¯s opinion, it was best to carry the altar up the mountains. Of course, he would be following the expedition up as well. This way, he would be able to use his trump card at the most important moment. But the crowd was not agreeable and raised a unanimous objection. They did not find carrying the altar up the mountains toilsome¡ªthat altar was made of wood. To the mid-ranked Sacred Warriors, who were capable of hauling raging bulls and handling ferocious tigers, this altar was nothing. But they refused to let Bishop Kabbalah go with them. The swords had no eyes, especially with their opponents being the dangerous ogres. If something were to happen to their Bishop, what would they do! Both parties quarreled for a while. Eventually, Bishop Kabbalah made use of the fact that he was of high rank to pressure the crowd into submitting to his terms. That put an end to this matter. Therefore, they went up the mountains together. Walking slowly along the steep mountain road, they arrived at the camp of the ogres. Indeed, there was chaos inside the campsite. The ogres had just sorted out the corpses; one by one, the dead lay on the floor. They had not even held a funeral. And the sentries were not even worth mentioning¡ªtwo sentries had been directly hit by the dragon and fell off the cliff. Even if they were not dead, at that moment, they would be struggling to stay alive at the foot of the mountain as they slowly approached death. How could they possibly come back? Speaking of which, the attacking team came at the right time. In this battle against the dragon, many ogres had been directly hit and sent flying beyond the cliffs. At this moment, a few healthy and strong young ogres were just walking down the mountain slope along the steep road, trying to find if there were any lucky survivors who escaped death. Those who remained in the camp, other than the old and weak and the sick and disabled¡ªthere were only a few injured members. But these few injured ones also caused great trouble for the attacking team. A group that could exchange blows with the dragon and still managed to stay alive; would these guys be easy to deal with! These injured members were all impressive ogres that had advanced levels, and even the weakest one was already an ogre warrior¡ªthis was more than enough to defeat a majority of the adventurers who had yet to step into the mid-rank level during one-on-one fights. The next in rank was the ogre vanguards¡ªif it was a mid-ranked Sacred Warrior, without any injury fighting alone against them, his chances of victory would at best be 70%; there might even be a two-headed ogre to tackle. Oh, a ¡°former¡± two-headed ogre. Because one of its heads had been torn off by the sharp claws of the dragon. Fortunately, it had lost one of its heads. Otherwise, if the attacking team were to meet with this ogre, then whether they had come to subdue demons or come to deliver themselves like goods to the doorstep of the ogres, who would have known! The fact that all should know was that the strength rating for a two-headed ogre could be said to have just scraped through to an ¡°advanced¡± level. The two heads of such ogres were able to think separately. During battle, they were extremely agile. What was even more frightening was that one of them would tend to become a wizard. In other words, during battle, it was an equivalent of an outstanding soldier who was coupled with the ability of a wizard to cast spells freely at any time it wanted to. This was simply like playing foul, was it not! This two-headed ogre happened to lose the head that could become a ¡°wizard.¡± So from being a dual-core superman with a combined ability of magic and martial arts, it was directly beaten back to its original form to become a burly ogre that walked in a somewhat inflexible manner. Because it was short of one head now, it was still unable to adapt to its new form for the time being, so it still bumped and stumbled about as it moved. ¡°I hope it will learn its lesson in its next life, or better, he should be reincarnated as a good child,¡± said that burly and bearlike Sacred Warrior with a hearty laugh. He had slain the two-headed ogre and was standing by its corpse without paying heed to his seriously injured left shoulder. It seemed to be shattered quite severely. Soon, he would not be able to laugh because the young ogres who went out to look for their fellow ogres who fell off the cliff had returned. The battle that followed was extremely intense. In the end, almost every Sacred Warrior was seriously wounded. The priests exhausted all their power, while one of the two paladins even lost one of their legs to become disabled. Fortunately, this glorious victory earned them the appreciation of His Majesty, the Void Mask. He bestowed them God¡¯s Grace with great benevolence to restore all the injured ones back to health. Including those who did not believe in him. When the warm holy light was erected like a column of light within the campsite of the ogres, this winter¡¯s clean-up operation of Dahl Hill had finally come to a victorious end. Chapter 679 After a fierce battle, the clean-up army that Dahl Hill sent out this winter finally eradicated an overriding concern that had been haunting them for years, without having to pay such a painful price. Because Sui Xiong had benevolently accorded them with god¡¯s grace, so other than the three unlucky archers who were killed at point-blank in the battle, the others who participated in the war were able to survive. There was not even a single one who was disabled. When Baron Dahl received the news, he smiled from ear to ear. Joy was written all over his chubby face. As he watched the tribe of ogres grew stronger with each passing day, Baron Dahl was in fact, very worried. At times, he also worried about whether these fellows would launch a massive invasion, destroy a village or two, or even attack the towns. If there were really hundreds of ogres charging their way over, Dahl City would not be able to stop them. Furthermore, the ogres were very wise. If they truly wanted to attack the city, they were bound to drive a horde of magic beasts to charge in first to be their cannon fodder. They might even break into the villages and steer the refugees towards the towns to demoralize the humans, in turn causing an increase in food consumption. Then it would naturally be easier for them to break through the towns. Of course, just a single ogre would not be so intelligent. But when a group was gathered, they would often be pregnant with a tribal chief or shaman. Therefore, their level of wisdom would be greatly increased, and the threat they posed would be greatly magnified. This was like a special group of people on Earth. If their numbers were less than two percent of the human population, there would be true peace, but if it was more than five percent, it would start disrupting social order. At 10 percent of the human population, they would make use of riots and other means to promote laws that worked to their benefits; exceeding 20 percent, they would be launching terrorist attacks everywhere, and at 40 percent, they would turn to persecuting others¡­ the ogres would be like this special group of people. An accumulation of quantity would lead to a change in quality. This was perpetual, regardless of which world it was. Fortunately, Baron Dahl did not have to worry about this problem because the ogres in his territory had already become the best kind in the world¡ªdead ogres. From inside the ogres¡¯ camp, no one managed to find many valuable trophies. It was apparent that the dragon was very good at plundering and did not leave behind many things of value. It did not even spare the rare minerals and took those away with it. Fortunately, the dead bodies of the ogres were themselves, quite valuable trophies. And because of the cold weather, these corpses were quite well-preserved. There was enough time to slowly deal with them. Hence, the enlisted mage hired a few handymen and set up a temporary workshop at the place that was originally the campsite of the ogres in order to handle the materials most efficiently. Because there were too many materials but too few men¡ªthis was a very technical job that only the enlisted mage and his two apprentices could handle. The helpers could only handle the menial work and deal with the insignificant odd jobs, or help them with the logistics. According to the enlisted mage¡¯s estimation, it would require almost a month¡¯s time to complete processing everything. This ¡°complete processing of everything¡± did not mean that those materials would be made into magic props. It only referred to the process of making materials out of the remains of the ogres. It was certainly impossible for the clean-up army to spend a month¡¯s time waiting at the foot of the mountain. So after leaving enough men and provisions, Baron Dahl led his soldiers of this clean-up army, who had all been kept busy for almost a month moving on from one victory to another, back to Dahl City as they sang songs of victory along the way. They were all exhausted but in high spirits. By the time they returned to Dahl City, the messenger had long brought news of their victory back home. The people in the city were rejoicing as they took to the streets, shouting and cheering for the triumphant army that had returned victorious. There were some who were just passive onlookers because after all, there were some spoils that were really rare sights¡ªfor example, the head of a wild boar that was almost bigger than a human or a few hideous ogre heads. These were things that ordinary people would not possibly see during peaceful times. Baron Dahl rode a handsome horse that trotted in the middle of the troop as he relished in the cheers of the people coming from both sides and could not help laughing heartily. Although he was not a knight, this feeling of being loved by the people after wiping out the magic beasts was very much to his liking. The premise was that he did not have to pay a hefty price. But his good mood did not last long. Upon returning to his castle, his son had come forward to greet him, but the baron saw unconcealed worry and anxiety on his son¡¯s face. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± he asked as his face fell instantly. His son went over to him. In a volume that only father and son could hear clearly, he gave a report on one thing. Baron Dahl¡¯s expression became gloomier, and he kept silent for a while before saying, ¡°We¡¯ll withhold the news for the time being and talk about it after a couple of days.¡± ¡°Father! This matter is quite urgent!¡± his son urged out of concern. ¡°No matter how urgent it is, there¡¯s no hurry in waiting a day or two,¡± said Baron Dahl, who had regained his composure. With a sigh, he said, ¡°Give it a day or two, then we¡¯ll talk about it. Everyone has worked hard, so let us all stay happy for a couple of days.¡± His son understood what he meant. Then he too heaved a sigh and nodded. ¡°Right, make an announcement in a while. For those who played a part in this clean-up army, if they are soldiers, they will be paid half a year¡¯s salary. If they are hired help, then they will be paid three months¡¯ salary. If they are civilians, they will be paid an amount according to the amount of a soldier¡¯s one month pay,¡± said Baron Dahl. He thought for a while, then added, ¡°Those who have lost their lives, regardless of what their roles were, their families will be paid according to the soldier¡¯s standard pension amount¡­ no, give them five times the pension!¡± His son nodded and noted down his instructions. This would be a great expense, and given the past, he would not oblige without some persuasion. But now¡­ even this young man, who had miserly tendencies, was also in no mood to think about saving money. Having money was good, but it had to be money that could be utilized to be considered useful. No matter how much money one had¡­ what use would it be if it was just piled up in a coffin? It would only invite robbers to the tomb! Moments later, his announcement received a thunderous cheer from the entire clean-up army. The soldiers who had returned victorious were elated because of the generous prize money. Even the families of those soldiers who were unfortunately killed felt their pain lessen by the astonishingly generous pension. Over the next few days, it seemed as though Dahl Hill was in a festive season where everyone laughed heartily. The city¡¯s entertainment venues, like pubs and restaurants; were full every day. Women who ran the service industry came by an unexpected additional income. Two days later, at nightfall in a small conference hall of Dahl Castle, the atmosphere was exceptionally heavy. ¡°Just when Father led the clean-up army out to attack those magic beasts, a messenger came from Royal Town,¡± said the baron¡¯s son, who was the one who received the message. He was giving an account of the matters of concern. ¡°All in all, this happened twice.¡± Upon hearing this, that elderly knight with white hair and a white beard, who was almost a centenarian, frowned and asked, ¡°Sent by the aristocrats and the merchants?¡± The baron¡¯s son nodded and sighed deeply. ¡°Did they run into one another?¡± asked another knight who was also surnamed Dahl. The baron¡¯s son shook his head. ¡°They didn¡¯t meet one another, that¡¯s fine then,¡± said that warrior in relief. ¡°But this time around, they used very harsh words,¡± said the baron¡¯s son with a bitter expression. ¡°Both parties said that given the current situation, it was no longer possible to allow anyone to take up a middle-man¡¯s stand. They are all forcing us to choose a side.¡± ¡°Choose a side my foot!¡± said a knight with a scar on his face ferociously. ¡°They want to get into a dogfight, then that¡¯s their business. What has it got to do with us!¡± This was a unanimous consensus of the higher-ups of Dahl Hill. Dahl Hill was in such a remote area that even the emperor would find it hard to rule over it. The Dahl family had ruled for generations and ran this place with a peremptoriness that could be likened to an iron pail. Without bothering about how the aristocrats and merchants fought one another, they had the confidence of being able to fend for themselves, why should they be asked to choose a side? Just like what that knight with a vulgar mouth said: take a side? To hell with taking a side! Nonsense! Chapter 680 There were two broad divisions of the political structure of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. One division consisted of the central aristocrats headed by two marquises, and the local powerhouse was headed by the earls of various places. The other division consisted of merchants represented by trade circles along coastal and bordering areas, as well as the aristocrats represented by the mainland. The former division did not hold much significance. The contradictions between the central and local parties could be found everywhere in all countries¡ªoh, except for the Republic of Northwest. In fact, such things were commonplace. For thousands of years, or for even longer, various races in all countries faced the same problem, but no one had ever seemed to come up with a solution, and rarely would the contradictions foment massive conflicts. The power of the great aristocrats was absolutely no match for the union of local aristocrats. On the other hand, the local aristocrats did not form unions easily. This formed the balance between both sides. But the latter division was currently the greatest source of problems for the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. With its longstanding operation, this country that was established by commerce had seen the contradictions between the merchants and aristocrats accumulating with the passing of time. Gradually, the accumulation spiraled out of control leading to the situation to a sticky end. The merchants had in their possession more than 60 percent of the country¡¯s assets. If the assets were limited to money, the merchants would have possessed an amount that exceeded 70 percent of the total. Though the aristocrats held a much lesser amount, they made up nearly 80 percent of the country¡¯s population and an almost similar amount of land. One side had money while the other had human resources. When both sides shared a good relationship and cooperated with mutual sincerity, they had achieved great things together. But as time went by, the contradictions grew between the two sides. The merchants wished to push for construction of more trade routes, as well as to promote consumption and increase population mobility¡ªin short, they wanted the merchants¡¯ businesses to thrive. On the other hand, the aristocrats wished to maintain the status quo, or even cut down on trade routes to stabilize the situation. They wanted to cut back on unnecessary spending, and in particular, they wished to limit population mobility to ensure their territory could have a stable output. This contradiction could almost be said to be irreconcilable, and even the great Goddess of Wealth was at her wits¡¯ end in mediating between the two parties. She could only get her clergymen to take up a neutral position and try to mediate the disputes between both sides as much as possible. They were supposed to act as the shock cushions for the situation and ease the relationship between the two sides. In the past, as the merchants were rich, they had the ability to recruit mercenaries. Thus, they could gain martial force powerful enough to keep the aristocrats firmly under control. The aristocrats might have dominated the population in numbers, yet in the face of the merchants who had the ability to recruit a large number of mercenaries anytime they pleased, the aristocrats had always been on the disadvantageous end. In recent years, with the God of Aristocracy becoming stronger, the strength of the aristocrats was constantly increasing as well. Originally, they only had the advantage of being the more populated party. Then with the Church of the God of Aristocracy giving support to them both overtly and covertly, the combat power that they had at hand slowly accumulated. Just as the saying went, if one carried a murdering weapon, the desire to kill would naturally come about. Now that they had more martial force, the aristocrats naturally would want to rely on this power to fight for greater interests. Furthermore, since the battle of ¡°Sun¡¯s Death Day,¡± the number of mercenaries walking on the Main Plane was greatly reduced, and the mercenaries were also increasingly reluctant to join the army in fighting wars, so the merchants¡¯ strength was indeed constantly dwindling. With their power on the rise and that of the other party¡¯s falling, the aristocrats¡¯ thoughts became more radical, and so, within the country, all kinds of conflicts, big and small, would happen from time to time. The most memorable event happened in one of the cities found in the Midwest region. The local lords were at odds with the Grand Chamber of Commerce. They started out with a quarrel that eventually led to a massive conflict. Both sides mobilized troops that added up to more than 500 men and the battle lasted for almost half a month. If it was not for a marquis joining efforts with the Church of the Goddess of Wealth to come forward and mediate, the two parties might still be fighting one another. This matter could almost be said to be a trigger, where the conflict of the two parties was thoroughly disclosed and laid out in the open. Since then, there had been more and more friction between the two, and bloodshed occurred from time to time. For this reason, the heads of both parties were stepping up efforts to rope in various forces to their sides, trying their best to increase the strength of their camps in order to overpower one another. Since the start of summer, Baron Dahl had been receiving letters from the two parties. Whether it was the two marquises from the aristocratic party, or the seven major commercial firms from the merchant party, they were constantly persuading him to support them. They also both gave plausible reasons. No matter what, Baron Dahl was an aristocrat after all. He was a lord, and so this naturally made him feel a sense of belonging to the aristocratic party. But for such a long time, the Dahl family had been relying on the smuggling business to earn profits. It could be said that the family¡¯s lifeline did not depend on the identity of a lord but rather, depended on the identity of a smuggler. And this, in turn, made him feel that he should belong with the merchants. In fact, within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, most of the small to medium-sized aristocratic families were like the Dahl family. On one hand, they would be lords managing their territories, but on the other hand, they would be doing business to bring income to their families. It was just that there were few who could be like Baron Dahl, who was very successful in both being a lord as well as doing business. Things went awry because of him being ¡°very successful!¡± Probably because both sides saw Dahl Hill as a model example, they strived harder and harder in trying to pull him over to their sides. Their attitudes were also getting stronger and stronger. Especially this time around, the messengers they sent over had implicitly hinted to him that, ¡°if not a comrade, then an enemy.¡± This was the most problematic issue that gave Baron Dahl a headache. He truly did not care about who he was going to take as a comrade, but he was very concerned about who he was going to make an enemy of. After all¡­ regardless of which side it was, to the Dahl family, both were overwhelmingly powerful and massive. Whichever side he chose to take, he could be easily killed with a light slap from the other party¡­ just like swatting a mosquito. Though both sides had solemnly vowed that so long as Baron Dahl chose to pledge allegiance to their side, he would be able to gain several benefits and would be well-protected, Baron Dahl did not trust them! Only a fool would believe their words! Protect him? Well-protected? Haha, not long ago, there was an heir of a certain viscount who suddenly fell from his horse and died. How did he die? A young man who had the capability of a knight-to-be, would fall from his horse and die? The man would never die even if the horse fell to its death! Also, how could a certain medium-sized chamber of commerce warehouse positioned by the sea be wrecked by fishermen? It could not be that those deplorable, unlucky fellows, who were abandoned by the Goddess of the Ocean, could actually have the ability to break through the fortress made out of stone, could it? That would be insulting everyone¡¯s intelligence for sure! Baron Dahl dared to bet with his own head that so long as he had chosen a side, once news spread, it would take less than half a month for the crowd in this room be a much snore sparse. Everyone naturally understood this principle. So, looking at one another, they all frowned. An awkward silence enshrouded the small conference room. After a long time, amidst the silence, a voice suddenly sounded. This was a young knight-to-be with the surname of Dahl. ¡°I feel that¡­ why don¡¯t we just pledge allegiance to the Church of the Void Mask!¡± Chapter 681 The Dahl family¡¯s style was to be insidious and vicious on the outside but stay united on the inside. So even at high-level family meetings such as this one, the young people were similarly given opportunities to speak¡ªof course, speaking freely without inhibitions was impossible because seniority was still seniority. The moment this young knight-to-be spoke his mind, the entire conference hall fell into silence with no one criticizing him. Everyone was in deep thought, pondering over whether his suggestion was dependable or not. After a while, the knight who oversaw this winter¡¯s clean-up operation said in a low voice, ¡°Come to think about it, that seems pretty good. The Church of the Void Mask is very united internally. Their Majesty is also a very generous and caring god. If we are to pledge allegiance to them, we should be treated well.¡± ¡°And the crucial thing is that their Majesty is strong and often takes action,¡± said the elderly knight as he nodded. Then he said, ¡°Everything else is apparent. He is very strong, so strong that he could protect our family. And he often takes action to protect his followers; that is what matters the most.¡± He paused for a moment, then continued to say, ¡°It might be because you all are still young and have not witnessed that one occasion where he had a furious outburst by the edge of the East Sea. At that time, the entire Main Plane was hit by a surging storm. Even from Dahl Hill, one could see the dark clouds rolling in the sky as they headed straight towards the east. There were also roars of fury that shook the heavens and earth, and even the mountains were trembling. Then with one strike, he broke through the sky and soon after, the God¡¯s Kingdom of the Goddess of the Ocean crashed into the ocean. Before that, the God of Storms had already met his end¡­ At that time, I was still a young knight attendant at an age that was slightly younger than the youngest one in this hall. Though it was across mountains and rivers, I could still vaguely feel a little bit of his mighty power. But just that bit of power was enough to make my legs tremble. I couldn¡¯t even keep myself steady.¡± He picked up the glass in front of him and wanted to take a sip, but his hands seemed to be trembling beyond his control. The knight beside him hurried over to hold him. Then this knight picked up the glass and slowly fed him with a sip of wine. This calmed him down. ¡°Later on, we learned that he was furious because Leon Igor, the archbishop under him, was besieged and killed by the followers and pontifices of the former God of Ocean, and the God of Storms served as a behind-the-scenes commander of that battle,¡± the elderly knight said with a deep sigh. There were still traces of fear in his eyes as he said, ¡°These two gods were annihilated by him because of this reason.¡± He was deeply silent for a moment and then, with a slightly lower voice, he said, ¡°If we really have to choose a side, we should take the side of one with such power. I¡¯m all for it!¡± The crowd looked at one another, and everyone nodded. They were relatively young, so they certainly would not have seen how Sui Xiong flew into a rage and demonstrated his power by killing two gods years ago. But from how the elders in their race reacted, they could tell that there was no way this could be faked. A master who was willing to kill two gods for his own archbishop, indeed, who could be more reliable than him! ¡°That is where we have a problem,¡± said Baron Dahl as he smiled. ¡°We all know that His Majesty, the Void Mask, is a good god. He doesn¡¯t mind whether his followers abide by the law or do as they please, but he does implore his followers to honor and abide by the Way of Goodness. Even if they are taking a neutral stand, they should at least be more inclined towards the good.¡± As he spoke, he looked around, and his gaze swept across every face in the room. On most people¡¯s faces, he could see worried and uneasy expressions. ¡°We¡¯re all family here, so there¡¯s no need for me to sugarcoat what I¡¯m going to say. The roots of our family stem from our smuggling business. Out of these many businesses, quite a number were shady, sinister and vicious. Hey, hey, even without mentioning our businesses, in normal daily life, most of us would be far from being called good people.¡± ¡°More than simply ¡®not good people,''¡± said his younger brother, who had changed his profession to become a scholar. Laughing bitterly, he said, ¡°If anyone cast a spell here to detect evil, I bet the number of bodies among us that won¡¯t give out a red light (red light signifies evil) will most likely not even be able to fill up one hand.¡± ¡°Yes, if we want to change and place our belief in the Void Mask, we must turn over a good leaf. From then on, we must perform good deeds and do good things. We must change all our old habits,¡± said Baron Dahl as his expression became serious. ¡°This is no small matter. Look into your hearts and ask yourselves, are you all able to do it?¡± ¡°Even if we think we can¡¯t, we still must do it!¡± said the elderly knight in a low voice. ¡°Now the aristocrats and the merchants are reaching the point of bloodshed. If we still can¡¯t find a strong backing, the moment we jump out of this storm, we might find ourselves ending up with a broken family as a result of our carelessness! To mend our ways, to abandon evil and do good, indeed, these things are not easy, but it¡¯s still better than losing our lives!¡± His words carried such weight, but no one rebutted. They were in a perilous situation. Everyone knew that. Now the Dahl family must find a reliable backing. Anything else had to be ignored. ¡°How about looking to the Church of the God of Aristocracy?¡± a knight, who frequently went out, said thoughtfully after a while. ¡°Rather than pledging allegiance to the aristocratic party, it¡¯s better for us to pledge allegiance to the Church of the God of Aristocracy.¡± ¡°This is quite a good idea, but the Church of the God of Aristocracy is not reliable,¡± lamented the elderly knight. ¡°Over the years, they might have done many great things, but their major failures outnumber the great things they have done. If we are to rely on them and meet with an unfavorable situation, they may abandon us at any time.¡± ¡°To the big shots, ridding the small to protect the big is a matter of course. We had our fair share in such situations. But this time around¡­ it is our turn to become the ¡°small¡± ones who might possibly be abandoned¡­¡± The knight who made this suggestion sighed and hung his head low. Indeed, it was just like how the elderly knight had said. Though powerful, the Church of the God of Aristocracy was not very reliable. Times in which they abandoned their partners had been frequent throughout the years. If everyone were to entrust their lives to that church, and then an unfavorable situation cropped up which caused the church to abandon them, the Dahl family would not only be broken up, but they might even face the possibility of having their bloodline completely cut off! In comparison, the Church of the Void Mask was much more reliable. No matter how serious or how unfavorable the situation was, everyone would still be left with that one last option of ¡°abandoning the land to save the people.¡± So long as they brought their family¡¯s fortune with them and escaped to Void City, then no matter how the aristocratic and merchant parties fought one another, the two parties still would not be able to do anything to them. ¡°In fact, I¡¯m thinking¡­ now, we could start moving over to Void City progressively, how about it?¡± said the baron¡¯s brother, as though he was muttering to himself. ¡°It¡¯s good to preserve at least some of our vigor.¡± ¡°This idea is indeed a good one, but it¡¯s not going to work,¡± said Baron Dahl as he shook his head. ¡°The Transportation Portal to Void City is in the capital. Now with such a situation, we can¡¯t even hide away from the capital fast enough. To make our way over voluntarily would be courting death, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± His brother sighed, silently shook his head and felt very helpless. ¡°Seems like we do only have one choice left,¡± said Baron Dahl as he looked around. He saw that everyone had bitter but relaxed expressions. So, he too had to sigh. He slapped his palm onto the table once, and the final verdict was made. ¡°Tomorrow, early in the morning¡­ no, later after we have eaten supper, we will go to the temple of the Void Mask!¡± Chapter 682 Pressure brought about motivation. In the face of the heavy pressure that was already within their reach, the people of Dahl family were unwilling to delay for one more night. They ate a little bit of food, then with the protection of their most reliable subordinates, they quietly arrived at the temple of the Void Mask. The Sacred Warriors, who were the night-watchmen, discovered them. At first, they thought the intruders wanted to attack but were taken aback. After Baron Dahl stepped forward to clarify the reason for their visit, that burly and bearlike Sacred Warrior understood what was going on and took them to see Bishop Kabbalah. Bishop Kabbalah was asleep next to the prayer room. It was a small, bare room with just four walls. It was in his nature that he did not fancy luxury. The room was basically unfurnished, and not even tables and chairs could be found. The ground was covered with thick wooden planks that were stacked with bedding and books. These planks were used as both his bed and study table. He was very powerful. Even when he was asleep, he could sense people coming near, and naturally, that would wake him. He could not help feeling a little shocked when he learned that Baron Dahl had brought his family and people in the dead of night for a visit to talk about changing beliefs and taking sides. I¡¯m just here to develop the church; how did things develop to such a point where even a lord wants to convert and believe in His Majesty? Isn¡¯t this step a little too big? There was a saying on Earth that went, ¡°Too big a step will pull at on one¡¯s testicles.¡± As a divinity healer, Bishop Kabbalah was not worried about which body part would be pulled. But at that moment, he really felt great discomfort. After he and Baron Dahl talked in detail and he learned about the entire event, the pain was even more apparent. What is this! Why did the fight between the aristocratic party and the merchant party under the Commonwealth of Gold Coins result in a lord coming to us? What has this got to do with us? Shouldn¡¯t you naturally belong to the aristocratic party if you are a lord? Oh¡­ Seems like he can¡¯t naturally belong to the aristocratic party since his main income comes from business dealings¡­ Then for the time being, just put a pause to your smuggling business! Anyway, if they are to change their belief to His Majesty, they are still required to sort out all the business they have at present¡­ He had so many thoughts that they were in disarray. He was thinking so hard that there were spirals, like mosquito incense coils, twirling in his eyes. But still, he could not figure anything out. With a deep sigh, he said to Baron Dahl, ¡°Lord Baron, I have grasped your situation. But this is no small matter; I¡¯d better consult His Majesty¡­¡± ¡°Of course, of course!¡± said Baron Dahl. He was all smiles as he nodded, as though he was a plump chicken feeding on grains. Bishop Kabbalah went to the dressing room for a bath and a change of clothes. When all preparations were completed, he headed to the prayer room and lit some incense shavings which gave off a reassuring aroma. Then amidst the light smoke coming from the slowly burning shavings, Bishop Kabbalah knelt before the altar in silent prayer. Moments later, Sui Xiong responded to his prayers. ¡°So, this is the matter of concern¡­ Yes, if they are willing to mend their ways and stop doing evil, I can protect them,¡± Sui Xiong said. After a moment of consideration, he agreed. ¡°But my protection for them is only limited to preventing the aristocratic and merchant parties from sending assassinators to attack them. I¡¯ll not offer any protection if their conflicts are business-related or due to grudges from before.¡± Bishop Kabbalah conveyed Sui Xiong¡¯s reply to Baron Dahl. Baron Dahl was silent for a moment, then indicated that he would need to discuss with his people again. So they borrowed one of the rooms in the temple where they held their discussions. This time, they did not spend much time discussing. About 10 minutes later, Baron Dahl paid Bishop Kabbalah a second visit. He expressed his acceptance of His Majesty¡¯s conditions. Although they were unable to get full protection, which made them a little uneasy, the attitude of His Majesty, the Void Mask, had proven his reliability in another way¡ªas people of rich experience, be it Baron Dahl or his people, they would rather trust those who carefully negotiated their conditions before doing things, rather than those who readily agreed to take care of everything. Because the more carefully one considered, the more detailed their conditions would be. This would in turn, represent a more serious attitude. And those fellows who readily agreed to take on anything as though they could run carriages in their mouth¡ªtheir words simply could not be trusted! Since they had come to an agreement on the conditions, the matter was settled. The Dahl family returned back to their castle with minds at ease¡ªthough it was almost daybreak, that did not prevent them from sleeping soundly now. And on the other side, the clergymen of the Church of the Void Mask were getting busy. Initially, the Dahl family was a hodgepodge of beliefs. There were some who believed in the God of Aristocracy and some who believed in the Goddess of Wealth. Now they wanted to collectively convert their beliefs to follow the Void Mask. And naturally, they would need a formal and grand ceremony. Not only that, most people from the Dahl family were bad guys. To accept them as followers, the church would have to arrange redemption for them. ¡°Atonement¡± was not something that could be completed simply by buying a certificate of redemption. This was only possible in the mid-century period on Earth. It was also not like those with great power could go straight to heaven so long as they killed a few followers of another belief, regardless of any bad things they had done. In this world, redemption was something very solemn and serious. It involved quite a difficult process and a high price to pay. First, the person who decided to redeem himself had to proceed with a period of fasting and ablution to allow his body and mind to enter a state of quiet and peace. Then, in this state, he would have to personally narrate his entire list of crimes and received punishment according to the crime committed. The punishments included, but were not limited to, beatings, burnings, as well as various pain inflicted either physically or by spells. This agonizing and difficult process would, at times, last as long as a month. When the entire ritual had ended, they still had to accept a mission. Only when they had accomplished this mission with a good and solemn attitude could the entire redemption process truly be completed. So long as they could complete the entire redemption process, they would not be considered bad guys who were unpardonably wicked and guilty of the most heinous crimes. They could also convert their camps from evil to neutral. Then, so long as they conscientiously did good, sooner or later, they could progress into becoming good people. However¡­ in this world, there were very few bad guys who could truly complete the entire redemption process. On one hand, this process was indeed accompanied by acutely intense pain. The more severe the crime, the more severe the pain would be. Most of the bad guys were extremely stern towards others but went easy on themselves. There was no way they could bear such pain. On the other hand, even if they were willing to bear such pain, there were very few churches willing to carry out the redemption rituals for bad guys. This was because after the ritual, the bad guys would become members of the church, so their actions would be closely associated to the church¡¯s honor. Even if they were willing to redeem themselves of their crimes, the clergymen were seldom willing to believe in these villains. The only people keen on holding redemption rituals were from the Church of the God of Redemption. This group of people advocated that ¡°no matter how bad a man could be, so long as he was willing to mend his ways, there would always be a day where he could repay his sins.¡± They were also eager to persuade the bad guys to atone for their sins and accept redemption¡ªeven if it was penitence at one¡¯s deathbed. But the bad guys were reluctant to do so because if they chose to accept ¡°redemption¡± on their deathbed, it would mean that their souls would belong to the God of Redemption after death. They would then need to do all sorts of good things under his arrangement to redeem themselves for their sins. This was something exceptionally difficult. In the end, only a handful of the higher-ups of the Dahl family were willing to accept the redemption ritual and become core followers of the Church of the Void Mask. The rest simply bowed to salute and pay homage to the statue of His Majesty, the Void Mask, and accepted baptism by Bishop Kabbalah before leaving. ¡°It¡¯s good this way too,¡± said Bishop Kabbalah as he watched them leave. He could not help feeling relieved, albeit his disappointment. He was responsible for the redemption of these people. No matter what, so long as the number was smaller, the difficulty or trouble that might be involved in the future would be much smaller. As for those people who left¡­ they would be the ones treading on their paths. The choice would be theirs to make, so regardless of whatever might happen, the responsibility was all theirs. Chapter 683 ¡°What do you think of this matter?¡± asked Sui Xiong after he had given a recount of the entire event. With a frown, he said, ¡°You can¡¯t blame me for saying too much. You should also instill in your followers a unified mindset. We are not pursuing absolute unison. It¡¯s not strange to have different parties and factions internally, but no matter what, it should not escalate to the point where two major parties have to resort to force and fight one another!¡± The Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, was usually full of confidence. But at this moment, she did not seem to appear so confident. She kept silent for a long time only to heave a deep sigh. But still, she said nothing. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you?¡± wondered Sui Xiong. ¡°Weren¡¯t things perfectly fine before?¡± ¡°At that time, I felt that I was able to keep things under control,¡± said the Goddess of Wealth as she finally spoke up. Her voice was filled with bitterness. ¡°Now, I¡¯ve come to realize that actually, I can¡¯t. On top of my inability to keep things under control, there¡¯s also¡­ something major is going to happen.¡± Sui Xiong was taken aback. Though he did have some expectations on the severity of the situation, he had never expected it to be so serious enough to render the Goddess of Wealth to be at her wits¡¯ end. ¡°How did this happen? Does that mean you can¡¯t even control your church?¡± he asked worriedly. ¡°The church is still in control, but now¡­ the church is the only thing left that I can control,¡± said the Goddess of Wealth with a sigh. She seemed exhausted. ¡°The conflict between the aristocratic party and merchant party has reached a point where their incompatibility is irreconcilable. Though the church is still trying its best to mediate their conflict, it seems like this time around, there is no way to hold them back.¡± ¡°What if they can¡¯t be held back? Will there really be internal strife?¡± ¡°Most probably,¡± said the Goddess of Wealth with a bitter smile. ¡°I went to learn more about the details of this matter. Between the aristocratic party and merchant party, there¡¯s really no way we can mediate this.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Probably because of the ¡®flow process,''¡± said the Goddess of Wealth. ¡°The flow process method can greatly reduce the time required to train workers and can also break up the original complex working procedure. This will greatly increase the content that can be produced. Currently, the merchant party is going all out to push for this type of production process, so they need even more manpower. But they do not have enough workers on hand and need to recruit¡­¡± Sui Xiong understood what she was getting at. To the civilians, though the techniques available for them to learn via the flow process were limited, the wages at workshops were clearly much higher than the income earned from farming¡ªmainly because the aristocrats collected so much tax that farming the fields was simply not enough for them to support their families. By contrast, at least if they had work to do, they could still put food on the table. This world had yet to enter the era of the industrial revolution, a time where the people would be described as ¡°things that dripped with blood and coated with dirt.¡± The wages at workshops might not be high, but they were at least higher than the income earned on the fields¡­ at least this was the situation in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. Under such circumstances, it was certainly not difficult for the merchants to recruit workers. However, they would encounter a problem. Among the civilians of this world, most were not ¡°freemen.¡± As subjects of the lord, they did not have the right to accept employment out of freewill. And would the lords allow a great portion of the labor force in their territories to become workers elsewhere? Sui Xiong took a moment to recall and thought of Geerteng Hill. Geerteng Hill used to be an area with agriculture as its main income. Now, it was a world-renowned place of stationery and medicinal herbs. How did Olian Geerteng deploy human resources? So he contacted Olian to ask about this matter. ¡°Of course, I would have to let go of the fields,¡± replied Olian. ¡°Food supply and such, we just need to buy them.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. That was pretty much what he guessed. But clearly, a majority of the lords in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins did not express their acceptance because those workshops belonged to the merchant party and not to them. ¡°If the merchants allow the lords to become shareholders of these workshops, do you think this will work out?¡± he suggested. The Goddess of Wealth shook her head and said, ¡°This is impossible. These workshops are supported by techniques that are the basis of survival for these workshop owners. Even if the lords agreed to be shareholders in name only and not participate in the operation of the workshops, there is no way the owners would give up their share of their workshops. ¡°In fact¡­ to avoid the risk of technology leaks, most of the workshop owners who have relatively strong capital will not hire local workers. They would rather spend more money to hire foreign workers so as not to give the lords a reason to intervene.¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment. He could not help feeling a little surprised. After regaining from his surprise, he could not help feeling distressed. The ruling power of the lords in this world was much stronger than that on Earth. And the merchants of this world were also much stronger than those on Earth. When the strong joined hands with the strong, naturally there would be a one-plus-one-is-greater-than-two effect. But now, the strong were colliding with the strong, and no one was willing to give in. If their workers were hired elsewhere, it would hinder the territory¡¯s production and be harmful to the lord¡¯s interests. But the merchants, especially the prominent ones, were in voracious need for a large number of workers to carry out production. At the same time, they were unwilling to give up the profits from the workshops. If they were on Earth, both sides could probably reach a compromise by combining their efforts in squeezing the life out of their workers. But in this world, the civilians had the backing of the good gods who would not poke their noses into matters under normal circumstances. But if the lords and merchants really did join hands to exploit these workers and committed perverse deeds of squeezing out every last bit of profit, it would not take more than a few days for the clergymen to come roaring and banging on their doors. In such a situation, it was not surprising that the conflict between the lords of the aristocratic party and the merchants of the workshops would intensify. ¡°Can¡¯t we get the merchants to step back a little?¡± Sui Xiong asked. After thinking for a while, he said, ¡°There is no end to earning money, so earning a little less is nothing much.¡± ¡°All this time, the merchants have been the ones giving in,¡± said the Goddess of Wealth with a sigh. Sui Xiong was rendered speechless. It was apparent that the merchant party had been tolerating this for a long time. Now, they were really at the limit of their tolerance. Just as how it was supposed that ¡°depriving others of their means of making money made no difference from killing their parents,¡± and also what was meant by ¡°so long as there was a profit of 300 percent, capitalists would hold no fear at all, not even the gallows.¡± The merchant party¡¯s tolerance could only last up until the present day solely because of the Goddess of Wealth. Now, they finally could no longer hold back as they reached the verge of an outburst. Even the reputation of the Goddess of Wealth was not going to help. Furthermore, once the merchants made up their minds to come to break their relationship with the aristocratic lords, the Goddess of Wealth should rightfully take their side. In any case, the merchants were the core followers of the Goddess of Wealth. Sui Xiong gave the matter some thought, then asked about it. ¡°I really¡­ don¡¯t know what to do,¡± said the Goddess of Wealth. She shook her head with a bitter smile and said, ¡°No doubt, the merchant party makes up my core followers, but most of the aristocrats of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins have also been my followers for generations! ¡°Now my clergymen are also very worried. Some of them come from families of aristocrats, some of them come from families of merchants. The pressure from their families must be making them feel so terrible too¡­ Now, as we speak, there are more than a hundred clergymen praying to me. They are praying for me to resolve the conflict between the two parties and restore peace to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins.¡± Sui Xiong saw the bitter look on the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s face and could not help but sigh. Obviously, she could not do anything. Just then, he thought of something and could not help asking, ¡°Right, the flow process method. I remember that it should be my invention. I didn¡¯t get anyone to expand that business to the Commonwealth of Gold, so how did this technique get passed here?¡± An awkward expression suddenly appeared on the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s face. It was a look of embarrassment when she was caught red-handed doing something bad. So Sui Xiong understood. Looking at the Goddess of Wealth, a famous saying came to mind. Heaven might be forgiven for its iniquities, but the evils man brought on himself were the hardest to bear! Chapter 684 In completing tasks, one generally tended to break down the task into several steps. The different stages were then assigned to specific workers who were in charge of completing their specific sub-tasks in order to successfully fulfill the overall assignment. To explain this concept, one could use the analogy of building a chair. First, materials such as wood and wooden strips needed to be sourced. The materials were then used to create a basic stool as well as the other parts of the chair, such as the legs and backing. It was only when such sub-areas were completed that the chair could be pieced together. If a carpenter were to create such a chair, he would start out by finding a suitable tree to cut down. He would then have to treat the collected wood to ensure that it was usable in building before creating the parts of the chair bit by bit. Overall, it would be a grueling and time-consuming process. Furthermore, a single carpenter would only be able to create one chair at a time. If many chairs were required on short notice, one would either have to hire several carpenters or extend the deadline for the completion of the chairs. However, if one were to utilize the aforementioned concept, the tasks would be split up amongst different representatives who would only need to focus on their own task at hand. For example, those handling the wood would focus on that task, and the end product would be assembled by another group of workers. These workers didn¡¯t need to be multi-talented in several areas as they were only responsible for one part of the process. It was more efficient to utilize such a method as workers needed only to have some basic ability and minimal training to complete a job. One wouldn¡¯t need experts to handle the whole task, such as professional carpenters in the example given above. As workers would be focused on simple and specific tasks, they would improve at a faster rate in their area and be as competent as professionals after a short period of time. Employers would also worry less about salaries as the workers would not be ranked as professionals even when they improved in their craft. The raises given didn¡¯t need to be as high as the ones given to professionals in particular fields, even when their productivity increased. Overall, over time, such a process would be highly efficient and allow for the skill level of the workers to even surpass those of the professionals, allowing employers to increase company productions. Most importantly, they also did not need to worry about finding and developing professionals as such an endeavor would require tedious amounts of time (many months or even a few years), especially if the task to master was complicated. In comparison, grooming different batches of workers with specific skill sets would take only a few months and would allow for maximum productivity and profit! In this world, many handmade or labor-intensive products were in short supply, leading them to become rather expensive. For example, should one desire a chair in rural areas where there was a lack of carpenters, its price may be increased by four or five times as compared to when being sold in an area where chairs were common. In reality, in such rural areas, one may not even possess the idea of owning a chair but rather simply use wooden poles to fulfill the same purpose. Even if the wood could have been used to create several chairs, its price would be but a fraction of the price of a fully crafted chair. To explain this further, one could use an apt analogy. For example, ever since the Republic of Northwest started utilizing the concept of operational flow to produce armory and weaponry, Nether City had become the biggest producer and trader in the world in these areas. They were even advancing towards the title of the world¡¯s largest arms supplier! Such success came about due to a concept that may have seemed insignificant at first. While Sui Xiong was not particularly secretive, the Republic of Northwest¡¯s armory and weaponry sectors kept their work extremely confidential and never revealed their methods. The Goddess of Wealth respected their secrecy and did not deign to steal their secrets. However, she shared the idea of operational flow to a few powerful and confident businessmen. These businessmen were naturally afraid to compete with Void City, probably because of due warning from the Goddess of Wealth. However, armor and weapons were two of many producible items in the world, and they could choose to produce any other item of their choice, such as electronics, decorative items or furniture. As long as the profits could be made, it didn¡¯t matter what the choice of product was; the money would come in all the same. The Goddess of Wealth could never have imagined that using a business concept would bring about such trouble for her. This distressed her, and the lack of a solution was simply unthinkable. For the past few decades, the businessmen had no choice but to accept the imbalance in profits and the obligation to give in. They watched jealously and unhappily as the profits that could have been theirs ended up in the hands of others. But now, they would no longer be obliged to accept such injustice. Furthermore, in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, the aristocrats and merchants had always had a tumultuous relationship. Such tension had started from the country¡¯s early years of development and piled up over time. The negative relationship could even be likened to a barrel of gunpowder, which could explode and destroy everything with just one spark. The accumulation of wealth brought about the question of how to spend such lavish amounts of money. Some people wanted to choose the reliable path of buying land and finding people to maintain the land, while others were enterprising and chose to expand their business. Originally, both methods would bring about a reasonable amount of benefits. However, over time, the former group would have developed and connected to many aristocrats and lands. On the other hand, the latter group would be connected to several important businessmen. This would then create the dilemma of businessmen gaining profits through peddling goods while aristocrats found themselves falling behind in terms of money reserves and demanding tax payments to make up for the imbalance. This was the first major conflict between the aristocrats and the Commonwealth merchants. A civil war was nearly started! Eventually, under the mediation of the Goddess of Wealth, the two sides sat down to negotiate, and after almost two years of difficult negotiations, they drafted a tax collection standard that both sides grudgingly accepted. Later on, the aristocrats desired greater control over the land and wanted to ensure that no man could threaten their rule. On the other hand, the merchants were fiercely protective over their property and did not want to run the risk of any loss. This was the second clash between the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, and eventually, the merchants compromised yet again. Eventually, most of the bigger banks chose to set up their headquarters outside the city, despite the extra expenses and risks that such a move brought about. The two episodes left the merchants extremely disgruntled, and they were determined to stand their ground should any conflict arise again. They complained that they had already given in twice and requested for the aristocrats to come to a reasonable compromise on their own part. However, having gotten their way twice, the aristocrats had begun to take their wins for granted and were increasingly resistant towards negotiation. Of course, the Church of the God of Aristocracy also influenced the conflicts that had occurred. The Church of the God of Aristocracy took the stand that the aristocrats should be allowed to rule over their own land and claimed that they should have to answer to no one but the supreme leaders. Thus, they tried to reduce the legal powers of the merchant trade organizations as much as possible. Such a claim clashed directly with the teachings of the Goddess of Wealth, and the merchants scorned and despised them. The aristocrats pretended to agree with the merchants on the surface but secretly praised and subscribed to such a belief. Lobbyists of the Church of the God of Aristocracy were afforded special privileges and treatment when they visited the mansions in the country. The Goddess of Wealth was silent for a long time as she mused over the situations that had unfolded. ¡°Maybe I was wrong from the start. Maybe it really is impossible for a capitalist country to be incorrupt and fully legitimate.¡± Chapter 685 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Could a capitalist country really be pure? Sui Xiong felt that it could be possible. Although the world had all kinds of magical powers and dangerous monsters as well as mighty gods, the average human¡¯s life was still comparable to that of Earth. While Earth was dominated by merchants, such an idealistic world was still possible. As Sui Xiong had entered this world, the Earth¡¯s most powerful country was holding elections, and the first candidate was backed by a big consortium and the second candidate was an influential merchant. He had not voiced his opinion aloud but rather pondered on how to solve the issue. Although the Goddess of Wealth had felt that the issue was serious and deep, Sui Xiong felt that a solution could be found, however temporary. After all, on Earth, when the merchants had first risen in status, they had not been in immediate conflict nor violent war with the aristocrats. Of course, he also knew that any temporary solution would eventually be useless when faced with a new problem and that eventually, war would be waged between both sides. However, the social situation was not at such an extreme level yet. While Sui Xiong was not familiar with this world¡¯s society and its history, he nevertheless understood the idea that a capitalist revolution usually took place after an industrial revolution. If an industrial revolution had not even taken place, there would not be a situation where a bigger rebellion was needed. If Marcus were aware of this, he would definitely have teased them! ¡°What do you plan to do now?¡± Sui Xiong asked the Goddess of Wealth. After racking his brains, he still could not come up with a temporary solution and decided to deviate from the topic at hand as a means of distraction. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really have a choice at the moment. I think we¡¯ll have to leave it in the hands of the church to mediate as much as possible to perhaps stall for as much time as possible,¡± the Goddess of Wealth replied. To this, Sui Xiong nodded in agreement. While dragging the situation out was only prolonging the tension, it was a logical choice to make at this point in time. With more time on their hands, they could spend it thinking of better solutions to solve the problem. ¡°Actually, couldn¡¯t we organize a meeting for them to discuss the situation, such that they could come to a compromise or negotiate with each other?¡± Sui Xiong mused. ¡°They¡¯ve had countless meetings in the past that have been of little help. This is due to the fact that both sides feel that they¡¯ve already had to give in many times till they¡¯ve drawn the line and refuse to negotiate further,¡± the Goddess of Wealth replied with a bitter smile. All of a sudden, Sui Xiong had a flash of inspiration, and a perfect solution popped into his head. ¡°We could organize a conference where all the main issues plaguing the country can be brought up and addressed by the different societal group¡¯s representatives. How does that sound?¡± The Goddess of Wealth paused slightly, then replied dully, ¡°At the end of the day, it would still end up in a massive argument, just like all the previous meetings did.¡± Sui Xiong quipped, ¡°No, this is not the same concept as the previous meetings. Firstly, conferences ensure that the majority opinion is adopted. For example, if someone wanted to build a bridge on a shared river, those present at the conference would vote for or against it, and the decision would be made based on the majority vote. That way, no one can disagree with the decisions being made.¡± ¡°That is not a new idea. The Commonwealth has always adopted such a method between the merchants and aristocrats, and they have been discussing and voting on all important decisions all along.¡± The Goddess of Wealth sighed. ¡°No, that¡¯s still different. In the past, there were only two parties present¡ªthe merchants and the aristocrats. When the two parties engaged in discussions, they would definitely argue and fight because both parties had the power of numbers through the support of their entire social class, and this needs to be mitigated!¡± ¡°How do we do that?¡± the Goddess of Wealth asked hesitantly, her brow furrowed. After some thought, her eyes lit up in understanding. As a goddess, it was clear that she was ingenious enough to understand Sui Xiong¡¯s logic through his simple explanation. ¡°I understand what you mean now. By separating the different levels of merchants and aristocrats and choosing representatives based on the type of areas and their needs to organize a large conference, votes will be made scared as it would then be harder to sway a vote. Those with societal status and advantage would also be too concerned with their internal conflicts and politics to be able to create a large united front for a war,¡± the Goddess of Wealth clarified carefully. ¡°That¡¯s not all! Do not forget that we also require two other parties¡ªclergymen and the common folk¡ªin the conference,¡± Sui Xiong reminded the Goddess. ¡°That¡¯s right! The clergymen would always take on a neutral position, and the common folk would support the side that benefits them more. We wouldn¡¯t require too many representatives either as their presence is enough to determine a clear preference between any two solutions. The merchants and aristocrats would then no longer have the ability to influence them and would need to find ways to convince these neutral parties should they want to do so. That would require either providing them with material benefits or gaining their trust, and both methods require sacrifices. In the end, they would choose to compromise instead of cutting a better deal overall!¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right! We could also take this opportunity to bring up the core issues plaguing the country and break them down for discussion. During these discussions at the conference, both sides would be able to say their piece in a civil way. Even if we are still unable to reach a compromise at the end of the day, at least we¡¯d have stalled some time. In any case, any issue that any party wishes to bring up can be talked through, and if they eventually choose to use violence as a means of resolving the issue in a few years¡¯ time, we can deal with it when such a situation arises in the future.¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°Yes, although a few years doesn¡¯t sound too far off, but to the common folk, it would be sufficient. Maybe by adopting this plan, things can finally change, or both parties could possibly find new areas to negotiate on,¡± the Goddess of Wealth mused. ¡°Even if the conference really doesn¡¯t lead to any tangible solutions, at least the grievances by each side are aired and can be further thought about from henceforth,¡± Sui Xiong replied lightly. Seeing this, the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s eyes lit up again in satisfaction. After deciding on such a plan, they continued to discuss the details of the conference. Details such as the number of votes allocated to the merchants and aristocrats had to be decided, as well as the number of votes allocated to each social class and their entitlements. They also had to ensure that it was impossible for social classes to rig votes or to sabotage any decisions. Finally, they had to publicize the event while creating a hopeful and peaceful atmosphere. These were all issues that required thought to come up with good solutions for. Sui Xiong and the Goddess of Wealth felt that they needed more opinions and brainpower and thus invited their allies and far-sighted sages among their believers to engage in discussions. Eventually, they emerged triumphant with a concrete plan after a few days. The Goddess of Wealth was well prepared and efficiently made the announcement personally. She ordered all disgruntled and angry merchants and aristocrats who had been consistently at each other¡¯s throats to return to negotiations and suggested the conference to them. The merchants and aristocrats were both agreeable as internally, they treasured their own lives and were secretly afraid to lose them. They were only aggressive towards each other due to it becoming the norm, but in reality were actually more concerned with protecting themselves. Hence, once the idea of a conference was proposed, it put both parties at ease, especially those with the mental power to debate. They cheered and celebrated on the announcement and agreed that such a method was much more viable than physical combat. With such exuberant spirits on both sides, a temporary truce was formed, and the great meeting of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was launched. Chapter 686 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The Goddess of Wealth actually managed to think of a viable solution¡­¡± In the misty darkness, the God of Aristocracy opened his eyes. His eyes had changed over the years. At the start, they were sharp and piercing like the dark and mysterious sea, and they alarmed anyone who saw them. Now, his eyes were more violent, like a dangerous sea in a storm. While there was less depth to them, they remained creepy and scary. The God of Aristocracy¡¯s body had also become big and strong as if he was trying to suppress something but was unable to. He sat on a golden stage surrounded by black water of a seemingly bottomless depth. Black mist rose from the water. If one were to closely inspect the setting, the evaporation was due to the golden stage absorbing the god¡¯s strength while the water expelled it out. Outside the pool of water, the God of Diplomacy stood in a silver pavilion that was shrouded by white curtains that could not be penetrated by the mist. Nevertheless, he was careful to use his magic to layer himself with protection. If anyone were to come in contact with even just a drop of the black water, it would greatly affect their magical powers. Unlike the Goddess of Wealth, he did not possess the greatest extent of power and had to take care to defend himself against losing what precious little things he had. Upon hearing the God of Aristocracy, he nodded and said, ¡°After the plan was proposed, the originally exaggerated tension has now died down. The aristocrats and merchants are now finding allies and are bringing many benefits to the common folk to convince them, which isn¡¯t a bad thing.¡± ¡°While the idea is decent, I am sure that it is not the Goddess of Wealth who thought it up.¡± The God of Diplomacy thought for a while, then said slowly, ¡°The only one who could have thought of this is the Void Mask! That jellyfish never follows common sense; his brain is full of strange thoughts. A large conference combining the upper and lower echelons of society, who else could have thought of it!¡± The God of Diplomacy nodded and said, ¡°The lord said that as well! He even told me that if you were unable to think of such an idea, you may have to give up your latest advancement.¡± The God of Aristocracy smiled bitterly, acknowledging his situation. ¡°Well, if I couldn¡¯t even handle such a small matter, how can I fight for a more powerful position?¡± ¡°That¡¯s true. So what do you plan to do?¡± the God of Diplomacy asked. ¡°Create some trouble, of course. If I let them get away with such a solution, I¡¯d look like a fool,¡± the God of Aristocracy replied coldly. ¡°Help me liaise with the God of Conspiracy, and tell him that I want to spread a rumor. You can claim that the Goddess of Wealth is organizing this conference under the pretense of settling the conflict between the merchants and the aristocrats but actually plans to secretly help the merchants rise up in society and accord them equal status with the aristocrats. That way, the aristocrats will no longer be the elite societal group, and we can exaggerate the situation to include the future, where if an aristocratic family is replaced or displaced, the merchants will then be able to use the conference to weaken them further and reduce their power greatly. In this way, the aristocrats¡¯ power will be lowered, and they may not even be able to compete with the merchants in the future. That¡¯s the rough idea, I think you understand?¡± The God of Diplomacy hesitated for a while, then nodded. ¡°I understand. I will tell the God of Conspiracy.¡± Upon saying that, he thought further and clarified, ¡°Actually, we could settle this situation ourselves. It is not really necessary to involve a third party as if the news spreads in the future, it could ruin your reputation.¡± The God of Aristocracy laughed coldly, shut his eyes and said, ¡°My reputation? This is the exact sort of reputation that I want!¡± He did not explain further, but the God of Diplomacy understood enough. As a usual messenger among the gods, he did not hesitate further nor try to persuade the God of Aristocracy to change his mind. He just sighed and walked away. The God of Aristocracy waited until his counterpart had left before reopening his eyes. He gazed into the distance in the direction where the God of Diplomacy had left in silence. If he didn¡¯t make such a gesture, how could he expect the lord to promote him to a more powerful position? With his natural wisdom and wit, he had to find a way to worsen his reputation to prevent the lord from having the misunderstanding that he wanted to overthrow him¡­ The God of Aristocracy smiled slightly and gloomily. A few days later, the news had spread around the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. Every aristocrat who received the news furrowed their brows in worry, especially those who had weak younger generations or were facing inheritance issues. In response, the two most respected marquees of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins met in secret. No one had any idea what they discussed, as they had met in a secret room and talked privately. The bodyguards who accompanied the marquees were also only privy to the knowledge that after the private meeting, the marquees started to oppose the idea of a mass conference. Naturally, the news eventually spread to the Goddess of Wealth and Sui Xiong as well. Sui Xiong was shocked. ¡°The aristocrats have such strong men as their pillars of support?! How could they have projected so far otherwise?¡± To the common folk, their foresight and vision were limited to the upcoming few years. To predict the development of the far future was seen as something that only geniuses could do. Amongst the mages, there were actually a few such people, but they were usually tight-lipped about such knowledge. Besides, the mages felt that the aristocrats were easier to control than the merchants. ¡°I¡¯ve received a divination that behind all these rumors is a meddling god, but I can¡¯t identify which,¡± the Goddess of Wealth pointed out. ¡°You can¡¯t identify which god it is?¡± The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, snorted. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s that bastard again!¡± Everyone understood what he meant. For a divination not to work, either the god had to have a very high status, or their status was unique. If this condition was considered along with the type of rumor, it was obvious who was behind the whole situation. Apart from the God of Conspiracy, no one else could have been responsible. ¡°Why does he want to give me trouble and create chaos?¡± The Goddess of Wealth had assumed so as well, but she couldn¡¯t understand the logic behind the God of Conspiracy¡¯s move. ¡°Have I ever offended him before?¡± Yorgaardman smiled bitterly and said, ¡°He¡¯s a god known for evil, he doesn¡¯t require any reason to do such things. In my opinion, we should find an opportunity to get rid of him soon.¡± This suggestion was met with agreement amongst all the gods, but it was a longstanding suggestion that had never come to fruition. In the past, there had been many assassination attempts and plans made to destroy the God of Conspiracy, but he had simply disappeared for a few years before reappearing. No one could find his true physical self and the position of his kingdom. Even the most enthusiastic god for this idea, the God of Justice, could not do much to help the situation. Furthermore, at this point in time, the main aim was still to help the Goddess of Wealth settle her crisis first. With the rumors spreading around, the aristocrats naturally had a change in attitude, and the Gods required an efficient plan to prevent a physical fight from eventually breaking out¡­ Chapter 687 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°We have to think of a solution,¡± the Goddess of Wealth, Marissy, said. ¡°Yes, this is really urgent.¡± Sui Xiong seconded this thought. They looked at each other in despair. If they had any plan in mind, they wouldn¡¯t be in such a daze. That rumor was the crux of the issue: to the aristocrats, the continuation of their inheritance, power and status was their main goal in life. If this was threatened in any way, even the most enlightened and non-traditional aristocrats would still stick to tradition. Of course, there were a select few who could not care less about such matters. Some even felt that the idea of the aristocrats¡¯ inheritance was unreasonable and that they shouldn¡¯t pass power from generation to generation. Every societal group would have such people, and the aristocrats as a whole viewed them as betrayers who needed to be taken care of. Even though it could be said that wise men ended rumors, but what if the rumors had turned out to be true? Sui Xiong had previously suggested the conference to the Goddess of Wealth to separate the aristocrats into different social groups and to add on the clergymen and the common folk representatives to reduce the power of the main two clans. This was more for the aristocrats as the merchants were not united at all. When Sui Xiong was in primary school, all his teachers had mentioned that the merchants as a clan lacked foresight and team spirit. If it had been only one or two teachers who had mentioned that, it could have been fake news. However, since all the teachers had agreed on this, it could be taken as the legitimate truth. Such a situation was extremely non-ideal as this was not Earth. When the news spread, the authenticity of it was easy to judge by using prophetic spells. This was especially so for lies that affected the development of the country and that would lead to long-term effects. The majority of the middle-level mages could use their prophecy spells to make predictions. After the rumors regarding the conference had spread, at least 20 middle-level mages tried different ways to test its authenticity, and all of them predicted it to be correct. Because of that, it led to exaggerated reactions on the part of the aristocrats. They felt that there was no point in continuing with the conference with this knowledge, and thus the aristocrats naturally had the idea of going straight to battle to settle matters once and for all! So Sui Xiong had to consider this matter very seriously and eventually approached the Goddess of Wealth with a new suggestion. ¡°Allow the merchants to have a head start? That would be akin to betraying the clan that had been loyally following me for the last few years! No way!¡± The Goddess of Wealth was startled at his proposition. The Goddess of Wealth could not be blamed for her indecisiveness here as she did in fact have a large following of aristocrats. If she were to become enemies with them, she would suffer heavy losses or even lose her high status among the gods. ¡°Well, apart from that, do you have a better idea?¡± Sui Xiong asked in retaliation. To that, the Goddess of Wealth had no answer, and she could only smile bitterly. If she had thought of a better plan, she would have mentioned it by now! However, she was still resistant to Sui Xiong¡¯s new suggestion. ¡°This battle cannot be fought! If the merchants and aristocrats really start a physical battle, no matter who wins or loses, the Commonwealth of Golden Coins will be doomed!¡± she said. ¡°You can¡¯t win a battle if you don¡¯t even fight one. If the merchants manage to win, they will be able to properly and legitimately develop their country under their rules,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°But¡­ what if they lose?¡± the Goddess of Wealth questioned. Sui Xiong found himself at a loss for words and was silent for a while before asking in a slightly hostile way, ¡°Why do you think they would lose?¡± ¡°While the merchants have money to hire large amounts of troops, the loyalty and fellowship of the troops is highly unpredictable, and they may not have the determination to complete the battle fully. On such grounds, fighting with the aristocrats¡¯ personally trained and fully developed private army would be akin to sending the merchants to die! I may not be a war veteran, but I am aware of the basics of warfare,¡± the Goddess of Wealth retorted in an equally hostile fashion. She went on to say, ¡°Furthermore, the merchants¡¯ wealth has always been dependent on trade. If a war breaks out, trade will cease as roads will be blocked or destroyed. Even those with inheritances would not be left with much when their property is ruined. ¡°After a while, they will also run out of means to pay the troops. On the other hand, the aristocrats only need to provide resources for their troops and will not run out, even if they have to fight for three to five years. From my point of view, the merchants will definitely lose. If they really stood a chance of winning, they wouldn¡¯t¡¯ have had to back down so many times in the past in the first place.¡± The Goddess sighed. Sui Xiong was silent again. He faced an internal dilemma of whether to share on a powerful weapon that he had used to set off extreme chaos on Earth previously. In the end, he decided not to. It would have been akin to releasing a large tiger out of its cage. It would then be extremely hard to reverse such an action then. While he wanted to help this world improve and develop, he was certain that he did not want to use extreme violence nor cruel means to do so. On Earth, a king had previously been quoted to have said, ¡°Who cares if chaos is unleashed after I die?¡± But Sui Xiong, while not entirely opposed to such a liberal mindset, had to consider his immortality¡­ Upon considering the prospect of staying alive and watching the spark that he started ignite into flames that engulfed the entire country, he broke out in cold sweat. Nima, this could not happen! In the end, Sui Xiong had backed down and could only suggest that if there was a need to, the Republic of Northwest could send troops to aid the merchants in war. The Goddess of Wealth wavered slightly and had thought about it for a long time before nodding her head in agreement. ¡°Maybe¡­ that may turn out well. We might as well compel the merchants to relocate to the North where they would be adjacent to the Republic of Northwest and could create a common republic. They could also choose to merge directly into the Republic. With the division of the Commonwealth, maybe the aristocrats would not feel the need to be so aggressive towards other clans as well.¡± ¡°I¡¯m surprised that you¡¯re willing to divide a country that believes in you so easily.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. ¡°What¡¯s the issue with that? To me, the concept of a country is fleeting. As long as those who believe in me continue to work and strive, they can continue to develop themselves even within a divided Commonwealth,¡± the Goddess shot back. Sui Xiong was unable to reply as he felt that he was no longer on the same frequency as the goddess. After a while, the duo brought their entire conversation to the gods¡¯ meeting to discuss. The God of War approved of such a suggestion. ¡°Since the situation is now rather transparent in the Commonwealth, the two major clans would probably be unable to maintain the current peace for much longer. It would either be a vicious fight to the end or a major separation where each clan goes their own way. If they choose to separate, at least we can prevent a huge war. ¡°Do you really think we can prevent an entire war?¡± Sui Xiong remained skeptical. ¡°Of course, we can¡¯t guarantee such things, but even if war were to break out after the separation, it would be on a much smaller and less violent scale as compared to a fight over the entire country¡¯s powers. If we can¡¯t ensure that there is no violence whatsoever, at least we can try to scale it down. Unless, of course, you have a better suggestion to share with us right now,¡± the God of War replied. The gods had looked at each other, and no one could think of a better suggestion. They eventually decided to agree on the only proposed solution then and there. Chapter 688 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The big team walked along a rather narrow road. This road could be likened to a long dragon where neither head nor tail could be seen, and it linked from the horizon on the east side to the horizon on the west side. This was the merchants¡¯ migration team. To prevent a war, the Goddess of Wealth had eventually suggested the idea of the merchants heading north and the aristocrats heading south, officially dividing the Commonwealth into two. Despite protests by the middle-class and lower-class folk, the upper-level merchants and aristocrats accepted this suggestion after some discussions. To them, this method was definitely better than war. Even though both sides were itching to destroy the other party and steal the enemy¡¯s money and property, both were scared to lose. For the aristocrats, even though they had a presumed advantage, it was not a confirmed victory. Furthermore, individuals were also uncertain of the future even if they had inheritances, as they might be lost or stolen in battle. Thus, both parties felt that a separation was still the best solution, even if the merchants who were already in the north and aristocrats who were already in the south disagreed. After the decision was made, both sides started the long journey in their respective directions. This was probably the largest physical change in the Commonwealth ever since the mass human migration. The total number of merchants and aristocrats added together was nearly a million! Originally, the merchants suggested that they only take their inheritance and families with them and not move the people. They mentioned that money could be used to buy the aristocratic folk. However, the aristocrats in the south discussed the matter and decided to move people so as not to leave the merchants with all their human resources. This was to prevent the merchants from becoming stronger and also to make sure that they had enough manpower to take control of the south. With the migration of the merchants in the south, only their developed properties were left behind due to their vast numbers. To maintain these properties, the aristocrats required much more people (including migrants from the north) to use their farming methods. More importantly, having people was the foundation of their rule. Their private army was made up of the common folk. Even if it was not apparent now, sometime in the future, their numbers would dwindle if the overall population was reduced in size. The central government in the Commonwealth was not strong, and the aristocratic leaders had their own private fighters and assassins. Overall, there were senses of trouble in the air. If there was no trusty army, even if the aristocrats reached the south, they would still be sitting ducks. When the merchants in the south discovered that the aristocrats in the north wanted to migrate their full population, they naturally protested till the two clans¡¯ leaders became extremely stressed. Nevertheless, with the decision already made, the aristocrats could not back down now, or they would risk losing face. Towards the southern merchants¡¯ threats and attempts at persuasion, the aristocrats showed no signs of backing down and explicitly signaled that they wanted to maintain the interests of the migrating aristocrats. This caused much tension, but the southern merchants had no way to refute those migrating over. Originally, they had wanted to gain control over the migrating aristocrats and make use of their resources. Of course, they had previously intended to keep this a secret, but the open tension made their true intentions painfully clear. The situation was now extremely awkward.Update by vip novel The migrating aristocrats were not just uneasy, they were also angry. They almost had an opportunity to benefit from the brawl within the Commonwealth, but now it was gone. On the surface, though, the southern aristocrats portrayed an indifferent fa?ade and acted like the internal conflicts of the Commonwealth didn¡¯t bother them. To them, leaving their home many years back and starting anew in the south had been extremely difficult, and they did not want it to be in vain. They wanted to gain all the benefits that they could since this had been a longtime plan. Now that it was exposed, they felt rather awkward and angry as well. The opportunity could well be lost! The aristocrats even had several strong ones who turned their attention to the two marquis of the Commonwealth and wanted to take them down. They were behaving like a group of jackals who wanted to secure their own positions, and to do so, they decided to go for the top of the social order. Even humans on Earth who used the Internet knew the idea of gaining power through taking down leaders, what more for these vicious and cunning aristocrats? Seeing the large numbers of migrants from the aristocrats¡¯ side moving towards the south, the merchants who had intended to pack light naturally changed their minds and started splurging to prepare large amounts of food and gather large crowds of people. They formed a pioneering team to start off the journey towards the north. The aristocrats in the south were not willing to let their people go, as they were the foundation of the land. If they were to leave, who would they order around? They would then be nobodies in the Commonwealth, just like dogs! Of course, they would not just sit and watch this chaos but rather decided to take action like a dog would. They immediately took action against the merchants who now planned to migrate, but the merchants also stood their ground. More chaos had thus erupted. Everyone understood the importance of human resources. With insufficient manpower, an area could not develop. The upper-class people would be forced to do menial tasks if there were insufficient middle and lower-class people to do it for them. Thus motivated by their unwillingness to do so, they oppressed the people violently. They also set down the ground rule that the merchants from a single area could only take away a maximum of 30 percent of the population there. In the end, only 30 percent of the entire south¡¯s manpower would leave. In the Commonwealth, the south was slightly richer, and the population count was slightly higher. This 30 percent was comparable to about 60 percent of the northern population count. Such a decision could satisfy the merchants as well while maintaining the population count in the south. In any case, the south did not just have aristocrats but also merchants. Thus, the merchants traveled north and the aristocrats traveled south. Countless people traveled along the long, long road towards their intended destinations. Chapter 689 ¡°I still feel like they will eventually fight,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I feel the same. In the end, a physical battle will definitely take place. It¡¯s not about if but rather when. Honestly though, why do they insist on fighting like this? They are all rich and powerful people; they could choose to consume good food and enjoy life every day. With generations of wealth before and ahead of them, why would they want to gamble it all away?¡± the God of Pleasure sighed and replied in annoyance. Sui Xiong had wanted to explain the idea of added benefits but remembered that Javier was previously a mighty prince who didn¡¯t want to retain the title of king even if it meant he would inherit much wealth and power. Thus, he would not understand the idea of added benefits. That would be like talking to a wall and wasting saliva. Instead, Sui Xiong thought for a while then said, ¡°Once people hold onto a grudge, it will only deepen and affect more and more people. Even if certain individuals don¡¯t see the need to fight, the clans on the whole would support its members and follow the herd mentality.¡± ¡°Surely, those who hold deep grudges are the minority?¡± ¡°Grudges and hate will always grow. For example, two knights are at odds with each other and cannot stand each other. They would definitely find their friends to fight against each other, and some of them would die in the process. The hate would then increase and spread, and the cycle would repeat again. Small fights amongst small groups will always eventually lead to bigger fights that involve more people,¡± the God of War Strategy, Augmentin said. ¡°I really don¡¯t understand. What¡¯s there to fight about? Even if the grudge is deep, is it really more important than one¡¯s own life? If you die, you¡¯d be left with nothing!¡± Javier sighed and muttered to himself. ¡°Death isn¡¯t the main concern here. I mean, in this world, there are many other things that are more important than life,¡± the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, said. Sui Xiong shook his head and refrained from joining the debate. These were the three main views that were present among the gods. The God of Strategy and the God of Justice had different views, but they could at least understand the idea of fighting to the end over grudges. However, the God of Pleasure did not understand this, as he was of the opinion that living was the foundation of happiness. He felt that if there was no life, how could happiness exist? Such a discussion among the gods with such different opinions would lead to nowhere, while the large migration continued to take place. Nearly a million people were in motion, and they moved like two large groups of ants in two lines resembling long dragons. On the vast land, they trudged on slowly. Typically, with more people, the speed of travel would decrease. This could be explained by the idea that a few strong men could easily travel a kilometer, while even 0.3 kilometers would be a stretch for elderly folk. The merchants¡¯ migration movement progressed at a faster speed as they brought fewer items, which meant less weight to carry. To increase the efficiency of the migration, the merchants stopped to rest every 20 kilometers and arranged for free room and board along the way. Migrating merchants were also promised free delivery of furniture such that they did not have to carry burdensome items themselves. In this way, even with the lack of horses and vehicles, they could still travel by walking with relative ease. On the other hand, the aristocratic side brought almost everything with them, such as small pans, tables and even bed frames. Many of them made use of a big cart to transport all these items. Even though the migrating aristocrats mostly had family inheritances, unlike the poorer merchants, such an arrangement caused them to lose almost all their savings. Long-distance travel naturally cost a lot, and the compensation that they received could not make up for these expenses. When they tried to sell off big items that they could not transport, they were faced with the issue of bad business as the merchants in the south unanimously agreed not to make any purchases. In the skies, the gods stayed invisible and observed the migration process. ¡°Although the weather now is still decently warm and not cold enough to freeze them to death, the aristocratic migrants may well starve to death along the way. They are lacking in terms of food resources,¡± commented the God of Justice as he furrowed his brows in worry. ¡°Even if they did have enough food, it wouldn¡¯t help things. With the current weather, the food would perish over a few days, even for grains. We can help them by dispelling the rain clouds and ensuring that it doesn¡¯t rain while they travel, but we cannot do anything about the food spoiling over time,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°Isn¡¯t this the God of Medicine¡¯s specialization? Could he help us?¡± the Goddess of Wealth asked. Arcaian, who had been rather overlooked all this time, shook his head and spoke up. ¡°I have already sent all the clergymen to help out, but¡­ even if my priests and pontifices could lend their magic, it is rather impossible to stop all the food from decomposing or spoiling over time as there aren¡¯t enough of them.¡± The God of Medicine¡¯s core doctrine was to use techniques rather than magic to cure diseases. A certified clergyman should have received spiritual powers through praying and would be able to convert it to spells against pathogens to allow food to last longer. However, there were only a select few who understood and aligned with Arcaian¡¯s ideology as well as possessed the necessary skills. Furthermore, counting his clergymen as well as Sacred Warriors, priests and pontifices, there were less than a hundred people. Even if they were to be fully mobilized, they would not really make much of a positive impact on the migrants and their food. In reality, the idea of magic and science had foundational differences, and to mitigate them without affecting the people would almost be impossible. Nevertheless, the God of Medicine sent down a few qualified priests and pontifices to help both the aristocrats and the merchants. According to the past, the merchants and the church of the God of Medicine were originally friends when this church was first started in the Commonwealth. They had received much initial support from the merchants, and any merchants had also regularly attended this church. They had several disciples as compared to the aristocrats. This was due to the differing social statuses of the merchants and aristocrats. The merchants mostly did not have inheritance and thus wanted their children to learn some skills, whether it was to become a doctor or a laborer. On the other hand, aristocratic families mostly had inheritances or at the very least shops to pass down, and thus the younger generations did not have to do much and could just live life in a carefree manner. Those rare aristocratic children with no inheritance usually became explorers or scholars, in which the former had power and the latter had status. It was hard to convince the aristocrats to let their children hone medical skills to offer services to the people. Even if they were willing to learn, it would have been seen as a hobby and not as a legitimate career. If Arcaian had not discovered this fact and sent down some oracles, the aristocrats would have badly lacked help and would not have had the volunteered medical aid by priests of the God of Medicine! Chapter 690 As the days passed, the weather became increasingly hot. To the common folk, warmer temperatures were good as they did not need to wear so many layers and could work more conveniently. However, it was not good news for the migrants as they sweated more as they traveled and became more susceptible to illness. This was especially so due to the growth in the number of mosquitoes, which brought about several transferable diseases. As they were traveling in a pack, this meant that it was very likely for the sick people to cause everyone else to become sick as well. On a random day, Arcaian had approached Sui Xiong and informed him worriedly that there were signs that many aristocrats were falling prey to serious illness and that a plague was imminent as the illness was easily transferable. Sui Xiong had furrowed his brow in concern and asked, ¡°Is this the God of Plague¡¯s doing?¡± ¡°Currently, we cannot confirm that, but we can feel that it is his doing. The situation is extremely urgent and dangerous at the moment. The migrating merchants¡¯ side, however, is slightly better, but they walk along the same path as the aristocrats and should they meet, chances of the illness spreading is extremely high. If a plague really starts, it is possible that more than half of a clan could be wiped out!¡± Aracaian replied. His face had rumpled with worry. As a kind and reasonable god, he could not bear to see the common folk suffer even if he had not been on the best terms with the aristocrats previously. Furthermore, the migrating aristocrats were the lower class aristocrats and provided the foundation for the entire clan. Good and evil, order and chaos. Those of the opinion that one should sacrifice everything for a victory were usually supportive of the idea of evil and chaos. On the other hand, those who were more understanding and flexible usually tended towards the idea of order and goodness. Sui Xiong was not able to think of a solution on his own and approached Wall. As the God of Knowledge and Culture, he was the acting diplomat for the Void God System. However, towards this, Wall had protested multiple times that he could teach strategies or scholastic work but was not cut out to be a diplomat. Sui Xiong had refuted this claim by saying, ¡°If not you, then who? Three Nothingness, the God of Healing? Arcaian, the God of Medicine? Song Ballard, the God of Art and Culture? Or perhaps Damwade, the God of Agriculture?¡± Wall was speechless as he himself knew that compared to him, the four other gods were even less qualified to take on this role. Wall was a ¡°sawed gourd¡± and rarely spoke or showed any emotions. Conversing with him was difficult as one had to constantly monitor his expressions and keep the conversation going. For him to be a diplomat would be rather tough as well. Arcaian was a technical master and was most energetic when conducting experiments in the lab or explaining theories and techniques. However, if one were to ask him to talk to strangers, he would stutter or be at a loss for words. Song Ballard was neither introverted nor quiet, but he lacked the ability to be diplomatic. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and it was too easy to guess what he was thinking by his facial expressions and reactions. He was almost as bad a choice as Arcaian. As for Damwade, he was a slightly better choice than the previous two but had recently been concentrating on molding his internal powers in order to receive the Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s heritance, and thus, he did not want to leave her side. In the end, only Wall was left as a viable choice. He was old and experienced, and even though he did not like to express his emotions, he had a reasonable level of tact, sensibility and observability. He was also the freest and had time to settle diplomatic matters. ¡°Please contact the God of Plague for me and schedule a time and place for us to meet and talk,¡± Sui Xiong requested. Wall had nodded and did not press Sui Xiong further for a reason why. In the Pantheon temple, Wall¡¯s possessed body had stood up and walked to the lounge area to converse with the God of Plague. ¡°Our lord would like to meet you to discuss some things. Are you able to set aside some time?¡± he asked the God of Plague candidly. The God of Plague pretended to be asleep. When he had seen Arcaian walk towards him, he had felt scared as he knew that he was the system¡¯s acting diplomat and could easily bust him. Thus, his first reaction was, ¡°oh no!¡± However, he was also relatively experienced and did not show his worry on his face. Of course, it would have been hard to see any expression on his deformed face anyway. ¡°The Void Mask Lord wants to see me? Is there a problem?¡± He rolled over and pretended to have just woken up from his slumber, rubbing his eyes and sitting up groggily. ¡°No matter what it is, the Pantheon temple is not a suitable place for discussions,¡± Arcaian replied. The God of Plague looked around and realized that many gods were noticing this exchange, especially those in the front few rows of the temple, and he felt threatened inside. ¡°You¡¯re right, this is not a good place to talk. However¡­ I don¡¯t think there is much for me to say to you,¡± the God of Plague said. His body was covered with grime and blood-stained bandages, and he looked like he would decompose at any time. In an indifferent way, he said, ¡°In your Void God System, I have a few nemeses, and I don¡¯t want to get to close to them. I find it dangerous for myself.¡± Arcaian stopped putting on a friendly fa?ade and retorted, ¡°When have you not felt threatened? Over the years, no matter when or what, you¡¯ve always hidden in some godforsaken place, when have you ever showed your true self? Furthermore, even if you find that it is not safe, at the very least you would just lose an incarnation. With your experience and resources, surely that would not be too big of a loss?¡± ¡°I would really prefer not to. I¡¯m not the same as you. I do not have many disciples. All my powers have not come easy, and I need to use them sparingly. To waste an incarnation for no reason, that¡¯d be too wasteful.¡± ¡°Our lord would like to meet you. You can avoid for him now, but not forever.¡± Arcaian smiled coldly and repeated his request. His smile became darker and slightly sinister. ¡°Or perhaps you don¡¯t like to have peaceful discussions but rather, you would like us to corner you and force you to negotiate with us?¡± He emphasized several of his words to get his point across. The God of Plague sighed deeply but realized that he no longer had a choice. Chapter 691 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio To be at someone else¡¯s mercy where the power of life and death lay in that person¡¯s hands, this was the situation that the God of Plague was facing. According to his style in the past, naturally, he would hide himself and meet no one at all. Of course, if they could not find him, then nothing would happen. But if Sui Xiong were to bring Arcaian and Three Nothingness to search for him and managed to find him, his lifetime would probably have reached its end. Because his priesthood was restrained, if he were to fight one-on-one with any of the gods under Sui Xiong¡¯s command, he might not even be able to win against Three Nothingness. And Three Nothingness was the weakest in close-combat power. In addition, there was another deity, Arcaian, who was more skillful in battle than Three Nothingness, also restraining him. If he could escape, that would be considered as his luck. However¡­ other than these two banes of his life, there was still Sui Xiong! If he were to really face such a disposition of combat forces, the God of Plague would absolutely have no chance of escape. Or he might not even have the chance to surrender¡ªeliminating gods who contradicted his priesthood could greatly enhance his divinity. The Void God System would definitely chop him up into pieces and turn those pieces into nutrients that could enhance the strength of the God of Medicine and the God of Healing. So Wall was confident he could convince the God of Plague to meet with Sui Xiong because he knew that the other party was afraid of him. Or rather, afraid of the Void God System that he represented. Therefore, he did not notice that the look in the God of Plague¡¯s eyes. With his head hung low, the God of Plague¡¯s eyes were flashing with hope and not fear. Why would His Majesty, the Void Mask, want to speak with him? He could most probably guess the reason. Though it was not manipulated by him, there were indeed signs of a plague appearing on the Main Plane. If allowed to develop normally, it would not take long before a major plague would break out and engulf the western part of the continent. A conservative estimation of the number of deaths would be around hundreds of thousands of people, and it would not be strange if the number of deaths went up to the millions. This major plague could provide a large amount of divinity for the God of Plague, but he had no intention to really let this plague happen. With the development of medical technology, the frequency of plagues happening on the continent was decreasing, and the scale of any recurring plague was also slowly reducing. In this regard, perhaps the other gods might not know, but the God of Plague was very clear about it. Because he did not have many followers, his intelligence was not hindered by the power of belief. This allowed him to maintain good sobriety. So all this time, he had been thinking, where would he be in the future? It was said that heaven would always leave a door open, so there would always be a way out. Even if there were no longer any plagues on the Main Plane, the other worlds might still have plagues occurring. This would be enough to sustain the continued existence of the God of Plague as a deity. However, he was not the only god with the priesthood of ¡°plague¡± in this world. Just as how the Goddess of Ocean controlled more than 80 percent of the ocean on the Main Plane, but she did not actually have much control over the oceans in the other worlds. The God of Plague¡¯s situation was very similar to hers. If there were really no occurrences of a plague on the Main Plane, his divinity would most probably fall to the level of a weak Divine Power, or it might even fall a god-to-be level. About this, the God of Plague was not very worried. Back when he was sealed god, he only wanted to pursue a life without death. So long as he had immortality, being at the level of a god-to-be was no big deal. But he was somewhat unwilling if he had to concede defeat just like that and leave the Pantheon temple like a useless coward. He had been the God of Plague for so many years, how could he be cast out onto the streets like a muddle-headed fool? So he had long wanted to meet with His Majesty, the Void Mask, who had nurtured the God of Medicine and the God of Healing. He wanted to ask what was going on in detail. In recent years, he had been waiting for opportunities. For this reason, he had even gone through the difficulty of stationing communication clones at the Pantheon temple¡ªit should be noted that in the past, he would not even set foot in the Pantheon temple, lest he be discovered. The reason for sending such clones to Pantheon temple was to find the opportunity to meet and have a discussion with His Majesty, the Void Mask. In fact, he also knew that it would be more sincere if he were to directly make a visit personally. However, as an extremely senior, domiciliary creature, he honestly could not muster up the courage to visit others. So he could only lie down on his throne in the Pantheon temple as though he were a corpse, quietly waiting for his opportunity. Now, when there were signs of a massive plague appearing on the Main Plane and His Majesty, the Void Mask, had asked to meet him, he knew his opportunity had arrived. ¡°I¡¯ll stop this plague,¡± he said. This was the first thing he said when they met on a deserted little world. He did not even bother about greetings or making small talk. On the contrary, Sui Xiong was stunned by what the God of Plague said. He certainly wanted to get help from this God of Plague in stopping this major plague that could possibly render thousands of miles of land barren. But how could the other party take a stand before he even began his persuasion? Director, this script doesn¡¯t seem right! ¡°In exchange, I have some things that I would like to consult Your Majesty with,¡± said the God of Plague. This was his second line which eventually led Sui Xiong to realize that basically, it was not that the script was wrong. The problem was with the actor. If this God of Plague were to produce a movie, he would definitely be poison to the box office. To hell with the way he spoke. No matter how many superstars there were, it would never be able to fill the hole he created! How could you speak like that? How could you possibly turn everything topsy-turvy? You have also lived for a long time, yet you don¡¯t even have the slightest bit of common sense! Sui Xiong was absolutely not going to admit that he was squelched by the first thing the God of Plague said the moment he opened his mouth. In his heart, he felt a slight pinch of anger that originated from his embarrassment. Secretly, he jeered at the God of Plague, and at the same time, he tidied up his emotions. Then he began a detailed discussion with the God of Plague. Through this detailed discussion, he was hit by a sudden realization¡ªwhat true talent! Unbelievable talent! This guy, the God of Plague, who had been in his position for so many years, was not even clear about the cause of a plague and its principle of transmission! Hey! You are the God of Plague! Don¡¯t you even feel a little sorry for your priesthood? When Sui Xiong finally could not hold back, he pointed this out. The God of Plague said with much indifference, ¡°This priesthood was not something I gained with my own efforts. It was something that I seized after the expedition against the former God of Plague.¡± Sui Xiong really did his best to resist the impulse of wanting to beat up this fellow. At the same time, he made up his mind. In the future, he would always maintain enough vigilance against such fellows who became sealed gods through robbing others of their priesthoods. Otherwise¡­ it was highly possible that he might die of rage! This was simply biasedness. The God of Aristocrats also became a sealed god by robbing a priesthood, but he was very reliable and would completely put himself in the position of the aristocrats. In fact, the situation with the God of Plague was a minority. After he was sealed as a god, he had been focusing on being a coward. He did not want followers and did not develop his church. Even if someone prayed to him, he would make no response most of the time. If not for the occasional plagues that he would spread, which could be considered as reluctantly fulfilling his priesthood duties, it was highly possible that his priesthood would have separated from him because his behavior did not conform to his priesthood. So it was for this very reason that he was not entirely eroded by this priesthood of ¡°plague¡± and could still maintain a relatively sober self. ¡°So that¡¯s what a plague is all about¡­¡± said the God of Plague. After Sui Xiong gave him a detailed introduction of the nature of a plague, the God of Plague was hit by a sudden realization and nodded. At the same time, his noumenon that was in the God¡¯s Kingdom suddenly felt a rapid growth in Divine Power, which soon made up for his loss over those years, ¡°So¡­ Your Majesty, the Void Mask, as the God of Plague, what should I do?¡± asked the God of Plague. After feeling great joy, he asked very humbly, ¡°Does it mean that other than spreading the plague, I truly have no other path to take? This path is inappropriate!¡± ¡°If you also know this path is inappropriate, why are you still going down this path?¡± ¡°When I joined forces to put the heavily injured and weak God of Plague to the sword, at that time, I felt that no matter what, being able to attain immortality was the best¡­¡± ¡°May I take the liberty to ask, what did you do back in those years?¡± ¡°Me? I was a bandit.¡± ¡°I¡¯m asking, other than being a bandit, what else are you good at?¡± ¡°Farming, hunting, gathering wild fruits, so long as I could fill my stomach, there was nothing I wouldn¡¯t do. At that time, my days could be so tough that even filling my stomach was extremely hard. So later on, I almost became a professional bandit. After all, robbing was the easiest,¡± said the God of Plague. The rotting face of the God of Plague unveiled a look of remembrance that Sui Xiong could not see at all. ¡°I remember that I once robbed a dragon that was my source of food for a good half a year¡­¡± Sui Xiong was already feeling a little sluggish. At last, he could not help but ask, ¡°What race did you belong to?¡± ¡°Trolls,¡± said the God of Plague, who was not the least ashamed of his origins. ¡°The kind of trolls that are very commonly seen nowadays. I was a poisonous troll. I liked to use my natural toxin to cause the food to rot, then with my food in that sticky state, I¡¯d drink and eat at the same time.¡± Maybe I should just kill him. Sui Xiong sighed deeply, and regardless of how the God of Plague tried urging him to stay, he merely replied, ¡°I will slowly think of an answer to your question. When I¡¯ve come up with one, I¡¯ll contact you.¡± Then he hurriedly bade farewell and left. Hanging out with this fellow really exhausted Sui Xiong both physically and mentally¡­ Chapter 692 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The matter is settled,¡± said Sui Xiong. When he returned to his God¡¯s Kingdom, he lightly touched on the matter, then with a sigh, he said, ¡°I¡¯ll go rest for a while.¡± ¡°Your Majesty¡­ Is the God of Plague powerful?¡± asked the God of Medicine, Arcaian, who was a little worried. Sui Xiong shook his head and said, ¡°Not powerful at all. But¡­ he was not an easy guy to talk to. That guy¡¯s way of thinking is completely different from normal people.¡± With that, he left the conference hall. The various gods left in the room looked at one another with looks of wonder written all over their faces. ¡°This is my first time seeing Auscar say something like that,¡± Javier said. ¡°True. Usually, we are the ones thinking that his way of thinking is different from normal people. Now, he¡¯s the one who actually finds someone else¡¯s way of thinking strange¡­¡± Morani muttered to himself with shock written all over his face. ¡°Exactly how unbelievable can this guy be, to make His Majesty so shocked?¡± The crowd discussed for a good half a day but could not find an answer. Without a word, Sui Xiong randomly found a place and sprawled on the ground listlessly. He was put into the doldrums. A round of communication with the God of Plague left him feeling very hurt with an intense mental injury. After resting for a while, he began to ponder the question of the God of Plague. Other than spreading and transmitting plague, were there any other paths that the God of Plague could take? At first glance, it seemed as though there were none. But thinking about it carefully, Sui Xiong felt that a transformation was not impossible. He could transform from ¡°a god who spread the plague¡± to ¡°a god that managed the plague,¡± and then even progress further to become ¡°a god who managed illness.¡± That should not be that impossible, right? He thought again and shook his head in silence. With the bearlike appearance of that God of Plague, most likely, this would not work out. Regardless of the angle, that guy looked no different from a mental patient. Sui Xiong felt that he would never be able to understand things that were too profound. He also felt that the God of Plague would not be able to settle down and concentrate on research in order to adjust his priesthood. Up to this point, Sui Xiong suddenly froze. Then quietly, he passed on a message to the God of Justice. ¡°Big brother, if one is sealed as a god by killing and then seizing the priesthood of another god, can he skip the step of ¡®understanding of the priesthood?''¡± The God of Justice replied, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s indeed possible, but the requirements are stringent. Only a Legendary Master who has killed a god can seize the priesthood and directly proceed to the path of being a sealed god. This is not possible for demigods.¡± ¡°In other words, if I catch a few waning gods and get a few of my Legendary Masters to kill these gods, my men will be able to obtain more followers?¡± The God of Justice was silent for a moment, then said, ¡°Wait a while. Let me go sound this out first.¡± Within the Pantheon temple, his clone crept up to the Master of Order quietly and asked in a low voice. ¡°It¡¯s long been disallowed,¡± said the Master of Order without any expression. ¡°I had previously allowed this to happen in the hope of bringing in some variables that could bring about changes in this world. As a result, out of those who were sealed as gods via this way, almost none were decent gods. So I abolished this practice. Now, it¡¯s not possible for a mortal to directly seize a priesthood after killing a god to become a sealed god.¡± ¡°Such a big matter, yet you did not even tell us about it?¡± said the God of Justice, who was greatly taken aback. The Master of Order simply ignored him. The God of Justice gave a mirthless laugh and relayed his reply to Sui Xiong. When Sui Xiong heard about it, he shook his head and sighed. ¡°How could I have missed that opportune time¡­?¡± He also knew that it was not difficult for him if he truly wanted to promote a god follower. He could directly gather a few elite followers and entrust them with those sealed God¡¯s Kingdom¡ªfor example, Rhode, who was finally tired of living and ended his mortal life to come to his God¡¯s Kingdom as a follower. He would be an ideal candidate. Then they would have great hope in being sealed as gods. However, such a way also entailed considerable risks. The time since the establishment of Church of the Void Mask was still too short. There were too few outstanding talents within his God¡¯s Kingdom. A follower who was a good match for a priesthood had to be found in order to increase the success rate of successfully sealed gods. Yet such followers were not easy to find. In the past, Javier had promoted two of his followers to gods in one go. It seemed like he breezed through the process, but there was a reason for it¡ªbetween these two gods, one of them was the successor to his original priesthood, ¡°Celebration.¡± The succession of a priesthood was sure to proceed without a hitch so long as that follower was a Holy Spirit of Javier. On the other hand, the other god succeeded to the priesthood of the ¡°God of Wine¡± to become a god who showed great reverence for pleasure and intense fondness for celebration. It was not difficult for Javier to find a wine lover among his believers. By contrast, for the rest of the God¡¯s Kingdoms, finding suitable successors for them was not as easy. This was also very normal. If a successor was so easily found, the War God System would have long found suitable followers and conferred the priesthoods to them. Several god followers would have been promoted then. Why would they have remained up till now? In truth, Sui Xiong felt that if he really wanted to promote the god followers, he could probably use the corpses of elven gods found among the Master of Mystery¡¯s treasure collection as a medium and extract their divinity. Then he could find suitable successors from the advanced elves of the Elven race, or even from within the Legendary Masters. Maybe this would be the most reliable way. He was someone who put his thoughts into action, so he went straight to the treasure trove and opened up the little world that was specifically used for collecting the heritage of elven gods. This little world was sealed by extremely clever means, so the passage of time had a negligible effect on it. Everything that was stored in it was no different from how they were when they were just put in. Sui Xiong lauded at how omnipotent the Master of Mystery was. Then he began his search. ¡°The elves¡¯ God of Hunting. This is pretty good. It should be easy to find a successor for this. There must be many hunters in the Elven race. ¡°The elves¡¯ Goddess of Reproduction. Haha. It¡¯s certainly going to be easy finding a successor for this too¡­! No, this one doesn¡¯t give me a good vibe. It might probably cause trouble. Skip, skip. ¡°The elves¡¯ God of Revenge. This seems to exist already¡­ ¡°The elves¡¯ God of Art, also, Gods of Opera, Sculpture, Painting, Dance, Calligraphy and so on¡­ This guy is almost like a little God King, with so many followers under his command. I remember Wall and Song Ballard also have elf followers. Maybe they can consider promoting one or two of them to become gods. ¡°The elves¡¯ God of Protection. This one causes trouble too easily. No way, no way.¡± He looked left and right, choosing and selecting from the numerous elven gods¡¯ corpses like an auntie buying vegetables, but even towards the end, he did not go near to the Master God of the Elven race¡ªthe God of Nature and Balance. This Master God of the Elven race might have fallen, but his priesthood had never been reacquired by any other god. It was generally believed that at his moment of death, he entrusted his priesthood to the great nature. Any spellcaster who aspired to protect nature and maintain the balance of the world could resonate with his priesthood and thus, gain his Divine Power and divinity. In other words, it was precisely because of this ¡°entrusting one¡¯s body to the mountains¡± before he died that this world could have many druids who did not need to believe in any god but could still cast spells. They relied only on their respect and love for nature, as well as their resonance with nature. Sui Xiong had no wish to create a ¡°God of Druids,¡± so he would absolutely stay away from hitting on the elves¡¯ God Master. Just as he was carefully making his selections, he frowned all of a sudden as his gaze fell upon a small pearl. ¡°Sealed Pearl?! What¡¯s hidden in here?¡± Chapter 693 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Sealed Pearl was a commonly seen treasure. It was often sealed with powerful magic beasts or tools or sealed with a legendary spell with shocking power. Sui Xiong had laid eyes on such a thing like this more than once. He had even made some himself. At present, almost everyone high up in the ranks of Church of the Void Mask had one or two of his handmade Sealed Pearls. These pearls were sealed with spells used for protecting lives and escaping. The power was certainly reliable. So what was sealed within this Sealed Pearl? Sui Xiong held up the Sealed Pearl and observed it carefully. The technology it used did not entail modernized spells, but rather, extremely ancient elven spells. It was apparent that this was left behind by the elven gods. Sui Xiong compared the technology of this Sealed Pearl with the technology that the Master of Mystery used to seal the corpses of the elven gods and this little God¡¯s Kingdom. Suddenly, he seemed to gain some understanding and felt that the search had been quite rewarding. The elven gods were great experts in the Art of Magic. The Master of Mystery was deserving of his status as the greatest master in this line of work. Both kinds of technologies had their own merits. In the past, the only magic technology that Sui Xiong had been in contact with was the one used by the Master of Mystery. Now, coming into contact with the elves¡¯ magic technology, it was a sudden eye-opener for him. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that such technology can still be used! This is¡­ a sealing system constructed based on nature spells? Among the modern druids, I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s no one capable of this¡­ ¡°Oh! So it turns out to be such a principle! So ingenious!¡± He could not stop singing praises and deeply felt that this trip was certainly rewarding and not made in vain. He also decided that he would spend some time in the future to carefully look through and examine his treasure trove. He should see whether he could find any more surprises like this from his own treasures. After spending about an hour or so, Sui Xiong finally gained a thorough grasp of the technology of this Sealed Pearl. He could display the same means too. But looking at the Sealed Pearl that he had just replicated, Sui Xiong still could not help shaking his head. It was just knowing how to do it. He was still not proficient in it. This was just like taking an examination. If this Sealed Pearl left behind by the elven gods had a full score of 100, then the pearl that he had replicated was at best 70. Of course, 70 did qualify for passing. But there was still a long way to go from 70 to 100. However, Sui Xiong also had no intention of going to that extent in practicing elven spells. After all, the reason why the old spell system was replaced by the new spell system was because the new system was better to use, easier for practice and much more stable. As for power and the likes of it, would it be that Sui Xiong still lacked any powerful means? So learning up to this point was more or less enough. In the future, should Arcaian be interested, he could still sort out these old elven spells. Then he could teach Arcaian in detail so that this God of Medicine, who was already the hope of the Elven race, could study these in-depth. Of course¡­ regardless of how much studying was carried out, wanting to reproduce the glory of the Elven Kingdom from the former times was regrettably impossible. Closing his eyes and summarizing the information, Sui Xiong tried to disassemble this Sealed Pearl. There was a great difference between the older, elven sealing technique and the modern sealing technique. There was no need to disassemble the Sealed Pearls made via the modern sealing technique to find out what they contained. On the other hand, the Sealed Pearls made via the older elven sealing technique had to be taken apart to find out what they contained. In other words, its confidentiality was much higher, but its level of convenience was much lower. Undoing the seal was much easier than making the seal. Sui Xiong only took a very short time to almost open the seal. However, just as he was about to completely disassemble the seal, he was struck by a sudden thought. Taking this Sealed Pearl, which had 60 to 70 percent of it disassembled, he left this little world¡ªusing the treasure trove that was transformed with the God of Potion¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom as a base, he returned to his own God¡¯s Kingdom. Over here, he was almost omnipotent. Even if there were any variables, he could always keep them under control. If there was a powerful legendary spell within this seal while he was in his own God¡¯s Kingdom, he could always make it in time to reseal it and not let it go to waste. After a while, the seal was completely opened. There was a green light that accompanied the power of nature, and then a figure bound by countless green chains, looking like a dumpling, appeared before Sui Xiong. ¡°A human?!¡± said Sui Xiong. He froze momentarily due to the sudden shock. Then he looked carefully and shook his head. ¡°Actually, it¡¯s not. It¡¯s a¡­ Ah, ugh¡­ What¡¯s this supposed to be?¡± Through those chains, he could see a petite body like a human teenager. It was a small figure with a pair of beast ears. Looking carefully, those pair of ears bore some resemblance to that of a wolf or dog. But through its slowly opening mouth, he could see that it had also grown much more canine teeth than normal humans. It was sort of like a wild beast. The more important thing was its disposition. Though it was bound by chains like a dumpling, it exuded an unruly and violent force that was certainly the kind humans should not have. More importantly, on its body, Sui Xiong could not detect much light of wisdom. On the contrary, he could clearly feel the wildness of a beast. ¡°This is¡­ a werewolf? Or a human raised by wolves? Humans don¡¯t have ears like these¡­ so it is a werewolf? Or maybe a hybrid?¡± Sui Xiong muttered to himself for a moment, then went looking for Arcaian. Arcaian was from the Elven race. As compared to a layman like himself, perhaps Arcaian would be clearer about the origins of this strange creature. Regrettably, Arcaian was unclear too. ¡°Maybe my great-grandfather would know,¡± he said. ¡°After all, half of his blood came from the advanced elf bloodline, and he was also part of the legacy of the ancient Elf Kingdom.¡± So Sui Xiong went to look for Arcaian¡¯s great-grandfather, Clarhott Pasteur. Clarhott was working on an experiment at that time, so he was unhappy about the interruption. But when he saw that little fellow bound by green chains like a dumpling, all signs of anger vanished without a trace and his face was filled with a somber expression. This little fellow was instinctively starting to struggle. Bit by bit, it was exerting bouts of power to attempt to break free from these chains. ¡°The Lord of the Wolves, Kersemens?!¡± he exclaimed. His tone was a little tensed as he asked, ¡°Why is this guy still alive?¡± Sui Xiong was momentarily taken aback, then could not help asking, ¡°The Lord of the Wolves, Kersemens? What¡¯s this little guy¡¯s background?¡± Clarhott regained his composure only then, and said, ¡°It¡¯s an ancient demon whose origin has long been unverifiable. We only know that it has an endless magic power that¡¯s so powerful, and also, it is able to control all the wolves. Therefore, it¡¯s called the ¡°Lord of the Wolves.¡¯ In addition, it also has a nickname, which is the ¡®inherent king of the mortal world¡¯s magic power¡­¡¯ In short, this guy is very powerful and dangerous.¡± ¡°How dangerous can he be?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°According to the historical record, it was one of the earliest creatures that could be identified as using magic. At that time, it commanded the wolves and with great ease, and they traversed the great earth arbitrarily. Other than the powerful races like the dragons, there seemed to be no other race that could possibly confront them.¡± ¡°Even the elves couldn¡¯t?¡± ¡°At that time, the advanced elves were still in the mortal world. The Golden Race¡¯s one-upmanship was a notch higher than the Dragon Race, so how could we have lost to it?¡± Clarhott said proudly. ¡°If we don¡¯t stir any trouble for it, it should be more than thankful.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly, then again, he asked, ¡°So what happened later on?¡± ¡°Later on¡­ probably after the Golden Race left, this guy caught a glimpse of the weakness of the Elf Kingdom and let the wolves attack us. That battle was named the ¡®Wolf Disaster,¡¯ and it was a very intense one at that. Because of the enchantment set by the Goddess of Life, the elven gods could not take the field personally. In the end, it took the combined efforts of the 12 demigod elders to destroy it¡­ at least, this was what I know from what could be found in history.¡± With that, he shook his head and sighed. ¡°Though I was born sometime before the Golden Race left, by the time I grew up, the ¡®Wolf Disaster¡¯ was over. So I¡¯ve only learned about it from the records left behind by my elders. But whether it be by looks or disposition, this guy is obviously Kersemens!¡± Sui Xiong nodded. Once again, he cast his gaze at the slowly awakening Kersemens. There was actually such a subject within the treasure trove. How unexpected! Looking at Kersemens, he could not help wondering if this lord from the ancient times would serve any purpose for him. Or if possible, what would be a better task to assign to it¡­? Chapter 694 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After a while, Kersemens finally woke up. When this ¡°Lord of the Wolves¡± opened its eyes, his eyes revealed cluelessness, or even soft, feeling. This was compatible with its petite body, which did give quite a ¡°fragile and delicate¡± feel. But it soon regained sobriety. Blazing flames of anger were rising in its eyes as it roared loudly. Although Sui Xiong did not understand wolf language, Kersemens¡¯ will had long reached the minds of everyone around him. Basically, this was what it meant, ¡°Where the hell are those long-ear beings? Get out of here now! I¡¯ll fight you till the end! Today, it¡¯s either you die, or I perish!¡± Sui Xiong sighed and said, ¡°Can¡¯t you calm down first? Take a look around you.¡± Kersemens was a little taken aback. Of course, it did not understand the lingua franca of the place it was in, but it could feel Sui Xiong¡¯s will. This means of conversing via will did not exist during its time. Back when the Elven Race was fighting him in battle, they used to curse and shout furiously at it using their ancient elvish language. So it did know that foreign language. However, it was dead sure it did not know the language spoken by this green and round guy who had a few branches hanging around him while floating in mid-air. Yet, it could understand what the other party meant¡­ this was so strange! Under the influence of curiosity, its attitude clearly softened quite a bit. It no longer roared and howled angrily, but instead swept the surroundings with its golden eyes. This one look made it even more confused¡ªin its memories, it led the Wolf Army in the attack of one of the bordering towns of the Elf Kingdom. As a result, it encountered a huge army of elven soldiers that were combat-ready in full battle array. Amid a fierce battle, several powerful old elves had used a joint spell to entrap it. Then it lost consciousness. But now, the surrounding environment was clearly not the battlefield it was originally on. Though there were two long-eared beings around it, from their mannerisms, it knew that that strange and green ball was their leader¡­ How strange, since when did these arrogant long-eared beings allow anyone else to be their leader? After a moment of hesitation, it opened its mouth again. But this time, it was not a wolf howl. Instead, it was a tone that sounded like a song with complex rhythmic changes. Though it sounded slightly awkward, it was quite pleasing to the ears. Ancient elvish language. All who were present knew the ancient elvish language. Clarhott Pasteur was part of the legacy of the ancient Elf Kingdom in the first place. Arcaian Pasteur, being his great-grandson, also acquired the ancient elvish language since young. Sui Xiong had picked up this language during his remediation for the ¡°General Knowledge of the Gods.¡± He felt that this language would be helpful when he had to read up on various ancient information. So the moment Kersemens opened its mouth to speak, they all understood what this ¡°Lord of the Wolves¡± was saying. ¡°This place¡­ where is this?¡± ¡°This is my God¡¯s Kingdom,¡± said Sui Xiong as he smiled. With his Divine Power, he removed the chains used to lock Kersemens up, and likewise in ancient elvish language, he replied, ¡°I¡¯m¡­ probably after you were sealed¡­¡± He turned to look at Clarhott and asked, ¡°How many years was that?¡± Clarhott made a mental calculation and said, ¡°23,119 years.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. Then to Kersemens, he said, ¡°There, it¡¯s been more than 23,119 years since you were first put under a seal.¡± ¡°23,119 years?¡± asked Kersemens. A blank expression appeared on his pale face that sported some features. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Sui Xiong was surprised for a moment, then asked, ¡°Do you know what a ¡®year¡¯ is?¡± ¡°Of course, I know. A year is when the weather changes from hot to cold once. Every time the weather is not too hot or not too cold, that is the season for the wolves to breed.¡± ¡°So, you have no concept of what 23,000 means?¡± Kersemens was silent for a moment. Then it raised both hands and started counting on its fingers. ¡°One, two, three, four, five¡­¡± Then, it was obviously stuck for a moment before it continued counting, ¡°Fifteen, twenty-five, thirty-five, forty-five¡­¡± Sui Xiong could not help laughing. Clearly, the mathematical level of this ¡°Lord of the Wolves¡± was a tragedy. It seemed like it could not even count from one to a hundred, let alone such a big number like 23,000. ¡°Ten ones add up to a ten,¡± he said. He used his tentacle to write a ¡°one¡± in ancient elvish language in mid-air. Then with a wave, the ¡°one¡± became ten ones. An equal sign appeared after them and was followed by a ¡°ten¡± that was also written in ancient elvish language. ¡°Ten 10s make a hundred. Ten 100s make a thousand. Ten 1000s make ten million,¡± he said. As he spoke, three other lines appeared successively beneath the line that wrote ¡°ten ones add up to a ten.¡± To facilitate understanding for Kersemens, Sui Xiong used white to indicate ¡°one,¡± green to indicate ¡°ten,¡± blue to indicate ¡°hundred,¡± purple to indicate a ¡°thousand¡± and gold to indicate ¡°ten thousand.¡± Five colors in four roles did look neat and tidy. ¡°There, that¡¯s basically what it is,¡± he said. With that, he made a final wave of his tentacle and below the fourth row of that neat lineup, a fifth row appeared. A pair of golden ¡°ten thousand¡± and three purple ¡°thousands¡± appeared. Kersemens looked carefully at this fifth line of words and symbols. Its head tilted, first to the left, then to the right. Its gaze was obviously getting distracted and signs of distress and helplessness. Obviously, it was unable to understand these. Poor kid, this is truly a mental patient! Sui Xiong sighed and in a gentler tone, he said, ¡°If you can¡¯t figure it out, then forget it. In short, it has been a long, long time, so long that¡­¡± he said, then paused for a while. He had thought of saying, ¡°What was once the sea has now become mulberry fields, and the fields have become the sea. The world has undergone a great change.¡± But as he thought through it carefully, there seemed to have no such event occurring on the Main Plane. Then he thought of using the phrase ¡°till the seas ran dry and the rocks crumbled.¡± However, there was no preceding occurrence to be found on the Main Plane either¡­ Not true. Though the seas did not dry up, there were still rocks that crumbled! So he smiled and said, ¡°If you had placed a big rock outside at the time when you were sealed, by now, it might most probably have become mud.¡± Kersemens was shocked. It looked at Sui Xiong who, in order to strengthen the power of his persuasion, had conjured a big rock. Then raising his right hand with nails that were sharp like knives, he slapped down on the rock. That ordinary piece of rock was smashed to pieces right away, like a pile of ash. ¡°Just like that?¡± Sui Xiong sighed and gave up on his intention to instill some popular science knowledge into this fellow. ¡°To make a long story short, it¡¯s been a long, long time. The Elf Kingdom has perished. Almost all your enemies and the Elf God System are completely annihilated,¡± he said. ¡°My name is Auscar, and I¡¯m also known as the ¡®Void Mask.¡¯ I¡¯m a¡­ just a junior god that has inherited their legacies.¡± ¡°So¡­ what do you want?¡± asked Kersemens. Somewhat dazedly, he asked, ¡°Continue to keep me locked up?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve no such intention,¡± said Sui Xiong. He shook his head and said, ¡°Now, what I¡¯m going to ask is, what do you intend to do?¡± ¡°If I can regain my freedom, I¡¯ll summon my pack of wolves back and then move on with my life,¡± Kersemens said in a matter-of-course way. ¡°Your wolves are gone since a long time ago!¡± lamented Sui Xiong. ¡°Haven¡¯t I told you just now? It¡¯s been a long, long time, so long that the rocks have turned to ash. Your wolves can¡¯t live this long.¡± ¡°Turning rocks into soil, most of my friends can do that too,¡± Kersemens said with nonchalance. ¡°Nothing great about it.¡± He started to laugh as he spoke, ¡°When rocks become soil, we can grow more grass, raise more rabbits and sheep, have more food¡­ good, very good.¡± Sui Xiong sighed helplessly. Transforming his tentacles into the shape of palms, he held his own face with those palms. ¡°This guy is not pretending to be a fool. He really is a fool!¡± Chapter 695 Sui Xiong certainly would not let Kersemens return to the mortal world just like that. This guy was very strong but did not have an intelligent mind. If he let it back into the world, it might create a big mess. So he decided that no matter what, he had to first give this ¡°Lord of the Wolves,¡± who was lagging behind the times by 23,000 years, some basic knowledge on popular science. Other matters could wait. This was really a tough job, especially when the one to be educated was a fool. He was a freaking fool! What a fool! In the next ten days, words like ¡°he was a fool, let¡¯s not be at the same level as a fool¡± were repeatedly heard coming from Sui Xiong¡¯s mouth and resonating in his mind. But after ten days, his tolerance finally reached his limit. He roared and left a line, ¡°Let Wall teach you,¡± then he hurled the pointer and blackboard whereby both were smashed to pieces. Without turning back, he ran away. Only Kersemens, with a blank look written all over his face, was left sitting at his desk. It did not know why the jellyfish teacher suddenly went crazy. ¡°This little idiot is the worst student I¡¯ve ever thought!¡± Sui Xiong muttered to himself listlessly. At this moment, he had transformed himself into an invisible void and was floating up in the skies of the Main Plane while cruising in the wind. It was really like what Zhuangzi would describe as ¡°generally like a boat that was not tied,¡± where he was carefree and unrestrained. But he was in a mood and not the least bit carefree at all. This guy, Kersemens, was simply stupid beyond words! As an ancient lord, his intelligence was not low. At least his memory was quite good. Basically, after repeating up to three times, he could remember whatever Sui Xiong taught. But when he was required to turn this ¡°memory¡± into ¡°thoughts,¡± he would become extremely inept. For example, Sui Xiong taught him one plus one equals two, then moved on to teaching him one plus two equals three, and so on. Then Sui Xiong asked what two plus three equaled, and he would think for a good half a day and try his best to recall. Then finally, with eyes filled with innocence, he would look at Sui Xiong and reply, ¡°Teacher, you have not taught me this.¡± ¡­ Even Sui Xiong had to admire himself for being able to tolerate this for so many days. But no matter how patient he was, he had finally reached his limit today. ¡°Arg! I hope Wall will be able to teach him well¡­¡± Sui Xiong said with a deep sigh. He buried the sense of guilt he felt towards Wall deep within his heart, then squinting his eyes. he planned to relax for a while. Unknowingly, he fell asleep. Just as he was through the mist of sleep, he suddenly heard a cry. ¡°Eh? Who¡¯s crying?¡± Sui Xiong opened his eyes and looked down at the place where the cry came from. Coincidentally, by floating and cruising about casually, he had unknowingly flown into the skies of Commonwealth of Gold Coins. He was just in time to see a mighty and massive migration team advancing slowly like ants moving to a new house. There was an ongoing cremation on a small patch of wilderness near the migration team. Dozens of corpses were placed on piles of firewood where they were engulfed by the blazing flames accompanied by thick, billowing smoke and the cries of loved ones. Then they turned to piles of ashes. Sui Xiong frowned and quickly descended to a height nearest to ground level. He randomly selected a burly man who looked like the host of the cremation ceremony. With his Divine Power, he probed into the thoughts of this man and learned about the whole story. It turned out that all these people died of illness. Although the God of Plague used his Divine Power to prevent the outbreak of a massive plague, when a big group of people traveled for so long with food under such sweltering weather, how could they not fall ill? The young and strong ones would still be fine, but it would not be the same for the old, young and weaker ones. The moment they fell sick, even if there were doctors to treat them, it would still be difficult for them to pull through. Furthermore, most patients would need to stay in bed to recuperate. They also need ample nutrition. These two conditions were most unlikely to be satisfied within a migration team. Given such a situation, the number of deaths would naturally be constantly increasing. At the beginning of the migration, the situation was still not too bad. But as the time of migration got longer, the people¡¯s health deteriorated even further. The number of people dying of illness gradually increased too. The burly man who presided over the cremation ceremony was a knight who had migrated with all the villagers under his jurisdiction. They had traveled all the way south from the North. Along the way, people continued to die of illnesses. Up till now, from a village with a strength of more than 400 people, the number of deaths had exceeded 10%. However, only one out of all the dead bodies to be cremated in today¡¯s ceremony was from his people. The rest were under the jurisdiction of other lords. Because near to where he and his people pitched camp, there was a relatively large open space, so all the bodies were moved here to be cremated together. Looking at the anguished faces of those emaciated migrants, Sui Xiong sighed and slowly flew higher up. Looking far into the distance, more than one cloud of thick smoke could be seen. Also, the sounds of cries could be heard coming from various directions. With such a large migration team, there would be many people dying every day. Sui Xiong frowned, and then he flew towards the migration team of the merchant party. They were also holding a cremation ceremony over here. Although the situation of the merchant party¡¯s migration team was dwarfed by that of the aristocratic party¡¯s migration team, it was essentially not that great of a difference. The farmers led difficult lives to begin with, lacking food and clothing. Coupled with the need to travel a long journey on foot, their standard of living was almost rock bottom. Even if the merchant party tried their best to sustain their lives, there was a limit to what they could do. Of course, compared to the aristocratic party, the merchant party was certainly a tad better. But¡­ Sui Xiong observed these migrants very carefully. Most of them were already very thin. Though not to the extent of becoming ¡°skin and bones,¡± they most certainly did not have anything more to be exploited. If this migration goes on, it won¡¯t be long before a large number of people will die! He was frowning as he secretly felt worried. Just then, he noticed an ongoing conversation. A few young men were engaged in a discussion with a clergyman and a petty merchant who seemed to be a leader. ¡°Sigh! Two more died today,¡± said that petty merchant. Dejectedly, he said, ¡°People are dying every day. Even if we have doctors and priests, there is still nothing we can do¡­¡± ¡°Divinity is not omnipotent. Likewise for medicine,¡± said the clergyman as he consoled the petty merchant. ¡°Don¡¯t be too upset, you¡¯ve done your best.¡± ¡°I feel that I should be able to do much better than this,¡± said the petty merchant with a gloomy face. ¡°If I was powerful enough, so powerful that I could influence the country¡¯s policies, maybe I would be able to stop this massive migration.¡± ¡°But if that¡¯s the case, maybe there¡¯ll be a war,¡± said the clergymen. As a member of Church of the Goddess of Wealth, he was very clear on the reason for this migration. He lamented, ¡°The conflict between the merchant party and the aristocratic party has reached the point where it is poised on a hair-trigger. If there¡¯s no great migration to separate the two, I¡¯m afraid they¡¯d have been fighting one another by now.¡± The petty merchant sighed for a moment, then said, ¡°If only we were able to set up the Grand Council back then, maybe there wouldn¡¯t be so many things happening now.¡± ¡°I guess so. My god had originally hoped to get everyone to sit together and iron out any contradiction they have. Even if there are matters that can¡¯t be settled, at least resolving some of these problems would be good,¡± said the clergyman, who showed his indignation. Very angrily, he said, ¡°Those short-sighted ones! All of them are only concerned about meaningless things like ¡®how it might affect their inheritance rights,¡¯ or whether ¡®it hinders the divinity of the aristocrats.¡¯ It has never crossed their minds that if there¡¯s really a war happening and as a result, all the people are dead, who the hell would be around to claim these inheritance rights or divinity!¡± Obviously, he was inclined towards the merchant party. He did not have much affection for the aristocratic party to start with, and now, the more he spoke, the angrier he got. He went on ceaselessly, lashing out a round of criticism at the aristocratic party. The petty merchant and his entourage nodded their heads as they listened to what he had to say, as though they had been enlightened all of a sudden. Sui Xiong used his Divine Power to look inside them and realized how clear it was that they were simply putting all the blame for the suffering caused by this great migration on the selfishness and shortsightedness of the aristocratic party. He shook his head and then flew over to where the aristocratic party was. He looked around carefully, and sure enough, there were also people discussing the reason for the great migration. Just that, this side was different from the merchant party. The aristocratic party blamed the problem on the greed of the merchant party. They felt that the merchant party¡¯s unbridled and unscrupulous pursuit for wealth and status had intensified the problem and brought things to a deadlock. Otherwise, it would have been nice to see everyone leading peaceful lives! All in all, putting a thousand million words into one sentence¡ªit was the other party¡¯s fault. After he had carefully looked into the situation on both sides, Sui Xiong shook his head and sighed. Then he went to look for the Goddess of Wealth. ¡°I just went over to the migration team to take a look,¡± he said. ¡°I can¡¯t help feeling that¡­ it seems like they are still going to fight another battle!¡± Chapter 696 Hearing Sui Xiong¡¯s words, the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s expression that was quite relaxed at first, suddenly froze. ¡°Still going to fight another battle?¡± she asked with some uncertainty. ¡°Haven¡¯t they been separated? The merchant party is in the North, and the aristocratic party is in the South. When they don¡¯t even cross paths, how are they going to fight one another? Sui Xiong shook his head and said, ¡°I just came back after visiting the migration team. They still hate each other, and it¡¯s not only that. Because so many people have died during the process of migration, they are pushing the blame on one another.¡± ¡°Even if that¡¯s the case, it¡¯s not to such an extent as to go to war,¡± said the Goddess of Wealth. ¡°Anyway, they already hate each other so much in the first place. Does it even matter if they are to add on a little more hatred?¡± Sui Xiong sighed and said, ¡°You¡¯ve got to see if for yourself to understand.¡± So the Goddess of Wealth went to see things for herself. But she was still unable to find signs of war. Out of helplessness, Sui Xiong brought her to visit the God of War, Wenner. After they explained their purpose of visit, Wenner nodded right away and said, ¡°You¡¯re right. Ultimately, a major war between the aristocratic party of Commonwealth of Gold Coins in the South and the merchant party of Commonwealth of Gold Coins in the North is inevitable.¡± The Goddess of Wealth suddenly became a cat with its hackles raised and screamed, ¡°How could you do such a thing? When have I offended you!¡± Wenner looked so innocent as he said, ¡°This has got nothing to do with me. You can¡¯t say that I¡¯m the one who starts every war just because I¡¯m the God of War.¡± ¡°Then you¡¯ve got to avert this war. I can even give you a generous gift,¡± said the Goddess of Wealth with an immediate change in expression. The God of War shook his head and said, ¡°This is really beyond me. I can help to slightly reduce the scale of the war, but to stop the war¡­ I don¡¯t have this ability.¡± ¡°Why?¡± asked Sui Xiong out of curiosity. ¡°I¡¯ve recently met with the God of Plague. And he can prevent a major outbreak of plague. But why are you only able to slightly reduce the scale of a war, but not directly put an end to it?¡± Wenner, who was revered as the ¡°God of War,¡± thought about it. Then he organized what he was going to say before giving them a detailed explanation. Right from the beginning, war was never so simple as merely two groups of people fighting one another. It involved the growth and decline of various forces, as well as the countless grievances and conflicts of interests. If a war broke out because of an accidental reason, then Wenner, the God of War, certainly did have the ability to avert the war and eliminate all trace of it. But when forces, such as these two, had accumulated rancor for so long, there would have been hundreds and thousands of triggers laid for an impending war. The entire country had almost become a mega-sized powder keg that could blow up at any moment with a loud boom. And there was nothing he could do. Of course, Wenner could at least eliminate a few of these triggers and slightly delay the occurrence of an outbreak of war. But to the Goddess of Wealth, he suggested that the fight was better fought early than late. ¡°What?!¡± exclaimed the Goddess of Wealth. Upon hearing his suggestion, she almost leaped to her feet as she said, ¡°Why! What do you mean by ¡°better fought early than late¡¯?!Those are all my followers! Of course it¡¯s best not to fight! If the war must be fought, then we must continue to delay it for as long as it takes. The longer we drag on, the better it¡¯ll be!¡± The God of War sighed and said, ¡°The longer you put it off, the more tragic it¡¯ll be by the time the war starts. Even if I try my best to eliminate and put an end to this, the extent to which I can do so is very limited¡­ You¡¯ll have to figure it out.¡± He was not on very good terms with the Goddess of Wealth because of the differences in the doctrines they adhered to. The doctrine of the God of War called on his people to be courageous in the face of combat, as well as to be brave enough to start and confront a war. His doctrine also called on them to solve problems and fight for what they want by force, to protect what they valued and to pursue their dreams¡­ But the doctrine of the Goddess of Wealth called for her followers to make use of all kinds of clever means to gain wealth, accumulate wealth and use wealth. But they must remember to steer clear of danger and guarantee their own safety. The doctrines of both sides were in complete contradiction on issues pertaining to ¡°courage¡± and ¡°danger.¡± A god¡¯s doctrines would be a god¡¯s ideology, and it was difficult to achieve reconciliation for a conflict in ideologies. If not for Sui Xiong¡¯s presence, the God of War would not have spoken so courteously to the Goddess of Wealth. He had always thought well of men who could fight well. A coward like this Goddess of Wealth, who was unwilling to even fight a war, was also a Great Divine Power?! He seriously found this amusing! If not for this fellow¡¯s considerably sensible judgment in knowing how to find a backer to pull herself up, as well as to subject herself to the patronage of higher-ups, she might have been killed way earlier¡­ By the same token, the Goddess of War abhorred the God of War. She felt that the other party was a rude barbarian who knew nothing of the importance of rules and did not understand that management was the way to bring wealth. War? Plundering? Fighting one another? What else could they get other than a vast expanse of whiteness that looked nothing but clean? Being a mentally impaired barbarian who only knew how to destroy, if he had not known whether to withdraw or attack, he would not have honestly conceded defeat when he lost. In that case, he would simply have been beaten to death on the streets and become a pile of useless garbage by the roadside. These two people, oh, these two gods, had yet to reach the point where their priesthoods were in conflict and where only one could survive. But if given the chance, they would absolutely not be afraid to set traps for the other party, backstab the other party, or make use of the chance to strike when the other party had fallen. So the Goddess of Wealth clearly did not believe what the God of War said. Although she did not point it out on the spot, after they had left, she said to Sui Xiong with a sneer, ¡°This guy is truly at home with the vultures. All day long, he can just stare at the dead bodies and feed on decaying flesh!¡± ¡°Well¡­ not to that extent I guess¡­¡± ¡°He wants to fight wars every time he sees an opportunity. He¡¯s happier than anyone else whenever people die!¡± said the Goddess of Wealth. Angrily, she said, ¡°And what¡¯s that about ¡®sooner rather than later,¡¯ better fought early than late? Previously when the two forces, the merchant party and the aristocratic party, were interlocked in battle, was it the best then? This jerk really thinks I¡¯ve not seen a war before!¡± To this, Sui Xiong was rendered speechless too. When it came to fighting, he still knew a thing or two. But when it came to war, he was really just a layman. He felt that the things that the God of War, Wenner said, were quite reasonable. But the things that the Goddess of Wealth said made sense to him too¡­ However, what the two said were completely contradictory. In his frustration, he sought Leon out. From those under his command, Leon was probably the one who was most learned in the art of war. After hearing his introduction, Leon pondered for a moment. Then he said, ¡°What both gods said made sense.¡± ¡°I know what they said made sense, but why are they in conflict with one another?¡± ¡°Why are they conflicting one another? I¡¯m not too sure. But I feel that if the merchant party and the aristocratic party from Commonwealth of Gold Coins are inevitably going to war, then it¡¯s best to start the war right after the migration has been completed. Don¡¯t drag on for too long,¡± Leon said. Upon careful contemplation, Leon had some confidence in what he had said, and so, with almost absolute certainty, he said, ¡°If any earlier than that, the war situation can easily get chaotic, then there will be heavy casualties. If it is later than that, both sides would have ample time to prepare. The fight will get more intense, and thus, the number of casualties will still be just as heavy.¡± Sui Xiong nodded repeatedly and said, ¡°Yes, yes, yes! What you said makes so much sense!¡± So he made up his mind to go to the Goddess of Wealth and convey this analysis in order to tell her how to deal with the situation. Just then, he suddenly froze upon hearing a prayer. Stopping in his tracks, a playful smile appeared on that big and round green face of his, which was ¡°a face that made up his entire body.¡± ¡°Oh Leon,¡± he said. ¡°I thought I was going to receive a toast for your wedding a long time ago? But how many years has it been! How much longer do you intend to let this drag on?¡± Chapter 697 Of course, Sui Xiong would not mention this suddenly for no reason. Because just then, he received a prayer from Kalisa. Generally speaking, when Sui Xiong¡¯s followers pray to him, a majority of them were eulogies, while most of the remaining were prayers for blessings¡ªeveryone knew how powerful the Void Mask was and also knew how protective he was over his followers. So it was most practical to pray to him for blessings. As for the last handful of people, they were generally praying for wisdom or wealth. After all, His Majesty, the Void Mask, was a famous, wise man. He was also regarded as a great fortune god whose ability to earn money was only second to the Goddess of Wealth. However, Kalisa prayed to Sui Xiong for something very different from the rest. She prayed for Leon to have a small workload so that he could spend more time with her. This wish was perfectly reasonable. As Leon¡¯s girlfriend, she was well qualified to put up such a request. Sui Xiong had intended to give his approval directly, but he suddenly thought of another matter. Leon and Kalisa were definitely in a relationship. It had already been more than 20 years, but up till now, the two were still not married! When he thought of this, he suddenly felt a deep groove in his heart. And he wanted to break into a cold sweat, where the beads of sweat would be enough to form a drop of sweat that was as big as a human¡¯s fist. How could he have neglected such a big thing! Carefully thinking in retrospect, Leon had followed him for more than 50 years. Back then, he was in his early 30s, and now he was already over 80. Kalisa was about 14 or 15 years younger, and now she was already past 60. The two of them had known each other for more than 50 years. A short 50 years meant nothing much to the two of them as they had such long lives that were comparable to that of dragons and such. But for Kalisa to spend almost half a century waiting, this was genuinely not something nice to do! A woman¡¯s youth was fleeting. Even for those long-lived species, their bodies could be spared from aging, but mentally, it was difficult to remain young. Because Sui Xiong had spent a thousand years in a trench to cultivate himself in solitary retreat, his mental state had become a little problematic, causing him to lose sensitivity to time. Regarding various matters, so long as he felt that they were not important, he would toss them to the back of his mind. Putting them off for a decade or two certainly did not amount to much¡ªanyway, they were not important matters, waiting for their turn did not matter. It was certainly hard for him to think about how this period of ¡°waiting¡± could directly cause a party to wait an entire lifetime. This was the case for Kalisa and Leon¡¯s marriage. Because both the man and woman were long-lived beings, he did not put this matter to heart. He had always thought that Leon would propose sooner or later. Sui Xiong had never thought that even though he had never set a commandment like ¡°clergymen were not to marry,¡± which was actually in violation of the natural law of discipline, Leon still adhered to it with self-discipline. Being the Archbishop of the Church of the Void Mask, Leon was a true-blue clergyman. So even if he had long determined that he was in a relationship with Kalisa, he had never thought of getting married to her. In the course of time, this dragged on for decades. After Sui Xiong grasped a clear understanding of the situation. He felt guilty and at the same time, and he did not know whether to cry or laugh. ¡°You really think too much!¡± he said with a bitter laugh. ¡°If you want to get married, just do it. Why the need to procrastinate? Still considering your capacity as a clergyman¡­ Clergymen can¡¯t get married? Even gods can marry, so why can¡¯t clergymen? Don¡¯t be influenced by the misconceptions of the past. Do what you should do! ¡°What? You said that it¡¯s a bad influence? People are going to gossip? Bah! You are the archbishop of the Church of the Void Mask! Who am I? I¡¯m the Void Mask myself! You want to get married; I approve of it. Who dares to gossip? Whoever wants to gossip, ask him to come forth, I¡¯ll beat the hell out of him so that even his mother won¡¯t recognize him! ¡°Alright, alright, don¡¯t you worry anymore! Consider the matter settled! I¡¯ll make the arrangements for your wedding ceremony. This time, we¡¯ll make it a very big deal. We¡¯ll hold an extremely large-scale ceremony and let the entire Main Plane know. We must let the entire world know! I¡¯ll visit the Goddess of Love and the Goddess of Family in a while to persuade them to give you their blessings at your wedding. What? You say these two goddesses are at odds with one another? If they¡¯re not on friendly terms with one another, that¡¯s their own business. If they¡¯re unwilling to help, that will mean they want to strain their relationship with me! I¡¯ll just tell them this, friends or foes, the choice is theirs! ¡°Alright, rest assured. I¡¯m so powerful that I won¡¯t be taken advantage of. What? You¡¯re not worried that I¡¯ll be at a loss, but worried that I¡¯ll kill those two goddesses? Hey! Do I look like a murderous man to you? That I¡¯ll kill someone over such a small matter¡­ My image is that bad! Don¡¯t look at me with prejudice!¡± Sui Xiong had been going on for a long time. Seeing how Leon was still filled with concern, he sighed deeply and gave Leon a pat on the shoulder. Then he said, ¡°In short, you can just relieve yourself of all the worries, as well as concerns and wait to be a bridegroom. Leave all the other things to me.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll really be worried if I leave things to you¡­¡± ¡°Throughout the years, was there anything that I¡¯ve not done a good job at? The whole world praises me for being a jellyfish sage with both wisdom and courage; what is there about me for you to worry about!¡± ¡°But your unreliability is equally well-known,¡± Leon said worriedly. ¡°I can remember how many strange and bizarre things you have done over the years¡­ you aren¡¯t thinking about turning my wedding into anything like those, are you?¡± ¡°How is that possible!¡± shouted Sui Xiong in rage. He was so angry that his tentacles were flying all over the place. ¡°Do I look like someone so unreliable?¡± Leon laughed, but he made no reply. So Sui Xiong left in a huff. He secretly swore that he must do such a marvelous job that no one would be able to nitpick on anything! However, in less than ten minutes, he changed his mind. An archbishop of a church getting married was a major event. This could only be seen on the Main Plane once every umpteen years. If he did not make big news out of it, would he be doing justice to himself? Would he be doing justice to Leon? Imagine this, thousands of years later, when everything became history, would people still remember an ordinary wedding? Or would they remember an earth-shattering wedding? Obviously, it would be the latter! As a person, Leon was a little low-key. But being his boss, Sui Xiong felt that he had an obligation to help Leon leave his name in history. And it was not just leaving behind a biography of an emperor or king, general or minister, but also leaving behind many popular folktales. Then that would be considered perfect. Was it not obvious when a few people would remember the achievements of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in ancient China as they fought battles throughout the length and breadth of the country? On the contrary, people like Shen Nong, who tasted a hundred types of herbs or Huangdi, who had 3,000 imperial concubines were widely known by all. The best way to be remembered by the future generations was to make big news out of such events! He could not help laughing at the thought of this. After a good laugh, he used his tentacles to scratch his head, feeling as though he had forgotten something. What was it? ¡°Forget it! However major it is, it can¡¯t be more important than our family¡¯s brother¡¯s wedding!¡± said Sui Xiong. He was an open-minded person, so he was able to toss anything that he could not remember to the back of his mind very quickly. Then, he focused his concentration on how he should design Leon¡¯s wedding. As for the Goddess of Wealth, who was filled with worry over whether the merchant party and aristocratic party would really fight¡­ Sui Xiong had forgotten all about it. Most artists¡¯ ways of thinking followed a single-thread model. Even becoming a jellyfish was no exception. Chapter 698 Leon was getting married. After Sui Xiong returned to his God¡¯s Kingdom, he announced this news immediately. There was great joy in the God¡¯s Kingdom. Everyone was jubilated. Naturally, Sui Xiong¡¯s followers knew who Leon was. All these years, under the leadership of this archbishop, the Church of the Void Mask had been flourishing and developing. From a subpar grass-root unit put together at random, the church had progressed to one with tens of thousands of clergymen. Its power had spread to various big cities on the Main Plane, and it had even extended its tentacles to reach out to large organizations between towns and villages in the countryside. Not only that, but Leon was also a world-renowned peerless master who was known as ¡°King of the Seaside¡± and ¡°Blade Master.¡± He was practically the most powerful ¡°human¡± in the world today. If it were not for his one-man show in wielding his sword to subdue the Orc Army, the battle of ¡°Sun¡¯s Death Day¡± would never have ended with an outcome of both sides being defeated and wounded. It would be a crushing defeat for the humans and an utter destruction of Eagle Kingdom. And Leon was a well-known mentor. Over the years, the number of warriors who had achieved breakthroughs to enter the Legendary Realm under his tutelage was as many as ten. He was also a renowned sage. He had led a group of refugees who were almost homeless in re-building Garth City, which was in ruins after being implicated in a war of the gods. Garth City was re-established into the most prosperous commercial city along the eastern coast of the Main Plane. It had even joined hands with many neighboring cities to be and seemed to have gained momentum in prevailing over the Kingdom of the Blue Moon. Such a figure like him would naturally earn the people¡¯s respect and love. Even though these followers in the God¡¯s Kingdom had all undergone a round of death, upon learning that Leon was getting married, everyone still danced in joy. There were many who expressed their wish to hold a celebration. ¡°Of course, we must celebrate!¡± said Sui Xiong with a huge smile. ¡°Not only must we celebrate, but we must also make it a very grand and extraordinary celebration, it must be earth-shattering! A celebration that will draw the attention of the world! A celebration that will go down in history!¡± So the followers cheered with joy again. For a moment, there was an uproar in the God¡¯s Kingdom, as though the atmosphere was heated up to the boiling point. The sounds of cheering could even snuff out the sounds of artillery fire at drilling districts. ¡°What¡¯s going on over there?¡± asked Lion, who was leading a group of destroying Oracles on an attack job. He stopped in his tracks. Out of puzzlement, he turned over to look, but he could not see anything. After a while, the Oracles who were originally fighting forcefully had completely ceased fire. The mass-produced Oracles rested, while the elite Oracles were gathered and mobilized to come and find out what was going on. Even a random Oracle who liked to hide in her room to read was dragged all the way here against her wishes by her unscrupulous sister. ¡°I¡¯m not the least bit interested in what the excitement is about!¡± ¡°No! If you coop yourself at home all day long, you¡¯ll start to grow mushrooms!¡± ¡°I just got off the battlefield!¡± ¡°Then all the more you should move about. You should strike a proper balance between work and leisure.¡± ¡°Let me rest!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not too late to rest after watching the excitement!¡± So noisily, a big group of Oracles came to the residential district of the followers and saw several people beating the drums merrily. Next to them, there were people hitting and sounding the gong. There were even people who took their copper basins from home and hit these basins with rolling pins acting as their drumsticks. Loud bangs were produced. Along with these banging sounds, there were people who were singing and dancing. Those who were singing were out of pitch and out of tune, while those who were dancing seemed to be a group of demons dancing in riotous revelry. The young ladies were struck dumb by what they saw, wondering if they had walked to the wrong place. Influenced by Sui Xiong, his followers were also a little laid-back. Especially those who had died once, all the more they were like those ¡°break free of all restrictions¡± monsters found in Japanese anime. They were completely unrestrained, laughing when they wanted to or creating trouble when they felt like doing so. They had never forced themselves to put up with anything. Anyway, the God¡¯s Kingdom was rich in resources. Foods, drinks and necessities were never lacking. Just squandering a little of it, why not? So¡­ The Archbishop was getting married? Oh yeah! Bravo! Celebrate! Celebrate! They had to celebrate this well! As to why the means of celebration was through hitting gongs, beating drums, singing and dancing¡­? The people were happy that day! Amidst the noise and commotion, the leader of the team of elite Oracles, Le, found an old man. He seemed to be of a gentler disposition and was just sitting on a stool with a wine glass in his hands. He was laughing and drinking his wine as he watched the excitement. Le went up to the old man to ask about the exact situation. ¡°Ah, the young lady Oracles. You all have come to join in the celebration? Oh, are you asking why we are celebrating? Because our archbishop is getting married.¡± The Oracles naturally knew who the archbishop was, but they did not feel that there was anything worth celebrating about the archbishop¡¯s wedding. From their perspective, the archbishop was no longer young. Setting up a family was a matter of course. On the contrary, they were a little surprised about the length of time that the wedding had been put off up till now. ¡°That archbishop is quite handsome. He¡¯s also rich, fights well and very talented. Why wait till now to get a wife?¡± ¡°Could it be he set his expectations too high?¡± ¡°Possible¡­ but no matter how demanding he is, it shouldn¡¯t drag on till now.¡± ¡°Does it make any sense for you all to be guessing away like this? You just need to find out who that lady is.¡± So Le went over to the old man again. But this time, that old man could not answer her. The truth was, the followers were clueless about who Leon was going to marry. Because Sui Xiong had forgotten to tell them. He had only spoken half a sentence when the crowd began to rejoice and celebrate. So he joined in the celebration and forgot all about the second half of the sentence. The Oracles approached as many as a hundred followers but were unable to find out who Leon was going to marry. Then Lion struck upon a bright idea and went to ask Crick. Finally, she got the name, ¡°Kalisa Riley.¡± ¡°Kalisa Riley, who¡¯s that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Madam, I have no idea too.¡± ¡°Those who don¡¯t know anything, just shut up! Those who know something, speak up!¡± Complete silence. ¡°Hello! Could it be that no one here knows anything?¡± After a while, the pink-haired Oracle, who had been dragged into joining this group activity, said, ¡°I know. She¡¯s the city lord of Garth City, the heir to the Riley family who was the original founder of the city. She is also said to be the most beautiful woman on the East Coast. At the beginning, she was known as the ¡®Flower of the East Sea,¡¯ then later, she was called the ¡®Vase¡¯ for a while. Later on, because she never seemed to age, she was given the name of the ¡®Everlasting Flower.''¡± ¡°Wow! You actually knew all these details?! Where did you get all this from?¡± ¡°Reading books.¡± ¡°What book would mention this!¡± ¡°Mr. Schwarier von Stolovsky Franz¡¯s Heroes mentioned it. She is Leon Igor¡¯s lover, and it was because of her that Leon would go to the harbor alone to stop the invasion of the sea people. And later on, she was also the reason why Leon would stay in Garth City to help with the city construction¡­¡± ¡°This girl is so lucky!¡± ¡°Maybe she¡¯s really beautiful?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure she¡¯s not as pretty as you, my sister!¡± Amidst all the messy conversations, Lion sighed deeply, then asked, ¡°Since you already knew, why didn¡¯t you say so earlier?¡± ¡°Too tired.¡± Lion hung her head low and listlessly walked over to Le. ¡°Let me ask you a question.¡± ¡°Go ahead.¡± ¡°How did you use to lead the team? I feel that these team members are simply too unreliable!¡± ¡°Just get used to it.¡± In the face of this fantasy-type Oracle, who had almost been appointed to take over her position as the front-line commander, the original Oracle smiled and said, ¡°When you can get used to laughing and playing around with them, then in times where you¡¯re unable to rely on one another, you won¡¯t have any problems.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the biggest problem of all!¡± Chapter 699 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Because he was busy with another matter now, Sui Xiong did not care about the Oracles¡¯ little stage. He was headed for Sorrow-Proof Field to visit the Goddess of Love and the Goddess of Family. Sorrow-Proof Field was a massive world located at the front of the Ring of the World. This was a world that was eternally enveloped in warm light and intoxicating, gentle breeze. This allowed the people to forget all their worries and sorrow. There were many kinds of creatures living here. They led simple and happy lives, like a piece of pure, white paper. In this world, more than one religion believed that so long as living creatures with intelligence focused on doing good when they were alive, they would have the opportunity to be reincarnated to the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World after death. Such an idea was naturally one-sided. Living creatures with intelligence being reincarnated after death was a situation rarely seen. Generally, this could only happen if there was intervention by the gods, demons, or at least masters at the legendary level. Not only was powerful divinity required to allow souls to reincarnate from the Matter Plane to the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World, there was also the need to carry out dissection on the soul itself to cut away the parts that were not suitable for the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World. Otherwise, even if the souls that barely made the mark were sent over to the Positive Plane, they would lack protection. Then because they were unable to adapt to the surrounding environment, they would fall into weakness and very soon, they would self-destruct. The Positive Plane of the Ring of the World was a world of pure good. Living creatures that grew up in the Matter Plane where good and evil were interlaced would never be able to adapt to the environment over there. This was like the souls of the dead. If they had not gone through a special baptism, they would not be able to fall into the Negative Plane of the Ring of the World. So the Judgement of Hell could be considered as just¡ªwith judgment and punishment, the negative parts of the souls would be continuously removed until they were completely cleared. Then the souls could go back to the River Styx to be reclassified and start on a new cycle. As for the negative parts that had been removed, naturally, they would fall back into the Negative Plane of the Ring of the World and be integrated as a part of the Negative Plane. Speaking of which, it was interesting to know that to reincarnate to the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World from this world, the most reliable route was in fact, to go to hell. A trip to hell would completely rid one¡¯s soul of all negative elements. Then through a Transportation Portal found in hell, a soul could go straight into the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World. Though hell was usually for punishing evil, there were times where those in hell would also help the good creatures to complete their baptism and then send them to the destination that best suited them. Sui Xiong rode in the gentle breeze and galloped among the flowers, verdure and all kinds of fruit trees that could be found within Sorrow-Proof Field. If he were to fly so fast while in the Main Plane, he would have whipped up such a strong gust of wind that the flowers and grass would be uprooted. But here, no matter how fast he flew, his powerful strength would still be influenced by the rules of this world itself and be completely dispersed into colorful light spots without hurting anything. From a distance, it would just seem like a green jellyfish skimming through the sky, leaving behind a beautiful rainbow. Many living creatures on the ground who saw such a scene started laughing merrily. Even Sui Xiong who noticed it later could not help laughing too. ¡°Doesn¡¯t it mean that I¡¯m flying on a rainbow? How amusing! No wonder, back when the various good gods came to send their congratulations, they were collectively stepping on rainbows to come over¡­ So it¡¯s just their habit.¡± Soon, he arrived at the palace of the Goddess of Love, which was a wonderful place known as the ¡°Flame of Passion.¡± There were no walls and no roofs in this palace. It was completely made up of burning flames. However, these flames had not the slightest lethality against living creatures that did not come with malice. They would only feel the warmth of these flames, as though it was hot air warmed up to a suitable temperature. And if anyone came here with love and passion, they could control these flames effortlessly, as though the flames had become a part of them. There was no problem at all, whether one wanted the flames to become a house, a piece of furniture, or food and drinking water. It could even become a beautiful lady or a strong man, and of course, a strong lady or beautiful man was possible too¡­ Although the Goddess of Love welcomed all visitors, Sui Xiong did not barge into her palace hastily. He stopped at the doorstep of the Flame of Passion and sent a message to make known his arrival. A moment later, the flames before him parted right and left to make way for a wide avenue. The trees that lined both sides of the avenue provided shade while flowers bloomed like a brocade. There were many men and women engaged in merry conversation as they strolled amidst the flowers and trees. There was also an extremely long fountain that coursed through the entire avenue, separating it into the left and right sides. The avenue was void of anything except for a bright red figure that was slowly approaching. That figure was none other than the Goddess of Love. This goddess was also known as the ¡°Queen of Flames.¡± She usually liked to take the form of a burning ball of flames, but at this moment, she had appeared in a human form as a sign of respect. She had long hair that looked like burning flames, and yet was a cascade of long and silky locks. Seeing her appearance, Sui Xiong could not help but recall the time where he had helped create a knockoff game before he traversed worlds. There was a character that he created by imitating those found in Japanese anime. Her clothes were also burning, like flames made into a piece of garment and then woven into her body. But different from the burning hair and clothes, her skin was white like snow. The snow-white skin and bright-red flames formed a strong contrast and revealed a subtle charm. Sui Xiong unconsciously gave a thumbs-up and a word of compliment. ¡°Beautiful!¡± Since the moment he traversed worlds to the present, there were not many gods whose aesthetics could win his admiration. The Goddess of Love was one of the few. The Goddess of Love smiled, but she did not feel proud about Sui Xiong¡¯s compliment¡ªprobably to her, receiving compliments was a matter of course. On the contrary, it would be strange for her not to be praised. ¡°Your Majesty, the Void Mask, what is the matter that made you come looking for me?¡± she did not beat about the bush and asked directly in a straightforward manner. Sui Xiong showed no hypocrisy and directly clarified his purpose of visit. He said, ¡°I have a follower. He¡¯s the archbishop of my church, and his name is Leon Igor. All these years, he and another follower of mine, Kalisa Riley, have been in love with each other. I want to hold a grand wedding for them, and I hope that they can have your blessings.¡± The Goddess of Love did not answer him immediately. First, she lowered her head and silently pondered for a while. Sui Xiong knew that she was checking whether Leon and Kalisa were truly in love with each other by means of her power. After a while, she raised her head, and her face was full of smiles. ¡°Very well, they love each other,¡± she said. ¡°In this case, I should give them my blessing. Every loving couple can ask me to bestow them my blessings. It¡¯s my duty to give them blessings for eternal love.¡± Sui Xiong also laughed. After laughing, he added, ¡°But then¡­ I also intend to invite the Goddess of Family to give them her blessings. She can bless them with an everlasting marriage and a happy life together.¡± The Goddess of Love frowned and said, ¡°If the Flame of Love burns out, that marriage will not continue.¡± This was the fundamental difference between her and the Goddess of Family. The Goddess of Love believed that the pursuit of ¡°love¡± was sacrosanct. If a husband and wife no longer loved each other, then whether they broke up or found another person to love, they should be lauded. On the other hand, the Goddess of Family felt that a family itself was sacred. Unless both parties had some fundamental conflicts that were irreconcilable, they should put up with their chagrins to protect the family. As to ¡°finding someone new¡± and such, those people simply deserved to be hung and burned to death alive! Because of this reason, though the two goddesses lived on the Sorrow-Proof Field, they had never shared an amicable relationship. They had even fought one another more than once. Sui Xiong wanted to invite the two of them to Leon¡¯s wedding ceremony at the same time so that they could bless Leon and Kalisa together. But that was no easy feat. Chapter 700 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The relationship between the Goddess of Love and the Goddess of Family was not good, and this was something that almost all the gods knew. Naturally, Sui Xiong would also have known long ago. But he had not expected the relationship between the two of them to only be as simple as ¡°not good.¡± It was simply the worst! At the beginning, the Goddess of Love was courteous and smiling, but the moment she heard that he wanted to invite the Goddess of Family to bless Leon together, her attitude suddenly changed. She raised her eyebrows in anger and spoke in a cold tone. Sui Xiong saw her change in attitude and hurriedly say, ¡°I know it¡¯s toilsome for you to make a trip, so I¡¯ve prepared a generous gift. It¡¯s a beautiful gem that came from the inner space of the Main Plane. It¡¯s definitely perfect for decorating your palace. It¡¯s a magical object that has such great powers that it can make your Oracles even mightier. It also has a lot of Divine Power¡­¡± ¡°Please go back. I won¡¯t go,¡± said the Goddess of Love as she interrupted him coldly. ¡°Ah? You don¡¯t think it¡¯s enough? I can add¡­¡± Sui Xiong quickly added. With a loud rumble, the flames before him directly transformed into doors that were shut tightly, locking him out. ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t be in such a rush to reject me! Let¡¯s talk about it again!¡± Sui Xiong shouted. However, there was only silence from inside the ¡°Flame of Passion.¡± There was no answer at all. Being shown to the door and asked to leave, Sui Xiong stood at the doorstep for a while in a daze. He thought about it and finally decided¡ªToday, I shall not be a civilized person! Negotiating is pointless? I shall use my tricks! So he turned himself into a gigantic green jellyfish that was much bigger than the ¡°Flame of Passion.¡± Spreading all his tentacles, he surrounded the entire ¡°Flame of Passion¡± and put on a ¡°I¡¯ll seal your house if you don¡¯t give me your promise¡± stance. Of course, this made the Goddess of Love furious. But there was nothing she could do. Fight? With her skinny arms and calves, there was no way she could possibly win against Sui Xiong in a fight¡ªif Sui Xiong were to get serious, it was highly possible that he could kill her within a second. Debate? The priesthood and realm of the Goddess of Love did not contain anything related to wisdom. On the contrary, there was a ¡°foolish¡± realm¡ªthe so-called ¡°love makes fools¡± was not just empty talk in this world. Or at least, the Goddess of Love herself was indeed a tad bit foolish. Seek help? She had contacted a few gods who had pretty good relationships with her, but when they learned the whole story, not a single one would lend a helping hand. On the contrary, they were quick to advise her not to be difficult and not to sulk over it. There were even friends who commented, ¡°You are being a little unreasonable.¡± For Christ¡¯s sake! When did they ever find her being unreasonable! Why must she go with that detestable Goddess of Family to bless this pair of newly-weds? The one who made this suggestion was the one truly being unreasonable! Because of this, she quarreled with her friends. The quarrel only ceased when the Goddess of Joy, who had high prestige among this group of gods, came forth to stop them. After putting the quarrel among the gods to rest, the Goddess of Joy looked at the Goddess of Love, who was still hopping mad and asked, ¡°According to your priesthood, should you be sending blessings to a pair of lovers who have been in love with one another for many years are finally getting married? ¡°Of course, I should,¡± replied the Goddess of Love immediately. ¡°Since you should, then why should you refuse to do so because of some other reason?¡± the Goddess of Joy asked again. The Goddess of Love froze in a moment of surprise. She was rendered speechless. But still, she refused to relent. She was determined to show how unwilling she was to ¡°work together¡± with the Goddess of Family. To this, the Goddess of Joy was at her wits¡¯ end too. She could only pay Sui Xiong a visit personally and try to dissuade him. However, she had just opened her mouth to speak when Sui Xiong began complaining first. ¡°I¡¯m just asking her to help bless my archbishop!¡± he said angrily. ¡°By right, with Leon and Kalisa being in love with one another, plus their identities, asking the Goddess of Love for a blessing is not asking too much, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not too much.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not just engaging in empty talk and being absurd by finding someone for help. So long as the Goddess of Love is willing to make a trip down and give her blessings, whatever conditions she has, just name it! Wealth and gems, Divine Power, anything. Even if she wants a demigod monster as a pet, I can also catch one for her!¡± Sui Xiong said loudly. ¡°But you see, she won¡¯t help at all, not even a little help! Don¡¯t you think she¡¯s being too much?¡± ¡°She is¡­ a little too much,¡± said the Goddess of Joy. She hesitated for a while, and finally, she had to agree with this point. ¡°We¡¯re all good gods, so we have to be reasonable in doing things. Even if she doesn¡¯t like the Goddess of Family, there should be something she likes. Even if she doesn¡¯t give me face, at least give my rewards some face, right? But you see, what¡¯s this supposed to mean!¡± said Sui Xiong. The more he spoke, the angrier he got. White gas was spouting out of his enormous head with a roaring sound as though his head was smoking. The Goddess of Joy was at a loss too. Of course, she knew that this time around, the Goddess of Love was being mean and unkind. But she was also helpless in the face of this Goddess of Love, who would maintain her obstinance to the end. ¡°Why don¡¯t you go and have a talk with the Goddess of Family. Maybe if you manage to get things to work out on the other side, this side will also relent,¡± suggested the Goddess of Joy. Out of desperation, she could only suggest such a strategy to gain respite. Regardless of whether the Void Mask was able to persuade the Goddess of Family, he should at least release his siege of the ¡°Flame of Passion¡± prior to anything else. Sui Xiong thought carefully and felt that this seemed to make sense. Was there any use in staying here to block the Goddess of Love¡¯s way? He was still uncertain about the Goddess of Family¡¯s stance. Why not go over to the Family of Goddess¡¯ place to sound her out first? Who knows, maybe things will go smoothly over there¡­ So with a flash of green light from his body, he turned back into his usual form, which was a planktonic jellyfish that was half a human¡¯s height. Then, he left straight away after thanking the Goddess of Joy. When he had gone far, the Goddess of Joy sighed and shook her head. Then she walked back into the ¡°Flame of Passion,¡± whose doors were no longer closed. She decided to have a good talk with the Goddess of Love before that stubborn little cow unwittingly got into trouble. Where they could have originally become friends, she must become enemies instead. This was no longer a matter of being stupid or not! Sui Xiong sped all the way and soon arrived at the Goddess of Family¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom, the ¡°Garden of Knots.¡± This God¡¯s Kingdom was not located within the Sorrow-Proof Field, but neither was it far from it. If the distance was based on the gods¡¯ journey by foot, it could almost be considered a neighbor. Assuming the palace of the Goddess of Joy, which was located right in the center of Sorrow-Proof Field, the Garden of Knots was probably in the suburbs. It would be a place where the buses that coursed through the ring roads would pass by. Confronted by Sui Xiong¡¯s sudden visit, the Goddess of Family also expressed her welcome. What delighted him more was that when he broached the subject of wanting to invite the Goddess of Family together with the Goddess of Love to bless Leon and Kalisa, the Goddess of Family did not reject him or fly into a rage right away. Instead, she bowed her head and fell into deep contemplation. She thought it over carefully for a long time before saying, ¡°Personally, I don¡¯t wish to appear together with a bad woman who has no respect for family order or who even encourage the breaking up of family. However, there are many things in life that we must endure in the first place. It¡¯s just like how couples usually have to put up with some of each other¡¯s shortcomings and inadequacies after marriage, and then force themselves into a slight conformation. For the sake of fulfilling my duty, I can put up with it for a while.¡± Sui Xiong was greatly delighted and could not help laughing. He said, ¡°You¡¯re exactly what a god should be like. That goddess is simply way out of line!¡± The Goddess of Family raised her brows and her face, which was very virtuous though not quite beautiful, revealed a doubtful expression. She said, ¡°That goddess? You¡¯ve met with the Queen of Fire (the Goddess of Love)?¡± Sui Xiong nodded and recounted his experience at the Flame of Passion. When she learned that he had blocked the doors of the Goddess of Love¡¯s palace for several days, and only left for the time being after the Goddess of Joy¡¯s persuasion, the Goddess of Family could not help laughing. She said, ¡°It seems like you may have to continue blocking her door.¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± Sui Xiong said. When that obstinate Goddess of Love, who shut everyone out, came to mind, Sui Xiong could not help but sigh deeply. ¡°How could that person be so unreasonable!¡± Initially, the Goddess of Family wanted to say something, but then she shook her head and kept her peace. As a well-bred lady, she did not wish to say things that were too unpleasant behind someone else¡¯s back, nor did she want to make any vicious curse. Even in the face of the Goddess of Love, whom she abhorred, she would maintain the status quo. ¡°In short, I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be there on time,¡± she said as she stood up to see her visitor out. ¡°Please rest assured!¡± So despite having left for less than half a day, Sui Xiong was back to the Flame of Passion. He transformed back into a huge jellyfish to block its doors again. Chapter 701 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Goddess of Love sat on the seat warmed by the fire and glanced at the patch of green above her angrily. It was a colossal green jellyfish, and it was currently stretching. Such a movement made it look like it was engulfing the entire kingdom. Previously, with a flash of inspiration, she had tried to manipulate her God¡¯s Kingdom and escape but was self-defeated. Sui Xiong had simply enlarged his body to wrap the entire kingdom, reaching his many tentacles outwards to add layers on the outside, making the kingdom look like a wrapped dumpling! From afar, it looked like this large jellyfish had swallowed the entire kingdom into his stomach and was ready to demolish and digest it all. ¡°Stop being stubborn, look at the situation now!¡± His good friend, the Goddess of Lavender, was equally affected and sighed. ¡°Thank goodness the Void Mask has a good temper; if he had been bad-tempered, you¡¯d have been doomed a long time ago!¡± ¡°Yes, we have to be reasonable. This job was yours to begin with. He is a strong spirit but was willing to negotiate with you politely and offer a big pay-out. He merely invited you to take a walk and talk¡ªthat wasn¡¯t hard at all! Instead, you chose to be ridiculous¡­. Honestly, if it were me, I¡¯d have destroyed your God¡¯s Kingdom and seized prisoners long ago!¡± Another god with similar sentiments, the Goddess of Fortune, chided the Goddess of Love. ¡°Yes, consider the situation from his perspective! If he were you, could you have been so controlled and calm?¡± The Goddess of Joy asked as she glanced sternly at the Goddess of Love. The Goddess of Love was speechless, and she chose to shrivel up her body into a ball of fire, rolling around the floor as she laughed in a strange fashion. This was the tactic that she always employed as a defense mechanism whenever her friends were debating with her and she was about to lose. The Goddess of Fortune boiled with rage but was unable to do anything further. All her friends knew that once the Goddess of Love used such a tactic, she would momentarily become unfeeling. If you tried to converse with her at this point, it would be futile. Even hitting her or throwing her into an ice mountain to freeze wouldn¡¯t elicit any response. To put it bluntly, it was her way of throwing a childish temper tantrum. ¡°Sometimes, I really feel like beating her up. The fact that she hasn¡¯t been beaten up by anyone yet in her life is a miracle in itself!¡± The Goddess of Fortune muttered angrily to herself. The Goddess of Joy sighed and gestured above her as she said, ¡°Maybe she¡¯ll really receive a beating in the near future.¡± Looking at the body of the giant jellyfish above her, the Goddess of Lavender shivered and asked in a low voice, ¡°Do you think¡­ he knows everything that happens in this place?¡± ¡°Probably! If it were me, I would definitely probe fully till the internal workings of the kingdom¡ªat the very least, I know I would be able to penetrate the Flame of Passion. The Void Mask¡¯s power is stronger than mine. If I can do it, he definitely can do it,¡± the Goddess of Joy replied. Upon hearing this, the Goddess of Lavender¡¯s worry increased, and she asked tentatively, ¡°Then¡­ wouldn¡¯t he notice us right now?¡± The Goddess of Joy smiled and said, ¡°Stop imagining things and scaring yourself! He¡¯s so busy, where would he find time to notice us? Do you know how big the Church of the Void Mask is? Do you know how many followers he has? Furthermore, he has many other things to do¡­ among the gods, even if he isn¡¯t the busiest, he is definitely one of the busiest few.¡± ¡°Yet in the end, this busy man managed to surround the Flame of Passion for a month!¡± The Goddess of Fortune had piped up. The Goddess of Joy was momentarily stunned, and she froze for a long time before sighing. ¡°When this bastard wakes up, I¡¯m going to give her a severe beating!¡± She turned and saw the Goddess of Love still rolling around in a ball of fire making ¡°hehehe¡± noises and felt infuriated. ¡°Count me in!¡± the Goddess of Fortune agreed with a malicious tone. A second later, the Goddess of Lavender also agreed with a low tone. The Goddess of Love was often unreliable when it came to handling tasks, and such irresponsibility angered her friends. As such, they had built up their mountain of grudges over time. If there was a chance, they would love to beat her up till she was unconscious. Of course, they would still band together to save her if there were any real problems despite any grudges or grievances. This was how their clique of gods worked and how they displayed their friendship. At the end of the day, ranting and staying angry wasn¡¯t going to resolve the problem. Therefore, in the end, the Goddess of Joy took the initiative to approach Sui Xiong to discuss the issue and attempt to calm him down. In reality, all the goddesses were extremely afraid that Sui Xiong would destroy the Flame of Passion with the Goddess of Love inside if he had gotten too angry. Based on his previous experience of crushing the Alliance of Evil Gods, his tremendous power would mean that doing so now would mean little to him. Furthermore, after the doings of the Goddess of Love, her being beaten to death would also come as no surprise to the rest. This was similar to Earth where many dignified countries¡¯ heads of state wanted to take a group photograph with many well-known technological companies¡¯ CEOS and the latter had refused to. Instead of just politely rejecting the offer, they had kicked the heads of state out of the company angrily. In the end, the bodyguards of both sides became at odds with each other, and no one could negotiate with reason to stop the violence. As people, one had to learn to be less arrogant! However, imparting such logic to the Goddess of Love was useless as the silly girl was extremely unreasonable and unreceptive in a conflict. ¡°In any case, we hope you¡¯ll be understanding of us. We¡¯ll try our best to talk her down.¡± Looking at the Gods speaking to him in such a courteous and desperate way, Sui Xiong felt awkward and signaled his agreement by nodding his head repeatedly. After all, he was not an unreasonable person. When he met people with little to no logic, he usually used violence to get his way. However, in this case, against goddesses who were unwilling to partake in violence, he felt rather stuck. The Goddess of Love acted like she wasn¡¯t afraid of anything, and this was probably because she was extremely unwilling to work with the Goddess of Family. Towards this, Sui Xiong was helpless¡ªhe did not intend to destroy the kingdom or send the Goddess of Love to the wedding venue. This was not his style. The Goddess of Joy was also extremely courteous to him and constantly apologized even for minor issues, putting him in a tight spot. The Goddess of Joy had decently strong powers and was ranked third in the Pantheon temple. Thus, this increased his humility towards her polite mannerisms. If not for his promise to make Leon and Kalisa¡¯s wedding a spectacular one, he would have abandoned ship completely at this point in time; now, that was not an option anymore. In this world, even the most extravagant weddings could only request the presence of either the Goddess of Family or the Goddess of Love to give blessings, where the former was more popular. To allow the wedding to go down in history and remembered for a long time, both goddesses¡¯ joint attendance was the most crucial factor as that would be what made it special. After all, for it to be memorable and to be a tale that could be passed down, the wedding had to have something significant rather than just outlandish d¨¦cor. To accomplish this, Sui Xiong didn¡¯t mind biding his time, even if he had to stay here for a few more months. Chapter 702 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°It¡¯s already been three months, and he is still blocking the entrance. The Void Mask is really rather patient and determined!¡± The Hyacinth Goddess sighed. Upon hearing this, the Clover Goddess sneered and replied, ¡°Everyone knows the Void Mask protects the marginalized. Previously, when the God of Storms ordered the sea people to kill Leon, the Void Mask killed two gods in anger, and the whole pantheon was extremely shocked. Afterwards, many of his biggest wars were also to protect his own people. In particular, the battle with the Alliance of Evil gods as well as the Fear God system was also to take care of his subordinates. Being such a person, it comes as no surprise that he is standing his ground in a situation like this.¡± The gods all nodded in agreement. All along, Sui Xiong had been known for doing things with his heart, although not without reason, and going all out, especially for those who he wanted to protect. Furthermore, he was in the right in this situation; thus, he would definitely not back down easily. This whole problem was the Goddess of Love¡¯s fault. ¡°I think you should just put away your pride and accommodate him in this matter. Looking at his current stance, I can bet you that he¡¯d be willing to wait not just three months or three years but maybe even thirty years¡­. As long as you refuse to accede his request, he will continue to bide his time for the next hundred or thousand years till you admit that you are wrong,¡± the Rose Goddess, dressed up like a street rogue, advised the Goddess of Love. ¡°Well, he can continue waiting for the next hundred or thousand years then!¡± the Goddess of Love replied moodily. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen such a stubborn person before. He was courteous to you at the start, do you think he¡¯s easy to bully? If you continue to act in this manner, after Leon and Kalisa¡¯s wedding, I can bet he will give you a good beating!¡± the Clover Goddess chuckled coldly and spoke up in a hostile manner. ¡°Please! Even before the wedding ends, this silly wretch will be dead!¡± The Hyacinth Goddess sighed. ¡°Hey! Exactly whose side are you on now?¡± The Goddess of Love was getting increasingly riled up. ¡°Rubbish! If I didn¡¯t plan on helping you, I wouldn¡¯t have come all the way to talk to you! You think it¡¯s fun for me to risk angering the Void Mask? I¡¯m not like you!¡± the Clover Goddess retorted. The Goddess of Love was momentarily stunned. After all, while she could be a little indifferent sometimes, she was still able to ascertain between right and wrong. The gods had almost been fully mobilized to help her out this time. Everyone had taken turns to negotiate with the Void Mask as well as to give her advice. They had done so despite the risks of angering the Void Mask who could easily destroy not just the Goddess of Love but also the three other goddesses in the Flame of Passion. Previously, the Clover Goddess also did not have a very good relationship with him. The only reason why she was willing to help with the negotiations here was because her Master God, the Goddess of Fortune had strictly ordered her to. Although both were considered gods from the Fortune Realm, the Goddess of Fortune could influence the entire population¡¯s luck, while the Clover Goddess specialized in increasing or decreasing the influence of a particular event on individuals or giving individuals specific blessings over a short period of time. At this point in time, the Goddess of Fortune felt that the Goddess of Love really needed such a blessing. Even if it couldn¡¯t make her magically clever, it could at least change her luck for the better and perhaps change her stubborn mind. After all, if logic couldn¡¯t get her to see the error of her ways, maybe luck could. The tragic thing was that the Clover Goddess¡¯ blessing seemed to have little impact on the Goddess of Love. Not only did she not change her mind, she even started to overthink. The Goddess of Love closed her eyes and started to use her powers as well as the added blessing to psychoanalyze Sui Xiong in her head. The Void Mask¡¯s level of passion and commitment to the wedding is certainly unusual! He must have special feelings for the couple! She kept all these thoughts in her head as she knew that the three goddesses would beat her up if she voiced them aloud Previously, when she had first regained normalcy from her ¡°fireball¡± status, she had gotten a severe beating from the Goddess of Joy and Goddess of Fortune. Only the Goddess of Lavender had taken a step back, and this was not due to her lack of anger but rather because she felt that her powers were too limited against the Goddess of Love¡¯s thick skin. Instead, she chose to bestow some powers onto the two goddesses doing the beating, allowing their fists to be heavier and their punches to be stronger. In the end, when the two goddesses had finally finished venting their anger, the Goddess of Love¡¯s beautiful face was left with many severe scars and bruises. After such a beating, the Goddess of Love should have learned her lesson. However, regretfully, she did not. Now, her brain was starting to come up with stupid and weird ideas again. Ah, I no longer have any way to control the Void Mask¡¯s romantic situation¡­. But I can test Leon Igor¡¯s! At that moment, Leon was reviewing some documents, and he felt his heartbeat irregularly for a second as if someone was watching him. He immediately used a strong magic prop to protect himself. However, the feeling of being watched did not diminish one bit. ¡°I used a legendary magic prop, and it still did not work?¡± Leon was shocked and decided to act without hesitation. He rubbed a ring on his right hand and teleported to Garth City, the Church of the Void Mask. This was probably one of the safest places in the entire city as it was personally built by the Void Mask. If even this place couldn¡¯t shield against the prying spell on him, he would have to approach the lord for help. This move succeeded as once Leon ducked into the church, its protection on top of his magic prop strengthened his body and prevented the Goddess of Love from further spying. Shucks! His reaction is too fast! The Goddess of Love had barely started to pry and was already discovered. Thus, she had not been able to assess his love situation properly before Leon defended himself. This made her feel extremely displeased, and only her companion¡¯s potential scolding stopped her from voicing her displeasure out loud. Where did the Void Mask find someone like Leon? He¡¯s remarkably observant! After venting to herself, the Goddess of Love had decided to try again and cast her gaze onto Kalisa. This time, she had managed to remain undiscovered as Kalisa¡¯s powers were much weaker as compared to Leon. She was a city lord and had never really trained her powers. Rather, she had always relied on Sui Xiong¡¯s grace to maintain a certain level of skill. She could be labeled as a ¡°parallel import.¡± Using Sui Xiong¡¯s professional system, she could be labeled as being a level-ten beauty, level-four leader and with an added level of being a wizard. With these fifteen levels, she had managed to scrape into the advanced level of society. If one could count being a beauty as a job, that is. If she were to be involved in a fight, she would probably be able to assume a large body to fight novice adventurers. However, if she were to fight against experienced veterans, even those who were not mid-legendary level, it would not be a guaranteed victory. Of course, one could not deny her beauty. She was one of the rare people in this world who reached level ten for this title. This was something that the Goddess of Love quickly observed when she pried into Kalisa¡¯s heart. The Goddess of Love also realized that Kalisa only had one true love, Leon, who took up most of her heart. The remaining little space was mostly filled by the Void Mask. What a traitor, given the amount of generosity the Void Mask has had towards her! The Goddess of Love shook her head as an idea suddenly came to her. This lovesick Kalisa really fit her personal doctrine! Chapter 703 Women¡¯s hearts were rather peculiar, and those of goddesses are of no exception. Previously, the stubborn Goddess of Love had refused to change her stance no matter what. However, upon witnessing her undying love and devotion towards Leon, she subconsciously changed her mind. She looked up and yelled, ¡°I¡¯ve decided to meet the Void Mask to talk!¡± The Hyacinth Goddess, Clover Goddess and Rose Goddess were all shocked. They glanced at her skeptically, all unable to believe that she had suddenly changed her mind. Afterward, they immediately contacted the Goddess of Joy and the Goddess of Fortune. Only these two goddesses had fighting powers amongst them five. The Goddess of Love acted like she hadn¡¯t seen everyone¡¯s apprehension and immediately transformed into a fireball, flying out of the Flame of Passion. She then twirled once in the air and changed into a form similar to the size of Sui Xiong. Hm? She¡¯s finally come out¡­ Looks like she¡¯s ready for a fight? Sui Xiong loosened his grip and expanded his body, releasing his hold over the Flame of Passion and resumed his fighting stance. Although the Goddess of Love could not be considered strong, he needed to maintain his image and would not let down his guard in front of a seemingly easy opponent. ¡°Bring it on!¡± He made the necessary preparations and spoke up coldly. A fight would be pretty satisfying! At this point, the three goddesses who had come to help were scared out of their wits. They could not understand why the Goddess of Love had recklessly charged out to fight the Void Mask. Surely, she did not expect herself to win? Even if all of them banded together, they would probably lose to the Void Mask, let alone her fighting solo! They rushed out to the scene with the hopes of stopping this ridiculous battle. While the Goddess of Love could be rather silly, she was still their friend, and they could not bear to watch her fight to her death. It would really be akin to dying of foolishness! Before they could speak up, however, the Goddess of Love opened her mouth and quipped, ¡°I¡¯m willing to bless Leon Igor and Kalisa Riley.¡± Upon hearing these words, Sui Xiong, the three goddesses as well as the Goddess of Joy and the Goddess of Fortune, who had rushed over, all froze in shock. Everyone stared at the Goddess of Love, mystified, as they could not comprehend her sudden change of heart. The Goddess of Love smiled to herself, clearly enjoying the attention. She took her time to speak up, ¡°However, I feel that Kalisa Riley shouldn¡¯t be your disciple. She should be my disciple instead!¡± ¡°My goodness!¡± ¡°What is she saying?¡± ¡°She has really lost it this time¡­¡± ¡°Void Mask Lord! Please do not get angry, I¡¯ll teach her a lesson right now¡­¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s time for her to receive another beating¡­¡± The five goddesses panicked, and the three Goddesses of Flowers trembled. The Goddess of Joy¡¯s face turned pale, and the Goddess of Fortune immediately took out a heavy mace, prepared to physically wake the Goddess of Love¡¯s brain up Sui Xiong took in a deep breath. Rather than being angry, he was stunned instead. What is this idiot saying? Kalisa doesn¡¯t deserve to be my disciple, but instead hers? She has some nerve, openly trying to steal my disciple. Or perhaps, is this a threat? Why is she suddenly employing such a weird tactic? Why did she develop an interest in Kalisa all of a sudden? Many thoughts rushed into his mind like a subway car during rush hour, and his brain was too muddled for him to think properly. Nevertheless, one thought stood out clearly. The Goddess of Love was really asking for it! Sui Xiong glanced at her in an extremely hostile manner, and his numerous tentacles started to vibrate. He had reached a level of anger where he could explode anytime. In actuality, if not for the plea by the Goddess of Joy, he would have taken physical action immediately and grabbed hold of the problematic Goddess of Love. He wanted to flip her upside down and force her brain to access the ground for several rounds to help her get rid of her crazy thoughts and regain some sense. However, even before he could move a finger, the Goddess of Fortune had already acted. Using the heavy mace, she aimed it towards the Goddess of Love¡¯s brain with a whoosh and put in more energy than she normally would. Although such an action would definitely hurt the Goddess of Love or even severely injure her, it would be worth it. By taking matters into her own hands, she could also control the strength she exerted to ensure that the Goddess of Love would only be injured severely in the worst-case scenario but not be beaten by death, which was a possibility if the Void Mask had been the one to take action. However, this move did not achieve its intended effect as the Goddess of Love had prepared for it. She shook her body and teleported to the other side. Sui Xiong had nearly hit her¡­ He was shocked and took a few steps back before yelling, ¡°You¡­ What exactly do you want? If you want to fight, let¡¯s do it!¡± ¡°Who¡¯s talking about fighting? I¡¯m trying to discuss a very serious matter with you, can you be more serious?¡± the Goddess of Love retorted in reply. She had on a dissatisfied look as if Sui Xiong was throwing up a fuss over nothing. My goodness¡­ I really want to beat her up right now¡­ Sui Xiong complained bitterly to himself in his head, but he could not deny that he was curious as to what the Goddess of Love meant. After considering the situation, he decided not to act rashly and to hear her out first. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m discussing this with you very seriously. Why do you make such a claim out of the blue? How is Kalisa related to you?¡± he steadied himself and asked. ¡°Of course, she¡¯s related to me! Kalisa Riley is extremely devoted to love and only love. In her heart, there is only Leon Igor and almost nothing else¡ªbe it power, status, wealth, beauty, loyalty or any other trait, even her life and her values¡­ these are not important to her, and she only truly cares about Leon Igor,¡± she nodded to herself and replied. ¡°Is that not a good thing?¡± Sui Xiong asked in an indignant way. ¡°Of course, it is a good thing! She embodies my teachings fully when she chases love; she is loyal to love and only has love in her heart. Such a person should definitely be a disciple under me!''¡± Sui Xiong froze. He was not an unreasonable man, and he could see that the Goddess of Love made sense. He closed his eyes and used his lines of faith to access Kalisa¡¯s heart. As per what the Goddess of Love had claimed, Kalisa¡¯s heart only had room for Leon and any other things were considered negligible, even Sui Xiong, who was the god she followed. By right, she should have been a pan-religious god follower or at least a fanatical follower towards Sui Xiong! This meant that she was indeed extremely suitable to become the Goddess of Love¡¯s disciple as her entire heart followed her teachings. In reality¡­. If she were able to maintain such an attitude, when she passed away, she would follow the laws of this world and convert to become the Goddess of Love¡¯s Holy Spirit. What to do¡­ this was really a rather awkward situation¡­ Sui Xiong displayed no emotion on his face, but his heart was heavy. Chapter 704 Sui Xiong was naturally unwilling to let go of a disciple. This was especially so seeing as Kalisa belonged to his church¡¯s inner circle. This was not just a problem of benefits but also an issue of personal relations. If Kalisa had followed the Goddess of Love from the start or if the Goddess of Love had approached him thirty, forty years ago to discuss this proposition, he would have agreed without much thought. However, Kalisa had already been an important member of the Void Mask Church for the past fifty years and was heavily involved in the core of the work, gaining her respect and trust among the followers. She had already become indispensable and irreplaceable. Thus, he would definitely not accede to her request now. Furthermore, he had developed such a longstanding relationship with Kalisa; surely he could not be expected to just give that up overnight! Benefits-wise, as a member of the core of the Church of Void Mask as well as being the Garth City Lord, she was also too important to give up. Thus, after a few rounds of hesitation, the Void Mask Lord still shook his head. ¡°No, it cannot be done. If Kalisa really suits your teachings, she will naturally become your Holy Spirit when she dies. However, I will not be doing my own trades with my followers, and that¡¯s the end of discussion on this matter.¡± He had assumed that with such words, the Goddess of Love would fly into a rage and continue the cold war with him or even take physical action. Thus, he readied himself for battle even as he spoke. To his surprise, the Goddess of Love did not flare up but rather smiled to herself. ¡°Very good! Your answer makes me extremely satisfied.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Sui Xiong was shocked as this was not the reaction he had been expecting. The Goddess of Love smiled widely upon seeing the Void Mask¡¯s confusion and explained, ¡°Kalisa¡¯s personal focus in life is her own choice to make. Who she wants to follow, who she wants to respect is also her own choice to make. Similarly, whether she will become my Holy Spirit after she passes away or whether she will enter my God¡¯s Kingdom is also her choice. How can we as gods act purely on instinct and decide her fate for her? I really like your answer and your mindset towards this issue. While I cannot say that you understand the workings of a woman¡¯s heart, at the very least, you understand the concept of respect. This is something that¡¯s rather rare in this world.¡± ¡°Does this mean you agree to do me this favor?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Of course! I will find Kalisa right now to discuss this matter. Perhaps when she meets me, she will be so enamored that she will realize that she should be my follower¡­¡± Upon saying that, the Goddess of Love teleported back to her own God¡¯s Kingdom to morph into a physical being, ready to enter the human world. Sui Xiong was left in a rather confused state, and he couldn¡¯t decide whether he was more angry at her insolence or happy that the matter was finally resolved. While the goddesses in the kingdom had blurry relations with each other, nevertheless, they had interacted with each other for many years, and thus they were used to the Goddess of Love¡¯s unreliable nature as well as the fact that they always had to clean up after her. Thus, the Goddess of Joy approached Sui Xiong graciously and offered him some desserts and tea at her God¡¯s Kingdom to smooth things over. Sui Xiong was definitely not about to turn her down, and thus both of them made their way to the Goddess of Joy¡¯s kingdom. This kingdom was called Sorrow-Proof Kingdom and was the core of the Sorrow-Proof Field. In the past, when the Goddess of Joy been sealed as a god, she had merged her own kingdom and the Sorrow-Proof field and thus became the ruler of this world. This had also laid the foundations for the Sorrow-Proof God System. Before the Goddess of Joy had been sealed as a god, the Sorrow-Proof Field had only been one of the many rings floating around in the many worlds. However, as the Goddess of Joy had steadily built it up over the years, the world slowly became special and vast. Gods in the Sorrow-Proof God System also had habitually ventured out to seek smaller worlds that could align with this kingdom to merge. Over years of development, they had managed to make this small world stand out amongst the hundreds of millions of worlds. The Goddess of Joy first apologized to Sui Xiong for the unreliable personality of the Goddess of Love and had smiled to subtly convey hopes of ending the matters there and then, especially as the resolution had been a decent one. Afterward, Sui Xiong brought up the matter of building up the kingdom to the Goddess of Joy. Amongst the gods, one would definitely rank the Goddess of Joy as one of the top ten fighters. However, if one were to bring up the idea of developing the kingdom, no one would dare to confer upon her a rank other than first. There was simply no one who could compete with her past experience of building up a small world from scratch to what it was today. Sui Xiong had previously wanted to seek guidance from the Goddess of Love regarding the development of the kingdom. However, he had always been busy. It was either that, or he had been under the delusion that he was forever busy. Even when he had been freer, he had felt tired or bored and had used that time to rest¡­ In actuality, the root of the issue had been his procrastination due to him forgetting about it. As an artist, Sui Xiong¡¯s mind had always been simple and streamlined. If he was busy with a certain issue, other matters would be thrown to the back of his mind. In this case, this would refer to the matter of learning how to properly build up a kingdom. This was especially so as the current Sanctuary was rather stable and only required light maintenance. Sui Xiong was someone who was low-maintenance physically, and he did not require high standards of living. He had felt that if one could survive, that would be enough. Under his influence, the gods in the system were also similarly low-maintenance¡ªWall had only required a sufficiently big library to indulge in his reading habits in peace; Arcaian had only required a science laboratory; Three Nothingness was happy to stay in the woods and play with little animals; Damwade was always busying himself in the field. In the entire system, only Song Ballard was slightly more particular, and he had built himself an open opera house as well as indulged in several outbuildings of varying sizes. Within the Sanctuary, there were many pieces of land which were untouched and empty. There were also several obscure islands floating in the air. As for the Desolation God System¡¯s Kingdom, the degree of ruggedness was even higher than that of the Sorrow-Proof God System. The entire kingdom only had three larger-sized structures¡ªMorani¡¯s blacksmith workshop, Ink¡¯s bistro and their meeting room. The Desolation gods, including their main god ¡°Steel Lion¡± Morani, were all introverted and spent their days in a carefree, floaty way. Although the Goddess of Joy was easy-going and hyper, she actually lived a rather rigorous life. If she were to teach Sui Xiong how to build up a kingdom, she had to first understand what Sui Xiong had been doing. After questioning him, she let out a sigh. ¡°Although I had predicted that you lacked the relevant knowledge and may have had a slightly lackluster internal core of the kingdom, I did not expect that it would be so terrible!¡± She had continuously shaken her head as she pored over the internal structure of the Sanctuary built by Sui Xiong, and her brain had felt like it was about to explode. ¡°These designs are totally unacceptable; you will have to start from the beginning again!¡± Chapter 705 If Sui Xiong wanted to learn from the Goddess of Joy, he was under the obligation to stay. Thus, he had temporarily moved into the Sorrow-Proof Kingdom. If he had to be honest, he did not really enjoy the stay. The Sorrow-Proof Kingdom had given him strange vibes. Sui Xiong was of the impression that the kingdom was overly warm and that everything was too soft¡ªthe flowers, grass, wind and even the trees were gentle. The most ludicrous thing was that even the stones were soft! The living creatures here also embodied the ¡°soft¡± idea, from the smallest flower fairy to the biggest mud giant. If he had not witnessed it himself, he would not have believed that this world could have soft battle monster statues¡­ The special, singular creatures which were labeled as ¡°joyful monster statues¡± were naturally created by the Goddess of Joy. They were all approximately three times a normal person¡¯s height and were extremely strong and powerful. They were also highly resistant towards others¡¯ magic. However, their bodies were extremely soft, and this fact made Sui Xiong doubtful of their abilities. In reality, his worries were unfounded. Although the creatures¡¯ bodies were soft, they were actually extremely firm. One could describe them as being soft but full of tenacity. Most attacks to their bodies would slide right off, and even direct hits would bounce off; thus, they would never experience too much damage. The combat creatures created by the Goddess of Joy were all mostly of these characteristics. Although they did not look too majestic, they were all strong internally. Sui Xiong received inspiration from such a realization¡ªhe actually belonged to the same category as these soft creatures, and he could use such a battle strategy as well. Previously, his battle strategy was rougher and more direct. As he had many tentacles, he chose to only reveal a few on a daily basis but when necessary, could increase them infinitely¡ªhis main strategy was just to use them as leashes, and he had no second course of action. From his observations and interactions with the creatures created by the Goddess of Joy, Sui Xiong¡¯s fighting abilities naturally improved by leaps and bounds. Coincidentally, amongst the Oracles that the Goddess of Joy had created, there was a specific type which had the same battle style as Sui Xiong¡ªthat was a type of pink, flying octopi whose signature move was spraying bubbles that could make the enemy dizzy. If one were to see these creatures, which were smaller than the size of one¡¯s palm, they would not think much of them. But in reality, they gathered in massive groups when necessary, and the group of hundreds of thousands of octopi became a majestic force together. When they grouped together to become a giant octopus, these creatures (termed affectionately as ¡°Little Pinks¡±) would become a strong melee system. Although they only possessed tens tentacles, when they danced, they were full of tricks and were full of rich and ingenious combat skills. Sui Xiong followed the oldest giant octopus around to understand its craft and learned much from it, much like a disciple. As to knowledge towards kingdom-building, he also improved significantly. The Goddess of Joy was a good teacher and was in-depth in her guidance. She even found a small world to demonstrate properties such as why certain things should or shouldn¡¯t be done to Sui Xiong visually. From her lessons, Sui Xiong realized that his own kingdom¡¯s structure had several issues that required change. Previously, he had assumed that the Sanctuary that he had built was decent. However, now that he was more knowledgeable, he realized that it lacked foundation. As the Goddess of Joy had pointed out, he had wasted all the talent and inspiration on the looks of the place, but the internal workings¡­ General structure¡ªfail! Necessity of facilities¡ªfail! Matching of needs¡ªfail! Lack of clear leaders¡ªfail! Spread of weight¡ªfail! The only area in which he did not receive criticism was that he had separated the different domains (design, troops, etc.) well, which were decently satisfactory. ¡°Although the design is terrible, at least the Sanctuary passes the safety element which is most important,¡± the Goddess of Joy said. Sui Xiong, in a bid to improve, blurted out, ¡°That means there is still space for improvement. Where exactly did I go wrong?¡± The Goddess of Joy smiled and spent at least half an hour explaining to Sui Xiong through different angles on how he should separate dangerous elements in the world, which corners required extra protection and what to take note of¡­ At first, Sui Xiong listened intently and nodded from time to time in acknowledgment. However, towards the end, he began to see stars, and his eyes had shrunk into slits in his lethargic state. When the Goddess of Joy had finally ended her explanation, he sighed and said, ¡°That¡¯s too complicated!¡± ¡°That was just the basics, I haven¡¯t even gone into the details yet!¡± the Goddess of Joy replied. Sui Xiong had felt defeated and asked, ¡°Look¡­ how did you learn so much over the years? Is it because you¡¯ve been trading information with the rest of the system?¡± The Goddess of Joy¡¯s face darkened slightly, and she sighed lightly. ¡°They¡­ they don¡¯t like to discuss this with me.¡± ¡°I guessed as much.¡± If it were up to him, he would also not be willing to discuss such matters in detail. He felt like his brain was about to explode! The style is not right! The style is not right! Sui Xiong thought to himself bitterly. I¡¯m stupid, I really am! All day, I only know how to hide in my room and explore computers, I¡¯ve forgotten that there are living creatures that I can turn to! The Goddess of Joy is clearly a technical expert, especially in coming up with themes! Previously, I had been skeptical of the soft creatures in her world, but now I see that it was a key theme of hers! Furthermore, a kingdom like that of the Goddess of Joy¡¯s was clearly a new idea that was meant to be novel¡­ As he thought, he was smiling at the same time at his realizations. While building Void City in the past, he had been playing with themes all along! Previously, he had been assuming that he was the only interested in exploring themes, but now he realized that he was not solitary in his passion but rather had isolated himself. After all, the world was so big. How could he be the only passionate one? This thought cheered him up, and thus, he was satisfied to continue learning well. After all, he had a new plan in his head. Once he had mastered enough knowledge in this area, he intended to create a second themed city or garden. And when it came to that, he would use the southern part of Rye City as a fortress¡­ Chapter 706 Sui Xiong was a student in the Goddess of Joy¡¯s kingdom for three months, and eventually, the Goddess of Joy felt that he had learned enough theory¡ªeverything else had to be put into practice. One could say that he had graduated. ¡°You¡¯re a very talented person. Although you have some flaws in your knowledge and can lack seriousness and dependability at times, your sudden inspirations and passion help to mitigate that,¡± the Goddess of Joy had commented as she sent him on his way. ¡°Your level of knowledge has already surpassed many other gods. Let¡¯s not talk about mere kingdom-building, I want to see you build other things¡­ For example, you mentioned in the past that you would like to build a ¡°warm fortress,¡± that sounds really interesting. You¡¯re different from me. You¡¯re a relaxed and exploratory creator. As someone who has come before you, I¡¯m excited to see what you¡¯ll be able to come up with!¡± Sui Xiong had smiled and thanked her before taking his leave. Although his journey in the Sorrow-Proof Field had been full of hardship, he had also sufficiently met his goal of coming here and even received much new inspiration. When Sui Xiong had returned to his kingdom, he was excited to start improving its¡¯ facilities. However, upon his arrival, he was informed that the Goddess of Love had come to visit. ¡°Huh? What is she here for?¡± Sui Xiong was rather apprehensive but still consented to the meetup. The Goddess of Love had appeared and resigned. In a very unhappy tone, she had said to Sui Xiong, ¡°What exactly did you say to mislead Kalisa? Although I could sense that she has come to understand her inner values, she insists on not changing her faith¡­ which must be your doing!¡± Sui Xiong was of course aware of this. Previously, the Goddess of Love had teleported down to the human world to test Kalisa¡¯s faith. She had spent significant effort and used several means to get Kalisa to admit that she only had her lover on her mind and cared about nothing else. Since she had admitted that, it was natural that Kalisa should then follow the Goddess of Love. However, Kalisa had given the goddess an extremely surprising answer. ¡°What you say makes sense, and I approve of your teachings. However, my heart has no space for anyone other than Leon, and you are no exception.¡± Sui Xiong was not at the scene and thus did not witness the Goddess of Love¡¯s reaction, but he could bet that she had been extremely disappointed at that point in time. As for Sui Xiong¡­ When he had received the news, he had been studying with the Goddess of Joy and had casually brought it up for them to laugh about together. This could be considered karma for the Goddess of Love for the last six months! The Goddess of Love was not someone who gave up easily. One could see this from how stubborn she had been previously when she was at loggerheads with Sui Xiong. So she had not given up simply due to Kalisa¡¯s initial rejection and had stayed in Garth City to bother Kalisa on a daily basis. However, to her disappointment, Kalisa was extremely steadfast in her belief and would not budge no matter what the Goddess of Love said. She was not even willing to become the Goddess of Love¡¯s Holy Spirit! ¡°While alive, I want to be with Leon. When I die, I also want to be with him! If he can become a god afterwards, I¡¯ll go to his kingdom. If not, wherever he goes, I¡¯ll follow.¡± The Goddess of Love had been extremely angry, but she could not have retaliated as such a lovesick concept was directly in line with her own values. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to become stronger? If you do, you could help him. If you follow me, I could promote you to the level of an elector and give you immense power,¡± the Goddess of Love had proposed. ¡°I won¡¯t take the branch for the root. Having power is good but I can live without it, and I won¡¯t change myself for it.¡± Kalisa had thought about it for a while and finally responded. When Sui Xiong heard about this, he had immediately sent out a flash of holy light which materialized into a necklace-shaped artifact in Kalisa¡¯ hands. His intentions were clear¡ªthe Goddess of Love wanted to poach Kalisa and fight him? He could easily respond! The Goddess of Love was easily defeated then and there. Although she had mid-level Divine Powers, she did not have a strong body to act against such a move. So she had come to find Sui Xiong to stir trouble in anger. ¡°I feel like you shouldn¡¯t have come. Faith is free. Whoever Kalisa chooses to follow is her choice. If you couldn¡¯t convince her otherwise, that is your problem, not mine,¡± Sui Xiong had said in an innocent-sounding way. ¡°Well, you supported her! She was originally ready to change her mind.¡± The Goddess of Love was infuriated. ¡°Are you crazy? You¡¯ve been actively poaching my discipline, and you expect me to do nothing about it? That¡¯s way too selfish, even for you!¡± The Goddess of Love was speechless as she knew that he was right, and she could only stare at him angrily, brows furrowed. ¡°But¡­ but¡­¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing more for you to say. The fact that I didn¡¯t stop you when you approached Kalisa already shows some grace on my part. You shouldn¡¯t be so unreasonable.¡± The Goddess of Love was speechless, and she could only rage internally. She did not stay angry for long, though, and eventually, she asked Sui Xiong to guide her on how to gain faithful disciples who would stick with her and not be swayed. Was there really a need for such a thing to be taught? Sui Xiong felt mystified. In his opinion, a follower was like a good friend who respected you. If such a friend were to choose to end the friendship or lost respect for you in the future, they would be free to do so. One did not really need to worry about ensuring followers were permanent; such efforts were rather unnecessary and a waste of time. The Goddess of Love¡¯s face changed once Sui Xiong voiced this opinion out loud. She had an unreadable expression that wasn¡¯t anger nor jealousy, but rather¡­ If Sui Xiong were to return to the present, one could say that she was staring at him as if he was slow. Of course, this angered Sui Xiong. ¡°Hey! What¡¯s that look supposed to mean?¡± ¡°Nothing much, I¡¯m just shocked.¡± The Goddess of Love shook her head and continued to glance at Sui Xiong with the same look. Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration and started nodding her head furiously. ¡°What are you thinking about now?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Nothing much! I¡¯m leaving.¡± The Goddess of Love turned away, but Sui Xiong stopped her. ¡°No, you¡¯re not allowed to leave until you explain yourself!¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing much to say¡­¡± ¡°Do you think I¡¯m stupid? That look clearly meant that you disagree with what I say!¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± In the end, Sui Xiong was unable to squeeze the answer out of her, and he was left feeling extremely unsatisfied and internally more alert for any nonsense that the Goddess of Love might pull. At the end of the day, I¡¯m still very different when compared to the gods of this world¡­ Chapter 707 Garth City was brightly lit and bustling; the streets were sparkling clean, and all the roofs had been scrubbed till they looked brand new. Even the troops marching along the streets wore a bright red robe on top of their armor, making the entire scene look extremely festive and joyful. When viewed from above, the entire city could be said to be wrapped in a sea of red. There were red flowers, red ribbons, red carpets and the majority of the people were wearing red outfits as well. ¡°I¡¯ve always known that you like red, but not to this extent. The city looks like a pot of stewed shrimp!¡± Javier remarked as he looked around. Sui Xiong pursed his lips and replied, ¡°What kind of description is that! Call yourself a prince, that¡¯s horrible use of language!¡± Javier roared with laughter and retorted, ¡°Do you know what kind of man my father, the king, was when I first became a prince?¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and grew curious. ¡°He was twice the height of an average person, and his arm was the size of an average person¡¯s thigh. When he talked, it was as loud as drums. When he ate, one meal consisted of half a sheep, ten pounds of biscuits, and he drank wine straight from the barrel. He used a heavy bow and arrow, wore heavy armor and carried a huge axe weighing 120 pounds on the battlefield, but he never rode a horse. Even the demon beasts couldn¡¯t stand his energy. But of all his strengths, he had one main weakness: he was illiterate.¡± Javier¡¯s eyes shone, and one could tell that he was speaking fondly as he thought back about his father. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Well, he was not a hundred percent illiterate. He could recognize his own name. However, even so, he couldn¡¯t read nor recognize my name or any of my brother¡¯s.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. Internally, he mused to himself: how could the leader of a country be illiterate? Wait¡­ but, a barbaric king was still a king! Just like how the founder of the Mongolian Empire, Tiemuzhen, was a barbarian, he was still a king nevertheless. Sui Xiong also recalled a movie he had watched titled ¡°Conan the Barbarian¡± where although he couldn¡¯t quite identify how the main character was a king, he was definitely still a barbarian. Thus, it was clear that barbarians could be leaders and kings as well, with no issue. He nodded before asking, ¡°So¡­ previously, you were a barbarian too?¡± Javier nodded back and replied, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s true. However, I knew more words than my father¡­ about 50 odd of them?¡± Sui Xiong was speechless again. All along, he had envisioned Javier to be an extremely cultured man who could write poems, compose songs and explore music, and he did not know that when Javier was a common man, he was a barbarian. All the cultured things that he could do now were all learned after he became a god. ¡°Time truly is power! Looking at you now, I can¡¯t visualize the old you!¡± Javier smiled, and with one spin, he physically transformed into a strong, tall and handsome young man with a well-kept beard that resembled sharp needles. He had two round, serious eyes. He stood in a way that made people stare on in admiration, his biceps were bulging, and he had tattoos across his entire body, making him scary and fierce overall. ¡°That¡¯s how I looked in the past. However, when I became a god, I left my original body behind. If I hadn¡¯t done that in the past, maybe I wouldn¡¯t become the ¡°soft persimmon¡± that I am now¡­¡± Sui Xiong wanted to nod, but he stopped himself. Although that was Javier¡¯s regret and personal opinion, he felt that Javier would not have become a strong man even if he had just kept his human body. Other than having a good foundation, one had to train hard over time to be strong. For example, for Sui Xiong himself, if he hadn¡¯t trained for thousands of years in the ice trench, he wouldn¡¯t have the powers that he had today. As for Javier, he had trained daily with Morani for a while before it turned to weekly and then eventually monthly classes¡­ Most recently, he hadn¡¯t seen Morani in almost an entire year. How could he expect to be strong then? Even if Javier¡¯s body had been impressive in the past, it wouldn¡¯t be able to surpass his god body. If he was truly willing to put in some work of at least three years or for the long run of ten years, he would definitely be able to become a strong warrior. However, he did not put in that effort. In comparison, Leon was an average human with excellent talent and was known as a world-famous genius as a child. However, he met with misfortune as an adult and sustained severe injuries as well as poisoning, which caused his skills to deteriorate and his foundation to be damaged. Afterward, he had spent much time and effort to regain his powers. Today, not only was he a top-notch swordsman, but he was also a wise and divine spellcaster. His success could all be attributed to the work and hours that he had put in. Sui Xiong was aware that Leon discreetly trained about three to four hours a day for figuration skills. Although no one would expect a swordsman like him to have such powers, he felt that as the archbishop of the Void Mask Church, it would be embarrassing and he would let Sui Xiong down if he did not possess them. Tens of years of hard work allowed him to gain extensive knowledge. Now, he was able to use figuration without any physical skill to challenge a Legendary Master with relative ease. This meant that he was now a double talent with his fighting skills being at the peak and his spells at least mid-level. If Javier were half as hardworking as Leon, he¡¯d have surpassed a deity¡¯s level of skill long ago. On the other hand, Sui Xiong considered the alternative then smiled again. He remembered a professor who had taught him in the past. The professor had shared some ancient writings and had said with a sigh, ¡°Knowing what to do is easy. However, for one to actually follow it, that¡¯s the hard part. Sometimes it is not about whether one is able, but about whether one is willing. This can be likened to how everyone understands that if one were to work tirelessly, even if you did not manage to become a famous painter, your art skills would definitely improve, to say the least. But out of the whole faculty, who has actually really done that?¡± At that time, the professor had shaken his head as he spoke, ¡°I¡¯ve been a teacher for quite some time. Among each batch of students, only one or two can really achieve a commendable level of self-discipline and success. This isn¡¯t about talent, it¡¯s about perseverance.¡± As Sui Xiong traveled through time, he had begun to understand what the professor had meant. After all, he himself was unable to achieve such a level of determination as well. In other words, Leon was mentally stronger than he was. As he flew in the sky and looked down at the city decked out in red, Sui Xiong saw Leon¡ªwho was in the midst of several waiting ladies¡ªand smiled in satisfaction. Chapter 708 Unlike the smiling Sui Xiong, Leon was feeling extremely troubled. It was not that he had never been attended to by waiting ladies, but rather the fact that he had never worn such a complicated outfit before. The Eagle Kingdom and the Wu Li Kingdom were the two most majestic countries amongst the human kingdoms. When couples got married in Eagle Kingdom, they did not wear traditional robes but rather wore respectable looking clothes. Armor was not allowed, of course, as even the most fearsome knight would not wear battle clothes at his own wedding. However, it was different in Kingdom of the Blue Moon. This capitalistic country was extremely particular about beauty and decorum. Even if it was not a large event, the citizens would dress up nicely and don complicated outfits. When it came to actual large events, they would then become extremely flamboyant. This was just like Leon now who had on four different clothes items as well as several different accessories. He felt like a storefront mannequin who had been burdened with too many unnecessary items. Sigh¡­ Why did I promise Kalisa that we would hold a traditional wedding¡­ He maintained a neutral smile on his face but complained bitterly to himself in his head. In actuality, his attire was already considered extremely simple as compared to Kalisa¡¯s. Females¡¯ outfits would always be more complicated than those of men. Kalisa¡¯s wedding outfit was named ¡°Heavy Nine,¡± and as the name suggested, it was comprised of nine layers as well as several ribbons and cloths. In total, she would wear about thirteen to fourteen layers at the least, and this number could even exceed twenty! These layers were all put on with precision¡ªthe clothes, colours and designs could not be repeated, and this applied to the jewels used in the accessories as well. Thus, with every added layer, her clothes¡¯ net worth increased significantly. If she wasn¡¯t well to-do, this outfit would definitely not be possible. Wearing multiple layers took a toll on the bride¡¯s body and thus Kingdom of the Blue Moon citizens often preferred to hold their weddings during winter to avoid cases where the bride fainted or passed out during the ceremony. Kalisa was luckily sufficiently wealthy and had a strong body. Although she was skinny and looked weak, she was actually lean and was able to perform weird tricks such as ¡°Standing on Fist¡± and ¡°Racing Horses Wrist,¡± which required much strength. Thus, the wedding outfit that she donned turned out to be made up of an impressive thirty odd layers While all the layers were thin, the silk, gold, silver thread, jewels and other little details made them heavy. For example, the third last layer, ¡°A sky full of stars¡±, was made by sewing several jewels on silk and such an outfit alone was at least five to six pounds. Her entire outfit weighed over forty pounds. It felt like an armour. Even worse, the layers were all stitched together and thus there was no distinction between the weight distribution. Any normal girl would not be able to complete the ceremony wearing such a ridiculous outfit. However, Kalisa did not find it heavy and even commented that it was too light. After all, it was the most important day of her life thus far and if she were to be lazy, it would be a waste! ¡°City Lord, we can¡¯t add any more layers without repetition! That¡¯s not auspicious.¡± The waiting lady spoke up apologetically. Repetition would bring about the negative superstition that after the marriage, the husband would fool around with other girls which was extremely undesirable. However, Kalisa was certain that Leon would have a change of heart ¨C she had taken tens of years to chase him and that was with her above average looks. Other girls who wanted to do so would certainly have a hard time. Furthermore, she was confident in her beauty. The Goddess of Love had also mentioned previously that she was the only lady in Leon¡¯s heart and he only thought of other females as ¡°female creatures¡±, ¡°female associates¡±, ¡°female enemies¡± or ¡°female friends¡± et cetera. The Goddess of Love had even tried to invade Leon¡¯s dreams to test him and she saw that he was unmoved by any female featured in his dreams. No matter how she had tried to seduce him in his dreams, Leon was indifferent. Even when the Goddess of Love had revealed her true self in anger, Leon had also only nodded and acknowledged her as the Queen of Fire without any other reaction. This angered and satisfied the Goddess of Love at the same time as she was impressed yet indignant that her smouldering beauty had had no effect on Leon. After all, the Goddess of Love¡¯s greatest strength was her charisma. Most men stood no chance against it. She had seduced several men in the past, either enemies in war or extremely dangerous monsters, and even those who did not completely identify as men. As far as she could remember, the last time she was unable to seduce someone was two to three thousand years ago. She was embarrassed that her charisma, which was her pride and joy, failed to work this time. On the other hand, seeing that Leon was so loyal to Kalisa made her happy at the same time. Such mixed feelings were extremely new to her. She had thus alluded such a phenomenon to the strength of control of disciples by the Void Lord and had thus sought his advice but returned with nothing. While the Goddess of Love felt that Sui Xiong was hiding secrets from her, Sui Xiong felt that it was merely a difference in mindset. At this moment, the Goddess of Love had also naturally arrived at Garth City. However, unlike Javier and Sui Xiong, she did not fly freely in the sky but morphed into a six-foot-tall and six-foot-wide middle aged woman with thick thighs who sold fruits in the streets. Although this body was strong, and her skin was clear, the horrendously large size still put others off. Even those who could see through her identity like Sui Xiong was stunned at her drastic change in appearance and couldn¡¯t believe their eyes. This¡­ this was the stunning Goddess of Love?! It had to be a joke! Javier had cautioned the Goddess of Love to not morph into such ugly looking bodies before in the past but such a warning had been met with nonchalance and she had even winked at him while possessing a face with an unkempt beard. Thus, when Javier first saw the Goddess of Love with such a horrible appearance yet again, he decided to avoid her by joining Sui Xiong to chat in the sky and enjoy the wind. ¡°This wedding is really serious. Preparations for it have taken at least half a year, right?¡± Javier asked. ¡°That¡¯s right, preparations started in spring.¡± ¡°Why do you insist on a red theme? It feels strange somehow.¡± ¡°It looks fiery and adds to the mood, no?¡± As Sui Xiong spoke, the city burst into cheers as Leon appeared amongst a bunch of close friend as per the city¡¯s traditions. They got ready to circle the city before fetching the bride¡­ Chapter 709 For the groom to take a walk around the city before fetching his bride was a famous tradition in the city. Previously, this tradition had started to allow the entire Garth to witness the wedding. However, as the city expanded, only those from wealthier families continued this tradition. When Leon had arrived in Garth, such an undertaking became all the more impossible as he himself had built a third layer to the city on its existing two to create the capital, inner city and outer city. Today, if one were to want to complete the entire city¡¯s land on foot, it would take a full day unless one were to ride a horse. Even if a wedding was a big event that would require some assertion, no one would expect the groom to mount a horse early in the morning and travel through the freezing cold. That wouldn¡¯t be a wedding, that would be torture! If the groom were to be unhealthy, such a trip would cause his death. Thus, the citizens usually ignored this tradition during their weddings. Even the most traditional families only requested for the groom to complete one of the three layers. Each of the layers had their own wide paths which supported this tradition well. However, Leon was an extremely consistent person and wanted to complete the full route as he had already promised Kalisa that they would have a fully traditional wedding. Thus, with the accompaniment of his guests and friends, he left the capital to meet a horse for his journey. Of course, this horse was not any random horse but a unique one that possessed monster blood. As long as it had had enough food and rest, it could travel for two days and two nights without stopping. As Leon was about to mount the horse, a wild roar from the skies could be heard and a green shadow whooshed to the ground. That was a green dragon. It wasn¡¯t especially big but was long and each scale on its body appeared to have been polished as they were gleaming like mirrors. Normal dragons had dirty and damaged scales, but this dragon was clean and graceful. If it were not for the sharp and evil-looking horn on its head, it could even be said to be beautiful. The dragon¡¯s back had a silver dragon saddle and this saddle even had pockets for hanging weapons, signalling that it was not a normal dragon but rather one for a knight to ride on. Actually, it was waiting for Leon to mount it. ¡°Hey! Did you make a mistake? You¡¯re the ¡°Shadow of the Poisonous Marsh¡± of Garth City knight and this wedding is such an important one, how could you ride such a lowly horse instead of me?¡± The dragon yelled in a reedy voice once it touched down to the ground. Leon froze, then smiled. ¡°You¡¯re right! But¡­ the tradition is that we walk one round around the city, not fly¡­ Are you sure you specialize in running?¡± The green dragon laughed and said, ¡°I¡¯m a grand dragon, don¡¯t underestimate me!¡± As the dragon spoke those words, green light was emitted from his body and with this light, most of the harder parts of his body shrunk until he became a horse with green fur. ¡°Get up. Let us quickly take our trip so we don¡¯t keep you bride waiting!¡± The green dragon shook his head and smiled in a human-like way. Leon had smiled and waved goodbye to everyone before mounting the horse. Without needing him to utter any command, the green horse happily started running like the wind and they vanished almost instantly. For today¡¯s ceremony, the roads around Garth City had been cleared or specially created for Leon¡¯s horse thus he did not have to worry about colliding into anyone. Seeing as the duo had disappeared, everyone recovered from their initial confusion and began to gossip about the situation they had just witnessed. ¡°Leader, that dragon could evolve itself! Such a large dragon became a horse, wow! Can your dragon do that?¡± A few young men pulled Gerald aside and exclaimed in glee. As one out of the Garth City church¡¯s two knights, the knight leader Gerald also owned a dragon. In fact, it was a green dragon just like Leon¡¯s. It was thus no wonder that his underlings would think that their dragons could perform the same functions. Gerald smiled and shook his head, ¡°Talay Stone is a mountain dragon, Galstoby is a thorny dragon. Thus, their functions are different. Thorny dragons specialize in magic, but mountain dragons are warriors. This doesn¡¯t mean either is stronger than another, but it would definitely be hard for Talay Stone to do what Galstoby just did!¡± The young men understood and sighed. Although Gerald had explained that his dragon would not lose to Leon¡¯s, the novelty of changing bodies was still fresh in their minds and Talay Stone¡¯s inability to do so still seemed like a disparity nevertheless. To be honest, Leon¡¯s dragon was really superior to Gerald¡¯s. There were a few kinds of dragons ¨C the higher ups and the lower ups. Mountain dragons were only slightly better than the lower ups, but thorny dragons were closer to the higherup status. If not for Talay Stone¡¯s age and growth, it would be far less strong than Galstoby. Even though Talay Stone was much older, it also could not defeat Galstoby in battle. This could be seen from their social status. Talay Stone could only be a king in isolated and faraway areas yet Galstoby could be king for almost two hundred years off the coast of Garth City. Unlike Talay Stone who lived peacefully in a far-off area, Galstoby also experienced life challenges, including those from Garth City, where there were countless female gods¡¯ churches. If Galstoby hadn¡¯t wised up over the years, he would have been killed by Garth City¡¯s Legendary Masters long ago. However, even though it visibly had stronger powers, Galstoby still depended on Goddess of Marsh for his safety and life. Goddess of Marsh and Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s relationship was rocky and to oppose the Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s church, she often accepted bribes. As her underling, Galstoby also received these benefits and was able to live in safety and peace. One could say that Talay Stone was inferior to Galstoby because of his lack of wit and not powers. This could be seen just by Galstoby rushing over to participate in Leon¡¯s wedding. By grasping this good opportunity, it demonstrated the difference between someone with integrity and someone with brains. Chapter 710 Although the green horse that Galstoby had turned into looked strange, it was actually very mighty. The horse¡¯s bones were still actually dragons¡¯ bones and running was definitely easier than flying. It did not need to worry about injuring itself or tripping due to its high level skills. After the round around Garth City, the speed at which the dragon had run made Leon¡¯s hair and clothes look extremely unkempt. With his strength, he could use his internal powers to hold onto his clothes and hair. If he had willed it so, nothing would have moved at all. However, the rule of Garth City¡¯s tradition was that he should not use this power and should allow his clothes and hair to fly freely such that those witnessing his return saw the effort he had put in. Thus, he had not utilized his powers and had simply sat solidly in the saddle and embraced any wind that messed up his look. After the round, he looked extremely different ¨C unlike his usual stern look, he now looked boyish. As he was whisked away by his underlings to make up his look, Leon couldn¡¯t help but smile. At this point, the green horse sprinted in a circle and flipped in the air before flying in front of Sui Xiong. ¡°Void Mask Lord how was my performance today?¡± Galstoby morphed back into a giant dragon and asked courteously. Sui Xiong laughed uproariously and said, ¡°You¡¯re so sly, just like a slug!¡± Even as he teased Galstoby, he was not petty and with a wave of his hand, used his invisible powers on Galstoby to help him regain his energy. After the regeneration, Galstoby¡¯s horn became slick and pure and his entire body looked like a work of art. Even the little flaws could no longer be seen. If a giant dragon wanted to grow, it either had to wait over time or through blood transfusions. Galstoby was an ambitious giant dragon who wanted to become part of the half-god ¡°legendary dragon tribe¡±. However, his blood level was not high and required some magic on top of his own training to become part of the tribe. Thus, Galstoby depended on a range of sources to develop himself ¨C previously, he had ridden on the coattails of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest and now he clung onto Sui Xiong. The Goddess of Bumper Harvest had created the foundation for him to grow and that was how he had become a thorny dragon. However, the Goddess of Bumper harvest also had a limit in terms of powers and thus eventually stopped giving him such substantial benefits. Furthermore, she had clearly hinted that in return, she wanted Galstoby to change into a spiritual creature and enter her kingdom. While Galstoby did not have any specific plans in mind, he had lots of pride and was not willing to become a creature under any specific god. Thus, Galstoby¡¯s relationship with the Goddess of Marsh slowly dwindled. Afterward, when the Goddess of Marsh had wanted to oppose the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, she had wanted Galstoby to join in the battle but he had found it dangerous and upon the advice of senior dragons, got injured in battle by a group of dragon slayers and had slunk away to recuperate by himself. During the battle itself, both goddesses received severe injuries as well and left each other along to recuperate. This was when Galstoby had come out of hiding to continue training and to mind his own business in peace. Afterward, he had made several deals with Leon as he felt that Leon had great strength. He also had a high level of admiration for Leon and thus set out to be his personal ride. Of course, this meant that he could no longer be the Goddess of Marsh¡¯s associate and thus that relationship died. The Goddess of Marsh was unwilling to step up to snatch him back from Leon given that he had not obtained any real status in her kingdom and thus gave up on Galstoby. With Leon, Galstoby moved on to curry favour with Sui Xiong as well. His main job with Leon was to protect the merchants¡¯ ships or to protect the fishermen who were out at sea for trade. Other than that, he was also in charge of cleaning the sea of poison. With the profits of the year, he slowly and steadily stepped into the Superior Dragon Race. Now, with the help of Sui Xiong, he finally had the final boost to step into the legendary dragon tribe. Being a thorny dragon only meant that he was nearer to the status of the dragon tribe but to continue on, he either had to solidify his powers to the stage of a holy dragon which was out of this world or to solidify his magic powers until he became like a dark green dragon, which was a sort of half dragon and half spirit and was considered a mythical creature. Galstoby chose the latter option and slowly morphed his body to become that of a dark green dragon. However, despite Galstoby¡¯s best efforts, his blood was unable to fully convert from that of a thorny dragon and this was visibly seen in his horn which remained scary and fierce unlike that of a dark green dragon¡¯s. Today, however, Galstoby lost his last sign of ferocity with Sui XIong¡¯s help and his evil persona was now cast away. This also meant that he had finally lost his characteristic of being an ¡°evil dragon¡± and could work towards becoming a legendary dragon. The mere help from Sui Xiong seemed inconsequential but if not for his help, normal gods could offer little assistance. As legendary dragons were god-like creatures, while they varied in power, all were definitely higher in status than regular gods. To allow an average dragon to attain the status of ¡°legendary¡± required a special god¡¯s help. Galstoby was immensely grateful for the help rendered by Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong, however, gained inspiration from this interaction to contact the three Snowflakes to ask them if they wanted to increase their blood level as well. Their answer, however, disappointed him. They were rather content with their current blood level and were not looking to upgrade. They wanted to go by the previously mentioned former method and thus had no current plans to take any action. Shuang demonstrated that as long as she could eat and sleep as she wished, she would be content without any care for blood levels. At this stage, the lack of care for upgrading was rather strange! Chapter 711 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was said that many hands made light work. That was when the trio of Sui Xiong, Galstoby and Snowflake met for a brief exchange of words and were delayed for a short moment, the group of attendants had helped Leon to redo his makeup. There was not a single strand of hair astray, and his clothes were neat and tidy. He was back to being the handsome man he was. However, his handsome image was different from that of Javier¡¯s clone. Leon sported a strong and valiant look. He was full of masculinity. The kind of vibe given by young, handsome and na?ve men could not be found on him. On the contrary, he gave a feeling somewhat like that of a younger Brother Chow Yun Fat in old movies. ¡°Wearing this woolen coat, putting on polite manners and then holding onto an umbrella. This is just like a live version of Xu Wen Qiang walking out from The Bund,¡± Sui Xiong said. He watched Leon meet his bride; then the couple completed the various wedding formalities under the guidance of the elders from the Riley family. He could not help laughing as he mumbled to himself, ¡°But Kalisa is more beautiful than that unaging old granny, and she is truly unaging. Oh, Leon¡¯s almost an unaging one too, so there¡¯s no problem for their love to be everlasting. But I¡¯m afraid that wanting to live blissfully together till they are old and grey will be a little difficult¡­¡± Just as the bride and groom were preparing for the most important ceremony of the wedding, the exchange of wedding vows, a holy light fell from the sky. The clone of the Goddess of Family arrived on that holy light. Right after it, there was light from blazing flames. The clone of the Goddess of Love walked out from within the light of burning flames. These two goddesses did not share a good relationship. This was something almost everyone knew. At this moment, these two goddesses actually appeared at the same time and seemed to have no intention of fighting each other. This sudden occurrence stunned all the experienced and knowledgeable people present, rendering them speechless. In order to convince the Goddess of Love, Sui Xiong had blocked the doors of Flame of Passion for several months. This matter was carried out clandestinely, so only a handful of gods knew. The Goddess of Joy was someone who did her work with rigor. She had long issued a gag order and even made all the gods in her Sorrow-Proof God System take an oath of secrecy. Though there was no punishment for leaking the secret, so long as there was a leak, she would learn of it right away¡ªthen what she would do, naturally went without saying. Most of the members of the Sorrow-Proof God System were gods of flowers or gods of verdure with weak Divine Power. Although they were usually vivacious gods, in the face of major events, they were still very submissive. Up till now, no one had let the cat out of the bag. So this matter was almost completely kept under wraps, and many gods did not even know about it. This made the event where the two goddesses, who were not on good terms with each other, actually appearing at the same time to bless Leon and Kalisa all the more shocking. It did not take long for news to spread. Even the gods in the Pantheon temple could not help but discuss it. ¡°Simply incredible! What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Who knows? Could it be that Our Majesty, the Void Mask¡¯s face is big enough?¡± ¡°Though his entire being is considered as just a face, ultimately, a big face and giving face are two different things.¡± ¡°Hey, who knows, maybe that big face is why he is given face.¡± ¡°Then my face is quite big too. Why don¡¯t people usually give me face?¡± ¡°I¡¯m thinking that¡­ it¡¯s still not big enough¡­¡± ¡°Go ahead and say that all you want!¡± After all, they could not possibly know about Sui Xiong blocking the door. Despite all the rhetoric, the things they said ultimately constituted an insignificant dialogue void of substance. After the two important goddesses had given their blessings, the other gods of various areas also took turns to give their blessings. Holy lights fell successively. All in all, there were easily 30 to 50 gods who had come. The Void God System, the Desolation God System, the War God System, the Ocean God System, and naturally, many other different gods, like the God of Justice, as well as the Goddess of Wealth turned up. There were also many gods who had acquaintances with Sui Xiong, like the God of Redemption. Fortunately, the gods were just here to give their blessings and left thereafter. Otherwise, the entire yard would be filled with dozens of gods. That would be a rather terrifying sight to behold. Sui Xiong only showed himself after the gods had finished giving their blessings. Upon descending to the ground, he flew over to appear before Leon and Kalisa. ¡°I should have arranged this marriage for the two of you long ago. Because of my negligence, I¡¯ve delayed this for much too long. I want to apologize to both of you,¡± he said. The moment he opened his mouth to say this, he startled everyone. There were already people muttering things like ¡°His Majesty, the Void Mask, is so unreliable again.¡± ¡°However, I feel that good things come to those that wait. This might not necessarily be something bad,¡± Sui Xiong said with a swift change in subject. Then he went on to say, ¡°This wedding of yours has been delayed for so long, but it was the perfect way for the two of you to look deeply into your hearts, be clear of your feelings and affirm your decision. I¡¯m happy that after all these years you two have gone through together, you still maintain such a sincere relationship and have not allowed anything to change it. Just for this alone, you are deserving of every god¡¯s blessing!¡± After saying this, Sui Xiong paused for a moment. Just when everyone thought he was going to carry on speaking, he suddenly said, ¡°Alright, a moment of a spring night worth a thousand pieces of gold. I shan¡¯t hold you up further,¡± he said. Then he became a ray of light and dashed up into the sky. So the people who had originally started to ease up a little were once again struck dumb. This started off a new bout of comments such as ¡°His Majesty, the Void Mask¡¯s way of thinking is truly wonderful.¡± But Sui Xiong was never someone who bothered about what others had to say. He felt that he was finished with what he was supposed to say. As for things like ¡°May you be blessed with a harmonious union, everlasting love, loving relationship between husband and wife that lasts for a lifetime, give birth to a baby soon¡± and such, that was all just too conventional. Brother Xiong was an artist, a man of culture. How could he possibly say something so ordinary! Yet, after he had flown up into the sky, he could not stop pondering over whether he should have said a few words of such traditional blessings. But on the other hand, he found it embarrassing to fly back down and dampen everyone¡¯s spirits. He looked to the left then to the right, and finally, he thought of a bright idea. He cast some magic and created a beautiful display of fireworks in the air. These fireworks were colorful and dazzling. They could even manifest into many different patterns and were so beautiful that they instantly attracted the attention of all the people on the ground. Accompanying what seemed like flowers on a carpet, all kinds of words of blessings appeared amidst the fireworks display as though they were a logical consequence. The people on the ground who were watching the fireworks could not help laughing heartily as they sang their praises. This show of fireworks lasted as long as half an hour and only completely dissipated when the wedding was about to commence. Some of the gods were curious about the cost entailed in this show of blessings, so they did some calculations. What they derived instantly took their breath away. This was not merely creating a series of different displays in the sky. Every round of fireworks had to be accompanied by a wide range of divine grace and blessings. All in all, such a combination was enough to exhaust an ordinary weak Divine Power. Even for mid-level Divine Powers in general, this might also be quite demanding. The powerful strength of the Void Mask had once again been proven¡ªthough Sui Xiong had no intention of proving anything at all. And to the mortal world, this grand wedding fully demonstrated Garth City¡¯s powerful economic strength and political influence. It also showed the deep foundation of the Church of the Void Mask. From the start until the end, there were dozens of gods turning up to give their blessings. This was naturally a matter, of course. From just the crowd of friends who came to attend the wedding, close to a hundred of them were Legendary Masters. Almost all the Legendary Masters that the people on the Main Plane were slightly familiar with and many of whom the people did not know of in the past, and even many masters from other races, had especially come to give their congratulations. For example, the automatons from the mechanical realm, the dragons from Dragon Cliff, the mermaids from the deep sea, the element creatures from the inner space¡­ all sorts of them. The sight was simply spectacular. In addition, divine graces fell like raindrops over and over again, and then there was the Goddess of Family and the Goddess of Love who arrived together. Though they were originally such an incompatible pair, like fire and water¡­ Just as Sui Xiong expected, this wedding was recorded by historians. They named it the ¡°Great Wedding of Garth City¡± and wrote it into the historical records that would be passed on to future generations. And before these historical records were handed down, countless bards had already composed songs out of this grand event. These songs had since been sung everywhere. Chapter 712 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The banging sounds were incessant. Pedestrians had to bypass the ¡°No Entry¡± danger zone demarcated by white ash. They would rather take a longer route around it than go near it. This was the southernmost end of the Republic of Northwest, where the Rye Fortress was located. In the past, anyone who wanted to travel from Commonwealth of Gold Coins to the Republic of Northwest had to pass through this fortress that had been built within the valley. Now, the fortress was still there. But the mountain next to it had inexplicably crooked to one side to reveal a wide road that could allow people to bypass the fortress. They could then proceed to Rye Town, which was located on the northern side of the fortress. As for the fortress, it was completely enclosed within the circle marked out with white ash. There were many signboards stuck within the circle in a messy manner. There were words like ¡°Danger¡± and ¡°Stay Clear of Area¡± marked on the signs in various languages. Not only that, if anyone who was illiterate wanted to get close, every step he took towards this circle, the panic he felt would increase by a little. The closer he got, the more panic he would feel. In the end, he could only turn back and leave to feel better. Had it not been for these means, it would be impossible to stop those who were rude or curious by only relying on the white ash and warning signs. This was, of course, Sui Xiong¡¯s handwriting. As of now, he was in the fortress in contemplation. He intended to rebuild this originally dull and plain fortress into a tourist attraction with ¡°fortress¡± as the theme. Naturally, he could not be disturbed by others. As to whether it could still fulfill its role as a fortress after becoming a tourist attraction¡­ did it mean that a blade which had been adorned with beautiful embellishments could no longer kill someone? Of course, Sui Xiong did not feel that the role of this fortress was still required. At present, the population of the Republic of Northwest might not be large enough, but it had many masters. If there was really a conflict with Commonwealth of Gold Coins, and people from the Republic of Northwest did not take the initiative to strike first, the Commonwealth should be thankful. How could they possibly think of retaliating? If there was really an attack in this valley, it would be a day where there was a need to depend on this fortress for defense. The degree of degeneration for this situation would be unthinkable! However, just like the saying ¡°Things don¡¯t always go according to plan,¡± Sui Xiong wanted to work on creating this mega-sized model toy peacefully and steadily, but the Commonwealth of Gold Coins had already caused trouble. The Great Migration had come to an end. Now, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was still an ostensibly complete country. In truth, it had already been divided into two pieces, the North and the South. The South was dominated by the aristocrats as the core power of control with their large population. Their industry was based mainly on agricultural production. The North was dominated by the merchants as the core power of control. The population might be relatively small, but by virtue of well-developed businesses, they had a large amount of capital. This plan of ¡°Merchants to the North and Aristocrats to the South¡± might seem to be quite successful at first glance. But the problems soon arose. The aristocrats in the South began to impose heavy taxes on merchants in their own territories. By right, this matter was a logical consequence. The aristocrats had consolidated their domination, so the next step was naturally to weaken the merchants¡¯ strength. It was just that their methods were too unrefined, and the way they did things was too brutal. It just felt as though they were focused on draining the rivers to get the fish right before them and simply did not consider the long-term consequences. The merchants sought profits. So long as there were enough profits, it would not be a problem for them at all even if they had to cooperate with the aristocrats. But the aristocrats¡¯ approach had greatly slashed the profits that the merchants within their own territories could gain all of a sudden. Many petty merchants were headed straight for bankruptcy, and even the big merchants were severely affected with an impaired vigor. The merchants certainly did not agree, which immediately led to a dispute. But this time, the aristocrats did not yield at all. They expressed that they no longer needed to deal with despicable and malevolent merchants, so they got even more vicious in levying taxes. There were even places where the aristocratic lords directly brought their troops to the Chamber of Commerce to launch a raid. They had every intention of uprooting the merchants. In this way, the conflict was completely intensified. The great merchants were so angry that they began summoning mercenaries. They were setting the stage for the use of force to defend their own interests. However, the aristocrats did not budge. They also began gathering people for their troop, and it seemed they were ready to fight big time. Such a situation gave rise to mounting tension in the atmosphere of the bordering area between the North and the South. Soldiers from both sides had maintained combat-readiness and stayed alert at all times. They were ready to go to war at any time. Fortunately, the Church of the Goddess of Wealth stepped in and intervened. They saw that the situation had reached a point where things would get out of hand. They could no longer be bothered about the means and directly used the toughest method. Sending out their Legendary Masters and Oracles, they apprehended the leaders of the aristocratic party and the merchant party by force. Then they set up a parliament hall at the border and ordered the two leaders to have an effective negotiation. ¡°I don¡¯t care what conflict or resentment the both of you have. But I¡¯m just going to say one thing, you are forbidden to wage war!¡± ordered the Goddess of Wealth as she personally descended as her clone. With a harsh tone and stern expression, she said, ¡°Whoever dares to make a move, I¡¯ll confine them right beneath this parliament hall where they will never ever be able to regain freedom!¡± All these years, the Goddess of Wealth was always more inclined to using mild tactics. When it came to the differences between the merchant party and the aristocratic party, her church had been carrying out mediations time and again. There was never once where they had resorted to force. At that moment, as soon as she flew into a rage, the sudden outrage shocked both parties to instantly put their conflict on hold. Even if they had thousands of petty tactics in their minds, there was no way they could start a fight. So they were forced to negotiate honestly with each other. As the talk went on, both sides felt that manpower was lacking, so they both gathered talents from the rear. All kinds of powerful aristocrats and mid-ranked Chambers of Commerce rushed to this temporarily constructed Parliament Hall to participate in this conference that the Goddess of Wealth had forcibly convened. Seeing how this Parliament had finally started to make progress, the Goddess of Wealth felt as though a huge weight was lifted off her chest. Her face that was void of any trace of a smile finally showed signs of easing up. It was just that¡­ she also had to pay a hefty price. Coercive means were contrary to her doctrines. In other words, forcing the merchant party and the aristocratic party to negotiate was tantamount to hurting herself. Regardless of whether the negotiation would be a success or not, her divinity was already seriously wounded. It was also thanks to Sui Xiong¡¯s help in recent years that her divinity was able to increase to such a great extent, allowing her a little more space of autonomy. Coupled with prior mental preparation, she was able to make such a resolute decision. On the contrary, if the same situation were to happen decades ago, even if she had thought of this idea, she would never be able to implement it. She would only watch the situation worsen to finally get hopelessly out of hand. So when the aristocratic party and merchant party finally got started on negotiating with each other honestly, she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. And she went to extend her gratitude towards Sui Xiong. ¡°This time, I really have to thank you for your help all these years!¡± she said with utmost sincerity. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for my increased divinity over these years acting as a buffer, this time around, I definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to use such a method!¡± ¡°It¡¯s also because you knew how to grasp the opportunity and let it accumulate,¡± said Sui Xiong who did not claim any credit for what he did. Laughing heartily, he said, ¡°After all, we still need to know how to help ourselves. If you had not been accumulating diligently, this time around, no one could have helped you at all.¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± said the Goddess of Wealth as she nodded. Yet, her expression started to show signs of worry as she said, ¡°I wonder if they¡¯ll be able to reach a conclusion this time¡­ This parliament consists only of the two parties, the merchants and aristocrats. There are no representatives from the clergymen and civilians. I have this constant feeling that that¡¯s quite inappropriate.¡± ¡°Then why did you not mandate your participation in the talk between the two sides?¡± Sui Xiong asked ¡°Forcing them to negotiate is already my limit. I can¡¯t go any further to force them,¡± said the Goddess of Wealth with a sigh, and she shook her head. Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, leave this matter to me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just locking them up together to threaten them. I¡¯ve used such a means not too long ago, so I¡¯m quite skilled in it!¡± Chapter 713 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong had the audacity to speak in this tone, but indeed, it was well within his capacity for him to make such a bold statement. It should not be forgotten that just recently, he had blocked the way of a real god and confined this god within their home for a few months. Although the ¡°blocking-the-door tactic¡± did not achieve the desired effect, the Goddess of Love was still touched by Kalisa¡¯s undying love that towards the end, she changed her mind. But if Sui Xiong had not persevered in blocking her doors for so long, would the Goddess of Love bother to pay attention to Kalisa and then come to realize how unique Kalisa was? It was thus evident how the blocking-the-door tactic was still proven to be very effective. Even the gods were afraid of blocked doors; given a mere group of mortals, would it be possible for them not to be afraid? So Sui Xiong cast aside the unfinished fortress and headed straight for the venue of the Grand Parliament. He did not bother engaging in nonsensical talk with the mortals. He spread out his countless tentacles right away. Then the great aristocrats from all walks of life, powerful aristocrats, great merchants, leaders of large chambers of commerce and the likes of them were all caught and brought to the Parliament Hall. Then in an ice-cold tone, he said, ¡°I¡¯ve helped to gather all of you here. Take your time to talk things through.¡± A merchant who was slightly bolder asked, ¡°Just how long exactly are we supposed to have this talk?¡± ¡°When you have settled the problem, that¡¯s when this talk will end,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°If you can¡¯t reach an agreement, then all of you can live here all your life.¡± There was nothing strange in the first line. But the line that followed carried such a deadly aura that it scared the daylight out of those big shots. Some of them were so scared that they even peed their pants. Reality was not a story by the bards. There were few mortals in this world who dared to be at loggerheads with gods¡ªespecially when this god was one of the most powerful among all gods. All the more that no one would dare to go against his wishes. So even if they were unwilling to do so, the leaders from both the merchant party and aristocratic party obligingly sat themselves in the Parliament Hall to negotiate with deliberation. Sui Xiong was someone who practiced what he preached. He kept them shut securely within the Parliament Hall. From eating to answering nature¡¯s calls, everything had to be done within the hall. No one was allowed to take even a single step outside, much less go home to sleep. Winter had passed, and flowers could be seen blooming in the warmth of spring as the weather became warmer with each passing day. A big group of people had gathered inside the hall of this Grand Parliament. Even though food and drink could be brought in from the outside, and whatever they released when they answered the calls of nature could be carried out in chamber pots, bathing was still unthinkable¡ªwhen this Grand Parliament Hall was built previously, it did not cross anyone¡¯s mind that there would come a day where there was a need to bathe here. With a change of clothes or even, with the use of spells, the problem of dirty clothes could be resolved. But there was no help for the dirt on their body. As the days passed, those big shots within the Parliament Hall got increasingly dirty. Gradually, the people all had a body odor that made them smell really bad. And they were so used to this smell that they did not realize anything. But everyone entering the hall from the outside would get dizzy from the stench of these few hundreds of people. Then, later on, there were even people who vomited upon stepping inside. Up to this point in time, the Goddess of Wealth began to feel a little uneasy. She tried to persuade Sui Xiong to give these people a few days off. No matter what, they should scrub and tidy themselves up, or at least, wash off that terrible stench from their bodies. However, Sui Xiong remained adamantly unmoved and flatly refused her on this matter right away. ¡°I¡¯m a person who practices what I preach, and mean what I say,¡± he said. ¡°Since I¡¯ve taken this matter under my care, I must get something out of it. If they can¡¯t reach a conclusion, then all of them can just stink themselves to death in there!¡± There was no way anyone else¡¯s persuasion would work since his words were as such. These leaders from the merchant party and the aristocratic party could give up all hope. But how was it possible for a negotiation to reach a conclusion so quickly? Both sides had long reached the point where they wanted to fight one another to death by stabbing each other in the chest. Many problems simply had no room for moderation, accommodation or discussion. Even if they were anxious or worried or simply wanted to get out, no one was willing to give in. The leader of the aristocratic party, one of the two marquises, once said, ¡°Even if I die in this hall, don¡¯t expect me to give in at all! At most, we can all die together!¡± By comparison, the merchant party¡¯s attitude was a little milder. After all, the merchants were not as stubborn as the aristocrats. Or rather, they were characterized with softer and gentler dispositions, so there was no way they could be so resolute to death like the aristocrats. As time went on, they gradually started to back down. The moment the merchants started to show signs of conceding, the matter became easier to handle. Since the aristocrats had gained the upper hand, they did not mind giving in a little in certain areas, allowing this negotiation to gradually get on the right track. Everything that happened within the Grand Parliament Hall would naturally not escape Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes. Seeing the merchants retreating again, Sui Xiong sneered in his heart. He could not help thinking about Professor Cheng¡¯s comments years ago. The merchants were in truth, a group of people who were very weak. Although they were crazy enough in the face of interests, they tended to withdraw the moment they were required to toil through long and arduous periods. This was why none of the countries with complete basic infrastructure, with a foundation laid in place for future prosperity, were fully controlled by pureblood merchants. At that time, there were students who did not accept what the professor said. They asked, ¡°Since the merchants are so weak, then up till now, why is the world situation developing in such a way where the aristocrats are eliminated by the merchants? Professor Cheng laughed and said, ¡°The ones who eliminated the feudal system are not the merchants, but the people! The merchants are weak, and this made it easy to get them to yield to the aristocrats, as well as to give in to the people. So they¡¯d naturally get more support from the people as compared to the aristocrats. Then ultimately, the feudal system would be eliminated too. What¡¯s so strange about that?¡± ¡°If the power of the people is so strong, why do we still have so many kinds of problems in our lives?¡± someone asked. ¡°You little rascal! You think progress falls from the sky?¡± Professor Cheng scolded with a smile. ¡°You have no idea how many people¡¯s efforts, as well as how many twists and turns in life that people must endure, just to push for that little bit of progress. The ancient apes took hundreds of thousands of years before they evolved into humans, yet up till now, it has only been around a hundred years since the elimination of the feudal system¡ªthere are even places where the feudal systems have yet to be eliminated. Why are you in such a rush to build up a Society of Great Harmony? Reality is not just storytelling. There¡¯ll be no black technology like infinite energy emerging. We¡¯ll never be able to see the realization of a Society of Great Harmony in this lifetime¡­ Maybe in a few thousand years, it¡¯ll be possible.¡± Looking at the situation inside the Grand Parliament and recalling these words that Professor Cheng had said back then, Sui Xiong felt a sudden spark in his heart and then appeared to be absorbed in his thoughts. Relying solely on technological progress to boost social progress was ultimately still too slow. Should he focus on training those forces that were more progressive in nature and enable them to grow and mature faster? Until they were able to defeat the aristocrats who had social dominance in the government and bring about a new generation? If cultivation was required, what kind of strength should be cultivated? The working class? This world had yet to develop comprehensive large-scale production. The number of workers in this class was not big enough, so even if they wanted to sing, ¡°We workers have strength,¡± their voices would not ring loud enough with their mere numbers. The farmers¡¯ class? From his impression, the farmers in this world were even weaker than the merchants. Even if there was no food, most of them would only choose to escape. They did not have the courage to raise their arms in resistance, much less stage a revolt because they had no food. The merchant class? Just their burly appearance alone made Sui Xiong lose all confidence in them. Thinking through this over and over again, he still could not find the most suitable person. He could only secretly shake his head. It seemed like the degree of social development was still inadequate after all! Chapter 714 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the end, the result of this negotiation was relatively unfavorable to the merchants because the merchant party had once again conceded and compromised. Though taxes were reduced, the aristocratic lords could still send people to be directly involved in the management of the Chamber of Commerce. According to the aristocratic party, this was called supervision rights. As lords, they had to ensure that they were able to supervise every force in their territory. There should not be a truly uncontrolled force existing. But everyone knew that this would mean that almost all the chambers of commerce in the various territories would completely fall within the control of the local lords. Though usually, they could peacefully and steadily operate their businesses to make money, when the lords got angry and turned against them, they might be smothered and clobbered anytime. There was no way they could think of escaping at all. Given such a result, it would seem that Sui Xiong was certainly not going to accept this¡ªwho in the world would allow an enemy with a knife into his home? That would certainly be a fool incapable of using his brains! But to the merchants, so long as there were fewer taxes to pay and there was nothing affecting their means of income, they could give in to almost anything else. After all, the merchants were most concerned about money. Money was the only thing they ever cared about. When the outcome of the negotiations was out, Sui Xiong waved his tentacles and released the fellows in there. All of them smelled so bad that their stench was literally no different from that of rotting bodies. Then he left right away and returned to his God¡¯s Kingdom. ¡°Really too useless, no matter what help is given, they are still hopeless!¡± Sui Xiong said. Back in the council room, when he opened his mouth to speak, this was the first thing he said, ¡°Manissy, the merchant party is really a hopeless bunch!¡± The Goddess of Wealth was a little puzzled, so she asked, ¡°Doesn¡¯t this make a pretty good outcome? There¡¯s no need to go to war.¡± Sui Xiong could not help feeling at a loss for words, and then something came to mind¡­ this was clearly what was meant by ¡°if the upper beam was not straight, the lower one would go awry¡±! The Goddess of Wealth herself was just a silly goose who saw money but not danger. How could the merchant party be expected to be canny and far-sighted? Thinking about this, he could not help breathing out a deep sigh. ¡°Anyway, this matter is finally brought to a close,¡± he said. He could not be bothered to further talk about this screwed up matter and steered the topic back to serious business right away. ¡°I feel that our Republic of Northwest should take warning from this matter.¡± ¡°Take warning?¡± The gods from the Void God System looked at one another as they could not understand exactly where the need to ¡°take warning¡± was. After a moment, Wall asked, ¡°Your Majesty, we don¡¯t have any aristocrats who actually hold real power within our Republic of Northwest.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and said, ¡°The problem is not here. The problem lies within who should our country rely on? What kind of person should be the core of society?¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t it be the merchants, I guess?¡± Wall said. He thought about it, then said, ¡°The Republic of Northwest is almost a country founded on commerce. The core of the country should of course, be the merchants.¡± ¡°The merchants are simply weak to the core. They¡¯re not reliable!¡± Sui Xiong said. He shook his head and refuted Wall¡¯s claim. ¡°This time, I¡¯ve personally witnessed their weakness. I¡¯ve clearly forced the merchant party to the same level as the aristocratic party. So long as they had persevered and did not give in, the aristocratic party would have been the side succumbing in the end¡ªthe issue with inheritance rights of the merchants is easily resolvable. At most, they could divide the assets among themselves, but would the aristocrats accept the splitting of assets? Once this generation of aristocrats dies, their children would already be beating the hell out of one another just to vie for the inheritance rights, not to mention those relatives with inheritance rights yet not on good terms with the children of these aristocrats¡­ So long as this batch of representatives die when I catch the next batch of representatives, the aristocrats will have no choice but to give in.¡± ¡°That may be the case, but it seems a little too harsh¡­¡± Morani said. Shaking his head, he added, ¡°Must we go to the extent of people dying?¡± ¡°A war will result in even more deaths. So we can say those leaders from the aristocratic party and merchant party have parents giving birth to and raising them, but not the soldiers who sadly have to seek joy amidst the hardships in life?¡± Sui Xiong retorted. Morani thought for a moment, nodded and said, ¡°You¡¯re right. If losing a few great aristocrats or major merchants could solve the problem and avert a war, then we should just let them die.¡± ¡°But the result still ends up with the merchant party giving in. Because the aristocratic party is determined not to ever take a step back¡ªthe aristocratic party is resolute in giving up their first batch of people, but not the merchant party,¡± Sui Xiong lamented. ¡°The side that can afford to lose some people is not willing to bear losing some lives, and therefore, it ends up losing to the side that can¡¯t afford to lose anyone.¡± ¡°This is normal. For the aristocrats, preserving their honor would mean protecting their family¡¯s heritage. So they have the bravery to fight and the courage to die. Almost every family of aristocrats has lost members to war. This courage that is gathered with blood is something the merchants can never match up to,¡± said Law Brans, the God of Law. He added, ¡°In fact, you can tell from the armies of both parties. The army of the aristocratic party is usually led by the lord in person. Even if the lord is not a trained frontline soldier, he¡¯ll still be fighting at the fore of his army. What about the merchant party? Basically, you will not find them in places where flying arrows can reach.¡± ¡°True. That¡¯s why the merchant party will definitely lose if war truly breaks out,¡± said the God of Justice, Yorgaardman. He nodded his head and continued to say, ¡°I can prove this with my priesthood of ¡°Courage.¡± There are many people from the aristocratic party who conform to this part of my teachings, but few from the merchant party.¡± Sui Xiong felt suffocated by his anger as he listened on. He could not help letting out another sigh. The merchants from this world, as well as the merchants on Earth, were equally disappointing. However, the aristocrats from this world were stronger than those on Earth. From the looks of it, it was no easy feat in moving a step away from the Feudal Age to propel social progress! ¡°But I feel that things will change,¡± said the God of War, Wenner. Everyone had been discussing for a while when Wenner, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke. ¡°You all might not believe me if I were to say this, but I just predicted that there will still be a civil war within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s volume was raised a few decibels as he said, ¡°Aren¡¯t they done with negotiations and have already signed an agreement? Why are they still going to war?!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about this. I can only sense that they¡¯re still going to fight. As to specifically why they¡¯re going to fight¡­ In the end, what will the result be? I¡¯m totally clueless,¡± Wenner said. He threw up his hands and helplessly said, ¡°I¡¯m the God of War, not the God of Fate. I don¡¯t know exactly what will happen in the future.¡± ¡°So can you roughly tell who¡¯s going to win and who¡¯s about to lose?¡± the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, asked with concern. Wenner shut his eyes in silent contemplation for a moment, then somewhat puzzled, he said, ¡°It¡¯s strange¡­ Why do I feel that the merchant party stands a greater chance for victory?¡± ¡°How is that possible?!¡± Sui Xiong could not help but exclaim loudly. ¡°The merchant party can win this fight? This is absolutely impossible! Just that group of cowards, there¡¯s no way they can win this fight!¡± The gods nodded in unison as if by prior agreement. All these years, there had been a succession of conflicts between some of the merchants and aristocrats from various countries. And the results were almost one-sided; the merchants had never won before. ¡°How would I know how they¡¯re going to win?¡± Wenner said. He was very doubtful too. ¡°I myself feel that they¡¯re not going to win.¡± ¡°Then how did you arrive at the judgment that they have greater chances of winning?¡± ¡°I feel that, that¡¯s a judgment derived from my rational mind. But if I were to speculate using the power of my priesthood, the result will be that they stand a greater chance,¡± Wenner said helplessly. ¡°I, myself, am also wondering about this.¡± The gods discussed the matter animatedly. No one could figure out a way on exactly how the merchant party was going to win. After the meeting, the God of War sent many messengers out to the territories of the merchant party to gather intelligence¡ªhe was not concerned about whether the merchant party was going to win or not. But he was curious about exactly how the merchant party would win. On the other hand, Sui Xiong returned to Rye Fortress and continued to work on creating his ¡°real-life version of my world.¡± At the same time, he made a few clones of himself and deployed them over to the territories of the merchant party. The clones would then roam about these territories to gain an understanding of the situation. Although he was not the God of War, he was eager to know too. Exactly what would the merchant party depend on to possibly win this war, even when the gods were not optimistic about them at all? Chapter 715 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Soon, Sui Xiong received news from Wenner. He had found the opportunity for the merchant party to win the battle. Sui Xiong rushed over, but he wondered at the scene that greeted him. A group of people who bore no resemblance to soldiers, but rather looked more like farmers, were lined up neatly in an array. They were using long spears to pierce the targets before them. ¡°You¡¯re referring to this group of people?¡± Sui Xiong asked doubtfully. ¡°Yes. My priesthood has told me that they are the source of opportunity for the merchant party to take victory,¡± Wenner said with great confidence. Sui Xiong looked carefully. Then he shook his head repeatedly and said, ¡°I¡¯ll bet you that within that group, the biggest thing that the most experienced fighter has ever killed is no bigger than a rooster. Though his priesthood did not encompass that of War, in the realms of war, combat and the likes of them, he was still quite accomplished¡ªafter personally witnessing the death match between two master gods, especially the final strike made by the God of Human Beings, Wuther Rang¡¯s blade, he felt a deep sense of urgency rising within him. So upon inheriting the legacy of the former Sun God, the first thing he did was to work hard in studying these things that could increase combat power with immediate effect. With his ability, naturally, there was no way he could tell whether they would fight this battle. Neither was he sure which one, out of the two sides involved, was more likely to emerge victorious in this battle. But it would be effortless for him to see how high the level of combat power of a group of soldiers was. It seemed to him at that moment, the basic attributes of this group of soldiers were pretty good. All of them were strong and sturdy. It was rare that all of them were upright, and no one had bad habits. This contributed greatly to the social ethos of the army. But this group of soldiers were generally inexperienced and did not show signs of blood accumulated from killing people on them. It would take just one look at them to know that not long ago, these were just people who were farmers or workers. Sui Xiong truly did not think much of the combat power of such soldiers. Wenner smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s not a problem if they have little experience in taking lives. The key to the combat power of an army lies in its equipment and training. The actual combat is in fact, not that important. Anyway, so long as their hard power is in place, just fighting a battle or two would gain them enough actual combat experience. This is, in fact, the least valuable aspect.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and subconsciously asked, ¡°The powerful armies are all veterans who had stood the test of countless battles, aren¡¯t they? ¡°An army can experience countless battles, but the soldiers can¡¯t. The sword has no eyes; how many people in this world can fight battles for the rest of their lives?¡± Wenner said. He laughed and shook his head, then said, ¡°This is why there¡¯s one important principle when it comes to the way of training soldiers, that is, to rely mainly on training. In general, it means that if we can solve a problem with the use of training, we must remain resolute and not rely on an actual war to settle the problem.¡± ¡°I was still thinking of you as a firm supporter of actual combat.¡± ¡°The firm supporters of actual combat have all been beaten to death by me.¡± Upon hearing what Wenner just said, Sui Xiong burst into loud peals of laughter and nodded eagerly. He was not well-versed in the art of war and did not have much experience in military training. Despite the practice Crick had over the years, he was most probably still an amateur when compared to the true God of War, Wenner. Since Wenner felt that these people could become strong through training, then the case should be as such. ¡°But I still don¡¯t get it. Isn¡¯t it too late for them to only start training now?¡± Sui Xiong could not help asking after another short look. ¡°It¡¯s not late. Even if the war has already begun, it¡¯s not late at all, not to mention the fact that the war has yet to begin. At the beginning, it¡¯ll only be some friction on the border. When these develop into a full-scale war, it¡¯ll at least take another few years¡­ adding everything up from the beginning to this point in time, at the very least, there won¡¯t be a war between the North and South breaking out within the next five years,¡± Wenner said. When it was about judgments of war, Wenner was undoubtedly most authoritative, so no one would question what he had pointed out. ¡°Five years is enough for them to mature into a strong, reliable army.¡± This allowed Sui Xiong to grasp a full understanding of the situation, and finally, he could rest his heart at ease. They watched these rookies who had come into contact with these weapons not too long ago train. After a while, Wenner suddenly smiled and said, ¡°In fact, this army coming into existence has a lot to do with you.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Sui Xiong wondered and asked, ¡°What has it got to do with me?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have a Holy Spirit by the name of Crick Keane? This set of training methods was first brought up by him. The merchant party had a few powerful aristocrats, but because the party didn¡¯t have an army that was truly reliable, they¡¯re always in pursuit of reliable ways to train the soldiers. They looked all over for one and finally, they found Keane Hill,¡± Wenner said. His Oracles had just sent him a report to tell him about this matter. ¡°The merchants have paid a hefty price to obtain the Keane family¡¯s training secrets.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked into momentary paralysis. He hurriedly sent for his clergymen and followers in Keane City to check out the situation. The Church of the Void Mask had great influence in Keane City. The present Baron, Anna Keane, was Sui Xiong¡¯s follower. And her appointed successor to be the next city lord, her eldest son, Louis Keane was naturally also a member of the Church of the Void Mask. He was still a clergyman, though yet to even reach mid-rank, his status itself was enough to address the problem. More importantly, Louis Keane had personally handled this matter of teaching the Keane family¡¯s training methods to the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. About three months ago, which was the period where a terrible row was still going on within the Grand Parliament Hall, a few powerful merchants who were more far-sighted had sent people over to Keane City. They wanted to try to negotiate with the Keane family and see if they could learn the Keane family¡¯s ways of training soldiers. Unlike the other aristocrats in general, the Keane family had never recruited adventurers to form their army. Neither had they recruited those strong gangsters and ruffians, or the likes of them. They always recruited soldiers from amongst the civilians with decent family background and who were upright and honest. Then they would put these people through a long period of training to train them into loyal, courageous and tenacious soldiers who were skillful in battle. Over the years, Baron Keane had clashed with the other aristocrats in the surroundings more than once. There were even several situations that called for the mobilization of an army to fight. In every battle, this army never failed to display a very different style from the other ordinary troops¡ªthey were not more powerful than the traditional army, but they were particularly obedient to commands and also, they were persistent and indomitable. On more than one occasion, they had persisted with close to 20% of casualties and fought valiantly. Eventually, they defeated an enemy who might be more powerful than them. The merchants were not short of money, but they had always lacked a truly reliable army. The combat power of the mercenaries was unquestionable, but they were simply not reliable enough. Usually, or when they only had to fight battles that they could easily win, they were good enough. However, the moment they met with adverse situations, they would often collapse as an entire army. Then they would tear about like a pack of wild beasts trying to flee in panic. Of course, there were loyal and reliable mercenaries too. However, even if the merchant party had the money, there was no way they could engage too many mercenaries for such an army¡ªbecause they had a small number to start with. For example, the famous ¡°Mountaineers with Halberds¡± was an outstanding army that was extremely loyal and reliable. But even if the merchant party gathered almost all of such mercenaries on the continent and recruited them to form an army, there would not be enough to make up one thousand people. This number was certainly enough to fight the minor conflicts by the borders, but if the merchant party wanted to completely fall out with the aristocratic party and wage a full-scale war, this number would not even be enough to make up the frontline troops. This was why the merchant party attached particular importance to the Keane family¡¯s training methods. After spending a large amount of money and various political costs to get a hold of this set of training methods, they adjusted according to their actual situation. Then, they impatiently formed a few experimental armies and began the actual training. At that moment, Sui Xiong and Wenner were looking at one of these experimental armies. Chapter 716 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins lacked decisiveness at the critical moments and did not have that kind of spirit where they would leap into boiling cauldrons or raging fires with fixed gazes and clenched teeth. But so long as the situation was not that urgent and the pressure was not too great, they would still be able to maintain a clear and understandable way of thoughts. The core problem that the merchant party lay in the lack of a reliable army loyal to itself. So the moment the merchant party obtained the way to train a reliable, professional army from Keane Hill, they did not waste any time in putting it to practice. And they had been very careful in keeping it a secret. Every military camp was located in a fully controlled secret base in the north of the established Chamber of Commerce. No one was allowed to approach within a radius of at least 30 miles, even the convoys sending rations and supplies were only allowed up to 30 miles away from it. Then the base camp would send its own trucks to take over the task of transporting. To prevent aerial reconnaissance, more than 20 mid-ranked mages, or even higher-level mages, rotated on around-the-clock shifts where they would cast spells to maintain an illusion spell big enough to envelop the entire military base. Generally speaking, those tasked to carry out aerial reconnaissance were adventurers of the martial system who rode flying demon beasts to circumnavigate the base. They did not have the ability to see through illusions. But nothing could be too strange in such a vast world. Perhaps there was someone who was of a unique bloodline that he could see through illusions¡ªfor example, the heir to the James family of Keane Hill, Donald James. Or perhaps, there was someone who owned a magic prop that enabled him to see through illusions, or even¡­ Sometimes, even the battle mages might have to play their part as scouts just to obtain more detailed and reliable information. So these military training bases had a second shield¡ªhuge roofs. Supported by numerous pillars, these roofs were extensive enough to provide the bases shelter from wind and rain. They were also able to completely obscure the view of prying eyes from the sky. These hastily constructed emergency roofs were naturally not that sturdy. They were most probably similar to merely the carports or canopies found on Earth. But even if they were not that sturdy, they could still block the view from anyone. Even if the spellcasters were able to see through the illusion spell, it would be quite difficult for them to further see through these roofs with their reconnaissance spell to look at the soldiers below, who were sweating and training hard every day. In fact, even Wenner would almost be fooled if not for him being so experienced. Because on those roofs, there were patterns painted by a specialized painter¡ªthese patterns were exactly the same as the ground. From afar, it would look no different from the normal ground. If one did not fly close to it, even the gods would not be able to spot the problem with it. The illusion spells of mortals were ineffective against the gods, but these patterns that were drawn on the roofs were not magic. Wenner was almost fooled by this simple, yet crude method. Of course, he would not tell Sui Xiong about this. The two gods stayed in the air and watched for almost a day. They watched how the soldiers trained in combat skills, battle arrays, military orders, physical fitness¡­ those training ways were relatively simple and concise. There was nothing fanciful, nor was there the pursuit of anything ingenious. There were just two words to describe them: steady and swift. The first was stability. Any action, whether fighting or marching, had to pay due attention to ¡°stability.¡± These new soldiers were going to be the pillar and core of the merchant party¡¯s army in the future, so they had to first fulfill the requirement of stability and reliability. In this way, at the critical moments, they would be able to play a decisive role. The second was speed. On the premise of stability, the soldiers had to then pursue speed in action. When at war, speed was required whether in marching or fighting. So long as the soldiers were fast enough, the enemies would neither have the time to respond to an attack nor catch up with them when it was time to retreat. In this world, there was no recipe for any army to emerge victorious in every battle. But so long as an army could maintain a speed that was always faster than its enemy, or at least be able to escape when it was about to lose a fight, then this army would not suffer a crushing defeat. There might be other aspects to pursue besides these two points. But at the moment, for this rookie army, just these two points alone were more than enough. For the vast majority of the armies in the world, just these two points alone were more than enough. When the sky gradually darkened and the soldiers in the military base had gone to rest, Sui Xiong and Wenner also headed for different places. Wenner set off to look for a few other military bases, while Sui Xiong headed to Keane Hill. When he first learned that the training methods of these military bases were actually acquired from Keane Hill, he was really taken aback¡ªin Crick¡¯s memory, the training methods of Keane Hill were not so complex and sophisticated. They were very simple and basic. After arriving at Keane Hill, he made himself invisible and stayed in the army base for a few days to observe the situation. Then, he determined that the new armies of the merchant party were indeed using the training methods of the Keane family. And he also found the source of this set of training methods. It was simply the accumulation of time, that was all. In view of Keane Hill¡¯s lack of strength, which resulted in several heartbreaking incidents years ago, since Anna Keane took over as Baron Keane, she made great efforts in reorganizing the armament of the army. For training of soldiers, she inherited the tradition of ¡°recruiting law-abiding people for the army¡± that her brother had left behind. But she also compared her army with armies from other places. Then together with the knights under her command, they designed a set of detailed training stratagem. In the years that followed, they constantly revised and improved this set of strategy. Almost 30 years had passed since then. The young ladies back then had long become middle-aged women. This territory had been passed on to the hands of the next generation. And based on this ever-improving set of training methods, Keane Hill had trained an outstanding army that boasted strong combat power and resolute determination. In several border conflicts, this army had fought so impressively that they justified the power and might of Keane Hill. Anna¡¯s style of work was different from Crick¡¯s. She was not as deep and soft as Crick. She was more direct and vicious. Over the years, the aristocrats around her had suffered losses under her hands more than once. It was because she had beat up these aristocrats around her so harshly that they submitted to her out of fear, this was why the Thunder Lord could do nothing to Keane Hill¡ªno matter what he wanted to do, the aristocrats around Keane Hill would never want to do anything to antagonize Keane Hill again. And without their support, Keane Hill was simply beyond the reach of the Thunder Lord¡¯s power. Previously, under the proposition of his second son, the lord promoted Viscount Samat, who was then conferred with a territory next to Keane Hill. He wanted to make use of this warrior, who was fully loyal to his younger son, to provoke Keane Hill. If Viscount Samat blew things out of proportion and things got out of hand, the lord would have an excuse to mobilize his army. But that diehard loyal subject of his younger son was currently playing a live version of island survival in Sui Xiong¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom. Ray Shack, who had replaced his identity as Viscount Samat, did not have the slightest intention of making any trouble at all. As a result, the lord lost one of his territories in vain and sulked for days. As for that second son of the lord¡­ Because of the mistake he made on this matter, not only did he lose the advantageous edge he originally had in the battle of inheritance rights, he had also given the oldest son of the lord a chance to hunt him down and hit out at him. Currently, he was almost on the verge of losing this battle for inheritance rights. Now, the only suspense left was that when his brother became the lord, would he be allowed to secure his position as Marquis of Peace? Or would his brother follow the fine tradition of the Duchy of Thunder and send him to join the company of predecessors who had lost their inheritance rights in the past? Presumably, the possibility of the latter was higher. After all, the most reliable ones in this world were the dead ones. Chapter 717 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong stayed at Keane Hill for almost a week doing nothing much. He carefully observed the situation in Keane Hill and realized that there really was not much here that required his help for now. All kinds of matters were on the right track, and no job was particularly short of manpower. Recently, there were no natural disasters or sufferings happening, and there were no enemies around. The country was prosperous, and the people were at peace. The seasonable weather with gentle wind and timely rain provided a propitious climate for a good harvest. Naturally, there was no need for the blessings of the gods. Sui Xiong felt slightly left out. But he could not always be hoping for the people to be in misfortune just so he could satisfy his psychological demands. There was simply no such thing in the world! So he had roamed about here and there and made two rounds about Keane Hill to look at the various places. With nothing else for him to do, he recalled this other body of his back and continued to focus on building Rye Fortress. The original Rye Fortress was strong enough, but that was all. Whether externally or internally, it did not have enough means of defense. Other than that sturdy high wall, it practically had nothing more to offer. First, Sui Xiong expanded its size. He designed it with two surrounding city walls, one inner and one outer. The outer city wall was slightly lower while the inner city wall was higher, and there was a rather wide gap between these two walls. This was the so-called ¡°Urn City¡± design. Not only that, Sui Xiong also installed ballistae on the outer city wall and catapults on the inner city wall. Huge ballistae and heavy-duty catapults had long been invented in this world. It was just that people seldom put these powerful weapons on city walls. And also, there were few cities with city walls wide enough to accommodate these big guys. But to Sui Xiong, none of these things were a problem. Though it was redundant. The city walls of the new Rye Fortress were so outrageously high. Even the slightly lower outer walls were at least 25 to 26 stories high. The inner walls were even higher than the outer ones by at least ten meters. Just this towering city wall alone was enough to make any attacker feel despair. There were also all sorts of siege equipment in this world. But in this world, was there any siege equipment that could face up to such ultra-high city walls? It was very difficult to make an aerial wooden ladder that could reach such a height¡ªthe aerial ladder had to be high enough, so naturally, it would be very heavy. When the ladder was so heavy, up to a certain extent, it would be hard for the ladder to bear even its own weight. Wanting to find wood that was sturdy enough would truly be no easy feat. As for the catapults and any other weapons, they would not be able to unleash great power when facing walls so high¡ªif there were no obstacles in the way, it would probably not be difficult to toss rocks so high up by building a large catapult. But in a head-on collision, if they were going against a city wall that also had catapults and a bed of ballistae, it would be a death sentence for those on the ground no matter what. And it would be a tragic death, an extremely tragic one that was so horrible that no one could bear the sight of it! If nothing else, after Sui Xiong was done repairing this super wall, he had once tested it by using a catapult against it. In the end, he realized that from where he was, the target on the ground was far too small. If he had set the scope of vision to a mortal level, only small black dots could be seen¡­ Not only were the city walls extremely high, but they were also exceptionally sturdy. The walls were made out of a special stone that Sui Xiong had carefully selected from rock surfaces. And after it had been strengthened by him, its hardness was extraordinary. Even refined weapons like a heavy-duty battle axe would only produce some sparks when used to chop its surface ruthlessly, much less smashing the stones to pieces. And the sparks would leave nothing more than white prints that would disappear at the mere gentle wipe of anyone¡¯s hands. To prevent attackers from using spells like the Earthquake spell to destroy the city walls, Sui Xiong had also further reinforced the military base. The scope of the area that he had strengthened was very wide. Even if the Legendary Masters used a Legendizing spell to legendize the Earthquake spell, they could still forget about shaking these terrifying city walls and the military base, much less talk about the Earthquake spell used by advanced mages in general. ¡°I feel that this fortress is already strong enough,¡± said Morani, who had come to visit the fortress out of curiosity. After taking a careful look, he sighed and said, ¡°So long as there¡¯s no problem inside the fortress, I can¡¯t imagine any mortal army being able to break it down.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Of course! These city walls are simply crazy! If I was leading my army out to war years ago and met with such a city wall, I think I would sigh and withdraw my soldiers right away,¡± Morani said with a smile as he shook his head. He added, ¡°It¡¯s impossible to take those walls down.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes lit up and waved his tentacles. He drew strokes by brushing against the wall and wrote a few big words that said, ¡°Sighing walls.¡± ¡°To break down these walls, you¡¯ll need to assemble 12 sparkling gold men who are all of different styles. Then by burning all their wills to create a ray of sunlight, you¡¯ll be able to drill a hole in the wall¡­¡± He was gushing, going on incessantly when Morani coughed twice and pointed at the sky. Sui Xiong looked up. He saw the blue sky and white clouds, and the sun was shining brightly. ¡°Nima! Is it still possible to have fun with this¡­?¡± After being hit by the brilliant sunlight, Sui Xiong no longer invested further efforts in trying to get that ¡°12 golden men crashing through the Sighing walls¡± stunt to work out. It was not destined to be staged. Instead, he started to deliberate on the issue of air defense. There were air forces in this world. And they were not small-scale forces. On the decisive battlefield of the ¡°battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day,¡± both the Orc Empire and the Eagle Kingdom had assembled air forces that added up to more than a thousand people. Especially the Eagle Kingdom, who at its peak was said to have a force of 3000 men consisting of its air force and ground force. Even though there were not many Griffin Knights or Eagle Knights among them, and the vast majority were Griffin sentries and Eagle sentries, who were not suitable for combat, they were nonetheless, still members of the air force. The most reliable way to deal with air forces was naturally to also send out one¡¯s own air force. But how many soldiers from an air force can be stationed in a mere fortress? So Sui Xiong decided that he had to further work on air defense. But here was the problem¡ªjust like how the city walls of this new Rye fortress had to be high enough to make its attacker despair, the air forces had to be able to fly at a height that was high enough to make those on the ground feel despair. In the face of enemies flying at least 400 to 500 meters in the air, the ground forces would really be left at their wits¡¯ end. They could only accept the one-sided beatings from those above them. Even on Earth, unless heavy-duty weapons like anti-aircrafts were used, ordinary guns were completely useless against these enemies at this height, not to mention in this world. Of course, if a marksman used an advanced enchanted bow and arrow, he might be able to shoot that high. But such bows and arrows were rare, and the number of marksmen who could master them was equally scarce. As compared to the air forces, their numbers were totally on a different scale. So no matter how Sui Xiong thought about it, he felt that he should still work purely on defensive power. Half a month later, the entire fortress was enveloped by a huge slanted roof. The attack means of the air force was nothing more than throwing stones from the air. This roof had been enchanted with a special spell, so even rain and snow could not stay adhered to the roof, not to mention stones. No matter how many stones the enemies sent crashing down, these stones would just roll smoothly along the roof surface and fall out of the fortress. As for such things like ¡°smashing the roof¡­¡± Sui Xiong had used magic to put this fortress through ¡°integration.¡± In the face of such a perverse fortress that could evenly disperse the force regardless of the kind of attack, Sui Xiong truly found it inconceivable for anyone to be able to smash this roof with stones. Want to smash it? Sure, carry a mountain over here before saying anything else! If they truly had to confront a master capable of conquering nature, then any fortress would be of no use at all. There was also no need to consider ¡°defense¡± whatsoever. After he had completed these two main facilities, the first stage of Sui Xiong¡¯s renovation works was finally over. What was left to be done was the detailed interior decoration. Looking at the empty fortress with nothing but a mere skeleton, Sui Xiong could not help rubbing his tentacles together. With a heart full of anticipation, he laughed. ¡°This time, I must create such an attraction that anyone who sees it for the first time would find it unforgettable!¡± Chapter 718 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio To be honest, the new Rye Fortress that Sui Xiong renovated was not very beautiful, at least not from the outside. Originally, the two towering inner and outer walls were indeed magnificent. However, with a roof of the same color over them, the walls suddenly lost their grandiosity. From afar, it was like a huge black cylinder coming out of the ground. Fortunately, its top shrunk smoothly and became smaller. All the way at the top, there was a spire. If only the roof could be a little rounder and slightly bigger¡­ This design was Sui Xiong¡¯s original intention, but after he had come up with it, he felt that something was not right. No matter how he looked at it, he could not find the problem. But in his heart, the feeling that something was not right was getting stronger and stronger. Finally, he simply made a miniature model that was palm-sized, and then, he understood what went wrong. Oh god! What a dome! Within the so-called ¡°folk culture,¡± this was simply called ¡°A Stick to the Sky!¡± As an art student, Sui Xiong lacked a lot of knowledge that ordinary college students should have. But he also had a lot of knowledge that generally, universities in this world would never teach. For example, he knew that many cultural forms in the world still existed in relatively primitive areas. In these areas, there was still the worship of sex. And things like the Twin Milk Mountain and Heavenly Stick, which by the standards of the developed world would be regarded as inharmonious and unhealthy, were objects of worship. Sui Xiong did not discriminate against such a culture. But he certainly did not want to practice it personally. The thought of how the future generations might compare him with Steele because of this ¡°One Stick to the Sky Fortress¡± gave him a toothache. Although he did not have any teeth to start with. He had no teeth, yet he still had a toothache. This went to show how serious the problem was. So Sui Xiong¡¯s final choice in making the overall look of the fortress like a spike pointing to the sky was actually his last resort. Such a shape was in fact, not considered mighty and domineering. So he had to put in more effort into the interior design. Therefore, Sui Xiong got to work. First, he planned to design the inside of the fortress into a maze with nine curves and eighteen rings. Unless it was someone with the right to use this secret passage, if not it would take a long time to pass through this fortress, even with a map in hand. This was naturally an extremely effective means, but there was still work required to be done to prevent anyone from smashing through the door. When playing board games in his own world, Sui Xiong had once encountered a kind of player known as the ¡°Door Smashing¡± group. Whenever they encountered mazes or puzzles in the midst of missions, they would never do what they were asked to do honestly. They would tend to resolve the issues by using simple and crude means. For example, someone had devised a mission as such: a village chief felt uneasy about the mass multiplication of goblins in a nearby cave. He wished to recruit a group of warriors to annihilate them. As a reward, he would give away a few of his treasured magic scrolls to the heroes who could annihilate the goblin tribe. According to how normal people like Sui Xiong would think, of course, everyone would put together their equipment and pack their supplies, then head to the cave to fight and eliminate the goblins. Then they would return to claim their rewards. But the Door Smashing group would not do so. When Sui Xiong participated in this game, he had seen with his own eyes how a few players from the Door Smashing group blocked the entrance of the cave with several large rocks and then through the cracks found within the stones, they filled the inside of the cave with smoke. Then following the movement of smoke within the cave, they located and blocked the various vents of the cave. They had brought enough rocks over to block all the exits of that cave, then they went to work on other things. About a month later, they returned to the cave. They unblocked the entrance of the cave and saw dead bodies of goblins strewn all over the ground. These hapless magic beasts died of thirst. Though they could rely on killing each other, then feeding on each other¡¯s flesh to get food, they were still stuck in a situation where they had food but no water. Under such a circumstance, they would, in fact, die much faster than not eating and drinking at all¡­ So the mission was accomplished. Other than using up some physical strength and time, there was nothing else that the Door Smashing group had consumed. They got their reward easily. At that time, Sui Xiong was dumbfounded. Thereafter, he had picked up quite a handful of tricks from this Door Smashing group. For example, if there was a treasure trove right ahead, but the door was locked, what should be done? Ordinary people would think of finding the key to open the door or letting thieves try to pick the lock. The Door Smashing group would simply smash the door directly¡ªbecause this was such a classic method, thus giving rise to the name ¡°Door Smashing¡± group. Then what if one were to encounter a maze. What should be done? Ordinary people would carefully explore their way like how thieves would have done. They would advance while making their own maps as they carefully explored the way out. The Door Smashing group¡¯s method was to directly smash the walls and go straight through the maze. In addition, there were also all kinds of situations that need not be further mentioned. In short, the Door Smashing group was a dynamic and energetic existence. Yet their existence was a source of distress for anyone tasked to design mazes and missions. Unquestionably, Sui Xiong also wanted to prevent the Door Smashing group from stirring up trouble. This was why he reinforced the walls of the mazes inside the fortress with extra strength. Want to break down the walls? If you are capable of doing so, then this fortress would be nothing to you at all. According to his test results, which were based on conservative estimates, those who were able to break through the walls were obviously at least at the advanced legendary level. Those who were at the advanced legendary level were no cabbages from the fields. On the entire Main Plane, the total number could probably be counted on one hand. This was why Sui Xiong was totally not worried about a wild advanced legendary being suddenly appearing to cause him any trouble. That being the case, this maze was as steady as Mount Tai. I think it¡¯s best that I don¡¯t toot my own horn. From what I can recall, the boastful ones generally receive a slap from reality. Sui Xiong looked at the maze that was constructed purely out of massive black rocks and laughed. He wiped away all the messy thoughts in his mind and began to work on decorating it. Question: What kind of material should be used to decorate the maze? Answer: What else but traps! Though the maze itself alone had a certain level of defensive power, this defensive power was not strong enough. After all, the maze itself was unable to kill anyone. So it needed something that could really hurt the enemies. The answer to what could do harm to enemies would either be soldiers or traps. In the future, there would definitely be soldiers stationed inside the fortress. But if the traps were strong enough, they could kill some of these soldiers stationed in the fortress. If there was really a battle, it would be easier for the soldiers to destroy the enemies. This was the reason why Sui Xiong began to lay traps in the maze. He set all the traps that he could think of inside the maze. For example, swinging beams and rolling stones, crossbows and ground spikes, lightning and poisonous gases, sticky glue and fire pillars¡­ All kinds of traps were put together. In this maze that was not very large, there was a total of more than 1000 traps. These traps were not isolated but interlocked with one another. A trap was mostly connected to a few other traps. Even if the enemy managed to escape from one of these traps, he might not be able to escape from the rest. Even if they were very resourceful or had all the luck in the world to be able to escape the entire set of traps, they would not be able to rejoice too soon. Because these traps were able to recover automatically. Anyway, after all the traps were set in place, Sui Xiong had once triggered them all to activate them. Then he created a clone whose physical attributes matched that of a normal human being and tried going through the maze. In the end¡­ even though he knew where and what kind of traps were ahead of him, his clone could only break through slightly short of a fifth of the entire distance before falling prey to the traps. ¡°NICE!¡± Retracting his clone, Sui Xiong laughed heartily and said, ¡°That¡¯s the effect I wanted!¡± Chapter 719 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The maze and traps productions were complete. The main body of this attraction, the new Rye Fortress, could almost be considered as complete. All that was left to be done was only some modification works like the trimming of edges. However, these modification works were really very important. Before Sui Xiong crossed worlds, he knew an illustrator who was clearly very skilled in his work, but his business had never been good. The reason was that this illustrator¡¯s works were unusually simple with almost no background at all. The clothes that his characters wore were also plain without adornment¡ªin fact, this illustrator always had a keen interest in painting characters dressed in the white robes of the ancient Greek. This was his way of realizing his aesthetic standard of ¡°simplicity is beauty.¡± From Sui Xiong¡¯s professional viewpoint, that illustrator¡¯s standard was truly excellent. There was nothing wrong with his aesthetic of simplicity was best. However, buyers and players did not agree with this viewpoint. This was why even after Sui Xiong had traversed his world to come to this world, that illustrator was still pretty much down-and-out and was fully relying on his small grocery store to make ends meet¡­ Sui Xiong was not a keen supporter of simplicity. He belonged to the kind of artists who supported Kitsch. Getting the crowd to like his works was his greatest pursuit. Therefore, he was prepared to spend a little more time to decorate this fortress and make it as flamboyant as possible so that every visitor would be able to relish the beauty of the place. As for how they would relish in the beauty while being in a maze filled with traps, this had never crossed his mind at all. So he got intensely busy again. At first glance, the work this time did not seem to be as large-scale as before. In fact, because the nature of the job was more meticulous and delicate, his workload was increased instead of decreased. This was especially so because Sui Xiong had a slight obsessive-compulsive disorder. There could be no repeated set of decoration, and every mural had to have a source. So all the more, his workload was greatly increased. This was just like a writer working on his novels. If he cleared his mind of random thoughts and merely typed away, he could probably type seven to eight thousand words in an hour. But if he wanted to conceive the plot while writing his sentences, then type while editing his work frequently; then it would be considered highly productive if he could produce two thousand words in an hour. Sui Xiong kept himself busy inside the new Rye Fortress while the Republic of Northwest began to work on an important job. Training the army. The conflict between the merchant party and aristocratic party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins had roused the entire continent. Every country paid close attention to it. The Republic of Northwest, being a country directly next to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, was undoubtedly very concerned. Sui Xiong was currently on the border of these two countries, and with him standing guard, the war would absolutely be unable to spread to the Republic of Northwest. But after a discussion, the leaders of the Republic finally decided that if necessary, the Republic should send its army to support the merchant party. No matter what, the Republic of Northwest was a country founded by commerce after all. It had even abolished the aristocratic lord system. Though relations with the various countries were quite good at the moment, fundamentally speaking, there were irreconcilable conflicts between them, and the countries were ruled by aristocrats. So even if peace was still maintained at present, the Republic of Northwest should still step up and strengthen its national defense construction. And also, the Republic should at least render support to the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins who also shared the same stand on anti-aristocracy. As for how strong the support they should give exactly, the leaders of the Republic of Northwest were still discussing, or rather, arguing. According to Felix, the great governor, he felt that they should fully support the merchant party. It was best if they could bring down the aristocratic party and establish another republic where everyone would watch out for one another. This would then ensure national security. But this radical proposal met the concerted objections of several other great governors. Whether it was Madam Teague, who was in charge of the people¡¯s livelihoods, or Leonard, who was in charge of the military, or Gerald, who was the church¡¯s representative, no one favored such a drastic approach. Even the leaders from Garth City, Geerteng Hill, Keane Hill and Grey Tower were not in favor of going to such extent. Madam Teague had always been against military action, and she stood for anti-war. In her view, the Republic of Northwest had the protection of His Majesty, the Void Mask. It was peaceful and free of worries. There was no need to worry about danger. If one fine day, His Majesty, the Void Mask, was no longer willing to protect the Republic of Northwest or could no longer protect it, then no matter how much effort they put in, they might not be able to protect their country. So thinking hard about all these empty and pointless things was simply a waste of time and energy. They should make good use of time by dealing with matters on government administration. Leonard felt that the merchant party was incompetent. They were simply a helpless bunch with great ambitions but no ability to accomplish. It would not be a big deal for the Republic of Northwest to send some instructors over, but to directly send them the army¡­ He was afraid these good-for-nothings would become a burden to the army. However, he felt that if the circumstances were right, the Republic of Northwest could consider a merger of the merchants for the expansion of its territory. He was willing to lend his support if it was fighting a war for the expansion of territory. Gerald felt that the merchant party also did not seem to be any better than the aristocratic party. Compared to the latter, it was nothing more than a duo of ¡°bad guys¡± and ¡°guys worse than bad guys.¡± There was no need to support the merchant party just for the sake of opposing the aristocratic party. This approach had always seemed a little silly to him. If they must choose a side to support, they should just support the civilians of Commonwealth of Gold Coins in staging a rebellion. Given his identity, it was inappropriate for Leon to speak up at this discussion. This was why the spokesperson for Garth City was its city lord, Kalisa. She felt that the Republic of Northwest should give support to the merchant party in two aspects, namely material resources and instructors. As for directly sending out their army¡­ Unless the merchant party suffered a crushing defeat such that it needed help, it would be better not to send out an army so easily. Geerteng Hill and Keane Hill had similar takes on this. But they were slightly more open-minded. Olian and Anna both expressed that they could send out their armies to render support, but it would not be a big army of many soldiers. Old Hart, the city lord of Grey Tower City, was a little more conservative. He said that Grey Tower City and the various cities in its surroundings could combine forces and send out around a hundred mid-ranked mages. This team would be led by ten advanced mages, and they would help the merchant party to deal with work that was not related to combat. If more spellcasters were required, then these mages could also help to establish contacts. But he stressed in particular that these mages would only be responsible for logistics or support work. They should never be deployed to the frontlines. Besides them, the other senior figures of the Republic also expressed their opinions. The Chief of Intelligence, Easter, insisted that ¡°intelligence officers should not interfere with the country¡¯s internal affairs,¡± and firmly refused to commit to taking a side. And even the Chief of Medicine, Steele, who was sprawled across the table in a deep sleep was awakened and somewhat forced to express her opinion. Finally, the conclusion of their discussion was that the Republic of Northwest would step up its training of its army. However, it would not be sending its army to support the merchant party. ¡°If we are not going to fight a war, why is there a need to train our army?¡± Madam Teague asked. She was very discontented and said, ¡°Our soldiers are all young and strong laborers. This is such a waste!¡± ¡°It¡¯s always good to be prepared. When there are precautionary measures, we¡¯ll always be safe,¡± Leonard said. He smiled and added, ¡°Who knows, we might even be able to gain some advantages along the way. If there are no opportunities along the way, then so be it. But if there are, then it¡¯ll be a pity if we were to lose the opportunity because we don¡¯t have enough troops.¡± So the Republic itself sent 1000 people, while Geerteng Hill, Keane Hill and Garth City each sent 100 people. Last but not least, Grey Tower City and a few nearby autonomous cities combined forces to send out 200 people. An army of 1500 people in total was soon assembled, and they began training intensively. This army was unlike the group of new recruits of the merchant party. It consisted of veteran soldiers with a certain foundation. Leonard¡¯s training regime was mainly divided into three parts. The first part was for them to adapt to the new equipment that was specially made for them and get them familiar with the armor and weapons. The second part was to strengthen their running-in ability so as to increase their efficiency of executing orders. The final part was training their ability to deal with special circumstances, like night raids, rapid march and the likes of these. At the crucial moments, they would be able to fight and eventually emerge victorious in the battle As for how long would the training take? The chief of military affairs, Leonard, said that the training would go on for as long as time allowed. In short, the more elite they were, the better it would be. ¡°No one will find that his blade is too sharp,¡± he said. Chapter 720 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The details of the meeting were soon reported to Sui Xiong. The one responsible for the report was none other than Leonard himself. ¡°Is it worth making a trip personally for such a trifling matter?¡± Sui Xiong asked. He wondered about this after he had listened to the report. Though Leonard usually appeared as a mortal, he was, in fact, an evil god. His strength could probably overpower most of the weak Divine Powers and some of the relatively weak mid-level Divine Powers. Take Javier, for example. If Javier were to fight Leonard one-on-one, the former might not even last a few cuffs and kicks from the latter. Just for a report on the details of a meeting, did it really require this evil god to make a trip personally? Sui Xiong did not really think so. It was simply a waste of talent! ¡°It¡¯s mainly because there are some matters that I would like to talk about with you in detail,¡± Leonard said. He smiled, randomly jumped into the air and found a spot to sit. At this point in time, there was only him and Sui Xiong, so there was no need for him to hide his strength. ¡°I feel¡­ I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s going to be a massive civil war within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins,¡± he said. With eyes widened, Sui Xiong was stumped upon hearing that first thing Leonard had to say. ¡°You¡­ how did you know?¡± ¡°Eh? There¡¯s really going to be a war? And a massive war at that?!¡± Leonard asked. Now he was the one in shock instead. Originally, he was just speculating. He had never expected his guess to be right, so he could not help but ask, ¡°How do you know for sure?¡± ¡°It was the judgment of the God of War,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Then, we verified it together.¡± This made Leonard even more curious, and he asked, ¡°Verify? How do you verify that?¡± So Sui Xiong told him the details of the entire matter. After listening to what Sui Xiong said, Leonard made a clone of himself and sent it flying straight to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. About half an hour later, his tongue clicked away as he erupted in loud shouts of applause. His expression was filled with amazement. Apparently, his clone had found that military training base that Sui Xiong spoke of and had taken a thorough look at it. ¡°The God of War is indeed worthy to be called a professional. His vision is indeed impressive!¡± Leonard exclaimed. After his moment of amazement, he sincerely praised, ¡°This new army, though inexperienced, has morale that¡¯s very positive. So long as they¡¯re given enough time, they will certainly be able to grow into an outstanding army or even become a world-renowned strong army!¡± Sui Xiong nodded. He was somewhat curious and thus asked, ¡°Morale is very positive? What kind of saying is that? I¡¯ve never heard of morale being positive or negative before.¡± ¡°This is a kind of understanding I¡¯ve got about the military. I feel that the key to whether an army is strong or not lies in three parts. The first part is naturally the soldiers¡¯ physique. People who are physically weak will never be able to become outstanding soldiers, no matter what they do. So there is no way a strong army can be formed. The second part is the equipment. Although it¡¯s not true that a war can¡¯t be fought without good equipment, given the same conditions, it¡¯ll certainly be the side with good equipment that has the upper hand. The last part, which is also the most important part, is morale!¡± He paused for a moment then said, ¡°From how I see it, morale not only comprises of the army¡¯s courage but also whether they are brave enough to combat, and more importantly, whether they have the right attitude or not. Are they able to execute commands well? Are they able to maintain good military discipline? A brave army that¡¯s full of vigor and dares to fight may not necessarily be invincible. For instance, the barbarians from Northern Iceland are unquestionably full of valor and vigor, but whether they¡¯re against the Orc Empire, or the Kingdom of Holy Angels¡ªnow known as the Kingdom of Light¡ªin battles all year round, they¡¯re always losing more than they win. One of the most crucial reasons is that the moment they win the battle, they¡¯ll be so impatient in wanting to grab the loot. This causes them to lose their military discipline right away. ¡°Back in those days when I had to lead troops, I fought several battles against them. At first, I was inexperienced and always stuck to confronting them with a tough-against-tough approach. I suffered quite a lot then. Later on, an elderly senior taught me the way to deal with them. When I fight them, I had to bring more cattle and sheep, food supplies, salt, medicine and so on. The moment I start the battle, I must first concede a small defeat and throw everything all over the place in a mess. Then they¡¯ll get distracted and be in disarray among themselves as they start fighting for the loot. At this time, my army will strike back. With this approach, I can win almost all the battles.¡± Upon hearing this, Sui Xiong could not help but ask, ¡°You used this method only once or twice. Thereafter, you didn¡¯t use it anymore?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve always been using it,¡± Wenner said as he laughed. He said, ¡°Although everyone knows the drill for this method, the barbarians¡¯ military discipline is really terrible. In the face of loot so close at hand, they¡¯re simply unable to suppress their desire to plunder. So, even though they are aware that such behavior is not good, they¡¯re still unable to do anything¡ªin fact, many Barbarians plan to just rob a place and leave right away. Even if they are going to fight a losing battle, what matters is that they manage to obtain something and return alive. Whether others live or die or whether the other tribes live or die, what has that got to do with them?¡± Now, Sui Xiong fully understood the whole picture. He could not help but lament, ¡°That army is really terrible!¡± ¡°Yes, it is. That¡¯s why I feel that an outstanding army must not only be brave, but more importantly, it must have strict discipline. And it¡¯s best for the army to be simple in nature. This way, the soldiers won¡¯t be easily cheated or tempted,¡± Leonard said. ¡°And that new army that the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins is training gives me such a vibe.¡± ¡°You are rating them so highly?¡± Sui Xiong asked. He was taken aback. Leonard said in all seriousness, ¡°It¡¯ll only be higher than whatever you may conceive. Seeing such an army and knowing that the merchant party will use this as their training model in the future to train a large number of such armies, I can almost ascertain that the aristocratic party is heading for doom. There¡¯s no chance for them to win at all.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and said, ¡°Though I¡¯m not as certain as you, I also feel that such an army is much more reliable than the traditional army.¡± ¡°Yes, especially when the merchant party has enough money to arm the army with suitable equipment. At the same time, hiring some masters as a reserve force to back the army up is also a way to bridge the gap between the strength of the merchant party and the aristocratic party¡­ in short, so long as this army takes form, the traditional army will not be able to gain any advantage before them. It¡¯ll then depend on the commander¡¯s ability to prevent his army from fighting a losing battle.¡± After Leonard had given a long tirade, he said that he wanted to go back to his people with the information he saw and then re-discuss about how they should handle the relationship with the merchant party. As for the aristocratic party¡­ they were destined to be the doomed ones and were no longer worthy of attention. This time, Sui Xiong also attended the meeting. At the meeting, Leonard told everyone what he saw and the related analysis. The higher-ups of the Republic were all taken aback by this startling news. Then, after a discussion, they quickly decided on a solution with respect to the issue between the merchant party and aristocratic party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. They were ready to dig a hole for the aristocratic party to jump into. The moment the aristocratic party lost the battle, they would be able to take advantage of their situation and reap some benefits. As for the merchant party, they had decided to strengthen cooperation. And it was comprehensive cooperation at that. It was best to take advantage of this period where the merchant party had yet to take superiority in the full-scale civil war. They had to bind them to the chariot of the Republic and then do all that was required to push for the establishment of the second Republic after they had won the civil war. To that end, it was now the time to start making advances to woo the merchant party. Chapter 721 ¡°As the job requires, second-level-explorer Hopes Wilder will participate in a joint expedition with the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. The job will commence on October 8th, at the Mining Hall. Food and accommodation can be claimed at the City Hall Finance Office. This message is by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Northwest.¡± Hopes stared at this command with some suspicion. He took out his gloves and scratched his head, puzzled. ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this?¡± The messenger was a pure rabbit-man who had blood-red eyes and a humorous smile. He was clearly used to such a situation as he merely smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m unaware of the details, but I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins have some collaborative events, and helping them excavate is one of them. They lack manpower, and thus we will be sending some talent over to help. The higher-ups were looking at the name list and realized that we have a talented young man who became a second-degree worker shortly after graduation, and is thus worth developing. So¡­ you know.¡± Hopes understood his meaning and smiled. The Republic of Northwest ranked its workers according to their talents and skills. A level-one worker was one who had the basic skills and could finish a job decently. A level-two worker was one who had the same skills as a level-one worker but with improvement. A level-three worker was a leader. A level-four worker was a mentor. A level-five worker was an innovator or creator. Finally, a level-six worker was one who could teach the skills and write manuals. Although in theory, these levels could continue on to seven or eight, there were currently six at maximum. Half-Orc Hopes Wilder had learned prospecting and mineral separation at the New Oriental Technical School. After he had graduated, he had gone to Gold-Panning Town to work for two years. With his brilliant performance, he was upgraded to a level-two worker and returned to a smelting center near Void City. Hopes Wilder was young and curious, smart and talented. He thus earned a substantial salary and lived happily. Recently, he had just bought a house in Void City and was prepared to move out of his hostel. He had wanted to invite some seniors who had been taking care of him to recommend some ladies to create a family after he had moved in and was planning to live happily ever after, if not for this sudden command. After he smiled, he read the message and was lost in thought. In actuality, he was not willing to leave the Republic of Northwest. The environment and atmosphere was to his liking, and he felt relaxed here. The idea of leaving brought his mind back to memories from his past. That was about five, six years ago. However, to Hopes, it felt like an eternity before. What used to be familiar was now foreign, and it was all blurry when he looked back as if it didn¡¯t quite happen. He knew that it was because he had grown used to his current lifestyle and was unable to return to the old days. He did not desire to do so anyway. Sigh¡­ Why am I thinking about those days again¡­? He chided himself lightly before shaking his head and walking away dully. The Republic of Northwest did not have a forced labor rule. While this command was by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hopes had the choice to reject it should he wish and there would be no punishment¡ªsuch a command was usually seen as undesirable by the workers who did not wish to travel and thus it was difficult to convince workers to take up such roles. However, because of this, the pay was very high. This job paid especially well as the travel distance was far, and the destination was extremely isolated. Hopes Wilder was tempted by the idea of such high pay. If he wanted to buy a house, marry a woman and start a family, he would require lots of money. Based on his current pay, he could probably afford it, but if he were to come across a large sum of money, he could live comfortably in the future. So he thought further and decided that the journey wasn¡¯t too bad. In the end, he decided to pay a visit to city hall to hear the details of the job. After he had completed the task at hand, he stripped off his work uniform and took a bath before taking the command paper to city hall. He directly approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was greeted by a smiling, chubby man with scars on his face. This man could not be described as fat, but he was rather big and had a round face, making him look stubby overall. ¡°Brother Cambrona, I¡¯ve received a command. Do you know what this is about?¡± Hopes walked over and greeted Cambrona. They had known each other from a while back, when Hopes had first entered the country. Afterward, they had become strong friends who had lunch together often. Cambrona was an easy-going person who had many friends. Because of his job in the ministry, he received quick access to news, and friends often found him for any gossip or intel. Looking at Hopes¡¯ command, Cambrona asked him to wait and ran off to find his colleagues for assistance. After a while, he returned to tell Hopes all that he knew. This expedition was to help the Commonwealth of Gold Coins explore several mine veins. Their exact locations were unknown, but they were probably close to the edge of the Republic of Northwest. As it was an outbound expedition, the pay was high and could come close to three to five times the normal pay¡ªthis extent depended on the results of the expedition. Furthermore, high ranking powers were leading the trip to ensure the safety of all workers. When Hopes heard that, he nodded and asked, ¡°So¡­ Brother Cambrona¡­ do you think this is a worthy expedition to go on?¡± Cambrona thought for a while and looked around furtively before whispering back, ¡°Well, it¡¯s definitely worth it but¡­ the risk is rather big!¡± ¡°Danger?! What danger?¡± Hopes lowered his voice similarly and asked worriedly. ¡°Let¡¯s talk after I¡¯ve ended work for the day. It¡¯s not convenient to discuss this here.¡± Thus, after Cambrona had ended work, they headed to his house. With the accompaniment of warm wine and home-cooked food, Hopes, Cambrona and his wife discussed the matter at hand. ¡°A war may erupt at the Commonwealth of Gold Coins.¡± Cambrona did not beat around the bush and jumped straight into the topic. Hopes Wilder was shocked and began frantically questioning Cambrona. Cambrona¡¯s wife was a nurse, and she worked at Lady Steele Geerteng¡¯s Hospital. During this period of time, the hospital had started training war nurses in masses. Some of the nurses had felt suspicious and had asked Lady Geerteng why. The answer they had received was that while the Republic was not directly involved, an internal war was likely to happen in the Commonwealth. If it were just an internal war, it would not have concerned Hopes normally as he was not physically there. Now, though, of course, if he were to head to the Commonwealth for a job, this would directly involve him. Even if he wasn¡¯t a member of the Commonwealth, being caught in the midst of battle meant that he would be in great danger nevertheless. Chapter 722 Upon hearing Cambrona¡¯s introduction, Hopes was silent for a while before saying, ¡°Should there be an internal war in the Commonwealth, it would also only be along the Republic¡¯s borders. We¡¯re heading to a place of our own, and it would be isolated as well¡­ surely the risk wouldn¡¯t be too big then?¡± Hopes had really wanted to earn that large sum of money. Furthermore, the proposal of the expedition meant that it was highly likely for mining veins to be found. Thus, it would be easy to receive five times the pay. His original pay was already rather high as he worked outdoors. Five times of his pay was a large amount! This was like how on Earth, prospectors were paid rather highly¡ªSui Xiong used to have a neighbor¡¯s child who specialized in this and had graduated two years before him. His salary had been about six thousand each year, and this was two times Sui Xiong¡¯s pay as a store man. Of course, Sui Xiong had not been envious of that neighbor¡¯s child as he had his own side income from being an illustrator. That pay had been higher than that of his store man job, and if he compared his overall income to the neighbor¡¯s child, it was much higher then. However, if his neighbor¡¯s child had gone to a place such as the Himalayas or the Antarctic or other dangerous areas, his pay would have been scaled higher¡ªthose jobs took a few years to complete without much rest. The Republic of Northwest paid explorers highly, higher than that on Earth. This was because while the job was lucrative, it was also dangerous¡ªthis world did not have such useful protection measures and utilities, and those who were not fit enough were unable to go. If anything were to happen, they would not be able to request immediate help. Hopes Wilder felt that he was not in much danger at the moment. He was alone and did not have any social commitments; if he really perished in the wild, it would not matter much. His parents were dead to him once he had left the family, and they acted as if he did not exist anymore, as did he. If he had not uttered his name previously, he could have forgotten it over time as well. To Hopes, the most important thing was to earn disposable income for his house, wedding and future family. His old family was no longer his business. He wanted to start his own family and start a family line of workers. So despite the risks, he still wanted to accept the job. After listening to his point of view, Cambrona and Jane glanced at each other in silence. After a while, Jane said. ¡°If you¡¯re not afraid of the danger, then the job is indeed decent. However, the risks are not as low as you think.¡± Hopes was stunned, and he stared at her in panic. ¡°I just thought about it, if I were an aristocrat and should the merchants start a war with me and cooperate with the Republic at the same time, what would I do? I would definitely want to spoil their union. I would definitely send men to kill all from the Republic. If these men from the Republic died on the merchants¡¯ land, the merchants would be answerable. If they could not answer, it would definitely sour their relationship.¡± Jane spoke in a calm tone, but her words spooked Hopes, who broke out in cold sweat. ¡°But well¡­ is it really so serious?¡± He began to stutter out of fright. ¡°Maybe not, but we should always take precautions against the worst-case scenario. In that case, you could lose your life,¡± Jane rationalized calmly. Hopes was silent again for a long time before he sighed deeply. ¡°Looks like this job is impossible. Maybe I should just give it up.¡± ¡°That depends as well. One can only receive great treasure by taking some risks. In life, we will always meet with obstacles. We can only hope that we don¡¯t attempt to conquer them in vain. While this job is dangerous, if you can stay alive despite the killings, you¡¯d get a large sum as compensation.¡± Cambrona presented an opposing point of view. ¡°How do I ensure that I stay alive though? I have limited skills, and I¡¯m rather new to this.¡± Hopes smiled bitterly. ¡°I believe the government will make the necessary arrangements. If we could think of these issues, I¡¯m sure the higher-ups did as well. If they want to work with the merchants, they¡¯d make sure that you don¡¯t die on the job. You will probably have high-level, hidden protection.¡± Jane did not agree with her husband, though. ¡°However, whatever we can think of are things that the aristocrats would consider too. If they are sending out assassins, it means that they would ensure that they have the means to carry out the killings. When the two sides attack each other, you may well be one of many side casualties caught in the crossfire.¡± Hopes felt torn as he heard the two sides, and he creased his brow in frustration. After dinner, he returned to his dorm and lay on the bed to think. Should he go, or not? If he went, the danger was certainly there. However, as per what Cambrona had said, the pay was worth the risk, even if the risk meant putting his life on the line. Yet, when he thought of playing with life, he felt apprehensive. Death was still too scary to think about! In the day, it was easy for him to look at death lightly. However, in the dark of the night, he felt alone and scared. It was terrifying! ¡°You¡¯re such a coward! Why do you keep changing your mind?¡± He chided himself. Such a dilemma was due to his family background as he was half wolf and half rabbit. While the wolf tribe was one of the craftiest and fiercest among the beasts¡ªthey were hot-headed and unafraid of danger¡ªrabbits were soft at heart and were easily frightened by the smallest things. Hopes, spanning the two tribes, was brave in the day like a wolf but was easily scared at night when left alone, and this was where his rabbit side showed. It took him a long time before he could calm down and fall asleep. That night, he had several nightmares and dreamt that he met with danger which caused his death on mountains, mountain peaks or by mystical creatures. He also dreamt that he did not meet with any accidents but was killed by assassins. However, he grew brave again the next day while walking on the streets. ¡°Cambrona is right. One has to take some risks in life!¡± he convinced himself. With the command in hand and some simple luggage, he set out for city hall to claim his traveling money and boarded the public bus towards Pyrotech City. Chapter 723 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On October 14, Hopes Wilder arrived at Pyrotech City. Without caring for much rest, he immediately set out for the Mining Center without fail. Although it was early, he felt that it was better than being late. The Mining Center¡¯s formal name was the Republic of Northwest¡¯s Mining Department, but it was located in Pyrotech City as mining efforts took place mostly between the Pyrotech City and Taojincheng as well as the few villages between. The efficiency of work processing was high. A for connections with Void City, non-urgent matters were communicated through a messenger, and urgent messages were conveyed with magic. The building was not tall, only about three floors high. However, it was firmly carved into the shape of a cube. Hopes entered through the front door and reported to the processing agent with his name and identification papers. ¡°Second door on the left, on the second floor. There¡¯s no sign on the door, but it is always open,¡± the middle-aged lady smiled and said politely to him. Hopes thanked her and proceeded upstairs to the room she had mentioned. There were two people in the room. One had long black hair and looked slightly like a girl, and he looked skeptically at Hopes. The other had hair that was turning white, and he smiled benevolently at Hopes. ¡°I¡¯m Hopes, an exploration worker, and I¡¯m reporting for duty to head towards the Commonwealth of Gold Coins.¡± ¡°Oh, I see.¡± The older man smiled and nodded, and the younger man¡¯s face softened. After checking his identity and command, the older man took out a document and explained the situation in detail to Hopes. It was roughly similar to what he had heard from Cambrona. The expedition was to bring about tangible benefits. The area they were seeking out was a mountain range located in the northern part of the Commonwealth, and it was at least 300 miles away from the nearest city area. The nearest source of civilization was a village that only had about 60 residents, and one required two days¡¯ walk to reach their campground from the village. Near the campground, a group of explorers had found silver ores. They had sold this information to a small merchant union nearby who had then informed their higher-ups. To explore silver ores in such a remote place required some decent talent to do so. Once the large merchant union had heard about it, the news spread to a majority of the merchants. Thus, while they had discussed collaborative efforts with the Republic, they planned an expedition regarding this matter. Of course, the merchants would have set off by themselves if it had been an easier task. Hopes listened till the end before querying on his biggest worry: the dangers he would face. ¡°Is there danger? Of course there will be. However, it can be controlled, so you do not need to fear. Furthermore, one is bound to meet with danger in life,¡± the old man said. ¡°You¡¯re still young and fit, if you don¡¯t take these risks now, you won¡¯t be able to do so in the future when you are old like me!¡± The old man spoke in a leisurely way but with some degree of influence, and he managed to make Hopes smile. After that, Hopes began to register formally for the role. The younger man was in charge of the administrative details, and he was extremely meticulous. He queried Hopes on his personal particulars. ¡°From the Orc Empire, no official status¡­ This is only your surface identity. Tell me more, and don¡¯t be afraid. I won¡¯t leak it to anyone.¡± Hopes smiled bitterly but relented nevertheless. Since the men had promised to keep his background a secret, he did not mind sharing more. ¡°My name is true, but my birth identity has a bit of an issue. Although I am indeed from the Orc Empire, I¡¯m from a nameless tribe and am from the wolf Wilder tribe. My father was one of the grandsons of the tribe leader, but my mother was a princess from the rabbit tribes. ¡± ¡°Ah! You¡¯re the one who was announced as the dead mixed-blood child by the Wilders, right?¡± The young man smiled in earnest this time. ¡°Yes,¡± Hopes smiled bitterly and replied. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, no one here will judge you for that. If anyone dares to look down on you, come find us for help! I am the manager of the Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Animal Resource Center, Clito, and he is the Mining Center¡¯s manager, Reif Kawat.¡± Hopes was shocked as he did not expect to meet such important figures in person. The administration of the Republic was a little blurry, but there was a general rule that only high ranking officials took on solo leadership roles. Hopes knew of Reif Kawat. He was the first miner in the country and had presided over the construction of negative energy magic crystal veins long ago. As for Clito, he had never heard of him, but from his job scope, he seemed like an important man nevertheless. Seeing as Hopes was rather stressed, Clito smiled and poured him a cup of tea. It was sweet and fragrant and allowed Hopes to relax and explain his background more calmly. There was not much to say except for the fact that he was relentlessly looked down upon and had reached a point of desperation where he had abandoned his family. Reif sighed repeatedly, and Clito shook his head. When Hopes had finished his story, the two officials comforted him and told him to forget the past and concentrate on his current job opportunity. ¡°The Republic is your home now and so are the mining grounds. No one will bully you here,¡± Reif said. ¡°If anyone dares to, I¡¯ll destroy him!¡± Clito seconded this opinion. At this moment, another worker who had received the command reported for duty and thus Hopes bid the officials farewell. Once their job was done, the two officials discussed Hopes¡¯ case in detail again. ¡°He¡¯s led a tough life since young, I¡¯m sure it hasn¡¯t been easy for him!¡± Reif said. ¡°He¡¯s strong, though. I can tell that he possesses great internal power and magical powers.¡± Clit replied. ¡°Hey! He¡¯s a good miner, don¡¯t poach him as an explorer!¡± ¡°I think I would like to develop him as an explorer though. He has great strength and will do well as one.¡± ¡°When are you planning to tell him?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no rush. I will be part of this expedition with him anyway, we can discuss it along the way¡­¡± Chapter 724 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Hopes carried his suitcase to the accommodation arranged for him by the mining department. This was a four-man room, and one of his roommates had already arrived and was reading a book on his bed. Looking at his roommate¡¯s soft and silky hair as well as his pointy ears, Hopes could tell that he was of elvish descent. He was probably from a long line of elves too as he could sense the natural magic revolving around his roommate. As a quasi-caster in the direction of the druid, Hopes could demonstrate a few tricks of natural magic but could not carry out high-level ones. He could sense that his roommate was definitely stronger than he was and was either a natural wizard or druid of a certain class, at least middle class in fact. What was a mid-class druid doing here as a miner? Hopes was confused but felt too awkward to ask, and thus, he simply greeted him politely. The roommate, Sid, was a quiet man. After introducing himself, he sat quietly and continued to read without any intention to make small talk. Luckily, Hopes was also not a talkative person, and he decided to mind his own business and explore his surroundings after storing his luggage. As it had been a rather spur of the moment decision, he had only brought along a few simple belongings. Upon hearing Clito explain that they would be undergoing training for a period of time, he decided to buy more lifestyle items that he would need. Toothpaste and a toothbrush, easy-to-wash underwear, a washbasin and other simple toiletries, and a hot-water bottle that was easy to use but not convenient for long-distance transportation¡­ When he returned, a second roommate who had just arrived stared on in shock. ¡°Why¡­ why do you have so many things?¡± the thick and dark man asked. ¡°Is it really a lot? The four hot water bottles are for us, one each. The other two are for common use. The four washing basins are also for the four of us, just as the toothpaste and toothbrushes are. However, I only bought underwear for myself, if you all need that, you will have to buy it yourself¡­¡± The man had the sudden realization that Hopes was being extremely generous and thanked him frantically and offered to pay for some of it. ¡°It¡¯s alright. We can make claims for the purchases we have made, so these are not on my own expenses. If I could, I would, but I don¡¯t have that much money to treat everyone!¡± Hopes bantered and winked. The big man couldn¡¯t help it and laughed as well, and this broke the ice instantly. His name was Ruby, and he was an immigrant from the Commonwealth. Unlike Hopes and Sid, he was not a science graduate, technical worker, but rather a retired explorer. ¡°Retired? Are you very old?¡± Hopes asked in confusion. ¡°No, I¡¯m only 30 years old. However, I became an explorer when I was 16. It has already been 14 years¡­ I wanted to earn some quick money and return to my hometown to enjoy a nice, quiet life but earning money is tough. When I finally earned enough, in the end¡­ sigh!¡± Evidently, he had a sad past. Ruby sighed and said, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m retired. I came here because I learned some wilderness and survival skills in the past, and thus, I signed up as a miner. I¡¯m not really sure how I got selected for this trip though. ¡°You must be extremely talented then!¡± Hopes exclaimed. ¡°Talented? Compared to Sid, I¡¯m nobody. He¡¯s the true talent.¡± Ruby shook his head in disagreement. Hopes was caught by surprise, and he turned to glance at Sid with admiration. Sid, upon being mentioned, sighed and put down his book. ¡°Don¡¯t namedrop me, I¡¯m far from talented! If you really want to name names, our team leader Uncle Clito is the true talent. Compared to him, I¡¯m just like an ant along the roadside.¡± ¡°Uncle Clito? Isn¡¯t he quite young, about our age?¡± Hope asked in surprise. ¡°Young? His daughter just got engaged a while back and is preparing to get married next year, and you call him young? He just looks young.¡± Sid laughed. Hopes was shocked as he did not imagine Clito to be more than 25, let alone have an engaged daughter. ¡°Did he marry and have children early?¡± Ruby asked. ¡°Yes, he did marry rather early, but his daughter is rather mature already and could even be said to be late to marry. Sister Yue is 26 going on 27 this year; she¡¯s not that young. I remember there was a period of time where Uncle Clito was scared that she would never get married.¡± Sid appeared to be rather familiar with Clito, and he explained slowly. ¡°Afterwards?¡± Ruby pressed on curiously. ¡°Afterwards? Afterwards, he made sure to set his daughter up for several blind dates, and Sister Yue had been extremely dissatisfied and even threatened to walk out¡­ Aunty Nice had to convince her to stay. Later on, she somehow managed to get a boyfriend, and out of the blue, they announced that they were getting married. Uncle Clito had been furious at that time as he felt that Sister Yue had been conned somehow, and he had nearly ran out to give her boyfriend a beating¡­¡± Hopes thought about it and felt like he could empathize with Clito. As a father, it was natural to worry for his daughter, be it the case of being without a boyfriend or with a dubious man. When Hopes¡¯ big sister had gotten married, his father had had the same doubts. ¡°Honestly, Uncle Clito is just too paranoid sometimes! Aunty Nice is already 60, and she still hasn¡¯t found her other half, but she isn¡¯t worried about it at all.¡± Hope blinked at Sid, feeling as if he had misheard him. He turned to look at Ruby, who wore a similar look of disbelief. For someone to be almost 60 and not be wed, that meant it was probably impossible! She was already considered an old woman! Sid was an observant man, and he immediately guessed what they were thinking and laughed. ¡°Don¡¯t misunderstand, Aunty Nice is a dominant spirit like me and has a long life. She is also an advanced mage. In a few years, she will enter the Legendary Realm. Being 60 means nothing to her.¡± Ruby and Hopes immediately understood their misunderstanding and laughed. After the joke had passed, Hopes questioned Sid curiously, ¡°From the way you speak, it sounds like you¡¯re rather familiar with Leader Clito and the rest?¡± ¡°Yes, I grew up with Sister Yue. Our parents were both workaholics and usually left us to our own devices¡­¡± Sid replied. ¡°What background are you from?¡± ¡°Me? I¡¯m just an ordinary half-elf. My parents were Principal Felix¡¯s first batch of students, and they built Pyroxene Town with her. Afterwards, they settled down in the town, got married and gave birth to me. At that time, Uncle Clito and Aunty Nice was already living here, and Sister Yue was already born as well. As for me¡­ I guess I can be considered as part of the first batch of Pyroxene Town¡¯s kindergarten.¡± At this point, Sid burst out laughing and said, ¡°According to some bards, I¡¯m considered a pure native of the Republic.¡± Chapter 725 - Vol V Chapter 85 Chapter 725: Vol V Chapter 85 The title of a pure native was a very interesting one. It referred to those who were born in the Republic of Northwest. It had only been established for thirty-odd years, and thus there weren¡¯t many pure natives. Sid was one of them. He was twenty this year and had just graduated from the Isuka School of Magic. As an outstanding druid, his magical skills and war skills were both above average. However, his greatest strength was in his innate senses towards mining veins. The teachers at his school had felt that in his blood, he had minerals and elements from the inner layer of the earth that stimulated him. Although elemental creatures had no gender, magicians¡¯ experiments had proven that many creatures with elemental blood had been born. This was especially so in the era of the wizards, where their spellcasters had transferred large amounts of the elements into their bodies or depended on elemental strength, causing blood changes and earning the desired strength. At that time, there were many elemental creatures, and some were possibly Sid¡¯s ancestors. Sid¡¯s situation was not uncommon, and they were termed as spiritual demons. While the name seemed very lofty, it was the complete opposite ¡ª one could look at the genetic strength to see this. The overlapping of the gods and elves was mostly taken up by the elves. Thus, only a little bit of powers of the gods remained. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a pity? The title sounds so prestigious!¡± Hopes said. ¡°Actually, being a spiritual demon is nothing much. The title refers to those who have inner or outer planes. For example, if I did not have elf blood, I¡¯d be a directionless spiritual demon or an earth element. It sounds like a pretty cool title, but these people usually turn out to be socially awkward and often receive callings from their ancestors¡­ These ancestors would not be clear, and they would be fanaticized by these calls and chase them back to the ancestral plane¡­¡± ¡°Would they succeed?¡± Hopes asked. ¡°It¡¯s not that easy! Very few actually succeed, and the rest fade along with the light. Many only realize their foolish ways after they become old and regret wasting their youth, but many others don¡¯t even reach this realization even when they¡¯re about to die¡­ On the other hand, half-elves are much more stable. Even if they wanted to return to their roots, they could just go back to the Ancient Forest.¡± It was evident that he was not fond of his spiritual demon status but was rather neutral about it. At the very least, he was willing to become an exploration worker and utilize his natural element skills. ¡°Actually, I did not plan to come as I wanted to learn to farm. However, Uncle Clito convinced me. He said that I was still young and that half-elves live long lives. If I wanted to be a farmer, I could wait till I was over thirty and married with children to pursue it. At this age, I should take some risks and explore the world, improving myself while I still can.¡± Hopes nodded and thought for a while before turning his attention to Ruby. Ruby was pouring a cup of tea while learning from a textbook and did not notice Hopes¡¯ gaze. Young people should be adventurous, while middle-aged people should be stable. However, Sid¡¯s ¡°adventurous¡± stage was about the same as Ruby¡¯s ¡°stable¡± stage. Thinking of this, Hopes couldn¡¯t help but laugh. His was short and bulky, and he wore a thick armor. He did not look like an exploration worker but rather an explorer. His name was Dudu Hill, and he was a young dwarf; this could be seen by his short beard To the dwarves, when the beard grew longer than the palm, it indicated that they were fully grown. Dudu Hill¡¯s beard was thin and short, signaling that he was still young. However, he did not lack in skill, and he was able to speak several languages as well as understanding much about rocks and mining. In fact, his level of knowledge could parallel that of outstanding student Hopes. He also had decent fighting skills and followed Ruby to cut wood a while after he had arrived. Ruby was an explorer of tens of years, and thus, keeping up with him was no easy feat. The most talented in the group, however, was still Sid. Although he did not participate in the wood cutting, when Dudu Hill had wanted to challenge him, he had still produced a certificate. It showed that in the fourth season of a world fighting tournament, he had been one of the top sixteen contestants. This stunned Dudu Hill and the other two as well. They knew that he was talented, but not to this extent. The world fighting competitions were the most important in this world, and the youth group was full of talented young who with impressive skills even before they were grown. Some were even stronger than explorers. For example, the ¡°King of the Seaside¡± Leon who won the championship title in the Eagle King Knights competition and neared the Legendary Realm. Being a part of the top sixteen still showed his extreme strength, even if he had been lucky enough to meet weaker opponents. Dudu stared at the certificate, unsatisfied, and said, ¡°When I was in the first contest, I was still young. Next time¡­ I¡¯ll also get some good results!¡± ¡°All the best at you. However, you don¡¯t really earn much if you win. It¡¯s better if you focus on being a miner; you could earn more that way.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like I lack money!¡± Sid frowned and stared at Dudu Hill. Dudu Hill pursed his lips and put on a ¡°I don¡¯t want to say anything¡± kind of look. After a while, Sid nodded and said, ¡°Anyway, being a miner is good. It suits you. Better than fighting in some contest.¡± This time, Dudu did not retaliate and simply sat on his bed, arranging his belongings in silence. Dwarfs¡¯ bedding needs were special, and he had brought them here. After a while, Dudu and Ruby left to buy undergarments and other items. Hopes curiously found Sid to ask about Dudu¡¯s background. ¡°It¡¯s not much of a secret anyway. Just like your surname is Wilder and it represents a tribe in the Orc Empire, his surname is Hill, and it represents one of the dwarven tribes.¡± Chapter 726 - Vol V Chapter 86 Chapter 726: Vol V Chapter 86 Just like how schools separated students into normal and special classes, the participants in this expedition were also split into normal and elite groups. The elite group consisted of the four roommates: Sid, Hopes, Ruby and Dudu. All four of them possessed a certain level of skill. Even the weakest, Hopes, would not lose to the experienced explorers if he was being serious. His fighting skills were decent, and he knew natural magic; thus, he was of a decent standard overall. Unless it was an experienced veteran, a typical explorer would not be able to defeat him. Of course, for him to demonstrate that kind of skill required a life or death sort of situation. One usually showed their highest level of skill when they were forced to. For example, in the past, when Sui Xiong had been an illustrator, he had heard of an interesting story: In the industry, there had been a senior artist who only drew one piece of art per week. Once, when he was severely in need of money, he forced himself to end all social interaction and entertainment and drew for sixteen, seventeen hours a day. In the end, he managed to complete what he would usually take two months to complete in two weeks. Although such an elite team had been arranged, the Republic and mining center did not want to put them in any actual danger. They simply put in necessary precautions in the event of a difficult situation. To be honest, their preparations were rather sufficient. Not only were the exploration workers sent for special training, but the elite team was also dispatched as the frontline team for reconnaissance and eliminate any possible dangers. What was more important was that Sui Xiong was also participating. He sent out a separate body and floated in the air, checking the area meticulously. In his eyes, the lush forests and thick rocks meant nothing. Only the big and small light spots caught his attention as they shone. Each light spot represented life¡ªthe stronger creatures, at least those equivalent to the wild wolf, were those who may pose as threats to the workers. These light spots were the manifestations of the life energy of the creatures¡¯ souls. Thus, the stronger the life energy of the creature, the stronger its light spot would be. Sui Xiong overlooked most of the weaker light spots and concentrated on a few special ones that were especially bright. ¡°Strange¡­ It¡¯s not like this place is extremely isolated. Why is there such a strong creature here?¡± he muttered to himself as he flew towards the brightest light spot. This light spot was hidden underground. For a typical person to find a cave, they would have to take several turns and twists before reaching its entrance. However, Sui Xiong simply morphed into an incorporeal form and was able to move to the entrance of the cave without being blocked by the rocks and sand. It was a giant fish which lived in a river below a mountain. It had dull yet heavy, armor-like scales, no pectoral fins and no pelvic fins. In place of fins, it had four short but strong legs. Upon closer inspection, one would realize that these legs had several active tentacles. This fish had an extremely big brain, and it took up almost half of his body. The rest of his body was mostly made up of his tail. The entire body was about seven or eight houses¡¯ wide, but his torso was actually extremely small. If it wanted to swallow a human whole, it would be no problem at all. Sui Xiong stared at the fish suspiciously. With its huge stature, it clearly could not pass through any narrow roads or crevices. How did it manage to sustain itself then? He turned invisible and stood in front of the giant fish to observe it. Sui Xiong realized that the giant fish, which by right shouldn¡¯t usually appear in freshwater, was making extremely slow movements and was quite possibly hibernating. Maybe¡­ it survived by perpetually being in a state of hibernation? Sui Xiong shook his head and mentally crossed out this possibility. Even if it were hibernating, it would occasionally still need to wake up to consume food. In such a place, the presence of a plentiful food source was unlikely. Sui Xiong observed for a while more but was still unable to figure out the giant fish. He then tried to read this odd fish¡¯s inner thoughts. The sad thing was that the giant fish had a rather empty brain. It could be likened to one¡¯s mindless reading of forum posts on the internet, where it did not really retain any information at all. He was only able to sense a special ability. It was able to summon foreign creatures. Apparently, the giant fish had grown to this size thanks to this ability. Using its summoning skills, it lured aliens to itself as food. By killing and eating them, the giant fish also managed to absorb all the aliens¡¯ skills and powers. Its giant size meant that it had eaten a sizeable number of aliens thus far. The giant fish had a slow reaction time and took about half a day to become fully awake. When it woke up, it first exercised its body and swam a few laps in the narrow river. It then stretched its limbs and waved its tentacles one by one in the air while emitting a piercing sound. This sound meant that the speed of the tentacles¡¯ movement had surpassed the typical speed of sound. The scales on the giant fish also started to emit differently colored rays of light. These all demonstrated its magical powers and hinted that it had a high level of skill. Watching this, Sui Xiong made a mental note that this giant fish must be rather dangerous. Although the giant fish did not affect him personally, the giant fish¡¯s strength was enough to create a crisis on land. If it decided to run to any port, the average port would not be able to defend against its attack. After a period of activity, the giant fish sank to the bottom of the river and stopped any movement as if it were resting. After half a day, when it was close to night-time, it rose to the surface again, and both sides of his head flipped around as it emitted strange sounds. This was the giant fish carrying out prayers. While the chant was not long, it was messy, ominous and made anyone who heard it go crazy. This was an ancient and archaic chant. If a typical person heard the chants without any spiritual protection, they would be harmed, go mad or even die. With the ominous chants, the giant fish used its tentacles to create special drawings in the air. Sui Xiong was unable to understand the full essence of the images but could guess that they represented hell, but which hell? And what did they mean? He was unsure. However, Sui Xiong was certain that the giant fish was summoning an old and ancient demon. How strange! What does it want to do? Is it summoning a demon to do its bidding and find food for it? That¡¯s rather ridiculous¡­ Chapter 727 When the chants and creation of images had ended, the magic created flowed like running water, tearing open a space in the air to open a flash portal. There was a deep and chaotic atmosphere coming from the portal like an abyss. An arm thicker than an ordinary person¡¯s waist stretched out. On it was a thick layer of nails and many spikes that looked extremely menacing. The owner of the arm, a demon with five arms, four legs and two brains, passed through the door with a strange growl. Although it was hard to pinpoint its origin, Sui Xiong could easily sense that this creature was rather strong. Within the abyss, it would be counted as mid-legendary level and could be a small leader. Even if it faced challenges and was suppressed, it would still be able to maintain its skills. If strong demons like these materialized in a densely populated city, there would definitely be bloodshed. It would be easy for it to get rid of hundreds of people, and that would already be considered little. If they were careless, even a whole town could be completely wiped out. Devils were strange creatures in the sense that even if their strength was suppressed, its chaotic nature would still exist. If one neared it or looked at it, it would stir chaos in that person¡¯s heart and make them crazy. If explained in game terms, one could say: As its chaotic nature was key, any approach by a human would test their mental strength. If one were to fail, he would become haunted. Of course, Sui Xiong was unaffected by this devil, but looking at the evil vibes from the portal, he was worried for the humans. This was especially so as there was a large crowd of demons gathering behind the portal as well. He frowned and was able to close the portal when the giant fish made a faster move and canceled its own magic. With a burst of greyish-white light, the portal disappeared, and with it, all the chaotic energy and demons summoned disappeared as well. Good, at least this giant fish is neither stupid nor crazy. Sui Xiong smiled slightly and set aside the idea of battling the giant fish and decided to continue his quiet observations instead. The closing of the portal seemed to startle the devil who had passed through, but it did not panic; this was probably because it lacked feelings, or perhaps because its attention was on the giant fish. This devil was rather big and was about two stories high in height, like a giant. However, compared to the giant fish, it was of course still smaller. If one wanted to describe it¡­ if the giant fish had opened its mouth to eat the devil, the devil could use his hands and legs to prop the fish¡¯s mouth open. That was it. Sui Xiong felt that if he was the summoned devil who had to face such a huge creature, he would be extremely scared and worried. However, the devil seemed indifferent, and it stared at the giant fish with yellow-green liquid flowing out of its mouth. Was that saliva? Was the devil planning to eat the fish? Sui Xiong made some guesses in his head. The idea was funny to him as he felt that it was highly likely. He had guessed this from reading the inner thoughts of the giant fish¡ªsummoning food for consumption, that was its way of life. How interesting, both parties want to eat each other¡­ Sui Xiong watched excitedly, curious as to what methods they would use against each other. The first to strike was the giant fish. Its scales emitted light, and a gust of magical wind started blowing. This wind was not too strong, but it had a curiously refreshing feeling. The chaotic energy brought about by the monster was dissipated completely. With this gust of wind, the devil¡¯s magic was diminished as it¡¯s valve was closed off although it was not tangibly visible. Now, it no longer had legendary magic. Of course, the devil was not about to sit and allow himself to be destroyed. He also took action. Its body, covered with enamel, had a fascinating purple light which was emitted at an astonishing speed like a swaying shadow. Almost instantly, it crossed at least thirty meters towards the giant fish. However, right at this moment, the giant fish also carried out its next attacking move. It waved its tentacles and prepared to attack the devil. To the devil, the tentacle was like a thick cane, and he went flying once struck. Even before he had landed, the other tentacles reached out to grab and crush it, rendering him immobile. The battle was over. From start to end, the battle only lasted for half a second. The devil did not have time to demonstrate any magical power. Perhaps it had wanted to test the giant fish first. In any case, that no longer mattered as it was unable to retaliate in the death grip of multiple tentacles. Sui Xiong was unsure as to whether this was all the giant fish could do, but he was sure that the devil was doomed. As expected, before the devil could take any further action, large amounts of viscous, greyish-white liquid was secreted from the tentacles that held it, drowning the devil. This liquid seemed to have strange powers as the devil was previously filled with crazy, evil energy but once drenched, it calmed down entirely. His eyes now had a peaceful and blank look. Eventually, even this look was gone, and it had transformed into a full state of calmness. Its body also rapidly changed in color once he was drenched and became a dull greyish white as well. The hard armor layer and thorns all became soft. After about five minutes, the devil had become soft like slime and was lying on the floor, motionless. The giant fish had retracted his tentacles long ago, but the devil remained in that state. Sui Xiong tried to read its inner thoughts and realized he was almost empty and devoid of any emotions, like a hollow shell. To transform the devil into that clearly took a toll on the giant fish. Thus, after completing this task, it took a long rest until the next day to recuperate. Then, it used its tentacles to bring the devil to his mouth. Suddenly, Sui Xiong realized that its mouth was rather small, unlike most carnivorous fish. As compared to its huge body, it seemed rather disproportionate and exquisite. The devil was a little big for his mouth size, even if he opened his mouth fully, it would be a struggle to swallow him whole. However, as the devil was in slime form, the giant fish used a sucking motion to ingest the devil. This consumption was rather tiring, and it took him ten minutes to complete his meal. Sui Xiong realized that the giant fish probably converted the devil to slime as this was the only food form it could take in. It was rather pitiful that this giant creature harvested so much energy yet was trapped in a tiny river and left to fend for itself in such strenuous ways. Thus, Sui Xiong showed himself and spoke to the giant fish which had instinctively defended himself. ¡°I find you interesting. Would you like to leave this place and explore the outside world with me?¡± Chapter 728 The giant fish eventually rejected Sui Xiong¡¯s invitation. This did not shock Sui Xiong as the giant fish clearly was used to its life here. Furthermore, this was a freshwater lake. Sui Xiong was unsure where else to find freshwater in the outside world, and the giant fish was unlikely to be able to survive in saltwater no matter how strong it was. Even if it could, it was not really in the giant fish¡¯s interests to leave its home. As Sui Xiong left, he pondered about the giant fish¡¯s situation. Although he did not have much space to roam, he was content. Although it was hard to maintain its food source, the giant fish at least did not face much danger. To the fish who had a rather simple mindset, this stable life was good enough, and it did not plan to make changes to it. Furthermore, if it chose to venture out, danger awaited. Sui Xiong had a sudden realization at this point. To the giant fish, although staying stagnant was not necessarily the best choice, it was undoubtedly the safest. Life was boring but safe, and this was a good trade-off. However, was one really able to give up the novelty of life for safety? Sui Xiong thought hard about this. If he were the giant fish, he did not think he could do this forever. If he was able to, he would not have even left the giant ocean in the first place as he could at least be a leader there. However, Sui Xiong had left the ocean in the past and went to the mainland to understand society and do things with his life. ¡°I¡¯m a human, not a fish. While fish can be content with such a mundane life, humans cannot.¡± Actually, he was already considered an extremely patient person as he had trained solo in the freezing cold ocean for a thousand years. This was something that few could accomplish. In fairy-tale novels, the self-cultivators who trained solo for decades and hundreds of years were extremely ignorant of the passing of the time. As he left the mountain housing the giant fish, Sui Xiong used his powers to add on an extra layer of enchantment to the mountain. It did not have any special effect except to make people feel turned off and unwilling to approach the mountain. While it was not strong, it was hard to detect even by legendary creatures, and they would be affected unknowingly. Of course, this would not protect the giant fish against demigod masters. However, if a demigod master were to really approach, they would be told the story of the giant fish and Sui Xiong. While this would not stop them, they were also reasonable and clever and would not fight Sui Xiong over a giant fish. If they insisted, the spell would inform Sui Xiong, and if he was free, he would come over to prevent their entry. For the giant fish, this protection was sufficient. Actually, Sui Xiong felt that he was rather redundant as the giant fish had probably lived there and defended itself for decades without any fuss. If anything were to happen, it¡¯d probably be due to its over ingestion of devils which could lead to poisoning. Thinking of this possibility, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Summoning demons for food, I can¡¯t believe the giant fish actually thought of that!¡± Other than this interesting giant fish, they weren¡¯t other dangerous creatures in the vicinity, such as man-eating demons or big monsters. Thus, they did not bother Sui Xiong. With the legendary Clito leading the expeditions, even the stronger creatures, such as a near-legendary variant tauren, was of no issue. The tauren was actually rather special. While most taurens had four arms, this one had four legs instead. Normally, taurens had bovine hooves, a cow¡¯s head, and the rest of it had human features. This particular one had them too, but waist-down, it still looked like a cow and seemed like the famous odd centaur. Perhaps¡­ it should be labeled as one? However, it did not have a human brain, and thus, the label was rather mismatched. Towards this creature, Sui Xiong was not particularly attentive as he could tell it was the result of a magic experiment. Magicians frequently used magic to create odd creatures, and this was a rather common sight. Creatures like this centaur were already considered rather normal. Sui Xiong had heard that some malicious magicians had combined humans and monsters before to really create pure half-bloods. Some even specialized in this area and hoped to create a new population by making these creatures procreate. No one had actually succeeded in this, however, and because of this dream, many magicians were thus added to the explorers¡¯ crusade list. This particular tauren had a unique magical branding, possibly from when it had escaped from a laboratory or perhaps when it had killed the magician that made it for his freedom. These were all possible answers, but it was not important. In any case, the tauren was a vegetarian. He strictly only consumed vegetables and did not touch meat at all. Even when rabbits or goats appeared near it, they were clearly unafraid because of this fact. There were no traces of beasts and monsters. Clearly, even if the tauren did not consume meat, it was protective of its territory. Sui Xiong reminded himself to inform Clito of this fact to prevent any unnecessary fights. As to the remaining creatures around, they were really not worth mentioning, As the mountain area was not big (it only contained the giant fish, the tauren and a few miscellaneous creatures), it did not house any other special or strong creature. In the natural world, the stronger the creature, the bigger its territory. Only dangerous humans lived in narrow spaces. This mountain was not touched by humans, and thus, that situation would not occur. Sui Xiong took this chance to explore the mine as well. There was indeed a mine, and its quality was rather high. Most of the minerals were high in value and was worth exploring. What was interesting was that while the mine was lucrative, the tauren did not choose to live near it but rather in an isolated side of the mountain. Sui Xiong wasn¡¯t sure if it was a deliberate or ignorant choice. Sui Xiong did not inform Clito and the team of the details of the mine, however. Since a team had already been formed, they could explore it for themselves. He only reaffirmed them that the mine was worthy of exploration. Chapter 729 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After approximately two months of special training, the joint exploration team finally graduated and set off on their journey. Before they arrived, the explorers had long reached the destination. Unlike the joint exploration, the pioneer team had the role of building their base camp and fixing the roads. The campground was extremely big and could accommodate a few hundred people. It was meant to serve the dual purpose of a camp as well as a simple smelting field. Once ores and minerals were discovered, preliminary smelting could be carried out to determine their worth. Moreover, if a vein was determined to be mined, the camp would connect the mine and the outside world. Thus, it served the function of a temporary processing plant as well as a mini fortress. Similar to Earth, to carry out these actions, the roads had to be fixed first to ensure smooth and convenient transportation. If there were no roads, the horses and vehicles could not reach the venue, and they would not be able to receive the tools they needed. After all, pure manpower was not enough to transport all the materials, not to mention the dangers they would face on foot. In particular, the terrain here resembled the north, and while the weather was currently better, but when winter was over, snow up to the waist was common. Without a proper road, they would be totally cut off from any external communication, and if they were to face trouble, it would be extremely dangerous. Thus, the fixing of roads not only increased convenience but also protected them further. After about two months, a simple road was ready. It was extremely basic¡ªonly obstacles such as grass and rocks were moved away before it was paved slightly. While it was functional now, it would be an issue when overused in the future. This was especially so in the winter, where snow would accumulate over it. Nevertheless, it was ready for use now which would suffice temporarily. Further issues could be discussed later. Not long after the road was fixed, the joint exploration team arrived. With the delay of the two months, it was now starting to get extremely cold. However, there was a perk to this¡ªmany poisonous insects and snakes hibernated during the winter and thus would not cause trouble for the explorers. As for the beasts who were active in the winter, there was not much difference as they were similarly active in the summertime. The workers were not daunted by the weather. They preferred the cold over the chance of encountering poisonous creatures. The mining center had thought of this as well which was why they had scheduled the expedition at this time. Furthermore, even if they had wanted to start the expedition earlier, the roads and camp were not set up yet. The joint exploration workers were not explorers, and they did not have strong enough bodies to fight creatures, such as bears, or carry heavy materials while trekking. However, they had more materials to carry as compared to the explorers. One could calculate that on average, each expedition required an exploration worker to carry at least twenty kilograms of various stones. To do so through the winding mountains, they would definitely require a safe base to return to. Hopes did not think so much. He simply looked forward to the end of the expedition. ¡°Ah, it¡¯s so cold! But the scenery is beautiful.¡± He quipped as he jumped off the carriage and looked at the mountains covered with snow. A few days ago, there had been a giant snowstorm, and it looked like a sea of white with no clouds in the sky. Against the clear blue sky, it was truly a majestic sight. Previously, they had either been training or rushing on their way. Even if they looked up, all they saw was the carriage¡¯s roof and not the sky. Being out made them feel peaceful and rejuvenated. Hopes wanted to yell out to the mountains to vent, but he remembered that he had been warned during training multiple times to not make unnecessary noise. Suddenly, he heard loud shouting from the carriage behind. ¡°Ah¡­! Ah¡­! Ah¡­! Ah!¡±¡± Hopes used his hands to cover his face and refused to turn back. On the other hand, Ruby rushed over angrily and grabbed onto the screaming pig head before punching him to the ground. ¡°You stupid pig! Have you forgotten what we were taught in training? You¡¯re not supposed to shout and scream!¡± The pig¡¯s head was extremely thick, and he was not really affected by the punch. Instead, he muttered sourly, ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯m an explorer.¡± ¡°You have to follow the rules even if you¡¯re not an explorer! What if you cause trouble for everyone through your noise?¡± ¡°Everyone has just arrived; the true expedition hasn¡¯t started.¡± ¡°There are other dangers in the mountains!¡± ¡°What¡¯s that got to do with us?¡± Ruby was so angry that his nose became twisted. He felt that talking to this idiot was a waste of time and decided to beat him up with his fists. The poor fellow cried out in pain as he received blow after blow, and eventually, his face became purple and swollen. ¡°I¡¯m not like those nice teachers in school who will talk sense to you. I don¡¯t really care about that. I¡¯m a barbarian. I only use violence to solve problems,¡± Ruby said coldly and shook his fist at the pig head, who stared at him with hatred in his eyes. ¡°Very good. If I hear you shout like this again, I¡¯ll beat you up with a stick,¡± Ruby concluded as he glared back at the pig head before walking away. In the two months of training, Ruby as veteran received the approval of his mentors and peers alike, and he had been elected as their team leader. As their team leader, he needed to lead his team to recon at the campsite, as well as settle many other administrative matters. He did not have time to waste. After Ruby had left, Hopes sighed and walked over to the pig head who was lying on the ground. A beam of green light shot out of his hands and landed onto the pig head¡¯s body. ¡°Fira, you know that Ruby is easily needled. Why did you want to provoke him? It¡¯s not worth getting beat up for¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ll return the favor¡­ someday¡­¡± ¡°It was just a small matter. Don¡¯t hold on to this grudge.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get my revenge!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not so serious! Furthermore, you¡¯re a chef. How are you going to take revenge on him?¡± ¡°Someday¡­¡± Under the healing effect of natural spells, the injuries of the pig head Fira quickly improved. In a short while, there was only a faint trace of a bruise. Fira thanked Hopes, got up and walked away. Fira was a Shantou Qing who had got off on the wrong foot with Ruby during training. Afterward, they had argued with each other and even fought. Of course, Fira was unable to physically defeat Ruby and got a severe beating which he swore never to forget. Over this incident, he constantly chose to irritate Ruby and each time he did so, he earned himself a beating but somehow did not know to change or back down. Hopes was a kind and warm soul who knew a little of natural magic. Thus, every time Fira got beaten up, Hopes would help to heal him. With the many incidents, he managed to improve his skills while forging a friendship with Fira. Fira was more socially awkward and extremely stubborn. Even with Hopes¡¯ constant nagging, he refused to change in his actions towards Ruby. Seeing as Fira and Ruby had gone their own ways, Hopes sighed in relief. I really don¡¯t understand the mining center; why did they insist on letting Fira join the expedition? The existence of tensions is extremely distracting! Chapter 730 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°I really don¡¯t understand why you insist on letting that pig head join the team. It¡¯s really unnecessary in my opinion,¡± Clito perched against a tree and commented to Sui Xiong with furrowed brows after watching the unpleasant exchange. ¡°That¡¯s fellow¡¯s luck is constantly increasing. After a while, it will plateau.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that got to do with mining? He¡¯s not an explorer.¡± ¡°With a lucky charm in the group, it¡¯ll be helpful.¡± Clito shook his head in disagreement. To speak about luck, he had seen several examples of ¡°good luck¡± but had never seen someone who could complete tasks on luck alone. If Fira were an explorer, he could use his good luck to explore the mine and reduce or speed up the workload of the team. However, he was merely a chef¡ªClito could not understand how a chef¡¯s good luck could influence the whole team. Clito was a liberal person, and he did not care to overthink matters that he could not comprehend. Instead, he sat down and watched the happenings in the camp until he fell asleep. This was a talent that he had acquired over the recent years. He was able to maintain his observational skills while sleeping, and this was learned from his warrior training. It could be said that powerful monks could sit within flames or in water and sleep as they could separate their body¡¯s energy and use ¡°qi¡± to protect themselves. Clito was not at such a level yet, but he was able to carry out observations while sleeping at the same time. This was a common level among the monks and could be done as long as they concentrated hard. However, Clito was not really a monk; what he trained in was warrior energy and not the qi of monks. While they sounded similar, they were actually extremely different. Qi came from life energy, but fighting energy came from one¡¯s fighting spirit. If described by attributes, one was by constitution while the latter was based on will. As a legendary mid-level swordsman, Clito had a high level of vindictiveness, and he had almost endless power. However, for him to train his qi, his expertise in fighting energy did little for him and would even disadvantage him. The two forces were completely different. While vindictiveness was changeable and could be violent, qi was pure and gentle. When Clito was practicing, he had confused them several times. At those moments, not only did he not succeed, but he also had sustained injuries. However, in the process of healing, he better understood the idea of qi and how to master that special strength. Thus, strictly speaking, he could be regarded as a swordsman and part-time monk, but at a low level for the latter, maybe mid-level at best. The reason why Clito chose to study qi was to study the essence of life. This was the test that Leon had given him, and also a pointer. Generally speaking, when one wanted to convert from the level of legendary to the legendary peak, it was necessary to train other methods of strength. Leon himself had upgraded through training under priests, yet he knew Clito¡¯s faith was not pure enough to do so. Thus, Leon pointed out this path to Clito. This was the benefit of having a mentor. Many legendary powerhouses without teachers did not know how to improve themselves and would be stuck in the Legendary Realm for thousands of years. Even if they aware of some shortcuts, not all would be able to find the path that was most suitable for them. For example, if a legendary high-ranking warrior decided to practice ranger skills, it would be a waste of time as rangers followed the path of vindictiveness. Unlike Clito, his wife, Asner was a transformation mage. This was naturally due to her intelligence. To cast spells, real transformation mages only required their brains and not natural talent¡ªof course, those smart enough to say ¡°talent is not necessary¡± were rare, and Clito was a part of this majority. The couple progressed at around the same speed, though, and this shocked everyone. It was clear that Clito trained much harder than Asner, so why were they at the same stage? However, when one considered their age, it was easy to see the balance between genius and diligence. However, Sui Xiong knew that the reason for their similar speeds was because he used a special Famen spell to transfer part of the power he trained to Asner. That method allowed power from both sides to flow like water, from the stronger side to the weaker side, creating a balance of power overall. It was used not for personal gain or to sacrifice others but a way for two people who mutually trusted each other to support each other and improve together. Through this flow of power, they would also become more compatible and could connect better in battle. The effect of ¡°one plus one¡± was more than two individuals. Furthermore, as they were now in sync, it created an auxiliary effect, where the energy lost by the stronger individual would be compensated back, benefitting both sides. However, it was rather restrictive as it required absolute trust between both parties as well as an excellent tacit understanding. It also required that both persons involved to have roughly the same amount of strength, and only a small power gap could be accommodated. One of the participants also had to be a monk to create this match. When two individuals combined, it was often impossible to create a suitable pair for a few hundred years. According to monk records, the last time such a Famen spell worked was more than seven hundred years ago, when a pair of martial art brothers used it. They had wonderfully managed to integrate each other¡¯s¡¯ strengths. When they worked together, they were almost like one and had immense power. When they first tried to enter the higher ranks as a duo, they managed to kill a legendary strongman who had been injured at that time. However, it was a pity that they did not enter the legendary peak realm in the end. While they were at the legendary level, they were killed as a pair in an intense battle. The monk tribe was thus weakened, and eventually, even their secretive esoteric classics were lost. Over time, they landed in the hands of a faithful scholar follower, the Hart family from Grey Tower City of the Mifata Federation. Following the teachings, Grey Tower City changed to believe in the God of Knowledge. Wall made a copy of these precious classics and placed them in the Void City¡¯s library¡¯s storeroom. When Clito was bored, he would browse the shelves at the library and eventually found the classics which allowed him to harness his skills. Of course, he also received hidden guidance and many teachings from Wall, although he did not know it. Watching as Clito entered a warm, peaceful and mystical state, Sui Xiong smiled and nodded. With the help of the secrets from the monks, he believed that Clito and his wife would eventually be able to reach the legendary peak. Even before Leon became a god, it was possible that two more powerful individuals would emerge¡­ Chapter 731 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There was strength in numbers. With so many men in the exploration team, it did not take much time to finish building camp. All credit went to the pioneering team who had earlier laid a solid foundation for them. The ground was flat and compact, the surrounding plantations were cleared up, and even the tents had long been set up. And the tents they pitched were no ordinary ones. These were tents specifically strengthened with immense thickness and consisted of two layers¡ªan inner and an outer layer. They were windproof and waterproof, and their heat-insulating and winter-proof effects were even more outstanding. Even if it was already freezing cold at the moment, once the soldiers walked into the tents with well-lit braziers, they would instantly feel the warmth in the atmosphere. Living inside such tents, even if the weather got colder, they would not have to worry about frostbite. The main thing the exploration team had to do was to build the equipment required for explorations and to build a small smelter. They used a very expensive magic furnace that would consume a large amount of magic every time it was used. Usually, a mid-ranked mage had to be present for the furnace to be used more frequently. Of course, there would be mid-ranked mages in the exploration team, and there were currently three of them. When the three mages combined their strength, it was possible to open the furnace roughly once every two days. And this was just about enough. Theoretically speaking, so long as there was an adequate supply of magic, a magic furnace could be fuel-free. But to ensure the stability of the magic furnace, the exploration team prepared a large amount of magic crystals that was worth a total of at least ten thousand gold coins. If there was a need to, these magic crystals would be used as fuel for the magic furnace. However, unless they were down to their last resort, no one would be willing to use up crystal stones just for ore smelting¡ªthe silver itself was certainly not worth this price. Even if it was for the more expensive Mithril found among the associated minerals of silver ore, it was also not worth using up crystal stones for smelting the ore. The reason why they prepared these crystal stones was merely because they wanted to play safe by being prepared. The construction of this magic furnace was not easy. This thing was quite complex. It required people with intelligent minds and deft hands and who were relatively strong to work under the guidance of professionals just to ensure the construction proceeded smoothly. A majority of the people in the exploration team could only perform the menial jobs. There were only four who could truly take up leadership roles and shoulder the main responsibilities, and they were all from the elite group. As the number one spellcaster of the elite group, Sid was undoubtedly the main force in building the magic furnace. The others were cooperating with him as supporting roles. In the past, he never had to shoulder such a heavy responsibility, so he was somewhat nervous and nearly made two mistakes in a row. If it were anyone else, someone from the other three mid-ranked mages who would have been scolding and cursing at him. But whether in strength or in status, Sid was not inferior to them at all. As a rising star, his future was even brighter than theirs. He was way above them. So even the proud and arrogant mages had to have enough patience and console him with kind words as they tirelessly explained to him over and over again. When Sid finally succeeded in building the core of the furnace on his third attempt, he let out a huge sigh of relief with a smile, as did everyone else. The most difficult part of the magic furnace lay in the building of its core. After the core was built, the rest was nothing more than physically-demanding work. So long as the people working on it were able to sense the flow of magic, then it was highly improbable for anyone to piece the parts together incorrectly. All four from the elite group of the exploration team were able to sense the magic flow, of which, three could even cast spells. Of course, they would not make such a low-level mistake. About half an hour later, when the sky was getting dark, the magic furnace that was almost as high as three people put together, was finally completed. With a low, muffled hum, a greenish-white electric light flowed through the furnace. After making a rapid turn, it eventually turned into a small vortex and disappeared into the core of the furnace. This meant that the furnace was built correctly and could function properly. Even though they were previously filled with confidence, it was only at this moment that everyone could truly ascertain that they had succeeded. They could not help but cheer. This magic furnace was specifically made in the Kingdom of Dwarfs. Many special materials and newly-developed techniques were used to greatly enhance its smelting efficiency. At the same time, impurities were also effectively filtered out from the mineral ores. The former was not a big deal, but the latter was extremely important when the smelting process was of concern. Most of the time, the differentiating factor between good steel and scrap iron was in fact, nothing more than a few impurities. Although this furnace could not filter out many impurities, just that little bit, as compared to the ordinary magic furnaces, was already a great difference. It was so amazing that it was naturally very difficult to make. Just the cost of raw materials alone exceeded 20 thousand gold coins. If the cost of research and development, as well as the hard work put in by the various masters of blacksmithing, were included as well, the total value might be worth around 50 thousand gold coins. This price was truly a little crazy because people should know that an ordinary magic furnace would only cost four to five thousand gold coins. The price of this guy was almost ten times that of an ordinary magic furnace! It was so precious that everyone could not help being extremely careful. This was one of the important reasons why Sid had been so nervous earlier on. Given his financial status, an ordinary magic furnace that cost merely four to five thousand gold coins would not be able to make him nervous to the point of failing two times in a row. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. It was built steadily and, in the end, the few tens of thousands were not in vain. After this magic furnace was built to completion, everyone took a break. Before complete nightfall, they worked to build another magic furnace. But this furnace did not enjoy the same treatment. A few strong men from Dudu Hill easily built it up. The total time they took did not exceed 20 minutes. ¡°I¡¯m skilled in such work,¡± Dudu boasted tirelessly as he worked. ¡°When I was still learning how to smelt, I had built at least a hundred of such furnaces. Even with my eyes closed, I can get one done, and absolutely nothing will go wrong.¡± ¡°So you are saying that you have never made a mistake before?¡± Hopes asked with a smile. ¡°Of course¡­ I have,¡± Dudu said as he laughed. ¡°Who in this world would know everything right from the start? When I first learned how to build a magic furnace, I damaged a total of seven or eight of them.¡± This crowd listened to him with faces twitching away. Seven to eight magic furnaces would be around thirty to forty thousand gold coins?! The Kingdom of Dwarves had to be really rich to be able to throw away such large sums repeatedly for the young ones to practice¡­ ¡°Don¡¯t believe him. He¡¯s just talking big!¡± said a senior dwarf who was the leader of a team. With a sneer, he said, ¡°It¡¯s true that he damaged seven to eight furnaces in total, but previously, they worked in groups of 30 to 40 people. And the damaged cores could still be recycled and remade. Ordinary magic furnaces are not like this newly-designed one. When the core is damaged, we can just put it back into the furnace to be remade. The cost will at most be around a thousand gold coins.¡± ¡°Give me some face!¡± shouted Dudu. ¡°I even treated you to a drink yesterday!¡± ¡°We dwarves are honest and trustworthy people,¡± that senior dwarf laughed and said. ¡°Don¡¯t brag about yourself; go and get a drink! Today, it¡¯s my treat.¡± ¡°Do you have any wine to treat your guests? Didn¡¯t you finish everything earlier on?¡± ¡°You believed me when I said I finished everything? How old are you? You¡¯re still so na?ve.¡± ¡°You just said that we dwarves are honest and trustworthy people!¡± Dudu was almost on the verge of hopping around in rage. The senior dwarf stroked his beard and laughed heartily. Then he asked, ¡°Which is more important, to drink or to be honest and trustworthy?¡± Dudu contemplated for a moment, then hesitantly, he said, ¡°Drinking is a little more important.¡± ¡°Then why do you even bother asking! Go, go and drink!¡± said the senior dwarf as he made his way over. He gave Dudu a slap on his back while surveying the surroundings. Then he said, ¡°Let¡¯s all go get a drink. I¡¯ve got a lot of wine, so it¡¯ll definitely be enough for today!¡± Chapter 732 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Wine was good, and it was greatly helpful in creating an atmosphere conducive for emotional mediation. The only premise was that the amount consumed should not be overly excessive. That senior dwarf had a very handy magic prop. It was a flagon. This flagon was a silver, flat pot, and it looked extraordinarily exquisite and elegant. There were very fine lines on it, which was something very different from the dwarves¡¯ aesthetic standard. Studying it carefully, one could even discover how it was not drawn with paint. Instead, countless tiny gemstones were inlaid into it. Anyone with a slightly more discerning eye would be able to see that it was a fine piece of art. Those who were more knowledgeable in the field of art would be able to see that it carried a distinctive elvish style. Experts who were involved in the research of elf culture would even be able to judge, that it was in fact, not designed with the style of the modern elves but rather the style of the ancient Elf Kingdom. In truth, it was not an ordinary flagon but an extraordinary treasure. Its name was the ¡°Endless Flagon.¡± This name itself was more than enough to explain how this flagon could produce win¡ªby consuming magic amounting to that used to cast a low-level spell. If it was fine wine, it could produce about one jin worth. For ordinary sweet wine or strong spirits, the amount would be around three catties. As for foaming ale or the common coarse wines, it could produce up to five catties¡¯ worth. Mages who were familiar with enchantment spells and mages who made magic props would probably know that there was such a magic prop called the ¡°Endless Kettle.¡± This Endless Flagon was similar to it, but the efficiency of wine production was much slower than that of water. After all, these two things were completely incomparable in terms of level of detail. That senior dwarf was not a very powerful spellcaster, but his magic was enough to make this flagon fill up with enough spirits, at least¡­ enough for the entire exploration team to drink. In fact, it was more than enough. If it were not for Hopes and a few others who were still awake because they were either non-drinkers by nature or were smart enough to pretend to be drunk after their first drink¡ªprobably, the entire exploration team would have gotten drunk and slept out in the open on their first night of arrival at camp. And more than half would have frozen to death. Fortunately, there were still a few sober ones after all. Together with a few non-drinkers, Hopes, who was a little red-faced because he had drunk a little wine, dragged those who were dead-drunk one by one into the tent. They threw them onto beds of thick hay and covered them with quilts. Though these people were not heavy individually, the entire joint exploration team had as many as a hundred people who were now all drunk and knocked out. So when the last drunk cat was finally dragged into the tent and covered with a quilt, everyone except for Hopes, was dead-beat. ¡°Rest, rest! Everyone needs to take a good rest!¡± Hopes said as he waved his hands and told everyone to get some rest. Then he went to the huge bonfire right in the middle of the campsite. Standing next to it, he looked at the flames that were kept endlessly ablaze by magic power. He felt the warmth from above and sighed softly. ¡°This is only the first day here, and it was already so boisterous. Who knows how the days will be like in the future?¡± He was not the only one with such a lamentation on this cold winter night. About two thousand miles south, at the ¡°border¡± where the merchant party and aristocratic party met, there were also people having similar lamentations. ¡°This is only the first day, yet there¡¯s already so much trouble. What can we expect in the future!¡± The person who made such a lamentation was a middle-aged man with a head of hair almost half white. He donned lightweight leather armor that facilitated ease of movement and carried a machete that was just as handy. Both the leather armor and machete were black. In this dark, cloudy night, it was hardly possible to notice him. The only thing that could vaguely be seen was the white hair on his head. Near him, there were many others who were also wearing the same black leather armor and carrying all kinds of weapons that were colored in black. They even wrapped their heads in black hoods, which made them really look like shadows capable of free movement. Eerie, scary and filled with the aura of death. In truth, what they did was indeed something that brought death. Beneath their feet, a patrol team from the aristocratic party lay in a mess on the ground. Every member of the team had more than one wound, and even the smallest and slightest wound was fatal. Unquestionably, this group of patrol soldiers were all dead. Among these dead bodies, there were many with alarmed and shocked expressions. It was apparent that they had met with such a sudden attack that they did not even have the chance to react. ¡°Check again,¡± said the middle-aged man after sighing. In a prudent tone, he said, ¡°Make sure you leave no survivors.¡± So the black-clad people who seemed to be hiding in the shadows, brandished their weapons again. They added at least two wounds into the dead bodies of every patrol soldier. Every wound they added was lethal enough to turn the living into the dead. The middle-aged man watched everything with satisfaction. Then he waved and took this group of people with him into the darkness of the night where they soon disappeared without a trace. The next morning, the aristocratic party realized that the night patrol soldiers had yet to return. Thus, a military officer from the aristocratic party brought a few cavalry men with him out on a search. They searched along the patrol route and soon found the dead bodies that were frozen so stiff that even their blood had solidified. The military officer frowned deeply with a gloomy expression. He looked at the dead bodies carefully, then gave orders for them to be transported back. He was a knight born into a baron¡¯s family, and these were soldiers that he had brought with him from his territory. They were his family¡¯s private soldiers; many of whom had even grown up with him since young. They were devoted to him and were a part of his core team. He brought these people here in the hopes of making achievements or striking a fortune. But he had never expected to see so many deaths before he could even gain any benefits. That afternoon, after settling the arrangements for certain matters, he brought a few soldiers with him and galloped towards the encampment of their superiors on horseback. When it was getting dark, they arrived at a small town. That was the encampment of a viscount. This viscount, like the young knight, also traveled alongside his private soldiers from afar to arrive at the border. He too wanted to try his luck and see if he could reap any benefits. Because they shared a similar mindset, their relationship was quite close. The knight explained the situation of how the patrol soldiers under his command had met with an ambush. The viscount was shocked, and then he began to worry¡ªif this enemy who was capable of finishing off six experienced patrol soldiers decided to attack him, the defense strength of his area might really be lacking. So he started to feel anxious and used a magic prop to contact an even higher authority¡ªthe earl who had control over this territory. The earl did not make a big fuss over the deaths of merely a few patrol soldiers. To him, the dead were simply insignificant. He would just take it as them having all been attacked by magic beasts. Well, it was a very good explanation to say that they were attacked by magic beasts. Though the knight repeatedly emphasized that the wounds on the patrol soldiers were definitely inflicted by weapons and not by the claws and fangs of beasts, the earl had already reached a conclusion. Regardless of how those patrol soldiers died, if he said they were attacked by magic beasts, then they had to be attacked by magic beasts. There was nothing the indignant knight could do. Together with the fearful viscount, who was equally helpless, the two drank so much wine that they were totally drunk. They remained drunk until the next afternoon. When the joint exploration team of the merchant party and the Republic of Northwest finally regained sobriety from their hangover and had begun the day¡¯s work, the knight and the viscount were awakened from their drunken state to receive some startling news. The earl was attacked and wounded. A knight under his command was killed, and more than 20 soldiers were injured. Chapter 733 The situation was serious! It was really not a big deal if it was just a few soldiers under the command of a knight. For the long border between the two forces, a few deaths were simply not worth mentioning. However, an earl had been attacked, which was a completely different story! There were no dukes in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. The highest in rank were the two marquises. Beneath them were 14 earls. Among these 14 earls, five were courtiers of the two marquises while the other nine were independent. This was the result of the political strife during the time of the founding of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. In truth, the nine independent earls were very strong. Although they were not on par with the marquises when it was one-on-one, the combined force of two or three of them was enough to overwhelm a marquis. The nine of them kept watch and helped one another. Together, they formed the ¡°local aristocrats¡± within the aristocratic party, which was always getting into conflicts with the ¡°central aristocrats.¡± The two marquises were the core of the latter group. Even so, when in a confrontation against the merchants, they still stood their ground as comrades from the same camp. Even though¡­ among themselves, they truly wished for the death of the other party. The best would be that the entire family was cleanly wiped out, where not even an illegitimate son was left behind. ¡°Who was it that attacked me?¡± asked the earl who had been attacked. He was wrapped in bandages, looking seriously wounded as he rested on a soft couch. Sitting in this comfortable living room, he was relying on magic to adjust his temperature. His brows tightly locked into a deep frown as he looked at the few staff members before him. ¡°I think it could be an assassin from the capital,¡± said a thin staff member. There was some coldness flashing in his eyes, and from time to time, a murderous gaze would flash by. Among all the staff under the earl, he was not the most outstanding one. But he was very decisive. Using words in Earth¡¯s lingo, it meant that he could make decisions at critical moments without hesitation. Then he could withstand all kinds of pressure to execute his decisions to the end. In the past years, he had accomplished success, but also made mistakes. Generally, the mistakes he made were few. In most cases, his judgments were correct. Though¡­ his way of thinking was a little extreme and his means of doing things seemed slightly vicious at times, to the earl, it was good to be able to do things with nerve! Anyway, in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, he would be able to hold out even if the sky collapsed. What was there to be afraid of? It was precisely because he had such a mindset that the earl had always been relatively sloppy in the way he did things. If he could muddle his way through anything, he would do so. He was never willing to put in additional effort. Today, however, he no longer thought so. The assassination last night made him feel as if he were in a deep crisis. Yes, the earl was paramount and powerful, ruling over many cities big and small alike. There were even more towns and villages under his rule. So long as he gave an order, just the number of knights he could gather would be more than a hundred. In addition, the number of trained soldiers he could gather for his army would be around two thousand. If he loosened up on his requirements and even the militia could be involved in the recruitment, then it would be no difficult feat for him to muster an army as big as tens of thousands of soldiers. In the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, he was unquestionably at the peak of the pyramid of power where even the two marquises could not possibly do anything about him. Even the Royal Crown (i.e., the Goddess of Wealth) had to be courteous to him. This was even more so for the ordinary civilians who had to be extremely deferential toward him. Whenever he was in a bad mood and they happened to lift their heads and look him in the eye, they would most likely suffer whiplash. This was why he had always felt that he was safe. However, last night, he suddenly realized that everything that he had relied on all this while was in fact, not that reliable. When that assassinator almost broke through the barrier of guards to pierce that sharp blade through him, he could even feel his heart stop beating for a moment. When everything had been settled, he suddenly awoke to his reality. That was when he felt extreme fear and helplessness. So it turned out that he was not as safe as he thought he was! So although he only sustained minor injuries¡ªto be exact, he bumped the corner of his mouth because he was in a frenzied and panicky state¡ªhe still sought the help of a priest to use an advanced healing spell. He even wrapped himself up like a mummy with the finest grade of bandages, as if by doing so, he could find peace of mind. At the same time, he increased the number of guards at his abode by five times. It was really to the point of meeting a guard after every ten steps and a sentry after every five. As for his own room, there were close to a hundred soldiers taking turns to stand guard. There were four experienced adventurers to lead the teams to ensure that regardless of what the circumstances were, they could react in a timely manner and absolutely not give any assassinator the chance to get close. After he was done with all these arrangements, he could finally put his heart at ease. He felt that he was safe again. After ensuring that safety was in place, this earl, who was one of the greatest leaders of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, could not help feeling his rage heighten. Exactly who was it? Who was the one who sent those assassins? Who on earth would want him dead? However, after some careful consideration, he realized that there was quite a handful of possibilities. As one of the most powerful aristocrats of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, naturally, he would have made many enemies. Some were old rivals that he fought with all year round. Some were people who had once suffered at his hands and wanted revenge, and also¡­ all in all, there were too many that it was impossible to count. He thought for a long time, but still, he could not find a reliable answer. So he could only summon all his aides and staff. The truth was, he did not really want to seek anyone¡¯s help to figure this out. The previous night¡¯s assassination attempt left him with a sense of insecurity. He was reluctant to discuss matters concerning life and death with outsiders¡ªeven if they were staff members that he had relatively trusted more. But his wisdom was limited, and he simply could not come up with anything good. So he had to give up on the intention of being fully self-reliant. After his staff had heard about the entire matter and after looking for the guards to learn more about the details of the situation, the first judgment they came up with was that the assassins were likely from within the aristocratic party. Or in other words, they might have come from the central aristocrats. After hearing this speculation, the earl did not express his agreement or objection. He merely made a ¡°hmm¡± sound through his nose and then looked to the other staff members. One person¡¯s consideration might not be comprehensive enough. With more people, the plan would be more thorough and comprehensive. He wanted to listen to the thoughts of the other staff members. ¡°I don¡¯t think they were sent by the two marquises,¡± said another aide. This portly man apparently had a different take. He stroked his neatly-trimmed mustache and said, ¡°Currently, it¡¯s the period of confrontation between the aristocratic party and merchant party. At this point in time, we absolutely cannot be in a mess among ourselves. Even if the two marquises can¡¯t seem to understand this, their men would remind them. So by right, the assassins would not have been sent by them.¡± ¡°You mean to say that they might be sent by the merchant party?¡± asked another staff member whose eyes lit up. This was a relatively young man who had not even grown a beard yet. The portly aide shook his head and replied, ¡°Following the course of events, the merchant party would not have sent assassins too. Now with everyone safe and sound, it¡¯s good for all. On the contrary¡­ What benefits could they possibly get from assassinating our Lord?¡± Everyone fell into deep thought. The people who could become aides were all relatively smart. If the portly aide could think of something like that, the other staff members would naturally be able to think of it too. Just like what he had said now; whether it was within the aristocratic party or between the aristocratic party and merchant party, it was necessary to maintain stability. How could anyone take advantage of the current situation to stir up trouble, even to the extent of creating unrest among themselves? This made no sense at all! Amidst the silence, a scrawny aide was first to speak up in a cold voice and said, ¡°Even if we can¡¯t locate the source of the assassins, we can¡¯t let our lord suffer this shock in vain!¡± Every staff member present turned to look at him as they awaited his explanation. ¡°No matter where the assassins come from, we can take a firm stand and insist that they are from the capital,¡± the scrawny staff said. His eyes were shining as he added, ¡°In short, we should gain something for ourselves before saying anything more!¡± Chapter 734 ¡°What?!¡± In a hidden basement, a gloomy-looking young man sprang to his feet with eyes so largely widened that they were bulging out. He could not hold himself back and exclaimed, ¡°Repeat what you have just said!¡± Standing before him, there was a middle-aged man in a gray robe. Similar to the young man, he wore a gloomy look on his face. With an expressionless countenance and a monotonous voice, he replied, ¡°Earl Good Horse declared that something from the capital was found on the dead assassins¡¯ bodies. As such, he believed that the assassins were sent by a Marquis and has requested the marquises to do some explaining.¡± The young man was dumbfounded. After a while, in a somewhat doubtful tone, he asked, ¡°Do you have anything on you that bears the characteristics of the capital of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins?¡± ¡°Of course not. It¡¯s totally impossible to tell where the things we carry with us are from.¡± ¡°Then, why did he say so?¡± ¡°I have no idea.¡± Then the young man suddenly recalled that in terms of fighting, this subordinate of his was extremely reliable. But if there was a need for him to use his brain¡­ then things would not work out well. Maybe he was in fact, also very smart. But as an assassin, he strictly complied with his duties where he merely worked without thinking. An assassin was a sword, and a sword should not have its own mind. This was great on normal days. However, when the person wielding the sword was at a loss himself, then things would slightly worsen. The young man was the leader of a killing organization. Not long ago, he took over the organization from his father, who had died of a sudden illness. Strictly speaking, he was still a rookie. This was apparent from his decision to undertake such an intellectually demanding mission. Yet though he was a rookie, he also knew what he should be doing¡ªhis mission was to attempt to instigate a civil war within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, but not among the aristocratic party! In fact, he was quite smart. After accepting the mission, he did not rush to action. With his elite troop, they laid an ambush at the border of Earl ¡°Good Horse¡¯s¡± territory and waited patiently for their opportunity. They waited till the patrol team at the border was attacked before carrying out their plan of assassination. According to his speculations, the ones who attacked the patrol teams at the border should have the same purpose as him. But they were much weaker than he and his troops were, so they could only choose the less significant means such as attacking the patrol teams. By doing so, perhaps they could really create tension between the two parties. But it was absolutely impossible if they wanted to start a fight between the merchant party and aristocratic party by killing a few rookie soldiers who knew nothing about being in the army! What was a few dead soldiers? Even he himself, who was just the head of an assassin organization, would not put three to five lives to heart, much less the mighty aristocratic party who had tens of thousands of soldiers under its command. Wanting to instigate a fight between the two parties, a conservative estimate of at least a few hundred soldiers had to be killed. Putting aside the discussion about the risks involved, the bigger problem was that after killing so many people, the most likely reaction from both sides would not be like game fowls fighting because they were provoked. Instead, they would enlist the help of powerful adventurers to get to the bottom of the matter. The young man was once an adventurer. He was quite knowledgeable about the ways of adventurers as well. He was also well aware that some of them had unique skills and that no one should ever belittle these adventurers. That was why he chose to take the risk in attacking an earl. He wanted this earl to get enraged by fear so that the earl would go to the most extreme lengths because he was desperate for revenge. Sadly, it seemed like his plan failed. And he lost three outstanding assassins in vain. After a long silence, the young man sighed and said, ¡°Continue to wait in ambush.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± ¡°And¡­ contact the ¡®Black agents.¡¯ Tell them that I want to recruit a few necromancers.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± ¡°Go and do your job. Do be extra careful.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± When the middle-aged man left, the young head of the assassin organization frowned. He returned to his bed that was under the window for ventilation, sat down and started to ponder deeply. He had to work out a new plan with careful deliberation. This time, he had to succeed! A few days later, another group of people also received the news about the earl sustaining injuries from an attempted assassination, as well as the news of his declaration that the assassin was likely to be sent by forces of the central aristocrats from the capital. The middle-aged man, who was out that night to silently kill someone, was somewhat at a loss. He frowned as he tried his best to figure out what was going on. Could it be¡­ a coincidence? He shook his head, feeling that things should not be so coincidental. The killing trade was a very rigorous industry. Thoughts like ¡°by coincidence¡± and ¡°by chance¡± would never appear in the mind of an experienced killer. From his point of view, those people who attempted to assassinate the earl were probably taking advantage of the chance that he had inadvertently created for them. But¡­ why would they want to take advantage of this chance? What on earth were they trying to do? This experienced killer, who spent years of his life amidst the flashing knives and swords on battlefields, was in silent contemplation. At first, he felt that the other party might share similar thoughts as him, that all of these were for the sake of instigating a war between the merchant party and aristocratic party. But on second thoughts, he felt that something was not right¡ªif that was the case, why would the other party leave something that bore the characteristics of the central aristocrats? He did not consider the possibility of the earl fabricating false evidence. His train of thought soon went awry, and he found himself heading towards a dead end. After a long time, he finally made up his mind. He would return to contact his employer. He was worried that at this point in time, killing soldiers at the border was no longer of any use. He felt that if possible, maybe he could change his target and attack people from the merchant party instead. For example, attack a trade caravan or something like that¡­ That should be effective to a certain extent. Even if there was no effect, at least he could plunder some supplies and boost his army¡¯s morale. His men were converts who were originally pirates. Though they were usually obedient, it was always difficult trying to change the nature of pirates. If they were not given enough benefits, their morale would drop very quickly. It would be difficult leading a troop of people who were not united at heart, much less to complete a mission. Moreover¡­ he also wanted to gain some benefits for himself. When he was positioned right in the middle of the aristocratic party and the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, no matter which side got into trouble, he could always run to the area that was within the sphere of influence of the other side. There was no other condition that was better than this in the world. If he did not take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune, even he would feel that it was a loss on his end! After instructing his men not to stir up any trouble, he set out to contact the middleman. He wanted to get the middleman to pass on his suggestion, or rather, request, to his employer. And at this point, contrary to the conspirators who were having a difficult time, things were going well for the joint exploration team. There were silver mines here indeed and quite a substantial reserve at that. It had only been a day since they set out in search, and they had already found quite a few pieces of silver ores that were all in pretty good condition. When they were all back at camp for discussion, Hopes and company referred to the maps they had to estimate the possible locations of lodes. Then, they gathered all the men they had and sent all of them to these areas, as though they were casting nets over shoals of fish. Including themselves, of course. In the days that followed, good news came in a continuous stream. First, someone discovered a rock that contained a lot of silver ores. Although they dug along the path that these rocks were found in and did not manage to discover any subsequent lodes, at least this discovery served as a great confidence boost. Then Hopes himself discovered a small silver mine in a natural cave. Though it was not a big reserve, it did come along with a great amount of Mithril. The first piece of news was nothing much, but the second piece truly boosted everyone¡¯s morale. Even the person-in-charge from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was so stunned that he took the risk to venture into the cave, despite its rugged terrain, to study that silver mine carefully. The silver mine was not a big deal, but the Mithril was something great! Just one piece of soft armor woven from blended yarn that contained wiredrawn Mithril was worth at least three thousand gold coins. Of course, this material was truly worth the money. This soft armor looked just like any ordinary long shirt, and it would not be of much help when used against heavy weapons like hammers and axes. But so long as one was wearing it, weapons such as ordinary daggers, short knives, or even random flying arrows, would most certainly be rendered harmless. Especially for the big shots, wearing this soft armor under their clothes could effectively reduce the risk of being assassinated. As a result, it became an essential shield for those who feared assassination attempts. This was why it was always in short supply. After taking a closer look at that silver mine, the veteran miner from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins arrived at a conclusion that greatly excited the crowd. The Mithril found in this cave was worth at least 20 thousand gold coins! Chapter 735 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Money was not everything, but nothing could be done without money. It did not only mean wealth, but also social status. More importantly, making money, or even making a lot of money, was one of the best ways for people to prove their ability. So when it was confirmed that this silver mine was worth a fortune, even Dudu Hill, who was awash with money, could not help cheering out loud. ¡°Good job, young man!¡± he said. He patted Hopes on the back with such strength that it made Hopes cough. Hopes hurriedly dodged to avoid his Iron Sand Palm. As a member of the royal family of dwarfs, this guy, Dudu, was a direct descendant who inherited the divine blood. His strength was staggering. Though Hopes was quite strong himself, he could not endure such strong pounding. At the moment, he could feel a dull ache on his back and knew that he had been slightly hurt. He could not help feeling relieved that he had dodged fast enough. If he allowed this Dudu guy to give him a few more pats, he might have to look for a priest to help him heal from an injury. ¡°Your strength is simply overwhelming!¡± he could not help complaining. ¡°I¡¯ll really give way under your palm!¡± ¡°Is it? We usually pat each other on the backs like that¡­¡± ¡°You all from the royal family of dwarfs have congenital injury mitigation, but I don¡¯t!¡± Dudu took a closer look and found that Hopes was indeed a little pale. He ascertained that he had indeed been a little too forceful and hurriedly apologized. However, after apologizing, he took out a large bottle of wine and said that he wanted to express his apology with his much-treasured wine. Hopes could not hold his liquor well, so usually at gatherings, he would only drink a glass or two¡ªabsolutely not the glass Dudu used to drink wine. Given that glass that Dudu used, Hopes would not be able to finish one glass even if it was filled with water, not to mention filled with wine¡ªbut it was difficult to refuse Dudu¡¯s generous intention. He barely drank much before he was flushed red and walked like he was floating as he staggered his way back to his tent. Then he plopped down on his bed and instantly fell asleep. ¡°This young fellow is quite the lucky one,¡± said Sui Xiong. After Hopes fell asleep, a green light flashed by his side, and Sui Xiong¡¯s figure appeared. ¡°Within the entire mining area, there are only a few mining holes where a rich amount of Mithril can be found. And he actually found one so soon.¡± ¡°Frankly speaking, I¡¯m a little worried,¡± said Clito, whose figure also emerged. ¡°It¡¯s not a good thing to find Mithril appearing at such a height!¡± Mithril was a rare kind of mineral. Generally speaking, it was a mineral formed from the mutation of ordinary silver ores that had been immersed in a high concentration of magic for a long period of time. There were also some that were formed naturally. These two kinds of Mithril were broadly similar with only a few subtle differences¡ªprobably like the difference between natural crystals and quartz glass. Of course, there were differences. But not major ones. Their degree of hardness did not lose to that of steel, and their weight was almost the same as that of common lightweight wood. Only when they were wiredrawn and used in the weaving of soft armor would there be a clear difference¡ªit was easier to draw wires of acquired Mithril that was formed from a sudden mutation of ordinary silver ore. But the protective strength of soft armor that was woven from wires drawn from the acquired Mithril was slightly weaker than armor that was woven with naturally-occurring Mithril. However, it was just a slight difference. Because of their origins, most Mithril deposits were found deep within the earth or even at the bottom of the sea. Or they could be found on the high mountains. The three places that produced the most Mithril in the world were the Kingdom of Mermaids at the bottom of the sea, the Kingdom of Dwarfs underground, and the Mifata Federation on the Southern Plateau. If Mithril deposits were found in places that were neither on high mountains, underground or in deep seas, the greatest possibility was that these places were inhabited by powerful magic beasts. The silver ores would be immersed in the magic that was released by these beasts for a long time, causing these silver ores to become Mithril. A magic beast that could generate Mithril from silver ores immersed in its magic was an extraordinary creature unlike any other. It would at least be a beast at the legendary peak or even a demigod monster. Even with Sui Xiong around, Clito could not help feeling worried. Seeing how worried he looked, Sui Xiong could not help laughing. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. There¡¯s nothing wrong with that Mithril mine,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°But why¡­ would there be Mithril appearing at this height?¡± Clito asked. Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°Of course this is the naturally-occurring kind. Though naturally-occurring Mithril doesn¡¯t appear in great quantity, it can still be found.¡± After gaining an understanding of the situation, Clito breathed a sigh of relief. Then he froze again and hurriedly said, ¡°Then we must remind them! The value of naturally-occurring Mithril is much higher than that of the acquired Mithril! We must never sell the gold we find at the price of brass!¡± Indeed. While the functions of naturally-occurring Mithril and acquired Mithril were similar, the prices of both were worlds apart. This was just like natural gemstones and artificial gemstones, where the price of the latter was only a tiny fraction of the price of the former. Such a situation was largely the result of the powerful and wealthy families flaunting their riches in fanciful ways. The slight difference between the soft armors made from these two kinds of Mithril was hardly something worth mentioning to professionals like Clito. However, to these guys with so much money to spare, it did not matter whether the function of soft armor made of naturally-occurring Mithril was the same as those that were made of the other Mithril. The degree of rarity of this material alone made it worthy for them to show off, and moreover, its functions were slightly more superior. This was why when Clito thought of this, he could not help rushing out quickly to look for a few management personnel of the joint exploration team to tell them about this matter. ¡°What?! naturally-occurring Mithril?!¡± exclaimed a fat, management staff member from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. His eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at Clito, and then he said, ¡°Lord Clito¡­ please pardon my rudeness, but I¡¯m seriously unaware that you even knew about mining¡­¡± Clito choked, and then he thought about it before saying, ¡°Indeed, I know nothing about mining. But I know someone who is knowledgeable in it. There¡¯s also no need for you all to ask who it is. In short, this person¡­ no, this¡­ is absolutely reliable! Yes, at least the vision is absolutely reliable.¡± That fat man thought for a moment. After a discussion with the other few management personnel, he said that he would immediately send a message to ask the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce to send a few masters of identification who were capable of differentiating naturally-occurring Mithril from acquired Mithril. After he had passed the message via a magic crystal ball, the fat man suddenly thought of something and asked, ¡°Lord Clito, have you ever¡­ been to that cave where the mine is?¡± ¡°More or less,¡± Clito replied vaguely. ¡°So¡­ are there any powerful magic beasts in the vicinity of the cave?¡± Clito understood his concerns right away¡ªthere was nothing much to worry about if it was naturally-occurring Mithril. But if the Mithril was generated by the mutation of ordinary silver, then often there would be powerful magic beasts lurking around. Or the existence of this Mithril might simply be by virtue of the presence of these powerful magic beasts. This was similar to the matter that Clito himself had just pondered, so he could not help laughing as he said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry! The most powerful ones over there are nothing more than a few wolves. Without needing me to lift a finger to help, the exploration team drove them all away.¡± The fat man nodded and hesitated a while before explaining, ¡°My lord, I don¡¯t mean to be meddlesome, it¡¯s just¡­ those masters of identification are the treasures of our Chamber of Commerce. If anything should happen to them, taking all the lives in my family would not be enough to compensate¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry! In time, I¡¯ll personally accompany them,¡± Clito said as he patted the fat man¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You just set your mind to work. No matter what, I¡¯ll be around to hold out against whatever danger awaits us. Even if I¡¯m not powerful enough to keep danger at bay, there is always someone else who will be more reliable than I am. The sky won¡¯t fall!¡± The fat man could finally set his mind at rest as he let out a long sigh of relief. With this Legendary Master, the ¡°Blast Swordsman,¡± in charge of command, even if something did happen, it would have nothing to do with him. Chapter 736 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There were no lights in the tavern. Only a little moonlight shone through the windows to give the place a tad of light. This bit of light was not enough to light up the place. The waiters and owner of the tavern were not around either. The pitch-dark tavern was empty except for the three people seated at two tables in a corner. ¡°Alright. The two of you can talk about anything you want to talk about. I¡¯m just here as a witness,¡± said the man with a tall hat. He was sitting alone by one of the tables. In a low voice that made his gender almost indiscernible, he said, ¡°You can take me as non-existent.¡± At the other table, the two people who sat facing one another did not respond to his words. They merely maintained silence. After a while, one of them opened his mouth to speak, ¡°Because Earl ¡®Good Horse¡¯ has determined this assassination as coming from within the merchant party, it is difficult to produce better stimulation or provocation by assassinating soldiers of the aristocratic party or lords. I feel that we can change our mission to assassinating important figures from the merchant party, or we can attack the trade caravans. As compared to the aristocratic party where all matters are dictated by the lords, the merchant party has a much weaker control over its subordinates. It¡¯s easy for them to get angry and start fighting so long as we can incite enough provocation.¡± This person was none other than the middle-aged man who had just converted from a pirate to an assassin a few years ago. He had ultimately persuaded the middleman to invite his employer over for a face-to-face discussion. The person seated across him donned a long robe with a hood. Their entire body was covered, so it was impossible to see what they looked like, their age or their gender. After hearing what was said, this employer was silent for a moment. Then this employer, who had a very entrancing voice, said, ¡°Are you sure it will be more effective to attack the merchant party?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that it¡¯d be more effective. It¡¯s just that given the current situation, it might only work if we attack the merchant party.¡± The employer was silent for another moment, then sighed gently in that almost undetectable voice. They did not seem very pleased. But the middle-aged man did not say anything more in response. He stood firm in his opinion. After a while, the employer said, ¡°The so-called assassin is actually just a kind of merchant too, right?¡± ¡°Fair enough for you to say so. It¡¯s just that the ¡®commodity¡¯ being sold is more unique.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t you feel a sense of guilt towards fighting your own kind by attacking the merchant party?¡± ¡°I used to be a pirate. My main income comes from attacking merchant ships.¡± The employer was silent again. After quite a long moment, they finally accepted the middle-aged man¡¯s suggestion. ¡°If you feel that it¡¯s better to do that, then let¡¯s go ahead with that,¡± they said. It might or might not be because they were displeased, thus in a voice that sounded a little depressed, they said, ¡°In short, I just need to see results.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said the middle-aged man as he nodded. Then he got to his feet, turned around and left. After he had gone far, the employer said to the middleman next to him, ¡°Do you think this assassin¡¯s idea is reliable?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a middleman. I¡¯m not responsible for making remarks of or criticizing any of your ideas and methods,¡± replied the middleman. He continued to speak in that low and flat voice of his that was void of any characteristics. ¡°So I¡¯m unable to answer your questions, Mr. Hayde.¡± This employer, who was addressed as ¡°Mr. Hayde,¡± sighed again. Then they too stood up and went out. After a long time, the middleman got up and left through the back door of the tavern. But he was totally unaware that someone had a bird¡¯s eye view of his entire trail. Floating in the air in an invisible form, a pair of eyes was watching attentively but coldly. That person watched him walk into an empty house and saw him leaving with a different guise. Then after seeing that he had returned to his own residence, that person made a record of the day¡¯s events and finally smiled coldly. ¡°Prudent enough, but useless all the same,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re very prudent too,¡± another voice was heard. ¡°When did you arrive?¡± ¡°Just¡­¡± said the latter voice. ¡°I thought you needed help.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never required help before!¡± said the first voice, which sounded somewhat displeased. ¡°I know you¡¯re capable. But it doesn¡¯t hurt to have a little extra help,¡± the second voice said with a smile. ¡°Moreover, I have consulted His Majesty and only came here after I¡¯ve gotten his approval.¡± The first voice kept silent for a while, then let out a sigh. ¡°How do you intend to help me?¡± ¡°My plan is to create some alibis for you,¡± said the second voice. ¡°Of course, it¡¯s to create an alibi for ¡®Her Royal Highness.¡¯ As for ¡®Mr. Hayde,¡¯ he¡¯s such an elusive and shadowy character that no one can trace him, right?¡± ¡°I truly abhor that identity!¡± the first voice lamented. ¡°I don¡¯t mind even if it¡¯s a prince, but why must it be a princess?¡± ¡°This is not something we can decide. Bodies that are compatible with and can blend in with ours are rare in the first place. You are already lucky enough to be able to find a human body. There was once when I had to use a gnome¡¯s body when I descended¡­ You¡¯d never be able to imagine how strong its odor was! I washed myself almost ten times using various methods to the point where I scrubbed away a layer of skin, just to find the smell barely bearable.¡± The first voice let out a few low laughs and said, ¡°You never mentioned this before.¡± ¡°This is not something to be proud of¡­¡± the second voice said helplessly. ¡°If I had been lucky enough, I would have found a dragon body. Then I¡¯d brag about it a few hundred times without even the need for you all to ask.¡± ¡°What kind of body are you intending to use this time?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t found a suitable one yet,¡± said the second voice. ¡°As you know, I just descended. As of now, I¡¯ve yet to get myself together. I need to slowly look around.¡± ¡°If you really can¡¯t find any, just used the body of a monster statue,¡± suggested the first voice. ¡°There are many problems with the body of a monster statue. The biggest problem is that its combat power cannot be fully unleashed and can only be used as a final resort. If I can, I still hope to find a human body as much as possible,¡± said the second voice with a sigh. ¡°It¡¯s quite a pity to say this, but my descendants had been such a letdown when they allowed our entire race to be exterminated, if not¡­¡± ¡°My descendants are not any better. Those of the purest bloodline clearly have outstanding talents in wizardry but are kept on a tight leash. They have to live in degradation by selling their beauty. To hell with the ¡®princess¡¯ indeed. It¡¯s nothing more than being a pitiful wretch sold as an object every day for others to satisfy their lecherous desires in various perverse manners. All this just to prove that one¡¯s family doesn¡¯t seek to restore its state¡­ Come to think of it, I still think the descendants of the God of Exploration are the most accomplished ones. Just counting the number of Legendary Masters, they have three. How wonderful of them to be able to propel their family land to such prosperity!¡± ¡°I still remember how we all used to be at the same position. Now, he¡¯s already a real god, but we¡¯re still Oracles¡­¡± said the second voice most dejectedly. ¡°If only our descendants had been more motivated in wanting to do better, how good that would be!¡± ¡°He¡¯s not only blessed with obliging descendants, he¡¯s mostly lucky too. Do you remember the Eight Knights of Virtue? Do you think they have any aggressive descendants who desired any accomplishments? So long as we keep doing our best, sooner or later, we¡¯ll have that kind of opportunity too.¡± The two voices discussed for a moment then became flowing lights and flew off in two different directions. Chapter 737 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The arrival of the masters of identification made the atmosphere of the exploration team a little more tense. Because some of the management personnel had not been tightlipped enough, news like ¡°that silver mine might contain Mithril¡± were spread. The contrast in the price difference between naturally-occurring Mithril and acquired Mithril was simply too great. When put into the context of how much the exploration team could gain after splitting up their findings, the difference between the two would be like eating huge chunks of meat versus only drinking a small spoonful of soup. If a silver mine was really one that had naturally-occurring Mithril, its total value would not just be 20 thousand, it might possibly worth even more than 200 thousand¡ªof course, liquidating the Mithril would be more troublesome, and it would take time to gradually hype them up. The Mithril had to be sold in batches too. The entire procedure might possibly take ten, or even 20 years before the Mithril could generate cash. But no matter what, the money would reach them sooner or later. Even if the money did not reach them when they were alive, they could bequeath it as a legacy to their future generations after they passed away. With the Republic of Northwest backing them up, no one could think of cheating them of their due share of the money. So everyone very much hoped that the silver mine they found was one of naturally-occurring Mithril. At the thought of possible benefits, even Hopes could feel his heart start to race faster, and he started to experience some shortness of breath. Only the loathsome tycoons like Dudu, who never lacked money, would not be bothered at all. This guy even had the time to make fun of everyone by saying things like ¡°don¡¯t take money too seriously.¡± But this was not about taking the matter seriously or not; that was a lot of money! It would truly be very serious if all the Mithril was changed to gold coins! At that time, this was Hopes¡¯ response, and it got everyone laughing out loud. Amidst their nervous anticipation, the two masters of identification finally arrived. Because they were worn out by the long journey, they rested for three days after arriving at the camp. On the fourth day, they set out to the cave. This was not something within their control. The two masters of identification were not young. Being on the road for seven to eight days straight in this extremely cold weather had truly exhausted them. If they did not take a break, it was highly possible that they would fall seriously sick, much less get work done. Fortunately, after ample rest, the two masters of identification had fully recovered. Together, they followed the joint exploration team to the cave, and of course, they did not travel on foot. Instead, they were brought there by the team. Undoubtedly, there was no other way to do this. The location of the cave was relatively remote, and the mountains nearby were steep. Although both masters of identification were still healthy, there was no way they could get in. In truth, only a handful of people in the entire joint exploration team were capable of climbing into the cave. This time, Clito would be the one in action. These two masters of identification were definitely qualified enough for a Legendary Master like him to personally render them help. With his help, not only did the two masters of identification enter the hole smoothly, even Hopes and company easily entered the rather steep cave almost effortlessly. It was close to noon, the time where there was the most sunlight. But inside the hole, it was pitch-black. There was only some light near the entrance. As they went further in, they could hardly see their fingers before them. This situation was almost the same as when Hopes first came here. However, he had mesopic vision, so even if he was in such a dark environment, he could still roughly see what was going on around him. This was the reason why he could explore the place without a hitch. The two masters of identification certainly did not have his ability of mesopic vision, so Hopes hurriedly took out the sunstones that he had prepared beforehand and mounted them onto several places of the cave walls. These stones could emit soft white light like sunlight, so like torches or wall lamps, they lit up the dim cave. With the light from the sunstones, everyone could clearly see that on the wall of the cave not too far ahead, there was a vast expanse of bright silver light. That was the vein of silver ore that was mixed with Mithril. Although this was not considered a big piece, it was worth a fortune. The two masters of identification took a short break, then walked up to the wall with their tools. They used tiny chisels to cut a few pieces of silver-gray ore from the wall, then used some special tools to examine the silver ore. The identification process took several hours, during which they did not even stop for lunch. They were done with all the identification work only when the sun started to set. Both masters had another round of discussions and finally reached an agreement. ¡°It¡¯s naturally-occurring Mithril,¡± they announced as such. ¡°Though not in great quantity, the quality is quite good. With the use of magic, we should be able to extract it more smoothly¡ªbut the silver mine will be destroyed.¡± Silver compared to Mithril was simply like soil compared to gold, especially when this Mithril was of the most precious forms of naturally-occurring Mithril. This was why there was simply no one who put the ordinary silver to heart. If they were destroyed, so be it. No one would feel sorry for the silver at all. The first step of the job of the masters of identification was completed. But they were not able to return just yet. They had to stay in camp for a while. Because the exploration team had to convert to miners on a temporary basis to extract all the precious naturally-occurring Mithril from this vein. Bit by bit, they would examine the extracted Mithril. Their job would only end when all the Mithril extracted had been verified. The naturally-occurring Mithril and acquired Mithril usually came together. So after they were collected, they had to be carefully identified before the refining process could actually commence. Only the high-purity, naturally-occurring Mithril would have slightly different properties from acquired Mithril. Once impurities were found, the difference would be greatly reduced, and its value would definitely plummet. So the exploration¡¯s plan was to dig for ore bit by bit along this vein. And they would do their best to make every single piece as small as possible. Once a bifurcation of the mineral vein was spotted, or when places that could possibly affect the purity of Mithril were found, the team would bring the pieces to the two masters of identification for confirmation. This was to ensure the purity of the mineral ore. As it should be, the high value of the naturally-occurring Mithril was largely because of the high level of difficulty entailed in its mining and refining works. Without any professional master of identification to make decisions and give commands, it would simply be unrealistic to want to extract the high-purity, naturally-occurring Mithril! Sui Xiong floated above the camp, watching how busy they were every day. They would use those handy little tools to dig up rocks from which they would dig out the silver ores that contained Mithril. Then they would carry everything back to camp on their shoulders for further careful screening. They were just like ants moving to a new house. Of course, it would not be possible for the two masters of identification to be the only ones handling the entire screening job. They would not be able to complete everything even if they had three heads and six arms each. Hopes and the other experts in mineral processing would first conduct the preliminary screening to separate the silver ores and Mithril ores. At the same time, they would select the Mithril ores that were specifically selected from the silver mine along that mineral vein. Then, they would hand over all the Mithril ores to these two masters of identification for verification. This was a tedious job. By the time the mining of that entire mineral vein was completed, the identification work would only be less than 10% complete. But what other solution was there? There was no easy money in this world. Moreover, for this batch of naturally-occurring Mithril, even the trade caravan who had control over this mining area had said that there was no hurry in the exploration work. Mineral processing was most important. Hopes and company certainly did not mind spending the whole day working on mineral processing. Anyway, they would not mind doing any form of work, so long as it was valuable work. At least, the job of mineral processing was slightly easier than exploration work. And it should not be forgotten that they were originally trained in mineral processing and not exploration. They got so busy that everything around them seemed to be in murky darkness. Some of them even started to feel that they were becoming cross-eyed. Just then, alarming news came along their way. On the border between the merchant party and aristocratic party, there was an intense conflict. Chapter 738 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The merchant party and aristocratic party are going to battle?¡± Clito asked. He was baffled. ¡°Haven¡¯t they already divided the sphere of influence? That¡¯s the equivalent of a separation. Why are they still going to fight?¡± The intelligence officer responsible for the arraignment was clearly well aware of the entire matter. Right away, he replied, ¡°According to the merchant party, the aristocratic party sent their troops to attack the trade caravans in the guise of pirates. So the merchant party confronted the aristocratic party and requested that they hand over the culprits. Not only did the aristocratic party refuse to hand over the assassins, but they also turned about and falsely accused the merchant party, saying that the other party had been harassing them on the border during this period. They got so angry that they started a fight.¡± ¡°Then what did the aristocratic party have to say?¡± Clito asked again. ¡°The aristocratic party feels that, first, the merchant party deliberately provoked them. Then they schemed and fabricated false charges against them. Yet in the end, the merchant party was actually the side to make the first move. It was really unreasonable!¡± Clito nodded. After pondering for a moment, he asked, ¡°What is our stand in regards to this matter?¡± ¡°Chief Easter told me that it¡¯s not our place as the Republic of Northwest to take a stand. If we must really choose a side to take, that would be to call for peace and mediate between the two parties.¡± Clito laughed and said, ¡°This is a good stand; I like it!¡± Clito was not a warmonger who believed that ¡°the moment the cannons of war began, the chance to earn a fortune arrived.¡± Nor was he a war maniac who clamored for war by saying that ¡°only iron and blood could resolve the problem.¡± Though he was in truth, quite a bellicose character, he was more inclined towards a peace-loving stance on a large political scale. It was naturally best if everyone led safe and stable lives without fighting each other. But if there was really a fight, the thing he would hope to do most of all, was to mediate it and not to take advantage of the situation to reap some benefits. From his viewpoint, the Republic of Northwest was very rich and was not significantly lacking in population. In general, things were well for the Republic. There was really nothing that special for them to rob. Wrong! Even if they did lack anything, it also would not justify the need for them to rob others! The merchant party and aristocratic party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins were going to battle; that was their civil war. As a neutral party, the Republic of Northwest should, of course, try its best to persuade them to stop the war and restore peace. This would be the right thing to do. Anyway, this was what Clito thought. Yet after smiling, his brows furrowed into a frown again. He thought for a moment, then asked, ¡°Did Chief Easter analyze the situation to find out exactly who was the culprit?¡± ¡°Chief Easter said that he felt that there are two possibilities. One possibility is that soldiers from both sides of the border are dishonest and were attacking each other¡¯s civilians. Such a thing is not uncommon and has happened so often throughout history. It¡¯s really a commonplace thing that can happen between two hostile forces.¡± Clito nodded and asked, ¡°What about the other possibility?¡± ¡°The other possibility is that someone is plotting behind the scenes and playing underhand means. By disguising oneself as someone from both sides, this someone is attacking the sentries and civilians from both sides to instigate a war. Such a thing is also very commonly seen. It¡¯s a kind of strategy that¡¯s fairly common, yet very useful.¡± Clito froze and thought for a while with a deep frown. ¡°How could this happen? The merchant party and aristocratic party going to war¡­ who would want them to go to war? If they really start to fight, who will benefit from it?¡± he muttered to himself as he fell into deep thought. Even after the intelligence officer left, he was still struggling in deep thought as he pondered over what was happening. He was fully convinced of Easter¡¯s vision. Since Easter felt that there was a possibility that someone might be playing underhand means behind the scenes, then such a possibility certainly existed. And it was not a small one at that. Clito even felt that perhaps Easter already had a conclusion in mind. The reason why Easter sent that intelligence officer over to tell him about the two possibilities might just be to take this opportunity to test him and see what his judgment would be. So he chose not to say anything though clearly, he could go to Sui Xiong and ask him about it. Instead, he buried himself in his thoughts as he pondered over what exactly was going on. ¡­ ¡°Which one of the two do you think has a higher possibility?¡± A shadow flashed within the God¡¯s Kingdom, and a clone of Sui Xiong appeared beside Easter, asking, ¡°What do you think of this intense internal conflict between the two forces of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins?¡± ¡°Is there even a need to ask? Someone is stirring up trouble,¡± Easter said. He put down his pen, then smiled and said, ¡°The merchant party and aristocratic party are currently seeking stability. They both want steady development. The merchant party is training new soldiers, so they need time to get their new army in shape. The aristocratic party needs to stabilize agricultural production, and also need to appease the lords who have just changed their territories. How would they possibly find the time and energy to fight a war now? However, other than the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, I¡¯m certain there must be other people who don¡¯t wish to see both sides settle down so stably and peacefully. So they can¡¯t wait to provoke the two parties into waging war with one another and also hope for their war to get as intense as possible. The more intense it is, the better it will be.¡± ¡°So which force do you think it¡¯ll be?¡± Sui Xiong asked? ¡°The greatest possibility, of course, is the Duchy of Thunder. There is also a possibility that it might be the Kingdom of Eagle,¡± Easter said. ¡°After all, wanting to benefit from its civil war, it only makes sense if the other force was located someplace contiguous to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins.¡± He thought for a while, then said, ¡°In fact, it might possibly be the Dhaka Commercial Association too. Both the Dhaka Commercial Association and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins are purely commercial states, so there¡¯s always intense competition between them. If a civil war breaks out within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, the Dhaka Commercial Association can make use of the opportunity to conquer and dominate many more markets. From this point of view, perhaps it¡¯s the likelier one to want to instigate a civil war within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. ¡°Are there no other forces?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Easter thought about it very carefully for a long time. Then he shook his head and said, ¡°At least I can¡¯t think of anything else. There might be other forces that could possibly benefit from a civil war, but these benefits are clearly not enough to make up for any advantages. Take the Church of the God of Aristocracy, for example. I¡¯m sure they will be able to gain some benefits from this civil war, but how can they guarantee that victory of the civil war will definitely go to the aristocratic party? If the merchant party wins, they will lose everything.¡± ¡°But if the aristocratic party wins, they will make a fortune, won¡¯t they?¡± Easter nodded first, then he shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s unreasonable to use 10% of capital to pursue 20% of profits and also face the risk of losing everything,¡± he said. ¡°Even if you did earn something, the earlier investment would be much too great, and it would definitely impair the strength of the aristocratic party itself. If there¡¯s no wish to impair the strength of the aristocratic party, then you¡¯d have to damage that of Church of the God of Aristocracy¡ªthe aristocrats are no fools. If you are going to make them fight against the merchant party, the Church of the God of Aristocracy will spare no effort and money. They would at least send out a great number of Sacred Warriors, priests and pontifex to fight the war. Though they have been established for hundreds of years and also have the heritage of the former Church of the God of Royalty, fighting such a battle would certainly deal a great blow to their vitality¡­¡± ¡°What if they don¡¯t send anyone to war?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Then that would affect the influence of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. How can a church expect the aristocrats to support it when it gets other people to fight wars but, in the end, not send any soldiers to render them support?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it, and it did seem like there was truth to what Easter said. Wanting others to put their all on the line for him, yet unwilling to put in one¡¯s own capital? Who would be able to believe in such a person? ¡°So, it¡¯s indeed highly unlikely that the Church of the God of Aristocracy is the troublemaker here?¡± ¡°Unless there is some inside info that I don¡¯t know of, then I really don¡¯t see the need for Church of the God of Aristocracy to fight this war,¡± Easter replied as such, but not with much confidence. ¡°It¡¯s just that¡­ the matters of the gods are simply unfathomable. I¡¯m not too sure myself whether there could have been some other reason that I have not thought of.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll look into it. There will be results soon.¡± Having said that, he went to Javier¡¯s to inquire more about the situation. To name the most well-informed of the gods, apart from those professionals who specialized in intelligence gathering, it would be none other than the God of Pleasure. He was the expert in indulging in good food, fine wine and merry-making, and he had friends all over the world. If the God of Aristocracy truly had some tricks up his sleeves or was devising some plot, Javier would more or less always be able to find a little clue. Chapter 739 ¡°I really don¡¯t understand why you want your followers to fight the followers of the Goddess of Wealth,¡± the God of Diplomacy asked. They were in a pavilion next to the terrifying black pool that could ablate Divine Power, hidden deep in the God¡¯s Kingdom of the human gods. In the middle of the black pool, the place where the God of Diplomacy sat had turned into a thin piece of ice. He himself was sealed within the solid piece of ice. Golden Divine Power was seeping out from the ice in a continuous stream where it was ablated by the black pool, becoming a grayish-white vapor. Amidst the vapor, a slow voice said, ¡°This is¡­ purifying¡­ belief¡­ necessary.¡± ¡°Purifying belief? Hasn¡¯t your belief already been greatly purified? ¡°Not enough.¡± ¡°This is still not enough?¡± asked the God of Diplomacy as he looked at that black pool. The pitch-black water that looked like ink had clearly dropped significantly. This was magic water made using advanced devils as its raw material. It was refined via a complex technological process that consumed a large number of resources and could effectively ablate the impure Divine Power that had accumulated on the gods¡¯ bodies. This would prepare them well for the impact of becoming a Great Divine Power. No one knew how much time and effort was put into creating this pool. Back then, there was even a god from the Human God System who had lost his life in the abyss¡­ But all this was worth it. Whether it was the God of Protection and the God of Heroes of the past, or even the God of Aristocracy of the present, they had all relied on this pool of magic water to purify their Divine Power. This would allow them to once again, activate the divinity that had been kept confined by belief. This would greatly increase the possibility of them becoming Great Divine Powers. Why were the gods of the Human God System able to achieve success on several occasions to become Great Divine Powers, even when they were in a situation where they clearly had not accumulated enough power? This had always been a huge mystery. And the answer to this mystery was this pool of magic water. Not only that, but previously, the God of Light had also depended on its help to sever all relations with the Mother of Sea. He was thus able to obtain complete freedom, and with a single strike, he killed the Mother of Sea in one fell swoop. The other gods might not be aware, but the God of Diplomacy was his confidant, so of course, he would know. For a long time, the existence of the Mother of Sea had been the God of Light¡¯s greatest worry. This creator of humans had an absolute superiority over mankind, though she was not very powerful in her own right. She had always been a lackadaisical character who did nothing at all, but if she decided to turn her back on them one fine day, even if it was not utter destruction to mankind, at least a good half of the Human God System would have been finished off. To the Human God System, which had so many enemies like the uncountable clouds in the sky, this was no different from death. It was precisely this reason that the God of Light had wanted to find a way to kill the Mother of Sea. Eventually, he succeeded and killed the most dangerous existence for mankind. This was undoubtedly an evil act of aggression, but that did not matter to the God of Light. The God of Diplomacy did not think much of it too. Even if it was an evil thing to do, did it really matter if one had to kill for the sake of survival? Very few gods knew of this plan. Other than the God of Light and the God of Diplomacy, there was only the God of Knights and the God of Aristocracy who knew. The God of Knights was a first-generation God King of the Human God System. He was also the founder of the Human God System. There was no bypassing him if anyone wanted to accomplish a great deed. As for the God of Aristocracy¡­ the God of Diplomacy looked at the bewitching god sealed within the ice and sighed inwardly. His Majesty has given the clear-cut order that if there comes a day where he meets with misfortune, the seat of the God King of the Human God System will be inherited by them. However, can the God of Aristocracy really lead and support the entire Human God System? He had little confidence. The power of the God of Aristocracy was strong enough. Their way of thinking, as well as their means, were also worthy of recognition. However, when compared to the God of Knights and the God of Revenge¡ªwho was now the God of Light¡ªthey lacked two very important qualities: responsibility, as well as the preparedness to sacrifice for the humans. Whether it was the God of Knights or the God of Revenge, both were filled with a sense of responsibility for the whole of mankind. In their hearts, humans held the greatest importance. They were more important than any other interests, even more important than their own principles. So when the God of Protection realized that the God of Revenge had such unscrupulous means that he himself could not match up to, he gave up his place as the God King without regret. And after he handed it over to the other party, he assumed the role of the God of Knights and in turn pledged service to the other party. When the God of Revenge realized that his priesthood was not suitable for him to serve as the God of Human Beings, he did not hesitate to seal up his priesthood. He would rather endure a pain that made him feel like his soul was perpetually being torn apart to ensure that he would not be influenced by his priesthood. This way, he could keep his mind clear enough to consider problems. Such a great sacrifice and such a strong sense of responsibility that could make them so oblivious of himself¡ªthese were all qualities that the God of Aristocracy did not have. Without such spirit and attitude, would they be able to shoulder the responsibility of carrying the burden of the entire Human God System and all of mankind at the most critical moments? The God of Diplomacy remained silent with his heart filled with doubt. To ensure the success of her promotion, the God of Aristocracy instigated a war without any concern. If nothing else, just the mere act of inciting their followers to get involved in an open fight with the followers of the Goddess of Wealth made him deeply doubtful of whether the God of Aristocracy would be truly reliable when the time came. But none of this could change the mind of the God of Light. The God of Diplomacy had once again reminded the God of Light about the unreliability of the God of Aristocracy upon his return, but the latter remained obstinate about his decision. He made the God of Aristocracy the foremost candidate in succeeding as God King of the Human God System in case of emergency. Watching the God of Diplomacy walk out amidst sighs, Wuther Rang, who was seated on his icy-cold throne, broke into a smile that lacked warmth. There were some matters that were only known to him. There were certain secrets that no confidants of his could know, secrets that he had to bury deep within him. If the so-called ¡°emergency situations¡± truly occurred, the God of Diplomacy would naturally come to know why he had to make such a decision. The considerations of gods did not really have much to do with mortals. The mortals had their own considerations. ¡°What did you say? Make peace with the merchant party?!¡± an earl exclaimed as he jumped to his feet in shock at the meeting of the aristocratic party. This suggestion was made by one of the two marquises, Marquis Yug, who was also called the ¡°Marquis of Gemstones.¡± He was a follower of the Goddess of Fortune, but his oldest son was a follower of the God of Aristocracy and had even funded the construction of the temple of the God of Aristocracy. Within the aristocratic party, he was more or less inclined towards the core party of the God of Aristocracy and had always been on bad terms Marquis Gordon, also known as the ¡°Marquis of Gold,¡± who had always been inclined towards the God of Fortune. No one would have expected that it was not Marquis Gordon but he who suggested making peace with the merchant party! After all, in previous negotiations with the merchant party, he was the one with the most aggressive attitude, so much to the extent of practically refusing to yield an inch. At that time, he even shouted out intense words like, ¡°I have four sons and five grandchildren. At most, we¡¯ll all just fight till we¡¯re all wasted. No one in the Yug family is afraid of death.¡± On the contrary, Marquis Gordon¡¯s attitude was milder, and he was willing to be a little more accommodating. Yet it had only been a year and a half; how could there be such a major turnabout in his attitude? The aristocrats looked at each other and could not help but cry out in unison, ¡°This does not make sense.¡± Chapter 740 In the face of the questioning eyes of the aristocrats, as well as that shocking question from that earl, though Marquis Yug¡¯s expression was as calm as water, he was cursing and swearing in his heart. If he had a choice, of course he was unwilling to suggest making peace with the merchant party. But now, did he have any other choice? Last night, he received a letter from his sister. It was a magic message telling him about some extremely secretive information. Though his sister was very prudent with her choice of words, it was evident that she did not have much confidence. When he compared her the information to his, Marquis Yug could affirm that her speculation was right. He was positive that the aristocratic party did not send anyone to attack the trade caravans and civilians of the merchant party. And he also guessed that the attack on the soldiers and lords of the aristocratic party stationed at the border was not a deed by the merchant party. Previously, he thought that since everyone was so angry, they might as well just fight things out. Anyway, the main forces to dispatch an army were the local aristocrats. Even if they lost the fight, as a central aristocrat, his loss was very limited. So he chose to be a member of the war-advocating party and was inclined towards fighting a small battle with the merchant party. But in contrast to his sister¡¯s information, as he carefully thought about it for a long time, he got so scared that he broke out in cold sweat. If war were to happen, he was afraid this would not be a ¡°small-scale war,¡± and he could forget about wanting to maintain ¡°limited losses.¡± What the person behind the scenes who was pushing for this war wanted was not a small-scale war at all. He wanted a raging and aggressive war that could engulf the entire Commonwealth of Gold Coins! Though he could not understand that person¡¯s rationale for doing such a thing, it was not important. What was important was that as someone benefiting from the existing order within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, he absolutely could not allow the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to stage an extensive civil war! That not only meant that he would incur a great loss, but it also meant that there would be great danger. The higher one stood, the harder one would fall. That was a given. The Yug family had been the apex of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, and there was no way they could go up any further. But there was a high possibility of them falling instead¡ªhe was sure that despite how bright and dazzling his family was now, there were many people plotting behind the scenes, wanting to stab them in the back or even wanting to utterly destroy the entire Yug family and then hold a grand banquet to feast around their dead bodies. He would not allow such a thing to happen! If anyone brought untoward accidents to the Yug family, whether a mortal or god, that person would be his enemy! So he called all the core members of the family together before dawn and held a secret meeting. Then he put his oldest son under house arrest by confining him in a secret chamber. He personally contacted the leader of the various heads of the aristocratic party and spoke to them about the matter of making peace with the merchant party in a most straightforward manner. This would certainly taint his image as well as mar the prestige of the Yug family. But at that moment, he could not be bothered. Now, the conflict between the merchant party and the aristocratic party was only on the level of ¡°friction¡± or ¡°minor conflict.¡± If they did not calm things down now, when the raging fire of war commenced, even the Yug family would not be able to do anything. Looking at the many aristocratic heads projected as images by magic communication, he sighed quietly to himself and said, ¡°Dear all, just as the saying goes, that was then, and this is now. Previously, I advocated war most fervently because I felt that I could reap some benefits from the war. But now, I just received some important information! That was the key to changing my mind.¡± ¡°What information?¡± asked Marquis Gordan in a low voice. ¡°The Republic of Northwest has sent a joint exploration team to explore a mine with the merchant party.¡± ¡°We already knew of this, so what¡¯s so great about it?¡± an earl said with a laugh. Marquis Yug sneered and continued to say, ¡°They discovered Mithril in the mine.¡± ¡°A Mithril mine¡­ is also not a big deal,¡± said that earl who had just spoken. An expressionless Marquis Yug said, ¡°It has been verified that that Mithril wasn¡¯t generated from ordinary silver ore that has been immersed in magic. It is naturally-occurring Mithril that was formed when the Main Plane came into existence.¡± The earl, who had spoken twice earlier on, fell silent. The other earls could not hold back their gasps. Even Marquis Gordan had to frown. ¡°is this news reliable?¡± he asked. ¡°Of course, it is,¡± Marquis Yug said lightly. Telling them this piece of news would suffice. He would certainly not divulge the other more important pieces of news to these people. That involved the Yug¡¯s family¡¯s biggest secret. So long as that secret was carefully guarded, he could protect his family¡¯s survival for at least a thousand years, or even much longer. After a while, Marquis Gordan said in a low voice, ¡°Do you know the quantity contained in the reserves of that mineral vein?¡± ¡°What do you take the scouts under my command for?¡± Marquis Yug laughed and asked in reply, ¡°Do you think you will ever be able to get another good night¡¯s sleep if you know that they can even find out the exact amount contained in the reserves found in that mineral vein?¡± Marquis Gordan laughed dryly and said nothing more. There were conflicts between the local aristocrats and the central aristocrats, so of course, there were also conflicts among the central aristocrats themselves. Marquis Gordan and Marquis Yug had been longtime rivals. They belonged to the kind of rivals that ¡°yearned for you to meet death.¡± The fact that the spies under Marquis Yug¡¯s command were able to get ahold of such confidential information was enough to make Marquis Gordon somewhat uneasy. If they were able to further inquire about top-secret information about the reserves of the mineral vein, then they might not have any difficulty in acquiring confidential information about him. At least¡­ they would be a little closer. Seeing that the atmosphere was getting a little awkward, an earl who was quite close to Marquis Gordon hastily changed the subject, ¡°The value of a mineral vein containing naturally-occurring Mithril is worth a fortune. This will greatly strengthen the relationship between the Republic of Northwest and the merchant party. If we strike the merchant part at this point in time, we¡¯ll easily attract the attention of the Republic of Northwest. It¡¯s indeed¡­ not appropriate at all.¡± ¡°Yes, they must be very nervous right now. Once hyped up, they tend to overreact. Their heightened emotions might only start to ease up after everything is settled, that is, when that mineral vein is mined and the silver is verified,¡± said another earl. ¡°Even if they want to fight a war, they will also have to wait until then.¡± With that, all eyes fell on Earl Good Horse. ¡°Good Horse¡± was not actually the surname of Earl Good Horse. The origin of this name had to be traced back to the founder of the family. That earl¡¯s name was ¡°Good Hauss,¡± and he was nicknamed ¡°Good Horse.¡± Later, though their family¡¯s official name was Earl Hauss, the name of ¡°Good Horse¡± was so popular that it became a nickname that people commonly used to address them. Of course, this was also because they were bothered by it. On the contrary, they might even be proud of this title. At present, it was this ¡°Good Horse,¡± Earl Hauss, who was in conflict with the merchant party. Originally, he wanted to use his assassination as a pretext to demand some compensation from the central aristocrats. He had not expected the merchant party to make a move against him first and accuse his soldiers of crossing the border to attack the trade caravans and civilians. At that time, he had not even started on negotiations with the central aristocrats about the substantive issues. Earl Hauss, who was already in a bad mood, was subjected to further distress. He could no longer hold himself back and flew into a rage. Without another word, he chased the messenger of the merchant party away. As a result, the merchant party actually assembled their army at the border, as though they had braced themselves to fight a major war. The ¡°Good Horse¡± family had never been afraid to fight and always went all out. If he chose not to attack another party, the other side should be thanking the gods while counting their blessings. Yet now, they actually had the guts to come find fault with him?! To borrow a famous saying of Brother Illidan, who was whitewashed by the gaming company, Blizzard, after Sui Xiong had traversed the world, ¡°You are all trying to meet your doom!¡± So he did not hesitate to gather his military force and horses to confront the merchant party. Over the past few days, there had been two small-scale skirmishes between the two sides. Though the losses incurred were small, the anger was building up. And at this very moment, if the aristocratic party wanted to make peace, his attitude would become the key. Chapter 741 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Towards the two marquis and earls, Hauss Bell paused for a while before saying, ¡°Actually, I¡¯m not someone who likes to cause trouble. Since we risk implicating the Republic of Northwest, I think we should just get our troops to retreat.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Marquis Yug smiled and nodded. ¡°I will compensate you for your loss.¡± ¡°it¡¯s not about ¡°me,¡± but ¡°us.¡± It¡¯s true that Hauss suffered a loss this time. Since he chose to retreat for the benefit of the aristocrats, it is natural that we compensate him together. Hauss, I will send someone to send you twenty sets of slats.¡± Marquis Gordon said. Upon hearing this, more than one earl frowned. The slats were armors that we were made of iron. While it was slightly bulky, it provided good protection for the wearer, and it was an excellent suit for the soldiers at the basic level. As long as one wore a slat, they did not worry about getting injured by bows and swords. If one wore the slat and put on a shield, they would be like walking bars of iron¡ªstrong and mighty. Although standard slats were mass-produced by the Republic of Northwest, which caused its price to drop, a standard slat was still worth at least two hundred gold coins. Twenty slats would then be worth 4000 gold coins. While this was not a huge amount, the earls would have to contribute at least 2000 gold coins out of their own pockets. Thus, those that frowned signaled their displeasure at having to pay so much themselves. However, Marquis Yug immediately took the initiative to mention that he could contribute ten slats as well as a large silver shield with a tinplate. This was worth about 6000 gold coins alone. The other earls who did not have a good relationship with Hauss frowned further, and their faces darkened. They were unable to voice out their actual displeasure, however, as the two daxies had already shown their approval. In the end, the other earls pooled their resources together to gather about 2000 gold coins. Hauss smiled in pleasure. Although he had suffered some losses, the compensation of more than 30,000 gold coins was more than enough to make up for it. With such profits, he could also forget the scary events that he had gone through. A few days later, the good arrived at Hauss Bell¡¯s house¡ªthese items were impossible to be transferred all the way from the capital or from the earls¡¯ houses. Thus, they were directly brought to him from the union near his territory, which was responsible for preparing supplies for Marquis Gordon. It was not that the aristocratic faction didn¡¯t have merchants. For example, every pair of earls had a rather sizeable merchant¡¯s union. Marquis Gordon¡¯s union worked with the shop near Hauss¡¯ territory that facilitated trade. Materials were all prepaid and sent over, and the materials demanded by the majority were re-ordered. With the shipments, Hauss hurried to call for his troops to retreat. On the other hand, the aristocrats sent their messengers to speak with the merchants on how to resolve the overall conflict. In the beginning, Hauss was unsure over the confrontation with the different unions and did not dare to pursue the matter. Although they had started the fight in anger, the anger alone could not fuel the disparity in terms of skills. Previously, in small confrontations, the merchants who placed high regard on their troops had faced great losses rather than their expected victories. In these sorts of situations, watching Hauss retreat, they assumed that there was some sort of danger and thus did not pursue the matter as well. Instead, they desperately ran for cover. A few days later, the aristocrats sent their messengers to resolve any misunderstandings. Some of the more intense people had felt that they had missed a good opportunity and were full of regret. On the other hand, those who were more traditional were secretly thankful that the war over the border could be resolved peacefully. The merchants had simply lusted over more wealth, so what was the use of going to battle? Even if they had reaped some profits, they would still have to pay their troops. With such a mindset on both sides, the peace talks proceeded smoothly. Truthfully, the merchants did not have solid evidence to prove that the soldiers who had attacked their people belonged to the aristocrats. The messengers in charge of the negotiations directly took out the murder weapon and said that the priests of the Master of Justice¡¯s (God of Law) church could vouch for the aristocrats¡¯ troops. They would supervise the aristocratic troops, and if they found out that they had harmed the merchants¡¯ people, they would call them out and execute them on the spot. This meant that even the more intense merchants were put at ease, and there was only the issue of money left to discuss. However, this was not a big problem. The aristocrats were dangerous to anger and usually were not the first to surrender. Although it was unclear why they were willing to retreat this time, if one were to be too greedy and provoke them, it would become a catastrophe. If both sides started an actual war, neither side would benefit from it. Securing the black sheep of the group allowed for smooth negotiations on both sides. Both could settle the issue in detail and even sign some conditions, creating a successful contract. This contract was rather fair and did not disadvantage any side. In the end, the representative from the aristocrats insisted that the clause of ¡°if it is discovered that the disruptions are caused by an external third party, we must unite with each other¡± be added, causing the merchants to feel more assured. No one does things without reason¡ªthe aristocrats would not have done so if they had not felt that something was not right. After the talks, the merchants immediately contacted the core members of the group and reported the happenings to the Chambers of Commerce. The chambers were actively involved in this matter and immediately called for their own internal meeting. Several big merchants went through several rounds of discussion before deciding to liaise with the aristocrats to investigate this matter and ensure that those who were causing trouble were caught and dealt with. Normally, the merchants only valued money and did not care much for other matters. However, now that there was a chance of foul play instigating a war between them and the aristocrats, they would definitely not be satisfied, even if it meant spending money and losing lives in war. Spending money made the merchants¡¯ heart bleed. However, the idea of death scared them even more. The idea that they nearly fell into a trap made them extremely angry. No matter who had caused this trouble, they would have to be prepared to face the wrath of the merchants now. After about half a month, the aristocrats and merchants¡¯ joint investigative team eventually set out and started to investigate the matter of the attacks on both sides of the border. Chapter 742 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the sky, two shadows which were invisible to the human eye were having a discussion. ¡°The situation is rather worrying.¡± ¡°Actually, it is not as bad as it seems. As long as the killers and assassins don¡¯t find out, there will be no problems.¡± ¡°If we continue like this, finding them is only a matter of time.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve made prior arrangements. Once the situation becomes urgent, they will leave immediately¡­ Look. That group that was originally made up of pirates have already started retreating.¡± ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t trust them entirely to carry out these tasks.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, I had some flaws in my previous methods of execution. I¡¯m trying to think of a solution to save the situation¡­ do you have any suggestions?¡± ¡°Me? I don¡¯t have anything worthwhile to suggest as well. Previously, both sides were already suspicious of moles creating trouble. As gods, although the prophetic spells do not affect us, we are unsure of whether the assassins and killers will be found out. I feel that it¡¯s best not to act for now. We can wait till their vigilance has dropped before deciding what to do.¡± ¡°You know that¡¯s impossible. His Majesty does not want us to wait. The fact that he hired you to help clearly indicates the severity of the situation.¡± ¡°If it can¡¯t be done, it simply can¡¯t be done. Let¡¯s not talk about us, even if His Majesty mobilized all of the gods, all we could do is kill. It would still be impossible to force them to fight amongst each other.¡± ¡°Damnit! The situation was much better before!¡± ¡°Hm, it feels like the tides have turned rather dramatically, I wonder why?¡± ¡°Hey, it¡¯s getting late, I have to rush back. That fat pig will almost be back by now. If he doesn¡¯t see his ¡®princess,¡¯ he¡¯ll get suspicious.¡± ¡°Honestly, my advice is for you to just get rid of him. After all, you¡¯re a goddess; why would you want to entertain a vicious and stupid lad all day? It¡¯s rather disgusting, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Killing him is the easy part. However, the situation may get complicated if he dies. That vase is a useless woman who is unable to protect herself. If I show my true abilities, it will seem suspicious. Instead of showing my true identity, I¡¯d rather suffer for now.¡± ¡°I really admire you. If it were me, I¡¯d just feel like killing him and tearing his brains out no matter what. No, I¡¯d strengthen his body slightly then use a fishing line to hang that disgusting worm in the air¡­¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll take my leave now. In the meantime, I¡¯ll have to trouble you to settle matters on this end. Contact me if there are any urgent issues, and I¡¯ll rush over if so.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, even if I¡¯m physically useless and don¡¯t possess many skills, I can settle most situations with my brain alone. If I¡¯m really helpless, I can also utilize the magic statue we just bought.¡± With these parting words, one of the two figures vanished at an astonishing speed. After a period of contemplation, the other also flew off towards a random building in the distance. It passed through a transparent window that by right, only wind could pass through, and it entered the basement where the young assassin leader was hiding. The young assassin leader was reading what seemed to be a memoir on war. He was extremely focused, and if he were in a classroom, he would definitely be praised by the teacher. ¡°Greetings, young king of assassins.¡± The assassin leader froze, raised his head and put down his book. ¡°Who are you? What do you want from me?¡± He maintained his composure, but his body was tight and seemed ready for combat at any time. ¡°I¡¯m your employer. Or rather, one of your employers.¡± ¡°In that case, are you here to prompt me to act? To be honest, that will be hard. Looking at the current situation, even if I put aside my doubts to kill that count under the codename of ¡°Big Horse,¡± it would still not cause an actual war between the aristocrats and merchants.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not here to rush you. I just want to ask, with suitable assistance, what plans do you have to achieve this goal?¡± The young assassin leader froze. He did not question the limits of the assistance being offered but instead began to think in earnest. After a while, he asked, ¡°Can you provide powerful spells that can break through the legendary level of mind protection?¡± ¡°Mind control? To force someone to do something that they were not in favor of would be extremely hard. Although it can be provided, there will be consequences, and it might even expose me. I can¡¯t agree to this.¡± ¡°I thought so too¡­. Well, if I take a step back and make a large scale suggestion to the crowd, making them angry and frantic and lead the anger in a certain direction, would that be feasible?¡± This time, it was the god who was silent. After two to three minutes of silence, the assassin got a positive answer. ¡°Yes, but it will be extremely dangerous; this will be a thin line to walk. I hope you can consider a more appropriate approach.¡± The assassin leader smiled. He now understood the other party¡¯s bottom line and could gauge the extent to which ¡°sufficient assistance¡± would be provided. ¡°Let¡¯s use the easiest method then. Arrange a Blaspheme magic array onto the border on our side to summon power from the abyss. If once is insufficient, do it two or three times. In any case, we must make both sides fight for their lives and have a hard time fighting this magic array.¡± ¡°Is there a purpose in this? I can¡¯t possibly summon a strong demon to the world without reason.¡± ¡°Yes, there is. We need only to make both sides¡¯ troops weary and angry. During this time, it will be appropriate to cause tension. In their annoyed state, they may start a full battle with each other even if their leaders have ordered otherwise.¡± The assassin leader smiled. ¡°The leaders are only effective when their men are willing to listen to them. When the troops have minds of their own, all the leaders can do is to choose between abandoning their title or entering the fight as well¡­¡± ¡°This suggestion is not bad, but I will need some time to gather opinions on my side. When I¡¯ve completed my discussions, I will contact you again.¡± As these words were uttered, the shapeless figure disappeared with the wind, leaving the young assassin leader to sit on his bed and mull over the conversation. ¡°That was literally a ghostly encounter! I wonder what kind of being my employer really is¡­¡± His forehead gleamed with sweat that had formed due to his nerves earlier on. The ability to teleport seamlessly and isolate one¡¯s presence as well as the ability of telekinesis¡­. And this stranger was not the only one. Maybe¡­ Taking on this job was a mistake¡­. Yet again, it was proving to be rather interesting! As he thought, he gathered a group of assassins, and these cruel, unfeeling men smiled together. This was a smile akin to that of a child coming across a new toy¡ªangelic and naive. Chapter 743 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Through the magnifying glass, Hopes glanced at the silver ore in his hand carefully and continuously rotated it under the sunlight to observe it from various angles. After a while, he used a bizarre shaft of reflection to confirm the quality of the ore. ¡°Mithril, more than 50% pure,¡± he muttered to himself. He placed the ore in a wooden trunk to his left. He then picked up another ore from the pile in front of him and began the observations again. After a few minutes, he shook his head, muttering ¡°silver ore¡± before throwing it far, far away into a rattan basket. This difference in treatment was due to the vast disparity in value between the two types of ores. The silver ore had little value, and even if it were to be refined into sterling silver, it would also only be used for silver coins. For the stone that he had just gotten rid of, after extraction, it would only be able to form about ten silver coins. After paying for the extraction process, it would only be worth two silver coins. Two silver coins, to Hopes, was a meager amount. When he treated his friends to meals, the total bill would exceed that significantly. However, Mithril was different. Although the one that he had just picked up was a lower-value Mithril, after extraction, its value could be counted in terms of gold coins. On average, it was worth about one gold coin per gram. The piece that he had just examined could extract about 40 grams of Mithril, and that would be about forty to fifty gold coins! If this had been the naturally-occurring Mithril mine, one piece would be worth about two hundred gold coins or more. If it were made into an actual product, it could even be worth more than five hundred gold coins, and that was higher than his pay for a month! Coming from different backgrounds, one¡¯s status was naturally different as well. Even though there were many men on this expedition related to mining, the people on the exploration team were mainly appraisers for the two masters, helping them to select materials and extracting secret silver ore. However, the masters were in charge of choosing the innate secret silver mines from the secret silver ore. With this difference in workload, there was also a difference in authority and thus, status. Hopes¡¯ salary, along with about seven or eight of the workers, added up to that of one master¡¯s salary. This included the bonus allowance that they received from the Republic of Northwest. Otherwise, if it were strictly in accordance with the standard of the Commonwealth, it would be only a minor fraction of the master¡¯s pay. However, Hopes was satisfied with his current pay as it was suitable for his job scope. He knew that he had limited abilities, and thus, this was the best pay that he could get. For example, if a piece of naturally-occurring secret silver ore and acquired Mithril were given to him, he really would not be able to tell them apart. To do so, the easiest way would be to use magic. One had to use the advanced identification spell. However, this spell was an unconventional magic technique that could generally only be achieved by a high-level wizard, and that would be a waste of his time and energy. A normal, high-ranking mage would also only be able to do this spell five to six times a day, and each spell could only identify two to three of the ores. That would be an incredible waste of magic overall! If not for any special deals, at the market rate, such an inspection would cost thousands of gold coins¡­ When compared like this, the masters of identification¡¯s pay did not seem that ludicrous after all. This was why Hope¡¯s friend, Cambrona, constantly urged him to train hard while he was young to become a high-level druid and earn himself both wealth and status in the future. Among the Void gods in Void Mask City, the God of Agriculture had a special bias for druids. Currently, he had about twenty high-level druids invested in him. His church also had few pastors, and the spellcasters were mostly druids. The God of Agriculture was developing technology to improve agriculture so that people could gain more resources from the limited arable land. This would also reduce the damage that the people did to the environment, and this received the praise and support of the druids in general. In particular, the druids who advocated for ¡°the harmonious coexistence of man and nature¡± viewed him as an idol and were fully invested in him, making the God of Agriculture¡¯s following extremely strong. Currently, in this world, to learn druid knowledge, the most reliable way would be to enter the Republic of Northwest and enter the God of Agriculture¡¯s church. Hopes had a decent level of natural magical talent, and this signaled that he was suitable to train to be a druid. However, personally, he had no interest and would rather be a paladin. This was because there were many rules in being a druid, such as not being able to kill for food. Druids also had to reduce seasoning when consuming food as they were supposed to live a simple life; they could not wear woven clothing; they could not use gold-based weapons or protection; they could not live in a busy city for extended periods of time; they could not attend extravagant dinners or celebrations, etc. It was not that he could not adhere to these rules, but Hopes had no desire to. Only those who were truly inclined towards nature and hated the stressfulness of modern life could become a druid. Druids were people who were not interested in drama and entertainment and who wanted to focus on cultivating inner peace. This was not Hopes. ¡°Another silver ore!¡± He threw yet another piece of ore into the rattan basket. Hopes felt rather tired and stood up to take a break. He walked over to the poolside to wash his hands and take a walk in the camp. Choosing ores was a meticulous and detailed task that required immense focus. If one was not in the right mood, it would affect the quality and speed of work. Thus, it would be wise to take breaks every now and then. Looking at Hopes¡¯ free and easy style, the workers from the Commonwealth of Golden Coins stared on in envy. There were many differences between the workers of the Commonwealth and the Republic. For example, in terms of workers¡¯ treatment, the Commonwealth workers were subject to a much stricter protocol as they had different statuses. For example, in this join exploration team, there were also miners from the Commonwealth. However, when they were tired, they were not allowed to take random walks. They could only take short naps in the tents before returning to work. Although their pay and work quality were about the same, Hopes did not have a minimum requirement of ores. Without caring for a minimum load, he could rest for a few days without any issues, and he could still get his allowance. However, workers from the Commonwealth had a minimum quota to hit per day, and if this was not met, then their salaries would be reduced. Their pay was already meager, so if it were to be further reduced, it would be hard for them to sustain their family expenses. This expectation was made worse by the fact that the minimum quota was calculated based on the most experienced worker. Thus, for the average man to complete the quota, they had to work overtime. No matter how much they admired Hopes, there was nothing they could do. Rest? They simply did not have time to do so. ¡°The actions by the Commonwealth seem rather familiar¡­ Where have I seen this situation before? In reality? Or online?¡± Sui Xiong mused to himself as he floated in the air and observed the situation at camp. ¡°In any case, I have a bad feeling about this¡­¡± Chapter 744 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Before he entered this world, Sui Xiong was someone who was not really interested in current events. This was not because he was cold or elitist. He had been dragged by his friends to donate blood before. When there were disasters, he had offered donations and did not hesitate to help those in need as well. When he could not witness any bad happenings, however, he was not the sort to waste time investigating as he was extremely busy. Sui Xiong had to work, and he had to settle trades and his accounts. He also had to draw to earn extra income, but he still had to spend time to play games and converse with his in-game friends¡­ Sui Xiong did not really spend time gossiping about external news. To illustrate this, he did not even remember his own birthday unless his mother reminded him yearly on the phone the day before. The only days that he would remember would be holidays that were publicly celebrated, such as Qing Ming, Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day and New Year¡¯s Day Spring Festival. He¡¯d also remember holidays such as Valentine¡¯s Day and Christmas which his games would organize events for. To someone who could even forget his own birthday, hot societal topics were nonexistent to him. Who said that digitally savvy people had to be news-oriented? The reality was that Sui Xiong could not even remember the last time he read the news¡­ Furthermore, other than studying art at university, he had also been indifferent towards anything else. Thus, no matter how much he thought, he also could not link the plight of the Commonwealth workers to any current affairs of his past world. In the end, he gave up trying to figure it out. ¡°Although something¡¯s definitely not right, I still can¡¯t figure it out. I¡¯ll return to this issue another time.¡± In any case, being able to be compensated for overtime was already considered decent. Furthermore, the workers from the Commonwealth could actually earn a sizeable amount should they choose to work overtime¡ªthis was satisfactory for a typical, average citizen. Thus, even if they envied workers from the Republic, they did not have much reason to rebel. Of course, even if they wanted to, it would be difficult as they would have to abandon their wives and children back home to do so. In the camp, after taking a leisurely stroll, Hopes felt rejuvenated and was ready to continue working. Previously, they had realized that the mine was not that big, and the total number of discovered silver ores was not that high either. However, the difference between silver ores and secret silver ores was rather small, and inexperienced workers would not be able to identify them. Thus the mine¡¯s effectiveness was lowered. Sui Xiong felt some sort of pity for the workers as they continued working tirelessly. ¡°If the weight of silver and Mithril is significantly different, one could actually start from there¡­¡± He pondered on whether to copy Archimedes and come up with a simple buoyancy tool. It would be easy to make such a tool. One need only put the silver ore into a basin filled with water and gauge its weight by calculating the amount of water that spilled out. From there, one could determine the different weights of silver and Mithril. This idea was derived from simple secondary school physics, and even the muddle-headed Sui Xiong could think of it. However, after experimenting with a few ores, Sui Xiong felt that it was not very effective. For example, during some tests, he found that silver and Mithril had almost the same weight. This was ridiculous as the defining features of Mithril were ¡°hard¡± and ¡°light.¡± With the same shape, Mithril weighed less than ten percent of normal silver ore, which was how it had earned the idiomatic description of ¡°strong like a dragon¡¯s scale but light as a feather¡±¡ªof course, this was an exaggerated description, but as it mentioned, Mithril was extremely soft yet strong. Sui Xiong had once thrown a huge piece into water, and it had floated to the surface! Why was Mithril so light yet silver ore so heavy? Sui Xiong could not understand this and sought the advice of others who knew better. He found the God of Forging of the half-orcs, Steel Lion Morani. Upon hearing his query, Morani laughed, then told Sui Xiong that he had made a huge mistake. Mithril was a strange object, and its weight would vary according to its purity. When its purity was lower, it would have a similar weight to normal silver ore. As the purity increased, its weight would decrease. When its purity reached the level of ¡°thousand pure gold,¡± it could float in water easily. ¡°In this case¡­ the purer it is, it could even become as light as an actual feather?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. Morani shook his head, ¡°I thought about that before in the past as well and did some experiments with that hypothesis in mind. The lightest it can go would be to approximately the weight of cork. I didn¡¯t have the means to continue these experiments and¡­ I also haven¡¯t found any conditions which would make the Mithril even lighter.¡± Sui Xiong understood now, and he laughed at himself bashfully, looking at his invention. It was clear that the purity of most Mithril was not able to utilize the weight method to identify it. In a bunch of ores, only a rare few would be so lightweight that it could be easily identified. The ¡°easy solution¡± that he had thought up was only feasible in theory but not in actual reality. ¡°Actually, to select ores, the best method is to use magic. Mithril and silver¡¯s biggest difference lies in its¡¯ uniqueness and magical quality. If one could make a tool to measure the ore¡¯s degree of magic, it would be easy to differentiate them.¡± Morani piped up, seeing Sui Xiong¡¯s dilemma. ¡°Even if it is an ore?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Morani thought hard before replying, ¡°Yes, probably. As compared to weight, the magical conductivity of Mithril is less affected by its purity. Thus, when making enchanted weapons, one usually uses about ten percent of Mithril to elevate its magical conductivity and allow the weapon to have some magical properties. The weapon can thus conduct magic as a full entity. For Mithril ore¡¯s purity, it would also be similarly high.¡± He thought about it again and mentioned that an experiment could be done to prove his point. Thus, the two gods found some silver ores and Mithril ores to test their magical conductivity. As per Morani¡¯s words, this experiment showed that there was a difference between the magical conductivity of silver ore and Mithril ore. This difference could be identified by average magic and only required one to be a mid-level wizard to do so. Looking at the experiment results, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Although he had not created the tool yet, Sui Xiong had confidence that he could create it successfully now. This would greatly improve the efficiency of the workers in the camp. Chapter 745 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The new tool that Sui Xiong created was, in essence, a freely adjustable metal frame. One could put the silver ore into the frame and adjust it to secure the ore, turn the knobs and land the probes on the ore. Afterward, one only needed to use the magic crystals to allow magic to flow within the probes. At the top of the probes, there were magical arrays that were sensitive to magical powers. It would emit lights of differing brightness according to the intensity of the magical conductivity of the ore. Thus, through this, one could estimate whether the ore contained Mithril and if so, the level of contained Mithril. However, after some trials, Sui Xiong found that the contraption was not as useful as he had perceived it to be. More than once, it was unable to detect magic flow, yet the ore had contained Mithril. He continued to research and eventually came to the realization that this was due to the uneven spread of Mithril within the rock. If the probe did not touch the exact spot containing Mithril, magic would definitely not flow through the rock, and thus the results would be inaccurate. How then could this problem be solved? Sui Xiong¡¯s engineering skills were extremely mediocre and could not even compare to ingenious secondary school students. Thus, although he considered the issue for a long time, he still could not come up with a proper solution. Sui Xiong decided to consult Morani who smiled and shook his head. ¡°Actually, many before you have thought of a similar solution to yours. This was the main problem that had stunned them as well. The uneven division of the Mithril elements severely impact the testing of the ores. For example, an ore may be half stone and half Mithril, how would one test it then? No one has gotten a proper solution yet, thus we can only rely on human labor to do the identification. All we can do to speed up the process is to first separate those with and without Mithril content before dividing them into levels of purity.¡± Sui Xiong had the realization that he was not the first person who had tried to be ingenious. Whatever he could think of, there would definitely be people who came to the same conclusion. The tactics that he had used were also not out of the ordinary as compared to those of better wizards. Thus, it was unsurprising that he was not the first to try. Upon realizing this, Sui Xiong sighed in a resigned fashion. ¡°Actually, it¡¯s not that this problem is completely hopeless. It¡¯s just that the road to solving it is the complete opposite of your thinking method.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a different way of thinking? In what sense?¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes lit up, and he asked curiously. Morani did not reveal the answer immediately but instead chose to let Sui Xiong ponder on the issue. Sui Xiong thought hard before answering, ¡°How about breaking the ore into smaller chunks?¡± ¡°To blow up a piece of ore would be a difficult task.¡± Morani shook his head. Sui Xiong thought again before replying, ¡°Dissolving the ore in some sort of medicinal liquid?¡± ¡°That would be a waste of such liquids. Even if we could dissolve the ore, the Mithril can¡¯t be dissolved.¡± Morani shook his head again. Sui Xiong thought for a third time before quipping, ¡°Creating a few holes on the ore?¡± ¡°And then?¡± Sui Xiong was unable to respond further as he felt that it was rather useless to do so. He sighed in frustration and said, ¡°Alright, I guess I¡¯m just not intelligent enough to deduce the correct answer. What method could you be referring to?¡± Morani laughed and with a wave of his hand, gathering a large amount of magic. This cloud of magic had about a foot¡¯s length, and it condensed into a liquid-like structure. He then took a piece of ore¡ªabout the size of a fist¡ªand threw it into the cloud of magic. ¡°In the presence of powerful magic, silver will slowly become Mithril. If there was already Mithril present, this conversion rate would speed up. In this kind of environment, stones like this would only require about thirty-odd years to fully become Mithril.¡± Sui Xiong stared on in awed bafflement, unable to believe that this was a viable solution. He would never have thought of converting the ore rather than trying to identify its contents. This would be akin to the idea of removing the problem rather than solving it¡­ Sui Xiong stayed in a daze for a while before something occurred to him, and he asked, ¡°If that¡¯s your solution, how do we differentiate naturally-occurring and acquired Mithril?¡± Morani was silent for a while before asking, ¡°Is naturally-occurring Mithril common?¡± ¡°No, it is rather rare.¡± ¡°Do we even need to consider it then?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned yet again. Even if the ore was naturally-occurring, any trouble was worth it as it was valuable. In most cases, in reality, the miners did not consider the source of the Mithril¡ªthere simply weren¡¯t so many cases of naturally-occurring Mithril in the world! Sui Xiong himself had also been narrow-minded to have considered this unimportant question. This was akin to a chef¡¯s disciple asking how to cook panda meat when his master tried to explain how to cook meat using common examples of pork, beef, mutton, chicken, dog, etc. As he thought, Sui Xiong could not help but laugh. Afterward, he temporarily paused his focus on this matter and simply shared his newfound findings with Reif Kawat and Satan to allow them to set up the Mithril conversion pool as fast as possible. This conversion pool could also serve a second use of assembling the most important item to the Organization of Magicians¡ªthe Great Magic Pool. This referred to a facility that concentrated a large amount of magic for storage. The magic could then be used when needed. To the mages, it was wasteful when they naturally produced magic that they did not need to use. If they could store their extra magic energy, it could be used when they required it, be it for research or war. For example, in a fight between two mages, if both had expended all their energy and one of the mages took out their chopper to threaten the other, the latter would have no choice but to risk losing his life. However, if at this moment, the threatened mage had the chance to use the magic pool and dial a number, at the speed of light, he would be able to use the stored magic to regain his fighting strength and use a reflective spell to emerge victorious¡­ Such an event had happened in the Mifata Federation before, and more than once too! Among all the magic federations in the world, the Mifata Federation favored the Great Magic Pool the most. Although it was not invented by them, they had developed it greatly over the years. Currently, all their magic towers had to be accompanied by a Great Magic Pool to allow the gods within to extend their enchantments. The Republic of Northwest actually did have its own Great Magic Pool¡ªit was built within the legendary necromancer Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s magical tower¡¯s compounds. Tu Ya¡¯an did not mind sharing this pool with everyone else, but his magic was specialized towards the Dead Soul Spell. Thus, excluding Tu Ya¡¯an and the tens of disciples under him, no one else dared to utilize it. Chief Mage Satan all along had plans to build a great magic pool but had procrastinated due to his personal matters and eventually forgot about it. With Sui Xiong¡¯s orders, he decided to end his procrastination and settle this matter once and for all. Such an endeavor would definitely benefit the Republic of Northwest and the mages! Chapter 746 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Hopes and the team did not know that Sui Xiong had gotten inspiration from their mining jobs to create a powerful tool and eventually develop the idea of building a giant Great Magic Pool for the Republic of Northwest. They continued to identify the ores steadily day by day¡ªseparating the stones according to Mithril content and passing them on to the masters for further inspection. This job was boring, and yet, it was good for training magic. When the ores were finally completely identified, Hopes reflected that his knowledge of ores had indeed increased. If this experience were to be described as a game, his ¡°ore-dressing¡± technique had been sharpened, and he was taking a big step forward from being simply an expert to becoming a master. If he continued down this path diligently, over a year or so, he would also be able to differentiate naturally occurring and acquired Mithril. He smiled at the thought of it. ¡°You look very happy; is it because we¡¯re finally finished with the job? To be honest, I was getting sick of the repetitive job. I¡¯d rather fight a pack of trolls than continue this manual labor,¡± Ruby, who was sitting on the floor beside Hopes, remarked. Hopes looked at Ruby¡¯s face and his dark circles and laughed, saying, ¡°It¡¯s not like you had an extremely hard task! Why do you look so weary?¡± ¡°I used to think that fighting a war was extremely tough. It¡¯s only now that I realize that engaging in internal affairs is just as tough. Every day, one has to assign manpower and handle administrative matters¡­ This is really not up my alley. I¡¯m a soldier, not a scholar or aristocrat!¡± ¡°I think you¡¯re doing a good job though; things are looking good so far. If this is not considered talent, then what is?¡± Ruby did not have a reply to that and remained silent. ¡°He simply dislikes the job. We have no choice, though. Sometimes in life, we have to do what we have to do even if we are unhappy,¡± Sid, who was sitting beside them, commented. ¡°If I could, I would want to be a librarian. I would just read books, tidy bookshelves and settle book borrowing administrative matters quietly and peacefully every day. That would be such a quaint life! But that is impossible. I have roles to fulfill now. I¡¯m not young anymore, and I don¡¯t have the ability to command anymore,¡± Sid sighed and said. Sid glanced at the weary Ruby with his faded green eyes and said, ¡°You¡¯re even older than me; the stress of life must be getting to you in a worse way, and thus, I can understand where you are coming from. Whether we¡¯re happy or unhappy, each day still passes on its own time. I suggest that you change your attitude towards the job and try to like it.¡± Ruby froze and smiled before sighing and shaking his head. ¡°You¡¯re right, but I can¡¯t bring myself to do it. I really cannot enjoy doing complex, never-ending work that requires liaising with people, numbers and trade!¡± He turned to look with envy at Dudu, who was sitting with a nearby group of people who were heartily eating and drinking in the corner. ¡°Sometimes, I really admire that fellow. Even if he lacks brains, he is always so positive and carefree.¡± ¡°That¡¯s probably because he really enjoys this job, like me. Maybe you feel that handling a mine is a boring task, but I find happiness in doing this job. Meticulously identifying each ore from different angles and confirming its quality is like opening a magic book series to me. If one quietens their heart, it is actually quite interesting to carry out this task,¡± Hopes said. Looking at Hopes¡¯ contented expression, Ruby sighed again and drank alcohol moodily. Tonight, was the celebratory festival to celebrate the end of the ore identification process, and they all preferred to leave the serious talks to another day. The next day, Hopes woke up at the crack of dawn. He had packed for his leave in advance, and after bidding his friends farewell, he left for the exploration vein with a few other exploration team members. Over the past few months, the exploration team had already excavated about one-quarter of the entire Vein Zone. Within the Vein Zone, there were more accessible places, and they were mostly explored. The rest of the places were more dangerous, and without an experienced leader, normal exploration team members would not dare to enter alone. This world did not have the practice of ¡°extreme sports,¡± and no one, whether it be aristocrats or common folk, would disregard life and safety¡ªthis was why the exploration theme park ¡°Dragons and Dungeons¡± was so popular. It could satisfy the desire for thrill for adrenaline junkies while posing no real threat to life. It was now midwinter, and snow fell steadily. In such an environment, to climb the steep cliffs and follow the path of the stones to the cliff¡¯s bottom was really dangerous. Most of these workers were also common folk who simply had some basic survival skills. Even seasoned explorers would normally also avoid such high-risk expeditions. If not for the core leadership of Hopes, the exploration team workers would definitely not take this risk as well. Wearing special snowshoes and using thick water-resistant winter wear to wrap themselves up like bears, the pack of four followed a previously created path on their perilous journey till mid-noon, where they arrived at the place of excavation. This was a cliff which was rather daunting. What was scary was that there were ice and snow everywhere¡ªthis cliff was not just steep, but anywhere that was stable enough to step on was already covered in a blanket of snow. ¡°Leader Hopes, take a look above.¡± One of the workers pointed into the distance at the top of the cliff. Although the sunlight was not particularly strong, one could see a rather visible silvery-white color¡ªthat was a vein without question. ¡°Let me head on up to see.¡± Hopes observed this for a while and confirmed that he was not able to assess it without physically being near the vein. Thus, he decided to take the risk of climbing up to the peak of the cliff. This was an extremely dangerous endeavor which required much preparation. With the help of his three companions, he spent many hours to secure tens of waterproof nails at the edge of the cliff. These waterproof nails would serve as hooks for his stepping and strapping safety ropes which would be responsible for his life. The job for the day was done. The next day, they would return and continue nailing tens of these long nails. The third day, however, the job proved to be more daunting. Because of the falling snow, they only managed to install four nails. At such a speed, they would have to continue this job for five to six more days to create a path of safety that would allow Hopes to climb to the vein and explore it. However, none of the four were worried as outdoor exploring was known to be a process that took time. One could even say that under most circumstances, they were already rather efficient. Although more time was spent on safety; the more preparations they made, the safer their journey would be. To these people, that was what mattered most. Chapter 747 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Hopes took a full ten days to manage to reach about one man¡¯s height¡¯s to the vein using the long climbing hooks. However, he was stumped here and was stuck. Somehow, the rock wall had become extremely strong, and even the intricately designed nails were unable to permeate them. He used the mini hammer to knock at the wall and at best only saw sparks shoot out. Eventually, even the nails¡¯ tips became blunt. Yet, he had only managed to create a mini pit that was no deeper than one¡¯s knuckle. ¡°Could it be that we are already at the Mithril deposit? Such a strong rock wall is rare, but it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if it were indeed the Mithril deposit,¡± Sid remarked as he heard this story at dinner. Hopes shook his head and said, ¡°I managed to cut out a piece of rock and observed it when I returned. It¡¯s not secret silver ore but simply stone. However, it is remarkably hard, which is strange.¡± ¡°How can normal stone be so hard? Usually, this only occurs deep underground, not here.¡± ¡°Who knows¡­ In any case, I can¡¯t think of a viable solution at the moment. All I can do is continue to scrape at the rock. Truth be told, we aren¡¯t even sure if the vein is worth such trouble and time.¡± ¡°Do you have the rock sample? I¡¯d like to take a look at it. After all, I am an expert on rocks!¡± Dudu exclaimed. He was being legitimate. The Kingdom of Dwarfs had excavations understand all year round and thus had the best understanding of rocks in general. As a prince of the Kingdom of Dwarfs, Dudu Hill was an expert regarding all rocks and ores. The truth was that he was the only one in the team who could distinguish between naturally-occurring and acquired Mithril¡ªhowever, he was disinterested in this job. If not, they would not have needed to find a certified master¡­ Hopes had of course brought along the rock samples, and he took out a piece. Dudu took a piece and frowned upon viewing it, a shocked expression coming over his face. ¡°Ah? Bedrock? Am I seeing things? This should not appear here¡­¡± Dudu muttered to himself as he continued to evaluate the sample, his eyebrows furrowing further and further. ¡°Bedrock? What¡¯s that? Is it rare?¡± Hopes asked curiously. Dudu shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s not exactly rare, but it shouldn¡¯t exist here.¡± ¡°What exactly is it? If you¡¯re interested in sharing, you could explain it to us,¡± Ruby added. ¡°Sure. When discussing bedrock, one must talk about the structure of the Main ¡°Plane¡­. Normally, the ground beneath our feet has several layers. First, there¡¯s the dirt layer followed by the rock layer below. Next, there will usually be red hot magma. In most cases, one would end any excavations at this layer as it is hard to go beyond magma. However, if you are lucky, you may find some areas that don¡¯t possess magma. This is where you¡¯ll see the next layer¡ªbedrock. Bedrock is extremely strong and needs much strength to be extracted.¡± Dudu explained thoroughly and took a sip of wine before continuing, ¡°Although I¡¯ve never been to the bedrock layer, I¡¯ve seen bedrock in museums that house rocks.¡± Hopes nodded and asked curiously, ¡°What¡¯s the use of bedrock?¡± Dudu thought for a while before turning the question back onto Hopes. ¡°What do you think it¡¯s used for?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s strong and could possibly be useful for construction?¡± Dudu laughed. ¡°Haha! If anyone could actually extract enough bedrock for it to be ample for construction, they would have to be extremely strong. In this case, others would be at the mercy of him should he choose to pick a fight with anyone else!¡± Hopes thought about it and agreed. Bedrock was bizarrely hard, and he himself had spent so much energy just to extract such a tiny piece. If anyone was able to harvest a big pile of bedrock for construction of a fortress, that person must possess power that was out of this world. Who would dare to challenge that powerful person? With such a realization, Hopes conveniently forgot about asking Dudu about the real use of bedrock. After dinner, the team went their separate ways to rest, and Sid decided to pay a visit to Dudu¡¯s tent. ¡°What exactly is the use of bedrock?¡± Sid asked immediately upon seeing Dudu. Dudu did not speak. ¡°It¡¯s something special, right?¡± Sid questioned further. Dudu continued to remain silent. ¡°There must be something special about this¡­ bedrock. In fact, it shouldn¡¯t just be special, it should be important as well. That¡¯s why you seemed a little glazed when you looked at it. For something to seem strange to you, it must have something interesting about it,¡± Sid said. Dudu refused to open his mouth. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to share, it¡¯s alright. However, I advise you to think hard about this. There is such a huge piece of bedrock wall there, no one is going to think about touching it. If the team accidentally causes some trouble with it, there will be an issue.¡± Dudu¡¯s face finally softened, and he thought for a while before saying, ¡°Bring Hopes and Ruby over as well. They need to know about this.¡± After a while, Hopes and Ruby received Sid¡¯s message and made their way over stealthily. Sid had instructed them to remain quiet about the matter and to not make any unnecessary noise. The team gathered in Dudu¡¯s tent where he took out a scroll of Attack Spell and activated it. A trail of blue light enveloped the tent, including the four. ¡°We can talk safely now and not fear that others will hear what we¡¯re discussing.¡± Dudu seemed a little less tense now. ¡°That bedrock is really that important?¡± Sid asked. ¡°If you are all curious, you have to take an oath first. Swear to all the gods that you will keep this a secret. If you break this promise, you will be unable to enter God¡¯s Kingdom when you die and instead will enter Hell.¡± Sid, Hopes and Ruby exchanged glances. After a while, Ruby shook his head and said, ¡°I will not make such an oath. I¡¯m also not interested in this secret. The three of you can continue to discuss this matter, I¡¯m returning to bed. I¡¯ll pretend that tonight never happened, and if anyone asks, I¡¯ll say that I spent the whole night sleeping.¡± With that, Ruby walked out of the tent without looking back. Sid and Hopes exchanged glances again and hesitated for a while before making their separate oaths. After they had sworn, Dudu, who had been tense previously, relaxed and smiled. ¡°Since you have all taken your oaths, I can share the secret with you. Towards the origins of the bedrock, I did not lie. However, towards the use of this bedrock¡­ I didn¡¯t mention it just now.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s why I came back to ask you about it,¡± Sid said. ¡°Actually, I really am hesitant to share this with you. For you¡­ knowing this¡­ may not really be a good thing¡­¡± Dudu hedged. His expression hinted at his remaining hesitation at spilling the secret. Hopes sighed. ¡°Dudu, can you stop beating around the bush? Do tell us quickly, we have to get enough rest to continue working tomorrow.¡± Dudu smiled bitterly and said, ¡°The Kingdom of Dwarfs is currently using bedrock in our experiments as a potential material for a new weapon.¡± ¡°What new weapon?¡± Sid asked. ¡°Bombs.¡± Upon hearing Dudu¡¯s words, Sid and Hopes remained a little confused. However, the jellyfish which had been eavesdropping silently in the corner, nearly fell over in shock. Bombs!? Chapter 748 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Hearing the mention of bombs made Sui Xiong¡¯s imagination go wild. From the Nobel Peace Prize to the World Wars, from Samsung phones to terrorist attacks¡­ several ideas ran through his head like a furiously flowing river. Alas, bombs existed in this world as well! According to Sui Xiong¡¯s best knowledge, this world did not have the bombs that Earth had. If one wanted to make something explode, this world¡¯s people would use magic related to this feature or use items such as magic rocks or crystals to induce an explosion of similar effect. Needless to say, the usage of magic rocks and crystals were both extremely expensive. One could also use other ways to create an explosion. A most common spell would be the fireball, which was one of the typical mid-level spells. The price of a magic crystal or a magic rock was way beyond that of hiring a mid-level wizard to create a fireball. Thus, except for a few special events, few would use dynamite on enemies. It was not until Crick Keane¡¯s birth when he was sick and unable to walk that it was arranged for Master Damwade to create a large batch of dynamite to be buried in the ground in the living room. A large group of villains who had been plagued with grief was killed, and none managed to escape. However, after that event, no one else had created dynamite. Master Damwade had focused on agriculture and had not accessed dynamite again even after the God ceremony. Crick Keane himself had died in the explosion and become the Void Mask¡¯s Holy Spirit. At least, that was what ¡°insiders¡± presumed. The fact was the Crick Keane and Sui Xiong were one and the same. The dynamite of Crick Keane had actually been created by Sui Xiong through following the recipe in one of the web fanfictions that he had read. He no longer remembered the name of the fanfiction, but what remained etched in his memory was that the story had contained a large number of industrial technology facts in detail and even included diagrams. It described the steps of making acid, making glycerin and nitrating it. It also theorized that even a secondary school student could follow the instructions to create extremely powerful dynamite if they were not afraid of possibly dying while making it. Originally, when Sui Xiong had seen the book, this left the biggest impression on him. This was how he had managed to utilize the method in this world and recreate this invention that had won a Nobel Peace Prize back on Earth¡­ It was just that the dwarves had also apparently been exploring the idea of dynamite for a while, to the oblivion of Sui Xiong. ¡°Dynamite? What¡¯s that?¡± Hopes, of course, was unfamiliar with the term and couldn¡¯t help asking upon hearing Dudu¡¯s secretive tone. Dudu thought before replying, ¡°You can associate it with magic crystals, except they cannot stabilize magic and can only be used to create explosions.¡± Hopes nodded in understanding. Sid, however, continued to question Dudu. ¡°In that case¡­ A piece of bedrock like this, how strong of an explosive effect can it create? As compared to a fireball, would it be less or more?¡± He was referring to a piece of bedrock about the size of one¡¯s palm. Dudu thought for a while before saying, ¡°About four to five fireballs.¡± Sid¡¯s face paled several shades, and he carefully placed the bedrock that he had been holding on the floor. Upon second thought, he felt that it was still too dangerous and carefully placed it on Dudu¡¯s bed instead. ¡°How does this rock incite an explosion?¡± ¡°You can hit it or light it with fire.¡± Hopes¡¯ face was as pale as a sheet of paper¡ªthese days, he had been knocking away at the bedrock wall for days, with countless strokes of the hammer¡­. Looking at their panicked expressions, Dudu couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, under normal circumstances, bedrock cannot explode¡­¡± As he spoke, he picked up the piece of bedrock and arranged it on an anvil. He casually picked up his usual axe and hit it hard, causing the bedrock to explode to smithereens. Upon watching this, Sid and Hopes¡¯ hearts nearly flew out of their chests, and they nearly dove for cover. If not for Dudu¡¯s last words before his actions, they would have run out of the tent in fear of their own lives. ¡°We dwarves have discovered bedrock from a long time ago. However, we only discovered that it could cause explosions a few years ago. This is one of our kingdom secrets, and by right, I shouldn¡¯t be sharing it with you. This is why I was hesitant to share. In any case, knowing this information doesn¡¯t do much for you two, right?¡± Sid and Hopes glanced at each other and nodded in agreement. They were rather regretful that they had learned the secret as they had sworn such a huge oath for something that barely concerned them. They were also too afraid to question Dudu further and returned to their tents to sleep. However, whether they would actually be able to fall asleep was another matter entirely¡­ In the morning, Hopes removed all the long nails that he had assembled off the bedrock wall. ¡°We¡¯ve already come so far, giving up now is a pity!¡± Some of the explorers felt that it was a pity to stop here. Hopes could not explain the true reason and could only smile and say, ¡°In any case, I would not have been able to complete the last part of the route. Let¡¯s not leave the nails here as it would just be a waste.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a waste if we could possibly use it in the future!¡± ¡°No¡­ In any case, the holes we drilled are still here. If we require it in the future, we can reassemble the nails. It won¡¯t be much trouble.¡± As Hopes spoke, he led his team back to camp. In actuality, he had already made up his mind to never touch this cliff again. Hopes felt that the bedrock was too dangerous! Although he was unsure under what circumstances it would actually explode, he decided not to take the risk as he recalled that even a tiny piece was equivalent in power to four or five fireballs. It was better to just leave! At the tip of the cliff, where everything was foggy, Sui Xiong picked up a piece of recently mined bedrock and observed it carefully. Dudu Hill¡¯s secret was as clear as black and white in the expression in his eyes. The key secret discovered by the dwarves to turn bedrock into explosives was to grind it. Grinding bedrock into powder form would allow its stability to decrease and allow it to become explosive. Currently, the dwarves used the method of grinding followed by using gauze to sieve it. After using the extremely closely woven gauze, the powder gained could be used as explosives of a decent power level. However, this method required lots of time and energy and was not efficient. They were thus currently exploring other methods that could be better. Dudu knew that there were several dwarf blacksmiths who were researching on a machine that could process ground bedrock. Currently, they had had some inspiration and had tried some models, but to little result. To prevent the ground bedrock from exploding during experiments, the machines had to work in water¡ªonly when bedrock was submerged in water could it be more stable. However, working long term in water was too difficult. ¡°Maybe¡­ I can think of a new solution¡­ Explosives are an art, and as an artist, I should prove my worth!¡± glancing at the bedrock sample, Dudu muttered to himself. Chapter 749 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio What Sui Xiong wanted to do was obviously not invent a machine that could work in water like the dwarfs. Due to his severely limited engineering knowledge, to allow the machine to work well in water, it would have to be water-resistant. Water resistance was accomplished by using a layer of water-resistant paint, but because the machine would be performing a grinding function; the paint would wear off quickly in a short period of time. Furthermore, bedrock was extremely strong and could be comparable to steel. Sui Xiong could not think of anything that could be used to grind it without itself being worn down. Actually, what he could use was Orichalcos. If one were to use Orichalcos to create the machine¡­ It was not that Sui Xiong could not access Orichalcos, but he felt that if he really created such a machine, he would anger the dwarfs greatly. They would deem as it as a violent machine¡­ No, perhaps they would have a direct cerebral hemorrhage, or a myocardial infarction given the circumstances. Orichalcos was arguably the strongest object in this world, and in most cases, only strong gods like Sui Xiong could acquire it to build mighty weapons. For the weaker gods, they could only acquire it through trade, and even so, they would not be able to gain too much of it. Thus, weapons of the mid or low level usually possessed little to no Orichalcos, and if it were the former, only in extremely key areas. For the common people, when they were lucky enough to come across Orichalcos, they were also not aware of its full potential and usually simply treated it as a gem. A long time ago, there was someone lucky enough to gain an Orichalcos, but he was unable to break it down even until his death. He was, however, made famous for his possession of this sword that could not be broken. The Kingdom of Dwarves had also acquired some Orichalcos, and they treated it as their most prized possession. They usually offered it to their gods, hoping for blessings of prosperity. If Sui Xiong were to offer them a machine made out of Orichalcos, they would not use it as an actual tool but rather as an offering¡­ Since he could not use Orichalcos to create the machine, Sui Xiong was stumped. Thus, he did not spend much time pondering this further as he knew he lacked the knowledge to do so. What he considered was whether it was possible to change the method of converting the bedrock entirely. He tried using several other materials to grind the bedrock and realized that they all lacked strength and could not last long despite their monetary worth. There was once where he even ground the bedrock beyond its limits and caused an actual explosion. If not for his internal strength, he could have killed himself in the explosion. After a few failures, Sui Xiong realized that there were problems in his thinking. He had assumed that as long as he had found a new material, he would have a solution. However, the dwarves had been experimenting over the last tens of years; which material would they have not tried? If they could not find a new material after so long, even if they had a good grinder, what would be the use? That would be akin to using Orichalcos¡ªit was strong enough, but the machine would be useless. What could he do, then? Sui Xiong thought deeply before deciding to find an expert to assist him. Who was an expert in this area? Of course, it would be Palin and his peers. Just before he set out to find Palin, he suddenly remembered Chef Fira. Recently, he had been shockingly lucky that wherever he walked, he found gold. Yet, he acted indifferently and did not make any changes to his daily life such as keeping to his usual rates when gambling. This was not typical of someone who had been extremely lucky. What if¡­ Fira did not use his luck in his daily life as he was saving it up for something big? If that was true, maybe Sui Xiong could find him of help. Sui Xiong was not an engineering student, but he had heard of a story wherein creating an invention, the most important factor was luck or inspiration. There was once a journalist who was interviewing the king of inventions, Edison. He had asked him why he had been able to come up with so many marvelous inventions and whether it was because he was a genius or not. To that, Edison had replied that being a genius was 99% effort and 1% genius. Yet, the second factor was the deciding factor. Sui Xiong had also heard two other versions of this story. The first one was told to him by his parents and teachers when he was young, and there was no mention of the deciding factor but rather an emphasis on hard work. The second version was told to him by an online friend in his games. It said that Edison was tooting his own horn and that most of his inventions were leached off of other people. The key lesson there was that being a genius lay in being able to make good trades with wealth. Of course, Sui Xiong was unsure as to which version was authentic, but he agreed that luck was extremely important. For example, before he had entered this world, the country had just created a hydrogen bomb that could hide an identity. The country then created different hydrogen bombs from other countries, and although this was accomplished through hard work, luck was also important for the scientists as there were definitely more talented scientists who just happened to not have come across the right material. After all, reality was not a fairytale! Thus, when he thought of Fira, he changed his mind about finding Palin. That night, Fira had a strange dream when he slept. He dreamt that he had walked to a hill, and there was a glowing man on the hill who had passed him a few hard stones and asked him to grind them into powder. When he awoke, he witnessed the stones in real life at his bedside. ¡°Is this some sort of revelation?¡± Fira stared at the stones, dumbfounded, and tried to use his bedframe¡¯s leg to grind it. There was an obvious white line across the bed frame, but the bedrock was as good as new. ¡°Why is it so hard?¡± Fira was shocked. He found a piece of steel and ground the bedrock again. Yet again, there were signs of wear and tear on the steel, but the bedrock remained untainted. ¡°My goodness! This stone is as strong as steel! How can I grind it? It¡¯s impossible¡­¡± Thus, he gave up on the task. That night, he had another dream on the same mountain with the same glowing man giving the task of grinding the rock. ¡°It¡¯s too hard! It can¡¯t be done,¡± Fira explained. The glowing man only smiled, but Fira eventually understood his meaning. If it were to be so simple, it wouldn¡¯t have been a task easily given to him. After he woke up, Fira thought for a long time before taking up the two stones at the same time and grinding them against each other. Even if it was extremely hard, it wouldn¡¯t be able to withstand grinding on a similar material¡­ Watching Fira get to work, Sui Xiong nodded and smiled. Only time would tell, but perhaps this lucky fellow could find a solution to the issue that had been plaguing the dwarves for the last tens of years¡­. Chapter 750 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Screaming for God, begging for mercy, mourning¡­ The sounds gradually lowered until there was only a strange sound of breathing echoing in the air. Several men thickly wrapped in black robes placed a corpse in the magic array as per the strange law. Blood flowed out and dyed the magic array scarlet. The trails of blood followed the previously dug tunnel, creating an array within the array. As for the pitiful sounds, they had been emitted from the soul that was now leaking fresh blood in the array. Someone dressed in a red robe stood outside the array and watched this scene coldly. When all the corpses were arranged and those in the black robes had left, he took out a thick book with a gold cover and read a few lengthy spells. He read these spells at a low volume, but yet anyone who heard it would feel extremely uncomfortable. As he chanted, the strange breathing sounds got stronger and eventually got to the point where it sounded like howling wind. Furthermore, the new array created by the fresh blood also started vibrating like it had a heart at its core. The louder the breathing, the more violent the vibrations as if there was a monster hidden underground who could emerge anytime. Just as the sounds and movement were reaching their peak, the man in the red robe stopped chanting. ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡± He used a piercing, soft tone to speak. As he said that, he vanished with the men in black without once looking back, leaving the array which was still emitting breathing sounds and vibrating uncontrollably. After about half an hour, accompanying urgent sounds of horses¡¯ footsteps, a group of Sacred Warriors whistled and arrived. As they looked at the several corpses and listened to the sounds and vibrations, they all tensed up. ¡°It really is a Blaspheme Array!¡± the leader, a middle-aged Sacred Warrior, exclaimed furiously. ¡°This is not the first time this has happened! Which dirty organization is organizing these rituals?¡± The Sacred Warriors who had accompanied him busied themselves by using the high-level holy water they had brought to pour over the Blaspheme Array. The seemingly plain water created a ferocious sizzling sound when it landed on the array, and black flames arose. They then dissipated under the priest¡¯s spells without leaving any traces. The breathing sounds quietened down, and the vibrations died down accordingly. Eventually, other than the scars of killings, the array vanished. ¡°What are those people thinking!? They definitely could have completed the ritual before we arrived, yet why did they choose to stop midway? This is the third time this has happened,¡± one of the younger warriors asked the resting priest. It was only after completing their task that the warriors had time to gossip. ¡°That¡¯s probably because they are also afraid of the horrible monsters from down below. Those creatures are extremely unfriendly and know no rules or boundaries. To them, life is about constantly fighting and engulfing. Once they¡¯ve been summoned to our world, whoever summoned them would be the first to go.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s the case, why do people still try to summon them?¡± The priest shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not sure as well, I¡¯m as dumbfounded as you. These few years, I¡¯ve fought with countless heretics as well as careerists. These people do not consider danger or imbalances in power. You could say they¡¯ve gone crazy and are willing to kill or sacrifice themselves to summon monsters. Yet, I¡¯ve never heard of these heretics who we¡¯ve met these three times who actually partially treasure life enough to stop midway.¡± ¡°Could this be part of a more sinister plan?¡± ¡°Maybe¡­ No, definitely. It¡¯s just that we¡¯re unsure what this plan is yet.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s not waste time gossiping! We have to finish this task quickly and continue chasing after those evil thugs!¡± The leader of the Sacred Warriors interrupted their idling. The younger warrior and the priest nodded fervently before continuing with their tasks. They used nails with the holy emblem and attached them to places where the vibrations had been strongest. As the nails were inserted, nothing happened initially, but when the priest opened his bible and started singing hymns in a powerful voice, the nails started to shake violently, and roaring sounds were emitted from the ground. These terrible sounds contained a frightening amount of power, and for normal folk, one would faint upon hearing one line or fall into a coma. They might even be internally injured if they heard more than a line. They would then be in a deep slumber and be tormented in their minds until death. However, the Sacred Warriors were prepared, and once the roaring sounds started, a pale white glow surrounded their bodies; this was the Holy Emblem they had brought along, which was doing its work of protecting them. After a long time, the roaring sounds disappeared, and the ground regained its original state. No, that wasn¡¯t true. If one were to look closely, they would see a faint light-blue tinge on the ground, giving one a sense of godliness. ¡°It¡¯s done,¡± the priest commented after the ceremony. ¡°This place definitely can¡¯t be used as a venue for evil rituals anymore.¡± The older Scared Warrior nodded and sighed. ¡°There have already been more than forty victims; I really hope they catch this cult soon.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t be easy. They always carry out their ceremonies and disappear midway. When we arrive, we¡¯ll have to concentrate on shutting down the ceremony. By the time that¡¯s done, they¡¯d have long escaped. We need to increase our manpower!¡± one of the Sacred Warriors spoke up angrily. ¡°I think¡­ we can find reinforcements. We can get gods from other churches as well,¡± the old priest suggested. The Scared Warriors mulled over this suggestion before shaking their heads. ¡°I feel like what those evil people want to do is not as simple as we think. Perhaps they¡¯re plotting a trap to incite us to gather all the good gods and capture us all in one go¡­¡± ¡°Good will always triumph over evil!¡± one of the younger warriors yelled. ¡°That idea comes from history. However, history has its ups and downs too. In the case of the presence of monsters in the past, evil triumphing has happened before. We cannot be complacent and have to secure our victory,¡± the warrior leader disagreed. After a long period of discussion, they decided on their plan and mounted their horses, chasing after the trail left behind by those in black. No matter what, they could not forgive these evil men¡¯s sins! Chapter 751 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Have you all heard? In the last few days, there have been several massacres along the dividing line between the aristocratic party and merchant party. How appalling!¡± A few adventurers were chatting in a small tavern. One of them who was dressed like a paladin might have drunk a drop too much, so he spoke a little loudly, ¡°Really, it¡¯s too terrifying!¡± ¡°Was it very scary?¡± a rough-hewn warrior asked. ¡°We¡¯ve only heard some vague news about a succession of a few mass murder cases¡­¡± ¡°Murder cases? Haha¡­ Murder cases!¡± the paladin sneered. He shook his head vigorously, took a large gulp of wine and then said, ¡°How are these murder cases! It¡¯s a cult offering!¡± Upon hearing this, silence instantly prevailed over this tavern which was quite a boisterous scene just a moment ago. Everyone shut their mouths and looked in the direction of this paladin. To these old hands, murder cases were no big deal. Throughout their lifetime, they had their blades stained with blood as they drifted about seeking a living. Most of them had taken lives before, and more than one life at that. But cult offerings were different. Heretics killed people as sacrifices for the purpose of summoning devils to the mortal world. When the devils arrived in the mortal world, they were bound to cause great damage. The least serious thing would be the loss of lives in a village. But in the future, it might even be the loss of lives of an entire city of people. In addition, they were not weak themselves. In the face of ordinary ruffians and scoundrels, the winner would not be known before a real fight, which was why they were unfazed by murder cases. But if facing devils, their strengths were not even worth mentioning. When the devils started out on a killing spree, these adventurers would not be any much stronger than ordinary humans. They would not necessarily be able to escape either. This was why when they heard this phrase, everyone was shocked. Many of them immediately made up their minds that if there were indeed cult activities in this region, they would leave right away and as far as possible! Of course, there were also some who were instantly excited about the opportunity to earn money or fame, or even the chance for them to perform chivalrous deeds. Fighting against cults was one of the few matters on which countries on the Main Plane took a unanimous stance. Once a certain organization was determined as a cult, there was nothing much that needed to be further said. The most lenient form of punishment was the extermination of all the heretics of the cult. A slightly harsher punishment included the implication of family and friends¡ªfor instance, situations where only the heretic of concern was killed were in fact, relatively few in comparison. Under normal circumstances, at least the closest family members, like parents, wives and children, would die together. One of the most recent strikes against cults was His Majesty, the Void Mask¡¯s annihilation of the ¡°Isis¡± organization. Although everyone knew that this organization was backed by the Orc gods and that its members were not abyssal devils, Sui Xiong had nonetheless branded it as a cult. With no one willing to stand up to exonerate them, then naturally, the trouble would be to get them to accept death. And from what this paladin had said, it was truly a cult creating the commotion at the border between the aristocratic party and merchant party this time around¡ªthey were already in the midst of bringing a cult offering into play. ¡°What is the specific situation?¡± asked a warrior who had come closer. His face was filled with worry. The paladin who was almost 70% drunk sighed and said, ¡°A few days ago, I set out from Copper Hand City and intended to head to Silver Shield City. One night, when I was staying in a small village¡­ I won¡¯t tell you the make of the village, anyway it¡¯s meaningless to speak of it when there¡¯s no one alive there. In the middle of the night, I suddenly awoke from sleep and felt a strong sense of danger¡­¡± ¡°A strong sense of danger?¡± asked that warrior, who froze in shock. ¡°What danger could it be to be able to wake you up from sleep?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not so sure myself. But my experience told me to hide. Only if I hid could I live,¡± said that paladin. He shook his head and took another gulp of wine, then said, ¡°So I hastened to make the room look like I had woken up in the middle of the night and left in a hurry, then I hid under the bed.¡± ¡°But hiding under the bed is no guarantee for your safety. The bed board may not be able to cover your entire body, and someone might hear your breathing,¡± the warrior said. The paladin smiled and said, ¡°Of course I have my ways. But I won¡¯t be telling you.¡± So indeed, he did not share the exact method he had used to hide and merely continued to say, ¡°I hid for an hour or so until the sense of danger I felt was finally gone before I climbed out from under the bed. Alas, the moment I came out from my hiding place, there was such a thick smell of blood!¡± ¡°The entire village was dead?¡± guessed a warrior who was sitting at the same table. The paladin nodded. As he raised his wine glass, his hand trembled involuntarily. ¡°I put on my gear and looked out of the window. In the public square right in the middle of the village, there were a few Sacred Warriors who were glowing with white light. They seemed to be talking about something. There was also a priest conducting a purification ceremony with two of the Sacred Warriors¡ªfrom the light their bodies emitted, I could clearly see the dead bodies of the villagers strewn all over the ground. Their blood filled the entire place to form a magic array that made my hairs stand on end the moment I laid eyes on it!¡± At this point, more than one adventurer was already packing up and preparing to run away. ¡°Who are those clergymen?¡± another adventurer asked. ¡°They are followers of the Master of Justice,¡± replied the paladin. ¡°Watching them made my hairs stand on end. I hurriedly ran over to them. After a short chat with them, I found out that someone had just held a ceremony to make an offering here. That person wanted to open the portal leading to the abyss to summon the powerful devils. But that fellow was not lucky enough because the souls of the ordinary villagers don¡¯t have much strength. So he could not completely open the portal. The clergymen had detected the evil aura, so with their teleportation spell, they arrived directly in the vicinity within a short moment. And because they had come so quickly, those heretics were forced to make a hasty escape, leaving behind only the scene of an offering used in an unsuccessful summoning ceremony.¡± ¡°Then you got to count yourself lucky. If the clergymen didn¡¯t come, when the devils were summoned, you¡¯d be found even if you were hiding under the bed.¡± ¡°Yes, I was lucky. But that village was out of luck!¡± the paladin said with a sigh. ¡°I was dragged into a lengthy interrogation. And I even had to undergo the lie-detector test three times before the clergymen were finally convinced that I had nothing to do with this matter. So they let me go. Right, they even dragged me into helping out with the funerals of the villagers¡ªa total of 51 people, men and women, old and young, and repairing a leakage¡­¡± With that, the paladin shook his head again as he took another drink. There was a long silence in the tavern. Then another adventurer said, ¡°But¡­ there are murder cases elsewhere too. I can recall a dozen deaths in Grey Goat Village.¡± ¡°Offerings, those are certainly offerings!¡± the paladin said adamantly. ¡°Once these cults hold large-scale activities, they will absolutely make more than one offering!¡± The adventurers looked at one another, mostly seeing their unease reflected in each other¡¯s eyes. ¡°So¡­ which place is safest for us to go to now?¡± a young adventurer asked at long last. He could not hold himself back any further and raised the question that everyone was concerned about. ¡°Go to the capital. It may be safer there,¡± someone said. ¡°No! Leave the Commonwealth of Gold Coins as soon as possible. That¡¯s the one true way to stay safe!¡± said another. ¡°But after leaving the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, where else can we go?¡± someone asked. ¡°Get on a boat and head south. Even if the cults want to make offerings, they usually will not make trouble at sea¡­¡± ¡°No! Head north instead. Or simply go directly to the Republic of Northwest!¡± a middle-aged adventurer said loudly. ¡°There is law and order in the Republic of Northwest, and the security is very good. It¡¯s not easy to get a job, but it¡¯s still possible to make a living as a worker¡­ I¡¯m getting on in my years, so I can just take advantage of this opportunity to retire!¡± The adventurers had a frenzied discussion, and soon, people were leaving. In the end, the only one left in the entire tavern was the drunk paladin who had fallen asleep on the table. However, no one noticed that the edges of his mouth had curved into a somewhat cunning smile¡­ Chapter 752 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Over the next few days, something similar happened in several taverns found in many different towns found around the border between the aristocratic party and merchant party. News spread very quickly by word of mouth among the adventurers, more widely and more bizarrely. The rumor went like this. Starting from ¡°Zhang San bought a painting of a tiger,¡± the rumor began to spread. Not long after, it became ¡°Zhang San killed a tiger,¡± or ¡°Zhang San was eaten by a tiger¡±¡ªnormal events were mostly spread as though they were bizarre events. Peaceful matters were more often than not spread as strange matters. So what about things that were originally dangerous and terrifying? Anyway, within a couple of days, panic pervaded the atmosphere along the border. Most of the cautious adventurers left. Those who stayed behind or rushed over were either adventurers who were brave and courageous, or rather reckless, as well as adventurers who were very ambitious. The civilians could not leave, so they had to be more careful. Many people would keep their doors tightly locked up even during the day. And villages had simply put together militia of civilians to form patrol teams. Day and night, there would be militiamen on patrol. Through such a method, they hoped to keep themselves safe from the crazy and dangerous heretics. But these methods did not achieve much effect. About ten days later, there was another incident of a cult offering. The incident was much more serious than the previous times because the heretics almost completed the entire offering this time around. If not for the prompt arrival of a paladin who was a follower of the God of Justice, the devil that had received the offering would even have had half its claw reaching out of that summoning portal. Fortunately, that paladin was highly skilled. His arrows were fast as lightning and shot down four nodes of the offering array at one go, thus rendering the summoning portal incomplete. No matter how the devil roared, it was unable to charge its way over. On the contrary, it lost a claw under the siege of the clergymen of Church of the God of Law who subsequently rushed over. Whether it was a gain or a loss for this devil, no one would know. This piece of news was supposed to be confidential, yet somehow it spread quickly again. Many adventurers rushed over to that village to see for themselves the traces of the devil that had been summoned. The clergymen of Church of the God of Law had driven out all traces of the abyss. But the traces of sulfur left by the summoned devil, as well as the bloodstains left by the massacre in the village, told the people of the terrible things that had happened there. Especially over at the small public square in the middle of the town. A large area was covered with fresh soil, but the ground still reeked of the stench of blood. This made the place even creepier than it actually was. Some of the adventurers who were not as audacious quietly left. They realized that they were in fact, not as bold and lacked confidence in themselves. In the face of a terrifying cult organization that could easily massacre an entire village, they decided it was better not to get tough and go head-on against such an organization. They could make money anywhere if they wanted to. There was simply no need to joke about their lives. On the other hand, there were also others with a different perspective gathering together. They felt that perhaps this would be a good opportunity. The devil might be terrifying. But making an offering to the devil was really a way for them to earn some benefits. Unlike these adventurers, the lords, sheriffs and the churches of the good gods felt deeply troubled. They had devoted all the energy they had and tried their best to track down the mysterious cult organization, but still, they were unable to find any more valuable clues. That bizarre cult organization seemed like it had wings. Every time it disappeared suddenly, even the most powerful paladin would not be able to find track it down. Every time they retreated, there would be clear footprints, hoof prints and tracks left behind. But after about a mile or two away from the village, all these traces would often disappear suddenly. Not even a single trace could be detected. It was like¡ªthese people really flew away. However, even if people could really fly away, the horses would not be able to. Even if the horses could grow wings and fly away, it was impossible for the entire carriage to grow wings and flew away too! Soon, a bounty was posted in every city and town. The reward prize of the bounty was constantly increasing. Correspondingly, the atmosphere was becoming increasingly tense with all the soldiers clutching their weapons all day long. The adventurers shared the same anxiety and caution. Just a simple word of disagreement and swords would be drawn. Some lords and sheriffs with more discerning vision began to worry. They knew the situation would be terrible if things were to continue in this manner. Over time, this might cause a large-scale panic attack or even bring about a wave of migration. It might also trigger and lead to some intense conflicts. But¡­ if they were unable to apprehend those bizarre heretics, there was nothing they could do. This piece of news gradually spread far and wide. In the end, it even reached the ears of the exploration team that was braving the rigors of living in the wild mountains and sleeping rough on hard grounds in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. ¡°Did you hear? There¡¯s great trouble in the South!¡± Fira said to Hopes during lunch. In a mysterious tone, she added, ¡°It¡¯s very scary!¡± Hopes chewed on a carrot and looked at Fira doubtfully. Then he mumbled, ¡°A war?¡± ¡°Much more terrifying than a war!¡± ¡°More terrifying than a war? You gotta be kidding me.¡± ¡°How am I kidding!¡± Fira looked around him, and lowering his voice, he said, ¡°On the border between the merchant party and aristocratic party, a cult organization is making offerings. It has already made several attempts!¡± Hopes froze for a moment, then he hurriedly finished off his carrot in two to three bites. He took a big gulp of vegetable soup to calm his nerves before asking about the exact situation. In truth, Fira was not very clear about the exact situation. He only learned of the news in the course of a chat with the man from the transport team sending vegetables. But in front of his friends, of course he would not say things like ¡°Actually, I¡¯m not too sure.¡± With his own imagination, he would try to envision and conceptualize the matter to make it sound specific and detailed as though he had seen it with his own eyes. Although most of his claims were quite bizarre, they were not too far off the mark when compared with the truth. This was because the man from the transport team, who told him about this matter, had originally made the story out to be that bizarre. It was certainly quite impossible for Fira to accept claims such as: ¡°They summoned a terrifying devil with a head that was as big as a mountain, a nose that was spewing toxic smoke and flames and a mouth with countless poisonous bugs flying out. It took the concerted effort of a few hundred knights and Sacred Warriors to expel it back into the abyss.¡± Although he was not that strong, he was nonetheless, not an ignorant villager. He knew the theory where two negatives made an affirmative. The more bizarre the claims were, the closer they would be to reality. For this reason, the situation he depicted was more realistic. Hopes went back to talk to Rubey about this. Rubey, who was also an experienced veteran, pondered about it. It seemed to him, that maybe¡­ there was really such a possibility. Therefore, Rubey was a little worried. He made it a point to look for the adventurers from the trade caravans who were responsible for escorting their supplies to them. He wanted to make careful inquiries about the situation. He was finally relieved after clearing his doubts. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. This has nothing to do with us,¡± he told Hopes upon returning. He felt a great sense of relief as though a heavy load was lifted off his shoulder. He said, ¡°The cult offerings are congregated at the border between the two forces. There are no signs of them spreading towards the north. Now, we are almost at the northernmost end of the merchant party¡¯s sphere of influence; those heretics won¡¯t be able to make their way here.¡± Hopes breathed a sigh of relief, but he did not feel completely freed from the burden. Instead, he was still somewhat apprehensive as he asked, ¡°So¡­ were the heretics caught? Has their organization been exterminated?¡± ¡°Not yet.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t help finding this terrible¡­¡± ¡°Yes!¡± said Rubey as he sighed again. Shaking his head, he said, ¡°I hope our work here ends soon. I really want to go back to the Republic soon. That¡¯s the only place where it¡¯s truly safe!¡± Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Over the next few days, something similar happened in several taverns found in many different towns found around the border between the aristocratic party and merchant party. News spread very quickly by word of mouth among the adventurers, more widely and more bizarrely. The rumor went like this. Starting from ¡°Zhang San bought a painting of a tiger,¡± the rumor began to spread. Not long after, it became ¡°Zhang San killed a tiger,¡± or ¡°Zhang San was eaten by a tiger¡±¡ªnormal events were mostly spread as though they were bizarre events. Peaceful matters were more often than not spread as strange matters. So what about things that were originally dangerous and terrifying? Anyway, within a couple of days, panic pervaded the atmosphere along the border. Most of the cautious adventurers left. Those who stayed behind or rushed over were either adventurers who were brave and courageous, or rather reckless, as well as adventurers who were very ambitious. The civilians could not leave, so they had to be more careful. Many people would keep their doors tightly locked up even during the day. And villages had simply put together militia of civilians to form patrol teams. Day and night, there would be militiamen on patrol. Through such a method, they hoped to keep themselves safe from the crazy and dangerous heretics. But these methods did not achieve much effect. About ten days later, there was another incident of a cult offering. The incident was much more serious than the previous times because the heretics almost completed the entire offering this time around. If not for the prompt arrival of a paladin who was a follower of the God of Justice, the devil that had received the offering would even have had half its claw reaching out of that summoning portal. Fortunately, that paladin was highly skilled. His arrows were fast as lightning and shot down four nodes of the offering array at one go, thus rendering the summoning portal incomplete. No matter how the devil roared, it was unable to charge its way over. On the contrary, it lost a claw under the siege of the clergymen of Church of the God of Law who subsequently rushed over. Whether it was a gain or a loss for this devil, no one would know. This piece of news was supposed to be confidential, yet somehow it spread quickly again. Many adventurers rushed over to that village to see for themselves the traces of the devil that had been summoned. The clergymen of Church of the God of Law had driven out all traces of the abyss. But the traces of sulfur left by the summoned devil, as well as the bloodstains left by the massacre in the village, told the people of the terrible things that had happened there. Especially over at the small public square in the middle of the town. A large area was covered with fresh soil, but the ground still reeked of the stench of blood. This made the place even creepier than it actually was. Some of the adventurers who were not as audacious quietly left. They realized that they were in fact, not as bold and lacked confidence in themselves. In the face of a terrifying cult organization that could easily massacre an entire village, they decided it was better not to get tough and go head-on against such an organization. They could make money anywhere if they wanted to. There was simply no need to joke about their lives. On the other hand, there were also others with a different perspective gathering together. They felt that perhaps this would be a good opportunity. The devil might be terrifying. But making an offering to the devil was really a way for them to earn some benefits. Unlike these adventurers, the lords, sheriffs and the churches of the good gods felt deeply troubled. They had devoted all the energy they had and tried their best to track down the mysterious cult organization, but still, they were unable to find any more valuable clues. That bizarre cult organization seemed like it had wings. Every time it disappeared suddenly, even the most powerful paladin would not be able to find track it down. Every time they retreated, there would be clear footprints, hoof prints and tracks left behind. But after about a mile or two away from the village, all these traces would often disappear suddenly. Not even a single trace could be detected. It was like¡ªthese people really flew away. However, even if people could really fly away, the horses would not be able to. Even if the horses could grow wings and fly away, it was impossible for the entire carriage to grow wings and flew away too! Soon, a bounty was posted in every city and town. The reward prize of the bounty was constantly increasing. Correspondingly, the atmosphere was becoming increasingly tense with all the soldiers clutching their weapons all day long. The adventurers shared the same anxiety and caution. Just a simple word of disagreement and swords would be drawn. Some lords and sheriffs with more discerning vision began to worry. They knew the situation would be terrible if things were to continue in this manner. Over time, this might cause a large-scale panic attack or even bring about a wave of migration. It might also trigger and lead to some intense conflicts. But¡­ if they were unable to apprehend those bizarre heretics, there was nothing they could do. This piece of news gradually spread far and wide. In the end, it even reached the ears of the exploration team that was braving the rigors of living in the wild mountains and sleeping rough on hard grounds in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. ¡°Did you hear? There¡¯s great trouble in the South!¡± Fira said to Hopes during lunch. In a mysterious tone, she added, ¡°It¡¯s very scary!¡± Hopes chewed on a carrot and looked at Fira doubtfully. Then he mumbled, ¡°A war?¡± ¡°Much more terrifying than a war!¡± ¡°More terrifying than a war? You gotta be kidding me.¡± ¡°How am I kidding!¡± Fira looked around him, and lowering his voice, he said, ¡°On the border between the merchant party and aristocratic party, a cult organization is making offerings. It has already made several attempts!¡± Hopes froze for a moment, then he hurriedly finished off his carrot in two to three bites. He took a big gulp of vegetable soup to calm his nerves before asking about the exact situation. In truth, Fira was not very clear about the exact situation. He only learned of the news in the course of a chat with the man from the transport team sending vegetables. But in front of his friends, of course he would not say things like ¡°Actually, I¡¯m not too sure.¡± With his own imagination, he would try to envision and conceptualize the matter to make it sound specific and detailed as though he had seen it with his own eyes. Although most of his claims were quite bizarre, they were not too far off the mark when compared with the truth. This was because the man from the transport team, who told him about this matter, had originally made the story out to be that bizarre. It was certainly quite impossible for Fira to accept claims such as: ¡°They summoned a terrifying devil with a head that was as big as a mountain, a nose that was spewing toxic smoke and flames and a mouth with countless poisonous bugs flying out. It took the concerted effort of a few hundred knights and Sacred Warriors to expel it back into the abyss.¡± Although he was not that strong, he was nonetheless, not an ignorant villager. He knew the theory where two negatives made an affirmative. The more bizarre the claims were, the closer they would be to reality. For this reason, the situation he depicted was more realistic. Hopes went back to talk to Rubey about this. Rubey, who was also an experienced veteran, pondered about it. It seemed to him, that maybe¡­ there was really such a possibility. Therefore, Rubey was a little worried. He made it a point to look for the adventurers from the trade caravans who were responsible for escorting their supplies to them. He wanted to make careful inquiries about the situation. He was finally relieved after clearing his doubts. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. This has nothing to do with us,¡± he told Hopes upon returning. He felt a great sense of relief as though a heavy load was lifted off his shoulder. He said, ¡°The cult offerings are congregated at the border between the two forces. There are no signs of them spreading towards the north. Now, we are almost at the northernmost end of the merchant party¡¯s sphere of influence; those heretics won¡¯t be able to make their way here.¡± Hopes breathed a sigh of relief, but he did not feel completely freed from the burden. Instead, he was still somewhat apprehensive as he asked, ¡°So¡­ were the heretics caught? Has their organization been exterminated?¡± ¡°Not yet.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t help finding this terrible¡­¡± ¡°Yes!¡± said Rubey as he sighed again. Shaking his head, he said, ¡°I hope our work here ends soon. I really want to go back to the Republic soon. That¡¯s the only place where it¡¯s truly safe!¡± Chapter 753 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Rubey said he was not worried. But the truth was, he was very worried. Though theoretically speaking, it was impossible for those heretics to embark on such a long and arduous journey just to make trouble for the exploration team. They would have to travel from the southern-most end, which was within the merchant party¡¯s sphere of influence, to the northern-most end. But these heretics were called heretics for a reason. One of their most important characteristics was ¡°madness.¡± These fellows were all one of a kind, and they were all lunatics. There was nothing worse than crazy lunatics, hot-tempered lunatics, quiet lunatics or calm lunatics¡­ nothing. Using the ¡°theoretical¡± approach to contemplate the behavior of these crazy lunatics was certainly impossible and definitely unreliable. If lunatics could do things according to common sense, would they still be deemed crazy? So even though it was a distance of almost two thousand miles away, there was still a possibility of these heretics coming over just to make trouble. This was like on Earth, where everyone knew that many terrorists had based their headquarters in the Middle East. Would there be any place on the entire Earth that would be spared from their tormenting ways? Maybe only the penguins in Antarctica and the cacti in the Sahara didn¡¯t need to worry about getting attacked. The level of mobility of the heretics was beyond what ordinary people could ever imagine. So Rubey secretly strengthened security measures at camp. He also contacted a few other adventurers and set up a long-term undercover team of sentries at the foot of the mountain. He knew that these measures might be unnecessary, but he felt uneasy if he did nothing at all. In fact, even if all these measures were in place, his heart was still very unsettled. A few days later, subsequent news came. The clergymen of the Church of the Master of Justice met those heretics, and the two parties fought a violent battle. There were heavy casualties on both sides. In the heat of the battle, the heretics produced a special statue that looked very ordinary but could harness positive energy¡ªthis meant that it was made from the flesh and blood of heavenly creatures, or maybe it was even directly transformed from a powerful heavenly creature to take its present form. The combat power of that ¡°heavenly statue¡± was not particularly high, but when used in group combat, the auxiliary effect of its combat power was exceptional. If it were not for its help, relying only on the wits of those deranged heretics, it would be impossible for them to be on par with a disciplined, well-trained and well-equipped army of Sacred Warriors. Finally, this ¡°heavenly statue¡± fled the scene with a few miserable heretics who barely scraped through. And those who did not manage to escape all sacrificed themselves as offerings. If not for the veteran sacred warrior leading the team of clergymen who stopped them in time before they were utterly destroyed, they might have summoned a most terrifying creature. ¡°Seems like this matter has come to an end?¡± After hearing the news, Rubey asked the adventurer who had made haste in conveying the news. He went on to ask, ¡°Can we relax now?¡± ¡°We should be able to,¡± said that adventurer. ¡°The heretics have been exterminated. Though there are a miserable few who managed to escape, there is nothing much they can do now. And even if they managed to escape this time, there are still clergymen in hot pursuit of them¡ªpresently, the merchant party and aristocratic party have joined forces. They are offering a very high reward where the head of one heretic is worth the price of 500 gold coins. That is simply a head made of gold!¡± ¡°Surely there must be many adventurers out there trying to find and kill them?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said that adventurer. ¡°I¡¯ve been on a pursuit before, but I realized that the demand was greater than the supply. With a few hundred adventurers tracking these few heretics, we all have no idea who was going to get lucky and become the big winner. I searched for a few days but found nothing. After discussing with a few friends, we decided that every one of us would choose a certain direction and head in that direction to simply sell the news we have.¡± Along the way, at every place he stopped at, he peddled detailed information about the ¡°rebellion of the heretics.¡± As a frontline member of the heretics-hunting team himself, he was well-aware of the entire course of events, as well as the detailed situation of several battles. Relying on the peddling of information, he did make quite a fortune. Finally, Rubey could completely let go of his worries and withdrew that undercover team he had planted. This storm did not find its way to the exploration team. In the end, it was nothing more than a false alarm. However, it made him feel deeply unsettled. That same evening, he submitted a report to the Ministry of Mines of the Republic of Northwest. On the report, he wrote, ¡°In view of the current unstable situation within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, it is recommended that additional manpower be deployed to complete the joint exploration work as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary risks. ¡°We need more manpower,¡± said a mutilated statue in an underground cave. ¡°We are shorthanded.¡± Near it, several corpses dressed in black robes were strewn all over the floor. They had become completely hard and stiff. ¡°These guys are not bright, it would be rather troublesome to use them,¡± a voice was heard speaking by its side. ¡°Maybe we should consider finding manpower from elsewhere.¡± ¡°Other than them, what other crazy lunatics can you find?¡± said the statue in its peaceful and calm voice. However, there was a trace of worry in it. ¡°If we want to execute our plan, we must find people who are vicious and wicked enough. I can¡¯t think of any other in this world who are more vicious and wicked.¡± ¡°But it is going to be quite troublesome if we use them.¡± The statue sighed and said, ¡°Everything has its good and bad. These fellows are not like us, after all. Being able to make use of them to help us carry out acts of sabotage was already quite a feat. It¡¯s impossible to obtain their complete obeisance.¡± ¡°But they are actually going to attack you¡­ And the reason is that there is a conflict between camps. I¡¯ve never seen such a preposterous situation!¡± ¡°This reason is actually quite substantial. Haven¡¯t we also fought for the same reason before¡­?¡± ¡°But when we needed to rely on getting help from others to survive, we certainly did not turn our backs on each other because of such conflicts,¡± replied the voice. It was slightly louder than before and continued to say, ¡°This is not obstinance, this is pure idiocy!¡± ¡°If they are not that idiotic, would they have been willing to help me stir up trouble with just a reason like, ¡®I can provide you all with the convenience of transportation?''¡± the statue asked back. That voice remained silent. Then after a while, it asked, ¡°What do you intend to do next?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one in charge. You decide what to do, and I¡¯ll help,¡± the statue replied. ¡°Of course, if you ask me what decision I would make, I would say to find another place to launch an attack¡ªperhaps the aristocratic party and merchant party can cooperate with each other now. But so long as we continue to attack, sooner or later, we¡¯ll be able to incite a conflict between them.¡± ¡°But¡­ how long exactly is that going to take?¡± asked that voice. It sighed and said, ¡°We have been putting this off for much too long.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be helped. Having to operate in this invisible form is too restrictive for us. Otherwise, we could easily launch a large-scale attack on the merchant party by simply gathering a number of devout followers.¡± ¡°No! My god¡¯s command is absolute!¡± ¡°Yes, so we can only take things slow,¡± said the statue as a white light flowed through its body. Various broken parts of the statue were slowly being restored as it was placed in the midst of the white light. The statue said, ¡°When I¡¯m done fixing this body, I¡¯ll continue moving on. ¡°I¡¯ll finish up whatever I have at hand as soon as I can. Given the current situation, I also can¡¯t afford to be enjoying the life of a princess any further.¡± With that being said, something disappeared in the midst of a light breeze. The statue sighed deeply and sat down. In the cave, silence prevailed, and it was as quiet as a graveyard. Chapter 754 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Republic of Northwest was highly efficient. Just five days later, a group of miners was allocated on an emergency basis. Then they were rushed straight to the camp of the joint exploration team on a flying carpet. When the people of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins saw such extravagance in using a flying carpet to transport miners, their eyes twitched, and their limbs trembled¡ªflying carpets were not made to fly without any consumption of other resources. A continuous supply of magic was required to maneuver a flying carpet. In particular, for such a large-sized carpet, the cost of making it and the consumption of magic to enable flight were both exceptionally high. Only such an unreliable country like the Republic of Northwest would be capable of such a thing. Nice Parne, one of the Republic of Northwest¡¯s newest generation of Legendary Masters, led the team tasked to escort these miners to the camp. This Legendary master, who had stepped into the Legendary Realm when she was barely 60 years of age, knew Sid. The two of them even had a cordial chat for a while. The content of their conversation was pretty much like this: Nice: ¡°Sid, what kind of mentality do you have by deciding to give up such a good position of a druid to come here and be a miner?¡± Sid: ¡°Aunt Nice, you achieved success in stepping into the Legendary Realm after isolating yourself in seclusion. That¡¯s indeed something worth congratulating. But why are you being so sarcastic to others when you¡¯re in a good mood?¡± Nice: ¡°I¡¯m just worried about you!¡± Sid: ¡°If you have the time to worry about me, why don¡¯t you hurry up and fall in love with someone? You used to say that you want to become a Legendary master. You want to have everlasting youth before you¡¯d consider falling in love and getting married. Now that you have finally become a Legendary master, it¡¯s time you fulfill your promise. Granny Teague and Aunt Liv have been waiting so long that they¡¯re getting anxious.¡± Nice: ¡°¡­¡± Sid: ¡°Though people of the elvish bloodline have long lives and age slowly, Aunt Liv is already a mother of several children. Her oldest son, Etta, has even learned how to give flowers to girls. You better not wed later than your own nephew!¡± Nice: ¡°¡­¡± Sid: ¡°During this time, I made a new friend. He¡¯s handsome, gentle, born to a reputable family and quite a talent. The best thing of all is that he doesn¡¯t have a particularly strong aversion to women older than himself. Do you want me to introduce you two?¡± In view of what he said, Sid eventually ended up being pressed to the ground where he was subjected to the mercy of Nice¡¯s. But more or less, this was a matter of course. That evening, when Hopes returned to camp, he was shocked to see the soft healing bandage on Sid¡¯s face. ¡°Eh? I thought you¡¯re not on duty today? How did you get yourself hurt in the camp?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a little low on luck.¡± ¡°You¡¯re almost at the advanced level, aren¡¯t you? Exactly how ¡°low on luck¡± could a druid who¡¯s nearly at the advanced level be to get this injury in a safe camp?¡± ¡°I came across a female Tyrannosaurus rex, and she trampled over on me.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t even ask where you found a tyrannosaurus rex on the Main Plane. From what I know, even a tyrannosaurus rex hibernates. In such weather where the mountains are all capped in snow, would a tyrannosaurus rex specifically pass by here just to give you a kick? You really think I learned nothing about plane biology?¡± ¡°Eh? You even know this?¡± ¡°Back in those years, I spent almost all my time in the library of the Walder¡¯s family, alright!¡± ¡°What a blunder I¡¯ve made!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be silly. Now tell me how you got hurt!¡± ¡°Really, it¡¯s just something very normal¡­ It¡¯s no big deal.¡± Hopes did not press him further with more questions and walked away. At dinner time, he watched Sid who was eating in silence and gave a sneaky smile. Sid felt a little unnerved under his gaze and could not help asking the question, ¡°Your Excellency, why are you laughing?¡± And in return, Hopes said, ¡°Clearly in a good relationship with each other, and yet being annoying on purpose by bringing up a topic that the other party dislikes? From what I know, this is a common way for awkward young boys to make their presence obvious to women they care about.¡± Then Hopes ended up being pressed to the ground where he was subjected to the mercy of friction. Sid was no match for Nice. But dealing with this annoying fox-rabbit was no issue for him at all. As for what this fellow said¡­ who would take the words of a fox-rabbit seriously! But anyone with common sense would know that those who by went the name of Walder were all masters of deception. They could conjure lies that could cause death, but they themselves would get away scot-free. Even if Hopes might be half a fox person, he was not a Walder after all! Sid had persuaded himself as such, but that night, he still could not fall asleep. Here and there without any restriction in movement, he tossed and turned in bed. But regrettably, life was not a romantic story in reality. Even if he suffered an entire night of insomnia, he still had to go up the mountains for exploration work the next day. Question: What would happen to a man who had stayed awake all night and yet insisted on leading the team to explore deep into the snow-capped mountains? And also, every time they arrived at a dangerous place, he would have to be the one to pave the way for them. The result was obvious. So Sid got injured and quite badly at that. He broke a leg and dislocated his right arm. If Clito had not rushed over upon receiving the news, Sid would probably have lost his life. The valley where he had gotten injured had very steep slopes that were completely frozen. Hopes had discovered likely traces of mineral veins at the bottom of the valley when he led the team out for exploration the day before. So he brought the team here today. At that time, he had tied a rope around his waist. Then following the trail of the icy steep slope, he slowly made his descent. At the same time, he tried to drill holes on the layer of ice to set up spikes so that his team members could follow in his stead¡ªHopes merely stopped by for a brief look yesterday; he did not actually do any exploration work. At the beginning, everything went smoothly. But when he was almost halfway through, the accident happened. On a protruding rock surface, the ice cracked. It was not a big deal that the ice broke. Given his ability, even if the cracked ice were to crash down on the top of his head, he would be able to withstand it. However, the unfortunate thing was that the cracked ice was so sharp that it cut through his safety rope when it rubbed against rope upon descending. If Sid was in good form, he would have sensed that something was wrong before the rope was cut. But he had been up all night and was rather tired in the first place. And with all his attention focused on climbing the mountain and securing the spikes, there was simply no way he would have paid due notice. So when the rope snapped, he only had time to cry out in surprise. Then he fell straight down the steep slope of the snow-capped mountain. If it had been an ordinary person, such a fall would lead to certain death. There would be no need for an emergency rescue at all¡ªthat steep slope was at least 15 to 16 stories high. If a person could fall from such a height and yet still be a complete corpse after hitting the ground, he should be considered a lucky man. Fortunately, Sid was very strong. At the most critical moment, he still had time to save himself by smashing a pickax into the ice wall next to him in an attempt to stabilize himself. Though by doing so, he had dislocated his right arm. But at least, this had reduced the speed and impact of the fall. But as the saying went, bad luck always came in threes. Just as he was about to hit the ground, he realized that there were many sharp, knife-like ice prisms on the ground below. They stood erect like long swords pointing towards the sky, looking just like the pike traps laid by hunters to catch prey. Because of his dislocated right arm, he could no longer use brute strength to solve the problem. So he simply activated a magic prop that he always carried with him and sent a fireball blasting towards the ground. That fireball shattered a large patch of ice prisms on the ground. A resulting strong gust of hot air that shot up also slowed down the momentum of his fall by a slight degree. Even so, he broke his leg. Fortunately, a broken leg was not a serious injury, especially when he was a druid with healing powers. By the time Clito arrived, he had already fixed his dislocated right arm and was trying to rectify the alignment of the bones of his broken leg. He intended to use a spell to heal himself. At that time, he even told Clito that his condition was not serious. He just needed to use two spells to recover, and his work would not be affected at all. Clito completely ignored him with a dark face. He directly lifted Sid up as though he were catching a chicken and brought this brassy yet reckless fellow back to camp. Then, Sid received five days of leave due to his injury. ¡°So boring¡­ There aren¡¯t any books to read here¡­¡± Sid said with a sigh as he lay in bed. ¡°Why don¡¯t you use your teleportation spell to make a trip back to Void City? You should go for a thorough check-up,¡± Hopes persuaded him. ¡°What if you have some internal injuries? That would spell trouble.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going back. It¡¯s too humiliating for me to just go back like that!¡± Hopes was speechless. After leaving the room, he went looking for Rubey to convince Rubey to send an urgent message. He felt that this message would be a great help to Sid. Whether Sid would thank him or find fault with him in the future, it did not really matter¡­ Chapter 755 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio While the joint exploration team was putting on a lighthearted comedy in camp, far away in the eastern end of the Dominant Continent, the Kingdom of the Blue Moon was staging a somewhat ludicrous¡­ what would be a more suitable genre for this play? Perhaps it could be considered as a horror comedy. How¡­ how is that possible?! The stout, bearlike figure of Fish Ilo, the city lord of Ilo City, was slumped on the ground. Every muscle of his body was trembling. Even his shaky legs were no longer able to support the weight of his body, and thus, he was unable to stand. Even if all four limbs were used, he could only move like a worm as he slowly crawled back¡ªin fact, he was subconsciously retreating. His crotch area had become a patch of scarlet red. There was fresh blood oozing all over the floor, and he was still bleeding non-stop. Judging by the condition of his wound, if treatment was not administered, it might not be long before this excessive bleeding alone would claim his life. Normally, at this point in time, he ought to have immediately called for an escort to get him to a doctor or priest for help. But because he was in a state of extreme fear and shock that caused his mind to go blank. He could not think of anything. He could only mumble ¡°how is this possible¡± as he slowly moved back subconsciously to get as far away as possible from that figure before him. That was a figure he had known so well, every inch of it, from head to toe. But at this moment, he felt an extreme unfamiliarity as though he had never truly known the other party. She was an exceptionally beautiful lady with the reputation of the ¡°Flower of Ilo.¡± Coming from an exceptionally noble bloodline, she was a descendant of the former Red Moon Dynasty of the Kingdom of the Blue Moon and was also known as the Red Moon Princess. The city lord of Garth City was a lady who never aged in appearance. Therefore, she had always been known as the ¡°First Beauty of the East Coast.¡± Many believed that if not for her, the modern time ¡°First Beauty of the East Coast¡± would rightfully be the Red Moon Princess. This was Fish Ilo¡¯s sixth lady, his most favorite plaything. And her name was Sophie Red Moon. This beautiful lady who was 22 years of age was quite a prominent figure. In terms of bloodline, she was a descendant of the former Red Moon Dynasty. In terms of status, she was one of the successors of the Red Moon Chamber of Commerce. In terms of capability, she was quite an outstanding female scholar. On top of this, she was gentle, amicable and exceptionally beautiful. She had a very good reputation within Ilo City, and the number of young men who fancied her could probably form a circle around the entire city if they were to stand in line. Back then, Fish had indeed put in a great amount of effort and capital to get her. He had spared no efforts in trying all means possible. On the night that she was wed to Fish, there had to be many people in Ilo City who gritted their teeth and ground their blades in secret, though the exact number would not be known. Yet in the end, nothing really happened. People eventually forgot about this beautiful young lady whom they used to fancy so much. And only a line or two about her would be mentioned occasionally in casual conversations after a drink. Over the years, Fish had used her for his own pleasures by playing around with all sorts of things. Unlike his fourth lady, who had an adventurer background and could withstand all sorts of games that were really inconceivable, Sophie was not physically strong. However, no matter what Fish did to her, her gentleness and weak-willed nature did not allow her to put up any form of resistance. Fish derived extreme pleasure whenever he saw her nausea, agony and humiliation, or even when her entire body was violently trembling, and yet she did not dare to make a single complaint. The feeling he had was a complete conquest of this peerless beauty by utterly crushing her inside out¡ªthis was his greatest enjoyment. It was also the best way for him to vent the stress that he had accumulated from his usual ruling duties. But why did things turn out this way? Fish was in a daze as he tried to think. Sophie had not been in good spirits lately. It was possible that she might be a little sick. But he did not put it to heart. If she had fallen ill, then let her be ill. It was also fun to play with a sickly woman. But¡­ at this very moment, Sophie was completely different from her usual self. She no longer had her usual gentleness and timidity. She seemed composed and steady, and her eyes were peaceful like a calm sea. Her entire being was filled with an indescribable yet astounding rhythm. This astounding rhythm was like a charm that riveted his mind, slowing his ability of thoughts and drawing him into a daze. It made him forget himself and what he was supposed to do. Thus, he was unable to make any right choices. How slow were his thoughts and how dazed was he? From how he was still bleeding ceaselessly, anyone could tell. Earlier on, he had taken off his clothes and went over to her. As part of his usual routine, he tore off Sophie¡¯s clothes and pressed her down on the study table. He was just about to begin in the usual position for a round of pleasurable indulgence, but at that moment, Sophie struck. Her right hand reached out gently. Then she grasped hold of that huge fellow that Fish had always prided himself on. With another gentle tug, she pulled it out from his crotch. A huge chunk of flesh went along with it. Fish was an advanced warrior. And he was no ordinary advanced warrior, but a descendant of the ¡°Iron Bone Sect.¡± There were many martial art skills that were passed down in this world. For example, the blade master of Garth City, Leon Igor, had inherited the ¡°Eagle Wing Sword,¡± and one of the legal advisors of the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Void City, Cambrona, had acquired the martial skill of the ¡°Eight Swords of Virtue¡± from the Tolerant Knights. The ¡°Iron Bone Sect¡± did not have anything high-end like the ¡°Eagle Wing Sword,¡± but what it had was definitely not something so common like the ¡°Broken Mountain Axe¡± that could be seen everywhere. This was a skill that the Ilo family had created based on the martial skills of a certain dwarf and had been refined over the years. The greatest advantage of this martial skill was that it could enhance defensive abilities. It was said that if this skill was practiced to perfection, one¡¯s chest could even defend against strong bows and one¡¯s arm could resist giant hammers. There would be no cause for fear even if a meteorite were to fall from the sky. One¡¯s head would be hard enough to take the blow. Of course, Fish had not practiced to the extent where he had become so perversely powerful. However, the defensive ability of his physical body had become formidable. Even with their swords, ordinary people could dream on if they ever wanted to hurt even a single strand of hair on him. He did not even need to dodge or block. Even if he were just to stand there, so long as he covered the vulnerable parts like his nose and ears well, the remaining parts would not sustain a single injury no matter how they were hacked at or pierced. Over the years, he had encountered more than one assassination, and yet, there was not one assassinator that could truly hurt him. On the contrary, there was a female assassinator who was conquered by his powerful ¡°Third Leg¡± and became his third lady. However, just a moment ago, the frail, timid and weak Sophie had used her delicate hands that seemed so feeble and void of strength to gently grasp Fish¡¯s powerful ¡°middle leg¡± and simply pulled it off by the root. Totally by the root¡­ Due to the extreme shock, Fish even forgot about the pain. He slumped on the ground in a daze as he watched Sophie turned about. Her naked body seemed exceptionally seductive with fresh blood splattered all over it, but it filled him with an oppressive force that made him shudder all over in fear. She had no intention of going over to finish him off. She merely stood where she was and looked at Fish in a peaceful manner. Then, she crumbled that astoundingly-sized thing in her hand. Fish said nothing. She said nothing. The two people who had been husband and wife for five years merely looked at one another. Both of them were naked and simply looked as though they were having some intimate fun in their boudoir. But this was definitely not the sort of fun that the city lord of Ilo City would have in mind. And it was also not something that Sophie was capable of. Clearly, she could not even look Fish in the eye! After a while, Fish¡¯s eyes began to lose focus. The excessive loss of blood had made him extremely weak, and everything before him began to blur. Finally, he slumped and fell down. He could not speak a single word, even up to his last breath before death. Whether it was a question of doubt or a cry for help, he could not make a single utterance at all. After his soul had fallen deep into the underworld, Sophie Red Moon sat down again and wiped her blood-stained hands clean with a piece of expensive silk. ¡°It¡¯s finally over,¡± she said in a calm tone that was definitely not that of Sophie¡¯s. ¡°My descendant has actually been degraded to the point of sacrificing her beauty to complete a deed. The thought of it is simply pathetic!¡± At that moment, she suddenly reverted to her usual delicate and timid self. Apprehensively, she said, ¡°But¡­ this way, it will be a disaster in the making for the Red Moon family¡­¡± ¡°So what if there¡¯s an imminent disaster?¡± she sneered. Once again, she was back to Sophie who spoke in a firm tone, and said, ¡°How can you be so useless? All of you don¡¯t deserve to live as my descendants. If you all can¡¯t pull through this, then your deaths will be good riddance.¡± ¡°This is the test that I, the founder of the Red Moon Dynasty, your honorable ancestor, have given you!¡± Chapter 756 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The city lord of Ilo City, Fish Ilo, was found dead naked in the bedroom of his sixth lady, Sophie Red Moon. The cause of death is¡­¡± Leon read the brief report with a frown. He did not have much impression of Fish Ilo. To him, this person was not very powerful and had very average skills in handling government affairs. In short, there was nothing particularly remarkable worth noting. Leon met him several times at the court banquets of Kingdom of the Blue Moon and had briefly exchanged a few words. As a junior, Fish Ilo had offered him a toast. And that was all. In fact, Fish was keen on making friends with Leon. Other than being recognized as Garth¡¯s famous blade master, Leon was also considered by many to be a top master of the modern world. Though the Ilo family was quite strong in its own capacity, they would do even better if they could establish ties with him. The only pity was that Leon was a man of high morals and integrity. He did not fancy people with sticky fingers like Fish. And he showed a special dislike for people with no control over their manly desires and who were always playing around with women. Fish was always involved in absurd relationships, and this was one aspect that seriously conflicted with Leon¡¯s moral values. If these two were to cross paths when Leon was still a prince, Leon would not have hesitated in brandishing his sword to finish off Fish. But now that Leon was getting on in his years, he was more mature and tactful. Or rather, he was not as hot-blooded as before. This was why he could use such a mindset like ¡°even the people of Ilo City are not standing up for themselves, who am I to speak out for them¡± to dissuade himself from finding trouble with Fish. Fish was dead, and Leon was generally happy with it. But after reading the report on the situation of Fish¡¯s death, he felt a little confused and worried instead. The way this man died was simply¡­ a little scary. From the description provided in the report, he tried to imagine the scene of the event. Even though Leon was powerful and strong, he too, could not help feeling an ache around his loins. Though Fish was not a good man and deserved to be hacked to death, to think of him dying in such a way¡­ exactly what kind of a dangerous and perverted character did he have to be killed like that. On the other hand, following the death of Fish, Leon did not put much thought into the subsequent disappearance of the sixth lady of Ilo City, Sophie Red Moon. Maybe she was caught by the murderer, maybe she had secretly escaped by herself, or maybe she was simply swallowed by the ¡°thing¡± that killed Fish¡ªas a civilian scholar with no power at all, Sophie was simply too easy to kill. It would not be surprising at all if her dead body was nowhere to be found. Upon comparison, he was more concerned with the mysterious person who filled Fish. Struck by a sudden thought, Leon went to the temple. He sat down in the quiet room and started to cast a spell. He wanted to use a Divination spell to find out if the guy who killed Fish had anything to do with Garth City. Who on earth could it be? Honestly, he was not very interested. But would that person affect Garth? This, he was very interested in, or rather, very worried about. In terms of strength, an assassin who could kill Fish Ilo so soundlessly was at least at the legendary level. And from the analysis of the way Fish died, this person was most likely not a common Legendary master¡ªpeople of the Ilo family had sought the help of three very high-level adventurers to carefully examine Fish¡¯s dead body. In the end, they confirmed that Fish was neither poisoned nor subdued by someone. He had flopped his butt on the ground after being injured and moved his body a few steps back. Then he fell into a daze like a silly fool and remained in this state until he died from excessive bleeding. To be able to do something like this, even when Leon asked himself honestly, it was obvious that throughout the entire world, there were few who were capable of doing so, not to mention the entire Kingdom of the Blue Moon. He was sure he could do it. Of all the people he knew, Satan and Gerald should be able to do it, and Tu Ya¡¯an was probably able to do it too. Other than these few¡­ one or two from the Sea race and probably one or two from the Orc Empire would also be able to do it. There would also be people from the Mifata Federation and the Kingdom of Light capable of something like that. However, the total number of all these people would not exceed the total number of fingers on two hands. There were no more than 10 such supreme masters in the world, so why would they pit themselves against such an ordinary character like Fish Ilo? And even go to the extent of specifically executing such means to cause such a big commotion? Assuming that it had been Leon himself who wanted to kill Fish, he probably would have gone looking for Fish in the middle of the night and stab him right through his heart. He would arrive as quietly as possible and leave as quietly as he could, without leaving the slightest trace of his presence. If he put himself in the shoes of others, the masters he knew would probably do the same. They would never do something so strange like that person because this was really too painful. This was why Leon could not help but ponder, since when did the world have such a master? Could they be¡­ from another world? Within the Big Circulation of the Ring of the World, there were countless worlds distributed all over. Many of these worlds were inhabited by living creatures, and many of these living creatures included masters who could be found everywhere. For example, a few years ago, there were masters from the famous mechanical realm coming over to the mortal world to participate in the Fighter Championship. Just that¡­ masters who were at the advanced legendary or an even higher level were extremely rare in any world. They were almost at the apex of the pyramid of power. Why would a figure like that quietly sneak into the mortal world and take special pains to antagonize Fish, who was an insignificant character not worth mentioning at all? Leon frowned and lit some incense that could calm his mind. Amidst the light and delicate fragrance, he slowly calmed down. Silently, he chanted the incantation and activated the spell. A scrambled scene of colors flickered before his eyes until it gradually took on the appearance of Ilo City. It was not the Ilo City that had imposed Martial Law within its city due to the sudden death of its city lord, but the calm and stable Ilo City where nothing had yet to happen. It was just like he had traveled back in time to the way things were a few days ago. In fact, he was traveling back in time to trace the past and investigate what had happened. This spell was similar to ¡°Recall Time,¡± but it had greater restrictions and consumption. And it also lacked freedom. However, it was much more convenient than ¡°Recall Time¡± if there was a specific incident and a relatively accurate time and venue as reference. Becoming a shadow that did not really exist, Leon floated in the sky above Ilo City and searched for traces of Fish Ilo. Because he was just a shadow, he was unable to find Fish by detecting his breath. He could only search based on his experience and wisdom. A while later, he found Fish¡¯s ride, which was a pack of powerful dragons. The pack of dragons was languorously crouching at the door of a small yet elegant house. There were several guards on both sides of the door, and all of them were well-equipped. They all stood with their heads held up, exuding an air of complacency and arrogance. Seems like, this is it. Leon made a move in his mind. Then his figure descended very quickly and flew into the house. He was very clear about the architectural style of the Kingdom of the Blue moon. Adding on his previous experience working as a Solitary Robber, it was easy to locate the bedroom of this house. He flew straight to it. But before he could reach the bedroom door, he was dealt with a sudden shock that made him stop dead in his tracks. He clearly felt that someone was watching him from the bedroom. Who is it? Before he had the time to ask, he felt his body shake and the image he saw before his eyes shattered like a mirror. Then everything disappeared without a trace. Leon coughed a couple of times and spat out a mouthful of blood. Then he frowned. Exactly what kind of a character was this person who could detect a spy from the future? No¡­ was that really a ¡°person¡± in that bedroom? Chapter 757 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Leon was quite seriously injured. Just to restore his ability of movement, he needed a full four to five days of cultivation. The injuries on his body were not serious. It was merely the shattering of his internal organs due to impact when a magical anti-phasing of his spell occurred. Such injuries could almost be fatal to ordinary people, but to him, this was nothing. Leon was a master at the legendary peak. For those who had reached this level, their bodies would have undergone a certain degree of sanctification. This would mean that even if there were missing arms or broken legs, they could grow back or repair these limbs again, much less a mere internal injury. For Leon, the true cause of such a serious injury was the impact of the shock dealt to his soul. It was an extremely violent concussion. Casting a spell to travel back in time was extremely dangerous. During the process of spellcasting, his entire being would be in a completely defenseless state. Even the tenacity to protect his body would be temporarily invalidated. At this point in time, even an ordinary strong man with a big club in his hands could possibly give Leon some serious injuries. So to ensure his safety, he took refuge in the quiet room of the temple of the Church of the Void Mask in Garth City. This would allow him to cast his magic without giving anyone the chance to plot against him. But it had never occurred to him that the target whom which he had cast a spell to spy upon, was a master who could traverse the barriers of time and sense the ¡°future¡± while being in the ¡°past!¡± Not only that, that master could even traverse time to attack him, who was positioned in the ¡°future!¡± Such an ability was definitely not what he expected to see from a master at the advanced legendary or legendary peak. This was truly a master from the Realm of God! This was a powerful demigod who had truly stepped into the Realm of God, or perhaps even a figure that was not any weaker than the other gods and monsters! Maybe, it was simply a clone of a real god. If Leon had been prepared, given the magical objects he had with him, it would not have been impossible to defeat a Demigod master. However, he was completely defenseless and had never thought that the other party would be so strong and brutal. It was tantamount to walking over with bare hands and then sticking out one¡¯s neck to accept a blow from the other party¡¯s blade. If not for divine grace that was bestowed to him by Sui Xiong that gave him protection, it was possible that he might have been half-dead, or it might have even been enough to make him bedridden for many years down the road. That would not be something strange either. To be able to barely regain his ability of movement after a few days of self-cultivation, he should already be counting his blessings. Speaking of which, in fact, Sui Xiong should be the one to claim the credit. Since the previous time where Leon died in the battlefield and was later resurrected, Sui Xiong had been regularly using his Divine Power to strengthen Leon¡¯s soul and prevent him from being assassinated by arcane methods¡ªbut for people who were resurrected after death, their souls and bodies were no longer that closely bound. Using means that targeted the soul to attack them would reap effective results with half the amount of effort. Over the years, Sui Xiong had cast spells to strengthen Leon¡¯s soul so many times that he had almost formed a Divine Shield around Leon¡¯s soul. This time around, the attacker¡¯s target was Leon¡¯s soul, so the shield was put to use in blocking off 60% to 70% of the power of the attack. This was how Leon managed to survive this ordeal. While working on the rehabilitation of his injuries, Leon meticulously combed through the entire chain of events. Eventually, he also understood what happened. Apart from the lingering fear after the entire event, he also began to feel somewhat wary. All these years, he had been on a roll. It was almost as if he could get everything he wished for, and everything would go his way. Unknowingly, he had become a little arrogant and conceited. Especially in the last decade or so, he was often called the ¡°top master of the world.¡± He was always very modest when personally responding to people addressing him by this title. But nevertheless, deep in his heart, his thoughts did resonate with these thoughts that the people had of him. Legendary peak level, well-equipped with magical objects, well-versed in magic and martial arts¡­ with these qualifications, he most certainly had what it took to vie for the honor of being the ¡°top master of the world.¡± But honestly speaking, was it really that great to be the top in the world? Haha. If the mortal world did not have the protection of the enchantment left behind by the Goddess of Life, where those powerful gods and monsters could not set foot on, how serious would a master at the legendary peak be? As the top master under His Majesty, the Void Mask¡¯s command, and as the archbishop of the church, sooner or later, he would have to follow His Majesty to deal with the major situations. And when the time came for him to leave the mortal world to go to the Thousand Worlds, where he would have to fight against countless masters, a mere master at the legendary peak like him¡ªwould he be able to prevail over his opponents? Take this time, for instance. Just an unidentified demigod master could easily inflict such a severe injury on him. If not for His Majesty¡¯s grace in protecting him, there was no way he would be able to pull through so easily. In time to come, he would have to face those demigod masters. By that time, surely, he would not think of living his entire life under His Majesty¡¯s protection? Leon was a proud man. Even though he clearly knew that there was a great difference between humans and god, he would not tolerate the idea of him being a burden that required another¡¯s protection! So he reflected on the painful experience and made up his mind to correct his attitude, practice hard and strive to step up into the Realm of God as soon as possible. He would become the first demigod master of the Church of the Void Mask. But what Leon did not know was that the other person who wounded him was in fact, not in a very good situation either. ¡°Oh no! Oh dear!¡± cried a beauty fully dressed in military attire. Her face was pale, and she was pacing about ceaselessly in a pitch-dark underground cavern like a cat on hot bricks. ¡°What¡¯s the matter with you?¡± asked a statue out of puzzlement. It was lying in the corner for self-cultivation. ¡°I just sensed that someone was traveling back in time to investigate the matter of me killing that fat pig,¡± said Sophie Red Moon, or rather the founder of the Red Moon Dynasty, the Red Moon King. With a frown, she said, ¡°Of course I would naturally give it to him. You know my style. Since I have to strike, I¡¯ll pull no punches.¡± ¡°You killed that person?¡± ¡°No, his soul is protected by Divine Power. I only injured him.¡± ¡°Divine Power?¡± the statue exclaimed. It was a little surprising and asked, ¡°Which god is he an elector of? Or is he a Son of God?¡± The Red Moon King was silent for a moment, then in a low voice, she said, ¡°I think that the Divine Power that¡¯s protecting him comes from His Majesty, the Void Mask.¡± The statue was so surprised that it almost leaped up from the ground, ¡°What did you say?!¡± Because it was overly shocked, even its speaking volume was raised a few decibels as it asked, ¡°Did you make a mistake?¡± ¡°I might be mistaken about the Divine Power of anyone else, but I¡¯d be wrong in identifying the Void Mask¡¯s Divine Power. Before I came down to Earth, His Majesty had even made it a point for me to familiarize myself with his Divine Power. Because he was more or less the only powerful god that could move about Earth, familiarizing myself with his Divine Power will prevent me from seeking death by offending him.¡± The statue nodded and asked, ¡°So¡­ did you tread on his toes this time?¡± ¡°I think I should have. There are only a few people in the world who are qualified enough for him to use his Divine Power to protect their souls. Considering that fat pig¡¯s social relationships, the person who cast the spell to spy on me this time is most possibly the Archbishop of the Void Mask¡¯s church. He is the ¡®blade master of Garth,¡¯ Leon Igor.¡± ¡°Good heavens! The Void Masks holds that fellow dear and treats him as precious as his own children and grandchildren. There was once where the Void Mask has even killed two gods in a row because he was killed!¡± the statue exclaimed. It got to its feet and cried, ¡°Why don¡¯t¡­ you hurry back and lay low for a while?¡± ¡°Will I be able to escape?¡± the Red Moon King asked back with a wry smile. The statue was silent for a moment, then said, ¡°There¡¯s no escape for you.¡± ¡°Yes. If he really wants to kill me, there¡¯s nowhere I can escape to. Maybe I can escape back to the God¡¯s Kingdom, but that would definitely cause great trouble for His Majesty. I can¡¯t do that!¡± cried the Red Moon King with a bitter laugh. She went on to say, ¡°Now, I can only hope that Leon Igor is proud enough, so proud that he will take this matter upon himself and personally come to settle the score with me later.¡± ¡°Later, if he comes looking for you¡­ that may not necessarily be a good thing. He¡¯s much more powerful than we were. Give it another 200 to 300 years, you¡¯ll no longer be a match for him.¡± ¡°True, maybe he doesn¡¯t even need long,¡± the Red Moon King said with a laugh. Then she eased up and said, ¡°But no matter what, at least I can live for another 200 to 300 years.¡± With that, she could not help laughing heartily as she said, ¡°I was born a slave. After going through countless struggles and battles, I finally became a king. Be it danger or death, I have had my fair share of experiences. There¡¯s nothing to fear. ¡°So long as I complete the mission that His Majesty has entrusted to me before I die, I will die in peace!¡± Chapter 758 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Of course, Sui Xiong would know about Leon¡¯s injury. After all, Leon was wounded in his own temple. As a god, if he did not even know about what was going on within his own temple, then he might as well buy a piece of tofu and die trying to knock his head against it! Sui Xiong was very unhappy, but he had no intentions of personally dealing with the Red Moon King. Firstly, Leon was not seriously injured; secondly, regarding this matter¡­ Leon was in fact, quite at fault himself. He was the one running over to spy on someone else. As a result, he was wounded by the other¡¯s counterattack. What was there for him to complain about? Of course, if Leon was severely injured, Sui Xiong would not bother about being reasonable. But Leon was not seriously injured. Under such a situation, Brother Xiong was still willing to talk some sense. Anyway, the strength of the Red Moon King was just as it was. Leon would surpass him sooner or later. When the time came, Leon should be the one to look for the Red Moon King to settle this grudge once and for all. This would make more sense. In contrast, Sui Xiong was more concerned about something else at the moment. ¡°Name?¡± he asked. He was feeling somewhat confused as he looked at the report. ¡°You mean to say that there are still so many nameless people in our Republic of Northwest?¡± This report was submitted by Leonard, and its content was about the suggestion to carry out the ¡°Perfect Name¡± movement in the Republic of Northwest. Sui Xiong froze the moment he set his eyes on the report¡ªwhy is there a need to perfect names? Could the reason be that there were still many people without names in the Republic of Northwest? Or there were too many strange and weird names? As he read through the report carefully, he finally understood what Leonard meant. In this world, the civilians did not have surnames. They merely had first names. Because of their lack of culture, there was nothing special about their names in general. Their names were usually made up of a few common words or some descriptive words related to their status. This led to a serious situation of repeated names. Leonard did the calculations. Just among the permanent residents of Void City, there were 6,296 residents by the name of ¡°Spoolin,¡± 5,261 by the name of ¡°Joe¡± and 5,250 by the name of ¡°Jack¡­¡± and these were the three most common names used in Void City. Similarly, there were many other names that were also heavily repeated. In short, Void City had a total of 424,500 permanent residents, but only 1,109 people had names that were completely unique and not repeated at all. After subtracting these names, the remaining ones were more or less repeated names. Adding them up would give a total of 4,991, which did not even amount to 5,000. If names that were less repetitive were further removed from the list, the final result would be 582 highly repetitive names that were used by a total of nearly 300,000 people. Less than 600 names for 300,000 people would mean an average of one name being used every 500 people. Especially for some of the commonly used names, just by shouting out one of these names while walking on the main streets could turn many heads around. In fact, this situation was no big deal, but Leonard could not help finding it disconcerting. The reason was simple. The ninth most heavily repeated name was ¡°Leonard.¡± There was a total of 4,006 people with this name. At first, Leonard did not take this to heart. Or rather, he did not even notice this problem in the first place. Not long ago, he presided over the restructuring of the entire army. In the process of reorganizing the troops, he checked through the army roster with great interest. But he was embarrassed to find out that there were a few Leonards in the army. The norm was that one page would have two to three soldiers by the name of Leonard. In the entire army of the Republic of Northwest, there were more than one hundred people by the name of ¡°Leonard.¡± This was seriously beyond all reason. There were not many army troops in the Republic of Northwest to start with, and the total number of names on that roster was only around three thousand! Leonard was so shocked by this incident that naturally he would want to solve the problem. But he could not possibly get so many people to change their names. After much deliberation, he proposed to promote the ¡°Perfect Name¡± movement to let people choose their own surnames. The first names could be repeated, but the surnames generally would not be repeated. After all, the people of the Republic of Northwest had a certain level of culture now. They would absolutely not be so slipshod like their older generations when it came to taking surnames for themselves. There was another advantage to this proposal. It could greatly boost people¡¯s self-confidence and their sense of pride. In this world, a ¡°surname¡± had always been a prerogative of the aristocrats. Even for the well-off merchants, most of them did not have surnames. If the civilians of the Republic of Northwest could all have surnames, that would at least give them a sense of superiority. Also, this could manifest their culture and highlight the uniqueness of the Republic of Northwest. It could even attract talents who yearned for continuity of the familial clan. Overall, putting aside the fact that this method would require a slight increase in administrative costs, it would also bring in many benefits. With only one downside amidst all the benefits, it was certainly a method worth implementing. Of course, this was Leonard¡¯s side of the story. After reading the report, Sui Xiong had no thoughts of objecting. However, he was reminded of another incident. He recalled a time when he was in school, and Professor Cheng was giving a lecture on history. Professor Cheng talked about two incidents. One was the ¡°Citizens Take Surnames¡± incident that happened in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period in China, and the other was the ¡°Popularization of Surnames¡± incident that happened in the Meiji Restoration period in Japan. These two incidents were nearly 2,000 years apart, but they shared a striking consistency. When choosing surnames, civilians without surnames often based their choices on their home address, job, status, or even their good wishes. They came up with all kinds of surnames for themselves and their descendants. However, over time, out of all the civilians from ancient China who had chosen surnames for themselves, many were unable to pass down these surnames. Therefore, up till now, the commonly seen surnames in China that had been passed down were only those few of the ancient aristocrats. Professor Cheng once jokingly lamented that in contemporary China, the streets were filled with descendants of princes and marquises, generals and ministers, or even descendants of wealthy merchants. While surnames truly originated from the ancestors who were poor civilians, these surnames were on the contrary very few. In fact, even if the movement for people to choose their surnames had persisted up to the present day¡ªtake Japan for instance, with less than 200 years of age since it was established, the situation of the congregation of surnames was already gradually drawing attention, let alone China. Moreover, this was a modern society where it was relatively easy to see the poor having offspring to carry on their family names. This time, if the Republic of Northwest were to promote the movement for people to choose their surnames, it was conceivable to think of how many strange surnames would come into the picture. The thing was, hundreds and thousands of years from now, how many of these surnames would be passed down? As he thought about this, Sui Xiong could not help lament. After sighing, he brought this proposal to the meeting of top officials for discussion. Though given his authority, he could easily make the final call, he still felt that it would be better to discuss it. As a result, many opinions were put forward during the discussion. ¡°It¡¯s good to allow people to choose their surnames, but there must be some restrictions. We can¡¯t have any awkward surnames.¡± ¡°True. We can¡¯t have them naming themselves ¡®Dog Poop,¡±Cat¡¯s Ears¡¯ and such. That would be too weird!¡± ¡°¡®Dog Poop¡¯ is certainly a no-no, but how is Cat¡¯s Ears weird?¡± ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m just saying¡­¡± ¡°A surname like ¡®Void Space¡¯ is not good either. It¡¯s easy to be misunderstood.¡± ¡°Right! This can¡¯t be made a surname too. If not, a few hundred years later, the later generations might think that they are the sons of Our Majesty¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m just a jellyfish, how would it be possible for me to have so many sons of!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, something like that has to have preventive measures!¡± After some discussion, a number of supplementary suggestions and suggestions for improvement were put forward. Then finally, this proposal was successfully passed. A few days later, the movement for people to choose their surnames was officially commenced in the Republic of Northwest. Chapter 759 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio [Due to the needs of government affairs, all registered citizens of the Republic of Northwest are required to register their surnames at the sub-district office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs from this day on. Citizens without surnames can proceed by designing their registration forms. Note: To avoid repetition, for individuals who have designated surnames to their family, every surname should not be shared by more than 200 families. The surnames will be available for registration on a first-come, first-serve basis and will be accepted in the order of time of registration. After the first batch of surnames have been registered, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will release the number of family names that have been registered. Families who are unsuccessful in this round of registration may proceed with designing another registration. Even a second, or third design¡­ Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Republic of Northwest, effective as of today.] This notice was plastered all over the streets of the various cities and towns in the Republic of Northwest. The Ministry of Civil Affairs had even employed temporary loudmouthed propagandists who had taken to the streets, yelling and publicizing this policy¡ªthis was a unique characteristic of the Republic of Northwest. Every time a new policy was issued, there would be a team of propagandists hired for publicity and explanatory purposes. Hiring these propagandists would, of course, entail a small expenditure. But that would be nothing compared to the increase in efficiency of administering the policy. That small amount of money was really no big deal. Moreover, the Republic of Northwest lacked resources and talent, but not money. Had everyone not seen how the preparation work for the venue of the Fifth Fighter Championship was progressing? Just the amount spent on the renovations and refurbishments of the venue would be enough to hire propagandists for a few rounds of publicity. For every Fighter Championship tournament, a large amount of prize money would be awarded. Even the top eight fighters from the youth category would receive an alarming amount of prize money, not to mention the final legitimate champion of the tournament. On several occasions, higher-ups of the Republic of Northwest had attempted to persuade Sui Xiong not to organize such a Fighter Championship because it was simply a waste of manpower and money. Or if he wanted to do so, he should at least reduce the frequency of such an activity. They felt that once every decade was simply too frequent. At best, they could accept a frequency of once every 20 years. To this, Sui Xiong merely smiled. What was money? Money was not gold, silver or a precious stone. It was the currency in circulation. He might not have fared well in politics, but the ¡°essence of money¡± was the focus of his politics class in his freshman year that his teacher had reiterated more than once. It was a topic that was highly likely to appear in examinations most of the time. No matter how poorly he had fared in this subject, he would more or less still have some impression. The essence of money was a commodity used to supplement circulation. There was another special name designated to it, which was called the ¡°universal equivalent.¡± On Earth, this had developed to the point at which the nation¡¯s credit guaranteed its accounting data. To put it bluntly, it simply meant that the nation¡¯s credit was used as a commodity¡ªthis was why their politics teacher had been contemptuous of the people in the IT industry who had highly lauded the types of non-negotiable currencies like ¡°Bitcoins.¡± Their teacher had even come up with mocking statements like, ¡°If I were to take a gun and rob the trading platform of a certain Bitcoin, could they possibly transfer some electronic data to arrest me?¡± In this world, the development of currency had not advanced to the stage of being creditworthy. It was still in the era of production with portable and expensive things like gold, silver and precious stones. Though the value of currency of every country was different, the users would still recognize the currency by itself, and not the country of origin of the currency. As for credit money and such, even the Goddess of Wealth dared not dabble in it. Up till the present, her church only offered money transfer services based on the customer¡¯s existing funds. In other words, if a gold coin was stored in a warehouse, the market would literally be lacking this one gold coin. Regardless of which country, no one would be able to replace this gold coin via means like money printing. If too much money was stored in the warehouse, the market would have too little money. This would definitely affect the circulation in the market. The most direct effect was that the prices of commodities would fall while the value of money would rise. After all, things like gold, silver and precious stones, were commodities in their own right. Their prices would definitely rise if they were scarce. Also, unlike Earth, there were many places in this world where these things were consumed¡ªfor example, whenever magicians made statues or laid out magic arrays, they would usually consume kilograms of gold, several times or even ten times more of white silver and many rare precious stones as well. This would cause money in the market to continue to decrease. This would certainly cause a major disaster! Sui Xiong had always been a little worried about this matter. All these years, due to the development in the commercial and entertainment industries, the Republic of Northwest could be said to be earning buckets of gold every day. Although large quantities of materials for production were purchased at the same time, most of these materials for production were converted to food, beverages, weapons and armor, or even things like luxury products. Then again, these things would become money again. So there were more and more gold coins in the vault. They no longer ¡°piled up into a mountain,¡± but rather, they piled up into many small mountains. Watching the gold coins piling into a mountain would previously be a delightful sight to Frost and Graupel, but now, they were simply numbed into indifference. These two were probably the happiest rock dragons, or perhaps even the happiest dragons in the world. The other dragons had to think of all ways possible and risk all sorts of dangers to earn enough wealth. These two dragons only had to guard the vault for Sui Xiong, and then they could enjoy a happy life of rolling about in gold coins and precious stones when they pleased. The other dragons¡¯ nests only had one pile of gold coins, while the gold coins in their vault had piled into a¡­ golden sea. About two-thirds of these gold coins were Sui Xiong¡¯s personal assets. They really were his personal assets because he had practically built the few most lucrative businesses in the Republic of Northwest through his personal investments. He had sole proprietorship over all of them. Even if he were to divest a portion of these shares, he would still remain the biggest shareholder. More importantly, those who received a part of the shares¡ªfor instance, the higher-ups of the Republic¡ªwere all people who had to spend money, and they often spent a great amount of money. But Sui Xiong had practically spent next to nothing. Basically, he had no expenses to speak of at all. In the past, he would occasionally create a copy of himself, take the appearance of a mortal and wander around the mortal world. When in high spirits, he would often spend money extravagantly. In recent years, he had stopped doing such things. There was no longer any place for him to spend money. As he watched the wealth in his vault grow with the passing of time, Sui Xiong felt that the financial order of this world was on the verge of collapse. So he could hardly wait to spend his money. The best way was to spend in places where the money would go into circulation very quickly, for instance, giving out money, distributing money and also, allocating money¡­ However, money should not be given out without any form of order. Sui Xiong had once proposed to give every adult citizen of the Republic of Northwest dozens of gold coins on an annual basis, but this was jointly rejected by the country¡¯s higher-ups. Their reason was that giving out money so loosely would affect the normal production and life of the country. Sui Xiong really did not know how giving out money could affect the normal production and life of the country, but since that was what everyone said, he surmised that perhaps the situation was really as such. So he could only worry as he watched more and more money piling up. The Fighter Championship was the best way he had ever thought of to spend money. The prizes were only second best. Every time this grand event was held, a large amount of money would be spent on purchasing materials and paying for labor costs. These were the areas where most of the money was spent on. Unfortunately, this event was held on a once-a-decade basis. The amount of money spent was still too little¡­ As he squandered his money as he pleased, Sui Xiong was also secretly mumbling to himself, ¡°None of you are in favor of me giving out money. If I still don¡¯t think of some ways to put money back into the market, what will I do when the world¡¯s financial order goes wrong in the future¡­¡± Chapter 760 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Though no one could understand Sui Xiong¡¯s worries about the world¡¯s economic order and why he often looked at the mountain¡ªor rather, several mountains of gold, silver and precious stones¡ªin his underground vault with distress, his orders were still well-executed. Firstly, he was a highly-prominent figure with so much power that he could even make decisions on state affairs, and his decisions would be definite; secondly¡­ they were spending his money anyway. If they did not have to pay out of their own pockets, and could still be able to increase employment, why would they want to oppose him? All thanks to the efforts of the propagandists who did their best in publicizing, every policy of the Republic of Northwest could be quickly communicated to other places. Even the more remote pioneering villages were able to receive news within a few days, not to mention, the prosperous Void City. As for the implementation, though the Republic of Northwest was short on manpower, it was never stingy with administration. If there was a need to, it would not hesitate to invest in manpower or material resources. This was why there were never situations where there were long delays in implementation of policies. On this basis alone, it had left the other nations on the Main Plane far behind. For example, this policy for citizens to choose their surnames, from the announcement of the policy to the commencement of registration, would take at least three to four months if it was implemented in other countries. From the start of the registration to the end of the first phase of registration might take six months. Or maybe registration had begun when the capital made the announcement about the policy, but two to three years later, the first phase of registration at the border areas had yet to end. As for the second, third, or even subsequent phases of registration work, these might not reach completion even after decades. This was the difference between the administrative efficiencies of countries. It was also the difference between feudal dynasties and modern countries. Though Sui Xiong¡¯s history knowledge was of a very general level, many systems of the Republic of Northwest had drawn lessons from modern countries. Because of inadequate conditions, the Republic of Northwest was unable to reach the standards of modern countries. However, it was at least much better than the vast majority of modern countries¡ªat the very least, government decrees could be executed at the grass-roots level of the nation and be implemented for every citizen. This alone was simply amazing. The citizens of the Republic of Northwest were extremely delighted and enthusiastic about being able to select their surnames. No sooner had the propagandists taken to the streets did many people drop what they were doing to rush over to the various sub-district offices of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Soon, there were long lines outside the doors of various sub-district offices. Everyone waited patiently as they deliberated about what surnames they should give themselves. First of all, the surname should be resounding, but names like ¡°Dog¡¯s Tail¡± and ¡°Cat¡¯s Ear¡± were definitely rejects. Otherwise, their future generations would absolutely be subjects of ridicule, and most would even blame their ancestors for being a generation with no culture. Secondly, the surname should not be a mouthful. If reading it alone was going to be awkward, then the name would be an inconvenience. For example, a surname like Baburpeer would definitely not be a good one. Rumor has it that before Sui Xiong traversed worlds, he had never understood why the names of people in certain countries and nationalities had to be so weird and difficult to pronounce. Lastly, the surname should not be too long. Names like Totofugelamoolinifuski and such, hello! How long would be enough? Speaking of which, there was a joke regarding the traditional culture of the elven race. To embody their inheritance, major feats of generations of ancestors had to be listed in their names. So later on, the names simply increased in length and got so long that even the elves themselves found it unbearable. Take Madam Teague, for instance. She was a descendant of the Moon Elves. According to the names passed down from her family, it would probably take a full piece of paper to write her entire name down in their lingua franca. And the font size could not be too big. A name as such was a struggle to remember even for Madam Teague herself, much less for any outsider. There were people stationed at every registry to remind the citizens of such regulations. These people would warn the masses against getting muddle-headed and leaving strange or ridiculous surnames for their future generations. While waiting in line, the people were also chatting. Of course, the topic of conversation would be about this event. ¡°George, what surname do you have in mind?¡± ¡°My father¡¯s name is Johnny, so I intend to use my father¡¯s name as my family name.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good idea! I¡¯ll do the same.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your father¡¯s name?¡± ¡°His name is George.¡± So the situation became a little awkward. But such awkward silences were inevitable. ¡°Watson, aren¡¯t you of noble birth? Why are you here to register your surname?¡± ¡°I intend to change my name. After all, I have cut off contact with the Edward family for a long, long time. They won¡¯t even acknowledge me as a relative now, so why would I want to join them?¡± ¡°Then what name do you have in mind?¡± ¡°Holmes sounds good.¡± ¡°Why does it sound so familiar? Didn¡¯t we go to watch the opera Watson and Holmes together previously when it was staged¡­? Seriously! You are going to use the name of a character from an opera as your surname?¡± ¡°Is there any reason for me not to do so?¡± ¡°Of course not, you¡¯re a genius! You¡¯ve inspired me, and I¡¯ve decided to use ¡®Lancelot¡¯ as my surname. This way, my children and grandchildren will feel proud whenever they come across The Adventures of the Perfect Knight.¡± ¡°I think maybe they might find it a little embarrassing.¡± ¡°If they¡¯re going to feel embarrassed, then let them be. This is also a precious inheritance that I, their ancestor, have left behind for them. Haha!¡± There were also names that were more ordinary. ¡°Ron, what surname do you have in mind?¡± ¡°Just Ron, is that alright?¡± ¡°So your name becomes Ron Ron?¡± ¡°Sounds a little strange¡­ What do you think?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you take the name House, and I¡¯ll take Ron.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t that amount to a swap?¡± ¡°Yes. We have such a tight friendship that we¡¯re even closer than brothers. It¡¯s more than appropriate for us to exchange names!¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. Let¡¯s do it!¡± The first phase of surname registration was delayed for almost a month before coming to an end. This was because there were still many illiterates in the pioneer villages. The subsequent finishing touches did not take much time¡ªthere would be a clergyman from the Church of the Void Mask at every registry. For every name registered, they would report to Sui Xiong in the form of a prayer. Then Sui Xiong would store this data in the ¡°Central Mainframe¡± of his God¡¯s Kingdom. After the statistics were out, it would only take an hour or two to sort out the status quo of the renaming process. There was a computer host that was oddly shaped in the Sanctuary of God¡¯s Kingdom. It was originally a clone of Sui Xiong. As Sui Xiong¡¯s level increased, a few modifications were also made to it. Up till now, it was almost half-independent. Usually, this ¡°host¡± would be used to provide server-side support for game projects of the Church of the Void Mask, especially for the spiritual experience game ¡°Infinite Terror.¡± In fact, this was nothing major that would affect its performance. Most of the specifications of its performance were basically left idle as there was nowhere else for them to be put to use. In the ordinary course of events, Sui Xiong could use it for deductive work. However, Sui Xiong¡¯s programming ability was very tragic, and his inferential ability was also mediocre. He himself did not have the ability to do deductive work, not to mention the ability to design a program that could be used for deductive procedures. So it was only up until now that the performance specifications of the ¡°host¡± that had been left idle had truly found a proper place to be put to good use. Chapter 761 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After the tabulation of results, it was found that the Republic of Northwest¡¯s citizens had chosen 760 surnames in the first round, of which many were special. However, the repetition in counts was very serious. It was ascertained that a second round was needed, and this time, those who re-decided their surname was about 150,000. Furthermore, these had already been recorded, and there were about 624 surnames that could not be repeated by other families. Within the surnames which had been used about two hundred times, most commonly found would be place names and careers, such as ¡°East,¡±¡±West,¡±¡±North,¡±¡±South,¡±¡±Wood,¡±¡±Carpenter,¡±¡±Muller,¡±¡±Blacksmith,¡± and so on. It was clear that if one wanted to use these names but weren¡¯t able to be the first two hundred, they would have to rack their brains for another surname. ¡°Ah? I¡¯m not one of the first two hundred? Why is the surname ¡°Soder¡± so popular? This doesn¡¯t make any sense!¡± Ruby was shocked when he received the notification. ¡°There are many retired explorers who would probably want to use this surname. For example, names like Lance, Brad, Bao would all be used,¡± Hopes said. ¡°Damn it! What should I use, then? What are you all using?¡± Ruby frowned and looked at the rest of the elite group. ¡°After my father received the notification, he immediately used magic to get himself to city hall and snatched the surname of ¡®Booker.¡¯ So from now onwards, I¡¯m Sid Booker,¡± Sid said as he read a book. ¡°Booker¡­ This surname must be common as well,¡± Hopes commented. ¡°Yes, my father said that names such as Mana, Ether, Magic, Booker and Hai Wen are all in extreme demand.¡± ¡°This situation is still the best for those who already have surnames. That would save these people so much trouble!¡± Ruby sighed and gazed wistfully at Hopes and Dudu. ¡°Well, having the surname ¡®Wilder¡¯ isn¡¯t something great either. Not everyone who you share a surname with is worth being associated with!¡± Thinking back on his childhood, Hopes smiled bitterly. He thought carefully and realized that the good Wilders that he knew were far and few in between. For himself, his upbringing prevented him from becoming a villain. Those brothers who were young were similarly too innocent to turn bad. However, this was not the case for the seniors. In the Wilder tribe, the main career was being an officer, and they were the Orc Empire¡¯s famous advising tribe. The Wilders were known for being ingenious and were good at coming up with plans and schemes. However, their genius was all used in bad plans and war. The name Wilder carried with it a history of blood and death. It was definitely not a title worth being jealous of. Furthermore, as Hopes was of mixed blood, he had been met with prejudice since young. If not for the protection of his father, his relatives would have used him as a human sacrifice or killed him. As he grew older, it became harder for his father to take care of him. This was especially true as Hopes¡¯ family tribe had many Isis members of high ranks and were the brains behind terrorist attacks. One might ask why Hopes left his tribe and family and would rather follow the western wilderness tribe. That was because he no longer felt like he could survive life in the Orc Empire. He felt he was bound to die eventually. The more Hopes considered the situation, the more he felt that the surname only carried bad connotations and bad memories. ¡°Maybe I should change my surname¡­ What should I change it to? Hopes as well? No, that would be too boring. How about Lebit? I could take on that as well, by right¡­ But it would be strange for a man to have that surname¡­¡± Hopes muttered to himself. ¡°Why would you change your surname for no reason? Is it not good to belong to a family legacy? I quite like my surname ¡®Hill.''¡± ¡°You¡¯re a dwarf. Even if you wanted to change your surname, would your grandfather allow you to do so?¡± Sid asked. Dudu rubbed his nose and laughed dryly. His grandfather was the current king of the Kingdom of Dwarves. He was a smart, powerful and respectable elder who commandeered the respect of the whole kingdom. He managed to win over the younger tribesmen physically¡ªhe found a stick that was thick and hard and used it to hit the naughty children in their most vulnerable places. If once was not enough, he would repeat it ten times more. In any case, the dwarves¡¯ skin was thick and had healing properties; a wooden stick would only hurt but not kill them. The dwarves respected family traditions and honor. If Dudu were really to change his surname, he would have to face the physical wrath of his grandfather¡¯s stick. Of course, given Dudu¡¯s nature, he was not to accept this without any complaint. Yet, he obviously was unable to fight against his own grandfather. He was not even a high level, while his grandfather was of the legendary level. Thus, he decided to accept his fate and not try anything foolish. Hopes, on the other hand, had no issue as he had severed ties with his family once he had left home. His father had made it clear that no matter whether he became rich or poor, it would be no matter to the Wilders. If they met in battle, there would also be no ties mentioned. Of course, the chances of them meeting in battle were slim. Hopes had already decided to be a worker all his life, and it was near impossible for the Republic to need an explorer or mine worker to fight in battle. Nevertheless, his father¡¯s attitude was clear. He would no longer recognize Hopes as his son and vice versa. The many years of the father-son relationship were destroyed just like that. To be honest, it was actually rather strange for him to keep the surname of Wilder. Hopes sighed. ¡°Do you think it¡¯d be better for me to have Lebit as my surname?¡± Dudu froze and glanced at Hopes seriously. ¡°There isn¡¯t a problem here. I think it¡¯d be fine.¡± ¡°This surname sounds familiar though, where have I heard it before¡­¡± Ruby said. ¡°Lebit is a Rabbitman tribe in the Orc Empire. Previously, there was a Rabbitman princess who married into the Foxman tribe Wilder family. Although this princess has passed away, it¡¯s been said that she bore a child. However, the rabbit tribe has a rule that the surname can only be taken on by females, males take on the Wilder surname,¡± Sid said evenly, continuing to read his book. Dudu received this news peacefully, but Ruby had on a forced expression. What if he found out that all his friends were daxies? This issue was urgent and on the line. Chapter 762 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the end, Hopes did not change his surname. This was not because Lebit was traditionally a female¡¯s surname, but rather, he could not bear to let go of Wilder. Although this surname brought back bad memories of his lackluster childhood, there were still some good and heartwarming memories as well. It reminded him of his father, who always stood beside him and protected him like a big tree that protected people from the cold and rain. Although his father had high standards for himself, he was extremely adamant about preventing the Wilder tribe from hurting Hopes. When Hopes went to pay respects to his deceased mother, he often thought of his warm and smiling father. The day before his father had sent him on the way, he had shared his past, how he had met Hopes¡¯ mother and gotten married. He had talked about his birth, Hopes¡¯ mother¡¯s death and all the trivial things over the years. Finally, all the memories turned into a sigh and then silence as his father had quietly left. If there were anything left untainted in his memory of the Wilders, it would be Hopes¡¯ memories with his father. On the other hand, Ruby did not have such detailed thoughts. His life had not been so complex. After thinking about it, he decided to use ¡°Sriu¡± as his surname as it represented ¡°silver mine.¡± ¡°Why not use ¡®Misriru¡¯? Isn¡¯t Mithril worth more than silver ore?¡± Dudu asked curiously. ¡°I even wanted to use Orichalcos¡­ but I¡¯m not worthy of that name. I¡¯m no one, so using an overly powerful surname will stir trouble.¡± Ruby laughed. Thus, matters were settled. The interesting thing was that Hopes¡¯ friend, Chef Fira, who had tensions with Ruby, did not have to redo the surname application. He had chosen the surname of ¡°Kenki¡± which was not popular. Even if chefs wanted to use soups in their surname, they tend to use ¡°Sop.¡± ¡°Your idea is good, it saved you from a lot of trouble. This surname is also memorable yet not likely to clash with others, it¡¯s a good choice!¡± Hopes remarked. Fira smiled, then said, ¡°How about that fellow? What did he use in the end?¡± Hopes, of course, knew which ¡°fellow¡± Fira was referring to and said, ¡°Previously, he wanted to use Soder but was unable to be part of the first two hundred. Thus, he has now decided on Sriu.¡± ¡°Sriu? He should rethink it again then.¡± Fira laughed coldly. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you think this surname is equally common? Those names relating to gold or silver would be considered by the merchants. Even if most chose their shop name or their union¡¯s name, those from small businesses would consider Sriu.¡± ¡°Hm¡­ But the two hundred vacancies haven¡¯t been filled yet.¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯re not sure whether there¡¯s only one spot left or 199 left. Previously, didn¡¯t the notice mention that over the next few days, the new unavailable or highly-demanded surnames would be announced? I bet Sriu would be one of those in high demand as well.¡± ¡°Well, would Ruby still stand a chance?¡± ¡°Well, anything¡¯s possible. It¡¯s also possible that I could pick up a big piece of gold by accident as well, right?¡± Fira pursed his lips and randomly picked up a piece of stone to throw. ¡°Anyway, I wouldn¡¯t count on it if I were him.¡± As Fira spoke, he turned to return to the kitchen to prepare for the next day. Hopes stood at the campsite, the fire causing his shadow to sway like the trees in the night wind. His current expression was completely different from previously, and he had lost his usual calm and innocent look. ¡°What is Lord Void Mask doing? Is he really trying to spread republicanism to the entire world? What¡¯s the hurry? Isn¡¯t he afraid of stirring trouble? Oh, perhaps not, since he is so powerful¡­¡± Even though he did not show it often, Hopes was still part of the Wilders. To protect Hopes as a child, his father had most often brought him to the library as a child to teach him self-defense and conspiracy strategies. How could he possibly be as silly as he looks? Although he had already made up his mind to be a worker his entire life and never take on the role of engineering conspiracies like his family tribe, he was still able to think up good and crafty ideas in situations like these. Of course, he thought with a clear and relaxed mindset, unlike others who may not be as level-headed in the same situation. With a ping sound, the precious and beautiful porcelain was crushed, and the usually regal king raged, his brows furrowed. ¡°What is the Republic doing? Are they planning to ruin all the peace in the world? One¡¯s surname represents their family legacy, and it is proof of one¡¯s belonging. How could they allow the citizens to randomly pick their own surnames???¡± ¡°They must be crazy! This is ridiculous! The honor of surnames stems from our ancestors who forged our legacies with their lives. For those who¡¯ve done nothing, why should they be given a surname? This is basically tainting the glory behind all our family names!¡± Those standing before him did not dare to speak. This king of the Country of Light was not someone who you could negotiate with, especially when he was angry. He would kill without reason¡ªthat was extremely common in his case. Thus, whether it be common folk or courtier, one learned that when the king raged, they should stay silent. This would help to prevent further chaos, at least less than if one were to speak. The King raged silently for a while before his anger level decreased slightly. He said in a low tone, ¡°Do you know what the other countries¡¯ reactions are?¡± The courtier in charge of gathering reports immediately replied, ¡°The Orc Empire is rather indifferent as this does not really concern them. Other countries have not received the message, and thus, I¡¯m currently unsure of their response.¡± The king nodded. When he was not raging, he could be logical and rational. He was clear that no matter how much he raged, he could not go against a god as well as the Republic, which had the backing of a god. However, this did not mean that he would sit back and do nothing! ¡°Use the secret channel to connect me to the other countries. I want to speak to the other Kings. This is a complicated matter, and if we are careless, it may cause chaos that will sweep the world off its feet.¡± The minister in charge immediately agreed and retreated. The King sat down and mulled over the issue again. ¡°What exactly does the Void Mask want? Also, what are the attitudes of the other Kings? For the God of Light, does he agree, disagree, or is he indifferent?¡± These were all issues that had to be carefully considered and thought about to decide the Country of Light¡¯s final response. However, he was very clear that in spite of everything, the Country of Light, he himself and the other countries had to come up with a visible and tangible response. In fact, it had to be a strong response! Chapter 763 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Among the different countries, they were some that agreed with the methods of the Republic of Northwest. The Dhaka Commercial Association¡¯s Chief Mage and Great Governor, for example, exclaimed happily upon hearing the news, ¡°Good! Good! Marvelous! This is really a good plan; why did I not think of it before? Props to the Void Mask Lord; he is indeed wise and future-ready!¡± He had laughed and had been as hyper as when he had first become a leader in his youth. Another Great Governor was puzzled and asked, ¡°Your Excellency of Dragon, where¡¯s the good in this plan?¡± ¡°Yes, in this case, what would differentiate royalty and common folk?¡± ¡°I feel like there are issues with this plan¡­¡± ¡°Me too¡­¡± The Chief Mage sighed and looked at his fellow governors. ¡°You all really find fault with this plan?¡± He smiled in a passive-aggressive way, and in a cunning tone, he said, ¡°We¡¯re all peers here. There¡¯s no need for pretense. If you have a problem, you can bring it up.¡± The others were all stunned, and they glanced at each other before slowing recalling their negative expressions and words fearfully. ¡°Actually¡­ there¡¯s no issue.¡± ¡°Yes¡­ If only this was applicable to me¡­¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s too late for us now, unfortunately¡­¡± These exclamations all came from the older governors who had climbed their way to this circle of highest rule through hard work and time. The Dhaka Commercial Association was a pure merchant country and did not have a strong aristocratic force like the Commonwealth of Golden Coins. It was also almost fully in line with the business route. This was due to the defeat of the Mifata Federation during the early stages of the country¡¯s development. This country was somewhat underdeveloped and was not able to come up with a traditional ruling method. All the regions were ruled by small aristocrats and merchants, hand in hand. As for the bigger aristocracies¡­ the Mifata Federation had its own Marquis, which was the only one who had reached the Dhaka Commercial Association. Originally, the one who had used cunning schemes to become a Marquis wanted to take control over the entire country like the past Thunder Lord. However, he lost his life in a ¡°small accident¡± and this ¡°death¡± included his daughter-in-law¡¯s illicit child. The massacre of the Marquis involved his entire family and social circle, which was not small. Afterward, there were other subsequent Marquis in Dhaka, but they all met with similar fates after they attained the position. To date, whoever had plans to lead Dhaka or create their own legacy lived no more than a year. Eventually, the country¡¯s aristocrats gave up their plans for further development and turned to partnerships with merchants. The merchants did not require powerful control and respected the aristocrats¡¯ special privileges. There was a balance that arose out of each individual controlling their own sphere, or rather, a balance based on two powerful external forces. One of the two forces was, of course, the Mifata Federation. As the sovereign state of Dhaka, they backed all the aristocrats. Whenever any aristocrat met with a crisis, the Mifata Federation would help them out. The other external force came from someone or a group of unidentified people from a few hundred years ago. They had a strong and deep-rooted hatred towards the aristocratic rule and attacked those who wanted to become big aristocrats or gain control mercilessly. Under these two forces¡¯ influence, the Dhaka Commercial Association arose. This was the country that the aristocrats deemed to be the weakest¡ªthat is, before the Republic of Northwest was formed. When the Republic was formed, the leaders of Dhaka were inspired. They realized for the first time that countries could work on republicanism, and one could even gain full control from the aristocrats to establish a fully merchant-based country. However, Dhaka¡¯s aristocrats were chosen by the Mifata Federation, and no one dared to risk going against or provoking the Mifata Federation. However, in the past few years, the Mifata Federation had its own internal issues, and Dhaka¡¯s Great Governors found an opportunity. The Mifata Federation¡¯s strongest originated from three areas. Firstly, they were the Master of Mystery¡¯s core gods. In this world, those who had daxies at the top of their rule were considered the most powerful. If not, no matter how powerful an individual was, when facing those of a higher level, they would just be as negligible as an ant. Next would be those the Legendary Masters who followed ¡°Supreme Mage¡± Master Ymirjar Le-Peyroux. They were almost the highest level forces in this world and were comparable to the Orc Empire¡¯s holy churches; one south, one north and both had a hegemonic status. Lastly, it was the Mifata Organization of Magicians, which comprised of 28 magic towers. This organization had strong leadership and activism, and they steadily developed and produced many skilled magicians year by year. To them, even if one could temporarily get the upper hand, it would not last. Towards this strong Mifata Federation, Dhaka¡¯s Great Governors never really dared to raise the idea of protests or overthrowing. However¡­ the Master of Mystery¡¯s system had crumpled, Master Lamperus had died, and the Organization of Magicians was also falling apart with their alienation of legendary magicians. Not long ago, even several of the twenty-eight magic towers had declared their independence away from the organization or had separated subtly. Located at the edge, the four-city alliance was based on the God of Scholar¡¯s church. The capital of the main city was in the middle, and the commercial cities in the central and north flanked it. Although the two commercial cities were not extremely important, they had two legendary magic towers and three legendary mages of Mill City. These three places were listed in increasing importance, but all had separated from the rule system of the Federation. Furthermore, even if the Mifata Federation pretended to be arrogant or indifferent, it had not been able to gain the results they wanted. The hegemony of the South was now weakened. Just as these obvious weaknesses of Mifata were shown, its dependent countries, the Duchy of Thunder and the Dhaka Commercial Association, started having nationalistic ideals. The Duchy of Thunder¡¯s governors felt they were not as pertinent at the moment, while for Dhaka, they had already started discussing the issue. However, they concluded that unless they could convince the Goddess of Fortune to move her headquarters from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to Dhaka, going independent would not be possible. The Dhaka Commercial Association naturally had its own Legendary Masters, but not many. As compared to the Mifata Federation, they were definitely disadvantaged. Even if they could defeat the Federation, they could not fight this battle. The merchants would be losing sight of their main goal of wealth if they were to engage in bloodshed and the destruction of men and resources. What would be the point of being independent then? Yet¡­ the governors were now re-inspired by the Republic¡¯s act of allowing common folk to pick their surnames. With such a plan, they could test the Federation¡¯s current level of support for the aristocrats. After a round of discussions, the cunning and smart merchant leaders eventually came to a unanimous decision. They would wait slyly and follow the lead of any other country which took action. In any case, being the main two instigators was not as worthwhile as being the third follower. If Sui Xiong¡¯s university professor had heard this discussion, he probably would have commented coldly that this was a classic case of doing a big thing and forgetting the little things in the process. Chapter 764 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The opportunity that the Great Governors of the Dhaka Commercial Association had been waiting for arrived quickly. After a round of discussions, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡¯ merchants had decided to follow the example of the Republic of Northwest to allow the common folk to change their surnames within reason. The details of the plan were as follows: One: To be eligible for a surname, one had to satisfy at least three out of four of the following criteria¡ªone had to have ancestors that dated back to at least three generations of the Commonwealth citizenry; one had to have at least twenty years of a clean record; one had to have contributed to at least one war effort as well as the great migration Two: Explorers who have retired must satisfy at least two out of three of the following criteria¡ªthose who have settled here have had to pay taxes for the last twenty years as well as gained benefits in a war; they had to have some medical, scholarly or accounting skills; they had to have formally registered their residency for at least the past ten years Three: Those with tribal relations had to satisfy at least one of the following criteria¡ªtheir family had to have fought for the Commonwealth in war for more than twenty years; for the last twenty years they had to have been formally recognized for their achievements, retired or inconvenienced due to war injuries, or possess a formal record of solo trade travel in the Federation Furthermore, the Commonwealth did not care about the repetition of surnames. As long as one was willing, they could utilize any name they wanted. Even if there were a thousand Srius (silver) or ten thousand Gordons (gold), it would be legally allowed. When this plan was announced, they created a stir in the world among other countries. The aristocrats were naturally provoked, and all complained bitterly about this plan. The more restrained aristocrats scolded the merchants for destroying the order and honor of the country and said that the plan was barbaric. Those who had stronger opinions scolded the merchants for being reckless, lacking morals, being despicable and having mental issues. They felt that it must be due to their poor upbringing and accumulated stress for them to come up with such a plan. Others even labeled the merchant leaders as being deeply evil to do such a backward thing and accused them of wanting to destroy the human order to incite chaos. However, apart from the intense criticism, there was little that they could do about the plan. They could not achieve anything just by voicing out their unhappiness. On the other hand, they were unwilling to escalate this displeasure to an actual war as the two main leaders, the Marquis of Gemstones and the Marquis of Gold, were unwilling to risk so much. In actuality, the Marquis of Gold was the most affected. The Gordons were the most respected family in the Commonwealth. Before this year, other countries did not have any who dared to randomly adopt this surname process, much less the Commonwealth. Previously, all who had the surname Gordon either became sidelined or took the initiative to change their own surname; there were no ¡°ifs¡± or ¡°buts¡± about it. However, this time, the Republic and the Commonwealth would now have thousands of people with this surname. Regardless of the power of the original Gordons, they could not get rid of them all. Of course, they could try, but¡­ No matter if it was on the side of the merchants or the Republic, it was not within the sphere of influence of the original Gordons. At most, they would only be able to employ assassins within the black market to do the dirty work for them, but using that method didn¡¯t guarantee results either. Whatever the case, it would be extremely expensive to take action. The Marquis of Gordon was not short on money at all. However, he was reluctant to spend his money and was not like Sui Xiong, who was willing to pump his own funds into improving society¡¯s economic flow. He was extremely miserly and would not spend a penny if he could help it! ¡°Lord Gordon, I¡¯ve heard that many in the north want to adopt Gordon as their surname. It looks like they¡¯re after your family¡¯s money and legacy!¡± What angered him the most was that there was also a shameless old fellow who was adding to his sour mood. Marquis Gordon clenched his fists tightly but squeezed out a smile. In an indifferent tone, he said, ¡°Marquis Yug, I¡¯ve also heard that many want to take up the name of Yug¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s good news. It means that people have a good impression of my family. All along, I¡¯ve felt that our family was sparse. Now that we have a few more relatives and friends, it¡¯s great!¡± Marquis Yug seemed undisturbed and replied happily. Sparse?! Marquis Gordon was furthered angered. The Yug family had been made famous by their sheer quantity. Looking at Marquis Yug¡¯s generation alone, his direct kin already added up to over twenty people. Marquis Yug also had four sons and three daughters of his own as well as five¡­ no, six grandchildren. On the other hand, Marquis Gordon only had two sons and one grandson. What was he talking about, pretending that his family was sparse?? Marquis Gordon had an extreme urge to jump into the magic shadow and use his dragon-skin gloves to beat up Marquis Yug, but yet, he couldn¡¯t. Instead, he had to grit his teeth and continue acting polite. This was a trying task, and his smile had become extremely forced. If this round of meetings only had two marquises present, there wouldn¡¯t be much to discuss. Fortunately, there were also the counties, especially the earls of Marquis Gordon, present. One of the earls (under Marquis Gordon), immediately spoke up and said, ¡°Lord Yug, what are your thoughts on this large plan that the merchants have cooked up? How does this affect the status and reputation of the aristocrats?¡± Lord Yug smiled slightly and said, ¡°Where do you all think the aristocratic glory originates from?¡± ¡°From our bloodlines!¡± ¡°From our ancestors¡¯ contributions!¡± ¡°It¡¯s been passed down from generation to generation!¡± After everyone had their say, Yug shook his head and said lightly, ¡°We are all peers here, so there is no need for pretense. If you ask me, the aristocratic honor comes from being able to get rid of those who do not believe in our glory.¡± Although he spoke lightly, Yug¡¯s tone brought a hint of intensity. Everyone was stunned, and they were momentarily reminded of his position¡ªthe most intense and stubborn hardliner in the family. ¡°So¡­ are you insinuating that we should fight?¡± Marquis Gordon hedged in a subdued way. Marquis Yug shook his head. ¡°Fight? With who? How? Are you sure that given our current state, we would be able to defeat the merchants? Even if we could, there would be a second battle with the Republic to take care of. If you really want to fight the merchants, I can play a part. However, I will not participate in the efforts towards war with the Republic. I value my life too much.¡± The earls all fell silent. Marquis Yug had pointed out the root of the issue¡ªthe key problem here was the Republic, which had initiated the surname plan. Since they were unable to directly deal with the Republic, they would not be able to make any substantial changes by gaining victory over the merchant faction alone. In any case, the elite privileges that the aristocrats had previously enjoyed were now shared with the common folk. ¡°We can¡¯t just let it go, though. We have to at least stop the merchants from taking our privileges as well. If not, the aristocrats will have internal issues.¡± ¡°Yes, I agree. However, I don¡¯t think war is the solution here. I think that we can only increase control over our ruling areas and defeat those who push for the commoners to change their surnames. If we rule with an iron fist, they will understand that this issue is non-negotiable.¡± The earls all nodded, and their eyes shone with malicious intent¡­ Chapter 765 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Previously, the aristocrats had never hesitated in killing. To them, although the knife was not the best weapon, it was useful at the very least. If killing meant settling an issue, they would use this solution. Thus, nobody disagreed with the suggestion to silence the commoners through force. After the decision was made, more than one of these aristocratic leaders relaxed. ¡°There¡¯s one more thing that I¡¯m worried about. After this plan is released, for the explorers who intend to settle down, would they want to choose merchant land to live on? To them, long term residency and possessing skillsets is a given, and thus, they would be able to gain a surname as long as they chose to live in the north.¡± Marquis Yug commented. ¡°Well, wouldn¡¯t they go to the Republic then?¡± an earl asked. ¡°The republic has strict control over its residents, and many are not accustomed to it. Among the permanent explorer residents, many have done shameful or illegal things to earn their keep. These people would not fit in with the Republic. Why would a crow want to force itself to blend in with doves? It can¡¯t be done.¡± Marquis Yug smiled. This ridiculous analogy stirred some laughter in the crowd. ¡°However, to us, whether one is a crow or a dove doesn¡¯t matter. As long as they are able to contribute, their background is of little importance. I believe this is the same mindset that the merchants have. Therein lies our problem, since they have a choice to live with us or the merchants, they would definitely choose the latter to start a family with as they would be happier.¡± The earls furrowed their brows and became worried. Although it did not seem like a huge issue, it was actually rather pressing. Explorers who intended to become permanent residents were seen as the best human resource to the leaders as they had an inheritance as well as skill. Many became disciples under the leaders after settling down and contributed substantially in wars thereafter, earning themselves titles, such as the title of a knight. For example, under Keane, amongst his two strongest knights, the Ouss¡¯ family were actually explorers. As for this family¡¯s neighbor, Viscount Samat, who was a leader in the South, was also a previous explorer. This was an extremely common situation, and much of the land that belonged to the aristocrats had such knights. One could say that without the explorers there to add value, and with banking solely on developing the aristocrats, they would not be able to fill the positions of knights. Furthermore, it took time and money to develop talent. While the aristocrats had money, they would not be able to sustain such intense development in the long run. For example, to develop a knight, one had to first teach him the full set of battle strategies: he had to practice using long and short weapons as well as a crossbow; he had to be able to ride a horse into battle; he had to be able to wear heavy armor with ease; he had to have sufficient battle experience; he had to be able to react in stressful situations; in battle, he had to be able to lead a team, and when retreating he had to know how to do so tactfully. He had to be able to escape when things turned sour¡­ A normal person would not be able to reach such a level of holistic skill with normal training. Only those who were agile and healthy were able to train to such a step. With such a criterion, one could already easily eliminate about ninety percent of the population. Amongst the remaining ten percent, only about one out of thirty to forty people would be able to be fully developed. In essence, to develop a knight, one would have to pick thirty to forty youth out of about three to four hundred men to train long-term, and eventually, only one would be successful. Although this selection process would not cost money, the training costs of thirty to forty men exceeded the amount that many were willing to take on. During the training process, the men also required substantial nutrition. The price of food would add to their training costs. There was also the cost of equipment and the potential need to replace them when damaged. One also had to factor in medical costs for those injured, and there were herbs and medicines that needed to be purchased. Finally, one also had to invest in weaponry for exposure for these men. If they had no choice, the aristocrats would take up the idea of developing their own people into knights. However, many felt that it was not worth the cost. Someone had calculated the potential costs before, and it was about tens of thousands of gold coins. Aristocrats in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins had a relatively high salary, but it still did not exceed more than two thousand gold coins a year on average; half of it came from their own earnings, and the other half was from their management of different industries and the shops under them. One could say that they would have to use up about five years¡¯ worth of earnings to develop a knight, and they would not be able to spend much during this time period. This was virtually impossible for any respected elder aristocrat. Thus, they were mostly set savings aside. If one received two thousand gold coins a year, they would be deemed thrifty if they were even able to save five hundred gold coins. With this, it would mean that they would need twelve years to successfully train one knight. This was an unacceptable cost, so other than passing down basic knight knowledge through the generations, they chose their knights from among the settled explorers. One could say that a mid-level explorer was able to do a knight¡¯s job decently. However, in most cases, when an explorer wanted to retire, he would have already attained a high-level and thus was easily able to take on the role of a knight. There were not many high-level explorers, and so many settled for mid-level explorers that were ¡°knights-to-be¡±¡ªthose with aristocratic identity but drew a salary without owning any land. They were promoted to actual knights if they were able to prove their worth and further their careers. If they did not do so, they would be downgraded to official bureaucracy. This talent training mechanism thus served the dual purpose of scouting retired explorers as well as developing their own family. If all went as to how Marquis Yug predicted, all the retired explorers would choose to live on the merchants¡¯ land. They would not see any short term issues, but over time, there would be a huge loss on the side of the aristocrats. They would have a huge shortage of talent in warfare as compared to the merchants. This meant that they would face the threat of becoming weak. Those who were great governors were, of course, intelligent, and so upon hearing Marquis Yug¡¯s words, most were able to think about the issue in the long term and began to worry. To the common folk, the aristocratic noble lord was a high god who they could not go against. However, to the explorers who had spent most of their lives in danger, they were less concerned with titles and only bothered with those who they held in regard. If they had the benefits that suited them, they were willing to migrate and even attack the aristocrats. After all, they were extremely practical people who only cared about their individual gains. Chapter 766 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The problem mentioned by Marquis Yug stumped all who were present. ¡°Without the explorers, the grassroots will become scarce. But what can we do to attract them?¡± one of the earls spoke up in exasperation. ¡°Offer them a manor?¡± another earl suggested. ¡°No! It is easy to grant land but hard to gain it back. These explorers would only have about one or two generations, and the third generation onward will have lackluster performance. How can they be granted land so easily?¡± ¡°Yes, it would be permissible if they were high-level. However, the mid-level explorers are not worth wasting land on.¡± ¡°However, without the promise of a manor, we cannot really offer anything more than the merchants can. We can¡¯t possibly promote all mid-level explorers to knighthood. As for low-level explorers, we would not even accept them into official bureaucracy¡­ in comparison, the merchants could offer them the hope of a family legacy at the very least.¡± ¡°That would be an extremely ridiculous legacy! Without a manor, what kind of family would that be? How laughable!¡± ¡°The mid and lower level explorers would think otherwise, though. To them, having a stable career and having a family line would be enough.¡± ¡°Damn it! Can¡¯t these fellows be a bit more ambitious?¡± ¡°The ambitious ones probably chose to go to the Republic¡­¡± ¡°That country is too terrible!¡± Everyone chimed in at once, creating a mess of unconstructive noise with no real solution being presented. At the end of the day, the social hierarchy of the aristocrats really did not concern the explorers at all and was not much leverage. While the explorers respected the power of the aristocrats, they were mostly free-spirited. If they were faced with conflict, they would just re-migrate, and the aristocrats could not possibly chase them down on others¡¯ land to bring them back. Although overall, the aristocrats had advantages over the explorers, however, there were still many cases of aristocrats being murdered by explorers who then disappeared and were unable to be captured. One only had to look at the Church of the God of Aristocracy and the Church of the God of Law list of wanted criminals to discover that this situation was extremely common. The explorers were brave in nature, and in the face of unfair treatment, they were prepared to raise their weapons and use their fists to gain revenge rather than accept injustice. In such cases, while explorers would possibly be at a disadvantage, it was not uncommon for it to be the other way around as well. In the last five years alone, there were about five to six barons who had died as well as a viscount. To add on to that, the knight death count was so high that it was partially uncountable. In an actual conflict, if a high-level explorer were to fight with his life, he could definitely subdue an earl. As for those aristocrats who risked their lives, killing them would only require the skill level of amid-level explorer. So to use status to chase the explorers would not be a viable solution. Since threats could not work, the aristocrats could only use bribery to lure the explorers. However, most were also not willing to provide large enough benefits to the explorers. It seemed like no solution was possible, and eventually, all could only admit defeat. ¡°Perhaps¡­ war is really the only solution here.¡± After a long period of silence, one of the earls spoke up. He was one of the local aristocrats and had always been in charge of liaising with other areas¡¯ aristocrats as well as being the mediator between the two marquis and their earls. Unlike the central aristocrats, the local aristocrats did not want to battle the merchants as they knew that they would incur more losses than the other party. Furthermore, their territory was adjacent to the merchants¡¯ territory. They would definitely damage their own property if there were to be a war. In this case, however, they did not have much of a choice. ¡°I think we can afford to wait and see. War is not a small matter; if we really want to fight one, we have to be confident of our victory. We must make sufficient preparations first to ensure it.¡± Marquis Gordon spoke up before Marquis Yug could. ¡°Facing those idiots who can only hire troops¡­ losing would be unlikely. These hired troops cannot win the battle, they will retreat or lose morale very quickly,¡± one of the earls smiled and said. ¡°But we will still incur major losses either way¡­¡± Another earl stated worriedly. ¡°We cannot care about these losses now! If you all agree, I vote that we take action first!¡± Earl Hauss¡¯ eyes glinted. ¡°What? Didn¡¯t you previously engage in peace talks with them? It wouldn¡¯t be wise to take action now, right?¡± Earl Hauss laughed coldly and said, ¡°Truthfully, I have been preparing for war, and I¡¯m quite ready. If we fight, I have confidence in gaining the upper hand.¡± The aristocrats glanced at each other in silence. After a while, Marquis Gordon spoke up, ¡°I think we should wait a bit more, for more people to be ready so we can take action together. ¡°Alright, you all better hurry up then. Time waits for no man, and if we don¡¯t seize this opportunity soon, the merchants in the South may take action first. After all, they aren¡¯t stupid and are probably thinking of this issue as well.¡± Everyone nodded and started their own preparations after concluding the meeting. After returning home, Yug immediately paid a visit to his deep underground secret chamber. His oldest son was still imprisoned here till today, unable to escape. ¡°Have you thought about it?¡± Yug did not enter but spoke from the doorway. ¡°I should be the one asking you that. Father, have you thought about it?¡± a weary yet firm voice replied. ¡°Even if the Noble Lady is able to win the Royal Crown, we will still have a share in this country¡¯s future leadership. Why should we take on such a huge risk? If our family just possesses the earl title, then I would not prevent you from taking this risk. However, our family already belongs to the Commonwealth¡¯s highest level, so what do we stand to gain?¡± ¡°Your Majesty! The right to the throne is the true end goal here!¡± his most talented son roared with ferocity. ¡°Becoming a king isn¡¯t that easy, and we simply don¡¯t have the capacity to overthrow others presently.¡± ¡°My god¡¯s church can provide that power.¡± ¡°From being able to be a god to becoming a king, what¡¯s the significance?¡± Yug laughed coldly and retorted. ¡°It is a fact that mortals are subordinate to gods. We all die. What we have after we die is much more important than the glory we have while living.¡± ¡°Unless it is a trade, I have never really considered following anyone. Before death, donating a large sum of money allows for me to enter a good number of God Kingdoms. Where we live after death is not an issue at all,¡± Yug replied coldly. ¡°You would not belong in a place that you don¡¯t suit.¡± ¡°It¡¯s my fault for letting you become a priest¡­¡± Yug sighed. ¡°No, I must thank you! If not for letting me discover my faith, I would still be lost in my life goals. Father, you have been lost for a long time. It is time for you to turn back.¡± His eldest son smiled. Yug shook his head. ¡°You can think about this further, I¡¯ll be back to visit you tomorrow.¡± He did not have the intention to continue this debate. Fighting between faith and interest was not going to lead to a proper conclusion. Chapter 767 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After conversing with his son, Yug turned to leave and returned to his own quarters. He instructed his servants to guard the door and turn away any guests. Then he activated a magic crystal used for sending messages. ¡°The aristocrats and merchants may engage in battle very soon.¡± ¡°What role will the Yug family play in this?¡± a young female voice asked. ¡°Even if I want to retreat, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s possible.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s true. So, what do you plan to do?¡± The voice grew intense. Marquis Yug sighed and said, ¡°I¡¯ll go with the flow. I just have two principles that I¡¯m keeping in mind. Firstly, I will not oppose His Majesty. Secondly, I will try to reduce the damage done to the Yugs.¡± ¡°Things will not be that simple.¡± ¡°I know, but there is a limit to what I can do.¡± Marquis Yug was silent for a while before saying, ¡°Can I ask a favor of you?¡± ¡°Speak.¡± ¡°My eldest son Antonio is deeply obsessed with the Noble Lady. If I die, he will use his position in the family to bring the entire family to her side. That is too dangerous, and I cannot accept it, but I cannot take any action myself¡­ Can I trouble you to bring him to your side so that he cannot be found?¡± On the other side of the crystal, there was a long period of silence before a reply came. ¡°Alright, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Marquis Yug then relaxed, or at least he did on the surface. After this exchange, he appeared much more stable and relaxed and summoned all the servants in the household to assign roles. Under his command, the Yug family was like a giant waking up from slumber, slowly stretching and rising up. Following closely behind, the Gordon family also made similar preparations. The two of them came together to rule fourteen earls, or half of the Commonwealth. One could say that the entire Commonwealth was really going to take action now. ¡­ The Republic of Northwest, Pyrotech City. The leader of Pyrotech City, Great Governor Asner, slowly extinguished the glowing magic crystal and thought hard. In this surname plan, a few people had chosen to not adopt a surname, and Asner was one of them. Of course, as a Legendary Master, her name was more important than any random surname. As long as one mentioned the name Asner, one did not need a surname to understand the reference. After a thousand years, those who had attained slight glory would probably be forgotten, but her name would still be alive and triumphant. This was why she was a Legendary Master; she could outlive ¡°family¡± and ¡°country¡± in reputation! However, to Asner, the reason behind not choosing a surname did not stem from her own current status but was because of something else. After thinking for a while, she rubbed the unassuming ring that she wore on her left hand. A magical glow was emitted, a light blue flash of light. If this ring was paired with a similar ring, it could be used as a satellite point for communication or send messages during emergencies and was extremely useful. People discovered their value after the rings became popularized as wedding rings. According to calculations, its biggest use was in being a surveillance tool to prevent spouses from cheating on each other. Of course, Asner did not care for this feature. However, it was still useful nevertheless, and she could use it anytime to communicate with her husband given her level of magic ability. Her minor occupation was a magician, and so using magic was not foreign to her at all. The flashing blue light stabilized quickly, signaling that Clito had also activated his ring on the other side for communication. ¡°Are you free? If you are, apply to leave tomorrow and accompany me on a trip to Gold Crown City.¡± ¡°Gold Crown City? What do you intend to do there? I don¡¯t have good memories of that place.¡± Her husband, Clito Castor¡¯s voice was emitted through the ring. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Other than meeting you there, I was extremely unlucky in that place. I had to be warded about four or five times and nearly lost my life twice. The worst was when a guy tried to hit on me¡­ Never mind the other instances, this one incident was enough to give me post-traumatic stress disorder!¡± Clito sighed. Asner couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°I thought you mentioned previously that no matter how unlucky you were, meeting me was lucky enough to even it all out?¡± ¡°Of course! But why would I return there? What¡¯s the issue with our current peaceful state?¡± ¡°My older brother just contacted me and wants me to bring his son Antonio away to a place where the God of Aristocracy cannot find him.¡± Clito thought for a while and replied with a firm tone, ¡°When we eloped in the past, if not for brother-in-law¡¯s help, we would have been caught by your heartless, power-hungry father. We cannot refuse his request for a favor now. It¡¯s just that¡­ If we were to follow what he wanted, unless we lock him within a temple, what can we do?¡± ¡°I just prayed about it and asked His Majesty for his opinion. He indicated that we can lock him in the God Kingdom.¡± ¡°This fellow is really lucky¡­¡± Clito couldn¡¯t help but scoff, then smiled. ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll apply for leave later and accompany you tomorrow.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need. Tomorrow, I will directly send the both of you over.¡± Sui Xiong, who had been floating at his side, suddenly spoke. ¡°Ah? His Majesty, you¡¯re not asleep?¡± ¡°Have you ever seen a jellyfish sleep?¡± Sui Xiong and Clito¡¯s conversation was, of course, heard by Asner as well. She couldn¡¯t help but smile as she thanked Sui Xiong. The next day, Clito and Asner used legendary magic to transport them to Gold Crown City, which was the capital of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. Although the Commonwealth was now broken up, on paper, this was still its capital. The past two great marquis and three great unions¡¯ headquarters were all here. Even if the latter had all moved away, the former still remained, and its status as the capital did not shift much. The couple did not waste time and immediately reached the manor of the Marquis of Gemstones and entered through the back door. There were three guards at the door, and two were in warrior attire while one was in high-level paladin attire. Although they were all middle-aged, they were full of energy, and one could tell upon a glance that they were extremely skilled. While they were usually quiet, they had an aura of arrogance. However, in front of the couple, they were polite. This was not just out of respect for their power but also their identity. Clito was their master, and Asner¡­ was their employer¡¯s sister. If not for this relationship, Clito, who hated trouble, would not have bothered to spend four or five years to train them. Among all their teachers, Clito was the master they respected the most. The couple entered the marquis manor and met Yug, who had been awaiting their arrival. After a few hushed words were exchanged, Yug brought them to his secret chambers. He had pumped in large amounts of sleeping gas since the day before, and despite Antonio¡¯s best efforts to resist it, he had eventually succumbed and fallen asleep. He lay motionless across the table. Although Antonio was much taller than he was, Clito lifted Antonio up with ease. After bidding his brother-in-law farewell, he boarded the magic carpet that he had prepared and disappeared with Antonio¡¯s body to return to his camp. He then proceeded to pass Antonio to Sui Xiong. Ten minutes later, Antonio awoke to a foggy environment and the company of a young, confused man who was naked except for a pair of pants made out of leaves. This was the ¡°previous¡± Samat Viscount. Chapter 768 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Viscount Samat, or whatever he was called, was lost to Sui Xiong. In any case, his name was not important¡ªif he could change his attitude, Sui Xiong could arrange a new identity for him. If not, then he could be a Robinson. Having a background of living in the wild for sixty years was a good play as well. In any case, as per what Star had said, he would get used to it eventually. Viscount Samat had almost fully gotten used to isolation while living on this island. This island¡¯s conditions were rather satisfactory, with good weather enabling him to practice Taichi all year round without fear of catching a cold. There were plentiful resources ranging from berries, roots to leaves, and they were all edible. Among the animals, although there were some carnivores, there weren¡¯t any dangerous or poisonous snakes. As for mining, the resources were there should he want to engage in it. Viscount Samat was someone who believed in the God of Aristocracy and was a legendary order knight. This was a powerful role, and he could be said to be a variant of a legendary knight who had given up his spirithood to gain powerful ¡°order aura.¡± If one were to fight him solo, he would not seem extraordinary, but in battle, he had extremely unique talents. However, as he was within Sui Xiong¡¯s God Kingdom, his link with the aristocrats was broken, and this greatly restricted his skill set. Thus presently, he was only at the skill level of a mid-level peak knight. However, this level of skill was all that he needed. What did he care? On this island that Sui Xiong had specifically designed, as long as he took the challenge of provoking the strongest creatures, the others would not bother him. These strongest creatures¡¯ bodies allowed him to gain special talents, which then allowed him to be self-sufficient. Coincidentally, Antonio Yug also believed in the God of Aristocracy and was one of the high-level priests in the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Like Toon Samat, he was also unable to contact the God of Aristocracy and thus partially lost his skills. With his current skill level, he was even slightly weaker than Toon Samat. However, he had a slight advantage in knowledge. Toon Samat was a commoner by birth, and he slowly climbed up from the lowest rank with much effort just to become a viscount. This proved that he was ingenious and able to seize opportunities well, but yet, it also showed that he lacked a proper foundation. To be honest, his literacy level was extremely low, and his written vocabulary was limited to just a few simple words. Wilderness survival? Sorry, he did not understand that. Physics? Sorry, he did not understand that either. He did not even know how to assemble simple furniture and usually only used treated wood or stone. On the other hand, Antonio¡¯s skills were not as impressive, but he knew much more. After taking a walk around the island, he discovered several unknown resources and created a set of reasonable-looking plans to improve their standard of living. More importantly, Antonio was a priest and was the image of the God of Aristocracy that Toon believed in. Under Antonio¡¯s guidance, Toon, who had been isolated for nearly two years, changed his attitude and did not continue his idea of giving up on the God of Aristocracy. Instead, he began to pray every morning and night. Sui Xiong observed this whole situation without interruption. He was curious to see if these people could remain faithful under underwhelming circumstances. In any case, with his protection, both Toon and Antonio would not face the actual threat of death or get severely injured. To him, they were experimental subjects that he would care for. Before he had entered this world, Sui Xiong had been acquainted with this phrase: A single disciple was not a disciple, two disciples were fake, three disciples were true, and a bunch of disciples was a crazy cult. The gist of this saying was that one¡¯s faith in gods was ambiguous, and to many, it was just to allow them to gain recognition and secure positions. Just as how old religions paid attention to ¡°rituals,¡±¡±organizations¡± and ¡°festivals,¡± they used these methods to influence their followers into believing that they were living a unique life by giving them the illusion of an exclusive fantasy. When someone lived solo, they were unable to gain this sort of religious community experience and would thus not be as deeply invested in the religion. However, the more people there were, the deeper the experience a religion could provide, solidifying it in the process. In essence, faith was not for gods to see but for the people to feel. Over the past two years, Toon had proved the part of the saying where a solo disciple was not a disciple: Originally, he had prayed every morning and night as well as before sleeping, wars and eating. Eventually, he found that there was little meaning in this as no one could hear or see him, rendering it useless to him. Thus, Toon began to reduce his prayer time and lost faith. Until Antonio¡¯s arrival, ¡°the Noble Lady¡± had become his catchphrase¡ªlike many other atheists, he also used phrases such as ¡°My God¡± and ¡°God Bless¡± casually. Following the reasoning of the saying, was the duo considered fake disciples now? Sui Xiong was extremely curious. This was something that required a long period of time to verify. Yet, from Marquis Yug¡¯s words, as long as he could ensure Antonio¡¯s safety, imprisoning him for tens of years and allowing him to lose faith was worth it. That would be enough. Once Sui Xiong had informed Asner of the way Antonio had been handled, he had informed Marquis Yug, who had sighed lightly and smiled in satisfaction. In any case, his son was safe. ¡°I can relax now. After this, I will arrange for Neo to take over. If luck will have it, the war will not incur too many issues for the Yugs, and he will gain a full and complete family tribe. Even if Antonio returns in the future, he will not be able to shake Neo.¡± However, a war was rather impossible. After about half a month, the news of the Dhaka Commercial Association¡¯s decision to follow the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to allow commoners to pick their own surnames reached the great aristocrats. Upon hearing this, they were shocked and disappointed. ¡°Things have gotten out of hand. If it were only the Republic¡¯s plan, we could leave the matter alone; if it were just the merchants, we could fight them. But now, there¡¯s also Dhaka to consider¡­ This issue is building up, and we can no longer fight it head-on. We can only hide now.¡± Everyone was speechless and remained silent. ¡°We have to observe Mifata now. If they follow suit as well, we will not even be able to hide but rather will be overwhelmed and defeated.¡± ¡°Mifata will not follow suit!¡± one of the earls yelled. ¡°For our sake, I really hope so¡­¡± Marquis Yug shook his head and sighed. He did not have a good feeling about this at all. Chapter 769 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In the Mifata Federation¡¯s capital, there was a tower. On this ¡°Supreme Tower,¡± ten magicians were sitting around a round table. ¡°We haven¡¯t had such a gathering in a while, ever since Master shut this place down five hundred years ago¡­¡± An elder magician with hair that was growing white sighed. ¡°When Master had become a God, there was some excitement here for a while, but you were not present,¡± another elder magician quipped. ¡°Time flies. We¡¯re all old now.¡± ¡°Yes, time flies, and the world is extremely different now as well. Somehow without us knowing, everything has changed¡­¡± A square-faced, thick-browed magician who looked more like a war veteran sighed. ¡°I merely went on a single astral trip, and I came back to a completely different reality.¡± ¡°Master Mill, you¡¯ve been gone for too long this time.¡± ¡°It was only sixty years, surely that¡¯s not considered too long?¡± ¡°If one were to think carefully, it isn¡¯t actually that long¡­ However, in the past sixty years, too many changes have taken place.¡± All the legendary magicians were silent. After a while, Mill spoke up again. ¡°What¡¯s this gathering for?¡± ¡°To decide our future.¡± Among those present, the only one who was wearing a crown spoke up. ¡°The Federation¡¯s future looks extremely bleak at the moment. I think it¡¯s time to think seriously about what we plan to do in the times ahead.¡± Those present all looked at him. ¡°In the past few years, we¡¯ve met with several misfortunes. Those who became gods eventually fell, the God of Mystery system was extinguished by humans, we have had a lot of internal issues, and the Master of Mystery has lost several under him. We¡¯ve even faced problems of nationalism¡­ In the past few years, we¡¯ve met with several obstacles. In those times, we were under the guidance of masters and Your Majesty, the Master of Mystery¡­ Now, we can only depend on ourselves.¡± The magician bearing the crown sighed. ¡°Do we need to join forces to suppress those broken districts? If we work together, even if the Oracles come, we can still stay in control,¡± a magician with a beak-looking nose and who looked extremely gloomy, spoke up. ¡°But what if a god reveals himself?¡± ¡°How is that possible? A god¡¯s real form is unable to permeate the Main Plane.¡± ¡°You have similarly not set foot on this earth for too long. That¡¯s old news! Now, on the Main Plane, there¡¯s a god called the ¡°Void Mask¡± who has Divine Powers and can use it both in his movements and in war with ease.¡± The magician with the beak nose was stumped, and he asked, ¡°Why haven¡¯t we sought his help as backup then?¡± The rest were all equally stunned, and they stared at the younger magician who had spoken. ¡°What are you looking at me for? If he is really someone who can roam freely on the Main Plane and possesses Divine Power, even if we join forces, we will not be able win against him. To be blunt, even if we combined forces of all the living creatures in our countries, he might win against us¡ªand even if we win, many will lose their lives for sure. If that¡¯s the case, why don¡¯t we directly trust him?¡± The legendary magicians looked at each other in silence. This magician was similar to Mill in the sense that they had not been active in this world over the last hundred years. They could be said to be extremely behind in current affairs. Thus, his attitude was biased towards objective neutrality and could only be considered as a personal gain. It was exactly because of this, though, that he was able to consider the issue from a viewpoint that eluded the other magicians. After a while, an extremely old magician sighed and said, ¡°Although the Void Mask Lord is strong, we have always had tumultuous relationships with gods.¡± ¡°We can humble ourselves. If we cannot win, we can surrender. That¡¯s naturally the next possible course of action.¡± ¡°But¡­ Master¡¯s death and the Master of Mystery¡¯s downfall along with Pyrotech City as well as other cities¡¯ independence are all somewhat connected to him¡­¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it all the more pertinent that we surrender then? He hasn¡¯t even shown his true hand yet, and we¡¯re already in such a spot. We cannot possibly wait for him to strike as that would really be the death of us! At that point, he may no longer accept a surrender from us.¡± With these words, the tension in the atmosphere intensified. Even though they were Legendary Masters, they were unable to come up with any positive words, and the meeting area was once again thrust into an uncomfortable silence. After a while, the magician wearing the crown spoke. ¡°We should return to the issue at hand first as it¡¯s incredibly urgent. We should quickly regain order in the Federation and ensure we still have our peoples¡¯ hearts. Let¡¯s first think about whether there is any solution that is more reliable or less costly.¡± ¡°Would it be costly to surrender to a true god?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t expect everyone to be as rational as you; everyone has feelings after all. Not everyone here can accept surrendering so easily.¡± ¡°Magicians should act with their heads and not their hearts¡­¡± ¡°However, a majority of the Federation, including most of the magicians, will not be able to achieve this.¡± The magician with the beak nose shook his head and did not speak further. He felt that he had already tried his best to present his point of view, and he intended to find the Void Mask Lord to surrender right after the meeting, or at least¡­ He could leave the Main Plane and travel to other worlds for the next hundred years¡­ He had merely left for fifty to sixty years, but the world had already undergone such dramatic changes. If he left for yet another hundred years, the changes would be even more apparent. Perhaps when he returned, the conflicts would have decreased. In any case, he resolved to no longer remain in Mifata as he had no desire to go against someone who could kill him easily with his Divine Power! Through the discussions, the magicians eventually decided to first join forces to repress Golden Tower City. Void Mask could walk the Main Plane with ease, but the Noble Lady could not. Nevertheless, they wanted to remove her church from Mifata first! ¡°Speaking of defeating the Church of the God of Aristocracy, something just occurred to me. Recently, there has been the continuous implementation of surname plans from the Northwest Republic to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins and the Dhaka Commercial Association.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the significance of allowing the commoners to choose their surnames? Most are illiterate and unable to even write their names. Whether or not they have a surname is beside the point.¡± ¡°No, there¡¯s a huge difference! With a surname, it insinuates that they belong to a family with inheritance. This was originally one of the special privileges of the aristocrats, and it was how they differentiated themselves from the commoners. Now, if the commoners have surnames as well, the aristocratic glory and status will be challenged.¡± ¡°So what? It¡¯s not like the aristocrats were being useful.¡± One of the magicians snorted. Upon hearing this, the eyes of the magician wearing the crown lit up, and he smiled. ¡°Everyone. What if we follow suit and do the same thing?¡± The magicians froze and discussed the idea thoroughly before expressing their approval. Since they had already decided to attack the Church of the God of Aristocracy, they were prepared to be at odds with the aristocrats. As Mifata was a magicians¡¯ country, to these people, those arrogant aristocrats were simply tasked with the role of handling the country¡¯s affairs and common folk. Thus, they gladly took this chance to teach them a lesson and stabilize the country as well. Furthermore, through this method, they could increase the centripetal force of the commoners¡¯ loyalty towards the country and solve their current issue at the same time. So, they decided to resolve matters this way. Chapter 770 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There was a traditional Chinese saying that went as such: the impact of one rock may cause a thousand waves. This was a good idiomatic phrase to describe the impact of Mifata¡¯s order now. All permanent residents who had been citizens for over ten years and who were literate could head to the government affair¡¯s office to register their surname. Once this order had been passed down, the entire Federation erupted in chaos. Unlike the Republic of Northwest, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins and the Dhaka Commercial Association, Mifata was a country with a large majority of aristocrats. Although they were labeled as a country of mages, in reality, the country was mostly led by landlords. It was simply a coincidence that most of the landlords were mages. In Mifata, the aristocrats were high up on the social ladder, much higher than the commoners. The reality was that many mid to high-level mages began to have aristocratic status families as they controlled large amounts of resources. The number of families that directly produced skilled mages was decreasing. One could say that Mifata had almost completely transformed from a purely mage-based country to one of aristocrats. The aristocrats were extremely touchy about honor, and this new order destroyed their claim to glory. Thus, it was natural that they would oppose the order. However¡­ the legendary mages were extremely steadfast in their attitude towards the order. They would not allow anyone to go against them! With that, everyone went their own ways and proceeded to enforce strict rules upon their lands. If there was anyone who went against them, they would be executed without a chance for a trial. Within five days, they had executed close to 200 aristocrats, which included two respected earls. There were several other troops and knights who were killed as well. One serious incident included when the trial mages killed a hundred-odd people in one go, and their fresh blood, when pooled together, was enough to form a tiny river. With such a cruel method, those of dissent quickly quietened down. There was no one who wanted to risk death by voicing their displeasure, not even those who were usually reckless and vocal. On the other hand, the commoners were extremely welcoming of this rule and happily headed to their various governmental offices to register their surname. When the news traveled to the Commonwealth, the aristocratic leaders were extremely disturbed and shocked. ¡°How¡­ can this be allowed!? Have the mages gone crazy?¡± one of the earls yelled. ¡°They¡¯re destroying the foundations of our aristocratic order! Do they not know that the aristocrats are the ones helping with the leadership of the country, not the commoners who do almost nothing?¡± another earl spoke up in frustration. Marquis Gordon was silent for a while before saying, ¡°What I¡¯m confused about is why the mages who were in charge chose such a cruel and vicious method. They could have used a less violent method to settle the issue. I don¡¯t think it would have been less effective as the people would not really dare to fight the legendary mages in Mifata.¡± The aristocrats nodded their agreement. Why, then, did the mages choose such a beastly method and take the risk to anger all aristocrats? The answer was quickly revealed. The Mifata Federation proceeded to officially label the Church of God of Aristocracy as an illegal organization, and those who joined would be seen as traitors to the country. They announced the annihilation of the domestic aristocratic church in the near future. This news was astounding. To officially disregard a true church, especially a famous and leading one¡­. Well, this had never happened before. The most similar historical events also had only happened in the Orc Empire and the Eagle Kingdom. In the Orc Empire, the Church of Human Gods and especially the Church of the God of Knights, were banned. In the Eagle Kingdom, various Orc gods¡¯ churches were banned as well. Such an attitude was similar to Mifata¡¯s attitude now towards the aristocratic church where whoever dared to continue following the church was seen as a betrayer to the country. This was due to the world war between Orcs and humans. The Orc Empire and the Eagle Kingdom were also enemies, and their hatred levels were higher than the sky and deeper than the sea. It was only under such circumstances that such policies had been made. One had to understand that in the Orc Empire, in extremely rural areas in the west, actual control over faith was loose. Inside the western capital of Iron City, there were temples for the Church of Human Gods. Of course, there were also those of the Church of the God of Knights despite the law. However, Mifata¡¯s circumstances were different as they were a human-based country! Although the country was multi-religious, they were still human-based, nevertheless. How could a human-based country dismiss a faith that affirmed a human-based god? Nevertheless, the legendary mages were firm in their plans, and in a mere three days, 18 of them joined forces to arrive at Golden Tower City. They did not use threats or start a war but instead used their joint magic to activate a large scale legendary spell to kill the entire city, which included both the aristocratic church¡¯s commoners and faithful aristocrats who had gathered. Among those who had been persecuted included the aristocratic archbishop. When the news had spread, even Sui Xiong was flabbergasted. What are these people thinking!? Even if they wanted to dismiss the church, there was no need to kill the entire city!? The death count is up to ten of thousands of people! This viciousness was seen as being mad, but it was also extremely powerful in deterrence. Mifata started persecuting all aristocratic church followers with soldiers under the mages¡¯ leadership. They carried out patrols, and anyone who refused to publicly convert, be it men or women, young or old, were immediately killed on the spot. In the depths of the God of Humans¡¯ kingdom, the God of Aristocracy had been sitting in the black water pool with his body wrapped tightly in ice. His face suddenly changed, and he vomited a large pool of blood. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? If you can¡¯t take it, come out quickly!¡± the God of Diplomacy exclaimed worriedly. In a flash, the God of Aristocracy left the pool and appeared beside the God of Diplomacy. At this point, their face was pale, and their body was weak and shaking as if they could fall anytime. However, the God of Aristocracy¡¯s eyes were bright and full of confidence and¡­ joy. Joy!? The God of Diplomacy was confused as he could not understand how one could feel joy in such a severe situation. ¡°Are you alright?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine. I cannot believe that the opportunity I was looking for came in this form,¡± the God of Aristocracy replied. ¡°What?¡± The God of Aristocracy did not reply; they only sighed. Their robes were slipping, and their face was filled with numerous cracks like a shattered porcelain piece. However, quickly, brilliant gold light began to emit from these cracks, and they appeared like a golden sun. At the same time, in all the thousands of worlds, all the gods and demigods that were powerful enough clearly felt the concept of aristocrats grow powerful. ¡°The basis of aristocracy is the continuity of leadership. Those who are aristocrats by blood are meant to continue in leadership positions for generations without ever letting up! The younger generations serve as lords and end up being kings. All the ways of ruling in history are with the concept of nobles and aristocrats in mind. This is the most stable and reliable way of ruling, and even if there are occasional setbacks and people who deny us of it, history will sweep them away eventually without question. ¡°I am the God of Aristocracy, I am the protector of true leadership, I am the one who maintains order. This is the biggest proof of me to the world!¡± In the temple, the God of Aristocracy disappeared along with their seat and shifted a level forward from being a mid-level god into a god with great Divine Power. Chapter 771 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Aristocracy was unexpectedly hit hard in their own church. There were countless casualties among the followers, but yet, the God of Aristocracy had stepped up to become a great Divine Power. This was certainly a great shock to the other gods. Generally speaking, if a church was hit hard, resulting in countless casualties among its followers, this would have a negative impact on its god. Though it would not directly cause damage to the god¡¯s divinity, a substantial amount of divinity would inevitably be reduced. If the strategy was not timely adjusted to recover the loss, the next step would often be the impairment of divinity, or even the reduction of divinity. So in the war of gods, attacking one another¡¯s churches and eliminating each other¡¯s followers were commonly used means that had always been proved to be effective. However, the God of Aristocracy had gone contrariwise to this rule. In such a situation where they were supposed to be significantly injured, not only were they unharmed, but they had even become stronger than before. This situation baffled all the gods. Sui Xiong was no exception. This was just like a person being hit by his enemy to the point of sustaining lesions to his internal organs or sustaining major damage to his body. Or like breaking more than 50% of his bones¡ªbut yet, he did not crumble and collapse. On the contrary, he would bring about an eruption of a small universe. With one strike of his Pegasus Meteor Fist, he would batter his enemies, who were originally much more powerful than him, until they became nothing more than meteors in the sky. Wait a minute. There seemed to be nothing wrong with this¡­ As he contemplated this example, Sui Xiong could not help but freeze in bewilderment. Naturally, the God of Aristocracy would also be able to do what others could. And being a master who was at the peak of the mid-level Divine Power, there was no reason why they would be inferior to a mere Pegasus Knight. Something such as this outburst of power to achieve a breakthrough happening to then¡ªwas it really worth feeling puzzled and shocked? This did not seem to be the case. In that case¡­ there¡¯s nothing to feel puzzled about. Though having said that, they were still extremely displeased. Acts like this outburst of power were supposed to be the privilege of hot-blooded youths who courageously tread the path of saving the world with the desire to uphold love and justice. How could this representative of the evil powers, the God of Aristocracy, actually be able to achieve this? This fellow seemed more like the villainous boss who was bombarded to death by the outburst of power of the hot-blooded youths. There had to be something wrong with heaven¡¯s eye! After some lamentation, Sui Xiong started to contemplate the influence of this matter. The promotion to a great Divine Power would mean that the God of Aristocracy¡¯s power was greatly increased. Their right to speech within the Human God System would also greatly strengthen. Though even with their power greatly increased, they were still no match for Sui Xiong. Even if they had a greater right of speech, the Human God System was still a place ruled by the God of Light¡¯s voice alone. Come to think of it, other than being beneficial to them, their promotion seemed to have limited effect¡­ Thinking of this, Sui Xiong could not help laughing. There were also others who were tickled by this. The Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation were laughing too. ¡°This is really beyond my imagination. That god could actually be promoted to a great Divine Power under such a situation¡­ how on earth did they do it?¡± ¡°Who knows¡­ Anyway, no matter what, it has nothing to do with us.¡± ¡°Yeah, so what if they¡¯re great Divine Power? At most, from now on, we¡¯ll not venture out to the Main Plane and huddle together. I don¡¯t believe they¡¯ll be able to kill a dozen Legendary Masters at once!¡± With that, the Legendary Masters all laughed. In truth, there were traces of unease in their smiles. But under the current situation, they had pulled out their bows and arrows. There was no way they could turn back. They had killed people and destroyed cities. Even if they were to bow their heads and beg for pardon, would the God of Aristocracy forgive them? What kind of dream was this in such broad daylight! Moreover, even if the God of Aristocracy were to indicate a willingness to forgive them, would they dare believe so? Haha, they were not to be treated like some children who lacked experience in the real world! So after some consideration and discussion, they ended up deciding not to bow down and concede defeat before the God of Aristocracy. On the contrary, they stepped up their game with increasing intensity. Not only would they eliminate the belief in the God of Aristocracy from within the Mifata Federation, they even intended to do so in the Duchy of Thunder and the Dhaka Commercial Association. Even to the point of¡­ Their plan was to spend a hundred years or even a much longer period to completely wipe out the belief in the God of Aristocracy on the Main Plane! Since they were going to shed all pretense of friendliness, then they should simply be thorough and absolute. Anyway, no matter what, it was impossible for a person to die more than once, right? A majority of the Legendary Masters did not feel that they would have to chance to become too powerful to remain on the Main Plane. Even if there came the day where they were no longer able to stay on the Main Plane, they could still choose to live in hell or seek refuge with gods who expressed hostility towards the God of Aristocracy. So even if the God of Aristocracy were to become a great Divine Power, the effect it had on them was, in fact¡­ very limited. Take a realistic example for instance. The God of Justice and Courage, Yorgaardman, was a great Divine Power. He was also one of the top-notch masters among the great Divine Powers. But his followers were persecuted and wanted in many places. In many districts, so long as they revealed themselves to be his followers, they would have to flee as quickly as they could, or they might lose their lives. Was it because the God of Justice was not powerful enough? Of course not. Was it because the God of Justice did not strike often enough? Also not the case. It was only because this was related to everyone¡¯s interest. To protect their own interests, they would not care even if they had to go fight against a great Divine Power. In fact, something like that was not terrifying at all. The Eagle Kingdom had been at odds with the various Orc gods for so many years, and yet, they were never exterminated by the Orc gods. The gods worked by rules. Of course, they could also try not to observe discipline. But so long as the Master of Order was around, those who made such attempts would basically find themselves dead on the streets. Over time, there was not a single person left with a death wish. It was just like how Sui Xiong was so strong that theoretically, all the countries in the mortal world put together would still not be his match. However, the truth was that these countries did not buy into Sui Xiong¡¯s power and paid no heed to him. The reason was that if Sui Xiong truly used force as a means to torment the countries, though they were no match for him, the Master of Order would most probably step in to intervene. Regarding this, Javier, Yorgaardman and company had reminded Sui Xiong on more than one occasion. ¡°The Master of Order doesn¡¯t like gods personally dealing with the mortals.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay if you do this once in a while, but don¡¯t make it too obvious.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine if you are targeting a certain human or organization, but never ever target a certain country.¡± ¡°Why are you always prepared to court death? It¡¯s really worrying to think about how you¡¯ll eventually kill yourself one day!¡± Such words were nothing new to him. He heard them so often that his ears might have developed an immunity to their naggings. Oh, a jellyfish did not have ears. What a pity. But in truth, Sui Xiong was also quite confident of himself. If the Master of Order truly had something to say about his way of doing things, by right, he would have warned Sui Xiong or restricted Sui Xiong from entering the Main Plane. Up till now, the Master of Order had not made a clear stand. This meant that what Sui Xiong had done so far was still within the limit of his tolerance or might even resonate with his ideas. In this case, what was there for Sui Xiong to be afraid of? If there came a day where the Master of Order expressed objection to his doings or even ordered him to leave the Main Plane, what would he do? A wise man would not contend. When it was time to admit defeat, he should take things in stride and admit as such. It was just that¡­ if Sui Xiong were to leave the Main Plane and as a result, other countries came forth to deal with the Republic of Northwest, then there would be no one blaming him for not playing by the rules. Even the Master of Order was unable to make him out to be a coward who sat on the sidelines. For a figure like the God of Aristocracy, who simply watched their church receive a hard blow and a large number of followers being cruelly killed, Sui Xiong showed nothing but outright disdain! Chapter 772 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Aristocracy radiated a brilliant golden glow as they walked among the human gods in their God¡¯s Kingdom, looking as though they were cloaked with a layer of golden rays. This was not because they liked to show off. They were just promoted to a great Divine Power and were still unable to control their power very well. Because of the deaths of so many followers, they were in a shaken state of mind and could even feel a dull ache in their chest. But not only were they far from feeling even a tad bit of sadness, but they were also trying very hard not to laugh heartily. Followers and such¡ªwhy would they need so many of them! They had long known that in truth, the belief of mortals was unreliable. Even the most devout or fanatical followers were nothing more than what they were. Back when they inherited the Church of the God of Royalty, they once rejoiced over the large amount of power of belief they could receive every day. But over time, they started to feel that it was not that good to have too many followers. Every day, there would be a multitude of distracting thoughts that came along with the prayers. This brought a large amount of power of beliefs, but it also brought along a great deal of impurities. Bit by bit, these impurities accumulated as deposits. Then they penetrated the God of Aristocracy¡¯s body like toxins. Not long ago, they were affected by these impurities and issued an Oracle to let their church seize the opportunity to bring down the Mystery God System. They also carried out a massive preaching mission in the Mifata Federation and even fought a major battle against the Church of the God of Knowledge. After they regained consciousness, the God of Aristocracy knew that the situation had escalated to such severity that a change was duly required! So they initiated a two-step plan right away. On one hand, they put up an application to request for the use of the magic pool. They would dispel all the impurities in their body with the help of the dissolving power of the magic water. On the other hand, they sent out their Oracles to try start a war on Earth. When a large number of followers died, the amount of impurities that they would receive would be greatly reduced. The first half of their plan went well. Though it was a very painful affair to dispel one¡¯s Divine Power, the results were remarkable. A great amount of impurities in their body was dispelled, and the process was so gradual that they were not really affected by it. But the second half of their plan did not reap much success. It was not that the Oracles did not work hard, but rather, the plans were not as fast as the changes. Every plan they came up with would always meet with some unexpected changes that would eventually cause everything to fall through when they were on the verge of success. The God of Aristocracy carefully considered the causes of the Oracles¡¯ failure. From their point of view, the key problem lay in the fact that their followers loved the Oracles more than they loved them. What they were willing to give the gods was not unconditional. This was nothing unexpected. Generally, what the gods could give their followers was nothing more than the chance to go to their God¡¯s Kingdom after death. However, a majority of the followers were actually not qualified to go to the God¡¯s Kingdom. And even if they were qualified, how could enjoying peace and tranquility in a God¡¯s Kingdom be compared to enjoying power and status on Earth? Devout followers, so devoted to the extent of being willing to die for the gods, were the minority after all. There was nothing the God of Aristocracy could do about it. They were even secretly glad that they had not issued that Oracle to get their followers to wage war. Otherwise, they truly would not know how many impure thoughts they would have gathered! Fortunately, there was always a way out, or rather there would be a turn of events when the worse became worse. After some discussion, the Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation decided to launch a forceful attack on the Church of the God of Aristocracy. They would annihilate the entire Golden Tower City in one blow. There were tens of thousands of followers of the God of Aristocracy living inside the Golden Tower City, most of which were pan-religious followers and shallow followers. Though they could provide much power to the God of Aristocracy, they could also bring them a great number of impurities¡ªthe most obvious characteristic of pan-religious followers and shallow followers was that their prayers were mostly to ask for the gods to bless them with protection, or to bless them with some benefits they wanted. They were not the kind to give something with unconditional dedication wholeheartedly. The moment they were wiped out by the Legendary Masters, the number of impurities that the God of Aristocracy received from the prayers was reduced instantly. It was so greatly reduced that finally, it reached a point where their own purity was no longer affected by these impurities. So the God of Aristocracy grasped hold of this opportunity immediately and achieved a breakthrough to become a great Divine Power. They had a wealth of accumulation. It had long been more than adequate. Their main worry was mostly that the belief in their body was still not pure enough. This would in turn cause their Divine Power to not be pure enough. Since now, the belief had been purified, then of course, they had to make their move right away! This choice was proven to be right. The large number of deaths of the followers, as well as the subsequent amount of impurities that was greatly reduced, presented a great opportunity to them. Taking advantage of this opportunity, they successfully stepped up to the level of a great Divine Power and avoided facing the greatest danger during the elevation of divinity¡ªto be influenced and controlled by the power of belief. In fact, many gods generally knew that the impurities contained in the power of beliefs were very dangerous. But when their divinity had undergone elevation, those impurities that they were originally wary of would solidify in their bodies and become a part of them. Once, twice¡­ and several times thereafter, their thoughts would gradually change. They would become something that they would never have dreamt of becoming in the very first place, something that they would never want to become. The former Goddess of the Ocean who died of despair a few years back was a tragic example. Of course, the God of Aristocracy knew why the former Goddess of the Ocean would be reduced to such a situation. So they maintained due vigilance. They would rather forgo an elevation in divinity than allow those impurities to solidify within their body. For this, the God of Aristocracy waited for a long time. Finally, the right opportunity found its way to them. Now, they were brimming with energy and filled with confidence. They even felt as though their entire being was as light as gossamer, as though they could take flight at any moment while walking. However, as the Master God¡¯s temple of the Human God System gradually came into view, their blazing emotions gradually started to cool down instead. In that temple, there was the greatest king of all the human gods. This was a god that was so powerful that he could render anyone desperate. He ruled the Human God System with an absolute dominance that was so powerful and unquestionable that no violations of his rulings were possible. His countless victories were testimonials to how he was absolutely right all the time. He was Wuther Rang, once the God of Revenge and now, the God of Light. Before His Majesty, the God of Aristocracy dared not even show the slightest trace of ambition. There was only infinite humility. By the time the God of Aristocracy entered the temple and arrived before the throne of the God of Light, the sense of pride and glee in their heart had long disappeared without a trace. There was only deep awe and humility left in place. They felt as though there was a huge rock pressing down on them, and they were unable to stand steadily. Thus unconsciously, they fell to their knees. The God of Light did not open his mouth to speak, nor did he express any intention of letting the God of Aristocracy get back on their feet. In fact, he was usually not particular about rules. Whenever there were meetings among the gods, everyone would have a seat. But today, he was the only one seated in the temple. Perhaps this was his way of emphasizing his air of majesty. The other gods stood on either side of his throne, looking like ministers and officials in the grand hall of a palace. After a while, the God of Light nodded slightly and said, ¡°You seem to be faring well upon promotion.¡± ¡°Thank you for your compliment, Your Majesty!¡± ¡°This is no compliment to speak of. Your choice was vicious and resolute enough. This is something even I can¡¯t help but admire,¡± said the God of Light. ¡°But to tell the truth, I¡¯m not very pleased with you either.¡± Beads of perspiration immediately appeared on the forehead of the newly-promoted great Divine Power. ¡°As a god, you¡¯re much too selfish. I¡¯m not saying that there¡¯s anything wrong with being selfish. But as human gods, our fundamental standpoint should be to protect the humans, boost the power of the human force and finally¡­ allow them to dominate this vast world,¡± said the God of Light. ¡°I¡¯m not saying that you can¡¯t sacrifice the people, but because of this purpose, you should not think of sacrificing them so easily. ¡°Go back and think about it carefully. Ten years later, gather a conclusion from the results of your thoughts and report back to me.¡± In just a few words, the God of Light sentenced the God of Aristocracy, who had just been promoted to a great Divine Power, to 10 years¡¯ imprisonment. Chapter 773 After the God of Aristocracy took their leave with a pale expression, the God of Light sighed and looked at the crowd of gods around them. ¡°I trust that all of you are aware of the negative effects of the power of belief. I know that many of you who have also wondered if eliminating some of your followers would allow you to reduce these negative effects. For example, just like what the God of Aristocracy has done. They have allowed a large number of pan-religious followers and shallow followers to be killed. Anyway, after death, their souls will still end up going to the Underworld. This direct cutting of the ties thus reduces her burden¡­¡± ¡°As for what I¡¯m about to say now, I¡¯m only going to say it once,¡± said this king of the human gods. He spoke in a peaceful tone, but his eyes were slowing brimming with a murderous intention. ¡°From now on, if any one of you do such a thing for your selfish personal gains, prepare to die!¡± The gods were stupefied by his words, but no one dared raise any objection. After a while, the God of Heroes asked in a low voice, ¡°If¡­ is there really a need for the condition of pure belief?¡± ¡°Bring this up to the masses first. Then we¡¯ll discuss the specific methods together,¡± said the God of Light. ¡°We are human gods. To us, whether the people believe in us or not, so long as we are still taking the side of the humans, then they are the ones we are obliged to protect. ¡°When we do things, we always have to put emphasis on the overall situation, so there are times where we have to sacrifice some people. But you all must be clear of one thing, what is the overall situation? The humans¡¯ position is the overall situation. It¡¯s the most important thing!¡± ¡°Be it good or evil, order or chaos. No matter what we do, we are serving the greater good of ¡®humanity,¡¯ and for this overall interest at heart, we can¡¯t sacrifice humans, and gods alike!¡± After he finished his piece, the entire hall fell into silence. The gods were rendered speechless. After a long time, the God of Protection asked, ¡°Your Majesty, the Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation have joined hands to destroy the Golden Tower City and also exterminate the Church of the God of Aristocracy. What should we do?¡± ¡°What can we do? Just wait,¡± the God of Light snapped. ¡°The Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation provide an indispensable, high-end magic power for the humans. They are also the organization that restrains and manage the spellcasters. They are the key to how we humans keep a firm hold of ¡®magic¡¯ power. Of course, we can kill them all, but what comes next after we wipe them out? The Mifata Federation collapses, the spellcasters go out of control, a large number of spellcasters will change allegiance to other factions¡­ Overall, this is not beneficial to humanity.¡± ¡°But, the dignity of the God of Aristocracy will¡­¡± ¡°What dignity does the God of Aristocracy expect to have? No matter how humiliating something could be, after a few hundred years, no one will remember it.¡± The gods looked at each other. Ultimately, they were still speechless. So this matter was settled as such. As the human gods made no response, the matter regarding the destruction of the Golden Tower City gradually died down to nothing. Hence, the aristocrats of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, who had originally clenched their fists and set their jaws eagerly in preparation for a fight had to suppress their heightened emotions so that they would no longer entertain such thoughts. The Republic of Northwest, the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, the Dhaka Commercial Association, and now, adding the Mifata Federation, granted permission for the civilians to have surnames. There were more and more countries allowing their people to have surnames, so gradually, this had become the general trend. Even if the aristocratic party wanted to do something, they would not dare to make a move now nor would they even dare to use this as a reason. They were aware that their power was indeed stronger than the merchant party and that they had an advantage over the latter. But compared to the Mifata Federation, they were not worth mentioning. Since the Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation were so resolute in making this thing a success, even at the expense of destroying a city and completely turning their backs against the God of Aristocracy, this matter was practically a foregone conclusion. There would not be a single aristocrat nor any country that would offend those great Legendary Masters over such a trivial matter. On the contrary, even if it was just to get on their good side, there would be many people rushing to advocate the movement of civilians choosing their surnames. This would allow this movement to spread rapidly in various countries. In another meeting of the aristocrats, Marquis Gordon brought up a proposal. ¡°Let¡¯s get our people to select their surnames too,¡± he said. He seemed a little haggard, apparently because he had not been resting well and was mentally exhausted. ¡°Rather than having to bow down again because we are unable to withstand the pressure, we should take the chance to do something ourselves when we can still control the situation.¡± The earls looked at one another and finally, all of them cast their gazes over to Marquis Yug. No matter what, these two marquises were still the leaders of the aristocratic party. Even the earls of the nine local regions, who had always been at odds with them, chose to back off at such a moment. They left the decision to the two marquises. Marquis Yug had long reached a conclusion. When he heard of this matter, he sighed and said, ¡°Seems like, things have come to the point where we are left with no other choice!¡± ¡°Yes, it can¡¯t be helped!¡± ¡°Though it feels a little humiliating, humans can¡¯t just survive on dignity after all.¡± ¡°In fact, we should convince ourselves that this is not a big deal. Even if everyone on Earth has a surname, our status alone is enough to make our surnames all the more glorious.¡± Marquis Yug¡¯s stand on this matter was very clear from what he just said. Seeing how the two leaders were also in agreement, the five earls of the central party all started talking at once, eagerly chiming in their support for the decision. The earls from the local party also voiced no objection. All of them indicated their agreement. After all, the fact that around a dozen Legendary Masters had joined efforts to destroy Golden Tower City definitely placed a lot of pressure on them. Seeing how the hardline Marquis Yug also had to bow down to pressure, how could they still cling obstinately to their own opinions? If they did not bow down now, would it mean that they were really going to wait for the masters to come knocking on their doors? That was truly going to be a great humiliation! ¡°Since everyone is in agreement, this matter shall be settled for now,¡± said Marquis Gordon, somewhat wearily. ¡°But¡­ we have to be relatively stringent with the granting of surnames to the people. The number of surnames we can grant must be relatively few.¡± ¡°We can also learn from the Republic of Northwest and try to add on additional requirements on top of the existing ones,¡± Marquis Yug said with a smile. ¡°For instance, one surname can only be used by 200 households, or something like that. This is a good idea.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t that increase the workload quite substantially?¡± asked an earl. ¡°Of course,¡± said Master Yug as he laughed in a very sly manner. ¡°But isn¡¯t that the effect we want? When the workload is increased, we can¡¯t make haste. Unquestionably, the delay will be much longer¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s indeed a good idea!¡± said another earl who could not help laughing heartily. ¡°The way we work is definitely not as efficient as that of the Republic of Northwest. So it¡¯s perfectly normal for one round of registration to take a year or two. It won¡¯t be surprising if we take another six months to a year when it¡¯s time for the final count. Then three to four rounds of registration would mean a period of eight to 10 years. It will be possible to drag on for another 20 years or so if we are to add on a few more rounds of registration.¡± ¡°Yes, 20 years later, who knows what will happen. By then, I believe the general trend of the world will be clearer. And we can head in whatever direction we want to with more certainty.¡± At this point, those shrewd but sly old ones could not help looking at each other amidst their laughter. Chapter 774 In the Duchy of Thunder, the movement of civilians choosing their surnames was first started in Keane Hill. After the newly-appointed baron, Louis Keane, took over the scepter of power from his mother, Anna Keane, the first decree he issued was to fully implement the movement of civilians choosing their surnames. Undoubtedly, this was something that Anna had deliberately left to her son¡¯s benefit. Given her level of prestige, she would have been able to follow in the Republic of Northwest¡¯s stead and start this movement right at the beginning. However, she had put it off for more than a year. During this period, she repeatedly dropped hints on several occasions, but ultimately, the movement was never really implemented. She only allowed enough progress to sate the citizen¡¯s appetite. In the end, she left this matter to her son, who was thus able to win the favor and support of the citizens as soon as he took office. In fact, this was something Crick had taught her. Previously, when Crick saw that his end was near, he crammed a whole lot of information into her. He taught her all the methods he knew about statecraft and intrigues. He taught his sister every piece of knowledge he had and even wrote a textbook of materials specifically for her. Now, the book was naturally passed on to Louis. While Anna had practically taught Louis everything that was found in that book, its value was still of utmost importance. Earlier on, Crick passed this book to Anna. Now Anna had passed this book to Louis. This made it seem like a secret inheritance of the Keane family. While the citizens were cheering over the order issued for them to choose their surnames, Louis was reading in the study of the lord¡¯s mansion. The book that he was reading was the Guide to the Keane Family Politics that Crick had left behind. Though he had heard and learned most of the things found in this book from his mother, he always felt something different when he read the words handwritten by his uncle. This was just like how the line, ¡°You need to study hard,¡± would sound different coming from different parties. Hearing this from their parents, many people would simply think of their parents as verbose nags. But coming from their idols, then they would most probably feel motivated. The effect of the same line would be entirely different when spoken by different people. Another example could be taken from a famous saying in China¡¯s diplomacy. It was, ¡°Don¡¯t say you have not been warned.¡± If this came from the mouth of some military expert, then it would not be a big deal. But coming from the headlines of the People¡¯s Daily¡­ that would really be earthshaking. This was because, in the past, whenever the front-page headlines of the People¡¯s Daily gave mention to this, the next thing to happen would always be a war. Louis looked very carefully, nodding his head thoughtfully from time to time. ¡°Mm¡­ This is true indeed, if I were to think about it carefully! I¡¯ve taken this too lightly in the past.¡± ¡°Ah! Mother never told me about this before! So it turns out I can actually do this¡­¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t too bad either. I can give this a shot. There¡¯s nothing to lose anyway¡­¡± Not far behind him, the invisible Sui Xiong was watching him with a smile. Seems like Louis is more outstanding and reliable than I expected. I came all the way here, thinking that I should provide him some backing¡­ but seems like my efforts are in vain. He did not intend to show himself before the people, so he left right away. But he was in no rush to get back either. Instead, he made a trip to Samat Viscount Hill. Viscount Toon Samat, who was formerly a wanderer by the name of Ray Shark, was just discussing the education of his oldest son with his men. ¡°My lord, you¡¯re thinking far too much¡­¡± said the consultant mage of his Viscount Hill. This mage, who was almost considered to be his chief of staff, said with a bitter smile, ¡°Your son is only seven months old, and you are already thinking about whether he should learn magic or martial arts? Isn¡¯t that a little too early?¡± ¡°I remember there¡¯s such a saying that the key to why the aristocrats can be more powerful than the civilians lies in the fact that the aristocrats win at the starting line,¡± said Viscount Samat. Ray Shark had long adapted to his new identity. The way he spoke and acted seemed exactly like the original Toon Samat. Or rather, the people of Samat Viscount Hill had long adapted to the differences between him and Toon Samat and had completely come to regard him as the true Toon Samat. Now, even if that unlucky Toon were to return, they would only find it hard to adjust to the sudden change in the viscount¡¯s style of speaking and acting. The oldest son of Ray Shark was of course, born to the viscountess. He was not a lecherous rogue like Toon, and he took matters like relationships very seriously. After securing his seat, the first thing he did was to dismiss all the ¡°maidservants¡± that Toon used for his pleasure. Then, he formally proposed to the daughter of a nearby earl. The daughter of the earl was not pretty, but she was honest and had a good upbringing. Though she was not particularly gifted, she did pick up some physician knowledge¡ªafter the God of Medicine, Arcaian Pasteur, advocated Physician Education, many of the less talented aristocrats had chosen to study medicine. For one thing, a physician could never earn enough, and for another, they could avoid a lot of trouble if they had medical skills. The most direct benefit would be that it was not easy trying to poison a medical student. The daughter of the earl was not highly-skilled in her medical practice, but it was better than not being good in anything at all. At least she knew how to treat common headaches and fevers. She could also identify and differentiate between 20 to 30 kinds of common medicinal materials, and she even knew a lot about hygiene and health. All of these things put together was more than enough to support the family of an aristocrat. Anyway¡­ no one would want to poison Toon Samat. The Thunder Lord was getting on in his years, and his energy level was on the decline. His oldest son was currently in an advantageous position in the battle for inheritance rights, while his second son was practically sidelined. If there was no accident, with the lord¡¯s passing in a few years¡¯ time, his oldest son would most likely be the one succeeding his seat. Toon Samat was originally the second¡¯s son best friend. But Ray Shark was not. After he took the place of the Viscount Samat, he had been very focused on maintaining a good relationship with the future Thunder Lord. At the same time, he intentionally maintained his distance from the former top dog, who was now left in the cold. This was, in fact, quite a shameless thing to speak of. But in the aristocratic world, it was not considered a rare sight. On the contrary, there were many people who felt that ¡°Ah, this stubborn mule, Samat, is finally learning how to use his brain. Now, it is possible to communicate with him well.¡± For this reason, Samat Viscount Hill had managed to maintain good relationships with the surrounding territories these two years. For one thing, Ray Shark was himself an amiable man, so it was easy to talk to him. And for another, he had no intention of fighting over every trifle. From his point of view, so long as he could steadily guard his place as a viscount till death, and safely pass it down to his children, he would have fulfilled his historical mission. As for the remaining matters, it did not really matter if he could or could not bring them to completion. So when Sui Xiong appeared before him and asked him, ¡°How have you been all these years,¡± other than expressing his gratitude, he could not help feeling a little uneasy. Ever since His Majesty, the Void Mask, had helped him become the viscount, he had not made an appearance. It was quite worrying to see him appearing out of the blue, and even with such politeness. Could it be that¡­ the great Void Mask has suddenly encountered a difficult situation, or perhaps, he has thought of something major and has some tasks that he needed to entrust him with? Chapter 775 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°You think too much,¡± Sui Xiong said. This was the reply Sui Xiong gave in response to Ray Shark¡¯s worry and appeal. ¡°Even if I really had something to do, I could always do it myself. Why would I get you to do it? Is there anything you can do that I can¡¯t?¡± Ray Shark smiled, feeling embarrassed. Nevertheless, he felt reassured all at once. Just as the Void Mask said, someone as great as he was wouldn¡¯t need a mere viscount to do anything on his behalf. So the Void Mask¡¯s purpose in coming here was simply to visit him. He supposed it was like passing by someplace and taking a look at the stray cats and dogs that he used to feed. Yet as this thought came to mind, he felt a little depressed. Even if he did not consider this bogus viscount status he had at present, his original identity was a mid-ranked adventurer of noble birth. How did he end up being at the same level as these stray cats and dogs? However, before such a great god like the Void Mask, he was truly not so different from those stray cats and dogs¡­ He could not help sighing deeply in his heart. All these psychological activities were seen clearly by Sui Xiong. He held back laughter, and as seriously as he could, he asked, ¡°Have you heard about the recent movement for civilians to choose their surnames happening in various countries?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve heard of it,¡± replied Ray Shark. When speaking of such a formal matter, Ray Shark got serious all of a sudden. ¡°The Republic of Northwest was the first to start this movement, followed by the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. Then the Dhaka Commercial Association was next to follow suit. Not too long ago, the Mifata Federation also started on this¡­ My guess is there will be more places following suit.¡± ¡°Your guess is right. Today, Keane Hill also announced this policy today. It was Louis Keane¡¯s first decree after taking over as lord.¡± Ray Shark nodded. This was not something that fell out of his expectation, ¡°Seems like Anna Keane intentionally left such an order that could win over the people¡¯s support. This is a good method. I shall learn from it in the future.¡± At this juncture, he suddenly recalled something. When the thought struck him, he hesitated and did not dare to speak about it. That little thought of his though was practically transparent before Sui Xiong¡ªit was nothing more than asking if Sui Xiong could bless his son. However, he felt that he might have overstepped his rights and worried about being disrespectful. The death rate of children in this world was relatively high, so the aristocrats were inclined to get blessings for their children shortly after they were born. The most commonly seen practice was to seek blessings of the clergymen of the Goddess of Family because it was among one of her priesthoods to protect the stability of the family. And of course, that included protecting the health and growth of the children. The next most common practice was to seek blessings from the clergymen of the churches of good gods, in particular, the God of Medicine, who was sealed as a god in previous years, and the God of Healing, who was resurrected after annihilation, were quite popular choices. But no matter how popular they were, the blessings of the clergymen and the blessings of the gods themselves were clearly quite different. If a child could receive blessings from His Majesty, the Void Mask, that would definitely be more powerful than the clergymen of any other god! But¡­ would it be rude to invite this god to bless his son? Would His Majesty, the Void Mask, get upset because of this? Sui Xiong could not help finding his worried look of thinking he might lose everything because he wanted to ask for this favor somewhat funny. With a gentle wave of his tentacles, a rainbow of colorful rays appeared out of thin air and landed on the little boy who was lying in a baby crib. He was snoring lightly and wrapped up so snugly that he looked like a little dumpling. The colorful rays were like sand falling upon water and quickly penetrated the baby¡¯s body. The child was still in a deep sleep, but a happy smile slowly spread across his face. Taking a closer look, one might even find a strange brilliance on his forehead that was mild and gentle like jade. ¡°This is¡­ a blessing?¡± asked the spell consultant. He was unable to see Sui Xiong, but he certainly noticed how the lord had suddenly frozen. Then respectfully, he looked up into the air at an empty space next to where he was as if he were praying. The more important thing was that Ray Shark was talking. Where they were, there was originally only him, the spell consultant, a maidservant, and that little baby. Ray Shark¡¯s mindless words were apparently not directed to the spell consultant nor the maidservant. And it was definitely impossible that he was speaking to his seven-month-old son. Then who exactly was he talking to? The spell consultant was a cautious man, so he did not speak up to ask. Until that very moment when he saw those colorful rays suddenly appearing on the baby, he could not help but open his mouth. His level of spellcasting was not high, and up till now, he had yet to step into the advanced level. But as a spellcaster who had been learning in the Highest Tower since young, his vision was unmistakable. At first glance, he could tell that the light rays on the baby were a condensation of Divine Power. In other words, this child had just been blessed. It was just that, given his ability, he was not good enough to tell the level of blessing. But being unable to tell for sure did not mean that he could not guess. From the lord¡¯s deferential manner, he could infer the level of the figure who cast the blessing. No, using the word ¡°figure¡± was too disrespectful! Because this was most likely a clone of a real god! Considering that Viscount Toon Samat was a follower of the God of Aristocracy, and an advanced Order Warrior at that, this clone that had descended to give blessings was most likely, a clone of the God of Aristocracy. It was just that¡­ this viscount was never one to be open and explicit about himself. Everyone only knew that he was courageous in battle and that he was a follower of Your Majesty of the Holy Kingdom of Noble Maids. But no one knew that he would be of such a degree of importance to Your Majesty of the Holy Kingdom of Noble Maids. As all should know, even the child of the second son of the Thunder Lord would only be able to receive blessings from the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy in the Duchy of Thunder. It seems like his lord¡¯s status is much higher than I imagined! The spell consultant¡¯s attitude was clear to Ray Shark. Though he did not have the ability to read minds, he could roughly guess what the other party was thinking about. Immediately, he smiled and said, ¡°You think too much; don¡¯t think too much.¡± The spell consultant immediately lowered his head. He shut his eyes and mouth to indicate, ¡°I don¡¯t know anything.¡± Sui Xiong was tickled by him and smiled. He decided to give him a blessing too. But before that, he subconsciously looked into the mind of this spell consultant. Immediately, he saw a problem. Why would he be mistaken as the God of Aristocracy? In what way did he resemble the God of Aristocracy? Oh, right. He was invisible. Sui Xiong was about to make his appearance and correct the spell consultant¡¯s misconception when he was suddenly struck by a thought and eventually did not do so. Because he had figured things out. The reason he was mistaken for the God of Aristocracy was because Toon Samat was a devout follower of the God of Aristocracy. This was an undisputed fact. Even Ray Shack would not dare to express his change in belief¡ªa change in belief was something major that could not be possible without enough preparation work. Moreover, Toon Samat was an Order Warrior who was listed in the ranks of clergymen-to-be. An Order Warrior converting from his original belief to believing in a god of the chaotic camp? Was this a joke! Besides, in Keane Hill, there were many followers of the God of Aristocracy. Among the officials and vassals under Viscount Samat¡¯s command, there were also several followers of the God of Aristocracy. So his relationship with Sui Xiong was quite a shady affair indeed. Thinking of this, Sui Xiong smiled. With a wave, a bundle of warm light was showered upon the study as Sui Xiong drifted away. If there was a chance to, he would revisit this place. Then he would pry apart the foot of this wall of the God of Aristocracy. Chapter 776 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After leaving Samat Hill, Sui Xiong went back to Geerteng Hill again. Presently, Geerteng Hill was a scene of prosperity. As the most important stationery manufacturer on the entire Main Plane, it produced all kinds of stationery. This was the core industry that supported the entire Geerteng Hill. The small stationery products might not seem like much, yet every year, the amount of income they could provide was comparable to that of an earl. The ¡°earls¡± should never be treated as nothing much. It should be known that in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, there were only 14 earls in total. The size of this country, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, was about the same as that of the United States of America on Earth. If Alaska was kept out of the picture, the shape of its land was also somewhat similar. Both were completely big mounds that made them look grounded and stable. As of now, there were 14 earls and two marquises in control over about 45% of the territory and about 65% of the population of such a large country. And the yearly income of Geerteng Hill was comparable to that of an earl, and an earl with a higher income at that. If the measurement was made relative to China, this place was roughly equivalent to a province along the southeast coast. Just depending on the income generated from stationery itself, the country could support the economy of a province. This was something truly amazing! No, it should be said that just depending on the income generated by stationery, a mere prefecture-level city could have an economic level that was equivalent to a province. That was simply crazy! To be able to achieve a feat of such degree, the key was the God of Knowledge. Geerteng Hill was not the only family dealing with the stationery business in this world. But Geerteng Hill had the God of Knowledge backing them up. And the God of Knowledge was the guardian of culture and knowledge. So given the same conditions, if people needed to buy stationery, they were naturally inclined towards buying from Geerteng Hill. This was like the arms business on Earth. Would people be willing to buy from a country that had fought many wars, had a brilliant record of military exploits and military bases set up all over the globe? Or would they be willing to buy from a country that was holed up somewhere in the northern peninsular, who was loudmouth with a resounding voice but in fact, had to rely on imports for food supplies? Of course, there were always weirdos who made exceptional choices, but the choices of the normal people were generally the same. Other than the stationery business, Geerteng Hill was also involved in the herb industry. This place was plentiful in herbs that thrived in mountainous climates, so every year, these herbs could bring in a substantial amount of money. However, the herbs business was subjected to a great restriction. The God of Medicine had made it clear that he did not support the act of profiteering in the herbs business. So whether it was at Geerteng Hill or Garth City, or even Keane Hill, though the herbs business was quite profitable, it was never a means of reaping exorbitant profits. As compared to money, the herbs business brought more social connections and prestige to the people. These things might seem somewhat illusory, but they were often more useful than money. For example, when a big businessman wanted to choose partners, money was not of utmost importance to him. But rather, he would value things like reputation, character and social connections as the most important qualities. Apart from these two main industries, Geerteng Hill also had many subsidiary businesses. They were mainly concentrated in the handicraft industry, especially the area involving small industrial products. These products seemed no different from the ¡°Yiwu small commodities¡± that Sui Xiong often heard of before he traversed worlds. It was quite interesting to speak of this. Geerteng Hill also had a small commodity wholesale market. Sui Xiong had never been to Yiwu, so he had no idea how that country¡¯s famous small commodity market was like. But looking at the small commodity market in Geerteng Hill, he could not help thinking about this kind of market found in his own hometown. The small commodity market in his hometown was called ¡°Business Summoning City.¡± Though it seemed true to what its name suggested, to be a market that summoned businesses and attracted investments, it was in fact just a market with some small self-employed people running their businesses. These stores sold all kinds of things, from daily necessities to various food products, then to clothes, shoes, toys, groceries and so on. So long as things were not too big, practically everything could be found here. Sui Xiong used to visit this market frequently to buy things. Firstly, it was convenient as most things were sold here. Secondly, the things here were cheaper by at least 20% as compared to those found in street shops. The small commodity market in Geerteng Hill was quite the same. Many traders dealing with wholesale businesses would specifically come here through the Transportation Portal because they were drawn to the comprehensive range and cheap cost of products. The former was needless to say, but one of the key factors of the latter was transport. In this world, because the transportation system was not well-developed, the cost of transportation was high. Even a mere stool that was to be transported to a remote area could be sold at the cost of a big bed. The Transportation Portal system that was designed and put in place by Sui Xiong had greatly reduced the cost of transportation. It would cost money to use the Transportation Portal. But as compared to long-distance transportation, people were more inclined to such a way, be it in terms of the amount of money saved or the manpower and time saved. If nothing else, using the Transportation Portal as a means of transportation could at least save them a lot of money that would be otherwise spent on bodyguards! Of course, it was unprofitable to use the portal to transport large or heavy objects¡ªfor example, large furniture or minerals. Such items should absolutely not be transported via the portal. But for small commodities and such, the Transportation Portal was more than suitable. In fact, the most suitable items to be transported via the portal would be all kinds of luxury products. This was the reason how Void City could be the most important trading market in the Main Plane of today¡¯s world for luxury products. Over here, any kind of luxury and rare things could be bought¡ªwith the exception of things deemed to be immoral. Sui Xiong was quite particular about the issue of ¡°immorality.¡± Not only did the Republic of Northwest disallow trades like slavery and living biomaterials, but it also prohibited medical products like narcotic drugs. Many people had been executed for such reasons before. However, that was just a digression from the main topic. Or at least, it had nothing to do with Geerteng Hill, because such trades were also banned here. Sui Xiong flew in the sky above the small commodity market of Geerteng Hill, laughing heartily as he walked and looked around. He was not very learned in business, but he could tell that a majority of the people here were quite lucky. If he were to describe using the terms of an author of web novels he used to read before traversing worlds¡ªan author who would ramble on all about luck all day long¡ª it would be to say that these people had good luck. Even if they would not be very rich and wealthy, at least they could lead stable and peaceful lives. When the country was rich and its people were strong, there would be peace and prosperity. With such an income, the living standards of the people in Geerteng Hill would naturally be quite high. As he flew over here, Sui Xiong no longer saw any of those occasional starving people he saw for the first time when he passed by here. Wherever he looked, he could see people who were well-dressed with glowing expressions. Also, he noticed that the younger generation of Geerteng Hill were significantly taller than their parents. All this credit went to Olian Geerteng. She once heard that people could actually be much taller if there received adequate nutrition, so she had always taken this matter to heart. After the territory became rich, one of the significant initiatives she implemented was to enhance livestock production, mainly raising cattle, sheep and pigs. Cattle and sheep could be used to produce milk, while the pigs would be the most important source of meat. If all these things were fully dependent on the civilians to raise, the cost would be very high. But if the Void Mask Lord were to lead them into a centralized breeding system, the cost could be significantly reduced. When farm operations were stabilized, the production of milk and meat commenced shortly after. These products received official subsidies from the Geerteng government, so the citizens could buy them at relatively lower prices. Furthermore, there was official propaganda constantly promoting that ¡°adequate nutrition leads to a healthy body,¡± so the people were also willing to spend money on this aspect. The final outcome was that the new generation of Geerteng citizens were indeed tall and strong. They no longer resembled people of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, but rather, they looked more like the barbarians on Northern Iceland. All of them were tall and burly, yet they spoke with politeness and acted with courtesy. Such an amazing combination was truly like a comedy full of humor. Sui Xiong laughed as he watched them, and he could not feel any less happy than he was. Chapter 777 Chapter 777: Vol V Chapter 137 Geerteng Hill was naturally the first place to implement the movement for civilians to choose their surnames. The day after the Republic of Northwest announced this policy, Geerteng Hill also announced the same policy. But as compared to the Republic of Northwest, Geerteng Hill made the announcement in a slightly different way¡ªonly those who had resided in Geerteng Hill for at least more than one generation as citizens of this place were entitled to this benefit. Even adventurers who had settled down here as residents did not have this entitlement. This was because Geerteng Hill did not require more talents. This territory was stable and peaceful at present. It had no intention of further expanding production, nor did it have any wishes of expanding abroad. The group of government officials who revolved around the Church of the God of Knowledge as the core was enough to rule the place. And they were able to rule the place very well. The literacy rate of the members of the Church of the God of Knowledge was very high. All core followers were all able to read and write, and it was needless to say for the clergymen. Not only that, but they saw teaching and educating people as the best way to show their devotion to the gods. So long as they had the money and time, they were all eager to volunteer to teach. So in terms of literacy rate of citizens, Geerteng Hill had the highest rate in all of the entire Main Plane, even surpassing that of Void City. Based on the statistics from previous years, Geerteng Hill had practically eradicated all traces of illiteracy. Even the farmers in the fields could read around a hundred words and were able to understand simple notices and could write their names. This level was already way beyond that of many developing countries on Earth. With such a profound cultural heritage, what was a little governmental affair to them? The residents of Geerteng Hill were also very proud of their level of education. Taking a walk along the streets, it was a common sight to see people reading books in their spare time. It did not matter whether they were reading about the travels written by retired adventurers or novels written by bards¡ªreading was a good thing to do anyway. Reading could make people wise and sensible. Reading could make people intelligent and noble¡­ In the doctrine of the God of Knowledge, reading was simply the best thing in the world. When Sui Xiong first laid eyes on this doctrine, it never failed to give him feelings like ¡°a book holds a house of gold, a book contains a thousand bushels of millet, a book holds the key to the hearts of pretty women¡­¡± Regardless of whether or not there were so many benefits to be found in the books, the people of Geerteng Hill had indeed greatly increased their wisdom and cultivation through reading books. So even though they were all big and burly like barbarians who moved over from Northern Iceland, they were all in fact, civilized people who were well-educated and highly-cultivated¡ªon the plus side, there was no need to worry about a big fist landing in one¡¯s face when dealing with them; on the minus side, the difficulty level in trying to fool them was so high that one had to be at least the level of a master. The vast majority of merchants had no intention of competing with the people of Geerteng Hill in their ability of deception. They generally bargained about more practical problems, for example, the quality, capital, profits and so on. Occasionally, someone would bring out a wooden board and pen made of charcoal to write and calculate. This was their way of illustrating the problem with actual statistical data. This commercial atmosphere could only be seen here. After leaving this place, one could forget about seeing the same thing in any other city on the continent. After all¡­ if the merchants of Geerteng Hill were to go to other places, they¡¯d all be qualified as scholars. In fact, Sui Xiong could clearly see that almost every adult in Geerteng Hill was graded as first or second-level scholars. This place was literally a ¡°City of Culture.¡± Sui Xiong floated in the air, smiling as he admired the scene of this City of Culture. From time to time, he would nod his head and even sing praises. ¡°Your Majesty, this Geerteng Hill is pretty well-built,¡± a voice said. There were some ripples in the air around him; then Wall, who was also invisible, appeared by his side. With a smile, Wall said, ¡°Every time I see this place, the scene that greets me makes me feel proud of myself. I¡¯ve not accomplished anything major in this lifetime, but just this thing alone makes everything in this life worthwhile.¡± ¡°These words of yours are very inauspicious! As a god with immortality, this lifetime of yours has only just begun.¡± Wall laughed and did not debate further on this topic. Instead, he talked about something else, ¡°By the way, some time ago, Olian told me that she¡¯s getting old, while the younger generation of the Geerteng family has grown up. It won¡¯t look good for her to continue to hog the spot as lord, so she intends to retire and focus on the work in the church. What do you think about it?¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment and suddenly remembered that Olian was in fact almost 70 years old. In this world, she was no doubt considered an old lady. Even the younger generation of the Geerteng family was, in fact, already in their forties and fifties¡ªmany of those who were from the generation before had even died of old age. ¡°Who does she intend to pass the seat of viscount to?¡± ¡°Tom Geerteng, nicknamed the ¡®Flying Fish,¡¯ who is a young man highly-skilled in combat in water. He was once a sea merchant at one point in time,¡± said Wall with a wave of his hand. Then Sui Xiong could instantly see a middle-aged man in the office building in the center of the small commodity market of Geerteng Hill. He had a short beard and a body that glimmered, and he seemed to be quite intelligent and capable. This Tom Geerteng might be called a young man, but in truth, he was no longer young. He was about 34 or 35 years old. Because he once dealt with businesses out on the sea, his eyes had obvious red and swollen marks. Those were the consequences of being exposed to too much wind. His build was slightly burlier than the average man, and the joints of his hands were exceptionally thick and large. But on the overall, his body figure was quite proportionate, and he seemed to possess extraordinary skills. His pair of eyes that was bright and brimming with vigor was especially attention-grabbing. Not only were his eyes filled with confidence and wisdom, but there was also a trace of slyness. But he was not the kind of man who believed that in cheating others. On the contrary, he was someone who was quite resourceful in his methods and means. Handing over the territory to someone like him was indeed more reassuring. ¡°Right, this chap has a bad habit,¡± said Wall, who suddenly recalled something. With a smile, he said, ¡°He¡¯s clearly very rich, but he likes to complain about being hard up. Many people have heard of the name ¡®Flying Fish who likes to cry poverty.''¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°Crying poverty is not a bad thing. It¡¯s better than taking a fancy to luxury and being competitive.¡± ¡°The problem is, the extent to which he complains that he is poor is a bit¡­¡± said Wall. Then he thought for a while and waved his hand. Then a scene appeared in midair, which depicted that ¡°Flying Fish Tom¡± engaged in some idle conversation with adventurers in a tavern. Tom: Sigh, I¡¯m seriously so poor! Adventurer A: Everyone¡¯s poor. Nobody¡¯s well-off these days. Adventurer B: At least you have a stable job and a good source of income. As compared to you, we just meddle in whatever menial jobs that we can find. We are truly the ones who are insecure. Tom: That job of mine is pretty ordinary. I made a deal in the first half of the year¡ªif this goes on, I¡¯m worried I might lose my job. Adventurer A: If you lose this job, then so be it. A person with true capabilities doesn¡¯t need to worry about being unable to find a job! Adventurer B: I know a few Chambers of Commerce that want to hire people who can read and write and who also have strong hands that can endure tough work. Judging by your build and pair of hands, you ought to have some real skills. If you really want to find a job, I can do some work and introduce you. Tom: Thank you so much! Today, the drinks are on me! Adventurer A: Haha, then I¡¯ve got to add a bottle to my order! Adventurer B: I¡¯ll pass. I¡¯ve had enough for the day. By the way, what are you up to now? Half a year gone with only one business deal; this job of yours doesn¡¯t seem quite stable. Tom: I¡¯m a wholesale dealer in gardening. For the first half of this year, I fixed a garden for an earl. The total I made from this business deal was only about 20,000 gold coins¡­ The two adventurers flew into a rage and left. The scene ended here. Sui Xiong laughed while shaking his head upon seeing this. This Flying Fish Tom, he truly has¡­ quite a character. If he were to become lord later on, would he still maintain such a style? If he still remained this way, someone might probably beat him to death one fine day¡­ Chapter 778 Chapter 778: Vol V Chapter 138 Flying Fish Tom did not have any bad habits. Furthermore, his own capabilities were quite good. Naturally, Sui Xiong would not object to him becoming the lord. Also, he had gained Wall and Sui Xiong¡¯s approvals, so the matter of him becoming the successor as lord was practically settled. However, from the ascertained time of appointment to the official handover, there was still a lot of work to be done. Firstly, Tom had to learn the ropes of governing the country from Olian. She also needed to gradually hand over the main tasks as lord of Geerteng Hill to him via a step-by-step approach. In particular, he needed to slowly get used to the difference in ranks between him and the main officials of this territory. He also had to allow the officials to gradually familiarize themselves with his way of being in charge of the work¡­ these were steps that could not be rushed. Even if Olian had enough authority to have the final say, for the sake of their territory, she still had to allow Tom to gain power and authority with his own might. According to Olian¡¯s plan, she intended to use two to three years to complete this task. By that time, Tom would be in his mid-thirties, where he could be the lord for 10 to 15 years. To most territories, this period was more than enough. Of course, Tom had children too. His children might be young, but they were bright. It was highly plausible that so long as they were taught well, after 20 years, they could make good successors. Even if his children turned out to be good-for-nothings and were unable to inherit his territory, the Geerteng family still had many close relatives and lineal descendants. It would also be all right even if Olian Geerteng was reluctant to be the mastermind behind everything and got Steele Geerteng or Romon Geerteng to temporarily act as the lord for a while. But come to think of it, their generation was really quite impressive. The two who were vying for the inheritance rights, as well as Olian, who eventually won the inheritance rights, all three of them ended up becoming Legendary Masters. If such a success rate were to happen in any other family, it would be enough to make people so envious that they would go red-eyed like rabbits. The people of the Geerteng family at that period was a withering generation. Out of the two lineal successors of the Geerteng family, one had issues with character while the other was of questionable background. The ultimate heir was merely a collateral relative. Yet when compared to such a glorious accomplishment of having three Legendary Masters from the same generation, what was a mere thing like a withering generation? So long as any lord on the continent could ensure that any generation of his descendants could produce three Legendary Masters, he would be more than willing to see a momentary ¡°withering generation¡± in his family. To be able to ¡°wither¡± out three Legendary Masters was something so good that he could laugh himself awake from sleep! Although there were very few demigod masters among the humans, almost all of them isolated themselves from the mass to live in seclusion. Those who truly lived among the humans who could guide and protect the continuation of the family most probably had to depend on Legendary Masters. A Legendary Master often could protect the continuation of a family for thousands of years. If the same generation could produce two Legendary Masters, that family¡¯s prosperity and development were definitely guaranteed. The Geerteng family had three Legendary Masters coming from the same generation. Not only would this allow the family to flourish and grow, but it would also serve as a deterrence to those who harbored ill intentions so that they would not dare to do any harm to the family. It would also serve as a warning to them to keep their claws to themselves. Because Olian Geerteng had the God of Knowledge and Culture, Wall, backing her up, it was a given that no one would dare to provoke her. Provoking an elector of a real god was akin to a death invitation. Ordinary people absolutely would not do anything like that. Even in the future, when Tom Geerteng took over her as successor, Olian Geerteng would still be living here. The headquarters of the Church of the God of Knowledge would still be around. Whoever dared to make trouble would have to be mentally prepared as one lightning blow from His Majesty, the God of Knowledge could easily leave one 50% burnt. With this kind of backing, Brother Tom¡¯s position in the future was definitely secure. Except for Olian¡¯s presence which might make him somewhat uncomfortable. This was because he would not be able to completely be in charge. But other than that, it was highly unlikely that there would be anyone else in this world who could be a more comfortable lord than Tom. Sui Xiong stayed in Geerteng Hill for two to three days. After seeing Olian¡¯s detailed discussion with Tom Geerteng to adjust Tom¡¯s work and to change roles with Tom who would become his assistant officer, Sui Xiong left. Once again, he flew to Grey Tower City. Grey Tower City was where the base of the Void God System was in the Mifata Federation. With it as the core, there were four cities surrounding it to form a small alliance to join the Republic of Northwest. Of course, their names could not possibly be ¡°The Republic of Northwest¡±¡ªafter all, they were in the southern part of the continent. The official name of this small alliance was called the ¡°North-South Alliance.¡± South referred to both the Southern Plateau, and also the Southern Continent. North referred to both the Republic of Northwest and also the northern end of the Southern Plateau where this small alliance of theirs was located. In fact, the alliance master, Mage Hart, who was the city lord of Grey Tower City, had initially intended to name this alliance as ¡°South Northwest Alliance¡±¡ªnaturally because this would correspond to the ¡°Republic of Northwest.¡± But this alliance of four cities was not actually located in the northwest of the Southern Plateau. In fact, they were generally located slightly more in the southwest direction. Of course, it was not alright to lie so brazenly. So in the end, this alliance was still called the ¡°North-South Alliance.¡± Honestly speaking, this name was a little presumptuous and gave the impression as if this alliance of four cities could be on an equal footing as the Republic of Northwest. But many people also feel that there seemed to be nothing wrong with this. The Republic of Northwest consisted of a total of five cities. The proper sequence of the cities, starting from the north to the south, was as such. First, it was Void City, then Dragon Roar City, then Gold-Panning City, followed by Pyrotech City, and finally Rye City. Other than these cities, there were also some villages. But so far, no villages had been upgraded to towns. So on the overall, there were still only five cities in the northwest district. And the North-South Alliance had four cities. Four versus five did not seem to be a big gap. But those who truly knew their stuff would know that just one Void City alone was much more valuable than all four cities of the North-South Alliance put together! Their alliance of four cities was only more densely populated as compared to the other five cities. In terms of economic strength, they were most probably only comparable to Pyrotech City. Or at best, they could be comparable to Pyrotech City and Gold-Panning City put together. But they would not be anything beyond the combination of these two cities. As for military strength, there was nothing to speak of this aspect at all. Pyrotech City had five to six Legendary Masters who were permanent residents. In each of the remaining cities, there was at least one Legendary Master in a dominant position. Void City even had the protection of a real god. In comparison, their little alliance in the Grey Tower City only had one Legendary Master, who strictly speaking, belonged to the category of a second-rate ¡°pseudo Legendary Master.¡± This Legendary Master was a predecessor of the Hart family. In terms of seniority, even Mage Hart had to greet him as ¡°Great-Grandfather.¡± That master was the ancestor of the Hart family. By this year, he will have lived to an age close to 300 years old. In terms of level of professionalism, he was probably a 13th to 14th-grade mage, plus a 7th to 8th-grade scholar, and a 2nd to 3rd-grade aristocrat. Furthermore, he was also a 2nd to 3rd grade Sacred Warrior, as well as a 2nd to 3rd-grade priest. His combat power, of course, could not be piled up into this messy combination of grades. But at least, it was possible for the progression of his life form. The old Mr. Hart might not be able to win against most of the Legendary Masters, but at least he could live for at least a thousand years and would be able to guard his family. And within the alliance of all four cities, other than old Mr. Hart, there was no second Legendary Master. When it came to speaking and doing things, such an organization would naturally be lacking in confidence. Chapter 779 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Your Majesty, the great Void Mask, you¡¯re the protector of all the newly-arisen things in the world, the advocator of change and improvement. You¡¯re the creator of new life and the king who presided over a great covenant. Please allow us to pay you our highest respect!¡± Sui Xiong sat on the throne, feeling somewhat uncomfortable as the entire body of high-level officials of Grey Tower City, led by old Mr. Hart, worshipped him as their way of paying tribute to him. Originally, he did not want this. But the Hart family always did things by the book. Their patriarch, Mage Hart, said that since His Majesty had come to see them, then everyone was obliged to follow the necessary protocol in welcoming him. It did not matter what Sui Xiong intended to do after the reception for him was done. Sui Xiong pondered for a while and felt that what Mage Hart said made sense. Although he really did not fancy such formality and red tapes, if it was only a welcoming ceremony, then he should also accept it even if it was only out of politeness. So he sat there, all prim and proper, as he accepted the worship of the entire body of Grey Tower City¡¯s high-level officials, or rather Grey Tower City¡¯s high-level officials of the Church of the God of Knowledge and Culture. After they were done with the salutation, Mage Hart asked about Sui Xiong¡¯s purpose of the visit out of curiosity. ¡°I don¡¯t really have any ¡®purpose of visit,¡¯ I was just wandering about, that¡¯s all,¡± Sui Xiong said without much thought. He waved his tentacles and said, ¡°Earlier on, I¡¯ve been to Geerteng Hill and Keane Hill. I still plan to visit Garth City after leaving here.¡± Mage Hart nodded gently and was thoughtful for a while before he said, ¡°Great existences will not have such thoughts out of the blue and without any reason at that. Because they themselves were so tightly bound to fate. Your Majesty, why the sudden desire to go on a trip?¡± Sui Xiong was slightly taken aback, then said, ¡°I¡¯m usually quite casual in the way I do things. So I don¡¯t think this sudden desire to go out would go to the extent of signifying some wonderful signs?¡± ¡°Such things are better believed as true than not,¡± Mage Hart said. ¡°You can try to recall, were there major events occurring whenever you went extremely quiet to think of your course of action in the past?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it and shook his head. ¡°Extreme quietness to think of course of action¡± was not really applicable to him. Throughout the year, the time he spent in quiet was not a lot, while the time he spent on the move was much more in comparison. Of all the gods, other than the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, who often sent out his clones to the Thousand Worlds to roam about doing acts of justice, Sui Xiong was most likely to be the ¡°liveliest and most active¡± one. Creating a few clones of himself, he would roam about. To him, this was simply something that was so commonplace that it was nothing unusual to him. However¡­ on second thought, he felt that Mage Hart¡¯s speculation was also not entirely baseless. Although he usually enjoyed roaming about, he seldom did so with the intention of conducting a purposeful inspection of the various territories. Honestly, this was not his style. Sui Xiong was neither lion nor dog, and he was definitely not a poodle. He did not have a strong sense of territorial dominance and was not keen on things like ¡°ruling¡± and ¡°occupying.¡± To say that he was on a trip to inspect territories, this matter itself seemed like a little¡­ deviation from his usual practice. If he really cared that much about the territories, he would have pushed for a massive expansion of the Republic of Northwest long ago. If nothing else, following the logical course of events, it was perfectly reasonable to transcend the deserted and barren mountains and expand his sphere of influence to Northern Iceland. And then, he could seize all the barbarians of the north and make them subjects under his command. He had the chief of the Snow Bear tribe, Jose, under his command. It was not difficult if he wanted to expand his sphere of influence to the great iceland. Also, he had a bad relationship with the most powerful God System of the Northern Iceland, the Arctic Federation, mainly because he had a very bad relationship with the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield and Blizzards¡ªwho was commonly known as the ¡°Queen of the North.¡± The main reason for their strained relationship was due to the conflict of priesthoods. Even though Sui Xiong had already decided on development and progress as his priesthoods, if he was really sealed god, due to the thousand years of cultivation in the freezing cold trenches, he would naturally acquire priesthoods like ¡°coldness¡± and ¡°freezing¡±¡ªpriesthood was something that anyone could simply request for. Also, it could not simply be discarded as one pleased. Especially for anyone who was being sealed god, it was almost impossible for them to reject the priesthoods that would be naturally given to them. Of course, Sui Xiong had not intended to have such a priesthood himself. Even if he did obtain such a priesthood thereafter, he would most probably give it to one of the demigods under his command to help them become gods corresponding to their priesthoods. He did not even mind ceding the relevant part of his priesthood to the Queen of the North so long as the conditions were suitable. But the gods of the Arctic Federation were all crazy. The Queen of the North was no exception. They would most probably charge towards Sui Xiong the moment he obtained the priesthood. So unless Sui Xiong abdicated the priesthood immediately, a war was inevitable. Sui Xiong certainly was not afraid of the Arctic Federation. However, an important reason to why the Arctic Federation was so terrifying was that they did things without logic and without a baseline. They paid no heed to acts or behaviors that were considered taboo by most gods, like attacking humans. And they had gotten so used to these that everything was so natural to them. If both sides were to fight one another, it was highly possible that the Arctic Federation would directly send an extremely cold blizzard bellowing at the Republic of Northwest. Thereafter, it was also possible that they would also vent their anger on other unrelated parties on such a massive scale that they would bring grave disaster to every country and race on the entire northern part of the Main Plane. Sui Xiong was not afraid of confronting that extremely cold blizzard that was directed at the Republic of Northwest. He was confident that he would not lose to anyone or any god if they were all going to fight. But if the Arctic Federation wanted to strike with a massive cold snap in the North, one that would hit the entire northern Main Plane indiscriminately, then there was really nothing much he could do. Although he was also confident that via his capabilities, he had no problem measuring up to the Arctic Federation if they were to take him on altogether¡ªand even this was established on the premise of not using his ultimate hidden large killing tool, the ¡°Two Consecutive Explosions of Self-Destruction.¡± But every skill and tool had their own specialized area of use. If the other party was to release a cold snap, there would be nothing he could do to stop them. Just because of such a minor contradiction, just for a single priesthood that he did not care about, he might possibly bring such disaster to all the people of different races on the entire northern part of the Main Plane. This was truly something that he could not bring himself to do. So if he really had the intention to tread the path of becoming a sealed god, then it was destined that he was going to put up a fight against the Arctic Federation. But even so, Sui Xiong had never thought of wanting to extend his sphere of influence all the way to Northern Iceland. This was naturally because he was indifferent to fame, did not have any appetite for power and was not a territory-maniac. To him, there was absolutely no way statements like ¡°Our country might be big, but there isn¡¯t a single inch of soil on the ground that is useless¡± could be formulated and established. Thoughts such as, ¡°Every piece of land under the sky belong to the king, and all men on Earth are subjects of the king,¡± would never exist in his mind. The future of society that he had envisioned was probably similar to that of the Peach Blossom Garden, minus the clause on ¡°cutting off all ties and contact with one another.¡± People should stay close to one another and neighbors should live in harmony. With everyone living in peace with one another and not be bothered by differences like country, race and so on, this would give rise to the perfect society. This showed that he was, undeniably, an artist and a thorough advocator of humanism. Now, a humanist artist had come to roam the world to inspect territories? Sui Xiong pondered deeply for a moment and felt that the painting style seemed a little wrong. Honestly, this really did not seem like his own style. But¡­ exactly what was the problem? Sitting on that wide chair that was specially designed for him, Sui Xiong was absorbed in thought¡­ Chapter 780 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong was not someone good in thinking. When he was in college, his score in logic class was so low that it was tragic. It was only because his teacher was so magnanimous and used his usual scores to calculate the results preventing him from failing. Unlike many students who played truant and hung out at internet cafes all day long, even if Sui Xiong did not like or was not good in a certain course, he would still attend and listen to lectures dutifully. Even if one lesson was stopped or both his eyes were already seeing things in circles like the twirls of mosquito coils, he would not doze off in class or do anything unrelated to the lesson. This made him a popular student among the teachers, who appreciated his mannerism. And it was also why his results were usually very good. Also, because he spent most of his time studying, when it came to ¡°college prescribed courses¡± like online games, his ¡°grades¡± were relatively poor. The best he could do was to play all the existing online games at that time once. If level or equipment were taken into consideration, he would definitely not make the mark. After he graduated and came out to work, though he often played online games, his standard was still not high¡ªmainly because he did not have the time and energy. He needed to work, and also, he was a part-time illustrator. From time to time, he even had to chat with people on the QQ messaging platform. Where could he possibly find that much time to spend playing games? If he was really a game maniac, a tenacious war god who was not afraid of his organs bursting, he would definitely own all the best equipment. Would he possibly remain the same person as he was before traversing worlds? Getting so angry over a mere piece of superior equipment that he had to throw and smash his keyboard and mouse, then run out to drink and drown in his sorrows? What Sui Xiong was good at was taking his work seriously. If this was something he truly could not handle, he would turn to someone with the relevant expertise. For example, he could not figure out the possible reason to why he was on this trip to make a round of inspection, so he went to consult Mage Hart who might possibly know the reason. ¡°I spent about half a day thinking about it, but still, I can¡¯t think of the exact reason to why I would suddenly go out to inspect the territories,¡± he said earnestly. ¡°What do you think the reason might be?¡± Mage Hart had not expected Sui Xiong to send the ball rolling in his direction. He pondered for a while, then said, ¡°Generally speaking, there are a few possible reasons to explain such a situation. The first possibility is that there is a god out there eyeing your territory. You can pay more attention to the situation pertaining to missionary work and beliefs of the territory of concern.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly. After pondering for a moment, he said, ¡°This is probably not the reason. In the few territories of mine, the people are either firm and steadfast followers of my belief or have the freedom to choose a belief. There is no possibility of infiltration in the former, and it doesn¡¯t matter whether there is infiltration in the latter situation¡­ besides, I¡¯ve seen no such situation along the way.¡± ¡°It¡¯s indeed easy to discover such a situation, and also, it¡¯s easy to stop it from continuing,¡± Mage Hart said with a nod. ¡°For example, in our four northern cities, people from other places are considered to have freedom in belief, no matter who is sent over to preach. And the belief in our Grey Tower City is, on the other hand, very firm. Practically everyone has belief in Our Majesty. Wanting to find someone of a different belief is not easy at all. So it¡¯s highly impossible to preach in Grey Tower City. But I feel that perhaps the problem might lie in Garth City.¡± ¡°Garth City?¡± Sui Xiong asked. He froze for a moment. After thinking about it, it seemed to him that there was certainly a possibility. There were many pairs of eyes on Garth City. Also, the scene of beliefs among the people was also in quite a mess. On the overall, the total number of people believing in the Void Mask, Goddess of Ocean, Goddess of Wealth and God of Agriculture added up to around one-third of the population. There were also many people who believed in other gods¡ªthis was a decision made by Sui Xiong and Leon upon discussions. For a city that was developed with commerce as its core, it was highly unlikely to only have a single belief. That was probably why on Earth, when the Middle East region was commercially developed and booming with business, their religious culture was still in the stage of gaining enlightenment. When their religion had become rigid and conservative, their commerce sector immediately fell behind, blocking the trade between the east and west, cutting off the Silk Road and forcing the Europeans to initiate the so-called ¡°Age of Discovery.¡± Brother Xiong might not be a historian, but at least he had played games that were related to history. In one of the sea-themed games, merchants found on the port of the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea often complained about this, so even he could remember¡­ ¡°In fact¡­ I really can¡¯t be bothered about who¡¯s developing the churches or spreading beliefs in Garth City,¡± he said. ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to put any limit on these in the first place.¡± ¡°Just because you don¡¯t mind other people going to Garth City to preach their teachings doesn¡¯t mean others won¡¯t be jealous of the status of your church in Garth City,¡± Mage Hart said as he shook his head. ¡°As far as I know, your followers in Garth City don¡¯t have an edge over the others in numbers, and they are way beyond the others in prestige. In traditional large industries, the trade between humans and the sea race was practically entirely controlled by your and the Goddess of Ocean¡¯s followers; the cultivation of medicinal herbs and spices is also, more or less under the control of your and the God of Agriculture¡¯s followers. In business, your followers and the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s followers have the absolute advantage¡­ this is enough to make people jealous. Almost everything is fully under the control of your followers, not to mention a few emerging businesses. ¡°May I ask, under such circumstances, don¡¯t you think your church might be quite an eyesore to the other gods who want to develop their churches here? Don¡¯t you think they might feel that they should snatch food outright from your followers if they want to gain some advantage from your church?¡± Sui Xiong pondered for a while. It seemed that this was indeed the truth. ¡°That¡¯s why I think that if anyone has eyes on your territory, the greatest possibility would be Garth City.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and said, ¡°Indeed, it¡¯s highly possible. Luckily, I¡¯ll be going over to Garth in a few days. There¡¯s no need for worries. Just now, you mentioned this was the first possibility. So are there any other possibilities?¡± ¡°Other possibilities¡­ the second possibility is that someone wants to combine forces with a few other gods to plot against you,¡± said Mage Hart. ¡°Of course we all know that on the Main Plane, you¡¯re invincible. But just because you¡¯re invincible doesn¡¯t mean that all your clones are invincible as well. It also doesn¡¯t mean that any of your followers are invincible. If any of your clones becomes the target or any of your followers or churches become the target, I feel that it¡¯s possible this will still constitute a great threat.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t!¡± Sui Xiong said and shook his head. ¡°If there¡¯s such a situation, Wenner and company will certainly inform me. It was unlikely for something like that to be hidden from them.¡± Mage Hart froze in surprise. Then he recalled that the War God System was also Sui Xiong¡¯s subordinate. Based on their priesthood, the War God System would most probably know in advance if there was anyone wanting to wage war on Sui Xiong or his followers. So it was highly unlikely that this would be a great threat to Sui Xiong or his followers. ¡°Then there¡¯s still the third possibility,¡± he said. After thinking for a moment, he said, ¡°Some god wants to speak with you in private but are afraid that they will draw attention to themselves. So they discreetly put on a show of plotting against your territory so that you can vaguely detect something. This way, when you go around inspecting the territories, this god can contact you without drawing much attention to themselves.¡± Sui Xiong frowned and said, ¡°Isn¡¯t this just like pulling one¡¯s pants down before farting¡ªwhat an unnecessary move! If they want to talk to me about anything, just come straight to me. Is there a need for such a weird and pointless move?¡± ¡°Who knows? The way the gods think is really beyond my mortal imagination,¡± said Mage Hart as he shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m just analyzing this via a logical approach. When a god initiates a discussion with you, the other gods, especially the ones who are in conflict with you, are going to express great concern. But if it¡¯s only some contradictions on the issue of preaching, then everyone can just have a little discussion about it. No one will feel surprised or concerned. After all, this kind of thing is commonplace, there¡¯s nothing unusual about it.¡± Sui Xiong shook his head. He felt that such a possibility was really¡­ not that big. Which god would be so silly? Creating all these demons here just to talk to him? Besides, wasn¡¯t that guy afraid of Sui Xiong getting furious if things got out of hand? So he pondered all this and concluded that the first situation was still the likeliest possibility. In other words, he should still make a trip to Garth City! Chapter 781 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong did not make an immediate trip to Garth City. No matter what that guy who was hiding behind the scenes wanted to do, it could wait a few days. Thus, he remained in Grey Tower City to settle the matters relevant to the three other cities. Grey Tower City was a sacred city that housed the church of the God of Scholars. Although this god had long since fallen and the clergy role was taken over by the God of Knowledge, the city¡¯s scholastic atmosphere had not diminished yet. Walking along the streets, one could see young scholars discussing philosophy, and there were several open-air auditoriums where those who could not present in famous settings could share their works. Sui Xiong flew in the sky and coincidentally noticed a young scholar was organizing an open-air speech. Thus, he lowered himself back to the ground curiously and landed on a rough stone pillar to enjoy the speech from afar like a VIP. The open-air speeches in the city were similar to that of Ancient Greece, where a semicircle-style amphitheater was dug and stacked rows were lined with stone seats. In the amphitheater¡¯s center, there was a stage for the speakers. The middle of the stage had a mini pit meant for a blackboard, but it appeared to be redundant as no one had utilized it thus far. Sui Xiong perched on the rock and waited for the talk to begin. A man who was tall and had a slightly wretched expression was holding a book of notes and revising them with a group of people that seemed extremely familiar to Sui Xiong. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if Mado¡¯s speech will be successful¡­ This is his second time, but the first time was a wreck,¡± a young lady with freckles spoke up worriedly. ¡°He can only blame himself. He always speaks in such a crude way, offending many people. Normally, people can¡¯t beat him as he has the image of a scholar. However, with the accumulated resentment against him, once those who are angered find an opportunity, they will definitely rise up,¡± a plump teenager said laughingly. ¡°Yes, do you remember the time when he was discussing the difference between fishing in freshwater versus saltwater? Those unhappy with him found some big chefs to dissolve his arguments thoroughly in the food context, how pitiful!¡± A young man who was dressed in pure white robes sighed at the clear memory. ¡°Yes. In actual fact, although we know they were not entirely accurate, but when the entire group of chefs were beating down his arguments together with talks of nutrients and so on, he had no way to retaliate.¡± ¡°We all know that healthy food may not taste good and that good food may not contain proper nutrients as well. But even so, we often look to the chefs and think of their opinions as superior when discussing healthy food as that is their area of expertise.¡± This conversation was naturally overheard by Mado, who was studying his notes nearby. He frowned but did not react and simply muttered to himself. Conversely, Sui Xiong was able to read his mind and got interested in his thoughts. Hey! Looks like this¡¯ll be a good show¡­ After a while, a sizeable crowd had gathered. Seeing as there were ample people in the audience, Mado put aside his notes, dusted himself off, arranged his hair and walked to the podium. Mado cleared his throat and thanked the audience for attending his speech before introducing himself: his name was Mado Kong, and he was from a small aristocratic family. He was also a low-level mage. Due to his family background, he had been studying food nutrition and value and had gained some understanding from his research. To increase his level of knowledge, he had even headed to Void Mask City, which was known for gourmet food, to study for a few years and had gained much knowledge. Today, he wanted to share on the issue of diets combining vegetables and meat. However, even before Mado could speak, a tall, red-faced, middle-aged man opened his mouth and said, ¡°A lot of people become vegetarians to lead a long life. Conversely, a lot of people eat meat to stay strong. What¡¯s good and what¡¯s not good then?¡± Once this man had spoken, Mado¡¯s face changed. It was apparent that they had bad blood between them. However, since Mado had chosen to give a public speech, he could not ignore questions directed at him and thus had no choice but to answer the man instead of starting with his speech as planned. ¡°If you want to compare them, eating meat is better.¡± ¡°In what sense? Strength?¡± The man continued to ask. Mado paused before using the question to begin his speech. First, he talked about the main nutrients humans needed the most from food. In this world, although they studied the components of food just like on Earth, they did not separate them into the six big components but rather separated food into areas such as ¡°sugar,¡±¡±meat and oil,¡±¡±salt,¡±¡±mana,¡± and ¡°ether.¡± Among these five categories, ¡°sugar¡± referred to foods that had an immediate sweet taste or foods that could incite sweetness. ¡°Meat and oil¡± naturally referred to food from animals and dairy products, although this world did not research much into products such as plant protein. ¡°Salt¡± referred to minerals such as cellulose. ¡°Mana¡± naturally referred to foods with magic and was a special component in this world. ¡°Ether¡± referred to the foods that included life level substance, and they mostly affected the concentration of one¡¯s blood vessels and power. Mana and Ether were not within Mado¡¯s research scope. If he really included them, his research could not be openly spoken about. Mana concerned one¡¯s magic skills, and ether concerned one¡¯s blood; both were of high value, and any research regarding them was often kept under wraps. Mado mostly studied the first three categories of sugar, meat and oil and salt. According to him, among the plant-based foods, sugar and salt were the main nutrients one could reap as well as some ¡°oil¡± components. To be strict, they only satisfied one¡¯s cravings but were not that healthy. The issue lay in the lack of ¡°meat.¡± One could eat enough food to gain sugar and oil to try to make up for it, but the results would not be as good as eating meat. Thus, being strictly vegetarian was not very good for one¡¯s body. ¡°How about meat?¡± the man continued to ask. ¡°Purely eating meat is not desirable either. However, if you could only choose one, eating solely meat is better.¡± Mado was well prepared and had clearly done ample research in this area. He used several animals as examples; those who were vegetarian were unable to concentrate or have strength comparable to carnivores. ¡°The most important difference lay in life expectancy. Even if we don¡¯t count animals that have been hunted, vegetarian creatures have a lower life expectancy than carnivores as they do not have enough nutrients.¡± As the man had come to stir trouble, he was naturally knowledgeable in this subject. He did not refute Mado¡¯s answer and simply laughed coldly and sat down. It was clear, though, that he would fire some difficult questions at Mado again eventually. Sui Xiong observed this situation with interest and had greater anticipation for the rest of the speech. As a foodie, he was really quite interested in finding out more about ¡°healthy eating¡± in this world. Chapter 782 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio To be honest, Mado¡¯s research results were not of a high caliber. Sui Xiong was not someone who had researched health and food, but previously on Earth, he had easy access to information regarding this topic. He would get an advertisement or spam mail on this topic in his email inbox every few days. His relatives often consulted him on this topic as well, allowing him to learn more through discussions with them. Who said that university students had to know everything!? Even though he was knowledgeable, he still had limits in what he knew about this topic. However, at this current moment, he decided to take some time to revise his facts as he wanted to have a clearer idea while listening to this speech. According to him, Mado¡¯s thinking had many flaws. It was true that in this world, the animal with the best reproductive capacity was a carnivorous fish, and the animal with the longest life expectancy was that of a carnivorous giant dragon; those were all good examples to prove his point. However, on land, among those with better reproductive capacity, there wasn¡¯t a huge difference between carnivorous and vegetarian creatures. On Earth, apart from a few paranoid vegetarian activists, most people promoted an active diet. People believed that one should consume a variety of foods in moderation. As for the vegetarian activists, they were able to gain enough nutrients despite their limited diet by using advanced, processed plant protein to replace animal protein. Sui Xiong remembered seeing a recommendation where a food scientist had visited a Buddhist temple to calculate the life expectancy of vegetarian Buddhist monks. The research had proved that they had a slighter shorter life expectancy as compared to the average person. A lot of monks were similar in the sense that normally, they were considered healthy, but once they had fallen sick, they were usually unable to recover and would pass away shortly after. However, the scientists on Earth had not really found much data on people who ate meat as it was hard to find human carnivores other than those who were strange. For example, among the citizens in China (which he was most familiar with), be it those in the North or South, it was easy to find someone who did not eat meat but hard to find someone who was fully carnivorous as this would mean they did not consume rice as well. It was hard to find someone who did not eat rice in an Asian country! Even those in the West ate wheat, potatoes or corn. To fully remove these staples from one¡¯s diet was extremely difficult. However, according to Mado, it was possible, and one could even be healthier by doing so. He had gathered some volunteers to participate in his experiment. Some had been purely vegetarian and refrained from eating any form of meat. On the other hand, some only ate meat and did not eat any vegetables or carbohydrates. After a few months, he found that both diets created certain health issues, but overall, those of the pure vegetarians were more severe when compared to the carnivorous group. Did this research even have any meaning? Sui Xiong was a little confused and was unsure of what Mado was trying to prove. To him, food research should be done with the goal of figuring out which foods should be paired with what. He was not the only one who thought so; some members of the crowd began to speak up. This issue seemed to be what Mado hoped one would raise, and he smiled in satisfaction before sharing the crux of his research. Those who were carnivorous were able to increase their professional ability with more ease! When he mentioned this, the audience came to a sudden realization as well. In this world, fighting skills were extremely important. While they were not the be-all or end-all, without them one could only possess extremely limited power and status. One either had to possess such skills themselves or find someone with a high level of power to back him and fight for him. If not, no amount of wealth would help. To be honest, it was extremely rare to find wealthy and powerful people with no fighting skills in this world. After all, it was still better to possess the skills rather than hiring someone with the skills. Thus, in this world, from the kings to the commoners, everyone was extremely mindful to constantly upgrade their fighting skills; if there were any way to improve, they would certainly pursue the solution. The crowd understood that food containing mana or ether was able to effectively improve their skills. Yet, such foods were rare and expensive. They were mostly produced by magical creatures, such as bloody meat from demon beats or magical plant roots, leaves and berries. Gathering them was a huge risk to one¡¯s life, and to process them also required a certain level of magical skills. Thus, the price of such foods was not accessible to the masses. However, according to Mado, even if one did not eat such specials foods, if they could still sustain a purely carnivorous life, and their physical qualities would also improve significantly over time. Such findings shocked everyone, and Sui Xiong was intrigued as well. If this method was really useful, he intended to promote it in the Republic of Northwest. The troops there would definitely be agreeable to adopt such a diet as they enjoyed meat. As long as the money was provided for them to maintain this diet, it would be accepted. The crowd had similar thoughts to Sui Xiong. Although they were not as wealthy and did not require such a strict diet as per the Republic troops, they were willing to spend a little more to upgrade themselves for the sake of themselves and their families. To convince the crowd, Mado even took out a Projection Crystal and played a few clips. These were time-lapses, chronological clips that showed a few volunteers. Originally, they had a decent body, but with the changes in diet, they eventually became much stronger and muscular. Mado was almost done with his speech at this point. Suddenly, the man who had previously spoken stood up and opened his mouth again. ¡°Mr. Mado, how can you prove that you did not fake these results?¡± This was a rather unfair question, and everyone blanched. To question a scholar¡¯s integrity and the value of his work was like questioning his entire existence. Such instances could only be described as ¡°unbearable.¡± Clearly and understandably, this was unbearable to Mado as well. His eyes grew larger, and he bunched up his fists in anger. It was clear that he was grinding his teeth in an attempt to control his temper. The man seemed intent on angering Mado and continued speaking. ¡°We all know that if someone wears a mask, many of his features will be hidden. In this case, one could find another man with a similar figure and create fake scars on him to portray a striking ¡°before and after¡± scene. ¡°Mr. Mado, why did you insist on making your subjects wear masks? Was it to conceal their identity and your corrupted research?¡± The entire audience was silent, and everyone stared at Mado, who was evidently angry. After a minute of silence, he violently leaped up and began yelling at the top of his voice. Chapter 783 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Once Mado opened his mouth, Sui Xiong immediately understood why his friends said that he had a foul mouth. As his friends, they had already been more courteous towards him. According to Sui Xiong, this was more than just having a foul mouth, he was like a thug in the streets in the comedy ¡°Hail the Judge¡±! Mado spewed about two to three hundred words of profanities with no repetition profusely. Other than that, once he had finished his tirade, he took a breath and continued even before the man could say a word. It was admirable, really, just how much he could scold in anger in one shot. Furthermore, the words he used were dirty and despicable profanities that related to one¡¯s body and kin¡­ The man¡¯s face was pale, and his breathing became rapid. Eventually, he sat down shakily and could have even fainted if not for the assistance of those around him. Upon witnessing this spectacle, Sui Xiong suddenly remembered a comedic film he had watched online where Zhu Ge Liang had scolded Wang Liang. It was from The Romance of Three Kingdoms, and it featured all the scenes of verbal fights in one video. In the scene, Zhu Ge Liang had many comical expressions on and used several tactics to scold Wang Liang, who was cut off each time he tried to retaliate. Even if Wang Liang managed to squeeze in some retorts, Zhu Ge Liang would follow with even harsher words, and eventually, Wang Liang was literally scolded to death in the scene. If Mado Kong was on Earth, even without magic and without his knowledge from his world, with his mouth alone, he could become famous and maybe even really scold someone to death as well¡­ As his mind wandered, Sui Xiong could not help but laugh. Mado, on the other hand, was far from a joyful mood. The man he had scolded was not an ordinary man but one with power and status. They already had previous tensions in the past, which was the reason for him coming to disturb Mado¡¯s speech. If it were just a verbal disagreement, he could let it go. However, as the man had fainted, his bodyguards naturally came to his rescue. As they sent the man back home, some rushed up to the stage with the intention of grabbing Mado. They did not mean to hurt him immediately but intended to keep him prisoner, at least until the physician had assessed the man¡¯s condition. As per the laws of Grey Tower City, as long as this middle-aged man had no major injuries, the matter could pass if Mado paid a small fee. However, if his condition became serious or even led to death, Mado would be in trouble. Of course, one always had a reason to do things and had to be fair in situations like these. Yet reason also had limits, and there were two ways to look at the situation. One way would be that Mado was not at fault as the man himself had a weak body. One could also say that the verbal assault was similar to a physical assault and thus Mado was to blame. For the former, Mado would not have to pay, and he would most likely just be locked up for a few months, which was not a big deal for a young and steady man. After all, this matter concerned human life, and so this was considered a light punishment already. However, if it were the latter, he faced the possibility of the death penalty. Mado¡¯s friends understood this as well, and they quickly realized that if the man died, the situation would be grave. Thus, they immediately tried to flee the situation as well to save their own skins. As long as one could escape, be it pretending to have to hide due to an injury or disappearing temporarily, it would be a viable solution to consider. Even if the man really died, they would not be able to persecute Mado if he was gravely ¡°injured¡± as well. As for him leaving for further ¡°research¡± for about eight to ten years, the matter may change or cease. Of course, it was not ideal in any world for a murderer to escape. This world¡¯s laws were not much better than the Three Kingdom¡¯s era. Even if one committed the serious crime of murder, if they could escape and never come back, they would not be pursued. In the past, Gerald and his peers had killed a viscount, and other than a verbal command for him to surrender, nothing much had been done. If things continued down this path, Mado¡¯s life could really be ruined, and he may have to start living a fugitive¡¯s life forever. Sui Xiong, witnessing this, could not help but intervene, and some of his godly power landed on the bodyguards for them to revive the man. Thus, the man who had originally fainted due to shock and was able to stop breathing suddenly, then he coughed violently and woke up. ¡°Master! Master is awake!¡± ¡°How do you feel?¡± His bodyguards and helpers rushed up and queried. The middle-aged man opened his eyes and glanced blearily at the crowd before shaking his head and sighing. ¡°Mado Kong, you foul-mouthed snake, I hope you die soon!¡± Looking at his bodyguards surrounding Mado and his friends, he cursed weakly at them and then waved his heads. ¡°Let¡¯s not worry about them anymore, let¡¯s go! I don¡¯t feel good; I want to return home to rest.¡± The bodyguards naturally followed his orders and carried the man away. Seeing as the conflict had ended, the crowd dispersed, cutting short Mado¡¯s speech in an unpleasant way. Mado was despondent to his friends¡¯ nagging. He refused their invitations to stay out and went home alone, planning to tidy up his research and continue his analysis. However, before he had even taken more than a few steps, he heard a voice from within. ¡°Your research is very interesting; would you be interested in furthering it?¡± Mado stopped in his tracks and looked around suspiciously, but he did not see anything that could tangibly emit sound. ¡°Who are you?¡± he asked in a low voice. ¡°That¡¯s not important. All you need to know is that I¡¯m interested in what you do. However, currently, your work is too vague, and I think you should focus on how one can eat healthily and how one could adjust their diet according to one¡¯s own unique body properties¡­ Are you interested in furthering your research down this path?¡± ¡°That would require many volunteers and traveling to different worlds. I would also need large amounts of food and manpower¡­ I do not have the resources to do so.¡± ¡°Those are not issues; I can provide them. I just want to know if you would be keen.¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Mado smiled. ¡°That would greatly add value to the information I have now!¡± Sui Xiong nodded and smiled. A few days later, Mado, with the help of Sui Xiong, headed for Void City¡¯s greatest restaurant after settling his family matters. He was going to be Miramon¡¯s assistant, where he would help this Legendary Master in matters relating to gourmet food and health research. Chapter 784 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Towards Mado¡¯s issue, Sui Xiong had simply offered minimal intervention, but it was a good opportunity for him. All along, most of the people under him were not sufficiently knowledgeable about the food industry. There were many chefs, but for a restaurant to reach a higher level, it needed culture and expertise. What did this constitute in China? The key was in the fact that not only did the Chinese enjoy eating, but they also savored plentiful dishes, and this was a key marker of their culture. Previously, Sui Xiong had watched the show A Bite of China and followed several food programs. To him, food was not just an interest but something he could explore culturally. If he had the means to, he would also want to create a foodie culture in his world and promote the low-quality restaurants to ¡°cultured¡± ones. However, this was merely a vision in his mind for now. Wolfman Miramon was someone who loved food, and he had the powers to promote a foodie culture given his Legendary Master status. However, he was still seen as a barbarian and could only explore food in terms of taste. Even though he was a famous foodie and was known for his interest in food, Sui Xiong knew that he was only able to grade food as well as understand how to prepare good food. As to why the food was good, he was not sure, and this meant that he had not yet reached the true level of a master of food. The culture of food did not lie in just gourmet food or what people enjoyed consuming but was more linked to its connections with history and culture as well as how it promoted health. These three factors of history, culture and health made up the art of food. In this area, scholarly Mado, who had been studying all sorts of food and its relationship with health, could help Miramon with his understanding. The relationship between food and health was not something often discussed in this world. In this world, one did not really discuss a ¡°healthy diet¡± or ¡°healthy recipes.¡± This was because before Sui Xiong arrived, the world had not explored food culture enough, and this was only beginning to develop now. Mado¡¯s previous research methods were slightly ambiguous. They were not hopeless but¡­ they were rather narrow and not far-sighted. Be it from an economic angle or from a scholarly angle, investigating this subject in relation to how one could eat healthily was the best approach. After all, every individual had to stay healthy. Of course, his narrow scope was due to limited resources previously. However, now, with the help of Legendary Master Miramon as well as Sui Xiong¡¯s resources, he was able to change the course of his research and produce some valuable results. As to his relationship with Miramon, Sui Xiong was not worried. Although Mado Kong had a foul mouth, how much he cursed depended on who he was dealing with. Towards a Legendary Master, he would definitely not be brave enough to be rude to him. Furthermore, if he did not behave, Miramon would teach him a lesson for sure. Thinking about the ways in which Miramon treated those who were rude to him, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. With all these things in mind, Sui Xiong headed for Garth City. He felt someone call him there and wanted to check whether anyone was looking for him. In the entire Kingdom of the Blue Moon, Garth City was the busiest. Although it was far from the capital, this was an important trading center for the people and sea race. Many products from the deep sea were only easily found here. This was especially so for some extremely precious items; they were snatched up almost immediately after being marked for sale. Outside of Garth City, they were seen as priceless and could only be obtained through barter trade with other priceless goods. This city was originally seen as trash, it had been developed until it had a structure similar to the shape of the three Chinese words of ¡°door, mouth, door.¡± The first Chinese word for ¡°door¡± symbolized the shape of the city, and the second word for ¡°door¡± symbolized the entryway of the city. This city was divided into living quarters, the internal city and outer city and the east side of the outer city were connected to the port area. Garth City¡¯s main trading activities were centralized around the living quarters with a central axis, and many shops lined this axis. Almost everything that was legal could be found in these special shops. In the South, there was an embassy behind the specialty shops. This unique pink building was this entire world¡¯s one and only embassy, the Sea Race Embassy. Of course, Garth City also had several small and medium-sized shops, which were scattered around the city. The smaller ones sold everyday items, while some of the medium-sized ones sold black market items on the low. The city lord, Kalisa Riley, was merciful, and apart from the harmful businesses, he generally left these shops alone. Thus, the black market thrived here as well, especially those of illegal weapons and magical materials. If Governor Leon wanted to, he could definitely halt all these operations. However, he was not particularly strict about the secret businesses as they were minor. Whenever someone suggested that he set up laws against these businesses, he would answer that it was not serious enough to take action as it would run the greater risk of scaring off other trade. Furthermore, for this city, trade with the sea race regarding spices, artistic products, and luxury goods were the real sources of income. They did not care much about other unimportant side businesses. Garth City had an extremely special bulk business, which was the trade of grain. As the city was located on the east side of the Main Plane, it was near to the famous eastern plain, which had fertile land all year round. The plain was known for its agricultural harvest. Every year, when grain was harvested, Garth City would buy it in bulk and use magic to ship and store it in Void City. This business alone was the backbone of the city¡¯s earnings and was managed by merchants from the nearby four to five cities. It also brought at least twenty small leaders their most stable income for the year. Every autumn in the past, the merchants were low on grains. This was something that didn¡¯t just happen on Earth but also here. However, Garth City¡¯s business principle was to maintain its prices despite the high demand. Instead, they would use a more reasonable price to buy the grains, especially when negotiating with the farmers. This, of course, was not the usual way of doing business, but it was a direct order from the Void Mask Lord. He felt that allowing the commoners to earn money would allow for the prosperity of the country and thus took care of them. Every year, when grain was harvested, giving Garth City a good name, it also allowed the generous gods to be admired by all the farmers and common folk. To date, all the farmers¡¯ houses would include a strange statue, and this statue was of a man in robes holding an axe with a round jellyfish on his shoulder. This was the God of Agriculture and the Void Mask Lord. Although their church was not widespread, in the peoples¡¯ hearts, they were still full of faith. Chapter 785 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio When Sui Xiong arrived, it was midwinter. It was cold, the ground was frozen, and the fertile land was covered by a thick blanket of snow. This year, there was a higher level of snowfall, and the farmers got worried. Although it was a ¡°Ruixue Zhaofeng¡± year, which meant that the heavy snow was auspicious, once the snow had accumulated, it would be hard to clear the land. The snow would also mean fewer insects in the summer. Overall, they simply had a strange feeling, and to the common folk, strange things were bad things. Sui Xiong was unaware of this as he only had access to farming news through Crick Keane. However, the Duchy of Thunder was in the South, and there were only one or two small snowstorms in that area all year. Accumulated snow would melt and disappear over a few days, and this did not help him understand the issue of accumulated snow at all. Thus, he remained unaware and even sighed blissfully, commenting that is was ¡°good old snow¡± as he looked at the thick snow that blew over the land. After praising the scene, however, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but feel troubled. Where had he heard the idiomatic Chinese phrase ¡°good old snow¡± before? He felt that the poets of the past couldn¡¯t have written something so shallow, and have it passed down for generations¡­ Hm, it¡¯s probably because many would mention it while chatting. I remember that on an online forum, people had commented that often, and anyone could be a poet and feel special. The forum had even mentioned some award-winning poetry; maybe it¡¯s from there. In actuality, he was wrong. The author of the original idiomatic phrase was of a high level, and his writing had been purposefully made to sound less convoluted. Sui Xiong did not know this, just as he did not know why the snow made the farmers worry. Although the God of Agriculture, Damwade, was directly under him, Sui Xiong did not really consult Damwade on his knowledge before. On one hand, he was not interested. On the other hand, it was not necessary for him to possess such information as well. As the head, Sui Xiong only needed to be able to push his team in the correct direction. For the smaller and more detailed tasks, well, Sui Xiong remembered a comment from an online forum: ¡°In the past, there was a very capable man named Zhu Ge Liang, and he cared about everything, yet it caused him to overwork and die from the stress.¡± Was Sui Xiong even at Zhu Ge Liang¡¯s level? He doubted it. At this point, Sui Xiong started questioning whether he was truly fit to be the leader. In the original horror game he had made, the heavens were warm, civil and free of disease. There were ample resources, everyone lived harmoniously, it was crime-free, and the good people who arrived after their deaths lived blissful lives for eternity. However, some of his disciples did not entirely enjoy this life. For example, some expressed that they enjoyed the cold; others remarked that they wanted enemies to fight with as they felt bored when resting. There were also others who felt like doing work as they were bored of laying around¡­ Sui Xiong continuously made changes to his kingdom and even requested the Goddess of Joy to use magic to eventually appease all his disciples. However, this caused his entire kingdom to become extremely complex, and it looked like a cartoon with layers and layers piled on. From top to bottom, there were several different environments and atmospheres just to satisfy the different individuals. Not just that, within the layers, some were of specific use. For example, he installed a ceiling for the Desolation God System and the Void Mask God System to use and made it the core of the ¡°game program¡± for gods to live and train. In every layer, the space was utilized creatively to allow it to seem much bigger than it was. The only exception was the ceiling, as the gods did not care much, and Sui Xiong thus did not care much either. Using space technology with the gods was a waste of time. As long as there was no main control, even the least powerful gods like Javier could resize the layer to their own liking. Be it elephants, a giant Orc that could polish off five elephants in one go or insects that could hide between leg hairs¡ªit was not a problem to resize them. For powerful beings like Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman, they could even greatly increase the size of the Main Plane layer or decrease it to the size of a cell with ease. However, to create the layer like a fantasy or to make it omnipresent or invisible was beyond them. Even Yorgaardman was stunned by these matters and did not know how to make such drastic changes. In his view, even the Master of Order could not do such a thing. To reach a fantasy-level layer, it was hard to imagine how one could do so. This was because with the increase in one¡¯s standard of living in reality, one would also increase their visions of a fantasy layer, and there would always be something out of reach. Of course, it had been done before such as in the case of the core of Void Mask Lord¡¯s game, which was a place where one could transform fantasy into reality. There were several games here, and one could choose from the simple ¡°new adventurer¡± stage to ¡°mercenary legend stage¡± or the highest level of ¡°unlimited thrill.¡± Each game was full of waiting users who wanted to try them. At the entrance of the game center, two clergymen were in charge of the registration list. Those who wanted to play the games had to make reservations three days in advance in order to not be disappointed. They had to line up for three days or more in advance, especially for games like ¡°unlimited thrill.¡± On the games¡¯ most popular days, there would be thousands of people who lined up overnight and who scared off others from trying. Of course, there would even be some who lined up for more than a day and who stood in the freezing streets just for a chance to try the game three days later. There was no choice as there were only 20 sets of ¡°unlimited thrill.¡± If there wasn¡¯t the limit of being able to enter only once every ten days, some people may rejoin the line right after their turn! Looking at the long line, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. He felt that he had created people who were game addicts here in this world, a concept previously only familiar on Earth. It would be amusing if a sudden wild Professor Yang appeared in this world and nagged, ¡°Children, you need treatment for your gaming addiction¡­¡± Chapter 786 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In comparison to ¡°unlimited thrill,¡±¡±new adventurer¡± and ¡°mercenary legend stage¡± were not as popular as their game quality was not as good. ¡°Unlimited thrill¡± could allow the player to become a low-level explorer and go through many unthinkable missions. Although they could be scary at times and there were already many games regarding explorers, the quality and similarity to reality was striking. There were some explorers who, having tried the game, had remarked that it felt just like their missions in real life, with an 80% accuracy. The remaining 20% difference was that real-life missions were not as scary and life-threatening. If the missions were really so hazardous in reality, sane people would never take up the explorer role. To explain this another way, the name of the game was really apt as it was indeed interesting while being extremely daunting at the same time. The other two games, conversely, were not as interesting. ¡°New adventurer¡± was a simple word game about someone who was completely foreign to exploring. It taught one how to prepare for exploring and told you about the more famous explorers¡¯ stories. To someone who had no experience in this field, it was informative and interesting. However, for past explorers or people with knowledge, if one played it repetitively, it soon became dull. On the other hand, ¡°mercenary legend stage¡± was a bit more interesting. The drawings in the game were rather intricate, and several monsters looked quite real. Those who played the game sometimes even mistook monsters in real life as the game ones, and this was not due to issues with their brain or eyes! Secondly, the content was more satisfactory, and there were many missions where one could find lost animals or solve mysteries. This game was also rather popular, with many lining up for it each day. However, it could not be compared to ¡°unlimited thrill.¡± For example, this could be booked with only one or two days¡¯ notice effortlessly. Another thing that determined the differing levels of popularity was the game controller. For ¡°unlimited thrill,¡± one had to go to Void Mask Temple to experience it exclusively as one had to lie into a round box similar to that of a coffin to play. However, for the other games, they were sold in this world, and one could play it at home steadily as long as they created an alter for the Void Mask Lord and maintained it well. These past few years, many wealthy families had already bought their own controllers. Even those of mid-level income also came together to share one game controller set among a few families. Because of these games, there was more variety in the lives of the Garth City citizens; at least, that was the opinion of those outside of the city. They did not like watching musicals and were not amused by other forms of entertainment and preferred to return home to play games. There was even a famous scholar who criticized Garth City and said that this was a trade treasure spot but a cultural desert. ¡°Is it really that serious? Have they all really become addicted gamers, like an Internet-addicted army?¡± Sui Xiong entered Leon¡¯s office and discussed the issue of the game controllers. ¡°Internet-addicted army? What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°It refers to a group that would need the help of a certain Professor Yang¡­ Have the Garth City people really become so addicted that all they want to do with their time is play games?¡± Leon smiled and shook his head. ¡°How can that be! However, it¡¯s true that apart from resting, drinking or traveling, most wealthy Garth City citizens do make gaming a pastime. They enjoy the ¡°mercenary legend stage.¡± I calculated this before, and there are about 20,000 regular players of the game.¡± ¡°20,000!? My goodness¡­ I remember that a game controller costs about 500 gold coins, right? If there are 20,000 players, wouldn¡¯t that cost hundreds of thousands!? Are the Garth City citizens really so rich!?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve calculated incorrectly. Many share a game controller with a group of friends or families. It is rare for an individual to own one. According to my calculations, 1 in every 5 people own a controller.¡± This was still shocking to Sui Xiong as that would still mean an expenditure of 100 gold coins per person, and this was not a small amount. In comparison, to chase a dangerous criminal, it would only cost 1000 to 2000 gold coins! Furthermore, among the 20,000 players, that would still mean about 20,00000 gold coins! Even the reserves of the kingdom would not be able to accommodate this amount. ¡°Are the citizens really so rich!?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°I think so. They¡¯ve accumulated savings over the years. Furthermore, Kalisa has organized several game controller sales, which are subsidized¡­. One person may only need to spend 60 gold coins to own a controller.¡± ¡°That is still not a small amount!¡± ¡°To the farmers, it¡¯s a lot, but to citizens in a busy city¡­ How do I put it? As it is a lot, they find that it¡¯s worth it. Furthermore, even the less interesting games such as ¡°new adventurer¡± are educational and come with a basic literacy education system. Think about it, if you could use the system to learn how to read and write, 60 gold coins would not be considered expensive.¡± Sui Xiong thought about it and nodded. In this world, becoming literate was expensive. Using merely 60 gold coins to buy a system that one could use as an educational tool for years was a steal. ¡°Thus, the literacy rate here is high. Originally, when the scholar had criticized us in the past, Kalisa had been extremely indignant and gathered a huge group of citizens to debate with him; this group consisted of a few thousand citizens. Upon seeing this crowd, the scholar was so overwhelmed that he immediately left.¡± Sui Xiong laughed upon hearing this. If only the gamers on Earth could be so strong as well! Chapter 787 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The gamers on Earth were naturally much weaker. Up until the time that Sui Xiong had left Earth, this was the case. Legend has it that one had used the PS2 game system to create a supercomputer, and they used it to control drones to attack enemies. Yet they were not considered gamers as they were not really playing games. On earth, the idea of strength in numbers was based on a united group with a similar goal in mind. If they were disunited and messy, they would not have much power. Furthermore, the gamers would be very far from one another physically because they didn¡¯t all live in the same location. However, in this world, there was no need for any tangible organization, as those with the same attitudes and passions could already create a force. Here, ¡°will¡± was an actual power, and the combined will of thousands of people would scare even gods. Thus, the fleeing of the overpowered scholar was not surprising at all. After having a good laugh, Sui Xiong brought up the issue of the lines at the game center to Leon. ¡°These few days, it¡¯s been extremely cold. How can we let the people line up there overnight? If they fall sick or freeze to death, that would be truly unfortunate,¡± Sui Xiong replied unhappily. ¡°That has actually happened before. Originally, when ¡°unlimited thrill¡± was first released, there were people who lined up till they froze to death. Afterward, I sent troops to patrol during the night and check on the gamers¡¯ health to ensure it would never happen again. However, injuries due to the cold are inevitable, but there are free medical services around to treat these cases.¡± Leon sighed. ¡°These people are treated for free?¡± ¡°Yes. Not only do they receive free treatment, but they also receive free fur blankets, free supper and breakfast, mainly wine, hot soup and biscuits. They may not be the most appetizing, but they warm people up. With these things, one would most likely be prevented from freezing to death. However, injuries are still common, and thus, doctors and priests do morning patrols to take care of these cases¡­ Overall, the expenditure is high, but we have the resources to spend on the people.¡± Leon smiled. Sui Xiong nodded and smiled. In the Void Mask Church, the most loyal follower would definitely be Gerald. Even if Sui Xiong mentioned an impossible task like shooting the sundown, he would also heed the order and try to create a giant bow and would not consider the viability of the order. However, the most ingenious member of the church was definitely Leon. He was able to understand Sui Xiong¡¯s intentions and execute them well, to Sui Xiong¡¯s satisfaction. Sometimes, Sui Xiong felt that Leon being a mere governor was a waste of his talents, and he couldn¡¯t help but mention this topic again. ¡°Not really. Sure, I could be of a higher position or even be a king with relative ease, but what for? I¡¯m not someone with great leadership ambitions. I never wanted to be a king. If I had a choice, I would be a librarian like Mr. Wall, spending my time reading or practicing my fighting skills. It¡¯s a good life. If not, I would like to be like the God of Courage, transforming into a common nomad and helping those in need. Being a governor is enough for me, as I do not care about titles. It¡¯s even considered a rather high title to me already¡­ I¡¯m still a church leader, and since I¡¯m under you, no matter what king I meet, I still seem equal to them.¡± ¡°But¡­ Don¡¯t you think you could do better? If you were a king, you could rule a country well¡­¡± ¡°What would that matter? I take care of this city because you want me to, and because it makes Kalisa happy. If I change to be a king, does it satisfy your intentions? Does it make Kalisa happier? Not really. In that case, why should I waste that energy?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and sighed. ¡°What you said makes sense, I¡¯m speechless against your argument.¡± ¡°Actually, being a governor is not that easy as well. Although I seem like I¡¯m doing well, there are many reasons for my success. For example, the good trade with the sea race brings prosperity to Garth City every year and attracts capable merchants. At the same time, because we have good relations with the sea race, our shores and harbors are safe. Any place with our flag doesn¡¯t have to worry about piracy¡­ These circumstances are unique to Garth City and aid me in my leadership greatly.¡± Sui Xiong nodded in agreement. ¡°Previously, Garth had met with disaster, and many traditionally powerful tribes were weakened. To most governors, these families are like a double-edged sword. With their great sphere of influence, they could help the country or destroy the country. No matter how good they are, the monarch will still possess power and status in the country. After a while, they would be intertwined with the imperial court, and this could be difficult for a king. In comparison, for Garth City, we do not have this issue after the disaster as most families are equal, and my orders would be followed. This is also another special circumstance of Garth City that makes my rule easy.¡± Sui Xiong nodded again as he slowly understood the real difficulties of being a governor. ¡°However, the most important reason for my success lies in my laziness. Although being a governor is hard, if one has support from you, one does not need to do much. I wouldn¡¯t chase extra money. That¡¯s a waste of time! Why would I increase my workload for no reason? If I continue being a good governor, I¡¯ll still eventually enter the Demigod Realm. Why would I want to be a king then?¡± Sui Xiong thought hard about it and nodded yet again. As per what Leon had said, he would eventually become a demigod with thousands of years to live. The idea of leading a kingdom would not appeal to him at all. Actually, to many gods, the idea of being a king was meaningless. Sui Xiong just had to stop having a ¡°human¡± attitude towards this issue to understand. Chapter 788 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Even for those who had surpassed human limits and were not interested in kingdoms possessed their own interests and needs. For Leon, although he was a super master who was not interested in being a king, he was interested in developing Garth City and the Void Mask Church. ¡°Lord, do you have an interest in reading our policy report? Every year, I will form a report on our policies and analyze the year¡¯s happenings. Through this, I¡¯ve found that my governing skills and administrative skills are lacking, and I made changes accordingly. However, these flaws have lessened over the years. Maybe I¡¯m just not observant enough anymore.¡± Sui Xiong agreed and took a copy of a report. This was from last year, and it reported that the biggest issue was that some merchant partners were unstable. Garth City had several trade routes, and they were connected by a few important merchant partners. Last year, the two merchant partners in the South were not doing well. For example, the Mifata Federation¡¯s Yun-ta City had originally sold Garth City large amounts of art and raw materials from the Orcs in exchange for spices and deep-sea gems. However, from last year, they reduced their sales and only sold about 70% of what they had offered the previous year. ¡°How about this year? How¡¯s the condition with Yun-ta City?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. ¡°Currently, it¡¯s fine. It¡¯s still at about 70%. However, ever since Golden Tower City was destroyed, these numbers have been threateningly unstable. To be blunt, this route was meant to collect materials from Mifata¡¯s northwestern area to be transported to Yun-ta City before being transferred to Garth. With the independence of Golden Tower City previously, it had already greatly impacted the route¡¯s usage. Now, with the city gone, the route has met with severe issues, and we are unsure when this will be resolved.¡± ¡°Golden Tower City? Mifata still allowed them to maintain the route despite gaining independence?¡± ¡°Politics are politics, but trade is trade. The only difference would be that Mifata could impose extra taxes. However, it would be tough to do so as Golden Tower City is rather strong, and there aren¡¯t many strong cities along the route. Golden Tower City had altered the route to prevent intersection with powerful cities and specifically allowed the weaker cities to increase their capital over time. Overall, the route is feasible.¡± ¡°So¡­ In that case, even with the destruction of Golden Tower City, the route should still function, right? It links the northwestern part of Mifata to Garth City and should be functional without Golden Tower City as a middleman.¡± ¡°No, there is a big difference. Golden Tower City was the business hub of northwestern Mifata, and many items are sold and gathered there. With its loss, that function will not be possible. However, Yun-ta City has expressed that they are finding an alternative. They estimate that after one to two years, this route can be fully restored. However, prices may increase by 50%.¡± ¡°With such prices, is trade still worthwhile?¡± ¡°Of course, we ourselves experience inflation too. Trade is like that; we follow the general economic trend. Even if overall trade falls a little, it will not affect our profits too much.¡± ¡°If we slightly decrease our profit margin, can we maintain our current trade framework?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°I¡¯ve calculated this before. From an economic sense, it would be feasible. However, from a governor¡¯s perspective, no. Furthermore, Yun-ta City is not our only partner. If they raise prices, so will others, and we will suffer losses.¡± ¡°Why would others follow suit? They¡¯re not losing anything currently.¡± ¡°Merchants do not care about that. They only bother about rising and falling prices. Trade is like fighting a war. The reasons don¡¯t matter; what matters is victory. Similarly, merchants only care about profit. At the end of the day, we are still doing business; we are not a charity. We cannot go against our own framework because of others¡¯ ill luck. I know you¡¯re worried about the smaller merchants as well as hunters and explorers. Well, I can compensate them in other ways such as by starting a subsidy scheme¡­ but I cannot give way in the sense of prices as that would be a business mistake.¡± Sui Xiong nodded in satisfaction as he trusted Leon to do what he promised. He did not really care about the merchants¡¯ profits as they were already wealthy. Even if they splurged excessively now, their current wealth would be able to sustain them for decades. Conversely, the smaller merchants or the ¡°providers¡± at the bottom of the merchants¡¯ social hierarchy worried him. With the increase in prices and the narrowing of trade, these providers¡¯ profits would take a hit. Items of low quality may be rejected, or larger merchants could take this chance to force providers to sign unfair contracts. This was to be expected and was common. Thus, Sui Xiong wished to protect the interests of these providers and not cause them to become victims. Since Leon had already made plans, Sui Xiong did not nag further as he had faith in Leon. Over these few years, Leon had always handled matters well. After the trade discussion, Sui Xiong queried on why there had been nothing special or unique that happened this year. After some consideration, Leon mentioned, ¡°This is probably because this year during summer, I felt that there were some powerful currents in the sea near our city, but only for a while. At that time, I was preoccupied and did not investigate further. Afterward, I never felt it again and thus left the matter alone.¡± ¡°Oh? What kind of force was it?¡± ¡°Something similar to that of Angry Tide Heimsarah. It¡¯s just that it felt more recognizable and calmer, akin to that of a sharp knife being whittled to a strong iron ball¡­¡± Sui Xiong was joyful. Previously, when Angry Tide Heimsarah had chosen to take a deep sleep near Garth City, it was meant to protect the city. Although Leon was now strong enough to protect the city himself, Angry Tide Heimsarah still lived up to his promise. Upon hearing Leon, Sui Xiong could assume that Angry Tide Heimsarah had managed to fully harness its own strength, which it had previously mentioned would take at least 100 to 300 years. Sui Xiong thus bid farewell to Leon and flew out of Garth City to pay Angry Tide Heimsarah a visit at the bottom of the sea. Chapter 789 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong flew at a fast speed and reached Angry Tide Heimsarah¡¯s resting place quickly. Upon arrival, however, he was mystified. ¡°This is the place, right? Did I make a mistake?¡± He carefully observed the area but could not believe his eyes. Previously, Angry Tide Heimsarah had been sleeping on a plain sea base. However, many changes had taken place! Old hens had become ducks; how did such a plain sea base become a vast deep trench? Although it could be said that the great wilderness had uncanny workmanship, a sea base still couldn¡¯t transform so easily¡­ This trench was especially deep, as well. Sui Xiong gazed far and wide and still could not feel the trench¡¯s base until he used magic. However, he was sure that this was the right place. His old friend Angry Tide Heimsarah was resting on the floor, motionless like a hibernating saltwater fish. Angry Tide Heimsarah¡¯s body was long and slender, with tinges of black. There was a game which claimed that there a ship which was anthropomorphized and painted with beautiful girls. These girls were divided into small teams to eliminate the strange deep-sea monsters to acquire new sisters and resources to build ships. Although Sui Xiong was not familiar with this game, he had visualized this scene with the help of a fat brother who liked to cross-dress as the latter had wanted to suggest a new character. Regrettably, the girl he had painted was not popular with the players, and many said that the country¡¯s ship had been transformed and could only be used to view a warehouse¡­ The game often organized activities to attack strong enemies, with the prize naturally being sought after ladies and ships. Most of these activities were tough, and many players were unable to reap prizes despite playing till the end. These players would then name themselves saltwater fish along the lines of the famous quote, ¡°If one has no dreams, what differs humans from saltwater fish?¡± Those who had no goals were saltwater fish, those who had their dreams dashed were also similarly labeled. Angry Tide Heimsarah really did resemble a fish as he lived in the sea, and 80% of his body was made out of seawater like a saltwater fish. As Sui Xiong entertained these daft thoughts, he followed the trench to the base of the sea. Just as he was about to greet Angry Tide Heimsarah, he realized that Angry Tide Heimsarah was not even awake but was, in fact, in a deep slumber. Sui Xiong was shocked and rubbed his eyes to ensure he was not seeing things. Angry Tide Heimsarah was still sleeping and deeply so, his body rising and falling evenly with each breath. There was even a huge bubble where his mouth was which grew and shrank with his breathing, just like a cartoon. But¡­ if he was asleep, where did this trench come from? Sui Xiong glanced at Angry Tide Heimsarah for a while before coming to an understanding. As Angry Tide Heimsarah slept, his fins expanded and contracted, and he managed to absorb sand to his body. His body still functioned while he hibernated ad he was able to eat and vomit, creating a trench. You¡¯re really something, Angry Tide Heimsarah! Witnessing this, Sui Xiong could not help but feel shocked. ¡°Even though you¡¯re sleeping, you¡¯re able to absorb sand and make a trench¡­ You¡¯re really a genius!¡± As he said this, he had another shocking thought. Where did all the food that Angry Tide Heimsarah consume go to? Because he was curious, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t resist using magic to check out the situation and realized that Angry Tide Heimsarah had opened a half plane in his stomach where the resources he consumed were transformed into materials for the half plane. This half plane was like a small world where resources were needed to build it up. No wonder Angry Tide Heimsarah had consumed so much food! Sui Xiong smiled slightly with this realization and used his powers to directly remove a layer of rock from the bottom of the sea at least 200 to 300 miles away. He did not do things crudely, unlike Angry Tide Heimsarah. The sea base concerned many creatures¡¯ lives, and it could not be randomly destroyed. Because of that, he chose to directly draw from the rock formations instead. This was only something those with higher powers could do. With these rock sediments, he proceeded to crumble them and sent them into Angry Tide Heimsarah¡¯s small world. A piece of rock formation about 200 to 300 miles long possessed a shocking amount of material. With this boost, Angry Tide Heimsarah¡¯s small world currently possessed sufficient materials, and with a violent gust of wind, the ground and sea began to take shape. However, this process was slow, and Sui Xiong had to wait for a few days to watch it progress. Other than ascertaining Angry Tide Heimsarah had ample material, he was unsure of the exact time needed for this process to be complete. However, he was calm as it was not an urgent method. When it was complete, this was when Angry Tide Heimsarah would awaken. By then, he would already have finished crossing the demigod stage into the ¡°god-to-be¡± stage. ¡°God-to-be¡± stage referred to gods who possessed a large amount of godly power but had not confirmed their status. Actually, strictly speaking, Sui Xiong was already a god-to-be. Normally, god-to-be gods had a little less power than legitimate gods, but Sui Xiong was an exception. From Angry Tide Heimsarah¡¯s situation, he was not in a ¡°special¡± category, and when Angry Tide Heimsarah awoke, he would be close to the weak Divine Power stage. Sui Xiong would then need to make preparations to become a legitimate god. However, Angry Tide Heimsarah was on good terms with Sui Xiong, who was gracious and helpful. Thus, even if Angry Tide Heimsarah did not become a god with his own abilities, he could take a shortcut and become a patron saint, such as being Garth City¡¯s sea patron saint. Although patron saints were of the lower rank of gods, it was still a legitimate god title. Furthermore, it was a stable position as long as the place continued to grow. As of today, there had been many patron saints in different areas, but the main cause of death was in war. No one had died due to failing to perform faith as a god. Thus, it could be seen that this was a safe role and had assured benefits. Sui Xiong smiled and left. He wanted to find Leon to discuss awarding Angry Tide Heimsarah the title of ¡°Garth City¡¯s sea patron saint.¡± Chapter 790 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Garth City¡¯s sea patron saint? This role is such a low one; is it really enough to sustain weak Divine power?¡± Leon smiled. Sui Xiong was unsure. ¡°Maybe? I¡¯ve never thought about it in detail. Maybe someone else could help us ascertain this.¡± ¡°We can save ourselves the trouble. I can capture a group of creatures near the shore and instruct them to live near Garth City as underwater farmers while forcing them to be disciples of Your Majesty, Angry Tide Heimsarah. We can calculate it then. As long as he accumulates disciples over the next 100 years, he will be able to become a legitimate god with the title of ¡°storm¡± or ¡°sea tide,¡± and it will save us much trouble.¡± ¡°Tsunami¡­¡± Sui Xiong thought for a long time before using his powers to shrivel up within his own body. After about ten minutes, his separate physical entity here in Garth City spat out a piece of seemingly unfinished gold crystal. This crystal was transparent, and although it was somewhat damaged, it still exuded brilliance. In its center, there was a group of incomplete storms that were whistling, and thunder was ringing as well. ¡°Last time, I killed the God of Storm, Taklawur, and swallowed most of his body and kingdom. One of the parts were used by me to create my own kingdom, while others were used to make several spiritual weapons. The core of the armor you wear was from this material. I absorbed most of the god¡¯s power regarding storms and violence as well as what he had trained, so reproducing it is rather possible.¡± Although that was what Sui Xiong articulated, one could tell from the slight darkening of his green body that producing this crystal had still wasted much of Sui Xiong¡¯s energy. This was similar to the creation of legitimate gods. Although a normal human could not immediately become a god, if one had knowledge of storms and had absorbed the knowledge of the entire city, they could assume a temporary god role as long as they combined them together. Of course, an honorary god was better than not being one, right? Leon had already been making preparations to enter the Demigod Realm and thus immediately understood the use of the crystal. His eyes widened. ¡°But Lord! This is your chance; how could you give away the chance of being a legitimate god to someone else?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need this chance. My role as a god is to help people prosper and improve, but I don¡¯t intend to become some god of storms.¡± ¡°Having one more role is good, though, right? In the past, didn¡¯t the God of Sun also try to take on multiple common roles?¡± ¡°Eventually, he was killed. I¡¯ve realized this is not the way to go as it offends many. Furthermore, it may create disasters for this world¡­ This is too early for you to know. Just as the God of Light had cautioned me in the past, focus on improving your own skills first. Don¡¯t worry about priesthood until you become a demigod. I¡¯ll prepare a priesthood for you by then.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really need one. Even if I do, there are others which will be offered to me, there¡¯s no need to trouble you.¡± ¡°Ah? Priesthood options? You plan to become a patron saint of Garth City?¡± ¡°That¡¯s one of my options. Alternatively, I could be a patron saint of the Eagle Kingdom as well. I can tell that the God of Eagles has left a way of escape in my blood vessels, and when I become a demigod, he will try to steal my body to live in. If it¡¯s just me, it would be hard to fight, but with the protection in your kingdom, he will lose. In any case, when I become a demigod, I can then swallow him, and I will be the next God of Eagles¡­ which I may choose as my priesthood.¡± ¡°Being a patron saint is not a very good priesthood option. Have you considered being a god of violence? Although it¡¯s not as compact a role as being the god of storms, I can still help you squeeze it out¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s too early to say, we¡¯ll see.¡± Leon shook his head and subtly refused the offer. He did not want to tire Sui Xiong out further. Sui Xiong also understood his meaning and nodded, smiling. Meanwhile, his original physical form back in his kingdom began sleeping and gathering power for him to be able to pass on the ¡°violence¡± priesthood to Leon. Towards this power, Sui Xiong had done his research. If the God of Storms¡¯ inheritance was not enough, he had to use his own power to supplement this. With his level of ability, this was not hard. In any case, he absorbed great power from his disciples¡¯ faith daily, and if he did not use it, it would be wasted in storage anyway. After explaining Angry Tide Heimsarah¡¯s situation to Leon, he queried on Gath City again to ensure nothing bad had happened while he was away. Sui Xiong wondered whether that invisible fellow he had incited was in Garth City. This was an important place for Sui Xiong. It was not as surrounded by spiritual power like Void Mask City and was the perfect place for the fellow to manifest. Sui Xiong could not understand and asked Leon for his opinion. Leon thought for a while before suggesting that Sui Xiong had forgotten one other viable place. ¡°Where?¡± ¡°I remember last winter, in the southwest area of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins along the big swamp, a leader had been leading his tribe. This tribe consisted of many officials who joined our church. I remember now, it was a baronet, and his surname was¡­ Dahl.¡± Chapter 791 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Dahl¡¯s Baron Hill? Sui Xiong froze for a moment before recalling this place. That was a relatively remote territory. Sui Xiong originally intended to use it as a site for experiments, and then he would send his church¡¯s ¡°European Prince,¡± Kabbalah, who was most highly-skilled in summoning Oracles, to be the bishop. According to what Sui Xiong thought, the local lord belonged to the evil camp, so he was bound to clash with Kabbalah, who came from the good camp. By that time, Kabbalah would have no choice but to summon the Oracles for help. He could then test and verify the help that Oracles could render to these mid-ranked Oracles. And he could take the chance to see how far these Oracles could be of use, and he could also test for the types of advancements the Oracles could make¡­ in short, there were many things for him to study and experiment with. However, even gods could not get everything to proceed as smoothly as they wished without any hiccups. Sui Xiong might have designed a good plan, but things did not go the way he expected. Or rather, Baron Dahl¡¯s approach was the exact opposite of what Sui Xiong had expected. According to his plan, Baron Dahl would not have been able to tolerate the help and organization that the Church of the Void Mask was giving the poor. So sooner or later, he would get into a serious conflict with the Church of the Void Mask. But in fact, after witnessing the combat power of the Church of the Void Mask, Baron Dahl had all but banished any intention of military confrontation. After all, for him, even if the poor people in his territory became stronger and harder to control, it would cost him nothing more than spending a few monies or cannon fodder. It was not worth taking the risk of losing his troops over this. How much was a poor man¡¯s life worth? The deaths of a dozen of his elite soldiers would cost him much more than all the poor people of the entire Dahl City put together! With such a thought in mind, Baron Dahl began to make peace by fostering a friendlier relationship with the Church of the Void Mask. And not too long later, as the conflict between the merchant party and the aristocratic party intensified, Baron Dahl found himself in a dilemma. Baron Dahl did not want to join the merchant party or the aristocratic party. So in the end, he gnashed his teeth and immediately sought refuge with the Church of the Void Mask, where he set up a small autonomous region. Speaking of which, he was also quite a relentless man. He clearly knew that he would have to suffer a great deal and lose a lot of interest if he were to seek refuge with the Church of the Void Mask. But to escape the tide of internal strife between the merchant party and the aristocratic party, he would rather suffer hardships and lose money. Just to complete the redemption ritual, he had given up half his life. If not for Bishop Kabbalah¡¯s perfect mastery of the Healing Spell, it was highly possible that he could have died in the redemption ritual. But it was also through that determination of his that Sui Xiong saw sincerity. So Sui Xiong changed his mind and gave Dahl Hill his blessings and protection. Relying on Sui Xiong¡¯s protection, Dahl Hill successfully evaded that great internal strife between the aristocratic party and merchant party that had once almost escalated into war. At present, he had changed course to a low-key development where he could live a secure and stable life. It was probably because he maintained Dahl Hill at such a low profile that even Sui Xiong gradually forgot about this territory. If not for Leon¡¯s reminder, Sui Xiong would never have remembered Dahl Hill. So he hurried towards Dahl Hill. This time, he only took a few hours to arrive at his destination. Winter had reached its coldest point of the season. As Dahl Hill was in a region where the climate was considerably colder than the others, now the entire territory was practically fully covered in white snow. Bishop Kabbalah was sitting in the parlor of Baron Dahl¡¯s mansion. He was having a one-on-one discussion with Baron Dahl. The wood burning in the fireplace could at least maintain the warmth in the house. Though it was not warm like the mansions of aristocrats, where they could simply wear a single layer of clothing, at least the people in the house would not feel the dreadful cold. Kabbalah was holding some herbal tea but did not look as though he wanted any tea. He was just quietly thinking. Seated across him, Baron Dahl was in deep thought. These two men, who held the two highest positions in Dahl Hill, were motionless, as though they were two stationary statues. After a while, Baron Dahl sighed again. Then he said, ¡°This matter¡­ It¡¯s really not easy to deal with!¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Kabbalah. ¡°If it was easy to handle, I wouldn¡¯t have come looking for you.¡± ¡°Obtaining warmth is a big problem. I¡¯m aware of this. But to help all the poor people safely tide over this bitter cold, a great amount of fuel is needed anyhow. We don¡¯t produce coal here, so we can only use wood. But extensive cutting down of trees for firewood would mean conflict with the Druids in the forest¡­¡± said Baron Dahl. Shaking his head gently, he said, ¡°With our strength, even if we can win against them, we will still suffer a great loss. It¡¯s just not worth it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s for the sake of the people¡¯s lives, so there¡¯s nothing such as worth it or not,¡± Kabbalah advised. ¡°The poor people¡¯s lives are lives, the soldiers¡¯ lives are also lives,¡± Baron Dahl said very earnestly. ¡°Bishop Kabbalah, I¡¯ll do away with all that empty talk and courtesies and get straight to the point. Those soldiers were selected and trained at a great expense. They have always been loyal and brave, and this territory under my rule depends on them. I can¡¯t risk their lives just to protect the poor people from the cold.¡± Bishop Kabbalah frowned and said, ¡°But don¡¯t soldiers exist for the purpose of protecting the people? If the soldiers don¡¯t protect the people, then do their existence hold any value at all?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not wrong of you to say that, but I can¡¯t be telling them things like ¡®the poor people need firewood to keep themselves warm, so they need to cut down many trees. But there are Druids in the forest, so you guys have to deal with the Druids and leave the cutting of trees to the poor people¡¯¡­ is it possible to say such things to them? Even they themselves will not say yes!¡± Kabbalah went silent. After a while, he sighed again and said, ¡°Where on earth did those Druids come from!¡± This was not a question; it was merely Kabbalah expressing his sentiment. Since last fall, Druids had been seen in the forests near Baron Dahl¡¯s territory. They were not the typical religious sect that emphasized the harmony between man and nature, as well as the balance of nature. They were more like a sect that went to the extremity of blindly protecting nature with the belief that all humans should return to nature. This sect protected the natural ecosystems in the most unscrupulous manner and prohibited all acts of destruction of nature in an extremely strict way. This included, but was not limited to, clearing wasteland, cutting down trees and making roads in the forests. Over the past few months, they already had several confrontations with the adventurers of Dahl Hill. Although neither had lost any lives yet, there had been many cases of injuries. Under this situation, even if the weather was cold, the civilians would not dare venture into the forests to cut trees, lest they meet with attacks. For the ordinary civilians, even if they did not cut down trees, they could still purchase coal or the likes of it for heating purposes. Or they could simply save up on firewood and wear thicker clothes. So long as they were more or less warm, they would be just fine. But the poor civilians could neither afford to buy coal nor did they have thick clothes to wear. If they even had to lack firewood to stay warm enough, the number of people freezing to death this winter was truly going to unimaginable! Bishop Kabbalah certainly would not allow this cruel thing to happen right under his own eyes. So he brought his clergymen for a round of negotiation with the Druids. The outcome of their negotiations was clear, so he had come to pay the lord a visit at his mansion. He was hoping that Baron Dahl would send troops to help him ¡°convince¡± those Druids and thus, help the poor people to pull through this winter. However, Baron Dahl was unwilling to deploy his soldiers. Regardless of the fact that he too, was a follower of the Church of the Void Mask, he simply could not bear to lose any soldiers for such a matter. In this regard, Bishop Kabbalah was also at his wit¡¯s end. The so-called goodness meant that one could sacrifice one¡¯s own interests when there were people in need, but it did not include sacrificing the interests of other people to help those in need. He was a good person, so he could not convince himself to force Baron Dahl to send troops. So things were now at an impasse, and they were already into the third day of their discussions. No matter how the Church of the Void Mask tried to plan and redistribute as comprehensively as possible, the firewood reserves for the slum areas were nearly used up¡ªand this even included the large amount of firewood obtained from the reserves in the Baron¡¯s mansion that had been taken out to help the poor. With things escalating to this situation, Bishop Kabbalah was also at a loss. Just as he was pondering whether he should or shouldn¡¯t go to the merchants in this territory to seek financial assistance in whichever way possible, he suddenly heard a voice coming from the bottom of his heart. That voice was deep and vigorous, and it carried a sense of sacredness that gave him extreme happiness. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m on my way. Chapter 792 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Void Mask¡¯s general put an end to this challenging problem of keeping the poor citizens of Dahl Hill warm. Sui Xiong most certainly did not need to cut trees. After understanding the situation, he cast his Divine Power and retrieved some red-hot stones directly from the Fire Element Plane. These red-hot stones could radiate heat continuously in a steady flow. These stones could absorb heat, and when placed in cold environments, it would release the heat previously absorbed. On the Main Plane, many fashionable, prominent merchants would use them to stay warm in places of temporary accommodation. As compared to using magic power to obtain warmth, the cost of using these stones was slightly lower. The only problem was that it was more dangerous¡ªthese stones were unstable; they exploded easily and might burn people around it. Undoubtedly, the Main Plane also produced these stones. They were usually found in the volcanoes or in the magma underground. Because it was difficult to mine in these areas and these stones did not carry much value, the production of such stones was very low. The amount that Sui Xiong collected this time might be more than the total amount that usually took 10 years to appear on the market. Using these stones, known as ¡°Prison Rock Ores,¡± to obtain warmth was a technical job. Without enough skills, one would not be able to obtain any heat from it. On the contrary, one might suffer burns from the stones. Sui Xiong knew this technique because he had seen the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins in this territory using these things to stay warm. What they did was they buried these stones underground and wrapped them within a thick layer of ash. Then they would cover the layer of ash with another layer of soil before putting wooden boards over the soil. After a while, there would be heat radiating from beneath the boards. This heat that came out from underground would be able to keep a large room warm. Yes, this feeling was just like that of floor heating. There were a few keys to this technique. The first was that the soil used to bury the stones had to be as dry as possible. The second was that the ash used had to be subjected to full combustion. The third was that the wooden boards used on top had to be the kind that did not bend easily. So long as these few points were well fulfilled, it was possible to build a relatively good ¡°greenhouse.¡± The poor people in the slum areas were definitely not so capable. But the clergymen were. They hurriedly got to work, digging holes under the bedrooms of the poor people¡¯s houses to fix up greenhouses. This kept them busy for a few days before they finally completed the job. With the warmth from the prison rock ores, the poor people who were originally fretting over how they could stay warm finally overcame this difficult period. Baron Dahl also took advantage of this opportunity to set up such a greenhouse in his mansion. Sui Xiong did not stop Baron Dahl from doing so. From his point of view, Baron Dahl¡¯s selfish choice was not necessarily a major mistake to start with. Humans were selfish beings to begin with. Forcing others to be selfless was simply not something a kind and generous jellyfish should do. But he did teach Baron Dahl a small lesson¡ªwhen Baron Dahl finished setting up his greenhouse and was about to enjoy the ¡°all-natural¡± warmth in high spirits, he accidentally dropped his teacup for no apparent reason. The boiling hot tea spilled all over his legs, causing his face to be contorted as he grimaced in pain while shouting at the top of his voice. This degree of burns would definitely call for a few days of recuperation on Earth, but in this world filled with mysterious power, it was nothing more than a matter that could be resolved with a single healing spell. But when Bishop Kabbalah wanted to cast the healing spell on Baron Dahl, who was being carried over by servants, he realized that though his prayers were answered, he was unable to borrow any Divine Power from His Majesty, the Void Mask. He froze for a moment, then prayed again. The outcome was still the same. Then he understood. ¡°My Lord¡­ His Majesty is unwilling to help you with this healing spell,¡± said Bishop Kabbalah. With a sigh, he said, ¡°I guess he¡¯s still bearing a grudge over what happened previously.¡± Baron Dahl also understood and helplessly gave a bitter smile. Fortunately, the healing spell might not have worked, but the medicine for healing burns was still quite effective. Over the years, the Church of the God of Medicine had collected many prescriptions. These prescriptions were then well sorted out and improved upon before being promoted again. One of these improved formulae was this medicine for burns. Both the Church of the Void Mask and Baron Dahl¡¯s mansion had stocked up on some of these medicines for burns. After applying some of the refined ointment, though the wound still hurt, at least there would not be any severe consequences. Baron Dahl, undoubtedly, dared not utter a single complaint. He did not even think of complaining at all. His decision of refusing the request of a bishop of a church, in the eyes of some stern gods, was an act of treason that deserved nothing less than being struck by lightning, and yet he was let off the hook with just a simple burn incident. For this alone, he was secretly thankful to His Majesty, the Void Mask, for being so benevolent. Having solved the problem of keeping the poor people warn and meting out a minor punishment to that stingy Baron Dahl, Sui Xiong felt his thoughts and actions had reached a consensus; thus, his mood lightened up. So he went to Kabbalah and asked in detail about what exactly happened. ¡°Where did those Druids come from? Have you looked into it?¡± Facing His Majesty, the god that he had believed in, Kabbalah could not help stammering as he spoke, ¡°They¡­ they say that those Druids came from a place called ¡®Calapaglia.''¡± ¡°Calapaglia? What place is that?¡± ¡°My¡­ my apologies. I myself have no idea ¡­¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and thought carefully for a while. Yet he was still unable to figure out where this ¡°Calapaglia¡± place was. So he went looking for his friends to make some inquiries. He asked a few of his friends, none of whom knew about this place. In the end, they managed to find information about this place because Wall cast his Divine Power and relied on his ¡°Knowledge¡± priesthood to conduct a search. It was a small world situated at the edge of the Matter Plane but was already somewhat close to the Spirit Plane. There were many forests in this world, making it vibrant and full of vigor. After the decline of the Elf Kingdom, many elves and other races of Druids had moved into this world after leaving the Main Plane. ¡°But why are they back again?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Wall shook his head. This was not something he could possibly ask about. What Wall¡¯s Knowledge priesthood could inquire about was nothing more than fixed names, incidents, places¡­ and things like that. He would not be able to provide answers for any questions asking for a ¡°why.¡± Sui Xiong also did not press him for further details. In his heart, he had figured out about 70 to 80 percent of the answer to his question. It seemed like those Druids¡¯ sudden return to Earth was largely the work of that guy who wanted to have a talk with Sui Xiong himself. Sui Xiong did not hasten into action. Instead, he continued to talk to Kabbalah. ¡°Why don¡¯t you try to expel those Druids?¡± he asked. ¡°I¡¯ve tried to¡­ but I¡¯m not their match.¡± ¡°How is that possible! You can always summon the Oracles!¡± Kabbalah froze for a moment. It was as though he had just awakened from a dream as he recalled this method. Since he had become a bishop, he had been busy with work. Gradually, he got used to the change in status. He had eventually forgotten that he was once a ¡°lucky European,¡± and also, he forgot that he could still use the method of summoning Oracles to solve problems. It was said that practice made perfect. A few years without summoning Oracles, and this ¡°European Prince¡± had actually forgotten all about this method¡­ He could not help but slap himself. But then again, he laughed. ¡°Yes! I¡¯ll remember that next time!¡± he said and laughed. ¡°The next time around, I will remember!¡± Sui Xiong also laughed. After a good laugh, he went to the forest. Flying into the forest, he did not look for the druids. Instead, he stopped on a vast, open grassy glade. Then he laughed and said, ¡°No matter who you are, since you are here to look for me, then here I am.¡± ¡°If you have something to say, come out and talk to me.¡± A moment later, from within the shadows of the trees not far behind him, a dark shadow wriggled. Then a hooded figure walked out. Chapter 793 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It was noon, and the sun was shining brightly. But after the figure clothed in a thick, hooded robe emerged from the shade, everything within the forest immediately darkened. There were no dark clouds appearing in the sky. At that moment, the sky was still clear. Just that few wisps of floating clouds would not be enough to block the sun. It was just that, when that person appeared, ¡°shadows¡± started to diffuse throughout the forest, like how fog would spread. If Sui Xiong were willing, he could easily dispel these shadows. But he did nothing. Quietly, he stood still in the air and kept his eyes on that man. That man walked very slowly. Almost every stride he made was done at a very slow pace. Then he would wait for his front foot to touch the ground so that he could gain a firm foothold. Then he would stop for a moment before lifting his back foot to take another step forward. As he walked, his body would tremble from time to time, looking as if he was weak and feeble, or as though he were twitching in pain. The distance from the shade of the tree to Sui Xiong was no more than 20 meters, yet he took more than five minutes to walk over. When he finally reached Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong sighed and said, ¡°I really didn¡¯t expect it to be you, nor would I have expected you to become like this.¡± That person was silent for a moment, then let out a hoarse, dry laugh. He said, ¡°Me neither. I never expected myself to actually come to such an end. I also never expected that the only person I could entrust my funeral affairs with would not be an old friend of mine, but a rookie who has merely just set foot into the world. And this person has even been my enemy before.¡± Upon hearing him mention ¡°funeral affairs,¡± Sui Xiong was a little surprised and asked, ¡°Is your situation that serious?¡± ¡°If it isn¡¯t serious, given my character, would I possibly take the initiative to invite you to meet me?¡± that person asked in return. Sui Xiong thought about it and smiled. Just as the man said, given the relationship between them, if the situation had not been so serious, the other party would definitely not come to see him. In other words, what could have forced this fellow to come finding Sui Xiong to entrust him with his funeral matters was most probably the fact that he was truly at the end of his rope. His end was near. If it was not for his impending death, would he dare appear before Sui Xiong? Believe it or not, Sui Xiong could have given him whiplash with just a swing of his tentacle! Out of all the gods, the one that Sui Xiong most wanted to kill was definitely him! Over the years, all the odds and ends that he came up with had created much trouble for Sui Xiong. He had also caused a whole lot of messy and crappy issues that proved to be quite torturous. If it was not for Sui Xiong¡¯s perfect ability to handle problems, coupled with his brothers working under him who were capable of doing things right, there would have been chaos long ago! ¡°The God of Conspiracy, you also have this day!¡± Sui Xiong said with a sneer. Then rudely, he said, ¡°Pitiful as you may be, I shall not feel sorry for you. Whatever tricks you have up your sleeves, you¡¯ve got the wrong man!¡± This fellow who had conjured all ways possible to attract Sui Xiong to this place, who wore a hood, seemed so weak, and who claimed that his life was drawing to an end, was none other than the God of Conspiracy. Though it was unknown how weak he had become, Sui Xiong would never let his guard down against this god. Just as everyone knew, the God of Conspiracy might not have outstanding martial abilities, but the gods that he had brought death upon and the gods who had indirectly died because of the conspiracies he plotted were even more than the victories of the God of War, Wenner. This god advocated solving problems with wisdom rather than force. He felt that whatever could be done with his brain should best be done without using a knife. At the same time, he also advocated the kind of wisdom of a Lawful Evil. He felt that being able to make reasonable use of rules to corner his opponent into his trap was the true embodiment of wisdom. It had already been 10,000 years since he first appeared. For 10,000 years, he and his followers had been fanning the flames of trouble and disorder wherever they went. On countless occasions, they had hidden behind the scenes, hatching plots that would send people trembling in fear. The number of emperors and generals who had fallen under their conspiracies was unknown. And they were also the evil backstage manipulators behind the various rises and falls, and even the successes and failures. For example, the famous ¡°family of advisers¡± of the Orc Empire, the Wilder family, had an altar set up for him. They had also fostered close relationships with his clergymen. Sui Xiong had also suffered a loss because of this jerk. Although he was unable to find evidence for many things, he was sure that all these years, the various troublesome situations that he encountered would most likely be the doings of the God of Conspiracy. This god would have instigated and incited trouble. So he had long made up his mind that in the future, if he had the chance to meet the God of Conspiracy, he would definitely kill him without question! But the God of Conspiracy that appeared before him was nothing more than a clone. It was meaningless to kill him. And judging from the looks of him, it seemed as though he was really on the verge of death. It made no difference whether he fought him or not. Sui Xiong was not the kind of person who would say, ¡°Aye, aye, I forgive you¡± before a dying enemy. Though he was a kind and generous man, he held Lu Xun¡¯s quote, ¡°I shall not forgive a single person,¡± in high regard. But seeing how this enemy before him was already on the brink of a tragic death, Sui Xiong simply did not bother dealing him with another blow. That additional blow that he gave might even grant the God of Conspiracy an easier death by putting an end to all his agony¡­ Sui Xiong might have been somewhat curious, but he did not want anything from the God of Conspiracy. Even the interest in killing the other party was gone. So even though the God of Conspiracy was creating such a mysterious air and leaving everything in a cliffhanger, he paid no attention to it at all. He merely floated quietly in mid-air and waited for the other party to continue speaking. The God of Conspiracy waited for a moment before realizing that Sui Xiong was not going to say anything more. He was left with no choice but to break the ice and speak first. ¡°Aren¡¯t you curious? About why I¡¯ve become like this?¡± he asked. ¡°Curious, of course I¡¯m curious,¡± Sui Xiong replied frankly. ¡°But if you¡¯re unwilling to tell me, then so be it. There are so many people dying in the world, there¡¯s really no need for me to study how every single one of them dies¡ªwould it help me in any way at all by studying the way you died?¡± He was just making a casual remark, but the God of Conspiracy smiled in return and said, ¡°You¡¯ve reminded me. If you could study the entire process of how I die, who knows, it might really be quite helpful to you. How about this? If we can come to terms with each other, I¡¯ll go and meet you in person to let you see for yourself how I died.¡± Up till here, he paused for a while as though he was thinking about something. Then he added, ¡°Actually¡­ perhaps there¡¯s really the need to do so. Through studying the process of my death, it might probably make you stronger, or at least allow you to master some useful skills. In the future¡­ it might probably be of some help to you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not even sure about this.¡± ¡°Yes. There¡¯s no way I can be sure of it.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and said, ¡°From the way you look right now, you really bear no resemblance to the backstage manipulator of all sorts of conspiracies in the world!¡± ¡°Even a great beast moans in pain at the brink of death; even the long-lived dragon weeps in sorrow when its death is near. What¡¯s wrong with fearing death?¡± asked the God of Conspiracy. He did not feel angry at being mocked; instead, he said evenly, ¡°Moreover¡­ if you come to know about how I¡¯m going to die, I¡¯m afraid you will not be able to maintain such a calm expression.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment then nodded. He said, ¡°What you said made sense. Thinking about it carefully, if this was something that could claim your life, then it¡¯s indeed a little scary.¡± ¡°This is why I want to make a deal with you,¡± the God of Conspiracy said. ¡°I¡¯ll pay a sufficient amount in exchange for a promise.¡± ¡°What promise?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°In the future, if you ever have the chance, avenge me.¡± Chapter 794 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After hearing the God of Conspiracy¡¯s condition, Sui Xiong directly refused him without a second thought. ¡°You must be kidding! Even I would have wanted to kill you myself if I had the chance to. And you want me to avenge you? That¡¯s pure nonsense!¡± The God of Conspiracy did not get angry because of what Sui Xiong said. He merely smiled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. The one who wants my life is definitely no kind soul. As you continue to grow in strength and power, in the future, the day that you have to confront him will eventually come. All I¡¯m asking is that after you have won the fight against it, don¡¯t pardon him like how you did to the War God System. You must never forgive him for surrendering. You have to kill him. That¡¯s all.¡± Sui Xiong still shook his head and said, ¡°No way! I can¡¯t agree to such a condition. No one knows what will happen in the future. Who knows, that someone may have turned over a new leaf, or maybe I will some major exchange of interests with that someone¡­ and honestly speaking, you¡¯re not an honest person. I don¡¯t really believe the things you say. Even when you are about to die, I¡¯m still worried about whether you will try to cheat something out of me before you die. So I won¡¯t make any promises to any condition of yours.¡± Then nonchalantly, he said, ¡°I know you must have a lot of treasures or some secret information. But to me, those do not have any indispensable value. They are not worth my taking the risk of getting cheated by you before your death by striking a deal with you.: The God of Conspiracy had obviously expected such a situation. He went straight to the point and said, ¡°It¡¯s said that the legacy left behind by the Goddess of Life originally belonged to the God of Virtue. It contains a great treasure with the mystery of a greater Divine Power. Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re not interested in it.¡± Sui Xiong froze in surprise. And he remained still for almost a minute or two before laughing out loud. ¡°This fellow¡­ you¡¯re just too interesting!¡± he said. Then he laughed for a long time before finally stopping. But still, Sui Xiong shook his head and said, ¡°You take me for a fool? Conjuring such a story to lie to me¡­ Don¡¯t think you¡¯re the only one who knows the principle of being ¡®blinded by lust for gain.¡¯ I know it as well!¡± ¡°You think I¡¯m lying to you?¡± ¡°Bullsh*t! If you really had such a treasure, you would have stepped into the realm of a great Divine Power. Who knows, you might have even been a top master amongst the great Divine Powers. If you really had that kind of capability, how would you be pushed to the brink of death so easily?¡± The God of Conspiracy was silent for a moment; then he sighed deeply. ¡°In truth, a Great Divine Power is not as great as you imagine it to be.¡± ¡°Forget it. The words of a mid-ranked Divine Power like yourself are not the least bit convincing,¡± Sui Xiong said with a laugh as he mocked at the God of Conspiracy. ¡°I¡­ was once a great Divine Power,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. Then he fell silent for a long time before whispering, ¡°And¡­ at that time, I was almost the most powerful Divine Power.¡± Sui Xiong froze. After a while, he sneered and said, ¡°Even at your last hour, you have to boast. Aren¡¯t you tired of being so pointless?¡± ¡°Boast? I¡¯m about to die, what is there to boast about?¡± said the God of Conspiracy, who also sneered in reply. Then he lowered his voice and said, ¡°That morgue of the God of Potion¡¯s God Kingdom has fallen into your hands, right?¡± Sui Xiong suddenly shuddered in shock and felt all his tentacles going numb. He almost leaped to his feet to smash that God of Conspiracy into pieces with his swinging tentacles. Sui Xiong had picked up this treasure vault that was reconstructed by the God of Potion¡¯s God Kingdom, from the Mystery God System¡¯s God Kingdom. This was a secret that he had never told anyone before. And only Sui Xiong and the Master of Mystery could possibly know about the things found in this treasure vault. How did the God of Conspiracy know about it? If word of this got out, Sui Xiong would be at a disadvantage. Even though he was powerful and was not afraid of the Human God System asking him for benefits, there were bound to be conflicts arising between him and the human gods. He was worried that this would inevitably cause some great troubles in time to come. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about this. The Master of Mystery was not the one who told me about it, nor did anyone else,¡± said the God of Conspiracy when he saw Sui Xiong getting nervous. He felt somewhat pleased as he smirked. Then he said, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m dying. I¡¯ll just tell you the truth. In that morgue, there¡¯s a corpse, my corpse. That¡¯s me back in those years.¡± Realization suddenly hit Sui Xiong. He could not help but carefully look at this God of Conspiracy up and down. His real self immediately hurried into that treasure vault where he pored through the bodies of the various elf gods. He identified them one by one, looking to see which one resembled the God of Conspiracy. But this way was obviously not going to reap any results. The God of Conspiracy was still completely wrapped up within that thick hooded robe. Besides, with his head lowered, there was no way Sui Xiong could get a clear view of his face. How could Sui Xiong even think of the method of comparison? As for his build¡­ there was a handful among the elf gods of similar build to the God of Conspiracy, so there was simply no way a comparison could be made. ¡°You should stop thinking about it. And I¡¯m not going to tell you either,¡± the God of Conspiracy said lightly. ¡°The Elf God System has been destroyed. Even if I¡¯m still alive, I won¡¯t want to do anything more, not to mention now that I¡¯m almost dead. Ask yourself, all these years, have I ever shown the slightest bit of intention of wanting to do anything? Sui Xiong thought for a while and then shook his head. ¡°For me, all these things from years ago are all things of the past. So I¡¯m just telling you about it off the top of my head. The future of the elves, I suppose, will fall in the hands of those followers of yours. An old antique like myself, who was lucky enough back then to barely manage to escape alive, I really shouldn¡¯t make another appearance on the big stage of the elf kingdom,¡± said the God of Conspiracy as he gave another sigh. Then seeming as though something suddenly came to his mind, he paused before saying, ¡°Right, that wolf should still be sealed inside. Did you notice?¡± ¡°Are you referring to Kersemens, the Lord of the Wolves? I released him. He¡¯s now residing in my God Kingdom,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I¡¯m not sure whether it¡¯s because he was injured previously or because of some other reason¡­ Anyway, he¡¯s sleepy all day long. From morning to night, he spends most of his time sleeping.¡± ¡°Maybe he has been sealed for much too long, thus causing some problems. Or perhaps it might be due to something else¡­ Anyway, that¡¯s not important. Compared to what I just said about that treasure, such wolf cub is not even worth a mention,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. He thought for a while, shook his head and returned to the earlier topic. He said, ¡°Now, do you still think I¡¯m lying to you? That treasure, it really does exist¡ªonly that it¡¯s not in my hands.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while, then asked, ¡°Was it because of that treasure that you got yourself a death warrant?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not wrong in saying that, but you¡¯re not entirely right either,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. He was silent for a while. Then he untied the straps of his hood and pushed it back, revealing his face. There was nothing much to talk about his appearance. What really stood out, though, were the black lines on his face. Those lines were like intertwining vines that spread from his neck all the way towards his face. Sui Xiong could see them very clearly. At that very moment, a stream of black air slowly rose as if to ensnare the God of Conspiracy¡¯s head as well. ¡°This is the cause of my death¡ªerosion by the Power of Chaos,¡± said the God of Conspiracy as he sighed deeply. He put his hood back on and said, ¡°As for the rest of the matter, if you¡¯re willing to agree to my condition, I¡¯ll tell you everything. ¡°So tell me what¡¯s your decision,¡± he said. ¡°Are you willing to make such a promise for a possible benefit?¡± Chapter 795 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°Who on earth is your enemy?¡± Sui Xiong asked. He had thought through it many times, yet in the end, his curiosity got the better of him. In fact, he did not really care about the benefits of ¡°becoming a greater Divine Power.¡± Perhaps the vast majority of gods would not be able to resist this sort of temptation, but he definitely would not be one of them. For the present Sui Xiong, becoming a greater Divine Power did not actually make much of a difference. In terms of power, he was powerful enough. Even if a greater Divine Power like the unparalleled God of Light or the God of Water Elements, who had existed way before the era of the Great Circulation, decided to turn against him, when the battle arrays were laid and all sides were to fight each other to the end, he felt that he would not lose the battle. Greater Divine Powers were undoubtedly great. Yet among the gods, there was only one great Divine Power that Sui Xiong had no confidence in challenging. That was none other than the Master of Order. But so what? If he could not win against the Master of Order, then so be it. It would not affect his life anyway. This was just like playing a game where one had successfully fought through a dungeon and could finally strike down the final boss and obtain better equipment. Was there a need to pursue awards like clearing out the dungeon before a certain time or winning using the smallest team? Maybe the real game fanatics would pursue this, and they might even do a live broadcast or something. But Sui Xiong was not really interested. Of course, it was definitely good to be able to become a greater Divine Power. But the question was, at what cost? Sui Xiong abhorred the God of Conspiracy. His intuition told him that there would not be any good from getting involved with this bastard. So he really did not wish to be bothered about this guy. But, on the other hand, he really could not help but feel curious. It was like playing a game. He himself did not pursue unnecessary awards, nor was he after things like ¡°no potions¡± and ¡°only daggers.¡± But when there was nothing hindering him from watching such videos, he could spend an entire half-day watching them with great relish. And he would even clap and cheer loudly at the splendid and wonderful parts. So finally, he could not help but ask. Anyway, there was no harm in asking. If the other party was simply too powerful or if the other party was not a particularly unlikeable character, he would still have time if he wanted to give up by then. If the God of Conspiracy was unwilling to tell him who his enemy was, then Sui Xiong would have no choice but to forget about it. No matter how great his interest and no matter how great his curiosity, he would not unwittingly make enemies with others like a fool. But after hearing his question, the God of Conspiracy laughed. If Sui Xiong really did not bother to inquire about anything at all, the God of Conspiracy could only be that helpless. It was said that a man with no desire could not be swayed easily. So no matter how good he was at scheming and plotting, when in the face of a person who was not the least bit interested in reciprocating his advances, there was nothing the God of Conspiracy could do. But since Sui Xiong popped the question, it showed that he was interested. If he was interested, then everything else would be much easier. When it came to speculating the human¡¯s heart, the God of Conspiracy was very confident that he beat all the other gods at it. However, he might encounter some chaotic people whose minds were completely messed up. One second, they would be laughing heartily, but the next second, they would have suddenly drawn their swords to hack away at someone. Otherwise, he would always be able to guess what went through the minds of other people through their words and actions¡ªor at least, he could guess a portion of their thoughts. He was not very sure why Sui Xiong asked. But so long as Sui Xiong opened his mouth and asked, it was possible for a negotiation to happen next. ¡°This enemy who led me to my death is an existence named ¡°Chaos,¡± who lives in the deepest region of the abyss,¡± he said. ¡°In fact, I¡¯ve never fought him before. I merely went looking for him for a brief negotiation, yet I was unconsciously eroded. And then¡­ that¡¯s all.¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment, then asked, ¡°You mean to say, you merely met the other party, and then now, you are losing your life?¡± ¡°You can understand the situation as such.¡± ¡°My God! Just one meeting, and he has your life. That is one powerful fellow. And still, you want to pit me against him?¡± Sui Xiong said. He could not hold himself back from cursing and swearing. ¡°Are you taking the chance to kill me?¡± The God of Conspiracy laughed and said, ¡°If it were any other god, even if it was the God of Revenge or the God of Water Elements, I don¡¯t see any hope in them winning against ¡®Chaos.¡¯ But if it¡¯s you, I¡¯ll feel that there¡¯s at least some hope.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because you once found your way into the abyss in a most unguarded and unprepared manner. And you fought a great battle and turned the place upside down. In the end, you even dragged a small world out from the abyss¡ªwasn¡¯t that small world that you dragged out from the abyss used as grist for the modification of your God Kingdom?¡± Sui Xiong coughed. After a few seconds, he shook his head and said, ¡°Even if I can resist being eroded by the abyss, it doesn¡¯t mean that I¡¯m able to withstand the power of this ¡®Chaos!¡¯ This is just like a mortal¡¯s body. A healthy mortal can eat things that contain just a bit of poison, but if they were to gulp down a huge cup of poisoned water, no matter how healthy they are, they will still die.¡± ¡°Maybe. But I still feel that you will be able to resist that fellow¡¯s power of erosion,¡± the God of Conspiracy said. ¡°For no reason at all, I just feel that way.¡± He laughed again and said, ¡°Previously, when I had yet to meet you, this feeling was not that strong. But now, after meeting you, this feeling is getting stronger.¡± ¡°Feeling?! Are you sick in the mind?! Such a huge thing, and you are making your decision based on your feelings?¡± ¡°Other than my feelings, what else can I rely on?¡± the God of Conspiracy asked back. ¡°Among the honorable gods, there won¡¯t be any who can resist the power of erosion of the abyss¡ªprobably the Master of Order could, but I really cannot communicate with that old man. I¡¯ve tried to previously, but he would not give me the time of day. Otherwise, I would never have taken that path¡­¡± ¡°What path?¡± Sui Xiong asked. His curiosity was aroused all over again. ¡°It¡¯s all in the past, not even worth mentioning,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. Obviously, he was reluctant to answer this. He continued to say, ¡°Among the evil gods, there¡¯s a handful of them who could resist the erosion of the abyss. But¡­ my visiting ¡®Chaos¡¯ previously to propose a co-operation was to deal with the leader of the evil gods.¡± Sui Xiong was taken aback and asked in a rather loud voice, ¡°The Dragon of Chaos? You wanted to deal with¡­ the Dragon of Chaos?!¡± The God of Conspiracy nodded. ¡°Seriously! You deserve to be thrown out onto the streets! Don¡¯t you know who the Dragon of Chaos is? Do you think that that¡¯s someone you can handle!¡± Sui Xiong scolded. Then suddenly, he felt a jolt of fear as he recalled something. Instantly, he went pale in the face. ¡°Hey! Is that ¡®Chaos¡¯ that you¡¯re looking for a mass of thick, amorphous black air¡­ Well, I can¡¯t really say it¡¯s black air. In short, it¡¯s just a mass of substance capable of squirming about¡­ maybe not squirming. Anyway, it can move¡­ and it¡¯s a mass of chaos filled with evil and chaotic aura. Just one look at it from afar could make anyone feel great discomfort. It¡¯s fine if it remains still and asleep. But the moment it awakes, everyone around it will simply want to get far away from it¡­ right?¡± The God of Conspiracy was silent for a while. Then he laughed loudly and said, ¡°Just as I¡¯ve expected! You¡¯re certainly able to resist his power of erosion! Back then, you¡¯ve met Chaos in the abyss, right? You were able to resist him back then, now that you¡¯ve become much stronger, I¡¯m sure you are more than able to¡­ And in the future, you¡¯re going to continue getting stronger. Who knows, the day will come where he will be destroyed!¡± He laughed most delightfully and spoke in a tone that sounded somewhat crazy. Sui Xiong could not help feeling surprised and worried just by listening to him. This fellow¡­ have you lost your mind? Chapter 796 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The God of Conspiracy laughed for a long time before he regained his composure. This time, there was no need for Sui Xiong to ask him any further questions. He was like a pile of beans spilling out of a bamboo tube as he gave a clear recount of the entire matter. ¡°It all started a long time ago. At that time, I¡­ forget. Whatever happened at that time, we should just let it be. Anyway, there isn¡¯t much significance,¡± he said. Then he sighed deeply and said, ¡°Really, it doesn¡¯t carry much significance. In a few words, back during the time when the God of Virtue disappeared, he left a piece of treasure that contained the pearl of the world.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just one world. What¡¯s the big deal?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Then he said, ¡°Give me some time. I can also create a world.¡± ¡°That world is different,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. With a smile, he said, ¡°It is capable of using its ¡®free will.''¡± ¡°Is that rare? In my own God Kingdom, I can control things with my free will too.¡± ¡°So can you control your God Kingdom and produce infinite Divine Power in a split second?¡± Sui Xiong was stunned and froze. He deliberated for a moment, then asked in surprise, ¡°Do you mean to say, that world¡­ its so-called ¡®free will,¡¯ is truly that spontaneous? I can do whatever I want, and it¡¯s even possible if I say, ¡®I¡¯m going to jump in and become a greater Divine Power¡¯?¡± The God of Conspiracy nodded and said, ¡°If that is not the case, what else could the Goddess of Life have depended on to be able to leave this enchantment that enveloped the Main Plane? No matter how powerful she had been, she couldn¡¯t be so insanely powerful.¡± Then Sui Xiong gained an understanding of the situation. His jaw dropped unconsciously, and he felt that if he had his glasses on, it would definitely have dropped to the ground and smashed to pieces. A world that transcended all rules and truly allowed for ¡°free will!¡± At the thought of actually owning such a treasure, even someone as indifferent as he was also could not help starting to breathe more laboriously. ¡°But, the Goddess of Life had overused it, or maybe that treasure also had its limit¡­ Anyway, something happened to it later on, and a part of it broke down,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. The second thing that he just said knocked some sense into Sui Xiong, who could not help cursing at this bastard in his heart for deliberately withholding the most important part of his story. This God of Conspiracy truly deserved to be dragged out for a good beating. ¡°Even if it¡¯s partially damaged, what remains of its might is still incredibly powerful,¡± the God of Conspiracy continued to say. ¡°The Goddess of Life left, so this thing, logically, has been handed down to me. With it in my hands, I¡¯m placed in quite a dilemma. I can¡¯t seem to use it nor place it anywhere.¡± ¡°Why? Just use it and gain a power that¡¯s comparable to that of the Goddess of Life.¡± ¡°At the beginning, that was what I thought. But later on, after thinking about it, I realized that I was already one of the most powerful gods among the great Divine Powers. Even if I were to be pitted against the God of Water Elements, I might not necessarily lose. If I became any more powerful, would there be much significance?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it. Then he shook his head. At that moment, he could already guess the identity of the God of Conspiracy. But he did not want to be so frank. From then to now, he had gone through so much along the way. For such a great god like himself, who used to be so incomparably glorious, it was indeed quite unbearable to recall all those painful memories. Though Sui Xiong was not on good terms with him, nor was he the kind of person who liked to wring out the pain of others, he would still rather pretend that he did not know anything. ¡°Of course, if I could use this to directly become a greater Divine Power, I would have used it. But the truth was that the Goddess of Life also did not use this to become a greater Divine Power,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. He went on to say, ¡°So I thought, how should I make use of this? How can I maximize its benefits?¡± Sui Xiong did not interrupt. He asked himself the same questions, and honestly, he felt that if it were him, he would not know how to put it to good use either. No matter how it was used, he felt that it was overqualified for them. But in truth, if they truly wanted to ¡°make full use¡± of it, there might also be problems. Oh well, this was indeed a little frustrating¡­ ¡°Later on, the God of Fire Elements¡­ not the present one, but the one at that time, the one who died. That guy was very powerful. He was a master who had come from the previous universe era and lived up to the present¡­¡± said the God of Conspiracy. He paused for a moment, then asked, ¡°Do you know anything about the previous universe? Do you want me to give you a brief introduction?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to do that. I¡¯ve met the God of Water Elements, and he had told me about this.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s good,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. He could not be bothered to ask further. Although he had immediately analyzed and drawn a great deal of information from this one sentence, everything was meaningless to him, who was already a dying person. ¡°The God of Earth Elements had killed the Master of Order, while the God of Wind Elements was too exhausted. The God of Fire Elements wanted to abandon his own priesthood of ¡®fire¡¯ and exchange it for a priesthood that could accommodate all other priesthoods¡­ and you should know the outcome. When he tried to embrace the priesthood of ¡®water,¡¯ he exploded.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. The God of Water Elements had told him about this. ¡°However, you may not know that he borrowed that piece of treasure from me when he wanted to make that attempt,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. ¡°At that time, I could not figure out how to use this thing. But I figured it would be nice if it could help the God of Fire Elements become a greater Divine Power. I was a different person then, and it was quite easy to talk to me.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and pondered a little. He could roughly figure out something, so he asked, ¡°That treasure was also damaged?¡± ¡°Yes, it was further damaged a little bit,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. ¡°I thought about it and felt that it might not even last a few more uses. So perhaps I should change the way I think.¡± ¡°Change the way you think? ¡°Yes. In this world, there¡¯s no one from any of the later generations who has been able to become a greater Divine Power. The key lies in the fact that there are already four greater Divine Powers who are blocking their way. Don¡¯t you think so?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while, then said, ¡°Maybe you do make some sense.¡± ¡°If only there wasn¡¯t the four greater Divine Powers standing in the way. When the God of Earth Elements successfully drove his Earth Element Plane to devour the Main Plane, he could have become a greater Divine Power,¡± said the God of Conspiracy, who went on to say, ¡°So I thought to myself, why don¡¯t I make use of this treasure, bring our Elf God System and some of the elites of the Elven race, and try to break through this world. We can head to a world where there¡¯s no greater Divine Power or even any great Divine Powers¡ªover there, I¡¯ll naturally be invincible. If I want to try to achieve a breakthrough to become a greater Divine Power, there will be no one to stop me.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. He felt that this solution sounded quite feasible. ¡°As for the rest of the story, I lost a part of my memory. Frankly speaking, I don¡¯t know whether I succeeded or failed. But there¡¯s one thing I¡¯m certain of. Back then, the Elf God System left a great number of corpses that fell in the hands of the Master of Mystery. But that treasure was not amongst them. Instead, it went missing. ¡°After that, I was truly born. In the beginning, I was not aware of my identity. It¡¯s just that I always had this feeling that there was something that I couldn¡¯t seem to forget. Then, when I succeeded in becoming a sealed god, I suddenly recalled the existence of such a treasure¡­ so I have been trying to track it down. After tracking it down for so long, I finally found out that the treasure had fallen into the hands of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest.¡± ¡°The Goddess of Bumper Harvest doesn¡¯t seem to be much more powerful,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°So that treasure must have been even more severely damaged. Because the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been restoring it for such a long time, but she was never truly able to fully restore it,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. ¡°Then she too was annihilated. Of course, there was my plot amongst the many reasons for her fall. After she was gone, this thing fell into my hands. Then¡­ it was snatched away by the Dragon of Chaos.¡± Sui Xiong was silent. He was almost at the point of full understanding. ¡°You mean to say that I must fight ¡®Chaos¡¯ to death, then snatch that treasure from the Dragon of Chaos? And we don¡¯t even know whether it still works or not?¡± He could not help sneering as he said, ¡°Your Majesty, the King of Elves, do I seem like a fool?¡± Chapter 797 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There were things that did not need to be revealed; there were also things that did not need an explanation. But Sui Xiong still could not help himself. He was very angry. The plan of the God of Conspiracy was as follows: Tell Sui Xiong the news about the treasure left behind by the God of Virtue. Out of greed or curiosity, he will naturally find trouble with the Dragon of Chaos and try to seize that treasure. The moment he gets that treasure, he will owe the God of Conspiracy a favor all because he had gotten this crucial information from the God of Conspiracy. The gods were different from mortals. They were very particular about so-called ¡°karma.¡± Even the gods in those chaotic evil camps and the evil gods and demons had to adhere to this most basic principle. Returning a favor was the exact embodiment of this basic principle. Of course, the ways on how to ¡°return the favor¡± were not definite. Take one of the most extreme examples, for instance. For the demons who symbolized that the world was ultimately bound for destruction, perhaps allowing painless destruction of the fellow whom they owed a favor to would be their way of returning the favor. However, Sui Xiong was not that sort of person. His way of returning favors was no different from the general public. So on top of owing the God of Conspiracy a favor, if Sui Xiong had the chance to fight ¡°Chaos¡± in the future, it was inevitable that he could not relent till he had killed ¡°Chaos.¡± And this was all because he needed to return this favor. Therefore, Sui Xiong was very angry. He had learned about the endings of the three greater Divine Powers from the Master of Order: The God of Virtue had given up his priesthood and power. His whereabouts were unknown. The things that he had given up probably became that piece of treasure. First, it fell into the hands of the Goddess of Life. Then, it landed in the hands of the King of Elves before falling into the hands of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Now, it was in the hands of the Dragon of Chaos. The God of Evil had set a trap that almost killed the Master of Chaos and had devoured him. However, he could not truly digest the power of the Master of Chaos. Instead, he fell into a state of madness and became this horrifying monster called ¡°Chaos.¡± He was now hidden deep in the abyss, perhaps in the core of the abyss or perhaps at the bottommost part of the abyss. On ordinary days, he would be in a deep slumber, but he would wake up once in a while. This would usually lead to an eruption within the abyss where devils would run rampant and rain down attacks everywhere. The Master of Chaos was severely injured by the God of Evil and almost lost his life. The last remnants of his existence transformed into the Dragon of Chaos. And no one knew if he still preserved the strength and wisdom he had during his time as a greater Divine Power. But even if he was only left with that little bit of remains, he was still extremely powerful. Even the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, who was one of the most powerful gods among the great Divine Powers, did not have the confidence of defeating him. Judging from how the Dragon of Chaos seized that treasure left behind by the God of Virtue, it seemed that he still retained the memories of his time as the late Master of Chaos. The reason for him robbing this piece of treasure was probably to take revenge. After all, with his power, other than dealing with ¡°Chaos,¡± would there be any other matter that required him to use that treasure? If he went according to the plan of the God of Conspiracy, Sui Xiong would first have to defeat the Dragon of Chaos and seize that treasure. And then he would have to fight ¡°Chaos¡± to the death. What the hell! Is this something humanly possible? The difficulty level is way too high! No matter what the benefits were, it was definitely not worth defeating two greater Divine Powers or even having to kill one of the two. Also¡­ the most important thing was that Sui Xiong was not the least bit confident in killing ¡°Chaos.¡± Sui Xiong once met that fellow. But when the other party awoke, Sui Xiong felt an extreme sense of danger and ran for dear life. Although he was much stronger now, would this power be strong enough to make up for the gap between the two of them? Sui Xiong was not confident at all. The most important thing was, who was he to contest the Dragon of Chaos and ¡°Chaos?¡± Who was he indeed! Treasure? What was the big deal about this treasure! Greater Divine Power? Out of those few who came to possess this treasure, who had successfully become greater Divine Powers? This was why he was so furious. From his point of view, the God of Conspiracy was just a con artist trying to gain something without investing anything. He wanted to make use of a piece of information that had no great value in exchange for Sui Xiong to fight these two battles. There was simply no such good thing in this world! Therefore, he did not bother about showing any manners, nor did he think twice about giving face. He opened his mouth to directly expose the true identity of the God of Conspiracy, and he did so most unceremoniously. The God of Conspiracy, on the contrary, did not fly into a rage upon being exposed by Sui Xiong. He merely sighed deeply and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you interested in that treasure?¡± ¡°I¡¯m interested,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°But I¡¯ll definitely not risk my life by going all out to fight two greater Divine Powers just for it.¡± ¡°You¡¯re thinking along the wrong track. Although a battle with ¡®Chaos¡¯ is inevitable, at least you don¡¯t need to fight all out with the Dragon of Chaos. So long as you give it the right conditions, that fellow is absolutely willing to use this treasure to trade with you,¡± said the God of Conspiracy. ¡°There¡¯s nothing in this world that can¡¯t be traded.¡± Sui Xiong snorted and asked, ¡°You know the true identities of the Dragon of Chaos and ¡®Chaos?''¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I can more or less make a guess,¡± replied the God of Conspiracy. ¡°Back then, the God of Chaos suddenly disappeared for no reason, and soon after, the God of Evil also disappeared. After some time, ¡®Chaos¡¯ appeared and was followed by the appearance of the Dragon of Chaos¡­ According to what I have inferred and concluded, it¡¯s possible that the God of Chaos has been dissevered. But it¡¯s not clear whether he did it to himself or if someone did it to him. The part of him that was more inclined towards goodness became the Dragon of Chaos. And the remaining part was accepted by the God of Evil and both merged into ¡®Chaos,¡¯ right?¡± ¡°Almost. So what do you think is the exact reason for why the Dragon of Chaos stole this treasure from you?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Probably due to the need for self-protection. Clearly, there¡¯s a problem with the state of ¡®Chaos.¡¯ Or perhaps, the Dragon of Chaos had to be completely devoured to achieve true completion.¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment. He had not thought about this possibility. Then he asked, ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with this thought either. So how strong do you think ¡®Chaos¡¯ will be?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not too sure. But I can be sure of one thing,¡± the God of Conspiracy said. ¡°Out of all the living creatures that ever existed in this world, out of all these existences, there¡¯s none that has grown as fast as you. When you first appeared, at best, you would have just stepped up to the level of a real god. At that time, if I had been willing to, I would have taken the risk of losing some Divine Power to send a clone down. I would have been able to defeat you. But in a short period of 60 years, you¡¯ve become so powerful that I was unable to keep pace with your progress. I don¡¯t think I could even estimate how powerful your true strength is now. ¡°Among all the gods, if there¡¯s any who could possibly destroy ¡®Chaos,¡¯ it could be no one else but you.¡± He spoke so earnestly that one could tell how much serious thought he had put into this matter. And he had given very sound reasons¡ªof all the gods now, there was no one who was confident of defeating ¡°Chaos.¡± So naturally, using ¡°possibility¡± as the factor of consideration was the only way out. And if they were to talk about possibility, then Sui Xiong was indeed the most hopeful one. ¡°Using such a short time, you have become the best among all the great Divine Powers. Maybe in a hundred or two hundred years, you can step into the realm of a greater Divine Power, or at least make your way up to the threshold of a greater Divine Power,¡± the God of Conspiracy said. ¡°In the times to come, you¡¯ll surely want to seek experience in fighting against other greater Divine Powers¡ªthe Dragon of Chaos will be a good opponent. So you¡¯ll definitely have to fight him. ¡°Likewise, after you have defeated the Dragon of Chaos, in order to complete his entirety, ¡®Chaos¡¯ will definitely take the opportunity to try to devour the Dragon of Chaos. This is the best chance for you to get rid of that guy.¡± With that, the God of Conspiracy laughed again. ¡°You see, you don¡¯t have to do anything special. The opportunity will come knocking on your door by itself. All you have to do is to destroy ¡®Chaos¡¯ after you have defeated him.¡± Chapter 798 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After the God of Conspiracy finished his piece, his figure gradually disappeared. It was clear that this cloned body was almost at its limit. There was no way it could hold out any longer. Perhaps it was because his noumenon was also reaching its limit, or maybe it was because he was unwilling to waste the little power he had left. but regardless, he looked at Sui Xiong, and with a silent laugh, he fully transformed into countless light spots. Sui Xiong hung his head low in deep thought as he pondered over the choice he should make. From an emotional standpoint, he absolutely did not want to follow the plan of the God of Conspiracy. Even if the God of Conspiracy had a point, he was still unwilling to follow it. And this was not merely a matter of emotions; it was also a matter of interest. Everyone knew the means of the God of Conspiracy. It was a hundred percent guarantee that behind every plan of this guy, there would be a hidden conspiracy! Even if he was about to die or even if he was already dead, the conspiracies and plots hidden within his plans might not necessarily fail. There was a chance that if Sui Xiong did according to his plan, he might fall into a trap by accident. When Sui Xiong was a child, he once came across a story about Zhuge Liang in a confrontation against Sima Yi on the Wuzhang Plains. Seeing how he was so seriously ill and on the brink of death, Zhuge Liang left a book on the Art of War. After he died, Jiang Wei quietly withdrew his troops, leaving nothing but an empty tent site. And this book on the art of war was found on the table of the camp of the middle troops. On top of the book, there were four big characters, ¡°Sima Yi, read.¡± Sima Yi read the book out of curiosity. However, because he had the habit of using his finger dabbed with saliva to flip the pages, in the end, the pages that were coated in poison caused him to fall terminally ill, and he died shortly after¡ªthis was known as the ¡°Dead Zhuge poisoning the Living Sima.¡± This was, of course, just a story. Later, when Sui Xiong watched the TV series, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he clearly remembered that Sima Yi lived for a long time even after Zhuge Liang died. Of course, Romance of the Three Kingdoms was also a story, so it might not necessarily be the same as history¡ªback then, when Professor Cheng taught them about Popular Science, he said that many things found in Romance of the Three Kingdoms were nonsense, all of which were completely out of line with what actually happened in history. Or it might be that the major events mentioned in the story truly happened in history, but the details were ridiculously way off the mark. It had to be due to Luo Guanzhong¡¯s substandard level in his knowledge of history. But in the eyes of this Professor Cheng, who only lauded history books, the historical standard of Romance of the Three Kingdoms was not high, Journey to the West was too messy, Water Margin was indecent, and the general layout of Dream of the Red Chamber was too short. And as for The Plum in the Golden Vase, there was simply nothing worth talking about. Professor Cheng even mocked the author of The Plum in the Golden Vase for being ungrounded and unrealistic. Though born into a family of scholars, he chose to write about the common folks in the marketplace with their vulgar way of life. Unlike the Water Margin, it was not popularized at all¡­ To speak bluntly, he did not fancy any novel at all. Anything that could catch his eye had to be a history paper. However, the stories might go wrong, but the underlying principles would not. At least it was possible to think of things like the dead leaving behind plans to kill the living. Sui Xiong did not wish to become teaching material at the hands of a dead person. So his first judgment was not to act according to the plan of the God of Conspiracy. He even¡­ could be considered as doing the exact opposite to the plan of the God of Conspiracy. However, he rethought it. Could he truly act against this plan? Could this be another trap set up for him by the God of Conspiracy? Then he remembered a comic book that he had read when he was in middle school. The name of that comic was The Ravages of Time. The characters in the story were especially fond of playing tricks. They often had thoughts like, ¡°I figured out what you were thinking,¡±¡±I figured out that you have figured out what I was thinking,¡±¡±I figured out that you figured out that I figured out what you were thinking¡­¡± All these continued in a vicious cycle. All kinds of ways of thinking, all sorts of schemes and all types of battles of wits¡­ simply painful. Although all of these things in the story pained him and bored him, if translated it into reality, it was possible that such thoughts of his were also within others¡¯ train of thought! When he thought of this, he could not help but start to worry again. What should he do? Aye¡­ What a dilemma! Just as he was racking his brains with a distressed expression, he felt a sudden jolt in his heart. His noumenon, in his God Kingdom, teleported itself instantly and arrived at the edge of his God Kingdom. A shadow appeared in the twinkling of an eye and stopped somewhere not too far from the Sanctuary of his God Kingdom. This shadow then transformed into the figure of the God of Conspiracy. At that moment, his figure was completely wrapped in black vines, only his head was still exposed. His entire being became all the more void of life, without even a trace of vitality. ¡°My God Kingdom has collapsed,¡± he said in a calm voice. ¡°I have gathered the last of my Divine Power and stuck it out till I reached here. I have come here to show you how I died. Sui Xiong made no reply. The God of Conspiracy continued to say, ¡°I have already covered and blocked out all prying eyes of the gods in this area. Even if I die, this obstruction will not disappear for the time being. So you need not worry that this information will fall into the hands of others. ¡°As for the condition that I mentioned, you may choose to do it or not. In short, everything is really up to you. A dying man always speaks kindly in the presence of death. I¡¯m about to die, so I can¡¯t be bothered to be calculative about anything or to bargain with you any further.¡± With that, he closed his eyes. The aura of death around him grew even heavier. The black vines, as though they had a life of their own, continued to spread upward. It was clear that the God of Conspiracy was exerting the last of his Divine Power in an effort to resist, but those black vines were continuously eroding and transforming his power. Like a big cup of black ink being poured into a basin of water, his Divine Power was continuously being polluted. Sui Xiong kept his eyes on the vines. When he looked at them carefully, he found that they did not have an actual form. They were just some subtle and messy light. From these vine-like rays of light, Sui Xiong could not see any form of rules and logic. There was only infinite chaos and malicious intent that made him feel somewhat suffocated. Chaos, evil, death, damage, destruction¡­ Just by looking at these vines, he sensed deep danger. It was just like a man who was looking at the muzzle of a loaded gun that was pointed right at him. It was common sense to know that this gun would not be able to shoot a fatal bullet if the trigger was not pulled. But who would not be afraid when held at gunpoint? ¡°Why don¡¯t you cut off this Divine Power?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± the God of Conspiracy said. Then, his voice became very low. ¡°When it¡¯s time for you to truly fight ¡®Chaos,¡¯ you must pay attention. Don¡¯t ever think you can escape erosion by such methods of ¡®cutting off contact.¡¯ I didn¡¯t even dare to use my Divine Power to send you a message. I was afraid that this aura would penetrate my Divine Power and start eroding yours¡­¡± That being said, he suddenly paused. Then the deadly aura around his entire being instantly reached the maximum. It was clear that he still wanted to continue with his struggle. The next instant, his Divine Power exploded so violently that it seemed like the black vines were forced to be pulled slightly apart. However, without even giving Sui Xiong the time to react, those black vines suddenly tightened their reins. Within a split second, they completely wrapped the God of Conspiracy within them. Not only that, they kept tightening, went on tightening and continued tightening. And then they finally completely wrapped around him and became a ball of black mass that was just like pure, black ink. This ball of black was the last trace of that being who was once known as the God of Conspiracy. Meanwhile, within the Pantheon temple, the God of Conspiracy, who had not long ago seemed to have fallen asleep with head hung low, completely collapsed in his seat. Then he disappeared without a trace. Chapter 799 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The disappearance of the God of Conspiracy did not draw everyone¡¯s attention in the beginning. Because few gods were willing to pay attention to him, even¡­ The vast majority of gods were most unwilling to even look at him. This was because the God of Conspiracy had, more than once, devised plots within the Pantheon temple to harm the other gods. There were so many unfortunate victims that it would take more than two hands and two legs to count¡ªwell, that referred to the hands and legs of a normal human. Excluding Sui Xiong¡¯s. In the past, he had set up traps for gods just because they gave him more than a single glance. Such incidents of gods getting into distraught and depressed states because of his traps had happened more than once. Most of the gods were proud. Even if they suffered just a minor loss, that would still be regarded as losing face. So eventually, they learned their lessons well. Not only did they pay no attention to the God of Conspiracy, they would not even look at him if there was not a need for them to. These were all lessons learned in blood! For this reason, the gods did not notice that the God of Conspiracy had disappeared in the beginning. But the seats of the gods in the Pantheon temple were quite close to each other, and there were other gods seated near to the God of Conspiracy as well. So, they were quick to notice that something was amiss¡ªwhere was the God of Conspiracy? At first, they thought that perhaps the God of Conspiracy had an elevation of divinity since this had happened several times in the past. And they could not be bothered to look for him as well. Besides, they were secretly glad¡ªfinally, they were no longer associated with this god, who was nothing more than a plague. A moment later, the Orc¡¯s God of Murder suddenly shuddered, and his eyes widened. He leaped to his feet in surprise. ¡°How¡­ how is that possible?!¡± he cried out loudly in surprise. Then he recollected his senses and sat down again. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± asked a god near to the Orc God of Murder, who was wondering at his reaction. This Orc god made no reply. He merely shook his head, smiled and said ¡°nothing.¡± Then he regained a calm composure. But within the God Kingdom of the Orc gods, he was already teleporting at a wild speed. Then he charged headlong into the meeting room of Lefon, also an Orc god, in a strange position that seemed as though he was shot out from his leg. ¡°Your¡­ Your Majesty! Something big has happened!¡± he cried at the top of his voice. ¡°The God of Conspiracy, he¡­ he¡­ it seems like he has fallen!¡± Lefon¡¯s eyes were originally closed in quiet meditation. He was comparing his own path with the former Sun God, who was the God of Glory, as he pondered about his next step. Yet upon hearing this, he could not help but open his eyes and looked up in surprise. Subconsciously, he got to his feet and asked, ¡°What did you say?!¡± ¡°The God of Conspiracy¡­ is probably dead.¡± ¡°Impossible!¡± Lefon exclaimed. He thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, ¡°I¡¯m not very sure about who is the best fighter among all the gods. But to speak of who is the best at staying alive, there¡¯s no one other than him. All these years, he had made countless enemies. His enemies have joined forces to scour through the Thousand Worlds several times. Yet they simply could find no way of locating his God Kingdom. Now you¡¯re suddenly telling me that he has fallen. How should we even start talking about this?¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t believe it myself. But my priesthood is telling me that the ¡°Conspiracy¡± part of the World¡¯s Origin is tottering all of a sudden. It seems as though I could claim an extra piece of it,¡± said the Orc God of Murder. His face was also filled with puzzlement as he added, ¡°Presumably, this meant that he was giving up his ¡°Conspiracy¡± priesthood, the priesthood that he had almost fully dominate, right?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± answered the God of Pigmen. He thought that something unforeseen had happened, so he hurried over. Nodding his head, the God of Pigmen said, ¡°The Origin is tottering, so there should only be this possibility.¡± Following closely was the God of Fox People. He also nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid this is true. With the God of Conspiracy¡¯s character, would he give up on this priesthood? Definitely not! Without the protection of the Conspiracy priesthood, he might be found by his enemies in a matter of days and be made into minced meat paste by their chaotic swords.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I feel that he must have fallen¡­¡± said the Orc God of Murder. Lefon pondered and muttered to himself for a while. Then he nodded slightly. ¡°You guys give me a moment. I¡¯ll ask Wuther.¡± With that, his clone in the Pantheon temple stood up and went over to Wuther, the God of Light. He was the Master God of the Human God System. ¡°That matter, do you know anything about it?¡± he asked, somewhat mysteriously. ¡°I remember there¡¯s also a god whose priesthood is somewhat related, right?¡± The God of Light did not reply. At that moment, he was in deep thoughts as well. Of course, there was a god in the Human God System whose priesthood could be associated with the ¡°Conspiracy¡± priesthood. Unquestionably, when that god felt the tottering of the Origin of ¡°Conspiracy,¡± he had reported to Wuther without delay. However, this god was such a profound character that he did not think of making a commotion about it. This was why he and the God of Light were the only ones in the entire Human God System who knew about this matter. The moment Lefon mentioned this matter, Wuther, the God of Light, easily knew what he was referring to. Wuther thought for a moment, then nodded. ¡°It seems like it very likely that this is true?¡± Lefon said. He turned around and looked at the Pantheon temple. Without reservations, he scanned through the entire Pantheon temple very thoroughly. He wanted to make sure that no traces of the God of Conspiracy could be found¡ªin fact, there were no changes made to the seats in Pantheon temple. The only change was the loss of a seat and the god who occupied that seat. The God of Light did not do the same as Lefon. He trusted his judgment. More importantly, there was a particular god in the Human God System who constantly kept close tabs on the changes in seats of the gods in the Pantheon temple. And at that moment, that god was reporting to him that ¡°the God of Conspiracy had disappeared, but there was no noticeable change to the seats in the Pantheon temple. The God of Conspiracy might have fallen or might have disengaged himself from the ranks of legitimate gods.¡± In the Human God Kingdom, the God of Light nodded and gathered all the gods. ¡°The God of Conspiracy might have fallen,¡± he said the moment he opened his mouth to speak. The gods looked at each other in surprise. ¡°This piece of news has yet to be disseminated among the gods for now. All of you have to go out separately and search in different directions. See if you are able to find anything.¡± Then he paused for a moment and added, ¡°Be extremely careful. Something that could kill that fellow is just as dangerous to you all.¡± The human gods looked at one another. Then they all set out on their own, just as they had been ordered to do so. Each of them sent out clones of themselves, transformed into streams of flowing light that went in all directions. A moment later, streams of flowing light were also seen flying out of the Orcs¡¯ God Kingdom and heading out in all directions to search everywhere. A little while later, in the conference hall of the Sanctuary of the Void Mask¡¯s God Kingdom, Wenner, the God of War, shouted, ¡°Do you all know? It seems like the God of Conspiracy has fallen!¡± The gods were all surprised and hurriedly asked about what was going on. Only Sui Xiong could not be bothered. Lazily, he replied, ¡°Your news came a little late. Also, he didn¡¯t just ¡®seems to have fallen,¡¯ but rather, he ¡®really has fallen¡­¡¯ Just a while ago, he died at the doorstep of our God Kingdom. And I watched it happen.¡± The Void gods were even more surprised. The God of Knowledge, Wall, could not help asking about the exact course of the incident. Sui Xiong smiled. He had no intention to keep any secret for the God of Conspiracy, so he briefly told them what happened. Of course, he did not mention a word about anything that would implicate that fatal piece of treasure, as well as a few other important and confidential matters. When the gods learned the cause of death of the God of Conspiracy, they could not help looking at one another. Then, without knowing who was the one who started, everyone laughed. This was good news, without a doubt! Chapter 800 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°That¡¯s wonderful!¡± Wall said happily. ¡°Good riddance!¡± ¡°Yes! Good riddance! What a pity his death came so late!¡± ¡°Better now than never. Better dead than alive!¡± ¡°Yes, you¡¯re so right! Better dead than alive,¡± said Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, as he laughed. Then his clone in the Pantheon temple stood up. He coughed to clear his throat, and then he spoke in a resounding and deafening voice to ensure that every god in the temple could hear him clearly. ¡°Everyone! Let me share a piece of good news with you all!¡± He paused for a moment. Then in a voice that was even louder than before, he shouted, ¡°The God of Conspiracy is dead!¡± His voice echoed throughout the Pantheon temple, other than that, there was absolute silence. A moment later, one of the gods stood up and asked, ¡°You¡¯re¡­ kidding, right?¡± ¡°Is that possible!¡± said Yorgaardman. He was angry to hear that and questioned, ¡°Is my credibility that bad? When have I ever made a joke!¡± ¡°But¡­ but¡­ that guy¡­ how could he possibly die?¡± ¡°He¡¯s dead for sure, unmistakably, I¡¯m sure of it,¡± Yorgaardman said. ¡°Did you destroy him?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then, which great majesty has destroyed him?¡± asked that god, who seemed quite intent on getting to the bottom of the matter. Yorgaardman frowned and said impatiently, ¡°Why are you asking about this? Could it be that you wish to avenge him?¡± ¡°No!¡± said that god who immediately shook his head. ¡°I just¡­ back then, I once made a vow. I¡¯m willing to become a follower of the god who can destroy that bastard¡­¡± That was when Yorgaardman understood the other party¡¯s actual intention. He pondered for a moment, then said, ¡°That one¡­ He has no need for followers.¡± ¡°He¡¯s not a god, but an ancient demigod, right?¡± ¡°Honestly, it will do you no good in trying to probe into his affairs,¡± said Yorgaardman. He sighed again, then said, ¡°Anyway, the God of Conspiracy is dead. Dead as can be, through and through. All the relationships you have with him, be it friends or foes, shall end here. Even if you have some shady dealings with him, just give those up as well. The existence of the ¡®God of Conspiracy,¡¯ is now a thing of the past.¡± With that. He sat down and paid no further attention to the persistent questions of the other gods. It was understood that the gods could not possibly go straight to the second row to press him for answers, so they could only discuss among themselves. At this moment, the few gods who had been sitting near the God of Conspiracy suddenly became popular. Many gods approached them to inquire about what exactly happened. They were even willing to offer benefits to pay for information. But those few gods were equally clueless. How could they have any information to give out? They were not even sure about the exact time where the God of Conspiracy had fallen. They really knew nothing at all. Without any answers to their questions, the gods got louder and louder as they continued discussions. Gradually, their voices rose up like tides stirring up within the Pantheon temple. As Yorgaardman listened to the chattering of voices engrossed in discussion behind him, he felt the countless divine thoughts passing through him in a continuous stream almost as though they were ravaging torrents. His frown deepened. Finally, he could hold back no longer and leaped to his feet. He turned around and shouted, ¡°Have you all nothing to do! If you¡¯re all so idle, then go find something proper to do! That bastard who deserved to be slashed by knives is dead, we all should be happy! Shouldn¡¯t you all be celebrating before anything else!¡± His words served as reminders to the gods. Many of them smiled brightly upon regaining their composure from the great surprise. Indeed, just as the God of Justice had said, regardless of how the God of Conspiracy had died, the most important thing was that he died. He died! He was dead!! He was dead!!! This was simply the best news ever! In terms of low popularity and bad reputation, the God of Conspiracy was practically considered to be unrivaled in the entire Pantheon temple. When Sui Xiong annihilated the Alliance of Evil Gods, there were many evil gods who had mourned the deaths of the likes of them. And they were worried about themselves as well. But when the God of Conspiracy died, there were even many evil gods who flashed sincere smiles, not to mention the good gods, who were over the moon. This matter truly brought great joy to all of them! There had been more than one god issuing Oracles to newly declare to their followers that this very day would henceforth be a holiday. Every year, on this very day, there would be celebrations. And the gods had to plan the arrangements and prepare for a massive celebration to celebrate this occasion. Such a suggestion was also proposed in the Void God System. ¡°A celebration?¡± Sui Xiong said in shock as he froze momentarily. He looked at Javier and asked, ¡°Have you not given up this priesthood and converted to becoming the God of Pleasure?¡± ¡°But when there¡¯s something worth celebrating, shouldn¡¯t we hold a celebration?¡± Javier asked in return. ¡°The end of the God of Conspiracy. This is definitely something worth celebrating! What¡¯s wrong with organizing a celebration?¡± Sui Xiong pondered for a moment and realized that there seemed to be nothing wrong at all. The God of Conspiracy was dead. Of course, this was something good. And it was also a major occasion that was worth splurging on for a great celebration! In this case, the occasion did naturally seem to call for a well-deserved celebration. So he nodded and agreed to this matter. Anyway, he had more than enough money to splurge. There was nothing wrong with finding an opportunity to hold an extravagant celebration. So an Oracle was soon announced. The faces of all the higher-ups of Church of the Void Mask, as well as the leaders of the Republic of Northwest, all lit up with pleasure when they got to know the reason for the celebration. And when the news was spread among the common civilians, many scholars and clergymen even took to the streets dressed in festive costumes as they held a spontaneous celebration. Not only that, just a moment later, the Republic of Northwest received messages from various countries. Even the two parties of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, who were in the midst of a tense situation, were no exception. These messages were roughly crafted in such a format: Dear so-and-so, you know what? The God of Conspiracy, who is the extremity of evilness, has fallen! This is a great joy for all the countries! This is a great joy for all living creatures in the world! Today, we are all so happy. You all must be very happy too! How about we all celebrate this together? As for where the news started spreading out from¡­ Javier, the God of Pleasure, expressed his oblivion. He said not to look at him for looking at him would not make him say anything¡­ Even many reclusive figures who had lived in seclusion were shocked at the news. More than one hermit master left their place of seclusion and arrived at the mortal world or some other places which were more well-informed to sound for information. After they had confirmed that the news of the death of the God of Conspiracy was true, many senior masters could no longer maintain their usual calm and level-headed composure as they broke out in boisterous laughter. ¡°That guy had this day coming as well!¡± ¡°Great! Great!¡± ¡°Fate! How kind you¡¯ve been to me, to let me live to hear this news!¡± ¡°I can die without regrets! No regrets at all!¡± ¡­ It was evident from these words that they all had their fair share of suffering at the hands of the God of Conspiracy. All of them bore deep hatred for him. As for the followers of the God of Conspiracy¡­ it was regrettable to say that his devout followers had long since died. The remaining shallow and pan-religions followers might be somewhat uneasy because of the God of Conspiracy, but the greater part of them was ambitious. The death of the God of Conspiracy would mean that the priesthood of ¡°Conspiracy¡± was now unclaimed. So, who could say for sure that they would not have a chance to inherit this priesthood and become the next God of Conspiracy? Therefore, a grand celebration that involved all worlds, regardless of race, and regardless of good or evil, was about to begin¡­ Chapter 801 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In general, when something is gained, another is lost. While one is celebrating with glee, the other side would probably be depressed and upset. Even if in a situation, both sides benefit, there would still be third parties who were jealous of the positive outcome, maybe even to the extent that they would drink alone to drown their sorrows! But not this time. The God of Conspiracy¡¯s death was something that filled all sorts of groups and communities in this world with joy. The joyous celebrations lasted for about a month, and within that month, many places which were at war came to a temporary ceasefire to celebrate. Some even, in the spirit of the celebrations, ended their wars there and then! There was the feeling of warmth in the air and even the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs who, all along threatened to attack the Kingdom of Dwarfs, took this chance to announce the start of peace talks instead. This was due to the fact that the death of the God of Conspiracy was a momentous occasion that deserved a good celebration. It would be unthinkable to mention killing or fighting at this moment! Instead, it was a good chance for everyone to start anew and make amends. With the help of the Orc Empire, the Kingdom of Dwarfs increased exponentially in terms of status and power. Even though Sui Xiong no longer acted as a guard (like the Kingdom of Dwarfs''¡±city borders¡±), the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was still unable to guarantee victory over them now. After all, one fought a war for personal benefit. If one was able to guarantee benefits or that their benefits would at least outweigh their losses, it would be hard to sustain war efforts. The reason why the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was able to sustain war efforts thus far was due to its consecutive success in previous battles and lost little. The most dangerous and life-threatening tasks were all carried out by hired troops, and thus, they were not too concerned about their death rate. Overall, there was high morale in the country and nationalistic, explicit support for war. The Kingdom of Thousands of Springs thus emerged as a sufficiently prepared military power among the countries. However, now, with the help of the Orc Empire as well as the extra time acquired through Sui Xiong¡¯s creation of defense mechanisms for the Kingdom of Dwarfs, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs now hesitated to attack further. They had planned to increase their number of hired troops and use this fresh batch to attack again. But his was foiled by the fact that the Mifata Federation and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins attracted large numbers of explorers to migrate. In addition, the surname plans in many countries caused many explorers to think of retiring earlier and settle down to continue their family name peacefully. In the end, all these factors made it harder to fight a new war as there was no longer momentum, and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs faced a major setback in the disruption of their war plans. Under these circumstances, the monarchs and courtiers of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs decided to temporarily change their plans after organizing several discussions about the topic at hand. They believed that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was already sufficiently powerful with its own leadership and developing land. Besides, it was extremely possible that circumstances would change once again within the next 100 to 200 years. With this mindset, they sent out their ambassadors to negotiate with the Kingdom of Dwarfs. The higher-ups in the Kingdom of Dwarfs had mixed opinions towards the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs¡¯ attempts at peace talks. Some felt that it was a good opportunity to end the war and achieve a few hundred years of peace in the near future, while others suspected that it was merely a ploy by the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. On the part of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, the ambassadors maintained an earnest attitude and even suggested that many churches could be invited to the negotiations to ensure justice. When discussing covenants, without gods present as neutral parties, it would just be an empty treaty. On the other hand, if gods were present, there would be great obligation tied to the covenant. This was especially if several gods officiated the covenant at the same time, ensuring both sides¡¯ compliance. This was similar to Earth where promises by two opposing countries to end conflicts would mean nothing unless the United Nations¡¯ sent a joint order for a ceasefire. In that case, the countries would have no choice but to obey as they would not want to risk offending major world powers. Of course, there would be some who disregarded the United Nations, but this was rare and asking for trouble. The last person who had done this was Kadazo from Jianghu, and by the time Sui Xiong had crossed over to this world, he was already known as a dead man. This was merely on Earth; who would dare to cross a group of gods in this world? That wasn¡¯t something that could be dealt with merely one death occurrence! Interestingly, the god that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs invited to oversee negotiations was Sui Xiong! With such a choice, those who were wary in the Kingdom of Dwarfs were appeased and thus agreed to preliminary negotiation talks. While they did not trust the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs fully, they had full trust in the Void Mask Lord. If the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs were to try anything funny, they would be going against the powerful the Void Mask Lord and endanger themselves. If that happened, the anger of the Void Mask Lord alone would destroy the entire Kingdom of Thousands of Springs easily. After the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Kingdom of Dwarfs signed a peace treaty, the Mifata Federation also signed a secret internal agreement shortly after. This was between Mifata¡¯s higher-ups and the Church of the Void Mask, and there were two components to the agreement: Firstly, Mifata recognized and allowed for the Church of the Void Mask¡¯s preaching and would not harm the Church of the Void Mask¡¯s disciples or physically disturb independent areas governed by the Church of the Void Mask on religious terms alone. Secondly, the Church of the Void Mask promised not to encourage further notions of independence in other areas of Mifata as well as promised that any area which subsequently fell under the control of the Church of the Void Mask would remain in the Federation. This was a rather balanced agreement. Although many in the Church of the Void Mask felt that the Void Mask Lord had been too lenient or gracious without any proper need to do so, Sui Xiong maintained his stance and went with his instincts, nevertheless. In a secret meeting, Sui Xiong explained his stance to the higher-ups in the church: If Mifata was able to maintain the current status quo, there would be peace, which was definitely a good thing. There were also many countries that wished to become Republican. Besides, if Mifata were to gradually weaken, if there came a day where it collapsed, one also could not predict which direction other countries would take. ¡°You never know¡­ When the time comes, maybe the entire Mifata will take on our flag¡­¡± Chapter 802 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Would Mifata end up taking on the flag of the ¡°jellyfish tribe¡±? This was unknown as of now. However, someplace else, this became reality. This place was originally the southeast portion of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, adjacent to the Great Marsh, Dahl Baron¡¯s Hill. Ever since the Void Mask Lord had intervened and settled the issue of the lack of wood for those in poverty, Baron Dahl had been thinking about ways to increase their ranks within the Church of Void Mask as well as their sense of belonging to the faith. He had understood that the Church of Void Mask was strong as well as extremely willing to develop and bless its disciples. Baron Hill felt that it was an honor to follow a charitable god like Sui Xiong and be his disciple. If he were to increase his ranks in the church, he would definitely gain from it. Furthermore, if he were able to increase the sense of belonging in overall, the entire land, especially the Dahl family, would receive many benefits. It also went without saying that with the prison rocks bestowed upon them by Sui Xiong, within three to five years, those living in poverty would not need to worry about suffering in winter anymore. Ever since the Void Mask Lord had visited the nearby forests, the druids¡¯ attitudes had improved considerably, and they had even sent out ambassadors to negotiate with Dahl about their migration instead of forced settlement here. Their attitude change had only been possible because of Sui Xiong. Although they had not met Sui Xiong, they had met Tragic Wind. Tragic Wind had first beat them up before advising them to not fight against Sui Xiong. The world was extremely big, and even if everyone had different opinions, they could always choose to live someplace else instead of staying and fighting daily. Although the druids were extremely stubborn and resistant to change, they were not stupid. Would they fight a god who could materialize at any time? There was nothing stupider than that! They thus accepted the advice of Tragic Wind and decided to leave as a group for the depths of the Great Marsh, an area of the forest that Tragic Wind had chosen for them. Tragic Wind had hurriedly come to warn them as he did not want these druid tribe seniors to lose their lives for foolish reasons. When entering the forest, she had stayed in Dahl City for a few days and even visited the Church of Void Mask. In the temple of the church, she had seen a strange altar, and Archbishop Kabbalah had explained that it was used to summon Oracles. When the flowers bloomed in the near future, he was planning to summon various Oracles to discuss matters with the druids. Kabbalah had faith that using physics and magic to settle discussions would bring about great results. One could also say that this was because he had great faith in his own luck. Whichever legendary-level Oracle he summoned would be able to suppress the druids, and he would decide their punishment (using them as mops for the floor or hanging them up for beatings) based on his mood later on. As one of the most skilled on the Main Plane, Tragic Wind was naturally aware of the power of the gods in the Church of Void Mask. After meeting Kabbalah, she immediately rushed to the forest to find the druids and give them a pre-beating so that they would listen to her advice. Another reason would be that Tragic Wind secretly wished to take in these druids as her underlings. There were several sects among the druids with different mindsets. The famous ¡°Orc Judge¡± Buddy Buress was of the stubborn sect, which preached that those who followed had to follow and assimilate into nature. This was made mainstream from the culture of the Kingdom of Fairies in the past. Afterward, half-elves in the ancient forest continued to perpetuate this idea, and this was exemplified by their choice to live in trees. Tragic Wind, on the other hand, belonged to another sect that interconnected man and nature. She was an extremist and believed that man should continuously adapt and grow towards the goal of becoming part of nature. She had carried out extensive research on the field of deformation spells as well as body transformation. Because of that, rumors regarding Tragic Wind wanting to acquire wild beasts even started. As to whether that was true or false¡­ In any case, Tragic Wind would not do such a thing in the present day. When she was mentoring, she would not mention such frivolous things as well. If one wanted to gain the strength of wild beasts, all they needed to do was to swallow wild beast meat whole, and through the analysis of its blood, they could assume the stature of said wild beast. Whether or not such a method was legitimate, a little evil did not concern her. Currently, druids on the Main Plane wanted harmony between man and nature. One could cut down trees, but they were obliged to replant new ones afterward; one could hunt, but only for their own consumption needs¡­ These druids maintained their boycott towards city life but did not constantly attack towns and villages, unlike their elders. One could say that they had shifted their extremist stance to a warmer and more neutral one. What Tragic Wind needed, ironically, were the extremist druids which believed in fundamental extremism. This was because if a druid was willing to make peace with city culture, he would not possess a heart wild and passionate enough to accept Tragic Wind¡¯s life journey. Thus, once she knew of the existence of extremist druids on the plane, she immediately rushed over to win them over as her own underlings. Tragic Wind¡¯s first step was to convince the druids to move to a specified forest. In this forest, she had made many preparations. When the druids arrived, they would naturally see many scenes of nature and man in harmony. Maybe some would disapprove of her manipulative ways, but others would see sense in it. Although Tragic Wind seemed like a young woman, she was actually extremely old and often worried about the aging sensation in her soul. After all, she had not been able to enter the Demigod Realm yet, and there was a limit to her life. When Tragic Wind was younger, she had participated in a few dangerous experiments which reduced her life expectancy. With some effort, she could possibly live for a few more years, but to scholars, she was already considered to be at the age where she had to look for successors. The more successors one had, the better. This was why she had remained in the Human Realm longer this time as she intended to choose her successors and teach them her path before returning to her own half plane. There, she would hibernate deeply in the magic tower in order to extend her life expectancy. As to whether she could enter the Demigod Realm¡­ well, she decided not to focus on such lofty ideals anymore. Chapter 803 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio On the upper gate of Darth City, another flag was erected. Originally, there were two flagpoles present, and a dragon tail flag and golden coin flag were erected to represent the Darth family and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, respectively. The latter flag was raised slightly higher as compared to the dragon tail flag to show that the Darth family had come from the Commonwealth. However, today, between the two flags, a third one was erected. The Church of Void Mask¡¯s green jellyfish flag swayed gently with the breeze, above the flag of the Commonwealth. This signified that Darth City had a leadership transfer from the traditional aristocratic leadership to that of the Void Mask Church as of today. The Darth family would, from henceforth, become the Church of Void Mask¡¯s vassals. If there were any disputes about inheritance in the future, the Church of Void Mask would make the important decisions in place of the aristocrats. In summary, they had left the aristocratic system to join the clergyman system. Such a change was uncommon but not impossible. Weaker top families tended to favor having big churches as their pillar of support and thus made such changes. To them, it was a way for survival, and for them to continue their legacy, which god they followed did not really matter. As compared to the powerful aristocrats who put on a fake fa?ade of being gracious yet were vicious behind the scenes, most churches were seen as pure and trustworthy. The only issue was that these good churches had strict guidelines for the leaders of their followers, and families who were unable to follow the Way of Goodness faced the possibility of having their land confiscated; this had happened more than once in the past. Even so, many weaker and smaller families still chose to join clergyman systems. The chance of failure was rare, and they would no longer face a higher threat of aristocratic families taking over their assets. Big aristocratic families often used marriage to steal inheritances. They would marry off their ladies to smaller families, where the offspring would gain an automatic inheritance. Afterward, if there were disputes over inheritance, these big families could then step in as seniors to arrange matters in their favor. This was more a method of brute force than a method of ingenuity, but victory was almost always in favor of the big families. This was due to the undeniable fact that offspring and their future offspring had a right to inheritances. Some bigger families were more ingenious. For example, through generations of marriage, they managed to interconnect themselves with smaller families and swallow them whole. In comparison, although good churches were strict and rigid, they would not do such despicable things. Originally, Baron Dahl had not intended to change the leadership system, but his eldest son, whom he had painstakingly groomed, had met with an unexpected accident. No, he had not passed away, but rather, this ¡°young man¡± who was wed with children found himself awakening a special bloodline. Awakening special blood lineage was not a bad thing but¡­ what is what he awakened was of a devilish nature? Baron Dahl was unprepared for such a situation. Although he had ensured that the news did not spread, that was not the main issue. He could confirm his eldest son was had his blood and was had direct blood ties to the Dahl family. However, if this child could awaken devil blood, what about the rest of the Dahls? This was what worried Baron Dahl the most. Thus, he invited Kabbalah to organize a secret yet large-scale ritual. After confirming that his wife did not possess any devil blood, Baron Dahl¡¯s confusion intensified. If one were to theorize, his eldest son¡¯s devil bloodline could possibly stem from his grandparents, which were Baron Dahl¡¯s father-in-law and mother-in-law. However, these two elders had passed away a long time ago, and he felt uneasy pursuing the matter. Even if he were to dig out their buried bones, there was a chance that tests run on them would be inconclusive. Furthermore¡­ to be honest, Baron Dahl felt that this bloodline was more likely to be passed down from the Dahl side. He tried to think back carefully to days spent at his elders¡¯ homes and had a hunch that some his crafty and devious ancestors had had reputations of being cunning like a devil. More importantly, one of his ancestors had made a fortune and died mysteriously the same year, and his son had not made any comment about it. Originally, Baron Dahl had suspected that this ancestor had been murdered by his own eldest son and¡­ now that he thought carefully about it¡­ his ancestor could have discovered signs of his blood awakening and chose death in order to protect the Dahls. The more he thought about it, the more Baron Dahl was sure that the devil bloodline was passed down from an ancestor that had built up his family inheritance. This led to the issue of whether Baron Dahl, as someone who possessed devil blood, could continue to be a leader. What nonsense! Of course not. Aristocrats most valued ¡°face¡± or ¡°honor,¡± and things which were seen as dishonorable would cause one¡¯s downfall. In this case, the entire Dahl family¡¯s legitimacy was at stake! Possessing devil blood was a serious condition towards one¡¯s honor, and only two other factors transcended it. Towards this matter, Baron Dahl felt extremely uneasy. There was too much pollution going on within the aristocrats as it was¡ªmany looked human but had an evil nature similar to that of devils. Hundreds of years ago, a female aristocrat had seized all the girls under her rule and created a bloodbath to preserve her own youth and beauty. Even if Baron Dahl possessed evil blood, this was still something that was unthinkable to him. He could not be labeled as a good man, but evilness still had different degrees after all. As compared to evil women like that, devil blood was not the worst issue. Yet, no matter how much he thought about it, devil blood was an issue that could not be ignored. In the end, Baron Dahl decided that the most appropriate plan was to separate himself from the aristocratic system and switch to the clergyman system. The Church of Void Mask had no particular prejudice to any race or bloodline, and devil blood was no exception. Previously, he had consulted Kabbalah on this, and Kabbalah had held a special prayer to ask the venerable Void Mask Lord for advice. The answer given was that as long as Baron Dahl was willing to follow his teachings, his bloodline would not be a concern as the Void Mask Lord would protect him on account of his faith. With these words, Baron Dahl¡¯s lingering doubts were erased, and he gathered the core members of his family for a secret meeting. At this meeting, he shared on the dangers that the Dahls potentially faced. Baron Dahl also arranged for these members to meet his eldest son, who was sprouting small devil horns after awakening the devil bloodline. The meeting concluded with a small blood screening ceremony by Kabbalah for those present. The results showed that there were three core members who showed signs of possible devil blood, and this did not surprise Baron Dahl at all. He had merely confirmed that his family did contain devil blood, albeit only faintly so. At this point, he really had no choice anymore. Chapter 804 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Some might have felt that the Dahl family had other unexplored options such as hiding the news or attempting to purify their blood¡­ However, these options were all not trusty. For the former, while they could of course attempt to conceal the news, walls had ears, and sooner or later, it would escape the confines of the family. What complicated the situation was that the idea of blood awakening was periodized, and within one or two generations, it would appear regularly in intervals. If Baron Dahl¡¯s eldest son had awakened the devil bloodline, it would be expected that within the next one or two generations, more would follow. It would be impossible to hide the truth from the world then. As for purifying the blood, while there was significantly lower risk, the price of it was extremely high, and the Dahls would find it hard to afford. Blood purification was a magical and spiritual ceremony, and its difficulty level was of that of legendary. One needed a high-level priest or pontifex, an advanced mage or psychic, two high-level spellcasters and about 5000 gold coins¡¯ worth of spellcasting resources. At the same time, individuals who were undergoing the purification would be weakened, and this would affect their life expectancy and fighting skills. The second-generation baron in the Dahl family had fallen sick when he was young, and this caused him to have a weak immune system. Although he had brought troops into battle more than once, he did not actually have the real fighting skills to challenge anyone, and so all his battles were led by his knights. Now that Baron Dahl thought harder about it¡­ this relative had not actually fallen sick but rather had gone through blood purification! It was just that his ceremony had been incomplete and did not manage to fully clear all traces of devil blood. Thus, it continued flowing down the generations till now. Devil blood was much stronger than human blood, and any remnants could regenerate slowly till it became pure again. As he thought, Baron Dahl felt resentment towards his ancestor for being too careless and causing the current chaos. Now, if the Dahl family wanted to repeat the same procedure, they would need 42 cycles! Forty-two sessions of blood purification required 221,000 gold coins! This was a tremendous amount, and there weren¡¯t enough trustworthy spellcasters to carry out so many sessions as well. To carry out such high-level ceremonies, spellcasters¡¯ own bodies would be damaged a well. Even if these high-level spellcasters had strong bodies, they would still only be able to hold one session every one to two months. Every day¡¯s delay put the Dahls in greater danger! Thus, blood purification was not a viable solution for them at all. The only real solution was thus to leave the aristocratic system and run into the arms of the Void Mask Lord. Once they had secured a position under the Void Mask Lord, they would not be at the mercy of the aristocrats. Even if the news about devil bloodline within the Dahls were to spread, the Void Mask Lord would speak up for them, and the aristocrats would be forced to keep their opinions to themselves. Of course, there was the cost of having to follow the Void Mask Lord¡¯s teachings and develop themselves as honest good people. This was a high cost, but it was a better alternative than being persecuted or losing territory. Thus, the Dahls accepted this cost. At the family meeting, the core members unanimously agreed to change camp and join the Church of Void Mask. However, they also mentioned that in order to not over-anger the aristocrats in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, they would temporarily retain the Commonwealth flag and replace it officially only with the ascension of the next generation. To this, Kabbalah did not have any opinion as it was a trivial matter to him. As long as the Dahls were willing to follow the Way of Goodness and the Void Mask Lord, he was content. The same night, the Dahl family sent out a mass order for all families to round up their members from infants to the elderly. This was a serious command by Baron Dahl, who exclaimed that anyone who did not turn up could no longer identify as a Dahl. Within five days, the entire family of about 100 people assembled at the Church of Void Mask¡¯s temple and conducted the admission baptism ceremony under the supervision of Kabbalah. Afterward, amidst the noise, Baron Dahl handed the seal, scepter, saber and flag to Kabbalah, which signified the handover of a regime, command, troops and family respectively. With such a handover, there was the idea that the Dahls fully gave up their independence to become Void Mask disciples. After Kabbalah received these items, he quickly blessed them before returning the seal ad scepter to Baron Dahl. This signified that he was now the god that supervised the Dahls and also accorded the Dahls the highest level of military as well. Kabbalah held on the other items to signify that the land was now under the church¡¯s law and to formally include all the Dahls as disciples. As there had already been news about this development within the family, the Dahls were not shocked, but the onlookers were flabbergasted. Many stared and gossiped as they did not understand why the Dahls had made such a grave decision. Normally, only extremist disciples who had been fully brainwashed would do such a thing, and Baron Dahl did not seem like one. It was only when Baron Dahl¡¯s son removed his hat to reveal his yellow, short horns did everyone comprehend the situation. Baron Dahl did not hide the truth and shared it openly. Many who had assumed a high-level of understanding of the Dahls¡¯ history were shocked. Since that was the case, this conversion was no longer surprising. Although leadership was important, to continue the family name and avoid danger, Baron Dahl had made a wise choice. On the other hand, many were curious about the strength of the Dahls. While having devil blood brought much danger and trouble, the fact that the Dahls possessed it as well as support by a new leader could mean that they grew much stronger in the near future. The green jellyfish flag was thus finally erected successfully at the city gates. Chapter 805 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio This year¡¯s winter could be said to be a relatively peaceful period for the Main Plane. Thanks to the demise of the God of Conspiracy, organizations which were previously at war were now at peace. The crossover from the old year to the next was quiet and uneventful. However, as the new year started, a huge and catastrophic event unraveled. Within the Natural God System, the God of Rain had fallen. Things happened as such: After the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had fallen, the God of Rain, the God of River and the God of South Wind had all eyed the possibility of taking on the priesthood of harvesting. After all, their original priesthoods were all related to harvesting. In the past few months, they had all collaborated extensively with the Goddess of Bumper Harvest and gained insights on harvesting. With enough time, this priesthood could be bestowed unto any of the three. Of course, there was a greater possibility that they would all have to share such a priesthood. As much as they had assumed that they would be able to access the role, fate had it that the God of Agriculture, Damwade was born while the three gods were busy, and he managed to steal a big majority of the harvesting priesthood. The nature of ¡°harvesting¡± was to increase the number of harvests. It was thus appropriate for the God of Agriculture to take over this priesthood, if one were to argue with such a perspective. This was seen as a matter of fact not just by the priesthood, but also by the general public. Damwade was then able to easily absorb about 60 percent of the harvesting priesthood and gain many new disciples that were previously under the Church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. These disciples even helped rebuild the temple of the church in Garth City. On the day where the construction of the new temple was completed, many high-level clergymen who had lived since before Garth City was built cried out with tears streaming down their faces. Ever since this temple was destroyed in the battle between the Goddess of Bumper Harvest and the Goddess of Marsh, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been on a downhill path till her demise. Because of that, all her disciples had generally become lonely ghosts, roaming around aimlessly. They were generally gloomy and depressed during that time period, and it was shocking to them that no one had actually tried to commit suicide in despair. Now, that dark period was over. Under the leadership of Lord Damwade, everyone worked towards developing the vast land, allowing all to have a steady livelihood. When one died, they could also head to the Void Mask¡¯s God Kingdom to meet the followers of other goddesses that had fallen. Sui Xiong had already transferred the Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s followers to a piece of land in his God Kingdom belong to the God of Agriculture. Now, they were considered the God of Agriculture¡¯s disciples too. With such a context, one could enjoy life both while alive and after death. As they thought about this prospect, they teared up with joy. In a mere few years, the influence left behind by the Goddess of Bumper Harvest was adequately succeeded by the God of Agriculture. There were only a few disciples left who remained conflicted as they had always been with the Church of the Void Mask or were deadly loyal to only the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. For the latter group, they stubbornly refused to accept the God of Agriculture¡¯s rule and continued to stick to their original beliefs. Such a situation greatly worried the God of Rain, the God of River and the God of South Wind. They were not concerned about the conflicted disciples. Rather, they were concerned about the remaining shares of the harvesting priesthood. With the current situation, the remaining shares were likely to land in the hands of the God of Agriculture, as well. This was unacceptable! The God of Rain thus decided to take action. Although he had not made sufficient preparations, the God of Rain nevertheless held a grand prayer ceremony on the second day of the new year to demonstrate his priesthood and attempt to use his understanding and knowledge to gain control over the remaining 40 percent of the harvesting priesthood. However, he failed. The reason for failure was unclear. Some felt that it was due to changes in the harvesting priesthood; it was now different from when it was under the Goddess of Bumper Harvest¡¯s reign. Furthermore, the God of Agriculture now controlled 60 percent of the priesthood, and the notions of the remaining 40 percent were a mystery. The God of Rain had tried to acquire the remaining 40 percent with outdated knowledge and thus could not secure a victory. Originally, the God of Rain¡¯s consequences of failure were not that severe. He simply needed to rest and rejuvenate for a few years in the near future. However, just as his prayer ceremony failed, the God of Drought, who had sensed that such events would happen, issued a vow to the world. He proclaimed that he would use all of his power to break the balance between rain and drought, causing the entire land to enter a long dry season. Normally, this would not be a big deal. Previously, seasons of heavy rain and seasons of drought were not uncommon, and such vows had been made a few times before as well by the two gods. Although the God of Drought pretended to be an imposing figure, unless the God of Rain set down a similar degree, his impact was not that severe. The God of Rain naturally issued a similar vow against the God of Drought to allow for a long rainy season. However, this time, something bad happened. The God of Rain had just ended his attempt to obtain the harvesting priesthood based on his understanding of the balance between wind and rain in creating ideal weather. Although he had no control over wind, he was in charge of rain, and thus his idea of ideal rainfall was naturally where rain was moderate and sufficient. Because of that, with his sudden turnaround vow of breaking the balance of weather and causing a long rainy season, there were now conflicting views. One also could not forget that he had just proclaimed his intentions to the world! This was akin to a small chief proclaiming to the company¡¯s boss that he wanted to get a promotion by stating his aims of correcting the splurging and excessive spending of the department. The boss would then refuse but compliment his ideal motivations, urging the small chief to continue striving for excellence. In the end, this small chief would end up being an extreme hypocrite by endorsing a huge, lavish banquet for his department right after. It went without saying that hypocrites often faced harsh consequences by those who felt cheated by them. In this case of the gods, the God of Rain naturally faced the scorn of the world and thus had extra injuries inflicted upon him. What was worse was that he subconsciously admitted his mistake and willingness to surrender. Regardless of the God of Drought¡¯s actions, he would no longer take any action of his own in return. According to the evaluation of other mid-level gods in the Natural God System, he was killed not by the world but by his own stupidity now. Chapter 806 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Upon hearing the details of this story, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh in amusement. On earth, there was a group of people who organized the laughable ¡°Darwin Awards.¡± This prize would be awarded to those who caused their own deaths in stupid or foolish ways as an ironic tribute to them and their lack of intelligence. Basically, this was for people who were not just silly or not smart but total idiots! Hm¡­ One could say that their idiocy made every other human look smart in comparison¡­ Sui Xiong recalled that he had once saw a consensus that their demise helped raise the average IQ of the entire world¡¯s population! For example, there was a skydiving coach who had been trying to emphasize the importance of possessing a parachute when skydiving. To prove his point that a lack of a parachute would cause death, he jumped off the plane without possessing one himself! There was another case where someone¡¯s sister had stepped on an electric wire and had been electrocuted to death. While explaining the story to a neighbor, her brother had tried to recreate the scene and stepped barefoot onto an exposed wire, causing his own death as well. Yet another example would be when someone had tried to demonstrate that the glass used to construct his office window was extremely solid. He had run headfirst into the glass, which ended up cracking, causing him to be thrown off the 24th story of his building onto the streets. Another case would be when a gambling addict had been playing ¡°Russian Roulette¡± in a life-or-death round. Normally, one would find a revolver and placed one single bullet inside before turning the drum a few times and firing at each other in turns. His method, however, was to find an automatic gun and shoot it at himself. The most memorable example to Sui Xiong was of a thief who tried to use a plastic tube to pierce a car¡¯s wooden tank and suck out the petrol with his mouth to steal it. He had managed to find a brand-new car but wrongly inserted the tube into the area of the car, which stored toxic water, leading to him being poisoned to death. Basically, these idiots had provided much comedic material for the world, and Sui Xiong was entertained every time he was reminded of them. Now, in this world, there was another story to add to this compilation. Sui Xiong felt that if this world similarly held a ¡°Darwin Awards¡± ceremony, this year¡¯s prize would definitely be awarded to the God of Rain. He told this joke to all his friends who laughed in agreement as well. After all, idiocy was always humorous to anyone who listened to these stories. However, this amusement did not last long as problems arose after one to two months. With the fall of the God of Rain, the God of Drought was now uncontested, and rainfall began to cease on the Main Plane, hinting at the start of a season of drought. This was worrying for everyone, especially as there was no God of Rain left to defend against any extreme situation. From the new year till spring, where snow started to melt, there were only two instances of rain on the Main Plane, and both were only small rainstorms. In the South, there was slightly higher rainfall (about three to four times), but that was still less than previous years. Time passed, and the spring harvesting season came. On earth, there¡¯s the idea that during this period, spring rainfall is of utmost importance for the crops. There was a similar idea in this world. But this year, the amount of rain was pitiful. After the spring harvesting season, there was one instance of rain in the North, and this lack continued for a year. This was not sufficient for even one-third of the land. The northern part of the Main Plane did not have many rivers and could even be said to be lacking since before, and the drought and lack of rain worsened this situation drastically. In contrast, the southern part of the Main Plane was less affected as there were enough rivers for workers to collect water from to combat the drought. The leaders in the North were extremely worried about the stagnant rain situation as there were not able to sustain their livelihood much longer. As much as the people remained optimistic, things only worsened afterwards. After spring came summer, and with the blistering heat came more concerns about the drought. In the North, many crops and plants had begun to shrivel up. Even as farmers tried their best to use each drop of water efficiently, they were unable to revive their crops, and the fields were filled with patches of yellow. Conversely, the situation was less dire in the South, but the farmers were equally exhausted by the constant need to retrieve water from faraway water sources. Many leaders had even had to set up troops at their own water defenses, and these troops were constantly engaged in battle with those who wished to steal water from these sources. Under such circumstances, the good gods couldn¡¯t possibly sit and watch without offering any help. They sent down their Oracles and high-level clergymen to give full aid towards the crisis. Many even lowered their avatars to earth and used their Divine Power to open doors to the Water Element Plane, allowing the water to flow towards the Main Plane as rain. This method may have been effective in the short term, but after a few days, they were forced to halt operations. The Master of Order spoke up and prohibited the gods from manipulating the natural environment of the Main Plane. He felt that one or two gods playing with occasional wind or rain was fine. If they chose to create a rare volcano eruption or something to that extent, he would probably allow it as well. However, the actions of a few hundred gods combined to supply water from the Water Element Plane was crossing the line! The Master of Order especially criticized the Orc God System. As most of their land were plains and farming land, they had used all their power to create a huge web with the help of hundreds of gods to link the Main Plane and Water Element Plane. Currently, rainfall was extremely heavy with howling winds. With the Master of Order¡¯s admonishment, the good gods were forced to stop their actions, and none dared to continue creating artificial rain. The situation, which was beginning to improve, started deteriorating again¡­ at a much faster speed! Chapter 807 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio It¡¯s hard to salvage the situation now¡­ Sui Xiong flopped onto his desk and watched the translucent Main Plane floating in the air with a pained expression on his face. This model was created with Divine Power and could reflect the reality happening on the actual Main Plane. Sui Xiong had all along used this model to monitor situations there as it was a trusty model. Now, he could see that many of the areas on the Main Plane were reflected with light and dark yellow colors, with the most serious being areas around the Commonwealth of Gold Coins: The Goddess of Fortune never really had much power and now was no exception. She was slow to react and did not like to show all her cards at one go; thus even as she ordered rainfall, she did not go too overboard, and the effect was not too great. In comparison, the situations on the prairie were much better. The various Orc gods had been supplying water to the land, to the extent where the Master of Order had ordered them to halt operations. They had supplied about two years¡¯ worth of water and even caused a minor flood. The flood was still ongoing, and thus it somewhat combatted the issue of the drought. To be honest, Sui Xiong admired these intense Orc gods¡­ They had managed to somehow flip a drought into a flood! ¡°They must have tried to supply as much water as they could in a short period of time, knowing that Master of Order would eventually stop them.¡± Morani smiled as he spoke. Morani was extremely familiar with the Orc gods as he was their old friend and could be considered an old Orc god. This was why he was an expert in their working style. Another group of people who had procured crazy rainstorms would be the Human God System. However, they took on a method dissimilar to the Orcs and instead chose to create hundreds of rivers and fill them up before starting the rain. One may assume that this method brought similar results to the Orcs¡¯ style, but in fact, it prevented the threat of flooding and was more efficient for the farmers. The Human God System, however, focused only on some of the human countries and not on protecting all. The areas that received rain were the Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of the Blue Moon and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. These countries were geographically adjacent, and all had the church of human gods as their national religion. In comparison, the Duchy of Thunder, the Mifata Federation and the Dhaka Commercial Association in the South, as well as the Commonwealth of Gold Coins in the West did not have human gods as the main faith. ¡°Those bastards¡­ They are really petty! Those not of the faith are all humans, why can¡¯t they help them out as well?¡± After hearing Javier¡¯s explanation, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but grumble. ¡°They do not have the resources to give full aid to everyone; thus, it is up to them how they want to spend it. In any case, there are many good gods who gave aid to the other areas already.¡± In contrast, Javier was more nonchalant about the whole situation. Sui Xiong sighed and looked at the model again. Although there were sufficient areas that were green, a new layer of yellow was surfacing on the projection. After a while, Sui Xiong spoke up again. ¡°How long¡­ do you think these solutions can hold up for?¡± ¡°A few months, maybe.¡± ¡°If rainwater is conserved, maybe a year?¡± ¡°One year is too optimistic; it¡¯s impossible. The water will be used up or dried up eventually.¡± The gods started an intense discussion. Sui Xiong did not join in and chose to continue glancing at the model. He had a bad feeling about the whole situation. During autumn, this feeling of impending doom became reality. Due to the complete lack of rain in the entirety of summer, the previous issue became a pressing problem again. This time, the drought was most serious for the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, and in many parts of the land, the ground had started to crack. As for the crops¡­ If rain fell right at that moment, there perhaps could have been hope. Otherwise, more than half would become unsalvageable. The Goddess of Wealth was extremely anxious, and she paced back and forth with worry. She had already sent out all the Oracles and patron saints under her to help save the situation, but it seemed like her efforts were in. the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s plans were similar to those in the past, which was to obtain water from the Water Element Plane. However, with the restrictions on the Main Plane, even legendary-level Oracles could not use their power to their potential. Even with the help of the Goddess of Wealth, each Oracle was only able to gather enough water to fill about 10000 acres of land daily. While 10000 acres sounded like a lot, the northern and southern areas of the Commonwealth spanned more than 5000 kilometers, and the western and eastern areas spanned close to 4000 kilometers. In other words, the entire country took up land amounting to more than 1500,0000 kilometers. They had not fully developed the land, and thus, cultivated ground took up about 15% of the country¡¯s land. One could thus say that there were about 2250000 kilometers of farming land, or 550 million acres to water. The conversion between acres and kilometers seemed dissimilar to that on Earth to Sui Xiong, and he was unsure whether it was his own fault for being inattentive in physics classes. Was his arithmetic sense really so bad? Well, in any case, there was the issue where even if an Oracle could supply one acre of water to the land each day and created a small river in five days, 550 million acres was impossible to fulfill. A simple calculation would show that they would require at least 110 million Oracles to create rivers every five days! If this were outside the Main Plane, sustaining 110 million Oracles would not really be an issue. However, on the Main Plane, to maintain such activity, infinite amounts of power would be spent. The reality was that if Sui Xiong had not chosen to give aid, with the plans by the Goddess of Wealth alone, the Commonwealth would long have fallen. Even with Sui Xiong¡¯s aid, things were already tough. Although the Goddess of Wealth did not specialize in war, she was still rather strong as a god and could vaguely sustain 1000 to 1500 Oracles¡¯ activities in the Human Realm. This was about the general standard of great Divine Power. Among her friends, she was the only one who could do so. Yorgaardman and Sui Xiong were both stronger than the Goddess of Wealth. However, this was rather negligible as they did not have as many Oracles under them. For the activity of Oracles collecting water from the Human Realm, mass-produced Oracles were unable to participate. Only elite Oracles had the intelligence to complete such a task. Even if we added the number of Yorgaardman and Sui Xiong¡¯s elite Oracles together, there would still be less than 500 Oracles, let alone 1000. Sui Xiong had about 300 elite Oracles under him, while Yorgaardman had less than 100. In comparison, God of Law, Law Brans, had about 2000. In any case, after everyone compiled their Oracle count, there were still impossibly behind with only approximately 3000 Oracles. What made the situation worse was that even if all 3000 Oracles were used, the situation in the Commonwealth would still be rather unsalvageable¡­ After all, 15% of the land of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was farming ground¡­ Chapter 808 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There was only one country on the entire Main Plane unaffected by the drought, and it was the Republic of Northwest. It was on the most northwest area of the plane, and it was always cold there. Because of the freezing cold, there were large amounts of snowfall, and underground water sources were plentiful as well. Other than that, the land was not rich. Farming was not the main trading activity, and there were few crops and animals, requiring fewer water sources. Major activities that required water were construction-based and could be halted if water was scarce. Furthermore, they did not have a large population, and their living needs were rather basic. Even with a big drought, they managed to supply sufficient amounts of water for the residents to maintain their simple lifestyles. Many humans had already flocked to the Republic of Northwest as tourists to enjoy the plentiful water supply. Sui Xiong was not particularly concerned about the Republic of Northwest at this point in time as they did not lack water. While he busied himself with trying to remedy the drought situation overall, he received some pleasing news. The Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡¯ northern-most city, Double-Headed Stork City, had decided to leave the Commonwealth to join the Republic of Northwest. ¡°Why is that?¡± Sui Xiong was shocked when he first heard the news and paused to ponder about it for a moment. ¡°Because of the water issue.¡± Great Governor Felix, who was in charge of the update, sighed. ¡°They severely lack water, and they realized that Rye City has plentiful water sources. They got jealous and had several discussions about the issue, eventually coming to this decision.¡± ¡°They were willing to give up their country just to obtain water. Do they have no values in life? The governors who decided this must be crazy!¡± Sui Xiong was extremely shocked. ¡°Life values are only important if one is actually alive. Furthermore¡­ look at all the females and children. All of them have become so thirsty that their lips are all cracked! Under such an urgent situation, would one care about face? I think their solution makes sense.¡± Felix shook his head. Sui Xiong was silent for a while. After some time, he spoke again. ¡°Did you agree to their request?¡± ¡°We have not rejected them yet. The decision is yours to make.¡± ¡°That means to say¡­ I¡¯m the only one who can decide whether to take on the good cop or bad cop role¡­¡± ¡°You could say that. After all, the choice is not in my hands to make.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while before instructing Felix to wait. He decided to visit the Goddess of Wealth to discuss the matter. The Goddess of Wealth was not angered but rather somber for a while. In the end, she sighed lightly and said, ¡°I guess it¡¯s for the best. This way, they won¡¯t have to bear with the thirst any longer.¡± ¡°I have an uneasy feeling about this.¡± ¡°Maybe, but I can¡¯t think of a more appropriate plan at the moment. If you really feel like this is unsuitable, you can always reject them.¡± The Goddess of Wealth laughed bitterly. Now, Sui Xiong was the one who became silent. He felt that he was unable to reject them, somehow. It wasn¡¯t that he approved of the plan, but rather, he was not heartless enough to watch people die of thirst. Previously, Sui Xiong had approached the Republic of Northwest on whether they could provide aid for the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. However, after rigorous debates, he realized that the former did not have sufficient resources to do so. It was not that they lacked water, but rather, the distance between the two countries was too far away. This factor decided the transportation costs; even a cup of tea would cost about a Silver Dragon as there were thousands of miles between them. The Republic of Northwest was on the extreme end of the Main Plane, far away from the main civilized world. Even if they wanted to help others, this distance alone would make traveling unthinkably costly. The reality was that even if Double-Headed Stork City joined the Republic of Northwest, they would not be able to receive much in terms of water aid. Whether or not they could receive the amount needed for farming was debatable. However, they were already at their wit¡¯s ends and were about to die from thirst; thus, they clung on to any glimpse of hope, however small. To them, any little water aid could save a life. A life! Sui Xiong sent out a separate entity of his body to take a tour around the city, and he fell silent. The drought was extremely severe, and it shocked him. This emphasized the impossibility of rejecting their pitiful request. Thus, he decided to agree to their request to join the Republic of Northwest. A few days later, mages from the Republic of Northwest came in groups with various water storage tools, filling the previously prepared water pools and tanks to the brim. The troops of Double-Headed Stork City put aside their thirst and maintained order among the people to prevent fighting from the desire to access water. After supplying sufficient water, the mages headed for the fields and attempted to use the most water-saving ways to water the crops. This was a much harder task, and they hustled like letter pigeons, scurrying back and forth the Rye Canyon to bring water. Upon watching this scene, Sui Xiong felt enraged. Eventually, he could not stand it anymore and yelled aloud to Javier. ¡°Damnit! Do you know where the God of Drought¡¯s kingdom is?¡± Javier was spooked for a second. ¡°Why? Why do you want to know this?¡± ¡°I want to capture him and force him to end this despicable drought.¡± ¡°What if he refuses to do so?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll beat him to death then!¡± ¡°That would be useless. If violence could have solved the issue, the God of Justice would have taken action long ago!¡± ¡°Useless?¡± ¡°Yes. Rain and droughts are all-natural occurrences. The God of Drought can vow to bring droughts to the world, but he is unable to reverse the process and stop them. The issue can only be solved when the God of Rain makes a similar vow to bring about rain. This issue cannot simply be solved with violence.¡± ¡°Even if I beat him to death? I agree that violence is not always the solution, but at least I could deal with this bastard properly.¡± ¡°Even if you kill him, the drought will not end. The problem had been identified by him as well, and the God of Drought had been trying to help as well, actually.¡± ¡°What!?¡± Sui Xiong was extremely shocked. ¡°The drought is so severe, and yet you¡¯re claiming that God is Drought is trying his best to help the situation? I think you¡¯re being too lenient.¡± ¡°Lenient? Haven¡¯t you noticed that recently, Yorgaardman has stopped speaking? He has been by the God of Drought¡¯s side in his God Kingdom, pressuring him to take action. The God of Drought is so stressed that he may burst into tears at any moment now!¡± Sui Xiong had the sudden realization that those around him had already long begun to take action. It was just that the effects of these attempts were limited. ¡°Well, what will happen if I kill him now regardless, then?¡± Sui Xiong was persistent in his idea. Javier thought and eventually said with a sigh, ¡°Well, then¡­ I guess the drought will really continue to an unsalvageable stage¡­¡± Towards this, Sui Xiong was silent for a long time before eventually resorting to a string of exasperated curses. Chapter 809 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Another one to two months passed, and soon, it was winter. In theory, due to the freezing nature of winter and the lack of evaporation, the drought crisis ought to resolve itself. However, in reality, it wasn¡¯t so. According to the God of Drought, in the previous 100 years, the overall trend was that there was always more rain than drought, meaning that there were lots of drought instances ¡°conserved.¡± Now, especially as he was the sole god left, these drought instances exploded out all at one go due to the over accumulation of them. To settle this issue, the God of Rain had to take action¡­ but he had already fallen. One could say that unless there was a new God of Rain that appeared in a timely fashion, this big drought situation would persist and worsen. ¡°How urgent is the situation now?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°A new God of Rain needs to appear in¡­ about one to two months,¡± Javier replied. ¡°That¡¯s too short a time period! This plan is ridiculous! What do you want to do, go out and capture a wild the God of Rain back?¡± Sui Xiong was enraged. As he mentioned, such a notion was simply ridiculous. Before the investiture of a god could take place, one needed a period of training and an adjustment period to acclimatize to one¡¯s new body conditions and finish building a God Kingdom. This time period was flexible, and those who took longer could possibly use tens or hundreds of years, while others only required a few months. Within this time, they were able to respond to disciples¡¯ prayers and share magic, but they could not really expand on their priesthood. However, the drought situation was too urgent to wait for a new god. Human lives were at stake here! Furthermore, currently, on the Main Plane, many living creatures were on the brink of extinction. Waiting a few more months would mean that they would disappear from existence forever. If all the plants shriveled up and died and all the animals died of thirst, what would be the use of future rain? As he considered this grave situation, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but sigh. Usually, he was quick on his feet and could come up with good ideas quickly. Under such circumstances, though, he felt stuck and useless. ¡°What is the Master of Order thinking! This world is about to collapse, and he is still against the creation of rain¡­ That¡¯s just him being stubborn!¡± Sui Xiong complained. ¡°Well, he has his own way of thinking, and we can¡¯t do anything about it. Many of the bigger gods have been trying to negotiate with him but to no avail.¡± Javier sighed. ¡°Hey! This is really terrible!¡± ¡°It is terrible, but what can we do? In the past, such a difficult situation has never taken place even if there have been other disasters that occurred. We can only hope that we manage to survive this somehow.¡± Sui Xiong said nothing and sat in silence with a sullen expression on his face. Hope? Hope was not enough to tide this world through the crisis. Was there really nothing else they could do but pray to stay alive? The more Sui Xiong thought in silence, the more his eyes clouded over with rage. There was also a thunderous expression on his face that scared Javier. As an artist, Sui Xiong was a sensitive person and could be irrational when he was unhappy. In this case, who could even blame him given the situation? After a while, Sui Xiong began to form a secret plan in his mind. Even if one could not create rain or steal water from the Water Element Plane, he had other ploys in mind. After Javier had left, he created a separate body entity to enter the Human Realm. This body entity swelled, and countless tentacles emerged. These slimy, sticky tentacles reached out in all directions of the Human Realm. His main body landed in the North, in the icy sea, and became a huge pipe several kilometers long. At the same time, another of his clones materialized in front of the Goddess of the Ocean, Ariel. ¡°Could I trouble you to migrate the living creatures away from the Northern Sea? Those who are currently in this area.¡± As he spoke, Sui Xiong drew a circle on the map that he was holding. Ariel glanced at the map and frowned, saying, ¡°That area includes a mermaid city¡­ Why are you collecting a lot of water?¡± ¡°Yes, I am. I really require a lot of water,¡± Sui Xiong emphasized. ¡°In that case, I suggest you head to this area instead.¡± Ariel drew another circle on the map. ¡°Although it is a bit further away, there are literally no living creatures there, and I will migrate the few living there.¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Sui Xiong nodded and prepared to teleport his clone to the place Ariel suggested. ¡°I would just like to remind you that seawater cannot be used for watering fertile land. If you do so, the land will become useless. Animals who drink that water will also die of the saltiness.¡± Ariel couldn¡¯t help but offer a word of caution as she observed Sui Xiong¡¯s visible excitement. ¡°Don¡¯t worry! I¡¯m aware of that. I¡¯m not stupid, so of course, I would have considered that in my plan.¡± Sui Xiong smiled. Of course, he was aware that seawater could not be directly consumed or used to water crops. Seawater contained a high level of salt, after all. He wanted to use his Divine Power to remove the salt content from the water to convert it to fresh water before using it. As to how he would do so¡­ Sui Xiong was going to use distillation, of course! Although his physics knowledge was not brilliant, he had vague memories of distillation experiments converting saltwater to freshwater in school. His teacher had demonstrated a total of six experiments, and in all of these cases, freshwater was successfully produced. Although he was not fully clear on the theory behind distillation, Sui Xiong was aware of the necessary procedures. The first method was to boil the water. As long evaporation could occur, a large amount of condensation produced could be re-converted from gaseous state to liquid state of freshwater. The second method would be pumping. Using an air extractor with a certain pre-set level of pressure, water could also boil at a temperature below the boiling point. The condensation produced could be collected in a liquid state, similar to the first method. The third method would be freezing. As temperature decreases, water with the lowest salt content level would freeze first. While the water that could eventually be collected through this method was not pure freshwater, it would still have significantly lower salt content. The fourth method would be permeation. One could use pressure to squeeze water through a permeable membrane, in which salt would not be able to pass through. The fifth method would be through the exchange of ions. Freshwater could be produced by allowing water to flow slowly through a pipe filled with ion exchange resin. The sixth and last method would be to use a cloud chamber. Saltwater was to be sprayed into a cloud chamber containing hot air. This would create large amounts of condensation very quickly, which could be converted to the liquid state of freshwater. Among these six methods, Sui Xiong decided to eliminate the fifth one of ion exchange first as he did not know how to perform the exchange well. Even his teacher had been a little unsure of the specifics! Next, he also eliminated the freezing method as he wanted pure freshwater and not water with a lowered salt content. Among the remaining methods, the main idea was that either condensation needed to be collected or pressure was needed. The former seemed simpler, but there would be lots of concentrated brine produced. On the other hand, the latter was more complicated, and according to his teacher, there were high requirements for creating permeable membranes. Since Sui Xiong was not an expert, so he decided to just pick a method and stick to it for the time being. Chapter 810 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Sui Xiong¡¯s super-sized ¡°straw¡± clone retrieved large amounts of seawater and slowly transported them out of the sea. While he transported the water, his straw body¡¯s temperature rose continually, causing the seawater to quickly start boiling. The steam produced did not dissipate but instead rose to the top of the straw where it passed through several spirals that cooled it. After the cooling, condensation occurred, and the freshwater that was created was them further transported. The concentrated brine left in the straw was quickly returned to its normal temperature and released back into the sea. Such a process sounds complicated, but it could be summarized into the sucking up of water and adding of heat while the brine was cooled and redirected back to sea. The freshwater was then directed to places on the Main Plane which needed it. In summary, the method was rather efficient. While a certain degree of effort was needed on the part of Sui Xiong, it did not involve Water Element Plane. Furthermore, once transportation stabilized, the energy required of Sui Xiong also reduced over time. Divine Power was easy to manipulate in the sense that excess power could always be reabsorbed, leading to an overall minor effect on Sui Xiong. He eventually realized that the process of creating freshwater required minimal effort, even less so than the original transportation of the water! ¡°I remember watching a science program where they mentioned something called ¡®superfluid.¡¯ It sounded cool! If I could convert all this freshwater into ¡®superfluid,¡¯ maybe it would be easier to transport it¡­¡± As he worked, Sui Xiong began to think of other crazy ideas. However, this was but an idealistic comment as he had absolutely no idea on the concept of superfluid, let alone how to convert fresh water to it. With his skills, the creation of fresh water as well as transportation was all done rather quickly. In a mere few hours, the first batch of freshwater arrived at Double-Headed Stork City from his position in the far north. The freshwater trickled down from his invisible tentacles and hit the ground in a steady stream. The raindrops were extremely small and narrow, almost like mist, and those who were unobservant perhaps would not even notice it. However, many were tending to their crops, and they were able to quickly discover this strange phenomenon. An old man squatted down and used his fingers to feel the air. ¡°Is¡­ is that¡­ mist?¡± He was stunned and was unable to believe this. He then lay on the ground and began licking at the air. The air was moist. The old man¡¯s eyes widened, and he was so shocked that he couldn¡¯t breathe. He simply stared in a dazed way at the mist that had appeared. After a while, due to the early autumn season and the previously cold weather, the mist condensed extremely quickly and became actual water drops, which wet his hair and the ground. At that moment, he snapped out of his dreamy state and lay on the ground, crying instead of yelling out in joy. His strange actions had long attracted the attention of nearby farmers, but they were originally unresponsive to it as in recent days, many had done strange things out of desperation, and it was a common sight. However, as they watched the old man cry hysterically, someone spoke up out of pity. ¡°Stop crying. Even if you waste your tears, water won¡¯t appear. We can only wait for the mages in the Republic of Northwest to transport water here.¡± ¡°Water¡­ water is here!¡± ¡°Water? Where?¡± The man who had spoken was shocked, and his voice rose in volume. The old man pointed at the unassuming mist in the air with shaky fingers, then gestured at the moist land. This attracted the attention of a huge crowd who began to prod at the land and enjoy the feeling of the mist moisturizing their faces. ¡°He¡¯s right! It¡¯s water!¡± ¡°Where could it be from?¡± ¡°Who cares? Just be glad that there¡¯s water!¡± A big lad smiled cheerily as he ran and yelled in the direction of nearby villages. ¡°Hey! There¡¯s water! There¡¯s water in the fields!¡± As he had been thirsty for a while now, his voice was slightly hoarse but still powerful and heard by many. In a short period of time, similar situations occurred in several other places. The next day, this applied to the north area of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins as well. A week later, the entire Main Plane experience this same phenomenon. At the moment, many plants began to re-grow, and rivers began to fill up in Double-Headed Stork City, which was the first to receive the gift of mist. Thirsty living creatures gathered at the various rivers to satisfy their thirst. Everyone on the Main Plane was celebrating, and the good gods felt joyful as well. Several halos of light materialized around Sui Xiong, and these were the clones of the good gods who were curious as to how this whole phenomenon had occurred. ¡°How¡­ how did you do it?¡± ¡°Seawater was converted to freshwater extremely quickly, how is that possible?¡± ¡°When seawater is boiled, the water vapor holds no salt content, and the salt remains in the hot water below. I¡¯ve tried it before.¡± ¡°So¡­ it¡¯s very simple, then?¡± ¡°Simple? How about u try transporting the freshwater to all parts of the Main Plane and see whether you have the ability to do so!¡± ¡°That means you¡¯re a genius!¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Other than exclaiming in surprise, many of the gods also thanked Sui Xiong profusely, especially the good gods and the Orc gods. They all expressed their extreme gratitude and offered favors in the future should he need it. Towards all this, Sui Xiong merely smiled benevolently. He had done this feat for the sake of the people and not his own benefit, after all. While he was happy that the gods were thanking him, most of his joy came from watching the people shout and scream in happiness. To Sui Xiong, the satisfaction of the people was enough. His Divine Power had been bestowed to him by this world, and it was natural that he gave back to society here. Of course, there was never a situation that pleased everyone. In the Pantheon temple, several evil gods were frowning and glancing at the Master of Order, silently using their psychic abilities to report the matter to him. The Master of Order sat silently and did not respond. After a long time, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman could not stand the silence any longer and spoke up. ¡°Old man, what do we do about this? Is it legal? You have to say something!¡± The Master of Order did not respond, and he continued to sit unmoving like a stone. Yorgaardman wanted to speak up again, but the God of War, Wenner, grabbed hold of him and pulled him back. ¡°Do you still not understand? The Master of Order is closing one eye towards the situation. Why do you insist on asking him for a response! By saying nothing, he¡¯s giving his silent approval!¡± Back in Void Mask City¡¯s meeting room, Wenner shook his head and chastised Yorgaardman. Yorgaardman had a sudden realization and thus asked the Master of Order a question again. ¡°Old man, towards whatever my brother is doing, if you disapprove, say something. As long as you speak up, he¡¯ll stop.¡± The Master of Order remained silent and unresponsive. To this, Yorgaardman laughed uproariously and jostled Wenner in a playful fashion. ¡°I see, I see! I admire you for understanding the situation so quickly!¡± Chapter 811 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There was a saying on Earth that went ¡°so long as the law did not forbid, anything could be done.¡± That meant that so long as the law did not explicitly proclaim in writing that something was prohibited, then that thing could always be done. Of course, this did not mean that there was no danger. For example, climbing to the top of a skyscraper and dancing along the edge of its outer walls; for example, performing a high-wire stunt holding only a bamboo pole and without any safety rope; for example, going to some peaceful religious lands that flaunted no other forms of civilization other than scriptures to protect the rights and interests of women and children¡­ the last kind was indeed most admirable. But its death rate was much higher than the former two. It was said that every year, the true feminists had to sacrifice a double-digit number of lives for this cause. Such a heroic act was truly something so touching yet tragic. However, everyone knew that the fundamental reason those people died was that they were not strong enough. For example, people who fell to their deaths while playing extreme sports naturally would not die if they had tough bodies that could neither be smashed or broken. As for people who were beheaded by peaceful religions or smashed to death by stones, if they had millions of soldiers with guns behind them that were prepared to shoot anytime, they could even rear pigs in temples without any problems¡­ Well, anyone unafraid of future annihilation could always give it a shot. But Sui Xiong need not worry about these. He was strong enough. He was so strong that so long as the Master of Order did not seek trouble with him, it would be difficult for him to die even if he himself was seeking his own death. Now, the Master of Order indicated his attitude with a silence that could not be any clearer than it was. So Sui Xiong immediately cast all his concerns aside and began working hard to do a great job. He further enlarged his already large body. Although this greatly increased the consumption of his Divine Power, it also greatly increased the efficiency of water intake. The frenzied manner that he was drawing water created a new surge of ocean currents in the great sea on the north of the Main Plane. The drought in the mortal world was rapidly alleviated by the continuous fall of water fog and gradually regained calmness. The scene left all the gods wide-eyed and dumbfounded. Many gods tried to follow his method, only to find that it was simply impossible to accomplish what he did¡ªhis method, in fact, did not require a great consumption. But the ¡°start-up capital¡± could be so demanding that it required at least a mid-level Divine Power to achieve something like this. However, as they were under the influence of the Main Plane enchantment, the gods simply did not have the guts to descend as such powerful clones. So naturally, there was no way they could follow Sui Xiong¡¯s methodology. Only he was capable of such a feat. This skill was unique to him; it was all his to claim. Although the other gods could not help him directly, they knew that his consumption was massive, so they were quick to bestow upon him a great deal of Divine Power. No matter how Sui Xiong expressed that his consumption was not as much as what they imagined it to be, the other gods remained unmoved. The gods all gave him a little bit of Divine Power. So unknowingly, Sui Xiong realized that not only did he not consume a great amount of Divine Power because he had to handle disaster relief. He had, on the contrary, earned a lot more than what was consumed. A single god alone would not actually be able to give him much Divine Power. Other than the few great Divine Powers like the God of Light and the Sky Devourer Canine, the Divine Power given to him by the ordinary gods would probably be enough to last him a day or two. But the number of gods who could not refrain from giving him Divine Power was overwhelming. There were more than 400 gods in total. Among them were gods from different races on the Main Plane, gods who had their own parishes on the Main Plane, and also some good gods who came to render him support purely due to philosophical reasons. In fact, if Sui Xiong had not insisted on not accepting too many gifts, the Divine Power that he received would be far greater than what he had gained. ¡°Why would I want so much Divine Power?¡± Sui Xiong said when Yorgaardman was having a casual chat with him about this matter. He smiled and said, ¡°As far as I¡¯m concerned, I¡¯m good with just enough Divine Power to use. Anyway, I don¡¯t have anything special to use it for.¡± To this, the God of Justice was agreeable. He was one of the few good goods who did not give any Divine Power to Sui Xiong. And it was not because he was being stingy or any reason along this line, but because he truly did not have so much Divine Power to spare. As one of the best masters among the great Divine Powers, Yorgaardman¡¯s deity level was very high. His divinity was very strong as well, but only his Divine Power¡­ was simply too average. He had no choice. His followers were too few, so he could only rely on the few priesthoods like ¡°justice¡± or ¡°courage¡± to obtain Divine Power from the World¡¯s Origin. Also, he did not belong to the category of gods who were skilled in magic, so he could not obtain Divine Power by refining magic. A long time ago, when he was not as powerful as he was now, there were even a few evil gods who joined hands into forcing him into a war of attrition. That war almost cost him his life. That was probably the most dangerous moment of his life. Fortunately, at the most critical moment, a troop of human gods came rushing and charging over. In a brief moment, they counter-attacked and killed the evil gods. Thus, Yorgaardman barely escaped death. After the event, he went to express his gratitude. But he learned that the God of Light had known that those evil gods were plotting against him and was simply using him as bait. He was so mad that he threw away all notions of saying thank you altogether. From Sui Xiong¡¯s point of view, the God of Light probably did have the intention of making use of the God of Justice. But it was also an indisputable fact that the God of Light had saved the God of Justice at the most critical moment. If that was the case, why should the God of Justice be bothered about being used by his own brother? It was just that¡­ he had no intention of getting involved in this enmity between the two brothers. Sui Xiong truly could not figure out the baffling relationship between these two disciples of the God of Knights. They might seem like enemies at first glance, but more than once, they had stood on the same side or even helped each other on key issues. Sometimes, Sui Xiong would wonder. Between the two of them, was the contradiction due to a clash in ideas bigger? Or was the friendship due to having similar tastes and inclinations bigger? He was never able to ascertain this. At this time, the God of Glory was the one who gave Sui Xiong the most Divine Power. In terms of measure of component, this amount was even enough to create a mid-level Divine Power. And though the God of Justice was unable to provide him Divine Power, he was always standing by Sui Xiong¡¯s side as his bodyguard. This allowed Sui Xiong to work with a peace of mind and without the fear of danger. It vaguely seemed like the two of them shared a tacit understanding, as though they had discussed beforehand. Maybe¡­ this was all arranged by the God of Knights? Thinking of the God of Knights, Sui Xiong could not help recalling the scene where this senior god was annihilated. At that time, though he did not witness the incident, he learned everything about it from the retellings of others thereafter. It was clear that the God of Knights had completely abandoned all his priesthoods, and his deity was lowered to the level of a god-to-be. But his Divine Power and divinity, on the contrary, skyrocketed to an inconceivable level. What on earth was happening? Long ago, he once asked the God of Light about the God of Knights. At that time, the God of Light had told Sui Xiong that it would not be too late to wait till he had stepped into the realm of a mid-level Divine Power before considering these matters. Now, though he was not officially sealed god, purely based on the degree of strength of his divinity and Divine Power, he was not the least inferior to any other great Divine Power. So, it was time for him to raise a question about it again¡­ In the midst of these rambling thoughts and considerations, the year¡¯s autumn and winter passed. All thanks to Sui Xiong, the Main Plane¡¯s harvest for the year might be lacking, yet ultimately, it was not to the extent of reaping no harvest at all. Also, the vegetation and animals managed to survive the most difficult time. Though winter killed many people and animals, it did not bring about the direst consequences. When spring came and all the snow had melted, the God of Drought, who had been playing dead for more than a year, finally brought good news to everyone. The great drought that had swept through the entire Main Plane was coming to an end! Chapter 812 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°This is the best news I¡¯ve heard today!¡± Sui Xiong exclaimed. Knowing that the drought was about to end, Sui Xiong could not help laughing as he said, ¡°I¡¯ve been really exhausted for the past half a year!¡± ¡°Honestly, everyone was really surprised that you actually made it this far!¡± Javier said. ¡°More than one evil god has placed bets, gambling on whether you will burn yourself out or whether you would give up. No one really bet that you would persevere all the way and successfully make it to the end. Not a single one.¡± Sui Xiong smiled. Suddenly, he froze for a moment before asking, ¡°Not even you?¡± Javier turned his head and appeared to be looking at the view outside the window. He even gave a very sincere compliment, ¡°Ah, I just discovered a beautiful bed of flowers outside this conference hall!¡± Sui Xiong sighed. He was at a loss for words. ¡°If it was anyone else, I wouldn¡¯t be the least bothered. But even if you have no confidence in me¡­ aren¡¯t we friends? On account of our friendship, you should have helped me maintain my impressive image, right?¡± Javier gave a dry laugh but made no explanation. In fact, there was no need for any explanation. Sui Xiong understood what was going through his mind. A friendship was a friendship. A gamble was a gamble. Javier was not optimistic about Sui Xiong being able to hold out till the end, so no matter what, he would never bet on this. It was not known how long this great drought would last. If it were to go on for another eight to ten years, who would be able to hold on till the end of it? But Sui Xiong knew that he could actually really persist all the way. For the past half a year, he did not just hold on so purposelessly. While ensuring that there was water supply for humans, he had also been experimenting on how he could increase the efficiency of the seawater desalination technology. Though the various experiments he carried out, his technique was also improving constantly. Now, he had progressed from the original set of technique to form a whole new technology¡ªjust like how a teacher would show something to the class during experimental class, he was now spraying seawater into mist. Then using the method of heating the mist, he attempted to separate the salt from water in the seawater. This separation method was very efficient. Other than being able to obtain boiling hot water vapor, he could also get the coarse salt that was basically dry. He would then collect the coarse salt and ship it over to the Republic of Northwest. A group of magicians and craftsmen, led by Palin, were studying the coarse salt. They were trying to figure out how they could purify this salt into fine edible salt. In the southern part of this world, there were also salt fields where seawater was dried up for the purpose of obtaining salt. Naturally, the kind of salt obtained would be just like this kind of coarse salt that Sui Xiong made. Generally speaking, this was the kind of coarse salt that the people ate. It had a clear bitter taste and should not be consumed excessively. People who were financially sound could afford to eat fine salt that had been purified by magic. They would obtain concentrated seawater from the salt fields as the raw ingredient, then use magic to remove the impurities in the seawater. Thereafter, they would dry up the seawater to finally obtain the fine salt. It was very similar to the fine salt found on Earth, whether in shape or taste. The only difference was that words like ¡°all-natural¡± or the green logo would not be found on the package. Regrettably, using magic to purify salt water involved a very high cost. So this sort of fine salt was quite costly. Even households who were slightly better off might not be able to afford to use such fine salt, not to mention the poor people. To be able to enjoy salt of this grade, one would at least have to be a merchant, aristocrat or an adventurer who was doing pretty well. Of course, in Void City, there were many dishes that used such fine salt. But what Sui Xiong wanted to do was to take this opportunity to research on ways to produce inexpensive fine salt that even the commoners could afford to use. This was a relatively difficult issue to address. Palin and company had been working hard on studying it, but up till now, they still could not come up with a good solution. If magic could be used, then things would in fact, be very easy. But once the use of magic was involved, then this thing was never going to be cheap. And if magic was completely eliminated, many things could not be made. Everything would be extremely troublesome. Sui Xiong did not know when they would be able to reap some results. But he was in no hurry. Carrying out scientific research was originally a very long process, and it required a great deal of time, energy and wealth. Which research powerhouse on Earth did not rely on a large group of scientific workers, a huge amount of money, as well as an extremely long time to accumulate and gain some results? A genius would be able to achieve all of the above, but something like that would only happen in comics. Sui Xiong had stored most of the coarse salt in his God Kingdom. So now, there was a high mountain found in his God Kingdom¡ªthis was a high mountain formed from the accumulation of coarse salt. The amazing thing was that there was so much less water and so much more salt in the sea, but the sea level did not seem visibly lower. The taste of the seawater did not become any more bland than before. It was truly very difficult to understand something like that. ¡°Don¡¯t you all find this strange?¡± Sui Xiong asked. He described what he discovered and said, ¡°Though we all know that the edge of the Main Plane is connected to other worlds, how could the flow of water be completely unrestricted? Then why is it that no one could directly set sail and travel to other worlds?¡± The gods looked at each other and could not help wondering. ¡°Yes¡­ Why?¡± Javier asked too. He frowned, then said, ¡°This is something so obvious. Why have I never thought about it?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t make sense¡­ I was supposed to be fearless, liked to wander and travel, climbed the highest mountains, killed the most ferocious beasts¡­ but why have I not thought about setting sail and travel to the end of the sea to see what it was like?¡± said Yorgaardman. Naturally, it would only be him who was capable of such a comment. Wenner pondered for a moment, then his eyes narrowed. He said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid¡­ our thoughts have all been influenced.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°How about this? Let¡¯s do an experiment,¡± Wenner said. He carved a few lines on the table of the conference hall as record details of this matter. Then, he covered the carvings. ¡°Auscar, cover this again with your Divine Power to ensure that not a single one of us can see it,¡± he said. ¡°Then we¡¯ll wait for a few days and see if we can still remember this.¡± After a few days, Sui Xiong mentioned that ¡°a few lines were carved on the table as s record for an incident.¡± Then he asked everyone whether they could remember what was written. The gods frowned and looked at one another. ¡°Is there anything like this? Why don¡¯t I have any impression of it at all?¡± ¡°Yes, me neither.¡± ¡°Seems like, it seems like there¡¯s really something like that! But¡­ the memory of it is so vague¡­ Auscar, are you sure this was a few days ago, and not decades ago?¡± ¡°Something¡¯s not right! Given our minds, even if it¡¯s something that happened decades ago, we should be able to remember it clearly! There¡¯s no way we would forget about it!¡± ¡°You¡¯re right! It¡¯s impossible for us to even forget about something that happened hundreds of years ago, let alone decades ago!¡± The gods¡¯ faces gradually changed as they began to show heavy expressions. Under everyone¡¯s watchful eyes, the sullen-faced Sui Xiong lifted the lid that covered the few lines. At the sight of those few lines, everyone was suddenly enlightened and recalled this experiment that they had originally done together. Then they started to worry. It was absolutely impossible for an ordinary person to be able to make nearly 20 gods, including four great Divine Powers, lose their impression of a certain event at the same time. Among all the gods, there was only one who could possibly achieve something like this! The Master of Order! Chapter 813 Silence, dead silence. No one knew how long this silence lasted, but after a while, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman broke the silence. He gave a dry laugh. Then trying his best to sound as casual as possible, he said, ¡°Maybe, it may not be anyone¡¯s doing at all. Maybe the rules of the world just happen to be like that.¡± Hearing his words, everyone felt more at ease. But their faces still reflected their worries. And in their hearts, they were still anxious and apprehensive. Yorgaardman¡¯s speculation was certainly another possibility. Honestly, Sui Xiong even felt that this might, on the contrary, be a likelier possibility. However, compared to the possibility that the Master of Order was the mastermind behind all these, this possibility seemed so plain and ordinary. It lacked the shock factor, and also, there was nothing about it that could shock or terrify people. This was the same in any world. The more sensational something was, the more attention it would attract. The press on Earth had such a famous saying that said, ¡°It¡¯s not news when a dog bites a man, but it¡¯s big news when a man bites a dog.¡± To Sui Xiong and company, learning that ¡°there was originally such restrictions on the Main Plane¡± was not news, nor was it something worthy of their concern. But if it was ¡°the Master of Order had restricted all living creatures from exploring areas by the edges of the Main Plane,¡± then that would make hair-raising news that was startling enough for them to show concern and worry. After all¡­ the former was not dangerous while the latter was! The thought of ¡°this restriction was imposed by the Master of Order¡± made everyone shudder in fear, and they looked at each other for a long time. Even though Yorgaardman also suggested a more reasonable and safer possibility, it was unable to completely dismiss their fears. Fortunately, there was one among them who was not afraid. After a while, Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°This looks very interesting. After this combat against the drought is over, I want to go over to the edge of the Main Plane to take a look.¡± Everyone was shocked. It was out of their expectations that not only was he unafraid, but he was also even curious. ¡°By that time, will you still remember this?¡± Javier asked. ¡°Of course,¡± Sui Xiong replied. He smiled and said, ¡°Come to think of it, it¡¯s quite strange indeed. All of you have forgotten about it, but I remember it. It seems as if I was not the least affected.¡± The gods were surprised. But after some careful thoughts about it, they were relieved. Given his strength as a great Divine Power, Sui Xiong was able to roam freely about the Main Plane. He did not seem to be restricted by the enchantment left by the Goddess of Life. This was already very amazing. Adding to another area where he was not affected by any restriction was simply no big deal. And it was nothing strange at all. A more realistic example could be derived from this as well: Before he traversed worlds, Sui Xiong enjoyed reading web novels. There were all kinds of authors who wrote web novels. Among them, there were those who updated their novels with 20 thousand words on a daily basis and did this all year round without fail. There were those who insisted on writing even when they were sick. They were so diligent that their readers were moved to tears. There were also authors who would write a chapter when they were in a good mood or take a break for a few days if they were in a bad mood. There were even those who would start on a book that eventually came to naught. A few days later, they would start on another book, but then it did not take them long before the cycle repeated itself, and the book would disappear without an ending¡ªsuch a situation was called ¡°eunuch,¡± which meant ¡°nothing at the bottom.¡± A diligent author could update his novel with ten chapters a day, and no one would find this surprising. A lazy author made a eunuch out of a book again, and no one would find this surprising as well. The same theory was applicable to Sui Xiong. Since he had already broken through one kind of restriction, breaking through another was nothing worth the surprise. But¡­ this alone was not enough! ¡°This is not very befitting,¡± said Javier as he shook his head. ¡°Just because you¡¯re not restricted by the Goddess of Life¡¯s enchantment and have the freedom to use your power on the Main Plane doesn¡¯t mean that you¡¯re able to be free from the restriction of this bizarre rule. Moreover¡­ if the Master of Order was really the one who imposed this restriction, and you go ahead with testing him so impulsively, it¡¯s easy to provoke him.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter even if it¡¯s the Master of Order,¡± replied Sui Xiong. He smiled and said, ¡°Would it be so easy to provoke someone as senior as him? He¡¯ll at least give me a warning, and at that time, I¡¯ll just have to make my retreat, that¡¯s it.¡± ¡°What if he doesn¡¯t give you any warning and makes a move right away?¡± Javier asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t the Main Plane enveloped within the enchantment of the Goddess of Life? The moment he strikes once, he¡¯ll definitely be weakened. I might not necessarily be swatted with that palm of his like a housefly,¡± Sui Xiong said with great indifference. Javier shook his head and said, ¡°He is a greater Divine Power! No matter how powerful the Goddess of Life is, she¡¯s ultimately not a greater Divine Power. That enchantment may be able to stop everyone, but it will not be able to stop him¡ªthough he has never tried before. But at least, I¡¯m sure that the enchantment can¡¯t stop him.¡± ¡°What if it can¡¯t stop him, what then?¡± asked Morani. As someone who seldom spoke up, even Morani could not help but attempted to persuade Sui Xiong. ¡°You want to explore the edge of the Main Plane, which means you definitely have to walk out of the boundary of the enchantment. When you are out of the Main Plane, there¡¯s nothing to stop him anymore!¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a moment. Then he laughed aloud, changed the topic, and no longer talked about this matter. In fact, he was inspired. Something else had come to mind, but it was something that was not very suitable to be openly said. The way to attempt a breakthrough to becoming a greater Divine Power. Over the years, he could almost be said to have thoroughly acquainted himself with the legacy of the former Sun God. That legacy was inclusive of almost every domain of power in the world and also had an entire set of knowledge on the power of priesthoods. Though he did not possess the power of various domains like the former Sun God did, nor did he try to have a hand in each and every one of the priesthoods. From his own point of view, there was not much left that he needed to learn. In other words, his understanding and mastery of the realm of ¡°great Divine Power¡± had almost reached a bottleneck. In the future, he could certainly continue to make progress, but it would all be in-depth work that was very detailed and time-consuming. It would be nothing more than a mere change in accumulation amount. To achieve qualitative change through the accumulation of quantitative change¡ªthe former Sun God had not been able to do so, so Sui Xiong most certainly would not be able to do so. Since ancient times, there had been instances of students surpassing their teachers. But for students who only knew to imitate their teachers, were they able to surpass their teachers? So he felt that it was, in fact, quite a good idea to find the opportunity to meet the Master of Order. Out of the four greater Divine Powers, the Master of Order was the only one who maintained his true capabilities in good condition. Through these years, Sui Xiong had only seen the Master of Order in action once. That was when the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had fallen. The Dragon of Chaos had used its blood as bait and launched a terrifying magic array that completely polluted the entire God Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. The endless chaos that had spread out practically implicated the Main Plane. That was when the Master of Order had sprung into action. At that time, he emitted a circle of white light that neutralized the chaotic atmosphere that the Dragon of Chaos had created with all that effort and blood. So not a single bit of chaos managed to spread beyond the God Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. In addition, when he was tracing the whereabouts of the ¡°God of Underground Caves,¡± a black dragon named Cladema, Sui Xiong had met and talked with the Master of Order. At that time, the Master of Order happened to have descended upon Cladema¡¯s God Kingdom. But through these two encounters with the Master of Order, Sui Xiong did not obtain much information about ¡°greater Divine Power.¡± The main reason was that he was not strong enough at that time, so he simply could not understand the greatness of its power. He only found it unfathomable. As the God of Light once said, without enough power, one naturally did not have the qualification to gather information. Now, Sui Xiong was powerful enough. So he felt that it was time for him to ask for this information. At least, before the next time he tried to meet with the Master of Order, he should at least have prepared himself well with such information. Therefore, the next day, he sent out a clone of himself to God¡¯s Kingdom of the Human God System to pay the God of Light a visit. Chapter 814 ¡°You came at a bad time. It¡¯s a little early, or rather, a little late.¡± Sui Xiong was led into the God Kingdom by the God of Diplomacy where he met with the God of Light in one of the side chambers. When he was alone with the God of Light, this King of Human Gods said this to him. ¡°Coming too early, I can understand. But what do you mean by late?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. The God of Light shook his head and said, ¡°Now, it¡¯s meaningless to talk about this. Since you are here ¡®at the moment,¡¯ then we shall talk about things ¡®at the moment.''¡± He paused for a few seconds. Then the next thing he said was world-shaking. ¡°Which greater Divine Power do you wish to challenge?¡± Sui Xiong was shocked by him. He froze for a long time, then hesitantly, he asked, ¡°You¡­ how did you know?¡± ¡°If I say it¡¯s just a guess, that would be an insult to our intelligence. But to say that there was some reliable evidence, then it would be an insult to your friends and followers,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°By contrast, I¡¯ll choose the former. I don¡¯t have any evidence. All of this is pure speculation.¡± ¡°The way you speak today sounds so strange. It gives me a feeling that doesn¡¯t sit right with me,¡± Sui Xiong said with a frown. Then he asked, ¡°Could it be that something has happened?¡± The God of Light smiled. His expression was somewhat gentle, which made Sui Xiong feel even stranger. In his impression, the priesthood that this King of Human Gods had obtained when he was ordained a sealed god was ¡°revenge.¡± His doctrine said, ¡°There is no need to be bothered about what is right or wrong in the world. What is real is only the sturdy sword that one holds in one¡¯s hand and the sincere feelings one holds in one¡¯s heart. The destruction of what was valued and loved should naturally be avenged. Only fresh blood can douse the flames of anger, and only battle can protect the things of value. If anyone wishes to stop or deter enemies from further hurting them or what they value, then there is only one thing they had to do: kill all the abhorrent enemies, and at the same time, use the cruelest and fiercest means to make any potential enemy retreat in fear.¡± A god who could produce such a doctrine would definitely not be a saint. He would never be associated with adjectives like ¡°gentle,¡±¡±soft¡± and the likes of them. Throughout the years, Sui Xiong had met the God of Light several times. But he had never seen him with such an expression. It was truly¡­ take the panda for example. Though it was such a strong and powerful animal, it was especially good in showing its adorable and cute side. If the ferocious and terrifying Godzilla also attempted to act adorable and cute like the panda, what would happen? At that moment, the God of Light was like a Godzilla trying to act all adorable and cute. So he felt an inexpressible strangeness. Sui Xiong wondered in his heart but did not find it appropriate to ask too much. So he buried all these thoughts at the back of his mind and instead asked about things pertaining to the ¡°greater Divine Power.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a total of four greater Divine Powers in this world. The God of Virtue gave up his priesthood and has not been heard of since. His power was said to have been inherited by the Goddess of Life. Then when the Goddess of Life failed in her attempt to become a greater Divine Power, she turned into a great enchantment that guarded the Main Plane. And this power has since disappeared,¡± the God of Light said lightly. ¡°The God of Evil hatched a plot to secretly harm the Master of Chaos and devoured him. Yet in the end, he had overestimated his own capability. Not only did he fail to improve, he even brought about the fusion of ¡®chaos¡¯ and ¡®evil,¡¯ which completely annihilated his rationality. He became a terrifying beast that remained hidden in the deepest part of the abyss. Therefore, he triggered a possible occurrence of the destruction of the world with his birth as a so-called ¡®demon.¡¯ As of now, the only greater Divine Power who still exists alive in this world is the Master of Order. Sui Xiong froze for a moment, then out of curiosity, he asked, ¡°What about the Dragon of Chaos? Isn¡¯t it a remnant of the Master of Chaos as well?¡± ¡°Just fragments, that¡¯s all,¡± said the God of Light as he smiled. But his smile was somewhat disdainful. ¡°Previously, when Teacher and I went together to seek trouble with him, we fought with him several times. His ability seemed extremely amazing and profound, but he lacked in strength, and his endurance was poor. The first time we fought him, we lost. Thus we fled and returned to reflect. The second time we fought him, we won. The third time we fought him, we directly struck him down, and he was so severely injured that he fell into a deep slumber¡ªif it was not out of worry that his death might profit that thing in the abyss, we would have killed him directly.¡± Sui Xiong was greatly taken aback. If it was not for the fact that a jellyfish did not have any jaws, at the moment, his jaw might already have fallen to the ground. The Dragon of Chaos was so powerful and mighty. And yet he fell into a deep slumber after being severely injured by the combined force of a mere teacher-disciple duo consisting of the God of Knights and the God of Light? And also, the God of Evil, who was transformed from the remnants of the Master of Chaos, barely managed to escape alive because they had shown mercy? This¡­ this¡­ he truly did not know what to say. ¡°But that fellow was indeed a worthy opponent. He was powerful and cautious. The important thing was that he was also timid. In a challenge against him, it doesn¡¯t matter if you were to lose. You¡¯ll still be able to escape easily,¡± the God of Light said. Then he added, ¡°You¡¯re probably stronger now than I was then. Roping in that worthless disciple of mine, with two versus one, there should be more than 80% chance of victory.¡± ¡°Only 80%?¡± Sui Xiong frowned. He felt that, according to what the God of Light said, victory should be well within his grasp. ¡°Back then, though I was not strong enough, Teacher was,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°If he had not constantly been weakening his own strength all these years, would those flocks and herds of the Orc God System even qualify to stand before him? Where would they find the guts to look him straight in the eye!¡± Sui Xiong froze again, then could not help asking, ¡°The God of Knights, he¡­ he has been weakening himself?¡± ¡°I am the one who¡¯s been weakening him. But he was the one who put forward this notion,¡± said the God of Light. It was obvious that he no longer intended to keep this a secret. With a smile, he said, ¡°Teacher has already attained perfection on his path of priesthood. The power that he had when he reached the peak was at least the equivalent of ten great Divine Powers put together¡ªnot like the kind of worthless good-for-nothings such as the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, but like the God of War, Wenner, who was a great Divine Power through and through. Given how powerful he was, he should have long stepped up to the level of a greater Divine Power. But somehow, for whatever unknown reason, he just couldn¡¯t make it to that stage.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°At first, we wondered, was it because the seats of greater Divine Powers were all filled and thus, there was no room for anyone else? So we went to find trouble with the Dragon of Chaos. We intended to kill him then completely annihilate the Master of Chaos so that Teacher could occupy that seat.¡± ¡°But why let him go?¡± ¡°Because when the Dragon of Chaos was severely injured and thus fell into a deep sleep, we sensed a looming threat coming from the Negative Plane of the world. At the same time, the Master of Order has sent us a message to tell us about the dangers of our approach,¡± the God of Light said quite regretfully. He went on to say, ¡°The most important thing was, Teacher¡¯s position honestly did not tally with ¡®chaos.¡¯ Even if we killed the Dragon of Chaos and completely annihilated the Master of Chaos, Teacher was still unable to occupy that seat.¡± It was then that Sui Xiong understood and nodded repeatedly. ¡°If we had to tread the path of ¡®snatching for seats,¡¯ then there were only two suitable seats for Teacher¡ªthe seat of Virtue or the seat of Order. The whereabouts of the God of Virtue was untraceable. We could not find him even if we wanted to kill him. And the Master of Order was simply too powerful. We have challenged him once and were clear that there was absolutely no chance of winning him. So we had to give up on this path.¡± ¡°Huh?! So my older brother, he¡­ hasn¡¯t he also challenged the Master of Order?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know much about the relationship between Yorgaardman and the Master of Order,¡± said the God of Light. ¡°Perhaps he¡¯s the chosen successor of the Master of Order? I may find it a little ridiculous, but in this world, anything is possible, no matter how ridiculous it can be¡­¡± ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s not talk about that. Let¡¯s get down to business. Since Teacher couldn¡¯t get a seat by means of killing a greater Divine Power, he had to find another way. And the idea that Teacher came up with was¡­ give up all his priesthoods and return to the level of a god-to-be. Then he would make another breakthrough via the path that he was on. This time around, he would not choose to achieve a breakthrough via the path of a particular priesthood. He would head straight for a breakthrough of the World¡¯s Origin and step up to an even higher level! ¡°That battle of ¡®Sun¡¯s Death Day¡¯ was the ultimate practice of this path that he had to fulfil.¡± Chapter 815 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio After hearing the God of Light¡¯s recount, Sui Xiong was silent for a very long time. Then finally, he asked, ¡°So, the God of Knights, he¡­ did he succeed?¡± The God of Light did not reply. He merely shook his head. This answer was not unexpected. The God of Knights had undoubtedly fallen at that time. Sui Xiong was just asking on the off-chance that there was still hope for him. ¡°But I heard from friends who witnessed the battle that the strength of power at his final moment was beyond imagination,¡± he said. ¡°Yes, it was beyond imagination. It was almost close to his peak,¡± said the God of Light. ¡°But he failed.¡± Sui Xiong was momentarily at a loss for words. Yes, so what if he was extremely powerful? He failed. He had fallen. Everything became so meaningless. Among the gods, the old King of Earth Elements of former years was so powerful that he could propel the Earth Element Plane into engulfing the Main Plane. There was even the need for the Master of Order to personally intervene before he could be stopped. The King of Wind Elements relied solely on his own strength to set up a complete circulation within the inner side of the Ring of the World, thereby establishing the concept of the ¡°Inner Plane.¡± But they had all fallen, and that fall meant that they were nothing at all. Many years later, even the people who knew about them were so few. They were completely buried and forgotten in the clouds and dust of history. After a long time, he remembered a QQ signature of a painter friend of his that said, ¡°Wherever one has trodden, there had to be some traces.¡± The God of Light laughed and said, ¡°What you just said made sense, but it¡¯s also very meaningless.¡± Sui Xiong also laughed. After laughing, he asked, ¡°Do you think I¡¯ll be able to use this method of a direct breakthrough of the World¡¯s Origin?¡± The God of Light looked at him seriously for a moment, then said, ¡°I¡¯ll advise you not to try. Because the previous one who tried to do so has died.¡± ¡°Perhaps your teacher died because he had abandoned his priesthoods and had become much too weak,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You have a point. Maybe your guess is correct, but are you sure you want to put your life on the line all because of this ¡®maybe?''¡± Sui Xiong thought carefully for a long time and shook his head. ¡°This is a wise choice.¡± The God of Light nodded. Then, two light balls appeared in his hand. ¡°These two things here, one is for you, and the other is for my junior, who¡¯s all brawn but no brains,¡± he said. ¡°If there comes a day where I die, these light balls shall be the legacy I leave for you both.¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment, then asked, ¡°Why are you suddenly talking about this? From how I see it, you don¡¯t look like you¡¯re going to die.¡± ¡°How many people in the world will look like they are about to die?¡± the God of Light asked him back. Sui Xiong laughed drying then took the two light balls from the God of Light. Then he asked again, ¡°Which is for me? Which is for my elder brother?¡± ¡°Whichever you want. Both are the same,¡± the God of Light said. He simply touched on the matter lightly by saying, ¡°Just like those dozens of legacies that the good-for-nothing, who I¡¯ve hacked to death before, had given out; these two legacies are exactly the same.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s smile froze. After a while, he asked cautiously, ¡°You¡­ know about it?¡± ¡°Not at first. I got to know about it later,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°Although every god who received a legacy was very careful in keeping the secret, a secret was something that would always reveal traces of itself when it¡¯s shared by many. Like what you just said, wherever one has trodden, there had to be traces. I noticed this fast enough, so with the help of a little trick, I managed to get one.¡± Sui Xiong smiled awkwardly. After a moment, he could not help feeling curious and again, he asked, ¡°What do you think of his legacy?¡± ¡°His idea is too clich¨¦d; the standard is not high enough. In short, it certainly was very suitable for someone at his level,¡± the God of Light mocked the former Sun God in a vicious tone. ¡°Even if he was not hacked to death by me, at the end of this road, what awaited him would also not be some greater Divine Power, but rather¡­ Bang!¡± He clasped both hands together then push them wide apart to make the action of an explosion. Sui Xiong nodded. Since he learned about the way the King of Fire Elements had died, he knew that the former Sun God¡¯s way of thinking was unquestionably not feasible. No matter how reasonable this path might seem, the issue of ¡°intrinsic attributes¡± was ultimately a dead knot that could never be undone. All the living creatures in this world have their own intrinsic attributes. There were some who had fire, some water, some wind, some light, some order, some kindness¡­ there were also living creatures whose attributes were not so apparent, and there were many others who were merely more inclined towards a certain direction. But unquestionably, no matter how unapparent the attributes of these living creatures were, their most fundamental attributes could always be found by tracing them to their sources. No matter how all-inclusive, and no matter how they were integrated and expanded, their intrinsic attributes were ultimately unchanging. Even if they could forcibly make some changes to their intrinsic attributes, it would be meaningless¡ªafter changing these attributes, they would naturally develop another kind of attribute. There was nothing in this world that could exist ¡°without attributes. This did not only apply to living creatures, but also to everything else in the world. The gods, of course, were no exception. The former Sun God hoped that he could harmonize all realms and priesthoods to complete a ¡°whole world.¡± This was simply impossible. No matter how hard he tried, he could forget about trying to incorporate priesthoods that were contrary to his intrinsic attributes. If he ever tried to create such a fusion, he would eventually find himself at a dead end. Just like the King of Fire Elements, no matter how powerful he was, the moment he tried to integrate the ¡°water¡± priesthood as one of his, he exploded right away. This could also be seen from the legacy of the former Sun God. He had clearly put in a lot of hard work and effort into studying the realm and priesthood of the direction of ¡°water¡± and had done a lot of in-depth research about it. But when Sui Xiong compared his understanding of these realms and priesthoods against that of the former Sun god, he suddenly realized that there was a huge mistake in the god¡¯s understanding. If the Sun God attempted to master these realms and priesthoods according to his understanding of them, he was bound to go wrong and definitely would not be able to reap good results. Likewise, his studies on realms and priesthoods pertaining to fire and light far surpassed that of Sui Xiong¡¯s. There were many areas that were real eye-openers for Sui Xiong, who could not help clapping and praising his ingenuity while exclaiming, ¡°Oh my god! So that¡¯s what it is!¡± After all, Sui Xiong came from the sea and practiced ice power. He was a great expert in water and ice. But correspondingly, he was not good at all when it came to fire and the likes of it. So from within that legacy, Sui Xiong obtained many valuable things that added immensely to his knowledge and greatly enhanced his power. He could be said to be reborn after undergoing a complete change. But even so, he definitely did not want to follow the path of the former Sun God. That was courting his own doom! Now he was more curious about what kind of knowledge could be found in this ¡°legacy¡± that the God of Light had left him. Also, what did the God of Light himself receive from that legacy that the former Sun God had left him? ¡°When you open the legacy that I left you with, you will understand all of these,¡± said the God of Light, who did not give a direct reply. He purposefully maintained suspense and kept Sui Xiong guessing by saying, ¡°But¡­ maybe you won¡¯t have the chance to see this legacy. Perhaps when I have stepped up to the realm of greater Divine Power, I can personally explain it to you.¡± ¡°You are going to try for a breakthrough to a greater Divine Power?¡± Sui Xiong was taken aback. ¡°That¡¯s obviously a given, right? I¡¯m definitely going to give it a shot,¡± the God of Light smiled and said. ¡°But¡­ I¡¯m still in the midst of preparation. I¡¯m not ready to start yet. It¡¯s still too early. ¡°I¡¯m just giving this legacy to you now. It¡¯s nothing more than being prepared with precautionary measures, just in case.¡± With that, he stood up and made a gesture of seeing his guest off. ¡°Wait!¡± Sui Xiong suddenly recalled his purpose of visit and hurriedly asked, ¡°What do you think of my plan of having a friendly competition with the greater Divine Powers as a way of learning from each other?¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with having a hand in a fight against the Dragon of Chaos,¡± said the God of Light. The scene before Sui Xiong changed rapidly. This meant that he was being sent out of the Human God Kingdom, and the voice of the God of Light that was lingering in his ears went on to say, ¡°As for the rest, it¡¯s better not to ask for unneeded trouble.¡± Chapter 816 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio There were many rapids, big and small, found at the edge of the Ring of the World where the ¡°Negative Plane,¡±¡±Matter Plane¡± and ¡°Spirit Plane¡± bordered on. These rapids were disorderly and unsystematic, but they also contained an extremely powerful force and were very dangerous. What was scarier was the fact that such poverty and backwardness in the living environment would give rise to the greedy, selfish and unruly civilians. These places often breed the most terrifying magic beasts, each of which possessed earth-shattering powers that even gods would hardly be on par with. So while these places occasionally produced some bizarre treasures, it was rare for anyone who did not fear death to come seeking out these treasures. Over the years, there was more than one powerful god who had thought of using those rapids to their advantage. Most of them found themselves making futile efforts. They had wasted too much time and energy in vain as they gained nothing that was worth mentioning in the end. A few had fought those terrifying magic beasts in battles that had both sides suffering heavy casualties. Thus, they too returned defeated and full of frustration. The worst scenario featured the ones who were besieged by the magic beasts and were directly annihilated. So now, places where those rapids were found were practically regarded as forbidden zones. There were no longer any gods who would find their way here when in search of benefits. But today, a green jellyfish quietly flew here. Comparing what he saw around him with the clues he had obtained from the God of Light, Sui Xiong nimbly made his way around many rapids, big and small alike. In the face of the surging thunder, flames, meteorites and all kinds of danger amidst the rapids, Sui Xiong did not use the slightest bit of brute force. He merely pushed them aside with the lightest and subtlest movement as he tried to locate crevices big enough for him to pass through. This not only greatly economized his power, but it also reduced his movements to the greatest extent. This allowed everything to seem so soundless without the slightest bit of abnormality. At that split moment, he had this feeling that he was ¡°being watched.¡± I must have reached. Sui Xiong smiled to himself as he came to a halt. ¡°Is the Dragon of Chaos home? I have come to speak with him,¡± Sui Xiong said. He tried his best to sound as relaxed and easy-going as he could. Amidst the rushing rapids, there was still nothing but chaotic flows. There was not even an echo. However, that feeling of being watched was still the same. It even made him vaguely think of whether this was an illusion or not.¡± But Sui Xiong knew that this was definitely not an illusion. Within this turbulent region of rapids lay the haven of the Dragon of Chaos. Every time an outsider entered this turbulent region, it would attract the attention of the Dragon of Chaos. If that person was more careful and discreet and was just trying to search for some benefits, it would leave that person alone. But if that person was careless and heedless and had insatiable greed, it would arouse the Dragon of Chao¡¯s dissatisfaction. The Dragon of Chaos would then set a trap and lay an ambush to inflict severe injuries on that person, or even to kill him. The powerful magic beasts hidden in these turbulent rapids were either conquered by it or were directly created by it. All of them were at its command. If anyone wanted to wage war here, they had to be extremely powerful. Otherwise, they could forget about winning it. Previously, the God of Knights and the God of Revenge had plotted to lure that dragon out of the region of rapids, and thus defeated, or even severely injure the Dragon of Chaos¡ªof course, with the capability of the God of Knight, even if the fight was in the region of rapids, honestly, he might not necessarily lose. The God of Light had, by means of divine thoughts, told Sui Xiong all these. However, Sui Xiong did not act according to the God of Light¡¯s suggestion. He brought the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, together with him to fight the Dragon of Chaos. In truth, his original intention was really to find the Dragon of Chaos for a chat. Even if they eventually had to compare skills via a fight, it would just be an incidental result of their chat. After a long time, there was a sudden tremor amidst the chaotic flow of rapids. Slowly, they moved a little bit apart to reveal a very, very small gap. Sui Xiong smiled and dashed straight into the gap before it closed. The scene around him began to change wildly and disorderly. It took a moment for it to finally settle into a mess of ruins. This mess of ruins looked extremely desolate and old. It looked like a deserted hall if one were to look at it carefully. Inside the hall, there were collapsed seats strewn all over, and amidst these seats were many skeletons in all sorts of strange forms. It was all so odd. At the front of this deserted hall, there was a broken chair that seemed as though it was about to crumble completely. On that chair, there sat a figure with white hair and beard. With a bent body, the figure looked extremely old. Looking at that man¡¯s physique, it was easy to think of how powerful and mighty he had been when he was young. But now he was so old that he did not even seem to have the energy to stand up. He merely sat there sighing away. The gray robe he wore was also unbearably old, and it was so worn out that it seemed like a long stretch of broken rags put together. Sui Xiong had met the God of Knights before. At that time, the God of Knights was also very old. But no matter how old he was, at least he was able to stand up straight and put on a complete set of clothes. But at this moment, the man before Sui Xiong was so old that he could not even stand up. He was not even able to put on a decent set of clothes. Sui Xiong was silent for a long time before he spoke up to ask, ¡°You¡¯re¡­ Your Majesty, the Master of Chaos?¡± ¡°Ahem¡­ Correctly speaking¡­ I¡¯m just a¡­ Ahem¡­ remnant,¡± that person coughed violently for a moment. Then supporting himself with the chair, he stood up with great difficulty. It was then that Sui Xiong noticed that apparently, both his legs were a little twisted, as though he had been injured and became disabled. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ Ahem¡­ for you to see me like this¡­¡± the Master of Chaos said. This remaining fragment of the Master of Chaos obviously did not have much strength left. He barely managed to stand up for a moment, then he sat down again. Stooping in his chair, he said, ¡°I¡¯m¡­ ahem¡­ now¡­ not really¡­ ahem¡­ alive¡­¡± Sui Xiong sighed and also turned into a human form. He walked over and sat on the ground opposite the Master of Chaos. ¡°You¡¯re already like this, so why bother meeting me in such a state?¡± ¡°Haha¡­ Ahem¡­ It¡¯s a matter of manners,¡± said the Master of Chaos. He probably wanted to laugh, but merely managed to laugh twice before the violent coughs started again. After a long while, the coughing gradually subsided. This time around though, the cough seemed to smoothen his breathing quite a fair bit. He no longer wheezed and coughed when he spoke, ¡°Young man, you came here with such politeness to look for me. What is it you wish to inquire about?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. I wish to find out more about the secret of the greater Divine Powers,¡± Sui Xiong said straightforwardly. He cut the chase and spoke without any intention of hiding anything or beating around the bush. The remnant of the Master of Chaos smiled, gently shook his head and said, ¡°Your power is still quite a distance away from the greater Divine Power.¡± ¡°But I want to find a suitable and reliable direction,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°The most reliable direction for you would be to seek the help of an old friend of mine, Virtue. He¡¯ll be most willing if you are to become his successor,¡± said the remnant of the Master of Chaos. ¡°As for me, I can¡¯t teach you much, nor can I offer you much good. ¡°Everything I ever owned has been stolen from me by another old friend. The reason why I am able to win sometime in this deathbed struggle to barely exist in this pathetic and ridiculous state is all thanks to the blessing of another old friend. You see, I really have nothing I can possibly give you.¡± Sui Xiong remained silent for a long time. Then he finally said the most crucial line. ¡°I wish to borrow the legacy of the God of Virtue, that one treasure that holds the secret of his power.¡± Chapter 817 Chapter 817: Vol V Chapter 177 Sui Xiong had not meant to put his words across in such a standoffish manner. His original plan was to find the Dragon of Chaos to eat, drink and make merry. Then when everyone had dined and wined to satiety, he would broach the topic of borrowing that treasure for a couple of days. Since ancient times, Oriental culture had advocated the practice of doing business at the dining table. When people were satisfied with good food and drink to their hearts¡¯ content, they would naturally be in a better mood. And when they were in a good mood, they would be more humane when conducting business. This was good for all. When people were in a good mood, issues that were originally not easy to discuss might probably become easier topics for discussion. Those who originally wanted all interests to be made exclusive to them might probably be more willing to give up some. This was not only the unique business culture and social culture of Orientalism; it was also an extension of food culture in the east. Void City was the largest City of Gastronomy on the Main Plane. It was also an important commercial town. Every day, there would be many business dealings that were done here. Among which, many would be carried out in entertainment places¡ªaccording to the statistics, the most common venues for business dealings were at dining places, bath houses and some places where minors were prohibited from entering. Sui Xiong was not very involved in doing business, but he knew the theories and had the data. So he felt that his method should be feasible. But plans were always a step behind changes. When he arrived, he did not see the Dragon of Chaos. Instead, he met with the remnant of the Master of Chaos. This frail old man who was so painfully exhausted that he seemed to already be breathing his last and might die at any moment. In the face of such an old man, Sui Xiong could not help finding him so pitiful that it was so difficult for him to speak of his desire to borrow the treasure. More importantly, he understood the intention of the Dragon of Chaos. Though not openly stated, the Dragon of Chaos had expressed its stand through action. That treasure was not only a treasure to him, but it was also a necessity for life. Losing this treasure might possibly mean it would lose its life as well So, who was after his life? Sui Xiong did not need to think much to make a guess. Of course, it was ¡°Chaos.¡± That terrifying magic beast that had practically conquered the ¡°chaos¡± and ¡°evil¡± of this world would definitely be unable to forget the Dragon of Chaos¡ªthe last remnant of the Master of Chaos was utterly destroyed. Perhaps after he was thoroughly devoured and digested, ¡°Chaos¡± could find a balance between its two powers, ¡°evil¡± and ¡°chaos¡± to restore its health and rationality. Even if it could not restore its rationality, at least it could become stronger. Just the reason for wanting to become ¡°even stronger¡± alone, the magic beast would never let go of the Dragon of Chaos. Under such a circumstance, other than this nest that it had long been managing, the Dragon of Chaos could only rely on help from the Master of Order, as well as that treasure that was left by the God of Virtue. Although everyone knew that the most important of the three sources was the help from the Master of Order, the other two were also just as important. On a scale of 100 points, perhaps just the ¡°help from the Master of Order¡± might be worth 90 points. However, this was no common quiz. It was a competition that was more brutal and intense as compared to a college entrance examination. Even 99 points was no guarantee. It had to be a full score of 100 points. Besides¡­ the total score for this paper was 150. But the total of all his three cards put together was barely 100. Under such circumstances, would the Dragon of Chaos possibly want to lend that treasure to someone else? Even though Sui Xiong would not be borrowing it for a long time, there was always a possibility that during this period where the treasure was on loan, ¡°Chaos¡± might charge its way over¡­ It only took Sui Xiong a moment of deliberation to grasp an understanding of these things. But in the end, he still had to bring up the matter of borrowing that treasure. The moment these words were spoken, there was a sudden change to the atmosphere. The hall that originally resembled a state of ruins began to shake violently. In the midst of it, there was a flow of countless lights and shadows. The fallen seats collapsed and shattered into crumbles, while the skeletons became light spots. Then all these debris and light spots were recombined, like magic, to form a barren gray piece of earth. On this barren gray earth, there was no longer that dispirited man with his stooping body. In place, there was a huge but slender three-headed dragon sprawled on the ground before Sui Xiong. The scales on this dragon¡¯s body were messy. They were in different colors and shapes and were changing from time to time. At this moment, they might be squarish red scales, but the next instant, they might have changed to round blue scales. There was no regularity at all. Its neck was split into three and the three heads which were somewhat similar in appearance, were also constantly changing. The position and size of its horns, the distribution of its scales, the presence and absence of dragon beard, the shape of its teeth¡­ including all the expressions on its face that were constantly changing. Its emotions like joy, anger, sorrow and happiness were like a revolving scenic lantern, ever-changing without stopping. Standing in front of it, Sui Xiong could clearly feel its ¡°chaos¡± disposition. However, it was not intentional. It was just a force that naturally emanated from it. Just like how fire would naturally radiate light and heat, and how ice would naturally radiate cold; it was purely a natural phenomenon. But even if it was only a force that it was naturally giving off, it could already make Sui Xiong feel quite a strong pressure. If Sui Xiong had not been powerful enough himself, being in close contact with such a powerful chaotic force would most likely make him feel as though he was being crushed by a huge boulder. Trying to move would have been extremely difficult. ¡°Seems like you¡¯re recovering well,¡± it said. Sui Xiong smiled and changed himself back into a jellyfish. But he did not become a huge one. He was the size of an ordinary human¡¯s head, just like how he would be when he was traveling in the world of humans. The huge, three-headed dragon and the small, green jellyfish were in stark contrast to each other. In terms of size, the Dragon of Chaos was much larger than Sui Xiong. It could blow Sui Xiong to the ends of the earth. But in fact, the Dragon of Chaos was clear that it had no absolute advantage. From Sui Xiong¡¯s disposition, it was apparent that now, he did not fear the Dragon of Chaos. ¡°You¡¯ve become strong,¡± said the Dragon of Chaos after a moment of silence. Then it went on to say, ¡°Not only stronger in power, but also mentally stronger. If you had been the same person as you were back then, you will definitely not have made this request.¡± ¡°I know I¡¯m imposing a tough request on you, but are you interested in listening to my suggestion?¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. The Dragon of Chaos nodded gently and said, ¡°Now, even if I don¡¯t wish to hear what you have to say, I don¡¯t think I have a choice. If I fight you here, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll lose, but the damages caused will be much greater than what I can bear.¡± Yes, even though Sui Xiong had become very strong, the Dragon of Chaos did not think that he would lose. But what was the point in winning against Sui Xiong? If one battle here would incur such a great cost, it would severely reduce his chance of winning when confronting ¡°Chaos.¡± Besides, its chances of winning were slim to start with. If this nest that it had put in great efforts to build and manage was destroyed, the situation would worsen. So it had no choice but to try its best in discussing this with Sui Xiong. ¡°My strength has pretty much reached a¡­ probably you can say, a bottleneck,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I want to further improve, which I guess I am still able to improve a lot. But I can already see the end of the road ahead of me. So I want to find another road where I can go even further and break through the boundaries ahead.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t help you in this regard,¡± said the Dragon of Chaos. Sui Xiong smiled again and said, ¡°The most reliable way to break through my limit is, undoubtedly, to step into the realm of a greater Divine Power. But exactly what is a greater Divine Power? How do I step into the realm of a greater Divine Power? If I step up to a greater Divine Power, what path will suit me best? All these questions need to be answered. After thinking through these over and over again, I realized I have to come and consult you.¡± ¡°Of course, I am able to help if it¡¯s just answering some questions. But what do you want with that treasure?¡± ¡°Just to study and research a little, that¡¯s all,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°What you can teach me, is only the knowledge with regard to ¡®Chaos.¡¯ But from that treasure, perhaps I can find the knowledge with regard to ¡®Goodness.''¡± ¡°Could it be that you also have the intention of looking for more knowledge on ¡®Order¡¯ and ¡®Evil¡¯ as well?¡± asked the Dragon of Chaos with a sneer. ¡°No. If we are talking in terms of camp, chaos and goodness suit me well,¡± Sui Xiong said. Then he smiled again and added, ¡°I don¡¯t think evil and order are suitable for me.¡± ¡°So, you are going to take me down for sure?¡± asked the Dragon of Chaos in a low voice. ¡°No, I just want to discuss with you,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°I¡¯ll learn from you for a period of time, then I¡¯ll borrow that treasure to study if for a period of time. In return, I can help you deal with ¡®Chaos.''¡± The Dragon of Chaos laughed loudly. His laughter sounded just like thunder that shook the entire barren gray earth. ¡°You want to help me deal with it? Do you know how strong it is? Just facing it upfront is enough to cause fatal injury to a great Divine Power. You¡¯re not even qualified to stand by the side to give moral support in a battle between myself and Chaos!¡± Sui Xiong also laughed out loud. And this made the Dragon of Chaos a little shocked, a little surprised and a little lost. After laughing, Sui Xiong transformed into a huge green jellyfish that was as big as the Dragon of Chaos. ¡°No, I can help you!¡± Sui Xiong said. His tone was gentle and mild, but his breath became a gale that swept across the gray wilderness. And he said, ¡°Other than the Master of Order, I am the only one who can help you.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because I¡¯m not afraid of its erosion!¡± Chapter 818 Chapter 818: Vol V Chapter 178 Sui Xiong had once met with ¡°Chaos.¡± In this era, he might be the one who truly witnessed the scene of ¡°the awakening of Chaos,¡± even if it was not accidental. At that time, he saw with his own eyes, that ¡°Chaos¡± was gradually awakening. Looking like solidified black mud, it wriggled in a strange and indescribable manner. Personally experiencing that wriggling movement caused something to click within Sui Xiong. He could hardly stop himself from learning how to wriggle in that manner. But ultimately, he was able to curb his impulse to imitate the movement of the other party and maintain a clear individuality. Then he broke away from the other party via the means of self-detonation. Judging from the situation all these years, it was unquestionable that he had made the right choice back then. Not only did he escape the crisis, but he also was not subjected to any adverse side effects, so it was considered a good choice. Especially after learning the truth about that thing, Sui Xiong could not feel any more fortunate over the choice he made¡ªunquestionably, at that time, he was definitely not a match for ¡°Chaos.¡± If there was a real conflict, he would definitely be the one who died. But Sui Xiong also came to understand one thing. He could resist the erosion of ¡°Chaos,¡± or at least, he could resist the erosion of this fellow to a certain degree. He did not know how much this ¡°certain degree¡± was, but he was certain that if Chaos were to really become powerful enough and restore a substantial amount of rationality, then it would definitely come seeking trouble with Sui Xiong. Because it would absolutely not allow anything that could resist its erosion to exist in this world. Sui Xiong was thoroughly convinced of this. It was not through rational thinking or careful reasoning that allowed Sui Xiong to arrive at such a conclusion. It was purely intuitive. There was no need for any reason. It was completely intuitive. Of course, after thinking and reasoning, he felt that his intuition was reliable enough. There was no reason for Chaos to let him go. Whether it avoided danger for the sake of survival, or simply for the sake of achieving complete ¡°domination,¡± Chaos had to destroy all that stood in its way. Of all these targets, the first in line was probably the Dragon of Chaos. Then the next was most probably the Master of Chaos, and then¡­ maybe the next would be his turn. Though it was said that there was no difficulty too great to be solved by someone capable enough, anyhow, there was always the Master of Order at the front of the line. There was nothing to be afraid of. But there had to be reasons as to why the Master of Order had not killed ¡°Chaos¡± over the years. If ¡°Chaos¡± was unable to kill the Master of Order, maybe it would change its mind. It might adjust the order between the third and second targets and seek trouble with Sui Xiong instead. Sui Xiong did not feel that he would be easily found and killed. But he did not wish to be like a homeless dog that had to run for dear life, living his life in a constant state of anxiety. And he certainly did not wish to hide inside the Wheel of Order and live under the shield of protection of the Master of Order. So his choice was to make the first move in giving ¡°Chaos¡± a vicious beating before it devoured the Dragon of Chaos and before it changed into its most powerful form. Even if he could not kill it, he could at least injure it or make it feel some pain. It would be best if he could take the chance to save the Dragon of Chaos through this battle. This way, ¡°Chaos¡± would never be able to fully grow up. This was not easy, but it was the only way out. It was impossible for the Dragon of Chaos to hide in the territory of the Master of Order due to the clash of power attributes. Even if the Master of Order wanted to help the Dragon of Chaos, the aftermath of his power could easily injure it¡ªthe clash between order and chaos was one of the most fundamental clashes in attributes in this world. It was irreconcilable. This was why the Dragon of Chaos was so worried and insecure. But with Sui Xiong¡¯s help, things would be different. The most terrifying ability of ¡°Chaos¡± was not how powerful it was¡ªof course, it was indeed very, very, very strong¡­ here, it was necessary to make several repetitions of ¡°very¡± before the ¡°strong¡±¡ªbut rather, its ability to cause erosion that was impossible to resist. It had something that was based on the extremes of chaos and evil, which could almost be said to be an expression of ¡°destruction.¡± This was the one true ability it had that all the other gods simply could not resist. If it did not have this ability, there was a possibility that the gods of the Pantheon temple could defeat it if they were to act in groups. Of course, Sui Xiong alone would not be as powerful as a group of gods of the Pantheon temple. But he was still somewhat confident if he were just to save at least one person from the hands of the Dragon of Chaos. This was the reason he wanted to make this deal with the Dragon of Chaos. With the condition that he would help the Dragon of Chaos fight against ¡°Chaos,¡± he would borrow that treasure left by the God of Virtue for a period of time to conduct a thorough and detailed study of the essence of ¡°greater Divine Power and Goodness.¡± Explaining these things was not easy. It took Sui Xiong about an hour or two to explain everything clearly to the Dragon of Chaos. The main cause was that the Dragon of Chaos was perpetually asking questions about certain details. More than once, it had felt so confused, turned things topsy-turvy and asked Sui Xiong to repeat what he had said earlier. If it were someone else, Sui Xiong might think this was probably a lie detection technique. But with the Dragon of Chaos¡­ Sui Xiong felt that this old dragon was most likely just a little muddled and simply could not get what he was saying. Perhaps he was not muddled, just overly shocked¡­ Well, this was a pretty likely possibility. When it had confirmed that what Sui Xiong said was true, the three faces of the Dragon of Chaos laughed in unison. From smiles to hearty laughter, and then to wild laughter. Very happily, it said, ¡°Great! Very good! I¡¯m satisfied! I¡¯m very happy with this deal!¡± With that, brilliant white light emerged from its body and appeared before Sui Xiong. ¡°This treasure, I can lend it to you. But you can¡¯t take it away elsewhere. You can only study it here,¡± it said. ¡°Because¡­ it will become meaningless if that guy comes attacking me and you¡¯re not around.¡± ¡°I can teleport it here,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Don¡¯t ever think you¡¯re able to do such a thing before this guy. It¡¯s impossible,¡± said the Dragon of Chaos. Its three heads swung at the same time, looking as though they were in convulsion. ¡°To us, time and space are not very concrete things. In terms of time, because of the existence of the ¡®law of karma,¡¯ what we can do is very limited. But in terms of space, what we can do is far beyond what you can imagine.¡± ¡°So¡­ when we are going against it, will we be expecting the situation where it¡¯s unable to escape?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°No. After all, not all my old friends are dead,¡± the Dragon of Chaos said. ¡°So long as we can hold out for a period of time, my old friends will help us escape. And, so long as we can escape once, it¡¯ll be much easier to deal with this matter.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and asked no further detailed questions. Instead, he extended the tentacle that was wrapped around a brilliant light ball and carefully studied it. This light ball looked like a transparent bead at first glance. All kinds of scenes of landscapes between heaven and earth were constantly changing. It exuded an all-embracing vibe. But taking a closer look, there were many cracks, big and small, on the surface of this bead. One of the most serious cracks was even very near to the core of the bead. It was worrying to think of whether the bead would shatter. ¡°All this time, I¡¯ve been trying to fix it. But I don¡¯t seem to produce any good result,¡± the Dragon of Chaos said. ¡°But it¡¯s just as well. After it has taken to this broken state, the power and laws it contained are easier to understand and master. Perhaps to you, the broken bead is more useful than when it is a perfect whole.¡± Sui Xiong did not answer. At the moment, all his energy was focused on this treasure alone. It was like an extremely profound book that was so compelling that Sui Xiong could not spare any more energy to think of anything else. Chapter 819 Chapter 819: Vol V Chapter 179 What exactly was ¡°goodness¡±? The level of this question was slightly higher. A layman like Sui Xiong would not be able to figure out a reliable answer. To him, goodness would be nothing more than being happy that one could be of help to others or doing something for the good of others. The lower variety of goodness would be to frequently give blessings to others while the next level up was to sacrifice oneself to save others. The highest level of goodness was nothing more than a piece of news he saw before traversing world¡ªthe daughter of a member of a certain country¡¯s Refugee Rights Protection Organization was first X then X by another fellow refugee. Though his daughter died such a horrible death, so much so that the sight of it was simply unbearable, this member insisted that he should protect the rights and interests of the refugees. He would absolutely not waver¡­ Wrong. Thinking carefully, the last example did not seem to be considered as goodness. How could something that shielded evil be regarded as goodness? In short, Sui Xiong felt that though his definition of goodness might not be considered as very incisive, at least he was able to list about one to six items¡ªevery item could probably be further divided into several smaller points, and every smaller point might even point to a different direction. But it was only until now did Sui Xiong realize that his understanding of ¡°goodness¡± was in fact, still lacking. Also, he was lacking quite a substantial amount of information. As for¡­ if he were to make a list of what he did not know, he would probably have to write them down on a piece of paper. So, Sui Xiong was having some make-up lessons. He did not feel that there was a great mistake in his understanding of goodness, nor did he wholly accept his understanding of the God of Virtue. But he had to admit that there were many imperfections and shortcomings in his way of thinking. He certainly needed to study hard to make up for them. This was similar to the situation on Earth. Perhaps due to advanced information technology, even a young schoolboy would be able to surpass the ancient scholars in some way. But once the younger generations entered the field of expertise of their predecessors, most of them would still find themselves beaten hands down by the ancient scholars of a thousand years ago, or even two thousand years ago. Then they would have no choice but to conscientiously study hard. And even if they had put in their best, after spending almost half their entire lifetime studying, they would still be beaten hands down by the predecessors from a few decades ago, or maybe even those from just a hundred years ago, in the various fields of expertise. Only people with both talent and diligence, as well as the ability to work hard perseveringly and consistently would ultimately be able to surpass their predecessors. They were the ones who could truly stand on the shoulders of giants to reach out and point in the direction of the future of humans. Sui Xiong knew that he was no ingenious and extraordinary talent. There were people who would go ¡°Ah, hey, adding from one to a hundred, oh darling me. It¡¯s just too troublesome. Why don¡¯t you simply break these up into 50 groups of 101, then finally multiply them to get 5050?¡± These people were born to put others down; that was their reason for existence. But Sui Xiong was not that kind of person. Honestly, he really wanted to be someone like that. Regrettably, he lacked the talent in this aspect. He had never seen that kind of person in his life. Perhaps he was an alien cloaked in human skin, so the normal people simply would not have the chance to meet him. Sui Xiong belonged to the category of normal people, or at least he felt that he was normal¡ªoh, he did not even have a human appearance now. Maybe he should be called a ¡°normal jellyfish?¡± Wrong, a normal jellyfish would become nothing more than a cold dish of either marinated cold jellyfish salad or marinated cold jellyfish skin salad, that was all. Brother Xiong was so mighty and domineering, so naturally he would not become ingredients like jellyfish or jellyfish skin, not even for the use of cold dish salads! He was old, so his flesh would not taste as well. A chef who chose to cook a dish out of a thousand years old jellyfish would definitely be swept out of the door, and never again would he be given the chance of returning to the kitchen¡­ What messy thoughts. Stop right now! The amazing thing was, even though Sui Xiong¡¯s thoughts were all sixes and sevens, he was still able to focus and concentrate on learning at the same time. He was presently studying as hard as he did in the month of October when he was in his third year of high school. At that time, he attended tuition lessons at an art gallery that was said to be so good that it could turn dust into miracles with a mere touch of art. Right, at that time, Brother Xiong participated in the entrance examination for art college, and thereafter, he studied fine arts. As for his college examination results¡­ honestly speaking, his results were not fantastic. But in their faculty, he was unexpectedly considered to be the top student. After entering university, he got to know about this. He froze for a long time, and finally, he sighed and said, ¡°That explains why the admission cut-off mark for the art faculty is so low¡­¡± Sui Xiong also knew about his lack of talent. This was why he had always studied very earnestly and assiduously. While not to the extent of tying his head to the wooden beam overhead and stabbing his thigh with a sharp awl to keep himself awake, at least he could guarantee that he had put in more effort than Sima Guang¡ªat least when his level was not up to standard, he would understand that he was still not up to mark. Then he would learn from those who did well. He would not obstinately suffocate himself and go crazy making mistakes so as to earn his notoriety as a ¡°wayward person.¡± By the way, Sui Xiong¡¯s understanding of Sima Guang was only limited to two things. The first was the story of ¡°Sima Guang Breaks the Vat¡± that he had learned in primary school; the second was what he had learned from Professor Cheng in his university days. On more than one occasion, Professor Cheng had mocked Sima Guang for being a ¡°gray prime minister¡± and ¡°being unworthy of his title.¡± Professor Cheng had even contemptuously swept up things like ¡°corrupted nature that was inherent to feudal landlords¡± from the praises that generations of politicians and scholars had given Sima Guang. He truly deserved to be called a purebred Bolshevik. In the barren gray wilderness, Sui Xiong once again changed back to the size of a hat and fell to the ground. Facing that light ball that was half the size of his body, he was silent. The Dragon of Chaos, on the other hand, went back to looking unbearably old. He lay on an old chair that seemed to appear out of nowhere and went into a semi-conscious state. Amidst this silent wilderness, there was nothing more than dead silence. Not even the sound of a light breeze could be heard. But in Sui Xiong¡¯s heart, there were countless knowledge, concepts, thoughts and emotions, surging like tides of waves. The amazing thing was, when these things flowed past his mind, they were like a spring of fresh water that gushed over the surface of white stones. Other than a few fleeting ripples, they left no traces at all. This was because these things did not belong to Sui Xiong. With his present state and level, he certainly had yet to reach the point of qualifying as a ¡°greater Divine Power.¡± Just like how the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had gotten this treasure into her possession for so long, but ultimately, she was unable to harvest any comprehension. She had once spent a great deal of time and energy on examining this treasure in great detail to understand the ¡°virtue¡± contained within it. But everything was in vain. Until death, she was never able to draw anything of value from it. But Sui Xiong was not discouraged. He still continued to study in silence. At the beginning, he was still able to maintain clarity in thoughts. He understood why he could not learn well and understood where the gap was. He was even able to set aside a part of his mind to let his thoughts run wild. But with the passage of time, his thoughts gradually scattered and became so messy that not a single thought was well-formed. Everything was just like a chaotic pipe dream. After that, the disorderliness of his thoughts finally began to subside gradually. And his thoughts completely entered into a realm of emptiness. His empty mind and soul seemed to have become a mirror that reflected the wisdom and perspectives of the God of Virtue. Lying on its chair, the Dragon of Chaos, who seemed to have fallen asleep, opened its eyes to look at him intently. After some time, Sui Xiong suddenly smiled. After this smile, he instantaneously restored his vitality from his prior frozen state. Once again, his eyes shone with the brilliance of wisdom. But amidst this brilliance, there was a touch of indescribable clarity. If he had previously given off the vibe of an ¡°intelligent guy,¡± then now, the feeling he gave was that of an ¡°intelligent guy who knew the answer.¡± And it more apt to use a Chinese idiom to sum up that indescribable clarity in his gaze. Certain and well-prepared with the answers to everything. ¡°You found your understanding?¡± the Dragon of Chaos asked. Sui Xiong shook his head but showed a smile and said, ¡°Though I¡¯m not able to fully understand this, I think I¡¯ve already found my direction. ¡°What will the ¡®goodness¡¯ that belongs to me look like? I¡¯m almost certain of the direction that I should be striving to work towards.¡± Chapter 820 Chapter 820: Vol V Chapter 180 After finishing his sentence, Sui Xiong began studying that pearl-like light ball again. But this time, unlike previously, he was not so focused to the point of being in a daze. From time to time, he would stop for a moment to think, speak to himself for a moment, then continue to study the light ball. Earlier, when he had no prior knowledge about this thing at all, he had painstakingly searched for ways to understand it. But now, he had just discovered a way and seemed to be exploring very carefully. After a long time, Sui Xiong suddenly smiled, looking very pleased with himself. At the same time, the pearl glowed in magnificent brilliance. Rays of soft white light were flowing out like running water and were continuously spilling over. Soon, the vast area around them became an ocean of white light. Amidst this ocean of white light, a few light breezes started blowing across this gray wilderness, which originally was in a completely barren state. Then a few green shoots gradually appeared on the ground. Last but not least, even the atmosphere began to gain some degree of humidity and moisture. The Dragon of Chaos¡¯ eyes widened in disbelief. ¡°How¡­ how is this possible?!¡± it muttered to itself. Its voice was so low that it might not even be able to hear itself clearly. Because of its surging emotions, it even accidentally shattered the chair that it had earlier made for itself. Unconsciously, it rose to its feet and stood with a straight body. Though its hair and beard were still white, and it was still dressed in rags, its old and dispirited demeanor was no longer observable. This was his true appearance. A mighty greater Divine Power known as the Master of Chaos. Even if he was killed or only existed as a tad of remnant, he would never fall into such a dejected state as previously. He stood in the midst of an ocean of white light and distinctly felt how this ¡°ocean¡± was brimming with vitality. He had absorbed most of the vitality and was trying his best to repair that seemingly strong but in truth, empty and weak body. Though the effect was not obvious, at least he was able to fix a few minor injuries which allowed some slight improvement in his condition¡ªvery, very small improvement, almost as though it was useless. However, this process of restoration and improvement was extremely significant. It signified that the power contained within the ocean of white light was no longer simply at the level of a ¡°great Divine Power.¡± It was a preliminary step into the level of a ¡°greater Divine Power.¡± Only a greater Divine Power could restore and heal a greater Divine Power. Also, the two greater Divine Power had to have attributes that did not clash with each other. If not, the Master of Order would already have helped the Dragon of Chaos by treating its injuries. Or at least, help the Dragon of Chaos recover up to a point where it was able to confront ¡°Chaos.¡± Even if it could not win ¡°Chaos,¡± at least it was able to run for its life. The problem lay in the fact that order and chaos were congenital opposites. The power of the Master of Chaos would not only be unable to heal the injuries of the Dragon of Chaos, but it would also be a lethal poison that left the Dragon of Chaos with no chance of resistance at all. This was just like how a robot required lubricants and fuel to function. To the humans, it would be hard for them to survive if these things were infused into their bloodstreams, let alone gain the power of robots. After seizing this treasure left by the God of Virtue from the God of Conspiracy, the Dragon of Chaos had tried to use it to heal its wounds on several occasions. Given its ability, of course, it was able to activate the power of this treasure. The only thing was that the direction of its power, after all, was quite different from that of the God of Virtue¡ªthe ¡°evil¡± component ran a little high in the composition of its power¡ªso every time it used the treasure once, there would be some damage made to the treasure. Gradually, the Dragon of Chaos also found it quite unbearable to further damage this treasure for the sake of healing its own injuries. Anyway, there was not much to treat, so why bother wasting and damaging the treasure in vain? If there was too much wear and tear, when it had to confront ¡°Chaos¡± in the future, this treasure might not be of much use at all. But at this moment, it could distinctly feel that though the power of that treasure was stimulated, it was not the least injured! No, not only was it not injured, it could even see that, other than the deepest crack found within that pearl that was right in the middle of the ocean of white light, all the other cracks, big and small alike, were being repaired at an extremely slow yet noticeable speed. Something like that had only happened during the time when this treasure was in the hands of the Goddess of Life. This strange jellyfish god known as Auscar, the Void Mask, was able to achieve the same thing as the Goddess of Life?! The Dragon of Chaos felt a little confused, but more of it was a surprise. If the Void Mask could really achieve such a feat like the Goddess of Life to give full play to the power of this treasure, then just as what he himself had said, with the ability of this treasure and the ability to resist erosion of ¡°Chaos,¡± he certainly had the qualification to take part in a battle against that terrifying magic beast. He might even play a huge role in fighting the magic beast. Or maybe, he might play an even bigger role than the Dragon of Chaos. At this thought, the Dragon of Chaos suddenly felt a little discouraged. Initially, it thought that though it was quite a jerk, it was still considered quite powerful. There was no way it could beat ¡°Chaos,¡± and it was not as powerful as the Master of Order because it was injured. Other than that, within the Thousand Worlds of the Ring of the World, it was confident that of being more powerful than anyone else. Even when the invincible God of Knights and the God of Revenge had combined forces against it, it could not beat them all because it was a two-against-one fight. But now, it no longer had such confidence. If the Void Mask could really unleash the full force of that treasure and make the most of its power, he could be regarded as a master at the level of a greater-Divine-Power-to-be. Even because of his good physical condition, as well as being unafraid of ¡°Chaos''¡± erosion, his combat power was probably even slightly higher than that of the Dragon of Chaos. ¡­ With another deep sigh, the Dragon of Chaos conjured another chair and lay on it dejectedly. It decided to take a good rest and give some consolation to its wounded soul. And¡­ it was simply nice and comfortable to lie in the midst of this ocean of light and feel its damaged body being consistently repaired. So unknowingly, it fell asleep. When it awoke, it found that its nest had completely changed in appearance. It was no longer that barren gray wilderness, but a vast wilderness of green grass. There were white clouds floating in the blue sky, and amidst the green grass, there were some flowers blooming. There was also a gentle breeze that carried the scent of the green grass tinged with a hint of a floral fragrance, which gave rise to a delightful atmosphere. ¡°Eh?! Is this my house?¡± the Dragon of Chaos exclaimed. At that moment, it was struck dumb with an expression that was full of doubt. He had no idea what was going on. He immediately traced the past and looked into the situation of his own nest only to realize that he had slept for almost ten years. In the past ten years, Sui Xiong had spent almost all his time studying that treasure. He stimulated its power, and while repairing it, he also made use of the power it had lost and scattered to infect the surroundings, beautify the environment, and in passing, he also helped the Dragon of Chaos to heal. The reason why the Dragon of Chaos would wake up now was that Sui Xiong had just finished detailed research and completed his study of the Way of Virtue. In the grass not far away, on a small white stone, a green jellyfish opened its eyes and looked at that transparent orb before it. There were no longer kaleidoscopic scenes within this orb, only clarity. It no longer glowed and became warm and calm. There were no more cracks, large and small alike, found on its surface, except for that one deepest crack. Chapter 821 Chapter 821: Vol V Chapter 181 ¡°This is such a magical treasure!¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but exclaim in satisfaction as he observed the gem which had completely transformed. ¡°This treasure¡¯s power¡­ it¡¯s almost unlimited. This must be the secret behind great Divine Powers, what a sight to behold!¡± It was rare for Sui Xiong to hold anyone in high regard, but at this moment, he was fully filled with admiration for the God of Virtue, who had created this treasure. Sui Xiong had seen many treasures in his life and created quite a few too, some of which had been extremely powerful. For example, the strongest treasure that he had created would be the ¡°main brain¡± of his God Kingdom, which was a powerful computer that could sustain tens of thousands of peoples¡¯ simultaneous surfing while powering complicated computer games. If this computer were to be returned to Earth during the time period where he was born, every country in the world would be fighting over it. However, when compared with this gem that the God of Virtue had created, it was as good as nothing. Sui Xiong certainly didn¡¯t have the ability to create something as magical as this! He could create treasures by harnessing his energy and directing it towards the treasure¡¯s user. This was similar to the good luck tools or nectar bottles that he had seen before in his fairytale books. If his magic was slightly more advanced, he could even use his created treasures in unthinkable ways. For example, to create his individual world or to come up with a task solving system. In any case, no matter what, this energy was not infinite, and no matter whether he used it directly or harnessed it externally, it could not be used forever. However, this gem was able to override this concept as it possessed infinite energy that did not require any external energy source. Furthermore, the power it possessed was rather strong! Exactly how strong was it? Well, ever since Sui Xiong found out how to use it correctly, he had been testing the gem¡¯s limits. When he was training with the gem, as he did not have the correct operating skills then, the gem had revealed some of its own strength. When let loose, it turned the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ lair into earth-shattering chaos. The ability of this gem was clearly shown in its self-repairing abilities as well as its utilization of minimal energy to heal the Dragon of Chaos and transform his lair. The unfortunate thing was that currently, the gem has stopped self-repairing. Although it had a huge crack that it was unable to fix, that was not its internal issue. That was a crafty ploy by the Goddess of Life in the past. The truth was that this crack actually did not exist. Or rather, it existed but not directly on the gem. This crack existed on the Main Plane where it turned into an enchantment. That¡¯s right! The crack was the Main Plane enchantment that the gods had discussed and studied to no avail over the last few years. It was a ferocious killing weapon that went beyond low-level Divine Powers and could kill with a single strike of lightning! This time, Sui Xiong had finally found it and understood its usage. Actually, it was this treasure, or rather, one could say that it manifested in this treasure. the Goddess of Life¡¯s was ingenious, and up till now, Sui Xiong was still unsure as to how she had achieved this. She had transformed this treasure into an enchantment that could protect the Main Plane, and yet, at the same time, the treasure still existed as a solo entity, its original usage totally unaffected. Scientifically speaking, this was absurd! The enchantment was powerful and almost reached the level of a great Divine Power. Even if it was created by the God of Virtue for his priesthood, with the creation of the enchantment, its remaining power should be reduced. Yet, this treasure could freely show its powers without any issue¡­ well, other than the deep crack on its surface. The crack was visible at times and invisible at other times and was unfixable no matter what, giving off the impression that it was a natural flaw. All the magic took place at this crack. If Sui Xiong could examine it properly, he was sure that he would truly understand the power of this treasure, putting him on par with ¡°Chaos.¡± In the past year or so, Sui Xiong had been doing just that, but to no avail. He had wanted to continue his research. However, once the treasure had self-repaired, its inner surface suddenly became extremely smooth, and it gave off an ethereal feeling as if it contained nothing. This prevented Sui Xiong from observing it further. This was especially so as the energy that had been continuously flowing out had suddenly stopped, and it had regained its original look of being untouched. No, that was inaccurate. Its glossiness was clearly different. Previously, it looked shabby and worn out, like it was stuck together with glue. Now, it looked sturdy and new. I rather it stay old and shabby! Now, with its new structure, I can¡¯t even borrow its energy anymore! I really wonder what the Goddess of Life did at the start to make this object so sly¡­ As Sui Xiong stretched lazily, he slowly thought about this treasure. To him, it felt rather stingy. There was so much it could offer, and every minute of its usage was probably worth thousands of coins. Yet, it was so unwilling to offer its services¡ªhow petty! Of course, Sui Xiong knew that that was a rather toxic mindset. The wealth of others was theirs to spend, and whether or not they wanted to use it for charity or not was their personal freedom, not something others could judge. For example, some charity leaders converted charities into businesses in the past. He had felt that this was not right and extremely dishonest. However, once Professor Cheng had found out about it, Sui Xiong was immediately admonished. ¡°Sui Xiong, do you think these charity leaders owe you money?¡± ¡°Of course not.¡± ¡°In that case, do they owe the public money?¡± ¡°I guess not.¡± ¡°Since they do not owe anyone, how is the fact that they are willing to help others a bad thing?¡± ¡°But they¡¯re using these charity businesses to earn money!¡± ¡°Do these earnings affect their willingness to help others at the same time?¡± Sui Xiong was speechless. ¡°I know that there¡¯s a certain celebrity who is extremely charitable and has many rich people supporting him. He traveled to India to donate to the temples as well as backed political campaigns in America¡­ What do you think about this? Does being purely charitable mean one shouldn¡¯t care about religion or politics?¡± Sui Xiong could only accept defeat. Now, he thought about this incident and smiled. The idea of purity was theoretical but rather subjective. One had to consider it from several angles to decide whether one was good or evil. Just as he was focusing on his nostalgia, the gleaming gem suddenly lit up slightly. While Sui Xiong did not notice it, the Dragon of Chaos saw it but did not think much of it. Chapter 822 Chapter 822: Vol V Chapter 182 ¡°So¡­ is it considered complete?¡± ¡°Somewhat.¡± ¡°But you¡¯re still unable to control it fully?¡± ¡°I¡¯m having a hard time. It¡¯s not something that can be done in 10 or 20 years. As long as it¡¯s in your possession and safe, I¡¯m not worried.¡± ¡°But I am!¡± ¡°Why are you worried? I¡¯m young, and I¡¯m relaxed, you¡¯re already so old, what¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid that I¡¯d be swallowed whole. What if I die?¡± ¡°Come to your senses. You¡¯re still a respected leader after all, so you need to maintain some face.¡± Sui Xiong sighed deeply and felt frustrated. This fellow was already so old, and yet he was still being extremely stubborn. What was worse was that he was begging for Sui Xiong to save his life in such a pitiful and lowly way. Sui Xiong was someone who had little patience for the stubborn and weak. Of course, if the other party were someone disliked or hated, he would not care at all. However, even if the other party was confused like a desperate, lost sheep, he would just give them a quick shove on their way. He wouldn¡¯t stop to pity them. The Dragon of Chaos did not belong to these categories, though. Although he could not be considered a good person, he still handled matters in life steadfastly no matter what. He was the kind of person who would seek revenge but only in a logical way that did not threaten his own safety or wellbeing. Furthermore, he would do so in a transparent way instead of setting traps or using despicable tricks. Even if one were enemies with him, they would not deny this as well. More importantly, he often gave ¡°face¡± to others, causing them to like him in the long term. This was a special tactic by the Dragon of Chaos as those that he had shown face to would always remember him in a positive light. As for the onlookers during such situations, well, they of course admired him even more. The Dragon of Chaos had also given Sui Xiong ¡°face¡± before. That was in the past in the Goddess of Harvest¡¯s God Kingdom, where the Dragon of Chaos had helped to rescue his disciples. Despite such a feat, he did not embarrass Sui Xiong and even gathered all the civil construction in the kingdom for Sui Xiong when he needed it later on. At that moment, he had specified that he did not owe anything, and Sui Xiong had been gratified by it. In that case, now, Sui Xiong knew deep down that he owed the Dragon of Chaos favor in return even if he did not articulate it aloud. Furthermore, this time he had sought out the Dragon of Chaos to borrow his treasures, and the latter had handled the request calmly. Towards such charitable people, Sui Xiong took on a softer stance. In the end, Sui Xiong was unable to convince the Dragon of Chaos and agreed to stay for a few more years. As he had already awoken from the enlightenment treasure¡¯s binds, his alternate body entities in the God Kingdom had also regained consciousness. Thus, in this sort of situation, his several forms were enough to settle the issue. In any case, he did not have any warring situation to settle as well. With a lazy yawn and stretch, the green jellyfish that was sprawled across the conference desk like a decorative object slowly rose up and even uttered two lines of Chinese poetry. ¡°Who knows big dreams? I know myself in my life.¡± Previously, he wanted to utter more phrases about awaking from Three Kingdoms. After all, he had countless poems memorized from that text. However, as he uttered his first two lines, he realized the entire conference room was decorated exquisitely and expensively, and he could not bring himself to continue speaking foolishly. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re awake!¡± Morani was observing a strangely shaped knife, and he laughed at Sui Xiong¡¯s actions. ¡°You took a rather long nap this time.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only been ten years, that¡¯s not too long.¡± Morani thought about it and nodded slowly. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s true. It¡¯s just that usually, you¡¯re extremely energetic. It feels strange for you to have minimal movement in ten years.¡± As he spoke, a golden beam of light flashed in the conference room, and many gods rushed in one after another, kneeling, to acknowledge Sui Xiong¡¯s awakening and greet him. Time was of the essence, however, and after Sui Xiong spoke briefly with them, he regained full consciousness and began handling matters. ¡°Did anything major happen in the last few years?¡± The God of Knowledge, Wall, thought for a while before replying. ¡°The Republic of Northwest has grown in size.¡± ¡°Oh? I know Double-Headed Stork City joined them. Who else did so?¡± Sui Xiong was rather curious. ¡°Three more. Firstly, there¡¯s a new extension town, Pit Tree Town, which mainly trains explorers. They also offer loans for several explorer tools used for departed souls. The town¡¯s chief executive is Tessa Tu Ya¡¯an, a legendary mage specializing in departed souls and also Mr. Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s sister.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. Tu Ya¡¯an had always wanted to find a position for his sister. As he was extremely wealthy, by right, Tessa could spend her entire life lazing around in luxury if she wished. However, Tu Ya¡¯an felt that it would be a waste of time if a young lady spent all her time watching shows or reading books for entertainment. He thus tried to find a job for his sister to pass the time. Whether or not the job paid well did not matter; it just had to fulfill two criteria of not being too tough and giving Tessa sufficient face. Being a town¡¯s chief executive, which was equivalent to being the Republic of Northwest¡¯s governor, simply required good planning and capable assistants to make the job manageable. Honor was also a given, as there were only a few areas under the Republic of Northwest. If one were able to oversee any of these areas, it would be seen as respectable. With Tu Ya¡¯an¡¯s status, it was easy to initiate Tessa as the leader of an area. Once they had found a suitable area, he had created his own underground city. This ensured that the people of the city would always stay warm. With several other detailed preparations and enough manpower, the city was officially opened. At the start, it was but a simple village, or rather one could say that it was mainly a training camp with a few big shops. Tu Ya¡¯an had originally named the city ¡°Big Tree City¡± as he intended to grow a huge tree here. However, this did not happen. The village continued expanding in size till it was big enough to be considered a town. As it was underground like a pit, people began to call the area ¡°Pit Tree City,¡± and the name stuck. Naturally, Tessa Ya¡¯an became the town¡¯s leader. ¡°I see. How about the other two lands?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°One is a town that originally belonged to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, near Double-Headed Stork City. The other is made up of barbarians in Northern Iceland; it was self-built by Jose.¡± Wall paused for a while and hesitated before blurting out, ¡°In that corner, almost everyone belongs to Jose¡¯s family¡­¡± Chapter 823 Chapter 823: Vol V Chapter 183 Once he heard this, Sui Xiong froze for a while before racking his brain for information on Jose. Jose was about 100 years old and was a Northern Barbarian. He had previously been ¡°Snow Bear¡± tribe¡¯s chief, and they were disciples of the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield, the evil god known as the Queen of the North. This goddess had was highly skilled, even though she only had mid-level Divine Powers. More than once, she had been in conflict with great gods, and many had assumed she would triumph even if the other party had a higher level. Although her victories were less than her losses, with her strong fa?ade and ferocity, her following was extremely strong and even exceeded that of the barbarians¡¯ patron saint, Bear Herding Elder. In the Snow Bear tribe, many were disciples of Bear Herding Elder as he was the barbarians¡¯ patron saint. However, Jose was different, and as a strongman himself, he could not follow someone who had the approval of the good gods and barbarians. However, he was powerless against the Arctic Federation, which was headed by the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield. Thus, he decided to follow the stronger party and become the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield¡¯s disciple. In reality, he was not just a disciple but also a clergyman; he was a Soul Shaman. Gnomes were a special branch of clergymen that only existed in rural areas, which were more illiterate. They did not use prayers and godly contact unlike priests, but instead gained spiritual powers and magical skills and used soul contact to eventually contact gods. Souls usually had ancestors of the same status, and they rose accordingly from there. If not, gnomes became souls through the transformation of powerful creatures in the area. While they had no physical body, they were extremely strong and possessed power, similar to a god. In the gnome¡¯s belief system, souls were the true mediums, and clergymen were not as recognized. As long as an area had a gnome with a high-level soul and even if the gnome¡¯s own skills weren¡¯t too high, powerful magic could still be performed. There were also gnomes who did not follow gods but rather worshipped ancestral spirits. These gnomes were a bit more backward and barbarian, but their souls resembled priests more. Jose¡¯s soul was a giant magic beast, a snow bear. Originally, when he had first become the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield¡¯s disciple, he had hunted alone and with his wit and bravery, managed to kill a ferocious Snow Bear. With such a feat, he curried favor with the goddess and became her patron saint. As for the Snow Bear¡¯s soul, it was converted by the goddess to be his soul. If things continued in this fashion, Jose could become a famous tribal chief of the North or a famous gnome. Within tens or hundreds of years, he may even be able to lead the barbarian army to war with the Orc Empire in the South, making history. As fate would have it, or perhaps while the goddess was not paying attention, the Snow Bear tribe was demolished on a random winter day due to the bitter cold and snowstorm. Even though Jose prayed hard and even sacrificed his only child as an offering, the goddess did not show mercy on him. In the end, after he had lost everything, Jose went mad in his desolation and cursed the goddess viciously before leaving the snowfield for the South. After wandering alone for several years, his heart was still not completely at peace, but his rage had gradually simmered down. Afterward, Jose thought hard about what to do with the rest of his life. Deaths could not be reversed, and his goal of revenge was also hard to attain. Was he to live the rest of his life in hopelessness? In this period of darkness, Jose arrived at the Ancient Forest in the South and came across the temple that was said to exist even before the world was created. There, he met the ancient sage who was rumored to have foresight further than any god. Despite the fact that this old sage was simply a frog the size of a human fist, he offered good advice to Jose, who decided to change his goals and rebuild the Snow Bear tribe. Jose planned to give birth to numerous children and for them to in turn reproduce¡­ This way, with sufficient effort, he could rebuild the Snow Bear tribe four or five generations down the road. Many were skeptical of this idea. They did not understand why Jose only wanted his future generations to rebuild the tribe. Sui Xiong had brought this matter up with Jose before, to which his answer had simply been that only his own kin would be able to inherit his bitterness towards his situation. Sui Xiong disagreed with this notion, though. However, Sui Xiong did not oppose Jose and only stared at him strangely, curious as to how much of his goal he could achieve. To have multiple children, Jose sustained several relationships at once and was extremely loose. Originally, when he was roaming about Double-Headed Stork City, he had had stable and slightly unstable relationships with at least 25% of the female soldiers and nearly all of the wind and dust girls. Later, after joining the Church of Void Mask and becoming the rapid mobility troops¡¯ leader, he used his wealthy status to attract even more females to increase his number of children. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s best knowledge, by the time Jose became a Legendary Master, he had already had more than 50 children and grandchildren. After becoming a Legendary Master, however, he began to slow down this process as he already had absolute certainty that he had enough offspring to create a new tribe. If not, he could use his original methods and, riding on his Legendary Master title, he could use a mere two to three years to form a family for his tribe. As a Legendary Master, he could easily attract 200 to 300 ladies as long as he was not picky. In any case, he had already achieved his base goal. The more Sui Xiong thought about it, the more he decided to explore the situation himself and thus paid Jose a visit through their spiritual connection. Sui Xiong saw that in the east corner of the Northern Snowfield, along a snow-covered canyon, was a newly built tribe. This tribe was slightly different from normal northern barbarians¡¯ tribes. Its position was slightly more north, there were no pastures nearby, and instead, in the center of the tribe, there was a large courtyard which housed a giant transmission formation. Sui Xiong immediately recognized this transmission formation as the grouping of the magic runes were similar to that of the Church of Void Mask¡¯s chief mage, Master Satan¡¯s style. If it had not been created by Jose, it would then probably have been made by another disciple of the church. Most possibly, it could have been made from one of the most talented disciples, Nice Parne. With this transmission formation, the newly built Snow Bear tribe could sell its hunting and mining gains at desirable prices and use these earnings to buy food. They could also be secondhand dealers, buying other barbarians¡¯ products and selling food and daily necessities to them. In summary, this tribe¡¯s foundational livelihood was rather stable. ¡°Jose has finally achieved his goals!¡± As Sui Xiong watched Jose lead his grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the central courtyard for prayers towards the giant jellyfish ice carving, he smiled slightly and nodded in satisfaction to himself. Chapter 824 Chapter 824: Vol V Chapter 184 Other than expanding its territory, the Republic of Northwest did not have other major happenings in the last few years. This was to be expected as the Republic by itself was rather stable. The country was strong, and there was legitimate governance. With such traits, even if 10, 20 or 30 years passed, it was highly probable that nothing out of the ordinary would happen. In this world, countries often engaged in war. However, no sane army would dream of traveling great distances to attack the Republic of Northwest. As for its neighboring countries¡­ The east side of the Republic was an expansive mountain range that was virtually untouched by man. It could only be accessed through a few select canyons. Even if one managed to cross the canyons, the area was foggy and covered with snow, and it was extremely unsuitable for troops to travel through. Furthermore, further east beyond the Gobi Desert and snowfields lay the Orc Empire¡¯s ¡®western wilderness. This was the area that was most loosely governed by the Orcs, and it was seen by the Orc Empire as an unimportant area. The fact that no one had attacked them was already surprising; they would never dream of trying to attack the Republic of Northwest. On the other hand, the Republic¡¯s northern and western areas were surrounded by the big sea. In the sea, there were literate creatures, such as faraway mermaids and fishermen close to the shore. However, since the Republic of Northwest¡¯s informal leader, the Void Mask Lord, was the Goddess of the Ocean¡¯s guide, the ocean creatures would also not attack the Republic. After all, the Void Mask Lord was practically the Goddess of the Ocean¡¯s master and adoptive father in status. Even if they wanted to, it would not be easy as they did not even have a seaside city. Even if they ventured out from Void Mask City, which was nearest to the sea, and walked along the nearest coast in a straight line, it was still about 1300 miles. Such a great distance was impossible to conquer in the minds of the sea tribe. The only area which had a rather intimate border distance with the Republic of Northwest was the Commonwealth of Gold Coins in the South. Yet, the Commonwealth was not strong by itself. The merchant tribe which straddled the two countries was also stronger on the Republic¡¯s end. Last but not least, the Republic had also assisted the Commonwealth of Gold Coins in the crisis of the past¡­ People in the northern cities of the Commonwealth were even discussing the possibility of uniting with the Republic of Northwest. In the entire merchant tribes¡¯ meeting, more than one of them had mentioned this idea. Anyone who still believed that the two countries would engage in war really had to go for basic political science lessons and get hit hard on the head to wake up. In any case, since none of the neighboring countries had hostile relationships with the Republic of Northwest and the internal governance of the Republic was steady, it was natural that nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the country. Other than the Fighter Championships, which happened every ten years and national day celebrations, nothing else was worth mentioning. Sui Xiong nodded lightly, thought for a while, and asked, ¡°Who was the victor of the recent Fighter Championships?¡± Wall immediately uttered the name of a seasoned veteran, and Sui Xiong looked up in shock. ¡°I remember he participated in the first-ever Fighter Championships.¡± ¡°Yes, but that was when he was still young, and his results were only average. Afterwards, with every new season that he participated in, he progressively improved and finally managed to emerge victorious this time around.¡± ¡°Wow, he¡¯s really tenacious.¡± ¡°Yes, he has been awarded the baron level in his village. If he continues to pursue his passion for sparring based on this strong foundation, he will become extremely formidable for sure.¡± After he spoke, Wall suddenly remembered something and exclaimed excitedly, ¡°Oh yes! This time, there was a black horse in the Fighter Championships!¡± ¡°A black horse? Who?¡± ¡°Fira Kenji!¡± Wall assumed that Sui Xiong was not familiar with this character and continued to explain further. ¡°He¡¯s a local from the Republic of Northwest, a first-generation immigrant. He¡¯s a Half-Orc from the Pigman tribe. Originally, Fira was a chef. Afterward, he joined the combined exploration team and helped the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to explore a silver mine. Once, as he was on a delivery trip, he picked up an ancient explorer¡¯s relic, a magic ring.¡± ¡°A ring?¡± Sui Xiong was rather curious as he thought about the novels he had read before coming to this world. ¡°Was there perhaps an ancient mage¡¯s spirit hidden in the ring?¡± ¡°Ah? My lord, you¡¯re an expert in this?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m not too sure¡­ please continue,¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s mouth twitched, and he replied calmly. Wall look at Sui Xiong with a bit of confusion, changing expressions before continuing to speak. ¡°The ring contains an ancient legendary mage who died many years ago. Fira tried to inherit his magic and revive his body.¡± ¡°And it failed?¡± ¡°Yes, it failed. Fira¡¯s friend, Hopes Wilder, uncovered the evil ploy of that ancient mage and managed to use modern magic to allow Fira to swallow the mage¡¯s soul. Fira thus evolved and quickly grew into an outstanding mage. Fira focused deeply on mixing magic and the concept of eating together. With the help of Foodie Miramon and Nutritionist Mado Kong, he created a special magic system he named ¡°Green Magic.¡± This system is extremely special and utilizes the consumption of strange foods to copy the magic of strange creatures.¡± ¡°So¡­ Fira managed to obtain good results in the competition due to the novelty of his magic tactics?¡± ¡°Yes. If he competed with his actual powers, it would be a hard battle against the top four contestants. However, whether he did so was beside the point anyway. Fira mainly joined the competition for revenge.¡± ¡°Revenge?¡± ¡°Yes. He has a grudge against the Ministry of Mines¡¯ exploration team, Ruby Siyu. Previously, when they worked together, he had suffered under Ruby¡¯s leadership and has been unable to let go of that grudge since. This is the biggest competition here, and Ruby joined it as well. Ruby had professed that he would do well here. Once Fira heard of this, he immediately registered for the competition as well at the last minute to compete with Ruby.¡± Wall paused for a second before saying, ¡°Fira¡¯s luck was not very good, and in order to face Ruby, he had to fight his way to the top eight first. Each battle was extremely harrowing and dangerous, except for the battle with Ruby, which he won easily. Afterward, after beating Ruby and entering the top four, he actually pulled out¡­¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Fira is indeed an interesting fellow!¡± Chapter 825 Chapter 825: Vol V Chapter 185 There was a period of time where Sui Xiong had noticed Fira Kenji. That Pigman chef did not really have any special talent on his own. It was just that he had extremely good fortune. This was not long term, but it was extremely good at specific points in time. Such occurrences were not new, as one¡¯s luck usually was like the sea waves, high and low at different points in time. However, normally, one¡¯s luck was not so volatile. Those with better luck, such as Kabbalah, would generally have good luck most of the time. For those with bad fortune, they would also generally have bad luck most of the time. Take Cambrona, for example. One may guess that his marriage with a goddess used up his entire life¡¯s good fortune, as his fortune in the past years was rather poor. Cambrona often met with issues at work and life. If not for his steadfastness and positive attitude towards life, he certainly wouldn¡¯t be where he was at now. For people like Fira, his fortune was usually average, but when it swelled at certain times, now that was rare. Taking Earth as an example, it would be like a normal man managing to win millions of dollars in the lottery¡­ It was somewhat equivalent to that. Of course, if one were to compare Earth and this world, the millions of dollars on Earth definitely would be worth little to the advanced mages of this world. Here, advanced mages¡¯ societal position was comparable to that of the core leaders of second-world countries on Earth or 2nd tier leaders in first-world countries. Using China as an example, these mages would be comparable to provincial departments with lots of power and little constraint. Furthermore, high ranking mages were two grades lower than Legendary Masters, which were at the top level. Evidently, this position was much higher than that of normal wealthy tycoons. The more Sui Xiong thought about it, the more it seemed incomparable to Earth. The best example he could think of was from a famous Chinese television series Lian Sheng San Ji. He did not know if the story of the fellow who became a chief completely due to good fortune was true or false. According to his professor, stories in the Ming Dynasty tended to be exaggerated. Even the famous Qing official of the dynasty, Hai Rui, was about to lie about his own daughter starving herself to death when he did not even have any children! The people of the Ming Dynasty could be said to be a little crazy! However, in this case of Fira, Sui Xiong was observing the situation with his own eyes, and he had to admit it was real even if it was highly unbelievable. To be honest, Sui Xiong was confusing himself while comparing Lian Sheng San Ji to Fira¡¯s situation, when what he was really recalling was a plot on some online fanfiction. Being able to pick up a ring that contained an old grandfather, inheriting its powers and skills and finally trying to swallow the protagonist but instead being swallowed by the protagonist, where one¡¯s soul became part of the protagonist¡¯s growth¡­ This storyline seemed somewhat similar, and he wasn¡¯t sure where he had seen it before. Sigh, what a tough experience for the old grandfather! Sui Xiong thought to himself, amused. He held in his laughter and continued questioning Wall on the happenings of the last ten years. ¡°There really isn¡¯t anything much else to highlight¡­ Oh yes, Miss Felix recently entered the Legendary Realm. Is that considered news to you?¡± ¡°Not really, I knew that would happen sooner or later.¡± ¡°In that case¡­ Oh yes, Kalisa Riley has been pregnant for a few years now, is that worth mentioning?¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. ¡°A few years? What, did she give birth to an alien?¡± ¡°An¡­ alien?¡± ¡°Oh, wait. Never mind.¡± Sui Xiong laughed dryly as he suddenly realized his mistake. In this world, strong creatures were pregnant for long periods of time. Dragons were usually pregnant for tens or hundreds of years, and a few elemental creatures could even be pregnant for the time period of a whole generation. That was equal to a few thousand years! Leon Igor was already a legendary peak master, and Kalisa Riley had become a legendary creature with Sui Xiong¡¯s help. With such backgrounds, it was no wonder that she was pregnant for so long as their child was definitely not just a normal human. Conversely, if this child was conceived with only a time period of nine months (which was normal on Earth), it would be extremely strange here! Once Sui Xiong heard this news, he hurriedly headed for the Human Realm as this became his top priority. If Wall was so casual and calm, that would probably mean that nothing much else of concern had happened anyway. With this traveling speed, he arrived at Garth City quickly. There, he discovered that the city had several the Goddess of Family¡¯s patron saints, and the people had received them quite well. When Leon and Kalisa had gotten married, the Goddess of Family and Goddess of Love had both blessed them. Goddess of Love had left right after and did not stay to share her faith. She was only interested in Kalisa alone, and she was already certain that Kalisa would become her holy spirit after death; thus, the Goddess of Love did not do much more. On the other hand, the Goddess of Family took a greater interest in the city and arranged for several of her patron saints to stay and promote her faith through various charitable activities and promotions. The people had been rather receptive to her efforts, it seemed. However, it now seemed that there were too many patron saints around, yet they were not engaging actively in preaching. This confused Sui Xiong. Why would patron saints gather and yet not preach their religion, what else could they be doing? He was not worried that they would harm Garth City as the Goddess of Family was not strong. Furthermore, her faith was calm and gentle, and her followers would not do evil deeds. Sui Xiong could also see that these patron saints were full of goodness and were not here to create chaos. What were they doing here, then? ¡°Oh? You¡¯re wondering about the Goddess of Family¡¯s patron saints?¡± Once Sui Xiong met Leon, he immediately questioned Leon about the situation. Leon smiled and said, ¡°I invited them here. Kalisa has been pregnant for so long. Although I know that this is normal, I¡¯m still a little worried, and so I invited them here to monitor her as well as bless her¡­¡± ¡°And so many patron saints came?¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. ¡°Isn¡¯t this a bit over the top?¡± ¡°Actually, I did not plan for this. I merely invited one or two, and two or three as a follow-up. I did not expect the city to slowly fill up with all of them¡­¡± Leon smiled awkwardly and rubbed his nose. Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Normally, Leon was a stable and ingenious man, yet when it came to his own wife and child, he became an emotional fool. Before Sui Xiong had entered this world, he had had a friend with an IQ of 146. However, even with such high intelligence, whenever he discussed his family, his IQ immediately appeared to drop. He would act like a ¡°foolish father¡± or ¡°foolish husband.¡± Now, Leon was like that too, how amusing! Chapter 826 Chapter 826: Vol V Chapter 186 To be honest, it was not that this was a bad thing. There was a Chinese that said, ¡°Being emotionless is not always a good thing, and those who pity others for displaying emotion are not fit to marry.¡± Even if one may think these fellows look foolish, as husbands, they would actually be admirable and strong and would do anything for their loved ones. Leon was no exception. Because of Kalisa, he often acted with his heart and not his brain and made some endearing mistakes. However, those who assumed this was him losing focus and planned to attack Garth City or the Church of Void Mask would definitely receive a shocking wakeup call when Leon retaliated. Since Sui Xiong was already here at Garth City, he of course paid a visit to Kalisa as well. Kalisa seemed a little rounder and more mature, with a motherly look in her eyes. However, her figure did not change much, and her stomach was not terribly round, unlike normal pregnant women who usually waddled when they moved around. ¡°How long have you been pregnant?¡± Sui Xiong eyed her round stomach curiously. He could sense that the fetus was about the size of a human fist and was only beginning to develop its basic features. ¡°About two years.¡± Kalisa sighed. ¡°After the Goddess of Family carried out an expert evaluation, she predicted that this pregnancy would last fix to six years. My goodness!¡± ¡°Five to six years is not too long; it¡¯ll be over soon. Don¡¯t worry,¡± Sui Xiong replied encouragingly. Upon second thought, he added, ¡°If you¡¯re anxious, I can use my powers to accelerate this fetus¡¯s growth¡­ If you wanted, I could make it such that you could give birth right now.¡± ¡°You could do that with your powers!?¡± Kalisa was shocked. Sui Xiong nodded. A god¡¯s range of power was rather infinite, and as long as one was strong enough, there was little that couldn¡¯t be done in this world. Over the last ten years, Sui Xiong had received enlightenment regarding the God of Virtue¡¯s treasure and acquired much knowledge. Despite the fact that his power level had not increased much, Sui Xiong had increased insights overall. Now, to him, there were even lesser limits to what he could do. While he would not say that he was infallible, it was hard to discuss his limits now as there were barely any. Kalisa and Leon discussed this proposition for a while before deciding to reject it. ¡°The fetus is rather stable right now, so we can afford to let it continue growing at its own pace. In the future, if I feel uncomfortable or overly sick, I¡¯ll request for your help then, my lord,¡± Kalisa said. ¡°Sure, do not worry,¡± Sui Xiong replied warmly, concluding this matter for now. After settling this private affair, Sui Xiong began to discuss official matters with Leon again. ¡°Have there been any significant changes in the Human Realm over the last ten years while I was gone? Previously, I asked Wall the same question, and he replied that nothing much had happened. He only stated that the Republic of Northwest has expanded slightly and that the Fighter Championships took place. Yet, I feel like a god¡¯s view and a human¡¯s view differs greatly, and thus, I would like to hear your opinion on this.¡± Leon thought for a while before nodding and replying, ¡°Over the last ten years, I feel that the biggest event that happened in the Human Realm was that the Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡¯ northern and southern areas had a confrontation again.¡± ¡°The North and South confronted each other?!¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. ¡°Again? Didn¡¯t they already settle their tensions the previous time?¡± ¡°The aristocrats and merchants are still hostile over the base issue of resource allocation. Previously, during the drought, they had been united for a period of time in facing the crisis. However, afterwards, the aristocrats held on to the grudge that they had suffered losses towards the merchants due to the crop failure. They then felt like taking revenge. You know how the aristocrats are. They will only follow the rules if they feel like it. If not, there are quick to take action.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. In this world, the aristocrats were rather selfish and liked to declare random laws to achieve their own motives. For example, if an aristocrat needed money, he would first approach merchants in the city to borrow money. If he managed to do so, the matter would end here. However, if he failed to do so or succeeded but did not feel like returning the money owed afterward, he would enact a temporary, immediate tax and physically get his way.¡± This was despicable, but it was not like Sui Xiong was unaware of such practices in the past. The aristocrats in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins were used to using such methods to steal the merchants¡¯ wealth, and it was now their go-to method as they knew that it produced results to their favor most of the time. All it cost was a bit of face, which they were not particular about. Actually, not much face was even lost as they gained the admiration of other aristocrats when one had succeeded in stealing wealth from the merchants. To them, being able to use their power and violence was effective and worth encouraging. However, this time, the aristocrats had overestimated themselves. Towards the aristocrats¡¯ unforgivable ways, the merchants had retaliated with their newly trained troops. These troops adopted Keane Hill¡¯s method of training, and they chose their new recruits from credible families. Over a long period of specialized training, these recruits became physically fit and disciplined. They were familiar with battle strategies and also had the positive mindsets of fighting to defend their families. Against such a strong army, the aristocratic troops were definitely on the losing end. In the three instances of war, the merchants consistently emerged victoriously. Although all three wars were not large scale, the repeated losses were enough to shake up the entire Commonwealth of Gold Coins, and intellectuals of other countries were all taking note of this. Leon had been observing this drawn-out war and had even made a personal trip down to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins with a secret identity to observe the third instance of war. During that war, the aristocratic army had sent out two regiments of knights, which consisted of more than 20 knights, about 300 regular soldiers and three times that of conscripted soldiers. In total, they had the strength of about four digits. On the other hand, the merchants sent out a key team of 1000 people only. Both parties had met on a flat piece of rural ground to fight. At the start, the aristocrats had a head start due to the commendable leadership of their army commander. However, even after being disadvantaged at the start, the merchant troops were undeterred and continue to fight in a calm and determined manner. After a while, the aristocratic troops began to falter as the conscripted soldiers were unable to sustain the war and they eventually lost. According to Leon¡¯s calculations, these were each party¡¯s losses: The aristocrats¡¯ death toll included six knights, approximately 150 regular soldiers and 200 conscripted soldiers. To be honest, it was rather appalling that they had crumbled when they still had 800 conscripted soldiers left on the battlefield. However, they were really limited in skills and were unable to sustain war efforts. The merchants¡¯ death toll included their commander, two vice commanders and 15 deputy team leaders. Basically, they had lost most of their key members. As for the troops, there were about 600 new troops who had died. This was not a small loss as more than half of the team had perished in war. However, these were the expected casualties of war. With the escapes and murders, the aristocratic troops lost another 100 regular soldiers, ten knights and 500 conscripted soldiers in their retreat, which added to their overall loss. ¡°Previously, you told me that pioneers who dare to take on challenges often succeed. This war really demonstrates that! Courage is indeed a deciding factor in situations like these,¡± Leon expressed. Chapter 827 Chapter 827: Vol V Chapter 187 Sui Xiong had actually been rather shocked when he had first heard about the war¡¯s details. He was not concerned with the death tolls as casualties were to be expected in war. All along, during the Cold War, most wars had taken place in terms of pursuits. Well, that was the context that he had understood when he made war games of his own. Thus, Sui Xiong had all always associated war with sorrowful deaths and sadness. However, the extremity and intensity of this war surprised him. On the side of the aristocrats, they had lost half of their regular soldiers, one-third of their regular soldiers and 20% of their conscripted troops. This was already considered severe. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s recollections, most parties would consider surrendering if they had lost about 10% of their overall troops. Even if they were unwilling to do so, they would probably crumble in defeat once this number increased to about 20%. For the aristocrats, it was surprising that they had only crumbled at about 20% of a numerical loss, considering that most of their troops were conscripted and not veterans. However, regardless, their troops really could not compare to that of the merchants¡¯, and thus, even this little feat was not considered much. One had to consider that the merchants had lost a majority of their new troops and yet had won the war with a huge disadvantage and only about 40% of their troops left. The tenacity and determination displayed were simply unheard of! In this world, probably only those who were fanatical disciple knights of churches would have such strong will. Even before Sui Xiong had entered this realm, there were also few in the human world who could sustain war efforts till the end in the face of desperation like that. The number of such individuals could be counted using one¡¯s fingers, and one may not even need both hands! Even though Sui Xiong himself had lived in a country whose troops were amongst the top ten on Earth and had many friends who were regular soldiers, he did not believe that the troops on Earth could be labeled as ¡°iron armies¡± if they were unable to reach the standard displayed by the merchant troops. Online, there was a famous idea that East Asia was a ¡°monster room.¡± People living in East Asia were able to be stable and steady and were all clearheaded and fought well despite their status. If they were to move to Africa, America or any other ¡°newbie¡± continent, even if others mocked them, they would still be able to maintain their ferocious punches and nimble kicks to remain unbeatable. In this world, with the existence of real gods, the strength of ¡°faith¡± was expanded. The regiment of knights were often able to sustain extreme war efforts under a single command. Although the regiment of knights was not big, their prowess was often stunning. Normal regular armies were not even worth 10% of them. As for conscripted troops, they were even less important and would falter in the face of slight aggression by the other party, just like when fans had friendly matches with professional idols online. According to Sui Xiong, although the new merchant troops could not yet compare to the regiment of knights, they were probably the next in line. Even the Republic of Northwest¡¯s troops, which were better trained and equipped, could not compare in terms of morale and tenacity. Sui Xiong was thus curious as to how the merchants had developed their troops. He had previously secretly witnessed how the merchants trained their troops, but that was a mere few years ago. How had these troops improved so tremendously over such a short period of time? Sui Xiong decided to direct this question to Leon, who was equally unclear. ¡°I did not observe them in the past; thus, I also do not know how to answer you. However, I¡¯m also curious as to how such a determined army was trained. To be honest, the whole world is curious, and many tried to gain intel on their strategies but have failed thus far.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and proceeded to find God of War, Wenner. Intuition told him that Wenner would have the answer. Furthermore¡­ If one were to think logically, Wenner was definitely aware of the emergence of such a formidable army and would have some internal intel of his own. Sui Xiong was spot on. Once Sui Xiong explained the intentions of his surprise visit, Wenner was silent for a while before smiling awkwardly. ¡°That army¡­ was personally trained by Augmentin and me.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. After a few seconds, he asked, ¡°You and Augmentin? Together?¡± ¡°Yes. We watched the new troops train at the start, and I felt that they had the potential to excel. Augmentin had said that training alone was not enough. A prepared army requires not just excellent fighting knowledge, good resources and strict discipline, but more importantly, a clear vision and tenacity¡­ We thus both found human followers to act as common folk and become commanders.¡± ¡°What happened next?¡± ¡°We intercepted a training camp easily and made these people commanders. Using about three years¡¯ time, we were able to train an army that meets our standards. We returned after the job was done.¡± ¡°How exactly did you do it?¡± ¡°I was in charge of holistic training, with the main goal of increasing cohesiveness. To normal soldiers, individual strength is never as important as the cooperation of the team. I thus reduced individual strength training and increased activities that would test their teamwork skills. I aimed to create an army that could form random yet functional groups with random troops at any given point in time with necessary.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. This was, after all, wise thinking. ¡°Augmentin was less involved in such training but rather focused on thought mobilization. He used his powers to convince the higher-ups at the camp to allow every soldier to sign a contract. The contract mainly stated that regardless of whether a soldier survived or died in war, his family could receive aid from the government afterward. If the children of these soldiers willingly joined the army, they would receive even more benefits. However, in exchange, the soldiers would not receive commendation awards for war, only the previously mentioned aid¡­¡± ¡°Wait! No awards? Even after fighting a war? That was accepted!?¡± Wenner was shocked by Sui Xiong¡¯s response, and he glanced skeptically at Sui Xiong. ¡°Wasn¡¯t that what you mentioned at the start?¡± ¡°Ah? When?¡± Sui Xiong replied blankly. ¡°One, listening to all actions; two, not taking the masses with one line; three, all seized goods must be returned to the public. At that time, you even composed a song and made these lines lyrics, just that you had forgotten the rest of the words¡­¡± It was at this moment that Sui Xiong remembered a casual conversation he had had with Wenner in the past. He had put the People¡¯s Liberation Army¡¯s Three Major Disciplines and Eight Attentions to song. It was just that he was unable to memorize the entire song at that time and had only sung a short part for Wenner¡­ Chapter 828 Chapter 828: Vol V Chapter 188 The fact that half of a mere song could influence the God of War¡¯s decisions¡­ Sui Xiong was rather shocked and¡­ proud. He felt that if he had not entered this world but instead crossed to the past, it was highly possible that he could use his human knowledge to impress the ancient folk and create miracles¡­ Yes, it definitely could have been so. Yet, Sui Xiong had also forgotten that while he was handling his regiment of knights, he had totally forgotten about these disciplines and attentions¡­ One often remembered and heeded the advice of others but was unable to adopt their own advice when carrying out tasks¡­ Of course, it was not like a wild Professor Cheng would pop out from the bushes here to criticize Sui Xiong till he went mental. There was only Wenner here, who admired Sui Xiong greatly and found Sui Xiong to be an inspiration. Thus, Sui Xiong could maintain his ego here without much fear. Augmentin had been extremely strict with the thought mobilization of the new troops. He continuously drove the idea that ¡°family is equal to the nation, and protecting the nation is equal to protecting one¡¯s family¡± as well as the idea that ¡°this is not a traditional conscripted army but rather a strict, legitimate army.¡± Augmentin emphasized that there was an army that the world had not yet seen before, one that did not need to fight over materialistic things as their needs were guaranteed to be met even before the war started. All the troops needed to do was to ensure that they defended the country, their family and their lives. Through a few years of comprehensive education, Augmentin successfully created an army with a strong vision and mindset. At the same time, under the God of War Wenner¡¯s training, the army was able to get information at any moment and trusted each other to work as a team. Finally, this army entered a fighting contest where they beat several other new armies. The merchants realized that this army far exceeded others in terms of fighting spirit and mental strength and celebrated in joy before spreading Augmentin and Wenner¡¯s training methods to all their other armed personnel. This time, the troops that had fought with the aristocrats were one of the subsequent troops that had been trained with the proven method. They had been under such training for about two years and had transformed greatly. In three consecutive wars, they had performed superbly. In the last war, they had been exceptionally excellent, using their fresh blood and victory to prove themselves and earning the respect of every other nation. This matter also gratified Wenner and Augmentin¡¯s personally-trained army. They continuously expressed that they could not bear to see these new troops fight on their own and volunteered on account of camaraderie to fight alongside them to showcase their combined power! ¡°Basically, they were so restless that they wanted to fight too,¡± Sui Xiong criticized. Wenner smiled. ¡°Fighting a good war is part of what excellent troops do.¡± ¡°Well, it seems that they¡¯ve forgotten the dangers of war. Do they not fear for their lives?¡± ¡°Well, how could you expect them to forget about war? They¡¯re soldiers, that doesn¡¯t make sense!¡± Wenner was a little confused. Sui Xiong smiled mysteriously and did not let his inner feelings show. Why? Let¡¯s see if you can figure it out yourself, Wenner! Wenner thought a long time before coming to a startling realization. ¡°I get it now! You¡¯re not talking about governing an army but rather, governing a nation! If a country does not focus on building up their army and making preparations for war, which could happen anytime, it¡¯s easy to be caught unaware. However, if one spends the entire day thinking about fighting, such as how to fight, who to fight and when to fight, it would definitely waste the country¡¯s resources and still cause them to fall in the end.¡± Wenner¡¯s eyes shone in admiration, and he spoke again with gusto. ¡°I understood the first part of your song but never really thought about the last part of it. All along, I¡¯ve always assumed that jumping from one victory to another was satisfactory. Now that I think about it, while victory is important, war cannot just be for winning, but we should consider whether or not the war even needs to be fought! Previously, Augmentin cautioned me about this, but I had admonished him for being too distracted and not courageous enough. Now, your reiteration of this value has made me reconsider my take on this.¡± Wenner paused for a long time. ¡°I want to make a few changes to my doctrine to gain the respect and support of more people and allow me to approach victories and the concept of war in a wiser fashion.¡± With that, Wenner apologized to Sui Xiong and began thinking hard about how to adjust his doctrine and faith. Sui Xiong stood proudly and yet again felt accomplished for the lessons he had brought to this world. To him, it felt like he was a dish that had already been cleaned and dried and was just waiting for expensive seafood to be placed on him. Regretfully, the God of War did not continue to sing his praises, and Sui Xiong felt that this ending was slightly anticlimactic. Afterward, Sui Xiong returned to the Republic of Northwest, organized a meeting with the leaders and started a discussion on how they could improve their war strategy. ¡°A change? I support it! I¡¯ve wanted to reform the army for a long time now. Previously, our army was definitely the strongest in this world, but now, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡¯ northern army, the merchant¡¯s new army, are being viewed as comparable to us due to their excellent results. It really is time for a change.¡± Once Sui Xiong had suggested the idea of reforming the army, the first supporter, military chief Leonard immediately voiced out his support happily. ¡°Yes. After all, we have enough riches and resources devoted to luxuries, so it is time for us to set aside a budget for improving our glorious army as well! A strong army provides the foundation for a strong country. There is no need to take any drastic action, but we can still work towards increasing the excellence of our troops.¡± This time, an administrative chief, Madame Teague, also spoke up approvingly despite not being someone who took great care in army efforts. ¡°If it¡¯s possible to do so, I think we could improve the training of the regiment of knights. They are already elite, but I think they have the potential to improve more,¡± Gerald, Head of the Regiment of the Knights, said. All the other leaders began discussing this topic eagerly. It was rare that everyone was unanimously on the same page without any fighting! It was decided that training would be adjusted, and this decision was approved quickly. With Sui Xiong¡¯s intel setting the context for change, Leonard was able to confirm the new training schemes on the spot and immediately began making physical changes after the meeting ended. Sui Xiong also discussed the matter privately with Leonard and expressed his satisfaction towards everyone working together harmoniously. Leonard smiled and informed Sui Xiong that after the rise of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡¯ northern army, many other countries had wanted to improve their troops as well. Sui Xiong¡¯s proposal would probably have been supported in any country he voiced it out in¡­ Chapter 829 Chapter 829: Vol V Chapter 189 A Chinese saying states that the core of a country is in its hustle and bustle. This phrase originated from the ancient Chinese classic ¡°Zuo Zhuan, which discussed the two important pillars of governing a country¡ªsacrifices and war. The extract in which this quote was taken from was in the context of about 572BC, where Lu Chenggong, Liu Kanggong and Cheng Sugong worked together to help Jin Ligong attack Thailand. While presenting offerings, Cheng Sugong was not earnest enough, and Liu Kanggong had admonished him. In this record, ¡°sacrifice¡± did not just include religious sacrifice but also that of culture and education. Faith, culture, education, war¡­ In the olden, traditional days, they were indeed the most important things to a country as they are now. This applied to almost every other world. Sui Xiong had uttered this phrase casually but did not really remember where it came from. He remembered it from a game where a character¡¯s virtual background was decorated by these Chinese characters. That character was called Confucius, and he was a virtuous and warm intellectual. Actually, there was an issue with the creation of this character as religion was slowly separated from religion, where Confucius was the one who had spearheaded such change. Of course, Sui Xiong was unaware of this, and he only remembered this phrase which sounded wise. In this world, the divide between education and religion was not clear. Not many scholars were independent of religion, and some aristocratic families had many illiterates. To call the entire world an educational desert was not even an exaggeration. Because of that, Sui Xiong¡¯s creation of a technical school and Wall¡¯s promotion of stationery became extremely popular. Wall was even able to use his achievements in developing culture and education to become a real god. Within a short period of time, Wall even managed to rise to a mid-level Divine Power. The people of this world had craved education for too long. The Republic of Northwest promoted education best in this world, and there were virtually no more illiterates left in the country. Even the poor who could not afford to study in the day visited the Church of Void Mask and the Church of Knowledge¡¯s combined Literacy Evening School to attend free classes. Within a year or so, they were able to recognize a few hundred simple words and compose simple sentences. This level of literacy was considered under the tier of the low literacy of the common folk. However, if one were to consider the same level of literacy in the Orc Empire or other similar places, these peoples¡¯ limited knowledge would already be revered. Within the Republic of Northwest¡¯s army, the educational level was even higher. The truth was that many families chose to send their newly legal children to conscript for three to five years as one could learn much in the army. The army was made up of the following: patrols and the national defense force. Both areas of the army recruited from the public, but the former was a temporary position while the latter was long-term. Patrols typically consisted of the conscripted youths and their jobs mostly included patrolling the roads of the country, chasing thieves and maintaining order as well as helping out in disasters. Because of the good governance in the Republic of Northwest and the lack of natural disasters, these patrols mostly spent their time training and studying if they were not out on daily patrols. On the other hand, the national defense force trained much harder than the patrols and often followed the Regiment of Knights on missions to fight dangerous Magic Beasts. The Republic of Northwest was situated on the northwest side of the Main Plane, and previously, before it had been developed, the land had been the infamous, dangerous area known as Ashes Woods. Negative energy flowed greatly here, and all life was almost extinct, while Magic Beasts thrived. Once the sky turned dark, skeletons would run amok, and several Magic Beasts would rise as well. If one were to explain the situation in game terms, this area would receive five stars and above in terms of danger level. Even with the establishment and development of the Republic of Northwest, the living areas of the citizens were often disturbed by the remaining skeletons as well as other Magic Beasts, which had not been affected by the Purification Array. Most of these Magic Beasts were fierce and dangerous, requiring troops to get rid of them before they could hurt the common folk. Originally, the troops in charge of exterminating these Magic Beasts were personally led by ¡°Red Flame Dragon¡± Jose, and they entered the various towns each day to clear the Magic Beasts they encountered. Afterwards, with the growth of the Republic of Northwest, the troops also got stronger, and now, each town had their own national defense force station. The troops at these stations trained daily under advanced legendary warriors and mages and headed out to exterminate Magic Beasts in their area once they received reports on them. The entire Republic of Northwest was covered with detecting arrays of various sizes. With such arrays, people could discover the presence of Magic Beasts even when they were rather far away from the towns and villages. In the outer perimeter of every town and village, there were also many detecting structures in place to identify Magic Beasts. That could buy the national defense force some time to mobilize themselves before the Magic Beasts hurt the people. With these measures and, most importantly, the bravery of the national defense force, the Magic Beasts had never successfully committed any atrocities within the nation even with its long history, and no village was ever destroyed. The truth was that once the national defense force was created, no Magic Beast was able to outsmart their defense and get close to the living areas. One could infer that the national defense force was sufficiently competent and could satisfy the needs of the people. Even so, Commander-in-Chief Leonard was still dissatisfied. He felt that one could always improve, and a capable army, like excellent warriors, should never be stagnant nor complacent. Once Leonard found out about the results of the northern army of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, he immediately rushed over to watch their battle and even spied on their trainings. Afterwards, he reported his new knowledge to the leaders in the Republic of Northwest, and everyone was shocked. After some discussion, it was unanimously agreed that the troops needed increased training to reach a standard higher than that of the northern army of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. In any case, the Republic of Northwest was already blessed with its resources and thus had no excuse to lag behind. They had the highest and most flexible army budget in the world, best military resources, most loyal, brave and educated soldiers as well as the highest proportion of patron saints. No matter how one looked at it, the national defense force had a better foundation to build upon as compared to the northern army of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins and could exceed them with proper training. All they required was Sui Xiong¡¯s approval. ¡°I see¡­¡± After hearing Leonard¡¯s explanation, Sui Xiong began to understand the situation and nodded furiously. ¡°So¡­ the preparations have already been put in place. No wonder today¡¯s meeting was so efficient!¡± Leonard smiled. ¡°Yes, everything is ready. You can just sit back, relax and watch things progress! It won¡¯t take long!¡± Chapter 830 Chapter 830: Vol V Chapter 190 Leonard did as he promised, and Sui Xiong did not have to wait long. In fact, he only used half a year¡¯s time. In such a short period of time, the Republic of Northwest¡¯s national defense force¡¯s new troops, which had been selected for the new training, completed their training. Such efficiency was possible only due to their strong foundation. The Republic of Northwest¡¯s troops were not just physically strong and well trained, but they also had a strong, innate fighting spirit. They were steadfast in their reasons for fighting and were confident to fight till the end despite the threat of death. Furthermore, they had all undergone ¡°infinite terror¡± systemic training in the Church of Void Mask. That training was specifically created for soldiers and focused on danger. The training pitted soldiers against several other communities such as demons, devils and¡­ of course, humans. In these wars, most of the time, the trainee was able to win in the end but with several losses. A Chinese saying mentioned that if one experienced near-death situations and hardships for life, they would eventually stop fearing actual death as they would be desensitized. Within the ¡°infinite terrors¡± system, trainees faced simulation of themselves post-death several times. They witnessed the pain of their family, the administrative handling of their deaths by the army, glory and farewells¡­ The trainee would temporarily evolve into an invisible bystander in the God Kingdom, who was unable to do anything but observe the situation. The effects of this training were extremely strong. Many wept uncontrollably after, and several even applied to leave the army. However, those who were able to endure such harsh training remained and they were all mentally well prepared to fight. Previously, Sui Xiong had also evolved to become a normal patron saint to secretly gather opinions of such training from these brave men. More often than not, the reply that he got was that people definitely had to sacrifice for the greater good of the country and to protect their loved ones. These men were all willing to step up when such sacrifice was needed. Towards this, Sui Xiong felt extremely touched, and he specifically opened a big temple at the side of the main temple in the Church of Void Mask and named it the ¡°Temple of Martyrs.¡± In this Temple of Martyrs, there was a record of every soldier who had sacrificed his life for the country, as well as his story. Their families and generations after as well as the leaders of the Republic of Northwest could use prayers and rituals to speak to the deceased in nearby God Kingdoms. Although this connection was not guaranteed and one had to use game terms of ¡°Divine Position,¡± to the devoted, this was still a giant source of comfort. Many family members of the martyrs chose to work near the Temple of Martyrs so that they could visit the temple often and converse with their deceased loved ones. Hearing them and seeing the images of them was like having them virtually by their side as if they had never left. This was something that other countries could not achieve. Many other churches¡¯ Regiment of Knights were also unable to reach the Republic of Northwest¡¯s army¡¯s standard. The fact that they were stronger were only due to the fact that they had powers bestowed upon them by gods. Strictly speaking, the national defense force of the Republic of Northwest was definitely more elite than normal holy knights in terms of mindset and vision. All they lacked were strong bodies and the ability to demonstrate magic, which could all be solved with specific training. Now, Leonard wanted to enact such training upon them, and this was done with three stages. The first stage to improve their physical fitness. Leonard did not hide himself anymore but instead demonstrated his abilities freely as an evil god. He used his powers to transform the bodies of the elite troops and further improve their already fit bodies. One could tell the difference through their diet. Previously, they consumed normal food and simply adjusted the amount of meat and oil that they consumed to suit their training. Now, normal food was not enough. They often required fresh demon meat to absorb the demons¡¯ strength to maintain their new bodies. According to the calculations by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, if all the troops underwent this training, the expenses of their diet alone would use up about 70 to 80 percent of the imports of fresh demon meat from Dragon Roar City. They may even need to import more from the Mifata Federation in the south. Towards this, Sui Xiong was of course approving, and even the slightly stingy Madame Teague supported this decision. Money spent on defense was definitely worth it! Other than this issue, this training also cost a lot of Divine Power. Sui Xiong of course did not force only Leonard to fully use his Divine Power. Although Leonard had the Wandering Paladin priesthood, he had not really been initiated as a god and did not have much Divine Power, certainly not enough to take on this role alone. Sui Xiong contributed most of the Divine Power. Leonard was of course consenting towards this as he was not one who cared too much about ego. The second part was improvements in terms of fighting tactics, in particular their response rate and cooperation abilities. This had been done before but in limited ways. Leonard felt that it was time to improve this area. This area of training required a bit of time as the troops needed to be familiar with each other to be able to work together under any situation. After all, the learning rate of humans was limited, no matter how capable the men were. In comparison, the last part of the three stages was the easiest to complete. The last part was to increase the competence of the men in using several different weapons. Leonard felt that if the troops were to work together well, they needed to be skilled in handling weapons, especially while wearing heavy armor. There wasn¡¯t much to cover as Leonard simply needed to prepare the resources and allow the troops to try them. These well-trained troops did so quickly. They were not required to become masters of these weapons, just being sufficiently familiar with them was enough. In the end, the troops became extremely fearsome and strong. Sui Xiong was confident that they could pick up any weapon and fight in any war if necessary without hesitation. Chapter 831 Chapter 831: Vol V Chapter 191 There was an ancient saying that if an army was strong enough, even a small troop would have the power and the might of a thousand troops. Sui Xiong was not a believer in these kind of sayings. The earth was unlike this world. There were no mid-ranks or higher levels. The ones who had already comprehended their combat power and were so strong that they far exceeded the human body¡¯s limit by a few dozen times, a few hundred times, a few thousand times¡­ were freaks. With only the strength of their body made out of flesh and blood, how did they find a way to cheat to possibly get such power? Perhaps such a saying would only be a beautified fantasy on Earth. But in this world, it was a real possibility. ¡°How¡­ how did it turn out like that?¡± Sui Xiong asked. He was a little astounded to see the group of soldiers on the ground who were marching in a neat formation as they passed the front of the platform to be inspected by the core leaders of the Republic of Northwest. There were not many of them, about a hundred at the very most. As an experimental force, there was no need for too many soldiers in the first place. But this mere hundred people walking in the public square truly carried an imposing air, as though there were really thousands upon thousands of troops charging over. Well actually, it was not necessarily wrong to say that they were equivalent to thousands upon thousands of troops. This ordinary ¡°thousands and thousands of troops¡± might not be able to defeat this mere hundred people¡ªwho had ever seen an army composed entirely of figures officially up in the ranks? There was simply no need to mention how surprisingly high the ratio of mid-ranks was; there was probably one out of every five to six who was mid-ranked within the team. In general, among the so-called ¡°elite soldiers,¡± there would be one out of every ten who was a past master at the junior level. They were responsible for grassroots commanding during battles, and when necessary, they would have to fight the tough battles as well. If possible, arrangements would be made in a way where among every hundred people, there would be at least one mid-ranked soldier. This could greatly improve the army¡¯s emergency response ability. Even if this mid-ranked person was just assigned the post for the time being, something was always better than nothing. But even in this world dominated by masters, perhaps it might not be difficult to find masters at the junior level who were experts in particular fields. But the search for masters at the mid-ranked level was not as easy. Someone at the mid-ranked level had no need to go to the army to earn a living at the risk of losing their lives. If he were to enter society, he could make it to a high-level position in a sizable organization. If he were to enter politics, most of the truly sealed knights would be more than glad to welcome him as a colleague or assistant. Generally speaking, so long as one did not set their sights too high, many barons or viscounts would be willing to employ an adventurer like himself with offers like a knight-to-be without any fief or a well-paid official position. It was like on Earth, a brawny man who was good in fighting was not a big deal. But a person who could score well in an official combat match could find himself a decent job anyhow¡ªevery gymnasium, every martial arts studio in this world would never turn down an official fighter as a coach. As for the high-ranked adventurers, these people were the real deal. Unless there was really going to be a major battle, then even those with positions as military officers were unlikely to catch a glimpse of them. No matter how many soldiers and horses there were, it would be impossible to catch sight of these high-level masters in the army, not to mention thousands upon thousands of people. Still using the situation on Earth as an example, these high-level masters were probably the equivalent of world-class fighters. And fighters who had reputations like those of action movie stars at that. Even if such a person was willing to put his life on the line to defend his country, there would be no country retarded enough to take him as an ordinary soldier. Either he would be arranged as a combat instructor in specialized training bases for elite soldiers or be arranged as an image ambassador in the army to highlight the national image¡­ it would be roughly like that. Just like bright pearls would not be cast into darkness, a man of talents would not find his abilities unrecognized. If there was anyone who felt that his position did not reflect his true value, then there were only two possible reasons: one, his sense of ego was overwhelmingly high, or two, he was in the wrong industry. For example, the God of War of the mortal world who could clearly throw punches at leopards and serve kicks to crocodiles had become a painter instead of a coach. Therefore, this was an inevitable loss on his end. All in all, masters of mid-ranked level or even higher levels were generally rarely seen in the army. Among these hundred people, there were close to 20 who were mid-ranked, while the remaining ones were merely at the lower level. If nothing else, just based on their own martial ability, they could probably defeat an army of ten thousand men that were not under the command of any master. And they would be as suave as like how historical stories had depicted them to be, charging from place to place and weaving through military arrays without losing a single man. ¡°Where did you find such a group of people to train?¡± Sui Xiong asked out of curiosity after recovering from a moment of astonishment. Leonard shook his head and said, ¡°I don¡¯t have the ability to find so many masters to train. In fact, before I started the training, out of this hundred people, there were barely 30 who were in the ranks. The remaining ones were not even in the ranks.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sui Xiong exclaimed out of great surprise. ¡°You mean to say, in as short as half a year¡¯s time of special training, among all these people, those who were not in the ranks are now in the ranks, and many of those who were in the ranks are even promoted to mid-ranked?! Your training efficiency is seriously no joke!¡± ¡°I was very surprised too,¡± Leonard said, ¡°For half a year, I practically watched them grow and get stronger bit by bit. I have every intention of continuing to train them, but then I realized that their pace of improvement is slowing down, and eventually it will approach the point of a standstill.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. If this group of people could still continue to grow stronger, then it was certainly worth continuing to train them. If there was a stable channel for training mid-ranked masters or even high-ranked masters, then even without a strong army, the Republic of Northwest could still become the most powerful country in the world. There would be no other country better than it. Unfortunately, this training method seemed to raise their level up by a notch. It was still a blemish in an apparently perfect thing. ¡°So, why not consider recruiting some at mid-rank level to train?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°If you could manage to train some to reach the high-ranked level, it will be much more valuable than training the national defense force.¡± Leonard smiled and said, ¡°I thought so too. But my ability to create clones is limited. As you know, though I¡¯m a little more powerfully than the evil gods. I have not, after all, truly combined my priesthoods, so abilities like creating clones and such are all very limited.¡± ¡°Then, let me try the training too,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Though my noumenon is still busy with a major event, creating two to three clones of weaker Divine Power shouldn¡¯t be too difficult.¡± Therefore, the matter was settled as such. Keeping his identity hidden, Sui Xiong borrowed the official channel of the Republic of Northwest to issue a recruitment order. According to the recruitment order, a Legendary Master of high seniority wished to find a group of mid-ranked young adults for special training that could enhance their capabilities. The stint in this training would take about half a year to a year. If the candidate managed to pass the special training and move up the ranks, he would need to serve the Republic of Northwest for 30 years. If he merely improved in capability but did not move up the ranks, he only needed to serve 10 years. If he did not even improve in capability, then by the time the special training came to an end, the elder (Sui Xiong) was willing to give away a large sum of money¡ªthe equivalent of earnings of a relatively dangerous adventure and a practical magic kit that was tailor-made, as compensation for the hard work put in during this period of time. Chapter 832 Chapter 832: Vol V Chapter 192 The moment the recruitment order was issued, it immediately attracted many adventurers. Firstly, the job had high credibility. The official credibility of the Republic of Northwest had always been very good. Whoever cooperated with it might not necessarily make a lot of money, but there had been no precedence of anyone making a loss. Even if they were not able to earn any profits, the officials of the Republic of Northwest would take out money from their own pockets to subsidize costs. In short, they would never let their partners suffer. It was on this premise that the adventurers were willing to trust the sincerity of the officials of the Republic of Northwest¡ªif it had been some other country, they might not have such confidence. After all, in any other country, incidents like being killed because you knew too much, happened from time to time. In other words, when a country needed adventurers to do things, in the vast majority of cases, these things would always be very dangerous¡ªall very dangerous, in every sense. Secondly, the job paid well. If they managed to improve their capabilities, they could even land a stable job in the Republic of Northwest. Thereafter, they could practically have secured an honorable retirement. Even if they could not improve their capabilities, they would still be able to earn a big sum after spending six months on training. They could even get a magic kit that suited them, so they would not be suffering any loss at all. Last but not least, which was also the most important factor, was that the job allowed them to be in close contact with a senior Legendary Master. And the time was as long as six months to a year. If within six months to a year, they were able to gain the recognition of that senior master, they might be able to skyrocket to great heights overnight. And that ¡°senior¡± might be very old, so he might be holding this recruitment with the intention of finding someone to inherit his legacy. So long as anyone could become his successor and inherit his legacy¡­ Alright, save the drool for later; wipe it away for now. All in all, the number of applicants far exceeded Sui Xiong¡¯s expectations, even to the extent of striking him dumbfounded. ¡°Is it possible that all the mid-ranked adventurers in the world have come?¡± he wondered as he looked at the few heavy stacks of application forms placed before him. He felt somewhat amazed and said, ¡°So there are actually this many mid-ranked adventurers in this world?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not just the adventurers who have signed up. There are also many mid-ranked figures, not adventurers, who have signed up,¡± said the officer of affairs in charge of handling these applications. ¡°There are many aristocrats as well.¡± ¡°An aristocrat. Instead of doing their best to manage their family estates, would come here to be trained? Are they out of their minds? ¡°I feel that the way they think is normal,¡± said Hopes Wilder, a clerk temporarily transferred from the Ministry of Mines. He sighed and said, ¡°In fact, I¡¯d love to receive this training too. It¡¯s just that I¡¯m too busy and simply can¡¯t get away.¡± ¡°You? If I¡¯m not mistaken, you¡¯re now the clerk of the Ministry of Mines, right? If you come to receive this special training, Johnny and Old Reif will definitely come running to the temple to protest.¡± Hopes laughed and said nothing more about the matter on training. Since that joint exploration, Hopes had met the satisfaction of Reif, the Minister of Mining, so he could switch from the job of a miner to a clerk. Indeed, he had outstanding capabilities in culture and arithmetic, and he was also good at communicating with people, so his career progression got better and smoother. Ten years later, he had become the chief clerk of the Ministry of Mines and was the right-hand man of the current Minister of Mining, Johnny Lydon. If nothing went wrong along the way, by the time Minister Johnny retired, his position would most likely go to Hopes. If at this point in time, he was to choose to go and receive the special training, upon successfully becoming a high-level master, then he might have to transfer to the first-line exploration team as a leader. To the Republic of Northwest, a high-level exploration master might not be inferior to a minister of the Ministry of Mines. But to the Ministry of Mines, which was rather lacking intellects, a future minister becoming an exploration master was obviously going to greatly affect their work. Sui Xiong jokingly said that Minister Johnny and the older Minister Reif would probably rush to the Void Temple to protest. That was not merely a joke but a real possibility. Naturally, Hopes knew about this. So he said no more about it. But he could not help feeling discontented about his old friends. Many of his old friends worked in the mining industry. Dudu Hill, being a royal member of the Kingdom of Dwarfs, returned to his country after completing his studies. But Sid Booker and Ruby Sylu remained in the Republic of Northwest. However, out of these two old friends, one changed profession and became a scholar. All day long, he would either be in the mountains to search for mineral veins or stay indoors at his study room or library to write essays. He had no intention of working in the Ministry of Mines at all. The other friend worked in the mining industry, but the job was an instructor of the exploration team. This friend had strongly expressed zero interest in civilian work and would remain an instructor till his retirement¡­ As a result, from this group of elites that made up the exploration team back then, only Hopes became civil personnel of the Ministry of Mines. Sigh! If only they could help me out with a little bit of work, I¡¯d also be able to participate in this training! Hopes was a promising youth. He was only around 30 this year, which was the golden age for him to work on enhancing his capability. Currently, he was at the mid-ranked level as a Druid and was almost nearing mid-rank as a paladin. Although he could not be compared with the high-level Sid Booker, Ruby Sylu, as well as Fira Kenji, if he were to receive training, most likely, he would be able to move up to a high-level as well. Although he was a civil servant, he was no different from how ¡°every mage had the heart to wield a sword right in the face of confrontation.¡± In truth, Hopes also yearned to lead a heroic life¡ªthe job of a clerk was just too tedious and dull. He had to compare several documents, determine all kinds of big and small matters, all sorts of grassroots situations, then compile all these into piles of data. Looking at these often made him dizzy, but he still had to roughly remember them all. This was even tougher than going to school. But no matter what, there was always someone who had to get the job done. His child was about to begin elementary school, and when the class talked about the topic, ¡°My Father,¡± he hoped to be someone that his son could be proud of. Well, the job as a minister of mining was certainly one that his son could be proud of. Actually, being a high-level adventurer is not too bad either¡­ Hopes carefully dealt with the data that had been screened and required further processing, but in his heart, he was sighing inwardly. He did not know that Sui Xiong already caught a clear view of his true inner thoughts. Looking at Hopes¡¯ inner thoughts, Sui Xiong could not help laughing. A prosperous country needed people to work in all trades. Those who only knew to pursue great strength and who only knew to exploit their troops to engage in unjust military ventures would never see a good future ahead of them. Perhaps for Hopes, he might personally have felt that it was a regret that he could not become a high-level master. But for the whole of the Republic of Northwest, a competent minister in the Ministry of Mines was far more valuable than a high-level master. If one were to do a careful calculation, he could see that, by right, the leaders of a few major departments of the Republic of Northwest should be worth as much as a master at the junior-legendary level. So though he did feel a tinge of sympathy for Hopes, he had no intention of changing Hopes¡¯ current job for him. You¡¯re an interesting young man. You should run towards the target of becoming the Minister of Mining. It¡¯s a very promising future for you! I¡¯ll be rooting for you~ Chapter 833 Chapter 833: Vol V Chapter 193 After about half a month, there were enough mid-ranked adventurers recruited for the purpose of this experiment. A total of 49 was recruited¡ªSui Xiong felt that his value as a ¡°commander¡± was definitely not a match for Lennard, so he slashed the number he recruited by half. At the same time, he felt that ¡°49¡± seemed more superior than ¡°50,¡± so again, he reduced the number by one. Compared to nearly 500 applications, this admission rate, that was less than one-tenth of the total number who applied, was simply¡­ a matter, of course. Neither the applicants nor the staff of the Republic of Northwest felt anything was wrong. When a Legendary Master recruited a student with requirements that were lowered to the level of middle rank, the selection should be relatively more demanding. It would not be right if the selection was carried out without appropriate discrimination between the good and bad. If that was the case, the applicants would be somewhat worried instead. Because that would mean this senior master did not have his heart in this matter and was just casually selecting a few people. Now, judging from how this senior did not even recruit a whole number of 50 people, it could be seen that he had certainly made the selections very carefully. Out of all the applicants that had been selected, some were outstanding in their own right, and some were not as outstanding; but most likely, they would possess some kind of undiscovered potential. In short, there was definitely not a single applicant who was recruited just for the sake of making up the numbers. This made the selected applicants swell with confidence instantly while those who were not selected were filled with envy. As for those who protested or had their suspicions¡­ the standard of living in this world was much lower than that of Earth. A relatively harsh society would not be able to cultivate selfless and hopelessly kind people who were brimming with sympathy. If the weak ones were not humble enough before the strong ones, people would see them as asking for a good beating. No one would show them any tinge of sympathy. No one would shower any fool who had a mind block with something as precious as sympathy. Like some people on Earth who would climb over high walls and cross barbed wires, run all the way to face a tiger just to deliver something right to the doorstep, in this world, there was no way anyone could get even a little bit of sympathy. On the contrary, people would doubt if this fool had eaten something that would lead him into a state of extraordinary excitement, or if this fool was mentally unsound in the first place¡­ Benevolence and philanthropism were possible on the premise of comfortable living conditions. This was why in developed areas, the caring Virgin Mary, who loved every living creature, was commonly seen. But in the poor and barren areas, there were only tough men who had to clench their teeth to stomach all their blood and tears. This was nothing acquired or nurtured. It was merely an outcome of being eliminated through a cruel process of natural selection. As compared to these applicants, the staff of the Republic of Northwest did not put in as much thought. They were just filled with respect for the senior masters from their own countries. From their point of view, it was reasonable for the senior masters of their country to have more demanding requirements when recruiting students. Honestly, an admission rate of about 10% was in fact, quite high. There was nothing wrong with the way they thought. Assuming a mid-ranked adventurer was the equivalent of a common undergraduate from an ordinary reputable school, then a Legendary Master would be the equivalent of a Nobel Prize winner or the heavyweights in the world of academia who ran large research institutions. When such a person wished to recruit researchers, he ought to select from the top students of a reputable school. And now, since he had lowered his requirements, then the selection should be slightly stricter. This was a matter, of course. Sui Xiong did, however, felt some sympathy for those who were not selected. After a brief consideration, he decided to give everyone who came to submit their application for some traveling expenses. The reimbursement for traveling expenses was not a lot, just the amount they required to travel from their hometown to the Void City and back again. It was just the expenses for the round-trip journey. This windfall was a pleasant surprise that made the disqualified applicants overjoyed, while the selected ones were simply elated. It seemed like this senior was a very generous and kind man. To them, this was obviously a good thing. Soon, they would realize that they were wrong. Sui Xiong was indeed a generous and kind man, but that definitely did not mean that he could not transform into a devil instructor. To avoid being recognized, whenever he appeared before these trainees, he would transform himself into someone with a height of nearly three meters and a weight conservatively estimated to be around five to six hundred pounds. He would be fully-bodied with muscles and looked as ferocious as granite. Only his face would bear some resemblance to that of a normal human so that at least he would not be seen as a monster. This appearance was inspired by a comic that Sui Xiong had read before he traversed worlds, but he had forgotten the name of the comic. He remembered there was a very handsome young villain with a buzz cut who wore a pair of sunglasses on normal days. But the moment there was an outbreak of combat power, his muscles would undergo an exponential expansion, even to the extent of becoming something like armor. In that comic, this villain was not actually considered to be particularly strong. According to the later plot of the comic, it seemed he did not even make it to the second line. But his stance as a master was certainly admirable. As compared to another villain who was just as powerful and handsome, but with a split personality, his ¡°power¡± had a clear positioning. Whether physically or mentally, he was an unassailable character. The feeling people would have upon seeing him would be like ¡°Ah! That¡¯s what a powerful villain should be!¡± ¡°Hello,¡± Sui Xiong greeted. In the guise of an extremely burly man, Sui Xiong looked at the group of trainees who had changed into the same uniform with a ferocious look. Managing to show a trace of ¡°amiable¡± smile on a face with cheeks that seemed to be bulging with muscles as well, he said, ¡°I abhor nonsense. Whatever you all should know, I will naturally tell you in due time. So, let us first do some warm-ups.¡± With that, he did a few stretches of his neck and made a distinct crack sound. ¡°Follow me, I¡¯ll take you all to the warm-up grounds.¡± The so-called ¡°warm-up grounds¡± was an integrated open-air gymnasium. Sui Xiong had put a few sets of every kind of fitness equipment that he ever had an impression in this gymnasium. And along with it, there was running track that was well-made with even finishing and elasticity. ¡°Start training the way you all are accustomed to, and stop only when you have practiced to the point where you feel exhausted,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°This is a good way for me to see how you all usually train.¡± This request was not demanding. For warriors who had relied on their own efforts to reach the mid-ranked level, warming-up would mean nothing more than practicing to the point of profuse perspiration. This was nothing out of the norm. The limit of an ordinary person was only up to the junior level. Wanting to break through this limit and comprehend one¡¯s fighting spirit, one would have to experience the tough training. The purpose of the training was to seek out and uncover the internal potential of one¡¯s body when in times of extreme exhaustion or to fight in life-or-death battles to stimulate one¡¯s potential. Generally speaking, the vast majority were in the former situation. Even for the latter situation, there was no lack of tough training. An achievement of such a level had to be extremely tough, even for an aristocratic family. So not a single trainee made any complaints or raised any doubts. They went straight to the fitness equipment. The various fitness equipment was generally not complicated. Just by studying them for a while, it was easy to figure out a way to use them. So the trainees soon fell into full swing of their training and were all in high spirits. The physique of Earthlings was much weaker than that of the warriors in this world. So they paid more attention to the details and comfort of the fitness equipment. As compared to the fitness machines in this world were quite effective but were more cumbersome, the Earth-style machines did not seem to work particularly better in any sense, but their comfort level was completely different. The moment the trainees began to use the equipment they could feel the quality of these things right away. More than one of the wealthier trainees began to carefully study the equipment as they intended to put together such a set of fitness equipment in the exact same way when they returned home after the training ended. Naturally, their thoughts were transparent to Sui Xiong and made him laugh. Inwardly. He had already contacted the church staff and given them a set of blueprints for them to make a few samples to be placed in the stores of the Void City. He wanted to see if these samples could be sold or not. It would be interesting if something like this could be made popular¡­ Chapter 834 Chapter 834: Vol V Chapter 194 The warm-up exercises didn¡¯t take much time. About half an hour or so later, the trainees were already soaked to the skin and breathing heavily as they began to feel fatigue setting in. Sui Xiong got the trainees who were utterly exhausted to walk slowly along the running track and to recover a little as they waited for those who were not tired enough. As a result, the wait was extended to another half an hour. Among this group of trainees, there were quite a few who had amazing endurance. Though they were not as strong as the others, their level of endurance was so high that it was beyond imagination. While everyone¡¯s training intensity was similar, they could somehow just manage to persevere for almost twice the time. This meant that if everyone were to fight each other, perhaps they would not be able to gain an edge within a short period of time. But so long as the fighting lasted long enough, when the battle developed into a protracted war, sooner or later, they could rely on their endurance to wear down their enemies. At the same level of combat, the advantage they had in endurance was almost invincible. Sui Xiong kept their training habits and physical conditions in mind. Then he began the first round of training for them. The training program was, of course, according to the experience provided by Leonard. The first was to use his Divine Power to wash their bodies. This would be a little painful, after all, as there was not a single follower of Sui Xiong among them¡ªSui Xiong had purposely made the selections as such to avoid making any mistakes in the stage of using Divine Power to wash up. For humans who didn¡¯t believe in Sui Xiong, if their bodies were to be washed with his Divine Power, it was probably equivalent to having their muscles pricked by several thin needles¡ªperhaps not as strong, but at least it would be somewhat similar. After a wash, the fatigue was gone. But most of them were drenched to their skin, as though they had been fished out of the water. It was painful. I¡¯ve still used too much force. I¡¯ll have to reduce it next time. Sui Xiong made a mental note to himself. Then he urged them to soak themselves in a medicated bath, as well as to drink something by the way. This was where he was different from Leonard. Sui Xiong did not completely agree with Leonard¡¯s training method. And he did not want to train them into elite soldiers where just one of them was worth a hundred soldiers. Instead, with the help of training, he wished to help these mid-ranked warriors break through their own bottlenecks and push their strength up a notch. So as compared to the wide variety of training, he paid more attention to the combination of work and rest, as well as appropriate nutrition and supplements. The medicated bath was prepared in an artificial hot spring. The sulfurous smell of the hot spring masked the medicated smell, leaving the mentally exhausted trainees completely unsuspecting of the water they were lying within. Similarly, their drinks were also specially made. The magic infused into the sugary saline would be absorbed by them. This would improve their physique. An hour later, the rejuvenated trainees began with the second part of the training program. That would be the training of array formation. Although he had no intention of training an army, Sui Xiong was still agreeable with the training of array formation. ¡°Discipline¡± was necessary for everyone, especially for these warriors who were likely to grow up to reach a high level. Discipline training would be able to strengthen solidarity among them. In the future, they would become more loyal to their work and to the country. These warriors were born with stronger innate abilities as compared to those soldiers. Training in array formation was not difficult for them at all. But seeing the neat formation they were in, Sui Xiong could not help shaking his head. They did not truly foster ¡°team¡± bonding, but rather, with their abilities of outstanding observation and rapid response, they managed to portray the image of a team. This is really unexpected. The item that I had thought to be the simplest turned out to the most difficult! Sui Xiong did not say much. He just silently came to the decision that he had to strengthen the training in this aspect. He once heard of a very reasonable line which roughly meant that people who were not good at studying were defective goods, people who were not in good health were wasted products, and people who had bad character were dangerous goods. For these warriors who were likely to grow up to attain a high level, they would definitely reap results in ¡°learning,¡± and they would definitely have healthy ¡°bodies.¡± But only when it came to the aspect of ¡°character,¡± Sui Xiong was not so confident. Even though none of the people he chose belonged to either the evil camp or the chaotic camp, the division of camps was in truth, not always that reliable. It was not uncommon for people from the orderly camp to do things that people from the chaotic camp would do, or people from the evil camp doing things that people from the good camp would do. If one were to think that the camps could be the deciding factor for everything, that person was definitely a nerd. Sui Xiong did not pin all hopes on the different camps. Instead, his intention was to go by way of training to instill a sense of belonging to a community and to the Republic of Northwest in these trainees. And then he would cultivate their morality on the premise of their sense of belonging. Because of the poor training results, the training on array formation lasted for a very long time. It only ended at nightfall that day. There wasn¡¯t a sumptuous spread for dinner. The taste of the food was just so-so, but the quality was good. More than a few trainees who knew how to discern between superior and inferior ingredients were pleasantly surprised after taking a bite. And then, without discrimination, they wolfed down as much as their bellies could contain in a most desperate manner. Sui Xiong looked at them and smiled to himself. All the food was made from magic objects as raw ingredients and contained a rich amount of nutrients, as well as an abundance of energy. Not only could they greatly supplement the consumption of training, but they could also boost the strengthening of blood vessels. In this world, the strengthening of blood vessels meant the enhancement of strength. And it was not only an enhancement in one aspect but a comprehensive enhancement, which could even be regarded as an essential enhancement. The vast majority of people would achieve their breakthrough from mid-rank to high-level by tapping into the strength of their blood vessels. There were very few people who could be independent of the strength of their blood vessels and merely rely on their own talents to break through this limit. Generally speaking, it was often easier for people who could step into the high-level based on their own talents to step into the Legendary Realm. To put it bluntly, they were competent enough. That was all. These people that Sui Xiong had selected belonged to the group of people with latent ability. But for a variety of reasons, they had not been able to unleash their full potential. What Sui Xiong wanted to do was to unearth and tap on their potential. He also wanted to help them to ascend higher and step up to levels that were even higher than where ¡°unleashing their potential¡± could originally lead them to. This job was destined to take a long time, but Sui Xiong found it interesting. Being a teacher and guiding students was like a craftsman making an instrument or a painter completing a painting. It gave people the feeling of ¡°creating¡± a sense of achievement. As a painter, Sui Xiong liked this sense of achievement. Though he had yet to find students who could inherit his painting techniques, it was not that bad if he could find trainees who were able to inherit the Earth-style fitness training method. Time passed as the days went by. In the blink of an eye, half a year flew by. And not too long after that, from this training class under Sui Xiong, the first trainee to achieve a breakthrough from the initial bottleneck to advance to the high-level emerged. This greatly influenced the other trainees and made them train even harder. They pushed themselves to the extent of wishing they could practice to their deaths. As a result, Sui Xiong had to reiterate the need for them to stop this obsessive behavior lest they hurt themselves. Seeing how things were in full swing at the training ground with the trainees burning with ardor, Sui Xiong could not help smiling. Perhaps the vast majority of these trainees would be able to step into a higher level¡­ Chapter 835 Chapter 835: Vol V Chapter 195 In the face of valuable intelligence, the Republic of Northwest was certainly not the only country that would take action. Way before the Republic of Northwest, the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had already begun training new armies. The origin of the northern army of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was not something that was especially confidential. If this army was not mobilized, perhaps it could really be kept a secret for a period of time. But since it had been mobilized where it had even fought a few battles, especially after that bloody battle which carried some semblance of the legendary characteristic, all countries had come to notice this powerful army. Investigating with the power of the state, it did not take long for the other countries to ascertain the origin of the northern army. Then messengers from all countries boisterously swarmed to Keane Hill, seeking to obtain its military strategy. At that time, the situation was blown out of proportion. The Church of the Void Mask had to urgently mobilize its Legendary Masters to quell the unrest and resolve the problem. Among them, there was even Leon, the swordsman from the shore of the East Coast and Satan, the Wise Man of Purification. The stance of more than a dozen Legendary Masters gathered together was so imposing that it really seemed as though the sky had to lower down in humility. The messengers from the other countries, who were either overly anxious or simply there to stir up trouble, finally calmed down. Since things were now peaceful and calm, they could all get down to business. In the end, this business was closed as a good deal. Anyway, for the next hundred years, Keane Hill would not have any shortage of development funds. It also accumulated enough social connections and even took the opportunity to break free from the rule of the Thunder Lord and gained autonomy. Although these were small matters to Wall, the influence they carried was in truth not that small. After obtaining Keane Hill¡¯s military strategy, other countries started to train their new armies intensively. Among them, the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs made the fastest training progress, while the Orc Empire was the slowest. The Kingdom of Light was practically a theocracy. The power of the churches of the various human gods deeply penetrated into various aspects of the state. Thus, it was very easy for the state to gather a large number of strong youngmen of clean backgrounds who showed utmost loyalty to the gods and the state for strict training. On the other hand, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was a state that held its military culture in high regard. The people took pride in being enlisted as soldiers to fight and win battles. So it was also easy to gather qualified personnel for the army. Of the remaining countries, the Mifata Federation and the Dhaka Commercial Association were progressing at a slower pace, but at least they were not considered slow, and the formation of their new armies was ardently underway. The Duchy of Thunder, the Kingdom of the Blue Moon, and the southern aristocratic party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins fared worse. Their state system made it hard for the various lords to transfer strong youngmen from their territories to be trained as new armies. Up till now, they were all still in the midst of wrangling. The elves of the Ancient Forest, the Orcs of the Orc Prairie, and the Lizardmen from the Great Marsh were the slowest. The ruling system of these three races were relatively lax and scattered to start with. Even if they wanted to establish an army that was ¡°loyal to the country,¡± they simply did not know how to come up with one that could fulfill the proper concept of a state. The elven race was never one that seriously adhered to discipline, the Orcs only knew what a tribe was and had absolutely no idea what a country meant, the Lizardmen¡­ they did not even have a unified regime! Minus the fact that it was simply impossible for the elves and Lizardmen to train a new army, the Orcs were still trying their best. After repeated wrangles, the great aristocrats and the current Emperor of Orcs, Ilo, who was also known as ¡°Iron Teeth,¡± finally agreed that the first army of the new army would be trained by personnel selected from the races of the werewolves, Dogmen, Catmen and Leopardmen. The reason was that these few races were quite similar in their physical build. The second army would be trained by the Bullmen who had always been known for their honesty and strength. The third army would be trained by the Rabbitmen, who made up such a large population that they could withstand death. But even so, the progress of training was still very much a tragedy. This was because the training was so intense that the Bullmen and Rabbitmen were soon exhausted. These two races were herbivorous. An average person from these two races would not sport a very robust physique and was relatively worse, especially in terms of endurance. The Bullmen were slightly better, but the endurance of the Rabbitmen was a complete tragedy. For the future of his race, the leader of the Rabbit race had hardened his heart and trained the young ones to death¡ªthis was not an exaggeration. He truly worked them with death. At the most serious point in time, almost every day, there would be young men who practiced to death, but still, the problem remained unsolved. The Bullmen were slightly better. Their leader was an honest man. The moment he saw that everyone was starting to feel exhausted from the toil, he cut down the amount of training. Though this made the training more bearable for his men, it also greatly slowed down the progress of training. Based on the amount of training he had decided on; he would not be able to train a new army even if he was given eight to ten years. But the worst situation was still with training the first army. Wanting to unite the few races of werewolves, Dogmen, Catmen and Leopardmen, was truly no easy feat. Just on the disputes over the number of soldiers to send, the various leaders had been arguing for months. Then they still had to argue about the arrangements of instructors, the venue of training grounds, the encumbrance of logistics¡­ even up to the point where there were people stepping up to higher levels from the group of mid-ranked warriors that Sui Xiong had been training, these few races were still going on with their incessant jabber. They simply did not show any intention of starting their training. ¡°The effect is obvious,¡± Wenner said. From where he was in the sky above the training ground, the God of War, Wenner looked at those trainees who were perspiring profusely. Then he nodded and said, ¡°Sure enough, there¡¯s really nothing that our Almighty can¡¯t do. As the alliance master, your training method is also very impressive!¡± Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°This has nothing to do with me being good or not, it¡¯s all their hard work. Such things can only depend on one¡¯s efforts after all¡ªof course, the progress of history itself is also very important, that is¡­¡± Unfortunately, Wenner did not understand his joke. ¡°From how I see it, most of them should be able to step up to a higher level. There may be even one or two who can be hopeful of reaching the Legendary Realm,¡± Wenner said. Then he took another long gaze and said, ¡°But, where exactly are you going to use them? It would simply be too wasteful to use such formidable warriors as civil servants doing work behind a desk.¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment. He truly had not given this problem any serious consideration. He was a laid-back person, who would usually do whatever came to mind. He would not be bothered so long as things would not lead to terrible consequences. He wanted to train these people and see if they could pass the training and breakthrough their bottlenecks to step up to the next level. This was just a very simple thought he had. He did not consider what would happen in the future. From his point of view, it would be considered a success if he could get these people to step up to the next level. As for what would follow next¡­ could it be possible that a group of high-level masters would not be able to find something suitable for themselves to do? It was only now after Wenner had been reminded, did he notice that it was indeed not advisable to split up this group of trainees and get them to do different things individually. What they were good at was teamwork. If they were taken apart, they would not be able to give full play to their strengths. On the contrary, they would be reduced from outstanding soldiers to ordinary high-level warriors. No doubt, there was nothing wrong in doing so, but this would no different from the wasteful ways of a local tyrant in using a swift and sturdy horse to plough fields. So when he was reminded about it, he could not help falling into deep thought. How exactly should he make future arrangements for this batch of trainees? What would be the best thing for them to do? Chapter 836 Chapter 836: Vol V Chapter 196 Sui Xiong thought for a long time, but he was still unable to figure out what he should get those trainees to do in the future. His first consideration was to let these people be instructors and train the new army. But the key to a new army was the use of Divine Power to carry out the washing process. This group of men certainly had no means of carrying out the washing of new recruits with Divine Power. So this consideration was meaningless. Then he considered making creating an independent troop of soldiers out of this group of men, to make them into something like a special force;the novels like King of Urban Soldiers and King of Soldiers in the Other Land that he had read before traversing worlds had largely influenced his way of thinking. But after careful consideration, he rejected this ideal as well. A group of high-level warriors used to create a special unit of soldiers? This seemed a little too extravagant. Just like on Earth, there were many countries with a large number of professional athletes. But no one had ever gotten the athletes who were not the cream of the crop to change profession and become agents of some secret service. As for why athletes and secret agents were linked? There was no need to go deeply into such a minor issue. No matter how Sui Xiong thought about it, he could not come up with a good idea. So, he simply brought the issue up to the high-level meeting of the Republic of Northwest as a topic of discussion and allowed the higher-ups to discuss and settle the problem As a result, this group of men became far more popular than he had expected. All departments immediately rushed to say that they were short of staff and had to get this group of people to work in their department. Exploration work out in the wilderness by the Ministry of Mines, training and patrolling work in the Ministry of Defense, bodyguards of trade caravans in the commercial sector¡­ it makes sense that these departments would voice their want for these men, but why would the Ministry of Culture and Education need high-level warriors? Sui Xiong wondered after hearing what they had to say. The minister of the Ministry of Culture and Education, Felix Isuka, who had stepped down from his post as a first line governor, immediately replied, ¡°The Ministry of Culture and Education does not only deal with teaching culture and knowledge. In fact, we organize military training for our students every year. Usually twice a year, and each training period will take around two weeks. If we have this group of outstanding men to supplement our training as instructors, the standard of our military training can be greatly improved. Also, our students are generally young, and their ability to learn and receive knowledge is high. The more outstanding the instructor, the more progress they can make. At this point in time, the little bit of progress they make will be amplified along with their growth in the future. So, I think that getting these outstanding talents to take up roles as military training instructors is the best way to give full play to their value!¡± ¡°You must be kidding! It¡¯s only four weeks in an entire year. Wasting a group of high-level masters just for this?!¡± exclaimed the minister of the Ministry of Mines. He was not going to give in just because the other party was a Legendary Master. ¡°The Ministry of Mines does a lot of exploration work in the wilderness. Our explorers need ample protection. This is the most direct and most appropriate way to make use of them!¡± ¡°They are no ordinary high-level warriors. They are soldiers who have excellent discipline and are familiar with military affairs!¡± Felix emphasized. ¡°Spreading them out to protect the explorers would be a true waste of their talents!¡± ¡°Waste?! You¡¯re only making them work for four weeks in an entire year, and you dare talk to me about waste?!¡± ¡°Now, now, let¡¯s not quarrel!¡± the head of the Regiment of Knights, Gerald, hurriedly advised. But giving his advice, he quickly added, ¡°Since they are all so competent and disciplined, why not consider changing their profession to knights? Our Regiment of Knights should also form an armed force of something more than holy knights¡­¡± ¡°In fact, it¡¯s not a bad idea to get them into the Ministry of Civil Affairs,¡± said the Minister of Civil Affairs, Madame Teague Parne. The wrangle among the others was still ongoing, and yet Madame Teague Parne just had to add fuel to the fire by saying, ¡°The Ministry of Civil Affairs has a lot of work to do, and a lot of it requires venturing deep into various pioneer villages. Honestly speaking, it¡¯s really a little dangerous. Every year, there are people getting injured or even killed as they are attacked by magic beasts while on the job. If we had such a capable force, we¡¯d feel much more at ease.¡± ¡°Hello! Turning the high-level warriors into messengers is also a great waste!¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t high-level warriors human? Why should they be the ones to take risks just because they are strong? By being messengers, they can make full use of their strengths, and also, the job is safe enough. I find it very appropriate.¡± Seeing how another quarrel was about to start here again, Sui Xiong could not help sighing inwardly. But before he could finish his sigh, a few other lords actually joined in this battle for talent. The very first to speak was the current baron of Keane Hill, Louis Keane. He said that Keane Hill had now become an autonomous state, but its armed forces were relatively inadequate in comparison. He also mentioned that Keane Hill was located within the principality of the Duchy of Thunder and was all-surrounded by enemies. There would be a guarantee of safety if it had such a strong group of super soldiers permanently residing within its grounds. And this could also give full play to their military force, as well as their discipline, so that both aspects would not go to waste. He had barely finished speaking when the city lord of Grey Tower City, Mr Hart, spoke up too. The old scholar said that the Alliance of Four Cities had always been very short of masters. And it did not have enough warriors in its troops. If it could have such an army of excellent soldiers, they could combine it with the original team of spellcasters to gain a double advantage. Thereafter, the Alliance could completely stabilize its rule and no longer have to worry about being attacked again. Immediately following Mr Hart, the lord of Geerteng Hill also spoke up. This young man who had succeeded the mace of the lord from his Aunt Olian, who had recently announced her retirement, was a little shy at first. But facing the temptation of having an almost instantaneous increase of over a dozen high-level masters, he quickly adjusted his mentality and expressed how Geerteng¡¯s stationery market really needed a strong, powerful patrol and security team. This was not something dispensable; it was an urgent demand. Last but not least, even Dahl Hill, who just joined the crowd, also participated in this competition. Baron Dahl had been deliberating what his own strengths were, and eventually, he did manage to come up with one¡ªhe said that soldiers should shine on the battlefield so as to live up to their years of painstaking training. Dahl Hill had one advantage that no other territories could match up to. It was adjacent to the Great Marsh, which gave them a very big space for carving out new land. So long as they could open up more territories, they could arrange for more people to settle down in these territories. They could even make these warriors into knights with fief that could be passed down in their families from generation to generation. Sui Xiong secretly bared his teeth at his words¡ªthe Republic of Northwest had abolished the feudal system, how could he even use fiefdom as a topic of discussion? But even so, Sui Xiong had to admit that Baron Dahl had a point. If those trainees were given a choice, most of them would probably be more inclined towards Dahl Hill, where they would carve up more land and shine on the battlefield. Seeing how the debate was gradually brought to a standstill. At this moment, the head of the medical team, Steele Geerteng, who had been silent all this while, spoke. ¡°I have a question,¡± she said. ¡°Is it really useful for you all to argue around here?¡± The crowd froze and looked at her. ¡°In arguing like this, aren¡¯t you all simply taking them as goods? But they are not goods. They are people who are very much alive!¡± Steele said. With a face full of bitter resentment, she said, ¡°They are humans, tough and strong high-level warriors. They are excellent soldiers who are courageous and tenacious. How can you all just treat them as goods and fight for them in this manner!¡± The crowd was put to shame at her words, and everyone lowered their heads. Even Sui Xiong was shocked. It had never occurred to him that Steele would say something like this. Words that carried such standard, words that exuded such charisma! Steele saw how stunned everyone was, so she smiled and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just go and talk to them in person and extend our invitation to them ourselves. Let them decide on where they want to go. This is the most appropriate way.¡± The crowd was quick to nod in agreement. They were all about to go along with her suggestion, but Sui Xiong could not help jumping to his feet. He had just unconsciously looked into Steele¡¯s mind. But what he saw was a scene of unseemliness. This woman, she also had plans for that group of trainees! Chapter 837 Chapter 837: Vol V Chapter 197 In the end, there was no agreement to where this batch of trainees should go. The various forces were arguing endlessly, and the big boss, Sui Xiong, had no conclusion. Naturally, the argument would fetch no result. Sui Xiong also could not be bothered to engage in such a pointless argument any further. He merely told them to slowly discuss things, and then he returned to his God Kingdom to continue the training. Yes, that training ground was not even on Earth. It was within his God Kingdom. This was not for the sake of secrecy, just purely to save trouble. There was a lot of messy designs in that training ground. It would be quite a chore if he wished to get everything out in reality. But if he were to build it in his own God Kingdom, he would have the power to change everything at his own will. This was much more convenient. As the days passed, new armies of the various countries were gradually taking shape. And the situation within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins between the northern and southern sides was increasingly intense. It seemed like a storm was brewing. This time, the aristocratic party was no longer the one with the upper hand, and the merchant party was no longer the side that had to back down. The situation was reversed. Other than its seven ace troops consisting of its New First Army to its New Seventh Army, the merchant party also trained more than 20 new armies after it adopted their style of training. The original seven ace troops were combined to form what was called the New First Army Corps. Those that were trained later were called the New Second Army Corps, New Third Army Corps and New Fourth Army Corps. The combat power of the Second, Third and Fourth Army Corps were naturally not up to the standard of the First Army Corps, but they were truly elite troops that were capable of ¡°daring to fight¡± and ¡°able to fight.¡± The Fifth Army of the First Army Corps could win a bloody battle even if it was in a disadvantageous situation. Even though they were not so skilled fighters, at least when they were in a situation where there was a balance in power, they could still fight a normal battle. With these four Army Corps, the merchant party naturally gained confidence. With enough confidence, they were much stronger when they had to face the aristocratic party. Over the years, there had been much friction between the two parties of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. From time to time, there would be occurrences of conflicts. In the past, the merchant party would always tolerate with everything they could put up with and tried their best to make big matters small and small matters trivial. But now, with the four major Army Corps to fall back on, the merchant party certainly would not make any further concessions. Not only would they not yield an inch, they were going to turn the tables and force the aristocratic party to yield to them! In terms of reason, there was nothing wrong with that. It was the unalterable truth that the strong would prevail and the weak would give way. But the aristocratic party had been used to always being the side with the upper hand. Some time ago, it had not gained any advantage and because of that, the aristocrats¡¯ hearts were already burning in a nest of flames. And now, the merchant party had to turn things around and demand the concession of the aristocratic party¡ªthis was truly something that was really unbearable! This time, even the few great aristocrats who originally wanted peace could not take things lying down. The supreme council that was made up of 16 great aristocrats quickly passed the resolution of ¡°giving the merchants a taste of our power.¡± What followed next was nothing more than carrying out more joint meetings among the aristocrats to discuss exactly how they should go about giving this ¡°taste of their power¡± as well as to what degree of power should they exert upon the merchant party. When the number of people increased, naturally secrets would no longer be secrets. Moreover, the aristocratic party had no intention of keeping this matter as a secret. The aristocratic party had the intention of launching an attack on the merchant party within the next few days, and the news of all aristocrats being summoned to the capital to attend a major meeting for all aristocrats was spread. Naturally, this news would reach the ears of the merchant party as well. ¡°Have you all heard? Those in the South seem to be planning something,¡± said someone at the meeting of the great merchants. It was the current chairperson of one of the largest Chambers of Commerce in the North, the ¡°Pearl of the Night¡± Chamber of Commerce. With a sarcastic smile, he said, ¡°The old bureaucrats seem to find us overly presumptuous and want to teach us a lesson.¡± Laughter was heard from several places. More than one merchant laughed. ¡°There¡¯s something I don¡¯t quite understand. Where do they find such confidence?¡± wondered the chairperson of another major Chamber of Commerce. He shook his head, and out of puzzlement, he said, ¡°In terms of army, their army is not any stronger than our New Army. In terms of masters, those that we can invite over to our side will definitely not lose to them. Why do they think that we¡¯re still as easy to bully as we used to be?¡± ¡°Before they¡¯ve seen with their own eyes, people tend to believe their past impressions. Don¡¯t we always make use of this characteristic when we engage in business dealings?¡± said a gentle old man with a goatee. He smiled and went on to say, ¡°Why not we put it this way, it¡¯s all thanks to this ¡°belief in stereotypes¡± that we can sometimes seize the opportunity to make a fortune.¡± The merchants smiled knowingly. There were even some who echoed his opinions by chiming in, ¡°Chairman Cliff is right!¡± ¡°Come to think of it, maybe this time, we can also find the chance to make a profit,¡± a merchant who was slightly younger than Chairman Cliff suddenly said. ¡°War is the best way to change the division of interests. If we can win this battle, we can definitely gain a lot of benefits!¡± ¡°If nothing else, just by bringing a change to the pattern of the state power is enough to in huge benefits,¡± said the chairperson of Night of the Pearl Chamber of Commerce. He nodded and said, ¡°In fact, within our country, there are still many forces that are neither hardcore merchants nor hardcore aristocrats. They are all looking to see the power contrast between the two parties to decide who they should support. If we can show that our power is strong enough to suppress the aristocrat party, they will be most willing to turn to us with their support.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. It¡¯s human nature to push a falling wall and to fish in troubled waters. So long as we can win, there are many people out there who want to take the chance to hit these aristocratic bureaucrats when they are down!¡± ¡°We might not even need to win. So long as the fight ends up with a draw, there will be many people coming to support us. After all, if we can break even in this situation, with their support, we will naturally be the winner.¡± ¡°But¡­ it¡¯s also necessary to guard against spies. Knives from the back are the most dangerous ones!¡± ¡°So long as we don¡¯t reveal the key, so what if there¡¯s someone sneaking up from behind? Moreover, how can we just bare our backs to outsiders?¡± ¡°Haha! That¡¯s right! We merchants have to depend on ourselves after all! So long as we cooperate with each other with utmost sincerity, we can become bigger and stronger!¡± the chairperson of the Pearl of the Night Chamber of Commerce cheered loudly. He praised that businessman who had just put forward the term ¡°outsiders.¡± He said to the crowd, ¡°All of us here must remember that no matter how good the conditions put forward by those people and how great benefits they could bring us, our fundamental lies in the alliance of all of us. It¡¯s because of this great alliance that we have the strength of present. This is also how we can strive for more benefits!¡± The merchants nodded, and many voiced their responses. Those who were able to sit in and participate in this meeting were all experienced and knowledgeable personnel. Among them, there were those like Chairman Cliff from the ¡°Lucky Wolf Fang¡± Chamber of Commerce, who had struggled his entire lifetime to finally accomplish something great when he was old. There were also those grew up learning and sharpening their skills under their parents¡¯ elite education, finally emerging as the top of the crowd and successfully inheriting the family¡¯s business¡ªthe world of the merchants was not as courteous as that of the aristocrats. Though bloodline and family were not entirely useless, they definitely were not key roles either. If one wanted to become a leader of a chamber of commerce, one would first have to be good enough. Those who held office and enjoyed all the privileges without doing a stroke of work would never be able to enter the highest chamber of the Merchants¡¯ Association. It was because these merchants were all people who had fought and struggled their way through countless storms, so they were full of confidence in themselves. And this made them even more dissatisfied with those aristocrats, who inherited their families¡¯ businesses merely by bloodline but had been suppressing the merchants for such a long time. Now, the chance for revenge was close at hand. Even the most amiable merchant could not help but wish to give the aristocrats a taste of their own medicine! Chapter 838 Chapter 838: Vol V Chapter 198 ¡°In the past three months, there has been a sudden sharp increase in the amount of several kinds of war supplies that the Commonwealth of Gold Coins and the aristocratic party are purchasing,¡± said Rakanisho Lightning with a frown. He was the gnome in charge of Void City¡¯s bulk trading market. He had sorted out a report and presenting it to the Commerce Minister, Osman Ben Raunegu. Minister Raunegu also frowned as he received the report and started to study it carefully. After a moment, he asked, ¡°The aristocratic party purchased a great amount of blazing fire glue and glitter dust¡­ What are they going to do? Are these things largely consumed in war?¡± ¡°As far as I know, blazing fire glue can be used for fire attacks, while glitter dust can momentarily blind enemies, and if well-utilized, it can even suspend invisibility¡ªthese are just inferior spagyric products and are only equivalent to the effect of low-level magic,¡± said the old gnome, Rakanisho. He was once a tribal chief and had fought battles of wit and courage against adventurers for many years; thus, he was very familiar with these inferior spagyric products. On a cold winter day more than 20 years ago, he watched how his people were mired in famine because the powerful magic beasts had robbed them of their food reserves. Finally, he decided to surrender to the nearby Dragon-Roar Town; thus, he and his people became alien residents. Because they possessed the ability to control a small amount of Lightning magic, he and his people called themselves the ¡°Lightning family,¡± Thereafter, ¡°Lightning¡± became their family name. Among the gnomes of the Republic of Northwest, they were considered to be the first group to undergo ¡°civilization.¡± Now, he was just an elderly merchant in charge of Void City¡¯s bulk trading market. This job was in fact quite idle because with regards to the market, and it was only responsible for providing venues and security. It didn¡¯t associate with business dealings and never had inquired about it before¡ªexcept in one aspect. When both parties of the deal were done with negotiations, they were required to submit a security deposit along with the trade brief. If neither party had any objection within three months, both parties would be able to recover 90% of the security deposit. The remaining 10% would naturally be used as venue rental fees, as well as a guarantee fee. If within three months, both parties raised objections to the deal, they could head to the Commercial Litigation Court of Void City to start negotiation or even to file a lawsuit. Depending on the needs of the situation, Void City could even deploy Legendary Masters to ensure the reliability of the business. The old tribal chief, Rakanisho, was too old for hard work and also, he no longer had the energy for too complex calculation. But he could still rely on his experience in studying and sifting through those trade briefs to sort and compile data. And from which, he could find valuable information. This time, for example, he discovered something odd. Anyone who was not blind could see that the situation in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was pretty tense at the moment. Generally speaking, in such situations, both parties would do their best in stockpiling war resources, mainly arrows, armor plates, metal ingots, standard weapons, as well as food and medical supplies. These things were not cheap. For adventurers to buy in small quantities, the amount would not be a great deal. But it would be a considerable sum of money for the military to buy in large quantities. So having state power was first and foremost in order to fight a battle. Without money¡­ it was best not to think lightly of battle, conceding defeat or running away would be more viable options. At least this was the principle of the tribal chief, Rakanisho, or rather, the former tribal chief of the ¡°Lightning¡± tribe of gnomes, the old chief Rakanisho. Was this principle good or bad? It was hard to say. But at least for the Lightning Tribe, it certainly reaped good results. At the beginning, Rakanisho had no choice but to take a desperate gamble. And finally, he could allow his people to live in stability and prosperity, the kind of life they had always dreamed of. Except for the need for family planning. This was one of the few basic state policies of the Republic of Northwest. The people of races who were particularly fertile should be restricted from having children, while those who were less fertile should be encouraged to have children. The former was represented by the gnomes and the Rabbit men while the latter was naturally represented by creatures such as the Monochrome Bearmen and elemental creatures. But it was much more difficult to encourage giving birth than restricting it. The Monochrome Bearmen would only have the impulse to reproduce in a short six months out of an entire year. Most of the time, they were more interested in wine than the opposite sex. The elemental creatures were practically clueless about what ¡°reproduction¡± was. It was almost pointless in pinning hopes on them to reproduce and multiply their population. Fortunately, Sui Xiong was not the kind of excessively compassionate Virgin Mary with a clouded mind. He would not go through great pains to specially invite a group of grand masters just for the sake of expanding the population of minority groups in the country. Have trouble reproducing? Then so be it. If they themselves were unwilling to reproduce, how could Sui Xiong still force it upon them? It was inappropriate to resort to coercive means in such matters. ¡°Chief Rakanisho, what effects do you think there would be if inferior spagyric products like blazing fire glue and glitter dust are used in large amounts?¡± Minister Osman asked, somewhat hesitantly. He was silent for a moment, then said, ¡°I feel that these things don¡¯t seem to be suitable for large-scale use on the battlefield. The costs are too high, and the returns are too low.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. All it takes is one group Defense Spell to resist the damaging effects of the blazing fire glue. As for the glitter dust or whatever it is, it¡¯s almost the same. Back when I led the young fellows of my tribe in battles of courage and wits against the adventurers, I have never feared such means, let alone the powerful organic units of soldiers in the army,¡± said the old gnome tribal chief as he shook his head. ¡°I really don¡¯t see any use for them. Honestly, I think they¡¯re simply a waste of money.¡± ¡°But the aristocrats are no fools either.¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t understand. Maybe the people in the military department will be able to figure this out,¡± Rakanisho said as he irresponsibly freed himself from all obligations of addressing the issue. The Commerce Minister pondered for a moment and felt that what Rakanisho said made sense. So he sent two copies of the document by magic, one to the Defense Minister, Leonard, and the other to the Security Minister, Easter. As for how these two professionals think? That was none of his business. He was still busy with other things! About half an hour later, Leonard and Easter found time to meet and discuss the matter. ¡°This is not normal,¡± Leonard said. ¡°It¡¯s still acceptable for the blazing hot glue, but glitter dust is definitely not something that can be used in large quantities in a war. It simply doesn¡¯t make any sense!¡± Easter nodded. Based on his impression, glitter dust was normally used by adventurers. In particular, the thieves used a lot of it mainly to create bright flashes before their enemies¡¯ eyes in sudden battles, where they would seize the opportunity to escape. But to use this in a formal war¡­ no matter how he thought about it, he could not figure out how the aristocrats had intended to use it. Could it be¡­ they wanted to throw a hand before a confrontation between the cavalry? But the merchant party sent their new army without cavalry at all. They openly used heavy crossbows, strong bows and long spears against the cavalry. They formed an array that was like a sturdy mountain and posed a challenge to anyone with enough guts to charge at them. As for what they would shoot, archers on horseback would never be able to shoot further and more accurately than archers on foot. It was nothing more than turning a quick death into slow death. In a world where magic was so widely used, there was no such thing as mobility advantage of the cavalry. Moreover¡­ it was truly not easy wanting to outrun a mid-ranked warrior in a small battlefield by relying on a swift but ordinary horse! The cavalry in this world, except for those who were messengers, were all like heavily armored knights who were fully armed like tin cans. To deal with them, a well-trained army would simply need to form the so-called ¡°Dragon Gun Array¡± on the ground with their long spears. In fact, the heavily armored knights did not usually charge into enemy lines forcefully. Even if they did so, they were sure to first cover themselves with multiple layers of protective magic¡ªtherefore, the war became a battle between protective magic and magic of removal¡­ Easter frowned and contemplated to himself. Born in a land of mages, he was quite well-versed in the understanding and use of magic. He felt that, by right, he should be able to guess how the aristocratic party would use the blazing fire glue and glitter dust. But without waiting for him to guess the answer, Sui Xiong had found the answer through his own channels. The aristocratic party intended to form a rapid-mobility troop. With its harassing nature, this troop would specifically attack the merchant party from behind. These blazing fire glue, glitter dust and the likes of them, were specially prepared for the merchants. Chapter 839 Chapter 839: Vol V Chapter 199 ¡°A rapid-mobility troop?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°To attack from behind, does that make sense?¡± ¡°Of course it makes sense. When the rear of the army has suffered heavy losses, only winning at the front will become pointless.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t it mean that the target of the troop is purely to kill the entire enemy population? This is very unprofessional!¡± ¡°No one¡¯s saying that it¡¯s professional, but the problem is that they are actually prepared to do it.¡± Leonard frowned deeply while Easter tapped the tabletop lightly with his finger. The two leaders of the army and Secret Service of the Republic of Northwest fell into deep thought. ¡°Let me set the keynote first,¡± Sui Xiong said. Seeing how both of them were maintaining silence, Sui Xiong said, ¡°We have to object to this kind of practice. I don¡¯t care how they are going to fight this battle, but there is one bottom line that must be emphasized¡ªsuch practice of setting a target of purely killing civilians must absolutely not be condoned!¡± He paused for a moment, then repeated again with great emphasis, ¡°Absolutely!¡± ¡°In that case, it will be easy dealing with this,¡± Easter said with a smile. ¡°Let¡¯s mobilize our troops too. Isn¡¯t it just playing around with rapid mobility? If they can play the game, then we¡¯re definitely game for it too.¡± And he was really not just blathering. Something like rapid mobility required many skilled knights of the adventurer background. These people had to be familiar with the skills of paladins and also know something about the art of thievery. This effect could only be produced by combining these two aspects. And now, if there was one place where the most skilled knights of an adventurer background could be found, it would undoubtedly be the Republic of Northwest. The Republic of Northwest had been trying to attract talents for decades, most commonly retired adventurers. There were all kinds of talents among these adventurers, and many of them were involved in the education industry. As a result of their teaching efforts, presently, the Republic of Northwest had a large number of young people who were the equivalent to low-level adventurers. As far as riding was concerned, it was not easy to excel in horseback riding. But it was not difficult if one merely wanted to ride a horse. If nothing else, in low-level magic, there was a spell called ¡°Summoning a Phantom Colt¡± that would become ¡°Summoning a Famed Phantom Colt¡± upon elevation. This would then allow the user to summon a fine horse with excellent physical strength, and that was also gentle and obedient. As for how this spell could be used, it would not be a bad idea to equip the entire army with enough props that could make use of the magic of this spell. Although the cost was relatively high, it could effectively boost the mobility of the troops. Also, the colts summoned by magic did not need to feed on grass. When not in use, the summons for the colts could be cancelled, and the target could also be greatly reduced. When Easter was a spy, he loved this spell. His aptitude for using spells was passable, but he did not have much time to practice. So though he understood many spells, he was unable to really master many of them. ¡°Summoning a Famed Phantom Colt¡± was one of the most advanced spells he mastered. Of course, that was a thing of the past. Now that he could basically cast any spell that he knew, he did not really have much use of spells anymore. For one thing, he was busy with his work, and for another, after his strength increased to a certain degree, he was powerful enough to understand and master all sorts of things. Unless he had to fight a master of his own rank, just his own physical qualities would be enough to solve problems. He did not even need to use his power, let alone magic. ¡°Summoning a Phantom Colt¡­ the simplest way is to make a rechargeable wand. To ensure safety, it¡¯s best for the wand to have a medium spell level. This way, it will be able to cross swamps and shoals. It will be more convenient for it to move about. To reach this level, the cost would probably be around 20,000 gold coins. To equip a hundred people, this is really going to be a sizable amount!¡± Leonard said. He had been concerned with logistical intelligence over the years, so he quickly figured out the cost. ¡°Using an alchemy factory could cut the cost in half,¡± Easter said. ¡°If we carry out group transformation rituals, the cost could be further lowered by a little.¡± ¡°No matter how much lower, the cost would still be hundreds of thousands of gold coins!¡± ¡°It¡¯s indeed a little high, but come to think of it, not everyone needs a wand,¡± Easter said. He pondered for a moment, then said, ¡°One wand can cast 50 spells, leaving ten for each person. With the help from the spellcasters following the army, it would be an average of five people to a wand. That¡¯s more than enough.¡± Leonard heaved a sigh of relief. In this case, the cost would be lowered to an acceptable level. Although it would still be an astronomical amount if they were really going to purchase a large quantity of equipment, at least this ¡°astronomical amount¡± was a price that would be worth paying. As a god, Leonard did not care about money. But he did care a lot about whether the money was well-spent or not. Giving everyone in the entire rapid-mobility troop a ¡°Summoning a Phantom Colt¡± wand was money not worth spending. But if one wand was allocated to every group of five, this money was certainly worth spending. A wand that costing seven to eight thousand gold coins might seem expensive at first glance, but in truth, it could be used to summon 50 Phantom Colts. Based on his experience, he calculated that there would be a loss of one horse after three tough battles, so 50 Phantom Colts would at least be the equivalent of 15 to 16 fine horses. An ordinary fine horse, not the heavy kind, would probably be worth 150 to 200 gold coins, so the worth of such a wand would be worth around 200 to 300 gold coins. In fact, summoning a Phantom Colt was far more reliable than a warhorse in dire moments. The Phantom Colt that had been summoned would not be frightened. With a half-virtual body, its ability to withstand damage was way higher than that of a normal warhorse. More importantly, even if it was ¡°killed,¡± it would only be a matter of seconds to summon another Phantom Colt. Many times, the presence or absence of horses was not an issue of being at an advantageous or disadvantageous position; it was a matter of life and death! There was no need to mention the fact that there were numerous clergymen in the Republic of Northwest where every small team would have one clergyman. With the use of all the magic power they had before their daily prayers, they would be able to restore quite a number of times the wand could cast spells, and it could also greatly extend the service life of the magic wand. All in all, this was going to be a massive expenditure, but it was certainly worth it. Other than this magic wand, the rapid-mobility troop also needed some other equipment. The first was a lightweight armor. To pursue the convenience of movement, the troop should definitely not be wearing heavy full-body armor. In order to prevent being targeted, it was best for everyone to wear leather armor¡ªof course, undoubtedly, the price was definitely not going to be cheap if everyone were to wear armor purely made of the skin of powerful magic beasts. Then there were weapons. Light crossbows, bows and arrows were required. Enchantment crossbows and arrows, as well as enchantment bows and arrows were absolute necessities. Of course, all long and short weapons should be protected with enchantments. These would make them slightly better. It would be good enough if almost every mid-ranked adventurer could have some weapons that they conveniently have on hand, or at most allow them to have something to replenish or supplement anything they lacked. Then finally, there were the consumables. Food and fodder should move ahead of the three armies of troops and horses. In pursuit of speed, the rapid-mobility troop certainly should not be bringing along all their supplies and gears on their wagons. They would need space pockets to keep their provisions. Food, clean water, medicines and all sorts of spare spagyrical items¡­ totaling up all these miscellaneous things would also incur quite a sizable amount of money. ¡°However, it¡¯s all worth it,¡± Leonard said. His explanation was, ¡°We are from the Republic of Northwest, so we should also have a rapid-mobility troop of our own.¡± ¡°Rapid mobility¡­ won¡¯t spellcasters do?¡± Sui Xiong wondered as he asked. ¡°Spellcasters who are more mage-like are more of scholars than warriors. We should only get them to fight as a last resort, when we are left with no other alternatives. Spellcasters who are more priest-like, on the other hand, do have more qualities of warriors. But they shouldn¡¯t be heavily involved in fighting battles. Upon comparison, it will cost a lot of money to form rapid-mobility troops of paladins and thieves with clergymen as captains but in terms of manpower, it will be more cost-effective.¡± Speaking up till this point, Leonard could not help laughing. He said, ¡°Compared to money, people are still more important, isn¡¯t that so?¡± Sui Xiong also laughed and replied, ¡°You¡¯re right. Something like money should be spent, while the people are definitely more important than money!¡± Therefore, the matter was settled. Chapter 840 Chapter 840: Vol V Chapter 200 When it came to matters pertaining to ¡°war,¡± no one could be more resourceful or informed than the War God System. Even many of the mid-level aristocrats from the southern aristocratic party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins wouldn¡¯t receive news as fast as the War God System, much fewer people from other forces. After all, so long as there were battles, there would be war. Therefore, the people who believed in the war gods would always be involved. Be it the regular army or mercenaries, the number of people who believed in the war gods was definitely not in the minority. The war gods had promised them that after they fought courageously in battles, their souls would be able to go to rest in peace in a God Kingdom. Those with good qualifications might even be transformed into Oracles with immortality and continue their unfinished journey in life. To the soldiers, this was practically regarded as one of the best destinations for them to go. So when the aristocratic party wanted to form a rapid-mobility troop, the War God System received the news soon enough and had verified in detail. It had since been consistently following up. ¡°They¡¯re probably going to form a rapid-mobility troop with a total of 200 people,¡± Augmentin said. ¡°Of which, one-third would be at the level of mid-ranked, which is a very shocking number.¡± One-third of the 200 people at the mid-ranked level would mean that there were about 60 to 70 people in total. This was indeed quite a surprising number¡ªif placed within an ordinary army, this number would already be more than enough to support an army with a force of ten thousand soldiers. Considering the fact that the remaining ones consisted of those at the junior level, as well as the spellcasters needed by this troop, the cost of setting up this team of merely 200 people would be even more than the cost of setting up an ordinary army of ten thousand people. In other words, in forming this army, the hope was that they would achieve military successes that were as good as or even far better than that of an ordinary army. In the same way, if they were defeated, or even wiped out, the losses that the aristocratic party would incur would not be as great as, or even exceed that of an ordinary army. On the Dominant Continent, defeating or even wiping out an army was absolutely deemed as an extraordinary battle. Generally speaking, in the wars of relatively low intensity such as the internal war in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, such a great battle was enough to determine the result of war. It was basically impossible for an army to make a comeback after losing such a battle. Reality was nothing like playing a game. When an army was lost, it would not be as simple as re-recruiting soldiers from a few nearby cities, finding them a general and shipping everyone over. A long period of training and a great number of materials would be required to support an army. Since ancient times, able men who could make a comeback after losing an entire army were very rare. Liu Bang had, on two occasions, relied on the help of L¨¹ Ze and Han Xin to salvage such losing battles. Thereafter, he became known to the later generations as the typical example of ¡°one who knew how to face failure positively would never die.¡± Liu Bei spent half his life in exile after being displaced. Many times, he was forced to abandon his wife and flee for his life, but the elite guard unit under his command, ¡°White Feathers,¡± had never really been defeated to the point of collapsing. This was the source of his confidence in overrunning the world as he pleased. The weak and frail scholar-turned-general, Chen Qingzhi, led his White-Robed Army as they swept through the North. With merely a few thousand horses and men, he conquered Luoyang. But the moment he lost his White-Robed Army to bitter fighting and a flash flood, he had no choice but to disguise himself as a monk and escape back to the South in a sorry state. The aristocratic party was a massive force, and naturally, it did not lack great generals. But still, there was no way an ordinary farmer could be transformed into an elite soldier instantly, no matter how great the general could be. It was for this reason that at the Council of Great Aristocrats, Earl Hauss proposed the formation of a rapid-mobility troop and the plan to use an army of pure elites to attack the rear of the merchant party. This would subject the merchant party to continuous bloodletting and then force them to surrender. At first, even the aristocrats of the local party opposed his plan. This plan was simple¡­ Transfer a few hundred low-level and mid-level good men to form an excellent team where all would be equipped with a heterogenous kind of horse that had appalling endurance. They would bypass the borderline of confrontation between the North and South, enter the vast north and cause devastation everywhere. The aim was to target and kill civilians, as well as to cause damage to production and life in the North. This was not only very dangerous; it was vicious. ¡°This is unbefitting of the aristocratic spirit!¡± said an earl of the central party. Very angrily, he said, ¡°We aristocrats fight for honor. Our honor is our life! There¡¯s no honor to speak of in such a way of fighting!¡± ¡°We are all followers of Our God, the Royal Crown (the Goddess of Wealth). Why must we use such cruel means!¡± said an earl of the local party. He sighed and said, ¡°My dear, Good Horse, just let go of it.¡± However, Earl Hauss, who was nicknamed ¡°Good Horse,¡± had no intention of ¡°letting go of it¡± at all. He repeatedly stressed the importance of this war and placed special emphasis on the fact that through this war, they had to instill fear in the merchant party. This was the only way they could ensure their safety and stability in the decades to come. ¡°If we want to scare them, we must make them feel the fear personally. Rather than annihilate one or two armies on the battlefield, why not get a rapid-mobility troop to bypass their central region, kill their civilians, burn down their villages and farmlands, destroy their caravans and production bases¡­ so long as we do this frequently enough, even if the big merchants could hold up, the small and medium merchants will definitely be scared to death. At least for a generation or two, no one would dare to give mention of war!¡± Looking at the magic projection of the young earl who was voicing his mind so indiscreetly and asserting himself so eloquently, the other great aristocrats were quite frustrated. Of course, they had to admit that Earl Hauss made a good point, but no matter how reasonable he was, they still could not get around the two stages of honor and risk. It was needless to say anything about honor. Something like attacking the civilians would naturally be acceptable if this were to happen once in a while, but taking it on as a career would certainly pose a great hindrance to one¡¯s family reputation. In the future, at the mention of so-and-so family, everyone would just think of, ¡°Oh, that¡¯s the executioner who massacred civilians¡­¡± That was simply dreadful. The greatest fear of these aristocrats should be that even their own posterity would stomp their feet and hurl insults in public at the mere mention of at their own ancestors. The danger was even more direct. Naturally, there was no need to talk much about the risk of going deep into enemy grounds alone without support. Even if they could win every single battle, would the act of slaughtering civilians anger the Goddess of Wealth? Would they be punished if the Goddess of Wealth was angry? That was for sure! Even if the Goddess of Wealth disdained laying hands on the soldiers, the officers leading the army would surely be in great trouble! However, Earl Hauss expressed his willingness to lead the troop himself. At this point in time, everyone choked at his words. This person here was accepting the greatest danger, shouldering the heaviest responsibility, taking the rap for them all to be the one with the worst reputation. How could they still have the nerve to come up with all sorts of excuses to decline his proposal? Anyway, they were only providing manpower and money, that was all. Thirteen earls and two marquises¡ªif every one of them were to contribute a little to make up 200 people, it was really nothing difficult at all. Of course, when such a mission was suspected of carrying a high possibility of death, they would not be sending their loyal men. Instead, they would immediately throw in hefty amounts to hire mercenaries. Those who did not manage to recruit any mercenary because they were a tad slower would send the marginalized people of their families. These were the people whose lives they could sacrifice without feeling any distress. As for how they should mesh and combine this group of people as one whole entity, and how to lead this group put together to form a ¡°rapid-mobility troop¡± to go deep into enemy grounds and fight behind enemy lines, that was the job of the young earl. This young earl had taken over the earl¡¯s scepter from his late father just three years ago. Before him, everyone showed Earl Hauss that they had high hopes for him. But behind his back, not a single great aristocrat was optimistic about his crazy plan. One of the leaders of the central aristocratic party, the Marquis of Gemstones, Sachs Yug, had once complained to his father, who was living in semi-reclusion because of old age, that this teammate of his was honestly very unreliable. With such a pigheaded teammate hindering them from advancing, he felt that he should seriously consider the matter of whether he should change his profession and join the merchant party instead¡­ Chapter 841 Chapter 841: Vol V Chapter 201 Such a thing like war was really independent of human will. Though they were reluctant to send their most capable generals, the big bosses of the aristocratic party were at least not stingy with their money. The aristocratic party formed its rapid-mobility troop of 200 men, all of whom were indeed well-equipped. They could even be described as ¡°equipped to the teeth.¡± These men donned identical enchanted armors, and all that they used were enchanted weapons. They brought with them all kinds of spagyric items, especially things like the blazing fire glue for setting fires and the glitter dust for escaping. Almost everyone had a dozen of these things with them. Their mounts were pure-bred horses of demon beast bloodline. These carnivorous animals could gallop continuously for most of the day, rest for a night, and then run as wildly as before in high spirits and vigor. These were horses that were far more superior as compared to the ordinary warhorses. With such equipment, the soldiers could still easily retreat even if they encountered a strong enemy that they could not defeat. Their leader, Earl Hauss, rode in a special carriage that was drawn by a mount that was nearly double the size of an ordinary warhorse. This mount had a dark red mane and flaming hooves. When it came to a halt after running about wildly, it would give off a dark red mist along with its heavy breathing. Normal people would feel intense fear by breathing in a tad of this mist and would have nightmares for the next few days. Breathing in a little bit more would instantly drive one crazy. And breathing in even more, like a few mouthfuls continuously, that would be, on the contrary, instant silence¡ªdeath by poison. This strange demon beast was said to be a product of the hybridization of a devil and a horse. It was also said to be a devil sealed in the body of a horse¡­ anyway, it was not a good thing. They were called ¡°Nightmares.¡± Though they were not as scary as the real nightmare demons, they were scary enough for the average person. The horse pulling the carriage was already so special, the carriage itself was naturally just as extraordinary. This carriage might not seem big, but in truth, there was a lot more than what meets the eye within it. Even if eight to ten people were to be seated inside, it would still be very spacious, much less for a single man. There might even be enough room to hold a little banquet or something likewise inside the carriage. Of course, Earl Hauss would not allow as many as ten people to ride in the carriage. This carriage only carried two passengers, himself and a middle-aged maidservant, who was still very beautiful in spite of her age. Where this maidservant came from was unknown, and her identity was also a mystery. She did not even have a formal name, and she paid no attention to anyone but the earl. Usually, she would just sit in a little empty room next to the earl¡¯s study, in a daze, sometimes eating or sleeping. There was no regularity in her life at all. But that was something very bizarre. Every time the earl needed her to do something, she would always happen to be around, or she would have gone up to the earl just as he was about to speak. There was no precedence of her turning up late. If it had not been for the fact that this woman was always dressed as a maidservant and had never shown any signs of knowing skills like martial arts or magic spells¡ªnor did she carry any bit of a transient nature of fighting spirit or magic power¡ªeveryone would have thought that she was the earl¡¯s bodyguard. But there was no doubt a maidservant was a maidservant, not a bodyguard. The present earl was a very careful man. He hardly ever let anyone near him. He even kept whatever he ate and drank as simple as could be. Most of it was to reduce the possibility of being poisoned¡ªthere were rumors saying that this was related to the sudden death of the former earl. It was said that the reason why the present earl was so afraid of poisoning was because the former earl was poisoned to death. However, it was also said that there was a ¡°thinking in detail incurs profound fear¡± factor behind the death of the former earl¡­ In the face of all these rumors and gossip, Earl Hauss had never made any comments. He was neither angry, nor did he seem to show any guilt. After his loyal knight had finished the report, albeit indignantly, he simply said with much indifference, ¡°Let them say what they want. The civilians are always ignorant. You¡¯ll never be able to guess what strange notions may pop out of those fools¡¯ minds. We can¡¯t just chop off their heads because they are letting their imagination run wild, can we? As useless as those brains are, they will still need those useless brains to eat and drink if I want to get them to work for me.¡± When it came to such matters, the earl was a very generous man. But when it came to political and military affairs, he was extremely stern. After his accession to the throne, he personally presided over the training work. And in the first month, there were three times where he had personally hung up three soldiers who were slacking off and beat them to death alive. As for political affairs, he would often conduct sudden spot checks on the territory¡¯s accounts. And the moment he found any problems, he would always make sure to get to the bottom of matters. Since his enthronement, he had executed almost a dozen officials, big and small alike. Among them, there were old courtiers who had followed the Hauss family for several generations. There were also members of second generations of reputable families with exceptional backgrounds. But before this new earl, they would come to the same end. Hung up and beaten to death. Yes. The new earl punished those who violated his rules rather severely. Basically, just one line said it all¡ªbeaten up and hung. The severity of punishment was solely dependent on the severity of the situation. It could be just hanging the person up and lashing them twice as many times as the normal punishment. Or it could be hanging the person up, then lashing them over and over again in an unhurried manner, till the person was whipped to death. Simple and clear. Clear and simple. He had used the same method when organizing that rapid-mobility troop that was assembled on the spur of the moment. He had beaten three people to death since the beginning, and so, the remaining ones were all humbled as a result. For instance, they were now strictly following the army system laid down by the earl himself. Scouts were sent as far as at least 50 miles away, so they always had enough time to deal with whatever bizarre situations that cropped up. ¡°Your method is way too hasty,¡± said the maidservant, who would not even breathe a word to outsiders when they were in the carriage. Her tone was calm. There was no trace of reverence that should be present when one was talking to one¡¯s master. ¡°There¡¯s no time,¡± said the earl. He was half-laid on a soft blanket made of beast skin, with an exhausted look on his usually stern face. ¡°I can feel the anti-devouring force against me getting stronger and stronger. If I don¡¯t hurry to get this done, I won¡¯t die in peace.¡± The maidservant sighed and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to be so anxious.¡± ¡°It¡¯s necessary. We must take this opportunity to launch a vicious attack on the Goddess of Wealth. This will help in promoting the people¡¯s belief in the human gods,¡± said the earl. There was an evil look in his eyes as he said, ¡°People in a human¡¯s country should believe in their human gods!¡± ¡°But honestly, I don¡¯t think just a single war can affect the Goddess of Wealth.¡± ¡°So I want to amplify the intensity of this war. How can it be enough to just lay the battlefield full of dead bodies? We must make their people shed enough blood to flow as rivers and make the voices of grievances and discontent be heard all over. Then we must make it impossible for the Goddess of Wealth to control the belief in her and create the opportunity for the churches of human gods to grow and strengthen,¡± the earl said. With a sneer, he added, ¡°For one god to dominate all the people¡¯s belief, would there be something that good?¡± His maidservant was silent for a moment, then with a sigh, she said, ¡°You are still¡­ too hasty. This matter could have been taken slowly. We have all the time in the world.¡± ¡°No time. We don¡¯t have much time left,¡± the earl said and shook his head. ¡°There are certain things that I can¡¯t say. Anyway, time is really running out, and we can¡¯t afford to wait.¡± He was silent for a moment, then said, ¡°The situation in the South is relatively easy to handle. After all, we have a trump card in our hands. But the situation in the West is the most troublesome. The Church of the Goddess of Wealth over here is much too powerful and influential. If we don¡¯t hit them hard and make them suffer from the chaos of natural and man-made disasters, there¡¯s really no way we can find any good opportunities in a short time.¡± ¡°I keep having this feeling that things won¡¯t go so well this time.¡± ¡°If things aren¡¯t going well, then let them be. Anyway¡­ I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to succeed,¡± the earl smiled. His smile was fearsome and vicious. And then he said, ¡°So long as there are many dead people, which side they are from doesn¡¯t matter. In fact, it makes no difference to me at all!¡± Chapter 842 Chapter 842: Vol V Chapter 202 Around the same time that the aristocratic party was forming its rapid-mobility troop, the merchant party also received news about it and called a meeting to discuss the matter. The merchants took this matter very seriously¡ªif nothing else, they could not help but hold this matter in high regard when they knew that the earl was going to lead a troop in person. The Commonwealth of Gold Coins was so big, yet there was only a total of two marquises and 14 earls. ¡°Good Horse,¡± Earl Hauss, had always been guarding the border between the North and South. This current earl had a reputation for being brave and ruthless. This was known by almost everyone in the entire Commonwealth of Gold Coins. This was a dangerous figure who was going to personally lead a group of adventurers with extraordinary strength to form a rapid-mobility troop. They were specifically attacking the civilians from the rear end¡­ it would just take a little analysis for anyone with a sound mind to see how severe the problem was. ¡°How could they do that!¡± a young merchant growled angrily. ¡°It¡¯s simply inhumane!¡± ¡°Have the aristocrats ever been humane?¡± an old merchant asked coldly while stroking his beard. ¡°Let¡¯s not waste time on this topic,¡± a great merchant interrupted them. With a frown, he said, ¡°What we must discuss now is how we should deal with this troop.¡± ¡°What else can we do? We should also form a rapid-mobility troop, then find a chance to destroy them!¡± Several great merchants looked at each other. They all felt somewhat in a quandary. It was nothing much to destroy a troop, but it was not the same when the head of that troop was an earl! If an earl was killed, that would be a serious matter! ¡°What are all of you worrying about?¡± asked a merchant who was also sitting near the center. He seemed to have an inkling about what they were worrying about. With a frown, he asked, ¡°Worrying about the possible severe consequences of killing Earl Hauss?¡± The great merchants did not answer him. They merely sighed deeply. ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do about it. No matter how serious the consequences are, we must do what we should do,¡± that merchant urged. ¡°We can¡¯t just let them be because we are worried about the severity of consequences.¡± ¡°Maybe¡­ we can try asking¡­¡± said a great merchant hesitantly. But without waiting for anyone¡¯s rebuttal, he himself shook his head and said, ¡°No way! This will not do! Even if we fight with all we¡¯ve got, we might not necessarily win. If we even have to carry such worries in us, then there¡¯s really no way we are able to fight this battle!¡± ¡°Yes, not even the tiniest bit of apprehension,¡± exclaimed another great merchant. ¡°Seems like this is our only way out!¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s do that.¡± ¡°I¡¯m all for it. If there are any consequences in the future, we¡¯ll bear everything together.¡± ¡°Count me in!¡± ¡­ Soon, the discussion concluded. The merchant party would also form a rapid-mobility troop that would be led by an advanced paladin, with a total of about 300 people. The aim was to find and destroy the rapid-mobility troop of the aristocratic party. In addition, the merchant party also decided to seek assistance from the Republic of Northwest through the private channels of the Great Chamber of Commerce. They would ask the Republic of Northwest to send its elite soldiers and generals to help them deal with this dangerous rapid-mobility troop of the aristocratic party. If it were a frontal battle, the merchants felt that their well-selected troop of elite personnel would not lose to the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop. But no matter how strong they were, it would be pointless if they could not find their opponent. If they could find and block their opponent, then they would be useful if a fight really happened. This was why they needed more elite troops. Even just a little more would mean a little more chance of finding the enemy. It would also mean that in the future, there would be fewer casualties. The merchants were quite efficient. After the meeting, they got busy with two concurrent matters. On the one hand, they were recruiting personnel, as well as raising and gathering materials as they got ready to form the rapid-mobility troop. On the other hand, they sent messengers to pay secret visits to the Republic of Northwest to discuss the matter of loan of soldiers. A few days later, the messenger who traveled quickly with the use of magic arrived at the Void City and met with the Great Governors of the Republic of Northwest. ¡°And the abovementioned is the dilemma we face,¡± said the messenger with a goatee, in a very sincere and humble attitude. ¡°Though we have the heart to fight them to death, we are also worried that they are going to purposely hide and not fight us. And we really don¡¯t have enough people to transfer about. So please do help us. There¡¯s no need to help us by fighting, just help us by finding out where the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility team is.¡± The few Great Governors of the Republic of Northwest had a discussion among themselves and agreed to the matter. This was a done deal in the first place. The Defense Minister, Leonard, had gotten in touch and kept everyone informed about it. The work on forming the rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest was already in process. It would not be long before a rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest was in place. And what was the purpose of especially forming such a troop, if not for fighting battles? Were they that bored? So when the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop finally bypassed the borderline from a mountain range and entered the territory of the merchants, the rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest had also reached Rye Town. They had stationed themselves in the Rye Fortress that Sui Xiong had previously modified and renovated as they waited for the order to attack. It was not long before the news of the first battle between the aristocratic party and merchant party arrived. The main troops of both sides had hoarded the border with a large number of soldiers. All this while, they had imposed restraints on themselves. But ultimately, they still gave in and fought a battle. The result of the battle could almost be as good as saying both sides were well-matched. The two sides involved in the battle were a professional army under the command of the earl of the aristocratic party and a troop of the Third Army Corp of the merchant party. Neither side had overexerted themselves. They were just roughly testing the other party¡¯s troops before retreating. Each side lost roughly four to five men¡ªthis was the result of shooting each other with a bow and arrow. On the contrary, the infantry at the front, who fought the battle with spears and halberds, only sustained some minor injuries. The result of the battle made the aristocratic party somewhat worried, while the merchant party, on the contrary, was very satisfied¡ªin the past, their armies would often fall apart in the face of a wave of arrows raining upon them. This time, in the face of such a rain of arrows, they were actually able to raise their shields together to resist. This fully verified the increase in their soldiers¡¯ quality. The combat power of the troop was also greatly improved. On the other hand, the aristocratic party was surprised to see that level of fighting spirit in the second-line troops of the merchant party. At least from this round, they showed no intention of losing to the professional soldiers at all. If the second-line troops of the merchant party really had the combat power and will power to fight against professional soldiers, then in this battle, the aristocratic party would be placed at a great disadvantage. Above all, even if the aristocratic party might have a large army force, it still did not have many professional soldiers. If the battle really developed into a war of attrition with the second-line troops of the merchant party, when the professional soldiers suffered heavy losses, the New Army of the merchant party would send out its first-line troops. At that time, it would be difficult to put up a resistance. In such a situation, even the brave men would not dare to attack easily. They could only stand their ground and wait for the opportunity. The opportunity that they would be waiting for would come from the central region of the merchants¡¯ territory, from Earl Hauss, who had crept into the territory of the merchant party and was ready to wreak havoc and cause some massive destruction. Shortly after, they received the news that they longed to hear of. At least four to five towns and villages of the merchant party were attacked. The thugs had set fire and burned down a great number of houses. They killed a great number of people and animals and even scattered poison in many wells. They practically killed off the possibility of any chance of revival in these places. Chapter 843 Chapter 843: Vol V Chapter 203 The news spread, and the world was in an uproar. In this world, war was a common occurrence. It was not uncommon for an entire family to be killed when a battle was lost. This was not a rare sight. But this was an act of carrying out a massive massacre of civilians, even to the extent of complete destroying villages and towns without considering the outcome. It was just to destroy the opponent¡¯s logistics and weaken the opponent¡¯s will to fight. This behavior had seriously broken the long-standing ¡°practice.¡± In general, such things largely happen outside the Main Plane. Only among races who based their strongholds in small worlds where they fought and killed each other would there be such cruelty. And within the Main Plane, even the elemental creatures that were almost unfeeling, as well as the evil and ferocious devils, would not do such things¡ªbecause they were simply meaningless. What was the use of killing people? Could it be that human flesh tasted much better than other meats? Even if human flesh was tastier, it was not as though there was no human reproduction happening in other worlds. Putting in so much effort and investing so much money to barge their way into the human world and all of it just for the sake of tasting a mouthful of fresh human meat? If there was anyone who did this, even among the devils, this person definitely belonged to the category of ¡°sick and requires treatment.¡± Generally speaking, even the evil living creatures of the Lower Realm, such as the devils and so on, would only kill the humans and take their souls away as replenishment for their subordinates. Simply killing people for the sake of killing was really¡­ rare. In fact, this was no longer a matter of a ¡°rare¡± problem¡ªit was perverse and insane. When news reached the aristocratic party¡¯s territory, all the great aristocrats who had previously discussed this matter with Earl Hauss, were dumbfounded. They originally thought that Earl Hauss would do nothing more than the common burning, killing and pillaging. They had not expected this guy to be such an evil jinx. Everywhere his invading troops set foot on, they would leave almost no one behind, be it man or woman, old or young. They even burned down all the houses and farmlands and killed all the livestock. They even tried ways and means to pollute the water sources. If not for the fact that they had limited time, even the farmlands would have been damaged by spells. ¡°This¡­ this is really¡­ really¡­¡± Marquis Yug stuttered. At the Council of the Aristocrats, Marquis Yug shook his head a few times but did not know what to say. He ended up uttering ¡°really¡± repeatedly and then said nothing more. ¡°We should never have made any promises to him!¡± said an earl from the local party. His tone was filled with indignation. ¡°We would never have expected him to be so murderous! He must have killed thousands of people after those few battles.¡± ¡°According to the North, it was nearly 6000 people,¡± replied an earl from the central party. ¡°We are quite resigned to the situation at the moment. We are in a very difficult position¡­¡± He was currently the one in charge of diplomatic ties with the merchant party. Given how both parties were supposedly equal in strength, even if there was nothing much to gain from the diplomatic work, there should not be any losses either. But because of Earl Hauss¡¯ crazy behavior, the aristocratic party was suffering a great loss with regards to diplomacy. Not only was the merchant party hopping mad, there were also many churches of good gods that were exerting pressure on the aristocrats. It was really beyond their imagination for things to have come to this point. They originally thought that no matter how ferocious Earl Hauss was, the most he would do was to cause harassment to every place he set foot in. He would kill 30 to 50 people and create riots in each and every place, then he would leave¡ªthis was evidently what Earl Hauss had told them during their discussions right from the start. Theoretically speaking, killing all the people in one place was a far cry from just killing a small number of them. The latter saved much time and effort, and the rest could be allowed to stay alive and spread fear. If they directly killed all the people, then the only thing they could spread was hatred. What Earl Hauss and company wanted was to sow the seeds of fear, thereby undermining the merchant party¡¯s will to fight. At the same time, they wanted to create chaos and ruin the logistics of the merchant party. Merely killing along their way as they traversed village by village, town by town, it was impossible for them to achieve such an effect. At present, the one who was placed in the most uncomfortable spot would be this earl who was in charge of the diplomatic work of the aristocratic party, and not the merchant party itself. On the one hand, he had to placate the diplomat of the merchant party, who wore an ¡°I¡¯m so angry that I¡¯m about to explode¡± expression. On the other hand, he had to explain to the churches of the good gods so as to prevent the aristocratic party from becoming a public enemy of society. He also had to strive to pursue the original diplomatic objectives¡­ He felt that out of all the diplomats from time immemorial, there was no other who could be as miserable as he was. In truth, his situation was really not the worst. After all, the aristocratic party was still strong enough to hold its ground. The diplomats of those weaker countries would be the most miserable ones. They existed purely for the nonfunctional purpose of putting up a show. They were even often subjected to humiliation. In the face of Earl Hauss¡¯ crazy behavior, the merchant party was naturally exploding with fury. They hastily formed a rapid-mobility troop, then hurriedly sent the troops out. Following the traces left by Earl Hauss and his troops along the way as they wreaked havoc, the merchant party¡¯s troops tried to catch up with them to annihilate the entire troop. A few days later, there was news again. The merchant party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop had certainly caught up with the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop that was led by Earl Hauss. The two parties fought a great battle in the wilderness. However, the outcome of the battle was the complete collapse of the rapid-mobility troop that the merchant party had spared no expense in putting together. Other than the few lucky ones who survived because they had teleportation spells or transportation scrolls, the others, near to 300 of them, were wiped out. This news brought great shock to the Council of the Merchants. Even the aristocrats were in an uproar. In war, the difference in numbers should never be neglected. The aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop only had about 200 men, while the merchant party, on the other hand, had 300 men. In terms of equipment, the wealthy and generous merchant party had provided its rapid-mobility troop with weapons, armor, warhorses and consumables that were as superior as those of the aristocratic party. In terms of quality, the merchant party might lack the conditions to meet contingencies, but they had many mercenary organizations that had worked with them for a long time. Accordingly, the troop that was formed by the merchant party through the transfer of elites was supposed to be much better than the rabble assembled by the aristocratic party after the various aristocrats had ¡°cleaned up their inventory.¡± But the result turned out to be the exact opposite. The aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop, which should have been bound to lose, won the battle. On the contrary, the merchant party¡¯s troops, who had the upper hand in both manpower and material resources, suffered a crushing defeat. The troop was almost completely wiped out. This was inconceivable, but it was the harsh, iron-clad truth. In the face of such a truth, the great aristocrats were somewhat lost as well. ¡°What should we do?¡± Marquis Gordan asked at the Council of Great Aristocrats. ¡°Let us discuss. Given the situation now, what is the right thing to do?¡± ¡°First, we have to change the way we think,¡± said an earl from the local party. ¡°Earl Hauss¡¯ method is certainly very extreme, but we have to admit that he¡¯s strong, so strong that¡­ that he was able to change the outcome of this war.¡± The great aristocrats looked at one another and silently nodded. ¡°At the beginning, we were as good as those merchants from the North. No one could do anything to the other, but with him and his troops, the logistics of the merchant party definitely met with some problems. Their will to fight suffered a great blow. In this case, we should be able to gain some advantage when we finally meet to sign a peace treaty,¡± that earl said. Then after a slight pause, he emphasized, ¡°Not just a petty advantage, but a great advantage!¡± ¡°We don¡¯t object to this,¡± said an earl from the central party. ¡°But the problem is, he also puts us under a great deal of pressure.¡± ¡°Yes. He does bring us a great deal of pressure. It¡¯s a great deal of trouble. But he can also bring us victory!¡± said the previous earl. And he emphasized, ¡°Victory!¡± The great aristocrats fell silent. Indeed, when it came to war, victory was the most important thing. No matter what they did, without victory, everything else was meaningless. Even at the expense of a hefty price. So long as they could claim victory, any price would be worthwhile. At long last, the great aristocrats passed the resolution. Bearing the pressure from various parties, they did all they could to buy as much time as possible for Earl Hauss so that he and his troops could reap more successes of battle. As for morals and consciences, they did not have much of these in the first place. As for that little bit they had left, to win the war, they would not mind selling these out as well¡­ Chapter 844 Chapter 844: Vol V Chapter 204 Black smoke rose from the ruins of the houses. The light rain not long ago did not completely put out the flames that engulfed the town. Instead, it reinforced the smoke. Looking from afar, the entire town was shrouded in an eerie, black fog. The sight would make one shudder all over. It was evening time at the moment. Usually, this was the time for people to end their day¡¯s work and prepare for dinner. But there was not a single resident walking on the streets that should be bustling with activities. Those people who were supposed to be heading home after work were now lying all over the ground, and beneath their bodies, there were pools of blood that were slowly drying up. In their houses, loved ones, regardless of man or woman, old and young, who had been awaiting their return home, had also died by sharp blades of swords. There were even many whose bodies were specially stabbed once or twice more to ensure that they were dead. Within the entire town, the lord¡¯s mansion was the only place that still had people left alive. Of course, there would be aristocrats in the land of the merchants, and vice versa, there would be merchants in the land of the aristocrats. The local lord was a baron who had great passion in doing business. Every night, he would light his lamp to check and sort out the day¡¯s accounts. This was his favorite form of entertainment. But he could no longer indulge in such form of entertainment, for he and all the original members of his mansion had become headless corpses that were piled outside the mansion¡¯s doors. Now, it was only a group of cold and weary executioners who brought life to this mansion. The soldiers had gone off and found places to sleep. Snores could be heard from time to time. Some of the soldiers in charge of patrolling the place held cold and sharp weapons in their hands as they circled the mansion in silence. And from the watchtower at the top of the mansion, Earl Hauss, who should be equally weary, had wrapped himself in a thick blanket as he looked into the distance. He seemed to be acting the role of a sentry, but the maidservant seated across him knew. Actually, he was not looking at anything. ¡°Things seemed to have been blown out of proportion,¡± she said. ¡°The news that came from above said that more than one deity has begun investigating.¡± ¡°Let them investigate all they want,¡± the earl said with great indifference. ¡°They won¡¯t be able to find any news of value.¡± Indeed, even the spells to recall time would not work against them. Even if there were powerful gods heading to the scenes of the few massacres to investigate, they would not be able to see the looks of the perpetrators. They would only know their identities. ¡°So long as they put their hearts into the investigations, there will be no secrets in this world that cannot be discovered.¡± ¡°Maybe. But for us, it is enough so long as we can keep this secret for some time,¡± Earl Hauss replied. He was not the least bothered as he said, ¡°So long as we can bring our plan to completion, by that time, even if their investigations lead them to the truth, what more can they do?¡± He sneered with indifference and said, ¡°The trend of popular sentiment is not merely decided by the ¡®truth.''¡± His maidservant sighed and said nothing more. After a moment, she stood up and looked around at the town beneath them. It was reduced to nothing more than a dead city. ¡°This is already the fifth town. Exactly how many more massacres do you intend to carry out?¡± she asked. ¡°Not sure. Depends on the effect,¡± the earl said. ¡°Probably¡­ another two or three more. That¡¯s about it.¡± He paused for a moment, then said, ¡°I¡¯ll still need you to handle the finishing touches.¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t like this job.¡± ¡°Me neither, but there must be someone for every job,¡± said the earl as he smiled. ¡°Between us, it¡¯s a little hypocritical to talk about these things. You and I have no lack of experience doing such things in our lifetime.¡± With a bitter smile, the maidservant sighed again. Then she said, ¡°Speaking of which, you may not believe it, but in my whole life, I have never left behind such a massacre, not even once. I have never asked my soldiers to point their weapons at civilians or meaninglessly slaughter people on the battlefield. This can be considered as one of the things that I take the most pride in throughout my entire lifetime.¡± ¡°This is why you only managed to create a kingdom and not an empire. If you had been vicious and cruel enough, who knows, you could have defeated the Orc Empire and created an empire of your own.¡± ¡°You do make some sense in saying so, but in the face of time, what great empire can last forever?¡± asked the maidservant. She smiled and said, ¡°In truth, the so-called ¡®Orc Empire¡¯ has been around for generations. Whether it¡¯s the emperor¡¯s bloodline and tribes, or the guiding ideology of the ruling party¡­ even the king of the Orc gods has changed. So what if I had created my empire? What then? I don¡¯t think it would have made me any more glorious.¡± ¡°Is this arrogance typical of successful people?¡± the earl said. He smiled a little sarcastically and said, ¡°Unlike you, I¡¯m a complete failure. I¡¯ve exhausted my means, thought of all ways, yet ultimately, I was unable to protect anything at all. I¡¯ve never had the kind of confidence you have.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why you adopted such an intense style of doing things?¡± ¡°Pretty much. I guess I¡¯m the most extreme one of the three of us,¡± said the earl. He looked at the sky and sighed. ¡°It has never occurred to me that I could actually have the chance to step into the mortal world and do my best to show what I¡¯ve got!¡± ¡°Things in this world have always been so unexpected,¡± said the maidservant. ¡°I was the first one to come to the human world. Then Robert came along. But then, Robert was summoned back, and you came as his replacement¡­ All three of us Holy Spirits have been sent out to the human world. This thing is originally astonishing in its own right.¡± ¡°But ultimately, the goal hasn¡¯t changed much, has it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. We¡¯ve only had one goal all this time,¡± said the maidservant. With a smile, she said, ¡°In fact, there have been some changes, but the things we have to do pretty much stay the same.¡± ¡°Let there be chaos in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. Let them become as disorderly as possible. This is what we have to do,¡± said the earl. ¡°I find myself doing quite a good job.¡± ¡°You¡¯re doing well, but I find that the method could be even better, in fact.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not important what the method is.¡± ¡°The method is very important.¡± ¡°Winners always feel this way. But for losers, if there¡¯s no guaranteed success, what¡¯s the point in considering other ¡±methods?''¡± In the watchtower, there was a momentary silence. After some time, the maidservant spoke again, ¡°How¡¯s your injury?¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay? You¡¯ve been punished by Heaven. It can¡¯t have been easy for you.¡± ¡°Actually, it¡¯s really not as bad as you think. After all, since way back, there has only been hostility between me and these guys. Slaughtering them is not against the oath I made to myself.¡± ¡°But given the power we have, the moment we exercise it in the human world, it will be easily detected by the enchantment.¡± ¡°You think too much. If it has been detected, I would have been struck dead by lightning ages ago,¡± said the earl. With a smile, he shook his head and said, ¡°I merely used low-level legendary power, that¡¯s all. A power at this level would not alarm the enchantment.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t see any signs of you recovering from your injury,¡± said the maidservant. ¡°That¡¯s right, and it¡¯s impossible for it to recover,¡± the earl said. He smiled and added, ¡°After all, this body has been dead for a long time. There¡¯s no way a dead man can recover from his wounds.¡± There was another period of silence. Then the maidservant sighed and said, ¡°I can¡¯t help having a bad feeling.¡± ¡°Me too,¡± the earl said. ¡°But it doesn¡¯t matter. So long as I get things done, I¡¯m fine with anything.¡± The two said nothing more as they fell into utter silence. Chapter 845 Chapter 845: Vol V Chapter 205 The late Earl Hauss¡ªwhether father or son, the word ¡°late¡± could be used on either, so there was no need for differentiation. Neither knew that a very small part of their bloodline came from an illustrious hero. A hero whose life was filled with tragedy. This hero came from a small and backward country that was located next to a big and powerful country. And on the other side lived the people of a powerful race. At that time, it was the early stage of the era of the great development of mankind. Under the leadership of the human gods, there was an expansion of territory, and internal strife among humans was quite intense as well. In that era, the aristocratic system was yet to be established. Many territories that later generations would merely have deemed as lands of viscounts or even barons, were proudly self-proclaimed as independent kingdoms¡ªemerged and then died out. There was not a single day that went by without the fires of war. Steel and blood raged the ground. In that era, it was a sin to be weak. The strong were greedy and fierce like hungry wolves. And then these strong ones would in turn, be devoured by the even stronger ones, who were also like hungry tigers. Even the civilians had to learn some combat techniques. Whenever there were lone knights, the farmers, who looked so honest and dutiful, would instantly transform into ferocious ruffians. They would kill the knights and rob them of all their wealth. And the country where that hero was from, was absolutely guilty of this ¡°sin.¡± Right from the moment he was born, his country had been in turmoil. Even before he came of age, his father, who was the king at that time, was forced to fight a battle that was of no benefit to their country at all. Although the war was won, the king died in the midst of battle. The cause of his death was said to be very suspicious. There was more than an 80% likeliness that the poisoned arrow that dealt the king with a fatal shot came from the battle array of an allied force. After the king¡¯s death, another king paid them a ¡°friendly¡± visit, expressing his willingness to marry the king¡¯s widow and merge the two countries peacefully as one. The young prince seemed to show much indifference on the surface but launched a sudden attack at the dinner banquet hosted for the guests. Not only was the food poisoned, but they were also suddenly attacked by the elite troops. That king who had intended to fish in troubled waters was killed. Even all the knights under his command were wiped out. And the young prince acted so fast that overnight, he had set off and headed to his neighbor¡¯s land. On the third day, he announced his marriage to that king¡¯s daughter and completed the union of the two territories. As for that king¡¯s son¡­ there was no mention of him in the history books since then. It was as though he had been forgotten. The few decades that followed were years filled with conspiracies and war. Fresh blood and anguished lamentation were interwoven into these years. For posterity, these few decades might only be a page or more in the historical books, or might only be told in a few epic poems, or even just a few chapters in a certain epic poem, but to the young king, this was his entire lifetime. He racked his brains and tried all means in order to protect and strengthen his own country. And he did it with all the effort and energy he got. On countless occasions, he had shown such ingenious skills and vicious tactics that the later generations marveled at and learned from. Eventually, by the time he reached old age, his country had become very powerful. Initially, it was merely an equivalent of a baron¡¯s hill. Now, it had developed to the point where it was better than most marquises¡¯ lands. However, right at this point in time, fate played a little joke on him. A war broke out between several powerful legendary monsters in the capital of his country. The once prosperous capital was reduced to ruins in a few short hours. The king, who attempted to negotiate with the monsters, was like a wild dog that had died by the roadside. And the dead bodies of his loyal knights were strewn all over the ground in a pile of mess. As the news spread, this country simply collapsed. And there was no further development ensuing its fall. If this happened on Earth, the story would almost be approaching its ending. However, in a world where there were gods and devils, souls and the netherworld, this story would still have a little sequel to it. The dead king became the Holy Spirit of the God of Royalty. And later, when the God of Aristocracy replaced the God of Royalty, he became the Holy Spirit of the God of Aristocracy. The sequel to the story ended here. As for how the later generations carried out studies on this king¡¯s lifetime, how the great aristocrats of the later generations used his deeds to educate their children, or how the ambitious careerists of later generations used his reputation and descendants to incite and create trouble, all these no longer carried much significance. There was only one noteworthy thing, though. Among his descendants, there was one family member of his bloodline that had grasped the opportunity during the human¡¯s great reclamation of the West, and they finally managed to climb up to a high position after several twists and turns. This family became the founding fathers of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡ªone of the nine earls. This descendant, by the name of Hauss, was good at training horses. Because his territory bred superior warhorses and also because he was fond of horseback riding competitions, he was therefore given the nickname, ¡°Good Horse.¡± Holy Spirits were different from Oracles. They were essentially already very close to the gods. If they wanted to enter the human world, they would have to suppress their power to the point where they were practically powerless. In this form, all that remained that could be of use to them was their wisdom. However, there were many times where wisdom was not useful, or rather, not so useful. It was inconvenient for them to go without power, after all. Under such situations, the Holy Spirits would usually choose to possess the bodies of blood-related descendants, thereby evading the limitations imposed upon them by the Main Plane. This way, they could still unleash some of their power. Just like how the founding monarch of the Red Moon Dynasty chose to possess the body of the ¡°Flower of Ilo,¡± Sophie Red Moon, that ancient king chose to possess the present earl ¡°Good Horse,¡± whose name was Decken Hauss. At the time he was possessed, Decken Hauss was only the son of the former earl. He had yet to succeed the title of the earl. This youth only had mediocre talents. He had always been honest and knew his obligations well. Other than his love for equestrian competition events, there was nothing special about him. But after he was possessed by an ancient Holy Spirit, he immediately underwent an earth-shattering transformation¡­ Everything that followed originated from this transformation. This transformation gave rise to many things. Among which, the changes in the Hauss family, as well as the possibility of its decline in the future, were nothing more than minor matters. The next morning, before dawn, the troop set off. The troop started out with more than 200 men, but now, there were only about 120 men left. The rest, of course, were dead, partly because some of them did not have the heart to slaughter anyone, so they were sentenced to death by Earl Hauss. Some of them had also been killed in the most recent battle that they fought. That battle was exceptionally dangerous. Even when they had used some clever means to lay an ambush, with less than 200 men fighting against another troop with more than 300 men, it would not have been easy. This was why at the beginning of the battle, Earl Hauss had executed his legendary-level strength. With a single blow, he killed the leader of their opponent, who was a high-level paladin, as well as several officers and a dozen of the best warriors. Although he became vulnerable to the suppression of the Main Plane after this blow, to ensure victory, he braved the risky situation with ingenuity and determination and made several moves successively. Not only did he manage to utterly defeat the merchant party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop, but he also preserved as much of his troop¡¯s military power as possible. For this, he paid the price of being punished by Heaven¡ªthe punishment power that came from the enchantment of the Main Plane. Although the punishment he had to receive was not serious to the extent of having a space mine befalling him, the power of heaven¡¯s punishment was absolutely not something he could bear for long. He could still walk and talk as usual for now, but in truth, he was in intense pain all the time. The scariest thing was that his soul was constantly being weakened. If this went on, it would not take long before he would completely disappear and cease to exist. But this did not bother him at all. Since the era of the great development up till now, he had lived for too long, simply much too long. His long life was making him tired, and so he wanted to be reduced to ashes. This might seem terrible to others, but to him, it was nothing much at all. Even the great God of Royalty had fallen, so what would a mere Holy Spirit be worth? He felt that it was worth dying for the noble cause of the human gods. Moreover¡­ he had already made plans. Even his ¡°death¡± itself was part of his plan. Everything could be used altogether. Of course, he had made the arrangements for the soldiers of this rapid-mobility troop, whose hands were stained with the stench of blood, long ago. At the right time, they would follow in his footsteps and die with him. After all, this was a ¡°necessary price.¡± But he did not know that all his plans had long been under the watchful eyes of the war gods. In fact, it was still unknown whether his plan would succeed or not. Chapter 846 Chapter 846: Vol V Chapter 206 Sui Xiong floated in the sky and watched the black smoke rising from the village beneath his feet. His expression reflected his unhappiness. ¡°You should have told me earlier,¡± he said to Wenner. Instead of continuing on this subject, Wenner said something else, ¡°I¡¯m just wondering, how on earth do they intend to put an end to this?¡± ¡°These are people who invite death wishes, how many of them will think of an end?¡± Sui Xiong sneered. Then he added, ¡°Let me blast them into a ball of slag later, then we can use it to fertilize our fields!¡± ¡°That¡¯s not necessary,¡± Wenner said. Shaking his head, he said, ¡°The rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest is not far from here.¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment, closed his eyes and tried to feel them out, only to realize that it was just as what Wenner said. The rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest was approaching them at an alarming speed. They seemed to be rushing over at the speed of lightning. Although the distance between them was still very far, if they maintained such a speed, they would arrive by the next morning. Even if they rested for the night and set off again in the morning, they would be able to catch up with this cavalry of the aristocratic party by the next evening. Sui Xiong made a comparison with the map in his memory and then cross-referred to the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop¡¯s working style. Then finally, he decided to temporarily put aside the thought of dropping a thunderbolt on these people to blow them up into shreds and pieces. Human affairs were best resolved by the power of the human world. That would be most appropriate. It would be better for the mortal army to fight a tough battle to wipe out these villains than for him to punish them. If these villains died at the hands of the gods, it would only make people feel that they were indeed invincible, so the gods had to intervene to punish them. But if they were to die in the hands of the mortal army, people would feel that ¡°they were, in fact, nothing more than this. It was not really impossible to deal with them.¡± Both ways would lead to the same death, but the effects were different. As for the issue on whether they could beat them or not¡ªother than the original members, there were seven temporary additions to the rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest, and they were all Legendary Masters. The leader was Leon Igor, who was now vaguely known as the ¡°top master among the mortals.¡± The ferocity of the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop infuriated many of the masters under Sui Xiong¡¯s command. Other than Leon, there was Gerald, Felix, Herman, Clito, Asner, as well as Nice. In addition, there was also Night Rain, who was originally leading the troop¡ªhe was a regular at the past few Fighter Championships. After he finally won himself a title, he wandered about for a few years before deciding to settle down in Void City. Not long ago, he pledged his belief to Sui Xiong. When this rapid-mobility troop was to be established, he declared that if it was in terms of worldly experience, there would only be a miserable few who could match up to his. The one who should command this troop had to be him. Eight Legendary Masters were gathered. Among them, there were two at the junior-legendary level (Nice and Night Rain), four at the mid-legendary level (Felix, Herman, Clito, Asner), one at the advanced-legendary level (Gerald) and one at the legendary peak (Leon). Such an imposing lineup, coupled with the elite troop, Sui Xiong could not think of any possibility for the enemy to stand a chance of winning. So mortal affairs should still be handed over to the mortals to handle. They might have to mobilize eight Legendary Masters to wipe out this group of villains, and the news of this spreading out would probably be a blow to their ego. But ultimately, this was essentially different when compared to getting the gods to intervene. Sui Xiong thought about it this way as he slowly calmed down. Then, he could not help blaming Wenner. ¡°If you had told me earlier, at least nobody in this village would have died,¡± he said. Wenner smiled but gave no explanation. As the God of War, he was never a good person. The death of a group of civilians meant nothing to him at all. Upon comparison, he was more concerned about the powerful effects that a rapid-mobility troop that had never existed before could bring about. Because of the destruction caused by the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop, the logistics of the merchant party were indeed in great chaos. The supplies at the frontline were already starting to run short. And the merchants¡¯ will to fight had suffered a blow. Many small and medium-sized merchants had begun to hesitate. They began persuading the great merchants to give up the struggle and bow their heads as they usually did. If it was not for the fact that the rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest was quickly catching up, this battle would have ended with the complete annihilation of the aristocratic party¡¯s cavalry. In fact, he had intended to hide this from Sui Xiong for some time, while he took a good look at how things would develop. What a pity! He sighed in his heart. He even had regrets on not trying to disrupt the divination and delay the operation of the rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest in hunting down the troop of the aristocratic party. If that were the case, he should be able to see more developments in the situation! But on second thought, he felt that the current situation was quite alright. For many things, so long as there was a precedent, more people would come to learn from these examples in the future. Since the aristocratic party had started this, there was bound to be opportunities for such fast and ferocious harassment troops to play active roles in future large-scale wars. By contrast, it was not a bad outcome for the first harassment troop in history to be destroyed. To be destroyed in a siege by a group of Legendary Masters led by the top master of the mortals, such an outcome itself, was quite legendary. It was enough to make the future generations look up to them. Thinking of this, he felt relieved. At this moment, Sui Xiong suddenly frowned. In a somewhat surprised tone, he said, ¡°The leader of those villains seemed a little strange.¡± The God of War looked over according to what Sui Xiong had pointed out, only to see Earl Hauss sitting wearily by the side of his carriage. He was very pale, and his body was trembling. He looked as though he was seriously ill or had severe internal injuries. That maidservant who was supposed to be by his side to take care of him had long disappeared. Her whereabouts were unknown. ¡°He must have used some means of stimulating his potential in order to forcibly execute his power at the legendary level. It must have been an injury sustained since then, and that injury must have not gotten any better all this time,¡± Wenner said as he drew on his memory to recall what happened. This impression was, undoubtedly, wrong. Because this earl was not some ¡°mortal who had stimulated his potential¡± at all. He was a Holy Spirit who had possessed a mortal¡¯s body. It was just that the power of the Holy Spirit, though far less powerful than that of the gods, was essentially not much different. Since the other party had the intention of hiding, while Wenner had no intention of closing up to study about it, it was easy for the other party to trick Wenner about his past. Wenner was very strong, and that was without question. However, during this period, he had not been paying much attention to this cavalry of the aristocratic party. His focus was on the reaction of the various parties towards this troop instead. If it was not for the need to inform Sui Xiong about the situation, he would not even be bothered to personally observe this troop. Since he did not even turn up, he would certainly not be able to notice any outcome. But Sui Xiong was different. He was livid with rage as he checked the backgrounds of that group of villains, one after the other. Naturally, he found something strange about Earl Hauss. Sui Xiong had never seen the method of a Holy Spirit possessing a mortal body before, so he did not identify it at first glance. But it was clear to him that Earl Hauss¡¯ condition was abnormal¡ªthe spiritual strength of this man was far beyond the level that a human could reach. As the Great Devil of the Distant Sea who used to devour souls for a living, Sui Xiong¡¯s sensitivity towards souls was far beyond the level of the other gods. ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with this man¡¯s soul,¡± he said. With a frown, he said, ¡°It¡¯s too strong to be normal!¡± Wenner was startled. Hurriedly, he took a close look. Then, his eyes narrowed. ¡°I¡¯ve seen such a situation before,¡± he said coldly. ¡°That guy is not a mortal at all; he¡¯s just a Holy Spirit possessing a mortal body!¡± Chapter 847 Chapter 847: Vol V Chapter 207 Speaking of which, that Holy Spirit who possessed Earl Hauss was quite low on luck. His skill was extremely brilliant. Even the God of War, Wenner, who was a master among the gods who were great Divine Powers, was unable to detect his abnormality without close observation. And with his ability, once a great Divine Power managed to observe him at close range, he could immediately detect something and be able to make a timely response. However, just as man proposes, God disposes. Sui Xiong¡¯s sensing ability was completely different from the ordinary Divine Powers. Sui Xiong¡¯s understanding of the soul was far beyond the level of ordinary gods, so Earl Hauss¡¯ concealing means did not work at all. He was quickly seen through. If only Sui Xiong was here, perhaps being seen through was not a big deal. Sui Xiong might just feel that this person¡¯s soul was too strong, or probably some devil from hell had invaded this mortal¡¯s body¡ªanyway, given Sui Xiong¡¯s intelligence quotient and this impression of the gods and Holy Spirits, he would never make a guess in the direction of ¡°possession of the body by the Holy Spirit.¡± From his point of view, the gods should always follow the rules in everything they did, but there would always be some bottom line. Even if it was a god as evil as the God of Fear¡­ Well, that was not a good example. That fellow really seemed to have no bottom line at all. But the God of Fear was dead. His followers and allies who like him, had no bottom line to speak of, were all dead as well. The one who had sent them to meet their doom was none other than Sui Xiong himself. Sui Xiong had always abhorred those people who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. He felt that the most appropriate way out for such people was for them to become corpses, where they could then give back to society in the form of fertilizer. So he had originally planned to help Earl Hauss and his men complete such a useful process of giving back to society as soon as possible. But that remained his intention only up to the point where he was persuaded by Wenner. But now, he wanted to do something like that himself. He wanted to help that Holy Spirit of unknown origin give back to society. ¡°I¡¯ll advise you not to make a move,¡± said Wenner, who saw through his intention. Wenner advised by saying, ¡°Let¡¯s just watch by the side. It¡¯s not too late for you to step in if your followers can¡¯t subdue him.¡± ¡°The mere thought of me breathing the same air as this fellow makes my mind somewhat witless,¡± Sui Xiong complained. ¡°If my mind is witless, whatever food I eat and whatever wine I drink won¡¯t taste good. Even when I sleep, I¡¯ll feel as though my bed is digging into my back. It¡¯s very uncomfortable!¡± ¡°Such an opponent is hard to come by,¡± Wenner said. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t too late to make preparations, I would have wanted to get the few among my followers, who are at the advanced legendary level, to take part in this battle as well.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Holy Spirits are usually at least within the realm of Demigod Masters. There are many Holy Spirits who are even strong enough to compete with real gods without falling behind. For the people of the Legendary Realm, to be able to put in all their might and fight such an opponent in a most courageous battle can allow them to stimulate their own potential. The dangerous battle could also allow them to ascertain the path they should take, and they will be able to feel the Demigod Realm more clearly and intuitively,¡± Wenner said. ¡°After going through a battle like this, in the future, it¡¯ll be much easier for one to step into the Demigod Realm as compared to anyone else. We have done statistics that show that people who have undergone the skip-level challenges without sustaining serious injuries are at least twice as likely to achieve breakthroughs.¡± ¡°I can give them divinity directly and help them break through,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Of course you can help, but if you have hopes of them being able to make further progress on the basis of the Demigod Realm and eventually be sealed as gods in the future, then it¡¯d be best if you could allow them to break through with their own strength.¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while, then nodded. ¡°You¡¯ve convinced me. I¡¯ll show some patience, sit tight and wait to see just how that fellow meets his end.¡± They did not wait long. That night, the weather was fine. The sky was full of stars, without a single dark cloud in sight. Because they had received Sui Xiong¡¯s reminder, Leon and company had been rushing in the middle of the night. They only stopped when it was about midnight to take a break. With the help of Nice¡¯s magic spell, all the members of the entire rapid-mobility troop took lodging in a magic mansion¡ªthis was another benefit of using a Phantom Colt. If their rides were real warhorses, then setting camp would be quite troublesome. A lot of time and effort would be required just to settle the horses. The knights would have to massage the muscles of their mounts to relieve their fatigue. They also would have to feed the mounts with food made of the finest ingredients to replenish their strength used up from a day¡¯s worth of galloping. If necessary, the knights might even have to use magic to help their mounts recover as quickly as possible. Even so, the condition of the warhorses would still continue to deteriorate, which meant that they would require a period of rest. It was precisely due to the fact that the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop was restricted by the limitations of their mounts that Leon and company were able to catch up with them. Though their mounts were single-breed warhorses of demon beasts¡¯ bloodline, their endurance was ultimately limited. Now, after every operation, they would have to rest for at least a full day before recovering well enough for the next military movement. Yet, even so, the condition of the warhorses was still declining. So it was just as what ¡°Earl Hauss¡± said, this bloody journey was indeed coming to an end. Having lost the advantage of mobility, even if this troop had Earl Hauss as their leader, it was unlikely that they could break through the mass of troops closing in on them from all sides. Unless he could make his moves as much as he pleased without any restrictions, but would that be meaningful? Therefore, he had already arranged the way out to bring the issue to proper closure. At least to him, it was considered proper. The next day, at noon, after resting for almost a day, Earl Hauss gave orders for his troop to get ready to set off. Now, in this army, there was no longer anyone who would oppose his orders, backstab him or slack off at work. The moment he gave an order, 150 men immediately got busy with getting their materials and supplies ready. They sharpened their weapons and ensured their horses were well-fed as they got ready to set off. In less than half an hour, they were done with all the preparations. With a ferocious aura, they set off quickly from the destroyed village to another faraway village. An hour or so after they had left, the rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest that was led by Leon came roaring in. The Phantom Colts galloped soundlessly, without splashing up a single bit of dust. The dead silence in the ruins was broken only by the furious curses of the knights who came to witness the atrocity. Unlike what he had done so previously, Leon did not get everyone to dismount and scour the area for survivors. Several futile attempts had taught them that these villains would never leave a single survivor. His eyes scanned the village where the embers had yet to be completely extinguished. Leon¡¯s eyes were as somber as the weather in a snowstorm. He ordered everyone to wait outside the village, while the masters skilled at tracking among the troop entered the village to check to see when the enemy left. The tracking experts quickly returned with their reports. The enemy had left within an hour to an hour and a half ago. Leon, who had been sporting a gloomy face without any trace of a smile, finally revealed a grin. ¡°Very well,¡± he said. ¡°Let¡¯s rest for half an hour, then we¡¯ll continue to give chase.¡± ¡°Clito and Asner, you two shall go ahead as husband and wife to find out more about the road ahead as scouts. Nice, you¡¯re responsible for coordinating with and backing them up. You must make sure that nothing goes wrong. Herman, Night Rain, the two of you shall wait and set off with me. We¡¯ll go first. The opponent has a very formidable master. We are sure to hold him back only if we act together. Gerald, Felix, you¡¯ll take care of the bulk of the force. Expand the circle and do your best not to let any of those scum find the chance to escape!¡± After receiving their orders, the cavalry that had been in a frenzied gallop earlier on quietened down within a very short time. Everyone was silently conserving their strength to store up energy and prepare themselves for the next tough battle. Leon looked in the direction of where the group of devil-like cavalrymen had run off to. Other than the murderous intention shooting out from his eyes, there was also a high-spirited will to battle. A demigod master who was extremely evil but in bad condition? He felt that even his blade was cheering and rejoicing for the coming battle! Chapter 848 Chapter 848: Vol V Chapter 208 The cavalry galloped through the open wilderness with the neighing of the warhorses and wild laughter of the knights. Earl Hauss sat in his carriage and listened peacefully to the noise coming from outside. He was like a person without a skeleton as he sprawled lifelessly on the furry mattress. The maidservant who was sitting across him remained as quiet as a statue. Suddenly, he frowned. ¡°Something¡¯s not right!¡± he said. ¡°How come there¡¯s not a single pedestrian to be seen along the way?¡± By right, there should be many people on the road at this time of the year. When these pedestrians met them along the way, naturally there was only one way out for them. And unfortunately, they were doomed. The only difference in the way they died was nothing more than a faster death or a painful death. But¡­ Since they set off at noon till now, they had not even met a single person! This was not normal. This was absolutely not normal! ¡°Is there an ambush ahead?¡± the maidservant asked. When it came to fighting battles, she might not necessarily lose. But she was good at winning through a slow and steady approach. Using such boisterous means to seize victory through a surprise attack¡ªshe was far less competent when compared to her opponent. The three Holy Spirits under the God of Aristocracy¡¯s command had their own merits. One was skillful in rising to emergencies with ingenious solutions, one was skillful in scheduling and planning, and the last was skillful in commanding the military forces and setting up the battle arrays. Now that the one skilled in scheduling had returned to the God Kingdom, the one that was good at crafting ingenious solutions might supposedly never be able to return. The one good at commanding the military forces, on the other hand, had to complete some work. This was their previous plan. It was most unfortunate that the plan could not keep pace with the changes. It seemed as though the plan was already approaching the end, but yet an accident had to occur out of the blue. Strictly speaking, there did not seem to be any apparent problem with the current situation. But it was just like how it was said that ¡°there had to be a devil at play for there to be an anomaly in the situation.¡± For a road that was perfectly fine to suddenly be void of all pedestrians, behind this abnormal situation, it was a severe crisis of reality. Of course, people would not disappear for no good reason. But Sui Xiong had cast a spell to confuse them and make them all turn back instead. He was not a god like Wenner, who could be completely unconcerned about the lives of the mortals just for the sake of his curiosity. No doubt he had already arranged for Leon to lead a troop of soldiers to hunt down the bandit troop of the aristocratic party, but since he had come, he would not allow those bandits to further kill or hurt another innocent civilian! As for the bandit troops, would they have noticed anything unusual? Would they be showing any due vigilance? To these questions, Sui Xiong merely sneered. He was ready to make a move anytime when the need arose. If that was the case, so what if this bandit troop were to detect an anomaly, or so what if they were vigilant enough? Did they think they could possibly find the chance to escape or even to turn a defeat into victory? Dream on! If the worst happened, Sui Xiong would personally make a move. Anyway, it was a certain fact that they would die here today. Not a single one could dream of running away! In the sky, the invisible green jellyfish looked beneath him at the aristocratic party¡¯s bandit troop that was galloping hard on the ground, with a smile that was full of malicious intent. Inside the carriage, the maidservant¡¯s expression became very grave. With a frown, she asked, ¡°Do we need to make use of the backup plan?¡± Earl Hauss pondered deeply for a moment, then nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve already done almost everything that I should do. It might not be perfect but putting an end to everything now is still considered an acceptable ending.¡± The maidservant was silent for a moment, then she smiled. ¡°It¡¯s just as well. By putting an end to this matter as soon as possible, we can all be free of worries.¡± With that, she sprang up, became a stream of light and flew out of the carriage. Then her body began to shine brightly, as though something in her was about to change soon. But just then, there was a sudden surge of clouds and wind in the clear sky. A cluster of clouds suddenly appeared and enveloped her in within. Then the light disappeared. The change also disappeared. It was as though nothing had happened. Earl Hauss¡¯ face changed drastically. Without thinking, his hands flew apart. His left hand struck a hollow blow against a wooden box inside the carriage, while his right hand struck heavily against his chest. That wooden box was made of rare wood. There were many arrays engraved on it to isolate the inside atmosphere from that of the outside. But it was not very strong. In the case where Earl Hauss put in some serious strength in his strike, just one blow had shattered it to pieces. There was a distorted and bizarre statue inside, which when looked at closely seemed to be a combination of skeleton and mud. It also looked like countless skeletons were shoved into a pile of mud, and they gave off a strange and indescribable stench. So long as ordinary people took as much as one glance, they would feel dizzy, and also, they would feel the urge to make a few loud cries in order to expel the suffocating feeling in their chest. And from beneath the statue, a dark red light suddenly shot out, like an arrow that was released from a bow. It struck right in the middle of Earl Hauss¡¯ brows. At the same time, a tyrannical and wild willpower gave a deafening roar in Earl Hauss¡¯ mind. Detestable dragon slayer! I¡¯ll perish with you! Earl Hauss smiled slightly and did not put up any form of resistance. On the contrary, he thoroughly shattered his own soul to allow this soul of a dragon that had been polluted by the statue of the Lord of the Abyssal Devil, to devour him. He merely used his last bit of strength to catch hold of the statue. The material of the statue was just as unique. The moment he grabbed hold of it, it dispersed like flowing water and was integrated into his body. His thoughts ended here. Only that dragon that had inexplicably managed to turn defeat into victory remained in his mental mind, where it laughed crazily and wildly. But it did not laugh for long before it was drowned by a chaotic airflow that surged over it like tidal waves. The trembling of its body, in turn, led to the occurrence of some violent changes. The soul of the Holy Spirit and the soul of a dragon merged rapidly and turned into another form. This figure was one that would make anyone shudder. There was still the slightest trace of a mysterious smile lingering at the corner of the Earl Hauss¡¯ mouth. This was the backup plan of his backup plan. It was for the purpose of providing an emergency response so as to prevent the worst situation from happening. Given his character, he really hated such a situation where he could not personally take command and be in control as the occasion required. But it was the only way to ensure that the important secret would not be divulged while still being able to give the other gods a proper account to conceal the actual truth. As for the rest, there was really nothing he could do. Meanwhile, Sui Xiong and Wenner were both frowning while looking at a white light ball. After that woman had flown out, she had originally intended to gather her power to cast a powerful spell. But she was apprehended by Sui Xiong, who had transformed himself into clouds. But without allowing Sui Xiong the time to subdue her, she suddenly shook violently, and then from soul to body, she completely crumbled and became this light ball. Within this light ball, there was a Divine Power that contained goodness and order. And this Divine Power was simply one that was as pure as it could be. Its strength was probably the equivalent of a weak Divine Power. So long as anyone could obtain this Divine Power, it could allow them who were newly sealed gods to mature a great deal within a short time and completely stabilize their divinity. Of course, this was on the premise that they were neither evil nor chaotic gods. This was quite a good gain, no doubt. But they were unable to further investigate about the matter that they originally wanted to know about. Be it was Sui Xiong or Wenner, neither had the ability to restore a ball of Divine Power back to its original appearance. Among all the gods, perhaps only the Master of Order could possibly have the ability to do so¡­ Sui Xiong frowned and kept this light ball under a seal. Then he lowered his head and looked down at the ground. The carriage that had been galloping suddenly exploded. A chaotic and wild airflow surged out like tidal waves, then a massive figure that looked ferocious and hideous jumped out and let out a towering roar. It was also at this time, the couple, Clito and Asner, who were temporarily assuming the roles of scouts, arrived at the scene and saw this monster appearing¡­ Chapter 849 Chapter 849: Vol V Chapter 209 The means of a Holy Spirit were essentially the same as those of gods. The only difference lay in the strength of their power. This meant that, so long as the Holy Spirits were well-prepared and cleverly made use of appropriate means, they would, in fact, be able to deal with the gods and make them fall prey to their tricks. Take today, for example. Two Holy Spirits had successfully tricked the two great Divine Powers, Sui Xiong and Wenner. Whether it was Sui Xiong or Wenner, none had expected these two Holy Spirits to be resolute to such a degree. These Holy Spirits had immediately launched the means of self-destruction the moment they knew that Sui Xiong and Wenner had found traces of them. So within an instant, the clue was destroyed, thus making it impossible for anyone to further investigate the matter. These two Holy Spirits had originally prepared several plans in advance. Among which, there were ideal plans where everything went well, but there were also contingency plans if things had not gone well. There were even emergency plans for responding to critical situations. According to the most ideal plan where things went smoothly, when the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop was done with the last round of cruel massacre of a village, that Holy Spirit who was in the guise of a maidservant would use all the power he had to put his plan into action. He would brave the risk of being exterminated by the Main Plane enchantment and drop a combination of terrifying flames, lightning and storms upon the troop. This was the plan to completely annihilate this bandit troop. Then some of the gods who had already prepared themselves well and had secretly been keeping a watchful eye on this bandit troop all this time would appear and mete out punishment in the name of the human gods. The Goddess of Wealth, whom the civilians had worshipped and believed in, had not been able to protect them. On the contrary, despite the fact that the humans had not placed their belief in the human gods, these gods had stepped forth to destroy the ferocious army¡­ This would definitely shake the base of belief in the Goddess of Wealth within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, making the people who felt that they needed the protection of the gods to reconsider who they believed in. If they could achieve this, of course, everyone was happy. All the sacrifices would be paid off. Perfect! The most urgent emergency plan corresponded to the situation where the Holy Spirits were targeted by a powerful good god. In this case, all the original plans would become null and void. The two Holy Spirits needed to destroy all their traces as soon as possible. The most important thing was to ensure that they did not leave behind any trace that could allow the other party to track them down. Of course, in such a situation, those gods who were observing the situation in the dark would certainly not come forward. They would only pretend that they knew nothing. In this way, all earlier preparatory work would be in vain. The Goddess of Wealth admittedly failed to protect the people who believed in her. But the human gods did not get to present their worth either. While this dealt a blow to the belief in the Goddess of Wealth, it did little to spread the belief in the human gods and still required the continued efforts of the clergymen of the churches. And honestly speaking, it was not easy for anyone to completely destroy all traces of themselves. But nothing was impossible with a willing heart. On the premise that they could actually destroy themselves, then completely destroying all their traces was actually not difficult at all. After all, the Holy Spirits were essentially not much different from the gods. Whatever the gods could do, so long as they had made ample preparation, the Holy Spirits would also be able to achieve similar things. Although it was a pity and also a painful thing to die for such a cause, these two Holy Spirits did not hesitate at all. For some reason, they seemed to take their lives lightly. They could simply sacrifice themselves if there was a need to, and they did not find anything wrong in doing so. Or to put it across in a more straightforward and harsh fashion, they all tended to be a little world-weary. This was why they did not hesitate when they had to bury themselves. Whether they had completely transformed themselves into different Divine Powers at other camps or shattered their souls to pieces to feed the dragon with abyssal attributes, all these things were ways that could completely eliminate all traces that showed that they once existed. Even the great Divine Powers would not be able to trace them down. Of course, in this case, they would be dead themselves. That was for sure. Sui Xiong wore a perplexed look as he looked at that dark red dragon of the panicking aristocratic party¡¯s cavalry troop, which was roaring away in a crazy manner. His brows were locked into a frown. ¡°Can you see exactly what that guy is?¡± he asked. Wenner studied him a little, then said, ¡°The red dragon has been consumed by the power of the abyss. It must have been essentially a chaotic, evil existence to start with. And now, adding on the fact that it has been severely eroded by the power of the abyss¡ªhonestly, it¡¯s not even considered a dragon anymore. I feel that it probably makes more sense to say that it¡¯s a devil in the form of a dragon.¡± Sui Xiong secretly sighed in his heart and asked, ¡°So, are you able to tell exactly which Holy Spirit could have caused such a change in this dragon?¡± ¡°How could that be¡­ the aura of the Abyss is a sworn enemy of the gods of my generation. Though I have studied a little about it, if you want me to trace it back to its origins given the present situation, it¡¯s really impossible.¡± Sui Xiong said nothing more. In his heart, he was secretly investigating away. This Holy Spirit, as well as that guy from earlier on, who was presumably also a Holy Spirit, had hastily destroyed their traces. It was obvious that they meant to avoid being traced back to where they came from. So why would they want to prevent their origins from being traced? There had to be a problem with their background! If they were the Holy Spirits of a certain evil god, then they had no need to hide their identities even if they had done evil deeds¡ªit was a matter of course for evil gods to perpetrate all kinds of evil. The angrier the heavens and people were, the better proof it was to how utterly evil and crazy they were. What they had done at present was indeed something that was utterly devoid of conscience. But if they were Holy Spirits of evil gods, then what they had done was not disgraceful. On the contrary, it conformed to their identities or could even be said to be glorious. This was like how a beast would naturally want to feast on meat. It was nothing to be ashamed of. But they were extremely deliberate in wanting to destroy their traces so that no one could trace them¡­ Perhaps this meant that they might be Holy Spirits of some good god? Sui Xiong was shocked at this thought and then denied this speculation himself. It was not that good gods would not do evil. It was just they would never ever do something so heartless. Their Holy Spirits, essentially their doppelgangers, could not have possibly done something like that. To be so utterly evil¡­ they were definitely not Holy Spirits from a good camp. They might even be originally from the evil camp. So¡­ since they were originally from the evil camp, why would they want to cover up their traces? Unless¡­ their identities were questionable. Maybe¡­ according to their identities, not only were they not supposed to commit such a crime, they should, on the contrary, be protecting these civilians¡­ Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes narrowed as he began another round of mental investigation. Though there were many gods in the world, there were not many tycoons among them that could sacrifice two Holy Spirits in one go. Screening and selecting from these tycoons according to the two criteria of ¡°evil¡± and ¡°original stance inclined towards protecting the public,¡± there would only be a few who could fit the bill. In this list, of course, the most outstanding one was the Master God of the Human God System, the God of Light. Strictly speaking, his priesthood did not carry any obligation to protect. Revenge and humanity were his two fundamental priesthoods. Protection was completely absent from the former, and as for the latter¡­ though it could be extended to ¡°protecting humanity,¡± it was merely from the standpoint of the entire humanity and did not include the protection of all mortals. Of course, as the Master God of the Human God System, it would definitely be a huge scandal if his Holy Spirits were to do such a thing. So if they were his Holy Spirits, committing suicide in such a way to destroy all traces of themselves was, on the contrary, quite reasonable. Could it be¡­ that the mastermind behind this was actually the God of Light? Though Sui Xiong did not say anything aloud, in his heart, he was secretly muttering to himself¡­ Chapter 850 Chapter 850: Vol V Chapter 210 Other than the God of Light, there were several other gods who should be suspected as well. The second most suspected one was the God of Aristocracy. The priesthood of the God of Aristocracy did not encompass the content of protecting the civilians. But their doctrine necessitated the need for ¡°safeguarding the glory of the aristocrats,¡± and this naturally involved the protection of civilians. A massacre was an act that would be a severe blow to the honor of the aristocrats. If this had been arranged by the God of Aristocracy, it would be reasonable. From all the past acts of the God of Aristocracy, it was clear that they liked engaging in intrigues and conspiracies. Doing something like that was not impossible. Moreover, they had inherited the familial property of an established god¡ªthe God of Royalty¡ªand managed it for hundreds of years. In addition, the God of Aristocracy had recently stepped up to the level of a great Divine Power. They were definitely considered well-off. It was possible for them, at least, to send two Holy Spirits to do something like this. By contrast, the other few gods, who might have done this because of their standpoints, had relatively unsubstantial family property. It was hard to imagine that they would risk such a great loss by sending two Holy Spirits to do something that was so close to throwing their lives away. But then, there was yet another problem: according to the intelligence Javier gathered, not long after the God of Aristocracy rose to become a great Divine Power, the God of Light ordered them to reflect on their misdeeds in solitude. Up till now, they could only answer the prayers of their followers to bestow divinity. Other than that, they had never even sent down an active Oracle. But if the God of Aristocracy was so honest that they dared not even send down an Oracle, how could they pop out of nowhere to stir up so much trouble? Even if they were up to all this mischief while hiding in the dark and managed to deceive everyone else, did it mean that they could also successfully deceive the God of Light? The God of Light was a stern Master God who would not allow anyone to feign compliance to his orders before him and then disobey him behind his back. Since he had grounded the God of Aristocracy and ordered them to reflect upon their misdeeds, it was impossible that he would allow the God of Aristocracy to play such tricks. Thinking about this, it seemed that the greatest possibility was ultimately, the God of Light¡­ Firstly, he had the precedence of causing a massacre. When he was still a mortal, he had once carried out a massive massacre. Blood flowed like rivers, and corpses were strewn all over. It was such an appalling scene of devastation. Such a thing like massacring people was not an act that was inconceivable or unacceptable to him. Secondly, he had the power to do such a thing. As the Master God of the Human God System, he would have a large number of Holy Spirits that he could deploy. Just choosing two of them as sacrifices might be a substantial loss, but it was not impossible. Thirdly, it was in his interest to do something like that. The people of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins mainly believed in the Goddess of Wealth, especially the merchant party. They were quite indifferent to the human gods. Many people believed in the Goddess of Wealth and the Void Mask, but few believed in the human gods. This incident was not impactful enough to strike down the belief in the Void Mask¡ªthese bandits would eventually be exterminated by the rapid-mobility troop of the Republic of Northwest. This would not be able to prove that the Church of the Void Mask lacked strength. On the contrary, it could prove that the belief in the Void Mask was certainly reliable when needed most. But this incident could deal a vicious strike to the belief in the Goddess of Wealth¡ªthe Church of the Goddess of Wealth had put on a lackluster performance in this incident. Despite sending many clergymen throughout the course of the incident, she failed to achieve any decent results in battle. In particular, the rapid-mobility troop that was led and established by the merchant party was completely wiped out. This led to them losing even more points, and it greatly damaged their credibility in the people¡¯s minds. So long as the belief in the Goddess of Wealth suffered a hit, it would be beneficial for the human gods in spreading the belief in them within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. So from this point of view, the God of Light was indeed very suspicious. The more Sui Xiong thought about it, the more reasonable he found it. He could not help but secretly nod while figuring out how he should broach this matter with the God of Light. Sui Xiong wanted to discuss it with the God of Light and get an account of the incident from him. There was absolutely no way the God of Light could be let off without any explanation, especially when so many innocent lives were lost! But how should he negotiate with the God of Light? And also, forcing the God of Light to provide such an ¡°account,¡± even Sui Xiong found it a little difficult. Compared with the hesitation on his end, the battle on the ground had begun. The moment that terrifying dragon appeared, the soldiers of the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop knew the situation was not going well for them. They had followed Earl Hauss¡¯ lead in a series of battles through a certain period, where they had not only grown greatly in strength but had also gained rich experiences in battle. In particular, they made much progress in the area of decision-making, where they could execute fast judgments when the occasions arose. At the sight of this dragon, they knew that they had met with grave danger. So they speedily changed their formation and arranged themselves in a defensive battle array to put up a stance of fighting this dragon. They attempted to make use of this way to try and force it to leave. However, that dragon¡¯s heart had long been tampered with by the Holy Spirit, who had become Earl Hauss. At this point in time, its mind seemed to be in a whirl. It was not lucid enough to generate clear thoughts. It only wanted to kill and destroy. Who was it that wanted to kill and destroy? Not far away, that group of seemingly powerful humans, who had fallen into formation, seemed to be a very good target! So with a roar, the dragon charged at those villains who had just recently committed the most egregious crimes against humanity, and a fierce battle ensued. Of the two sides, one was a powerful magic beast that had devoured the soul of the Holy Spirit and because even more powerful. The other was a powerful army that was comprised of elite soldiers despite being a small force. It was a vicious battle. Clito and Asner rushed over in a hurry, and this battle was the scene that greeted them. Both sides were obviously very serious about the battle and played hardball with each other. The dragon executed all its means. Roaring, hitting, as well as colliding with anything in its path. These three moves made up the melee ability that this huge dragon was accustomed to using. Every move wielded a powerful might that was certainly not what any mortal could easily withstand. Also, it was constantly casting spells to strengthen its body, and at the same time, it weakened the damage done to it by its enemies. This huge dragon had extraordinary magic power and a strong physique. Although the other side had an advantage in the weight of numbers, they were still the ones falling into a disadvantageous position. As for the aristocratic party¡¯s rapid-mobility troop, though the soldiers¡¯ military strength as individuals were a far cry from the dragon, they still showed no trace of fear. Or rather, even if they were indeed afraid in their hearts, they did not show it in their actions. They worked closely together to bring their skills into full play. Each and every time, they would do their best to render the dragon¡¯s attacks insignificant, or at least do their best to minimize the damage done by this dragon. At the same time, they put in a lot of effort into causing as much damage to this dragon as possible¡ªthough it was certainly very difficult. Within a short moment of a minute or two, the dragon had sustained several wounds, while the cavalry of the aristocratic party had lost many men. At this rate, those villains may soon be defeated and flee in all directions. Clito roughly observed the situation and came to this conclusion. He frowned and looked towards his wife. With an asking look, he asked her about her intentions. Asner¡¯s judgment was no different from that of Clito¡¯s. After a moment of deliberation, she used her magic to transmit the scene before them over to Nice, who was in charge of coordination and backup. She also sent it to Leon, who was in charge of following up and Felix, who was in charge of commanding the army garrison. Then, she drew her sword, which resembled an accessory that aristocrats would wear and use in martial tournaments. ¡°At least keep some of them alive,¡± she said. Clito understood what his wife meant right away. Without another word, he too drew his pair of blades. Taking the lead, he charged right at the dragon that was engaged in a roaring battle. Chapter 851 Chapter 851: Vol V Chapter 211 When Clito and Asner worked together as a couple, they were extremely powerful. They had a good dynamic all along, especially in battle. At the start when they were only mid-ranked, they could already work together to challenge Wall, who had already entered the Legendary Realm. Although they did not win, they were able to sustain the challenge for a decent period of time. Afterwards, they also trained in a secret Kungfu method that was invented by some ancient church and greatly increased the impact of their joined forces. Now that both of them were at the mid-legendary level, if they worked together, other than people like Leon who were at the legendary peak, no one could win against them. That red, giant, dull dragon was no exception. The couple was extremely experienced in war and had already determined through observation that this dragon was around the mid-legendary level. They attacked together with Clito rushing in first like the wind. With that, Asner followed, and at the speed of light, she used her sword to pierce the dragon¡¯s throat. To a normal dragon, such a tactic would not cause death but rather would cause a serious injury. A dragon¡¯s throat was its vital point, and if it were stabbed by a sword, there would be severe damage to the dragon¡¯s body overall. It would not be able to speak, and this was an issue as the dragon would no longer be able to communicate in the strong and mysterious dragon language. This in turn meant they were no longer able to use the dragon language to cast magic. This was a common dragon-slaying method. Asner¡¯s sword, named ¡°Flash,¡± and was made up of shards of meteorite. The entire surface was clear and silvery green. This sword¡¯s material was extremely precious, and it had been stored as a treasure among the largest tribes of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. It was not only manufactured exceptionally but also possessed large amounts of star power. If one was slightly scratched by it, the star power would cause great harm, just like how poison would invade one¡¯s body. While the evil dragon¡¯s body was extremely strong, with one prick of this sword, it was unable to defend itself. It let out a muffled scream, and its whole body shook as if it were about to collapse. ¡°Nicely done!¡± Clito assumed that victory was theirs, and he smiled. The aristocratic knights similarly cheered. ¡°Great!¡± ¡°We¡¯re saved now!¡± ¡°Die, stupid beast!¡± A few of the veterans who were observant recognized Clito and Asner as the male and female legendary duo. One could immediately tell by Asner¡¯s beautiful, golden hair and thin sword as well as pretty boy Clito¡¯s black hair and twin blades. Although they seldom stepped up in the past few years, when they had studied in Garth previously, they had challenged many famous professionals and built a strong reputation. Old veterans would definitely be familiar with their names. ¡°Who are these two people?¡± ¡°Are they Garth¡¯s swordsman couple?¡± ¡°The Three-Sword Combination? Didn¡¯t they retire a long time ago?¡± ¡°No! They¡¯re working in the Republic of Northwest currently. As the nation has good relations with the merchants, they¡¯re here to help them!¡± With these shouts of surprise, the aristocratic knights began to panic. The situation was extremely awkward now. If the evil dragon won, they would definitely perish. However, even if Clito and Asner won, that may not be good for them either. With the evil deeds that they had committed, they still could not accept death. Everyone looked towards where the carriage had been, with the intention of finding Baron Hauss for his advice. Recently, Baron Hauss¡¯ iron style and excellent commanding skills earned him the respect of everyone. This was especially so after the ambush of the merchant knights. Baron Hauss had not only managed to calculate the estimated arrival of the enemy and instructed everyone to make preparations, but he was even a part of the frontline troops and demonstrated a startlingly impressive show of skill. He managed to kill multiple professionals sent by the merchants and with his sword power, eventually managing to wipe out a large group of enemy troops, which in turn greatly lowered their morale. He was seen as the core of this army, and they all believed in him. This crowd was hungry for blood, but even in the most intense situations, they would still look to Baron Hauss for advice. However, Baron Hauss did not appear, and all they saw was a carriage that had now become a pile of garbage. Someone thought about the previous scene and realized that the evil dragon had seemed to emerge from the carriage. This realization made his heart skip a beat. What if¡­ Baron Hauss was not actually human, but has somehow transformed into a dragon? This guess was of course incorrect, but it seemed viable given Baron Hauss¡¯ excellent performance thus far. Fierce, cold, powerful, uninterested in gourmet food and beautiful scenery, only focused on fighting and killing, multiple victories¡­ Were these not apt descriptors of evil dragons? At this very moment, the people conveniently forgot about the dragons¡¯ special traits of greediness and such. The truth was, the biggest characteristic of evil dragons was that they were greedy for wealth. No matter good or evil, all dragons were hungry for glistening coins and treasures. Dragons who were able to suppress this desire were extremely rare. In any case, now that Baron Hauss was absent, the aristocratic knights felt lost and worried. More than one of them began to plan their escape. Naturally, Clito and Asner observed this scene, but they were not worried. Escape? In front of several Legendary Masters? Dream on! Furthermore, among the Legendary Masters present, there was also Nice Parne. She was not only Satan¡¯s disciple but was also Master Felix¡¯s child. With such a background, she was able to gallop in the air while scanning the ground for her targets. It would be almost impossible for someone to escape her gaze by running or riding a horse away. It was just that there was one small problem left to solve. While the evil, red dragon had been injured, it had not yet fallen. As shown from its battle with the aristocratic knights, it was merely at the mid-legendary level and should have been easily defeated by Clito and Asner. Furthermore, this duo¡¯s power exceeded many others among their level and was close to the legendary peak. However, the duo was shocked to realize this dragon¡¯s powers were rapidly increasing, and its ability to survive was extremely strong. Even though they had created such a large wound, the dragon was still not defeated yet! Chapter 852 Chapter 852: Vol V Chapter 212 A silhouette flickered, and a flash of light shot out. The sword sliced the air and pierced straight into the dragon¡¯s throat. There was already a big pool of blood on the floor as the dragon was heavily injured at the hands of Clito and Asner, and these injuries were now compounding. However, its momentum did not slow down but continued to strengthen. This made no sense, but it was happening right before their eyes. Clito and Asner increased alertness and fought carefully, not daring to approach too closely. Legendary-level fights were rather special in the sense that if it were merely a friendly challenge, there may not be a final result even after several days of battle. However, if one wanted to kill, a few rounds would determine the victor as well as life and death. This dragon appeared mysteriously and had not shown much skill, but now, the fact that its momentum had not slowed was already enough to scare Asner and Clito. They slowly approached the dragon again and began a new wave of attacks once they ensured that they were on the same page. With fast movements of blades and sword, within one to two minutes, several new wounds appeared on the dragon¡¯s body and still more fresh blood flowed out. The dragon bellowed furiously with a raspy sound as its throat was already injured. However, there was no sense of panic in its roars. Rather, it sounded proud. However, it was definitely heavily injured, and several of the inflicted wounds were nearly enough to kill. For example, one blade after the other had hit its chest, and there was a wound shaped like the Chinese word for ¡°10.¡± Clito¡¯s black blade had been made by the God of Knowledge, Wall, and was used by him in the past. The blade contained evil demons¡¯ skeletons and was astonishingly strong. It could be used to reduce the evil of enemies in war if the enemies¡¯ hearts were not strong enough to resist it. The white blade was made out of the deceased White Dragon¡¯s horn, and it exhibited special dragon properties through some ingenious engineering. It could let the user defend themselves against dragon magic as well as create extra damage when used on dragons. With the wound inflicted with these two blades, as well as the personal strength of Clito, normal dragons would not be able to survive this blow. By right, it should have died. However, this dragon seemed fine and continued bellowing angrily without any lag. No, rather, it was becoming even more spirited! This was impossible, and yet it was happening before their own eyes. Clito waved his twin blades and used his black blade to resolve the shock wave created by the dragon¡¯s tail. He waved the white blade and used shock waves in the air to attack the dragon¡¯s left eye. This did not work as the dragon immediately closed his eyes, and the shockwave hit its eyelids instead, creating little impact. The sound created was like that of steel hitting steel. How is this even¡­? Its body has become stronger yet again!? Clito was extremely shocked, but he did not relax his stance. With a wave of the white blade, he avoided the shockwave sent out from the dragon¡¯s claws. He used his black blade to call up a circle of black light, creating a pitch-black cloak. Following that, Asner rushed out through this pitch-black cloak, and her silvery green, transparent sword emitted a star-studded ray of light that hit between the dragon¡¯s eyebrows. This was another one of its vital points. Although dragons had strong bones, especially in the head, as long as one could get past that and hit its brain, the dragon would usually die. A few ancient dragons had managed to protect all their vital organs such that their crucial points could not really be seen. However, even so, the ¡°dragon glass¡± in the center of their brains was unable to be hidden. That was the organ used by the dragons to control their flow of magic. Even if there were martial arts dragons who did not use magic, the dragon glass would also be used to control its body movements. If not, the dragon would become a fool who could not even walk, let alone fight. Most dragons¡¯ dragon glass was positioned right behind their eyebrows, hidden behind the strong bones in their heads. Of course, this attack did not have much effect as dragons¡¯ brains were probably the steadiest structures in their bodies. If one could actually pierce through a dragon¡¯s brain and hurt the dragon glass inside, killing it would not be so hard. On the other hand, if one used this method to kill the dragon, damaging the dragon glass would cause the dragon¡¯s carcass to be worth much less and was extremely wasteful. To Asner, ruining the dragon glass was not of concern. Even if her sword did not manage to hurt the dragon¡¯s brain, as long as the dragon glass was damaged, the dragon could still be defeated. With a wave of the sword, the evil dragon¡¯s skin was pierced deeply. At the same time, Asner lightly called out, and a flash of light shot out of the sword again, this time remaining intact for a few seconds as Asner¡¯s body trembled. She was using the maximum energy that she could muster, and the strength pouring out of the sword wrapped around the dragon¡¯s brain. The dragon let out a shrill cry of pain and shook its head furiously, trying to shake Asner off along with the thin sword she was grasping. Did it work? Asner turned around seamlessly in the air and glanced at the dragon. However, although the dragon continued letting out shrill cries, it did not look like it was going to fall anytime soon. It could even wave its claws, causing Clito to take a few more steps back. ¡°How is this possible!?¡± ¡°Is¡­ is it immortal?¡± ¡°We better run¡­¡± Upon watching this scene, Clito and Asner agreed that their chances of defeating the dragon now seemed slim. The onlookers, the aristocratic knights, were of course extremely frightened, and they all trembled with fear. They were vaguely familiar with the crucial points on a dragon¡¯s body and other basic facts. As they looked at this seemingly infallible dragon remaining intact even with its multiple wounds, the knights, who were originally calm and brave, shouted out in fear and began running for their lives. Chapter 853 Chapter 853: Vol V Chapter 213 Towards this seemingly infallible dragon, even Clito and Asner, who were extremely powerful, were at a loss as to what to do. They knew from experience that enemies that seemed immortal were the most troublesome to deal with, and this dragon was no exception. Look at their weapons! The black and white blade duo, the transparent, thin sword, their power combined together was extremely strong¡­ even if they wanted to cut iron or destroy gold, they would have no issue. However, these weapons were all created with the intention of usage against human enemies. Towards this dragon, whose claw alone was bigger than half a human, they were of little use. It was akin to using a toothpick to fight a lion; even if he was pricked multiple times, his skin may barely even have a tear. If they were facing a normal dragon, the situation would not be so terrible. These strong weapons could easily pierce through the dragon scales, which were actually stronger than steel. Then, the weapons could cut open the tough flesh of the dragon to pierce the hard dragon bones and deeply wound the dragon. With a few rounds of that, the dragon would die. However, they were now facing a strange dragon who could stay alive even with its dragon glass pierced! Towards such a strange specimen, Clito and Asner felt that their current level of attack was insufficient and too underwhelming, and this caused them much anxiety. As the duo fought the dragon, many of the aristocratic knights had long escaped. Only about 50 to 60 of them remained, laying on the ground dead or wounded, while the remaining 50 or 60 escaped. Those that did not escape were not reckless but rather, had already lost the conviction to live. To them, since Baron Hauss was allegedly an evil dragon, they had actually been blindly following an evil dragon to kill innocent humans. These sins were unforgivable, and even if they escaped, they would be living as fugitives for the rest of their lives. What was the point of escaping then? They¡¯d much rather stay and watch this battle. At least¡­ they could watch how that bastard dragon was taken care of! As for the knights who had escaped, they also did not have much hope of escaping fate. They just wanted to distance themselves from this dangerous situation, and even if they were to die, at least they wanted to die more peacefully. That was all. The truth was that they were unable to make a full escape. Nice Parne had long noticed their escape attempt and had reported this news to Felix and Night Rain, who had set out to surround these aristocratic knights. They wanted to escape? That wouldn¡¯t be so easy now that they were facing the Republic of Northwest¡¯s knights led by two Legendary Masters. After a while, Clito, seeing as his previous attacks were to no avail, couldn¡¯t stand it any longer and decided to use some special tactics. He had a short discussion with Asner before keeping his twin blades and getting into a strange pose. His breathing quickly slowed down, and it felt like he had suddenly dropped from the legendary level to the advanced level. To maintain his pose, Clito had to stay stationary. As such, Asner stood in front of him and waved her thin sword around, defending Clito from the evil dragon¡¯s attacks. The thin sword was not really useful in such situations, and thus, she had to use much of her own power to set up her defense shield. This was the only way she could fend off the attacks. Asner¡¯s physical strength and energy took a big hit. Originally, she was already not a strength-based warrior and so taking on such a task was extremely tough for her. Luckily, Clito was done with his preparations. With a loud shout, his entire body shot out like an arrow around Asner, in front of the dragon. At the same time, with momentum, his body did not simply return to his original level but also continued rising to the advanced legendary level and beyond. Without saying anything and with no hesitation, Clito hit the dragon¡¯s chest with his fist. Being much smaller than the dragon, who was as big as a mini-mountain, this seemed insignificant. In fact, it seemed like it would not even tickle the dragon, let alone hurt it. The onlookers had blank looks on their faces as they watched this seemingly stupid gesture and were unsure as to what Clito was trying to do. Well, they soon found out. The evil dragon suddenly stopped, and its entire body froze. It stood there, motionless. After about one or two seconds, the dragon let out an angered and surprised roar, and its entire body began to tremble. At the same time, blood began flowing out of its eyes, ears, nose and mouth. The fresh blood, which was of a surprisingly high temperature, converted to scarlet steam as it fell onto the ground and emitted a strong, disgusting odor. ¡°Is he a monk?¡± ¡°Is that immersion?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t he a warrior?¡± The on looking aristocratic knights had many who were knowledgeable, and they could immediately identify Clito¡¯s technique. Everyone was shocked. Being a monk required one to be extremely disciplined. One couldn¡¯t wear armor or use weapons and could only use basic cloth for clothes and one¡¯s own fists to fight. This made them look extremely weak just before they attacked the enemy. In terms of defense, they only needed to duck and swerve well enough, not wearing armor was not a huge issue. However, in terms of attacking, without a weapon and using only their own body and fists, how strong could they be? Thus, the monks invented a special technique to harness one¡¯s ¡°qi¡± to harm the enemy internally and destroy their innards. Strong armor, sturdy dragon scales and thick flesh were all useless when attacks were made internally. The monks thus named this method ¡°immersion,¡± and strong enemies that were attacked often were killed. The issue was that monks needed a strength that was different from the warriors¡¯ fighting strength. This was called ¡°qi.¡± Compared to fighting strength, it was not as intense, but it was more transparent, healing, hidden and overall advantageous. For example, when a monk who trained his ¡°qi¡± entered the advanced realm, he would almost never age and could continue to maintain his youthful body. His old age would only be revealed when he was nearing death. However, if ¡°qi¡± and fighting strength were pitted against each other, the latter would still probably triumph. Clito was a famous warrior, and that was a career that required fighting strength. How did he manage to train his ¡°qi¡± and use the immersion method so well? More importantly, with such a strong act that destroyed one¡¯s innards, would it be enough to defeat that strange, evil dragon? Chapter 854 Chapter 854: Vol V Chapter 214 Many Legendary Masters often dabbled in other professions to find the path that led to the Demigod Realm. By examining other peoples¡¯ paths, they found inspiration to create their own. For example, sword wielder Leon Igor was an extremely powerful patron saint. Even if he did not use fencing or his sword and used his own divinity to fight enemies, he could still defeat many other Legendary Masters. Another example would be Isuka School of Magic¡¯s founder and the revivalist of the Magic Bomber profession, Felix Isuka. He was not just a powerful legendary mage who specialized in fighting but was also a strong paladin. Although he was not very good at concealment, he would not lose to the average paladin in the Legendary Realm in terms of horse-riding, archery and the like. Clito¡¯s side profession was being a monk. Originally, he could not match up to his original standard of sword fighting. However, with enough time, he was able to completely convert his fighting strength to ¡°qi,¡± which caused him to temporarily evolve into a strong legendary monk. He had used this very technique and focused all his energy into immersion and had hit the evil dragon hard. All his power had shot through the dragon¡¯s body like a large and scary bomb, creating an internal explosion within the dragon. This was a special tactic, and the dragon suffered heavily. Everyone noticed that there were chunks of meat that came spewing out along with the dragon¡¯s fresh blood as if parts of its innards had been shed. ¡°This time¡­ the dragon should die!¡± ¡°Its innards are already destroyed; how could it still live?¡± ¡°If it still doesn¡¯t die, it must be immortal!¡± The aristocratic knights chattered amongst themselves excitedly, and the atmosphere lightened slightly. Everyone was of the opinion that no animal could withstand such a strong attack! Either that or the animal did not have any crucial point that could be hit. However, things did not go as predicted. Although the dragon continued bleeding, screaming and vomiting, it did not succumb to death. Instead, after emitting a few cries of pain, it stood steady once again with a deadly look in its eyes. Its body¡¯s stance also seemed to strengthen. ¡°How¡­ how is this possible?¡± ¡°This does not make sense¡­¡± ¡°My goodness!¡± The aristocratic knights shouted out in shock. Even Clito was at a loss for words. Even if it did not die, with such a heavy blow, it should be paralyzed or motionless, how can this be possible? Well, their opinions were not the most important thing here. The fact was that something that they did not believe in had happened right before their very eyes! The dragon had just been dealt an immersion blow by a Legendary Master, but not only did it survive, but it also recovered extremely quickly. What kind of immortal dragon was this? The whole situation was unbelievable! Complaining would not solve the situation, so Clito and Asner took the dragon¡¯s healing time as an opportunity to launch their mightiest attack. Their knives and sword wove together like a giant web and wrapped itself around the dragon. Blood flew and flowed continuously; the dragon continued to yell ferociously. It was too late for it to stop this huge attack. With Clito¡¯s previous attack, even with his ability to stay alive, the dragon had not recovered enough to resist this combined attack. Within ten seconds of being tied up, many new blistering wounds opened up on the dragon¡¯s body, and some of its claws even broke off. However, this was all the victory Clito and Asner would get. Once the dragon managed to fully heal its innards, it glanced at its broken claw and bellowed furiously. With that, its power started increasing rapidly. Although Clito noticed that the dragon was gaining strength, he did not think too much about it and thus suffered for this complacency. He was used to being stronger than his opponents and did not anticipate that he would not be able to match up to the dragon¡¯s strength. The dragon used his strength to send Clito flying like a soccer ball, and he was sent flying backwards. Luckily, Asner was by his side. She immediately flew upwards and caught Clito midair, stealthily turning a few times in the air to get rid of the dragon¡¯s power. Even before she had caught her breath, however, the dragon had already opened his mouth to let out a roar. The roar was accompanied by red hot dragon¡¯s breath. Perhaps it was the dragon¡¯s innate battle abilities or coincidentally good timing, but the dragon managed to capture Clito and Asner¡¯s weak point and was set to inflict some serious injuries on them. Just at this moment, the duo¡¯s saviors arrived. ¡°Stop! Now!¡± With an angry growl, Leon¡¯s voice suddenly rang in the air as he materialized before Clito and Asner. He managed to use his single sword to extinguish all the dragon¡¯s breath without leaving any trace behind. This sword was created out of his own body¡¯s strength and skill. Even so, the sword had surprisingly high amounts of power, which rendered one speechless. Not only would one begin to question their sight and take on life, but they would also think that they were watching miracles take place. The dragon was not so easily stumped. Once he saw that his breath had been extinguished, he immediately bellowed, lowered his head and charged towards Leon. This giant creature¡¯s footsteps were thunderous and devastating as if he could crush all three of the humans at one go. However, Clito and Asner¡¯s facial expressions remained calm and indifferent. If it were just the duo, they may have been more alert. However, they knew that the dragon¡¯s attacks were but child¡¯s play to Leon. Without using his full strength, a wave of Leon¡¯s sword sent the air in front of them twisting and turning. If one were to look closely, one would realize that the air was shaping into a box that encapsulated the dragon. Given enough time, perhaps the dragon could find a way to escape this trap. However, Leon was fast and efficient. With a cold smile, he waved his sword for the third time. A brilliant beam of light shone from the sword, piercing through the box created in the air and hitting the evil dragon directly. The dragon¡¯s movements suddenly halted, and an obvious, giant wound emerged from the top of its head to the bottom of its neck. This time, it seemed like the dragon was finally going to die. Chapter 855 Chapter 855: Vol V Chapter 215 Clearly, legendary peak individuals were extremely powerful. With one attack, Leon was able to slice the seemingly immortal dragon in half. Upon seeing this, Clito and Asner smiled in relief. However, Sui Xiong and Wenner shook their heads as they watched this battle unfold in the sky. ¡°That won¡¯t work,¡± Wenner said. ¡°The real battle has just begun,¡± Sui Xiong added. These two gods¡¯ foresight of course exceeded that of humans and even Legendary Masters. They could tell that this dragon could not be considered a normal dragon, and maybe not even as an animal. According to their recollections, meat that was combined together by magic could not be considered a real animal. Towards such a creature, using typical attack styles was not useful. To really hurt or destroy it, one needed to destroy the magic that held the creature together. Merely inflicting wounds or cutting the physical body of the creature into pieces was useless. If the magic holding the creature together was not removed, no matter how damaged the creature was, it would still be able to recuperate at a rapid speed. Normal injuries would not faze such creatures, and it would be able to harness its healing powers and explore its strength. For example, currently, after being sliced in half with the sword, the dragon realized a bit more of its own strength. Such a move was enough to kill most animals. However, in this case, the cut activated some chaotic souls within the dragon and caused it to regain full consciousness. Of course, even so, it was no longer like its original state when it had been formed and sealed under a demon statue as a red dragon. Now, it had become a half evil, magical dragon after being polluted by the aura of the abyss and having its soul melded with that of patron saints. This dragon¡¯s flesh had originated from Baron Hauss. This mere body of course did not contribute all the flesh. The remaining flesh had been created by magic. This body had originally belonged to a mid-level knight and had been altered by patron saints, nearly crossing into the advanced level. With more magic, it evolved and entered the Legendary Realm. Even so, this body was not strong enough to stabilize the powers inherited from the spirit. Just as how children aren¡¯t strong enough to lift up and wave a sledgehammer around, a body that had just entered the Legendary Realm would not be able to activate its true powers, which were equivalent to that of gods. The dragon was thus able to withstand Clito and Asner¡¯s several attacks and now, Leon¡¯s attack. However, this was all about to end. After a few seconds of regained consciousness, the evil dragon¡¯s first reaction was to let out a ferocious roar of anger. At the same time, powerful magic exploded out from its body. This magic was extremely troubled and chaotic, rendering one speechless and causing one to be full of hate. With the explosion of magic, there was a tremendous shockwave that knocked Leon over. This shockwave was like a tornado that could sweep up seas, sprawling and destroying in all directions. Leon¡¯s eyebrows furrowed, and he waved his sword, creating a shaft of light that acted as a shield for Asner and Clito. As he repeatedly waved his sword in the air, the explosive wind was separated, and a path was created to a safe city. As for the aristocratic knights, none of them had the protection of a Legendary Master and thus had to use their own strength to defend against the dragon¡¯s violent winds. This proved to be futile, and their attempts to create magic pathways and armor were easily dispelled by the wind. Their bodies were promptly whisked away along with their souls. Of course, souls could not be destroyed even if they were massively attacked. The base particles of the soul would be returned to Sea of Souls. In this case, however, the massive damage to the souls would be hard to revive even with Divine Power. Furthermore, with the explosion of the evil dragon, the floor began splitting apart, and sand began swirling in the air in waves. A gust of smoke shot up as well and, accompanied by the dragon¡¯s roars, rose several meters and could be seen from faraway places. ¡°You should leave first,¡± Leon cautioned as he glanced at the dragon engulfed in wind and smoke. He did not flinch but instead waved his hands at his two disciplines to command them to seek shelter. After a moment of thought, he added, ¡°Evacuate everyone else who is present and notify Master Satan about this situation. If possible, request for him to join me here. I may need his help soon.¡± Clito and Asner had just witnessed the ferocity of the dragon¡¯s roar and how it could send several knights flying. Such a shocking scene unnerved them, and the severity of Leon¡¯s warning only served to increase their anxiety. They were not the kind of people who procrastinated and dawdled in such situations. Clito and Asner immediately nodded and used their remaining strength to create two paths of light, tracing back to where they had come from. Within seconds, they disappeared from the scene. Leon and the dragon were left fighting one-to-one on this now empty field. The ground continued splitting until a giant crater appeared in the ground. ¡°I have never met such an opponent before¡­¡± Leon¡¯s eyes were wide open, and he activated a bracelet of some sorts on his left wrist. With the waves of magic, an elegant set of armor appeared on Leon¡¯s body. Azure blue pieces were spliced together to form a dense armor covering Leon¡¯s entire body, and each piece had a gold rune etched onto it. If one observed closely, each rune was different and pieced together; they formed a unique magic array, giving the armor much power. As long as one wore this armor, even children could relax on the battlefield when arrows and bullets were raining down on them. Furthermore, if the wearer of this armor was able to fully utilize its strength, a Legendary Master could even be comparable to that of a demigod. That was not all! The armor¡¯s cloak was even more special. The outer layer of the azure had movements of wind and clouds, making it look like the blue sky in the day. The inner layer was pure black, and it shone brilliantly like the night sky. When the dragon¡¯s created tornado blew in front of this armor, the armor absorbed it. Instead of being blown away, Leon¡¯s cloak shone even brighter now. Right after he donned the cloak, Leon waved his hand, and with a shaft of light, an intricate and exquisite helmet appeared. He put it on, and with the protective cover that came with it and shielded his face, it seemed like Leon¡¯s entire being had been protected. While he stood on the spot, he seemed semi-invisible and untouchable. Finally, he pulled out his own sword. It seemed simple and ordinary but was actually extremely sturdy. On the sword¡¯s two sides, there were several gems that formed a wonderful balance with the runes on his cloak. With the power of this balance, it could enhance Leon¡¯s original powers into horrifyingly stunning attacks. This was the full set of armor that had been created for him personally by Sui Xiong. This set of full armor was so comprehensive and strong that it was named by Sui Xiong as ¡°Void Mask Legacy.¡± Chapter 856 Chapter 856: Vol V Chapter 216 Leon had been extremely careful to wear on his full armor. After its creation, other than trying it on a few times in Sui Xiong¡¯s Holy Kingdom, he had not worn it before in the Human Realm. This was because, in recent years, he had never met an enemy strong enough to require such armor. Normal enemies did not even require him to pull out his personal sword as he could defeat them with a wave of his hands. Even the stronger enemies only required a typical, ordinary sword to defeat. In his hands, any object, even a twig, could be considered holy soldiers¡¯ weapon. A normal long sword was more than enough to win over a range of enemies as long as it did not come into contact with other magical objects. This was the first battle that required him to pull out magical objects to fight. Leo had always thought this was a pity because all strong individuals often desired to fight a good and hard battle against a strong opponent. Many legendary peak and demigod individuals had left the Main Plane as their powers had exceeded the extremes of the Main Plane or because they wanted to be able to fight freely without the restrictions of the Main Plane enchantments. However, as the Church of Void Mask¡¯s Archbishop, Leon could not ever leave. Once he left, the church would have no leader and be thrown into chaos! With this inability to leave, Leon was not really able to find suitable opponents to spar with. Other than the occasional challenge with Wall and other gods of his standard where he had been crushed and lay on the floor like a dead dog, there weren¡¯t many other battles worth mentioning. This fight before him in terms of intensity was still significantly lower than that with gods. However, while gods would show mercy, this evil dragon would not. It was almost guaranteed that Leon would lose to the gods, but even so, they would kindly accompany him to train and help him heal. However, if he lost here, well¡­. One could say that things would be much ¡°simpler¡± in the sense that Leon would simply die with his ashes directly spread over the entire land. However, this high level of danger not only increased Leon¡¯s alertness but also excited him. Towards such a battle against a strong magical creature who could be at the legendary peak or demigod status, Leon finally decided to change into his full armor and decided to have a good ¡°conversation¡± with the dragon in the best way that knights knew how: through a good fight. Although¡­ the results of this ¡°conversation¡± had been decided by fate already. After a while, the evil dragon¡¯s roars finally stopped, and the swirling winds and tornado began to ease. The sand that had been picked up was lowered down, and the giant crater that had been created stopped smoking and became peaceful. In this peace, the evil dragon widened his eyes and eyed Leon, who emitted strength with his armor. Although the dragon¡¯s brain had not fully healed, it could sense that Leon was now several times more dangerous. This battle was also one of life or death for it. In the sky, Sui Xiong and Wenner observed this imminent battle anxiously. ¡°Between Leon and the dragon, who do you think has a higher chance of winning?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Currently, I don¡¯t know. The fight has already progressed to an extremely intense level, and both sides do not have an extremely strong protective boundary. In this case, their levels of attack are about the same and the final decisive battle would probably happen like a strike of lighting, just like how knight stories often put it,¡± Wenner replied. According to such a description, as long as Leon took out his true powers and used his passion for justice, it was possible for him to kill the evil dragon. However, Wenner knew this was not possible in reality. No matter how strong Leon was, he was still a mere human and had limits to the power he could demonstrate. With his level of martial arts, he did not need to face the dragon. As long as he could use his own advantage well, he could fight agilely. Even without a victory, he would not lose too badly as well. Well, at least he would not die. On the ground, the huge crater was like a dry little lake or like a scar left behind by a giant meteorite. In the center of the crater, Leon, in his elegant armor and wielding his sword, faced off against the dragon who was emitting evil vibes. Both sides could increase momentum at any time. With their powers, even if they wanted to raise it to one that shook the entire Main Plane, it was entirely possible. However, they did not do so infinitely as such a battle of momentum would tire one out shortly. This was not physical but mental. Such a battle required much concentration, and for both sides, it was a giant weight on their shoulders. The only thing worth being thankful for is that I did not ride a dragon here!¡± Leon could not help but laugh to himself. If I had done so, that unlikely dragon would have been scared off by this giant dragon¡¯s momentum¡­ Leon¡¯s laugh had been one of amusement and not arrogance, but the dragon misinterpreted it as Leon picking a fight. It thus let out a terrifying roar, and its entire body disappeared and appeared right in front of Leon. It was shocking that that giant body was able to move at such a great speed. However, this did not startle Leon. Leon moved his left leg half a step back, gripped his sword tight with both hands and waved it towards the side. The sword absorbed the force of the dragon¡¯s movements with ease and nearly caused the dragon to collapse on the ground. Previously, the dragon had actually intended to knock Leon over with its speed. Strange, this dragon is not actually that powerful after all! Just as Leon thought that he suddenly sensed great danger. Without further hesitation, his body turned into blue smoke, and right before the dragon¡¯s tail could hit him, disappeared. Right after, his voice appeared beside the dragon¡¯s neck, and the sword he had been gripping in his hands hit the dragon¡¯s neck hard like an axe cutting a tree. The dragon let out a cry of pain and anger. The scales on its neck reflected light like a rainbow, and it looked like circles within circles, just like ripples of water. Leon had already taken a few steps back, enough for him to make a quick escape if necessary. Such an attack did not have much strength to Leon¡¯s surprise. To ensure his own safety and for victory, Leon felt that he should just take a step back first. He felt that he should escape this crater and at least find a piece of flat land to fight better. The ground in the crater was a little shaky, and it affected the way he inflicted his moves. On flat line, Leon would be more steady and powerful. As he thought, Leon rushed out of the crater and stood outside of it in a fighting stance, waiting. ¡°I didn¡¯t get to execute my move brilliantly just now, so let¡¯s try again! Come over here and meet me!¡± Leon¡¯s voice rang brilliantly in the air in the direction of the dragon. Chapter 857 Chapter 857: Vol V Chapter 217 With a loud rumble, the ground began to shake, and numerous cracks appeared on the ground¡¯s surface. The biggest crack was big enough for a human to fall in! It was sized such that if one were lucky, he would be able to climb out. However, with the ground falling apart, he would probably fall into another crack right away. This was Leon and the dragon¡¯s fighting ground, and this devastation of the ground had been their combined effort. The first one to blame for the destruction would be the dragon, as he was stronger than Leon but not as accurate. When he attacked, Leon could focus his attack to where he wanted it to go, but the dragon could only aim within a certain range. Every time it attacked, even if it did not manage to hit Leon, the surrounding ground would be destroyed. Leon would only cause destruction around him when his attacks failed. A demigod¡¯s powers were unlike others, and their attacks often shook the ground like a natural disaster even when they did not fail or hit the ground directly. The ground had not yet become a full crater only due to the fact that the Main Plane was protected. If this was another world, it could have been reduced by a few miles and become a crater that resembled a deep, underground prison. Light flashed in the air, and a large earth element with earthy grey wings flew in the air and observed the ground. This was Goddess Gaia¡¯s Oracle, sent here to observe the unusual changes on land. It immediately observed the presence of Sui Xiong and Wenner and was shocked. Its stance immediately changed to one of spirituality and majesty. Goddess Gaia used her Oracle as a medium to fragment herself. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We¡¯re observing the situation, nothing disastrous will happen.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and waved his hands. Goddess Gaia relaxed upon hearing his words, then nodded and transformed into countless glowing spots. These spots, however, did not disappear, but rather re-gathered in the air to form an earthy yellow shield about the size of a human palm. Once Sui Xiong accessed it and held it in his hands. Once he had swept it with divine thought, he immediately understood its usage. This was an attrition-based magical tool that acted as a Divine Shield of great power. It was just that the power it could hold was limited and depleted quickly. Unless one specialized in earth or earth elements type of priesthood so as to replenish strength, after blocking four or five attacks at the legendary level or above, it would be useless. It would be totally demolished into nothing. ¡°Interesting!¡± Sui Xiong praised the shield and tried to add his powers to it. Sui Xiong of course was familiar with its strength. After destroying the legacy of the Sun God previously, there was little that he did not know about realm power. He had also trained with the treasure left behind by God of Virtue and had increased his knowledge further beyond that of realm power and priesthood. The God of Virtue had great Divine Power, and his power was all-encompassing. There was little about realm power and priesthood that he was unaware of. One could say that although he only controlled goodness as his priesthood, other than evil, he was able to control almost all other realms and priesthoods. It was very complicated, but in summary, he was even able to use goodness to overcome evil without affecting other realms or priesthoods. Sui Xiong was not as strong, but given a god-to-be object, he would be able to use it well. First, a pale-yellow light shone, and this was the earth¡¯s power. This light transformed slowly into fire, water, wind and finally turned into a warm white light, which represented the way of goodness. Currently, Sui Xiong¡¯s niche was the goodness realm. Among the changes in light, the shield continually changed color and shape as well. Finally, in the white light, it stabilized into a new shape and became a small decorative object that was pure white and about four to five centimeters tall. Now, its usage was similar to before, but the only change happened at the root of it where its Divine Power capacity now increased tenfold. Using an object from Sui Xiong¡¯s previous world as an analogy, the original shield was like a 3.2GB thumb drive that had now evolved into a 1TB hard drive. The God of War, Wenner watched this transformation with interest before finally nodding and praising, ¡°Nice work!¡± He was extremely sincere with his praise. As someone who controlled wars and war weapons, Wenner of course could have been able to adjust that shield as well. But to do it as casually as Sui Xiong would be impossible for him. Even if Wenner had tried personally, it would not be possible for the shield to transform so dramatically as well. The transformation itself was not complicated, and Wenner understood the theory behind it but did not have enough strength to alter it. As many people knew, as long as water was sprayed at a fast-enough speed, normal running water could convert into a shockingly powerful knife that could cut objects. However, without a full and complete system, plainly using the tap that the water had flowed from and a plastic tube would not create such a tool, as the pressure would not be enough even if one pressed the tube hard. However, Wenner did not care much about this. He knew all along that Sui Xiong was extremely skilled, and finding out that Sui Xiong¡¯s skills exceeded him was not shocking at all. Sui Xiong kept the tool and refocused his attention to the ground where Leon and the dragon were still battling. The battle had reached a stagnant stage where both sides were fighting hard, and the winning and losing sides could not really be identified. If one were to look purely at strength, Leon of course was the loser. However, he had many magical objects with him that greatly increased his strength, especially the sword which had unique powers. Every time he used his sword to slice the dragon, it decreased the dragon¡¯s powers. It was a pity that Leon¡¯s enhanced strength was still lower than that of the dragon, and although he managed to slice the dragon several times, the results did not add up to much. This battle was likely to require several days and nights to determine a winner! On the other hand, it was not like the dragon was infallible. Its battle tactics were not smart, and it got swayed by Leon¡¯s martial arts. Nevertheless, with power as its advantage, every move the dragon made was shocking. Even with his armor that defended Leon greatly, as long as he was hit, Leon felt a great impact and sometimes even lost his abilities for three to five minutes. During this time, he could only dodge and hide. If the dragon could find an opportunity to fire off a massive attack, it would be able to destroy Leon¡¯s fighting abilities completely and activate the life automaton on his armor, sending Leon back to Sui Xiong¡¯s God Kingdom with a ray of light. That would have little meaning, however, unless Sui Xiong sent Leon back healed and ready again. This battle had been unfair from the start. Leon was like a hobbyist who had come to challenge an extraordinarily powerful creature. Perhaps his skills were just not good enough to send the creature back to where it had come from. If he continued to train and expand his experience, he could probably kill this creature in the future. Chapter 858 Chapter 858: Vol V Chapter 218 The sky turned dark as Leon and the dragon¡¯s battle continued. It had already been half a day. They had started around 3pm in the afternoon, and it had been about five hours. To a normal person, such a long battle would deplete their energy completely. However, to the two parties, this was not much. If this was a workout, this would only count as a warmup to them. When Legendary Masters were fighting, it was common for the battle to last a few days. As a legendary peak master, for Leon, as long as he was willing, he could fight for a few months without stopping. As for the dragon, it had not even shown its true powers yet. As the sky turned dark, nature affected the power of both sides. Darkness and evil began to claim the upper hand. With this, the dragon¡¯s powers also increased. It was not that the dragon was similar to other lowly Magic Beasts who were weak in the day and strong at night. It was more like at nightfall, it became more alert and conscious. Holy Spirits¡¯ soul pieces, the evil dragon¡¯s soul, and the aura of the Abyss had created this dragon. It was beginning to familiarize and control its strength, transforming from a ¡°combined being¡± into a whole being. In terms of the battle, it began to control its powers better. When attacking, the dragon was also more accurate and did not hit the ground with each strike. Of course, this was disadvantageous to Leon, and he had to fight even harder now. Yet, instead of feeling threatened, Leon was even more excited. He had always wanted to challenge a demigod. Although the dragon showed signs of demigod power before, it had been rather sporadic, and there had been nothing much for him to learn from. However, now, as the dragon began to harness its full power, it gave Leon some food for thought. The increased hardship was nothing to him in exchange for knowledge! Leon also knew that he would definitely not be alone in battle. After a short period of time, Master Satan, who was also at the legendary peak, would come to aid him. Actually, Satan had already arrived and was simply waiting for the right chance to start his attacks. Furthermore, for other legendary peak masters, they would definitely rush over to watch or help once they heard that one of their kind was fighting a demigod monster. How could one move from the legendary peak to demigod? This was something all legendary peak masters considered. All who were at this stage already possessed high levels of thought and intelligence, but to complete the last step from ¡°human¡± to ¡°god¡± was something they were always puzzled about. If one were to complete this last step, they would successfully step into the immortal stage as a god. However, if they failed, it was almost guaranteed that they would die. They all would definitely prefer to engage with or as demigods under safer conditions. Through this battle, they could understand more about demigods and prepare for their own journey. With greater understanding, they would be more likely to be successful. On the other hand, by participating in such battles, they could also increase their understanding of their own power and develop their weaknesses. Leon thus could bet that this solo battle would become a group one very soon. As he predicted, once the moon had risen from the east through the thick clouds and the first beam of moonlight shone down, someone else intervened in the battle. That beam of moonlight was supposed to be harmless, but as it shone down, a sort of chilly atmosphere descended upon the dragon. The dragon had not expected an ambush, and the second it was stunned, Leon took the chance to slice it with his sword fiercely. With such a strong attack, Sui Xiong¡¯s personally created sword glowed and was akin to a laser beam, tearing through at least two to three meters of the strong scales and skin of the dragon. This caused a one-meter-wide wound. Not only that, but green and white smoke also rose from the wound. This was the diminishing of the dragon¡¯s internal energy with the emergence of the wound. With its strength, the dragon was usually able to self-heal any kind of wound. However, the previous period of battle, along with this new wound, caused the self-healing to slow down and increased overall damage on the dragon. This was definitely harmful to the dragon, and it let out a pained roar. The dragon¡¯s body emitted black smoke like fire and charcoal. Leon had not anticipated this and was hit by this smoke. He was lucky that his armor gave him strength, and Leon was only pushed back about 10 meters with little injury. Although Leon was not hit, others were. With a cry of pain, a skinny body suddenly flew out from the battleground and hit the ground clumsily after flying for 40 to 50 meters, looking extremely pitiful. This was a legendary-level thief with high levels of stealth and concealment. He had been hiding underground, most likely waiting to give the dragon a strong attack but had not been able to do so before being affected himself. As he lay on the floor moaning, it was clear that he was badly injured. It was lucky that there were other onlookers. With a flash of red light, a thick brute rushed over and lifted him up, leaving the place quickly with a few big strides. After they had distanced themselves from the battle scene, an old man in white robes used his powers to heal the thief and sucked out the evil power that had hit him. The dragon of course noticed these new people who had appeared. Although it did not recognize them, its gut told the dragon that these people were not as strong as Leon, who was small but good at defense. It felt that it would be easier to beat them. It thus flapped its wings, intending to fly up and attack the onlookers. Leon predicted the dragon¡¯s next move and shouted loudly, summoning up a new sword. He quickly cut off one of the dragon¡¯s wings. The dragon did not require wings to fly, but this caused it to be in great pain and greatly angered it. Evil dragons were naturally irrational creatures. Furthermore, this dragon had been affected by the evil realm and was not thinking straight. In a fit of rage, the dragon abandoned his original plan and refocused his efforts back into fighting Leon. ¡°Ah! Leon is really clever. If he were to live in the mountains, he¡¯d definitely outsmart all the local bandits and brutes!¡± In the sky, Sui Xiong laughed to himself as he observed this scene. Chapter 859 Chapter 859: Vol V Chapter 219 The group attacking the dragon was now comprised of eight people. The frontline individual was of course Leon as he was the best skilled. He was of a much higher level than the other legendary peak individuals. Most of the others only had advanced level magical tools or certain legendary objects. As long as they possessed one or the other, they considered themselves lucky. On the other hand, Leon¡¯s armor and tools were fully magical. The truth was that any god who saw his attire would be jealous as he was using only advanced, magical items and was very well-equipped for danger. It was a pity that most of these items were too powerful for most people and would bring upon them unnecessary burdens. Sui Xiong had efficiently compacted the powers in this armor for Leon to use it comfortably. If these objects really showcased their full power, the dragon would mean nothing to Leon. Even so, with this limited armor, Leon could still face the dragon well. The dragon¡¯s attacks were shockingly powerful, and the armor was not enough to completely prevent Leon from taking hits. However, Leon was more skilled in martial arts, and in exchanging blows, the dragon took more hits while Leon only got hit occasionally. With the help of the armor, he was able to withstand these rare hits. If he got hit more than he could stand, others on the team would help to distract the dragon and reduce the burden on Leon. This was a common tactic in games where the assistants would help out the leader and allow the leader to rest. It was just that Leon, as the leader here, was extremely powerful and could mostly take care of himself. As a legendary peak swordsman and a mid-legendary level pontifex, Leon was very skilled in healing. As long as you gave him the time it took to sing a few lines of a song, he could demonstrate strong healing abilities. He was able to allow one to go from lying on the floor in a pool of blood to a healthy individual who could hop around freely. For example, he did so on a berserker. This berserker was one who had been hit earlier on. Berserkers¡¯ attack powers were undoubted, but defense had always been their weakness. Towards a seemingly immortal dragon, they were definitely disadvantaged. This berserker had just found his chance to activate his explosive powers and had raised his own attack power to three times of that of the original. He had nearly used an axe to cut off the dragon¡¯s leg. However, he had been too close to the dragon and was sprayed by toxic fumes that burned him from head to toe. If he had not run away fast enough, he definitely would have disintegrated on the spot. Although he escaped in time, he was badly injured, and Leon quickly tried to heal him. The healing was not very helpful, however. Although his burns were healed, the evil powers were still trapped inside him and were not defused. Leon was helpless here as he was short of time. If he had more time, say, the length of a song, he would be able to clear this as well. However, he had to continue defending himself against the dragon and could not afford any more time. Luckily, there was a mid-legendary level priest who was able to heal the berserker because he was not on the frontline like Leon. To prevent the dragon from coming up with more tactics, Leon increased his attacks to force the dragon to concentrate on him. With the clash of sword and toxic fire, the two continued to fight to their deaths. The dragon fought tooth, claw and nail against Leon¡¯s sword, bringing gusts of wind and used Dragon language spells to increase his power. Its power continued rising, especially that of his healing abilities. Its leg, which had been sliced earlier, was almost as good as new now. Its throat, which had first been attacked at the start, was also fully healed. With the help of Dragon language spells, its attacking abilities also increased. If Leon had not improved as well, the battle would have been over. Leon was fully focused, and he did not dare to lose his attention on the dragon for a second. His entire being was shrouded by a shadow, and he was agile in front of the dragon. If he could escape, he did. If he could not hide in time, he used his armor to deflect the attack. At the same time, he maintained his balance and speed to prevent himself from being bound by the attacks. Currently, to Leon, these two factors were key. If he could pace himself, he would not lose. As for winning¡­ Unless he could suddenly be inspired and enter the Demigod Realm, that would be tough. He could already feel the changes in the dragon even though it was small and gradual, and they made him anxious. This was of course the dragon¡¯s process of completing his soul¡¯s creation and its dispelling of the original Holy Spirits¡¯ powers. Although this power was not as complete as before, the leftovers were still that of the demigod level. The advantage of demigods over the legendary peak was easy to see. One could see this evidently through the example of a faraway paladin and mage¡¯s attacks. These two professionals had originally successfully pierced through the dragon¡¯s defense and inflicted significant damage. However, with the dragon¡¯s changes, their attacks slowly decreased in effect. Theoretically, legendary-level power was still effective even unto gods, but the level of effectiveness was questionable. Even the weakest demigod could use their own skills to decrease and control the level of harm inflicted on them, and even magic used by legendary peak masters would be discounted. For greater gods, even if legendary peak masters fought to the best of their abilities, they would not be able to hurt the gods faster than the gods healed themselves. It was lucky that the dragon was not that powerful. After being hit yet another time, Leon took a few frantic steps back and hid. At the same time, he prayed. White light shone onto him and healed some of his wounds. He intended to rush up again but suddenly felt his ear twitch and heard a message from Master Satan. Master Satan, who had arrived a while ago, had been preparing a strong hand to attack the dragon. Now, he was done with his preparations and was connecting with Leon to ask him to lure the dragon into the trap Satan had set. Great! At the end of the day, friends still have your back, Leon thought to himself happily. Leon felt happy but did not show it on his face. Actually, even if he had, it would not have made a difference as his helmet hid his face. He waved his long sword around, and this sword emitted a blinding light as if the sun had entered the ground. He heavily sliced down on the dragon¡¯s swishing tail. With a loud crash, the dragon drew back its tail. Leon followed suit by taking a few steps back, acting as if he could not continue the battle any longer and ran towards a random new direction. The dragon was fully consumed with a vengeance and chased Leon in pursuit without further thought. Chapter 860 Chapter 860: Vol V Chapter 220 As Leon ran and the dragon chased, they traveled outward for about ten miles. From the sky, one could see that they had entered a huge magic array and were headed towards the center of it. To the two of them, who were both running for their lives, the many drains, stones and twigs on the floor did not affect their speed at all. Well, at least not for the dragon. ¡°It seems like this battle will soon be over.¡± Wenner smiled and nodded slightly. Sui Xiong smiled back in return and was about to reply, but instead furrowed his eyebrows. A strange sort of gut feeling overcame him, and he knew that things would not go as smoothly as they seemed. He glanced at Wenner with uncertainty, trying to get an answer from him. Wenner paused as well. He had previously felt that the war was about to end and that the dragon would be killed. However, after just a short period of time, this instinct had changed. It was almost like fate had just been altered, and whatever was supposed to happen would now change. ¡°Is someone taking action secretly in the background?¡± Wenner muttered to himself and shook his head. ¡°Impossible! I am the God of War; I would know if anyone was up to no good in this battle!¡± ¡°Maybe it is someone else who also controls the area of war. There are quite a few other gods who can do so,¡± Sui Xiong guessed. ¡°Even so, they would not be able to go over my head. For me to not detect their actions is impossible!¡± Wenner replied confidently. Sui Xiong shook his head and said nothing further. After all, the reality was just so, even if Wenner refused to admit it. If there was really someone taking action without their knowledge, this person¡¯s abilities were definitely strong, and this was worrying. To be able to determine a battle¡¯s results as well as to lurk in the vicinity of Sui Xiong and Wenner without being detected¡ªthat was some feat! Just as they talked, the duo on the ground had already entered the core of the magic array. That was a flat surface covered with white stones, and a white-haired old man in star-like robes stood within the numerous rocks. As he watched their arrival, he smiled and raised the magic wand in his head, reading mantras to activate his magic. In an instant, blinding white light shot out from the ground through every crack and detail in the magic array, transforming the entire array into a white sea. This was extremely vast, and it was as if the three of them had left the Main Plane to the outside of the world. Here, it was full of goodness and light, where good living creatures could be at peace: a haven. Due to the intensity of Positive Energy, there were many glimmering angels and other little creatures that had been created. They cheered and sang songs, increasing the Positive Energy of the magic array. In this sea filled with goodness, Sui Xiong also felt extremely comfortable, and the wounds he had suffered from in battle were instantly healed. His powers were also increasing, and his spirits lifted. On the other hand, the dragon did not fit in here as this was not its realm. Entering this vast sea filled with goodness was like being dipped in concentrated acid. Not only was the dragon severely disturbed and shocked, but its powers were also depleted and its soul was damaged. To the dragon, this was the most dangerous thing as it would lose its demigod strength and be demoted to the legendary peak level if its soul were to be depleted to a certain extent. If it reached that point, facing many other legendary peak masters, it would not be able to defend itself and would be cut up into many pieces, possibly facing death. Clearly sensing the danger it was in, the dragon let out an angry roar, and dark red flames shot out from its body. These flames were like water meeting fire when coming into contact with Positive Energy. With a hissing sound, they began to extinguish the Positive Energy. Within a minute, with such a method, the dragon had already eliminated a fair amount of Positive Energy to earn itself a short break. It did not hesitate and flapped its wings in an attempt to fly out of this trap. However, even before it had left the ground, Leon hit it with his strongest attack yet. This time, Leon¡¯s sword was not only glowing, but his armor as well. Blinding white light engulfed the entire array and made him stronger. Furthermore, the nature of his strength was also now changing. In the Positive Energy environment, Leon had a huge advantage. His body was now able to withstand more shocks than before. Although the armor was not capable of independent thought, it still had a soul. This soul could clearly sense Leon¡¯s state and allowed him even more capabilities. Leon himself could also feel this change and understood that the armor was now stronger than before. It was not that the armor was weak before, but its nature had now changed. No, rather than saying that the armor had changed, it was more that it had adapted to suit Leon, who was the one changing in nature. Leon continued to shout and was just about to carry out his strongest attack when his heart suddenly became empty, and he entered a strange state. It was as if everything in front of him had disappeared, be it the Positive Energy magic array or the dragon he was about to kill. He felt like he was floating in a sea of emptiness, where nothing else existed. It felt like everything was within reach; as long as he wanted to, he could do anything he desired. In an instant, the emptiness vanished, and his sword hit the dragon¡¯s head had. The sword met with the strongest bones in the dragon¡¯s head. However, the sword seemed to have lost its power and did not slice open the dragon¡¯s brain or even cut through any dragon scales. However, this attack was still visibly strong, and it momentarily blocked the dragon¡¯s escape attempt. At the same time, Satan pushed the magic array, and white light flashed toward the center from all directions, joining with the Positive Energy to become stronger. The dragon let out an angry roar, and red flames rose from its body yet again. However, this time, the flames were no longer able to fully extinguish the Positive Energy around it. More importantly, powerful pressure had begun to float down from the sky, and after executing his attack, Leon did not land back on the ground but was suspended in midair, still holding his magical sword. His gaze was a little dazed and unfocused, but with every wave of his sword, strong power descended from the sky, landing heavily on the dragon¡¯s head, not allowing him to fly up. The dragon could only stay on the ground and let the Positive Energy eat away at him. If this continued, the evil dragon would definitely be wiped clean of his strength and could only wait for death. Chapter 861 Chapter 861: Vol V Chapter 221 Leon¡¯s sudden demonstration of power delighted Satan. Satan had originally planned for this array as a helping tool to allow legendary peak masters to have a desirable fighting ground. The dragon did not seem too intelligent, but it was not stupid enough to be wiped out in the array. However, Leon had surprising Satan and forced the dragon to stay in the core of the array where Positive Energy flowed from all directions and depleted its energy quickly and rapidly. Satan felt that victory was sure and near and that it would happen anytime soon. On the other hand, in the sky, Sui Xiong and Wenner¡¯s brows furrowed at the same time as they both felt that something was amiss. ¡°This isn¡¯t right! Your Archbishop¡¯s conditions aren¡¯t right, there¡¯s a sort of Divine Power rising through his blood!¡± Wenner spoke directly through divine thought as he felt that words were too slow. Sui Xiong had of course noticed this too, and he did not speak. Instead, he continued to glance at Leon who was continually hitting the dragon. He knew that with Leon¡¯s abilities, this was normally impossible. The dragon was of the demigod level. Even if his skills were somewhere between legendary and demigod due to his injuries, he was still stronger than Leon even with Leon¡¯s armor and fighting skills. Such a scene was simply impossible! To be fair, there was nothing that was truly impossible; most things normally had a good explanation for them even if they seemed to be ludicrous at first, for example, this seemingly impossible case of Leon¡¯s power suddenly increasing exponentially. Now, this increase was becoming unnatural and shocking to watch. If he was just stepping from the legendary peak to the Demigod Realm, there shouldn¡¯t be such a huge increase in power! As Sui Xiong observed Leon, his soul¡¯s tactile sensations had fully developed and were ready to attack anytime. Normally, when one moved from the legendary peak to the demigod level, one¡¯s powers would not increase in the short term but rather decrease. This was because when one¡¯s soul underwent an upgrade, it needed lots of energy to stabilize its divinity. This process of stabilization used a huge amount of energy and even stored energy may not be enough. It was only after a period of time that one¡¯s power would reinstate and increase to exceed the level it was at for the legendary peak, truly entering the Demigod Realm. For this case where Leon¡¯s power surged, it was definitely abnormal. There was only one circumstance in which this would happen, which was when one¡¯s divinity was already stable enough and did not require extra energy from the body. Under what circumstance could this possibly be so? Well, only when one had already entered the God Realm for many years, which would have meant that one¡¯s soul had stabilized long ago. Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes narrowed, and murderous thoughts began to rise in his head. He could clearly sense a second presence hiding within Leon¡¯s soul, which was slowly surfacing. ¡°This must be the God of Eagle¡­ what a ¡®dog egg¡¯!¡± Sui Xiong yelled, murderously. ¡°This Wuther always does things half-heartedly, I should have extinguished him from the start so he wouldn¡¯t have a chance to resurrect!¡± Wenner smiled and did not say a word. Previously, during the battle when the God of Light had bombed and killed the God of Eagle, Wuther had been an onlooker. At that time, the God of Eagle had depended on the legends of the Eagle Kingdom¡¯ Association troops as well as the Orc Empire to attain great Divine Power. The God of Eagle had been extremely confident and challenged the God of Light, wanting to fight for the title of the next Master God of the Human God System. The God of Light had originally refused to accept this challenge as he felt that it was rare for someone new to reach great Divine Power, and that this should be welcomed. If the God of Eagle really wanted to be the system¡¯s Master God, he could first try other administrative or leadership roles. After 200 to 300 more years, the gods of the Human God System would then discuss this matter again. This was a very reasonable explanation of the situation, but the God of Eagle was disagreeable. In the end, out of rage, God of Light took up the challenge and battled hard with God of Eagle. Strictly speaking, one would not even call it a battle. While the God of Eagle was not weak, the God of Light was still definitely stronger. After a short period of time, the God of Eagle was hit hard on the brain by the God of Light and was defeated on the spot. This was an extremely hard hit! While the God of Eagle had newly acquired great Divine Powers and was riding on the legacy of other powerful individuals, with such a hit, he was completely defeated. The God of Eagle had fallen down and could not regain his composure, let alone crawl back up. Indeed, it was instant death. Wenner had been secretly shocked. It went without saying that he would be able to defeat the God of Eagle as well, but as to whether he would be able to kill God of Eagle was another matter entirely. Furthermore, the God of Light had killed him with a single strike! That was another level entirely! It was undeniable that the God of Light was stronger than Wenner, and there was a great difference in strength at that. However, the God of Eagle did not die so easily. Before he passed on, he had made plans to preserve his existence in his blood. When he was still a human, he had also left several children and grandchildren in the Human Realm. His body was carried down by generations who continued to procreate and had created a huge system on its own, which was scattered everywhere in the world, especially in the Eagle Kingdom. Amongst the royalty of the Eagle Kingdom were all his direct kin. At that time, he had professed that he would fight with the God of Light again someday in order to once again challenge him for the title of the next Master God of the Human God System. From then till now, a few thousand years had already passed. The countries that had existed in the past had all fallen other than the Eagle Kingdom. The God of Eagle¡¯s younger generations continued to rule the Eagle Kingdom, yet no one was developed or strong enough to allow the God of Eagle to resurrect. His faith was also slowly diluting within the kingdom due to the God of Eagle¡¯s lack of presence, and the national religion was eventually replaced by the God of Knight¡¯s faith. Wenner had always assumed that the God of Eagle would never have the chance to resurrect. However, it was clear now that that assumption was false. In Leon¡¯s soul, one could clearly see the God of Eagle¡¯s shadow. It was clear that he wanted to fulfill the promise he had made before and was going swallow Leon and resurrect. The problem was that he had chosen the wrong target. Wenner shook his head and sighed for the unlucky God of Eagle. Of all people, he had to choose the Church of Void Mask¡¯s Archbishop! Did he not know that the protection of the Void Mask was unbeatable? The God of Eagle wanted to swallow Leon? He faced a higher chance of being beaten to death! On the other hand, one couldn¡¯t really blame the God of Eagle. After all, he had disappeared for a few thousand years and wouldn¡¯t know any better¡­ Suddenly, Wenner¡¯s heart lurched, and he asked meaningfully, ¡°If the God of Eagle wants to resurrect, he needs a large amount of faith. Does this mean Eagle Kingdom has converted back to his faith?¡± Sui Xiong was then stunned as well. He then used the clone he had left behind in Void Mask City to create yet another clone to visit the Eagle Kingdom¡¯s capital city, Eagle Wing City, through the transmission formation. As accurately predicted by Wenner, in Eagle Wing City, he saw the God of Eagle¡¯s priests preaching on the street about his powers and bravery, as well as announcing his return. Sui Xiong thus smiled in a rather warm way, seeing as the God of Eagle¡¯s return was rather harmless albeit slightly shady. Chapter 862 Chapter 862: Vol V Chapter 222 Leon was unsure what exactly had happened to him. He had just felt high morale and that his strength had continually increased. With these two factors, he had waved his magic sword repeatedly, each stroke getting stronger, on the dragon¡¯s head. This was how Leon managed to keep the creature, which was a few times bigger than him on the ground, where the dragon was unable to fly up. To prevent the sword from losing strength, he habitually crossed the sword and used the sword ridge as a fly swatter, as if he was really about to swat a giant fly. Compared to the analogy, though, it was just that the ¡°giant fly¡± here in this analogy was not actually a fly but rather a giant, evil dragon. Watching him wave his ¡°fly swatter,¡± the dragon could only roar continuously but was unable to escape. All it could do was rage and throw a temper tantrum. It was continually hit with waves of magic by Master Satan as well, which was shooting at the dragon from all directions. Many Legendary Masters who had rushed here from various different lands to watch this battle looked on in shock and admiration. ¡°Wow! This is crazy! Two legendary peak masters under Church of Void Mask combined together really create such power!¡± ¡°Truly, the next generation really transcends the previous one! They¡¯re both only a few hundred years old but are already so powerful¡­ what have we been doing for the last thousand years!? With so little experience and at such a young age, they are able to do what most of us can¡¯t!¡± ¡°It seems like they do not require further assistance. It would be fulfilling if we could join in, but the two of them combined together are more than enough to defeat the dragon, what a pity¡­¡± ¡°Well, a little help is still help. We can still participate to hasten the process.¡± The Legendary Masters had a short discussion amongst themselves before coming to a consensus. It was true that Satan and Leon were capable of defending against and attacking the dragon themselves. However, with their help, they could assist Satan and Leon a little even if they did not really need it, to cause the dragon to die faster. This would also reduce the danger the duo was facing as the Legendary Masters could help with distraction or to protect Leon and Satan. They thus walked into the magic array, absorbing its Positive Energy for healing purposes while slowly inching towards the battleground and making preparations to attack. However, they did not take any tangible action yet. The battle was intense, and they did not have an opportunity to jump in. If they were reckless and did not follow proper timings, they may even meddle with Satan and Leon¡¯s efforts, giving the dragon a chance to escape. They had spent lots of effort and energy just to successfully trap the dragon in the Positive Energy array. If they messed it up, they would really lose face in front of these masters! That would be adding fuel to the fire rather than providing any valuable help. Among these Legendary Masters, the latest to step into the Legendary Realm had done so a few thousand years ago. They thus could all be considered to have been in this realm for a long, long time. If they messed up in front of two juniors who were only a few hundred years old this time, even if they were to survive the battle, their lost face would tarnish their reputation forever. They thus waited patiently till the berserker took action between Leon¡¯s attacks. With a giant roar, he rushed forward with a tomahawk that was glowing blood red and hit the dragon hard. This was a hard hit, especially as the dragon¡¯s defenses were already down from the Positive Energy washing over it. With such a blow, many scales on its body disintegrated at once, and its flesh was torn in huge chunks. Fresh blood poured down its left leg, showing that he was badly injured. Previously, this may not have been a big deal to the dragon, and it probably would have healed within a few breaths, with ease. However, in this array that sucked up its energy, its revival powers were greatly affected, and it could not heal itself quickly. It would probably take more than a day to recover from this injury. In this case, the other Legendary Masters quickly saw their chance as well. They were mostly legendary peak masters and had much experience in battle after going through numerous wars and expeditions. Almost everyone had slain a dragon before and understood the dragon breed roughly. They thus all took turns to attack between breaks of Leon¡¯s attack and aimed all their blows at the same injured leg. The dragon was slowly dying down as it was continuously attacked and even his actions become slower. It was simply impossible for it to retaliate. Occasionally, the dragon could only roar or spit out some poisonous flames in hopes of toxifying its enemies to death. This was actually a rather famous move, and yet all the veterans present were already familiar in dealing with this known attack as long as they had slain a dragon before or were knowledgeable about dragons¡¯ body constitution. The dragon spit out several flames, but the Legendary Masters dodged them easily. The poison within the dragon¡¯s flames were all extinguished and purified by the Positive Energy before they could really affect the Legendary Masters, rendering them useless. On the other hand, with the consecutive attacks by the Legendary Masters, the dragon¡¯s injuries continued to increase. In the end, while it was unclear which blow was the last straw, the dragon¡¯s left leg finally could not stand its weight further and broke in half with a horrifying snap. With one broken leg, it was almost like a death sentence had been accorded to the dragon there and then. It let out a depressed roar but did not become weak but rather became fiercer, making attempts to retaliate crazily. However, Leon did not give it a chance to actually retaliate. Cleverly, he spun his sword in several directions at opportune times and planned to take the dragon¡¯s life directly! It was a good chance to end this battle once and for all. The sword gave off a vindictive, strong energy, and Leon seemed to have a fiery and fierce Doi Qi airflow, which differed greatly from that of Sui Xiong. Leon did not notice this, and he simply continued to gather his Dou Qi airflow, thrusting it continuously into the magic sword to increase its strength. With the increase of Dou Qi airflow and Divine Powers, the magic sword glowed brilliantly. In the sea of white light, a shadow with wings materialized. At the same time, another pair of wings appeared indistinctly behind Leon. This was Eagle Kingdom¡¯s ultimate stunt, ¡°Eagle Wing Sword.¡± Normally, by right, Eagle Wing Sword was strongest when paired with the Three Eagle Artifacts. However, alternatively, when using the magic sword Sui Xiong had customized for Leon, it could still be at full strength. If this move was to be used as an attack and managed to successfully hit the dragon at a good spot, it would definitely be comparable to when used with the Three Eagle Artifacts. The evil dragon could sense this danger as well, and in response, it let out a wild howl, spraying Leon with scorching flames that were enough to kill. Despite that, Leon did not dodge from the flames and simply roared back, raising his sword high with both hands. He then rushed towards the dragon in a bright sea of light. Towards the dragon¡¯s fire, he did not even bother to dodge like one normally would and instead directly fought back with his Dou Qi to grasp the most opportune time to attack. After spitting flames, the dragon¡¯s body would slacken slightly, and this was the best chance to attack! With this opportunity, Leon rushed down from the sky with rage and sliced the sword down on the dragon with ferocity, splitting the dragon in half from head to toe! Chapter 863 Chapter 863: Vol V Chapter 223 Leon¡¯s sword looked similar to the one he had used in his first attack previously, but they were actually vastly different. When he had first started fighting with the dragon, the dragon¡¯s powers were that of the mid-legendary level. If it had not been immortal, Clito and Asner as a duo could have easily slain it. However, now, the dragon was already at the demigod level. Even if it was at the weakest demigod level, a demigod was still a demigod and higher than that of legendary levels. Just as how those of the advanced level had to group together to fight legendary-level individuals, legendary-level individuals also had to work together if they wanted to defeat a demigod. This was the reason why the Legendary Masters had worked together to attack the dragon, and they still had some difficulty then. If Leon was not present with Sui Xiong¡¯s artifacts, they would have perished long ago. Now, Leon had apparently used a single attack to completely suppress the dragon and fully damage it! Did this not hint that Leon somewhat possessed skills at the demigod level that were of higher levels as well? ¡°That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s impossible!¡± ¡°How could this be? He wasn¡¯t this strong just a moment ago¡­¡± ¡°My goodness¡­¡± Watching this, the Legendary Masters all let out exclamations of shock, and there was the general sentiment that they had wasted the last few thousand years of their lives being inferior! After all, if Leon could be so powerful at some a young age, there was no excuse for them as elders. They all had the assumed idea that Leon had suddenly crossed into the Demigod Realm and had secured his position there due to Church of Void Mask¡¯s strength, and that he had then utilized his new strength as a demigod. As to why he had suddenly been able to become a demigod, they assumed that it was not because Leon was too strong but rather because the dragon had become too weak. After all, such a vast magic array with Positive Energy was unheard of before. The waves of Positive Energy flowed like strong sea waves, and this was even rarer. The dragon was clearly made up of evil and chaos. In such an array, its powers would definitely be heavily damaged, and it was not impossible for a master in the Demigod Realm to slay it with one strong blow of the sword. However, in the sky, Sui Xiong and Wenner could see clearly that when Leon had waved his sword, the shadow near his soul had become two shades clearer. ¡°The God of Eagle is now one step closer to resurrecting. If you want to stop it, it¡¯s about time you took action,¡± Wenner cautioned in a low voice. Sui Xiong nodded and was about to do so before a sudden thought occurred to him, making his pause in his tracks. The resurrection of the God of Eagle required three things at once: a carrier, energy and opportunity. The carrier was of course a demigod that possessed his blood, and this was Leon Igor. The energy came from the faith by disciples and the opportune timing was the moment of Leon crossing to the Demigod Realm. Currently, Leon was only using the God of Eagle¡¯s powers to achieve the abilities of a demigod, but he had not actually reached the demigod level physically yet. That opportunity had not presented itself yet. In other words, Sui Xiong could afford to wait a while more. From a safety angle, it would definitely be wise to take action now to get rid of the traces of the God of Eagle in Leon¡¯s blood and soul. However, if Sui Xiong did so, Leon would not be able to actually become a demigod. After all, this process required not just ability but opportune timing. If Leon missed this chance, he would probably have to wait a long time for the next chance. Sui Xiong thus reconsidered his choices and eventually decided to wait a little longer. He would take action against the God of Eagle after Leon had executed the most important step. For this, he needed to make such preparations first to make sure that everything went smoothly. Sui Xiong smiled slightly, and his clone that was exploring Eagle Wing City suddenly disappeared. No, actually, it became invisible and changed into a shroud in the air above the city. This shroud of mist was extremely thin till it was invisible to the naked eye, especially if one was unobservant. It could not block sunlight and could not block the wind and clouds either. The only use of it was to prevent communication between Church of the God of Eagle within Eagle Wing City with the outer world. After the shroud of mist had been up for a while, the clergymen within Church of the God of Eagle all had shocked and anxious expressions on their face. Originally, with the renewed hype about the God of Eagle¡¯s resurrection, they had been able to gather their lost faith and transform it into Divine Power at their altar. However, this had suddenly disappeared. Their altar did not possess the power to store the power of beliefs and could only store a little Divine Power. With the cut-off in communication with the source of faith, this Divine Power became a scarce resource that was slowly depleted. For those who could work in the church, they were all extremely faithful to the God of Eagle, and their faith would not waver simply due to the loss of their Divine Powers. However, while they were devoted, they could not say the same about the outer disciplines outside of the church. No matter what, the God of Eagle was still a fallen god and he was unable to provide the most important thing to his disciples: a final destination for their souls to rest. Without this benefit, to expect the outer disciples to be fully devoted to the God of Eagle was rather difficult. In this case where Divine Powers were cut, the Archbishop of Church of the God of Eagle¡¯s first reaction was that there was probably someone who had tarnished the reputation of their god and convinced the people so. He then dismissed this thought as no matter how easy it was to convince people of new thoughts; it was rather impossible that someone had converted thousands of disciples in one go. If someone really had such an ability, he definitely would be a strong god or someone that they could not mess with. The Archbishop was a decisive man and he seldom hesitated in stressful situations. He immediately came up with a plan, gathered a few stronger Sacred Warriors and sent them to investigate the situation. These Sacred Warriors were all devoted disciples of the God of Eagle as well and they immediately set out on their mission, roaming the streets anxiously. However, once they had reached the main gates of the city, they somehow bumped into a solid yet invisible wall and were extremely puzzled. Watching the Sacred Warriors push against the ¡°wall painting¡± that was floating in the air, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh as it looked rather silly. His plan to segregate Church of the God of Eagle did not only cut off Divine Powers but was also physical in nature. Now, the church was completely sealed off; not only were those on the outside not able to enter, those who were inside also could not leave. Sui Xiong had done so naturally to fully cut off the source of the God of Eagle¡¯s faith. As a god who had fallen earlier on, the God of Eagle could not directly gain his energy and power from people¡¯s faith. Now, he needed to gather faith through the church¡¯s alar and use magical objects to convert the faith to Divine Powers for use. Now, without a Divine Power source, the God of Eagle was helpless even with tricks up his sleeve. He would not be able to execute any plans that he had previously prepared. Sui Xiong smiled, and his eyes shone with satisfaction. This was the idea of solving from the root of the issue. As long as the God of Eagle lost his Divine Powers, even if he wanted to resurrect, he would not have enough energy to do so. Chapter 864 Chapter 864: Vol V Chapter 224 Of course, this was not Sui Xiong¡¯s only tactic; he had more tricks up his sleeve! After segregating the Church of the God of Eagle, Sui Xiong began to work on another tactic. This first tactic would cut off the God of Eagle from his original source of Divine Power, effectively depriving him of the large amounts of energy needed to resurrect as well. The ability of the God of Eagle half depended on the fact that his kin was roaming this world, but was also based on the fact that his faith was traveling amongst the people. Sui Xiong could not do much about the faith that people had in the God of Eagle, but he could settle the former factor. Normally, a god¡¯s resurrection was similar to auctioning an object where price was key. This ¡°price¡± mostly referred to how close the relationship between the god and the being it was about to use as a carrier was. As Leon was the God of Eagle¡¯s direct kin, it was true that they did have a close relationship. However, there were actually many other people with the same close relationship due to the sheer number of the God of Eagle¡¯s kin on this world. Leon was definitely not the only one. Sui Xiong found tens of royalties which were all direct kin of the God of Eagle with ease and proceeded to induce them into a deep slumber. Amongst them, Sui Xiong then randomly selected one individual, removed the components of the God of Eagle from all the other bodies and entered it all into this individual¡¯s bloodstream. This sounded simple but was actually an extremely complicated process. The key to retrieving bloodline was careful craftsmanship. If one did not care about the life of the person, they were retrieving bloodline from, things would be much simpler. However, as Sui Xiong valued life, he did not mind being inconvenienced in order to preserve this individual¡¯s life. He thus needed to use a bit more of his Divine Power to successfully retrieve the bloodline from each of the people and direct it into one select individual. This ¡°lucky¡± individual was the present Eagle Kingdom¡¯s crown prince, a young man of about 20 years old. He was not as skilled or outstanding as Leon, and thus, Sui Xiong had not bothered to find out his name. However, he was a decent man with above-average fighting and equestrian skills. He especially liked to read books on history and the art of war and had a rather comprehensive understanding of military matters. Today, his bloodline was greatly boosted and now surpassed that of Leon¡¯s. The God of Eagle¡¯s prepared tactics were naturally now altered to suit this surprising new situation. He no longer focused fully on Leon as he assumed that he had found a better new target. This was another sabotage attempt by Sui Xiong. No matter how powerful the God of Eagle was, he could not resurrect in a few places at the same time. If he wanted to resurrect through Leon¡¯s body, he would have to give up the crown prince who had a purer bloodline right now due to Sui Xiong¡¯s antics. This was a tough decision on the part of the God of Eagle, who was now in a dilemma! Leon was definitely strong but to a god, especially one with great Divine Power, it was not worth mentioning. Even if Leon was a little stronger, he would still not really be worth mentioning. As for resurrection, whether or not Leon got a little stronger was not worth mentioning. The important thing was to find the most suitable carrier to increase chances of success in resurrection. The God of Eagle thus started considering a change in tactic and was doubtful whether he should wait for Leon to enter the Demigod Realm on his own. After all, if he had a good new target, why would he continue to choose Leon? Furthermore, Leon was not even a disciple of the God of Eagle! The God of Eagle was in a dilemma, and in the Human Gods¡¯ Kingdom, the God of Light smiled. With a flash, the God of Light teleported into a chamber almost instantly. This chamber was sealed off from wind and light and was extremely small. For average people, if they were locked here, they would feel claustrophobic and frightened in this room. To be honest, even immortal gods would feel extremely uncomfortable being locked in this special chamber, let alone ordinary human beings. The God of Light entered this chamber and casually sealed it behind him before he directed his gaze to a stone plaque that was placed beside a tree. ¡°Are you the one playing tricks right now?¡± A muffled sound emerged from within the stone plaque. This was a chaotic sound which no normal person could really decipher. However, using past experiences, the God of Light was able to guess the rough message. ¡°I know you want to resurrect. However, since I¡¯ve encased you within this plaque, you can forget about it. I know you probably had left some kin behind and have some backup plans as well, but no matter what you try, as long as I tightly lock your soul in this plaque, it¡¯s impossible to override me! No one will be able to help you execute your plans without having to go through me first,¡± the God of Light said coldly and lightly. ¡°God of Eagle, Hulk, since you¡¯ve already died, don¡¯t think of reversing your death! Just accept that this will be your fate forever!¡± In the pitch-dark room, a rather insignificant speck of light blinked slightly and instantly disappeared. In the human world, among a giant Purification Array, Leon¡¯s strength was amazingly, still increasing. His sword had already increased in power and undergone a change in shape to become wider and fuller. With every wave of the sword by Leon, every onlooker could clearly sense the sword¡¯s increasing power and witness the increasing damage being dealt to the dragon. With the increase in damage, the dragon slowly became more and more conscious. After more time, it even became more and more self-aware. If some scholars had known about this strange phenomenon, they would definitely feel like capturing this dragon for further study. Actually, there was nothing much to study other than the fact that the abyss of the dragon being constantly reduced. Once the aura of the Abyss was eventually reduced to nothing, the dragon would finally be able to use its own abilities to fully absorb human knowledge and strength, developing itself to become bigger and bigger. As long as the dragon reached a certain degree of strength, the aura of the Abyss would no longer have effect on it even if it still existed. At that point, it would just be a master with a giant dragon¡¯s body with demigod-level soul strength. This was probably a dream scene for researchers who studied fallen gods. For these people, if they managed to stumble upon a fallen god, they used the inheritance they gained to make themselves stronger. This dragon had just been an ordinary red dragon previously, but a fallen Holy Spirit had killed it and sealed its soul into the dragon¡¯s body. It had done so in hopes that in the end, this dragon could possibly be a viable carrier for some random other god to resurrect and effectively and definitely create huge news with such an action. As to whether the dragon could continue living after such drama or whether the god who would take over the dragon actually had a chance to resurrect, well, the fallen Holy Spirit was curious, but it was not really necessary for him to care. What he really cared about was preventing people from finding out his own background through this unique dragon. This would allow his background, identity and previous deeds to all remain secrets. This would save him some unnecessary trouble and value add to his big plan for the Human Gods, which would then make this all worth it! Chapter 865 Chapter 865: Vol V Chapter 225 As the battle continued, Leon¡¯s aura became stronger. As his aura increased in strength, invisible yet majestic vibes slowly emanated outward from his body towards his surroundings. For the Legendary Masters, although they were not as strong as Leon, they were all seniors who had lived for at least 3000 to 4000 more years and were more knowledgeable. Seeing this, they recognized these signs, and all became lost in thought. ¡°Is this¡­ Godly Power? Divine Power? Do demigods possess such a thing?¡± ¡°Of course, demigods possess this. However, it shouldn¡¯t be this strong.¡± ¡°This is too strong and impossible at the demigod level! Even a normal god could not achieve this¡­ As far as I remember, this would only happen for mid-level Divine Power gods.¡± ¡°Oh? You¡¯ve seen such a god?¡± ¡°I explored the external world for a few hundred years and coincidentally witnessed the War God System attacking some God Kingdom. It was extremely strange and abnormal. Such a situation was where one was directly sealed as a god instead of first going from Legendary Peak to demigod,¡± an old priest with white hair spoke up. ¡°Directly sealed as a god!?¡± The Legendary Masters all shouted out in surprise. To go from a demigod to an actual god was already a big jump and hard to achieve. For one to directly be sealed as a god, it would require thousands of years as well as a broad future and could be explained with an analogy of a juicy drumstick anyone would be eager to sink their teeth into. The old priest shook his head and did not continue speaking. His eyes, however, diluted slightly, showing that he was trying to hide his worry and anticipation. There were some things that he could not bring himself to say aloud. It was true that if one was directly sealed as a god, they would have immense Godly Power. In reality, there was still another condition in which this was possible¡ªif any god wanted to use this body to resurrect, even if his peers did not know it yet. That was, if this god was really extremely powerful. This old priest was extremely experienced and knew many secrets. He knew the dangers hidden within the bloodline of the Eagle Kingdom. However, he did not speak of it aloud for fear of offending others. More specifically, he was afraid to offend gods. The God of Eagle had someone who had Divine Powers and who had previously fought with God of Light over the Master God position. When he got angry and showcased his power, his rage was something that normal people could not fend against. Even the god that this old priest believed in could not fight the God of Eagle. Although this old priest was a good person, he would not bring trouble to himself and his faith for the sake of humanity. He would only take action within his means but not now. In any case, did Leon Igor really need his advice and help? He did not really think so. After all, everyone knew that Leon Igor was the Church of the Void Mask¡¯s Archbishop. To add on to this, the backstage supporter of the church was naturally the famous Jellyfish God, Void Mask Auscar, whom everyone knew about as well. This god was powerful beyond imagination and could fight hundreds of evil gods in one go, defeating them till they all surrendered and were defeated or ran for their lives. How could such a great god allow the God of Eagle to use his church¡¯s Archbishop to resurrect? That was impossible. If the God of Eagle insisted on using Leon Igor¡¯s body, he was really asking for it! It would be extremely difficult for him to do so as well since Leon had so many powerful beings backing him. The old priest thus was worried for Leon but, more importantly, they looked forward to a good show. Towards the God of Eagle, the Void Mask would definitely take some dramatic action, and it would certainly be interesting to watch. In the sky, Sui Xiong continued watching Leon intently, monitoring the situation. Although he had made much preparations to prevent the God of Eagle¡¯s resurrection, to do so while still allowing Leon to enter the Demigod Realm would be difficult. This was akin to the idea of writing Chinese calligraphy: it was easy to draw shapes like circles and rectangles. However, if one wanted to draw a circle with the left hand while drawing a square with the right hand at the same time, well, it would be much tougher as both hands had to work simultaneously without affecting the other. This was not impossible but still extremely tough nonetheless. After all, achieving balance in things was always challenging. But that was exactly what Sui Xiong wanted, and he would make sure that he would achieve it, too! He thus carefully observed Leon¡¯s situation and was mentally prepared to intervene anytime. On the other hand, Wenner was observing the dragon very curiously. He had just observed that the dragon¡¯s identity as part of the Demigod Realm was rather problematic after seeing the God of Eagle use Leon¡¯s body. In the deepest parts of the dragon¡¯s soul, there were several types of divinity that were hidden. This was strange as the dragon¡¯s soul had originated from another strong soul, most likely a Holy Spirit. This, he knew. Holy spirits¡¯ souls definitely hid some divinity as they were not that different from gods. Technically, if gods fell from their place, Holy Spirits were their natural successors. However, where did the other divinities originate from? Unless it was a backup that the Holy Spirit had left behind to prevent others from identifying its past and background? That was strange¡­ this divinity seemed rather pure and did not seem like it was left behind for evil intent; thus, there wasn¡¯t any reason why cover-ups were necessary¡­ Wenner observed the dragon being beat up with excited interest. The dragon was currently being hit so hard that his entire head was bruised and swollen, and it looked extremely down and unkempt. He was extremely anticipative of the moment where the dragon was so damaged that it would explode. As to whether Leon would be used by the God of Eagle to resurrect, he could care less! After all, Leon was the Church of the Void Mask¡¯s Archbishop, not that of a war church! What did it matter to Wenner, it was not his problem¡­ Furthermore, the Void Mask was right here observing the situation. The God of Eagle would not stand a chance against him. The God of Eagle had also disappeared for many years and was extremely weak, definitely a far cry from his original state of power. Anyway, even if he were still alive and in peak condition, it was still debatable whether he could defeat Sui Xiong. Actually, no, that was definitely impossible! Wenner thus felt that there was nothing much to worry about. He was only a little anxious for Satan¡¯s safety. Wenner thus tried to manipulate the Purification Array and continuously tried to pull over Positive Energy from the Positive Plane. Waves and waves of Positive Energy flowed into the array, enveloping the dragon and controlling it to reduce Leon and Satan¡¯s burden. This was a rather simple task for Wenner and did not use much of his energy. In any case, he was mostly focusing on Leon¡¯s increasing strength. It was a little strange that Leon had gotten so powerful just by entering the Demigod Realm. How could one become so much stronger just by going from the Legendary Realm to the Demigod Realm? It seemed abnormal¡­ Although Satan was strong, he had a very obvious flaw: he was not a true learned scholar. When Satan was young, he had been driven out of Golden Tower City and had roamed around several cities. Even if he occasionally settled down, his focus was on studying magic and was well versed in its history, culture and such. If one wanted to view this based on profession, among his 40 or so professions, at least 37 or 38 of them were mage-based, and only about three or four were scholarly. A third- or fourth-degree scholar was akin to someone who only read as a hobby and occasionally wrote poems or songs. Such a person was far from knowledgeable about gods and was not really considered scholarly. Satan thus could not really understand Leon¡¯s situation and could only vaguely sense that something was amiss based on his own gut instincts. ¡°Ah¡­ What exactly is wrong here?¡± Satan mumbled to himself confusedly as he prayed internally, reporting the entire situation to the Void Mask. He believed that the Void Mask would certainly have a solution! Chapter 866 Chapter 866: Vol V Chapter 226 As expected, the Void Mask did have a solution in mind. His solution was very simple. The Void Mask was simply going to allow Leon to enter the Demigod Realm and attack ferociously if the God of Eagle took action to resurrect by locking up his divinity. This plan seemed barbaric, but it would definitely be effective. No matter what plans the God of Eagle had in mind, as long as his divinity was imprisoned, he would not be able to do anything. Furthermore, Sui Xiong was extremely experienced in imprisoning divinity. Previously, he had imprisoned the God of Fear¡¯s divinity for tens of years and eventually destroyed it completely. Now, all he needed was the right moment to do so unto the God of Eagle. Although he had made many preparations to ensure that the God of Eagle would not be able to resurrect, there was always a chance that things would go awry. If Sui Xiong was not opportunistic and careful enough, if anything were to happen and Leon were to be used by the God of Eagle to resurrect, there would really be a problem then! Leon was unaware of all the tricks and plans around him. All that he knew was that he was in a good position at the moment, and that power was flowing like water without many obstacles through his body. With every jab of the sword, he could feel his power increasing and concretizing. Each wave of the sword was stronger than the others. If the dragon had stayed stagnant instead of increasing in power along with Leon, it would have been slain by Leon a long time ago! Such an opponent was really exciting to kill. Each stab was so satisfying! Leon rejoiced internally as he continued to jab the sword with strength. The sword¡¯s glow had already become extremely white, and it was at its maximum temperature. With each wave of the sword by Leon, an echo rang in the air thunderously. With every hit to the dragon¡¯s body, there was a low rumble like the sound of thunder in the air. Amazingly, however, the dragon continued resisting and was even adjusting to the attacks. The dragon¡¯s eyes slowly became bright and calm. Although it was giving off fiercer and fiercer vibes, the feeling of chaos was diminishing. This was because the things that the Holy Spirit had hid inside it were now being activated. To conceal his own identity, the Holy Spirit had put in much effort and thought. He had not just broken his soul into several pieces, but he had also specifically placed another fallen god¡¯s magical object in the dragon¡¯s body. Once the dragon had taken over control of the body, the magical object would emerge and release the divinity of that particular fallen god. This god¡¯s identity was extremely special: its divinity allowed it to swallow the divinity of any other god, and it did so in order to upgrade itself. If everything went as planned, with such a divinity, perhaps this Holy Spirit could even resurrect. Of course, the chances of this resurrection happening were low. Even if he resurrected, there would only be bad things in store for him. However, the Holy Spirit did not care much about this as he had already forgone everything else to complete his biggest mission at hand. For his mission, sacrifice was inevitable and necessary. Anyone could make sacrifices, including Holy Spirits and gods! As to whether these different groups wanted to make sacrifices, well¡­ If this Holy Spirit was already willing to, the rest would probably follow suit as they had no reason not to. Furthermore, even if one were to be unwilling, as long as this Holy Spirit had already made the necessary preparations, it did not really matter anymore. Those people who were already sacrificed had had no say in it, even if they had not been willing. For those aristocratic knights who had all been destined to die, they certainly would not have died willingly as well. However, since they had already become chess pieces in the Holy Spirit¡¯s game, keeping or losing their lives was not a choice that they could make. Using the analogy of a game, the Holy Spirit himself as the ¡°game master¡± had already sacrificed himself, and thus, he of course would naturally sacrifice his ¡°chess pieces¡± as well! The Holy Spirit had only ever felt slightly guilty toward the fallen god that had to be sacrificed. Nevertheless, he did not hesitate in his decision as he knew it had to be done, even if he felt remorseful for doing what he did. He thus continued to do the deeds that he felt shameful about for the greater cause that he had in mind. In any case, he had done so many unspeakable deeds till he had stopped caring. Furthermore, he was already dead. No one could possibly hold grudges against a dead man. Even if they did, he was already gone and deceased. What could they possibly do to a fellow with only a soul left? While the Holy Spirit was making his plans, he had smiled cheekily while doing so in the past. Although he knew he could not live out the success of his dreams, he smiled whenever he thought of them succeeding and the end result. The God of Light had also smiled as he observed the stone plaque in the dark. His smile was cold and fully devoid of warmth. ¡°There are always some stupid individuals who overestimate themselves and dream of achieving impossible goals. They do so despite being undeserving, which basically just shows that they are stupidly arrogant!¡± he said. ¡°You are not the first, and you won¡¯t be the last either.¡± Beneath the stone, a low, thick rumble poured out, akin to an angry roar. This voice was full and filled with venom. ¡°Stop shouting and save yourself some face,¡± the God of Light¡¯s face twitched and he replied callously. ¡°In the Human Realm, when the king is removed from the throne and being decapitated, he often still lifts his head to proclaim that he is the king and has to die with some face, or similar words to that extent. You are older and more experienced than these kings; you are a god! How could you throw away your honor like that? Do you not feel ashamed of yourself?¡± Peace was suddenly restored beneath the stone plaque, and the shouting stopped as the voice behind the plaque was evidently processing the God of Eagle¡¯s words. ¡°That¡¯s more like it. Don¡¯t worry, if all goes well, you will have a chance to resurrect.¡± After spewing these insults, the God of Light baited the voice below the stone plaque further. ¡°If my plan fulfils itself, I will definitely possess great Divine Power and may even be the strongest one amongst these Powers. Resurrecting you would be easy, it would really be nothing to me.¡± This did not really convince the voice below the stone plaque which replied in a hollow rather than happy way. ¡°Haha, even you are trying spite me. I know that my idea sounds overly arrogant, but one has to have some goals in life, right? It¡¯s just like how a new friend I made recently said: ¡®If one does not have any dreams, what would differentiate them from saltwater fish?¡¯ In the past, wasn¡¯t it also your unattainable dream to challenge me? Remember that? ¡°Speaking of that incident, here¡¯s a fun fact. Recently, in the past few years, I¡¯ve met a new fellow who is extremely similar to you. However, he did not act the same way as you did. must say, his abilities are decent, and he¡¯s played several good tricks. However, in the end, he was not able to put up a good final show, and that really left me a little disappointed. ¡°Well, the most important thing was that his strength was lacking. Just like how a shallow pond will never be able to rear a big fish, a dried-up lake will never be able to host big ships. With the meagre strength that he possessed, well, to replace me was definitely impossible! ¡°If there¡¯s a chance to do so, I would really like to introduce you to him. You both have lots in common, and I¡¯m sure you would have lots to talk about¡­¡± the God of Light said. ¡°Both of you are wild at heart and are always fixated on one particular thing, that¡¯s one similarity right there¡­ Well, I must say, I¡¯m really amused by it all. You both are really a source of entertainment for me.¡± With those words, the God of Light turned around and left the room. The secret chamber was once again thrown into silence as if nothing had just happened. Chapter 867 Chapter 867: Vol V Chapter 227 Leon was still increasing in strength. The ridiculous extent of his strength was worrying Sui Xiong as Sui Xiong felt that Leon may eventually touch the enchantment of the Main Plane, which was left behind by Goddess of Life. The limit of the enchantment was familiar to Sui Xiong. Previously, he had met with the previous Emperor of Orcs, Junero Tiger. At that time, this Emperor had almost expanded beyond the limit of the enchantment of the Main Plane. Even if the Emperor had reduced his power to the best of his abilities, to the point where there was little force, his strong spirit would still possess shockingly powerful energy, which nearly went against the enchantment of the Main Plane. Leon of course would not suppress his own abilities. His current abilities now were comparable to that of Emperor Junero Tiger¡¯s soul¡¯s strength. One could also say that Leon was now very close to pushing against the enchantment of the Main Plane as well. Such a high level of power almost went against all the limits within the Main Plane. By right, such power was actually supposed to be invincible. In this case, gods would possibly be defeated by Leon right now, and yet Leon was still unable to defeat the dragon. This was because the dragon was becoming stronger as well and at a comparable speed to Leon. They were like two racehorses neck-to-neck in a race, both continually chasing each other with one leading ahead and vice versa at differing times. When Leon was ahead, he would wave his sword and use the Purification Array to give the dragon a beating so severe that it could not even lift its head. On the other hand, when the dragon was leading, Leon continued to do the same thing and try his best to suppress the dragon so that it would not rush off and escape. Although the situations were different, Leon¡¯s methods were still the same, be it for attacking or defensive purposes. In any case, this was still war and his key war strategy. However, Sui Xiong became more and more anxious. Because of the God of Eagle¡¯s resurrection attempts, Leon was able to increase in power. This meant that Leon¡¯s new status was not really earned or real, just like when the God of Eagle had become strengthened with the three Artifacts. Once the God of Eagle left Leon¡¯s body, Leon would quickly fall back to his original and true level. He would even possibly be weaker than before. After all, when one went from the legendary peak to demigod, they would indeed temporarily lose some of their strength. In that case, why was the dragon able to continuously grow in strength alongside Leon? Even if the dragon¡¯s powers originated from a Holy Spirit, how strong could this Holy Spirit possibly be? After all, by right, the powers that the dragon could inherit were limited even if the Holy Spirit gave all its powers away. If a mere Holy Spirit could compare to the powers of the God of Eagle, one would have reason to fear him and his suspicious background. Just like how the God of Eagle was only able to pass on limited strength to Leon due to his long-ago downfall, the Holy Spirit had also fallen after all. Sui Xiong considered this matter carefully in his head and felt a little worried. If the dragon¡¯s source of strength was really from a Holy Spirit, that Holy Spirit would have to at least have some extremely strong god with great Divine Powers behind it. This extremely strong god would probably be one of the strongest among those with great Divine Powers as well! Gods that were strong enough to be considered in this category would include the God of Light, Sky Devourer Canine, the God of Justice, etc. If these great gods did not have their own churches, God Kingdoms and patron saints, Sui Xiong would have assumed that this unknown Holy Spirit was one of their patron saints! At this moment, Wenner suddenly smiled. ¡°This world is really full of coincidences!¡± Wenner said. ¡°Two gods who both wish to resurrect have somehow met together in battle, this is such a rare occurrence, one that happens maybe once every thousand years, if at all?¡± Sui Xiong jolted slightly, startled at this comment, yet did not lose his focused gaze on the dragon. Currently, Leon¡¯s situation was as tense as an acrobat walking on a tightrope. Sui Xiong was focusing on being his safety net, and regardless of what happened to the dragon, he would not really care to investigate further at the moment. He was really too preoccupied with Leon. Wenner understood this point as well and became like a temporary guide, explaining the situation to Sui Xiong. ¡°In a deep part of the dragon¡¯s soul, there is a hibernating divinity. This divinity, which swallowed some other patron saint¡¯s divinity, is growing in strength rapidly. If everything goes well for it, it could use the dragon¡¯s body to awaken itself and resurrect from there.¡± ¡°Can you tell whose divinity it is?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Currently no, but I am investigating the matter. However, it seems familiar, and I have a feeling that I¡¯ve met him before. I also feel like we probably met more than once,¡± Wenner replied. ¡°But you still don¡¯t remember who he is?¡± Sui Xiong was taken aback. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve always defeated him, and losers aren¡¯t worth remembering. Of course, it may also be because his divinity was not unique enough. I¡¯ve met with too many gods and are familiar with many of them. Such activity is not uncommon, and out of those gods, many have fallen. I can¡¯t tell who exactly is the one playing tricks with the dragon right now.¡± ¡°You really have too many friends.¡± ¡°Yes, and they¡¯re all old friends. Although I must admit, many of them have fallen at my hands.¡± If Sui Xiong had been drinking water at that moment, he would have spat it all out immediately. ¡°Your definition of ¡®old friend¡¯ is certainly abnormal!¡± Wenner smiled and said, ¡°Anyway, those events have all already happened in the past. In my opinion, if I don¡¯t intend to attack and win over the other party, I wouldn¡¯t even bother to do research and focus on them!¡± ¡°So, those who you focus and research on could be said to be extremely unfortunate then!¡± ¡°Of course, I don¡¯t deny this at all.¡± Wenner arched his body slightly and smiled in a very satisfied way. After a while, Wenner suddenly furrowed his brows and said, ¡°A new wave of events is happening.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Sui Xiong could not help but frown. ¡°The Commonwealth of Gold Coin¡¯s aristocrats and merchants are fighting again.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t they start fighting a long time ago?¡± Sui Xiong asked doubtfully before understanding Wenner¡¯s actual meaning. Shocked, he said, ¡°You mean to say¡­ They¡¯ve started an actual battle? Now? It¡¯s so late, why are they doing so at this time?¡± This whole situation sounded highly illogical. For people on Earth, if they wanted to fight, they would usually do so at sunrise. They would prepare breakfast at the break of dawn, get the soldiers to wake up early to consume food and rest a little afterward before setting out a minute after the sun had fully risen. Then, they would start battling. If the battle was not too intense, during the afternoon, they would pause and eat lunch. If the battle was extremely intense, the troops would take turns to eat while the fight continued on and on¡­ Dinner was a must as there was no one on Earth who could fight intensely without some rest and ample food. Usually, once it got dark in the evening, the battle would have ended. It was rare to see battles start when it was already late at night. Of course, that did not mean that such battles were impossible. Usually, though, they were coincidental encounters. If both parties were already in confrontation with each other eons ago but suddenly chose to fight in the dark, well, this was the first time Sui Xiong was hearing about such a thing. After all, how could one possibly fight when it was pitch dark? ¡°Which side started the battle first?¡± Sui Xiong could not help but ask. ¡°The aristocrats, they started it.¡± ¡°Stupid dog bastards! They¡¯re really idiotic!¡± Sui Xiong was extremely dissatisfied and pursed his lips in disdain. Chapter 868 Chapter 868: Vol V Chapter 228 ¡°Idiots¡± would be the label Sui Xiong gave to the aristocrats who ridiculously decided to start a war in the evening. Normally, the fact that it was dark was an equal disadvantage to both parties in war. However, since the new merchant troops were well trained, they would be more familiar with collaborations with each other in war. Even if it were dark, the diminishing of the abilities would only be slight and rather negligible. On the other hand, it was different for the aristocrats. Their elite troops were all from different parts of their land, and even though they had a few exercises together, they were not as familiar with each other as the merchant troops, who had had long term intensive trainings together. Even if they fought in the morning, they would still be at a disadvantage, much less at night! Why did the aristocrats go crazy and decide to wage war in the night, then!? To this, Sui Xiong only had two words for the situation. Mental illness! Sui Xiong was not sure what the aristocratic commander was thinking. Even if the commander had some weird idea in mind, by right, he should have known better than to compromise the basic principles of war. In this kind of situation, if the aristocrats wanted to win, they would have to depend on luck. In terms of military matters, Sui Xiong was extremely influenced by several ¡°plug flow¡± online friends. These online friends all looked down on sly schemes and playing tricks and insisted that the only appropriate way to fight and win a war was through pure strength alone. Previously, when Sui Xiong had watched several cinematic films and read novels, he had often sighed at the brilliance of the characters¡¯ schemes. However, he was then criticized by these online friends who taught him the error of his ways. If one had time to consult their inner demons and come up with schemes, they could spend that time better training hard! All long in history, all famous generals who had gotten famous through their war achievements had had a good and well-utilized army. Generals who got famous through tricks instead of a strong army were rare. Sui Xiong could roughly estimate why the aristocratic army commander had chosen this time to start a war. He had most likely allowed his troops to get sufficient sleep during the day as well as an ample meal during the evening time. After some rest, they would be in tip-top condition to fight a war. On the other hand, once the night approached, the merchants¡¯ troops would probably be tired from a long day, giving the aristocrats a big advantage. Such a mindset was theoretical and merely scholastic thinking. It was just like how in the ¡°Romance of the Three Kingdoms,¡± there was a scholar who often followed the idea of a condescending strategy. This scholar did not care for his peers¡¯ warnings and insisted on using the mountain plains (which lacked water) as a front. He intended to use the mountainous terrain to disadvantage his enemies who came to attack him. However, this scholar did not consider the situation in which the enemy did not attack but simply surrounded the well-built front, effectively trapping the scholar and his troops. In the end, with such a response by the enemy, the men starved to death inside their camp. Sui Xiong did not really remember the full name of this scholar, but he knew that his surname was ¡°Ma¡± and that his full name was extremely hard to read in Chinese. Sui Xiong certainly didn¡¯t know how to write or pronounce it! According to Sui Xiong, the aristocratic commander was like this ¡°Ma¡± fellow; they both had lots of weird ideas in their minds! ¡°Who do you think will win, the merchants or the aristocrats?¡± Sui Xiong asked casually. ¡°The merchants, of course. Well, they wouldn¡¯t have a huge victory though, they will probably win due to a slight advantage.¡± Sui Xiong was slightly shocked. ¡°Only a slight advantage? On the contrary, I think they have a huge advantage!¡± ¡°If you only look at their usual training, yes, their advantage is huge. The commander from the aristocratic side who chose to start a war at night really has a mental issue, that¡¯s for sure. However, the aristocrats have two advantages that the merchants cannot deny.¡± ¡°Two advantages? Do list them.¡± ¡°The first advantage would be that recently, their logistics have been strong. As for the merchants, as they were recently harassed and assaulted, they have some logistical issues. The physical condition of the aristocratic troops is thus better than that of the merchant troops.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly. ¡°And the second advantage is?¡± ¡°The second advantage is that the aristocratic troops have already rested enough during the day this morning. Not only have they rested during the day, but their elite troops have also been adjusting to the night shift by sleeping in the day over the last four, five days. They are now completely adjusted and used to sleeping throughout the day and working at night. On the other hand, the merchant troops have received night training before, their natural physical lethargy at night is unavoidable. This is especially so when it is late at night. Even if they have high morale, they will still have decreased abilities due to their lethargy at this time of the night.¡± Sui Xiong nodded again. ¡°These two advantages are quite obvious. In that case, with such advantages, why would the aristocrats still lose?¡± ¡°The two sides¡¯ training levels are quite different, which leads to a huge difference in morale and tenacity. Such traits cannot be levelled just by using small tricks.¡± Wenner smiled. ¡°In war, the basic competition is still between each party¡¯s strength. The merchant troops are sufficiently stocked when compared to the aristocratic troops, and they receive better training. They have better morale and tenacity. Recently, their morale has been at an all-time high as they are angry and want to seek revenge against the aristocrats for all their evil deeds. If they were to fight a war now, they certainly will have 120% of their usual battle spirit.¡± ¡°If I were the aristocrats, I would negotiate in this situation. At least I would be able to drag it out till the war on this side has finished and everything has ended, removing the anger on the part of the merchants. In the end, the aristocrats were so narrow-minded that they only considered their small advantages and did not care for the bigger disadvantages. Without looking at the big picture, how could they hope to win?¡± Wenner shook his head and cast the fate of the two parties in stone. ¡°The aristocrats will definitely lose; it is just a matter of how big or small their loss is.¡± Sui Xiong nodded in agreement and gained a better understanding of that faraway battle happening at the moment. It was probably because the aristocratic commander had wanted to create big news as well, that¡¯s why he had adopted such an insane scheme¡­ Actually, if one wanted to discuss big news, well, there was the fight between Leon and the dragon. The resurrection of two gods was definitely big news. Not just that, it was huge and scary news as well. The God of Eagle, who was behind Leon¡¯s soul, was beginning to look clearer. His pair of wings and eagle head as well as body were all slowly become more translucent and was about to become real and opaque any time soon, according to Sui Xiong. Yet, every time the God of Eagle¡¯s body seemed to become almost opaque, it would vibrate violently as if it got electrocuted and immediately return to its originally less translucent state before the whole cycle repeated itself. This was akin to the analogy of a man rolling a stone up a hill. Every time he almost reached the hill¡¯s peak, the stone would roll down with a ¡°whoosh,¡± negating all his efforts. Sui Xiong observed this and couldn¡¯t help but laugh maliciously in his heart. He of course knew the reason for this. The God of Eagle¡¯s temple and the outside world¡¯s communications were completely cut off by him. Without the temple as his pivotal point, the God of Eagle was unable to transform the power of faith into his Divine Powers. Without this replenishing of energy, he definitely could not resurrect so easily. On the other hand, for the dragon¡¯s soul, a shadow also surfaced. This was an extremely old, white-haired man that was wearing gold armor and wearing a crown. He was holding a walking stick and riding a horse. Once Wenner saw this image, he immediately identified who he was. ¡°Ah, so it¡¯s the God of Royalty!¡± Wenner nodded and laughed in a rather malicious way. ¡°Haha! Now I can¡¯t wait to see the look on the aristocrats¡¯ faces!¡± Chapter 869 Chapter 869: Vol V Chapter 229 Sui Xiong did not know the God of Royalty, but Wenner did. The background of this god was actually quite ordinary. He was originally someone who was sealed god during the early stage of the great development of mankind. Before him, the social system of mankind was not very different from that of the Orcs, where the tribes formed the core when regarding nation-building. It was he who initially formulated the kingdom and official system, which later developed into the aristocratic feudal system. He was considered to be the first true ¡°king¡± in human history, which explained why he was sealed god after his death to become the God of Royalty. At first, his divinity was not powerful. But as the kingdom system gained popularity, his strength grew stronger. Especially after the aristocracy feudal system was established, the kingdom system gradually penetrated the people¡¯s hearts. There were many other worlds that soon adopted this system, let alone the Main Plane. His divinity was constantly on the rise. Ultimately, he even made it near to becoming a great Divine Power. Unfortunately, just as he was about to become a great Divine Power, he was assassinated by the God of Aristocracy and the God of Conspiracy, who had conspired against him. Thus, he had fallen, and his priesthood was largely taken over by the God of Aristocracy. He was practically replaced by the God of Aristocracy. Now, he had reappeared in the mortal world. Although he was merely a shadow, Wenner could still recognize him at a glance anyway. Wenner introduced this god to Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong nodded slightly and asked, ¡°So¡­ is he considered to be the husband of the God of Aristocracy?¡± ¡°Far from being their husband. At that time, the God of Aristocracy was only one of his¡­ Haha, you know what I mean. They have no status to speak of at all,¡± Wenner said. He thought for a moment, then finally came up with a nicer description. ¡°Favorite belle, or something like that.¡± Sui Xiong understood then. This was just the same as saying she was his ¡°beloved concubine.¡± He recalled what Professor Cheng had once said. Those ¡°beloved concubines¡± in love novels might seem all high and mighty, yet in truth, their social status was nowhere higher than the slaves. They all belonged to the class of slaves that belonged to a master¡ªthe practice of ¡°polygamy¡± never existed in ancient China. On the contrary, it was extremely firm in its orientation towards the ¡°monogamy¡± system. So the wives were the masters of these concubines, and they had the authority to punish, or even expel these concubines at their disposal. For the concubines, their masters¡¯ favor was the one and only thing they could rely on. And at that time, for the God of Aristocracy, pleasing the God of Royalty with their beauty was basically what they had to do to ensure survival. The God of Aristocracy was a proud and ambitious god. Of course, they would not willingly reconcile with being a plaything. So it was not surprising that they would choose to assassinate the God of Royalty and take his place. To be honest, they did quite well as the God of Aristocracy. In just about 300 years or slightly more, they finally entered the ranks of great Divine Power. But Sui Xiong felt that¡­ if the God of Aristocracy were allowed to go on like this, something would go wrong. Something big would happen! Now, that something big had happened. The God of Royalty was about to be resurrected. What should the God of Aristocracy do? At the thought of it, Sui Xiong found it a little amusing. ¡°This is going to be a big story!¡± he said. ¡°I seriously didn¡¯t think something like this would happen!¡± ¡°I think, I can almost guess the identity of that Holy Spirit,¡± Wenner said. He smiled and said with much confidence, ¡°The divinity contained in this Holy Spirit is readily absorbed by the divinity of the God of Royalty, thus contributing to the resurrection of the God of Royalty. This also means that he¡¯s most likely the Holy Spirit of the God of Royalty.¡± ¡°The Holy Spirit of the God of Royalty? Wasn¡¯t the God of Royalty killed by the God of Aristocracy? If he still has a Holy Spirit, how could he have been killed?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. Wenner shook his head and explained, ¡°Holy Spirits can only take over the priesthood after the respective gods have fallen and become the next generation of gods. At that time, the God of Aristocracy had directly devoured the divinity of the God of Royalty. Though indigestion caused them to let out some of it, overall, there was no chance for the Holy Spirits of the God of Royalty to take over his priesthood. But after that, the Holy Spirits of the God of Royalty never re-appeared. I even thought they had been killed by the God of Aristocracy¡­¡± ¡°So I take it that¡­ they have gone through all this trouble just to resurrect the God of Royalty?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Wenner fell deep in thought. After a long, he frowned and said, ¡°It should be like that by right. But¡­ I keep having the feeling that something¡¯s not quite right. There¡¯s no clear and definite connection between these two events¡­¡± Generally speaking, when the gods wanted to be resurrected, they would normally preach and restore the belief in themselves, build altars and restore their Divine Power, as well as to find suitable carriers. The practice of the God of Eagle was the best example of the most standard resurrection process. But the situation of the God of Royalty was obviously different. If they were to talk about belief, his belief had probably completely usurped by the God of Aristocracy for the past three hundred years. If they had to talk about altars, under the situation where the God of Aristocracy had directly taken over his priesthoods, it was most unlikely that there would be an altar of his that could escape the sharp eyes of the God of Aristocracy. Most of these altars built for him would have been transformed into altars for the God of Aristocracy instead. Only the aspect pertaining to carriers was still relatively reliable. A Holy Spirit plus a physical body could possibly be considered as enough to satisfy the demands. Just that, just relying on this condition for the resurrection, Sui Xiong felt that there was not much hope. ¡°The resurrection of gods¡­ can also fail, right?¡± he asked subconsciously. Then he could not help laughing. Of course, it could fail. There was no need to ask at all. If it could not fail, what was he doing here? Waiting to see Leon transform into the God of Eagle? ¡°I¡¯ve asked a stupid question. Don¡¯t mind me.¡± Wenner laughed and indicated that he would not mind. After laughing, he said, ¡°Generally speaking, the resurrection of gods is more likely to fail, the number of successful resurrections is in fact, very, very few. Out of ten times, there may not even necessarily be one or two successes. It¡¯s mainly due to the exhaustion of belief, the lack of Divine Power and that good carriers are hard to find¡­ Except for the gods who have prepared everything in advance and who have fallen a short time ago, it¡¯s really difficult for the other gods to be brought back to like. ¡°For example, not long ago, there was a god taking over the priesthood of the God of Wine. There was once a God of Wine, but the present God of Wine is different from the previous one, so there is no way the previous one can be resurrected.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. He had understood. But he could not help thinking of another idea. The God of Eagle was so well-prepared. All he lacked was a good carrier. The God of Royalty, on the contrary, was not prepared at all. The only thing worth affirmation was that he had a good carrier¡­ If these two were combined, would it not be perfect! Thinking of this, he could not help but secretly ponder how he should help the two achieve a perfect union. Of course, this perfect union that he wanted to carry out would definitely be sacrificing the God of Eagle for the God of Royalty. On the one hand, the incident where the God of Eagle schemed to attempt using Leon¡¯s body for acquiring rebirth annoys him. He can¡¯t help but want to viciously deal with that reckless fellow. On the other hand, he could make some trouble for the God of Aristocracy. Even if it was no great trouble, it would ultimately be something that would lift his spirits. In that case, this matter would be happily decided as such! Thinking about this, Sui Xiong began to slowly gather his Divine Power and readied himself for an attack. He could take a gamble. If the current situation were to continue developing in this manner, both resurrections of the God of Royalty and the God of Eagle were bound to fail. So he needed to lend a helping hand to the God of Royalty in dire moments while taking the chance to pull the God of Eagle down. It was not that easy if all of this was to be done artlessly and beautifully¡­ Chapter 870 Chapter 870: Vol V Chapter 230 The shadow of the God of Royalty gradually became clear. The old man with a crown on his head, who donned a golden armor and a red cloak gradually came into view. Even strands of hair on his head could be seen. But his eyes were persistently lacking in spirit. There was not a hint of aura in him. Sui Xiong knew this was proof of a lack of belief. When the gods were resurrected, they needed a large amount of beliefs. Only with sufficient power of beliefs could they reignite the soul fires of gods to allow them to be reborn. If there was insufficient power of beliefs, even if the other conditions were in abundance, the ¡°resurrection¡± would only be the appearance and power of the god. It would be something without sanity and wisdom. Such a thing was commonly called a ¡°Sin of God.¡± It could either be a monster created by crossbreeding with gods, or it could be a product of some dangerous experiments of gods. Sins of Gods were just as powerful as the gods, but they were far more dangerous and terrifying as compared to the gods. Most of them did not have sanity and wisdom or did not have complete sanity and wisdom. Many of them only had thoughts of destruction and chaos in their minds. These thoughts were even more severe as compared to the evil gods. They were very similar to the devils of the abyss. But it so happened that many of them were extremely powerful. Some were so powerful to such an extent where even the gods found them a headache. The most famous Sin of God, known as the ¡°multi-headed serpent that devoured the stars,¡± was an example of an extremely troublesome monster. It belonged to the ¡°Star Devouring¡± category and was able to devour an entire star or even a small world in one gulp. If it had gone to the world where Earth was in, probably the sun would not even fill one mouthful of it, but rather, Mercury, Mars, Earth, Venus¡­ all would have to be devoured together before it could exclaim, ¡°Ah, just enough to fill me up a little, now I have to find something to eat for a proper meal.¡± That was assuming that it was able to think clearly. This monster was a complete monster inside out. The gods had thought of many ideas to deal with it. In the end, they could only lure it to a remote corner of the Ring of the World and lay down overlapping loops of time and space to keep it trapped within. Even so, it continued to grow. A god skilled at prophecies once said that sooner or later, there would come a day where this Sin of God would grow into a demon¡ªa terrifying existence that embodied the concept of ¡°the world will ultimately be destroyed¡± and was focused on destruction. If the resurrection of a god failed, then that body without sanity and wisdom would often become a Sin of God. But it could not possibly be overly powerful or dangerous, for it would only be able to wander about aimlessly without deliberately doing good or evil. Perhaps after wandering for a long time, it would regain the light of wisdom and awake taking the identity of an evil god¡ªout of all the evil gods in this world, there was more than one who had taken their identity in this manner. If Sui Xiong had not stepped forth to intervene, the God of Royalty might also become a Sin of God. But Sui Xiong had no intention of seeing such an outcome. Since he had made his move, of course he had to strive for a good result. Striking the God of Aristocracy with a vicious blow to give them a severe headache was what he could consider as a good result! Just as the God of Royalty was slowly being resurrected, the shadow of the God of Eagle on Leon¡¯s body was also constantly becoming clearer and more condensed. It seemed to be under the influence of the resurrection of God of Royalty due to close proximity. Its shadow was gradually becoming stable, and the image shaking condition was waning. But Sui Xiong was, on the contrary, getting more and more worried. Fortunately, he was already fully prepared. Now, the situation was practically what it would be like to have ¡°how everything ready but that which was crucial.¡± So all he had to do was to wait patiently. He would wait patiently, and then he would make his move at the crucial moment. This decisive move would determine everything. After a while, there was a sudden flash of light behind Leon. The shadow of the God of Eagle appeared. It was not given time to make any response before a green light flashed by, and Sui Xiong had appeared beside the shadow of the God of Eagle. Dozens of tentacles spread out and clung tightly onto the shadow that originally had no physical body. Then there was another flash of green light in the air. A tentacle that had become flat like the blade of a sword was violently swung down. Then the connection between this shadow and Leon¡¯s soul was completely cut off. Up to this point, the resurrection of the God of Eagle could be regarded as a failure. Not only that, but Leon also could no longer be the carrier for its resurrection, so it could almost be considered as the real solution to the problem. But for Sui Xiong, there was still a little something he had to do before this whole matter could really be resolved satisfactorily. He used his tentacles to cling tightly onto the shadow of the God of Eagle, which, for some unknown reason, had become hot like fire. Within a flash, this shadow had arrived beside the shadow of the God of Royalty. Then with a fierce twist by several tentacles, the shadow of the God of Eagle was directly twisted into shattered pieces and became countless light spots that fell within the shadow of the God of Royalty. These light spots were pure Divine Power and sincere belief. Sui Xiong had just released the temple of the God of Eagle in Eagle Wing City from being surrounded and blocked. Now, there was really a mighty surge of Divine Power and belief heading towards it. And under Sui Xiong¡¯s ingenious means, they all became the gains of the God of Royalty. The God of Royalty was originally sporting a half translucent body that was constantly shaking, and he seemed as though he would collapse anytime. With these beliefs and Divine Power, his body gradually became clear and stable. And his eyes, in particular, gradually seemed to radiate a glimmer of light. Regrettably, the belief that the clergymen of Eagle Wing City could provide was still too little. Although it was enough for the God of Eagle, it was still insufficient for the God of Royalty. The reason was that there would always be some loss during the conversion of belief. Sui Xiong could not let his doppelganger force them to change their belief to the God of Royalty¡ªthe fundamental of any belief was recognition. Any belief that lacked recognition or that was formed forcefully would not be stable or powerful. It might even be difficult to provide it with the power of beliefs. So after much deliberation, Sui Xiong could only come up with one solution. Since the power of beliefs he could obtain from the God of Eagle was inadequate, he would use his own power of beliefs to make up for the inadequacy. Anyway, since that major disaster relief that was carried out throughout the entire Dominant Continent, the number of followers of Sui Xiong had undergone another massive increase. Now he was receiving an alarming amount of power of beliefs every day. Over the years, the amount of power of beliefs accumulated had already reached an astonishingly astronomical number. Even if there was some loss due to the conversion process, as compared to the whole amount, this loss was merely a drop in the bucket. For someone who put thoughts into action, Sui Xiong immediately mobilized his reserve of power of beliefs and converted them into the power of beliefs of the God of Royalty. Though almost 60 percent of the power of beliefs was lost during this procedure, the remaining portion was more than enough for the God of Royalty. After gaining enough belief and the Divine Power given by Sui Xiong, the God of Royalty, who was yet to be considered as truly resurrected, closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber. He could now be considered as truly resurrected, but he would have to sleep deeply for a while longer. This deep sleep would allow him to adjust himself to his new state. When he woke up, not only would he be extremely powerful, but his divinity would also be perfect. By then, so long as he could find the chance to make an appearance before his former followers, he would be able to quickly gather a great amount of power of beliefs. And without its enhancement, the Evil Dragon was nothing more than a big chunk of meat, or rather, a huge pile of incombustible trash to Leon. He raised his sword, then swung it down. The Evil Dragon fell heavily onto the ground. And finally, this time, it did not get up anymore. Chapter 871 Chapter 871: Vol V Chapter 231 In the God Kingdom of the Human God System. In a dark and gloomy quiet room, the God of Aristocracy was lost deep in thought. Ever since they had been grounded and locked up by the God of Light, the God of Aristocracy found themselves somewhat in love with this form of closed-door meditation. In the dark and gloomy room, they were completely isolated from all messages from the outside. they could quietly think about life, think about their future, weigh and perfect all their plans while enjoying tranquility and peace. If they were a resident of a certain island country on Earth, they would probably pay a compliment with a line like ¡°this is the beauty of Zen.¡± They were not worried about the situation in the outside world. Though they were meditating behind closed doors, their Holy Spirits and high-level Oracles could help to handle the prayers of their followers and the work of the church. In the first place, a greater Divine Power should not even need to be bothered by those things. There were even many mid-level Divine Powers who would not personally deal with these things. Anyway, the gods had absolute control over the Holy Spirits and Oracles, so they were not the least worried that they would betray him. As for those Holy Spirits that they could not really control¡­ they had long marginalized these guys and would not give them any chance to find access to power. Especially this time, when the God of Conspiracy, who had no sense of existence, came looking for them with a favor to ask. The God of Conspiracy asked for them to send several masters out to execute dangerous missions, and they simply sent those guys out. Even trash had its uses, and rotten wood could also be used as firewood The God of Aristocracy could not help but smile at this thought. Finally, their God Kingdom was completely clean. Congratulations! All of a sudden, their heart stirred as they felt an extremely strong sense of crisis surging up within. This sense of crisis came out of the blue. It was as violent as the angry waves pouring down from the sky and as intense as the flames spurting out from underground. It only took a fleeting moment for them to feel as though all his hairs stood on end. This was in spite of the fact that the gods did not have fine hair on their bodies. The God of Aristocracy was shocked and hurriedly ended their meditation. They used the ¡°Fate¡± Realm that they had inherited from the former Sun God¡¯s legacy and launched the prophecy and divination. They made repeated calculations but could only end up in chaos. Other than the strong sense of crisis, everything else was chaos. They felt all the more alarmed but did not lose their head just yet. After a moment of consideration, they decided to pay the God of Light a visit. No matter what happened, the God of Light should be able to protect them! But before they could put this idea into practice, an intense pain shot through their body. First, it was as if their body was being torn apart, where they felt a sharp pain from their head to lower stomach. And then the pain spread out to every part of their body. It was like their entire body was being torn apart, inch by inch, part by part and bit by bit. The pain was far beyond their endurance limit. Within a moment, the God of Aristocracy fell to the ground. They wanted to cry and moan in pain, but the agony that followed was as if all their internal organs were being cut by countless sharp blades inside out. They could not even utter a single sound. They wanted to call for help with the use of divine thoughts, but their brain seemed to be stirred up in a whirl. The chaotic feeling made it impossible for them to gather even the smallest bit of power to send a divine thought. This is¡­ What¡¯s going on? Amidst their dazed state caused by that the extreme pain, the God of Aristocracy only had one thought. Meanwhile, in Sui Xiong¡¯s God Kingdom, Leon, who was bathing in endless white light, was looking curiously at that huge bird¡¯s egg soaked in the pool of water transformed by the power of beliefs. ¡°Your Majesty¡­ is this really going to work?¡± he asked curiously. Sui Xiong scratched his face with his tentacles. He was not very sure as he said, ¡°It should work. To be honest, I don¡¯t have much confidence in myself. But at least I can ensure that this will do him no harm.¡± That egg that was soaked in the power of beliefs was naturally what the God of Royalty had transformed into. Just now, Sui Xiong strangled the God of Eagle, who would be resurrected very soon. Then, he gave the divinity and power of beliefs of the God of Eagle to the God of Royalty. He even gave some of his own to this unfortunate and wretched old god in order to replenish him with sufficient power of beliefs. Thus, the God of Royalty fell into a deep sleep. According to the rules of the resurrection of the gods, he would gradually replenish his soul and divinity in his deep slumber. And the conversion channels of the power of beliefs and Divine Power would also be established. Lastly, he would be connected to the line of belief between himself and his remaining followers¡ªand at this point in time, he would be truly resurrected. This process required time. The period could be as short as a few months or as long as a few years. It could even take a few decades. But Sui Xiong did not want to wait that long. So after Leon slew that evil dragon with his sword, he immediately gave some instructions to Satan and then hastily brought Leon and the God of Royalty back to his God Kingdom. Leon had just stepped into the Demigod Realm. He needed to stabilize his state in this realm and adjust his body and mind in order to restore his best condition. This would require him to consume a great amount of Divine Power, as well as some other resources. In Sui Xiong¡¯s God Kingdom, Leon could complete this step. And obviously, this was the most convenient and reliable way to do so as well. But if the God of Royalty wanted to end this stage where he had to be in a deep sleep as soon as possible to completely be resurrected, he would need a lot of other things, and not to mention, a great deal of power of beliefs. So Sui Xiong had also brought him back to see if he could help. Leon¡¯s situation was easier to resolve. It was nothing more than the provision of an unlimited supply of Divine Power. Anyway, for a newly-promoted Demigod, even if it was an open-ended supply, he would not consume much. Sui Xiong was not bothered at all. But the situation with the God of Royalty was much more cumbersome. Honestly speaking, Sui Xiong was, in fact, not really an expert on the process of the resurrection of gods¡ªthough he had presided over the resurrection of the God of Healing, he was not at all confident whether that could really be considered a ¡°resurrection¡± or not. But no matter what, it was ultimately an experience of a successful event. So after a brief consideration, he made use of the same method as before and directly made a transfusion of Divine Power to the God of Royalty with his powerful Divine Power of Life. In the end, he did not know if it was the effect of the remaining divinity of the God of Eagle? Or whether Sui Xiong might have made a mistake somewhere? But this old body of the God of Royalty, who was originally just in a deep sleep, started to radiate with white light that quickly spread out. And soon, what had emerged was a layer of¡­ egg. Yes, the God of Royalty had become an egg. Or rather, the place where he had been sleeping had become an egg. ¡°What the hell is this¡­?¡± Sui Xiong muttered. He was careful not to break the egg, but he also didn¡¯t know what to do next. Thinking carefully, he decided to simply gather a massive amount of power of beliefs and throw it into this egg. The power of beliefs was a good thing for the gods. Although Sui Xiong did not want it, most of the other gods needed it. The gods of the Void System had always coveted Sui Xiong¡¯s reserve of power of beliefs since it was accumulated in massive amounts. His allies often lamented and called him things like ¡°the damn millionaire.¡± So he held onto the belief that replenishing the God of Royalty well would do him no harm at all. Sure enough, after being soaked in the power of beliefs, the condition of the God of Royalty in the egg immediately showed rapid signs of improvement. Sui Xiong could see through the egg with his sharp eyes. He saw that the God of Royalty¡¯s white hair was turning black at a visible rate. His old and haggard appearance was rapidly becoming young as well. Maybe¡­ after he had fully recovered his youth, he would be able to wake up? Looking at that egg that was soaked within the power of beliefs, Sui Xiong kept his fingers crossed. Chapter 872 Chapter 872: Vol V Chapter 232 ¡°Quickly wake up!¡± Sui Xiong muttered as he nagged at the eggshell. ¡°After you wake up, eat and drink to a good meal, recuperate for a few days, then we shall go find trouble with the God of Aristocracy together!¡± Leon, who was slowly adjusting his mind and body to adapt to the Demigod Realm, heard Sui Xiong and froze. Then he asked, ¡°Your Majesty, you want the God of Royalty to help you deal with the God of Aristocracy?¡± ¡°Of course! If it were not for the purpose of dealing with the God of Aristocracy, why would I want to resurrect him?¡± Sui Xiong replied with righteous indignation. He said, ¡°I¡¯ve no relationship with this lewd and terrible old man. I don¡¯t even know him.¡± ¡°I thought you wanted to take the opportunity to take another follower under your wing,¡± Leon said with a smile. ¡°Isn¡¯t this a most suitable opportunity to make him your follower?¡± Leon said as he stretched his back and moved his legs. Strange forces were surging out from all over his body in a chaotic way. He was like a high-pressure tank that was not properly sealed, thus the gaseous content in the tank was continuously erupting out. This was the first danger that one had to face after progressing from the legendary peak to the Demigod Realm. The mastery of power at the legendary peak was completely different from that in the Demigod Realm. Therefore, upon stepping into the Demigod Realm, a majority of the masters were unable to control the sudden change in power within them. This would even lead to a continuous loss of power. If they were lucky or powerful, they could hold onto their power before all of it had dissipated. By holding on to their power, they might be able to reap better results. But if they were unlucky or were not powerful enough, the power would usually continue to dissipate until the point where their bodies were void of power. This would put an end to the process. What would happen when the body no longer had power? Of course, they would temporarily become ordinary people. This was why many Legendary Masters would shut themselves in for a long time after stepping into the Demigod Realm. They had to allow themselves to regain their powers. This was all considered well, for there were some unlucky ones whose power to sustain life was directly dissipated as well. And they simply lost their lives. Leon did not have to worry about this problem. At the moment, he had Sui Xiong¡¯s unlimited supply of Divine Power. No matter how much power he lost, it could be immediately supplemented. So, he could speak and act without much heed. He was not worried about losing too much power at all. On the contrary, he could make use of this opportunity to master the way of using his power in the Demigod Realm. This way, he could grow up even faster. Hearing Leon¡¯s inquiry, Sui Xiong froze for another moment¡ªhe truly had not thought about this opportunity. Come to think of it, this truly seemed to be the case. By resurrecting the God of Royalty, he could have created an opportunity for himself to completely take the other party as his follower. This guy was probably not very powerful. He was not exactly a likeable character who lacked the control against his sexual desires, so much to the extent that he was often backstabbed by his beloved concubine. But if Sui Xiong were to consider him from the perspective of taking him as a follower, the God of Royalty was actually quite a viable choice. It did not matter whether he had strength in power or not. Anyway, Sui Xiong did not need him to fight. Anyway, even if he did have combat power, he was nothing compared to Sui Xiong. With combat power that was more than a thousand, a million and a billion times more superb than anyone else, would he need a mere Le Ping to help him fight battles? It did not matter if he did not have a good character. Sui Xiong would use the kind and amicable ways of education of the traditional Chinese culture to help him turn over a new leaf. It was said that a good thrashing with the cane would give rise to a filial son. If even a filial son could be beaten to form, then naturally, other things were not worth mentioning. It did not matter if he could not control his manly desires. While he was in the midst of resurrection, Sui Xiong could help him settle this problem once and for all. Sui Xiong could still remember a time before he traversed worlds where there was a popular phrase on the internet called ¡°feminization.¡± Anything could be made to become a pure and adorable girl, this old man¡ªoh, now it seemed like he was no longer an old man¡ªwas no exception. Relatively speaking, if the God of Royalty became Sui Xiong¡¯s follower, it meant that the Void God System would have enough influence over this priesthood of ¡°Royalty.¡± By that time, it would be more convenient if he wanted to advocate a Republican system. Theoretically speaking, the Republican system and royalty were in conflict with each other. But it did not mean that it was impossible to resolve. It so happened that the great number of constitutional monarchies found on Earth did nothing more than change royalty into a concept that resembled religion and then ascribe all secular power to their governments. Sui Xiong did not know much about politics, but he had never tasted pork, nor had he ever seen a pig walk on two legs. As an illustrator who was more inclined towards animations, he was quite familiar with a nearby country that had an emperor. Wanting to come up with a set of similar system was really no difficulty for him at all. In this way, the God of Royalty would not be able to get much divinity, maybe not even enough to support him if he was a mid-level Divine Power. But to the God of Royalty, so long as he could be resurrected, other things¡­ who would still ask for anything more? On the contrary, for Sui Xiong, having the God of Royalty as his follower meant that he would be reasonably and legitimately qualified to dictate topics on the aspect of ¡°Royalty.¡± By that time, it would be perfectly justifiable for him to say things like ¡°royalty should be done this way.¡± Haha, this was really going to be so awesome¡­ Sui Xiong secretly gave himself some brownie points and began to work. He was a man of action. Turning his thoughts into action had always been his motto. In the God Kingdom of the human gods, the God of Aristocracy was in such agonizing pain at the moment that they could only see pitch darkness before them. Their entire body had gone cold from the pain. If it was not for the fact that gods did not have internal organs or organs for digestion and excretion, they would have squeezed out all the excreta from their body due to the excruciating pain and be lying in a pile of their filth. The thoughts in their mind were getting more and more chaotic and vague. That little bit of clarity that remained was gradually dissipating. It was as though their entire being had sunk deep into the ocean of anguish. And that they were sinking deeper and deeper into this bottomless sea, without knowing exactly what kind of abyss they were going to fall into. Words alone were no longer enough to describe the agony they were feeling. If it had not been for the special partition of their quiet room that could allow messages from the outside world to come in but prevent news on the inside from spreading out, the part of this God Kingdom that belonged to them might have been turned upside down. Many of their followers could have died as a result. Speaking of which, the God of Aristocracy was also quite an unlucky one. Their quiet room was originally completely isolated inside out. But this isolation was not achieved via their own power, but rather with the power of the God of Light. Even if the God of Royalty was resurrected, the influence that he exerted would not be able to penetrate the obstruction of the God of Light¡¯s power. The most the God of Aristocracy would receive was a warning alarm, but they would not really be hurt. But for the convenience of facilitating divination, they lifted the transmission limitation from the outside world to the inside of this quiet room. Therefore, the resurrection of the God of Royalty immediately caused their body to be torn apart, and as a result, they fell into a state of endless agony. What was worse was that because they had retained the isolation from inside the room to the outside world, their agony was unknown to anyone at all. It was confined to this small little quiet room. No one from the outside world had any way of knowing about it at all. Or maybe, there was still someone who knew. After some time, a figure appeared at the door of the quiet room and looked down at the God of Aristocracy lying on the ground. This powerful and ambitious God of Aristocracy had already fallen into a coma. Their body was contorted in a strange manner, reflecting the extreme agony that its master had been put through. If it had not been the occasional twitch of their flesh, their present appearance would be an epic representation of a painting named ¡°The Suffering Dead.¡± ¡°If you knew that this day would come, why do something that you would come to regret!¡± said that figure. It sighed and gently shook its head. Then it said, ¡°Your ambition has always been nothing more than building a castle out of sand!¡± Chapter 873 Chapter 873: Vol V Chapter 233 ¡°Are you totally adapted?¡± ¡°Yes, totally adapted,¡± Leon replied. He moved his body, then smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s a wonderful feeling. Whether it¡¯s my perspective of how I look at the world or the feeling of how I see myself, everything is different. ¡°The feeling is always very weird before you get used to it. But after you get adapted to it, you will only feel¡­ pleasure. Haha, pleasure, that is the feeling!¡± Leon said as he laughed a little louder. ¡°That fellow, Shoggoth, has a point. Pleasure! How very pleasurable!¡± Sui Xiong could not help laughing as he said, ¡°I think you still need some more time to adapt.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Look around you.¡± Leon froze for a moment, then noticed that without him realizing, many feathers had appeared in his surroundings and were drifting randomly about in the air. These feathers simply refused to fall to the ground. From these feathers, he could feel an amiable Divine Power that was connected to him by blood. The feeling was as natural as breathing. This was basically his own Divine Power! ¡°What?!¡± ¡°Stop lamenting. You simply have yet to truly master your own power at all!¡± Sui Xiong said and laughed. ¡°I remember when I first arrived on the continent, I was also like you. Accidentally, I created a big hole in the ground. Every place I passed by, a large patch of trees would fall. I was just like a tornado in transit.¡± ¡°And then?¡± Leon asked with great interest. ¡°And then, of course, I gradually adapted to it.¡± Leon shrugged his shoulders and expressed a slight dissatisfaction at this ending, that was just not interesting enough. ¡°Maybe you can make up for my shortcomings. Just go to the human world like this, make many jokes of yourself,¡± Sui Xiong smiled mischievously and added, ¡°This way, your descendants will be very happy. Their great ancestor is not only wise and powerful but has also left many popular stories of humor.¡± Leon¡¯s smile instantly froze on his face. ¡°Perhaps many years from now, the descendants of the Igor family¡ªor maybe the Garth family¡ªwill talk about their great ancestor, His Majesty, Leon, at dinner time. They will say, ¡®Ah, this ancestor must have been a person with a heart full of joy to have been so tireless in coming up with all kinds of jokes¡¯¡­¡± No, only you can be like this. I¡¯m a very stern and serious person! Because he had already stepped into the Demigod Realm, Leon¡¯s mental activities were not seen through by Sui Xiong. But from the expression on his face, Sui Xiong could almost guess what was on his mind. ¡°How you think is not important. The great power of time will leave only the most interesting or ridiculous parts of the story,¡± he continued. ¡°I once heard a story about a man who was very brave. At war, he was always the one who led the way. During one of the battles, the leather strap of his armor broke. Because it was inconvenient, he simply took off his armor and went on fighting. At his time, the armors were not as ingeniously designed. There was no way he could wear any underwear. So taking off his armor would naturally mean he was naked. His enemy was a valiant warrior and did not want to be at an advantage because of armor. He simply took off his armor and fought against his opponent naked. What do you think of the story?¡± ¡°They were certainly warriors. But aren¡¯t they a little too stubborn?¡± Leon said after giving it some thought. Then he said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it more practical to put on one¡¯s armor and kill the opponent in one strike?¡± Sui Xiong laughed, then asked, ¡°So do you know how people evaluate these two warriors after almost 2000 years?¡± ¡°Should be something like what I said. They can¡¯t be foolish enough to praise this act of taking off one¡¯s armor on the battlefield.¡± Sui Xiong smiled mysteriously and said, ¡°As far as I know, the later generations have given them names like ¡®Pioneers of the Celestial Bodies¡¯ Movement¡¯ and ¡®Pioneers of Nude Physical Combat.''¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment, then asked, ¡°I can understand the latter statement, but what does the former mean?¡± ¡°By celestial bodies, I refer to ¡®natural bodies.¡¯ What does the natural body of a human being look like?¡± Leon expressed his complete understanding then. The great power of time was really terrifying! Horrible! ¡°I will continue to adapt here until I can fully master my power!¡± he said firmly. ¡°Until then, I¡¯m not going anywhere!¡± With that, the wings of light behind him stirred and began fluttering, causing the disorderly feathers around him to whirl about in the wind. Sui Xiong gave a satisfied smile. Then he went back to sitting before the huge ¡°bird egg¡± that was immersed in the power of beliefs. ¡°A female God of Royalty¡­ when this one comes out, things will be very interesting¡­¡± ¡°God of Royalty?!¡± exclaimed the God of Aristocracy. Their face was livid with the hue of death. They looked no different from a dead man. With disheveled hair, there was not even a tinge of the mightiness of the gods found in them. And their voice was filled with disbelief and unease. They did not even have a trace of confidence in her. ¡°Impossible! He is long gone!¡± The God of Light¡¯s mouth curled up in an almost undetectable degree as he said, ¡°Dead? Is there really ¡®death¡¯ for us gods?¡± The question that he asked in return brought the God of Aristocracy to silence. Indeed, while the gods might fall, with the right conditions in place, any fallen god could be completely resurrected. Over the past years, there were even occurrences of gods who had fallen for tens of thousands of years being resurrected, let alone the fact that the God of Royalty had merely fallen 300 years ago. Although the resurrected gods were often very different from the original gods, at least the core of their priesthoods were of the same vein. Many memories and attitudes towards various matters would remain consistent. The resurrection of gods was essentially like the reincarnation of masters in the human world. There might be many changes, but strictly speaking, they were the same person from the start to the end. And to the God of Aristocracy, for the resurrected God of Royalty and the original God of Royalty to be the same person? There would not be anything worse than this in the world! The core of their priesthood was inherited from the God of Royalty. If the God of Royalty was resurrected, to seize these priesthoods back from them, a war could easily break out between them. No, there was no need for war. The God of Royalty had a natural advantage over these priesthoods. So long as he was formally resurrected, many of these priesthoods would feel the pull of the force of their source and fall back into the control of the God of Royalty. At that time, the God of Aristocracy would definitely fall from the level of a great Divine Power. At best, she could remain as a weak mid-level Divine Power. At worst¡­ she might not even be able to remain as a mid-level Divine Power and would continue to fall further to the level of a weak Divine Power. If it had not been for the painstaking efforts she had put in over the years, and also her mastery of many gods who had nothing to do with the former God of Royalty, she might even have directly fallen into a god-to-be level without any priesthood. In the most serious cases, it was even possible for her to directly fall into destruction. The God of Aristocracy could not help but shudder slightly at the thought of that possibility. It was not cold in the quiet room, and the bodies of a god were not afraid of the cold. But at that moment, they could only feel a penetrating cold all over her body. It was an irresistible cold that made them want to shiver and tremble, and they wanted to find a warm and safe place to cower in. Looking at their ghostly appearance, the God of Light shook his head with a little regret and disappointment. ¡°This quiet room is enveloped in my divinity. You can rest assured that external affairs would not be able to affect you in here,¡± he said. ¡°But, if you want to continue being a god and if you still want to maintain your current power and position, ultimately, you need to come out of this place. When the God of Royalty is truly resurrected, you have to face him. ¡°Don¡¯t you ever think of escaping. This is one hurdle that you can¡¯t overlook.¡± Chapter 874 Chapter 874: Vol V Chapter 234 ¡°How are they?¡± asked the God of Diplomacy when the God of Light returned to the main hall. He had been waiting all this while. The God of Light shook his head and said, ¡°Just as you all have guessed. They are indeed an unpromising fellow that can¡¯t be trained.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, haven¡¯t you seen through their true nature long ago?¡± the God of Conspiracy asked with a smile. ¡°Of all the ambitious men in this world, there¡¯s very few who can really match their abilities to their power.¡± The God of Light nodded and looked towards the dome of the main hall that was glowing above his head. ¡°So lonely¡­¡± he lamented. ¡°Why isn¡¯t there anyone who I can really trust my work with? I¡¯m so troubled by how things are going!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, your demands are too high. There¡¯s only one great Master God like you in the whole world,¡± said the God of Diplomacy. And he sincerely meant it from the bottom of his heart. ¡°You should never use yourself as the standard when looking out for your successor.¡± The God of Light shook his head and said nothing. His expression was somewhat lonely. After a while, he asked, ¡°How is the situation with the God of Royalty?¡± The God of Conspiracy answered immediately, ¡°Already taken away by the Void Mask.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good that he¡¯s taken away. This way, at least no matter what, we¡¯ll still have a way out,¡± the God of Light finally showed a little earnest smile. ¡°You have done a very good job this time. Truly worthy of being called the Dagger in the Darkness of our Human God System.¡± The God of Conspiracy showed a look of ecstasy. He bent low and bowed deeply without saying anything. He and the God of Diplomacy, as well as the many gods of the Human God System, were all faithful followers of the God of Light. In Earth¡¯s parlance, it would be them following the God of Light brainlessly, as though they were all suffering from lead poisoning. Even if the God of Light said, ¡°The moon is so green today,¡± they would immediately find as many people as they could to help the God of Moon put on several green hats. There would not be anything like a single line of refutation to be heard. To these gods with immortality, receiving the recognition and complement of their idol for the work they did was the greatest form of happiness. After praising the God of Conspiracy, the God of Light said, ¡°How is the promotion of the new military system coming along?¡± ¡°It¡¯s going smoothly,¡± replied the God of Diplomacy. ¡°All the countries are busy with training new armies. But if it¡¯s possible, we¡¯ll still need to have a few major battles to let the people see clearly the overwhelming advantage that the new military system has over the traditional one. This way, people can completely abandon the old military system and adopt a new one.¡± ¡°Then let them fight,¡± said the God of Light. Just a single line from him decided the lives and deaths of thousands and millions of people. ¡°The truth can be shaped through debate; the right way can be found through battle. New things must replace the old. Relying on reasonable persuasion, the effect is ultimately limited. The easiest and most reliable way is by drawing swords to kill those fellows who cling conservatively to old rules. ¡°Speaking of which, that fellow, Auscar, always have to come up with some interesting things. And yet, he¡¯s not as enthusiastic in promoting¡­ Hey! Do you all understand what exactly goes on inside the head of a jellyfish?¡± The God of Diplomacy and the God of Conspiracy looked at one another but were unable to say anything. All these years, the study of the topic of ¡°wisdom of the jellyfish¡± had been the focus of many gods. The Human God System was no exception. The few gods who conducted the study had spent a great number of material resources and Divine Power, and god knows how many jellyfish they had killed. But they still could not come up with any useful conclusion. According to them, creatures like jellyfish were not supposed to acquire wisdom, even if they had stepped into the Legendary Realm, became legendary magic beasts, and awakened their wisdom. This wisdom that was awakened would only be of a different type of wisdom. But the wisdom of Auscar, the Void Mask, clearly did not belong to the ¡°other types.¡± He certainly did have a human side to him. At first glance, his wisdom seemed to be inclined towards the direction of humans. But many of his thoughts and many of his inherent ideas were completely different from those of the humans. Also, those unusual and fanciful notions of his were definitely not within the category of humans¡ªthe wisdom of humans was dependent on the accumulation of knowledge and the development of their spirituality. What knowledge could this jellyfish accumulate? Just based on its spirituality alone, how could it possibly develop so much? At first glance, spirituality seemed to make no sense. In fact, it was nothing more than the result of the intersection between the subconsciousness and accumulation of knowledge. Without enough knowledge, it would only manifest itself as an incoherent frenzy¡ªin the experiments, more than one jellyfish had demonstrated such madness. They eventually reached a state of extreme delirium that would make any mortal deem them as lunatics at one look. And in the end, they were all destroyed as products of failed experiments. Of course, Auscar, the Void Mask, also had his insane side. But more often than not, he showed clear rationality and rigorous logic without any sense of insanity. This had to come from some kind of wisdom, a certain kind of wisdom that was completely different from any known wisdom but was also extraordinarily powerful and effective. If the mystery of that wisdom could be solved, even a weak God System could grow stronger rapidly. And if the Human God System was able to solve the mystery of that wisdom, it would quickly become the most powerful faction among all the other gods. The human gods would utterly overpower all their rivals! Most regrettably, the experiment had yet to reap any reliable results. Solving the mystery of the jellyfish wisdom was still an insurmountable mystery. What special wisdom could a great jellyfish god have? If anyone were to say this to Sui Xiong, he would definitely pour scorn on them. Special wisdom? When it came to special stances, he only knew a few. For instance, the stance ¡°Ass back like the Wild Geese on the Sandbank,¡± or ¡°48 Hands of the Great Oedo,¡± or ¡°Billy Wrestling,¡± or ¡°Jojo Stand¡­¡± Though he did not really have much practice, at least he often saw those on the internet and often learned by watching and mimicking the moves. But if anyone were to ask him about ¡°special wisdom,¡± he would be very lost. Could it be painting a picture? He was very confident about his standard of painting. And many of the painting techniques he had mastered were indeed unprecedented and unique enough for this world. It was just¡­ such an answer would most probably make the people who had mustered up the courage to ask him questions extremely annoyed. But other than that wisdom, he really could not think of anything else. He would probably say with much sincerity, ¡°There isn¡¯t any, really. Really there isn¡¯t any!¡± Honestly, he even thought that he was, in fact, quite a stupid man. If it was not for his stupidity, he would not always be coming up with all sorts of ideas for various studies, then get stuck, and eventually, someone else would be the one to come up with the results. This was clearly the IQ gap¡­ Take the salt right before him, for example. At that moment, there were a few packets of fine salt place right before him. They looked almost as fine as rice flour and radiated a captivating business and snow-whiteness under the sunlight. ¡°We have finally completed the research on the subject you entrusted us with!¡± Palin said proudly. He was no longer the young Palin of before. ¡°This is the result of our research. We call it¡ª¡± ¡°Washed powder salt!¡± Chapter 875 Chapter 875: Vol V Chapter 235 As a result of remedying the great drought that implicated the entire Dominant Continent, Sui Xiong once produced a great amount of salt. That was really a great amount, an amount which was enough to be piled into a mountain. Of course, this salt was coarse salt. It was bitter and astringent. Perhaps the poor people would not mind its taste, but Sui Xiong personally detested it. From his point of view, this kind of salt was trash. Not only did it taste bad, but it also contained a lot of minerals that were harmful to the human body¡ªno matter how lacking Sui Xiong was in scientific knowledge, he also knew that seawater was undrinkable. The key reason why it could not be consumed was not that it was dirty, but rather, it had a lot of harmful minerals in it. Sui Xiong once heard a popular science explaining why seawater could not be consumed. The excessive salt content was no doubt one of the reasons. The other reason was that it contained many other minerals. He could not remember exactly what the specific names of those minerals were, but he did have some impression of their names, like vomiting salt, Epsom salt, k¡­ Just by listening to the name, one could tell what consequences would be. So even though he had acquired mountains of salt while extracting freshwater from seawater for the purpose of disaster relief, he was unable to find a good way to use them. Ultimately, he tasked the chief scientist of the Church of the Void Mask, Palin, with a project to research for a way to purify the coarse salt into edible salt. Since the solar evaporation technique was also available in this world, naturally, there would also be ways to turn coarse salt that contained a great number of impurities into refined salt that contained almost no impurities. But those ways required the assistance of magic and cost too much. They did not carry much practical value, except that they could be provided for the enjoyment of the upper classes. The dedicated spell, ¡°purification of coarse salt,¡± was a mid-rank spell. The mages who were capable of casting this spell would at least have to be the equivalent of knights. And each day, they could probably cast this spell up to two or three times. So adding everything up, they could only purify as much as 10 to 15 jin of salt a day. The spell, ¡°purification of saltwater¡± was of a slightly lower level. Mages who were almost mid-rank would be able to cast this spell. Ordinary mid-ranked mages could use it about 10 times a day. But considering how salt could only be obtained after the saltwater had been subjected to complete evaporation, the efficiency of making refined salt from this spell was in fact, not as good as that of ¡°purification of coarse salt.¡± In general, considering the human resources and spellcasting materials, the value of one jin of refined salt purified by magic was probably worth about 20 gold coins¡ªthis was its cost. It was purely the production cost. And only the cost of using the solar evaporation technique could be so low. If it was cooking salt, every jin would cost three to five gold coins more. Adding on transportation¡­ Refined salt from inland areas could at times be sold for more than a hundred gold coins per jin! This was undoubtedly a profiteering industry. But actually, there were very few people engaged in this trade. Very, very, very few. Because in most situations, people would rather go for coarse salt that cost less than five gold coins per jin. What? You say it tastes bad? You say it¡¯s bad for health? Then eat less! This was why the market for refined salt was not big, and the profits were not very rewarding. The mission Sui Xiong entrusted Palin with, was to research a way to purify coarse salt while keeping the cost to a minimum. And it was still the same old rule where research budget was of concern. There was no need to worry about money. Spend as much as was required. Even so, it still took Palin more than a decade to complete this research. The way that he and the team of researchers he led had finally found was surprisingly simple. It was so simple that only two words were needed. ¡°Powder¡± and ¡°wash.¡± Yes, these were the two words. Palin had based the name of this salt on these two words. The specific method was not complicated at all. First of all, grind the coarse salt till it was fine, as fine as possible. Generally, it was best if it could be as fine as rice flour. Then pour the salt into brine. As more and more of it dissolved in the brine, it would gradually reach the point where the salt was no longer soluble in the brine¡ªin physical terms, this was known as ¡°saturation.¡± This kind of saturated brine could no longer be able to dissolve salt. But it could dissolve the impurities contained in the salt. By washing the powder obtained from grinding the coarse salt with this saturated brine, it was possible to obtain refined salt that contained a minute amount of impurities. After washing, there would only be a very small amount of impurities in the fine salt. If necessary, this salt could also be used to make a saturated brine for a second washing, and even for a third time¡­ Generally speaking, the fine salt obtained after three rounds of washing would be completely free of any strange smell. It would be very pure. Palin also added some other means of removing impurities like filtering and precipitation in this process. And finally, the outcome was this fine salt that was as fine as rice flour, as white as crystals and had a superb taste. He named it ¡°washed powder salt.¡± Having listened to Palin¡¯s report, Sui Xiong also inspected their research institute, and he could not help but feel happy for them wholeheartedly. ¡°This is a remarkable achievement!¡± he said. ¡°Oh Palin, if my assumption is right, if you¡¯re willing to spread this technology widely, this will be a meritorious contribution that might be enough for you to be sealed a god¡ªof course, it will presumably be a weak Divine Power at the lowest level.¡± Palin smiled and did not show any trace of excitement. It was not that he despised the weak Divine Powers. No matter what, ¡°weak Divine Powers¡± were still gods. They were great immortal existences that were on a level that was far beyond the reach of mortals. But it was just not what he was pursuing. ¡°It wasn¡¯t me who truly made such a huge contribution to the research of fine salt,¡± he said. ¡°It was Fira Kenji.¡± Of course, Sui Xiong knew who Fira Kenji was. This man, known as the ¡°Green Magician,¡± was originally the cook of a Pighead. After a certain adventure where he devoured the soul of an ancient wizard who attempted to seize his body for resurrection, he became a magician. Then with Miramon and Maddow¡¯s help, he studied and created the Green Magic that was characterized by ¡°devouring the demon beast and learn its spells¡­¡± He had also seen Fira inside the research base. Because the life of a Pighead was not long to start with, Fira was already a white-haired man. His chubby face was gradually becoming thin, which showed that his life was approaching the end¡ªthe battle against the soul of that ancient wizard had no doubt, greatly benefitted him, but it also cost him to lose many years of his life. Furthermore, in order to finally fulfill his wish of many years that involved an old-time opponent, Ruby Slyu, he had desperately risked his life and used taboo means to win his opponent in the Fighter Championship. And then he finally settled the scores of being looked down upon and being bullied during his years as a youth. Now, he was almost at the end of his life. Although it was not to the extent of walking with trembling feet, the truth was that it would not be strange even if he were to fall asleep tonight and never wake up the next day. Sui Xiong knew what Fira had gone through in life. But Sui Xiong had never expected this quick-tempered Pighead, who had limited ability and seemed to only rely on his luck and the help of friends, to become a magician. He even became the key figure of the invention of the technique of purification of coarse salt! Looking at the peaceful smile on Fira¡¯s old face, he could not help recalling a famous saying. This was truly¡­ Never judge a book by its cover! Chapter 876 Chapter 876: Vol V Chapter 236 Palin was not someone who would cheat and seize and claim the fruits of his men¡¯s research. He had a noble character that could be described as honest and above average¡ªthis was apparent when he eventually became a judge in hell after his soul fell into the underworld. Therefore, he had truthfully reported the results of Fira¡¯s research to Sui Xiong and repeatedly emphasized Fira¡¯s importance in this whole research. In fact, the key to how they were able to discover the ¡°powder wash¡± technique was an accidental experiment by Fira. In that experiment, Fira dissolved an excess amount of coarse salt in water, then he stirred the mixture repeatedly with a machine that was driven by the kinetic energy of water. Then¡­ because it was almost noon and he had a date with his cooks where he would be showing off his cooking skills, he forgot about it. After returning from lunch, he separated the water and salt. Relying on the palate of a cook, he noticed that the brine was somewhat different than usual. So he did several more experiments and finally determined that after the coarse salt had been repeatedly washed in brine, the brine would become more astringent than usual. It might even be more bitter than the thick brine that could precipitate coarse salt out. Then Fira studied the coarse salt that had been washed and found that it tasted significantly less salty¡ªit did only taste less salty, but that unique bitter and astringent taste that characterized coarse salt was also significantly milder. He told Palin about his findings, who analyzed and researched and eventually invented this set of ¡°washed powder salt¡± technique. So it was not an exaggeration to say that he was a key contributor to the discovery process of washed powder salt. When Sui Xiong learned about everything, he decided to have a talk with Fira and ask about Fira¡¯s plans. ¡°You have achieved extraordinary results,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°If you¡¯re willing to, based on this meritorious contribution, I¡¯ll be pleased to promote you as a god follower. But I¡¯m not sure whether you are compatible with any priesthood. This process will entail some risks.¡± Fira did not say anything, but neither did he remain silent. His face flushed red as he wheezed and pant with his nose. His chest was heaving at a rapid pace, like the billowing wind. He was obviously very excited. Becoming a god was the greatest dream of the vast majority of ordinary people in the world. Even if there were great dangers, in the face of this dream, would those bear any significance? However, Fira did not agree that easily. After he regained his composure, he asked, ¡°Your Majesty, you must have something else to tell me, right? Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°You¡¯re right. Rather than get you to fit yourself into a priesthood that already exists, I¡¯m more inclined to get you to fight for your own priesthood. After all, it¡¯s the plain truth that you¡¯ve made an exemplary contribution. So long as this washed powder salt technique is publicized in your name, coupled with some other preparation, it is still very hopeful for you to break through to the level of a weak Divine Power.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the difference between the two?¡± Fira asked curiously. He was no longer in a state of excitement. ¡°Frankly speaking, both involve risks,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°The risk for the former is that I¡¯m not confident of getting you the right fit from the existing priesthoods. The risk for the latter is that the success of the washed powder salt is not widespread enough and you yourself are not strong enough.¡± ¡°If you are a Demigod Master¡ªfor instance, like Leon, then it is a matter of course for you to be sealed god by virtue of the washed powder salt technique. There¡¯s nearly negligible obstacle to speak of. But you are just an advanced mage, not even within the Legendary Realm. It¡¯s going to be very difficult if you wish to become a god just relying on this feat alone.¡± Fira was silent for a moment, then he asked, ¡°Then what does Your Majesty think I should do? Can you give me a suggestion?¡± Sui Xiong could not help laughing again. And said, ¡°You¡¯re actually getting wiser as you age! If I may advise, I¡¯ll suggest that you should become an Oracle first, then seek to become a sealed god later on.¡± ¡°From Oracle to a sealed god?¡± Fira asked. Of course, it was impossible for him to grasp an understanding of what was so special about this. With a somewhat dazed look, he looked at Sui Xiong and asked, ¡°Pardon my ignorance, Your Majesty. But I don¡¯t understand.¡± So Sui Xiong gave him a detailed explanation¡ªwhen mortals turned into Oracles, naturally, they could become divine creatures, which also meant they were existence similar to Demigods. In such a case, if they could further make enough contributions to be sealed gods, the difficulty level would be much lower as compared to that of mortals directly being sealed as gods. However, there would naturally be drawbacks in doing so. Since they had to become Oracles, it would be equivalent to being branded as Sui Xiong¡¯s belongings. Even after they had become sealed gods, it would not be possible for them to gain complete independence. And even if they became great Divine Powers in the future, all Sui Xiong needed was a single notion to bring them under complete control, or even make them vanish into thin air without difficulty. This kind of god follower was the most inferior kind among all the other followers. And generally, they did not have much room for growth. This was because no matter how much belief they obtained, they would still require the Master God¡¯s approval before they could truly acquire everything¡ªthe power of beliefs was something that was favorable for everyone. There was hardly any Master God who would give it to a follower who did not have very promising growth prospects. Then there were followers like Wall. Though they also belonged to Sui Xiong, they were not so perniciously restricted¡ªat least, even if they met the most rigorous Master Gods, they would still have what it took for them to claim their own share of the power of beliefs. They would not be completely intercepted. Of course, Sui Xiong was not a mean and greedy Master God. But he thought that it was still necessary to explain to Fira about the interests in this case. After listening to his introduction, Fira considered for a little while and made his decision. ¡°I choose to become an Oracle,¡± he said. ¡°To tell you the truth, I lack wisdom. Even though you have explained so much to me, I still don¡¯t grasp a complete understanding of what you mean. But I feel that you think too much.¡± Sui Xiong froze and looked at him doubtfully. ¡°I¡¯m your follower. This belief is not based on bloodline or anything else. It¡¯s the result of my years of reflection and trials as I witnessed your achievements, received your kindness and lived in the country that you have guided and led. I believe you and have faith in my belief.¡± Sui Xiong as silent. He could see within Fira¡¯s heart and knew that he meant everything wholeheartedly. ¡°You have brought the best country and the most wonderful kind of life to the world. If not for you, I would probably still be an insignificant figure who would not be worth mentioning. Maybe I¡¯d be ordered about in the kitchen of some tribe on the plains, or perhaps I would have been dead long ago. I once followed Master Miramon and Master Maddow all over the world. Out on the plains, I met many compatriots whom I¡¯ve never seen before. They are muddling along their days; they are in such pain¡­ The scariest thing is, they don¡¯t feel any pain at all! That scared me the most. It was something that even caused me to have nightmares. ¡°I can¡¯t imagine what me and my people in the Republic would be like without you¡­ All the other kinds of people, my friends, people I know and don¡¯t know, what would they be like¡­ That¡¯s so horrible. So horrible that the mere thought of it is suffocating. ¡°All these beautiful things come from your glory. So why should I have to question your wisdom and benevolence? To tell you the truth, you asking me what I would rather choose is a little confusing to me.¡± He lifted his head. On his old, Pighead face, there was a peaceful and blissful smile. ¡°I believe in you. Whatever you say, I¡¯ll do it. That¡¯s all.¡± Chapter 877 Chapter 877: Vol V Chapter 237 Since the matter had been settled, Fira prepared to set off. But Sui Xiong advised him against rushing and told him that he should at least settle his personal matters at home first. ¡°Though theoretically, you should be keeping a tight rein on time. Because before the washed powder salt technique is fully spread, if we are able to cognitively produce our belief and consolidate the state of divine creatures before the World¡¯s Origin gives back, the difficulty of becoming a sealed god will be greatly reduced. Otherwise, you might have to spend a lot more time and energy¡­¡± Sui Xiong advised. ¡°But currently, this technique is still kept hidden in our research laboratory. When to promote it to the mass is completely up to us to decide, we can delay as long as we want to. So there is no need to worry at all. ¡°Even if everything does well for this trip to my God Kingdom, it may still take you around a year or so before you are able to thoroughly stabilize and consolidate your new state. If things don¡¯t go well, maybe it will take even longer¡­ it will be a long trip, and your family will be worried. Besides, you¡¯re not young anymore. There must be certain things that need to be taken care of at home. So don¡¯t make haste. Settle these things first.¡± Of course, Fira would not reject Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestions. From his point of view, these were the orders given to him by a god and had to be completed to the T. He was about to take his leave when Palin called out to him again. ¡°Mr. Kenji, I have a suggestion. Don¡¯t tell anyone the real reason for this departure¡­ Just tell them that I¡¯ve arranged a retreat for you. If your luck is good, then maybe you¡¯ll be able to step into the Legendary realm.¡± Fira was also considered an experienced and knowledgeable man who had traveled far and wide. It only took him a moment of deliberation for him to understand Palin¡¯s intention. He nodded and became a stream of green light and vanished without a trace. For an advanced mage like him, rushing off elsewhere via transmission magic was a piece of cake. After he left, Sui Xiong asked with some degree of curiosity, ¡°What¡¯s wrong about telling people about this matter?¡± ¡°Over the years, Your Majesty may have constantly been bestowing kindness to us, but you have never asked us to do anything much for you. To tell you the truth, all of us feel somewhat unsettled about it¡ªthough the help we can provide you is indeed so insignificant, yet to do nothing at all would make us feel that we¡¯re simply unimportant. And it has not only been once that I even heard things like ¡®What should we do if His Majesty were to get tired of us one fine day¡­¡± ¡°Am I such a person?¡± Sui Xiong asked and frowned. ¡°You¡¯re not that kind of person, but people don¡¯t understand you.¡± Sui Xiong understood his meaning and sighed silently. The people who understood Sui Xiong would naturally get that Sui Xiong would never give up on them. But to those who did not understand him, the way they felt about him would always be dictated by their sense of interest in what he had done for the people of the Republic. This was why occasionally, they would get so skeptical¡ªwhat if there came the day where Sui Xiong¡¯s interest changed? The other gods demanded faith, or their churches consistently recruited manpower, expanded in scale, or even demanded to be enshrined and worshipped. But the Church of the Void Mask did not ask for anything from the people. Although they often propagated the greatness of their god and the glory of their belief, they would never refuse to help anyone who did not believe in Sui Xiong. Neither would they ever reject¡ªfor his followers, especially the clergymen, Sui Xiong always demanded that ¡°goodness¡± had to come before ¡°belief.¡± It did not bother him whether other people believed in him or not, but he was very concerned about whether they were kind or not. And this made the image of the Church of the Void Mask even stranger¡ªthey were a group of people who walked about in long robes. They also carried out preaching, but they preferred to be engaged in chivalric acts or policing to maintain peace and order. There are mainly two kinds of impressions that the citizens of the Republic had of them. The first impression was that they could be found patrolling every big and small street, gathering opinions and suggestions from the people with regards to the government. They would also help those in need and punish the troublemakers. The second impression was that they managed the game consoles in the temple and often quarreled or even fought with each other over the contents of the games. This was a group with no sense of solemnity¡ªupholders of justice, as well as deep game addicts. It was difficult to make the public feel that such a church was ¡°needed.¡± They would always feel that they were like charity cases purely living on the alms given by the church. They were constantly gaining and taking but could not give anything. Over time, such unease gradually spread to the grassroots of the Republic of Northwest. Sui Xiong was silent for a moment. Then he connected to the mainframe computer in his God Kingdom and started to review the prayers of his followers. His way of handling his followers¡¯ prayers was through the mainframe computer. The specific process was like this: first, he sorted the prayers into categories. Prayers that purely consisted of worship and praise or prayers for the lamentation of life would be ignored and kept off the records. Only prayers of needs were recorded. The next was to further categorize the kinds of needs. Those that were harmless to people and did not require a large consumption would be added into the list of ¡°ready to implement.¡± Those that were harmless to people but required a larger consumption would have to be declared to Sui Xiong. For those that were harmful to people, clergymen or Oracles would be sent to secretly verify, without any exception, before deciding what would be done in response. As for those needs that did not carry any practical significance, they were generally just sealed up while waiting to be sorted out later. Now, Sui Xiong was checking those needs that had been sealed. Just as he expected, he found a great number of prayers like ¡°please don¡¯t abandon me,¡±¡±please give me directions¡± and ¡°please let me work for you¡± among them. Of course, Sui Xiong would not abandon them. But he really did not need them to do anything for him either. This was why these prayers were sealed and had never been found out, until now. ¡°I think I can see why now,¡± Sui Xiong said with a sigh. ¡°The situation is indeed, a little serious.¡± Palin smiled and said, ¡°Actually, we can¡¯t really use serious to describe it. The foundation of this country is you. With you around, there is nothing too serious. But if you are not around, there will be nothing, serious or not serious, to consider. The main reason I asked him not to leak information was to prevent causing a riot.¡± ¡°Riot? Why would it cause a riot?¡± ¡°Because this is the first time you¡¯ve specifically put forward a ¡®need¡¯ to someone,¡± Pain explained. ¡°You may not have sensed that throughout the Republic, everyone wants to do something for you. They would want to get you what you need, and this desire has almost reached the point of fanaticism. So long as you give the order, even if they had to spend a lot of time and energy crossing mountains and oceans, even if they have to risk their lives to brave countless dangers, no one will have the slightest hesitation. The moment this news about Fira spreads, people will find out that¡ªyou do have needs from us. But only a very small number of people can have this honor, so I¡¯m worried that this fanaticism will prompt them to do something irrational¡­¡± Sui Xiong frowned. He did not quite understand this way of thinking. As an artist, he had excellent sensibility. So he could understand the emotion that Palin described. But why would this possibly lead to fanatical, irrational behavior when this emotion met with an opportunity? He did not understand. However, it did not matter if he did not understand. He chose to believe Palin. As the top leader of the scientific research department under Sui Xiong¡¯s command, he was well-deserving to be regarded as a great scientist¡ªnot only in this world. Even on Earth, at the same level of civilization, he was also worthy enough to be called a scientist. Sui Xiong was a man who respected talents, so he believed in the judgment of a scientist. Since that was what Palin said, it should be true. ¡°So¡­ do you have any good ideas, Palin?¡± he asked. Palin thought for a moment, then said, ¡°If you are asking for a good idea¡­ I think you can hold a big event and let the people feel that you still have needs to demand from them. This will work out fine.¡± Chapter 878 Chapter 878: Vol V Chapter 238 Hold a big event so that the people could feel that he needed them? Sui Xiong started to ponder. Make the people feel that I need them¡­ the best way should be to start with belief, right? So long as I reinforce the church¡¯s preaching work and put up an act of needing belief, that should do. But I really don¡¯t need belief¡­ He quietly shook his head and rejected this notion. Though he could always put up an act even if he really did not have such a need, Sui Xiong, unfortunately, exhibited the common failing of artists again¡ªstubbornness. He did not wish to use such a cheating method to solve the problem. He knew that stubbornness would do nothing to solve the problem. He was simply being willful. But he just wanted to be willful. Being artists, would it be justifiable if they did not have a temperament characterized by a bit of stubbornness and tactlessness! Had anyone not seen Li Bai and Du Fu? They were artists and literary artists as well. Are they tactful? Tactful, like real! Yan Zhenqing, a calligrapher, tactful? Tactful, as if! Zheng Xie, a calligrapher, also a painter, tactful? What was that? He did not understand¡­ As an artist, Sui Xiong held these predecessors in high esteem. It was fine if there were no conditions. But when there were conditions, it was always inevitable that he would want to emulate these wise men of the past. So now, he wanted to follow suit. Theoretically speaking, such unnecessary stubbornness would bring him great trouble, so much to the extent that he could not think of any suitable method even after pondering for a long time. In the end, after thinking from within the context of home to out of the country, he finally found something of value after searching through every nook and cranny of his memory. After the former Soviet Union was established, for whatever unknown reason, it was probably the need of nation-building, the then head-of-state, Lenin, issued a nationwide call to hold a ¡°Saturday Voluntary Labor¡± campaign. How long had this been going on? Sui Xiong had no impression. He only remembered that this campaign seemed to be in full swing. The people all appeared to be very enthusiastic. Should I also come up with such a voluntary movement in the Republic? Then from the voluntary movement personnel, I can carry out the selection of advanced members and award these people with the title of ¡°pacesetters of nation-building?¡± This doesn¡¯t seem quite right. Since this is voluntary labor, why is there a need for selecting among the advanced? Sui Xiong frowned and recalled something else. Most modern countries had a slogan that said: ¡°The people are the masters of the country.¡± Whether this slogan was true or false, at least it clearly showed an attitude. So could the Republic of Northwest also make efforts in this direction? Establish a social atmosphere in which the people were the ¡°masters of the country¡±? He could not help but fall into a reverie of thoughts. Many thoughts of matters like social supervision, grassroots elections, opinion polls and such, were thronging into his mind. But all of these were merely miscellaneous thoughts and were not shaped in a systematic manner. Obviously, these ideas were valuable. But they were not utilizable for the time being, at least not at the current moment. So what was the final conclusion? Sui Xiong smiled and made his decision. ¡°Let¡¯s have a voluntary labor movement. We¡¯ll build our nation, give back to society and realize our value in life,¡± he said. ¡°Give publicity to this in my name. Tell everyone that to contribute to this country is to honor my glory.¡± ¡°The lord protects the world, and thus the world honors the lord,¡± he said. As he said so, he recalled that before he traversed worlds, he often saw this couplet on the doors of a small church near his dormitory. The diction was not fantastic, but it was catchy and easily read. So he casually said it off the top of his head. Because what followed next was the issue of people being the ¡°masters of the country.¡± He had not noticed the sudden spark in Palin¡¯s eyes after hearing what he said. That was the light of joy and excitement. ¡­ ¡°Just being away for a few months, and the house that obstructs our view is finally torn down,¡± said Fira Kenji. He was walking along the street and looking at the slight changes made along his way. He was muttering to himself as he said, ¡°It¡¯s better to tear it down. This way, the entire street seems to look even straighter¡ªstraight lines are more beautiful. They enable efficient travel and are easily managed. Every city should make full use of straight lines!¡± He was not worried about the original inhabitants of that house. All the citizens of the Republic of Northwest knew that if the state needed to demolish houses, it had to provide appropriate compensation. The most common practice was to first complete building the replacement house according to the citizens¡¯ needs, at the place they had decided after discussing. When the furniture was all set, the people could move in at any time. Then the demolition of their original houses would commence. From his old house to the new one, the only inconvenience was probably getting to know and familiarize himself with the neighbors again. Other than that, there was no other loss on his end. Fira¡¯s home was also on this same street. It was located right next to a small shop. His house was not very big, and to be honest, it was not very compatible with his status. But he was not bothered about it. Making it to where he was, very few people would care about these mere worldly possessions. In theory, every advanced mage could build a magic tower for himself or go inside the magic tower to build an individual dwelling for himself. But since Fira had joined Mr. Palin¡¯s research institute, he no longer considered himself as a magician, but rather defined himself as a ¡°scholar¡± or a ¡°scientist.¡± The former was the identity commonly used by magicians, while the latter was a term that His Majesty, the Void Mask, occasionally used. Scientists were people who achieved their goals by studying and researching for means that did not involve the use of magic. They were the ones at the forefront of the entire society and also one of the most important forces for propelling social progress. Fira did not understand these words back then. He merely looked forward to them because they came from the mouth of His Majesty, the Void Mask. It was only later when he and Mr. Palin worked together to complete the creation of the washed powder salt technique and calculated the benefits this technology could bring to the people that he truly understood the influential impact of a ¡°scientist.¡± He was not an excellent magician. His ¡°Green Magic¡± might be wonderful, but compared to the magic system of the academics, he clearly did not have an advantage. As a magician, he did not feel that he had made any decent achievements that were up to mark. All that he had accomplished by far would either only be things that were going to be shelved and neglected or things that someone might want to learn from in the future. But so what? As a scientist, he was proud of his achievements. So long as the washed powder salt technique was widely promoted, everyone on the Main Plane would be able to eat cheap, refined salt! For a person to make such an achievement in life, this person¡¯s life would have not gone to waste. Even if they had to die that very moment, there was nothing to regret. This was what Fira thought about after he calculated the value of the ¡°washed powder salt¡± technique. But fate was so wonderful. He was not going to die early, after all. Instead, because of his research results, he won His Majesty, the Void Mask¡¯s recognition and got the opportunity to serve His Majesty. Even¡­ possibly become a god follower of His Majesty! He did not have much confidence in regard to the final possibility. But it did not matter. It was already very good if he could become a follower of His Majesty! So he had a smile on his face, and his steps were light. After he had settled his personal matters, he was well on his way towards reaching the peak of his life! Chapter 879 Chapter 879: Vol V Chapter 239 Fira was not married. When he was young, he experienced a particular adventure where his body was possessed by an ancient wizard for almost a year. With the help of his good friend, Hopes Wilder, he managed to disconnect himself. And this turned out to be a blessing in disguise where he devoured the soul of that ancient wizard and gained remarkable magic talents and powerful magic power instead. However, since then, his mind was often a little chaotic and confused. After idling his time away for several years, his problem was finally solved with the help of a Legendary Master, who was Miramon, the ¡°Gourmet.¡± But by then, he was nearly 30 years old. For the Pigman race, whose life expectancy was not high to start with, he was considered to already be in his late middle age and was close to old age. What was worse was that because his body had been possessed, and because of the struggle between his soul and the other soul, he was greatly weakened. In addition, to redress the grievance he had when he was a youth, he had resorted to using a method that risked the life of him to fight and defeat his old enemy, Ruby Slyu. Thus, his vitality was further undermined to a great extent. Though he was merely 30 years old, he looked as though he was more than 50 years old. The Republic of Northwest had very resolute folkways. Even if it was a man who was paramount and powerful with great wealth could forget about ¡°robbing the cradle.¡± A man with a touching story along the line of ¡°you bear a great resemblance to my late wife¡± might probably be able to move one or two budding women in search of first love. However, Fira really did not have a late wife¡ªhe was essentially just an old virgin man. An old and ugly man who did not know how to please women. He did have some wealth and status and also seemed to be quite a celebrity in the field of magic, which was perhaps enough capital for him to have many wives in other countries. But in the Republic of Northwest, this would not work at all. So Fira was unable to find a wife. Eventually, he chose to adopt a child to inherit the name ¡°Kenji.¡± In the future, this child would be the one to provide for him in old age and give him a proper burial when he died. His foster son was naturally from the Pigman race. His name was Crewe. At the time when Fira adopted him, he was just an orphan from a troop of refugees, traversing the desert in search of hope. He was skinny and short. Other than being honest and obedient, he had no other apparent merits. However, under Fira¡¯s fostering and education, not only did he grow tall and strong, but he was also educated and learned. He even acquired some very useful skills. He was a remarkable young man. He was only 14 years old this year. To the Pigman race, he had just come of age. But many people had approached Fira to discuss his marriage, hoping their daughters could marry this fine boy. When Fira got home, Crewe was working on a wooden staff. He had polished the body of the staff made of fine wood to make it smooth and wound fine twine around it to keep it from falling out of his hand. Then he cut open a piece of cork, hollowed out the inside of it and put in a piece of ¡°sleeping spell¡± crystal that he had prepared beforehand. He re-closed the cork that was cut apart and wound the silk threads that had been cultivated before incorporating the blood of a demon beast tightly around it. Lastly, he fixed this into the shell of the hardwood as the head of the staff. All this was easier said than done. The grasp of the texture of the wooden staff, its length, weight, as well as the degree of winding would all affect the overall quality of the final product. But Crewe had done a very good job. Though it was still not perfect, at least it was well beyond the usual ¡°qualified¡± standard. So what he produced, in the end, was a sleeping wand of topnotch quality that could use the sleeping spell three times. After using it to cast three sleeping spells, it could even be recharged. This kind of wand was not powerful and lacked storage space. For the professional adventurers, it seemed to be a little too weak. But for the adventure-themed amusement park, ¡°Dragon and Dungeons,¡± beneath the Void City, it was just the right supply of consumable. This dungeon consumed a sizable amount of low-level magic props daily, and it required many magic mechanics to supplement them. Crewe was a magic mechanic, and he was a remarkable one at that. All in all, he only took two years to learn and master this technique to be able to produce a magic wand of such fine quality. This speed was considered outstanding, even in the Isuka School of Magic. Seeing how serious his son looked at work, and looking at the excellent product he finally completed, Fira could not help laughing. ¡°Your skill has improved again,¡± he said. It was only then that Crewe noticed his father¡¯s return. He hurriedly got to his feet to greet his father. It was not obvious when Crewe was sitting down. Yet at this very moment where he stood up, the stark difference between the physiques of father and son was suddenly made apparent¡ªFira was almost only at his son¡¯s chest. His waist was not even as thick as his son¡¯s thigh. Compared to his son, who had a burly build that was somewhat similar to the characteristic of a Bearman, Fira was like a piece of withered and yellow old bamboo, where even a gust of wind would seem capable of blowing him away. At Fira¡¯s return, Crewe was overjoyed. Since joining Palin¡¯s research institute, Fira often had to stay at the institute for a few consecutive days, and thus, he had been returning home far less often than usual. Crewe was often worried about his aging father and had advised him more than once not to overtire himself by working too hard. Now, he was more than happy to see his father returning home in good health. After accompanying Crewe to the town¡¯s magic commercial firm to deliver the goods, Fira bought some food and wine, which kind of took Crewe by surprise¡ªin his impression, his father never drank, other than that time when his father heard that Instructor Slyu of the Ministry of Mines¡¯ exploration team was going through a divorce back at home. Even when Uncle Wilder came to visit, his father would only serve beverages like juice. Why did his father suddenly feel like drinking wine today? Was there something worth being happy about? Between father and son, naturally there was no topic that was taboo, so he asked directly. Fira laughed loudly when he heard Crewe¡¯s question. Then mysteriously, he said, ¡°Not telling you.¡± He was unwilling to lie to his son, so he simply said nothing at all. He pondered about it, and then after a while, he said, ¡°If anyone asks about me, just tell them that I¡¯ve grabbed hold of a great opportunity and am in the midst of a retreat as I try to break through to the Legendary Realm.¡± Though Crewe had a bold and candid appearance, he was actually very sensitive. Immediately, he understood his father¡¯s meaning. To be able to use ¡°break through to the Legendary Realm¡± as an excuse to cover up meant that this was no small matter. If his father had to hide this from him, then it had to be for his own good. After a moment of silence, he asked, ¡°So will I be able to see you again?¡± Fira laughed and said, ¡°You can rest assured that we will meet again. Though¡­ it may take a while.¡± Crewe laughed too and replied, ¡°That¡¯s all right. I¡¯ll tell your grandchildren that their grandfather suddenly coruscated the delicate feelings of a poet and decided to go on an impromptu trip where he walked to wherever his feet brought him to.¡± ¡°This boy! This is an extract from the story written by the novelist, Franz, right!¡± Fira said and laughed. ¡°But that¡¯s quite a good way to put it. I still remember a line from his book that says, ¡®Life is not only about the present; there¡¯s still poetry and distance¡­¡¯ Let¡¯s put it this way, tell the children that I¡¯ve gone traveling to learn about poetry and distance. Though I may be away for many years, I¡¯ll definitely come back. By then, I will tell them all about the people and things I¡¯ve seen and met on my journey. I¡¯ll tell them about the scenery beyond this world, and I might even bring back treasures that are seldom seen on Earth!¡± He smiled happily, and his face was relaxed and happy. Chapter 880 Chapter 880: Vol V Chapter 240 Crewe nodded, but his expression was somewhat lonely. He had grown up to be a man, but his father had to travel someplace far. Even though the Orc culture placed emphasis on self-reliance, he could not help feeling a little sad. Fira noticed Crewe¡¯s loneliness. He thought about it and took out two magic props. ¡°This crystal stone is the ¡®Complete Solution to the Green Magic.¡¯ It contains all my magic knowledge, as well as some of the rules about how devouring beasts obtain spells and abilities that I¡¯ve sorted out and compiled. I know you¡¯re not interested in becoming a Green Magician. But there¡¯s no harm in holding on to this. Who knows, maybe my grandson or granddaughter will be interested. ¡°As for that green bead¡­ when you¡¯re old enough, eat it,¡± Fira said. Then after pausing for a moment, he added, ¡°It can make you about 20 years old.¡± Crewe almost jumped up and exclaimed, ¡°Then you should quickly eat it. That¡¯s the right thing to do!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need this anymore,¡± Fira said. He smiled and went on, ¡°After this, I think I¡¯ll probably never need to worry about the issue of aging anymore.¡± Crewe froze for a moment, but he did not ask further questions. He carefully put away these two precious treasures. Fira nodded. Picking up the wine jug, he threw his head back and downed the remaining half a jug full of wine to the very last drop. Then he coughed violently and got to his feet. He took out a storage bag and casually laid it on the table. He said, ¡°My life¡¯s savings are all in here. They are nothing compared to those two treasures. But perhaps to you, these common earthly things will be more useful.¡± ¡°Father¡­¡± ¡°Well. I gotta go. You must live well. When I come back to see you, you must introduce me to my lovely grandchildren!¡± With that, Fira¡¯s figure gradually disappeared. Soon, he disappeared without a trace. Just as Crewe was facing the empty chair, feeling all sad and sentimental, Fira had already returned to Palin¡¯s research institute. Sui Xiong and Palin were discussing how they should promote the washed powder salt and any related matters. Seeing him return, they could not help feeling somewhat surprised. ¡°Back so soon?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°So few personal matters back at home?¡± ¡°My son is very dependable and is able to support the family. Of course, there isn¡¯t much personal matter for me,¡± Fira said proudly. ¡°Your Majesty, I¡¯m ready and can set off anytime.¡± Sui Xiong nodded and waved his tentacles. A stream of white light wrapped around Fira, and within a moment, Sui Xiong brought Fira to his God Kingdom, landing near to Leon. Leon was sitting on a big stone and was taking a deep breath. He had divided his Divine Power into the smallest possible portions, then gathered them a little by a little while releasing them little by little. Through this method, he sought to strengthen his control over his Divine Power. This was patient and precise work. There was no way he could make haste even if he wanted to. Suddenly seeing a Pighead man arrive, he froze in surprise and asked, ¡°His Majesty has sent you here. Is this for any special reason? He was neither worried nor doubtful about Fira¡¯s identity. With Sui Xiong¡¯s power, this God Kingdom could be said to be impregnable. Even if the gods combined forces, they could still forget about trying to break apart and sneak their way into this God Kingdom, let alone a mere, advanced mage. He did not know Fira, but Fira knew him¡ªback when Fira participated in the Fighter Championship, Leon was the referee for the final tournament. He was also the one who presented the prize to the champion. It was just that at that time, Fira was a middle-aged man. Now, he looked old and worn-out, like he could die at any moment. So on the contrary, Leon could not recognize him. ¡°My greetings, Archbishop Igor,¡± Fira greeted as he saluted Leon with a bow first. Then he introduced his purpose of visit. But at this time, Sui Xiong had returned as well. With a single divine thought, he told Leon about everything related to this matter clearly. And then, he began to help Fira in the change of life form. Sui Xiong was quite familiar and well-practiced in turning a mortal into a divine creature. Over the years, he had transformed many of such divine creatures. There was never once where he had failed. This time would be no exception, of course. Just that, this time, he tried to preserve, as far as possible, the original true colors of Fira¡¯s soul. He was especially careful, so he spent quite some time. It took him more than ten days before Fira was completely transformed. After undergoing a transformation in life form, Fira became a tall and thin Pighead man. He looked nothing like the general Pighead people who were slightly bloated. Instead, he fully exuded a scholastic air of a scholar. There was a snow-white halo over his head that made him look like an angel, but¡­ come to think of it, there was probably no Pighead angels in the world, likewise for Pighead scholars. After the transformation of life form, according to Sui Xiong¡¯s guidance and instructions, Fira stepped aside and began to practice hard. He needed to spend a great amount of time and energy to fully master his new life form in order to prepare himself for breaking through to becoming a sealed god in the future. Coincidentally, Leon became his neighbor. Both men were doing similar things and had similar goals as well. It was just that neither of them liked talking much. Although they would sometimes make idle talk, they had never discussed anything in detail. Leon had already heard about Fira¡¯s situation from Sui Xiong. As for Leon¡¯s situation, Sui Xiong did not keep it a secret from Fira as well. The two men knew that either of them had a bright future, but they had no intention of competing as rivals. In truth, Leon did not think much of a mere weak Divine Power. If he wanted to, he could become a weak Divine Power at any time. Becoming something like the ¡°patron saint of Garth¡± or something along this line was simply effortless and posed no difficulty to him at all. But he had big dreams. His goal was to at least become a weak Divine Power, and it was best if he could achieve the rank of mid-level Divine Power. Sui Xiong was one of the most famous masters among the gods. Even among the great Divine Powers, he was one of the top ones¡ªthere were many gods who even thought of him as one of the strongest competitors out of all the ¡°masters under the Master of Order.¡± To become his right-hand man, how could a mere weak Divine Power suffice? That would simply be a joke! Fira, on the other hand, had never thought of vying with Leon. He also had no such intention of doing so at all. The precise reason was that he had become a divine creature, and his strength was umpteenth times more powerful than before. This was why he could clearly feel Leon¡¯s power. That power formed a single entity with Leon. It was powerful and innate, a complete cycle of Divine Power. Oracles themselves would not be able to create Divine Power. They had to obtain it from the gods. No matter how powerful Oracles were, the moment they cut off contact with the gods, they would rapidly become weak. It was even possible for them to die. But Demigods were entirely different. They had their own Divine Power. No matter what happened, they would be able to preserve their Divine Power. Even in the unfortunate event of a tragic death, their Divine Power would often circulate within their remains and either give birth to a new divine creature, transform into some terrifying demon beasts or await the chance of resurrection. Essentially speaking, Demigods had already stepped into the level of gods, but they had yet to thoroughly complete the entire transformation process. They needed to stimulate the power of the World¡¯s Origin to completely transform their souls before they could progress further to become a god-to-be. Then, upon finding suitable priesthoods, they would become real gods. And in terms of the level of power, there were many Demigod Masters who could rival the gods. They could be found everywhere, in the Elemental Plane, hell and abyss, or the various worlds flowing within the massive cycle of the source power of the world¡­ there were many Demigod Masters who were on equal standing with the gods. Soon, Leon Igor would become one of them. After about a year, he completed all the hardening refinements and officially entered the ranks. Chapter 881 Chapter 881: Vol V Chapter 241 After fully mastering his own power, Leon became a powerful Demigod. Unlike the other Demigods in general, he had an unlimited supply of Divine Power from Sui Xiong. Therefore, he could directly increase his power to the limit where it did not need to be suppressed when he was on the Main Plane. This was one of the advantages of Demigods. So long as they had enough Divine Power, theoretically speaking, Demigods could directly grow to a level comparable to a weak Divine Power. Such powerful Demigods existed in many powerful God Systems. Usually, they would humbly remain hidden and not make public appearances. But when their God Systems needed to face up to challenges, they often put themselves forward and become an ingenious army that was enough to change the tide of the battle. The only disappointment of this method was that the maximum level it could allow a Demigod to elevate to was the level of a weak Divine Power. Then ultimately, if they wanted anything higher, they would have to find the opportunity from their own realm of growth. However, so long as there was growth in their realm, their Divine Power could also be directly boosted. Assuming they could ultimately gain an understanding of a realm that was the equivalent of the great Divine Powers, it was also completely possible to directly transfuse Divine Power to the Demigods and enable them to be comparable to great Divine Powers. Well, so long as he could master this realm, that would do. In fact, it was much more difficult for Demigods to ascend the realms than it was for real gods. There were many Demigods in this world who had gained power that was comparable to mid-level Divine Power through years of sedimentation and their own accumulation. If a fight really broke out, in the face of mid-level Divine Powers who were truly from the advocating war party, these Demigods were practically vulnerable. This was the difference in the level of power. It was like one jin of wood compared with one jin of steel. Their weights were the same, but their strengths were completely different. If Leon wanted to progress from his current level, he had to rely on his own cultivation and growth to break through the bottleneck. This would be a long process. It could even be considered fast if he was able to advance a step forward after thousands of years. According to what Sui Xiong knew, inside the Water Element Plane, there were some Demigod Masters who were already born before the time where it was merely the beginning of the birth of the Big Circulation. But after so many years, most of them were still at a level that was equivalent to the weak Divine Powers. However, Leon had no intention of waiting so long. On this trip back to Earth, he was about to begin preparing to be sealed a god. It was natural for Demigod Masters to be sealed gods, so Leon did not feel that he was going to be unsuccessful¡ªeven if he could not obtain any of the few priesthoods he was vying for, at least he still had the position of the patron saint of Garth as his minimum guarantee. This minimum guarantee was quite miserable, though. It was more or less equivalent to gaining nothing at all after making 10 consecutive draws in a mobile game and then finally, gaining a ¡°rare¡± card as a gift. Yet no matter how miserably sad it was, he would still be a real god. God knew how many people in the world could not even become weak Divine Powers, even if they wanted to! This was apparently the case for Leon¡¯s new colleague, Fira Kenji, who had been practicing painstakingly for more than a year but still had not fully grasped the life form of divine creatures. After Leon returned to Earth, he continued to practice very hard, going without sleep, food and drink. He took himself as a piece of iron and strove to toughen and harden himself into steel. When Leon returned to Garth, naturally, he was welcomed by all. His wife, Kalisa Riley, in particular, was the happiest. Kalisa had been pregnant for such a long time that even the heirs of legendary creatures¡¯ bloodline were almost ready to be conceived. According to the doctors and priests¡¯ estimations, she could be considered to have reached her expected date of delivery. Of course, her ¡°expected date of delivery¡± was shockingly long. Three to five months was not strange, but neither was six months to a year. If necessary, it could even possibly drag on for a few years. For legendary creatures, this kind of thing was very common. Some dragons might even have completed the gestation of their child in their bellies. After the eggs were laid, even the process of hatching eggs was no longer required. Just by directly using awakening magic, the young dragon would be able to break out of its shell. That kind of gestation process could take decades or even hundreds of years in general. Upon comparison, Kalisa¡¯s pregnancy merely took a few years. It was considered to be really short. In the first place, Kalisa had also considered that if Leon had not been able to make it back in time, she would let the child continue to grow in her belly. She would not rush into delivery¡ªthis would, of course, be a heavy burden and injury to her. But given her physique and the resources she had ready access to, this would not be much of a problem to her. Fortunately, Leon returned in time. This was also a relief to her. After learning about this, Leon was also very happy. The newly-promoted Demigod even paced around the place like a fool for a moment as he incessantly mumbled silly things like ¡°what should I prepare¡± and such. Of course, they did not have to go through all this trouble. Everything they needed was already well-prepared. Now that Leon was back, Kalisa had no intention of delaying further. She asked a legendary-level mage who was good at prophecy spells for a divination. An auspicious day was chosen where she gave birth to the child. Childbirth was a very painful and dangerous thing for women. Even with the few great supplementary tools that an old midwife of the Church of the God of Medicine invented a few years ago, the chances of a woman dying due to difficult labor during childbirth was nearly 20 percent. That mainly consisted of those women who were not strong enough or those who had internal injuries or hidden diseases. During childbirth, there would be an outburst of all kinds of problems that could catch the midwives and doctors unaware. It was naturally much safer if there was a priest who knew the healing spell around. But priests were not that commonly seen. Most areas and most people were not entitled to the care of priests. Fortunately, Kalisa did not have to worry about this. Her powerful physique was able to endure through the delivery, and¡­ it was very easy. Without much effort, the baby was born. It was a healthy and strong little girl. She had eyes like her mother, and her hair color was the same as her father¡¯s. ¡°She¡¯s going to be a peerless beauty!¡± Kalisa said. She held her daughter and spoke of what she looked forward to. Leon looked at the wrinkled little child that looked like a little monkey. Very wisely, he did not express his thoughts aloud. To be honest, he was a little worried. His daughter seemed to look¡­ very average. Considering that she was his and Kalisa¡¯s child, she would inherit their powerful bloodline and strength. Would she eventually grow up to be like a bandit, find a man who looked decent, then knock him out with a club and drag him home? He was definitely not just entertaining foolish thoughts by letting his imagination run wild. During his time as the Solitary Robber, Leon had seen female robbers doing such a thing more than once. Even he himself had an encounter with a female robber who wanted to catch him back home to elevate her status in her village. Good men were as rare as good women. The needs of female robbers for good men were no different from those of male robbers for good women. Leon could even imagine that in the future, his daughter would ride dragons and hover in the skies to search for a good man, as though she were hunting for prey. Then with a nosedive, she would catch him before the people around could react, put him on the back of the dragon and ride back up into the sky¡­ (Come to think of it, that isn¡¯t too bad either. It¡¯s skyrocketing to success with a single bound! And my daughter must be very well-educated. She will be someone of impeccable character. Even if she¡¯s not very pretty, so what? After closing one¡¯s eyes, this will not make any difference¡­) The great Demigod, the patron saint of Garth City, the Swordsman of the eastern sea whose name was famous throughout the Main Plane, easily threw away his moral integrity as he pondered his daughter¡¯s marriage Chapter 882 Chapter 882: Vol V Chapter 242 The birth of the eldest daughter of Leon Igor and Kalisa Riley, Elizabeth Igor, made the entire Garth City and the Church of the Void Mask rejoice. They held a grand celebration to celebrate the birth of this child. There was even more than one god whose clone was sent down to give this newborn baby girl a powerful blessing. The celebration lasted for half a month, during which anyone who came to Garth City to give their blessings would be rewarded handsomely¡ªmoney, delicacies, treasures, there was simply everything. The working personnel of Garth City would register the new well-wishers on a daily basis. Then at midnight, they would invite either Leon or Kalisa to come forward and personally draw a few lucky winners from these registered names, who would then be gifted with special prizes. The grand prize could be magic equipment, magic props, and also special magic potions. Of course, it could similarly be cash prize¡­ in short, the few kinds of rewards were all equal in value. The winners could choose from the selection available. Most of the winners would choose the magic potion, which was the specialty product of the Church of the Void Mask. It was a magic potion that could put a temporary stop to the aging process and extend life. The production of this potion was very low, probably only dozens of bottles would be produced annually. Although everyone knew that the Church of the Void Mask¡¯s inventory would definitely have a little stock, who was capable of robbing the Void City? Who would dare to do such a thing? And for this celebration, the Church of the Void Mask had provided a total of 15 bottles of life-prolonging medicine. This made many rich men, who were incapable of competing for the annual routine production, go green-eyed with envy. Exactly what price would these potions eventually fetch? And to whose treasure vault would they go to? Or into whose belly? Leon was not the least bit bothered at all. He was only concerned about one thing¡ªwhether the blessings he had bestowed upon the 15 bottles had been meddled with. Since Leon had dared to use the life-prolonging medicine as a prize to be given out, naturally he had to ensure the personal safety of the prize winners. If the winner who had just won a prize was hacked to death the moment he stepped out and the prize he had was also taken away, that would be a hit to his prestige! So he had personally administered blessings on all 15 bottles. The moment anyone was to attack the prize winners, he would immediately know. What would happen after he learned about it? Well, nature would always speak for itself. It was a pity that no one dared to attack these prize winners. Though many of these potions had changed owners, they were all traded off through proper means. For this, Leon had slight regrets. He said that it had not been easy for him to step into the Demigod Realm and acquire such powerful strength. Yet, he could not find the chance to show off or put on some airs and do something ostentatiously extravagant. This was really quite regrettable. In contrast to the peace and joy in Garth City and the Church of the Void Mask, for the past one year or so, there was a surge of events occurring at full swing on the Dominant Continent. First of all, there was a full outbreak of first North-South war of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, which had ended. This had attracted the attention of countless people. The conflict between the North and South of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins had been ongoing for a long time. It was about the time when Leon and company laid siege on the Evil Dragon that the battle officially started. That intense battle lasted for a day and a half. Accurately speaking, it was one day and two nights without any pauses in between. At first, by virtue of their ample preparation, the army of the aristocratic party had a distinct advantage on the first night. Their cavalry even managed to make more than one surprise attack on the merchant party¡¯s array, almost crushing the entire array to crumbles. However, it was just almost. They did not manage to do so after all. After several failed surprise attacks, the battle became a brutal match of tug-of-war. By this time, the upper hand that the aristocratic had due to being well-prepared beforehand was gradually dwindling. On the other hand, the advantage of the merchant party of being well-organized and orderly was gradually brought into play. The next day, the battle continued to tilt in favor of the merchant party. In the evening, an elite troop of the merchant party turned the tables and launched a surprise attack at the aristocratic party¡¯s array. They had even charged their way in. It was a pity they were unable to gain a firm footing and were thus unable to crush the aristocratic party. The battle on the second night was one of extreme cruelty, where both sides did their best and gave it their all. At this time, the plot to destroy the logistics of the merchant party was revealed. The merchant party was placed in a situation where there was a big loophole in their provision of supplies. But the aristocratic party was oblivious to it. On the contrary, because the more aggressive members of the war advocating party had incurred severe losses during the battle that went on for a period of one day and one night, the remaining aristocrats, who were not as aggressive, placed more focus on defense¡ªor rather, knowing of the impending crisis they were about to face, they wanted to make good use of time and quickly put a decisive close to the onslaught of the merchant party. They could not take out much courage to counterattack, so they could only focus on defense. It was a night of a bloody battle of attack and defense. Both sides failed to realize the goal of the battle. The aristocratic party¡¯s array might be a big mess with corpses strewn all over the wilderness, but it had ultimately pulled through. They were so badly battered that they were demoralized and lost the courage to counterattack. By the next dawn, the fierce battle in the sunlight left both sides with heavy blows to their fighting will. Up to this point, no one could fight anymore. The merchant party had a willing heart to fight again. But their supplies could hardly support a battle of this intensity. Their soldiers were all extremely exhausted. There were even some who suddenly fell dead while they were on patrol. The aristocratic party still had the resources, but the army¡¯s morale was on the brink of breaking down. After all, the most brutal battle had ultimately taken place on their array. The bloody scene of cruelty was much closer to them. Anyone who could muster up the courage to fight back under such circumstances would probably have been sacrificed in the previous battle. Since both sides were exhausted to the bone, naturally this battle would no longer be fought. A truce agreement was eventually signed by both sides, thus ending this battle. That true agreement was generally fair, or rather, it could not afford to be unfair for any other reason at all. This was because other than not announcing that both parties were now independent entities, it had more or less utterly severed the entire Commonwealth of Gold Coins apart, giving it no hope of reconciliation. In the face of an opponent who was ever-ready to fight a bitter battle with themselves, who wanted to make use of political means to take advantage of them? How could that be possible? The only part of the agreement that was somewhat not so ¡°fair¡± was the punishment meted out to Earl Hauss. Although the merchant party was extremely aggressive in demanding for the punishment of the family of Earl Hauss, who was a heinous war criminal, the aristocratic party did not succumb to the pressure and did not back down. During the negotiation, the representatives of both sides even resorted to using their fists over this issue. But in the end, they still failed to reach an agreement. This agreement was eventually called the ¡°Border Agreement.¡± Following its signing, the once prosperous Commonwealth of Gold Coins went from boom to bust, even gradually approaching its end. To put it across more strictly, it was almost considered to be as good as dead, existing only in name¡­ Chapter 883 Chapter 883: Vol V Chapter 243 ¡°Your situation looks terrible,¡± Sui Xiong said with a frown as he looked at the Goddess of Wealth. As a God of Wealth, Manissy was a member of the great Divine Powers. She did not belong to the category of gods who were skillful in battle, and perhaps she might not even be able to defeat some of the mid-level Divine Powers who were especially good at fighting. But her power was still unquestionable. This was like making donations without any sacrifices when the Motherland was in need. It was absolutely not considered as morally low. It was just that the selected object of reference was far too superior. If every mid-level Divine Power could fight as well as the God of Strategy, Augmentin, or the God of Half-Orcs, Morani, would not the world directly fall into a complete mess? So ¡°600 million citizens could all be Yao and Shun¡± was merely a beautiful ideal after all. Manissy¡¯s power was arguably said to be ranked among the ones who were the top of the gods. She should have a strong Divine Power and abundant divinity, and from this, she would develop her elegant disposition, as well as a majestic light that made it impossible for mortals to look directly at her. But now, her face was pale. Dark eye circles and eye bags were obvious at first glance, and the majestic light around her body had become very dim. Just as what Sui Xiong said, she looked terrible. Manissy gave a bitter laugh, shook her head and sat down in her usual seat. Then she sighed deeply. After a while, she said, ¡°Of all my priesthoods, there are four most important ones. I¡¯m sure you all know, right?¡± The gods nodded. Among all the priesthoods of the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, wealth, merchants, commercial practices and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins were the four core priesthoods. Though the priesthood ¡°wealth¡± encompassed luxury, generosity and class, the amount of divinity it could really provide was not much. It belonged to the category of things that served the purpose of outlining and summarizing. The priesthood of ¡°merchant¡± was something he started, while the ¡°Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡± was the key for his stepping up from weak Divine Power to mid-level Divine Power. With Sui Xiong¡¯s help, the priesthood ¡°commercial practices¡± was composed by incorporating a series of policies together. Although it was only in a nascent state, it was already starting to exhibit enormous value. For the moment, these were the four most important priesthoods. They were like four pillars of support that held up the great Divine Power of whoever was called the ¡°God of Wealth.¡± Perhaps a differentiation of the more superior to less superior of these four priesthoods could be derived through a more thorough division of the four priesthoods. But if one was missing, no matter which one it was, it would cause her to incur a great loss. It would not be surprising if she would directly fall from the ranks of great Divine Power back to the ranks of mid-level Divine Powers. Morani already understood and asked, ¡°The Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡­ Is it really done for?¡± Manissy sighed and nodded. ¡°Not even a formal unity is possible?¡± asked the God of War, Wenner. Manissy sighed and nodded again. ¡°Then you¡¯re in trouble!¡± said the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, as he shook his head. ¡°Your divinity is definitely going to decrease.¡± Manissy sighed deeply and nodded with a grimace. As one of her four fundamental priesthoods, the priesthood ¡°Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡± was derived from the worship and belief that the entire Commonwealth of Gold Coins placed in her. As the state religion of this country, she had gained great benefits from this belief and thus accumulated an astronomical amount of Divine Power. However, interests and responsibilities, together with risks, had always come together hand-in-hand. Now this country, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, was already on the verge of collapsing. It would not be long before it utterly collapsed to become two, or even more states. The Church of the Goddess of Wealth would still be very powerful. But it was unlikely for her to hold on to her status as the state religion in all territories, as she once did. That was to say, this priesthood of hers was on the verge of collapse, and also, it was beyond repair. If she were to lose this priesthood, though she could still make up for it by using the beliefs of the other small, divided nations, the effect would not possibly be the same as before. This was why the divinity of the Goddess of Wealth was definitely on the decline this time. The only question now was, how much lower would her divinity be? As well as¡­ when could she make up for this loss? Amidst the silence, Sui Xiong suddenly opened his mouth and said, ¡°Actually, this is also an opportunity for you.¡± ¡°Opportunity?¡± Manissy paused for a moment after asking. Then she looked at him and waited for him to finish. ¡°In this world, no country is eternal. Even the Kingdom of Eagle would already be destroyed if not for the God of Knights¡¯ intervention, right?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Manissy nodded. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, why should you bind yourself to the kingdom of mortals?¡± Sui Xiong asked. Then he laughed and said, ¡°How about you take this opportunity to separate your priesthood from those mortal dynasties that are fated to be short-lived? Let¡¯s not seek any status like a state religion.¡± Manissy nodded again. Of course, she felt that Sui Xiong¡¯s words made sense. But then, she raised her brows and asked, ¡°If I completely separate my priesthood from the earthly kingdoms, does that mean that the loss incurred from this ¡°Commonwealth of Gold Coins¡± will be irrecoverable? Isn¡¯t that too big a loss to make?¡± ¡°Well, naturally you win some, and you lose some. Of course, there is a price to pay if you want to liberate yourself from the rise and fall of Earth and become a carefree spectator,¡± Sui Xiong said. He held his tentacles out and went on to say, ¡°Where can you find such a thing as the best of both worlds in this world? It¡¯s just a matter of choosing the better side.¡± Manissy frowned and fell into deep thought. Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion was very tempting. She could prevent herself from being influenced by the rise and fall of the dynasties and become a transcendent god. This was undoubtedly, very good for her. But in doing so, she would have to face a huge loss, and that also made her very worried. She was not like Sui Xiong, who was an invincible super master. The moment she suffered a huge loss, her divinity would fall to the mid-level Divine Power. And she was always fearful that there would be someone openly or secretly looking to stir up trouble for her. Thinking of this, she could not help but sigh deeply again. Just then, Wenner said, ¡°Manissy, what on earth is going through your mind? This is so obvious!¡± His voice carried a sonorous tone, like the clanging of metals. In an extremely penetrating and persuasive voice, he said, ¡°The earthly dynasties will ultimately come to an end. Even if you barely manage to let it drag on this time, what about the next time? There will always be times when you just can¡¯t pull through, isn¡¯t that so?¡± ¡°It¡¯d still be nice if I could let this drag on for a little while longer¡­¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t ever tell anyone that you¡¯re a member of our Void Alliance in the future. It¡¯s simply too disgraceful!¡± Wenner snorted coldly. Then in a peevish tone, he said, ¡°It¡¯s just a matter of lowering your divinity, that¡¯s all. You have ¡°commercial practices,¡± the priesthood that is continuously gaining strength, to fall back on. Your overall divinity is very stable, what¡¯s there to worry about?¡± ¡°But¡­ I still have so many enemies¡­¡± The moment she said this, Wenner burst out laughing. ¡°Are you a fool? What on earth gave you the illusion of ¡®I¡¯m a great Divine Power, my enemies will not dare to do anything to me¡¯?¡± He looked at the bewildered Manissy with an extremely mean and stern face, then angrily, he said, ¡°Your enemies don¡¯t dare to do anything to you not because you are a great Divine Power, but because you have us as your allies! ¡°A good-for-nothing who can¡¯t fight should honestly just stand back and help with the logistics. Don¡¯t always think of yourself as some hero who is able to outdo all corners!¡± he said. Then he laughed and patted Yorgaardman, who was next to him, on the shoulder. ¡°Such a thing like fighting should be left to us from the fighting party. That is what we are good at!¡± It was only then that Manissy came to her senses. Her gaze lingered on Wenner and Yorgaardman momentarily before falling upon Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong smiled and nodded. Then she burst out laughing. All signs of dejection were swept away, and she was in high spirits, refreshed and brimming with energy. ¡°Alright!¡± she said with great energy. ¡°Then I shall take this opportunity to sort out my priesthoods. Thereafter, I shall bid farewell to the rise and fall of the earthly dynasties and be a carefree god! Chapter 884 Chapter 884: Vol V Chapter 244 The Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, was a god of action. Like her, most of those who were mortals that were eventually sealed as gods had great mobility. Would a slow fellow possibly get the chance to be a sealed god? So once her decision was made, she sprung to action immediately. She adjusted her teachings and issued Oracles to her clergymen and followers to change their past perceptions. This was not met with great resistance. To the vast majority of mortals, so long as the gods were able to protect them, especially being able to take and lead their souls away upon death, that was more than good enough for them. There were very few mortals who truly needed more than that. The big shots of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins were naturally informed by Manissy, and neither the merchant party nor the aristocratic party objected to her decision. The merchants of the merchant party were focused on the protection of the Goddess of Wealth for the merchants and commercial practices. So long as this protection was maintained, nothing else would be a problem. The leaders of the aristocratic party paid much attention to the protection of the Goddess of Wealth for their wealth. Since there was no problem with this protection, then anything else would also not be considered a problem. As for the protection of the state and regime, the Goddess of Wealth did not have to protect these in the first place. Her church had always been playing the role of a mediator, so no one would have expected her to protect the country. So the decision of the Goddess of Wealth met with little resistance and was carried out smoothly. Taking advantage of this favorable momentum, both the North and South of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins began to prepare for the matter of establishing themselves as independent states. They did not hide this from the world, and the news was soon spread to countries on the Main Plane. The various heads of states were not surprised. Even the average people who were a little more knowledgeable would not find it surprising. The conflict between the North and South had escalated to the extent of an internal war. How could the country not be divided? In the God Kingdom of the human gods, the God of Diplomacy was all smiles as he reported the news to the God of Light. ¡°The plan is well executed!¡± exclaimed the God of Light. There was also a slight smile on his face. For someone who usually kept a straight face, this hint of a smile was enough to prove that he was in a good mood. ¡°Yes, everything is just as what Your Majesty has expected!¡± ¡°Not just as what I expected, but just as how we expected,¡± the God of Light said lightly. ¡°You are the ones who designed the plan. I¡¯m only responsible for the review and approval, that¡¯s all.¡± The God of Diplomacy and the God of Conspiracy bowed their heads together and repeatedly declined any credit. The God of Light also did not emphasize on it any further. He thought for a moment, then asked, ¡°How is the missionary work coming along?¡± ¡°Very smoothly,¡± replied the God of Diplomacy. ¡°The aristocratic party is eagerly searching for a strength that could allow them to protect their power and status. And the merchant party, on the other hand, is also in search for the support of a strong and powerful church. After all, the hatred between them is so deep that even if they split into two countries, they are bound to fight again in the future.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t give the War God System the chance to take advantage of the situation.¡± ¡°Rest assured, Your Majesty. The greatest flaw of the War God System is that they support all acts of war¡ªregardless of whether its offensive or defensive. They will support anything that is pertaining to war. Although it is good to believe in them in the quest for victory, it is still hard for mortals not to be afraid and worried in the face of gods who take neutral positions and only care about fighting battles.¡± ¡°Well, you all must bear this in mind. Our keynote is ¡®human unity and expansion.¡¯ We have to let both sides know that the purpose of war is not to strike an opponent but to accomplish the great cause of human unity. The brave can vie for their place in this great undertaking. The cowards can step back and let others finish the job while they freeload some benefits from a free ride¡ªbut we have to succeed in what we set out to do. The Main Plane will become a world that belongs to mankind!¡± The human gods stood together to salute this great plan. The God of Light waved his hand to get the crowd to sit down. Then he said, ¡°This plan is already well underway now. The relations and alliances among the human countries are developing well. But let us all know that, the relations and alliances of human countries, is only the first step of our plan.¡± The gods were in awe as they awaited his orders. ¡°Right now, the biggest question for us is, where should we go to for our next step?¡± asked the God of Light as his gaze swept through the faces of the human gods. ¡°Should we attack the elves first and force them to officially surrender or leave altogether? Or should we attack the Orcs first and utterly crush this longtime opponent of ours?¡± ¡°I think that it¡¯s better to deal with the elves first,¡± said the God of Heroes. ¡°We should always do the easy tasks first and deal with the difficult ones later. It will be relatively easy to force the elves to officially surrender themselves.¡± ¡°But honestly speaking, there¡¯s no profound hatred in particular between us humans and the elves,¡± said the God of Protection, whose opinion was contrary to that of the God of Heroes. ¡°And we have a blood feud with the Orcs on the other hand. So it is likelier to gain the support of the other countries by attacking the Orcs.¡± ¡°The rulers of the other countries are greedy and cruel. So long as there are benefits, who will bother about hatred or friendship?¡± the God of Craftsmen said coldly. ¡°They can even kill their own parents and brothers, so what other evil acts are they not capable of? The God of Travelers, who was in charge of the spy department of the Human God System, said, ¡°The Orc Empire has the ¡®Half-Orcs¡¯ who exist as an unstable factor. If we use them well, we can deal them a heavy blow the very moment the battle commences!¡± So the gods went into a flurry of heated arguments. The God of Light did not stop them from arguing, neither did he intend to join in the debate. He watched the gods calmly and peacefully. But on the other hand, his clone had already made its way to the God Kingdom of the God of Aristocracy as it stood outside the quiet room. This Divine Power that was capable of blocking out everything was unable to block its master. His gaze penetrated the hindrance imposed by his Divine Power as he took a clear look at the God of Aristocracy who was seated inside the quiet room. They wore a troubled expression, and their face was pale. ¡°Originally, you should have a place in this discussion. But you lost the opportunity yourself,¡± he said calmly. His voice was blocked out of the quiet room. None of it could get in at all. ¡°I had pinned some hope on you, but you truly disappointed me,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s already up to this point in time, yet you are still not rushing to isolate yourself from the priesthoods and cut out the parts that truly belonged to you to master them well. Instead, you are praying that I will come and shelter you from the storm. This is simply absurd! ¡°If you want to be a master of humans, you can¡¯t do it without enough courage and determination. In the face of a crisis, you only know to rely on others, how can I trust you with the future of mankind? ¡°Ultimately, that¡¯s all you¡¯ve got.¡± With that, his figure disappeared and reappeared in his bedroom. On the wall of his bedroom hung a broad and huge sword. On the ground next to it laid a heavy war hammer. These were his weapons, the ones that he had depended on that made him invincible and unconquerable on the battlefields. And inside the bedroom, there was also a golden chair that radiated with a light that was as bright as the huge sword and war hammer. The God of Light walked to the side of the chair and stroked the back of the chair gently. A trace of smile was seen on his face again. ¡°By then, it will be up to you to finish up the job.¡± Then his figure slowly disappeared, as though it had never appeared before. The only thing was that the light of the chair grew stronger and more intense, fully giving out a majestic and powerful vibe. Chapter 885 Chapter 885: Vol V Chapter 245 The political changes in the human world were far deeper than any waters that an ordinary man could ever see. As compared to the imminent dissolution of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, there was another matter that the insiders were secretly more frightened of. After reading that report that had just arrived, Leon frowned. ¡°Are you sure?¡± he asked. The adjutant nodded and whispered in a low voice, ¡°Mr. Easter has personally confirmed it.¡± Leon took a deep breath and knitted his brows. He stared hard at that report and fell into deep thoughts. After a long time, he finally spoke up and asked, ¡°This report¡­ who else has seen it?¡± ¡°After getting Mr. Easter to review it, he told me not to go through the normal procedure and directly send it to you,¡± the adjutant replied. ¡°So this report has never been shown to anyone else.¡± Leon was silent for a moment, then he said, ¡°There¡¯s no way something like this can be kept a secret for long. Easter¡¯s prudence, I can understand, but¡­ in the face of an avalanche, being prudent isn¡¯t of much use.¡± With that, he sent the adjutant off to deal with other matters while he used the Channel of Religion to establish direct contact with Sui Xiong. ¡°Your Majesty, something big has happened,¡± he said right away. ¡°I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s going to be a major battle in the human world.¡± Sui Xiong was taken by surprise and immediately asked what was going on. ¡°Our intelligence agent has found out that the royal family of the Kingdom of the Blue Moon has contacted the Kingdom of Light to discuss the matter of establishing an alliance. Then they found out that the Kingdom of Eagle has already formed an alliance with the Kingdom of Light and is now in discussion with the Kingdom of the Blue Moon to discuss this matter. Also, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs is also participating in this discussion¡­ The situation with the rest of the countries is unknown. According to Mr. Easter¡¯s speculations, it was possible that the Mifata Federation, the Duchy of Thunder and the Dhaka Commercial Association are also joining this alliance.¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment¡ªthat would be equivalent to all the human countries coming together to form a huge alliance, right? ¡°I think that the situation of the human countries combining forces, is the prelude to them waging a final battle on the Orc Empire,¡± Leon said. ¡°If there¡¯s no accident, both the North and South of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins should have received the request for an alliance¡ªmaybe with the other countries mediating and dissuading from behind, it¡¯s even possible to get both sides to conduct peace negotiations.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment, then got Leon to wait for a moment while he directly went to find the Great Governor, Asner Yug. She was one of the two marquises of the aristocratic party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, the aunt of the present marquis, the ¡°Marquis of Gemstones¡± of the Yug family. Other than the old marquis, who was so old that he could no longer engage himself in matters of government and management, she was the oldest person in the Yug family. Every time the Yug family held major meetings, they would send her invitations. But usually, her husband, Clito, and she would not attend. They would send their daughter, Yue, as their representative. She should be the one who was clearest about everything when it came to all major matters related to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. Indeed, Asner knew about this matter. But even for Asner, all that she knew was that the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Eagle had joined hands to mediate, and after the mediation, they had proposed the alliance with the aristocratic party. As for anything else related to this matter, she too was not clear. Despite being a part of the political field for so many years, she had always dealt with civil affairs. She had always lacked a deep understanding of the games played among superpowers on a diplomatic level. Maybe it was also due to her lack of interest that she could not even be bothered to ask about such things. From her point of view, the so-called ¡°games played among superpowers¡± and so on, were nothing more than a bunch of incapable scums, who lacked the fighting abilities, going about to stir up trouble. Superpower? How big? Were their fists as big as His Majesty, the Void Mask? Alright, you were all saying that the gods were let into the fields to bully the people. So, were their fists as big as the Republic of Northwest? This would not do, that would not do. And yet everyone was still prattling incessantly about something so useless and meaningless! If these scums had the time to entertain silly thoughts and give the people trouble, why couldn¡¯t they do some proper civil affairs work and let the people under their government live better lives? Originally, her attitude was not that extreme. It was probably over the years where she had read many books that were crafted with Sui Xiong¡¯s creativity and penned by Shoggoth that she gradually was influenced. Shoggoth and Sui Xiong had co-written many books. There was poetry and prose, but most of them were novels. These novels were largely based on famous works no Earth. But many of these works had been heavily modified by Sui Xiong and Shoggoth. Thus, they had been changed beyond recognition from the original works. For example, in one of their novels entitled ¡°The Sword to Rend the Sky and the Sword to Slay Dragons,¡± the protagonist became a joyful young man who never forgot about hatred. He once attempted to work through his hatred through moral cultivation under the guidance of an old sage. But because of some despicable fellow¡¯s ungrateful pursuit, he fell into a valley. In the valley, he practiced diligently for five years and also pondered deeply for those five years. Then finally, he recollected all his hatred and became a courageous and ferocious avenger. As for the sequel of this story, naturally it would be the launch of revenge after the ¡°fearless ranger¡± made his way out of the mountains. One after the other, this fearless ranger executed all his enemies and his parents¡¯ enemies. He was open but spared no scruples when it came to the use of dark means. The way he went about killing instilled great fear in his enemies who had to spend their days in a constant state of anxiety. There were even people who preemptively committed suicide to avoid implicating and endangering their family. Through the process of seeking revenge, this ranger deeply experienced the darkness of society and the sufferings of the people. Especially after seeing the conspiracies between his enemies and the corrupted, brutal rulers, he was even more acutely aware that his parents¡¯ tragedy was merely an epitome of the many tragedies of people in this world who were being oppressed, exploited and fettered. After all, his parents¡¯ deaths were because they chose to maintain their own positions, and thus, they were forced to the point of no way out by this cruel and dark society. So he held the flag of protest high and set off a vigorous revolution. Finally, he defeated the old dynasty and established a new era. When he declined the position of king and went away with his sword that was incorporated with Divine Power, he only left the new king that dragon-slaying sword that symbolized authority, as well as his admonition. ¡°Govern the country well. If otherwise, sooner or later, your posterity will see me draw this sword of mine again.¡± Exactly what kind of background this story had was naturally self-evident. But after Sui Xiong and Shoggoth¡¯s repeated modifications, the story became more concise and positive. It was filled with the passion for war against the world, as well as the love and concern for the poor people¡ªand it was also deeply abhorred by many rulers. This book was only one of the novels from the series of works by the great writer, Schwarier von Stolovsky Franz, who had published at least a hundred works in his name over the past few decades. Though the stories differed from one another, the underlying tone that threaded through the stories was consistently uniform. As a loyal fan of his books, Asner Yug was deeply attracted to that heroic and passionate vibe of the stories he wrote. And so, she grew increasingly disinterested in politics. Otherwise, she would have discovered the problem much earlier. After receiving Sui Xiong¡¯s order, she immediately contacted her nephew and asked him about the situation in detail. That was when she got to know that basically, the work of forming an alliance comprising the many human countries had already progressed into the later stage. Not only the Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of Eagle and the aristocratic party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins had joined the alliance, but even the vast majority of the rest of the human countries had joined the alliance. Even the merchant party who had just fought a great battle with the aristocratic party was in discussion about matters relevant to joining the alliance. In other words, a great alliance that would pervade the entire Main Plane like a colossal net was gradually taking form. Chapter 886 Chapter 886: Vol V Chapter 246 ¡°But¡­ why hasn¡¯t anyone come to us to talk about an alliance?¡± someone raised this question at a high-level meeting of the Republic of Northwest. This question was very important. Seeing how the rest of the human countries were busy with the forming of this alliance, why had no one approached the Republic of Northwest for an alliance? The Republic of Northwest was definitely strong enough. With more than 20 Legendary Masters to stand guard over the Republic, no matter which country they were pitted against, they would not show any hint of weakness. Even most of the countries on Earth did not have the ability to confront them¡ªespecially after Leon had stepped into the Demigod Realm. The Republic of Northwest also had a very important position. Despite its position at the borders, it had the Transportation Portal that led to the various capitals of the world, as well as many major cities. It could be considered as the commercial hub of the entire world. Almost all luxury and high-priced goods had to be transferred from Void City to save time and avoid risks along the way. Needless to say, this was the most famous entertainment city on the Main Plane, or even in all the other worlds. The rich people from all over the world often came here for entertainment. The Fighter Championship that was held once every 10 years would also be held here¡­ When the human world wanted to do great things, there was no reason for them to especially avoid the Republic of Northwest. Many people would also have vaguely guessed the answer to this question. ¡°It¡¯s because¡­ of our race policy?¡± The one who spelled it out clearly was Steele, a medical specialist who had quite a complicated reputation. The race policy of the Republic of Northwest was peerless in the entire Main Plane. They paid no heed to differences in race and were only particular to whether the people observed law and discipline. Whether humans or Orcs, living or dead, so long as they obeyed the law, even the devils from the abyss would be just as welcomed. In fact, in Pit Tree Town, where the culture of dead souls propagated its belief on a large scale, there were really a few devil residents. Although the nature of devils was chaotic and evil, there were always exceptions in the world. Occasionally, there would be devils who were orderly, or even good by nature. They were incompatible with the abyss and thus often came to dismal ends. Some of the lucky ones who managed to escape the abyss generally lived in hell. They were known as the ¡°White Devils,¡± using white that was used to symbolize brightness of the future as a metaphor for their desire for a brighter future. Some time ago, a close friend of Palin, the director of the research institute, the Hell Earl, came to visit. He brought mention to these White Devils. Palin suggested allowing these White Devils to live in the human world, and the destination was, of course, Pit Tree Town. Anyway, the people of Pit Tree Town were used to living with dead souls. A few more devils, presumably, would not matter to them. Reality was just as how Palin had supposed it would be. Other than curiosity, the residents of Pit Tree Town did not show much fear for these White Devils who had come to live with them. They could accept living with zombies, skeletons, phantoms and the likes of them, so naturally, they did not mind when one or two devils came to live in their neighborhood. Or rather, the White Devils were a little safer than the dead souls. Without proper precautionary measures, just mere physical contact with the dead souls could lead to injury or sickness. The arrival and settling down of these White Devils greatly enriched the racial composition of the Republic of Northwest¡ªwell, perhaps using ¡°racial¡± was not that appropriate¡ªbut it also further tarnished the reputation of the Republic of Northwest a little bit more. Everyone was used to this country¡¯s ¡°I don¡¯t care what you are, I only care about what you do¡± kind of attitude. But in the face of a bunch of people who could eat, drink, make merry and even foster brotherhood with dead souls and demons, the various heads of states could not help having qualms about them. It was understandable that the heads of states were reluctant to discuss the matter of alliance with them. It was understandable, but still, the Republic was very unhappy about it. ¡°I don¡¯t think their alliance is very reliable,¡± said the Head of the Regiment of Knights, Gerald. ¡°There are so many countries involved, and all of them are so far apart. Even if the alliance is formed, so what? Could it be that they intend to round up all the Legendary Masters?¡± As he said this, he himself had to stop and think about it. After a while, the Defense Minister, Leonard, nodded and said, ¡°That¡¯s highly possible! Through forming an alliance, they could assemble all the people with top-rated martial skills from the various countries. In this case, they could probably gather as many as more than 50 Legendary Masters. With so many people combining efforts and working together, there will be no country in the world that can possibly stand up to it.¡± ¡°Then their target can also be ascertained. It must be the Orc Empire.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Needing to bring so many Legendary Masters together, the opponent can only be the Orc Empire,¡± Leonard said. ¡°All this time, the humans and Orcs have been at war with each other. Now it seems like the human gods have the intention to establish an alliance and put an end to this war.¡± Everyone looked at each other, feeling somewhat worried. It might sound easy for an alliance of human countries to declare a final battle on the Orc Empire. Yet in reality, this was an earth-shattering event. If nothing else, just the total number of Legendary Masters from both sides was possibly close to a hundred. With so many Legendary Masters fighting all at once, the scene would be enough to scare the life out of anyone. ¡°The human allied forces can¡¯t win,¡± said the Minister of Civil Affairs, Madame Teague. ¡°Though they may have the advantage in the number of Legendary Masters, the Orcs have their ¡®Divine Temple.¡± And there may be more than one Demigod Master living in seclusion in this Divine Temple. If there is an emergency during the war, they are bound to intervene.¡± ¡°The Orcs have their ¡®Divine Temple,¡¯ while the humans have their ¡®God Mountain,''¡± said the archbishop of the Church of the Void Mask, Leon. ¡°There is also quite a handful of human Demigod Masters residing high up in the Lianyun Mountains. So long as we can persuade them to come out of the mountains, dealing with the ¡®Divine Temple¡¯ will not be a problem at all!¡± ¡°When the human countries unite and work together, they are definitely going to be much stronger than the Orcs,¡± Leonard said. ¡°But the question is, exactly how much force are they going to put together? How big a price are they willing to pay to win the war? The key to everything, in fact, lies with their determination.¡± The crowd nodded. Though the Orc Empire could be said to be the top superpower in the Main Plane, if they were to face the unyielding human allied force, they were bound to lose more than what they had won. If nothing else, there was a gaping difference between the two sides in terms of population alone. If the human countries were to carry out a full-scale mobilization, it would not be an impulsive overestimate to say that based on the total population of more than 40 million people, they could mobilize an army with a force of around three to four million people. They could still hold out for a period of time. On the other hand, the Orc Empire¡¯s total population was only about 16 to 17 million. Wanting to put together a large army was almost akin to turning every single person in the nation into a soldier¡ªthis was no joke. Generally in war, a supply of one soldier would at least require 10 to 15 civilians. The country would not be able to support anything beyond this number. But if it was really to the point where there had to be one soldier out of three people, then even if the war was won, the country would be finished. Of course, the human countries would not really go to the extent of mobilizing an army of a few million soldiers. Considering the mobilization capability of the Orc Empire, forming an army with an estimated number of 500 to 600 thousand was possibly the limit of the Orcs. During the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, the Orc Empire mobilized a great army of 650 thousand soldiers, which made it an unprecedented battle in history. Among this great army of 650 thousand soldiers, the number who could truly be considered as ¡°soldiers¡± was probably less than a third of the total, around 20 thousand. With 200 thousand soldiers pitted against one single country, which was the Kingdom of Eagle alone, naturally the soldiers would have the upper hand. But if this army was pitted against the combined force of the human countries¡­ its number was far from enough. ¡°Maybe¡­ the history of the Orc Empire is soon drawing to a close¡­¡± Leonard muttered to himself after some discussion, and he sighed. Chapter 887 Chapter 887: Vol V Chapter 247 ¡°Thank you for telling us the news,¡± said the Master God of the Orc God System, Lefon, who was otherwise known as ¡°Sky Devourer Canine.¡± He smiled and said, ¡°We will be careful and stay alert.¡± Morani wanted to say something more, for example, give some warning and such. But after staying silent for a long time, he sighed deeply, and in the end, he said nothing. With his understanding of the Orc gods, it was absolutely impossible for Lefon to really be so careless. The ¡°Sky Devourer Canine¡± was not only a top-notch warrior, but he was also a commander-in-chief that was thoughtful and intelligence-oriented. It was highly possible that he already knew the news or was even prepared for it. However, he did not tell Morani about it. He might not even intend to drop any hint about it. To this, what else could Morani say? He was now known as the ¡°God of Half-Orcs,¡± which sounded like the title of ¡°God of Orcs,¡± but seemingly short of one word. Yet in truth, the two had long parted ways and were not even considered as allies. Everyone still maintained a pretty good relationship, so perhaps they could still be regarded as friends. But friends were also divided and categorized into different classes. There were friends who would risk their lives and even take the blow for each other. There were also friends who merely had meals and drinks together. The relationship between Morani and the Orc God System was probably the latter. Watching Morani leave in such a dejected manner, the smile of Lefon¡¯s face gradually faded, and he sighed. How could he not know that Morani had specially come with the news this time because he wanted to help? How could he not be aware that Morani was gradually growing in strength, especially now where there were signs showing that he appeared to be obtaining the ¡°Half-Orc¡± priesthood? So long as he was given another few more years, it would be possible for him to rely on this ¡°Half-Orc¡± priesthood to become a great Divine Power. How could he not know that Morani was more than just an individual with powerful strength, but also someone who had the backing of the entire Desolation God System, as well as being one of the most important members of the Void Alliance? But there were some things that he could not bring himself to say. There were some things that he simply could not say. The Orcs had their own dignity to uphold. For the Half-Orcs, who were looked down upon in the Orc culture, he could talk and laugh with them, eat with them, or even render a little help when they needed it¡­ but he could never ask them for help. The Orc culture did not allow this. Neither did the belief of the Orcs! After a long silence, Lefon returned to the temple and convened a meeting with the Orc gods. At the meeting, he first asked about the situation of probing for intelligence. ¡°There¡¯s not much of a difference from before. The Kingdom of Light seems to be very anxious, but up till now, only the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs has made it clear that it will send its army to help. As for the rest¡­ the Kingdom of Eagle has said that it can send masters and a few elite soldiers to help; the Kingdom of the Blue Moon said that it can provide financial support, as well as send a troop of around 10 thousand people. As for the West and South, they are more inclined towards attacking the Great Marsh or the Ancient Forest. They don¡¯t seem to show that much enthusiasm in besieging us.¡± Lefon nodded, indicating that he knew about this. Something that even Morani knew, the Orc gods of course would have known way earlier. They might even have done the necessary preparations and were ready to respond to an earth-shattering battle anytime. The Orcs were not afraid of war. On the contrary, they relished fighting battles and enjoyed going to war. If they were to be described in terms of internet quotes used on Earth, it was probably be something like ¡°Gentlemen, I love war.¡± For them, even if they could not win, so long as they had put in their all to fight a good battle, there was nothing unacceptable. Of course, Lefon personally had no intention of fighting a losing battle. On the contrary, he wanted to win! So he had made a great deal of preparation. ¡°What¡¯s the result of negotiations with the Dwarf Gods?¡± ¡°The negotiation went well. The Dwarf Gods say that the Orcs are now the pillar of resistance against human hegemony. They will do their best to support us in every way they can. If necessary, the Dwarf God System can turn out in full strength. Even the young and old of the Kingdom of Dwarfs can put on armors and go into battle to help us fight a battle of the entire race.¡± ¡°Very good! I don¡¯t really hope that they really have to go to that extent. But so long as they hold on to this attitude, it¡¯s enough to solve many problems,¡± said Lefon. He smiled and asked, ¡°What about the elves?¡± ¡°The Orc Judge is still being very vague and not speaking in detail. He¡¯s reluctant to reveal his cards. And the elders of the Fairies Council are still unable to make up their minds. They are obviously worried that this will invite trouble for the elven race. So they are taking so long to agree to send their troops.¡± ¡°A bunch of fools! Do they think that they can steer clear of danger by not sending troops? After we, the Orcs, have failed, it will be their turn next!¡± Lefon sneered. Then he went on and said unceremoniously, ¡°These old men are of no use at all! Go and talk to the God of Medicine and make an appointment with the Orc Judge along the way. I want to talk to him personally.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Majesty!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, is it appropriate for you to personally pay the Orc Judge a visit? He may be powerful, but at most, he¡¯s just a Demigod. Now, even the Fairies Council no longer obey his orders¡­¡± ¡°You all think too little of him. How can the ¡®Last Successor of the Golden Race¡¯ possibly be so weak! He¡¯s obviously hiding his strength. Although I don¡¯t know exactly what he¡¯s hiding, the current situation has reached the point where he can no longer continue to hide anymore!¡± After another matter was settled, Lefon asked, ¡°How about the situation at the Great Marsh? What did those aboriginal gods say?¡± ¡°They are still saying the same things as before, like ¡®everything should return to equilibrium¡± and such. In short, there isn¡¯t anything clear about what they are saying¡­ I really can¡¯t figure out exactly what attitude they are trying to show.¡± ¡°What other attitude can they possibly show? It¡¯s nothing more than being overcautious and indecisive, fearing this and that, that¡¯s all. A bunch of corpse-guarding ghosts without any guts!¡± Lefon sneered. ¡°But, do they think they can escape unscathed by not standing up for themselves? All these years, the area occupied by the Great Marsh has shrunk by at least a third, and this has nothing to do with us at all.¡± After mocking that group of ancestral spirits and Demigods of the Great Marsh, he finally raised the most important question. ¡°How about over at the Dragon race? What¡¯s the attitude over there?¡± The dwarves and elves could only back them up by rendering assistance by the side. And the Gods of the Great Marsh were perhaps, not even qualified to take up assisting roles. As compared to them, the attitude of the Dragon race was of paramount importance. Unlike the pygmy God Systems that had withdrawn from the Main Plane, the Dragon race was still stationed on the Main Plane. Though they seldom lived in populated areas, there were still quite a number of Dragons who were self-proclaimed lords and ruled over many places. These dragon lords were so powerful that the dragon slayers were unable to compete with them. But the human countries often assembled great armies to lay siege to the dragons. In terms of historical origins, there was bad blood shared between the dragon race and the humans. But not only that, the dragon race did not necessarily have a good relationship with the Orcs either. But the dragon race was strong! Strong enough to change the course of the war. So Lefon had long sent a messenger to contact the dragon gods, hoping to win over the Dragon race into participating in this war. Then he would defeat the humans, as well as attempt to defeat the Orcs, and fulfill his ambitious desire of monopolizing the Main Plane. When the sky falls, the tall ones are certainly not the only ones to suffer. When the Orcs were done for, the next to follow would naturally the elves and dwarves. The aboriginal gods and ancestral spirits in the Great Marsh, as well as the dragons on the Dragon Cliff, could also banish all thoughts of escaping. So it was still better for everyone to first join hands and win this battle before anything else. Chapter 888 Chapter 888: Vol V Chapter 248 The god in charge of negotiating with the Dragon race was no ordinary god. He was the former Master God of the Orc God System, the ¡°Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit,¡± Snakenell. This former Master God was born to the Snake people, or rather, he was the creator of the race of Snake people. During the battle with the God of Knights, he suffered a kick to his head. His neck became twisted, and therefore, he had to keep his head on the side all day long. And since then, he was never able to find a way to rectify the position of his head. After that battle, his strength was so greatly weakened that he even lost to Lefon, who had come forth to challenge him. But Lefon did not act according to the Orc tradition. Rather than killing and devouring him, Lefon helped him heal his wounds. Other than the tilted head that he had already grown accustomed to, he was now in perfect condition, ready to fight any great Divine Power at any time. Sending him as the emissary to negotiate with the Dragon race showed how much importance the Orcs attached to this negotiation. He also successfully met the head of the Dragon race, the present Dragon Emperor, His Majesty. ¡°Dragon Emperor¡± was both a title, as well as a name. Regardless of what any dragon was called before, the moment he became the leader of the Dragon race, he had to be called the Dragon Emperor. Over the years, there had been the Dragon Emperor of the Golden Dragon race, the Dragon Emperor of the Sea Dragons, the Dragon Emperor of the Land Walking Dinosaurs¡­ there was even the Dragon Emperor of the Ghost Dragons. These Dragon Emperors usually took up the reins for a few tens of thousands of years, then they would be sealed as gods and become Dragon Gods. However, the Dragon Gods were not very reliable. Whether in terms of priesthood or in terms of the way they did things¡ªunlike the other gods in general, the Dragon Gods were eager to become gods that were very, very insignificant. For example, they wanted to be gods like the ¡°God of Marriage of the Silver Dragons¡± or the ¡°God of Lunch of the Sea Dragons.¡± These priesthoods were undoubtedly owned by weak Divine Powers. The majority of them barely made it to the point of touching the edge of the level of a weak Divine Power. They were no superior to the gods-to-be, who didn¡¯t have priesthoods. This was because the culture of the Dragon race revered freedom and excluded responsibility. Even if they were sealed as gods, they would not confine themselves to within their priesthoods. Therefore, other than a few dragons who seemed to have their own peculiar way of thinking, there was practically no dragon that would choose the more popularized and influential priesthoods when the time had come to be sealed as gods. There were researchers who felt that perhaps the group of ¡°evil gods¡± originated from the Dragon race. There was certainly evidence to back this hypothesis, for the earliest and most powerful evil god that was known to all was a Dragon God: the Dragon of Chaos. The unreliability of the Dragon Gods was not only displayed in this aspect. Usually, they would not establish their own God Kingdom. They would live in the Half Plane that was located near the ¡°Dragon Cliff¡± or even¡­ There had been more than once, where the Dragon Gods had acceded to the orders of the incumbent Dragon Emperor and served the Dragon Emperor. It was a unique practice of the Dragon race to unify the gods with humans, assuming that they could still be called ¡°humans.¡± The negotiation between the Ancestor God of the Snake People, Snakenell, and the present Dragon Emperor, generally did not go well. The present Dragon Emperor was not haughty. Although that Dragon Emperor of Black Dragon origin was a little arrogant, when he crossed paths with any master, he was still quite respectful. He and Snakenell had a long discussion where they exchanged views on many issues. However, both sides were still unable to reach a consensus. The Dragon race did not care about human hegemony. They did not even care about whether they could live in the human world or not. For the present Dragon Emperor, if human hegemony existed mainly for the purpose of expelling the Dragon Race, he would have no intention of fighting the other side. He would simply take his Dragon race with him and leave the Main Plane. They would head to another world for development. Just like what the Dwarf Gods did previously. ¡°We dragons are different from you Orcs,¡± the Dragon Emperor said. ¡°We are a very small population. We can hardly withstand the attrition of war. It is a fact that an adult dragon is a legendary creature, but so what? In the world of today, the Dragon race only has a total of about 200 dragons. Such a number is not even worth mentioning in a great war.¡± The way he put it across was of course, just his excuse to decline and evade. Slightly over 200 men was indeed something not worth mentioning, but about 200 Legendary Masters was a completely different story. How many Legendary Masters would there be on the Main Plane if a total was to be calculated? If only the humans, Orcs, elves, dwarves, pygmies, Lizardmen and a few other major races were counted, the estimated number would only be slightly more than a hundred after counting in everyone. It was about 110 at most. And yet, the Dragon race could mobilize 200 Legendary Masters in one go. This was almost equal to twice the number of all the other races combined! If they were willing to put in their best and fight as hard as they could, perhaps it would have been impossible for the human allied forces to win this battle at all. But the concern of the Dragon race was also very reasonable. As compared to the races that were able to reproduce very quickly, the rate of reproduction of the dragons was simply much too slow. Its population base was far too small. More than 200 people might sound like a big number to speak of, but in truth, ¡°endangered¡± could be used as an apt description for them. Such an endangered species should just duteously stay home to breed and raise their children in order to grow their population. For what reason should they go out, stirring up trouble and playing a part in wars? That would be equal to them getting tired of living¡ªthey would simply be courting death! And with more than 200 Legendary Masters, was that not already a great thing? For this kind of war that involved the entire race, it was inevitable that even the Demigod Masters also had to go out to battle. In the face of the Demigod Masters, what good would these legendary dragons be? Of course, there were also Demigod Masters among the dragons. But even if they were Demigod Masters, could they possibly avoid the deaths and injuries of their posterity? So the Dragon Emperor expressed his thoughts and said, ¡°I can understand your difficulties. I also sympathize with your situation, but please pardon me. I really can¡¯t do anything to help you! The Dragon race is truly unable to participate in such a war. We can¡¯t afford to fight such a war!¡± After listening to the introduction briefed by the former Master God of the Orcs, Lefon frowned deeply. After a long moment of silence, he asked, ¡°From how you see it, do you think he¡¯s merely evading? Or does he really not want to participate in this war?¡± ¡°The dragons are a proud race. They may lose interest in a certain place and leave, but wanting to drive them away is not going to be an easy task,¡± Snakenell replied in his snake voice that carried the characteristic ¡°hissing¡± sounds. ¡°I¡¯m not good at reading people¡¯s minds. But that Dragon Emperor himself is a dragon to start with, isn¡¯t he?¡± Lefon laughed and said, ¡°You¡¯re right! Even if he¡¯s a Dragon Emperor, he is first and foremost also a dragon! Alright. I understand his intention. I¡¯ll personally make a trip to Dragon Cliff in a few days¡¯ time and have a good talk with him about the price of this matter.¡± Having said this, silence befell the temple. The gods looked at one another. There were many whose eyes seemed to express their want to say something, but none were willing to speak up. Therefore, the atmosphere seemed somewhat awkward. In the midst of this awkwardness, a Pighead god with a large head and big ears finally broke the silence and spoke. ¡°Your Majesty, do we need to speak with His Majesty, the Void Mask?¡± he asked. He seemed a little nervous. But since he had already begun, there was no stopping now. He might as well just finish what he wanted to say in one go. ¡°Although¡­ I feel that perhaps we may be able to get some help from him.¡± Chapter 889 Chapter 889: Vol V Chapter 249 The moment this topic was broached, everyone seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable. Unlike the elves, dwarves, aborigines of the Marsh, and even the dragons, the Void Mask, Auscar, was extremely powerful. This Jellyfish God did not have many followers under his command. It was just the level of a small God System. But in the Void Alliance with him as the core, there was something as massive as the War God System. Just the power that the War God System alone could mobilize was more than what most of the other God Systems could. Of course, the most important aspect of a war between gods was still to see which side had top-rate martial skills. And in terms of top-rate martial skills, the Void Alliance was fearfully strong. The Void Mask and the God of Justice were both consummate masters with enough strength to be evenly matched with a great God System, while the God of War was a symbolic figure of the great Divine Powers. Though the God of Law and the Goddess of Wealth had just stepped into the realm of great Divine Powers quite recently, they were also truly phenomenal masters. This line-up of five great Divine Powers was currently second to none among all the alliances in the Pantheon Temple. An alliance between the Orcs and Dwarves might barely be able to put together such a line-up of masters, though. Needless to say, the Dwarf Gods were also allies of the Void God System, and both sides had cooperated extensively over the years. Therefore, the relationship between them was extremely strong. And the most popular belief within the elven race at the moment was that of the God of Medicine¡ªhe was literally a follower of the Void Mask, a god who was raised from a mortal. Not only that, the alliance master of the Void Alliance, the Void Mask, Auscar himself, was extremely powerful. Very, very, very powerful! Super powerful! During that great battle between the Alliance of Evil Gods and the War God System, he practically defeated two God Systems all by himself. Within a short moment, he had killed hundreds of evil gods. He fought the War God System to the point where his opponents cast their armor and dropped their arms, then fled hurriedly. The alliance master of the Alliance of Evil Gods, the God of Fear, suffered a heavy blow. Soon after, he was apprehended by the God of Justice, brought to trial and then sentenced to death. Such a situation where one man could defeat two great God Systems and kill hundreds of gods all at once was unheard of before. Many gods even suspected that when the Void Mask executed his most terrifying ¡°continuous explosion¡± power, his power might have reached the level of greater Divine Power. And most, most important of all¡­ the Void Mask, Auscar, was currently the only god who was not restricted by the enchantment of the Main Plane. He had the freedom to move and attack as he wished on the Main Plane. This was of utmost importance because it meant that if he wanted to, all he needed was his power alone to change the power equation of the Main Plane according to his own will. In the face of such a great Divine Power who could execute his power to his heart¡¯s content, no matter how many clones the gods sent down, the powers of those clones would only be at the level of a weak Divine Power. They would be helpless and powerless against him. So many gods felt that given the current situation, the key was to successfully vie for power on the Main Plane was to build a good relationship with the Void Mask. The Orc Gods also felt the same way, which was why they chose to concede when the Jellyfish God put the ¡°ISIS¡± organization to trial and destroyed it. This was because they knew that even if they wanted to make an argument, reality would be such that they would never win. Of course, they would have thought of putting up a fight. Yet in the end, they had to back down. They could only watch helplessly as the Void Mask swept across the Orc Empire, killing as he moved. Eventually, he killed tens of thousands of people. Tens of thousands of followers killed all at once, including a large number of fanatical followers, was an extremely difficult loss for any God System to bear. Especially when the Void Mask did things mercilessly. After contacting hell, for every person he killed, a Hell Messenger would directly catch that soul and send it to trial to receive a Judgement of Hell¡­ This caused the most severe damage to the Orc Gods. In the three to four years that followed, there appeared a large number of civilians among the Orcs who became Half-Orcs because they were no longer devoted themselves to believing the gods. That incident had greatly affected the relationship between the Orc Gods and the Void Mask. Since then, there was little communication between them. Even the other gods in the Void Alliance seemed to minimize contact with the Orc Gods. So now, when someone suggested asking the Void Mask for help, the Orc Gods could not help feeling somewhat embarrassed. They looked at each other, not knowing what to say. Finally, all eyes concentrated on the God of Orcs, Lefon. Lefon was silent for a long time. And finally, he sighed deeply. ¡°Let¡¯s give it a shot,¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t carry much hope, but¡­ we should give it a shot anyway.¡± Now that this was said, there was no longer any pressure hovering over him. He went on to say, ¡°But, it may not be so effective if it¡¯s just us going to look for him. You all shall go to the Dwarf God System first. Get the Dwarf God System to help by being the middleman. Then rope in a few elders of the elven race¡­ The Void Mask maybe a jellyfish, but in terms of character, he¡¯s a good man who is kind and upright. He has good relations with the dwarves and elves. It should be helpful to us if we can enlist their help in persuading him.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t the Void Mask have the best relationship with the humans?¡± asked one of the gods. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s apparently so,¡± Lefon said. He gave a little laugh and said, ¡°But what does it matter? He¡¯s obviously someone who is concerned about what¡¯s right and wrong and pays no regard to background and origin. It is not a big deal if we are the ones attacking the humans. But this time, the human gods are going to wage war for the purpose of unifying the Main Plane. From aggressors, we have become defenders. It¡¯s highly possible that he will help us out of sympathy.¡± ¡°But back during the time where we attacked the Kingdom of Eagle, he did not make any attempt to help the Kingdom of Eagle.¡± ¡°He did not do anything personally. But the first general under his command, the archbishop of the Church of the Void Mask, Leon Igor, did come forward to help. Of course, as we all know, Leon Igor¡¯s in quite a unique position. He was the prince of the Kingdom of Eagle. If the throne had not been usurped, he would have become the King of Eagles¡ªBut at the same time, Crick Keane, who has become his Holy Spirit later on, also participated in the war. Perhaps this should be enough to show his stand.¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t Crick Keane forced to participate in the war? He had complained about it more than once after he fortunately survived the war.¡± ¡°Whether it¡¯s voluntarily or forcibly, it¡¯s an indisputable fact that he eventually took part in that battle.¡± The gods discussed incessantly, and for that moment, the entire place became a little noisy. Lefon made some coughing sounds and motioned the gods to keep quiet. Then his gaze fell on the few gods who assumed the roles of messengers. ¡°We don¡¯t have much hope, but we have to fight for it anyhow,¡± he said. After a slight pause, he added, ¡°You all have to bear in mind that during negotiation, don¡¯t talk about the war between us and the humans. Try your best to steer the topic towards the dwarves and elves. Emphasize the war between them and the humans. So long as we can get them involved and tie them to us, there will be greater hope for us.¡± He was silent for a moment, then with a little sigh, he said, ¡°Otherwise¡­ I¡¯m afraid that jellyfish won¡¯t help us at all¡­¡± Then he issued quite a number of orders and got the messengers to carefully select some rare treasures from the treasure vault. Thereafter, he sent them off to look for the dwarves and elves to form a Joint Mission of Messengers. Chapter 890 Chapter 890: Vol V Chapter 250 The Joint Mission of Messengers soon arrived in Void City. Sui Xiong had set up a temporary meeting area under the Divine Tree to receive them. ¡°The Void Mask, Your Majesty. This time, we have come to seek your help,¡± the messenger of the elven race said straightforwardly. ¡°We are really at a critical juncture right now; we have no choice but to ask for help.¡± Sui Xiong naturally understood what that messenger meant. He nodded and looked at the messengers sent by the elves and the Orcs. ¡°And you guys came with the same intention?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes. We came to ask for help,¡± replied the Orc messenger. ¡°Or to put it across more clearly, we are all here to ask for help,¡± said the elf messenger, who was also an elder of the elven race¡ªhe was the one who previously helped with the name rectification of the Pasteur family. He had a good relationship with the God of Medicine, so when the elven race was facing great danger, he had volunteered to be a messenger. Likewise, the dwarf and Orc messengers also had good relations with the Void God System or the Republic of Northwest. The dwarf messenger was none other than the Dwarf Rune God, and his deputy was the son of the current King of Dwarfs, Dudu Hill. The Dwarf Rune God and Sui Xiong shared a very good relationship. Their friendship started even before the time where they came together to jointly develop the new rune armor. He was also the one who facilitated the large-scale cooperation between the two God Systems. As for Dudu Hill, he was educated in the Republic of Northwest and could be considered as a student of the Republic. The Orc messenger was the God of Lionmen, Singh. He was Leonard¡¯s older brother, and the two brothers had a good relationship. Previously, when Sui Xiong had stirred up trouble for the ¡°ISIS¡± organization, Leonard had gone to talk to Singh about it before anything else. Of course, the way they ¡°talked¡± was very Orc-like and traditional¡ªthis was just a digression. Singh¡¯s deputy was the patriarch of the Fox People, Wilder¡ªhe was the father of Hopes Wilder, who was the deputy Minister of the Ministry of Mines of the Republic of Northwest. From this line-up, it was clearly seen that the three races were dealing emotional cards. According to their understanding of the Void Mask, the best way to persuade this Jellyfish God, who often did not do things in the usual and rational way, was to appeal to his emotions. And then the next step was to gain his understanding via reasoning or even to tempt him with gains or to threaten him¡­ Haha, or just forget about it. It was better not to make a fool of themselves by trying to outsmart him. That would be akin to making a joke of themselves. In the face of these three messengers who had come to seek help, Sui Xiong was silent for a while. Then he asked, ¡°Is the situation really that serious?¡± ¡°Though it¡¯s not that serious right now, the moment there¡¯s an outbreak of crisis, it¡¯s going to be major catastrophe,¡± the Dwarf Rune God said. ¡°We, the dwarfs, have a small population to start with. We even struggle to face the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. If it had not been for your help the last time, the Kingdom of Dwarfs would most likely have suffered a great loss.¡± ¡°All these years, we have been reorganizing our armament and training many new rune mages and spell breakers. But even so, the most we can do is to barely block the invasion of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. The moment they manage to get help, the Kingdom of Dwarfs will certainly fall.¡± ¡°As for us, the elves, there¡¯s nothing more to say about our situation either. You yourself have traveled in the Ancient Forest,¡± the elven elder sighed. ¡°The elven population has always been small. Since the departure of the Golden Race, we have never been able to cultivate a martial force that¡¯s powerful enough all these years¡­ As an elder of the Fairies Council, I feel deeply pained.¡± ¡°If there is really an outbreak of war, we elves will probably have to depend on the Ancient Forest as we fight and retreat interchangeably. But no matter how big the Ancient Forest is, it will never be big enough for our entire race to hide. Although we can manage to hold out as long as we can if there are not too many opponents, in the event where both the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Mifata Federation are to launch a joint attack, our battlefront will soon collapse.¡± ¡°By that time, it will be nothing more than the human armies scouring the forest from village to village, while we elves will be forced to escape from place to place. We will not have a place to stay, and no food to fill our bellies¡­ Before long, the elven race will wither and eventually head towards the inevitable extinction of our race.¡± ¡°It¡¯s also not that serious to the extent of extinction, right,¡± Sui Xiong said in a subconscious state. He was taken aback. ¡°Maybe you feel that I¡¯m exaggerating. But the problem is really that serious,¡± the elven elder said with a bitter expression. ¡°We elves are unlike the other races. Our roots lie in the Ancient Forest. Many elves will even grow weak if they have been away from the Ancient Forest for a long time. Maybe the other races can choose to leave the Main Plane and go to other worlds to live and multiply the moment they realized they are fighting losing battles, but we elves may be the only race that cannot do so.¡± He thought for a moment, then said, ¡°It¡¯s also not totally impossible. For instance, elves who have lived outside the Ancient Forest for generations and have gradually grown accustomed to life outside are able to do so. But the bulk of us elves principally live in the Ancient Forest. If we want to evacuate the entire population altogether, it will be a reasonable guess to say that just the weakness induced by leaving the Ancient Forest will cause us to lose at least half of our population.¡± Sui Xiong said nothing. He was silently making deductions by inferring from their words. There were many uses of Divine Power. So long as there was enough mastery of a relevant realm, the relevant method of use could be derived. Sui Xiong had mastered quite a lot in the realms like ¡°fate¡± and ¡°prophecy.¡± If he were to start deducing at that moment, so long as no gods were involved, it was almost impossible for him to make a mistake. With a group of ordinary elves living in the Ancient Forest as his target, he deduced a situation of them leaving the Main Plane to live in another world filled with trees. After a moment, he frowned. As the elder had said, these elves would soon become weak. Not only would they fall sick easily, after they were injured, but it would also be very difficult for their wounds to heal. Even though the environment in that world was similar to that of the Ancient Forest, they were still unable to adapt. And probably after two to three hundred years, as many as half of these 100 elves would die. Eventually, only a few people could truly adapt to the environment. They would have undergone degeneration where their strength and wisdom would be greatly reduced. But ultimately, they would manage to survive. Sui Xiong was silent. He did not tell them the results of his deduction. But he had come to a decision on whether there was a need to rescue the elven race. He did not have a deep friendship with the elven race, but these elves who had lived in solitude in the depths of the forest all this time were in the face of such a crisis. He could not possibly turn his back on them. Once the decision for this matter was determined, the issue with the dwarfs became easier to deal with. Or rather, in the first place, there was not much to consider regarding the issue with the dwarfs. The dwarf race and the Void God System were allies. And allies were supposed to help each other. Over the years, the dwarf race had rendered a lot of help to the Republic of Northwest in areas like the different industries, mining, scientific research and even in the military. There was simply no reason for Sui Xiong not to help them. He nodded slightly, and finally, his eyes fell on the Orc messenger. ¡°I can help the dwarfs and the elves,¡± he said. ¡°But why should I help the Orcs?¡± Chapter 891 Chapter 891: Vol V Chapter 251 Towards the Orc Race, Sui Xiong had always been slightly uncomfortable with them. This was not some form of mere prejudice. As a jellyfish, Sui Xiong did not even discriminate against creatures such as goblins, which were publicly seen as the lowliest living creatures. How could he possibly discriminate against the splendid and learned Orcs? The reason why he disliked them was actually due to two main reasons. The first reason for his displeasure towards the Orcs was that the Orcs were passionate about killing for sacrifices. Killing for sacrifices was a very common form of sacrifice. The reason why the Orcs delighted in it was due the fact that in their culture, harming others in the name of sacrifice and using their captured captives as sacrificial items was seen as ordinary. This did not only take place between the Orcs and other creatures but even amongst the different Orc tribes themselves! Even those in the same tribe would often kill their own tribe members. In comparison, be it humans, elves, pygmies or dwarves, although these groups of creatures also often used killed for sacrificial rituals, they would never start a war solely for the sake of sacrifices. They would also definitely not kill their own comrades just to earn some items for sacrificial rituals. Sui Xiong felt that if the Orcs were able to kill their own or start a war just for sacrifice, they really had different values from all the other races that he was familiar with. Although it sounded very strange, he felt that the Orcs gave him an extremely alien vibe unlike any other race, and he consciously distanced himself from them. The second reason why he disliked the Orcs was due to their faith. Towards faith, Sui Xiong was definitely a firm believer that religion should be liberal and that it was a personal right of each individual. He firmly claimed that every living creature with a brain had the autonomy to choose and decide their own faith. Whether or not they chose to believe in a particular god or a particular ideology, or to not believe in anything at all¡­ These were all things that were sacred to each individual and should not be meddled in by any external party. This ideal that Sui Xiong had was translated to the Republic of Northwest as one of the nation¡¯s foundational values. In this country, no one could attack others¡¯ faith for any rhyme or reason, even if they felt justified to do so. Various faiths and ways of thinking could coexist harmoniously, and while one could doubt or debate about others¡¯ faith, they could not criminalize or blame others for being different. No faith was discriminated against nor banned, and everyone was allowed to practice their own beliefs if they wished to do so. In this country, any and every faith or god was allowed to exist. Even if one¡¯s faith caused them to directly be enemies of another due to contrasting beliefs, the disciples all did not attack each other. At most, they deeply felt pity for the enemy as they believed they were mentally ill and needed help. Toward this, Sui Xiong had stepped in to install rectifying processes to ensure harmony. Many churches were rectified and marshaled to coexist peacefully. The effect of all these efforts was that the Republic became the world¡¯s only country where disciples of conflicting gods could live in harmony without any evil or abuse. The most one would see would be dissatisfied glances being exchanged between disciples of contrasting faiths, but that would be it. This was extremely unique to the Republic of Northwest, and Sui Xiong did not think that it was possible for every other country to achieve this. However, he was tolerant of more uptight countries except when people practiced the idea that if others did not believe in their god, it was a crime. Well, the problem was that was exactly what the Orc race believed in primarily. Orc society was a rather deformed one. Here, faith was akin to the Yangtze River in China, differentiating the different citizens. Only if one believed in various Orc gods could they truly be viewed as citizens of the Orc Empire. Otherwise, no matter how long they had lived here or how much tax they had paid or how much they had contributed to the country, they would not be seen as citizens. ¡°My family has lived here for ten generations!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve paid more than ten thousand coins in taxes!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been injured in war for this country!¡± All these reasons would not be accepted for citizenry without faith in the various Orc gods. Towards these ¡°non-citizens,¡± the Orc Empire was extremely discriminatory, and they only were allowed to exist in rural areas where governance was weak. In the mainland of the empire, one could barely find traces of them. It was not that they wanted to live in rural areas, but they were unable to live anywhere else. If that were all, Sui Xiong might not have been so sensitive. However, the Orcs did not stop there. They did not just label their territories as that of citizens and non-citizens, but they also used the same areas to segregate the upper-class and lower-class members of society. To go into detail, those who believed and trusted in the various Orc gods and prayed to them were considered upper-class. Those who did not feel such a calling and had no reply to their prayers were lower-class. Whatever they did in life was secondary. The various Orc gods¡¯ response to prayers was very clear and standard. Only those with blood and whose minds were fully controlled by the gods were counted as disciples worth answering to. For those without these things, as long as they left the control of the Orc gods, the gods would not respond to them anymore. This was also where the idea of Half-Orcs came from. Half-Orcs were those who were part Orc, part something else. As long as they did not feel the calling by the various Orc gods, their prayers would be for nothing, and they would immediately become Half-Orcs. This was mostly so in cases where they could not control their own familial background or because they had revelations that distanced them from the Orc faith. There were many Half-Orcs in the Orc Empire, but yet their status in society was extremely low. No matter how much they contributed, they would receive the same discrimination and prejudice. They did the hardest jobs but received the lowest salaries. Many Half-Orcs were even tortured to death and did not even live to be middle-aged. Because of the constant killings and terror, Half-Orcs tended to try to flee in groups to the Republic of Northwest. They risked their lives to cross Cangwu Gobi simply to find a place where they could live safely and in peace. Sui Xiong¡¯s friend, ¡°Steel Lion¡± Morani was a Half-Orc as well. Over the last few years, he had saved several Half-Orcs who had left the Orc Empire and slowly spread his own faith among them. Because of his own background, he was easily able to convince the Half-Orcs of his faith. With his current progress, within a few hundred years, his clergymen may even include a Half-Orc. At that time, he would become the God of Half-Orcs, and his system would possibly be renamed as Half-Orc System. Sui Xiong of course did not agree with the Orc Empire¡¯s massacre of those who did not believe in the various Orc Gods. He was further disgusted by their ultimate discrimination and terror towards the Half-Orcs. Just because they did not gain the gods¡¯ favor, they were hated and murdered. That was simply ridiculous! Sui Xiong was a sensitive person and did things with his emotions. If he liked something, he liked something. If he disliked something, he disliked it. On the other hand, he did not really care so much about logic alone without thought. Since he did not like the Orcs¡¯ culture nor did he approve of their practices towards faith, how could he possibly like them as a race? Sui Xiong thus had rather ill feelings towards the Orcs as well as the Orc Empire. It was also because of this that Sui Xiong was particularly interested in helping other creatures such as the elves and dwarves but was adamant in not helping the Orcs! Chapter 892 Chapter 892: Vol V Chapter 252 Sui Xiong¡¯s answer was as expected, according to the God of Lionmen, Singh¡¯s careful calibrations. Alternatively, one could say that it did not go too much against what he had expected. Before embarking on this expedition, Wilder had discussed the matter with Singh. Wilder had carefully analyzed the laws of the Republic of Northwest as well as the doctrine of Void Mask. He had then pointed out that the biggest obstacle that was being posed to the success of this expedition would be the attitude that the various Orc gods had towards faith and the policies towards faith in the Orc Empire as well. ¡°If it¡¯s possible to do so, the government could change their attitude, and the policymakers could then make adjustments to the policies. That¡¯s the best solution we have,¡± Wilder had then suggested. However, Singh had rejected this proposition. ¡°The Orc System is rooted in the idea of blood ties and cares deeply about the purity of the relationship between souls. If this is lost, we Orcs will lose a part of our identity. We wouldn¡¯t be us anymore. At that point, living or dying would make no difference and have little meaning if we lost our main values as a race.¡± Wilder had begged the great God of Orcs, but Singh rejected him not once, not twice but three times. In the end, Wilder had no choice but to change his approach and went to find Lefon. Lefon had replied in an extremely decisive way. ¡°If we lose this battle, we might as well follow the footsteps of the pygmy tribe and step out of the Main Plane. This world is so big, there is definitely space for us to find a place for the Orcs to reside in. That wouldn¡¯t be a huge problem. On the other hand, if we give up the foundational idea of using blood and soul relations to determine our society, we will be losing the main values of the Orc tribe. Even if we stay on the Main Plane, we would be losing a part of ourselves forever, and that is not acceptable!¡± With such a strong and non-negotiable answer, Wilder could not do much to change the Orcs¡¯ mind further. All he could do was to skirt around the issue and continue pondering about how to convince the Void Mask instead on this matter of policies. Towards this, he came up with several different angles of argumentation, hoping that at least one of them would be convincing enough to allow him to succeed. Towards Sui Xiong¡¯s queries, Wilder immediately replied, ¡°What¡¯s the difference between helping the Orcs versus the dwarves or elves? In all cases, we are just helping to resist aggression.¡± ¡°The thing is, the Orcs have always been the aggressors towards others while the elves and dwarves are usually the ones at the mercy of such aggression,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°The Orc Empire is the world¡¯s biggest country in terms of turf; they own more than 40% of the land on the Main Plane. The vast, untended plains of the northern part of the Main Plane definitely had other races and tribes living there in the past. Where are they all now? If one can be aggressive to others, similarly, others can be aggressive towards you as well. This is a very basic and just matter.¡± Wilder had smiled slightly. Sui Xiong¡¯s thinking had not differed from what he had expected. He thus replied, ¡°In the past two hundred years or so, the Orc Empire has not attempted to further expand their physical territory. Up till the last millennium, the Orc Empire ¡®s expansion plans were also duly stopped by the combined efforts of the Eagle Kingdom as well as the Kingdom of Holy Angels. They have been stopped already. Do you think that the many future generations after should pay for the crimes of their ancestors, which happened thousands of years ago?¡± Without waiting for Sui Xiong to reply, Wilder continued his monologue. ¡°As compared to the Orcs, humans have recently also become more cruel in their aggressive deeds. Originally, during the great migration and when there were big developments in the past, the humans did many cruel things as well, and you know that too. Even if we do not bring up the past, in the last few years, humans have still been aggressive towards the dwarves and the Great Marsh!¡± Sui Xiong was unable to argue against this as he knew it all to be true as well. In this world, if we were to tier the different races, one could not deny that humans were definitely at the top of the list when it came to aggression. If one wanted to say that humans were ranked second, no one else could rank first. As compared to humans, the aggression by the Orcs was actually pale in comparison. This was mostly because their aggression and schemes had been stopped by humans and they could not continue expanding on them. ¡°I want to ask you something. Do you agree with aggression?¡± Wilder asked. Sui Xiong flinched and replied, ¡°Of course not!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s discuss things further then. If humans choose to be aggressive and encroach on others¡¯ territory, do you approve of it or disagree?¡± Sui Xiong thought about it before replying, ¡°I disagree with it.¡± ¡°I knew you would definitely disagree.¡± Wilder smiled slightly. ¡°Furthermore, not long ago, you even took it upon yourself to lend a helping hand to the Kingdom of Dwarfs when the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had tried to invade them. It was such a huge contribution to their defense efforts that it is still fresh in everyone¡¯s minds.¡± Sui Xiong smiled politely in return to that compliment, but internally, he felt that something was amiss in his heart. Something about Wilder¡¯s words did not seem quite right¡­ ¡°At that time, we Orcs had also been on the side of the Kingdom of Dwarf¡¯s,¡± Wilder smiled again and said. ¡°I believe you would also remember that! At that time, the Orc Empire had sent out many elites to help increase the defenses of the Kingdom of Dwarfs and helped them prepare for a battle with the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs.¡± Sui Xiong nodded his head in agreement. This was true. Although in the end, the conflict did not end up in a physical battle, the Orcs¡¯ help was still indispensable and notable. ¡°See, we Orcs have already proved that we in fact are against aggression through our tangible actions, right?¡± Sui Xiong hesitated for a while before furrowing his brow and nodding slowly. ¡°To reiterate, you are against aggression as well, right?¡± Sui Xiong nodded again. ¡°In that case, we¡¯re actually on the same page and are standing on the same side as each other, are we not?¡± Sui Xiong thought about this statement for an extremely long time until he was dazed and confused. It felt like there was a flock of birds circling around his head, cackling and singing songs right above him. He knew that Wilder¡¯s persuasion definitely was not completely accurate, and that something was missing or wrong. It was just that he could not exactly pinpoint what the flaw in Wilder¡¯s argument was. Yes, it was true that if the Orcs opposed aggression and he opposed aggression as well, that they would be on the same side in battle as they were unanimous in their values. But¡­ but¡­ but¡­ Sui Xiong shook his head firmly as if to dismiss that imaginary flock of birds disturbing him and sighed deeply. ¡°What you said does make sense,¡± Sui Xiong replied extremely hesitantly. ¡°However, I really do not like the way the Orcs do things generally¡­¡± ¡°In this world, there is no individual that can satisfy someone else¡¯s requirements entirely.¡± Singh smiled in a rather self-dismissive way. He had practiced this bitter expression many times and had finally gotten Wilder¡¯s approval. ¡°For example, many of your methods and your way of thinking may not be agreeable to others as well.¡± Sui Xiong was a little dazed and froze as he suddenly realized the conversation was somehow suddenly directed towards him unknowingly. ¡°Furthermore, I am able to promise on behalf of the various Orc gods that if you help us to fend off and defend against the humans¡¯ aggression, the Orc Empire will abolish our tribal chief system and change to become a full republic system. We will not use blood ties and status to elect our leaders like we did in the past, but instead allow the people to vote according to their own desires to pick our elder group. The emperors¡¯ powers and jurisdiction will be awarded to our various chief elder associations¡¯, and the chief elder association Great Council will be the highest-ranking and most powerful group with the most powers in our new Republic of Orcs. ¡°We will also abolish the control that the aristocratic tribal chiefs have on their underlings and tribal members, effectively removing their control over trade products as well. These powers will be transferred to the chief elder association Great Council. Lastly, we will also take tangible and conscious steps to dissolve the overall political control that the aristocrats have and transfer the national aristocratic identity to a representation of honor without any special privileges¡­¡± Singh had rattled off this long string of words in one breath and then eventually cast a peaceful yet serious gaze onto Sui Xiong. ¡°Are you satisfied with all the conditions that I just mentioned?¡± Sui Xiong fell silent as he really did not know how to answer that question. If he only cared about his own feelings, it was true that he was not inclined towards the Orcs, whom he hated. He did not really wish to help them and make himself an enemy of the humans as well. On the other hand¡­ No matter how he looked at it, logically, in terms of theory and benefits, there was no reason for Sui Xiong to reject Singh¡¯s offer. Singh had already phrased his conditions clearly and made a strong argument for them. He was so earnest as well. How could Sui Xiong reject him now? As Sui Xiong gazed at Singh, who was patiently waiting for his reply, he felt stressed and in a tight dilemma. Having to make a choice here felt more awful than having to go into battle with several gods with great Divine Powers¡­ Chapter 893 Chapter 893: Vol V Chapter 253 In the end, Sui Xiong had not agreed to Singh¡¯s request immediately. Although Singh¡¯s explanation had definitely made sense, Sui Xiong still felt that something was not right. Since his gut feeling told him that something was off, Sui Xiong definitely would not make any decision rashly. This was not an easy decision like coming up with what to eat for dinner, but rather was a decision that involved the two biggest races on the Main Plane. Tens of thousands of peoples¡¯ welfare and happiness were at stake! This matter affected the rise and fall of the two biggest holy pedigrees in this world as well and was a severe matter of life and death for many, many people. How could Sui Xiong make decisions easily for such a high stake matter simply because some explanations ¡°made sense¡±? If Sui Xiong was merely helping the elves or dwarves, he could be assured that he wouldn¡¯t be implicated in an overly complicated battle, if it happened at all. Even if it did, Sui Xiong also had confidence in his own abilities to manage and manipulate the scale of the battle and ensure that there wouldn¡¯t be mass killings and corpses lying around everyone. However, in this case, if he chose to help the Orcs, he could no longer make such a guarantee. The hatred and conflict between the humans and Orcs had originated from a long time ago, and they could even be said to be mortal enemies. To stop both sides from engaging in battle would definitely be a tough thing to do! This was the reason why Sui Xiong chose to postpone his decision-making despite Singh¡¯s pleas and earnest propositions. Sui Xiong stated that he required a bit more time to think and to allow the Republic of Northwest and the Void God System¡¯s leaders to come together and discuss the matter. This current meeting thus came to a close temporarily, and the emissaries returned to their hotel. Sui Xiong then gathered the Republic of Northwest and the Void God System¡¯s elites to come together to discuss the matter. ¡°What a pity!¡± Wilder sighed deeply, disappointment clearly written all over his face. ¡°Since we did not manage to convince Sui Xiong today and settle the matter, it will only get harder from now on.¡± Singh was silent, and his face was dark. ¡°The Void Mask is really rather stubborn and set in his ways. We did manage to convince him, but for some reason or another, he was just unwilling to budge. Could he have suspected something was amiss?¡± ¡°That¡¯s possible. After all, he is one of the most powerful gods of all time. Towards things like fate and prophecy, he definitely has a good gut instinct for it. Even though we made careful preparations, it¡¯s not unlikely that he somehow sensed that something was amiss,¡± Wilder replied dully with a pained expression. ¡°With more time, he will be able to firm up his suspicions and sense towards the matter. That would mean that he would then gain a better understanding of the situation as well. Because of this, I¡¯m worried¡­¡± Wilder did not elaborate on what exactly he was worried about, but Singh understood his implied meaning. ¡°Let¡¯s not think too much now and just concentrate on our tasks at hand,¡± after mulling over the matter for a while, Singh replied. ¡°Even without Sui Xiong¡¯s help, we will still have to fight this battle. Although the humans have the advantage of numbers, they aren¡¯t really able to round this great number of people up easily. Gathering tens of thousands of people from all areas to one central area will definitely pose a challenge for them.¡± Wilder nodded and chose not to dwell on the current unfortunate situation but plan for the future instead. He had a reputation of being the smartest among his generation of Orcs, and now, it was time for him to live up to that title. Almost at the same time, the Republic of Northwest¡¯s¡¯ higher-ups were having a discussion. Sui Xiong briefly explained the matter at hand before allowing everyone else to air their views and share their thoughts on the matter. The first person to speak was Olian Geerteng. This famous sage was also the Church of the God of Knowledge¡¯s archbishop, and she spoke up without hesitating, ¡°I oppose the idea of helping the Orcs. All along, the Orcs have been the main threat to peace in this world until the Eagle Kingdom and the Kingdom of Holy Angels joined forces to suppress their unacceptable actions. It¡¯s not that they chose peace. Rather, they were forced to accept peace. Now, they are still relentless in their quests. I¡¯m sure everyone remembers the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, right? The Orcs were to blame for that battle!¡± Keane Hill¡¯s leader, Louis Keane, nodded immediately. ¡°That¡¯s right! The aggressive nature of the Orcs is inborn and will not change. They are only willing to negotiate because they are in an unfortunate position right now and are acting pitiful. As long as they have the opportunity, they will be crueler than any other race!¡± ¡°If the Orc Empire is defeated and the Orcs are driven out of the Main Plane, it will not be a bad thing for this world.¡± The alliance master of the Alliance of Four Cities, one of God of Knowledge¡¯s electors, Owen Hart, spoke up as well with his own logic. ¡°This is not about prejudice or discrimination, it¡¯s the truth. From historical events, we can see that the aggressive nature of the Orcs is too intense, evil and strong. They are the reason why there is tension on the Main Plane!¡± The three consecutive views that were aired led to a majority of the world leaning towards being against the Orcs. Right at this moment, however, someone who normally did not speak up, spagirism warrior Wendy Tyrian, suddenly opened her mouth. ¡°It¡¯s not like humans are any less cruel than Orcs,¡± she said. ¡°Aren¡¯t humans the ones who have been constantly harassing the Ancient Forest?¡± ¡°Humans have also been the aggressors towards the Great Marsh and all the ¡®borders¡¯ of the plane,¡± Jose continued with a cold smile. ¡°Our Northern Iceland¡¯s barbarian tribe are also considered humans, and when they make plans to expand their territory, they could be said to be cruel and relentless as well!¡± ¡°Humans simply term their expansion as pioneering, and to them, it is a great profession of honor. As for the original residents of land that was taken over, humans label them as evil and say that they naturally needed to be exterminated.¡± Although Necromancer Tu Ya¡¯an was also a human, he did not join sides with the human race. ¡°Let¡¯s not even discuss differences between races. Even if the humans were of the same race, would they be any less cruel towards each other? Look at the internal war in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, both sides are humans, right? For money, land, power and status¡­ humans are capable of anything! They do not really care about being good or generous¡­¡± ¡°Be it humans or Orcs, their nature is about the same,¡± Giant dragon Snowflake commented lightly. ¡°Race alone cannot really express the complexity of the situation. Other than a few specific tribes in each race that are extremely territorial and intense, the rest of the humans and Orcs are about the same. I¡¯ve seen kind Orcs, selfish humans and vice versa. Being humble versus being despicable, good and evil¡­ be it humans or Orcs, I¡¯ve seen individuals who embody all parts of the spectrum. They¡¯ve had multiple clashes in the past. If we solely look at race to decide who deserves help, that would be too narrow-minded and judgmental.¡± After Snowflake concluded her speech, Madam Teague hurried to voice her agreement. ¡°We should look at the matter in terms of right and wrong, not simply by race.¡± ¡°Be it the Republic of Northwest or the Church of the Void Mask, we¡¯ve always emphasized that all races should be treated equally. This is one of the foundational values of the Republic, and we should not compromise that in this case of the battle between humans and Orcs,¡± Master Satan smiled and spoke up. ¡°I know everyone has their own preferences. Some may prefer the humans and hate the Orcs, some may be the exact opposite. However, I want to remind everyone that preferences aside, we must still make rational decisions with a clear head.¡± The entire meeting area fell silent as everyone fell into deep thought. As Sui Xiong gazed at everyone around him, he sighed internally. It seemed as though the implied conclusion for the meeting was to make a decision without caring about race. In that case, using logic alone, helping to fight against aggression was by right the correct choice. In this case, were they really supposed to support the Orcs then? Somehow, Sui Xiong still could not shake off his doubts. Chapter 894 Chapter 894: Vol V Chapter 254 Setting: The Void Mask¡¯s God Kingdom, in the meeting room. The normally empty meeting room was now packed to the brim. All the gods in the Void Alliance were all present without exception. Be it Sui Xiong or his followers, Sui Xiong¡¯s personal friends, the War God System¡¯s followers, the Master of Justice and the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s followers or marginal gods who wanted to be on good terms with the aforementioned¡­ Everyone was present. If one were to do a sweeping glance of the whole room, they would observe that there were hundreds of gods sitting nearly in rows, and there was energy in the atmosphere similar to when the God of Fear was being sentenced in court. Of course, the court space had been smaller than this meeting room, but it was decently sized as well. At least¡­ if any god who was not on good terms with the Void Alliance had seen this scene, they would probably have exclaimed ¡°oh no!¡± in terror before finding a place to hide quickly. Enemies of the Void Alliance would definitely want to hide upon seeing such a situation as there was a great ton of power in this room. Even if the current meeting was not directed to them specifically, the Void Alliance would often mention other enemies on the side and talk about what to do about them occasionally, along with the main discussion. On the other hand, gods who had decently positive ties with Void Alliance would probably stop out of curiosity to eavesdrop. If one did so, he would definitely be in for the surprise of his life. More than ten great Divine Powers were gathered here, and their combined power alone was unthinkable. The current situation had called over more than three-quarters of the entire first three rows of the Pantheon temple. The four main systems, the Natural God System, the War God System, the Elemental System as well as the Void Mask System were all here. Even the Dwarf God System, the Pygmy System as well as other mid-level systems and small systems, such as the Desolation God System were present. If one counted, there were tens of systems gathered here, and it was a rather magnificent sight. Sui Xiong had spent his own time to round up everyone. Of course, this was not some kind of party or fun occasion. He immediately addressed all the present gods and asked for their opinion. ¡°Previously, I had gathered my own disciples to discuss this matter. They were unable to come up with a unanimous conclusion,¡± Sui Xiong explained. ¡°This matter is extremely urgent and severe. I thus hope that everyone here will be able to provide suggestions. I am open to all suggestions, so feel free to speak.¡± Once the gods had heard his introduction, many appeared extremely shocked. The remaining half were less jolted as they had already anticipated this. Those of the War God System even had smiles on their faces as to them, no matter who was fighting who, having a battle was always a good thing to them. Naturally, the first person to speak was the God of War, Wenner. ¡°This battle between the humans and the Orcs is basically to gain hegemony over the Main Plane,¡± Wenner spoke plainly. ¡°In such a war, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s much good to discuss.¡± The gods erupted into discussion, and many human-based gods as well as gods who had good relations with the Orcs immediately opposed that idea. ¡°Look at you all! Normally, you have such poor relations with each other. Now, you are all finally agreeing on something!¡± Wenner seemed rather moved by the agitation on the part of the other gods and spoke freely. ¡°What¡¯s the point of pretending and putting on a facade? By acting as if you are all good and right, who are you trying to kid? Be it the Orcs or the humans, they both commit acts of aggression all the time¡­ Neither of these races really have good relations with any other race, to be honest¡­¡± Wenner¡¯s eyes shone mockingly as if daring the rest to disagree. His mouth also twitched slightly as he glanced at all the gods who disagreed with his statements. ¡°How did the Orc Empire become so large in terms of area? How did the humans manage to spread themselves all over the Main Plane? Are you trying to imply that they somehow all migrated? No, everyone knows that it was due to all their expansion conquests!¡± He looked at the God of Pygmies and said, ¡°I think¡­ regarding this issue, the victims have a right to voice out their opinions, right?¡± The God of Pygmies laughed bitterly as he realized that the conversation spotlight was now on him. ¡°Well, as you said, we pygmies were forced to retreat from the Main Plane after we lost at the hands of the humans. We don¡¯t feel like we did much wrong till we were sent off to some country below the Main Plane, which does not even allow for magic powers¡­ Well, everyone here is aware of these truths, which are plain as day. I don¡¯t think I have to say more.¡± ¡°I only have one main thing to say, that is, I agree with Your Majesty, the God of War¡¯s opinion on this matter.¡± As the main victims of the human race¡¯s expansion period, the pygmy system did indeed have the place to voice out their opinion. Even gods who were human-based, such as Javier, could not say anything against that. Wenner smiled slightly and turned his gaze to the few barbarian gods. ¡°Although it¡¯s not like the humans have never been in the wrong, it¡¯s not like the Orcs have behaved any better. I think all of you can attest to that, right?¡± The Master God of the Barbarian System, Bear Herding Elder, sighed and replied, ¡°Ever since the Orc Empire¡¯s expansion momentum was restricted by the Kingdom of Holy Angels and the Eagle Kingdom, we barbarians have been suffering. It is true that every few years, we will organize barbarians from all areas into coalition troops and carry out attacks. However, in return, the barbarians have also slowly been chased further into the northern snowfields¡­ Sigh! I¡¯m not sure if you all remember, but originally in the past, we barbarians did not use to live in the snowfields but actually lived where there were grass plains, in the North!¡± Towards this, the gods who supported the Orcs fell silent as well. Wenner laughed uproariously and told Sui Xiong, ¡°You see, there is not much good or evil to discuss in this battle. Be it the Orcs or the humans, both sides can be considered aggressive predators. I don¡¯t know who they sent as ambassadors to negotiate with you, and I¡¯m not sure what these ambassadors told you as well. I just know one thing.¡± Wenner paused for a while before exclaiming, ¡°This war between the humans and the Orcs is extremely fair. Both sides do not deserve any good gods lending them a helping hand!¡± He glanced at all the gods who were present sternly and enunciated his words carefully. ¡°I am the God of War, and right now, using my title and status, I announce that the two sides of this war are both purely fighting out of selfishness and for their own benefit. No matter how big this war becomes, this is still a war of aggression!¡± As he spoke, the God of Strategy, Augmentin, who was beside Wenner, smiled and interrupted him. ¡°This is just as if we were to destroy a certain god system¡­¡± Sui Xiong was silent for a while, and he gazed at the God of Justice Yorgaardman. For matters of justice, it would of course be up to him to judge. The God of Justice felt the attention on him and was a little uneasy. He spoke up in a low voice, ¡°I have not been the decision-maker in matters of justice for a long time. I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m still capable of doing so¡­¡± Yorgaardman looked as if he wanted to continue dodging the issue, but with Sui Xiong¡¯s steady gaze on him, he felt like it was not apt to do so. With little choice, he closed his eyes and used his priesthood, muttering slowly under his breath to determine right and wrong in this matter. After a while, he opened his eyes and spoke sternly. ¡°The God of War¡¯s proclamation is accurate and just. Through my own judgment of the situation, it is true that there is little justice and fairness involved in this war that the humans and Orcs are about to commence.¡± Chapter 895 Chapter 895: Vol V Chapter 255 Humans on Earth often discussed matters of justice and fairness. For example, doctors were meant to treat the wounded and ill, even if these people were evil villains. Another example would be to tear down other poor peoples¡¯ houses in a situation of fire to prevent the fire from spreading. One last example would be sacrificing one innocent soul to save another equally innocent soul¡­ These issues were not worth discussing when the people were evil but were always issues of debate when they happened to good and honest people. On the other hand, in this world, such a debate was not useful. If one wanted to find out if something was just or not, they could simply approach the God of Justice. Yorgaardman was the God of Justice, and using his powers, he could directly access the core of this world and determine right and wrong in any situation. Such judgments were not based on his personal opinion but rather due to his ability to sense this world¡¯s core instinct. One could explain it as saying that although his jurisdiction was not absolute, it reflected the general justice values of the entire world. To Sui Xiong, this was already good enough. Both the Orcs and the humans had no right to claim that their side was more just. Sui Xiong thus did not have a burden to weigh the situation in terms of values. Now, Sui Xiong could view the matter with a peaceful and matter-of-fact attitude. Towards the speech given by the God of War and the verdict given by the God of Justice, most of the gods were approving and supportive. However, there were a few who furrowed their brows, clearly showing disagreement. These were mostly gods who had shallow relations with either the Human God System or the Orc God System, but they still wished for the side they supported to win. The Void Mask was currently the most likely contender for the title of the strongest god among the Divine Powers. He also had a huge group of supporters and people under him. Once he entered the battle, the side he was on was almost certain to win. Be it the Human God System or the Orc System, no side would be able to truly defend against the other if Sui Xiong was helping the latter. It was no wonder that each side wanted Sui Xiong¡¯s help desperately, or at the very least, wished for him to not provide aid to the enemy. As to whether or not the Orc System would succeed in convincing Sui Xiong, well¡­ that was another matter entirely. After hearing Yorgaardman¡¯s verdict, Sui Xiong mulled it over for a while before addressing the gods again. ¡°I think, towards the verdicts given by the God of War and the God of Justice, I would like to hear any third opinions if any.¡± The gods were all silent, and no one spoke up. Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°Although I can be sure that both sides are not exactly right or good, this does not stop me from helping one of the sides. Who do you all think I should help and support, the humans or the Orcs?¡± ¡°I think you should support the humans.¡± The first to speak was the Goddess of Joy. She was the Master God of the Sorrow-Proof God System. She glanced at all the gods present before continuing, ¡°From the point of view of civilization development, the humans are clearly more advanced as compared to the Orcs. The Void Mask¡¯s priesthood is development and improvement, so it is natural that he should support the more developed side.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly as he felt that the Goddess of Joy made sense. Since this battle was between two evils, there was no need to discuss it further in terms of right or wrong. If that was the case, Sui Xiong should then of course help the side that had more development potential. The Orcs were still a tribal civilization and had not developed much as a race. On the other hand, the humans had already developed to the feudal dynasty and had even entered the quasi-capitalist stage. The humans definitely had an advantage over the Orcs in this area. Of course, there were also gods who had an opposing opinion. The Desolation God System¡¯s Main God, ¡°Steel Lion¡± Morani was one of them. He spoke up, ¡°I was under the assumption that even before considering progress and development, we should first consider peace. Without peace, development and progress will be impossible. If the Void Mask announces the idea of helping the Orcs, it is likely that the battle may not even happen. If we could somehow achieve peace, isn¡¯t that better to help this whole world¡¯s society progress as a whole?¡± Sui Xiong nodded again as he felt that Morani made sense as well. If Sui Xiong helped the humans, this conflict would most likely end up becoming an actual large-scale battle. Being the side that did not start the battle, the Orcs would of course not simply give up and leave the Main Plane without a fight. They would definitely go to war with the humans and only leave if they lost and were forced to. On the other hand, if Sui Xiong helped the Orcs, not only would the humans not be able to win, they would probably not even go into battle¡­ As Sui Xiong considered this point, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little swayed. He had previously seen the cruel implications and severe casualties from the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day and did not wish for that to happen again. If Sui Xiong was able to prevent another large-scale war, he certainly would try his best to. Before he could further his thoughts on this matter, though, the God of War spoke up again. ¡°Peace is advantageous in pushing society to develop and excel? This is a notion that I don¡¯t totally agree with!¡± He smiled slightly, and with a wave of his hand, light streamed out and activated a holographic showing of several scenes. ¡°I¡¯ve calculated before. This world¡¯s numerous improvements and inventions mostly happened during periods of war. It is due to the demanding nature of war that people are pushed to be diligent in conducting research to make better, more efficient and useful tools. Why have people become increasingly competitive as time passes? It is due to the fact that war has been ongoing for the last few years. This is also why the Elven Race is progressing at the slowest rate. They have all along been protecting the Ancient Forest, which means that they are mostly isolated and rarely leave the forest, let alone involve themselves in war.¡± ¡°Everyone knows that for one to become legendary, they will have to go through much training. In that case, what is the base reason as to why people still ignore the difficulty and toughness of training and choose to engage in it every day? Perhaps some have their own individual reasons here and there, but the most important reason is still to go to war and ensure that they can win!¡± Wenner paused for a while before continuing, ¡°I know that everyone will have many reasons to protest against war, but I don¡¯t really care for them. As the God of War, to me, arguments, conflicts and war¡­ These events all take place for significant reasons. I don¡¯t care about the eventual result of war; I only care about the benefits that war can bring about.¡± ¡°War leads to the spilling of lots of fresh and innocent blood. What good could that do for this world?¡± The Goddess of Family furrowed her brows. ¡°Through war, we eliminate the weak and identify the strongest and most powerful. This is applicable both to self and to communities.¡± The God of War¡¯s eyes shone brightly and he had a sudden momentum in his speech. ¡°Just as how sheep eat grass, wolves eat sheep, tigers eat wolves, beasts eat tigers¡­ Nature works and evolves through predator and prey. The creatures that lag behind or are no longer suitable for this world are eliminated, and those who are more brilliant and more adaptive will be able to triumph.¡± ¡°That is nature!¡± the Goddess of Joy exclaimed. ¡°As gods, we cannot compare ourselves on the same level as animals or plants¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± The God of War laughed loudly. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me your priesthoods are grown from farms! Furthermore, don¡¯t tell me that in these few years, you have all been fully peaceful and not engaged in any way with anyone else! If not for the fact that you have won the battles you engaged in, would you all still be alive and sitting here? The fact that we are able to be here today as gods and that we are able to sit in the Pantheon temple comfortably is due to the fact that time and time again, we have been the victors of the conflicts and wars that we have engaged in!¡± Suddenly, all the gods were lost for words. Chapter 896 Chapter 896: Vol V Chapter 256 The God of War¡¯s key idea was that war could eliminate the weak and allow the strong to have access to a greater amount of resources for them to further improve. Sui Xiong was not unfamiliar with such a notion. When he was still living on Earth, there were many people with the same belief online. According to many of his Internet friends, such a belief was known as ¡°Social Darwinism.¡± Social Darwinism was a rather interesting theory that was linked to natural elimination and the development of living creatures. It seemed rather logical as well. However, when Sui Xiong was still schooling in the past, he had learned how to refute such a theory. Credit had to be given to Professor Cheng, who loved to share and talk about life all the time. Although this professor¡¯s main area of study was art history and not ancient Classics, sociology or revolutionary history, he nevertheless enjoyed beating around the bush in class, and those who were in his art history class (including Sui Xiong) all gained many insights from his blabbering. One of these insights was coincidentally relate to this Social Darwinism theory. Professor Cheng was a very flexible man who liked to test subject matter that was outside of the syllabus. He felt that having a fixed lesson structure in university was too limiting and had even tested Social Darwinism in his tests before rather than on art history content. Sui Xiong still recalled that test clearly in his mind. After thinking back carefully, Sui Xiong broke the silence and said, ¡°Wenner, I have a question to ask you.¡± The God of War turned around and asked, ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°You mentioned that nature works by eliminating the weak in fights and that war also helps to pick out the strongest and most adaptable species. Well, do you have concrete proof for that?¡± The God of War was startled and thought for a while before replying, ¡°Is that not just common sense? In a pack of wolves, the strongest wolf will be able to hoard the most food for itself and develop itself further. Eventually, it will most likely become the leader of the pack as well. It is only with such a strong leader that the entire pack will have the power to continue for generations and reproduce¡­ This is common sense for anyone who has ever lived in the wild or been outdoors before!¡± Sui Xiong smiled. ¡°In that case, I want to ask a question. From the ancient times till now, for animals such as wolves, have they actually become increasingly stronger as a species?¡± The God of War froze again. He closed his eyes and thought for a long time before his face turned ashen and a little pale. ¡°Strange¡­ It seems as though if one were to compare the wolves of the past and present, the wolves of the past were a little stronger¡­.¡± Among the gods present, many had been living for at least a few thousands or even tens of thousands of years. With Sui Xiong¡¯s prompts, they began to search their memories of the past as well. Their unanimous verdict from the memories was not unexpected as everyone had lived through the same centuries, and no one else was from another world. All the history of this world was lived through simultaneously by all these gods. It thus was not surprising that they had similar ideas of what had happened before. Seeing as he had prompted a flurry of discussion from the gods, Sui Xiong smiled slightly before continuing to speak. ¡°According to what I know, from the past till now, the Main Plane¡¯s general trend is that individual species¡¯ capabilities have been dropping. At the same time, ethnic groups have been increasing in size, which means that the chances of them increasing in strength has increased as well, right?¡± The gods nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s take the humans as an example. The humans in the past were actually rather strong, and they were able to use their bare fists to fight low-level demons without the need for any tools. Such fighting abilities could compare to the explorers of our current time period, and excellent ones at that! One might even compare that skill level to our current mid-level standard. However, in the past, when the God of Knights had just formally become a god and humans were still being oppressed by the Orcs, as long as one was middle-aged or fully grown, they would most likely possess such abilities. Am I correct?¡± The several elders amongst the gods as well as history buffs all nodded again in agreement. ¡°Furthermore, in the past, among the beasts, the chances of demon beasts appearing was much more common than the present. During that time, in the wild, if one were to stumble upon a random wolf pack, the leader of the pack would most likely be a demon beast. Amongst the pack, there would also be several demon beasts as well.¡± The elders continued to nod. ¡°Herein lies the issue. If we follow the God of War¡¯s proposed idea that war eliminates the weak and allows for the stronger species to continue growing and thriving, the ancient living creatures should be weaker than they were previously, but it is the opposite case now.¡± The gods glanced at each other, and everyone was unsure as to how to respond to that statement. Right at this moment, the God of Water Elements spoke up, ¡°I¡¯ve heard of a saying that from the past till now, the purity of the Main Plane¡¯s magic has diluted, which is why the strength of the living creatures has decreased.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and said, ¡°You are the oldest amongst the gods. For some, talking about the past may be like discussing history with them. You, however, have personally lived through it. Do you agree with that opinion then?¡± ¡°Up till just now, I believed it.¡± The God of Water Elements smiled bitterly. ¡°However, now, I¡¯m not so sure.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Now that I think about it again closely, although it is true that the magic of the Main Plane is no longer as pure as before, at the same time, it has also been raised several times. Overall, then, the purity of the magic as compared to the past has not lowered too significantly. One can tell from the highest levels of strength of each species. The top masters of each species are not weaker than those of the past. If the legendary demon beasts of the present were to travel to the past, they would be able to harm the Legendary Masters of the past easily.¡± The God of Water Elements was the eldest senior among the gods and had the authority and justification to make such statements. With his background, if he said such words, they were definitely accurate and could be trusted. The gods became even more confused at this rate. If it was true that the magic purity of the Main Plane had decreased and caused the living creatures to become weaker in general, that may be a logical reason for the progress of each species over time. However, in reality, the situation was that the magic purity¡¯s decrease had been rather negligible, which meant that it could not account for the decrease in strength of the living creatures. Sui Xiong smiled as he watched the gods discuss the matter or get lost in thought. He waited a long time before opening his mouth again. ¡°Towards this, I have a proposition that may explain this phenomenon. Hear me out and see if you agree with me.¡± The gods¡¯ gazes returned to Sui Xiong as they were curious as to what he had to say. ¡°We all know that other than a few legendary creatures, most species need to reproduce to ensure their species continues for generations. There is thus the question of what can be done to ensure that one¡¯s next generation could be more prosperous and stable.¡± ¡°I guess one would need to ensure their own strength is sufficient first,¡± one of the gods made a guess. ¡°As long as they are strong enough to protect their next generation, this will continue on for the generations to come.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good guess. However, my question to you is, how can one ensure that they continuously grow and never meet with any setbacks?¡± Sui Xiong continued to prompt the gods. The god who had spoken up lowered his head as he was unable to answer further. No one else had an answer either. If there were really solutions that could be easily uttered, everyone present would have used whatever mentioned method to become Divine Powers. Why would they still remain at their own levels if it were so easy to improve and upgrade themselves? ¡°In my opinion, with the constant changes taking place in this world and in the face of constant uncertainty of daily life and dangers, depending on one¡¯s growth alone cannot maintain a species. In comparison, the simplest and most reliable method would be to have mass reproduction,¡± Sui Xiong said. The gods laughed heartily at this. It was true! If one had more children, they quantifiably had more chances to continue their species through their multiple offspring. ¡°The issue is that giving birth is easy, but nurturing a child is difficult. For a child to grow up well, it needs sufficient food. If a species is too large, it will be hard for them to ensure that each child receives the resources he needs.¡± The laughter died down, and the gods started racking their brains again. ¡°I know several dragons who are able to eat one whole cow by themselves. If they eat in such a manner on a daily basis, it would mean that they required a scarily high amount of food. They thus hibernate often to conserve energy. If a dragon were to start reproducing at the age of ten and give birth to one child each year, with 50 or 60 offspring, how many cows do you think they would need?¡± The laughter had completely died down now, and all the gods were deep in thought. ¡°In that case, for many species, it is appropriate for them to become weaker while giving birth more rapidly.¡± Sui Xiong smiled and concluded his idea. ¡°With more offspring that are less maintained, they require fewer resources but are still able to lay the foundation for the growth and continuity of their species.¡± This last sentence was actually a question on his final exam back when he was still on Earth. Chapter 897 Chapter 897: Vol V Chapter 257 Sui Xiong¡¯s words prompted a flurry of discussion amongst the gods. The God of War was especially tense, and he furrowed his brows intensely, clearly in deep thought. After a long while, he sighed and said, ¡°I really don¡¯t understand. How do you know so much as a jellyfish? I¡¯ve explored this topic for so many years, and yet, I am still far off in terms of knowledge as compared to you¡­ What exactly did you use to do in the past?¡± His tone was light and a little teasing, showing that he was joking more than resentful. Sui Xiong thus replied in a similarly light tone, ¡°In the sea? I used to isolate myself and meditate. I never left my spot for many years and only trained all the time. Every day, I did 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and ran ten kilometers. In the end, as you all can see now, I became toned and stronger.¡¯ It was a pit that there were no comics in this world, and thus the gods were not really able to understand Sui Xiong¡¯s humor. Sui Xiong did not mind, though, and he laughed at his own joke, internally praising himself for being able to somewhat subtly avoid God of War¡¯s question about his past life. He then resumed talk on formal matters on the war between the humans and the Orcs. In the end, they still needed to decide which side they should support. ¡°Since war itself cannot ensure growth, we should try to stop this war from happening then,¡± the Goddess of Joy said. Sui Xiong nodded. This was rather common sense and did not need to be debated much further. Just at this moment, the God of Celebration and Pleasure suddenly spoke up. ¡°I want to say some things that are possibly out of my area. It is a message spoken on behalf of a friend. Do not ask me for this friend¡¯s identity as I will not reveal it¡­ I am just passing on the message.¡± Sui Xiong could kind of guess who this ¡°friend¡± was, and he was immediately interested in what the God of Celebration and Pleasure had to say. Naturally, Javier was also aware of which ¡°friend¡± it was, and there was really no need for the God of Celebration and Pleasure to continue concealing this identity. However, he was adamant about the matter. This was because, between the gods, as long one was not enemies with another, they would remain courteous with each other. ¡°My friend says that the best way to stop a war is not to force the two aggressive sides into peace. It is to separate them and prevent them from meeting each other or minimizing their interactions to truly achieve peace as they will have lower chances of conflict then.¡± The gods thought about this suggestion for a while before nodding. Although this ¡°friend¡± had a slightly skewed perspective, the notion was mostly correct. When two sides were equally aggressive and uncompromising, but still wanted to achieve peace, the best and most reliable way would be to separate them and reduce their interactions. If the two opposing parties were not hostile, such as personalities like Void Mask, they would be willing to live harmoniously alongside those they disliked. However, if the opposing parties were both used to getting their way or the upper hand and often expected others to give in to them, if they met, be it in the long term or short term, an actual war would definitely happen eventually. Before Sui Xiong had crossed over to this world, he had seen a famous quote online that roughly translated to the idea that two alpha tigers could not co-exist on the same mountain, unless one were male and the other were female. In this case, the humans and Orcs were akin to the two tigers in the analogy. If one were male and one were female, they would probably be able to co-exist in harmony. However, following the example given, both the humans and Orcs could be said to be alpha males with horrible tempers. It was thus not surprising that put together, they would definitely clash and engage in battle. Sui Xiong was silent for a while before asking, ¡°What if I insist on preventing this war from happening?¡± ¡°You would have to allow each side more time to prepare for the battle and to stock up their resources. This way, it will be a more hostile and intense battle,¡± Javier probably had already gotten the answer from the aforementioned ¡°friend¡± and answered without hesitation. Sui Xiong frowned and thought for a longer period of time before replying, ¡°What if I continue to oppose the battle, then?¡± ¡°You are too busy. You won¡¯t be able to find a good opportunity nor have sufficient energy to do so,¡± Javier said. ¡°Time is not the issue here.¡± ¡°In that case, you could change the battle around. Instead of it being a battle of life and death, it could be broken down into several small-scale sub-battles. Economic warfare could be included as well.¡± This time, it was Javier¡¯s turn to hesitate before he could reply. ¡°In that case, it wouldn¡¯t be like the past where bodies lined the street and fresh blood flowed everywhere. However, realistically speaking, if you were to do this, there would be a greater quantity of victims and deaths in the long run.¡± Javier paused for a second before continuing, ¡°My ¡°friend¡± requests for the God of War to estimate the death toll if the humans and Orcs were to engage in one ultimate battle. After all, in the past few years, they have already been attacking each other, and many have already died because of this conflict.¡± As he spoke, he glanced at the God of War, Wenner. The God of War was of course clued in on who this ¡°friend¡± was, and he nodded. Using his priesthood, he retrieved materials from this world¡¯s core and did some calculations in his head. After he did so, shock became clearly written on his face. ¡°I think it¡¯s safe to assume that the God of War has made the necessary calculations? The exact statistics are not needed. I would just like to know which method is best,¡± Javier said. The God of War sighed and said, ¡°The current killings¡¯ death toll exceeds that of a potential one-off battle. It exceeds by a lot, actually.¡± He thought for a while before adding on to his point. ¡°In reality, if the humans and Orcs continue their current state of killings for 300 years, the death toll will exceed a one-off battle. If they continue for 1000 more years, the death toll would be quadruple that of a one-off battle. All the gods fell silent as they were unsure as to what to say toward these statistics. ¡°Actually, this situation is similar to when someone is injured. When the wound has suppurated, one needs to choose between opening the wound to remove the pus or to cover up the wound,¡± Javier said. ¡°Of course, with Void Mask¡¯s capabilities, the wound could possibly be covered up very well, and one may not be able to identify it. However, nevertheless, there is no way to fully treat this wound, is there? Since there is no way to fully heal it, why not change to a method that would cure it? Although it would be painful, it would at least be effective.¡± Sui Xiong was silent and did not speak for half a day. He could of course force his way through and argue that he would settle for any solution that was not war. Yet, what good would that do? The war between the humans and the Orcs would definitely need to be solved somehow. There was the fact that the humans and Orcs had completely different values and societal mindsets. Even if this were two similar neighbors back on Earth, they would still fight till one side lost in order to achieve actual peace. This ¡°friend¡± had a clear and logical attitude towards the current issue. Even if Sui Xiong stopped or prevented an actual war between the humans and Orcs for now, they would still fight eventually no matter what. Even if Sui Xiong continued to oppose an actual war, he would also eventually have to change his methods and defeat the Orcs till they were no longer aggressive. Sui Xiong really could not find a good enough reason to go against this logic and these gods. The most important thing was that even if he could convince these gods, he could not guarantee that this would not be an issue again in the future. Perhaps, just as this ¡°friend¡± had said, instead of letting the humans and Orcs continue to be enemies and kill each other permanently, they should be allowed to fight one giant war and identify a clear victor. The victor could stay on the Main Plane and the loser would leave for a faraway place. Effectively, the conflict would then end there and then. This was better in the long term! Chapter 898 Chapter 898: Vol V Chapter 258 As compared to suffering for an extended period of time, it was better to settle the matter right now. Serious issues required drastic measures¡­ Sui Xiong was aware of many Chinese sayings about such a notion. He fell silent and did not speak, sweeping glances across all the gods. The gods were all silent as well. The conflict between the humans and the Orcs had started all the way from when the two races had first emerged. Originally, the Goddess of Life had created the Golden Race. This was an extremely strong race that had been dubbed ¡°high-ranking followers.¡± With the Golden Race¡¯s help, she swept the skies and defeated all the great gods of her time. With that, the Goddess of Life managed to become next in line after the top four gods. Of course, the other great gods were not about to sit around and do nothing. They copied what the Goddess of Life had previously done but instead creating races that belonged to them as tools for war. Amongst these created races, ¡°Ancestor,¡± better known as the Ancestral Beast God, had created the Orcs while the ¡°Mother of Sea¡± had created the humans. These two gods had the worst relationship among all the gods, and they often fought mercilessly and fiercely. With the creation of two separate races, they used their respective races mostly to fight each other, although the original intention of creating races was to challenge the Goddess of Life. Although the situations and relationships among the gods evolved over time and both creators had already fallen, the hatred and tension between the two races could not possibly be dissolved so easily. Even if people such as the Orc God System¡¯s ¡°Sky Devourer Canine¡± Lefon wanted to reduce this prejudice, the best method he could think of still did not achieve ultimate peace as he had wanted to change all humans into Half-Orcs. As for the human side, even if they eventually slipped out of the control of the ¡°Mother of Sea¡± and even underwent anti-phasing by killing the ¡°Mother of Sea,¡± this did not change their enmity towards the Orcs. More importantly, all long, the leader of the Human Gods, be it the God of Knights or the God of Light, all continuously kept up war efforts against the Orcs on the frontline. The base idea was that the humans innately hated the Orcs to the core. This hatred between the two races was really severe. It got to a point where all the Orc gods who had fallen had all done so in battle with the Human God System. For the God of Knight, one of the previous leaders of the Human God System had also fallen while battling the various Orc Gods. With so many gods¡¯ deaths due to this conflict, how could there possibly be peace between the two races? Sui Xiong thought for a long time and was still unable to come up with a solution that would generate true peace between the two races. Actually¡­ It was not that it was impossible. For example, Sui Xiong had read in a random webcomic before that there once was a strongman who loved humans and did not want the various countries on Earth to fight. He thus made himself a big great devil, and this forced all the countries to unite against this new common enemy, reducing their own personal, smaller tensions. While this solution seemed useful, it was rather foolish as well. Sui Xiong definitely did not want to learn from that foolish big devil and act solely based on theory and daft aspirations. He definitely would not convert himself just to generate peace. The so-called confrontation of the Great Devil was nothing more than the use of external contradictions to transfer internal contradictions. This did not mean that internal contradictions would not exist. In fact, they existed and were likely to develop more intensely and cruelly. With the help of his lofty art history teacher¡¯s ramblings, Sui Xiong had gotten a basic understanding of some different stages of history on Earth. In the recent history of China, there had been an intense external contradiction that had temporarily superseded internal contradictions, and the opposing parties had worked together to settle the bigger issue at hand. However, one had to understand that such a temporary alliance was extremely fragile. Although both sides worked together in the short term and used this new strength to help defeat the bigger enemy, once the bigger enemy was defeated, they would dissolve the alliance soon after. Internal wars would resume, and this conflict would even escalate! This was because both sides had developed themselves while working together to defeat a bigger enemy and had accumulated greater power and resources in the process to fight each other. Originally, the webcomic that Sui Xiong had seen was incomplete and did not have a proper conclusion. Most webcomics were like this: authors would write leisurely and choose not to complete the story if they were unable to think up of a good enough idea to end the story. There were few authors who managed to be disciplined enough to finish a story well. However, according to this particular webcomic¡¯s author, he had mentioned that the foolish man who had converted himself would definitely not have a happy ending. Once he was defeated, the humans would definitely go back to their original conflicts. Furthermore, as the humans had invented many new tools and tricks while fighting the war against the great devil, afterwards when they resumed their internal wars, these wars would become crueler, more intense and more merciless. Basically, the great devil¡¯s method would backfire despite his good intentions. Sui Xiong did not wish to become a great devil anyway as he did not think he was great or strong enough to force the humans and Orcs to work together. One could explain it as even if he wanted to be a great devil, he was under-qualified. He thus quickly scrapped this idea. Another method he considered was of course increasing interactions, which would promote intermarriage and the fusing of the two races. However, there was a biological problem here. The Orcs¡¯ blood was definitely stronger when compared to humans¡¯. If Orcs and humans were to get married and have children, the offspring would definitely be Half-Orc and not human. If Half-Orcs and humans had children, a similar case of Half-Orc offspring would still occur. According to the research by zealous and passionate scholars, if Sui Xiong were to use interracial reproduction as a method to ¡°dissolve¡± the human race or meld them into the Orc race, it would require at least 10 generations or more for visible results. It would only be after the 15th of 16th generations that the pure Orc gene would disappear. One could say that if Sui Xiong promoted interracial reproduction, it would give the Orcs a great advantage and wipe out the human race, which was a rather skewed idea. This was something that the humans would definitely be disagreeable towards. This solution was thus scrapped as well. Sui Xiong was not some genius who could come up with ideas on the spot. He was also not very far-sighted. Even though he considered the issue from different angles, he could only think of these two ideas. Since both ideas were not effective or had severe repercussions, naturally, there was only one other way he could solve things. This was to separate the two races such that they would never interact again in the future. This could be done realistically as this world was very big and could accommodate both races. As long as they were not adamant about staying on this piece of land known as the Main Plane and were willing to travel out in among the thousands of other possible habitable lands, this world could accommodate hundreds and thousands of opposing races, let alone just the two races of humans and Orcs. At the end of the day, there was just one last question left to ask. Who should stay and who should leave? Naturally, then, the conversation went back to the original topic of the impending war between the humans and Orcs. Sui Xiong was silent for a long time before suggesting quietly, ¡°Perhaps we could use a war of gods to settle this matter?¡± ¡°If each side¡¯s gods were to face death in battle, the humans and Orcs would definitely take action,¡± Javier smiled and turned to look at the God of War Wenner. ¡°Wenner, do you think this method is feasible?¡± Wenner shook his head. ¡°This is not feasible. If even the gods become invested in this war, the people themselves would be more likely to engage in war themselves. If not, how could they account for their faith? How could they live with themselves?¡± ¡°Auscar, I can understand that you want to protect the people. However, you cannot simply act on this empathy alone,¡± Wenner walked over to Sui Xiong¡¯s side and spoke in a low voice. ¡°You¡¯re imagining a war of gods while the people sit by and watch? That would be humiliating for them!¡± Chapter 899 Chapter 899: Vol V Chapter 259 Sui Xiong did not argue against Wenner as he knew Wenner was right. In this world, where gods truly existed, ¡°faith¡± was extremely important to the humans. Dying for their faith was not uncommon. Rather, it was actually a common sight. Furthermore, death was not the end. For those who died for their faith, they would be received by the gods into their respective God Kingdom after death. They would then be able to enjoy a long period of luxury. For those who escaped at key moments and betrayed their faith, they would only be able to enter the underworld after they died and would constantly face much danger. Death was definitely painful, but if ¡°death¡± was not one¡¯s final destination but rather the marker of a new stage of life, it became less scary. For the disciples, especially the serious and resolute, dying for their gods and dying for their faith was completely acceptable. The interesting thing was that amongst those who had died for their faith, there was a significant number of evil people. It was not that they did not fear death but more that they believed that if they still could not receive redemption from their gods after death, it was a sign that they belonged to the underworld and required punishment for their sins. As compared to death, entering the underworld was a much scarier prospect. Under Sui Xiong, there were many devoted disciples as well. One day, if he were to face powerful enemies and engage in intense battle, these disciples would step up bravely and risk their lives gladly even if it were just a minuscule effort towards helping Sui Xiong gain victory. As per Sui Xiong¡¯s suggestion, it was thus impossible that the disciples would not participate if a god of wars occurred. Sui Xiong knew himself that he was just being too soft-hearted towards the people, and he sighed and shook his head. ¡°It seems as though I can¡¯t be of much help anymore.¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s not true. Void Mask, you could at least stop the slaughter that would take place in the war.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes lit up, and he nodded furiously. He had never really cared about which race won this battle in the first place. He was only concerned about the fact that many innocent people would die for no reason. If he could prevent all the slaughter, he would at least be able to face himself. Following that, Sui Xiong had another round of intensive discussions with the gods and came up with plans and guidelines for the issue of preventing slaughter. This was especially so on the topic of how to do so, and they eventually reached a somewhat unanimous agreement on the issue. According to the agreement, if slaughter happened or was about to happen in war, any of the gods could step up to stop it. As for the situation where a third party tried to prevent the gods from stopping slaughter, everyone would view this third party as a common enemy. If this third party refused to comply with the gods¡¯ will even with warnings, Sui Xiong would directly find this third party and deal with them personally. If there was the need, the gods could directly enter the war as well, even if it would affect the result of the war. After the discussion, the gods went their own ways, and Sui Xiong thought about the discussion on his own. He smiled as he thought about the final agreement among the gods. He raised his head and saw that Javier was still sitting in the meeting room. He was entertaining himself, clearly waiting for something. ¡°Do you have something to say to me?¡± Sui Xiong could guess who Javier was waiting for, and he spoke up curiously. ¡°Or perhaps¡­ ¡°he¡± wants to talk to me?¡± Javier nodded. ¡°As expected, I don¡¯t need to beat around the bush with clever people like you. So¡­ are you interested in talking to ¡°him¡±?¡± Sui Xiong thought for a long time before shaking his head. ¡°Before this war ends, I do not wish to communicate with either side.¡± Javier smiled and poured Sui Xiong a glass of wine. ¡°I guessed that you might say that; ¡°he¡± did too.¡± Sui Xiong received the wineglass from Javier but did not immediately take a sip. Instead, he swirled the wine slowly while shaking his head and speaking with a pained tone. ¡°Why must this battle occur at all costs? With the current level of conflict between the humans and Orcs, surely it is not serious enough to warrant an all-out battle?¡± ¡°There are reasons for this, of course,¡± Javier mulled it over for a while before speaking. ¡°It¡¯s just that¡­ these reasons have to be kept secret for now.¡± ¡°I hate this sort of secret the most!¡± Sui Xiong gulped down all the wine at one shot in anger. ¡°These fellows are always acting suspiciously and trying to cover up their shady actions, acting in a condescending way of, ¡°I¡¯m doing something important, but I can¡¯t tell you what it is¡±! In the end, when things are revealed, it always turns out that things are never as intense as they claim.¡± ¡°I can assure you that that is not the case this time,¡± Javier replied solemnly. ¡°Although I cannot elaborate further, I can promise that this matter is of utmost importance.¡± Sui Xiong glanced at Javier for a long time and furrowed his brow but eventually nodded in acknowledgment. ¡°Since you are my friend, I trust you on this.¡± Javier smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t betray your trust!¡± With that, his clone slowly faded till it disappeared completely. Meanwhile, in the God Kingdom of the human gods, his actual body sighed and shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not surprised that he is unwilling to meet me,¡± the God of Light said peacefully. ¡°If it were me, I would also not want to meet a dangerous figure who instigated this war.¡± ¡°Actually, for some things, being able to meet and discuss it could be better,¡± Javier said. ¡°I think Auscar is someone who can keep a secret.¡± ¡°I agree that he could keep a secret. However, the idea of a secret is that it is not revealed easily.¡± The God of Light shook his head. ¡°If even I am unable to keep a secret well, how can I expect others to do the same?¡± Javier was silent. This matter was indeed serious as the God of Light had wanted to use this war to allow the human race to become the master race of the Main Plane, allowing him to enter the realm of Divine Powers. This was a huge risk to take. If he did not keep this secret properly, once it slipped out, there would be 800 to 1000 gods who would step up to oppose this endeavor. If that happened, it would not just be the Orc God System but all other gods in this world of other races. One pair of fists cannot defeat 4 four opponents in one shot. No matter how powerful the God of Light was, if he faced the opposition of 1000 gods and the attacks of many races, he would not be able to win. It was thus imperative that this secret was kept well. It had to remain a secret and could not be leaked until the God of Light had taken tangible steps in his plan, or at least made some move towards his goal. Javier had come across this secret due to a coincidence, and the God of Light had thus held on to his body. Unless the plan was successful, Javier could not leave. If the plan succeeded and the God of Light became a Divine Power, the secret would then not matter anymore, and Javier would be free to go. If the plan failed, the God of Light would definitely have to die, and the human race would be doomed. In that case, the secret would no longer matter as well. In both cases, the outcome was generally the same regarding the secret. Watching the God of Light turn to leave, Javier fell silent again. Personally, as part of the humans, Javier of course wished for the human race to become stronger. Although he had left and had his own system, this did not mean that he wished for the humans to get hurt. However, thinking logically, he was worried. The God of Light was an extremely emotionless and stubborn figure. If he became a Divine Power, it would not necessarily be a good thing for this world. Chapter 900 Chapter 900: Vol V Chapter 260 Sui Xiong was unaware of all the trouble plaguing Javier as he himself was busy. After he had bidden farewell to Javier, who had failed in being a messenger and had left regretfully, Sui Xiong decided to do something big. For starters, he wanted to move Rye Fortress, which he had recently completed, from its original spot in the south of Rye City to somewhere further south. This fortress was originally meant to guard Rye Canyon, but this canyon had already joined the Republic, causing the fortress to lose its purpose. Sui Xiong thus decided to move it further south to kill two birds with one stone by allowing to become a topic of interest with its unique infrastructure while using it as a central building for refugees to use as a safe zone. He was not too worried about the Republic of Northwest¡¯s safety as the upcoming war between the humans and the orcs would mostly take place at the northeastern part of the mainland of the Orc Empire and the God of Light Kingdom. At the most, it would include the Eagle Kingdom¡¯s fortress group in the North, but it would not affect any other land. This battle was thus of little concern to the Republic of Northwest. Of course, to ensure safety, once the war had started, Sui Xiong would still increase the control and restrictions of trade in the Republic. Any military personnel or deliverymen would not be able to enter the Republic to allow the Republic to remain neutral. Since Sui Xiong had already decided to take on a neutral stance, he would not tolerate any action that skewed the war in the humans¡¯ or Orcs¡¯ favor. He had already made up his mind to solely play the role of saving lives in this war. Sui Xiong was only prepared to stop slaughter and provide aid to refugees. That was all. Now Sui Xiong needed to make preparations for these refugees. He did not plan to install the refugee shelters in either Void Mask City or the Republic of Northwest. Although he was not a real estate or urban planning student, he had seen many pieces of news on Earth regarding the issue of refugees causing trouble. Cases like these were plentiful. If he gathered all the newspapers that reported on refugee crises and flattened them into sheets before stacking them up, they could easily squash his body flat! Sui Xiong thus decided to specially create a city for the refugees to live in. This would allow him to have better control over them and in doing so, save himself much trouble. ¡°This is a decent spot.¡± Sui Xiong quickly reached his destination by flight and surveyed the patch of rural land. Seeing the vast emptiness and plain land, he nodded with satisfaction. In an instant, his body size increased exponentially and he became the size of a beast that was big enough to block out the sun. He grew several tentacles which were the size of large shields and blocked out the entire piece of land. Next, he used his multiple, thin tentacles to access the land. These tentacles were thin like needles and they quickly changed color and shape when they touched the ground. After a while, they became infinite numbers of white, straight rods that created a fence for this vast land. Sui Xiong¡¯s body vibrated and all these tentacles which had become rods detached fully from his body. He then reached out with new tentacles and started sprinkling raindrops down this time. With the fall of rain, the straight rods that had evolved from the tentacles quickly sprouted into countless shoots, and one could clearly witness their accelerated growth. Within a short period of time, they became vines that wrapped themselves around the straight rods, creating a green wall that was solid and secure. This giant green wall surrounded the entire land. ¡°In the past, if Emperor Qin Shihuang had had a man like me as his mason, it would have been so much easier to complete the Great Wall of China. He wouldn¡¯t even need to make Meng Jiannian cry¡­¡± Sui Xiong mused randomly to himself in amusement as he created this ¡°green city¡± within a few minutes¡¯ time. He then nodded to himself in a satisfied fashion. Afterwards, Sui Xiong engraved several ditches within this surrounded green city and used the ditches as boundary lines. The land was thus divided into several cities of differing sizes. Within each city, rows and rows of simple shacks were built, just like how he had seen construction being done back on Earth. Once the shacks were completed, he then proceeded to create facilities such as bathing pools and toilets. Sui Xiong was clear that this place where refugees gathered had to be hygienic to prevent illnesses from spreading and wiping out the entire population. Although the God of Plague had subtly showed support for Sui Xiong and indicated that he would follow Sui Xiong¡¯s orders, even the God of Plague was unable to fully prevent plagues from spreading. It was thus pertinent that Sui Xiong made the necessary preparations first. After Sui Xiong had finished the main infrastructure of the land, he began to organize the farms. In actuality, it was not necessary for the refugees to farm their own food as Sui Xiong was able to provide food resources for them with ease given his powers. However, Sui Xiong had learned before that refugees would be able to flourish best when they had work to pass their time with. If the refugees were allowed to slack and relax with nothing to do, it was likely that they would engage in crime or undesirable behavior. If he could spend their energy on proper tasks, they would be more at peace with labor. Amongst all possible forms of labor, farming was the most calming one. This was the Goddess of Joy¡¯s theory, and Sui Xiong felt that it was rather true. A few days later, the farm was complete as well. This was how this land that was previously empty and untended became a haven on Earth that was surrounded by the green wall. Perhaps to other people, it may not quite be a haven as there were not a lot of facilities. However, to those who were on the run or had to leave their homes due to war, it was definitely akin to a haven. After completing all the construction, Sui Xiong lay on the black roof of the black fortress, which was strong enough to resist meteorites, and gazed at the sky leisurely. Sui Xiong had previously gained control over the War Realm, and thus he could clearly see the giant battle cloud that hung over the entire Main Plane. That was a sign that a large-scale war was about to take place. ¡°With such a battle, there will definitely be many deaths¡­¡± This giant jellyfish sighed deeply and shook his head. ¡°If everyone were to cooperate and work together, they would be able to live happy lives in peace. Why do they have to fight instead, and engage in a big battle at that!¡± ¡°Well, it can¡¯t be helped now. Since the humans insist on it, the humans and Orcs will just have to battle it out,¡± The current Emperor of Orcs, ¡°Iron Teeth¡± Ilo glanced at the east side of the sky, and a broad smile appeared on his scarred face. ¡°Ever since the previous war till now, it¡¯s been quite long. Let us Orcs raise our fists in unison and defeat them squarely once more!¡± In the sky above him, the various Orc gods who were invisible observed the floating battle cloud somberly. ¡°Perhaps this will be the last battle to ever take place between us orcs and the humans,¡± the Orcs¡¯ Master God, Lefon spoke up lightly. ¡°After tens of thousands of years of hatred, it¡¯s time for us to finally put a proper end to this conflict.¡± The previous Master God, Snakenell, nodded lightly. His eyes flashed with evil and intensity. ¡°In the last few years, we have made several preparations just for this battle, just for this day. If we don¡¯t fight this well, all that effort will go to waste for sure.¡± Lefon smiled slightly back in return. ¡°You¡¯re right. We shouldn¡¯t waste all the energy that we have already spent. Let¡¯s fight this battle well!¡± Meanwhile, in the God Kingdom of the Human God System, hundreds of gods had already gathered. These gods were all humans by nature, and there was a large variety of them. Some were good, some were evil. There were those like the God of Vagrants and the God of Protection, who had always been staying with the Human God System, and there were also others such as the God of Celebration and Pleasure and the God of Family who had ventured out to create their own name. Regardless of their paths, once there was the call to gather on account of the big battle that would determine the human race¡¯s fate, other than a few gods that were direct followers of Sui Xiong as well as those who did not support the manifestation of an actual battle like the God of Justice, nearly every other human-based god was gathered here. They stood in a neat phalanx and were silent and somber, waiting for the orders that would come from the Master of Humans. The God of Light had his eyes shut and was sitting upright on his throne, biding his time patiently. Once the God of Diplomacy had announced that it was time, the God of Light finally opened his eyes. His eyes were wide like saucers, and he cast a sweeping glance across all the gods present. Under his intense gaze, the gods all subconsciously felt the desire for blood rise within them. ¡°The stars have aligned into a suitable position that favors us,¡± the God of Light said slowly. ¡°In the near future, it is the most opportune time for us humans to fight a war with the Orcs.¡± ¡°In the past, we humans have fought countless wars and fought to get us to the comfortable position that we are in today. However, that is not enough.¡± ¡°Only with us defeating our ultimate enemy and completing a full unification can we label our overall mission a completed success!¡± With that, the God of Light stood up, brandished his sword and raised it at the sky. ¡°Let us take this chance and use this battle to create what rightfully belongs to us humans. Let us achieve world domination!¡± Chapter 901 Chapter 901: The Great Mobilization (Part 1) A notice was posted next to the four gates of the capital of the Kingdom of Light, pinned on the bulletin board in the public square in front of the royal palace, and stuck everywhere that could be used for publicity and notices in every country and city. On the notice, a few concise lines of words were written in the various vernaculars and local official languages: [On the occasion of the New Year, we plan to launch the final battle against the Orcs. By that time, heroes from all lands, princes, marquises and lords of various countries, as well as human gods from the various God Systems shall participate in this war. Recruitment of warriors who are willing to participate in the battle and fight alongside us is now open. All traveling expenses will be covered. Meals and accommodation will be provided. Equipment will be supplied, and warriors will be generously rewarded. There will be gods specifically put in charge of receiving and leading souls of deceased, and there will be high pension and consummate funeral arrangements.] Many of these notices had people responsible for publicizing them stationed right next to them. These publicists¡¯ statements were not limited to the content of the notice. There was a motley variety of presentations. For example, someone publicized the notice as ¡°In defeating the Orcs, if you have made a meritorious contribution, you can become a lord. If you have made a considerable contribution, you can become an officer. Even if you have no contribution and merely helped in moving things about, at least you can earn enough wealth to feed your family well for several years.¡± There were also people publicizing the notice as ¡°Indeed, there¡¯s always death when there¡¯s war. But everyone has to die eventually. Risking your life this once to fight for a bright future for your family, how worthwhile! In everyone¡¯s entire lifetime, we should always do something that could leave something behind for our families! All martyrs of this war will receive the care of the various churches. Even if you die, at least you could ensure that your families will live in peace and stability!¡± There were people who went ¡°All these years, it has always been the Orcs attacking while we always defended. Now, it¡¯s finally our turn to attack them! What else is there to think about? This time, we must defeat the Orcs, and thereafter, we shall never have to worry about the Orcs coming to invade us again!¡± Some other people would say, ¡°What are we usually most afraid of? We are not afraid of death, just afraid that we will fall into the underworld and drop into hell after death. Although we believe in gods, who can be confident enough to say that after we die, we will definitely go to the God Kingdom? This is the best chance now. So long as we join this war, regardless of whether or not we are to die on the battlefield, we will definitely be brought to the God Kingdom after death! So what¡¯s there to hesitate about? This is your chance to solve the problem once and for all. You will never come across it again in this lifetime!¡± At the same time, there were countless bards had taken to various pubs, public squares and the streets to launch publicity for the event. They either extolled the exploits of the various heroes who had fought the Orcs or boasted about the lucky ones who gained wealth and status in the wars with the Orcs. They also denounced the Orcs for the numerous invasions and attacks they made on the humans in the past. The churches of the human gods also sprang into action. Clergymen went out among the followers, calling upon them to fight for the glory of the gods, for the glory of humans and for their own glory. They encouraged the people to muster courage, show determination and keep their heads high as they stepped into the battlefield. And all the churches had promised that in this battle, whether king or archbishop, all high-level figures of human society would join the battle. Not a single one would cower in safety at the hind of the troop. Not only that, this time, all the human gods would be fighting this battle. Not a single one would be left on the sidelines. They would do their level best at all costs and leave no way for retreat. It was either they won a complete victory or suffered a crushing defeat. The humans would not accept a third outcome! All kinds of publicity, reliable or unreliable, reasonable or unreasonable, was like an explosion of information. They filled all media and channels, and even in the ¡°television video program¡± of Void City, there were people spending exorbitant amounts to buy advertisements¡­ If the ¡°Sleepless War God,¡± Shoggoth, who was in charge of the textual publicity work, had not found out in time, it might really have been rented out. That would really make a great joke. Because of this, Shoggoth flew into a rage and reprimanded the group of people working in the presswork department. The most frightening thing about him was that he was an elector, and thus he had an inexhaustible vigor and could go on for an entire day, from day to night and night to day. He could start scolding from the morning and then continue scolding from the night to the next morning without any problems at all. Just being scolded by him once, even an iron-boned, copper-skinned, gutsy, good man would be terror-stricken and petrified. There was not a single soul who dared to ever commit the same mistake again. With such strong publicity, the entire human society was quickly and thoroughly mobilized. Whether north or south, east or west, everyone was busy. The brave or devout people signed up for the army. Among them, the strong ones were armed and received military training. Those who were not strong enough were assigned to carry out military production, prepare weapons, consumables, as well as to stock up on the reserves of grains and grass. The production of all territories was no longer freely circulated but distributed after research. This would ensure production with the highest efficiency where they could gain the most benefits. Those living in remote areas were collectively relocated back to the prosperous hinterland to engage in various production jobs. And those people who originally had massive wealth were donating their assets to buy all sorts of things they needed. The entire human society was gradually transforming into a terrifying war machine. Of course, there were exceptions. Leon Igor stood at the peak of the terrace of the mansion of the city lord and looked in the direction of the transportation portal in the city. Many humans and Orcs were hurrying through the transportation portal. That public square where the transportation portal stood would have been in chaos if there had been no guards to maintain order. His wife, Kalisa Riley, who was the nominal city lord of Garth City, came up behind him. ¡°Since the Great Mobilization Order was issued, more and more people are heading to the Kingdom of Light,¡± she said in a worried voice. ¡°Should we just close the Transportation Portal now? To steer clear of future trouble¡­¡± ¡°The time our lord decides to close the Transportation Portal will be the time the two sides formally declare war. Until then, no matter how much pressure is on us, we still must continue to maintain operation of the Transportation Portal,¡± Leon replied. ¡°Moreover, this bit of chaos is nothing much at all.¡± He smiled and said calmly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m here.¡± Kalisa hugged him from behind and pressed her cheek to the middle of his back as she listened to his slow and steady heartbeat. Gradually, her heart that was originally full of worry started to calm down. ¡°The Queen of Fire (a.k.a. the Goddess of Love) just sent a messenger to tell me that this battle is going to be massive. Both the Human God System and the Orc God System are prepared to do their level best. Both sides are frantically wooing allies. It¡¯s highly possible that this may eventually develop into a massive war involving 10 or more God Systems¡ªthis is going to be the greatest war in the history of this world.¡± ¡°No matter how many gods take part in this war, it¡¯s just going to be like that anyway. There¡¯s nothing much to worry about,¡± Leon smiled and said. ¡°No matter what, I¡¯ll protect you.¡± Kalisa said nothing more. She hugged him tightly and closed her eyes. Although the war was impending, she had no fear. He was her hero. Back when they faced that great crisis, they had pulled through together. No matter what happened after that, there was nothing to be afraid of! Leon looked into the distance. He wore a calm smile on his face, but his heart was full of worry. He thought, Your Majesty, the Void Mask, insists on taking a neutral stand. But if both sides are to go on a crazy killing spree, when the situation reaches the point where both sides threw away all regards and go to the most extreme lengths, can we really maintain neutral? With a deep sigh, he kept all his worries to himself as he silently deliberated on the matters that required his attention for some time to come. The more dangerous and difficult things were, the more he had to stay calm and patient. His Majesty was a jellyfish. He had never been bothered about what others thought of him. But as the leader of the people of Garth City, as the archbishop of the Church of the Void Mask, he had to let everyone see his peaceful and calm self. This was the way to stabilize and calm the military¡¯s mood! Chapter 902 Chapter 902: The Great Mobilization (Part 2) As the human society prepared itself for the Great Mobilization, the Orcs did not idle time away either. Ilo, the current Emperor of Orcs, who was also known as ¡°Iron Teeth,¡± held and presided over a conference where he had gathered the leaders of the various Orc tribes. The conference was not held in the ¡°Golden Tent,¡± which was the capital of the Orc Empire. Instead, it was held in the fields outside the Golden Tent. Emperor Ilo stood on a high platform as he rode in his chariot, looking majestic and awe-inspiring. ¡°The humans are coming to attack us,¡± he said as he went straight to the point. ¡°It¡¯s not going to be those petty little attacks like before. They are going all out and mobilizing all the troops that they have, deploying all the knights they can, gathering all the allies they have and sending all the gods they can find to attack us.¡± He shouted so loudly that his voice echoed in the fields, into the ears of every tribal chief and resounded in their hearts. ¡°Yes, they are coming. On a scale that¡¯s unprecedented. They are giving all they¡¯ve got and charging their way here. I can roughly estimate it will probably be¡­ an army of three million people or even more. If necessary, they may even double this number, or even double the doubled number. That¡¯s not impossible either.¡± ¡°So, are you all afraid?¡± Many of the tribal chiefs registered changes in their expressions. There were some who went pale in the face, and this was because they had been frightened by that alarming number. There were some who were flushed red in the face, and this was because they felt angry that added insult to their courage. Emperor Ilo did not give these tribal chiefs a chance to speak. He went on saying, ¡°To tell you the truth, when I just heard the number, I was truly a little worried. Three million! Three million! What an alarming number that is! Not to mention the possibility that this number may become six million or even 12 million¡­ oh gosh!¡± he shouted at the top of his lungs. His voice was filled with anguish as he said, ¡°To chop off so many heads. There is not even enough money in the national treasury for bonuses!¡± The tribal chiefs burst out laughing instantly. Those who went pale no longer had pale expressions. Those who flushed red were no longer red in the face. Even those who maintained calm composures earlier on were unable to maintain their peaceful expressions as though they had facial paralysis. Laughter filled the entire place. ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t you all go laughing away! I¡¯m serious!¡± cried Emperor Ilo. His scarred face showed a serious and troubled expression as he said, ¡°I¡¯m really serious! A soldier¡¯s head is worth a gold coin. An officer¡¯s head is worth 10 gold coins. A knight¡¯s head is worth 100 gold coins. A baron or viscount¡¯s head¡ªassuming he¡¯s not a knight, is worth 300 gold coins. An earl¡¯s head is worth 1000 gold coins, while the heads of marquises, dukes and kings were all worth 10,000 gold coins each¡ªthese are rules known to all. These are the market prices. Just because there¡¯s an overwhelming supply of goods doesn¡¯t mean I can take the chance to markdown any of these prices. Old Ilo is not that kind of person.¡± ¡°Are you all interested in calculating how much it will cost altogether?¡± Many of the tribal chiefs either closed their eyes or lowered their heads as they silently did the calculations. Regrettably, the education level of the Orcs was generally not high. They were soon confused and disoriented by the numbers. There was no way they were able to work out any results. ¡°I¡¯ve specifically found some people to do the calculations. Then finally, Old Wilder told me that if I wanted to maintain my good reputation all this time for being a man of good conduct and a man of my words, I probably would have to prepare more than 30 million gold coins!¡± Emperor Ilo shook his head. Then looking as though he had nothing left to live for, he said, ¡°Oh my god! Thirty million gold coins! After I got this number, I went to the national treasury and checked very carefully. Twice at that. I even wanted to pry the floorboards out to see whether there were any copper coins stick in there. But all I could find was¡­ No, this I can¡¯t tell you. It will be too demoralizing for you to know about it. ¡°In short, I¡¯m going broke this time,¡± he said as he spread out both hands in a helpless manner. The tribal chiefs all burst out laughing again. They laughed so hard that they staggered forward and back. Unlike the brilliant and wise former emperor, Junero, Ilo was a veteran soldier who slowly rose through the ranks of the army. He never had much dignity to boast of and had always appeared before everyone as a frank and straightforward person. And it was no exception this time. An emperor like him, who would confess so candidly that there was no money in his national treasury, was probably unprecedented. ¡°Everyone knows that Old Ilo is a man who follows the rules and a man of his words. So, I came up with an idea,¡± Ilo said. ¡°Although I can¡¯t repudiate a debt, I can owe a debt! Anyway, there¡¯s only so much money in the national treasury. Those who have already contributed earlier on, I shall reward them according to the rules. Those who make contributions later¡­ I¡¯m sorry but the emperor, His Majesty is not welshing on your rewards. It¡¯s just that, for the time being, he has no money to give you. Please kindly wait for a while.¡± ¡°In other words, if you all want to get your rewards and benefits just like before, you better act fast right after the war commences. Don¡¯t procrastinate. Otherwise, you all only hope that you live long enough, long enough for me to find enough money to pay you your bonuses.¡± Amidst the laughter of the tribal chiefs, Emperor Ilo waved his hands as a sign for everyone to quiet down. ¡°Alright, done with the joke. Now, let¡¯s get back to business¡ªoh, that¡¯s not really a joke, I¡¯m serious.¡± The tribal chiefs laughed again. Ilo smiled, then suddenly he became serious and shouted, ¡°My Orc brothers, are you all afraid of war?¡± Subconsciously, all the tribal chiefs shouted in unison, ¡°No fear!¡± ¡°Yes, we are not afraid!¡± Ilo roared. ¡°We Orcs are never afraid of war. To us, war is as common as eating and sleeping. Fighting the humans, beheading them, getting our rewards, winning the favor of the ladies, carrying on the family line, and finally heading for the sanctuary of the gods¡ªthis is the Orcs way of life, from ancient times to the modern day, from generation to generation. ¡°We are not afraid of war. On the contrary, we relish in war. We¡¯re passionate about war! We Orcs are warriors created by the gods as imitations of them. The significance of our lives is to fight for the gods. When we are alive, we fight for them. After we die, we still fight for them. Other than war, there¡¯s nothing else that we need to be bothered with!¡± ¡°I will not promise you all anything, for I have to go to battle myself. I want to put on my armor, hold my weapon and lead my most courageous warriors as we charge onto the battlefield. I shall fight to my level best and slay as many enemies as I can. I will use their blood to stain my armor with a fresh, beautiful hue of red. I will use the heads of my enemies to add new glory to my throne. Though I¡¯m old, I¡¯m still a warrior! My heart that pursues honor and a vigorous battle will not lose to any young man! ¡°Those frail humans, those ants that we¡¯ve crushed and cleaned up since the day they are born, those maggots that we¡¯ve driven helter-skelter everywhere, who do not have the courage to swing their blades at us but only dare to bully those weaker than them. What on earth are they thinking of this time? To court death by coming to attack us! ¡°All this time, we can¡¯t get rid of them because they have been running all over the place. And they run faster than anything. There are too many of them, we can¡¯t catch them all, neither can we kill them all. They¡¯re just like the mosquitoes in summer, buzzing about and annoying the hell out of everyone. ¡°But this time, these ants, maggots, mosquitoes¡­ They are jumping out, jumping to be right in front of us, and jumping right to where our blades will slay! ¡°So, what are we still waiting for?¡± The old Emperor of Orcs revealed a hideous smile and raised his tomahawk and roared, ¡°Crush them!¡± The roars and growls meshed together and shot high up into the sky, gradually forming clouds of war. Chapter 903 Chapter 903: Deliberation of the Great War (Part 1) ¡°From the hot southern frontier to the cold northern countries, from the winding and precipitous shore of the East Coast to the broad and flat coast of the West Sea, from the summit of the Mountain of Broken Clouds that overlooks the penitentiary of the clouds to the dark mines in the Kingdom of Eagle basin¡­ an iron curtain that stretched across the entire Main Plane is lowering. Behind this iron curtain is a whole civilized world, regardless of race and country. And now, everything is going to fall under the influence of the human gods, more or less under the control of the City of Light (i.e. the capital of the Kingdom of Light), and the degree of control it has is constantly increasing.¡± Standing amidst the clouds in the sky, watching the busy and orderly crowd, Sui Xiong muttered to himself. Wall was not as sentimental as Sui Xiong. He merely looked at the crowd for a while, then said, ¡°Their work efficiency is so high that it can be compared with the factory of the Republic.¡± This might sound arrogant if one were to hear it for the first time, but in truth, it was a compliment. The factory of the Republic of Northwest was where skilled workers were specially trained. Every work component had been studied and deliberated by master craftsmen. The layout of the whole factory and the industrial process had all been carefully studied as well. So their workers could produce the best products in the world with the highest efficiency and receive the highest remuneration among their peers in the industry¡ªand this amount left those in second place far behind them at that. Of course, these workers of the Kingdom of Light could not possibly receive such a level of training. Their factory layout and industrial process were far inferior to that of the Republic of Northwest. But it was highly commendable how they could actually achieve a work efficiency that was similar to that of the factory of the Republic of Northwest under such obviously backward conditions. This was the same as the study of hydrogen bombs. By recruiting and assembling a most luxurious lineup of the world¡¯s top-notch scientists, and then relying on the research and industrial level of the world¡¯s superpower to make a hydrogen bomb, this was undoubtedly very impressive. But relying on a group of researchers who did not seem to have a full understanding and who could barely be considered adept professionals, relying on an industrial level where even their cars had to be imported, with only the data on atomic bombs obtained from their teachers that had been heavily and deliberately modified ¡­ it was truly admirable how a hydrogen bomb could still be created under such conditions! But Sui Xiong laughed. ¡°If we do things the way they do, the productivity of our Republic of Northwest will at least be doubled from its current efficiency rate!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°You pay attention to their cafeteria. Look carefully.¡± Wall froze a little and shifted his gaze to the inside of the factory cafeteria. Then he noticed that some people who looked like clergymen, were casting spells on the food and water in the cafeteria. ¡°They mix drugs that can stimulate physical strength and use magic to boost the workers¡¯ spirits. With such means, of course, their work efficiency is high,¡± Sui Xiong sneered. ¡°But using such a method, how long can those workers live like that? ¡°Most of the workers of our Republic of Northwest, with the exception of those who were injured on the job, are able to lead stable lives till they retire. Upon retirement, they get their pensions and lead their lives peacefully into their old age. They can probably enjoy life for another 10 to 15 years or so. And finally, they die peacefully surrounded by their children and grandchildren. But the workers here¡­ Haha, if I¡¯m not wrong, they¡¯ll probably live to about 40 years old and their bodies will collapse.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment and very maliciously, he added another line, ¡°But there is one thing good about them. That is, the process where their bodies collapse is very, very fast. From the onset of collapse to death, a safe estimate of duration is at most six to seven days, so it doesn¡¯t bring much medical burden to the family.¡± After hearing this, Wall first showed a blank look, then he felt anger rising. He hurriedly used his Divine Power to take in a small portion of food and water from the cafeteria. Then he carefully analyzed the samples and found that it was just as what Sui Xiong had said. Though he was an immortal god, at that moment, he could really feel a bone-piercing cold that almost made him shiver. After the cold, it was a rage that rose right deep within him. He could not help wanting to charge right over and utterly destroy this factory that devoured human lives like a monster! Sui Xiong stopped him. ¡°Stay out of this. These are things we should not be poking our noses into.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°At least, we can¡¯t do anything about it until this war has an outcome,¡± Sui Xiong said with a gentle sigh. ¡°Although this form of practice is harmful to the workers¡¯ health, if it is not being implemented for too long, it won¡¯t be a big problem either. It won¡¯t be long before this war commences. There¡¯s still time to stop this when there is an outcome of this war.¡± ¡°When there is an outcome?¡± Wall asked. After a moment of silence, he asked, ¡°Your Majesty, who do you think will win?¡± Sui Xiong cast a confused look at him, then said, ¡°Of course the humans. It¡¯s impossible for the Orcs to win this at all. The difference in population, I¡¯m afraid, is probably four to five times. ¡°In truth, all wars of humans are secondary. The key lies in the war of gods,¡± Wall said. ¡°That¡¯s right. But even for a war of gods, the humans are still the ones with an absolute advantage,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°The human gods, be it in quantity or quality, are much stronger than the Orc gods.¡± ¡°But the Orcs have many allies,¡± Wall lamented. ¡°This time, the humans don¡¯t have many allies.¡± ¡°Allies and such are, in fact, just like that. Do you mean to say you expect these allies to risk their lives to help you?¡± Sui Xiong questioned. He shook his head and said, ¡°They can do nothing more than provide some help from the side, wave some flags and shout loudly, or they could help in absorbing some of the burdens of firepower. That¡¯s all. Other than that, which ally would help Lefon deal with Wuther?¡± The more he said, the happier Sui Xiong felt. He went on to say, ¡°We can look at the number of gods on both sides. The Orc God System currently has about 30 gods, plus the few gods who were just demigods, they can probably make up about 40 die-hard fighters¡ªthe ones who will put up the most courageous fight and are willing to put their lives on the line. As for the Human God System, there are about 40 gods from their own God System itself, and adding on those who became gods from humans, there will be more than 200 of them participating in the morale-building rally this time. Forty against 200, will the Orc God System win? ¡°Of course, as we all know, in a war of the gods, it¡¯s a fight at the level of a great Divine Power that truly determines the outcome. In this regard, the Human God System has four great Divine Powers, and there¡¯s the God of Light among them who is possibly the most powerful of the four. What about the Orc God System? There¡¯s only one great Divine Power, the Sky Devourer Canine. And at most, there is the addition of the Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit. Even if they can rouse a few sleeping ancestor Orcs, they still won¡¯t have any advantage to speak of.¡± ¡°How can the Orcs possibly win a war where their top-rated martial skills can¡¯t win them the upper-hand, where their middle and lower-end martial skills are simply going to get them crushed, and where they had a human population that was of a four to five times difference from their opponent? What are they going to depend on to win?¡± Wall was silent for a long time. Then he sighed deeply. ¡°Recently, I¡¯ve been having a bad feeling. I keep thinking that the humans are going to lose, and it will be a crushing defeat at that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous. You¡¯re the God of Knowledge, not the God of War,¡± Sui Xiong said with a hearty laugh. Then he said, ¡°The God of War, Wenner, is inclined to think that the Human God System will win. Comparing your level of professionalism against him? You¡¯re a far cry!¡± Wall could not help smiling as well. It was a bitter smile though. ¡°I know that too. The God of War¡¯s judgement in this aspect is definitely more accurate than mine. But¡­ this feeling is so intense that I just can¡¯t help worrying¡­¡± Sui Xiong frowned and looked at Wall carefully. After a while, he asked, ¡°Are you certain that this feeling is very strong?¡± ¡°Yes, very strong.¡± ¡°And you often feel like that?¡± ¡°Often, just now, I felt it again.¡± Sui Xiong frowned deeply. Then he was silent for a while again before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s go. We shall go find the Goddess of Fortune!¡± Chapter 904 Chapter 904: Deliberation of the Great War (Part 2) Among all the gods, if there had to be one who had the most profound study of ¡°fate¡± and ¡°prophecy,¡± naturally, it had to be the God of Fate. However, the God of Fate was a mysterious person. He never appeared before the humans, not even on his seat as a great Divine Power of the Pantheon temple, where he would not be seen all day long. No one should expect to be able to find him unless he himself was willing to make the appearance. If there was anything to ask of him, the most reliable way was to go look for the Goddess of Fortune¡ªhis only daughter. The God Kingdom of the Goddess of Fortune was located on the front of the Ring of the World. It was the famous Sorrow-Proof Field. This was an extremely large world here, at least a dozen times bigger than the Main Plane. It was forever enveloped in warm light, and there was always an intoxicating, gentle breeze. It was a place where countless innocent and happy creatures lived. No matter how gloomy and sorrowful one was, so long as they lived here long enough, they would feel themselves easing up and feeling happier. All worries and sorrows would be cast to the winds and be completely forgotten. That was how the name ¡°Sorrow-Proof¡± came about. This was also the base camp of the Sorrow-Proof God System and was headed by the Goddess of Joy, who was a great Divine Power. With she herself and the Goddess of Fortune, who was a mid-level Divine Power, as the core, together with over 20 other goddesses who were low-level and weak Divine Powers, they formed this God System. They were considered a considerable force in the Pantheon temple, a typical mid-level God System. Although their top-rated martial skills were not powerful enough, the Goddess of Joy was really not particularly impressive among the great Divine Powers. And in the Pantheon temple, she could only be seated in the third row. But they had always steered clear of worldly affairs, so they did not have enemies. On the contrary, they had many friends. Sui Xiong was considered as one of their friends. This was because previously, when he helped Leon and Kalisa with their wedding preparations, he had met with a great deal of trouble over here at the Sorrow-Proof Field. And because of that, he had got acquainted with the Goddess of Joy and learned a lot of knowledge about construction from this construction expert. Sui Xiong was usually quite a casual character. But in fact, he was someone who had great respect for his teachers. Since he had once learned a skill from the Goddess of Joy, he respected her as a teacher. So this trip to Sorrow-Proof Field, he first visited the Goddess of Joy and explained to her his purpose of visit. The Goddess of Joy was very surprised to hear about it¡ªthe gods shared similar views about the outcome of that war between the humans and the Orcs. At this moment where she first heard that the God of Knowledge kept having a strong premonition about the ¡°defeat of the humans,¡± even she could not bring herself to force a smile. Comparing the Human God System and the Orc God System, the Goddess of Joy was more inclined towards supporting the former. After all, the Human God System had not been operating in vain all these years. Most of the neutral forces among the gods would be more than happy to see them win. These gods were not biased towards any race in particular. Or even if they did, the race that they favored would generally not live on the Main Plane. Given such a situation, of course they did not care whether or not the humans could defeat the Orcs and become the overlord of the Main Plane. On the contrary, unity on the Main Plane could promote prosperity. This would be good for everyone. The Orc¡¯s construction ability was a real tragedy. They appeared before the humans and built their nations way before the humans. Yet up till now, their degree of civilization was thrown far behind that of the humans. Considering this from a neutral point of view, naturally, the humans would be the more suitable side to foster cooperative relations. There are many gods who held this thought, and the Goddess of Joy was one of them. But unfortunately, the Goddess of Fortune was not on this list. When she met Sui Xiong and Wall, she first froze for a moment. Then she smiled mysteriously. ¡°I would never have thought that instead of the God of Light or the Sky Canine Devourer, but you two¡­¡± she whispered and shook her head gently. Sui Xiong, Wall and the Goddess of Joy all showed a change in expressions. Obviously, there was more to it than what the Goddess of Fortune said. She could even be said to have given quite an obvious hint. ¡°Could it be that¡­ this war is really going to end with the defeat of the humans?¡± Sui Xiong could not help asking. The Goddess of Fortune had regained her calm composure. With a smile, she said, ¡°I didn¡¯t say anything. And I¡¯m not going to say anything.¡± ¡°Even if I¡¯m the one asking, that won¡¯t do as well?¡± asked the Goddess of Joy with a frown. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I really can¡¯t say anything about this,¡± said the Goddess of Joy as she sighed. Then she went on to say, ¡°If I say anything about it, I will be in trouble.¡± The Goddess of Fortune was the embodiment of ¡°fortune.¡± If she was ¡°unfortunate,¡± that would mean her priesthood had collapsed. Then she would no longer be surrounded by fortune. With the conversation coming up to this point, Sui Xiong and the rest knew that it would do them no good in asking further. The Goddess of Joy was quiet for a long time. Finally, she decided to temporarily close Sorrow-Proof Field until the end of the war. The reason that she openly declared was, ¡°This war is something that is so saddening that I simply can¡¯t bring myself to turn a blind eye to such a massive tragedy and laugh happily. So I can only say goodbye to everyone for the time being. When time has slowly worn away the traces of blood and scars, I will appear before everyone again¡­ I believe that day won¡¯t be too far away.¡± However, other than herself and the Goddess of Fortune, only Sui Xiong and Wall knew the real reason. The two returned to the Sanctuary of the God Kingdom of the Void God System in silence. Sui Xiong used his Divine Power to set up layers of protective barriers, and only stopped when he was certain that nobody could spy beyond these layers. Then in a low voice, he said, ¡°This matter must not be divulged!¡± ¡°Even if this was leaked out, who would believe it?¡± Wall asked him back with a wry smile. Sui Xiong thought for a moment, then nodded. They looked at each other, yet none said a word. After a long silence, Sui Xiong said, ¡°Don¡¯t you find it so strange?¡± ¡°Strange?¡± ¡°Yes. Obviously, the humans have the absolute upper-hand. Why would the outcome of this war result in them losing instead?¡± Sui Xiong asked with a frown. Then he said, ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem reasonable!¡± Wall replied with a wry smile, ¡°If I could figure out the reason, would I still feel so distressed?¡± Sui Xiong nodded. He did not have anything to say in return. Much later, Sui Xiong said, ¡°I think I still want to go about to ask more about it, make some inquiries.¡± ¡°Ask who?¡± ¡°Ask both parties involved in this war, I guess,¡± Sui Xiong said. He did not sound very certain as he replied, ¡°I¡¯ll go ask the God of Light, I¡¯ll also ask the Sky Devourer Canine. I¡¯ll ask them what they want to do exactly. What are the exact preparations? Maybe there are some things that we don¡¯t know of.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s really a secret, they won¡¯t tell us for sure,¡± Wall said. ¡°They will only reveal what cards they have in their hands at the most critical point in time. That is the way to achieve the best effect.¡± ¡°But it always makes me feel unsettled in not making any inquiries at all,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Even if there¡¯s no apparent help, at least I can tell myself, ¡®Auscar, you¡¯ve tried, you¡¯ve done your best, there¡¯s nothing to regret¡­¡¯ and things like that.¡± ¡°But what if this alarms both sides instead? And information about it leaks out, what should we do then?¡± Wall asked worriedly after thinking for a moment. Sui Xiong laughed and said, ¡°If this is what fate dictates, then does it make any difference whether the information leaks out or not?¡± In this world, there was no such saying like, ¡°Man will conquer nature.¡± Both men and gods believed that fate was predestined and thus could not be changed. Though Sui Xiong did not agree with such a statement, he was a materialist who accepted established facts. He also accepted the conclusions derived from the established facts¡ªeven if they might seem ridiculous. So long as they were consistent with the facts every time, then they deserved his respect and recognition. This was why he made such a reply. In fact, he also wanted to take this chance to sound things out. The Human God System and the Orc God System would be staging a war that was enough to shake the entire Pantheon temple. If such a powerful force was not enough to reverse fate, then maybe in this world, there was really such a thing as ¡°fate determines everything¡­¡± Chapter 905 Chapter 905: Speculations (Part 1) Sui Xiong first went to the God Kingdom of the Orc God System, the ¡°Endless Field.¡± The Orc gods were surprised by his visit but had extended their welcome to him. They could not wrap their minds about this. Why would Sui Xiong come visiting them at this point in time? After exchanging greetings and making small talk, Sui Xiong said that he needed to discuss something with the ¡°Sky Devourer Canine,¡± Lefon, in private. Of course, Lefon would not refuse him. Lefon was just as curious and wanted to know exactly what matter it was that could possibly bring the Void Mask, who had originally declared he would take a neutral stand, to visit him. After the attendant had taken his leave and left the room, Sui Xiong spent a moment on some brief consideration, then in a most straightforward manner, he said, ¡°Theoretically speaking, this war should be a sure-win for the humans while you guys are bound to lose. But for some unknown reason, recently I keep getting this strong premonition and feel that there¡¯s something ominous in store for the future of the humans. ¡°I¡¯m a man full of curiosity. Though I clearly know that so long as I wait patiently, I will eventually get to know what¡¯s going on exactly, I just can¡¯t help but go around asking and making inquiries. Just what on earth is happening?¡± Initially, when Lefon heard Sui Xiong say it was a ¡°sure-win for the humans,¡± his expression reflected his unhappiness. But thereafter, his anger turned to delight, and he fell into deep thoughts. As the Master God of the Orcs, naturally, he was the clearest about the balance of power between the two sides. If both parties¡¯ bottom cards were not taken into consideration, just looking at the power on the surface, the humans had at least a 70-percent chance of winning, while the Orcs¡­ most likely not even a 10-percent chance of winning. After all, other than the ¡°humans¡¯ victory¡± and the ¡°Orcs¡¯ victory,¡± there was also a ¡°lose-lose situation¡± with no winner at all. Most of the gods felt that the best outcome for the Orcs was nothing more than dragging the humans into a troublesome situation of fighting a war that would have no winner. That was all. Of course, Lefon was not that pessimistic. Since he dared fight this battle and did not directly arrange for the Orcs to retreat from the Main Plane, it naturally showed that he was still somewhat confident. But even he himself did not have much hope of defeating the humans, let alone fighting the humans to the point where their future would come to no good. So after listening to Sui Xiong¡¯s words, he could not help but be filled with doubt. The future of the humans will come to no good? How could their future come to no good? When they already had such a great advantage¡­? This was like playing StarCraft, where a combat population of 120 was pitted against another combat population of 80. The huge advantage of the former was unbelievably huge. Right away, it could box up and select everyone in the entire troop. Then casually pointing at its opponent¡¯s base camp, it could put an end to them with just the pressure from one wave of attack. There was a saying that went, ¡°The flying dragon is already riding above their faces, how is it possible to lose? How could they lose? How is it possible to make them lose?¡± Amidst the silence, Sui Xiong was secretly entertaining some wild thoughts. Suddenly, he felt a jolt of surprise in his heart¡­ No, something¡¯s wrong with this allusion! If he did not remember wrongly, that allusion of a ¡°flying dragon above their faces, how to lose¡­¡± seemed like¡­ they really had lost! At that moment, Lefon finally broke the silence and asked in a low voice, ¡°Why have you thought of asking me? Shouldn¡¯t you be asking the human gods? Ask Wuther, for example.¡± ¡°He will not tell me!¡± Sui Xiong said and shook his head. ¡°Moreover, it¡¯s actually pretty much the same looking for you.¡± ¡°Why do you say that?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard a saying that ¡®the people who understand you best are often not your friends, or not even you yourself, but your enemies.¡¯ I find that it makes a lot of sense. The deeper the hatred, the more you try to find ways and means to study the other side, to understand the other side. In today¡¯s world, if we must point out who bears the greatest hatred for the Human God System, then of course, it would be your Orc God System. If I want to inquire all about the secrets related to the Human God System, then coming to you is definitely the right choice,¡± Sui Xiong said in a most leisure manner. Lefon did not know how he should react after hearing what Sui Xiong said. He wanted to reproach with a ¡°bullshit,¡± but he felt that what Sui Xiong just said were really words of wisdom. He really had no right to rebut Sui Xiong. So he laughed bitterly and said, ¡°These words¡­ do make sense.¡± ¡°Most certainly. That¡¯s why I¡¯ve come to ask you for information.¡± Lefon pondered for a long time, then finally, he shook his head and said, ¡°Auscar, I¡¯ll not tell you anything baseless. Let¡¯s just be frank with each other. We Orcs do indeed have some cards to play. But according to what I¡¯ve reckoned, even if we use them all, and our allies are willing to put in the effort to help us, our overall situation will still be lagging behind. ¡°Maybe you think that it¡¯s okay to be lagging behind on the whole, that we can always open up another gap somewhere else, then catch the humans by surprise and claim victory. But I don¡¯t think there¡¯s such a possibility¡ªif we must defeat the humans by catching them unaware with a surprise attack, then the most reliable way is for me to assemble a group of men carry out a deadly raid. We would just perish altogether with that Wuther guy. Other than him, there¡¯s no other god in the Human God System who is considered a convincing leader by everyone. The internal strife among them is so intense, so long as I can die with him, maybe we can still win this war.¡± Sui Xiong nodded slightly as he listened. Then he asked, ¡°Indeed, this idea does sound reliable. But you aren¡¯t really planning to carry it out, are you?¡± ¡°Of course I have such an intention,¡± Lefon said. Then he sighed and said, ¡°If by sacrificing myself, we can win this war, then I, Snakenell, or any of the Orc gods, will not hesitate at all. But¡­ no way!¡± ¡°Wuther is stronger than us all. Though I¡¯m most unwilling to admit it, I have to admit it, that he¡¯s strong, stronger than me. And it¡¯s not just a little stronger, but much stronger!¡± Lefon admitted. His face showed a most bitter expression, then he said, ¡°Not too long ago, I had tried him. Though it was only a brief collision of aura, I clearly felt that he had already taken the most crucial step, that is, to advance from a great Divine Power to a greater Divine Power.¡± Sui Xiong was greatly taken aback and asked loudly, ¡°A greater Divine Power?!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, a greater Divine Power. At that time, his aura was still a little chaotic, but I could already feel that a most crucial change had taken place. He¡¯s already taking that step.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a moment, then asked, ¡°Is he going to succeed?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Lefon replied and shook his head. ¡°If I knew, it would mean that I myself have made it there. The truth is, I really can¡¯t go beyond where I am at now because I have not accumulated enough. My understanding is not enough as well. Though I can see where the threshold of a greater Divine Power is, I still can¡¯t reach it no matter how hard I try, let alone try to get one foot across.¡± Sui Xiong frowned and then asked, ¡°So¡­ from how you see it, is he going to succeed or fail?¡± ¡°Whether he succeeds or fails, he will at least have a period of extreme power,¡± Lefon replied. ¡°If he succeeds, then of course, there¡¯s nothing much left to say. I can only kneel before him and beg for him to show us Orcs mercy and give us a chance to survive. But even if he fails, I¡¯m not confident of being able to hold him back long enough before the period where he steps across the critical point and become stronger than I can ever imagine.¡± ¡°So in this case, you seem to feel like it¡¯s a sure-lose for you?¡± Sui Xiong could not help asking. ¡°Not necessarily a sure-lose. I will still try to think of a way I can to stall him as much as possible,¡± Lefon said with a smile. ¡°I don¡¯t hold great hopes. But if he fails, maybe I can still stall him until the time where he goes into a state of decadence. And this, this will be the crucial opportunity for us Orcs to take down victory!¡± Looking at the thoughtful Sui Xiong, Lefon said in a low and serious voice, ¡°If the future of the humans really comes to no good end, maybe it means that what I¡¯ve speculated has been realized. If that¡¯s the case, I can die with no regrets.¡± Sui Xiong felt surprised as he looked at Lefon, only to see Lefon¡¯s calm expression. In his eyes, Sui Xiong could even detect gratitude and relief. Though he wanted to give some words of advice, he was eventually unable to say anything. So silently, he bade farewell and left. Chapter 906 Chapter 906: Speculations (Part 2) The atmosphere of the God Kingdom, the ¡°Light Plain,¡± of the human gods was tense. Countless clergymen and followers were going through an intense period of training. They were shouting so loudly that the sky could shake and did not show any signs of slacking. When Sui Xiong came to visit, there was such a big and green jellyfish floating across the sky, and yet not a single one was curious enough to look up. He noticed this. In his heart, he could not help but secretly sing praises. As someone with an inquisitive mind, Sui Xiong had never thought that there could be such discipline in the world that could actually suppress the curiosity of people. These men with such discipline could truly be regarded as Steel Beasts! This made him even more pessimistic about the future of the Orcs. Though that was also a grim atmosphere enshrouding the God Kingdom, ¡°Endless Field,¡± of the Orc God System, due to an impending war, the Orcs definitely did not have such discipline. Although in this world, war was more about the confrontation between two parties in terms of their top-rated martial skills, the strength of military discipline was ultimately an important factor that should not be neglected. Similar to the reaction of the Orc God System, the Human God System also expressed their surprise at Sui Xiong¡¯s visit and extended their welcome to him. But unlike the Orc God System, when Sui Xiong said that he had something to discuss with the God of Light in private, the God of Light smiled. Also present was the God of Diplomacy who went to receive Sui Xiong, the God of Heroes who just happened to be around, as well as the God of Pleasure who had been invited over as company. The God of Light did not ask anyone to leave at all. ¡°In this lifetime of mine, my deeds are far from being regarded as good or just, but I¡¯ve never lied to myself nor cheated my brothers and friends,¡± the God of Light, Wuther Rang, said lightly. ¡°Even if it¡¯s something confidential, I still trust that they will help me in keeping it a secret. Or rather, if there¡¯s something that even they should not know, then I don¡¯t wish to know about it either.¡± There was no smile on his face. His expression was calm and deep, like the surface of the sea without any breeze. Yet it concealed a most fearsome power. Sui Xiong did not mind, though. Anyway, if news got out, it would not hurt him either¡ªthe morale of the humans was low, but was it in any way related to him, who took a neutral stand? So he smiled. Then he said, ¡°In that case, I will just be straight and open about it. During this period, I have, more than once, had this strong premonition that the future of the human gods¡­ does not seem to be looking good.¡± The God of Light frowned and looked at the God of Diplomacy, ¡°Contact the Goddess of Joy and tell her I want to see her¡ªthe Goddess of Fortune as well.¡± The God of Diplomacy obeyed at once. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly froze and replied, ¡°The Sorrow-Proof God System has shut down its God Kingdom. All its members are leaving the Pantheon Temple, saying that they are going to maintain neutral and will not come out until the end of the war.¡± The God of Light raised a brow as a bout of malice arose spontaneously. He tapped his finger on the armrest of his throne lightly a few times, then said, ¡°Forget it. Anyway, we have already confirmed that the news is true. He turned to look at Sui Xiong and asked, ¡°Why do you want to tell us this news?¡± Sui Xiong froze for a while, then asked him back, ¡°Why shouldn¡¯t I tell you this news?¡± ¡°Previously, you said that you wanted to be neutral. But in telling us this news, we¡¯ll be prepared, and then we may not necessarily lose.¡± Sui Xiong could not help laughing and said, ¡°You mean to say, if you have prepared for it, even if this is predestined, you are still able to change it?¡± His meaning was so bluntly plain that the God of Diplomacy and the God of Heroes looked unhappy, while on the other hand, the God of Pleasure was visibly uneasy. He was old friends with Sui Xiong and knew how unreliable this old friend of his was. The Jellyfish God always did things in whatever ways, and if he pleased, he could even go head-to-head against the God of Order. In the face of the Human God System that had always been known for its seriousness and rigor, the situation was simply like how ice and fire were incompatible, and he feared that a fight was about to happen soon. But the God of Light¡¯s look stopped his two subordinates. He maintained his calm composure and looked at Sui Xiong. Then he said, ¡°You mean, the failure of us humans is our predestined fate?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say that,¡± Sui Xiong smiled without feeling nervous. ¡°On the contrary, I was actually really looking forward to seeing you all overcome the limit of fate¡ªall these years, I have never heard of anyone being able to break through the limit of fate. So I¡¯m hoping to see an exception, even if it¡¯s only once.¡± The God of Light did not speak, and neither did the God of Diplomacy, the God of Heroes and the God of Pleasure. There was only silence within the hall. After a long time, the God of Light said, ¡°You do make sense here, fate is fate because of its absoluteness. Only what that can¡¯t be broken through can be called fate.¡± The God of Diplomacy and the God of Heroes could not help frowning. ¡°But, why is it that you can feel this fate, but I can¡¯t?¡± asked the God of Light. The corners of his mouth curved up slightly, and with a hint of satire, he said, ¡°If we must talk about the study of ¡®fate,¡¯ you simply can¡¯t hold a candle to me. Especially when I¡¯m directly involved in this matter, there¡¯s no reason why you can feel it, but I can¡¯t detect anything.¡± He looked at Sui Xiong. In a very matter-of-course tone that made Sui Xiong unhappy, he asked, ¡°You think that what I say makes sense?¡± Sui Xiong remained silent. In truth, he was very confused as well. He had first gone looking for the ¡°Sky Devourer Canine,¡± Lefon. He wanted to see if Lefon had a hunch about anything. This was going to be the critical war that would determine the rise and decline of the human race and the Orc race. As the leader of the Orcs, Lefon carried the fate of his entire race. He himself was powerful. He was at least ranked within the top ten masters among the great Divine Powers. If there was really going to be some great variables in this war, there would be no reason for him not to feel any premonition. But as it turned out, Lefon did not have a hunch. Or rather, his hunch was that ¡°the Orcs would be defeated,¡± and this was not any different from what most of the other gods forebode. That was why Sui Xiong had come to look for the God of Light, Wuther Rang. At this moment, Sui Xiong was unable to answer the God of Light¡¯s question. In terms of strength, the God of Light was obviously above him. At this meeting, he could already clearly feel the change that was happening within the God of Light. Just as what Lefon had said, the God of Light had taken the crucial first step of stepping up from the level of a great Divine Power to that of a greater Divine Power. And he was slowly changing. Now the God of Light should no longer be seen as a ¡°great Divine Power.¡± He should be seen as a ¡°greater Divine Power-to-be.¡± Or using the fashionable expression that Sui Xiong had seen in web-novels before he traversed worlds, the God of Light should be called a ¡°half-step greater Divine Power.¡± Even someone like the God of Light was unable to foretell anything about this matter, so how could the God of Knowledge, Wall, feel anything? If Sui Xiong was the only one who felt such a premonition, then it should be nothing to worry about. Sui Xiong knew that his situation was quite unique. He was completely different from the other gods in general, so it was nothing strange for him to be able to do something a little different. But this premonition originated from Wall, who was just a follower who had recently passed the mark to become a mid-level Divine Power. The situation was really like what the God of Light had queried. How could Wall have possibly surpassed him in the study of the fields of ¡°fate¡± and ¡°prophecy?¡± It was likelier for Wall to be his student in the study of these fields. Something that he himself could not foretell, what could Wall possibly foresee? This just did not make any sense! Thinking about these things, in the face of the God of Light¡¯s composed doubts, the face of the God of Diplomacy, the God of Heroes and the God of Pleasure¡¯s curious gazes, Sui Xiong could only secretly wonder to himself. (Yes, I know that it doesn¡¯t make sense. But how on earth would I know why? I¡¯m not the one who had that premonition!) Chapter 907 Chapter 907: Speculations (Part 3) ¡°Truthfully speaking, I myself don¡¯t know why. But I do know that if something really does exist, it won¡¯t change its existence just because I can explain it,¡± Sui Xiong said. Of course, he would not share what Wall told him with the rest. He took ownership of the entire matter to avoid causing any trouble for Wall. ¡°Besides, whether I can explain it, or not, is it meaningful for both parties of this war?¡± The God of Heroes nodded and looked towards the God of Diplomacy, who was sitting beside him. The God of Diplomacy said nothing and frowned. Sui Xiong looked at the God of Light, Wuther Rang, and said with a smile, ¡°Your thirst for knowledge is very strong. But you still have time to think about these after you fully become a greater Divine Power.¡± The God of Pleasure, Javier, was greatly taken aback. His eyes widened. He looked at Sui Xiong, then at the God of Light. His face was full of disbelief. ¡°You can see that?¡± said the God of Light, who was also slightly surprised. He took a close look at Sui Xiong, then after a while, he asked, ¡°You also tried taking this step yourself?¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and replied, ¡°Just what I felt, that¡¯s all.¡± As he spoke, he lifted up a tentacle, and the warm white light on his tentacle gradually condensed into a light ball. This light ball was full of pure warm vitality, yet this power was not that from the Life Realm or the Positive Energy Realm. It did not serve the purpose of ¡°healing¡± or anything else, but rather, it was something from a purer, higher level. Its light was not strong, but it had a kind of direct and penetrative appeal. When the God of Heroes looked at it, the look in his eyes seemed to lack focus as though he was somewhat in a daze. When the God of Diplomacy looked at it, his eyes showed faint signs of tears. When the God of Pleasure looked at it, he was full of wonder and praise. It was as though his entire heart was drawn to it. Only the God of Light could still maintain his calmness when looking at it. Yet beneath this calmness, there was a tinge of sorrowful sentiment. Goodness. Pure ¡°goodness.¡± ¡°The Power of Virtue,¡± said the God of Light as he scrutinized that white light ball. After a long silence, he said in a low voice, ¡°I can¡¯t believe that you only needed such a short time to make this step.¡± ¡°I can only be considered as merely touching the threshold. I¡¯m still a long way from making that step,¡± Sui Xiong said as he withdrew that power. And the light ball disappeared. The three gods who had been staring at it with their undivided attention instantly froze. It took them a while to come to their senses, but there was still some sense of loss in them. ¡°Since you have already reached this realm, then perhaps, it¡¯s not surprising for you to be able to detect some things that I can¡¯t,¡± said the God of Light. He thought for a moment, then said, ¡°Only that fool, the great fireball, would boast that he¡¯s omnipotent. I¡¯ve never felt that I was almighty and capable of doing anything. On the contrary, the more I know, the more ignorant I feel I am. The stronger I got, the more I understand that there are many things that I can¡¯t do.¡± He paused for a moment, then went on to say, ¡°And what you said made a lot of sense. Now, the most important thing is to know how to change our fate and not to think about what on earth is happening.¡± Sui Xiong laughed and asked, ¡°Are you confident of changing fate?¡± ¡°No,¡± the God of Light said frankly. ¡°Not at all.¡± Sui Xiong froze momentarily, then he asked, ¡°So¡­ you are prepared to accept fate, just like that?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± said the God of Light. ¡°What fate has in store for me doesn¡¯t affect what I do. I still intend to do my best to fight this war. I¡¯ll fight this war at my level best. This way, I¡¯ll have nothing to complain about even if I fail.¡± ¡°But¡­ what are you going to do about the problem with fate?¡± ¡°Fate has never been a problem,¡± said the God of Light. He finally smiled. ¡°Suppose you are a mortal, and you have an enemy that you bore such a deep hatred for. But if you kill him, you will become a wanted criminal, and then countless mercenaries will be hunting you down like dogs. In the end, you will die in a place no one knows and may even be beheaded by someone so that they can claim their reward¡­ in that case, would you kill him?¡± Sui Xiong considered carefully for a moment, then replied, ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Yes, ultimately, what has to be done, has to be done. Even if you know that the outcome will still be the same,¡± said the God of Light as he nodded with a look of satisfaction. ¡°So it¡¯s also the same for me. Even if I know what this war will lead to eventually, I will still fight this battle!¡± ¡°Even if the humans end up with a terrible future?¡± ¡°When I first became the Master God of the Human God System, the humans were in a terrible situation,¡± said the God of Light. ¡°At that time, we were being oppressed by the Orcs as they lashed out at us. We tried our best, but still, we could hardly hold the line at the front. Our cities were being destroyed, one by one. Our farmlands had been burnt down and turned into pastures for their cattle to graze. Our children and grandchildren were slaughtered at will and even became their food during winter. And our creator turned a blind eye to all this. Our Master God was heavily wounded in the bitter wars time and again. He often vomited blood and fell into comas. At that time, many people felt that perhaps the fate of us humans was to be driven out of the northern Great Plains, flee into the mountainous areas and then continue to be pursued until we were all killed¡­¡± In his eyes, the flames of rage and murderous intention were slowly ignited. Then he went on to say, ¡°But, I¡¯m not going to succumb to such a fate. I want to change all of this!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a need for me to tell you about what happened next. You all know about it too,¡± said the God of Light as he looked at Sui Xiong. ¡°No matter how bleak the future of the humans looks, it will not be worse than before. But I believe that no matter how trying it will be in the future, the humans will overcome all the difficulties and obstacles. We will rise and set foot on a new peak again! ¡°As the present Master God of the humans, it is my duty to remove the greatest obstacle on that road and completely defeat all our old enemies. I will trample upon them so viciously that they will never have the chance to rise again!¡± Sui Xiong looked at his resolute, unwavering expression and could not help laughing bitterly. Both Lefon and Wuther were determined and unshakable characters. Even if they knew the direction of their fates, they would not be confused or hesitate at all. They could still make their choices with a firm mindset and continue to proceed along the path they thought was right. Sui Xiong looked into his own heart and asked himself whether or not he would do the same thing if he had met with the same situation. After leaving the Human God System, he returned to his God Kingdom. Along the way, he had been thinking about this question. ¡°Maybe¡­ I will back off for the time being,¡± he muttered to himself. ¡°After all, I can only have a future if I make it back alive. A temporary retreat is for the sake of future progression. A great leader once said that humans are the most precious beings. Only by preserving human lives can we preserve hope for the future. That saying that¡¯s something like ¡®save the land and lose the people¡­¡¯ or whatever it is, in short, if the humans die, then there¡¯s really no more hope for us. There¡¯s really nothing left at all.¡± He paused for a moment to organize his thoughts. Then he could not help shaking his head as he added, ¡°No, maybe I myself will make a similar choice. Living in this world, I will simply pray for a happy life. Living more or living less, how much difference can there be? I¡¯ve lived so long that it actually doesn¡¯t make any difference if I were to die earlier or later. If I can¡¯t live life to my heart¡¯s content, will there be any meaning in living?¡± The giant jellyfish sprawled out on the ground muttered to himself as he got lost in thought¡­ Chapter 908 Chapter 908: Purification (Part 1) Winter was drawing to an end, and spring was approaching. Spring was the season of life where all things were rejuvenated. The earth would be covered with green, where there would be flowers and verdure, mountains and rivers. Even the animals were completely reinvigorated after the long winter and began to reproduce. And once again, they were starting a new cycle of life. But this spring was different. It was very cold. The cold was not only in the air but also in the hearts of the humans. The calendar of the Main Plane was similar to Earth in that it divided a year into four seasons. That particular day with the shortest period of daylight of the year¡ªthe winter solstice¡ªwas made New Year¡¯s Day. This calendar was simple and crude. It was extremely convincing. The winter solstice was the midpoint of winter. One and a half months after the winter solstice marked the start of spring. And during this one and a half months, the first half month was more or less the coldest period. Generally speaking, if they had to fight wars, the humans would mostly choose winter. This was mainly because during winter, the farmers had nothing much to do and were idle. But for the Orcs, fighting a war in winter could consume many lives, thus allowing them to save food and optimize the population of their race. This was a political strategy that was worthy of recognition and praise. Sui Xiong floated above the terraced on the rooftop of the Void City¡¯s town hall and looked at the eastern sky. The cloud of war had almost condensed into a solid substance, an iron-gray patch that made it uncomfortable to look at. ¡°I wonder how many people will die in this great war!¡± he said. With a deep sigh, he shook his head. ¡°Ultimately, this is the choice they make,¡± Leon said calmly as he came to stand beside Sui Xiong. ¡°We can try to protect the refugees and stop the slaughter. But we can¡¯t stop them from going to war. If the people themselves want to die, then there¡¯s nothing the others can do to help them.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. But still, he could not help sighing. He loved life and hated war. The acts of betting the lives of thousands of people over the struggle of land, wealth, power, status and the likes of them, was blasphemies against life itself. But he could not stop this war because both sides wanted to fight. Just as what Leon said, this was the choice of both the humans and the Orcs. Even if only one side did not want to fight this war, Sui Xiong would still have to take the side of the party forced to fight and use force to convince the aggressors to give up on this war. However, with both sides wanting to fight till the rivers were stained with blood and dead bodies were strewn all over, there was simply nothing Sui Xiong could do. These days, he had been appealing for peace and for the people to withdraw from this war. Be it the humans or the Orcs, or other races that had been implicated in this war, so long as they were willing to pull out of this war, Sui Xiong was willing to protect them so that they could be safely distanced from war. They could live in the Republic, which was like a retreat away from the turmoil of the war. But everything that he did had not reaped effective results. Indeed, there were many mortals who believed in him and decided not to join this war. They were brought to the Republic of Northwest from all over the world where they had settled down. But there was a much greater number of people who were willing to go to war¡ªfor the mortals, beliefs were important, but their lives, their family and what they loved and hated¡­ these were just as important. The Kingdom of Eagle, for example, had fought the Orcs for years. Almost every family had an elder who died on the northern battlefield. There was practically no one willing to back out of this war, just for the sake of defeating the Orcs completely. Many of Sui Xiong¡¯s clergymen, after praying and confessing to Sui Xiong, had taken off their robes emblemed with the holy symbol of a jellyfish. They put on their armor, picked up their arms and went to the battlefield. On the side of the Mifata Federation, even in the Alliance of Four Cities with Grey Tower City as its core, there were many scholar mages making their way out of their studies. They picked up their rarely-used wands, took off their scholar robes and donned their mages robes, then went to assemble at the military base. These scholars were very knowledgeable, thus all the more, they were filled with a sense of responsibility for the whole of humanity. Even if they had to disobey the orders of the gods, they would still join this war and fight for the future of humanity. It was needless mentioning places like Garth City, where large numbers of strong youths were heading north to the Kingdom of Light to fight in the battlefields of blood and fire. Leon had tried to use strong measures to stop all this but was rejected by Sui Xiong. ¡°Rain will fall, and ladies will have to get married. Just let them be,¡± said Sui Xiong. At that time, he spoke in a most open-minded manner. ¡°So long as they themselves don¡¯t regret.¡± ¡°These fellows are not devout believers at all!¡± Leon said unhappily. ¡°People live for themselves, that¡¯s first and foremost. Then, for others,¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°No matter what choice they make this time, so long as they don¡¯t point their swords at their fellow church members, I¡¯ll still welcome them back in the future.¡± ¡°Your Majesty¡­ you¡¯re too magnanimous! Being so magnanimous to them will not do!¡± ¡°Why not?¡± Sui Xiong said with a smile. ¡°The reason why I want to become as powerful as possible is just so that I¡¯m able to say to be able to say ¡®because I want to, so why not,¡¯ isn¡¯t that so?¡± Leon was at a loss of words. Finally, he chose to move all the people who did not wish to take part in this war from Garth City to live in the Republic of Northwest for the time being. Of course, it was impossible to move a city, but so long as they took everything important along with them, whatever things they left behind did not matter. The place where the people of Garth City resided was where Garth City was. Without them, it was nothing more than an empty city. All this, naturally, depended on Sui Xiong¡¯s incredibly multitudinous Divine Power. When the immigrants saw a city that was exactly like the Garth City where they used to live in amidst the frozen ash forest, they were all stunned. In fact, this was all very simple for Sui Xiong. It was just scanning the appearance of the entire city, then finding a place where the earth could be shaped into a corresponding appearance. That was all. Although it was a massive amount of work, it only took him about ten days to bring the whole process to completion. There were a few other territories belonging to the Republic of Northwest that did not choose to move because they were, after all, very far away from the battlefield. Geerteng Hill was in the central-eastern part of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, adjacent to the Ashes Woods. Dahl Hill was in the southern part of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, though slightly more towards the east and was next to the Great Marsh. Keane Hill was in the prosperous region located in the central-southern part of Duchy of Thunder. The Alliance of Four Cities of Grey Tower City was located in the central-northern part of the Mifata Federation, near to the Ancient Forest. Compared with Garth City, which was a major commercial port on the whole continent that was not far from the Kingdom of Light, these places were considered as safe havens located far enough from the battlefields. Of course, there was no need for the people of these places to move. Even so, there were large numbers of people from various places who still believed in Sui Xiong. So these people who refused to fight the war headed for the Republic of Northwest instead. A majority of them, of course, were from the Kingdom of the Blue Moon. This particular population brought the Republic of Northwest under enormous pressure with regards to housing. It also caused more distress to this land that had already been exploited. The people of this world were not used to living in ¡°pigeon-cage¡± apartments. And besides, neither the Void City nor the other cities of the Republic of Northwest were able to accommodate so many inhabitants. They needed to open up more land so that more people could have houses to settle down. Not only did they require places for accommodation, but they also needed places for work, recreation and entertainment. So something that had been planned for a long time and that had mobilized many pairs of hands to prepare for it was finally about to be implemented. The purification of the entire Ashes Woods! Chapter 909 Chapter 909: Purification (Part 2) The chairman of the Association of Mages of the Republic of Northwest, the chief Legendary Master of the Church of the Void Mask, the captain of the first generation of mages of the Church of the Void Mask, the Wise Man of Purification¡­ these elders who all had glorious titles sat on the watchtower at the top of the mage tower and looked into the distance. After decades of preparation and planning, today, the moment of reaping the fruits of their hard work had finally arrived. At this moment, he was gazing into the distance. In truth, his eyes were not focused, and his mind was simply thronged with thoughts. Because of his instructions, no one had come up to disturb him. Even the gods who watched him closely also kept their distance¡ªof course, this bit of a distance was not a big deal at all. If an accident really happened, they would still be able to rush over in no time. But Satan was not thinking about this. He was thinking about his own life. He came from a poor family. But with his outstanding talent and hard work, he became a mage and was known as a genius. He was forced to leave his hometown because he had offended some big shots. Then he roamed from place to place, leading a homeless and miserable life. And his youth was thus wasted in all these wandering and adventures. After meeting His Majesty, the Void Mask, Satan became his follower. From a mage, he had changed his profession temporarily to be an educator, where he gave lessons to the first batch of pioneers. However, he often fumed at them. Then he was attacked and died. His soul was imprisoned, then rescued and resurrected. When Void City was established, he headed a group of low-level, or even just mages who were rookies, and formed a mage group from scratch. According to the principles of the array of positive energy and the Leyline Spell, he developed the pioneer version of the purification array. Leading the mage group of the church of Void City, they built a mage tower and improved on the purification array. Then he established the Association of Mages of the Republic of Northwest. To exalt the younger generations, he held many rounds open classes and took in many disciples. His disciples gradually grew up and all achieved their own successes. Satan himself, with the help of His Majesty, the Void Mask, stepped up into the Legendary Realm. He continued to refine the purification array while expanding the scope of the purification array in Ashes Woods with the help of the power of the entire country. And he also set up spell nodes around the place. Now, everything was finally properly set up and ready to commence. His power had far exceeded the ordinary ¡°legendary peak¡± a long time ago. If he wanted to, he could have stepped into the Demigod Realm¡ªit was simply borrowing the vast amount of magic stored in the magic tower and nothing more. But he was reluctant to take such a path. From Legendary to Demigod, then from Demigod to a real god, he had to go through two difficult levels. The most important thing was that in the midst of leveling up, a great deal of power of belief had to be consumed. Satan was a proud man. He would never become a god by drawing power from the power of belief. He did not want to be bound by it. If he wanted to be sealed a god, he would only exist by relying on the power of the world to become a truly immortal Nature God! He did not need belief. He did not need the church. He would be truly free and unrestrained. That was what he sought after! So all of this was worth all the preparation and all these years of waiting. He could not help laughing at this thought. Then he turned to look in the direction of the municipal building. On the top floor of the municipal building, Demigod Leon Igor¡¯s aura fell into the mortal world. It was simply as clear as the sun in the sky. But by virtue of his own belief, he could clearly detect the aura of another god who had kept his own aura hidden within that of Leon¡¯s aura. It was a wonderful, incredible, unfathomable, great and admirable jellyfish. Satan laughed again and looked back at the magic plate made of crystals and gemstones that was right in front of him. The magic plate was transparent and reflected the general view of the entire Ashes Woods. There were many big and small golden light rings and countless faint blue light spots on it. The light rings had already formed a purification array, while the light spots were the many nodes set up within the Ashes Woods. The setup of these nodes was completed. They were ready to be activated any moment. According to tradition, when a magician was about to hold a large-scale magic ceremony, he usually required many assistants. He would also need to choose a suitable time. The sun, moon and stars¡­ all had to arrive at a certain appropriate position before the ceremony could be completed. But Satan did not think of these things at all. For him, everything else was secondary. His preparation, as well as confidence, were the keys to success. (It¡¯s now!) When a flash of inspiration suddenly flickered in his heart, he smiled. Taking a deep breath, Satan closed his eyes. Paying no attention to the heavens or the stars, he pressed both hands on the magic plate and without hesitation, he launched the spell. Purification! Countless light rays spurted out from the Ashes Woods and turned into streams of blue light columns that shot right up the sky. When they rose to a certain height, they suddenly burst and cracked apart due to prior set-up arranged within the woods. They became dense lines that connected with each other and formed a massive magic array that enveloped the entire sky of Ashes Woods. This was closely followed by many purification arrays also glowing brilliantly, one after another. The magic that had been stored for a long time was completely stimulated within a split moment. The golden light rays were like little suns falling into the world, but there was not a tinge of scalding sensation. The people within the area could only feel warmth and comfort. Amidst these warm golden light rays, the people who were originally sick recovered speedily and the health of those who were not well was quickly restored. Even those who were handicapped due to various reasons were slowly growing back the parts of their body that they had lost earlier on. Because there had been repeated promotion prior to the commencement of the purification process, the people were considerably calm. Their reactions were full of shouts of surprise and praise, especially those who had benefited were¡ªthey were all the more full of praise for the purification process. There were two reasons as to why the people could remain composed in the face of such a strange sight. One was because there was good publicity prior to the commencement of purification. Two was also because Sui Xiong had given them prior warning¡ªover the past few days, Sui Xiong often transformed into a giant beast and flew high above the Republic of Northwest to get everyone accustomed to such an intriguing sight. However, it was purely accidental regarding attracting a large number of followers when he was flying around. Thanks to the preventive measures put in place via a multi-pronged approach, the people of the Republic of Northwest could cope with the strange occurrences without flustering now. If it had been another country, seeing such a massive scene would probably have thrown the people into frenzied chaos. A moment later, a blue curtain of light descended from the sky and slowly fell to the ground. With every bit of distance covered along the way down, its color became a little brighter. The more it fell, the slower its speed and the brighter and clearer its color became. When it was less than a hundred meters from the ground, its color had turned from blue to gold and was no different from the light rays of the purification array. A massive curtain of light enshrouded the entire Ashes Woods. The hills, fields, rivers, valleys, forests, deserts, snowfields, marshes¡­ everything was enveloped within it. There was no exception at all. The curtain of light fell slowly. Gradually, more golden light spots were seen falling like rain drops, looking just like a light golden drizzle raining down on the ground. Amidst this golden drizzle, the blackness that pervaded the entire Ashes Woods was slowly fading. This was the power of purification. Chapter 910 Chapter 910: Purification (Part 3) The golden drizzle slowly sprinkled down. The black gas enshrouding the ground slowly faded away. At this moment, countless magic beasts were roaring and panicking. Dead souls, who seldom appeared during the day, were rushing out from underground in a frenzy and were spewing out black smoke with all their might. That was a thick and rich negative energy, something that was as important as their blood and life. Despite their low intelligence level, these magic beasts who were infected by the negative energy, as well as the dead souls, did still have the basic instinct for sensing danger. Their instincts were telling them that a great crisis was about to happen soon. At this moment, they were left with no other choice but to fight this crisis with all their might. But it was useless. Satan had been preparing for this moment for decades, during which the patrol team of the Republic of Northwest had already eliminated or expelled all the truly powerful magic beasts from Ashes Woods. They had taken care of all these magic beasts well. And those powerful dead souls were all caught by the legendary mage, Tu Ya¡¯an, who specialized in Dead Soul Spells. He did not leave out a single one, and all these dead souls were now locked up in a cage underground of Pit Tree Town. Without this mainstay, the weak magic beasts and dead souls were simply unable to prevent the fall of the purification arrays. The curtain of light fell. The first thing that came into contact with it were those plants and magic beasts on the higher grounds. Amidst the golden light rays, the black plants automatically moved though there was no wind. And amidst the golden light rays, the magic beasts trembled. Amazingly, be it those plants that had already been infected and thus changed color, or the magic beasts who had mutated because of the negative energy, no one died. On the contrary, they quickly got through the purification process and started to undergo some wonderful changes. The leaves of the plants were gradually turning green. The bodies of the magic beasts no longer exuded the aura of negative energy. The withering tree barks were thickening again, and the dry skins of the beasts were slowly becoming smooth and lubricous. After the curtain of golden light had passed beneath them and swept through them all over, would there still be any contaminated black vegetation and strange magic beasts that were half-dead souls left on the hills? There were only innumerable luxuriant and green trees, long stretches of shady grass and the ordinary magic beasts who slept drowsily within the grass among the trees. Upon taking a closer look, one could see that there were still traces of black patterns on the tree barks, grass stems and beasts¡¯ fur. These were traces left on them due to being subjected to the influence of the negative energy for such a long time. These traces would not have any dire consequences, nothing more than coloration. The curtain of golden light continued to fall. More and more areas were being purified. On the high mountain outside Ashes Woods, the Snow Elephant King, who managed to ascend the high mountain with Sui Xiong¡¯s help, was watching the changes in the woods. He let out shouts of joy. Although with its strong power, it was not afraid of being eroded by the negative energy, but as a living creature, it still preferred to have a normal environment after all. Grass and tree leaves without negative energy were tastier. Stones without negative energy made more comfortable beds. Likewise for snow. Snow without negative energy also gave a more pleasant feeling than that which was contaminated with negative energy. The curtain of light continued to descend. Gradually, almost the entire Ashes Woods had already changed color. The Great Marsh was located in the deepest part of the forest. Because of its low-lying terrains, it was the last to be enshrouded by the purification array. A giant slime monster, which had long been forewarned, straightened its body. As this body usually crawled and squirmed on the ground, it was rare to see it become an almost vertical gray mud column that pointed towards the sky. It was trying its best to be the earliest one to establish contact with the curtain of light. When the curtain of light touched its body, the giant slime monster trembled very violently. It was apparent that the slime monster was in agony, but it was determined not to back off and allowed its body to be submerged by the golden light rays as though they were flowing water. When the curtain of light fell on the ground of the Great Marsh, the inhabitants, who long had crawled out of the caves, raised their hands high to welcome the power of purification. The golden light rays fell upon their bodies and made them all tremble as well. These people had long transformed into strange half-fish and half-beast shapes. By the time the curtain of light finally disappeared deep into the ground, the appearance of everything in the Great Marsh had changed. The gray marsh was now a scene of greenery. There was verdure spreading and trailing all over the ground. The place was full of vitality. In this vibrant marsh, a giant covered in mud was looking up at the sky. It had an angular face that was full of resolve. And on the ground beneath its feet, a group of people, who were similarly covered in mud, were looking at each other. They were all laughing heartily. Likewise, there were still some incredible marks on their bodies¡ªfor example, on their faces, there were some rock-like patterns while their legs were like the webbed flippers of frogs. But in general, they were now human-like and no longer looked or gave the vibe of monsters. They frolicked for a little, then began to worship the giant. They were singing praises loudly as they worshipped it. Amidst their songs of praise, the giant opened its month and began to laugh too. Its laughter was very powerful, as though it could penetrate the clouds. Together with its laughter, its body was also glowing. It was radiating golden green light rays. A shadow flashed across the sky, and Sui Xiong¡¯s figure appeared in front of it and smiled at it. ¡°Congratulations, ¡®Skeleton Devourer,¡¯ Junior,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°You are thereupon welcome to the rank of gods.¡± The giant smiled in response and replied in a voice that sounded like dull thunder, ¡°I¡¯m now a member of the Void God System. I¡¯m Junior, the ¡®Guardian of the Green Marshes.''¡± ¡°Yes, welcome to the Void God System. You are definitely going to love our environment here.¡± Sui Xiong answered with a smile. Just then, his face changed slightly as he looked down at the ground. ¡°My apologies. I have something to tend to. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± ¡°Go ahead. You still have to clean up that old thing underground!¡± Sui Xiong smiled and nodded. Then he transformed into a stream of flowing light and rushed into the ground. A moment later, the earth shook violently and yet, the verdure, animals, pedestrians, buildings and such on the ground¡­ nothing was affected. It was all extremely strange. Satan had already opened his eyes. His body was now continuously emitting golden light spots, as though there was a huge golden fountain hidden within him. His eyes, equally golden, were gazing at the magic plate. In the middle of the magic plate, a huge black shadow was slowly emerging. That was an ancient god who had once been buried here, thus polluting the vast earth and turning the northwest region of the Main Plane into a forbidden zone for living creatures. A¡­ grim reaper from the ancient times. Satan wanted to purify Ashes Woods, and by virtue of this meritorious contribution, he aimed to be sealed as a god. One of the important knacks was to extract and transform his power, then turn it into the key driving force for him to step into the realm of gods. And the greatest danger of all came from the will of the ancient gods that might not have completely dissipated. But Satan had never worried about this. He firmly believed that His Majesty, the Void Mask, was definitely much more powerful than that ancient god who had been dead for ages! Sui Xiong did not let him down. After only a minute or two, the earth was calm again. The black shadow on the magic plane completely vanished. But there was eruption of this mainstay and amazing powers from underground that moved along the route that was already laid out. They came from all directions and converged as they entered the magic tower where they all condensed on Satan. Within an instant, he almost became a heap of golden light rays. The next moment, a somewhat old yet confident voice resounded throughout the entire Main Plane, as well as several other worlds around it. ¡°I¡¯m the ¡®God of Purification,¡¯ Satan. I will try my best to salvage those places that have been polluted and eroded and which are not conducive to the reproduction of living creatures so that they can be purified.¡± In the Pantheon Temple, two seats were added in succession. Chapter 911 Chapter 911: The Root of the Matter (Part 1) The fact that Satan and Junior had become gods was completely expected by Sui Xiong. For Satan, it was to be expected. He had spent the last few years preparing to become a god, especially with his will to defeat all the ancient gods. That had given him the final, critical strength to become a god, and this was ensured by Sui Xiong himself. On the other hand, although Junior was not particularly expressive on a daily basis, he still had extremely strong underlying powers. If one wanted proof of his strength, they could reference how he had managed to convert the Great Marsh in Ashes Forest into an awe-inspiring, independent world. He was already stronger than the demigod level. That Great Marsh already had the vibe and structure of a God Kingdom, after all! ¡°Skeleton Devourer¡± Junior was one of the strongest living creatures on the Main Plane. This was so despite the fact that he was just a legendary monster and was not even counted as a demigod yet. This was mostly because he was dragged down by his weakness of having low intelligence. In this world, gods that were low in intelligence definitely existed. However, normally, to become a demigod, let alone a real god, it was better to have higher intelligence. One did not need to be a genius, but they could not be too stupid either. Even if they were rather mediocre, they should at least have the intelligence level of a child back on Earth. If they were really extremely stupid and at a similar intelligence level of Slime, it was not likely that they would advance in rank. Junior had always been disadvantaged by his low intelligence. No one could deny that he was strong, but yet he was unable to truly utilize his powers to his full potential. Instead, his powers were scattered and messy, akin to a giant, malleable structure. It could be said that its shape resembled that of a giant. This time, Satan had wanted to purify the entire Ashes Forest and had naturally consulted the various daxies who lived in Ashes Forest. The Snow Elephant King did not have much of an opinion towards this, but he did not wish to be purified personally. He was a careful person by nature and did not like to take risks. He thus chose to travel out into the deep corners of the Bare Mountains and leave the scope of the purification array to prevent any incidents from happening. On the other hand, Junior had chosen to stay and tried to use the purification array¡¯s energy to sort his own powers, hoping to see some positive results. Clearly, his choice had been a good one. This ¡°Skeleton Devourer¡± had previously been burdened by his messy powers due to the main reason that he had been infected by negative energy. This time, with the help of the purification array, the negative energy within him was dissipated, and he managed to retrieve all the intelligence a demigod should possess. Junior then managed to organize his own powers, adjust his state of mind and become a mud giant within the Great Marsh. That was not all! After Junior converted into a mud giant, he immediately used up all the energy he had gathered from the power of faith to obtain for himself a priesthood of ¡°green swamp patron saint.¡± The ¡°green swamp¡± here was of course referring to this piece of Great Marsh. He had created this Great Marsh and had always been tending to it. He thus managed to successfully gain this title of patron saint due to his previous achievements. Although this priesthood was not too high in status, it arguably still attained the level of weak Divine Power and was comparable to that of Dragon Tribe¡¯s ¡°red dragon treasure chest¡¯s construction¡± type of priesthood. However, he was nevertheless still a real god now. Real gods were immortal. Even if they fell from their position, they could still undergo rebirth through faith. This was especially so for gods like Junior, who were nature-based and used faith as a supplement. Unless he sought his own death and went to create chaotic news, as long as the land still existed, it would eventually become a marsh again, and he would be able to undergo rebirth here. This was still so even if Junior got destroyed along with the entire green swamp. Of course, if any deity of higher rank destroyed Junior¡¯s priesthood or if any god with a clashing priesthood absorbed Junior¡¯s priesthood, he would truly fall from his position as a god. Many Nature Gods who had fallen had all fallen in this way. Satan had made similar choices to Junior. Although he could ride on his achievements in magic or in the Republic¡¯s magic sect to become a God of Belief, Satan decided to become a Nature God after a period of careful consideration. If they had a choice, a majority of mages would make the same choice to become a Nature God as well. As compared to Gods of Belief, the downside to being a Nature God was that it was slower for them to increase their strength. However, there was the advantage of having more freedom, and it was harder to fall from their positions as gods. For mages, as long as they could have immortality, nothing else was really as important. Limited strength? They could just slowly increase it over time. Limited knowledge? They could slowly accumulate it over time. In comparison, binding themselves to faith just to accelerate the increase of their powers was actually a rather dangerous and foolish thing to do. From human to god, one did not just undergo an increase in strength but also underwent changes in terms of life form. Humans were complicated living creatures, but gods were simpler. Once a god had secured his priesthood, he would mostly only be affected by his priesthood. He was not bound by his priesthood but would have changes in his mindset instead. For example, for a god who determined fire energy to be her priesthood, even if she originally did not hate water and could even perform water-related spells, once she confirmed her priesthood, she would hate water then. Originally, among the four big ancient gods, the first had been God of Fire Elements. He had perished exactly because he had tried to put fire with water and exploded in a giant fireball. Nature Gods had lesser restrictions in such contexts as compared to Gods of Belief. Gods of Belief were changed by their priesthood and were also influenced and bound by the faith of their disciples. If their disciples generally believed that a certain idea was right and the god had not originally agreed, with the movement of time and the influence of faith, the god would eventually change his own mind. The previous Goddess of the Ocean was a negative example that could be used here. Previously, she had been brave in war and had had control over all the big tribes in the ocean. After she had consolidated the faith of all these sea tribes, she had gradually become overly influenced by the faith and eventually converted them into hateful races who. In the end, the reason why she fell was also linked to this conversion in mindset. From the past till now, there were many, many gods who had been bound by their faith and eventually thrown into chaos and eventually fell from their positions. It was because of this that Satan chose to go down the path of a God of Belief despite the inconvenience of the added time needed to prepare and the extra dangers. To this end, he has to go deeper and simpler, reduce the number of times he had social meetings and at the same time, use the state machine to minimize his sense of existence so that the Association of Mages and others would not easily notice him. This was to prevent himself from accumulating too much power based on faith. Satan had suffered much over the past few years. However, the fact that he became a god proved to Satan that his efforts had not been in vain. Being a ¡°god of purification¡± did not just concretize his status as a Nature God, but was also a rather decent priesthood to have. This priesthood would garner the support of many of the other gods and his good friends as Satan would be seen as a protector of the lives of living creatures. Furthermore, this world was extremely big, and there were many places that would require purification all the time. Every time a certain area was purified by Satan, he would be able to gather remuneration from the world¡¯s core as well as the gratitude of the people. In the long term, slowly, Satan¡¯s priesthood would definitely continue to improve, and he would be able to progress from weak Divine Power to low-level Divine Power with relative ease. Such a priesthood was exactly what Satan had wanted! Chapter 912 Chapter 912: The Root of the Issue (Part 2) What was different between Satan and Junior was that unlike Junior, who had gathered enough natural energy, Satan was still lacking a little before he could become a true Nature God. Without Sui Xiong, Satan definitely would not have been able to obtain his priesthood. Even without discussing other matters, just the will needed for this priesthood in resisting those ancient grim reapers was not something that every legendary peak master could muster. Furthermore, the ancient grim reaper who was buried at the lower part of Ashes Forest was not an ordinary character. In the ancient times, he had engaged in conflict with the Goddess of Life over the right way to live life and had even engaged in a large war with her! If not for Sui Xiong¡¯s help, the fact that the purification array had extended into the ancient grim reaper¡¯s body alone and clashed with his remaining will would have killed Satan and taken his life! Furthermore, even if Satan had made the necessary preparations and had enough luck to defeat the will of the faraway ancient grim reaper, he definitely did not have the ability to retrieve the corpse¡¯s preserved Divine Powers and divinity to use as a stepping stone for him to become a god. The reality of the situation was that if not for Sui Xiong¡¯s help, Satan would have died in some far off place long ago, much become an actual god! This was why, after becoming a god, the first thing that Satan did was to head for Sui Xiong¡¯s God Kingdom and took an oath of allegiance to him in his new status as a god. In comparison, Junior was not in such a rush to do so. Although he had similarly committed himself to the Void Mask System, his relationship with Sui Xiong was not so direct, and he would not upgrade it so simply. It was more of like a relationship between an employer and a long-term employee. As long as Sui Xiong treated him well, Junior would naturally invest in and commit to Sui Xiong. However, if there was a day where they had differing views and could not compromise, Junior was free to go his own way and not obliged to stay. This was similar to ¡°Steel Lion¡± Morani¡¯s position in the Orc System in the past. After briefly settling some matters with his disciples and choosing his archbishop to give his church a basic foundation, Junior also set forth to the Sanctuary in Sui Xiong¡¯s God Kingdom to visit the gods in the Void Mask System. However, he did not meet Sui Xiong. Junior merely met his peers in the system as well as Satan, who had rushed here not long ago. ¡°The Void Mask has gone out,¡± the God of Knowledge, Wall, said and smiled bitterly. He could be considered the second leader after the Void Mask in the system. ¡°He said that the corpse¡¯s body was very interesting and had even absorbed the energy that was originally guarding our God Kingdom.¡± Satan was shocked and asked, ¡°That ancient grim reaper¡¯s powers are actually that strong!?¡± ¡°The Void Mask did not go into details, but from his tone and divinity, it doesn¡¯t seem like his normal anxiety and excitement when meeting strong enemies. It¡¯s more like he found some kind of interesting new toy¡­¡± Upon hearing that, Satan was less worried, and everyone waited patiently for Sui Xiong to return. At this very moment, Sui Xiong was traveling Ashes Forest and exploring that ball of white light with rapt interest. This ball of white light was warm and pure, an embodiment of good energy. In the center core of the white light, there was a corpse that only had its upper part left. This half-corpse was pure black and emitted infinite amounts of hatred and evil. It could be likened to a giant fountain that constantly emitted negative energy. Normally, to destroy it completely would require a huge amount of positive energy and waste lots of Divine Power. However, this task was not too daunting for Sui Xiong as he had relatively high levels of power of virtue, which was comparable to and even better than positive energy. This power of virtue would not be demolished when met with negative energy and could lock down negative energy steadily like a sturdy seashell. Sui Xiong used the power of virtue to create a cage and locked the corpse, which was emitting negative energy in it, and took his time to observe it slowly. He had previously heard many details about this god who was buried near Ashes Forest and was familiar with it. This fellow had a unique background and was a leader of the ancient gods. Previously, when he had been active during the Goddess of Life¡¯s time period, he had insisted that death was a solid destination for all living creatures and actively directed all living creatures on this world towards death. This had offended many gods, and he had eventually ended up fighting a large war with the Goddess of Life. That battle had been earth-shattering. Originally, both sides were comparable, and neither side was winning or losing. Afterwards, the Goddess of Life used her ultimate move and shot a beam of white light towards this god, causing the bottom half of his body to disintegrate alongside the full destruction of his divinity. To a god, this was pretty much a full fall from his or her position. This god, facing death with only half his body left, had entered the underground of the northeast of the Main Plane. By right, at that point, the Goddess of Life should have pursued him and ensured the full destruction of the rest of his body. However, without any particular reason, the Goddess of Life had halted her movements and started to prepare a famous enchantment. Once the enchantment was done, the Goddess of Life also disappeared, and the gods were blocked by this enchantment. They were all thus unable to truly gather to give this god the final blow to completely end him. Many gods tried to send their clones, but due to a lack of energy, they were unable to transcend the enchantment. They thus stopped trying, and the matter ended there rather abruptly. The grim reaper had slowly accumulated power in the underground of Ashes Forest and its corpse continued to emit power. This had resulted in the huge amount of ashes that covered the ground, giving Ashes Forest its name. Afterwards, this situation changed as a new grim reaper appeared. This new grim reaper had a different mindset from the old grim reaper. He felt that every living creature was stuck in a cycle of life and that death was only one part of this cycle. The new grim reaper felt that death was not an ending but rather a break in one¡¯s endless journey cycle. Once one had died, they could rest for a while before setting out again, that was all. This new grim reaper¡¯s mindset was welcomed by the gods who celebrated him. Even the mighty Master of Order reached out his hand personally to retrieve a part of the old grim reaper¡¯s powers to bestow upon the new grim reaper. It was at this point that the old grim reaper totally lost the possibility of resurrecting. He could no longer accumulate energy, and the lands that he infected now reached its limit. However, the old grim reaper was still not totally destroyed, and his half corpse lasted till now. ¡°Can you give him to me?¡± Just as Sui Xiong was planning to leave with his prize, with a flash of light, the grim reaper who was wearing a hooded robe and carrying a long sickle materialized and addressed Sui Xiong. ¡°We can negotiate the terms of this arrangement.¡± This did not surprise Sui Xiong. In fact, if the new grim reaper did not appear to attempt to claim back the old grim reaper¡¯s body, he would have been more surprised. Although the new grim reaper had long inherited the old grim reaper¡¯s priesthood, the old grim reaper¡¯s body was still of interest to the new grim reaper for him to increase his knowledge and preserve the remaining divinity left in the body. This did not directly give the new reaper any benefits but at least gave him the inspiration to improve and progress. Of course, it was also possible that since the old grim reaper had fully fallen, that his corpse no longer had any information that the new grim reaper could use. That was actually highly likely considering that he had fallen for so long. However, to the new grim reaper, as long as there was the possibility of progress, it was worth it to spend much money to retain this corpse. Sui Xiong thus smiled a big smile. ¡°Negotiate? I am someone who loves to negotiate,¡± Sui Xiong said cheekily. ¡°However, this is not a good place to conduct negotiations. We should find a place with better atmosphere so we can sit and discuss this matter properly. What do you think?¡± Chapter 913 Chapter 913: The Exchange The fact that there were two new gods, or that Ashes Forest had been purified, or the elimination of the old ancient grim reaper¡­ These were all things that would be the talk of the town and discussed fervently if they had happened in an otherwise uneventful time period. People would discuss these matters for at least three to five years. However, there now was the battle between the Human God System and the Orc God System. This was to be a battle of life and death, and both sides had even gathered their allies, involving at least three-quarters of all the gods inside the Pantheon Temple into this conflict. With such a huge event looming ahead, the previously mentioned matters paled in comparison and were not really discussed anymore. On the other hand, since Sui Xiong had already expressed that he would be a neutral party, the entire the Void Mask System expressed that they too would not participate in the war on either side. There were even some human-based gods who stuck to this stance. Others who similarly chose to abstain from this war included the God of Justice, Yorgaardman. He was also a human by nature and was actually the strongest one out of the all the human-based gods. Many gods were of the opinion that he was one of the contenders in the running for the precious title of ¡°number one of the great Divine Powers.¡± Sui Xiong was also another contender for the same role, alongside other gods such as the God of Light, the God of Fate etc. The Master God of the Orc God System, ¡°Sky Devourer¡± Lefon was generally not considered to be a contender alongside the aforementioned. Although he was definitely powerful, he did not have the wise and far-sighted vibes that gods such as the God of Fate gave off. He also did not have awe-inspiring battle results such as the God of Justice, making it hard for people to generally consider him for this title. If the God of Justice entered the upcoming war and stood on the side of the humans, well, the battle would be over even before it began. With the powerful combination of the God of Justice with the God of Light, the Orc God System would actually puke blood while fighting them. Furthermore, the Void Mask was a close brother of the God of Justice, and with the addition of the Void Mask, it would be the top three great Divine Powers coming together. All the Orc God System would be able to do would be to try and run as far away as they could without turning back, lest they be beaten to death in horrific ways. However, because of the God of Justice choosing to take on a neutral stance alongside the Void Mask, such an ending would not happen. Although the gods all unanimously agreed that the humans had a very big advantage over the Orcs, they also agreed that this advantage was not big enough to predetermine the battle results. The Orcs could still win if they tried hard. In any case, they all knew it was going to be an intense and callous battle. ¡°The death toll is definitely going to be high¡­¡± Sui Xiong sprawled across the desk in his meeting room and sighed in frustration. ¡°This is why you used the corpse of an old grim reaper to exchange for a mini underworld with the new grim reaper?¡± Yorgaardman glanced at the black light ball that was floating before them with interest. With his Divine Power, he managed to see beyond the light ball¡¯s outer surface and its defenses into the desolate, cold and empty world that it held in its core. He also saw the river that led to this world. Just like how a Chinese saying states that an item could be small but complete, this world was rather small, about three hundred miles in diameter, but it was extremely well-developed. Although one may be frightened when calculating the total surface area, which was more than 70,000 square kilometers, it was not even as big as a municipality on Earth. Of course, when using municipalities as an example, one was referring one such as Chongqing and not Beijing, Tianjin or Shanghai. However, in this tiny world, there was a River Styx and endpoint as well as several doors that one could use to access hell from other worlds. There were even several magical arrays that could allow one to communicate with souls. It would not be exaggerating to say that as long as Sui Xiong could break this world down completely, he would have the power to build an underworld himself and link it directly to the Church of the Void Mask and the lives and deaths within it. Of course, there was little significance in that as this world¡¯s life and death cycle was mainly centered around the fact that souls had to use River Styx to head towards Sea of Souls before going through the Big Circulation to regroup their physical body parts and be reborn. Even if Sui Xiong used his own abilities to recreate a similar cycle, that was widely spoken about on Earth, he would still lack the key parts. This created cycle would be able to allow for the rebirth of the dead, but it would not be able to solve the issue of the dead¡¯s soul slowly becoming hollow. If it were just once or twice, it may not be obvious, but with more and more conversions through the cycle, one would realize that the converted soul was weaker than that of normal people, and this would cause many issues for that person. Sui Xiong thus did not intend to create such a cycle himself but merely wanted to conduct some personal research out of curiosity. ¡°This grim reaper was really rather kind.¡± As he glanced at a random finger that was floating within the light ball¡¯s world, Sui Xiong laughed cheekily. ¡°Not only did he give me a complete underworld, but he also left me one cut of the corpse of the previous grim reaper. Although this is a small portion of it, since I¡¯m just using it for research, it is more than enough!¡± ¡°What do you want to conduct research in this area for, though?¡± the God of War, Wenner, asked curiously. ¡°I remember you are one who previously mixed around with the Chaotic Good camp. Issues like death seem to be rather contradictory to that!¡± Just as Wenner had mentioned, death definitely didn¡¯t belong to the chaotic or the good category. In fact, the previous grim reaper had been a part of the Evil Camp, and the current grim reaper was a part of the Neutral Camp. As someone who was a part of the Chaotic Good Camp, regardless of how much he examined the topic of death, Sui Xiong would never be able to gain a priesthood in this area. Death was serious and solemn, and it was also cold and cruel. For people like Sui Xiong, who was always smiling and constantly helping the less fortunate, he could possibly harness the power of death, but he would never truly be able to understand the concept of death. On the other hand, Wenner had carried out research on death before as death and war were two concepts that were closely related. As the God of War, he had a certain level of knowledge on the topic of death after conducting his research. If one did not consider the formal grim reapers, the God of War was possibly the next god in line with the greatest understanding of death. As Wenner glanced at the black light ball that floated in front of everyone, his eyes shone, and he had already instinctively used his existing knowledge on death to carefully analyze the world inside. Although he did not want to admit it, Wenner still forced himself to admit aloud that the grim reaper¡¯s abilities were still a level above his. While this world was not big, he was definitely unable to recreate it or make a world of this level. Wenner was thus even more curious as to why Sui Xiong wanted to possess such a world. ¡°I don¡¯t intend to use it for much. It¡¯s just like a toy to me.¡± Wenner didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry at Sui Xiong¡¯s casual reply. ¡°After all, I don¡¯t have many things that I desire right now. That corpse meant little to me as well. Since he wanted it, I used the chance to exchange the corpse for a world for me to play with.¡± With that, Sui Xiong reached out one of his tentacles and permeated through to the empty and hollow world. He carefully touched the surface of River Styx and quickly pulled back. Glancing at his tentacle, which was now black and murky from River Styx¡¯s water, he mused to himself quietly. ¡°The most valuable thing in this world to me is River Styx. I¡¯ve always wanted to explore it, and now I can.¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t you just go directly to River Styx to do that?¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s not a very good idea to casually enter others¡¯ territory,¡± Sui Xiong smiled and replied. ¡°Furthermore, even with my level of skill, I may not be able to defeat the grim reaper if I were to be at River Styx.¡± At the end of the day, Sui Xiong was still paranoid about his own safety. Now that he had a mini underworld of his own, he could explore River Styx without being fearful. Furthermore, after he had completed his research, he could even renovate this tiny world and embed it within his own God Kingdom. A God Kingdom could only be said to be fully complete if it had its own underworld! Chapter 914 Chapter 914: Mountain Expedition Just as Sui Xiong was carefully exploring the small underworld, both the humans and Orcs on the Main Plane had almost finished with their preparations as well. The humans had already gathered and amassed over one hundred thousand troops. They were all young and nimble lads, and all of them were equipped fully with uniforms and weapons. They had even followed the latest method of training and had gone through intensive exercises to prepare for this battle. These people were all well trained, well-armed and only required a little bit more of training to become outstanding soldiers. These hundreds of thousands of troops were not the typical men who usually kept order in the streets. They were actual talents who were made to be soldiers, and they were many resources directed towards them. There were servants who tended to them and made sure they had the right equipment and safety precautions in place. All the human countries on the Main Plane had sent out their best men and all sorts of resources were being conserved or converted into useful items for war and constantly shipped to the frontline. These troops wanted to utilize an all-out battle strategy, which required a giant and expansive battleground. There weren¡¯t many battlegrounds like these available, and the only suitable one was in the northeast area of the Main Plane. This was the border between the Orc Empire and the Kingdom of Light. The border between the Orc Empire and the Kingdom of Light was a vast, sprawling field. This piece of land was not well known and did not have much infrastructure. It was basically empty and barren. However, once the humans had established their country, they had continuously built and developed this land, building up a sturdy city wall, several outposts, several fortresses, several other blocks of city wall and finally a giant defense system. As compared to the Great Wall of China back on Earth, this defense system that was built on the plains and hills was definitely much more complicated. There were also many soldiers permanently stationed here. To cater to their needs, there were many small villages situated along the east side of the defense system, and there were at least about two million people who lived in these villages. The human countries also continuously rendered support to allow for this defense system to stay afloat. If the Orcs had wanted to ever invade the humans previously, they would never try to go against this defense system and would instead choose to attack Eagle Kingdom instead, despite it being a more dangerous terrain. To the Orcs, the danger of terrain could be overcome with bravery and skills of the troops. However, the defense system at the border that was filled with humans was a barrier that was definitely harder to conquer. In fact, it was seen as almost impossible. This was the logic that the dangers of a territory lay in its manpower and not its natural dangers, and this case study proved this theory well. Similar to the Great Wall of China, the humans and the Orcs¡¯ area of control was not this border. In actuality, the humans¡¯ control area extended to about 200 or 300 miles west of the border. The humans had built several outposts and cities here. These outposts and cities were trading posts for the humans and the Orcs. During wartime, it was the frontier post for the frontline troops and small scale battles. The huge number of human troops all thus headed now towards this frontier post. As for the Orcs¡¯ troops, they had yet to be assembled yet. This was not due to the fact that they had no ability to mobilize their troops. It was more of the fact that their troops had not been fed and developed well enough. They could not copy the humans and send a massive number of troops to the frontier post to either train or eat plentifully. Although the various Orc gods had provided lots of goods and resources for the Orcs, to allow for all the troops to go through intensive training was something that was beyond their capabilities. The Master of Order did not allow the gods to intervene too much in the peoples¡¯ lives, and the desire of the Orc gods to confiscate food and resources from other worlds to share with the Orcs troops was crossing the line in his eyes. The Orc troops thus had no choice but to scatter themselves along the east side of the big grass field and work in farms to grow their own food while waiting for the war to start or for the enemy to approach. The difference in development and literacy could now be clearly seen between the humans and the Orcs. If everything went smoothly without any surprise intervention, everyone would assume that the Orcs were doomed to lose this war. The humans had handpicked troops who were well trained and well-armed. There were tens of thousands of them, and they were all energized and ready. On the other hand, the Orc troops had to tend to the farms while they trained and were struggling to be self-sufficient. Their skill levels were uneven and not consistent. More than one scholar who did research in war history predicted that once the war between the humans and the Orcs commenced, the Orc troops may lose during the first wave of battle only as they would probably be massacred. Of course, all these scholars were, however, humans, which would have contributed to their extreme view. The Orcs, on the other hand, had a different view. They insisted on the belief that they were strong and looked down on the smaller humans. All along, they had won more battles than they lost with the humans, and this gave them confidence for the battle ahead now. This time, the Orc Empire had truly given their all in terms of mobilization, and they felt that they had a good chance of winning. Even in the previous battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, the Orc Empire had not even mobilized that many troops. This time, however, they had rounded up almost every soldier who was ready to fight to send into battle. Furthermore, within their armies, there were soldiers of other races. For example, there were supporting troops from the dwarf and elf race as well as those from the Great Marsh. There were even a few troops from races such as the pygmies. These were just but a few of the supporting solider types that made up their Orc army. The fact that the humans had tried to fully defeat the Orcs made them seem like the biggest bullies on the Main Plane. This had created an advantage for the Orcs as there were now many races willing to step up and fight against the humans alongside the Orcs. If ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius had arrived at this time and seen the troops on the side of the Orcs, he probably would have uttered something along the lines of, ¡°A just cause gains great support; an unjust one gains little.¡± Although the Orcs had a lot of ¡°support,¡± there was still no denying the fact that the humans were still stronger overall. Of course, during this period of time, both the human and the Orcs¡¯ higher-ups did not simply rest on their laurels. They both understood that the real deciding factor of the outcome of this battle was not the fighting skills of the many troops below them but rather their battle strategy and decisions. Legendary Masters of various races that were allies of the Orcs had already gathered on the big grass plains, and there were more than 100 of them. They trained under the Orcs¡¯ demigods and continuously developed and improved themselves every day. They aimed to reach a higher level of skill by the time the war started so they could showcase their skills better against the enemy. As for the human side, their Legendary Masters had also all gathered and were similarly trying to make use of all the remaining time they had to train hard. As for those of an even higher level, both sides had not mobilized them in big batches, but everyone understood that when both sides actually started the battle, the demigods would appear and participate as well, adding to the intensity and cruelty of the war. As time passed day by day, the new year soon came about. This year¡¯s new year was not celebrated by either side. Both the humans and the Orcs were making their final preparations, and they wished that they had one or two more days to get ready. Even the Republic of Northwest, which was neutral, had a tense atmosphere within the country due to the war looming ahead. There were considerably lesser new year activities as no one was really in the right mood for it. In Void Mask City, there was even a cold, hollow feeling in the air. However, such an atmosphere did not last long. On the 10th day of the new year, both sides¡¯ troops were finally activated. If one viewed this sight from the sky, it would be akin to seeing two giant groups of shadows slowly moving closer together. At the same time, both sides rushed forward with intensity and set out from the hills and plains. These people were the demigods who had hidden away in both camps for many years. With the start of the great battle, they obligingly left their hiding places to come forth and participate. Chapter 915 Chapter 915: The Start of the Battle (Part 1) To the north of the Main Plane was the Hirose grassland that the Orc Empire had taken over. Originally, this grassland had hills and water, as well as canyons and other natural features. One of the canyons seemed insignificant but was actually extremely deep, deeper than one would imagine. If one walked along the canyon and explored it, one would require an extremely long period of time to reach the base of the canyon. If one made some calculations, they would realize that the height of the canyon¡¯s base was deeper than that of certain parts of the sea! According to logic, this deep base of the canyon should be dark and filled with strange rocks. However, this wasn¡¯t so. The base of the canyon was actually a piece of flat grassland, and there was sunlight in the day and stars during the night. If one was unable to see the canyon walls in the distance, one would even think that he or she was standing in an original grassland on normal flatland! All this was of course the work of the Great God. The Maine Plane¡¯s magic was scattered depending on the area. At sea level, it was the lowest, and it increased if you moved upwards or downwards. This was why the skies and the underground had the thickest concentration of magic. This canyon extended deep into the underground, and naturally, the concentration of magic was definitely extremely high. This was most suitable for the legendary and powerful living creatures to reside at. This was why when the various Orc gods had discovered this place, they had developed it intensively and made it their home. New Orc gods tended to live here for a period of time. Before the Goddess of Life had constructed the Main Plane¡¯s enchantment, this was the most suitable place for all Orc gods to live in. Afterwards, this place became the Orcs¡¯ holy ground. Up till now, there were still Orc gods who lived here. As long as they did not yet have low-level Divine Power, the gods could still roam freely on the Main Plane. The Orc god who currently stayed here were the Fox people¡¯s God of Temperance. He had been a god for about 500 years and was the youngest amongst the Orc gods. Ever since he had become a god, he had taken over from the previous resident here and became the protector of this holy ground. For those who were familiar with this place, this average-sized canyon field had an awe-inspiring name: the Divine Temple. The ¡°Divine Temple¡± of the Orcs were not like those in illustrated comics with looming temples and mystical zodiacs. Other than a spacious lobby that overlooked the skies, there were only a few scattered grass houses. Those who had reached the legendary peak and wanted to take a step further to enter the Demigod Realm or those who had become demigods but who were used to training and did not want to enter the outer world resided in these tattered and run-down grass houses. Other than spending their days meditating and training, these people enjoyed the peace of this place where there were little disturbances. There were also some gods who became teachers and discussed skills with their peers of similar skill level. This place was extremely suitable for training oneself, after all. However, training was still ultimately a process and not a goal. The Orc Legendary Masters continually underwent training not just to become strong but also for the secondary purpose of preparing for war. Training and increasing in strength was how they would perform well in war. Now, such a war had come. The grass houses¡¯ doors swung open, and several white-haired but sharp-eyed Orcs emerged from these houses. They gathered in the lobby overlooking the skies and glanced at a god who was faintly emitting light in the sky. Once the Orcs had all gathered, this young god nodded his head and asked, ¡°Are you ready?¡± ¡°We are ready!¡± ¡°We can enter the battle anytime!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t wait to cut a few humans¡¯ brains and heads off!¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m salivating at the thought of fresh human blood!¡± The gods answered in a flurry with random battlecries, increasing the morale and spirit of the entire group. As a god who used rational temperance as a teaching value, he smiled and waved his hands lightly. A light breeze began to arise from the ground. Although it wasn¡¯t strong, it wrapped around all the Legendary Masters and demigods, flying them all towards the entrance of the canyon. Once they had passed the enchantment that surrounded the Divine Temple, these powerful Orcs all felt momentum waft thickly from their bodies. The energy that had been suppressed all along by the enchantment was now freed and floating around freely, splitting rock walls on either side of the Orcs into two. These smithereens of rocks continuously flowed down and became powder that flew up in the air due to the Orcs¡¯ momentum and swirled in the sky. From far, it would seem as if there was a giant tornado rising from the canyon¡¯s base, rushing towards the sky. Almost at the same time, a shaft of bright divine light was cast upon the Mountain of Broken Clouds¡¯ summit. This mountain with the name of ¡°Mountain of Broken Clouds¡± as its nickname was the highest mountain on the Main Plane. It was comparable to the Himalayas on Earth and was even taller than that. Previously, there was Dragon Mountain, which could compare with the Mountain of Broken Clouds. However, Dragon Mountain¡¯s summit was now hidden due to the magic of Johan and the dragon tribe. To ordinary people, the summit of Dragon Mountain was now lower than that of the Mountain of Broken Clouds¡¯, and as long as one was mid-level and above, one could ascend it easily. As for the Mountain of Broken Clouds¡­ those below the legendary level would never dream of climbing it. The Mountain of Broken Clouds¡¯ summit was where the magic on the Main Plane was most intense. It was naturally the best place for one to train on in this world. From the past till now, there were a few people who had wished to transcend from legendary to demigod or demigods who were unwilling to leave the Human Realm, and so they all lived here. Some of them had grudges against each other, and with these grudges came countless fights along the river that surrounded that mountain peak. Towards the end, the Legendary Masters, who were human, had used their many advantages to successfully secure the peak for themselves and named it ¡°God Mountain.¡± As compared to the Orcs on Divine Temple, the humans of God Mountain had also been training hard here. However, as compared to Divine Temple where there were rules and regulations in place, the humans were a bit more flexible and messy. They were also less well known, and many were unaware of such a place. Even Leon Igor, who was born a prince and had traveled alone for several years was only aware of this place after he had entered the Legendary Realm and had tried to climb to the peak of Mountain of Broken Clouds out of curiosity. He had heard of it from one of the senior Legendary Masters who was living on God Mountain at that time. For many years, these Legendary Masters who lived on God Mountain isolated themselves and did not venture out. As compared to the thick concentration of magic on God Mountain, the thin concentration of magic on the ground was very uncomfortable for them. It was like how those who were used to the low levels of oxygen would be uncomfortable when they went to a higher altitude place regardless of whether they were well-nourished or not. However, today, everyone had no choice but to leave God Mountain. Since the human gods requested their aid, they had to go to participate in the battle. Their age-old enemies had also come out of isolation, and there were the human matters that needed their help. They thus stepped up to face the legendary-level Orcs who they had battled countless times and had several tales about. Many stone rooms which were so sturdy that tornadoes and beasts could not tear it apart slowly became powder, and they all swirled around as many shadows that seemed messy but were actually strong gathered at the peak of the mountain in front of a shaft of divine light. This was one of the God of Knights¡¯ successors, one of the eight Goddesses of Virtue, the Goddess of Bravery. Towards the legendary humans, who had high spirits now, the silver-haired goddess did not speak but simply used the sword in her hand to point towards the east, towards the giant grassland. Chapter 916 Chapter 916: The Start of the Battle (Part 2) The direction that the goddess had pointed her sword at was of course that of the Orcs¡¯ Divine Temple. With the wave of her sword, the chaos in the skies quieted down, and the dust and condensation in the air were dismissed. A path that was crystal clear and huge appeared, directly linking God Mountain and the Divine Temple. The demigods smiled and turned to glance in the direction that the goddess was pointing at. At the same time, the demigods of the Orcs were also glancing in the direction of the Mountain of Broken Clouds. Even with the gap of thousands of mountains and rivers, these masters¡¯ gazes met, and their opposing fighting spirits could be felt. This created tensions and sparks in the air. ¡°Don¡¯t be agitated by them.¡± A god who had a furry, long tail and foxy ears smiled slightly. ¡°The war is going to begin soon. Everyone is already pumped up, so now we have to stay calm.¡± The Orcs then reduced the tension by glancing away and began calming themselves and their aura down. Just as this young god had said, the Orcs never lacked battle spirit. Rather, the problem they often had was that they were too hot-headed and often fought without thought, landing themselves in traps too easily. On the other hand, the legendary humans were beaming with battle-confident smiles under the divine light of bravery that the goddess emitted. The Orcs and humans were exact opposites. The humans who had managed to enter the legendary peak were mostly those who were calm and rational. Although this allowed them to cleverly utilize and showcase their skills, it made it hard for them to up their intensity in war and reach their peak level of skill when it was necessary for them to do so. Both sides were clear of the opposing side¡¯s situation. This was why the leader of the Orcs¡¯ side was the God of Temperance while the leader of the humans¡¯ side was the Goddess of Bravery. Unlike the rest, the two gods took careful measures to avoid each other¡¯s gaze and did not stare at each other. This was not because they lacked fighting spirit but rather because they were aware that once their gazes met, it would be the time for the ceaseless battle to start. Their battleground was destined to be out of the Human Realm, outside of the Main Plane. There was a void that was vast and at a distance that a mid-level god would take one day to travel to from the Main Plane. This void was originally created by the humans, and it originally housed several worlds of different sizes. Now, since they had all migrated or moved away, there was only an empty void left with nothing in it. Two giant balls of aura traveled simultaneously towards this void. If one were to look closely, within each aura, there was a giant ball structure; it was the God Kingdoms of the human gods and the Orc gods. Towards the life and death battle that was about to take place, both sides had invested great determination and even moved their God Kingdom over. God Kingdoms were the basis of the gods and the god systems. They were irreplaceable and valuable sources of energy and could produce infinite amounts of Oracles and could even allow gods who had died in battle to resurrect. Most importantly, God Kingdoms by nature were also extremely powerful weapons. The easiest way to use them was through collision. Bang! The collision of the two God Kingdoms was the last and most powerful move of the gods when they battled. It could even determine the fate of the entire battle. With one bang, the results of the war would be determined. The victor would definitely triumph, and the loser would definitely die. The most common result was that both sides would perish together. ¡°The various Orc gods have brought their God Kingdom over, could they possibly be thinking of using the collision strategy?¡± As Sui Xiong glanced at the two God Kingdoms, which had been temporarily shrunk but still majestic, he couldn¡¯t help but spit out some saliva in shock. ¡°What is the Human God System doing? Why are they taking such a gamble?¡± ¡°Going with and without their God Kingdom makes a big difference.¡± The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, glanced at the two giant God Kingdoms inching towards each other and sighed lightly. ¡°Don¡¯t think that the humans have a huge advantage and can afford to be complacent. Without bringing over their God Kingdom, by facing the God Kingdom of the Orcs with troops alone, they could possibly lose.¡± ¡°What if the Orcs feel that they are about to lose and decide to use the collision strategy?¡± Sui Xiong asked worriedly. ¡°Well, if that happens, we have no choice but to allow it to be so. The humans can¡¯t possibly leave their God Kingdom behind out of paranoia.¡± The God of War, Wenner, smiled slightly and said. ¡°Without their God Kingdom, they will surely lose. With it, they may win. Be it a weak victory, it¡¯s still better than a loss.¡± Sui Xiong and the other present gods nodded. The evil gods smiled as they felt that no matter what, this battle could bring some benefits to them. On the other hand, the good gods sighed as they mourned the impending loss of several lives and gods. Under the watchful gaze of the gods, the two God Kingdoms gradually approached each other. One could see that the ¡°aura¡± that surrounded both God Kingdoms was not actually an aura but rather the Oracle troops. There¡¯s a saying on Earth that if there was more than ten thousand people, the group would look infinite in numbers. With the gathering of the human and Orc troops, the entire scene looked like there was an uncountable number of people present. If they had sent more troops, they would even block out all sunlight. From the sky, it seemed as if there was a huge, angry mob that had appeared on the ground. As compared to the Oracle troops gathered here, the normal troops were not worth mentioning anymore. How many Oracles did both sides have?! Even the most experienced gods were unable to tell. Everyone could only glance at the infinite number of Oracles rushing out from both sides¡¯ God Kingdoms, surrounding each other in circles. Finally, these Oracles merged into two separate auras, and it was similar to a halo comprising of gravel and ice in the universe. The Orc God System¡¯s God Kingdom and the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom were both extremely big. If one were to compare the two God Kingdoms to plants in the universe, the planets would look like little brothers in comparison. As for both sides¡¯ Oracle troops, they had become glowing auras that surrounded the two God Kingdoms. ¡°How many Oracles are there!¡± a god gasped in surprise. ¡°If so many Oracles rush up against each other at once, many gods will be killed instantly¡­¡± The gods were all silent in mutual agreement. No one dared to voice out a differing opinion given the situation at hand. Normally, gods and Oracles differed greatly. Even if thousands of Oracles worked together, they would not be able to defeat a god. However, we were not talking about thousands of Oracles here. What about tens out thousands, hundreds of thousands, thousands upon thousands of Oracles? There were even millions, trillions, gazillions of Oracles here, and more¡­ With this great amassing of Oracles, they would definitely be a huge, united force to be reckoned with. Even with the support of gods, these Oracles could definitely force many gods to retreat or beg for mercy. ¡°Such a battle will only involve those with Divine Powers. Those of mid-level and below won¡¯t dare to join in,¡± the God of War said. The gods nodded. Against such large Oracle troops, even mid-levels would run for their lives quickly. Only Divine Powers beyond one¡¯s imagination had the ability to stay and fight. One could also say that from the start, this battle had already become one between the Divine Powers, and they would be the ones determining the fate of the humans and Orcs. Chapter 917 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom, Light Plain, rose in the sky, and two other large shadows rose as well. One was the God of Vagrants, who was dressed in gleaming gold armor and holding a sharp holy sword in his hand. The other was the God of Protection, who was dressed in all black armor and holding a giant shield that was bigger than him. These two figures were famous Divine Powers within the Human God System. However, their leader, the strongest amongst the human gods, the God of Light, Wuther Rang, did not appear alongside them. On the other hand, the skies of the Orc God System¡¯s God Kingdom, the ¡°Endless Field¡± was empty, and no shadow was to be found. ¡°What are the Orcs doing? ¡°Do they not intend to send out any Divine Powers?¡± ¡°Are the humans planning to cause a watershed? The God of Light is not taking any action.¡± ¡°The Orcs¡¯ supporting troops are absent as well.¡± The on looking gods discussed the matter fervently with each other. Sui Xiong glanced suspiciously at the two God Kingdoms, which were still slowly approaching each other. His eyes narrowed into slits and some assumptions about the situation came creeping into his head. He turned to look at the God of War, Wenner, who was similarly staring at the two God Kingdoms. An undisguised smile was plastered on Wenner¡¯s face, a cruel but joyful smile. Sui Xiong¡¯s heart lurched, and he could somewhat guess what Wenner¡¯s smile was about. He asked in a low voice, ¡°How¡­ do they plan to fight this war?¡± Wenner turned his head and smiled slightly at Sui Xiong. ¡°I see you¡¯ve guessed it too.¡± He was smiling so widely that his eyes had almost disappeared, and he was extremely cheerful. ¡°Well, I might say Lefon is truly the most extraordinary Master God that the Orc God System has seen. I merely gave him a suggestion, but he decided to expand on it.¡± ¡°You¡¯re crazy! I can¡¯t believe you offered him such a suggestion!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not crazy; I merely broke down the situation for him,¡± Wenner replied, smiling. ¡°In this war, if the humans attacked with masses or they matched their respective troops, king for king and soldier for soldier, the Orcs will still be disadvantaged. Since they were seen to be doomed from the start, there was no point in beating around the bush and continue to allow this disadvantage to consume them.¡± ¡°Even so, how could you make such a suggestion?¡± ¡°What else would you suggest they do?¡± Wenner asked in return. ¡°What other method is there other than this for the Orcs to reduce the gap between their race and the humans?¡± Sui Xiong furrowed his brows and was speechless. He of course did not have any other plans in mind as well. If he did, he would not have assumed from the start that the Orcs were doomed to lose. Even so, he could not bring himself to agree with Wenner¡¯s proposed solution. It was true that Wenner¡¯s solution would allow the Orcs to weaken the humans to the maximum and allow them to gain an advantage and hope in the process. Furthermore, if the Orcs utilized Wenner¡¯s solution, even if the Orcs lost, the humans would only achieve a weak victory at best, with lots of bloodshed in the process. This outcome would almost be akin to losing for the humans as they would require tens of thousands of years to recuperate after the war ended. Even with such recuperation, it was also highly possible that they would never regain their current state. As for the Orcs? If they lost, it would be game over for them, and they would not even get to escape even if they wanted to. ¡°You should not have suggested this to them.¡± The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, understood what was going on as well in the conversation between Sui Xiong and Wenner. He furrowed his brow and said, ¡°This idea will cause many unnecessary deaths.¡± ¡°There will always be death in war!¡± God of War laughed uproariously. ¡°Furthermore, from my point of view, the bigger the scale of the war and the more intense it gets, the bigger its impact on this world and the more I stand to gain! Don¡¯t forget, I am the God of War!¡± Towards such a frank and blunt reply, Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman were rather speechless. To the gods, their values were all centered around their priesthood. The perspective of their priesthood was their personal perspective as well. Wenner choosing to take a step back and observe the situation rather than participating directly in the battle was already giving Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman some face. To expect him to remain truly neutral and not offer any assistance to either side was asking for too much. Just at this moment, Sui Xiong had another idea in his mind and asked, ¡°Previously when you trained the new troops with Augmentin, did you also do so under the invitation of the human gods?¡± ¡°You¡¯re overthinking.¡± Wenner smiled and shook his head. ¡°I would not do that behind your back. Although I can¡¯t say that I¡¯m fully innocent, why would I do such things and lie to my master? I¡¯m more trustworthy than that.¡± It was only after Wenner replied that Sui Xiong could relax slightly. However, Wenner continued speaking, ¡°Well, perhaps our original methods were within the God of Light¡¯s plans, though.¡± Sui Xiong was shocked. ¡°What does that mean?¡± ¡°Everyone is familiar with my style. It¡¯s not hard to guess how my reaction was after meeting the new human troops,¡± Wenner said, smiling. Sui Xiong furrowed his brows and glanced at the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom. ¡°The God of Light¡­ what exactly does he plan to do?¡± ¡°Whatever that fellow Wuther wants to do doesn¡¯t really matter.¡± Yorgaardman sighed. ¡°What¡¯s most important now is whether he managed to guess that the Orcs will use such a strategy and whether he has any counter-strategies against it.¡± As he spoke, the distance between the two God Kingdoms became extremely small. The Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom had gradually slowed down, and it seemed like it was about to slow down and expand the frontier. This was a common strategy used in wars between gods where both God Kingdoms would keep a certain distance apart and continually send out people to fight. This method was most traditional in the history of divine wars and could last for a few years. Of course, at the same time, both sides would continually send out elite troops as well. Under the leadership of Divine Powers, they would directly attack the enemy¡¯s God Kingdom. There was of course some risk involved in this, but as long as they could succeed, this would determine the outcome of the war. The victor would also be able to gain a new God Kingdom to make theirs more complete. After all, with greater risk came greater benefits. The human gods were acting perfectly rationally and traditionally as expected. However, this time, they were against a completely irrational and brazenly untraditional opponent. Seeing as the distance between the two God Kingdoms was decreasing, the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom had already stopped in its tracks. Beams of divine light were constantly pouring forward from it, and it was clearly expanding its layers of defense and building their war frontier. By right, the Orcs should be doing the same and building up infrastructure of their own. However, the Orcs did not do so, and instead they emitted a blinding light instead. This beam of light was extremely blinding and strong. Within a second, everyone could sense the aura of tens of mid-level powers and five to six Divine Powers rising up in the Orcs¡¯ God Kingdom. As for the power of the low-level and weak Divine Powers as well as that of the demigods and legendary peak masters, well, one could not even begin to calculate it all. With so much power amassed together, the Orcs¡¯ God Kingdom had a huge explosion and increased its speed. At this point, the two God Kingdoms were already extremely near to each other. With the acceleration of the Orcs¡¯ God Kingdom, they were put even closer to each other, and it seemed like they were seconds away from colliding. ¡°My goodness!¡± ¡°What are they doing?¡± ¡°Is Lefon crazy!?¡± ¡°I¡¯m about to have a heart attack¡­¡± ¡°I really give it to them!¡± Even the gods who had previously been unaware of the Orc gods¡¯ intentions were not clear on what the Orc gods intended to do. They were throwing caution to the wind and had decided to directly skip to the last step of the battle, which was to use their God Kingdom and collide with the humans¡¯ God Kingdom! Chapter 918 Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio In a war of gods, using the collision strategy of the God Kingdoms was a well-known method. After all, the God Kingdoms were agglomerates of massive amounts of Divine Power and were the gods¡¯ strongest clones. To each god, the God Kingdom was his main and actual body. To the gods¡¯ systems, the God Kingdom was the combination of all the gods¡¯ powers. It was needless to say that in the case where one simply wanted strength, everyone would focus their powers on the God Kingdom and use it to knock down the enemy as it was both a useful and powerful move. There was no greater method than allowing a God Kingdom to self-destruct. Self-Destroying a God Kingdom meant the downfall of the gods, and using this method meant one was ready to perish if it was so. In comparison, the mere collision of two God Kingdoms was less cruel, and there was still the chance of one side emerging unscathed. However¡­ In reality, every time the collision strategy was used, a God Kingdom would almost always explode. The contact between two God Kingdoms, or rather, the lack of distance between them, meant that the laws of the two god systems and the two sides of gods¡¯ had a most direct clash or conflict. This sort of conflict was most intense and would directly shake the core of the God Kingdoms. Under such circumstances, as long as a bit more energy was added, the God Kingdom that was more severely damaged would self-destruct. In reality, normally, god systems that utilized this method planned to knock down the enemy¡¯s God Kingdom and self-destruct. In any case, whether or not their God Kingdom self-destructed, they would still die. No matter how one saw the situation, there was only death ahead. Even the weakest and most useless gods would put in their utmost and fight desperately. No matter what, though, this shouldn¡¯t have been the Orcs¡¯ choice of strategy! It was true that the Orcs would probably not be able to defeat the humans. Even with supporting troops by their allies, the Orcs¡¯ chances of winning were slim. However, even if they were disadvantaged at the start, they could at least opt to leave the Main Plane and find another vast, empty world to rest and recuperate. The human gods would definitely not take on multiple risks just to chase them beyond the Main Plane even if they wanted the Orcs dead. This meant that this battle was just to determine the winner and loser, and not really about who lived and who died. This was the exact reason why the gods which were watching the battle all predicted that the Orcs would lose. Not only were they already disadvantaged, but there was also another path out the Main Plane ready for them when they lost. If the Orc God System was really out of options and had nowhere to escape to and could only choose between the battle and being massacred, well, that would cause the outcome of the battle to be much less certain. However, the Orc gods had now taken on an ultimate stance and had committed to the idea of fighting a life or death battle with the humans, using what was usually the final move in a war of gods as their first move! Watching as the Orc God System¡¯s God Kingdom moved towards the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom in an unhurried fashion, with many gods surrounding it as if they were about to fight the war of gods in the traditional way, any fool could tell that the Orcs had well discussed this beforehand and were prepared for this unique strategy. One could also say that the Orcs had never intended to fight a long-drawn war with the humans and had wanted to just use an ultimate move to determine who lived and who perished straightaway. They did not care about who perished or whether the Orcs and humans would perish together. Anyways, they preferred either of the aforementioned options to retreat without even battling, anyway. Just at the very moment while the gods were exclaiming in shock, the Orc God System¡¯s God Kingdom, the Endless Field, had already solidly knocked against the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom, Light Field. In that moment, the entire Void shook. This scene was hard to describe and many gods were affected by the shockwaves following the collision of the two God Kingdoms, leading to them falling into a temporary coma. Several of the weaker gods were directly swept off their feet by the shockwaves and their bodies disintegrated into tiny pieces as they shouted out in fear. Even powerful gods such as Sui Xiong, Yorgaardman and Wenner¡¯s bodies were picked up and flung by the shockwaves even if they did not turn dizzy. Whichever unlucky planet or world that were in the path of these powerful gods all exploded into a million pieces with a loud bang as the gods swept past them. Sui Xiong managed to destroy tens of planets and worlds at one go before he regained full consciousness. He immediately activated his Divine Power and allowed his body to heal and stabilize itself. He glanced around meaningfully and could not help but sigh, ¡°It¡¯s lucky that all the living creatures of the worlds I destroyed have already moved away¡­¡± As he mentioned, the main areas impacted by the collision of the two God Kingdoms was already long vacated by other living creatures and all that was left was currents of turbulence. Outside of the turbulence, all other worlds were already exploded into smithereens and endless meteorites were flying around. The closer an area was to the turbulence, the blurrier everything was, making it hard to see anything. Within the currents of turbulence, there was a beam of blinding white light. Those rays were the remains of this world¡¯s strongest two God Kingdoms, which had collided and exploded. ¡°Lefon, this fool¡­ Wenner, another fool¡­¡± Sui Xiong muttered to himself angrily but did not know what else to say. As he had predicted, after predicting that the Orcs would definitely lose the battle with the humans, the God of War, Wenner, had reached out to the Master God of the Orc God System, Lefon, and suggested that he could directly use the collision strategy and allow both sides to perish together. It was strange, though, that Lefon had chosen to take up this very strategy when he had had the option to retreat and simply leave the Main Plane. What Lefon had done was crazy and ridiculous! They had successfully managed to hide this from everyone, including the Human God System. From the remaining rays which were glistening, it was evident that there were several gods who had met their downfall with the collision of the two God Kingdoms! Furthermore, the humans¡¯ few Divine Powers had all been on their God Kingdom at the time of the collision. They had not prepared for the collision and would definitely have sustained severe injuries when it had happened. This was especially so for the Master God of the Human God System, the God of Light, Wuther Rang, as the God Kingdom was basically his main body and the destruction of the humans¡¯ God Kingdom due to the collision with the Orcs¡¯ God Kingdom meant that his injuries were definitely numerous and serious. After all, Light Field had exploded into a gleaming light ball along with the Endless Field! In comparison, the Orcs had already been prepared for this moment. Although they did not escape unscathed, they were at least more aware of the situation. At the very least, they had successfully prevented the humans from having a victory and they were now at the same level of mess. This battle, which originally was meant to determine a victor, was now messy and bewildering. Sui Xiong felt that even the God of War, Wenner, would no longer be able to predict the outcome of it all. It was not impossible for the human gods to still attain victory but even if they did, with the tremendous amount of casualties, they would no longer be able to maintain solo control over the Main Plane. It was also possible for the Orcs to become the victors. However, they had also lost much of their power and were unable to uphold their glorious status of the past any further. It was even possible that they would be reduced from being a big god system to a medium one. ¡°Somehow, my gut feeling that the humans were in trouble really became reality¡­¡± Sui Xiong glanced anxiously at the glowing light ball and muttered to himself under his breath. ¡°It seems like even the God of Light was unable to stop fate in its tracks¡­¡± Chapter 919 - The Final Battle (Part 3) Although the areas near where the collision happened were still shaking and one could not transcend through and had to use flight, Sui Xiong flew at an extremely fast speed and arrived near the original battleground quickly. Well, roughly where the original battleground was. After the collision of the two God Kingdoms and the subsequent explosion, the intense shockwaves generated had been beyond what any god could take. Even if Sui Xiong had experienced shockwaves before when facing several mini explosions in other battles, they paled in comparison to the current shockwaves. Such a big explosion would not die down so easily! Even with Sui Xiong¡¯s powers, he could not get to close to the original site of collision and could only observe from afar. That ball of white light was still intensely erupting and burning. It seemed as though the two God Kingdoms had surpassed the first round of explosions, but there were still many more stages of eruptions to go through. It seemed as though with its current state, it would continue to explode for a period of time. Once everything had exploded, the light ball that had been created by the two extremely different God Kingdoms had to continue burning for a long time. It was possible that there would be a once-off and final large explosion, bigger than the original one, leaving behind only tiny fragments of the light ball. It was also possible that the two God Kingdoms would slowly become compatible and convert into a Divine Power that both sides could accommodate while burning, slowly attaining stability. If that happened, it would become a treasure trove that any person would value, and all the gods would certainly start thinking up ideas to attempt to acquire it. However, that would only happen long into the future. Right now, in light of the big battle, all these things did not matter yet. Sui Xiong and the gods only cared about where the humans and Orcs had disappeared to right now. There was no need to care about the Oracle troops that had been surrounding the two God Kingdoms as they had definitely all perished. With such an explosion, never mind legendary and demigod Oracles, even gods would not be able to survive. Even the strongest gods would not be able to survive if they had had a slightly slow reaction or did not have appropriate methods to protect themselves. This was why Sui Xiong did not think that there would be any survivors among the Oracle troops. He only hoped that neither side had been completely obliterated, which would mean that this battle was fully over in spite of many assumptions that it would be an intense and long-drawn one. ¡°At least¡­ For someone as strong as the God of Light, he can¡¯t possibly have died so easily¡­¡± Because of the chaos around him, Sui Xiong was unable to use his Divine Power to search around, and he did not want to take the risk and use souls to test waters. He could only use his eyes to glance around, trying to seek out any living creature or traces of life. As he searched, he muttered to himself under his breath. ¡°Wuther Rang! Come out now! I know you wouldn¡¯t have died so easily!¡± a strong yet raspy voice suddenly rang out. Sui Xiong froze and turned around. All he saw was a meteorite whistling past. This was actually a giant warship, and on the warship were all the masters of the Orc tribe. The various Orc gods were mostly made up of demigods and elite Oracles. The war ship that resembled a mountain had a force that was tremendous and scary, one that many other god systems would fear. At the head of the ship, the ¡°Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit,¡± Snakenell, whom Sui Xiong had met several times, was wearing a suit of armor and holding on to a spear that was shaped like a flexible snake. He was coldly glancing in Sui Xiong¡¯s direction. That strong yet raspy voice that Sui Xiong had heard had belonged to Snakenell. Sui Xiong observed the warship carefully and got a sudden shock. He did not see ¡°Sky Devourer¡± Lefon on the ship. Where could Lefon have gone? As the strongest in the Orc God System, it was strange that Lefon was absent. Sui Xiong flew over suspiciously towards the Orc gods and was about to ask on the whereabouts of Lefon when he got an extremely huge shock and stopped in his tracks. He noticed that among the Orc gods, many had changed into glamorous ritual robes, and their horns, waist, shoulders and other body parts had white ribbons tied around them. This was the Orc tribe¡¯s mourning outfit. When one of the Orc seniors or a good Orc friend had passed away, at the funeral, they would use white ribbons to adorn their clothes. The Republic of Northwest had many Orcs. Despite the changes in bloodline and faith, they had not lost sight of their original culture. It was thus common to see such outfits being worn at funerals in the Republic when Orcs had died. This outfit was not particularly noticeable, and most people would not notice the few white ribbons. However, Sui Xiong was an experienced artist. The first time he had seen it, he had taken note of this special feature of the Orcs¡¯ outfits and even did further research into this special outfit and learned more about it. In one of Schwarier von Stolovsky Franz¡¯s formal academic texts, he had mentioned a chapter on ¡°Discussing the Orcs¡¯ mourning outfit¡¯s history and the significance of using white ribbons,¡± which was acknowledged and endorsed by the scholars in the Orc Empire. Sui Xiong thus recognized the Orcs¡¯ outfit now as mourning outfits and suddenly realized what was going on. The Orcs were mourning the loss of their own Master God. The Orc God System¡¯s Master God, who had defeated ¡°Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit¡± and ascended the throne, the hero who had continuously pitted the Orcs against the humans, ¡°Sky Devourer¡± Lefon, was dead. As he came to this realization, Sui Xiong naturally fell silent. Among the Orc God System, few were familiar to Sui Xiong. The only Orc god he could somewhat term as a friend was Lefon. With the demise of Lefon, it was no longer necessary for him to find out what was going on with the Orcs. Without any relations, what was the point of finding out the current situation? The Orcs were grieving their loss of their leader and were unlikely to reply as well. The giant warship whooshed past Sui Xiong and did not slow down at all. The gods, demigods, and Oracles on the boat all had the same blank expression and they were carefully hunting for any living human god. None of them gave Sui Xiong a second glance. Sui Xiong remained silent and did not say a word. A second after, he saw that there was another warship behind the Orcs¡¯, which was full of dwarf gods, who had similarly been curious about the voice that had sounded out. The dwarf gods did not have such a huge warship. They were split into six smaller warships in order to carry all their gods, demigods and elite Oracles. Behind them, there was a fleet of empty ships, and there were hundreds of them. These were the systems that had allied with the Orcs to fight against the humans. Some were aboard the warships; some were using their own war tools. The average ones used the transport tools that they were unable to use in war, while those who were weaker did not even have such tools and thus used their own body as transportation, carrying the demigods and Oracles. There were many other races present such as the dwarves, pygmies and marsh aboriginal gods. Even the fairy gods, who were usually indifferent and isolated, had appeared as well. There were even many other races that lived outside of the Main Plane and only had scattered individuals within the Main Plane who had arrived as well. These races had all arrived to involve themselves in the battle and decide the future! The Orcs had already used the sacrifice of their Master God and the destruction of their God Kingdom to prove that they were sincere. They had paid a great price and reduced the humans to a level that they had never fallen to before. As for the races which did not want their own people to be evicted from the Main Plane or for the races which wanted to gain some advantage in this battle, this was their only and best chance to do so. This war was the ultimate battle that would decide the fate of all races which lived on the Main Plane! Chapter 920 - Opportunity for Victory Towards Sui Xiong¡¯s presence, the dwarf gods were extremely welcome. They created clones to meet Sui Xiong and greet him. These clones also explained the situation to Sui Xiong without much censorship. The Orcs had not revealed their entire strategy to all their allies, but they had only invited these allies¡¯ Divine Powers to each offer one clone to enter their God Kingdom. At the same time, they had prepared their entire God Kingdom for battle. The Orcs had highlighted that if the allies were satisfied with what they were doing and were confident in victory, they were welcome to join the Orcs to fight. If they did not agree with the plan or did not see a good way to intervene, the allies could leave and the Orcs would not hold any grudges against them. At that time, everyone had been extremely conflicted, and this feeling of conflict within them increased when they had found out that in the Orc God System¡¯s God Kingdom, there were many groups that had been invited. Other than the allies who had already agreed to fight, there were also many other ally races who were still undecided. There were even god systems which did not have good relationships with the gods. For example, there was the barbarian alliance master ¡°Bear Herding Elder,¡± who had always been warring with the Orcs, yet he too had been invited here. Of course, everyone had only sent their clones, and these were clones with little power. This was a matter of precaution and was also requested by the Orcs. ¡°As long as the clone is able to show some spirit at the frontline, that will be enough. Save the real bodies and energy for later. The real war will only take place during the second wave,¡± the various Orc gods had said previously. Originally, everyone had assumed that the Orc God System was waiting for the enemy to finish sending in their main troops before sending the supporting troops in as the final line of troops. They had not expected that the Orcs would utilize such a huge and ultimate strategy right at the start. The Orcs had used their own god system¡¯s God Kingdom as well as the life of their Master God to ruin the humans¡¯ God Kingdom! The Orcs had managed to showcase sufficient sincerity and achieve satisfying results to convince everyone else to support them without further hesitation. Life was precious, and one could not let good opportunities go to waste. For the future of their race, no god would fear death! Once someone had become a god of race, his body¡¯s nature would go from being a solo entity to a group entity. The group of people in the race¡¯s desires were then his desires, and the benefits the race enjoyed would be enjoyed by the god as well. Of course, the god still had some personal goals and benefits, but the race was always his utmost priority. Now, it was time to fight for their races and earn some benefits! This was why the dwarves, pygmies, elves and aboriginal gods had all appeared at the battle. Even smaller tribes, as well as gods who usually isolated themselves from the Main Plane, were present as well. In the Void God System, Arcaian Pasteur¡¯s face was extremely red, and one could tell that he was trying to best to control himself. He was being pushed to his limits. Sui Xiong sighed lightly, shook his head and said, ¡°Go ahead. This is a good opportunity for the fairies to gain some hope and advantage. I have no reason to stop you.¡± Arcaian bowed deeply to Sui Xiong, and his body suddenly turned into a beam of light and transported itself to the forefront of the line of fairy gods at the scene of the battle. Although he had been the latest to become a god amongst the fairy gods, he had the highest divinity, and his faith was also the strongest. Among the fairy race, there were at least half of them who were disciples of Arcaian. Although his divinity did not include ¡°fairies,¡± with the support and faith of the majority of the race, he could not and would not opt-out of this war. He was a fairy himself after all. The fairy tribe of today was already extremely weak to the point where it was even defeated and oppressed by the insignificant Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. If they did not seize this opportunity to attack their bullies, the humans, they may even lose all their territory and status within the Ancient Forest. This was something that the fairies were aware of, especially the fairy gods. This was why despite their usual fraught relationship of differing views, instead of fighting upon meeting, towards Arcaian, who was wholly bathed in a good aura, the fairy gods who were bathed in evil area smiled instead of showing any ill intent. ¡°We finally meet.¡± ¡°We welcome you, the rising star of our race.¡± ¡°Although we do not support the path you have taken, let us fight for the future of the fairies together nevertheless!¡± Arcaian himself smiled as well and greeted the fairy gods. At the same time, with a wave of his body, he morphed himself into battle mode. This included a silver, soft armor, a magic wand, a machete and a longbow. This set of amour was made specially for Arcaian by Sui Xiong and Morani, and they were all advanced magical objects. Although Arcaian was not really experienced in battle, with these tools, he had the ability to sustain a battle with a mid-level Divine Power in war for a long time, He could even sustain a three to five-day battle with little issue. Since he was able to do so, he would put in all the power he had in this battle. In the end, Arcaian had caved and decided to rush to the battleground as well, clearly still patriotic to his original roots. However, he would never emulate the Orc gods and fight without care for life or death simply for victory. That was not his style, and it was not beneficial to the fairies if he did so as well. If they could win, it was of course not a bad thing. However, if they lost and were sent off the Main Plane, this was where it was crucial that Arcaian should maintain the race¡¯s order and protect the faith of the race. This was why, for the fairies, Arcaian¡¯s safety was more important than the outcome of this battle. This was the same case for the dwarf gods, pygmy gods, aboriginal gods, et cetera. To be honest, this was applicable to the Orcs as well. No one could understand why they had risked so much in this war. Sui Xiong did not understand it as well. Watching as the warships were all nearing the battleground, which could continue exploding, Sui Xiong quickly said his goodbyes and did not stay further on the warship. In this war, he had taken on a neutral stance and would only render assistance when his friends were in danger. Sui Xiong thus did not want to put himself in a suspicious-looking position. The different god systems¡¯ troops had gradually neared the ball of blinding light and were carrying out searches earnestly. The Orcs¡¯ Master God, ¡°Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit,¡± Snakenell¡¯s raspy voice reverberated in the air. ¡°They can¡¯t have gone far! They must all be badly injured. Let¡¯s find them and defeat them!¡± All the gods, demigods and Oracles opened their eyes wide and continued searching meticulously. However, they were unable to find anything at all. The human gods had all vanished and were nowhere to be found. A second later, Snakenell finally exhausted his patience and gave a new order after another god suggested it to him. ¡°Let the humans be the one to make the next move! I¡¯ll like to see how the human troops plan to win this battle without the support of their human gods!¡± With such a command, the Orc troops started cheering and moving forward. They had long been lying in wait for such a command, and the Orc troops charged forward towards the human frontier like landslides. This time, they did not bother with any probing or tactical strategies. They simply used all their power and strength and rushed forward. Strobes of holy light descended from the skies, and the various Orc gods passed on all the Divine Power to the troops, giving them their biggest support. With the aid of the gods, the Orc troops became even more courageous and fierce. Their eyes all glinted menacingly, and with their nature of being hot-headed, even their skin turned red. Many sensed the presence of the gods, and their bodies expanded. They could feel power coursing through them and cheered in excitement. ¡°The gods are watching over us!¡± ¡°Fight! Fight!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s destroy the humans!¡± ¡°Today is the day the Orcs triumph!¡¯ The Orc troops were of course unaware of the fact their God Kingdom had been destroyed. Similarly, they were also oblivious to the fact their Master God had died. This chance to succeed had only come about due to large sacrifices on the part of the Orcs. Chapter 921 - The Bloody Battle (Part 1) Towards the Orcs¡¯ immense attack, the humans were somewhat disadvantaged. Although they had advantages in many areas such as in the training and equipment of their troops, the Orcs had their gods as well as their crazy, immense morale that was being sustained. Nearly every Orc had at least one or two auxiliary spells on them thanks to the Orc gods, and this immediately mitigated all the original advantages that the humans had. Since both sides were somewhat even now, the deciding factor for the outcome of this battle would be battle spirit and the command of the higher-ups. As for tricks, well, on a battlefield where numerous people were being killed, there wasn¡¯t much space or time for that. After all, there was a saying that said, ¡°only bravery wins in war.¡± Tricks and sly calculations would only work on paper or in theory. For example, in this current war, there was no way to win unless everyone put in their all and fought with all their strength and courage. There was no time for either side to think up strange tricks anyway, and all the humans and Orcs could do was to fight with brute strength. ¡°Hold down the fort! I repeat, hold down the fort!¡± ¡°They are our ancient enemies; we must kill those stupid Orcs today! I can¡¯t wait to slice all their heads off!¡¯ ¡°Men of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs aren¡¯t afraid of war, let¡¯s go!¡± ¡°Use every tool you have! We won¡¯t need them after this war anyway!¡± Amidst the shouts of the humans, many were also yelling ¡°priest!¡± or ¡°pontifex!¡± at the top of their lungs. All along, the patron saints were the most important supporting pillars of the combat spellcasting system. This system differed from spell systems that required one to use their own magic. The spellcasting system only required the approval of the supporting gods to execute infinite amounts of spells. Even if the number of spells exceeded the safe amount that one could execute, they could continue to cast them. As to whether this would harm oneself, well, did it matter if they lost the battle in the end? Casting more spells to harm more enemies was more important at this very moment. Furthermore, within the spellcasting system, there were many areas of auxiliary spells. On the battlefield, this sort of large scale auxiliary spells was way more powerful as compared to normal killing spells. Spells were not invincible. A killing skill could be utilized, but it could be stopped midair by archers. This was especially since in this big battle of the humans and Orcs, unless one did not care for one¡¯s own safety and directly used large-scale spells such as earthquake spells to create chaos, if not, divine spells such as ¡°Chaotic Magic Flame,¡± ¡°Great Collapse¡± and ¡°Meteorite¡± did not really stand a chance of hitting the enemy¡¯s frontier. This was why balancing between gain and dispersal of spells was the biggest issue that the spellcasters had to settle in this war. In such a case, divinity was more important and advantageous as compared to spells. This was why in big battles like these, divinity spellcasters were extremely active. This was how it was on the Orcs¡¯ side where the pontifexes, shamans and priests, who were the divinity spellcasters, were praying fervently, using their channels of communication between the gods and the people to bring down infinite amounts of Divine Power and convert it into large-scale auxiliary spells. This would allow all the bodies of the Orc troops rushing forward to be bathed in color, and this was akin to holographic armor. However, it was different for the humans. The spellcasters of the spell system were trying their best to defend against the spells of the Orcs. However, the divinity spellcasters were extremely bewildered and lost. They had of course tried praying in hopes of getting Divine Power to convert to spells as well. However, their channels of communication with the human gods had suddenly become unclear and murky. Although they could sense the vague existence of the gods, they were unable to receive any Divine Power. This made the human divinity spellcasters extremely panicked and lost. In their confusion, they could only continue to pray hard. This was not because they thought that mere praying would help to change this strange situation. It was more that apart from praying, they were at a loss as to what else to do. This was the nature of divinity spellcasters: once they lost connections with the gods, they would be reduced and lose the power to cast any spells. Watching this, the Legendary Masters of the humans could no longer sit back and relax. Of course, there were divinity spellcasters amongst them as well who were aware of why channels of communication had been lost. The Legendary Masters were not ordinary people, and they were updated on current affairs beyond the Main Plane. Many of them were already aware of the big news within the Human God System, and they all couldn¡¯t help but be impressed with the determination and extremity of the Orc gods. Using the collision strategy right at the start was just plain crazy! On the other hand, it could be said that crazy people were often the strongest¡­ In the battle between the gods, these human Legendary Masters were helpless. However, in this battle of the people, they were able to help out. They thus gathered up all the Legendary Masters and rushed off towards the frontier of the battle together. The power of the Legendary Masters far surpassed that of the normal humans. With the wave of a sword, they could attack within at least a ten-mile radius and no matter how many defense spells were on the enemy, no matter how thick the enemy¡¯s armor was, as long as the enemy was not as strong as the Legendary Masters, they would die an instant death. With the activation of over 50 Legendary Masters, fresh blood rained down, and within a few minutes, 1000 to 2000 Orc soldiers had died at their hands. However, the advantage they could exploit from their status was only for this first round of battle. Seeing as the human Legendary Masters had stepped up, the Orc Legendary Masters of course entered the battle as well to stop them. Statistically speaking, the Orcs did have much fewer Legendary Masters as compared to the humans. Even if they added up the Legendary Masters of the supporting troops¡¯ races, there were only about 30 odds of them. 30 odd people against 50 was definitely disadvantageous. However, if they converted their strategy to defense and prolonging the battle, they could draw out the battle, and thus, the difference in numbers would then matter less. As long as the Legendary Masters of the humans were being held back, the human troops would not be able to defend against the Orc troops at all, who had the help of auxiliary spells. This way, victory would definitely belong to the Orcs and allow them to triumph overall. Behind the human frontier, ¡°Goddess of Bravery,¡± who had arrived at the frontline as the commander and was watching the entire battle, paused in silence before giving a new order. ¡°Activate the reserve team and secure the frontline.¡± This was not an expert move by any means, but it would do for now. The human troops, of course, obeyed this order. Lines and lines of reserve troops arrived at the scene quickly and took over from the heavily damaged frontline troops. Once these fresh troops had entered the battle, they immediately secured the outcome of the war. Despite the help from spells on the side of the Orcs, they were greatly damaged, and the spells had been diminished from the intensity of the ongoing war. Towards these fresh faces, they no longer had an advantage. The frontline troops who had stopped down were being brought to the reserve camp for recuperation, where they meditated and were treated for their injuries. With the comprehensive treatments, they only needed to rest for one to two hours in order to fully recover before they were able to rejoin the battle. This was due to the humans having ample resources to treat these soldiers to ensure that they could sustain the battle for a long period of time. Of course, within this period of time, the humans needed to regroup and re-discuss their strategy. Those lines of troops which had suffered huge losses were temporarily dispersed as together, they were low in morale. These soldiers were then regrouped into new lines of troops before being sent back to fight. They were then able to use their newly developed anger and bitterness to empower them to wave their swords and fight harder to forget their humiliation earlier on! Chapter 922 - The Blood Battle (Part 2) After about half an hour, the Orcs also pushed their reserve team forward. Although the battleground was extremely vast and big, to the hundreds of thousands of troops, it was not big enough. Be it humans or Orcs, they were unable to send in all their troops at one go to fight this battle. Of course, the troops that had originally sent to the frontline were definitely the most elite. After all, it only made sense for each side to try to gain an advantage from the start. Since the first wave of battle did not lead to any direct victory or loss, both sides had no choice but to divert the battle into continuous frontier battles and wars of attrition. It was like a grinding disc of flesh and blood. The Orcs troops were not as well trained as the humans. When their reserve troops had stepped onto the battlefield and the war-weary, drained frontline troops begun to retreat, the humans coincidentally inserted a fresh wave of reserve troops as well, increasing their level of attacks greatly. With that, the humans secured their victory further, and the Orcs could not fully react in time. The tired and retreating frontline Orc troops had no choice but to continue fighting against the well trained, elite troops of the humans. Within a few seconds, the Orcs¡¯ most elite line of troops suffered heavy damages, and the famous and well-known soldiers were almost totally defeated to the point of no return. The Emperor of Orcs watched the battle scene in silence. He did not give any orders but allowed the various races¡¯ experienced veterans and strategists to form their own discussion groups and make decisions. He knew that he was not someone who was very good at scheming. As compared to the previous emperor, his strength was amassing experience and prestige. In terms of war, he was only able to show his face but was not really the best person to give advice on what to do as that was beyond his capabilities. Most of the famous Orc generals were like this as well. During war, all they could say was ¡°follow me,¡± ¡°follow my lead,¡± ¡°let us go forth¡±¡­ One could trust them to charge ahead and not retreat, but if one wanted them to be able to react and adapt quickly or come up with new solutions, well, that was really beneath them. Of course, it was about the same for the humans. Nevertheless, they had the advantage of having many elite humans to choose from. Out of 300 people, it was definitely more likely to find elites as compared to a group of 100 people. Furthermore, the human society¡¯s literacy rate was much higher than that of the Orcs, successfully creating many more elites. This was why although the human generals were a little less experienced in war as compared to the Orc generals, they still could observe the battle and size opportunities better. At this very moment, the Orcs continued to use discussion groups to come up with decisions before anxiously activating their reserve troops. In the end, three-quarters of the frontline troops, which bore the brunt of the battle, were unable to continue fighting alongside the reserve troops in the second wave, which almost certainly meant that the Orcs were doomed. Reality was not a game. If a troop was about 10% damaged, it could rejoin the battle after some recuperation. If it was about 30% damaged, it would need to be replaced by new troops or re-organized. If more than 50% of the troops were damaged, not only did they need to recuperate and re-organize, but the recuperation would also take a long time for them to regain their battle morale. If the troops were 75% gone, well, that was almost akin to total failure, and it would be hard to even regroup them into other troops as the low morale would influence others negatively. Such a troop would require a long period of recuperation, and the soldiers would require a period of living in peace to rid themselves of their battle scars and fears before they could return to the battleground. Watching the originally mighty frontline troops retreat with faces of confusion and fear, the Emperor of Orcs became extremely stressed and had on a blank and dull expression. He knew that for these troops, they would no longer be able to rejoin this battle. When the Orcs had been attacked during their change of troops, they had suffered great losses. In their need to hold down their fort till the reserve troops arrived, the Orcs¡¯ frontline troops had sacrificed much and had to be brave for the sake of their race. Now that reinforcements were here, they naturally lost this bravery as they were no longer running on adrenaline. This was akin to the many brave souls on the battlefield who became extremely suspicious of everything and fearful after war. After their initial bravery had faded away, all that was left was paranoid and fear due to post-traumatic stress disorder. The elder Emperor of Orcs did not say much and simply stood under his royal flag and watched the battle unfold quietly. Towards this battle, he did not have much opinion and was simply concentrating on getting the Orcs to give their all. If they could win, that would of course be best. However, if they lost, he himself would die in the battle as well and wrap up the entire sorry end of this battle. As to whether the Orcs had a fighting chance to win¡­ Well, he had no guarantee about this. The various Orc gods had not told their own strategies to anyone else, even the highest-ranking among the Orc people, the Emperor of Orcs. The Emperor of Orcs had only just gotten the news that the mighty Master God of the Orc God System, ¡°Sky Devourer¡± Lefon had perished along with the Human God System¡¯s ¡°Light Field¡± when the Orc God System¡¯s Endless Field had collided with it. According to the Orc gods¡¯ plans, this method would greatly reduce the strength of the human gods. Now, all that was left to do was to gather the supporting troops of the various other races which had gathered and to combine them into a joint effort of killing and ending the lives of the injured human gods. Of course, beasts, which were the most desperate, were the fiercest out of the lot. This was especially so for ultimate powers such as the God of Light. Although the eruption of the Human God System¡¯s God¡¯s Kingdom caused him to be severely injured, he was still hard to fight against. This was why the various Orc gods had also sworn this time that they would give their all and use all their best techniques to defeat the God of Light and kill him at all costs. It was only with the death of the God of Light did the Orcs stand any chance of winning this battle. Before that, all the Orcs needed to do was to kill with all their might. While the human gods were distracted by their loss of their God¡¯s Kingdom and were temporarily unable to communicate with the human gods, they could quickly attempt to reduce the fighting power of the humans. If one made some simple calculations, one would be able to see that if both sides reduced the other side¡¯s strength, it would mean that both sides would simply be reducing human strength by using the killing of innocent lives. As time passed slowly, the battle slowly shifted in favor of the Orcs instead of the humans. The advantage of the auxiliary spells of the Orcs was simply too great. Before the Orc troops entered the battle, they would apply auxiliary spells to their bodies. This allowed them to be stronger and more agile. This gave them more morale in their hearts as well. Their weapons were made dangerous; their armor was solidified. They were even able to self-heal to a certain degree when injured, allowing them to fight for a longer period of time. In comparison, despite the fact that the humans had intricate weapons and training, their natural physical capabilities were definitely lesser than that of the Orcs. Now, with the Orcs stacking the odds against the humans with their auxiliary spells, it required a few humans to fight one single Orc. During the early part of the battle, the humans still had their spellcasters to provide spells for them as aid. However, these spells were limited in quantity, and the spellcasters were worn out very soon. The various tools that the spellcasters used also needed time to recharge and could not regain their original state so quickly. With the Orcs¡¯ continuous usage of auxiliary spells, the gap between the Orcs¡¯ and humans¡¯ abilities widened, and a disparity was created between the two races in battle. Despite the determination of the human troops who continued to fight fearlessly, they were slowly defeated bit by bit, one step at a time. At each new stage of the battle, fresh blood flowed, and towards the end, both sides¡¯ troops ended up fighting in a sea of human and Orc corpses, which littered the ground. This bloody battle was really one that worried everyone and created much unease. Chapter 923 - The Bloody Battle (Part 3) Night was falling. The battle lines on the human side had retreated, time and again, by at least two to three miles. This stretch of battle lines that measured two to three miles was covered with blood on every inch of this trail. With every step the humans retreated, many soldiers had to be sacrificed. Every retreat made often required them to put in several lives in order to avoid the collapse of their battle lines. Despite the human commanding officers sparing no efforts in trying to grab hold of every opportunity in this war, the difference in strength was ultimately not something that wisdom could make up for. Even if they had tried all ways they could possibly think of, they were still unable to salvage themselves from a defeat. What they could do was nothing more than try their best not to be in disorder despite the defeat and also not to collapse because of the defeat. At the rear end of the human battle lines, the Goddess of Virtue wore a heavy expression like still waters. ¡°Do you need us to strike?¡± a demigod master asked. The goddess shook her head and remained silent for a long time before saying, ¡°Retreat to the defense line at the Great Wall. Let them attack the city!¡± This was originally one of the pre-planned war tactics. It was just that it was beyond everyone¡¯s imagination that a war that everyone had originally thought would be easily won would finally end up like this. Fortunately, the Great Wall was still there. With this defense line that stretched across the eastern part of the northern land, which divided the Orcs¡¯ nation from that of the humans, even if the Orcs had the advantage, they could not win that easily either. Even without the help of divinity, the humans could still rely on their advantage in location and number of soldiers to continue holding out. The gods did not fall. It was just that their contact with the humans had met with some problems. When the problems were eliminated, it would be time for an all-out retaliation of the humans! By that time, the disadvantage, in terms of the military strength of the exhausted Orcs, would be utterly exposed. It would only take one fierce attack to bring about the complete collapse of their entire battle line! Until then, what the humans needed to do was only to try their best to endure. Nightfall did not stop both sides from fighting on. It also did not slow down the retreat of the humans. Emperor Ilo of the Orcs was still standing on his chariot, and the night wind was blowing against his long hair. The Lionman¡¯s golden mane had become snow-white with age; however, his hair was yet to be dry and withering. Just like the passion and fighting spirit in his heart. ¡°The humans are retreating. They probably want to retreat to the defense line at the Great Wall,¡± he said. This was the first time he opened his mouth to speak since the war commenced. ¡°If we want them to spill even more blood, we must strike with a fierce attack now.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have enough power for a fierce attack,¡± a veteran of the advisory body said with a sigh. ¡°We still have our reserves troops, but given the subsequent siege of the city, our soldiers need to rest now.¡± Ilo nodded slightly. He was not good at the art of war, so he had always respected the opinions of the professionals and went with the flow. Just then, a young member of the advisory body suddenly spoke up. Very loudly, he said, ¡°Your Majesty, I have a suggestion!¡± Such unseemly behavior was bound to be severely reprimanded in the context of a human nation. But among the Orcs, this was not a problem at all. They did not really care much about things like ¡°seniority¡± or ¡°rules.¡± Ilo looked at him with interest. The first thing he noticed was that pair of fox ears. No doubt, this was a member of the Wilder family, who had always been known as the ¡°Wise.¡± ¡°Young Wilder, what suggestion do you have to offer?¡± the emperor asked. The young Foxman blushed with excitement at the emperor¡¯s friendly disposition. He took two deep breaths, then in a voice as calm as possible, he said, ¡°I think we should send a few mobility troops to destroy the human¡¯s logistics and supplies.¡± The emperor froze. Since the start of the civil war between the North and South of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, ¡°mobility troops¡± had become such a notorious name that everyone would have known about it. Everyone had heard about it. The various countries on the continent, after further discussions, had unanimously agreed to endorse the treaty that prohibited the use of mobility troops against enemies¡¯ logistics and civilians. Now, this young Wilder¡¯s suggestion of having the Orc Empire form a mobility troop was equivalent to unilaterally tearing up the treaty. This was quite humiliating for the Orcs, who had always believed in keeping their credibility. It was something that they would be held in contempt for. Emperor Ilo was also a man who valued credibility. So when he heard this suggestion, his first reaction was surprised. Then the next reaction was the want to refuse. But he did not speak up immediately. Instead, he looked towards the other members of the advisory board. As a ruler of his nation, before he made any decisions, he should always consult his ministers for their opinions before making decisions. The members of the advisory board were all surprised and angry at the first instant. But were quick to register thoughtful expressions thereafter. After a while, a few of the oldest veterans nodded in agreement. ¡°Treaty or not, this is all meaningless now. This is going to be one great battle between the Orcs and the humans. The victor will become the overlord while the loser will most possibly be thrown out of the Main Plane. In that case; of course we should use any means possible. There¡¯s no need for any further scruples.¡± ¡°Yes. We need to comply with credibility so as to get the neutral parties to support us. Now that the entire Main Plane is involved in this great war, it¡¯s either friend or foe. Where can we possibly find any neutral parties! Since there are no longer any neutral parties, why should we even be bothered about credibility and such!¡± ¡°But we have to be careful, though. We must not escalate this to a massive massacre; otherwise we might provoke His Majesty, the Void Mask¡­¡± ¡°His Majesty, the Void Mask, has clearly declared that, other than slaughtering and the refugees, he will not concern himself with anything else. So long as the mobility troops don¡¯t go overboard, he will not intervene at all.¡± ¡°What¡¯s considered as not going overboard?¡± ¡°This¡­ Let¡¯s have a good talk about this¡­¡± Emperor Ilo nodded and got his advisory board to discuss the matter. But before the advisory board could commence discussions, another suggestion was proposed. ¡°Your Majesty, since we now have the intention to send out a mobility troop to attack the logistics and supply lines of the humans, then there¡¯s no need for us to consider the issue of attacking the city,¡± the oldest veteran pointed out. ¡°Then our reserves troops need not rest, they can continue to attack as vigorously as they could. We should make full use of the advantage we have now and make as many kills as we can!¡± Emperor Ilo unquestionably accepted his advice. So the order was issued. This order was followed by more brutal killings than those in the day, and also, more bloodshed. After a day of fighting, both sides were exhausted. Even the reserves troops who could rest during daytime found it extremely difficult to rest well in such an environment. So the conditions of both sides were in bad shape. However, the Orcs could make use of their massive magic spells to rapidly restore their soldiers to their normal state. The humans, on the other hand, were unable to do the same as they had exhausted their magic power. To make matters worse, the Orcs generally had night vision, and so, nightfall did not hinder their vision. But it was not the same for the humans. Even with the light from torches and bonfires, most of the human soldiers¡¯ vision was still greatly hindered, thus making it difficult for them to see their enemies, launch impactful attacks accurately and even to avoid the attacks from their enemies. Therefore, this very night, the humans suffered an extremely great loss. By daybreak, together with the drastic retreat by the human soldiers at their battlefront, the dramatic loss of human soldiers was equally shocking to their commanders. Of course, in this night, the humans also made a few successful counterattacks. By relying on some prearranged set-ups that were originally located in camp, they had annihilated a large number of the Orcs soldiers. But from the overall statistics, in this short night, the exchange between the Orcs and humans had exceeded a ratio of one was to five. In other words, on average, every single fallen Orc soldier would be accompanied by five fallen human soldiers. Not only that, those heavily wounded Orc soldiers could survive or even recover quickly by virtue of the healing power of divine spells. The humans, on the other hand, could not. They could only rely on things like healing potions and such that had been prepared in advance as means of emergency rescue. But the effects of such medication were ultimately, very limited. This made it almost impossible for them to save the heavily wounded soldiers. If factors in this regard were taken into consideration, then on this night, the loss ratio of both sides might even be more than one to ten! Chapter 924 - A Harassing Attack Chapter 924: A Harassing Attack For the humans, such a tragic exchange ratio amounted to an extremely bloody and heartbreaking battle. Even the Orcs, who had gained the upper-hand, could not help dreading the sense of fear when they looked back on the night of arduous struggle on the battlefield. Dozens of miles of ground had become scarlet red. Countless skeletons were strewn all over the place and could be seen practically everywhere. In the few places where the battles had been particularly frequent, the dead bodies had even piled up in stacks, forming an appalling mountain of corpses. A majority of these dead bodies belonged to the humans. But even if it was just the bodies belonging to the Orcs, the number was more than enough to terrorize even the bravest Orc warrior. With a battle fought to such extent, no one was able to continue fighting any further. Without a bit of tweaking, the humans would not be able to hold out any further, while the Orcs might also be at risk of bombing their camp. Therefore, this bloody battle was put to rest for the time being. The humans retreated hastily, utterly abandoning the camp bases that they had so laboriously constructed previously. They directly retreated to the defense line of the Great Wall that was built over many years. The Orcs, on the other hand, cleaned up the battlefield to avoid epidemics such as plagues. Sui Xiong watched all this from the sky and sighed deeply. ¡°Please rest assured, Your Majesty. Now, the weather is still cold, and together with the constraints I¡¯ve imposed, there will be no outbreak of plague,¡± said the God of Plague, who was Sui Xiong¡¯s accompaniment. ¡°And the Orcs have always been good in dealing with corpses. They don¡¯t waste resources.¡± Sui Xiong froze for a moment, then immediately understood what the God of Plague meant. The Orcs¡¯ method of dealing with corpses was very simple: corpses of human officers in fine, elaborate armor could be preserved while awaiting someone to pay to redeem them. The corpses of ordinary soldiers and Orcs would have their belongings removed and dealt with before being sent over to be handled as ¡°meat.¡± Be it the humans or the Orcs, if they were dead, they would just be considered as meat. It was costly to transport corpses home, and the families of ordinary soldiers simply could not afford such amounts. So all that could be done for these families was to sort out the belongings of the dead soldiers. When a large army was mobilized, a great amount of food supply would be required every day. It was always good to be able to have more meat as a food supplement. Large cauldrons were set up, one after the other. Dead bodies, regardless of race, were disposed of and thrown into these cauldrons and eventually stewed into a pulpified mix of meat broth. The two sides that once fought each other to death were finally merged into one, regardless of who they used to be. And they became the motivation for the other warriors to continue the fight. Sui Xiong watched everything happening under his nose with great sadness but did nothing to stop it. He had once wanted to stop all this, but after careful consideration, he did not do so. War was cruel, survival was difficult. If the Orcs wanted to win this battle, they would have to exhaust all means possible. If Sui Xiong were to step forth to stop them from turning all the corpses into food, he would, on the contrary, be undermining his stance as a neutral party. In fact, the Orcs were not born to be so cruel. Back in the years, after the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, they did not make food out of the dead bodies. At that time, it was probably because the war was over¡­ ¡°War, war¡­ has never changed¡­¡± he could not help muttering a line of famous saying that he had heard somewhere. ¡°Cruel war¡­¡± At the same time, within the void where the two God Kingdoms collided, the various God Systems that united to fight against the humans had fully spread out as though they were casting a net. They were doing all they could to search for the traces of the human gods. The human gods had not fallen. This was apparent from the fact that their temples on Earth had not lost their holy lights. But they had to be so severely wounded, even to the extent where they were unable to provide divine support to their clergymen. The other God Systems had to take advantage of the current situation to finish off the human gods. Finish off the human gods before they had the chance to get their breath back, then the rest of them would all be the unlucky ones instead. Fortunately, the God Kingdom of the human gods had been destroyed. Without the foundation of their God Kingdom, it would not be so easy if they had wanted to catch their breath. There were already gods who had sent their Oracles flying to Earth to launch attacks on the churches and temples of the human gods. However, due to the influence of the enchantment of the Main Plane, the things that the other gods could do on Earth were limited. The clergymen of the human gods could still withstand the attacks by relying on the defense of the temples. But everyone knew that if the human gods did not reappear, so long as this situation was allowed to persist for a certain period, their clergymen and temples would not be able to hold out any longer. Likewise for them. Since they had been putting up with everything till now, when the time arrived for them to appear, they would be bound to launch an earth-shattering, ferocious attack! And this war had temporarily fallen into an impasse. To break this deadlock, the Orcs sent out an excited, harassment troop. This time, it was unlike the civil war of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, which consisted of only a small troop of a thousand men. This was a large army comprising tens of thousands of soldiers. Making use of the flying magic beasts, they flew across the defense line at the Great Wall and directly charged into the core region of the Kingdom of Light. This Orc army was not as brutal as the previous mobility troop led by Earl Hauss. They did not carry out massive massacres over every land they passed by. Instead, they made sure to completely destroy all the production tools and food reserves in every town and village along their way; then they left, leaving the refugees in a state of panic because in the dead of winter, they were stranded in the cold with no food and clothes. This approach was naturally the decision the advisory board of the Orc Empire arrived at after discussion. They felt that blindly massacring would only be a waste of their soldiers¡¯ physical strength. It would not bring them much benefit¡ªin this final battle between the two races, slaughtering people would not serve to demoralize. It would only make each other even angrier and was simply meaningless. On the contrary, if they were to only destroy the production tools and food supplies, the humans would face a great difficult¡ªshould they save the refugees who had lost their good, tools and even had their houses destroyed? Or should they not? If they were to save them, how would they do so? Unquestionably, this would greatly restrain the military strength of the humans. It would also put a toil on a large number of their resources. To the Orcs, such an outcome was far more useful there a mere massacre. ¡°The living are always more useful than the dead. It¡¯s just a matter of how we use them,¡± the former Orc Emperor Junero Tiger had once said. Now the Orcs were learning and applying his teachings with full vigor. And they seemed to have benefitted well. As for Emperor Junero himself, he was now a warrior under the command of the Orc gods and a member of the Orc army searching for traces of the human gods in that void. However, he was also keeping a watchful eye over the war situation on Earth. The Orc gods held his advice in high regard. They had appointed a few Oracles, who were not very powerful but had quick feet, to be his liaison officers, so that he could keep abreast of the war situation on Earth in a timely manner. When he got to know that the Orcs had sent out a harassment troop to destroy the humans¡¯ production means and resources, but did not kill any civilians, thus leaving only countless refugees, he could not contain his laughter. ¡°Well done!¡± he said. ¡°Continue doing so, we will salvage ourselves from our terrible plight, bit by bit. And eventually, we¡¯ll take down victory!¡± ¡°Your Majesty, can we really win this war?¡± that young man asked. He had become an Oracle not long ago. ¡°Of course!¡± Junero replied and laughed with great confidence. ¡°This time, the humans are actually thinking of becoming enemies with all the races. They are simply courting their own doom!¡± Chapter 925 - : The Impasse (Part 1) The war on Earth slowly fell into a strange state. On the battlefield of the Positive Plane, the Orc army had to face the defensive line at the Great Wall that the humans had built and managed over a long period of time. Even with the help of divine spells, the Orcs were still quite helpless. The city walls were tall and thick. And they were all wholly reinforced with spells. Striking against them with ordinary swords and blades would only leave inconspicuous marks that would disappear after a while. These walls were not simply joined together but also relied on the veins on the ground and formed uneven bar structures. Among them, many took the forms of meandering barbican structures. If anyone wanted to charge into the city by coursing along the road, they would fall into the barbican and be trapped from several sides. It was easy for the entire army to be wiped out. Therefore, to attack this defense line, the only way was to rely on equipment such as aerial ladders to climb up the city walls. However, when it came to the level of siege equipment, the Orc¡¯s skills were simply a little pathetic to speak of. Over the years, they had failed to come up with anything more powerful¡ªthere simply was no need for them to do so. The Orcs themselves did not have the habit of building high and thick walls. Neither did they have the habit of attacking cities. Moreover, even in the face of the towering and steep city walls, there were still the flying beasts, as well as the mid and high-level masters. But to the defense line at the Great Wall, even the flying beasts were useless. The mid and high-level masters were equally useless. The humans also had their flying troops, and their numbers were also large. Perhaps the total was not as many as that of the Orcs, but at least when used for defense, it would be more than enough. In terms of the number of masters, the humans had an absolute advantage. In the previous major battle, the confrontation between the Legendary Masters of both sides eventually ended with the defeat of the Orcs. It was a pity that even though the battle dragged on for such a long time, in the end, it was still unable to produce any decisive significance for the situation. In this regard, the situation was the exact opposite of the flying troops. But if the defensive line at the Great Wall was taken to be the battlefield, and the Legendary Masters from both sides were to get started on a long period of fighting, then the weakness in the number of the Orcs would be made apparent. By then, their Legendary Masters would suffer great losses, and this was something the Orc Emperor found unacceptable. The loss of some ordinary soldiers was not much of a problem in such battles that involved the entire race. But when they did not have many Legendary Masters to start with, further losing a few of them, the situation would become even more disadvantageous. Since the Legendary Masters could not be mobilized for war, then the Orcs would naturally be placed at an absolute disadvantage. If they wanted to attack the city, then all they could do was to use their lives to make up for their shortage in number. But did they have enough lives? Of course they did. But the Orc Emperor had no intention of using the lives of his Orcs to fill in that terrifying defense line. ¡°No need,¡± he said at the military conference that night. ¡°The humans outnumber us. They must be on a tighter budget when it comes to food supply. And they don¡¯t have enough spellcasters. The healing of the wounded, nursing of the sick¡­ all of this is very loss-incurring.¡± ¡°More importantly, their logistics line is going to run into problems soon,¡± said the emperor with an eerie smile on his aged face. ¡°Tens of thousands of people are continuously causing destruction at their rear. The Oracles of Your Majesties here are attacking the temples and altars. They can¡¯t hold out any much longer!¡± This was the outcome of discussions of the advisory board. According to their estimation, their army provisions would at most last for another month or so. In a month¡¯s time, millions of soldiers would find themselves in a predicament due to the lack of rations. At that time, the humans could either initiate an attack or choose to retreat. There would not be any other viable options. Emperor Ilo was not worried about the safety of the mobility troops. They were not isolated without any support like the mobility troop of the southern military army of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. Behind them were the great gods, as well as a large number of Oracles. These Oracles would provide them with sufficient intelligence and support in a timely fashion so that they could keep themselves in good condition. The Oracles would even transport supplies to them¡ªwith the help of the Oracles, even if they had to go up front alone, they would never be left with no support at all. On the contrary, given the actual situation, they might be much better provided for and more carefree than the main military army. This main Orc army of troops was presently at the western region of the defense line at the Great Wall, doing their best to outstare the human army. After all, the army they had to face was not strong. It was nothing more than some militia or the private army of aristocrats. The elite troops of the humans were either mass-gathered at the defense line at the Great Wall or stationed to stand guard at the various important points of the supply lines. It was simply impossible to deploy enough troops to deal with them. As for the issue of transferring a few masters, what was the use of a few masters in the face of such a large army of tens of thousands of men, as well as the masters who might possibly be hidden among this great army? It would be nothing but death. In fact, the humans could also mobilize a few troops to lay siege around them. With the advantage they had with their military strength, this was not impossible. But the Orcs had the Oracles to help collect information. The human army had tried to surround them twice, but they easily evaded the humans on both attempts. The second time around, they even managed to take advantage of the situation to lay a trap and but was hit with a swift counter-attack. As the days passed, the weather gradually became warmer. But the commanders on both sides were feeling cold deep within instead. The cold was not due to despair or fear, but rather, due to their murderous intentions. The humans had suffered a great loss. Their previous loss incurred at the war of bases was nothing much. This period of time where they suffered a harassing attack by the Orc¡¯s mobility troop in the core region of their own land, this was truly a heavy loss for them. At least a hundred towns and villages were reduced to rubble and ruins, more than one hundred thousand civilians were turned into refugees in need of rescue¡ªand all of this was just the beginning. A hundred thousand people were not considered many, but it was not as easy to provide food and shelter for an additional one-hundred thousand people. The humans deliberated on this aspect repeatedly. In the end, they could only choose to move this one hundred thousand people towards the defense line at the Great Wall. Only there were they able to get enough food and shelter. As for the issue of danger, if the great army failed, where else could there not be danger? On the side of the Orcs, their mobility troop had gone through more than 10 days of continuous combat and were also a little tired. Most importantly, they had yet to accomplish their greatest goal for this trip. For the Orcs¡¯ mobility troop, attacking the core region of the humans¡¯ land and creating a large number of refugees were only targets conveniently accomplished along the way. Their primary goal was to destroy the supply lines of the humans. However, the humans certainly expected this as well. Every fortified point along the entire supply line was heavily guarded. Almost all were uniformed fortresses and were heavily guarded. The Orcs¡¯ mobility troops would suffice when it came to attacking places like aristocrats¡¯ castles or towns and villages, but they were still far from adequate to be used to attack these heavily guarded fortresses. Under such a situation, these Orcs who had gone deep behind their enemy¡¯s line, could not help feeling frustrated. According to tradition, at this point in time, they should be capturing large numbers of humans, force these civilians to attack the fortress and use their lives to deplete weapons and morale of the guarding soldiers. Such a method was cruel, vicious, but extremely effective. But this time, they could not do so. When the Orcs¡¯ mobility troop convened their military conference at night to discuss this plan, they heard a roar coming from the sky. Their sturdy tent was torn to shreds. A huge green jellyfish was looking at them with big, terrifying bloodshot eyes. Sui Xiong did not say anything, but his attitude made everything crystal clear. Chapter 926 - : The Impasse (Part 2) Sui Xiong had said before that in this war, he would remain neutral and would not take sides. But being neutral did not mean that he would not do anything. He had expressed that he would extend a helping hand to those refugees who had fallen into extreme desperation. At the same time, he had set a rule for both sides involved in the war: No massacres allowed. For the former, he had yet to see any refugee who was truly in extreme desperation¡ªthough the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops had destroyed many towns and villages, causing hundreds of thousands of people to fall into a tragic situation of having no food and shelter, the humans¡¯ reserves were more than enough to deal with such problems. There was no need for Sui Xiong to do anything more. If the rulers of the humans had ignored the fates of these refugees and abandoned them, Sui Xiong would pick them up and along the way and behead these rulers as well¡ªthe bodies below the heads would simply be left behind for the coffins. And the rule of ¡°no massacres allowed¡± had not been violated by anyone up till now. But it did not mean that Sui Xiong had forgotten about it. On the contrary, he was actually very concerned about this matter. Thus he had always been on guard. Driving the refugees out to attack the city was, of course, a kind of massive slaughter. So when the commanders of the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops were discussing this plan, Sui Xiong immediately appeared to issue them a serious warning. His warning worked with great effect. The Orc commanders immediately knew what he meant and abandoned this plan, which originally would have been a very effective one. It would be impossible not to give up on this plan. Once a great Divine Power, who was obviously in a bad mood, glared at them with eyes that could practically kill a person, who would dare to bite the bullet and say ¡°I¡¯m not giving up¡±? Perhaps there had been such tough guys in the world. But obviously, they were long dead and did not have the chance to pass on their precious blood. So anyway, this time, Sui Xiong did not meet anyone who dared to question him. He gave a cold snort and disappeared, leaving only a group of officers who were looking at each other with the back of their shirts drenched in cold seat. Since the plan of driving out the refugees to attack the city was not going to work, then there was only one way left. To fight head-on. In terms of military strength, the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops had tens of thousands of men, and all of them were elites. There were even many masters among them. So long as they grasped onto the right opportunity, wanting to cut off the human¡¯s supply lines was, in fact, not that difficult. The humans¡¯ fortresses might be sturdy, but their food supplies had to be transported after all. The transportation of food supplies naturally required the provisions to be taken out and carted off to the next fortress. This road used to transport the food rations was the most suitable place for a battlefield. But whatever the Orcs could think of, the humans most certainly could think of as well. They assembled a powerful and elite troop to escort their food supplies and the number of soldiers in this troop was more than twice that of the Orcs¡¯ mobility troop. Faced with such an army, the Orcs did not dare to rashly attack. But they could not bear to see the food supplies being transported to the front lines so easily either. This would provide support to the humans at the defense line at the Great Wall. Under such a situation, they naturally chose to turn to the gods for help. The gods of various races, including those of the Orcs, had been searching for the traces of the human gods. And they had been at it for almost half a month. They searched every place possible, but still, they could not locate the whereabouts of the human gods. It was as if the great number of gods had completely vanished, like they had all fallen. But everyone knew that the human gods had not fallen altogether. Inside the Pantheon temple, all of them were nowhere to be seen. But nearly half the number of their seats were still around, especially those mid-level Divine Powers, as well as the stronger gods. Not a single one had fallen. But from the intelligence provided by the spies who lay in ambush in the human society, apparently, the human gods had yet to re-establish contact with their clergymen. Their clergymen had not been able to restore their spellcasting abilities as well. More importantly, the allied force of Oracles that comprised of Oracles from the various God Systems had successively destroyed thousands of altars and temples of the human gods during this period. Other than the few major temples that were particularly well-defended, nearly all the sanctuaries of the human gods had been destroyed. And the losses of their clergymen were just as heavy. Many churches of the gods that had tangible presences had been utterly destroyed. Not a single temple or altar was left. Only a few clergymen who were lucky enough to escape, could build temporary altars¡ªthese altars were, of course, built inside the camp. And only the altars within the camps could be free of worries from being attacked by Oracles. The gods and Oracles could not directly attack an army. This was the rule that the Master of Order laid down after the battle of the Sun¡¯s Death Day. After all, be it the gods or the Oracles, they were all too powerful relative to any mortals. If they were to attack the army directly, it would definitely result in serious injuries. The Master of Order clearly did not wish to see such a situation happening, so he laid down that rule. This rule was obviously beneficial to the humans, but even the Orcs did not voice any opinions. Rules were rules. While they might benefit the humans now, they might not necessarily disadvantage the Orcs in the future. Moreover¡­ no matter what, now the Orcs with the upper-hand in this war. Since they had the advantage, there was no need for them to care so much about other things. The Orc gods were still mainly more concerned about finding and exterminating the human gods. Only by destroying the human gods could they truly be considered to have won victory in this war. But, where on earth were the human gods? No one knew. What they all could do was to continue the search. In this case, when the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops asked for help, the Orc gods did not hesitate to send the troops their Oracles to render assistance. And what these Oracles had to do was to cooperate with the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops to attack the human convoys. Of course, they would not be doing anything on a personal level. That would be going against the order of the Master of Order. But they could create a favorable terrain with suitable weather and even provide consistent help to the Orc soldiers before and during the war. With these advantages, the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops would still dare to launch attacks on the human convoys no matter how lacking they were in military strength. That attack happened in the wee hours of the morn, probably around three o¡¯clock. It was the late winter season, and this was the time where it was cold and dark, and also, just the time when the humans were the most tired. The human convoys had consistently stayed on guard with daily precautions. But when the Orcs, with the powerful aid provided by the spells of the Oracles, came roaring and storming towards their tents where they stored their food supplies, the humans were still somewhat flustered. Some of the soldiers hurriedly got up to fight while the others felt that they should protect their rations. There were even some who completely fell into a state of confusion and did not know what they should do at all. Amidst the chaos, the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops succeeded in burning down a large number of the humans¡¯ rations. Then they left, leaving the blazing heaps of fires, as well as dead bodies that were strewn all over the ground in a mess. Among these bodies, there were those of the humans, but also those that belonged to the Orcs. Fortunately, the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops did not manage to burn down all the rations in the end. And the moment the humans at the defense line at the Great Wall learned of this news, they were quick to send reinforcements to the human convoys to help strengthen their defensive ability. In the end, probably only less than a third of supplies of the originally planned amount was sent to the defense line at the Great Wall in time. Upon seeing these provisions, the commanders at the defense line at the Great Wall expressed their dread with heavy expressions. And the Orc Emperor who received the news, showed an equally awful expression. They all knew that this war was far from ending. They all most probably had a long way to go¡­ Chapter 927 - A War of Attrition (Part 1) Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio The weather gradually became warm. The development of the war situation on Earth was also gradually becoming detrimental to the humans. The defense line at the Great Wall, having been built over many years and being heavily guarded, was still unbreakable, and the other countries were still continuously providing supplies and manpower. But the continuous harassing attacks by the Kingdom of Light was too much for the humans, who were gradually losing their hold. The ruling foundation of the Kingdom of Light was based on an Oracle system comprising a large number of temples and churches. This country was practically an utter theocracy, where the regime depended on the existence of divine rights. When its theocratic system had been destroyed and scattered all over the place, their governmental system was also almost on the verge of collapse. No matter how many people there were and how much resources a country had, once its governmental system collapsed, it would fall into a state of disunity and become nothing more than a heap of loose sand. Could a heap of loose sand fight a war? A major war at that? Of course not. The good news was that the humans had many masters. Though their Oracle system could not hold out any further, they could still rely on these masters, who were free to run around, in order to maintain a basic transport line. This was, after all, something they could always do. But in doing so, the lives of the refugees from the Kingdom of Light would meet with serious problems. Their production tools had been destroyed. Their farmlands were burned down. They had even lost their food supply. They could only depend on the country for support. But now, the state system was on the verge of collapse and could no longer provide them with enough support. Their kind of situation could almost be said to be ¡°left high and dry.¡± If this situation was allowed to persist, it would not be long before a massive famine would take place in the Kingdom of Light. Then there would be a serious outburst of refugees emerging¡ªthis was exactly what the Orcs wanted. However, at this point in time, Sui Xiong finally made his move. He sent his Oracle to the refugees and asked them if they were willing to break all ties with this war and convert to a neutral position. If they still insisted on fighting, then there was nothing Sui Xiong could do. The people that he wanted to help were only the refugees who did not wish to fight. It did not include the potential warriors. But if the refugees were to give up on the fight, Sui Xiong¡¯s Oracles would send them to the refugee camp that he had prepared for them. There were houses, water sources and well-prepared food. There were also good fields and proper farming tools for the refugees to pass the time. Sui Xiong did not need the refugees to do anything for him. His only requirement for these refugees was peace. ¡°The moment you all decided to go to the refugee camp, this war that was originally yours, has already ended,¡± the young lady Oracles, in their wonderful bodies of armor, warned. ¡°You all can have peace and tranquility, as well as the insurance for security. In exchange, you all have to abandon all thoughts of fighting in the war.¡± Sui Xiong felt that this was a fair deal. ¡°Your Majesty, you are much too kind!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s follower, Wall, could not help but sing his praises as he watched the refugees being sent off in batches. ¡°Few gods would go to great extent to help refugees on such a massive scale.¡± ¡°I can do it if the others won¡¯t. Anyway, it¡¯s within my means to do so,¡± Sui Xiong said indifferently. ¡°Since I can do it, why shouldn¡¯t I?¡± Wall smiled and nodded as he watched those refugees who had given up war leave in a continuous stream. Sui Xiong¡¯s actions won the unanimous praise and support of the good gods. Though there were also some who felt that he had not been thorough enough¡ªfor example, some gods felt that he should have stopped those Orc mobility troops from destroying the homelands of the civilians of the Kingdom of Light¡ªbut after Sui Xiong emphasized on his ¡°neutral¡± position, they were all left with nothing to say. Neutral did not necessarily mean he had to be impartial. But at least, he could not be explicitly biased and show favoritism towards any side. Sui Xiong stopped the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops from carrying out a massacre of civilians, and then he rescued the refugees who had given up the war. He had done more than enough. If he had to go any further, he might really have to deviate from his neutral position. The Orcs did not have much of an opinion on this. For them, it was a great accomplishment to be able to bring down the Kingdom of Light and oppress the logistics supply line of the humans. As for the matter of depending on a harassing troop to defeat the humans, even the Orc Emperor himself had never dreamed of using a means as such. In this world, the essence of war still lay in frontal combat on the battlefield. Everything else was just for auxiliary purposes. If the Orcs could not break through the defense line at the Great Wall, then saying that they wished to defeat the humans was ultimately just the Orcs spouting empty words. And wanting to break through the defense line at the Great Wall was definitely not something that could be accomplished overnight. Over the long years, the Orcs had launched many attacks on this defensive line. In the end, other than finding themselves badly battered up over and over again, they had not gained anything at all. They had not even managed to advance half a step into the east. On the contrary, the humans had relied on this defense line to open up another large territory towards the west. With this war, the Orcs had completely seized back all the lands that the humans had opened up over the years. It was already considered a rare victory. Most importantly, the humans were gradually falling into a dangerous situation. ¡°The mobility troop has reported that they had successfully attacked the humans¡¯ supply lines again yesterday. But it was a pity they did not manage to destroy much food,¡± said a staff officer as he read from the intelligence report at a meeting at the Orc military headquarters. These days, they frequently heard intelligence like this. Since the previous few attempts of the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops setting fire to great amounts of their military provisions, the humans had changed their way of thinking. The mages of the Mifata Federation had created a temporary batch of space bags with enormous storage capacity. This space bag had a limited effect in reducing weight, but they were, indeed, extremely helpful in reducing capacity. In the past, when the Orcs attacked, large quantities of military provisions would be loaded onto the trucks, and there would be nowhere to hide them even if the humans wanted to. But now, so long as they could find an opportunity, and with the slightest bit of time, the convoys could hide these space bags in inconspicuous places. Unless the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops could annihilate all the human convoys, then there was no way they would have time to find the human convoys and annihilate all of them. As a result, what the Orcs¡¯ mobility troops could gain from the war was significantly reduced. Unless they attacked the fortresses where the rations were stored, they would hardly be able to find the opportunity to destroy large quantities of the humans¡¯ military provisions. If it had not been for the numerous attacks that killed a large number of human convoys, which in turn, caused the transportation capability of the humans to be greatly reduced, perhaps the mobility troops would long have returned without having accomplished anything. But no matter what, the mobility troops would always be useful to a certain degree. The collapse of the Kingdom of Light, as well as the increasing distress of the human convoys, was good evidence. It was just that¡­ the loss of the mobility troops themselves was relatively alarming as well. ¡°They must be requesting for extra help again, aren¡¯t they?¡± Emperor Ilo asked. His advisor nodded and said, ¡°They are saying that this war has caused them substantial loss. They wish to replenish their elite forces as soon as possible.¡± Emperor Ilo sighed and said, ¡°Then let them replenish their troops. Give them whatever they want¡ªanyway, the army that is stationed here has nothing much to do. The battle over the other side maybe a little more brutal, but it¡¯s always better than not doing anything.¡± He looked indifferent and did not display any emotions. As a veteran who had fought countless battles, war was simply a battle of attrition between these two parties. So long as the loss of the Orcs was relatively lower, it was acceptable. It was just that¡­ The delay in seeing the chance of determining the outcome of this war made him somewhat annoyed. After the military conference ended, Emperor Ilo walked out of the tent and raised his head to look at the sky. The stars shone brilliantly, just as they would every day. ¡°Gods in heaven, please let us find the human gods as soon as possible. We need to destroy them completely!¡± The white-haired Orc emperor prayed silently. ¡°This is the only way to end this war as soon as possible!¡± Chapter 928 - A War of Attrition (Part 2) Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio War was cruel and tough. No matter which side it was, war would be as such. The humans might be under extremely great pressure, so much to the extent of the Kingdom of Light being on the verge of collapse, but the Orcs were not any better. The Orcs¡¯ productivity was not as good as that of the humans. But they had mobilized many more soldiers to go onto the battlefield on the Positive Plane to support the army. The number of soldiers deployed was much too many, and therefore, it seriously affected the rear production. The Orcs¡¯ main business was animal husbandry, followed by farming. From the end of winter to the beginning of summer, the long period of confrontation between the two armies had caused them to consume a large number of rations. The ration reserves of the Orc Empire were almost exhausted. If they were to continue being locked together in this state of impasse, while the humans might be able to persist for a little longer, the Orcs would not be able to hold out any further. Emperor Ilo looked at the heavily guarded storehouses at the back of the army and sighed to himself inwardly. Those storehouses for military provisions might be large, but there actually weren¡¯t many provisions inside. If they were to maintain such a rate of consumption, it was estimated that in another month to a month and a half, the army would run out of food. Backward agricultural and animal husbandry production, as well as the scarcity of manpower, caused rear production to fail to catch up in pace. To get rid of the immediate crisis, they had to ask the gods for help. But¡­ if they were to ask the gods for help, it would mean that they had to violate the rules laid down by the Master of Order. Be it Emperor Ilo or the Orc gods, no one was willing to take that risk. Now the situation was one in which the Orcs had the upper hand, they were reluctant to take any chances. Risk-taking was something only the underdogs would do. It was just like how Lefon, the ¡°Sky Devourer Canine,¡± had directly used his God Kingdom to damage the human¡¯s God Kingdom, and without saying anything at that. But¡­ if they did not get any help from the gods, they might simply lose this battle on Earth. Emperor Ilo frowned deeply and said nothing. ¡°Wait, just wait,¡± he told himself in the end. He said something as such to himself, ¡°At least before I truly am at my wits¡¯ end, I should not impose on the gods!¡± East of the Great Wall, in the humans¡¯ military camp, the atmosphere was very downcast. Unlike the Orcs, who at least still had reports of victories coming in successively, the humans had been receiving a steady flow of bad news during the same period. There was simply no good news for them at all. That place had been attacked this time, this and that human convoys had been attacked, many gods were still uncontactable, the troops that tried to attack the Orc army had failed and returned defeated¡­ in short, there was not a single piece of good news at all! If not for the fact that they knew how important this war was, and if not for the fact that they were deeply aware that there was no way out, many would have been tempted to simply turn around to return home. At the regular military conference, the air pressure was as low as if it were going to rain. ¡°His Majesty, the Void Mask, has received another group of around 20,000 refugees today.¡± ¡°Let him take them away then. At least this can take some pressure off us.¡± ¡°But there are many places where various signs are appearing. There are many people who are unwilling to fight this war.¡± ¡°Those ignorant fellows! Don¡¯t they understand that we are already standing on the cliff. We have no other choice other than gritting our teeth and persevering in our climb up to the peak. The moment we let go, we will fall to our deaths!¡± ¡°Those people are ignorant, but they are also the most straightforward ones. They find such things difficult to understand, and they are only able to see the benefits right before them.¡± ¡°So hateful! We are fighting and bleeding at the battlefront, all that¡¯s required of them is nothing more than laboring at the back. They can¡¯t even do something like that. They are simply crap!¡± ¡°During this time, there have been a lot of labor injuries happening everywhere. Because of the burden of heavy labor, there were already many injuries or even deaths. Here I have with me, the statistics¡ª¡± ¡°Shut up! Such statistical data is useless! What we want is victory. For this, no matter what price we have to pay, it will be worth it!¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t we try to launch another large-scale attack? The things that our mages have prepared are relatively sufficient. It can last us through another great battle.¡± ¡°Those beasts are waiting for us to attack! If we attack now, we¡¯ll be playing into their hands! What we should do now is to cause attrition, bite the bullet and wear them out! No matter how much pressure we are under, their pressure will only be greater than ours! You all have to understand that we have many countries with abundant resources, as well as strong industrial and agricultural production, backing us up. The Orcs only have that backward empire backing them up. Depending on the herds alone can¡¯t possibly provide their army with enough resources to consume!¡± ¡°But they¡¯ve made it this far. Maybe, they can still hold out for a long time¡­¡± ¡°No matter how long they can last, they will not outlast us!¡± said the leader of the allied forces of the humans, who was the king of the Kingdom of Light and also the incumbent archbishop of the Church of the Kingdom of Light. Because of an earlier attack by an assassin, he was only left with vision in one of his eyes. That eye lit up with a chilly glow. ¡°Now, we are like two wounded beasts. Everyone¡¯s bleeding. But they are more seriously wounded. Their bodies are not as strong as ours. If we go on with this war of attrition, victory will eventually be ours to claim!¡± After a long silence, a young aristocrat asked, ¡°But¡­ the gods¡ª¡± He was only halfway through what he wanted to say when the people around him quickly cover his mouth. The one-eyed king looked at them in a gloomy way and saw the man, who had his mouth covered, trembling all over. After a long time, he said coldly, ¡°The first military regulation, execution!¡± With that, he concluded this military conference. A moment later, a miserable cry was heard coming from within the conference room. Then the head of that young aristocrat was hung on the flagpole. Article one of the military regulations prohibited the mention of matters related to the war of gods. This was regardless of identity. Anyone found in violation would be beheaded and displayed before the public! The one-eyed king sat in his study in silence. His face registered a sullen expression, and the look in his eyes was ferocious. He knew that everyone was under a great deal of pressure, but who could be under more pressure than him? Those useless things! Now was the time to fight this war of attrition. Even if it meant eating up the lives of his people, they had to endure till the Orcs could hold out no more! It was tough for them. Now, it was also tough for the other Majesties. Everyone was going through a difficult time. Likewise for their enemies. War was just something that was so difficult! Without all these trying moments, where would there be victory! The one-eyed king did not say anything. For a long time, he sat alone in the dark. Then he walked out of his study and headed to the prayer room. Before the altar, he knelt and prayed earnestly. ¡°Great God of Light, the leader and hope for us humans. Please guide me as always; give me the courage and inexorability so that I can persevere, so that I can lead those weaklings who have grown weak and cowardly and who have started to exhibit emotions of withdrawing to persevere! ¡°We will win, and we will definitely not hold you back! Please fight in whatever way you want to. No matter what, we will persevere to the end. No matter what you require of us, we will do it! ¡°Your devout servant is now praying that you will prevail, and you will lead us to victory! For the sake of victory, no matter what you need, we will not hesitate to offer! ¡°All we want is nothing but victory!¡± Outside the prayer room, the green jellyfish, that was invisible to the human eyes, watched everything in silence. His face was filled with sadness. Chapter 929 - Military Deliberations (Part 1) On the huge warship floating in the vast void, the Orc gods were having a meeting. ¡°The war on Earth is not going very well.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not as simple as ¡®not going very well!¡¯ The advantages that the humans have accumulated over the years are much too great. Even if the Orcs have many ideas, they can gain nothing more than temporary advantages. However, if this drags on, their advantages will slowly be used up.¡± ¡°The food supply is already in danger.¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing I can do about it. The productivity of the Prairie is limited. And now, we are even understaffed.¡± ¡°Think of something even if there¡¯s nothing you can do about it!¡± After the ¡°Sky Devourer Canine,¡± Lefon, died on the battlefield, the ¡°Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit,¡± Snakenell, returned to power as the new Master God of the Orcs. Listening to the gods discuss and argue made him frown and his mind was filled with annoyance. He was not the type skilled in strategizing to start with. When it came to fighting battles, his vocabulary was limited to nothing more than two lines. One was ¡°Charge, charge, charge,¡± and the other was ¡°Kill, kill, kill.¡± Both lines were symmetrical in form. Their meanings were simple and straightforward, which meant that he could not handle too many situations. By contrast, the late Lefon had a clear mind and a meticulous way of thinking. The way he did things was far more organized than Snakenell. Though Snakenell had always been unwilling to admit, as far as the position of Master God was concerned, Lefon was indeed more deserving than he was. What a pity, Lefon was dead¡­ Snakenell sighed inwardly and said helplessly, ¡°Stop quarrelling. If you all go on quarrelling like this, we won¡¯t have an outcome even if you all quarrel till the next year.¡± ¡°In that case, what are your plans, Your Majesty?¡± ¡°Yes, you should make the final decision!¡± Looking at the trusting and expectant looks the gods gave him, Snakenell could not help feeling a slight headache. ¡°The problem with the shortage of food is not difficult to resolve. We just need to get some food for them, that¡¯ll do¡­¡± ¡°But this may violate the rules set by His Majesty, the Master of Order!¡± It was only now that Snakenell recalled the crux of the problem and could not help feeling even more distressed. ¡°Why am I not the one who perished together with our enemies when we led our God Kingdom to war previously? It¡¯s a complete blunder to let the wise die and leave the fool to hold the fort and run the show!¡± he thought. He was secretly complaining in his heart, but there was nothing he could do about it. He could only try his best to rack his brain for solutions. After a long time, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s go consult and discuss this with the Goddess of the Ocean. She should be able to provide enough food.¡± ¡°The Sea race?¡± asked the Orc gods as they looked at each other. There were even a handful whose eyes lit up at the mention of the Sea race. The Main Plane was extremely vast, with a huge continent and a big ocean. The Sea race who lived in the sea had abundant resources, but they seldom had contact with the other races living on land. If they could get the support of the Sea race, just the problem with food supply would definitely be solved! ¡°But¡­ the Goddess of the Ocean is not very inclined to help us¡­¡± said a god as he frowned. ¡°The Sea race and the others like us on the land don¡¯t have much to do with each other. And because of her control over the Sea race near the coastal waters, the former Goddess of the Ocean often mobilized the Sea people into launching invasions. Although we were all fighting each other, at least there was still some form of contact between us. The current Goddess of Ocean has given up on the Sea race near the coastal waters all at once and focused on commanding the Sea race of the high seas. The contact with the land is so minimal that only one trading port at Garth City remains operational. It¡¯s going to be very difficult if we want to persuade them to help us.¡± ¡°They are not obligated to help us. The dwarfs, elves and various races at the Marsh are willing to help us because they live on land too. The moment the humans gain hegemony, they are definitely going to put pressure on the places where the other races live in. However, the living space of the Sea people doesn¡¯t overlap with that of the humans. No matter how hegemonic the humans are, they will not be affected¡­¡± The gods fell silent. This was the crux of the matter. The Sea race had no interest in matters of the land hegemony at all. Or even, if they were to see this from a business point of view, they were closer to the humans than the Orcs. So how could the Orcs possibly hope that the Sea people would choose to help them over the humans? After a long time, one of the gods whispered, ¡°How about we consult His Majesty, the Void Mask? He¡¯s especially close to the Sea race¡­¡± Snakenell shook his head. He had actually discussed with Lefon previously whether they should try to bring Sui Xiong into the situation. At that time, Lefon¡¯s reply was, ¡°The Void Mask is friendly and kind, but also very stubborn and extremely particular about adhering to his principles. Since he says that he is going to take a neutral stand, he is definitely going to stay neutral. If you want to get his help in this battle, the most reliable way is to get the humans to launch a massive massacre of us Orcs¡ªthat way, he will definitely do something because he can¡¯t bear to see such killing. But Wuther will never do this, so we don¡¯t even stand a chance.¡± As these words should not be uttered beyond closed doors, Snakenell maintained silence. After a while, another god said, ¡°How about we try our luck with the other elemental races?¡± ¡°Elemental races? They are a little more inclined to our side. But what kind of help can they provide us with? The food that they produce are poisonous to the ordinary Orcs.¡± The Elemental Plane was vast and boundless, so of course, there were many creatures of flesh and blood living on it. Theoretically, these living creatures could also be used as food. Yet in fact, they contained a high concentration of elemental power in their bodies. This was naturally great nourishment for the strong, but to the weak, it would be lethal poison. Compared to the needs of absorbing this elemental power, the vast majority of the Orcs belonged to the ¡°weak¡± category. ¡°Just come up with a magic array to draw out all the elemental power from their flesh. That should do.¡± ¡°This magic array is not simple¡­ It¡¯s not easy to draw just the exact right amount of elemental power. And it is a fact that it¡¯s still poisonous all the same. If too much of it is ingested, one may directly become a pile of minced meat.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t there an Association of Mages over at the Republic of Northwest? They must have done some relevant studies. When it comes to studying magic arrays, they are considered to be in a league of their own.¡± ¡°The Republic of Northwest will not join the war. They are neutral.¡± ¡°But being neutral doesn¡¯t mean that we can¡¯t buy technology from them. If the humans want to buy things, they can go to the Republic of Northwest to make their purchases too.¡± The Orc gods looked at each other. There were slight sparkles in their eyes. Just as this god had said, though the Republic of Northwest was neutral, the Orcs were not going to ask them for military support, nor were the Orcs purchasing food or weapons from them for military purposes. The Orcs were only going to purchase some non-military technology. By right, this should still be considered acceptable¡­ The gods cast their gazes over to their Master God. Snakenell contemplated for a brief moment, then he approved the proposal. No matter what, it was worth a try. Then once again, he emphasized to the gods that the most important thing at hand was still to find all the human gods and strike them heavily before they had the chance to fully recover. ¡°In all battles on Earth, the humans are always the one who suffer in the end. Be it the elves, dwarfs or the various races of the Marsh¡­ none of them will be able to help much,¡± he said this very solemnly. ¡°But beyond the Main Plane, if we have the help of the various God Systems, we will gain the absolute advantage! So long as we find all the human gods, no matter how powerful the God of Light is, it will still be impossible for him to salvage such a crushing defeat! ¡°Dear all, ultimately, the key to this battle is that it¡¯s not a battle of the humans, but that of us. If we win here, we can win on Earth too. But if we lose here, it will be pointless for the humans to win the battle on Earth! We must all be clear of our priorities and hold on to the focal points!¡± Having spoken up to this point in time, the face of the Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit was already full of murderous intent as he said, ¡°After annihilating all the human gods, no matter how many humans there are, they will become nothing more than food at our disposal. But if we lose the battle here, then I¡¯m afraid out people may not even have the chance to escape¡­ So we must win this battle! For the future of the Orcs, we all must do everything we can!¡± The Orc gods responded in unison, all of them filled with a strong desire to kill. Chapter 930 - Military Deliberations (Part 2) ¡°Your Majesty, I think we should open up another battlefield!¡± suggested young Wilder, who had previously proposed the formation of the rapid-mobility troop previously the military conference of the Orc army. ¡°The way we are exhausting everything now, the army¡¯s efforts will be in vain. It¡¯s better to open up another battlefield and put more pressure on the humans!¡± Emperor Ilo froze briefly, then looked at his advisers. He had always believed that professional matters should be left in the good hands of the relevant professionals. He had never made decisions for matters with respect to stratagem. He always consulted the experts before anything else. At this moment, the advisers, who had long discussed this matter, were all nodding in agreement. ¡°That¡¯s right. For our army to confront the humans here, there¡¯s actually no need for so many of us.¡± ¡°Though we can¡¯t possibly disband the troop and send them back to farm at the fields, it¡¯s still possible to assemble and mobilize part of the troop to attack other places.¡± ¡°And by putting a little more pressure on the humans, perhaps we can earn a little more opportunity for our side.¡± Since everyone in the advisory body had reached a common consensus, Emperor Ilo nodded and gave his consent for this matter. Then he tasked the staff of the advisory body to see to the arrangements for the deployment of the troops, as well as to choose the target of the attack. In fact, there was nothing much to choose for the target of attack. To attack the humans from the Orc Empire, there were only two directions. It was either heading eastward to attack the Kingdom of Light or going to south to attack the Kingdom of Eagle. If they chose to attack the Kingdom of Light, they had to attack the solid line of defense of the Great Wall. At present, the two sides were engaged in a confrontation here. Every three days, there would be a small fight, and every five days, there would be a big fight. But no matter how they fought, they could not arrive at a conclusive outcome. They were only wasting food supply, material resources and lives in vain. If they chose to attack the Kingdom of Eagle, they had to attack the northern fortress group comprising several fortresses. Emperor Junero had previously captured a few of these fortresses, but later on, because of the battle of Sun¡¯s Death Day, he lost most of his fortresses and only managed to retain one of them. In recent years, there was no further outburst of war between the Kingdom of Eagle and the Orc Empire. The defense of the northern fortress group seemed to be slightly slackened. But now that there was a great war between the two races, it was impossible for the Kingdom of Eagle not to deploy troops along the defense line of the fortress group and ensure that it was heavily fortified with troops. This was, regrettably, going to be another tough battle! But when did the Orcs ever fear war? So what if it was a tough battle? They had fought against these fortresses back then and even gained an advantage! So when the news that the Orc Empire was preparing to form an army to attack the Kingdom of Eagle came out, all the Orc armies signed up with great enthusiasm. In the end, the ones who won the opportunity to participate in this war were the few races who were known for their valor or speed. Of course, there were also a great number of flying troops. If they wanted to attack the northern fortress group of the Kingdom of Eagle, then of course, they needed to confront their famous Sky Knights. So flying troops were essential. The Orcs had always been fast workers. In as short as a few days¡¯ time, a great army had been selected. They wasted no time and set off right away, speeding towards the Kingdom of Eagle. It was very difficult to hide the movement of the army from its enemy. Though the humans were currently in a disadvantageous position with regards to spell confrontation, relying on their large number of air forces, they were still able to complete the reconnaissance work. So the moment the Orc army just started the war, the human commanders were promptly provided with intelligence. Learning that the Orc had re-divided its troops and sent a great army to head in the southwest direction, which was obviously towards the Kingdom of Eagle, the king of the Kingdom of Eagle could not sit still all of a sudden. He quickly bade farewell to the headquarters of the allied forces and hurried back to his kingdom to preside over his army. He knew his own country businesses well. Since the split with the Duchy of Griffon, the Kingdom of Eagle¡¯s military power had been greatly weakened. Although there had been no further large-scale war against the Orc Empire over the years and its population had recovered somewhat, he had never been able to make up for the shortcomings of his country¡¯s inherent deficiencies. If the Orcs were to attack the Kingdom of Eagle at the beginning of the battle, perhaps he could be able to hold out by relying on ample preparation and the support from other nations. But after a few months of war, the armies of all the other countries had suffered heavy losses. The Kingdom of Eagle was no exception. In particular, its air force¡ªthe humans¡¯ air force was primarily from the Kingdom of Eagle. At present, the ¡°sky knights¡± that was the pride of the Kingdom of Eagle, had suffered heavy casualties and was left with less than 30-percent of the original headcount. There were not many left from the land troops either¡ªthere were still many ordinary troops, but there were only a few elite ones, who were trained via the new training method, left. Besides, so what if there were still troops left? Could he bring the troops from the defense line of the Great Wall back to his Kingdom of Eagle? To get from the defense line of the Great Wall to the defense line of the northern fortress group of the Kingdom of Eagle, the Orcs could dress themselves in appropriate attire to gallop across plains and grasslands. But the humans had to cross many lofty mountains and high ranges. There was no way they could go any faster, even if they wanted to. So in the end, he could only bring a handful of masters and the remaining sky knights back and ask for the support of the rest of the countries. Since the great war began, the Republic of Northwest had imposed restrictions to all its transmission formations. Other than those who needed to purchase their personal living supplies, as well as the refugees, who were allowed to pass through the transmission formations, residents of other countries were no longer allowed free passage. Without the most convenient means of travel in this world, wanting to be a step faster in returning to the Kingdom of Eagle before the Orcs with such a geographical advantage was no easy feat at all! Fortunately, with the efforts of the magicians, they were still able to make it back to Eagle Wing City in time. Once they arrived at Eagle Wing City, this king, who had to address Leon as ¡°Great Granduncle¡± based on their positions in the family hierarchy, immediately issued a great mobilization order. All the strong youths who could be found within the country would be mobilized to put together a great army. They would then hurry to where the northern fortress group was. At the same time, he was persistently urging the Duchy of Griffon, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to send support troops as soon as possible. He did not know if he would be able to make it in time, but now, he could only do his best and give it a shot. Of course, he also sent a letter to Leon to request for help. But this time, Leon clearly rejected him. ¡°Before I was a senior member of the Igor family, I was first the archbishop of the Church of the Void Mask,¡± Leon had replied as such. ¡°For the war this time, the Church of the Void Mask is taking a neutral stand. So this will be my take on the situation as well. If you are worried, you can send some of the younger members of your family to the Void City. I will protect them well and take good care of them.¡± There was nothing the king could do. So he did according to what Leon suggested and sent a few of the more outstanding descendants of the Igor family over to Void City. His intention was to at least ensure that there was still a continuity of his family¡¯s bloodline. He did not want this family, the most splendid and long-standing family in the history of human countries, to weaken, or even come to an end in his generation. After everything was done and the army had been assembled, he personally led the army into battle. With a make-it-or-break-it determination, he led this barely cobbled together army, as they galloped straight to the defense line of the northern fortress group. At the same time, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was also mobilizing emergency troops. They traveled along several relatively ¡°low and short¡± mountains and crossed difficult, rugged mountain ranges as they hurried over to the Kingdom of Eagle. The support troop formed by the northern government of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins might have a much easier path to take¡ªcrossing through the northern part of the Great Marsh and a part of the Graystone Mountains, in any case, was much easier than having to cross broken ridges and mountain ranges¡ªbut the speed of their marching army was much slower than the former. Because this army of soldiers of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins who were rushing over to the Kingdom of Eagle to render support were confronted by the Marsh army, who was similarly in a rapid march over to the Kingdom of Eagle for the purpose of intercepting them. The soldiers on one side were more elite, while the other side had control over the geographical landscape. Both sides were inextricably locked in battle. Even though the situation was relatively in favor of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, wanting to break through the barrier was not something that could be achieved within a period of 10 days to half a month. As for the Duchy of Griffon, they clearly very close, and they had an easy path to travel on. But because they had previously deployed a large number of troops to ensure that all was well for the delivery of logistics at the defense line of the Great Wall, now they did not have many good soldiers left to deploy. So when the humans and the Orcs once again had to fight each other on the battlefield of the northern fortress group in the Kingdom of Eagle, it was expected that the humans would be at a disadvantage¡­ Chapter 931 - The All-Out War (Part 1) Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio ¡°The Orcs are charging up the western wall!¡± ¡°Reserves troop!¡± ¡°There are no more reserves¡­¡± ¡°Come fight me if you¡¯re not afraid of dying!¡± Soon, following the thick smoke that shot up into the sky, the cries of killing gradually died down. Another fortress had fallen. The present king of the Kingdom of Eager was looking at the magic map, which showed another area that turned from blue to red. His expression was so gloomy that it almost seemed as though a thunderstorm was about to happen. But in the end, he managed to hold himself back and asked in a sullen voice, ¡°The reinforcement troops¡­ have they not arrived?¡± ¡°Re¡­ Reporting to Your Majesty. Reinforcement troops from the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs are still on the way. The rugged terrain is making travel difficult for the marching army. Reinforcement troops from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins are being blocked by that group of Marsh natives and have yet to be able to break through. As for the Duchy of Griffon¡­¡± reported the officer in charge of intelligence. After a brief hesitation, he said honestly, ¡°They have recently deployed another batch of troops, but these troops were sent to support the defense line at the Great Wall.¡± King Igor¡¯s body trembled slightly, even his voice was somewhat quivering as he said, ¡°Over at the Duchy of Griffon¡­ what¡¯s their take on this?¡± ¡°They say¡­ the defense line at the Great Wall is of utmost importance. They even say that, since the Kingdom of Eagle has always been able to hold off the Orc army in the past, it will also be able to do so this time¡­¡± King Igor was silent for a long time. Then finally, he struck the sturdy conference table with one heavy blow, and the table instantly collapsed. As anyone could see, this time, the Duchy of Griffon was clearly making use of the power of the Orc army to defeat the Kingdom of Eagle. It was believed that when the Kingdom of Eagle had lost all its main force, the Duchy of Griffon would immediately send its troops in and take down Eagle Wing City in the guise of saviors coming to the rescue. Its true intention, however, was to seize the throne of the Kingdom of Eagle. But being able to identify its true intention did not mean that there was a solution for this problem. The Duchy of Griffon had indeed deployed all the troops it could over to help maintain the defense line at the Great Wall. They certainly had not lied about it. The defense line at the Great Wall was of utmost important. This statement was certainly true. The elite forces of the humans were concentrated there. If the defense line at the Great Wall was breached, it would mean they had directly lost in this unified battle. But¡­ how could the defense line possibly be breached! If that group of Orcs had the capability to break through the defense line at the Great Wall, why would they bother coming over to attack the Kingdom of Eagle! King Igor did not say anything at all. He only sulked and felt angry. After a long while, he pulled a long face and said to his ministers, ¡°What do you all think about¡­ where else can we find troops to reinforce us?¡± ¡°Your Majesty, if we had known where to find reinforcements, we would have gone looking for them,¡± the prime minister of the kingdom replied with a sigh. The king also heaved a deep sigh. This was the greatest problem for the Kingdom of Eagle at the moment¡ªeven if they wanted to seek reinforcement, there was simply nowhere they could turn to for help. Strictly speaking, the Orc Empire and the Duchy of Griffin were the only countries bordering the Kingdom of Eagle. The Orc Empire was an enemy, while the Duchy of Griffon was not considered much of a friend either. At present, the ones who had really put in the efforts to accomplish some real work were unexpectedly the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. These two countries, under normal circumstances, were not even close acquaintances of the Kingdom of Eagle. However, one of them paid no heed to injury and forcefully sent its army over as reinforcements. Its army had to cross over mountains and hills, even to the extent of having to cross the Mountain of Broken Clouds, which was deemed a natural barrier, just to arrive at the Kingdom of Eagle. The other country was fighting the Marsh natives at the moment, where both sides were badly battered. They only prayed to break through all barriers, cross the area at the northern edge of the Great Marsh, and then cross the Graystone Mountains to finally hurry over to rescue the Kingdom of Eagle. As neighbors who had never shared much relationship with the Kingdom of Eagle, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins had done very well. There was no way anyone could find fault with them any further. If anything, they could only blame that bunch of traitors from the Duchy of Griffon for being downright scoundrels! ¡°That bunch of traitors! They want us dead, would it be that easy!¡± King Igor growled angrily. ¡°No matter what, we will hold out till reinforcement troops make it here!¡± ¡°Send my order to assemble all local militia and border garrison. We will form a follow-up force to support the northern defense line!¡± The ministers obeyed at once and hurried to draft the edict. At this moment, a minister close by said in a low voice, ¡°Your Majesty, it seems that the battle line is already not very far from here, do you want to retreat?¡± King Igor froze for a moment, then glared at him fiercely. That minister¡¯s face registered a bitter expression, but he insisted, ¡°Your Majesty, if you retreat now, there won¡¯t be much impact on the army¡¯s morale¡­¡± King Igor certainly understood his intention¡ªit was better to retreat now than later when the enemy arrived at the city. It was much better than fleeing in a sorry state when the city was compromised. But he merely sneered. The smile on his face was cold, without any hint of warmth. ¡°I will not retreat,¡± he said after the smile. He spoke very slowly, stressing on every syllable, and said, ¡°The city remains, I live. The city falls, I die. It¡¯s either I win this battle, or if not, this is where my burial ground shall be!¡± The ministers¡¯ faces all changed instantly. But before any of them could speak, the king went on to say, ¡°Since the establishment of the Kingdom of Eagle, there have been many kings who died on the battlefield while fighting against the Orcs who have come to invade us. One more of me won¡¯t make a difference, but one less of me¡­ that will be a disgrace to the Igor family.¡± He sighed deeply as his gaze swept across the worried faces of his ministers. Very earnestly, he said, ¡°Gentlemen, I understand you all. But¡­ to tell you the truth, I¡¯m afraid we really can¡¯t win this battle. So at least, I want to be like a king and die at a place where I¡¯m supposed to be when I have to die. Do you all understand me?¡± ¡°And¡­¡± he started. After hesitating for a moment, he still said what he had in mind. ¡°Perhaps, if I die here, ¡®that one¡¯ will step forth to save the Kingdom of Eagle, on account of the dead¡­¡± The ministers knew exactly who he was referring to when he mentioned, ¡°that one.¡± They all believed that if that one were to intervene, then no matter how strong the Orc army was, it would not necessarily be able to take advantage of their plight at all. But that person¡¯s status was on a totally different level. It was simply not very convenient for him to make any move. So¡­ as the king said, it was worth risking his life even if it was just fighting for a possibility to get him to help them. The ministers were silent for a long while. Then at long last, all of them began laughing bitterly. ¡°Fortunately, I have a son. I don¡¯t need to worry about having no posterity.¡± ¡°I only have a daughter. This is a great loss for me this time!¡± ¡°My son went to Void City to attend school some time ago. What a delightful and fortunate thing to know that he has not returned this time.¡± ¡°Congratulations! Congratulations!¡± Since ancient times, it was always said that if the lord were to suffer, it would be the humiliation of his ministers. And if the lord were to be humiliated, then his ministers deserved death. Since His Majesty, the king, was already prepared to die in the battlefield, then naturally, they would have no other choice but to follow in the king¡¯s footsteps. And for them, the southernmost end of the defense line of the northern fortress group where the sturdiest fortress stood would be their burial grounds as well. King Igor could not help laughing as he looked at the bitter yet determined smiles of his ministers. ¡°All these years, we have gotten along pretty well as a king and his subjects. Let¡¯s make this last journey together enjoyable for us all.¡± On the same day, the king of the Kingdom of Eagle made a solemn announcement. He would personally stand guard at the fortress and persevere till the Orc Army was repelled. It was either that, or he would die on the battlefield. Other than that, there would be no third choice! The news arrived as a shock for the heads of the other countries. But they also felt that this was to be expected. Only the Duke of the Duchy of Griffon smiled triumphantly, for he was delighted that his overt plan had worked. However, his joy came a little too early. Just as the Orc army had broken through another fortress and was a distance of about four fortresses away from the one that King Igor of the Kingdom of Eagle was stationed at, the grounds of the eastern plains of the Duchy of Griffon suddenly cracked. Countless holes were formed, and from underground, a great army of pygmies and underground creatures rushed out and took straight to the capital of the Duchy that was located in the plains. Chapter 932 - : The All-Out War (Part 2) In the battle on the Main Plane, the pygmies and underground creatures had never had much sense of presence. The pygmy race used to be one of the stronger races on the Main Plane. But during the great development of mankind, they had encountered many failures, and finally, they could hold out no more. Following the fall of the final kingdom, they dejectedly withdraw from the competition for hegemony. At that time, most of the pygmies on the Main Plane had followed the pygmy gods who had retreated to other worlds. Only a few stayed behind and became vagrants of the vast land. Some of them were scattered about the towns and villages and became minorities. Some built small underground villages in the wilderness and lived in seclusion. It was needless to say anything about those underground creatures. They were mainly known by people because of stories like ¡°Dungeon Adventure.¡± For instance, an explorer discovered an underground legacy and found several treasures, or some expedition chanced upon a group of underground magic beasts and beheaded them all to gain some benefits¡­ things like that. Other than these stories, those races who lived underground were no longer known to the inhabitants on land. It was as though they did not exist at all. In fact, they had always been around. Not only that, they even had their own civilization, as well as their own gods. This time the Orc gods had contacted various God Systems to lay siege on the Human God System, so of course, they had found the gods of these underground races as well. In the beginning, these gods had not intended to participate in this war that was of little significance to them. But they learned that the Master God of the Orc God System had driven his God Kingdom into a forced collision with the Human God System. Such a suicidal attack brought heavy casualties to both sides and caused them to change their minds. One should never let go of a golden opportunity that heaven has bestowed. Since the opportunity was already right in front of them, it would be a pity if they did not even bother to grab it! So they secretly contacted the dwarfs and pygmies, who were equally adept at underground activities, to discuss a joint attack. The dwarfs rejected this plan. This group of short, strong men who called themselves ¡°the children of the rock,¡± showed a strong abhorrence for conspiracies and intrigues. Even if they had to fight, they would fight their enemies in an open and aboveboard manner. But the pygmies hit it off with the underground creatures. Both sides immediately sprang to action, gathered their forces and headed to the Duchy of Griffon. Beneath the Main Plane, the situation was different from place to place in regards to the suitability for excavation. One of the most suitable places was the great eastern plains of Duchy of Griffon. This area was also one of the main territories of the pygmy nation many years ago. It was the homeland that the pygmies had pined for. They had set up many decorative arrangements here. And all of it was to prepare for the chance to return in the future. Now, it was the time to give full play to these arrangements! Relying on these decorative arrangements, as well as the power of the underground races, both sides assembled a massive army with a considerable number of soldiers. They did not hasten into action but waited patiently for the Orcs to open up a third battlefield. When the humans were overwhelmed, and when the Duchy of Griffon had sent out all its troops in plain sight, they would launch a surprise attack. Under the cover of nightfall, the mighty army rushed out from underground and took down the capital of the Duchy of Griffon. The Duchy of Griffon was void of defense and simply could not put up a decent amount of resistance. Besides, their capital was originally not a sturdy city that had walls made of copper and iron. Therefore, the underground allied force was able to break through the city at one fling. By dawn, including the Duke of Griffon who had not escaped in time, at least a thousand officials and aristocrats¡¯ heads were hung on the city walls. One after the other, they were hung in a long, ornamental mass, as though they were common accessories. According to the plan of the underground creatures, they had wanted to kill all the people in the capital city and hold a large-scale blood sacrifice to help enhance the power of their own gods. But the pygmies persuaded them against doing so. The reason they gave was simple¡ªbreaking through the capital city, killing and injuring the officials, aristocrats and soldiers, those were not considered much at all. But if it were a large-scale massacre of the civilians, were they confident of being able to deal with the Void Mask who might strike out of angle? Even if the Void Mask did not make any move personally, it was also great trouble for just the followers of gods, Oracles and clergymen under his command to strike! The leaders of the underground race discussed among themselves for a while, then decided that they certainly were unable to put up any resistance against the mighty jellyfish god. So most regretfully, they had to give up on this plan to carry out a large-scale blood sacrifice. But this did not mean that they had spared the people of the capital. They drove the people out, and the refugees who had been looted by them were reduced to tears. After being chased out of the capital in a sorry state, the people had to head to the nearby cities to seek help. During the time where all the fighting and killings were happening, Sui Xiong did not intervene at all. Although¡­ he seemed very angry. ¡°Having developed to this extent, this war is already getting a little out of hand,¡± he told Wall. ¡°If this goes on, I¡¯m afraid the war will spread throughout the entire Main Plane.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be¡­¡± said the God of Knowledge, who had previously successfully predicted the imminent misfortune that the Human God System would come to face. He was greatly taken aback, and said with some trepidation, ¡°There¡¯s nothing much to say about this side. But it can¡¯t be that there¡¯s going to be a fight in the South as well, right?¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and looked at the vast land in the South. His eyes were full of worry. Wall did not know the power of the Realms of War, so he had no inkling about the matter at all. But in Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes, the battle clouds in the skies above the Great Marsh were becoming increasingly thicker and intense. It seemed like those Marsh natives were ready. The only thing was that no one knew who they wanted to attack. Who on earth would that be? But, compared to the battle clouds slowly gathering in the skies above the Duchy of Thunder, it was likely that the target the Marsh natives wanted to attack, was still going to be them after all. And over at the Ancient Forest, battle clouds were also gathering. Those battle clouds were linking with the battle clouds in the sky above the Mountain of Broken Clouds of the Kingdom of Dwarfs. It was feared that these two parties would combine forces to attack the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. In truth, this was not surprising. Since ages ago, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs had always been trying to invade the dwarfs and elves. Both sides could be said to have worldly vendettas against each other. Now that the dwarfs and elves had the chance, would they possibly not want revenge? So long as they took the chance to defeat the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs in this war, both the dwarfs and elves would be able to live in peace for many years to come. The only places where battle clouds did not rise were the Mifata Federation in the South and the Dhaka Commercial Association that was next to it. The strengths of these two countries was another matter. The main problem was that they had few enemies around them. The only enemy they could claim to have was probably the elves of the Ancient Forest in the north. But the two countries did not have much influence over the development, or rather, the invasion of the Ancient Forest. Given such a situation, it was believed that the elves would still be focusing their efforts on stirring up trouble for the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs. ¡°It¡¯s really¡­ simply fire everywhere!¡± Sui Xiong mumbled and shook his head helplessly. With that, he could not help turning his head to look at the sky again. Amidst the void space that was lit by a light ball created by the collision of two God Kingdoms, a large number of gods were still carrying out a thorough search for any traces that the human gods might have left behind. ¡°Where on earth did the human gods go? Hiding themselves like that is not going to be a solution after all. It¡¯s better to come into the open earlier. Let us all fight a good battle and then the victorious side shall remain while the defeated side will leave. It¡¯s just that simple! No point letting the people bleed like crazy, is that meaningful at all?¡± Chapter 933 - The All-Out War (Part 3) Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio No matter how the gods searched, they could not find the gods of the Human God System. It was as though they had melted into the void space. It was as though they had never been there before. Not even a trace of breath was left behind. Sui Xiong was also very curious to know exactly where they were. But he just looked on by the side and did not help in the search. With the current situation, the moment the human gods were found, they would probably meet the fate of complete destruction of their entire regiment. As someone taking a neutral stand, he certainly could not get himself involved. Since he could not join in the search, he had little interest in this silent war of hide-and-seek among the gods. By contrast, it was the burgeoning war in the human world that attracted his attention. After the Marsh races had assembled a large army, they launched an attack on the Duchy of Thunder. For a long time, the main force that invaded the Great Marsh was none other than the Duchy of Thunder. However, compared with the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs that was able to suppress the vicious lashing by the dwarfs and elves in a one-against-two battle, the combat power of the Duchy of Thunder was much inferior. Their strength to ¡°develop¡± the Great Marsh was much weaker. There was no unified country in the Great Marsh. The forces of the different races had complicated relationships. Internal wars were never-ending. Under such circumstances, the Duchy of Thunder often benefited from the method of pulling the force of one race to fight the force of another. This method was proven to be repeatedly successful. But now, under the leadership of the native gods, the races of the Great Marsh were combining forces for the first time. When the many races who had been engaged in fierce battles against each other for so many years finally stood together on the same battle-line, the Duchy of Thunder¡¯s powerful stance seemed to become relatively inadequate. In just one battle, six of the 14 strongholds that the Duchy of Thunder had set up within the Great Marsh were uprooted, leaving the remaining eight in peril. The Marsh races were large in number, and they varied in strength. Among them, there were those like the Lizardmen who were relatively weak. They were unlikely to be able to win the humans in a one-on-one fight. There were those who were like the multi-headed serpents who were very powerful. Even single-handedly, they could constitute a threat to a small fortress, unless they encountered a high-level master. After these races united, they complemented each other so well that they were able to give full play to the effect of one-plus-one-is-greater-than-two. The most important stronghold that the Duchy of Thunder had set up in the Great Marsh was known as the ¡°Red Tree Fortress.¡± The scene that one could see from this place was extremely spectacular and terrifying: In the sky, there were harpies screeching away in their piercing voices as they flew about in disarray. This group of monsters was adept at suddenly descending from the sky to catch hold of their enemies. Then they would rip off their enemies¡¯ heads and fly away. They were, in fact, not very strong. Any well-trained soldier would be able to fight them one-on-on in a reciprocal manner, so long as he did not panic. But at that very moment, with the sky being shrouded by a depressing blackness, there was no knowing how many harpies there were. The guards at the front of the city were all pale in the face as they did not know what they should do. Among the big crowd of harpies, there were also some greyish-green or greyish-red figures. They were bipedal dragons who were monsters with a little dragon blood in them. They were unable to fly high or fast enough to compete with the real dragons. But their scales were hard enough, making them formidable sky assassins that ordinary soldiers would struggle to fight against even when they were in large groups. Not to mention¡­ some of these bipedal dragons even knew how to cast a little magic or spit poison¡­ Leon had tamed a bipedal dragon as well. It was one of the subspecies called the ¡°Copper Crown Dragon.¡± Under Leon¡¯s training, its flying technique was pretty impressive. If there was a flying contest for the bipedal dragons, it would have a high chance of winning the championship. Leon had now become a Dragon Knight, and he owned the green Dragon, Galstoby, which was a mount that made any other knight go green-eyed with envy. But to avoid causing a riot, Leon would still ride his Copper Crown Dragon when he went out on many occasions. This made Galstoby very displeased and often went to find trouble with that Copper Crown Dragon in private. Later on, the situation even developed into one where it would take a human form from time to time, ride on this unlucky Copper Crown Dragon and parade about town. Any insider who knew about it was bound to laugh out loud. What should a dragon that rode on a dragon be called? These air forces alone were enough to cause great distress for the soldiers at the Red Tree Fortress, making them feel that their chances of winning were slim. And the mighty land troops made them even more upset as they secretly deliberated on questions like, ¡°How much longer can I live?¡± And these were questions that severely affected their morale. No, morale and such, if it was not for the fact that the entire fortress had already been thoroughly surrounded with no way of escape, things like morale and all would not have existed¡­ The land troops of the Marsh races were, of course, mainly comprising the Lizardman race. Other than being less intelligent, these humanoids who had solid, hard scales were generally similar to humans. Furthermore, their endurance was significantly lower than that of humans. If they were in a situation where there was going to be a long battle, they would suffer a great loss. But they made up for this shortcoming in their ability to reproduce. In this regard, they were much more fertile than humans. If they had not disliked the environment because they felt that it was not moist enough, perhaps there would be traces of them all over the continent. Other than the Lizardman race, there were naturally many other demons of other races like the monitor lizards, snakes, giant centipedes, scorpions and the Marsh devil crabs. There was an intelligent race from the Marsh called the ¡°Marsh Ape-man.¡± The creatures of this race were especially skilled at taming all kinds of poisonous substances and were all natural trainers. Regardless of what creature it was that flew in the sky, ran on the ground, or swam in the waters, there was almost no demon that they could not tame¡ªso long as these were poisonous creatures. The other intelligent race found in the Marsh were the Frogmen. This was a relatively weaker race, and its members were all weaker in terms of military power. They were quite cowardly, and their level of civilization was relatively backward. In the ¡°food chain¡± of the Marsh, they were placed in a lower position. But on the other hand, they were also able to take up many kinds of logistical work, and thus, they provided a lot of help to the army. As for the other races like the elves, of course, there were a lot of them. But the Marsh races had never seen them as their own kind, so they were always driven into life-endangering traps. They had pretty much lost everything they could possibly afford to lose from the previous attacks, so now, there was not much to be seen from them. If these were the only enemies, then by relying on the sturdy defense of the Red Tree fortress, it was not possible for the fortress to fall so easily. But among the Marsh army, there were still a dozen or so gigantic, towering figures that could be likened to small mountains. These were the ace cards of the Marsh, the giant multi-headed serpents. These fearsome creatures sported gigantic bodies, and they boasted a fearsome amount of strength that was deserving of their size. Although they did not know any spells, they had such a tenacious vitality that made people fear them¡ªunless their heads were all chopped off at the same time, then there was no way they could be killed. Even if scary spells that could blow any other enemies into nothing but ash and dust were used on them, then any form of attack would be useless. This demon was the most terrifying existence in the Marsh. It was also the scariest thing ever mentioned in folklore. If anyone could fight a giant multi-headed serpent one-on-one and take it down, this person was more than worthy of being called a hero. In fact, even its subspecies, the multi-headed ophisaurus, was already a very dangerous race of demons, much less the giant multi-headed serpent. When Sui Xiong and company first arrived at Garth City, the son of the then city lord of Garth City, Kalisa¡¯s older brother, Sean Riley, had tried to make things difficult for them. At that time, Sean requested Leon to catch a three-headed ophisaurus to prove that he was someone qualified enough to negotiate terms with. Of course, it was a task Leon was capable of carrying out. That might be how his fate became entwined with that of the Riley family. The multi-headed ophisaurus was certainly not a big deal. But at that time, if Sean had wanted Leon to catch a giant multi-headed serpent instead, probably Leon¡¯s choice would not be to catch the demon. But rather, he would draw his sword out and chop off the head of Sean, who had allowed his mind to conjure all sorts of nonsensical thoughts. Compared to provoking a giant multi-headed serpent, killing the son of a Legendary Master was obviously much easier and safer. Chapter 934 - The All-Out War (continued) In the face of the Marsh army, who had members like the giant multi-headed serpents that wielded catastrophic military power, even the sturdiest fortress would become nothing more than an ordinary small village. The reason why the Red Tree fortress could sustain up till the now was because it had one out of the four Legendary Masters and a demigod holding the fort. Putting aside the discussion of the four Legendary Masters for the moment, just that demigod alone was a through-and-through strategic martial force in his own right. With him around, even an army of thousands of men and horses would not stand a chance of victory. However, the Marsh army also had Demigod Masters. For ages, the Marsh races had been able to resist the invasion of the humans. And they mainly depended on those Demigod Masters who lingered in the human world and refused to leave. Some of them had become the ancestral totems of the tribes they stayed with. Some of them had laid their roots with countless descendants. There were also some who cultivated all day long and never showed their faces before others. But for the future of their races, at the summoning and invitation of the Marsh Gods, and under the entreaties and beckoning of the Marsh races, they all set foot on the battlefield, one after another. At the moment, among the Marsh army that surrounded the Red Tree fortress, there were two Demigod Masters. With two against one, the side of the Marsh had a considerable advantage. But even so, they did not have the confidence of being able to hold back that human Demigod Master. The other side might not be able to defeat them, but they definitely had the ability to break through and escape. Or perhaps¡­ If the other party did not wish to escape but rather insisted on battling to the end, the battle between them would most likely implicate all the living souls here. Everyone would be left to die without any proper burial grounds. This was, of course, not something that the demigods of both sides wished to see happen. So the war was brought to a standstill and became a long siege. However, while the Red Tree fortress could still hold up, the other fortresses could not. By the time the army that the Duchy of Thunder had urgently assembled rushed down, the many strongholds that had been set up since a long time ago were down to three. And the Red Tree fortress was among these three. The army of the Duchy of Thunder, of course, attacked the Marsh races without further ado. Both sides fought a ferocious battle, which left them all in a great mess of deaths and injuries. Then, like the situation at the defense line at the Great Wall that was northeast of the continent, they both set up base camps and launched a long-term confrontation. In this case, the Duchy of Thunder would, of course, no longer have the power to support the defense line at the Great Wall¡ªin fact, they themselves needed support. If it had not been the reinforcements that the Mifata Federation provided them, they might not have even been able to retain their own defensive line. And at this point in time, the reinforcements of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs finally overcome the arduous journey laden with high mountains and lofty hills. They lost about 20-percent of their military strength but finally made it to the northern fortress group of the Kingdom of Eagle. They had finally arrived and were just in time. If they had taken two to three more days to arrive, they would be moaning in anguish as all the fallen fortresses would have greeted them upon arrival instead. They might also have to collect the dead body of King Igor along the way. With their support, the Kingdom of Eagle was able to protect and hold on to its final and sturdiest fortress. This battle was not lost yet. On the other hand, the army of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was unable to break through the obstacle posed by the Marsh army. Regardless of how they had already sent in three troops as replacements. But in the face of the allied force comprising the many Marsh races, who were also supplementing their army with more reinforcements and doing their best to block the way, there was nothing the army of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins could do. The geographical landscape of the Marsh was really not suitable for human combat. Waging wars in such places simply gave the Marsh race a much greater advantage. To add fuel to the fire, the allied force from the Marsh even gained the support of the Desolation race from the Graystone Mountain. The Desolation race was essentially part of the Half-Orc race. Thus in this great battle that decided the fate of their race, of course they would stand by the side of the Orcs. In fact, the Desolation gods were already fighting this war under the leadership of their Master God, Morani, the ¡°Steel Lion.¡± Although they had been estranged from the Orc gods, they were, ultimately, Half-Orc gods. In such a war where the different races were fighting for their survival space, the Desolation gods were unable to take a neutral stand like their allies, the Void gods. For this, Morani had apologized to Sui Xiong. And in turn, Sui Xiong had accepted his apology. It was true that they were all friends. But friends would also have their own stand to take. Sui Xiong could not impose his stand on Morani. All Morani could do was to restrain the Half-Orcs and the Desolation race so that they were unable to massacre the humans. In fact, there was no need to worry at all. Even if they had the intention to kill, they simply did not have the chance to do anything so far. At present, among the many kingdoms of the humans, the one in the direst situation was still the Duchy of Griffon. After losing its capital city to the allied force comprising the underground races and pygmies, the army was greatly demoralized. They were continuously losing their territories under the attacks of the allied force of their opponent and were in great distress. Seeing how the Duchy of Griffon was on the verge of collapsing, the Kingdom of the Blue Moon, which had always been on bad terms with the former, finally deployed its soldiers to help it retain one of its territory in the east. Even if after this battle, the Duchy of Griffon might be devoured by the Kingdom of the Blue Moon, at least for now, it was still able to barely survive. And the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, the most aggressive country among all the human-populated countries, also paid a heavy price for its many years of aggression. On the very day that their elite troops arrived at the northern defense line of the Kingdom of Eagle, the allied force comprising the elves and dwarfs, which had long been prepared for this attack, rushed out of the Ancient Forest and the Mountain of Broken Clouds. They launched an aggressive attack on the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs by closing on them from two sides. Of course, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was well-prepared to stay vigilant against this. But being on guard did not mean it was able to put up a defense. In the face of a fierce joint attack by two long-time opponents, even the people of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, who relished fighting in wars, found this an extremely difficult battle. Their defense line was continuously drawing back. Every time the defense line drew back, a large number of bodies of the dead men from Thousands of Springs would be strewn all over the place. Of course, the dwarfs and elves also lost a great deal. But it was imperative that they won this battle. Even their gods had all turned out in full force, what else could the mortals say? If they won, everyone could gain peace and prosperity. If they lost, they would no longer have a foothold on the Main Plane. What else was there worth thinking about? They just had to put their lives on the line and go all out! So there were the flames of war everywhere on Earth. Almost every country was involved in this war. Other than the southernmost part of the continent, which was still in a state of peace, only the Republic of Northwest, which was very far away, was not implicated in the war. Vast numbers of refugees were heading to the Republic of Northwest. The Church of the Void Mask had thus mobilized all its forces to ensure the safety of these people. And the gods that the members of the Church of the Void Mask believed in had come to the South, to where the Mifata Federation was. They stopped in the sky above the Mifata Federation with solemn expressions and did not say a single word. Above the South Sea, thick clouds of war practically suffocated the gods. Sui Xiong could clearly see that there were large numbers of murlocs gathering here from all directions. Most of them were unarmed, but they wore expressions that reflected their heightened enthusiasm, which could even be described as madness. He could also guess what these fellows wanted to do, and he could not help but wonder to himself. Such a large number of murlocs gathering here at the South Sea, other than attacking the Mifata Federation, what other reason could there be? No one would have expected this group of murlocs, who had lacked a sense of existence for so many years, to want to hit the headlines with such sensational news, albeit in such a soundless manner! Chapter 935 - The Raging Flames of War (Part 1) In this war, not only the underground races had come to participate, but even the murlocs from the sea also came to join in the commotion. This was something that even Sui Xiong had not expected. The murlocs belonged to the category of offshore race. They were characterized by a chaotic and evil nature. The Goddess of the Ocean, Vorpocus, had absorbed a great amount of belief from the murlocs, thus causing her own nature to waver inconsistently. She went from neutral to evil, orderly to chaotic, then finally, she became an evil god who was somewhat crazy. From being a ¡°mermaid princess,¡± she evolved into a ¡°female tyrant of the ocean.¡± After the fall of Vorpocus, the new Goddess of the Ocean, Ariel, refused to receive and accept the belief of the murlocs. To avoid being polluted by their belief, she even gave up on the development of the coastal region and placed all the focus on the operation of the distant sea. For a newly-emerged god, this was certainly an extremely difficult choice. But this choice was unquestionably wise. It could minimize the risk of pollution by the murlocs¡¯ belief to the greatest extent¡ªit was better to eat less than to swallow a lethal feast. But to the murlocs, losing their god not only meant that their souls would have nowhere to go after death, but it also meant that they had lost the protection of a god with top-rated martial skills. The murlocs were never a powerful race to start with. They might have an amazing reproductive ability, but among them, there were practically no decent masters to speak of at all. Generally speaking, for a murloc to grow up to the level of mid-rank, he could already be regarded as a ¡°peerless master.¡± Such a race, whether to the humans on land or to the demons in the sea, was simply not worthy of much attention. So in the years following the change in the generation of the Goddess of the Ocean, the murloc race went through a very difficult time. They somehow felt like they were monkeys in the middle, not knowing which generation had been better for them. But the murloc race¡¯s misfortune was in great contrast to the luck of the coastal inhabitants. For the past few decades, the murlocs were placed in a difficult situation, so naturally, they were unable to make use of their aggressive ability to invade the sea race. Therefore, the coastal inhabitants were able to live in peace for many years. But such peace only lasted up till this very day. The capital of the Mifata Federation, the ¡°Highest Tower,¡± was not far from the sea. It was located in the huge warning array that was right in the middle of a magic tower. And the God of Spellcaster, Lamperus, had personally overlooked the construction process of this magic tower, which was already beginning to emit dazzling red light. This red light, of course, was sending out an alarm. The Sage of Life and Death, Mill, was the one in charge of monitoring this warning array. He was the teacher of the Sage of Dead Soul, ¡°Tu Ya¡¯an,¡± and the ¡°King of Trees,¡± Tello Hailaer. He was also one of the most powerful Legendary Masters in the Mifata Federation. At the sight of the glowing warning array, Sage Mill first froze momentarily. Then right at once, he operated the array, strengthening the detection in the direction where the warning alarm was sent from. The moment he had a detection, his expression suddenly registered a great change. Without thinking twice, he sent a message to all the Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation. ¡°Sea race invasion! I¡¯m afraid the sea people are turning out in full strength!¡± All the Legendary Masters who remained in the human world received this news. Other than the few who were in the midst of some very important matters and could not stop halfway, all the others hurriedly rushed to the Highest Tower and arrived right beside the warning array. The array that was controlled by Sage Mill was blood red now. This was the highest degree of warning alarm. ¡°How many sea people have come?¡± a Legendary Master asked. ¡°It¡¯s impossible to come up with a rough estimate,¡± replied Sage Mill. With a grave expression, he said, ¡°It has far exceeded the upper limit of what this array can estimate.¡± ¡°Far exceeded the upper limit? How is that possible!¡± ¡°When this array was built back in the years, the possibility of an invasion by the sea race was also taken into consideration¡­¡± ¡°Those shrimps are crazy!¡± These Legendary Masters went on complaining. More than one had even flown out of the tower and used his own means to personally observe the situation in the sea. Just one glance was enough to suddenly evoke changes in their facial expressions. The part of the sea near to the Highest Tower might seem unchanged on the surface, but right now, beneath the surface of the sea, countless murlocs had gathered. The number of murlocs was too many, simply too many. There were so many of them that they stacked over each other, one by one, and formed a dense crowd that filled a vast expanse of the sea. In the face of such a number, indeed, it was really ¡°hard to estimate!¡± ¡°What are they trying to do?¡± ¡°What else is there to do? A sea race invasion.¡± ¡°Sea race invasion! Invade us?! Invade the Highest Tower?!¡± ¡°Yes, invade us. Invade the Highest Tower.¡± ¡°They are courting their own doom!¡± ¡°If we are unable to kill them, then we may be the ones who perish instead.¡± A Legendary Master sneered and walked to the edge of the cliff. He then raised his magic wand towards the sky. An obscured aura rose from within him and gathered on the wand. His wand, which was made of Mithril, glowed with countless electric sparks. These light rays quickly gathered on the ruby that was at the tip of the wand, causing the red ruby to glow brilliantly. It looked just like a small sun falling into the world. He pointed his wand towards the sky, and the little sun-like light rays of the red ruby stone rose up slowly and flew up to the clouds high up in the sky. A moment later, a bloodcurdling roar and crashing sound was heard coming from within the clouds. The gloomy clouds that blanketed the sky were torn by the raging wind. A stream of crimson red light appeared in the sky and soon spread out to fill the entire sky. Right in the middle of the red light, its color was getting deeper and deeper. The roaring and crashing sounds were also growing louder and louder. Finally, a large meteorite with red flames and hot winds came crashing down from the sky. It crashed towards the part of the sea with the greatest concentration of murlocs. This was the Legendary spell, ¡°Meteorite.¡± Although it was not a legendary spell that was particularly rare or especially high level, its lethality was extremely powerful. It was especially useful when it came to mass destruction of enemies with weak powers. Theoretically, when a meteorite hit, it would collide, crush and suppress. Thus causing explosions, concussions and burns. This could annihilate at least a hundred thousand enemies. Of course, in reality, the situation would not be so ideal for the enemies could not possibly gather that tightly together. But today, the murlocs so happened to be that densely gathered. So maybe, when this meteorite came crashing down, it was really possible for it to hit with the greatest lethality it was supposed to wield theoretically. However, all the mages who were watching this scene expectantly were in for a great disappointment. Without waiting for the meteorite to hit the surface of the sea, a breath of madness rose from the sea. An endless chaotic mess of magic turbulence rose from beneath and gathered on the surface of the sea. Eventually, a messy, strangely-shaped and huge mouth was formed. It suddenly opened wide and directly swallowed this meteorite that fell from the sky. The next moment, the mouth closed and abruptly disappeared. And no one knew what happened to that meteorite. ¡°How¡­ how is that possible?!¡± cried the Legendary Master who had summoned the meteorite. He exclaimed, ¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡± The other Legendary Masters also felt the same, that this was simply impossible. But the truth was right before them, and they were left with no other choice but to believe it. Those murlocs, that backward and weak race, actually used some strange means to overcome a powerful Legendary spell! Just as they were looking at each other, they heard a message coming from the Highest Tower. ¡°Hurry come back into the tower! The murlocs are holding a massive sacrifice. I¡¯m afraid they might be about to use some dangerous means!¡± The Legendary Masters¡¯ faces changed, and they left hurriedly. Just as the last mage had barely left the edge of the cliff, a green light shot out from the sea and hit the cliff. The cliff body, which had undergone countless storms over the years and remained undamaged, collapsed as though it was a pile of mud after it was hit by this green light. But before it collapsed, everything on the cliff had rotted away. If the Legendary Masters had not left, it was highly possible that they would not be spared. Actions spoke louder than words. The murloc race most certainly possessed an extremely powerful and dangerous means! Chapter 936 - The Raging Flames of War (Part 2) Even after he had returned to the magic tower, that Legendary Master, who cast the Meteorite, still wore an expression of disbelief. ¡°That¡¯s impossible! The murlocs can¡¯t possibly have such skill!¡± However, the facts were plain in sight. The murlocs had mastered enough means to fight legendary spells. And this ability of theirs could not only be used for defense but also be used to attack. From the scene of destruction of that cliff earlier on, their means might seem somewhat crude, inadequately refined and precise, but there was no doubt how mighty it was. That means was also at the legendary level. On the inside of the Highest Tower, there was a circle of light by the side of the warning array. The middle of the ripple of light was like a mirror, reflecting the scene of the sea. The dark green color was rippling on the surface of the sea. It was thick, heavy and utterly turbid. And inside the warning array, there were indications showing that the murlocs were dying in large numbers. Following the deaths of such a large number of murlocs, there was an extremely strong aura that was rising. ¡°Sacrifice¡­ The weak wants to resist the strong. This is the only means left for it to do so!¡± an old Legendary Master snorted. ¡°Those shrimps really have nothing much to boast of, except for the fact that they are very fertile. They can offer a sacrifice of eight to ten thousand in one go, but still, that¡¯s nothing much to them!¡± The Legendary Masters looked at each other with bitter expressions. A sacrifice of eight to ten thousand at a time? What kind of creature would be summoned! Offering sacrifices was a very traditional spellcasting method, and it was most commonly seen in summoning spells. It was not unusual for early spellcasters to offer sacrifices to the powerful existences of other worlds to borrow their power. Before Master Lamperus came up with the ¡°Modern Spell¡± system, the human¡¯s spellcasting system was called the ¡°Sorcery System.¡± This system was best known for two things. The first was that it absorbed the blood of various creatures for powerful strength and long life. The second was that it showed great enthusiasm towards offering sacrifices to the existences of the other worlds so as to benefit from the other side. When it came to the study of sacrificial spells, the humans were the world¡¯s greatest experts! However, time flew, and the years drifted by. All traces of the Witch Age were worn away with the passing of time. By now, apart from a handful of unofficial mages who did not undergo proper training, there were very few mages who still worked on studying the sacrificial spell. This spell, though mighty and powerful, was too dangerous. In particular, it was a spell that could easily provoke unknown beings that were unpredictable and difficult to communicate, thus leading to great trouble. So by now, most mages no longer pondered about it. Even for the legendary mages who were in the magic tower that very moment, most of them were not good at means of offering sacrifices. At this moment, as they watched how their enemies could possibly put up a resistance against their legendary spells by means of a large-scale sacrifice, many of the older mages suddenly felt a sense of absurdity rising within them. It was like going back in time to a scene that took place many years ago where the humans, with their backward magic techniques, fought against the elves who were very skilled in magic. Especially the few senior Legendary Masters who had lived from the Witch Age to present day, their expressions were so weird that they were even harder to read. ¡°In those days¡­ This was how we had fought the elves¡­¡± and old mage could not help muttering. ¡°Could it be that history is repeating itself again?¡± ¡°History will not repeat itself!¡± a young mage said angrily. ¡°We are much more powerful than the elves had been back in those years!¡± With that, he manipulated the magic array and launched the defense system of the Highest Tower into motion. A huge gem at the peak of the tower emitted a brilliant light that shone as bright as the sun. Then a stream of blazing red burst out all at once. Its speed was so incredulously fast that before the murlocs could react, it had hit the surface of the sea. With a loud bang, that part of the sea that was hit exploded. Also because of the high temperature, there was evaporation that resulted in the rise of large tracts of water vapor. Amidst the water vapor, it could be clearly seen that at least a few hundreds of murlocs had been blown apart. They died so horribly that it was an unbearable sight to behold. ¡°The biggest problem with the sacrificial spell is that it¡¯s slow. So long as we counterattack fast with slow, we are able to deprive them of any chance of exerting their power!¡± that young Legendary mage cried loudly. ¡°Even if those shrimps learned our methods from many years ago, so what? They don¡¯t have the backing of powerful gods, nor do they have enough masters to take control and call the shots. Just relying on such slow-moving means like making sacrifices alone, they will not be able to resist the various means of the Highest Tower at all!¡± The Legendary Masters looked at each other, and many of them showed guilty looks. As the years added on to their age, their strength certainly continued to increase. But their fighting spirit, on the contrary, was greatly worn away by the passing of time. This Legendary Master who had brazenly launched an attack might even be the weakest mage among them all, but his fighting spirit and courage had put his seniors to shame. ¡°You¡¯re right!¡± ¡°That bunch of damned shrimps! They think that they have the right to be so arrogant just because they secretly acquired some of our means from many years ago? In their dreams!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s teach them a good lesson! Let them have a taste of the prowess of the modern spells!¡± ¡°Since they have come to court death, we¡¯ll grant them their wish!¡± ¡°After fighting this battle, the coastal region will be able to enjoy at least a hundred years of peace!¡± ¡°A hundred years? Haha! After we¡¯re done fighting this battle, we¡¯ll set off in all directions and utterly annihilate the entire murloc race!¡± The Legendary Masters went on clamoring as they turned to look out of the magic tower, at their respective area of control. Then relying on their potent magic power and precise control, they cast swift and vigorous spells, one after the other. The surface of the sea exploded and became a turmoil of tumbles. Among which, severed arms and broken legs flew around chaotically. No one could tell how many murlocs died. At the same time, a piercing warning alarm rang in the Highest Tower. This icy cold and intimidating voice was continuously repeating itself, requesting everyone to drop everything at once. The stronger ones were to head to various positions to prepare for war while the weaker ones had to hurriedly take shelter. Had the people of the Mifata Federation ever seen something like this? For a moment, many people panicked, and there was chaos out in the streets. People were shouting, crying and cursing all at the same time. Even though the soldiers and patrol mages did their best to maintain order, it was only up to the extent of preventing severe mayhem. And at this point in time, somewhere beneath the surface of the sea, an altar of skeletons was emitting dark green light rays. Countless murlocs with insane expressions were swimming from all over, rushing towards the altar. Once they entered the region of influence of the dark green light rays, their bodies would rapidly decompose and melt. Most were completely decomposed even before they touched the altar and become green pus. Only a few managed to touch the altar. But the moment they did so, their blood and flesh melted completely while their bones were absorbed by the altar, and this integration of bones made the strange altar become slightly bigger. And such a situation persistently repeated itself. If it had been the other races, they would absolutely not be able to afford such a loss. But for the murlocs, though they had nothing much to boast of, had a massive population. Just for this war, they had been preparing for a long time. Especially in the recent few years, the murloc race had been crazily multiplying its number. Now was the time to use these resources! Chapter 937 - The Raging Flames of War (Part 3) Countless murlocs mightily swarmed from all directions and headed towards the altar of skeletons where they gathered. Most of them melted into the surrounding green pus without even touching the altar, while a handful managed to fuse their bones into the altar to become a part of it. In the midst of this process, there was more and more green pus added. But this pus did not disperse in all directions. Instead, it gathered towards the center of the altar and was infused into a rusty, shapeless metal strip. With countless murlocs becoming sacrifices and immeasurable green pus being infused within it, that long metal strip that was stuck in the center of the skeleton altar slowly started to glow with gold-green light rays. As the altar gradually grew bigger, the speed at which it as absorbing the sacrifices also grew faster. Thus the light rays on that long metal strip also grew stronger and stronger. And finally, at some point, the originally rusty, long metal strip suddenly shook violently, and all the rust on it vanished as if by magic and transformed into a long spear. A closer look at this long spear, and one could see that there were two missing parts at the tip. This was, in fact, a trident that was missing its left and right forks. As this broken trident revealed itself in entirety, the large skeleton altar started to shake violently. As it shook, its form slowly changed, and the rate at which it was absorbing the sacrifices grew faster and faster. At this time, somewhere near the surface of the sea, many murloc elders were combining forces to cast magic. They paid no heed to the loss of their fellow murlocs as they chanted some incantation that sounded obscured and insane. This incantation was accompanied by the disappearance of dead bodies of murlocs, as well as many of the living ones that were found on the surface of the sea. It was as though something invisible had swallowed them. After some time, a strange mix of drums and songs suddenly sounded within the sea, and then the water beneath the surface of the sea cracked to reveal a void. From a gap in the void, a strange grayish-green thing squeezed its way out and fell into the seawater. That thing had a head like a fish and the body of a man. At first glance, it looked a little similar to the murlocs, but its body was not bent like the murlocs and it did not look as thin as them. On the contrary, it had well-developed muscles and appeared to be exceptionally strong. There were many dark and light green patterns all over its body, which made people giddy when they looked at it. Is eyes bulged out like those of a chameleon and were rotating continuously, making it impossible to tell what it was looking at. This creature did not look ferocious. Though it was surrounded by murlocs, which meant ¡°food¡± was easily within reach, it showed no interest. It twisted and moved its head about, as though it was looking for something. When the murloc elders saw that they had summoned what they wanted to summon, they immediately beckoned everyone to worship it. Speaking of which, it was strange to see that following the worship of the murlocs, the body of this thing rapidly expanded. In as short as a few breaths¡¯ time, it had become a towering giant that was as big as a mountain. The fish-headed giant with a human body arose to bring the seabed beneath its feet. Its shoulders had already extended beyond the surface of the sea. It did not seem to relish in an environment without water. When its head just left the water, it opened its mouth wide and let out a sharp, piercing yet vague cry. As it opened its mouth to cry out loud, dark green mucus seeped out from its body. This mucus was so thick that it did not melt and disperse even in the seawater. It wrapped around the body of the creature as though it were a leather coat. This creature also possessed an amazing defense ability. The magic light beam coming from the Highest Tower happened to hit it on its head. But this spell that could kill a large number of murlocs with a single explosion could only cause the mucus wrapped around it to slide about a little. It was not even enough to hurt a single piece of scale on its body. But when it was hit by this magic light beam, it was obvious that the giant was angry. It left out a piercing roar, took a great step forward and set off in the direction of the Highest Tower. Inside the Highest Tower, the Legendary masters had seen how this monster appeared. Many faces registered great changes. ¡°This is¡­ Lord of the Abyss?!¡± ¡°Impossible! The Lord of the Abyss is much too powerful. There is no way it can set good into the Main Plane!¡± ¡°Offering sacrifices¡­ Through a massive amount of sacrifices, the murlocs created a makeshift profane region for it to bypass the enchantment of the Main Plane so that it could enter Earth¡­¡± ¡°But what¡¯s the point? It won¡¯t be long before it moves out of the profane region and triggers the enchantment of the Main Plane. With a single mine, it¡¯s sure death for it!¡± ¡°Before that, we should think about how we are going to fight this battle!¡± Amidst the confusion, someone took control over the defense system of the Highest Tower without anyone else¡¯s knowledge and shot a burning white light beam of positive energy at the giant. This white light beam hit the giant accurately in the chest. This blow was significantly more powerful and effective than the previous burning hot light beam. A large mass of mucus was evaporated into thick green vapor. Before new mucus could be produced, a large patch of the giant¡¯s chest was burned, and a white wound appeared. But inside the Highest Tower, more than one mages who were well-studied in the area of demons of the Abyss cried out loud simultaneously. ¡°Oh dear!¡± Before they could finish their lines, that giant had already let out a roar of pain and anger. As it roared, the air around it shook and produced a rippling effect. Countless ripples, big and small alike, appeared. One after another, fish-headed giants with human bodies walked out of the ripples. Like this giant, they were also covered in green mucus, and they were letting out strange cries unceasingly while heading in the direction of the Highest Tower. These fellows had strange body shapes, but they were extremely fast. They were so fast that they could even gallop on water. With every step they took, they could cover a distance of at least 10 meters. This is much faster than any fine galloping steed. The most bizarre thing was, in the course of galloping, every one of them would constantly emit a nauseating green smoke. And this smoke would soon gather to cover a large area of the surface of the sea. The mages who studied about demons of the abyss had all gone pale in the face. But they did not have any time to complain. All they could do was to hurriedly get back into action and confront the attacks. ¡°Use positive energy. Explosive effect, large-scale bombing,¡± shouted an elderly mage. ¡°Blow the ¡°sea mist¡± away! Otherwise, its summoning speed will only get faster and faster!¡± ¡°Leave that to me,¡± Sage Mill said coldly. ¡°In the face of the Lord of Abyss, it¡¯s time for us, the old ones, to step forth and do something!¡± With that, he disappeared in a flash and had reappeared at the peak of the Highest Tower. With both hands clasped before his chest, he was mumbling something under his breath as he prepared to execute a massive magic spell. There were succeeding light rays flickering, and a few other legendary mages appeared by his side as his convoys to protect him. A moment later, Master Mill completed his spell. There were white lights flickering in both his hands. Countless white light balls could be vaguely seen within the white lights. They were rapidly whirling about and were a dazzling sight to behold. ¡°Go!¡± The white light ball drew an arc as it flew over a long distance and landed in the middle of the green smoke. The next moment, it blew up. But the way it blew up was unlike any other common spells. It became a huge, white array that enveloped a vast expanse of the sea. Inside this magic array, the white rain of positive energy was falling mightily and colliding with the green smoke. It was making a continuous hissing sound, which sounded like a drop of water meeting magma. The green smoke was a pile of snow placed next to burning flames, melting rapidly. The white magic array did not sustain for long. But when it disappeared, almost all the green smoke on the surface of the sea had also dispersed. The amount left was not even enough to cover the sea. ¡°There¡¯s nothing much to fear about the Lord of the Abyss!¡± Sage Mage said as he stared coldly at that giant that was still roaring and summoning monsters. His eyes were brimming with murderous intent as he said, ¡°Those shrimps must have thought that we would suffer a loss by summoning this fellow. They are just living in their dreams!¡± Inside the Highest Tower, another legendary mage shouted loudly to all the mages. Then he issued the order to attack. ¡°Bomb them! Blow them up! Just keep the bombs going! Don¡¯t be stingy over the use of the magic pool and kill every single one of those shrimps!¡± From the various defense facilities of the Highest Tower, a multitudinous amount of magic shot out from within. Colorful light rays gathered into a brilliant torrent of magic and engulfed the army of monsters that was surging over. This war between the murlocs and the humans was considered to be in full swing at this very moment. In the sky, Sui Xiong watched the battlefield with a frown as his heart was filled with worry. ¡°The scale of this war is getting bigger and bigger¡­ This war, how exactly are we going to end it?¡± Chapter 938 - The HIdden One In a place the other gods couldn¡¯t even catch a glimpse of, there was a stream of still waters. In the middle of it, a group of injured soldiers quietly nursed their wounds. This was the Human God System, which the other gods would never be able to find. Accurately speaking, this was the remnant of the Human God System. The might of the ¡°Fearless Special Attack¡± of the Sky Devourer Canine, Lefon, was indeed beyond imagination. This was also completely beyond the expectations of the human gods. Fortunately, at the most critical moment, the God of Light had reacted in time. He had created a clone of himself to drive the Human God System, the ¡°Light Plain,¡± crashing into the ¡°Endless Field.¡± Then, the split second before the collision, he had transferred all the human gods and a majority of the Oracles away. Just one blow was powerful enough to make the Human God System suffer a loss of more than 90 percent. But the God of Light certainly lived up to his reputation of being a particularly powerful god among the others. That split moment where most of the gods had not been able to respond was more than enough for him. Though they were forced to cut off contact with their God Kingdom, with the human gods being badly wounded and the Oracles left in the doldrums, at least the Human God System was not fatally wounded. For this level of war, the degree of injury had not yet reached the extent of immediate death. What was all the more fortunate was that, for some reason, the God of Light had long prepared a Sanctuary that was thoroughly obscured and isolated from the outside world. Even other gods would not be able to find it easily. It was just that¡­ back then, he had not anticipated the need to cram so many people into this shelter. So this place had gotten a little too crowded. The Oracles had fallen into a deep sleep. Because all the ¡°savings¡± of their God Kingdom had been for naught, this was the only way they could save up on Divine Power. And the gods, while relying on the Divine Power that the God of Light had left here, were trying their best to heal their wounds and recover as quickly as possible. This Sanctuary had a twofold isolation effect. It made it difficult for the enemy to locate the whereabouts of the human gods and also greatly obstructed the contact between the human gods and their followers and Oracles. Even news from Earth was only received intermittently. They were often required to piece together news obtained from several gods to create a complete set of information. ¡°Report. The murloc race is launching an attack on the ¡®Highest Tower,¡¯ the capital of the Mifata Federation. They have gathered a large army with an alarming number of people and even summoned the Lord of the Abyss, ¡®Yuslar.''¡± The God of Light, who had gone very pale, shut his eyes. He listened to the intelligence with a cold smile. ¡°Another gang has emerged onto the scene! Orcs, dwarfs, elves, Marsh natives, underground races, pygmies¡­ now, even the addition of the murlocs. Haha. I won¡¯t be surprised if even the barbarians and dragons come to declare war on us.¡± ¡°Your Majesty, what should we do?¡± asked the God of Heroes worriedly. ¡°We don¡¯t need to do anything much. Just focus on recuperation,¡± said the God of Light, who still wore a sneer on his face. ¡°I know you are all very anxious, but do remember this: the chance of turning the tables in this war is only possible if you have all recovered well from your injuries. Before you all can completely regain your combat power, I will absolutely not allow anyone to leave this Sanctuary! We have already suffered a great loss in terms of power. We can¡¯t afford to lose anymore.¡± The God of Heroes was silent for a moment, then he asked, ¡°So what about the war on Earth?¡± ¡°Trust our people. The long years of operation have given our people a deep foundation. It may seem as though the entire world is their enemy right now, but I trust that they can hold out until we recover,¡± said the God of Light. He opened his eyes. There was fatigue and anguish in his eyes, but more of it was a vivacious fighting spirit. ¡°The situation now must be very difficult for them, and also for us. But be it the humans or us, we¡¯ll all be able to make it out of this predicament. And in the end, we will turn the tables and trample upon our enemies without showing them any mercy!¡± Having said that, a harsh, murderous intent arose in his eyes. Then he said, ¡°We¡¯ve really been too gentle and easy in the past, so much so that even random cats and dogs dare stand up against us and give us fierce looks. This time, we must learn our lesson. We must be ruthless and merciless. We must make this such an unforgettable memory for those onlookers that they won¡¯t be able to forget it¡­¡± The God of Heroes froze for a moment and asked in surprise, ¡°You intend to annihilate all the races that lay siege on us this time?¡± ¡°Yes. The Orcs, dwarfs, elves, pygmies, those mud-covered fellows from the Marsh, the ghosts and monsters from underground, and also, those shrimps¡­ This time, I¡¯m going to kill them all, from gods to mortals alike. Even the old men who are breathing their last, or the babies who were just born into this world. All of them shall die!¡± The God of Light¡¯s expression had become very gloomy and ferocious, malice threatening to overflow out of his nostrils. He went on to say, ¡°There¡¯s no need for so many races in this world in the first place!¡± Having said that, he closed his eyes again and said, ¡°Don¡¯t waste your energy. Just heal your wounds well. The sooner you recover, the sooner we can set out for the kill. Until then, feeling anxious or getting angry will just be a waste of energy. Our energy is precious. Don¡¯t waste it.¡± The God of Heroes was quiet for a long time. Then finally, he sighed deeply and lowered his head. Be it the gods outside the Sanctuary, who were anxious and burning with impatience, or the gods inside who were doing their best to suppress their nervous states as they recuperated, neither side could detect a trace of each other¡¯s existence. Though¡­ they were, in fact, very close by. On the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World, at the highest point of the Wheel of Order, which was overflowing with dazzling light rays, a greater Divine Power in silver armor watched everything in silence. There was no joy or sorrow in his eyes, only a mechanical kind of calmness. But if another master of equal strength were to observe him up close, that master might be able to see that in the depths of that mechanical calmness, there were still some hidden traces of anticipation. ¡°I¡¯ve grown tired of how orderly this world has been for so long. No matter who it may be, just let me see some changes.¡± As he mumbled to himself as such, the Master of Order cast his gaze upon Sui Xiong again. Sui Xiong was in the sky, somewhere near the Highest Tower. He had kept himself hidden from everyone and was frowning as he watched the ongoing war. He had prepared himself well. If that Lord of the Abyss were to lose control and attack, he was prepared and ready to strike. Though this might be contradictory to his position of neutrality, it was obviously much more important to prevent the Lord of the Abyss from causing great damage to the humans. The Lord of the Abyss was no ordinary monster. Once it lost control, even if it was a brief moment, it could still cause terrible damage that would make anyone shudder in fear. Take a great city like the Highest Tower, for instance. So long as the Lord of the Abyss launched a serious attack, at least half the entire city would be reduced to nothing, along with the vast majority of living creatures within the city. But if anyone was likely to survive its attack, that might not necessarily be a good thing. That meant that they would be affected by its powerful, chaotic, and evil forces. And if they were lucky enough not to turn into monsters, there might still be traces of devilish elements left in their blood¡ªthis was how many ¡°descendants of demons¡± came into existence. Of course, Sui Xiong would never allow such a thing to happen. This was why, although he still remained invisible and did not allow anyone to see him, he had already adjusted himself into a position where he was ready to go all out. When it came to such matters, Sui Xiong would never allow for accidents to happen! Chapter 939 - Reasons Fortunately, what Sui Xiong was worried about did not happen. After an intense battle, Yuslar did not manage to break through the defense of the Highest Tower after all. It was blocked about a mile away from the coastline. This distance, in fact, was very close. For a war on Earth, it could almost be considered as a battle at the level of a face duel. But as a war on this world, a distance of a mile was enough to serve as a buffer for the two sides. There was no need to worry about overly drastic means. Yuslar, being the famous Lord of the Abyss, should supposedly possess strength that was at least the equivalent to a weak Divine Power. But it came from the chaotic and evil world of the Abyss, to the Main Plane, which was inclined towards maintaining order and neutrality, thus putting it under great suppression. Also, at that moment, it had not descended as a powerful noumenon of itself. So in the face of the Highest Tower that was putting up a full resistance, it was comparably powerless. Regardless of its persistent roaring and continuous summoning of its men, it was simply impossible for it to take another step forward. Streams of burning white light rays of positive energy were shooting out of the defense equipment of the Highest Tower, bombarding Yuslar¡¯s body. Every stream of white light rays was controlled and released by the Legendary Masters. Even the great Lord of the Abyss was unable to fully withstand it. Even if it gave its best shot with this projected clone of itself and got it damaged, it was still unable to take another step forward. Those demons that it summoned were dealt with by the mid- and high-level mages. Crackling sounds of various spells that had special effects on demons being thrown over could be heard. Every one of these spells was capable of killing one or more demons. Though Yuslar was very fast in its speed of summoning, the rate at which the mages were destroying was not the least slow as well. Therefore, the situation gradually settled into an impasse. Sui Xiong studied the situation of the two sides. And finally, he felt a little more relieved. Within the Highest Tower, there was a massive magic pool that had been accumulated over the years, and almost all the spellcasters urgently mobilized to meditate in order to replenish the magic pool with whatever had been consumed from it. Judging from the current situation, they could probably last at least half a month with such an intensive war. But was it possible for a clone of Yuslar to remain on Earth for half a month? Of course it was impossible! Even if it was merely a clone, there was no way a Lord of the Abyss could possibly remain on the Main Plane for so long. The most would be a day and a night before it would be driven out by the repulsive force of the Main Plane. And within the next one hundred years, it could forget about taking another step on the Main Plane. This was also based on the premise that Yuslar was very loyal and would always faithfully set out to fulfill whatever it had promised to do. Demons of the abyss were generally very easygoing, and they never served the ones who summoned them for long periods. Especially in situations when their efforts were not sufficiently rewarded, they would tend to lose interest very quickly. Then they would leave. Inside the Highest Tower, the Legendary Masters were also discussing this issue. ¡°Don¡¯t use too much force when attacking Yuslar. Don¡¯t hit its vitals,¡± a mage who was highly specialized in the study of demons of the abyss repeated emphasized. ¡°What we want to do is to drive it away, not provoke it. So long as it feels that it will not gain any advantage from us, it will lose interest and leave on its own. On the contrary, if we attack too forcefully and cause it any pain, it¡¯s possible that it may be completely enraged. Then it will attack us with all that it¡¯s god, or even possibly choose to self-destruct this clone¡­ that would be a great threat!¡± Although he was only a high-level mage who had yet to step into the Legendary Realm, he now had the highest commanding power in the whole Highest Tower. The group of legendary mages were all following his commands with due honesty. In the world of the mages, knowledge was power. Knowledge would make one worthy of respect. Especially in such a situation, the one who mastered the most important knowledge would be the most respectable one. ¡°Luckily, we responded fast!¡± said a high-level mage who sent out a light stream of positive energy to kill a powerful demon that was charging towards him at high speed. To his companion beside him, he said, ¡°If we are any later, it would have been terrible!¡± ¡°It¡¯s impossible to be late. The warning and defense systems of the Highest Tower are not mere decorations. If the enemy had not been too strong this time, they would not possibly have charged to this distance.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pity that this time, the demon is just a projection and not its noumenon. Otherwise, we could¡¯ve gotten some rare materials¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let your thoughts run wild. If it had been its noumenon, who knows how polluted the nearby seawater would have been!¡± And beneath the surface of the sea, near the altar of skeletons, large batches of murlocs were still continuously being offered as sacrifices to enable the altar to grow larger and larger. The trident with two broken forks was glowing brighter and brighter. A few elderly murlocs gazed at that trident, which was glowing with vigor, from afar, and their eyes reflected their relief. ¡°Soon! Very soon!¡± ¡°A god that truly belongs to us murlocs¡­¡± ¡°Our queen, you will return!¡± Because of the pollution caused by the Lord of the Abyss, the entire surface of the sea was heavily obscured. Though more than 50 percent of the evil green fog had dispersed, even Sui Xiong had only noticed Yuslar, the Lord of the Abyss. He did not notice the existence of that altar at all. This was the essence of the murlocs¡¯ plan. They would sacrifice a large number of clansmen to summon the Lord of the Abyss, who would then attract the attention of everyone. This would be a good screen to cover up their real actions¡ªthis plan was made for them by the late God of Conspiracy. Though the God of Conspiracy had fallen, many of the conspiracies that he had devised over the years did not fail following his fall. On the contrary, these plots were still in full operation or eventually launched. The murlocs''¡±God-Making Plan¡± was one of the God of Conspiracy¡¯s works. This plan consisted of two key factors. The first was the right medium, and the second was the right opportunity. In terms of medium, after the fall of the former Goddess of the Ocean, the remnants of that trident of the Sea King were seized by the God of Conspiracy. The divinity within this magical object was extracted by Sui Xiong and became the catalyst for the birth of the new generation of Goddess of the Ocean. But the noumenon of the magical object was not completely destroyed. The God of Conspiracy collected most of its shattered pieces and used some secret means to recast them. At this very moment, the shattered pieces became that long spear that was stuck into the altar of skeletons. This thing retained most of the auras of many generations of former Goddesses of the Ocean. With it as the inducer infused with a large amount of vitality and belief, it was enough to unite the belief of the entire murloc race and create a whole new god. Perhaps this god would be very weak, but backing her up would be the entire murloc race, the largest race on the Main Plane in terms of population. So long as she was given enough time, she would naturally grow up well. What was more, when she appeared this time, she would be a god that truly belonged to the murloc race! For this, the murloc race needed to prepare a large number of sacrifices. They also needed to find the right opportunity. Of course, sacrifices were not the issue. The murlocs did not have much to boast of, but they were indeed wealthy in terms of population size. With eight to ten thousand murlocs dying to be used as sacrifices, the higher-ups of the murlocs did not even blink an eye. But the problem lay with the right opportunity. The murlocs did not have a good reputation and had many enemies. If they wanted to create a god that belonged to them, they were bound to be attacked by swarms of enemies. They could only possibly succeed if they could find the opportunity that could attract the attention of their enemies, the opportunity that no one would ever notice. And this great battle that affected the entire Main Plane and involved almost all the God Systems of the races, was the best opportunity! Chapter 940 - : The God of the Murlocs On the southern seaside of the Highest Tower, the war between the mages and demons continued. But judging from the expression on Yuslar¡¯s face, many mages, who were well-learned in the study of abyssal demons, were already smiling. The expression of the Lord of the Abyss was already appearing to be somewhat impatient. It would not be long before it would lose interest in the Highest Tower and turn to leave. As for the area beneath the surface of the sea, which was nearby the altar, the elderly murlocs also smiled with relief. The long spear that was once the trident of the Sea King, was already shining brilliantly. Beside it, an illuminated shadow of a murloc was vaguely appearing. This meant that the god they wanted to create was already starting to take form. So long as they put in a little more effort, they could really translate fantasy to reality. For a long time, the murlocs had been living in embarrassment because they did not have a god of their own. Though they were later brought under the command of the Goddess of the Ocean, they were never able to fit in with the other deep-sea races. However, later on, relying on the advantage they had in being a huge population, they reversed the roles of host and guest and used their belief to influence the Goddess of the Ocean. But after a long period of hard work, their efforts came to naught because of the fall of the Goddess of the Ocean. The new Goddess of the Ocean was unwilling to accept the belief of the murlocs. In order to avoid danger, she did not even want to extend her care to the offshore races. Even if the murlocs wanted to offer their service to her, they could not find any way to do so. This made them secretly depressed. For the living creatures of this world, it was a very sad thing to not have a god to protect them. It meant that they would have no protection when alive, and after death, their souls would not have a place to return to. This was especially so for an evil race like the murlocs. If they were unable to find the protection of a god, most of the murlocs would fall into hell after they died and be subjected to severe punishment. Under such a situation, the murlocs eventually accepted the God of Conspiracy¡¯s advice. They were determined to be self-reliant and depend on their own strengths to create a god that belonged to them. Generally speaking, the process of the birth of a new god would be as followed: First, a master would reach the level of the Demigod Realm. Then he would gather enough belief, and by virtue of the power of beliefs, he would acquire a priesthood and finally become a real god. The murloc race lacked top-rated martial skills. The number of Legendary Masters they had was simply pathetic, let alone demigods. This road was obviously not going to work for them. But the God of Conspiracy came up with another way for them¡ªwith a magical object as base, a large number of clansmen would be sacrificed. Gathering the willpower of the people of the race and using the magical object as a medium, they would create a god out of thin air. This method was not unprecedented. In the past years, there were such situations of using ¡°magical objects to create gods.¡± And the more common ones were those where big trees or mountains were worshipped by all things. With enough belief, a weak god could be made out of thin air. Such gods were usually called Earth gods. Because they were under great restrictions, they could only possess the ability of gods if they were within the scope of belief. But so long as they remained within this scope of belief, their abilities would not differ much from that of the real gods. The plan of the God of Conspiracy was to use a magical object as a medium to create an existence that was similar to an Earth God. And it was proven that his plan was still quite reliable. The murlocs followed the arrangements he had set up earlier on, then step by step, they carried out the procedure. They certainly succeeded in gathering the will of the people of their race and condensing it into a shadow of brilliant flowing lights¡ªthat would be the predecessor of a god. So long as it was further provided with sufficient belief and sacrifices, this shadow would eventually become a true entity. By that time, a god of the murlocs would truly be born. Though it would merely be an Earth god when it was just a newborn, it was nonetheless, a god. And it was not difficult becoming a real god from an Earth God. With the support of such a massive murloc population, it would only take this Earth god a few years to become a real god. Seeing the shadow of brilliant flowing lights gradually take shape, the elderly murlocs could not help smiling. At this point in time, Yuslar was gradually getting increasingly irritated and several times, it had wanted to simply turn around to leave. Because of the effect of the summoning spell, it was unable to attack the murlocs in return. And the target it was summoned to attack¡ªthe Highest Tower¡ªwas so heavily guarded that it could not do anything to it at all. It was in a dilemma, not knowing whether it should advance or retreat. Being in a situation where there was no benefit for it to gain, the Lord of the Abyss naturally lost interest. After a while, Yuslar finally lost all its fighting will. The massive giant let out a furious roar, and its body shrank rapidly. It did not take long for it to become as small as it was when it first appeared, which was probably about the height of two murlocs put together. The void space around Yuslar shook, looking as though it was about to be torn apart. That would allow Yuslar to leave the Main Plane and return to the abyss. But just then, all the elderly murlocs started to chant an incantation in unity. At the moment, numerous murlocs were gathered in the southern region of the sea around the Highest Tower. Among which, naturally the number of elderly murlocs was also just as innumerable, like the stars in the sky. Though many lives were lost in the previous battles, such losses were simply not worth mentioning when compared to their total number. The power of one or two elderly murlocs was of course nothing to Yuslar. But when thousands of elderly murlocs chanted the incantation together to initiate the spell, the situation would no longer be as easy to deal with. Even if Yuslar was in perfect condition, such an array was still very difficult to block. Not to mention that Yuslar was now exhausted from the endless war and caught off guard by the sudden force gathered from the countless incantations that kept him tightly bound. Then he was directly dragged to where the altar of skeletons was built. The green, poisoned waters around the altar of skeletons, of course, had no effect on Yuslar at all. But when it saw that shadow of brilliant flowing lights slowly pulling out that long spear and walking towards itself, even that powerful and ferocious Lord of the Abyss could not conceal the change in its expression. As it tried its best to put up a struggle, it was cursing the murlocs viciously. Because of the power of its curse, the murlocs in the vicinity were continuously falling, dying or directly transforming into demonic monsters that launched attacks on their own kind. But in the face of such a huge number of murlocs, such resistance was simply meaningless. A few seconds later, the shadow of brilliant flowing lights raised a golden green long spear and pierced it through the chest of Yuslar¡¯s clone. In the faraway abyss, amidst the decaying sea of poison, the Lord of the Abyss let out an earth-shattering cry as its body convulsed violently. It struggled frantically while continuously casting all kinds of powerful spells that bombarded the evil demons around him. They were all shattering into bits as they died, but none of this really mattered. Its chest started to sink, as though it was being pierced by something. That was Yuslar¡¯s clone being injured, and supposedly, whatever happened to the clone should have nothing to do with the noumenon. But obviously that was not the case at the moment. After being pierced by that long spear, a mysterious power connected Earth to the deep abyss. It extracted and plundered the power of Yuslar¡¯s noumenon, and this clone was the medium for the connection. Also, at the moment, the murlocs were not idling around either. Large numbers of murlocs were charging out of the sea, making their way towards the coastline. There, they launched an attack of which they had no chance of winning. What awaited them was the torrent of spells coming from the Highest Tower. Every moment, at least dozens of murlocs were hit and knocked down by spells. But the murlocs did not flinch at all. They stood firm and unswervingly launched the attack all the same. ¡°What are those shrimp doing?¡± ¡°Who cares? Let¡¯s first finish them off!¡± The mages roared and continued to attack, killing large batches of murlocs. However, what was happening beneath the surface of the sea was nicely covered up¡­ Chapter 941 - The Return of the Dead How many murlocs were there on the Main Plane? No one really conducted a detailed count for the statistics, but it was possible to make an estimation of the number. The reproductivity of the murlocs was outrageously strong. An adult murloc could reproduce once a year, and about one thousand eggs each time. The eggs of the murlocs would hatch in 30 days, and after about three years, these murlocs could grow big enough to reproduce. Theoretically speaking, a pair of adult murlocs would become a thousand murlocs plus an additional two thousand young murlocs in three years¡¯ time. And after another three years¡­ It would be better not to do the math. That number was more than enough to make anyone, who was intellectually normal, sink into despair. Generally, people often used ¡°an army of a million soldiers¡± to describe the massive size of an army. But for the murlocs, a mere million was not even enough to be considered a ¡°big army¡±¡ªat any random invasion of the Sea Race, there would be at least a few million murlocs in the army. It was not rare for them to have tens of millions of soldiers in their army either. That was usually just the number of murlocs in a particular area of the sea. These murlocs were barely considered as magic beasts, so they could survive just by relying on absorbing magic. If not for the fact that their survival rate was low and the death rate was high, it would only be a few years before the world comprised only of murlocs. This time, all the murlocs on the entire Main Plane had gathered at the southern region of the sea around the Highest Tower. How many of them would that be? Billions? Tens of billions? Or even more? Anyway¡­ Even if the mages of the Mifata Federation continued to bombard them so uncontrollably and indiscriminately, killing hundreds and hundreds of murlocs every single second, the loss was really nothing much to speak of to the entire murloc army. This loss was not even significant enough to the common murlocs of large-scale tribes, who also would not take it seriously, much less the great army that comprised entirely of murlocs on the whole Main Plane. Watching the endless stream of murloc soldiers charging out to land in such a mighty manner, one after the other without stopping, the mages in the Highest Tower all went pale in their faces. ¡°There¡¯s just too many of them!¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t this bunch of shrimp usually bully the weak but fear the strong? Just a little hit will send them scattering off in all directions, isn¡¯t it so? Why are they so brave today?¡± ¡°They can¡¯t be under the control of that Yuslar, or whatever it¡¯s called, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s possible¡­ If they aren¡¯t under anyone¡¯s control, who would want to die in such a way?¡± ¡°Actually, death is also nothing much to the murlocs. The most common problem they all face is that there are just too many of them¡­¡± Amidst the mess of murmurings, the legendary mages wore gloomy expressions as they started to discuss via transmission spells. ¡°Yuslar¡¯s aura has not disappeared. That fellow has not left.¡± ¡°What on earth is it thinking? Is there anything to gain from staying here? Why not just scram out of here!¡± ¡°I¡¯m guessing it wants to gather more sacrifices. After all, those murlocs may not have much of anything, but they have a large population. With such a population, isn¡¯t that equal to sacrifices?¡± ¡°The thoughts of a devil are really beyond our comprehension. We just need to do our jobs well.¡± ¡°Shall we try to attack it? Perhaps that can drive Yuslar away.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t complicate matters. Anyway, I give it at most, one day. After one day, even if Yuslar doesn¡¯t want to leave, it will be repelled by the Main Plane.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just as well. Safety first. Now that we are in the period of troubled times, with wars going on everywhere, if we can stay out of trouble, we should stay out of trouble.¡± ¡°But no, it¡¯s trouble finding its way to us!¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be afraid of. If it¡¯s just trouble at this level that we are currently facing, then it doesn¡¯t matter how long we have to fight this war. It¡¯s merely the murlocs, how could they even think of breaking through our Highest Tower? That¡¯s really a joke!¡± Speaking up to this point, the Legendary Masters could not help laughing. Just as that mage had just said, the murlocs had very weak combat power. Not to mention the fact that there were so many mages¡¯ defenses in the Highest Tower now, the murlocs might not even be able to accomplish a breakthrough even if it was just an empty magic tower¡ªstrong walls and gates were more than enough to block them. Since that was the case, what was there to be afraid of? After the Legendary Masters reached a conclusion upon discussion, they arranged their respective work. The mid and high-level mages were tasked to build formations and organize schedules as they took turns to enter the defense array to launch attacks. The mid and low-level mages would continue to meditate to replenish the magic pool with magic. The Legendary Masters took shifts to rest, ensuring that there would always be two to three mages on duty at all times. Such an arrangement should be more than enough. As for those silly murlocs who kept charging at the defense line, this could just be taken as giving the young people some practical war experience and allow them to practice shooting. From the Legendary Masters to the apprentices who practiced magic, not a single one of them thought much of the murlocs. And below the surface of the sea, Yuslar¡¯s clone was gradually shrinking. Along with the wonderful connection between its clone and its noumenon, the energy of Yuslar¡¯s noumenon was also continuously being drawn and extracted. This extracted energy was not directly absorbed by that glowing shadow. It was first absorbed by that golden-green long spear, then filtered through the altar of skeletons. Finally, only pure power would remain and flow into the flowing shadow. Such an arrangement could be said to be wonderful workmanship that excelled nature. It adopted the means of fighting fire with fire and used the insane power of large-scale blood sacrifices to absorb the chaotic properties of the abyss. When the two powers merge with each other and remain within the altar of skeletons, the altar would continuously gain strength, and finally, it would become a chaotic and evil magical object. At the same time, the pure power that had undergone filtration would be given to the fictitiously-formed ¡°God of the Murlocs,¡± as the best form of nourishment, so that this god, who was about to be born, could have stable growth. And that long spear that was once the trident of the Sea King was constantly being refined and improved in this process. Then finally, it was also restored to the level of a magical object. When the newly-born God of the Murlocs grew up, it could immediately make use of the two powerful magical objects that it had at hand. Among all the newly-born gods, it would become the number one figure of them all. This idea was so exquisite that despite spending a long time studying and deliberating, the elderly murlocs still could not find any problems. So they acted according to the arrangements set up by the God of Conspiracy without worrying about whether there were any other conspiracies. Moreover, regardless of whatever conspiracy there was, the God of Conspiracy had fallen. What else was there to fear? What else was there to worry about? Even if the God of Conspiracy had set up some traps, could he possibly come alive again to receive the spoils of war? Deep in the abyss, Yuslar¡¯s noumenon was gradually weakened. The key to this plan of the God of Conspiracy was to rob Yuslar of its power. As a devil in the form of a murloc, there was certainly an indescribable relationship between Yuslar and the murlocs in the Main Plane. If it could wash off the chaos and insanity from its soul, or if it could become slightly weaker and severe ties with the abyss, it could easily become the god of the murlocs. But Yuslar did not do so in the end. It would rather claim its place as king in the abyss and lead the group devils that took the form of murlocs. It was not willing to walk down the path of becoming a real god. Demons were demons, after all. Their extreme chaotic nature had made them intolerable towards bondage. This was the same, even if they became gods. Now, Yuslar was paying the price for its chaotic nature. If it had been the God of the Murlocs, then all these arrangements would be of no use against it¡ªpower from the murlocs¡¯ sacrifices would have no possible effect on the God of the Murlocs. But it had refused to become the God of the Murlocs. So the part of its power that belonged to the ¡°murlocs¡± was unable to refuse the summoning of the murlocs¡¯ sacrifices, which was not being continuously extracted. No one knew exactly how long, but after some time, that channel of contact was suddenly cut off. The Lord of the Abyss, who had become so weak that he could hardly stand, let out a weird cry at once. And then, contact with the Main Plane was completely cut off. It probably would not establish any form of contact with the Main Plane in the coming few hundreds or thousands of years. And below the surface of the southern region of the sea around the Highest Tower, that glowing shadow gradually became clear. He had scales that were similar to that of the murlocs, but he had long, sharp ears and smooth, long hair that the murlocs would definitely not have. He had a slender figure and straight posture, which was completely different from the murlocs who had bent bodies. Facing the dazed elderly murlocs, he smiled. He donned a hooded robe that enveloped him in a shadow. Inside the Pantheon Temple, the seat of the God of Conspiracy, that had earlier collapsed and vanished, resurfaced. Not long after his fall, the God of Conspiracy had come back to life and returned! Chapter 942 - Earth-shattering (Part 1) The resurrection of the God of Conspiracy did not go unnoticed by Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong was full of admiration for this fellow, who had managed to rise up from his death somehow. Historically speaking, the number of gods who had fallen were too many to count, but there were only a rare few who managed to undergo resurrection. Most of the resurrected gods had managed to do so with the help of others and with uncanny luck. The number of gods who managed to resurrect with their own abilities, plans and activities was extremely low. The God of Conspiracy was one of these rare few. When that illuminated shadow had first appeared, Sui Xiong had already noticed it. It was just that he had felt that is would not really bring any harm to anyone, and had thus ignored it and did not take any action. For the murlocs to want to create a god for their own race was an extremely normal and expected request, and it was one that Sui Xiong did not need to decline. Afterwards, once that illuminated shadow had pierced through Yuslar¡¯s body, it had turned the murlocs¡¯ mass offerings and rituals into an opportunity to steal Yuslar¡¯s power. That was when Sui Xiong realized that something was amiss. Was that really a God of Murlocs? He could not be sure. Once the illuminated shadow became less and less translucent, Sui Xiong finally identified a familiar aura emitting off it. At that point, he couldn¡¯t help but feel like shouting ¡°oh no!¡± at the top of his lungs. This aura¡­ Why, it was the God of Conspiracy! When did this fellow even manage to set up this trap? Most importantly, how had the God of Conspiracy managed to fool the murlocs to the extent where they had gathered the entire race and unwittingly enabled him to resurrect?! Brilliant! It was truly brilliant. Sui Xiong could not help himself and praised the God of Conspiracy for his ingenuity. At the same time, he consciously reminded himself to be more aware and defensive against the God of Conspiracy. This fellow was definitely extremely dangerous! Even so, once the God of Conspiracy had managed to fully resurrect, it was when Sui Xiong realized that he had once again underestimated the God of Conspiracy¡¯s ingenuity. The resurrected God of Conspiracy¡¯s aura was completely different from his previous aura in the past. As compared to the past, it was much more stable. The dead and depressing aura was reduced and now replaced with feelings of prosperity and progress. Sui Xiong especially sensed the murlocs and the sea as two distinct priesthoods in the God of Conspiracy¡¯s aura now. One could also say that the God of Conspiracy had gone beyond merely resurrecting to adjusting and taking on a new priesthood. He had gotten rid of a few more troublesome things and had taken the opportunity to gain control of the murlocs and make them his followers. Now, he was not simply the God of Conspiracy but could also be considered the God of Murlocs. The latter title was something that he held on out of novelty, but he could choose to get rid of it anytime he wanted. This tactic was really¡­ Sui Xiong did not know how to describe it, except to say that I was brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Sui Xiong did not reveal himself and communicate with God of Conspiracy. Instead, he chose to remain invisible and continue to observe the situation¡¯s progress in the background. The God of Conspiracy was truly the God of Conspiracy¡­ Although the murlocs were extremely enraged at the start, they were also clueless as to what kind of method he had used. However, the God of Conspiracy managed to quickly win over the murlocs and got them to be less hostile towards him. This only added on to Sui Xiong¡¯s admiration for the God of Conspiracy. This fellow was only average at fighting, but his ability to strategize was really something unique that was unattainable by the vast majority! If the God of Conspiracy were to travel to Earth and participate in the Spring Festival Evening, he would definitely be able to steal Zhao Benshan¡¯s spotlight! No, if he were to appear on Earth, with his immense ability to convince, he would probably be able to become the head of state of some country! Even if he did not become the head of state, he probably could become a cult leader and convert the whole entire country to his followers¡­ As Sui Xiong thought about the God of Conspiracy, he could not help but laugh to himself. Below the surface of the sea, the God of Conspiracy had managed to subdue the entire murloc race and was feeling extremely satisfied and accomplished. He turned his head upwards to glance at the sky, smiled slightly, and closed his eyes. A shadow flashed across his body momentarily before it appeared in the Ancient Forest. On a random big rock near the streamside, the Orc Judge, who was sitting quietly and meditating, opened his eyes to glance at the shadow that had suddenly appeared in front of him. ¡°You actually managed to resurrect?¡± He was slightly shocked. ¡°You¡¯re truly brilliant!¡± ¡°I always prepare a backup plan in anything I do,¡± the God of Conspiracy replied. ¡°How¡¯s the situation now?¡± ¡°Not good. The humans and Orcs are fighting, and we are part of the battle as well.¡± ¡°Why is the battle between the humans and the Orcs any of our business? Are you out of your mind?¡± ¡°The Master God of the Orcs led their God Kingdom and collided it against the humans¡¯ God Kingdom, and both perished together. Now, the human gods are nowhere to be found. Although the human clergymen are still able to communicate with them, they are temporarily unable to borrow any Divine Power. The various races have already gathered into supporting troops and are using this chance to ally themselves together and attack the humans, hoping to defeat them as one!¡± The Orc Judge¡¯s eyes sparkled as he spoke. ¡°This is an extremely rare opportunity!¡± The God of Conspiracy, however, let out a loud sound of disapproval. ¡°Alliance? Our gods have participated as part of this alliance, too?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± ¡°Get them to retreat now. Now!¡± The Orc Judge froze and glanced suspiciously at the God of Conspiracy. ¡°Are you stupid? If we retreat now, once the humans are defeated, there will be no benefits for us, and we will be at a huge loss!¡± ¡°Benefits? What benefits! If we continue to fight, we will perish with everyone else!¡± The God of Conspiracy was so angry he could explode, and he yelled in frustration. ¡°Do you all really think the God of Light is so easy to subdue? He is extremely ingenious!¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. This time, the number of gods that have allied together to fight the humans exceed 200, of which there are more than 10 Divine Powers. Even if the God of Light is extremely strong, do you think he will be able to singlehandedly defeat 10 Divine Powers?¡± ¡°Sigh! It¡¯s useless telling you all this. I have no time to sit here and explain things to you. All I can say is, I promise you, it¡¯s best to retreat now!¡± The Orc Judge frowned and fell silent for a while before saying, ¡°I¡¯m afraid we really cannot do that. The fairy gods will not listen to us. They have their own mindset and take towards the situation.¡± The God of Conspiracy was extremely anxious and spun around in circles in an annoyed fashion. ¡°Since that is the case¡­ Let us prepare to use our final tactic.¡± ¡°What!? Are you insane!?¡± ¡°You think I¡¯m crazy? I¡¯m as conscious as I can be! Since we can no longer retreat, we will have to fight all the way. That trump card we have will be wasted if we do not use it, so let¡¯s just brandish it!¡± ¡°I think you need to drink some tea and calm down.¡± ¡°Stop dawdling! Is this the time to drink tea? Quickly open up the border so I can find that thing. Let¡¯s make preparations now!¡± The Orc Judge glanced at the anxious God of Conspiracy and frowned hard. Instinct told him that the God of Conspiracy was right. However, he simply could not identify where the situation had gone wrong. Just at this very moment, the gods that had been searching in that piece of void suddenly heard someone laughing coldy. This laughter was familiar to all of them. It came from the Master God of the Human God System, the God of Light, Wuther Rang. This cold laughter had an evil and satisfied tone to it and was not weak at all. More than one weak god immediately tensed up in fear and wanted to leave. Before they could do anything, however, the God of Light¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°Since you are already here, you can¡¯t go!¡± As he spoke, the two God Kingdoms, which had become giant balls of light, suddenly exploded. Chapter 943 - Murder of the God (Part 1) The place where the human gods were hiding was within a unique world of its own. That world had been built when the God of Light had killed the Mother of Sea in the past, a magical object that was constructed with the Mother of Sea¡¯s God Kingdom as the main material. It could only be used once, but in the process of using its solo usage, even if the entire world¡¯s Divine Powers came together, they would not be able to find the people hiding within that world. That was not all! In this hidden shelter, time passed at a different speed as compared to the outer world. Within this world, time passed at a much faster speed and this allowed the people hiding in it to have enough time to heal and recuperate. They could also make sufficient preparations for when they came out of hiding, where they would be able to immediately showcase their powers and place the situation in their favor quickly. This magical world was extremely draining to make and needed lots of fixing and edits to complete. After the God of Light had known that this war was very unfavorable to the humans, he had spent lots of his Divine Power, energy and time on improving this world. Eventually, he had created what could possibly be this world¡¯s most unique and magical shelter. This was also the most luxurious tool that had ever been made. In this shelter, the God of Light had stored a lot of Divine Power. He had also prepared a lot of resources. His original intention was to maintain some vitality for the Human God System just in case anything went awry. Who would have known that Lefon would have executed an unexpected plan and used the Orc God System¡¯s the ¡°Endless Field¡± in a collision strategy? The God of Light had been unable to come up with a solution to that situation on that spot and had just wanted to gain some time to think further. He had thus gathered the maximum number of resources and manpower that he could and had escaped into the shelter for temporary respite. Of course, one would then ask. Where would this shelter be located, exactly? Well, it was actually still situated in the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom, ¡°Light Field,¡± of course. One could also say that it was somewhere at the core of the giant light ball that had been created after the two God Kingdoms had run into each other. This was why, when the human gods had left the shelter, they were still at where their former God Kingdom was, which was at the ultimate core of the giant light ball. This place was chock full of power, but it was not dangerous. The shockwaves from the original collision had already dissipated and the power from the explosion was already dying down as the two God Kingdoms melded together over time. Now, although there was still much power here, this power no longer had attacked anyone strongly. With sufficient strength, as well as without disturbing the existing power, one could hide within the giant light ball without getting injured. What was more unique was that this place had already been searched many times in the past. Gods would just skip past it and not give it a second thought now. They would perhaps still search the area vaguely, but the remaining shockwaves would certainly disrupt such a search. Unless they specifically roamed and searched this area, it was almost impossible for them to discover the human gods who were hiding at the core of the light ball. This was, of course, not a coincidence but rather something that the God of Light had calculated for. He had made several calculations regarding this shelter and had predicted that the time needed for the core of the giant light ball to reach this level of stability after the two God Kingdoms had collided. What he wanted to make use of was the level of stability that the core was at right now. Under such a circumstance, as long as there was sufficient stimulation, the two God Kingdoms, which we¡¯re currently slowly fusing together, would explode once again. As he predicted, the light ball that was formed by the melding together of the two God Kingdoms exploded suddenly once again. The strength of this explosion impacted the entire void. Although all the gods had been previously warned about this by the God of Light, in the face of such a large explosion, that information did little for them. What was worse was that to find the human gods and to prevent them from escaping, the gods, which were part of the Orc God System had agreed to spread themselves around the void and lock it down thoroughly. Even Divine Powers would have a hard time trying to escape unless they used flight. Of course, to Divine Powers, this was not a problem. In any case, the speed at which they flew was faster than the speed of the explosion. In fact, they would even be able to bring with them a few friends or people under them in their escape. However, mid-level Divine Powers would face more danger, and there was the possibility that they would not escape in time. As for low-level Divine Powers and weak Divine Powers, well, they would definitely be unable to escape in time. The giant explosion was slowly starting to settle down, and the original big light ball in the center of the void was now gone. There were only human gods left and they were all laughing coldly with a giant warship beneath them. The human gods were all decked in full armor and were fully out to kill. The place that they had appeared was, strictly speaking, mostly belonging to the humans¡¯ God Kingdom. The God of Light had used these areas as blockages as well as created a new wave of explosions. The conflicting two explosions¡¯ energy had clashed with each other and most of it had become negligible. The remaining power was little and easily removed with the help of several Divine Powers among the human gods. This was all calculated in the past by the God of Light. He had even tried making a model before to simulate the current situation to make sure that everything would go as planned. Reality now proved the God of Light right. This wave of explosion caused the gods who had been searching for the humans to be badly damaged, while the human gods were almost fully unscathed. In this case, the war immediately tipped in favor of the humans. In the war of the gods, although the main strength came from the Divine Powers, assistance from the mid-level Divine Powers and mild efforts came from the low-level and weak Divine Powers, well, with enough of the low-level and weak Divine Powers coming together, the war could still be turned around, With hundreds of low-level Divine Powers coming together in an attack, no Divine Power would dare to face them head-on. Those who tried would most likely die and die a horrible death at that. Among the allied troops that were attacking the Human God System, those that were the biggest threat to the human gods were actually the low-level and weak Divine Powers who had banded together. Individually, they were not strong, and the human gods would normally not even bother to get rid of them purposefully. However, once the Human God System was battling the Divine Powers and mid-level Divine Powers, once the low-level and weak Divine Powers came together to attack, they would quickly be able to wipe out the entire Human God System. This was why once God of Light had taken action, he had first taken care to get rid of the low-level and weak Divine Powers and effectively remove them from this battle. Not only that, the God of Light did not just stop there. He also followed the waves of the explosion and rushed out, chasing the mid-level Divine Powers. With a wave of his warhammer, the weaker mid-level Divine Powers immediately self-destructed and become wisps of fireworks. In that instant, such ¡°fireworks¡± lit up tens of times. In the Pantheon temple, many seats in the mid-level Divine Power area suddenly disappeared. At the back part of the Pantheon temple, where the low-level and weak Divine Powers resided, there was now a huge hole. The many gods that came forward to attack the Orc gods were now all gone as long as they were mid-level Divine Powers or weaker. Even with such an impact, this was but merely the human gods¡¯ first step in their retaliation plan¡­ Chapter 944 Chapter 944: Murder of the Gods (Part 2) The only good god among the fairy race, the God of Medicine, Arcaian Pasteur, was one of the few low-level Divine Powers that managed to escape. This was not because he was very strong but because he had a strong and dependable higher-up behind him. Sui Xiong had long sensed that something was amiss once he had heard the God of Light speak. He had not hesitated further and had directly flew towards the direction of the God of Medicine¡¯s location. At that point, the God of Light had already caused the explosion of the light ball that had formed due to the first explosion of the two God Kingdoms. Sui Xiong had somewhat managed to rush to Arcaian¡¯s side even with the shockwaves of the second explosion. He reached out his tentacle and grabbed on to Arcaian before quickly healing him. At that point, the situation was extremely dangerous and fragile, and the shockwaves had already landed on Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong had quickly flew through and managed to leave the shockwaves behind him. Next, he did not slow down but instead quickly brought Arcaian back to his God Kingdom once he had flown out of the blocked out area. Arcaian had not sustained any injuries, but the shockwaves had taken a toll on his energy level. Being near to such a huge explosion had damaged him emotionally and psychologically. Most importantly, he had already sensed the imminent failure that was to come. Undoubtedly, once the God of Light had destroyed the light ball and caused a second explosion, the allied races that had been attacking the humans in this battle had already sensed that the battle was now tipping in favor of the humans. The original advantages that the Orcs and the allies had were in their quantity of manpower. However, with such a large explosion, the shockwaves that followed had damaged and wiped out much of the low-level and weak Divine Powers. The mid-level Divine Powers would most likely be injured as well, and temporarily lose their ability to fight. Under such circumstances, the remaining few Divine Powers would certainly be at a loss against the human gods. This was especially as there were many human gods! Although Arcaian was not the God of War, he did have some basic understanding of war. He knew that the human gods were already agile and sharp normally. Now, they had the advantage of numbers as well. What was most dangerous was that they could even make use of the second explosion to make the first attack now. Under such circumstances, the chances of the allied troops on the Orcs¡¯ side winning were now very, very slim. When Sui Xiong questioned Arcaian on whether he planned to rejoin the battle, Arcaian had paused and sighed deeply. ¡°There isn¡¯t much hope for us anymore¡­¡± he had replied despondently. ¡°Perhaps¡­ I should be thinking about how to organize the fairy race since we will probably have to leave the Main Plane soon¡­¡± Arcaian knew that the God of Light, Wuther Rang, was not a softhearted nor flexible god. This time, since the humans had gotten a chance to regain their advantage in this battle, he would not show any mercy at all. The Orcs could perhaps attempt to continue battling, however, there was no longer hope left for the fairies. At this point, even if the fairies fought to their deaths, there wasn¡¯t much hope of victory anymore. The God of Light was certain to kill in large numbers and would get rid of anyone in his way. The fairies could not play with their own race¡¯s lives just to aid their allies, the Orcs. It was better that they save their own skins now by gathering and leaving. This way, they could possibly save more of their own race. Seeing as Arcaian did not wish to rejoin the battle, Sui Xiong felt more relaxed. ¡°If you think that there¡¯s no hope left, you should gather your people and leave now,¡± Sui Xiong said. Arcaian nodded his head. With a flash of light, he had already sent a clone to the Human Realm to convince his disciples to evacuate the battlefield as soon as possible, and to retreat from the Main Plane. On the other side, in that piece of void, it was now almost empty. Needless to say, there were many gods that were already killed. For those who were lucky enough to remain alive after the explosion, almost all of them sustained at least some damage. The God of Light had rushed out with the impact of the second explosion, and all gods in his sight were immediately murdered. Within tens of seconds, there were at least tens of mid-level Divine Powers who immediately died in his hands. In the Pantheon temple, in the mid-level Divine Powers area, one god after the other fell in succession. It was so fast that their screams were all heard simultaneously as one giant shout! Seeing this, the Master God of the Orcs, ¡°Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit¡± Snakenell became restless and flew himself as well as the gods he had escaped with towards the far distance and hurled himself directly against the God of Light, who was progressing at the speed of light and mass killing anyone and anything in his way. Snakenell, as a Divine Power as well as the Orcs¡¯ Master God, was regarded as the alliance master of the allied troops. At this moment, it was only logical that he stepped up against the God of Light. If he could hold the God of Light back temporarily, the remaining Divine Powers would arrive quickly to aid him. At that point, if tens of Divine Powers surrounded the God of Light, even with his powers, it would be hard for him to survive! As he watched Snakenell rush towards him angrily, the God of Light did not seem fazed at all. He merely paused, kept his warhammer and whipped out his glaive. The God of Light was an expert in using two weapons: a sword and a hammer. The sword was used for attacking while the hammer was used for maintenance. Previously, he had used his hammer to prevent anyone from attacking him on the sly. Now, he chose to use the sword to fight for victory. Without waiting for Snakenell to fully reach him, the God of Light increased his speed once again and rushed towards Snakenell instead. His sword gleamed brightly. Snakenell had long planned how he wanted to fight this battle and various tactics he would use in different situations. He had discussed these matters with Lefon previously and even come up with specific strategies to counter the God of Light in battle. However, at this very moment, he realized that all these were useless. Utterly useless. Once the God of Light charged towards him with this sword gleaming and shooting out beams of light, Snakenell felt his body stiffen up as if it was imprisoned, and he was unable to move or say a single word, let alone continue to battle. ¡°Had the God of Light managed to become a great Divine Power?¡± Snakenell thought. This thought had barely crossed Snakenell¡¯s mind before he felt his body tighten and lose its volume completely. The God of Light¡¯s body suddenly disappeared, and Snakenell suddenly saw a decapitated Snakeman¡¯s body slowly walk further and further away. This body was extremely familiar and had an uneasy vibe. Snakenell suddenly understood the situation clearly: it was a mere reflection, and his brain had been cut off. ¡°I can¡¯t believe¡­ I thought I could¡­¡± Snakenell thought. His final thoughts disappeared like a bubble as this Orcs¡¯ Master God¡¯s body slowly collapsed. In that moment, he slowly lost consciousness, which disappeared slowly like smoke. In the front row of the Divine Power section in the Pantheon temple, Snakenell and his seat disappeared at the same time and was never to be found again. With one move, the God of Light had managed to kill and take down the Orcs¡¯ Master God. This, however, was not enough for him. He swerved and headed towards the pygmy gods¡¯ direction. This was a little strange as the dwarf gods were actually closer to him. However, he somehow chose to travel further to chase the pygmy gods, who were far away. This allowed the dwarf gods, who had been helpless, to sigh in relief. The Dwarf Rune God¡¯s heart skipped a beat, and he glanced at the God of Light¡¯s retreating back, which disappeared in a beam of green light. At the moment, he grasped the situation fully and sighed. ¡°We¡¯ve lost this battle,¡± he said in a low voice. ¡°Since we were willing to fight, we have to accept this outcome as well. Let¡¯s gather our people and leave the Main Plane.¡± The other dwarf gods stared at him strangely as they had not yet grasped the situation. ¡°Before things become ultimately worse, we should salvage it!¡± The dwarves did not have a Master God and their unofficial leader, the ¡°Grand Elder,¡± Holy Hammer suggested. ¡°We should quickly converge with the other god systems.¡± The Dwarf Rune God sighed internally, but he did not reject this suggestion. The dwarves thus renewed their sense of urgency and flew towards the barbarian god system on the other side of the void. The barbarian god system had always refused to enter the core of the battle and had been mostly on the sidelines. They had not split up as well and had always gathered together. The strongest among them was but a mid-level Divine Power. However, at this moment, they were now the neatest and most complete groups within the Orcs¡¯ allies. If they gathered with the barbarian god system and found the remaining Divine Powers on the side of the Orcs, it was possible that the battle could still continue. However, even before the dwarves could fully meet and gather with the barbarian god system, the pygmy gods within the Pantheon temple had all fallen one by one with shouts of anger. From the time the God of Light had rushed to where they were situated to the time where their last soldier had fallen, it had merely been the duration of a few uttered words¡­ Chapter 945 Chapter 945: Murder of the God (Part 3) In the Pantheon Temple, the gods were in a state of shock. Everyone knew that the God of Light was extremely powerful. However, no one had imagined that his strength would be at this level! ¡°Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit¡± Snakenell was also a Great Divine Power and had even come near to being the peak of the Great Divine Powers. However, now, he was unable to stand his ground against the God of Light and was directly murdered. Although the Pygmy God System was only a mid-level god system, they also had two Divine Powers and two mid-level Divine Powers. They also had tens of weak Divine Powers, low-level Divine Powers as well as a huge group of demigods and Oracles. Although they were hit badly by the giant explosion and suffered many losses, because they were slightly further away from the light ball at the time of the explosion, they had at least half of their manpower left. The Divine Power and two mid-level Divine Powers were basically unharmed and several of the low-level Divine Powers were all alive as well. Those that had collapsed were mostly the less powerful ones such as the weak Divine Powers, demigods and Oracles. In such a state, the Pygmy God System could still be said to be rather strong as they still had the powers of a mid-level god system. However, it was just this very system that was completely massacred and destroyed by the God of Light with a single weapon, within the time it took to utter a few short phrases. The most exaggerated part was that all this happened not long after he had murdered Snakenell. This meant the God of Light, in an extremely short period of time, managed to kill not just Snakenell but in total, two Divine Powers, two mid-level Divine Powers and more. Everyone was immediately shocked, as this was a terrifying thought! All who had entered the battle on the side of the Orcs and had attacked the humans were all pale-faced. Many gods immediately separated themselves from the clones that they had sent to the void where the battle was taking place and physically returned their main body to their God Kingdoms, where they built up their defenses furiously without another word. Others immediately rushed to contact each other and create new alliances, prepared to fight for their lives with the strength of numbers. Many other gods were left extremely skeptical. No matter how powerful the God of Light was, it was impossible for him to be this strong. If this had all been achieved by the Master of Order, it would be less shocking, and everyone would think that it was perfectly ordinary. However, the God of Light was merely a Divine Power himself. No matter what stage of Divine Power he was at, his seat in the Pantheon Temple had not changed yet. This meant that he definitely had not reached the peak of Divine Power, let alone crossed to the Great Divine Power stage. If that was the case, why was the God of Light so strong now then? What methods had he used, exactly? In that void that had been enveloped by the giant explosion, the God of Light had on an icy expression on his face. He left the area that was littered with the bodies of the pygmy gods that had killed indifferently and directly went back to the Human God System¡¯s war ship. ¡°Let¡¯s full out attack the Orc God System. They do not have much strength left,¡± the God of Light uttered coldly. ¡°This time, we have to destroy the entire race! Let us put an end to this long-term conflict and redeem victory for ourselves!¡± ¡°What about the other god system?¡± the God of Vagrants asked. ¡°Let¡¯s chase away the Orcs first,¡± the God of Light replied. ¡°Important matters first.¡± The human gods nodded fervently. Previously, when they were still hiding out in the shelter, the God of Light had already explained the most important matters to the human gods. To them, their main priority was ensuring that the God of Light managed to cross over to the great Divine Power stage first. As long as the God of Light could become a great Divine Power, he could be said to be as powerful and comparable to the Master of Order. At that time, whichever gods had offended or gone against him would be dealt with accordingly. If the God of Light was unable to become a great Divine Power, that was when they would need to quickly get rid of all their opponents, paving the way for a bright human future. The gods thus began to take up their respective tasks, regaining contact with their disciples back in the Human Realm. Beams and beams of holy light rose from several of the residual human god temples from the Main Plane, illuminating the skies. The human Oracles quickly regained the ability to cast spells. With the help of the human gods, the humans¡¯ war strength immediately increased. The Commonwealth of Gold Coins and the Great Marsh Aboriginal battlegrounds¡¯ situations were reversed in an instant. With the assistance of the human gods on the side of the humans, the Great Marsh Aborigines lost contact with all their participating gods as they had all died in the giant explosion. Originally, both sides were equal. Now, the situation was reversed, and the humans had an advantage like never before. Previously, the Great Marsh Aborigines were still killing fearlessly. Now, they were totally lost, and the human gods¡¯ troops, riding on high morale and the help of spells, yelled and charged at the enemy ferociously. On the other side, in the battle between the Duchy of Thunder and the Great Marsh Aborigines, the situation was no longer dangerous and had become stable for the humans. Although the previous situation had damaged the humans too much and the outcome was still unclear now, the humans definitely did not worry about being totally destroyed now. The war in the Eagle Kingdom¡¯s east fortress had also settled down. With the help of the human gods on the humans¡¯ side, the Orcs found it hard to destroy the humans¡¯ final fortress. Although the Eagle Kingdom and the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs were both unable to attack at the moment, as long as they could secure their fortress, they would be able to secure the outcome of the war. Even the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs, which had been badly hit and damage by the allied troops of the fairies and dwarves, could now rest. The king of the royal family gave up the three cities in one breath and led his elite army to make emergency maneuvers. With the blessing of the gods, he managed to narrowly rush out of the grasp of the allied troops and saved his own life. As long as he still had the support of the elite troops, this battle would still be salvageable. The only place that could not be salvaged was the Duchy of Griffon. It had already sustained extreme damages previously, and the entire country was almost entirely destroyed. There were only a few cities left, which had been protected by the Kingdom of the Blue Moon. The pygmies and other underground races¡¯ allied troops had originally never intended to attack these few remaining cities but had simply continually driven refugees here. At the same time, they used these attacked cities as the foundation to build their own fortress. Under such a situation, the human¡¯s choice was to ignore other places and directly attack from the Great Wall defense. Previously, the human troops had retreated from the Great Wall defense due to the lack of the human gods¡¯ aid. Under that situation, they were unable to fight against the Orc army¡¯s attacks, which were enabled by god¡¯s powers. Now, they had enough human gods backing them. On the other hand, the Orcs now had much lesser god power due to the downfall of many of their gods, which disrupted their spell-based attacks. Since that was the case, the humans definitely would seize the opportunity to gain an advantage. The result of this battle was that the Orcs were unable to maintain the front line and were forced to retreat. In the end, they retreated to the line of defense built before in an attempt to re-stabilize themselves. Just as the war became intense in the Human Realm, the human gods and Orcs gods¡¯ ultimate battle also commenced. Before this ultimate battle, the God of Light had decreed his intentions. In this ultimate confrontation, he did not wish to lose. He would ensure that the Orcs did not just end up defeated, but that none of their gods lived! He had said these words in the Pantheon Temple previously with a murderous tone. As the God of Light had spoken those words, he had also scrutinized every god present and cast his cold, unforgiving glance upon all of them. Other than a few minorities such as the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, all the other gods had shivered in fear and awe. Towards this god who had killed two Divine Powers at one shot, who would or who would choose to be defiant! Chapter 946 Chapter 946: Horror of Horrors The battle between the human gods and the Orc gods once again started up in another piece of void. More accurately, the battle between the human gods and the full Orc allied troops had begun once again. In evaluating the war, if one were to view it in terms of numbers, the Orcs¡¯ side definitely had the advantage. Many fallen gods¡¯ disciples were all present, and the elders and friends of the god system were all present as well. More importantly, the God Kingdom was still present and the Oracles within were still present as well. Under such circumstances, once their god¡¯s powers were restored, resurrection of the fallen gods would not be difficult. It just required a period of time and a certain degree of Divine Power, and one simply needed to pick between seizing an Oracle or taking over an Oracle. From the previous big battle till now, three days had already passed. Among the fallen gods, other than a portion of the Orc gods who were unable to resurrect, most had already done so. They had brought along their own Oracles and demigods, creating a huge gathering of manpower and looked rather formidable. It was just a pity that they were all pale-faced and had tense expressions on their faces, which reduced the formidability of their numbers. It was like they were surrounded or facing some undefeatable beast, with the look of death on all their faces! On the other hand, on the side of the humans, although they were disadvantaged in terms of numbers, they had high morale and spirits. They were all smiling and laughing, discussing how they wanted to celebrate their upcoming victory in this war. Although the humans¡¯ side only had about a hundred people as compared to the tens of thousands on the Orcs¡¯ sides, in terms of morale, they were the exact opposite. ¡°How weird!¡± Sui Xiong shook his head as he looked at this battle from afar. This time, other gods such as Arcaian had also taken part, but the gods on the side of the Orcs were all mostly clones. If a clone was destroyed, a god would not fall. This was why Sui Xiong could relax as he did not need to care about Arcaian¡¯s safety and could watch the battle in peace. Beside Sui Xiong, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, was also observing the battle. His expression was a little complicated and was some parts joyful, some parts moved and some parts anxious. Because of his priesthood, he could not enter this war that was not about right and wrong. Nevertheless, the God of Justice was still a human and would definitely be happy that the humans would become the main race on the Main Plane if they won this war. ¡°The humans¡¯ victory should be secured now,¡± the God of War, Wenner, who was on the other side of Sui Xiong, commented. ¡°I can¡¯t see any possibility of the Orcs winning this at all.¡± Sui Xiong nodded as he thought so too. Although the Orcs had strength in numbers and several Divine Powers, there was only one actual Divine Power with his main body present. This was Wild Beast Trevor. This fellow was the Orcs¡¯ God of Madness and was considered an elder in the Orc God System. It was just that his mind was rather bipolar now. Sometimes, he was fine. In war, however, he often went crazy when fighting and would rush wherever the enemy was without any care for war strategies or planning. This could be seen from his priesthood as well. As one of the oldest mad Orcs, Trevor was already someone who was a little insane from the start. Once he became a god, he became the protector of all the mad Orcs, and all his disciples were either war-crazy or mad soldiers themselves. Such a divinity was really not too useful. Other than this one Divine Power, the Orcs¡¯ side also had two ancestor Orcs. Combined together, they had about enough power to fight normal Divine Powers. With these three people combined together, it was just nice to reach the level of a large god system. Apart from these three Divine Powers, the Orcs also had several clones of Divine Powers. In total, they had about the power of six to seven Divine Powers. With such powers against the combination of the God of Light, the God of Vagrants and the God of Protection, however, Sui Xiong could not find any possibility of them winning. The God of Light alone was enough to fight the three combined. Although clones of Divine Powers appeared to be at the Divine Power level, they still were much weaker as compared to their original bodies. The difference lay in the effectiveness. The main body of a Divine Power was able to use powers of Divine Power level, but the clones could not. Even with added strength, they could only utilize Divine Power in sporadic waves occasionally. In such a war, this difference could mean a distinction between life and death. ¡°Actually, whether the Orcs can make a comeback or not depends entirely on their three Divine Powers. If the three Divine Powers die, they will lose immediately,¡± the God of War, Wenner, said slowly as he observed both sides. ¡°If I were Wuther, I would launch a surprise attack to kill the three, leaving only easy targets that I could easily clear later.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. If he were Wuther, he would probably choose to do the same. The God of Light, however, did not do so. He simply led the human gods and coldly faced the giant Orc coalition troops without any obvious intent to attack. It was clear that he was fully confident and thus was not in a hurry to take action. ¡°I have a question.¡± Before starting the war, the Orcs¡¯ God of Knowledge, an ancient Foxman opened his mouth. ¡°If the humans win this war, what do you plan to do?¡± The God of Light had glared at him coldly and answered, ¡°We¡¯ll address that after we win.¡± ¡°If we Orcs win, we will request that at least half of the humans leave the Main Plane. Your race will also have to give up at least three-quarters of your territory,¡± the Orcs¡¯ God of Knowledge pressed on. ¡°How about you?¡± The God of Light ignored him, and the human God of Diplomacy replied instead, ¡°Our leader has already spoken! We will announce our intentions after we win the war.¡± ¡°Does this mean that the terms set out by the humans will be even more vicious?¡± the Orcs¡¯ God of Knowledge continued to speak. ¡°For example, will you chase out every other race off the Main Plane apart from humans?¡± The God of Diplomacy laughed coldly. ¡°All of you are about to die, and you are still here overthinking. Our leader has already given orders and in today¡¯s battle, the other god systems and other gods do not matter. All you Orc gods, however, will be killed by us! Let us end the long-term conflict the humans and Orcs have had today for once and for all!¡± The Orcs¡¯ God of Knowledge seemed to have more to say, but the God of Light had already put on his helmet coldly and raised his sword. ¡°Attack!¡± He bellowed loudly and rushed towards the Orc troops at the speed of light. Seeing as the God of Light was rushing towards them, even if the Orcs¡¯ God of Knowledge wanted to continue speaking, it was too late. The only present Divine Power of the Orcs, Wild Beast Trevor, roared similarly and, like a red giant beast, rushed towards the beam of light that was the God of Light. At the same time, two giants opened their eyes in the far corners of the Orc troops. Once the ancestor gods of the Orcs had fallen, six giant beasts had been born amongst their corps. All of them had the ability to defend the Divine Powers and were named ¡°ancestor beasts.¡± In the olden days, when the six big ancestor beasts were firstborn, the main god of the Human God System, the God of Knights, had come to find trouble. These ancestor beasts had not fully developed yet and were still in their youth. After a long-drawn battle, four out of the six ancestor beasts died, and the God of Knights had also suffered much damage to the point where he was still not fully recuperated now. Among the four fallen ancestor beasts, the Giant Viper¡¯s corpse had bred ¡°Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit¡± Snakenell; Wild Beast Trevor and ¡°Sky Devourer¡± Lefon had also consumed a part of Japanese dog¡¯s body and had attained Divine Power strength from it. Infinite Serpent and Golden Chicken¡¯s corpses had been used to build the Orcs¡¯ God Kingdom, the Endless Field. The remaining Obituary Bird and Dead Dragon had been recuperating and waiting for the ultimate battle. Now was the time for this very ultimate battle. The giant ancestral beasts unfolded themselves and let out roars that scared every single god present. The first to attack was Obituary Bird. It looked like a crow that had multiplied tremendously in size. Every one of its feathers had a dead aura, and he let out squawks like a crow. The piece of void suddenly had tinges of grey like a grey river, and it rushed directly towards Trevor and Wuther, who were battling intensely. Following closely behind, Dead Dragon, who resembled a giant dragon skeleton, carried out a similar attack. Two paths of grey flowed together in parallel without fusing, rushing and gushing towards their targets. Wuther¡¯s abilities were definitely far better than that of Trevor¡¯s, but Trevor had gone completely mad once the war had started. In a short period of time, his abilities had explosively increased and were comparable to Snakenell when he was slightly injured. Even with Wuther pulling out all stops, he was unable to directly kill Trevor with only one blow. At this very moment, the two ancestral beasts arrived in front of Trevor and Wuther simultaneously. They seemed to ignore Trevor and looked as if they wanted to kill both Trevor and Wuther at the same time! Perhaps this was the war strategy of the Orcs, where Trevor could hold on to Wuther, and they would perish together. Sacrificing one in war to achieve a greater good of killing the Great Devil, well, this was to be expected. Of course, the Great Devil had no intention of accommodating this goal. Watching as the aura of death had flowed in front of him, Wuther smiled coldly, his left hand gripped a giant sword, and he used one blow to push aside Trevor. His right hand held out a war hammer to face the aura of death with one blow. ¡°Useless old thing, don¡¯t waste your time and embarrass yourself!¡± With the strike of the war hammer, it was like the aura of death had met with a giant dam. Intensive shockwaves rolled back, scaring every god on the side of the Orcs who quickly scattered. At the same time, the giant sword in Wuther¡¯s right hand quickly changed from being big and brutal and soft and detailed. In a moment, it bypassed Trevor¡¯s axe and hit him like an invisible wave in his chest. Wild Beast Trevor, who was previously yelling and going mad, now went still. ¡°You have some skill, I¡¯ll give you that,¡± Wuther turned around to glance at him with some form of admiration in his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s a pity you¡¯re not human.¡± Trevor did not reply, and his body slowly disintegrated, scattering in all directions¡­ On the other hand, the two ancestral beasts tried to absorb back the aura of death that were flowing out and were instead hit repeatedly, forcing them to stagger backwards. They required a breath¡¯s time to gather themselves yet their bodies continued to vibrate, clearly showing their sustained damages. The combined attack of the three Divine Powers failed miserably and ended here. The God of Light, Wuther¡¯s powers were truly horrifying and tremendous, causing everyone to be in awe and fearful of him at the same time! Chapter 947 Chapter 947: No Accidents The Orc God System joined hands with three great Divine Powers. Even if they had to sacrifice themselves, they had to strike the God of Light, Wuther, with a heavy blow. However, they failed. There was no suspense in the way they lost, not even the slightest chance of success was visible. This scene greatly shocked the Orc gods. On the other hand, there was a great boost to the morale of the human gods. Everyone was practically burning with vigorous fighting spirit. ¡°Your Majesty! Leave the following battle to us!¡± the God of Heroes shouted as he charged forward. ¡°These Orcs are completely useless. They are vulnerable to our hits and are simply not worthy for you to strike them!¡± ¡°Yes. Just us alone is enough,¡± said the God of Protection as he caught up with the rest. He was skilled in defense, while the God of Heroes was skilled in attack. With the two of them joining hands, the few remaining great Divine Powers might not necessarily be able to defeat them. Most importantly, the enemies were utterly demoralized by the God of Light. It was impossible for them to find the courage to fight the human gods and bring this battle to an end. They were all experienced fighters on the battlefields, veterans who had started out as humans and fought their way to becoming great Divine Powers. Given such a situation, if they were still unable to win, then they would be better off retiring from the battlefield to return home and spend their years in old age! This was the truth that both sides actually understood. But the Orc gods still wanted to take a chance and hoped to outdo the humans by huddling together¡ªno matter what, the advantage they had in population size was still quite a courage booster. The regrettable thing was that having more people did not guarantee that they could outdo the humans with sheer numbers. Even in the world where Sui Xiong was before he traversed worlds, it was impossible for the most remarkable warriors to defeat a group of elite soldiers, let alone in this world with people of top-rated martial skills who were so powerful. There were many examples of events where a small group of people managed to defeat a great army of soldiers¡ªSui Xiong previously participated in the production process of a card game. There was a certain game that enumerated a group of valiant warriors with such military exploits. There was even that kind of scenario where a monstrous existence had exerted such an impact over a great army and made the enemies retreat, or even to the extent of retreating to escape for life. There was no doubt that the God of Light was such a monster. And he belonged to the super-evolved species among such monsters. So long as he was around, the Orcs would have no chance of victory at all. Earlier on where the three great Divine Powers joined hands in battle, it was really nothing more than making a final struggle. Now, even this final struggle had failed. Then the outcome of this war was determined. Just as the onlookers had expected, even if the God of Light had not struck again, the battle would soon head in a direction that was very favorable to the human gods. With two great Divine Powers, the God of Heroes, together with the God of Protection, joining hands, they would be invincible before their enemies. The ¡°Holy Hammer¡± from the Dwarfs God System, the ¡°Old Sage¡± from the Pygmy God System, two ancestor Orcs and two other great Divine Powers had once tried to join forces and besiege these two human gods. But they were able to grasp the chance of a temporary gap, and with concerted efforts, they defeated the ¡°Old Sage,¡± who the God of Light had recently beheaded. This was followed by the defeat of the other two gods who just stepped up to the level of great Divine Power. They turned the tables and changed the fighting ratio from six to two, into a situation where the fighting ratio was three to two. Then, in the battle of three to two, they launched an aggressive attack against the ¡°Holy Hammer¡± and went head-on and fought in a diamond-cut-diamond battle against the other two ancestor Orcs. In one breath, they dealt almost a hundred hits. Finally, the two ancestor Orcs, who were already injured by the God of Light, caved into their injuries that hit them with full blast and were beaten to death. The ¡°Holy Hammer¡± also had its clone destroyed by them as they turned back to deal with it. It could only retreat dejectedly. The battle between the great Divine Powers was over, so naturally, nothing more need be said for the remaining ranks. This final battle did not take long, from the start to the end, it took no more than an hour. The final outcome was a complete rout of the Orcs, with only a few who managed to escape with the help of their allies. Other than that, the entire God System was practically wiped out. And their allies also suffered heavy losses. The clones of those who were of mid-level Divine Powers and above were all blown up, without any exception. Finally, only the human gods remained standing amidst the void space to celebrate their victory. Sui Xiong and company watched everything quietly. It was only after the human gods were done with their celebrations that Sui Xiong went over to them to ask them what they intended to do next. ¡°Nothing much. No matter what, we shall have to win the battle on Earth before anything else,¡± the God of Light still replied as such. Sui Xiong frowned inwardly but did not ask any further. In this world, the outcome of the war of gods usually directly determined the war situation on Earth. The Orcs Alliance suffered such a crushing defeat that the entire Orc God System was practically all wiped out. The remaining God Systems also suffered heavy hits. Of course, these would greatly affect the war on Earth. Firstly, it was the natives of the Marsh. Those with top-rated martial skills were almost completely wiped out in that great explosion. The few remaining Legendary Masters were simply unable to block the aggressive attacks by the troops led by the human Demigod Masters and were subjected to a double-pronged attack by the Commonwealth of Gold Coins and the Duchy of Thunder. The human gods opened a huge Transportation Portal in the Dhaka Association and transported a large batch of fresh troops to the southern battlefield. With the support of this batch of troops, the original state of the impasse was quickly broken. The natives of the Marsh were left with no other choice but to take off their balaclavas, abandon their armor and retreat. If it were not for the fact that the humans were really unaccustomed to the terrain of the Marsh, perhaps this war would have ended long ago. What followed next was the war involving the Duchy of Griffon. The pygmies and underground races might have gained the upper-hand, but they actually intended to retreat quite some time ago. Earlier on, they had built fortresses in a most indiscriminate manner, which in fact was just their way of covering up their true intentions. It was only when the humans launched a counter-attack from the Kingdom of the Blue Moon did they come to realize that the pygmies and underground races had almost withdrawn their entire communities. The only ones left were the old, ailing and weak, who were willing to stay and sacrifice themselves. The war over at the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was much more intense. The dwarfs and elves had top-rated martial skills, so they did not have much to lose. With the human gods being unable to mass-send their clones down to Earth, nor were they able to send enough Demigod Masters to dominate control of the situation, both sides were still at an impasse. But everyone knew that the dwarfs and elves were bound to be the defeated ones. Over at the Mifata Federation, it was one of the few battlefields where the humans were considered to be on the losing end. It was mainly because the mages were unwilling to take the gamble with human lives at stake, even though they were already in a sure-win situation. They preferred to pick on the murlocs in a slow and steady manner. Anyway, it was nothing more than using magic in exchange for the humans¡¯ heads. When it was the murlocs¡¯ turn to lose stamina, this war finally. It was interesting to say that, in this war, the murlocs had summoned six Lords of the Abyss all in all. Unfortunately, none of the six demons had had a good ending. They were either beaten up to such an extent where they had thrown off their balaclavas, abandoned their armors and retreated in a sorry state, or their clones were beheaded. There was even more than one who had been sacrificed by the murlocs, who had relied on the use of the large arrays that were already set in place. Thus, they had become the nutrients for the two magical objects that would be used to elevate the murloc race. And the most attention-grabbing battle was of course, none other than the battle between the humans and the Orcs. This was a real battle in its true sense. Adding up the total on the battlefronts of both sides, that was, on the great battlefront at the western defense line of the Great Wall of the Kingdom of Light, as well as on the great battlefront of the northern fortress group of the Kingdom of Eagle, there were at least a million people from both sides fighting each other at the moment. Meanwhile, the demigods on both sides, who had been conserving their energy all this time, also participated in the battle. The Orc demigods were very brave and at one point in time, they managed to attack the human demigods into retreating. But just as quickly, the human demigods also gained sufficient Divine Power from the gods and successfully managed to turn the tables on the Orc demigods. In the end, nearly half of the Orc demigods were killed. The great army completely collapsed after the human demigods stepped into the war against the humans. The human army pursued the Orcs for more than 200 miles, killing as they advanced. Blood stained the earth red, and dead bodies were strewn everywhere. Standing amidst the sky above the tragic battlefield, Sui Xiong looked at the tragic scene beneath his feet and sighed deeply. ¡°No matter what, this war that involved practically every race on the Main Plane, is finally coming to an end. Let¡¯s hope that after this war, there will be a longer and more lasting period of peace¡­¡± Chapter 948 Chapter 948: The Greater Divine Power (Part 1) ¡°Kill! Kill! Kill! Keep hunting them down! Don¡¯t stop!¡± ¡°Even if you¡¯re so tired that you can¡¯t catch your breath, don¡¯t you ever dare stop! Even if you¡¯re so exhausted that you feel like dying, you also have to die of exhaustion along the way!¡± ¡°Use our blades and swords to bring a lifetime of peace for our posterity!¡± The human soldiers roared and encouraged each other as they dragged their exhausted bodies to pursue the equally exhausted Orcs, who were in front of them. They were already very tired, but the Orcs in front of them were even more tired¡ªthe humans still had clergymen who were following the army about, after all. They could now and then use magic spells to relieve them of fatigue and allow them to restore their strength. The Orcs might also have their clergymen, but they were almost left with no gods who could bestow divinity to them. This was a war of pursuit, with an outcome that was fated to be. The Orc soldiers, at last, were too exhausted and could run no further. They did not even have the strength to turn back for a fight. They simply sprawled on the ground, allowing the exhausted human soldiers to chase up with them and kill them one by one, either with their spears or their swords. When the icy-cold, sharp blades pierced through their bodies, there were no cries of misery, only the sighs of despair that were evoked as life after life was lost. In fact, most of the Orcs had already died from exhaustion by the time they fell to the ground. The so-called ¡°quelling blade¡± of the humans did nothing more than create some meaningless wounds on the dead bodies. This situation was happening all over the place. The entire Orc army had totally collapsed and seemed just like a heap of loose sand. There could no longer muster any decent power of resistance. The most courageous troops of the empire, as well as the tough men who could fight to their deaths in the most dire circumstances, had followed their old emperor onto the battlefield where their blood now stained the ground. The ones who had fled were the only remaining ones of the defeated army, and they had lost all sense of courage. Perhaps they all had their own reasons, like they did not want to die, they could not die, or that they were unwilling to die. But the battlefield itself was a gamble with lives as stakes. One who wanted to take a gamble had to be willing to concede defeat. There were also deserters who had attempted to escape into the Orc villages and hide amongst the civilians. But the moment they got close to these villages, there would be a stream of green light would fall from the sky and keep them out mercilessly. This was Sui Xiong making a move. He would not allow these deserters to escape into the civilian population. This would cause great chaos. As early as the period right after the humans won, he had gone to look for the God of Light and reminded the other party to restrain the army. There should not be any slaughtering of civilians. To this, the God of Light¡¯s reply was that, so long as those civilians did not offer protection to the Orc army, he would not issue any order for massacres. Sui Xiong was not very pleased with his answer, but he did not continue to ask. But every time a human army wanted to charge into the Orc villages, it would be stopped by a stream of green light. This was Sui Xiong expressing his stance. If they needed supplies, they would have to pay out of their own pockets. Going by means of ¡°expropriation¡± was strictly prohibited. The Orcs had practically drained their resources to fight this war, if they were to be further robbed in the name of ¡°expropriation,¡± most of them would simply starve to death this winter. If that were the case, then what difference would that make from a major massacre? Sui Xiong would not allow massacres targeting civilians to happen, regardless of who had come to kill and who they had intended to kill. None of this was allowed. The brotherly Sui Xiong would never give recognition to things like the ¡°power of the conquering¡± and so on. No matter how good the human gods were at fighting, on the Main Plane, he, Brother Xiong, had the final say! To this, the human gods naturally had many opinions. Javier had specifically come looking for Sui Xiong to advise him against being so stubborn. ¡°The Orcs are done for. Why do you want to offend His Majesty, the God of Light, for the Orcs?¡± Javier persuaded painstakingly. ¡°It¡¯s not worth it!¡± Sui Xiong merely smiled and made no reply. Whether it was worth it or not was not up to anyone else to dictate. His opinion was what mattered. It did not matter if the others felt that it was not worth it. He thought that it was worth it, so that was enough. With respect to Sui Xiong¡¯s decision, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, was quite appreciative. Even though he was human and had a bad relationship with the Orc Gods, he was still the God of Justice after all. First and foremost, he had to think from the perspective of justice. It was certainly an unjustified act for the victors to launch a massive massacre on the civilians of the defeated party. So he was quick to follow suit by declaring his strong support for Sui Xiong in protecting the Orc civilians and preventing the human army from massacring and plundering the Orc civilians. Soon after, many other good gods expressed the same opinion. On the one hand, they were acting out of their own good will. On the other hand, some were also quite worried¡ªthe God of Light was powerful, and this was worrying for them all. Under such a situation, being able to cooperate with the Void Mask and the God of Justice to weaken the influence of the God of Light, even if there would not be much practical effect, would at least give them some peace of mind. For this matter, Morani, who had withdrawn from that battle because he was wounded, had privately sought Sui Xiong out. He sincerely beseeched Sui Xiong not to stand up for anyone by doing anything. ¡°Something doesn¡¯t sit right about the God of Light,¡± Morani said. Because his battle clone where all his Divine Power was concentrated into, had been blown up, up till now, this man of steel was still very weak. Even though it was just the two of them speaking one-on-one in private, Morani still kept his volume low as he said, ¡°His power doesn¡¯t seem normal anymore.¡± ¡°Abnormal? Amongst the great Divine Powers, it¡¯s normal to have gaps in the first place,¡± Sui Xiong replied, feeling somewhat confused. ¡°The gap should not be this great,¡± Morani said as he shook his head. ¡°The degree to how powerful he is now, it¡¯s not like any great Divine Power, it¡¯s more like¡ªhe¡¯s becoming a greater Divine Power.¡± Sui Xiong frowned and recalled these few times where he had met for discussion with the God of Light. He had, indeed, felt that the God of Light was exuding the aura of a greater Divine Power. But the extent of clarity was not even comparable to that of the Dragon of Chaos. So technically, the God of Light should still be quite far from a true breakthrough to becoming a greater Divine Power. But¡­ the combat power that the God of Light had displayed thus far had far surpassed that of the Dragon of Chaos. He had left a clone of himself in the nest of the Dragon of Chaos. Earlier on, when he witnessed a scene of the God of Light in mighty action, he had approached the Dragon of Chaos to inquire about the matter. At that time, the Dragon of Chaos had kept silent for a long time. Then finally, with a long sigh, he said, ¡°Even now, if we were to fight one-on-one, I still couldn¡¯t beat him.¡± What did this mean? After becoming a greater Divine Power, the God of Light would become much stronger than the Master of Chaos? Or¡­ the God of Light had, in fact, already progressed far down the road of becoming a greater Divine Power. It was just that he had not been able to observe it. Sui Xiong was not sure. In this final battle, Morani and a few courageous Orc Gods had once charged up to the front of the God of Light. It was a pity they did not manage to force him to show his hand in the end. But at that time, the God of Light was once again tempted to strike. At that time, Morani could clearly feel that power pressure that felt as deep as the sea. That was a power that even the Master God of the Orcs, Lefon, had yet to encounter. It was also a power that the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, had yet to display¡ªit was not a difference of the strong and weak. It was a difference in essential attributes. So he specifically came looking for Sui Xiong to advise him not to make an enemy of the God of Light. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if he has really become a greater Divine Power or not. But even if he hasn¡¯t become a greater Divine Power, he¡¯s already getting near to it,¡± Morani said with great worry. ¡°Once he steps into the realm of the greater Divine Powers, I¡¯m most afraid that he will want to carry out a massive cleanup. If you provoke him now, you are bound to be a thorn in his flesh, and when the time comes, you are going to be the first target he will attack!¡± However, Sui Xiong did not heed his advice after all. Before traversing worlds, Sui Xiong had always held this line in high regard, and it went like this, ¡°To be a man, there are things that one should not do, and things that one has to do.¡± At that time, he did not have enough power to hold his head and chest high to claim that he was a man. But now, he did. Since he had the power, why not do something he really wanted to do? Why should he put up with the things that he did not like? So that green light fell from the sky, over and over again, stopping the human army from stepping into the Orc towns and villages, and also preventing the Orc deserters from fleeing into the civilian population. ¡°Since they want to fight, let them fight it out. Since they have stepped into the battlefield where they gamble with their lives, then they should only leave after the loser has emerged!¡± Sui Xiong thought as such. In fact, the outcome was not so tragic. After a few major pursuits, the human army finally stopped in their tracks to begin their arrangements for follow-up work. And at this time, the God of Light issued orders. The races who had joined this battle to challenge the humans and lost as a result would no longer be able to retain their country and churches on the Main Plain. Also, they would not be able to establish military or commercial organizations, nor would they be able to possess any territory or maintain any titles. If they still wished to remain on Earth, they could only be farmers, craftsmen, petty merchants or even mercenaries. Just like how the Half-Orcs used to be, they would be scattered all over the place, and they had to accept their fate of being under the rule of their lords. If they were unwilling to accept these terms, then they could just leave the Main Plane. Just like what those races who were defeated in war did in the past. In addition, all the races, like the pygmies, who already left because they were defeated, but later returned to stir up so much trouble, had to leave this time. Not a single one was allowed to stay! In short, this requirement was not exceptionally harsh. As compared to what most people had expected, it was considerably lax¡ªit should be known that among the human gods, there were many who strongly requested to launch merciless revenge against all the other races. This was what it meant by ¡°a person had to bow to the circumstance he was faced with.¡± No matter how reluctant they were, the dwarves, Orcs, as well as the Marsh natives, eventually had to begin preparing to retreat before the final deadline given by the God of Light. The only race that made no move was the elves. It was not to say that they did not make any move at all. The elves¡¯ choice was to summon as many of their kind back into the Ancient Forest as far as possible. Then they would set up a massive enchantment within the Ancient Forest. It was clear that they intended to fight this to the end. No one was optimistic about their ability to win, including Sui Xiong¡ªback when the various races had combined efforts, they were still not a match for the humans. Now, with only the elves left, could they possibly win? But the Grand Council of the Elves had displayed exceptional determination this time. The elderly elves and Demigod Masters had all stepped forth and emphasized that they were able to safeguard the homeland of the elves. Where on earth did they find such confidence? Sui Xiong was very curious. The gods were all very curious. But now was not the time for curiosity. There was another major thing that had to be done at the moment. The humans did not rush into dealing with the elves who refused to concede defeat. Instead, they sent out invitations to the gods, welcoming them to visit the newly-established Human God Kingdom, the ¡°Court of Victory.¡± To view the promotion of the Master God of the humans, the God of Light, into a greater Divine Power. Yes. Just as what many had speculated, the God of Light was going to make use of the advantageous stance of this war where the humans had defeated all the other races to gain absolute hegemony on the Main Plane. He was going to break through the limit of a great Divine Power and step into the realm of a greater Divine Power! And this was a realm where no other gods could enter except for the four great Master Gods! Chapter 949 Chapter 949: The Greater Divine Power (Part 2) Once again, the gods gathered. There were many more gods present here at the scene today. The number present was even more than any of the previous gathering of the gods. There were good, neutral, evil, orderly, chaotic gods¡­ even some ancient gods who had lived in seclusion all this time had turned up. Almost all the gods in this world had come. This was not surprising. Since ancient times, there had been at least a few gods who attempted to break through to become greater Divine Powers. But out of them all, was there anyone who did not do so discreetly, carefully hiding oneself while making a surreptitious attempt in breaking through? How they wished no one in the world would ever find out that they wanted to achieve a breakthrough, much less letting people come witness the ceremony! Like the God of Light, who sent out invitations to all the gods in such an ostentatious manner to invite everyone to come witness his breakthrough in becoming a greater Divine Power, such a thing was simply inconceivable! But thinking from another perspective, this also meant that the God of Light had absolute confidence. He firmly believed that he could succeed. Otherwise, the moment his attempt for a breakthrough failed, he would also be severely injured even though he might not necessarily die. When that time came, the gods who had come to witness the breakthrough ceremony would transform from well-mannered guests into extremely vicious and unrestrained bandits. By then, even the Human God System that just took down a great victory would have to follow closely behind the Orc God System down the road of destruction. In fact, most of the gods who came to watch the ceremony really had such thoughts. For instance, the Master God of the Desolation God System, Morani, had told Sui Xiong in private that he hoped to see the God of Glory failing in his attempt at a breakthrough. The best thing was to blow everything up, right then and there, into a gorgeous display of fireworks¡­ Morani was quite a kind person who usually did not harbor malice. Yet from what he just said, it was obvious that he bore deep enmity for the God of Light. Morani had good relationships with the Orc gods, and also, he himself was of Orc origin. In this great battle that implicated all the races, the Half-Orcs also took the side of the Orcs and waged war on the humans. They did not have their own independent units but were mixed and incorporated among the Orc armies. Because of the great defeat, they suffered heavy losses where the entire population was reduced by more than 30 percent. As one of the gods that the Half-Orcs mainly believed in, as well as being a god who might possibly become the Master God of the Half-Orc God System in the future, it was only natural that Morani would dislike and hate the God of Light. What was interesting was that Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, who was also a human being, was showing his discontent at that moment. He was standing with Sui Xiong and company, watching that resplendent and magnificent altar from afar, as well as the God of Light who was sitting on the altar in repose with his eyes closed. And ¡°I¡¯m not happy¡± was written all over his face. ¡°So annoying! How can this fellow actually be able to achieve such a breakthrough!¡± he whispered in a low voice. ¡°This is just too terrible! It makes me unhappy just thinking about it!¡± ¡°He may not be able to succeed yet,¡± Morani¡¯s voice boomed from beneath his armor and mask. ¡°True. Would it be that easy to succeed?¡± the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, asked as she nodded repeatedly. Then the few of them began discussing this matter while in high spirits. Every one of them was enraptured by their discussion (though this was not apparent on their faces). Only Sui Xiong remained silent all the time, with a worried expression on his face. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Are you worried that he will succeed?¡± a low, deep voice rang out, as a shadow suddenly appeared by his side. Sui Xiong was not surprised at all. He sighed and asked in reply, ¡°Do you have any experience you can share with me?¡± ¡°Honestly speaking, I don¡¯t. In fact, I¡¯m here today to ask you for something.¡± ¡°That mortuary?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°The things in that mortuary, you need them?¡± ¡°I only need that God Kingdom.¡± ¡°Sure, send your clone to get it.¡± After a while, a special guest arrived at Sui Xiong¡¯s God Kingdom. The God of Conspiracy still wore a hooded robe that kept his entire head covered, looking exceptionally strange. This had always been his style. It had never changed. Sui Xiong handed the emptied ¡°Treasure of the Elves¡± over to him with some hesitation, then he asked, ¡°What on earth are you going to use this for?¡± ¡°As a consumable. I¡¯m going to use it to activate an enchantment,¡± said the God of Conspiracy, who had no intention of hiding anything at all. He received the shrunken pearl-shaped God Kingdom and gave an ancient customary elven bow to Sui Xiong as he did so. ¡°Thank you so much. Though I would love to say that I shall be obliged to return your favor in due course, frankly speaking, I most probably will not have the chance to repay your help for this.¡± Sui Xiong was not surprised. With a frown, he asked, ¡°It took you through a difficult time just to get resurrected. You intend to die again, just like that?¡± ¡°The Elven Race cannot be driven out of the Main Plane. Or else, this will be the end of them,¡± the God of Conspiracy said in a low and heavy voice. ¡°The attributes of the Main Plane are very special. If a certain race has not been residing on the Main Plane since birth, then so be it. But if they are born on the Main Plane and are driven out of the Main Plane, this race is going to lose something very important¡ªI can¡¯t describe what it is, but what I do know what it will mean to lose that important something. ¡°The chances of having a master emerging among the population will be greatly reduced for a race that loses that something. The birth of new gods will also become extremely slow. The worst thing is that once that thing is lost, the race will no longer be able to expect the birth of a great Divine Power among its population!¡± said the God of Conspiracy. His voice was filled with worry as he went on to say, ¡°In this world, a race without any great Divine Powers will ultimately be mere food to be devoured by others!¡± Sui Xiong nodded gently. He could roughly guess what ¡°that lost thing¡± was. Using words in the online novels that he read before traversing words, ¡°that thing¡± would be luck, which was the energy worthy of playing the ¡°leading role¡± in this world. ¡°In the last ten thousand years after the pygmy race has been driven out of the Main Plane, there hasn¡¯t been a single god who has been able to bring about an increase in divinity. The new-born gods are, at best, weak Divine Powers. There hasn¡¯t even been an emergence of a mid-level Divine Power. ¡°The entire shadow race that had been previously expelled from the Main Plane was even completely wiped out by some other races in war. Only several masters of necromancy barely managed to survive for the continuity of their races¡¯ bloodlines. ¡°The Elven Race will not fall to such a state!¡± The God of Conspiracy finished his piece and left, leaving Sui Xiong deeply brooding over the issue. The God of Light started this war to fight and gain hegemony on the Main Plane. Could it be for this reason as well? Now that the humans had won this war, could the God of Light really rely on this energy, which would otherwise be called the ¡°leading role¡¯s luck,¡± and attempt to break through to a greater Divine Power? Sui Xiong had thought as such. And all the more curious he got. Suddenly, he felt a sudden jolt and recalled something else. To talk about assuming the ¡°leading role¡± of the Main Plane, the Elven Race had played this role back in the years! So why had the Master God of the Elf God System not been able to become a greater Divine Power but died so soundlessly instead? This was something probably only the God of Conspiracy, who might seemingly be the reincarnation of the elf king, would know. From what he had addressed this time, he might be wanting to sacrifice himself just for the Elven Race. So if there was anything that Sui Xiong wanted to find out from him, Sui Xiong had to make use of the opportunity now. Thinking of this, Sui Xiong stared hard, and within a fleeting moment, his eyes swept across the entire Main Plane. As his strength grew, his power also gradually became stronger. The interesting thing was that without knowing why, he realized that the power he could exert on the Main Plane was actually much stronger than what he could exert in the world outside the Main Plane. Although it was still not as strong as what he could exert in his God Kingdom, at least he still had a ¡°home advantage.¡± Probably, it was because of the study of that treasure that there was a certain influence on the enchantment left behind by the Goddess of Life. Sui Xiong found the God of Conspiracy, who was in a conversation with the Orc Judge, Buddy Brista, without much effort. They were right in the middle of the Ancient Forest, under the ¡°World Tree.¡± With a flash of green light, he appeared before the two of them. ¡°I have something to ask,¡± Sui Xiong asked directly without wasting much time. ¡°Back in those days, the Elven Race could be considered as the king of the Main Plane, which is to say, they were, more or less, playing the ¡°leading role.¡± So why didn¡¯t the elf king rely on this to become a greater Divine Power?¡± The God of Conspiracy and the Orc Judge looked at each other in the eye and smiled. ¡°Please allow me to keep this a secret,¡± he replied with a laugh. However, there was obvious and unmistakable malice in his laughter. ¡°You will know in due time.¡± ¡°It¡¯s meaningless to keep me in suspense. Can¡¯t you tell me now?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I really can¡¯t,¡± the God of Conspiracy said. ¡°There are certain things that will no longer be interesting if they are known in advance. ¡°To someone as powerful as you, so long as you don¡¯t court your own doom and meet with trouble before the God of Light reaches the peak, there is nothing worry about.¡± Then he went on to say, ¡°Remember, at this point in time, don¡¯t confront him head-on. Just wait for a period of time¡­¡± Just as they were talking, the three of them suddenly felt a sudden jolt and looked up into the sky at the same time. At this moment, an indescribable feeling caught the undivided attention of all the living souls living within the Thousand Worlds that the Big Circulation passed by. Countless gazes bore through mountains and rivers, traversed countless worlds and gathered in the new God Kingdom of the Human God System, the ¡°Court of Victory.¡± And all the gods who were there to watch the ceremony all stood up without looking away and walked to the golden figure in the middle of the altar. The God of Light did not say anything redundant. He did not even utter a single word. He directly started on his attempt for a breakthrough. He came to the center of the altar. Then, there was a burst of dazzling light behind him. His aura that was originally so shockingly powerful, abruptly increased in strength. At this moment, even masters like Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman felt suffocated. On the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World, within the Wheel of Order, which was filled with the light of positive energy, the Master of Order got to his feet. His face that was usually very calm registered a look of anticipation as he looked towards the Court of Victory. Though they were clearly very far apart from each other, at this moment, his gaze met with that of the God of Light. The God of Light smiled. In his smile, there was unwavering confidence. There was also a fighting spirit, so strong that it was literally on fire. The Master of Order understood what the God of Light meant, and he too, smiled. His smile was calm, but it was like the calmness of the sea before a storm. There were raging waves concealed behind this calmness. After a few seconds, the God of Light, whose entire body had fully transformed into light, opened his mouth to speak. ¡°I am Wuther Rang, the Master God of the Human God System. I am the overlord of the Main Plane, the leading role of this generation!¡± ¡°Right here, I am asking the world to acknowledge my greatness, to acknowledge that I have surpassed and risen above the great Divine Powers. I am powerful enough to enter a higher realm!¡± ¡°Stop for me, great Big Circulation that sweeps through the entire world!¡± From the Positive Plane, the Negative Plane, the Matter Plane and the Spirit Plane of the Ring of the World, the high-rolling wave energy of the Big Circulation that had been surging unceasingly stopped. When it was once again surging and flowing, it was short of one figure from before. The figure of the God of Light no longer existed within the Human God Kingdom. He appeared in the Wheel of Order, right before the presence of the Master of Order. ¡°A great welcome to you, newborn greater Divine Power,¡± the Master of Order opened his mouth to speak. ¡°Let me see what kind of new generation you will be ushering in.¡± Chapter 950 Chapter 950: None of You Even Understood What Real Power Was The God of Light really succeeded! He smoothly ascended to the realm of the greater Divine Powers. Other than the four other Master Gods of Order, Chaos, Good and Evil, he was the fifth greater Divine Power. He was also the one and only existence who had become a greater Divine Power through his own efforts. He visited the Master of Order to greet him, then returned to the ¡°Court of Victory.¡± Other than Sui Xiong, Yorgaardman and a few other masters, there was practically no one else who noticed that he had left briefly. All the gods¡¯ attention was still captivated by that amazing scene of how the great Big Circulation came to a momentary stop earlier on. Many of them were reflecting thoughtfully about what they had seen and heard that very moment the God of Light suddenly opened his mouth to speak. They were deliberating and figuring out very conscientiously. And meanwhile, the three people who were in the Ancient Forest also went on with their conversation. ¡°He really did it¡­¡± Sui Xiong said amidst some sighs. ¡°The following era will be that of the humans.¡± ¡°No. It will be quite the opposite,¡± said the God of Conspiracy as he laughed. In a most malicious tone, he said, ¡°The era of humans is over as of this very moment.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sui Xiong exclaimed as he froze for a moment. But as he was about to press on with further questions, he saw the God of Conspiracy raise a clenched fist to hit his own chest. ¡°Buddy, what happens next is all up to you!¡± Before his voice could die away, he had completely collapsed. He transformed into a myriad of golden light that flowed into that huge tree that seemed as though it could support the entire sky. The many worshippers who had concealed themselves like and hidden well in altars and temples all over the Main Plane, were shocked. They stared blankly at the statue before them¡ªthat statue that was still shining with holy light before had once again lost its light. ¡°Your Majesty¡­ What are you doing? How can you come back alive just to die all over again?¡± In the southern offshore region, the murlocs who were constructing the altar suddenly froze. All of them were feeling a sense of loss. The elderly murlocs had even gone pale in the face and could not help but pound their chests and stamp their feet. ¡°Why¡­ why is this happening? It doesn¡¯t make sense!¡± The god that they had just created had fallen. Sui Xiong was surprised to see everything that was happening before his very eyes. He had never thought that the God of Conspiracy would be so impatient. He had not even waited to finish his piece before he put an end to his own life. Or could it be that the situation had reached the point of extreme urgency? So urgent that he did not even have the time to say a few more words? Without giving Sui Xiong the time to figure things out, the Orc judge, Buddy Brista, had taken out the light ball that looked like a pearl¡ªa God Kingdom that shrank into that miniature size. It was the God Kingdom of a very inconspicuous god in the Elf God System, the ¡°God of Potion.¡± He took a deep look at this God Kingdom, then he swallowed it. ¡°Hello? This is not how you use a sealed God Kingdom!¡± Sui Xiong hurried to remind, worried that he would suffer from a stomach upset. But before Sui Xiong could finish his piece, the Orc Judge¡¯s body was already starting to radiate holy light rays. The next moment, he¡ªor rather, its¡ªtemperament completely changed. He was no longer that immortal Legendary Master, but merely a god with the face of an old man. In fact, he became a god who was totally in his prime. At this time, the surrounding environment was also slightly shaken, and then, it was separated from the Main Plane. It was just because he was overly strong, thus in order to avoid inviting any attack from the enchantment of the Main Plane, Buddy Brista had chosen to retreat into a small, temporary Half Plane. ¡°You are¡­ the God of Potion?¡± Sui Xiong was no fool. Up till now, he most certainly would have been able to recognize Buddy Brista¡¯s identity¡ªa god who was disguised as a mortal and safeguarding the humans while hiding in the shadows, the God of Potion. At the very moment he recognized the other party¡¯s identity, many puzzling questions that Sui Xiong had previously been unable to resolve, were finally answered. For example, why was the God of Potion so hostile towards the Pasteur School? The man reason, most regrettably, was really due to an academic contradiction. With respect to the study of healing potions, the Pasteur School was inclined towards using purely medicinal remedies. Their use of spells was practically negligible. To the God of Potion, whose priesthood involved the production of magic potions, this was of course, a serious mistake¡ªyes, it could probably be regarded as ¡°the wrong track.¡± When it came to deal with juniors who went on the wrong track, it was not surprising that the God of Potion should deal with them severely. However, there were still many problems that were unfathomable. For instance, ¡°Why seal your God Kingdom? Why disguise yourself in the form of a mortal?¡± ¡°Because the elven race can¡¯t go without a real god taking the reign after all,¡± the God of Potion replied calmly. ¡°His Majesty has brought the gods and the elites of the race to break through the barrier of the world, so that we can progress towards opening up a vast future for the new world. But someone has to stay behind to guard the race of the old world. That¡¯s why I stayed.¡± As he spoke, he was drawing some complex magic lines. It was apparent that he was skilled in this. It only took him a brief moment to draw up a large piece of dazzling magic lines. Then with a clap, those magic lines flew up and landed on him. Then his aura, that was originally an equivalent of at least a mid-level Divine Power, was suddenly lowered. It was reduced to a level that was at most the equivalent of a weak Divine Power. This was, of course, for the purpose of bypassing the detection of the enchantment of the Main Plane. And true enough, the God of Potion immediately canceled that temporary, miniature Half Plane and returned to the Main Plane with Sui Xiong. They went back to the huge World Tree that had absorbed the God of Conspiracy. ¡°In fact, I should have a detailed discussion with you. But I¡¯m so sorry, there¡¯s no time,¡± the God of Potion said. Pressing one hand against the trunk of the World Tree, he said, ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s all in the past. The ones who live should always look forward. I shall entrust the future of the elven race to that fellow under your command.¡± ¡°Just like how my academic achievements have ultimately been surpassed, the younger generation has to surpass the older generation.¡± He laughed as he mocked at himself. Then he closed his eyes. Just like what happened to the God of Conspiracy earlier on, his clone transformed into rays of light and were infused into the huge World Tree. Upon receiving two gods as sacrifices, the huge tree that was said to be planted by the Goddess of Life, started to shine. From every leaf to every branch to every inch of the tree trunk, the tree started to shine. Sui Xiong even saw golden light rays vaguely coming from underground. Those were the roots that were also shining. At that moment when the huge tree was shining, countless stars gathered from all directions. They were like tired birds returning to their nests, scrambling and fighting to be the first to penetrate the tree trunk. Each star that seeped into the trunk added to the strength of the aura of the huge tree. Later on, when thousands of stars gathered in such a multitudinous amount that they could be likened to a major flood, they practically covered the entire sky. In the midst of this flood, Sui Xiong clearly felt a limitless vitality. This was the vitality of every pure-blooded elf that came from this world. Sui Xiong watched this vitality gathering into a huge flood, feeling emotional and worried. It had never occurred to him that there were actually still so many elves in this world. They lived not only on the Main Plane but were also spread widely over other worlds. Their numbers had long been a staggering amount. If everyone in such a large population were to gather, how powerful their strength would be! But he also knew that, without a powerful god to back them up, merely gathering the people was simply meaningless. Especially for the elves, where a majority of the population were living outside the Main Plane, without the protection of the enchantment of the Main Plane, they would not even be qualified to put up any resistance against the gods. From this flood of vitality, Sui Xiong also clearly recognized the possibility that the two other elf gods had been worried about. It would be very difficult for the races who left the Main Plane to become strong. It would be hard for them to breed gods and even more difficult for them to give rise to a great Divine Power that could guarantee the continued survival of the race. The elven race had such a huge population, but almost all their gods were conceived on the Main Plane. If they were driven out of the Main Plane, the future of this race would definitely be very bleak. But he still had some doubts. Would there be any use in just relying on the World Tree to gather the vitality of the elves? Would this be able to prevent the elves from being defeated and expelled from the Main Plane? At this juncture, he suddenly felt a jolt in his body. It was like something was pushing him and that thing wanted to push him away. This bout of energy was very strong. It was far beyond the level of a mid-level Divine Power. It was even strong enough to wrestle with many great Divine Powers. Sui Xiong originally wanted to resist it, but he had an abrupt change of mind and gave up on this thought. He simply allowed his body to be pushed to flight, and very quickly, he was flying out of the Ancient Forest. Along the way, he saw groups of people from many other races being pushed out in this way. Then finally, one after the other, they landed outside the Ancient Forest, looking at one another in bewilderment. There were also some people who did not believe in unnatural occurrences and tried to charge their way back into the Ancient Forest. But even the strongest men of them all could not advance more than a few steps forward before they soon used up all their might and were once again pushed out of the Ancient Forest. On the contrary, somewhere not far from them, a few elves who were in shock, ran as fast as they could into the forest. They did not meet with any hindrance at all. There were also people who were furious. They either cast spells or bore grudges, thus throwing attacks at the Ancient Forest. But all their attacks merely sank deep within the vast sea and were eventually unreciprocated. Up till this point in time, Sui Xiong finally understood what the elves had as their bottom card. With the Ancient Forest as their base, they constructed an enchantment. This enchantment could prevent outsiders from entering the Ancient Forest, providing the elves a place to rest in peace as they awaited the opportunity to rise again. The power of this enchantment was very strong. Even the mid-level Divine Powers were unable to break through it, let alone the weak Divine Powers. And the enchantment of the Main Plane left by the Goddess of Life was enough to prevent any master, whose powers exceeded that of weak Divine Powers, to initiate an attack on the Main Plane. Unless it was someone like Sui Xiong, a very different kind of existence that did not belong to any of the normal levels of Divine Powers, no one could entertain any thoughts of disturbing the elves who were hiding in the Ancient Forest. ¡°What an ingenious design!¡± Sui Xiong could not help but praise. ¡°Truly worthy of being once regarded as the king of all races on the Main Plane. This last bottom card they hold is truly formidable!¡± With such a bottom card, the elven race did not need to worry about the various troubles arising from the disputes of races. The elves had the reassurance of a peaceful life. Perhaps many years down the road, they would develop another huge and complete God System. Then once again, they would step into the battlefield where races of the world fight for hegemony. Or even¡­ They might vie for the throne of the king of races once again. Just as he was letting his imagination run wild, he suddenly heard a sneer. ¡°Simply ridiculous!¡± the voice of the God of Light was heard from the sky. ¡°I was still thinking, what on earth is this bottom card of the elves? It¡¯s nothing more than such a ridiculous trick!¡± His voice was filled with contempt and disdain, like a strong lion looking at a small dog that was charging to it with bared teeth. ¡°You guys simply don¡¯t understand what it means by true power!¡± he said after sneering. ¡°Let me shatter all your beautiful illusions so that you all can clearly see what is reality!¡± With that, a huge palm struck heavily on the Main Plane. This palm was so large that it completely covered the entire sky of the Main Plane. It did not come quickly, but it had a kind of terrifying power that seemed to be able to crush everything. Just looking at it, many people would tremble with such fear that they could not even maintain stable footing. Those who were slightly timid would simply find themselves slumping to the ground. When this huge palm approached the Main Plane, a brilliant circle of white light, that was accompanied by countless thunderbolts, emerged. Then it was like a vast net spreading open to envelop the entire Main Plane. That was the gift that the Goddess of Life bestowed the world. It was a wonderful enchantment that could keep out all masters that were above the level of weak Divine Powers and guard this hub of a million worlds for as long as tens of thousands of years. Its power was peerless. Even great Divine Powers would be rendered vulnerable before it. Other than Sui Xiong, who was someone of inexplicable existence, no one else could possibly bypass the manipulation and defense of this enchantment. Chapter 951 Chapter 951: The Masters Should Continue with the Challenges After the God of Light destroyed the enchantment that the Goddess of Life left on the Main Plane with one strike of his palm, he did not stop there. That palm shrank slightly and still continued to head towards the ground. It was pointing in the direction of the Ancient Forest. Obviously, the God of Light was not planning to destroy the great enchantment on the Main Plane. He wanted to take the chance of being able to go with the flow and destroy the Ancient Forest. This would utterly shatter all the hopes the Elven Race had of showing their power and ruthlessness to the world. To earn the respect and fear of others, masters not only had to show their powerful strength. They also needed to show their determination in using this strength without hesitation. This was just like on Earth. If an atomic bomb had never been blown up twice in some of the aggressive countries, then it would never be able to able to produce the effect of maintaining world peace in the future. To put it bluntly, this was killing the chickens to warn the monkeys, which meant he was punishing the elves as a warning to the other races. All races and gods in the thousands of worlds were monkeys, while the Ancient Forest and the Elven Race residing in it were the chickens to be killed for the monkeys to see. Seeing that huge palm slowly descending, all living creatures in the Ancient Forest fell into a state of panic. They were all seized with panic. Some wanted to flee, some wanted to resist, some fell to their knees to say their prayers and some were scuttering about in a frenzied manner like headless houseflies. There were even some who simply closed their eyes and passed out right away. Amidst the chaos, only a green jellyfish was able to maintain a calm composure. Not only was it calm, but it was also a little¡­ confused and excited. When the enchantment of the Main Plane was destroyed, Sui Xiong suddenly had a wonderful feeling of relief. It was like he had now returned to his home full of warmth and could relieve himself of the thick winter clothes that he wore earlier on. And it was not only that. At that moment, he felt as though his will had been greatly magnified. In a few moments, he was even able to feel almost everything going on within the entire Main Plane. Though it was not very detailed, and vaguely there seemed to be some kind of hindrance that made it less clear than it would be his God Kingdom, it was still enough for him to monitor the entire Main Plane simultaneously. What was going on? Why was the enchantment of the Main Plane destroyed, and what kind of benefits could it bring him? Sui Xiong was filled with doubts. He even felt a little lost. The screams and cries coming from the Ancient Forest awakened him. And he realized that it was not the time for him to be in a daze. There was a major thing happening that very moment, right before his very eyes! The God of Light had not only destroyed the enchantment of the Main Plane, but he had set his mind on destroying the whole Ancient Forest as well. The Ancient Forest, of course, had its own means of defense. That enchantment that was newly-built was enough to withstand most medium-level Divine Powers. But in the face of the God of Light, who could destroy the enchantment of the Main Plane in a single strike of his palm, this defense was simply insignificant. When this palm landed a strike, other than a few living creatures who were either lucky enough or fast enough to be able to escape in time, the entire Ancient Forest would be completely destroyed. Perhaps not even an ant would be left. What was even worse was that the God of Conspiracy and the God of Potion had connected the vitality of all pure-blooded elves of the world to the World Tree in order to create this enchantment. Once this enchantment, as well as the World Tree, was destroyed, it was likely that the elves would die along with them. In other words, to the Elven Race, it was actually no difference whether they managed to escape or not. Regardless of where they fled to, they only had those few short moments left to live. In a moment¡¯s time, only the mixed-blooded half-elves would exist in this world. The pure-blooded elves would be nothing more than a thing of the past. Not a single one of them would be left. At this moment, another voice sounded. There was a mechanical feel to this voice, and it carried hints of disappointment. ¡°Wuther Rang, gods should never personally make moves to destroy an entire race.¡± It was the voice of the Master of Order who usually barely said or reacted to anything that was happening. Yet, he suddenly spoke up. Hearing his words, all the gods froze momentarily out of surprise. Then they thought hard, but no one could remember there being such a rule set out for them to adhere to. At that moment, the God of Water Elements¡¯ will suddenly reverberated within the Void Space, ¡°Yes. There was indeed such a rule from way back. But later on, because of the great enchantment of the Goddess of Life, this rule lost its significance. And so, the future generations no longer remember it.¡± Then, the God of Water Elements introduced the cause of this incident: A long, long time ago, during the era of the ancient gods, there was a god who went berserk and exterminated an entire race. At that time, he was immediately sanctioned by the Master of Order. For this reason, the Master of Order once had a small conflict with the God of Evil. And after the two gods had a discussion, they established a rule: If any god wanted to destroy a race, they were not allowed to do it personally. They had to complete the deed with the help of soldiers. Not long after this rule was made, the Goddess of Life created the Elven Race. Thereafter, the God of Earth Elements and Goddess Gaia created the Dwarf race, which was followed by the humans, the Orcs, the pygmies¡­ all kinds of races were created. Initially, these races were created as tools of war. However, after a period of time, the Goddess of Life established the great enchantment over the Main Plane. The power of this great enchantment was so strong that even the other ancient gods could not interfere in it. Because by then, every race had more or less reproduced and multiplied their numbers on the Main Plane, such a thing like ¡°genocide¡± no longer happened. Therefore, the rule gradually lost its significance. But at this moment, if the God of Light¡¯s palm were to strike, the entire Elven Race would be instantly wiped out. So the Master of Order had to speak up. He had to advise the God of Light not to make this move. The God of Water Elements communicated with the gods via divine thoughts, so even though he had said a lot, it took him no more than a moment. At this very moment, the huge palm of the God of Light was still suspended high in the air, neither falling nor withdrawing. Countless pairs of eyes were fixed on that huge palm that was hanging in mid-air, waiting to see what decision he would make. Naturally, Sui Xiong was among the crowd. But the thoughts he had were far more than what the others had. He was probably the only person in the world who knew about the origin of this enchantment. So he could not help speculating. That rule that had long lost its significance was at least useful until the time when the Goddess of Life established the great enchantment. As a god of the Elven Race under the command of the Goddess of Life, the God of Conspiracy (or perhaps he had been the Master God of the Elves at that time) and the God of Potion definitely knew about this rule. And this time, they specifically tied the vitality of the entire Elven Race to the World Tree to play a game of ¡°if we have to die, we will die together.¡± What exactly was their reason for doing so? By virtue of this rule, they wanted to dig a grave for the God of Light¡­ The moment the God of Light¡¯s palm fell and struck, it would destroy the enchantment, the World Tree, and naturally, this would mean the complete destruction of the entire Elven Race. At that time, the God of Light would have violated the rule of the Master of Order, who would definitely go looking for the God of Light to address this issue. On the other hand, if the God of Light were to give up just like that, he would lose face. From then on, even if he was also a greater Divine Order like the Master of Order, he would always have to bow his head before the Master of Order. With the temper of the God of Light, could he ever accept such an ending? Of course not! It was evidently clear what his choice would be. It was also clear how things would develop. Sui Xiong could not help but sigh inwardly. This was definitely designed by the God of Conspiracy! That fellow, even in his death, would absolutely ensure that his enemies would not be any better off than he was. Then, just as he feared it would happen, there was an outburst of conflict between the two greater Divine Powers. But before that happened, Sui Xiong felt that he needed to do something. The God of Conspiracy wanted to use the lives of all the elves as his weapon to stab at the God of Light. Sui Xiong admired his determination but did not approve of his approach. So Sui Xiong decided that he would find a way to save as much as he could. Whether it was the Ancient Forest, the various kinds of creatures living within the forest or the Elven Race, whose vitality was connected to the World Tree, none of them should be destroyed just like that! He took a deep breath. With this breath, the many clones that were found in all parts of the world disappeared successively. All their strength was gathered into the body that was floating in mid-air by the side of the Ancient Forest. Since the battle where he fought against the great army of evil gods led by the God of Fear, Sui Xiong rarely gathered all his strength as such to exert all the might he had. Strictly speaking, this was not all but rather, probably about 80 percent of his power. The remaining 20 percent was left in his God Kingdom. Unless there came the time where he really needed to put his life on the line, he would not touch that amount kept in his God Kingdom. With the strength gathered, the feeling that ¡°encompassed the Main Plane¡± became clearer. Sui Xiong completely cast all thoughts away and forced himself not to think about anything. He needed full concentration. What followed next required his undivided attention and focus! Just as he was trying to gather his strength and giving his best effort in concentrating his focus, the God of Light¡¯s icy-cold voice sounded from the sky above him. ¡°As a master, I fear no enemy!¡± With that, that huge palm began to move again, crashing down towards the Ancient Forest, ¡°Master of Order, you¡¯ll never understand,¡± along with the huge, falling palm, the voice of the God of Light sounded out, solid as steel. ¡°Masters should continuously face up to challenges!¡± Chapter 952 Chapter 952: I Disagree With Your Rules Faced with the Master of Order¡¯s warning, the God of Light still chose to confront him head-on after all. Given his character, this was a matter of course. It was no surprise to anyone at all. If the Master of Order had kept a low profile when he interceded, perhaps the God of Light would have thought twice and might have really put a halt to his attack. But the Master of Order had come to warn him in such a stern and severe manner, and so in this case, he was left with no other choice. Without fear, one could be strong! A true man should face everything upfront! This was definitely a mighty and domineering choice. It was filled with the fearless and undaunted spirit of a steel-willed man. But at that moment, Sui Xiong just wanted to rant at someone. ¡°Wuther Rang! Why must you pit yourself against the Master of Order? Just go straight up to him and kill him. Why do you want to waste your time smashing up the Ancient Forest? ¡°Don¡¯t you know that it is a very unethical act to go around smashing things? What if you accidentally hit the children? Even if you did not hit anyone, it won¡¯t be good to hit the flowers and verdure either! ¡°How can you not know anything about the Five Disciples, Four Graces and Three Loves? How can you not have any socialist concept of honor and disgrace at all? You should go home to be punished and practice copying the core values three hundred times!¡± In his heart, Sui Xiong was ridiculing the God of Light angrily. Then he leaped up, and his body changed shape in the air. He became a huge, green palm that went to meet with the huge palm of the God of Light that was crashing down towards the Ancient Forest. The huge palm that fell from the sky had bulky joints and defined angles, and it wore a thick, sturdy iron glove. One look at it, anyone would know that this was a courageous warrior who had braved through many battles. The huge palm that rose from the ground was soft and fat, and it did not seem to hold any bit of strength. It also did not wear any armor. It simply looked like a chubby palm of a little child. But regardless of whether it was that palm falling from the sky, or that palm that was rising from the ground, at this moment, they both exuded an imposing momentum that could make anyone shudder in fear. The gods who saw them would also feel the fear rising within them upon seeing these two palms. Even the greater Divine Powers who were not as strong, like the God of Law and the Goddess of Wealth, would tremble with fear. ¡°What the heck! It¡¯s still understandable for the God of Light to be so strong, but why is the Void Mask so powerful as well?¡± ¡°Could it be that he has also been promoted to a greater Divine Power?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t spout nonsense! Greater Divine Powers are not cabbages you find by the roadside! How can there be so many of them!¡± ¡°But¡­ back when he was promoted to a great Divine Power, it had also been achieved very silently.¡± ¡°Could it be¡­ that the world has changed?¡± The confused and dazed dialogue of the gods aside, the two palms had yet to collide. Sui Xiong could already feel extremely heavy pressure. The God of Light was truly a master worthy enough to become a greater Divine Power. This palm that was falling could really be said to be ¡°as heavy as the Yue Mountain.¡± No, using ¡°as heavy as the Yue Mountain¡± was far from an adequate description for it. With Sui Xiong¡¯s current strength, one blow from him could send a relatively large world flying away, and he would not even feel any tinge of pressure. However, this palm of the God of Light could actually exert such a heavy pressure on him, though it had yet to fall upon him. If this palm really fell and landed upon him, what would happen if they all fought tooth and nail with their utmost efforts? Could his body really hold up? Could his strength really be enough to hold off this blow? Sui Xiong was not confident at all. But, even if he did not have any confidence, he still had to ward off this blow. Or rather, at least he had to do whatever it took to minimize the damage that this blow would inflict upon the Ancient Forest. The struggle for hegemony among the gods should never implicate the civilians. The struggle for supremacy between the humans and elves should not bring down the entire Ancient Forest! Previously, Sui Xiong had not been able to judge the situation accurately enough to put a halt before the God of Conspiracy and the God of Potion completed the enchantment. That was because he lacked the experienced, or using a catchphrase of friends online, it was ¡°because he was young and made a mistake.¡± But now, he could judge the situation clearly and understood exactly what he had to do. For something so apparent, even a fool would know. The moment right before the two huge palms collided, Sui Xiong could not help laughing. Then, a loud bang sounded. Just as expected, the power that came from the palm of the God of Light was so heavy that it was simply beyond his wildest imagination. If this palm were to fall upon the Ancient Forest, not only would the entire forest and all the living creatures residing in it would die, even the earth beneath it would sink deep down upon being struck with one blow. It was highly possible that a huge Mediterranean Sea would emerge from its middle if the Main Plane were to be hit squarely and solidly by this palm¡­ Such a thought flashed through Sui Xiong¡¯s mind. What followed was an intense pain. His body shook and cracked upon being hit, and that huge, green palm was no longer able to maintain its former shape. It changed back to the form of a jellyfish, but then, this was also not its usual appearance. Instead, this jellyfish was covered with wounds and cracks, seeming as though it was about to be torn into several pieces. From those large wounds, golden-green blood was pouring out like rain in a thunderstorm, and it spilled upon the Ancient Forest as though it was torrential rain. Sui Xiong could not recall the last time he was so badly wounded¡ªeven during the time when he battled against the evil gods and was forced to self-destruct, he did not remember himself being so badly wounded. He felt as though every inch of his body, from inside to outside, was in pain. It even caused him to hallucinate that his entire body was a piece of porcelain that was covered with cracks. Just the slightest tap would cause it to shatter completely. But this was ultimately only an illusion. He was, in fact, not really injured to such a degree. After a few seconds, those terrible wounds on the huge jellyfish¡¯s body began to heal so quickly that it seemed it would not be long before they were fully healed. Of course, Sui Xiong was quick to realize this. His mood gradually restored peace and calm. Although the pain was still intense and he was still quite badly injured, a strange thought still found its way to his mind. ¡°The God of Light¡­ is not as strong as I imagined he would be! ¡°By right, a hit from a greater Divine Power should not be received that easily. It should at least blow me to pieces, or crash a few hundred meters deep into the ground¡­ given its current level, if I were to give it my all, perhaps I still stand a chance in challenging it? ¡°Could it be that I exaggerated the power of a greater Divine Power? That it is not as strong as I imagined it would be? ¡°Or¡­ actually, I¡¯m much stronger than what I thought?¡± The God of Light seemed to be a little surprised. He was silent for a moment, then he let out a cold hum that carried a hint of compliment. ¡°Although it was just me making a random shot, it was still impressive that you were actually able to block it,¡± he said. ¡°Given my status, it¡¯s inappropriate to strike repeatedly. Since you have blocked this hit for these fellows with long ears, today, I shall spare you your dignity. Let them enjoy this last moment of peace. It won¡¯t be long before the human gods will lead a great army to break through this shabby and crude enchantment, and utterly crush their shallow scheme into pieces!¡± With that, the huge palm was retracted. The sky, that had been covered by this huge palm, regained its brightness. It was still a blue sky with white clouds, and the weather was sunny. Sui Xiong had wanted to say some nice words, but at that moment, he was in so much pain that he could not utter a single word. Infinite power was gushing in from all directions of the Main Plane and was healing his wounds at a super speed that it seemed as though it would only take a minute or two before he fully recovered. But that was still something that would only happen after a minute or two. The God of Light withdrew his palm. After a moment of silence, he suddenly said, ¡°Master of Order, are you still around?¡± ¡°I am.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a little problem between us humans and the elves, but the meddlesome Void Mask has decided to be the good guy and took it into his own hands. I gave him face, so I will let this matter pass for now,¡± the God of Light said in a calm yet firm tone. ¡°So now, isn¡¯t it time to settle the problem between the two of us?¡± The Master of Order was silent for a moment, then he replied, ¡°You did not actually destroy the elven race, so I have no reason to make any move on you.¡± ¡°But I have a reason to find trouble for you!¡± the God of Light said amidst laughter. ¡°Why do you have the illusion that you are way above me. So long as you don¡¯t come finding trouble with me, should I be thankful and glad? ¡°Times have changed, old man. The world of today is no longer up to you to dictate!¡± The Master of Order replied, ¡°You mean to say that you are going to challenge me? That you are going to try and defeat me? And then, you are going to decide the order of this world?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± the God of Light said in a resolute and decisive manner. ¡°This world has been operating according to you for too long. It¡¯s time to change a set of rules!¡± ¡°Change to your rules? Nonsense!¡± The Master of Order fell silent for another moment, but it was not known whether he was hesitating or whether he was weighing the situation. But in the end, he used a mechanical and cold voice to reply, ¡°Then bring it on. Try to defeat me. I disagree with your rules.¡± The God of Light laughed aloud again. He said, ¡°You disagree with my rules? Haha! This is exactly what I wanted to say! Your set of rules has gone out of date. I! Am! Not! Accepting! Them! From this day on, this world shall run to my, Wuther Rang¡¯s, rules! ¡°Since you are not willing to accept this new rule, then you can just perish and be buried together with the old world!¡± There was an outburst of a violent torrential flood on the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World. The God of Light stepped across countless worlds and arrived directly before the mighty Master of Order. On his back, he carried a broad sword, and in his hands, he held a warhammer. There was a murderous look in his eyes and every step he took would continuously rupture the void space in the surroundings. As an evil god, the God of Light was not well-suited for any activities on the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World. He used to shield himself with his power to avoid being repulsed by the aura of the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World. But now, he was unleashing his own aura without inhibitions. On the other hand, not only was the repulsive force of the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World no longer effective against him, it was continuously shaking and cracking apart. From afar, those countless cracks were like countless pairs of crying eyes. ¡°Come out, old man. Your time is over!¡± the God of Light shouted as he pointed his Warhammer at the Wheel of Order. Beneath the cover of the helmet he wore, his eyes were flashing radiantly with cold light. ¡°Just comply. Hand over your responsibilities and retire. Let me become the master of this world!¡± A stream of white light that flew out of the Wheel of Order was the reply he got. It struck his warhammer with such precision and carried such an overwhelming strength that it forced the God of Light into retreating several steps back. The Master of Order, clad in his silver armor, slowly walked out of his own God Kingdom. Although he was completely unarmed, he exuded a natural vibe of incomparable power. ¡°Not a chance,¡± the Master of Order replied. ¡°I disagree with your rules!¡± The next moment, the God of Light had charged right in front of the Master of Order, brandished his warhammer and struck his opponent head-on. Chapter 953 Chapter 953: The Awakened Demon The confrontation between the God of Light and the Master of Order happened near the Wheel of Order, far from everyone else. Even the gods who had been able to prepare themselves because they had heard the conversation between these two masters were unable to rush over in time. Therefore, no one could personally witness the situation of the battle. But as the two masters continued to exchange blows, everyone else could feel nothing but their intermittently palpitating hearts. That was a confrontation between two masters who held the highest level of power in this vast world, nearest to the core of the source of the world. Their battle had shaken the source of the world, which in turn, had affected the entire world. Although this kind of effect was not significant, the shock that it brought the gods was unprecedented. At this moment, those gods who still had some doubts about the power of the God of Light were finally convinced. Honestly speaking, earlier on when the palm of the God of Light was eventually intercepted by Sui Xiong, who was also doing all that he could, there were indeed many gods who were skeptical of how powerful the God of Light actually was¡ªthis was a battle of a greater Divine Power against a great Divine Power where one finger was supposedly enough for the former to finish off the latter in mere seconds. But how could a blow from an entire palm of the God of Light fail to kill Sui Xiong? Not only that, the blow was received so steadily and did not even bombard into the ground? Although Sui Xiong was miserably wounded, the knowing eyes of many gods could see that his injuries did not involve his ¡°divinity,¡± something important that the gods possessed. It was nothing more than this physical body that sustained heavy injuries. For the gods, what was the big deal about their bodies having physical injuries? At most, they would have to change to new bodies. Though it was more troublesome that changing clothes, it was no trouble at all. Sui Xiong could only come to terms with such a price when he received the blow of the palm of the God of Light. This proved that he himself was very powerful, and it also made everyone doubt the capability of the God of Light. The others would question the fact of whether the God of Light had actually attained the level that a ¡°greater Divine Power¡± should reach. The scene where the enchantment of the Main Plane was shattered by the God of Light might have been amazing, but Sui Xiong was also not restricted by the enchantment. There were always exceptions, or perhaps the God of Light had simply found a weakness of the great enchantment¡­ But now that the battle between the God of Light and the Master of Order had commenced, all rumors and speculations were immediately dispelled. His power was completely apparent to all. As a god, the most basic requirement was always to have a mind that worked. Even if one was too slow in sensing the turmoil of the source of the world, he would at least have to understand what it meant to be able to fight against the Master of Order for such a long period. Back in the years when the God of Justice challenged the Master of God, he was immediately sent flying away in one hit. The entire process did not exceed a mere second. But now, the battle between the God of Light and the Master of Order had lasted a good few minutes. At least, this proved one point¡ªthe God of Light¡¯s power was indeed on the same level as that of the Master of Order. Perhaps he had yet to be as strong as the Master of Order, but at least, he existed on a completely different level as compared to the other challengers. At that time, many gods who did not have good relationships with the Human God System were secretly distressed. The more courageous ones began deliberating on where they should flee to, while the more cowardly ones immediately considered how they should surrender and beg for mercy and still look dignified when doing so. And at this point in time, Sui Xiong also finally finished his recovery. The intense pain he felt was completely gone. At this moment, he was no longer suffering. On the contrary, his body felt even lighter than before. After spurting out so much blood, he did not feel like he had been injured. Instead, he seemed to have ridden himself of a great burden. Gazing down at the forest that looked so strange upon being stained by that golden-green blood, he could not help recalling a line from a particular advertisement. Dispelling toxins, feeling light and easy¡­ No, no, no! This was too evil. It was not right; it was simply disgusting¡­ Sui Xiong was secretly muttering all these incoherent things in his mind. His tentacles were waving about, tearing and cracking the void space as he rushed straight towards the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World. The duel between the two greater Divine Powers, the Master of Order and the God of Light, should not be missed. It would be a great pity to miss it! He had barely taken a step out. Yet before he could even take a firm footing, he felt someone pulling him. That strength clearly came from his big brother, Yorgaardman. So he did not resist at all. He was then dragged across countless worlds and arrived somewhere that was not far from the Wheel of Order. Yorgaardman was one of the strongest among all the powerful gods. He had also challenged the Wheel of Order before, so he could be said to be familiar with his way around here. This was also why he was one of the earliest to arrive near the battlefield to watch the fight. He had also been dividing part of his attention to keep a watch over Sui Xiong¡¯s condition. Seeing that Sui Xiong had recovered, he also dragged Sui Xiong over to watch the battle. A greater Divine Power against another greater Divine Power. Such a battle was something any god who was in pursuit of greatness who definitely not miss! The duo stood a great distance away from the Wheel of Order and watched that battle from afar. There was something strange about the battlefield. The exchange of blows between the two greater Divine Powers was not the same as how the common gods fought, which was a reciprocal way of dealing blows. There was no sense of continuity at all. At times, several moves were sent out together, at times both sides would be motionless. It was like a video that was hastily put together in a messy way. Watching it would make people feel dizzy. The two watched the fight for a while, exchanged some opinions, then realized that neither could find anything unique about the battle. They could only look at each other and sigh. It was, not that easy to sneak a peek into the realm of the greater Divine Powers. Suddenly, Sui Xiong was struck by an idea. He tried to compare of the turbulence that the source of the world was subjected to with the confrontation between the two greater Divine Powers, and true enough, he really found some inkling that could dawn some light of the matter. Whenever the two greater Divine Powers were still without movement, the source of the world would either vibrate lightly or vigorously. But whenever they battled at monstrous speed, the source of the world would, on the contrary, be calm and quiet again. Did this mean that their movements during the ¡°battle¡± were in fact, just their way of constantly seeking each other¡¯s flaws? And the real confrontation only occurred when they were ¡°quietly still?¡± Was it just that the level of such sort of confrontation was simply too high, or its speed was much too fast that even Sui Xiong was blind to it? Sui Xiong whispered this conjecture of his to Yorgaardman, who went still for a moment. Then he carefully scrutinized the situation and slowly, he started to show a thoughtful expression. ¡°So¡­¡± he whispered, ¡°No wonder¡­ no wonder!¡± ¡°What on earth is this all about?¡± Sui Xiong asked out of curiosity. ¡°The reason why we can¡¯t see their battle clearly is not because of the difference in ours and their levels. But rather, it¡¯s because the world around us has been distorted by their power. What we see are scenes from different times, which are definitely not scenes of the situation happening at this very moment at all.¡± Yorgaardman paused for a moment to allow Sui Xiong some time to grasp what he said. Then he went on to say, ¡°The reason why the source of the world vibrates every time we see them at a standstill is that every time they exchange blows, their powers will fall on each other instead. Thus the world around us becomes less distorted. So the world around us tends to be at a standstill in such a situation¡ªwhich was none other than the stagnant image that we see. On the contrary, during the intervals of their battle, the world around us becomes more distorted. Those images of battling will then be transmitted out to where we are able to see.¡± ¡°So that goes to say that if we move closer, we can see what¡¯s happening in real-time?¡± Yorgaardman gave a bitter laugh, shook his head, then said, ¡°By moving closer, we might perhaps really see what¡¯s going on in real-time, but that is if we have the chance to make it back alive.¡± Sui Xiong was still, then he too laughed bitterly. Getting close to the battlefield of the two greater Divine Powers? Even if he was tired of living and wished to die, there was no need to seek such a way of dying where it was likely to be excruciatingly painful! Although, he did have a strange feeling that even if he were to get closer, he might not necessarily die. But no one could live just by gut feelings alone, and what if this was nothing more than an illusion? When on high grounds, many people would feel, ¡°So long as I jump, I will be able to fly,¡± when in fact, they would fall and become a heap of mess. Then the policemen would have to go through the trouble of clearing their dead bodies from the scene. At the same time, their horrible deaths might cause the witnesses to be harassed by nightmares, and their loved ones would be weeping out of sadness. All these things were for sure¡­ Oh, this might even attract the attention of several online public relations firms who would create all kinds of rumors, be it true or false, and spread them on social media platforms like WeChat and Sina Weibo! Perhaps in the blink of an eye, the identities of the dead, as well as the time and venue of the incident, would all be changed. Or maybe the whole world would have to keep up with them by moving all over the globe, from Paris, the city of the arts, to Hong Kong, the Pearl of the East, and then from the snow-capped Siberia to the sweltering Equatorial Guinea¡­ Just as thoughts were thronging in Sui Xiong¡¯s mind, right in the middle of the battlefield where no one could see clearly, the God of Light and the Master of Order had stopped the fight for the time being. Both greater Divine Powers had suffered some injuries. On the whole, the God of Light¡¯s situation was slightly worse while the Master of Order¡¯s situation was significantly better. ¡°Now, you¡¯re still not as powerful as me,¡± said the Master of Order. ¡°If you choose to challenge me again in 10 thousand years¡¯ time, maybe you¡¯ll still stand a chance of winning.¡± ¡°Ten thousand years? I can wait that long, but this trick that I¡¯m going to use, which is my forte, can¡¯t wait,¡± replied the God of Light as he sneered. ¡°I have to admit that now, you are indeed stronger. But victory and defeat have never been decided by virtue of one¡¯s own strength!¡± ¡°You mean to say that you still have some dangerous cards that you have yet to reveal?¡± ¡°Of course! In fact, I didn¡¯t want to challenge you so early in the first place. But after exchanging blows with the Void Mask a while ago, I realized that his power far exceeds my expectations. In that case, that trick of mine might be destroyed by the Void Mask way before I can even use it. If that is so, then I can only choose to challenge you ahead of time and quickly utilize that trick of mine.¡± ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to seeing that trick of yours. I hope it will not be a letdown.¡± ¡°Fret not! You will not be disappointed!¡± said the God of Light as he laughed heartily. He was holding another gray and dull-looking light ball in his hand, which he suddenly crushed into pieces. As that light ball shattered and cracked, an aura that was completely different from that of the Master of Order spread. Then even more blood and flesh floated amidst the void space messily. Though they had been sealed for so long, they still contained a powerful strength, especially that extreme and pure taste of Chaos. Even the Master of Order could not help but frown and take a step back subconsciously. He was not afraid of this power, but he abhorred this aura. That was naturally an instinctive reaction. ¡°Chaos?¡± he asked. His face, which had always been expressionless, showed a look of surprise. Then he was hit by a realization and turned his head to look in another direction beneath his feet. That was the direction of the abyss, the direction where the deepest region of the abyss was. It was the place where the most terrifying magic beasts in the entire history of the world slept. It was also the place where those demons and gods, whose ultimate goal was to destroy the world, lived. As he was looking in the direction of the abyss, he saw that it was boiling and bubbling. An aura of unimaginable vastness was rising from the abyss. It was rising from a certain place that no one had ever seen before. Within an instant, the aura had spread throughout the entire abyss. Then it continued to spread in all directions, furnishing everywhere with its overwhelming presence as it headed towards the Negative Plane of the Ring of the World. At the same time, a vague voice sounded. That voice sounded so incoherent that even the most knowledgeable scholar would not be able to differentiate what it meant to say. But based on their feelings, anyone who heard it would be able to understand what it meant. It meant¡ªChaos. In the whole wide world, amidst the Big Circulation of the Thousand Worlds, there was only one who could make such a sound. This was the creator of the abyss, the Master of Demons, a former greater Divine Power that had since fallen. It was the earliest, and also most powerful demon. It was the most terrifying crisis in the world. This was Chaos, and it had awakened. Chapter 954 Chapter 954: Perhaps This Battle was Destined to Happen The moment the God of Light took out that flesh and blood, the Master of Order knew what it was. Those were the spoils of the war where the master-disciple duo comprising of the God of Knights and the God of Revenge had won from the battle against the Dragon of Chaos. These two gods had joined forces to fight in this war that left the Dragon of Chaos badly battered up. Over the years, the God of Light had deepened his understanding of greater Divine Powers through studying these spoils of the war. He also figured out many matters that could be regarded as secrets. Therefore, he went to look for the Dragon of Chaos. After a long conversation, both sides finally came up with a unique trick. This was a trick that could most probably be only used once. But its might was powerful and reliable. So long as the God of Light used his Divine Power as a driving force and spread the aura of this blood over an extensive area, he would be able to awaken Chaos, who was in deep slumber in the deepest depths of the Abyss. The most important thing for Chaos, the demon, was to catch hold of the Dragon of Chaos and devour it. Chaos had to replenish itself with the ¡°chaos¡± that it had failed to perfect previously so that it could achieve a balance between the dragon¡¯s ¡°evil¡± and its ¡°chaos.¡± This was what the God of Evil originally intended to do. Even if he had already lost his sense of rationality, he would still firmly keep this in mind. And to make use of this trap to annihilate his enemy was the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ greatest dream. It was also the most important thing to do to protect and sustain this world. Chaos was the leader, and also the ancestor of demons. Its emergence marked the rise of this group of ¡°demons¡± in the world. This was a group of demons who paid no heed to anything else and were bent on destroying everything, even to the extent of destroying the entire world. When it was deep asleep, the demons would also be in a deep slumber. The moment it awoke, there was a high chance that all the demons would follow suit and awaken with it. Following in its footsteps, they would attempt to destroy the world. This was, of course, a great crisis for the whole world. But it was also a great opportunity. For this world, the existence of demons was a major scourge. It was in the interest of all living creatures of this world, and also, the interest of the entire world, to completely exterminate these demons. Not a single one should be spared. So if there was anyone who could accomplish this noble cause, he was bound to receive the praise and reward from the entire world¡ªin other words, it would be gaining the recognition and affirmation of the World¡¯s Origin. The original plan of the God of Light was that, when he was about to become a greater Divine Power, he would gather a large number of helpers, cast a net from which there was no possible escape and set up numerous traps. Then he would use this blood to draw in the demons, as well as Chaos, who was their leader. Then he would annihilate all of them and rely on this meritorious contribution; he would win the recognition of the World¡¯s Origin and step up into the realm of the greater Divine Powers. But plans were never faster than changes. Later on, he found an even more reliable path, and thus this plan was shelved. Compared to gathering some teammates to fight battles against the demons, it was easier and safer to defeat the many other races and unify the Main Plane. After all, there was only the need to destroy the Orc God System. Gods of the other races were unlikely to risk their lives and put up a struggle. With the power of the human gods, the odds of winning were at least 70 percent. And to fight the demons¡­ even if he were to consider the possibility of the Master of Order stepping forth to make a move, the odds were at most only 50-50. Among them, there were even possible causes for severe injury. Any careless moves would even bring death in battle to the God of Light himself. After all¡­ the strength of the demons originally had some power to restrain the ¡°honorable gods.¡± And their leader was a greater Divine Power. So this plan had been put aside for the time being. The God of Light originally intended to wait until another junior among the human gods, who had hopes in achieving a breakthrough to become a greater Divine Power, to appear. When that junior had grown and developed himself to the limit of a great Divine Power, the God of Light would reactive this plan. When that time arrived, with him holding the fort as a greater Divine Power, the hope of success would definitely be much higher. But plans could never keep up with changes. A strange god who was totally unafraid of being contaminated by the forces of chaos appeared in the world. This god was none other than Auscar, the Void Mask. The Void Mask¡¯s way of doing things clearly adhered to the chaotic good system. But the nature of his power was even more elusive than the evil gods. The nature of his power was odd, and his rate of growth was astonishingly fast. In a short period of more than a hundred years, he had come close to the peak of a great Divine Power. Especially that one palm earlier on, the God of Light absolutely had no intention of showing mercy. If he were to let that palm fall and hit, he was sure that even if Yorgaardman had come to help and combined forces with the Void Mask fight him, the two of them would still be seriously injured. And within the next 300 to 500 years, they could forget about a full recovery¡ªbut the Void Mask actually caught his hit, and he had done so without sustaining any serious injury! This was a great shock for the God of Light. He decided to change his plan for the time being and directly challenge the Master of Order. And while he was challenging the Master of Order, he would summon Chaos and the Wheel of Order. The Master of Order was the ultimate embodiment of ¡°order.¡± When he faced Chaos, he would definitely put in his best efforts to eliminate it. This would give the God of Light the chance to defeat the Master of Order. Even if he could not defeat the Master of Order, the God of Light could still take this chance to destroy Chaos and all the kinds of demons to win the recognition of the World¡¯s Origin. In becoming a greater Divine Power, he had used the fate of the humans as the driving force for his breakthrough. This had inflicted damaging effects on the potential development of the humans. Originally, his plan was to rely on his supreme Divine Power to slowly make amends, but since he wanted to destroy all the different demons, it would not be a bad choice to take advantage of this chance to rely on the rewards of the World¡¯s Origin. Of course, all of this would only become a choice out of helplessness. Everything and anything that happened was all because the God of Light simply could not afford to wait. The Void Mask was growing too fast. If he continued to grow, perhaps it would not be long before he joined hands with a few other gods like the Dragon of Chaos and the God of Justice. Their combined forces would be enough to annihilate Chaos and accomplish the great cause of destroying the demons. Of course, the God of Light would not allow for something like this to happen¡ªhow could he simply give up on these interests that he had pre-determined to be his without putting up a fight! So, though he felt that it was a pity and a waste, and even though the odds of winning were not high, the God of Light still set in motion his back-up plan to incite battle between Chaos and the Master of Order. Then he would profit from the battle that they fought. All these happenings, their causes and effects, Sui Xiong might know or might not know. But at least, he certainly did not know that he was the exact reason that brought about the rapid change of events in the current situation. But, at this very moment, he was very clear about something else. Among all the gods, there was no other who could confront Chaos head-on. He was the only exception. By right, the greater Divine Powers like the Master of Order and the God of Light ought to step out to defend the Positive Plane. But they were in the midst of a confrontation against each other, so clearly, they were unable to free themselves. Other than the two of them, perhaps the strongest master left was the Dragon of Chaos. But getting him to fight Chaos? That would be like throwing food to a dog, and the dog would most probably swallow everything up and return a satisfied burp. In other words, this was a path of no return. So even though he felt that his current condition was not good enough, Sui Xiong was still left with no other choice. He sighed and shook his head, then he activated that coordinate that was left within the nest of the Dragon of Chaos to tear and crack open the void space. In the blink of an eye, he arrived at the nest of the Dragon of Chaos. The Dragon of Chaos, who was always calm and collected was as flustered as a headless housefly at that moment, pacing all around his nest. Seeing Sui Xiong appear, he immediately felt as though he had grown a backbone. In a most anxious, yet eager voice, he asked, ¡°You¡¯re finally here! What should we do?¡± ¡°Do you have a way to teleport your nest to somewhere near the Wheel of Order?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Yes, I do. But there is a war going on over there!¡± said the Dragon of Chaos. Instantly, all three faces registered bitter looks, as though they had been made to eat a few hundred jin of Coptis (Note: a kind of Chinese medicinal herb). ¡°Two greater Divine Powers are fighting each other, and you want me to go there? Just a single wave of the aftermath will be able to kill me!¡± ¡°My big brother, Yorgaardman, has done the math and came up with somewhere a relatively safe distance away. Let¡¯s make our way there!¡± The Dragon of Chaos was clearly so desperate that he was simply grasping about for salvation. He paid no concern to whether his physical attributes would be severely injured by the Wheel of Order. Without a second thought, he activated the teleportation ability of his dragon nest and followed the coordinates of the location that Sui Xiong had provided. But even before he could kickstart the teleportation, a silver-white chain suddenly appeared and locked down this side of space. The dragon nest that was originally about to make its escape via the means of teleportation but was brought to a stop again. And this time, it was firmly locked in place. There was no way it could go elsewhere. The voice of the Master of Order sounded, ¡°You can fight the battle from here. I¡¯ll first deal with that silly fellow, Wuther. But I¡¯ll be back as soon as I can to help.¡± The Dragon of Chaos instantly felt like crying. But no tears would fall. He knew that his longtime opponent had always been a man of his words. Since he said that he would finish off the God of Light before coming over to help, then he would certainly not come any earlier than that. This also meant that the Dragon of Chaos had to rely on these arrangements set up near his dragon nest, as well as the help of the Void Mask, to hold out till the Master of Order arrived. He was clear of what he was capable of. Given his ability, even if Chaos were to come alone, he would not be able to last for long. Not to mention that now, within the Abyss, there were bouts of raging aura rising one after the other, it was apparent that demons of all sorts had been awakened and they would soon stage a massive invasion. His dragon nest was at a place that happened to be very near the Abyss. It could almost become the frontline that would block and prevent the demons from any invasion. This was simply one disaster after another! For a moment, the Dragon of Chaos felt as though the whole world around him had darkened. If not for the Void Mask, who was a faint glimmer of light, he might even entertain such a thought like, ¡°I might as well end my life before Chaos arrives and save myself from having to suffer in vain.¡± The three dragon heads kept their gazes fixed on Sui Xiong, and those few pairs of eyes were all filled with hope. Sui Xiong was overwhelmed by all that staring; he shook his head and sighed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I will help you since I have given you my word,¡± he said with a strong voice. ¡°And¡­ Chaos has brought a horde of demons to destroy the world. As a member of this world, I can¡¯t just stand by without doing anything, right?¡± As one of the extreme few living creatures in the world who had ever met Chaos, Sui Xiong was very clear how terrifying that fellow was. If Chaos were truly allowed to wreak havoc as rampantly as he wished, perhaps it might not be long before the world was completely destroyed. Sui Xiong himself was not afraid of being eroded by Chaos. But if the world was destroyed, would there be any meaning in life if he was left as a lone survivor? Since that was the case, then he might as well make good use of the current situation to give Chaos a head-on attack! Three heads bobbed up and down at high speed, one after the other. Sui Xiong smiled and took in a deep breath. Then through the belief network, he sent out a message to his followers. ¡°Pray! All my followers!¡± he shouted at the top of his voice. ¡°No matter which race you are from, no matter what background you have, no matter what you are doing this very moment¡­ just pray! Pray with all your heart! ¡°I am your god, Auscar, the Void Mask. At this very moment, I need the strength from all of you, even the slightest bit of it will be better than nothing! ¡°To fight against the demons who will bring disaster upon the whole world, to fight the most terrifying King of demons, lend me your strength!¡± The white light that enveloped the Sanctuary of the whole God Kingdom was gradually diminishing. Only the huge ¡°Mainframe¡± that was located in the middle of the God Kingdom remained brilliant and resplendent. Its power was driven to an unprecedented peak as it transformed the prayers of all followers from the Main Plane and the other worlds into a powerful force. Together with the force that had been stored for such a long time, everything was carried across an extremely far distance and transmitted to Sui Xiong, who was slowly flying out of the dragon nest and heading in the direction of the Abyss. The green jellyfish kept on growing bigger. Every tentacle was emitting a glow that was as scorching as the sun, lighting up the chaotic turbulence in the surrounding and illuminating the gloomy and dark void space that was a distance away. It even shone right into the midst of the Abyss, into that vast and bottomless darkness. In the deepest depths of the darkness, an amorphous subject was roaring. It was continuously climbing up the abyss and charging its way straight towards Sui Xiong. ¡°From the very first time we met, I always felt that there was something not quite right about you,¡± Sui Xiong said with the corners of his mouth slightly curved upwards. He faced the subject named Chaos, that was on all fours and roaring as it charged towards him. ¡°At that time, I already felt that we were bound to meet again. And perhaps, the next time we met, it would be the time where we would have to fight a battle. ¡°Perhaps this is what we call fate. Let me see just how much power remains in a fallen god who was once a greater Divine Power! Chapter 955 Chapter 955: The Expedition of the Great Divine Powers All this time, the Abyss had always been forbidden grounds for the gods. Most of the gods did not even dare to steal a peek into the Abyss. They feared that if they saw too much of it, they would be polluted by the chaotic aura of the Abyss. But today, that aura of the Abyss was surging madly. It was like waves surging towards the Matter Plane of the Ring of the World. But there was one god standing in the front to block it, who was even turning the tables and launching a counterattack at the Abyss. At the moment, Sui Xiong had become an extremely huge beast. Every tentacle that was spread out was big enough to envelop a relatively small world within. His body was glowing with a resplendent and brilliant light, as though he alone was able to withstand the torrents of chaotic evil coming from the Abyss. At the moment, it was a scene of chaos inside the Pantheon temple. With more than one god screaming and crying aloud, the place was in a mess. In the midst of this commotion, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, stood out. ¡°In a fight against the demons, anyone below the level of a great Divine Power will simply be courting death. So all great Divine Powers who are willing to fight to protect the world, step forth! My brother, Auscar, has already charged all the way to the frontline. I¡¯ll be there in a while. Who is willing to fight with us, follow me!¡± With that, there was a flash of light and his figure disappeared. Without even leaving any power to sustain this clone for communicative purposes, he drew all the power he could and gathered everything into the huge, real body of a god. Then he flew off in the direction of the Abyss. Following closely behind him, the God of War, Wenner, stepped forth as well. He laughed and said, ¡°As the God of War, it would be a pity to miss a great battle with the demons!¡± With another flash of light, his real body made a move and headed straight for the Abyss. Following next, husband and wife, who were known as the famous great Divine Power couple, the God of Sky and Goddess Gaia, also took off. Driving a little boat formed by coalesced thunderbolts, they tore through the length of the sky and headed straight for the Abyss. Then the other great Divine Powers took off as well. All of them were armed to the teeth and clad in armor as they rushed towards the Abyss. In the God Kingdom of the Human Gods, the God of Protection got to his feet and said to the God of Light, ¡°Your Majesty, this is a battle to protect the world, I can¡¯t be absent.¡± The God of Light nodded. Then he looked towards the God of Heroes, who was anxiously looking all around him like a cat on hot bricks, and calmly, he said, ¡°You should go too. I can see that you are having a hard time trying to withhold yourself.¡± The God of Heroes was overjoyed and laughed as he received his orders. Then he set off alongside the God of Protection. After they had gone far, the God of Diplomacy, who was filled with doubts, asked, ¡°Your Majesty, why did you ask them to go over? This is not what we planned¡­¡± ¡°The plan also has to change according to the actual situation,¡± the God of Light replied. ¡°The Master of Order is truly a worthy master who has ruled this world for so many years. He ruined my plan just by locking the nest of the Dragon of Chaos in place. If my guess is right, after Chaos steps into the Matter Plane, the Master of Order will fully release all that aura of the Dragon of Chaos to get Chaos to move in that direction. To attract Chaos, he may even tear apart the Dragon of Chaos to produce an aura that is much more powerful than this mere blood.¡± ¡°No¡­ it can¡¯t be to such an extent! Haven¡¯t they been old friends for many years? Wasn¡¯t he the one who protected the Dragon of Chaos previously?¡± the God of Diplomacy asked in surprise. ¡°Who knows? Guessing the thoughts of others is a very boring thing to do. The human mind is the most difficult thing to fathom. The choice that the Master of Order made, though cold, is the most effective one. I have to admire him for that!¡± the God of Light said with a sneer. He might be speaking of ¡°admiration,¡± but contempt was written all over his face. ¡°What a pity this made him reveal his fear!¡± ¡°He would rather sacrifice the Dragon of Chaos to decipher and defeat my means. This shows that he did not have the confidence to win that battle of chaos that we have planned. In other words, the magnitude of his power¡ª¡± ¡°¡ªis nothing more than this!¡± exclaimed the God of Light. In this world, where time had been distorted, the God of Light let out a cold laugh of mockery. He wielded his warhammer and viciously smashed the Master of Order by swinging his warhammer down. ¡°That powerful and invincible mask of yours, I¡¯ll rid you of it today!¡± Thunder surged. The space shattered and cracked. The ¡°order¡± around the Wheel of Order collapsed with a loud crash. The distorted time and space instantly returned to normal. All that could be seen was the hammer that had broken through all obstacles, heavily crashing right before the Master of Order, as well as the fist that the Master of Order had raised to meet this hammer. The next moment, a huge patch of void space completely transformed into turbulence. Everything was thrown into utter chaos. In the midst of this chaos, the Master of Order staggered back several steps as he kept his eyes on the God of Light, who had retreated even more than he had. The God of Light had gone pale in the face, but he burst out laughing instead. ¡°You¡¯re indeed much stronger than I expected, both in strength and will,¡± the Master of Order said calmly. ¡°Perhaps it would be more appropriate for you to be in charge of the order of this world.¡± ¡°Then you should abdicate and step down. I think that I¡¯m a good fit too.¡± The Master of Order shook his head and said, ¡°No way, I disagree with your rules.¡± ¡°In that case, I shall fight you till you bow to me!¡± the God of Light gave a cry of rage and charged forward again. Within the Abyss, that amorphous subject had crept its way up a greater half of the Abyss. Many demons were roaring in a crazy manner, looking as though they were about to charge out any moment. The so-called demons referred to the terrible things that took form because of extreme rage, resentment and other emotions that were attuned to the roots of ¡°destruction.¡± Before death, some were powerful gods or demigods, and some were Legendary Masters. There were even some who were mere mortals. But no matter how weak powers they had before death, so long as they had transformed into demons, they would become such terrors that even the gods would fear them. There were two aspects of these demons that made them such terrors. The first was that they were things that existed on the basis of ¡°destruction.¡± They were already the embodiment of destruction, so there was no way they could be further destroyed. Thus, they could only be sealed. The second was that they could corrode anything that came in contact with them, guiding and steering everything in the world towards destruction. Even the gods would be greatly corroded upon prolonged contact with them. Then these gods would also be destroyed. These points deterred everyone from provoking these demons, who were existences that could not be killed. It was best to simply not establish any contact with them at all. Would there be any other enemy that could bring as much trouble as them? Fortunately, almost all the demons were deeply asleep in the deepest region of the Abyss. And they hardly ever woke up. Otherwise, they would have long turned the world upside down. ¡°This world, I¡¯m afraid, is going to be faced with imminent catastrophe soon!¡± the God of Sky suddenly said as he galloped towards the Abyss. ¡°Chaos has awakened, and the demons are coming to attack. No matter what, it just feels like the world is about to come to an end.¡± ¡°The world is going to be destroyed because of them?¡± Goddess Gaia asked. ¡°You¡¯re asking me? I can¡¯t answer you!¡± said the God of Sky with a gentle sigh. Then he said, ¡°I¡¯m only sure of one thing: If we lose this time, the world is really going to be destroyed.¡± ¡°Then we absolutely can¡¯t lose.¡± ¡°Easier said than done!¡± The Master God of the Natural God System, the God of Sky, might be an ancient-looking elderly with great majesty to outsiders, but before his wife, he was completely void of his sense of dignity. This couple met each other since the ancient times. They were married even before they were both sealed as gods. For countless years, they helped each other in difficult times, relied on each other as they lived and walked hand-in-hand to the present day. They were the most ideal couple that was the envy of the other gods. When they combined forces, they could unleash a combat power that was far more forceful than two great Divine Powers put together. Before he became a greater Divine Power, even the God of Light was unwilling to provoke them. All this time, they had felt that, so long as they did not carelessly court death, by virtue of their combined forces as husband and wife, they could safely pull through any form of danger. But today, they no longer had that confidence. ¡°How many demons have been born since ancient times? Do you have any recollections?¡± on the other side, the God of Heroes, who was also galloping, asked the God of Protection. ¡°I remember that you have counted.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. A total of 24.¡± ¡°Twenty-four, that¡¯s quite a handful.¡± ¡°There are more than 24 great Divine Powers in the world today.¡± ¡°But the others may not necessarily work as hard as we do!¡± ¡°I will do my best,¡± said the God of Protection, whose voice came from beneath his visor, thus explaining the metallic echo. ¡°It¡¯s either victory or death. Today is the day where I put the Way of Protection to practice.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t make things sound so unlucky. I don¡¯t think the situation is that bad.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just making clear my attitude about it.¡± ¡°This attitude of yours is simply too pessimistic!¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you just as pessimistic as I was just now?¡± ¡°I was pessimistic about the possibility of not being able to win this battle. But the thought of dying in the battle over there has never crossed my mind,¡± the God of Heroes, who was so handsome that he easily passed as an idol, spoke. ¡°If I can¡¯t win the fight, I just have to retreat. This world is full of people in need of the help of heroes. I have to keep myself intact so that I can help more people.¡± He paused for a moment, then advised, ¡°You should do likewise. There are many things that need to be guarded and are worth guarding. You should not think of dying so casually!¡± ¡°I¡¯m different from you. For me, this is something major. I absolutely can¡¯t retreat from it,¡± said the God of Protection. He was silent for a moment, then he said, ¡°Of course, if it¡¯s not impossible, I will choose to abdicate voluntarily and let the Holy Spirits take over. This is also how I will avoid putting myself in danger.¡± The God of Heroes was silent for a long time. Then he sighed deeply and advised no further. Between the gods, there was no need to argue most of the time. Everyone merely acted according to their own ideas. Even if one god was able to silence another god by means of verbal argument, there was nothing the former could do nothing to change the mind of the latter. In the end, he could only mutter in a low voice, ¡°I hope the other great Divine Powers will put in more effort, and not simply turn up without doing anything¡­¡± ¡°I will purposely save some strength,¡± said the ¡°Holy Hammer,¡± a great Divine Power of the Dwarf God System, to the Master God of the pygmies. ¡°We ought to get the human gods to take the lead and be right at the frontline in this battle.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right! They were the ones who stirred up all this trouble!¡± the Master God of the pygmies nodded and said, ¡°They were the ones who started the war previously, and they were also the ones who caused trouble after the war. The great enchantment of the Main Plane has thus been destroyed, and we don¡¯t even know how much more trouble awaits us! Because of this, the God of Light even went to challenge the Master of Order¡ªall these years, His Majesty, the Master of Order, has managed this world so well, what else is there for the God of Light to harbor such dissatisfaction for! And when he could not win against the Master of Order, he even summoned Chaos¡­ I¡¯ve never seen such a brazen man!¡± The Master God of the pygmies clearly held a deep resentment for the God of Light and could not help growling. The Holy Hammer, whom the dwarf gods respectfully addressed him as the ¡°Grand Elder,¡± stroked his long beard as he laughed bitterly and sighed inwardly. His view was similar to that of the Master God of the pygmies. And it was believed that more than half of the gods also had the same thoughts. But they could complain all they want, it would make no difference to the matter. The God of Light had become a greater Divine Power, and the foundation of long-lasting prosperity and strength of the humans had been laid. Dwarves or pygmies, they could only bow their heads in modesty as they pinned their hopes in the future. And¡­ in the future¡­ would there really be hope? Cybele, who created the Dwarf Race, came to mind. He recalled the piece of information that Goddess Gaia had secretly sent to him. Perhaps, there was still hope¡­ The premise was to win the battle at hand. If the world was destroyed, then there would not be any ¡°future,¡± let alone ¡°hope!¡± At this moment, great Divine Powers from all places were heading to the battlefield of the Abyss. Though they all had their different standpoints, all of them unanimously shared a common thought. They had to win this battle. They had to defeat the demons and Chaos. It was for themselves, for their followers and people, and for this world. They had to win the ¡°future!¡± Chapter 956 Chapter 956: A War of Annihilation of Demons Beyond Common Sense (Part 1) On the Negative Plane of the Great Circulation, at the judicial court of the dead in hell. All the judges and patrols had dropped all their work and assembled at the edge bordering hell and the Abyss. They had organized themselves into troops that looked so neat and orderly that they seemed to be works illustrated with the use of drawing tools. They were silent and motionless as they gazed at the roiling and boiling Abyss. Numerous devils inside it were roaring. Countless words were collapsing. With that huge amorphous subject consistently climbing up, the entire Abyss was gradually melding into one. In the midst of this process, countless devils died. Their bodies melted away and became a part of this newborn Abyss. There were also a few lucky survivors who absorbed a huge amount of energy and evolved into more powerful and frightening forms. They were still a little dazed at the moment, but it would not be long before they regained consciousness. By that time, under the lead of the demons, they would launch crazy attacks in every place they could reach. Then they would attack, damage and destroy everything. And hell, which had prevented them from invading the Main Plane for such a long time, would be the thorn in their flesh. It would certainly encounter an extremely ferocious attack. So all combat forces of hell had assembled to prepare for this great battle. Every blade was polished till it was bright, shiny and reflected the murderous intention on the faces of the soldiers. Every spear pointed forward with its tip flashing cold, dense light. The powerful spellcasters closed their eyes and wasted no time in preparing to cast their spells. The high and lofty Hell Kings had taken off their usual attires and changed into their military uniforms. Armed with weapons, they stood amongst the army of soldiers as well. There was no need for mobilization, and also no need for impassioned slogans. For these courageous soldiers who bravely fought in the shadows to ensure that good and evil of this world would have their own rewards, everything that was happening was simply a matter of course. Guarding and defending Earth, as well as punishing evil, gave meaning to their lives. Perhaps after this battle, they would all fall, and hell would become history. Perhaps today would mark the end of all the hard work and struggle they put up for such a long time. But right at this very moment, their lives would be completely radiating with resplendent brilliance, like the meteor shower that tore through the night sky, leaving a most magnificent brilliance. Earl Palin was among the army of hell. Watching the roiling and boiling Abyss, his heart was cold with murderous intent and blazing with the spirit of war. He knew that he might die in this battle, but he was not afraid. Everyone would ultimately have to die. Besides, he had already lived through an extra cycle as compared to the rest, what else was there to be afraid of? Dying on such a battlefield was not that bad an ending after all. At that moment, from the middle of the boiling Abyss, he saw a ball of blazing, black flames rising up. It was quickly spreading upwards towards the opening of the Abyss. The aura of that flame was crazy and fiery. It was filled with a fervent sentiment of extreme hostility. And this was none other than the famous demon who was known as the ¡°Belligerent Pigg.¡± The Belligerent Pigg was the former God of War. He constantly created clones of himself and madly participated in every war that could be observed. Finally, he fell into a state of madness. Attracted by the Origin of Destruction, he became a demon. This demon was considered to be a relatively enthusiastic one among all the demons. Although it had also fallen into a deep sleep like the rest of the demons, it still continued to develop its base of followers and went on advocating war. It even had a clear doctrine¡ªeverything in the world would eventually perish, and war was the best way to guide them to this end. Because it was eager in responding to sacrifices, at least a good half of the demons¡¯ followers on the Main Plane were its followers. Now that Chaos had awakened, the demons were collectively waking up as well. It was time for them to go on a rampage to wreak havoc, and of course, Chaos would be at the front. And beyond the Abyss, a huge jellyfish that was shining with a brilliant light was flying towards the Abyss while going against the chaotic, evil aura that was spewing out in a violent manner. From the momentum of its movement, the jellyfish seemed to be intending to use its body to plug the Abyss and keep all the demons locked within the Abyss. Earl Palin knew this jellyfish. It was another god that he had believed in, His Majesty, the Void Mask. His Majesty, the Void Mask, was completely different from the usual gods. He was a powerful god who showed much indifference. He had no desire for belief and status, but he was eager to do good and obtain benefits for the toiling masses¡ªhe was not like a god. Instead, he was more like a saint. From Earl Palin¡¯s point of view, he seemed more like an unrestrained and unfettered embodiment of goodness. When the gods were battling for supreme hegemony, he scrupulously remained neutral, even though his power clearly gave him a decisive position. He only focused on helping the refugees who had been displaced out of their countries because they had given up on the intention of war. He firmly prevented the damaging effects of war from expanding and prevented the massacring of civilians by armies, a situation that was commonly seen in previous wars. And then the new overlord emerged, that was, the God of Light stepped up the ladder of ranks to become a greater Divine Power. When the God of Light destroyed the great enchantment of the Main Plane with his immeasurable great power, it was also the Void Mask who stepped forth to protect all the living creatures in the Ancient Forest by blocking the attack of a greater Divine Power, the God of Light. Now, it was still he who charged up to the forefront when the world¡¯s scariest evil awoke with the plan to attack. And he did it all to shelter the people of this world from all harm. ¡°The other clone of mine may not be strong, but it has great foresight!¡± Earl Palin sighed to himself and could not help smiling. He felt extremely honored to be able to fight alongside such a prestigious god. Under the watchful eyes of the Hell Gods, Sui Xiong and the demon, who looked just like a black fireball, collided heavily into each other. There was no explosion or whatsoever. All Sui Xiong did was to suddenly spread out his body. Then that huge body of his became something like a large cloth used to wrap clothing and enveloped the demon, whose appearance resembled a fireball. Then, his body suddenly shrank, twisted and was wrung into the shape of a fried dough twist. Though the void space was equipped with sound insulation, almost all the witnesses felt that they heard the sounds of a demon being crushed and the ferocious roars of a demon at its dying moment. That roar was comprised of three percent despair, three percent anger, three percent reluctance and the remaining 91 percent was complete confusion. Perhaps it could even be assigned a line that went, ¡°What is going on? Where am I? Why is this happening¡­?¡± But it did not matter how confused it felt. Because it was about to die very soon, and it was going to be a very thorough death. The God of War, who had been galloping, suddenly froze in his tracks. His eyes widened in surprise as he cried out loud, ¡°Pigg is dead?!¡± His figure appeared in the Pantheon temple, and he shouted, ¡°Pigg is dead! He was killed by Auscar!¡± There was an uproar among the gods. The most terrifying thing about demons was their immortality¡ªbecause they themselves were the embodiment of ¡°destruction,¡± so there was no way they could be destroyed. Without this unique characteristic, many gods would have been brave enough to challenge the demons. Since ancient times, no demon had ever been destroyed. At most, they were sealed. Yet surprisingly, a demon was destroyed today. And this demon was the ¡°Belligerent Pigg,¡± who was considered to be one of the extremely powerful demons amongst the horde. This fellow stirred up trouble on more than one occasion. And more than once, he had been under the siege of the gods. The direst situation he had gotten himself into, was the time where four great Divine Powers had combined forces and battered him so badly that he was frightened out of his wits. But even so, they were unable to kill him. At that time, the four great Divine Powers had completely crushed Pigg¡¯s body and burnt him into nothing but dust and ashes. By right, he should be dead for sure. But in less than a period of a few hundred years, that fellow was resurrected in the Abyss, and once again, he was out to stir up trouble. And it was after that time, the gods finally affirmed the immortality of the demons. They banished all intentions of destroying these demons and changed the course of action to sealing them instead. However, as the embodiment of ¡°destruction,¡± the demons were perpetually spreading an aura that led all living creatures to destruction. Regardless of how strong the seals were, there was no way they could sustain for long as they were being subjected to the erosion of this aura. These seals would be slowly damaged after all. With everyone racking their brains, the only solution they could come up with was to engage the help of a greater Divine Power. But the greater Divine Power they approached, refused to help. So the gods were greatly frustrated over what they should do with the demons. They were at their wits¡¯ end. But today, there was a twist of events. The Void Mask, Auscar, had actually destroyed a demon! For a moment, all gods¡¯ attention was captured. Compared to the battle of greater Divine Powers, which no one could really understand, it was much more practical to study how the Void Mask destroyed a demon. So with the exception of a few gods who were still reluctant to give up on the greater Divine Powers, thus leaving their clones near the Wheel of Order to watch the battle, the rest of the gods were all investing almost all their energy into studying the battle on how Sui Xiong fought against the demons. They missed that particular scene where Sui Xiong destroyed Pigg. But they definitely should not miss any of the following scenes. Sure enough, things happened just as how the gods had speculated. It was not long after where another demon died in Sui Xiong¡¯s hands. That was a demon that was silver-gray all over, looking just like rusting metal. Its name was ¡°Aging Tajik.¡± It was originally from the Mechanical Realm and was a powerful demigod. It had fought against another powerful demigod, ¡°Sharp Roar,¡± in the Mechanical Realm, where they vied for the position of king of the Mechanical Realm. It lost the battle and was seriously injured. At that time, it did not fall into depravity just because it had suffered defeat. Later on, when ¡°Sharp Roar¡± expressed its disinterest in becoming a god of the Mechanical Realm but refused to give up that position, and even drove out Aging Tajik after leaving it heavily injured, Tajik gave in to depravity and became a demon. After Tajik became a demon, he once went back to the Mechanical Realm to stir up trouble. He fought a vicious battle against the two evil gods, ¡°Sharp Roar¡± and the ¡°Ancient Steel-Melting Dragon,¡± while he was there. That great battle caused the entire Mechanical Realm to meet with a major natural disaster. Up till the present day, the Mechanical Realm had never been able to restore its former state of prosperity. And Tajik was also heavily wounded in that battle. Together with the God of Wind (who had since fallen) who had subsequently rushed over, they kept the two evil gods secured under a seal and threw them into the Abyss. Sui Xiong, being a person full of curiosity, had also gathered intelligence about the 24 demons. Thus, he had quite a good understanding of ¡°Aging Tajik.¡± The most bizarre power of this demon was that just by establishing contact with the ¡°time¡± it stole from its enemies, it could make them become so unbearably old that they might even simply die of old age. The great power of time was indisputable. Even an undying god would be reduced into a weakened state if a large amount of time was stolen from it. The God of Wind, who had been close to becoming a great Divine Power was hit by a heavy blow in that battle. To avoid an utter annihilation, he chose to put himself through the self-splitting process, thus becoming the few different Gods of Wind of the present day. Sui Xiong was recollecting the information about Tajik in his mind, but his leg never stopped moving. He headed straight at Tajik. Spreading out his tentacles, he paid no heed to the many areas on his body that were cut by those sharp pricks and trenchant edges on Tajik¡¯s body. He also did not care about the areas that were beginning to wither and grow old because they had come into contact with Tajik. He simply focused on entangling himself firmly to Tajik. Then his body became a huge millstone that dragged Tajik in. Then the grinding sound of metal was heard. It sounded so piercing, like how acidic vinegar was to the teeth. And Tajik was ground into shattered pieces of metal. Of course, all these shattered pieces were swallowed up by Sui Xiong. Not a speck of dust was left. When the final fragments also disappeared in Sui Xiong¡¯s mouth, the four Gods of Wind from the North, South, East and West, appeared at the same time. They all wore delighted expressions on their faces. Then involuntarily, they went close to each other. And then, with the presence of a green light, they merged and became a beauty with long, emerald hair and long legs, and who was filled with vitality. Once the third-highest official of the Natural God System, the God of Wind, who was close to becoming a great Divine Power, was resurrected. Chapter 957 Chapter 957: A War of Annihilation of Demons Beyond Common Sense (Part 2£© Back in the year that the God of Wind fell, it was because he did not fully recover from the serious injury in the battle against ¡°Aging Tajik,¡± and had fallen into a predicament of constant aging. In order to avoid a fall due to aging, he divided himself into four and became four Gods of Wind, one in each of the four directions of North, South, East and West. Yet even so, the core of ¡°wind¡± was still constantly aging and collapsing. It became food for the demon to grow and strengthen itself. Time passed by day after day. The demon went on becoming stronger while the four Gods of Wind was still unable to show any further improvement because the core part was damaged. The plan to get the God of Wind to ¡°first self-split to avoid the attack, and when the four Gods of Wind became stronger, they would merge again to directly step up to the level of a great Divine Power,¡± became nothing more than a stillborn baby. There was no way it could be executed. But now, Tajik was destroyed by Sui Xiong. The power that had been eroding the core of the ¡°wind¡± disappeared. The former God of Wind got ready his means and immediately launched the plan to re-merge the four Gods of Wind of the North, South, East and West, so that he could recover his complete self as the ¡°God of Wind.¡± This God of Wind was the successor of the previous God of Wind back in those days. He was also a fusion of the four Gods of Wind from the four main directions. He had all the abilities and memories of the previous God of Wind, as well as those of the four Gods of Wind. Upon rebirth, he had returned to a level that was close to a great Divine Power. Not only that, he was continually getting stronger. Under the watchful eyes of the gods, he had broken through the limit of a mid-level Divine Power and stepped up to the level of a great Divine Power. The four Gods of Wind had accumulated much over the years, so of course, everything would not be in vain. Though most of Tajik¡¯s power was swallowed up by Sui Xiong, and the amount that could be returned to the God of Wind was only about 20 to 30 percent, the God of Wind was originally just a minute distance away from becoming a great Divine Power. With that amount of power returned to him, he immediately broke through the limit to become the new great Divine Power. At first, the gods were startled. But they were quick to see the light and understood what was going on. So those gods who once suffered losses in the battles they fought against the demons instantly felt high-spirited. They all looked hopefully at Sui Xiong, who was charging towards the Abyss. They looked forward to him destroying the demons that had wounded them so that they could recover from their wounds, and even hope for further progression. Sui Xiong did not disappoint them and successively killed four demons in one go. These four demons were all renowned figures like ¡°Belligerent Pigg¡± and ¡°Aging Tajik.¡± Considered to be active members of the horde of demons, they often ventured out to stir up trouble. In the past, they recklessly and rampantly brought grave disaster to the whole world. Yet there was no one who could do anything to stop them. But now, they finally ushered in their own hour of doom. One after the other, they were crushed and swallowed by Sui Xiong. Their immortality that once left all the other gods so helplessly at their wits¡¯ end was rendered completely ineffective. ¡°Auscar, how did you do that?¡± asked Javier, the God of Pleasure. He could not hold back his curiosity and borrowed the spiritual channel among the allies to ask. Sui Xiong smiled and made no reply. He could not possibly give an explanation like, ¡°Actually, I¡¯m a great devil skilled at swallowing souls. After I have swallowed these fellows, their souls will not be able to escape from my stomach because I have devoured them¡­¡± That would tarnish his image! In fact, Sui Xiong himself had not expected such an outcome. When he was up against ¡°Belligerent Pigg,¡± he only felt that the demons were extremely difficult to deal with as they were undying and indestructible. From all the means he knew, there was nothing that could really destroy them, so he intended to try using the power of his soul to launch an attack. After he defeated the demon, he realized that he could indeed ¡°eat¡± the soul of the other party. And not only that, he realized that after he had eaten away a part of the soul, the soul of the demon did not show the slightest sign of recovery. This was a little strange. Since ancient times, the demons had been undying and indestructible. The gods had exhausted all possible means, but they had not been able to truly exterminate the demons. Regardless of how they were beaten, how they were wrecked, they would always recover rapidly. Even if they had been completely destroyed, they would still be resurrected in the Abyss. Therefore, it was concluded that the demons could not be destroyed, they could only be sealed. By right, soul attacks were not actually considered a rare means. In the past, among the gods who had fought against the demons, the number who knew how to launch soul attacks was definitely not in the minority. There was quite a substantial number of gods who actually made use of such a means. But it did not have any additional effect and it was not any more effective when compared to other forms of attacks. So why did Sui Xiong¡¯s attack work so effectively? Sui Xiong did not understand. However, he could always figure out the reason behind it in the future. The most important thing to do at present was to fight the battle and claim victory. That was all. So he decisively executed a means that he had not used for a long time. Without inhibitions, he tore and devoured the souls of the demons. If he merely relied on the ordinary means of contact, his ¡°eating¡± speed would be much too slow. So he simply grabbed the demon, crushed it up and directly swallowed it¡ªin fact, this was all just so that he could devour Pigg¡¯s soul more efficiently. After eating Pigg¡¯s soul, Sui Xiong instantaneously felt a great boost in his spirits. He felt as though he had eaten a legendary Great Power of the Dragon and Tiger Pill. His entire being was filled with strength. His back was no longer tired, and he no longer felt weak in the knees. He could carry two buckets full of pure water up five floors without panting¡­ So subsequently, when he had to confront the other demons, he naturally chose this method. That was all. But such things should never be said out loud. If everyone knew that the Void Mask, Auscar, was a great devil who could swallow the souls of demons, who knew what kind of looks they would cast in Sui Xiong¡¯s direction! Sui Xiong might be someone who did not know much of the ways of the humane world, but he was no fool! So he merely smiled and pretended to be mysterious! In truth, it was simply because he could not think of a reasonable explanation. That was all. Since ancient times, the demons had been undying and indestructible. They could be defeated but never destroyed. No matter what kind of special performances Sui Xiong had put up in the past, it was still difficult to come up with a reasonable explanation for the matter on how he managed to destroy the demons. Naturally, Sui Xiong would know the answers. So other than putting up a mysterious front that showed that ¡°this is my secret,¡± he really could not think of any good answer. It was like those humorous stories on the Internet. The commoners would consult the Zen master for enlightenment on some teachings, but the Zen master would smile without replying. The commoner would persist and ask, ¡°Master, I really grasp no understanding of what you mean, can you enlighten me?¡± As a result, the Zen master flew into a rage and gave the commoner a good beating¡­ Smiling could be because he was sure of all the answers and thus pretended to be mysterious. And of course, it could also be because he was trying to cover up his embarrassment, thus pretending to be mysterious. Sui Xiong belonged to the latter. But all of this was hidden behind his smile. Javier might be a knowledgeable and well-informed God of Pleasure, but he knew very little about things like criminal investigation. Therefore, he was unable to spot any clues from Sui Xiong¡¯s expression. This was how Sui Xiong managed to fool Javier. Of course, even a criminal investigation expert would not be of much use. In this whole wide world, there probably would not be a single criminal investigation expert with the ability to study the expressions and psychological state of a jellyfish¡¯s face. Even the head of national intelligence of the Republic of Northwest, Easter, who was once an ace spy, would not be able to accomplish such a feat. So Sui Xiong simply covered up this matter with a mysterious smile. Javier even helped him to explain to the other gods, saying, ¡°This is one of Auscar¡¯s ultimate tricks that he has never told us about.¡± Right, an ultimate trick. This was an ultimate trick that he had kept a secret. This was simply a fabulous excuse! Sui Xiong was secretly amused by this thought as he quickened his pace and charged towards the ensuing demons that were approaching him in succession. Once again, his expression became serious. This battle where he was going to meet the demons and Chaos head-on, had just begun. Chapter 958 Chapter 958: A War of Annihilation of Demons Beyond Common Sense (Part 3) Sui Xiong was moving at a very high speed, and the speed at which he fought against the demons was also very fast. This was determined by the way he fought. He did not want to fight a slow battle against the demons at all. He simply gathered all his strength and burst out all his might in one breath. With his strong tentacles, he wrapped the demons firmly in his grasp and dragged them to him. Then he spread out his body and devoured them all. This was a very crude method and caused him many injuries that he could have avoided in the first place. But it proved to be very effective. The demons were powerful, but this was never because of their strength. Speaking purely in terms of brute force, there were not many among the demons who were truly herculean. And there was only one who could fight Sui Xiong, who was only such a big and unreasonable monster by virtue of its brute force. This was one of the veteran demons, and its name was ¡°Herculean Hagrid.¡± This demon was quite a tragic character. He was originally a valiant general from a certain world who led an army on an expedition to another world to colonize more land for its own race. When he just won a crucial war and was about to take the opportunity of his victory to expand the exploits of the war, he heard the news that there was a rise in rebellion back at home. So he brought a few elite warriors along with him and rushed back as quickly as he could. But he was still a step too late. The former king that valued him was already killed by the prince who staged the rebellion. Herculean Hagrid was detained with charges of rebellion because he had brought soldiers back to the capital without first obtaining permission. His entire family was killed while he himself was publicly executed via cruel means. He died in an extremely tragic way. After death, this valiant general could not find reconciliation to the fate he suffered and eventually became a powerful demigod in the underworld. But at that time, he had also been polluted by the atmosphere filled with resentment that was omnipresent in the underworld and became an evil monster. Later, a large number of his dead souls returned to their hometown and slaughtered the entire world. When he was about to attack and conquer the capital, he found out that the prince leading the soldiers to the very last moment of the battle was actually a descendent of his bloodline! It turned out that, back then, during the manhunt for all members of its family, an officer who sympathized with its plight had switched his son with his son. This secret was kept hidden for decades. It was only after that officer reached an old age before he found an opportunity to tell this story¡ªso the demon did not know the truth at all. His son had waged a war against the king in the name of revenge for his father. This son had combined forces with many aristocrats who wished to gain more power, and eventually, they won this war and established a new dynasty. In other words, the country that these avengers had returned to destroy was not one of its enemies, but a country that was established by his descendants. That revenge, in truth, had long been completed. Learning about everything was extremely despairing. Herculean Hagrid crazily cursed and swore about everything in the world as though it had gone mad, and eventually, it degenerated into a demon. He became one of the most powerful demons among all its own kind and it was crowned as the ¡°herculean¡± one. The intelligence of the 24 demons was not considered especially confidential. After all, the birth of every demon was a big deal in its own right. And after every demon was born, it would be followed by an outburst of war where gods would lay sieges on it and eventually drive it or throw it into the Abyss. This was why Sui Xiong could collect information that was quite detailed, including their appearances and abilities, as well as the backgrounds of the individual demons. Honestly speaking, most of these demons had pretty sad stories behind them. For example, that demon that Sui Xiong had just chomped and crunched away in one mouthful, who resembled a figure with countless clusters of crystals, the one who was ceaselessly moaning and screaming away, was actually a princess of a country. She was an extremely powerful mage who had lived years in isolation to focus on exploring the higher realms of magic spells. There was one particular time where she accomplished some progress in her research and came out of seclusion for a break, she found out that her motherland had been blazed to destruction by war and all her family and friends were dead. The princess was anguished and set her mind to invent a spell that could undo and salvage all this. She spent more than a thousand years studying about this, and finally, after becoming a Demigod Master, she invented a spell that could turn wishes into reality¡ªthe Ultimate Wish spell. However, the result of using the Ultimate Wish spell could only change all the historical records in the world and obtain a surficial written record of a ¡°change of history.¡± That was all it could do. The princess refused to give up. She used the Ultimate Wish spell over and over again but was simply unable to obtain the result she wanted. As a result, she ended up exhausting all her power and died of desperation. Subsequently, from the pile of skeletons, she was reborn as the demon that the gods named ¡°Isabelle of Regrets.¡± Of course, Sui Xiong knew her story. But this did not make him merciful when he came to face this demon. No matter how tragic their pasts were, after becoming demons, they were already existences that would bring disasters to the whole world. Sui Xiong was clear about the limits of what he was able to do. He had no means of saving them and free them of the shackles of such ill fates. But at least, he could relieve them from such endless pain and despair so that they could obtain eternal peace. He did not find this justifiable. But in this world, was there really any justice to speak of? The valiant general had felt great agony, but when he fought in countless battles, did not those people who died under his sword feel pain as well? The princess had felt that she was in pain, but for the civilians who were poor and distressed, who died of hunger and cold, did they not work hard all year round to contribute wealth to their country and provide resources for her studies? Not to mention that in the process of rampantly wreaking havoc and destruction, the worlds that these demons destroyed, as well as the living creatures they killed, did they all not suffer as well? ¡°So, don¡¯t complain about how much pain you are in. You all are not innocent at all!¡± Sui Xiong coldly muttered to himself. Waving his tentacles, he beat back the demon that possessed amazing power, whose entire body was like a rock that radiated a cold, greenish-gray light, but was now clearly nothing more than a skeleton. ¡°Herculean Hagrid complain no more. Let me put an end to your agony!¡± The huge jellyfish flew towards the huge skeleton that was so powerful that it definitely made a worthy opponent. This time, Sui Xiong had equipped himself well with knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of his opponent. When this demon that had such amazing brute force waved a huge club that was made of a world, Sui Xiong¡¯s body suddenly split into two to allow that huge club to skim through from the middle. The upper and lower halves of his body were like a pair of covers that closed in on Hagrid. Though a few minutes later, he was thrown off by Hagrid by means of its brute force, Sui Xiong was not the least daunted. Because he had already swallowed a number of this demon¡¯s souls. After a few rounds of such battling, the powerful demon was finally unable to gather enough strength to shake off Sui Xiong, who had been latching himself to it. Then like slime out on a hunt for prey, Sui Xiong finished off the final portion of the demon¡¯s soul by swallowing it. Its soul was much stronger than all the other demons¡¯ souls. It was so strong that after Sui Xiong had completely finished it off, his body was filled with an explosive force. And at this time, the other great Divine Powers had finally rushed their way over to the battlefield to take part in this war against the demons and Chaos, as well as to protect the world. Though by this time, there were only a few left from the 24 demons, Sui Xiong did not feel that they had come too late. Because he knew that these demons, though extremely strong and powerful, were practically lacking in rationality, and they behaved somewhat foolishly. The enemies that they were about to face, upon comparison, were the truly powerful and fearsome ones. And he also knew that, even though the great Divine Powers had already arrived as soon as they could, the help they could render was, in truth, not any kind of great help. The number of great Divine Powers was not small, but this was a figure that was once a greater Divine Power, a scary demon that could pollute and kill the God of Conspiracy with a mere touch. Those who could truly fight a battle with it would probably only be Sui Xiong and a few others. Chapter 959 Chapter 959: Chaos, Over and Above Common Sense (Part 1) With the help of the great Divine Powers, the final few demons were quickly defeated. But with the exception of one, the others were all sealed up by the great Divine Powers. The great Divine Powers did not know Sui Xiong¡¯s move, so there was no way they could completely exterminate the demons. Finally, only three out of the 24 demons managed to evade the fate of extermination. After they destroyed these demons, that amorphous creature had also climbed high enough to approach the mouth of the Abyss. It made a strange roar. But the mere sound of that roar was able to make more than one god tremble inwardly, forcing them to retreat pathetically. Unlike the somewhat confounded gods, Sui Xiong simply remained unmoved as he advanced towards it. ¡°I¡¯ll hold the fort on the Positive Plane,¡± he said. ¡°All of you must be more careful not to get hit by it¡ªthough it¡¯s actually still very dangerous not to get it, getting hit would make things even worse.¡± ¡°How bad is it going to be?¡± asked the God of Justice. ¡°Previously, the God of Conspiracy merely touched it once, which caused him to be eroded by its power. He had thus lost his life,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Of course, you are all great Divine Powers, much stronger than the God of Conspiracy, who was only a low-level Divine Power. But in the face of this God of Evil who has even devoured the Master of Chaos, I don¡¯t think any great Divine Power will have it better than a low-level Divine Power.¡± The gods were all in awe. Of course, they knew the difference between a great Divine Power and a low-level Divine Power. They were even clearer about the difference between a greater Divine Power and a great Divine Power. To engage in battle with a greater Divine Power was dangerous enough, not to mention the fact that Chaos was not only ¡°one¡± greater Divine Power. It was actually a combination that was the equivalent of two greater Divine Powers. In the face of such an enemy, there was no way one could ever be cautious enough! Also, no matter how much caution one practiced, it might not even be of any help. For a moment, more than one god showed intentions of retreating. They were not cowards, but they were certainly not fearless in the face of death. As leaders of great forces, even if there was the need for someone to take the risk to brave the untold dangers and charge into the enemies¡¯ lines, it should not be them. But looking at that figure in front of them, whose entire body was radiating brilliant white light, bravely charging towards Chaos, those gods who had just retreated a little could not help feeling a little ashamed of themselves. Secretly, they banished all thoughts of retreating. Just as how people had their sense of shame, the gods were no exception. At this moment, their battle was being closely watched by countless gods from the Thousand Worlds. If they were to retreat at this point in time, that would really be throwing away all their dignity! But, were they really going to fight against a greater Divine Power¡ªand a greater Divine Power with doubled power at that? Being able to make such a choice without feeling afraid was nonetheless, a little difficult. Just as the gods were all feeling very troubled, a voice was heard. Evidently, there were hints of timidity and weakness in this voice, but on the other hand, it was a voice that was strong enough to summon up courage. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid of being polluted by its touch! Whether it¡¯s Chaos or the Abyss, it¡¯s nothing more than the power of chaos that is being used to pollute the gods. I can help you all fight this pollution.¡± The gods looked back and saw the Dragon of Chaos approaching. At this moment, on the three faces of the Dragon of Chaos, one was wearing a woebegone look, one was filled with anger, and the third was calm. He did not rush up to them, he merely said aloud from a distance, ¡°Both this fellow and I each wield a part of the power of chaos. Though I am likely to be instantaneously killed by it if we were to really fight each other, it¡¯s still within my means to help you all fend off its pollution. ¡°So, rest assured. So long as you are only polluted by the power of chaos and not directly killed by it, just leave it to me!¡± Hearing these words, the gods were greatly relieved. All of them were good warriors who had braved countless battles. In the face of this strange power of chaos, everyone was somewhat uncertain and lacking in confidence. But it was simply confronting a powerful enemy, then that would not matter much, right? Even if they could not defeat the enemy, they could at least hide from it! With such a thought, the great Divine Powers retreated no more. They were quick to follow behind Sui Xiong, and together, they headed in the direction of the Abyss. At this point in time, Chaos was about to climb out of the Abyss. Beneath its feet, the whole Abyss had almost merged into a single entity. Almost all the demons were swallowed and absorbed by the Abyss in this process. They became a part of this newly formed Abyss. But there were also a few demons who were fortunate enough to survive, and they became even more powerful than before. These powerful demons roared wildly, and then they charged towards the embattled Army of hell. Though they were in a situation where their numbers were much fewer than usual, with such an overwhelming number of them that they could almost flood the place, at this moment, the demons who were charging at them were all top-rate masters. There was not a single one who could be considered cannon fodder. This time, the army of hell would be facing an enemy that was far more powerful and ferocious than any other they had confronted previously. However, in the face of such a strong enemy, the army of hell was still very orderly and was not the least bit shaken. There was not a single one from the entire army that showed any trace of fear. There was not even anyone who opened their mouth to speak. On their faces, there was only fearless courage, as well as murderous intent evident from their thirst for combat. Their courage was as sharp as a spear, and their murderous intent was as cold as the blade of a sword. A few moments later, both sides started a bloody and brutal battle. And before that, Sui Xiong had come to stand before Chaos. He brandished his tentacles and twisted at least a hundred of them together to form something that looked somewhat like a palm. Then Sui Xiong lashed that palm heavily towards a spot that might or might not be considered Chaos¡¯ face, something that even he himself was uncertain of. ¡°The fight over there has commenced,¡± said the Master of Order. He did not turn around to look but spoke as though he were right outside the Abyss and was watching everything with his own eyes. Then calmly, he said, ¡°Your plan seems to have failed.¡± Not far from him, the God of Light wearily shouldered his warhammer and gave a cold smile without saying anything. Though the two of them were greater Divine Powers, God of Light was indeed a tad inferior when compared to the Master of Order. For this battle between the two of them, no doubt the Master of Order sustained injuries, but the God of Light was even more injured. Of course, such injuries were nothing to greater Divine Powers like themselves. They could even heal such injuries within a matter of a few breaths¡¯ time. But through this battle, the God of Light had determined the difference between them. Now, he was definitely qualified enough to challenge the Master of Order. But he only had the qualification. Before the Master of Order, be it strength or skill, he was still far behind. If they were to continue fighting like this, it was possible that they could still go on for a long time. Even thousands of years would not be a problem. But no matter how long they fought, there was still no way he could win. The Master of Order would never reveal a single flaw and would never give him any chance to take advantage. There was only one word that could be used to describe the combat style of this greater Divine Power who had ruled the world for so many years. And it was ¡°precise.¡± He was like a group of skilled workers in good condition. Every movement was so thoroughly tempered and well-seasoned. There was no excess or encumbrance, nor were there any traces of deviation from the norm. Up till now, the God of Light had experimented with many ways, but there was not a single method that could affect the combat rhythm of the Master of Order. Not even for a fleeting moment. He even felt as though he were not fighting a human, but some kind of thing that was completely void of emotion, like something completely mechanical. In the face of something like that, there would not be any accidents to speak of. Being unable to win then would mean that there was no way he could ever win. But the God of Light had no plans of retreating at all. On the contrary, he was still full of fighting spirit. His means definitely did not reap the best results. But it was not all right to say that he had failed either. When he first drew up these plans earlier on, he had considered many possibilities. The development of the present situation was only of the possibilities. It was not even one of the more terrible possibilities. If that was the case, what was there to fear? He just had to use a corresponding plan, that was all. The God of Light¡¯s face bore some ferocity as he once again slung his warhammer over his shoulder and charged towards the Master of Order. ¡°Break time is over. Let¡¯s continue the battle!¡± Chapter 960 Chapter 960: Chaos, Over and Above Common Sense (Part 2) Sui Xiong wielded his palm and lashed out at that lump of sticky, gooey mud before him, causing it to retreat. Then without stopping, he hurriedly whipped behind him and drew another lump of sticky, gooey mud to one side. The battle with Chaos, on the whole, was very disgusting. This fellow not only looked like mud, but the way it behaved was no different from mud as well. It seemed to have long forgotten how to fight. It merely surged over slowly, wanting to envelop Sui Xiong with its body so that it could digest and absorb it. Just like Slime that belonged to the lowest ranks of demons. But it might be the world¡¯s most powerful and also, most dangerous Slime. At least Sui Xiong had never thought that there was actually a Slime that could take a full hit from him without showing any trace of shock. It merely took a few steps back. If this thing were to be put in a game, it would probably be that kind of hidden demon with infinite life. If there was no deliberate attempt to find it, after the final battle with the great demon of the game, there might be a chance the player would not have encountered this hidden demon at all. It was so ridiculously strong. So strong that it made no sense at all. Sui Xiong was secretly complaining in his heart, but there was not a single moment where he stopped moving. He constantly attacked in all directions as he continued to beat back all of Chaos¡¯ attacks. Even so, he was close to being surrounded. The other great Divine Powers did think of rendering support to Sui Xiong. But after charging up, all Chaos had to do was to hit them with a ball of mud and they would go dizzy from the erosion by the power of chaos. If it had not been for their comrades who dragged them back, coupled with the timely rescue by the Dragon of Chaos, they might simply have died within a few minutes. That was how vulnerable they were. After a few rounds of such rescuing, the great Divine Powers finally came to terms with reality¡ªthis battle was between the Void Mask and Chaos. They were, at best, some form of supplementary help by the side. Therefore, they were quick to change their battle tactics. They launched a fight that focused on retreating when hit. Then they constantly threw their most powerful hits at Chaos, viciously smashing it with their attacks. And from time to time, they would give Sui Xiong additional help. To a certain extent, this was still considered quite helpful. Unfortunately, even the most powerful Dragon of Chaos was completely restrained by Chaos. The dragon could only serve as a remedy whilst hiding far away, not even daring to get near. Since his comrades were not very reliable, then of course, Sui Xiong could only rely on himself. He continuously increased his strength and attacked in all directions. Over and over again, he retaliated Chaos¡¯ attacks. However, no matter how many times he fought back, Chaos¡¯s power still showed no visible signs of declining. This fellow seemed to lack complete knowledge of what it meant to be ¡°exhausted.¡± It only knew how to attack with all its might, making Sui Xiong wonder if it really had no intelligence at all, just like the Tibetan Mastiffs that dared to roar and challenge a tiger because they were plain foolish. However, the Tibetan Mastiffs were not that powerful. If they had been even a billion times as powerful as Chaos, more than half of Earth would have become dog sh*t. The body of Chaos was enshrouded by strange forces. Even attacks by the great Divine Powers found it very difficult to break through this thing that seemed to be a kind of shield. The moment an attack that was violent enough to destroy an entire world bombarded into Chaos¡¯ body, it would be greatly weakened. The remaining force would have become so weak to the extent where anyone could tell that it was completely harmless just with a single glance. The effect of such an attack on Chaos¡¯ body would only be seen as a few ripples through ¡°mud.¡± There would not be any other visible effects. For anyone who truly wanted to do some effective damage to Chaos¡¯ body, they would need to wrap a layer of power of order or goodness around the outside of their attack. This layer of power had to first cancel out the power of the shield, then the attack that was wrapped within the layer of power would be less weakened and thus be able to achieve some effect. If there were two layers wrapped around their attack at the same time, their attacks would not be weakened and could achieve the best effects. It took the gods hundreds of attacks before they found the most effective way to attack. However, even if one hundred percent of the force of their powers were to land on Chaos, the damage that they could cause it was, in truth, not much. It would be nothing more than a slight explosion of ¡°mud¡± and some splashing of dirty ¡°muddy water.¡± That fellow might not even have any bit of a reaction. It seemed as though Chaos could not feel anything at all. No pain, no nothing. Even a fool could tell that such an attack would be of little use. But the great Divine Powers did not have any other better ways either. Compared to the ordinary gods, their powers were already much stronger. But in the face of Chaos, they could only feel their own sense of powerlessness. What solution could they possibly come up with when their enemy was something that they could not hit and could not defeat, but yet the mere touch of it could seriously injure them? If it had not been for Sui Xiong taking the front, and the help of the Dragon of Chaos in remedying the damage caused by the erosion of the power of chaos, they might find themselves in a mess of wounds and deaths. There might even be a possibility of them being completely defeated. It was gradually becoming apparent to all the great Divine Powers present that the gap between them and Chaos was not due to their differences in power. It was something more crucial and essential¡­ perhaps they could call it the difference in the ¡°center of life.¡± This was something that could not be helped. Just as how nothing could stand against the gods, when the gods had to face Chaos, their abilities fell short of their wishes, and they were unable to do what they very much wanted to do. Even if they were willing to work with all they were worth, there was simply no place for them to start. A battle at the level of gods would generally require them to find the other¡¯s vital point to strike a fatal blow. If the opponent¡¯s true vital point could not be found, at least an effective means of attacking the other party should be found before they could be said to be fighting a battle. But regardless of how they had done their best by thunderously launching hundreds of attacks, the great Divine Powers themselves were not certain if there would be any effect¡ªfrom Chaos¡¯ nonchalant look, most likely their attacks were not working. Upon comparison, Sui Xiong, who had charged up to the front, was able to exchange blows with Chaos. And their battle went on even though no one could find any meaning in fighting such a battle. It was the same for Sui Xiong, who also could grasp no understanding of the situation, much less the great Divine Powers. Chaos seemed to want to wrap Sui Xiong up and digest him, like what Slime did. But now, Sui Xiong was wholly enveloped by the power of ¡°goodness.¡± Even if Chaos could attack till Sui Xiong was worn out, how could the ¡°chaotic and evil¡± Chaos eat the ¡°good¡± Sui Xiong? Would it not suffer from an upset stomach? Moreover, Chaos was a product of the fall of the God of Evil, a greater Divine Power. How could its means of attack be so singular? There was not a tinge of the majestic stance that a greater Divine Power should possess to be seen at all. From the start of the war to the present, other than demonstrating an extraordinary ability to resist and fight back, as well as an extremely thick ¡°chaotic attribute,¡± which seemed similar to highly toxic poison, Chaos had not shown any other skills. From its size, it should be obvious that possessing strength would be a matter of course. There was nothing special about it. With just this bit of capability, could it really have been a greater Divine Power back in the day? Sui Xiong was a little skeptical. During the exchange of blows between the Master of Order and the God of Light, even time and space were distorted. And all that the great Divine Powers who were watching the battle in the vicinity could see were these distorted scenes. This was how the strength of their powers could be emphasized and how their sophisticated auras could be further enhanced. The ability that Chaos was now demonstrating was truly¡­ Well, fame had fallen short of the truth! With such a thought in mind, Sui Xiong¡¯s hands could not help slackening a little in strength. And at that moment where he slacked off, a major change happened! Chapter 961 Chapter 961: Chaos, Over and Above Common Sense (Part 3) When masters fought, victory and defeat were often determined within a moment¡¯s time. Even if the two sides were only a jellyfish and Slime, this was an unchanging fact. Though Sui Xiong himself did not realize it, the moment he showed signs of slacking off, Chaos could feel it right away. Therefore, right after that split moment, all he saw was a patch of blackness before him. ¡°What is going on? Am I being consumed? When did this happen? Why didn¡¯t I notice anything?¡± Sui Xiong immediately reacted to the situation. He did not spare much time to deliberate over the situation. Gathering all the strength in his body, he headed toward the outside of the Abyss, far away from the direction that Chaos was in and fiercely rammed into it. Though he did not understand how he could suddenly be surrounded and wrapped up by Chaos, at that moment, what he needed to do was not to let his thoughts run wild. He needed to break out of where he was immediately! Before Chaos executed any follow-up moves, he needed to break out and escape this place. With almost every ounce of strength gathered into this one hit, the black ¡°filthy mud¡± before him was broken upon sudden impact. Sui Xiong successfully charged his way out. But the very moment he broke through the siege, what Sui Xiong saw gave him such a great surprise that he was almost dulled into an unresponsive state. He could not believe what he saw with his own eyes. He, who was supposed to be charging towards the outside of the Abyss was actually charging off in the exact opposite direction. And not too far ahead of him, that body of Chaos which was an amorphous subject that resembled a huge pile of filthy mud, had opened its huge mouth, evidently wanting to swallow him. ¡°Impossible!¡± Sui Xiong was secretly panic-stricken, but his movements did not slow down at all. When the critical moment arrived, he demonstrated such an amazing explosive power that even he had to admire himself for. He used merely a fraction of a second, a time so fleeting that it could only be described mathematically, to change the direction of his power from charging forward to retreating backward. His entire body changed its direction, moving far away from Chaos. But he was still a bit slow, after all. Dozens of arms that looked as though they were formed by condensing dark, dirty mud appeared in all directions. They were like a net that spread upon the entire earth, firmly grasping him so that there was no way he could escape. From these arms, there was an inconceivable amount of power. This power was way stronger than anything else that was felt in all the previous battles. It was hardly even a power that could be placed on the same scale. Sui Xiong, who had transformed into a huge beast, was naturally also a top-notch herculean warrior. Speaking of brute force, there was only one ¡°Herculean Hagrid¡± from the 24 demons who even the gods feared, who was worthy enough to be his match. All this time, he had always had much confidence in his own power. This confidence level was only second to that of his artistic talent and aesthetic outlook. But in front of these arms of Chaos, he suddenly had this notion, ¡°Those past thoughts I had, where I used to think that I possessed great strength, were just me being delusional.¡± The power of Chaos was so terribly strong. Even if it was just an arm, Sui Xiong would still need to spend a great amount of effort to break free from it. At the moment, there were at least 30 to 50 such arms swarming around him. How could he possibly break free from them all! Being unable to break free would of course mean he had been firmly grasped. Those arms not only held Sui Xiong back, they even spread out in all directions, as though to become a prison cage and trap him in within. Undoubtedly, if he was going to be trapped again this time, he would not be able to break through the trap as easily as he did earlier on. Sui Xiong did not even hesitate and immediately changed the appearance of his body. In a flash, he turned his entire body into a liquid. No matter how powerful Chaos was, there was no way it could catch hold of liquid. However, he was quick to realize that he had made a huge mistake. After becoming liquid, though he was able to free himself of the predicament of being caught, being in a liquid form meant that a more extensive area of his body was now in contact with that ¡°dirty mud¡± that Chaos was made up of. After he had become liquid, he first flowed out of the cage made up of those arms that imprisoned him. Then he became an arrow that was released from its bow and headed straight towards the outside of the abyss. But even so, this short, fleeting contact had already caused a large amount of ¡°dirty mud¡± to penetrate and mix into his liquefied body. What was all this ¡°dirty mud?¡± They were parts of Chaos¡¯ body. What would happen if they were mixed into anyone¡¯s body? Sui Xiong felt this ¡°dirty mud¡± that had seeped into his body starting to burn intensely, meaning to say that the very moment he dashed out of the siege, his entire body was already blazing away, as though it had become a ball of raging flames. As a god who had carried out extensive research on the field of flames, he certainly had the ability to turn himself into flames. He could get himself to burn up as well. But voluntarily initiating the process of becoming fire was a totally different matter from being ignited into flames by the ¡°dirty mud¡± known as Chaos. Extreme pain overwhelmed all his nerves, and for a moment, it engulfed all his thoughts. Sui Xiong could not help letting out sad howls as he rolled about in the air due to intense pain. But this did not solve the problem. His pain was not the least bit alleviated. Not only that, attacks from Chaos followed in succession. If it was just Sui Xiong against Chaos in a one-on-one fight; the next thing to happen would probably be the end of the battle, Sui Xiong¡¯s defeat and death. Fortunately, he was not fighting alone. He still had many comrades fighting with him. Very reliable comrade in arms. For example, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman. Previously when Yorgaardman had just saved up about two to three seconds worth of power, he released a brilliant white light blade that was so strong that it was bright enough to blind the eyes of an entire pack of Kryptonian dogs. This spinning white light blade spun then hacked into Chaos¡¯ body. Compared to the other gods, Sui Xiong¡¯s attack was indeed more effective. This blow cut an obvious wound on Chaos¡¯ body, with the light blade still firmly lodged onto Chaos. It was probably only after a good half of a second passed before it was drowned by a raging flood of mud and disappeared without a trace. This blow exhausted too much of Yorgaardman¡¯s power, so he was a little tired. He stepped back a for a breather and intended to repeat this move again after he recovered. It was then that he saw a strange sight. The mud that seemed to have tentacles that were constantly waving was fighting Sui Xiong, who was also waving his tentacles. This was Chaos, who was fighting Sui Xiong with a continuous crackling sound, and its body was stiffening to a slight extent. This was something very strange. Given Chaos¡¯ ability, to say that it could beat Sui Xiong¡¯s body into a stiffened state, that would be normal. But to say that Sui Xiong had this ability as well, that was not normal at all! So Yorgaardman instantly raised his vigilance and that was when he happened to witness a most incredible scene. Chaos¡¯ body shook slightly, then everything around it seemed to be slightly distorted. Immediately after this, Sui Xiong, who was originally engaged in a fierce battle with Chaos, was wrapped up by a ball of dirty mud and no one knew where this mud came from. ¡°How is that possible?!¡± Yorgaardman cried out in shock. He exclaimed, ¡°This is impossible!¡± He did not think any much further and immediately ran towards the battlefield. At the same time, his magical axe that had followed him for many years on the battlefield also appeared in his hands. He got himself ready for a full-force attack. Chaos¡¯ power was immeasurably powerful and extremely dangerous. If Sui Xiong could not get out of this difficult situation as soon as possible, even if he were to be seriously injured, Yorgaardman would still have to go breakthrough that siege and save his brother! He had merely taken a step or two upon charging out when he saw Sui Xiong crashing his way out through the mud that enveloped him. However, for some unknown reason, Sui Xiong did not charge outwards. Instead, he rushed in the direction of Chaos¡¯ body and headed straight into a mouth that had suddenly opened wide without him realizing. Yorgaardman hurriedly sped up. Along the way, he kept his eye on Sui Xiong, who was successively changing his moves, from when he was caught to how he struggled, escaped and got injured. And then he saw how Sui Xiong¡¯s body suddenly went ablaze with black flames and was almost completely burnt from inside out. Sui Xiong had let out a cry of anguish as he desperately rolled about in the void space. He could no longer do anything else. And at this point in time, those arms created by Chaos were starting to give chase again. Fortunately, by this time, Yorgaardman had rushed over as well. Without saying anything more, he caught hold of Sui Xiong, who had turned back into a jellyfish by then. Disregarding the black flames that were spreading onto him from Sui Xiong¡¯s body and paying no heed to the intense pain that deeply penetrated his marrow, he held on to Sui Xiong tightly and did his best to gallop off in a direction that was far, far away from Chaos. His reaction was extremely fast. So was his speed. So he managed to catch hold of that momentary opportunity after all. Those black arms that were waving about behind Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman brushed past them by a hair but were still unable to catch hold of them. Chaos let out disgruntled roars, while the gods watching the battle were, on the contrary, heaving deep sighs of relief. It was only then that they had some free time to ponder a question¡ªwhat on earth was going on earlier when Chaos suddenly executed that move? Chapter 962 Chapter 962: Chaos, Over and Above Common Sense (Part 4) Just now, that move that Chaos had used, what was that exactly? The gods looked at each other. All of them were slightly dazed. Though it was said that onlookers would see the most of a game, and they did clearly see the scene where Chaos had made its move, but¡­ seeing did not mean understanding. In truth, there was not a single one out of them who could make sense out of what was going on. No matter what kind of attack it was, there should be a process of the attack. Perhaps an attack could be so fast that it could become an ¡°invisible attack.¡± But from the previous battle that everyone had fought against Chaos, this demon, who was the first and earliest, as well as the strongest one out of all the demons, was not known for having great speed. By right, it should not be able to send out an attack that was so fast that no one could catch sight of it. So, how on earth did it pitch that move that it attacked the Void Mask with just a while ago? How was it possible to have a move that could hit the Void Mask without being seen? After he was hit by Chaos¡¯ attack and hence wrapped up by Chaos¡¯ body, why did the Void Mask choose to head in the direction of Chaos itself to break through the siege? This was something that made no sense at all. It was completely illogical! The Void Mask, though definitely not a scholar, had still been through many battles and was truly a veteran in his own right. Such a seasoned warrior like him would absolutely not make the mistake of heading straight into the enemy to launch an attack even though he clearly knew that he should escape. So, was it Chaos that had interfered with his judgment and caused him to head in the wrong direction? How did Chaos do that? The gods were all filled with doubts, but their hands worked without any hint of hesitation. They were all attacking with their greatest strength and were throwing hits at Chaos like a rainstorm. No matter what other means Chaos had, the most pressing task at hand was to stop it. This was to allow the Dragon of Chaos to administer treatments and also, to buy more time for the God of Justice. Up till now, the gods could already tell from the battle that in this war against Chaos, the Void Mask was the most important force. If he was defeated or even killed by Chaos, those who remained would not be able to do anything to Chaos. They could only try their best to delay time for as long as possible and hope that the two greater Divine Powers would arrive quickly to rescue them. But the most terrible thing was, the two greater Divine Powers were engaged in an internal strife. Who knew whether they would be able to rush over in time or not! The Dragon of Chaos said that the Master of Order had promised to help. Given his temperament, he was certainly an elderly man of his words. Since he had said he would help, he would definitely do so. But even if he had the heart to help, the situation would still require the God of Light to release him from their battle! If the God of Light would not let the Master of Order go, what should they do if the Master of Order could not make it over in time? This was why no one dared to pin all their hopes on the timely arrival of the Master of Order. Instead, they placed their hopes in the Void Mask and prayed he could hold up for some time until the Master of Order rushed over. So for now, there was only one thing they had to do¡ªfight for time so that the Void Mask could recover! Right at that moment, the Dragon of Chaos had already met with the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, who had fled back frenziedly. The dragon was the remnants of the Master of Chaos. For so many years, he had been pondering how he could unremittingly fight Chaos to the end, so naturally, he would have sufficient understanding and preparation for the means Chaos would put to use. The angry face of the three faces sneered. Then he opened his mouth wide, sprayed out a colorful, bright light that was like flowing water, and poured it all toward the bodies of Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman. Such brilliant light was naturally a strong power of chaos. If it had been sprayed onto the bodies of gods in the Order camp, it would most likely cause great damage. But Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman were chaotic gods themselves, so they would not be hurt by this brilliant light at all. So all that could be seen was that colorful, bright light falling on them. Just like how a water droplet encountered a dry sponge, the light was immediately absorbed into their bodies. Speaking of which, it was also very strange to see those black flames that were still ablaze earlier on, instantly become smaller when their bodies absorbed the brilliant light. Not long after, the flames on Yorgaardman¡¯s body were completely extinguished, and finally, the flames on Sui Xiong¡¯s body were also extinguished. The both of them were finally out of danger. It was only up till this point in time that Yorgaardman finally could put his mind to rest. He let out a heartrending cry. ¡°This hurts to death!¡± ¡°What the hell! Are you a sloth? Are you the kind of person who will only know to cry of pain after putting up with it for so long?¡± Sui Xiong said. He had slowly regained his breath and could not help but tease Yorgaardman. ¡°If you wanted to shout in pain, you should have done it earlier.¡± ¡°Just now, I was just so nervous that I forgot about the pain.¡± ¡°This is a very effective way of relieving yourself of pain¡­¡± Sui Xiong said and could not help laughing. His tentacle became a fist, and he gently patted Yorgaardman on his shoulders as he said, ¡°Many thanks, Brother!¡± Yorgaardman¡¯s pair of eyes widened so large that they were like those of a cow. His face was filled with great displeasure. Sui Xiong laughed heartily and said no more. He turned around to face the direction of Chaos, who was idly strolling amidst the wanton and indiscriminate bombardment of the other great Divine Powers. Chaos was also crawling over in Sui Xiong¡¯s direction in an unhurried manner. ¡°That fellow has very bizarre means. Just a moment ago, it seemed to have distorted time and space.¡± Yorgaardman froze, and right away, he recalled a scene where he had previously seen the Master of Order and God of Light exchanging blows. Suddenly, he gained some understanding of the situation. Since the Master of Order and the God of Light could distort time and space, of course, Chaos would be able to do likewise. Just the aftermath of the battle of the two greater Divine Powers was able to distort time and space. And Chaos¡¯ ability was definitely not beneath theirs. So it could deliberately distort time and space to launch a sudden attack, and then spin around to face Sui Xiong¡¯s direction without anyone¡¯s realization. What was so impossible about that? Yorgaardman could not help but frown. Being able to understand what was going on did not mean he was able to resolve the problem. Distortion of time and space was a special ability of the greater Divine Powers. Even though Yorgaardman was already one of the most powerful figures among the great Divine Powers and was advancing well in the direction of becoming a greater Divine Power, he was still unable to distort time and space. Even if he had prepared beforehand, he could do nothing more than observing the distortion of time and space. There was no way he could come up with an effective response. ¡°This move¡­ There¡¯s no way I can deal with it!¡± he said with a distressed expression after taking a brief moment to collect his thoughts. On the other hand, Sui Xiong did not think so much. In the first place, he had not intended to come up with any brilliant ideas. As a cultured person and an artist, Sui Xiong had never felt that he was some combat expert, nor did he ever feel that as compared to his big brother who was skilled in fighting battles, he could possibly come up with a better way to overcome the means of Chaos. So he chose not to think too much. He would act first and think later. So what should they be doing now? Of course, they had to combine forces with the gods and face this battle against Chaos together! So he roared loudly, and his body spread out again. His tentacles glowed with brilliant light rays and became a huge light ball. Then he took the lead and charged out towards the approaching Chaos. But this time, he exercised much more caution, and very carefully, he maintained some distance with Chaos. He would never get so close to Chaos as he had done so previously. The experience of being placed at a disadvantage and being fooled once was enough. He was not the legendary fish with only a fleeting seven seconds worth of memory. He would never fall into the same hole twice. But he had yet to discover that even though the black flames within his body were extinguished by the colorful light rays of the Dragon of Chaos, the black, dirty mud from Chaos¡¯ body that stained his own body was, in fact, still present. The strange thing was, these mud stains within Sui Xiong¡¯s body were slowly splitting up and melting away. It was like¡­ Sui Xiong was digesting these mud stains away instead. Chapter 963 Chapter 963: Chaos, Over and Above Common Sense (Part 5) Sui Xiong, who was back in action upon recovering, headed straight towards Chaos once again and stood in front to block its path. The gods all heaved sighs of relief. The power of chaos was clearly too overbearing for the gods. Even if they tried with all their might, they might not necessarily be able to block it effectively. Earlier on, it had obviously advanced a great distance within that short period of time. If it were to continue progressing as such, it would not be long before it got close to the boundary line between the Negative Plane and the Matter Plane of the Ring of the World. Once Chaos stepped into the Matter Plane of the Ring of the World, it would immediately cause serious damage. If its power was released and allowed to spread to the surroundings, even if it was just a little bit, it would nonetheless give rise to the birth of countless monsters. They would then stage a horrifying scene of monsters dancing about chaotically. Not only that, but it was also highly possible that the part of the Matter Plane that was contaminated by Chaos would undergo a transformation inclined towards the Negative Plane. If the amount was small, perhaps there would not be much cause for worry. But if the amount was bigger, it might destroy the balance among the four great planes, and thus destroying the overall structure of the Great Circulation. That was really the scariest thing that could happen! The Great Circulation was the foundation that everything in the world depended on for survival, and there was no exception for both mortals or gods. If the structure of the Great Circulation was destroyed, it was highly likely to lead to an extremely serious disaster. It was no exaggeration at all to say that it was the end of the world! No one would want something like that to happen. As members of the world, the gods had their egos, but also their principles. If things had become so terrible to the extent of the possible destruction of the Great Circulation, the gods would have no other choice but to use themselves as material for fixing up the Great Circulation. Of course, they would not wish for things to develop to this stage. But if there was really the need to, even the evil gods would not oppose to self-sacrifice to save the world. But when the situation was not all that bad, who would be willing to sacrifice themselves! Even the good gods or the pure good gods who were always so courageous enough to sacrifice themselves for the sake of helping others were no lunatics who simply sought death! So the gods certainly hoped that Sui Xiong could return earlier and help them with defense at the front so that this world of theirs would not be destroyed. And also, no one would need to go to the extent of sacrificing themselves to repair the world. And again, Sui Xiong managed to block Chaos. When he brought Chaos¡¯ advancing steps to a halt, more than one god let out shouts of cheer. ¡°Good going!¡± ¡°Our lives are in your hands, Void Mask!¡± ¡°Great Jellyfish, if you win this battle, I will find you a beautiful jellyfish bride when we return!¡± Sui Xiong rolled his eyes discreetly upon hearing that last line. He really wished he could charge back, turn his tentacles into a thread and needle and sew up that annoying mouth of Her Majesty, the well-respected Goddess of Joy¡ªthe teacher who taught him about architectural construction. At this point in time, she ought to be saying things that were more useful and reliable! And over at the Positive Plane of the Ring of the World, close to the Wheel of Order that was glowing with great splendor, the Master of Order could not help but nod slightly. ¡°Auscar, the Void Mask, is indeed a god that is most reliable at the most critical moments,¡± he said. ¡°If he was the one leading the new rules of this world, maybe I could even put my mind at rest.¡± ¡°He is someone with a golden heart that¡¯s simply much too kind, so he most certainly won¡¯t be able to come up with any suitable rules befitting of a leader!¡± said the God of Light with a cold laugh. ¡°Asking him to lead the world would be the same as allowing the notions of equality of all people and common prosperity for all to continue lingering around us¡­ Such ideas are not trustworthy at all!¡± ¡°I find this way of thinking pretty good. At least in terms of actual practice, relevant areas on the Main Plane have shown a significant increase in the pace of progress since he had first advocated the actual practice of these ideas.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the use of making progress? Stability is the key!¡± ¡°If progress is so pointless, how did the humans defeat the other races?¡± The two greater Divine Powers were having a conversation while fighting an intense battle. Their combat means might have seemed very ordinary, where not even a subtle move could be seen. Yet in truth, time and space were distorted by every hit they threw at each other. Any opponent whose power was not on the same level as them would have been torn to shreds by their merciless attacks and lost their lives without even some time to wrap their minds over what really happened. Sui Xiong found himself in a similar situation when he received Chaos¡¯ attack just now. But Chaos had already lost a great part of its ability of reason; thus, it could only rely on its instincts to execute its means. Compared to the precise and dexterous means of the two greater Divine Powers, its crude methods were simply nothing more than child¡¯s play. Just as the Master of Order had previously told the Dragon of Chaos, so long as he defeated the God of Light, he would be readily available to render his help. By then, beating off Chaos would nothing much. But the problem was, the God of Light was much more difficult to defeat as compared to Chaos. ¡°By pestering me like this, you are actually helping Chaos. Do you know? This is as good as betraying the whole world!¡± ¡°Betraying the whole world? Since when did the great Master of Order pick up the ways of the earthly pettifoggers and resort to playing such tricks of sophistry? It¡¯s very simple if you wish to save the world. You just have to concede defeat now and hand over to me, the power to dominate and lead the world order. And I will crush Chaos as soon as I turn around.¡± ¡°You were the one who started this war.¡± ¡°Why are you bothered over such a trifling matter! Can¡¯t you just give in a little to save the world?¡± said the God of Light as a deriding laugh was heard coming from under his visor. ¡°Could it be¡­ Your determination in wanting to save the world is only just up to this degree, after all?¡± The Master of Order was silent for a moment, then answered coldly, ¡°I disagree with your rules!¡± ¡°Over and over again, it¡¯s still nothing more than this line. You¡¯re really one stubborn old mule who¡¯s stuck in a rut!¡± Though the two greater Divine Powers had temporarily stopped for a moment, being unable to see eye to eye with each other meant that ultimately, they had to fight again. Neither side would yield an inch. And at the border between the Matter Plane and the Negative Plane of the Ring of the World, Sui Xiong had, once again, waged a ferocious war on Chaos. Chaos¡¯ combat means had not changed much from before and that clever technique of distorting time and space seemed to be nothing more than a flash of inspiration. But Sui Xiong did not dare show any hint of negligence. He exercised great caution and stood guard against any bizarre means that Chaos would possibly use. The strange thing was, this time when they exchanged blows, Sui Xiong felt that Chaos¡¯ prowess seemed to have dropped. Its attacks were no longer as heavy as before, and its defensive ability was not as high as before. Every time Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles collided with its dirty mud, he could clearly feel this weakening trend. And¡­ it seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. ¡°What on earth is going on? Why is Chaos becoming weaker? What the hell is happening to it?¡± Sui Xiong was secretly puzzling over these questions, but he did not dare to let his guard down. He had suffered a great loss earlier on and that made him clear on how powerful and dangerous Chaos was. Now, even if there were a thousand ducks cackling by his ears, he would never get distracted again! As time went by, Sui Xiong gradually realized that the situation did not seem to be the same as what he speculated earlier on. Chaos did not become weaker. And the attacks by the other gods still did not have any effect on it. Even his big brother, Yorgaardman¡¯s light blade, was only something that was visible without practical use. Sui Xiong was more and more doubtful. And he felt that within his surrounding time and space, this doubt seemed to be undergoing some changes. Immediately, he pulled back and retreated, and was just in time to dodge a hit from the repeated attacks of Chaos. He watched the blackness of the dirty mud before him. It was building a cage to encircle him. But when everything finally fell apart, it became the definite answer for Sui Xiong¡¯s doubts. The one who changed was not Chaos, but he himself. It was not that Chaos had become weak. It was him, he who had become stronger! Chapter 964 Chapter 964: Over and Above Common Sense, The End of Chaos (Part 1) Why could he suddenly be able to see through Chaos¡¯ means? Why had he suddenly become stronger? Sui Xiong could grasp no understanding. But this was no hindrance to his battle. He was becoming stronger. That was a good thing. In the face of this great cause of ¡°protecting the world,¡± how much more powerful he could become was always not going to be enough. He waved his tentacles about speedily and continuously warded off Chaos¡¯ attacks. Even though Chaos¡¯ means of attacks were becoming swifter and more violent. It would not let allow Sui Xiong any chance of gaining an advantageous edge over it. The gods at the back were gradually gaining some inkling about what was going on. Earlier on, when Sui Xiong was battling against Chaos upfront, though he could still withstand Chaos¡¯ blows, he did fight in a relatively confounded manner. He was constantly taking steps backwards and was always getting injured. It was really only by virtue of him being unafraid of being polluted by Chaos, as well as his ability to repair his body upon injury, that the fight went on. But now, when Sui Xiong faced Chaos, he was no longer as pathetic as before. He was still at the losing end often enough. From time to time, he would suffer a blow or two and sustain some injuries. But as compared to before, he seemed to be an entirely different man. Especially after he successfully escaped another ¡°siege¡± launched by Chaos via another distortion of time and space. Many gods¡¯ eyes were squinting. On the one hand, they were happy that their chances of winning were greatly increased. On the other hand, they were also secretly keeping vigilant. The Void Mask had become so powerful that he could almost arm-wrestle with Chaos. If he made up his mind to find trouble with them all, who could possibly deal with him? No one was certain. No, this was not a question of ¡°uncertainty,¡± but rather one of a ¡°zero chance of winning.¡± The Void Mask was originally very strong. He was far stronger than any of the other great Divine Powers in general. Previously, to protect the Ancient Forest and the elves, he had stepped forth to resist the attacks of the God of Light, who was a greater Divine Power. As a result, he sustained serious injuries and even spewed out blood. But at least, that made everyone feel that he was not overly powerful. And now in his fight with Chaos, another greater Divine Power like himself who might be even stronger than the God of Light, Sui Xiong was able to exchange blows with his opponent in a to-and-fro manner. This made everyone feel that he was simply overwhelmingly powerful. The scariest thing was, from being heavily injured by a mere light pat of the palm of a greater Divine Power, to being able to exchange attacks in a battle against a greater Divine Power, did not take Sui Xiong much time at all to achieve. If he were to continue growing at this rate, would it not be long where even a greater Divine Power would not be his match? Thinking of such a possibility made many of the gods feel their scalps tingling out of fear. Many gods were even secretly worried, in particular, those gods from the evil camps. The Void Mask was officially known to be a good god. And he had been quite active in fighting against evil. If he became a greater Divine Power or even someone more powerful than a greater Divine Power, then the end of the evil gods would most likely not be far away! But worrying would not help matters. No matter how worried they were, it would not solve anything at all. The power of the Void Mask had long exceeded the extent to which they could figure out ways to counteract. Moreover¡­ even if the Void Mask became even more powerful, they were in fact, not the ones who needed to worry. It was the one before them, Chaos, and the other two greater Divine Powers who were still engaged in a fierce and endless battle. If the sky collapsed, there were the tall ones to prop it up. What was there to fear! Thinking of this made the evil gods feel a little better. But it was only a little bit better. In contrast, the good gods were in a great mood. If not they were not still engaged in a fierce battle against Chaos, they would have wanted to cheer and celebrate here and there. They wanted to celebrate the fact that their Good Camp would have their own greater Divine Power. Having one¡¯s own people as officials made light work. So having a greater Divine Power in one¡¯s own camp would definitely allow things to be more convenient in the future! Of course, it was impossible for Sui Xiong to know the thoughts running through the minds of the gods behind him. At that moment, he was carefully dealing with the various kinds of attacks of Chaos. At the same time, he was meticulously pondering the means and reasoning that these attacks encompassed. The real body of Chaos was the depraved God of Evil. The reason for the latter¡¯s depravity was because he tried to design and scheme against the God of Chaos and devour him. In the end, he was unable to digest the God of Chaos well and even fell into a state of insanity. Perhaps because he had been heavily traumatized during the process of depravity, his grasp of power was obviously heavily impeded. Within the power that he executed, it was not the power of ¡°evil¡± that occupied his real body, but the power of ¡°Chaos.¡± This was all very strange, but it gave Sui Xiong a very good opportunity. Though both were different in terms of good and evil, at least they were on the same page when it came to the areas of Order and Chaos. While the camp of Chaos was ¡°chaotic and evil,¡± the camp of Sui Xiong was ¡°chaotic and good.¡± This meant that Sui Xiong could probably anatomize and acquire the power of Chaos. At least, he could learn the means in the area of ¡°chaos,¡± and allow himself to become much stronger. That was not a skill of ordinary gods. That was the capability of a formidable greater Divine Power! So long as one could learn something about the power of Chaos, one might even be able to find the path to becoming a greater Divine Power. This was why, so long as he could become a greater Divine Power, Sui Xiong could be on an equal footing with the God of Light and Master of Order. Then he would have the confidence to have a good round of negotiation with them. Besides, having more greater Divine Powers was good for the whole world. There were only two greater Divine Powers, but they were fighting each other with such enthusiasm that they completely paid no heed to the crisis the entire world was facing. That was truly terrible! These thoughts flashed through his mind at lightning speed. Sui Xiong simply had not spared any time to carefully consider them at all, so they remained a blurred concept. That was all. Now he had to put his mind into the careful deliberation of two matters. One was how to resist the attacks of Chaos, and two was how he could find ways to learn something from Chaos. When Chaos once again waved the tentacles formed with his ¡°dirty mud¡± to whip lashes at Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong slightly changed his means of response to adjust to the changing circumstance. He no longer fought against Chaos¡¯ attacks with a head-on approach. Instead, he used a more flexible method. When placed in the context of martial arts novels, this could perhaps be known as the ¡°pester, cling, follow¡± method. First, he lightly stuck himself onto Chaos¡¯ tentacles, then he applied some force to exert influence on its direction of movement. Next, he brought it turning in a big circle and finally, with a great huff, he tossed it flying away. In this process, he succeeded in cutting off a small piece of Chaos¡¯ tentacle. After a moment of hesitation, he swallowed it into his stomach. Previously, the ¡°dirty mud¡± of Chaos penetrated his body and caused that terrifying burning sensation. But it was due to the situation that he was caught unprepared. Now, he was amply prepared. By right, wrapping this pile of ¡°dirty mud¡± with a power of pure chaos would not go so far to the extent of causing any violent changes. Even if it did cause any violent changes, he would still have time to spit it out. With this in mind, Sui Xiong decided to try devouring a small piece of ¡°chaos.¡± Then he was greatly shocked. That small piece of ¡°dirty mud¡± contained more than 90 percent of the power of chaos and less than 10 percent of the power of evil. This was actually not surprising. There was nothing puzzling about the power of chaos. What really surprised him and what he himself found quite strange as well, was that even for that power of evil, he could still try to anatomize and absorb it. This, to him, was no different from saying that evil could similarly be understood and accommodated. ¡°This is impossible!¡± If it had not been for the prior mental preparation, which made Sui Xiong decide to retreat a great distance in advance, he would most probably have, once again, fallen into Chaos¡¯ prison because of the shock. He was greatly astonished. He tried his best to anatomize that chaotic body as he wished to find something that was completely incompatible with him. However, there was nothing. There was no power of Chaos, no matter in what percentage of its total composition that he could not anatomize. There was also nothing that could be incompatible with him. Chapter 965 Chapter 965: Over and Above Common Sense, The End of Chaos (Part 2) ¡°Why am I actually compatible with the power of chaos? It is right to say that we are indeed on the same page from the perspective of ¡°chaos,¡± but at least in terms of ¡°good¡± and ¡°evil,¡± we should be just like fire and water, completely incompatible! I¡¯ve clearly burned up just now, haven¡¯t I?¡± Sui Xiong was grumbling inwardly but on the outside, his hands did not dare show any signs of slacking off. He was still putting in his best to defuse Chaos¡¯ attacks, and at the same time, he was repeatedly trying to cut small pieces from its body which he would swallow, analyze, dissolve, and then absorb. Completely absorbable, without any residue. ¡°What the heck!¡± Sui Xiong felt that a problem had arisen from the common sense that he had accumulated in this world for so many years. Could it be that in this world, order and chaos, as well as good and evil, were not two sets of contrasting attributes? Why was such a bizarre situation appearing before him? ¡°I think¡­ I may have met with a fake Chaos. Or maybe¡­ I¡¯m in fact, not a good god? Sui Xiong could not help starting to feel a little doubtful about his life. Fortunately, at this point in time, the traditional ¡°self-comfort¡± skill played its role in warning him that he should cast these doubts aside for the time being. It did not matter whether this Chaos before him was an imposter or not. And it also did not even matter whether he himself was not a good god. Anyway, so long as people led safe and stable lives every day, so long as there was world peace, what else mattered? The great mentors had taught us that the doctrines would not put food on our plates¡ªahem, did the great mentors really teach this? Would it not be like those ridiculous sayings like, ¡°the most terrible thing in the world is to lose the courage to face up to difficulties¡ªEinstein,¡± which were purely gimmicks to hoodwink the people? For a moment, Sui Xiong was also slightly shaken. If he was in a safe situation, perhaps he would ponder it for a few hours with a worried expression, or maybe a few days. It would not be surprising if he were to spend a few years pondering. But at this moment, he was at the frontline of the battle, protecting the world against Chaos. Even if he had a thousand doubts, ten thousand distractions, he had to finish this fight with Chaos first. ¡°Yes! I will finish this battle first. After I¡¯m done with this battle, I¡¯ll return home to get married¡­¡± ¡°Ptooey, ptooey, Ptooey!¡± Sui Xiong spat several times in his heart to drive away these thoughts and re-focus his attention on the battle. But now, the battle with Chaos was no longer as difficult as before. Because he did not have to worry about being eroded by the chaotic attributes, he could even turn the tables and devour the power of Chaos. Throughout the battle, he continuously cut off pieces of Chaos and swallowed these morsels into his stomach. The pieces he swallowed were then transformed into his own power. His approach was becoming increasingly apparent. Even the gods could see that something was wrong. ¡°That Void Mask fellow¡­ What is wrong with him? He seems to be cutting pieces off of Chaos and stomaching everything¡­¡± ¡°Ah, you saw that too. And here I am thinking that it was just an illusion¡­¡± ¡°Chaos¡¯ power is just like lethal poison to us gods, why doesn¡¯t he seem to care at all?¡± ¡°Who knows. He has already done so many weird things anyway. I won¡¯t be surprised if he does something strange again.¡± ¡°That¡¯s quite true.¡± Yorgaardman managed to find time to return to the Dragon of Chaos, and with the use of divine thoughts, he asked, ¡°Old Dragon, my brother, he¡­ Is everything alright?¡± ¡°Could it be that you wish for something to go wrong?¡± the Dragon of Chaos asked in return. ¡°Of course not! It¡¯s just that¡­ Won¡¯t he be poisoned if he swallows those pieces of Chaos¡¯?¡± ¡°Though you are human and he¡¯s a jellyfish, his brain is far more useful than yours. Something like this that even you can think of, why wouldn¡¯t he have also thought of it?¡± the Dragon of Chaos asked bluntly in return without bothering to be polite at all. The God of Justice wrinkled his brows a few times. He felt that this remark was indeed justified, so he no longer struggled to dwell on this matter. Something that even he could figure out, for someone as smart as Auscar¡ªor rather, for such a smart jellyfish, how could he have not thought of it? It had to be because Yorgaardman was too simple-minded, and he neglected something important. That was why he would have such a doubt. Yes, that was right! And now, outside the Wheel of Order that was far away from him, the Master of Order suddenly gave a little smile. ¡°This really surprised me,¡± he said. ¡°Our dear little friend, the jellyfish, has once again surprised us.¡± The God of Light, of course, was also paying close attention to the battle against Chaos. And at this moment, he wore a somber expression and did not utter a single word. ¡°If this goes on, who knows, we¡¯ll soon be ushering in another greater Divine Power,¡± said the Master of Order. ¡°And this will be an even more powerful existence. One that has the combination of three kinds of powers, the power of chaos, goodness and evil. It will be a greater existence that can cross insurmountable borders.¡± ¡°So what?¡± the God of Light asked him back in a cold voice. ¡°Nothing much, I just find it interesting,¡± the Master of Order said calmly. ¡°Though this was out of my expectations, thinking about it carefully, this is actually not that bad. Let¡¯s put it this way¡­ a greater Divine Power that can embrace both goodness and evil is a huge improvement for this world.¡± ¡°You really believe that goodness and evil can be embraced together?¡± the God of Light asked him back. The Master of Order was silent and did not answer. At this very moment, it was meaningless to saying anything against his conscience. ¡°Anyway, I don¡¯t believe it,¡± the God of Light simply said. ¡°Order and Chaos, goodness and evil, these are all natural enemies. Tolerating existences with hostile attributes does not mean that anyone can encompass them all into one body. Even if it¡¯s Auscar, I don¡¯t think he will be able to do so either.¡± ¡°Perhaps you mean to say that a long, long time ago, during the era before that of the Great Circulation, the world was not divided into four camps. But even for that world, there still existed various kinds of attributes, and these attributes also did not go well with each other,¡± said the God of Light. Of course, he knew about this thing that happened ¡°before this era.¡± He went on to say, ¡°Earth, water, wind and fire¡ªthe relationship shared by these four fundamental elements was never compatible. Needless to say, that of the conflict between matter and spirit¡­ Previously, the reason as to why the earlier era would end and the era of the Great Circulation began, was it not due to the conflict between matter and spirit?¡± Speaking up to this point, he suddenly smiled mysteriously and asked in a low voice, ¡°Am I right? The king of the spiritual world had abandoned himself to integrate into the world. Then finally, he became an existence that gained greater benefits than the King of Four Elements of the material world.¡± The body of the Master of Order shook violently as he took two steps back. ¡°So it turns out you have already guessed who we are,¡± he said. ¡°What¡¯s so difficult to guess? Masters won¡¯t be born without any reason. If you all really are existences given birth by the Great Circulation, then no matter what, you all should not venture further than the King of Four Elements, who¡¯s a step ahead of you all in leaving. Since the kings of the material world could live through all the explosions and chaos caused by the Great Circulation, then there should be no reason for the kings in the spiritual world to be completely annihilated. With these two reasons in mind, the answer, of course, is apparent,¡± said the Master of Order as a look of slyness flashed in his eyes. ¡°The only problem is, exactly what way you are going to use so that you will be a step ahead of the kings of the material world and dominate this new world?¡± The Master of God lowered his head. And for the first time, there was a light that shone brightly in his eyes. Grasping the gap where there was some chaotic confusion going on because the identity of the Master of Order had been disclosed, the figure of the God of Light suddenly shook and disappeared right before the eyes of the Master of God. The next moment, the God of Light appeared on the battlefield of the war against Chaos where he hovered in the air above Chaos. ¡°You are already a completely old and useless thing. Contribute the last of your power and crown the king of the new era!¡± the God of Light coldly scolded and directly rushed over to Chaos. He paid no heed to the various attacks that Chaos was launching in his direction. He stuck an outstretched arm deep within Chaos¡¯ body and pulled out a mass of substance that was like black ink. At this time, the figure of the Master of Order also followed closely behind and appeared on the battlefield. Ignoring everyone, he only yelled loudly, ¡°Stop!¡± At the same time, he charged towards the God of Light, wanting to stop the latter¡¯s next course of action. But the Master of Order was still a step too slow after all. Right before the moment he reached them, the God of Light shoved that mass of black stuff, which was still dripping with revolting and strange liquid into his mouth. Then he swallowed everything in one mouthful. Chapter 966 Chapter 966: Evil (Part 1) What did it mean by an ¡°astonishing change?¡± Just look at what was right before everyone¡¯s eyes now. Watching the God of Light suddenly appear as he pulled something out of Chaos¡¯ body while berating it, and then seeing him devour that part of Chaos in one mouthful before the Master of Order could rush over in time to stop him, everyone was at a loss due to the shock and were left in a somewhat dazed state. What on earth was going on? The God of Light rushed over and launched an attack at Chaos¡ªyes, this was not difficult to understand. But, why did he say that Chaos was ¡°already a completely old and useless thing?¡± What exactly did he swallow after pulling it out of Chaos¡¯ body? As for the Master of Order, his actions were, on the contrary, understandable¡ªto make a long story short, regardless of whatever it was that the God of Light had swallowed, it was definitely not something good! At least for the Master of Order, when the God of Light swallowed that thing, it would definitely mean that something really terrible had happened. Then here, there was the question. This matter was very terrible for the Master of Order, who was a greater Divine Power. So what would it be like for the rest who were great Divine Powers? The God of Sky and Goddess Gaia, who had always been on their guard were the first to react. Without another word said, they took to their heels, turned about and retreated into the winds. It was clear that they had already been prepared for this. Seeing them take to their heels brought the other great Divine Powers back to their senses. Very quickly, more than one great Divine Power followed in their steps to make a speedy retreat. What a joke! If two greater Divine Powers were to fight again here, of course they had to quickly run away as far as they could. If not, were they going to wait to be churned into cannon fodder instead? The Master of Order was a step late. He was not able to stop the God of Light. He suddenly frowned and threw a punch at the God of Light. This punch of his was simply ingenious. If the God of Light had not blocked it, he would definitely be hit with such force that he would have coughed up whatever it was that he had just swallowed into his stomach. And if the God of Light had counterattacked to resist, it would be difficult for him to suppress that thing that he had just swallowed, let alone integrate it into his body to transform it into his own power. But in the face of such a punch, the God of Light simply smiled. He did not resist. Instead, he threw something out. A light ball. That light ball flew out to meet with the fist of the Master of Order. Then there was an instant explosion. The power of this explosion was extremely forceful. Within a split moment, it was ready to spread out in all directions and sweep up everything around. But the God of Light was well-prepared beforehand, who distorted time and space to reverse the direction, and thus this power was brought swashing back instead. So all of it was sent splashing back at the Master of Order without leaking or dispersing at all. No matter how powerful the Master of Order was, his blow would ultimately be blocked by this power. Sui Xiong was not too far from them. At close range, he could feel an aura that was spreading in the air amidst the explosion. That was the aura of the Master of Mystery. That was the greater Divine Power who was defeated and captured by the Human God System, the Master God of the Mystery God System, the Master of Mystery. This was a god who was once a top dog in the Pantheon Temple. He was a god who was respected by many other gods and also a god whom the people believed in. After being captured, there was no further news about him. Now, he finally re-appeared but was transformed into a bomb by the God of Light. A bomb that was used to block the Master of Order at the most critical moment so that the God of Light could buy time for himself. The Master of Mystery obviously had his intelligence erased. If he had even a bit of intelligence left and knew of his own end, probably he would not have died in such a way¡ªhe would most probably feel that, if he had known earlier, he should have just died as heroically as the God of Spellcaster. Following his death, many things became unsettled, and many questions were pending answers. For instance, why had the treasure left behind by the Elven Race fallen into his hands? Judging from the attitudes of the God of Conspiracy and the God of Potion, it was obvious that they all knew the whereabouts of this treasure. Why did they not get the treasure back and rather leave it out in the open as a lost item? Was this not too dangerous? What role did the Master of Mystery play in this matter? A lucky scavenger? Or a guardian of whom the Elf King had entrusted the task of protecting the treasure of the elves with? Sui Xiong had always been curious about these questions and wanted to find a chance to make inquiries. But both the God of Conspiracy and the God of Potion were dead. And now, even the Master of Mystery was dead. The past would probably become unanswered cases pending answers, and no one would ever learn of the truth again. What a pity! Sui Xiong secretly lamented to himself as he quickly turned about to escape, avoiding the battlefield of the two greater Divine Powers. He was merely shocked for a brief moment. He was not shocked to the point of losing his senses. If not now, how much longer did he have to wait before making his escape? As he was galloping away, he saw a figure. This figure was not leaving. Instead, it was approaching at a high speed and was heading straight for Chaos. The moment it brushed past him, Sui Xiong could clearly see who that figure belonged to. It was none other than the Dragon of Chaos, whose three faces showed different expressions of anxiety, anticipation and wild delight, respectively. ¡°What is he intending to do?¡± Sui Xiong had some doubts but did not dare to slow down. The God of Light and the Master of Order were about to start a great war very soon. If he waited another moment later before leaving, he would be swept into their battle. By then, even ten lives would not be enough to save him from death! He retreated a distance of at least a dozen worlds away in one breath and only stopped to look back after he had withdrawn all the way to reach the side of his big brother, Yorgaardman. The white light in front of the Master of Order had not yet dissipated. That was a bomb made out of a great Divine Power. All the power of the Master of Mystery burst forth at this moment, and the might of this power that was restrained by the God of light poured out in the direction of the Master of Order. No matter how strong he was, he would still have to remain in his original spot for the time being to focus on resisting this blow. But this blow would not persist for long. Sui Xiong estimated that after around two to three seconds, the force of the explosion would start to weaken. By that time, the Master of Order would most probably not need to exert much strength to get rid of all traces of this power. But for the God of Light, he had not intended to fight for a lot of time in the first place. Perhaps this much time was already more than enough. Even if there was not enough time, he could always fight for some more. It was always good to buy oneself more time. And at this time, the Dragon of Chaos was also making good use of time by keeping himself busy with his own matters. The dragon crashed head-on into the body of Chaos, which seemed to have lost all its vitality after something was taken away from it, thus causing its entire body to go limp as though it was paralyzed. Then, Chaos¡¯ body was seen moving again. It started to slowly squirm and wriggle again, constantly distorting itself and changing its shape. Then gradually, it changed to taking the form of a dragon. It was very clear that the Dragon of Chaos was going to turn things the other way around and devour Chaos in return. He wanted to seize its body and power back that had been previously swallowed by the God of Evil so that he could once again turn back into the God of Evil, who was a greater Divine Power. Sui Xiong was not optimistic about the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ risk-taking endeavor¡ªwhich was to gain a profit via taking a risk on the battlefield where a war between two greater Divine Powers was about to commence. This certainly seemed like it would bring death. But he had to admire the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ courage as well as the determination to be so resolute and decisive at a critical moment. If the dragon had even the slightest bit of hesitation, perhaps the chances of success would be even slimmer. Now¡­ at least judging from the situation the God of Light was in, perhaps it was possible that the Dragon of Chaos would succeed. At that moment, the God of Light¡¯s face suddenly went pale and green, which was a very strange sight. From time to time, his face would reveal a ferocious and evil expression, which was overflowing with murderous intent. In the past, though he had shown such fiendish intentions to kill more than once, those intentions were extremely clean and clear. They had nothing to do with hatred and were just like soldiers who had to set foot onto the battlefield because of issues like differences in ideas or positions. But now, this murderous vibe he exuded was gloomier and murkier. Even from a distance away, one could also feel the deep malice, and it made everyone tremble with fear. Looking at his strange appearance, Sui Xiong had to frown as a premonition arose within him. What on earth did the God of Light pull out of Chaos¡¯ body and swallow just now? Why was there such a bizarre change happening to such a formidable greater Divine Power? And why did he want to swallow that thing? Just then, he heard the voice of the God of Water Elements. ¡°That¡¯s the God of Evil. He swallowed the God of Evil. Chapter 967 Chapter 967: Evil (Part 2) The God of Light had swallowed the God of Evil!? This piece of news shocked Sui Xiong immensely, and he felt extremely unwell all of a sudden. ¡°Is there some kind of mistake?¡± Sui Xiong asked deliberately. ¡°No, I met all four of them in battle previously.¡± The God of Water Elements was not physically present beside Sui Xiong, but he answered through divine thought. ¡°To be honest, we Four Elements were not really convinced by the four great Divine Powers and fought four against four many times. Although we always lost, at least we gained a very deep understanding of them. This is especially so in areas like their personality, skills and most importantly, their aura.¡± ¡°Previously, I fought with the God of Evil once or twice before, and I have a clear memory of his aura. My instincts definitely would not fail me!¡± Upon hearing the God of Water Elements speak, Sui Xiong became more convinced. Although it had been a long time since the God of Evil had become chaotic and disappeared, however, the God of Water Elements must have kept and hidden away the four great Divine Powers¡¯ aura, or even kept some sort of souvenir or token from the four from the past. Since the God of Water Elements was sure that the thing that the God of Light had swallowed from the chaotic body was the God of Evil, he would most likely be correct, and the news should be true. It was just that Sui Xiong still did not understand it. ¡°How is it that the God of Evil was so easily dug out of his chaotic body? How was he so easily swallowed as well? This seems unlikely given that he is a great Divine Power!¡± ¡°Firstly, the thing that the God of Light dug out was merely a core as that was all he needed. Furthermore, the God of Evil can no longer be counted as a great Divine Power! His strength has long been damaged and diminished ever since he clashed with the Power of Chaos. More importantly, his intelligence has almost been totally destroyed and worn out¡­ You can¡¯t believe that the God of Chaos could have been so easily swallowed by him without any ability to retaliate?¡± This was the moment where Sui Xiong began to understand the situation more clearly. Although the God of Evil had targeted the God of Chaos and had swallowed him whole, in reality, he had also been damaged severely when the God of Chaos had attempted to retaliate. After that, one could see that it was hard to determine a clear victor from the conflict between the God of Evil and the God of Chaos. Although it seemed like the God of Chaos had lost on the surface, his intelligence had not suffered much damage. The Dragon of Chaos had inherited most of his intelligence, and with enough time passing, strength could definitely be accumulated back as well. On the other hand, the God of Evil may have seemed to have won on the surface but had actually damaged his intelligence and in the process, lost the possibility to stay flexible and continue growing. In the long term, he may not actually have won this conflict. Of course, when we discussed the long term, it was really very, very far ahead. From the past to the present, the Dragon of Chaos had only recuperated to being more advanced as compared to normal Divine Powers. He could fight and defeat the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, but was only a little stronger than the God of Justice just by a little. As compared to Chaos, that was still lacking in strength significantly. If the Master of Order took action, he could possibly help the God of Chaos resurrect and could even allow the God of Evil to regain full consciousness. However, the Master of Order was seemingly oblivious towards these two Great Divine Powers. It appeared that he wanted to maintain a neutral stance by not helping either side. At the most, he would favor the God of Chaos a little and ensure that it was not fully eaten up by chaos. When the new great Divine Power, the God of Light had appeared. He had grabbed hold of Chaos and Sui Xiong¡¯s battleground and gave Chaos a heavy hit with one blow, and in the midst of it all, he had dug out the God of Evil¡¯s core and swallowed it himself. It was clear that he wanted to devour the God of Evil and absorb his power to overthrow the Master of Order, which would make him the hegemonic leader of this entire world. Sui Xiong finally understood the matters of the past to the present and nodded to himself internally. Now, he was curious about two things in particular: Firstly, was the God of Light, who had swallowed the core of the God of Evil, able to defeat the Master of Order? Previously, the God of Light was definitely disadvantaged if he were to fight the Master of Order. If not, he would not have had to borrow the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ blood and flesh¡¯s aura to awaken chaos and draw it to climb out of the depths. This was an extremely dangerous thing to do. If Sui Xiong had not assisted him sufficiently along with the other Divine Powers, and the Dragon of Chaos did not have enough treatment, they would have been defeated thoroughly, let alone be able to control the chaos. If chaos was suddenly unstoppable and had seeped from the surface of this world to within the world, the Big Circulation would be disrupted. At that point, even if the God of Light was a great Divine Power, he would be meted an extremely strict punishment by the source of the world and would possibly have been bumped down from great Divine Power to Divine Power level! To be honest, this method of God of Light¡¯s was really a rather risky gamble. Sui Xiong did not understand what exactly had inspired the God of Light to take on such an earth-shattering gamble but it was definitely overly dangerous and rather foolish! The God of Light¡¯s thinking really confused Sui Xiong sometimes. The second thing Sui Xiong was considering was, even if the Dragon of Chaos had swallowed the powers left behind by Chaos, could he recuperate till the level that the God of Chaos was originally at in the past? Although the God of Chaos had suffered great damage in the past, his intelligence had not been heavily harmed. Although Chaos¡¯ core was stolen by the God of Light, his evil powers were still satisfactorily strong. If the Dragon of Chaos was really able to meld the two together, he could possibly regain the glory of the past and return to the level of Great Divine Power. No¡­ In actuality, it would even be stronger sine the evil powers left behind by Chaos were rather strong in itself. If the Dragon of Chaos recuperated into the God of Chaos, then chaos and order as the two great Divine Powers would both still be present. Although their personalities directly clashed, they would perhaps join forces in the face of a new challenger, the God of Light. The God of Light had swallowed the God of Evil¡¯s core and digested it. Nevertheless, this may still have been insufficient if the two great Divine Powers allied together. If that was so, Sui Xiong was really rather apprehensive about what the God of Light was about to face. He felt that this fellow somewhat had a brain problem, seeing as he had done so many meaningless and foolish matters. All along, the God of Light had seemed like he was in a hurry as well¡­ but what could he be rushing for? Sui Xiong thought about this matter hard to himself. However, he could never guess that the reason for the God of Light¡¯s anxiety was himself! This whole communication process was done through divine thought and was extremely fast. Even with the added time of thinking by Sui Xiong, the whole process only took one to two seconds. In this period of time, the murderous and killer expression on the God of Light¡¯s face had slowly faded away. The light ball that had formed due to the Master of Mystery¡¯s self-destruction in front of the Master of Order had also significantly decreased in glow. Watching as the light ball slowly extinguished, the Master of Order suddenly turned his fists into palms and suddenly became extremely big and powerful in an instant, grabbing hold of the light ball. ¡°You should not die here,¡± he said. As he spoke, he waved towards a direction behind him. A beam of white light broke the void and landed in front of Sui Xiong, solidifying into a young man with a pale and stunned expression. This young man had trademark long ears and a lanky body, which one could immediately identify as characteristics of the elves. The aura he gave off allowed one to identify him as the Master of Mystery. Alright! Sui Xiong could now answer the considerations he had before. This fellow Master of Mystery was actually a member of the elf race! He was rather similar to the God of Conspiracy and the God of Potion, who were all later generations of the elves left behind during the Great Migration of the Elf God System. They were meant to serve the main purpose of protecting and escorting the elf tribe! Chapter 968 Chapter 968: Evil (Part 3) Watching as the Master of Mystery resurrected and showed his true form, Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but laugh coldly. ¡°This fellow really hid himself!¡± As he watched the Master of Mystery casually turn back into his old human form, he spoke in a strange tone, ¡°Stop acting! The whole world already saw your form just now!¡± The Master of Mystery, who had resurrected with the help of the Master of Order, then somewhat regained his composure and got himself up to date with current matters with Sui Xiong¡¯s divine thoughts that were transmitted to him. He couldn¡¯t help but smile bitterly. ¡°Ah! I¡¯ve been in disguise for so many years¡­¡± He shook his head in frustration and turned himself back into his original form. ¡°How do I address you?¡± ¡°Just call me the God of Mystery. I was previously the elf god system¡¯s God of Spells, Arts and Culture. I¡¯ve just been using the God of Mystery¡¯s form to hide my identity¡­¡± Just as the conversation was ongoing, Sui Xiong and the God of Mystery¡¯s eyes suddenly enlarged dramatically, and a stunned expression appeared on their faces. They saw the God of Light¡¯s body of armor suddenly lose its glow and disappear. When it reappeared, it had already become pitch black. This black armor was no longer bulky and heavy, and there was no longer a mask for the face area. Everyone could then directly see the cold, evil smile on the God of Light¡¯s face that caused all to shiver. What the!? Blackening!? Just as the idea flashed across Sui Xiong¡¯s mind, he saw the God of Light¡¯s war hammer suddenly become pitch black as well without warning. Once the war hammer had hit the Dragon of Chaos, who was almost fully formed, its entire body was almost fully demolished. ¡°Ah! What does he plan to do!?¡± Sui Xiong shouted out in shock and rushed up in an instant, wanting to save the Dragon of Chaos. This old dragon and Sui Xiong had made a pact in the past to help each other. Sui Xiong had previously borrowed the God of Virtue¡¯s treasure from the old dragon before and gained much from it. He had most recently also depended on this old dragon for treatment in order to escape from the danger of burning to death by the chaotic fire. Currently, it was logical that Sui Xiong should help the Dragon of Chaos out when it was the one in danger. However, even before Sui Xiong could reach the Dragon of Chaos, he saw the Master of Order wave his hands to pull the two disjointed parts of the Dragon of Chao¡¯s bodies towards them. Sui Xiong immediately expanded his tentacles into a giant web and safely caught the Dragon of Chaos in it after it flew towards him. The Master of Order had used a rather special and ingenious technique. The Dragon of Chaos¡¯ body had been made to fly at an extremely accelerated speed, but once Sui Xiong caught it, its body stopped moving and this made it much easier for Sui Xiong to hold on to it. However, Sui Xiong suddenly furrowed his brow. He could clearly feel that the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ body was quickly falling apart. The hammer that the God of Light had used to hit it had delivered a fatal blow that endangered the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ life. If the Master of Order was able to offer some aid, it was possible to heal this wound and save the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ life. However, as the Master of Order was facing the God of Light, he had no power to spare to help the Dragon of Chaos recuperate. As for Sui Xiong himself¡­ If he wanted to devour and digest, he could. However, to offer treatment¡­ he was unable to do so. All Sui Xiong could do was watch in frustration as the Dragon of Chaos slowly lost all its aura and passed away. ¡°Why!?¡± Sui Xiong couldn¡¯t help but ask the God of Light. The God of Light did not answer or even glance in Sui Xiong¡¯s direction. He was staring stonily at the Master of Order, with his mouth cocked at an obnoxious angle and an evil, dangerous smile across his face. The armor and weapons of his had all already become black. The God of Light¡¯s entire body emitted a new aura of deep evil alongside his original violent aura, which was immensely shocking and scary. ¡°What other¡­ reason¡­ could there be? He¡¯s scared that¡­ I will join forces¡­ with the Master¡­ of Order¡­¡± The Dragon of Chaos¡¯ body was flashing with sporadic light, and it seemed like it was slowly forming together. However, only one out of his three brains were left, and his aura was quickly depleting, signaling that he was about to pass away soon. ¡°Auscar¡­ help me¡­¡± the Dragon of Chaos said weakly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I want to, but I can¡¯t,¡± Sui Xiong forced out a bitter smile. ¡°I have no ability to heal you.¡± The Dragon of Chaos shook his head. ¡°Help me¡­ get revenge¡­¡± ¡°I can¡¯t win against the God of Light. Furthermore¡­¡± ¡°I¡­ have never¡­ offended him¡­.¡± The Dragon of Chaos was slowly losing the ability to speak, but his spirits remained strong, and he continued to talk to Sui Xiong. ¡°Instead¡­ I have even¡­ helped him before¡­ He promised¡­ to fight Chaos¡­ with me¡­¡± Sui Xiong immediately understood the situation. The Dragon of Chaos had not only pledged to join forces with Sui Xiong against Chaos, but had similarly done so with the God of Light as well. That was why he had rushed to where the two great Divine Powers had been dueling so calmly to swallow Chaos¡¯ remains, as he had assumed the God of Light would offer him aid. Who would have known that the God of Light would stab the Dragon of Chaos in his back and kill him instead! ¡°I¡­ cannot accept this¡­¡± The Dragon of Chaos¡¯ aura was almost completely gone, but he gathered all his remaining strength and bit into one of Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles. The Dragon of Chaos did not have much strength left, and this bite did not hurt Sui Xiong at all. However, with this bite, all of the dragon¡¯s powers all rushed together and entered Sui Xiong¡¯s body. With this rush of power came much understanding about Chaos as well as all sorts of relevant schemes and memories. On its deathbed, the Dragon of Chaos had chosen to pass on all his power and knowledge as an inheritance to Sui Xiong, in hopes that Sui Xiong could keep his promise and help it to gain revenge. Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes turned icy, and his face darkened as he watched the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ body slowly disappear. ¡°Go rest in peace, you can be assured that I will definitely give this backstabbing fellow the punishment he deserves!¡± Once Sui Xiong had uttered this promise, he felt like he vaguely heard the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ noiseless thank you in the distance. Sui Xiong raised his head and glanced at the God of Light, who was fighting the Master of Order. Although he still did not understand why the God of Light had betrayed the Dragon of Chaos, he had already promised to exact revenge for the Dragon of Chaos and he would do just that! The old dragon had always given people respect when it was alive. Now that it had died a wrongful death, Sui Xiong would fight for his face in his place. Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes glowed, and he glared hard at the God of Light. His eyes shone with immense power, and even the God of Light, who was emitting evil, felt a little uneasy and was a little distracted, staring slightly at Sui Xiong. With this short distraction, the Master of Order rushed up and suddenly appeared before the God of Light, striking him with a heavy blow. This blow was stronger than any other blow he had dealt in the past. Although the God of Light had prepared for it, he was also unable to fully absorb the impact and was sent flying backwards. Before the God of Light could stabilize himself, the Master of Order rushed up again and raised his fists once more. Each blow he dealt was stronger than the previous one, and the God of Light was unable to defend against them. The God of Light was slowly getting defeated with each blow. ¡°Wuther Rang, you¡¯ve finally managed to provoke me!¡± Ah, the Master of Order also had feelings like normal people and was able to feel anger? Many people had guessed that the Master of Order had no feelings. After all, in such an extreme and cold God Kingdom, how could there be an emotional god present? At this moment, however, everyone finally understood that they had made false assumptions before. Although the Master of Order¡¯s voice was not high or loud, the anger that was embedded within was something that even little children could identify. After being provoked time and time again as well as coupled with the death of his old friend, the Dragon of Chaos, the Master of Order was finally angry. In fact, he was angry beyond control and was practically raging. The Master of Order roared under his breath and delivered blow after blow that struck the God of Light like strikes of lightning in the void. These blows hit consecutively on the God of Light¡¯s body, who was so black that he no longer looked glorious. ¡°Letting you live till now was my mistake,¡± the Master of Order said coldly. ¡°Now, it¡¯s time for me to rectify this mistake! ¡°Die, Wuther Rang!¡± Chapter 969 Chapter 969: The Battle of the Great Divine Powers (Part 1) As the God of Light faced the raging Master of Order, he did not show any fear but instead smiled broadly. ¡°Haha! I see that you can get angry as well!¡± the God of Light said heartily and evilly as he dodged the attacks by the Master of Order. ¡°I originally assumed that you were really devoid of emotion and only focused on keeping the order of this world fully. Now that I¡¯ve managed to tear down your ¡®selfless¡¯ facade, you¡¯ve finally shown your true feelings as well!¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m angry. I thought I was devoid of emotions in the past as well, just like how I thought you could bring some good changes to this world. Well, the current situation has proved me wrong. I do have feelings, and you are unable to bring any good to this world!¡± The Master of Order¡¯s voice was no longer neutral and calm like before. Instead, it was increasingly emotional, strict and fierce, with a murderous tone. ¡°You are the scourge that this world does not need!¡± The God of Light was beaten up badly by the Master of Order, yet he continued to taunt him. ¡°If you really felt that I was the scourge of this world, why did you not eliminate me sooner? With your powers now, if you used this amount of strength on me before, I probably would not have lasted till now even with my level of strength.¡± ¡°Previously, I was still hopeful, but I was wrong. Now, I will right this wrong!¡± ¡°Right this wrong? Up till now, you are still in denial of reality and unable to face the real mistakes that you have committed!¡± The God of Light roared loudly and raised his fists without the use of weaponry. He found a gap between the Master of Order¡¯s attacks and hit him squarely on the face with a heavy punch. ¡°This world never really needed any bloody rules about some right direction! Everyone fights continually and engages in constant wars, the strong survive, and the weak will cease to exist. Everyone has an equal opportunity to kill and uses their own strength to try and win. Only if we progress towards such a direction can we bring about real progress!¡± ¡°The Master of Order, you put on a facade of loving to protect this world, but you are actually just a selfish bastard! You really think that I can¡¯t read your mind? You¡¯ve always wanted to choose Auscar as your successor and pass on the great Divine Power seat to him, to allow him to create the new order of this world. Instead of being the mighty and selfless Great Divine Power that you claim to be, you simply want to be like the humans and choose a king to succeed you and pass it on like some old relic!¡± The God of Light raged on and ignored the Master of Order¡¯s attacks, holding up his fists and continually knocking his iron fists into the Master¡¯s face and body. ¡°As to your previous words, I¡¯m returning them to you! ¡°Your values, I do not agree with them!¡± The two Great Divine Powers stopped trying to use any special or mystical methods of sparring and instead became like two wild beasts, madly attacking each other. Each of their blows had mind-numbing strength embedded within, and all the shockwaves that were produced, if combined, would be enough to destroy this entire world. Even if it was a Great Divine power who was caught in these shockwaves, well, he would immediately become smoke and ashes even before he had a chance to escape or ask for help. The intensity of the fight continued to increase and spread out in all directions. At this point, where the two powers continually fought and gave out shockwaves, they had already caused a giant and deep earthquake on the Abyss, and the ground started splitting apart and breaking down. If they continued down this path, the entire Abyss would be destroyed by them. The devils in the Abyss could naturally sense the impending danger from the earthquake, and they all turned their heads from the borders of hell that they were at. No matter how much their skills differed from the two Great Divine Powers, they still roared and rushed towards them. Well, they were unable to even get close to the two Great Divine Powers and instead were killed, damaged or disintegrated by the shockwaves of the battle when they were a far distance away. Among which, even some of the giant devils who had strengths comparable to that of the Great Divine Powers and had been Abyss leaders were also unable to get close to the battling duo. The troops of hell finally were relieved of this intense battle. They panted hard with the burden of the war still crushing them, staring at the sky simultaneously. In the pitch-black sky, two shadows which were not particularly big, yet emitting auras stronger than the entire Hell were battling mercilessly. Even the leaders and royalty of the underworld could not understand their battle technique. All they saw was the two Great Divine Powers fighting like gangsters on the street, waving their fists and dealing blow after blow at each other. However, even the weakest and most insignificant soldier could tell that with every collision of their fists, the void split open a little more and was unable to settle down. Such a scene naturally scared all the cowards, and even the big lads from hell were also frozen in shock and felt rather uncomfortable. It was not that they were not brave enough, but rather, the two Great Divine Powers¡¯ combined strength was simply too great. It was like how humans would instinctively react and be shocked by sudden loud sounds or by seeing a sudden bright flash of light. Some noticed that in a place not far from where the two Great Divine Powers were battling, there was a giant jellyfish watching the battle, with its entire body bathed in light. Sui Xiong was probably the only one who could stand the shockwaves that were emitted from the battle between the two Great Divine Powers. He had always been very strong and had now gained a final inheritance from the Dragon of Chaos, uplifting his strength further. At the present moment, Sui Xiong was perhaps not at the Great Divine Power level yet, but he was definitely very close. The shockwaves of the battle between the God of Light and the Master of Order was perhaps strong enough to kill any Divine Power. However, it simply felt like a gust of crazy wind to Sui Xiong, and he simply needed to use a lot of strength to stabilize his body. He stood still and watched the battle, analyzing each side¡¯s battle strategy and gaining lessons and knowledge from it. Sui Xiong thought about how he would react and act if he were one of the parties in the battle. Of course, he was questioning this in the perspective of the Master of Order. This was because the God of Light was now his natural enemy. As Sui Xiong thought about how one would fight this battle, he also considered why the God of Light would have such a change overcome him. The God of Light was previously a loose master who was extremely domineering. Although he was indeed evil and cruel, he was definitely not a sly person and definitely would not do things that were disloyal or of betrayal. He was just not that kind of person. Why, then, was he acting in this backstabbing way now? As Sui Xiong glanced at the God of Light¡¯s pitch-black armor and weapons, he could vaguely guess why. This was probably due to the fact that he had swallowed the core of the God of Evil and gotten infected by the evilness in the core. Although he was a Great Divine Power himself, to swallow another Great Divine Power was definitely not a simple matter! This was similar to the past event of the God of Evil swallowing the God of Chaos in the past, which had caused his intelligence to be badly damaged and him to become a chaos demon, lying in the Abyss and hibernating for goodness knows how long. This bloody lesson was right before him, and yet the God of Light had still assumed that he could absorb and digest the power of the God of Evil without any negative side effects. Although he was originally a god in the Evil Camp, that did not mean all types of evil were the same! The God of Light had really overestimated himself this time, which was why he had committed such a mistake. In Sui Xiong¡¯s opinion, the God of Light, who was previously the Master God of the Human God System, had already fallen. The fellow who was now fighting hard with the Master of Order was but a shell of the old God of Light, a monster influenced by evil! As Sui Xiong glanced at the God of Light, who was fighting the Master of Order with his full body of evil, Sui Xiong could not help but remind himself internally to never make such a similar mistake. Such an ending was simply too big of a pity! Chapter 970 Chapter 970: The Battle of the Great Divine Powers (Part 2) The God of Light and the Master of Order¡¯s battle continued on. The entire Abyss was already destroyed by about three quarters due to this battle, even though they were actually fighting quite a distance away from it. For the remaining few devil leaders, they either burrowed down to the bottom half of the Abyss, or even the underground to hide or directly left the Abyss and escaped far, far away. Similarly, the gods were afraid to approach the battle area as well and could only watch this extraordinary battle from afar. They were shocked by the amount of damage that the gods¡¯ battle had produced. At the same time, they were worried at how the battle area was slowly nearing the Negative Plane of the Ring of the World as well as the junction of the Matter Plane. Yes, their area of battle was indeed slowly moving from the Ring of the World¡¯s Negative Plane towards the Matter Plane. This was because the Master of Order was slowly retreating in defeat. The great Master of Order had been controlling this entire world for a long time and could be said to be the king of the Big Circulation. However, he was no longer able to defend against the God of Light, who was now totally black. Every time each side exchanged blows, the Master of Order would take a step back. Although it wasn¡¯t fast, one could definitely tell that he was unable to defeat the God of Light. This piece of news was celebrated by the human gods while the remaining gods watched on in worry. If this was the previous God of Light, even if he defeated the Master of Order and became the overall leader of this world, it wouldn¡¯t be too worrying. Even if he was evil, he was rather traditional in his ways and was true to his word. He would definitely not do things that were out of character. He may not have been a kind leader, but he would not have been a dictator either. However, the present God of Light was totally different. Even if one disregarded the fact that he had backstabbed the Dragon of Chaos and murdered him, the evil vibes emitted from his body alone and that devious, evil smile on his face would already warn one that he was not someone good. If he managed to win over the Master of Order and became the ultimate leader of this world, everyone in this world would definitely suffer. This was to the extent where, if the God of Light became the overall leader of this world, the first thing he would do would be to massacre and get rid of all races except the humans and leave the entire world in the hands of the humans as the only living creatures with brains left. This sort of sick, twisted thing was probably something that he wouldn¡¯t have considered in the past. Now, however, it was highly likely that he would do something like this. Once they thought about this possibility, the gods from non-human races immediately shivered and were fearful, to the point where their hands and feet were cold. They were at a loss as to what to do. If even the great Master of Order couldn¡¯t defend against the fully evil God of Light, what could other gods possibly do? Their gazes thus naturally all landed on Sui Xiong. Everyone had witnessed the previous scene where the Dragon of Chaos had offered his last bit of power to Sui Xiong. Although they were unsure as to the extent of power that Sui Xiong had received, regardless, it was still power from a Great Divine Power source. With that kind of power, it was highly possible for Sui Xiong to intervene in the battle, change the outcome of it and assist the Master of Order in becoming the victor. Many gods had already begun discussing this possibility and prayed hard that Sui Xiong would take action and assist the Master of Order. Sui Xiong, however, did not agree just yet. It was not that he did not want to help the Master of Order. It was also not that he had great ambitions and wanted to challenge the God of Light solo. It was more of the fact that he had not yet found a good opportunity to intervene. The idea that onlookers of a situation often have the best viewpoint did not really stand here. The on looking gods totally did not understand how strong or weak the power Sui Xiong inherited was. They also did not understand the differences he had as compared to the two Great Divine Powers. Although he could withstand the shockwaves created by the battle between the two Great Divine powers, it definitely did not mean that he was able to directly compete and fight with them. According to Sui Xiong¡¯s internal calculations, if he were to enter the battle, he only had one chance to do so. This single chance had to be properly used. He could not afford to be hasty and waste this chance away with a misstep. If he did, not only would Sui Xiong lose his life, he would possibly lose the only chance that this world had against an evil god¡¯s takeover. After going through many experiences in his life, Sui Xiong was already numb to death. He was no longer afraid of it. Nevertheless, he did not want to lose his life in vain or for no good reason. Sui Xiong thus bided his time and observed the battle closely, trying to spot a good opportunity to take action. When the chance arose, he would use all his strength and fully intervene. He waited for a long time, but this chance did not come. Although the two Great Divine Powers continued to battle intensely, both their auras remained relatively intact, and there weren¡¯t many visible cracks, let alone any visible weakening. On the contrary, their aura¡­ seemed to be growing instead. This confused Sui Xiong immensely. They were both fighting a battle of life and death, which used a great amount of strength. How was it possible that they were growing stronger instead of becoming weaker? Could it be that they were the destiny protagonists like in fiction, who could continue to grow and develop in battle until they reached their peak and even crossed it? Ah! It didn¡¯t make sense scientifically! Although it was a little strange to talk about science in this world, that was really Sui Xiong¡¯s first thought. It was really illogical, and there was no explanation for it! How was it possible for someone to grow in strength while fighting a war? However, that was reality. The two Great Divine Powers were growing stronger, and so was Sui Xiong. On one hand, he was digesting and absorbing the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ inheritance, which was one of the past Great Divine Power, the God of Chao¡¯s strength and intelligence. They were not things that could be immediately grasped and he needed time to understand and take it in. In the process of doing so, Sui Xiong naturally became stronger. On the other hand, the gods who had pleaded with Sui Xiong to assist the Master of Order were also selflessly passing on their powers to him, with hopes that he could become stronger. At this point, even the most stingy gods also became selfless and relinquished their power freely. This was because they all knew that the only one who could help the Master of Order and reverse the situation was Sui Xiong. If Sui Xiong failed, the Master of Order would lose, and everyone would be doomed to die sooner or later. As they glanced at the God of Light and his evil vibes, their fear level increased. Since that was so, they preferred to lose their powers but attempt to hold on to their last hope, Sui Xiong. In this world, there were countless numbers of races with their own gods individually. Although these gods were not strong and only a few were of decent strength, there was strength in numbers nevertheless, and with the gathering of the gods, they amassed a great amount of power that should not be underestimated. At this point, this amassed power was all focused onto Sui Xiong to accompany the knowledge and strength passed on by the Dragon of Chaos, making him more powerful overall. They continued this until¡­ well, till Sui Xiong was strong enough to change the outcome of this battle. This moment came soon enough, and Sui Xiong and the gods did not have to wait long. Once the Master of Order was almost about to move beyond the Ring of the World¡¯s Negative Plane and the Matter Plane, Sui Xiong finally found a chance to strike. During one of the God of Light¡¯s attacks, his fists brushed against the Master of Order¡¯s. Although his fist managed to brush past the Master of Order¡¯s, he did not manage to hit him. Instead, the Master of Order¡¯s fish changed direction, and instead of striking the side of the God of Light¡¯s face, hit him squarely on the nose instead. Now was Sui Xiong¡¯s chance! Without any further hesitation, like a beam of light, Sui Xiong rushed out and directly went straight for the God of Light¡¯s throat. Chapter 971 Chapter 971: The Battle of the Great Divine Powers (Part 3) With Sui Xiong¡¯s current level of power, he was certainly able to assist in this battle of the great Divine Powers as long as he found the right time to do so. The time was now, and he had found an opportunity where the God of Light could not strike back. In reality, gods could grow numerous limbs, but no one would do that in a battle with a peer that had equal strength level. This was because one could only use their maximum powers when they were in a form they were most familiar with. The God of Light was a human, and he was of course most familiar with only having two arms and two legs. The two legs were meant for him to stand upright and could not be used for other things randomly. All he could use were his hands. The God of Light had already used his right hand to attack the Master of Order and had spent too much energy, making it impossible for him to immediately retract it. Now, only his left hand was free and usable. He could only use his left hand to defend against any possible attack by the Master of Order, or rather, Sui Xiong, who had appeared out of nowhere. This was a rather tough choice to make as either way, the God of Light would have to face danger. Yet, at the same time, it was still a simple choice as well as no matter how powerful Sui Xiong was, he could not be as powerful as an angry Master of Order. Enduring Sui Xiong¡¯s attack was still better than that of the Master of Order¡¯s. The God of Light thus simply turned his body slightly in an attempt to defend against Sui Xiong¡¯s attack. His left hand remained in the air and pointed towards the Master of Order. What the Master of Order proceeded to do next was not surprising as well. Once Sui Xiong had intervened, this leader of the world for the past few decades immediately understood that now was the chance to reverse the battle outcome and emerge victorious. He raised his left fist without hesitation and used all the strength he had left to hit the God of Light sharply. This was a rather opportune attack, and he hit the God of Light the same time Sui Xiong did. The God of Light thus had no choice but could only raise his fists in an attempt to defend himself. To a Great Divine Power, whatever pose or battle stance they used did not really matter. Once fists were exchanged, there were only two outcomes of either getting hit or defending, but it was impossible to hide. In comparison, no matter how fast Sui Xiong¡¯s attack was, he could not beat the God of Light¡¯s swift dodging. The God of Light thus felt that he had nothing much to fear. Well, he was wrong. Sui Xiong¡¯s attack was similarly one that he was unable to fully hide from. After receiving the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ inheritance, although Sui Xiong was still not quite considered a great Divine Power and had a small gap to fill before he could reach that stage, he was not far from attaining that level. To Sui Xiong, as long as he aimed properly and was not completely blocked, he would definitely be able to damage the God of Light. This was similar to a character¡¯s key move in a random card game that he used to play on Earth. As long as the card was not blocked by an action card like ¡°Invincibility¡± or ¡°Iron Wall,¡± he would definitely be able to launch a successful attack or even a fatal one at that. If it was not for Sui Xiong being stressed and focused right now, he would definitely have cheekily tried to emulate the game character¡¯s catchphrases while attacking the God of Light, saying things like ¡°I will now take your heart¡­¡± The God of Light had dodged the swift attack that Sui Xiong had launched with his sword by turning his body, but the sword that resembled a shooting star did not bend or turn but instead directly hit the God of Light in his throat. At the speed of a shooting star, the God of Light¡¯s head left his body and flew high in the sky, his shocked expression still painted on. Even before waiting for his reaction, the shooting star had already expanded like a giant web and sucked his brain in before rushing off and flying to goodness knows where. Decapitation! This type of injury, to anyone else, would almost certainly be fatal. However, to the gods, it was not such a huge deal. Gods mostly needed to protect the core of their divinity. As long as the core was not destroyed, any injury, big or small, would not be an issue. Furthermore, the core of a god¡¯s divinity was flexible and not fixed in shape or size. Be it beheading or even the disintegration of the body, they could all just be considered changes in the body. Yet, in a crucial battle like this, the loss of the brain was a rather serious matter. The God of Light did not lose all his senses, such as sight and sound, just because his brain was now gone. A god¡¯s senses naturally did not require body organs. Nevertheless, with the loss of his brain, the God of Light¡¯s balance deteriorated immensely and he stiffened up due to the shock and the pain of Sui Xiong¡¯s attack. This all happened within an extremely short period of time, maybe even a microscopic amount of time. However, to the Master of Order, who was a great Divine Power like the God of Light, it was enough. It was plentiful and extremely useful. Within this short period of time, the God of Light received hundreds of punches. Each punch differed in strength, with some being a little weak. However, together, the punches formed a giant cage that locked the God of Light within. This temporarily cut off his connection with the source of the world. Unlike the God of Light, who was younger, the Master of Order was a master who had entered the great Divine Power Realm many years ago. Regarding battles at the great Divine Power level, he had experience. This was especially due to his participation in the battle between the four great Divine Powers and the King of Four Elements in the past. It was also partially due to the fact that he had fought many other wars with the other three Great Divine Powers in the past, to the point where he had lost count. When the God of Light had gained an advantage at the start of this battle, the Master of Order simply gave in initially and showed his weaknesses while being forced to take steps back. However, now that he had the chance to retaliate, one single attack by the Master of Order was able to severely hurt the God of Light. Why were great Divine Powers so strong? Well, this was because the power they received from the source of the world greatly exceeded that of the Divine Powers. In that case, what if the great Divine Power¡¯s connection to the source of the world was temporarily disrupted? Of course, they would be greatly weakened. The God of Light immediately recognized and understood the danger that he was in. He could not care less about the Jellyfish God who has performed a sneak attack on him. Instead, he gathered up all his strength and hit the Master of Order heavily. His body strongly emitted vibes of evil and malicious intent, like a damaged wild beast who was cornered and had nowhere else to run. Those who saw his evil stance would assume that there was the possibility that the God of Light wanted to perish alongside the Master of Order! Well, the Master of Order had the advantage now. Why would he want to perish alongside the God of Light? The Master of Order immediately waved both his fists, wanting to block the God of Light¡¯s attack. However, just at this moment, a devious and dangerous smile appeared on the God of Light¡¯s face as he regrew a new brain. With a wave of his hand, yet another light ball flew towards the Master of Order. In that light ball, there was a face that had an expression of insanity and hope, eroded by the extreme forces of evil¡ªthe God of Aristocracy who was being converted through demons. Since the God of Royalty had not yet completed his resurrection, the God of Aristocracy had not fallen from the level of great Divine Power, even though they had felt the pain of having their priesthood torn apart. All along, they had been protected by the God of Light and was thus able to maintain a strong level of divinity as well as divine enchantments. Now, it was clear that all these benefits provided for by the God of Light were merely to ensure that the God of Aristocracy was available for use as a suitable bomb during a key moment like now. Such a move shocked everyone present as none of them had expected it. Everyone knew that the Master of Mystery had landed in the hands of the Human God System and were not totally shocked at the fact that he had been made a bomb. However, the fact that the God of Light had even used the God of Aristocracy, a god who was supposedly to be the next great Divine Power and become the Human God System¡¯s Master God, and was willing to turn them into a bomb¡­ No one had expected this at all. The Master of Order had, of course, been shocked and caught off guard as well. The God of Aristocracy was not an extremely good god but nevertheless, their existence was extremely important to this world. Using his basic ¡°order¡± ability, the Master of Order managed to agilely catch this bomb flying towards him and wanted to repeat what he did in the past, which was to convert it such that the God of Aristocracy would not meet their downfall and would be able to resurrect. Previously, the God of Light was busy trying to absorb and digest the power of the God of Evil. He thus did not have time to play tricks and was only able to quickly seize one chance to hit and kill the Dragon of Chaos. However, this time, he had enough time to take action. He smiled coldly and his body quickly turned in circles. Quickly, he broke through the cage that the Master of Order had trapped him in, regaining a connection with the source of the world. That was not all! The God of Light continued to take action with a rapid attack. Just as the Master of Order was fixated on saving the God of Aristocracy, the God of Light used this distraction to quickly hit the Master of Order squarely in his chest! Chapter 972 Chapter 972: The Battle of the great Divine Powers (Part 4) The Master of Order had spent some of his energy on saving the God of Aristocracy and was thus unable to defend against the God of Light¡¯s fists. The God of Light managed to hit the Master of Order with full power, causing the Master of Order¡¯s body to lurch with silver-white blood flying in all directions. What was worse was that, along with this attack, the God of Light¡¯s powers finally managed to find a loophole, and he used this newly created wound to encroach upon the Master of Order¡¯s body. To someone who was a part of the great Divine Powers, such an attack almost fully guaranteed victory at this point in time. However, the God of Light did not rest his case. He continued to fervently attack and every punch aimed at the Master of Order¡¯s chest, which had been blown wide open. Despite the fact that the Master of Order frantically created a third arm for defense against the God of Light, he was still unable to defend against every single hit and was often affected by the attacks. Nevertheless, even in a dangerous situation like this, the Master of Order continued to use his energy to save the God of Aristocracy. To him, saving the God of Aristocracy was essential to protecting the order of this world, just like how killing the God of Light would also help towards the same purpose. Since both factors required his attention, the Master of order could not simply pick one and instead had to force himself to multitask. Preserving the order of this world was the exact priesthood of the Master of Order. This was his belief and his downfall. In the previous years, he had repeatedly faced the dilemma of having to take care of two situations involving order simultaneously. During those times, however, he had had sufficient strength and was able to multitask brilliantly, juggling the situations well. However, today, unlike before, the Master of Order was not able to get the best of both worlds. Seeing as the Master of Order was slowly crumbling on his own, with a flash of light, Sui Xiong once again changed himself into a shooting star suddenly and went for the God of Light¡¯s brows. He had already destroyed the God of Light¡¯s original brain. Now, not only was Sui Xiong free to attack the God of Light again, he could even use a larger amount of strength and pose a larger amount of danger to the God of Light. The God of Light, however, did not seem to care. He simply waved one hand and sent Sui Xiong flying off. While Sui Xiong flew backwards, he was even coughing up blood! This short period of time where the God of Light was distracted was not enough for the Master of Order to do anything. However, just as the God of Light¡¯s other hand continued to punch towards the Master of order, a rusty and chipped lumberjack reached out his hand to stop him. The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, had taken action. The God of Light was extremely shocked. He had not expected that the God of Justice would actually come forward to stop him. However, upon further thought, the God of Light understood the intentions behind Yorgaardman¡¯s intervention. He had, after all, swallowed the God of Evil and done all sorts of evil deeds. This had already crossed over the line between good and evil. In any case, the God of Justice had always hated the God of Light. Even if they had maintained good relations thus far, this moment was where the God of Justice could take action against the God of Light. As he thought, the God of Light couldn¡¯t help but smile. This was an evil and devious smile. ¡°Yorgaardman, if you had taken action earlier, maybe you could have been of help. Now it¡¯s too late!¡± As the God of Light spoke, he raised his other fist and disintegrated the axe of the God of Justice into powder. He did not stop there and moved all the powder to hit Yorgaardman¡¯s chest, sending the burly God of Justice flying just like a shooting star, where he hit and damaged tens of worlds in the process. If it was not for the combined efforts of several Divine Powers who had not strayed too far from the battlefield and had caught him, it was unsure just as to how far the God of Justice would have flown. Just at this very moment, Sui Xiong appeared again. He was still spitting blood, but his momentum was now increased. He was now no less powerful than the God of Light when he had first stepped into the great Divine Power level. The God of Light¡¯s attack had definitely harmed him, but it had also forced Sui Xiong to maximize his potential in this crisis. He then combined the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ inheritance, the power shot out by the God of Light and the added strength gifted by the other gods and quickly absorbed and digested it into his own strength. If it was not for the lack of time to stabilize and gain full control of his newfound strength, Sui Xiong could possibly be considered a great Divine Power now. The jump from Divine Power to great Divine Power of course included many amazing features. However, in the setting of a war, these features were actually of little use. It was just like how, if a fighter faced an ordinary human, he could showcase all sorts of beautiful and mesmerizing fighting stances. However, if he faced a fighter of the same level, they would just look like ordinary and overused stances and tactics. Beautiful and mesmerizing things usually lacked practicality. In comparison, useful things often did not need a beautiful exterior to showcase their value. Using a sword that was adorned with gold and all sorts of jewels would not necessarily bring about more harm to the enemy than a normal large knife with no engraving. What really mattered was the user of the weapon and how he utilized it. The Sui Xiong of the present was just like the plain, normal knife mentioned. It may not have an appealing exterior, but it definitely was not lacking in potential either. This time, the God of Light had to use around three whole seconds to send Sui Xiong flying again. Although Sui Xiong¡¯s injuries were more severe than before, where just one more attack would cause him to lose his life, he had already achieved his goal of buying extra time for the Master of Order. These three seconds, as well as the time that the God of Justice had bought previously, was now sufficient for the Master of Order. With a wave of his hand, the God of Aristocracy was freed from the bomb and flew out. Although the infection of evil on the God of Aristocracy was not fully removed and the pain from the destruction of his priesthood was still present, at the very least, their life was saved. After doing that, the Master of Order once again rushed towards the God of Light and raised his fists. This time, it was the Master of Order¡¯s turn to gain an opportunity to strike first. It was undeniable that the God of Light was extremely strong, to the point where even if the strong yet injured Master of Order were to seize this opportunity, he would still be unable to redeem an advantage for himself. If the battle were to continue on, perhaps within a short period of time, the God of Light would be able to reverse the outcome of the battle in his favor yet again. However, right before that, Sui Xiong had already regained his composure and rushed up again to help. This time, he was once again stronger than before. He was just like a cockroach that never died, where every time he was beaten down, he stood back up even stronger. As long as his fighting spirit was still intact, his strength could continue to increase infinitely. With Sui Xiong¡¯s help, the Master of Order gained a great advantage and managed to powerfully hit the God of Light such that the latter flew back several steps, somewhat balancing out the previously skewed battle. In this third exchange, the God of Light required a full ten minutes to find a suitable chance in this intense battle to damage Sui Xiong. This was not done with his fists but rather with his weapons that had already become fully black. His sword was continually emanating vibes of evil and anger. This attack with the sword nearly sliced Sui Xiong in half. However, even before this attack was complete, the Goddess of Wealth and the God of Righteousness and Law had already joined forces, standing on Sui Xiong¡¯s either side before picking him up and disappearing. These two Divine Powers ran for their lives and focused on escaping. This made it impossible for the God of Light to chase them and Sui Xiong in light of his ongoing battle with the Master of Order. Sui Xiong was thus yet again able to keep his life. Although the God of Light was angered at the thought of Sui Xiong being able to slip away, he was also relieved that this distraction was now gone. He could now focus on killing the Master of Order! Well, he spoke too soon¡­ Once the God of Light managed to regain an advantageous position against the Master of Order after a laborious period of time, Sui Xiong re-appeared yet again. The God of Light¡¯s roar could be heard over the entire world. Apart from a tinge of evil, the roar was mostly one of frustration and annoyance. Chapter 973 Chapter 973: The Battle of the Great Divine Powers (Part 5) The more Sui Xiong¡¯s power increased, the more disadvantaged the God of Light was. Originally, the God of Light had not been as powerful as the Master of Order. In order to level the playing field, he had had to swallow the core of the God of Evil for maximum results. If given enough time, say, 800 years, the God of Light could sufficiently digest the core of the God of Evil, he could possibly stabilize the foundation of his powers further just like how Super Saiyan had gone from Tier 1 to Tier 2! It would allow the God of Light to have a giant advantage over any normal Divine Power. However, time did not allow for that right now. The Master of Order¡¯s level of strength as a great Divine Power was solid, and he could even be considered the ultimate veteran among the great Divine Powers. As for Sui Xiong, although he had just stepped into the great Divine Power level, he was at least in possession of the skill of defense in a war like this. With their alliance, the God of Light was hit from all directions and suffered badly. Once, the God of Light had also tried to severely damage Sui Xiong while he was internally injured himself. However, Sui Xiong¡¯s Power of Life was simply too strong. Furthermore, he had several Divine Power friends as his second line of defense. After taking every severe hit by the God of Light, there would be Divine Powers rushing over to rescue Sui Xiong, bringing him to a faraway place to recuperate. After a short period of time, Sui Xiong would return to the battle refreshed and lively, causing the God of Light¡¯s attacks to be futile. No, it was not really futile. For Sui Xiong to heal quickly, there were be at least 300 gods who gathered together each time Sui Xiong was injured. After he was rescued and brought away from the battle, these gods would send divine blessings to him in large amounts. They felt that they needed to cut up a few big holes in Sui Xiong¡¯s body to transfer the divine blessings and nutrients into him using a high-pressure water pipe! After receiving the divine blessings, Sui Xiong not only recovered extremely quickly but even received an upgrade to his powers every time he was treated. It reached a point where he was a little unsteady in controlling this newfound power as it had increased too quickly for him to be fully comfortable with it. The sheer amount of added power Sui Xiong had received could easily be seen in his inability to react to it and use it at this moment. This was also visible if one observed the torn and shattered armor of the God of Light. With the combined attacks of the Master of Order and Sui Xiong, the God of Light¡¯s situation worsened, and his strength slowly decreased over time. Eventually, his power reached an extremely dangerous low. If he continued to fall, he could even fall from the great Divine Power to Divine Power. At this point, it was not hard to see that the God of Light would definitely lose this battle. Nevertheless, Sui Xiong and the Master of Order were still extremely cautious and fervent in their attacks. The God of Light also did not show much frustration or confusion on his face. He simply sighed slightly and seemed extremely disappointed. ¡°I guess¡­ in the end, we still have to¡­¡± Before he could finish his sentence, Sui Xiong trapped the God of Light once again. As his powers were already greatly diminished, the God of Light could not escape Sui Xiong¡¯s hold. As long as the Master of Order took this chance to attack with all his might, with two or three minutes, the God of Light would really be beaten to death. The God of Light, who was now in a bad situation, seemed as though he did not want to continue fighting for the next two to three minutes. Instead, his aura suddenly dipped from great Divine Power to Divine Power, to mid-level Divine Power, to low-level Divine Power¡­ With such a drastic drop in aura, under the watchful eye of Sui Xiong and the Master of Order, the God of Light¡¯s aura directly hit rock bottom and even broke the lowest aura of a god, causing his downfall directly to the human level. Even so, it continued decreasing rapidly. Once his aura had reached the ultimate low, the God of Light suddenly smiled and said lightly, ¡°I will be back.¡± This was the last thing he said. Afterwards, the God of Light¡¯s body violently cracked like a ceramic pot hitting the ground. Almost instantly, his body became small pieces of different shapes and sizes. Sui Xiong froze and cautiously swallowed some of the smaller pieces. Most of the larger pieces, however, slowly disappeared and were nowhere to be found after a while. ¡°He¡­ has died?¡± Sui Xiong was a little confused and did not know what exactly had happened. ¡°Great Divine Powers¡­ do not¡­ die¡­¡± After such an intense battle, the Master of Order was a little out of breath. The injuries sustained had also not been treated, and it affected the way he spoke. After a while, the Master of Order treated his injuries and regained his composure before using a neutral yet lively voice to reply Sui Xiong. ¡°The God of Light must have some plan in his mind, and he will definitely resurrect someday. Even so, he will no longer be on an equal playing field with us by then.¡± Sui Xiong nodded his head to show his understanding. Although the final act by the God of Light was rather worrying, just as the Master of Order had said, no matter what the God of Light tried to plan, he would definitely not be able to triumph against the alliance between the Master of Order and Sui Xiong. As long as they maintained this alliance and ensured caution against any possible antics when the God of Light resurrected, they did not need to worry about him causing too much chaos again. Sui Xiong thought for a while before speaking again. ¡°So, does this mean we¡¯ve won the war?¡± ¡°Yes, we¡¯ve won,¡± the Master of Order said. ¡°The order of this world will definitely not be dictated further by the God of Light.¡± At this point, Sui Xiong could finally relax, and he let out a long sigh of relief. He suddenly thought of something new and asked, ¡°Just now¡­ why did the God of Light suddenly become so¡­ evil?¡± ¡°He perhaps committed the same mistake that my old friend did in the past,¡± the Master of Order said. ¡°In the past, my friend had also swallowed another Divine Power quickly but was unable to digest him properly. Instead, the swallowed Divine Power fought back and this clash affected my friend¡¯s intelligence, making him a brainless animal. Wuther was definitely stronger than my friend but my friend was not weak either. It would not have been easy for Wuther to digest the God of Evil fully as well!¡± ¡°Does this mean the God of Light has been infected by evil?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°Well, ¡°infected¡± may not be the most appropriate term to use here. It is more that he fused with evil.¡± The Master of Order thought for a while before replying, ¡°Originally, the God of Light was an evil god. Evil was a part of his nature. It was just that he swallowed the God of Evil and the evil parts of him grew significantly, oppressing and cutting off all other parts of him. He thus seemed to be extremely evil on the surface¡­ Given enough time to slowly digest the God of Evil, the situation would have been better.¡± The Master of Order thought for a while before shaking his head. ¡°No, actually¡­ the situation would be worse. The God of Light would go from a frantic bully to an evil master in control of his body. The evil parts would not diminish and would simply fuse better with his intelligence, allowing him to use his evil powers in an extra clever way.¡± As Sui Xiong heard this, he could not help but worry. ¡°Does this mean he will become infinitely stronger after resurrecting? Just like how in the Human Realm¡¯s stories, is it possible that he will become a giant monster bringing doomsday to his world?¡± ¡°He is unable to be strong ever again,¡± the Master of Order replied. ¡°The great Divine Power level is already the peak level. No great Divine Power can win in a battle with two allied great Divine Powers. By the way, I think it¡¯s opportune that I congratulate and welcome you to the great Divine Power level!¡¯ Sui Xiong then relaxed fully and smiled brightly. He had totally forgotten that he had already advanced to the great Divine Power level! It was just that¡­ now that he was of this level, Sui Xiong had yet to choose his priesthood. He could not help but feel slightly lost and asked the Master of Order for his opinion and advice. ¡°If you have no priesthood, you can continue with that.¡± The Master of Order was rather open-minded. ¡°If you¡¯re willing, I can transfer my priesthood of order to you and allow you to be the new Master of Order of this generation. However, knowing you, you would not want to. In this world, there are naturally many gods who only took over certain priesthoods because they were able to do so with their powers. But yet, they do not truly suit their priesthoods. The Dragon of Chaos, who gave you that enormous amount of spiritual power, was also someone who went down that path. He was a leader of the gods. Since you¡¯ve inherited his powers, why not take over his identity as well?¡± Sui Xiong was slightly taken aback as he did not expect the Master of Order to give such a suggestion. He couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Do you mean to suggest that I should become an evil god?¡± ¡°Yes, you should of course become an evil god if you intend to be the leader of the evil gods.¡± An unreadable expression appeared on the Master of Order¡¯s face. ¡°Actually, over the past few years, you have been walking on that path as well. Maybe it¡¯s time for me to call you Master of Void Mask.¡± Sui Xiong thought back to the past and felt that the Master of Order made a lot of sense. He thus was able to relax and smiled back at the Master of Order. ¡°Alright! In that case, I will become an evil god and be the Master of Void Mask,¡± Sui Xiong said cheerily. ¡°The more I think about it, the more sure I am. Perhaps this is the time for me quote some poetry to express my delight¡­¡± Chapter 974 Chapter 974: The Development of Peace The death and defeat of the God of Light was a giant setback for the Human God System, who had previously been arrogant and mighty. Although they still had three Divine Powers in their system and were still one of the strongest out of all the races, with the loss of their main leader, the great Divine Power God of Light, they lost the ability to be dictators looming over the other races who were weaker and unable to defend themselves. They also had to concentrate on gathering their powers as a defense to prevent themselves from being attacked and hunted by the surrounding races who wanted them dead. At this moment, the leader of the honorable gods, the Master of Order and the leader of the evil gods, the Master of Void Mask, both agreed unanimously that there had already been too many unnecessary deaths of humans and gods alike in the giant war that had just taken place. They had proclaimed that everyone should maintain peace for a good period of time and recuperate first in the meantime. This basically meant that they did not support the other races forming alliances to attack and wipe out the human race. This was of course logical as although they had defeated the God of Light, it was undeniable from his disappearance that he would resurrect eventually and return to this world. When that time came, they would have to meet with him again. If they chose to allow for the extinction or destruction of the human race right now, once the God of Light resurrected, he would probably be so angered that he would become a huge terror. Having a terrorist-like great Divine Power would definitely be a nightmare for the entire world! With the joint statement by the two great Divine Powers, the gods of course did not speak more about the human race and temporarily put away their enmity with the human race. Instead, they directed their energy towards helping their own races recuperate, heal and regain their past powers. The giant battle had really wounded and defeated many. Be it the humans or the gods, their energy was all thoroughly spent, and it was definitely true that everyone required a good amount of rest now. However, the Master of Void Mask and the neutral gods did not require this rest. The gods in the Void Mask System, as well as those who had respected the wishes of the Master of Void Mask, had not even participated in this giant war in the first place. As for their leader, the Master of Void Mask, although he had sustained serious injuries in the war, this veteran managed to almost fully heal himself and was able to run and tumble around cheerily without much effort. Towards this, his blood brother, the God of Justice, had asked him curiously, ¡°How did you manage to heal so quickly? Is this a perk of being a great Divine Power?¡± Sui Xiong had replied, ¡°Those were just tiny injuries, they just needed a bit of saliva to heal.¡± Jellyfish saliva could be used to heal people? No one would believe that. However, glancing at Sui Xiong, who was active and cheery again, it was hard to say that he was lying. Furthermore, even if one did not believe it, who could interrogate this great Divine Power and force him to reveal the truth? The God of Justice thus simply shook his head and isolated himself somewhere quiet to recuperate in peace. In the giant war before, he had really sustained some serious damages and was hit till he had seen stars by the God of Light. Now, he really required a few years of peace to meditate and heal himself. With everything and everyone settling down, Sui Xiong glanced at the Main Plane, which was now left defenseless, and could not help but feel the urge to take action. He wanted to fix and improve the boundary of the Main Plane. He had originally assumed that whatever the Goddess of Life had done could be easily achieved by him, given his great Divine Power status. However, once he actually started taking action, he realized that there was much that he was unable to do! Among Sui Xiong¡¯s powers, the percentage of chaos was way too much. If he simply wanted to build a simple boundary, for example one that prevented access in and out of the Main Plane, it would of course be simple. However, to build a complicated boundary that could carefully pick its own targets and send those with a specific amount of power and above off the Main Plane, leaving behind only the weaker ones, well¡­ That would be rather difficult to accomplish. Sui Xiong tried with tens of models of differing sizes, but yet none of them fully met his expectations. The power of these models were either too strong or too weak; they were either too intense or lacked too much. In any case, they all were not as useful or reliable as the model that the Goddess of Life had made in the past. After many trials, Sui Xiong eventually gave up. He came to the conclusion that even with powers, he was not specialized enough to do this as he was not all-knowing. Instead, he converted his body into a transparent casing and covered the entire Main Plane. Since he was unable to create a boundary, he would use his own body as a temporary boundary in the meantime. In any case, with Sui Xiong¡¯s current powers, an insignificant clone would solve all the problems of a boundary without requiring him to have to fix the original boundary at all. It was just that the fact that he had failed in his original task, which bothered Sui Xiong greatly and left him feeling dissatisfied. Even though Javier dragged him to drink several hundred types of wine and eat thousands of foods, Sui Xiong could not fully shake off this depression. Of course, Sui Xiong would never admit that after a while, he was only pretending to still be depressed to lie his way into getting good food and drinks. After all, he was a great Divine Power, the leader of the evil gods, the respected and great Master of Void Mask, how could he be known to do such embarrassing things! Ah, all Sui Xiong could say was that those dishes were too delicious for him to resist to the point where he subconsciously improved his mood while eating good food. Time continued to pass uneventfully on the calm and peaceful Main Plane. About two to three years later, the God of Aristocracy from the Human God System requested for Sui Xiong to help them split priesthoods. The God of Aristocracy had already been tortured for a long time by the split of their previous priesthoods. After being tortured by the plans of the Goddess of Schemes, they were now highly paranoid, and their responses had diminished. Their face was pale to the point where it was becoming green, and their eye circles were extremely black and thick. It was as if the God of Aristocracy had become some sort of panda-human hybrid. They stated that they simply could not hold on to this pain any longer and begged the Master of Void Mask to help them out by removing all the parts of their priesthood that had been stolen away by the God of Royalty in the past. Even if the God of Aristocracy were to fall to become a low-level Divine Power or a weak Divine Power, they couldn¡¯t really care less. Sui Xiong did not reject the God of Aristocracy¡¯s request as he felt that they had already gotten the punishment they deserved by suffering all these years. Sui Xiong thus helped to solve this tiny problem. The interesting thing was that after the removal of the sections of priesthood, the God of Aristocracy realized that the parts that were removed were rather negligible. The remaining sections of divinity could still form a priesthood that would allow them to remain as a mid-level Divine Power. Even though the God of Royalty had an advantage in the arena of royalty, the priesthood of the God of Aristocracy was not as heavily impacted as they had assumed it would be. The fact was that in the past, the God of Royalty had merely been a normal mid-level Divine Power and was still at least 54,000 miles away from being a Divine Power. The God of Aristocracy on the other hand had been progressing with the support of their faith and had stepped into the Divine Power level. After removing the part now belonging to the God of Royalty from the God of Aristocracy¡¯s priesthood, the loss was definitely noticeable, but that was about it. Now that they had finally escaped their pain, the God of Aristocracy returned to the Human God System and began pushing for another big thing. They decided to start gathering the aristocrats and wanted to use the honor of the past as well as his bravery and mannerisms to win over the support of the humans. From there, he sent out several Oracles, cleaning up the circles of aristocrats. The dying and useless aristocrat tribes were abolished, and the upright and developing, or worthy tribes were noted. Under his cleaning up, the aristocrats experienced a fresh breath of life, and in many areas, humans began to restore their faith and respect in the God of Aristocracy once again. The God of Aristocracy used at least about 20 years¡¯ time to complete this entire mission. Next, he started on the next big thing in his grand scheme. He gathered the brave among the humans and called for them to raise their weapons, leave the Main Plane and expand into the outside worlds. He wanted them to use their intelligence and powers to find a new place where the humans could take over and live in peace. ¡°Let¡¯s begin the search! Let¡¯s mine! Let¡¯s find land we can call our own and use our names to create new worlds for ourselves! Even if in the future, this honor and glory is lost as it is passed down through the generations, this memory will still forever be etched in our minds and be god-like, eternal!¡± Under such a call, the humans once again began their developments noisily and intensely. Within a mere few hundred years, the humans had developed tens of worlds of differing sizes and shown power and morale that others had never seen before, thriving and flourishing at a rate that other races could only dream of enviously. The God of Aristocracy, banking on his achievements as a leader, gained large amounts of faith and once again regained their Divine Power status. Furthermore, they eventually took over control of the entire Human God System, became the successor of the God of Light and was effectively the next God King of the humans. Chapter 975 Chapter 975: Sharp Turn (Part 1) The Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom, ¡°Pioneer Country,¡± was colorful and joyous today; a large number of beautiful decorations brightened up the entire God Kingdom, which was previously known as the Court of Victory. There was a calm and happy atmosphere in the air and no sense of dissent or enmity to be found anywhere. Ever since the God of Aristocracy had convinced the human gods to change the direction of progress for the humans, the atmosphere and vibes in the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom had changed. Previously, it had been a toxic and aggressive atmosphere, but that had been slowly replaced with a positive environment of growth and building. To the adventurers who had developed this new world, conquering others through the use of magic and weapons was not really a good idea. The God of Aristocracy did not really support it as well. Instead, the God of Aristocracy encouraged these pioneers to use their smart brains and capitalize on the internal conflicts among landowners. They could use the excuse of economic and military matters to gain an advantage and take over as the leader, from which they would then have new land under their control. Of course, this could not be said to be a fully honest or legitimate plan, either. However, in using such a strategy, they faced less resistance. Furthermore, after they attracted the indigenous people, the pioneers would be able to rule in a much more stable fashion and did not really have to worry about being attacked or overthrown by the people. There were some who still insisted on using the traditional way of conquering, using weapons and magic. To these people, the God of Aristocracy did not directly oppose them, but they also did not render much support either. If they were able to manage their matters well, that would be to their advantage. If things went wrong and the people lost their lives, they could only blame themselves for their greediness. That would not concern the God of Aristocracy. The brain was a good thing to use, but not everyone utilized it well all the time. Today, the God of Aristocracy was officially ascending the throne as the Human God System¡¯s Master God. The Human God System had reached out to several God Systems as well as several road gods and even many evil gods as well as famous demi-gods to invite them to attend this ceremony. It was as if they were hailing the god of the skies or a true hero. There were only two main people who were not invited, the two great Divine Powers, the Master of Order and the Master of Void Mask. Towards this, everyone was clear as to why. The Human God System¡¯s previous Master God, the God of Light, had fallen after he had become a great Divine Power due to the allied attack of the Master of Order and the Master of Void Mask. Although logic stated that a great Divine Power would not die so easily, one was still unsure as to when he would resurrect and reappear. The Human God System was not extremely petty about the past, but even so, they could not convince themselves to let the past go given that their previous Master God had been killed by those two great Divine Powers. They thus did not invite the Master of Order and the Master of Void Mask here to watch the ceremony today. No matter how strong the God of Aristocracy was, they were still merely a Divine Power. Among the Divine Powers, they were also only considered rather average and would not be able to defeat peers such as the God of Justice. Inviting other Divine Powers to this ceremony was already pushing the limits of the Human God System, and if they proceeded to invite great Divine Powers, it would steal the limelight from the God of Aristocracy. At that point, many would try to catch the attention of the great Divine Powers and forget about the main star, the God of Aristocracy, causing him to lose face. Since they did not invite the Master of Void Mask, naturally, some of the gods who followed him did not attend as well. The Master of Void Mask was well connected, and the gods under him were rather powerful individually as well. Although some were often labeled and teased as ¡°salty pigs,¡± they had all used their own skills and had quietly risen in the ranks among the gods. This was admirable. Their absence to this ceremony made one feel like something was missing. Time slowly passed, and it was soon noon. All the gods had already arrived and were assembled on a newly built courtyard in the center of the God Kingdom. The God of Aristocracy was already waiting on a mini stage in the front of the courtyard and the two Divine Powers attending to him and conducting the ceremony, the God of Vagrants and God of Protection, were waiting patiently beside him as well as the courtyard slowly quietened down. After a while more, the MC, the God of Diplomacy, stepped up to the stage and began sharing on the accomplishments of the God of Aristocracy. What had the God of Aristocracy done? Well, naturally, they had been able to clean up the aristocratic circles as well as increase the morale of the higher rungs of the humans. Furthermore, he had pioneered the great development. Otherwise, the God of Aristocracy actually had not done much. The God of Diplomacy was a rather capable MC, and he managed his time well. Just as his speech for the God of Diplomacy was finished and he had invited the God of Aristocracy up on stage, it was coincidentally noontime when the two Divine Powers came forward to crown the new Master God. The unnoticeable crown that was merely adorned with thorns and iron rings was created for the first generation God King of the Human God System, God of Knights. At that time, the Human God System was still extremely backwards and did not have the tools to produce any exquisite crown. Afterwards, when the second generation God King, the God of Revenge, had taken over, someone had suggested building a new, exquisite crown that suited the great title of God King of the Human God System. However, the God of Revenge had rejected that idea, and he had simply said, ¡°All of you see this crown as plain and unassuming. I, however, see that glory and beauty are embedded in it.¡± He had changed his god name after adorning the crown, to ¡°God of Light.¡± When the crown and afternoon sunlight landed on the God of Aristocracy¡¯s head at the same time, signaling the start of his official leadership, everyone burst into applause. The actions of the God of Aristocracy over the past few years meant that he had indeed earned this seat and this crown. Even the gods who did not have a good relationship with the Human God System had to admit this point. After completing the ceremony, the God of Aristocracy gave a short speech. They stated that they would continue to maintain their efforts in terms of leadership and push for continuous development among the humans. At the same time, he would continue the pioneering developments in other worlds by the humans. The God of Aristocracy even invited other races to join the humans and work together to develop and build a more glorious world. This speech naturally earned the God of Aristocracy another round of hearty applause. Many gods nodded to themselves quietly and began seriously considering the God of Aristocracy¡¯s suggestion. After speaking, the God of Aristocracy, under the accompaniment of the human gods, headed towards the big temple to complete the last step of stepping up as God King: ascending the throne. In the center, at the back of the Human God System¡¯s big temple, there were three rows of three stages. At the top of these stages was the throne of the Human God System¡¯s God King. Although the God of Aristocracy had already completed the coronation, they would only be officially known as a God King and considered as completing the full ritual after they had sat on this throne. This was similar to Earth where the king had to put on the crown and sit on the throne, giving orders before he could truly be considered to have taken on the position. Normally, the human gods walked shoulder to shoulder. However, today, even the God of Vagrants and the God of Protection deliberately walked a step behind, allowing the God of Aristocracy to walk ahead as a sign of respect for his new position of God King. The God of Aristocracy slowly but surely walked onto the stage, in front of the throne and stared at it in silence for a long time. ¡°I¡¯ve never imagined that His Majesty would really choose to direct this seat to me,¡± He muttered quietly. ¡°I¡¯ve always felt that he was targeting me or even pushing me aside¡­ but I was wrong.¡± The gods did not answer him. In reality, many gods had the same idea, and even as the God of Diplomacy took out the treasure that recorded the will of the God of Light, many were still in slight disbelief. If not, the God of Aristocracy would have long ascended the throne and would not have to wait until today, where they had had to accomplish much to gain the recognition and respect of the other gods. The God of Aristocracy sighed slightly, smiled, and finally ascended the throne. Chapter 976 Chapter 976: Sharp Turn (Part 2) Once the God of Aristocracy had ascended the throne, the MC, the God of Diplomacy, stepped forward and passed the scepter that represented the God King title to them. The God of Aristocracy¡¯s eyes were sparkling with joy, but their face was serene and unreadable. They received the scepter peacefully. ¡°Today is a glorious day,¡± they said. ¡°Over the past few years, it has been hard on everyone.¡± The gods all muttered various phrases along the lines of ¡°not at all,¡± breaking the ice and acknowledging the God of Aristocracy at the same time. Just at this moment, a shocked and bewildered expression appeared on the God of Aristocracy¡¯s face. They bent their head assiduously and gazed at the throne they were sitting on. ¡°Your Majesty, what¡¯s the matter?¡± the God of Protection asked worriedly. It had not been easy for the Human God System to regain the glory of the past. They definitely could not afford to lose a leader that could bring them great development and progress! The God of Aristocracy kept their head bent and did not answer the God of Protection. The God of Protection furrowed his brows and glanced at the God of Vagrants. The two Divine Powers used divinity to communicate silently for a while before standing up at the same time, heading for the throne. Something was amiss! Right at this moment, however, the God of Diplomacy suddenly rushed up and blocked their path. ¡°Step down!¡± he yelled loudly. ¡°Do you want to cross Our Majesty!?¡± ¡°Are you crazy? There¡¯s something wrong with them right now!¡± ¡°Yes, but it is not your place to intervene! Step down!¡± The God of Diplomacy was firm in his intervention and wanted to continue arguing with the two Divine Powers. Before he could do so, however, he heard a voice ring out from behind him. A deep, dark and strong faith that shook the skies suddenly filled the air. This was a faith that no one would give up, a strong and mighty faith. ¡°Do not worry, I¡¯m fine.¡± The gods in the Human God System were all shaken to the core. Even the calmest amongst them could not help but stand up to glance at the shadow sitting on the throne. The one who had spoken, the shadow, was not the God of Aristocracy, who was adorned in beautiful and stunning ceremonial robes. It was the God of Light, who was dressed fully in a body of black armor. His face was dark and had on a menacing look, with a gaze that pierced one like lightning, inciting fear in all present. ¡°What is happening!?¡± ¡°Your Majesty¡­ Your Majesty has resurrected!¡± There was temporal chaos among the human gods, and yet one raised hand by the God of Light was enough to quieten them all down. ¡°There¡¯s no need to be shocked. There¡¯s also no need to be worried, this is real. It¡¯s not a dream,¡± the God of Light said somewhat slyly. ¡°As you all can see, I have come back to life. I return to all of you in my original identity as the God King of the Human God System, and will continue to lead you all and bring us to glory like I had before.¡± A few innocent, more naive gods couldn¡¯t help but directly let out shouts of joy. On the other hand, a few wiser, older gods couldn¡¯t help but feel slightly worried. The resurrection of the God of Light was, of course, good news. However, they worried about the reaction of the Master of Order and the Master of Void Mask. What would they do or say? They definitely would not simply let the God of Light resurrect without any objection¡­ The next few words that came out of the God of Light¡¯s mouth further shocked everyone present. ¡°To celebrate my resurrection, let us make use of the remaining useless fools out there.¡± He smiled an evil smile that had absolutely no trace of goodness. ¡°Let the sacrifices begin!¡± In an instant, the entire God Kingdom of the Human God System turned fully black like a giant, hard black stone. It suddenly appeared outside of itself and blocked the Master of Order and the Master of Void Mask, who were about to rush in. ¡°Oh no! We¡¯re too late!¡± The Master of Order furrowed his brows. Sui Xiong¡¯s brows furrowed as well, and he immediately contacted his friends who were present at the coronation ceremony for the God of Aristocracy. ¡°Don¡¯t waste time, quickly let go of your clones!¡± However, it was too late. At the scene, all the gods, evil gods and demigods were all frozen like wooden statues, motionless. Under their feet, the giant magical array was glowing with a strange sort of light. This light was extremely bright, but yet it gave off an extremely evil vibe. Under this evil glow, the clones of those present dissolved into a pool of bloody water and were absorbed into the ground. At the exact same time, their original physical bodies back in their own God Kingdom simultaneously exploded, causing the God Kingdoms to shake. A few gods who did not have souls to allow them to resurrect as well as those of a lower status were directly removed from the God Kingdom as well. Inside the Pantheon temple, there was absolute chaos. In this short period of time, a majority of the seats, as well as the physical bodies of all the gods they contained, had disappeared at the same time. One was also unsure as to when or whether they would resurrect, as well as the number of who could do so¡­ After all, there were several weak Divine Powers who did not have souls in the first place. Sui Xiong and the Master of Order were both painfully aware of this, of course. After glancing at each other, they reached out without hesitation and launched a massive attack on the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom. Previously, they were already unable to stop the resurrection of the God of Light. Now, they could only try to resolve the issue by making use of the God of Light¡¯s incomplete power to destroy the entire Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom along with him! As for the human gods¡­ it was still possible for them to save these gods after they had destroyed the God of Light. The combined attack by the two great Divine Powers was extremely powerful. However, when the attack hit the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom, which was now pitch black, there was not even a single crack that appeared on its surface. From within the God Kingdom, the God of Light let out a hearty laugh. ¡°Do you still think that I¡¯m the old me?¡± As he laughed uproariously, the God of Light emerged from the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom. He was wearing a thick layer of dragon-printed, black armor while holding a sharp and deadly glaive, making the God of Light look extremely fierce and evil. Even with such fearsome-looking clothes and weapons, they were nothing compared to the evil look that was on his face. ¡°Being a great Divine Power is not the final rank of this world. Well, you could also say that the title of a great Divine Power that the both of you possess is actually incomplete. I, however, am different.¡± There was a cocky look on the God of Light¡¯s face as he glanced scornfully at Sui Xiong and the Master of Order. ¡°I have greatly surpassed you all and have reached an even higher level. Even if the both of you work together, you will definitely not be able to match up to me and will be killed by my hands.¡± Sui Xiong and the Master of Order did not waste time trying to rebut the God of Light and instead rushed up towards him together. Their attack was seamless and landed squarely on the unprotected God of Light¡¯s body. However, it simply passed through his body and had no effect whatsoever, as if the God of Light were just a shadow and not an actual physical entity before their very eyes. Sui Xiong and the Master of Order¡¯s faces immediately changed as they had not expected this outcome at all. Towards great Divine Powers, the idea of physical entities versus shadows was never an issue. As long as they wanted to launch an attack, they could hit anywhere they wished, even if the enemy was not physically in front of them. Whether or not they could see the enemy was usually not an issue as well. Since they had decided to attack the God of Light together, unless the God of Light could singlehandedly defend against all their attacks, he should at least receive one or two blows instead of being how he was now, unharmed and calm. The God of Light was completely oblivious towards the attack by Sui Xiong and the Master of Order. He instead spoke up with a smug expression on his face that made one feel like punching him and breaking his nose. ¡°You both should be shocked by the lack of effect of your attack on me! Well, there isn¡¯t much to be surprised about. I already mentioned this previously: I have already surpassed the level of a great Divine Power and reached a boundary higher than you could imagine. This is the true power of the great Divine Power Realm! ¡°I¡¯m sure the both of you would like to reach this level as well. It¡¯s time for you to activate your brain cells and start thinking hard. Maybe you should learn from me and my previous death, so as to understand my strength and how I reached this level¡­ That is, if you stay alive long enough to do so!¡± Chapter 977 Chapter 977: Surpassing the Great Divine Power (Part 1) Towards the God of Light, who was cheerily mocking them, Sui Xiong and the Master of Order did not waver and instead continued to attack with greater intensity. A realm higher than that of a great Divine Power? The true great Divine Power? What nonsense! To a great Divine Power, the idea of life and death was no longer scary or menacing. As long as they had made the necessary preparations, dying hundreds of thousands of times was not an issue, let alone one death. Even if they died, they could continue to train tirelessly and improve themselves indefinitely until they were ready to resurrect. To really and truly kill a great Divine Power, one had to first cause them to fall from the great Divine Power Realm. They could only truly die if they were no longer great Divine Powers, either by their own free will of leaving the realm or because they were defeated in some ways and forced to drop out. For example, in the case of the God of Evil, he had swallowed the God of Chaos but was unable to digest him properly, and this had caused his downfall from the great Divine Power Realm. In the end, his core was dug out and swallowed by the God of Light and the God of Evil had thus died there and then. Another example would be the Dragon of Chaos. Previously, even if he had been swallowed by the God of Evil, he could still use his own great Divine Power Realm to fight his way through the situation and change into the Master of Evil, the Dragon of Chaos. This meant he had not truly fallen yet. He only lost his immortality after he tried to combine with the corpse of chaos and regained his own status, where he had chosen of his own free will to give up the great Divine Power Realm. Afterwards, when he was sneakily attacked by the God of Light, he sustained extremely severe wounds that cost him his life. At that point, the Dragon of Chaos had had no choice but to pass on his powers to Sui Xiong, who could then exact revenge on his behalf. Otherwise, be it the God of Virtue, who had given up his priesthood of his own accord, or the God of Light, who had been previously defeated by the allied attack of Sui Xiong and the Master of Order, no one could truly die. This was the reason behind Sui Xiong and the Master of Order¡¯s disbelief of the God of Light¡¯s words! Towards the ¡°I don¡¯t believe you!¡± attitude displayed by Sui Xiong and the Master of Order, the God of Light shook his head and laughed coldly. ¡°The both of you are truly¡­ stupid and foolish! It¡¯s getting hard to watch you both fight pathetically right now¡­¡± With that, the God of Light waved his hands, and an unimaginable large force suddenly descended, sending Sui Xiong and the Master of Order flying. This one hit caused them to fly a large distance where they banged and bumped into several objects along the way, making them dizzy and weak. After they eventually regained full consciousness and composure, they realized that they had been expelled from the Matter Plane of the Ring of the World to its Positive Plane, and were right beside the Wheel of Order. The God of Light had somehow managed to send them from one plane to another on the Ring of the World with one hit! Such power was truly hard to imagine. Furthermore, even with such a far distance, he was still able to control where they had landed; such control was definitely deadly and scary. In an instant, the God of Light wasted no time and materialized in front of the duo. ¡°How weak, how pathetic¡­¡± He shook his head as if he was extremely disappointed, and he sighed under his breath. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I was defeated by you two weaklings before; what an embarrassment!¡± ¡°How did you even get such powers?¡± Sui Xiong could not help but ask. ¡°Did you fuse light and evil?¡± ¡°Fuse light and evil? Hahaha! Your imagination is way too limited! You have no understanding whatsoever of a true great Divine Power!¡± The God of Light laughed loudly for a long time as if he had just heard a good joke. This laughter went on for a while before he stopped and used a mocking and condescending tone to say, ¡°If one is only bonded by either light or evil, how could one be considered a great Divine Power? I, of course, went beyond that and got myself a pure and full priesthood to reach the true great Divine Power level!¡± ¡°Does this mean you have also gone beyond evil?¡± Sui Xiong furrowed his brow. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, why are you still so evil in nature then?¡± ¡°Haha! This very question betrays your weakness and narrow-mindedness!¡± The God of Light started laughing madly again, till his entire body shook. ¡°I have already gone beyond good and evil, gone beyond order and chaos. That does not mean that I can no longer sin! Why can¡¯t I still be evil? You are still thinking about mindless things that you are bound to. With such a mindset, you are just someone who simply went beyond the Divine Power stage. However, you are definitely not a true great Divine Power!¡± Sui Xiong fell silent as he tried to make sense of the God of Light¡¯s words. On the other hand, the Master of Order spoke up now. ¡°Do you mean to say you have exceeded camps and intrinsic attitudes?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± the God of Light replied approvingly. ¡°Well, it¡¯s unsurprising that an elder like yourself, who existed before the Big Circulation, understands matters better as compared to your junior. I have already exceeded the normal rules and the grudges that you both hold on to. Actually, you both do not understand that holding on to grudges is extremely insignificant and meaningless¡­¡± The God of Light raised his hands arrogantly, gazing upwards, and smiled like a child who had successfully managed to kill some insects. This was a purely evil smile. ¡°I am good, yet I am also evil. I am order, yet I am also chaos. I am all this world is, and I am the true logic of this world!¡± His head was bowed, but his body continued to rise up as he glanced at Sui Xiong and the Master of Order. ¡°I am a higher existence like no other! Before killing the both of you, I will bestow upon you the honor of using the title of ¡°Supreme Lord¡± to acknowledge me!¡± The answer to that by Sui Xiong and the Master of Order was yet another combined attack. Like before, their attack simply passed through the God of Light¡¯s body with no effect whatsoever. The God of Light did not immediately retaliate with another attack but simply stood motionless and glanced at Sui Xiong and the Master of Order disdainfully. He did not move and allowed the duo to try several methods to harm him. However, like before, all their efforts were negligible and simply passed through the God of Light¡¯s body without any effect. After a while, a bored and impatient expression appeared on the God of Light¡¯s face. He sighed and said, ¡°At first, I thought that in the face of danger and death, the both of you would think out of the box and understand what I meant by entering the true great Divine Power Realm. I guess I just overestimated both your abilities to think. ¡°Forget it, I no longer wish to beat around the bush. It¡¯s time for me to kill the both of you. If even that doesn¡¯t enlighten the both of you, you simply do not deserve to continue living.¡± Just at this very moment, the Master of Order suddenly smiled. ¡°I understand now!¡± The God of Light and Sui Xiong both froze as they did not know what the Master of Order meant by saying that. What exactly did he understand? Could it be that he was enlightened on what the true great Divine Power Realm entailed? After all, from his previous attacks, it seemed like he was still unaware. The Master of Order did not explain further and instead grabbed hold of Sui Xiong, ordering him to remove all the realms using divine thought. Before Sui Xiong could even react to that statement, the Master of Order had already dragged him across countless worlds to the Main Plane, to his God Kingdom¡¯s Sanctuary. Before the God of Light could arrive, he raised his palm and hit Sui Xiong¡¯s body hard, causing Sui Xiong to fly like an arrow and crash straight into his own God Kingdom. This hit caused not only Sui Xiong but also the entire God Kingdom to fly into the Main Plane. What exactly was the Master of Order thinking!? Sui Xiong had no time to even react, and he could only complain to himself in his mind before he lost consciousness. In the last instant of being conscious, he used divine thought to give his final order to all his underlings. Vacate Void Mask City! Await my return! Chapter 978 Chapter 978: Surpassing the great Divine Power (Part 2) Sui Xiong dreamt a very, very long dream. In the dream, he crossed to an alternate world, became a giant jellyfish and swam freely in the giant ocean while training himself. Afterwards, he left the waters and ascended the ground, went through several weird and intriguing events, gained immense strength and achieved many remarkable milestones. In the end, all was peaceful and well as he returned to the sea and relinquished most of his powers. Sui Xiong did not do anything much but float freely in the sea like a free and unbothered nettlefish. Somehow, Sui Xiong felt that something was amiss even though everything seemed fine. He thus continued to float in the sea, slowly and freely. This continued for an extremely long time, and he simply went with the flow of the current mindlessly. After goodness knows how long, Sui Xiong began to feel bored, and his mind began to race again. Just as he wanted to take some sort of action, he felt like he no longer had any control over his own body. Sui Xiong could still clearly feel his physical body and the movement of every one of his tentacles. He could feel the sea water flow across his body as well as the distant sea breeze that was blowing at him. However, he no longer had any ounce of strength to even move about like a normal jellyfish could. All he could do was float in the sea, moving with the currents and tides without any control and free will at all. Sui Xiong was greatly shocked and panicked as he realized he could not do anything on his own. He no longer had any control over his limbs and could not move of his own free will. He lay in the sea and floated along with the currents while his heart raced with anxiety. There was simply nothing that he could do. After a while, his heart was peaceful again just like the vast, empty sea. Although there were occasional waves that rose up, it was mostly quiet and still. It was just strange that even with the long period of floating in this vast sea, Sui Xiong did not meet any other living creature apart from himself. Could this be¡­ the legendary dead sea? Perhaps that was so, but what did it matter to him? Even if this was really the dead sea, where people were rumored to be able to float even if they fell in and did not need to worry about drowning, to a nettlefish who belonged to the waters, it meant nothing to him. Even if he wanted to become a coldwater nettlefish, he needed to be washed and bathed to get rid of his excess salt content. As he thought about this, Sui Xiong could not help but smile to himself. After another long period of time, he once again fell into a coma as if he were hibernating alongside his dreams. However, in this new coma, he sensed something different this time. Somehow, he felt like the sky was not just the sky, the sea was not just the sea, the sea breeze was not just the sea breeze, and he was not himself. Sui Xiong could sense that there was some sort of object hidden behind everything. This was the root of everything and could be considered the infinite object of this world if it appeared appropriately. What exactly was this? Sui Xiong fell into deep thought. He first thought about the book, ¡°Tao Te Ching,¡± that he had read online, which stated that the Tao started with one, one gave birth to the second, the second gave birth to the third and that this continued endlessly. In reality, Sui Xiong did not truly understand the ¡°Tao Te Ching¡± and was only able to mindlessly quote a few phrases from it. The lines he remembered taught about how ¡°the Way¡± was something natural and all-encompassing that had existed before Earth. The ¡°Tao Te Ching¡± mentioned that the fusion of several base objects would allow the creation of many other living creatures. Yet, those words were of little use to him now. He was unable to understand it all and thus continued to think hard. After a while, Sui Xiong suddenly jolted up as he remembered a scene of him sketching in the past. Scenic views or people, young and old¡ªsketches of these scenes were all created with black and white lines of differing thickness using a piece of charcoal and paper. These mere objects, however, when placed in the hands of professionals, could lead to infinite drawings that evoked strong emotions, allowing audiences to see beyond the physical drawing and experience the intentions that the artists wanted to share. For sketches, the drawing tools and paper demonstrated the concept of how certain foundational objects could open ones¡¯ eyes to an infinite new world. To complete the analogy, the scars left behind on paper by the charcoal were the new objects, while the space left to continue developing were the blank spaces left on the paper. Sui Xiong smiled as he finally understood everything. From there, through this understanding, he awoke from his coma. His surroundings were all green, and one narrow, slanted tree that resembled a cane towered beneath him. The tree branched out like blooming flowers and surrounded a temple. This temple was old and ancient, but yet, instead of looking ragged, it was pristine and seemed well-preserved. Here, every piece of wood and stone gave off a timeless aura and seemed to have gone through infinite time periods. They naturally fused together with several plants which either had been specially planted or had grown over time, allowing the entire temple to give off a warm and enticing aura. When one entered such an atmosphere, one would immediately forget the millions of problems plaguing them and instead feel relaxed and carefree. The place Sui Xiong lay was in the center of the temple¡¯s courtyard. A short distance in front of time lay the branches of the giant tree. At the base of the branches, cooling spring water was flowing, and a feminine statue that was spraying water and holding vases was smiling at him. At this, Sui Xiong could not help but smile back at the statue before he clapped both his hands, allowing himself to float to the sky. ¡°The God of Virtue, where are you?¡± Sui Xiong asked loudly as he tried to find a green shadow. ¡°Could you explain to me what is going on here?¡± Amongst the water vapor in the clean air, Sui Xiong¡¯s cheery voice reverberated endlessly. ¡°Ah, I knew I couldn¡¯t stay hidden for long!¡± an old voice replied, somewhat wearily. ¡°You¡¯ve guessed correctly so quickly.¡± Sui Xiong glanced in the direction of the voice. Pushing aside several leaves, a green frog the size of one¡¯s thumb sat on an armchair with old glasses on, staring at Sui Xiong somewhat in frustration. He could not help but laugh, and with a spin of his body, he turned himself into a similar size as the creature before him before landing in front of this Elder Frog. In the past, Sui Xiong had not been strong enough when he had visited this Old Fairy Temple and was thus unable to witness many magical phenomena. However, as a great Divine power now, without considering the God of Light, only the Master of Order was comparable to him in strength. In fact, it could even be said that he was stronger than the Master of Order. Because of that, he could now tell that every object in this temple gave off a good aura and the entire temple felt rejuvenated, a masterpiece like the good treasure that the Dragon of Chaos had possessed before, only this temple was more detailed and magical. To create something like this and live amongst it as an owner, well, only the God of Virtue was capable of such a feat. Furthermore, the feminine statue in the fountain was less of a normal statue and more of a dissipated soul of a god who had been saved through time control. If one observed closely, she was of rather high divinity and was actually a Divine Power¡­ Combining these factors, if Sui Xiong was still unable to guess the identity of the Elder Frog, that would make him a brainless idiot instead of the artist he claimed to be. ¡°Is the Goddess of Life the one sealed in the fountain?¡± Sui Xiong asked curiously. The God of Virtue, who was physically a green frog now, nodded and asked, ¡°Have you now fully understood the source of the world and entered the realm that goes beyond camps and rules?¡± Sui Xiong froze and was slightly muddled before fully understanding these words. He had been beaten hard by the God of Light and, in his semi-conscious state of mind, had followed the teachings of the Master of Order, relinquished all his powers and eventually found the object hidden behind rules and intrinsic attitudes just like the God of Light, allowing him now to find out and understand this world¡¯s most basic power. ¡°Yes!¡± Sui Xiong smiled slightly and replied. ¡°I now understand the true great Divine Power Realm.¡± ¡°In that case, you should quickly make a move,¡± the God of Virtue sighed. ¡°Although you have only been lying here for three days, once you were sent here, the God of Light used boundaries to seal up this Sanctuary of mine; I can feel it. The time outside thus has flown by much faster than here¡­¡± Sui Xiong was shocked for a second before understanding the God of Virtue¡¯s words, and his face turned pale. Without further ado, he evolved into a beam of light and rushed out of the temple. Chapter 979 Chapter 979: The Exchange (Part 1) Now, Sui Xiong was no longer chained to the boundaries of the Old Fairy Temple, and he shot out of the temple like a shooting star. Just as the God of Virtue had mentioned, there was a boundary that went beyond priesthoods and natural rules that surrounded this Old Fairy Temple. With one glance, Sui Xiong immediately understood the significance of this boundary. This was a boundary that could alter time and allow time to flow extremely slowly within the boundary, at a speed so slow that it was almost nonexistent. In one of China¡¯s old folktales, there was a saying: ¡°Seven days in the mountain is akin to thousands of years in the world.¡± Sui Xiong had seen an animated cartoon of that legend. There was another legend about how a ¡°day in a magical external world was akin to a year on Earth.¡± However, these legends paled in comparison to the true time adjustment of this boundary, where time slowed down much more than just the ratio of seven days to an actual year. Furthermore, Sui Xiong had been sleeping soundly in the temple for three whole days. Even during the few seconds he had spent talking to the God of Virtue, much time had already passed in this world. In that period of time, what exactly had happened? The Master of Order had beaten him into unconsciousness and sent him to where the God of Virtue resided in order to allow him to understand the true great Divine Power that transcended camps, intrinsic attitudes and rules. However, in doing so, the Master of Order had been left alone to deal with the God of Light. How had that turned out? He was definitely at a disadvantage when facing the God of Light. Had the Master of Order been killed or trapped? After defeating the Master of Order, what other actions did the God of Light take? Given his nature, it was likely that several races would be put in danger. The Void Mask System who had left Void Mask City probably faced the same danger¡­ As Sui Xiong broke through the time boundary, he was extremely anxious as he feared that he would see vast desolation or perhaps the genocide of all intelligent races apart from that of the human race. Would the world be left with only one race and only one god system? Well, he guessed wrong. What Sui Xiong saw when he first rushed out of the time boundary was a bustling big city. This city was filled with expansive streets and several skyscrapers, with humans as well as other races walking to and fro. Sui Xiong noticed that all of the living creatures, be it intelligent or not, had a glimmer of confusion and insanity in their eyes. Their bodies gave off dreary and moody auras, causing one to feel extremely uneasy. Furthermore, Sui Xiong could also sense that the entire intrinsic attitude of this world was unbalanced and skewed largely towards order and evil. This was significantly different from the various balanced intrinsic attitudes he was used to in the past, where several mindsets and ideas were in harmony. Sui Xiong furrowed his brows and used divine thought to investigate in all directions, hoping to figure out where exactly he had landed. His powers now were strong beyond imagination, and he got his answer almost immediately. He was still on the Main Plane, and judging by his current location, he was where Void Mask City once was. It was just that this new Void Mask City was vastly different from the past. The previous landmarks and buildings were long gone and the beautiful city painstakingly developed by Sui Xiong was no longer recognizable. Even the Underground Maze and the tree that was meant to be forever young were nowhere to be found. He frowned as he did not understand what had happened here. Hadn¡¯t Sui Xiong instructed everyone to retreat from Void Mask City before he had gone into a coma and instructed all to wait for his return? Where was everyone? Could it be¡­ that they all were¡­ Sui Xiong shivered and cast his unfounded fears aside, thinking of who he should approach to ask about this situation. Perhaps¡­ he should find Javier? Sui Xiong believed that even under the God of Light¡¯s rule, Javier should still be alive. As the God of Celebration and Pleasure, although he did not exactly fit in a fully evil world, he could still somewhat continue to exist¡­ After all, even evil camps required celebrations and pleasure from time to time! However, when Sui Xiong tried to access the God of Celebration and Pleasure, he was unable to find Javier. Furthermore, beyond that, he was unable to find any trace of the God of Celebration and Pleasure. In the laws of this world, although celebrations still existed, this priesthood remained unclaimed and dangling. No! It was not that it was unclaimed, but rather, the priesthood had come to a standstill and was not identifiable. It was just like how when wood was burned by fire, it would simply turn to ashes over time. Sui Xiong¡¯s heart raced, and he felt that something bad had happened and begun to search through all the priesthoods of his friends. Justice, Half-Orcs, law, war, the sea¡­ even knowledge, medicine, healing, royalty¡­ Almost all of his friends and underlings¡¯ priesthoods faced a similar fate as celebration, and were downgraded to that of burnt ashes. Only salt-making seemed slightly better and was not complete burnt out. The only untouched and safe priesthood was wealth. The Goddess of Wealth was still alive? A surge of joy rose up within Sui Xiong. Just as he was about to head towards his God Kingdom, he was cut off by a giant force. This was a force similar to Sui Xiong¡¯s, which transcended everything else and was pure and strong. This was a force strong enough to take over this world and create new rules. Furthermore, as compared to Sui Xiong¡¯s, this force was clearly more matured, pure, detailed and trained. Within it, there were objects that directly clashed with Sui Xiong. Although Sui Xiong had already crossed the array, without clear direction, he was still a chaotic good god. This force was coincidentally the opposite and was full of strong order that was rather hard to disobey. It was also filled with evil that was strong enough to cause goosebumps to form on one¡¯s skin. Order and evil¡­ Without a doubt, this was the God of Light¡¯s force. Sui Xiong laughed coldly, expanded his own power and launched attacks towards the force that opposed him. Distance was meaningless to both Sui Xiong and the God of Light. In an instant, Sui Xiong had already managed to enter the extravagant and towering temple, and reach a black-armored God of Light, who had a deadly aura emanating from him. Reaching out his tentacles, which acted as swords, Sui Xiong charged directly at the God of Light. In comparison, however, the God of Light did not immediately retaliate and instead simply dissolved Sui Xiong¡¯s attacks gently. ¡°Auscar, surely there¡¯s no need to fight me so quickly,¡± he said. ¡°If we want to fight, there¡¯s plenty of time for us to do. Shouldn¡¯t we sit down and have a talk first?¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing left for us to talk about,¡± Sui Xiong replied. ¡°Well, we could talk about life, about logic, our exchange our views towards living in this world.¡± The God of Light smiled strangely and created a seat for Sui Xiong. ¡°In this world, in the end, we are the only two who managed to reach this transcended realm of a true great Divine Power. Now that we finally meet, surely there¡¯s no harm in having a conversation with me?¡± Sui Xiong hesitated for a while but eventually sat down. He did not understand the God of Light¡¯s actions, but he was not about to be rude. Since the God of Light had extended some courtesy and offered to talk peacefully, he would not refuse this offer for now. Chapter 980 Chapter 980: The Exchange (Part 2) ¡°Well¡­ where should I begin the story? Let¡¯s start from when I was still a mere general. I was an extremely impressive general. I fought many battles and almost never lost. Although I killed many, many people and many were fearful of me, I knew that they admired me at the same time and felt that I was extremely capable. Well, I was of the same impression, of course.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s rather impressive indeed,¡± Sui Xiong replied earnestly. ¡°However, it was only afterward that I realized it was all for naught. All my hard work, all my effort, the work I put in, the wounds I sustained, the support by my troops, the admiration of my peers, the trust of the king¡­ it was all worth nothing! Towards enemies with an overwhelming advantage, I was still equally helpless and unable to fend them off. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that I ran off extremely quickly, I might even be dead by now.¡± The God of Light sighed deeply, and the evil expression on his face softened slightly. ¡°While running away solo, I was chased by a large group of enemy soldiers. At that point, what I felt most was not fear or anxiety but rather¡­ emptiness. ¡°I felt empty, empty to the core. I realized that all I had was a lie and that I could rely on none of my accomplishments. All I could rely on was myself and the sword I held on to!¡± ¡°Do you think the sword came out of thin air?¡± Sui Xiong laughed coldly. ¡°When the raw materials and iron ore reach the smelting masters, they use fire to shape the metal. Next, the blacksmiths are the ones who turn the metal into weapons, or perhaps mages would be present to embed magic into these weapons. Without them, would you even have a sword?¡± The God of Light smiled slightly and did not retaliate or quarrel further on this point. They both felt that eventually, they would have a large battle and distinguish who lived and who died. Both of them were equally aware of this. However, at this very moment, they were simply two souls having a peaceful and quiet chat. If so, there was simply no need to argue. Both sides simply spoke their minds, and this directness was a good thing. This was especially so for the God of Light. The more the God of Light shared, the more at peace he felt. Afterwards, the God of Light continued his narration. He shared his life, his dreams, and the events that he had gone through. All in all, through it all, his stories all led back to a singular idea: emptiness. ¡°Everything in this world has an expiry date. After death, one will follow the Big Circulation¡¯s flow and reappear or resurrect in a new way, allowing one to re-experience a new cycle¡­ This is an endless cycle that will never cease.¡± The God of Light¡¯s expression was dreamy yet absolute. ¡°Since we live in a world with such a cycle, be it love or hate, be it victory or loss, absolutely nothing can go against the power of time. Everything comes and goes with the Big Circulation¡¯s ebb and flow, and whatever is destined to end will eventually disappear without a trace. This Big Circulation will never, ever stop¡­ In such a world, in such a cycle, isn¡¯t all that I accomplished and experienced back then simply shallow and meaningless?¡± Sui Xiong did not speak. As an artist, he, of course, was all too familiar with this feeling of emptiness. He thus said, ¡°Feeling empty and shallow is perfectly natural. However, we are gods that go against time and never, ever die. As Transcenders, we have no need to feel empty.¡± ¡°Transcenders? Even as we are gods and are effectively immortal, it does not mean we have truly transcended the Big Circulation. From the past till now, how many gods have fallen? Have they truly lived up to the virtue of immortality? Even if we speak about the gods who have lived from the past till now, even gods older than the Big Circulation, they are simply lingering souls biding their time!¡± the God of Light retorted in frustration. ¡°Perhaps they are anxiously isolated in their own world or hidden in places where no one can find them. Perhaps they are slaves to the Big Circulation and are constantly working hard to ensure the continuity of the Big Circulation. Are these instances not shallow? I simply cannot understand the value of living such lives.¡± Sui Xiong could not help but rebut, ¡°In that case, for someone like me who has pioneered much progress and corrected much wrong, for someone like me who has set up rules and built up a more beautiful new generation¡­ Do I have no value to you, too?¡± ¡°Your thinking is extremely similar to the younger me of the past. Since I could not find value in myself, I depended on others to affirm myself of my worth,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°A long while after I officially became a god, I was obsessed with such a life. I led the humans to glory and was almost unstoppable in terms of victories and success. Eventually, I developed the humans until we became the strongest race in this world. In the humans¡¯ joy, I found my own happiness. In everyone¡¯s faith and admiration, I re-affirmed myself of my worth to prevent myself from feeling empty.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. ¡°During that period of time, you really did well. Even I have to say that I admired you then.¡± The God of Light¡¯s face slightly lit up with a somewhat warm smile, but it was dropped quickly. ¡°However, emptiness can never be filled up for long. This feeling of being insignificant and worthless always comes back to bother and plague me.¡± Sui Xiong glanced at that slight demonstration of humanity by the God of Light and sighed to himself. The God of Light was, without a doubt, an outstanding role model. He had been able to conquer and win over several types of enemies. Alas, in the end, he still could not win over the demons in his own heart and mind. This was perhaps the idea that fighting physical enemies was easy, but fighting one¡¯s inner demons was tough, that was always featured in folk stories back on Earth. However, on the other hand, the God of Light¡¯s every effort and step taken to better himself were simply attempts to fill the emptiness in his heart. If these inner demons had not been present, he probably would not have achieved the success he had today and probably would not have reached the status that he was at now. The line between success and failure, between good and bad, was truly hard to determine here. With a big sigh, the God of Light continued to speak. ¡°I spoke to my mentor about my inner demons before, and he shared that he was unable to understand my pain. However, he was of the opinion that I was burdened by this emptiness due to my low status. He felt that I was too weak, lacked foresight, and was unable to see into the future. By right, being a Divine Power would probably be enough to mitigate that issue. However, I discovered that there were ranks higher than the Divine Power Realm.¡± ¡°This is why we started studying great Divine Powers and how one could cross to such a realm.¡± Sui Xiong nodded lightly. Many Divine Powers actively researched how they could progress to the great Divine Power Realm. All of them had differing reasons, but the idea of wanting to have clearer foresight into the future was a rather common one. This did not concern good and evil. Wanting to be better and stronger was something innate in everyone¡¯s nature. ¡°We considered many paths and did many experiments. Eventually, my mentor reckoned that no matter how strong a Divine Power was, they could not just suddenly cross over to become a great Divine Power. The nature of both realms was extremely different. If one wanted to suddenly change realms, the most reliable method would be to adjust one¡¯s nature and allow it to improve. To do such a thing, one had to first identify their own nature. In doing so, all other distractions would have to be removed, and their nature would have to be carved out till its core was revealed. That would be how one could truly find oneself.¡± Sui Xiong blinked as he thought about how Morani had shown him the scene of the God of Knight¡¯s downfall. At that time, his priesthood had continually depleted until even the core of it had disappeared. However, in contrast, his power continually increased until it was strong beyond one¡¯s imagination. ¡°My mentor decided to try out this path by himself. However, his trial failed.¡± The God of Light sighed deeply. ¡°Even though he was strong enough to single-handedly defeat several Divine Powers, his nature was still not strong enough to pull him through such an experiment. However, from his final moments of light, I felt that the path he tried was the right one. It is just that he was not strong enough to completely walk down the path and finish it.¡± Sui Xiong froze, and he suddenly understood what the God of Light meant, which made him feel rather despondent. Previously, when he had become a great Divine Power, he had still been confused as to the God of Knight¡¯s situation in the past. Up till now, beyond nature and rules, he finally understood what had truly happened. What the God of Knight was finding was not the path from Divine Power to great Divine Power but rather, from great Divine Power to Transcender. ¡°My teacher was truly remarkable. When he was merely a Divine Power, he was already on his way to discovering the secret to becoming a Transcender.¡± As a Transcender himself, the God of Light of course understood the truth behind the God of Knight¡¯s final move, and an expression of admiration appeared on his face. ¡°Although he was always biased towards his youngest student, this did not affect his level of intelligence.¡± ¡°Are you talking about my big brother? The God of Knight did not even share his true identity with him. How is that a bias? That old man passed on the title of being the Human God System¡¯s Master God to you and even used his life to experiment on the path you were searching for. Does that still not satisfy you?¡± Sui Xiong furrowed his brows and could not help but chide the God of Light. ¡°You can¡¯t possibly understand. To our teacher, if you truly cared about someone, you would not disturb him nor affect him. You would let him be free to explore and grow, and only reach out a helping hand when he was in trouble¡­ That was how he treated Yorgaardman. As for me, I was just a successor who was useful for when he sustained serious damages while fighting with the ancient Orcs, a worker who could take over his job. That is all!¡± Sui Xiong shook his head as he was truly unable to understand the God of Light¡¯s train of thought. He began to slightly suspect that the God of Light, Wuther Rang, was going a bit mental. Chapter 981 Chapter 981: The Exchange (Part 3) The God of Light did not really notice the suspicious gazes cast upon him by Sui Xiong and instead continued to speak. ¡°Previously, I was always focused upon the humans¡¯ idea of glory. It was simply too irresistible that even I fell prey to it for a long, long time. I even played on the idea of glory to discover the path towards great Divine Power and borrowed the glory of the humans to push myself into that level. In hindsight, that was rather rash. If I had been calmer or less indulgent, I definitely would not have done such a thing. Well, that¡¯s a thing of the past now. Clearly, I was blinded with greed for glory in the past.¡± ¡°Yes, that was indeed a dangerous move. Using a race¡¯s destiny to cross into a higher level could easily diminish it and cause the race to weaken severely,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°Even if they did not weaken, they would still be in debt or be lost; it¡¯s hard to say.¡± ¡°Destiny? That¡¯s an interesting term to use here. Did you derive that term from luck? Well, what you said is true. This is why, in the past, the fairy race had also been glorious once. However, they¡¯d rather the entire God System bring the race to complete the Great Migration and explore new worlds than walk down this path,¡± the God of Light shook his head. ¡°They did succeed, but they left behind a huge number of old and sick members of their race. That diminished the worth of what they achieved greatly!¡± ¡°Ah? The fairies¡¯ Great Migration¡­ succeeded?¡± ¡°Yes, they succeeded. It is just that their brand new world was originally unable to take on too much strength in one go. They left behind their original bodies as well as those who had extra strength behind and used this energy to forcefully push the God of Art and Culture to reach the Divine Power level. They then fabricated the lie of how the Master of Mystery had single-handedly annihilated the entire Fairy God System¡­ I have to admit, they really managed to successfully lie to many. Even for me, I only dug out the truth after I caught that liar and interrogated it out of him.¡± Sui Xiong finally understood the matters of the past and the truth between the fairy race and the Master of Mystery. ¡°Well, none of it mattered much as at that time, the Human God System was far more powerful than the Fairy God System, and so I could not care less,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°The biggest issue faced by the fairies was that they did not have enough manpower, and thus their glory¡­ or rather, in your terms, their destiny, was unable to maintain the efforts of pushing someone to the Divine Power level. If they had managed to, there definitely would have been severe repercussions in store for them.¡± ¡°Just before he had died, the God of Conspiracy had mentioned that you rose to the great Divine Power level by riding on the destiny of the humans. This signaled to him the end of the reign of the humans rather than the start of it. Perhaps he had felt that the humans would face similar repercussions as the fairies and become extinct,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°He was wrong! The foundation of the human race is much stronger than that of the fairies. It can be used as a support, can resist many things, and is overall much steadier than that of the fairies. That is why I chose to walk down this road after getting the relevant information regarding the fairies from that liar, the Master of Mystery,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°No matter what, this path seemed to bring about higher chances of success.¡± Sui Xiong nodded. The truth was that the God of Conspiracy¡¯s final scheme had failed while the God of Light¡¯s choice had been proven to be the right one. The humans, who had won over the allied troops of other races, did indeed have enough power to propel the God of Light to a higher level and still have many destinies left behind as well. ¡°At first, I assumed that becoming a great Divine Power would allow me the best view and allow me to understand this world¡¯s deepest, darkest secrets, curing the emptiness in my heart,¡± the God of Light¡¯s facial expressions changed and his tone became colder. ¡°However, I did not expect that, even before I could fully adjust and stabilize myself in this world, before I could begin to uncover any secrets, before I could get a good look at the view, that enemies would follow close behind. ¡°Auscar, you¡­ I really hate you!¡± Sui Xiong was speechless as he felt that he was innocent in this case. ¡°Actually¡­ I had no intention to discover the great Divine Power world¡­¡± Even though he knew it was useless, Sui Xiong still felt the urge to defend himself. ¡°I am not the same as you, I do not feel empty, I do not need to find anything to fill any hole in my heart. I am fully satisfied and at peace with myself.¡± ¡°This I know, which makes you all the more despicable!¡± the God of Light bellowed sternly. ¡°I spent all my time, racked my brains and paid the price in order to somehow crawl up this ladder. In the end, even before I could enjoy it, I watched you wave your hands before my very eyes and simply step into this level. What¡¯s worse is that you continue to be free and without any stress, you don¡¯t even feel anything or any pain¡­ I can¡¯t take this lying down!¡± The God of Light hated him because of his lack of pain? Sui Xiong felt extremely maligned and started believing further in the idea that the God of Light was going insane. This was no longer an issue of mere jealousy¡­ it was crazy and ridiculous! However, Sui Xiong did not speak his mind. He knew that if he were to utter those words, the God of Light would explode with rage, and their war would begin immediately. He had long prepared for this war but, as compared to it, he wanted to drag a bit of time in order to satisfy his own curiosity. There¡¯s a Chinese saying that stated that one could only die with no regrets if they knew all the truths. It was clear to Sui Xiong that at this very moment, satisfying his curiosity was more important to him than fighting a war of life and death! In the end, the God of Light did not explode with rage. After scolding him with a few angry words, he slowly became calm again and continued speaking. ¡°I was extremely shocked and felt like time was suddenly betraying me. That was why, although I did not have much confidence, I had no choice but to activate the scheme I had prepared and challenge the Master of Order. If I could win against him, I could steal his throne before you could cross into the great Divine Power level¡­¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t understand. Why was it a necessity for you to challenge the Master of Order?¡± Sui Xiong asked. The God of Light glanced at Sui Xiong as if he were an idiot. ¡°If I did not defeat the old leader, how could I truly ever be a new leader? As a jellyfish, I¡¯m afraid you simply cannot understand the nuances of human thought.¡± Sui Xiong felt the urge to tell the God of Light that he was a human himself. Furthermore, he had a much clearer brain and control of logic. However, he had no way to prove it and thus kept quiet. ¡°Actually, the fact that you went forward so relentlessly is to blame too. If not, I would have wanted to spend the next thousands of years preparing myself before I challenged the Master of Order,¡± the God of Light said unhappily. ¡°Although I won in the end, it was simply too dangerous! I should have been able to win much more easily and steadily!¡± Sui Xiong was speechless again. Although the evil version of the God of Light gave him heart palpitations and incited hate in him, this normal version of the God of Light was not quite right as well. Why was it that being stronger caused him stress, to the point where he had to challenge the Master of Order even before he himself had become a great Divine Power? Why did he feel that, after being strong, he had to find trouble for himself? Was it that he was someone who liked to stir up trouble or find fault with others constantly? It was simply ridiculous! At this moment, Sui Xiong suddenly remembered a story that an old professor had shared with him back on Earth. As long as one was greedy, one would always be slightly deluded. This was especially so for those who had weak morals as they were the ones who were most likely to go a little insane. The most extreme examples would be the King of France, Charles (whether it was Charles the First, Second, Third or Tenth, Sui Xiong simply could not remember), as well as China¡¯s Emperor Gaozong of Song. One of them had betrayed a hero of France, Jean, while the other had done the same to a hero of China, Yue Fei. If they had a chance to meet in hell, they would definitely have many common topics to speak about. That is, if they still had the mood to casually chat in the wake of all the punishments that were waiting for them in hell. If the God of Light were to meet those two bastards, he would probably join in their conversation. As for Sui Xiong, a kind and warm person, he somewhat felt threatened by it all. Chapter 982 Chapter 982: The Exchange (Part 4) As the God of Light continued to complain and rage, Sui Xiong kept silent as he had no intention of arguing with him. After all, all the events he had mentioned were already in the past, and it was meaningless to continue debating about them. Sui Xiong sighed and asked, ¡°According to your logic, when you challenged the Master of Order, your mindset was still directed towards the idea of protecting the humans and maintaining the superior status of the humans. Why did that drastically change afterwards? The you of the past definitely would not have trapped and destroyed all the gods that came forward to celebrate the humans. This is not something that a reputable leader with morals would ever do! In doing so, you would also make yourself a common enemy among the rest of the gods and put yourself in danger. Let¡¯s not forget that you previously murdered the Dragon of Chaos as well¡­ It¡¯s not like you or your usual style to betray those who have helped you and forget others¡¯ kindness!¡± ¡°The key in my change was when I swallowed the core of the God of Evil,¡± the God of Light seemed to be indifferent towards sharing his thoughts now. ¡°My first plan was to use the Dragon of Chaos¡¯ blood to attract Chaos and create a second enemy for the Master of Order to face. If that did not work and you managed to defend against Chaos, I would use the battle between Chaos and you to ambush it. Along with swallowing the core of the God of Evil, I could allow myself to gain much power. Afterwards, if it were to be so, I could run away and escape as the Master of Order would not have left everything behind simply to chase me. I would then complete the absorption of the God of Evil¡¯s strength before returning to rule the skies. By then, I would be somewhat invincible.¡± Sui Xiong nodded as, for now, he did not see any problems with this plan. ¡°In that case, why did you change your mind after swallowing the core of the God of Evil?¡± Sui Xiong asked. ¡°You were still affected by the God of Evil in the end!¡± ¡°You¡¯re overthinking this. Remember, I am an evil god by nature, why would I be affected by the God of Evil?¡± The God of Light laughed coldly. ¡°I merely borrowed his power to clear out all obstacles that prevented me from reaching my true goals. The whole process reminded me of my original goal from the start. ¡°What I wanted to achieve was not to increase the glory of the humans, nor was it to build up my influence. I wanted to go above and beyond the Big Circulation and fix this forsaken world that was going through endless cycles. I wanted to fill the emptiness in my heart!¡± The God of Light sighed deeply before a chilling smile appeared on his face yet again. Sui Xiong furrowed his brows. ¡°Fix this forsaken world that is going through endless cycles? I can¡¯t pretend to ignore what you just said. What exactly were you planning to do?¡± ¡°No matter what I wanted to do, while you took your time snoozing away, I should already have finished it all, right?¡± the God of Light replied tauntingly. Sui Xiong¡¯s heart raced, and he was about to stand up and leave. Suddenly, the God of Light spoke up again. ¡°I¡¯ve already shared everything about my life and my deepest thoughts. You can¡¯t possibly leave without sharing your own life stories? Treat it as a return courtesy to satisfy my curiosity.¡± Sui Xiong thought about it and felt that the God of Light made sense. he thus began to speak. Of course, Sui Xiong was not about to talk about how he had crossed into this world from Earth. He started from when he had first become wiser. This was when he had first fought and won against a narwhal. ¡°Ah¡­ you really are a jellyfish! Everyone assumed that you were an element creature or perhaps some ancient animal. Some even guessed that you could be a legend from the previous era¡­ I guess we were all wrong. ¡°You managed to achieve such feats once you came onto land, what a genius! I couldn¡¯t possibly have done that in my youth! ¡°The God of Conspiracy found trouble with you then? Although that fellow is not skilled in fighting, he is indeed intelligent. You must have been targeted by him many times, perhaps even caught unaware at times! ¡°Gathering manpower, building a church and developing one¡¯s own city. This is indeed a good plan. However, if I were you, I would not waste time searching for good manpower. I would choose to directly attack an existing city and use it as a foundation to expand my recruitment. As a god, it is actually rather easy to gather people. ¡°The death of the Goddess of the Ocean and the God of Storms¡­ well, although I observed it before, when hearing the same story from your point of view, it feels somewhat different. Let¡¯s not talk about the God of Storms. The death of the Goddess of the Ocean alone was already an extremely shocking matter to all the faith-based gods!¡± At this point, the God of Light stopped speaking and slightly furrowed his brows. ¡°I¡¯ve just remembered something,¡± he said. ¡°Not long after you built your church, one of my underlings coincidentally found out that several evil gods were recruiting and summoning demons, which they used to make a sort of special medicine. That medicine could counteract Divine Power and remove complications within one¡¯s priesthood. It was extremely useful! We thus tried to make some as well and discovered that it was indeed useful through many experiments. Afterwards, we made this medicine in bulk quantities.¡± ¡°That does sound useful,¡± Sui Xiong said. ¡°That¡¯s right, it was really a great solution to many of our problems. This was especially after I edited the recipe and used the Abyss as part of the materials. The effect of the medicine was enhanced, and it could even purify a god¡¯s body. As the Master God of the Human God System for many years, I had already been greatly influenced by the power of faith and would often have several dizzying thoughts. After using the medicine to cleanse myself, however, I felt that my brain was much clearer and felt much more comfortable.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while before saying, ¡°Demons have always been derivative of chaos and are total opposites of gods. If they were properly utilized, they indeed could help gods to purify their bodies and reduce the influence of faith.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, in theory, it sounds perfect. However¡­ Do you not feel that it was too much of a coincidence?¡± The God of Light frowned hard. Sui Xiong, of course, understood his meaning. ¡°Do you think it was one of the God of Conspiracy¡¯s tricks? If so, what benefit could that possibly bring him?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure about that either¡­ It¡¯s hard to believe that he would have guessed that I would eventually borrow the entire human race¡¯s destiny to rush into the great Divine Power world at that time. That¡¯s impossible! If he had such great foresight, he would not have remained as a low-level Divine Power.¡± The God of Light was silent for a long time before eventually shaking his head. ¡°This medicine has been helping me all this while, and I have yet to suffer any complications because of it. That fellow must have made some kind of mistake.¡± Sui Xiong thought for a while before furrowing his brows and asked, ¡°After you borrowed the entire human race¡¯s destiny to become a great Divine Power, did you absorb a large amount of faith that needed to be purified immediately?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°In that case¡­ How was the effect of the medicine that you created?¡± ¡°Well, there were substantial effects. It was not extremely useful, but it was enough,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°However, afterwards, when I made a portion of the God of Evil¡¯s core into a similar medicine, I really felt like I was shedding my own skin when I drank it. My entire body felt like it was being wrung out and cleansed. If not for the medicine, I may not have been able to break free of external restraints and return to my original goal, which was to cure the emptiness in my heart!¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes narrowed as he could now somewhat confirm that the changes within the God of Light were partially due to the actions of the God of Conspiracy. It was just that the God of Conspiracy had probably only wanted to cause the God of Light to go mental and eventually die at the hands of the Master of Order and his allies¡¯ attacks. However, the God of Conspiracy had not expected that the God of Light could use death to become stronger and reach a stage that was unimaginable to anyone else. The God of Conspiracy had tried to create a trap that would bury the God of Light alive. Instead, the God of Light emerged as a giant conqueror and managed to easily flee the trap. No, it was not that the God of Conspiracy¡¯s plans were totally useless. At the very least, the God of Light of the present was not the same as the God of Light of the past. One could say that the old God of Light was already killed by the God of Conspiracy, making them somewhat even. It was just a pity that the current God of Light was even stronger than the old God of Light! ¡°What are you thinking? Any other special or notable news to share?¡± the God of Light asked. Sui Xiong thought for a while before sharing his view on the God of Conspiracy¡¯s scheme. After hearing Sui Xiong speak, the God of Light burst into laughter. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you still have such naive thoughts! The idea that I was originally good but became evil due to some kind of influence¡­ that is but a narrative idea! I know you used to write knight novels but¡­ surely you can¡¯t believe in everything you write! I already mentioned before that it is not that I was infected by the God of Evil, but rather, I borrowed his power to identify the true me! The original me, the God of Light that was not affected by the humans¡¯ faith, the old me, was already like this!¡± A sloppy, dreamy look appeared on the God of Light¡¯s face as he spoke up menacingly. ¡°I have always been evil, and I daresay I am the evilest of all evils. I did not require any influence to become so. Who thinks about goodness or forgiveness when considering revenge? I have always been purely evil and nothing is needed to make my evil any purer.¡± Sui Xiong sighed and did not speak. Perhaps, as the God of Light had said, he had always been dangerously evil. All along, the image in everyone¡¯s¡¯ head of the great and admirable God of Light could have simply been the propaganda of the human faith as well as the teachings of the God of Knights. That would probably have temporarily suppressed the evil within the God of Light in the past. Once those things had been removed, what was left behind would naturally be an extremely evil ¡°God of Revenge,¡± one who could easily abandon his underlings in times of trouble to escape, and one who could train in hopes of getting revenge through mass killings. Just like in an old comic that Sui Xiong had read on Earth, Dragon Ball, the familiar fat character, Buu, was not the actual magician Buu. The real magician Buu was actually an extremely cruel monster who was incapable of empathy. As he thought up to this point, Sui Xiong felt like he no longer had the mood to continue conversing with the God of Light. He turned his back to leave and returned to the Main Plane. He had many other things to do and did not want to waste more time on mindless chatter. As he watched Sui Xiong turn to leave, the God of Light did not become angry. Instead, a strange smile appeared on his face. ¡°Go ahead and see the present that I prepared for you. Let¡¯s see if you can still be this calm and peaceful once you¡¯ve seen it!¡± Chapter 983 Chapter 983: Tenacity (Part 1) Sui Xiong made himself invisible and turned his body into an intangible object, floating along the streets of where Void Mask City used to be. This city was similar to the other big cities that followed the style of lawful evil. On the surface, the city seemed fresh, but it was actually filled with several types of evil and filth. Even while the sun was shining bright, acts of evil could be happening in broad daylight. While walking along the streets, Sui Xiong killed more than 20 people who reeked of fresh blood. They were all assassins, robbers and traffickers. As long as one reached the smaller alleys and streets, the hustle and bustle of the big city would disappear, and unimaginable evil would surface. ¡°This city requires a good clean-up!¡± Sui Xiong shook his head and muttered to himself in disapproval. ¡°Not just that, this entire world needs a good clean-up! After I defeat that bastard, I am going to clean things up properly. I don¡¯t care how much time I need, I have to change this world so that people can enjoy life and live in peace. The people should be able to use good, honest work to make this world a better place!¡± Just as he spoke, Sui Xiong realized that in the northern part of the city, near where there had previously been a playground, many people were gathered together. Could it be that, although the city had changed, the playground was still intact? Sui Xiong was rather curious, and with a flash of his body, he appeared where the group of people was. What he saw was not a playground but rather an extremely huge yet simple temple. It was built using stone, and it looked like a giant pillar from afar. One could tell that it was already extremely ancient. Although the building was mostly constructed out of big stones, it had already been weathered and worn down to the point where several sections were on the verge of collapsing and cracks lined the walls. There was a unique boundary that was trapped within this boundary cage, and Sui Xiong only noticed it after careful observation. When he got a closer look, he immediately recognized that the structure of this boundary was the ¡°rules¡± of the Master of Order. From the boundary, it could be inferred that the Master of Order had also crossed to a new world. However, it had not been completed, and thus, he could only defend himself against the true great Divine Power, the God of Light, instead of attacking. In reality, as long as the God of Light was able to convert himself into an orderly, good god, he would be able to cross over the boundary. Of course, the God of Light was not willing to do so, and so the Master of Order¡¯s boundary was able to shut him out effectively. Within the boundary, there was a wave of force that was holding it up. Although this force was weakened to the point where it was almost negligible, it was full of indescribable tenacity, just like scales protecting an animal that was about to die. A middle-aged lady wearing ceremonial robes was explaining to several young people, ¡°This was the final front of the old order. In the past¡­¡± After hearing that one sentence, Sui Xiong exploded violently. He did not have the patience to continue hearing the lady¡¯s explanation and directly entered her brain to read her memories. Sui Xiong realized that this lady was a pontifex from the current Church of the Supreme Lord. Today, she was acting as a tour guide for faithful who had come from afar and was bringing them to visit the battleground where the old order had been destroyed and the new order had been created. This very battleground was in the shabby temple right before their very eyes. Many, many years ago, where the concrete time was unable to be identified by historians or scholars, the Supreme Lord, the God of Light¡¯s name now, had defeated the olden gods and had wanted to create a brand new order and structure for the world. However, the olden gods had not wanted to admit defeat. They had brought a few stubborn seniors with them and had escaped to this place. Here, they built up a temple where the pseudo-god¡¯s God Kingdoms had been and used the terrifying weapons left behind by the pseudo-gods to build up their defenses. All this was all to go against the Supreme Lord. Of course, the Supreme Lord could easily crush these people. However, he was a kind person by nature and decided to give these naive beings one last chance. He thus left behind some power, locked up the entire place and began to build his new order. No matter how stubborn the olden fellows were, once the new order was established, the new strength accorded to the entire world continually suppress and invade their piece of land, easily dissolving their laughable defenses. Very soon, the new order was established. Just as the great Supreme Lord had predicted, the olden, stubborn fools were easily defeated by the rush of the new order, and their defenses were useless. This city, which used to be their headquarters, was slowly taken over by the new order¡¯s rule. The followers of the Supreme Lord eventually built up the city after the last of the olden fellows had perished, and they had renamed the place as Victory City. As time passed, Victory City became a world-famous, bustling city. The olden fellows¡¯ defenses also weakened to the point where they were no longer able to continue with their efforts. Although they attempted a rebellion once, under the leadership of the great Supreme Lord, the gods managed to successfully defeat them. After the failed rebellion, the olden fellows could only reside within the broken-down temple and live out the rest of their days. Although one was unsure as to how long more they could sustain their resistance, it was clear that the lot would eventually be wiped out and would disappear without a trace. This final temple of the old order would then become a historical relic that was preserved for people to visit and mock. Although this narrative seemed long, since Sui Xiong was merely reading from the lady¡¯s memories, it only took him a short while to complete the story. Afterwards, he frowned, unsettled, and decided to take action instead of wasting time. Sui Xiong converted himself into a lawful good god, crossed over the boundary that seemed weak but was impenetrable and entered the temple. Once he had done so, Sui Xiong felt an extremely overwhelming sense of belonging. He immediately understood that the material used to build this temple was similar to that of the sanctuary in his own God Kingdom. A big God Kingdom of course required more than one temple. Previously, the entire Void Mask City was surrounded by God Kingdoms as a defensive front against the new order. However, as the new order gradually crept it, the lines of defense were gradually broken, and the areas that had been destroyed became war souvenirs that the God of Light and the gods under him kept for themselves. The only line of defense left was this one temple. It had long been abandoned and it was empty inside. there was only a staircase that spiraled downwards. This staircase was extremely long and seemed endless. Sui Xiong directly accessed the base of the staircase and witnessed a giant, vast hall. This hall was pitch black and had a moody, lulling atmosphere. In the center of it, there were countless numbers of light balls. These light balls were all tiny worlds that had been sealed, and each light ball contained several people who were hibernating. Amongst them, Sui Xiong identified many familiar faces. They were all residents of Void Mask City and the Republic of Northwest of the past. Most of these residents had grown old, and they had weary expressions on their faces. Of course, there were also several younger people amongst them. For example, there was Kalisa Riley, who would never look old. A little girl was in deep sleep beside Kalisa, and she looked similar to Kalisa. However, her personality could be seen through the strong frown of her eyebrows and the lack of Kalisa¡¯s gentleness. Instead, her personality was similar to that of Leon Igor. It was clear that she was their child, Elizabeth Igor. In the light balls, there were many other familiar faces. For example, there was his previous underling, a pioneer scientist, Palin. there was the Republic of Northwest¡¯s Mage Corps¡¯ instructor, Nice, who was already more than 200 years and yet still hadn¡¯t experienced a first love. There was the School of Magic¡¯s principal, Felix, who had spent his teaching years researching magic in great detail. There was Jose, who had announced his retirement after the great battle on the Main Plane and had retreated away to train himself in hopes of eventually challenging the God of Storms. There was Leon¡¯s underling¡¯s daughter, Yue, who practiced magic since her youth and became a priest once she reached middle-age¡­ Of course, there were so many others that were missing that Sui Xiong could not possibly list them all out. Be it young or old, they all had on anxious and troubled expressions. Although they were sealed and were in deep slumbers, their expressions were as if they were constantly being tortured by nightmares, and it was uncertain what pains they were going through. In the center of the hall, there was a wide sword stuck into the ground. This sword was a sight for sore eyes for Sui Xiong as it was the weapon that he had personally made for Lion, the ¡°Holy Avenger.¡± Near where the sword lay, a ball of deep red fire was slowly burning. It looked to be extremely weak, as if it could be fully extinguished by a slight gust of wind that would not even cause a shirt to rustle. Chapter 984 Chapter 984: Tenacity (Part 2) In the center of the hall, at the side of the Holy Avenger, a spark of fire was burning. Although it was extremely weak, it gave off an extremely powerful vibe. The flame illuminated and protected all the light balls present in the hall and protected them staunchly against the evil order of the entire new world. The flame was even able to split into several waves, and its protection encompassed the remains of several temples on the floor. Even the great Divine Power and orderly Sui Xiong only noticed its existence after a while. Sui Xiong carefully flew to where the flame was. He was afraid that if he used too much strength, he would extinguish this weak flame. Within the flame, he saw a figure of a Pighead. This Pighead was old and ugly, and as thin as a skeleton. It was as if he only had one layer of skin left wrapped around his bones. It was a horrifying sight to see. Even so, one could see that the Pighead¡¯s facial expression was one of anguish. It was clear that he had gone through great pain. The Pighead¡¯s body was shaking as he propped himself up with a cane, carefully straightening his posture. It was evident that a lot of effort was required for him to maintain his balance given the pain he was in, and for him to not simply crash and fall onto the ground. Sui Xiong took a few seconds to recognize who this Pighead was. He was the newest god out of Sui Xiong¡¯s underlings, a god of salt-making, ¡°Salt-Pig¡± Fira Kenji. It was not surprising to Sui Xiong that Fira Kenji had appeared at the final front against the God of Light¡¯s new order. He was well aware of Fira¡¯s loyalty towards him. However, Sui Xiong was extremely befuddled as to why Fira Kenji was standing in front of the flame, as if he was being burnt alive. Furthermore, where had all the other gods gone? Sui Xiong had a few guesses in his head, but he willed them to be untrue. Trembling, he reached out a shaky hand into the flame. An extremely familiar strength could be felt, and it was made out of bravery, steadfastness, light, loyalty and tenacity. Sui Xiong, of course, knew the source of this strength was Leon. Although the demigod Leon Igor was much stronger in Sui Xiong¡¯s mind, this was the basic core of his strength without question. Accompanying this strength was another unique strength. This latter strength had a similar nature to the new order and was probably left behind by the Master of Order. However, it was already extremely weak and did not have any intelligence left. It was just spinning on the spot in a fixed direction aimlessly. This strength continuously maintained itself and its spinning movements through the flame in order to maintain the boundary surrounding the temple and to prevent the new order from fully shutting out the old order and removing the last traces of it. Once Sui Xiong reached his hand into the flame, that unique strength immediately tensed up and tried to gain energy from Sui Xiong instead of maintaining its efforts. The way that it tried to do so, of course, was by burning up. If Sui Xiong wanted to, he of course could prevent himself from getting burnt. However, instead of pulling away, Sui Xiong transferred much of his energy to the flame, allowing it to grow from a weak spark to a steady fire that illuminated the entire hall. Under the illumination of the fire, several paintings appeared on the walls surrounding the hall. These paintings were extremely familiar to Sui Xiong and, combined together, formed a long scroll that told a story. Sui Xiong used divine thought to cast a sweeping glance across the scroll and quickly understood its contents. This long scroll detailed the resistance of the old order towards the new order. Just as Sui Xiong had guessed, when he had brought his entire God Kingdom and fell into the Main Plane, he had been sent to where the God of Virtue was while his God Kingdom had been torn apart and used as the foundation of Void City to build the foundation front for the resistance against the God of Light. After a period of time, the Master of Order stopped fighting the God of Light and retreated to Void City. In that war, he had become wiser and thus used this Sanctuary as a defensive front, allowing him to eventually halt their battle and hold off the God of Light. In actuality, if the God of Light had used all his powers, even with this added front for the Master of Order as well as the assistance of other gods, he could still have won. However, due to unknown reasons, the God of Light left without a trace and never returned again to personally attack Void City after he tried once and failed initially. Of course, this did not mean that he had forgiven everyone. After the world¡¯s order had changed, Void City became extremely isolated and different from the rest of the world. In order to preserve this defensive line, the gods thought up many ideas and used up much of their strength. However, they were unable to maintain their efforts over time. In the end, the defensive line was forced to retreat several times until there was only the core of the God Kingdom left, Sui Xiong¡¯s ¡°brain,¡± which was used to create the temple Sui Xiong now stood in. Now that they had retreated to this point, everyone was at a loss as to what to do. Most people had been sealed in the underground hall. As they were totally excluded from the new world order, they could not continue to live within it. As for the gods who slowly streamed in after escaping, they also had had no other choice other than battling till their deaths as they could not fit into the crazy and mental new order under the God of Light. With the loss of any hope, the patron saint of Void City, Leon Igor, had of course stepped up. After having a long discussion with the Master of Order, they finally found a solution to their problem. Leon had stuck his own divine sword in the lobby while the Master of Order had left his physical body, transforming himself into a unique flame. This flame was naturally weak in strength but was able to provide the others with much strength in order to protect this remaining temple and reject the new order of the world. The first god to jump into this flame and burn was Leon. He had set his entire being on fire, including his physical body, soul, divinity¡­ All of these were lit up and they glowed as a ball of bright fire, like sunlight. With such a ball of fire, the temple was finally secure. Although the gods were saddened by the falling of patron saint Leon and the Master of Order, they could finally take a breather. The fire¡¯s strength was not infinite, however. As days passed, the fire became weaker by day and eventually became insufficient to protect the temple alone. Just as the fire was about to extinguish, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, had jumped into the flame and took over the duty of protecting this temple from Leon as well as the obligation to protect everyone¡¯s last hope. Afterwards, many other gods took turns to take over this role. There were other gods, evil gods and demigods who could not bear to come to such a grisly demise and rushed out to fight to their deaths instead. The last one to become fuel was the weakest god in the temple left, the god of salt-making, Fira Kenji. On the scroll, many gods had left their final will and messages before becoming fire fuel. At the end of the scroll was Fira Kenji¡¯s final words: I am Fira Kenji, a Pighead with not many skills. I was only able to gain much and become a god through a lucky invention and the aid of the Void Mask Lord. Many have said that I am the weakest god. After a while more, I will accompany my comrades before me and become a part of the flame. I will attempt to use my little strength to protect this place, the last resistance front of the old order. I do not think that our stubbornness in resisting the new order is wrong, and neither do my comrades. The fact that we had all taken turns to join the flame shows our fight for our last face and beliefs. We do not seek victory but simply to defend our values and protect those who believed in us and stood by us till the end. Perhaps this fire will one day be extinguished and the people we wanted to protect will die as well. However, we fought to the end, be it win or lose, we never gave up. The value of one¡¯s life is not in how strong or weak a god they were. Rather, it lies in the amount of bravery one shows in facing enemies and death. I¡¯m not sure whether these scrolls will be preserved and passed down. However, I believe that even under the cruel and dangerous new order, there will always be others with the same courage as us who are willing to fight for their beliefs even in desperate times or when facing death. Finally, I hope our beloved Void Mask Lord will be able to come back. I hope that this scroll, which contains all our last wishes and hopes, will be preserved enough to be presented to you. I hope that you can fight evil and achieve victory, bringing this world back on the correct path. We are sorry that we could not wait for your return, but we will always bless you. This flame may one day die out, but our blessings and loyalty towards you will never falter! Chapter 985 Chapter 985: The Final Battle After Sui Xiong read the scroll as well as Fira¡¯s last words, he stood silent for a long time. Sui Xiong reached his hand out and gently touched the scroll, pulling out Fira, who was about to burn to death. Fira had long been pushed to his breaking point. Afterwards, the only thing that kept him alive and awake was the pain from being burnt. Once Fira was removed from the flame, his energy immediately diminished, and he fell into a deep slumber almost immediately. Sui Xiong transferred a large amount of his strength to Fira in hopes that Fira could recuperate slowly over time. With a flick of Sui Xiong¡¯s hand, the flame then flew up and landed on his forehead. In that instant, it burnt brightly, and flames shot up like a flaming arrow, almost burning up the entire temple but at the same time harming nothing that was contained here. As if he did not care for the pain of the burning fire, Sui Xiong walked out of the temple unhurriedly. He then waved his tentacles, wrapping up the entire temple and absorbing it into his own body. The female tour guide from before, who was halfway through her guide speech, was shocked speechless. Likewise, the followers of the Supreme Lord were equally flabbergasted. Just before their very eyes, the temple that was ancient and broken down had disappeared without a trace. In its place, a large piece of stone plaque appeared. On this stone plaque, there were several lines of words that no one in this world except for Sui Xiong could recognize. It said: ¡°As some live, he has already died. As some die, he still lives.¡± With such a phrase, Sui Xiong paid tribute to all the heroes who had fought the long battle against evil. ¡°With condolences¡ªSui Xiong.¡± After doing so, Sui Xiong could not continue to care about all the dirty matters that went on in this self-proclaimed Victory City. Instead, he activated his tentacles, crossed a specific boundary within the Void Mask and returned once again in front of the God of Virtue in the latter¡¯s temple. ¡°How¡¯s the situation outside?¡± the God of Virtue asked, ¡°Also¡­ your forehead¡­ what happened?¡± ¡°The situation is dire,¡± Sui Xiong answered the God of Virtue¡¯s first question peacefully and ignored the second question. All he did was quietly release the sleeping Fira as well as all the people who had been sealed in gently, of which they almost flooded the entire courtyard. The God of Virtue glanced at the people, furrowed his brows and asked, ¡°there are only so few people left?¡± ¡°This is already more than I expected.¡± The God of Virtue sighed and glanced at Sui Xiong again. ¡°Are you going to wage the final battle against the God of Light?¡± ¡°No,¡± Sui Xiong finally smiled. It was an extremely strange and cold smile, even on that clear jellyfish face. ¡°I am going to beat him to death and put an end to all this for once and for all.¡± With that, Sui Xiong turned and flew out of what could be the only remaining safe zone left on this world. He then flew in the sky towards the void while increasing in size all the while. His body grew bigger and bigger and slowly became bigger than that of the Main Plane, of a whole world, and eventually became so huge that he covered the skies. Any random tentacle that Sui Xiong lifted up could be bigger than a world by itself! As for the flame that was burning steadily on his forehead, it grew in intensity as well and became more blinding than sunlight, illuminating an infinite number of worlds. The flame became so bright that it started causing the Supreme Lord¡¯s new order to fall apart as well as good versus evil and order versus chaos to regain a balance. Those who were already acclimatized to the new order were suddenly lost and confused with the return of the old order. They could only feel that there had been a big change in the world, and this caused their heart rates to rise. Only a few could truly understand what this big change meant, and these few people panicked even more. The mass of gods who served the Supreme Lords were extremely shocked. Some took the initiative to set forth while others rushed to take action under the Supreme Lord¡¯s orders. Quickly, they all gathered in front of Sui Xiong and formed a huge crowd. The Oracles who lacked the brains to think for themselves formed the frontline while the demigods and real gods followed behind in order. The vast lines were arranged in a battle formation of deadly accuracy, and all types of divine weapons were brought out and passed around. Countless boundaries and magic arrays rose from all directions and some people even clashed with each other due to their nerves or due to magical mismatches. This vast god army included almost all the camps of this new world. Be it good or evil camps, orderly or chaotic camps, even evil gods, demons had all rushed forward to join the lines. They gripped their weapons tightly and chanted spells, getting their battle stances ready as if to fight a huge war. Their killing spirit fused together and influenced several nearby worlds. Followers could feel the call of their gods and they too, one by one, took out their weapons, shouted battle cries and got ready for war. However, to Sui Xiong, they did not look heroic or mighty at all. Instead, they looked like a bunch of quails trapped in a cage, sticking tightly together and looking extremely pathetic. At first, he had not wanted to care about them. However, his heart wavered slightly and he glanced through the crowd. As expected, he did not see any trace of the Goddess of Wealth¡¯s presence. Somehow, Sui Xiong suddenly felt like laughing. He took a few steps forward. The array made out of the gods that looked like an iron wall suddenly vibrated slightly, like a light wind blowing over a water surface, and waves appeared. With a few more steps forward, the bastards who had been extremely fierce before at the back of the lines now all had expressions of fear on their faces. If not for the greater fear of the Supreme Lord and his cruelty, they would have already escaped or retreated from the scene. Sui Xiong glanced at the army slightly before advancing forward again. This time, he took a few fast steps. Before the gods could react, he was already right in front of them. He had walked to the middle of this massive army which previously looked well prepared. Sui Xiong did not slow down. He also did not take any major action. He simply continued to walk forward like a shadow that was invisible, slowly passing through the defensive line, which now did not seem so strong. Behind him, all the gods now looked on, frozen and shaking in fear, and none of them dared to make any move. Soon, Sui Xiong reached the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom. Of course, in the past, this God Kingdom was called the ¡°Court of Victory.¡± Now, it had been renamed as ¡°Pioneer Nation.¡± Well, either way, the name was not too important to Sui Xiong. As long as the leader within was the same, did the name really matter? As Sui Xiong glanced at this God Kingdom, the God of Aristocracy came to mind. That was someone whose luck and destiny was one of the worst he¡¯d ever seen. They had used their entire life and energy on trying to become stronger. In doing so, they had committed bad deeds but had also done good deeds. More than once, they had gone against Sui Xiong and once had even concealed their identity to secretly pass some messages to Sui Xiong. If not for the God of Light announcing their crimes as well as the recordings of the God of Vagrants in the Void Mask temple, Sui Xiong would not even have known about it. Nevertheless, the God of Aristocracy was still a rather normal being in the end and had walked a rather normal path. Be it good or bad things, they did not have any crazy motives. As compared to the God of Light, the sly God of Aristocracy was simply like a dog in wolf¡¯s clothing. As he thought to this point, Sui Xiong finally could not help himself and laughed aloud. As he laughed, he raised his tentacles and aimed a blow directly at the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom. If he had truly done a good hit, the entire God Kingdom would have exploded into smithereens. All the followers, Oracles and gods in the God Kingdom, apart from the Supreme Lord, would probably die as well. However, a hand which was equipped with an iron glove reached out and grasped Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles. ¡°Well now, you¡¯re simply too impatient. This does not bode well for you,¡± the God of Light emerged from the God Kingdom and stood in front of Sui Xiong. As usual, he had on an evil smile that would give one goosebumps. ¡°Are you satisfied with the little present that I gave you?¡± Sui Xiong did not reply. The flame on his forehead, however, grew brighter and more intense. ¡°Actually, if I wanted to enter that old frog¡¯s house, I could have done so easily,¡± the God of Light said. ¡°It¡¯s just that, if I had done so, I would not have any enemies left. That¡¯s too boring. I would feel even more empty inside to the point where I would feel lonely, even¡­ If I could not find a new match, my emptiness and loneliness would never be sated. The Master of Order was already far too weak and there was only you left to solve the problem of the emptiness in my heart. If you want to blame anything for this battle we have now, blame yourself for being too strong.¡± Sui Xiong stood in front of the God of Light. He had on a peaceful and calm composure. Sui Xiong did not speak, nor did he take any action. ¡°I¡¯ve discovered something. Normally, you¡¯re not specialized in war. However, when you¡¯re angry, you seem to be able to fight better. I¡¯ve been thinking about this in earnest. How do I make you angry enough to fight? Of course, I need it to be entertaining for myself as well. One needs entertainment in life, right?¡± Sui Xiong glanced at the God of Light coldly, as if he were staring at a corpse. ¡°I thus created a new order and chased all the fellows who were unwilling to be loyal to me to where you were. I must admit that they were stronger than I thought, given the amount of times they were able to resist me! This is especially so for that final scene with the flames, that was really fun,¡± the God of Light said laughingly. ¡°You weren¡¯t aware, right? I recorded down every instance where one of your followers jumped into the flame to burn. I¡¯ve watched these scenes multiple times, and each time, I laugh for half a day! Do you want to watch it too? I can share a copy with you if you wish.¡± Sui Xiong continued to stay silent. However, his tentacles slowly tensed up, like a string being puller taut, allowing him to become bulkier, bigger and stronger. ¡°Oh, yes, I got married later on. Do you know who my wife is?¡± the God of Light asked in a cheery fashion. ¡°You definitely will be able to guess the answer. It¡¯s probably simple for you to solve this riddle given your intelligence! Just now, when the mob was out there blocking your path, I had already given you a big hint.¡± Sui Xiong could not help but smile wanly. He felt that the God of Light¡¯s condescending way of mocking him was not only evil and lame, but also extremely pathetic. His scornful gaze naturally was noted by the God of Light. The God of Light retracted his cheery expression and ended his conversational mood as his face instead turned black. ¡°You¡¯re really such a killjoy. Look at you! Why couldn¡¯t you just play along?¡± the God of Light asked. ¡°Now, you¡¯ve made me regret delaying this battle for so long.¡± Sui Xiong remained quiet. He was gathering up all the energy in his body, preparing to kill the God of Light with a single blow. He did not have any interest in furthering a conversation with the God of Light at all. Looking at Sui Xiong¡¯s indifferent attitude, the God of Light finally lost his patience, raised his fist and smashed it into the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom that was by his side. ¡°That¡¯s it, game over!¡± With such a punch, the Human God System¡¯s God Kingdom suddenly exploded. At the same time, countless worlds which had slowly been moving around all directions of the Great Circulation exploded simultaneously. The Great Circulation¡¯s boundaries erupted¡­ Light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, spirits and creatures¡­ everything was now unbounded and began maniacally colliding with each other. The infinite and everlasting Great Circulation became chaotic in an instant. Countless shooting stars formed in an instant and flew in all directions. Every shooting star managed to hit several big and small worlds in its path, causing them to explode and crash. This all happened within a few seconds. This world, built upon the Great Circulation, now faced the possibility of becoming fully destroyed. Sui Xiong had not anticipated that the God of Light would be willing to destroy this entire world without hesitation. This stunned Sui Xiong into silence, and he was suddenly unsure as to how to proceed. Should he be angry? By right, Sui Xiong should have been angered. However, he had already vented out all his frustration earlier. Even if he wanted to become angry again, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to do so. Should he be frustrated? That was for sure. However, as he glanced at that wily God of Light, who had a slightly maniacal look on his face, he felt that he no longer could react strongly to any strange things that happened now. As such, even as he watched the world slowly crumble, Sui Xiong did not feel any real emotion in his heart. Instead, Sui Xiong just felt amused, like he was about to laugh. The God of Light was already known to be extremely evil, and his actions now simply reiterated that very fact. If one were not evil to the point of being a little insane, one would definitely not stand by and watch the world burn at their feet! Sui Xiong could not help but suddenly think of Majin Boo in the cartoon Dragon Ball, who similarly had destroyed his entire world. ¡°What does this all mean?¡± Sui Xiong could not help but finally speak his mind. ¡°This is like an acrobat performing on stage. One would take a long time to prepare for the performance and yet possibly mess up on their first show. Then, facing the audience¡¯s boos and jeers, he then decided to rash the entire stage. This is akin to what you are doing now!¡± The God of Light¡¯s face twitched as he said coldly, ¡°I guess you couldn¡¯t stay mute forever.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just that I learnt my lesson against people like you. Sometimes, speaking is simply useless,¡± Sui Xiong replied in a similarly cold fashion. ¡°Furthermore, I am someone with manners. I would not disrupt the performance of even the worst performer on stage.¡± Sui Xiong paused for a second before saying, ¡°To be honest, your performance now is truly abysmal. As compared to the previous showdown where you lied and trick me, it is simply incomparable. Perhaps that is because you were more sincere the previous time.¡± The God of Light¡¯s expression became all the more venomous. ¡°You aren¡¯t the same Void Mask, Auscar, as I remembered you to be. Are you really him?¡± ¡°Well, you are not the God of Light, Wuther Rang, that I remember you to be either.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s face was stony and unreadable. The God of Light was silent for a while before saying, ¡°Do you know that I¡¯ve hated you all this while¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯ve said it all before! As someone who was originally full of evil intentions and especially as the evil, perverted being you¡¯ve become, it¡¯s no wonder you hate the calm and happy go lucky me. I¡¯d expect that you would be jealous of me, even to the point of hate,¡± Sui Xiong spoke directly. He felt that he was in an extremely good condition today. Because of that, he could make his points clearly and speak well, much better than before. Although he had been harsher than he normally would be, he felt that is was enough for the current situation. There was nothing gentler he could utter towards the evil God of Light, after all. ¡°Now¡­¡± Sui Xiong dragged out his words on purpose. Once a curious expression had appeared on the God of Light¡¯s face as planned, Sui Xiong activated his tentacles and lashed out with all the energy he had been slowly summoning. ¡°All you have to do is stand there and take my attack!¡± With that, Sui Xiong lashed out. This one blow was as fast as the speed of light! Although Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles possessed power that exceeded that of several small worlds combined, it did not disturb nor even move the tiniest dust mite that it passed. Sui Xiong had concentrated every single ounce of his power into this one blow. He did not even stop to think of what he should do if the attack should fail nor did he prepare a backup plan. At this very moment, he was only focusing on one solitary aim. He wanted to hit and kill the God of Light, Wuther Rang, with this one blow! The God of Light was not shocked by Sui Xiong¡¯s sudden attack. Clearly, he was well prepared. Putting both his hands together firmly, he caught this attack by Sui Xiong. These two great Divine Powers, the two strongest creatures on this world with powers beyond imagination, had both used all their strength in their first exchange. Sui Xiong¡¯s giant tentacles and the God of Light¡¯s equally giant fists clashed, causing an extremely shocking explosion. This large explosion¡¯s strength wrapped around infinite numbers of worlds surrounding the two great Divine Powers. Be it those weak and defenseless small worlds or the stronger God Kingdoms that had been painstakingly developed by Divine Powers, it did not matter to the strength of the explosion¡¯s shockwaves. With slight vibrations, the worlds crumbled and collapsed, bringing with them all the patron saints that tried to protect the land. All the people and land fused into one mess and were absorbed into the shockwaves, where they slowly floated aimlessly and joined other worlds which had met with similar fates. If this had been a normal battle on a normal day, this one strike alone would have been enough to earn the admiration of the gods. Alas, at this very moment, the Great Circulation was spectacularly crumbling, and countless shooting stars were clashing all at once. Every second, the number of worlds they were destroyed became too many to count. It looked like doomsday, like the end of this world. This was why even such a scary scene could not attract anyone¡¯s full attention. This final battle between the two great Divine Powers, between the two beings who had transcended the highest realm of this world, did not have an audience. Very soon, the shockwaves approached the Main Plane. As the strongest world among the Great Circulation, the Main Plane demonstrated a rather admirable display of strength. Even with such strong shockwaves hitting it, the Main Plane simply shook and vibrated uncontrollably but did not directly disintegrate. However, as both Sui Xiong and the God of Light noticed, a single white shooting star silently flew off from the Main Plane, leaving it far behind. ¡°That old frog is truly ingenious and fast on his feet. I had hoped that he would perish along with the rest of the Main Plane¡­¡± The God of Light, upon recovering from defending that huge attack by Sui Xiong, shook his head. With a flash, he rushed to where Sui Xiong was standing and gave him a hard blow, pushing Sui Xiong towards the Main Plane violently. At this point, Sui Xiong had not yet recovered from their first exchange. Sui Xiong put up a strong defense and managed to quickly and magnificently spin around just as he was about to hit the Main Plane, merely brushing its surface instead of colliding onto it before he surfaced back up again. ¡°What¡¯s the point of that? It¡¯s a waste of energy.¡± The God of Light shook his head and appeared before Sui Xiong before beginning his taunts. ¡°The entire Great Circulation is about to be destroyed. What¡¯s the use of saving the Main Plane, then?¡± Sui Xiong ignored the garbage that was spewing from the God of Light¡¯s mouth. He used his tentacles to grab hold of the God of Light¡¯s leg before latching on with his entire body. Just as he stepped forward, he managed to trip the God of Light. Sui Xiong then immediately snatched up his tentacles and maniacally slapped at the God of Light from all directions blindly, prioritizing the number of hits. Within a short period of time, he managed to get in a sizeable number of blows. After a while, the God of Light found an opening for him to push Sui Xiong aside, flipping his body upright in the process. ¡°You stupid idiot, that¡¯s extremely unbecoming of a great Divine Power!¡± the God of Light yelled in anger. ¡°This method of battling makes you no different from lazy drunkards brawling in the streets!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never considered myself great nor glorious.¡± Sui Xiong smiled coldly. He sighed slightly and rushed over again. ¡°Matters such as face, well, once I defeat you, that can be regained easily.¡± This time, Sui Xiong¡¯s battle tactics were the direct opposite of before. Now, he was fully invested in throwing wild punches, focusing on quantity. As long as he managed to grab hold onto the God of Light, he immediately activated his tentacles to get some punches in. The scene looked ugly and dirty. The God of Light was unable to go against the wild attacks of Sui Xiong, who was using all his might. He was, on more than one occasion, caught hold of and hit hard, so naturally, the God of Light suffered a fair bit. After he had wrenched himself away from Sui Xiong¡¯s hold for the umpteenth time, the God of Light raged as his anger reached an all-time high. He picked up a random world beside him, used it as a launching weapon and threw it hard towards Sui Xiong. That world, made up of countless rocks and stones, hit Sui Xiong¡¯s body and disintegrated on the spot. Sui Xiong, on the other hand, was only momentarily deterred before he came sprinting forward again. However, that short moment of rest was good enough for the God of Light. Black smoke started emitting from his hands and created a wide, giant sword that floated up. This was the weapon that the God of Light often used. Although the sword had become more and more negligible after the God of Light had become a great Divine Power, at this very moment, a weapon was still better than having none. Towards a creature like a jellyfish, which had a soft body, the God of Light felt that slicing Sui Xiong up would be more effective than using pokes and prods. However, the God of Light¡¯s instincts were wrong. His sword was extremely sharp and could easily cut apart Sui Xiong¡¯s tentacles, or even cut them off. However, Sui Xiong would not be defeated so easily! After sustaining damages, he could easily recover. Even if his tentacles were cut off, they would return to within his body like a shooting star and regrow themselves. In comparison, as long as the God of Light was caught by Sui Xiong, he would receive several beatings, and all he could do would be to attempt to hide his face. Sui Xiong¡¯s many tentacles reached out and hit the God of Light endlessly. He had over a hundred tentacles, and even if 50 were used to grab hold of the God of Light, the remaining 50 could still be used to give 250 and more hard slaps, hitting the God of Light till he was extremely dizzy. Of course, as the God of Light was still a great Divine Power and an experienced fighter, even under such circumstances, he could still stay conscious and even find several opportunities between Sui Xiong¡¯s beatings to fight back. In this simple and focused battle of power, the God of Light could use his stronger reserves to gain an advantage. Furthermore, he was more familiar with this boundary, and this earned him a slight advantage while battling. This allowed him to hold on to about 1.5 times of Sui Xiong¡¯s power. This was not too big of an advantage, but it helped the God of Light against Sui Xiong¡¯s hundreds of tentacles, balancing out both parties. This neutrality caused the battle to become ceaseless, and it was hard to determine who was winning or losing. If the duo were to continue on, it was uncertain as to when they would end the battle. Perhaps, the God of Light and Sui Xiong would even battle for a few thousand years, or even till the skies had changed and the world was ancient. Even then, it was possible that a result would not be determined. Instead, apart from the duo¡¯s battleground, the Great Circulation¡¯s giant tremors had slowly quietened down and were becoming peaceful. The disaster that the God of Light had brought upon it was soon passing. Of course, both sides noticed this point. The God of Light¡¯s face turned even blacker. He had not dreamt in his wildest dreams that the infinite amount of time he had spent on preparing would still not be enough to successfully destroy this entire world. ¡°How can this be!?¡± the God of Light could not help but blurt out. ¡°The Great Circulation was already destroyed and seeping away, it should not have been reversed!¡± ¡°No matter how vigorously you shake a pail of water, eventually, the ripples will stop, and the water will become still again,¡± Sui Xiong replied casually, showing off and mocking the God of Light simultaneously. ¡°But¡­ the things mixed into the water should be able to re-separate themselves and should have been mixed into a jumble¡­!¡± Sui Xiong laughed coldly and chose not to reply. In reality, he himself was secretly shocked and confused as well. The Great Circulation¡¯s ability to secure itself was something that he had not expected either. The God of Light furrowed his brows in confusion, jabbed his sword out in an attack that forced Sui Xiong to back away and glanced around, thinking hard. However, Sui Xiong did not allow the God of Light time to think. He simply took a deep breath before rushing forward and launching a massive attack. The God of Light could not help but continue dueling. After a while, the God of Light managed to find an opening to hold Sui Xiong back again, allowing him some time to observe his surroundings and evaluate the situation before Sui Xiong rushed up to attack yet again. This cycle repeated itself several times before the God of Light¡¯s eyes lit up and he smiled in satisfaction. ¡°I understand now!¡± the God of Light yelled loudly. ¡°The reason why the Great Circulation could restore itself is because of its strong fulcrum. It works like an anchor, which helps ships to stay stationary when floating on water. As long as this fulcrum exists, no matter how much the Great Circulation is destroyed, it will eventually return to normal. Things like good and evil, order and chaos, all revolve around this central fulcrum and can be separated¡­ It is all just a matter of time.¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly, showing that he had understood what the God of Light had uttered. Within an instant, their bodies appeared before the Main Plane, with one attacking and one defending it. Without question, the Main Plane was the said fulcrum of the Great Circulation. As long as it still existed, even if all it was burnt land and smoke, it could still fulfil its role as the core of the Great Circulation and miraculously hold up the workings of it. If the God of Light wanted to destroy this entire world, he had to first destroy this fulcrum. If Sui Xiong wanted to stop him, he, on the other hand, had to protect this fulcrum. The two great Divine Powers finally reached a stage where they were battling fully for life and death. Sui Xiong suffered a great disadvantage very quickly. If he wanted to protect the Main Plane, he lost the space and ability to attack the God of Light directly. No matter what method he used, as long as the God of Light redirected his attacks towards the Main Plane, all Sui Xiong could do was defend. Sui Xiong thus sustained multiple injuries very soon and they built up over time, greatly weakening him. Even if Sui Xiong was fast in healing these injuries, his depleted energy could not be replenished that quickly. As compared to the God of Light, who was attacking happily, Sui Xiong was truly greatly disadvantaged. As the God of Light launched his attacks, he taunted Sui Xiong as well. ¡°Why do you still insist on protecting this world? Sooner or later, it will be destroyed.¡± ¡°Who says that the Main Plane is fated to be destroyed!?¡± ¡°Do you know how much time and energy I¡¯ve spent to ensure the destruction of this world? I moved all the worlds one by one to outside of the Great Circulation¡¯s boundary and plotted multiple explosions¡­ that was hard work!¡± ¡°That¡¯s your perverted mind talking! Why would you destroy this fully functional world!?¡± Sui Xiong roared angrily. ¡°You¡¯re already the dictator of this world, why do you still insist on destroying it!?¡± The God of Light laughed coldly. ¡°The dictator of this world? I¡¯m far from it!¡± His sword attacks became more and more harsh, cutting Sui Xiong cruelly and causing him to become further injured over time. Yet, Sui Xiong could clearly feel that the God of Light¡¯s strength was still steadily increasing. It was not that the God of Light had yet another revelation. Rather, it was obvious that he had stored his energy someplace and was now gathering it back and using it to improve his strength. On the other hand, although Sui Xiong had almost the same tactic as him, his energy reserves were still being depleted by the God of Light. If he continued on this way, eventually, Sui Xiong would be too tired to continue fighting. At that point, he would no longer be able to protect the Main Plane and secure this world. Nevertheless, Sui Xiong did not give up and continued to fight hard. Leon Igor and the others had fought to the end, he too of course had to follow that! Even if he failed in the end of the battle and the world was destroyed. if he did not fight with all his might, what face did he have to face Leon and the others? What right did he have to be called their leader? The flame on Sui Xiong¡¯s forehead burned steadily, as if signifying the burning desire to fight in his heart. With both sides fighting hard and wanting to win, this battle was destined to end with one party being fully defeated and destroyed. While the duo fought hard in their physical battle, they sustained a conversation. Well, it was more of a confrontational scolding. ¡°Auscar, what powers and status do you think a dictator of this world should have?¡± ¡°Anything that is unlike you!¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s obvious! Even though I have already conquered all the several races, God Systems and even the evil demons and the resurrected magic creature in this entire world, I¡¯m still far from being a dictator, even though I have made my mark significantly¡­¡± ¡°Is that still not enough for you? I really hate you to the core!¡± ¡°This is me not being satisfied with mediocrity. What is wrong with a strong figure chasing dreams?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve already reached such a high level of strength. How much stronger do you want to become!?¡± ¡°What do you know? The reason why I can control all these people is because they all fear me. Such a method of control is merely conquering and ruling by fear, and not true domination!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care about your matters of dictating!¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you lack desire, you¡¯re not thirsty enough to improve!¡± ¡°Who are you to say that? When you were my age, at that point, I could already kill thousands with my tentacles!¡± ¡°Being born early is a lazy advantage! If I were born earlier as well, the Master of Order would not have been able to oppress me for so many years!¡± ¡°Well, if you¡¯re talking about leadership, the Master of Order did a much better job than you did!¡± ¡°You consider the Master of Order a good dictator? How ridiculous! A dictator should be admired by everyone and be able to control all, he owns everyone! I am this world and this world is me. That¡¯s how one can be a true dictator?¡± ¡°You are this world? Well, since this world is about to be destroyed, why not die along with it!¡± ¡°Once I¡¯ve destroyed the Great Circulation¡¯s fulcrum, the Main Plane, and caused this entire world to be fully destroyed, I will embed my own body in the world and fuse with it to become one entity. That is where I will truly become the dictator of this entire world!¡± ¡°At the end of the day, you¡¯re going to die anyway. Why not simplify things and let me kill you now!¡± ¡°I will not die so easily. Instead, I will rise up once again and, for the second time, leave all you bastards who have been holding me back and become so powerful that you will all be stunned!¡± ¡°You wish! You won¡¯t be able to see such a day, because I am going to kill you before any of that can happen!¡± The God of Light did not reply and instead fell silent for a long time. As he stayed silent, the God of Light¡¯s body suddenly gathered a frightening amount of strength that steadily increased to a point where Sui Xiong was shocked. ¡°You¡¯ve made me angry now!¡± the God of Light suddenly said. ¡°To kill you, I¡¯m going to activate all the energy I¡¯ve hidden in various places in one go. Although this is a huge issue for my plan to fuse with the new world later on and will require a large amount of time to replenish, you¡¯ve created so much trouble for me that I have no choice but to unleash all my power on you!¡± Of course, Sui Xiong was not about to allow the God of Light to gather all his energy that easily. He continued his attacks with all his might and yet was securely caught by the God of Light. The God of Light¡¯s facial expression became extremely evil to the point of mania and eventually exploded. His entire face was insane, and he let out a cry of anger. ¡°Die!¡± The infinite amount of energy that the God of Light had gathered first exploded from his body before forming into giant shockwaves, surging forwards and swallowing everything in sight. Without a fulcrum, the Great Circulation finally stopped being secure and began to be truly crumble. This simultaneous attack on the Void Mask as well as the Main Plane caused the God of Light much damage. At this point, he was standing in the Void with scars all over his body, and his energy was depleted. Since he had overused his powers in one go, his entire body was spewing blood like a torn ball that had been filled with water and was now overflowing. He did not look like a great Divine Power at all at this point. Just now, since both sides had put in their all to fight, although he had used energy reserves from a while back to destroy both Sui Xiong and the Main Plane at the same time, he himself had been thrown in the ring of fire, and the overuse of powers had backfired on him as well. Now, the God of Light¡¯s situation was extremely terrible. If Sui Xiong were to resurrect, he could kill the God of Light with one slap. The God of Light was in such terrible shape that even a normal Divine Power could probably kill him. Nevertheless, the God of Light smiled cheerily and seemed secure and happy. His dreams were finally about to come to fruition. He had gone against his seniors, chased away his juniors and was about to finish the destruction he had started. The resurrection of a great Divine Power depended on the source of the world. Now that the fulcrum of the Great Circulation was destroyed and the Great Circulation itself was slowly crumbling, the source of the world would soon disappear as well and resurrection would no longer be possible. Be it the Master of Order, who had resisted the God of Light all this while, or Sui Xiong, who had recently been killed, as well as all their followers and other troublesome gods, audiences and even humans who had opposed him¡­ They would all be dead meat and disappear. They were like dust on table surfaces, an eyesore. Now, the God of Light could finally blow them all away, clearing the table surface without any scars left. All his troubles would now be resolved. This vast land, this Great Circulation, would only contain him alone. ¡°I¡­ am the leader and owner of this world!¡± the God of Light couldn¡¯t help but mutter to himself before he started laughing manically and uncontrollably. Once the Great Circulation was fully destroyed, he would rebuild a new world that he could fully control with his own hands. The emptiness within him would finally be solved! Everything was going well. This was perfect! Just at this very moment, the God of Light spotted something strange. Among the debris of the Main Plane, there was a young man floating peacefully and he was dressed in extremely strange clothes. ¡°What is this?¡± Glancing at the fellow, the God of Light did not think he was human for a second after the great destruction that had just taken place. Furthermore, he could not sense any power from the man. After all, even someone of his standard, a peer like the Void Mask, Auscar, had been destroyed and turned to smoke in his attack. How could a mere human still be alive? Needless to say, that was probably a shadow or some kind of treasure. It was possible that the power behind the Main Plane as the fulcrum of the Great Circulation was from this shadow. After all, this man was as strong as the fulcrum had been! The God of Light was extremely curious, and he tried to wave his hands and use divine thought to bring the man before him. His divine thought, however, dissipated once it approached the man and was of no use at all, let alone carry out the task of bringing the thing to the God of Light. He furrowed his brows and thought for a while before his body flashed. A clone flew out from the God of Light¡¯s body and carefully approached this new toy. ¡°He looks like a human¡­ It¡¯s just that he looks unscarred and is not nearly tall enough¡­ Even a member of the aristocrats would be slightly taller than that¡­ this person is so short that it¡¯s pathetic!¡± As the God of Light muttered to himself, his hand glowed, and a large long sword appeared. The God of Light tried to direct this sword towards the unknown creature. Even before his sword had touched it, the man opened his eyes. The knowing, glowing gaze in his eyes alerted the God of Light that it was an intellectual creature. He was a person, just not one that the God of Light was familiar with. He was unable to sense any godliness and yet was able to remain unscathed in the God of Light¡¯s scary attack and explosion. Sui Xiong had opened his eyes. He was still slightly dizzy, and his brain was ringing. It was as if a group of tribesmen were waving their emblems and dancing in his head, calling out tribal chants. Sui Xiong opened his mouth, burped and a foul-smelling taste of alcohol was emitted. ¡°Ah? Am I drunk?¡± Sui Xiong paused for a second before slowly regaining consciousness, enough for him to consider what had happened. He steadied himself and glanced ahead. In his eyes, this world looked extremely strange and mystical. It was no longer messy and about to be destroyed. Rather, it had formed into several scenes. These were scenes of destruction, of the previous battle and even of previous narratives from long, long ago. As if a long scroll had been unveiled before his eyes, each scene revealed a time period, from the ancient times so long ago that it couldn¡¯t be named, when the Great Circulation had first started, to the present. Sui Xiong glanced at the final page of the scroll meaningfully. He saw that the Spirit Plane and the Matter Plane had collided, everything was exploding and colliding, causing a giant mess. In this scene of utter chaos, a flushed and drunk young man who smelled of alcohol was floating in the midst of it. ¡°Was that¡­ when I first crossed over to this world? Ah¡­ I guessed I had crossed over before the Great Circulation had developed, which explains why I did not have a physical human body then¡­¡± Sui Xiong¡¯s body was so strong that it could not be destroyed by any sort of strength. Chaos thus flowed and used him as a core, slowly developing from having no order to some kind of structure and eventually became a giant circulation. With the formulation of this giant circulation, countless physical objects began to gather in the surroundings of Sui Xiong¡¯s body and slowly wrapped him in the center. Layer by layer, piece by piece, a big world slowly formed, and this was the Main Plane. Ah, so this was how the core of this world had been formed¡­ Further scenes afterwards showed history that Sui Xiong was aware of, and he thus did not observe them too carefully. He decided instead to fast forward through the scenes to find the time and scene where his own soul had awakened. Suddenly, he felt that some object had nudged him. Sui Xiong blinked and the scroll closed up and disappeared. The surroundings of Sui Xiong flashed back to normal. Sui Xiong saw that the God of Light¡¯s clone was standing anxiously in front of him, using what looked like an extremely sharp sword to prod his chest carefully. Although it was neither itchy nor painful, it annoyed Sui Xiong greatly. ¡°Attacking me while sleeping¡­ you really have no shame!¡± Sui Xiong said coldly. ¡°Well, you never had much honor to speak of anyway, so this is not exactly a surprise.¡± With that, Sui Xiong reached out his hands and grabbed hold of the sword. Seeing as Sui Xiong had taken action and reached out, the God of Light¡¯s clone reflexively lifted his sword and prepared to cut off Sui Xiong¡¯s fingers. However, once the sharp sword touched Sui Xiong¡¯s fingers, it did not hurt even a single hair on his fingers. Instead, Sui Xiong was able to grab the sword, and without much visible effort, pinch it till it became powder and dust. ¡°While I was sleeping, thank you for taking care of my friends¡­¡± While Sui Xiong was uttering courteous words, there was not a hint of cheeriness in his gaze nor smile. Sui Xiong flipped his body and stood upright, waved his arms and an in an instant, grabbed hold of the God of Light¡¯s clone by the neck. He tightened his fingers slightly, and the clone hardened and exploded in an instant, becoming countless pieces of broken bone that scattered and flew everywhere. ¡°Now, it¡¯s time for me to ¡®give back.''¡± As Sui Xiong spoke, he cracked his neck from left to right and twitched his limbs, as if he were warming up for a physical brawl. ¡°Now, let¡¯s end this battle and decide the result!¡± Before Sui Xiong finished that sentence, he had already appeared before the God of Light. He raised his fists and hit forward. This fit hit nothing but air. Towards this Sui Xiong, who was strong beyond comprehension, the God of Light had directly retreated without hesitation. Although he could not estimate Sui Xiong¡¯s exact strength, instinct told the God of Light that he was no longer able to win this battle against Sui Xiong. ¡°This guy managed to stay unscathed in that major attack and explosion that I had launched¡­ His level of self-defense is simply incomprehensible! Just now, the form he took on was also extremely unique, and I could not read it at all. His attacks are extremely strong as well¡­ I¡¯d better retreat and keep a good distance away from him first!¡± The God of Light retreated extremely quickly and soon was distanced from Sui Xiong by a few hundreds of thousands of worlds. However, even before he had finished running away, Sui Xiong¡¯s hand suddenly appeared and landed on the God of Light¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Old friend, where exactly do you think you¡¯re running to?¡± The God of Light reached out a fist to hit Sui Xiong without hesitation, but all he managed to hit was air. ¡°Come, now, you¡¯re being extremely unfriendly. It¡¯s unbecoming, and I don¡¯t like it.¡± With these words, a force that was too strong for the God of Light to handle caused him to fly and land sprawling on the floor. Afterwards, he could only shield his face as he was beaten painfully and mercilessly. Although Sui Xiong only had two hands and two legs to use this time unlike before, where he had hundreds of tentacles, the power of his hands and legs were incomparable to that of the tentacles. The fact that he was able to remain as the core of chaos, secure the Four Elements, be a part of the Great Circulation¡­ well, with such a body, how could the God of Light possibly fight against something so strong? With one simple blow by Sui Xiong¡¯s fists, the God of Light¡¯s nose twisted sharply. With just one more hit, several of the God of Light¡¯s teeth broke and flew out. With just one kick, there were countless bones that broke within the God of Light¡¯s body. It was so severe to the point where Sui Xiong refrained from kicking the God of Light a second time as it was likely that he would be stomped to death then and there. With these two punches and a single kick, the God of Light was already severely injured, and he could not even catch his breath. All he could do was lie there lifelessly and breathe in shallowly. The powers of the great Divine Power became a joke when he was facing the true body of Sui Xiong. These powers could not even sustain any defense on the part of the God of Light, let alone allow him to recuperate at all. At this point, Sui Xiong then grabbed hold of the God of Light¡¯s armor, which was now torn and tattered, and lifted him up again. ¡°The God of Light, Wuther Rang, your wild heart, your crazy dreams, your foolish thoughts, all end today!¡± ¡°Die!¡± Sui Xiong yelled at the top of his voice, raised an iron fist and thrust it hard through the God of Light¡¯s chest with a single blow. The God of Light¡¯s body spasmed violently, and his eyes turned bloodshot. The God of Light¡¯s gaze was full of indignation and anger. His mouth opened and closed as if he wanted to say something. Before he could utter any words, however, his entire body became limp and he sagged slowly to the ground. Sui Xiong was not someone who enjoyed beating around the bush. Since he had promised to kill the God of Light, he would definitely do so eventually! Chapter 986 Chapter 986: Sacrificing for a Better Future and a New Day An instant later, the God of Light¡¯s body exploded into countless small spots and broken pieces, scattering everywhere and disappearing. Sui Xiong did not stop this process an instead watched silently as his corpse slowly disappeared. Areas of death and corpses was not something that Sui Xiong had ever enjoyed. After settling his business with this evil troublemaker, Sui Xiong stood motionless on the spot and considered his next course of action. Now, the Great Circulation had already been destroyed. Thousands of worlds were unraveling at an extremely fast speed, and over time, all the worlds would soon cease to exist and be cast back into chaos, like when the Great Circulation had not yet existed. Perhaps, Sui Xiong could take up his old role as a focal point and use this role to recreate the Great Circulation. However, that would be the start of a whole new era. This whole present era would become smoke and dust and cease to exist. Was that really the best outcome? The world was already as destroyed as it was. Was it even possible to save it now? Sui Xiong thought for a long time before he sighed deeply to himself. ¡°This is tough! This is really tough!¡± It was easy to destroy something but hard to build something up. Just like how the God of Light was able to destroy this entire world solo, Sui Xiong was also able to easily kill the God of Light. However, he was unable to save the world that the God of Light had destroyed. In Sui Xiong¡¯s surroundings, countless worlds were crumbling and becoming shooting stars of the Great Circulation. These shooting stars continuously collided and gathered, with this process becoming more and more intense and powerful. Several worlds which were valiantly trying to protect themselves or hide were slowly sought out and destroyed. The Great Circulation¡¯s era was clearly coming to a solid end. It would be any moment now. Sui Xiong glanced at the scene before him and fell back into deep thought. He vaguely felt that there was still hope for this world. Yet¡­ how could he go about saving it? Just as Sui Xiong was deep in thought, he suddenly saw a beam of white light shoot past. This was the God of Virtue¡¯s small world, which contained his temple. It was finding an empty land among the infinite shooting stars and trying hard to escape and isolate itself. Sui Xiong smiled to himself, reached out his hands and pulled this tiny world to where he was. At the same time, he pushed away the shooting stars surrounding it and created a small and temporary safety zone for this tiny world. This tiny world flashed with light, and the God of Virtue, still in frog form, stepped out and glanced at Sui Xiong with interest. ¡°I vaguely sensed that the God of Light, Wuther Rang¡¯s soul had disappeared and was confused for a second. Ah, I guess it was done by you¡­ how do I address you?¡± Sui Xiong smiled and introduced himself. The God of Virtue was extremely shocked. Even he did not know that Sui Xiong had been the fulcrum of when the Great Circulation had been born. He also did not know that this fulcrum was not actually the Main Plane, but Sui Xiong himself, who had been in a deep sleep. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that you were such an important figure! Respect, respect!¡± the God of Virtue replied in awe before asking hopefully, ¡°Since you are strong enough to be a fulcrum and helped form the Great Circulation, can¡¯t you do so again? This time, I will not be lazy and I will fulfill the role of a great Divine Power properly. I will teach the youth not to mess around and will not allow this world to be destroyed again!¡± Sui Xiong laughed bitterly and replied, ¡°If I want to re-secure the Four Elements and recreate the Great Circulation, well, it is definitely possible. However, I wish to do better, such as¡­ saving this whole world and restoring its original state.¡± ¡°Is that still possible? Our entire world is destroyed¡­¡± the God of Virtue replied in a somber way. Glancing at the bespectacled frog in front of him, Sui Xiong could not help but sigh. ¡°Yes, even if I wanted to reverse or fast forward everything by a second, how could I possibly do that? Even great Divine Powers can only change the flow of time, but cannot actually supersede time¡­¡± As he spoke, Su Xiong suddenly froze. Perhaps¡­ he really did have the ability to transcend and supersede time. He closed his eyes in a panicky fashion, closely felt his own powers and stayed this way for a while before reopening his eyes. The scene before him once again changed into the scroll that was formed by several scenes in time. This time, he did not fast forward through the scenes but instead observed them meticulously. Although he could observe the existence of the past, how could he steal time from the past, reverse the present and move this world back to a time where it had not yet been destroyed? First, he had to observe and understand. Sui Xiong once again started from when he had crossed over to this world. He watched the peaceful world from the skies till when several races surfaced and gods engaged in battles¡­ Eventually, he saw a transparent shadow appear in the seawater. This transparent shadow was, of course, Sui Xiong himself. At that point, he had coincidentally woken up. Sui Xiong¡¯s soul had left his physical body and somehow, mysteriously, managed to float to the surface of the sea. Sui Xiong could not help but smile to himself as he relived his past from an outsider¡¯s point of view. He relived all the dangers he had come across, his many experiences, his encounters with people, the events that had unfolded, his victories and failures, his happiness and sadness¡­ As he flipped the scenes page by page, Sui Xiong noticed many details that he had overlooked before and recalled several events that he had originally forgotten. As he watched the scenes unfold, Sui Xiong watched how he was beaten into unconsciousness by the Master of Order and had fallen along with his God Kingdom into the Main Plane. Before he had landed on the ground, he had been taken away by the God of Virtue¡¯s God Kingdom, which had appeared out of nowhere as a light ball. This tiny world had been mistakenly known as the Old Fairy Temple at that time. Sui Xiong watched as the allies and friends of the Void Mask¡¯s God System gathered in Void City and the God Kingdom¡¯s Sanctuary to create a strong front. They had moved all their own strong weapons, giant electric bulbs and bullets into the core of the front. They then accepted all willing followers and citizens from the Republic of Northwest into the front and decided to use this front as the final resistance. Sui Xiong watched as the severely injured Master of Order had fallen into the Sanctuary and tried to heal under the help of everyone. Afterwards, he had fought with the God of Light yet again over the front. Although his injuries had been made worse in battle and he had lost several of the resistance¡¯s weapons, he eventually managed to force the God of Light to retreat. Sui Xiong watched as the God of Light built up the new order and renamed himself as Supreme Lord. He no longer personally attacked the resistance and instead pushed for the twisted new order which continually invaded the Void Mask front. Sui Xiong watched as the front was slowly invaded and slowly got destroyed. The gods that were originally in the front as well as those who had fled here all tried their best to defend but were simply forced to retreat over time. The front finally nearly collapsed at the end, and all that was left was the central temple. Sui Xiong watched as the atmosphere became extremely depressing in the temple¡¯s great hall. Everyone was encased in several tiny worlds, and the remaining strongmen were all speechless. In this time of despair and sadness, he watched as Leon stood up and sought out the tired and weary Master of Order to engage in discussion with. They had not talked long and only after three to five minutes, set up a plan and announced it to the masses. The gods were shocked as much as the humans were. Afterwards, everyone had fallen silent in despair as they knew that they had no other option. Leon had bid farewell to his friends and loved ones. The other Divine Powers had all blamed themselves for being too weak and incompetent and all had tears rolling down their cheeks at that point. Sui Xiong focused his energy enough to hear the final words and conversation Leon had with his wife and daughter. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. More than once, I made a promise to you that I would stay by your side forever. In the end, however, I still was unable to fulfil this promise.¡± Instead of having a face of fear at the prospect of facing death, Leon¡¯s face was full of regret and sorrow. ¡°Furthermore, I still have to leave you behind and force you to live in a world where I will no longer exist¡­ I¡­ I¡¯m really sorry!¡± Kalisa hugged Leon tightly, and her tears caused his armor to be fully drenched. All she could do was cry and no words could be uttered. Leon lowered his head slightly and glanced at his daughter, who was hugging his thigh. ¡°Elizabeth, I entrust the task of taking care of your mother to you. Alright?¡± ¡°Yes, father, I will be a good girl.¡± The little girl¡¯s face was similarly full of tears. However, she forced herself to swallow the new tears welling up in her eyes. Instead, she squeezed out a pained smile, which was even more painful to watch than her original crying. ¡°Good girl! You¡¯re strong, just like me.¡± Leon patted his daughter¡¯s head as his smile turned even more sorrowful. ¡°Father is proud of you!¡± As he spoke, he used his divine power to put Kalisa and Elizabeth in a deep slumber. Next, he continued to use his Divine Power, wrapped them up and temporarily sealed them up. ¡°I hope there will be a day where you both will eventually wake up. At the point where you wake, I hope it will be to a beautiful new world,¡± Leon whispered under his breath before passing the light ball that encased his wife and daughter to the God of Knowledge, Wall, who was standing to his side. Leon then turned and walked towards the center of the giant lobby. ¡°Everyone¡­¡± Leon glanced around at his surroundings and spoke to all the gods and humans, who had pained expressions on their faces. ¡°I will be on my way now. Although I may not be of much help for long, I hope that all of you will be able to meet our lord when he returns and stay alive till the day where the evilest of evils is finally defeated. ¡°At that point, remember to inform me that all is well.¡± Once he finished his speech, Leon plucked out his own sword and stuck it hard in the center of the magic array on the ground. He looked up at the Master of Order, who was pale and stunned and said, ¡°I¡¯m good. Let¡¯s start.¡± With that, the Master of Order nodded slightly. His body trembled slightly, shrunk up and became a flame that landed on the sword. Leon smiled, waked forward, shrunk his own body and walked into the flame. The violent flames engulfed Leon tightly, and the immense pain caused him to moan out bitterly. Leon clenched his teeth in anguish and fresh blood trickled out from the corner of his mouth. Nevertheless, he continued to force out a smile and even waved cheerily at everyone, saying his final goodbye. The flames increased in intensity over time and continued to burn Leon. Regardless, the smile never left Leon¡¯s face. Up till the point where his body became a blur and he was not able to hold on for much longer, Leon¡¯s smile remained intact. Then, he finally let out a regretful and apologetic expression as he sighed in the air under his breath. ¡°Lord, I¡¯m sorry that I was unable to live up to your orders. I was unable to secure Void City, and I was unable to wait till you came back¡­¡± Just at this moment, he suddenly felt his heart skip a beat. Vaguely, he saw someone he did not recognize yet who still felt extremely familiar. This figure of a young man was floating in the distance and sobbing violently at the sight of Leon burning. As the figure cried, he apologized as well. ¡°No, no¡­ You fulfilled my orders perfectly¡­ I¡¯m sorry, it was me who returned too late!¡± Leon¡¯s body then slowly disappeared and joined the ground as ashes. The God of Justice, Yorgaardman, then slowly walked into the flame in his place. ¡°Ah! It really hurts!¡± He yelled out loud and clenched his teeth. ¡°That fellow Igor was smiling this whole time, and I assumed that it would not hurt at all. I was cheated, I guess!¡± Although the God of Justice complained out loud, he did not make any action to escape. Instead, he sat down within the flame. ¡°Ahhhh, I¡¯m so big and strong, exactly how long is it going to take for me to finish burning? What a dilemma¡­ I¡¯m not sure whether it¡¯d be better for me to burn faster and be rid of the pain or to burn slower and buy more time for the rest¡­¡± With that, his eyes suddenly lit up and he smiled. ¡°Brother, is that you? Are you back at last, or¡­¡± His smile slowly faded and the God of Justice was silent for a long time before he sighed deeply. ¡°Ahh, it was all just in my head. I can¡¯t believe I hallucinated¡­ Clearly, I did not train hard enough, and even when I¡¯m dying, I¡¯m still a weak figure!¡± Sui Xiong lowered his head silently and could not bear to match the God of Justice¡¯s gaze. The third to enter the flame to burn was the Goddess of the Ocean. She was still as dainty and pretty as before and was full of cheeriness. However, just as the God of Justice was almost finished and burnt to the core, she suddenly beat all the other gods and jumped into the flame before they could. ¡°My mentor, my father, I can finally do something for you!¡± The mermaid, who was being burnt alive, shut her eyes, and her tears rolled down like gems on her face, joining the flames as they rose steadily. Afterwards, Sui Xiong witnessed numerous gods enter the flame, one after another, continuing to protect the sacred temple. Some remained cheery and smiley, some were calm and peaceful. Others were indifferent, some were extremely upset and cried out. Some spewed a string of vulgarities as they endured the pain and the injustice, others said nothing at all as they slowly burnt to death. There were also other gods, evil gods as well as demigods who were unable to accept this slow and painful way of dying. Those who no longer possessed any hope for the future at all followed the lead of the two master gods of the Natural God System, rushed out of the temple and launched attacks against the enemies. However, in the extremely skewed ad disadvantaged environment of the new world order, they were only able to use about one-tenth of their usual strength to attack once or twice feebly. Towards the oppressive enemy troops, these gods quickly fell, and blood flowed everywhere at the battle scene. Upon watching this, Sui Xiong clenched his teeth and yet was unable to do anything more to help them. This world was already destroyed by the God of Light. Everything was a big blur. Sui Xiong watched on quietly till he saw the last god, the old and frail salt-maker, Fira Kenji, enter the flame. At this point, all the people had already been sealed up in light balls. In the entire sacred temple, only Fira was still conscious and awake. ¡°Finally, it¡¯s my turn.¡± Fira had an extremely somber expression on his face. Just as he prepared to walk towards the flame, he paused slightly and then proceeded to follow the pattern that the God of Vagrants had started. Fira walked to the giant scroll and left behind some words from his heart as well as the story of his past experiences. Fira then shook his head and sighed, mumbling to himself, ¡°After all this, we can¡¯t even be sure that our lord will be able to see what we have written¡­¡± As Fira spoke, he walked into the flame. Sui Xiong shut his eyes, and the ¡°scroll¡± suddenly paused in time. He raised his head, and tears rolled down his cheeks, although he was unable to make out any sound in his anguish. ¡°All your hard work, all your efforts, all your pain and sacrifice¡­ I saw it all!¡± ¡°You have already done more than enough for me. Now, it¡¯s time for me to do something for all of you in return!¡± Sui Xiong snapped his eyes wide open. ¡°Although I do not have a lot of confidence, it¡¯s worth a shot!¡± Sui Xiong reached out both his hands and grabbed the scroll before him. ¡°For the brave and the sacrificed, I will try to work towards a better future. I swear on all your efforts that I will save it all. I will not let this world perish just like that so easily!¡± Chapter 987 - Grand Finale Sui Xiong grabbed hold of time. He himself was unsure as to how he had done it, but Sui Xiong had indeed grabbed hold of time. He had grabbed on to it and held on hard before pulling at it with all his might. He tried to pull out time from the past to cover the destruction of the present. This was something that had completely surpassed his expectations. Even Sui Xiong had not believed that this method would work. Nevertheless, he had to try, and he had to succeed. If not, there was no other way to save this destroyed world and no way to bring peace to his heart. That would also mean that¡­ he would not be able to live up to the sacrifices that his friends and followers had made on his behalf. No, Sui Xiong had to succeed against all odds¡­ ¡°Sui Xiong, you can do this!¡± He cheered himself on. He then continued to expound on his strength. The shapeless scroll was pulled hard by Sui Xiong, but it did not move an inch. The scroll remained intact like it had roots. No matter how hard Sui Xiong tried, he was unable to do anything physical to the scroll. Sui Xiong knew that this was logical. After all, the past was the past. Even if one harnessed the power of the entire world, it would still be unlikely that he or she would be able to return to or pull time to a certain time period that had already happened in the past. However, Sui Xiong did not want to give up so easily. This world held too many of his values, his stakes, and his regrets. Sui Xiong¡¯s friends, followers, people who had trusted him, gods who had sacrificed their lives and died for their beliefs, those who were in a deep slumber and held high hopes for the future, those who had burnt themselves to death and only had words written on the scroll for others to remember them by¡­ All the things that everyone had been trying to protect could not be allowed to slip away so easily! With an angry roar, Sui Xiong activated his strength again. He knew that all his efforts were futile, but he was damned if he did not try until he succeeded. If he gave up hope and admitted defeat, that would be natural and an easy way out. However, Sui Xiong could not just give up like that. In the long days of the past, the followers that had believed in him had one by one been steadfast even while they burnt to their deaths. Even as they faded away, they had not faltered. How could Sui Xiong give up now? ¡°Move, move for me now!¡± Sui Xiong used both his hands to grab onto the time scroll tightly. The power he unleashed was intense beyond imagination and incomparable to any other force in this world. He tore at the tight and rigid time period with almost manic energy. This amount of power was enough to shake up the entire Great Circulation or stabilize the Four Elements, allowing this chaotic world to regain order once again and create a brand new era. Nevertheless, it was still unable to shake up time. The past was the past, and it was never to return again. Both of Sui Xiong¡¯s legs were pinned tightly to the Void. The area around his legs were all torn apart and yet remained secure due to Sui Xiong and was unable to fully split apart. Time twisted like a key in a lock and continuously wrapped around his legs, allowed him to stand even steadier than before. This was akin to how pillars would be nailed down as the foundation when building houses, standing steadily without moving an inch and giving Sui Xiong a source of infinite energy. His body had twisted into an arrow shape. Due to a large amount of exertion, every single one of his muscles was spasming and violently vibrating. He was concentrating every ounce of his power, unwilling to even spare an ounce. Sui Xiong stopped breathing, shut his eyes, and stopped every single organ that was not useful in the launching of his powers and turned off all senses that were irrelevant. All this was done just to squeeze out any amount of little power left over. Even so, Sui Xiong was still unable to shake the time scroll. If he wanted to supersede time and use the past to cover the future, effectively ridding the world of its destruction, it was honestly impossible. ¡°Nothing¡­ is¡­ impossible!¡± Sui Xiong mumbled to himself and clenched his teeth hard, causing fresh blood to seep out from between his teeth and gums. His entire mouth was red, and the blood flowed down the side of his cheek along with his saliva, wetting his crumpled clothes. Due to his inability to withstand the intense level of power, Sui Xiong¡¯s fingernails cracked one by one and fresh blood flowed from his fingers as well, staining his fingers and palms. In a split second, his hands became slippery and he was unable to hold on any further. With this release, Sui Xiong lost control of his body and balance, flying up with the power he had used to tug at the time scroll. In the air, he tumbled several times and knocked all the breath out of his body. In the end, he lay like a dead dog with blood stains all over his clothes, just like a soldier that had been defeated in battle. ¡°What a joke! How could I fall!¡± Sui Xiong used several seconds to regain consciousness. He wanted to immediately stand up. However, Sui Xiong soon realized that due to his overexertion before, his entire body¡¯s muscles were shaking. His hands and legs were quivering like jelly. Sui Xiong found that he could not prop himself up and could only fall over again helplessly. ¡°Ah! I¡¯m really useless! I simply drank a little wine, but now I can¡¯t even stand up¡­¡± Sui Xiong concentrated on rolling over and laying on his back with heavy and giant pants. He required some rest and had to wait until his energy was replenished before he could resume his efforts. From the old era¡¯s destruction to the new era¡¯s birth, it was a long drawn process. Sui Xiong had ample time to rest well before he concentrated his efforts again. According to Lao Tzu, the wood that embraces each other is born at the end; the nine-story platform starts from tired soil, and the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. When Sui Xiong was taking his examinations, he had not understood this entire saying at all. However, now, it suddenly crept into his heart, and he suddenly understood its essence. Even when things were seemingly difficult, as long as one put in effort slowly day by day, one would be able to achieve one¡¯s goal eventually. If Yu Gong was able to move mountains, what couldn¡¯t the youthful Sui Xiong do!? After resting for a long time, Sui Xiong eventually regained his energy. He got up and walked to where he was before, mindlessly scattering a few remaining shooting stars with his fingers before expanding his unique vision once again, searching for the time scroll. The God of Virtue emerged once again from his tiny world and asked, ¡°What exactly are you trying to do? It looks extremely tough on your part.¡± ¡°I want to pull the time period of the past to the present, in order to cover up the period of destruction of this world.¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible! The past and the future¡¯s order will never change. Things that have already happened cannot simply just cease to exist.¡± ¡°You¡¯re so bothersome! You stupid frog, just shut your mouth! Nothing is impossible! I¡¯m going to prove that thought to you right now!¡± Sui Xiong shouted out as he grabbed at the time scroll once again. He once again expanded his energy and yet was still unable to move the time period that had already passed. ¡°Just give it up. Even for someone as strong as you, there will be things that are too difficult to achieve. One cannot dwell in the past. No matter how painful the past may be, we can only accept the present and work towards the future.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to accept that this world has been destroyed!¡± Sui Xiong yelled manically. ¡°Whatever this kind of future holds, I refuse to acknowledge it!¡± With that, Sui Xiong summoned his energy once again. However, this time, due to a slip of his feet, he crashed to the ground once again. The God of Virtue glanced at Sui Xiong with a pained expression on his face. Watching as Sui Xiong went crazy trying to tear at time he could not see and trying to achieve things that were impossible, he sighed to himself in his heart. The God of Virtue had already given up trying to talk Sui Xiong out of his mania and could only stand to the side and wait patiently. Impossible things would never come true. He waited for Sui Xiong to lose patience as he wanted to discuss a few matters regarding the new order. The mistakes of the past could not be repeated once again! However, Sui Xiong did not give up. His clothes became shabby and torn, and Sui Xiong also sustained many injuries to the point where he could not even stand on his own two feet. Even so, Sui Xiong refused to give up. His breathing became heavy, and his vision became scattered. His footsteps were shallow, and his arms became weak. Sui Xiong still did not give up. ¡°Just give it up. If you continue this way, you will eventually die.¡± After a torturous period of time, the God of Virtue spoke up sadly as he saw that Sui Xiong was still stubbornly maintaining his efforts. ¡°Those who had died and the gods who were burnt alive would definitely not want to watch you die in this manner¡­¡± ¡°I¡­ will not¡­ die¡­ so easily¡­!¡± Sui Xiong replied with a weary tone as his voice became weaker. ¡°You know deep down that this is impossible!¡± The God of Virtue became angered and grew to become a frog that was bigger than the size of a human. He picked up his cane and rapped hard at Sui Xiong¡¯s head. ¡°Time cannot be altered nor moved! It is impossible for you to try to use the time of the past to cover up the present!¡± Sui Xiong ignored these useless attacks by the frog and turned around. A forced and weary smile that was even more painful to see as compared to crying appeared on his face ¡°Do¡­ you know¡­ that¡­ evil gods¡­ are also gods¡­¡± Sui Xiong spat out. ¡°They¡­ also accept¡­ prayers¡­. They¡­ also¡­ answer to¡­ everyone¡¯s hopes¡­. That is what¡­ a god is!¡± ¡°They are all¡­ waiting for me¡­ to return¡­ I will not¡­ let¡­ them¡­ down!¡± ¡°There are still things that even gods cannot do!¡± The God of Virtue¡¯s deep voice became slightly choked up. ¡°If it could be done, I would have tried this too long ago! Just because humans hope for it to be so doesn¡¯t mean gods can answer their every prayer!¡± Sui Xiong smiled. After a long period of panting, he replied, ¡°I¡­ am not the same¡­ as you. I am¡­ an evil god¡­. and evil gods do not¡­ follow¡­ order¡­ or rules¡­¡± ¡°This is why¡­ it is possible¡­ for me¡­¡± ¡°You can¡¯t succeed either! You¡¯re about to be tired out to death!¡± The God of Virtue raged and picked up his cane, hitting Sui Xiong crazily. ¡°You¡¯ve already used up all your energy! You¡¯ve tried your best! Stop wasting your energy! You can¡¯t die just like that!¡± ¡°If I can¡¯t¡­ save this world¡­ I¡¯d rather¡­ die here instead of living on!¡± Sui Xiong replied wearily, continuing to get up and hold on to the time scroll in front of him. ¡°How can you die! If you die, this world will be utterly devoid of hope!¡± The God of Virtue grabbed onto Sui Xiong¡¯s arm and tried to physically stop him. ¡°Give it up and just start a brand new era. There is nothing that lasts infinitely in this world. Eras of the past ceased to exist; that is why new eras appeared¡­ Just start a new era! Create a new future for the unborn!¡± ¡°Do¡­ not¡­ worry¡­ about¡­ the¡­ new era¡­¡± Sui Xiong waved his arm slightly and his intense power cast the God of Virtue aside easily. ¡°Even if I die¡­ there will still be a¡­ new era¡­¡± ¡°I will convert¡­ my body into¡­ land¡­. My eyes will become¡­ the moon and the sun¡­ my blood will become¡­. rivers¡­. my breath will become¡­ the wind and storms¡­¡± Sui Xiong panted heavily for a while and squeezed out a trembling smile. ¡°A new era¡­ will still appear!¡± With that, he tugged once again at the time scroll. Due to his numerous yanks, the previously shapeless time scroll was now stained with faint blood droplets. These bloodstains were messy and all over the place, documenting all his efforts and struggles. As before, the time scroll did not move at all. It simply had more bloodstains added to it due to the new wounds appearing on Sui Xiong¡¯s fingers. This time, the blood flow was extremely profuse, and it seeped into the depths of time. In the final temple of the Void front, where the flame was burning intensively, Leon Igor, Void City patron saint who was about to burn to death, froze slightly. He saw that beyond time, a scene of a badly injured Sui Xiong was pulling at a time scroll with all his might. Although they both had not physically met before, he immediately recognized that this young man was Sui Xiong. ¡°Lord!? What happened to you? What are you doing?¡± Sui Xiong froze and glanced instinctively to his left and right before shaking his head bitterly, laughing at himself. ¡°I guess I¡¯m really approaching death. I can¡¯t believe I hallucinated that I heard Leon¡¯s voice!¡± Afterwards, he heard Leon¡¯s voice once again. ¡°Lord! It¡¯s me, Leon! I¡¯m here! Can you hear me?¡± This time, it was not a mere hallucination. Due to Sui Xiong¡¯s blood seeping into time, the past and the future had fused together. Sui Xiong and Leon could finally physically meet and connect. As a god, Leon quickly understood what happened in the future as well as what Sui Xiong was trying to achieve. ¡°Lord¡­ you¡­¡± Tears welled up in Leon¡¯s eyes as he was almost burnt to death. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I can¡¯t be of much help.¡± ¡°Why not? You could help to cheer him on.¡± The God of Justice, Yorgaardman¡¯s voice floated out. That was from his own time period and was spoken as he was being burnt alive himself. ¡°Lord, perhaps our strength is insufficient, but even a little help is surely better than none at all.¡± ¡°Lord, being able to fight alongside you till the end is my greatest honor!¡± ¡°I am the God of War! Something as great as fighting time could not be complete without my participation!¡± ¡°Although I am extremely weak, if I could be of any help¡­¡± ¡°Dying in the war against time is definitely better than being burnt to death, this is an end fit for a brave soldier!¡± ¡°Please give your commands.¡± ¡°I believe that all you do is just and fair, all the way till now¡­¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s time for these hands, which have always been grabbing axes, to grab on to something more powerful now!¡± ¡°I can do more other than just indulging in pleasure. Now I¡¯m a mid-level god, don¡¯t underestimate me!¡± ¡°You helped me to resurrect in the past, now it¡¯s my turn to give back to you!¡± ¡°As a hero myself, I applaud your fighting spirit and would be glad to join in this noble task of saving the world and contributing to your honor!¡± ¡­ One god after another spoke up and sent messages through their own time periods. The gathering of all these messages became like water forming a tiny river, echoing towards Sui Xiong through time. Every reply Sui Xiong gave and every conversation he held gave him a tiny ounce more of strength. His eyes shone and glowed again. The flame transcended all the time periods as well as the destroyed world, from the underground temple¡¯s lobby to his eyes. The flame began to burn once again as his fighting spirit and morale lifted. Furthermore, as the flame burned once again, shelters for those fleeing Void City, the Republic of Northwest, the Church of the Void Mask¡­ even the eldest and original chasers¡­ countless followers and supporters of Sui Xiong all felt the call at the point of time where the world was facing its doomsday. They began to pray and countless prayers were gathered together. Together with the flame sustained by the burning of the gods as well as Sui Xiong¡¯s infinite efforts to use his blood as a bridge, they transcended time and from afar, swarmed to Sui Xiong. The fire in Sui Xiong¡¯s eyes grew bigger and bigger, illuminating the Four Elements, transcending the long river of time and reflecting out the fighting spirit in his heart, which was so strong and mighty that it was almost explosive. Sui Xiong breathed in and out slowly. With every long breath, his aura grew a little. Previously, he had been extremely weary, but his body now regained its original strength and even superseded it, making him stronger than before. With one pull, he ripped away the rather distracting tattered clothes and revealed his lean yet strong body, which had been developed by his past period of labor. Scar after scar efficiently faded away and his weary body and muscles suddenly became healthy and transformed into a brand new, glorious one. In the past, everyone had believed in him, trusted and loved him. Even with the flow of time, when these people had ceased to exist, this trust, this support, could still pass through time and provide support to his tired heart. Seeing as Sui Xiong had regained his strength all of a sudden and had become even stronger, with his whole body glowing, the worried God of Virtue was extremely shocked. ¡°What¡­ what is happening? How did you manage to suddenly heal yourself?¡± ¡°Old frog, where do you think strength comes from?¡± Sui Xiong replied unhurriedly. The old frog thought for a while before answering, ¡°Where does strength come from? From what we eat as well as the magic we absorb?¡± ¡°Those answers are not incorrect. However, to me, there is only one main source of strength.¡± Sui Xiong replied in a voice that was soft yet full of confidence. ¡°From my heart!¡± ¡°If my heart does not give up, my strength will not cease.¡± ¡°My previous weariness did not stem from my physical fatigue but rather, from my lack of heart. I had given up. When I gave up, everything came crashing down.¡± ¡°Yet, everyone else had not given up! On the other side of time, they were all still giving their all and fighting hard. If they all could fight on, what excuse did I have to give up? Am I right?¡± The God of Virtue¡¯s eyes lit up, and a smile appeared on his face. ¡°Of course!¡± ¡°I will not let down these people who believed and trusted in me. I want to protect everyone, protect this world, protect everything that I believe in and love!¡± Sui Xiong smiled, and the flame in his eyes became even more magnificent. ¡°I remember someone told me before, as a man, I have to protect others. I have to be strong. In protecting others, I have to find ways to turn the impossible into reality. ¡°Old frog, have you met a situation like this before?¡± Before the God of Virtue could reply, Sui Xiong laughed out loud and once again pulled hard at the time scroll. ¡°To me, such a moment is now. It¡¯s now!¡± This time, he finally managed to achieve the impossible and tug successfully at the time on the scroll. ¡°There are many, many rules in this world. I myself do not like rules. I¡¯ve broken many, and yet many others still exist.¡± His steps were now slow and heavy as his body was tensed up entirely due to the strain. His voice, however, was still full of strength. ¡°So what do I do now? Of course, I will continue to break the unbroken rules! ¡°The rule that time cannot change? That the past cannot replace the present? Such annoying rules are meant to be broken!¡± ¡°I am an evil god, I have never followed order! On the contrary, since I¡¯ve already spotted these tiresome and incorrect rules, it¡¯s time for me to destroy and rid the world of them!¡± His footsteps became bigger and bigger. The time scroll shook violently under Sui Xiong¡¯s tireless tugs, and the time of the past slowly flowed out, covering the current present. The crumbling of the world snapped back like a flashback in a movie and was slowly reversed. Sui Xiong was full of energy at this moment. His chest was raised proudly and his heart was full to the point where it could light up the entire world. Following the countless bloodstains on the time scroll, he shouted out to the entire long river of time in glee. ¡°To all the people living in the past, are you willing to accept rules that make it hard to breathe, rules that oppress you? Are you willing to accept a life of pain, where you lose all hope of happiness? Are you willing to work hard and achieve your goals only to see it all go to waste due to a certain somebody¡¯s wild heart and selfish ambitions? ¡°If you are not willing to do, then gather up your courage and raise your heads proudly. See the redness in the sky? That is my flag, that is my war cry, my call! ¡°Follow me!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s change the world!¡± Chapter 988(End) - Epilogue: New Era In the depths of the Great Circulation lay a unique, tiny world. This world was different from any other place and could be said to be universally independent. However, the tiny world itself had its own sun, moon and stars. There were mountains, rivers, flowers, trees as well as animals such as birds, insects and fish. Of course, there were residents as well, and a sizeable amount at that. ¡°The skies, mountains, rivers and scenery are always constant. This quiet life is really too bland for me!¡± the previously high and mighty God of Aristocracy said in frustration as they waved their pickaxe, hacking away at the ground as if they were engaging in battle with the wild grass. In fact, they seemed like they were cutting trees instead of trimming grass! ¡°I hate this boring life¡­¡± ¡°Actually, it¡¯s not as boring as it seems. If you get used to it, it is actually rather comfortable. One feels at peace and free, with nothing much to bother you. Having peace every day is not necessarily a bad thing.¡± The God of Vagrants walked by, holding on to two pails of old and fermented toilet water. Although the God of Aristocracy had smelt this nasty smell several times before, they still had their nose wrinkled and a full face of disgust. ¡°Can¡¯t you walk further away! That thing smells absolutely disgusting!¡± the God of Aristocracy complained out loud as the stench hit their nostrils. ¡°I can¡¯t, actually, since the grass needs this as fertilizer,¡± the God of Vagrants replied calmly. ¡°Actually, the smell isn¡¯t that bad. It has already fermented and been diluted by me. This level of smelliness definitely can¡¯t compare to the smell of dead corpses strewn everywhere during battle. At that time, we fought so many wars and I never once heard you complain then¡­¡± ¡°That was battle, of course I would be too distracted to complain!¡± the God of Aristocracy replied crossly. ¡°We are all immortal and do not need to farm for harvests to live our lives. As long as we complete it, that¡¯s enough. Why do you have to take this all so seriously?¡± ¡°Since we have embarked on tasks, why not just do them well?¡± The God of Vagrants smiled. ¡°Even a pig can do its job well, so why can¡¯t we?¡± The God of Aristocracy was temporarily lost for words as they glanced at the Pighead standing in the middle of the field who had on a safety helmet and a stern expression on his face. ¡°That salt pig! If this were the past, I could squash him dead with a single finger!¡± ¡°But that¡¯s impossible here, right?¡± Another god who was working nearby overheard this comment and sighed. ¡°Just get on with your work and focus on changing yourself into a better person just like what the God of Virtue wanted.¡± ¡°I am a good person! What do you mean to change myself? Furthermore, why do I have to listen to a stupid frog¡¯s commands!?¡± The commotion in the fields did not affect the peace of the nearby rivers. A bespectacled frog was crouching on the ground where the rivers were, glancing at the figure who was stoning dazedly against a tree. ¡°Wuther, your resistance towards change is useless. I have the patience to accompany you till the end. The time where you manage to humbly serve your sentence is when I will allow you to leave.¡± The great Master God of the Human God System harrumphed coldly and ignored this great Divine Power who had appeared out of nowhere to become the guard of this prison. ¡°I hate this! This place has cut off faith as a source of power and I can¡¯t utilize a single bit of power¡­ If there were anyone who followed me, I would be able to gather up a little bit of power and utilize it to break the lock which this bastard made and regain my freedom. He¡¯s but a stupid human who likes to transform himself into all sorts of creatures¡­ ¡°It¡¯s been so many years, and I¡¯m unsure as to what the outside world has become¡­ No matter what, as long as I am able to escape eventually, I¡¯ll definitely be able to return to my glory days, take over the world again and become a great dictator! ¡°Previously, my preparations were insufficient, and I was unable to succeed. This time, I¡¯ve calculated it all, and I will not fail again!¡± The frog glanced at Wuther in frustration and disappointment, shaking his head endlessly. ¡°Wuther, you¡¯d better stop daydreaming. You all actually died along with the extinction of the world. The fact that you could resurrect along with Sui Xiong¡¯s rescuing of the world is already a lucky matter. Matters like becoming a dictator will never happen again!¡± Just as the frog was nagging at Wuther, the sky suddenly jolted a strange circular disc flew in. Its speed was extremely fast, but in a split second, it slowed down, turned once in the sky and eventually landed unhurriedly at the empty land beside the river. ¡°I guess this is the place.¡± An energetic middle-aged man wearing a strange coat that had a hat attached brought several similarly attired men out of the disc, and they peered around. ¡°This is the prison that houses the evil king Wuther Rang and his accomplices for their evil deed of trying to control and destroy the world¡­ Well, it doesn¡¯t look much like a prison. It looks more like a farm or field!¡± It was a strange sight to see as all the men were of different races as well as strength levels. Some were extremely powerful, while others were relatively weak. However, they seemed to be at peace with each other and did not display any prejudice or isolation against those who were weaker. Wuther noticed them immediately. First, he paused before jumping up and sprinting over hurriedly to where the men were standing. ¡°Who are you? Are you here to find me?¡± The middle-aged man froze and took out a thin book comprised only of two pages. He casually flipped it and pressed it several times. The pages of the book transformed and displayed a sketch which was identical to that of Wuther Rang. However, the sketch was of Wuther wearing a body of armor, looking glorious and mighty. The Wuther of the present was wearing typical farming clothes and looked downcast and normal. He certainly did not look glorious at all! ¡°Since you both look the same, it should be Wuther after all¡­¡± The middle-aged man matched the sketch with Wuther and nodded confidently. ¡°We have arrived at the right place at last.¡± With that, the middle-aged man could not resist but add, ¡°To be able to interview Wuther, well, we definitely deserve to be honored as the most newsworthy interviewers yet!¡± Wuther ignored the middle-aged man¡¯s impertinence and spoke up urgently. ¡°Are you human? If so, you should be faithful to me as followers. I am the Master God of the Human God System, after all!¡± The middle-aged man froze. Even before he could reply, another younger man spoke up. ¡°We no longer believe in gods anymore. There¡¯s no benefit in doing so.¡± ¡°How could there be no benefits!?¡± Wuther raged out loud. ¡°There are many benefits to following gods!¡± A young man laughed and winked at his companions. The men began to press buttons on their clothes, recording the scenes and sounds before them. ¡°Can being faithful to gods guarantee us infinite happiness?¡± Wuther thought for a while, furrowed his brows and shook his head. ¡°Can it help this world to stay peaceful forever?¡± another young man asked. Wuther furrowed his brows for a long period of time and eventually shook his head again. ¡°Can it allow me to know the secrets of the entire cosmos immediately?¡± a middle-aged man asked. Wuther was lost, and he fell silent. ¡°I guess not. Let me ask you, can you help us to explore the entire cosmos then?¡± the middle-aged man spoke again. Wuther¡¯s face twisted, and he remained silent. ¡°If everything is impossible, what¡¯s the use of faith!¡± a young man spoke up mockingly. Wuther¡¯s eyes slightly hardened as he heard the mocking words of the bastard Pighead as well as the guard frog. ¡°If you believe in me, I can grant you immortality!¡± Wuther cleared his throat and spoke up in a stern way. The middle-aged man who replied to him spoke in a bored and casual way. ¡°There are many who use technology to sustain life in the world, immortality is not appealing at all¡­¡± ¡°Are you really the Supreme Lord of before? It seems like there is nothing much noteworthy about our exchange¡­ The words you deliver are of no interest to us¡­¡± ¡°Could we have wasted our time in traveling here to find him?¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡± Wuther flew into a rage and yelled out. ¡°How can this be!? When did this happen!?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been many years¡­¡± The middle-aged began to flip that two-paged, thin book again, searching for something. Suddenly, the frustrated Wuther reached out and grabbed the book from him. Before flipping it open, he was already drawn to the cover of the book. On the cover, a green jellyfish hoisting up a flag was smiling radiantly at him.